"Wish World" / "The Reality War" (review)
May. 31st, 2025 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shivverI think the phrase that sums these two episodes up is "Mistakes were made."
"Wish World" was a terrific episode, pure and simple. It built this strange, dream-like Earth that didn't quite make sense, with the Doctor and Belinda living as normal people within it, displayed the Rani and her machinations with quite a bit of misgiving on both Mrs. Flood's and Conrad's parts, and then ended on a cliffhanger of Omega returning. The episode felt so good, we felt that the conclusion couldn't possibly live up to the hype and yet, we still were optimistic for a great showdown between the Doctor and Omega.
And then we got "The Reality War".
As I noted before, the first half was great. Anita from "Joy to the World" returned to save the Doctor from the cliffhanger trap, explain that May 23 was being played over and over again, and provide timeline stability so that the people trapped in the wish world could step back into the real world. We cheered when Mel stood up to the Rani. The Rani explained her plan (and yes, she's a biologist, so of course her plan was to genetically engineer a new Gallifrey from Omega!) offered the Doctor the chance to help build a better Gallifrey (hearking back to Brother Lassar's offer in "School Reunion"), and the Doctor refused and began working to prevent the portal from opening. But, the Rani outmaneuvered him and the portal opened.
Don't forget Ruby, too. That was a great side plotline, Ruby getting to confront Conrad and, when given the opportunity to destroy him, remove him from the picture by giving him a good life. In a way, she's a lot more Doctor-y than the Doctor, who had tried to threaten and intimidate him into good behavior.
I think the one thing that completely rubbed me the wrong way here was the Doctor's focus on saving Poppy. Why did the Doctor need a focus, to save this child? Why couldn't he oppose the Rani because it was the right thing to do, perhaps because, as Sarah Jane said, everything has its time and everything ends? The emphasis on Poppy throughout the whole episode felt very hollow, very contrived.
Omega, however, was a disappointment, just an insane monster. Omega's always been one of my favorites and I'd been wanting, since I started watching DW, that he would be brought back, but not like this. And then the Doctor defeats him by shooting him with a gun? Yes, it's an overloaded vindicator, but really, it was a gun.
And the Rani got eaten, which was another disappointment, if only because that particular incarnation, who was rather awesome, got such a short life. On the other hand, I do prefer Mrs. Flood (she has an amazing evil smile) and had been disappointed that she'd been relegated to sandwich duty. (Totally knew she was going to grab the time ring and save her own hide.)
Things got tidied up rather quickly for such a big buildup and there was some disappointment, but it felt okay... until the episode kind of just ground to a halt. The Doctor and Belinda obsessing about Poppy and starting to plan their domestic life felt totally off and uncomfortable, and my husband actually commented, "Wow, this is going to be a totally different show", with the implication of "Not one we're ever going to watch." I will say, though, that the folding of the jacket was a terrific way of signaling that Poppy was disappearing (as opposed to actually showing her disappearing).
Then, huge long scenes talking about memory without actually saying anything until the Doctor finally took Ruby seriously, and then he ran off to fix the time problem without actually telling his companions that he was going die or even saying goodbye to them. I admit that I really hated the long drawn-out "all companions get to come back and say goodbye" regenerations that Eleven and Twelve got, but this went all the way in the other direction. And then Belinda's life gets rewritten to give her and Poppy their happily-ever-after.
The scene with Thirteen may have been the best in the episode, though. That was gorgeous. Also: "You never do." Ouch.
So, overall, this episode was a mess. It's called "The Reality War", but there was no reality war, just a couple of Time Lords squabbling about what's the best future for their destroyed planet, which gets resolved by one of them getting eaten by the horror she called up, and then the other shoots the horror to force it back into its prison. Then the other half of the episode seems to be a convoluted way to tie up the Doctor's and companions' storylines with a bow. So many questions were left unanswered: Why did Susan appear to the Doctor? How did Rogue know about what was happening in the wish world? Why did Belinda see Poppy in Lagos? There are a lot more, but they're less directly relevant so I won't write them here.
