Doctor Who – “Wish World” Review – All Setup

Clint Schwalen and Clint Schwalen give their SPOILER-filled commentary on the seventh episode of Series 15.

NOTE: this review contains full SPOILERS for episode 7 of Series 15.

Wow, it’s been five years since you’ve written a discourse-as-review article.  What’s wrong?  Feeling conflicted about this episode?

No, I find the episode mostly entertaining, as it sets up the plot and establishes the stakes for the finale.

But . . . ?

But it’s difficult to review this episode, without having seen next week’s episode.  “Wish World” leaves almost all its plot threads unresolved, sacrificing closure to bolster the number of payoffs in “The Reality War.”  Narratively, this episode doesn’t stand on its own and can only be considered “good” in relation to the finale, which hasn’t aired.

So, this episode is “Schrödinger’s setup”—it both is and isn’t good, until you’ve seen next week’s conclusion?

That’s clever!

(gasp)  Is that why I’m here?  To represent either the “good” or the “bad” parts of the episode?

No, I figured since bi-generation seems to be the “it” thing, I could crib it for some comedy.

So, to quote the Rani, you’re “the” Clint Schwalen and I’m “a” Clint Schwalen?

Yes.  What else am I to do?  It’s difficult to fully appreciate part one of a two-part story in isolation, and faulting ‘Wish World’ for lacking closure seems unfair when it was written to establish ‘The Reality War.’

True.  So, what comments can you fairly levy at “Wish World”?

I will say that the episode is slow and plodding, stretching all the establishing exposition of the story’s first act across the entirety of the runtime.  That means that the story’s second and third acts—plus any epilogue or wrap-up from Series 15 as a whole—will have to be crammed into one episode.  By comparison, “The Reality War” is going to feel rushed, no?

Considering that the finale will have to resolve Rani’s plot to resurrect Omega—who himself will ostensibly have his own dastardly plan that must be enacted and then overcome—I’m gonna guess “yes,” the episode will feel rushed.

And that’s not even considering how a theoretical filming “hiatus” may impact the narrative.  Ruby and Belinda’s story arcs have both concluded, so we’ll need to say final goodbyes to both characters.  Will we also regenerate Fifteen into Sixteen, freeing lead actor Ncuti Gatwa to pursue a film career?  If Davies is stepping down as showrunner, will he want to pay tribute to his tenure(s)?  If the show is entering a second “Wilderness Era,” should the final episode celebrate the series’ cultural legacy?

Luckily, “The Reality War” will run for one hour and six minutes, so Davies has some extra room to play.

Yes, and based on Davies’ track record, I do trust him to craft an amazing finale.  There are just so many questions that need to be answered!

Like?

Some of them are obvious.  What are the giant skeletal monsters looming over the city?  Who is “the one who is lost” and what is his “great work”?

I’m assuming Omega.

That makes the most sense.  Also, Conrad’s televised stories talk of a surviving “Time Lady.”  Would that be the Rani or Susan?  Billboards advertise that “everyone has a role to play on May 24.”  What is that role?

Maybe it’s to doubt?  The Rani stated that the world’s combined doubts would crack open reality, freeing Omega.

Yes, but then why is doubting seen throughout this episode as a forbidden, punishable offense?  Mel’s dialogue indicates that her job on May 24 will be to “sit in silent contemplation and be jolly glad,” which seems to be the opposite of doubting.

Why does Ruby remember Mel and Shirley, but not recognize Belinda as Mundy Flynn or Poppy from “Space Babies”?

Why does Ruby remember anything at all?  A flashback within the episode hints that it is because Ruby has already experienced 2025 once, when she lived through an alternate version of it in “73 Yards.”  However, Mel is the one with eidetic memory.  You’d think she’d be the most difficult to mindwipe!

Actually, I have a theory about that.  It is Conrad’s wishes that are remaking reality.  Perhaps Ruby remembers aspects of the “real” world because Conrad is being spiteful and ensuring that her doubts cut her out of her own life.

