I thought this episode was dreadful.
For a start, there was an air of seen it all before, retreading previous set ups. A race against time against a threat on a spaceship (Hello Chibnall's "42")
The pregnant man fell into the realm of sillyness for the sake of it. Not helped by the fact that the actor playing him could be any bloke down the pub. Ultimately the presentation of this idea was, I felt, stupid. Star Trek would have made some attempt to make him look as alien as his biology - or at least stuck a few wrinkles on the bridge of his nose and had him sound like he came from another planet. This guy just looked like someone off the street that had wandered onto the set and was told that he was an actor now and read those lines off the autocue. "Oh and by the way you can have babies."
Jodie continues to fail to convince me that she is a 2000 year old Time Lord/Lady. That accent is a constant reminder that she is from Yorkshire. Added to that, her habit of pulling comical, jaw-dropping facial expressions in reaction to things such as an eaten "sonic" is, to me, the mark of a lesser performer. I still maintain that she would make even a poor incarnation of Romana. As the Doctor, to my mind, she doesn't have a hope. I think her (somewhat self-conscious) breeziness in the role is amusing the general audience on a certain level - for now - but time, the great leveller, I suspect may be less kind regarding her tenure in the role.
The alien just reminded me of the cubes of fat from a Tennant episode (odd how I am starting to forget names and details of modern shows, but can still spout off minute details of the Classic Show. It, again, was simplistic. It's cute, but is deadly. Ho hum.
The General and her brother gave me a sense that they would be more comfortable in a high profile ITV drama as they were giving it their all with some profound acting and dramatic face offs in this rubbish.
The android bloke seemed a rip off of so many android characters we have seen, in a kind of diet coke way. He might have been interesting, but they just seemed to be saying "Shut up Wesley" to him a lot of the time, so we never got a chance to find out.
I also feel that, since Jodie is playing the breezy, breathless character all the time and never having a Troughton/Victoria TOMB OF THE CYBERMEN quiet moment to contrast with that - along with those stupid faces she is pulling - there is a real danger that quality guest actors and her very own companions are going to ultimately overshadow her with their gravitas and poignant, quiet moments, as the writers self-consciously give them all the good dramatic dialogue.
Ultimately I think this was one of the worst stories of all time.
I did read one comment that Anthony Stephen can rest quietly in his grave now that THE TWIN DILEMMA has a successor, which made me chuckle, but I don't think it's possible to ever steal that story's shameful crown. But I do think this was bad and - worse - a story that I suspect nobody will ever want to really watch again: a fate that I think will befall much of New Who as that great leveller of time takes effect in the decades to come.
A positive comment?
Segun Akinola continues to be a putting-Murray-Gold-to-shame genius as he papers over this shallow, ill thought out, generic nonsense with talent and dramatic tension.
I would not be surprised if this script is the one that gets him to take up one of those Hollywood offers that he simply must be getting.
