11x10 The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos

I liked it was the companions who defeated the villain, all on their own, while the doctor sorted out stopping the powerful plan going on, and helping convince the Uks to return to the good side.

Other than that, i don't have much to say about the episode. I wasn't going to say anything at all. It's okay. Pretty generic.

Where is the weight of events? Where is the depth?

There's too much for me to critique and comparison with the past. And i'm tired of having to keep doing it.

Season 3 for me is one of the most weakest seasons, yet it still has that thing going for it of Martha's good characterization of being a scientist and trying to help people, and we also had the relationship with her family. We got also a kind of science perspective from her throughout the season. We also had the doctor's grief and anger over losing Rose through the season, and Martha slowly falling for him, because he's so heroic and smart and handsome.

In this season we have Graham dealing with the death of Grace, which is good characterization through some of the season, but it's more relegated to moments rather than the journey or arc of a character.

And what do the other characters have? The companions and the doctor? Literally nothing.

It's literally nothing.

At the start of the season we had a bit of Yaz's insecurity which i guess is part of her characterization arc, and then it's not really addressed. We see a bit of it i guess with her family? Not really? And it wasn't brought up in the Demons of the Punjab episode, of which it should have been the main episode to bring up her character journey and add to it.

You would think Ryan's journey would intertwine with Graham's, but it doesn't really. He's seemingly not as affected by her death as Graham is, even though he's known his nan all his life while Graham has been married to her for a few years, so he may have only known her for 5 years? 10?

There just isn't much depth to Yaz or Ryan. I'm not even a fan of Yaz or Ryan's acting either. Ryan's at his best when he has scenes with Graham and have banter and deeper moments. Yaz doesn't have anything. Sometimes she has a couple moments of chemistry with the doctor or doing police protecting stuff, but that's it.

It's the character drama that is so much lacking this season to give depth and actual character to the actual characters.

To be fair, my example with the doctor in season 3 was when he already had already been through a lot in season 2, and he had a lot to reflect about and feel affected by.

In season 1 the doctor was new, but he often had moments of depth and darkness and sadness when he reflected about the time war. It gave him character, it gave him intrigue.

In season 5 the doctor was new. He had those moments too, but he also had a new zanyness we hadn't seen before, and a consistent manipulative type of behavior that made him interesting and unpredictable.

13 doesn't have this. And what does she have to reflect about and be affected by in the next season? So much happened in season 2 that later affected the doctor, and season 5 had the whole mystery about Amy, his companion, and there was River song that was entwined with his life and we learned more about her that season, which that then added on to his reflections and being affected by them as we explored River and Amy more in season 6.

The way the plot arc was done in season 1 is probably worse than this season, as it was just the words of Bad Wolf in some episodes, and that was it. That was one of the ways not to do it, but we've come a long way since then, and you should know how to do it better than you have the great way in season 5 for example in which to look at.

In season 5 with a new doctor, we were often reminded of the cracks in reality. It's an interesting sci-fi concept, and one of those cracks was actually central to the plot of the angels episode. This reminder of the story arc was actually important to the plot, and we saw actual effects from it like how it erased people from reality, or when the doctor pulled out a piece of the tardis from it. It was all very interesting and kept us intrigued as the season went along.

In this season at the beginning we have mention of a timeless child that is never mentioned again, and then we have mentions of the Stenza in two episodes before the finale, with the first episode being about a Stenza. And that's it. The rest of the season doesn't have any mention of a plot arc going on. It doesn't keep us interested in the plot arc, and in fact decreases it, and also gives us disappoint when we think about the good ways of how it was handled before like what i just described in season 5.

Look at what the companions did in some season finale's.

Season 1 - Became the most powerful being in the universe.

Season 2- Helped save the universe by holding the holding the lever open to suck in all the daleks and cybermen, at the cost of her own life.

Season 3 - Saved the universe and the doctor by helping defeat The Master. Martha travelled the world and spread word of the doctor.

Season 5 - Rory waited two thousand damn years.

Season 7 - Clara went into the doctor's time stream knowing she would die, and saved him all throughout history and thus saving the universe.

Season 11 - Ryan and Graham defeat the villain on their own (great!) while Yaz helps the doctor plug in some things.

Yaz is one of the the weak links in this finale. And i do kinda like Yaz, i like all these new companions, but they're just not that good as companion characters.

The villain in this finale pales in comparison to many previous finale villains. The character himself is developed decently, but the Stenza i feel i still don't know much about except they're kinda like warriors and hunt and have advanced technology. He is nothing compared to the Daleks or Cybermen or The Master. Even the pandorica is a more interesting idea.

And while he initially seemed menacing, he gets defeated extremely easily by Graham and Ryan. They shot his foot and that was it. This character is supposed to be from a warrior race which hunts other beings. In the episode it's made clear he's weak because of how long he's been alive, but you'd think he would be stronger in some ways and have various weapons and defenses, especially after all the ships that have come to attack him on the planet.

Then there's the confused morality at the end. Instead of killing the guy they decide to lock him in a stasis pod for all eternity. Conscious? Or unconscious? And there's also the possibility he could escape in the future. It all just feels.... Strange, a strange and anticlimactic ending for this Stenza who's been built up as the main villain of the season.

I forgot to mention the doctor. I think that's all that needs to be said.

No, i won't be that harsh. But it just doesn't feel like she's been explored much. I like 13, and i like the actress, she's doing good with what she's been given. There's a few moments that i can remember where she really shines, like the Banksy moment or the conversation with King James. And her conversation with the Uks was kinda nice. But these moments are so rare. I don't know what she really stands for. Previous doctors before Capaldi made it clear what they stood for in regards to their personality and who they were, beside all the stuff about guns and killing. Even Capaldi soon became characterized well. With 13 though i'm not really feeling that. I've talked a bit before of describing what might be under her surface, but that's also subjective because it's looking under the surface and not seeing what's above it.

The lack of episodes doesn't help the whole situation either. More companions with less episodes? What were they thinking?