Line #100 Recap/DoctorWhoS37E5TheTsurangaConundrum


1	[[WMG:[[center:[-''[[Series/DoctorWho Doctor Who]]'' [[Recap/DoctorWho recap index]]\
2	'''Thirteenth Doctor Era'''\
3	'''Series 11:''' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E1TheWomanWhoFellToEarth 1]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E2TheGhostMonument 2]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa 3]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E4ArachnidsInTheUK 4]] \| '''5''' \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E6DemonsOfThePunjab 6]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E7Kerblam 7]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E8TheWitchfinders 8]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E9ItTakesYouAway 9]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E10TheBattleOfRanskoorAvKolos 10]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWho2019NYSResolution NYS]]\
4	'''[[Recap/DoctorWho2016CSTheReturnOfDoctorMysterio <<< Series 10]]''' \| '''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E1E2Spyfall Series 12 >>>]]''']]-]]]
5	!The Tsuranga Conundrum
6	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_20181104_171357_video_player.jpg]]
7	[[caption-width-right:350: ''"May the saints of all the stars and constellations bring you hope, as they guide you out of the dark and into the light. On this voyage and the next, and all the journeys still to come. For now, and ever more."'']]
8	->Written by Creator/ChrisChibnall\
9	Directed by Jennifer Perrott\
10	'''Air date:''' 4 November 2018
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12	JustForFun/TheOneWith [[MisterSeahorse the pregnant man]].
13	----
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15	The Doctor, Ryan, Graham and Yaz are searching a LandfillBeyondTheStars for something with metal detectors, when Graham uncovers a sonic mine that's about to go off. Unfortunately, it can't be defused in time, and they all wake up in a hospital. Well, actually, it's a Tsuranga space ambulance, which picked them up after being alerted to their medical emergency via remote drones. It's bringing the Doctor, her companions, and two other patients to a hospital called ''Rhesus 1''. The Doctor initially attempts to turn the ship around so she can get back to the TARDIS, but after the chief medic, Astos, points out that she's being selfish, she realizes he's right and stops. The ship is, however, having to take a new route on the edge of disputed territory to get to the hospital.
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17	Just then, the ship is breached by something from space that moves incredibly quickly and targets the ship's two life pods. Astos dies when the life pod he enters is jettisoned, leaving them with no escape pods, since the other one was already gone by the time the Doctor got to it. The other medic, Mabli, is nervous about handling the situation on her own, and the Doctor calls the other patients together to tell them of the situation: a Pting, an extremely dangerous and mysterious creature which feeds on inorganic material, is onboard the ship, and they are all in danger if they can't get it off.
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19	As the Doctor works to figure out what the Pting wants and get everyone safely to ''Rhesus 1'', the other patients have their own problems: Yoss is about to have a baby he's not sure he wants to keep, and celebrated war hero General Eve Cicero is trying to hide the truth about her medical condition from her brother, Durkas. The Doctor eventually deduces that the Pting feeds on energy, so as Yaz and android Ronan defend the ship's antimatter core, and Graham and Ryan are roped into serving as Yoss's doulas (non-medical assistants for a birth) while Mabli delivers his baby. Eve sacrifices herself to fly the ship to safety through a quicker but more difficult and dangerous route, which her heart can't take. The Doctor feeds the ship's self-destruct bomb to the Pting, giving it a very good meal that should keep it from endangering anyone else for a long time, and Durkas takes the ship home for the final stretch. At the end, as the ship is being decontaminated before everyone can be admitted to the hospital, they gather round to say a few words for General Eve Cicero.
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21	----
22	!!Tropes:
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24	* AccidentalMurder: The Pting was only interested in eating the energy from the life pods. Astos was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time when a pod was jettisoned.
25	* AcePilot: General Eve Cicero used to be one of the best pilots in her military and, although it has been a while, it seems she still is.
26	* AsceticAesthetic: The hospital ship ''Tsuranga'' is all straight lines and antiseptic white surfaces. Justified as it is supposed to be a sterile environment not intended for long-term human occupation.
27	* AsleepForDays: The Doctor and company were knocked out for four days by the sonic mine before they wake up on the ship.
28	* AsteroidThicket: The ship flies through one early on, and its original route would have rerouted it around another, which they are forced to fly through during the situation with the Pting.
29	* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Eve and Durkas have a moment of this as he sets her up to pilot the ship, with him admitting that he regrets not telling her he loves her more and how proud he is of her.
30	* BadLiar: Astos is one of these, in the Doctor's opinion. He fires back that he is a ''terrific'' liar.
