Doctor Who - The Reality War
"The Reality War" marks the end of the season, the end of The Rani (Anita Dobson), and the end of Ncuti Gatwa's run as The Doctor. After being saved by Anita (Steph de Whalley) who will play a pivotal role in bringing back the real memories of The Doctor's allies at U.N.I.T., The Doctor turns his attention to stopping The Rani and her plans to release Omega () from his prison and use his DNA to recreate the Time Lords in her image. The Rani gets a bit more than she bargained for when the show goes a bit over-the-top offering us a CGI skeleton monster (certainly different than the character's other appearances). Meanwhile, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) is given the crucial assignment of getting the baby which will be needed to permanently set the world right.
In a normal episode that might be enough, but the messy finale gets a bit lost in then Ruby forcing The Doctor and Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) to remember the lost daughter who fades from existence in this new reality. We get a big hero moment from The Doctor, alone without his companions, on setting the universe right by using the power of regeneration (which doesn't actually trigger until much later), a farewell to Belinda, and a look a the next Doctor which is an odd choice that feels like the show attempting once again to create conversation rather than storytelling. Oh, and we also get a weird appearance by another former Doctor thrown in.
It's sad to see Gatwa's run end just as the character had started to find himself (even if the storytelling of his run was very inconsistent). Given the number of episodes we don't get with him you have to scratch your head over some of those that we did. However, the overly human loving Doctor without quirks, a quick temper, or hard heart is far from my favorite version (which makes me wonder just what we're going to get with the show's baffling next choice of leaning strong in a type of fan service that could just as easily backfire).
- Title: Doctor Who - The Reality War
- wiki: link
