Doctor Who: Wish World – season two episode seven recap
In a season full of stories about stories and littered with fourth-wall breaks, this was a Doctor Who episode distilled into a fairytale, with Archie Panjabi delighting in playing up the wicked Rani caricature and Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor reduced to a passive, then persecuted, bystander.
It was odd seeing the Doctor and Belinda (Varada Sethu) as a contented married couple, WandaVision style, enjoying the kind of boring day-to-day existence that Matt Smith's Doctor showed in The Power of Three is impossible for him to live, without getting restless.
Conrad (Jonah Hauer-King) appeared to be holding the world together and taunting our heroes with his mock CBeebies Bedtime Stories show, but it looked to be taking it out of him. Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood/'a' Rani was good value as ever. Was that a hint of conflict on her face about the whole plan when she was comforting Conrad?
Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday continued to prove that she is better suited to leading this show through episodes where the Doctor isn't really being the Doctor than being on board the Tardis itself, although her introduction to the underworld of ignored and dispossessed people with disabilities did slow the pace of the episode.
Then there were Jonathan Groff, Ruth Madeley and Bonnie Langford in the mix too. And a run-through of previous Doctor's faces that sidestepped where exactly Jo Martin's Fugitive Doctor fits in by slotting her in between 13 and 14, where we know she definitely doesn't belong.
The Giggle reared its head, too, this time creepily voiced by the stolen baby. It has been a continued presence this year. Mr Ring-a-Ding did the Stooky Bill giggle, and its waveform appeared about the Harmony arena last week. What can it all mean?
What if Doctor Who did WandaVision, but with added giant bone dinosaurs?
This was more about life aboard the redressed Unit set, which also housed much of the action in last year's two-part finale. It was reassuring to see that in whatever timeline we are in Col Ibrahim (Alexander Devrient) has the hots for his boss, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave). We will see more of that pair in forthcoming spin-off The War Between the Land and the Sea.
Much as he did in 2008's Turn Left and in his drama Years and Years, Russell T Davies explored here a vision of contemporary Britain that had turned more authoritarian. The script may have focused on 'doubt' being the thought crimes committed, but it was clear that Davies was drawing parallels with regimes where you can be dragged out of your home and disappeared for being gay, for being political, for being different, for your family being suspicious of you. It was more chilling than any of the science fiction in the episode, and a timely warning.
It is hard to know where to begin. Everything was a mystery, in an episode that was nearly all set-up and no payoff. We don't know what the bone monsters are. We don't know where Belinda has disappeared to. We don't know why Poppy is there.
More than anything, we don't know why they billed this era as a soft reboot where people could jump on with the aim of attracting a new younger audience, and then crammed it full of things that first appeared in episodes in the 1970s and 80s and have barely been referenced since. Baffling. Fun at times, but baffling.
We first encountered the Doctor's alias of John Smith in Patrick Troughton's 1968 adventure The Wheel in Space.
Omega, a Gallifreyan solar engineer, made his debut in the 10th anniversary romp The Three Doctors, and cropped up again 10 years later during the Peter Davison era in 1983's Arc of Infinity.
The Gallifreyan Seal, sometimes known as the Seal of Rassilon, first appeared on Gallifrey during 1976 Tom Baker story The Deadly Assassin. However, the prop was recycled by designer Roger Murray-Leach, having previously been seen in 1975's Revenge of the Cybermen as an emblem of the Vogans. They are not to be confused with the Vogons and their terrible poetry in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Turning people into animals may be a fairytale trope, but the first transformation Frau Rani caused in Bavaria, turning the mother into violets, echoed her tactics in 1985's The Mark of the Rani. Kate O'Mara's incarnation of the Time Lady had landmines that turned people into trees when they stood on them.
Dugga Doo, from last week's Interstellar Song Contest, has become such a cult hit that the BBC has produced a full-length version of the song without the dialogue over the top of it, and on Wednesday launched a 24/7 YouTube livestream with the earworm on a constant loop.
It's the season finale. The BBC has said there will be no previews for journalists, and no early morning iPlayer drop, so everybody gets to watch The Reality War at exactly the same time on BBC One, iPlayer, Disney+ internationally, and in cinemas in the UK.
