(no subject)

[grimorie]

There's a lot of hate for 'The Tsuranga Conundrum', it wasn't perfect but I feel like the hate is disproportionate to what the episode actually is.

Also, actually, as opposed to last episode, I find that I actually have more thoughts about Thirteen than last episode.

Like, a *lot* of thoughts about Thirteen.

Plus, Gen. Eve Cicero was awesome and the incantation at the end with the Doctor closing gave me goosebumps

Comments

[auroracloud]

I was thinking more about it yesterday - my first feelings were that it was fun and I liked a lot of things, and it was a bit lacking in weight but on the other hand, all Doctor Who seasons/series have episodes that are just mostly a fun romp, so why would I complain? But the more I thought about the episode, the more I found things I really liked about it, like the Pting being such a cool monster and being very Chibnallian in all the ways I really like about his writing, and I'll maybe write more proper thoughts about that later. And General Eve Cicero and the relationship between her and her brother! I'd like a spin-off about their previous adventures, please. And that part where the Doctor says she is a doctor "of hope. Mostly of hope." It's a quote that I hope will live on, because it encapsulates so much about her and about the show as a whole. Without a huge, grandstanding speech.

I think overall the script had a bit too much and wasn't well-paced, and maybe the directing didn't cover the flaws enough the way it did in the previous episode. So that's probably why many people fixate on the stuff that wasn't so great and ignore the stuff that was good. I don't see any reason to decry the death of Doctor Who or complain like it was nothing but crap. Each season/series has their middling but fun episodes, and this one's fine among those. And I loved how female characters, of different ages and backgrounds, got to basically do all the active and decisive things and have the most important character moments.

[grimorie]

I think this is the season where I realized how much a good director can really help an episode because I think Arachnids was equally flawed but I loved the pacing and directing for it, Sallie Aprehanian is my favorite director of the new batch and I hope they keep bringing her back!

General Eve Cicero was also a standout, a friend of mine commented that if they just tightened up the episode and made the Doctor parallel her story with Eve it would be a lot more poignant a story.