Well. That was… certainly something.
I was fairly optimistic going into the new season of ‘Doctor Who‘. I loved the 60th specials, flaws and all, and the Christmas special showed some promise. There was room for improvement, but I had hope that the show could still succeed.
What we got was… well, it was complicated. It had plenty of redeeming qualities! But I’ve got notes. Lots of notes.
Today, I’ll be ranking each episode on a tier list. After I talk about each one in turn, I’ll give me thoughts on the season itself. While I have my grievances, I do still enjoy the show, and I want to see it get better for its next season. This is coming from a place of love, not anger.
We’ll start with the stuff I actually liked. Two episodes stuck out as being genuinely good Doctor Who stories. These are the ones I would recommend people watch. Hell, you could ignore the rest of the season and just watch these two.
Coincidentally, both were the only two episodes not written by Russel T. Davies. Which is something of a red flag for the season as a whole. But we’ll get to that.
‘Boom‘ by Steven Moffat works because of its simplicity. The Doctor steps on a landmine that turns him into a biological bomb, and he needs to find a way to disarm it while standing absolutely still. My man ends a war from one spot without even moving, using logic, reason, and desperate charisma. Moffat even brought back the military church organization from his run back in season five! It’s a fun watch, with witty dialogue, good character moments, and a fun premise. Sure, the child character is obnoxious and stupid, but overall: great episode!
‘Rogue‘ by Kate Herron and Briony Redman was my favorite episode of the season. It’s got everything I look for in a ‘Doctor Who’ story. Great dialogue, fun and memorable villains, a historical setting that plays into the plot, surprising twists that make sense with the clues given, and a few dramatic moments. It also introduces Rogue, played by Jonathan Groff, who is easily the best new character of the season! I loved this one a lot!
‘The Devil’s Chord‘ is a fine episode, if a bit rough around the edges. Maestro makes for a fun antagonist, it had some decently witty dialogue and clever jokes, and the musical number at the end was a good bit of cheesy fun. But the plot was a bit messy and the pacing was all over the place. They marketed this as the Beatles episode, yet we only get two Beatles in one scene, and they don’t even contribute anything to the plot until they randomly come back to save the day at the end! Not a bad episode, but still somewhat disappointing.
‘73 Yards‘ and ‘Dot and Bubble‘ both share the exact same issues. The stories themselves are interesting and intriguing. In ‘73 Yards‘, Ruby finds herself without the Doctor, haunted by a mysterious woman who drives everyone she loves away from her. In ‘Dot and Bubble‘, we follow a vastly unlikable rich bitch, which paints the otherwise cookie-cutter Doctor Who plot in an interesting angle. Unfortunately, both stories completely fumbled their endings. The former makes absolutely no sense, and the ladder is abrupt and unsatisfying. It’s a shame, because both were close to being great!
I’ve already written a review on ‘The Church on Ruby Road‘, but in summary: this episode is just okay. It’s a decent introduction to our new Doctor and Ruby, it’s got some fun musical numbers, and the goblins are alright villains. However, with the season as a whole in mind, this episode really drops down a few notches for me. It sets up the entire season plot, and as we’re about to see: that plot is a big ol’ dud.
Oh, hey. The season finale. How did that get there?
‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday‘ and ‘Empire of Death‘ are where the glaring flaws of the season become impossible to ignore. The plot is an absolute mess, wasting time on characters that contribute absolutely nothing, with nonsensical reveals and twists that tear the show’s own internal logic to shreds. The mystery of Ruby’s mother falls flat on its face, the ending is extremely underwhelming and unsatisfying, her departure from the Tardis is abrupt and unsatisfying, and the pacing is all over the place. It feels like a first draft written in a single afternoon.
Sutekh’s return is pretty cool; he was one of the best villains of the Classic series, and he only showed up once! Unfortunately, in this new story, he has been stripped of everything that made his original appearance memorable, and he just becomes a boring CGI dog monster. How is the original Sutekh, with his goofy ass costume and awful special effects, so much more intimidating and memorable than this new one?
Oh, right. Good writing. Why is it we can never get that and good visuals? It’s always one or the other with this show.
The show is beautiful, by the way.
Finally, we have ‘Space Babies‘. Dear god, I HATED this episode! There genuinely wasn’t a single thing that I liked! The pacing is all over the place, the dialogue sucks, the characters are awful, the monster is lame, and the plot is nonsensical! It was so loud and obnoxious it actually gave me a headache! I nearly abandoned ship on the whole season because of this one story! Do not watch this episode!
To give an example as to how unbelievably stupid this episode is: one of the titular space babies goes down to confront the spooky scary monster in the basement. The Doctor and the Ruby go down to save him. Their plan: make a bunch of noise and distract the monster. So they shout and bang the walls and… immediately go looking for the baby while making noises to dry and draw the monster away from the baby?
For a million-year-old nigh-immortal time traveling alien genius, this version of the Doctor is pretty god damn stupid!
