Doctor Who Social Club

• I was enjoying this one quite a bit early on, but it turns into a bit of a slog as it goes.

• I'm a big advocate of the restoration of Gallifrey, but...yeesh. Less is more.

• A lot of the energy is sucked out of the story by the layering of pointless mysteries. Does it matter if Omega's identity is revealed much, much sooner? Not really. Ditto for "who's the traitor on the High Council?" But I suppose they have a runtime to fill.

• It's amusing to watch Colin Baker run around trying to hasten the Doctor's regeneration. Conflict of interest!

• Omega has a TARDIS now? Okay...

• Omega (that's OH-meguh) has a rather more subdued personality this time around, which is kind of a shame. A little eccentricity might have spiced things up a bit.

• The Ergon, described as one of Omega's less successful attempts at psychosynthesis, looks kind of familiar...

Battle rages across the skies as the Unholy Trinity unleash their deadly ambition. The Doctor, Belinda and Ruby have to risk everything in the quest to save one innocent life.

But also, the very first spoken line:

"Omega — with his body I can build a new Gallifrey!"

Called it! Schrödinger's Gallifrey pendulum is swinging back to "alive"...

I just waded into Doctor Who reddit for some tasty speculation after watching "Wish world", and I really hope the people buying into [edit: recasting rumours] will be proven wrong by Saturday. Posting this as testimony that this was an actual thing people believed.

I also hope Lemmy spoiler tags work as intended in the wider Fediverse... [Edit: turns out this was a rubbish time to learn that they do, in fact, not]

• I swear I saw bits and pieces of old Doctor Who reruns when I was growing up, and I have vague memories of the Third Doctor and Bessie - vague enough that I would never be able to actually identify an episode that I've seen before.

• Jo is sort of blandly competent in this, without standing out in any way. The Brigadier is at his most buffoonish.

• It's a shame William Hartnell's health prevented him from playing a larger role in the story, but you do what you can with what you have.

• The "telepathic conference" effect (if you can call it an effect) was charmingly effective.

• I also rather liked the blobby creatures, and whatever they used to dress the sets in the antimatter universe. That translucent red stuff has a visceral quality that enhances the overall...shoddiness.

• Nice quarry, too.

• Now, on to Omega. There's "over the top," and then there's this guy. He's an old-school supervillain at his core, with shades of Doctor Doom (and I'm not just talking about the mask). Despite being very one-note, his backstory is interesting, and has a very old-school sci-fi feel.

• Also...Omega is trapped in a world that he's essentially wished into existence. Where have I heard that before...?

Reports have alleged that Gatwa will be leaving the show at the end of this season - but are they correct?

Finally, a non-tabloid source addresses this. I haven't been keen on linking to The sun or The mirror because they're just really shitty news media. This past week they have insisted that Ncuti Gatwa was "axed" after cancelling his appearance at the Eurovision finale.

Bear in mind, this after reporting for some time that the actor had already quit the show... BBC's prompt denials just give the same rags another headline to run each time. Radio times keep a somewhat clearer outlook:

What is clear is that reports and rumours regarding Gatwa's apparent departure have so far been conflicting, meaning they should be taken with a grain of salt, and we will have to watch The Reality War to find out for certain whether the Fifteenth Doctor is sticking around.

Spoilers, obviously — but also the teensiest of peeks into next week's episode.

In this penultimate episode, we're having 'A right hoot on set' with owls, ducks, and horses. We experience unexpected biting creatures in the forest. Steff's on work experience in the script department and meets production designer Phil Sims.

Speaking in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Davies said that the show is "wilder than it's ever been before" in a climactic storyline that is both "very epic" and also "very personal".

Teasing what's to come, he continued: "It takes some very unexpected turns... There are big surprises, from the Doctor and for the Doctor. Some of it shakes up the lore of Gallifrey. Some of it re-contextualises the Doctor, the Rani, and their relationship."

Amid speculation about Doctor Who's future beyond season 15, Davies describes the upcoming finale as a "full circle" moment for the latest era of the show, with the promise that he's been "weaving in" elements from across Ncuti Gatwa's tenure.

"Elements from [season 14 premiere] The Church on Ruby Road are even paid off. It's rewarding for long-term fans but exciting for new viewers as well," he added.

Are there more revelations to come about Ruby's mother?

