"Yippee ki yay, robots."
Well, here's the end of the season. I miss having 13 episodes a season. This was all over too fast.
This also didn't feel very finale-ish. Sure, it brought back Tim Shaw (and the Sniper Robots), but the stakes didn't feel that high. There was a lot of wandering around and the Doctor and Tim Shaw had a chat, but nothing too crazy happened. Even the thing with the planets didn't feel like the end of the world. It would have been nice to see people freaking out on Earth. A weird red beam from the sky envelopes the whole planet and we don't get a single shot of panicked people in the streets? I get that past seasons constantly had to ramp up the stakes in each finale - army of Daleks to armies of Daleks and Cybermen, from the Master ruling the Earth to Davros moving the Earth and so forth - so I understand wanting to keep things a little understated, but you're capping off a season. You need a little more pizzazz.
Or maybe they saved all of the money and excitement for the New Year's Special? The preview certainly looked more sprawling.
Anyway, while we didn't get universe ending chaos, we did get some great character moments from Graham and Ryan and that helped to make up for any lacklustre plot details. Graham coldly stating that he wants to kill Tim Shaw isn't something we've seen from a Companion. The Doctor sort of lectures Graham about why he shouldn't, but it's Ryan who really makes a case and obviously that makes the most sense. The look on Ryan's face when he says "I love you" was the absolute best. It would have been nice to see Graham struggling with his decision a bit more. You know, some lingering shots of him staring down Tim Shaw or his finger hovering over the trigger, but I guess it would have just drawn out a moment that you know wouldn't come. The main characters on Doctor Who aren't killers. They all strive to be the better person. Though, Graham shooting Tim Shaw in the toe was pretty funny. Tim Shaw was wearing armour; I'm sure it only stung. ;-)
And we finally got the fist bump! Graham's immediate line after "So what do we do now?" is obviously about Tim Shaw, but a tiny part of me interpreted as "So, we did a fist bump... Can we do them all the time now? Or it is just a one time thing?"
As for the other part of the plot, with the miniaturized planets, the Doctor and Yaz kind of got the short end of the stick. The Doctor cobbles some pieces of tech together and all is saved. Yaz... I don't even know what Yaz contributed this episode. Give her more to do, dang it! Even the thing with the neuralizers didn't amount too much. There would have been way more tension if the Doctor's mind starting falling apart just as she needed to figure out how to get the planets back to their right locations. I get that Chibnall wants to take a step back from the rousing speechifying of past Doctors, but it's the finale! It kind of calls for a big, iconic moment for the Doctor. Perhaps the special will have that in spades.
Random: What happens to Tim Shaw now? Is he stuck in stasis forever and ever? Or will he be sent back to the Stenza? Or will the Alliance of the Nine Planets deal with him? I didn't really catch the name of the race that Andinio and Delph are from. It sounded like Ooks or Auxs. More information about them would have been nice. They get thrown up on screen and then aren't useful until the end. I appreciate that Ryan took a moment to put on a toque. Keep your noggin warm during a crisis is very important. :-) Nice reuse of the Sniper Bots. No need to explain why Tim Shaw suddenly has an army since it's already established that they're Stenza tech. The Doctor being surprised to see miniaturized planets was odd, since that was the main thing in "The Pirate Planet". Nice references back to "Boom Town" and "Journey's End".
The preview for the special made it seem like the episode will be skipping around time. Or maybe that's just an establishing montage. The DNA of something bad has been on Earth for a while, so I can easily imagine bad things happening around the spot where the DNA is buried or whatnot. But who or what is the mysterious thing that's after the DNA? The preview conveniently ends just before the Doctor can say a name. It is someone we've met before? Or a familiar alien race? I feel like Chibnall came up with someone new. And have you seen the Doctor's fabulous new scarf in the promo images from the special? It looks like it's a knit scarf that's been felted. Come on, Whovian knitters! I know you can figure out a knitting pattern.
