🙏🏼51% = Underwhelming! = Skippable!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! 

IT'S HITCHCOCK IN SPACE!

This story kicks off with a very standard set-up, as Eight, Liv, and Helen arrive on a stranded planet and meet two colonists waiting for the rest of their people to arrive. One of the people is unwell and speaks of weird creatures in the night, while the other dismisses her worries and tries to simply maintain life on the base. But as we know, these birdlike creatures are very real, and the Doctor decides to investigate.

The scope of this story is fairly limited, and there are hardly any sound effects to bring the setting to life. The actors are fine, but they don’t leave a lasting impact, except possibly for Jane Asher as Myra. There are some basic character moments here and there that don’t add much in terms of characterization.

The sporadic appearance of a flock of killer birds adds a touch of tension, and the birds themselves seem to be an attempt to make this story stand out, but there's little reason for them to be specifically birds. However, the rest of the story progresses as if it's been automated. There’s the inevitable (and obvious) twist in the second half that suddenly turns Bex much less likeable. The one effective scene, in which Myra transforms into a bird, adds an effective body horror aspect to the story.

I was hoping for some kind of heightened tension at the climax, but it kind of comes and goes with little fanfare.