Doctor Who Series 11: 3 Ups & 4 Downs From 'The Tsuranga Conundrum'
Could this be the worst episode since 2006's 'Love & Monsters?'
We're now half-way through Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker's first series of Doctor Who, with episode 5, The Tsuranga Conundrum.
As Chibnall's final writing credit before the series finale, we were hoping for an episode that rounded off this first act of Series 11 with a bang, but instead we got a polarising, moderately weak mess of potential plot points and wasted opportunities, still intertwined with an essence of hope. But if your hope was laid on this being an episode to remember, you'd be happy. Just not necessarily for the right reasons.
Contains spoilers for Doctor Who Series 11 Episode 5.
Let's start with the negatives.
Downs...
4. More Talking, Less Doing
When The Doctor and co. enter the anti-matter drive on the ship, the Doctor talks about how she thinks the technology is beautiful. But it wasn’t like Tennant just gawping in wonder for a brief moment, she went full-on physics teacher. Again, sort of like Tennant in that one episode, but feeling a lot more out of place. She explains how anti-matter works to Yaz, who chimes in occasionally with her knowledge from I’m guessing GCSE Physics, and in this supposedly threatening situation, it feels massively out of place.
There’s a time and a place to be educational, and when you’ve got some bug-eyed goofball wanting to eat the floor, that’s definitely not the place nor time.