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?)

Legend of the Sea Devils Review

Legend of the Sea Devils

The Doctor in fancy dress

Story 299, Episode 868, 2022 Easter Special

Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor

Companions: Yasmin Khan, Dan Lewis

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

The Review

The Sea Devils!

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

Madame Ching! Pirate Queen!

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

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

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

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

Eve of the Daleks Review

Eve of the Daleks

5 minutes till midnight

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

Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor

Companions: Yasmin Khan, Dan Lewis

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

The Review

Aisling Bea! She rules!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nick, your whole thing is weird man

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

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