Spoilers for “The Well.”

Sometimes, in fiction, you don’t need to say a Very Important Thing in a Very Important Way to make a good point, just ask how a thing would work if it played out in the world. This week’s episode of Doctor Who, “The Well,” does exactly that, and brilliantly.

Picking up straight after “Lux,” the Doctor and Belinda, still in their ‘50s outfits, are trying to get the TARDIS to work. Belinda helps with the controls, but the vessel still refuses to land on May 24, 2025, which panics the nurse even more. If the TARDIS isn’t broken, she assumes that the date or the Earth itself could be broken, and frets about her parents. The Doctor shares her concerns, but promises that she will be reunited with her family.

The Doctor persists with his plan to land in a few more spots with the Vindicator (the gadget he built last week) to orient the TARDIS. This time, it’s 500,000 years in the future, and Belinda asks if humanity even exists by now. He assures her it does, as humans spread to the stars and wormed themselves into every corner of the universe. The pair head to the TARDIS wardrobe to get into some appropriate clothes before heading out.

They step out onto the gantry of a spaceship where an advance party of marines are leaping into the void. With no choice but to join them, they land on the planet below, enabling the Doctor to take the Vindicator reading. But, alas, the planet’s heavy radiation means the ship (and by extension, the TARDIS) has to glide down slowly over the next five hours. So they tag along with the mission, the Psychic Paper enabling the Doctor and Belinda to insinuate themselves with the team.

The planet is inhospitable, occupied only by a small mining colony that has dug down into the world to extract its last remaining useful resources. The colony went silent a few days before and, before you can say “Oh, is this going to be an(other) Aliens riff?” one of the marines suggests it would have been wiser to “nuke the site from orbit.”

All of the colonists are dead, half from gunfire, half from injuries that look like they fell and broke every bone in their body. The mirrors are all smashed and the systems are offline, the records of what went on inaccessible. But there is one survivor, the colony’s chef, Aliss Bethick (Rose Ayling-Ellis) who, like the actress who portrays her, is deaf. Aliss has been waiting in the middle of a large cargo turntable (which reads on camera as a big circle) for days.

Aliss is isolated, both physically in the staging and because of her hearing loss, and while she can lipread, it’s still a barrier between her and the soldiers. The Doctor can communicate with Aliss in sign, and the soldiers all have their own captioning screens on their lapels. Much of the second act is taken up with the interrogation of Aliss as the marines work through the logistics of how to communicate with her. For instance, getting her attention by casting to another soldier’s screen in her eye-line to get her to turn around. Belinda enters the circle to treat Aliss’ injuries but keeps seeing something lurking behind her new patient.

It isn’t long before the Doctor learns that the desolate planet they stand on was once covered in diamonds. This is the planet Midnight from the series four episode of the same name when the Doctor, trapped in a shuttle, tries and ultimately fails to defeat a sinister entity that possessed one of the passengers. Like then, the Doctor’s pleas for calm fail. Two of the soldiers mutiny and attempt to lure the entity out and kill it. They do not survive.

It’s Belinda who works out and explains the rules: If you imagine the host — Aliss — at the center of a clock, then whoever stands directly behind her is attacked by the unseen monster. If you stand at six o’clock then you’re fine, but “you’ll die at midnight.” Quite literally, as whoever is in the entity’s way gets thrown around like a ragdoll — half the crew shooting each other to kill the entity, the other half getting minced by the alien.

The Doctor approaches Aliss to speak to the monster but since it’s time for the third act to start wrapping up, he just stares for a bit before working out the solution. In order to mine the diamonds the colonists would dump down mercury, using a pipe which is conveniently running behind Aliss’ head. Shooting the pipe will cause a river of mercury to cascade down, creating a mirror that should be enough to banish the monster.

They make their escape, but the Doctor can’t help but wait behind to see the monster, giving it a chance to latch onto Belinda. The captain of the marines shoots Belinda enough that the entity thinks she’s about to die and switches hosts, after which point they leap into the mineshaft. Belinda wakes up in the TARDIS in the Doctor’s care, ready for the next adventure. Meanwhile, the marines debrief their boss — Mrs. Flood! Who knows all about the Vindicator, too — before revealing the alien did make it on board their spaceship after all.

One of the threads in the episode is Belinda keeps discussing human terms and superstitions to shrugs from everyone around her. It’s something that’s got both her and The Doctor puzzled, as there seems to be something very wrong with all of reality.

You die at midnight...

James Pardon / BBC Studios / Disney / Bad Wolf

Showrunner Russell T. Davies was asked about bad faith criticisms that the show had somehow gone woke. “Someone always brings up matters of diversity and there are online warriors accusing us of diversity and wokeness and involving messaging and issues and I have no time for this,” he said. “What you might call ‘diversity’ I just call an open door,” he added, “it’s cold and it’s bracing and there’s a world in front of you! There’s a blue sky, there’s clouds and there’s noise, there’s birdsong, there’s people arguing.”

