Doctor Who – The rest of the season

Aliens rarely dress for the weather.

NB. I’m way behind on these reviews, so I’m going to rush through this.

This review will contain spoilers

‘The Tsuranga Conundrum’
"Whole worlds pivot on acts of imagination."

Incapacitated and rescued by a hospital ship, Team Tardis have to rally the crew and patients to stave off three kinds of disaster, before one of them claims all of their lives.

There’s a good bunch of supporting characters and a nicely Doctorish solution, although this is one of the Thirteenth’s more erratic episodes, perhaps the most extreme of her ‘adjustment’ episodes, and the all-consuming pting is a little too adorable a death machine.

Easily my favourite thing in the episode is when the Doctor is trying to turn the ship around to get back to the Tardis, and the doctor (small d) gives her a chewing out about the other sick people who need to get to the main hospital, and she listens. That last bit is important.

Rating - 6/10

‘Demons of the Punjab’
"This is all that remains of our home. Our people. Every ancestor. All one dust.... They died unwitnessed, unsaved. We were too late to grieve or honor them. But we, who returned, gave up 100 generations to sift, to remember the lost dead, the unmourned. In time, it was all we knew. And now we travel beyond, seeking the unacknowledged dead. Across all of time and space. This is now the Thijarian mission -- to bear witness to those alone. To see. To bear pain, honor life as it passes."

Yaz persuades the Doctor to let her visit her grandmother, Umbreen, to solve a family mystery. Despite her promise not to get involved, Team Tardis find themselves part of Umbreen’s wedding to Prem, a Hindu man who is not Yaz’s grandfather. But the year is 1947, and the partition of India is about to rip the country – and this marriage – apart. Also, there are aliens.

‘Demons of the Punjab’ covers some of the same territory as ‘Rosa’, but this time the racism is all home-grown – Prem’s brother is a Hindu nationalist, violently opposed to Prem marrying a Muslim – and the aliens are there as observers, and perhaps a link to the arc plot (their world was destroyed, possibly by Stenza weapons.)

This is another strong, Earthbound episode, with a solid historical message which, come at me haters, is what Doctor Who exists for. It also gives Yaz the character workout that she has been missing.

Rating - 8/10

Free existential terror with every order.

‘Kerblam!’
Jarvis Slade: How would you like a warning for insubordination?
The Doctor: I'd love one. I could add it to my collection.

Someone sends the Doctor a gift via Kerblam! (basicallt space Amazon,) but the packing note contains a cry for help. The team go undercover at Kerblam!’s fulfilment centre, where they discover a broken system and a possibly misguided conspiracy.

Playing to modern fears of human redundancy, Kerblam! is elevated above lazy satire by making fear and mismanagement the villains, rather than simply taking aim at corporations in general, but unfortunately it does sort of let the corporations off the hook entirely by doing so. A couple of very sympathetic sacrificial characters add emotional involvement, but it isn’t as powerful as the recent pseudohistoricals.

Rating - 6/10


‘The Witchfinders’
"We want certainty, security. To believe that people are evil or heroic but that's not how people are. You want to know the secrets of existence? Start with the mysteries of the heart."

The Tardis team land near Pendle Hill in the midst of a witch hunt, but it’s not the Pendle witch hunt known to history. As the fanatical magistrate Becka Savage drowns her way through the population, no less a figure that James I shoves his oar in, but the Doctor detects an alien hand as sentient mud begins to animate the dead.

Bringing its pseudohistorical game to a more remote time, but more local place, ‘The Witchfinders’ once more looks at the politics of fear and hate in a drama that stands a step above the pure SF episodes of the season. Honestly, I’m curious to see what they current team could do with a pure historical.

Rating - 7/10


‘It Takes You Away’
"This woman is clearly an alien force, collapsing two realities and impersonating your dead wife. Time to move on, mate!"

The Tardis lands in Norway, where the team discovers a young, blind girl, living in an isolated house and menaced by a snarling monster that took her father away. Creepy enough, but then they find a mirror that leads into an alternate dimension, and it all gets even weirder.

Doctor Who gets a bit Scandi-Noir, before bringing in a sentient pocket universe looking for companionship, one of the few beings lonelier than the Doctor. The episode is Graham’s turn to shine, as Bradley Walsh puts in his Bafta nomination performance for his character’s confrontation with a projection of his late wife, Grace.

Rating - 6/10

Another planet, another quarry.

