Doctor Who (2023) 2-08: The Reality War - Part 2

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've reached the second part of the second part of Doctor Who's second season finale! It's also the end of the second chapter of Russell T Davies' second era as showrunner, so I'm taking a second to write about it properly.

Here, have some links to help you get around:

• Wish World
• The Reality War - Part 1
• The Reality War - Part 2 <-- You are here.
• The Reality War - Part 3

Beware, SPOILERS ahead.

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Previously, on Doctor Who:

The first part of the episode was mostly exposition, but basically the Rani and Mrs Flood (who is also the Rani) are about to release Omega from the Underverse in order to use his genetic code to bring the Time Lords back from extinction. 

Also the world has been transformed by Conrad Clark using the god child Desiderium into a weird nostalgic fantasy where women are good mothers, men wear bowler hats, and cups fall through tables, so that needs to be fixed. The catch is that he accidentally gave the Doctor and Belinda a daughter, Poppy, and ending the wish could end her too. They've got Susan Triad building a zero room in the basement in the hope that she'll be safe in there.

Unfortunately UNIT Tower is about to come under attack by four giant bone beasts.

And now, the continuation:

Adventurous music plays as the tower transforms into battle mode, complete with a steering wheel! For a moment I thought it was going to go full Spaceballs and transform into a mech, but nah it's just got guns on it and the top of the building can twist around to alter their firing arcs. 

Pew pew pew! Parallax cannons shoot the bone monsters. That's all we really get here, as it's all the heroes can do right now. But the pace is picking up and you're supposed to get swept along by the action.

The Doctor gets Belinda and Poppy down to the basement, where Susan's built the zero room. She's been racing to get this whole thing built while the Rani was delivering exposition, so she had plenty of time really.

They're going to use the zero room to protect Poppy from being un-wished, so Belinda and Shirley don't have to argue anymore over whether they should end the Wish World or save Poppy. Not that we got much of an argument.

There is some risk involved though. If no one's alive to open the door afterwards then Belinda and Poppy will be trapped in there forever. They won't starve, or run out of air, or anything like that. Though they won't be in stasis, which raises the question of how their bodies can function without the things that keep a body functioning.

So Belinda is now safe in the box, unable to have any further effect on the narrative, and there's a big CGI action scene happening outside that's knocking bits of the ceiling down. I guess the bone beasts have a sonic attack or something.

The last time RTD did a big finale with all his characters coming back to join in, the previous companion got a teleporter backpack called Project Indigo. Now he's doing it again, though it seems they've volunteered Ruby before she even knows what she's meant to be doing.

It turns out that she's supposed to be confronting Conrad and she asks if she can punch him. Kate is very quick to authorise that.

Hey they just showed the exact location of UNIT Tower! It's where the Lloyd's building is in real life.

UNIT Tower has appeared in every finale since the time they blew up the previous tower in the Thirteenth Doctor's finale, but now it's finally getting to do something as it shows off its alien weaponry against four incoming bone beasts. They aren't actually winning, because like always their weapons are fairly useless, but at least the UNIT team are doing better than they did against the all-powerful Toymaker and Sutekh. And the relatively powerless Conrad Clark. And the Rani five minutes ago.

Anyway, it turns out that Ruby can't get into the Bone Palace with the Indigo teleporter until the Doctor gets up there and shuts down the barrier. And they can't use Anita's magic door to get in there because she needs to keep reality flowing into UNIT HQ. She may be a doorstop right now, but she's a crucial one.

Fortunately the Doctor didn't actually lose the wand battle earlier, he was just playing a different game: stealing the codes to fly the Rani's hover bike. That's not something you're likely to guess in the moment but it makes a huge amount of sense in retrospect, good work RTD.

The Fifteenth Doctor's theme comes on as he pulls a Flash Gordon (or a Michael Burnham) and flies around the chaos outside as laser beams cross the sky. Hey, I just noticed that they took the chair off the gun, so Pantheon gods can't hijack it to shoot the Doctor anymore.

I feel like Doctor Who suffered lasting trauma back in 1977 when Star Wars came out with its cutting edge visual effects and blockbuster action scenes. The series always looked a bit cheap in comparison to things like Star Trek: The Original Series, but Star Wars utterly humbled it and the perception that it was laughable by comparison was part of why it eventually got put on hiatus. For 15 years.

So I don't blame the series for trying to show off that it can do Star Wars action scenes too now. But this sequence is really just an elaborate remake of that time in Bells of St. John where the Doctor rode a bike up the side of a building. All of the swooping under bridges and around bone beasts barely disguises the fact he's really just going straight up.

Then the action movie music falls silent as the episode cuts to inside the fridge that Belinda and Poppy have been put into. Not even non-diagetic music can get inside here. It really shows how isolated they are, and how little impact they can have on the story now.

It's kind of a bizarre choice for a writer to make really, as modern Doctor Who often makes the companion the point of view character. Series 1 is Rose's story, Series 5 is about Amy and Rory, Series 11 is about Graham's grief and his relationship with his grandson. But this episode isn't about Belinda at all really.

