Day 558: Four to Doomsday Part 1

This is different. The first episode of Four to Doomsday concersn itself with the Doctor and co. exploring the spaceship that they find themselves on. They meet some aliens, discover some technology, and meet some humans who are from to some of the most ancient cultures on Earth (e.g. Greeks, Australian Aborigines, etc.). There's something about this episode that feels a little bit wrong though, that differentiates it from everything else.

In my opinion, it's due to a lack of conflict encountered in their surroundings. Everything that they come across is relatively peaceful, with no real cause for alarm (aside from one or two brief mentions ofslightly  worrisome things). Even the cliffhanger, which reveals that the aliens are, at least to some degree, shapeshifters, comes across less as a massive revelation and more of a small surprise. We don't know what the consequences are of this, and prior interaction with these aliens has shown them to be fairly nice so we don't see them as a threat. All of this lack of conflict means that the story lacks a driving force that is able to truly engage the audience.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing. This first episode is clearly all about exploring the scenario that we find ourselves in, and it allows for us to have a slightly slower paced story than what we've been used to over the past couple of stories. And, as we've seen with this regeneration, change does not necessarily have to be a bad thing.