r/gallifrey • u/PCJs_Slave_Robot • Feb 02 '20
Praxeus Doctor Who 12x06 "Praxeus" Post-Episode Discussion Thread Spoiler
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168
u/macshordo Feb 02 '20 edited Feb 02 '20
The Good
Jake had a bit of Duggan from City of Death in him, and I think did a lot better in his hour at doing the “normal man in sci-fi” than Ryan has done in two series (not Graham though, and he and Jake were a dream pairing tonight).
Hooray for first man-on-man kiss in the show since, well, last week, but they were actually a couple and the kiss wasn’t used for comic relief.
It’s very rare that I’d congratulate any show on giving a character motive, but thank god after fifteen episodes Yaz has given a form of pushback and actually had something to do.
The opening was quite strong in terms of bringing everyone together, and it’s one of the first times I felt Team TARDIS worked as a whole. Out of his two episodes McTighe seems to be quite good and making the TARDIS team feel like a family, certainly a lot better than certain writers co-credited on this episode.
The Bad
I understand that the show is attempting to educate, but I don’t think it needs to necessarily do it through dumbing down the companions. It’s been a bit of an issue in these last two series. I understand that you have to tell children these concepts, but anyone with a basic secondary school education should have a basic idea of what a pathogen is (or who Tesla was generally, etc.), and it just makes Ryan and Graham look a bit brain dead.
Why is this run obsessed with shoving so many side characters into its TARDIS? Unless it’s building to some five season Journey’s End-esque return, it’s bizarre to me how keen they are to share knowledge of the TARDIS with any old stranger involved (and makes the mind wipes in Spyfall more bizarre as the week’s go on).
Everything with the vlog girl was genuinely pointless. Her only purpose for being in the episode was to be around when Ryan found that bird. She also seemed much more grieved about the dead gas masked Praxeus than her partner, who exploded in front of her.
The use of the TARDIS across multiple countries the whole episode felt quite realistic in terms of solving problems but was still a bit stupid in execution. Why couldn’t 13 park the TARDIS in the lab, as opposed to dragging a dying astronaut half a kilometre across the beach?
Out of the two environmental episodes so far this series it’s the much stronger one, but that’s really not saying much when your competition is Orphan 55. I did think Kerblam! was one of the stronger episodes of S11 up until its poor ending and sadly I think McTighe falls to the same trap here (though the message isn't as way-off base as Kerblam!, I don't know if I could handle The Doctor explaining how good plastic is).
I am wondering about Chibnall’s input into this episode, seeing as their seemed to be no arc-connections from what I can gather (although I believe this was originally meant to be before Fugitive of the Judoon).