Thirteenth Doctor Review

Posted on October 29, 2022October 29, 2022 by guardion

Thirteenth Doctor

Thirteenth Doctor

Doctor: The Thireenth Doctor

Companions: Tegan Jovanka, Ace McShane, Captain Jack Harkness, Kate Stewart, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien, Ryan Sinclair, Dan Lewis, Vinder

Jodie Whittaker shattered our expectations for who the Doctor could be portraying the first female Doctor. Sadly, her era never figured out what it wanted to do with all that promise and optimism until it was far too late.

The Review

Here’s the scores for the stories

Demons of the Punjab: 10/10

Rosa: 9.75/10

Eve of the Daleks: 9.5/10

The Ghost Monument: 9.25/10

The Haunting of Villa Diodati: 9.25/10

Fugitive of the Judoon: 9/10

Ascension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children: 9/10

Can You Hear Me?: 9/10

Kerblam!: 9/10

The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos: 8.9/10

Spyfall: 8.9/10

Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror: 8.75/10

The Power of the Doctor: 8.6/10

Praxeus: 8.5/10

Resolution: 8.3/10

Flux: 8.25/10

Legend of the Sea Devils: 8/10

Revolution of the Daleks: 8/10

Arachnids in the UK: 8/10

It Takes You Away: 8/10

The Woman Who Fell To Earth: 7.5/10

The Witchfinders: 7.5/10

Orphan 55: 7.5/10

The Tsuranga Conundrum: 6/10

Future Doctor Who fans will look back and recognize the heavy lift Jodie Whittaker had to convince us that the Doctor could be a woman. Even liberal fans were unconvinced, but there was no doubt she was absolutely the Doctor. Still, she ranks as one of my least favorite incarnations, because I just found her too bubbly and motor-mouthed. Compared to the brooding intensity of the Twelfth Doctor, the Thirteenth Doctor couldn’t have been more different, bursting with life. Series 11 tried to start this way with a fresh look at the universe, but too many of the stories were mediocre or bad. Some think almost every episode was hideously bad, I disagree, most were mediocre but even more importantly the show just couldn’t deliver those exhilarating and emotional climaxes that made so many of us love Doctor Who. The best story was the depression examination of fanaticism and the price of the partition of India in Demons of the Punjab, very different from eras best episodes being roller-coaster thrill rides like The Eleventh Hour or Mummy on the Orient Express. Another fatal flaw was bringing three companions along for the ride, Bradley Walsh’s veteran acting skills as Graham made his character immediately the most compelling while Yaz often got left out due to Graham and Ryan being family. Yaz finally emerged once they left showing us her potential in Flux and the 2022 specials, but it was too little too late.

Another factor working against this era was everything utterly changed, even more drastically than the RTD to Moffat handover. The aspect ratio changed, the cinematography was completely different, the famous ear-blastingly loud Murray Gold music was replaced by the subtler Segun Akinola. Combined with Series 11 not having a single returning monster, then things like the Master not even mentioning Missy once going right back to being evil, you’d be forgotten for thinking this was a brand new show. Even more baffling was Chibnall deciding to commit hard to add completely unneeded mythos into the story with the Doctor being the ‘timeless child’, the mysterious originator of regeneration whose gifts were exploited to build Gallifrey. Oh, Gallifrey also got off-screened which wasn’t a huge loss for me but was a weird decision. Things got better in Flux with actually interesting Gallifrey-backstory reveals like the primeval war between ‘space’ and ‘time’ and how Gallifrey conquered time. Chibnall wanted to restore the Doctor’s mystery, but the Doctor’s early history was already plenty mysterious. What’s so aggravating is the other new addition, Jo Martin’s wonderful Fugitive Doctor in my mind actually does restore a lot of mystery to the Doctor! There’s seemingly another Doctor out there in a police box and they don’t recognize each other! What’s even going on? Are there tons more Doctors out there? To me, that is a good story.

