Doctor Who: 5 takeaways from The Tsuranga Conundrum

The Tsuranga Conundrum was more of a low-key episode than others this series. But it’s still given us plenty to talk about.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Spaceships, death and monsters: what five things did we takeaway from the latest Doctor Who episode, The Tsuranga Conundrum?

The Tsuranga Conundrum was, on the whole, a rather light Doctor Who episode. While most of the previous episodes have had relatively light stories, they’ve also been crucial in some way.

The Woman Who Fell to Earth had to kick off the new era of the new Doctor. The Ghost Monument reunited the Doctor with her TARDIS, and gave us plenty more to talk about, such as a new intro, a new TARDIS set, and “the Timeless Child”. (Whatever happened to that arc, anyway?)

Rosa dealt with some incredibly heavy subject matter, and came across as the strongest episode of Series Eleven yet. Arachnids in the UK, while having a light plot and an arguably weak lead antagonist, dealt with some major character moments, and had the TARDIS crew make the choice of being companions this time.

What did The Tsuranga Conundrum bring? Nothing quite as significant as what we’ve had so far. But that doesn’t mean that it didn’t give us anything worth watching at all. In fact, it gave us quite a few things to takeaway and discuss about it. The first thing that springs to mind?

We got our first outer space episode of the series

Five episodes in, and we finally get our first story set in outer space. And it was something of a twist that it was in outer space, too. Not a particularly major one, as it’s revealed relatively early on. But it was still nice for The Tsuranga Conundrum to leave its main setting as a surprise.

Of course, once you knew it was a spaceship, it was obvious. The sets capture that distinct feeling you’d get of many classic or modern spaceships in science fiction, almost being reminiscent of something out of Star Trek.

The CGI of course really helped with selling the outer space setting, too. New effects team DNEG continue to impress week after week, and what we saw of the Tsuranga was no exception.

Overall, it was nice to have a story set on a spaceship that wasn’t the TARDIS. Making it a hospital instead of an easy option like a warship was a nice touch.

We’ve seen many sides to the Doctor this series, but we saw a much more vulnerable side to Thirteen in The Tsuranga Conundrum.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

We saw a far more vulnerable side to Thirteen

In her first series, we’ve seen quite a lot from the Thirteenth Doctor. We’ve seen how eccentric she is. We’ve also seen her courage and boldness. And we’ve naturally seen how fiercely moral she is.

But this week, we saw something different – desperation. This wasn’t the kind that we’ve seen in previous weeks, either. It wasn’t incredibly high stakes, life-or-death sceanarios that she was struggling to deal with. No, what we saw from her early on in this episode was something else: a need to get back to her ship.

It was actually refreshing to see a side to this incarnation of the Doctor that was more openly flawed. She was so desperate to get back to the TARDIS that she almost put everyone’s lives in danger as a result. After coming close to losing the TARDIS at the start of the series – and indeed, at the very start of this incarnation’s life – it’s understandable why she would act so recklessly.

Still, it’s great to see a side to this Doctor that isn’t quite as strong in some areas. With the exception of The Ghost Monument, where we saw clear self-doubt at getting her companions home safely, we haven’t actually seen much of that. So that was definitely refreshing.

Ryan’s beginning to learn how to forgive his dad

Overall, the story with Yoss’s pregnancy didn’t add anything directly to this episode’s plot. But it did add some development to a character’s ongoing story – in this case, Ryan’s.

Back in The Woman Who Fell to Earth, it was clear that Ryan didn’t have the greatest relationship with his dad. He saw his father as someone who was unreliable, to say the least, and had even run out on him after his mum died.

But in this episode, Ryan finally begins to understand why his dad would have done something like that. Seeing how clearly afraid Yoss was of having a child, and genuinely believing that he wasn’t capable of being a good father, helped Ryan to realize exactly how his dad must have felt. It doesn’t make what he did OK, but it does at least help a great deal.

I think it’s likely that before this series is finished, we’ll get to meet Ryan’s dad. We’ll get to see what he’s really like. And both Ryan, and the audience, will be able to see exactly just what kind of man he really is.

We learned a lot more about Ryan in the latest episode, especially when it came to his parents.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

We found out how Ryan’s mum died

Closely related to the last point, we also learn exactly how Ryan’s mum died, and why he was raised by Grace in the first place. Ryan found his mother dead from a heart attack when he was just thirteen years old. That’s something that would deeply affect anyone.

It’s interesting that the person he told something so incredibly personal to was Yaz. I’ve mentioned before that there seems to be some hints of shipping between these two, at least. Ryan telling Yasmin all about not just a moment that changed his life completely, but also how he feels about his father now, could be a further hint of that. Or the writers could still be planning for them to remain as just good friends.

It also makes you wonder if Ryan will ever see his own mother again, thanks to time travel. Would he try to warn her of what will happen? Will he try to change history? Or will he even be a part of it? Time will tell.

Once again, a lack of a strong villain

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While the Pting was cute, it was hardly the most threatening Doctor Who monster that we’ve ever had. In fact, that’s kind of true for pretty much all the episodes so far. None of the villains or bad guys have been a credible or memorable threat.

And this is getting to be a big problem. After all, one of the first things that people remember about Doctor Who was the monsters. While I enjoy the historical episodes too, even they had monsters, albeit of the very human kind. Whether in the future or the past, Doctor Who has consistently featured many great villains and monsters across the decades. It’s a real shame that we’re not getting those right now.

I hope this is something that can improve in subsequent weeks, and that we’re given a great new villain that everyone will remember. But right now, the lack of one is consistently letting Series Eleven down.

dark. Next. Recap: The Tsuranga Conundrum focuses more on characters than on monsters

What did you take away from Sunday’s episode? Do you agree with our thoughts on The Tsuranga Conundrum? Let us know in the comments below.

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