I just watched it tonight.

I struggle to really pin down exactly what the difference is between the good and bad Doctor Who episodes/seasons. Like if I was going to give a general complaint about this episode or season, I'd say that it felt like confusing nonsense but.... I feel like that's Doctor Who most of the time and I usually loved it even when it was in spite of the confusing bits. The more recent seasons have been confusing in a boring way that's just hard to put into words. I think this Doctor started out pretty strong but somewhere along the way it lost it's magic.

The one thing that comes to my mind as a potential difference, but honestly I could just not be remembering right, is it feels like the Doctor kind of just stands around listening to exposition a lot more in recent seasons. Like we're being told a lot more than we're being shown and The Doctor doesn't really run around solving problems as much as they wait around for the bad guy to explain everything and then we reach the end of the episode and the plot happens to wrap things up somehow. Then there is just this over-reliance on reveals of things that I don't even know why I should be surprised because it's based on some random reference from a long time ago.

There's definitely some important differences, I'm just not 100% sure that those are it or not.

Others have done a great job of breaking down the specifics of this episode. I just wanted to air my more general thoughts as they relate to the newer seasons.

EDIT: Also, whether or not the new Doctor turns out better or not, it's kind of sad to see this Doctor getting the short end of the new paradigm of shorter seasons for streaming shows. Eccleston was only on for one season and he got nearly as many episodes as this one got in two.

I had to put off this episode to watch it fresh with my partner, so Sunday was a bit of a spoiler minefield. I'd heard about the Billie Piper rumour, and of course that was confirmed to me by some rando who couldn't be arsed using content warnings on Mastodon before I could watch the finale.

Nevertheless, I went into it with an open mind and two expectations only: 1. To be fairly entertained for an hour, and 2. That the Susan plot would get tied up somehow. At least one of those happened!

There were more emotional payoffs here than actually narrative ones — this is not my favourite finale mode for Doctor Who, but I come prepared with plenty suspension of disbelief. It was lovely seeing Anita again, for starters. Was it mainly as a deus ex machina? Sure, but someone had to save the Doctor off that balcony.

The (definite article) Rani continues to chew up the scenery deliciously. It was no problem finding the Doctor, "I just had to look for a blonde human". Well, we have two more of those popping up unexpectedly before the show is over!

It made sense that focus shifted from the "unholy trinity" after that, because how could they live up to the threat they'd been set up as. So the larger fish eats the smaller one, and a third just swims away.

I do have a feeling that Davies doesn't do rewrites except to up the tempo so nobody notices the weaknesses while the story flashes by. Omega is a giant handpuppet, quick! Defeat him so we can get to the baby story! Without the cosmic context, Conrad's story ended as it reasonably should —with a firm talking to, and Ruby wishing him happiness. Off you pop, gammon boy.

As adorable as Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps is, I did have trouble following the Poppy story. She's the Doctor's and Belinda's wish child, got it. But when Conrad's spell is lifted, they still love her as their own ...okay? And then she's gone and they don't, but Ruby (who last episode insisted Poppy wasn't their child) has to set them straight. Again, it comes down to speed of delivery and suspension of disbelief, otherwise this comes apart before your eyes.

By then we pretty much know what's going to happen. Ncuti Gatwa is definitely off, and this is going to be his last hurrah. It's one of those emotional signals that Davies actually does well, even when the story context doesn't have the same impact. And then —

I swear I clapped and whooped when Jodie Whittaker entered the TARDIS. What a treat of a moment, to have those two paired up!

And finally, a sitdown with Belinda in a new timeline where she's now (and somehow always was) happily Poppy's mum and the Doctor can wash his hands of paternity. That was convenient, but again: It primarily plays on an emotional level to give Belinda and 15 their farewell.

And finally, finally — the Piper moment. What the hell? I'm sort of glad I had this spoiled, because otherwise I might have been really upset that we get another gimmick regeneration as the show goes on hiatus.