‘The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos’
Ryan: What happened to 'never do weapons'?
The Doctor: It's a flexible creed. Door, locks, walls, buildings. Fair game. If it can be rebuilt, I'll allow it.
Following many, many distress signals, the Doctor brings the Tardis to Ranskoor Av Kolos, where a large number of ships have crashed and a psychic field alters perceptions. Here they discover Tzim-Sha of the Stenza has managed to masquerade as the god of a two-person race called the Ux, who have the power to manipulate reality, using them to shrink planets and store them in glass jars. While Graham declares his intent to kill Tim Shaw, the Doctor struggles to win over the Ux and send the planets back where they belong.

A strong episode for Graham and Ryan, and a cap to the season arc, there’s a lot happening in ‘The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos’, and some of it is a little too familiar. Stealing planets is reminiscent not only of ‘The Stolen Earth’, but of the classic series serial ‘The Pirate Planet’, and as much as persuading powerful religious characters to rethink their life is classic Doctor, it’s really Graham’s confrontation with Tzim-Sha that gets the best of the writing, and the result is somewhat uneven.

Rating - 5/10

Doctor Who – ‘Resolution’

I'm not sure what I'd say about the new look, but I can't help imagining the
response would be: "THANKS! IT HAS BOBBLES!"

"Where's your kitchen? I just need to get some eggs to check the protein alignments in the goo."

Once again, archaeology threatens the foundations of human civilisation, as a fragment of monster is dug up and reconstitutes itself. Now, a Dalek is loose on Earth, and the Doctor races to find it before untold destruction ensues. Meanwhile, Ryan’s dad turns up looking to reconcile.

This is a surprisingly strong festive showing, proving once more that a single Dalek can be more effective than an army if used correctly. There are strong shades of ‘Dalek’, although this lone Dalek – a reconnaissance scout sent out in the early years of Dalek expansion – is a remorseless foe with none of the pathos of that sole survivor.

A strong end to a strong season, I would say, and a good start for the 13th Doctor. Now, roll on 2020.

Rating - 8/10

Doctor Who - Arachnids in the UK

No; I won't be posting pictures of the gosh darn spiders.

"I eat danger for breakfast. [aside] I don't. I prefer cereal. Or croissants. Or those little fried Portuguese... never mind. It's not important."

This review will contain spoilers

The Doctor manages to return her companions to Sheffield just half an hour after they left, but all is not well in the Steel City. Spiders of alarming size are on the prowl, and people are already dying. What is the connection to the luxury hotel where Yaz's mother used to work? And is this related to either the Eight Legs of Metebelis 3 or the Racnoss, or just another use of spiders for random creep factor?

The Good

• Giant spiders that don't quite move like real spiders are about the best I can hope for from a spider-focused episode.
• I did like that the mad scientists in this episode were actually really conscientious and responsible, but entrusted their biowaste disposal to a company with falsified documents.
• For a moment, I felt bad for a spider. That's quite the achievement.
• There were some lovely character beats between Graham and Ryan over a letter from the latter's absentee father.

The Bad

• The secondary, human antagonist is a kind of liberal Trump, and he's... bleah. He's a cookie cutter corporate monster who could come right out of just about any Doctor Who story since 1980, save for a namecheck of his personal animus for Trump. (His PA is his niece's wife, so I assume he's a liberal corporate monster, but it's hard to say given how hard it is to distinguish left and right politics at a certain level of cash.)
• The story is also nothing special. It's basic filler while Graham, Ryan and Yaz decide that their path lies with their new friend.

The Ugly

• Yaz is slipping into being the also ran of Team Tardis, which is a shame. She got some good stuff last week, but is mostly just present in what is ostensibly her story.

The Thirteenth Doctor
Manic and breathless, the Thirteenth Doctor may actually be a bit much in such a mundane setting. Hopefully they'll find another mode for her before too long.

Theorising

Some of the internet is stating to sugest that Yaz will prove to be in love with the Doctor, and I really hope that isn't the case, because I am so over the Doctor/Companion thing.

I don't know if Robertson will be back, but I want to see him joining a sort of 'League of shitty villains' for a one-shot episode.

Best Bits

Ryan admits to Graham that he resents his Dad calling himself Ryan's 'proper family.'

Top Quotes

• "Spiders are roaming this hotel, searching for food. We're going to lure them in here with the promise of food. Then deal with the spider mother in the ballroom. Ah, that sounds like the best novel Edith Wharton never wrote." - The Doctor

Verdict

After a very strong opening, the Thirteenth Doctor hits her first battle against her oldest and most insidious enemy: utilitarian filler material. 'Arachnids in the UK' really just serves to transition Team Tardis - which is a thing now - from accidental fellow travelers to full-fledged and willing companions. It's a shame they didn't consider that worth a better story, or more character work for Yaz than just having her mum ask if she's sleeping with anyone about her age that she hangs out with.

