After space babies and a menacing maestro, the Doctor faces a very difficult situation. It’s summed up in the above picture.
How can he stop a war without moving?

SPOILERS BELOW

Actually, this episode is more than that. It shows how war is more than bullets.
It’s about a battle in the Kastarion galaxy, where an army run by the Anglican religion (male soldiers wear ministers’ collars gets help from a munitions group called Villengard. Steven Moffat, who wrote the episode, is commenting about how wars can be obscene not by the destruction but by who starts them. Religious wars have been around for some time. Add the need to make a profit from the battles (which is where Villengard comes in), and it gets offensive.

The episode begins with a soldier named Vater (Joe Anderson) who tries to get through a battlefield. He’s also blind, but he doesn’t want that to be known. His friend Carson steps on a mine, and is vaporized. Then, an ambulance robot comes towards Vater. It decides he’s too wounded and not worth the money to save him. So, it compresses him into a tube grave. This is the attitude of Villengard towards the wars it buys. As someone puts it, “death by salesmen”.

The Doctor shows up, sees the situation…and steps on a mine.
The fact that if he steps off, he’s dead, is clear. As the episode progresses, the stakes get a lot higher.
He figures out the Villengard made the mine, and maybe the war as well. He also sees his blood pressure and adrenaline are affecting the bomb. So, he finds HE is the explosive because the mine explodes are causing a chain reaction inside his DNA. For humans, it’s being vaporized. For Time Lords, it’s….worse.

Before that, he and Ruby find out they can talk to an AI version of Vater from the coffin. Then his daughter Splice (Caoillinn Springall) shows up, and wonder where is Dad. The Doctor and Ruby try to avoid answering, but then Munday shows up.
She explains they’re fighting the Kastarions, who are either in the mud or in the fog. All they know is that they’re the enemy, and have the faith (since they are the Anglican Army) to defeat them. The Doctor thinks something is very wrong,
Then he says if the mine blows up, so does he…and most likely half the planet due to his DNA. Mundy (Varada Sethu) sees he’s right after she scans him. Then the Villengard ambulance arrives to “treat” the Doctor. Ruby tries to distract it, but is injured.
Soon, the ambulance treats her…and says she’s nearly 3100 years old but doesn’t know who is her next of kin. It also starts to snow, calling back to that Christmas when she was left at a church.

So…huh?

How does the “ambulance” know Ruby and does the old lady look that the same one from “Church on Ruby Road”? Is Ruby 3084 years old because the war is in 5088? The mystery continues.

The main point is that the mine is about to blow, and they have to figure out how to stop it. Not only that, the “ambulance” is not treating Ruby because the algorithm doesn’t see her as a “believer”.

Then the Doctor sees the war is fake. It exists to help Villengard make money and exploit the faith of the Anglican Army.
So, give up to nothing, and the mine stops since the army made it. Mundy says that’s not so easy, because they need a Bishop.
So, the Doctors uses AI Vater to disrupt the algorithm, but Villengard’s programming has firewalls. The Ambulance Lady declares Vater is deleted.
Not so fast. The algorithm is deleted, not Vater The mine stops, and maybe so does the war. Ruby also recovers from her injuries but wonders what the heck just happened.

The epilogue is a bit anti-climatic, but at least everyone is enjoying the planet now that it’s not a battleground. It does end with a quote by Philip Larkin, “sad old man” who makes sense with the thought that “what will survive of us is love.” That applies to the aftermath of war, and the Doctor’s many relationships over the decades and beyond.

For a lot of fans, this episode is their idea of a Doctor Who episode. No wild plots, but a basic story that has more meaning inside. Sure, it’s about the Doctor trying to avoid dying from a mine, but it also says a lot of why wars happen. It’s must just differences between people or views, or one country being cruel to another. It also involves making a buck, even in outer space, and how faith should not be the only reason to fight.
Ncuti, according to a lot of fans, did his best work here, along with Millie and the supporting players. It’s a very tense episode, and puts the season on the right track.
On, and if you think you see someone who looks like Mundy on the show next year, there’s a reason for that.

Next week, the Doctor lands in Wales….then vanishes. Is it a cosmic glitch…or witchcraft?