EVERYONE, LISTEN: DOCTOR WHO IS SO GOOD RIGHT NOW.Ā
Iām currently really annoyed because Max removed a bunch of seasons of Kidās Baking Championship while I was in the middle of one but that does not matter because seriously, Doctor who is SO fucking good right now.Ā
Itās that gif where 15 is describing something and he says something like ālike WOWā Iām literally hearing it in my head. Iām fully 100% immersed and I love it.
Wherein The Doctor and Belinda continue to attempt to get back to Earth only to land in the 51st century, playing along so they can use the vortex indicator AKA the vindicator to get a lock on their coordinates, hoping to pop off again, only to find themselves in a nightmare.
Ya know, usual Wednesday, or whatever.Ā
This episode was SO strong, you guys. You get some of the cute cheekiness, Belinda asking if they need to change clothes before leaving the TARDIS so they can play dress up again (to the tune of āToxicā which, ends up being pretty on the fucking nose), and my favorite part, 15 clapping back at one of the soldiers who told him it was inappropriate to call him ābabesā, saying āokay, hon.ā CHEEK. And the exact interaction a woman would go through if theyād been the one to complain.
The Doctor clocked that fucking soldier from the jump. Thereās always at least one misogynist asshole in the mix, friends.
Anyway. So they drop down to a planet and 15 tells them theyāre there as like, secret shoppers, to make sure theyāre completing their mission accurately or some drivel and it turns out the troop is there because thereās a base that hasnāt been heard from in over two weeks. So they go in, because of course they do. And they find a ton of dead bodies, as youād expect, and a single heartbeat behind a locked door. 15 can never resist a locked door.
The creeping sense of unease was on point in this episode, yāall. I knew there was a callback to 10 but I didnāt know what it was going to be, and it didnāt disappoint. Turns out, theyāve landed on the planet Midnight, except like 400,000 years in the future to when 10 had been there and was almost mimicked out of existence by an entity he had absolutely no knowledge of. Like, what a DEEP cut. I love it.Ā
This time though, instead of the entity trying to steal your voice, it latches to your back and kills anyone who crosses directly behind you. Which is a fun new tact to try, Iām with it. Gotta switch things up, and all that.Ā
So they find that this poor cook, Aliss,Ā is the only one left on the base and 15 goes off to do his thing while Belinda tries to tend to the remaining womanās injuries and then of course, it gets creepy because Belinda keeps seeing something and then the other soldiers are seeing something and itās all just fear and paranoia and idiots start stepping behind her, and they die.Ā
The troop leader, Shaya, is trying to be as level headed as possible but guess what! Our favorite douche from earlier calls some protocol on her to try and take over because sheās listening to the Doctor and thereās a great scene where heās moving around Aliss and everyone is screaming to try and get him to fucking hold still because sheās moving as heās moving but like weāve already established that if you go behind her you die and itās chaos and tada! He gets caught behind her. Satisfying.
Anyway, the Doctor finally approaches Aliss to figure all this out and he can hear the entity whispering to him and man there was so close up on his cute mug while he listened to whatever it was trying to tempt him with and his face was devastated. Of course, we have no idea what he heard, but whatever it was, shook my boy, and I donāt like that.
BUT then! He theorizes that the entity is afraid of its own reflection so he has Shaya do some fancy shooting because the base was mining something liquid and she busts the pipe to create a liquid mirror, which separates the entity from Aliss and they run. I love when they run.Ā
Of course though, they canāt get away unscathed and before they can get out of the base, the entity attaches itself to Belinda. Yāall, the best part of this episode was Shaya sacrificing herself - she shoots Belinda to dislodge the entity which attaches itself to her, and she fucking books it toward the big giant mine and gracefully throws herself in. Itās amazingly selfless and she is an absolute badass and I love when random characters can shine.Ā
And so everything is fine, basically, except MRS. FLOOD shows up as some higher up that the troop reports to,Ā and everyone is annoyed about it. WHAT IS HER DEAL? Sheās got to be a harbinger, right? Like, she must be working for the thing that The Toymaker alluded to? And the fucking Meep mentioned. Sheās gotta be.
One thing I will say though; I liked the reemergence of the entity, but its original incarnation was more terrifying. Mimicking you until it eventually steals your VOICE? Thatās definitely horrifying. But those uniforms though? Dope. They looked great the whole time.
Ugh. Oh my god yāall, I kind of hated this one. Love hated. Hate loved? It was so ICKY. Stop making me feel things about society so overtly. I donāt like it, it makes me squirm. But also, wow.
Wherein, Ruby tries to get on with her life without the Doctor and meets a cute guy named Conrad that claims he met 15 when he was just a kid, and then saw Ruby with him while they were hunting some crazy monster. He gets him on her podcast and sheās obviously smitten and it seems like theyāre gonna have a cute adventure together.
