In "Wish World," the Rani Builds an Alternate 'Doctor Who' Reality

No matter which reboot or what season, showrunner Russell T. Davies' version of Doctor Who has a few...let's call them "consistencies." His Doctors are morally complex figures who are optimists at heart, although they carry around no small amount of trauma (Fourteen's still-pending self-actualization aside). His companions are three-dimensional figures with lives and relationships outside the TARDIS. He loves classic villains, call backs, and deep cut lore, and he believes in the magic of this franchise in ways few others can match. He also loves a big, messy barn burner finale, a sweeping two-part banger with ridiculously high stakes that throws literally everything at the wall to see what might happen. 

The effectiveness of these sorts of bonkers stories and their largely nonsensical resolutions is up for debate, but they're a ton of fun to watch. 

In that vein, the penultimate Season 2 episode "Wish World" is almost all set-up, as the Rani crafts a false reality with the help of Mrs. Flood, Ruby Sunday's vile ex-boyfriend Conrad, and a reborn God of Wishes, an infant complete with the Toymaker's giggle. There's not much in the way of resolution: We only get the briefest glimpse of Carole Ann Ford, no hint at all as to why the Doctor was having visions of her, and even the Rani herself is remarkably unforthcoming about where she's been all these years or why now is the moment she's chosen to return. (Though it must be said that Archie Panjabi's red leather get-up is great.) 

The hour ends on a ginormous cliffhanger that promises the return of another massive classic-era villain and leaves pretty much every major character facing near-certain death. Yes, much of this episode spins its wheels narratively speaking — but, conceptually, the Wish World itself is fascinating enough to make up for it. 

One part idealistic 1950s-style set and one part bizarrely futuristic dystopia, the Wish World features everything from iron-clad traditional gender roles and colorful kitchenware to giant skeletal creatures stalking the streets beneath a floating citadel made of bone. None of the residents seem to think the ghostly giants are all that weird, nor do they seem to mind the bizarre (often unspoken) rules they're meant to live by. Doubting is forbidden, and spouses regularly inform on their loved ones for questioning the reality around them. Women are meant to be married homemakers, and same sex attraction seems to be taboo (if poor Colonel Ibrahaim's horrified reaction to the Doctor absently calling him beautiful is anything to go by). The Rani appears to be this world's leader, though no one knows anything about her or where she came from. 

In this reality, the Doctor has once again become John Smith, and he and Belinda are married. Parents to Captain Poppy (of "Space Babies" fame), they live the same cookie-cutter lives their neighbors (one of whom is Mel Bush) do, all of whom pay no attention to the steadily increasing piles of broken crockery that indicate something is wrong with their world. But when a confused Ruby Sunday shows up on their door, wondering if John Smith also happens to go by the name the Doctor, cracks begin to show. 

Mirror universes are always fun, a playground for the big creative swings Davies is so good at. From Conrad, reading a quasi-Doctor Who children's story, the linchpin holding this reality together, to Shirley leading a gang of disabled and marginalized resistance fighters against a world that literally refuses to see them, plenty of interesting stuff is happening here in the background. (Though most of it doesn't get the time to breathe we might like.) Smith heads to work daily in a UNIT headquarters reimagined as an old-school insurance office, complete with Susan Twist pushing a coffee cart around. But, hey, Colonel Ibrahaim is still pining after Kate*, so some things transcend all realities, I guess. 

(*I need fanfiction for these two. Please make a note of it.)

It's difficult to judge "Wish World." It's one-half of a larger whole; moreover, it's unclear whether the payoff will be worth all this fuss. Two years' worth of scheming — Mrs. Flood, the Pantheon, Belinda's inability to return home, the Vindicator, the destruction of Earth — has all been in service of this one goal, which is a lot to put on any storyline, let alone one that's generally held together by little more than Davies' trademark brand of largely heartfelt nonsense. The episode grinds to a halt when the Rani explains her plan; Panjabi has a total blast skipping around, chewing the scenery, and bullying Anita Dobson, but lampshading her hatred of exposition doesn't make the giant info-dump any less exposition-y. 

Here's the gist: The Wish World is a means to an end. Heck, most of this season has been a means to an end, with the Rani following the Doctor around using the Vindicator's power to trap him in a fantasy world of the tiny Wish God's making (and Conrad's help). Her goal? To use the power of Fifteen's doubt and confusion to tear that world apart, burrowing beneath reality to unleash Omega, an all-powerful figure from ancient Time Lord history.

If this all feels a bit familiar, it's because it's pretty much last year's Sutekh plot with a fresher Gallifreyan coat of paint. (There's a Seal of Rassilon in the Rani's bone palace!) But, on the flipside, there's at least potential for this to be more impactful in the world of the show than the God of Death's appearance. 

For those who don't know their classic lore, Omega is essentially the first Time Lord, a Gallifreyan who harnessed the power of a supernova to give his people the ability to traverse time and space. Unfortunately, he was left for dead after being trapped in an antimatter universe and became obsessed with revenge. His first TV appearance was the 10th anniversary special "The Three Doctors", and he later appeared again in the Fifth Doctor story "Arc of Infinity". 

Ruby's slow realization that something is wrong with the world around them is smartly grounded in her experiences during "73 Yards"; after all, she's lived through an alternate reality once already. And though many of Ruby's scenes with Shirley and her crew seem to exist solely to take shots at everything from systemic ableism to tradwife aesthetics, the idea that it is the very people Conrad's world has written off who join forces to bring him down is thrilling stuff (provided, of course, that next week's finale gives this team-up a proper pay-off). 

The hour concludes in typical Davies style: With a whole lot of extremely extra well...everything. Giant rifts open all over London as glowing, bright purple buildings slide into an unseen abyss. Ruby, Shirley, and friends scream in terror as the city comes down around them. Mel's neighborhood is collapsing. The Doctor's got his memory back, just in time to plummet to what seems like certain doom on the suddenly detached bone balcony. Over it all, a voice rings out: “Long live Omega! Omega shall be free!” (If it's not original Omega actor Stephen Thorne, it sure sounds like it.)

(Remember when the folks in charge of this show were trying to pretend the Fifteenth Doctor era was a fresh start reboot for the show to welcome in new fans? Good times.)

What it is precisely that the Rani (the most science-minded of the Time Lords, let's remember) wants with Omega or why it's worth ripping reality apart to bring him back is anyone's guess. (Last we saw him, he didn't even have a physical form!) Not to mention the many other outstanding plot threads, from the wish-granting god baby to the brief return of Jonathan Groff's Rogue to the (seemingly eternal) mystery of Susan. Can the finale successfully balance all these spinning plates? Almost certainly not, but it's sure going to be fun to watch Davies try. 

Doctor Who's Season 2(/15/41) finale, "The Reality War," will not debut early on iPlayer and Disney+. Instead, it will debut on Saturday, May 31, 2025, simultaneously at 7 p.m. BT/2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT on BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the U.K. and Disney+ globally. Fans in the U.K. and Ireland will have an additional opportunity to come together to watch both halves of the epic two-part season finale in cinemas.