31	* BigBad: The Pting. It [[NonMaliciousMonster doesn't mean anyone harm]], but its actions will get everyone on board killed anyway.
32	* BizarreAlienBiology: The Doctor mentions that her "ecto-spleen" was injured by the sonic mine.
33	* BizarreAlienReproduction: Among Gifftans, men give birth to boys and women give birth to girls. We don't see how the women give birth, but males are pregnant for only a week, have a "birthing sac" that must be painlessly cut open to extract the baby, and are born with two umbilical cords. For his part, Yoss's reaction to finding out that human reproduction doesn't work like Gifftans' is a weirded out, "Ew".
34	* CelebrityParadox: Graham mentions ''Series/CallTheMidwife'', a show that shares several actors with ''Doctor Who'', including former lead actress Creator/JessicaRaine, who doubles down on the paradox as she played Creator/VerityLambert in the docudrama ''Film/AnAdventureInSpaceAndTime'', which was about the making of ''Doctor Who''. The paradox also triples down that Raine had also guest-starred in ''Doctor Who'' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E9Hide four seasons earlier]], just before the docudrama.
35	* ContinuityNod:
36	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight An automated vehicle is attacked by a dangerous alien entity after being steered by the autopilot onto a route that it's never taken before.]]
37	** Implants [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E1TheWomanWhoFellToEarth get]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E2TheGhostMonument another]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa nod]]: when the Doctor and company wake up on the spaceship, Astos and Mabli note that they don't have implants apparently standard in their time period that would give them their medical histories.
38	** The Doctor realizes she's on a spaceship by [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E2TheBeastBelow the engine vibrations]].
39	** The Doctor's stethoscope makes a reappearance, and she compares herself to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E7TheUnicornAndTheWasp Poirot]].
40	** The Doctor [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath still hates being wrong in public.]]
41	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa Graham attempts to fist-bump Ryan, but Ryan doesn't reciprocate.]]
42	** The Doctor notes the 67th Century is alright, but a bit bumpy in the middle. Although it's almost certainly coincidental, this is exactly the period of Creator/BigFinish's series ''[[AudioPlay/DalekEmpire Dalek Empire III]]'', and the Dalek empire remnant's attack on human civilisation. "Bumpy" might be an understatement.
43	** The MonsterOfTheWeek is [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E1ThePilot hungry, not evil]].
44	* CouldSayItBut: In a downplayed example, Mabli says that she can't tell the Doctor about Eve's medical condition because of patient confidentiality, but suggests that she examine her so the Doctor will find out what Eve's ''really'' suffering from.
45	* CuteCreatureCreepyMouth: The Pting is a cute, somewhat babylike creature with a mouth full of sharp teeth.
46	* CuteMonster: The Pting only attacked the ship because it was hungry, and it looks surprisingly adorable for something so dangerous.
47	* DeliveryGuy: When Yoss goes into labour, he asks Ryan and Graham to be his doulas because he feels he needs some men around. Graham insists that he can handle this as he's seen every episode of ''Series/CallTheMidwife'', but panics in the moment itself as he always looked away at the {{squick}}y[[invoked]] bits.
48	* DueToTheDead: At the end, everyone gathers around Eve's body to recite a prayer for her.
49	* EatTheBomb: The Doctor feeds the Pting the ship's self-destruct device, hoping to defuse it safely while giving the Pting a meal energising enough that it won't get hungry and endanger anyone else for a while.
50	* EscapePod: The ship has two, which quickly get jettisoned when the Pting goes after their power sources.
51	* ExpospeakGag: Ronan at one point asks Yaz if she is also "experiencing comprehension deficiency".
52	* ExtremeOmnivore: The Pting can consume any inorganic matter or energy source, which is bad news on a spaceship.
53	* ExtremophileLifeforms: The Pting lives in space, is essentially impossible to destroy, and foregoes conventional food, subsisting instead on energy drained from technology.
54	* FailedASpotCheck: The Doctor berates herself for this after wandering around the "hospital" looking for an exit and failing to notice the tell-tale engine vibrations signifying that she was on a spaceship.
55	* FamedInStory: General Eve Cicero is a well-known war hero, and the Doctor mentions she's listed in the Book of Celebrants. Eve has in turn heard of the Doctor, who claims she has a whole ''volume'' in the book.
56	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Ryan discusses his mum's death from a heart attack, and the strain this put on his relationship with his dad. This foreshadows Eve's death from pilot's heart, and Yoss's reluctance to raise a child.
