nucleus-24718

I did not have high hopes coming into this episode. I did not like Space Babies before it. I was disappointment by the casting for the Beatles and the lack of songs from them. I thought the villain looked too goofy and was ready for disappointment.

Firstly, the mystery of the season that this episode continues building is fantastic. Ruby's origin gets a peak scene this episode with a continued sense of dream with all the mysteries. The One Who Waits and god, there were a lot of references to some previous stuff that I also won't spoil.

Secondly, the visuals in this episode were creative and made great use of the CGI. Apart from some weird angles that felt like a 2000s Direct to DVD film, it was amazing. I don't want to spoil some of them, but the floating musical notes worked SO well.

Thirdly, I just like how the episode is written as a whole. The Beatles did affect the story, but they weren't the centerpiece. The centerpiece was really the fun dynamic of music in this episode. My problem with recent Who is that the episodes wrap up far too neatly. While the same happened here, there was an actual struggle to beating the villain with a good few pay offs into actually doing so.

Lastly, the acting (and the music) were also great. This is the episode I feel Ncuti became the Doctor for me. The villain was well acted and still felt quite threatening. The performance was somewhat over-the-top for the start, but really settled into itself later on. The music by Murray Gold was awesome this episode. It wasn't a musical (although there was one musical song which was just alright).

I did not review Space Babies and I thought it was just mediocre. But this? This is a great showing of what this era of Who can do.

8.7/10.

I often think of Season 4 Part A as one of the weakest parts of the series. This episode was surprisingly great on re-watch.

On the Ragnar side of things, the Floki story-line is great. Ragnar still has compassion as his darker elements take over along side his depression. The slow torture of Floki throughout is great.

The weakest part is the Bjorn storyline. It adds nothing at all so far and I voice-over it pretending it's a reality survival tv show.

Actually rescuing the queen was the best part of this episode. The action was brutal and viseral. It was actually tense since any character could die at that point.

The scenes with Judith are a nice development for her storyline and I don't remember where it goes.

In Season 4 Part A, I have always remembered Rollo and his wife being the best part of it and it is great in this episode as well although brief. Him getting the dress and trying to bow was funny and his wife and him make a great duo.

I hope the rest of the Season 4 Part A suprises me on rewatch.