What’s notable about this is that Davies’ open-minded (and open-hearted) approach to making the show creates storytelling possibilities. For instance, the last time an episode of Doctor Who featured a deaf character (2015’s “Under The Lake”), she relied upon a colleague to interpret on her behalf. And her ability to lipread wound up being part of the solution to the episode’s problem — reducing her to little more than a plot mechanism.

Here, while Aliss’ deafness is a core part of the plot, it doesn’t feel as if she’s defined by that one facet. Effort has been made to flesh out her character, and it’s more a venue to explore how technology and communication intersect with someone with different accessibility needs. Especially as (co-writers) Sharma Angel-Walfall and Russell T. Davies made the effort to think through how this would work.

BBC Studios / Disney / Bad Wolf

Whenever I’m watching an episode of nü-nü-Who, in the back of my mind I’m mulling what the injection of Disney money changed. “Midnight,” the episode “The Well” is a sequel to, was produced as a “double banked” episode — splitting the leads to shoot two episodes at a time. “Midnight” was also intended as a cheap story, with the bulk of the script taking place in a single room. If we’re being honest, “The Well” could have worked just as well given the bulk of the action takes place in a handful of rooms.

That’s not to say the extra cash lavished upon this episode is wasted: “The Well” feels almost indulgent by Doctor Who standards for the sheer breadth and depth of its sets. I can’t help but recall the Aliens riff Strange New Worlds produced in its first season, which re-used the series’ standing sets for the wreck of the USS Peregrine. It sounds weird to say that Doctor Who is luxuriating in the fact it can afford to show a trashed bunkroom for all of a minute, but it is.

Perhaps part of the reason it does feel indulgent is that this is an episode relatively low on incident and high on character. Belinda gets a real showcase here, both asserting herself on the narrative at several points, but also being rebuked for doing so. She tries to take charge to help the injured Aliss but the medical kit is so advanced she’s not able to use it. She’s smart enough to work out the rules of the alien, but also it gets the better of her in the end.

Whereas the first two episodes this season felt overstuffed and rushed, the smaller story and focus on character lets everything breathe. That an accessibility tool is a key focus of the plot and used as a venue for storytelling and character development is marvelous.

Look, I’m as bored saying it as you are reading it, but once again I can’t help but point out the influence of Steven Moffat on this season. One of the inspirations for monsters like the Weeping Angels and the Silence was the idea of them being easy to turn into a schoolyard game. The unnamed entity here, with the mechanic that if you stand directly behind the host you will die, seems perfectly in that tradition.

But “The Well” also offers instances where Davies is in conversation with the rest of this season and his earlier work. In both “Midnight” and “The Well,” the Doctor is at risk of losing his grip on the situation because the threat of the unknown makes people paranoid and jumpy. A streak of deeply dark pessimism runs through all of this work and while it’s also on show here, there’s a little more hope than there was before.

It’s also interesting how Davies, who has always structured his seasons in a fairly rigid manner, seems to be deliberately repeating motifs and beats. The parallels between this season and the last feel almost like they’re trying to draw attention to themselves. “Space Babies” and “The Robot Revolution,” “The Devil’s Chord” and “Lux” and now the “Boom” paired with “The Well” feel like episodes vying for the same space in different realities. Not to mention the repetition of moments from episode to episode — like the TARDIS wardrobe sequence and the repeated hand injuries. If next week's "Lucky Day" is predominantly featured on Ruby Sunday without the Doctor and revolves around physical distance and / or the supernatural, then perhaps we might assume that this is more than coincidence. 

Mrs. Flood Corner

I’ve always hated “The End… or is it?” fake-outs that often undermine the drama of whatever denouement they’re tacked on to. Sure, it can be effective if you want to cheapen the sacrifices your characters made to vanquish the villain, but often it comes across as hacky. Not to mention that people with poor media literacy will assume that it’s actually a teaser for a cliffhanger to be resolved the following week.

Here, eh, it’s essentially a way to shoehorn Mrs. Flood in as the soldiers' boss taking the debrief after the Doctor and Belinda depart. She knows about the Doctor’s use of the Vindicator, and has now seen it in action thanks to the soldier’s recording. But there’s no breaking the fourth wall, which means she’s operating here in the same manner as Susan Twist did last year. Which is, uh, interesting.

The hit co-op adventure game Split Fiction is already headed for Hollywood with Sydney Sweeney in a starring role, according to Variety. Along with the Euphoria actor, the film adaptation welcomed Wicked’s Jon M. Chu as the project’s director and screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who worked on Deadpool & Wolverine. Sweeney will also reportedly be an executive producer for the Split Fiction movie. Split Fiction features two authors named Mio and Zoe who get trapped in fictional worlds they penned up. It’s still unknown which of the two Split Fiction protagonists Sweeney will portray.

