Something is disturbing people’s dreams in multiple times and places…

The UK transmission of this episode came during Storm Ciara, which meant that my original watch was, to put it mildly, bitty. But even watching the whole thing through without interruption, my biggest impression is still that this feels like a lot of disparate pieces put together but not quite forming a coherent whole.

A lot of the pieces work very well – once again, removing the Doctor from her “fam” gives Jodie Whittaker a lot more to do, and we get to see other sides to her incarnation. She also gets a chance to do one of the Doctor-y big set-piece speeches, and pulls off the necessary gravitas. There’s some development of the backstories for the companions – and even a wonderful small cameo – which provide each actor with more to do than simply reacting to events, and ties into the Mental Health awareness element of the story.

There’s been a lot of discussion over the way that the scene between Graham and the Doctor plays out at the end; on first viewing, it felt a little cack-handed, and there were ways to display the Doctor’s “otherness” without linking it to Graham talking out his fears – but equally, it was also a very human reaction: how many of us really know how to deal with someone sharing this sort of news with us?

The continuity references will have gone over the heads of much of the audience, but worked for long term fans to establish the level of the threat that the villains possessed, and there were some very creepy moments (I wonder how this played for the younger audience). Marks too for the animated sequence for their backstory – whatever else you may say about this season, you can’t say it hasn’t been mixing things up a lot, and taking a lot of chances.

From the way that Ryan and Yaz are talking at the end, I’m really wondering how many of the “fam” will still be with us come Series 13 – and indeed whether some of the Doctor’s preaching may be turned back on her once we know the secrets of the Timeless Child…

Verdict: A mixed bag, like much of this season. 8/10

Paul Simpson