Thirteenth Doctor Review

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

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

The Power of the Doctor

The Doctor in distress

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 orange spacesuit, at last!

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?

Ace and Tegan back in the show!

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.

One last look at the world

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.

The Fourteenth Doctor! (…Can we not?)

Series 12 Review

Series 12

Series 12

Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor

Companions: Jack Harkness, Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien

Series 12 I think improved on Series 11 but is still less than the sum of its parts. The stories got better overall, and after Series 11 had basically zero references to greater lore, we got the lore dump to end all lore dump and twists after twists. The Master, Captain Jack, the Cybermen, a supposed other Doctor played by Jo Martin, and the Doctor is a mysterious foundling that is the progenitor of the Time Lord race? Not only that, but historical episodes continued to be this series’ strength, as I now look back fondly at Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror and especially The Haunting of Villa Diodati, my pick for the series’ best outing.

The Review

Here’s the scores for the stories

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

Spyfall: 8.9/10

Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror: 8.75/10

Praxeus: 8.5/10

Revolution of the Daleks: 8/10

Orphan 55: 7.5/10

In hindsight it’s interesting to see how my opinion changes, I’m always generally higher in the moment, but the Tesla episode has improved for me. Orphan 55 probably deserves even worse for that train wreck of an episode. Once again, the individual episodes are all structured well, but the core dynamic of the characters has just been completely lacking since the Chibnall era got underway. Good episodes, but not much going on under the surface. This series avoided having a few clunkers, but it’s still lacking the highest highs.

8.656/10 Yay?

Revolution of the Daleks Review

Revolution of the Daleks

The Doctor in space jail

Story 296, Episode 862, 2021 New Year’s Special

Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor

Companions: Jack Harkness, Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien

Revolution of the Daleks breaks up the fam in an episode that is largely good, but can’t focus on any one thing for too long.

The Review

Prime Minister with our new defense drones

This was a story written a long time ago, before a global pandemic and a global reckoning with racism and police brutality and all the fun stuff 2020 gave us. How perfect could it have been then that the Daleks are back, and now integrated with British police forces to provide ‘security’. Unfortunately, this episode never sticks with one thing for very long. Bringing back Jack Robertson from Arachnids in the UK was a great movie, as he is even slimier and hilarious here as he sells out the Doctor to Daleks and somehow comes out on top. He has been working with a MP, Jo Patterson, since Resolution to develop the ‘defense drones’, and they are rolled out when she gets voted Prime Minister by her party (and then she is exterminated). The idea of the UK accepting literal Daleks in the name of security would be a great one, but oh well, the show doesn’t care that much about that. Leo, a moron working for Robertson, found tiny traces of Dalek cells and cloned a Dalek because of course he did, that Dalek creating more Daleks in secret that all teleport into the defense drone shells and start murdering, which we actually don’t get that much time with. Overall, this would have been some excellent dark satire that gets mostly wasted. (Oh, and people don’t remember the Daleks because The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End got erased by cracks in time and barely got a glimpse in Doomsday)

Captain Jack and the ‘pure’ SAS Daleks.

The Doctor has apparently spent decades in space jail, but fear not, Captain Jack breaks her out. Jack is a good presence throughout the episode and fits in seamlessly like he’s never been gone. It’s always fun for me to remember that Jack traveled with the Ninth Doctor. The Doctor’s escape comes so quickly I’m not sure the point of her being in jail at all other than as an excuse to have her miss ten months away from the fam which could’ve been accomplished some other away. I guess the idea was the Doctor could come to terms with the Timeless Child stuff, so that’s something I guess. The most interesting reaction is how pissed Yaz is at the Doctor and how aggressive and adventurous she is throughout the episode, and as she’s sticking around for an unprecedented third full season in the modern era I think the show finally knows what her character is. Remember when they made her a cop? Remember how that could’ve tied in to the defense drone stuff? No? Ok. The Doctor’s genius idea to destroy the Daleks is call in a Dalek purity squad that destroys all the ‘impure’ Daleks, then they blow up that Dalek ship and the rest are lured into the extra TARDIS which collapses on itself. All the Daleks look gorgeous, sound gorgeous, and the show is very confident that it is a great show, even though it’s only a good show these days. Also, the ‘SAS Daleks’ didn’t have plungers. What the hell.

