#30. The Power of the Doctor.

Ice cream in space: A final journey with the 13th Doctor and Yaz.

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 87 minutes. Written by: Chris Chibnall. Directed by: Jamie Magnus Stone. Produced by: Nikki Wilson.


THE PLOT:

Siberia, 1916. Self-proclaimed monk Grigori Rasputin is summoned by the Romanovs to the Winter Palace. The desperate Tsarina tells him that her hemophiliac son's health is failing, and that the boy's condition began worsening with the appearance of a second moon in the sky...

London, present day. Kate Lethbridge-Stewart calls on the Doctor with a very peculiar problem. The world's leading seismologists have disappeared, even as famous paintings have been bizarrely altered. The Doctor is annoyed at being summoned for something so trivial. Until Kate introduces her two newest consultants: the Doctor's former companions, Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding) and Ace (Sophie Aldred). They show her the altered paintings, each changed so that the figure at the center is Grigori Rasputin.

Except the Doctor and Yaz instantly recognize that the man pictured is not really Rasputin, but rather the Master (Sacha Dhawan)! The Doctor's old enemy happily reveals his present-day location. When UNIT and the Doctor close in, he gleefully taunts her:

"This is the day you die!"

An unexpected reunion: The Doctor runs into past companions
Ace (Sophie Aldred) and Tegan (Janet Fielding).

CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: Jodie Whittaker's final story, and it's a pretty good last outing for her. She is disturbed by the Master's "warning," and makes certain preparations before walking into his trap, which allows her to actively work with her friends even while she's technically incapacitated. I love the way she faces her regeneration at the end. It is neither mawkish nor protracted, but rather a look toward the future as she tells her incoming successor: "Tag, you're it."

Yaz: Sometime during the course of her travels, she has prepared a diagram and post-it notes for steering the TARDIS if the need arises. This speaks volumes about both her sense of preparation and her realism. For all of her love for (borderline worship of) the Doctor, she still realizes that her friend is not as invulnerable as she pretends. If something happens, Yaz doesn't want to end up stranded, and she has paid attention and taken steps for that eventuality. She also reacts with an absolute, forceful rejection to the idea of the Master smearing the Doctor's name, seeming to find that even more loathsome than if the Master had simply killed her.

Dan: After a particularly close brush with death, Dan re-evaluated his new lifestyle and opts to exit with his skin intact. This may have been for the best. This story is already juggling a lot with the Master, the regeneration, the returning Ace and Tegan, and giving good roles to both the Doctor and Yaz. Had Dan stuck around for the duration, he would almost certainly have been consigned (again) to the role of "spare part." At least this way, he gets a couple moments that are his own. John Bishop has been wonderful throughout his brief tenure, making the most of every scrap he's been given, and that continues to be the case here. In a way, though, that makes it all the more aggravating that we didn't get just one truly Dan-centric story some time over the past season-and-a-bit.

Tegan: Janet Fielding is one of two Classic Series regulars who return for this episode. Tegan remains as irritable as ever. She has not forgiven the Doctor for never contacting her again after she left. This is arguably unfair, as it's not as if she gave the Doctor any reason to believe that such contact would be welcome, but it is in character. Her reaction to seeing the Doctor's newest form is to sniff about how young she is. She eventually admits that she still misses the Doctor, and she gets emotional at a reference to Adric.

Ace: The other major Classic Series return comes in the form of Sophie Aldred's Ace. The original series' cancellation meant that we never saw her separation from the Doctor; other media has filled in the gaps, but knowledge of that isn't really needed. We are told enough to know that the 7th Doctor and Ace parted on even worse terms than the 5th Doctor and Tegan did. Despite this, she is openly enthusiastic at their reunion, and happily chirps that the current incarnation is "a good look." She even continues to refer to the Doctor as "Professor."

Graham: It's appropriate that one of the Thirteenth Doctor's own past companions makes an appearance. The final scenes of Revolution of the Daleks established that Graham and Ryan would continue investigating strange occurrences.  It is such an investigation that leads to Graham wandering into this story entirely on his own power. He ends up paired with Ace, and they make a surprisingly entertaining duo. Bradley Walsh works well with Sophie Aldred, and the two characters' contrasting personalities make for some enjoyable exchanges.

Kate Lethbridge-Stewart: The Power of the Doctor may just see Jemma Redgrave's best performance as Kate. What I appreciate most is how palpably frightened she of the Cybermen. When she confronts Ashad, she is shaking, knowing all too well what fate likely awaits her. She also gets to show a lighter side, with her genuine eagerness at the chance to enter the TARDIS. Her scientific background seems to be remembered in her reaction. Rather than simply express wonder at the TARDIS being bigger on the inside, she asks how it's bigger.

The Master: Sacha Dhawan's Master survived the events of The Timeless Children, though exactly how is never explained ("I'm indestructible; the whole universe knows that!"). He retains the same core of self-loathing. He doesn't want just to defeat the Doctor, or even just to take her remaining regenerations; he wants to be someone other than himself by claiming the Doctor's identity. When the Doctor and her companions thwart his plan, he pleads - as if to an uncaring universe - "Don't let me go back to being me." The irony of this plea being that there's no point in the story at which he behaves as anything other than The Master... which, if I'm honest, feels like a missed opportunity. It might have been interesting if, after taking the Doctor's identity, he had felt some "Doctorish" impulses, but the effect as portrayed isn't particularly different than if he'd snuck into the TARDIS and stolen her wardrobe.

Daleks: Are included because this is the big special celebrating the BBC's Centenary, because there was a chance that this would be the last Doctor Who story for a while, and because the New Series never misses an opportunity to overuse the Daleks. Within the confines of the story, however, they are mostly pointless. They fulfill the narrative demand of giving Ace something to do in the Final Act; but by and large, they could be removed entirely, and the story might actually be structurally cleaner for it. I guess it's nice that Ace's anti-Dalek baseball bat still works, though.

