Doctor Who: The Second Half of Series 11

Back on November 10th, I posted a walk back through the first half of Doctor Who Series 11.   

Today, we take a look at the 2nd half of Series 11. 

As with the first half of the season, Graham continues to be the breakout character.  He loves to quote movies (Pulp Fiction, Die Hard) and has learned the value of bringing a sandwich when follows the Doctor on an adventure.  His "reunion" with Grace is heartbreaking and his resolve to avenge her when he finds himself on the same planet as her killer is surprising. 

Yaz gets a little more spotlight time in the 2nd half of the season. I think the consensus from fans is she's still short changed but I believe there is more depth to Yasmin Kahn than fans give her credit for. (For more on that, click my post on that subject here.)  

If anyone is getting short shrift in the development department, it's Ryan.  The problem with Ryan in the 2nd half of the season is the same as it was for me in the 1st half: Who is Ryan beyond the young man with a medical condition and serious abandonment issues?  Except the medical condition ("dyspraxia") that was the center of attention in the first episode of the season is never mentioned again. OK, not quite true; he does bring it a bit in Kerblam! Ryan does have a definitive character but it's so nuanced as to continue making him a cypher on Team TARDIS. 

Jodie Whitaker continues to shine as the Doctor, nailing the rare alchemy of quirky and serious the Doctor requires. She still needs a serious, kick ass "I AM THE DOCTOR" moment to seal the deal. 

Let me wrap up this post with a ranking of the episodes #6 through 10.   

#5. It Takes You Away

I really hate that I’m not rating this higher. The idea of a sentient universe that just wants a friend but is also a danger to all existence is a pretty darn cool concept. But it’s a pretty darn cool concept that gets shoehorned into 1/3 of a rather scattershot episode.   

The danger to all existence isn’t shown, its told to us in a very hurried info dump from the Doctor. We see no evidence that the real world is in danger from the Solitract. If we had seen some serious bleed through from the Solitract into the real world that was putting everything in danger, the whole sense of threat would have carried much more weight. 

Hanne’s dad is some serious messed up stuff. He leaves his blind daughter alone in a cabin with some speakers rigged up outside to terrorize her into staying in the cabin while he runs off to the mirror universe to shack up with his dead wife? Really?

The scenes in the Anti-Zone were sinister and foreboding but ultimately totally superfluous. Ribbons was creepy, icky and untrustworthy but in the end not worth our time and attention. He and the Anti-Zone were obstacles between the real world and the Solitract and nothing more.

I will say, unlike others, I had no problem with the frog. So the Solitract takes the form of a frog to talk to the Doctor? That’s weird. I like weird.  

#4. The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos

Again, I wish I could rate this higher. But as the Doctor herself put it, there is too much going on at one time. 

Oh no! The Earth is in danger! It’s zapped by a red energy beam that envelopes the planet in a red bubble. Oh no! Not the red bubble! Once more, we’re told the red bubble is a threat but there is no evidence of any consequences to the Earth from this threat.  

We do get some conflict with our core cast when Graham decided that if given a chance, he will kill Tzim-Sha for his role in Grace’s death. Both the Doctor and Ryan call him out on this. Other than that, there’s not a lot of going on in terms of character development for anybody. The biggest change the Doctor can show Tzim-Sha since their last meeting is she has a new coat.

#3. Kerblam!

High point happens early: the Doctor gets a fez.

After that, the episode takes on consumerism, robotics and the dehumanizing effects on human workers. Doctor Who has a history of sticking it to “the man” (going back to Robert Holme’s classic 4^th Doctor story, “The Sunmakers”) but we have the odd twist that the big bad is not “the man” or the robots that do the bidding of “the man” but a single individual trying to take down “the man” in the worst way possible. 

Kerblam! is filled with action, humor and heart but it also poses some really hard questions about life and commerce but it doesn’t provide any easy, palatable answers. 

#2. The Witchfinder

I’m rating this one pretty high for the back half of Series 11 for Alan Cumming’s powerful and captivating turn as King James. Also this is the first episode where the Doctor’s gender change presents a significant challenge.  Even the psychic paper can’t convince King James that a “mere woman” could possibly be any more than an assistant to someone else in authority (which James assumes is Graham). 

The Doctor complains that if she was still a man, she wouldn’t have to defend herself and could focus on resolving what is going on.

Since the Doctor is smart, headstrong and waving around a “magic wand” (sonic screwdriver) AND a woman, naturally the Doctor gets accused of being a witch. Which does give us a badass moment for the Doctor. Chained and underwater? Not a problem for the Doctor! (Thanks for the lessons, Houdini!)

#1. Demons of the Punjab

Much like “Rosa” in the first half of the season, “Demons of the Punjab” focuses more of the historical than the fantastical. In fact, the sci-fi element in this story will ultimately have no bearing on the sequence of events that take place.  Here, the alien presence is just there to, more or less, watch “Doctor Who”. 

Once more, the Doctor and her friends are faced with the cruel realities of history. It’s hard to completely and quantitatively justify why I rank this episode as the best of the 2^nd half of Series 11. What makes this episode work is the in depth look at normal people just trying to make a life for themselves without being ground up in the wheels of history. It is an unflinching look at what happens when the wheels of history cannot be denied.

There is also the matter of a personal stake in this for our TARDIS team. This is Yaz's family history unfolding here and how it unfolds could determine whether Yaz continues to exist. It was nice to see Yaz get some more of the spotlight since a lot of fans were complaining she was getting short changed in the first half of the series.  

And that wraps up this look at the second half of Doctor Who Series 11. Next week, I will do a post that will look at the whole of the season and a ranking of all 10 episodes.