Hello everyone and welcome to the latest Doctor Who discussion post looking at season 11 episode 5 discussion, the Tsuranga Conundrum. After feeling that the episode quality dipped last time with Arachnids in the UK, this episode improved somewhat and would probably be best described as solid but unspectacular. It was enjoyable enough with some pretty enjoyable moments, but I wouldn’t think that it would be anyone’s favourite episode come the end of the season.

The ship itself was very well designed and, as were the costumes and general look of the sets this episode. It had that clinical hospital feel while still appearing to be futuristic. I liked how the anti-matter technology was a streamlined version of current earth tech but the explanation didn’t half drag on. The whole episode involved a ship being destroyed and/or blown up so this wasn’t really the time. What I wish there was more for were for some of the other concepts to get more time: the neural flying tech and the android guy for example. The Pting eating ALL non-organic materials made me sure that he was going to be targeted by the monster but it didn’t happen. There was a lot of talking about stuff that didn’t need to be talked about I felt. Show don’t tell is something that has actually come up as a slight complaint more than once this season.

Something that I personally enjoyed (but could see why others may not have), was the whole sub-plot with the pregnant guy. I found it quite light-hearted and amusing; a nice diversion from the main plot which was slightly less interesting to follow at times. Graham had some great lines involving the pregnancy, especially his medical knowledge coming from Call the Midwife, and Ryan was more enjoyable this episode too. Out of the four it was actually the Doctor who annoyed me a bit at the beginning as some of the lines felt a bit unnatural or over acted. It was only at the beginning mind you as I enjoyed her very much after the first ten minutes.

The “villain” was a greedy gremlin known as a Pting and they put it over as one hell of a threat. It didn’t speak and didn’t actually get that much screen time, and it also felt quite underutilised. It didn’t have much personality and you just thought they could have done more with it. How quirky would it have been if it could speak with a really deep voice like James Earl Jones? What if it got bigger and bigger the more it ate? Just something like that may have made it a little bit more unique. It had a good exit though by eating the bomb due to it craving energy. It tied the story together well and they disposed of the villain in a way that you could actually understand unlike the last episode. We ended on a bit of a sombre not but am looking forward to what the first episode of the second half of the season gives us.

DD Rating: 6.75/10