The Reel Rejects - DOCTOR WHO “WISH WORLD” 15x7 / 2x7 Breakdown & Review

Episode Date: May 25, 2025

THE RETURN OF THE RANI + LAST WEEK'S POST CREDITS SCENE!! Doctor Who Full Reaction Watch Alopng:   / thereelrejects   Support The Channel By Grabbing Yourself Our Doctor Who Inspired Apparel: https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Start your online business with a $1 per-month trial when you visit https://www.shopify.com/rejects! Doctor Who “Wish World” Reaction, Recap, Commentary, Analysis, & Spoiler Review!! Join Greg Alba and John Humphrey as they step into the sinister new reality of “Wish World,” the latest episode of Doctor Who featuring Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor (celebrated for Sex Education and Barbie) alongside his clever companion, Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu, The Night Manager; Indian Summers), and the indomitable Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson, Coronation Street) as they attempt to take on the newly bi-generated RANI (Archie Panjabi) - thanks to last week's INSANE cliffhanger of a post-credits scene revealing the classic Who Villain newly regenerated! Rewriting the very reality of planet Earth as we know it into a grim future of roaming skeletons & bone-based structures, Wish World presents a society of prescribed beliefs and ideals authored by none other than Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King) at the behest of the newly bi-generated Rani and Mrs. Flood; as The Doctor and Belinda succumb to a mind-numbing loop of tyranny, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) attempts to break free & restore the natural order with the help of Shirley Bingham (Ruth Madeley) and a ragtag group of outcasts. The first half of the season finale also features appearances from Bonnie Langford as Mel, Jonathan Groff as Rogue, & MORE! With Season 2 as good as it's been, we CANNOT WAIT to see how they stick the landing next week!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Adidas. When the frustration grows and the doubts start to creep in, we all need someone who has our back. To tell us, we'll be okay, to remind us of our ability, to believe, because their belief in us transfers to self-belief and reminds us of all that we're capable of. We all need someone to make us believe.

Hashtag, you got this. Stop. Do you know how fast you were going? I'm going to have to write you a ticket to my new movie, The Naked Gun. Liam Nissan. Buy your tickets now and get a free chili dog. Chili dog, not included.

The naked god. Tickets on sale now. August 1st. There is the froe habitual, and there is the frow of the mountain blue. The froy at its summit. Cruise Light, you've envue a friday

to celebrate in a fashion responsible. You have to have the age legal for consuming the alcohol. Thank you to Shopify for sponsoring this video. More on them in just a bit. John, I saw only one person mentioned this. there was a post credit scene in the last episode what i didn't hear a thing about a post credit

scene from anyone it was one sentence in the middle of a giant paragraph but i fortunately i read the thing and uh yeah we're gonna watch this right now because last week we did not click off it just ended on our end there's like actual footage of john right going oh i guess it's over it's it just ended and it like did nothing played and then we were back to the main menu so I was like, okay, I guess it's over. Let's find out what the high, because I actually don't know what the context is. The Rani.

Unjabi, damn. Wow. No wonder you guys were in. I promise you, we did not click off. It just stopped. It just stopped. It just stops.

That is such an important point. That is a whole seat. That's not even a tag or a button. That's a scene. And you guys were kind enough to not even tell us in the comments what the heck that scene was. Yeah, thank you. You guys were just like, you missed something. and um clearly damn that that is right i get the outrage now we missed it that is really unfortunate

what happened last time i was gonna say jesus another by generation the the ronnie it was some like a time lord villainous presence here and patrons you guys have been supporting us thank you for following us with doctor who uh you guys have been a especially helpful like this was a post scene that was like not in the comments but also in like all of our social media our patreon page you guys there's something so important everyone so thanks for mentioning um yeah let's get to it and thanks to guys who bought this choose your dr t let's go all right shit let's talk about it man all right guys we watched like four minutes of the channel uh the tartis channel i never actually heard them i like the video a lot

Tardis Central. Tartis Central. Thank you. And Tartis Central made the video on who is the Ronnie before, like only during season one of this. So it wasn't like you made this video in response. In response. Yeah. This was just due to that one random mention of the Ronnie. Yeah. They call themselves. But damn, that's that is pretty cool that they did mention that. And now they're paying it off.

