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!

Fourteenth Doctor Review

Fourteenth Doctor

Fourteenth Doctor

Doctor: The Fourteenth Doctor

Companions: Melanie Bush, Donna Noble, Wilfred Mott, Kate Stewart

The Fourteenth Doctor era brings back David Tennant, and the justification why is shockingly shaky. However, David Tennant continues to show why he’s one of the best.

The Review

Here’s the scores for the stories

Wild Blue Yonder: 10/10

Liberation of the Daleks: 9/10

The Star Beast: 8/10

The Giggle: 8/10

So, RTD chose to bring back David Tennant, not just as the Tenth Doctor again, but as a full regeneration of the Doctor. Was it worth it putting Tennant’s face twice in the line-ups of Doctors? Honestly, despite the quality stories and I think the greatest Doctor costume of all time, I’m not so sure. The reason posited that this face came back was that the Doctor needed to go to rehab by living the quiet life with Donna while Gatwa has all of the Doctory-Doctor stuff covered. Despite paying as much homage as possible to the Moffat and Chibnall eras, the effect is that it appears the Doctor went through everything they did as Smith, Capaldi, and Whittaker…and chose to return to this form as Tennant. Simply too much revolves around Tennant in the show now, and unless the scales are balanced later, his figure looms so large that I think it creates too much issues. Still, I’m not that upset with it for one obvious reason: Tennant is such an exceptional Doctor. Him and Donna might be my second favorite companion duo only behind the unimpeachable heights of Capaldi/Clara.

Now, his best moments.

5. Got to give a shout-out to Liberation of the Daleks and the Doctor’s uniting of all the dream-Daleks and dismissal of Georgette at the end was classic.

4. Deducing the truth behind the eponymous giggle in The Giggle was some classic Doctor-detecting that was Tennant at his best.

3. In Wild Blue Yonder, the Doctor’s discussion with NotDonna revealing his trauma from the Flux and the Timeless Child gave me some faith in the second RTD era.

2. The Doctor having to bring back Donna thinking he’s going to kill her in The Star Beast is so heartbreaking and well-played by Tennant.

1. “Oh, I think you’ll find we’re really quite something!” The delivery of this line leading into the chase and first analysis of the Not-Things is excellent.

In the end, this ends up as the highest-rated Doctor era ever! Quality tends to win out. I just wonder if a decade from now we’ll look at the Fourteenth Doctor as an aberration, something that flowered into a beautiful re-opening of the show’s history, or an entertaining but ultimately wrong-hearted misfire. Time will tell, it always does…

8.75/10 The best Doctor Who era ever apparently!

60th Anniversary Special Review

60th Anniversary Specials

60th Anniversary Specials

Doctor: Fourteenth Doctor, Fifteenth Doctor

Companions: Melanie Bush, Donna Noble, Wilfred Mott, Kate Stewart

Quality always helps win out, and the 60th anniversary delivers well enough there, but you still can’t shake the feeling of wondering what we’re all doing here.

The Review

Here’s the scores for the stories:

Wild Blue Yonder: 10/10

The Star Beast: 8/10

The Giggle: 10/10

There will be a lot of overlap with the Fourteenth Doctor review, so let’s stay focused on the tv stories for this post. The Star Beast was fun enough, and the Meep brings his iconic comic-villain status to the screen, but ultimately got bogged down with some weird dialogue that got a bit too heavy-handed. Then we got our first out and out classic in years with Wild Blue Yonder, an absolutely terrific terrifying story that reminded us what we love so much about this show. Finally, The Giggle starts with some great satire, and then left us with a resolution that left us with more questions than answers. For people who wanted classic series fan-service, they were at least covered by The Power of the Doctor. Now, we wonder what the future holds.

8.667/10 The 60th anniversary definitely feels more in line with Series 1-10 than the Chibnall era did, but hardly surprising with all the same people coming back. The real question is what will the bold new future have in store for us?

