As much as I’ve been down on this season, I’ve tried to approach each episode as an opportunity to be better. And you know what? This episode was pretty okay. I mean, it was okay. It wasn’t great, it’s never going to be held up as a standout Doctor Who episode, or even a standout Jodie episode, but it was solid. It didn’t actively upset me. I cared about the characters and the story potential. It, in most ways, made sense, even if a lot of the way that context was delivered was in the standard Chibnall infuriating explain-simple-things-as-though-they’re-incredibly-complicated style. But you know, looking on the bright side this week. As JPC on Hey Riddle Riddle has decided about this being the year of loving riddles, this is the week I love Doctor Who whether or not I like it.
The episode starts with Yaz about to die and in order to save her, the Doctor throws everyone into an unfettered time energy vortex thingy and to prevent all that super powerful energy from ripping everyone apart, the characters disappear into their own time streams of past, present, and future. Basically, we get everyone’s backstories, although to make it ~ interesting ~ it’s presented in a chopped up, non-linear fashion and occasionally the Doctor appears as a hologram to send out warnings.
The character this best serves is Vinder, as we actually get a complete storyline and a reason to care about his survival. I mean, yeah, the pregnant girlfriend stuff (we’ll get to Bel), but also mostly because he’s a whisteblower with a healthy cynicism for authority. My favorite kind of companions! It’s potentially the actor, who charmed me from the first with his ‘go to hell’ sign off, but it’s amazing how much I feel like I know and care about Vinder compared to Dan with significantly less screen time. Dan’s story peaked with his conversation about his doomed relationship with his fiancee, which did provide interesting sadsack context for his life, but didn’t do much in the way giving him motivation in the present. He’s invested in saving his kinda-girlfriend, but their relationship doesn’t have much personality. And putting her in danger to give him motivation/pathos is just….oh well, it happens. A lot. Sigh.
Yaz gets jolted around the most, first on duty with a coworker who is 80% the Doctor, and then with her sister playing video games. Watching 13 and Yaz hang out on the couch was pretty fun, and at least Yaz knows enough about time travel that 13 can actually carry a conversation with her. Even though it didn’t really push her forward in any way, Yaz’s sister was a fun addition and the exposition had to go somewhere.
Ultimately, the most interesting part of the episode had nothing to do with the Doctor or her companions at all. On the other side of the universe, after the Flux has ravaged thousands of planets, the disarray and power vacuum leaves openings for the Daleks and Cyberman to duke out ultimate power over the dying universe. There’s also something else – a blue pixie dust energy that eats any survivors it can find. And here we find Bel, a nomadic survivor, determined to get a ship and reach her mysterious destination at whatever price. Bel immediately reminded me of companions like Ace and Bernice – people who had already experienced Doctor Who‘s world of time and space without the Doctor. Bel knows how to avoid Daleks and talk to Cybermen, how to pilot a spaceship and feels no shame talking to her tamagochi. We don’t know a lot about Bel, and somehow her being pregnant is an unnecessary shortcut to creating empathy, but I’m certainly rooting for her. Do I care about Bel and Vinder’s relationship? Hard to say – but since I like them so much individually I’m excited to see what they’re willing to do for each other. The grand tragedy of them traveling the cosmos as passing ships in the night is too good to pass up.
“Once, Upon Time” isn’t particularly strong, but it’s solid, and it’s certainly settling the season into a place where it can start doing interesting things in the follow weeks. The fact that we’re halfway through the season already is the only thing giving me pause.
Notes:
- got a little behind this week with vacation traveling and streaming issues. should get this week’s episode up tomorrow and then ep 5 will be back on track on sun/mon after I wake up from my american food coma
- something particularly intriguing about the daleks patrolling an old castle in the middle of a forest, almost fairy tale-esque
- I want an update on Sonya’s Husband Hunting. Also the video game line seemed to confuse a lot of people (including me) but I think we’re meant to believe that scene takes place in Yaz’s future?
- passengers are ipods for souls send tweet
- HAPPY DOCTOR WHO DAY!!