Very much a tale of two halves, but not all halves are created equal. This story seems to have boundary issues.
The party lands on a calm planet full of forests and small wildlife. Although it might look like it at a glance, the Doctor deduces this is not earth. After this discovery, things quickly go south when the oxygen levels start to drop.
This creates a different kind of tension. Steven is quickly scooped up by human explorers (locked up again. He should get a stamp card.), but Vicki and the Doctor have to find oxygen before it is too late.
It feels very survivor-esque, and is kind of new ground because of it. The threat is the world in it’s natural state. Which is fun. I doubt the scientific side of it a little though. Aren’t there trees on the planet? Don’t those produce oxygen? Why is it suddenly less? Is it just a matter of amount or size? I wouldn’t notice this usually, but this story takes the time to talk about chlorophyl, so it kind of comes up naturally. Feels a bit odd.
After finding an air bubble within a cave. The Doctor starts acting odd. Sending Vicki out to find Steven on her own. It later turns out he’s infected with some kind of illness and it feels pretty crushing in the way it progresses. He first tries to deny it and divert attention from it. Then he has to let Vicki explore alone, then he tries to write instructions for the Tardis, so Vicki and Steven can escape on their own. But sadly, at this point, he’s so worn down that the notes are completely illegible. It feels like a combination of sweetness and patheticness, and I mean that in the best way. It feels very definitive, even though it obviously isn’t. Troughton isn’t up just yet.
We deal with the disease once Steven’s captors reunite the party. This is also where we enter the second part of the story, when a more active threat is introduced in the form of a zombified spacesuit corpse. Think Vashta Narada from “Silence in the Library”, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what they’re like. As per usual for this season, they’re a hivemind. Themes I guess.
While the Doctor is recovering, We learn little bits about the threatening force. They’re apparently connected to all life on the planet below, and come from an earth spaceship that never launched. I’ll be honest. Their characterization and description is incredibly vague, and it hinders the final setting the story goes for. This threat is pretty poorly laid out. I wouldn’t be able to tell you what its intentions are, how it exactly got here, or how it functions. The story hints at some stuff, but seems to have no clue itself.
And that blocks the moral conundrum that comes up. The captain of the human crew feels threatened and wants to destroy them. Meanwhile the party and other crewmembers are against this. This leads to what can very, very loosely be interpreted as a moral discussion. But since the boundaries of the monster are so undefined, it quickly becomes another moral speech from the doctor. Disappointing.
One of the crewmembers decides to take matters in her own hands, kill the captain and send everyone away so the planet is safe. The doctor is against killing, so condemns her and no longer wants to help. Although Steven and Vicki complain, they leave in the tardis and that’s all she wrote.
While the first storyline is very well written and adds something new. The second part, where the story tries to be moral, falls utterly flat. It does not set up its problem, then covers that up by making the problem onesided. It tries to come across as clever, but it is morally flat. There is no sides. You’re either good or bad.
What could’ve fixed this, would be the removal of the zombie monsters. They don’t add anything. Instead, make it about the weight of a life. Maybe something like this:
Imagine the crewship we’re on is out of fuel. They’re stuck in place. Luckily, all party member will be able to warp away, but there aren’t enough resources to teleport everyone. One person will have to stay behind.
Now the crew is stranded at this nature planet, and it turns out its core of it is made of the warping resource needed. They can mine the core of the planet, and get that last person home, but the planet will die.
Now you have something to talk about! Is the life of one person worth the life of a planet? Even if some would consider it “uninhabited”? If the crewmember now decides to kill the captain, she has a clearer reason. Killing someone solves the problem, since now we don’t need to mine. At the same time, it can be seen as a mercy killing. But it would still give the doctor someone to condemn. Difference is, now this person’s perspective is understandable and would make the listener think. They would side with someone. Either the leader or the crew. Either the Doctor or the companions.
I’m, of course, not saying my story is better. This is just a random thought. But it would have focus. Right now, it is like the trolley problem, but without knowing what a trolley is. And that ruins the ending.
So yeah, this story starts of fantastically. A new kind of threat, but a very natural one for space travel. Space diseases and oxygen shortage are not some big evil to overcome, and that changes the status quo. But then the second half comes along, and we get a half-assed threat that makes very little sense, and that crumbles the foundational problems the story tries to tackle. Right now, the “villains’ only really serve to fill up the box art. And if that happens, maybe it’s time to rethink your story.
