Companions: Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien
The fact that I took so long to do this review is a pretty bad indictment of Series 11. This series was quite simply weaker than the sum of its parts. The changeover to Jodie Whittaker went well, but there are numerous structural problems. One is the tone of the show is too simplistic now, you think of the complex relationships and deep character work of Series 9, that has been completely excised. The music isn’t as interesting, there are no more set piece action scenes. Yaz is completely useless as a character through no fault of Mandip Gill, but she really shouldn’t have been on this TARDIS team. The historicals packed a powerful emotional punch that showed the best of this new re-working of Doctor Who. This season’s biggest problem wasn’t that it was bad…it just left me feeling kind of indifferent.
The Review
Here’s the scores for the stories
Demons of the Punjab: 10/10
Rosa: 9.75/10
The Ghost Monument: 9.25/10
Kerblam!: 9/10
The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos: 8.9/10
Resolution: 8.3/10
Arachnids in the UK: 8/10
It Takes You Away: 8/10
The Woman Who Fell To Earth: 7.5/10
The Witchfinders: 7.5/10
The Tsuranga Conundrum: 6/10
Funny, this gets an incrementally higher score than Season 4 but just feels so much worse overall.
Story 287, Episode 851, 2019 New Year’s Day Special
Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor
Companions: Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien
The Doctor takes on a lone scout Dalek on New Year’s Day, and the Ryan’s dad subplot finally gets some…resolution.
The Review
Aaron’s shock at Ryan calling Graham ‘gramps’ is pretty great (and probably layered, was Aaron’s father absent from his life too?)
Every Dalek episode that’s well received says ‘Doctor Who made the Daleks scary again!’. Daleks will be Daleks, it’s all about the quality of the story, and this is a good one. With how terribly the Chibnall era has been received by the online fan contingent, I’m not sure what more they’d want in this episode. It was a faced-past episode chasing down a Dalek, that actually featured a well-earned glimpse at the fierce Whittaker Doctor. Although not at Face the Raven level of terrifying, the steely Doctor is fine, but it’s clearly not in this Doctor’s DNA to be stone-cold Oncoming Storm. Yaz continues to be pretty unnecessary, but Ryan and Graham get good moments revolving around Ryan’s erstwhile Dad Aaron. Aaron is appropriately scolded, but given a chance at redemption. Ultimately, it’s his love for Ryan that saves him from falling into a supernova with the Dalek pupating him. Doctor Who folks!
The scout/reconnaissance Dalek’s rebuilt farm
Now, there is some bad. The archaeologist budding couple Mitch and Lynn have too long of a scene discussing their relationship. Mitch doesn’t do much, but Lynn is quite good as the Dalek puppet. There is a completely unnecessary framing story about the Daleks’ body being cut in three pieces, scattered to the ends of the earth, guarded by generations of protectors. Once the Dalek is awoken under Sheffield it teleports its pieces together and that’s it. Completely unneeded. Also, I guess Daleks aren’t public knowledge, The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End got erased by the cracks in the world, and they were barely around in Doomsday. Some of the cutting was bad, but I’ll blame that on BBC America’s bizarre ad break locations. It was fun to see the TARDIS shields in action, straight out of The Parting of the Ways with a Dalek trying to shoot the Doctor behind them. This episode was a lot closer to the successful episodes of previous seasons, but the shaky foundation means it can’t rise to the character-driven heights of previous such episodes.
For the only outing of 2019 (unless we return to a Christmas special), Resolution is fun but can’t erase the characterization failures of the rest of Series 11.
8.3/10 UNIT getting temporarily closed down because of financial disagreements with the United Kingdom is just too real. Some kind of a metaphor.
Companions: Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien
The series finale rises above the averageness of the season, and what might have been dumb decisions turn out to be alright.
The Review
Tim Shaw: a surprisingly much improved villain!