I really liked these two’s relationship growing, the strongest executed Chibnall era relationship

This episode also sees us bid farewell to Ryan and Graham. With five characters vying for time, it is no surprise one slips out of the picture, and that is Graham who after being a fantastic companion gets nothing at all to do in this episode. Ryan has a very sweet sit down with the Doctor talking about him growing as a person that I liked a lot, I think he’s actually had some underrated character moments and Tosin Cole really grew into the role. Jack disappears quickly in the episode, hopefully because it’s not the last we’ll see of him, but we do get a very nice Gwen Cooper shoutout. The Doctor wants to welcome the fam back in the TARDIS, Yaz is an immediate yes (she has some good character building with Jack) but Ryan has finally figured out who he is on Earth and Graham just can’t live without him. The Doctor gives them psychic paper which is mighty unusual and it seems they will keep dealing with aliens on Earth which is fun. I don’t understand going back to Ryan trying to ride a bike and still not being able to do so though, it just felt like a weird ending. Overall, like a lot of the Chibnall era, this is an entertaining, confident, pretty episode to watch but thinking back on it there is a lot less going on than you hope there is. We had four years with Graham and Ryan, but they have much less depth than Bill did in just one season so we don’t feel their departure as keenly. The Chibnall era has been fun but the deep emotional depth just isn’t there anymore.

I had fun watching Revolution of the Daleks, but it decided not to be a dark satire and instead just had us having fun with different Daleks highlighted by two good character scenes with Ryan and the Doctor as well as Yaz and Jack. Jack Robertson was a lot of fun to have back as a villain, it was a fun episode, but will we care more about Dan in Series 13? I kinda doubt it.

8/10 I keep think I’m giving the Chibnall era way too good scores? I don’t know. Solid eight for this one.

Dan, the new companion spoiling an all-female TARDIS that could’ve been really interesting, but I still like his look!

Ascension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children Review

Ascension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children

The most devastating meeting ever

Story 295, Episodes 860-861, Series 12 Episodes 9-10

Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor

Companions: Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien

Series 12 concludes with the most earth-shattering story in Doctor Who history, completely changing the way we view the Doctor in one story that is so colossal my head is still spinning.

The Review

The Doctor and Ashad having a conversation

Part two was so huge that I want to jump ahead but we do have to spend some time on part one. It starts out with the Doctor and the fam visiting the last seven humanities in whatever galaxy they are in (I’m going to go with Tiberian Spiral and it all lines up well with Nightmare in Silver) to save them from Ashad and the Cybermen. Ryan and the Doctor get separated from Graham and Yaz, who end up on a Cybermen troop carrier, and are visited by Ashad who re-awakens the Cybermen on it. The human’s goal was to get to Ko Sharmus and the mysterious Boundary, supposedly the only way outside of the galaxy. It turns out Ko Sharmus is actually an old man, and the boundary leads to…the ruins of Gallifrey. Out of which the Master drops out, no explanation of how he got away from the Spyfall situation, but we don’t need one of those from the Master.  Ascension of the Cybermen is a good episode thanks to the very real threat of the awakening Cybermen, and Ashad is such a frightening presence that it drives the pace. That said, we don’t really get any answers to any questions about what is going on, nor more hints at the Timeless Child.

The Master and Ashad. “Let’s workshop this.”

Well enough about that episode, it’s time to talk about the episode that contains, I think without a doubt, the most lore ever. See, revealing the truth about the history of the Time Lords is one thing, but revealing truth about the Doctor is another. Our guide throughout all this is Sacha Dhawan’s Master, and Dhawan absolutely nails it throughout this episode. I thought nobody could come close to Michelle Gomez, but Dhawan’s energy and manic charisma is truly something to behold. I can accept that the Master went crazy again, but I would really have liked some in-universe acknowledgement that Missy did end up standing with the Doctor. The Master could reveal to the Doctor that he did choose her side, and that could have further underscored how earth-shattering the Timeless Child story was. He invites Ashad and the Cybermen troop carrier to dock in the ruins of the citadel, and learns Ashad’s final plan: to remove all organic elements in the Cybermen and make them mechanized. The Master is disappointed that Ashad’s plans were just to make them into robots, and I agree. Dumb plan. So the Master kills Ashad in cold blood.

