WHO REVIEW: 3rd Doctor - Heralds of Destruction (Cornell, Jones, Hi-Fi)

HERALDS OF DESTRUCTION - written by Paul Cornell, art by Christopher Jones, colours provided by Hi-Fi Colour Design

Paul Cornell was never very fond of the Third Doctor, according to most accounts, which made it something of a surprise when Titan Comics announced he would be scripting a five-issue run set during the Pertwee years. This came out in 2016-17, and I've finally gotten around to picking up the trade and reading the story. In interviews, Cornell said he had an idea that could only work with the Third Doctor, and he didn't lie. Although it's just possible that the central conceit of this comic could work with another Doctor, it would have been a rough fit. (If you haven't heard the twist or read the comic and want it to remain a surprise, scuttle off and don't read the SPOILER below.)

No, there was only one way to make the return of Salamander work, and that was to have him invade the era that followed his own. It's an idea that could have been brilliant if they'd tried it on TV in 1974, although it's almost impossible that the BBC would have run with it. After all, most viewers would have only dim memories at best of 1967 story by the time it came round. Who fans, on the other hand, understand the significance of The Enemy of the World and Patrick Troughton's dual role in the story. The rediscovery and release of the serial a few years ago makes this a particularly good time to bring back what had been an important but fairly obscure villain.

The story proceeds as a follow-up to The Three Doctors, except that the Second Doctor is not actually the Doctor's previous incarnation, but the villainous doppelganger in disguise. While we've had Doctors meet people whose faces he'll later wear (due to Colin Baker and Peter Capaldi being cast in the lead after making guest appearances on the series), we've never had a Doctor bump into someone who looks like a previous self. (OK, there's the Curator, but since it's heavily implied he's the Doctor anyway, that doesn't really count.) The Doctor meeting his double is one thing, but meeting the double of a previous version of himself creates a whole new level of meta-commentary on the nature of the series. This is Doctor Who doubling back on itself and biting itself in the arse.

The dictator of the World Zones originates from the same period that the comic was actually released, adding yet another layer of timey-wimey stuff to the set-up (a phrase that is now revealed to have been invented by Jo Grant, which is pretty perfect really). Of course, there's a convoluted backstory to explain how he survived the events of The Enemy of the World, but when your thrown into the Time Vortex, anything can happen. Salamander is more of a comic supervillain than even the Master, making him absolutely perfect for the story. Pitting him against the Doctor, UNIT, and a tenuous alliance with the Master is just about the most ideal Doctor Who comics idea that could be set within the Pertwee era.

Cornell gets all the regulars spot-on, including the Doctor, but he doesn't go lightly on him. In fact, he absolutely savages him at points. He even introduces him in a gentleman's club, going on about his old mate Pol Pot ("Polly, I said..."), a biting and very fair attack on his similar name drops of Napoleon and Chairman Mao. (Of course, much later we learn he's best buds with Winston Churchill, who from many people's perspectives isn't far different.) Nonetheless, he gets his fair share of heroic moments and, as Cornell notes in his commentary, a characteristic "moment of charm." 

Christopher Jones is a fine choice of artist for the adventure, with a gently cartoony feel to his work that gives the story a colourful momentum perfectly in keeping with the era it pastiches. He delivers some brilliant set pieces, including a face-off between the Doctor and the Master and a voyage in the day-glo interior of Jo Grant's mind. I particularly enjoyed his depiction of Salamander in full-on supervillain costume, which makes him look a bit like one of the Dominators.

Cornell states in the commentary that this is his last Doctor Who story, and if that is the case, I'm pleased he stepped out of his comfort zone to provide a story for a Doctor we wouldn't normally associate him with. One thing that comes through very clearly is his love for the series, in any era. In fact, he's already bent his own rule by novelising Twice Upon a Time for Target, so maybe we'll be getting more original Doctor Who adventures from him after all.

Placement: Between The Three Doctors and Carnival of Monsters.

