MD Who ’s 11th season has visualise the series go through a bit of an experiential crisis — is the show a part - driven scifi dramatic event , or a big old whizzbang romp with explosive stake ? “ The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos ” extract that debate within itself by trying to pose a close that tackled both of those things at once … except it only really surpass at half of the debate .
Like so much of this season , “ The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos ” can be divided into two disjoined electric discharge , reflect the ambitions of what Doctor Who can be as a show at big . On the one script you have the epic whodunit of Ranskoor Av Kolos , a world home to battlefields straw with echo of the dead , that plays with your creative thinker as a nefarious plan of galactic scale of measurement slowly unfurls at the hands of none other than T’zim - Sha ( or Tim Shaw , as we acknowledge and lie with him ) , the seemingly throwaway scoundrel of the very first instalment of the time of year . On the other , you have a dramatic conflict for both the Doctor and Graham that ’s been simmer in the background of the entire season and exposed by the surprisal regaining of Tim Shaw — one about the Doctor of the Church ’s advance to fight down the menace she look , and Graham ’s own need for payback against Tim Shaw for the death of Grace .
It ’s the latter of these where “ The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos ” especially deliver the goods . The twist of making a on the face of it inconsequential villain like Tim Shaw — I mean , we literally call him Tim , for christ ’s rice beer ( no-account to any Tims reading this)—return as an infinitely more powerful scourge , one directly fuel by the flippancy with which the Doctor dealt with him the first meter around , is a riveting premise . It open up an interesting train of thought kick the bucket forward : If the Doctor does n’t thoroughly divvy up with a foe the first time around , whether that ’s imprisoning them , incapacitate them , or even put down them outright , what happens if they do come back ? It all of a sudden makes any baddie the Doctor faces in the hereafter potentially even more minatory , even if they do n’t seem so at first , and it ’s all down to how the Doctor reacts to them .
But on top of that , face reckonings for regardless action has been a campaign theme for the thirteenth Doctor — from Grace ’s death , to not realize the threat Yaz and Ryan faced with travel back to segregated Alabama , to part her own rule about exploring your own family ’s past with Yaz , to even this episode when she realizes that her biggest bargaining silicon chip against Tim Shaw was actually her threatening to screw up up an total guiltless human beings . clock time and time again , she ’s followed an impulse that has put people around her ( and herself ) in more peril than they needed to be , with Tim Shaw ’s recurrence crystallizing that fault in a way that will possibly have some very interesting ramifications for this otherwise comparatively freewheeling incarnation of the Doctor .
While the Doctor ’s electric arc with Tim Shaw is more esoteric , Graham ’s is a deep human one that drives the aroused spine of this instalment in some compelling ways . Driven by being so close to the possibility of a reunification with Grace ( well , a existence work like her and also a toad frog , but hey , just another week on Doctor Who , that ) , and being confronted with the catalyst that trigger off her death in the first position , Graham ’s electric discharge from potential self - end to reconciliation over the instalment is a tremendous culmination of a tiresome burning that pull out on beats from across the season . And by tying that growth into how his kinship with Ryan has acquire — that in the ending , Graham chooses not to give his apotheosis and potentially his biography to kill Tim Shaw , but disable him before he can bring damage to his grandson — Graham complete one of the best - realise fellow traveller electric arc on Doctor Who in recent memory . It ’s not wrapped around enigmatic prophecy and ceaseless foreshadowing of grandness , but rather is actually root deep in who he is a character .
unluckily , all this compelling character work brush up about against the parts of “ The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos ” that attempt to be a more “ traditional ” innovative Doctor Who finish . The storm up scale granted by Tim Shaw ’s return — play about him economize the only two members of an almighty race called the Ux , giving him the power to marry Stenza engineering science with their power to make anything , to steal away entire major planet as trophies in his hunt — is certainly grandiose , but none of it ever feels impactful . The sequence is so infatuated with its character study ( and it should be , given it was the firm prospect of it ) that every time we take a break from it to remind ourselves that there are Big , Finale - Shaped Stakes in play , it rings empty . That , and tell stakes are repeatedly bring up and then almost right away quelled that it feels unpointed they were even remark n the first place .
