The day that we have both been dreading and looking forward to is now finally here as the final episode of Doctor Who to air for a while has just been released. With this present series earning a very mixed response from fans with some loving and others hating it I personally liked this second series and while it's not as good as the first one it's still a really good series in it's own right and as such you all just knew that I had to review this episode the very first chance that I got and so then join me as I give my SPOILER FILLED review of the episode that is spoiler filled for a VERY GOOD reason with the episode in question being called simply just "The Reality War" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is The Doctor has to escape The Rani in order to stop her evil scheme of resurrecting Omega all the while trying to stop one little girl from being whipped from existence. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad but in saying that much like with last years finale this episodes plot just didn't do that good of a job of trying to wrap things up in a way that felt satisfying as it came across as trying to do to much when just telling a good solid story whilst also wrapping up the seasons arc of getting Belinda back home was really all it needed to do and while it was nice seeing how things from the previous episodes came into play thus making this whole ear feel more like one long movie then a TV show alot of those things just felt a bit two much like fanservice as nine times out of ten they just added nothing to the overall plot of the episode but in saying that tho given what else does actually happen in this episode having those moments in here does make sense in ways that can't be mentioned at this point in the review with this episodes plot trying to be as epic as The End Of Time Parts 1 and 2 were without realizing what made that plot so big and epic was the fact that we had gotten to know all of the main characters in that two parter where as here we really hadn't and because of that there was no need for this episode to try and do what worked best in a two part episode in one singular episode with the plot of this episode being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor , Varada Sethu as Belinda Chandra and Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday. Also starring in this episode is Archie Panjabi as The Rani , Anita Dobson as Mrs. Flood , Steph de Whalley as Anita Benn , Sam Lawton as Winnie Petheridge , Ruth Madeley as Shirley Bingham , Michelle Greenidge as Carla Sunday , Jonah Hauer-King as Conrad Clark , Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps as Poppy , Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart , Susan Twist as Susan Triad , Alexander Devrient as Christofer Ibrahim , Yasmin Finney as Rose Noble , Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush , Angela Wynter as Cherry Sunday , Nicholas Briggs as The Voice Of Omega , The Vlinx and The Daleks and Nila Aalia as Lakshmi Chandra.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in al honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. Which is something that's not really all that new as the acting from both of these seasons as has always been job notch even in the seasons more lesser episodes and as such it was all but guaranteed that the acting in this episode would also be really good as well with all of this episodes actors turning in some really good performances and while Archie Panjabi isn't as good in this episode in this episode as she was in the previous one she still does make for a rather fun and threatening villain with her performance still being pretty decent with the best actor in this episode being none other then Ncuti Gatwa himself as he just steel every single scene that he's in with this performance in this episode being a true highlight of the episode very closely being followed by the always really good Millie Gibson with it being fun to see the two of them share the screen together again as it's clear as day that the two of them have some really chemistry together and that is something that does shine through in this episode and while Varada Sethu is still good in this episode she's not going to compete with Millie just because of the fact that Millie has had more experience in playing her character then what Varada Sethu has with the acting that's in this very episode really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so good that all this episodes actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
For once I actually cannot list just who it is that's doing the CGI for this episode as there are no effects companies listed anywhere online. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad with this episode having some really good looking effects in it even in one of the episodes biggest SPOILER SCENES the effects in the scene in question do look really good with it being clear the the makers of this show spent alot of the money that they used in making this show on this episodes CGI and while yes there are some wonky effects shots in this episode much like there was in the previous episode the overall quality of the effects does seem to be really good with there being one major effects issue and that's the fact that they didn't include a reflection of The Doctor in a scene where there would normally be one in real life which was something that might take you out of the episode as it just reminds that your watching a TV show and while there are alot of really good effects to be found in this episode with Bone Dinosaurs being a really good example of that it's those little issues with the episodes effects that does stop them from being great as even tho you can see where all of that Disney money went it's a odd that none of it was used to fix those little effects issues as those are things that would have made the effects in this episode be close to being feature film worthy instead of being TV quality worthy as they are right now.
SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!
You might have noticed that there two names that are missing off of the above cast list and they are Jodie Whittaker as The Doctor and Billie Piper. With it not being confirmed who Billie is playing but given that she appears out of the regeneration after Ncuti Gatwa has just regenerated it's all but confirmed that she's playing The Doctor with her reveal not only being something that was rumored to be happening for some weeks now but also being something that I can foresee making alot of die hard followers of Doctor Who angry much like how Jodie's casting did back when she was first announced but at the same time this is something that's to be excited about as now we get to wait and wonder just what this version of the character is like and that is something that's going to be exciting as now we don't have to wait until Christmas to find out as there's as far as we know there's no Christmas special this year and there's no Doctor Who Series 16 coming out next year either and so we won't get to know just what this version of the character is like until she starts appearing in either Doctor Who Magazine or in the Doctor Who Comics at the earliest with it being odd that they would bring back someone who has already played a companion to two past Doctors but what the makers of this show can now do is take the lessons learned from Jodie's run on the show and apply them here by giving this new version of the character some actually good scripts something that was very sorely lacking in the Jodie Whittaker era and heck it could even be argued that her character in this episode is written so much more better then what she was when she was The Doctor with the only thing that didn't work about the actual regeneration being the fact that it looks like that the Regeneration energy is hitting The Doctor when it should be coming from him.
