Doctor Who series 11 finale live blog – The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos as it happened

This live blog has now concluded

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20.05pm: Anyway, I think that's about all you'll get from me on this live blog - thanks so much for reading along with me and my inane mutterings, and generally speaking thanks for reading all of RadioTimes.com's coverage over the last 10 weeks.

It's been a pleasure - now, time to get prepping all my insane theories about the New Year's Day special...

Good night!

7.45pm: As for the series as a whole? Well, it's a mixed bag for me. I loved some episodes, but I sometimes felt like it lacked a little forward momentum, and the standalone style of the episodes sometimes made it feel like less of one, coherent narrative.

Loved the characters though, especially Graham, and I think a few episodes will live on in Doctor Who history.

7.36pm: Not sure what else there is to say about that finale - I enjoyed it, but it didn't scream epic at me like I'd hoped. It was a decent enough story, and some good performance (as in every episode this year), but not quite the great series-ender I'd hoped.

Though to be fair, we do still have an hour-long New Year's Day special to look forward to, so it may be that we should consider that more of a series finale. It is called Resolution after all...

7.30pm: Sorry for the radio silence - just learned that the next series of Doctor Who won't be on TV until 2020, and had to take a powder.

Guess we'd better make the most of the New Year's Day special...

7.16pm: Overall, gotta say I was a little underwhelmed by that episode. Sure, Tim Shaw's return was nice, but I was expecting a little more. Apart from the Stenza stuff, it could have been a mid-season episode really.

7.14pm: Looks like a long journey through history in the New Year's special (in the trailer).

It's gotta be the Daleks!

7.13pm: Yes, the Tardis team is going by "fam" now. Finally, the last arc resolved.

"The universe will surprise you...constantly."

And now, a Who Year's day taster trailer on the way....

7.12pm: The Ux are leaving to learn more. Still not sure how two more are born each generation....

7.11pm: They stuck Tim Shaw in a big ol' crystal, told him to hang out for eternity and think about Grace.

He starts pressing his hand against the glass - classic Wrath of Khan ref, or a hint that he might use his ice touch to break free again? We're guessing the latter...

7.09pm: Graham, predictably, has done The Right Thing and just captured Tim Shaw instead of killing him. And now the planets are all going back handily. Very nice.

7.07pm: I'm not entirely sure what is happening. They are all combining their abilities to return the planets.

"I once towed your planet halfway across the universe in this Tardis, and turned a Slitheen back into an egg."

Nice references! And I'm glad they finally acknowledged some similarities with the Journey's End storyline.

7.06pm: Graham vs Tim Shaw. The ultimate battle.

7.05pm: "Tim Shaw might have a shrine...but I have a Ghost Monument."

Man, did they think that episode would be more fondly remembered or something?

7.04pm: "Yippee-ki-yay robots!"

I really thought Graham was going to swear for a moment there.

Also, the Ux are going to use their mind powers to move the stolen planets back...I think.

7.03pm: Man, the Ux are pretty stupid, aren't they?

7.02pm: The Doctor and Yaz are taking off their head things to stop the Ux powering the weapon, proving quickly my new favourite Who adage.

"There must be a way - there's always a way - we're really clever!"

7.00pm: Tim Shaw has looked better. Maybe a million or so dentures will sustain him in his old age?

6.59pm: Quelle surprise, his first target is Earth.

Can our heroes stop him? We're saying...

(I had to squeeze that one in somehow).

6.58pm: OK the buzzy crystals are...smushed up planets! He committed genocide! And also ripped off Davros' planet-powered superweapon from Journey's End! He's a hack as well as a mass-murderer, just the worst.

6.55pm: Tim Shaw has combined the knowledge of the Stenza with the powers of the Ux, and all these people came to stop him - now this floating shrine IS the weapon.

"I am unstoppable!"

See, it's saying stuff like that which will make you feel silly later.

6.53pm: "I love you"

Ryan is filling our hearts here, guys. But will Graham listen, and be the better man?

6.52pm: Bit of a Darth Vader/General Greivous vibe from ol' Tim Shaw.

He's manipulated the Ux into making him...weapons? And now he's out for revenge, oo-er.

6.51pm: Tim Shaw has looked better. It has been 3,407 years for him, and he was banished across the universe.

6.50pm: OK, now there are also BIG crystals with loads of people trapped in them.

6.48pm: These buzzy crystals are apparently very important.

I have a feeling Paltraki is about to go a bit funny over them...

6.46pm: So far, this does seem like a bit of a spiritual sequel to The Ghost Monument, aka episode 2.

Shame it wasn't the best episode.

6.44pm: Good to see Phyllis Logan's character is getting ready to...

She's an Ux! Always two there are, a master and an apprentice.

Apparently the Ux are also "faith-driven dimensional engineers," which sounds neat.

6.43pm: Sniper bots! The same ones that were on Desolation!

Interrupting Ryan and Graham's argument, and still terrible shots - R + G literally ducked and they all accidentally shot each other.

Makes sense they'd be the same make, Desolation was a Stenza weapons lab.