Cybermen: Unlike the Daleks, they actually seem like part and parcel of the narrative, and they work much better as a result. The Cyber-Master design looks just as silly here as it did in The Timeless Children. Thankfully, more is seen of Ashad and the regular New Series Cybermen. The scenes with the Cybermen invading UNIT develop a reasonable amount of tension, with Ashad's exchanges with Kate showing that he's still as vicious as ever. The Cybermen are a bit too easily defeated... but then, that's an issue hardly unique to this story, and the resolution to their subplot still beats "I blew them up with love!" By a lot.

Past Doctors: Chris Chibnall uses the Centenary to celebrate the Classic Series not just by bringing by Ace and Tegan, but also by bringing back Classic Series Doctors. Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy get particularly good scenes opposite their prior companions. Jo Martin's Fugitive Doctor also receives a strong scene, which is appropriate since she's been a big part of the current era. Meanwhile, McGann, Colin Baker, and David Bradley's First Doctor show up for less than a minute each - though that's still long enough to enjoy their presence, and it's particularly nice to see Colin Baker giving such a relaxed and restrained performance. I suspect this will be their collective final bow for television Doctor Who, but the way in which this story uses the Past Doctors provides a ready, ongoing excuse for future showrunners to bring them back with no care for the actors' ages.

Band of Villains: The Master (Sacha Dhawan) makes a pact
with the Daleks and the Cybermen to kill the Doctor.

THOUGHTS:

The Power of the Doctor hits the ground running with a set piece involving Cybermen attacking a bullet train in space. It never really slows down from there, as we're taken in rapid succession to: 1916 Siberia (Rasputin! And he's the Master!); UNIT HQ; a Cyber planet in Earth's orbit; and a Dalek dig site under an active volcano (did they have to exterminate Blofeld first?). We're zipped from location to location, and the high production values of this era and the large scale make this often feel less like a television special than a movie.

The benefit of this approach is that it's easy to get caught up in the rush. Writer Chris Chibnall and director Jamie Magnus Stone do a creditable job of keeping the scenes flowing nicely in and out of each other, so that it all feels like a unified narrative and not just a jumble of activity. As a celebration of 100 years of BBC history (of which Doctor Who's history is an integral part), it's also a joy to see the cameos by past Doctors and companions.

The downside? The story might be large-scale and fast-paced, but it doesn't really seem to be about much of anything. The plot mainly seems to be there to incorporate the fanservice. I've already mentioned how superfluous the Daleks seem. Add to that the Master's entire Rasputin disguise. As far as I can determine, he passes himself off as Rasputin so that he can taunt UNIT and the Doctor through altered art and then enjoy a dance number in the Winter Palace. This isn't entirely a complaint: The dance number is kind of brilliant, and none of this is even a tiny bit out of character. But on a pure plot level, it doesn't really do much.

The Thirteenth Doctor enjoys one last sunrise.

THE REGENERATION:

One aspect of this story that I cannot fault is the regeneration itself. After a brief protest that she wants more time, the Thirteenth Doctor stops and accepts what's happening - in part, I think, for Yaz's sake, but also because she recognizes the natural cycle of it. Her goodbye to Yaz, as they share ice cream atop the TARDIS while floating in space, is charming and acts as a sort of parallel to their date under the sea. Then she embraces the inevitability of the change in the light of a sunrise: the final dawn for this set of eyes, and the first for the next.

The story itself is far from my favorite New Series regeneration story. That said, I think this is my favorite New Series regeneration scene, and by a fairly substantial margin.


OVERALL:

Back in my Series Eleven Overview, I stated that Chibnall's best episodes tended to be the ones that were the most emotionally authentic, in contrast to Steven Moffat's big concepts and rapid spectacle. In that same overview, I expressed my hope that Chibnall could fix some of that season's issues with pacing and weak character interactions without throwing out those changes that had actually worked.

The Power of the Doctor mostly embraces style over substance. Yet its best moments are once again the ones that ring emotionally true: the Fifth and Seventh Doctor's brief reunions with their old companions; Thirteen standing at a very special crossroads; Kate's genuine terror of the Cybermen; and the Thirteenth Doctor's beautiful final moments. These are the scenes I will remember from this special, long after the bullet train action sequences, lethal skybeams, and dance numbers have slipped from my memory.

In the end, I enjoyed this special for what it was.  Still, it would have been nice if there had been something more substantial at the heart of it.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

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#29: Legend of the Sea Devils.

The Sea Devils return to television! After this story,
 it might take them another 40 years to try again.

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 47 minutes. Written by: Ella Road, Chris Chibnall. Directed by: Haolu Wang. Produced by: Nikki Wilson.


THE PLOT:

The TARDIS finally brings the Doctor and her friends to a beach! That beach, however, is at a Chinese fishing village in the year 1807 - a village that has just been raided by the infamous pirate known as Madam Ching (Crystal Yu)!

Ching has come for a very specific target: a stone statue of a sea monster whose base holds the key to the location of the fabled treasure of the Flor de la Mar. What she doesn't realize is that the statue is actually a prison. When she chips away at the base, she frees its captive: A Sea Devil who has been held in place for more than 200 years.

Now the Sea Devil is free - and unless the Doctor can stop him, he plans to use his technology to flood the entire planet!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: When she confronts the Sea Devil, she bluffs that she knows the location of the "keystone" he seeks, talking at a million miles a minute while at the same time fishing for any scraps of information he might divulge. The Sea Devil is smart enough to catch on to her game: "You talk to secure yourself time to think."

The "B" plot sees her grappling with Yaz's feelings. Yaz's interest doesn't seem entirely unrequited; if it was, moments such as showing her companion the bottom of the ocean floor while beaming that she's "not such a bad date" would smack of cruelty. Still, as she explains - and, really, as the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors' eras repeatedly showed - her long lifespan means that any such relationship could only end in pain.

Yaz: Is a little too eager to act as "mini-Doctor," the role she effectively filled during her separation from the Doctor during the Flux. However, she isn't on the Doctor's level.  During the confrontation with the Sea Devil, she gives away information that the Doctor planned to hold in reserve.  She later attempts to replicate the Doctor's use of Sea Devil technology but can't remember which switch to use. If this era wasn't ending in just one more episode, this story would have me actively expecting her to end up on a collision course with her own limitations.

