Doctor Who — Series 15/Season 2 - Episode 7 — “Wish World” — A Review

23rd May, 2025: “Wish World”.

Right at the moment?

I’m in a position to afford a take out.

I don’t fancy cooking: and … ?

I’m feeling mildly celebratory.

As the electro-cardiogram the nurse did, has come up clear.

I’ve just got off the phone to the GP, about it.

So … I’m both reassured, and happy … 

And thinking a takeaway would be nice.

That aside … ?

It’s Friday.

So?

I’m setting up my review of “Wish World”, now: and will be finishing it, tomorrow.

Going by the little that’s been released?

“Wish World” looks interesting.

We’ll have to see, won’t we?

~≈💊≈~

Doctor Who — Series 15/Season 2 - Episode 7 — “Wish World”.

24rd May, 2025.

Part One: The Summary.

Episode 7 — “Wish World” — opens with a long shot: of a woman in a black cloak, riding through the forests of Bavaria, and reaching a small hut in a glade.

The family who live there are highly nervous, as the mother is giving birth to her seventh son.

A seventh son whose father, Otto (Atilla Akinci), is himself the seventh son of a seventh son.

We find that the rider is none other than the Rani (Archie Panjabi): and that the Rani has plans for the baby.

The scene shifts: to an average suburban house, on 23rd May, 2025.

Where we see the Doctor and Belinda (Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu) have just awoken, that Belinda calls the Doctor her husband, and that their daughter, Poppy, needs feeding.

And wants a cat!

There’s only one thing to do, whilst the Doctor heads to work for the Unified National Insurance Team?

Belinda has to switch on the TV.

And the Doctor?

Has to deal with a young woman at the front door, a young woman who calls herself Ruby … 

~≈💊≈~

Part Two: Thoughts.

Now … what did I think of this episode, and its big reveal … ?

As a story, I think “Wish World” is a competently done, well made, episode.

It sees the world swamped by the actions of Conrad and the Rani, sees old familiar faces — Mel, Shirley, Kate — warped into unfamiliar forms and tells us of the  menace to come in the next episode.

The Rani’s Bone Palace, her syringe-like sonic screwdriver, the half-there Bone Beasts?

Beautifully done bits of set: especially the palace.

There’s also the simple fact of the Rani: at least, Archie Panjabi’s version.

As originally presented in 1985’s The Mark of the Rani, the character is a very amoral scientist: one irritated at the Doctor, as he and Peri interfere with her plans, and at Anthony Ainley’s version of the Master, for being of little support.

A very amoral scientist, I should stress.

The fact the Doctor and the Master represent good and evil is of little meaning to her.

Archie Panjabi’s version?

Is equally as cold, I think, equally as imperious.

But, whilst she may have some scientific dressing?

I think Ms Panjabi plays the character well … but plays her as a version of the Wicked Witch of the West, rather than the amoral scientist of old: turning people into animals, and living in a castle of bones.

Is that good, or bad?

That’s very good, I think: and quite possibly the highlight of the episode.

I doubt Margaret Hamilton — the original Wicked Witch in the 1930s version of The Wizard of Oz — could have done so well.

~≈💊≈~

Part Three: The Reveal.

The climax of this episode … ?

Has the Rani telling us that destroying the Wish World will do something else.

It will allow access to somewhere she calls “the Underverse”.

And, whilst we learn little of it?

We are told what the Rani will be releasing someone from the place.

There has been tons of speculation.

But the last minutes of the episode tell us exactly who the Rani expects to release from the Underverse.

No less a person than Omega, himself: the Gallifreyan who — according to The Three Doctors, the story the character first appears in — gave the Time Lords the power to travel in time, only to be lost on the other side of a black hole.

That reveal?

That reveal caught my attention.

~≈💊≈~

Part Four: A Thought.

I am very aware that the modern version of the show has been criticised by some: for being a little too politically correct.

Too right-on.

Too woke, for want of a better term.

And who will quite probably criticise the opening of this episode: an opening some could argue pastiches the traditional family.

I don’t know that it does.

I think it’s trying to satirise the 1950s view of families: rather than traditional families, themselves.

But I also am convinced of something else.

I know that, by the end of the episode, the Doctor is plunging to what looks like his death: telling all who will listen that his daughter is both real, and in danger.

And, given this is Doctor Who … ?

We know he’s planning to save the life of his daughter.

That?

Is the important point: rather than the shape of the Doctor’s family.

~≈💊≈~

Part Five: A Minor Point.

Just as a minor point, here?

I’m going to invoke the late Sir Terry Pratchett’s Equal Rites.

The novel’s starts with the wizard, Drum Billet, looking for a successor: someone he can gift his staff — and power — too.

A someone who had to be the Discworld equivalent of the seventh son of a seventh son.

I watched the cold opening of “Wish World”, wondering if the Rani was going to make the same mistake as Drum Billet.

And find out, after the fact … that the “Seventh Son” she’d just kidnapped … was a girl.

After all … no-one’s told us what sex the baby is …

~≈💊≈~

Part Six: Conclusion.

So … ?

What did I make of “Wish World”?

Of an episode that sees a returned Rani, tells us a tale about Poppy and tells us what is to come?

I have to admit, “Wish World” is not my favourite episode.

It’s not stunning.

But?

Even if I’m not stunned by the episode?

I’m very aware it’s part one of two: and that we can only properly judge it after we see next week’s episode.

“Wish World” is a competently done piece of work: that re-introduces us to the Rani and warns us of what is to come.

And threatens the death of the main character.

I’m going to be watching “The Reality War”, next week: I want to see what Omega looks like!

Are want to know if either of the babies in this story — Poppy, or the baby the Rani has kidnapped? — any thing to do with Susan Foreman?

I’ll be watching “The Reality War” on Saturday, 31st May: and posting my written and video reviews of it by Sunday, 1st of June.

I hope you’d care to join me.

We’ll know more, by then …

“Wish World”

★★★☆