There was a point before the standoff at UNIT that I thought Conrad might come to his senses if only the leopard Shreek ate his face. Boy was I wrong.

This episode contains a very powerful and pointed message, but as the episode reveals at the end, it will be lost on those who need to hear it most. Some people are too far gone and will refute the obvious, even when they on some level know it is true, and I struggle to fit myself into their mindset to understand that. Clearly a stab at conspiracy peddlers, toxic masculinity influencers, the press and politicians that use scapegoats, and all the others that prey on insecure people’s worries and fear. They probably don’t watch DW and wouldn’t understand the point made here if they did, one can only hope this helps to immunise any kids watching against falling into these traps as they grow up.

Now, my thoughts on the plot here are not super positive.

First, Kate, what the hell? If Ruby needs to talk to someone, Kate needs to as well. The head of a global security org can’t behave like that, even if it is part of some calculated effort to undo the damage done by a conspiracy peddler. The public reaction to “the person we think is making stuff up to control us and out us in harms way is actually willing to put us all in harms way and she’s vindictive as hell, she just let that guy get his arm mauled off” being livestreamed should have gone the other way and made the whole situation and public attitudes to UNIT worse. At one point she says to tap the CCTV feeds into his livestream - if I understood that correctly, that means they could have just shut his feed down remotely from the beginning, and avoided this whole mess, if they’d just been a bit more proactive. Which brings me to my next grumble…

I really don’t like the writing trope of “here’s a super powerful group that exists to protect the world, only they have terrible OpSec so it’s easy for people to infiltrate them”. No-one, even the analysts (or was he a receptionist? I’m unclear what his job was) at UNIT would have access to all their staff’s names and addresses, and any looking into that would necessarily have to be done with more than one person, just to be sure there was no ill intent. They certainly shouldn’t be bale to remotely control the building’s door locks. And if UNIT can screen out applicants like Conrad for being untrustworthy, how did they let someone who’s into conspiracy sites in to begin with?

Now, positives:

I really enjoyed Gatwa’s performance here. He was hardly in this episode, but that bit at the end really shows his range. He can go from happy and carefree to deadly serious in an instant.

Our monster of the week, the shreek, is an interesting idea. The exist out of our dimension and can pop in to attack those they’ve previously marked. I’m kind of getting Predator vibes from it’s behaviour and looks. It does sort of beg the question why they wouldn’t just attack and kill their victims right away. Waiting a year to juice up the taste of fear hormones can’t have that much pay off, unless they live in a timestream that means they’re not actually waiting that long.

I enjoyed seeing ruby again, following along Doctor’s prior companions after they’ve left the Tardis is always nice. Seeing her breakdown and admit the need for help is refreshing, and honestly that should be more commonplace. I’m glad to see Ruby’s family is staying strong, they can be there to support her. Though I suspect they might be even more dangerous to Conrad than Kate was if they ever got close to him.

Assorted notes:

• The prison below(?) the building reminds me of Torchwood a bit, they had one of those if I’m remembering right.
• Mrs Flood is a prison governess. A woman of many talents. I wonder if she dodges tax with all her paychecks.
• If the Doctor can land on planet earth, why couldn’t he just find a spot and sort of “fast-forward” with the brakes on for a few years until 2025… I’m sure there’s a timey wimey reason why that wouldn’t work.
• It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Trinity Wells presenting the news (I had to look that name up)
• UNIT using a cargo heli to move a dangerous alien that can disrupt electronics across London via the sky? No. Just… no. That’s screaming “what could go wrong” :)

Flood Watch 2025

“Governor” was capitalized in the subtitles, so I think we’ve got a name, along with a pretty solid indication that she’s a Time Lord.

One fun bit that I forgot to mention: the “Albion Channel” being one of the disinformation outlets.

Very clever tie-in with “73 Yards”.

Wow, that was a bold, twisty episode. So much so, the story felt a bit convoluted: if Conrad and Ruby’s relationship had been seeded as a subplot over a few episodes maybe it would have worked better?

I did appreciate the midway turn, heartbreaking as it was. Conrad being such a tryhard up to that point was starting to grate, and it actually felt like a relief that it was an act he put on. Not that I prefer the face behind the mask, but them’s the knocks.

The commentary on “do your own research”, fact resistant online personalities cut hard. This is the Years and years Russell T Davies writing that also bubbled under the surface of “The giggle”. [Edit: I only realised hours later that the episode is written by Pete McThighe… A worthy improvement over “Kerblam” and “Praxeus”]

It was also good to see how it works out (or in this case, doesn’t) having a secretive defense organisation with a huge shiny tower in the middle of London. In our media environment, some idiot with a webcam is going to ask all the wrong questions about it and spread conclusions based on conjecture.

In this context, Kate Stewart’s reaction felt justified in the moment, but you have to ask yourself how streaming that to the world improved UNIT’s public standing… She did reveal herself as an authoritarian, if a compassionate one at that, and it should give us pause as viewers.

I did like the scenes with Ruby’s homefront matriarchy — Cherry is MVP in any episode she appears in! — and I would just like to see more of that brought-together family relation to ground Ruby more? But I’m happy with what we got, if I got my way this could have become another full Ruby season… and I do prefer the Belinda version we have instead.

The Doctor’s appearances were scarce but meaningful to me. We needed to see Ruby and UNIT without him, but also to acknowledge that he isn’t always coming to the rescue. That last scene with an entirely unrepenting Conrad showed the limits of even the Doctor’s ability to talk his way out of a situation.

What can you do when compassion and empathy simply bounces off the person you’re trying to reach? That is a very real and current question, and I’m sort of glad that the show didn’t try to answer that neatly for the sake of a feelgood ending.

Quick notes I jotted down while watching:

Mel’s on her way to Sydney. Something’s happening in the harbour

Oh, the harbour — that spot Between the Land And the Sea, you say? Mel is confirmed for that spinoff then, I suppose.

Jordan, you’re with me.

Ouch! It was nice knowing you, random extra who is suddenly named. You may have been a conspiratorial nutjob mole, but nice all the same.

Have you met Belinda Chandra yet?

That’s one big question from the season opener answered, then. It was Conrad who (in a bit of a bootstrap paradox) set the Doctor on Belinda’s trail. All things considered, it’s a bit odd that the Doctor didn’t make the connection when they met a Conrad in 2007. Let’s see if we get to revisit any of that toward the finale.