Dan: Quickly bonds with Ying Ki (Marlowe Chan-Reeves), a young man whose father became the first victim of the Sea Devil. His compassion gets the better of his judgment, though, when he follows the youth onto Madam Ching's ship, separating him from the Doctor and Yaz for most of the rest of the episode. The climax sees him battling Sea Devils with startling enthusiasm... but in between, it's back to Flux territory, with Dan mostly just an amiable presence rather than an integral part of the plot.

Madam Ching: Crystal Yu as the Historical Figure of the Week. The historical Madam Ching is a fascinating figure who rose to become head of the Guangdong Pirate Confederation, and who is sometimes credited as being the most successful pirate in history... which frankly sounds like the basis for a much more interesting and exciting story than this one. Yu does a fine job with what she's given, but she isn't given much, with the historical figure's life and background almost entirely unmentioned. Compared with this same era's treatment of historical figures such as Rosa Parks, Nikola Tesla, and Mary Seacole, this is disappointingly shallow, and the climax reduces her to little more than an extra.


THE RETURN OF THE SEA DEVILS:

The Sea Devils' design is extremely faithful to the Classic Series, only more polished. At first glance, the monsters looks terrific: menacing and strangely beautiful in a single image.

Then the lead Sea Devil talks, and the illusion is broken.

The problem is the full face mask. Compare with the (at the time) much-vilified redesign of the Silurians. That revamp left the face and mouth uncovered to allow a full range of expressions. The Sea Devils here are not granted the same luxury, and actor Craig Els is left with no ability to convey any subtlety because expressions are impossible. Also, because the mouth doesn't move well, his speech is indicated by a blinking light hanging around his chest. Which is very Classic Who... but in all the wrong ways.

As for the characterization? Well, the Doctor pays lip service to them as a peace-loving culture (though I'm frankly not sure how she arrived at that from either of their previous televised appearances). Despite that, the only speaking Sea Devil here is pure evil, sneering "Land Parasite!" at humans, keeping one man alive indefinitely just to torture him, and gloating about his planned mass extinction event. All that's missing to make him a silent movie baddie is a mustache to twirl and a scene in which he ties Yaz to some railroad tracks.

If Series One's Dalek served as a masterclass in bringing back a potentially silly monster and making it menacing and relevant to modern audiences, then I'm afraid this story represents the opposite. Their last major televised appearance was in 1984's Warriors of the Deep. After this, it wouldn't surprise me if it took another 40 years for their next return.


THOUGHTS:

Though this is not a good episode, there are good individual elements. Even if Dan is persistently underused, I really like the dynamic of the current TARDIS team. All three actors share a good-humored screen rapport. I actually believe these three enjoy traveling together, while in Series Eleven and Twelve it too often felt like the Doctor and Yaz were on one team and Ryan and Graham were on another.

For the first half or so, I mostly enjoyed this. The early scenes are fun: Yaz tricking Dan into wearing a pirate outfit (complete with hook), while the Doctor expresses exasperation with both of them; the reveal of the Sea Devil's flying pirate ship; Dan's compassion letting him get roped into an ill-advised misadventure with Ying Ki; and, most particularly, the entire sequence in which the Doctor takes Yaz 200 years into the past to locate treasure at the moment of its sinking, followed by a lovely pause (the episode's only one) at the bottom of the ocean floor.

Even in the early going, however, there are plot holes. I was immediately put off by Madam Ching operating her ship with no crew at all. A frigate isn't a private sailing boat, and the crew did not exist merely to repel boarders and to give the captain someone to flog when feeling peevish. You'd think the script would at least lampshade this with a couple lines about modifications. But... nope! She's sailing a full-sized pirate ship all on her own, and that's all there is to it.

The script has quite a bit of sloppiness. Characters reference information they shouldn't know. The Doctor and Yaz realize why the stars are in the wrong place, which would be an interesting reveal... except that they weren't present for the scene that showed the stars in the wrong place, and they had no opportunity within the episode to make that discovery for themselves! Much is also made of the Sea Devils' pet sea monster, but the creature conveniently disappears for the action climax.

The entire story feels rushed, which becomes particularly problematic near the end. First, the Doctor and Yaz escape from the Sea Devil's ship by jumping across to Madam Ching. At this point, the story should really take a moment for the characters to bond and pool information. Instead, it launches almost instantly into the final fight.

The incredibly poorly edited final fight. 

Editing is somewhat jagged throughout (likely covering for issues caused by COVID restrictions), but here it becomes all but incomprehensible. I replayed bits to try to figure out how the Doctor escapes certain death in one part or how Dan knocks over Sea Devils in another part. After a few times doing this, however, I gave up and just let the images pass unchallenged; in some cases I found the answers, but it frankly wasn't worth the effort.

As if the ending hadn't been botched badly enough, the main story closes with Doctor Who's most tiresome and overused trope: a Heroic Self-Sacrifice (TM). This case feels particularly superfluous. The problem that requires a character to nobly die occurs all of a minute before the sacrifice. It may not be as poorly staged as the one in The Timeless Children, but it makes up for it by feeling entirely narratively unnecessary.


OVERALL:

Legend of the Sea Devils plays very much as if the crew shot a rough draft. This may not be far from the truth. One of the three 2022 specials was an "extra," commissioned when the BBC asked for one more episode. Given that the other two specials are the traditional Chibnall Dalek New Year's special and the epic finale, Legend of the Sea Devils seems the most likely candidate.

It might actually have been better if it hadn't been made. Eve of the Daleks left the Doctor and her team soaring into their final adventures. Legend of the Sea Devils sends them crashing back to Earth, left to stumble in a daze into their final outing.


Overall Rating: 2/10.

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#28: Eve of the Daleks.

Dan confounds a Dalek.

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 58 minutes. Written by: Chris Chibnall. Directed by: Annetta Laufer. Produced by: Sheena Bucktowonsing.


