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Thirteen Thoughts: 3. S11 Episode thoughts.
So, what is Chibnall Who like, judged by its first season? Well, it’s nice. Fine, really. Bit pedestrian, with a few flashes of greatness and one massive clusterfuck. (Or, as some people have said, safe.) The thing is, if it hadn’t been for Kerblam! really pissing me off I might not be writing anything at all, because I have precious little to say. If this hadn’t been Doctor Who I’d probably just have drifted away the way I do when something doesn’t really capture me. Doesn’t mean it’s bad — lots of people have come back to the show, so it’s obviously working for others — just that it’s not what I’m looking for in a TV show. (What that something is, isn’t easy to pin down, so I shan’t try. *g*) Anyway, this is all very weird for me, cause I'm a Pollyanna and just being mostly meh isn't like me. :(
This post is just me going through the episodes, mostly just so I can point towards it and say ‘These are my thoughts on S11’. I sort of group the episodes together in my head, so will do them in groups (or individually) as necessary. More or less keeping to the order they appeared in, skipping Kerblam! since that one gets a whole section of its own.
S11 Episode Thoughts
Regeneration Episode
The Woman Who Fell to Earth
Regeneration episodes fall in a category of their own, and this one was pretty great. Lots of Thirteen finding her feet, great introductions to the companions, Tim Shaw was… so-so, but he was also a good metaphor for toxic masculinity, so his patheticness sorta worked *for* him, rather than against. It was funny, inventive, and we had a great sense of the place (yay Sheffield!) right from the sunny start to the night time industrial darkness that the Doctor crashed down into. New everything, and it worked well. A great start, zero complaints (well, they killed Grace, that was pretty bad…). OK, apart from ONE complaint this was a great start.
Episodes That Are Just Sort of There
The Ghost Monument
Arachnids In The UK
The Tsuranga Conundrum
The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos
It’s unfortunate that most of Chibnalls episodes this season just never really worked. I don’t know if he was rushed, if he quite simply can’t write to the required level or if it’s a combination of several factors (I know the writer of Tsuranga dropped out and Chibnall had to somehow salvage it). I hope in future he just hires good writers and does less writing himself. The main issue is that this is… nearly half the season. And it was just sort of ‘well that was okay’. Although — going with my ‘I’lll settle for serviceable’ icon and my expectations — I suppose they just about fill the ‘serviceable’ criteria. Of course there’s always an episode or two which doesn’t work, but I think the issue with these is that although I was perfectly adequately entertained while they were on, and some of them had good stuff (say, the Doctor asking her new friends to travel with her), they made no particular lasting impact. I don’t dislike them, but overall I was far more engaged during S22 of Classic Who, which is apparently the ‘worst’ Classic season. (I liked Timelash, so there!)
Anyway I’ll go through the eps and jot down a few thoughts on each:
The Ghost Monument
From a viewing perspective this one is my least favourite of Chibnall’s. The concept is great, and there are a few good ideas, but it never gels, never feels dangerous and if it hadn’t been for the fact that the Doctor gets the TARDIS back at the end I’d happily just forget all about it. (I don’t hate it, it’s not awful, it just needed more everything.)
Arachnids In The UK
Massive spiders are good. Like, that’s an excellent Doctor Who idea, and the show used them pretty well. The GIANT one bursting through the bathtub is still a highlight, and I can’t believe it hasn’t been done before. Also we got to meet Yaz’s family, which was nice, and not!Trump was nicely done, but overall the No Guns!/the show forgetting Yaz was a police officer/the lack of resolution let it down. Which is sad, because it had the bones of being good, and even had good messages about pollution and rich people buying their way out of any problems.
The Tsuranga Conundrum
This one was my favourite of this lot, and I wouldn’t mind re-watching it. Sure it was mostly ‘a bunch of stuff that happened’ with no particular message, but the Pting was adorable and weird and different, we had a nice female war hero (who sacrificed herself nobly, like they do in stories such as this), we got to find out more about Ryan and he got some insight into his father’s possible motivations, the Doctor got to be clever and overall it was a fun episode that looked great and just zipped along nicely.