Thinking about it, I conjecture that this story wasn't the original intention. My guess is that this was intended to be a more traditional story of a fight against Omega. I imagine that Omega had originally been planned as a humanoid character who, when he finally came through the portal, refused to provide the Rani with the genetic material she wanted to rebuild Gallifrey and started to enact his own plans, and the Ranis had to team up with the Doctor to defeat him and send him back to the Underverse. (I had also hoped, before the second episode aired, that Mrs. Flood was going to get fed up with the way she was being treated by the Rani and rebel. That seemed to be the direction "Wish World" was taking with the character.)
But then, RTD was faced with 1) the possibility that the show would not be renewed and 2) Ncuti Gatwa choosing to leave. "Wish World" had already been made, so he only had "The Reality War" to tie up loose ends, including the Doctor's statement in "Wish World" that Poppy was real and was his daughter.
Thus, he chopped Omega's storyline and made him a one-dimensional CGI monster and had him eat the Rani, to free up time to deal with Ruby, Belinda, and the regeneration and also so that two Ranis wouldn't be handed to the next showrunner. This would also explain why Omega's lines in "Wish World" were recycled from "Intervention: Earth": they replaced already-recorded lines from the original actor when the character was obliterated.
Then, the rest of the episode cleaned up the claim that Poppy was his daughter by doing a timey-wimey thing to change Belinda's life and make Poppy her actual daughter. (I'm guessing that originally, Poppy would have turned out to be Susan's mother, thus making sense of both Susan's appearance in "The Interstellar Song Contest" and the Doctor's comment to Kate about Time Lords not having children in the right order.) But, because it was a chop job, he couldn't address all of the plot threads he'd been developing, leaving a lot of things dangling.
It's not easy to force-rewrite an intricate plot and keep it consistent, interesting, and exciting. Sure, it's possible (take a look at the comic The Forgotten, which did a pretty good job of it [if you can find it; it's out of print]), but it's tough. And unfortunately, if this is what happened -- and we'll never know, because they will never tell the truth -- this one didn't succeed. But I definitely want to believe this is somewhat near the truth, because the alternative is that this mess is what RTD had been planning for two seasons. He's better than this.
One thing that I was very impressed with was that they managed to keep the Doctor's regeneration a secret until the episode aired, something that I wish they would always do. It always ruins the surprise, and part of the story, to know that an episode is going to be the incarnation's last and that they're going to die at the end of it, and usually also who they're going to turn into. This time, it was a complete surprise!
And then the actual regeneration, another complete surprise! But I've already written what I think about that, that BP is playing Rose Tyler, not the Doctor, because the credits mentioning her did not say she was playing the Doctor. Which is a good thing. BP actually being the Doctor would not be a good thing for the show. I think it's going to be some story where Rose tried to get back to the prime universe, maybe using Meta's biodata as a tracker, and happened to teleport into the Doctor at the moment he regenerated. Or maybe it was an exchange at that moment, that the new Doctor is now trapped in Pete's World.
Last thing: Belinda really didn't get treated well this season. She spent the first couple of episodes being cranky about wanting to get home, but even after she realized that perhaps traveling with the Doctor was fun and interesting, she still rarely contributed much to the episodes, usually being relegated to the role of advice giver. Two of her episodes ("Lucky Day" and "The Reality War") were completely stolen by Ruby, and in the finale, she spent all of her time either brainwashed or obsessed with Poppy. She didn't even get a shining moment like Martha did, where she got to save the day, stand up for herself, or demonstrate what she'd learnt (Martha got all three); she got a life rewrite so that everything had always been good. It's disappointing especially after the strong start she'd had dealing with being kidnapped to an alien world, standing up to the Doctor who she didn't trust, and facing her incel ex-boyfriend in her first episode.
