*A few general spoilers for the end of “Village of the Angels.”*
I love a good penultimate episode, but this one isn’t quite doing it for me. Like the season premiere, it feels busy and a little overstuffed, but while the various threads here are coalescing toward a point, I don’t feel like things are going in the most interesting direction. Still some great moments, though, so we’ll see how it resolves next week. (If it resolves? Or will this storyline carry through into Jodie Whittaker’s final specials next year? It remains to be seen.)
The end of the last episode saw the Doctor separated from Yaz and Dan, first across time, then across space. While Yaz and Dan are marooned in time, trying to continue the good fight as best they can, the Doctor is brought before the person who may be able to tell her more about the Flux, as well as herself.
Those are the two main plots, but there are several others at play too. Vinder and Bel continue to be awesome in whatever they do, and both of them are brought into contact with other characters from this season. Swarm and Azure are up to their usual creepiness, but as the season has progressed, they’ve been feeling less central as villains; in this episode, it feels like they’re just a couple more on a growing list. The Victorian-tunnel plot, like the Angels prior to last week, is another thread that’s been left dangling a bit, but it’s finally starting to get woven into the larger story here. And finally, there’s an Earth-based historical plot that offers some points of interest and cool appearances but ultimately falters due to sloppy show continuity. With all this stuck in alongside the two separate larger plots for the Doctor and Yaz-Dan, it definitely feels like a lot, and I’m less inclined to allow leeway than I did for “The Halloween Apocalypse.” That episode introduced all the assorted threads of the season—this one is supposed to be bringing them together, which it does but clumsily.
The Yaz-and-Dan stuff is fun. As I said last week, I like it when companions are forced into situations where they can’t rely on the Doctor and those true companion traits really come shining through. Yaz delivers hard on that front—she’s smart, intrepid, and determined, not to mention just a bit badass. Dan is somewhat more the comedy sidekick, although he has his moments. I try not to be too overly-hard on Dan. Given his experiences thus far, he’s still barely had the chance to be a “proper” companion, so he doesn’t have nearly the tools that Yaz does. Still, we join this plot already in-progress, so we could be seeing more from him by now. But their story is intriguing, their banter is amusing, and their outfits are very smart. My favorite bit here, among a number of strong scenes, is an emotional moment of Yaz replaying a holographic message from the Doctor, recorded before their separation.
The Doctor’s plot is hit-or-miss for me this week, which is a problem since it’s the one that’s definitely tied to the Big Deal of the season. There definitely are things to like here—Whittaker does a compelling job as always, with the Doctor having to confront some pretty huge stuff, and I love the design of the place she’s taken to. But the plot leaves something to be desired. We’re doubling down on certain elements in a way that makes a destructive force like the Flux feel weirdly small, which is disappointing. It’s like it’s too massive to derive from such a narrow focus, and on the whole, this feels like a waste of some interesting story potential. I hope the finale takes us in a good direction next week, but I’m warier now than I was after the last few episodes.
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