THE PLOT:

The Doctor initiates a TARDIS reset to repair the damage left by the Flux. The plan is for her, Yaz, and Dan to enjoy a beach vacation while the timeship resets. But the TARDIS has materialized off course (again), leaving them in a far less luxurious setting: a storage facility on New Year's Eve.

They are not alone. The Daleks have tracked the time travelers, resolved to execute the Doctor and her companions. Which they manage with great efficiency within minutes of finding her...

Only for everyone to be resurrected, back where they started.  They are in a time loop, repeating the brief interval between their arrival and the New Year. This leaves the Doctor only a few minutes at a time to figure out how to stop the Daleks, save all of her friends, and escape the storage facility. And with the loop gradually collapsing, her time is running out...


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: In the midst of the crisis, she tells Yaz: "My actions are catching up with me, time is catching up with me." Once the situation is resolved, she immediately returns to her increasingly strained show of cheerful obliviousness, however, claiming that she doesn't remember saying that. I'm actually glad that that Thirteen has emerged as the most guarded of Doctors. It's a note that builds on her first season (whether intentionally or not, Series Eleven saw most of her best character bits happening when her companions were not present), and it's both more interesting than the early "Dr. Fluffy" characterization and better suited to Jodie Whittaker's acting strengths.

Yaz: The most notable character beat for Yaz is that she finally confesses that she has feelings for the Doctor... to Dan. In fact, in this episode, all of Yaz's best scenes are opposite Dan. The two share an enjoyable bickering sibling vibe, with her lightly mocking him when a Dalek labels him as "the inferior human," yet leaping to his defense when the storage facility's owner, Sarah (Aislin Bea), snaps at him.

Dan: After being basically "the extra companion" for the entire back half of Series Thirteen, he finally receives some strong material here. I love his "delaying tactic" against the Dalek; there are echoes of Morton Dill in The Chase as he confounds the metal monster by treating it as if it's an employee and asking to speak to its manager. He gently coaxes Yaz into admitting her feelings for the Doctor, and later takes on the Rory role of calling the Doctor on her BS when he grumbles that he knows she notices things: "You do, but for some reason you pretend to me and to her that you don't."

Sarah/Nick: The two bystanders. Aisling Bea is terrific as Sarah, the grumpy owner of the storage facility, who would rather be anywhere else even before the Daleks show up. She behaves in a refreshingly human fashion, taking one Time Loop to run for her life instead of staying to help the Doctor. Nick (Adjani Salmon) is a long-time customer who always comes by on New Year's Eve. It's instantly apparent that he fosters a massive crush on Sarah, though it takes that being shoved in her face for her to actually notice. Oddly, both characters parallel the Doctor in different ways. Sarah is grumpy and keeps Nick and her mother at arm's length, the same way the Doctor does to her companions; Nick is more than a little odd but is also fundamentally decent, descriptors that could be applied to all of the Doctor's incarnations.

Jeff: The offscreen Jeff becomes both the episode's running joke and possibly its key character. We never see him, not even a photograph, but his presence is a constant through the episode. Sarah and Nick are both at the facility because Jeff never shows up to work on New Year's Eve. As the Doctor and her friends explore the facility, they discover that he bunks in a storage unit, and that he keeps canned food and other items in further empty units - including a few items that play a key role in the resolution.

Daleks: Targeting the Doctor for her actions during the Flux crisis... although the Doctor has thwarted them so often that she has to stop and ask exactly which action prompted them this time. Though treated comically, particularly in the scene with Dan, they aren't made into jokes. The entire episode sees them ahead of the Doctor, thwarting her plans and escape attempts. When the Doctor tries to stop them using old tactics, they are ready, telling her with audible smugness, "Daleks learn!"


THOUGHTS:

"Groundhog Day!"
-Dan's first words upon realizing that he, the Doctor, and Yaz are caught in a time loop.

With only a few exceptions, I have never been a fan of the New Series' Dalek stories. One of those exceptions was Chris Chibnall's own Resolution, the first of his New Year's Dalek specials... but even that one fell apart at the end, while I found his following Revolution of the Daleks to be entirely competent but utterly uninteresting.

Which makes Eve of the Daleks all the more pleasant a surprise. This is easily the best of Chibnall's three New Year's episodes, a well-paced, fun, and funny story that held my attention from the first scene through to the last.

"Daleks learn!" is intoned at the end of the teaser, and that one line sets up much of the rest of this. All the characters - Doctor, Daleks, and even humans - retain the memories of each loop, leaving them to use their knowledge to try to succeed in the next loop. The Doctor has jammed Dalek weaponry with her sonic screwdriver once before; the Daleks have upgraded to circumvent that. Sarah tries to change her route to avoid getting killed (again); the Daleks anticipate that change and intercept her on a higher floor. Even the episode's resolution plays into this, with the Doctor using the information gathered over each loop to set a trap for her enemies.

There is one "Doctor speech" about three-quarters of the way through that fails to land for me. It goes a little too heavy-handed in making sure we don't miss the (already well-established) theme of learning and adjusting to challenges - and while Jodie Whittaker is very good through the rest of the episode, her delivery of this speech was a bit too earnest for my tastes.

Outside of that one nitpick, this episode is great fun. Performances are good, dialogue (not always Chibnall's strength) is sharp and often amusing, and the pace doesn't flag.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

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#27 (13.6): The Vanquishers.

Azure and Swarm torment the Doctor.  Well, one of the Doctors...

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 60 minutes. Written by: Chris Chibnall. Directed by: Azhur Saleem. Produced by: Pete Levy.


THE PLOT:

The Doctor's escape from Swarm (Sam Spruell) and Azure (Rochenda Sandall) is successful... partially. Swarm touches her just as she transports back to her universe, and the combination of the Ravager's destructive power with the transport has the effect of splitting her in three. One Doctor ends up on Karvanista's ship just as the Sontarans assault the Lupari blockade. Another Doctor reunites with Yaz, Dan, and Jericho in the Williamson Tunnels beneath Liverpool.

