Doctor Who (2023) 2-08: The Reality War - Part 3

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've reached the end of my The Reality War review! It wasn't my original plan to split the episode into three parts, though it would've split into two pretty well. The way the episode is structured, the second half kind of works as a separate chapter, and that's the bit I'm covering this time.

Here, have some useful links:

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

If you'd rather get through life without knowing anything that happens in this episode, or the previous stories leading up to it, I'd suggest that you stop reading now as there will be SPOILERS beyond this point.

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Previously, on Doctor Who:

The heroes have saved reality from the Unholy Trinity and the Doctor and Belinda have come out of the adventure with a surprise bonus: their own half-Time Lord daughter, Poppy. She's an accidental side-effect of the wish the villains inflicted upon the world, and they were worried that she'd fade away once the wish was undone. But it seems like their plan to lock her inside a zero room while reality was restored has worked!

And now, the conclusion:

We've got Ruby and Belinda together in the TARDIS for the first time! And new companion Poppy as well. This is the best outcome for the Doctor. He's got his companion, he's got his kid, and he's still got the face he likes.

It's too hot in the console room for a change, due to the TARDIS making it nice for the baby, so Belinda takes Poppy's coat off, folds it and passes it to the Doctor. The Doctor folds it and passes it to Belinda, and they talk about where they're going to take their daughter first.

Ruby watches with increasing concern as the two of them keep passing the coat over, as like May 23rd it keeps getting thinner with each repetition until it's gone and they're not even talking about their kid anymore. They've lost Poppy.

This is the stand out scene of the episode I reckon, the one that people will remember. Though the episode immediately spoils it by having the two of them laugh out loud when Ruby tries to tell them what's happened. Come on guys, you were only just talking about how her memory is unusually resistant to reality warping. Like how the Doctor's memory is resistant to time being altered.

Though earlier on Belinda insisted that she remembered having a daughter and that makes it true. Does remembering not having a daughter make it not true?

Doctor Who (2023) 2-01: The Robot Revolution

The Doctor at least remembers to get Belinda's star certificate to the robots of Missbelindachandra One by lobbing it out the door. The episode mentioned that they found the certificate in the future, but when they brought it back it travelled 5,000 years into the past and became a foundation myth, so that checks out.

I've no idea why the robots were looking for certificates around the ruins of the Earth, but leaving it around the same place will be enough to keep time on track. 

This doesn't solve the mystery of why it was originally floating in a frame, when the Doctor put it in a tube, but I'm just going to assume the wish did it. You can't have a proper stiflingly mundane family life without your star certificate in a proper frame.

They return to UNIT HQ just in time for midnight, so they have escaped May 23rd!

Everyone gets additional hugs from the Doctor, even Anita, who stuck around holding that door open all day. Kate tries to offer her a job, like she does with everyone, but she escapes. Though first she mentions that the Boss says hi, so I guess I was wrong and that character they've been hinting at is not the Rani. I still don't care though... unless the Boss is a 2000 year old Susan, who is conspicuously absent, despite being foreshadowed in the previous two episodes.

It's then revealed that the world isn't 100% as it was, there are some post wish glitches. Like teal is now a bit more blue and Ernest Borgnine is still alive. Mel calls them from a remote location and it looks like the actress was doing some remote filming, judging by the fringing around her hair. I wonder if she couldn't make it into the studio on the day they were doing reshoots. Assuming this is even something they reshot.

Anyway, she's found another glitch: Conrad Clark. His entire life has been changed and now he's a cook. The gods are full of tricks, Ruby says, bitterly. One wish survives and it turns out to be him and not Poppy.

This is the exact same screen we saw when Conrad was doxing UNIT members in Lucky Day, except this time #MentalHealthWeek is trending instead of #DemandTheTruth and Conrad's video has 48 views instead of 45.7K. The dude doesn't care about validation or attention anymore, he doesn't even want to be filmed.

