Review by RCR contributing editor, Hayden Black, follow him on Twitter @HaydenBlack!
We are now at the halfway point for Season 37 and The Tsangra Conundrum sees another episode penned by showrunner Chris Chibnall. This week’s Doctor Who was all about piling on the tension and constantly upping the stakes and pile and up it does – although it doesn’t necessarily all work. It opens with the Doctor and Team TARDIS on a trash heap looking for parts when they accidentally set off a sonic bomb. They wake up four days later to find themselves on a flying hospital that’s heading away from the TARDIS – but that becomes the least of their problems when an alien P’ting makes its way on board.
The small alien, seemingly named by a Monty Python sketch, and one that resembles Stitch from Lilo & Stitch, kills one of the medics and threatens the rest of the ship’s safety too as it begins eating it. It’s most likely heading to the ship’s anti-matter drive as that has the most energy – and if it gets to it, then it’s all over. There are other patients on board too – a pregnant man and a General suffering a heart issue and her team. The TARDIS is back on the scavenger planet, unprotected, and the hospital ship’s home base is prepared to blow the hospital ship out of existence rather than let it land and let the P’ting eat its way through their planet. Both escape pods are destroyed. The Doctor is still dealing with the after-effects of the sonic bomb. And…well, I think that’s where Chibnall stops piling on the problems and then begins working his way through solving them.
As you can imagine, you only want to create that many problems when you have so many companions because that way you can delegate who gets to do what. Graham and Ryan become doulas to the pregnant man, Yaz is assigned to protect the anti-matter drive – and the Doctor does everything else. It’s an okay episode – certainly better than last week’s arachnid one – but it’s still nothing to write home about. They all take care of the issues at hand with a minimal body count (that sadly included the lovely Brett Goldstein) and ultimately wind up with a baby called Avocado Pear – so all’s well that ends well.
On the persnickety side, I wonder why, in the 67th century, some people are dressing like it’s 2005 – particularly the pregnant bloke and the General’s brother. And the P’ting wasn’t just stupidly named – it didn’t look particularly frightening either, both of which serve to undercut any real menace it was supposed to have. And overall it lacked a sense of true urgency because we know the Doctor is going to be fine – so it was just a lot of running around for 45 minutes.
On the plus side, I’m finally noticing that the effect of having the Doctor regenerate as female is that she is now far more human than we’ve ever seen her. Jodie Whittaker wears her heart on her sleeve (or is that hearts?) and so for the first time since Peter Davison’s time at bat that we’re seeing someone so vulnerable.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the avocado is actually a fruit.
About Dr. Who
Injured and stranded in the wilds of a far-flung galaxy, The Doctor, Yaz, Graham and Ryan must band together with a group of strangers to survive against one of the universe’s most deadly and unusual creatures.
The further adventures in time and space of the alien adventurer known as the Doctor, a Time Lord/Lady who can change appearance and gender by regenerating when near death, and his/her human companions.
WATCH MORE
The Thirteenth Doctor: http://bit.ly/TheThirteenthDoctor
Regenerations: http://bit.ly/DWRegeneration
Title Sequences: http://bit.ly/DWTitleSequences
Review by Hayden Black
Hayden Black is the award-winning British star/writer/producer behind Goodnight Burbank (“Better than 99% of the stuff on TV” – USA Today”), the first-ever scripted half-hour comedy series made for Hulu and then licensed – the day it premiered – by Mark Cuban for his cable channel HDNet. Goodnight Burbank and his other original online work – including Abigail’s Teen Diary & The Occulterers – have won Webby, iTunes and Yahoo awards, been viewed in the multi-millions, and taught in college courses.
What do we know about season 11 so far?
Behind the Scenes with Season 11 of Doctor Who
Photo Credit: BBC / Doctor Who
