There's so much to process that I don't even know where to start. Just off the bat, it was a very fun and very campy episode. I imagine there will be a lot of people annoyed at some of the goofier elements (eg. lava erupting just under the streets, then knitting right back together), but I don't mind a bit of goofiness and it felt enjoyable the whole way through.
All the moments between Donna and the Doctor were so great. I love how much Donna is still just Donna at heart, even if she's forgotten things. The little quiet moment after she says she wanted to "be like him" was especially effective.
Rose is great, too. I love that her first instinct was to hide and help the Meep. I also love that her transness is important to her character, and that the show isn't shying away from unapologetically depicting a trans teenager. I do think some of the stuff that comes later is a little clumsy, however.
Onto that, I'm fine with the idea that Donna having a child has diluted the metacrisis enough for them both to survive a little longer with it. The weird parts were:
1) The suggestion that it works because the DoctorDonna is binary (a man and a woman), while Rose is non-binary. Is that suggesting that she's trans because of the metacrisis? That the metacrisis is only safe because she's trans? Both of those seem weird. Why is gender at all relevant to how safe/balanced the metacrisis is? I need to rewatch it and see if it's more coherent on second view, but on first viewing it just seemed like a dumb way to make Donna's "binary binary binary" breakdown have more meaning than it does.
2) The whole bit about them being able to just let the metacrisis go. How come they can just let it go? Again, why the focus on the Doctor being "male presenting"? Why the bit about only women knowing how to let things go?
I want to be really clear that I very much appreciate RTD putting trans themes so front and centre in Doctor Who, and I will be vehemently defending it against anyone who tries to be transphobic about it. Unfortunately, I just think it's a little clumsy in parts of this episode.
Beep the Meep was adorable, and then adorably evil. We love the Meep.
Shirley's weapons-firing wheelchair was amazing, and I like her character so far. Is she Osgood's replacement? She feels like the deliberate antithesis of Osgood, who was such a fangirl of the Doctor, while Shirley pointedly doesn't care. I do actually love Osgood, so I'll be sad if she's not around anymore, but hey ho.
I like that Donna is in such a stable and loving relationship with Shaun. After all her troubles with men in previous series, it's nice seeing her loved and appreciated.
What the hell was going on with the sonic this episode? I don't like the sonic being too overpowered generally, and suddenly the Doctor is capable of creating bullet proof shields out of thin air with it? And crumbling brick walls in seconds? It's not a magic wand!
That new TARDIS interior is absolutely huge. I love the classic design, but I'm not sure that such a stark look works when it's so enormous. If it's going to be that big, I'd rather it had a little more going on. I do like the colour-changing lights, though!
Meep said they were going to tell "the Boss", which immediately made me think of the Toymaker, which then immediately made me realise that Rose is also a toymaker. Is that going to be relevant? It's definitely deliberate. (Sidenote, her cyberman and ood are adorable and I would absolutely buy them.)