The Giggle Episode

The Giggle

Dancing with the Toymaker

Story 303, 60th Anniversary Special 3

Doctor: The Fourteenth Doctor, the Fifteenth Doctor

Companions: Melanie Bush, Donna Noble, Wilfred Mott, Kate Stewart

The Giggle brings the 60th anniversary festivities to a close with a very fun episode that just ends with a bit of whimper while introducing some major lore changes that feel a little more half-baked than game-breaking.

The Review

David Tennant gives it his all, as usual

The first two-thirds of this story are a lot of fun. In what I was unaware of was a very true story, the first television image was of a creepy puppet. It turns out none other than the Toymaker supplied this puppet, and its evil giggle has been embedded into every television screen, getting stuck in people’s brains. Now in the 21st century, all of the world is turned online, and guess what: the Toymaker is making everybody think they’re right and everyone else is wrong, the modus operandi of the 21st century. This is all great social satire, but they don’t do much with it in the second half of the episode to my disappointment. Neil Patrick Harris is a ton of fun as the Toymaker, the sequence of him lip-syncing Spice Girls and terrorizing UNIT is sensational (including turning two soldiers into bouncy balls). UNIT has a full team with Kate, Shirley, this alien called the Vlinx, and Mel! Mel explains she got a lift back to Earth after Glitz died, and found a home in UNIT. Bonnie Langford does a great job in this episode. I like this new UNIT team here, but I do need to hear from Osgood, even Chibnall at least shouted her out in Flux. Then we get the final third of the story…

The first every bi-generation

The Toymaker eventually shoots a big ‘ol laser at the Doctor, and he bi-generates, with Gatwa basically spawning out of Tennant. This is the big thing that caused endless controversy, and honestly…I don’t mind weird stuff like this. What matters is how it gets used. The Toymaker’s defeat is a game of catch which has some fun scenes, but eventually he just misses and gets stuck in a box. It’s a bit of a whimper, and the shock of the bi-generation really steals the Toymaker’s thunder away. Secondly, there’s a lot of confusion about what exactly is going on here. Gatwa seems a lot more with it than Tennant, and basically says he needs therapy and to settle down with the Nobles while Gatwa heads out of there. He even hits the TARDIS with a mallet and creates a duplicate Tennant gets to keep. Honestly, my main question is just: why? Was it worth it to risk overshadowing Gatwa and still keep the specter of Tennant out there? It’s such a kind ending for the Tennant Doctor, but it also has made it feel like everything we saw in-between The End of Time and now and the three Doctors we had was really stealthily character development just for Tennant. Hopefully the unfolding of the RTD era will ease my concerns, but it’s a change I’m going to see RTD need to put more leg-work in to justify. At least we’ve mentioned the Flux.

The Giggle starts off as potentially a potent satire of 21st century outrage culture, and ends up getting bogged down by some lore that leaves us all with more questions than answers. I’m just glad we’re finally going to see Gatwa in action. (And I didn’t even mention, the new Master is all but confirmed to be coming).

8/10: The first part of the episode saves this from the 7 range, but the ending kind of falls apart in a RTD-way reminiscent of old.

The Fifteenth Doctor!

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?)

The Power of Three Review

The Power of Three

The Slow Invasion commences

Story 229, Episode 788, Series 7 Episode 4

Doctor: The Eleventh Doctor

Companions: Amy Pond, Rory Williams, Kate Stewart

Doctor Who finally deals with what happens when a companion stays so long their life gets mixed in with the Doctor’s.

The Review

The countdown begins

For how badly Chris Chibnall’s tenure as show runner has handled the relationships between the Doctor and her companions, it’s amazing he wrote this story that does it so maturely. It’s based around a ‘Slow Invasion’ a genius idea where mysterious cubes appear one day and nobody knows what to do with them. They’re obviously alien, but for a full year don’t do anything. Throughout Series 7 so far, the Ponds’ on/off again TARDIS traveling has been a unique dynamic, wanting to go on adventures but just as soon get home and see their friends. Here, it gets even more mixed up as there’s an ongoing alien mystery, but no immediate threat for a year. Rory and Amy are both surprised by how much they are enjoying ‘real life’, having grown past awkward young adulthood to having a stable marriage and career. Doctor Who is escapism, but what if you don’t want to escape?

