Doctor Who season 11, episode 2 recap: The Ghost Monument

This week’s Doctor Who episode kickstarted the adventures we love and crave from the series and brought back a familiar aspect of it we didn’t know we missed.

Doctor Who finally premiered the highly anticipated eleventh season starring the first female Doctor. It was slow to start but kept us engaged and excited nonetheless in what this new Doctor had to offer this universe.

Last week’s premiere ended on a literal cliff er space hanger as the Doctor and her new companions found themselves suspended in space as she tried to locate the TARDIS. Now that the Doctor has officially regenerated with all the glitches and adjustments, she was ready to tackle whatever obstacles came forth.

It was quite the exciting adventure to be thrust back into this world once again, and it’s a happy reminder that Jodie Whittaker is killing it in this new role. In “The Ghost Monument”, there were aliens, spaceships, a new foreign planet–aka basically all things Doctor Who and it was glorious!

The episode picks up with the Doctor, Ryan, Graham, and Yaz in space but are picked up by two different ships and split up unexpectedly. Yaz and the Doctor are taken by a pilot named Epzo (Shaun Dooley) while Graham and Ryan are with Angstrom (Susan Lynch).

The destination for both ships is a planet known as Desolation where the planet seems to be involved in something called the Rally of the Twelve Galaxies. Once the group arrives on Desolation, you’re immediately taken away by the surroundings and the utter beauty of it. Just another thing that is so befitting to the world of Doctor Who.

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The companions are blown away by their first visit to an alien planet and take in the reality of what is going on with them. Upon arriving on Desolation, the group is tasked with racing across Desolation to get to something called the Ghost Monument.

Whoever wins gets a one-way ticket out of Desolation but they must survive all the obstacles that they will encounter along the way including bacteria and frightening threats. There were 4,000 contestants at some point and it is now down to just them.

However, the Doctor quickly learns that the Ghost Monument is none other than her TARDIS (yay!) which has been struggling to stay in one place since the planet is not in orbit. The group faces all sorts of things including sniper robots and along the way more is revealed about Angstrom and Epzo.

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It was fun to see more of the companions this week as we see how they are dealing in the aftermath of Grace’s death, especially Ryan.

Knowing that the TARDIS is the Ghost Monument, the Doctor promises the group that once they reach the TARDIS she will get everyone home safely. While they’re not entirely sure what this ship will be, they go along with it anyway.

The companions start to understand more about their situation as they learn they can understand the alien language of Angstrom and Epzo because they were all implanted with universal translation chips. Um, could we all get one, because they sound pretty darn cool.

As the Doctor comes to learn during the course of the episode, the scientists of Desolation were kidnapped so they could be forced to create the sniper robots along with all of the other death traps scattered on the planet.

We also learn that the Stenza (the group led by tooth-face Tzim-Sha) were the ones that kidnapped the scientists in the first place. And if all that isn’t enough to freak you out on this week’s Doctor Who, then the floating cloths of death surely will.

Known as the Remnants, they surround the group and start to reveal each person’s fears as they set their target on the Doctor. When the words “timeless child” are uttered, it hints towards something from the Doctor’s childhood (which we don’t actually know much about).

Once the team finishes the race, Angstrom and Epzo split their winnings and get to leave Desolation. Unfortunately, this leaves the Doctor and the rest of the companions behind and it seems like there is no getting out of this horrible situation. Even the Doctor is starting to worry, and that rarely happens.

But fear not, because the beautiful sound of the TARDIS starts to take over the scene and in all its glory, the Doctor’s ship appears atop the beautiful sands of Desolation. Her excitement is like nothing else and while the rest of the group is perplexed over this police box, we along with the Doctor know everything will be alright.

Next. Doctor Who season 11 premiere recap: ‘The Woman Who Fell to Earth’. dark

The best part about this reunion? Hearing the Doctor say, “Come to daddy, I mean mummy.” The writers of Doctor Who are so subtly clever, and I just can’t get enough of it! As the TARDIS opens its door for the new Doctor, we are introduced to a whole new look, and it’s simply stunning.

There’s something homey and unique about this TARDIS and it’s befitting for a Doctor we are already so in love with. And now–let the adventures begin.

Doctor Who airs on BBC America every Sunday at 8 PM EST!

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