6.41pm: Bradley Walsh is owning this episode so far. Guess you could call him a bit of a...

Also, now they are in the baddies' spaceship/ edifice.

6.39pm: This looks like one of the floating piles of stone the...swirl people can make.

Funny little bit where Ryan point out the Doctor's hypocrisy. Whopocrisy?

6.37pm: "I will kill it, if I can. For what it did to Grace."

Graham is STONE COLD. This is a good face-off, damn.

6.35pm: The Stenza is apparently the "creator," and this is all about magic crystals. Stenza technology.

Now, for Jodie to explain it to us, to the strains of a classic tune...

6.33pm: It's yaboi Tim Shaw! He wants Paltraki to return "what [he] took."

Ha, called it. You all owe me money. Such are the rules of live blog barter.

Might not be Tim Shaw, might be another Stenza.

6.32pm: I have a feeling this guy's memory will return at plot-convenient times.

6.31pm: He has a goldfish memory. Some wearable tech will sort him right out. All the rage.

6.30pm: Looks like this situation just got a little...

(geddit? because Mark Addy, the guy pointing a gun at the Doctor, is playing a character called Paltraki).

Also, Paltraki seems to have lost his memory.

6.28pm: OK, that looked like Tim Shaw arriving on the planet. Now we jump 3,407 (or thereabouts) years into the past to meet our Tardis pals, who go to this horrible planet to answer some distress calls. Classic.

6.26pm: Ok, these peopl can make their eyes glow and...stack rocks. Handy?

6.26pm: Here's Phyllis Logan and Percelle Ascot as Ardinio and Delph. Saying some stuff about not knowing things.

Top notch commentary from me here, I know.

Praise the creator's will...who is the creator?

6.25pm: Straight into the credits as ever! Still miss the cold open.

6.23pm: (Or the Stenza)

6.21pm: Less than 5 minutes to go! Eep. 5 quid says the Daleks turn up.

6.19pm: I am....quite excited. Cautiously so.

6.17pm: Oh, also, before we kick off in earnest a little bit of housekeeping. In this blog I won't describe absolutely everything that happens onscreen - that would take ages - but I'll just react to the biggest and funniest moments in my own unique (read: terribly unfunny) way.

I'll also be punctuating everything with poorly Photoshopped pictures containing awful puns, which I made before watching the episode so may not apply in any way to the action we see unfolding.

Yes, you are indeed some lucky readers tonight.

6.15pm: Know what you mean, Shayne - it feels like just yesterday I was blogging the series' very first episode.

This time though, I'm genuinely going in blind. I'd seen The Woman Who Fell to Earth a bit early for work purposes, whereas I've not clapped eyes on TBORAK (catchy) once.

And yes, I've chosen to enjoy it from behind a computer keyboard, only watching it while typing furiously. I know how to have a good time.

PS - 10 minutes to go!

6.11pm: So yeah, we don't know much - but in just over 10 minutes we'll know a lot more.

In the meantime, here's some lavely pictures for you to enjoy.

6.08pm: Now for the background.

This episode, as noted previously, is called The Battle of Rankoor Av Kolos (bit of a mouthful, or keyboardful in my case), and sees Jodie Whittaker's Doctor and her gang face....something.

Yes, that is a little vague, but the BBC have been especially tight-lipped about details of tonight's episode, so we don't actually know much about what the storyline contains. We do have this official synopsis, but it doesn't give much away.

On the planet of Ranskoor Av Kolos, lies the remains of a brutal battlefield. But as the Doctor, Graham, Yaz and Ryan answer nine separate distress calls, they discover the planet holds far more secrets. Who is the mysterious commander with no memory? What lies beyond the mists? Who or what are the Ux?

Yep - clear as mud, or at least those mysterious mists. We do know the episode stars Mark Addy (Game of Thrones) and Phyllis Logan (Downton Abbey), though, and we've given you a bit of background to both those actors elsewhere on RadioTimes.com - here and here.

6.03pm: BBC America has helpfully given us this bingo sheet for tonight's episode, and I'm struck to my core by how many running "things" there actually were/are in this series.

Although to be fair, they might have been running out of ideas by the time they got to the "episode title" tile.

6.00pm: Hello and welcome to this Doctor Who series 11 finale live blog. For Jodie Whittaker's last episode this year we're expecting some explosive action, so we thought it'd be fun to follow every step of the adventure as it happens on screen. Will it be a final episode to celebrate? Well, that's an exciting mystery that we'll solve together! Who-ray.

My name's Huw, and you may remember me from such RadioTimes.com live blogs as "Game of Thrones", "a random bus journey" "one episode of Westworld" and many others.

Perhaps most pertinently I also live-blogged the very first episode of this series, when Jodie Whittaker was still strutting around in Peter Capaldi's second-hand gear. How young we all were.

The episode kicks off tonight at about 6.25pm GMT on BBC1, so in the brief run-up I'll try to give you some background about this episode (called The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos, which I've finally learned to type first go) as well as take a look back on the series as whole.

Are you sitting comfortably, even while staring at this glowing screen? Then we shall begin...

This article was originally published on 9 December 2018