| October 26, 2026: "Homo Aqua" |
| October 27: "Plastic Apocalypse" |
| October 28: "The Deep" |
| October 29: "The Witch of the Waterfall" |
| October 30: "The End of the War" |
October 26, 2026: "Homo Aqua"
But as with many things involving the Disney partnership, things didn't shake out the way they'd first been envisioned. In October 2025, Disney announced that they weren't renewing their deal with the BBC for Doctor Who -- although it wasn't officially confirmed, part of the issue was apparently that Disney was suddenly worried that an unapologetically progressive series starring a gay person of color wouldn't play as well as they thought it would in the US, in the wake of Trump's 2024 reelection, and so they were no longer that interested in promoting (or paying for) the series.
Somewhat awkwardly, however, that still left a five-episode spin-off still to air. The show did end up airing in December 2025 on BBC One, but as of writing there's still no sign of it on Disney+ in the United States, either available or even scheduled. Consequently, that means that I've gone ahead and imported a nice Blu-ray copy from the UK for these purposes -- and that, perhaps more importantly, I haven't actually watched this yet. That means in some ways you'll be getting my first impressions of this series, without any idea of what's actually coming up. So with that understood, let's go ahead and dive in (sorry not sorry).
This first episode, "Homo Aqua", opens in grand Who tradition with a never-to-be-seen-again group of people (Spaniards in this case, it seems) fishing while also tossing garbage into the sea and inadvertently catching something. But where we might then expect to cut to some familiar faces in UNIT, we instead move to a slightly different (but still familiar) face: Russell Tovey is back, having last been seen in 2010's "The End of Time Part Two", but this time (also in grand Who tradition) playing a new character. Here he's Barclay Pierre-Dupont, a low-grade civilian UNIT employee who's in charge of transportation but who has been accidentally pulled into this situation due to a bureaucratic cock-up. (Nice to know that one of the most advanced organisations on Earth isn't immune to stupid human error.) What this effectively means is that Barclay is the audience surrogate, experiencing this new situation the same way we presumably would. In this case, it's the accidental killing of a new form of
This episode moves at a pretty brisk pace, introducing Barclay and his family, the UNIT crew, and the new Homo aqua presence. It's to Tovey's credit that we get a reasonable sense of Barclay as just an average guy who's been thrust into a strange situation. His general sense of alarm and confusion comes off as rather endearing, rather than just annoying, and so we're interested in seeing where this is going. That said, where it's going seems to be, at least at this stage, a retread of Children of Earth, only with Homo aqua revealing themselves to the world instead of the 456. Humanity even builds a holding tank to interact with Homo aqua, just like we saw in Children of Earth. (The presence of General Pierce does little to dispel this sense of familiarity.) The main difference here is that we don't have the underlying sense of conspiracy that pervaded Children of Earth (but then again they've still got time to go down that path if they want). So instead of conspiracy, or possibly wonder, we get a vague sense of unease. It's not perhaps the most exciting feeling in the world, so it's good that Barclay's presence really anchors this -- to the point where when a bunch of familiar UNIT faces show up (Kate Stewart! Colonel Ibrahim! Shirley Anne Bingham!), it actually feels mildly like a distraction. It doesn't help that the episode seems to assume that the viewer will be vaguely familiar with these characters, so they don't really get a proper introduction. (Mind you, the moment where the camera goes out of its way to delay showing us what Sir Jonathan Hynes looks like, only to show someone we've never seen before, has the opposite problem of building up a reveal that doesn't actually seem to warrant it. (Unless we're just meant to be excited that it's Adrian Lukis?)) That means that our sympathies lie with Barclay while we wait for all this to unfold.