Oh, I love that!  Though, we need to stop generating drama for Ruby by separating her from Carla and Cherry.  Davies literally mined this same narrative in “73 Yards”!  Finally, the Doctor insists that Poppy is real and genuinely his daughter, crying out, “Do you know what that means?”

That Poppy is also a Time Lord and perhaps the mother—or even the father—of Susan?

I won’t hazard a guess, but I do hope that each of these questions is addressed.

Apart from the lack of narrative resolution, what irked you about the episode?

The Rani using the “seventh son of a seventh son of a seventh son” as a means of attaining the power necessary to create the titular Wish World skews too close to magic, and the script barely acknowledges that the infant is Desiderium, the god of wishes and a member of the Pantheon.

I didn’t even catch that the baby’s giggle—“ha ha ha HA HA ha ha”—is an aural cue to his identity, until the second viewing!

I appreciate that the script tries to distance the infant’s reality warping abilities from “witchcraft”; however, the plot point seems like a shortcut.  I think the episode could better establish the Rani’s ingenuity by showing her collecting the means to enact her plan, much like in the Season 24 serial, Time and the Rani.

Yes, but then the episode wouldn’t have tied in with Davies’ “Pantheon of Gods” story arc.  I’m more bothered that the Rani using magic—er, I mean, “a fountainhead of power from beyond this Universe”—to rewrite reality repeats a familiar storyline from Series 10’s “The Lie of the Land.”  Like Ruby, former companion Bill Potts also awakened to a suddenly changed world.

Speaking of Ruby, her inclusion in the two-part finale robs current companion Belinda of her exigency.  Lacking agency, Belinda spends most of the episode under the influence of the Wish World, and the script focuses the audience’s attention on the Doctor, Ruby, and Shirley instead.

Belinda has so few moments of true doubt that her abduction feels less like a foreshadowed outcome and more like a ploy to keep the Doctor and his companion together for narrative reasons.

Right?!  Hilariously, while Belinda is being passively abducted, Ruby and Shirley are on the streets below, actively enacting a plan to undermine the Rani’s boney fortress and take down Conrad.

What are things that the episode does well?

I think this is a good update of the Rani.  Dressed in red leather and tall boots, she’s visually identifiable, and her devious plan once again involves playing with the Doctor’s memory to manipulate him, just as in Time and the Rani.

Does this mean you’re on board with her bi-generating?

No, but I can at least acknowledge that the episode is better for having Mrs. Flood as a henchman with which she can banter.  Still, I don’t quite understand the dynamic between the two incarnations.  Why did the Rani leave the Bone Castle to fetch deli meat for Conrad’s sandwich, only to hand the task of feeding Conrad over to Mrs. Flood?  Surely, the Rani had more important things to accomplish.

Conrad very much seems like a prisoner, too, and not a partner in this scheme or even appreciated for his vision in creating the Wish World.  I’d expect the Doctor to rescue him, except that Conrad’s preferred version of reality reveals his hateful rhetoric and establishes him as a villain.

Speaking of, I appreciate how the new realities of the Wish World subtly reflect Conrad’s bigotry and bias.  Obviously, Colonel Ibrahim considers the Doctor’s queerness abhorrent because Conrad views attraction through a heteronormative lens.  Shirley takes Ruby on a tour of a tent city where the “poor, forgotten, and irrelevant”—which notably includes drag queens, the differently abled, and the not conventionally attractive—have collected, away from the eyes of the majority.  Shirley sums up this manifestation of Conrad’s in-group bias, stating, “Conrad isn’t disabled, so he can’t see us.  And if he can’t see us, we don’t get seen.”  Just as in “Lucky Day,” Conrad’s bigotry mirrors the nationalism of the political far-right, and it’s interesting to see Doctor Who again use its fantastical, sci-fi premise to explore what that world would be like, if fully realized.

I took the reality of Conrad’s Wish World in a completely different way.

Oh?

Belinda’s aunt, Devika, echoes Conrad’s statement that “good little girls make good little wives who make good little mothers.”  This sentiment is reflective of a bygone era where women were seen as chattel, their value found only in their roles as cooks, maids, wives, and mothers.  The set and costume design of the scene enhances the notion that Conrad, like many who espouse right-wing politics, wishes a return to more “traditional” times, when things were “better.”

