2nd Opinion, Take 1 “The Halloween Apocalypse” – The Strongest Chibnall Opener So Far

Gustaff Behr’s take on the Series 13 opener.

I would say it feels like only yesterday that we were bidding farewell to Series 12, but really, it’s been twenty months. Now, Doctor Who is back with a drastically different format, way fewer episodes and a smaller TARDIS team. With so many things counting in his favor, did Chris Chibnall manage to pull off an upset in light of the hugely divisive events of the previous season finale?

For the most part, I am going to say ‘yes’. “The Halloween Apocalypse” feels like the strongest Chibnall opener so far. It’s all over the place, rushing to set up all the chess pieces. Sometimes you’ll feel like you haven’t been given any time to breathe, or take in what’s happening onscreen. But throwing your audience into so many plot threads all at once feels like an homage to Heroes from the late 00s, a series that made a habit of regularly juggling multiple, seemingly unconnected plots before tying them together in the finale. We still have to wait five episodes before we find out whether Chris Chibnall has found a way to weave these plot threads into a cohesive story, but so far, “The Halloween Apocalypse” makes good on its job of bombarding you with questions and giving you no answers.

And it wouldn’t be a Chris Chibnall episode if there weren’t loads and loads of characters to eat up the main characters’ screen time. Thankfully, nearly every supporting character introduced seems like they’ll be a lot of fun. Vinder only needed one scene to win me over, while it took some time for me to get used to discount Chewbacca. Claire just screens ‘companion material’ and as of writing this, I want to see what happens to her the most. Our newest companion, Dan, is already much better characterized than Yaz and Ryan put together. I did have some difficulty understanding him through that thick accent, but as a character, he comes across as very entertaining in an insufferably nice guy kind of way.

Unfortunately, even though she serves as the main companion for this episode, Yaz remains severely lacking in character development. Having her learn how to ‘co-pilot’ the TARDIS off-screen is not developing character, it is simply her learning a new skill. This fact is underlined even further given that the character does not do much in the episode except free Dan from his cell. Again, learning how to override alien locking controls is not character development. The rest of the time, she is just asking whether the Doctor is okay, or berating her for keeping secrets.

On the topic of secrets, why is the episode trying to create artificial conflict between the Doctor and Yaz? It feels really forced when there is no reason for the Doctor to be hiding any of the information she is keeping hidden. If the episode is trying to emulate the Seventh Doctor and Ace, it is doing a fairly poor job of it. In Ace’s case, the Doctor, apart from being genuinely characterized as someone who willfully withholds information because telling his companions the truth either hurts them (ala Fenric or Ghostlight) or makes them harder to manipulate, and Number 7 is also very arrogant as he believes he is the only one capable of playing space chess with Old gods. The Thirteenth Doctor has no reason to hide what she is trying to do because Yaz already knows about her past and one of her very few character traits is that she is someone who helps other people.

Arguably, the biggest issue I have with this episode, which I also have with the Chibnall era in general, is the ridiculous amounts of underlined exposition. This episode stinks of it and takes you right out of the story. Worse than that, it makes me think the episode believes I’m five-years-old and needs every single thing spelled out to me—repeatedly!

Here’s an example from the episode:

I must admit, Yaz, I can’t help feeling that some of this is my fault.

Some? All of this is your fault!

What d’you mean?!

Accidentally blowing up Karvanista’s droid guards when we were trying to sneak into his operations base unnoticed?

It’s very temperamental, Nitro-9.

Suggesting we escape his base by air-surfing on this gravbar?

How was I to know that force shield would reboot at the exact moment we were heading towards it?

And when we got captured, you had to mention the two sets of cuffs in your pocket!

And another:

While trying to get to Earth–

Go on! That’s the fourth time.

I know.

This is the simplest trajectory. Earth! We should be there already. What’s wrong with you?

And another:

Finding out Dan has been taken–

So where is he now?

Ah. Quick check of planetary orbit. Nice laptop, Dan. Right. There! 7.2 minutes ago, Karvanista’s ship, leaving Earth, shielded against detection. We’re just behind him.

So where’s he going?

Why am I getting multiple traces? Hang on while I zoom out. Seven billion Lupari ships coming this way?

That’s an invasion fleet, right?

Most of the episode is written like this, and it is extremely frustrating to have every other line of dialogue underlined by another, that a ten-year-old can work out for themselves. The most erogenous example of this is when Clair is trying to escape from the Weeping Angel. Right after the Angel demonstrates its powers to new viewers by moving when Clair looks away and back again, she says this:

Mustn’t blink. If you blink, it’ll move. Don’t blink.

I, as a new viewer, has observed this alien not attack you while you are looking at it and I, as someone who is watching the episode, has seen this alien move towards you when you look away. You do not need to tell yourself that if you blink, it’ll move. Either we have worked it out, or let us work it out.

All in all, the pieces have been set up. We know who all the players are, or at least their names and occupations, so all that’s left is to wait and see what Chris Chibnall manages to do with the Sontarans (who look awesome btw)!