Doctor Who: The Reality War

What began as a bold new era under Disney’s banner ends not with clarity, but chaos. The Reality War, penned by Russell T Davies and directed by Alex Sanjiv Pillai, arrives burdened by lore, expectation, and a 66-minute runtime that it struggles to justify. The episode juggles gods, genetic legacies, and a regeneration, yet fails to land a cohesive emotional or narrative core.

When Disney bought into Doctor Who, their terms were clear: two full series. With The Reality War, the eighth and final episode of this second series, Russell T Davies delivers what should have been a culmination a payoff to two years of storytelling built on divine pantheons, cryptic clues about Susan (Carole Ann Ford), and the return of classic Time Lord adversaries: The Rani and Omega.

But the shadow of past misfires loomed large. Empire of Death (S1E8) left many cold with its “unravelling nonsensical grasp of storytelling”, and the penultimate episode Wish World (S2E7) fared no better, where “ambient noise” became little more than “window dressing for a plot more concerned with theme than narrative”. Expectations for The Reality War, then, were not simply for spectacle, but for resolution. And with an extended runtime of 66 minutes, a luxury by Doctor Who standards, hopes were high that Davies would tie a narrative bow around the sprawling threads he’s laid since the 60th anniversary.

Ahead of transmission, secrecy swelled. For the first time in the series’ history, a finale was broadcast simultaneously across the UK and international markets. Gone was the customary 08:00 BST drop; instead, fans waited until the live BBC One premiere at 18:50. The delay sparked rumours: was this the end for Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor? Was Billie Piper, of all people, about to step back into the TARDIS?

In the end, those whispers weren’t entirely unfounded. Though lacking any prior confirmation of Gatwa’s departure or Piper’s return, The Reality War nearly pulled off the first surprise regeneration in Doctor Who history, and did so with a characteristically Davies-esque sense of spectacle and sleight of hand.

But regeneration reveals are best left to endings. The episode still needed to function, and unfortunately, it doesn’t.

The Reality War, directed by Alex Sanjiv Pillai, picks up at the cliff-hanger of Wish World, with the Doctor plunging into the ripping fabric of reality. After Wish World’s chaotic, theme-first storytelling, all eyes were on the series finale to course correct. Instead, we’re met with a deus ex machina, courtesy of Anita (Stephanie de Whalley), a side character from the Christmas special Joy to the World. She appears through a TVA-esque portal, master key in hand, pulling the Doctor to safety and promptly returning him to Wish World, now inexplicably stuck in a Groundhog Day loop. The convenience of it all is dizzying.

And so it continues. There are too many moving parts, too little time, and not nearly enough cohesion. The episode barrels through its plot at breakneck speed, dispatching The Rani, arguably the series’ most compelling villain, within forty minutes. From there, the story pivots, clumsily, into regeneration territory. It feels like two episodes stapled together, with little regard for pacing or thematic unity.

The disappointment here isn’t just narrative; it’s structural. A cameo from Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor adds a layer of fan service without substance. Mel Bush (Bonnie Langford), whose history with The Rani (Archie Panjabi) could have offered a poignant confrontation, is sidelined after a single expositional scene. And then there’s Susan, teased for two years, granted flashbacks, positioned as a linchpin of Time Lord legacy, left entirely unresolved. The episode gestures toward revelation, but delivers absence.

In a final flurry of exposition, we learn Poppy (Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps) may be the Doctor’s daughter, a biological impossibility explained by new lore: Time Lords, apparently, are sterile. Poppy is quickly excised from the plot, consigned to another reality, and becomes 100% human in the process. Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson) disappears. Omega is underused. And The Rani, dispatched by Omega rather than the Doctor, dies in a vacuum of narrative weight.

It’s messy. And in being messy, it undermines the tremendous work put in by Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu, and the wider creative team. Performances remain committed, the design is often breathtaking, but none of it can disguise a finale that lacks clarity of purpose. Instead of resolving the arcs it raised, The Reality War opts for gestures over conclusions, questions over answers, and spectacle over sense.

What could have been an era-defining episode, a clever regeneration, an ambitious climax, instead signals something more worrying: that Doctor Who may be in need of fresh creative leadership. If the Disney era is to continue, it must steer away from nostalgia, avoid collapsing under its own mythology, and trust in simplicity, coherence, and character once more.

Doctor Who: The Reality War, along with all episodes of season two are available for UK audiences on BBC iPlayer or Disney+ worldwide where available.