This time we got a terribly weak build-up episode, but did that mean that it lead to a stronger conclusion - or did RTD2 simply fail to stick the landing yet again?
Sadly, I really ought to have asked for my money back. I found it a huge disappointment.
It actually started off quite well, with the unexpected get-out from last week's cliffhanger. (I had thought that it would be the sudden appearance of the TARDIS which saved the Doctor, possibly piloted by Susan. That would have been something special). Instead we get the reappearance of Anita and the Time Hotel from the last festive special.
It's this which also leads to the UNIT people being freed of Conrad's influence.
Anita had been looking for the Doctor, allowing for some clips from earlier stories, which included a visit to what appeared to be a ropey VHS bootleg of the Special Edition DVD of Day of the Daleks.
(At one point she sees the Doctor dancing with Rogue and realises that her romantic notion of him is unlikely to be reciprocated. Er, didn't she spend a whole year with this guy?).
The Doctor is back to his old self, and the UNIT gang are brought back together - including an utterly pointless reappearance by Rose Noble-Temple, presumably so RTD2 could make a throwaway comment about the invisibility of the Trans community.
The Doctor gets into the Bone Palace to confront the Rani(s) whilst Ruby does the same to confront Conrad.
And this is where the whole thing fell apart for me.
The Rani finally releases Omega, and he's crap. It's another dreadful CGI abomination which bears no relation whatsoever to the original. He's simply a great big skeletal zombie and the background we're given about the character has absolutely nothing to do with what has already been established. He was never the first Time Lord (they only came about after he had been supposedly killed). He was never the greatest Time Lord (that was always Rassilon, I'd say). He was never the most feared Time Lord, of a batch who were tyrants. Technically, Omega was never actually any kind of Time Lord.
None of what we see or hear in this episode fits with The Three Doctors or Arc of Infinity.
I've always argued that if you are going to bring back an old enemy, then bring them back as they were known before - otherwise what is the point? This could just as easily have been an entirely new god-like entity, and the legacy of Bob Baker, Dave Martin, Johnny Byrne and actors Stephen Thorne and Ian Collier could have been preserved.
I thought it ironic that they showed the circular emblem he wore on his costume in Arc, which features the initials of the man who designed that costume - Richard Gregory - only to present us with this awful CGI garbage.
To make matters worse for poor old Omega, Gatwa kept mispronouncing his name as well.
Another disappointment was the handling of Conrad. He barely featured in this episode despite all the build up for the character, and his confrontation with Ruby should have been something special. Instead she has only a few words with him, then wishes him away into obscurity.
Luckily Omega is only around for about two minutes - just time to kill the wrong Rani - before he's pushed back into his box. Then you check the running time, and realise that there's a heck of a lot more of this episode to come...
The second half of the episode is, quite frankly, dull. Overblown and over-egged emotionally, but dull.
It's suddenly about Poppy, who they've tried to save from "Wish World". One minute she's a human-Time Lord hybrid, and the next she doesn't exist, and then she turns out to have been Belinda's kid all along - even though she never once mentioned having a child over the previous 7 episodes.
And apparently making sure Poppy does exist is worth the Doctor sacrificing a regeneration for.
Yes, this turned out to be the final Gatwa episode, just as the internet had been saying for the last 12 months. When you tell an interviewer that you were given a Sonic Screwdriver by the crew at the wrap party, and this has traditionally been the parting gift for every actor in the role since 2005, you know what's coming.
The internet had also told us who would be replacing him.
To be honest, I really can't see Piper as the Doctor at all. Not from a performance point of view, but from a career point of view, really. I suspect that she is simply a placeholder - a name that might bring viewers back after the great haemorrhage of recent years. She'll do a couple of specials, perhaps one with Tennant as that would be an interesting set-up - to have the Doctor meet his other self, and she now looks like someone he used to fancy. It's also interesting to note that she isn't introduced as The Doctor in the closing credits. Might this actually be Bad Wolf or The Moment, and not the new Doctor at all?
If news of the regeneration and the next Doctor had been blown, I was not expecting to see the Thirteenth Doctor make an appearance. Had they brought anyone back for a scene I would have thought Fourteen would have been the obvious candidate, as he was the other half of the bi-generation.
Nice seeing Whittaker again - a promising Doctor who was badly served by the writers. (Just like Gatwa most of the time, so she probably was the right one to bring back after all).
Will I miss the Fifteenth Doctor. 'Fraid not. He wasn't around long enough for me and I've always found him lightweight and superficial. Will I miss Belinda and / or Ruby? Again, they simply weren't given long enough to make any sort of impact. Frankly, I wouldn't miss RTD2 either were he to jump ship right now (or be pushed overboard by the BBC due to collapsing ratings), but I suspect that he will want to stick around after getting Billie back on the show.
Looking back overall, this last series certainly had some better episodes than the previous one, but once again was completely let down by the ending.
We will be looking out for some announcement now - from Disney+ about continuing to fund, or an alternative production partner, or going back in-house to the BBC. Whatever happens it looks likely that there will be a long wait for the next series, though there's still that spin-off to come later this year...