The fam with the anti-Cybermen gear, including a gold particle disperser of course

Let’s check in on the companions. In a story absolutely filled to the brim with Time Lord lore, the companions take a back seat. The pairing of Graham and Yaz was a good one, and leads to a scene where Graham praises Yaz as the best woman he’s ever known. It’s beautiful, but I wish we had seen more of what Graham praises Yaz for throughout the past two seasons. Hilariously, Yaz says Graham is not so bad himself, apparently a love letter if you’re from Yorkshire. Ryan doesn’t do much except for use his basketball skills to throw a bomb to destroy some Cybermen and react just like a guy his age would. I actually feel that Ryan has been pretty well-developed as a character, and Tosin Cole was able to do a lot with not many lines. Graham, Yaz, and the two surviving humans from the settlement disguise themselves in Cybermen armor to escape the troop carrier. The companions have been much more developed this season, and I hope we get a good goodbye to them. One of the surviving humans is a middle-aged woman, Ravio, who I think could be a good match for Graham. They all take a TARDIS back to 2020 London.

Tecteun and the Timeless Child

Ascension of the Cybermen features the story of a boy named Brendan in early 20th century century Ireland, found abandoned as a baby, who becomes a police officer. He somehow survives a gunshot wound and fall into a canyon, grows old, then his un-aged dad and former captain show up and begin brutally mind-wiping him. It turns out to have been an allegory for the founding of Gallifrey as the Master shows the Doctor within the Matrix. Gallifrey’s indigenous people were a group called the Shobogans, which is apparently straight from the EU. One of them, Tecteun, an explorer, found a child that had emerged from a gateway. She brought her back to Gallifrey and tried to find out what she was, but got no answer. One day the child fell to her death and regenerated, and after forcing several regenerations out of her Tecteun found the secret of regeneration. She proved it on herself and distributed the gift to the Time Lord elite founding Time Lord society. That child, of course, was the Doctor (though for a beat I thought it was going to be the Master). So there is a hell of a lot to unpack here.

Brendan, the metaphor Doctor. Ireland was always a cover for Gallifrey.

This is the most info we have ever been definitively shown about the foundation of Gallifrey, and Chibnall has chosen to go down the path of ‘the Doctor is a special Time Lord’ and not ‘the Doctor is a random Time Lord who left Gallifrey and became a hero’. I have to say, I kind of prefer the latter, because it shows that anybody can be special and be a hero. But in Chibnall’s defense, there have been many clues pointing at the Doctor being special, mostly from the Seventh Doctor era but the Hybrid sort of fits that. I was initially excited, then I got pretty down on all of the Doctor is special stuff, but now I’m kind of drawing myself back in. The problem though is that the onus is now on Chibnall to explain everything, and there are several loose ends: Rassilon and Omega, and what became of Tecteun? I assume the two unseen Time Lords that Tecteun bows to are supposed to be them. Was Tecteun the woman from The End of Time? Who is Susan? Her being the Timeless Child would actually make far more sense honestly. Were the Shobogans humans? We never found out if the Boundary always went to Gallifrey or not. Lastly, I see why this was a shattering revelation for the Doctor, but I don’t think it quite ‘laid her low’ like the Master thought it would. Not getting an answer to most of these questions in Whittaker’s era would feel unfinished.

Look at this beautiful boy

Regardless of my hesitation around making the Doctor the pillar of Time Lord history, and leaving us with tons of questions, I am excited about one thing: Ruth. Ruth is heavily implied to be a pre-Hartnell incarnation of the Doctor, working for ‘the Division’, Time Lord black ops. What really excites me about her is Jo Martin’s performance, who absolutely nails it as the Doctor. Still, it rings weird to me that a pre-Hartnell incarnation would call herself the Doctor, let alone have a police box TARDIS. The First Doctor just stole a random TARDIS, and this has been explicitly confirmed. Martin rocks though, so look to see more of her. The Doctor uses all of her history, known and unknown, to break out of the Matrix and we got a montage of all the known Doctors + Ruth and the pre-First Doctor faces from The Brain of Morbius because has Chibnall really waited 44 years to pay off that plot thread? Oh and one last thing, Ko Sharmus destroys the CYBERMAN/TIME LORD HYBRIDS THE MASTER MADE. They are Cybermen in Time Lord regalia, they are able to regenerate, they are amazing. It is weird that the Doctor can’t bring herself to kill them with the DEATH PARTICLE ASHAD HAD but we’re supposed to be fine with Ko Sharmus doing it. Oh, and six and a half years after saving Gallifrey, it and all the Time Lords are apparently super dead. Gallifrey whiplash! I guess Rassilon is still out there…

This story, especially part two, was as narratively dense as anything in show history. For as many revelations as there were, it still kind of worked. Not all of it, but a lot. And finally using the show theme as in-universe music for the Doctor montage was awesome. Got to give credit to audacity. Also loved the Tennant-esque ending with the Doctor getting immediately arrested by Judoon.