I like this outcome, and I like that the folks at UNIT aren't especially over the moon about it, even Ruby. I don't think she intended to rewrite his life, that would be a bit morally dodgy, but now that it's happened he's an innocent man and they don't have anywhere to put their hate for him. The important thing is Ruby didn't force him into her idea of a perfect lifestyle to get some poetic justice. For all we know the dude is still a bigot. But he's not a threat anymore. Also his mother's not living in a villa anymore, which is a good result.

So that's two out of four villains redeemed, one eaten, and one escaped. I think that's a pretty good result. Though now the Doctor has to face something he doesn't like dealing with: consequences.

I really don't like how resistant the Doctor is to the idea that someone's been erased from reality. I mean I get that he can usually remember stuff like that, but he knows that Ruby can remember things he can't! C'mon Doctor, if this was Star Trek everyone would've given her the benefit of the doubt.

Hang on, did Rose disappear again as well? Should we check to see if she just left the building? No? Okay then.

Belinda's even worse than the Doctor, saying "It's kind of offensive to say I've got a daughter I don't remember." C'mon Belinda, look how distraught she is! She obviously believes what she's saying. 

Fortunately Ruby has examples to back up her case, like the fact she herself ceased to exist in The Church on Ruby Road. Awesome, we're calling back to things that new viewers would've actually seen.

And then Belinda joins in, mentioning the time the Doctor saved her from being hit by a car.

Man, traffic really is the Doctor's greatest enemy. It killed Rose's dad and Clara's boyfriend, and nearly took out Sarah Jane's son. Technically he shouldn't be saving lives like this, or else Father's Day happens, but I guess this was a bootstrap paradox. He met her in the future because he saved her as a kid, and he saved her as a kid because he got caught in a time explosion and travelled through her timestream. 

I have no idea what that actually means and I don't think this flashback to an event we never saw serves any purpose in the story. I like the retro cars though.

Anyway the other characters talk about how he saved their lives and Kate says that in a way they're all his children. I wish she hadn't though as the music suddenly comes in loud and it's kind of ridiculous. The important thing is, the humans the Doctor hangs out with aren't insects or playthings to him, they're children, and when it comes to space babies, the Doctor saves them all.
 

But the Doctor and Belinda still aren't convinced, so they go out to the May 24th party instead. Her dad even turns up and does bad karaoke, as prophesied. Though as the camera pulls back, we see Susan...

Wait, sorry, I was in the wrong timeline for a moment there. This mysterious scene does not appear in the actual episode.

What actually happens is Ruby wins and convinces the two of them that Poppy is real and that they had a daughter. Though by doing so, she passes the role of protagonist back to the Doctor, and writes herself out of the rest of the episode. Maybe even the rest of Doctor Who. 

Bye Rubes, you may have left the series last year but you were the real companion in this one.

Though Belinda's not quite done yet and it's actually absolutely 100% crucial to the ending that she has no recollection of Poppy in this scene.

This is the Belinda we met in The Robot Revolution and followed through the series, without any of Conrad's Wish World brainwashing or any attachment to the little girl that was accidentally wished into their life. This means that she gets to make this choice as herself.

She doesn't say "I consent to you changing my past in order to add a daughter into my life", but she does look at the Doctor with tears in her eyes, causing him to immediately promise that he'll save her. And she nods. 

Belinda's looking to the Doctor for reassurance, she's holding Ruby's hand, it's pretty unambiguous that she wants the kid, at least that's how I feel about the scene.

Reality has shifted by one degree and the only thing that can fix it is "the Last of the Time Lords"! So we need to go talk to Mrs Flood then? Oh, wait, his granddaughter Susan! Duh, she even said to find her. Actually, we don't have to go that far as the Fourteenth Doctor is hanging out nearby. We have so many Last of the Time Lords to choose from.

Man, look at that beautiful console room, looking like a motorway interchange. With googly eyes on the console that I can't unsee.

It feels like they only just introduced this place... maybe because it's still unfurnished. It's crazy to think that there's a chance this is the last time we'll see it in Doctor Who. They'll keep it up for a while, but if they don't get the funding to make another season soon, then it's got to come down eventually.

The first clue to audiences that this is a surprise regeneration episode is when the Doctor says "Oh man, I like this face." That's not what fans want to hear.

