Praxeus
The sixth episode of Series 12. Team TARDIS is investigating strange
events across many continents. Ryan is investigating misplaced birds
in Peru. Graham and Yas are investigating strange energy readings in
Hong Kong. And the Doctor has found a sick American Marine washed up
on a Madagascar beach. Meanwhile a British Astronaut returning from
the International Space Station has gone missing. Are these all
connected? (Of course they are.) But does it work, or is it too
convoluted?
No. Convolutedness isn't the problem this episode has. It's more that
there is more hamfisted environmental messaging in a similar manner
to Orphan 55. However, unlike that episode, it is much better
written. To begin, the opening with the travel vloggers in Peru was
done well enough (although it is not explained why they would decide
to camp in the rubbish). Ryan's interaction with Jamila is done well
enough. (Although she seems to get over her friend's death quickly.
Maybe that's why she joins with Yas so quickly.)
Yas and Graham find an ex cop trying to break into the same building
that the energy readings are coming from. Investigating, they find
that the lost astronaut is there, hooked up to an alien device. The
way they go about investigating the device was well conceived.
However, when the Doctor comes Yas insists on investigating the
device... That the Doctor gives her an hour was believable. (But
still, I wander if Yas is going to be more reckless, and have similar
fate to Clara...) Gabriela joining with her was done well.
It is in Madagascar, at the suspiciously well equipped lab, that the
various threads of the episode come together. Experimenting on the
astronaut to find a cure was well conceived, but this is also where
the hamfistedness regarding plastic pollution comes in. That an alien
virus has it's effects amplified by plastic was believable, as was
the reveal that Suki was an alien. (How many other races look like
humans.) The race to the TARDIS to avoid the swarm of birds was
appropriately thrilling, even if I wondered why it wasn't closer.
If there is confusion, it is by Yas, who is disappointed she didn't
end up on an alien planet, but rather at the bottom of a garbage
patch in the Indian Ocean. This reveal was done well also. Rescuing
the planet by releasing the antidote into the stratosphere was an
inspired moment. Not as good as it could have been, but much better
than Oprhan 55. 8/10.
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