So this is definitely an episode all about setup, which is why it's a touch odd how many things get just sort of glossed over. I get that they want to get to the "monsters" as soon as they can, but it means we're left with questions such as, how much contact has UNIT had with Homo aqua before? Given the general is coining the name in this episode, it seems like not much, but then how can they translate their language? But then they also know about the pearls in the throat, so maybe there has been contact before. But if they have been in contact before, why does Homo aqua (and specifically them, no Silurians or Sea Devils in sight) decide to reveal themselves to the entire world now? Are they just fed up? And why is General Pierce so casual about Barclay's revelation that he has no real clearance and is basically there due to a clerical error? Maybe some of this will be addressed later, but right now it feels like we're being asked to just go along with it for now and not worry. Which isn't perhaps the worst of sins, but there's not enough action or drama in this episode that they can get away with that just yet.
I'm worried I may be making this sound worse than it is. To be fair, this is a well-crafted and reasonably self-assured piece of television: it looks great (even if for every shot of Mallorca there's a shot of Wales pretending it's Spain), and none of the performances let the side down. The writing, at least at the dialogue level, is also pretty good, as you'd generally expect from a Russell T Davies script. (Although there's a weird moment where Barclay and his family discuss the pejorative meaning of "homo" in a joking manner that falls really flat, even while they try to acknowledge it's outdated.) It's just that there are just enough flaws to be noticeable, to bring things down to the level of "Wait and see" rather than "This looks like it will be excellent". And to be fair, the idea that Homo aqua want Barclay to be the representative of humanity because he was the only one to show some respect to the body of their killed comrade (making a rather sloppy-looking (to my Catholic eyes) sign of the cross) is an interesting one, setting up the "civilian" compassionate viewpoint as a potential contrast to the more military-minded approach of the rest of the UNIT. (Although composer Lorne Balfe seems to have over-scored this episode rather, with a number of lighter moments sounding like they're just as dramatic as the rest of the episode: the ending, where Barclay squeaks out "OK" to being asked to represent humanity, being underscored with serious dramatic music instead of a lighter touch is only the most noticeable moment.) So we have reason to be cautiously optimistic about where The War Between the Land and the Sea is going, even if it's not yet eager anticipation for what's coming next.
October 27: "Plastic Apocalypse"
I see Pete McTighe has taken over the writing duties for this episode (and the next two). That's perhaps appropriate, given that one of the Doctor Who episodes he (co-)wrote was series 12's "Praxeus", which was about plastic pollution and is in some ways a sister episode to "Plastic Apocalypse".
This is, perhaps unsurprisingly, another fairly talky episode. The primary focus is on Barclay's new position as ambassador, dealing with all the political juggling among many nations as he tries not to screw things up. And while we get a couple early series of Barclay being sternly questioned by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart ("What communication have you had with with Homo aqua prior to today?" Kate demands. "None, never," Barclay responds. "I had a goldfish once, is that relevant?" he adds. "This isn't a joke, Mr Dupont," Kate says sternly. "I wasn't joking," Barclay says quietly. "His name was Simon"), fortunately we don't spend too much time questioning Barclay's background and allegiance. We do get a nice scene between Barclay and Kate in the back of a van, where she can let down her front with him a bit, though: "Barclay, I need someone I can work with," she tells me. "And I think I can work with you."
But it still feels like a fair amount of setup is happening in this episode. This is where the initial negotiations between humanity and Homo aqua begin, but we only get a couple sessions, both of which are controlled by the Homo aqua's ambassador, Salt, despite humanity (aka Kate)'s best efforts. Salt is played by another familiar Who veteran: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who played Martha's sister Tish back in 2007. She, like Russell Tovey, also does a good job of staying engaging (no mean feat under that makeup), and you kind of wish we could get more scenes of her and Barclay talking, since they're both compelling performers. Salt is obviously the aggrieved party, dealing with all the pollution that humanity has been pumping into the oceans, so that means she has to be a lot more severe and solemn than Barclay. Barclay is doing the best he can, and while the moments where he goes off-script are fun ("This is like working with the Doctor," Kate grumbles), he also does a good job of sticking to the script and trying to negotiate in good faith with Salt and not assuming that he knows better. It's kind of refreshing, to be honest, to be provided a protagonist who doesn't automatically assume he knows what's best and has it blow up in his face, the way you could see the American version of this series going. Instead we get someone who seems reasonably competent and only sometimes speaks his mind. It's a good balance.
