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Doctor Who review: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos – an average finale for an average series?

By James Aggas

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The TARDIS crew pick up a distress signal – nine, in fact – and bump into an old enemy in The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos featured both the return of an old enemy (at least, for this particular TARDIS team) and some major closure for a companion. But was it enough to make it a truly special finale in this Doctor Who series?

So how was The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos? Was it a worthy episode for a Doctor Who finale?

It’s kind of hard to see it as such. After all, it’s not the kind of episode that’s had a lot of build up to it for most of the series. And I don’t mean in terms of plot, either. Yes, Ryan and Graham were particularly focused on in this episode, and understandably so, as they faced their grief in a very full-on way.

But the rest of the characters? Yasmin’s story? But far, far more importantly: the Doctor? Neither of these characters had a huge, personal moment. Nothing that really shakes them, or gives them a brilliant speech. The Doctor Falls was surprisingly small in scale, but it was an incredibly personal episode for the Doctor, Bill and even the Master/Missy.

The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos doesn’t have that for anyone except for Ryan and Graham. Everyone else kind of gets sidelined.

In fact, it’s an episode that essentially feels low on stakes of any kind. Yes, planet Earth is almost destroyed, but that used to happen on a regular basis. (Admittedly, not so much these days, looking back.) Even Tzim-Sha’s return lacks impact. Not exactly something you’d expect in a Doctor Who series finale.

Now let’s look at previous finales. The Parting of the Ways featured the return of the Daleks in a big way, as well as Nine’s final adventure. Doomsday had Daleks, Cybermen and a goodbye to Rose. The Big Bang featured the end of the universe plus Amy’s and Rory’s wedding day, all in one.

You get it. We’re used to finales that have high stakes, major returning monsters or big shake-ups. Usually, all three. The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos, however, is lacking those three elements.

But does that necessarily make it a bad episode? Let’s see what our writers thought of this one.

Mark Addy gives a good performance as Paltraki. But is it enough to make the finale stand out?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Raphael Kiyani – Staff Writer

The Series Eleven finale, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos, is just like the title: fun but convoluted. Whilst having some really enjoyable moments and a few cool ideas, this story is underwhelming, underdeveloped and uninspired.

It is really unfortunate, as I think Chris Chibnall has laid down some enchanting groundwork that would have benefited from a finer tuned script – or even better – a second part. There are a collection of good ingredients to be found here. The titular planet itself, Ranskoor Av Kolos was visually captivating and had an impressive back-story: that it manipulates your mind and is almost consciously antagonistic.

The mystery of the marooned spaceships and their stranded crew also improved the story, with a solid performance from Mark Addy as Paltraki. It’s adventurous in its world-building and science-fiction potential, but it doesn’t really go anywhere.

As mentioned prior, a two-parter would have fleshed out these elements better. The Ux fit this bill too. They were really nifty conceptually, but they were rushed and sorely underdeveloped. In the end, they were simply administered as a lazy plot device to give Tim Shaw some semblance of menace.

The Ux certainly had potential but they came out of nowhere without any expansion on back story or power base. Their relationship with Tim Shaw was not addressed adequately either. All of it feels very first draft and hurt by a lack of time.

I believe this is where the biggest issue lies. It is completely unfocused. There are interesting ideas floating about and we see glimpses of originality, but it does not coalesce into something tangible. The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos is a non-entity, it’s not bad but it’s not inventive or inspired in its endeavour. It sort of inoffensively exists.

After his original appearance in The Woman Who Fell to Earth, “Tim Shaw” returns for revenge on the Doctor. But is it an effective return?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC. Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Tim Shaw’s return

Talking of Tim Shaw, he was a completely predictable twist.  Whilst I did find him scarier in this story, he never offers much in the way of threat level. It’s muted. A huge issue with this story – and Series Eleven in general – is the complete lack of a major obstacle. Chibnall’s episodes, in particular, tell rather than show. It’s cheap writing.

For example, Tim Shaw is threatening the Earth and the fate of other worlds, but the script fails to show us this. It never makes you feel like there’s any huge threat.  It doesn’t help when Tim Shaw constantly monologues without doing much to any of the characters near him. The plodding monologues from Tim Shaw and the underdevelopment of many concepts bog down the story in needless convolution.

