Doctor Who: The Halloween Apocalypse Review - 7 Ups & 5 Downs

12. DOWN - Cold Open

It pains us to begin with a down, but unfortunately we must.

Whilst we were pleased to see the return of the cold open, which has often been absent in the Chibnall era, the opening scene itself was… iffy.

We find the Doctor and Yaz mid-adventure, having been captured by Karvanista (more on him later), and strung up to die on a floating pole above an acid planet. The effects, by Chibbers era standards, leave a little to be desired, as does the opening dialogue, which sees Yaz recount everything that has led to this point to The Doctor. The issue is that this additional context isn’t all that necessary, and what little we need to know is already heavily implied. The Doctor and Yaz have gotten themselves captured - this is all we need.

We then jump into a slightly ridiculous action sequence, even by Who’s standards, with the Doctor and Yaz clinging into flying poles for dear life before jumping from hundreds of feet in the air from flailing poles into the TARDIS. We understand the need to grab the attention of the casual audience, but this was a little silly. One enjoyable thing in this cold open was The Doctor’s relatable struggle of using voice-activated technology and subsequent realisation that she must have been Scottish when she set the activation phrase.

It was also a little disappointing to see the same title sequence return for a third series - we were rather hoping that Flux might change things up.