Doctor Who: Wish World

"And now, it's time for today's story. 'Doctor Who and the Deadly Wish.'"

Part one of the two-part finale for this season of Doctor Who is definitively not messing around. And, against all odds, I really liked it.

First of all, I should note that I'm on record as really disliking 'alternate reality' episodes of genre television.

Sure, I get it. It gives the regulars something new and different to play and shakes things up by exploring some fun 'what if?'s. I just don't particularly enjoy them because I spend the entire time waiting impatiently for reality to get reset and things to get back to normal. I don't even really enjoy 'The Wish', and that gave the world evil, sexy Willow. So, when I say I really enjoyed the entire setup of this one, just know that they were swimming upstream.

Part of it, I think, is the way they established the atmosphere in the opening sequence. Bavaria, 1865 is such pure, unfettered Brothers Grimm territory, before we even get to the seventh son of a seventh son of a seventh son and the whole woodcutter's cottage in the forest vibe, and the stolen baby by what is for all intents and purposes the local witch who turns the other children into ducks. We are being hardwired to think in terms of fairytale logic throughout that entire opening sequence, even as we're being given the first piece of the actual plot (even though we don't know what we're being told yet.)

Which is all a little odd, given who the villain is.

You see, historically, the Rani's entire character brief has been 'scientist devoted to deductive reasoning divorced from morality.' She experiments on animals to find scientific truths regardless of the cost to her experimental subjects. (Look, it was the late 80s. That was kind of a big thing at the time.) She's so completely mis-cast as the avatar for fairy tale story-logic that it's almost perverse to see her in this context. Which I think is exactly why Russell T. Davies picked her.

It's tempting (and also valid) to write this off as one of those moments when we just accept that the original series was a long time ago, and it's valid to reinvent things, and the value of a story shouldn't be measured by whether or not a character's behavior tracks with how they were portrayed 40 years ago. And if that's as far as you want to take things on this one, that's fair enough. But I think that Russell is both enough of a pedant – and also cheeky enough – that he was perfectly aware of how odd it is to place the Rani in this context and did it deliberately just for the tonal dissonance.

Another thing that strikes an odd note in a plan of the Rani's is the sheer, overwhelming heteronormativity of this 'wished' reality. Women are expected to want to be stay-at-home wives and mothers. Marrying a woman 'frees' her from having to have a job. Just the barest hint of a man acknowledging that another man is attractive sends everyone to DEFCON 1. The Rani, a female scientist (although I suppose it's just that we've only ever seen her female presenting and as a time lady she can just as easily regenerate into a dude. Still, my point stands). And so, I start the sentence again. The Rani, a female scientist, has only ever been shown to be interested in experimentally proven scientific truths. 1960s style nuclear family with baked in sexism has nothing to do with science or truth. The character, as we understand her, shouldn't be against that sort of thing, she should be completely disinterested in it.

Which is exactly the point. The things we might look to as flaws in the storytelling are, in fact, the point of the story. Which is done deliberately to mirror the fact that the flaws in the Rani's false reality are also not flaws, but the entire point of the exercise. RTD is deliberately setting himself up to appear to have written a flawed script, solely to echo the text of the script itself once we get to the big reveals at the end.

Also, it should be noted, he does get around to making it perfectly clear that the script isn't flawed at all, but it's buried a bit in the mix. The world is a sexist 60s pastiche because it wasn't the Rani's wish that created the world, it was Conrad's, and Conrad is a giant bag of dicks. Of course he would make a sexist utopia. The Rani isn't behaving out of character at all; she's just experimenting within the parameters that the Doctor brought about when he 'awoke the pantheon.' It's totally in character for her to immediately track down the most powerful one, steal him as a baby, and use him to power a universe-altering experiment.

One thing that isn't out of character for either Conrad, the Rani, or RTD is the way the script addresses the disabled community. In this story they exist on the fringes, able to see the changes and inconsistences in the world because neither Conrad nor the Rani could be bothered even noticing them long enough to prevent it. And it's very in character for RTD to use the two of them to basically call out all of modern society for doing the exact same thing in the process. I particularly liked the detail that Shirley was still smart enough to recognize that it made no sense at all for her to have such an expensive chair, and that she must have had access to medications based on how she was currently experiencing her disability.

