Spoilers The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos grade and discussion thread

Me too. I have no problem with a female Doctor, I have no problem with a progressive element to the stories or to a mixed race cast. I liked Jodie Whittaker in anything else I’ve seen her in.

But...this has by far been my least favourite season of DW. To me, Jodie just comes across like a female mix of Tennant & Eccleston (the former’s enthusiasm and tendency to mug and ham with a tinge of the latter’s northern attitude). But she fails to command the screen like either of them. Bradley Walsh is likeable but the other two are pretty but forgettable.

The stories have mostly been simplistic fare with little of Moffat’s wit or RTD’s vision. The second half of the season was admittedly better than the first but if you put them in any other season, they’d easily be among the weakest of the other seasons. My wife bailed on the series about 3 episodes in.

I really want to like it and hope that the new year episode will be something special but it’s just not working for me.

 

I am late to watching this week. Like every other episode the cast were great, it looked great but the story was a bit meh!

Chibnall's best script but I hope he does less writing next series.

I had to take a mark off for the use of "fam".

I hope that is the end of the Stenza, I didn't like them.

 

The doctor resets at the beginning of every new story.

That's why a three of four parter at the end is epic.

 

The operation of the stasis boxes was a bit odd, considering that in most SF stories, such as the Slaver stasis boxes in Larry Niven's Known Space series, they stop the passage of time - hence the name. They seemed to work more like the Phantom Zone crystals in Superman The Movie that imprisoned Zod and his cohorts.

 

It's like Tim wanted the victims to suffer for going against the Stenza, and anyway the Doctor previously proposed that freezing a whole planet "in a single moment" was a momentous undertaking in The Day of the Doctor so it is either a statement on the powers of the Ux here that they could manage five planets (and Earth as number six) OR that the planets were only miniaturised and preserved, with time still passing (perhaps more slowly) for the trapped?

 

Doctor Who 11.10 'The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos' review
The final episode of Series 11. Team TARDIS responds to a distress call, to find a deserted spaceship. These initial scenes set up the setting and themes of the episode really well, leading one to want to know what happened there. Especially after the amnesiac captain, Paltraki, is found. The planet causing problems for people's brain functions is an interesting concept. (But it wasn't made clear whether it's an innate feature of the planet's environment, or a result of the various battles.) It is a good setup.
But that isn't the intro to the episode. We first see the Ux, talking about their belief system, with the younger showing scepticism towards the elder's teachings. This was quite realistically depicted. (Of course, I wondered what their 'creator' was.) This is also effective set up for what comes later. The 'mcguffin', the object that turns out to be important is a also a good set up. Important enough for the Doctor to threaten it, to guarantee the safety of Paltraki's crew, and important enough for the Elder Ux to demand it back.
They then go to the building where the Ux are waiting. (Ryan's line “don't aliens bother with doors?” was rather good, as well as the Doctor saying to Paltraki 'You're new. I always put my foot down with new people.') The group then divides into, the Doctor, by herself looking for the 'creator', Paltraki with Yas, and Graham and Ryan. The Doctor confronts the Elder Ux with the object. However it is Yas who discovers what the objects are when she finds the Younger Ux. Planets the 'Creator' has abducted.
However, the ending is more impactful than the journey to get there, if a little underwhelming. However, Ryan saying that he loves Graham as a grandfather was a rather good development (but more about that in the overall series review). The discovery that the 'Creator' wasn't a deity at all, but 'Tim Shaw' didn't really come out of left field at all, but surprising enough. The Doctor and Yas' talk about choosing between the Ux, and the Earth was good as was the use of the TARDIS to rescue the planets, alongside the Stenza tech and the Ux abilities, but a little underwhelming.
However, the best part was Graham deciding to be the better man, by not killing 'Tim Shaw'. (But is leaving him in a stasis chamber indefinitely really any better? The Ux deciding to leave the planet with Paltraki and his crew was interesting also. 7.75/10. (Hopefully Resolution is a better resolution to Series 11 than this.)