The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos
*Sigh* Again, this could have been great. Tim Shaw setting himself up as a god should have been prime Doctor-mirror material, Graham wanting to avenge his wife should have been a great opportunity for the Doctor to open up about her past, the Captain with amnesia should have been another brilliant Doctor mirror… and yet, nothing. All wasted opportunities. And then they locked up Tim Shaw in a stasis chamber, a fate really quite similar to what Ten did to The Family of Blood (as others have pointed out before me), and that was supposed to be the nice option.
‘Pure’/‘Fixed Point’/Educational Historicals
Rosa
Demons of the Punjab
‘Pure’ historicals, where they can’t interfere with events/have to work to keep history intact, no matter how horrible. Solidly good and educational, and ones where it was difficult to imagine the stories being possible with another Doctor. Occasionally very difficult viewing — staying seated so Rosa could be arrested, walking away from Prem being shot — but history is full of horrible events and I thought it tackled the stories very well. Also great to have writers who are not white and male. MORE PLEASE. And not just historicals, lets have an Afrofuturism story or similar? (That is the one thing about Classic Who — everyone is white. Well, the Seventh Doctor era does quite well with representation — sometimes better than current TV — but overall Classic Who is so overwhelmingly white it’s ridiculous.) The one caveat is that you can feel the strain of the show in tackling these stories. The Doctor is interventionist by nature, and walking away feels wrong on several levels. They are beautiful, beautiful stories, and I am 100% glad we got them, but it’s like they’re a second out of of synch with what a Doctor Who story should be.
Proper Celebrity Historical
The Witchfinders
OTOH this was a Proper Celebrity Historical, with killer mud and aliens and the Doctor interfering for all she’s worth. This episode pretty much single-handedly restored my faith in the show, as I was genuinely debating whether to just quit after Kerblam! Although it also highlighted the issues so far. I was genuinely worried that the Doctor wouldn’t save the woman who was being drowned for witchcraft. That is: I was worried that the Doctor had quite simply stopped fulfilling her story purpose. (This shouldn’t be a question. This shouldn’t be something we worry about, unless there is good cause.) But then all was well and it was just Actual Doctor Who and they hadn’t forgotten how to make the show! :D And the Doctor finally had problems because of her gender (which was good, because ignoring it completely is just unrealistic) and we got actual insights into Yaz and Graham wore a hat and Alan Cumming ate ALL THE SCENERY and flirted with Ryan and the villain was complex and god, I had missed this show.
Highlight of the season
It Takes You Away
The undisputed highlight of the season; weird, thought-provoking, magical. If the Doctor’s speech to the solitract had been somewhat better written/had more weight/had a longer set-up, it’d have been a straight A. But that’s a minor drawback for an otherwise brilliant episode, with a blind actress playing a blind part (!) and absent fathers dealing with loss and Graham getting to see Grace and generally lots of character stuff. And the Doctor got long scenes with Yaz, confirming that the Doctor has ‘a Type’, and that type is ‘Smart Young Human Woman’. I didn’t really like the labyrinth part, but it was well done, and the mythological allusions worked great. Also everything being literally mirrored and… yeah, I should write more, and maybe one day I will. Also it was the only episode of the season that I immediately re-watched. (In my head, the only interesting/‘real’ episodes are probably The Woman Who Fell To Earth, The Witchfinders and this one. The pure historicals are great, but sort of a different category of story. Which might explain why I’m so dissatisfied — a season that feels 3 episodes long isn’t much.)
The New Year’s Special
Resolution
Big Dalek episode. Perfectly fine, apart from the Doctor referring to the Dalek as a refugee and the awful awful scene with the family ‘having to have a conversation’. Oh the dead gay. (Again!) Almost lumped it in with Episodes That Are Just Sort of There, but it had a proper story and there was a Dalek and Ryan’s dad and I quite enjoyed it. Also it looked great, we had the neat parallel of the Dalek making its casing from Sheffield steel, just like the Doctor made her screwdriver. And the Doctor giving Ryan’s dad grief about his behaviour. In my head this one is the bookend to the season, rather than Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos. And the bit where they were trying to throw the Dalek into a sun and all that was just gorgeous. I liked it more than it comes across here, but I just can’t really think of anything to say. (I am really not good at just ‘reviews’ and ‘I liked this’ and ‘I disliked that’. Hence never really writing about anything I like, if I can’t do meta.)
