TV Review – Doctor Who: Resolution

TL;DR – With the last episode for a year, we get the return of a villain past, and not really a whole lot else, which leads to an interesting if forgettable episode.  

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Doctor Who: Resolution banner with the whole gang. Image Credit: BBC

Review

The debut season for Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall has come and gone, and while I generally enjoyed it, it has been divisive among the fans, and no not just because The Doctor is a woman now (though there are still those people, sigh). The show pretty much used this season as an opportunity as a soft-reboot and a good entry point for new people joining in without years of storylines to catch up on. All of this meant that we got some amazing episodes like Rosa and the Demons of the Punjab but there was also an awful lot of filler and constant use of ‘oh the bad guy is not the actual bad guy.’ All of this lead to many episodes feeling undercooked and the drive to have all new enemies for the series probably didn’t help. Well, today we look at the epilogue for the series and its first ever New Year’s special and see how well it does for the last Doctor Who episode for over a year.   

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Doctor Who: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos

TL;DR – While we get more of those character moments that have been the highlights of the season so far, it just does not quite come together in the end.

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

Doctor Who: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos. Image Credit: BBC

As we reach the end of the 11th season of the new Doctor Who we have had the highs of Rosa (see review) and Demons of the Punjab (see review) but also the feeling that at times the show just was not quite coming together. It is with this duality that we hit the end of the shorter season than normal and you have to wonder will they stick the landing, and I’m not sure that they did. 

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TV Review – Doctor Who: Kerblam!

TL;DR Kerblam! Is a return to a more classic Doctor Who episode filled with conspiracy, murder, missing people and a call for help, oh and also a fez, can’t forget a good fez.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

 

Kerblam! Image Credit: BBC

 

Review

There has been a lot of discussion regarding this season of Doctor Who and while I have really been enjoying it, there are others where Chris Chibnall’s writing style is just not jelling with them, which is perfectly fair. What will be interesting to see is how people engage with the show in the back half of the season because now all the shows have different writers. We saw that last week with the Demons of the Punjab (see review) where the show talked a deeply problematic time from Brittan’s past with grace, and this week we have a different take as we delve into what I would consider being a more classic Doctor Who episode where conspiracy runs rampant.

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TV Review – Doctor Who: The Tsuranga Conundrum

TL;DR –  A deeply emotional episode that using the entire ensemble to their best, a truly wonderful episode of Doctor Who

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

 

Doctor Who: The Tsuranga Conundrum. Image Credit: BBC

 

Review

This season we have had the highs of Rosa (see review) but also a lot of awkwardness in the construction of episodes, like the show is exploring how to make it all work. Well, this week we see it all come together when you have the emotional weight as well as the tight construction and flow of the episode, that also allows each member of the ensemble a moment to shine.

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TV Review – Doctor Who: Rosa

TL;DR – While on the technical side of things this was not the best episode of Doctor Who, the story is leaps and bounds above the norm, and it shows the power this show can have if they apply themselves.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

 

Rosa. Doctor Who. Image Credit: BBC

 

Review

When you can travel through all of time and space, you can visit wondrous alien worlds, go back and visit key moments in history like the construction of the pyramids, or even explore what looks an awful lot like a quarry on the outskirts of Cardiff a couple of times. However, would you go back in time a visit the less fun parts of our history, those parts that we politely pretend do not exist, even though the ripple of those events still dominate our world today. Well in a world that needs to visit this part of its past Doctor Who has decided to do so for them as we delve into the world of the 1950s segregated America.

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TV Review – Doctor Who: The Ghost Monument

TL;DR – Today we get a look at how the team will work together, what drives The Doctor, and also a little snippet as to what the overarching story of the season will be.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

 

Doctor Who The Ghost Monument. Image Credit: BBC

 

Review

There is a lot you have to do in the first episode of a season, especially when you are setting it up as a soft-reboot. You have to introduce the characters and the world, and set the tone for what is to come. However, that is something that can take a whole episode, so you don’t have time for much else. Indeed at the end of last week’s The Woman Who Fell to Earth (see review) we had done all that, but it was a little short with the adventure, the wonder, well one way to add that is to end on a cliff-hanger with our whole team floating in space with no way out. It is one of those instants that you can’t help get captured in the moment even if only for a moment before the logical part of your brain snaps back in to remind you that there is no way they are killing everyone off in episode one. Today we look at the follow up the opener of the season, The Ghost Monument, where we get that sense of wonder and dread as we explore a planet that was once alive and now dead.

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