That said, there are still a couple odd moments. The titular apocalypse comes after Salt basically does a "are you sure that's what you want? OK then" rugpull and sends all the trash from the oceans onto the land. And while it looks dangerous and all falling from the sky (theoretically, at least; I'm not convinced they really sell this the way they're hoping to), it also doesn't look like that much? I was sort of expecting literal mountains of trash, not just a couple feet of it. I'm sure it damaged a bunch of stuff falling from the sky (another thing that isn't remotely explained how), but it also doesn't look that apocalyptic. It'll be a pain to clean up, but not insurmountable. I can see why it would upset humanity and make them scared, as Barclay states, but it seems like it could have been worse.
There's also a short scene (with no closure, so I'm sure we'll see them again in future episodes) with a British oil baron, an American general, and a French general where they plot against peace in such cartoonishly evil ways that they might as well wear signs saying "Villain". There's probably a point to be made about how people with financial investments and short-sightedness are going to working against some sort of treaty if it means they have to stop polluting, but this isn't it. They sit around cackling and eating fish and caviar to ram home the point that these are Bad People and you kind of wish they'd just go away; we're a long way away from the nuance of a Malcolm Hulke308 character here.
Don't get me wrong, there are some good moments in "Plastic Apocalypse", such as Barclay's interaction with his teenager Kirby, where we see that they have a nice loving relationship, or the way we see that the relationship between Kate and Colonel Ibrahim has actually developed, and the interactions between Salt and Barclay are also worth watching. But so far this series has been more interested in talking, and while Tovey and Mbatha-Raw do a great job with this (not to belittle people like Jemma Redgrave, of course, who are also doing a great job), now that we're getting to the halfway point here, it's time for some action. Let's hope "The Deep" can start to deliver.
October 28: "The Deep"
So if the previous two episodes were basically focused on setup, "The Deep" is where things start to move into a new phase. There's not exactly much in the way of action in this episode (at least, until the last 5 minutes or so), but they've replaced the sense of exposition and plot-maneuvering with one of tension and impending dread. This, on the whole, is a good thing.
This episode concerns itself primarily that the agreement Barclay made at the end of last episode, to meet Homo aqua on their home turf at the bottom of the Romanche Trench near the west coast of Africa: one of the deepest parts of the ocean. So we get lots of discussions about the preparations of that descent: getting the diving bell ready, picking a team to accompany Barclay, and seeing Barclay himself open up to his ex-wife about being scared. This last part helps humanise Barclay, lest we forget that he's been rather unexpectedly thrust into all this. Because much of the rest of the episode calls on him to be the calm and collected one, particularly in the diving bell while many of his teammates start to experience panic attacks, it's nice to see the more vulnerable side here.
But for large parts of this, Barclay is the level-headed one of the team. We see a team of six sent down in the diving bell: Barclay, General Pierce, Captain Louise Mackie (one of the UNIT people we've seen working with the Homo aqua language), Min Tso (another UNIT person we've seen doing science things), and two new diplomatic personnel named Ravi (who's rather nervous) and Ted (a friendly South African guy). They do a good job of wringing tension out of the diving bell scenes with little more than acting and lots of loud bangs and groans from the bell as it adjusts to the pressure. While Pierce remains perhaps predictably reasonably calm, the others all have moments of anxiety, some more severe than others. It's good to see each of them get a moment, a bit of characterisation, since it makes us care about them a bit more (along with giving Barclay a chance to show some leadership qualities).