Well, Jodie Whittaker has been confirmed for season 12, so that's good. I hope the rest of the cast are also along for the ride.
This also didn't feel very finale-ish. Sure, it brought back Tim Shaw (and the Sniper Robots), but the stakes didn't feel that high. There was a lot of wandering around and the Doctor and Tim Shaw had a chat, but nothing too crazy happened. Even the thing with the planets didn't feel like the end of the world. It would have been nice to see people freaking out on Earth. A weird red beam from the sky envelopes the whole planet and we don't get a single shot of panicked people in the streets? I get that past seasons constantly had to ramp up the stakes in each finale - army of Daleks to armies of Daleks and Cybermen, from the Master ruling the Earth to Davros moving the Earth and so forth - so I understand wanting to keep things a little understated, but you're capping off a season. You need a little more pizzazz.
Or maybe they saved all of the money and excitement for the New Year's Special? The preview certainly looked more sprawling.
Anyway, while we didn't get universe ending chaos, we did get some great character moments from Graham and Ryan and that helped to make up for any lacklustre plot details. Graham coldly stating that he wants to kill Tim Shaw isn't something we've seen from a Companion. The Doctor sort of lectures Graham about why he shouldn't, but it's Ryan who really makes a case and obviously that makes the most sense. The look on Ryan's face when he says "I love you" was the absolute best. It would have been nice to see Graham struggling with his decision a bit more. You know, some lingering shots of him staring down Tim Shaw or his finger hovering over the trigger, but I guess it would have just drawn out a moment that you know wouldn't come. The main characters on Doctor Who aren't killers. They all strive to be the better person. Though, Graham shooting Tim Shaw in the toe was pretty funny. Tim Shaw was wearing armour; I'm sure it only stung. ;-)
And we finally got the fist bump! Graham's immediate line after "So what do we do now?" is obviously about Tim Shaw, but a tiny part of me interpreted as "So, we did a fist bump... Can we do them all the time now? Or it is just a one time thing?"
As for the other part of the plot, with the miniaturized planets, the Doctor and Yaz kind of got the short end of the stick. The Doctor cobbles some pieces of tech together and all is saved. Yaz... I don't even know what Yaz contributed this episode. Give her more to do, dang it! Even the thing with the neuralizers didn't amount too much. There would have been way more tension if the Doctor's mind starting falling apart just as she needed to figure out how to get the planets back to their right locations. I get that Chibnall wants to take a step back from the rousing speechifying of past Doctors, but it's the finale! It kind of calls for a big, iconic moment for the Doctor. Perhaps the special will have that in spades.
Random: What happens to Tim Shaw now? Is he stuck in stasis forever and ever? Or will he be sent back to the Stenza? Or will the Alliance of the Nine Planets deal with him? I didn't really catch the name of the race that Andinio and Delph are from. It sounded like Ooks or Auxs. More information about them would have been nice. They get thrown up on screen and then aren't useful until the end. I appreciate that Ryan took a moment to put on a toque. Keep your noggin warm during a crisis is very important. :-) Nice reuse of the Sniper Bots. No need to explain why Tim Shaw suddenly has an army since it's already established that they're Stenza tech. The Doctor being surprised to see miniaturized planets was odd, since that was the main thing in "The Pirate Planet". Nice references back to "Boom Town" and "Journey's End".
The preview for the special made it seem like the episode will be skipping around time. Or maybe that's just an establishing montage. The DNA of something bad has been on Earth for a while, so I can easily imagine bad things happening around the spot where the DNA is buried or whatnot. But who or what is the mysterious thing that's after the DNA? The preview conveniently ends just before the Doctor can say a name. It is someone we've met before? Or a familiar alien race? I feel like Chibnall came up with someone new. And have you seen the Doctor's fabulous new scarf in the promo images from the special? It looks like it's a knit scarf that's been felted. Come on, Whovian knitters! I know you can figure out a knitting pattern.
Well, Jodie Whittaker has been confirmed for season 12, so that's good. I hope the rest of the cast are also along for the ride.