A third Doctor, however, remains on the station outside the universe. As her other fragments of work to unravel the plans of the Sontarans and their ally, The Grand Serpent (Craig Parkinson), Swarm and Azure bask in the opportunity to torment their old enemy, taunting her:

"This is better than we could ever have hoped. We have everything we need. Division... The power to destroy your universe... And you!"


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: Split into three personas, which she admits is confusing, exhausting, and frightening. That doesn't stop her from using it to her advantage - as when she deliberately sets herself up to be captured and interrogated, all so that she can be rescued after she's gathered needed information - rescued by another version of herself. Much like Amy in Steven Moffat's Space/Time sketch, she seems to fancy herself; she mentions having "a crush" on herself and, even when her form is adopted by a sinister entity, she pauses to note how good she looks in that variant's dark jacket (the dark jacket does suit her, by the way - Maybe we can get a wardrobe change for the specials?).

Yaz: The episode opens with her still emulating the Doctor, as when she thinks fast to open a particularly dangerous door to deal with a squad of Sontarans. Is overjoyed at the Doctor's return... until the Doctor begins rattling off technical terms with no explanation, leaving Yaz complaining, "normal service resumed." When the Doctor apologizes for shutting her out earlier in the season, saying she should have confided in her, Yaz doesn't fully let her off the hook; "Yeah, you should have," she says flatly, but makes clear that she's still willing to listen if the Doctor wants to start including her.

Dan: John Bishop continues to make the most of every small moment Dan gets... Which is fortunate, as for most of the season, small moments are all he does get. He's particularly sidelined here, with releasing a prisoner being the most significant moment he receives. There's a lot going on, so it's understandable that some characters end up underserved. Still, I'm left to wonder why he was even introduced if the season wasn't going to do anything with him.

Professor Jericho: At the opposite extreme... in a mere three episodes, Kevin McNally's Jericho has come to feel like an integral part of the series. He's emerged as my favorite character of the season: a mild-mannered, somewhat fussy academic with a core of steel. He gets some strong scenes here, thinking nothing of putting himself in danger to save his friends. I love his confrontation with a Sontaran who sneers that he's a "nameless human," to which he proudly declares himself to be "Professor Eustacius Jericho, scourge of scoundrels" - only to immediately regret not having written his autobiography, as that would have been such a good title.

The Grand Serpent: Has allied himself with the Sontarans as part of a long-range plan to install himself as Earth's ruler. He is unruffled when the Doctor points out that the Sontarans will inevitably betray him; he's already anticipated as much and plans to beat them to it. He is thrown, however, by how unbothered the Doctor is by his interrogation. When he realizes that she's actually getting information from him rather than the other way around, he tries to just kill her - but it turns out he's picked the wrong day to use his favorite parlor trick...

Swarm: Delights in inflicting pain, both psychological and physical. He teases the Doctor with her hidden memories, using his abilities to obliterate those memories - which manifests as physical agony. He literally disassembles the Doctor, only to rewind her to whole so that he can do it all over again. He and Azure boast that they'll do the same to the universe, rewinding the Flux until everything is intact and then unleashing it again, all to revel in the destruction. Not a smart boast, in this case, as this very plan provides the solution (although that solution is not very clearly communicated by the episode itself).

Azure: Every bit as sadistic as Swarm, as she dangles the Doctor's fobwatch in front of her. But she also has an inquisitive side, glimpsed in an excellent scene in which she asks the Doctor to explain why her valuing of life is better than the Ravagers' appetite for destruction. She doesn't seem to be sneering at the Doctor in that moment.  She is genuinely curious - and when she returns to taunting and tormenting her afterward, there's a sense that she's angry at how unsatisfactory she found the Doctor's answer to be. Rochenda Sandrall has been good all season, and I'm glad this episode allows her this one moment in the spotlight.

The Sontarans: Chris Chibnall again proves how good he is at writing the classic villains. He repeats the balancing act of War of the Sontarans. On the one hand, they are funny and even occasionally ridiculous, as when one Sontaran takes delight in raiding a convenience store's supplies of chocolate. At the same time, they have never been more ruthless. At one point, one gloats to Karvanista about ejecting Lupari out of airlocks to die in space, then mocks his prisoner's fury. Also, the Sontarans' plot to use their enemies to gain dominance over the Flux is genuinely clever, and it might well have succeeded.

Kate Lethbridge-Stewart: The Grand Serpent ends up fixating on Kate, who announces herself as the head of the resistance against the Sontaran Occupation. I can't help but wonder if something was left on the cutting room floor, however, because Kate ends up doing very little - certainly nothing that should draw the Serpent's personal attention. At least Jemma Redgrave remains a welcome presence, making the most of her confrontation scene with the Serpent. I just wish she was a bit more central to the episode, and that she had more scenes opposite Jodie Whittaker's Doctor.

Karvanista/Bel/Vinder: Speaking of underserved characters... It's appropriate that these three end up forming a sort of group of their own; after all the setup earlier this season, none of them gets enough of a payoff. Karvanista at least gets a good scene opposite the Doctor, bemoaning that there was a time that he would have done anything for her, and that she rewarded his loyalty by leaving him. Bel and Vinder don't even get that much. On the one hand, their story doesn't go to the obvious ending I had anticipated (once the unborn baby was revealed, I fully expected them to end up being the Doctor's parents); on the other hand, it doesn't particularly go anywhere else. In the end, this season would have been much the same had they not been present at all.


THOUGHTS:

Appropriately enough for a finale, The Vanquishers not only concludes the Flux arc, it also more or less represents it in miniature. All the season's strengths are evident. The episode is fast-paced and well-acted, with a genuine sense of urgency. All three villains are effective: The Sontarans, the Serpent, and the Ravagers all work well, and each group has its own separate agenda. The Doctor is central and proactive, getting at least one good scene opposite each of the villains.

