Holistic Review: A perfectly adequate, if not thrilling, story, in which the simplistic and shallow plot is elevated by its pleasing emphasis on science and an uplifting (if weak) message about the power of hope.

The Tsuranga Conundrum is not a complicated story. Confronted with an inexorably-worsening problem that will eventually destroy their ship and kill everyone, the Doctor pieces together clues to figure out a solution and avert the ship's destruction. The plot, the monster, the characters: nothing really rises above "average". However, everything is on the high side of average, meaning that while nothing is terribly exciting, nothing is bad either.

On the downside: aside from its simplicity, the plot has a tendency to pause for long explanatory chit-chat scenes, some of which sped by so quickly that I didn't catch key exposition until my third viewing. Certain other plot threads and characters, which I'll discuss later, are technically superfluous to the episode. But as a "base under siege" story, it fits squarely into one of Doctor Who's most reliable molds. In fact, during the creepy scenes before the Pting is revealed — in which a deadly creature roams the ductwork of a brightly-lit futuristic space vessel after sabotaging its systems — it initially resembles The Ark in Space, though the resemblance becomes less pronounced as the story progresses. Thankfully, the plot is much more watertight than last week's, and it provides the Doctor with an opportunity to do some actual detective work, which is much more gratifying than the way things kept falling into her lap last week. Better yet, the situation is resolved in a completely natural, un-forced way, without the ship just happening to have on board the one peculiar thing that they needed to defeat the monster.

Speaking of which, it took a while for the story's monster to grow on me. With its cute wide-eyed baby face and its wiggly bottom, the Pting looks like the love child of a Slitheen and an Adipose. It's far more terrifying conceptually than physically, so my initial reaction was that making it look childish risked undermining the threat it posed. But in the end, the Pting's tiny size doesn't diminish its ferocity, and its not-quite-fearsome growl is to some degree backed up by its ravenous appetite, so it's an interesting idea to represent such a fearsome adversary with a rather adorable exterior. As a CGI effect, it's superb, particularly the shot where it's munching away unfocused in the background. I really liked the effects shot of it looking very contented after its meal of bomb-energy, basking in the warmth of its glowy tummy.

The only thing I don't quite understand about the Pting is why it sometimes seems to be quite happy eating things that contain no power at all — like the random section of pipe that it devours after the Doctor first spots it — but spits back up the sonic screwdriver, which is made of tasty digestible Sheffield steel. The impression, confirmed by the fauna-guide's assertion that they're inorganic-omnivores, is that it simply wants to eat every scrap of the ship, so the Doctor initially seems to be behind the curve when she tries to figure out what the Pting wants. Food, surely! And yet that turns out not to be the case. (Also, it seems a little odd that they're legendary for destroying fleets, but nobody has figured out before now that they subsist on energy.) Cutting out just that one shot of it eating a non-powered pipe would've cleared this up a lot.

Having said all that, I do find that I'm really appreciating that Chibnall is steering the series in more of a science-based direction again, and the timing of this renewed emphasis on empirical facts is especially welcome, as a reaction against the anti-science views and flexible attitudes toward truth of many current world governments. It's not as extreme a shift as when the lighthearted Williams era was followed up by the hard science-fiction of the Bidmead years, but it's nice to feel like Doctor Who has a strong grounding in scientific fact again, after the fantasy and whimsy of the Davies and especially the Moffat years. Don't get me wrong, I love some fantasy and fairytale whimsy, but they took it a little too far in my opinion. I hope that Chibnall's evident dedication to realism means that we won't have another Kill the Moon or In the Forest of the Night anytime soon. This gorgeous speech, in particular, is the sort of thing that Doctor Who has been needing more of. I can't quite imagine it having been included in the Davies/Moffat years, but it fits very comfortably into Chibnall's script:

Doctor: "It's beautiful. Antimatter powering the movement of matter, bringing positrons into existence, to move other forms of life across space. I love it! Conceptually, and actually."