"Wish World" was a terrific episode, pure and simple. It built this strange, dream-like Earth that didn't quite make sense, with the Doctor and Belinda living as normal people within it, displayed the Rani and her machinations with quite a bit of misgiving on both Mrs. Flood's and Conrad's parts, and then ended on a cliffhanger of Omega returning. The episode felt so good, we felt that the conclusion couldn't possibly live up to the hype and yet, we still were optimistic for a great showdown between the Doctor and Omega.
And then we got "The Reality War".
As I noted before, the first half was great. Anita from "Joy to the World" returned to save the Doctor from the cliffhanger trap, explain that May 23 was being played over and over again, and provide timeline stability so that the people trapped in the wish world could step back into the real world. We cheered when Mel stood up to the Rani. The Rani explained her plan (and yes, she's a biologist, so of course her plan was to genetically engineer a new Gallifrey from Omega!) offered the Doctor the chance to help build a better Gallifrey (hearking back to Brother Lassar's offer in "School Reunion"), and the Doctor refused and began working to prevent the portal from opening. But, the Rani outmaneuvered him and the portal opened.
Don't forget Ruby, too. That was a great side plotline, Ruby getting to confront Conrad and, when given the opportunity to destroy him, remove him from the picture by giving him a good life. In a way, she's a lot more Doctor-y than the Doctor, who had tried to threaten and intimidate him into good behavior.
I think the one thing that completely rubbed me the wrong way here was the Doctor's focus on saving Poppy. Why did the Doctor need a focus, to save this child? Why couldn't he oppose the Rani because it was the right thing to do, perhaps because, as Sarah Jane said, everything has its time and everything ends? The emphasis on Poppy throughout the whole episode felt very hollow, very contrived.
Omega, however, was a disappointment, just an insane monster. Omega's always been one of my favorites and I'd been wanting, since I started watching DW, that he would be brought back, but not like this. And then the Doctor defeats him by shooting him with a gun? Yes, it's an overloaded vindicator, but really, it was a gun.
And the Rani got eaten, which was another disappointment, if only because that particular incarnation, who was rather awesome, got such a short life. On the other hand, I do prefer Mrs. Flood (she has an amazing evil smile) and had been disappointed that she'd been relegated to sandwich duty. (Totally knew she was going to grab the time ring and save her own hide.)
Things got tidied up rather quickly for such a big buildup and there was some disappointment, but it felt okay... until the episode kind of just ground to a halt. The Doctor and Belinda obsessing about Poppy and starting to plan their domestic life felt totally off and uncomfortable, and my husband actually commented, "Wow, this is going to be a totally different show", with the implication of "Not one we're ever going to watch." I will say, though, that the folding of the jacket was a terrific way of signaling that Poppy was disappearing (as opposed to actually showing her disappearing).
Then, huge long scenes talking about memory without actually saying anything until the Doctor finally took Ruby seriously, and then he ran off to fix the time problem without actually telling his companions that he was going die or even saying goodbye to them. I admit that I really hated the long drawn-out "all companions get to come back and say goodbye" regenerations that Eleven and Twelve got, but this went all the way in the other direction. And then Belinda's life gets rewritten to give her and Poppy their happily-ever-after.
The scene with Thirteen may have been the best in the episode, though. That was gorgeous. Also: "You never do." Ouch.
So, overall, this episode was a mess. It's called "The Reality War", but there was no reality war, just a couple of Time Lords squabbling about what's the best future for their destroyed planet, which gets resolved by one of them getting eaten by the horror she called up, and then the other shoots the horror to force it back into its prison. Then the other half of the episode seems to be a convoluted way to tie up the Doctor's and companions' storylines with a bow. So many questions were left unanswered: Why did Susan appear to the Doctor? How did Rogue know about what was happening in the wish world? Why did Belinda see Poppy in Lagos? There are a lot more, but they're less directly relevant so I won't write them here.
