The final episode of a topsy-turvy Doctor Who season that was very forgettable. While it had some good moments, it was overshadowed a lot by the bad, and unfortunately this final episode just didn’t do it for me either.

When I saw on iPlayer that there were eight episodes in the series I thought that would be really good, they could dive into different story lines really well. But then realising that the final two episodes are actually the standalone Christmas / New Year ones I realised in episode five how much had to be tied together in episode six, and unfortunately for me it was rushed and so quickly pulled together that everything that they had built up really came to nothing and didn’t excite me.

In this episode we see the Doctor split in three, there is a Doctor that is dealing with the companions and the Victorian man who has many different doors that lead to different areas, we have a Doctor who is working with the fluffy dog man to take down the Flux, and we have the Doctor who is stuck with the ‘time demons’ trying to get her pocket watch back. Now you think with three different storylines going on there’s always something to watch, but for me, everything felt so rushed because it was trying to fit into the timeframe and none of the storylines were really more than surface level.

I also find it weird how they tease the Daleks and the Cybermen so much in previous episodes to only have a glimpse of them, this felt really anticlimactic. I get the Daleks and the Cyberman are just using the Sontarans to get away from the Flux, but to tease them so heavily and then become nothing was really frustrating. And as I said in a previous review, I was really excited to see them and they just went nowhere. The only storyline I really enjoyed was Jericho’s, his storyline coming to an end was really sweet and sombre and I was actually sad to see him go, because he was such a good well rounded character that I would’ve loved to enjoy more of.

In this episode we see the Doctor defeat the Flux with the dog man, which was very quick to end. We see the ‘time demons’ being cast aside by their master because the Flux failed and ending up on the Doctor’s side – which again was very quick. And the editing in these scenes weren’t the best, it felt very choppy and as if they wanted to show more of what was happening but unfortunately the time constraints meant that they could not. I also found some of the CGI a bit simple and I understand the BBC has a budget of only so much, but with a show that is set in space and time you think making sure the CGI looked good would be a big part of that budget, because it’s such a big part of the show.

And the final storyline of the Doctor and the companions running round different rooms trying to find one that they could lure the Sotarans into just didn’t excite me. The Victorian man has been around since the beginning, apparently he’s a big part of history, but I don’t know who he is because it wasn’t explained very well and he seem to come and go so quickly. It was like the Daleks and the Cybermen’s inclusion all over again.

Overall I am a bit disappointed in this season, it didn’t hit all the marks I hoped it would. I think the issue of it only being six episodes and trying to fit such a huge storyline into that was too much of a mammoth task, it felt rushed, it felt clunky, and in the end it’s not a series that I would ever go back and watch again. Unlike prior Doctor Who series’ where I would happily watch them again and again because they are so good, and while the CGI may not stand the test of time, the storylines definitely do.

What do you think of The Vanquishers?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding