Spoilers The Tsuranga Conundrum grade and discussion thread
- Thread starter The Nth Doctor
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I actually really enjoyed this episode, much more than last week. Although I was drinking wine so my reaction may not be totally reliable.
Really like this episode. Keeping up with the less than universe ending stuff we had from the last two writers which is good i.m.o. Lent heavily on the character moments which Chibnall seems good at. No wine but a glass of ginger beer, one packet of monster much and one packet of salt and vinegar sticks.
Good but not fantastic. Nice little episode, if a little predictable. It was good to have the companions and the Doctor off with bits to do.
I loved this episode and it's probably my favorite episode of the season thus far.
The Pting (spelling from the closing credits) was the most adorable, vicious, destructive, little alien we've seen yet on Doctor Who (step aside Adipose) and I appreciated how The Doctor went out of her way to convince others that the creature was merely trying to feed itself and wasn't inherently trying to cause wanton destruction.
I especially loved The Doctor's gawking in awe of the antimatter drive, waxing whimsical on a purely scientific level. The whole bit was music to this physicist's ears.
I've loved the music this whole season but it stood out wonderfully in this episode and it felt reminiscent of Moby's most ambient work. Between the music, the set design, and certain ideals, the episode vibrated with the sense of the future. It truly felt like it was in the 67th century instead of some lark in a quarry.
I hope for all those people who complained about the previous episodes being "too slow" were happy with this high-adrenaline pace. Once the threat of the Pting arrived, the episode kicked into high gear and it rarely let up except for a couple of wonderful quiet moments such as Ryan talking about his father with Yaz and Eve being honest with her brother, Durkas, about her degenerative disease.
The Pting (spelling from the closing credits) was the most adorable, vicious, destructive, little alien we've seen yet on Doctor Who (step aside Adipose) and I appreciated how The Doctor went out of her way to convince others that the creature was merely trying to feed itself and wasn't inherently trying to cause wanton destruction.
I especially loved The Doctor's gawking in awe of the antimatter drive, waxing whimsical on a purely scientific level. The whole bit was music to this physicist's ears.
I've loved the music this whole season but it stood out wonderfully in this episode and it felt reminiscent of Moby's most ambient work. Between the music, the set design, and certain ideals, the episode vibrated with the sense of the future. It truly felt like it was in the 67th century instead of some lark in a quarry.
I hope for all those people who complained about the previous episodes being "too slow" were happy with this high-adrenaline pace. Once the threat of the Pting arrived, the episode kicked into high gear and it rarely let up except for a couple of wonderful quiet moments such as Ryan talking about his father with Yaz and Eve being honest with her brother, Durkas, about her degenerative disease.
My sound mix has been causing issues for me this series - I've had problems with the Sky broadcast before so perhaps watching on iPlayer will help, but a lot of the quieter lines (of which there are many as Jodie and the other's accents favour them) are tricky to follow.
I like the basic premise of this episode - "Alien but with a laughably cute xenomorph that's still dangerous" and Chibbers isn't going for complex plots - when the Doctor asked why the ship was avoiding the asteroid field and what the creature wanted, I thought it was going to turn out that the field was where more of the creatures were nesting, but nope. So easy for the kids to follow, more educational (how antimatter works, bit of maths with 51), good character moments seems to be the model, plus a more fallible Doctor (but still smart enough to save the day).
I just think i might have enjoyed it better if I heard all the dialogue.
I like the basic premise of this episode - "Alien but with a laughably cute xenomorph that's still dangerous" and Chibbers isn't going for complex plots - when the Doctor asked why the ship was avoiding the asteroid field and what the creature wanted, I thought it was going to turn out that the field was where more of the creatures were nesting, but nope. So easy for the kids to follow, more educational (how antimatter works, bit of maths with 51), good character moments seems to be the model, plus a more fallible Doctor (but still smart enough to save the day).
I just think i might have enjoyed it better if I heard all the dialogue.
Doctor Who vs Pokemon; just what the world wanted.
Having been pretty impressed so far this actually more in line with what I was dreading from Chibnall Who; bland and pointless.
Also, three Companions is too many. No one's getting developed enough and I'd include the Doctor in that list as well.
Having been pretty impressed so far this actually more in line with what I was dreading from Chibnall Who; bland and pointless.