Thinking about it, I conjecture that this story wasn't the original intention. My guess is that this was intended to be a more traditional story of a fight against Omega. I imagine that Omega had originally been planned as a humanoid character who, when he finally came through the portal, refused to provide the Rani with the genetic material she wanted to rebuild Gallifrey and started to enact his own plans, and the Ranis had to team up with the Doctor to defeat him and send him back to the Underverse. (I had also hoped, before the second episode aired, that Mrs. Flood was going to get fed up with the way she was being treated by the Rani and rebel. That seemed to be the direction "Wish World" was taking with the character.)
But then, RTD was faced with 1) the possibility that the show would not be renewed and 2) Ncuti Gatwa choosing to leave. "Wish World" had already been made, so he only had "The Reality War" to tie up loose ends, including the Doctor's statement in "Wish World" that Poppy was real and was his daughter.
Thus, he chopped Omega's storyline and made him a one-dimensional CGI monster and had him eat the Rani, to free up time to deal with Ruby, Belinda, and the regeneration and also so that two Ranis wouldn't be handed to the next showrunner. This would also explain why Omega's lines in "Wish World" were recycled from "Intervention: Earth": they replaced already-recorded lines from the original actor when the character was obliterated.
Then, the rest of the episode cleaned up the claim that Poppy was his daughter by doing a timey-wimey thing to change Belinda's life and make Poppy her actual daughter. (I'm guessing that originally, Poppy would have turned out to be Susan's mother, thus making sense of both Susan's appearance in "The Interstellar Song Contest" and the Doctor's comment to Kate about Time Lords not having children in the right order.) But, because it was a chop job, he couldn't address all of the plot threads he'd been developing, leaving a lot of things dangling.
It's not easy to force-rewrite an intricate plot and keep it consistent, interesting, and exciting. Sure, it's possible (take a look at the comic The Forgotten, which did a pretty good job of it [if you can find it; it's out of print]), but it's tough. And unfortunately, if this is what happened -- and we'll never know, because they will never tell the truth -- this one didn't succeed. But I definitely want to believe this is somewhat near the truth, because the alternative is that this mess is what RTD had been planning for two seasons. He's better than this.
One thing that I was very impressed with was that they managed to keep the Doctor's regeneration a secret until the episode aired, something that I wish they would always do. It always ruins the surprise, and part of the story, to know that an episode is going to be the incarnation's last and that they're going to die at the end of it, and usually also who they're going to turn into. This time, it was a complete surprise!
And then the actual regeneration, another complete surprise! But I've already written what I think about that, that BP is playing Rose Tyler, not the Doctor, because the credits mentioning her did not say she was playing the Doctor. Which is a good thing. BP actually being the Doctor would not be a good thing for the show. I think it's going to be some story where Rose tried to get back to the prime universe, maybe using Meta's biodata as a tracker, and happened to teleport into the Doctor at the moment he regenerated. Or maybe it was an exchange at that moment, that the new Doctor is now trapped in Pete's World.
Last thing: Belinda really didn't get treated well this season. She spent the first couple of episodes being cranky about wanting to get home, but even after she realized that perhaps traveling with the Doctor was fun and interesting, she still rarely contributed much to the episodes, usually being relegated to the role of advice giver. Two of her episodes ("Lucky Day" and "The Reality War") were completely stolen by Ruby, and in the finale, she spent all of her time either brainwashed or obsessed with Poppy. She didn't even get a shining moment like Martha did, where she got to save the day, stand up for herself, or demonstrate what she'd learnt (Martha got all three); she got a life rewrite so that everything had always been good. It's disappointing especially after the strong start she'd had dealing with being kidnapped to an alien world, standing up to the Doctor who she didn't trust, and facing her incel ex-boyfriend in her first episode.
no subject
Date: 2025-06-01 11:52 am (UTC)But yes, I agree. Wish World was absolutely terrific ( despite autocorrect thinking I wanted to say “ terrible “ ) . I loved the strange world.
This is one of my favorite sci-fi/ fantasy Things: alternate universes. :) This one felt more 1950s than the first episode of WandaVision.
And that cliffhanger got me.