9/10 My head is still reeling, but amazing production values, pacing, and performances make this a blockbuster to remember.

The Fugitive Doctor??

The Haunting of Villa Diodati Review

The Haunting of Villa Diodati

When Lord Byron scares you

Story 294, Episodes 859, Series 12 Episode 8

Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor

Companions: Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien

Once again historical figures from the 1800s are drawn into the middle of this season’s story arc in a stealth preview for the finale.

The Review

Shelley, Polidori, Byron, Claremont

It’s a flat team structure: until it isn’t. It’s an irresistible premise for the Doctor to visit Byron and Shelley on that famous night where Frankenstein was dreamed up. (In fact, Big Finish took it a step further and had Mary Shelley travel with the 8th Doctor, if any historical figure could, it’s her). The cast of characters is immediately interesting, all geniuses that see through the psychic paper. What’s not to love about young 19th century geniuses all in their late 20s, with entangling romantic lives and intrigue. Lord Byron was my favorite of the bunch, especially by how taken in he was with the Doctor. It was fun to see somebody go out and hit on the Whittaker Doctor. Mary Shelley was not given as much screen time as I might have expected, and was a little flightier than I thought she might be. I loved John Polidori, the sleepwalker with a temper who tries to challenge Ryan to a duel. The other piece of the puzzle is Claire Claremont, who is obsessed with Byron but sees through his bluster by the end of the story. I wish we got to spend even more time with everyone.

Scary stuff!

There are lots of weird things going on, ghosts, the hands from Byron’s skeleton are now up and about, and much concerning: people can’t seem to leave the house. The Doctor keeps trying to leave a room only to walk right back in it. Percy Shelley is missing, and he had seen a vision of some bright hallucination above the lake. It turns out to be the Lone Cyberman, and it is unlike any Cyberman we have ever seen. Rusted and beaten and falling apart we can see a human face underneath, and this Cyberman has emotions: anger (and a name, Ashad). The Cyberman-Frankenstein connection isn’t a hard one to tease out, but it is effective and brutal. Shelley absorbed some kind of Cyber-consciousness that Ashad is after, and the Doctor weighs allowing Shelley to die or maybe letting the Cybermen rule again. The Doctor says that sometimes she is indisputably the leader in a brutal assessment that was verging on Time Lord Victorious territory: except she knows this is far from a win.

Byron would

The energy of the episode is a blast from the start with the weirdness abounding from the whole house. We see ghosts of an old maid and a young girl, and at the end Graham realizes that the Cybermen had nothing to do with that. I honestly hope that is never brought back up again. I think that the illusions in the house were coming off of the Cyber-goo thing in Percy, trying to protect itself. You know, it was kind of weird that they decided to focus on Percy as the person whom Doctor says ‘words matter’ about. The only way to save him was to flash-forward to his untimely death. In fact, Claremont is the only person in this story who does not die tragically. Foregrounding the horror of the Cybermen with a story about Mary Shelley was intimately interesting, but it made me wish we got more time with just her. Alas. All in all this is a very good episode, and Jodie Whittaker finally felt like the honest to god Doctor with continuity from the previous era in her hatred of Cybermen. Next week seems like it’s all about the Cyber-Wars, something we’ve never really gotten to actually see, so get excited!

One more story to go perhaps in the Ryan/Yaz/Graham era. Let’s do it.

9.25/10 That Cyberman above the lake, freaky! My friend thought it would be Captain Jack, he and Byron would probably have made out on the spot.

Searching for Percy

 

Can You Hear Me? Review

Can You Hear Me?

Aleppo, 1380

Story 293, Episodes 858, Series 12 Episode 7

Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor

Companions: Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien

Can You Hear Me? is an episode that like so many in the Chibnall era is so close to perfection, but delivers some desperately needed character development at long last.