Shortly after the video game’s release in March, Variety reported on a bidding war for a film adaptation of Split Fiction. Hazelight Studios, an indie video game developer out of Sweden, created the game that centers around split-screen combat and bounces between sci-fi and fantasy worlds. The game saw early success, selling two million copies in its first week, which may have led to the quick turnaround of a proposed Hollywood adaptation. It was picked up by Story Kitchen, a studio known for adaptations of franchises like Sonic the Hedgehog and Tomb Raider, but there’s no release window yet.

MasterClass is a good platform to learn a new skill and transfer that doom-scrolling energy into something more productive — and probably more fun, too. Now, you can sign up for MasterClass at a discount: plans are 40 percent off at the moment as part of a "spring forward" sale. Tiers start at $6 per month, which comes out to $72 in total when billed annually.

We reckon the mid-tier Plus plan likely offers the best value here. That includes the ability to watch MasterClass videos on two devices simultaneously. Perhaps more importantly, this tier includes offline viewing, which might come in handy if no in-flight entertainment options grab your interest the next time you're traveling. The Plus plan is available for the equivalent of $9 per month when billed annually ($108 total), down from $15 per month.

There are more than 200 classes available on MasterClass, including lessons from some of the top names in each relevant industry. You might learn about how to have a winning mentality from Lewis Hamilton, creative writing from Margaret Atwood, shooting and scoring from Steph Curry, comedy from Steve Martin or home cooking from Alice Waters. The categories of classes include film and TV, health and wellness, science and technology, music, and business.

Each class has around 20 video lessons that typically last around 10 minutes long each. You'll get access to a workbook as well to help you absorb the information and understand how to act on it through various exercises. But even if you're not necessarily interested in acquiring new skills, you might simply use MasterClass as you would with any other streaming service, which is one reason why it's among our favorite subscriptions to gift someone.

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The fashion-forward adventure Infinity Nikki is finally coming to Steam on April 29, complete with its iconic photo mode. The Steam version launches alongside a major update called Bubble Season that brings some new features to the game on all platforms.

First and foremost, Bubble Season will introduce co-op play. This two-player mode lets a pair of friends explore the entire game world. There will be unique co-op puzzles and new escort missions.

The update brings a new area and, of course, a whole bunch of new outfits to collect. Publisher Papergames is also bringing back some old outfits from previous seasons, for those who missed the boat. There’s even a new fashion runway gameplay mechanic with new interactions for photo mode.

Finally, Bubble Season adds a new dye mechanic, which changes outfit colors. We don’t know exactly how this will work, but it looks to add even more customization options. Again, all of these features will be available on April 29 for PC, mobile and PS5.

The Legend of Ochi feels like a film that shouldn't exist today. It's an original story, not an adaptation of an already popular book or comic. It's filled with complex puppetry and practical effects, something many films avoid because CG is simply easier to deal with. And it evokes some of the scarier children's films of the '80s and '90s, like the nightmare-inducing adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Witches.

According to Isaiah Saxon, the film's writer and director, it was a struggle to get The Legend of Ochi made. "The attempt to make the film took longer than the making of the film," he said in an interview on the Engadget Podcast. " I think it's extremely hard to reach kids with your first film because kids are kind of behind this kind of corporatized IP world now. But I really wanted to reach kids with my first film and, and so that's why it took so long."

Whenever he received a bit of funding for the film, Saxon says he used it to prototype creatures with London's John Nolan Studios, which has built animatronics for films like Jurassic World Dominion, as well as scouted locations in Romania. "And so, through the three-and-a-half years of this work before I got a green light [to make the film], I had then accrued this visual package that was kind of undeniable," he said. "That's when A24 finally just said, okay we're gonna be bold and risky and this isn't what anyone normally does, but we're gonna believe in you here."

The result is a film that feels incredibly personal and distinct. It centers on a young girl, Yuri (Helena Zengel), who is growing up in a tiny village on the island of Carpathia. There the people fear the Ochi, mysterious primates who live in the forests and attack farm animals. Her father Maxim (Willem Dafoe in another unhinged A24 film performance) is a conservative, overly-macho man who leads a band of boys to hunt Ochi. Oh yeah, and he occasionally wears Viking armor.

A24

The film begins with the Ochi, who from afar look like menacing monkeys. Yuri was raised to fear them, but after encountering one young Ochi, she begins to reject everything her father taught her. It also helps that the creature looks adorable, with large eyes and protruding ears, it's a bit like The Mandalorian's Grogu (AKA Baby Yoda), but with fur. The infant Ochi is also a complex puppet created by John Nolan Studios, and it looks uncanny at first, since these days we expect it to be computer generated. But it's clearly a physical object, with actual facial movements that Yuri can react to.