Last week when they announced that Omega was coming back i'm sure alot of people got really excited myself included as this is a villain that you could do so much with. Yet in this episode he appears on screen for a little less then a minuet and then is killed off right away which just seems like such a waste of a really good villain as this villain was always the smartest person in the room and heck in hist first appearance in took THREE versions of The Doctor to beat him as that's just how powerful he is and therefore having him be the bi bad for the series finale would make sense as you always want to toughest villain for your characters to face to be in the season finale for the show and yet here because of the fact that he's got rid of not only so quickly but by one version of The Doctor it makes not only Omega look like a weak villain but it also makes the previous versions of The Doctor that did go up against seem weak due to the fact that it took three of them to beat him the first time around where as here it just took the one with this not really working as Omega would have accounted for this even tho he's been driven insane he still would have had a back up plan in mind should he be defeated yet again and while this shows current showrunner , executive producer and this episodes writer Russell T. Davies does understand what it was that made him such a threat the first time around here much like he did with Sutekh he now seems to think that making him bigger is a sure fire way into making him a credible villain when having him be just as he was in the seventies worked better because then they had to rely on the writing of the character with the character in The Three Doctors being alot more better then the writing for him is in this episode.
As well as not really doing Omega all that well this episode does also kind of drop the ball with The Rani. As even tho she's still very much the main villain of the episode and is still a pretty big threat in her own right she doesn't really get all that much to do in the episode and just isn't that fun of a villain this time around and yet if you compare her to last weeks episode she was not only more threatening of a villain with her even coming close to killing The Doctor as that episodes big cliff hanger here much like Belinda herself she doesn't really do all that much with the only thing of note that she does is get eaten by Omega and that's really it and yet this is a character that the fans have wanted back since 2005 and while yes the episode does tease that Mrs. Flood could potentially come back in future episodes and while she is also a Rani as well Archie just brought this character back to life and made her exciting to watch due to the fact her take on the character was a bit of snob even scoffing at the idea of Bi-Generation and that was a fun aspect of her character as it's one that hadn't really been explored with the character and yet this episode just gets rid of her the very first chance that it gets and while she does have a pretty good scene in U.N.I.T. HQ that's the only time that she gets out of her bone palace in this episode and that feels like a waste of a character as this is a character that very easily fools people with her disguises heck she even tricked the seventh Doctor with a very bad disguise in The Time Of The Rani and so the makers of this episode very easily could have had her be on the streets alot of the time or even in past episodes but they don't instead they just choose to mainly keep her in the one location for no reason whatsoever.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and six minuets and forty seconds. Which was a really solid running time for this episode to have but at the same time tho this episode also doesn't have alot of plot there to cover that long of a running time with about the last fifteen minuets or so of the episodes running time being spent on a new plot where The Doctor has to try and make sure that Poppy exists in the real world which OK fair enough they do need to explain why this current Doctor has to regenerate but they could have done that as apart of the main plot and still have Poppy be in the real world as well just by having Omega fatally wound The Doctor with The Doctor only choosing to regenerate once he has not only saved the world but also made sure that everyone is safe and that Poppy is still alive in the real world as well as that then would not only cut out all of the pointless fifteen or so minuets that he spends with Belinda and Poppy at Belinda's house but it would also make the plot all the more dramatic as now we know that The Doctor is going to die and seeing this version of him come to terms with that could make for a really good scene and while yes having a Doctor say goodbye to his companions is a series tradition it's usually saved for when the actor playing him has been playing him for a good amount of time thus making that kind of scene not only work but also make sense as well where is with Ncuti he hadn't been playing the role for that long and so to dedicate that long of time to just saying goodbye to Belinda and Poppy not only doesn't make sense but it also doesn't work either as us the audience hadn't spent that long of time with him and so we'll feel nothing where as with David Tennant when he left at the end of The End Of Time part 2 we felt very emotional because it was the end of an era something that isn't true in this case with this episode not even using it's running time all that wisely either as while the plot of the episode doesn't need to be that well developed due to the fact that it's the second part of a two part episode but the episode also doesn't take the time to fully develop it's new characters either as we don't get to find all that much about this new version of The Rani before she gets eaten alive with the rest of the characters getting there development from the other episodes and not this episode but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode and well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. With the episode having some really good action sequences in it like form example The Doctor flying The Rani's flying vehicle through the bones of one of the giant Bone Dinosaurs just to reach The Bone Palace was a really thrilling scene to watch but at the same time tho the bad CGI in that scene does take you out of it a bit where as the same thing cannot be true for what surely has to be the best action in the episode and that's the scene where The Doctor quite easily defeats Omega by shooting him with the vindicator and taking the fact that The Doctor fire a gun let alone one that's a laser at a foe in the first place it is something that does show us the audience just this version of The Doctor s able to think on his feet to come up with a solution as Omega was quite literally inches away from eating him and yet he still managed to find away to defeat him with the scene itself a being a really exciting action scene that was really well done not only by Ncuti but also the effects teams as well as the episodes CGI really did get to shine in that scene but sadly it is becoming a thing now for Russell to have The Doctor act out of character in his series finales as in the last series finale he pretty much killed Sutekh and yet he does the exact same thing to Omega in this episode only now it's done in a really well done action scene and that's really it in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall while the TARDIS might be going into storage for a while there is still some Doctor Who content coming next year with The War Between The Land And Sea but after that who knows what the future holds for this show but one things for sure this episode is one that's going to get the fans talking for quite a while in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such tat really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with really alot of them being really better quality then what you'd really think of and really all of the images are really of course up and really on the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.