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| The Doctor and her friends on an alien planet. |
THE PLOT:
The Doctor's attempt to use T'zimm Sha's technology to reach her TARDIS backfires rather spectacularly. Not only does she accidentally transport her new friends with her, she lands all of them in deep space. Without space suits.
Fortunately, someone must have activated an Infinite Improbability Drive, as two separate ships each rescue two of them. The embittered, selfish Epzo (Shaun Dooley) and the desperate Angstron (Susan Lynch) are participants in a space race. The winner will receive untold riches - enough to set Epzo up like a king or allow Angstron to secure her family's safety. They are the last remaining contestants, and the final leg of the race is across a world known only as Desolation. To win, they must traverse the planet and reach the site of the Ghost Monument, an object that appears only once very thousand rotations.
The Doctor has her suspicions about the Ghost Monument, which are confirmed when she asks to see a visual of it. The mysterious object that is the end point of the race? The TARDIS!
THE DOCTOR AND THE TARDIS:
Jodie Whittaker gets her first genuinely great moment. At the episode's end, she and her companions are left stranded on Desolation - no TARDIS, no apparent way off, no prospect for survival. The Doctor does something we've rarely seen: She gives up. "We'll be dead within one rotation," she announces, not one hint of hope or fight left in her.
Some take issue with this. I think it makes perfect sense within the larger context. Not only is it an accurate assessment of a bleak situation, think about how bad the Doctor's immediate past has been. In a very short span of time, the Doctor has watched one companion first be shot, then converted into a Cyberman; has been forced to leave another companion to a very uncertain future; and has seen a friend/rival who was reforming run back to the darkness to save her own skin (we know Missy had a change of heart, but the Doctor doesn't). The previous Doctor already held back regeneration, preferring death to going on living on a battlefield that's "empty, because everyone else has fallen." Regeneration brings not only a new body, but a new sex, and the last familiar thing to cling to - the TARDIS - vanishes. The Doctor is helpless to prevent the death of another friend, and now the promise of the TARDIS' return has been snatched away. The above has basically been her week. Who wouldn't give up?
Her new friends refuse to allow that, each stating that they "have each other" and don't accept the certainty of their fate - reinforcing the Eleventh Doctor's words: "My friends have always been the best of me." And then... they hear the TARDIS. And as hope returns, the Doctor is plainly desperate, begging her ship to stabilize: "I really need you right now!" When it does, she runs to it and literally caresses its shell like a lover's face before finally, with clear delight, inviting her friends to come and see.
It's the first perfect moment of the new era, and remains at the time of this writing Whittaker's single best moment in the role.
COMPANIONS:
Graham/Ryan: Graham continues to try to build a relationship with Ryan, possibly even more fervently than before as he no longer has Grace. Ryan rebuffs most of these attempts, saying that Graham "talks about this stuff too much." Graham replies that Ryan doesn't talk about it enough. Both are right - Graham is probably trying a bit too hard with his insistence that Ryan (an adult) refer to him as "granddad." Ryan does seem determined to push Graham away. Both men bond over Grace, agreeing that if she was there, she would be thrilled to see an alien planet. They also work well together in restoring power to the damaged battery of a ship they need to take them across deadly water.
Yaz: Gets the least to do of the regulars. Spoiler: I'll be writing that sentence a lot during these reviews. Remains a likeable presence, however, and we do learn a little bit about her family life. I find it amusing that some fans are shipping the Doctor and Yaz, when clearly more narrative seeds have been planted for a potential Yaz/Ryan pairing. Here, she bonds with Ryan over his difficulty with ladders, affirming her support for him when he thanks her for waiting for him to get down the ladder.
THOUGHTS:
After giving a rapturous reception to The Woman Who Fell to Earth, critics seemed to feel more free to attack the shortcomings of The Ghost Monument, a story people regularly rank among the season's weakest. Once again, I find myself in the middle. I liked The Woman Who Fell to Earth, but not as much as many reviewers did. I'll acknowledge that The Ghost Monument has a weak plot... But I still basically like the episode, in some ways moreso than its immediate predecessor.
Unlike Woman, I think this episode's plot is thin on purpose. I think Chris Chibnall wanted to focus on characters and world-building in this episode, and considered the "race plot" to be a good excuse to show the regulars interacting and solving problems without needing to waste much time on story convolutions. I also think it largely works. We get good bits between Graham and Ryan, the Doctor and Ryan, the Doctor and the guest characters, and even Yaz and Ryan, without any of these moments seeming forced. The race plot provides enough of a framework that there's a firm goal for everyone to work toward, without ever getting in the way.
We also get a stronger sense of this Doctor. She is protective of her friends, but is more willing to show a sterner side to strangers or rivals. I love the early scene on Epzo's ship. She goes from arguing with Epzo about their dire situation, to smiling and reassuring Yaz that all will be fine, then back to arguing with Epzo without missing a beat. When he challenges her to do better, she steps in and does so, successfully crash-landing his ship on the planet. She remains dismissive of him throughout the episode, mocking his tough guy affectations ("Do you practice those lines in a mirror?") and his selfishness ("Go take one of your heroic naps"), all while working to not only keep everyone alive, but to figure out why this planet is in a state that so insistently defies reason. It is an altogether stronger showing for both actress and character than her debut, and makes me far more hopeful for her Doctor than the first episode did.
This is also a genuinely beautiful-looking episode. The South Africa location shooting is used to good effect, creating a desert planet that's convincingly barren without simply looking like an Earth desert or a Tattooine clone. I really like the new composer's work, which supports the action and visuals throughout without ever once overwhelming them (and without ever once drowning out dialogue).
On the other hand, some of Chibnall's weaknesses as a Doctor Who writer show themselves all too clearly. He tells when he should show. The Doctor scans the water to declare it unsafe; literally any sort of visual demonstration of the danger would have been more dramatic. Couldn't a cannon fodder guest character have attempted to fill a canteen or something? I'd say the Sniper Bots of one encounter went to the Star Wars Stormtrooper school of shooting at things, but that would be an insult to Stormtroopers. Ryan's attempt to solve the Sniper Bot issue by playing Call of Duty with an alien gun is stupid to the point of being embarrassing.
Finally, it can't be denied that the main story is very thin. The Doctor, her companions, and the guest characters travel from A to B, navigating too few complications a little too easily, before reaching their destination and getting off the planet. The End. Even for an episode that's deliberately prioritizing character over incident, it really needs just a little more incident than that.
I still like the episode for its visual strength, though, and for its several very good moments, leaving me awarding a solid if unspectacular final score.
Overall Rating: 6/10.
Previous Episode: The Woman Who Fell to Earth
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