"Puppetry is such an ancient art form," Saxon said, when I asked why he pushed to make the Ochi a puppet and not a purely CG creature. "We've been making shadows on the cave wall for thousands of years, and our brain as we watch the human hand give life to a character is just fully accepting of it."

"And then there's also the charm of the failure space of puppetry. Even when you're not doing it just right, it feels alive. And especially for this baby primate, we found immediately as we were testing the puppet, that the little imperfections that came through rod puppeteering were actually exactly the way that a little baby monkey would be just discovering how to move their own body."

A24

Creating a believable puppet is just one problem though, another is orchestrating it effectively on a movie set. "[John Nolan Studios] pushed the limits of what you could do at a really small scale with animatronics," Saxon said. "We were able to prototype for years to build these creatures. And then on set, we have extensively rehearsed every single scene with all these puppeteers. There's five on the body led by Rob Tygner, who's doing the head, and he's kind of calling out the internal monologue of the animal — all its thinking, all its vocalization — so that everyone can sync."

Another two people control the puppet's face while staring at monitors, so there's a challenge to making them all work as one entity, Saxon says. The film's sets are also built to hold all of the people who control the Ochi puppet, and who often need to be hidden from view. And then there are the suit performers. "We have small people in ape suits with hand extensions with heavy animatronic heads that they can barely see out of. They're hot and they're out in the Carpathian wilderness in the mountains of Transylvania," Saxon said.

After seeing what he accomplished with The Legend of Ochi, it's not hard to see Disney tapping Saxon for something in the Marvel universe, like it has with so many independent filmmakers. But that likely won't happen. "I've already said no," Saxon remarked in regards to making a Marvel film, and he also has no desire to make anything based on an existing IP.

Saxon isn't entirely against using digital tools, despite his obvious love for puppetry. The Legend of Ochi still uses CG for distant shots of the Ochi, and for creating virtual sets. "I've also, over the years, learned CG and I've made purely animated 3D films. And I know the software myself and I know that it's a bespoke craft art that is tedious and full of love and attention to detail."

"It doesn't get the respect it deserves," he added. "And that's partly because there's been a kind of corporatization and overuse of CG a lot.” Saxon says he was well aware a CG character couldn’t carry the film, but he also knew that it was the best way to create a 3D river that didn’t exist in Romania. (It’s also reminiscent of the music video he directed for Bjork’s “Wanderlust.”)

"You have to look at each opportunity and come to the technique organically for the task. You can't have philosophies about this."

Food at the grocery store seems expensive — until you go out to eat. If you’ve decided to get more use out of your kitchen, we know of a few handy gadgets to make cooking at home easier, quicker and probably more fun. As food lovers and tech reviewers, the Engadget team has tried out pizza ovens, sous vide machines, air fryers, ice cream makers and more. This list gathers up the best of what we’ve tested and reviewed in our own kitchens and serves as a great place to start as you zhuzh up your cooking situation. We’ve also linked to our reviews and buying guides so you can dive deeper into our recommendations for the best kitchen gadgets around.

Best kitchen gadgets for 2025

Nicole Lee contributed to this report.

Meta is finally acknowledging that Facebook’s feed is filled with too many spammy posts. In an update, the company says it plans to start “cracking down” on some of the worst offenders. “Facebook Feed doesn’t always serve up fresh, engaging posts that you consistently enjoy,” the company writes. “We’re working on it.”

Specifically, Meta says it will lower the reach of creators that share posts with "long, distracting captions” as well as posts with captions that are irrelevant or unrelated to the shared content. These accounts will also no longer be eligible for monetization. Likewise, the company says it’s taking “more aggressive” steps to combat “spam networks that coordinate fake engagement.” This includes making comments from these accounts less visible, and removing Facebook pages meant to “inflate reach.” Meta is also testing a feature that allows users to anonymously downvote comments in order to flag them as not “useful.”

The update comes as Meta is trying to revamp Facebook to make it more appealing to “young adults.” The company recently brought back a tab for friends content, in an update Mark Zuckerberg described as making the platform more like “OG Facebook.” Notably though, Meta’s update doesn’t mention one of the more persistent forms of engagement bait that’s emerged on Facebook over the last year: AI slop.

The phenomenon, which has been extensively documented by 404 Media, involved bizarre, often nonsensical AI-generated images — like the now infamous “Shrimp Jesus” — that serve little purpose other than to farm engagement for people trying to make money on or off Facebook. These spammers are often aided by Facebook’s own algorithm, which boosts the posts, researchers have found.

AI slop and engagement bait aren’t the only types of low-quality posts that have overwhelmed users’ Facebook feeds in recent years. I regularly see posts from pages that seem to do nothing but screenshot old Reddit posts from r/AITA, or recycle old news about celebrities I don’t follow or particularly care about. Meta’s reports on the most widely-viewed content on its platform regularly feature anodyne posts that are engineered to rack up millions of comments, like those that ask users to comment “amen” or solve basic math equations. Posts like that may not fit neatly into Meta’s latest crackdown, though it’s unlikely many Facebook users are actually enjoying this content.

