This review was made possible by Popped receiving an advanced screener of the seventh episode of Doctor Who Season 2, titled “Wish World.”
Following the cosmic chaos of The Interstellar Song Contest, May 24 looms, and so does the end of the world, at least as we know it. Wish World plunges the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) into a fabricated domestic bliss, complete with marriage, a child, and a reality seemingly too perfect to question. But under its glossy surface lies something far more sinister. This is Doctor Who at its most postmodern, satirical, and emotionally devastating — a psychological fairytale that explores identity, conformity, and the terrifying cost of a world built on wishes, but is there light at the end of the tunnel?
Major Spoiler Warning for Doctor Who Season 2, Episode 7 titled “Wish World”
Close Enough, Welcome Back… ‘WandaVision’
For a while now, I’ve joked that Season 2 feels like Russell T Davies’ response to WandaVision, and with Wish World, that comparison becomes text rather than subtext. What began in Lux with stylised animation now explodes into a full-blown postmodern fever dream — a saccharine, sanitised reality shaped by desire, delusion, and dangerous ideology. Where WandaVision used sitcom formats to process grief, Wish World weaponises idealism and heteronormativity to create a reality that looks perfect on the surface, but cracks the moment anyone begins to question it.
The use of the alias John Smith, long established as the Doctor’s human disguise, takes on haunting new resonance here. This isn’t a Time Lord hiding from war, it’s a Doctor subdued by fantasy. His identity as The Doctor is repressed, buried under a manufactured masculinity, fatherhood, and domestication. The very thing that makes him dangerous — his curiosity, his love, his queerness — has been suppressed by the world Conrad and Desiderium built. It’s not just a fake world. It’s a world that fears who he really is. The most unsettling element? The domestic fantasy. The Doctor and Belinda are now married with a daughter, Poppy, first seen in Space Babies. Belinda stays home to raise their child while The Doctor goes to work, flipping the gender roles at first glance — but only on the surface. In this world, UNIT stands for Unified National Insurance Team, and it’s men-only — except for Kate Stewart, relegated to a token managerial role, and Susan Triad, demoted to tea lady duties, echoing her Devil’s Chord cameo. Office life plays out to a syrupy 1960s elevator track, which only heightens the uncanny. And then there’s Conrad. The only television channel is his storytelling propaganda that glorifies The Doctor and dictates world events, echoing 1984‘s Big Brother and WandaVision‘s controlled broadcasts. His book, visually riffing on the original Philosopher’s Stone cover, adds a darkly funny meta-layer — a wish-fulfilling fairytale read by an incel who doesn’t understand the stories he’s co-opting.
But the real genius of Wish World lies in how easily the cracks show. Every time doubt enters the fantasy, mugs fall through tables — a phenomenon known ominously as “the slip.” In one standout moment, Belinda’s mother and aunt arrive and casually remark on Poppy’s future as a happy wife and mother, causing Belinda to spiral and flee into the woods, screaming in pure existential dread. Another chilling exchange comes when The Doctor compliments Ibrahim, suggesting he should pursue Kate. When he calls Ibrahim a “beautiful man,” an eerie background hum rises. Ibrahim flinches — “What’s that supposed to mean? You’re a man. How can you find another man beautiful?” His fear feels genuine, systemic — like he’s committed thought-crime in a world where queerness is incompatible with the script. Even Poppy isn’t immune. Her limited vocabulary — “No” and “Meow” become a subtle protest. She repeats “No” when asked about May 24, hinting at an instinctive rejection of what’s to come. And when The Rani appears, The Doctor’s simple question — “I wonder who she is?” — causes the UNIT team to freeze. Doubt has entered the frame, and conformity closes in like a trap. It’s terrifying in how ordinary it feels, and honestly, some of the best Doctor Who in years.
There’s a creeping horror to Wish World that’s hard to shake. Whether it’s mugs falling through tables or the barely veiled threats against anyone who questions the norm, the episode conjures a dreamlike tension reminiscent of Jordan Peele’s Get Out or classic Twilight Zone. The scariest thing? How normal it all feels. How easy it is to slip into compliance when the world around you is smiling.