I was really curious about what was going to happen with this finale, and I am pleased to say that it was alright. Of course the big disappointment is that there was not a big build-up or plot arc. This is mitigated a bit as Tim Shaw is back, having lived 3,407 years on this planet pretending to be the Creator to trick the Ux, a duo of ultra-powerful reality manipulators. He has convinced them to carry out planetary genocide and destroy all these spaceships of people coming to stop them. Apparently the planet independently fucks with your mind, which is really to build tension with the confused crewmen. Graham, unsurprisingly, has the strongest arc with vowing to kill Tim Shaw. He gets the chance, and doesn’t do it. Tim Shaw gets subdued and locked away by him and Ryan. The Doctor and Yaz convince the Ux they were wronged, and use the TARDIS telepathic circuits to stop reality from crashing with the captured planets.
Graham: a great companion
A lot of the problems with this episode are a symptom of the overall season, which I’m still formulating my thoughts on and will have up on New Year’s. What strikes me is that the Doctor is always speaking at such a rapid pace, there have been precious little quiet character moments. The story actually got pretty tense with the Ux looking to destroy 55th century Earth, and I got nervously excited which is what I love about this show. Graham’s arc was well-defined, and even if it was briefly played for laughs it showed that Bradley Walsh and the writers are on the same page. The plot can be summed up simply, but it was a fun thrill ride and my favorite sci-fi episode this season. Chibnall seems to have a large overall storyline in play for these characters, so it doesn’t feel as defined as previous finales (it skirts this problem by amping up the drama sufficiently). For that reason it’s one of the weakest finales, but it makes sense in Series 11’s context.
One last point, the Doctor can materialize the TARDIS with her screwdriver? Where the hell has this been all this time?
8.9/10 I enjoyed, there was drama, it was fun, but there are deeper structural problems with Series 11 making every episode feel less than the sum of its parts because it makes me feel like every episode ought to be pulling more weight in the sweep of the season.
Companions: Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien
Doctor Who goes to the mountains of Norway during ‘winter’, and we get a weird result.
The Review
Ribbons is an interesting character that does not make a lot of sense
The TARDIS crew meets a blind girl, Hanna, hiding alone in a padlocked cabin deep in Norway. Outside is the Thing, a roaring beast that had abducted her father. Inside, is a mirror, and this mirror is actually a portal to a dark cave area known as the ‘Anti-Zone’. Ryan stays with Hanna to hold out against the Thing as the rest go in to try and find her father Eric. We meet this weird alien Ribbons who it never explained how the heck he got there, and he gets shredded by some flesh-eating moths. The Anti-Zone connects to another world where Eric is there with his dead wife, and Graham sees Grace again. The Doctor realizes this is the ancient Solitract, a conscious universe exiled from the universe for being fundamentally incompatible trying to get some friends. She convinces everybody the Solitract is lying and they head home.
The Solitract
I’m not quite sure what the exact moral of this story is. On one hand, it’s that we have to move on from grief and enjoy the company of the people that are still here. Ryan finally calls Graham ‘granddad’, which helps him recover from painfully having to reject false Grace. Eric agrees to take Hanne back to civilization in Oslo. Now, see, there’s no way around this, the Solitract appears a talking frog to the Doctor. It might work, but the CGI for the frog is just not there to make it seem like it’s actually speaking words. Apart from more Susan hype, the Solitract has to keep being amazing…without people. (The Thing was a ploy from Eric to stop Hanne from wandering off). In the end, it is overall a sort of positive and uplifting message, I’m just not sure in what direction. That frog though…talk about divisive.
Next up is the finale, in which I have no idea what is going to happen. Series 11…lots of weird.
Companions: Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien
We head to an English witch trail, and a story that keeps us guessing isn’t as good as it could be.
The Review
The Doctor gets dunked twice in this episode
This story has tons of twists. First we see it is a witch trial of obviously not a witch stalked by a masked man. That man turns out to be King James I, here to defeat the armies of Satan. But then a tendril of mud attacks a girl, Willow, who was burying her grandmother who was unjustly killed for being a witch. Then, the mud fills the bodies of the dead. They’re coming to kill the murderous witch-trying landlady Mrs. Savage, but when they get to her, they obey her instead. Turns out the queen of the imprisoned Morax has infected her, and she killed people out of fear. They capture the King to put the monstrous King Morax in him, but the Doctor stops it. The plot keeps itself interesting, but it could’ve been a lot more terrifying. Also, it is still weird that the King has so few bodyguards walking around. For some reason, we still aren’t getting the pulse-pounding drama of previous seasons.