THEY DO NOT HAVE A CUTE ADVENTURE TOGETHER.Ā
Iām gonna admit it, they had me in the first half. They really, really did. Conrad seemed like a good dude who had a run in with the Doctor that changed his life. Weāve seen that before. Remember that time 10 stumbles into a support group for people who had an encounter with him? I have āMr. Blue Skyā on one of my playlists because of that episode. Usually people who have a barely there brush with him are awed and are so wholesome.
So it was cute for a while, Ruby does his podcast and sheās honest with him about her experiences and they start dating. When Conrad had seen her with 15 they were fighting a monster called the Shreek that like, pukes on people to mark them as prey and then comes back to basically eat them, and Conrad had been marked and Ruby brings him an antidote so heāll be safe and itās nice. Iām like, okay girl, move on with your life, get it. Do your thing!
After their 5th date, he takes them to a village where some of his friends live and she wants to be normal but she starts noticing signs that maybe the Shreek has followed them, even though itās supposed to be locked up at UNIT. So she does the smart thing and she gets Kate on the line for some reassurance and she declines their help, she recognizes maybe she just has PTSD and she tries to settle. And Conrad seems like the caring boyfriend until the power goes out and his friend goes missing from the pub and he admits that he never took the antidote that was given to him because he wanted to be brave like the Doctor.
So UNIT does get called in and Ruby goes out to try and find the random missing guy because theyāve seen a couple of Shreekās now and even though she tells Conrad to stay inside, he doesnāt. UNIT storms in like their badass selves but something is weird because theyāre not getting the readings they expect but everyone can SEE two Shreeks hanging out but like, somethingās not right yāall and guess what!
OFF come the masks. Itās two of Conradās idiot friends in costumes. And everything gets horrible from there. He says the most fucked up shit to Ruby and heās live streaming on his shitty podcast or whatever the whole time and he wants to convince everyone that UNIT is lying about aliens and protecting everyone? How does that even make sense? HEāS LITERALLY SEEN IT.
But heās apparently a butthurt little white boy who never got enough praise and is trapped in an echo chamber and there is where I donāt appreciate being reminded of the state of the literal world because kdgskdskg itās so close to whatās actually happening and it makes my fucking skin CRAWL.
So this asshole embarks on a mission to discredit UNIT and fuck them over and make a bunch of money for himself because heās a shit stain and itās just all really gross. Ya girl Ruby canāt catch a break. Why is it that the two episodes sheās basically helmed by herself have been SO heartbreaking? I really just canāt.
Obviously this idiot has an in at UNIT and so he uses his stooge to get access to the building but then he shoots the dude helping him because heās literally irredeemable and he comes up to the platform where Kate and Ruby are to, what? Convince Kate into admitting the entire setup is a lie? Like, did he really think that was going to WORK? He knows itās real! What the FUCK was he hoping to gain out of his stunt?
Hereās what Iām definitely here for though: Kate calls his bluff. Sheās got the Shreek outside ready to be transported and she literally has no more fucks to give. So she lets it out. Because of course this idiot didnāt drink the antidote that would have saved him. She lets it loose, tells everyone to stay back, lets darwinism take the wheel. And I LOVE THAT. Was it morally wrong? Probably. Do I care in the slightest? No. People like that deserve the consequences of their actions.Ā
Ruby was legit like ādonāt do this we should help himā and thatās nice and sheās pure hearted but nah girl. At some point, we need to fight back. And Kate was fighting back. And sheās gonna sleep like a goddamn baby, as she should. Sometimes, you have to make the hard choices.
So this shit stain starts crying and begging and Ruby swoops in and tasers the Shreek and he has the BALLS to say something like āoh your special effects are improvingā but then mofo gets BIT and thank god.Ā
They throw his ass in a prison. And Ruby vows to try and get herself together, process her trauma, and I hope she does.Ā
But then, we see this fucking incel transported into the TARDIS to get a dressing down from a wonderfully smiling Doctor, saying āYouāre special for all the wrong reasonsā which is the understatement of the fucking century. But of course, the dickface just digs himself in deeper, even after 15 tells him he dies alone in a prison cell. He loves the echo chamber heās chosen, and no amount of logic or opposing viewpoints is going to pull him out of it. He literally says āI reject your realityā.Ā
HOW THE FUCK DO WE DEAL WITH PEOPLE LIKE THAT? How did we get here? How do we get out of it? This episode gave me no answers and it just made my heart really fucking hurt. All I can do in my daily life is try to put it out of my mind because there are no solutions right now. Seriously, how do we combat this?Ā
And to top it off, here comes Mrs. fucking Flood to let this shitbag out of his cell so yeah, Iām now convinced sheās got to be a harbinger. And all of it is gross.
Hate-loved this episode. Emphasis on the hate. But fuck if it wasnāt good. And I canāt wait to see what happens next. Iām gonna need yāall to build me back up, 15, because you brought me way the fuck down. Can we at least get a really satisfying, happy ending to all of this since I wonāt get one in real life? I trust you boo, donāt steer me wrongā¦
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