However, the finale's multiple underserved elements make clear that the season tried to do too much. Look at the characters that this episode failed to use. The Bel/Vinder plot comes to nothing particularly interesting; had it been excised from the season, the main thing we'd have lost would have been the Grand Serpent's introduction, which could have been fixed with a slight alteration to Survivors of the Flux. Maybe then, more could have been done to develop the antipathy between the Serpent and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, who is so little-used here that I'm not sure why they bothered. Even Dan, one of the season's regulars, has spent half a season being eclipsed by the more interesting Professor Jericho; why not introduce Jericho in Episode One and make him the male companion for the season, given that unlike Dan he actually does things to advance the story?

I like both season and episode as they stand. Across all six episodes, I've remained engaged and sometimes quite gripped.  Jodie Whittaker is in full command of the role at this point, and every episode has offered at least a couple of very strong dramatic scenes.

The Vanquishers is ultimately a decent finale to an overall pretty good season. I just can't help but feel that, had the redundant threads been removed, the arc might have been tighter and more focused - and the resolution (which I didn't fully catch until my second viewing) might have been a lot clearer.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

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#26 (13.5): Survivors of the Flux.

Dan, Yaz, and Professor Jericho search for
answers while marooned in the early 1900s.

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 50 minutes. Written by: Chris Chibnall. Directed by: Azhur Saleem. Produced by: Pete Levy.


THE PLOT:

The Doctor has been taken by The Division, which leaves Yaz, Dan, and Professor Jericho (Kevin McNally) stranded in the early 20th century. The Doctor anticipated this, however, and left Yaz a clue: a hastily recorded message giving her friends a mission to find out anything they can about the invasion that she's sure will come. The search leads them from pyramids to ocean liners... until the answer literally walks through their door in the form of 19th century Liverpool eccentric Joseph Williamson (Steve Oram).

As Yaz and her friends work to unravel the coming plot, the Grand Serpent (Craig Parkinson) is already bringing it to fruition. Using time travel technology of his own, he infiltrates the latter part of the 20th century, nudging UNIT's development just enough to fit his own agenda - while leaving a pile of bodies in his wake.

Meanwhile, the Doctor finds herself on a space station where the mysterious Awsok (Barbara Flynn), leader of The Division, reveals that she unleashed the Flux to destroy the universe. Her reason for doing so? The Doctor herself!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: Finally learns the reasons the Flux was unleashed. There's a decent moment when she is tempted by a promise to restore her lost memories... but since we never doubt that she'll refuse, the moment ends up being interesting more for its potential than its realization. Jodie Whittaker has been terrific all season, but this time she comes across a bit flat - probably because her role this time amounts to little more than "receiver of plot information."

Yaz: Takes charge in the Doctor's absence, effectively paying off the question she wrote on her palm: "What Would the Doctor Do?" Stranded in the past, with only a brief message from the Doctor to guide her, she focuses Dan and Professor Jericho on anticipating the alien threat. She also shows a hint of a ruthless side; after a would-be ocean liner assassin avoids questioning by killing himself, she coldly orders her companions to dump his body overboard, which briefly startles both of them.  Mandip Gill is clearly enjoying her turn in the spotlight - and at the same time, looks fantastic in her Edwardian Adventuress getup.

Dan: His Encyclopediac knowledge of Liverpool history comes into play, as he recognizes the name "Joseph Williamson" when the mysterious 19th century traveler (Steve Oram) mentions it. That leads him, Yaz, and Jericho to the Williamson tunnels. When they find Williamson, Dan talks to him "one Scouser to another" - which quickly leads to him being slapped by the historical figure and threatening to slap him right back. Dan's compassion also shows itself when he catches Yaz in a moment of sad contemplation. Knowing the reason, he immediately offers reassurance that they'll see the Doctor again.

Professor Jericho: At this point, Kevin McNally's professor has become a de-facto companion in his own right... and I have absolutely no complaints about that. He, Dan, and Yaz make an engaging trio as they travel around the early 20th century world, hunting down any clue they can find. He's mostly a light comic figure here, but he receives a few moments that remind us that there's more to him than that, notably when he talks about his awareness of the horrors of World War I, only a little more than a decade off from where they've found themselves.

Bel/Vinder: They appear only briefly, just enough to put them in place for the finale. Bel ends up with Karvanista, just as the Lupari shield around Earth reaches a crisis point. Meanwhile, Vinder is captured by the Ravagers - but he seems to have anticipated this, and he declares that he has a plan. At this point, I'm fairly confident about where the Bel/Vinder subplot is going, but I genuinely like both characters and am interested in seeing how they reach their obvious destination.

The Grand Serpent: The Yaz/Dan/Jericho scenes are the episode's most enjoyable, but the Serpent's thread is the most interesting. His infiltration of UNIT allows for a lot of nods to the Classic Series, including references to The War Machines and a very welcome voice cameo. Parkinson's villain is highly effective, his cold disdain apparent even to the men who have allied with him - all of whom eventually come to regret that alliance...

Kate Lethbrige-Stewart: Jemma Redgrave makes a brief return, as we learn the reasons behind UNIT's shutdown. Kate is unfazed as she confronts the Serpent, brushing aside his artificially pleasant demeanor with a cold, "I see you." When he attempts to add her to his list of victims, she "goes dark" - presumably putting her in place for a larger role in the finale.


THOUGHTS:

To get the bad out of the way up front: The resolution to Village of the Angels' brilliant cliffhanger is a gigantic letdown, on the level of "Sarah Jane falls to the safety of a previously unseen ledge." Earlier this season, War of the Sontarans ended on an edge-of-the-seat cliffhanger which was resolved in an unexpected but perfectly in-character manner in Once, Upon Time. Here, the resolution feels like a lazy hand-wave.

I generally enjoyed the rest of Survivors of the Flux. It's probably the season's worst episode - but it earns that title largely by default. It's a set up episode, all about putting pieces in place for the finale, with little real identity of its own. There are a few decent character moments for Yaz and Dan, but this is basically an hour of "plot, plot, and more plot," which leaves little room for strong emotional engagement.

