My video on the issue of the BBC's support of Transphobia: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/l7RkqMZhrcDWh3k.html Shaun's 1st video, which includes some additional confirmed information: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mJqSqK1-ss_bk5s.html Shaun’s 2nd video, which follows how the BBC is trying to dodge accountability for all of this: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/p8yah6pnuLzOnYU.html Shaun’s recent 3rd video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nLieZLiLmczMlHk.html Laura Kate Dale's recent protest speech outside the BBC offices: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nqiaetGI0N2lmn0.html

"You set yourself up for something that you didn't pay off!" That's basically the Chibnall era in a nutshell isn't it?

It's my headcanon that the guy who created the sniperbots was well aware of how bad they were and decided to name them sniperbots as a joke.

The big payoff for Tzim-Sha is an after-credits scene of him in stasis, thinking aloud to himself: "Actually, I would kind of like some salad."

Not every Season needs to end on a big note, but it should leave an impression on the audience about how The Doctor has been over the Season (especially if it's their 1st). I feel Graham and Ryan got more development/left a bigger impression from this finale then The Doctor herself did.

This Doctor says "that's impossible" actually quite a lot to things that really are totally possible and she should realise are so based on her past. It happens in Legend of the Sea Devils too

I think this is the episode that Chibnall revealed in a recent interview was a first draft - which goes a long way toward explaining most of the problems you mention. The sort of things which would have been tidied up in later drafts so they made more sense and didn't leave loose ends hanging all over the place. Although tbh, the more surprising thing to me was that the rest of Chibnall's scripts weren't first drafts.

Chibnall’s Doctor doesn’t kill. So they have do wonky work arounds…they lock villains up, they drop them out of airlocks or they teleport them away.

I am NEVER going to refer to the Chibnall era as anything other than 'The Sad Cello Years'. Any review clip that comes up that's supposed to hold emotional weight but is just empty dialogue that doesn't show us anything, it's that BLOODY 'be sad now' cello in the background.

"This whole Idea of the planet with phsyco-kinetic waves coming off it that mess with the mind" Me: Oh, wow, that actually sounds really cool! How come I don't remember that part of the episode? "You know how that factors into the story? IT DOESN'T." Me: Oh.

The thing that really stood out for me in this episode is that they show the laser hitting the Earth, but they dont show how any of the people on Earth react to that.

Kira Nerys from Star Trek DS9 is the best depiction of an alien of faith that I can think of.

I honestly forgot about the psychic planet. Honestly, if they hadn't done something similar in the previous episode, this would have been a great chance to devote some time to Graham and Ryan's grief. You could have Grace appear to them as the planet messes with their heads, possibly either egging them on to go after Shaw, or to leave him, depending on how warped the visions of her were.

I just had a realization for why Whittaker’s Doctor just doesn’t feel complete. She isn’t clever, and it never seems like there’s anything going on under the surface with her

Watching these re-reviews is interesting because I’m starting to realize that I remember almost *nothing* from the episodes written by Chibnall. It’s like his writing is memory-proof. (Almost like the Silence. LOL?) Honestly, the only things I seem to remember are a vague frustration with his alien names… and a profound annoyance with “The Timeless Child” retcon. But the individual stories themselves? I remember almost nothing. Like, *this* story? I remember being annoyed with the title. But I’d forgotten, literally, *everything* else. The plot. The characters. “Tim Shaw”. All of it. And I am soOOooo not the kind of person who just forgets things. Quite the opposite, in fact.

For all the criticism of The DaVinci Code, I did appreciate that the author explored many different characters' perceptions of their faith, from the person who took the discipline of his church to extreme actions, to the woman who enjoyed having a sense of community in her congregation and knowing she could sing along to hymns out of tune during Sunday services and not feel like people were judging the quality of her voice.

So, this was a first draft but the Timeless Children… wasn’t??

To me, all of the problems of the Chibnall Era can be encapsulated by comparing the 13th Doctor's reaction to planetary genocide in this episode to the how the 4th Doctor reacted to planetary genocide (I mean literally a near-identical evil plan) back in The Pirate Planet. 4th Doctor: Appreciate it? Appreciate it?! You commit mass destruction and genocide on an almost inconceivable scale and you ask me to appreciate it all because you've made a pretty toy??!!! 13th Doctor: Man, I already didn't like you before, but I really don't like you now. All of Chibnall's failings are laid bare in 13's pitiful reaction to mass murder. The whole era is exemplified right there. Bland and uninspired.

