Doctor Who: Wish World Review - 4 Ups & 6 Downs

I may have just spoken about Ruby stealing Belinda’s limelight, but, in fairness, I also found Ruby’s story to be a highlight of this episode.

First up, I like that Ruby is the first to break through Conrad’s brainwashing, being the instigator of the episode in a sense. She’s essentially on the run, having had her foster Mum, Carla, disown her yet again – unbelievably, this is now the third time that Carla, due to an outside influence, has turned on Ruby. RTD really has it in for mothers, doesn’t he?

I’m delighted that Shirley was the one who got to lead the UNIT plot this week, as she’s tons of fun and has felt a little under-utilised since The Star Beast, and I also like that Conrad’s whole mindset could be his undoing. He overlooks the disabled community so much that they don’t occur to him, and are able to slip through the net of control because he’s so distracted doing CBeebies bedtime stories and being a homophobe. There’s a real satisfying comeuppance on its way here, hopefully.

Also really like the fact that the episode took the time to reinforce the whole ‘disability isn’t a superpower’ message, just to make sure that’s not what viewers took away from this. A small but necessary detail.