Review by RCR contributing editor, Hayden Black, follow him on Twitter @HaydenBlack
The new season featuring Jodie Whittaker has come to its conclusion with The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos – an episode that thematically, at least, took a page from Tom Baker’s “The Pirate Planet” (written by the legend that was Douglas Adams) such as it involved shrinking planets and spiriting them away. And it proved for an interesting take on religious zealots and how easy they are to fool – another piece of social commentary that has welcomingly filled this season.
The Doc and Team TARDIS find out what happened to Tim Shaw (how they refer to the very toothy Tzim Sha), the alien she banished from Earth in her first episode; turns out he’s spent the past 3,407 years on Ranskoor Av Kolos fooling a couple of religious nuts known as the Ux into believing he’s God and then harnessing their unique psychic powers to kidnap and shrink entire planets. Well, one thing’s true; if you’re crazy enough to believe in a work of fiction as truth, then you’re as gullible as they come. These two Ux have now been doing Sha’s bidding for over 3,000 years; that’s a lot of religious evil masquerading as stupidity.
The episode has some edge to it but the ending was too neatly wrapped up with cries of tension-raisings “I don’t know if this is going to work!” – and then, of course, everything worked and Tim Shaw was vanquished. Oh, and a shout-out to the Stenza sniper bots who were so technologically advanced that they shot and killed each other when their intended victims ducked. Haven’t seen work like that since the Keystone Cops tried to arrest Buster Keaton.
I wasn’t particularly disappointed with this episode (it was miles better than last week’s silliness) but nor was I particularly excited by it as it proved rather anti-climactic. Would Graham kill Tim Shaw? Would the TARDIS gang have their minds wiped? Would Earth be shrunk and stolen? Well, nope, nope, and nope so all’s well that ends well – but this is a Doctor Who season finale so you’d think there’d be a little more to it than that. This felt more a first draft – or something that could have easily been a two-parter to truly help ratchet up the tension. It’s one of those episodes that was good to watch but doesn’t hold up as well when you start thinking about it.
The news also broke that there will only be one episode of Doctor Who next year – the New Year’s Day special (which, we assume, will feature Rosa’s Krasko and, if the Daily Mail is to be believed, the Daleks). But I still can’t get over why a flagship show is made at the whims of the show runner. If I were given the job of executive producing Doctor Who (don’t worry, that will never happen), I’d be sure to clear my entire schedule before saying yes.
If you’d like to chat Doctor Who with me, hit me up on my Twitter (@HaydenBlack). If not, I’ll see you for the New Year’s Special!
About Doctor Who
On the planet of Ranskoor Av Kolos lie the remains of a brutal battlefield. But as the Doctor, Graham, Yaz and Ryan answer nine separate distress calls, they discover the planet holds far more secrets. Who is the mysterious commander with no memory? What lies beyond the mists? Who or what are the Ux? The answers will lead the Doctor and her friends towards a deadly reckoning.
Next episode: This is the Series Finale – watch for the upcoming New Year’s Special
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.
Photos Courtesy BBC: Doctor Who
