Doctor Who 11.10 'The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos' review

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.)