Yes, Kate Stewart met the Ponds!

In an understated debut, we are introduced to Kate Stewart, new head of UNIT and of course daughter of the legendary Brigadier. Jemma Redgrave portrays a capable leader who is also a bit starstruck by the Doctor, and it’s a nice debut. Sadly due to production issues involving an unruly actor, the solution to the cubes is opaque. Something called the Shakri is here to kill all humanity, the Doctor does a little sonic screwdriver thing and the day is saved. Got to dock points for that. In the end, it’s Brian who convinces the Ponds to keep traveling with the Doctor, because no one has that opportunity. He says this even knowing from the Doctor that companions have died. Amy and Rory end up choosing the Doctor over real life. Let’s see how that works out.

The Ponds make the choice to stick with the Doctor in a mature story showing what happens when you have to choose between both.

9.25/10 The ending of the Doctor, Amy, and Rory happy one last time is an iconic photo.

The iconic trio

Flux Review

Flux

The Doctor and her team

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.

Swarm and Azure are fantastic creations

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.

Bel and Vinder

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.

Kate Stewart is back!

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.

Yaz and Dan Lewis

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.

Looking at the woman in the mirror

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.

The Sontarans! Their biggest story ever! They did great! Might be the best Sontaran adventure on tv at least

The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion Review

The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion

The Zygon-Busters

Story 258, Episodes 820 and 821, Series 9 Episodes 7 and 8

Doctor: The Twelfth Doctor

Companion: Kate Stewart, Clara Oswald

The Zygon peace treaty has been broken, and now the Zygons aim to wage war on all of humanity. The only hope for both sides in the Osgood Box, said to have the power to end the war…for good.

The Review

The original Osgoods aka Peace

The Doctor gets the call: the shapeshifting Zygons have violated the ceasefire and waging open war. Soon things become clear that it is a splinter group tired of being forced to live in humanity, and Clara and the Doctor get roped in with UNIT. Kate goes to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico where she is ambushed by a Zygon who has wiped out the town. The Doctor goes to some foreign country where soldiers are lured to their deaths by Zygons, but he finds the surviving Osgood (Missy killed the other) and a prisoner.

Bonnie, Zygon general

The whole time in London, Clara has been helping UNIT find the Zygon base, except she’s actual the Zygon Bonnie, leading them into a trap. She then fires an RPG at the Doctor’s plane, but interference from Clara’s subconscious gives the Doctor and Osgood time to escape. The race is on to get to the UNIT Black Archives and the ‘Osgood Box’, and all five major players reach the Box, will boxes. Two boxes, two buttons inside, all varying levels of everybody dies.

Peter Capaldi gives the speech of his life

There, the Doctor gives one of the show’s best speeches. He talks about his past as a warrior, and just how awful war is and how many lives it ruins. The delivery is so incredible that it causes both Kate and Bonnie to back down. Bonnie ends up becoming the new second Osgood, and the Zygon peace is restored. So much happened, and so much amazing.

Clara and a Zygon in awe

The build-up in the story is perfectly executed, and the threat of the Zygons seems very real. Osgood, Clara/Bonnie, Kate are all very well realized, but as usual the Doctor steals the show. His speech against war is so impassioned and brilliant, it will easily be held in the annals of great Doctor moments. There have been many alien invasions of Earth in Doctor Who history, but the Zygon Invasion of 2015 may be one of the best.

The Zygons return from the 50th Anniversary, and an episode with many parallels to recent debates on immigration will thrill anybody. With great writing, direction, and acting, this story is another classic.

9.8/10. Series 9 is proving that Doctor Who is maybe the best it ever has been, night in and night out.

Doctor Who returns to the Mountain Time Zone, this time to New Mexico!