Yeah. Yeah. This much later. one thing i have contemplated it's it's been a little this would be a challenge due to time but it would be cool if we can get the channel to a point where at least at our patreon we can start we can cover the classic oh that'd be crazy that'd be fun but it's hard of central said 22 seasons on when the rani appear i'm like so how many seasons are there's like six starts in what the 60s and it goes to like the 80s or the 90s

that long's classic who's so much classic who hundreds of episodes yes like reacting to one piece or something it's so long um but it is fun when they get to bring this stuff back and i do feel fomo when they do something like this oh man i would have that because rather than us being like what the hell is wrong yeah oh it's a classic oh god we're missing out on that feeling but you know there's a lot of people like us out there started from heckleston well and i and i actually in the cut here i saw a brief quote from moffat about not bringing the ronnie back during his run because people don't know who that is because like casual fans know the master and they don't know the ronnie so like uh but it's cool that they brought her back i think it's cool um this character even in the tartis central video he said like it's a very

underrated character and to see the prowess and the payoff and that's kind of a unique way to hide who mrs flood is and clearly he was lying yes because mrs flood has been here since uh church of ruby sunday yeah you know he's been this whole time and it's smart to hide that um and then also give the clue of the ronnie in the same episode you introduced mrs yeah you know and i don't know if people had drawn that theory i like uh i i like how the doctor in this episode is under the manipulation the spell lack for a better word, so to speak.

I think it actually makes it more tension. Oh, yeah. Versus him knowing what's going on while everyone else doesn't. Yeah, I think it's a good choice to have it be, yeah, he wakes up right at the end of the episode and we get that classic sort of Doctor Who style cliffhanger where it's like,

this seems impossible. And it speaks to the formidability of the Ronnie, of the plan here, that, you know, yeah, it should envelopes, and encapsulate and dupe the doctor for at least a bit of time and I thought the way they handled his doubts

creeping in and the little inconsistencies was well handled and it felt like you mentioned a couple times like it gave it that sort of twilight zone sort of like something's not right here but I can't quite put my finger on it kind of vibe and two just

again getting that little brief digester on the Ronnie like what a it's a cool twist because clearly this is all sort of like based in perception, you know, based in brain waves and, you know, mind control and as a person who oft experimenting on brains, apparently. Like, it's a cool way to update that. But yeah, she references the double brain stems and the by generation. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, you know, to have it be that the doctor, yeah, it just, it just gives credence and formidability to

the Ronnie as a character, you know, if she's able to orchestrate all of this. Yeah. And it was cool to like i know people have their opinions about by generation but to have mrs flood still be around like at first i thought she was just going to regenerate or something like that but to do a by generation so that mrs flood gets to have like fun as an actual throughout the episode character alongside this new actor who's playing the v ronnie well i really fun i like the uh the dynamic of it yeah it's like an abusive daughter it's kind of like the substance i know it yeah yeah yeah the younger version hates the older one you and you're walking all over me yeah yeah uh so i like it it's and it's it's it's not just like a younger version or some clone difference

or like the next ronnie you know uh there's a very specific dynamic and versus when tenant and chutey had their by generation yeah which was a lot more fun and it didn't seem like there was a power in play where there's like a clear power structure here it seems like she's been kind of answering to the like she's the Ronnie's been in her this whole time and she's kind of been aware of it like the way she reacted yeah the way she's it there's nothing about like I'm trying to like the mummy or trying to like birth you or some shit it is it's like this is like this is she's been in communication with her this whole time yeah it just feels like it's it's something that's been lurking within this whole time just waiting

for yeah the right set of circumstances to be let out or to be completed and I like the way that they worked like the vindicator has been a nice guffin because you trust the doctor's account of what it is and what it's supposed to do and for that to have played right into the plans and to cut to like you know it's old it's the 19th century in germany or wherever and that's where the seed of this plan the seventh child this you know special cursed child is you know born like i don't know it felt very kind of broad of map in terms of time in a way where yeah this could have been brewing right under our noses or something and for the vindicator to be an actual clock hand that was great it's like a great touch uh because you know obviously time lords all that stuff um but yeah like in two just the the i like this an episode like this i really like the serial elements because obviously yes you have a serial element from way back that is returning but you also have stuff from all across the 15 journey in this and i thought those things were really nicely handled and i like as much as we have sat here and kind of contemplated