WHO REVIEW: 13th Doctor - Old Friends (Houser, Ingranata, Stott, Angiolini, Bailey)

Catching up with my Doctor Who reviews, beginning with some comicbook releases featuring two very different Doctors. Titan has been publishing Doctor Who releases for a good few years now, with some of the best comicbook material for the Doctor in years. Their releases have included both ongoing and limited series for new and classic series Doctors. Lately I've picked up the third volume of the collected Thirteenth Doctor series and the collected Third Doctor miniseries.

OLD FRIENDS - written by Jodie Houser, art by R Ingranata, R. Stott, colours by E. Angiolini, T. Bailey

The Thirteenth Doctor comics have been running for a little while, and I've dipped in from time to time, but it's this third collection, which was released in trade at the very end of 2019, that caught my fancy. Arriving on the planet Devivian with the fam, the Doctor is immediately arrested for crimes committed by another two-hearted, time travelling woman. Probing for a few more details, the Doctor discovers that a dark-haired Time Lady has stolen a powerful relic from Devivian. (Is that a reference to The Vivienne, or was I just watching Ru Paul's Drag Race UK too much while reading this?)

Naturally, she assumes this is Missy ("And she was doing so much better,") but when she gets on the trail of the thief, it turns out to be none other than the Corsair, making their first ever appearance in an actual Doctor Who story, rather than as a bit of background colour. In this incarnation, the Corsair is a beautiful, wild woman, an unrestrained swashbuckler. She and the Doctor have a brilliant dynamic; very clearly friends for years, with a hint of mutual attraction, even though the Doctor doesn't quite approve of the Corsair's methods.

Jodie Houser nails the dialogue of the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions (for better or worse - the occasional clunkiness feels deliberate here), but she's clearly having the most fun writing for the Corsair. It's surprising that it's taken so long for the character to make a full-fledged appearance. "The Doctor's Wife" was back in 2011, and aside from Neil Gaiman's own potted history of the character in The Brilliant Book, the character has failed to materialise in anything official. The Corsair is much like the Doctor without the rough edges worn off, the Doctor who upped and stole a TARDIS and didn't care about the consequences. It's tremendous fun watching them share an adventure, even as there's an underpinning of sadness, as the Doctor knows that it can't be long in her friend's future that they die. (Going by the reproduced material about the Corsair in the appendix, this is probably the seventh incarnation of the Corsair, while the one who met his end by the House was the ninth. Please excuse the jumping between pronouns, by the way.)

Roberta Ingranata provides the artwork for the first three issues, with Enrica Angiolini supplying incredibly rich colours, and together they make the various planets visited absolutely beautiful. Rachel Stott takes over, with Tracy Bailey, for the closing issue, with a greater focus on strong, characterful line work that really captures the regulars. Altogether, it's a rather gorgeous book. I'd definitely be up for meetings between the Doctor and the Corsair, especially since the gender roles could be mixed up in a number of ways between the various incarnations. And the Corsair's TARDIS is disguised as a galleon, which is both impractical and awesome.


Placement: Between Resolution and Spyfall.

Tomorrow: Paul Cornell's Third Doctor adventure, Heralds of Destruction

TREK REVIEW: PICARD 1-2 & 1-3

MAPS AND LEGENDS

THE END IS THE BEGINNING

Really, the first three episodes of Picard make up a broken pilot episode. Arguably, the three episodes could have been edited down to a single ninety-minute opener, and nothing significant would be lost. However, I like the slow burn of this series, and the extra time it spends exploring this future. The flashbacks to the backstory work really nicely, showing how the future Picard had feared if Maddox had his way in TNG was coming to pass. We get our first glimpse of Utopia Planitia, the much-mentioned Starfleet shipyard, where androids – or synths – are treated with contempt by the human crew. At least, before one of the synths, F8, switches to berserk mode and murders everyone, before dropping the planet's defenses and killing himself.

The event we briefly saw in Short Treks: “Children of Mars” and forms much of the background of this series is a clear 9/11 moment for the Star Trek universe. It's not the first – that was the Xindi attack in Enterprise. While that dealt with the immediate reactions of the public, government and military, Picard takes a longer view. 9/11 was over eighteen years ago, while in the Federation, fourteen years have passed between the synth attack on Mars and the main events of Picard. It's a significant event which has left deep societal scars on the Federation.