Fans less than satisfied with the reveal of Ruby's birth mother in last season's finale have latched on to previews from the upcoming one, showing the Rani in a hooded cloak, holding a baby...

Sorry for the many updates. Looks like there is a certain buzz ahead of the season climax...

The Doctor and the Rani go head-to-head in a monumental battle that will send shockwaves through the Whoniverse

The cast and runtime for the eighth Doctor Who Season Two episode The Reality War was revealed on the BBC one Schedule for the programme.

The runtime is 1 hour, 6 minutes.

Tight as a noose, strands that have drawn across seasons and centuries now pull together for a devastating climax. The Doctor is doomed. Belinda is lost. Ruby is trapped. A battle rages across the skies as legends converge. Our brave, battered, beaten Doctor stands alone and helpless as the the Unholy Trinity unleash their deadly ambition and the Underverse rises. The Doctor, Belinda and Ruby must reunite and risk everything in the quest to save one innocent life.

• It's a charity special! A true sci-fi staple.

• It's also a crossover with the classic soap opera "EastEnders", which I'm basically completely unfamiliar with, and will be disregarding from this point on.

• Look, it's not good. The story is barely coherent, and that's being generous.

• But it's hard to get too mad at it. It's a short, silly charity thing that takes as many classic DW actors as they could get, puts them in a blender, and calls it a day.

• That said, since this thing aired during the "wilderness years" after the show's cancellation, I get why people dislike it so much. When this is all you can get...oof.

• The Rani is handled almost exactly as she was in "Time and the Rani". For the most part, she's a generic bad guy out to get the Doctor(s). In the end, her goal is to gain control of evolution, which is basically the same motivation that she had in "Time and the Rani". It's not important, none of it matters, and it's another waste of the character's original potential.

• I see conflicting reports that suggest that the villain of the piece was originally intended to be the Master, which honestly would have been a better fit.

• #TeamBigRon

Edit: Most importantly, more disco theme songs plz.

Images and info for Wish World, the penultimate episode of Doctor Who season two which stars Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu & Millie Gibson.

Cultbox continue to collect pieces to the puzzle that is the two-part season finale. Even before last week's episode they released a post with preliminary information and tidbits concerning "Wish world".

Together, these two posts contain enough teasers to not quite spoil, but promise some very interesting conundrums about this week's first finale entry.

Here we go again...

• There's no getting around it - this one is pretty rough. Overlong, and not terribly interesting.
• The drama surrounding the Sixth Doctor's regeneration into the Seventh is pretty well-documented, but it's still wild that "Sylvester McCoy in a wig" was considered an adequate substitute.
• The regeneration-related hijinks were the most entertaining aspect of the story for me, by a pretty wide margin. The Rani's truly awful Mel disguise was at least amusing, and Mel and the Doctor's scene of mutual mistrust was actually kind of clever, making good use of the Doctor's post-regeneration amnesia.
• The Tetrap costumes manage to be truly awful, but still kind of great with those beautifully-sculpted heads.
• The Lakertyans, on the other hand, look pretty bad all around.
• The story is largely an excuse to run around in a quarry (classic!), and there's really not much to say about it.
• As for the Rani...unfortunately, she's largely reduced to a standard tyrant, with none of the unique "dispassionate mad scientist" feel until the final episode. It's a waste of what set her apart from the Master, and with no one to play off aside from her lackeys, she doesn't really stand out.
• But hey, at least we got to hear Mel scream a lot.

For a good while now the official Doctor Who youtube channel has had an around the clock "live" feed of TARDIS ASMR-ish soundscapes and lingering shots of the interior, console levers and knobs, etc.

Apparently, in the week leading up to May 24th, the lighting has gone into red alert, and the cloister bells are tolling... Although, with a hint of sarcasm, the video thumbnail still says "Chill TARDIS ambience".

You have to admire their dedication to the show's obsession with next episode's air date!

One of the Doctor's deadliest foes has returned after hiding in plain sight on the show.

It was Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor, who summed up the Rani perfectly. "Don't underestimate her," he said in the episode Time and the Rani. "She's a brilliant but sterile mind. There's not one spark of decency in her."

Her main interest is science, but she is willing to hurt and kill for her research.

In an interview with the BBC, actor Kate O'Mara described the character as someone who attended university with the Doctor, "studying science. And then it went completely to her head, and she wanted to govern the whole universe."