So where does that leave Jodie Whittaker? I think she had an incredibly hard job and also has been a hell of an ambassador for the show, she’s already asking for when she came back. I hope to see her (and hear her in Big Finish) for a long time to come. Still, I don’t think her motormouth performance is entirely without blame for the disappointing quality of the era, there a lot of moments where you can’t help but think David Tennant would’ve somehow made this work. On the other hand, the whole Thirteenth Doctor storyline was her struggle to understand her own identity and feeling constantly at sea with the developments around her. Some have said her characterization is sexist, I would disagree and also point out how Eccelston’s Ninth Doctor famously never is the one to save the day in his season. Still, it is difficult to point to a punch the air moment for her Doctor with the most embarrassing being Ko Sharmus leaving her off the hook in The Timeless Children. In the end, the Chibnall era just failed to live up to the high standards set previously. Reviewing something only watching it once and lost in the hype is difficult, my score for The Timeless Children being an 8.5 is a full letter grade high for example. Also, how did The Ghost Monument get such a high score, I can barely remember that episode? Still, I don’t think the Chibnall era was abominable, just mediocre. One thing’s for sure, the days of Doctor Who tottering off on its own are over. RTD is back with Disney and Sony and a whole new exciting era is still beginning. But, I’ll always appreciate the risks and the joy Jodie Whittaker brought to the role. See you soon, Doctor.

Now, her best moments.

5. The Doctor gives a ‘wtf man’ face to Aisling Bea’s Sarah in Eve of the Daleks when she deviates from the plan in one of the time loops that sends it every time I see it.

4. After the Doctor’s brutal honesty toward Graham in Can You Hear Me?, the Doctor finally has an honest emotional conversation with Yaz at the end of Legend of the Sea Devils. It’s really the closest she ever comes to opening up to her companions.

3. Partly this is on here so I can shout out Jo Martin, but the Doctor’s bickering and interaction with the Fugitive Doctor in Fugitive of the Judoon is such a highlight. Two women, both the Doctor, one Black, and it feels perfectly correct. Almost unthinkable in 2017.

2. The Doctor’s impassioned defense of Percy Shelley and his poetry mattering in The Haunting of Villa Diodati is where we finally got to see her get properly angry. The content of the speech is debatable, is an artist’s life worth more than someone else’s if they will inspire others? Regardless of where you fall morally, it’s a great performance.

1. A lot was asked of Whittaker in The Vanquishers playing three of herself, but she delivered her best performance. Flirting with herself, dealing with threats from all angles, Whittaker shined brightest when sneering and snarking at the Grand Serpent. If only we got more snark from her.

The Thirteenth Doctor unfortunately did prove to be somewhat unlucky with things never breaking Jodie Whittaker’s way. Through it all, she kept her head held high, and proved that you don’t have to be a man to be the Doctor. For all the young girls and women I’ve seen dressing as the Thirteenth Doctor, that may be the greatest legacy of all.

8.121/10 A unfortunate missed opportunity

2022 Specials Review

Posted on October 28, 2022 by guardion

2022 Specials

2022 Specials

Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor

Companions: Ian Chesterton, Jo Grant, Tegan Jovanka, Mel Bush, Ace McShane, Kate Stewart, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien, Dan Lewis, Vinder

The 2022 specials are where Chibnall finally found his footing, but I think we would all agree: far too late.

The Review

Here’s the scores for the stories

Eve of the Daleks: 9.5/10

The Power of the Doctor: 8.6/10

Legend of the Sea Devils: 8/10

I do think I may have been going easy on Legend of the Sea Devils, that one might deserve a 7 instead of an 8. That said, I am definitely bang on with Eve of the Daleks, which was a fantastic story and something I can see becoming a New Year’s Eve classic. I think the key as to what made these stories successful is Chibnall finally layered in time for actual emotional moments and mature conversations: all of the Doctor’s and Yaz’s in Legend of the Sea Devils are great. And even if the plot was back to being a little nonsense in The Power of the Doctor, the class reunion was genuinely touching. I’ll save the full post-mortem for later, but there was a lot to like here.

