Doctor Who Revisited: The Tsuranga Conundrum (2018)

Flashback to 2018. Doctor Who had undergone its biggest creative shift since 2010, with a new showrunner, new Doctor and a new stylistic approach. The first few episodes of Series 11 had been a really mixed bag, but now we were at the mid-point - the episode that needed to cement this new direction for the show. Unfortunately, 'The Tsuranga Conundrum' wasn't quite "it", instead feeling a bit cobbled-together and uncertain, and by the end of its fifty-minute-running-time, the overall fan reaction was pretty negative.

Revisiting 'The Tsuranga Conundrum' almost two years later, it's easy to see why this episode failed to engage the Doctor Who fan base. It's an incredibly wordy episode, with frequent exposition dumps raced through at such a pace that it's difficult not to get dialogue whiplash. The episode clearly wants to start-off at a good pace, but sadly - whether it be a symptom of editing or Jennifer Perrott's direction - it never manages to get any of its key ideas across due to its constant babble of expository dialogue. The opening mostly consists of Jodie Whittaker stumbling around slightly generic white corridors with Brett Goldstein's Astos running after and trying to explain the premise to her. The "fam" (Graham, Ryan and Yaz) almost disappear into the background, and nothing is really explained to them properly - and, by proxy, the audience. It's a bit of a sensory overload, throwing so many ideas at the audience that the episode had probably lost most of its viewers in the first ten minutes.

Once the episode starts to slow down and the story gets going though, 'The Tsuranga Conundrum' begins to feel a bit more coherent, even if the pacing as a whole feels a bit mixed. It never quite manages to focus on the emotions of the characters, often just throwing out futuristic technobabble in the aid of world-building that always feels a bit too distant for most audiences. Characters are given names like Astos, Mabli, Yoss and Durkas, which all feel like very sci-fi names as opposed to actual characters we can relate to. Jennifer Perrott never quite manages to take the time out to make these characters feel real, instead offering glimpses of a much better, more engaging episode in the midst of a slightly baffling script. The elements are all there, but the episode doesn't quite manage to get all of these elements to coalesce to form a greater whole.

There's a lot of scenes with characters just explaining what's going on in Chris Chibnall's script. Even when the Pting is formally introduced by the computer system, a voice-over just explains it all, instead of having the Doctor and friends read a holographic top-trumps card (which in an episode with so much exposition, might have been refreshingly brief and simple). We're told that Eve can pilot the ship to safety, but we don't actually see her doing it. Sure, there's shots of Suzanne Packer with an odd-looking VR set-up attached to her, but we don't get any exterior shots of ship being piloted away, which would have really helped to tell the story visually.

But then we reach the Pting himself, the star of the show, the creation of Tim Price and brilliantly realised by the visual effects team. I absolutely love the Pting (I even own a Funko Pop! toy of him), and I think he's a great antagonist in the episode. The highlights are all Pting scenes here, and I love how cute and funny he is. Even when he's defeated, he's still got a little smile on his face after eating a very tasty anti-matter device.

I also really like the story with Yoss, who's about to give birth and isn't sure about parenthood yet, and how his arc parallels Ryan's ongoing narrative with his dad. It oftentimes feels a little clunky, and I feel that sometimes more can be said without words than just saying "how did your mum die, Ryan?" There's some really lovely character beats, and then there's some haphazard Chibnall dialogue that desperately needed to reworked. In fact, I think Yaz and Ryan's heart-to-heart moment would have flowed better if they'd just let Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole improvise the scene, and be able to get involved in the emotions. As it is, it just feels a bit awkward.

In terms of performances, my favourite is probably Jodie Whittaker's, as she feels very in-command of the story, attempting to keep everything afloat despite seemingly insurmountable odds. It's an episode that really cements this more optimistic Doctor, who loves the wonders of the universe, even if it is just an anti-matter generator. Whittaker mostly manages to sell the frequent dumps of technobabble, and her interactions with the rest of the cast are consistently fun and engaging. There's no forced drama, but all of the characters have storylines and arcs to develop over the course of the running-time. The issue is, once again, that there's just too much tell-don't-show and huge waves of exposition and technobabble in an episode that really needed to focus on its ensemble cast and ticking clock narrative.

'The Tsuranga Conundrum' then is an episode that needed a bit of a trim in the script editing stage, or perhaps the exposition could have been reduced or simplified in post-production, with some clever cuts and a bit of ADR work. Despite boasting some great visual effects work, the episode completely fails to show off its main set-piece, despite it being crucial to the narrative, and the direction sometimes feels a little clunky. It feels like an episode that was rushed throughout, with a script that clearly needed some work, some clunky cinematography that feels lacking in coverage, and its missing a few VFX shots that could have made it work a bit better. Segun Akinola's music helps to sell the tension, but he never quite manages to sell the emotional aspects, partly because the emotions never get too much focus in an episode with too much going on. I do wonder if we'll one day get a detailed account about various production issues surrounding 'The Tsuranga Conundrum', which could explain all of my issues, but as it is, it's just a slightly sub-par, if enjoyable episode of Who.