Doctor Who Series 11 Episode Review

The Tsuranga Conundrum - Review

Midway through his premiere series, Doctor Who's new showrunner Chris Chibnall continues his quest to showcase the BBC sci-fi in as many different flavours and forms as possible. This week, we get our first bona-fide outer space adventure, and 'The Tsuranga Conundrum' is a mostly successful outing – even if one major decision sometimes threatens to derail it.

Spirited away from the TARDIS by well-meaning medics, the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and her pals soon find themselves trapped aboard a spacecraft with something nasty from the depths of space. Quite literally power-hungry, the alien P'Ting threatens to consume everything around our heroes, setting the scene for a claustrophobic, intergalactic thriller.

And 'The Tsuranga Conundrum' is sporadically that, but its power to thrill is rather undercut by the reveal of the P'Ting – a cartoonish blob of a 'monster' that looks like the love child of the Crazy Frog and Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc.

Fortunately, it's not as significant a problem as it might have been, thanks to the creature's actual physical appearances being kept to a bare minimum – rather than presenting a tangible threat, most of the episode concerns itself with the P'Ting more as a concept, an unseen menace causing problems off-screen.

Still, 'Tsuranga' does leave you wondering what might've been if we'd been gifted a properly frightening monster – might it have elevated an episode that's merely good to something great?

Though a little erratic when it comes to capitalising on the potential horror of its premise, the episode does deliver on a different emotional level: 'Tsuranga' could easily have been another lightweight romp a la 'Arachnids in the UK', but writer Chibnall does a much better job here of making us care about the characters caught up in the chaos.

There's still plenty of banter and mad dashing around – but with small character moments peppered throughout for both the regular cast and the guests – with a terrific roster of supporting players helping to elevate this episode massively.

There's not a single weak link, with Suzanne Packer, Ben Bailey Smith, Lois Chimimba, David Shields and Jack Shalloo all bringing heaps of personality to their characters, ensuring you invest in their plight. (Brett Goldstein, though, deserves special mention: he gets a mere 10 minutes of screen time, but shares such a terrific early rapport with Jodie Whittaker that it's genuinely upsetting when his Astos becomes the first to perish.)

The main cast all get opportunity to shine, too – 'Tsuranga' gives us a breathless but less pointedly madcap Doctor, and the result is Jodie Whittaker's most effortless performance yet, while an adept Yaz (Mandip Gill) gets a 'hero moment' and straight-shooting Graham (Bradley Walsh) continues to grab all the best one-liners.

Most notably, Ryan (Tosin Cole) gets to work through some of his daddy issues, with Chibnall resisting the temptation to play the concept of a male – Shalloo's Yoss Inkl – giving birth entirely for laughs.

Instead, it's used as an outlet for a reflective Ryan to talk through both his father's absence and the loss of his mother at a young age, and to bond with Graham some more (even if he does reject a fist bump – harsh), with Cole delivering some of his best work of the series thus far.

Ultimately, it's its heart that saves 'The Tsuranga Conundrum' when its horror flounders. Maybe not quite the white-knuckle ride it could've been, what we get instead is an enjoyable and uplifting episode with a bittersweet climax that's really about living up to your potential and not doubting yourself. As the Doctor herself says, "Hope prevails."

Come back next Sunday for Episode 6, Demon From The Punjab!