The nature of the synths isn't exactly clear at this point. They're clearly based on Data, with the same white-gold skin and golden irises, but they don't appear as sophisticated. How self-aware they are isn't exactly clear as yet, but Trek has shown time and again that intelligent machines can develop awareness when active and learning. It's not surprising that the Federation banned synthetic life afterwards, although it looks like a lot of people were looking for an excuse. An interesting revelation is that the Romulans already despised artificial life, refusing to ever research the possibilities. Whatever the truth of Soji's origins, it appears she won't be welcome in the Federation or Romulan space.

We learn a lot about the late 24^th century in these two episodes. Clearly the Romulan Empire exists in some fashion after the destruction of Romulus, although presumably it must have a reduced influence. However, the power running the Borg Artefact Research Institute is the Romulan Free State. Interestingly, Federation visitors are allowed, including humans, Andorians and Trill, so in spite of the bad blood between the two powers, officially they're not on such poor terms. As for the Federation, whatever we might like to think about it being a socialist paradise, there's clearly still privilege and a class divide. Picard has his inherited chateau, even after his fall from grace, and not everyone is so lucky.

All this ties into the two episodes' recruitment drive for the protagonists of the series. Starfleet is not a trustworthy or loyal organisation. Picard goes to them to ask for help, and is shot down. It's hard to argue with Fleet Admiral Clancy that he's displaying incredible hubris. It's later that we learn he went to Starfleet demanding they help with the Romulan evacuation before the supernova, and that he never believed they'd accept his threat of resignation. What's worse is that this apparently led them to dismiss his protege Raffi Musiker, who's now living on the outskirts of society. Rios's former ship, the ibn Majid, was supposedly wiped from the records after a terrible event that led to the death of its captain. Starfleet are not coming off very well in this series.

I love Picard's new crew. Michelle Hurd as Raffi is a perfect foil for Stewart's Picard, very much the McCoy to his Kirk. Some of her lines sound exactly like they could have been spoken by Bones. We only see glimpses of their earlier relationship in Starfleet, but they were clearly very close – she even calls him “J L,” and no one's ever gotten away with that before. It's good to have someone who knows Picard well but won't take any of his shit. Santiago Cabrera is very good as Rios, a character who's dripping with cliché but in a script that knows it and refuses to take him entirely seriously. A Starfleet drop-out who's now a pilot on his own ship, being so manly he refuses medical treatment for a cool-looking wound – it's clear the script is taking the piss out of such character and that it's a very obvious facade for the character.

I absolutely love La Sirena and its suite of holograms. Not only do we have a new generation of EMH, but we have an Emergency Navigational Hologram and such programmes are clearly customisable. Having all the holograms based on Rios, only played by Cabrera with a different accent and haircut is hilarious, as is the fact that they're clearly a lot more pleasant to be around than their captain. However, I really don't understand how or why holograms aren't banned the same way androids are. OK, it's entirely possible that Rios is operating a ship full of holograms illegally, but no one comments on this or looks surprised. They may not be sentient, but as we've seen in the past, holograms can become sentient by being left running too long or simply by programming error. Indeed, it makes me wonder why they're even bothering with androids if they already have holographic technology this sophisticated. I was really hoping that Picard would be following up on the holographic rights issue seen at the end of Voyager, but the writers don't seem to be interested in tackling this.

Lastly we have Dr. Jurati, played adorably by Alison Pill. She clearly has a great deal of respect for Picard, but I'm not convinced we can entirely trust her. Her interrogation by Commodore Oh, the dodgy Romulan plant, was left open-ended, and her apparent fear and eagerness to go with Picard seem overplayed to me. I'd be very surprised if it doesn't turn out that she's been working for Oh ever since she left the Daystrom Institute.

