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auroracloud) wrote2020-02-03 10:45 pm
auroracloud) wrote2020-02-03 10:45 pm
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Doctor Who: Praxeus (S12 episode 6)
Just watched the latest Doctor Who episode, Praxeus.
I liked it, mostly! I feel a little... unconvinced that the method of spreading the cure would actually work with no big drawbacks, but I'm not a scientist and so I don't know, let's pretend it makes sense and focus on other things. (That's a crucial attitude for a Doctor Who fan.)
But look! Pete McTighe of the Kerblam! fame is actually capable of writing an episode without abominable politics! In fact about an entirely pertinent and important environmental issue! Yay! I don't know if Chibnall being a co-writer or not had some effect on that or not, but I'm glad, anyhow. Also I think for the first time in the Chibnall run, we got a same-sex couple who lived. And I thought their relationship and Jake's character growth felt believable and natural (at least considering the time-constraints of the episode) and I can believe they'll learn to make it work. Also, I'm glad Gabriela has new plans for the future, and the idea of her tagging along to the honeymoon trip is delightfully found-family-ish. I liked Gabriela a lot. Also liked that she and Yaz got to adventure on a bit together. And that she found it so cool they were in the bottom of the Indian Ocean. (Let's not think about the crushing pressure or other environmental conditions.) Too often the "universe is amazing" moments in the show are only reserved for alien planets, but you know, Earth is pretty darn amazing, it was nice to see a character who appreciated it.
One of the things I liked about Kerblam! before it went to the garbage with the fridging and the crappy message was that it handled the three companions well, giving them all things to do, and generally the pacing was very good. I thought this episode handled those things well, too. Graham was doing the emotional labour more than the adventuring, and it's nice that the show is nowadays able to give the job to men, too. Used to be the sole responsibility of women, mainly female companions.
I'm not super into "scary alien virus" storylines, because those really scare me, and I'm not good at tolerating body horror, but at least it wasn't too gross, just creepy. And I do like it that sometimes the threat is not a killer or an army but something entirely different.
Pete McTighe seems pretty worried about plastic, huh? First bubble wrap, now microplastic. The latter is a very real problem in the real world, too, so it's understandable.
Things that bugged me: no explanation for why the birds where attacking people like that. I mean, they don't normally, no matter how many times you may have watched Hitchcock's The Birds. Maybe the disease caused that, but I don't remember anyone even trying to explain that. And how did they find out how the virus spreads? Because the Doctor was warning everyone about getting infected if the birds scratch you; on the other hand it seemed to be quite fine for Adam and Jake to hold hands. I don't know about you, but when I hear the words "unknown lethal pathogen" or something like it, touching the infected person's hand without gloves or anything doesn't seem like the safest thing ever. I know they just wanted to show a close moment between them, but someone should have somehow explained how they know it's safe. I don't need a biology dissertation, just a throwaway line like "it needs to get into your bloodstream to infect you, it can't do it through the skin" would have sufficed. If there was one, it got lost in the shuffle because I don't remember.
The Doctor was being very Doctor-y, yay! I feel like Thirteen's really showing what she's made of this season - last season the scripts were still holding her back and making her feel too much just nice - but now she's great.
Not a hugely universe-changing episode, but a good, solid, and generally enjoyable one, about an important topic, and I liked the guest characters and their stories very much.
I liked it, mostly! I feel a little... unconvinced that the method of spreading the cure would actually work with no big drawbacks, but I'm not a scientist and so I don't know, let's pretend it makes sense and focus on other things. (That's a crucial attitude for a Doctor Who fan.)
But look! Pete McTighe of the Kerblam! fame is actually capable of writing an episode without abominable politics! In fact about an entirely pertinent and important environmental issue! Yay! I don't know if Chibnall being a co-writer or not had some effect on that or not, but I'm glad, anyhow. Also I think for the first time in the Chibnall run, we got a same-sex couple who lived. And I thought their relationship and Jake's character growth felt believable and natural (at least considering the time-constraints of the episode) and I can believe they'll learn to make it work. Also, I'm glad Gabriela has new plans for the future, and the idea of her tagging along to the honeymoon trip is delightfully found-family-ish. I liked Gabriela a lot. Also liked that she and Yaz got to adventure on a bit together. And that she found it so cool they were in the bottom of the Indian Ocean. (Let's not think about the crushing pressure or other environmental conditions.) Too often the "universe is amazing" moments in the show are only reserved for alien planets, but you know, Earth is pretty darn amazing, it was nice to see a character who appreciated it.
One of the things I liked about Kerblam! before it went to the garbage with the fridging and the crappy message was that it handled the three companions well, giving them all things to do, and generally the pacing was very good. I thought this episode handled those things well, too. Graham was doing the emotional labour more than the adventuring, and it's nice that the show is nowadays able to give the job to men, too. Used to be the sole responsibility of women, mainly female companions.
I'm not super into "scary alien virus" storylines, because those really scare me, and I'm not good at tolerating body horror, but at least it wasn't too gross, just creepy. And I do like it that sometimes the threat is not a killer or an army but something entirely different.
Pete McTighe seems pretty worried about plastic, huh? First bubble wrap, now microplastic. The latter is a very real problem in the real world, too, so it's understandable.
Things that bugged me: no explanation for why the birds where attacking people like that. I mean, they don't normally, no matter how many times you may have watched Hitchcock's The Birds. Maybe the disease caused that, but I don't remember anyone even trying to explain that. And how did they find out how the virus spreads? Because the Doctor was warning everyone about getting infected if the birds scratch you; on the other hand it seemed to be quite fine for Adam and Jake to hold hands. I don't know about you, but when I hear the words "unknown lethal pathogen" or something like it, touching the infected person's hand without gloves or anything doesn't seem like the safest thing ever. I know they just wanted to show a close moment between them, but someone should have somehow explained how they know it's safe. I don't need a biology dissertation, just a throwaway line like "it needs to get into your bloodstream to infect you, it can't do it through the skin" would have sufficed. If there was one, it got lost in the shuffle because I don't remember.
The Doctor was being very Doctor-y, yay! I feel like Thirteen's really showing what she's made of this season - last season the scripts were still holding her back and making her feel too much just nice - but now she's great.
Not a hugely universe-changing episode, but a good, solid, and generally enjoyable one, about an important topic, and I liked the guest characters and their stories very much.
no subject
Jake and Adam were very much my kind of thing, although I wouldn't touch someone who was infected either! Speaking of infection, I thought it was strange that Ryan and Graham didn't know what a pathogen was.
Agreed that the Doctor was very Doctor-y in this episode!
no subject
Yeah, that was weird. I mean, in addition to that not being such an unusual word in general, Grace was a nurse, they're bound to have picked up some things. It was so clearly one of these "we've got to explain this to the kids so let's have the companions ask it" things but it could have been better written. It could have been something like "pathogen, that's like a virus, right?" and then the Doctor could answer that.
There are more problems I notice when I think about the episode in retrospect (they didn't ever really address what a terrible cop Jake made, so they shouldn't have introduced that part, at least not so crudely as they did; and why did everyone forget about Aramu? guess because the writers forgot about him?). But I still enjoyed watching it and enjoyed the Doctor and the fam, and it handled the environmental theme a lot better than Orphan 55 did - for one, it was weaved into the script throughout, rather than tacked on in the end. So I'm calling it a win, even if I'm not about to put it up for any awards. :-)