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!
The big finale for Season 1 has some epic reveals, and delivers a solid if not all-timer of a conclusion.
The Review
Susan Triad
This story absolutely wastes no time, with the Doctor and Ruby screaming into UNIT trying to solve two mysteries: Ruby’s mother and why someone who looks like Susan Twist keeps appearing everywhere. Turns out the actor Susan Twist is playing tech billionaire Susan Triad, who’s about to have a big rollout of some tech. There’s a very impressive sequence where 2004 Ruby Road is recreated from an old VHS tape in a ‘time window’ in UNIT. Kate Stewart gets a lot to do in the first episode, including a touching conversation where the Doctor wonders if Susan Triad is really his granddaughter. The Doctor eventually departs and leaves to meet Susan Triad, but doesn’t recognize her. Meanwhile the TARDIS at UNIT gets super ominous and then we get an incredible speech about all of the gods culminating in the reveal of Sutekh: the God of Death himself returned in a dramatic cliffhanger. The episode was mainly all hype obscuring some wonkiness, but still fun.
Sutekh’s new angry dog face
Sutekh’s return is so fun because of how iconic Pyramids of Mars is, so much so we even get in-episode flashbacks to it. The idea that he has been hiding on the TARDIS seeing his plan for who knows how long is quite fun. I don’t think he’s quite wasted, turning all of creation into dust is an impressive even temporary win, but in some ways the titles could be reversed as the finale is all about Ruby. The Doctor, Ruby, and Mel escape in a Memory TARDIS formed from the time window, and the immense importance she placed on finding her mom had elevated her to near God-like status. The mystery of 73 Yards comes into play as compulsory DNA testing in 2046 allows them to find the answer. Ruby tricks Sutekh and he is dragged back through the vortex, bringing death to death, which means the Doctor returns the universe to life before Sutekh is burned in the vortex.
Quite badass looks for Ruby and the Doctor here
I’d be remiss not to mention Bonnie Langford, who is a great tertiary protagonist here. Who would’ve guessed Mel would be fighting Sutekh in 2024? The ending works well, though I wasn’t completely impressed by the resolution. It came off as by the book finale, nothing bonkers for good or bad in the episode. Ruby has a tearful goodbye to the Doctor, but with Mrs. Flood unresolved, we all know we’re going to see her again. Still, Ruby reuniting with her mother was so beautiful and emotional, and I did love how Gatwa seemed a bit saddened that can’t happen for himself. I’m not quite sold on his big dramatic speechmaking so far, but the fun and energy is absolutely there. Excited to see Gatwa continue to grow in the role. Still to come: Susan, more Mrs. Flood reveals?
A big ol solid but not spectacular season finale still brought us the return of a classic villain, and broadened the mythology of the show. Still, it didn’t have that bite to it that I felt only only 73 Yards and (at the end) Dot and Bubble had. More thoughts on the season review post!
8/10: We’ve had better finales, we’ve had worse finales. For now, I’m celebrating an RTD finale that didn’t lose its mind.
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…
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?
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.
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.
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.
Sylvester McCoy transforms the role of the Doctor into the universe’s most mysterious and unpredictable man putting on a brave new spin to the Doctor.
The Review
Here’s the scores for the stories
The Curse of Fenric: 10/10
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy: 10/10
Remembrance of the Daleks: 9.25/10
Battlefield: 9/10
Survival: 8.5/10
Silver Nemesis: 8.25/10
The Happiness Patrol: 8.25/10
Dragonfire: 8/10
Delta and the Bannermen: 8/10
Paradise Towers: 8/10
Ghost Light: 7.5/10
Time and the Rani: 7/10
The Seventh Doctor came in at a creative low point for Doctor Who, out of gas creatively. His first season the Doctor was a pretty generic figure just given some odd quirks for the seeming reason just to make him weird. That all changed with the introduction of Ace and the show’s dramatic late 80s revival. There’s something intoxicating to me about McCoy, he at once seems jovial and interested in stagecraft much like the actor himself, but he is one of the fiercest Doctors in condemning evil. So often they cut to the Doctor and his face is filled with unholy rage at whichever dark plotter he’s facing. The Doctor always seems to know more than he’s letting on, even when he’s putting cat food on the sidewalk. Through it all, he’s resolutely punk, leading rebellions and lying in the park with Ace listening to jazz music. The Seventh Doctor successfully made the character back into a man of mystery, and I adore McCoy’s skillful portrayal.
Now, his best moments.
5. The Doctor’s early rage and takedown of Gavrok in Delta and the Bannermen presages what is to come for the character. The Doctor doesn’t pull any punches in denouncing evil, and this is an earlier sign of that.
4. “Unlimited rice pudding!” The Doctor’s first chess master story comes in Remembrance of the Daleks, highlighted by his sneering battle of wits with Davros. In one fell swoop, the Doctor deals the Daleks their greatest defeat.