Moving via Oh to the Romulan plot... I still love Picard's ex-Tal Shiar staff, particularly Orla Brady's Liris. Picard must still have some sway if he can employ two not-very-secret ex-agents and have them live on Earth with him. It's a shame they're not joining him on his mission to Freecloud, but I guess someone has to stay behind and tend the vineyard and look after the dog (wherever he's got to). I'm much less enamoured with the Romulan baddies. Harry Treadaway is pretty cute and charming, and I can see why Soji would fall for Narek, but he's not exactly convincing as an operative of the dreaded Zhat Vash secret service. As for Rizzo, or whatever her name is really, she's just awful. The creepy incestuous vibe is incredibly tiresome, and her arch stalking about the place is pretty boring as well.

However, the Borg Artefact scenes are intriguing, as are the ongoing questions about Soji's background. She clearly believes she has a human mother and father, but has some kind of sleep command implanted that knocks her out whenever she talks to her (holographic?) mother. The Romulan survivors, all clearly mentally wounded from their experiences, are a powerful elements, although it isn't clear if their suffering is an after-effect of assimilation or the specific catastrophe that befell their starship, leading to this cube being rendered inoperative. As good as it is to see Jonathan Del Arco back as Hugh, he doesn't get to do very much here, except, rather intriguingly, pull rank on Narek. Lots of questions left to answer.

Still, in spite of a couple of weaker elements, notably the parts that don't directly involve Picard, this series is shaping up to be something rather excellent, and the drip feed of information is tantalising. Now, finally, Picard returns to space. Engage!

Future History: Episode two confirms that dating for the series: the attack on Mars happened in 2385, with the main events happening fourteen years later in 2399. It's twenty years since Star Trek Nemesis.

Observations: The old fan joke about northern and southern Klingons to explain the smooth and crunchy versions gets incorporated into the canon, only to explain the Romulans this time. Apparently, Romulans from the northern provinces have ridges brows. It's also finally confirmed onscreen that Romulus was located in the Beta Quadrant.

This is the first time in Star Trek that we see the iconic Vasquez Rocks actually represent Vasquez Rocks. It's turned up half a dozen times in Trek right back to the first season of TOS, standing for planets such as Vulcan, Capella 4 and Xyrillia and numerous nameless desert planets.

Hugh says the Romulans recovered from the Artefact are the only ones assimilated by the Borg. He's wrong – we saw Romulan ex-drones in Voyager – but it's not like he'll remember everything that ever happened to the entire Collective. Anyway, maybe the others were assimilated after he escaped.

Thoughts: It certainly looks like F8 is taken over by a some outside force, which lessens the impact of the crew's mistreatment of him. It would be a bolder statement if the synths rebelled on their own. Lots to be revealed, yet, though. It does make me wonder if Control will be involved somehow; after all, there has been talk already of tying Picard and Discovery together with shared elements.

Laris calls the Zhat Vash “cheeky feckers,” which is probably the most Irish thing she could say. Lots of planets have an Ireland, I guess.

A bizarre number of fans are complaining that Commodore Oh wears sunglasses when she meets Jurati. As a Vulcan, she shouldn't need them, as she'd have an inner eyelid to protect against the sun. Aside from the fact that this is a ridiculous thing to get worked up about, I assumed this was a clue that she's actually Romulan.

On that matter, how has Rizzo posed as a human in Starfleet for so long? I can buy a Romulan posing as a Vulcan, but wouldn't the first routine medical show up a Romulan posing as a human?

On a vaguely related matter, as soon as Oh's name was revealed, I shouted “It's the Master!” More apropos, this is the first time we've seen a Starfleet officer using the rank of commodore in the 24^th century.

It's possibly nothing, but the use of antileptons in the destruction of images might be significant. After all, the most common antilepton is the positron, as in the positronic net.

Is La Sirena a Vulcan ship? It looks kind of similar to 24^th century Vulcan ships that were occasionally seen in TNG.

Really, the first three episodes of Picard make up a broken pilot episode. Arguably, the three episodes could have been edited down to a single ninety-minute opener, and nothing significant would be lost. However, I like the slow burn of this series, and the extra time it spends exploring this future. The flashbacks to the backstory work really nicely, showing how the future Picard had feared if Maddox had his way in TNG was coming to pass. We get our first glimpse of Utopia Planitia, the much-mentioned Starfleet shipyard, where androids – or synths – are treated with contempt by the human crew. At least, before one of the synths, F8, switches to berserk mode and murders everyone, before dropping the planet's defenses and killing himself.