There's also something of a sense of wonder when we see the domain of Homo aqua; the way it looks elegantly organic, while everything is lit in a gentle blue bioluminescent glow, is nicely done. And while the characters may initially show fear when the diving bell is seized (although why are they so surprised and alarmed by this? What did they think was going to happen?), we quickly move on to trust from most of the characters (except Ted, for reasons that will soon become clear). And so while Min gets to show off a bit, discussing the lighting, our focus shifts to a scene between Barclay and Salt that shows a surprising amount of sexual tension. Their scene is almost crackling with electricity, even though all they're really doing is standing in front of each other and feeling the texture of the other person's skin; nevertheless, Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw have clear chemistry, even with a diving suit and a bunch of prosthetics in the way.
Meanwhile on the surface, tensions are rising, partly in thanks to our cartoon villains from last time. They're not quite as overtly evil this time, although the way they seem to be running the Prime Minister's meeting for him isn't exactly innocent-looking. As Kate wonders, why are a civilian and two foreign generals present at an emergency meeting? We get some waffle from the PM about needing industry on his side, but it doesn't sound terribly convincing, and the way they try to muscle UNIT out of the way is so clumsy that it's a bit surprising that it's working. I guess this Prime Minister doesn't have a particularly strong backbone (another similarity this shares with Children of Earth). Then they overegg the pudding with a scene where Sir Keith gets to be cartoonishly evil again, making quips about how the PM likes Sir Keith's money and hinting at something called "Severance" (probably not the Apple show). Come on, Pete McTighe, I know these guys are villains but couldn't you have given them at least a little more subtlety?
So we get conflict and tension both on land and in the sea, and things start to really come to a head at the end. The way they juxtapose Kate's (attempted) assassination with the reveal that Ted, who's spent a bunch of time being likable, is really working for Sir Keith and company (well, probably), having smuggled some sort of weapon in as a gift, does mean that this episode ends on a suitably dramatic note (which is also a change from the last two cliffhangers, which both end on Russell Tovey saying "OK"). It does raise some vetting questions from UNIT again though, if this diplomatic representative can smuggle a weapon into their mission; who's clearing these people? It's like we're back to the slightly ramshackle days of '70s UNIT again. And so help me, if they kill Colonel Ibrahim (the way that ending shot, his having taken a bullet meant for Kate, seems to imply), I will be very very unhappy.
So yeah, this is definitely picking up. I'm interested to see what happens next.
October 29: "The Witch of the Waterfall"
After last time's shocking end, we spend a lot of this episode dealing with the aftermath. Not only is Colonel Christopher Ibrahim dead (you bastards), but everyone on the diplomatic mission was also killed by what apparently was a massive sonic bomb triggered by Ted. Everyone, that is, except Barclay, who was saved by Salt when she raced him to the surface while maintaining hyperbaric pressure in his lungs via mouth-to-mouth contact. (I assume "hyperbaric" was added after someone pointed out that Barclay would likely be seriously injured from the rapid decompression accompanying his speedy ascent.) So while he and Salt get picked up by a UNIT helicopter in the ocean, Kate has to deal with the fallout of the assassination attempt -- not only the death of Christopher and the fact that someone targetted her, but that the diplomatic conference was destroyed by a bomb and that Salt is apparently claiming credit. (Of course, we know that's been faked because we've seen Salt's actions the whole time, but that doesn't mean the rest of the world has.) Jemma Redgrave does an excellent job, as the focus of the show shifts from Barclay to her, with showing a wide range, from grief over Christopher to steel over handling the assassination attempt to calm as she's forced to negotiate with the new Aquakind ambassador, Tide, who threatens to escalate the war if Salt isn't turned over to them for the crime of saving Barclay over fellow Aquakind. Redgrave handles all of these very well, often shifting between them in the same scene. It's very well done. (Plus, we get an offhand reference to a hitherto unknown daughter in Dubai, which is fun.)
