This episode was about 50% mediocre and 50% bad. In fact, if not for the bad bits, it would be utterly generic and forgettable, so basically the only things I'm going to remember about it are bad and if I remember it at all it will be as a bad episode. So actually it's bad episode. I didn't like it.
 |
| Do people still go to the tip to scavenge stuff? Is that still a thing? |
We start out with the Doctor and crew on a garbage planet, scavenging for some... thing. I don't know. What is it, why couldn't they just get a new one, or even a second-hand one but not from a tip? I don't know. They don't even end up finding it. Instead they find a bomb and it blows them up. The end.
 |
| Doctor Handsome is very concerned. This is his concerned face. |
Well, obviously not the end. They wake up in hospital and the Doctor's weirdly panicky and keen to leave, in case someone steals the TARDIS while she's gone. I don't know why that would be more likely to happen here than anywhere else, but it doesn't end up mattering to the plot of the episode anyway. Also she's still somewhat injured and keeps wincing and staggering for the first bit of the episode, but that has no impact on anything either. The actual plot of this episode is a bit light so there's a bunch of time-wasting.
 |
| These people are also present. |
Anyway, it turns out they're on a spaceship/ambulance and can't get off because it's on its way back to the hospital. It's fine though because once they get there they can just be teleported back to the TARDIS. There are also some other people on board; a pregnant man (which is exactly the sort of wacky space bullshit that I hate) who seems to exist to give Ryan and Graham something to do since they're not required for the actual plot of this episode, and a space pilot who's secretly way sicker than she's letting on and is there with her android and her brother. Oh, and the two doctors. Medical doctors, that is, not Doctor Whos.
 |
| Also his species are only pregnant for a week because wacky space bullshit. |
Then a little turd-like alien breaks in. It looks real bad. Like, it looks like a cartoon. And they obviously knew it looked bad, because you don't see it much and it doesn't really interact with anyone. Anyway, it's apparently unkillable, eats everything, and is deadly poisonous. And it's rampaging through the ship. Plus, if those stakes aren't high enough for you, also the ship will be destroyed if the hospital detects that it's got this thing on board.
 |
| Is it supposed to be cute? Because if so, it shouldn't look so much like a turd. |
The thing quickly kills Doctor Handsome, leaving Doctor Timid as the only staff member on board, which is handy for the Doctor because she has a much easier time taking charge. Not that Doctor Handsome was really putting up much of a fight either, but Doctor Timid kind of just fades into the background and does nothing.
 |
| I think Doctor Timid was supposedly learning to be more confident, but I'm not sure she did. |
Eventually the Doctor figures out that the monster wants energy sources, and that there must be a bomb on board for the hospital to remotely detonate, so she gets the bomb and uses it as bait to get the monster to an airlock. The monster eats the bomb and gets blasted into space.
 |
| Yas gets to shoot the monster and kick it down a corridor. |
Meanwhile there's basically a B plot with the pilot and her brother where he finds out she's dying and she has to pilot the ship through an asteroid field for some reason. And a C plot where Ryan and Graham have to help the pregnant guy have his baby - and by help I mean stand around doing nothing. And it ends with a weird anti-adoption message. Like, the father is planning on giving the baby away because he doesn't want a child and doesn't think he'd be a responsible parent and they basically talk him out of it. I don't know what they were thinking there.
 |
| Turd-monster still looks like shit. |
And that's it. That's all that happens. There were too many characters and not enough story to go around, and the various elements didn't really tie together at all. And even individually, the various bits just weren't good. Some bits were bad, other bits were mediocre, but nothing really worked. The whole episode felt like a last-minute, low-budget rush job. Like they realised too late that they were one episode short and this is the best they could do with the resources they had left. If I were to recommend this show to someone, I'd tell them to skip this episode.
 |
| Bradley Walsh did have a couple of good lines though. |
No comments:
Post a Comment