Lyra and the Gyptians arrive in the North and set about seeking allies for their cause. Mrs Coulter faces censure from the Magisterium for her recklessness at Jordan College, but may have an ace up her own sleeve.

Things start to get a little more fantastical this week, and also start to make a little more sense. I can’t promise that I wasn’t at least partially swayed by the appearance (at last) of Lin Manuel Miranda’s character Lee, an aeronaut who has his own reasons for seeking out the same armoured bear which Lyra and the Gyptians hope to turn to their cause. Miranda is always a pleasing screen presence and the character of Lee, a cheeky sometime thief with a penchant for getting into trouble, suits his talents well.

It’s also nice to feel like things are actually starting to happen. Lyra is now able to use the Alethiometer to its proper purpose, though we still aren’t any clearer as to why, the Gyptians have a solid plan to go and get their children back, and there is obviously some Magisterium interference going on in the small port town where they land. Throw in an Armoured Bear who doesn’t have his armour for some reason, witches and various other fanciful odds and ends and finally it’s starting to feel like the sort of genre show I was expecting.

Questions still hang for me – the Magisterium is bad, granted, but I have no idea what they believe in still. Villains can’t help but feel a little two-dimensional when their motives and drives remain unclear, but perhaps that’s just nitpicking on my part. I still find it laughable that the makers of the show insisted it wasn’t presenting as anti-religious, especially given a certain exchange between two characters implying that one of them has ‘predilections’ which would be awfully scandalous were they to be revealed, along with a heavy implication that the Magisterium has already acted to cover them up. There’s on the nose and then there’s this.

But as usual, the sets are lavish, the visuals exquisite and the acting top notch. Omid Djalili is especially welcome as Dr Lanselius, the witches’ consul, bringing a nice mixture of mystique and openness to the role. It’s obvious that he can be trusted, even if he’s not necessarily always being open, and his respect for Lyra and her talents is equally apparent. Ruth Wilson gets only a couple of scenes here but the first is an absolute barnstormer, as she walks into a room and gets exactly what she’s after in complete opposition to what she’s been summoned there for.

Verdict: All told, it finally starts to feel like the show is hanging together better for a newbie like myself. I can’t say I love it yet, but it’s certainly grown on me a bit this time out. 7/10

Greg D. Smith