It’s interesting, wishing an episode would just end 20 minutes early. Then it goes on, and still goes on, is entirely about forgetting, and then proceeds to forget some of what it set up. Directed by Alex Pillai, I shouldn’t have to give another example of his work, given that he only directed the last episode, “Wish World” and “Joy to the World.” In comparison, Showrunner and nostalgia-addict Russell T Davies helms his fifth episode out of a total of eight. I hate saying it, but I think Chibnall was slightly more giving in his first two series. It says a lot that I can praise him for that.

So the clock is about to hit midnight, and the world is about to be destroyed the second we hit May 24th, 2025. Sadly, that didn’t happen, so I need to talk about Omega and The Rani with a sore head. Nonetheless, with a thread that felt about as connected as my grip on reality by the end of the episode, the boring-bland woman The Doctor hung out with at Christmas (she’s fine, just hard to describe), reappeared from the time hotel. Time resets, we get to punch Biff again because the Doc said it was ok this time, and Russell’s 5-minute resolution in part 2 continues.

It all just sort of happens there and then, with Anita just fixing everything with the Time Hotel, a magic time-based skeleton key, and the real-ish timeline flowing through the Time Hotel. Typical Russell magic button of magicness, and that isn’t really where I am bothered by the episode, but rather bits of that culminate into a larger complaint that I have. Not only do we have two Ranis to wrap up, but she’s trying to bring back Omega, Conrad hasn’t been stabbed to death like the internet wants, and UNIT might as well be a Megazord at this point. Oh, and Belinda and Poppy are a thing the episode forgets about for a while.

As I’ve said, we’ll get into the major spoilers and such a bit later on, but I will say that the first 35-40 minutes were fine. Do I think it wrapped up everything nicely? Do I think that it could be a fine episode on its own? Was it well-written? In order: No, probably with a bit of clean-up edits, and hell-no! Part of me thinks Russell is just doing it to try and kill me now, but we don’t get another mention of Rogue, The Rani is still just standing around, and part of me wants to grab someone by the shoulders and ask, “WTF is this bit for?”

Did we need Shirley’s wheelchair to Back to the Future itself? Can I kick Conrad up and down a dark alleyway until it looks like a hate crime? And, who is the architect of UNIT’s Stark/Avengers Tower? Answers on a postcard. It is typical of Russell’s messy finale stories that weren’t helped by the fact of rumors that I need to talk about at some point. So let’s talk a bit more about the beats and such early on.

We’ve established the door thing with Anita, and that’s fine, but it is shown early on that this isn’t the first time she’s used this skeleton key thing to find The Doctor. I’m surprised that a notably gay man would write Anita in this way, as she’s shown seeing Smith during “The Wedding of River Song,” Pertwee in “Day of the Daleks,” and then this Doctor during “Rogue,” the dance scene in particular. She’s happy for the first two, then she sees this Doctor being happy (gay, if you will) and she frowns, and that’s the point where indifference turns to hatred.

Not her for him, just me for her. Companions fell in love with the magic man from the stars with two hearts before, Rose twice, Kylie at Christmas, Sarah Jane, Martha, and of course, Yaz, none of whom I think would frown if The Doctor was happy. Sarah Jane and Rose snarked, but they snapped out of it when they found a bond, this felt like bitterness and anger.

A point that’s kind of hammered home by her being pregnant (a cover for de Whalley’s pregnancy), but it came across as “Well, he doesn’t want me. I’ll go get someone else who will give me what I want.” Not only that, when it is shown as The Doctor telling the members of UNIT “This is Belinda, and this is my kid Poppy,” she’s a lot softer on that bitterness. She’s not happy for him (or Belinda), but she’s less “why not me,” which comes off as very… homophobic, whether or not it is passive doesn’t matter.

So, shall we talk about Conrad’s weird far-right ideological fantasy instead? Once we have Ncuti in a faux-kilt thing (that’s just about the weight and length), we go back to UNIT and everyone realizes the TVA has interior decorator fairy godmothered the place up. I think the fairy godmother of interior design is probably Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. I don’t want to harp on about his ideal world and how it is horribly consistent with some questionable ideologues we have spouting rather hateful stuff, but I have to say that I do love that once the normal is established, Donna’s Rose literally pops back into existence.

