Doctor Who Season 2, Episode 7 Review – “Wish World”

This reappraisal contains spoilers for play 2, occurrence 7 of Doctor Who, “Wish World.”

For long-time Doctor Who fans, the instrumentality of a villain similar The Rani mightiness dependable similar an event. It surely felt similar 1 past week, erstwhile she turned up with theatrical flair successful the mid-credits sting of “The Interstellar Song Contest” – a neat surprise, powered by Archie Panjabi’s steely beingness and a dash of due mystery. But successful this week’s “Wish World”? That spark dies connected arrival. Her comeback is conscionable different awkward throwback successful an occurrence that doesn’t cognize however to grip its past, fto unsocial marque the contiguous consciousness similar it matters.

“Wish World” represents the worst instincts of Doctor Who’s Disney epoch dialled up: glossy, confused, and screaming for attention. It’s a limp cocktail of shameless lore dumping, shallow storytelling, and a genuinely baffling consciousness of self-satisfaction. It spends a tiresome 45 minutes of build-up to conscionable constituent astatine aged names similar a magician revealing a bent spoon, hoping the motion unsocial is capable to amaze.

The Rani’s instrumentality should consciousness seismic. It’s been 38 years since the evil Time Lord made her past onscreen quality – 32 if you number her face-off against each the then-living Doctors and the formed of EastEnders successful a foundation special. That’s a agelong time, and successful theory, this ought to transportation the aforesaid value arsenic The Master crashing backmost into things successful 2007’s “Utopia”. That twist didn’t conscionable trust connected nostalgia; it weaponised it, utilizing it to amplify quality and rise the stakes. Instead, now, we get a Rani written similar a banal villain with a backstory cribbed from a half-read wiki page. There’s nary consciousness of danger, nary theatrical flair, nary mystique. Just a fewer arch lines, a crippled that hardly scans, and a breadcrumb way to yet different dusty Time Lord pulled from the show’s attic: Omega. It’s a sanction that’ll airy up a fistful of Reddit threads, sure, but it lands with a motion for the immense bulk who haven’t been revisiting “The Three Doctors” connected BritBox. Which is, to beryllium clear, mostly everyone.

What’s baffling isn’t conscionable the deficiency of payoff, it’s however proudly this outing squanders each accidental to present one. “Wish World” relies wholly connected anterior recognition, but ne'er lifts a digit to gain that concern successful the present and now. It’s obsessed with nods, references, and respective meandering enigma boxes, but utterly uninterested successful what immoderate of it means. This is instrumentality work astatine its astir vacant, a frustrating messiness that treats characters similar specified collectibles that get pulled from a support erstwhile you’re having a fancy meal party. It’s not rather the sludgy CG necromancy of The Flash, but it’s chopped from the aforesaid cloth: a hollow echo enclosure of reveals with nary buildup, and a premise that promises hostility but fizzles into a joyless trudge done stiff dialog and characters who consciousness hardly sketched in. Conrad pops up again with each the charisma of a queue astatine the station office, Ruby is inexplicably contiguous but does astir nothing, and adjacent Belinda, usually a agleam spot, is reduced to exposition and absorption shots. The full crippled moves similar it's dragging a soft done quicksand, dilatory collapsing nether the value of its pointless name-dropping bore fest of script.

With lone 1 occurrence left, the finale present has to execute miracles: warrant this mess, necktie the threads together, and inject meaning wherever there's presently none. Doctor Who utilized to remix its past into thing alive, urgent, and new; here, it conscionable gawks astatine its ain reflection, hoping a fewer hardly recognisable names volition bash each the dense lifting. Once upon a time, Russell T Davies brought bosom and clarity to a amusement near for dead, reviving it with capable vigor and affectional unit to marque it indispensable playground currency crossed Britain. Now, it feels similar he’s coasting. This isn’t Doctor Who with thing to say, it’s a hopeless exposition dump, stitched unneurotic from scraps of nostalgia and noise. Worst of all, it expects that to beryllium enough.