The cast and runtime for the eighth Doctor Who Season Two episode The Reality War was revealed on the BBC one Schedule for the programme.

The runtime is 1 hour, 6 minutes.

Tight as a noose, strands that have drawn across seasons and centuries now pull together for a devastating climax. The Doctor is doomed. Belinda is lost. Ruby is trapped. A battle rages across the skies as legends converge. Our brave, battered, beaten Doctor stands alone and helpless as the the Unholy Trinity unleash their deadly ambition and the Underverse rises. The Doctor, Belinda and Ruby must reunite and risk everything in the quest to save one innocent life.

Images and info for Wish World, the penultimate episode of Doctor Who season two which stars Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu & Millie Gibson.

Cultbox continue to collect pieces to the puzzle that is the two-part season finale. Even before last week's episode they released a post with preliminary information and tidbits concerning "Wish world".

Together, these two posts contain enough teasers to not quite spoil, but promise some very interesting conundrums about this week's first finale entry.

For a good while now the official Doctor Who youtube channel has had an around the clock "live" feed of TARDIS ASMR-ish soundscapes and lingering shots of the interior, console levers and knobs, etc.

Apparently, in the week leading up to May 24th, the lighting has gone into red alert, and the cloister bells are tolling... Although, with a hint of sarcasm, the video thumbnail still says "Chill TARDIS ambience".

You have to admire their dedication to the show's obsession with next episode's air date!

One of the Doctor's deadliest foes has returned after hiding in plain sight on the show.

It was Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor, who summed up the Rani perfectly. "Don't underestimate her," he said in the episode Time and the Rani. "She's a brilliant but sterile mind. There's not one spark of decency in her."

Her main interest is science, but she is willing to hurt and kill for her research.

In an interview with the BBC, actor Kate O'Mara described the character as someone who attended university with the Doctor, "studying science. And then it went completely to her head, and she wanted to govern the whole universe."

Steffan Powell will host special edition of Doctor Who: Unleashed celebrating the last twenty years since Doctor Who returned.

Powell will be joined by a host of cast and creatives that have played a part in bringing the show back, including past Doctors David Tennant and Jodie Whittaker, former companions Billie Piper, Pearl Mackie, and Mandip Gill, ex-showrunners Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall, the current Doctor Ncuti Gatwa alongside his newest companion Varada Sethu, as well as the current showrunner and the man who brought the show back in 2005, Russell T Davies.

On Thursday, the BBC tweeted:

Due to unforeseen circumstances, unfortunately Ncuti Gatwa is no longer able to participate as Spokesperson during the Grand Final this weekend.

Instead, Sophie Ellis-Bextor will be calling out the UK's points.

According to Scottish newspaper The national,

The BBC's announcement came during the second semi-final, reportedly just minutes after Israel's entrant Yuval Raphael qualified for the final.

We haven't even had the Interstellar song contest yet, but CultBox has already assembled details for the episode after that. Synopsis, cast as well as a smattering of rumours and speculation.

There are certain tells that this week's episode will lead straight into the two-part finale, so I'll just park this here for those who might want to fuel their excitement as soon as they watched tomorrow's show.

Spoilers! </River Song voice>

The Great Day is coming, the most important date in history — 24 May 2025. The clock is ticking and everyone is preparing for a joyous tomorrow, when the whole world will change forever.

Welcome to a strange new world in which the old saying “There’s many a slip ‘twixt cup and lip” is gaining a terrifying new power. Even when a good outcome seems certain, things can still go wrong.

What are the Bone Beasts? Why is Mrs Flood hiding in the sky? What secrets do the Dispossessed keep? And why is a mysterious message echoing across time and space, saying, “Tables don’t do that”?

Traps are sprung and old enemies unite as the Doctor and Belinda finally arrive home to find a very different world. Can the Doctor see the truth before midnight arrives?

[Oh, Midnight again? So soon?]

• Space Baby Poppy returns after a brief appearance in The Story & The Engine
• Millie Gibson returns as Season One companion Ruby Sunday
• Bonnie Langford reprises her role as former companion and UNIT operative Melanie Bush
• Susan Triad, the tech mogul who offered service to UNIT, is back
• Conrad Clark, having been released from prison by Mrs Flood, is back to foment his version of reality
• Lakshmi Chandra is possibly a relative of Belinda, perhaps her mother
• Not only are there Bone Beasts but there is also a Bone Palace
• Archie Panjabi, heavily rumoured to play a villain in the series, is not on the cast list

[I would also add that we have two characters in the cast list called Otto and Violett Zufall. "Zufall" is German for "coincidence", and... not actually used as a last name. I'll just put it out here that the goblins in "Church on Ruby Road" fed on coincidence, and let you all run with that]

I bought this album entirely for the cover aesthetic, and seeing the coloured vinyl I was well chuffed about my purchase. It's really a lovely package.

Now, I may be spoiled in terms of music, but I've played this several times and... nothing sticks or stands out. It's an entirely unremarkable album, but fortunately also quite inoffensive and well within my usual genre habits. It's not bad in any regard, just... mid everything?

So I guess this is That Album in my collection that I can put on without a second thought, not really pay attention, and someday it may click.

Anybody else have similar albums in the shelf?

Doctor Who meets Eurovision in this high-octane episode

This is another BBC media package where everybody interviewed is gushing over everything else. Interviewees are guest stars ~~Mark~~ Rylan Clark and Freddie Fox, plus writer Juno Dawson and director Ben A Williams (no relation to Rory, presumably).

A few things stand out from the enthusiastic politeness, though. The following are things I hadn't gleaned from trailers.

Freddie Fox:

Kid is a charismatic, devious, revolutionary leader of a group. They are trying to get justice for wrongs that he wants to tell the galaxy and the universe about.

What you're saying then is, Israel is still part of this 900 years later? 😬 I'm slightly worried where the show's sympathies would fall on this, but it would be a gutsy move either way.

Juno Dawson:

Russell initially pitched the bare bones concept of Eurovision meets Die Hard, which were two things I knew really well. […] What would happen if an enemy faction planned an attack on the Eurovision Song Contest in space?

I think people are certainly going to expect it to be … let’s just say camp. I mean of course it is, it’s the Interstellar Song Contest. But also, it’s action-packed. It doesn’t let up for a second. It’s a really high-octane episode.

In places it’s quite harrowing. I think the best science fiction and fantasy should always have something to say about the world.

And finally, something for the Murray Gold fans out there:

Ben A Williams:

Murray (Gold) has created a song that is weapons-grade catchy. I played it once to my 2-year-old. He hasn’t stopped singing it since.

So, in a nutshell — hitting that shared target segment between Eurovision and Doctor Who 🤣 Plus potentially controversial terrorism. Should be fun!

Edit: got Rylan Clark's name really wrong because I'm not really big on British ESC traditions.