Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole, Mandip Cole, Brett Goldstein, Lois Chimimba, Suzanne Packer, Ben Bailey-Smith, David Shields, Jack Shalloo.

For the vast majority of British television watchers, there is nothing like a riddle wrapped inside a mystery and surrounded by the hard-boiled charm of the perpetual challenge, it is arguably why so many fans and audiences around the world have embraced the enigma of Doctor Who in all its glory.

For every riddle, there is an eventual solution, and yet, and no matter how good the new series of the long running British science fiction show is, the riddle they face now is not one of Daleks and Cybermen, of death stalking The Doctor like an ever present companion, it is one of appeasement, a problem not helped when an arguably tame episode in recent Doctor Who history comes knocking at the door and one that pushes one of the worst enemies into view inside the figure of a creature with an insatiable appetite, a character that takes on the lunacy of Peter Kay’s Victor Kennedy and Abzorbaloff for arguably the worst supporting character ever.

The only true issue that has reared its head in this latest series of Doctor Who, is one of overcasting, the reliance on too many companions in which the sense of the dialogue gets filtered down as it tries to appease every actor within the narrative; like a football team that has far too many squad players and all of international pedigree, you cannot justly satisfy everyone with an interesting back story or plot development when there are four main characters, let alone those they interact with, to keep the audience enthused and caring about what those character’s represent.

Never mind the silly talk, or at times the down right insane talk of a female Doctor, the stupidity of picking up an accent in which some viewers take great delight in complaining about, or even the time slot change and lack of Christmas episode, all that needs addressing for now, and one so ably proved by the episode The Tsuranga Conundrum, is that the relationship between The Doctor and her companions is spread too thin as it stands; that this is the biggest puzzle facing Chris Chibnall as the series moves on.

The Tsuranga Conundrum was a good idea, and in two certain respects shows just how important an idea it was to install Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor. Across the series as whole what has perhaps been the overriding force of the character is the man’s arrogance, a boyish charm dependent on being the best in the room, it is in the interaction between the Doctor and the lead medic in which all notions of arrogance have been pushed aside, one that actually makes the Doctor more relatable in a world determined to get rid of such an unsightly trait. Secondly, the episode high-lighted perfectly a sense of vulnerability, the shock wave from a sonic mine disturbing the body of the Doctor to the point of unknown pain, one that it is to be doubted that any of the new era of actors to have taken on the role could have shown as well as Ms. Whittaker.

An episode that would have bordered sadly on average had it not been for Ms. Whittaker herself, enigmatic but thankfully not an enigma.

Ian D. Hall