Rating - 4/10

Doctor Who - Rosa

"Banksy doesn't have one of these... Or do I?"

This week, shifting focus from a mad woman in a
box, to a great one on a bus.

This review will contain spoilers

Aiming for modern-day Sheffield, the Tardis instead drops in on Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, which turns out to be a very scary, dangerous place for the current crew, as Ryan is immediately slapped for trying to return a dropped glove to a white woman. Aside from the dangers of Jim Crow segregation, however, there is another time traveller in town; one set on changing history, in a little way, by interfering in the actions of one Rosa Parks on the 1st December. Thus the gang set out to protect history, not by making it, but simply by making sure that Rosa Parks has the time and the place to be Rosa Parks.

The Good

• The script - co-written by former Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman - neatly avoids all the perils of setting a time travel series in this period. The Doctor doesn't drive history here; Rosa Parks is the hero of her own story. Indeed, the crew are ultimately forced to be, if not the villains, then a part of the antagonistic crowd.
• The episode shows the horrors of segregation - an advantage of the diversity of the current crew is the ability to show the different reception received by a white woman, a white man, a black man and a Pakistani-English woman in a historical setting (in Yaz's case, being mistaken for Mexican) - without ever being hamfisted. The result is, honestly, uncomfortable to watch in places, btu so it ought to be.
• There is no attempt to pretend that Rosa Parks solved racism, or even that racism is a thing of the past for our contemporary characters.

The Bad

• This is a singularly excellent episode, which not only does what it needs to do effectively, but owns the fifty-minute format.

The Ugly

• A twenty-seventh century white supremacist; now that's depressing.

The Thirteenth Doctor
As noted previously, this episode isn't really about the Doctor, but we do get to see some more of her character. She's a little reckless, even slightly aggressive, and willing to provoke an enemy as much as any of her past incarnations ever were. Some might argue this, given her unwillingness to tackle the race question head on, like the Twelfth Doctor punching whatsisface in the episode with the frost fair, but note the situation: She has three companions to protect, so of course she'll try to defuse a situation, but put her face to face with a single foe and she'll gamble on overheating a gun or a neural limiter doing its job.

Once again, a strong reaction to a name, although personal dislike isn't enough for her to actually mock Krazko's moniker.

Theorising

Stormcage and vortex manipulators; are we going to see the Time Agency make an appearance? I'm hoping not to see River Song, because she was kind of done to death (literally,) but with no Daleks or Cybermen on the cards, a little bit of continuity might not go amiss.

No Timeless Child this time.

Best Bits

Rosa Parks' stand - or not stand - was epic, set off to perfection by Graham's look of horror as he realises that, in order to keep the bus full enough for history to proceed, he has to stay on the bus and be one of the white people she is asked to move for.

Top Quotes

• Graham: You haven’t got Elvis’ phone number?
  The Doctor: Don’t let anyone know I lent him a mobile phone.
• James Blake: Stand up now.
  Rosa Parks: I don’t’ think I should have to.

Verdict

'Rosa' is possibly the finest pseudohistorical of the nuWho era, and probably the nearest the series has come to a pure historical since Black Orchid. As noted, it makes for uncomfortable watching, but good Doctor Who has often had something of that about it. It has never been cosy, and it is only right that real history be even more chilling than scifi analogy.

Rating - 10/10

Doctor Who - 'The Ghost Monument'

"Right, quick update. I made a terrible mistake, we shouldn’t be here. I’m gonna fix it and get you guys home. I promise. Soon as I figure out where we are."

This review will contain spoilers

The Doctor and her new companions are in trouble, having been unexpectedly teleported en mass into deep space. Fortunately, they are swiftly picked up by Angstrom and Epzo, the last surviving competitors in a lethal, intergalactic rally. Their last task - of more than two hundred - is to cross the hostile terrain of the planet Desolation, reach the site of the Ghost Monument, and to do it in one day. The winner will be rich beyond the dreams of avarice and teleported off the planet; the loser... will not.

For the Doctor, reaching the Ghost Monument has a much greater significance, however. This mysterious object, which appears only once every thousand days, takes the form of a large, blue box.

"Please forgive the theatrics; a holdover from my Oxford days."

The Good

• The gully that Ryan, Graham and Angstrom flee along as the Cerebos crashes is not deep, but enough to explain their adherence to the Prometheus school of running away.
• Ryan and Graham get some solid character interaction from their different reactions to the loss of Grace. Ryan and Yaz get a little, establishing a loyalty to one another, but there's only so much time.
• The new TARDIS is boss.
• Some more solid, Doctor-style problem solving, using what knowledge and improvisation to overcome more conventional weapons.