3. “is that honor?” The Doctor talks down Morgaine in Battlefield from launching a nuclear weapon describing the impersonal horror that it will cause, devastating her so completely that she backs off. Unlike many ‘good guy talks sense into evil’ speech, this one feels earned.
2. The Doctor (and McCoy himself) show off magic tricks and showmanship in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, with the Doctor holding rapt the attention of the Gods of Ragnarok until he is able to defeat them. It’s the perfect mix of the Seventh Doctor’s clownish sensibilities but his deadly cunning underneath.
1. The showdown with Fenric in The Curse of Fenric is one of the Doctor’s greatest moments across all their incarnations. Starting with the Doctor’s desperate monologue that evil doesn’t need a name to be evil, it concludes with the Doctor breaking Ace’s heart to save the world. Never has the Doctor seemed more cruel, but the day is saved.
In-universe the reasoning for the Doctor’s sudden change when Ace joins the TARDIS are a bit suspect, but I think we can point to his worrying about the danger of Fenric. Some of the Doctor’s era feels like we should know about epic missing stories, creating the Hand of Omega, or the first time that the Doctor trapped Fenric. More than anything, it affirmed to be the value in the classic series and distilled it to its essence: Doctor Who is about squaring up and facing evil, with the benefit of time and space travel allowing for stories set in a bizarre alien circus to a small English town in World War II. Through it all, the Seventh Doctor may just be the greatest champion of good and righteousness, even if he has to break a few eggs to get there.
8.479/10 An era that saved the reputation of Doctor Who
Season 24 marks a slight recovery as the show continues to work itself out of its late 80s hole, but offers nothing special.
The Review
Here’s the scores for the stories
Dragonfire: 8/10
Delta and the Bannermen: 8/10
Paradise Towers: 8/10
Time and the Rani: 7/10
Sylvester McCoy proves to be maybe the most understated of the classic Doctors, at least in this season. Understandable considering his late casting, the Doctor often feels rather generic but there’s a sort of warmth that emanates from the Seventh Doctor. The show has been reduced to four story seasons, and the first three are varying levels of silly. Where the Sixth Doctor was often just plain unlikable, with the Seventh Doctor they’re just wacky space adventures. Delta and the Bannermen gets the furthest off the path with a wild story that I can barely classify as Doctor Who about aliens going on holiday to a Welsh summer camp. Really, ‘camp’ is the prime word for this season, and in all honesty, it’s all perfectly watchable. Still, it’s been a long time since anyone has written something truly spectacular, and the classic series is running out of time. Ace does seem to be more dynamic than Mel, whose character arc basically got slashed when Colin Baker was fired, so let’s see how that turns out.
7.75/10 No serious misfires, but nothing interesting going on either
Story 147, Episodes 665-667, Season 24 Episodes 12-14
Doctor: Seventh Doctor
Companions: Mel Bush, Ace McShane
We get a rare recurring character and a unique well-realized setting which helps buoy a relatively straightforward plot.
The Review
Kane the Snow Miser
Iceworld seems set right out of Bioshock, an ultra-cold trading post home to the icy Kane who rules it from its depths. Though obviously using a ton of plastic, this is one of my favorite sets in the classic series. It is instantly unique, lived-in, and very much not a quarry. The aforementioned Kane played with straight laced evil by Edward Peel is a millennia old criminal whose body temperature needs to be so cold he kills with a touch. The plot is mainly a lot of wandering around Iceworld encountering a robotic dragon with a power cell ‘the dragon fire’ in its head, but thanks to the return of Sabalom Glitz and new companion Ace we are never bored. Tony Selby is back as the pathetic but charismatic scoundrel Glitz, and we’re very glad to see him return. There’s also a tiny plot thread of a young girl blissfully avoiding the chaos and getting to see the TARDIS dematerialize which is sweet.
Ace!
Sophie Aldred is the big addition here, as new companion ace. Mel is still around, and screams less while being just generally competent and liking to take the piss out of Glitz. Ace is only 16 years old, and acts like it despite Aldred being much older. A rebellious orphan removed from the 80s and sent to this colony is a stretch, but you can’t helped but be charmed by Ace. I wasn’t expecting her to be immature, but it’s charming. Mel eventually decides to go off with Glitz and be independent, which makes sense in the invisible Mel story arc we never got to actually see. Mel was independent but is still typically feminine, Ace very much isn’t so I’m excited to see her chemistry with McCoy, who is a cool confident center of this story. It’s a fine story, nothing special, but hopefully bodes well for next season.
It’s no better or worse than previous stories, but props for that setting! We do get to revisit the infamous cliffhanger in The Name of the Doctor too.
8/10 I wish Glitz would pop up again, he’s such a charming rogue
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 