Suddenly the TARDIS starts showing him earlier Doctors on the screen, to the Doctor's confusion. Mine too! Didn't we just do this in the previous episode? And The Story & the Engine? And last season in Rogue? The first RTD era managed to go 56 episodes before doing this, which is incidentally the exact number of times the name 'Poppy' is mentioned in this episode.

The Doctor reckons that he's the best of all the Doctors and I'm thinking he probably needs to have had a few more stories under his belt before making that kind of claim. When strikes scuttled the Fourth Doctor serial Shada halfway through filming, cancelling the entire 6 episode serial wasn't the end of the world... though it would've equalled a third of Fifteen's entire run. The Second Doctor lost three times as many episodes as Fifteen ever had. 

Anyway, the Doctor spots a figure in the distance, a mysterious watcher dressed in white. Well, grey.

It's a surprise last minute appearance by a female Time Lord from the Doctor's past. But it's not Susan, it's Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor!

This is the exact moment that was streaming live when I clicked iPlayer to watch the episode, so it got spoiled for me. It didn't really ruin this Time Crash moment for me, though I was wondering when she was going to turn up during the 'saving the day from the Rani' part of the story.

She gets to make the traditional "You've redecorated, I don't like it" comment, which works extra well for her, as when she saw her own console room she said she did like it. Every Doctor likes their own TARDIS the best and they all think that they are the best version of themselves.

This is maybe a bit more meaningful coming from the first female Doctor and the first black Doctor. First obviously gay Doctor as well. These two have both loved being themselves and would've liked to stay longer.

Fifteen's gimmick from his first appearance was that he's the healed Doctor, the Doctor that hugs his previous self, and at the end that's still who he is. Which is funny considering that the episode only just reminded us with the star certificate and Belinda's flashback that when two of the same object from different times come into contact it causes an explosion. (It's fine, we've seen Doctors shake hands before, they're immune). 

I think it's good that Thirteen is here, because it's nice to see her! This is what it's like when a character comes back and viewers know who they are, and they're actually recognisable, and they get something to do. Though she's maybe a bit better written than she used to be. Despite all my bitching about his recent story choices, RTD is still the good dialogue guy.

It's also good she's here because it gives the Doctor a chance to explain what he's doing. He's going to put regeneration energy into the time vortex, sacrificing the rest of his life to save one life. Like when Ten sacrificed some years to power up a battery in Rise of the Cybermen, not that it mattered much in the end. Ten went out extremely young (6 years) and it seems like Fifteen's only been around for a few years himself.

The Doctor gives up trying to talk him out of it and ends up giving him some advice instead, which she knows and he doesn't due to timey-wimey reasons. Though she realises that they never really change, no matter what face they're wearing. On the other hand, they also really do change, as he's the only Doctor comfortable saying "I love you." She never did say it to Yaz.

People have questioned if Jodie pulling a Jo Martin here on Ncuti in his big finale serves any purpose, and I think it does. It gives new viewers a proper example of what different incarnations of the Doctor are like, and shows that they're not weird about it like Mrs Flood and the Rani. I can believe that Thirteen and Fifteen are the same person; there are two Doctors in this scene. It also gives new viewers a demonstration of what a female Doctor is like, to maybe ease their concerns.

Plus the previous three regenerations had all doubled as multi-doctor stories, so it would've been a shame not the keep the streak going.

Thirteen comforts Fifteen when she learns he's scared, telling him to go out with a smile. It's like the Twelfth Doctor and the First Doctor helping each other regenerate in Twice Upon a Time, except with more empathy, fewer jokes and less character assassination. And then she runs off, fading away as she goes.

I don't know how the Doctor's going to bring back someone he doesn't even remember, but he seems to know what he's doing and he did get another Doctor to check his maths. He zaps the time rotor and the frame shatters like glass. Then it shatters again from another angle for some reason! It's a weird effect.

I really hope that kissing the wish baby earlier put all the goblins/Pantheon fantasy stuff away and this is going to clear up the rest of the mess. He needs to fix teal, and mavity, and I guess kill Ernest Borgnine again as collateral damage. And then Doctor Who can be good again!

