Doctor Who spoilers reveal the writers are back to tackling social issues via plot, and they’re still doing it in a very obvious way. While they didn’t get to the horrible level of one episode, it’s still a bit of a disappointment. Especially considering there’s so few episodes in a season and we just had a huge mystery come up in the last episode. So what went down? Here’s what you need to know.
Doctor Who Spoilers: Plotting a message
This week’s episode dealt with the evils of plastic. At least, that’s the thing we’re sure we’re supposed to focus on. In the episode, The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and her companions are working separately to uncover a mystery. Ryan Sinclair (Tosin Cole) travels to Peru, while Graham O’Brien (Bradley Walsh) and Yasmin Khan (Mandip Gill) go to Hong Kong, and The Doctor goes to Madagascar. In each place, there are weird circumstances that get The Doctor’s radar up, including a missing astronaut and aggressive birds.
This turns out to be related to the problem of plastics in the environment. After investigating, The Doctor realizes the missing astronaut is infected with an alien pathogen. The kind that thrives in plastic—like the stuff floating around in the ocean. The Doctor even goes so far as to point out we are all getting plastic into our systems as well, and the birds are helping to spread the virus. So, how did it happen?
Doctor Who Spoilers: The real evil?
It turns out, one of the people helping The Doctor is actually the problem. Suki Cheng (Molly Harris) is from an alien race that was infected with the virus and decided the plastic-rich environment would be the perfect place to unleash the epidemic killing them so they can find a cure. By the time The Doctor figures this out and comes up with an antidote, it’s too late for Suki. Doctor Who spoilers reveal she got some of the antidote for herself, but it’s only devised for humans. In her body, it accelerates the virus and kills her almost right away.
There is where we think the real evil is, and maybe the unintended message of the week. Doctor Who spoilers indicate her intentions were good, in a way. She tried to save her people. However, she went too far in the task and ended up willfully infecting people without their knowledge for her own benefit. We think it’s a good thing to keep in mind, as history is filled with stories of people who thought they were doing the right thing. And people who were arrogant enough to decide others could suffer to achieve a greater goal. So, besides it being yet another message thing, what was our beef?
Doctor Who Spoilers: Wasted time
Last week, we saw what was probably the best episode of 13’s run. It also led to a great mystery that had connections to the show’s roots. Unfortunately, that was all but forgotten this week, as was The Master (Sacha Dhawan). Sure, the earth was in a dire situation thanks to Suki’s people, but you’d think the Doctor would have at least paid some mind to the fact her old enemy is running around and she’s possibly got another mystery version of her out there. One that’s a fugitive, no less.
Another thing we took issue was with Graham. We love Graham. In our first article, we mentioned how he’s the only companion we truly connected with in 13’s first season. Sadly, it seems they’re doing wrong by him. Episodes this season have him seeming dumber than before, and he doesn’t seem to be as entertaining as he once was. Whether they’re trying to make the other two companions more prominent, or they (and the actor) have just stopped caring, we don’t know. All we do know is, we miss the version from earlier episodes. Here’s hoping they get back to better stories soon.
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