The lack of meaningful risk here – and in Series Eleven – has hurt the Doctor’s characterisation too. Heroes are defined by the villainy they face. The absence of such has undermined Thirteen – reducing her assertiveness and power. I have enjoyed Jodie Whittaker this series but the lack of genuine peril has botched development.

Despite many negative factors, it’s not like there is no fun to be had. There is. Exploring the world and the broken ship with our Team TARDIS is broadly engaging. It was fun to see them run around and fight SniperBots too. All of this is entertaining, it definitely won’t bore but the plotting can meander.

However, the finest thing about this story is the personal stakes for our companions – especially between Ryan and Graham. Whilst Chibnall fails to deliver on the huge stakes that are set up. Here, he nails the personal character drama. Graham’s emotional arc of revenge is brilliant. It was absorbing to watch and I was really invested in it.

The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos is highly flawed. It feels jumbled, basic and underwhelming. It has a variety of interesting ideas but fails to capitalise on them. However, there are excellent personal stakes and character drama peppered throughout. There’s some fun action too. Overall, it’s not awful, but it’s certainly not impressive either.

Once again, Bradley Walsh as Graham was a real highlight in Doctor Who.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Luke Molloy – Staff Writer

This era of Doctor Who is not for me. Acceptance is an oddly surprising feeling. It’s odd because deep down you knew – and surprising because of how long it takes you to believe it. Deep down I knew my interest in Doctor Who had hit a terrible low and it took the endgame – The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos – to believe it.

I’ve barely re-watched any of Series Eleven’s episodes, I’ve not taken to Whittaker’s Doctor and I’ve found writing these reviews harder and harder. I think it’s noticeable that my enthusiasm in these reviews has slowly evaporated since beginning them.

However, with all the episodes, I’ve discussed positives and negatives and I’ve rated them comparatively to each other and I’ll do the same with the finale. Which, doom and gloom aside, was a pretty good episode of the show – it’s just a show that I sadly no longer care for.

So, in the least surprising plot-twist of all time, Tim Shaw returns to wage revenge on the Doctor. He is by far the best looking monster we’ve had this series and his god-like plan for stasising planets matched his impressive looks.

I really liked the scene between Tim Shaw and the Doctor – it was like a classic face-off between equals. Yet again though, he wasn’t allowed to become a good villain because the only thing he actually did in the entire episode was get shot in the foot by Graham. I couldn’t be the only one who was gobsmacked that within five minutes Tim Shaw had gone from God of the Ux to this episode’s schmuck but yeah…shot in the toe is all it takes to finish this series’ big bad.

Graham versus the Doctor

Moving on, my favourite scene was towards the beginning when Graham pulled the Doctor to one side and told her he was going to kill Tim Shaw. It was a good bit of real conflict that we’ve been sorely missing from team TARDIS. Obviously, you get the usual Doctor “don’t kill, don’t use weapons blah blah…” The classic, annoying hypocritical plot point, which is well past it’s sell-by date.

If Graham had killed Tim Shaw it would have easily escalated this era of Doctor Who to fantastic heights. Bradley Walsh is the only actor out of the four in team TARDIS that would be missed but it would have been a sacrifice worth doing for the show.

Imagine, Tim Shaw murdered by Graham – we understand why he’s done it and we understand why the Doctor will not travel with him any further. The Doctor throws him out of the TARDIS. She will NOT travel with him. Ryan doesn’t know what to do. Yaz is…still there. They can stay with Graham or keep adventuring with her.

She gives them ten seconds to decide… Whittaker’s first dark moment.

Three, two, one…

The Doctor slams the lever. The TARDIS disappears. She slowly looks up. And smiles.

Whatever happens, team TARDIS is reduced, and the issue of the overcrowded TARDIS is solved.

Did this episode remember to show as much as it told?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Show, don’t tell

Graham and Ryan’s bonding journey drove this episode and to be fair, the majority of Series Eleven. You couldn’t help but smile when the fist-pump finally came and some moments between them were beautifully written. This is probably my favourite Chibnall script (but bear in mind he’s had ten goes at it and this was just good).