Except things weren’t “better” for everyone—especially minorities, women, and disenfranchised groups.

Exactly.  The “good old days” weren’t “good” for anyone outside of the white patriarchy.  The notion breaks down when viewed outside of an andro-ethnocentric point of view.  But that’s the point.  The Rani needs humanity to doubt, in order to tear the fabric of reality and free Omega from the Underverse. 

So, she gave Conrad the power to make his Wish World—a society so steeped in misogyny, heteronormativity, and ableism as to be unsustainable, thereby ensuring the success of her plan?

YES!  “Wish World” subtly skewers the idea of Conrad’s bigoted ideology, labeling it literally as “doubtful” and portraying it as the first step in a grand evil’s master plan.

Oh, that’s wickedly brilliant—and a perfect example of what great science fiction can accomplish!

So, predictions for “The Reality War”?

Just one: “The Reality War” will end with Fifteen’s regeneration.  The moment Rogue showed up—

Ugh.  That whole scene makes no sense.  He’s trapped in a collapsing “hell dimension” and unsure of his prospects for survival, but he’s been following the Doctor’s adventures in Wish World?

Yes, that scene certainly feels like it was tacked on at the last minute—and that’s my point.  Before Fifteen’s era concludes, some storylines must be wrapped up.  The mystery of Ruby Sunday must be solved.  Belinda has to be returned to May 24, 2025.

Done and done.

The identity of Mrs. Flood must be revealed.

Check.  Oh, the Doctor needs closure regarding Susan.

 That’s been addressed through her recent cameos, though more is sure to come in the finale.  And that just leaves—

“Find me.”

—rescuing Rogue.  I fully expected the Rogue storyline to extend over Davies’ proposed four-series arc for his second tenure.  However, if Davies senses that Gatwa may not be long for the role—

—or that Disney may not order a further series—

—then he needs to provide at least a hint of resolution for that story.  And now he kinda has.  At worst, we know where Rogue ended up and that he won’t survive; however, he is able to help the Doctor and expresses his affections, one final time.

I think it’s hilarious that Rogue’s final “I love you” gets cut off, just like Ten’s final message to Rose in “Doomsday.”

See—that’s what I mean when I say that an outgoing Davies may want to pay homage to his time on the show before he leaves.  At this point, all of Fifteen’s storylines have some measure of resolution, even if rushed.  There’s nothing else that needs to be addressed.

So, Fifteen will regenerate?

That’s not my preference, but I see it as a smart decision, considering the impending hiatus.  Of course, the BBC will continue to produce Doctor Who, but it’ll be at least a year before production can begin again.  Will Gatwa be available in a year?

Best not to count on that.

Correct.

Do you think we’ll see who he regenerates into?

No—it’s best to leave that decision for when production begins again.  Unless Joanna Lumley’s free.

Oh, speaking of The Curse of Fatal Death, did you notice the vintage clips of the Rani from classic episodes of Doctor Who?

Yes.  I loved that!

Well, one of them is from Dimensions in Time, so I guess that serial is canon, now!

(stunned silence)

You know, this idea of Fifteen regenerating has me reconsidering your displeasure of the Rani’s bi-generation.  Having two Ranis means that, when they inevitably betray one another in the finale, Mrs. Flood can be killed—

—which would allow Davies to show that only the newer incarnation can regenerate— 

—which frees the series to move on from the idea that the Fourteenth Doctor is still active in adventuring and could show up at any moment.

Random Musings

(Time) Capsule Review

Eschewing closure for any of its plotlines, “Wish World” is solely tasked with setting up next week’s series finale.  As a result, “Wish World” cannot be enjoyed in isolation and will be judged as “good” or “bad” in relation to the perceived quality of “The Reality War.”  Despite this, “Wish World” offers subtle-but-scathing political commentary and a thoughtful update to the Rani.

If you’d like to interact with the authors of this article, follow them on BlueSky.