Doctor Who Episodic Coverage: “The Reality War”
“The Reality War” Has So Very Many Plot Problems
“The Reality War” is a mess of an episode. I thought “Empire of Death” failed to stick the landing, but wow. I don’t always make outlines for articles—I’m not that type of writer—but I did for this one, and it is longer than some articles I’ve written. Frankly, it’s hard to hold every opinion and reaction I had over the course of this one episode in my head.
But we’ll start somewhere. And it may as well be the deus ex machina opening. I love that the Time Hotel from “Joy to the World” came back around—it’s such a cool setting—but I was really curious to see how the Doctor could get out of falling to the ground without help. Maybe some trick. But no. And, interestingly enough, the plotline actually implies that the Doctor has died from that fall many, many times.
The First Few Minutes Have So Many Implications
Because “The Reality War” ties together one of the most complicated time travel plots I have ever seen. It’s nonsense. It’s kind of amazing. If I understand the plot of this season correctly, the Rani grabbed Desidirium and had Conrad make a wish for a dystopia, specifically knowing that it would be a fragile world that the Doctor would inevitably doubt and break the wish. The Rani may have even picked Conrad specifically because Ruby helps kick off the Doctor’s doubt spiral at the beginning of “Wish World.” But at the “same time”—in quotes because of the confusing nature of time travel and this specific mind-breaking paradox—the Doctor is unable to get back to May 24 because the wish is already in place, and is an active time loop (I think). Thus resulting in the Doctor using the “vindicator” to pull them into May 24 by force. But, also, the Rani needed the energy of the crisscrossing web of an active vindicator to bolster Desidirium’s powers to make such a wish hold.
And all of this was so that reality could be broken by the Doctor’s doubt—and everyone else’s. Thus, carving a big enough portal to get to Omega, the first Time Lord. So that the Rani could restart the Time Lords as a species (and she didn’t just wish that into existence because she’s basically an eugenicist). But, and here’s the newest add-on from “The Reality War,” it wasn’t effective enough to break reality once. The Rani had to set up a time loop so it would keep happening, over and over. I assume the “Threshold” that’s only mentioned a few times keeps both versions of the Rani—and the tech used for all this—from being totally reset. And, thus, what I said: this is the time loop where the Doctor gets pulled out of it. There had to have been so many other loops we simply didn’t see with the Doctor in it, or else things actually get so mechanically confusing I can’t parse it.
“The Reality War” Has An Incredibly Complex Plot
And that’s the first few minutes of this episode. Four paragraphs to get to the premise. Hopefully, I can progress this a little quicker now. So, let’s talk about Poppy.
I haven’t seen the old, old seasons of Doctor Who. I don’t know the genealogy that leads to Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter. And maybe that’s why my assumptions veered off course. Because, once I really considered the plot line of the Doctor and Belinda having a child, I assumed it was a way to progress the Susan plotline after bringing it up in “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” with Susan Triad and then again in “The Interstellar Song Contest.” Poppy grows up to have a daughter, and that daughter is Susan, and that would even explain why Susan has a human name and not a Time Lord name. It also made the line about fate making Belinda and the Doctor meet way more logical—it was closing a paradox’s loop.
But, uh, no…that’s not what happened in “The Reality War.” Poppy’s existence, history, and parentage make up a serious chunk of this episode’s plot, actually, and all of it is a mess. Trying to save Poppy from not magically existing by using science fiction tech is a wonderful use of the new Pantheon paradigm, but it being triumphantly resolved and then heartbreakingly not resolved and then confusingly resolved—over a short runtime—is not a wonderful use of the paradigm. It threw my understanding all over the place. Ruby remembering Poppy was good. “73 Yards” and “The Church on Ruby Road” basically combined to make Ruby more dimensionally aware in a very organic way, and her scenes of trying to convince everyone that Poppy existed are heartbreaking. I actually—briefly—believed that it was a true tragic moment. A child lost. Essentially dead. But, no, again. No, this kicks off a mini, second plot to round out “The Reality War.”
“The Reality War” Changes To Very Different Story
Because the Doctor somehow—through some serious technobabble that even I, a fan of weird technobabble, couldn’t parse—manages to bring her back. The wish breaks, but the Doctor reclaims a result of it by nudging timelines in some way or another. The point is that the process needs intense regeneration energy. Sure. It’s contrived as hell, but sure. And this, of course, leads to a big, big moment that I will get to later in this article—because I have way more to talk about before that reveal. Some very specific things to talk about.
And, if you’re detecting some anger, you’d be right. Because—to begin—one wish got to stay without any issue. And having Ruby point out the unfairness of it doesn’t make it not a baffling plot choice. Sure, Ruby technically only unwished the dystopia wish, but I’m not referring to only the narrative logic with my anger. If you haven’t caught on yet, I’m pissed about Conrad. I’m pissed about so much involving this character—and not in the way the narrative sometimes intends. Because Conrad, freaking Conrad, after being established as a dangerous, ableist, sexist person so inherently bigoted that his version of reality was picked by the Rani because of how easily it’s doubted, gets a happy ending. An unambiguous happy ending. I understand why Ruby made the wish she did well enough, I guess. She had lingering feelings despite his betrayal in “Lucky Day” and didn’t want to kill him. You see on her face what I—at least—interpret as her thinking about it, before deciding against something violent. Her kind words to get him to lower the gun seemed like they were meant as her talking him down, not an actual in-narrative on-ramp to retribution. Yes, his dystopia could’ve been some hedonistic thing where people were serving him, but that doesn’t make this version “nice.” He took away so many people’s autonomy. If I’m understanding correctly, he literally made every trans person on Earth disappear. That’s not “nice.” He didn’t make everyone “safe and warm and fed.” Don’t give him a happy ending. Have him be a nobody, not worth remembering, if nothing else.
