The Reality War: A Finale That Wishes Itself Out of Every Corner
The Reality War discards the Rani, invents a daughter, rewrites Belinda’s whole series, and regenerates the Doctor into a face it refuses to explain.
The Reality War discards the Rani, invents a daughter, rewrites Belinda’s whole series, and regenerates the Doctor into a face it refuses to explain.
Lucky Day brings Ruby back and turns a conspiracy streamer into the villain. Angrier and sharper than this era usually manages, and it bites.
Empire of Death kills the entire universe, then undoes it and drags Sutekh behind the TARDIS on a rope. The Ruby Sunday mystery deflates completely.
The Legend of Ruby Sunday spends an hour setting up its finale and ends on a genuinely great reveal. Getting there is a lot of people watching a monitor.
Rogue drops the Doctor into a Regency costume drama with shapeshifting alien birds and a bounty hunter he falls for. Charming, and gone in a puff of smoke.
Dot and Bubble looks like a social media satire about a city of influencers, then lands a final scene that reframes the whole episode. Genuinely nasty.
73 Yards strands Ruby in Wales with a figure always standing the same distance away, and gives her a whole life. Eerie, ambitious, and never explained.
Boom strands the Doctor on a live landmine on a war world where the ammunition is sold by the same company that started the war. The best of the run.
The Devil’s Chord sends the Doctor to Abbey Road in 1963 to face a god who devours music. Jinkx Monsoon is magnificent. The Beatles material is not.
Space Babies opens the Gatwa era with talking infants running a space station and a bogeyman made of mucus. Gatwa is great. The episode is not.
The Church on Ruby Road launches Ncuti Gatwa with a goblin musical number and a plot built on coincidence. He’s excellent. The episode is thin.