I'll be honest, I'm not a Rose Tyler fan. We've been rewatching the 2005 show recently, and I was low key thrilled to see her go after series 2. But this probably, hopefully, won't be Rose again, and Piper is a good actor in other roles; nor, I note, is she credited here as the Doctor.

All in all, this episode was a ripping emotional yarn while it was playing, but once all the moving parts settle down you sort of see they weren't connected in any satisfactory way. Why were we expected to care about Poppy again? Why was Susan setup for a no-show? What in the ever loving hell was the point of having Omega in there?

It's especially a letdown after such a great season where Sethu, Gatwa, and Panjabi really shone. The Doctor may not like endings, which is good because Russell Davies kind of sucks at writing them. Particularly in season finales he tends to overwhelm the viewer rather than actually tie up the story. It's event upon event upon event without resolution, and this is a shining example of when it doesn't work.

So we as viewers go into an uncertain couple of years on the bum note of an amazing lead actor who never really got to flex his skills, the Doctor's first companion who may now never have a chance to return, and an absolutely ridiculous cliffhanger.

As the Rani said in the beginning of "Wish world":

"Hoot hoot, quack quack. Bye bye!"

That's it? That's the lost Time Lord? It was one minute of a bony CGI monster! Defeated with a secondhand thought, literally the secondhand to a clock! I guess I do kind of like tying how the Rani thought herself so superior to the human race but then being so unceremoniously finished in return. I don't like how Omega was just "grr, me hungry." I thought his main motivations was from being lonely and I think back to him trying to have the Doctor(s) stay with him.

The whole Poppy subplot kind of rubs me the wrong way. For one, there is a non-consenting aspect to it, suddenly having a hybrid child. Belinda didn't really want for one, and it's a bit of an "accident." The Doctor didn't really ask for it either. I don't see them as a romantic pairing, and the forcing of them to be one in the Wish World was supposed to be uncomfortable, as the Doctor in this generation is supposed Gay coded (could be pan, but doesn't matter) and the Doctor generally doesn't romance his companions. All right, so they had a wish baby without clapping humie cheeks, that can be an interesting consequence. But then they pull the rug and make that baby just a human baby, and the manner of which this baby was placed into existence was by force much like how the secondary antagonist of the last couple episodes did to the whole world. Once again Belinda didn't ask for this child as she has forgotten about Poppy and is disturbed at (and laughs off) the implication of having a (forgotten) child with the Doctor. It just all feels without express consent, uninvited/forced, unearned, and uncomfortable. For the other, it feels irrelevant as a consequence and forced the co-lead Belinda to basically have nothing to do. We didn't have many moments with her having her own agency as a character all eight episodes this season and Poppy was the contrived reason she was put in a box this finale—not even a figurative box, a literal box. There could have been some sort of parallel of Belinda and Poppy being stuck in eternity in an unchanging prison like Omega, but they didn't do something with that either.

Anyway, I was sad to see Ncuti Gatwa go. It feels so soon. He didn't even face Daleks. He'll probably be remembered as the one who cries every episode and was too short lived. At least he had a couple good episodes like Dot and Bubble, Lux, or 73 Yards. If they were going to bring in one of the other Doctors anyway, I'd have liked for the cameo for Matt Smith to have been extended, or at the very least do something with the bigenerated doctor too. I'm sure introducing Billie Piper is going to result in some gimmicky contrived mess.

The ending just left me rolling my eyes, extraordinarily self serving in typical RTD fashion. Hoping it's just going to be for a brief spill like Tenant's return was but I guess we'll see.

I kind of enjoyed this, at least the first half.

On the first half, It was alright. The big thought I had was - if this whole Whoniverse thing doesn't pan out, RTD and Bad Wolf would be great fit for doing a live action reboot of Captain Scarlet. A massive sci-fi weapons battery in the middle of a London disguised as a skyscraper is very spectrum.

