Doctor Who: The Vanquishers Review - 4 Ups & 9 Downs

This is the biggest disappointment of all, and indeed, the most nonsensical plot resolution of the bunch. Swarm and Azure were finally back in the spotlight this week, and after starting this series as a pair of very compelling villains, they completely fell off a cliff.

These two, after babbling incoherently for much of the runtime, as previously mentioned, decide to take the Doctor to Atropos to witness the unshackling of Time. No, not Time as a concept, Time as a physical, sentient being (but we’ll forgive you if you missed that, because it was totally under-explained). Yup, it turns out that time is conscious, and it’s a bit of a d***head, to be honest.

Remember that terrible blue CGI dust from episode three? Well, it turns out that was the real big bad all along. It’s also purple now. As a punishment for their failure, Time obliterates Swarm and Azure, though they seem to enjoy this. This is a very, very unceremonious end for these two. We guess this is payback for them unceremoniously killing the last big bad last episode - what goes around comes around. We would have liked the answer to one small question before the Ravagers bit the dust though: WHO WERE THEY? We know nothing about their species, their seemingly godlike powers, or their devotion to destroying space on behalf of Time. Also, why on Earth was Azure disguised as a human in the Arctic circle in episode one? What a waste.

Anyway, back to Time. Time has been defeated thanks to the prevention of the final Flux event (not sure why it has a segmented schedule like this) and as a result remains shackled. At this point, it shrugs and gives up, uniting the Doctor’s three fragments and wishing her on her merry way, but not before delivering a spooky foreboding monologue.

Time tells Thirteen that she is going to die soon because Russell wants his show back, and warns her of the forces moving against her, led by their master. The Doctor has no idea what this means. I mean, who could this MASTER be? Such a mystery, if only their were some clue as to the identity of this MASTER. This scene made Thirteen look incredibly dim. Give her some credit, Chris….

Weirdly, The Grant Serpent’s defeat was left until last this episode, after the big climax, and he was disposed of like an absolute chump. Just put a terrible bow on this very poorly wrapped anticlimax.