The Review

Zellin is one creepy dude, and somehow gets creepier in Rakaya’s service

Finally, finally, we get an episode where the characters have time to express their inner doubts and fears! We got Father’s Day to open the RTD era followed by Amy’s Choice in Moffat’s, and finally something similar for Chibnall. The plot of the story is that two apparently Eternals, the incredibly creeper finger-detaching Zellin and his even crazier partner Rakaya are harnessing people’s fears. The idea of the Doctor facing up against an all-powerful immortal is something that really excites me, and the reveal of Zellin (with shoutouts to the Guardians and the Celestial Toymaker!) as an immortal was fun. Rakaya was trapped between two collapsing planets, the Doctor assumed she was a prisoner but it was all a ruse. Unfortunately the two are defeated extremely quickly, the Syrian girl from 1380 we meet in the cold open Tahira controlling the crazy bears monster Zellin made from her own nightmares to frighten them for eternity. This would ordinarily completely sink the episode The Power of Three style, and as much fun as the Eternals being the true foe would be the true foe is mental illness.

The lighting in the TARDIS has been utterly incredible all season

Although we start off with Tahira, it turns out all of our characters have problems. Ryan thinks the world will become Orphan 55 when he’s not there and his friend Tibo will have missed him. We get a longer glimpse at the Timeless Child but still nothing that will tell us anything from the Doctor’s fears. Graham sees Grace again, telling him that his cancer has returned, and he turns to the Doctor about it who has absolutely nothing to say that will help him which is pretty devastating. The Doctor’s complete lack of actual real social depth in this incarnation is a big problem, I’m not sure any incarnation would be a good therapist but latter-day Capaldi could’ve been. The big one though is Yaz: who gets actual character development! Three years ago Yaz was fleeing hone, but a female police officer stopped her and bet that she would turn it around. I find it somewhat disturbing that humanity are apparently the only race with mental illness and depression, but all the more powerful that we still get through it in prosper, no matter what weird Eternals say.

This episode could have been all about mental illness, or all about Eternals, and it tried to do both but almost did it. It’s not as good as The Good Complex which I think does it better, but I genuinely do think it’s very good.

9/10 So those were the Eternals huh? Do all of them have finger detachment technology?

The TARDIS arrives in Aleppo

 

Praxeus Review

Praxeus

The shores of Madagascar

Story 292, Episodes 857, Series 12 Episode 6

Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor

Companions: Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien

Praxeus dives right back into a dramatic standalone adventure as the Doctor and fam race to stop an infection from taking over the world.

The Review

Jack, my favorite of this episode’s guest cast

This episode basically is Spyfall meets Orphan 55, and I think it is a good combination. We open in several locations around the world, Ryan meets Gabrielle looking for her fellow vlog sister in Peru. Graham and Yaz meet Jack, a former cop/drifer searching for a missing astronaut in Hong Kong. Finally, the Doctor pulls a naval officer out of the water on the shores of Madagascar. There is a healthy does of Hitchcock horror as the Madagascar scenes features hoards of crows menacing the TARDIS team. The most compelling of the new characters is Jack, who is the estranged husband of Alan, the astronaut who went missing after months on the International Space Station. He shares a tender moment with Graham where Jack confesses that he never really felt like he deserved to be loved by somebody as accomplished as Alan. This era of Doctor Who has featured effective globetrotting like no other. A long way from Daleks in Manhattan. Splitting up the team also gives everyone a chance to shine, especially Yaz who has a strong episode.

Suki, naughty naughty!

It turns out this is another story with a moral, and it’s a good one, Praxeus is a virulent infection that spreads through microplastics which are apparently within all of us. A friendly scientist Suki turns out to be behind it all, a member of a ravaged alien race using Earth as a lab to create a cure for the disease. With the TARDIS parked at Praxeus’ habitat in the Indian Ocean’s great garbage patch, the Doctor comes up with a cure. Jack pilots a doomed ship into space to make up his failures to Alan, saving the day. Thankfully, the Doctor manages to save him just in time, and it’s a happy ending. (Although the characters get dropped off in Madagascar, where exactly none of them started). I don’t have much to say, it was a fun straightforward Doctor Who episode and I always enjoy the episodes with a lot of action. I think there is actually an interesting world where the Autons become a commentary on the plastification of society, but they were ruled out here. Suki should’ve been an advanced Auton, there’s my pitch.

