Doctor Who Season 2, Episode 8, “The Reality War,” marks the end of a short era. Not only is the show now on hiatus for the foreseeable future, but the spinoff series, The War Between the Land and the Sea, is the only other Doctor Who story to look forward to after Season 2.
Although the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) ended his tenure doing what he does best (saving the world), he also had to make changes to reality to do so. This speaks to the complexity of the Rani’s plan, and the deadly consequences of pushing the limits of reality.
But what exactly was the Rani’s plan? Why did she have to destroy reality to spring Omega free from the antimatter universe? What sacrifices did the Doctor, Belinda Chandra, and Ruby Sunday have to make to save the people they love? All of these simple questions came with complex answers, as Russell T Davies ended his second era with a huge bang.
The Rani Trapped Earth in a Time Loop to Weaken It
As the Rani explained to the Doctor in “Wish World,” she wanted to destroy the universe to access the Underverse. To do this, she used the Doctor’s vindicator to trap the Earth in a timeloop in order to weaken it. By repeating the same day – May 23, 2025 – multiple times, this caused multiple tears in the fabric of reality until it finally cracked. This process was also sped up by the people of Earth doubting Conrad Clark’s reality.
In “The Reality War,” the quick intervention of Anita Benn from “Joy to the World” temporarily delays this destruction. As a manager at the Time Hotel, Anita has access to real time, which is what allows the Doctor and his allies to remember their real lives. Despite Anita allowing the flow of real time into the Wish World Conrad had created, the timeloop still resets itself at midnight. This also means the Rani is still able to get a lock on Omega’s location.
The Rani Wants to Use Omega’s Body to Recreate the Time Lords
Seemingly unaware of the Master’s discovery of the Timeless Child, the Rani still believes Omega is the original Time Lord. As she reveals in “The Reality War,” she escaped Gallifrey just before the Master killed all the Time Lords and Cyberconverted them.
Since the Rani saw the Master’s genocide coming, she most likely left Gallifrey before she learned the reason for his massacre: learning that everything he knew about the Time Lords was a lie. More specifically, he learned the Doctor was the Timeless Child, and it was Tecteun’s experiments on the Timeless Child that created the Time Lord race.
The one thing the Rani is aware of is the Time Lords being unable to sexually reproduce. This makes sense, given their regenerative ability. This is also the reason the Rani needs to recover Omega: she wants to use his body as a cellular template to create a new Time Lord race. This is no different from Davros using this own body to recreate the Daleks in the Series 4 episodes, “The Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End.” However, unlike Davros, the Rani doesn’t succeed in her goal.
The moment Omega leaves his antimatter prison, he eats Archie Panjabi’s Rani. He is also quickly exiled back to the Underverse by the Doctor. Anita Dobson’s Rani then escapes using the Time Ring. This item last appeared in the Fourth Doctor serial “Genesis of the Daleks” from 1975.
The Doctor and Ruby Sunday End All Wishes Forever
Despite the immediate threat of the Rani and Omega removed, the destruction of the universe is still in progress. To restore reality, the Doctor needs to breach the barrier protecting the Rani’s Bone Palace, which is powered by his TARDIS. Ruby Sunday then handles the second part of the task: take the infant God of Wishes out of Conrad’s custody.
Retrieving the God of Wishes is crucial to ending the Wish World, but it needs to happen in two steps: First, Ruby needs to give Conrad the one thing he wants, but doesn’t have: happiness. She believes that his right-wing extremism is coming from a place of hurt because he came from a broken family. His mother neglected him when he was a child, and it’s implied his father abandoned him.
Conrad’s emotional abandonment informed the kind of world he wished into existence: a world in which everyone has a family. Unfortunately, his version of that is regressive. By using the power of the God of Wishes, Ruby gives Conrad the happiness that he missed out on all his life, and causes the old extremist Conrad to disappear. This also causes the Rani’s bone palace to disappear, revealing the Doctor’s TARDIS inside Conrad’s chamber.
With the God of Wishes now in Ruby’s custody, both she and the Doctor wish for all wishes to end forever as the second and final step to restoring reality. This effectively turns the God of Wishes into a regular human infant. Since neither the Doctor nor Ruby know that the Rani abducted the baby from a Bavarian family in the 19th century, the Doctor leaves the baby in Ruby’s custody. The Doctor then takes care of the paperwork for Carla Sunday to officially adopt the baby.
The Doctor Sacrifices Himself to Save Poppy from Erasure
Despite the timeline being restored with a few minor changes, the universe still loses one person: Poppy. Though originally appearing as Captain Poppy in the Season 1 episode “Space Babies,” Conrad’s Wish World gives Poppy a new role. In Conrad’s false reality, Poppy is Belinda Chandra’s biological daughter with the Doctor. This makes Poppy special in the Doctor’s mind. This also means Poppy’s existence is bound by the rules of Conrad’s world.
To protect Poppy from erasure, the Doctor has Susan Triad create device outside of reality to put Poppy in. Belinda goes with her, and the plan works at first. Unfortunately, Poppy still disappears when reality is restored. Both the Doctor and Belinda forget Poppy’s existence, except for Ruby. It’s only when Ruby reminds the Doctor of the numerous times he’s saved people from erasure that she convinces him to bring Poppy back.
Without the God of Wishes, the Doctor realizes he needs to inject the Time Vortex with regeneration energy in order to alter reality one tiny degree. This also means sacrificing his current incarnation. Luckily for the Fifteenth Doctor, the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) arrives to give him the courage that he needs. In this case, she reminds him they were never good at letting people die. With this, the Doctor finds the courage to induce a regeneration. This does bring Poppy back, but only as Belinda’s daughter with another man.
After they say their goodbyes, the Fifteenth Doctor goes out to space to complete his regeneration. However, the face that emerges is Rose Tyler’s. Though the end credits don’t confirm Billie Piper is the Sixteenth Doctor, it’s still consistent with the idea of the Doctor being able to decide his appearance. He already did this when he gained Lobus Caecilius’ face for his Twelfth incarnation. He also went back to his Tenth face after his fourteenth regeneration. Whether or not Billie Piper becomes the next Doctor will depend on her schedule and the show’s renewal