The company does note it’s also trying to “elevate” the creators that are actually sharing original content, including by cracking down on accounts that steal their work. But given how much easier it is to make AI slop than good original content, it could be a long time before Meta is able to get Facebook’s spam problem under control.

Pizza ovens are having a moment. Companies like Ooni have popularized the ability to make restaurant-quality pies at home by giving you ovens that get hot enough for various pizza styles. Some burn wood while others run on gas, and some options can even do both with the proper accessories. I’ve broken down what to look for when you’re shopping for a pizza oven along with my top picks for the best pizza oven in various categories. If you prefer to stay in your kitchen, I’ve got options for you too. Plus, there’s a list of the pizza ovens on my upcoming slate of reviews.

Table of contents

• Best outdoor pizza ovens for 2025

• Best indoor pizza ovens in 2025

• What to look for in a pizza oven

• How to prepare before outdoor cooking

• Upcoming pizza oven reviews

• The best pizza accessories for the oven you already have

Best outdoor pizza ovens for 2025

Best indoor pizza ovens in 2025

Let me preface this section by saying you probably already have an indoor option that you can use to make some great pizza. Whether that’s the main oven in your kitchen or a multi-function countertop unit, with some affordable accessories, you can easily up your game without spending $1,000 on a dedicated appliance. For example, my Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer has a convection pizza setting that automatically adjusts cook time based on the size, oven temperature and whether the pie is fresh or frozen. A key consideration here is size. These things are massive, about the size of a large microwave, so you likely won’t want to keep them out all the time unless you have a huge kitchen.

What to look for in a pizza oven

When shopping for a home pizza oven, you’ll first want to consider what types of pies you plan to make. Most portable outdoor pizza ovens from the likes of Ooni, Solo Stove and others use wood and are primarily designed for the high-heat cooking required for light and airy Neapolitan-style pizzas. We’re talking high temperatures up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit. These units can certainly cook different styles at cooler temperatures, but the learning curve is easiest when you’re running them wide open with a full load of wood.

You'll also want to consider alternate fuel types. If you purchase a propane or natural gas burner, you can adjust temperatures easily by turning a knob. For this reason, I recommend you spend the extra $100 or so on that accessory. This dual-fuel option makes your pizza oven a lot more versatile and gives you the option to still have a freshly fired pie when you don’t feel like messing with wood or charcoal. If you only want to cook with gas, there are models available that only use propane or natural gas.

The other key consideration for aspiring pizza makers is size. Most companies make ovens that fit 12-inch pizzas, a perfect size for a personal pan pizza. They’re also great for pizza parties, since people can customize their own without having to pick off toppings they don’t like. If you want to make larger pizzas or plan to use your oven for other things (pans, etc), consider a larger version that can accommodate more than just small pies. The interior dimensions – or at the very least the pizza stone size – will be listed on most product pages.

How to prepare before outdoor cooking

Making quality pizza at home requires a considerable amount of counter or table space. You’ll need room to stretch and prep your pizza dough, lay out your mozzarella, other cheeses and toppings and load pies onto a peel. Of course, some folks will be comfortable working in the tight confines of a small kitchen, but I’ve found it much easier to use extra space to make sure I’m not constantly moving things around during the various steps in the process.

It’s also less hassle to set up your pizza-making station in close proximity to your oven. As a pizza-baking beginner, I did the running back and forth from the kitchen to the back porch. It’s far from ideal. It’s difficult to maintain your fire (if using wood or charcoal) when you’re unable to watch it closely. The good news is a patio table can be easily converted into a pizza station with a large cutting board. This also gets your oven off the ground so it’s easier to access.

Ooni sells tables for its ovens that also offer shelving and storage for peels and other accessories. Solo Stove has a rolling stand for its Pi oven too, with small side shelves and a spot for your propane tank underneath. Of course, you can find other tables and stands to suit your needs, just make sure they can withstand any heat that may radiate from the bottom of the oven while cooking. Most ovens are either well insulated or don’t project too much excess heat toward the table, but you can never be too careful. For that reason, a stainless steel or metal surface is a good choice to set up an outdoor model.

Most of these ovens cook quickly at high heat, especially if you’re making Neapolitan pizza. Having everything you need nearby so you can keep tabs on the oven and quickly make the next pizza will ease a lot of unnecessary headaches. When your cook time is two minutes or less, you don’t want to venture too far.

