So, Wish World. Wow. Just wow. I’ve been a huge proponent of this entire season. I’ve loved the entire season, and I thought most of the episodes were complete bangers. This one’s a bit of a mess.
We all saw the reveals. We all saw the chaos. But there’s one tiny detail hidden in plain sight that might just explain the Rani’s true master plan, no pun intended, and also why the teased return feels, well, a bit off so far. It made me rethink this entire setup, and it’s definitely not what Mrs. Know-It-All was gushing about.
The non-spoiler version first. The Doctor and his companion, in this case seemingly Belinda, wake up in a bizarre, idyllic, yet deeply unsettling alternate reality. Think picture-perfect suburbia with an oppressive conformist undertone. People who doubt this reality face strange consequences, and Conrad Clark seems to be the architect, or the mouthpiece, of this strange new world. The Doctor, with no memory of his true self, navigates it trying to piece together just what’s wrong, while familiar faces pop up in unexpected roles. It’s a classic something’s-not-right-here setup that escalates quickly as the true nature of this reality and the powers behind it begin to unravel, and it leads to a cliffhanger that seemingly sets up a massive confrontation.
From this point on it’s full spoiler territory. It’s what I do. If you haven’t seen Wish World yet, go watch it on Disney Plus or BBC iPlayer and come right back, because we definitely need to talk.
1950s Americana, Mixed With Sinister
The overall aesthetic I don’t have a problem with. It’s very 1950s Americana mixed with sinister, and that’s literally the only way I can describe it. The consequences of doubt are an interesting play. That whole shattering mug thing, and the fact that every single garbage bin outside is marked for slips, because that’s how frequent this is.
I’ve been watching this whole season back through from the beginning, because again, I love this season. I think it’s really, really good. So I was looking forward to a classic RTD two-parter. He’s done a lot of really good two-parters that I’ve liked, and I’ve enjoyed the way they’ve always been presented. I was hoping this was going to be something like that, or akin to it, and it really wasn’t.
The social commentary that’s woven in, now that I’m seeing it, is a critique of conformity, which I guess means traditional values, for lack of a better way to put it, and of the suppression of individuality. Okay. I understand the message. I don’t know exactly how I feel about it, or if I necessarily agree with the sentiment, but I do understand where it’s coming from.
Then there’s the pacing of the Doctor regaining his memories and understanding that they’re in a fake reality. I don’t know why that took so long. The minute he began to recognize Ruby at the door, that should’ve been the tipping point. They hold on longer and longer and longer, and it felt like it was just giving us an excuse for the whole exposition dump of everything. And when you’re jumping back and forth between him and other things, I want to see what’s going on with him. What we get is this whole detour that starts with the wish baby.
The Wish Baby, and a Pantheon That Became a MacGuffin
The wish baby. What? No, really. What?
I feel like the entire gods and pantheon aspect has been lost. Russell went into this era very excited about taking us places that were more about mythology and magic, all the things you didn’t associate with Doctor Who, and that’s great. We started there. But we kept going back to that particular well, and it kept drying up as far as I was concerned. Last season, fine, whatever. Then this season touched on it as often as it did, and we come to this. How do you go from having this pantheon of chaos, whoever they are, start as something important and then ultimately become the MacGuffin at the end?
Part of my frustration is that I’m very disappointed, because this has been such an amazing season. I hope I’m wrong. I hope I’m wrong.
UNIT is an insurance company in Wish World, and apparently the Doctor works there, and he begins to show proclivities outside of what’s considered the norm in Conrad’s world. It felt like a ham-fisted message, though again, I do understand it and I see it.
What I can’t get past is the mechanics of how Wish World was created and then sustained. The wish baby, Desiderium, and then the Rani’s tech, which I don’t understand. Normally when Russell does something like this, where he just dumps you into a world that’s already established, you get more. We didn’t get much more. Everything felt very in-your-face and very explained.
Overt Is One Thing. Ham-Fisted Is Another.
Does he think the audience is that dumb, that we have to be talked to? He’s never had to talk down to us before.
Someone made a wonderful comment last week, and I believe I certified it Know-It-All. What it boiled down to was that when it comes to the messaging, maybe subtle messaging hasn’t worked, or wasn’t accepted, so more overt messaging is what RTD felt was necessary. Okay. I’m willing to go with you down that road. But to what end?
As has been stated numerous times in many other places, Doctor Who has had plenty of messaging throughout all of it. Everything from acceptance to peace to making the world better, global warming, global cooling, global everything, whatever. It’s always had some sort of messaging. I know that. But it’s never felt as ham-fisted as it does right now.
And understand, I’m not even talking about overt. I’m talking about ham-fisted. Overt messaging is someone holding up a sign. Ham-fisted is someone holding up a sign, and then someone else having to say, “Wow, look, that person’s holding up a sign, I guess they must mean blah blah blah,” and then you have an exchange that literally spells out the whole message. That’s where I feel we are now.