Another nice element of the plot is the faint theme running through it of hope. It emerges late (when the Doctor describes hope as one of her specialties), is only explicitly referenced on a couple of occasions, and like the exposition, is mainly discussed rather than demonstrated. But you get the impression that it was Chibnall's tone-word for this episode. After all, that's how the Doctor approaches every situation: with hope that she can figure out a way to solve the problem(s) and save everyone. Again, given what an omnipresent and critical element of Doctor Who this is, it's not exactly reaching for thematic depth, and one could make the case that hope is no more pivotal to the resolution of The Tsuranga Conundrum than it is to any other Doctor Who story, but it's still nice to have it highlighted. It becomes most apparent, I think, on this optimistic exchange:

Mabli: "You all were... light in dark times."
Doctor: "People prevail. Hope prevails."

Another downside is that there's not a great deal of character development for the regulars, either, although thankfully "not a great deal" isn't the same as "none". Part of the reason for that, I think, is that on top of the Doctor and her three companions, the medical ship is stuffed full of other characters (two medics, two patients, and two members of a patient's entourage), and the story prioritizes a couple of them over the regulars. I'm getting the sense that Chibnall builds his plots and characters, then tries to slot the regulars into it, rather than figuring out how his regulars can contribute to the plot and then building out extra characters as needed.

Ryan gets the best development of the three, as viewing Yoss with his baby makes Ryan reflect with greater empathy on how his own father must have felt, having a child at such a young age. Not only do we learn more about Ryan's strained relationship with his dad, and the trauma he suffered when he found his mother's body, but Ryan himself seems to thaw a bit toward his father. Mind you, there's lingering frostiness with Graham, which is perfect: he's still not quite ready to enthusiastically fist-bump. But you can see the walls coming down, and I'm looking forward to finding out what plot development will make Ryan and Graham realize how much they genuinely do both care for one another. (And I hope it's presented that way, rather than Ryan alone softening toward Graham, because Graham still clearly has some empathy left to develop himself. I still haven't forgotten his harsh treatment of Ryan in The Woman Who Fell to Earth, even though the show hasn't addressed it since.) However, I will ding this story because it marks the third week in a row that Ryan's dyspraxia hasn't figured into the plotline one jot. I'd like to see them not forget about that character detail, please. Cole gives a nice delivery of "And again!"

Yaz again plays second-fiddle to the other characters — she only has 11 lines of dialogue in the first 20 minutes, nearly all of which is generic companion material, then devotes her energy to teasing out Ryan's backstory — but once the action moves to the antimatter drive chamber at 29 minutes in, she starts getting a bit more to do. For one thing, it's nice to find out that Yaz has studied physics — she's turning out to be the brainiest of the companions — and she gets the meaty action role when the Doctor entrusts the defense of the antimatter core to her. Yaz' weapons training is subtly highlighted when the Doctor arms her with a staser, and she turns out to have unerring aim and quick reflexes, both with the staser and when she scoops the Pting up in the blanket. She's evidently athletic too, though I'm not sure how helpful it was to kick the blanket-swaddled Pting a few metres down the hallway. Given how fast it moves, that isn't likely to buy them more than a few extra seconds. Why not rush it to the nearest airlock? Nice delivery of "No, he really couldn't do that!" and "I got rid of it! But it'll be coming back."

This week, it's Graham who gets short shrift, though his ability to form quick bonds with people in order to ferret out intel is becoming his specialist skill, much like it was with Rose. And I adore that Graham is a fellow Call the Midwife fan. (Well, who wouldn't be.) Great delivery of "Well, we've all hacked into our loved ones' confidential records at one stage or another, haven't we?" and "Breathe deep, cockle!"

