"The Ghost Monument" – Doctor Who S11E02 Review

Well, "The Ghost Monument" was... pretty standard Doctor Who. More of part two of a two-parter, as it gave Jodie Whittaker a chance to strut her stuff a bit more without the pressure of a post-regenerative crisis. It also gave us bits and pieces of her three new companions, a new monster of sorts, and a standalone plot with hints of the future.

Let's begin. After last week when the group was left floating in space, the Doctor and Yasmin are rescued by a spaceship pilot, Epzo (Shaun Dooley). Ryan and Graham are rescued by another pilot, Angstrom (Susan Lynch). They both land on the Final Planet. Or rather Angstrom lands and Epzo crashes. We'll never hear about Angstrom's ship again, although presumably it's intact.

The two pilots talk about being on a quest and somehow make their way to a white tent. Inside is a man, Ilin (Art Malik), who explains they're on the last leg of the Rally. Ilin could care less about the Doctor and her companions, and it turns out he's a hologram anyway. Epzo and Angstrom must make their way to the Ghost Monument, which only appears once every thousand cycles. The Doctor eventually convinces Ilin to show them what the Ghost Monument looks like, and it's the TARDIS, slipping in and out of phase.

The Ilin hologram disappears, and the group heads across the deserts (filmed in South Africa) using trackers Ilin has helpfully provided. They come across sniperbots, which open fire, and the Doctor uses a wrecked sniperbot to generate an EMP and take them out. More sniperbots follow them, and the group enters tunnels that lead to an underground installation. An inscription on the floor helpfully explains that scientists were brought there by the Stenza: the race that Tim Shaw belonged to. The scientists created weapons that made the planet lifeless.

Except for the Monster of the Week: the Remnants, mobile sentient pieces of cloth. The group gets to the surface in the middle of an acetylene field, the Remnants surround them, and say they can read the image of the Timeless Child in the Doctor's mind, even if she can't. Using Epzo's cigar, they set the acetylene on fire and destroy the Remnants.

The next day the group gets to the "finish line", and Epzo and Angstrom argue about who is the winner. The Doctor convince them to declare a joint victory. Epzo threatens Ilin into agreeing, Ilin shrugs and teleports the two competitors off the planet but leaves the Doctor and her companions behind. The Doctor is very depressed, but her companions tell her to look on the bright side of life. The TARDIS appears and the Doctor takes everyone into the newly redecorated interior. The end.

The plot is just that basic. We get little bits of business, Ryan still refuses to call Graham "granddad" and has a thing about climbing ladders. Jasmin talks briefly about her family. Graham is still mourning Grace's death. The Doctor is all... Doctor-ish. She doesn't like guns, she prefers thinking herself out of problems, she knows Venusian Aikido, and she's the smartest person in the world.

We don't learn much about Epzo and Angstrom. Epzo is a Han Solo-ish rogue who learns friendship and teamwork in the final act. Angstrom has a backstory about how the Stenza wiped out her planet and she's racing to use the reward to get her family back together. Ilin is even more personality-less, although Malik does a good job of being a dick. There's no context for any of it, and we'll probably never see these people again so... eh.

There are a couple of bits of foreshadowing dropped: the Stenza get name-dropped and the Timeless Child will probably be the overarching "explained in the final few episodes" season-wide arc. Because it's not Doctor Who without an overarching season-wide arc. Just ask Bad Wolf, Harold Saxon, the Crack, the Silence, the Eyepatch Woman, and a few others.

So as essentially part two of a two-parter, even it wasn't billed as such, "The Ghost Monument" was an okay episode. It pretty much filled in the blanks and showed what the "real" Doctor is going to be like. It gave us a new heavily crystalline-themed TARDIS, and it gave us a few bits and pieces of background on our main characters. The plot was dull as dishwater, but adequate for what it had to do.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?