“Most egregiously, this episode undercuts the big heroic moment where the Doctor decides not to lower herself to the Master’s level of violence by having her happily accept that same amount of carnage so long as Ko Sharmus is the one pulling the trigger.”

Well, Sacha Dawan was fantastic.

I spent most of this episode convinced that the Master was actually the Timeless Child and he was lying to the Doctor about her origin because he needed her help solving something about his past. Turns out I was thoroughly overcomplicating things! 

I believe the Master calls them “glitches of Ireland” or something, which I mostly remember because I thought it was a jarring thing for him to say. 

Oh, uh, that reveal sucks? Like, The Doctor is already special. She’s The Doctor. Making her some kind of Super Special Immortal Being is...what good does it do? The First Doctor being a weirdo who steals a Tardis because he’s curious about the universe and bored of his culture is a fantastic origin story. It leads…

I think Chibs just says, "We're doing this" and never stops to ask, "Why are we doing this?"

There are a lot of nitpicky things I can say about how the “true” backstory of the Time Lords screws up a bunch of stuff that depended on the previous “true” backstory of the Time Lords (I can highlight the Master’s entire plot in the RTD-era with the drums, the whole Melody Pond/River Song origin, and a big chunk of…

Related to the master creepily making the doctor take his hand, I loved Yaz offering her hand to Graham before they went to pull off their Cyberman impersonation, after he expressed disappointment that she just told him he was okay after he told her that she was the best, not realizing that since she was from…

In a sense it actually fits the continuity, since there were hints from the 7th doctor era that the doctor had a dark secret connected to the origins of the time lords--the so-called “Cartmel Master Plan,” which this actually is probably a less complicated and infuriating version of. Fine with me if this is the last…

Thanks for all your work this season, Caroline, as ever.

I have to say, though, I came away feeling like this episode was a C. Two seasons and two strangely undercooked two finales in, it’s probably fair to question Chibnall’s execution as a whole as the showrunner.

While you make a good point about the episode…

So Rassilon is now Tectuen and the Celestial Intervention Agency is now The Division and The Doctor is an alien from a distant planet, but a different distant planet. Chibnall gave us the episode that changed everything, that simultaneously changed nothing. Oh, and Gallifrey was destroyed, again. 

“Ooooo, new layout reminiscent of the old AV Club!! Cool! Where’s the Games section? Where’s... where’s the Games section? Ruh roh...”

If I may. Because in the context of the history of Nazi hunters which did exist throughout the world which this show does address, (using on ocasion real life names we know) creating a ludicrous, cartoonish idea of genocide that never happened could fuel those willing to make the leap to stake the claim “that if chess…

I think it also masks that for all the awful things that happened at the camps, a lot of the Nazi officers thought they were just doing what had to be done; it’s the whole “banality of evil” thing. They could convince themselves that gassing people was okay. Playing living chess with people is such a bizarre, twisted…

Have to say, the tone of this article seems weirdly condescending and neutral towards the Auschwitz Memorial about what seems to be a quite valid criticism and concern they’ve raised. I’m not normally one to get in an uproar about the fictionalising of history in what is clearly a work of fiction, and I’m not gonna…

There is a certain callousness to looking at all the horrific shit that really happened in concentration camps and saying "naww, we need to come up with some new shit."

Eat local isn’t just transportation though, as you mentioned its good for the community etc, but do you think the companies that do ship all over the world are small, sustainable family farms or some sort of corporate behemoth pushing the boundaries of industrial food production? Which farm do you think is better for…

Damn... I appreciate your pre-air review Joelle, but this probably means no episodic reviews then?

And what does get recycled (likely under 10%) is second grade material that nobody wants and is essentially used to produce more garbage.

I hadn’t thought of this much before, but honestly, couldn’t a bartender make a variety of interesting non-alcoholic cocktails using the additives they already have, and using water/club soda/ginger ale/etc. as filler? What does a product like this offer that the existing add-ins and a bit of forethought couldn’t do?