There are a couple nice moments of contrast between the companions, too. When the Doctor reveals that the Pting doesn't eat people, Yaz optimistically tries to view that as a bright side, but realist Graham doesn't find much comfort in those rose-colored lenses, given that the Pting does want to eat the entire spaceship around them. It's rather sweet that Yoss asks Ryan and Graham to be his doulas, though the men struggle to be supportive in such an unfamiliar role. Their horrified reaction when they learn that Mabli is going to have to cut Yoss open is entertaining and relatable; evidently they're under the impression that they're going to be in charge of the surgery!

Aside from her empathy, and her possibly-just-a-one-off emergence of an Anyaesque side, the thirteenth Doctor is developing some interesting divergences from her predecessors. For one thing, she appears to have decided that the literally universal fame of her most recent incarnations is just a bit embarrassing, and she seems to be taking advantage of her new female body to slip quietly back into the shadows. Given that I was never a big fan of the Time Lord Victorious, this development sits much better with me. And for another, I'm just not sure that we would have gotten this scene with pretty much any other Doctor:

Doctor: "I'm not being hostile!"
Astos: "Yes, you are! You're being hostile and selfish. There are patients on board who need to get to Resus One as a matter of urgency. My job is to keep all of you safe. You're stopping me from doing that."
Doctor: "You're right. Of course you're right. I'm sorry."

It's rare to see the Doctor challenged, and even rarer that the Doctor actually does recognize that she's being unreasonable, and sincerely apologizes. This models really good behaviour for all the kids watching! Another treat is that the thirteenth Doctor gets to show some actual medical expertise when she correctly diagnoses Eve; she's so rarely allowed to use that medical degree from Glasgow. How handy that she decided to carry around her multifunctional stethoscope this week! Turning to fashion matters, I'm really enjoying that the Doctor is getting a slightly different color of shirt each week. (This week, it's sort of an eggplant hue.) It reminds me of the ninth Doctor's wardrobe. Whittaker's performance is, yet again, stellar, and she gets to show off a bit more range this week. In particular, her pain-acting was so convincing that it made me hurt, and nearly had me so worried about her well-being that I stopped enjoying the episode (as I did with Bill's injury in World Enough and Time). Plus, the Doctor's high pain level helps to explain why she acts so uncharacteristically short-tempered and rash in the opening scenes. Just splendid. Whittaker also gives a great delivery of "Yeah, you might be right.", "Missed the vibrations!", "I'd do it myself but I need — aaaah! hrrrr! My ecto-spleen hurts. I can feel it resettling.", "Me? No. Very common name.", the scene in which the Doctor realizes the Pting's motivation, the way she gingerly carries the bomb, and her irritation with the Pting ("When you're ready, mate!" and "Really?! Get a shift on!")

The guest characters are all fairly one-note. The actors do a lot of work trying to make them into well-rounded characters, but by and large, we learn only one relevant fact about each of them, which makes them little more than character archetypes.

Astos (Brett Goldstein) is the commander with a heart of gold. (We know this because he's in charge of the ship, and Mabli goes on about how supportive and encouraging she found him to be.) Goldstein's performance perfectly fits, but also exceeds, this limited description: he exudes presence, along with an innate leadership ability, and his caring and concern for his patients is evident, particularly when he kindly calls the Doctor out on her lack of consideration for their well-being. In fact, he and Whittaker have superb chemistry together, to the point that I might have been clamoring for him to become a fourth companion if Astos hadn't been killed off immediately thereafter. But it's lovely that he uses his last moments to build Mabli up. The design of his crisp white uniform is innovative, with its logo-embossed translucent smock over a belted white jumpsuit, topped off with an interesting sort of upper-body armor on which his ocular recorder (or something) is mounted. Impressively, Goldstein is able to make even potentially-dull lines like "Rescue crafts are automated." and "Onboard crew don't have privileges to unlock it." nuanced and interesting; I also enjoyed his delivery of "Don't touch that!", his gracious reaction when the Doctor apologizes, and several others I'll quote below.