Alan Cumming is wonderful
The best part is the legend Alan Cumming as the King. He is a mass of contradictions, blatantly sexist, defender of male authority, obviously gay, doing God’s good works, and desperate to forget his past. The show lets him loose, and he has a wonderful heart to heart with the Doctor that is a highlight of the episode. Willow and Mrs. Savage are well-acted too. The Doctor being female is very important as the King thinks Graham must be the leader (and gives him a hilarious hat), and she is accused of being a witch and almost killed. The thing about a tree being the Morax’s lock isn’t foreshadowed as well as it could’ve been, but it all works. This episode does not ascend to the highs of the previous historical in heart-churning sadness, but does not compensate with pulse-pounding action. In some ways it’s the most Series 11 of Series 11.
I do love when a guest actor just gets to take over, even if the episode itself isn’t as good as it should be. King James I hitting on the ‘Nubian’ Ryan was great times.
7.5/10 A solid outing, with good twists and acting.
Companions: Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien
The Doctor heads to the massive warehouse of an intergalactic retailer, Kerblam!, to find who needs help.
The Review
The Doctor with the original Kerblam bot
What makes Kerblam! work is the tight drama and mystery throughout. The Doctor gets a two-regeneration delayed fez from the Kerblam Man (who she loves), but ‘help me’ is on the shipping card. They arrive at headquarters, mostly run by the creepy robots, but 10% of the workers are humans in accordance with new anti-automation laws. Yaz witnesses one get abducted and vanish, leading to them with the Doctor and Ryan confronting their supervisors Judy and Mr. Slade. At first I was surprised at how much free reign they had, but it turns out Kerblam actually cares about its workers, understaffed as it is. Graham has met another janitor, Charlie, who is in love with a girl Kira but very awkward. Graham’s very good at inspiring people, and Bradley Walsh keeps being amazing. It seems that the system is evil, and that a trip to the all automated lower levels are in order to save an abducted Kira.
A nerd extremist is a bit too close to real life considering what you see online these days.
Archives of Kerblam’s original plan and an original delivery bot come in handy (thanks museums!), and it turns out the system was what was calling for help. In a pretty brutal moment, Kira is killed by exploding bubble wrap, and it turns out that Charlie is a human rights activist who will discredit Kerblam by sending exploding bubble wrap across the human colony planet Kerblam delivers to. It’s a quick twist that struck me as odd, but mainly because of BBC America’s quick commercial break in between Kira dying and Charlie’s confession. Doctor talks him down, saves the day, and Judy promises Kerblam will higher more human workers and change the culture. It’s a bit of a weird let-down, but makes sense. It ends on kind of a weird note of Graham apparently contemplating suicide by bubble wrap, compared with his eagerness for the mission I seriously think that’s the case. Don’t do this Graham.
Hey, a good sci-fi episode! Things keep getting better the farther Chibnall is from them, which is really not great. Didn’t quite stick the landing, but had everything you look for in the show.
9/10 Turns out the Kerblam! Man was a good guy after all.
They have no idea what they’re getting themselves into
Story 282, Episode 846, Series 11 Episode 6
Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor
Companions: Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien
It turns out that the answer to Series 11’s struggles are historicals, historicals, historicals. (And maybe not Chibnall writing sadly).
The Review
The Thijarin are very compassionate, and look badass
Demons of the Punjab is a storyline about one thing: the Partition of India and the devastating effects it had on people caught in the middle. Neighbors for years, Umbreen and Prem are prepared to marry, never mind one a Muslim and one a Hindu. But once the country is divided, they’re on separate sides of the fence. Despite an attempt in Arachnids in the UK, finally, Yaz has developed into a character! Her initial horror at her grandmother Umbreen not marrying who she knows to be her grandfather goes away once she sees what kind of man Prem is. The Doctor investigates the ‘demons’ seen over a body, but they turn out to be from an alien race whose planet has lost everything, dedicating their time to honor those who will die alone. The design of Thijarin is excellent and memorable.