Several Character Arcs Are Not Handled Well At All
And continuing on with complaints, why is Belinda so out of character for most of “The Reality War?” As soon as she steps into the Time Hotel, she should’ve had her memories changed. She should’ve been utterly freaked out by suddenly having a child. But she accepts it without question. Does that mean everyone still has the vague, fake backstory I assume got beamed into their heads by Conrad? Does she recall her whole time as Poppy’s mother and the Doctor’s wife? That’s the only way I can see her even knowing Poppy is her daughter without being told—and the implications of everyone having a second life in their heads are staggering. And, like, yes, of course, Belinda would care for another person in danger, regardless—especially a helpless child. She’s been shown to be the kind of person willing to risk her life for others all the way back in “The Robot Revolution”—but this isn’t the same Belinda. She doesn’t even get much to do in this episode, just worries about Poppy. Ruby gets the majority of the proactive scenes, despite not being this season’s companion. We do—briefly—see the arc I would’ve expected from Belinda, though it’s presented as a sad, uncanny moment. She’s overcome her worries and fear of traveling with the Doctor and is ready to go to Neptune. Companions usually leave either by “dying” or choosing to leave. But not here. Instead, there’s a big, sweeping, in-universe retcon that makes Poppy human—removing some weird questions about Time Lords that “The Reality War” itself brings up—and fails to give Belinda a proper ending. Sure, maybe they want a new companion for a new season, but they literally overwrite the season’s plot with fake flashbacks to justify this weird outcome. Now, by this episode’s own enforced logic, Belinda is a mother who was willing to spend time watching a song contest instead of getting back to her child. Ruby got to choose. Belinda didn’t. And both endings are tonally presented basically the same way. Ugh.
Belinda’s Whole Plotline Gets Retconned Horribly
And, you know what, even the Doctor’s character doesn’t quite make sense in this episode. It’s just one moment—nowhere near as sweeping as what happened with Belinda—but it did stick with me. What exactly was the Doctor’s plan once he got back to the Rani? Sure, somehow just breaking down that door broke the Threshold, why not, but then, like the Rani said: no weapons. Basically, as soon as the two versions of the Rani started talking about seeing Omega, the Doctor is like, “Sure, why not?” And we don’t get any speech or hint about this being a ploy or a plan. My only guess is it was pure stalling. A waiting game so that Ruby could go and handle Conrad. Or maybe just an attempt to wing it, fix the problem on the fly, since the Rani wasn’t going to just give up on the plan anyhow. Better be in the room than not. But I am purely making stuff up at this point. This was a good time for over-explaining, dang it.
And, wow, geez…this article is getting long. Let’s keep going, though. There’s not too much more. Those are my biggest complaints about “The Reality War,” but we haven’t gotten as much to what I liked. And I have a few aspects I liked—though I can’t say they overcome the double, maybe triple, dose of ruining moments.
One such aspect is quite broad. I’ve said before that the CGI for the last two seasons has been really good, and “The Reality War” is no different. Omega looks great. The sound effects are amazing, all big and imposing. And I can’t lie and say there wasn’t one big moment where I literally said aloud, “I love Doctor Who.”
Some Set Pieces In “The Reality War” Are Just Fun
And that moment is the tower battle. No other show is going to have an alien with two hearts riding a flying scooter between the rib cage of a weird, extra-dimensional bone creature as a once stationary tower spins around to aim its various sci-fi weapons at the monsters. It’s absurd. It’s delightful. The music swells and I was charmed for a moment. This is one of the reasons I watch this show.
Another reason I watch this show is because I like seeing how new actors put a spin on the Doctor. And, yep, this is my not-so-subtle way of going into the final point of this review. Let’s talk those last few scenes. First off, credit to Ncuti. He has been a wonderful Doctor. I have loved a lot of episodes of this and the last season. I was sad the moment I realized the plot was building to a regeneration. I was almost in denial, hoping that it wasn’t the case. But, in hindsight, having so many callbacks and cameos—including a delightful surprise cameo from a previous Doctor—was the signal. It was time. We were getting a new Doctor. And I didn’t know who it was going to be.
“The Reality War” Signaled The Regeneration Hard
Now I do know. And my feelings are…complicated. I didn’t know who Ncuti was before this, but now I’m always excited when he shows up in something I’m watching. This new regeneration doesn’t give us a chance to establish a new connection. We’re doing a re-tred here.
But, at the same time, I can see the vision with this choice. I think Billie Piper will play the Doctor with a great energy—and that’s very important. One of the ultimate appeals of this show is watching someone who knows the universe come across random, complicated problems, and use mostly words and charisma to solve them. And, as long as the science fiction concepts remain interesting, the mysteries are not instantly guessable, and the characters are very charming, it’ll remain a good show. The Doctor will be the Doctor.
So, yeah, I didn’t like “The Reality War” all that much—but I did like this season. It had some great moments. And I still absolutely love Doctor Who. I’m absolutely going to watch the next season of this show.
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