In which the TARDIS materialises aboard a spacecraft on the surface of the planet Ranskoor Av Kolos. It has come here in response to nine separate distress signals. Psychotropic waves emanating from this world can cause the unprotected to be driven insane, so they must take precautions with neural blockers attached to the temple. They come across a single crewmember, a man named Paltraki. He was the commander of the vessel, but has lost most of his memories due to the psychotropic waves.
A video message is broadcast from a woman named Andinio, insisting that Paltraki return something which belongs to "The Creator". They then hear a familiar voice - that of the Stenza Tzim-Sha.
The commander has a crystal container within which is some unknown object. The Doctor's sonic will not penetrate the casing, but it appears to be of great density.
Tzim-Sha is holding Paltraki's crew hostage, so they are forced to go to him.
Outside the ship, they see a number of crashed spaceships - the source of the emergency transmissions. Paltraki's memories are beginning to return after the Doctor gave him a neural blocker to combat the waves. He recalls a great battle in which he and his crew fought. They are the only survivors.
They travel across the barren landscape and soon come to a lake, floating above which is a huge rock edifice.
Whilst wondering how to gain access, the object within the crystal appears to respond to the proximity of the structure. They find themselves transported inside as they come closer.
The structure is guarded by Stenza SniperBots. They split up, one group to look for the missing crewmembers, and the other to locate Tzim-Sha and find out what he is doing here.
The Doctor meets Andinio and a young man named Delph - members of the Ux.
They have powerful telekinetic abilities, and were responsible for the creation of this structure from the surrounding rocks.
They arrived on the planet in 2018 on a mystical quest, and witnessed the materialisation of Tzim-Sha. He had just been transported from Earth, badly injured by his own DNA bombs thanks to the Doctor. Andinio and Delph took his to be their deity-figure they sought, and have been employing their powers for the last 5000 years to assist him in his great scheme.
Graham and Ryan find Paltraki's crew imprisoned in stasis chambers.
The Doctor and Yaz locate the Stenza and learn of his plan. The object taken by Paltraki is also a stasis unit - but one containing the harnessed energies of an entire planet. It has been removed from space, compressed and encased using the power of the Ux.
Tzim-Sha has done the same with a number of other worlds, and is going to use their combined energy to create a super-weapon - one capable of destroying more planets. This will be focussed through Delph.
As an act of revenge for what happened to him there, the next victim world will be Earth.
Graham and Ryan free the imprisoned crew as the SniperBots start to break in. One of Paltraki's bombs destroys them.
The Doctor is able to get through to the Ux that their powers are being abused, and the Stenza is not their deity. She and Yaz sacrifice their neural blockers to give to them.
The attack on Earth is halted.
Graham has vowed to kill Tzim-Sha in revenge for the death of Grace, but the Doctor has succeeded in convincing him that this would make him no better than the alien.
Instead of killing him, Graham instead imprisons him in one of his own stasis chambers.
Delph returns the captured planets to their correct points in space.
He and Andinio will leave the planet with Paltraki and his crew, to continue their quest elsewhere.
The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos was written by Chris Chibnall, and was first broadcast on Sunday 9th December 2018.
It was the final instalment of Series 11 - the first for Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker - and great things were expected of it. The title alone hinted at some much needed action, which could have been described as "sparse" throughout the season so far.
The kindest thing you could say about the episode is that it is "anti-climactic". Many would simply say that it was a huge disappointment, and the New Year Special a few weeks later made for a much more satisfying season finale.
Chibnall had elected to dispense with any sort of story arc for us to invest in. The Stenza had been mentioned in the second episode after appearing in the opener, but this potential thread had evaporated.
Tzim-Sha had been a lukewarm villain to begin with, and having him as the finale's 'Big Bad' provoked little interest. No-one really cared what had happened to him.
We have a story promising a battle - and discover that the conflict has finished before the episode even gets underway.
The main plot has been stolen wholesale from The Pirate Planet - compressing planets and harnessing the energy / setting the Earth up as the next victim world.
The Ux are interesting characters, but we're asked to believe that they can simply be talked out of a 5000 year belief system in a matter of minutes.
We'd all seen how pathetic the SniperBots were on their first outing.
If it has any positives at all, it's the visuals. It looks great - but it's a triumph of style over content...
There's also a very good guest cast, but they're rather wasted.
Playing Paltraki is Mark Addy. He first came to fame in the male-stripper comedy The Full Monty, but for many his most prominent role was as King Robert Baratheon in the first season of Game of Thrones.
Andinio is veteran Scots actor Phyllis Logan. She's best known for playing Mrs Hughes in Downton Abbey, after first coming to prominence as antiques dealer Lovejoy's aristocratic friend Lady Jane Frensham.
Delph is Percelle Ascott, who had appeared in RTD's Wizards v. Aliens - the CBBC replacement series for The Sarah Jane Adventures.
And returning as Tzim-Sha is Samuel Oatley. To hide the alien's return, he was not credited in the advance publicity.
Overall, it's undoubtedly the weakest series finale to date - a borrowed plot done better elsewhere and a villain we really didn't need to see again.
Over the course of the series, the audience had fallen steadily by 4 million viewers, with this episode dropping below the 7 million mark. It also shared the lowest audience appreciation figure, falling below 80.
Things you might like to know:
- Phyllis Logan is married to Kevin McNally, guest artist from The Twin Dilemma and Flux.
- This was the first finale of the modern era not to include a classic villain - not even a cameo.
- Most of the Series 11 stories are referenced in some way throughout the episode, as is Boom Town, when the Doctor mentions the TARDIS regressing a Slitheen back to an egg.
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