• Using the time hotel's doors was a great plot device to bridge from the last episode. It's one of those times that make you go "well, why didn't they use that big deus ex they had a few episodes ago...". This time they remembered!
• The bone beasts were alright, but I feel like the explanation didn't really make much sense, and surely they could have found a better name than "bone beasts".
• The box that exists outside of time is a pretty scary concept, that you could end up stuck for eternity in a non-space, with no escape. I don't know that I would have made the same choice given those circumstances.
• In the week between episodes I rewatched the old series serial which introduced omega. I didn't really feel like the big bad we saw here was the same one. Omega, to me, seemed kind of stuck and abandoned and redeemable with a bit of work, here it was an eldritch bone beast that could speak.
• On seeing everything start to come back from the wish world, I had forgotten that rose hung out / worked at Unit, and seeing that she was basically denied out of existence is pretty blunt, but I am glad it was pointed out. The doctor's new skirt dress was fantastic.

The "epilogue", I guess you could call it, was not great. I think I would have enjoyed it most if they had wrapped it up after Ruby notices that poppy has disappeared. It would have been tragic, it would have been emotional, it would have had punch, it would have been a pretty clean ending - just sometimes you don't get the happy one.

• I really don't like that Gatwa only had 2 seasons, he should have been allowed more.
• Getting 13 in for a cameo was unexpected, and I quite liked the dig at it usually being 10 that turns up, but I don't really get why she was there. The regen (?) into Rose(?) is weird, but very much RTD's thing. There have been a LOT of cameos and references recently, and I feel like Doctor Who really shines best when it acts as a set of mostly independent sci-fi anthologies with maybe a little bit of overarching story. When it gets too up itself with the self referencing fanservice I am beginning to feel it weakens my enjoyment of it. The middle of this past season had the best episodes for this very reason.

Also, a thought that occurs as I type this - they had a Susan foreman reference not too long ago. She is established as being a descendant. But they're sterile, so can't have kids let alone grandkids? I know this is a timey wimey thing, and I really don't want to encourage yet more cameos and self referencing, but surely this should have at least merited a mention. I really like the idea that you have a race of sterile people somehow trying to fix things, (I recently read The Old Axolotl, which touches on this concept) so why didn't they do anything with it.

Okay, I think it's time for everyone to talk out our feelings together.

My thoughts on this one are complicated, and probably incomplete, so I'm relying on y'all to help me pick this thing apart.

My initial thoughts, off the top of my head:

• It's a typically messy RTD finale, probably less than the sum of its parts, which is pretty much what I expected it to be.

• There's unfortunately very little to talk about when it comes to the Rani/Omega plot. I'm left wondering if the "new" Rani regenerated in the Underverse. I'm glad the Mrs. Flood version survived to reappear another day, but I'm surprised that they didn't do more with her testy relationship with her counterpart.

• The Poppy story...huh. They actually did a pretty good job of taking something that I was not invested in at all when it started to unfold, and turning it into something that I genuinely felt bad about by the end. The bit with the Doctor and Belinda passing the coat back and forth as it faded away was very well done.

• And leaving Ruby as the one person who can remember "old" realities gives her an extra air of tragedy, as well. Millie Gibson played it very well.

• I absolutely loved seeing Thirteen again.

• And that ending...well, that's going to suck all of the oxygen out of the discourse for the next X years, so I guess I'll keep it brief. I'm not against it, but I'm skeptical. That said, I don't think it's something that RTD would do lightly, and he must have an idea of why he's doing it.

Open the floodgates. I need this.

Is the doctor being sterile new information or have I completely missed it? I thought he was spared by the genetic bomb/master’s genocide of gallifrey.

One thing I find interesting: Billie isn't credited as "the Doctor". Usually the credit for a new doctor goes "And introducing Actor as the doctor".

And I can't figure out why? She is as far as we can tell the next doctor (unless they throw a curveball and she actually is the Valeyard or something) so why not credit her as such?