57	* FreezeFrameBonus: When the Doctor and Mabli research the Pting in the ship's database, images of a Cyberman, an Ood, a Weeping Angel, a Slitheen, a Sontaran, a Silent, a Scholar caste Silurian, and a Zygon are briefly seen.
58	* FutureImperfect: For some reason, "Avocado Pear" has gone down in history as the name of one of Earth's greatest heroes, at least in Gifftan records. Graham and Ryan correct Yoss that those are foods. He's also ignorant of the fact that humans (and indeed, most species we've seen in the Whoniverse) don't reproduce the same way as his species.
59	* HeelRealisation: The Doctor, when Astos points out how selfish she's being by trying to turn the ship around to get back to the TARDIS when it's taking others to a hospital.
60	* HeroicSacrifice: Eve has "Pilot's Heart", which is apparently some inability to regulate adrenaline. She dies when a big surge of it causes a heart attack while she's attempting to manually pilot the ship to safety through an asteroid field. Crosses over into SenselessSacrifice when it's shown she showed Durkas how to pilot the ship before passing, opening the question why he couldn't have done so from the beginning with her supervising.
61	* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Subverted when the Doctor initially denies being the one with a chapter in the Book of Celebrants, then can't resist adding that it was actually an entire volume before she leaves.
62	* HidingTheHandicap: Eve is not keen for anyone to know about her pilot's heart, partly because she doesn't want to worry her brother and partly because she doesn't think it the sort of condition a war hero should suffer from.
63	* HumanAlien: Gifftans can't be told apart from humans, apart from the fact that [[BizarreAlienReproduction both sexes can get pregnant and the pregnancies only last for a week for men]].
64	* IdiotBall: Astos, knowing that there is something dangerous lurking near the life pod, steps inside when he sees that it seems to be malfunctioning. He gets locked in, ejected, and dies when the pod explodes. He lampshades it as a "rookie mistake".
65	* IKnowMortalKombat: Graham mentions that he knows how to properly assist with childbirth thanks to watching ''Series/CallTheMidwife''. Later {{subverted}} when he mentions to Ryan that he actually looked away during the gross bits, such as birthing.
66	* InnocuouslyImportantEpisode: The Doctor's outburst at Astos foreshadows her pricklier personality in Season 12.
67	* TheJuggernaut: The Pting can eat through anything that would attempt to restrain them or block their path, and cannot be harmed by any known weapon. The computer advises simply staying far away from them.
68	* KillerRabbit: The Pting looks adorable but is NighInvulnerable, has a lethal toxic touch, and endangers an entire starship by eating it.
69	* TheKnightsWhoSaySquee: The Doctor has a moment of squeeing over General Eve Cicero, who returns the gesture upon learning that she is talking to the Doctor.
70	* LandfillBeyondTheStars: At the beginning of the episode, the Doctor and company are wandering around a junkyard planet, which is apparently in an entire junk ''galaxy''. Fortunately, such galaxies are rare.
71	* MadLibThrillerTitle: Robert Ludlum would be proud.
72	* MisterSeahorse: Yoss. In his species, both genders can get pregnant, and can only give birth to their own gender.
73	* MythologyGag: The design of the ship's bridge, with a central console hanging from the ceiling, is reminiscent of a proposed console room for the Seventh Doctor's TARDIS.
74	* NighInvulnerability: The Pting are said to be immune to all known weaponry.
75	* NoNewFashionsInTheFuture: In stark contrast to the other locals of the 67th century, Durkas Cicero is wearing a T-shirt with ripped jeans and a zippered jacket that wouldn't be out of place in the 21st century.
76	* NonMaliciousMonster: Despite the huge danger it poses to the ship and its inhabitants, the Pting isn't actively trying to harm or kill anyone, it's just ''really'' hungry and sees the ship as food.
77	* NoodleIncident:
78	** Team TARDIS' trip rain-bathing in the upper tropics of Costano.
79	** Upon learning she's in the 67th century, the Doctor remarks that it's a rather tumultuous period of history in the middle, but works out in the end. Amusingly, but almost certainly coincidentally, it ''is'' the period of Creator/BigFinish's ''[[AudioPlay/DalekEmpire Dalek Empire III]]'', which is certainly tumultuous.
80	* ThePatientHasLeftTheBuilding: The Doctor ''tries'' to do this after waking up, despite Astos and Mabli's protests, before learning that she's actually on a spaceship and can't leave.
81	* PintSizedPowerhouse: The Pting is about the size of a baby, but its speed, invulnerability, poisonous skin and ability to eat any inorganic material make it very dangerous. Eve mentions that she once encountered one that devastated an entire fleet.