I have not talked about the elephant in the room, because guess what, that is the ONE episode I had a lot of thoughts about. And be warned, they’re not terribly positive. (/understatement) Since I hate being negative, we’ll see when I get round to posting…
This post is just me going through the episodes, mostly just so I can point towards it and say ‘These are my thoughts on S11’. I sort of group the episodes together in my head, so will do them in groups (or individually) as necessary. More or less keeping to the order they appeared in, skipping Kerblam! since that one gets a whole section of its own.
Regeneration Episode
The Woman Who Fell to Earth
Regeneration episodes fall in a category of their own, and this one was pretty great. Lots of Thirteen finding her feet, great introductions to the companions, Tim Shaw was… so-so, but he was also a good metaphor for toxic masculinity, so his patheticness sorta worked *for* him, rather than against. It was funny, inventive, and we had a great sense of the place (yay Sheffield!) right from the sunny start to the night time industrial darkness that the Doctor crashed down into. New everything, and it worked well. A great start, zero complaints (well, they killed Grace, that was pretty bad…). OK, apart from ONE complaint this was a great start.
Episodes That Are Just Sort of There
The Ghost Monument
Arachnids In The UK
The Tsuranga Conundrum
The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos
It’s unfortunate that most of Chibnalls episodes this season just never really worked. I don’t know if he was rushed, if he quite simply can’t write to the required level or if it’s a combination of several factors (I know the writer of Tsuranga dropped out and Chibnall had to somehow salvage it). I hope in future he just hires good writers and does less writing himself. The main issue is that this is… nearly half the season. And it was just sort of ‘well that was okay’. Although — going with my ‘I’lll settle for serviceable’ icon and my expectations — I suppose they just about fill the ‘serviceable’ criteria. Of course there’s always an episode or two which doesn’t work, but I think the issue with these is that although I was perfectly adequately entertained while they were on, and some of them had good stuff (say, the Doctor asking her new friends to travel with her), they made no particular lasting impact. I don’t dislike them, but overall I was far more engaged during S22 of Classic Who, which is apparently the ‘worst’ Classic season. (I liked Timelash, so there!)
Anyway I’ll go through the eps and jot down a few thoughts on each:
The Ghost Monument
From a viewing perspective this one is my least favourite of Chibnall’s. The concept is great, and there are a few good ideas, but it never gels, never feels dangerous and if it hadn’t been for the fact that the Doctor gets the TARDIS back at the end I’d happily just forget all about it. (I don’t hate it, it’s not awful, it just needed more everything.)
Arachnids In The UK
Massive spiders are good. Like, that’s an excellent Doctor Who idea, and the show used them pretty well. The GIANT one bursting through the bathtub is still a highlight, and I can’t believe it hasn’t been done before. Also we got to meet Yaz’s family, which was nice, and not!Trump was nicely done, but overall the No Guns!/the show forgetting Yaz was a police officer/the lack of resolution let it down. Which is sad, because it had the bones of being good, and even had good messages about pollution and rich people buying their way out of any problems.
The Tsuranga Conundrum
This one was my favourite of this lot, and I wouldn’t mind re-watching it. Sure it was mostly ‘a bunch of stuff that happened’ with no particular message, but the Pting was adorable and weird and different, we had a nice female war hero (who sacrificed herself nobly, like they do in stories such as this), we got to find out more about Ryan and he got some insight into his father’s possible motivations, the Doctor got to be clever and overall it was a fun episode that looked great and just zipped along nicely.
The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos
*Sigh* Again, this could have been great. Tim Shaw setting himself up as a god should have been prime Doctor-mirror material, Graham wanting to avenge his wife should have been a great opportunity for the Doctor to open up about her past, the Captain with amnesia should have been another brilliant Doctor mirror… and yet, nothing. All wasted opportunities. And then they locked up Tim Shaw in a stasis chamber, a fate really quite similar to what Ten did to The Family of Blood (as others have pointed out before me), and that was supposed to be the nice option.