But then it turns out that both assassination attempts (Kate's and the Homo aqua people) is the work of some new fanatical group called the Institute of Las Clemente who are concerned with the Great Replacement Theory (which in this case is being replaced by Aquakind instead of minorities, but the parallels are clear). The evil American general makes quick work of them, so it's not completely clear at this stage what the point of this second group is. Is it to show that there are other violent groups out there, not just the warmongering cartoon villains with the ear of the Prime Minister? Or was it just to have some action at the halfway point that didn't immediately implicated Sir Keith and company? As it currently stands, it's just a touch awkward.
But because there's this deepfaked video of Salt claiming responsibility that they don't prove is deepfaked until the end of the episode, Kate is forced to take Salt into custody of a prisoner of war. Obviously this upsets Barclay, so he takes matters into his own hands and helps her escape, following her into the river as a fugitive. In other hands this new bravery might feel inconsistent, but Tovey makes it a natural growth of the character. This new fugitive life also gives Gugu Mbatha-Raw a chance to show a more playful side of Salt. Before she's been primarily the diplomat, serious and resolute, with only hints of something else, but once she's no longer in that role, Salt becomes more light-feeling, marvelling at glass and finding herself attracted to Barclay. To their credit, Tovey and Mbatha-Raw continue to play this well, with both confusion and desire for Tovey and playful romance for Mbatha-Raw. Not that it lasts long, since Barclay isn't as clever at evading UNIT as he thinks he is -- which honestly makes sense.
The other thing to note is that our cartoon villains are still out there but being a lot less cartoony this time around. Instead we have the American General taking charge, having Sir Keith murdered because he was involved (possibly coincidentally, though that's not certain), rounding up the Las Clemente people, and taking command of the British army (with the PM's blessing) so that they can capture Salt and run experiments on her, either alive or dead. That does lead to a tense standoff on a bridge, as Kate is willing to shoot British soldiers rather than let the US General (I should probably learn his name; hold on... apparently it's Gunsberg? Well that's subtle) take custody of Barclay and Salt, which is only resolved when Salt temporarily paralyses everyone (except Barclay, oddly) with some special scream and then dives into the river.
So with one episode to go, I'm genuinely not sure how they're going to resolve all this. But between this and the last episode, things are definitely looking up, entertainment-wise. It's possible it could all collapse at the last minute, like the last two Doctor Who season-enders Davies wrote (since he's also writing the wrap-up for this series), but if they maintain this level of quality then this miniseries will have been worthwhile. Fingers crossed...
October 30: "The End of the War"
In some ways, this final episode feels like an inevitable outcome. Obviously things would have to go back to some form of normality, but it's a credit to the show that it didn't automatically feel like a foregone conclusion -- and they do provide a bit of leeway, rather than definitively shutting the door.
Hold on, let's back up a bit.
So after Salt escaped at the end of last episode, Barclay's been in protective custody and Aquakind has started melting the polar ice caps so they can drown humanity and turn the world into ocean. "You have five years [to clean up the world]," the new ambassador, Tide, tells humanity, "or all the water of the world will be set free. And be certain of this. Little people. This was never a war. This was an inconvenience. You were the dirt that gathered while we were away. But now we have returned, and you will be cleansed." So with that threat hanging over everyone's heads, Kate chooses to go to the Prime Minister to ask him about Severance. "I can help," she tells him. "There's always a way out. I can find it for you." But rather than convince him to accept Kate's help, this move instead pushes him to enact Severance -- which apparently involves injecting Barclay with some substance (and spraying his face with something) and then letting him out of his room to try and find Salt. Which he does, inadvertently infecting her with a virus that spreads throughout Homo aqua, killing off 90% of the population.
