After watching Arachnids in the UK comes probably my greatest Chibnall-era hot take...I really, really fucking love The Tsuranga Conundrum. It's my favourite episode of Series 11 so far (and is currently my fav of the Chibnall-era all together, but I'll consolidate that once I've finished the watchthrough) and I just think it's absolutely wonderful.

One of the things I think Chris Chibnall is strong at is chucking the audience (and the characters) right into a new scenario. He did it with The Ghost Monument, and he does it again here. As soon as the TARDIS team wake up in Tsuranga, there's no background, we just go. It's an episode that is paced immaculately in my opinion, the whole thing just keeps moving and moving, it's so fluid. There's pauses for emotional beats, but it always feels like there's a constant tension in the episode, be it the Doctor trying to get back to her TARDIS, or them trying to survive the Pting. One moment I love at the start is where we see the Doctor desperately doing anything to get back to her TARDIS, and putting the other people on the ship potentially at harm by doing so. It's such a tense first 10m, with Astos finally confronting her and telling her what she's doing - it's a really really interesting character moment in my opinion. And from there on the pace is just constant, the search for the Pting with Astos and the Doctor is really really exciting, the slowly figuring out what to do in the second act but without letting up any tension, and then the third act, which for my money is just perfect. Having the birth of a child coinciding with flying the ship coinciding with defeating the Pting is just so unrelentingly tense and exciting - I really do fucking love it.

The direction is brilliant here too, and without it the episode wouldn't work as well. It's very fluid, very hand-held, constantly moving. There's very few static shots in the episode. The close-ups here really work too, because it gives a feeling of claustrophobia which works here much better than in The Ghost Monument or Rosa. The production design is great too, it's that very clean-80s spaceship look that I love.

Segun Akinola's score is his best so far here too, it's another thing that really keeps the tension going. There's music almost constantly in the episode, which is a brave choice, but it really works, and he's going from an exclusively electronic sound palette, utilising 80s synths, deep bass and big electric snare drums that honestly give me goosebumps whenever I watch. Especially in that third act when everything comes together, it's just ridiculous how tense the music is.

As for the more emotional and character-driven side of the episode, I think it works just as well. Unlike in Arachnids in the UK, the tension never side-steps any character drama, and my favourite part is what they do with Ryan here. Him opening up to Yaz is really beautiful, and probably the only time in the whole episode that everything stops to concentrate on that. I think him talking to Yoss about being a dad is wonderful too, Tosin plays it so well, and it combines really beautifully at the end with the death of Eve intercut with the birth of Avocado Pear :P. The sibling relationship is really nice too, it really works with the theme of family that they're going for in the episode, and that closing monologue is just so so so beautiful. The Pting is also a really great threatening monster, while also looking wonderfully cute.

Overall I just love this episode from start to finish. The atmosphere is perfect and it gives me chills throughout, which is something strong for me. I think Chibnall, Perrott and Akinola especially all do a fantastic job with this one. I'd give it a really strong 9/10, about as strong as you can get without being a 10/10. I'm quite tough with 10/10s, it's got to be a really, really special perfect episode to get that, and this episode maybe has one or two slightly odd lines of dialogue with the anti-matter drive to stop it really teetering onto that for me. But it cannot be stated enough how much I love this one, it really can't.