82	* PoisonousPerson: The Pting's skin secretes a toxin that is lethal to all other lifeforms.
83	* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Ronan appears to be a preternaturally calm human who drops occasional bits of RoboSpeak.
84	* RuleOfThree: The people on board the ship can only send a signal to ''Rhesus 1'' denying the presence of hostile lifeforms onboard three times before it will stop working.
85	* SawItInAMovieOnce: Graham cites having seen every episode of ''Series/CallTheMidwife'' as his experience when asked to be one of Yoss's birth partners. Unfortunately, he always had to look away at the squishy bits...
86	* SelfDestructMechanism: The ship has one in case of hijacking in the form of a bomb just below the antimatter drive. The Doctor eventually feeds the bomb to the Pting.
87	* SelfHealingPhlebotinum: The sonic screwdriver gets damaged when the Pting tries to eat it, but reboots itself in time for the Doctor to use it to recover the self-destruct.
88	* ShoutOut:
89	** When everyone gathers in the diagnostics room, the Doctor enters while saying they must be wondering why she's gathered them all here, and then wonders if the statement is too [[Literature/HerculePoirot Poirot]].
90	** The Doctor mentions having seen all 900 casts of ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}''.
91	** Graham is a big fan of ''Series/CallTheMidwife''.
92	* ShownTheirWork: The Doctor's description of how particle accelerators generate antimatter is fairly scientifically accurate.
93	* SingleEpisodeHandicap: The Doctor seems to have taken the brunt of the sonic mine blast, and at several points during the episode stops to clutch her side and note that she still hurts. It doesn't slow her down much, but is brought up occasionally.
94	* TheSummation: Riffed when the Doctor gathers everyone in one room to discuss how they're going to handle the crisis.
95	-->'''Doctor:''' You're probably wondering why I called you all here. Sorry, bit Poirot.
96	* SpacePeople: The Pting is able to cross the vacuum of space without suffering any obvious ill effects.
97	* SpaceStation: ''Rhesus 1'', the hospital that is the ship's ultimate destination, is drifting in space.
98	* {{Squee}}: As well as the Doctor's {{Fangirl}} moment with the General (described above), there's also her glee when she shows Yaz the anti-matter generator powering the ship's engines.
99	* ThrownOutTheAirlock: The Doctor ejects the Pting from the ship after it eats the bomb this way. Unlike other examples of this trope, [[SpacePeople this doesn't kill it.]]
100	* TimeSkip: There's clearly been a few adventures since Team TARDIS was last in Sheffield, with the Doctor mentioning [[NoodleIncident that she took the group rain-bathing]].
101	* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: The Pting cheerfully devours any inorganic material it can get its hands on... except for the sonic screwdriver, which it spits out moments after swallowing.
102	* TrappedWithMonsterPlot: Downplayed as the MonsterOfTheWeek is not actively hunting them; it's just going to eat the spaceship around them and killing them is an unfortunate consequence.
103	* UselessSpleen: The Doctor mentions at one point that her "ecto-spleen" is still hurting from the sonic mine blast.
104	* WakingUpElsewhere: The Doctor, Graham, Yaz and Ryan wake up on a medical ship after being caught in the blast of a sonic mine.
105	* WeHardlyKnewYe: Astos is quickly killed in the first act.
106	* WhatTheHellHero: Astos gives the Doctor one of these when she insists on trying to hijack the hospital ship in order to get back to the TARDIS, completely ignoring the fact that there are other patients on this ship who need to get medical care.
107	-->'''The Doctor:''' I'm not being hostile!\
108	'''Astos:''' Yes, you are! You're being hostile and selfish. There are patients on board who need to get to ''Rhesus 1'' as a matter of urgency. My job is to keep all of you safe. You're stopping me from doing that.
109	* WhatYearIsThis: The Doctor, examining the antimatter drive, asks Ronan what ''century'' she's in, explaining that she and her friends are time travellers. (It's the 67th, for the record.)
110	* WholePlotReference:
111	** To ''Film/{{Alien}}'', with a spaceship under siege from a mysterious creature that seems to have no weaknesses and corrosive acid as a defense mechanism that ends up being ejected into space, plus there's a secret-keeping android.
112	** [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch The creature is a malevolent little gremlin about the size of a human baby, completely adorable in appearance and possessing a seemingly programmed instinct to destroy everything it comes across. It also happens to be impossible to destroy or contain by any known means.]]
113	* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Astos's last words to Mabli are encouragement for her to [[YouAreInCommandNow face this crisis because she is capable of it]].

Context Recap / DoctorWhoS37E5TheTsurangaConundrum