This is also the closest to a Doctor-lite episode that the Chibnall era has delivered. I doubt the Doctor is on screen for more than twenty minutes (if that), and virtually all of her screen time is devoted to Learning What the Plot Is. As I indicated in the "Characters" section, it's as well that she's not in much of it; her thread, while vital in informational terms, is easily the least enjoyable.

Hopefully, all the information imparted here will keep the finale from being a repeat of The Timeless Children's tedious exposition-fest. That said, to me this is the least engaging installment of the season. It's a necessary episode, and perfectly fine for what it is. But taken on its own, it's no more than "OK."


Overall Rating: 6/10.

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#25 (13.4): Village of the Angels.

Professor Jericho (Kevin McNally) is attacked
by an Angel in his television!

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 56 minutes. Written by: Chris Chibnall, Maxine Alderton. Directed by: Jamie Magnus Stone. Produced by: Nikki Wilson.


THE PLOT:

"The Angel has the TARDIS!"

A Weeping Angel has taken control of the TARDIS. Thinking fast, the Doctor manages to expel it - but not before she and her friends are re-routed to 1967, to the quiet English village of Medderton. Strange things are happening in Medderton. The cemetery has too many gravestones. A young girl, Peggy (Poppy Polivnicki), has vanished without a trace. And Professor Jericho (Kevin McNally) is conducting psychic experiments on a young woman - Claire Brown (Annabel Scholey), the same woman the Doctor met in 21st century Liverpool.

While Yaz and Dan join the search for Peggy, the Doctor tries to learn more about Claire. But she's barely entered the Professor's house before it becomes besieged by Angels. All the Doctor can do is barricade them in first the house, then the cellar, buying time to learn exactly why Claire was targeted by the Angel in the future and what the Angels are after in the past.

But even when the Doctor gets answers, they only lead to more questions. And not everything about this situation is as it appears...


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: As in co-writer Maxine Alderton's previous episode, there's an emphasis on the Doctor's lighter, more flippant side early on... all the better to contrast with the rest of the story, which puts her in an increasingly desperate situation. "I'm pretty good at stopping the unstoppable," she brags. But as she sets up barricades, then improvises a closed-circuit TV system to allow continuous observation of the Angels, it becomes clear that all she's doing is buying time.  She's keeping herself and her charges alive long enough to find answers - but an answer is not necessarily the same things as a solution...

Yaz/Dan: Her police training shows as she focuses on the search for the lost child even as the situation surrounding her and Dan becomes ever stranger. She insists that the Doctor will be able to "sort this, save us. She always does" in what sounds less like a prediction than a statement of faith. Dan is more or less along for the ride this time, but he remains an engaging presence even when given little to do.

Professor Jericho: Kevin McNally gives the standout performance as Jericho. Initially seeming to be a befuddled and somewhat blustery middle-aged nonentity, he emerges as a man of courage and strong will. A World War II veteran who saw the Nazi concentration camps first-hand, he is not intimidated by the Angels, even when they taunt him in his own voice. "I am not blinking!" he declares as he fixes his gaze on them, and his voice and stance convey that he not only means it, but he's somehow capable of following through.

Bel: Her search for Vinder leads her to Puzano, a world that was once the intergalactic equivalent of Venice, complete with canals. Now the canals are gone, as Flux survivor Namaca (Blake Harrison) explains, along with most of the people. When Namaca promises a potential means of escape, Bel investigates and makes a startling discovery which propels her to the next stop on her journey...

Azure: No Swarm this week, but we do get an appearance from his sister, Azure (Rochena Sandall). Azure is gathering survivors, presenting herself as someone offering salvation. She's even framed standing on a mountaintop like a prophet as she addresses the desperate remnants of humanity. We don't learn why she's collecting people, but I can't imagine it's for anything pleasant.

The Weeping Angels: That which contains the image of an Angel, is an Angel." That statement, introduced in 2010's The Time of Angels, proves central to this story.  Director Jamie Magnus Stone handles them well. There's a haunting beauty in a single Angel we see when the Doctor converses with it on a beach. Another moment, that seems taken straight from a horror movie, sees Angels' hands and faces coming out of the walls of a tunnel. Then there's the Doctor's confrontation with the full force of Angels, who remain stationary even when she turns away from them because, as Claire explains, they're cruel. They want to savor the Doctor's helplessness.


THOUGHTS:

One area in which Chris Chibnall's era has consistently done well is in its use of returning monsters. Resolution made the Daleks feel threatening again after years of being little more than the butt of jokes; War of the Sontarans fused the comical New Series treatment of them with their more formidable Classic Series origins; and Village of the Angels continues the trend by reintroducing the stone horrors in a tale that advances the season arc while also succeeding as a good, old-fashioned, atmospheric monster story.

The script tightens a vice around the Doctor while also tying the current plot to the larger arc. We learn more about The Division, and what we learn makes them seem far more dangerous than just some rogue Time Lord section. "The Division uses everything and everyone. Every species, every world, every moment. They are everywhere, present and unseen." The previous episode told us that the Flux was not an accident. Was the Division somehow behind it? Or someone trying to strike against them?

I've come to expect strong visual moments this season, and this episode does not disappoint. The quiet village is creepy both in night and day, particularly when it becomes a little too empty. An Angel emerges from a paper drawing, only to be set aflame in a genuinely disturbing image when the Doctor burns the original paper. Another Angel jumps out of a television screen. Then there's the surprising reveal of exactly what lies beyond the town's sign - a sign that we are told keeps moving closer and closer to the village itself. Finally, there's the last image before the credits roll, which is both beautiful and terrifying as we are delivered yet another excellent cliffhanger.

I didn't much care for the bickering old comedy couple, ill-tempered Gerald (Vincent Brimble) and his wife, good-hearted but ineffectual Jean (Jemma Churchill). Outside of quickly getting Yaz and Dan into the subplot searching for the lost little girl, they add nothing to the story. In an episode that otherwise features well-written and well-acted guest characters, I found these two to be teeth-grindingly unbearable.

