Who Review: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos

The TARDIS is inundated with distress calls. Nine to be precise. In response, the Doctor and team arrive on the planet Ranskoor Av Kolos which is littered with the remains of war. The TARDIS materializes inside one of the distress-calling ships. The commander appears to have lost his memory, but a neural balancer helps him start remembering. He says he needs to find his crew who, it transpires, have been taken captive by a “Creator” worshiped by the Ux. But when this Creator appears on the view screen to make his final demand to the commander, the Doctor and her companions recognize him immediately. He is not the “Creator” the Ux believe him to be. And he has plans that will not only end the lives of the commander’s crew, but will also destroy the lives of billions of others. The Doctor needs to find a way to stop the false “Creator” and persuade Graham to resist settling and old score…

SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those who haven’t seen the episode. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!

One of the things I had enjoyed about this season of Doctor Who was the fact that each story was a stand-alone. Each of the previous ten seasons had some kind of story arc running throughout culminating in a big reveal in the finale. Sometimes the arc was subtle (at least until the last episode), as with “Bad Wolf” in season one, or “Mr. Saxon” in season three. When Steven Moffat took over as show runner, the arcs became more prominent, with each episode designed to build curiosity. We had the crack in Amy’s wall, the Silence, and, of course, Clara, the Impossible Girl. Frankly, I’m done with the big story arcs, so I was glad to see a change of approach in season eleven.

And then came the finale, and look who’s back! It’s Tim Shaw from the first episode, “The Woman Who Fell to Earth.” And we were doing so well.

To be fair, this isn’t quite like the other arcs. For a start, we had all but forgotten about Tim (and that was probably the point of bringing him back now). He wasn’t even hinted at in previous stories. And his return sets us up for a revenge story. Tim wants revenge against all the planets that opposed him and his people, the Stenza. That includes Earth. Meanwhile, Graham is determined to avenge his late wife, Grace, who was killed by Tim Shaw. The Doctor encourages Graham to be “the better man,” but when Graham stands firm in his desire to kill Tim, the Doctor warns him that if he does, he will no longer be welcome on the TARDIS.

Of course, when it comes down to it, Graham is the better man. While Tim has no qualms about satisfying his need for payback, Graham can do no more than shoot him in the foot. For that, the Doctor says he’s among the bravest men she knows. All a bit predictable.

I have to say, this episode wasn’t the best story of the season, which is not a good way to end. This was no “Caves of Androzani.” It wasn’t even up to “The Parting of the Ways.” If Tim had taken Graham hostage, or in some real way threatened him, maybe that would have added spark to the story. Sure, Graham was warned that he probably wouldn’t survive an encounter with Tim. But I didn’t once feel as if Graham’s life was in the balance. In fact, I didn’t once get the feeling that things really were that bad. The Doctor was stumped for about two minutes before she came up with a plan. Yes, the plan might not have worked. But it did, of course.

For as much as Chibbers has successfully leaned on Classic Who for the feel and structure of this season, I think here he failed to recapture the real danger often experienced by the Doctor and companions. What better way for Tim Shaw to take revenge on the Doctor than by threatening those closest to her? The Doctor warned Yaz that when she took off her neural blocker, the mind-warping effects of the planet would kick in. Did they? Aside from a mild headache, Yaz seemed fine. Another opportunity missed I think.

As for the other story elements, they were also a little ho-hum. Rescuing the crew wasn’t too difficult, and even the SniperBots didn’t feel as much of a threat as they could have felt. The shrinking of planets has been done before, though for different reasons (see “The Pirate Planet” from 1978). Not a bad idea in itself, though when the Doctor restored them, were the inhabitants not already dead as a result of the capture process? 

To sum up, a bit of a disappointing finale to a season I thought otherwise was very enjoyable. It was still entertaining, and the casual references to previous adventures (“Boom Town” and “Journey’s End”) were neatly done. But I expected a lot more.

How about you? What did you think?

Note: Doctor Who will return for a special on New Year’s Day, but there will be no other new Doctor Who stories in 2019. Chibbers assures us he is working on a new season for 2020.