Well, that wasn't so bad for a Chris Chibnall episode of Doctor Who. Actually, it reminds me of last season's penultimate episode in which Chibnall also set up some intriguing things. So I expect the next episode to disappoint me, too.
To be fair, this one was also pretty disappointing. Though I knew the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) getting turned into a Weeping Angel wasn't going to amount to anything. A more genuine disappointment was the conversation between the Doctor and Tecteun, the adoptive mother or kidnapper introduced in "The Timeless Children", now played by Barbara Flynn. I think if Flynn had been revealed to be another incarnation of the Doctor, it might have been more satisfying. She comes off much sharper than Jo Martin or Jodie Whittaker and actually seems much more like the Doctor.
Instead, we got another retread of the conflict over whether the Doctor is a selfish tyrant with her companions, something that Steven Moffat had already run into the ground. Now, not only is it unoriginal, it makes a lot less sense since everything's been so softballed in the Chibnall era.
The Doctor's companions seem to be having an easy time of it in the early 20th century and I actually kind of liked them being world travellers. It's too bad Chibnall has relegated the previously intriguing Professor Jericho (Kevin McNally) to being another stupid white man. Now Yaz (Mandip Gill) is bragging about how much smarter she is than Dan (John Bishop) and Jericho. The knuckleheads substantiate her boasts by not knowing how a rope works when they climb into an Egyptian tomb. It occurs to me this might be something subs really enjoy and I wonder if Chibnall spends the weekends wearing a ball gag while a woman in leather strikes him with a riding crop. And, by all means, if you're getting off on this stuff, I'm happy for you. It detracts from the story a bit, though. Yeah, I admit it, sometimes gratuitous kink can do that. If kink is what this is.
Meanwhile, Chibnall's sudden attempt at humour continually, catastrophically, falls flat. One joke was just confusing--when Dan mentions being from Liverpool, Yaz says, "You're from Liverpool? Why didn't you ever mention it?" At first I thought, that is strange, since they've been together three years now. You'd think he'd have mentioned where he's from at least once. But then I thought, is that question supposed to be sarcastic? Like he's been constantly mentioning he's from Liverpool off-camera?
It almost makes me wonder if there were ten episodes cut from this season or something. That would explain why this episode felt so rushed. We only have one episode left, by the way, and I don't think Dan has spent four minutes with the Doctor. Big Finish is going to have to be really creative if they ever want to insert audio adventures between these episodes.
I was happy to see UNIT back, though the whole evil mastermind plot with Craig Parkinson doesn't make any sense if you think about it more than half a second.
Doctor Who is available on the BBC iPlayer.
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