8.7/10 A successful end for the Thirteenth Doctor

The Power of the Doctor Review

Posted on October 27, 2022 by guardion

The Power of the Doctor

Story 300, Episode 869, 2022 BBC Centenary Special

Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor

Companions: Ian Chesterton, Jo Grant, Tegan Jovanka, Melanie Bush, Ace McShane, Kate Stewart, Graham O’Brien, Yasmin Khan, Dan Lewis, Vinder

The 100th anniversary of the BBC, the final outing for the Thirteenth Doctor and Chris Chibnall, story number 300, this story had the biggest build up in nine years since the last ‘of the Doctor’ story in 2013. Oh, and it’s a blockbuster 90 minutes. Does it stick the landing? Let’s find out…

The Review

The Power of the Doctor is a lot of things, but first and foremost, it’s exciting and not overstuffed. The Timeless Children‘s infamous long lore dump gave way to the jam-packed The Vanquishers. Finally, at 90 minutes, Chibnall has time to let the story breathe. It starts off with a quite good sequence as the CyberMasters returning robbing a bullet train in space. It had been eight years since we’d last seen it, but Chibnall gets the Thirteenth Doctor in the famous orange spacesuit as the fourth Doctor in a row to don it. Dan nearly gets killed which shakes his confidence and causes him to depart the TARDIS. It was surprising to see Dan exit so early, but it was a very realistic reaction to TARDIS travel. The good news is the Thirteenth Doctor with just Yaz works really well. For my money, give me one Doctor, one companion any day of the week, the more you add there’s too many characters to keep track of. We then get re-introduced to Ace and Tegan after a long long time off screen, and it’s fun to see both of them, even if it’s a bit of an adjustment to see how the two have aged as we always think of them as looking like their time on the show. There’s no reason to have them here other than fun, which is a valid reason to me.

The Master is Rasputin! I think that just makes sense

So, let’s talk about the plot, which is definitely the weak link of the episode. I expected a full lore deep dive into the Division, the Timeless Child, the Fugitive Doctor, and nope, got none of it. I’m honestly not that upset as I think the episode was better for it but the plot is still kind of a mess. The Master is out for revenge, and had the Cybermen kidnap a Qurunx (classic bad Chibnall name), sentient energy. They make a planet big enough to convert everyone in 1916, while in 2022 the Master is working with the Daleks to blow up volcanoes. Why in two separate time periods, it doesn’t really make sense? Why is the Master Rasputin? It doesn’t really matter though because Sacha Dhawan has a whole dance sequence to the Ra-Ra-Rasputin song which is so over the top it rules. Also, the Cybermen attack UNIT in a generally great sequence carried by Kate, Tegan, and Ace. (Again, in 2022? Why is their planet in 2016? It does not make sense). So yeah, there’s just a lot of stuff going on, the canonical trio of villains in Daleks, Cybermen, and the Master are all here. Now what?

The crux of the Master’s plan is that he forces the Doctor to regenerate…into the Master. It’s honestly very disquieting to have the Doctor removed from the equation and the Master going around claiming the title. Yaz shoves him out of the TARDIS and goes to meet up with Vinder who conveniently arrived on the Cyber-planet in a time-ship. Meanwhile, Ashad (well, a clone the Master made of him), leads the Cyber-attack on UNIT. There’s no time for Ashad philosophizing, but he just looks great. The Doctor isn’t entirely gone, she left behind an emergency hologram that adapts to the person listening. This leads to two of the sweetest moments of the episode, the brief reunions between the Fifth Doctor and Tegan as well as the Seventh Doctor and Ace. With everyone involved now being visibly much older, it really lands poignantly and is a standout moment. Meanwhile the Doctor ends up a mind-scape where she is surprised to meet the remnants of her past selves, starting with David Bradley’s 1st Doctor, then Doctors 5-8. It was a joy to see 5-7 get their day in an anniversary special, and any time I hear Paul McGann’s velvety voice I get excited. Here, their aged appearance works to their advantage, it’s brilliant.

