The Doctor goes Hunting for her TARDIS

After being sent into a different space-time continuum in the previous episode, The Doctor and her new friends are lost in deep space. Now the four of them have to find each other in this strange new place, and they also have to group up and find the TARDIS. As a space-time traveling device, the TARDIS can take the Doctor's friends back home. So where is the TARDIS and will The Doctor find it? Let's see how their search for her TARDIS goes.

The TARDIS is a space-time machine which has been around since the first episode of Doctor Who in 1963 ("An Unearthly Child"). It has since become an extremely popular term and a cultural icon in the Great Britain. It has been greatly appreciated by the audience and has been registered as a trademark of BBC (officially since 2002, after legal battles). It has been incorporated into the Oxford English Dictionary and it also exists in the Google Maps. Once BBC decided to use a small police box as its design, they came up with idea of making it bigger on the inside.

The TARDIS has always been The Doctor's one true partner throughout multiple regenerations. The TARDIS might even have an Intelligence form of some kind, thus making it "alive". The Doctor has a strong bond with the TARDIS and without it, The Doctor might feel like she just lost her soulmate. It's not like it's never happened before. There have been a many times (or episodes) where the TARDIS was inaccessible to The Doctor. It's a great adventure where you are finding your best and longest friend. Since your friend is missing and you are stuck without it, in Episode 2 ("The Ghost Monument") you can see The Doctor following strangers in order to find her TARDIS.

While the TARDIS occupies your mind most of the time, this episode is mostly occupied with The Doctor's adventure as she travels towards the TARDIS. As The Doctor follows the strangers, she finds that the strangers are contestants in a game called "Rally of the Twelve Galaxies". The Rally is like the an opposite version of "The Hunger Games", such that the contestants should avoid injury, and not kill another player. The Doctor is not really interested in the Rally, but she finds that the end prize looks like her TARDIS. The prize which is named "The Ghost Monument" could be her chance of finding her TARDIS, and so The Doctor and her friends follow the contestants. The leader only uses SniperBots in the game, and if you're smart enough you can avoid them by using an EMP. If you win in the end, the leader gives you money good enough to use it to save your families, especially if you live in planets taken over by the Stenza.

It's not an episode where a lot of plot points happen. The most interesting plot point in the episode is the further revelation of the Stenza. New threats can be scarier than old ones, even though nothing can beat a Dalek. This episode keeps the mystery of the Stenza alive. The Stenza had appeared to be a great new threat in the previous episode, and it was unsure whether they might return. In Episode 2, the Stenza are not shown directly, but they are mentioned a lot. This lets you learn more about the Stenza, their culture and their general characteristics as a dominant and controlling species. While the previous episode introduced the Stenza, this episode gave us background information. Translating writings burned into the floor, The Doctor says that a coerced group of scientists were creating new bioengineered weapons like microbes and remnants for the Stenza. These bioengineered weapons (and perhaps others) were known to cause mass destruction in planets such as Desolation and Albar. The scientists in Desolation stopped before the Stenza could get mass control of them. There is more hope for the return of the Stenza for the "audience", after this episode.

Initially stranded in a mysterious planet, The Doctor has to find her friends. The planet seems to have a strange atmosphere, barren land and no life form. Desolation has three stars (or moons) and it exists in the Twelve Galaxies. The final stage of the Rally of the Twelve Galaxies is held in Desolation. Desolation was taken over by the Stenza in the past. The barren land is taken over by the remains of the weapons of the Stenza, such as microbes and remnants. Flesh-eating microbes swarm the water, while psychic remnants roam the area at night. If you touch the water, the microbes will tear you apart. The remnants are telepathic and sentient, and will come out at night. They focus on the strongest person in the group, and keeping together in the group is the best chance.

This episode shows a great bit of acting on "Jodie Whittaker's" side. The casting for the new Doctor is perfect. The Doctor goes through every challenge laid to her, even though she's not the one playing The Rally. The Doctor decides to find her TARDIS, after she finds her friends. Typical Doctor, she eventually leads the group identifying every issue and trying to solve it. Even in this eerie planet The Doctor's focus is reaching the TARDIS, so along with her friends she follows Epzo and Angstrom. When the entire group has to go through water, The Doctor instantly identifies the microbes and warns the group against touching the water. Once it's nighttime, The Doctor mentions it's best to avoid going out of the tunnel they're in. Epzo ignores this and goes out and is attacked by remnants. He is rescued by The Doctor, but the remnants turn their focus towards The Doctor by calling her "The Timeless Child". I wonder if this plot point will be explored in the future.

You don't see the usual thrills in this episode, but there are enough. The focus is more on the TARDIS, but your mind will be occupied by it only in the end. When the Rally is over and the 2 winners are teleported away, The TARDIS still doesn't appear. The Doctor feels sad, yet hopeful.

And that's when her TARDIS "magically" appears. It redecorates itself, just like the TARDIS in many of her previous regenerations. The Doctor loves her new TARDIS and her friends are eager to go back home to their own time-space continuum.

The Doctor: Come to daddy. I mean mommy.

1. It's great how The Doctor uses her "no guns" policy when Ryan points his gun and tries to shoot it at everything by quoting "call of duty". She says something like "don't shoot, it's what they want. Try to outthink them".
2. It also has all the alien looks that it possibly can have. The design and general characteristics of the TARDIS had been established since the beginning and are constantly being revamped with every episode. In case of the design, the core design has always remained the same.
3. This episode has a new LOGO and Theme Song.
4. The Twelve Galaxies is a topic visited before. Will it be revisited again?

Review

Season 11, Episode 2: 3/4