Praxeus (TV story)

Praxeus was the sixth episode of series 12 of Doctor Who.

Synopsis
What connects strange bird behaviour in the skies above a Madagascan beach to mysterious deaths by a deadly virus that seems to be spreading? And what does a famous British astronaut have to do with all of this? Can the Doctor, Ryan, Graham and Yaz solve this puzzle before it's too late?

Plot
In space, Adam Lang's spaceship is malfunctioning. He attempts to try and fix it, but it doesn't work. The capsule starts spinning and turning violently.

Back on Earth, Jake Willis tackles a shoplifter, only to get scolded by Joyce, who reminds him that he isn't a police officer anymore.

In Peru, Gabriela Camara takes her friend Jamila Velez to see a river, only to find it has been polluted with plastic waste. Late at night, Jamila goes outside the tent and is attacked by an unseen force.

Elsewhere, Jake is drinking in a bar, where he watches the news of Adam's apparent death. He's devastated, until he receives a text from someone claiming to be Adam.

Gabriela wakes up, only to find that Jamila isn't there anymore. She goes out to find her and comes across a bird. She is about to touch it, but Ryan appears and stops her, telling her that something is wrong with the birds.

Jake arrives in Hong Kong. He tries to break into a warehouse, but fails. Yasmin Khan and Graham O'Brien arrive, brandishing a set of keys.

to be added.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
 * Graham O'Brien - Bradley Walsh
 * Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
 * Ryan Sinclair - Tosin Cole
 * Jake Willis - Warren Brown
 * Adam Lang - Matthew McNulty
 * Gabriela Camara - Joana Borja
 * Suki Cheng - Molly Harris
 * Jamila Velez - Gabriela Toloi
 * Joyce - Soo Drouet
 * Zach Olson - Tristan de Beer
 * Aramu - Thapelo Maropefela

Uncredited cast

 * Hazmat Alien - Jamie McKee

Crew
to be added

Locations

 * The Doctor has travelled to Madagascar and sent Yaz and Graham to Hong Kong and Ryan to Peru early in the third decade of the 21st century.
 * According to Gabriela, Peru has the most beautiful river in the world.
 * A beach in Peru is polluted with trash.
 * Adam Lang sends Jake Willis a map of his location.
 * A naval officer washes up on a beach in Madagascar.
 * The Doctor mentions that there is a talking cat in Ontario.
 * Gabriela and Ryan track Jamila to a hospital in San Pedro.
 * Jake, Graham and Yaz find Adam in an abandoned warehouse in Hong Kong.
 * Adam says he enjoyed watching Earth from above, seeing hurricanes and the aurora borealis, and the turn of the planet.
 * Yaz is relieved that she and Gabriela didn't teleport into an active volcano.
 * Yaz thinks she has found an alien colony which the Doctor reveals to just be an alien construct.
 * The Doctor and the whole team investigate the gyre at the bottom of the Indian Ocean.
 * Suki Cheng's home planet was infected by Praxeus.
 * Jake takes the spaceship into the stratosphere.

The Doctor

 * The Doctor indicates she has more than one brain.
 * The Doctor gives the team gold stars.
 * The Doctor describes herself as "a romantic".

TARDIS

 * Gabriela asks if the TARDIS is an optical illusion.
 * Jake believes the interior of the TARDIS is a building.
 * The Doctor says the TARDIS is bigger on the inside.
 * Graham says the TARDIS is a space and time-ship.
 * The TARDIS has a holographic screen that can be extended away from the console.
 * The TARDIS has a bioreading table to bioread and synthesise the Praxeus antidote.

Science

 * Ryan vaguely knows how to dissect dead animals.
 * Suki has broad-spectrum antibiotics, a high-power microscope, blood cultures, rapid genome sequencing, a spectrophotometer, and a super fast incubator.
 * Suki and Aramu are working on a marine filtration system connected into a Crystal Oceans Initiative; Microversion.
 * A pathogen is a microorganism that carries disease.
 * Humans are filled with microplastics from ingesting microparticles.
 * The bird enzymes are trying to fight back Praxeus.