Mabli (Lois Chimimba) is the novice doctor with a bad case of self-doubt. That's literally all there is to her character, but she gets a nice (if highly predictable) little arc. She starts out very unsure of herself, constantly requiring reassurance by Astos that she's up to the task. (One might ask, therefore, why she was assigned to fieldwork, but let's just ignore that for now.) She lacks so much confidence, in fact, that Ronan is even able to prevent her from double-checking proper protocol with Astos, and convince her to break the rules instead, simply by threatening to lodge a complaint against her. It's really not a good look. But by the story's end, buoyed by Astos' words of confidence and her own success in assisting the Doctor and handling Yoss' birth solo, Mabli has gained much more faith in her abilities. I love her hairstyle, with its streaks of bright blue, and her cool spotted makeup (which, judging from the markings on her arm, might be a tattoo?). Great delivery of "I shouldn't let you in here, but, but I am, and that's fine!", "He was so kind! There aren't enough kind people.", and "Right now, I'm imagining you sorting all this out?"

General Eve Cicero (Suzanne Packer) is the retired fighter-pilot hiding a terminal illness. She gets a bit more characterization than most, thanks to her relationships with Durkas and Ronan, and her heart-to-heart chats with the Doctor (about the responsibility she feels as the "poster woman" of pilots) and her brother (as they try to repair their relationship). Plus, Eve's battle experience provides valuable intel about the Pting, although I was concerned for a moment that she seemed to be taking charge over the Doctor, which I suppose speaks to Packer's effortlessly commanding screen presence. Her final scene with Durkas is slightly sappy, which completely gives away the "surprise" that she's about to die (though I think we were all expecting that outcome anyway), but it's a sweet scene too, so under the circumstances I can let it slide. Great delivery of "Yep." when the Doctor asks if everything's okay, "Pulse systems, at a push, but not this.", "Still got it, boy!", and I love the deeply contented look on her face as Eve gets plugged back into the piloting systems.

Durkas Cicero (Ben Bailey-Smith) is the engineer who lives in his sister's shadow. While I appreciate that his engineering training comes in handy when he builds a piloting interface for Eve, and his concern for his sister is used to good effect (particularly when Graham catches him in the act of trying to hack her medical records), yet again that's really the only characterization he gets. And I don't think I buy that Durkas knows how to fly this ship (just because he's related to Eve?!), when Eve said it would take at least a dozen years for someone to be fully trained. Nice delivery of "I'm trying to figure what to do next... deny everything, or, er... ask you to turn a blind eye?" and "Now promise me that's true."

As the android who works as Eve's personal assistant, Ronan gets basically zero characterization, but David Shields' mannerisms and inflection (and Data-style makeup) are totally believable, especially the way he hardly ever blinks. Alas, he probably could've been excised from the plot without affecting it one iota; as Eve points out, his ability to touch the Pting could've made him an asset, but the story squanders this plot point (by transferring that responsibility to Yaz, so I can't really object).

Yoss Inkl, the pregnant dude, was the only character that I found myself really caring about. Paradoxically, he's also the only character who's not really involved in the plotline: Yoss spends basically the entire story lying down in one of the patient rooms, never interacting with the Pting or contributing to the plan to defeat it. And his character is as shallow as all the rest; aside from the baby, we don't really learn anything about who Yoss is as a person. Nevertheless, he really won me over, partly because "OMG innocent baby" but mainly because Jack Shalloo is adorable in the role of a proud dad-to-be (though he's not eager to keep the baby himself), with his sweet eyes and hilarious performance. I loved Shalloo's delivery of "What do you mean, go? How're you gonna do that?", "Eeugh! How's that work?" (with a shudder), "What?!? I can't do this without a birth bud!", "In honor of you both, I wanted to call him Avocado.", and "No. He'd be a laughingstock!"

