I had slightly different reactions to the two episodes so I’m going to split them up here.
The Empty Child:
The first thing that struck me was how funny Moffat’s writing is, love it. It’s a very well done suspenseful concept for me, only slight issue with the main plot is the bit where the Doctor gives the speech about Britain holding off the Nazis. Obviously yknow, very important that they did, but it just felt a bit British exceptionalist as if Britain was the only country defiant enough to stop them, when it would have been a lot about strategy and not having a land border. Does the Doctor even understand nationalities? He usually just talks about humanity as a whole. Anyways, not super important, but just raised an eyebrow for me.
The other thing I noticed in this episode is how many circumstantial links there are to Rogue: the psychic paper kerfuffle, the invisible ship, the loner/criminal/freelancer/“rogue” with a lowercase r. I still think their personalities are miles apart but I can see more now why the connection between episodes at least popped into some people’s heads (plus the emphasis on dancing in the next episode).
The Doctor Dances:
Again I love the main plot and think the ambulance stuff was done very well (and I spotted lots of connections to Boom which was fun), but I’m not really into the dynamic between the Doctor, Rose and Jack. The competitiveness just feels a bit toxic masculinity in a way I find off-putting. However I think in principle it’s inserted into the story quite smoothly, so if I was into it then I think it would work quite well and enhance the emotional payoff a lot. I can confidently predict this because I was very into the chemistry in Rogue and loved the balance of action and emotion, and all things considered it was probably a pretty similar split of screen time.
I think next time I re-watch this I’ll enjoy it more because I’ll remember how I felt about the dynamic so it won’t be as startling, therefore the spell probably won’t get broken for me and I can fully enjoy one of my favourite Moffat moments…
Just this once, EVERYBODY LIVES