2nd February, 2020.
Right … you can possibly tell I recorded that introductory vide earlier tonight.
You’d be right.
I’d literally got home from dinner with my family.
Going by what Jude, my nephew, tells me … ?
I’m not as good as Mummy at FIFA 20 …
It’s the buttons on the handsets.
I grew up on a joystick, after all.
~≈§≈~
At any rate … ?
I managed to get myself home in time for some TV.
Yes: you’re right.
~≈§≈~
Episode 6 — Praxeus — opens with astronaut Adam Lang (Matthew McNulty) in trouble: as his reentry vehicle crashes.
Introduces us to Jake Willis (Warren Brown) as he arrests a shoplifter.
Introduces us to vloggers, Gabriela and Jamila (Joana Borja and Gabriela Toloi) as they come to what Gabriela assures Jamila is one of the most beautiful rivers on Earth … only to find a polluted pit.
And introduces researchers Aramu and Suki (Thapelo Maropefela and Molly Harris) who are on Madagascar, trying to find out why birds — non-local birds — are flocking and dying on their patch.
Lang? Seemingly sends his estranged husband, Jake, a text message: one that sees him hijacked and arriving in Hong Kong … with Yas (Mandip Gill) and Graham (Bradley Walsh) already investigating.
Over night?
Jamila disappears: attacked by a similar bird.
It’s only when she finds a dead bird dropping out of the sky … that she’s contacted by Ryan … warning her to go nowhere near it.
Suki and Aramu’s early morning start … ?
Is interrupted by a a Doctor (Jodie Whittaker), a running, screaming, yelling Doctor … desperately trying to find a missing submarine …
And finding only one survivor … who explodes …
The talking cat in Ontario … ?
Is comparatively irrelevant …
~≈§≈~
Now …
Are we looking at a good, bad or indifferent episode?
One that has a good story to tell, or one that overwhelms us with political correctness gone mad!?
Personally?
I felt Praxeus was an exciting, engrossing story.
Gave us an interesting detective story with something for each of the characters to do. Ryan getting to dissect the bird to find out what’s wrong, Yas having to investigate the crashed alien shuttle, and Graham doing his wise counsellor bit in dealing with Jake.
On top of that?
I’m very aware that many fans have been unhappy about the tone taken in some of series eleven’s episode: and could have been unhappy about or or two episodes in this season.
I know I felt the tone of the Doctor’s big speech at the end of Orphan 55 was decidedly heavy handed: so can sympathise.
I think, though, that those fans may be muted about Praxeus.
I write Teasers: (hopefully) fun brain teasers about history, with a theme for each day.
The upcoming Teaser for the 11th February, this year, has something of a science fiction theme: with a relevant quote from Frederick Pohl.
“Someone once said that a good science-fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.”
In other word, Praxeus isn’t necessarily about plastic rubbish in the ocean: it’s telling us it’s there, and could cause a problem.
Without getting preachy about it.
OK … there’s downsides to the episode.
We don’t get to find out much about Suki’s people: bar the fact they’re desperate enough to use humans as lab rats.
We don’t get answers to last week’s big revelation about the Jo Martin character — which I felt we should. I’m assuming that Will be slowly tied off over the next few weeks.
But, on the whole?
Praxeus is a rock solid little episode.
And well worth watching.
6 comments:
After this episode I am considering not watching Dr Who again until we get better writers. I am totally fed up of Politically Correct or episodes which push environmental issues down our throats. I have no problems with a Dr of either sex or same sex marriage. I have enjoyed companions like Bill and Captain Jake but they were in well written episodes.
If we are not careful Dr Who will be cut fro the schedules again and it is all down to Chibnall.
Are you OK if I disagree, Trevor?
I thought it was a great episode
Looks like I am not alone.
I have just read my morning paper (The Daily Telegraph) and here is there review.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2020/02/02/doctor-whopraxeus-review-science-fiction-has-taken-back-seat/
I’ll take your word it’s bad, Trevor: the Telegraph won’t let me read it until I subscribe.
As I don’t have a quid, right now …
But, not science fiction … ?
It’s about a virus that attacks plastic.
Last time I heard of that was an old episode of Doomwatch
Here is acopy of the article.
"Oh, Doctor Who. I have tried to love you, really I have. A female Doctor? Bring it on! Bradley Walsh as a companion? Could be inspired casting. Two extra companions? Been done before, and there’s no reason why it couldn’t work. Storylines about Rosa Parks and Partition? Well, the show has lots of young viewers for whom these subjects could be both new and interesting, and there’s nothing in the rules which says it can’t tackle significant moments in history.
But the Praxeus episode was the final proof, if it were needed, that Doctor Who (BBC One) is not what it was. By which I mean that it is no longer a sci-fi show. It is a show preaching messages to children, which happens to have the occasional alien in it as a bit of sci-fi window dressing.
We were back in James Bond adventure mode, rapidly switching datelines from Peru to Madagascar to Hong Kong. It began promisingly enough, with astronaut Adam (Matthew McNulty) missing presumed dead after his spacecraft hurtled out of control on a return from the International Space Station. Back on Earth, a man called Jake (Warren Brown) received a text from Adam, begging for help and pinpointing his position to Hong Kong.
Then to Peru, and a clue to where this was all heading. Two backpacking travel vloggers turned up to a spot which three years earlier had been an unspoilt paradise, but was now covered in rubbish. To cut a long story short, the astronaut and one of the backpackers became infected by an alien bacteria. And what did it feed on? Microplastics.
“It’s in the air, it’s in your food, it’s in your water. Humans have flooded this planet with plastics that can’t be broken down,” explained the Doctor. This is a subject worth exploring – Anita Rani and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall did an excellent job in last year’s War on Plastic series. But in the context of Doctor Who, it felt like a school lecture. This didactic tone means that everything feels as if it has been shoehorned in to make a point.
It shouldn’t be of note that Jake and Adam turned out to be married, and yet the series has somehow got itself to a place where everything seems deliberately worthy.
On top of this, the script was confusing and boring and the actual alien bit – human bodies being covered by a sort of creeping carapace – was genuinely horrible, far too scary for the younger children who would have been most receptive to the environmental message. The show has lost its way."
I'd agree that the episode might be a touch preachy.
It's the speechifying more than the subject for me. I think Doctor Who isn't a complete stranger to the foibles of humankind, including pollution.
But I could do without the soliloquies/monologues/speeches. Hello, subtext anyone? :)
Having said that, I still enjoyed the episode. At least, there was action and Yas does something, although to be honest, I thought her motives were someone unclear.
Yeah, I could on. Probably should write my own review. :)
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