The Doctor flies in through the Bone Palace window and ends up lying on the floor, End of Time, Part 2-style. He's done his job though, shutting down the barrier for Ruby to get inside.

The Ranis don't know about the Indigo teleporter but they know the Doctor well enough to know that he hasn't brought a weapon. He's armed with nothing more than a mimosa-scented speech about the power of love or whatever. Hang on, what's mimosa?

Okay, I just checked and it's sparkling wine and orange juice.

Speaking of speeches, that line was verbose enough to make the Rani's creators, Pip and Jane Baker, proud, but there's no way she came out with that off the top of her head. She must have been waiting for an opportunity to drop that on him. But she hasn't given up trying to win him over to her side and she asks again if he wants to see Omega. He says 'yes'.

It's kind of funny considering that a moment ago he literally swore to stop them, but he's got Ruby to do that, and it is extremely in-character for him to want to see what something looks like. This is the guy who stopped running from a werewolf just so he could stare at it for a bit. He stopped to stare at the Midnight creature, he can't help it.

Meanwhile Ruby beams into Conrad's room with a hilariously '80s-looking effect. I didn't draw those lines on her I promise, that's what the episode really looks like. Go through the scene frame-by-frame, see for yourself.

Unfortunately Conrad was waiting to pull a gun on her and this time Kate isn't around to stand in the way. Which is good! Now that Ruby has split off from the other characters she's able to be a protagonist and do things.

Ruby has experienced first-hand the nasty side of Conrad's dream world. She was kicked out by her mother (which is a recurring problem for her), and she saw how Shirley was living on the street. But she tells him that the reality he wished for was surprisingly nice.

It's funny how all Conrad has over there is boxing gloves and a punching bag; the guy has some anger to work out. He's certainly not a misunderstood saint and Ruby's not here to vindicate his world view. She's here to end his world.

But she realises that it could've been a real dystopia with guns, whiskey and girls, and instead he tried to give people families. He failed when it came to Shirley and Rose didn't exist at all, but to be fair he didn't think about them! He tells her that the Doctor said that people just want to be safe and fed and warm, so that's what he gave them.

This is one of my favourite scenes in the whole episode, as it shows how much influence the Doctor's speech in Lucky Day had on him and also shows its flaws. I wasn't keen on their confrontation at the end of that episode to be honest, I didn't like how the Doctor basically said "People don't want to think about questioning their institutions, they just want their needs met," so I like how this turns that around on him.

I also like how Ruby's realised that Conrad couldn't have been putting on an act the entire time they were together. Hang on, I don't remember this scene in Lucky Day. The episode's gaslighting me with its flashbacks!

She's figured out that Conrad may have lied to her about his mother being dead, but he never mentioned his dad at all. That clearly hits a nerve with him. The dude's been locked away inside his room (secretly the TARDIS) reading children's stories about the Doctor to a baby, this is clearly a 'listen to every 9th word, hear the secret pain' situation, metaphorically speaking.

Incidentally, the baby is called Desiderium, which means a longing for something, often something lost. That's basically the definition of nostalgia. The guy always asks if he's doing a good job, he's always trying to do what it takes to get more views, he's desperate for approval and attention, but he doesn't really know what he wants. So he wished for a perfect '50s family life that never existed.

Doctor Who (2005) - The End of Time, Part Two

Outside, the Doctor and the other last of the Time Lords are dealing with the return of a powerful Time Lord from ancient times. Again. 

I'm surprised by how well this 15 year old shot holds up. I suppose it was filmed after the shift to HD, so it's not as dated as the rest of RTD's first era.

Okay, we're halfway through the episode and it's moment of truth time. Is Omega going to be a very theatrical Shakespearean actor with a booming voice with the talent to go toe to toe with Ncuti Gatwa and Archie Panjabi? Or is it going to be a big CGI monster?

Aww, he's a gross zombie thing? I was hoping for a giant CGI cat this time. 

So after all that hype we didn't even get the Omega that classic fans remembered, this is just a monster with a couple of lines voiced by Nick Briggs. At least it gave RTD a chance to give Ncuti another classic line: "Hello Omega, are you my mummy?" He doesn't say that, but he could've.

The Rani gets to show off those split-second reaction times she was bragging about... by just standing there as Omega picks her up and drops her into his mouth. Wow, RIP the Rani! Turns out that summoning a creature from Hell worked out about as well as it always does.

Mrs Flood finally makes the Two Ronnies joke that I'm sure RTD had in mind the whole time, saying their catchphrase "It's a goodnight from me" before time ringing to safety. That's a joke even older than the Rani is, but it works even if you don't know the reference so it's fine.

Omega says that he's free to feast upon the world, so the Doctor feigns defeat long enough to give the audience time to realise for themselves that he's standing in front of the vindicator. He didn't need to bring a weapon, he had Chekhov's Gun on the wall in plain sight the whole time!

So the Doctor seals this gross decaying 'member berry away with the power of a billion supernovas.

It apparently takes about 2e32 joules to destroy a planet, but you get 10e44 joules from a single supernova, meaning his vindicator is about 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times more powerful than the Death Star. So it's a good thing he doesn't accidentally aim it at the moon or something. Omega's a time god at this point so he can take it, though it is enough to push him back into the Underverse. "Back into the Time War, Rassilon. Back into hell!"