I don’t mind messaging. I’m a Star Trek fan. Trust me, I’m not like these deniers out there who are like, get politics and messaging out of my stories. That’s a part of storytelling. I’d argue it’s functionally why stories exist: to discuss, through fiction, the events of the world and the time we live in. To let some people be seen or heard, to let ideas and viewpoints be explored through that lens, because you can distance yourself from it and go, “Huh, that’s an interesting idea, let me wrap my brain around that.” It’s not unheard of. I’m just used to them doing it a little better. Just me.
What a Penultimate Episode Is For
As setup for a two-part finale, this was really clunky, especially for how much was dedicated to establishing the new reality versus moving the overarching plot forward.
What would’ve helped is if they’d just dived us in and moved forward. The problem is they dive us in and then sit there. And they sit there, and they sit there. We see Ruby, we see the Doctor, everything sits there, and we finally get to meet Conrad and the whole backstory and the baby and the whole thing. They had to introduce a lot of moving parts just to take us somewhere. This is the penultimate episode. We shouldn’t be getting new elements introduced or having things set up for us.
If you’re any kind of fan of this channel, if you’re part of Know-It-All Nation, you know what a penultimate episode is. It serves one of two purposes. The first is to set up the finale, whatever that is, and this more or less does that, if clunky, if ham-fisted. The other is to come to a climax itself and then set up the resolution in the next episode. That’s more in line with a Game of Thrones, where you see the big action thing happen in the penultimate and the last episode resolves and wraps things up.
I don’t think we’re there. We’re definitely in the first situation. They’ve tried to set up enough stuff to take us into what should be the big, raucous, climactic finale, regardless of how this episode ended.
The visual style is the contrast between that bright artificial world, which is very Truman Show, and the underlying menace that’s there, including all those giant bone creatures. I’ll be honest, I didn’t understand those at all. Wonderful, fantastical things to see, but none of it’s explained in any meaningful way. None of it says to me, okay, this is why this is here. I’m normally okay with going along for the ride with some of these things, but I don’t know, man. A lot of questions, not enough answers.
I did like the use of doubt as a literal weapon, or a key to breaking the illusion, and then flipping that idea on its head, because doubt is exactly what the Ranis want. That was interesting.
Varada Sethu Is Too Good for This Show
Ncuti Gatwa is meh in this. He’s basically the same as he’s always been as the Doctor. He’s himself. I’m coming very quickly to the conclusion that this version of the Doctor is just Ncuti Gatwa, like the Doctor regenerated into the actor Ncuti Gatwa, because that’s what I’m finding more and more. There are things I see, like him getting angry last week, which was wonderful, seeing that face, the anger of the Time Lord. Everything else, I’m getting frustrated. When he’s husband John Smith, I didn’t believe it. I didn’t believe him at all. It felt like acting.
Then you switch over to Varada Sethu, and she’s honestly way too good for this show. I don’t know if that’s a hot take or not. I’ve seen her in Andor and in several other things now, and as an actress she’s standing head and shoulders above everybody else. Belinda as a character really got a chance to shine here, navigating the creepy perfection, the Stepford wifeiness of it all, and then that dawning horror. Sethu breathes life into her, especially in the emotional upheaval. The part where she runs out of her house, gets out to the countryside and screams in frustration, this weird impotent frustration. I dug that moment. I believed that moment.
Sethu has owned this character in a way that I don’t think Ruby Sunday has been owned by Millie Gibson, and I definitely don’t think Ncuti Gatwa has owned this Doctor to this point. It’s getting frustrating, that’s all. Because again, I’ve loved this season, so I don’t really understand it.
I also don’t know why we needed a cameo of any kind from the character the Doctor ran into long ago who’s been left in, like, a hell dimension. I didn’t understand that incorporation at all. I’m glad to see the character, I guess, but it didn’t make much sense to me other than for him to sit there and give the note: tables don’t do that.
Archie Panjabi, as the newly revealed Rani, is definitely bringing theatrical menace. I’ll say that. She’s clearly enjoying this villain role. Anita Dobson is Mrs. Flood, now also the Rani, and the dynamic between the two of them is something. I’m not going to say if it’s great or not, but it’s something, and I don’t know that I’m a huge fan of what it is.
Reveals That Weren’t That Big
I say big reveals, but they’re not really that big. We all saw Conrad telegraphed as being involved in this episode and ultimately the finale. He wasn’t the third part of their trinity, if you will, but he’s instrumental in shaping and maintaining this false reality using the wish baby. Okay. Sure.