The event we briefly saw in Short Treks: “Children of Mars” and forms much of the background of this series is a clear 9/11 moment for the Star Trek universe. It's not the first – that was the Xindi attack in Enterprise. While that dealt with the immediate reactions of the public, government and military, Picard takes a longer view. 9/11 was over eighteen years ago, while in the Federation, fourteen years have passed between the synth attack on Mars and the main events of Picard. It's a significant event which has left deep societal scars on the Federation.

The nature of the synths isn't exactly clear at this point. They're clearly based on Data, with the same white-gold skin and golden irises, but they don't appear as sophisticated. How self-aware they are isn't exactly clear as yet, but Trek has shown time and again that intelligent machines can develop awareness when active and learning. It's not surprising that the Federation banned synthetic life afterwards, although it looks like a lot of people were looking for an excuse. An interesting revelation is that the Romulans already despised artificial life, refusing to ever research the possibilities. Whatever the truth of Soji's origins, it appears she won't be welcome in the Federation or Romulan space.

We learn a lot about the late 24^th century in these two episodes. Clearly the Romulan Empire exists in some fashion after the destruction of Romulus, although presumably it must have a reduced influence. However, the power running the Borg Artefact Research Institute is the Romulan Free State. Interestingly, Federation visitors are allowed, including humans, Andorians and Trill, so in spite of the bad blood between the two powers, officially they're not on such poor terms. As for the Federation, whatever we might like to think about it being a socialist paradise, there's clearly still privilege and a class divide. Picard has his inherited chateau, even after his fall from grace, and not everyone is so lucky.

All this ties into the two episodes' recruitment drive for the protagonists of the series. Starfleet is not a trustworthy or loyal organisation. Picard goes to them to ask for help, and is shot down. It's hard to argue with Fleet Admiral Clancy that he's displaying incredible hubris. It's later that we learn he went to Starfleet demanding they help with the Romulan evacuation before the supernova, and that he never believed they'd accept his threat of resignation. What's worse is that this apparently led them to dismiss his protege Raffi Musiker, who's now living on the outskirts of society. Rios's former ship, the ibn Majid, was supposedly wiped from the records after a terrible event that led to the death of its captain. Starfleet are not coming off very well in this series.

I love Picard's new crew. Michelle Hurd as Raffi is a perfect foil for Stewart's Picard, very much the McCoy to his Kirk. Some of her lines sound exactly like they could have been spoken by Bones. We only see glimpses of their earlier relationship in Starfleet, but they were clearly very close – she even calls him “J L,” and no one's ever gotten away with that before. It's good to have someone who knows Picard well but won't take any of his shit. Santiago Cabrera is very good as Rios, a character who's dripping with cliché but in a script that knows it and refuses to take him entirely seriously. A Starfleet drop-out who's now a pilot on his own ship, being so manly he refuses medical treatment for a cool-looking wound – it's clear the script is taking the piss out of such character and that it's a very obvious facade for the character.

I absolutely love La Sirena and its suite of holograms. Not only do we have a new generation of EMH, but we have an Emergency Navigational Hologram and such programmes are clearly customisable. Having all the holograms based on Rios, only played by Cabrera with a different accent and haircut is hilarious, as is the fact that they're clearly a lot more pleasant to be around than their captain. However, I really don't understand how or why holograms aren't banned the same way androids are. OK, it's entirely possible that Rios is operating a ship full of holograms illegally, but no one comments on this or looks surprised. They may not be sentient, but as we've seen in the past, holograms can become sentient by being left running too long or simply by programming error. Indeed, it makes me wonder why they're even bothering with androids if they already have holographic technology this sophisticated. I was really hoping that Picard would be following up on the holographic rights issue seen at the end of Voyager, but the writers don't seem to be interested in tackling this.

Lastly we have Dr. Jurati, played adorably by Alison Pill. She clearly has a great deal of respect for Picard, but I'm not convinced we can entirely trust her. Her interrogation by Commodore Oh, the dodgy Romulan plant, was left open-ended, and her apparent fear and eagerness to go with Picard seem overplayed to me. I'd be very surprised if it doesn't turn out that she's been working for Oh ever since she left the Daystrom Institute.

