The question was always going to be if this second part could live up to the opener, which surprised many.
If I'm totally honest, I didn't enjoy this anywhere near as much as the opener, it was a bit messy, and at times it felt a bit flat. There were a few good scenes, but it's what I would class a mug's eyeful, way too much going on. They've tried to do too much.
It really did look great, and whilst I wasn't perhaps bowled over by some of the historical characters, they looked great.
Credit to Sacha Dhawan, he did a great job, unambiguously evil, no grey areas, he's a bad guy, he had bags of energy and charisma, I loved his mania. Chibnall's best decision was casting him, he's brilliant. I'd argue he was the best thing about it.
At last a mention to the past, a mention of a previous episode, and the resulting scene on the Tower was perhaps the best, but why no talk of Missy?
The companions were poorly served.
I have watched it for a second time, and have the same opinion, it was decent, but the alien threat was wasted, Lenny Henry was wasted, if they had stripped it back a little it would have worked better, the scenes at the end were very good, and I'm looking forward to the rest of this series. 5/10