I also appreciate that no-one shames Yoss for getting pregnant, even though it was evidently the result of a one-night stand. However: Ryan sure does put a lot of pressure on him to keep the baby. I get where he's coming from, now that we know more about his relationship with his father, but as Cordelia (or maybe the thirteenth Doctor, these days) would say, that's his personal trauma to deal with. It's Yoss' decision and Yoss' decision alone whether he keeps the baby. And some people genuinely aren't cut out to be parents. If Yoss is aware that he's one of those people, then he's being a responsible birth parent by deciding to give the baby to a more loving home, and giving a baby up for adoption is far different than walking out on him when he's thirteen years old. I have no problem with Ryan raising the possibility that Yoss' reluctance to keep his child might just be cold feet, but I'd have been happier about this plot thread if he tried to find out why Yoss was planning to give the baby up, before he started tightening the vice of guilt.

Refreshingly, aside from the TARDIS crew's initial surprise, Yoss' pregnancy is treated in exactly the same way as a human woman's pregnancy would be, without crazy fanfare or over-the-top jokes. However, I take Androzani's point — in one of their most brilliant-ever reviews — that while Yoss' pregnancy isn't overtly played for gendered laughs, the subtext is still there.

In the end, despite my hopes, The Tsuranga Conundrum bears essentially no similarity at all to Cube, except for the fantastic set design. They're a total visual treat, and I have to say that this ship interior is one of my all-time-favorite futuristic Doctor Who sets. As befits a 67th-century hospital ship, all the surfaces are glowing white, except for the gorgeous lighted wall-panel accents. The roughly-circular nav chamber is the purest white of the lot, its color only broken up by the faintly-glowing bluish monitors spaced equidistantly around a bright lighted strip in the wall. Its most striking feature is the circular control panel (not unlike the TARDIS console) in the center, echoing the shape of the room, attached to the ceiling by an unusually-designed plinth. The brilliant white ceilings and walls of the recovery rooms are broken up with attractive blue light-strips in the walls, columns embossed with an alien language that bears some resemblance to Japanese, Amharic, and Exxilon scripts, glowing monitors, and a giant version of the Tsuranga logo stenceilled on the floor. The corridors similarly alternate their smooth, featureless white panels with tripartite colored-light panels. I had expected them to be perfectly circular, as on Nerva (because of the implication in Astos' line "Central walkway goes all the way around"), but the unexpected bends add interest to the background of various shots. The hallway sets are particularly nice after the power cuts out and the slowly-strobing emergency lights kick in, bathing them in not just a blue glow but also fuchsia and yellow. My favorite, though, is the antimatter drive set, with its pulsing pink overhead lighting and the rather stunning shimmering effect of the glowing energy helix in the particle accelerator.

Effects are excellent this week: the scrapyard piles of Seffilum 27 illuminated by scattered lights and the TARDIS lamp, and all of the outer-space shots, deserve to be highlighted along with the others I've mentioned.

While the score this week didn't really stand out for me overall, Akinola evokes a bit of the Davison era as everyone runs from their first encounter with the Pting (and later, when the Pting forces its way into the pipes), as well as Keff McCulloch (in a good way!) as the Doctor realizes she's being selfish, and again at the story's end.

Director Jennifer Perrott makes the gorgeous sets look even more lavish and interesting, using lots of wide angles, handheld shots, and taking advantage of the backdrops to create interesting framing. Her direction is excellent at establishing the Doctor's disorientation early on, and I also loved the dramatic opening shot of the TARDIS on Seffilun 27, and the shot of the explosion in the pipes momentarily driving the Pting away.

Minor points:

• Now, when I watch the opening sequence, I can't un-see the "alien digestive system" that Androzani compared it to last week. Ha!

• What exactly is the titular conundrum? I don't see any conundrum having to do with the Tsuranga corporation itself, though you could make a case that disposing of the Pting presents a bit of a puzzler.

• One rather wonders what exactly the Doctor is looking for on this junk planet.