Again, I’m not praising the ideas, but rather how well this portrayal of those ideas in this fantastical setting is done. Being gay (as seen last time) had people concerned for you, being disabled meant you had no place in society, so you’re homeless, and here, being trans meant you didn’t exist. A lesser show would tell Finney to “present as a male,” but the balls on Russell to have that moment just be a thing was exactly what it needed to be. I’ll criticize other bits of his writing, but Russell did something good there to really hammer that point home.

It all feels rather second act, a small victory before the villain kicks Sisyphus down the hill to climb back up again. The trouble is, I don’t think there is a villain reveal that sets us back until much later on. We get The Rani standing about doing her Fantastic Racisms and Where to Find Them, which I think is just Joanne’s Twitter, but it doesn’t feel like momentum is lost. Honestly, that first 25 minutes feels like the second act that was missing from “Wish World,” as that was Act 1 and nothing else.

The “Avengers, assemble!” bit is alright, but it isn’t special at this point because it always felt like that was happening, see “The Parting of The Ways.” What does get on my nerves, though, is when Belinda and Poppy are thrown into an anechoic chamber and do nothing for the next 10-15 minutes while The Doctor and Ruby fix the problem. Why do we even have Belinda at that point? I’ll say the horrible thing: So we can say Belinda and The Doctor had Poppy without questions of race coming into it? Otherwise, we could have done the whole series with Ruby if I’m honest.

I said it early on, I love Belinda. From “The Robot Revolution” to “The Well.” She uses her special skills, she does a couple of things The Doctor couldn’t, and she was set up as a pretty decent companion. It is a shame we only got all of 20 minutes (at most) of her doing anything in eight episodes, most of which is from “The Well.” Just sitting her aside here felt like a solution to another problem that was written into the plot as is. Bemoan the summation, but good storytelling is writing yourself into those problems and finding an interesting way out; this wasn’t interesting.

Rejigging that 40-45 minutes at the start, you have a decent middle of the series episode before we launch into taking on the big bad. The pacing is quite quick. It doesn’t spend too much time on things, but it gives just enough to keep some things satisfying, and generally does enough to be an alright episode of Doctor Who. However, as I said, it goes on and on, and on, and on.

For those who don’t want major spoilers, I’ll say this: It is a fine episode ruined by complications both in the writing process and what happened after it was originally shot. A good portion of the episode was re-shot not that long ago, and there are rumors/speculation as to why or how that came about. You can blame that for some things here, but you can’t blame that for every little thing going on. I’ll repeat myself once again: I love Russell T Davies, he’s the reason I fell in love with Doctor Who, but this second run of his hasn’t helped him maintain that “god of writing” status.

Warning: The rest of this article will contain spoilers for the episode “The Reality War.” Reader’s discretion is advised.

Right, now that I can go full-tilt on these things without trying to hold myself back, what was the point of The Rani, what was the point in the bi-regeneration, and what was the point in Omega? At the end of a series or in some cases two series build, we shouldn’t have more questions, or rather the same questions about the villains of the thing that just happened. I dare not call it a plot because The Rani has had no plot, progression, or clear goal other than bringing back Omega to try and get Gallifrey back, so it can be repopulated by little Nazis.

I’m still hung up on that line about Poppy not being enough with the knowledge that she’s The Doctor and Belinda’s kid. We’ll talk about that reveal and how it is handled, but that felt like another talk about eugenics and things like that, another “They’ll see you for who you really are” line. Of course, that’s part of Doctor Who anyway with the Daleks, but what purpose does that line serve other than to make you groan? It is there simply to make you hate The Rani more, for all that is worth, since she’s done nothing of substance.

The reality of “The Reality War” is that it isn’t a war and it doesn’t really break reality: Normal time flows within a few minutes, the only “war” was a bit stupid and would totally work if I had a reason to care, and the whole big-bad monster of the series is foiled in minutes. After standing around being smarmy, like a Limpet up a Whale’s rear blow hole, The Rani gets her wish of Omega coming through Rassilon’s seal… and he eats her. Thanks for playing, Rani love, you have your tankard, you have your money, you have your prizes. Remember, you can’t beat a bit of Bully.

Honestly, the fact that The Doctor pulls the Vindicator off the wall and shoots Omega to effectively put the nails in the coffin of that thing isn’t bothering half as much as everything after it. Do I like it? No, do I think there are better ways to have done this whole thing? Of course! That’s generally my problem with the episode and the series as a whole: that something better could have been done, something just as fantastical and bombastic, but with fewer questions from gaps being left or things that were changed for certain reasons.