The Ranis’ ultimate goal in creating this really elaborate illusion is to use the Doctor’s doubt to shatter reality, and to both find and release Omega. Okay. I don’t know. The reveal of Omega was about as lackluster as I thought the reveal of the Rani was, and that should’ve been more exciting. They used that really great Big Finish audio, and I thought that was cool. But we’ve also heard the actor before. The guy who plays the voice of Omega literally played the voice of Sutekh, and he’s been in Doctor Who for quite some time playing other voices.
I remember the Omega episode very clearly. This is one I’ve actually seen. I like the character of Omega. I don’t know how you reconcile the story of Omega with the new history they’ve retconned and built into the Doctor, the Timeless Child and those elements. Please don’t get it confused, I’ve got no argument with those elements. I’m trying to understand how you marry the two concepts. I found that confusing, but at the same time I’m like, all right, whatever.
So Omega is confirmed as the one who is lost, the ancient Time Lord engineer the Rani is apparently seeking. And then we get some weird suggestion of a romantic relationship between the Doctor and the Rani. I don’t know. She’s always been super amoral. It’s always just been about the science. The idea that they’ve had a romantic relationship of any kind at any point feels awkward, if not, like everything else I’m describing, ham-fisted.
The Rani I Did My Homework On
Some criticisms, because I haven’t given enough already. Way too many plot threads and characters. The episode felt super overstuffed. In short, you have two Ranis, an Omega, a wish baby, Conrad, the entire cast of UNIT, not to mention Ruby’s mystery, Belinda and her family’s ultimate role, and of course the Doctor himself and everything he’s going through. Wow, there’s a lot happening in this episode.
The Rani’s motivations and plan feel really overcomplicated, and for me it’s more a departure from her classic characterization. Why do I say that, considering last week I said, who is the Rani? I did some homework. I didn’t have to do much, because the BBC put out a video showing the Rani’s highlights. It’s a wonderful video, about 17 minutes long, and it basically shows every scene she was in. Add some reading online and you can get a pretty comprehensive idea of who the Rani is. I wanted to understand her better going into this finale, especially after the lackluster intro we got to her character.
She’s always been drawn up as an amoral, pure scientist with no interest in domination of any kind. This version comes across as Missy 2.0. I really don’t see a difference between her and the Master. Not in how they’re being portrayed. The Rani’s never been considered evil, though a lot of her actions have put her at odds with the Doctor. I’ve never considered her to be the Doctor’s adversary. There’ve been times she and the Doctor have been adversarial, but I guess that’s just my interpretation of the whole thing.
The Omega reveal, while significant for longtime fans, and why wouldn’t it be, felt a little bit rushed and really info-dumpy in its execution. I don’t know why we needed that. The wish baby, Desiderium, feels like a convenient MacGuffin, like I mentioned, because the only reason the god creature exists is for the Rani’s plan, which again feels convoluted and over the top. And for a show that’s supposed to be pulling in new viewers, it really leans heavy on established lore in ways it didn’t before.
The Tiny Detail
Wish World, for me, is a mess, even by RTD’s sometimes wonderfully chaotic standards. As the first part of a two-part finale, it felt like the weakest setup I’ve experienced from him yet. There are so many moving parts and so many threads being juggled, and it feels a bit frantic.
I know some people, like Mrs. Know-It-All, absolutely loved it and were buzzing about the reveals. She was excited for me to explain what it all meant, and to look at the ambition that’s all here. I’ll give it that for sure. It’s definitely ambitious, without a doubt. But Omega is a legendary villain, and his impending return feels really lackluster, almost overshadowed by the sheer noise of everything else that’s happening.
So, the tiny detail. It’s how the Rani talks about needing the Doctor’s doubt to shatter reality to find Omega. Why Omega? Other than the fan service aspect, which I do believe is what RTD is leaning into. For years everyone’s been like, “Oh, the Rani, the Rani, the Rani, and Omega,” and the answer was always it’s not this, we can’t do that. Now this very cliche thing has just become the thing.
So why does he need to be found this way? Does this new Rani genuinely believe Omega’s offering them something better? Or is she being manipulated herself, by some force even bigger than the pantheon we’ve been teased with? The way she drops her classic scientific detachment for this weirdly grand, almost emotional crusade for Omega feels like the biggest misstep. And I think that might actually be a clue to a deeper, perhaps even more worrying motivation that’s yet to be revealed. That has me really concerned.
I’m really hoping The Reality War next week ties all of this together in a way that makes Wish World stronger in retrospect. Right now, I’m a little disappointed.
The Verdict
Doctor Who: Wish World, Season 2, Episode 7, gets a 7 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
Well, for now. That could definitely change based on how this all susses out in the end. Fingers crossed.
I feel like it’s one of those things where we’re going to find out more as we go, and I hope you’ll be along for that ride.
Am I being too harsh? Is Mrs. Know-It-All right and I’m wrong? I’d love to hear what you think of Wish World, and your theories on where this is going. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
