Review of Praxeus
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

Let’s be honest: anything was going to be a letdown after the huge curveball we got thrown last week. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Praxeus came across as merely “adequate” as we catch our breath and let last week’s ideas percolate in our minds.

Which is not to say it was bad. I just wasn’t one that feels likely to stick out in my mind in years to come when I think back on this series. What it did have, though, was more great character interactions and a high creep factor.

It also employs a really effective method for splitting up a large TARDIS crew and giving all the characters interesting and important things to do. I love that the three locations around the planet allow the “fam” to explore different pieces of this puzzle and show the audience how much the Companions have grown during their tenure with the Doctor.

Watching each of them striking out without her supervision, being competent, and helping to solve the problem at hand, all while shepherding new people along, makes me feel like they’ve all really come into their own. Perhaps best, at one point Yaz even takes the initiative, following her own lead with Gabriela as her sidekick. It put me in mind of Ace, with the way she tended to pick up her own Companions nearly every adventure, and gave me hints of Clara, too.

The three pieces—Peru, Hong Kong, and Madagascar—fit together in a clever and interesting way, and made good use of some tried-and-true horror elements (e.g., a murmuration of deadly birds) to keep viewers on edge. I have to wonder, though, how much of my own tension was due to well-executed light horror, and how much of it was already being keyed up.

You see, from the very beginning I was waiting for bad shit to go down. When we meet Gabriela and Jamila—travel vloggers “Two Girls Roaming,” as Gabriela reminds us over and over—the nature of their relationship is really ambiguous. Though it’s (sort of) clarified later, if one doesn’t know Portuguese, hearing Gabriela call Jamila “melhor amiga” (“best friend”) doesn’t actually help. I, for one, still read them as a romantic couple.

That’s why I anticipated—and dreaded—Jamila’s death; it’s too close to the Bury Your Gays trope. Thus, having seen one (possibly) queer character die already, I couldn’t trust this story not to continue the trend. At the climax, then, I was truly on pins and needles, not having any idea whether or not I could trust that the Doctor would be able to save Jake in the end. Things ended up okay, but suffering through that crisis of faith still left a bad taste in my mouth.

There were plenty of small moments to enjoy, though: when Gabriela (like a reasonable person!) calls Ryan out for wanting to go into a quarantine area; when Graham has the tracking device turned the wrong way around; when the suspiciously well-stocked lab in the ass-end of nowhere turns out to be an actual clue (“Oh, I’m a sucker for a scientist!”).

My favorite, though, was probably the conversation between Graham and Jake. Graham is wise (and obviously still grieving Grace), but I feel Jake’s pain in my bones, having been there myself. I don’t know if this is why Chibnall’s name was on the credits—writing great character interactions is, after all, his specialty—but whoever was responsible, they nailed it.

On the other hand, there were some less-than-stellar moments, too. Aside from the trust issue mentioned above, I totally lost my suspension of disbelief when Adam texted Jake to come find him. Seriously—where the F did he get a phone if (a) he’s just crashed on a return from the ISS, and (b) he’s trussed up in a lab? I couldn’t get past that.

And it was another episode with a soapbox, this time about how humanity is destroying the planet with microplastics. Even one of my thirteen-year-olds sounded tired of it (“They’re really emphasizing the climate change this season, aren’t they?”). While there are important messages here (I’ll admit I wasn’t familiar with the microplastics issue), the Big Speeches the Doctor has been giving lately feel very preachy, and risk turning off even those of us receptive to the message.

All in all, the episode was more good than bad. I think it suffers most by being the one to have drawn the short straw to follow Fugitive of the Judoon. But that also begs the question of whether there any hidden throughlines here. Did Chibnall contribute more than character work? Is there a reason the Doctor tended to show up without warning, surprising everyone with her arrival, each time she came to join her Companions?

Personally, I hope the cat is important. The Doctor did mention him twice (“There’s also a talking cat in Ontario, but I’ve ruled him out for now.” / “Hadn’t factored you [Adam] into this. Focused too much on that cat…”), so I’ll keep my fingers crossed. In the meantime, I’m content to wait and see how the rest of the series unfolds.