Also, three Companions is too many. No one's getting developed enough and I'd include the Doctor in that list as well.
I too am enjoying the much "smaller" stories this season where the stakes are more personal and local, rather than universe ending.
The Doctor Vs Nibbler.
Says it all, really... With a bit of the Alien prequels, and that Enterprise episode where Trip got up the duff.
Some fun ideas, some clever ideas, somereally stupid shit ideas, and all chucked in together to see what sticks and what falls flat. And sod all for Graham to do this week. I mean, I kind f enjoyed it but can't help feeling it was the weakest episode so far - just too inconsistent in tone and unfocused, not really settling on what it wanted to be.
This week's moral lessons (parental responsibility, be honest if you're ill) more excruciating than usual, nice bit of education about CERN for the kids, and the cute alien menace could have been really good (cf Tribbles, or the beach ball alien in Dark Star), but the tonal randomness got in the way.
Says it all, really... With a bit of the Alien prequels, and that Enterprise episode where Trip got up the duff.
Some fun ideas, some clever ideas, somereally stupid shit ideas, and all chucked in together to see what sticks and what falls flat. And sod all for Graham to do this week. I mean, I kind f enjoyed it but can't help feeling it was the weakest episode so far - just too inconsistent in tone and unfocused, not really settling on what it wanted to be.
This week's moral lessons (parental responsibility, be honest if you're ill) more excruciating than usual, nice bit of education about CERN for the kids, and the cute alien menace could have been really good (cf Tribbles, or the beach ball alien in Dark Star), but the tonal randomness got in the way.
Having gotten the chance to go back and rewatch parts of the episode, I want to highlight some of my favorite lines of the episode (and there were so many great ones!):
"You're a medic, I'm The Doctor."
"Doctor of medicine?
"Well, medicine. Science. Engineering. Candy floss. Lego, philosophy, music, problems, people. Hope. Mostly hope."
-----
"You know it's a boy?"
"Of course, it is. Boys give birth to boys and girls give birth to girls. That's how it is."
"Not where we come from."
"Agh! How does that work? *shudder*
-----
"Yoss, you don't have to be perfect, you just have to be there."
-----
In fact, all of the dialogue exchanged between Ryan and Yoss, especially once Yoss goes into labor, is inspiring. I loved how Ryan quickly moved from his initial trepidation and discomfort about a man giving birth to a child and then became very supportive of him, especially in light of Ryan's own experiences with his absent father.
"You're a medic, I'm The Doctor."
"Doctor of medicine?
"Well, medicine. Science. Engineering. Candy floss. Lego, philosophy, music, problems, people. Hope. Mostly hope."
-----
"You know it's a boy?"
"Of course, it is. Boys give birth to boys and girls give birth to girls. That's how it is."
"Not where we come from."
"Agh! How does that work? *shudder*
-----
"Yoss, you don't have to be perfect, you just have to be there."
-----
In fact, all of the dialogue exchanged between Ryan and Yoss, especially once Yoss goes into labor, is inspiring. I loved how Ryan quickly moved from his initial trepidation and discomfort about a man giving birth to a child and then became very supportive of him, especially in light of Ryan's own experiences with his absent father.
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My favourite of the series so far. It felt very "Star Trek" to me from the space creature's motive to the technobabble. I could just imagine Geordi fawning over a piece of engineering hardware like that, and Spock, Data or Dax coming up with the solution to the problem.
I thought this was a very wholesome episode, though there was a moment when I thought the Pting was an infant slitheen.
The source of jeopardy was not in itself evil, merely looking for what it was evolved to eat. Equally, the medical facility was right to repel or even destroy what it perceived as a plague ship. The resolution of feeding the bomb to the beastie, so it got a good meal and could be chucked out an airlock without coming to harm, and the ship could safely complete its journey was a neat and tidy ending.
Along the way there was an awful lot of life: a birth, with the reminder that these people may look human but are not, that one night stands are a reality universally, and lots of good stuff about parenting from Ryan, who is rethinking his relationship with his own father.
There was a death, and a 'good death' at that, the pilot having one last chance to do the thing that gave her meaning and joy, and to do it to save lives, even though it cost her own. I liked the ceremony at the end.
