Watched the Doctor Who Christmas New Years Special last night, and was once again reminded (after the long hiatus since the previous series) how much I like the characters/actors in the current iteration, but how little I’m engaged by the plots they are written into in the Chibnall era.
(I’ll try to minimize the spoilers here, beyond what’s been clearly visible in the episode title and very available press materials.)
So, up front, I continue to love Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor — she’s bright, caring, distracted, passionate, haunted. Whittaker is doing a brilliant job with her, and I’m quite sad at the rumors she’s leaving after the next series.
The supporting cast — the Doctor’s “fam” + Cap’n Jack Harkness — are also great here. They are sometimes pushed through some clunky dialog, but it’s been a great, unconventional team.
So that’s the good news.
The bad news is that showrunner Chris Chibnall, after (with some decent justification, but with mediocre substitutes) intentionally benching the Doctor’s class rogue’s gallery during Thirteen’s first series, then completely (and audaciously, but clumsily) rewriting Time Lord and Doctor history in the second series, here gives us The Number One Most Hackneyed Plot in Doctor Who History: a Dalek invasion.
He does so with a few twists, but, ultimately, it’s too derivative and just not well executed, hampered by cartoonishly stupid human villains and too-easily-manipulated alien villains. The most interesting element — the continuing Dalek debate about purity vs. survival — gets far too short shrift, in favor of pyrotechnics and mass slaughter of Brits.
(Also, given that the Daleks have invaded Earth multiple times in the past, and are well-known in government circles — why does nobody raise an eyebrow when they are “introduced” here? Or even give a lampshading, “Here we go again” comment? Answer: lazy writing.)
It’s overall a mediocre outing, which is nigh-unforgiveable given the many months we’ve been without our Doctor fix. There are some good moments — the Doctor’s life as a prisoner of the Judoon, discussions of what being in the Doctor’s circle of friends really means, lots of good character interaction — but the present action is little more than a Monster of the Week tale, and even the character work depended on too much backstory detail that the viewers needed to be forcibly reminded of.
Ah, well — the next series is theoretically showing up sometime in 2021. I look forward to more of Thirteen while we’ve got her.
It was disappointing.
But as I was thinking after the show, there really hasn’t been a great memorable episode like Blink or many of the others of the modern era. Also, no really memorable companions like Capt. Jack, Donna, River Song, or the Ponds. Which makes no sense to me after Chibnall did such an amazing job with the Broadchurch series.
All in all 13 is looking more and more like 6 and unless someone who knows what they are doing we will see the end of the modern era at the end of the next season.
Also, can we stop dealing with Dalek’s and Cyberman every season.
I welcomed Chibnall’s decision to eschew previous villain types the first series with 13. The results were mixed (largely because of not having good alternatives), but, generally speaking, NuWho has so overdone Daleks (with Cybermen in second) that they have stopped being figures of terror and turned into “Powerful but consistently doomed bad guys, who also look really funny flying around.”
S.2 of Thirteen had relatively awful ratings. Word is that Whittaker is leaving, but Chibnall is staying on for a second Doctor. Which, yes, could lead the Beeb putting the series on hiatus for a few years.
I kept asking my TV why no one in Britain, especially government officials, weren’t recognizing the security drones for what they actually are. There was nothing to suggest this story took place in the past before all the OTHER Dalek invasions so, what, everyone just forgot about them?
I like Whittaker, I think Chibnall as showrunner is a disaster. I’m HIGHLY annoyed he killed off Gallifrey again after we JUST got them back. The retcon of the Doctor’s origins also opens up a shit ton of continuity issues that bug me (how’d River Song get regeneration if the Time Lords got it from genetic manipulation and not exposure to the Vortex?), but I’m more upset over the destruction of Gallifrey. I want Whittaker to stay and Chibnall to go.
@Les: Agreed. Not recognizing the Daleks is just freaking lazy writing.
Also agreed about Gallifrey. In fact, it’s weird — OldWho always had Gallifrey there in the background, often policing the Doctor, occasionally interfering with his plans. NewWho has obsessively tried to avoid, destroy, isolate, and otherwise not deal with Gallifrey.