The episode is mostly entertaining, but feels flawed. It is out of character for the Doctor to lose hope. Why doesn't the Doctor have a recall mechanism for the Tardis?
The robot guards were mostly annoying. Given the major plot point of the episode, they make total sense, but their implementation and appearance felt kind of lame. The best special effect is of the ship crash landing, but everything else looks low budget. The new inside of the Tardis doesn't look very good, although they only show pieces of it.
If you were to ignite the atmosphere, you would be roasted and deprived of oxygen.
The only interesting characters are the Doctor, Graham, and the grumpy alien. Everybody else feels weak. That is the problem. The female character Yaz might as well not be there.
The preachy scene about guns feels lame.
Despite all these problems, the episode kept me interested because it is essentially a long race and chase scene. However, that is mostly all there is. I have seen type of thing this done much better, like on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and on Doctor Who itself.
We get an semi-interesting backstory about the planet, but almost any other episode of Doctor Who would have the Doctor interact with that story a great deal more, instead of being a passive spectator. For example, "The Doctor's Daughter", or "Smith and Jones". Here Jodi Whitaker as the Doctor doesn't have as much charisma as David Tennant or Matt Smith, although it is clear that she is trying.
Unlike the previous episode, I have no reason to see it a second time, and for the series Doctor Who that is not saying much.
Rating: B-
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John Coffey
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