The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos

"You wanted to be a leader, now you're worshipped as a false god."

Writer: Chris Chibnall

Format: TV

Broadcast: 9th December 2018

Series: 11.10

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, Graham

Synopsis

Answering nine separate distress calls, the Doctor and her companions arrive on the remnants of a brutal battlefield on the planet Ranskoor Av Kolos. This planet has many secrets. An amnesiac commander? Mysterious mists? Who or what are the Ux? A deadly reckoning awaits the Doctor once they have the answers...

Verdict

The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos was a decent finale for Series 11, but sadly it follows Kerblam! in dropping a mark from my thoughts on broadcast and thus becomes my least favourite episode in the series! That's not really what you want from a finale, but that didn't mean this was a bad episode. It was enjoyable for the most part but the urgency of the episode seemed to just come out of nowhere. I think things would have worked better had there been some sort of hint at leading up to this point. We had a mention of the Stenza in The Ghost Monument, but then there was nothing at all since. I'd have liked more of a noticeable story arc so the return of Tzim Sha would have been more impactful. I like the idea of him returning after The Woman Who Fell to Earth and there was a good story to tell with him wanting revenge. I'd just have preferred it if he came after the Doctor rather than her answering distress calls and stumbling upon him. It definitely would have been better if he showed up and threatened the Doctor for all the years of hell she'd put him through, but what we got was still more than okay. I liked how Graham flat out wanted to kill him for what he had done to Grace and the frankness with which he told the Doctor was admirable. I really loved her reply though and she told him sternly that he would not be able to travel with her if he did go through with it and that he was the better man. It's good timing for this episode to come after It Takes You Away where he was briefly reunited with his wife and that would obviously have been intentional placement. I think that episode should have been referred to though. The initial hearing of the Stenza voice was excellent and the reactions of all of the companions along with the Doctor showed just what it meant. However, I wasn't impressed with how things moved quickly from speculation over whether this might be the same Stenza warrior to then undoubtedly being Tzim Sha? I found that weird. There definitely needed to be some more clarity there. I wasn't overly fussed on the Ux but I did really like the Doctor's reaction to meeting one of them. She had been around a long time and seen so much, but this was her first meeting. The way they had been utilised by Tzim Sha and fused with Stenza technology was good as he had taken the role of their Creator. Andinio took a lot of convincing that he was not who he claimed and the torment she had put Delph through was clearly visible. They endured a strained relationship. I thought the episode had a lot of action and good visuals and I was a big fan of Paltraki, but I think more could have been made of how the planet interfered with a person's mind. We only got brief showings of it in action and its after effects with the commander. The neural balancers were pretty good and I loved how they allowed for the Doctor's reaction when Yaz said they could reverse the polarity. She certainly did speak the Doctor's language! The idea of trapping planets was sublime and where this episode really thrived, so I don't know why more wasn't made of it! I wasn't too much of a fan of the resolution though with the TARDIS extending its materialisation field. That seemed far too easy for my liking, but it did allow for some great references to Boom Town and The Stolen Earth/Journey's End. The fate of Tzim Sha being put in a stasis chamber by Ryan and Graham was quite fitting, if a little easy with him knowing that they were highly unlikely to actually fire their guns. Overall though, this was still a decent episode and still a good way to conclude a very consistent and great series!

Rating: 7/10