Upcoming pizza oven reviews

Ooni recently updated its Koda line with the Koda 2 and Koda 2 Pro. Both feature the company’s latest burner technology among their improvements alongside slightly larger cooking areas. The Koda 2 Pro comes with an Ooni Connect Digital Temperature Hub display that can send updates to your phone via Bluetooth. The Koda 2 doesn’t, but you can easily add one if you’re willing to pay for the accessory. The Koda 2 is available now, but the Koda 2 Pro is still on the way. Since the smart connectivity is what I’m most interested in, I’m waiting to review the Pro.

Current Backyard debuted as a new company at CES 2024. Initially focused on electric grills, it returned to Las Vegas this year with an electric pizza oven. The $599 Model P offers five different cook modes for various styles and uses, along with a maximum temperature of 850 degrees Fahrenheit. Top-mounted and under-stone heating elements ensure even cooking and Current Backyard says the Model P will recover quickly between pies. The company’s app also offers a Pizza Build Calculator to help you determine cook time and temperature based on your chosen style and ingredients. The Model P is likely to be the next pizza oven to go through a thorough review.

The best pizza accessories for the oven you already have

If you want to make good homemade pizza that rivals that of your favorite pizzeria (and without spending hundreds of dollars on a dedicated oven), you can definitely do it with the oven you already have in your kitchen. With a few gadgets, you can improve your game without splurging on a Breville, Ooni or Solo Stove. First, I’d recommend a high quality baking steel or stone.

Baking stones are great for getting better browning on the bottom of your pies than a pizza or sheet pan. You can also use them for bread, cookies and other items. The stone absorbs heat to cook pizza quickly, like the inside of a brick oven, which leads to a charred crust. They’re also more affordable compared to baking steels. Those metal slabs do have one key advantage: higher heat conductivity. This means a steel will cook your pizzas faster since it can absorb more heat from your oven. While baking steels can be used as griddles on your stovetop and for other types of baking, they’re not ideal for some leavened breads.

The second item you’ll want is a pizza peel. These come in all shapes and sizes, made out of a variety of materials. I typically use a bamboo or wooden peel when topping and launching my pizzas and then a metal one for retrieving them. I’ve found that dough doesn’t stick as easily to bamboo during prep and the metal resists the high heat of the oven when turning or retrieving a finished pizza (bamboo will burn). There are also perforated peels which allow both steam and excess flour to escape. A peel is a great tool for loading and turning pizzas, getting them in the back of the oven, and since you’ll typically be cooking them with your oven at 500 degrees or hotter, using something like parchment paper to move them around won’t work.

For those of us who've been on the internet for decades, today is a big milestone: the 20th anniversary of the first video uploaded to YouTube. That happened way back on April 23, 2005, only about a year and a half before Google made the shrewd move of purchasing the site. That first video is the all-time classic 19-second clip "Me at the zoo," the kind of video that came to define early YouTube. It's grainy, short and has no production values to speak of. Fast forward a few decades and YouTube has no peer in terms of its sheer volume of audiovisual content —the company says that a mind-boggling 20 billion videos) have been uploaded in the last 20 years, and 20 million are updated daily.

With all that in mind, Engadget's staff put their heads together to pick out the videos that have meant the most to them over the years. Not surprisingly, there's some weird stuff here, a lot of it from the early days of the platform. Apparently the stuff that really resonates with us isn't polish or production, but the raw, oddball stuff that couldn't have existed anywhere else. 

Ambient Renders

I test a whole bunch of portable batteries for Engadget. A power bank can refill a dead smartphone in one to two hours, but thanks to annoying technology “advancements” it takes around 20 hours to drain a phone again. I’m constantly playing YouTube videos on my tester handsets with the screen brightness cranked all the way up to make them die faster (these poor phones). My favorite videos to use are from Ambient Renders. Each one is eight or so hours of painstakingly rendered, mostly nighttime views from the windows of fancy lofts in modern-day big cities, cozy bedrooms of the distant past and sci-fi futurescapes. The soundtracks are soft rain, lonesome wind, crackling fires, distant thunder and the rumble of passing transport pods.

I often return to a Warm Cozy Cabin With a Relaxing Fire and Gentle Wind — a candle-lit bedroom with huge windows overlooking snow-covered pines, with a couple of mugs steaming in the corner. The subtle movements and details really come to life when you play them on a TV. There are a ton of these types of videos on YouTube and, lately, the creator has taken to adding “not made with AI” disclaimers to the video descriptions. It’s plain to see these are made with love and skill. The intricacy is stunning and even the sci-fi views are anchored in realism. — Amy Skorheim, senior reporter

Canadian, Please | gunnarolla & Julia Bentley

I was trying to remember the first YouTube video I was obsessed with and honestly couldn't tell you. Between communitychannel, Jake and Amir, Michelle Phan, Wong Fu Productions and many more, I have too many likes and faves to count. But I can tell you that I've been jamming to Gunnorolla's "Canadian, Please" since before it became cool to want to be Canadian. This certified bop was something I replayed over and over; I've memorized the lyrics and the song haunts me in my dreams, too. My more modern favorites change every month, but I currently adore CinemaSins, Scary Interesting, Wilko Rehashed, Psychology in Seattle and The School of Life. Oh and also, don't go looking for my channel from when I was a regular vlogger in the 2000s. Don't. — Cherlynn Low, managing editor

Carl Lewis National Anthem Fail

YouTube isn’t just for watching new videos of celebrities embarrassing themselves. You can also revisit humiliations from way before the video site’s inception!

