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.

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.

Doctor Who (2023) 2-08: The Reality War - Part 1

Episode:

892

|

Serial:

319

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Alex Sanjiv Pillai

|

Air Date:

31-May-2025

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've reached the conclusion of Doctor Who season 2. Maybe even the conclusion of Doctor Who entirely! I doubt it, the brand is one of the strongest and most enduring that British television has, though anything can happen these days. We're definitely not getting a Christmas special this year, that much I'm sure of.

I usually try to write this bit before watching the episode so I can be authentically clueless, but I have to mention here that this turned out to be an extra long episode inspiring lots of words, so I'm splitting this review into three parts. This is going to make things confusing, because the episode is already the second part of a two-parter.

These links should help make sense of it:

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

If you don't know what happens in the story and want to keep it that way, then I'd suggest you avoid reading any further. There will be SPOILERS ahead.

Doctor Who (2023) 2-07: Wish World

Episode:

891

|

Serial:

319

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Alex Sanjiv Pillai

|

Air Date:

24-May-2025

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching an episode called Wish World. I don't know why, but I get the feeling this may stray into fantasy a little bit. That's just the vibe I'm getting.

I'm at episode 7, so this is the halfway point of the season. Actually hang on, Doctor Who seasons are tiny these days, 8 episodes, so I'm already at part 1 of the finale. I suppose you could argue that there are 9 episodes in total, counting last year's Christmas special, though if you include it then something weird happens: it means that 'world' episodes always come in pairs, no exceptions.

Series 1: The End of the World and World War Three.
Series 10: The Pyramid at the End of the World and World Enough and Time.
Season 2: Joy to the World and Wish World.

The classic serial Enemy of the World doesn't have a pair, but it's a six-parter so you've got three pairs of 'world' episodes in that season. The pattern still works!

Here's another coincidence: the episode shares the same director as Joy to the World, Alex Sanjiv Pillai, though it's the big two-part season finale so this time showrunner Russell T Davies was the one who wrote the words. This is what we've been heading for this whole time, May 24th, the beginning of the end. Though hopefully not the end of the series, I don't want it to be cancelled.

There will be SPOILERS below.

Doctor Who (2023) - Christmas 2024: Joy to the World

Episode:

884

|

Serial:

312

|

Writer:

Steven Moffat

|

Director:

Alex Sanjiv Pillai

|

Air Date:

25-Dec-2024

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The good news is that Sci-Fi Adventures has finally returned to cover a brand new episode of Doctor Who! The bad news is that it's been six months since I last wrote a full scene-by-scene review like this and I've forgotten how to do it. Honestly it's lucky I remembered I'm supposed to take notes.

Anyway, this is a Steven Moffat episode and that's a pretty big deal, seeing as he's written some of the best stories in Doctor Who history. They haven't all been winners, but that's no surprise considering how prolific he's been. By my calculations this is the 50th episode that Moffat has been credited for writing or co-writing for Doctor Who, which is even more than Russell T Davies' 41. He's still way short of Classic Who writers Robert Holmes (72), Terry Nation (62) or Malcolm Hulke (54), though, and I doubt they'll ever be beaten...

... unless you count full stories instead of episodes, in which case those numbers become Robert Holmes (18), Terry Nation (11), Malcolm Hulke (8), Russell T Davies (33) and Steven Moffat (40... ish). (It's hard to know what to count as a two-parter sometimes.) So Steven Moffat has set an almost unbeatable record here, especially considering how seasons are getting shorter and further apart. At least, it would've been if RTD wasn't so close to catching up.

I should warn you that this review will contain SPOILERS for every minute of this episode and certain minutes of previous stories.