Moving via Oh to the Romulan plot... I still love Picard's ex-Tal Shiar staff, particularly Orla Brady's Liris. Picard must still have some sway if he can employ two not-very-secret ex-agents and have them live on Earth with him. It's a shame they're not joining him on his mission to Freecloud, but I guess someone has to stay behind and tend the vineyard and look after the dog (wherever he's got to). I'm much less enamoured with the Romulan baddies. Harry Treadaway is pretty cute and charming, and I can see why Soji would fall for Narek, but he's not exactly convincing as an operative of the dreaded Zhat Vash secret service. As for Rizzo, or whatever her name is really, she's just awful. The creepy incestuous vibe is incredibly tiresome, and her arch stalking about the place is pretty boring as well.

However, the Borg Artefact scenes are intriguing, as are the ongoing questions about Soji's background. She clearly believes she has a human mother and father, but has some kind of sleep command implanted that knocks her out whenever she talks to her (holographic?) mother. The Romulan survivors, all clearly mentally wounded from their experiences, are a powerful elements, although it isn't clear if their suffering is an after-effect of assimilation or the specific catastrophe that befell their starship, leading to this cube being rendered inoperative. As good as it is to see Jonathan Del Arco back as Hugh, he doesn't get to do very much here, except, rather intriguingly, pull rank on Narek. Lots of questions left to answer.

Still, in spite of a couple of weaker elements, notably the parts that don't directly involve Picard, this series is shaping up to be something rather excellent, and the drip feed of information is tantalising. Now, finally, Picard returns to space. Engage!

WHO REVIEW: 12-7 - Can You Hear Me?

The last time Doctor Who did an episode about mental health was "Vincent and the Doctor," which was, it astounds me to realise, ten years ago. That was a wonderful episode which illustrated the horrors of depression well, but by focusing on the mental problems of one of history's greatest artists, it fell into the common trap of conflating mental illness and brilliance. It's certainly not uncommon that those with great minds can have equally great mental anguish, but it glosses over the fact that anyone can suffer from such illness. It forgets that mental illness is, in fact, very normal.

"Can You Hear Me?" explores it mental illness in a similar way to "Vincent and the Doctor," however, with both episodes physicalising the illness as a monster. Van Gogh's depression was represented by the Krefayis, a creature that was as invisible to most people as mental illness can be to everyone but the person experiencing it. In this episode, Tahira's nightmares manifest as the werewolf-like Chagaskas. That's merely a small part of this chilling episode, though, a source of literal nightmare fuel which seems built on throwing as many unsettling images at the screen, with little heed for whether they go together.

Not that this is a weakness. Sometimes, Doctor Who's greatest strength can be in putting together wildly incompatible elements and seeing what happens. Here, the clash of visuals is absolutely the point. Everything about this episode is uncomfortable, from the Team TARDIS' difficult reunions with friends and family to the imagery of Zellin's lair. The only part that escapes this oppressive atmosphere is the remarkable animated sequence that illustrates the aliens' history, a sequence unlike anything we've seen on Doctor Who before.

Ian Gelder is basically perfect as Zellin, the ideal actor to play a smug, creepy, million-year-old wizard. He's unsettling enough just standing in the corner of a darkened room, watching, but then he starts to detach his fingers, a bizarre and arresting image which only gets stranger when he starts to stick his detached bits into his victims' ears. I mean, it's utterly ludicrous, and could easily have come across as a silly, comedic effect, but its shot and rendered with such utter seriousness that its genuinely creepy as hell. Worse still is that his various discarded fingers have gone black and necrotic over time. Fortunately for the Doctor and her team, they're still sending signals out to Zellin and his technology (presumably they're digital).

His counterpart, Rakaya, isn't as effective. Clearly spending millennia inside a sun keeps your skin in good condition, because she's young and beautiful rather than aged like Zellin, although the contrast between their appearances is arresting. Clare-Hope Ashitey is a fine actor (she was excellent in Children of Men, which was released fourteen years ago and I really do feel old today). However, she doesn't have the same villainous charisma as Gelder and so comes off as a lesser monster, even though she is ostensibly the worse of the two.