The Doctor wakes up in a garden for some reason and at first I was wondering if it was Fourteen's garden, and David Tennant was going to make an appearance after all. But nope. He's clearly holding off a regeneration though, by the way he blows the sparkles off his hand... though I suppose new viewers might read that as him stopping it.

Belinda shows up and invites the Doctor inside the house, where he sees Poppy, playing with toys, looking just as she should. Well, maybe a little older. 

He did it, he actually saved his kid... mostly.

The house doesn't look anything like it used to, so I assumed that rewriting the timeline gave Belinda an upgrade. But then I realised that there'd be holes where the Missbelindachandrabots smashed inside in any timeline, and there's a piano here, so this has to be her parents' house.

The goal was to make Poppy appear again and get things back to how they were before, with her and Belinda with him in the TARDIS, having adventures. But going full Time Lord and rewriting time has had unintended consequences: it turns out that Poppy was already Belinda's daughter long before she met the Doctor.

There's a montage of clips from their adventures this season, but they're moments we didn't see where Belinda makes it clear that she desperately needs to get back to Earth by 7:30 to look after Poppy.

I'm thinking that these scenes were all filmed for this episode and this wasn't them planning ahead, but they did a bloody good job of making it hard to tell. This is also a retcon, in-universe, as Belinda originally said "Now get me home. 24th of May, 2025. My shift starts at 7.30am, thank you very much."

But showing clips from all the episodes proves that that the stories all still happened just as we saw them. So this Belinda we're seeing here is pretty much the same one we've been following the whole season. Even though it kind of feels like we lost her in Interstellar Song Contest and we've had 'Poppy's Mother' ever since.

The trouble with this ending is that it's like he erased the independent Belinda and replaced her with Conrad's idea of what she should be. What Alan Budd wanted her to be. No fun adventures, now she's stuck looking after a child. 

Doctor Who (2005) 4-09 - Forest of the Dead

Trapping a hero with an imaginary family they have to tear their heart out to escape is one of the cruellest tricks in the book and that's kind of what Conrad did to them.

Another problem with the ending is its ambiguity. No one who saw this episode can figure out if the Doctor altered Belinda's past to bring their wish baby back, or if he fixed a glitch and brought her real daughter back. There are arguments for and against.

Poppy was retconned into her life:

• Wish World Poppy could've been created from the Doctor's memories of Space Babies Poppy, the kid he wished he was his own.
• Why would Belinda forget Poppy the day before the wish even happened? 
• Everyone recovered their memories of the original pre-wish reality, like what teal used to look like and what Conrad did, but only Ruby remembered Poppy.

Poppy was always Belinda's kid:

• Wish World Poppy could've been created from Belinda's memories of her own daughter.
• Belinda saw a vision of Poppy in The Story & the Engine.
• It was weird that Belinda was so adamant that she needed to get home before her next shift, but stopped caring once she had Poppy with her on the TARDIS.
• Poppy is identical to Space Babies Poppy, but Belinda herself is identical to Mundy Flynn, so it's just something that happens. 
• It makes Lux, The Well and The Story & the Engine more relevant to her story, as they all feature a parent desperate to be reunited with their child. 
• RTD's work is full of mothers, they're in practically every episode he's done, so it stood out to me as weird when Robot Revolution didn't have one. But if Belinda was a mother the whole time then it makes sense!

It just occurred to me that this might be the last time we ever see this version of the sonic screwdriver. The last four Doctors all had their own distinctive version, even Fourteen. I wouldn't be sad to see it go, but it was fine. I liked that they tried something new with the design of it.

Anyway, the Doctor scans Poppy's DNA to see if he's the father and it turns out that she's 100% human. It's funny that the season is bookended by him scanning someone's DNA without getting consent. Last time he admitted that it was inexcusable and apologised, but I guess Thirteen was right and they never really change. Though this time Belinda doesn't care, so there's more evidence that her personality's been rewritten if you're looking for it. Personally though I think that changed all the way back in Lux, when she started to trust the Doctor.

Belinda's not with the father anymore, but he's still in the kid's life, he didn't abandon her. So that's good at least, especially as the Doctor's going to have to leave her.

