This is a difficult one to review. We’re in the opening stages of an arc, with more questions than answers. Those answers may be satisfying, or they may not be. I would err towards the latter, but we shall see.

Jack’s back, played and written as a tribute to himself. The same coat and the same jokes delivered in a nice RTD throwback package, existing entirely outside the main episode to, apparently, tease the arc. Chibnall was aggressively unimaginative in Series 11 – now he’s the opposite, going balls-to-the-wall mental and throwing everything in – the Master, Jack, Time Lords and Gallifrey, Cybermen, another Doctor. I have to admire his chutzpah, as distasteful as I’m finding it all. And it’s nice to have actual surprises – while both the Master and Ruth’s identities were leaked beforehand, they weren’t announced by the BBC like John Simm’s return in Series 10.

Jack’s return does result in somewhat mixed feelings. As much as I enjoy the character (or used to, if he’s now going to be used as a greatest hits arc-teaser), John Barrowman’s triumphant crowing, about how he feels almost vindicated that we finally have a ‘showrunner who appreciates Captain Jack again’, is difficult to stomach. This is a not-so-veiled reference to Steven Moffat, whom Barrowman has pilloried over the years for blocking Jack’s return in either Doctor Who or Torchwood. Moffat, apparently bewildered, has previously responded that he had no control whatsoever over Torchwood – created by Russell T Davies and Chris Chibnall. More importantly, he attempted to bring Jack back for Series 6’s A Good Man Goes to War, an episode that featured the Doctor calling in favours from a multitude of allies. Jack’s inclusion would be logical, but Barrowman’s scheduling conflicts resulted in him being left out of the episode. So it’s disingenuous for Barrowman to suggest that he has been blocked in some way, as if he has a God-given right to always appear in the programme. There was a specific space for him to appear, he wasn’t able to, so he didn’t. This nostalgia-driven desire to bring back old characters, regardless of whether there’s an appropriate story for them, leads to this episode: a glorified cameo designed to send social media in to a frenzy, with pre-made GIFs of ‘You missed me, right?’ ready to share.

Poor Vinay Patel. Possibly the best writer of Series 11 forced, like a mule, to create a skeleton Judoon story for Chibnall to dump his arc all over. The skeleton episode – Judoon invading Gloucester to search for a fugitive – is a good idea with, naturally, fumbled execution. Many of the jokes and plot elements are lifted from the superior Smith and Jones, the original Judoon episode, and the episode often dips into farce and bizarre humour. The companions are, as ever, under-served; Yaz insisting that, as a police officer, she can speak the Judoon’s language before going outside and just telling them to go in is particularly amusing. It’s as if the writers know how little they’re giving her, how generic she is, and are deciding to mock us. It’s like how the Ruth Doctor doesn’t recognise the Sonic Screwdriver, commenting that she’s smart enough not to need it – suggesting that the writers, Chibnall in this case, know it’s a crutch – while the Whittaker Doctor is constantly pulling it out. Meta-commentary that doesn’t fix the issue isn’t clever. It’s maddening.

The obsession with the RTD era is grating. Just this episode we have the Judoon, a Fob Watch/Chameleon Arch reveal cribbed from Series 3, Jack, and ‘emotional heft’ supplied by the destruction of Gallifrey. It is faintly unbelievable that we’ve gone back to the Doctor as the Last of the Time Lords – an arc that last had relevance in 2010 – but having the Doctor spell out that ‘I’ve seen Gallifrey destroyed, twice, and now it’s gone forever’ makes the futility of it all clear. It’s just a return to the RTD status quo with none of his skill or verve. It’s a Wikipedia entry – a data point on a page. Compare the ending of Gridlock to the end of Spyfall. In the former, the Doctor sits down to speak passionately to Martha about his lost home, having lied to her earlier in the episode because he liked to pretend it was still there. The episode sets this up and takes the time at the end – literally stopping to sit down – to highlight its emotional power. It is moving and thematically relevant. Spyfall, comparatively, ends with the Doctor flatly listing, as if reading off cue cards, that she can change her face if mortally wounded, she’s a Time Lord, and her home planet is Gallifrey. These are, functionally, the same tools – a revelation of the Doctor’s origins. But the approaches are night and day. In Gridlock, it’s poetic. In Spyfall – in the Chibnall era more generally – it’s data. Things. Charitably, Chibnall is building off the emotional context built by previous showrunners. Uncharitably, he doesn’t realise what made these things powerful or interesting, and believes that just invoking them is enough to build emotion.

And it seems his approach is paying off. Gallifrey, the Master, Time Lords, Jack – things, imitations of the past – have generated far more excitement for Series 12 than the thingless Series 11. But the quality just isn’t there.