Yeah, the structure and occasional tension is nice as opposed to, in the previous series, where everything floated along all the time and had no logic. Here, some scenes are logical and others aren't. So, yeah. Technically an improvement but a far cry from good. You've pretty much just pinned it. I had a LOT of little problems with this episode, and was mainly really sad to see that Flux was starting to show signs of Chibnall's previous work. Pretty polarizing episode, I suspect. There was a lot of dumb stuff I couldn't let slide, unfortunately.

Oh yeah, for sure I think having dumb characters doesn't automatically make them a bad character. The character was depicted in this way for the message, but I think the message itself in its communication took a complete nosedive in the way it was depicted through these "Chris Chibnall Explains Everything" moments, using the Doctor as a mouthpiece. I suppose I must've come off in an angry way concerning the character, which I don't think was actually true. I have every problem with the way the message is set up to be explored, and as the theme of this episode, had almost no value in it. I appreciate, in a way, this historical resonance throughout Chibnall, but the messaging usually comes of as clunky and preachy, as I think it does here. Also another thing I've seen people praise about this episode that I suppose I agree with, the Sontaran stuff. I guess my in-awe with these scenes is that none of this is new stuff. We've seen Sontarans before, people that Chris Chibnall knows has written them before, so the whole "The Sontarans are written perfectly" praise, while in a large sense I agree, internally I'm like "well, yeah. They're Sontarans. They aren't that hard to write" But, to be fair, Chibnall has screwed up way more beloved villains way worse before, and he did a great job with them here. Totally get what you're saying, homeslice. I just kinda don't love at all the dumb stuff in this one. It plummets the episode for me.

@Ball ah, is that related to Gilbert and Sullivan mocking “A modern major general”?

oh god...

no, just no...

no, my feelings are the same. In the first essay I blindly bashed Chibnall without my own criticism. Now, as I've seen them, I now dislike Chibnall based on my own experience watching. So, basically, some actual criticism is all the difference. There are, of course, intricacies to that, which were bankrupt and simplified in the first essay's take on the Chibnall era. Hope that clears things up.

@@Brub52 Ohh ok, good. Thanks for reply!