There's a great moment here where the Doctor and Poppy are alone for a moment and he tells her that if he could have a kid he'd wish for them to be just like her. And we know he means it. Everything works here, the writing, the music, and Ncuti's acting for sure.

That line about the gods play tricks comes back again. He says he always wins, which is true, but this is one victory that killed him, lost him a daughter and lost him adventures with a companion, so it's a little bittersweet. Though Belinda has no idea what he's lost and he's going to keep her in the dark, so she at least can have a truly happy ending.

Well, I think RTD considers it to be a happy ending at least, and I'm mostly there with him. I don't see this as her being cursed to spend her life taking care of an imaginary being, because whatever happened here, Poppy is real. All babies appear out of nowhere and demand love, it's basically their job. 

Though when a portion of your audience comes away thinking that it was wrong to save a cute baby, there's something broken in your storytelling. Anyway, the important thing is that the child is definitely not Susan's mother.

And then the Doctor goes back in his box and regenerates. Properly regenerates, it's not a bi-generation! Hopefully it's never a bi-generation again. Also he didn't die permanently and let Fourteen take over, like what just happened with the Rani. 

It's so weird though to get to read about a regeneration in the news after seeing it on screen for a change. I don't think a surprise regeneration like this has ever happened before in the history of the series.

The scene is a little diminished for me because of how he goes to visit the Joy star from Joy to the World, and I really didn't like how that story ended. Also I get that he's exploding like a star this time, but this effect really isn't on the level of Thirteen's regeneration; there's not even a morph. Though I like how he takes Thirteen's advice and goes out on a smile, saying that it was an absolute joy. 

I wasn't sure that we were going to see another actor at the end, due to the mess Doctor Who is in right now. If they couldn't keep hold of Ncuti Gatwa due to the unknown delay in production how were they going to get another actor to sign up? But the rumour I'd heard was that if he was going to regenerate it was going to be Billie Piper.

And it's Billie Piper. Awesome, thanks internet for spoiling that! I'm being sarcastic, I'm not actually happy. This happened to me when Jodie Whittaker turned into David Tennant as well. Takes all the surprise out of it.

Though I'm fine with Billie coming back to play the role. I'm not enthusiastic, but I am curious to see how she's going to play it. I do see the pros and cons with the choice though.

Bad:

• C'mon guys, you just brought David Tennant back as Fourteen, this stunt casting is starting to seem a little desperate. First you were trying to bring back 2008, now you're bringing back 2005.
• There's a bunch of confusion over whether she's actually the Doctor because they didn't call her that in the credits and no one wants to confirm it. Usually when the Doctor transforms right in front of you, they're still the same person, but who even knows anymore.
• She may only do three specials, or one special, or five minutes of the next episode, we don't know.
• This isn't exactly bringing in a new audience. 

Good:

• Billie Piper's pretty good at acting and has already played two different characters on the series. (Cassandra and the Moment... and Bad Wolf as well I guess).
• She was Christopher Eccleston's #1 choice!
• Colin Baker and Peter Capaldi had both played other characters before becoming the Doctor and it wasn't a problem at all.
• If the alternative was ending the episode just before we saw the next Doctor's face, I prefer this.
• Being reborn looking like the person you love is kind of strange, but not unprecedented for science fiction. Holly on Red Dwarf regenerated to appear like his parallel universe love Hilly. 
  
  

Doctor Who (2005) 1-01: Rose

Also if Doctor Who is going on a long break, to be revived again at some point in the distant future, then it's poetic that the last face we see is the same as the first face on screen in episode one. It starts as it ends.

Jackie called it all those years ago in Army of Ghosts. Decades later there's going to be a strange woman walking through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth. But she's not Rose Tyler. She's not even human.

Unless she is Rose. Who even knows what's going on at this point.


CONCLUSION

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The Reality War is sponsored by: babies!