• Ummmm, why aren't they running away from the sonic mine? Surely they could get a little bit of distance from it before it explodes? (Who planted a sonic mine on a scavenging planet anyway, and why?)

• One of the few problems I have with the plot: how are the TARDIS crew not all killed in the blast? Oddly the Doctor seems to take the longest to heal; her three human companions seem to be absolutely fine. (And, as a Facebook friend of mine pointed out, the coincidence of them being rescued from certain death twice in four episodes by a randomly-passing spaceship does rather stretch credulity.)

• Is "It's basically to help us avoid killing you" really something that a medical professional would say?!

• "You helped defeat the Army of the Aeons at the Back of the Underkind!" gushes the Doctor. (Other sources insist the word is 'Battle', but that's emphatically not what I hear.) Can I admit that I'm getting a little tired of these ridiculous flowery battle names? I can live with it for the Time War because they're being named by Gallifrey, and we all know how grandiloquent Time Lords are, but must every interstellar battle be named in the same fashion?

• So the Doctor is trying to be a bit more anonymous, but she still just can't resist setting the record straight, haha. Whittaker kills this delivery:

  Doctor: "I'd say it was more of a volume than a chapter. Just so you know."

• If a Gifftan male pregnancy lasts at most seven days, then isn't being a day overdue the human equivalent of being, at a minimum, over 5 weeks late? One would imagine that Yoss' labor would've been induced long before now!

• Consensus seems to be that Tsuranga is the name of this ship (probably due to the Doctor's line "Tsuranga... this isn't a hospital, it's a ship!") but I'm pretty sure that's not accurate. Astos says, "Tsuranga's actually agitating for the territories to be swept more fully.", "Tsuranga operates emergency medical transport. This is a quad-zone rescue craft." and "Our course is remotely programmed from the Tsuranga hub at Resus One." which gave me the impression that Tsuranga was the name of the corporation that administers this (unnamed) ship, along with presumably others.

• Cute line, and a great delivery by both actors:

  Astos: "I don't know your name."
  Doctor: "I'm the Doctor."
  Astos: "Are you kidding?"
  Doctor: "Sometimes. But not right now."

• Awesome delivery by Goldstein:

  Astos: "You're not in charge here. This is my craft. You are my patient, and my responsibility, as is everyone else here. You're still recovering, you're still in pain. I'll check starboard, you check portside."
  Doctor: "Don't like being told what to do."
  Astos: "Yeah. I'm getting that impression."

• I mishear Astos' line "Take a comm-dot" every single time. Maybe I've been primed by Yoss' pregnancy to expect prophylactics.

• Shame that the super chemistry between Whittaker and Goldstein doesn't last much longer than this:

  Astos: "Why am I trusting you, Doctor?"
  Doctor: "You might be a bad liar, Astos, but you've got excellent instincts."

• The woman who does the Perils of the Constant Division voiceover has an absolutely perfect voice for it — I'm reminded, for some reason, of Lynn Gardner, who did the tannoy announcements in Dragonfire — and the shot in which she repeats the word "Pting" just as its illustration morphs into scary fangface is delightfully edited.

• A possible plot niggle: if the general doesn't really have corton fever, then how are they convincing the medical staff to give her adrenalin blockers instead of anti-fever drugs? Shouldn't they be able to tell at a scan what's actually wrong with her, and treat her accordingly? But I'm not sure they've done that, if she's still trying to scam adrenaline blockers under false pretenses. Maybe it's because, as Astos says, they only have limited onboard medical facilities.

• This is a really nice way to think of problem-solving through a Doctor Who lens.

  Doctor: "I mean, it's a bit of a challenge, and I can't quite see the solution yet, but that's life. Or medicine. Patients present problems, you figure them out and come up with solutions. That's what this is: a problem to be diagnosed. Medicine to be administered. You're a medic, I'm the Doctor."