The Bad

• The Ghost Monument is a paradigm of the greatest flaw of nuWho. It's not hard to pick out the sections that would have been individual episodes in the old format, and most of the cliffhangers. In the fifty minute format, there is very little development of the monsters - the sniper bots and the rags - and only snippets of information on the rally, and what time is given to the supporting characters is at the expense of the companions (and in particular Yaz, given Ryan and Graham's stronger scenes together.)
• The fate of the planet and its occupants ends up being infodumped.

The Ugly

• Nothing jumped out at me here, which is stronger than some opening offerings.

The Thirteenth Doctor
I'm revisiting a feature from the first Capaldi season here, and examining what we learn about the Thirteenth Doctor, week by week. Last week, we discovered that she seemed to have shaken off the messianic excesses and self-doubt of some of her recent incarnations. She's just a traveler, she helps where she can, and names are important to her.

This week, we saw that the Doctor needs her TARDIS, not just as part of her self-identity, but because it enables her to help other people. My partner was struck by the Doctor's drop into hopelessness towards the end, finding it out of character, although I felt this showed a temperamental kinship with her fifth incarnation, who was also occasionally at a loss, and as a result it struck me that this is the first Doctor in a while to feel truly young. Dynamic, confident, yet at the same time a little unsure, she taps into some of the same aspects of the Doctor's personality as the Fifth Doctor, and I'm down with that.

"It's only a model."

Theorising

So, we have two pieces of possible arc fodder now: The Stenza and the Timeless Child.

I don't know if the Stenza will be a big thing. While Tim Shaw was creepy AF with his tooth-bedazzled face, their repeat value feels limited and I suspect that they were primarily mentioned this week as the link between the Earth and Desolation. I could be wrong, but I would not be surprised if we find out that there are a bunch of 'warrior races' this year, looking to establish themselves in the lingering aftermath of the Time War and the absence of the Daleks and the Cybermen.

The Timeless Child smells of arc words, so I don't expect more than hints before the finale. Does it refer to the Doctor? Susan? Will we finally get primary canon confirmation that the Doctor is the Other reborn? If it's Rose Tyler I may scream.

Best Bits

The entry into the TARDIS was magnificent, but also props for not forgetting Ryan's dyspraxia when it makes life for the crew more difficult, and for not letting it entirely define him.

Top Quotes

• "She’s our best hope. Or only option, depending on your politics." - Graham
• “I’m really good in a tight spot. At least I have been historically, I’m sure I still am.” - The Doctor

Verdict

The Thirteenth Doctor punches into her second story with gusto, but it's just all so breathless. I'm not inclined to mark it down too much for this, as I'm mostly comparing this to other nuWho entries, but I can only imagine what a four-part version might have managed.

Rating - 7/10

Doctor Who - 'The Woman Who Fell to Earth'

(c) Stuart Manning

"Right now, I’m a stranger to myself. There’s echoes of who I was, and a sort of… call towards who I am, and I have to hold my nerve and trust all these new instincts, shape myself towards them. I’ll be fine. In the end. Hopefully."

This review will contain spoilers

There's an alien in town (specifically Sheffield) tonight. In fact, there are a lot of aliens in town tonight: An armoured killer, a ball of electric tentacles, and a woman in a tattered suit who used to be a white-haired Scotsman.

With no name, empty pockets, and a missing TARDIS, the last of the Time Lords will have to rely on local tech and local aid - dyspraxic social media whizz Ryan; probationary PC Yaz; maternal determinator Grace, Ryan's gran; and retired bus driver Graham, Grace's second husband - to prevent a tragedy.

The Good

• No world-shattering to begin with. We're introducing a lot of new faces, so it feels right to keep the stakes local. In fact... just in general, it feels good to keep the stakes local. Part of the point, I feel, of Who is that the Doctor travels around and helps out in local problems, and those episodes are almost always the best, especially in nuWho. Cosmic stakes are what lead to Time Lords Triumphant and overblown arc-plots.
• Jodie Whittaker makes an excellent Doctor, by turns childishly excited, sad and serious, delivering technobabble and physical comedy where required, and always bursting with energy.
• The alien warrior who studs his face with the teeth of his victim is creepy AF.
• The new companions seem promising, although slightly overshadowed in this episode by Grace. Fortunately, her death does not play out as a fridging to motivate Graham and Ryan, but a result of her own determination to act, and a natural inclination towards heroism, and as a result is properly gutting.
• A fine Doctor Who resolution, with the Doctor setting up a means to destroy the enemy, but pleading them to take the chance to just leave quietly.

The Bad

• The 'luckiest grandad in the world' is a bit too deliberately heartstring-jerking.

