Doctor Who: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos

Christmas is only a week away, and so my watching schedule has been rather slow, but I've made it at last to the finale of this season's Doctor Who (though we've still got a New Year's Special to go).

The whole season has had an interesting structure – though most of the intervening episodes have been standalones, the premiere and finale are closely connected; essentially a story and its sequel. There was no real arc in between the two as we saw in the Russell T. Davies era (such as the Bad Wolf and Saxon clues that were strewn across each season) rather Chris Chibnall was content to let others tell their own tales before wrapping up his own.

Though did we ever get an answer to the "Timeless Child" comment made in The Ghost Monument? Maybe that's being saved for the Special.

1. Hey, it's Mrs Hughes and Robert Baratheon! Honestly, one of my favourite parts of this show is recognizing all the familiar British actors.

2. I instantly became queasy when the Ux characters began talking about the Creator and their faith, simply because most sci-fi shows feel an inescapable urge to ridicule or demonise those who chose to believe in the unseen. I'm all for criticising the dark side of organized religion in real life, but on a storytelling level it's become a tedious cliché.

(Though Doctor Who is better than most, as we've had sympathetic characters with faith like the monks in The Time of the Angels and the Muslim girl in The God Complex).

In any case, I appreciated that though the Ux were ultimately misguided in identifying Tzim-Sha as their Creator, they were ultimately allowed to retain their faith without being mocked for it. The episode itself was packed full of religious themes and symbols, from one of the Ux getting almost literally crucified, to the Doctor's outrage at a false god who "took advantage of faith" (it felt significant that she was angry at Tzim-Sha for manipulating the Ux rather than at the Ux for having belief in the first place), the Doctor essentially praying in order to bring the Tardis to her, the Ux going out to "spread the word" at the end of the episode, and of course the Doctor's final words to them.

Of course, it's unclear why this theme wasn't spread out across the entire season, but hey – in the eleventh hour it made for a refreshing change of pace.

3. To open with the Ux and then skip ahead three thousand, four hundred and seven years later was a nice use of time on a time-travelling show, but still not the cleverest thing the show has done with the concept (let's face it, Moffatt was the best at this). Though I liked the line: "those last seven years must have dragged."

4. If there's one thing the Doctor can never do, it's ignore a distress signal – so now there are nine of them that need answering. There was a lot of plot in this episode: an amnesiac commander, a crew being held hostage, a strange device in a large crystal, a planet that messes with people's minds, but it all hung together reasonably well.

Basically Tzim-Sha has manipulated the Ux into creating doomsday device powered by nine planets pulled out of their spatial orbit, one of which is in the possession of Mark Addy who can't remember who he is, but knows his crew is in danger if he doesn't give it up. Pretty straightforward mystery: like so many things this season, it's not bad, just not particularly original.

5. I thought it was only a matter of time before someone lost their neural inhibiter and turned on the others, but instead it was used to bring the Ux back to their senses. And though Yaz was crucial in giving hers up for the greater good (risking the negative influence of the planet on her mind) her would-be sacrifice didn't have any serious side-effects, and she's still the most underused companion of the show.

6. Ah, it's the old "kill him and you'll be just like him" nonsense. Because OF COURSE a decent fifty-something year old man going to become just like a psychotic mass-murdering alien with the TEETH of his victims on his face if he decides to avenge his innocent wife. Urgh.

Look, it's not like I encourage people to go around killing others in revenge, but this theme is so well-trod and so predictable, that watching Ryan and Graham find a third option just didn't have any sort of resonance.

8. However, they did share the best scene when Ryan says: "We're family and I love you," followed by a face-pull and the words: "I'm not saying again, you heard it the first time." Easily the best scene of the episode – perhaps even the season.

9. The evil edifice was appropriately spooky and awe-inspiring, and conveniently filled with robots which can be shot at without breaking any "no kill" rules. Graham even manages to get in a: "Yippekayay, robots!"

10. So I loved the Doctor's last words to the Ux, so much so that I'll quote it here: "None of know for sure what's out there. That's why we keep looking. Keep your faith. Travel hopefully. The universe will surprise you. Constantly."

If you've read between the lines of some of my most recent blog-posts, I haven't exactly been in a good head-space lately when it comes to spiritual matters. I haven't discussed it here, because I try extremely hard to keep real-world politics and religion out of this blog (in order to keep it a strictly fandom space) but I really needed to hear that from the Doctor – and the fact it came from her female incarnation gave it even more resonance somehow.

Which of course, is what all the best stories are meant to do.

So that was the conclusion of our first season with the Doctor in a woman's form, and I have to say... it was fine. The best part was (thankfully) Jodi Whittaker, who plays the character as reassuring, curious and confident; someone who can stare down the bad guys while making fun little asides to her friends.

The companions are likable enough, though I still think Chibnell bit off more than he could chew when he introduced three in one go, and the stories are quite eclectic in tone, without much in the way of an overarching theme. We had talking frogs and giant spiders, witch trials and Rosa Parks, delivery robots and everything-eating aliens, and tons of pretty impressive guest-stars – though nothing that really connected them all.

But I think it's safe to say that this season has been a success" there was positive press, lots of viewers and less drama than there possibly could have been over a female Doctor (not that there wasn't any). See you at New Year!