Individuals

 * Planet Earth is said to inhabit 7,000,000,000 people that are all both separated and connected from the depths of the ocean to the edge of the atmosphere.
 * A thief is stealing from Joyce's supermarket.
 * Gabriela and Jamila are vloggers on the channel Two Girls Roaming.
 * Jake Willis claims to be DI.
 * Jake wonders if Yaz and Graham are Interpol or ESA.
 * Jake is on a sabbatical.
 * The submarine's captain tried to rescue the entire navy team, but succumbed to the virus.
 * Aramu and Suki Cheng work in a lab.
 * Graham calls Jake Inspector Morse.
 * The Doctor thinks Ryan has changed his shower gel because he smells of dead bird.
 * Jake and Adam go on their honeymoon at last, with Gabriela following. She wants to vlog about it, which Graham suggests calling Three Idiots Roaming.

Languages

 * Adam's spacecraft uses Russian and English.
 * Gabriela and Jamila speak Portuguese.
 * Gabriela refers to Jamila as her "melhor amiga".

Species

 * The Doctor mentions the Autons when speculating about the infected birds.
 * The aliens use hazmat suits.

Medical injuries and ailments

 * The Doctor does an MOT on Adam.
 * Praxeus is transferred to humans through contact with infected birds.
 * The Doctor informs Adam Lang that his bloodstream has been infected with an alien pathogen.

Business

 * The bottled water in the store is from Garwell.
 * A football match between Liverpool and Manchester City is playing on the television in a bar.
 * BBC News are shown in the bar, mentioning the European Space Agency.
 * Gabriela wears a Brasil CBF shirt.
 * Gabriela messages some contacts on Reddit to access emergency services and satellites in search for Jamila.
 * Jake mentions the International Space Station.
 * Zach Olson is from the US navy. He is a naval officer.
 * There's a Lido Bar in an alleyway in Hong Kong.

Technology

 * Adam Lang is onboard a Soyuz spacecraft while calling Control. The spaceship suffers automatic system failure with a failed DMP, unable to switch to ballistic descent and maintain trajectory.
 * The number plate of a lorry in Peru is RTE567UYT.
 * Jake Willis has a Samsung phone.
 * Adam contacts Jake using the number +852 07700 900 781.
 * A US submarine went missing in the Indian Ocean.
 * Team TARDIS keep in contact with each other using comm dots.
 * Yaz talks about unusual energy patterns coming from the warehouse.
 * The aliens have set up machinery with a control panel attached to research the alien virus.
 * The aliens use special guns.
 * The aliens use teleport devices.
 * Suki Cheng uses Windows 7 as her operating system on her computer.
 * The Doctor uses a Chemical Analyser on Suki's computer to check the chemical data on Adam's Blood Analysis.
 * Suki's spaceship has reverse pulse proton engines, organic fuel cells, engine vents, manual bypass, dials, comms, spatial regulators and autopilots.
 * Yaz and Graham have a set of skeleton keys that they use at the warehouse in Hong Kong.

Story notes

 * This episode had Doctor Who fans pointing out the parallels between the fictional bacteria Praxeus and the real world Coronavirus. The real virus was discovered in December 2019 and spread in 2020, notably after the episode was filmed.
 * The Doctor's opening monologue places Praxeus as taking place "early in the third decade of the 21st century."
 * This story marked the first television role in any licensed Doctor Who media given to a Brazilian actress, Gabriela Toloi.
 * This story marked the last time Millennium FX worked on an episode of the show.
 * Soyuz spacecrafts, as the one seen in the story, exist in the real world.

Ratings

 * 3.97 million (BBC overnight)
 * 5.22 million (BBC overall)

Myths

 * The Sea Devils were going to return. This was proven false.

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors

 * As the Doctor is standing in the TARDIS doorway watching Yaz and Gabriela leave, it is obvious that the interior of the TARDIS is just a photo pasted onto the back wall.

Continuity

 * Team TARDIS are investigating the three separate distress signals received by the TARDIS. (TV: Fugitive of the Judoon)
 * The Doctor briefly entertains the possibility that the Autons might have taken over the world's discarded plastic. In fact, the Nestene Consciousness recently did take over the North Atlantic garbage patch, with ongoing plans for world domination through Bakin Petrochemicals. Rhys Williams took care of this threat in the short term. (AUDIO: Sargasso)
 * Team TARDIS use comm dots. (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum)
 * When the TARDIS materialises around Jake, he appears in the interior. (TV: The Parting of the Ways, Let's Kill Hitler, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)
 * Yaz and Graham use a set of skeleton keys at the warehouse in Hong Kong. Previously, the Eighth Doctor carried a skeleton key. (PROSE: Jonah)

Home video releases
to be added