The Reality War

When it comes to writing, there are two things you need to get right, set up of certain elements, ans paying those things you set up off. This episode does neither neatly and definitely could have benifited from further planning and edits to strengthen this episode's story. I won't get into spoilers but there are certain points in this episode that people or events appear suddenly, without warning, with barely a mention in the previous episode or further back in the season. And there are certain things that aren't paid off, with longer story lines left haning or ended in blink and you'll miss it moments or lamp shaded away by a line of exposition. This happened alot and it made the episode quite an interesting task to follow and at many points all semblence of caus and effect was lost and things just happened. It just felt like i was getting constant wiplash, the episode just too stuffed, doing way to much all at once. Still I am glad that at least certain plot threads built up in the two season before this episode get addressed. Even if it's with just a lamp shaded expositions sentence. It's a landing alright, a wibbly wobbly landing, but a landing. All I hope is that next season the narrative points are structured and plotted out more than the sometimes 'fly by the seat of your pants' writing style that this episode has. I think some may enjoy this but I do not. I think a bit more planning would have benefited the narrative stramlining the episode into a fun coherant narrative. There are hints of a good episode in here and or just saddens me that it is buried under so much fwomp.

Throwing so much into one episode, parts of this one felt like exposition dump in order to make sense of how we got here. I wasn't satisfied with how some aspects were handled, but there was not a lack of effort to elicit a reaction.

I'm curious if this was as it was planned or if real life circumstances changed to force some loose ends to be tied up. This reminded me of "Rise of Skywalker", bringing together the components of a recent era into a single story while not shying away from older mythology or nostalgic triggers.

While filled with ups and downs, far from how I hoped this season had wrapped, it was memorable nonetheless.

I like Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor. He is far more emotionally vulnerable than other doctors, and has been a unique addition to the Doctor saga.

He makes me smile, and has left a positive mark on the TARDIS.

This episode didn't quite reach the heights I'd like after last week's set up episode, but I'm still pretty satisfied. Overall, I think season 2 has been an improvement on season 1, but I still think Russell T Davies has been remixing stories from his Eccleston/Tennant Era. 8 episodes a season feels a little short.

Who knows what happens now to our favourite mad man in a box, but I'm keen to see it.

I think it wrapped up all the mystery well. It was intense, gripping and really left a good impression. Overall, I thought this episode was brilliant as far as this new era goes, but will never live up to the 2010-2017 days. Miles better than season 1 finale.

Even with the longer run time, there was still a pacing issue. Everything felt a bit all over the place, with all these scenes just bombarding you all at once. It did feel a bit like a "ok, we need to solve all these mysteries and loose ends, let's spend loads of the episode doing that: kind of vibe, and at times you could see issues with plot twists. There was one where I just thought "oh, well duh" I did like the run time being extended, but I wish Belinda knew it was a Wish World sooner. Loved the acting, decent finale. 8/10.

There was so much going on in this episode, and far too much lore and arbitrary plot devices that it made the story ineffective. Everything had to be explained, it couldn't simply shown because there was too much, leading to excessive exposition. This also made the episode lose all its suspense or interest. When all the issues seem arbitrary and convoluted, it also means you know the solutions will be arbitrary and convoluted. There was never any doubt they would fix things, because there would be some random plot device to save the day. I know it's sci Fi, but you still need some consistency and grounding to create anticipation and excitement.