So, when I say that I really like this episode, despite my disinclination toward 'altered reality' storylines, these are the reasons why. It's all the rules of 'altered reality' stories that this one breaks that make it work. It's weird and notable that the Doctor spends all but the last forty seconds or so believing in the illusion. It's unusual that he has to be dragged by the back of his neck to the truth, rather than gradually putting the pieces together himself. It's unheard of that the entire point of this reality was to force people to not believe in it, the Doctor most of all.

The Rani's entire plan was to create a fake reality that was so shit that the Doctor would inevitably start to question it and give her the doubt she needed. And that's such a profoundly different and new take on the 'parallel universe' episode that I can't help but love it.

Callbacks and Cameos:

I was going to wrap this into the main body of the review, but I'm so self-satisfied with how that last paragraph rounded itself off that I'm just going to tackle this in its own section.

There were a LOT of returning faces in this one for various lengths of time. From a LOT of different periods of the show's history. So many that it's worth giving a quick rundown.

Conrad: From earlier this season's episode 'Lucky Day.' He's a bag of dicks and we hate him. It turns out the Rani – then in her Mrs. Flood incarnation – picked him up because he was the 'boy who wanted to make the world better,' which means he had a strong enough wish that he could be in charge of the God of Wishes baby and do breakfast television. Which is fine from a season long plotting standpoint, but that's not at all who he was in that story. He didn't care about making the world better, he just wanted to get revenge on UNIT and pretend that he wasn't an impotent baby-man whose mommy never loved him. Still, if we accept Mrs. Flood's word on things, what he is works well enough in this episode. Also, and it pains me to say this because I hate him so much, his scenes with Mrs. Flood have a genuine sincerity to them that is indescribably sweet and rings true for both characters. She's clearly the mother figure he desperately needs, and he is her understanding ally in their subservience to the Rani. Dammit, I kind of love them together.

Susan: The Doctor's Granddaughter, and the very first companion. (Although the third that we actually see, if you want to get nit-picky about it.) She flashed on the TV for about half a second before we get to...

Rogue: From the episode of the same name last season. If we take what we see as real, he ended up in a hell dimension that's about to be tipped into an abyss. BUT... we also get a lot of clues both before and after his cameo that it isn't really him and that he's only shown to the Doctor in order to push him over the edge into his final stage of doubting. Which he definitely does. So, really Rogue? Or just an illusion from Conrad/The Rani? Who can say. I don't expect they'll address it next episode, so we may never have a definitive answer. Still nice to see him, though.

The Rani: We've already talked about. Although I should be honest and admit that I really don't know if I liked her so much because RTD found a way to make the Rani cool as hell, or if I just really like Archie Panjabi because of The Good Wife. I swear, I don't know which it is.

and finally...

Omega: Created for the 10th anniversary and popped back in for the 20th. I'm sure we'll hear more about him in the next one. He was created by the same guys that invented K-9 and his original name was going to be 'Ohm,' as they thought that was 'Who' backwards and upside down. True story.

Bits and Pieces:

-- Poppy was, in fact, played by the same tiny actress as she was in 'Space Babies,' and I'm only just now realizing I should have included her in the above section. They filmed this and the previous season at the same time, which took care of that pesky 'child actress aging' issue. The Doctor's last words here are something along the line of 'Poppy is real!' and IMDb says she's in three episodes of Doctor Who, of which we've only seen two. So, the smart money says that she'll show up and be relevant next episode.