Yaz handles this better than Rose and does not try to change history. Is anyone ever going to mention she’s a cop again though?
It turns out the villain of the story is Prem’s brother Manish, who had become radicalized while Prem fought in World War II. Manish wants the Muslims out of India, and when his brother dares to marry a Muslim…he must die. The conclusion of the story where the Doctor and the companions walk away as Prem is killed is heartbreaking. Graham is turning into something of a sage figure on this adventure, offering comforting advice to just about everyone. Glad to see him and Yaz talking to each other, shows how their relationship has developed. We got close to Whittaker going full Doctor rage on the Thijarin, but most hilarious was her going on the girls’ side before wedding night and gleefully saying she never got to do this as a man. Ryan doesn’t do much, but he didn’t have to. The last big part of this story: we WENT SOMEWHERE NEW! I hope Doctor Who continues to push the limits of historicals because this era has them nailed.
Series 11 rights the ship by proving if this era can do one thing, it’s historicals.
10/10 Screw it, full marks. What could have been better? A moving episode telling an important story.
Companions: Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien
The Tsuranga Conundrum proves that Series 11 kind of has no idea what’s it’s doing.
The Review
Our medical personnel. Astos had some killer eyebrows.
Now that Series 11 is halfway over, we are still not really sure what is going on in it. This episode is a mess. After being zapped by a sonic mine, the TARDIS team is brought aboard the Tsuranga, an automated hospital that does sweeps of a region of the galaxy for people needing medical care. An assemblage of characters are on board that have nothing really to do with each other, and then rarely interact with each other. We have the two medical crew members, one Astos who gets himself killed, and Mabli who has no faith in herself. Then there’s the dying General Eve Cicero, her brother Durkas, and android assistant Ronan. Oh, and then there’s this guy Yoss who is pregnant! Because men have week-long pregnancies, and I have too many questions about that (as apparently women Gifftan have birth to girls, men to boys), uh, yeah. It’s kind of stupid, and really serves as a way for Ryan just to talk more about fatherhood to Graham, and it’s nothing we haven’t gone over this season already.
The Peting!
Then, the whole plot line with the General covering up her heart illness from her brother, and eventually dying to navigate the ship through an asteroid field (that we never actually see by the way). There’s also this notion that Rhesus 1, the main hospital, may just self-detonate them if they keep saying everything is fine despite it being not. Oh, and it’s not fine because of a Peting. A Peting is a kind of adorable little guy that chows down inorganic materials and is wrecking the ship. The Doctor has a Doctor-y reveal moment that it was really going for energy, baits it with a bomb that slams it full of energy and ejects it into space. This episode was just really disjointed, Yaz is still useless because of how connected Ryan and Graham are, and the rest of the plot of the story seemed there just to affect the characters in different ways than the characters changing the story. Series 11 so far isn’t sure it wants to be.
Also, boy this series is missing an epic Murray Gold theme. The music is good but forgettable, think of how much the Moffat era theme for 11 and 12 got your blood pumping.
6/10 A disappointing entry that does not know what it wants to be.
Companions: Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien
In a relatively fun episode, Doctor Who‘s character beats almost completely make you forget about the episode’s illogic.
The Review
Who ya gonna call?
The thing that sticks out most about Series 11 is just how fun and snappy it is. It’s directed well, moves quickly, and has some truly great character stuff going on. In this episode the companions are back home, actually 30 minutes after they left. Quickly they still end up joining the Doctor to battle another problem, spiders! Common spiders have been enlarged, and this leads us to an under-construction hotel in the country where the gigantic mother spider and many more spiders are. Turns out the hotel was built on a toxic waste dump including mishandled spider carcasses from a lab (there’s even an entomologist along for the ride) creating mutant spiders. Ryan plays rap, and they all get locked in a panic room.
Robertson is introduced in one of the most bizarrely blocked scenes ever. The characters all standing way away from each other in a huge room.
