“For a premise about the Doctor finding himself trapped inside a fake reality of bland 1950s heteronormativity and reactionary conformism, it’s pretty enjoyable” wrote one member. Nevertheless, Wish World received the second-lowest average rating out of all the episodes from Series 15, with nobody rating it higher than a 7. Most members acknowledged the difficulty of evaluating the first part of a series finale without having seen the second half. However, despite reserving their judgement, they enjoyed it nonetheless and were hopeful that Russell could stick the landing. The scenes with mugs slipping through tables received acclaim, with one member noting how “the embodiment of doubt in broken cups makes it more interesting as a satire on religion than political systems, since the former explicitly discusses doubt as a contrast to faith.” Archie Panjabi’s performance was praised as “excellent and in the spirit of Kate O’Mara”, although one member felt that the Rani’s characterisation was more akin to “a second Missy, rather than an unethical scientist”.

Thoughts were divided on the story’s central premise, with some responses describing the world which Conrad had imagined as “a really strong concept” and others stating that it was “interesting to think about but not interesting to watch.” Others dismissed Wish World as “the least memorable of the series” and that it “mainly served as set-up for the finale”. According to one respondent, “the main problem is that the protagonist of this episode is actually the Rani rather than any of our heroes, who wait until the episode shuffles them into the correct positions for the ending”. Concerns were raised over the final minutes, which were criticised for being “concerningly exposition and lore-heavy” with the potential to confuse both less-engaged fans and the Disney executives holding the purse-strings. Finally, the most negative review (2/10) compared Wish World unfavourably to Human Nature, claiming that it was “mean-spirited” and that “the best thing this episode did was to prevent me from looking forward to the finale too much (given that RTD finales often disappoint me)”.

Wish World received an average rating of 5.75 from the society’s 8 responses. But what would everyone think of the series finale, The Reality War?