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An overlooked Futurama reference and the literal handwaving of interplanetary navigation whilst wearing marigolds. Not bad!

It’s Team TARDIS’s second trip into space and also their second collision course with fatal death courtesy of a sonic mine, only on this occasion they’re just-in-time-scooped out of their storyline by the medical ship Tsuranga, plausibly alerted to the ordnance’s detonation by robot dredgers if we’re being very generous.

Suddenly finding themselves floating further away from the TARDIS, they’re joined by a cast of characters that is more charming and fascinating than the remaining 30 minutes will allow us to fully explore. And sound the plot-twist klaxon, because an adorable little monster has stowed away onboard as well to nibble away at the ship, and the soon-to-be-fam must sate its appetite before it inadvertently blows them out of the sky.

Here's what we think of N149 The Tsuranga Conundrum

We rate Doctor Who stories on a scale from 0.0 to 5.0. For context, very few are excellent enough to merit a 5.0 in our minds, and we'd take a 0.0 Doctor Who story over a lot of other, non-Whovian stuff out there.

Leon | @ponken

2.4

Drew | @drewbackwhen

3.2

Here's what we think of N149 The Tsuranga Conundrum

We rate Doctor Who stories on a scale from 0.0 to 5.0. For context, very few are excellent enough to merit a 5.0 in our minds, and we'd take a 0.0 Doctor Who story over a lot of other, non-Whovian stuff out there.

Leon | @ponken

2.4

Drew | @drewbackwhen

3.2

Here's what you think 2 Responses to “N149 The Tsuranga Conundrum”
  1. Kieren Evans | @kjevans2

    Hi folks

    Alcohol of Choice: Crabbies alcoholic ginger beer.
    Units consumed prior to watch: 3.6.
    Units consumed during watch: 3.6.

    Oh it’s this one, the tsurhabnfabfhasbf conundrum, or something…Like who came up with that name? Why did they pick that title? Even just calling it The Pting would be better than that.

    Still no cold opening, still feels weird. And I just find this one boring….it feels padded and drawn out. The plot is sort of fairly well played out and the only things new are the window dressing. The old pilot who shouldn’t really ‘fly’ again, old trope. The man who is pregnant, just a not well written twist on an expected trope. Maybe RTD would have done that better. Though it did give insight into what Dave Lister would have gone through.

    “Are you also experiencing comprehension deficiency?” Lol…but yeah. And can we cut the CERN/Anti-Matter TED talk? There were several moments that the ep pretty much stopped to do something not really necessary.

    Shame the Pting didn’t fully eat the sonic.

    Two things I did like: the Doctor almost fucking everything when she wakes up and being talked out of it by the Head Medic, nice bit of undercutting of the Doctor’s ego there. And the ending moment

    1.5/5 Spaceship machining monsters

    Cheers
    Kieren

  2. Daniel McGinley

    Some thoughts…

    To start with a positive I did like the old school corridor run-around. It was also nice to have a old school style brightly lit spaceship and crew uniform, rather than the New-Who Crystal Maze Industrial Zone look and feel. The ship looked great.

    The ‘music’ was again dire. A relaxing / study aid / chill out vibe is not the soundtrack for a fast-paced exciting sci-fi show. Oh wait, maybe it’s a perfect fit for this particular season.

    The Doctor was totally channelling Professor Brian Cox in the explanation of the Anti-matter device, even the close-up on hand movements was a nod to ‘Wonders of the universe’ et al. Talking of explaining things, only one moralising lecture this week and a first from Ryan I believe. The doctor was way too busy with spouting exposition to be telling the audience how to behave this week. Season lecture total = 8.

    Can you imagine the Adipose on steroids with weed induced munchies? Say hello the Pting. I can’t believe this; what started as a joke a few reviews ago still holds true. Tim Shaw is still the best villain of the season so far. How low have we come?

    This story is not bad per-se, just totally unmemorable. Give it two weeks then I challenge you to name a character or anything interesting that happened…Go on.

    Meh. 1.8/5

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