So yes, as I said at the top, it's a tribute to the show that this doesn't feel inevitable. You're often left wondering if there will be a peaceful resolution, and the show initially fakes the audience out when Salt seems to provide one: "Send out a signal to the seas, ask them for accord, and we might survive. All of us," she tells Barclay. We get a nice little scene where they figure out how to do it, and initially it seems like it might work, but it turns out it's already too late; the virus has already done its work. It's an effective pump fake. But, as with "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood" (and the 20th-century Silurian/Sea Devil stories, to an extent), we see that ultimately it's humanity's violent nature that wins out. The villains, in this case, win. It leads to an emotional meeting between Barclay and Salt in front of the world, as she informs humanity that they've won. And when Barclay, per Kate's request, offers Aquakind a particular area to live, Salt bitterly calls it a "hunting ground" for humans to kill them, while it's not too hard to draw parallels to the way Native Americans were forced onto reservations by the American government. Definitely something of a downbeat ending then.
It's not completely downbeat though; sure, most of Aquakind was murdered by humanity (specifically the British Prime Minister and the two generals, who we see killed (maybe? It's not clear if this is the future or just imagined) by vomiting water and drowning inside a parked car, respectively), but at least Salt is still alive. And we learn that the reason Barclay has been having neck pain is because he's actually growing gills for some reason (I think this may have something to do with the accord, but if they actually explained it I missed it) and is now much like Salt, able to live both on the land and in the sea. So at least they get to end up together, with Kate sending them off. It's not a big triumphant ending, but it's at least something.
Except then after the credits start to roll they do the equivalent of an MCU post-credits scene, with a jogger tossing aside a drink bottle and Kate asking him to pick it up, which escalates to her holding him at gunpoint and demanding he pick the bottle up. (Which is definitely extreme, of course, but also, my guy, you just lived through the planet getting pelting with trash and almost getting wiped out because of humanity's pollution and littering, so why the hell are you still tossing bottles aside on the beach instead of putting it in a bin?) It looks like the stress has finally gotten to Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, and this is her cracking.
That may look like a tease for the future, but we're not going to get any sort of follow-up anytime soon, if ever. The War Between the Land and the Sea did OK critically, but ratings weren't anything special -- basically the same as the most recent series of Doctor Who. In some ways that's a shame; while this wasn't the best show (or even Who spin-off) ever, it was still solid, and it showed that there is indeed some merit to the idea of a UNIT-focused show. Russell Tovey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Jemma Redgrave all deserve praise for their performances, and they were aided by an excellent supporting cast, with Cat Gannon as Kirby, Ruth Madeley as Shirley, and Francesca Corney as Sgt. Hana just some of the many great actors seen here. Other than some unresolved questions, the scripting was also good (and writing-wise, this final episode was leagues ahead of "The Reality War" or "Empire of Death"). It's frankly a little surprising that, in the United States at least, Disney still haven't released this yet. It's nothing embarrassing and honestly there's no reason it couldn't just be quietly released on Disney+ without a lot of fanfare, like any number of other shows on the platform (or even Doctor Who itself, to an extent). The War Between the Land and the Sea is a generally enjoyable story, even if it's not the flashiest thing ever.
But that, perhaps surprisingly, may be the final word on Doctor Who on television for some time to come.309 After Disney officially announced they weren't renewing their agreement with the BBC, a Christmas special was announced, but as time passed and nothing happened on the front it became clear that this wasn't going to happen, and eventually the BBC cancelled it in June 2026, with Russell T Davies/Bad Wolf Ltd. officially stepping down from making the show (and Davies stating he'd never even written a script for the special). The BBC don't seem to want the show to just go away, the way they did in 1989, since they officially began the process in September of finding another production partner for the show, opening it up to companies to bid for. But even if anything comes of that, it will still take time for a new series to start moving. The Doctor, it seems, is on another break. Let's just hope this one is shorter than 16 years.
Footnotes
308 The writer of Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Sea Devils, if you've forgotten.
309Unless you count this animated Doctor Who: TARDIS Crew show aimed at preschoolers that's coming out on CBeebies (the dedicated BBC channel for ages 5 and under) sometime in the next year or two. Maybe I'll cover it, but the teaser image that's been released so far makes this look like little more than a fun and silly way to entertain young kids, and not anything intended for a larger audience.