Season 1/Series 14 Review

Season 1/Series 14

Season 1

Doctor: Fifteenth Doctor

Companions: Melanie Bush, Kate Stewart, Ruby Sunday

As a whole, the season feels slightly less than the sum of its parts, but it delivers some of the most varied amount of episodes in show history giving confidence it is back on track.

The Review

Here’s the scores for the stories:

73 Yards: 10/10

Rogue: 10/10

The Church on Ruby Road: 8.75/10

The Devil’s Chord: 8.75/10

Boom: 8.65/10

Dot and Bubble: 8.25/10

The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death: 8/10

Space Babies: 8/10

The biggest complaint with this season was there wasn’t enough time in the TARDIS or scenes where the Doctor and Ruby were hanging out. Still, I felt a better sense of their dynamic than anything Ryan and Yaz were bringing in Series 11, the benefit of having just one companion. Very similarly to Series 11 this season I think hangs together a bit less than the sum of its parts as a result. But while each Series 11 episode was broadly fine, I think this season had a much higher quality exemplified by the unparalleled 73 Yards. In fact, by my very unscientific rankings, for New Who this only ended behind Series 9 and 5. I was most impressed with the dynamic performances from Gatwa and Gibson, how it felt fresh while weaving in old history (I’ll never forget the Sutekh Week of June 2024), and especially how experimental it was. Space babies? The Doctor is stuck on a landmine all episode? An insidiously clever story about racism? The finale was all a bit big and silly, but the heart was there. As long as we get a Wild Blue Yonder or 73 Yards once a season, I’ll be a happy fan.

8.8/10 Ncuti Gatwa firmly makes the role his own, while Millie Gibson delivers an earth-shatteringly good performance in 73 Yards. It wasn’t perfect, but this season was swinging big and talking about big issues, not navel-gazing about the Doctor’s origins like Series 12 and 13. Only a year until we do it all over again!