‘Pure’/‘Fixed Point’/Educational Historicals
Rosa
Demons of the Punjab
‘Pure’ historicals, where they can’t interfere with events/have to work to keep history intact, no matter how horrible. Solidly good and educational, and ones where it was difficult to imagine the stories being possible with another Doctor. Occasionally very difficult viewing — staying seated so Rosa could be arrested, walking away from Prem being shot — but history is full of horrible events and I thought it tackled the stories very well. Also great to have writers who are not white and male. MORE PLEASE. And not just historicals, lets have an Afrofuturism story or similar? (That is the one thing about Classic Who — everyone is white. Well, the Seventh Doctor era does quite well with representation — sometimes better than current TV — but overall Classic Who is so overwhelmingly white it’s ridiculous.) The one caveat is that you can feel the strain of the show in tackling these stories. The Doctor is interventionist by nature, and walking away feels wrong on several levels. They are beautiful, beautiful stories, and I am 100% glad we got them, but it’s like they’re a second out of of synch with what a Doctor Who story should be.
Proper Celebrity Historical
The Witchfinders
OTOH this was a Proper Celebrity Historical, with killer mud and aliens and the Doctor interfering for all she’s worth. This episode pretty much single-handedly restored my faith in the show, as I was genuinely debating whether to just quit after Kerblam! Although it also highlighted the issues so far. I was genuinely worried that the Doctor wouldn’t save the woman who was being drowned for witchcraft. That is: I was worried that the Doctor had quite simply stopped fulfilling her story purpose. (This shouldn’t be a question. This shouldn’t be something we worry about, unless there is good cause.) But then all was well and it was just Actual Doctor Who and they hadn’t forgotten how to make the show! :D And the Doctor finally had problems because of her gender (which was good, because ignoring it completely is just unrealistic) and we got actual insights into Yaz and Graham wore a hat and Alan Cumming ate ALL THE SCENERY and flirted with Ryan and the villain was complex and god, I had missed this show.
Highlight of the season
It Takes You Away
The undisputed highlight of the season; weird, thought-provoking, magical. If the Doctor’s speech to the solitract had been somewhat better written/had more weight/had a longer set-up, it’d have been a straight A. But that’s a minor drawback for an otherwise brilliant episode, with a blind actress playing a blind part (!) and absent fathers dealing with loss and Graham getting to see Grace and generally lots of character stuff. And the Doctor got long scenes with Yaz, confirming that the Doctor has ‘a Type’, and that type is ‘Smart Young Human Woman’. I didn’t really like the labyrinth part, but it was well done, and the mythological allusions worked great. Also everything being literally mirrored and… yeah, I should write more, and maybe one day I will. Also it was the only episode of the season that I immediately re-watched. (In my head, the only interesting/‘real’ episodes are probably The Woman Who Fell To Earth, The Witchfinders and this one. The pure historicals are great, but sort of a different category of story. Which might explain why I’m so dissatisfied — a season that feels 3 episodes long isn’t much.)
The New Year’s Special
Resolution
Big Dalek episode. Perfectly fine, apart from the Doctor referring to the Dalek as a refugee and the awful awful scene with the family ‘having to have a conversation’. Oh the dead gay. (Again!) Almost lumped it in with Episodes That Are Just Sort of There, but it had a proper story and there was a Dalek and Ryan’s dad and I quite enjoyed it. Also it looked great, we had the neat parallel of the Dalek making its casing from Sheffield steel, just like the Doctor made her screwdriver. And the Doctor giving Ryan’s dad grief about his behaviour. In my head this one is the bookend to the season, rather than Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos. And the bit where they were trying to throw the Dalek into a sun and all that was just gorgeous. I liked it more than it comes across here, but I just can’t really think of anything to say. (I am really not good at just ‘reviews’ and ‘I liked this’ and ‘I disliked that’. Hence never really writing about anything I like, if I can’t do meta.)
I have not talked about the elephant in the room, because guess what, that is the ONE episode I had a lot of thoughts about. And be warned, they’re not terribly positive. (/understatement) Since I hate being negative, we’ll see when I get round to posting…