Who Review: Praxeus
A British astronaut’s decent module crash-lands, but the astronaut disappears. In Peru, video blogger Gabriela Camara’s friend, Jamila disappears overnight. A strange new, and devastatingly destructive, bacteria is infecting people in Hong Kong and Madagascar, and possibly elsewhere. All these disappearances seem to be connected to the bacteria and the odd behavior of the birds in those areas. But what is that connection? The Doctor and her friends are up against time to figure it out because the infection is spreading, and it threatens to wipe out all of humanity.
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!
As with other Who stories we’ve seen so far this season, “Praxeus” is good. There’s a solid premise, a real threat, and a mystery to solve. The killer virus thing is not unique, but that’s okay. You can use an old trope as long as you put a new spin on it, or do something interesting with it. And I think they did. People disappearing in various, seemingly unconnected locations, and birds falling from the sky. Then, when they finally find one of the missing people, discovering the infection, working out a link between it and the birds, then trying to find a cure. Meanwhile, people die. And not pleasantly.
Things that I like about this story include the special effects, though they are normally very good, so it’s nice to see the team maintaining a consistent record. I also liked the slightly darker edge to this story, that there was a real threat, and real pressure to solve the problem. As I said, it’s a good story and kept me interested the whole time. Most of the time, anyway.
There are some things I don’t like, however. And for the most part, they play into the woke narrative that seems unavoidable now. As much as I want to believe these were legitimate and necessary plot points, Chibbers has established a reputation. Anything that could be a point on the woke scoreboard probably is. First we have the cause of the spread of the Praxeus virus: micro-plastics. Our overabundance of plastics have polluted the planet to the point where all life on earth has consumed microscopic particles of plastic through the water. The Praxeus virus is attracted to plastic and hence gloms on to creatures infected with micro-plastics. The birds have fallen victim, and in their attempts to fight the infection become violent. The fact that Suki, the scientist on the beach with the lab that is, oddly enough, perfectly equipped to study the virus and create an antidote, turns out to be an alien tasked with–that’s right–studying the virus and creating an antidote, was also something I liked. It seems her planet has been overrun with the virus and her people nearly totally annihilated, so she’s using our plastic-obsessed planet as a petri dish to find a cure. Essentially, she’s experimenting on infected humans for her own benefit. This was an interesting reveal, and one that makes sense.
As you might gather, however, I get the subtle preaching about plastics. Or not so subtle. Yes, the Indian Ocean garbage patch is a real thing, and yes we need to be more responsible about the way we use and dispose of plastics. And I probably wouldn’t think anything of it if we hadn’t already been preached to about global warming this season. Doctor Who has dealt with the issue of plastics in the past (see “Spearhead from Space” and “Terror of the Autons”), but these weren’t preachy. In those stories, Robert Holmes drew attention to our increased use of plastics by speculating what might happen if they had a life of their own.
The other main gripe I have with this story has to do with the gay relationship, though it’s not so much to do with my personal beliefs regarding homosexual marriage, and more about the tokenism of it. Why did these two men have to be in a gay relationship, a “marriage,” even? What happened to close male friendships? Take away the “husband” language and the snogging, and that’s what you have. In other words, if you take away the controversial elements (and you can’t deny, showing two men kissing passionately on Doctor Who is controversial), you have a close friendship. So why include the controversial elements? Are they necessary to the story, or are they pushing a social agenda and trying to build up woke credit? Again, given Chibber’s track record so far, I have to go with the latter.
I thought it was sad but good that the Doctor wasn’t able to save Suki because the antidote they worked up is only effective on humans. There was a danger that Suki would become another “misunderstood villain,” given she was only trying to save her own people. In the end, she was her own undoing. Had she been up-front about her intentions, she might have been able to work with humans to develop an antidote that works for everyone. As it was, she considered humans less important, worthy only to be experimentation subjects, and she paid the price.
To sum up, this was a good story with some interesting ideas. The woke elements were certainly present, and at times a little too in-your-face, but I’d still consider it one of the better stories this season. I just wish Chibbers would quit trying to be a Social Justice Warrior. This crusade is spoiling otherwise good episodes, and confirming my belief that Who needs to go on hiatus again.
Did you see “Praxeus”? What did you think?