Chibnall has recently revealed he didn't have enough time to do a final draft of this episode and he genuinely doesn't like this episode. And I can see how obvious that is

23:10 Yeah, 13 being inconsistent/hipocrite/liar doesn't really feel intentional or like a theme for her character. It's not well established and it comes off like bad writing, not a character beat (could be both). One of my favourite characters of all time is Sigfried Farnon from All Creatures Great and Small, and its established in the second chapter he's in that this dude is a massive hypocrite who makes statements and then does the complete opposite when it affects him. It's repeated throughout the book in both minor and major situations. It's a character flaw which does affect him and everyone around him. In series 11, it doesn't feel like that, it feels like a hand wave to avoid writing a consistent character.

I hate the title of this one. I always call it either Battle of Raxacoricofallapatorious or Battle of Rimsky-Korsakov. Chibnall REALLY sucks at naming things lol

Can we just say that 'Resolution (of the Dalek)' is the actual series finale?

"Chuckle-heads!"..... I have never laughed so loud 😂

I don't remember a lot about this ep except that it fell flat, like most of season 11 and 12 for me. Your other reviews saying the episodes needed more rewrites and was like bullet points undeveloped, is right on. "UX" -- Is used in the legal phrase, "et ux," meaning "and wife." So it was probably a random name, or else she was running around talking about a species of real housewives? LOL, no. Yes, they needed to make up better alien names / words. Deep Space Nine does a much better job of portraying religion in science fiction. The Chibnall era was a mess, too often. It had potential sometimes but didn't know what to do with it. (In my opinion.) I still feel Jodie was miscast, plus given bad advice not to study up on previous Doctor Who. Not her fault. But it contributed to problems that shouldn't have been there.

Such a boring finale, even more sad because it's a first season of a new Doctor, i think it as clear back then that 13th never had a fixed personality. God i'm so thankful that Chinibal is gone..

I will say one (and only one) nice thing about this episode. Ranskoor Av Kolos is by far the best alien name in this era.

Setting up something that doesn´t pay off and waste of potential seem to be the motto of the whole run of 13. It is a shame.

I actually really quite like it, even if it doesn't quite accomplish what it set out to do and I'm very interested in the production issues that waylaid the delivery of the script. A quieter finale that calls out Thirteen's inaction and leaves an uneasy future for the TARDIS team. (Ryan and Graham will at least be refered to in the centenary by Tzim-Sha, there was a three year plan for The Fam, etc)

I keep coming back to that Mitchell and Webb “Numberwang” sketch. The Chibnall era is the American remake: it both understands the concept too well, and entirely misses the point.

I still maintain that S11 should've ended with the Stenza putting team tardis on trial in an imperial court for breaching tzim shah's legal hunting agreement

i was about to say that Chris Chibnal went really deep into outer space to find truely alien sounding names that just kills the vibe....then you talked about the Ux......it's like wow

Btw the same "random god from the sky" happened again in the flux lol it's like that they write the humans in this Era as a brainwashed stupid things..

Thanks for posting this - insightful and very funny.

The faith discourse in this video reminded me of Twelve trying to convince the Vikings that he was Odin and utterly failing lol

It really needed a name people could actually remember, that would have helped. The politest my friends call this is "The Battle of Whatist", the rudest is a play on rancid body parts. Nobody remembers what it is supposed to be called.

I know, intellectually, that I've seen this episode before because I remember recognizing the lady from Downton Abbey. I do not remember a SINGLE thing about this episode.

If I were being VERY generous to this episode, I think you can spin some kind of understanding of the Ux religion/credulity situation that does rely on their being only two of them on a psychic attack planet. The status quo we're presented with is one older Ux orally teaching one younger Ux. They don't get visitors from outside their race/cult because of the planet's condition, and and they have no true peers to wander by and say "hey, you've handed down our religion incompletely/poorly/whatever". If one person does a bad job of teaching the next one, you permanently lose all the content of the religion that didn't get passed down. So you could argue they don't know anything about their Creator figure to compare against. This does not explain why they don't decide to ditch their loyalty to their "Creator" once they have 3700 years to know him, though. :P

The saddest part about inventing concepts like a psychic planet just to cover holes in a story is that actually going down those rabbit holes and seeing where they lead is one of the most rewarding ways to write a story; organic exploration of a weird and unique concept often results in a better story than the plot you thought you had when you came up with that concept; and, in fact, some of the best sci-fi ever written at the very least feels like it could have been written that way. So that whole idea isn't just a setup with no payoff, it's a massive missed opportunity for a different, better, story.

Great review. Anyone can say "here's what was bad", but only you advance a plausible guess as to how Chibnall got himself into this mess. The thing about his era is it's not enough for me to assess it; I want to understand what happened. I think you've hit on something: he works backwards from plot hole neutralizations. The best DW scripts, classic or new, have always used a different kind of working backwards: deciding what clues will help the Doctor & the audience work out what's going on.

