The Doctor Who Review | The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos S11E10 Finale

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The Doctor Who Review s11e10 The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos — Image from BBC

WARNING! SPOILER ALERT! Welcome back to the Doctor Who Review, where I recap the week’s episode and give some thoughts and opinions on it. Please do not read if you have not seen this week’s episode. There are major spoilers ahead. You have been warned. Check out the rest of the Doctor Who Reviews here.

Title: The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos

Written by: Chris Chibnall

Our opening scenes this week are of two people (part of the Ux race) on a desert land, big rocks scattered about the place, and on a mission. The woman is trying to persuade the young man that this was what he was trained for. His eyes glow orange and some rocks start building up around the place. Then suddenly, their endeavours are interrupted by who they think is the Creator. Aaaand and jump 3,407 years into the future and Team TARDIS are responding to a distress call in space.

When they arrive on the planet of Ranskoor Av Kolos, there’s only one person on board a ship who seems to have forgotten who he is. It comes to light that he is Paltracki (yay Mark Addy!), and his crew has been taken by something. A quick conversation on the telecommunications screens shows that it’s our friend Tim Shaw, the Stenza, from back in Episode One. Team TARDIS are shocked to see him there on the screen, and of course Graham gets all angry and revengeful because it was because of Tim Shaw that his wife Grace died. Tim Shaw kills one of the crew in on screen, and lady Ux from the first scene appears, and tells Paltracki that he really must do what the Creator wants and bring back what he took. Paltracki is adamant that he didn’t steal it, he rescued it.

What ‘It’ ends up being is a glowing crystalline shape thing, with a buzzing black ball inside. With a mystery and a mission, the team set off to find Tim Shaw and the rest of the crew, figure out what the buzzing ball is, what the Stenza wants with it and what on earth is happening. Speaking of Tim Shaw, when the team zap him back to wherever he came from in Episode One, that’s when he appeared before the Ux, and become their ‘Creator’. he had to wait three thousand years before he came face to face with the Doctor again. What a wait.

I’m actually struggling to tell you what the episode was about from there, unfortunately. There are too many ideas, and not enough answers. Basically, the Doctor saves the five planets that happened to be those buzzing balls in the crystal things, Graham doesn’t get his revenge, opting for compassion/locking Tim Shaw up, the Ux are semi useful but I would rather have an episode all about them than slapped on with a villain we’ve already seen.

My thoughts on The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos

As you can see, I’m struggling with this finale. All season I’ve been saying that the episodes have been a bit too simple, but now this one has been too complicated. Not complex, like the past seasons have been, but complicated. A complex episode gives you those awed feelings, those ‘how did they figure out that’ and ‘that’s brilliant – see what they did there!?’. A complicated episode shmoshes all these ideas together and hopes for the best. There were too many bits, too many ideas floating about, and not enough strong story line to pin them down and make a really good episode.

While there were some sweet moments in this Season 11 finale, like Ryan and Graham finally fist bumping, the overall feel wasn’t one of a finale we’ve seen in the past. We’re used to big episodes to conclude a season, ones that involve the world being in danger, or better yet, the entire universe. Granted, Earth is in the mix this time round, but it’s so minute it could have been Jupiter or Mars or some other uninhabited planet and it wouldn’t have made a difference for me. There was no stress, there was no frantic fear that they might not be able to stop it, no companions fearing for their lives.

And to top it off, they all just get back in the TARDIS and leave. No grand ‘ah ha’ moment from the Doctor about who she is, what her consequences have been; there was no companions freaking out and deciding the TARDIS life was not for them; there was no cliff hanger moment for the Christmas-episode-that-is-actually-a-New-Years-episode-and-how-dare-they-change-the-format-on-us! It was just another Doctor Who episode, and not the ending to a season.

On a good note, this line was great:

No one knows for sure what’s out there. That’s why we keep looking. Keep your faith. Travel hopefully. The universe will surprise you. Constantly.

Overall

I’m a big disappointed in this week’s episode, and it just emphasises my feelings that this entire season has been a bit naff. It’s a big meh, a bit average, a bit ‘yeah it’s nice we have a new Doctor and don’t get me wrong she’s great, but also the stories are lacking’, and a bit ‘will I even bother adding this to my re-watch list’. I feel like Chibnall and the creative team haven’t really fleshed out who this version of the Doctor is yet, and that’s worrisome.

I say it every week, but let’s hope the next one – the New Years episode, what – will be better, and will feel like more of a season finale than The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos did.

What did you think of The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos?