Where to begin here? Well, let's say it was better than I was dreading. That's a good start. The writing credit of Pete McTighe and Chris Chibnall certainly adds a bit of hesitation to the proceedings going in. Doubly so, in my case. The reasons for this seem obvious when it comes to Chibnall, but he has been getting... better over time? Ad for Pete McTighe, he crafted Series 11's Kerblam! and that ended up being a thing, huh? He certainly had the sensibilities needed to make a fun and exciting episode that... okay I can't lie, it was above average for Series 11. The issue for many came with the political aspects of the episode, which used the trappings of a typical Doctor Who thriller as a red herring for some liberal centrist stuff about Amazon. So, that's a yikes from me! Now he's got a co-authorship with Chibnall on this episode. Unlike last week, there's no blatantly obvious arc setup or massive shakeup to the foundations of Doctor Who lore. This makes figuring out what Chibnall actually contributed to the thing difficult to figure out. Let us then treat it as a true co-authorship and credit them both as we talk about the episode. I'm sure more clever critics than I are good at separating the voices of McTighe and Chibnall in the episode, but it's far too early in the morning for me to try and do that. Instead let's talk about Praxeus. It's wild.
Okay, I lied. The massive globetrotting span of this episode is probably a Chibnall thing. Whoever came up with it, it actually works quite well and gives Praxeus its own grandiose scope. Jumping all around the globe between Peru, Madagascar, and Hong Kong really feels big and exciting. This is also helped by the guest cast, who kind of act as companions for the companions in a lot of ways. Obviously the big narrative weight is given to Jake and Adam, but I really liked the disparate dynamics of each companion/guest split. Each also has their own brief flirtations into different aesthetics; Ryan and Gabriela's jaunt into a quarantine zone felt like I was, briefly, watching a Resident Evil movie or something. Graham, Yaz, and Jake get to play around with alien tech and enter a shootout, and I love the neon lighting of the Hong Kong streets. The Doctor, along with Suki and Arumu, have a little bit of a fun science adventure. Then we have the shakeup of Yaz and Gabriela sticking in Hong Kong, which is both there to get us down into the Indian Ocean for the climax of the story and to drop the clue about Madagascar for the later twist involving Suki. If I were more cynical I'd complain about these two cool girls getting sidelined and stuck in a garbage dump until the plot is ready to resolve, but it really doesn't feel that way as you're watching. Indeed, Yaz even shows some initiative and is really adventurous and daring in her investigation. It's almost Clara-esque, and Gabriela is there to be the straight man to her knowledge of aliens and adventure and go "really?". It works! Now if only Yaz could be given as much character as Jake gets in this episode, but well. We are still dealing with Chibnall.
Let's get into the meat of it. We're doing pollution. Again. This is, to be frank, an odd choice. There's obvious synergy and mirroring with Orphan 55, of course. While it's not an outright rehash of that message, it's similar enough to make me wonder how two scripts with such a similar theme were put so close to each other. Surely Chibnall could have picked either Orphan 55 or this and then used a different script to fill in the gap? As it stands, I suspect there will be a lot of comparison between Praxeus and Orphan 55... and Praxeus does have a bit of an advantage here. Orphan 55, for me, worked mainly on just the sheer stones it had in looking directly at the camera and calling for direct action against climate change. Beyond that, it is a bit of a jumbled mess. Now, that's not a dealbreaker for me in any sense and I still like Orphan 55. Praxeus, by comparison, is not a jumbled mess. It's coherent and exciting and a wild roller coaster ride in that very specific Chibnall-era way. On the other hand, when you stack it against Orphan 55, its environmental message is a bit muted. Granted, any subtle environmental message will be muted against Orphan 55's desperately screaming DO SOMETHING into the void, but it has to be said! Plastic pollution is a bad thing, but the bad things happening because of it in this episode are due to outside intervention from a space alien pathogen. (It is deeply deeply unfortunate that this had to air on the heels of the very real and horrific coronavirus outbreak, but that can hardly be blamed on McTighe/Chibnall rather than just bad coincidence.) Humanity's pollution fuckup enables the space alien pathogen to be a real threat, but it's again muted compared to Orphan 55's screaming about how we're fucking our own planet over. It works for Praxeus, but if Praxeus had been half as brazen as Orphan 55 was, it could have easily one-upped it. It still manages that in places, though. Jake and Adam's drama is really moving and touching to me. I definitely empathized with Jake, even if I don't have a husband, and really connected to the character on that level. I have to breathe a huge sigh of relief as well, because this goddamned thing flirted with becoming another Bury Your Gays situation. First with Adam fighting off the Praxeus infection, and then with Jake's piloting the spaceship at the end. Both situations were tense, partly because I cared about the characters and partly because I was dreading more absolute bullshit with killing your goddamned representation. They lived, though! And reconciled! It's well-done, and again makes Orphan 55 look messier in comparison; many people asked why the Doctor couldn't nick back and save Kane and Bella at the end. Praxeus actually goes and does it with Jake, which puts me in the unenviable position of giving the point to McTighe and Chibnall over Ed Hime.
So yeah. A lot of comparing Praxeus to Orphan 55 happened there, but can you blame me? Chibnall commissioned two stories with very similar themes and put them three weeks apart. Still, I have to give it to Praxeus. It is the better-made story. I still adore Orphan 55 for its boldness with its message, as I've said, but where Praxeus lacks that boldness? It makes up for it by being more polished and having some better thematic resonance in other places. It's good, and that's better than I was expecting from McTighe and Chibnall. There are things you could nitpick about it (I saw a particularly egregious list of dings against it, which felt like needless CinemaSins-esque complaining to me) but, all in all, it was a wild ride that still holds up thinking about it the morning after. Sometimes that's all you need. Good job, McTighe and Chibnall. Can't believe I said that, but the hell with it. I did. See you next week.
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