6:34 "Not betrayal, portrayal" Well, technically, the Ux do betray Tim Shaw to the Doctor later in this episode, and then they let him take all the heat for the war crimes they all participated in. 12:56 - 13:23 The Chibnall era in a nutshell. This era of the show spends so much time setting up stuff for future episodes, and then half of it never goes anywhere. 23:12 This is one of the most honest things that the Thirteenth Doctor has ever said about herself: she is indeed a massive hypocrite.

There is no battle.

I don't think it was reverse engineered from the amnesia, I think it was so they'd have the dampeners to stop the Ux. Not that that's better.

I can at least appreciate that Chibnall wanted to go for a more low-key finale. But I don't think it's very well written.

For me this episode the problem with having a series with such underwhelming villains. It made it very hard to have a returning threat. To be honest most of Chibnall' s best villains have all been new versions of existing villains. When it comes to completely new villains there's only a handful that I thought truly worked. I prefer your idea of making the Stenza the threat but even then they'd have needed more build up.

The psychic waves could have been solved by just simply having them be localised to one are of the planet. Psychic bombs could have been fired at the ships where they met the amnesiac pilot. Once they leave the ships and get closer to the Ux and Tsim Sha the influence would reduce.

Hey, kids, who wants to rewatch 'The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos?' Kids...?

In a nutshell, this finale (s)Ux

The actual Creator should've turned after the Doctor. 'The God of many Teeth' Also it should been part of a Stenza civil war - there's those consequences.

Honestly, I like this story, it's nothing amazing but I enjoy it. I like how Bradley gives an understated performance when he's angry as going into an emotional rage would've been out of character.

Your point is your spot on 100% You are so true on this one spot on. I'm not religious but I grew up as a Jewish. I had my beliefs when I was a kid then I grew out of it. With that said I have a Mormon friend and we always have a discussion about religion I asked him why do you believe that your religion works for you and his answer is always just does. I asked him what if I gave you a million dollars to change your religion, would you? He said absolutely not. You can say he's close-minded. I can say he's not because I know him very well. And I can imagine anyone who has faith in a religion whatever that is whatever religion you believe that is true and your faith is true. Would probably say the same thing same answer no, you would not take a million dollars to switch. When you are a believer of something a true believer you'll always believe it you always have faith in it. It's the way it is for religious people no matter what their domination is. I can see where they were going with this on a TV show with only 45 minutes. But doesn't excuse dishonoring religion in itself. They should have been very careful with they wrote this episode. When somebody's religious and has faith in their religion they have no doubt that's the religion that they are born to be. As for me I didn't grow up in a religious home so I had a choice I had an open mind. But I always be Jewish no matter what. You cannot take away that form me.

Chibnall said he regrets this episode.

Happy Pride Month, Vera! 🏳️‍🌈

The Battle of Hamsters have Colons is a terrible finale with a half arsed villain.

When they tried to tease flux by getting the doctor to say uks a lot

Oh, boy... I'm really, truly sorry to sound like such a downer, but I found this finale to be incredibly flat, boring, lifeless and uneventful, spoiling any amount of goodwill I had left towards Series 11 and ended the series on a disappointingly sour note for me. For something called 'The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos', there was very little battle and mostly consisted of people standing around and spouting endless exposition or saying what the characters are feeling at all times. At one point, I actually found myself shouting "Do something!" For all the build-up of Tzim-Sha being a powerful threat that was worshiped as a god, he was a terrible villain that was easily taken out with one shot to the foot, not to mention that there were plenty of interesting ideas that were just completely wasted. The whole psychic planet idea was just thrown away, the Ux didn't leave any lasting impression, and they set up a companion-revenge narrative at the beginning of the story, only to do nothing with that for most of the runtime and then just whimpers out at the end. Honestly, it made both 'The Wedding of River Song' and 'Hell Bent' look like masterpieces for me, because as much as I disagreed with the choices made in those two finales, at least they took risks, taken chances and had raised stakes. This finale had none of that, and personally for me, I'd rather have something take a risk and fail rather than have something that was safe, generic, bland, forgettable or uninteresting. At least the failure will leave a memorable impact and get a reaction out of me. Not only is this both the worst series finale and the worst episode in Series 11, but it's quite possibly the worst story of Modern Who, as well as one of the worst stories in the show's history. Hell, it wasn't even so bad it's good. It was just BAD.