Okay there are only two actual babies, maybe three, so it's not threatening Space Babies' record, but there's a theme of parents and children running through this episode. The Rani's whole motivation is to make children, the Doctor's goal is to protect his daughter, and even Anita is pregnant! Plus both the Doctor's companions end up with a child at the end of it. This is thematically appropriate for Ruby, but it's a really weird place for Belinda's arc to finish and it feels to me like they had to go with a new plan due to production issues. I don't know what actually happened behind the scenes, but it seems like RTD had to adapt to Millie Gibson leaving in season 1 and then Ncuti Gatwa's departure derailed things even more.

Which means that The Reality War is actually sponsored by: disappointment!

If you were hoping for Belinda to have an interesting arc, sorry, she turned into 'Poppy's mother' so Ruby could take over and save the day. If you were waiting for Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor to find Susan and reunite with Rogue, nope, his run got cut short after just 18 episodes so RTD couldn't resolve that story. Perhaps you thought the tension between Mrs Flood and the Rani was leading somewhere. Nope. Though they had to have brought Mel back in The Giggle to set up a proper confrontation with the Rani, surely? No, she mostly just stands there with every other returning character doing very little. And if you had any hope that Omega would turn out to be anything more than a CGI monster with basically no resemblance to the character from classic Who, sorry, you got Sutekh'd.

Oh and 'the reality war' was UNIT Tower shooting at some bone monsters. With some very exciting music.

Fortunately I haven't been liking the season much, so I'm immune to disappointment! Seriously, I wasn't let down by any of that, so I was able to appreciate what the episode was doing right. For one thing it may deal with its villains very abruptly, but they all have different and appropriate fates. The Rani's arrogance gets her eaten, Conrad drops his hate when he finds happiness, Desiderium gets adopted, and Mrs Flood wisely makes a run for it. Oh, plus Omega something something, whatever. Also, Archie Panjabi may be a bit theatrical in her portrayal of the Rani, but... it's the Rani, so she pretty much nailed it. I could've done without all the other characters portraying an audience though.

One complaint people could make about the story is that many of the female characters are given short shrift, though everyone's female in this story, aside from Conrad, one third of the Doctors, a CGI monster, and a literal baby, so that's more an issue with the use of characters in general. Oh plus Ibrahim's in this, I'm pretty sure he had a line at one point. When Ruby goes to confront Conrad she gets stuff to do, but the 'stop the Rani' half of the episode rarely splits its characters off into groups like this, preferring to fill a room with familiar faces who barely play off each other.

Though if I could only make one change to the way it uses its cast, I would make Belinda the protagonist as much as the Doctor is. Put her in all the important scenes, have her make the big choices. Like how Rose Tyler got the TARDIS to bring her back to the Game Station, Martha Jones walked the Earth for a year and Donna Noble outwitted Davros. This would at least mean that her fate feels like a result of her own actions, and that she becomes a mother willingly. It wouldn't make up for the fact that she's shown zero interest in being a mother all season, but it'd be something.

I don't know if Doctor Who is going to be sponsored by Disney+ going forward, it doesn't seem likely right now. But from what I've read, streaming it to smaller screens wasn't the way to watch this episode anyway. People who saw it at the cinema generally seem to be a lot more positive about it. If you can get into the spirit of it and let the music fire you up it's a wild emotional rollercoaster across three main sets with plenty of lasers and... exposition. Plus you get two stories for the price of one!


RATING

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The Reality War hasn't been getting the best scores online. Depending on where you check it's either the worst episode since Space Babies or the worst since Empire of Death. But no one can complain about that bit where they fold the baby's coat. Plus I liked the scene where Ruby confronted Conrad, and the surprise appearance by the Thirteenth Doctor, and that bit at the end with the Doctor telling Poppy she's the daughter he wishes he had, and I didn't hate the rest of it.

It didn't drag for me, I wasn't bored, so I'm going to give it...

6/10

I would've given it a 7 though if they'd confirmed that the mavity era is over.

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NEXT EPISODE

Next on Sci-Fi Adventures, the Doctor Who somehow continues. But I've ran out of Ncuti Gatwa stories now so now I'm travelling back to the Eccleston and Piper era to contemplate the mysterious Bad Wolf.

Anyway, what did you think about The Reality War? Any good?