belinda's overall sort of pertinence to the immediacy of everything happening like there was a lot of great belinda moments a lot of great episodes with her and the doctor but like you know there's a certain element of like man their personal relationship could be more finely explored I like them a lot here and even though you know I do wish some of the proactivity could fall on to belinda which I'm hoping the second half does it's cool to get Ruby sunday like it's it's cool to have a couple episodes here where she's more uh she's more proactive when she shows up which is kind of funny uh you know or they give her these things to do that are very much you know very active and she's separated for the doctor she has to be a really active character uh but even her yeah meeting with all the you know with all of oh god what is her name from unit um either way yeah um surely yes meeting with shirley and the rest of the sort of marginalized folks who are existing sort of invisibly in this world and then yeah the wandavision reality happening up in unit tower it's like so many yeah like this was i i kind of share the feeling that you had of like

man i want to i want to go back and redigest this because it's moving and it's throwing a lot at you but not in a way that i thought was like shrill or bad or overwhelming it's more like oh man like the pace is just whip crack and every you know moment well it's a bit sensory overload too because the music is like a cacophony of nonstop like it is like in your face yeah it's aggressive yeah everything feels very loud yeah and it's uh it is a lot to like pay attention to keep out to but like different to wandavision where it was like creating a reality that the characters might want this is the idyllic utopia of a very certain type of personal hall of you and show and you know peeling back those layers I think is interesting of kind of like when people idolize or or put like the 50s or 60s on a pedestal from the aesthetic pleasantries that you know there's a real darkness underneath it like I like the whole thing of like you're a beautiful man and then like it's like gay shit is this man talking about yeah yeah get out of here I'm going to report you and take you away it's interesting how I'm like

the last episode we talked a lot about like how cool it is he's gay and then they actually um the test stuff where it's like black but they haven't i i i did they doesn't it where he's like gay where they've like confront or it's been like a problem

yeah where they like confronted it or had it been i don't recall yeah yeah and i mean you know we've had fluid doctor moments in the past before in chuteigatwa but certainly most explicitly obviously in this characterization but yeah this is the first time where i felt like they called it out and his love I was so excited to see Jonathan Groff for a sec. Did not expect the Jonathan Groff cameo.

But the teases of that, like the hell to mention and that he's still out there for him and that the show hasn't forgotten who he is. Like, we don't know if this is shooties last season. I hope not. I hope not, especially because Jonathan Groff is still around. And I think we as an audience would love to see them like together. Rejignation, when we started this company, there was no manual throughout the year. of figuring out how to edit, how to be on camera. And with this company expanding, we were like,

now we want to figure out how to sell merch, handle orders, and do it all in a way that actually looked, well, legit. And if I'm being real, I wish we had Shopify on our side from day one. Because today we use Shopify to power rejectnation shop.com. One of our main sources of income, one of the best way to support the channel. And it's in large part thanks to Shopify, and we're not alone. Shopify supports millions of businesses around the world. From huge names like Mattel and Jim Shark to people just getting started.

And it's really easy to use. You can pick from hundreds of ready-to-use templates to match your brand style. And they're built-in AI tools to help write product descriptions. Generate discount codes. Even enhance your product photography. You don't need a full team. Shopify helps you market too. You can run email and social campaigns straight from the platform.

Efficiency. And the back end, it handles shipping, inventory. returns all of it. So if you're ready to sell, you are ready for Shopify. Turn your big business idea into with Shopify on your side. Sign it from $1 per month trial and start selling at shopify.com slash rejects.

Once again, that's Shopify.com slash rejects. Thank you, Shopify, for helping become an extension of real rejects. Yeah. Or have like an actual payoff. Some type of reunion. I feel like it has to be shooties. I hope so.

Because, yeah, it's their personal connection. And obviously, doctors maintain some level of who they were in the past. But it wouldn't feel the same if it was just a different actor or whatever. It's interesting we pointed out about Belinda, because I agree with all those points. At the same time, I'm like, this is my favorite performance of hers. Even though it's not the companion really helping type of dynamic. And it is almost like an alternate version of it.

It is an alternate version of Belinda versus the Belinda character were been on the journey with this whole time. But Varadha? Varida? Varida set to? Her performance here, though, was so good. You know?

Yeah. As the wife, as the mother, as the person with the doubt increases over time, that confusion struggle. I believed her love for the doctor or John Smith. Yeah.

