Doctor Who: The Tsuranga Conundrum (2018) - Review

This week on Doctor Who, a medical freighter gets attacked by a little green Stitch who fancies a snack, and a grown man gives birth to a baby called Avacado. In many ways, it's not surprising that a large number of Doctor Who fans have voiced their outrage at such a silly episode - I just find it a little disappointing to hear so much about how 'The Tsuranga Conundrum' is "the worst episode since [X]". On the plus side though, I quite enjoyed it.

The Pting is probably the best monster we've seen so far this series, being a wonderful blend of freaky, adorable and inadvertently menacing. The final shot of it floating off into space with a bright orange belly and a grin on it's face really made me smile, and I can't see that as anything other than a point in its favour. Ultimately though, the Pting reminded me of how lackluster Series 11's monsters have been so far: the Stenza were average, the robots uninteresting, the Remnants a bit silly and the spiders...were just spiders. Last episode didn't even have a proper villain.

I also have to criticise the lack of action so far in this series. I had hoped with the General character in this episode that we'd get to see some spectacular visual effects shots of the medical freighter flying through the asteroid belt, but unfortunately it was limited to the imagination, which considering how "standy-and-talky" the episode was, felt a little underwhelming. Here's hoping the next episodes pack more of a punch in that respect.

On the plus side, the performances and characterisation were great, the cinematography looked wonderful on my new 4K TV, and Segun Akinola's score continues to be a delight to sad whatsits like me who love a good electronic soundtrack. Sure, I wish the episode could been a bit pacier and more exciting, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I only ask that Chibnall and company improve in the next six episodes, because so far Series 11 has failed to produce many truly great episodes. Mediocre-to-good ones are fine, but I haven't found a 9 or 10/10 episode so far.

As for my rankings for each episode so far...

  1. 'The Woman Who Fell to Earth'
  2. 'Rosa'
  3. 'The Ghost Monument'
  4. 'The Tsuranga Conundrum'
  5. 'Arachnids in the UK'
Bring on the next five episodes!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) - Movie Review

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor (2022) - Review

Doctor Who: Revelation of the Daleks (1985) - BFI Event Review