The classic Doctors felt perfectly woven in

The Fugitive Doctor makes an appearance in the hologram too to help the Master de-generate back into the Doctor. She is still unexplained, but honestly, I kind of like it. There’s some mystery to the Doctor that doesn’t fit our conceptions. I think it’s far more effective at restoring the desired uncertainty to the character than the Timeless Child which just seems burdensome. We’ve got Ace parachuting off a building into the TARDIS, Tegan getting grabbed through a wall by a Cyberman but just managing to save Kate from getting converted. Overall, you truly have a sense of spectacle here. This episode reminded me a lot of later day RTD finales, the plot is pretty mediocre when you think about it, but the emotional beats all hit. Ace runs into Graham in the volcano, and the Doctor sorts everything out from there. Of course, the Master gets his revenge and zaps the Doctor with the (checks notes) Qurunx as it destroys the Cyber-planet. I swear, when you’re watching, it all flows together well, better than previous Chibnall stories.

The best part of The Power of the Doctor outside of the classic companion/Doctor reunions in the denouement. The Doctor is dying, but she gets ice cream one last time with Yaz and gazes upon Earth. Yaz knows the Doctor is changing, and decides to let her go as the woman she loves won’t be the same anymore. Graham has decided to start a ‘Companions Anonymous’ group, and in just a few scenes of them talking about the Doctor it is so beautiful. In brief shots we see Katy Manning as Jo, then Bonnie Langford surprisingly back as Mel, and lastly, finally, 97-year old William Russell is back as Ian. If there’s a theme to this story, it is that the Doctor is always changing, but the positive effect and life lessons the Doctor teachers are forever. There’s a version of this story where the Doctor’s power was literally regeneration, that of the Timeless Child, but I don’t think it would have been as successful as the Doctor’s power being friendship. In Journey’s End the Doctor has turned his friends into soldiers, here they’re just normal people inspired to have the courage to do the right thing. I’ll have a lot more to say later on Jodie, but as she gives her last bow, it is with dignity. For a Doctor who loved life so much, it felt like she couldn’t get control of hers in her era. At the end though, the legacy of the Thirteenth Doctor is neatly folded in with all the others as she takes her place among the pantheon of Doctors. Oh, and then David Tennant is back, and they’re trying to convince me he’s the Fourteenth Doctor. Not buying it RTD.

The Power of the Doctor chooses not to be a finale to all the deep lore of Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker’s time on the show, but celebrates the show giving us a glimpse at the impact of the Doctor. For that, I am grateful.

8.6/10: The plot is a bit of nonsense, but considering this as Chibnall’s fourth finale, it’s his best, because as I’ve wanted for years and years, we got those little character building moments.

Legend of the Sea Devils Review

Posted on April 18, 2022 by guardion

Legend of the Sea Devils

Story 299, Episode 868, 2022 Easter Special

Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor

Companions: Yasmin Khan, Dan Lewis

It’s a straightforward Chibnall-era episode, but once again I can’t help but love this era’s historicals. We also get a scene where the Doctor opens up about her feelings!

The Review

One of the last major classic era villains not to appear in the new series are here: the Sea Devils. They have a lot more lines than their previous two appearances, and are a fun enemy to deal with. This story isn’t a special one, but overall I really enjoyed it and it seemed to rise above a lot of the weird stickiness that seemed to be holding back this era. Believe it or not the last true standalone episode of the show we got was Can You Hear Me? which aired over two years ago in a pre-pandemic world. The story takes place in 1807 China, where some awakened Sea Devils are back to their old tricks of flooding the planet. At last, a story taking place in east Asia for the first time since Marco Polo in 1964. It’s an area of incredibly rich history, and this barely scratches the surface but seeing authentically rendered Chinese ships made me happy. It’s a pretty straightforward Doctor Who story, the plot gets foiled, but I was never bored or annoyed by staccato dialogue.

