Welcome to Doctor Who Is NEW! where I post about the latest new episode of Doctor Who.
This week, the Rani has created a new version of Earth just to destroy it so she can unleash the first of the Time Lords, Omega.
Except one element of this world wished into existence is real.
The Doctor and Belinda's daughter is real.
What?
The whole fershlugginer thing gets unraveled in....
The Reality War
by Russell T Davies
ALERT: There will be spoilers, honey!
The Doctor is plummeting towards the Earth from the Rani's Bone Palace in the sky when all of sudden there's....
A magic door!
Well,it's a time door to the Time Hotel and it's Anita ("Joy To the World") to the rescue.
Deus Ex Machina, baby!
With Anita's help, the Doctor returns to UNIT and restores the HQ and it's inhabitants back to reality. Belinda Chandra, Ruby Sunday and Shirley Bingham are back and so is the Vlinx.
The Doctor cobbles together a plan to strike back at the Rani. It involves Ruby using the Project Indigo teleporter (used by Martha Jones way back in 2008's "The Stolen Earth".) Her job is to get the wish making baby away from Conrad.
Belinda is super determined not to lose her daughter Poppy which could happen when Conrad's world wide wish is reversed. So Susan Twist builds a Zero Room where Belinda and Poppy can wait out the rest of the story. (The Zero Room concept was introduced in 1982's 5th Doctor story "Castrovalva".)
The Doctor returns to the Bone Palace to confront the Rani but she unleashes Omega who is now a giant skeletal dragon creature or something.
A giant skeletal dragon creature that eats the Rani.
Pre-Rani Mrs.Flood picks up the Rani's Time Ring (Time Lord tech introduced in the 1975 4th Doctor story "Genesis of the Daleks". Man, I am having to do a lot of research for this thing!) and books it out of the story with "So much for the two Ranis!"
(A pun on the famous in the U.K. comedy duo The Two Ronnies.)
The giant skeletal dragon creature known as Omega is looking to snack on the Doctor. Thankfully, the Vindicator thingy the Doctor has been dragging around all season is hanging right over his head and he uses it to blast Omega back into the Underverse.
Deus Ex Machina, baby!
Long story made short: the wish gets reversed, the world goes back to normal (mostly. Ernest Borginine is alive.) And Poppy still exists.
Until she doesn't.
And only Ruby remembers her.
At first the Doctor dismisses Ruby's recollection as a glitch from the Reality reset until Ruby reminds him of how she was erased from time and he brought her back. (see 2023's "Church on Ruby Road".)
The Doctor needs to shift reality by a small degree to restore Poppy and to do that, he needs to shunt his regenerative energy into the Time Vortex. Which causes a visit from a past self.
HOLY RASSILON! It's the 13th Doctor, JODIE WHITAKER!!!
It's only 5 minutes on screen but the 13th Doctor as written by Russell T Davies is awesome.
So the 15th Doctor does his thing and Poppy is restored. It seems Poppy was not part of the wish but was real because she always existed. The real reason Belinda was so insistent on getting back to Earth was to be reunited with her daughter.
Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor stands in the open doorway looking out into space at the living star Joy (see "Joy To the World") and regenerates into...
Billie Piper?!?!
What the hell?!?!
Whatever the hell the Rani was up to seemed to be a lot of sound and fury signifying not much of importance. RTD's decision to reach back into the classic series again to bring back villains like the Rani and Omega seem like wasted opportunities.
There are of course "squeeee" worthy fan boy moments like the return of Anita and the Time Hotel, Donna's daughter Rose, Jodie Whitaker as the 13th Doctor and the gob smack surprise of Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor regenerating into double gob smack Billie Piper.
Yes there were rumors aplenty that this was going to happen but since we do these rumors pan out?
Except when they do.
More next week on the season of Doctor Who and what pray tell may or may not be happening next.
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