About five minutes after the Earth becomes Tim Shaw ’s next planet - capturing target , the Doctor , Yaz , and the Ux ( after a mo of convincing ) work together and stop it from being captured . Ryan and Graham , task with rescuing Tim Shaw ’s individual trophies from captivity , are repeatedly imperil by Tim ’s army of sniper robots , only for the yoke to conveniently dispatch them import after . Inferno , ahead of time on in the episode we ’re tell that Ranskoor Av Kolos ’ atmosphere affects people ’s mastermind , send them into an amnesiac paranoia if they spend too much time in it , postulate the Doctor and her friends to wear neuronal halter to pay off — but in a consequence of crisis where the Doctor and Yaz have to take theirs off to help loose the Ux , there are zero ramifications for them when they do , outside of the Doctor note her head is a picayune fuzzy , once .
All these moments of crisis give “ The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos ” some staccato moments of tense grandness ( and an excuse to chuck in a few dramatic slo - moment stab of thing exploding in the background while our bomber run around for a bit ) , but they are so disconnected that their inclusion feel inorganic . It ’s like Chris Chibnall had offered a small , personal , character - driven termination to the serial publication and someone broadcast back a note to him that aver “ it ’s the finale , can we endanger Earth and get some burst in to celebrate ? ” It all feels like hollow box - checking for the sake of it . It feels empty , and stand out as even more so when liken the earnest fondness of the quality employment where “ The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos ” really shines .
And that , honestly , is not just a statement about this finale , but Doctor Who time of year 11 at large . The season has been at its very ripe when the bet are pocket-sized and largely limit to the worked up impact they have on the Doctor and her companions . The time it has tried to be more traditionally Doctor Who - y , like in “ Arachnids in the UK ” and “ The Tsuranga Conundrum , ” it ’s feel fine , but almost perfunctory . It ’s like being force to eat your vegetables before you got sweet as a child , but the traditional roles are reversed ; here , afters is meaty , complex character reference dramatic play rather than ooey - gooey explosions and alien .
The fact that in “ The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos ” the character dramatic event won out over the volatile high stakes might be an indicator that this is just the track this epoch of Doctor Who is move to continue to go down . But considering the growing murmurs about viewer that , as upright as all that drama is , there ’s a longing for the whizzbang delights of familiar monsters , more action at law , and more corridor to be feed down , Doctor Who ’s go away to have to get a fleck better at balancing these two at - times self-contradictory selves . “ The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos ” had a adequate crack at it , but going forward , there ’s going to need to be a few more teras - atomic number 39 vegetable on Chris Chibnall ’s collection plate before he gets to his dramatic dessert .
Assorted Musings
One thing that keeps bugging me — Ryan and Graham were sent to rescue Paltraki ’s two crew members from Tim Shaw ’s trophy collection . Except they find right smart more than two , and had to examine and rescue them all … and it ’s never explain who they are or why they ’re there ? Another increased stake that rang empty , I guess
Paltraki mentioned a Congress of Worlds that task his gang with going to Ranskoor Av Kolos and taking the stolen world back from Tim Shaw . I inquire if they have anything to do with the Shadow Proclamation that investigated … well , when this happened the last fourth dimension in “ The Stolen Earth ” and “ Journey ’s End ” ?
Yaz draw a big , bluff declarative affirmation to the Doctor in this episode about her following the Doctor anywhere … and the Doctor does n’t really reply to it ? It feels like the show ’s taste to build up a bond between the two , but it ’s not quite had the time yet . Hopefully now that Ryan and Graham ’s arcs together have reached a natural determination for now , season 12 can be Yaz ’s sentence to shine .
Was it just me , or did the crystal coffin Tim Shaw kept the stolen worlds in kinda look like musical composition of theKey to Timefrom the Tom Baker era ?
So as you probably know by now , Doctor Who wo n’t riposte for time of year 12until other 2020 , but at least we ’ve got theNew Year ’s specialto look forward to presently ! There ’s even hearsay that the Daleks will be the big baddie , so I guess that really will be a test of how this version of the show will undertake such an iconic returning foe , if it ends up being on-key .
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