Doctor Who ended its 11th series — complete with a new Doctor, new companions, and new showrunner — in perfect fashion. ‘The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos’ was at the same time thoughtful, intense, whimsical, suspenseful, and dramatic — all the hallmarks of our new Doctor’s character.
Jodie Whittaker has been an absolute joy to watch as The Doctor. She’s able to perfectly play The Doctor; changing emotions on a dime and commanding the screen every second she’s on it. Whittaker knows when to pick her spots — injecting levity into the most stressful moments — but her humor only stokes the flames of conflict, never throwing cold water on them (something some of her predecessors can’t say). In this episode Whitaker’s brilliance was on full display in the climactic moments, and her character was the captain of every moment. The Doctor guided us through every ebb and flow of chaos, resulting in an absolute white knuckler of an episode.
Yet, this wasn’t the best of the episode…nor was The Doctor the most intriguing character. Bradley Walsh’s Graham, who has become a beloved fan favorite, was. Earlier this year I predicted that the series was definitely hinting that everyone’s favorite former bus driver might be the “big death” of the series. Without his beloved Grace, it seemed like Graham was on a mission to join her. And at the beginning the episode, it sure seemed we were heading that way. Surprisingly what we got instead was the resolution to the series’ biggest dramatic arc — the bond between Ryan and Graham without Grace in their lives. When Ryan told Graham he loved him, it was truly a beautiful moment in Who history — two men never truly on each other’s side, only joined by the common love of a strong woman finally realizing how much they care for each other, and that they need one another.
For Graham to not go for revenge, and to keep himself alive because he now has a purpose was actually quite shocking. Dr. Who has often had the penchant for “this is why we can’t have nice thing” killing characters off just before they reach their moment of happiness. Here, we’re keeping both of them alive, and both of them have become better men. Now, let’s focus a little more on Yaz next series.
However, this finale does not come without frustration. The series has garnered such good will from fans and critics alike — and then we get the news that the series will not see new episodes until early 2020. Now, we will get a New Year’s Day special this year, so there episodes “this year” but this news (which was heavily rumored) really sucks for fans of the new era of Who. The momentum for this series is massive, and sadly a long delay is just frustrating after you get such a damn good finale to a damn good series.
The bright side of this would be that Chinball and company are going to take their time with the new episodes, and we’ll get more of a well-crafted series instead of the rushed to capitalize on success episodes we saw during the Matt Smith and early Peter Capaldi days.
Regardless, ‘The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos’ is an excellent bow on the end of Series 11 — serving as an excellent conclusion to a series-long arc, and as a standalone episode.
Rating: 9 out of 10
