As someone else wrote somewhere... RTD's back, which means the carnival's back in town. Lots of running about, flashing lights, loud music, a stunt show with exploding things and people shooting at each other, and comedy hi jinks.
I liked the small things - the time vortex having open areas with multiple paths from 13, the helping/oh-shit-nope-not-helping with the stacking, the psychic paper not keeping up, 'she's fine/she's not fine/been fine', Sylvia's "YOU!", Donna's 'WHAT THE HELL!', the 'you can't know your future conversation' up until they mentioned (again) that Donna dies if she remembers. Didn't mind the parademons, like the idea of the Sonic having a UI (but hated the shields), loved The Meep even after they got sidelined for the big ending. Console room was kinda meh still, big and bland atm.
I have a feeling the episode was scripted and shot, then they decided on the introduction to catch us all up, hence the doubling-up. Could be wrong, though.