From the best episodes to the worst, this whole season shares some unfortunate problems. The largest one for me is the characterization of the Doctor. 15 is bright, colorful, empathetic, with a zest for life. Ncuti Gatwa plays the character brilliantly. But he lacks a crucial trait that makes the Doctor special: confidence.
The Doctors of old were larger than life, a nigh immortal time traveler who held themselves with an air of command. No matter how dire the situation, the Doctor was always thinking, eyes forward, solving the problem. They walked a fine line between goofy and cool!
15 does not have this confidence. Just the opposite, in fact. This Doctor trembles in fear of just about every foe he faces, and even the most minor inconvenience sends him into hysterics. He bursts into tears in every single episode, sometimes for the most pathetic reasons imaginable. Gone is the legendary Time Lord who could turn armies away with a well-spoken word. All we’re left with is an immortal cry baby.
Emotions only have power when they have variety. When previous Doctors cried, it had weight because they were normally so confident and carefree. When Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor was overwhelmed by his emotions, it struck a chord with the audience because he normally feels so unstoppable, so much larger than life. But we rarely, if ever, get that kind of presence from 15.
It certainly doesn’t help that 15 doesn’t have any noticeable character flaws. He never has a moral failing, never crosses a line, never makes a single mistake. Part of what made previous Doctors so compelling was that they were morally complex; they were good people, but they could do bad things, make mistakes, and speak harshly to those around them. But 15 doesn’t have this. The one time we see him get angry, it feels jarring because it’s so out of character for 15 to be anything other than vibrant and happy or terrified and hearts-broken. It feels like the Doctor is a de-clawed cat, no longer allowed to do anything morally questionable whatsoever because he’s the good guy.
It’s frustrating, because 15 is so, so close to being an amazing Doctor! He’s got the flare, the zest for life, the magic! But the man completely falls apart under even the lightest weight! Hopefully we’ll see him regain some confidence and power in the next season.
Normally, the Doctor’s weaknesses would be complimented by their companion. Unfortunately, Ruby leaves much to be desired. She’s a fun character, and Millie Gibson does a phenomenal job with the material given. But she rarely gets to actually do anything, and when she does, it’s fairly underwhelming. Her dynamic with the Doctor boils down to either a) giggling like school kids or b) her hugging the crying alien.
Much like the companions of Russel’s previous era, Ruby’s family plays an important role in the story. Or at least, you’d think they would, given how much screen time they have. But they never do anything! They may as well be background extras with the occasional line of dialogue!
Jackie Tyler was one of Doctor Who’s best characters. Not only was she bursting with personality, she also took an active role in the story whenever she appeared. She pushed against the Doctor out of concern for Rose’s safety, a position that is completely understandable given the Doctor’s lifestyle. She kept everyone grounded throughout all the weird alien nonsense, and when she got embroiled in it, she reacted like a real person. If you removed Jackie Tyler from the show of the time, you would lose so much of what made it special.
What does Ruby’s mother contribute to the series? Absolutely nothing. She never confronts the Doctor, she never takes an active role in any sort of alien or supernatural menace, she never even says anything important or interesting. The closest we ever got was her complaining that her roof got damaged by the Tardis. The character is a tall glass of nothing! This whole season is only eight episodes long, and a healthy portion of those episodes is dedicated to a character that you could cut out completely without losing a single thing!
If anything, her presence detracts from Ruby as a character! Ruby’s sole motivation and drive is to find her biological mother. You’d think we could get some interesting drama out of that with her adopted family, right? Maybe in the end, Ruby decides she doesn’t want to know, choosing to respect her birth mother’s anonymity and embrace her adopted parents as her true family? But no. She still finds her birth mother, then they all live happily ever after. Again: you could cut her adopted parents out of the narrative, and you would lose NOTHING.
I don’t love this ending. Nor do I hate it. I feel nothing towards it. Apathy. Which is never what you want your audience to feel watching your TV show.
Or streaming original, or whatever we’re calling it these days.
So that’s it. That was the new season of ‘Doctor Who‘. It had its moments; two fantastic episodes, some cool scenes, interesting ideas, and if nothing else, it certainly looks impressive. But we still have plenty of room for improvement.
Who knows? Next season is already in production, with a brand new companion and storyline. Maybe our favorite time traveler can still brush the rust off his big blue box and really impress us next time. I only hope they don’t end up repeating the same mistakes, because if they do, I might just abandon ship.
If there’s one thing I feel needs to happen, it’s that writers other than Russel get to write more scripts. We only had two episodes not penned by the showrunner, and those were the best two of the season! If new writers get to put their pen to the show in more episodes, I really believe it can thrive! Let a new generation of Doctor Who begin, helmed by new creative leads to take the show in new and interesting directions!
But I guess we’ll have to wait and see. So until the next time we see that big blue box, I’ll bid you all adieu.
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