Doctor Who Season Two, Episode Eight
“The Reality War”
Posted by Sage
Where to even begin.
There’s something extra dark about a mostly incoherent season finale landing amidst a time of uncertainty for the show. It remains to be seen whether Doctor Who will be back – as well as where and when – so it would have been nice to at least be standing on solid story ground. Alas, it’s only been one (1) season since our last finale nonsense featuring a dubiously deployed classic villain, and RTD still can’t stop loading up continual reveals like he’s working at the batting cages.
The rub of it all for me is that, from the Ncuti casting announcement through now, I’ve maintained a pretty consistent level of excitement about the state of Doctor Who. We’ve had good times! There have been some high highs! But when you’re left with a parting shot like this one, it has the potential to cast a shadow over the rest of it. The Fifteenth Doctor era deserved better – might I even suggest a little restraint?
Today, I find myself in similar circumstances to a few occasions during Chris Chibnall’s tenure: struggling to recap an episode that was so clearly meant to be something else entirely. Because many – not all, but many – of the plot issues in “The Reality War” would clear themselves up if they were happening to Ruby and not Belinda. It’s Ruby’s storyline that’s revolved around children and babies. She was the one to meet Poppy and the rest of the Space Babies with the Doctor. She was in London in 1963 listening to him talk about his granddaughter. Logistical obstacles crop up, and sometimes that means retconning the canon you’ve established (Rupert Pink in “Listen,” anyone?). But Belinda is a strong enough companion to have deserved her own story and not Ruby’s sloppy seconds.
Once it became known that Millie Gibson wouldn’t be available for the entire series, why not re-draft Belinda as a single mother from the get-go? I was among the viewers who weren’t sold on her desperation to get home, or how her attitude about it seemed to change from episode to episode. Giving her a child (who reason would dictate could not have been Poppy, sorry to that adorable young actress) would have established stakes and defined her character. I don’t agree with the fans who complain that making her a mom diminishes Belinda in any way and find that to be a pretty patronizing take, actually. But why does everything in RTD2 have to be a surprise? Can’t some things just BE?
In all the time I’ve been watching Doctor Who live (so, since Series 7), I can’t remember being as maniacal about avoiding spoilers as I was during Ncuti’s second season. Just about every episode had a significant shocker, which wouldn’t be terrible if all of them led somewhere. I gave the disclaimer back in my “Interstellar Song Contest” recap that I reserved the right to do a full 180 on the Susan cameo should it end up being pointless. And wouldn’t you know, we saw neither hide nor hair of Carole Ann Ford or any other version of Susan in this two-part finale. She didn’t even rate a mention amid all the talk of the Doctor as a father.
Y’all, we are not trotting out our living legends just to treat them like Phase 4 Marvel post-credits characters. Again, there’s evidence that there was once more of a plan to integrate Susan into Fifteen’s arc, but so what? Intent unfortunately does not mean anything here. To upend nearly half a century of “it’s never fucking Susan” – a lever the show could have pulled at any time – just for a meaningless Force vision? What a WASTE.
Speaking of wasteful, did we honestly bi-generate the Rani and cast her with an award-winning South Asian actress just to dispatch her in a juvenile sight gag within the first half hour? Archie Panjabi shouldn’t have even got out of bed for this. That’s Kalinda Sharma, you philistines. And while misfiring Omega didn’t have the side effect of disrespecting one of our real-life queens, it did end up being a whole lot of nothing, and I’m still not clear on what the Rani’s Wish World had to do with resurrecting him anyway or why he was a giant CGI skeleton. (“The Underverse is a world of legends, so Omega has become his own legend.” What??)
Credit where credit is due: one person being blinked out of existence by reality shifting back into place is a cool idea. And kudos to Millie Gibson especially for selling the heck out of Ruby’s panic and sorrow over the Doctor and Belinda forgetting Poppy in an instant. But imagine the emotional heft this would have had if we had known this child as Belinda’s the whole time. And if RTD wasn’t going to tie Poppy’s thread to Susan’s in the end, why relate that child to the Doctor at all?? This shit was ALL over the place. So, on the bright side: I was never bored? Small favors.
How I wish we would have known that this was going to be Fifteen’s regeneration episode, because Ncuti deserved all the hype and memorializing that leads up to that. Even though I knew it was a strong possibility, it felt abrupt and therefore a little dismissive. (Would it have landed differently if Fifteen had sacrificed himself for his companion’s family to be restored? I think so.) To be clear: Ncuti’s performance remained perfect throughout his time in the TARDIS, and his regeneration does not lack style, emotion, or gravitas. He is and always will be one of our best.
That’s partially why, despite all my griping about cameos for the sake of cameos, the far and away highlight of this episode for me was the meeting of Thirteen and Fifteen. As a Tennant stan, I will never be against him popping up, but Fourteen’s brief adventures did rob us of a Jodie-into-Ncuti regeneration. It was SO good to see her, back in sparkly yet repressed Doctor form, and the warmth radiating from those two actors filled the space completely. We even got a Thasmin mention in the year 2025! In the sea of chaos that was the rest of the episode, this vignette was a reminder that fan service can be good, actually. And if the writing is there, “it would be nice” is a good enough reason for a scene to exist.
Timey Wimey Observations:
- Oh, the sinking feeling I got when both foes were vanquished and there was soooooooo much episode left.
- I had heard the Billie Piper rumor, so the regeneration was not a huge surprise to me. And I’m the fan being serviced in this case, so I’m not mad about it. As for what the plan is for that character (a version of Rose? the actual Doctor?), the future of the show is so nebulous it hardly bears speculating about it right now.
- “I have the only TARDIS in existence” when another one is parked over at Rose Noble-Temple’s house.
- Deus ex Anita is a pretty clever fix and Steph de Walley remains a delight in the role. However: a) How did she spend that much time with the Doctor and come away thinking he might be straight? and b) What is the head of HR doing impregnating hotel employees??
- No, Conrad was not “redeemed” by the story. Points were made about how insecurity and personal unhappiness can manifest in hatefulness. For me though, this appearance diminished the character’s impact in “Lucky Day.” Is it wrong that I wish the Rani had been torturing him a bit more?
- So Rogue is stuck in the hell dimension forever, huh. Happy Pride?
- “Sometimes I think we’re all your children.” My eyes rolled back into my head.
- In the same vein: it’s a nice set, but that’s enough finales at UNIT now, Russell.
- Five stars and two enthusiastic thumbs up to Belinda’s ribbed polo sweater/dark jean ensemble.
- So is Joe Sunday…not magical anymore?
- Bone beasts.
How we feeling Doctor Who nation? Hit us up with your thoughts about the finale in the comments.
Featured image source: Disney+
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