It's the human characters who are given the best material though. Indeed, the companions get some of their best material yet. I've remarked before that Tosin Cole is clearly more comfortable in mundane settings, dealing with realistic scenes, than he is in fantastical moments. He's at his best here opposite Buom Tihngang as Tibo, a man with very believably portrayed depression and anxiety. Yaz, too, finally gets some real depth; the flashback to her near suicide three years earlier is beautifully underplayed by Mandip Gill, as is the awkward homecoming with her sister.

Graham, in contrast, is perhaps a little less convincing than usual in his dream sequences, with the prospect of his cancer returning not evoking the depth of response we'd expect. He does, though, get a brilliant scene in the TARDIS after the adventure's conclusion, one which has been savaged by some fans for spurious reasons. I'm not going to link to clickbait because it annoys the hell out of me, but a small few commentators have suggested that the Doctor's awkwardness when Graham opens up to her is both out of character and inappropriate. Which is nonsense, because this sort of social awkwardness is absolutely in character for the Doctor, particularly the Thirteenth Doctor, who perhaps surprisingly shares a lot of the bluntness and emotional distance of the Twelfth. There's a straight line between Thirteen's declaration that she'll go play with the console until she thinks of something to say and Twelve's desperate "Can I talk about my planets now?" to Clara.

Once again, the plot fails to hold together terribly well when it's looked at too closely. While I appreciate the trip to 14th century Aleppo and the chance to learn more about the medicine of the time - I realised the Arab nations were well ahead of the West medically in that period but had no idea that extended to mental healthcare - there's not really any reason to include the diversion. While the conceit to get the Doctor involved is more believable than in many stories, Zellin could easily have set the bait in Sheffield, where he was already apparently operating, rather than set an entirely separate trap in Aleppo.  Equally, the Chagaskas, although reasonably effective as monsters, don't really serve a purpose.

Indeed, there doesn't particularly seem to be a need for Tahira at all, as good as Aruhan Galieva is in the role. Still, her defeat of the immortals is climactic, even if it is over a little too easily. Nonetheless, "Can You Hear Me?" is something of a triumph, with some of the most effective imagery and a consistency of tone that's often missing. It's an episode with a very important message at its heart: that we all have our demons, but they can be defeated. There will be many young people watching the series who needed to hear that.

Continuity Corner: I had a little moment of fan-delight as Zellin named-dropped the Eternals, the Guardians and the Toymaker within seconds of each other. Do you think all these capricious, immortal aliens hang out together? Is there a social club?

You Can't be Syria's: Galieva isn't Syrian at all; she's of mixed English and Kazakh descent.

Where in the World? This is the first TV Who story set in the Middle East since The Crusaders, way back in 1965.

WHO REVIEW: 12-6 - PRAXEUS

Some fans, who have been watching since the original series, are wringing their hands over the turn of the series today, which is ramming home environmentalist messages every other episode. It lacks the subtlety of the original series, they say.

Apparently, none of these people remember the "subtle" environmental messages of Invasion of the Dinosaurs or The Green Death. Or even the Ninth Doctor berating the plastics and oil poisoning the Earth in "Rose." I'm first to agree that the handling of the eco message in "Orphan 55" was as ham-fisted as a bun vendor, bolted onto the end of a schlocky, poorly-scripted episode. "Praxeus" is altogether better; an episode that manages to be both pacey and atmospheric, with a rapidly moving script that still holds together, and an environmental message that drives the story rather than appearing as an afterthought. It's everything "Orphan 55" was trying to be. Indeed, with both episodes in the line-up and both serving a similar purpose, why wasn't the earlier episode just dropped? "Praxeus" would've have held up even better if the season hadn't already been tarnished with the "woke" brush by the sorts of fans who somehow managed to avoid the political connotations of every season of Doctor Who so far.

