The Tsuranga Conundrum (TV story)

The Tsuranga Conundrum
Doctor:	Thirteenth Doctor
Companion(s):	Graham, Ryan, Yaz
Main enemy:	Pting
Main setting:	Tsuranga, 67th century
Key crew
Writer:	Chris Chibnall
Director:	Jennifer Perrott
Release details
Story number:	280
Premiere broadcast:	4 November 2018
Premiere network:	BBC One
Format:	1x51 minute episode
Official trailer
▶︎ YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy UnderstoodDismiss
Memorable moment
▶︎ YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy UnderstoodDismiss
Behind the scenes video
▶︎ YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy UnderstoodDismiss
Doctor Who television stories
← Previous	Arachnids in the UK

The Tsuranga Conundrum was the fifth episode in the eleventh series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales.

Synopsis

As the Thirteenth Doctor and her friends end up stranded without the TARDIS on a hospital ship in space, with a strange and potentially deadly intruder on board, it is up to them, the crew, and the patients to figure out what it is, what it wants, and how to stop it before the creature tears the ship apart.

Plot

On Seffilun 27 in a Junk galaxy, the Thirteenth Doctor, Ryan, Yasmin, and Graham are hunting for something the Doctor desires to find with special detectors retrieved from the TARDIS parked nearby. While looking, they find something, the Doctor realising that it is a sonic mine, and accidentally triggers it and explodes just as the Yaz asks how long they have

The Doctor awakes on a hospital ship Tsuranga, finding the others alright despite her own apparent pain in her side.

rest to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
• Graham O'Brien - Bradley Walsh
• Ryan Sinclair - Tosin Cole
• Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
• Astos - Brett Goldstein
• Mabli - Lois Chimimba
• Eve Cicero - Suzanne Packer
• Durkas Cicero - Ben Bailey-Smith
• Ronan - David Shields
• Yoss - Jack Shalloo

Crew

to be added

References

The Doctor

• The Doctor claims she is a doctor of medicine, science, engineering, candy floss, LEGO, philosophy, music, problems, people and hope, but mostly hope.

Culture

• Graham mentions how he has watched every episode of Call the Midwife, although he looks away at the squeamish parts.

Species

• Gifftan males and females can become pregnant, with males only birthing male children and vice-versa. Gifftan young are gestated for a week in a pregnancy sac before the sac is painlessly cut open during birth.
• Gifftan babies are born with two umbilical cords.
• Images of a Cyberman, an Ood, a Weeping Angel, a Raxacoricofallapatorian, a Sontaran, a Silent, a Silurian, and a Zygon appear on a console screen in rapid succession before Mabli selects a briefing on the Pting.
• Time Lords possess an organ called an exo-spleen. When damaged they could cause pain.

Technology

• Anti-matter drives were used in the 67th century to power their ships.

Sport

• Yaz mentions footballer Siobhan Chamberlain when kicking the Pting down a corridor on the Tsuranga.

Story notes

• Pretty much every scientific fact about anti-matter given by the Doctor in this episode is true to real science. However, in reality, because antimatter is produced via pair production, energy gained by antimatter-matter reactions would not exceed the energy required to create it; therefore energy generation would have to be performed by captured antimatter that has not been manufactured.
• Tim Price receives a creator credit for the Pting, the first time such a credit is given on a creature or character's first appearance.

Ratings

• 6.12 million (UK overnight)

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

to be added

Continuity

• The Doctor notes that she has "only just" recovered her TARDIS. (TV: The Ghost Monument)
• The Doctor says "snap" when her and the general say the same thing. She has said this in her second, sixth, (TV: The Two Doctors) tenth (TV: Time Crash) and twelfth (TV: Twice Upon a Time) incarnations.
• The Doctor and her friends have been rescued from a perilous situation before by a passing ship. (TV: The Ghost Monument)
• Ryan mentions how his dad did not come to Grace O'Brien's funeral. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
• Graham still calls the Doctor "Doc". (TV: Rosa, Arachnids in the UK)
• Graham once more tries to fist bump Ryan only for the man to refuse as it's "uncool" of him. (TV: Rosa)
• Ryan elaborates on his mother's death. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
• Graham mentions the fact that Ryan spends time on YouTube. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
• The Doctor's sonic screwdriver is once again eaten. (TV: The Eleventh Hour, A Christmas Carol)
• Once again, the Thirteenth Doctor loses possession of her TARDIS. (TV: Twice Upon a Time) She also lost it several times during her tenth incarnation. (TV: The Impossible Planet, Blink, Utopia, The Poison Sky)
• The Doctor loves the musical Hamilton, and has seen it many times throughout her lives. (COMIC: The Long Con)
• Graham mentions that Ryan is descended from an Earth nurse. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)

Home video releases

DVD releases

to be added

Blu-ray releases

to be added

Digital releases

to be added

External links

• Official The Tsuranga Conundrum page on the Doctor Who website