After the massive episode last week, we get a fast-paced non-lore episode this time. Fine by me.

8.5/10 Praxeus is a very good name.

Astronaut Alan

 

Fugitive of the Judoon Review

Fugitive of the Judoon

The Judoon are back!

Story 291, Episodes 856, Series 12 Episode 5

Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor

Companions: Captain Jack Harkness, Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, Graham O’Brien

In an out-of-nowhere earth-shattering episode, Fugitive of the Judoon has several layers of surprise, the last one earthshakingly big.

The Review

The Doctor and the fugitives try to figure out what to do

This is an exceedingly difficult episode to review as an episode because it is more like a series of bombshell twists as Series 12’s arc has swelled to the most complex since Series 6. First off, hey, it’s the Judoon, who I kind of can’t believe never showed up since Smith and Jones in the main show because they’re such memorable designs. Lawful evil space rhino police for hire? The design of the Judoon is inspired, and I love the banal things they do like giving an old woman a worthless galactic credit or something as compensation for destroying her blanket she was knitting. Ryan and Yaz get some good dealings with the Judoon, and Yaz gets a single line to remind us she’s a police officer. I do continue to enjoy how this era is consciously shaking us away from reflexively setting every story in London, here we are taken to Gloucester, and why not? The abbey is a central setting, and it is truly beautiful. The lighthouse at the climax (in reality on the Welsh coast probably on the English coast in-universe) is a beautiful locale as well. Apparently the fugitive’s high-value allowed the Judoon to show up on Earth and not do the whole Moon thing.

I legitimately thought it was never happening again. My apologies to John Barrowman, a true icon

Now, it’s time to pivot right back to what happens to Graham: he gets time-scooped out into space by none other than the legendary Captain Jack Harkness! Since I’ve been watching Torchwood it felt natural for him to show up, but it’s been a decade since he was in the main show and nine years since Miracle Day. Barrowman is still looking good, and thinks Graham is the Doctor so gives him a big welcome back kiss. We catch Captain Jack in media res, flying a stolen ship, under fire by nanogenes, and although he doesn’t get to meet the 13th Doctor he is excited by the Doctor being a woman now. Barrowman’s warning is to not give the Lone Cyberman what it wants as that will apparently reconstruct the Cyberman empire. Because it wouldn’t be any fun otherwise I’m sure we’re going to end up giving the Lone Cyberman what it wants. I think we will see Captain Jack again, we won’t be denied the meeting with Whittaker. However, I think his whole appearance was a gigantic red herring to contain the real stunner at the end of this episode that I still kind of can’t believe happened.

Jo Martin is…the Doctor???

We think the secret alien is this guy Lee, who the Judoon and their commander Gat kill. The Doctor escaped with his wife Ruth, who has no clue about what is going on, but she gets some sort of mental trigger text from Lee. After she singlehandedly scares off the Judoon in Gloucester, she drives to the lighthouse in her memory. While the Doctor is digging a suspicious grave (that I didn’t think was all that suspicious, multiple people share one gravestone all the time) she breaks some glass, changes her clothes, grabs a giant alien gun, just as we see the Doctor is unearthing…the TARDIS! That’s right, ‘Ruth’ is the Doctor, and she takes our Doctor into her very 60s control room. She was on the run from fellow Time Lord Gat, and both are confused because neither remember being the other one. The diehards are already clutching their pearls in terror over what this could possibly due to the precious lore, but I am completely fascinated. The only comparable was John Hurt’s intro as the War Doctor, but we all knew next episode would be all about him. ‘Ruth’ is a complete curveball, and she is played utterly brilliantly by Jo Martin. I am incredibly invested to see where this goes and how this ties into the Master and the Timeless Child.

So wow, that was a lot. A big episode. It did kind of feel like moving from one big event from another, and is far from a perfect episode, but those were big reveals handled extremely well. If you didn’t like this episode, you shouldn’t be watching this show.

9/10 Not perfect, but Series 12 gives us a midseason update on its mystery. Welcome to the two Doctors

Jo Martin’s Doctor is a lot meaner than Jodie Whittaker’s, and they both kind of can’t believe the other is themselves