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.)
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