Be warned
My reviews contain a lot of spoilers so don’t read them if you haven’t watched the episode. They also contain my personal opinion even though I try to make them objective.
Well, this story sure was somePting. It is probably my least liked episode so far and it’s not like I am a big fan of any of the stories as of yet. Let’s quickly focus on the good. The setting and concept were a classic and there was definitely nothing wrong with them. The effects were also fairly decent again. The side-story with the general and her brother was not all that bad and introduced a new and interesting kind of technology that I would like to see more of. And that was pretty much it. The Pting was a travesty of a monster. Sure, the concept of the alien was alright but did it have to look so ridiculous? And it had the most absurd name ever. It was literally called a “Thing”. With a foe looking like that the story had lost all credibility and gravitas for me from the very start. I was hoping we would get another “Midnight” with the foe staying within the ship and eating it from the inside-out. Instead we received a terribly childishly looking monster. The head-medic died for no reason at all – just for shock-value, I guess. He had no reason to enter the pod in such a situation. He looked and sounded way more intelligent than that. I won’t even comment on the pregnant man. That went so well on beyond stupid and unwatchable. However, my biggest issue still lied within the TARDIS crew and the Doctor. The companions quickly fell behind in the series and it is becoming more and more evident how little of a character they have. I was certain Chris won’t be able to pull three companions off and a new Doctor but I had hopes that at least some of them would be developed. However, they all have just one-two qualities (does Yaz even have any?) and are basically just cardboard. And it really pisses me off since I think they can be really cool and since the actors seem to be giving their all. And the biggest issue of them all – the Doctor has no character. We are already half a series in and Thirteen has only one quality – being female. In this episode the Doctor was acting rushed, irrational and plain stupid at times. And do we need to have a big speech or two by the Doctor in every story? It’s feeling more and more forced, just the Doctor feeling obliged to preach morality all over the place. I am not enjoying it. And that stupid Sonic McGuffin… I haven’t felt as if I was watching DW so far.
Overall, I was not impressed with the story one bit. I kept looking at the clock – again. When even a base-under-siege cannot hold my attention, things are not looking good. 5.5/10.
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