There were many ideas to play with in this episode, even if a lot of them were staple sci-fi tropes already. The problem was we were told-not-shown via a 20-minute walkaround before things kicked off.

That has been the biggest and most common issue with Series Eleven – we are told more than we need to know and shown near-to-nothing. Again, the Doctor got some out-loud word vomit exposition to save the day, not one line of it was memorable or quotable or worth sitting through. I’m not surprised Series Twelve isn’t until 2020 – Whittaker’s mouth muscles need time to recover more than anything else.

A sense of disconnect

It’s very hard to discuss what hasn’t worked for me. I cared so much for previous Doctor Who that no matter what happened, it would provoke such huge emotion – whether it was total love or pure anger.

I feel nothing for this era. Series Eleven has been so average, so simple and so empty that it couldn’t be further from the excitement promised when that “glorious” trailer was released.

You could change the Doctor, the companions, the showrunner, the TARDIS – and I wouldn’t care. There will be some people who feel the same as me and there will be a lot of (currently angry) people who feel the opposite. I just couldn’t feel any more separate to the show right now.

But at the end of the day, this is Doctor Who, the show of hope and change. And after watching the trailer for the New Year’s Day special, I think there’s a possibility that, with Daleks, it could be an absolute corker. Maybe I haven’t accepted anything after all.

The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos – 3/5

Bradley Walsh – 6/5

Doctor Who Series Eleven – 1 confused Doctor Who fan / 5

The finale gave us one moment that seemed to explore just how strong the Doctor’s sense of morality is. Was that enough to make the finale a strong episode?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

James Aggas – Site Expert

Honestly, my thoughts on this echo my fellow writers. Continuing how I began this collection of reviews, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos doesn’t feel like a finale. I’m not even saying that it feels deliberately low-key, like The Woman Who Fell to Earth. That worked really well, and I really appreciated that as a fresh start that allowed us to enjoy our new characters.

The problem was that it never truly built from there. I understand why Chris Chibnall wanted to make the episodes more standalone plotwise this year. But The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos shows just how much that’s gone against the series. There’s been no build up to it, and it doesn’t feel like a finale. Even with Tzim-Sha’s return, it doesn’t feel nearly big enough, with the obvious exception of Graham and Ryan.

A huge problem is that Tzim-Sha was never that much of a standout villain in the first place. He was pretty much low-key in his first appearance, and while his grand plans in Battle did add something to his threat level, it wasn’t quite enough.

On the plus side, at least Graham is given some really great writing here. In fact, both the character and Bradley Walsh’s excellent performance have been the highlight of the whole series.

His confrontation with the Doctor was probably the episode’s best moment. Particularly as it allowed Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor to have just a little more depth to her character.

We’ve had hints of her morality before, but that’s it. It was never challenged quite as strongly as when one of her own companions threatened to kill someone. Even for understandable reasons, it was great to see her feel so strongly about it, to the point that she promised Graham he would have to leave if he went through with it.

The ending of The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos gave us a lot of neat and tidy resolutions. Perhaps too tidy?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

A far too tidy resolution

I recently wrote about why the Eighth Doctor is my favorite of them all. A key reason for that was not just his sense of morality, but how often the stories challenged that morality directly. We haven’t seen much of that with Whittaker’s Doctor this series until now. It’s still a small moment, but it does show promise that her morality could be explored further.

More from Winter is Coming

However, the rest of the episode failed to live up to that promise. There was one moment where it looked like she would be forced to choose between two lives, or the whole of planet Earth.

Instead, she took a third option and was able to save everyone. I can understand why that story went in that direction, but it could’ve been so much more interesting if she – or even one of her companions – had to make that choice. But, in the end, it lead to an all too tidy resolution with very little impact.

And that sums up The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos. A finale that’s not really much of a finale, or even a regular episode. This should have been an episode that left audiences eager for wanting more. Instead, it somehow dulls the impact of knowing that we won’t be getting a full series of Doctor Who until 2020. An average end to an overall average series. I can only hope that Series Twelve is a big improvement.

Next. Series Twelve won’t be seen by fans until 2020!. dark

What was your take on The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos? Do you agree with these reviews? Did it work as a finale for you? Let us know in the comments below.

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