DOCTOR WHO, 15.7 – ‘Wish World’

The two-part finale to Series 15 of Doctor Who is upon us, and everyone’s braced for disappointment given how the last series wrapped up with a mix of unsatisfying explanations and loose ends. Russell T. Davies is a hit-and-miss writer, rarely at his best when he’s required to do something on an epic scale that makes sense beyond the spectacle of it all. “Wish World” was entertaining nonsense; more a collection of random ideas and visuals than anything truly compelling, let alone cohesive.

The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) awakens to find himself in bed with his companion Belinda (Varada Sethu), as they’re inexplicably a married couple living in the London suburbs with a young daughter called Poppy. His previous companion, Ruby (Millie Gibson), comes to his front door and seems to be half-aware something’s amiss, but unfortunately the entire world seems to have been transformed into a Brazil (1985)-esque dystopia of Big Brother-level control. The Doctor, a.k.a “John Smith” in a pinstriped suit and bowler hat, is employed at UNIT — which is now an insurance firm, equipped with large typewriters and homophobic co-workers. Two skyscraper-sized skeletons of monsters roam across London, for reasons still unclear to me, and “Lucky Day” villain Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King) is reading a Doctor Who-themed story to the world on television while seemingly controlling the weather.

If that all sounds mad, it’s because it is. There’s certainly some intrigue and amusement to be had, but nothing that entirely overcomes the irritating sense of befuddlement. Or maybe it’s the nagging feeling that RTD is unlikely to provide solid answers to any of the many questions being thrown up. RTD is an avowed fan of Marvel films, and there seems to be overt influences from WandaVision (2021), with familiar characters finding themselves in an unfamiliar 1950s-style setting with no memory of their real identities, with some lo-fi Loki (2021–23) aesthetic pasted onto UNIT. One could even argue Agatha Harkness, the villain of WandaVision, has provided the template to the new version of The Rani (Archie Panjabi), who’s introduced in 19th-century Bavaria turning peasants into ducks and owls like a witch.

Ah yes, The Rani. The denouement last week of her return to the show was fairly exciting, but there wasn’t much about “Wish World” that worked about her presence. One problem is how The Rani always felt like a “female Master” antagonist for The Doctor, working along the same lines, but we’ve since had a female Master, “Missy”, so there’s even less to differentiate those two characters. The odd fact that she bi-regenerated, thus meaning Mrs Flood (“a Rani”) is still hanging around, and for inexplicable reasons happy to play second fiddle and make sandwiches for her successor, adds very little to the show. Two Rani never feels as threatening as having two Masters was in “World Enough and Time”, so it feels pointless to have even bothered. It just dilutes the significance of Panjabi in this role.

The Rani even monologues about being old friends with The Doctor, much as Missy would do. Archie Panjabi does what she can with a cartoonish part and seems to be having fun, but once the acknowledges her exposition at the end about what’s going on… well, I know Doctor Who is messy sci-fi at the best of times, but it really does feel like RTD writes episodes as an improv challenge. Mrs Flood released Conrad from prison so he can (somehow) utilise the wish-making power of a 160-year-old baby, who’s actually the reincarnation of yet another pantheon God, to create a world that presumably is his utopia.

Okay, I get that means gay people are oppressed, married heterosexual couples are idealised, UNIT have become dull investors, and the weather’s always pleasant, but why the skeleton monsters and Rani HQ made of bone? And does it make sense Conrad would somehow worship 1950s fashion and tech, given his age? He’s a child of the 2000s, right? The actor was born in 1995. I suppose he’s mean to represent the outmoded views of Nigel Farage, but it didn’t work if he was age-appropriate to be romancing Ruby in “Lucky Day”.

Ultimately, there’s too much going on in “Wish World” for it to make even half the sense it needed to. RTD seems to delight in biting off more than he can chew, mainly because he understandably wants the show to seem big and bold and complex, but all it tends to do is make it look silly and a little desperate at times. Once The Rani reveals that all of this was only a means to an end, as she needed The Doctor’s “doubt” to crack a hole in reality itself and find the “Underverse”, where the all-powerful Time Lord “Omega” resides… well, it’s laughable and confusing. You have to buy into several nonsensical ideas, not least that doubt itself is something that has physical power. It’s unfortunately another example of RTD preferring magical realism to sci-fi these days, as it’s easier to write yourself out of tight corners and narrative dead-ends if “magic” can be thrown at a problem.

There are some good moments, too. I enjoyed Varada Sethu’s Stepford Wife-style performance as a different version of Belinda, married to a man she’s brainwashed to believe is a danger to her if he starts to doubt their life together. Although it’s a shame scenes with Bel’s family represent the first expansion of her character’s life since was introduced in “The Robot Revolution”, and yet all of this was happening in a fantasy-world. And the production design of the Rani’s base was amazing, like we’re inside a room made of cartilage and bone, with cyber-drone creatures with oily fingers go about their work. Creepy stuff.

Admittedly, this is only half the story. Perhaps Mrs Flood’s brewing resentment will come into play with The Rani and lead to a thrilling confrontation, or Conrad will find better focus in becoming a problem for his ex-girlfriend Ruby to contend with again. Maybe Omega will be a thrilling new supervillain for the show, as if we need four antagonists in our finales these days. Have we finally exhausted the back catalogue of Who enemies you can whip out in an emergency to make a flimsy plot feel more weight? I have doubts that could tear reality apart.

UK | 2025 | 44 MINUTES | 16:9 HD | COLOUR | ENGLISH

Cast & Crew

writer: Russell T. Davies.
director: Alex Sanjiv Pillai.
starring: Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu, Archie Panjabi, Millie Gibson, Jemma Redgrave, Jonah Hauer-King, Atilla Akinci, Leni Adams, Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps, Bonnie Langford, Ruth Madeley, Susan Twist, Alexander Devrient, Nila Aalia, Josephine Lloyd-Welcome, Hermon Berhane, Sam Lawton, Joshua J. Parker, Michelle Greenidge & Angela Wynter.