Having watched the previous two stories leading into this one, the main problem with Flux was it got too complicated and Whittaker had tons of expositional dialogue she was trying hard but failing to make work. Her whole era the Doctor has been running around, basically ignoring any attempts to sit down and have character building moments with her companions. It was an intentional choice, but a bad one because those moments are so crucial for defining relationships. Finally, the Doctor admits she would love to go on dates and hang out with Yaz, but she can’t because nothing is forever with her (and thanks to Time, she knows she’s dying soon). That conversation at the end of the episode was four years in the making, and should’ve happened in Series 11, but here we are. Dan gets a similar one with Diana, which hopefully means he’ll get a happy ending. It’s a shame Chibnall is finding something that works here at the end, because we know next episode will be a gonzo-fest.

The two specials so far have had some of the most naturalistic flow of the Chibnall era, and Legend of the Sea Devils could slot in comfortably in any season as not an all-time classic, but one we wouldn’t mind rewatching. Many people years ago have decided to hate anything from this era, which is a shame, because we’ve still got quality here, and it looks better than ever.

8.5/10 The Sea Devils do look cool, and we got some ocean action which was fun.

John Bishop’s done great work as Dan, who knows he’s a third wheel and doesn’t mind allowing Yaz to finally actually become a character!

Eve of the Daleks Review

Posted on January 2, 2022April 18, 2022 by guardion

Eve of the Daleks

Story 298, Episode 867, 2022 New Year’s Special

Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor

Companions: Yasmin Khan, Dan Lewis

In a coda to Flux the Doctor and her gang are trapped in a time loop in an old warehouse forced to live out the embers of 2021 over and over again.

The Review

For pretty much the entire Chibnall era, something has just felt off about pretty much everything even if the plots to me at least didn’t seem to get much worse. I think the real killer has been the lack of snappy dialogue, but thankfully Aisling Bea is here to put a stop to that. She joins the show as Sarah, a woman who runs a dilapidated storage unit who is stuck there on New Year’s Eve as Adjani Salmon’s Nick shows up every year. Bea is clearly an incredibly talented actor and comedian and it shows here, although I think she curses out her boyfriend/business parter Jeff a few too many times. Although Nick is meticulously categorizing left behind items of his numerous ex-girlfriends, Sarah reasons that the good-hearted weirdos are the ones worth keeping around. As far as love stories go, let’s say it does better than Resolution.

The bronze Daleks will never go out of style: they’re just that good

The Daleks are here to kill the Doctor for destroying a whole host of them in Flux, which is as good an excuse as any for the monsters at the center of the time loop. With new machine gun lasers, they exterminate the whole cast a solid eight times, but the regenerating TARDIS keeps them in a time loop. It’s genuinely tense as the loop keeps shortening by a minute and ends at midnight, beginning of 2022, each time. Seriously, this feels like it could be out of the Moffat era in the best possible way, and I honestly don’t think I’ve felt that once during the whole Chibnall era. The warehouse collapsing in a bunch of New Year’s fireworks is exactly the right kind of cheese for a holiday special. Honestly, this should’ve aired on New Year’s Eve! It certainly has a good case to become a NYE tradition.

The TARDIS being all cracked like that looked cool, wish it was utilized more

Finally, the big reveal confirming years at this point of speculation: yes Yaz has a big ol crush on the Doctor. Dan is the one who finally says it out loud, with just the right delivery of a man genuinely wanting to see this relationship go ahead and his friends find happiness. Truly, Dan has been a revelation, and should’ve been what Chibnall went with from the start. Graham and Ryan had a great arc and chemistry together but really struggled to bring in the Doctor and Yaz there. I am excited to see how this relationship goes in the final two episodes of the Thirteenth Doctor’s run, and am so happy to say this was finally a story free of the ugly Chibnall trappings.