The Rani, Desiderium, and the Rise of the Pantheon
In a shocking turn of events, the third member of The Unholy Trinity wasn’t The Master/Missy, but a newborn child from Bavaria, 1865. Promptly named Sturm-und-drang, by Frau Rani (Archie Panjabi), the child is later revealed to be Desiderium, who is the “fountainhead of a power from beyond this universe”, a new member of the Pantheon – the God of Wishes. Whilst his birth mother had hoped to call him Jonas, Desiderium holds the power to create wishes and, with the help of Conrad, gives life to the Wish World. Desiderium, being the seventh son of a seventh son’s seventh son, makes me think Ruby is going to have some incredible significance next week, ever since we were first introduced to her in The Church on Ruby Road. The scene where the baby laughs is, as Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson) says, terrifying.
Dare I say the Trinity’s most evil scheme this week was using Rogue (Jonathan Groff) to trick the Doctor into casting more doubt on Conrad’s world. Rogue appears in a very similar way to how Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) attempted to reach the Doctor during Series 4’s Midnight where she could be seen on the screens in the shuttle. This time, John Smith is sitting in his living room watching Conrad on TV when both Susan (Carole Ann Ford) and Rogue flash on screen, though he has a full message for the Doctor. The scene ends with Rogue telling The Doctor he “misses” him, and “more than that”, hinting at his love for the character, in a very Empire Strikes Back manner.
One of my favourite elements about this finale is how wickedly brilliant Archie Panjabi is as The Rani. Her scenes in the final act are nothing short of brilliant as she has fun poking fun at The Doctor, reminding him of certain aspects of his life as she reveals her wicked plan, using the Vindicator which has appeared all season, which is producing the power for Desiderium to maintain the Wish World and bring back Omega.
I do think Ruby has some big part to play next week, her scenes with the dispossessed, including UNIT’s very own Shirley (Ruth Madeley), are very reminiscent of when RTD nails dystopian futures (look to Years and Years for his best work of the genre). Her luck-filled past could hold the key to defeating the imminent return of Omega, which, I won’t lie, was one of the most anticlimactic reveals of the show’s history. There feels like there are no stakes on the way with his return, I think I would have preferred to seen the ancient Gallifreyan in this episode before his return to really give a level of stakes going into next week, though the reveal that Poppy is The Doctor’s daughter was enough to tide me over… a very interesting development that will leave a lot of people shocked and casting some doubt, you could say.
Setting the Stage for “The Reality War”
It’s difficult, and a little disheartening to admit, but I do feel a flicker of doubt heading into The Reality War. For all the brilliance of Wish World, the sheer number of dangling narrative threads is overwhelming. RTD has proven time and again that he can juggle complex ideas, but this time he’s tasked with resolving: Omega, Susan, Poppy, The Doctor’s sudden fatherhood, the mystery of May 24, Desiderium, Conrad, The Rani, Rogue, and the Pantheon — all within a single 66-minute finale.
Fifteen years ago, I might have expected Davies to pull it off without breaking a sweat. And maybe he still can. But the stakes, ironically, feel lower than they should, especially with Omega’s underwhelming reveal and his lack of presence in this episode. It feels like he should have been introduced earlier to build threat and tension. That said, the shocking reveal about Poppy — and what that could mean for The Doctor emotionally — does help balance the scale. The scene where The Doctor remembers who he is, is absolutely fantastic, paired with that iconic Murray Gold music, The Doctor’s Theme. It’s a huge development, one that genuinely caught me off guard and casts a whole new light on everything we’ve seen since Space Babies.
‘Doctor Who’ Season 2: “Wish World” — Final Thoughts
Wish World is an ambitious, visually arresting, and thematically rich episode that showcases the full creative force of Russell T Davies’ return. It blends biting social commentary with emotional sincerity, offering a reality that’s both dreamlike and dystopian. Whether drawing from WandaVision, 1984, or The Stepford Wives, the episode crafts a twisted fantasy that slowly fractures and yet, despite everything it gets right, there’s a gnawing sense of unease about the sheer volume of unresolved plotlines. With Omega’s underwhelming reveal, Poppy’s shocking origin, Desiderium’s divine chaos, and Conrad’s fascist fantasy still in play, The Reality War has a lot to deliver.
Doctor Who Season 2 Episode 8, “The Reality War” premieres on Disney+ worldwide and on BBC iPlayer in the UK on May 31 at 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm GMT.
