TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Doctor Who Season 12 Episode 6: Praxeus

So, if you were hoping for an answer to last weeks jaw-dropping mystery about the Doctor Who timeline…you’re out of luck. They actually don’t even mention it in the whole episode. HOWEVER, if you’re looking for a solid, mystery-filled, and eccentric episode of Doctor Who…”Praxeus” has you covered.

Right off the bat, “Praxeus” honestly drew me in, as we saw people from all over the world seemingly experiencing random events, and yet they weren’t, they were all connected, and that’s because the Doctor and her team were helping connect the dots. And a cat, but the cat wasn’t a part of this apparently, oh well.

The mystery element of this element was done really well, because you didn’t know for the longest time how all of this was filling in. What was going on with the birds? How did this get an astronaut captured? Why were people being consumed by something and then exploding into dust? It was a fun trip to find all of the answers, and along the way we had some really good character moments.

Yaz for example seems to be a bit more bold since her brush with death in Spyfall. She was all but wanting to do more and more dangerous things, and if it’s intentional, I hope this leads to something in the upcoming season finale. If it was random…well I hope it wasn’t.

I also like Ryan’s time with new temp-companion Gabriella, who lost a friend to the birds (Hitchcock would be proud) and was coping with the loss in her own way. Ryan noting no doubt that she’d get through this (remembering how he lost his grandmother on his first adventure with the Doctor) was a nice touch.

Even Graham got in on the action with the new couple that joined them in Jake and Adam, there was some fun things here.

And the twist that one of the new companions was actually in on it? I didn’t see that coming, and that’s good. As was the reveal about how “Praxeus” was a reference to a virus that LOVES plastic. It was so virulent that it killed another humanoid race, and it was brought to Earth by said race to use us as guinea pigs for a cure! …not nice.

Jake making up for his actions with his husband and flying the ship to save the Earth was a nice moment, and thankfully the Doctor was able to save him and give everyone basically a happy ending.

If there was a problem with “Praxeus”, it’s timing. This is only a few episodes removed from the horrible “Orphan 55” episode and the message was very much the same, “clean up the world or watch it die”. What’s more, there were some odd moments like the death of a companion that wasn’t even acknowledged by the others and some jumps in logic that didn’t quite make sense. But it’s Doctor Who, not everything can be perfectly logical, right?

In the end, “Praxeus” was a nice episode that had a fun building of mystery and tension. We’re in the back half of the season now (can you believe it?) and hopefully it ends with a bang and not a whimper.