I wasn't going into series 14 with high expectations but those low expectations have served me well in thinking this was a pretty decent story overall.
It was way better than I expected based on the premise alone. Still have some major problems with the story, but ncuti and mjllie both showed some great range and chemistry and the story itself has some really good moments. Still can't help but feel RTDisms and very obvious plot foreshadowing that feels distracting more than anything took away from the story. And the premise felt like the wrong approach for a first episode in a new series. But the story itself is well executed.
The actual plot had a lot of surface level absurdism but was very formulaic in my opinion, like they're trying to cram the whole first half of a normal series of dr who into this condensed 8 45 minute episode format. I also found some jokes to be cringy and some plot beats to be weak. On top of that they really heavily telegraphed some parts of the arc, an arc which feels very formulaic for the show, and I can't help but feel that was annoyingly obvious.
But the characters work is amazing, the direction and performances are spectacular and the whole story was infectiously bright, with a very well put together story. The disney influences where there and I didnt like that but they where minimal and you could still feel the shows charm shining through which I was worried would die.
This isn't my preferred type of dr who but it's doing what it can very well.