-- Of the things that I miss about reviewing Legends of Tomorrow – and there are many – one of my favorites was the way that they would include random bits of things that would come up in your day-to-day life as a Muslim for Zari, and later Behrad, without spoon-feeding us as to what they were about. And so, I would go look them up and learn things about Muslim culture and be super happy to have learned something cool. I got to experience that again in this episode. During breakfast with Poppy, Belinda and the Doctor discuss the upcoming celebrations for May the 24th and Belinda mentions that she's going to make a big pot of biryani. I didn't know what that was, and so I looked it up. It's a rice and meat stew (although there are also vegetarian versions) very common in both India and Pakistan. Which made me realize that I didn't know which was Belinda's culture. Honestly, has it ever come up? Do we know her background or religious upbringing? I honestly don't recall if they'd ever said before. BUT, Belinda then calls her mother Amma, which is 'mother' in Hindi, and her Auntie has a bindi (which I now know is the proper name for the red dot on her forehead as well as some of its cultural significance), and so I think we definitively know that Belinda's family are Hindu, and very probably from India. And now I want her and Yaz to meet and have a really fascinating talk about their families.

-- Also, there are so many Biryani recipes online and they all look delicious. I'm definitely going to attempt a chicken one. (I don't have the heart for lamb.)

-- Mug manufacturers must make billions in this reality.

-- They didn't give Mel much of anything to do in this one, which I hope means she'll be prominent in the next.

-- The visuals in this episode are absolutely gorgeous. Especially the black latex women with their fingers attached by the same latex to the black latex desk surfaces they sit at. Haunting, beautiful, and very Clive Barker.

-- What exactly was the point of the giant, spectral, dinosaur skeleton things? They're a cool visual but they never become relevant or even explicable.

-- All of the different Conrad posters are worth pausing the episode to read.

-- They clearly made the Doctor Who and the Deadly Wish book in the style of the British covers for the Harry Potter series. I would have loved that before J.K. Rowling devoted her life to being the face and financing of a global hate movement. Now it just made me sad.

-- Back in my review of 'Lux' I mentioned that the giggle was just a thing the Toymaker did that once and it was weird that they were using it as a thing all the pantheon gods do now just so that they can do the reveal with a sound cue. Since then, I rewatched 'The Devil's Chord' and realized I was totally wrong. They've literally used it to announce the pantheon gods every single time. Sorry about that.

-- They did a really nice job setting up the 'tip line' to turn in your loved ones for doubting. First, it's used against Ruby, who's apparently a stranger. Then used against Ruby again in flashback by her mum when we know she got away, and then only for the third time is it used by someone we love against someone else that we love as an act of betrayal with consequences. Very disciplined.

-- And speaking of that, how many freaking times are we going to have to see alternate Carla turn on Ruby? This is at least the fourth time. Sure, it's always alternate reality/mind control/retconned, but still, come on.

Quotes:

Ruby: "I'm sorry about this, but... do I know you?"

The Doctor: "I did work late last night."
Kate: "Time carries no favors."

Conrad: "All the Time Lords were killed, and Doctor Who was the only one left."

The Rani: "But humans seem to like it. Let's keep the boy happy."
Mrs. Flood: "Is that a salad or a sandwich?"

Conrad: "It's such hard work. All the thinking."

Mrs. Flood: "Would I lie? Well, yes, I would. But not this time, darling."

Conrad: "He's amazing, isn't he?"
Mrs. Flood: "He's terrifying."
Conrad: "He's absolutely terrifying."

Mrs. Flood: "It could be said that you sprang from my loins."
The Rani: "That's the most disgusting thing I've ever heard."

Shirley: "Pardon me if I don't frisk you, but you seem very non-disabled to me."

Rogue: "And this Hell dimension is sliding into the pit. I don't know if I'm going to survive. Thank you for that, you know?"

Rogue: "Tables don't do that."

The Rani: "No God of Wishes could have infinite power, or we'd be drowning in a universe of breast milk."

He literally looks amazing in everything.

I really loved this episode and I'm really loving this season. And definitely loving Belinda. I hope so much that she stays another season at least.

I can't rate this one. Rating the first half of a two-part finale in a vacuum is too hard. Let's see how it all plays out.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, retired firefighter, and roughly 78% water. You can find more of his work at the 42nd Vizsla. If you'd like to see his raw notes for this and other reviews, you can find them at What Was Mikey Thinking.

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