So there we have it; another Russell T Davies finale that feels creatively bankrupt, low on emotion and low on consequences or just about anything happen. I’ve watched Final Reckoning borrow so much from The Rise of Skywalker I wasn’t expecting the disaster of the JJ Abrams film to be a blueprint for Doctor Who as well; but Davies has a track record of missing with these big episodes: arguably the last one he got right was The Parting of the Ways, but he comes into this one on the back of two of the worst episodes of the era – and doubles down with a spectacular mess of an episode that feels like Davies has well and truly had better days.

It’s just so odd that his Doctor Who has become so reductive when his time in-between the two runs was filled with gems like It’s A Sin and Years and Years that did more with less. Here, he turns what was once appointment television into an “oh, I’ll check it out when it’s on” episode – by having The Doctor be rescued by Anita from the Time Hotel in Joy to the World – remember that Moffat episode? – Only she now has an upgrade. The rest of the first act is about reawakening everyone’s memories of the old world beneath Conrad’s wish world and finding out that oh – Kate had a chip embedded in every UNIT operative to wake them up; raising several questionable moral dilemmas that almost make you think Conrad was right all along. Once Conrad is awake – the Ranis show up and try to recruit The Doctor to resurrect Omega – but Omega is defeated after eating the newly bigenerated Rani – you know what – I can’t even with this anymore. It’s just so painstakingly lazy – building up the Rani as this massive character who’s so important to the Doctor’s life to have her defeated by a five second Omega role; and essentially end on a two Rani’s “Goodbye from Me,” joke that doesn’t even answer so many of the burning questions that we’ve had about her character in the run. Susan Triad is back instead everyone – look at her!

The big conclusion of the arc is that they need to save Poppy, who is The Doctor and Belinda’s child in the Wish World. She’s wiped from existence after a false start and only Ruby can remember her because for some reason; only Ruby can remember everything. Reality isn’t quite right when it’s readjusted so The Doctor needs to sacrifice himself to pour the energy back into the world and readjust it. It turns out that Belinda was trying to get home all along to a child; her Poppy – not The Doctor’s – 100% human. This feels a complete reduction in her arc and a complete waste of space to relegate such a promising character to essentially the role of a babysitter, sexist and reductive in a way that feels befitting more of what was in Conrad’s world than without it. Speaking of Conrad, I wasn’t happy how they gave him more of a send-off than Mrs. Flood’s the Rani – who’s still out there, rendering The Doctor’s consistent “Last of the Time Lords” drabble even more infuriating especially after the Capaldi era felt like the show finally moving on after all these years – and to see him happy as opposed to living with the consequences of his actions feels like a much weaker ending: what has Conrad done to deserve this? There’s no redemption arc, no nothing – just Ruby being kind. Which I suppose is the point of it all.

The 13th Doctor shows up – a real meta moment where 15 is surprised that it’s not the other one; and I love the energy and delight that Jodie Whittaker brings to the role in such a short screentime. She relishes being The Doctor and her passion is evident – it’s clear she’s got a lot of growth; she’s confused when 15 says that he loves her and she realises she should probably tell Yaz that – but 15 knows that she never will. It’s a nice wrap-up to the Chibnall era, that in hindsight, just by this scene – is so much better than what we’ve had in the RTD2 era so far. Flux felt exciting, daring – if messy. There’s none of that spark in The Reality War. And now; there’s no more Ncuti to cling onto the “oh, we’ve still got more with Ncuti.” We don’t get to see him face off against the Cybermen, The Master or the Daleks – aside from the cameos in the early episode with the past Doctors. It’s a missed opportunity as fresh as the new monsters and the focus on the Pantheon has been – to give Ncuti his own rogues gallery is a nice touch, but there’s room for the classic monsters in there too. His Doctor will forever be known as the “Disney Doctor”, for good and for ill, especially if the Disney deal ends after this season like it’s rumoured to.

And then we have the most creatively bankrupt, lazy and misjudged regeneration of the era so far. Bringing Tennant back was fine for a special. Keeping Tennant on was misguided. Turning The Doctor into Billie Piper reeks of desperation – what happened to new blood, new faces? What happened to new actors? Who was so much better when it spawned Eccleston, Tennant, Smith, Capaldi and Whittaker who made the characters their own. Even Gatwa finally felt like The Doctor by the end.

Now Billie comes in for a blink and you’ll miss it Doctor role; and it doesn’t feel like it’s worth investing in a new Doctor when they’ll only appear for a few episodes at most and barely be in half of them. The show relies on change to survive, but it lacks the spark and magic of previous Doctors – no longer is it an era – you couldn’t call Tennant 2.0 an “era”, it just feels so cheap. Casting big name, gimmicky actors – even as great as I’m sure Piper will be in the role, the problem has never been the actor they got to play The Doctor. The casting has always been great! Eras should be three series long minimum – everyone deserves so much more here. The whole reliance on UNIT has really dragged this era down – did we really need two finales where the bulk of it was set around the UNIT HQ; especially when you throw in The Giggle as well? I get they have a set to milk but it feels a touch too much.

If Russell T Davies is in charge Doctor Who can never move on. It is reductive, nostalgia-driven, laziness that feels catered towards the shock and the puzzle factor of the Moffat stories without understanding why they worked so well in the first place. It’s ultimately, just bad writing – a mess of a finale that wastes pretty much everything going into it and wastes the whole era of the show by the end as the previous episode was all dependent on the execution here – which was very much not it.