He actually does say the "Back into hell!" part, while yelling. And that's Omega done after 3m 08s of screen time. I would've been disappointed if I'd actually expected any better from the episode.

Doctor Who (1963) 20-04 - Arc of Infinity, Part Four

I'm also not mad that the Doctor defeats Omega by pulling out a gun on him, though it's weird that it's happened twice in a row now. Generally when you kill someone with a gun that's the end of it, they don't end up becoming their own legend and crawling back out of hell at you asking for more. And getting it.

Omega's last appearance was all the way back in Arc of Infinity, in 1983, and you can tell it was a while ago just from the picture quality. 15 year old Doctor Who still looks great, 42 year old Doctor Who not so much.

Anyway, while the terrifying cosmic being outside is dealing with Omega, Ruby uses her teleporter to jump to the other side of Conrad's room and pick up the god baby.

Conrad thankfully puts the gun down at this point, he's not that far gone. Though I didn't see an instruction manual in here, so I'm not sure how Ruby knew that she had to kiss the baby and then make a wish.

The guy pissed Kate off enough for her to unleash a monster on him, the Doctor was furious enough to spoil when he'd die in prison, but he hurt Ruby more than any of them and she decides to... wish him to be happy! That's pretty dangerous, seeing as it could make him a billionaire or give him super powers, or anything, but it's a great way to end the 'hurt people hurt people' theme that's been running through these last few stories. She doesn't necessarily forgive him, she just chose kindness over vengeance.

And that's goodbye to Conrad, who gets a total of 2 minutes 36 seconds of screen time in this episode. Though you can add a minute if you include him talking on TVs in UNIT HQ.

Then Ruby wishes for the Wish World to end, which is a really stupid thing to do when you're standing in the Rani's Bone Palace! We saw how high up this place is in last episode's cliffhanger. Fortunately it turns out that Conrad was living in the perfectly intact TARDIS and the Doctor makes it there just in time... after carefully placing the vindicator on the floor. Man, I hope a kid doesn't find it in the street and accidentally destroys the sun with it.

The Doctor gets the TARDIS to the UNIT basement and then kisses the baby himself, wishing for no more wishes. He's trusting his technology and his friends to keep his daughter alive while he does the right thing, and that's very Doctor. The baby cries a bit, hinting that he's not a terrifying god baby anymore, so all the villains have now been defeated! They were lucky they got to this one before he grew up; the Rani did them a favour there.

It feels like they've resolved the threat unusually quickly, but 38 minutes is actually the average for an RTD finale. Having another half hour of episode left afterwards however, that's not normal. It really seems like there's another shoe left to drop.

Belinda and Schrödinger's Poppy have been locked in the zero room for 13 minutes of episode, so it's about time that the Doctor opens that door to find out whether he still has a daughter. And the answer is... yes! And the crowd goes wild. No seriously, there's a crowd there and they're all cheering and clapping.

Ruby's saved Conrad but they've still got one last whiny baby to save. If all the wishes have ended then it seems likely that the dad has been de-owled, but they have no idea where in time and space the kid came from, so now Ruby has a brother! 

The Doctor sorts out the paperwork with the sonic screwdriver in a second. So getting Belinda's address required going to the hospital and hacking into the computer, but adding this kid's records can be done from someone's kitchen? Can we be absolutely certain he didn't just cause another blackout somewhere?

Hang on, I just realised that the Doctor and Belinda's Wish World house has the same cupboards.

Doctor Who (2023) 2-07: Wish World

Just paint your cupboards blue and you can transform a friendly modern dining area into a creepy pseudo-50s kitchen.

I was really hoping they'd bring the depowered god baby to Carla, so I got my wish at least, and it's a good ending for Ruby. She was introduced as someone with possible magical origins and superpowers, with coincidences surrounding her, and the magic baby's dad was literally called Herr Zufall (Mr Coincidence in German), so they've got a lot in common. I just hope the kid doesn't end up obsessed with finding his birth parents like Ruby was.

I also hope they've taken Conrad's photo off that fridge by now.

Man, it's still there!

I checked the start of the episode when they were still in the Wish World and it's there as well. I guess it's just one of those glitches in reality.

The next thing on the list is to get the TARDIS childproofed, as the Doctor and Belinda are going to be taking their kid on adventures with them! She's all up for being a companion now (and that's presumably as far as their relationship goes), so he's got everything he wanted.

You know, if they'd stopped the episode here this would've been a properly happy ending. Sure there's the risk of Poppy being shot at by lasers or hunted by cartoons or blown up by mad Time Ladies, but she can probably regenerate, it'll be fine! Plus I reckon the TARDIS would look after her, only taking her to places she'd be safe.

It wouldn't be that wild to end a season this way; it feels like every sci-fi show ends up with a baby eventually. But unfortunately this isn't the end of the episode.

TO BE CONCLUDED IN PART THREE

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NEXT EPISODE

Next on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's the second half of The Reality War. I mean it's the third part of my review, but it covers 50% of the episode, more or less.