Take this spectacular(ly bad) national anthem performance by Olympic sprinter Carl Lewis. Ahead of a 1993 regular-season NBA matchup between the Chicago Bulls and New Jersey Nets, the gold medalist stepped on the court to demonstrate the vocal talent we were deprived of as he wasted his prime years racing.

This video only includes snippets of Lewis’ belting (as in whipping listeners with a belt) rendition. But you still get his overly embellished opening note, self-aware “Uh oh!” after making a sound you’d expect from an animal being stepped on and an (ultimately unfulfilled) promise to make up for it.

As a bonus, this version includes SportsCenter anchor Charlie Steiner’s inability to keep his composure after the clip rolls. That’s followed by his Dad Joke-worthy commentary that Francis Scott Off-Key wrote Lewis’ rendition. — Will Shanklin, contributing reporter

Dog of Wisdom

It's almost 10 years later and I still reference this video every couple weeks. I can't offer higher praise than that. — Anna Washenko, contributing reporter

Food Wishes

One of the great things about YouTube, to this day, is the massive number of tutorial videos. I’ve used it to learn how to tie a tie, record music, put together furniture and where to dispose of that furniture when it’s given up the ghost. It also taught me how to cook. This is primarily thanks to one man. He goes by Chef John, but his channel is called Food Wishes. 

I’m fairly sure he’s the very first cook to capitalize on the platform, as he’s been making recipe videos pretty much since the beginning. This spaghetti with clam sauce tutorial is over 18 years old. I chose this particular video because I remember a trio of occasions in my life where I whipped out this recipe to amaze friends, family and (gasp) would-be romantic partners. His simple, charming and no-nonsense approach to cooking has always clicked with me, and I’m not alone. He has over four million followers on the platform and still cranks out videos to this day. His channel is a great reminder of how useful YouTube can actually be. — Lawrence Bonk, contributing reporter

John Frusciante - 09 - New Dawn Fades

My favorite YouTube video, the one I return to year after year, is a bootleg of the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s John Frusciante playing Joy Division’s “New Dawn Fades” at a solo show in Amsterdam at the start of the century. Say what you will about his main band, but John Frusciante is easily one of the greatest living guitarists, and this video — shot in 2001 and uploaded to YouTube less than a year after the platform went online in 2005 — is the perfect showcase of his many talents as a musician.

The footage is grainy, like so many videos from the era, but what counts is you can hear nearly every nuance of his performance. With his beloved Martin 00-15 acoustic guitar, Frusciante plays two melodies at the same time in his trademark syncopated style, all the while singing Ian Curtis’ lyrics with so much emotion.

As a teenager, Frusciante’s performance inspired me to no end. I spent countless summer hours trying to learn and emulate his playing style. In 2006, I even bought an issue of Guitar World magazine because it came with a DVD that included an interview with Frusciante and a lesson from the man himself on how to play "Under the Bridge". I probably should have known someone would upload that video to YouTube. It would have saved me a few bucks.

Looking back at my favorite video all these years later, it captures what’s best about YouTube. You can find nearly every performance in music recording history. Frusciante’s performance of "New Dawn Fades" could have easily disappeared with the passage of time. Instead, it will now exist as long as YouTube does, waiting to inspire someone else. — Igor Bonifacic, senior reporter

Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away (lyrics)

YouTube is home to an endless stream of poignant art, thought-provoking video essays and open windows to other people’s lives. More than that, though, it’s home to a lot of really dumb shit. Most of that shit is bad, as forgettable as it is lazy. But when someone puts in the work to make their dumb idea as dumb as possible, when they are enlightened by just how dumb their idea could be... that’s when the magic happens.

This Lenny Kravitz “remix” by all-around web artist Neil Cicierega — which turns the funk rock hit into an ode to dragonflies and having sex with candy bars, all while aping a “my first Windows XP slideshow” aesthetic — is a prime example of the “good dumb” I’m talking about. It is completely of the internet, something that could only result from one weirdo out there with a silly idea and some video editing software. It is so stupid, but also inspired, so it always works for me. — Jeff Dunn, senior reporter

Rancid Stool - Low Music video

Damn, who is that handsome young man having the worst day of his life in glorious 280p? Oh wait, that would be me.

Way back in the day, my buds and I made a music video for a Foo Fighters song for a contest. Needless to say, we didn't win, but we had an absolute blast all the same. Making something silly with your friends is really fun. Who could have imagined?

