Wow, we have now reached this season’s final episode. It’s been a long journey, being introduced to new everything from a fantastic new Doctor to new villains, like the P’ting, Tim Shaw and who could forget, the inter-dimensional frog. We were also introduced to our new Time Team who consist of; Yaz, a police officer, who wants more out of life, Ryan, who needs to get away and Graham, a guy who has lost the love of his life and needs a distraction. This dynamic, coupled with the energetic and brilliantly crazy Thirteenth Doctor played by the first female actor in the role, Jodie Whittaker has been a brilliant season, even if there were a few strange creative choices.
So, here we are, the last, let’s do this, as ever: spoilers ahead.
1. The Return of Tim Shaw.
As stated above if you haven’t seen the episode yet, this is going to be a big spoiler, the Tzim-Sha, are back, mainly the villain from the first episode, Tim Shaw. The way that this was revealed was pretty interesting, the Doctor and her friends are introduced to nine distress calls coming from a single planet and apparently every other race has ignored the call so the Doctor being who she is, asks everyone if they want to go have a look see, which of course they answer.
They arrive on the planet, the Doctor tells all of our team to wear emotion controllers because the planet they are on effects their mood and way of thinking. We are then introduced to this episode’s guest star, Mark Addy, who plays Paltraki, who because of the planet doesn’t know what’s going on and keeps repeating himself. We then find out through a touch screen investigation that the person ruling this planet is Tim Shaw, disgraced and left wounded by what happened in “The Woman the Fell to Earth.”
I think that the last being one of Chibnall’s new enimies is pretty cool, shame it’s tooth face, he is a bit more menacing in this episode but he barely does anything.
2. Be the better man.
Now, one thing we have dealt with, fantastically, I might add is how Bradley Walsh has been this whole season, he has acted his ass off and it shows. As you can imagine, seeing Tim Shaw again after he was the reason the love of his life was killed would hurt so much, but to add on more to that Graham swears that if he ever saw this monster again he would kill him. As you can imagine the Doctor isn’t too happy with that, as Graham asks her if they can have a chat on their own. He repeats his statement, the Doctor then says, if he kills him, he can no longer travel with her, to which he says that’s ok.
We then get another encounter with this conundrum, we have Ryan and Graham talking about this inside an alien spacecraft which the group have boarded. Ryan and Graham have a heart to heart, Ryan calling him grandad again but this time it doesn’t strike the same chord as before. He says that Ryan never really cared for him but Ryan turns it around and says that killing Shaw wouldn’t be what Grace would of wanted, when it comes to the crunch, Graham doesn’t kill the alien, he does however shot him in the foot, and again Walsh’s acting talent comes into full when he then says it was only his foot and for Ryan not to tell the Doctor. They then put Tim Shaw into a cryogenic chamber and walk away.
This was what Graham’s story line was building up to and it might of been, in some people’s eyes, a let down that Tim Shaw returned, but I think it was great that we got to see Graham’s arc with dealing with Grace’s death complete, we still have his relationship with his step grandson to expand though, which I look forward too.
3. Wait where was I, oh yeah.
One thing that did bug me was that planet that they were on, the team travel to a planet called Ranskoor Av Kolos, that effects your state of mind, and is home to our other characters, Delph and Umsang who are played by, Percelle Ascott and Jan Le, respectively. These two characters are from a race called the Ux, who have inter dimensional powers which can create things from other worlds. Now, Ranskoor Av Kolos, as I stated earlier affects every mind that comes in contact with it apart from the Ux, so when we meet Paltraki, he has no idea what’s going and and slowly throughout the episode, he starts to remember why he’s there and what’s going on. The distress calls are put out because Tim Shaw has captured Paltraki’s crew.
Continued belowThis is great as a story telling point but I did really feel like we’re constantly catching up with the story, plus it really feels like a “oh yeah, that’s what I was doing” every so often.
4. The end of earth?
For our finale, we have Tim Shaw using the Ux, utilizing there inter dimensional powers by creating a weapon and attacking Earth. This did seem rushed, however it was a great action ending with loads of shooting at Robots, (also a return for the sniper bots that appeared in episode 2), the Doctor taking control with Yaz at her side plus Ryan and Graham kick some robot arse.
We also have a great interaction between Shaw and the Doctor have a great conversation, were Tim Shaw looks a little like Darth Vader with some heavy breathing and his flowing cape. But again this proves why Jodie Whittaker was chosen to be the Doctor, she truly takes charge and speaks with everything she’s got.
5. Farewell for now.
Well that’s it for now for this season, so I thought I’d do one of my thoughts on the season. The stand out episodes for me were, “The Witchfinder,” with Alan Cumming’s performance of James I being one of the highlights of the season, “It Takes You Away” with its Norway inside episode, the tense scenes and the episode being very atmospheric with the inter dimensional frog being its only let down and finally of course it has to be, “The Woman The Fell to Earth, being the introduction of our new Doctor.
I do think that Chibnall’s writing has been a bit of a let down, the only stand out episode of his is “Rosa” but even then the villain was very lack luster and need more padding. As ever though I do think it’s a solid outing for our new Thirteenth Doctor and she has carried this season with heart and a brilliant crazy charm. I have to mention Graham too, Bradley Walsh’s acting has been spot on and from what I said at the beginning of the season, I have completely changed my mind, I wanted him to be more offish and more against the time traveling but they took it a completely different way and I am very glad they did, having Graham a sort of father/wiser voice of adventure panned out great.
In conclusion, well that’s it, a season finished, but we have another episode not to long away now, this will be the newly scheduled New Years Day special, which normally aired on Christmas Day. This will be called “Resolution” and will feature our time team going against the great enemy in the universe. After that there won’t be another Who season until 2020.