I think it would've been better if this episode and It Takes You Away switched places. ITYA works better as a finale IMO.

in America religion has been a rather destructive force. yes there are people who use religion as a guide in their lives and I respect their right to believe as they see fit, but the vast majority of churches push a literal interpretation of the bible, teaching creation in place of science to children too young to know how to reason. indoctrinating them at such a young age. I do think that is destructive and I am a fan of scifi that points out and examines the negative impacts of religious fanaticism. this episode doesn't do that. you are right its the worst example of religious commentary in scifi.

Says alot about the character when you don't mention Yaz at all in the review.

I actually quite like Chibnall's alien names. I mean, nothing beats Raxacoricofallapatorian, but IDK, Chib's alien names are just fun.

sometimes you believe cause everyone else seems to believe and you just need to hear good arguments against religion, so logic can work, it worked for me when I was 17

The whole Graham not killing storylines was so boring and predictable and reminded me of every superhero show ever.

If after this episode somebody still considers Chibnall "quality writer" or "pro"... Sorry, it's just ridiculous :P

I kind of love what it does, even if it's not enterily successful. A small scale threat calling out Thirteens inactivity, Thirteen displacing her struggle onto Graham ('wiser' Doctors would tried to persuade Graham), Ryan and Graham taking action and doing the 'right' thing, the legacy stuff inherent, etc.

THIS. This is what made me stop watching Doctor Who, or even thinking much about it, for 3 + years. After struggling my way through Season 11, all the while having increasing doubts about continuing at all, then we get to this utter mess of an episode. The sheer level of contrived coincidence going into ludicrous speed, and then the completely forked up [excuse my Good Place swearing] morality of the end decision to imprison Tim Shaw in what is essentially an eternal hell, and then presenting it as if it's the "right" solution...[Even writing about it now makes me all riled up.] I'm just glad I jumped ship before the Timeless Child debacle. But I'm not sure if I want to even try Season 14, after all, especially if Russel T. Davis continues the Timeless Child storyline. I just wish I didn't feel so jaded and cynical about it. I've been a fan since 2013, which really isn't very long compared to some, but...anyway. Does anyone have any advice for this tired, questioning Doctor Who fan?

I don’t find Ranskoor to be terrible as it’s made out to be. Yeah, it’s not fantastic (a writer can’t please everyone) but it’s still enjoyable. Most finales in Doctor Who aren’t great (in my opinion, depending on the part/s or as a whole) such as Inferno, The Time Monster, Army of Ghosts/Doomsday and The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords. I give the rest a pass, ‘cause I enjoy them as they are or for other reasons. I know many count Utopia as part 1 of 3, but it’s better as a standalone (same with Turn Left)

Even Chibnall considers Resolution to be the true S11 finale...

I have not rewatched this, and I doubt I ever will.

a mess an absolute mess lol

It's one of the worst pieces of Doctor Who media I have ever experienced. It shifts the scales of series 11 from being meh to being bad. I remember just after watching it when it aired thinking that if I wasn't already a hardcore fan who had spent years invested in the franchise I would have quit watching then. This is worse than The Web Planet, Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks, Fear Hear, The Idiot's Lantern and Dimension in Time. I'm currently watching the whole TV series in order with a friend starting with an An Unearthly Child and I am dreading having to sit through this and a couple other series 11 episodes again. This is the kind of Doctor Who that makes JNT's worst seem genius.

It's very messy but I didn't hate it and enjoyed more the second time and even a bit more the third time. It's not great but definitely not terrible.

I'm not too sure they are portrayed as idiots, just people who have seen an impossible act happen in front of them and then connected the dots in the wrong order. If someone happened to teleport in front of me and then claimed to be a god, I'd have half a mind to believe them, and I'm agnostic.

My initial thought on seeing Tim Shaw was back was that the Doctor, after a whole season of being especially overbearing and condescending about violence and killing, would now find herself seriously tempted to break that rule after seeing the consequences of letting him live the last time. But no, she just does more of that same lecturing and Graham gets out of it with an even more BS ethical loophole than in Batman Begins.

I actually like tim shaw and the stenza, ut why, the religious people belonged in their own epiode. And tim shas relative or whatever. And tim shaw being elsewhere stranded and building himself weapons? an lure the doctior in with a fake help signal or something. have scary weird weapons that he blackmails the doctor or something. Ad you could do the same, just have relatives of tim shaw later that could free him and help with rvenge?! Employ tim shaw for their purposes given a debt?!

that episode had so many issues but honestly? it could've been saved had it been a two-parter. the ending felt rushed. it could've actually been good but nope

imo those that are religious deserve a little belittling.

Still the worst title

I am a fan of Chibnall and Jodie but I really thought this finale was pretty boring. Still better then the wedding of River Song though