In this one, I loved her performance. a lot that I actually didn't even think about those things like oh no you are and that is true but because the performance is very strong and yeah it is funny they would bring back Murphy someday she still seems more proactive and

in like a companion you can rely it's a really companion shit it's a really cool device like I do like the device of like oh Ruby's still out here kicking around still involved somehow even though she's not and like oh there's Mel she's still out of here she really is in a lot of ways

the new rose yeah totally is and but yeah I would agree like like and it's hard you know because she is Belinda but she's like an alt version of Belinda and she've got to play that like in the deep dark back of your mind there's an inkling that something is amiss and that whole scene where she like goes out in the woods and just starts screaming was was like a nice heart like harsh little tone moment and yeah just to have like obviously Conrad's more recent but Mel in here Rogan here various other callbacks and characters floating through like i do not that that never happens but of as of these two series that we've watched with uh 15 it does feel like there's a greater propensity for like the crossroads of like oh you might see a whole number of things pop back up and so like it it feels like it has a new sense of how to mix the serial quality with the episodic quality i fullheartedly agree i feel like this season honestly has been kicking so much ass yeah um this is a well-directed episode too uh this is There's a lot of coverage I've got to get a whole lot of editing.

And it is a bit whiplash due to the speed and volume of information that is being thrown your way. And my mind is, I am that kind of mindset that has a hard time at times keeping up. Thank God their subtitles. Yes. Otherwise, this would have been a really hard episode. I don't know if a show like this. Yeah, yeah. But like the whole touch on, I've weirdly been exposed.

or attracting it in some way a lot of media stuff about people with disabilities and seeing like we saw that like documentary trailer and there was something else I just covered and I like the empowerment of it you know not like not letting the disability become a thing that is a limitation and and and how they accept their reality of their circumstances which allows them to keep moving forward and how that bends and messes with this weird reality

that has been created now. Well, yeah. It's like it's authored this reality. She called there is a like a lighthearted like when Ruby says that thing about like we're not very good spies and they say like oh that's ablest but like there is an element of like oh of course or it seems to

track that in this version of the world somebody like Conrad and everybody else at the top would probably only design this fantastical society for able-bodied you know like their ideal version of a person which probably does not include you know these the the folks we see in the camp and I think that's a cool thing because that does touch on something to do with real life in terms of like sometimes you know marginalized folks are made invisible but sometimes that invisibility harsh and and wrong though it may be can in the right moments become an asset you know such as these I've been dancing

around the words here but i feel like let me try to speak in a more blunt way here so conrad how i'm interpreting it is he is essentially like the commentary on trump of how trump is like an entertainer a host who also has this like point of view on the world of how things should be run which is very like traditional all right uh type of ways we got to go back to how america was so we can make america great again and then you have ruby who is and i've thought about this too what that must be like when you have someone who has committed a terrible acts against you so being that kind of metaphor of someone who was sexually i consider it sexual abuse what conrad did to ruby you know um straight up used her and emotionally and physically to all under a lie to gain power and control and

And to be witness to that, your abuser on being plastered everywhere as a god of the earth, you know, and there's things coming out constantly that experts are seeing what Trump's doing, heading us to authoritarianism. This feels very like authoritarianism, but also showing that at the same time, man's probably a puppet in some way. Yeah, we don't know about, you know, the mouthpiece of something greater, nasty. At least that's what I thought that is very liberal ways of thinking. It's that ideology. But I also don't know London politics that well, and I've heard some, like, terrible things about that, too.

The Earth is experiencing a moment in which we all have our own version of Trump and whoever else on the opposite side. And, yeah, I mean, the ideology is that they're representative of and how, yeah, media controls in some way. Yeah, it felt to me like, what if any number of, like, ultra-right-wing. grift podcasters got the keys they've so desperately been desiring to control culture and society this is what that would probably be like yeah you know and that could be a trump that could be any number of the people in in that camp so to speak um and it's funny too because you have these these giant uh you know dino skeletons walking around and i know that that given what we learned about the ronnie and the cut you know is is probably just a nice reference to her little dinosaurs and