That quibble aside, Village of the Angels is another good episode in what is shaping up to be the best season in a long time. With only two episodes left, I'm looking forward to seeing where everything leads... while at the same time, feeling a bit of nervousness as to whether the arc will be able to stick the landing.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

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#24 (13.3): Once, Upon Time.

The Doctor's companions become unstuck in time...

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 49 minutes. Written by: Chris Chibnall. Directed by: Azhur Saleem. Produced by: Pete Levy.


THE PLOT:

"You don't mess with time. You don't put yourself and your friends in the midst of a time storm... Unless there's no alternative."

In the Temple of Atropos, Swarm and Azure have placed Yaz and the astronaut Vinder (Jacob Anderson) directly in the path of a time storm, prepared to unleash the full force of time through their frail bodies. To rescue them, the Doctor does the unthinkable. She grabs Dan to keep him out of the way of her new/old enemies and hops into the storm, taking the burden on herself while hiding her friends within their own time streams.

It's not called a "storm" for nothing, however, and none of them are able to remain at any fixed point. Dan finds himself in Liverpool, reliving his not-quite relationship with Diane (Nadia Albina), in a city that feels not quite right. Yaz experiences moments from her past, but details are not quite right - and she's somehow being stalked by a Weeping Angel.

The Doctor is also thrown into her past. Specifically, her past with the Division, on the day that the Division Doctor (Jo Martin) confronted Swarm and Azure at the Temple - the beginning of the current conflict tucked within a memory that's been hidden from her...


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: Earnest in her concern for her friends, but at the same time desperate to learn more about her past. Once she realizes that she is reliving the actions of the Division Doctor, she stops resisting. Jodie Whittaker gets to vary her usual performance, adopting the cold swagger of Jo Martin's variant while threatening her enemies with "execution... erasure of identity... (or) isolation prison terms for the infinite duration of the universe." Once the crisis has passed, her secretiveness reasserts itself, and she snaps at Yaz twice in short order for pressing her for information.

Yaz: Really needs to get the Doctor alone for a full, uninterrupted conversation. Not just about the secrets, but about the frankly shabby and disrespectful way she's been treated. The Doctor has been either dismissive or hostile on almost every occasion that Yaz has attempted to get information from her. In this episode, she yells at Yaz: "You don't understand anything!" Well, how can she, when you refuse to tell her anything? At this point, the friendship/relationship between Thirteen and Yaz feels exponentially more toxic than the one between Twelve and Clara ever did; at least with Clara, I felt the mutual affection, whereas here everything seems to be flowing exactly one way.

Dan: Mostly sidelined this time, though I did enjoy the scene in which he gradually realized things were "off" while reliving conversations with Diane. Dan remains positive and enthusiastic. Of all the people gathered in the Temple, he's the one who comprehends the least. But when Swarm gloats, Dan is the first to insist that they will stop him.

Vinder: We learn exactly why he was stationed alone at the edge of nowhere. After receiving a commendation for heroism, he was granted a prestigious assignment at the side of the Grand Serpent (Craig Parkinson), a high-ranking political figure. The Serpent proved to be as cold and untrustworthy as the title implies, and when Vinder attempted to do the right thing... Well, it didn't go well, hence both his isolation and bitterness in The Halloween Apocalypse. Given his best material so far, Jacob Anderon delivers his best performance in the season to date.

Bel: A separate thread follows the adventures of Bel (Thaddea Graham), a survivor of the Flux. She narrates her thoughts to "Tigme," a recording device, as she evades Daleks, Cybermen, and strange blue particles that devour everything in their path. Her goal is to be reunited with her lost love. That person's identity is no particular surprise, but it is withheld until the final moments - likely create a sense of pieces of falling into place in an episode that otherwise resolves fairly little.

The Division Doctor: Jo Martin is only briefly glimpsed, just long enough to establish that the Doctor is reliving the events of this incarnation. In her short screen time, she manages to again project both intelligence and toughness. In both her moments and the scenes in which Jodie Whittaker re-enacts her confrontation with Swarm, I'm left with the same thought as in Fugitive of the Judoon: This may be the Doctor's past, but there is a coldness and ruthlessness here that doesn't really feel like our Doctor. I'm both suspecting and hoping that consistent thread is leading somewhere.

Swarm, Azure, and Passenger: "Ravagers." That's the designation given to them during the raid on Atropos, and it seems a fitting title. In the past, we again see the older form of Swarm (Matthew Needham). He and Azure gloat before their downfall, just as they do in the present, with the rejuvenated Swarm (Sam Spruell). We also learn what "Passenger" is: Basically, a plot device, but one used to good effect in two different scenes.


THOUGHTS:

Readers of my reviews likely know by now that I have a particular affinity for shows that nod at the surreal. Sudden jumps in time and space, rapid shifts from day to night, things that are askew and even confusing... For whatever reason, I tend to respond to these types of elements.

Which is to say: Once, Upon Time is a perfect fit for me. I also think it's largely well-constructed. There are three main threads: The Doctor reliving the raid on the Temple; Vinder's backstory that led to his assignment; and Bel's attempts to evade danger in a post-Flux universe while searching for her lover. Vinder's thread is purely focused on the past, on finally letting us know who he is. Bel's seems to be in the narrative's present, showing us the devastation caused by the Flux. The Doctor's links past and present; she's reliving events from long ago, but they are connected to the current conflict and experiencing them provides her with a solution. All three storylines are effectively paced, and the ending leaves them feeling all of the same piece.

On a less positive note, I've become impatient with the recurring appearances by Steve Oram's 19th century character. His scene at the start of The Halloween Apocalypse intrigued me. But his scenes since have done nothing to flesh out his role; he just seems to be popping up for a minute each week to make sure viewers don't forget about him. In a busy but otherwise well-controlled episode, his appearance here briefly throws the structure off-kilter for no good reason.

Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of this installment. For the most part, this was delivering exposition, but it did so vastly more enjoyably than The Timeless Children did, carrying the same sense of momentum that has been the highlight of the season thus far. Oh, and it ends with another good cliffhanger.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

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