The spiders are presented well, and are relatively scary foes! Of course it turns out that they’re just scared. The most memorable character isn’t Yaz’s family that we meet (they’re amusing enough though), but Jack Robertson, a Trump expy planning to run for President in 2020. Now, as Trump is canon in-universe this means that there is another billionaire hotel maker trying to run for President. If I was British I’m not sure how I’d feel about how American the show is getting, I love it as an American though. Chris Noth does a good job as a blusteringly confident but out of his depth businessman and is a pretty fun presence. What makes less sense is his niece’s wife (it’s not Doctor Who now unless a one-off female character is gay) who seemingly was in cahoots with the spiders then is eaten, it’s all very confusing.
Arachnids in the UK is never dull, but has too many underlying problems that I will regrettably give it a lower score than my enjoyment of it was.
8/10 Not a bad episode, but nothing we’ll be remembering really.
Yaz should’ve already been dating, or even married, to Ryan before the series started. Change my mind
Companions: Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien
Doctor Who delivers an episode in Rosa that re-defines what a Doctor Who episode, with a powerful episode.
The Review
Don’t be either of these guys folks
A lot of alarm bells went off for me when I heard the details of this episode. Doctor Who‘s writers, as with almost all writers, are pretty left-wing. However, showing, not telling, and subtlety are always what should be aimed for. Compare Thin Ice whacking you over the head with its anti-capitalist message to Oxygen that simply shows you a future where capitalism has gone too far (even with the Doctor eye-rolling directly condemns capitalism at the end). Well, here’s a take: nothing in Rosa should be political. If you agree with segregation or hate diversity, those aren’t political opinions, those are pathetic and awful opinions. If you disagree with Rosa Parks for some reason…well, you’re probably just like our racist villain.
Martin Luther King Jr. has now been in a Doctor Who episode.
The beginning of the episode is some of the most terrified I’ve ever been on the show. Doctor Who has played around with companions visiting horrific times in history, and black companions visiting racist societies. Well, it happens, and while they avoid getting lynched, you can feel them and all the black people in Montgomery have the noose around their necks at all time. It’s a hellish society, and one discomfortingly not far in our past. I don’t know if Rosa Parks is as well-known in Britain as this show indicates she is, but it sends a positive message. Vinette Robinson is perfect, her understated performance lets the real Parks speak for herself. The brief glimpse Ryan gets into the burgeoning Civil Rights underground establishes that Parks was always an activist.
This crew has some truly fantastic synergy.
Let’s talk characters. Jodie Whittaker continually keeps on killing it, and by episode three she is inarguably the Doctor. I loved her pretending to be Banksy and having loaned a mobile phone to Elvis (who disobeys her and loans it to Sinatra!) Yaz still doesn’t have too much to do, but her talks about being a policewoman and having to go with being called ‘Mexican’ give her some moments. Bradley Walsh as Graham was simply spectacular. His resolute defense of Ryan, pretending to be the Doctor’s husband to ward off a cop, diving into the bus driver network (wait, was he made a bus driver just for this episode?) were all great. But the powerful moment before Rosa Parks refused to stand, suddenly, he is moved to tears, and wants to be anywhere but right there. It’s a powerful moment that is absolutely essential for the climax’s power. (Later we look at Rosa Parks’ asteroid, and Bill Clinton is canonized as existing)
Two great actress
Now, sadly, we have to talk about Krasko. He’s a leather-jacket wearing 79th century space racist, released from prison after murdering thousands. All the scenes with him are kind of dumb. Krasko’s non-realization is what stops this episode from being perfect, for being such a brilliant tactician trying to completely derail history…he is kind of easily beaten. I’m most interested in the implication: that racism will never really go away. Ryan tells Yaz as much: if Rosa Parks was so important to ending racism, why do cops still harass him more than white folks? (There also seems to be inklings of a Ryan/Yaz romance that I’m very here for). That also goes back to Yaz asking if the fight ever wears on Rosa, and in some ways it doesn’t, that’s just how she has to live. Before, new series historicals had been romps with a celebrity involved. Now: the potential is there for them to be so much more.
Rosa has completely re-written the rules of celebrity historicals, and for the better. Uncompromising, tense, and real, this era of Doctor Who is going places.
9.75/10 Krasko drags it down, but it’s a fabulous outing outside of it. Bravo!
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 