stuff but like partly to me in a metaphorical sense early on in the episode i was like oh you're like literally living in a in a society where like you know fossils are looming large you know like these ancient ideas are what you're trying to make you know the dominant force of the land but yeah then they step down in the midst of all those people and it's like oh they're not even real you know um which isn't like as i am interpreting it right here and explaining it now it's not like the perfect metaphor but it was yeah just kind of like a I like the idea that you could have things in an episode like

this that are cool and sci-fi and neat but also have a little bit of them you know suggestion about them I mean there's nothing but thematic suggestion everything was like all throughout this yeah like this was really a great combination of like there's so much like cool stuff on screen

and great design and a fun pace and a lot of excitement but also yeah it's rich with themes and things that reflect back on the real world and all that stuff don't question don't doubt yeah just fall in line and if you do you'll be punished for having a free thought yeah for questioning the system for questioning your government all these free thinkers out here who want to control the way you think yeah who want to prescribe you one means of thinking

yeah yeah a thousand percent i mean uh when it comes to rani thematic metaphors um i don't really pick up too much on that there's something there that i'm I'm, I mean, her character supports a lot of what we're talking about. But, yeah, what do you think about her performance? I'm trying to feeling out how it's going to grow on me because it is extreme. I mean, for it to be campy is cool because it's from classic who. Yeah. So I like that because it's a more campy time.

And she's having a lot of fun, but I don't know if it's like too campy for me. Sometimes it's kind of there. like this one note camp and I was liking it more when there's some shades of other stuff sure I get what you mean I really enjoyed it as of this episode I'll hold off to the next one to see how it really goes

because I imagine more of the dramatic stuff will rear its head when her plans are not going quite as swimmingly but I really liked watching her I like the performance a good amount and I think that it makes it made sense to me that she should be in camp mode because she's at least at the moment

succeeding and in control so you would feel, you know, max pomp and comfort to just, you know, be an explorer, you know, however you want to. And I think that I thought the delivery and the back and forth was pretty fun when she's like, this isn't just exposition. Like, I have to fill your brain with all these ideas to, like, maximize your doubts. Which, you know, I want to go back and watch that scene to see how, like, strong of a choice that is in the writing side. But, like, at least at first glance, I was like, ah, that's a fun meta thing to do. which I know isn't

you know that's on the writing that's not necessarily something you came up with but yeah I like the performance and I liked the vibes so far I think there's like a quirkiness to me that that I appreciated because I believe her conviction and I believe her

the like darkness underneath the underworld the underlayer I think I felt Disney villain because the even at the beginning they do it smart and insult because it's the time period like you're a witch and she does play it like a witch

yeah yeah she does I love those before those it sounds like an insult but there's like some amazing performances of those Disney Channel ones like the Descendants oh god she's the original one in Wicked Idina Mansell

yeah yeah she's incredible in descendants so yeah I just like I enjoyed this journey a lot this was a really crazy one and an intense one. And for a character named Mrs. Flood, they flooded in a lot of information. They did.

And I'm excited to see where that all goes next. And I'm appreciative that you guys actually didn't spoil what was in that post-credit team. Yeah, it was nice to be able to kick this off with some discovery and then jump right into it, actually. Yeah, yeah, it helps so that where we don't have to theorize last time. I know.

Yeah, it kicks actually, yeah, it helped the immediacy of like, okay, we're strapped in. Someone called the Ronnie's back. Our tone would have been very different, though. We missed the we literally missed I guess it would be better

Reveal. I love that we missed the biggest reveal. I know. I know. I don't know what happened. But yeah, it's, it's hilarious that we missed the biggest reveal in the whole series season.

It's very funny that they I mean, you know, who knows why the mouse does what they do. Yeah. But this made for at least a unique experience for us. That's for sure.

I'll take that. That's for sure. I'll take that. What did you guys think about this episode? Leave your thoughts down below. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for telling us about the scene that we missed. Yes.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And we'll be sure to be here for the finale on. That's interesting. This comes out, what, May 23rd? 24th, I think. This episode is May 24th?

It was 23rd Friday? We're watching this a little early, guys. Yes, I think. Let me check the calendar really quick. Because, yeah, it's the 24th for this one and the 31st for the next one, which tracks as a week apart. Yeah, that makes a lot of it. Okay, yeah, you're right. So 24th.

Wow, that's smart. That's cool. Yeah, Saturday is the 24th. Well, once again, thank you. And we'll see you guys next week. Peace.