“The Tsuranga Conundrum” Advance Review – Puzzling
Note: Doctor Who TV’s pre-air episode impressions aim to be as detail-free as we reasonably can while still offering a critique, but as everyone’s spoiler sensibilities are different, we advise you read on at your own discretion.
It was inevitable that at some point during his Doctor Who stewardship, Chris Chibnall would end up writing an episode drawing from the tried and true “base-under-siege” format that the show has used liberally over the years. Of course Chibnall already attempted this way back in 2007 with his first Who story “42,” but “The Tsuranga Conundrum” is his latest spin on it.
In the far future, a disparate group awakens on a white and sterile ship. There’s an android, and there’s also an impregnated man. A monster soon finds its way on board and begins to terrorise the crew. Everyone must pull together to try and escape this seemingly dire situation.
Sorry, that was actually the plot for Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic “Alien”, but Doctor Who this week bears some notable similarities on the surface. Only where “Alien” was horrifying and gory, Chibnall takes an altogether more cutesy approach to things here.
The monster couldn’t be further away from the grotesque realisation of the Xenomorph. It’s more like something straight out of a Pixar movie, or for a Doctor Who comparison, the Adipose from “Partners in Crime”. It’s certainly an audacious choice for an episode like this, and will surely go down well with younger viewers. The problem is, it does remove the feeling of threat when the creature is so…well, adorable instead of scary. Try as the cast might, it’s a hard sell.
But really, like the rest of the episodes this year thus far, the monster and plot is secondary. Instead the episode is another heavily character focused one. There’s a fairly large guest cast, some receiving more attention than others. A chunk of the runtime is given to a side-plot involving pregnant male, Yoss (Jack Shalloo). This is largely played for laughs. Especially once again Graham and Ryan get involved, although it eventually allows for some nice development for the latter.
The episode looks great once again, with the sets capturing the feel of a clinical far future, but this is also the type of episode that doesn’t shift location once Team TARDIS settle into their surroundings. Instead there’s lots of talking in rooms, or moving around in corridors. Segun Akinola at least livens things up where he can with an energetic score.
Early verdict
“The Tsuranga Conundrum” is (rather aptly) a bit of a puzzling one: a base-under-siege episode on the surface, but with a threat too cute to be menacing. In other areas things gel better, with more of the solid character moments that you’ve come to expect from Chibnall by now.
