I'd put this on a similar tier to Can You Hear Me? They're both pretty bad episodes with resolutions that are impossible to follow (I have no idea what happened in the resolution to this), but there's nothing spectacularly bad and the setups for the plot are decent.
Thasmin is still painful but I at least get some comfort in knowing that 13 doesn't reciprocate, although her reasoning is quite contradictory to itself (I mean she basically reasons that she doesn't want to get together with anyone because it will end badly and then says 'can we just live in the present moment?' as if that isn't a justification for pursuing it rather than not). I do at least wish Chibnall had put all of that talk at the end instead of sprinkling a bit in during a climactic part, he did the same in Eve and the tonal whiplash is awful, especially when the music literally can't keep up with the tone changes.
As for the rest of the episode itself (besides the resolution), the pirate queen was well-acted, though I can't say I found her compelling. I actually enjoyed the swordfighting segment somehow, it wasn't half bad, wish there was more of that. Not sure what happened to the sea monster and honestly it felt like it wasn't serving a purpose. Also the pacing of this episode is horribly rushed, and the Chibnall problem of characters stating things onscreen is still rampant (at one point a character says 'the stars moved, did you see that?' next to the pirate queen who was literally looking at them for navigation).
Every bad Chibnall episode has a few extra dumb moments, my picks this time (minus the ones already mentioned) are when the guy who joined Dan on the ship just happened to be wearing the keystone because he just happened to be the descendant of the person who saved it, and when a group of sea devils walk up to Dan and another guy (who have swords) with no weapons, and just stand there so they can get cut down.
Overall not unbearable but minus the swordfighting bit I got no more than I expected.
Thasmin is still painful but I at least get some comfort in knowing that 13 doesn't reciprocate, although her reasoning is quite contradictory to itself (I mean she basically reasons that she doesn't want to get together with anyone because it will end badly and then says 'can we just live in the present moment?' as if that isn't a justification for pursuing it rather than not). I do at least wish Chibnall had put all of that talk at the end instead of sprinkling a bit in during a climactic part, he did the same in Eve and the tonal whiplash is awful, especially when the music literally can't keep up with the tone changes.
As for the rest of the episode itself (besides the resolution), the pirate queen was well-acted, though I can't say I found her compelling. I actually enjoyed the swordfighting segment somehow, it wasn't half bad, wish there was more of that. Not sure what happened to the sea monster and honestly it felt like it wasn't serving a purpose. Also the pacing of this episode is horribly rushed, and the Chibnall problem of characters stating things onscreen is still rampant (at one point a character says 'the stars moved, did you see that?' next to the pirate queen who was literally looking at them for navigation).
Every bad Chibnall episode has a few extra dumb moments, my picks this time (minus the ones already mentioned) are when the guy who joined Dan on the ship just happened to be wearing the keystone because he just happened to be the descendant of the person who saved it, and when a group of sea devils walk up to Dan and another guy (who have swords) with no weapons, and just stand there so they can get cut down.
Overall not unbearable but minus the swordfighting bit I got no more than I expected.
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