The most naturally flowing episode of the whole Chibnall era. Hoping we can end this era on a bang. I mean, they’re finally bringing back the Sea Devils so everyone can stop asking for them now.

9.5/10 It is a time loop story, but just maybe the most rewatchable episode of the entire Chibnall era. Better late than never!

Flux Review

Posted on December 7, 2021October 27, 2022 by guardion

Flux

Story 297, Episodes 863-868, Series 13 Episodes 1-6

Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor

Companions: Kate Stewart, Yasmin Khan, Dan Lewis, Vinder

Flux is one of the biggest Doctor Who stories of all time, a massive season-spanning storyline ending with a meeting with Time itself. A rollercoaster of overstuffed plot, it still manages to be a rip-roaring adventure.

The Review

The titular Flux shredding some poor planets

Flux came to be out of necessity, a global pandemic leaving the show with less episodes to play with, so why not make them all one big story? There is so much going on it’s impossible to summarize, so here’s the gist: the Flux, a giant wall of antimatter is ripping up the universe. Earth only survives thanks to the Lupari race who encircle it with a shield. It turns out the Flux is the doing of Division, the secret force the Fugitive Doctor worked for, and is deployed by none other than Tecteun to destroy the universe because she thinks the Doctor’s meddling ruined her perfect plan for the universe so she wants a new one. To stop the Flux for good, the Doctor hijacks a Sontaran plan and has them, Daleks, and Cybermen take the hits. Surprisingly, we don’t learn too much more Timeless Child knowledge, just confirming that it was the Doctor.

There are villains galore, but three principal ones. First are the Sontarans, who get the whole second episode to themselves. Maybe the best straightforward Doctor Who episode written by Chris Chibnall, it has twin plots in present day Liverpool and the Crimean War with Mary Seacole and is a lot of fun. Next up, we have the Grand Serpent played by Craig Parkinson, an alien dictator that infiltrates UNIT’s history in a very fun sequence in the fifth episode. I’d love to see him return, Parkinson plays him with a fantastic relish and I enjoyed the character. Finally, we get the Ravagers, two crystalline foes of the Fugitive Doctor named Swarm and Azure on a mission to unlock time from its spatial bondings, an esoteric sci-fi concept we don’t get much of. One of my bigger disappointments is not getting more of the Ravagers in later episodes, they’re played with the right amounts of camp and are scene stealers. Swarm does get to kill Tecteun, but fails to free time from its bondings. Still, the Ravagers welcome annihilation at the sight of time. Oh, did I mention time itself speaks? More on that later.

The Doctor as a Weeping Angel: a great cliffhanger even if it’s resolved easily

There are two other villains, first off Tecteun, played by Barbara Flynn in an underutilized role. The moment of the Doctor meeting her is appropriately weighty, but she get unceremoniously dusted by Swarm. Then, in a real highlight, episode four is all about the Weeping Angels. Chibnall and Maxine Alderton have the Angels stage a relentless assault on a country home, throwing everything they can at the Doctor. Angels in dreams, angels in drawings, angels on fire, angels drawn out by lie doctors, angel arms bursting through stone, everything is on the table as the Weeping Angels descend on the village of Medderton. The two most successful episodes are the Sontaran second episode and the Angel fourth one as they are much more focused and know their job. The cliffhanger of the fourth episode of the Doctor turning into a Weeping Angel is an iconic image.

