Can You Hear Me?

Graham talking about his fear of cancer and the doctor as a healer is just responding awkwardly.

In these moments the real character of a person is shown and if this is the character of this doctor it's Just a horrible doctor.

The writing of this new incarnation is underwhelming and makes me think that Chris Chapnell never understood what the Doctor stands for.

For an episode which began with SUCH promise, it's a tremendous shame that "Can You Hear Me?" suffers from one of the most rushed, pitiful, underdeveloped resolutions seen on the show since Series 7's "The Power of Three" in 2012 (in case anyone's forgotten THAT magic wand / sonic screwdriver ending - also coincidentally written by co-writer Chris Chibnall).

However, the story's not without its moments & we're treated to a number of genuinely great sequences which aid in providing some much needed character development for our main companions, finally fleshing out their backstories - making them seem less painfully two-dimensional.

Hence, though certainly not perfect, this week's installment does have some appeal - though its inconsistencies somewhat mire the overall viewing experience as it struggles to strike a healthy balance between the two: character / plot.

Couldn't wait until this episode was over. It was so boring. The doctor needs a makeover and get some new clothes. The companions need to be terminated, now that could make a good episode. Perhaps one of the earlier companions could be bought back. Bring back some earlier villains too. Make this show fun to watch again!

A recurring theme with this series is the episode's tendency to start with a certain degree of interest before it completely derails because it spirals into a pool of not knowing what is going on.

This episode continued this disastrous trend for the show. It appears to me that the writers combine several episodes into one, because the standalone episodes are somehow even worse than what gets produced, and when they do produce what gets recklessly thrown into the pot, it's a complete shambles.

Can you hear me? had good concepts with poor execution. The flow of the episode was nonsensical, from going to a ship of prisoners in one scene, then finding out one second later that they've randomly decided to take over the planet. It's painful to watch (and even more painful to write about) because it's immensely confusing and aimless at the same time. The fact Jodie is being used to describe the plot, rather than having it being told through what's shown on screen, is definitive of this episode being the worst assembled of the season.

To be honest, I really like the character development in this episode. For the first time, I can understand the companions as unique individuals with feelings and desires - instead of just some Earth hitchhikers who willingly follows Doctor all the time. I'm deeply moved by the story of Yaz.

Doctor's character is also cute - the "socially awkward" part is a bit contradictory to her outgoing personality, but it works well for me because it reminds me of Peter Capaldi. Jodie's performance is great as always.

However, the sci-fi story SUCKS! The entire story is explained in a five-minute cartoon (the cartoon is cute and creative though) and the crisis is solved also in five minutes - can you find a more perfunctory DW story in the new era?????? (I haven't watched all Classic Who episodes, but I doubt if there are worse stories) I hope Chibnall let someone write sci-fi parts olease!

If I can rate things separately, I'll rate the character development as 8/10 and the sci-fi part as 1/10.