The Tsuranga Conundrum (2018) Review

"Shit, man, this medical capsule looks more like the TARDIS than
mine does."

The Tsuranga Conundrum can't really decide what it wants to be, so it's basically a really funny space comedy and a dull, rubbish bit of soap opera drama at the same time.

WRITTEN BY

Chris Chibnall, who might one day actually let somebody else write a script.

PLOT

After a mishap with a sonic mine, the TARDIS crew find themselves stuck on a medical capsule, en route to a space station operated by future Red Cross, the Tsuranga. Unfortunately, there's another unwanted passenger onboard - a speedy little critter that wants to eat all the power on the ship. There's also a male pregnancy. Hijinks ensue.

ANALYSIS

The episode showed some real promise in the beginning - the crew's presence on the ship and their weakened condition after surviving the sonic mine is largely played for laughs and actually seems like a fairly realistic, amusing situation for them to be in. Not only that, but the main villain's design(reminiscent of Spike from My Little Pony) is hilarious. Thanks to the lack of crew, it made sense for our characters to essentially take over and investigate the situation, briefly giving it a Terror of the Vervoids vibe that I really like.

However, from the ghastly scene between Ryan and Yaz onwards, the tone shifted towards Chibnall's particular brand of painfully cliched melodrama, mainly concerning General Cicero and her entourage. The good setup saves The Tsuranga Conundrum from being a dud, but it's just disappointing for me as a viewer because I got the impression that this could've been a much funnier episode if it just maintained focus on the crew's annoying plights and featured more of the Pting wrecking things up for them. We could've had a proper Wile E. Coyote situation here with the Doctor pursuing it everywhere, all the elements were there, but nothing much came of it. So... meh.

CHARACTERS

One of Jodie Whittaker's better performances, for sure. She spends much of the runtime indulging in a particularly beloved aspect of the Doctor - her childishness. So instead of the usual chirpy , happy-go-lucky demeanour, we get a really irritated Thirteenth Doctor almost willing to risk patients' lives just because she's having a bad day. It reminded me of Pertwee and was just fun to watch.

Bradley Walsh's Graham is similarly crusty about the whole thing. He seems to work really well in the more surreal episodes of the show, given his down-to-earth nature. Unfortunately, Yaz and Ryan were the dead weight in this, and Ryan in particular just has no subtlety to him whatsoever. Having the whole episode stop in its track so we could listen to him talk about finding his dead mother was terrible.

The guest cast were strong, especially Brett Goldstein's Astos, who unfortunately makes only a brief appearance, but comes across as a strong, competent doctor, immediately forming a bond with the Doctor with a way more interesting dynamic than she has with any of her "fam". In typical fashion, he's killed off almost immediately.

Aside from the Ciceros' tiresome storyline, they were acted well enough, and David Shields' Zachary-Quinto-as-Spock performance provided a few smirks throughout the episode.

Also, there's Jack Shalloo as Yoss the pregnant dude. It's goofy. I didn't loathe it, but it's just kind of dumb. That's all the thought I have to spare on it. Shalloo himself was ok. I just wish that we could've spent the time we spent with him on something better.

NOTES

*I love the concept of "junk galaxies".

*"Nobody move" the Doctor says, right before sonicking all around the sonic mine.

*Is there really no form of restraint on the capsule? It seems odd that Astos would just let his patients wander off like that.

*To be fair to the 13th Doctor, she is the first one to genuinely worry about never getting back to her TARDIS. Her predecessors had a peculiar attitude of just going with the flow until coming across it again.

*Just to re-iterate - that scene between Ryan and Yaz is the *worst*. At one point, after Ryan mentions his mum's death whilst discussing his dad for no reason, she actually asks, out of the blue: "do you mind me asking - how did your mum die?" There's a time and a place, Yaz, and this is so not it. The whole scene is summed up by Ryan mumbling "why am I even talking about this?"

*Love the Poirot reference as the Doctor anticipates the patients asking why she's called them to the assessment area. Well, I did until she flat-out said what she was referencing.

*They have stasers on the medical capsule! I thought those were exclusively Gallifreyan weapons!

*"I learned antimatter in school. Never *quite* understood it." is a line that Susan could've said in 1963 as an opening for Ian to give an educational speech.

*I totally forgot Ryan was meant to be a Youtuber. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing.

*Ryan's a prick for ignoring Graham's fistbump btw. Fistbumps are cool!

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

1) Graham and Ryan needlessly reference Grace again, who of course died in The Woman Who Fell To Earth.

BEST QUOTE

"It's beautiful. Anti-matter powering the movement of matter. Bringing positrons into existence to move other forms of life across space. I love it. Conceptually, and actually." - The Doctor. Very reminiscent of Hartnell's speech from The Edge Of Destruction. I love it conceptually and actually too.

CONCLUSION

A bit of a muddled one, this, but I had some laughs. It's at least certainly underrated.