So, if you’re here in the spoiler section, then you should know that by the 40th minute, The Rani has been eaten, Omega is dead and gone again, and A Rani cuts a Two Ronnies joke for people like me who are older than mountains before she disappears. The world is effectively fixed, and we’re all free to go about our merry way, as The Doctor and Belinda fawn over taking Poppy places and baby-proofing the TARDIS. Only for them to have a heartbreaking scene where they are folding a jacket that turns into a bit of cloth, then into nothing as they forget Poppy existed.

The only one that remembers is Ruby, and she fights like hell to make The Doctor remember, forcing him to go do magic timey-wimey stuff. All of which is reportedly, speculatively, rumored to be part of the reshoot/rewrites to make way for Ncuti’s exit. This adds a full 20 minutes to the story and a few drastic changes to make what happens at the end work. We’ll get to that too. What I think bothers me here is the fact that we go from a fairly simple, fine, fast-paced finale that feels like a mid-series climax to the slowest 20 minutes I’ve had of watching any TV show.

Forcing a regeneration to correct the timeline, Ncuti’s Doctor does some emotional stuff as he paces about the TARDIS, only to be interrupted by Jodi finally getting some decent writing for her Doctor. I won’t lie, I was uplifted by Jodi’s appearance. Not for the “I’m surprised it’s not the other guy. He is always turning up” line, which I’m so-so on. I love Ncuti, as I’ll get to here, but as I’ve said multiple times, Jodie never got a proper chance, given who wrote the majority of her episodes. Through her run, the ideas were almost always undercooked, under-served, and generally lacking any sense of self-awareness.

Ncuti, on the other hand, he has not been given a fair shake because he’s had 19 episodes hampered by a strung-in story that has been too self-aggrandizing of the show’s history while trying to be something new. The very reason I was excited for Russell’s return in the first place was that he was supposed to come in and reinvigorate the show to be fresh, and explore something we’ve not been given by a previous era. At least that’s how it was pitched: Returning to calling it seasons for the sake of the Americans, a bold and youthful new face, and having a slightly new look.

Of course, when I say Ncuti only got 19 episodes while Christopher Eccleston only got 13, I’m talking more respectively about Tennant’s 47 (as the 10th alone), Smith’s 43, Capaldi’s 39, and Whittaker’s 31. Yes, I am including “The Giggle” in Ncuti’s run because he helps resolve the problem as is. It isn’t just a funny line about gingers or noses, then smash-cut to credits. Honestly, I’m hesitating to say this regeneration was premature because it isn’t for other reasons, but as a fan and as someone who wants to see something proper, it is difficult to say it is disappointing to see Ncuti go so quickly.

Rumors at the time of writing, and that’s all we have to go on, suggest that Ncuti prompted the rewrites and reshoots of the episode so he could go take the several reported offers of bigger, better roles in Hollywood. Honestly? Power to him! I can’t complain about an actor doing what is best for them, just as I can’t complain about Christopher getting out when he did, when you know the context for his desire to get out. I don’t want to see Ncuti go, but I also wanted to see him stay and maybe get a proper series written without pointless fan service, which serves no one.

However, the rumors suggest that his decision was sort of made for him by the corporate overlords at Disney, with that deal basically coming to a close. Without the Disney deal, Russell and co at Bad Wolf can’t exactly start production on a new series that hasn’t been commissioned yet, and Disney is the hold-up. This is speculative according to these rumors. This would suggest that we won’t get another series of Doctor Who until 2027. You can’t expect Ncuti to sit around waiting for Doctor Who to get picked back up when he’s being offered work, so he’s done the right thing for himself.

This is where I think Russell is somewhat to blame, and hear me out before you want to defend anyone. Russell is one of the heads of production, so if anyone knew when this deal was up, it was him and others at Bad Wolf Studios. With that in mind, if the actor and the future production weren’t nailed down, both eventualities should have been written for, and contingency plans should have been in place to keep the continuity going in the meantime. Am I saying Russell should be perfect? No, but I am saying it is his job to know and plan for these things.

These rewrites, these reworkings of the story as is, felt like writing the book report based on the film you watched the night before you had to hand in the work. If the story was entirely about forgetting, then better work should have been done earlier in the series to tell that story. If The Rani was supposed to be the villain for this Doctor, then Mrs Flood’s fourth-wall breaks didn’t help with that. Omega was nothing more than a thing for the trailer to make 50-year-old White men in middle England get excited. That is, until they realized the Black guy was still playing The Doctor and a brown woman was playing The Rani.

