It has that exact right combination of seriousness and absurdity and body horror and science fiction that is Dr Who. They nailed it.
That whole entirely unnecessary gravity bit, ridiculous and absurd, but funny.
Donna almost getting left behind, the captain commiting fucking suicide shows the seriousness of the episode.
I just loved it.
It was definitely a return to form, one of my favorite episodes in a long time. Tennant has still got it, and it’s been a real treat getting to see him in this role again, however briefly. I was never a big Donna fan, but she’s been killing it the last couple of episodes.
Donna is both my least and most favorite character. It’s interesting. I hate the character when she’s being overly critical and hostile for no reason, which she was mostly in the beginning (and still is a bit, here and there), but her character development is the best in the series. She’s one of the most caring and empathetic characters that we’ve seen so far and I love that. And her (previously) final arc was absolutely heart breaking.
That’s the thing about humans. They can hold two opposing ideas in their head simultaneously.