Season 2
Episode 1: The Robot Revolution
Episode 2: Lux
Episode 3: The Well
Episode 4: Lucky Day
Episode 5: The Story and the Engine
Episode 6: The Interstellar Song Contest
Episode 7: Wish World
Episode 8: The Reality War
Season 1
Episodes 1 & 2: Space Babies / The Devil's Chord
Episode 3: Boom
Episode 4: 73 Yards
Episode 5: Dot and Bubble
Episode 6: Rogue
Episode 7: The Legend of Ruby Sunday
Episode 8: Empire of Death
Christmas special: Joy to the World
60th anniversary specials
Special 1: The Star BeastSpecial 2: Wild Blue YonderSpecial 3: The GiggleChristmas special: The Church on Ruby Road
Flux / Series 13
Chapter one: The Halloween ApocalypseChapter two: War of the SontaransChapter three: Once, Upon TimeChapter four: Village of the AngelsChapter five: Survivors of the FluxChapter six: The VanquishersNew Year's Special: Eve of the DaleksSpring special: Legend of the Sea DevilsBBC centenary special: The Power of the Doctor
Series 12
Episode 1: Spyfall part oneEpisode 2: Spyfall part twoEpisode 3: Orphan 55Episode 4: Nikola Tesla's Night of TerrorEpisode 5: Fugitive of the JudoonEpisode 6: PraxeusEpisode 7: Can You Hear Me?Episode 8: The Haunting of Villa DiodatiEpisode 9: Ascension of the CybermenEpisode 10: The Timeless ChildrenNew Year's special: Revolution of the Daleks
Series 11
Episode 1: The Woman Who Fell to EarthEpisode 2: The Ghost MonumentEpisode 3: RosaEpisode 4: Arachnids in the UKEpisode 5: The Tsuangra CondundrumEpisode 6: Demons of the PunjabEpisode 7: Kerblam!Episode 8: The WitchfindersEpisode 9: It Takes You AwayEpisode 10: The Battle of Ranskoor Av KolosNew Year's special: Resolution
Series 10
Episode 1: The PilotEpisode 2: SmileEpisode 3: Thin IceEpisode 4: Knock KnockEpisode 5: OxygenEpisode 6: ExtremisEpisode 7: The Pyramid at the End of the WorldEpisode 8: The Lie of the LandEpisode 9: Empress of MarsEpisode 10: The Eaters of LightEpisode 11: World Enough and TimeEpisode 12: The Doctor Falls2017 Christmas special: Twice Upon A Time
Series 9
Episode 1: The Magician's ApprenticeEpisode 2: The Witch's FamiliarEpisode 3: Under The LakeEpisode 4: Before The FloodEpisode 5: The Girl Who DiedEpisode 6: The Woman Who LivedEpisode 7: The Zygon InvasionEpisode 8: The Zygon InversionEpisode 9: Sleep No MoreEpisode 10: Face The RavenEpisode 11: Heaven SentEpisode 12: Hell Bent2015 Christmas special: The Husbands of River Song2016 Christmas special: The Return of Doctor Mysterio
Series 8
Episode 1: Deep BreathEpisode 2: Into The DalekEpisode 3: Robot of SherwoodEpisode 4: ListenEpisode 5: Time HeistEpisode 6: The CaretakerEpisode 7: Kill The MoonEpisode 8: Mummy on the Orient ExpressEpisode 9: FlatlineEpisode 10: In the Forest of the NightEpisode 11: Dark WaterEpisode 12: Death In Heaven2014 Christmas special: Last Christmas
Series 7
Episode 1: Asylum of the DaleksEpisode 2: Dinosaurs on a SpaceshipEpisode 3: A Town Called MercyEpisode 4: The Power of ThreeEpisode 5: The Angels Take Manhatten2012 Christmas special: The SnowmenEpisode 6: The Bells of Saint JohnEpisode 7: The Rings of AkhatenEpisode 8: Cold WarEpisode 9: HideEpisode 10: Journey to the Centre of the TardisEpisode 11: The Crimson HorrorEpisode 12: Nightmare in SilverEpisode 13: The Name of the Doctor50th Anniversary special: The Day of the Doctor2013 Christmas special: The Time of the Doctor
Series 6
Episode 1: The Impossible AstronautEpisode 2: Day of the MoonEpisode 3: The Curse of the Black SpotEpisode 4: The Doctor's WifeEpisode 5: The Rebel FleshEpisode 6: The Almost PeopleEpisode 7: A Good Man Goes To WarEpisode 8: Let's Kill HitlerEpisode 9: Night TerrorsEpisode 10: The Girl Who WaitedEpisode 11: The God ComplexEpisode 12: Closing TimeEpisode 13: The Wedding of River Song2011 Christmas special: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe
Series 5
Episode 1: The Eleventh HourEpisode 2: The Beast BelowEpisode 3: Victory of the DaleksEpisode 4: The Time of AngelsEpisode 5: Flesh and StoneEpisode 6: The Vampires of VeniceEpisode 7: Amy's ChoiceEpisode 8: The Hungry EarthEpisode 9: Cold BloodEpisode 10: Vincent and the DoctorEpisode 11: The LodgerEpisode 12: The Pandorica OpensEpisode 13: The Big Bang2010 Christmas special: A Christmas Carol
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