Doctor Who: 73 Yards Review - 6 Ups & 4 Downs

It's time to talk about the treatment of Kate Stewart.

While it's great that Jemma Redgrave seems to be on hand whenever a cameo is needed, I do feel like, in all her appearances across the Chibnall and RTD2 eras, she's become increasingly ineffective and underutilised.

Between Flux, The Giggle, and 73 Yards, this is the third time that Kate has been outmanoeuvred by a villain and sidelined shortly after, and UNIT is starting to look like a bit of a joke as a result. We need a proper UNIT story soon which gives Kate a chance to do something properly, rather than getting possessed and turning on the protagonists like she has in her last two appearances.

I also feel like the writing isn't quite right. She's lost the twinkle in her eye, and this week seemed almost a little patronising to Ruby. Not sure if this was intentional or not. Most likely, she just hasn't been utilised very effectively, but one potential counter-argument is that this episode seemed to linger on her red fingernails for a long time – the same style of nails we saw pick up the tooth containing the Master in The Giggle.

Sadly, we can't dismiss every inconsistency in the series just because it might be intentional, and this one is a stretch.