Series 15 of Doctor Who has already delivered existential nightmares, high camp, and mythic fantasy, but Episode 7, "Wish World," might be its most audacious entry yet. Penned with apocalyptic flair and eerie domesticity, it plunges us into an alternate reality crafted by the show’s most calculating new threat: the Rani. The result? A reality-warping fever dream where marriage, memory, and mythology blur beyond recognition.
Opening in Bavaria, 1865, the episode begins with a bold, fairy-tale gesture: the Rani seizing a newborn incarnation of Desiderium, a god capable of granting any wish. It's a move that feels both mythic and methodical, perfectly in keeping with the Rani’s cool sadism. From there, writer and showrunner Russell T Davies doesn’t so much ease us into the dreamlike world as hurl us straight in.
On 23 May 2025 — the eve of the day that has loomed large all season — the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda (Varada Sethu) awake in what appears to be domestic bliss. They are married. They have a daughter, Poppy. Their flat is warm and ordinary. But something is deeply, horribly wrong.
This new reality is policed by Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King), now the face of a state-sanctioned storytelling regime. Using Desiderium’s stolen powers, he projects a curated version of reality onto the world. In this fantasy, UNIT has been reduced to an insurance firm, and the people who resist the illusion — the elderly, disabled, and politically defiant — are quietly exiled to the margins of society. It’s a satirical sledgehammer to the idea of utopia, one that feels disturbingly relevant.
Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) finds herself caught between worlds. She knows this isn’t real. But as she tries to convince others — including Shirley Bingham, played with steely gravitas by Ruth Madeley — she realises that memory alone isn’t enough to escape a prison built on stories. Ruby’s journey is compelling, adding a new edge of desperation to her character.
Meanwhile, Belinda begins to falter in her role as Poppy’s mother. Her inability to remember giving birth is the first splinter in the illusion, and Sethu plays the shift from serene domesticity to panicked disorientation with remarkable finesse. Yet later, when she reports the Doctor to the authorities for questioning the narrative, it lands with devastating precision.
The Rani (Archie Panjabi) has been operating in the shadows all season, under the pre bi-generation guise of Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson), but here she steps fully into the light and positions herself as the puppet master of the fractured world. Her goal? To destabilise the multiversal fabric enough to return Omega — yes, that Omega — from the Underverse.
It’s a bonkers plan, but it fits perfectly with Doctor Who’s renewed interest in Time Lord lore. Omega, one of Gallifrey’s founders, has been missing from the modern canon far too long, and his return is teased here with seismic tension. The collapsing skyscrapers, the midnight countdown, the shattering of the world’s logic — it all builds toward something truly mythic.
Gatwa gives one of his best performances yet. As the Doctor transitions from smiling husband John Smith to the fury and brilliance of the Time Lord Victorious, he captures every beat with grace. The moment he remembers who he is and claims Poppy as his daughter is a gut-punch. It complicates his relationship with Belinda and shifts the emotional centre of the season.
The episode ends with chaos: the Doctor plummeting from the Rani’s tower, reality itself folding inward, and the promise of Omega’s return hanging heavy in the air. That this is all tied to the long-prophesied date of 24 May gives it mythic symmetry. It’s the end of the world. Again.
Visually, director Alex Sanjiv Pillai leans into surrealist horror and romantic distortion. The clean pastels of the false world bleed into darker hues as reality begins to collapse. Scenes of Conrad’s broadcasts being hijacked, and the Rani’s bone fortress looming over London, are rendered with chilling theatricality.
"Wish World" is bold, brilliant, and brimming with implications. It challenges the Doctor’s sense of self, deepens Belinda’s arc, and elevates the previously underutilised Rani to a villain worthy of Doctor Who’s most operatic instincts. Most of all, it reminds us that the show isn’t just about travelling through time and space — it’s about what stories mean, and who gets to write them.
If you thought Doctor Who had shown all its cards this season, think again. The real game is only just beginning.
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