The Reality War

This Story: Series 2 Episode 8. Production code 15.9
Overall: Story 319b Episode 898
Airdate: 31 May 2025
Written by Russell T. Davies
Directed by Alex Sanjiv Pillai

Notes

• This episode was 66 minutes long, roughly 20 mins longer than the ones for the rest of the season.
• The final episode for Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor, as he regenerates here.  It’s also (presumably) the end for Ruby Sunday and Belinda Chandra.
• It was the first time the Doctor’s regeneration was not announced before the original transmission of the episode.
• This episode features the return of Billie Piper as ???  Gatwa regenerates into her, but she is not credited as “The Doctor”.  Piper herself as well as RTD have been pretty evasive on the subject, so it’s not quite known what is going on there.
• This episode features the return of the Time Hotel from “Joy To the World”, along with that show’s best thing – Anita.  She is shown using the hotel to visit several parts of the Doctor’s past.  This includes clips from “The Wedding of River Song“, “Rogue“, & “Day of the Daleks“.  The shot from Day of the Daleks is the third Doctor being interrogated by the Daleks.  There is a Dalek that pans in front of the shot, that is newly filmed footage and inserted into the old clip.
• The Rani recognizes Mel, and references their adventure on Lakeryta in “Time & The Rani“.
• UNIT builds a Zero Room – last seen in “Castrovalva“.
• Kate Lethbridge-Stewart mentions her father fighting Omega – a reference to “The Three Doctors“.
• There is a loose reference to “Genesis of the Daleks” as The Rani travels via Time Ring, which is the same way the Doctor traveled then.
• Featured a short appearance by Jodie Whittaker as the 13th Doctor – no flashback, actually there and interacted with 15.  She repeats a line first uttered by Patrick Troughton in “The Three Doctors” (and the 10th in “Day of the Doctor“) about not liking the changes to the console room.
• Speaking of flashbacks, we had yet ANOTHER Doctor montage – that’s two episodes in a row.  I loved these things, now?  Enough please.   This was just still pictures lifted from episodes and stylized – it wasn’t clips.  Just faces.
• There is an absolute garbage can of characters from recent Doctor Who in this episode.  Unfortunately there’s way too many of them, and for a lot of the time most of them are mute and just standing there doing nothing.  They are: Belinda Chandra, Ruby Sunday, the two Ranis, Anita Benn (from “Joy To the World“), Shirley Bingham (from several 14 & 15 episodes), Carla Sunday, Conrad Clark, Poppy (first from “Space Babies“), Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Susan Triad, Col Sexy (really Col Ibrahim), The Vlinx, Rose Noble, Melanie Bush, Cherry Sunday, & Lakshmi Chandra (Belinda’s mum).
• Mel’s motorcycle helmet can apparently give perms.  When she got on the bike she had straight hair, when she got off she had her old 80’s frizzy hair back.
• The Doctor & The Rani reveal that Time Lords are sterile after the events of the Time War.  It was the entire point behind what she was trying to – build a new Time Lord race using Omega.
• ADMIN NOTE: This post was actually made on 19 Sep 2025.  It was back dated to appear on the date the episode aired.

Links

[ Wikipedia | Tardis Data Core | SPS Historium | Official BBC Page | UK DVD | UK Blu-Ray | UK Steelbook ]