After quite enjoying The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Ghost Monument is where I first came crashing down hard on the Chibnall era, and basically I never was able to recover from it.

I at first thought this episode was going to be great.  It looks very cool and has some excellent direction going on.  This episode was filmed in South Africa and it really, really feels like production took advantage of that in the best way possible.  We really get a feel of this setting and I think it does location shooting in that essential way, where you simply wouldn't have an episode looking as good if it weren't shot in a foreign location from the more traditional episodes filmed in the UK.  I have a weakness for such episodes, and coupled with the cool premise around the space race going on within the story, and at first I was completely sold - 100% ready for the 13th Doctor's first big adventure with the new TARDIS crew.

But then the episode keeps going and I truly feel the racing elements of the story are basically barely used at all.  This story could have been about literally anything else and it wouldn't change anything about the Ghost Monument or the SniperBots.  And let me tell you, there's few other things in Doctor Who I hate more than these damn SniperBots.  Aside from the gruelling reality they pose no threat at all, and we never really get a demonstration of their legendary accuracy, they also permanently derail Ryan's character to the point of ruining him.

I was so excited about Ryan.  I really thought a companion with a disability would be interesting.  Not only did that feel new and fresh, but have a character with a condition that might actually interfere with the single most important thing for a companion - that being their ability to run for their life - sounded like a very unique challenge for this character that could lead to all sorts of interesting situations for the Doctor.  Instead, it never really comes up again until the end of Series 12.  Instead, Ryan wields a gun, taking on these supposedly feared snipers with ease thanks to "Call of Duty."  I have never seen a potentially interesting character destroyed so quickly and thoroughly as what happens to Ryan in The Ghost Monument.  It's truly astounding how bad this writing is to me.  Even the moment at the end which should be exciting - where we get to see our new TARDIS layout - felt deeply underwhelming and even a little disappointing.  It didn't wow me the way other TARDIS reveals have in the past.  In many ways, this episode was a bad sign of what I was in for with this Doctor, a fact that still stings to this day.