Can You Hear Me?

Based on the trailers, this was the episode I was probably least enthusiastic about, but it turned out to be much better than I expected, unlike Praxeus, which looked great in trailers.

I think this would have benefited from a longer running time, there were some awesome concepts, and some truly great visuals, with more time to develop this would have worked much better.

Stunning visuals, this episode looked fabulous, how much of the budget was used here, this truly was impressive to look at. I liked that we had an introduction to the story before the opening credits. An excellent villain, and secondary villain. I found myself reminded somewhat of Amy's Choice, with the Dream Lord, and Enlightenment, but that's no bad thing.

I loathe the TARDIS interior, I would expect travelling through time and space with those lights they'd all have headaches, the interior they introduced for the new Doctor in the Judoon episode was amazing, this one really is a mess.

The Doctor's reaction to Graham's cancer was poorly judged, The Doctor has ways been awkward, but always cared about humanity, and companions, this scene was badly written.

A visual feast, with a very good menace. Thought this was rather good. 8/10

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.

The issue of the week and this monster of the week are very important and an interesting concept. But again for me personally falls so very short on the delivery. This frustrates me more than any other episode these past two seasons as I can identify particularly. I could see the clumsy delivery as a reflection of the issue which historically has been hard to talk about. If it weren't for that fact that we have seen this trait too often of late. Just comes down to the writing style again. Which is not at all engaging, disjointed and clunky. The character interactions are at times devoid of chemistry. I'd say 80% of that is script. But at times it is the a few actors who do not meet the historical standard I expect from the show. The imaginative narrative unimaginatively delivered is a constant complaint I've had. This episode felt like a room full of different people drafted their individual parts of the script and it was stitched together to produce something absent of any identifiable rhythm.

One praise. Finally I had a moment where I began to feel more drawn to Yaz's character. Shame it was in this episode which I don't imagine I will ever watch again with the exception of a Whovian reaction.

While the bad guys were great, unfortunately they were the second act of the episode.

We once again saw a preachy episode this time about mental health.

It had very good moments, when the doctor talked about what mankind was, that almost gave me chills.

But most of the episode was a bore. Half the episode was spend on the personal lives of the companions.

A shame, the setup of this episode was really promising. If they had put more focus on making a good story, rather than preaching, this could have been an 8 or even a 9.

But with this execution, I cannot give it any higher than a 4.

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.