Love is in the air after a childhood encounter with the Doctor sends Conrad Clark down a rabbit-hole that leads, many years later, to Ruby Sunday. But is romance really on the cards when the Shreek are out to get him..?

If, like me, you feel that this season is tonally recreating last season then you won’t be surprised that this is a Doctor-lite episode which focuses on Ruby, as was last year’s episode 4, the intriguing but perplexing 73 Yards. Millie Gibson’s return is a welcome one and she again shines here. Ruby seems to have moved on a little, although it’s unclear what she actually does with her time, but she has her two mums and gran and soon, after taking part in a podcast with Conrad, a potential partner. It’s not long though before we realise that all is not well with Ruby, her time with the Doctor has had consequences.

Jonah Hauer-King (World on Fire/The Tattooist of Auschwitz) excels as Conrad – I can’t really reveal why without spoiling, but let’s just say the guy has range. There’s a hint we may well see him again down the line. The UNIT gang are back, sans Mel and with the return of Ruth Madeley as scientific advisor Shirly Bingham (presumably it’s past Morris’ bedtime). Fans of sadistic Grange Hill P.E. teachers and the Peter Davison-era The Five Doctors will want to keep an eye out for Paul “No, not the Mind Probe!” Jerricho as a pub landlord – a tiny part but it’s always fun to see actors from the classic series pop up all these years later. There’s also plenty of cameos from familiar real-life TV faces – familiar to UK audiences at least. For international viewers the name Alex Jones doesn’t conjure up the image of the One Show presenter and queen of awkward segues but instead that of the controversial (putting it extremely mildly) American conspiracy theorist.

Which brings us on to our next topic: the prevalence of conspiracy theories in our “connected” culture. Writer Pete McTighe has twice before given us stories with something of an axe to grind. Kerblam! looked at the relationship between corporations and their employees (although it pulled its punches unnecessarily in my opinion) while Praxeus warned of the prevalence of plastic in our environment. This time around it’s the world of the conspiracy theorist, enabled by the internet and emboldened by the likes of (the American) Jones. It picks up a little bit from the first episode – the rise of the Incel I think went hand in hand with the rise of the conspiracy theorists: if you can believe any old rubbish about women you can believe similar nonsense about the shape of the Earth or the moon landings or whatever.

Obviously McTighe can’t hope to solve the problem here but it’s worth examining. My major gripe though is that events here are huge with obviously long-term consequences for society, the government and UNIT, but those consequences aren’t really felt. There’s personal payoffs for some of our main characters but the story feels bigger than that. It’s the sort of thing Torchwood could have done a whole short season on but it feels too small-scale here. With a longer season this could have absolutely justified a two-parter with the story opened out, but with just eight episodes there’s no room so the story narrows towards the end.

It also must be said: with such a short season it is very weird that there’s a Doctor-lite episode at all, let alone rounding off the first half of the run. These are usually born of necessity – actor (un)availability or just getting enough episodes in the can on time – but I’m unsure of the reasoning here. Having said that, it’s lovely to have Millie back front and centre, hopefully not for the last time, and despite its flaws this is a terrific episode that I really would have liked more of.

Verdict: A thoroughly enjoyable episode that has something to say but really needed more time to say it. 8/10

Andy Smith