The nurse learned something about herself and her own abilities, the brother and sister had a chance to speak of their love for each other, and the doctor got to wax lyrical about antimatter.
Graham had less to do this week, which was not bad thing as he has been rather lime light stealing. Though I'm still waiting for Yaz to really come into her own and get an episode. Maybe next week.
That was an awful lot of significant life to fit into 50 minutes, even if none of it was earth shattering. Maybe that was the point: even in farthest flung space the basics of birth and death, food, companionship and love are what drives things along. And no speeches about chips needed.
The source of jeopardy was not in itself evil, merely looking for what it was evolved to eat. Equally, the medical facility was right to repel or even destroy what it perceived as a plague ship. The resolution of feeding the bomb to the beastie, so it got a good meal and could be chucked out an airlock without coming to harm, and the ship could safely complete its journey was a neat and tidy ending.
Along the way there was an awful lot of life: a birth, with the reminder that these people may look human but are not, that one night stands are a reality universally, and lots of good stuff about parenting from Ryan, who is rethinking his relationship with his own father.
There was a death, and a 'good death' at that, the pilot having one last chance to do the thing that gave her meaning and joy, and to do it to save lives, even though it cost her own. I liked the ceremony at the end.
The nurse learned something about herself and her own abilities, the brother and sister had a chance to speak of their love for each other, and the doctor got to wax lyrical about antimatter.
Graham had less to do this week, which was not bad thing as he has been rather lime light stealing. Though I'm still waiting for Yaz to really come into her own and get an episode. Maybe next week.
That was an awful lot of significant life to fit into 50 minutes, even if none of it was earth shattering. Maybe that was the point: even in farthest flung space the basics of birth and death, food, companionship and love are what drives things along. And no speeches about chips needed.
First real clunker of the season for me, a terrible non threat, and I didn't see any high octane action given everyone got to stand around nattering despite the uber threat (seriously they just left pregnant guy alone in his room, yeah come and join us in 6 minutes, mate...if you're still alive).
Felt very RTD, only RTD would have written it better.
Did Yas even speak for the first 15 minutes? And why was the Doctor so affected by the sonic mine when everyone else was just fine?
On the upside, The Doctor going googly eyed over the antimatter drive. Yas going all Bend it Like Beckham, Graham and Ryan's Call the Midwife interchange.
Too many characters for the story (drone was completely superfluous). Not terrible just incredibly average, and this is from the showrunner. My fear about Chibnall is coming true, he's nowhere near as good a writer as RTD or Moffat, and the fact that he's frontloaded all his episodes to the first half of the season is just highlighting it. Seriously, we're 5 epsodes in and he's done 4 of them and part wrote the 5th, who does he think he is, Terry Nation? Interesting that the next four are non Chibnall, so that will be very interesting.
One final point, some of Jodie's facial expressions are really starting to annoy me, I mean she's nowhere near Tennant at full gurn but still...
Okay, this is the final point, from a Blakes 7 point of view when they woke up on the hopsital ship I did fear they were on their way to Chenga...actually that might have been a better episode.
Felt very RTD, only RTD would have written it better.
Did Yas even speak for the first 15 minutes? And why was the Doctor so affected by the sonic mine when everyone else was just fine?
On the upside, The Doctor going googly eyed over the antimatter drive. Yas going all Bend it Like Beckham, Graham and Ryan's Call the Midwife interchange.
Too many characters for the story (drone was completely superfluous). Not terrible just incredibly average, and this is from the showrunner. My fear about Chibnall is coming true, he's nowhere near as good a writer as RTD or Moffat, and the fact that he's frontloaded all his episodes to the first half of the season is just highlighting it. Seriously, we're 5 epsodes in and he's done 4 of them and part wrote the 5th, who does he think he is, Terry Nation? Interesting that the next four are non Chibnall, so that will be very interesting.
One final point, some of Jodie's facial expressions are really starting to annoy me, I mean she's nowhere near Tennant at full gurn but still...
Okay, this is the final point, from a Blakes 7 point of view when they woke up on the hopsital ship I did fear they were on their way to Chenga...actually that might have been a better episode.
I actually thought the same for half a second. Glad it wasn't and was just a new alien.
Great review, Kathy. You hit all of the points I forgot to mention about why I loved this episode so much.