I’ve read that this was not the planned ending as Ncuti didn’t decide to jump until the last minute. The original ending did have more of Susan (though not much more than another cameo.) Billie’s face was rather obviously CGI’d on the Doctor’s body for the regen scene.
ReplyDeleteYou can’t blame Ncuti for leaving given that there’s not even a contract for another series. An actor needs work, not the vague prospect of it.
I think you may be right on Billie’s
character being Bad Wolf given that the regen scene involved a lot of energy going into the TARDIS console. Well we’ll have to wait for a long time to find out.
The shorter series are a major problem in my opinion. There’s no time to let the characters develop and it’s all over before you can really get into it.
Another hiatus is upon us it seems. Well, here we go again.
Mike K
I don’t like that RTD may have made Billie Piper the 16th Doctor. It is not that I doubt her acting range, I can actually see her being able to convince the audience she is a different character. It is just it comes across as awkward considering the Doctor choose the face of a Companion, especially one that was special to him/her
ReplyDeleteOmega was certainly a real waste- Sutekh, yet again! Mind you, in a sense he was, if not the first Gallifreyan, the first Time Lord, as in the first of his people who could claim to be a lord of time. This is a deep cut, but I remember an imagined Time Lord history narrative by Gary Russel in DWM issue 100 which explicitly said this!
ReplyDeleteI think eight episodes per season, and some of those episodes being Doctor lite, is just not enough. I feel short changed too. RTD2, I think, is still good stuff... but certainly not as good as RTD1, or even close. But, if not RTD, who is there at the moment?
I think Disney Plus have gone. It's not just Doctor Who- they're losing money with streaming across the board. This splintered streaming market just isn't viable, and in the long term it isn't the future. The BBC just need to hang on and reform.
I recently read that Andor cost $650 million and Disney were reluctant to commit, claiming streaming was dead. In the UK there have been calls for the 5 terrestrial channels to merge into just two, the BBC and a single commercial provider. Trouble is they won't agree to relinquish independence, despite losing money.
DeleteFor me, personally, the Gallifreyans only became Lords of Time after they thought Omega had perished pro riding them with the energy they needed, so for them he had died before Time Lords were born.
The quote — “Next to a battle lost, the saddest thing is a battle won” — is attributed to the Duke of Wellington, the general who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. On the surface, it's about war: even when you win, the cost — the lives lost, the devastation, the trauma — is still horrifying. Victory doesn’t erase the suffering; it just changes who gets to live with it.
ReplyDeleteIn the context of Doctor Who's current state, especially over the last 8 years— it takes on a more metaphorical, emotional meaning.
Here, the "battle won" might be Doctor Who’s sheer endurance. The fact that it survived cancellations, reboots, changing tastes — that it's still around after all these years could be seen as a victory.
But at what cost?
The show’s soul feels frayed.
The fandom is fragmented.
The show, once a symbol of joyful experimentation, now often feels like a weighty obligation to lore and legacy.
I don't think one isn’t saying the show should never have come back or endured — but rather that its survival, in this form, feels bittersweet. A kind of hollow triumph. The thing that Verity Lambert helped build still stands… but it’s changed into something unrecognizable, even alienating.
So the line becomes a lament for victories that don’t feel like victories. When what’s preserved no longer brings joy, but only the memory of what joy once felt like. It actually captures the essence of a Pyrrhic victory to the letter, and it aligns seamlessly with the emotional weight behind the quote.
in regards to, “Next to a battle lost, the saddest thing is a battle won,” it’s not just grief at change — it’s a recognition that the cost of survival has been too high. The show won: it endured, it evolved, it even reached global heights. But in doing so, it lost some of its clarity, its simplicity, and perhaps even its purpose.
Just as a general might look at the battlefield strewn with the wreckage of his own forces and wonder if the victory was worth the loss, Doctor Who’s legacy — especially from those felt it dimisnhing over the past decade — feels scarred. It’s a show still standing, but tired, fragmented, and often misunderstood even by those who love it most.
So in some way, it is a hollow victory. One that calls into question the very meaning of “winning” in the first place.
In that sense, the line isn't just about regret — it's about the cost of clinging to something long after its natural form has changed, or even decayed. A sobering truth, especially when applied to art, stories, or fandoms we love.
And that’s why it hits so hard.
It seems likely to me that the reason Gatwa pronounces Omega's name the way he does is because Rwanda, which is where he is originally from, was a German and then Belgian colony, rather than British. Of course, he was two years old when his family fled to Scotland, which seems a bit young to be learning the Greek alphabet, so go figure.
ReplyDeleteThe classic fan in me hates what they did with Omega (no matter how you pronounce it!), and the Rani (such a lackluster use of said character), and why they made Omega into some weird reject from a horror movie, I'll never know.
Them doing nothing with Susan is my biggest head scratcher though. Carol Ann Ford is 84 years old, if you're going to drop hints about her, use her more in the actual show while you can!
I might eat my words if another season is made but I seriously doubt that Billie Piper's character in the final scene is the Doctor. The only question is if she's "main universe" Rose or if she's Bad Wolf/The Moment/Whoever From the 50th Anniversary. It wouldn't surprise me if once again, Tennant will back either way.