Some [mumbles] years later, the video is still one of my favorite things I've ever done. Yes, the editing stinks (my bad), it doesn't make a whole lot of sense narratively and the name of our would-be production company is very regrettable.

Still, I'm really proud of what we put together. Every time I watch it, I get the urge to start making fun videos again. Maybe I’ll actually do that someday.

P.S. Screw you and your magnificent mustache forever, Chad Sexington. —Kris Holt, contributing reporter

Shining Movie Trailer Parody

In the age of AI, fake movie trailers have become something of a spam epidemic on YouTube. But as someone who distinctly remembers swapping video files to friends and coworkers via email with Quicktime or AVI files attached — yes, it was exactly the bandwidth and security nightmare it sounds like — I still rank this hand-edited Shining remix near the top of my YouTube Mount Rushmore. The romcom take on Kubrick's horror classic dates back to at least 2005, but it seems to get rediscovered by new fans every few years, and rightly so — it's a gem. — John Falcone, executive editor

Star Trek: Tik Tok

Lots of people have made music videos out of unexpected crossovers like this, but Star Trek: Tik Tok still stands out to me as the best. Every clip from the original 1960s series is paired to perfection with the lyrics, and Captain Kirk is a weirdly fitting analogue for Kesha's late 2000s party girl.

When I watch it now, I think this video captures the scrappy ethos of what it meant to go viral during the early days of YouTube. It was about creativity, not content creators. People were making weird and funny shit just for the heck of it. Every now and then you'd stumble on a video that resonated and it lived in your head rent-free for years. And what can I say, I still think this track is a banger. — A.W.

We Like The Moon

The first YouTube video I saw that left me totally agog at what the human mind is capable of was "We Like the Moon." I didn’t have a TV at the time so had no idea Quiznos had used the concept in their commercials. When I saw it on my friend's computer in 2006 or so, I was coming at it fresh. I remember a giddiness rising in my soul and a goofy smile plastering my face. It felt like we were living in a world of limitless creativity and possibility where fun was a guiding principle and “good” didn’t mean access to funding, expensive equipment, technical prowess, or even a decent voice. My partner and I sang it, and still sing it, whenever the moon, marmots, chopsticks or zeppelins are mentioned. Now, I realize strangely proportioned, animal-like monstrosities raving off-key about nonsense is old hat at this point. But I will never forget when this was first played for me. — A.S.

Where the Hell is Matt? 2008

This is the third of Matt Harding's videos of himself dancing badly in various scenic locations around the world, and the first in which he encouraged bystanders to dance with him — equally badly, with some exceptions. I have no defenses against large groups of people doing the same thing simultaneously in multiple locations.

Oddly specific, I know, but in a society obsessed with dividing and categorizing, it reminds me of our common humanity. This video never fails to bring a tear to my eye, from the subtle political statements (Tel Aviv and East Jerusalem were not placed right next to each other by accident) to the sheer obvious joy of everybody involved. I even like the music. — Sam Rutherford, senior reporter

Correction, April 23, 2025, 3:39PM ET: This story originally said that 20 trillion videos have been uploaded to YouTube; the correct figure is 20 billon. We apologize for the error.

Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion, but tensions between Mark Zuckerberg and the app’s founders persisted for years afterward. On Tuesday, Instagram’s former CEO and cofounder Kevin Systrom took the stand in Meta’s antitrust trial in Washington, D.C. and offered a firsthand account of how Zuckerberg viewed the photo-sharing app as a “threat” to Facebook.

Systrom, who ran Instagram until 2018, said that Zuckerberg slowed hiring and other investments into Instagram despite its success. Zuckerberg, Systrom testified, "believed we were a threat to their growth," and as a result "was not investing" in the photo-sharing app, according to testimony reported by The New York Times. As The Times notes, Instagram had only a fraction of the employees as Facebook even after reaching 1 billion users. "As the founder of Facebook, he felt a lot of emotion around which one was better, meaning Instagram or Facebook," Systrom reportedly said. 

Tensions between Instagram’s founders and Zuckerberg over company resources have been previously reported, but Systrom’s testimony is the first time he’s publicly spoken in detail about the issues that ultimately led him to resign from the company. On the stand Tuesday, Systrom said that Zuckerberg “believed we were hurting Facebook’s growth,” according to Bloomberg.

Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram is central to the FTC’s case against Meta. The government has argued that Meta’s purchase of WhatsApp and Instagram were anticompetitive and that the social media company should be forced to divest the businesses. Systrom’s testimony comes a week after Zuckerberg took the stand and defended Meta’s $1 billion Instagram acquisition. However, a 2018 email from Zuckerberg that surfaced earlier in the trial showed that the Facebook founder was aware as early as 2018 that he could be forced to spin off the services into independent entities.