The script, by Pete McTighe (who wrote last season's "Kerblam!") and Chris Chibnall, is busy and complex, jumping from place to place quickly enough that there's little chance to get bored, but still keeping the story pretty clear. It's a deft sleight of hand; if you take a moment to think about the story, it really makes very little sense. There's not really any logical link between the lab in Madagascar, the other one in Hong Kong, the base beneath the sea, the submarine, the river in South America, or the ISS mission. They're simply places where things happen, different locations included to keep things visually interesting. There are some sloppy plot holes, too: where does Adam's text message come from?

But there are plenty of Doctor Who stories that fall apart when they're prodded by the logic stick. If you can carry it off for the episode's duration, and keep things entertaining, then you've done the job. And "Praxeus" does work. It handles a much larger TARDIS team than we usually find better than could be expected. Much of this is down to the canny decision to split the team up and have them explore different parts of the overall story, but the episode doesn't keep them apart for all that long. The Doctor drops in repeatedly before getting everyone together, along with a bunch of guest stars. It should be too much, but the characters are interesting enough (well, except Suki) and given enough to do, and so it doesn't feel as crowded as it is.

There's too little time spent in each location to make them feel truly distinct beyond the visual, but it's a fifty-minute episode. It's a short runtime in which to fully explore a single setting, so the writers do the opposite and throw in a bunch settings so there's no time to lose interest. Some of the visuals are effectively creepy, as well, with the uncomfortably haphazard Hong Kong lab and the island under the ocean providing grim, dark contrast to the sunny climes of Madagascar. The Praxeus effect itself is deeply unsettling, rather impressive for how simple it is. It's the same visceral unpleasantness as teeth-faced Tim Shaw in the last season - indeed, the brief glimpse in the trailer made me wonder if it was connected - and making the threat a pathogen sets the episode apart from the usual monsters and/or villains. However, we do eventually get a villain figure in the shape of Suki, who turns out to be a rather boring alien doctor instead of a rather boring human doctor. No disrespect to Molly Harris, who is quite likeable in the role, but Suki just isn't a very interesting character.

Far more successful are Gabriela, Adam and Jake. Joana Borja has a lot of charisma, and makes a fine one-off companion. She shares great chemistry with both Yaz and Ryan. In fact, it makes me wonder if they're trialing her for new a new regular role, which presumably would mean one of the three current companions would turf out. I also really like Warren Brown and Matthew McNulty as, I believe, our first married gay couple who are actual characters and not merely a joke. I love that they're both strapping, butch blokes with serious, manly jobs. They make a believable couple, even if one them is a flippin' astronaut. For a moment, it looks like we'll get a cliched "kill your gays" moment, but it's just the writers trolling us.

Not that everyone gets dealt with well here. Poor Amaru gets pecked to death by a Hitchcock flock and no one even asks after him. The regulars get good material, though, particularly Graham, who shows once again that he's the heart of the programme. Both Ryan and Yaz get to show what they're made of, leading their own investigations. If anything, their stronger than the Doctor this episode, who mostly gets to spout technobabble.

When it comes down to it, your appreciation of this episode depends on whether you consider an alien menace based on an environmental crisis to be a strong science fiction concept or a preachy sermon. Personally, I'm of the former opinion. This is a story where the environmental message is part of the storyline, not an afterthought, and frankly the Indian Ocean's giant garbage patch is both a horrible reminder of our abuse of the Earth and such a weird phenomenon that it's asking for a sci-fi story.

And I shouted "Autons!" at exactly the same time as the Doctor.


The Ratings War: UK overnights indicate only 3.97 million people watched "Praxeus" on broadcast. Dropping below four million isn't a very good sign, although it remained the fourth most watched programme of the day with 20% of the audience share. Ratings for previous episodes show around an extra million are watching after broadcast, but the weekly positions are dropping. The Sunday night position certainly doesn't seem to be working right now, and there's a lack of advance publicity which isn't helping either. There was some fanfare for "Fugitive of the Judoon," but it mostly seemed to be on Doctor Who related pages and sites, so it's preaching to the converted.

Pedantry corner: It's Malagasy, not Madagascan.

Star Turns: Warren Brown (Jake) is no stranger to Doctor Who, having performed a whole bunch of roles for Big Finish.