We meet five quasi-companions in this story, starting with Karvanista. Turns out ‘man’s best friend’ are a race of alien dogs called the Lupari who come to save Earth from the Flux. Karvanista is delightful, and his bantering with Dan, his assigned human, his always hilarious. A bit less successful I think are Bel and Vinder, the couple from the Grand Serpent’s planet. Both are played by good actors and are fun on screen, and have their best moments in the character driven third episode. Still, other than adding more pieces to the puzzle, there’s not much reason for their characters to be in this story at all. I think cutting them could’ve given more time for everything else to breathe, and we could’ve worked the Grand Serpent in still. Episode four introduces Kevin McNally as Professor Jericho, an old WWII vet studying psychic phenomena who is fantastic in that episode and a fun presence until his death in the finale. Finally, the psychic woman Claire possessed by an angel who isn’t quite as good as Jericho but a fun character.

One of the most unexpected pieces was the return of Kate Stewart. She doesn’t get to do much, but it’s nice to see her still out there. Kate gets to meet Joseph Williamson, the real life ‘mad mole’ of Liverpool who dug tons of tunnels under the city that end up linking throughout space and time. He was a fun through line in the story. All these characters are in the finale, and it’s impressive they’re juggled as well as they are, but it’s still not perfect, far from it in fact. For a story that ends with us talking to time itself, the frantic pacing and energy is always a blast even when Flux isn’t always working. I think I would’ve preferred to get a few more Division answers, seeing Tecteun is a big moment, but we still don’t really have answers into the Doctor’s past lives. Instead, Flux ends up being the biggest Sontaran story ever, which is fine and a welcome departure from Daleks or Cybermen but doesn’t quite satisfy all the hints dropping. There’s only three episodes left of the Whittaker era, and I worry the answers will be delivered unsatisfactorily.

Let’s talk companions! Yaz gets her most time to shine in the first episode where she is getting frustrated with the Doctor not telling her the truth about her hunt for Division. I was surprised at how little development it felt Yaz needed, she was the archetype of a veteran companion now and Mandip Gil played it well. Dan Lewis is introduced to us as a down on his luck handyman who loves the city of Liverpool dearly. John Bishop puts in a fun performance, but the story moves so frantically we never quite know who Dan is. Still, the silly scouser energy he brings is always fun. The last new character we haven’t mentioned is his friend Diane, who Dan wants to date but keeps letting down. Diane proves to be quite capable working with Vinder in the last episode, and I hope we see more of her even if she turns down Dan’s date. Still, with the crazy pace of the story, the companions feel underused among the tons of characters.

Finally, let’s talk Doctor. I think I found Jodie Whittaker’s weakness: she just isn’t great with the technobabble. Tennant and Smith excelled at this while Capaldi basically ignored it altogether, but Whittaker never sells it for me. However, she finds her best skills are sneering at overconfident bad guys, with highlight scenes confronting a Sontaran commander and the Grand Serpent. She is also hilarious flirting with herself when there are two of her around in the final episode. Those moments I really key into who the Thirteenth Doctor is, a confident woman who loves running circles around villains who don’t know who they’re dealing with. The third episode in a very successful sequence recounts the Fugitive Doctor’s capture of Swarm and Azure with the Doctor, Yaz, Dan, and Vinder playing her team of Karvanista and unknown people. Whittaker is more stern playing Jo Martin essentially, but no one beats Jo Martin when she makes a much welcome appearance. For all the chaos of Tecteun, multiverses, Swarm, Azure, we are long overdue for a proper episode with the Fugitive Doctor. In summary, Whittaker’s weakness are still apparent but the final episode has some of her best work despite the insane chaos of the episode not seen since Journey’s End.

So, what to make of this story? It’s crazy ambitious, definitely connecting some initial scripts for the season into one after the pandemic. There’s some great moments, some not so great moments, and approximately 157 plot lines culminating with the Doctor having a chat with the personification of time. I’m glad the show did it, I was entertained, but wish it was overall better paced. Even though Series 11 and 12 may end up with higher overall scores, they’re less than the sum of their parts. This certainly isn’t that.

8.25/10 The number one rule of this show is don’t make it boring, and Flux certainly never was that.