 

I had thought that the episode was setting up that this was Tim Shaw before the Tardis crew met him and this is what lead to him going to Earth. But I liked that they didn’t go for Moffat time travel shenanigans. I really liked the closure that Graham got along with Ryan. I also appreciated that Yaz got to do some detective work. I hope they expand on that next season, maybe she can end up doing a lot of the detective work, Graham talks to the workers, while Ryan gets at the more emotional side, they report to the Doctor and she puts it together. Play to all their strengths.

 

I like that idea but I don't suppose they could have a story where they ended up being in some way responsible for Grace's death.

 

Doctor Who – Series 11 overall review
The first season with Chris Chibnall as showrunner. Quite interesting, especially when it came to important moments in 20th Century history, but there are many aspects that left things to be desired, especially towards the end of the series. (It was such a good beginning.) Where did it go well, and where did it go wrong. There are many threads running through this series. The Doctor getting used to her new regeneration. Family, particularly through Graham and Ryan, but also Yas' family (Demons in the Punjab in particular).
Grief, especially Graham's for Grace, is a major theme through the series. It is a major part of why he wants to travel with the Doctor, and is a major plot point in It Takes You Away, where the Solitract uses a simulacrum of her to hook Graham. (This would make a more satisfying conclusion than The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos). Villainy not being the result of being a megalomaniac (except for 'Tim Shaw', but as a result of typical human prejudices (especially in Rosa and Demons of the Punjab, but also in The Witchfinders).
Other forms of ordinary human villainy are on display. For instance, the mistreatment of human workers by the Kerblam! Corporation, which parallels the treatment of human works in real life corporations like Amazon. This links back to the prejudice theme, with Charlie's prejudice against Amazon, leading him to his terrorism plot with the explosive bubblewrap. This aspect was rather well done. However these aren't the only themes running through the series. There is also the theme of family.
The best example of this is the relationship between Graham and Ryan, which improves through the series. In The Woman Who Fell to Earth, the only connection between the two of them is Grace. However, their experiences through the season, starting with working together despite the pervasive racism in Montgomery, 1995, allow them to draw closer as grandfather and grandson. Indeed, it is the Solitract!Grace's refusal to help Ryan (stuck in the Antizone) which convinces Graham that it indeed isn't Grace.
Thus Ryan's admission of love on the alien ship. Family is also important for Yas, but we find out more about Umbreen in Demons of the Punjab, than about Yas herself through the entire season. Some hints are dropped about the Doctor, but they aren't (yet) brought up. Maybe those are for a future season. 8.5/10. (There is room for improvement in Resolution.) Despite some missteps, this has been a good season.

 

I definitely want more of that balanced dynamic, too. It worked well in "Kerblam!" as well, so the writers know this balance is viable. Hopefully Chibnall is able to direct them in that direction next series.

 

Tim Shaw had spent 3,407 years plotting revenge and carrying it out. That proves he's never going to change and an indefinite amount of time on ice is more than justified.

 

The script contradicts that...the ux dude says he’s been there for decades I thought? XD
The stasis thing should have been stasis things, but we had planets keeping their axial spin and people walking around in their prison for millennia without going stark staring nuts.
They should have made something out of the idea that the ships had somehow escaped the planets in stasis, and the time difference was what made them go nuts...not imaginary planet powers that exist just to provide the macguffin.
Needed another pass.

 

The Doctor asked him how long he was there and he said 3,407 years and then immediately ranted about how he plotted revenge against her during that long period of time.

 

Yeah I know, same as the title card insert. I just remember being thrown when Ux The Younger said he had been on the planet for decades later. I only watched it once, it’s possible I misheard the line, but it threw me as a clumsy line. I mean technically humanity has been on the earth for decades. But...it’s rather a lot of decades.

I am now wondering , given the title, if the New Years special is the actual finale and they just moved it to be ‘special’.

 

As needed.

 

I quite enjoyed her reply "Bet the 7 really dragged" (or something similar).

 

Although they have to return to the Classic Series roots as laid down by The Master, with him escaping from his fate with absolutely no explanation whatsoever.

 

I was certainly reminded of the Pirate Planet with this one.

 

...which they've already done with The Master.