• A great delivery by Whittaker, and a nice message too:

  Mabli: "A doctor of medicine?"
  Doctor: "Well, medicine, science, engineering, candy floss, Lego, philosophy, music, problems, people, hope. Mostly hope."

• This line made me grin (though how much fun would it have been to hear the Doctor namedrop someone from an onscreen meeting for once?!)

  Doctor: "You're probably wondering why I called you all here. ... Sorry. Bit Poirot."

• Since Yoss is the one who asked them to be his doulas, this line is a bit rich!

  Yoss: "I don't even know you! Who are you?!"

• "Durkas..." breathes the Doctor, "you're a genius!" Haven't heard that line in a while, have we? Not in this context, I think, since The Doctor's Daughter.

• This line gave me a chuckle:

  Doctor: "Ten points for Yasmin Khan. And yes, I am keeping score, for all of you. Ronan, up your game."

• The Doctor's false-positive route signal idea was really clever, but now that the ship has taken a shortcut before joining back up with the original flight path, won't Resus One notice that they've suddenly shaved a huge amount of time off their journey? And are now much farther along the flight path than their transponder signal indicated?

• One very minor script (or direction, or both) niggle: it wasn't clear to me that the third threat-dismissal had actually primed the bomb, but given the dialogue and visuals, that must be the case.

• A nice bit of interaction for the Doctor and Yaz, and the Doctor gets to be all sciencey (or, technically, mathy) again:

  Doctor: "Pick a number between 1 and 100."
  Yaz: "51."
  Doctor: "Pentagonal number! Interesting."

• Now sciencey and funny:

  Doctor: "Good number, 51! Atomic number of antimony. Number of Federalist papers written by Alexander Hamilton. I love that show, I've seen all 900 casts."

• One of my favorite lines of the story:

  Graham: "Yeah, but all the same, I mean, cut open a bloke's stomach? Do we have to?"
  Ryan: "What, they didn't have that on Call the Midwife?"
  Graham: "I dunno, I always looked away at the squeamish bits."

• Oddly, even though the Doctor expects the Pting to scent out the activated antimatter bomb, it doesn't seem to be particularly aware that the bomb exists until it actually claps eyes on it. Fortunately it just happened to be wandering past at the right time!

• Mightn't the Doctor have wanted to jettison the Pting before the bomb exploded? What if the Pting hadn't been able to contain the explosion?

• Fantastic delivery by Cole and especially Walsh. (I thought Yoss was going to name his son something like "Ryham".)

  Graham: "No no, mate, that is a fruit."
  Ryan: "No, it's a vegetable."
  Graham: "No — well, look, either way, it's not a hero."

• So nothing jumped out at me this week as a possible addition to the hypothetical season arc. In which case, maybe I'm imagining it? Maybe we're not going to get any followup to the way that Tim Shaw, Krasko, and Robertson (and now the Pting) were defeated and driven off, but not punished?

• After how concerned the Doctor was that her TARDIS might be scavenged, I wish we'd seen them recover it at the end! I was worried... and possibly still am, though the teaser reassures me that they're not stuck on Seffilun 27 forever.

• Speaking of the teaser: how delightful that next week's episode is going to be another presumably Yaz-centric episode! And, from the looks of things, possibly even a pure historical! (The title does promise "demons", but it sounds like the partition of India already has quite enough "demons" of the human variety.) I'm so thrilled that Doctor Who is finally starting to explore non-Western (and specifically non-UK) history again. I think we have to go all the way back to The Crusade to find something comparable.

It's a fairly predictable and simplistic story, but it features a welcome emphasis on scientific fact and a logical solution. The characters feel like stock caricatures, but they're likeable, and all really well-acted. The monster is perhaps not entirely convincing, but it's given a couple of interesting twists. And the theme is vastly underdeveloped, but charming and very fitting. So The Tsuranga Conundrum is trying to do a whole lot of things right. It doesn't entirely succeed with any of them, but it certainly doesn't fail either, and I appreciate that it tries.