I’ve said it throughout: who is this Doctor Who aimed at? The older men who didn’t like Russell’s original run because it wasn’t Tom Baker? Or the younger people who have at least a passing interest in sci-fi? Referencing sort of niche old stuff like The Rani, Sutekh, and Omega is like referencing Dulmur from DS9, or broader Star Trek, I’d probably say Quinn and Amanda Rogers. Trying to be as big as possible is the problem with these 8 episode runs for Ncuti’s era, two series that were already short on time being exhausted by grand storytelling of gods and monsters.

Getting back to the episode itself. That 20 minutes where it is revealed that it is a regeneration episode, that Poppy is alive, that Poppy was always real, and that this was the reason Belinda was trying to get home, and is really goddamn slow, that’s what drags the episode down a lot from where I’ve already stated it was. Up to that heart-wrenching moment of folding the coat and forgetting about Poppy, “The Reality War” was a fine watch. Not a great episode by any stretch, but it was fine. I’d be lying if I said I could wrap my head around that last 20 minutes, though.

So let’s break it down a bit here: The plot of the series by the end is that Belinda was living in shared NHS-worker accommodations with other 20-somethings next to Mrs Flood before being kidnapped, but something happens to May 24th. The episodes that precede “The Reality War” happen, and we get to the end of “The Interstellar Song Contest,” where the doors to the TARDIS implode, only to smash-cut to John Smith and Belinda in bed together. Oh, and they have a kid, who turns out to be Poppy from “Space Babies.”

However, by the end of this one, we find out that Belinda had a one-night stand with a bloke off-screen, and her parents were looking after Poppy the night of the 23rd. So answer me these simple questions. Why was Belinda living in that shared terraced house with other 20-somethings? Why is Captain Poppy and this Poppy the same? And what about this makes any sense when the mystery of Belinda originally was that she’s part of the whole Mundy Flynn thing? Spoiler, none of that is explained. So what was this series?

Belinda is gone, and that story is done until Big Finish finds someone to do Ncuti’s voice and Sethu agrees to do the audio dramas, so that idea is parked for now. If the series was meant to originally be about an unreliable narrator, as it turned out to be, then I don’t think it is a good one. You can bemoan the likes of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, but you could argue that it does it better, or you can look at gaming and say that Spec Ops: The Line does it hundreds of times better. Black Swan, Fight Club, and hell, even Mr Robot too.

In the context of the rumors, I think it makes sense why the episode and the series as a whole are a bit (that’s an understatement) of a mess. However, someone should have seen this coming: You have a hot young star in Ncuti off the back of Sex Education, Doctor Who, and a minor appearance in Barbie, then you have Disney dragging its feet on decisions. That doesn’t make up for the fact, but it puts it into context, and being reasonable, I can understand (to a degree) why it all went a bit to pot.

I have not talked about Billie and “And Introducing… Billie Piper.” I don’t really have an opinion on it. No one expected bi-regeneration, so maybe this is the next step of that messy storyline. Maybe it is something else. The simple truth is that we don’t know what it is or what it will be, and we won’t for a long time if the rumors of Disney’s whole thing are true, so I can’t have an opinion on it as it pertains to the show.

Do I think it is a great idea after David’s run as 14? No, but I also know that Billie is a “safer” pair of hands to “lockdown” per se into the role than keeping Ncuti around. Especially if he wanted to go. As I’ve said this whole time, the episode and the series are messy, and this regeneration is a symbol of that. Do I think it is worse than “The Timeless Children?” No, because then I’d have to say the same about David’s run as 14 and Peter’s run as 12. Much like Russell when he started writing this series, we don’t know what’s going to happen next.

“The Reality War” is ultimately an episode that was made far worse, or I guess messy in another word, as a result of production being all over the place. The reality of “The Reality War” is that it was a fine episode to start with, with a decent pace that was turned on its head with heavy rewrites and heavy reshoots that changed the show, not as a result of the narrative but because of real-world issues. Eccleston’s quick exit wasn’t this rushed, and that’s the closest comparison in this modern era. Series 15/season 2(/41) is a mess from top to tail, and this symbolizes it perfectly.

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Doctor Who "The Reality War"

5.5

Score

5.5/10

Pros

• That first 35-40 minutes is fine, dumb fun.
• Jodie's bit in the TARDIS.
• That heart-breaking folding-the-jacket moment was done so well.

Cons

• What an utter mess.
• The Rani and Omega, what was their point?
• Mrs Flood still goes unexplained.
• Anita's reactions.