The Ugly

• Nah.

I honestly could have lived with this as a costume choice.

Theorising

Well, I'm not on form for this, as I at first suspected that the gatherer coil was a discorporate TARDIS, and its harmful effects purely a result of its extradimensional nature.

The companions haven't been significantly developed yet, but the bare bones of the characters are there. Ryan is impractical by nature and unquestioning of wonder. He's likely to be the one closest to the Doctor, the receiver of exposition, but he's also a communicator, and so likely to be the group's diplomat. Yaz is more active, more assertive, more cynical, and a mediator. She'll be the doer, and probably the most likely to become involved on her own account rather than as an ancillary to the Doctor. Then there's Graham, who is likely the most skeptical of the Doctor herself, and may well be tempted at some point with technology that can cure his cancer.

No sign of an arc yet, but I'm happy for that to be the case for a good while.

Best Bits

The Doctor nails her character, much faster than any of her previous incarnations, when she declares: "I’m just a traveller. Sometimes I see things need fixing and I do what I can."

Top Quotes

• “Bit of adrenaline, dash of outrage and a hint of panic knitted my brain back together. I know exactly who I am. I’m the Doctor. Sorting out fair play throughout the universe. Now, please – get off this planet, while you still have a choice.” - The Doctor
• "This is exciting. No, not exciting. What do I mean? Worrying." - The Doctor

Verdict

The Thirteenth Doctor arrives on our screens with everything to prove, and hits it for six by acting precisely as if she has nothing to prove. A strong cadre of companions and decent supporting turns help to create a strong debut for what will hopefully be a less pompous era of Doctor Who, with - dare we hope - material to match the talent being deployed in its creation.

Rating - 7/10

The Dragon Prince

For identification purposes, this is not a Bulbasaur.

In a world of magic, humans have long been exiled from the magical realm of dragons and elves for their practice of dark magic, which draws power from other creatures, rather than the ‘primal sources’(1). In fear of an attack, King Harrow of Katolis allows his adviser, the mage Viren, to assassinate the Dragon King and his unborn son. Faced with a retributory attack by Moonshadow elf assassins, Harrow seeks to send his sons Callum and Ezran away, but Ezran stumbles on the egg of the Dragon Prince in Viren’s workshop, and the two princes go on the run, along with the Moonshadow elf Rayla, seeking to return the egg to the dragons and prevent the war that Viren is intent on fomenting.

The Dragon Prince clearly shares some DNA with its co-creator’s former work, Avatar, both in its animation style and in its tone(2). The overarching story is serious, the villain of the piece a horror, but there is much humour in the day to day situations and the relationships between the characters, including Viren’s principal henchlings, his children Claudia – a committed dark mage, but viewing it purely as a tool and showing compassion towards other intelligent beings – and Soren – a jock jerk with a decent heart, but a desperate need to prove himself to his father.

The first season of The Dragon Prince is very short – just nine twenty-five-minute episodes – but has a lot to like in it. The characters are fun – a favourite of all my family is the princes’ Aunt Amaya, a deaf-mute general and all around badass, who takes no shit and refuses to be flannelled by Viren, even before he goes full evil – the story simple, but with a lot of appeal. Also, the elves are lairy Scots whose magic is part of their physicality, rather than floaty and ethereal beings, and I appreciate a show that does something a little different with its magical creatures.

(1) Sun, moon, stars, sky, earth and water, if you’re interested.

(2) Also its elemental motifs and cute animal companions.

Final Space

Jaded space-jerk Gary Goodspeed is working off the last of a five-year(1) prison sentence aboard the spaceship Galaxy One, watched over by the ship’s AI, HUE, and an annoying drone called KVN. When he befriends a mysterious alien that he names Mooncake, he finds himself cast into the middle of a Galactic Conflict. Mooncake is an artificial lifeform, designed to destroy planets, and sought after by a tyrant called the Lord Commander. Aided by alien bounty hunter Avocato and renegade cop Quinn Airgone – also the subject of Gary’s unrequited love – Gary must keep Mooncake out of reach of the Lord Commander, to prevent him harnessing the power of Final Space to become a god.

Final Space is a weird gig, evolving over ten episodes from ‘a slob in space’ to an epic, save-the-universe adventure. To be fair, there’s an element of that all the way through, as every episode begins with one of Gary’s last ten minutes of oxygen as he drifts in space at the climax of the final battle, but a significant character death half-way through ups the ante. It’s a lot more interesting than I was honestly expecting, and worth checking out if you’ve got a few hours and an internet connection.

(1) Same duration as the original Enterprise mission. Coincidence?