Previously on Stuart Reviews Stuff.
Christmas Day 2017
Doctor Who – Twice Upon A Time Review: Final Thoughts
Well, there it is, the end of the Peter Capaldi era.
I think I’ve made it clear already, but I’ll say it again…
He might not have always had the best material to work with, but he always made the best of the material he had to work with, and that is why he is so good.
And it’s why – to be like Steven Moffat and provide a reference that only the Doctor Who superfans among you will get – I shall miss him. Yes, I shall miss him.
But I won’t miss Moffat.
Oh if I had only known what was to come. Turns out I miss Moffat very much.
With the end of the Jodie Whittaker era of Doctor Who upon us, I have been thinking a lot about writing this article, because I’m so glad to put a lid on what has been – in my opinion at least – the worst era of my favourite show.
And there are a few reasons why I think that, and I hope readers will allow me the opportunity to qualify my opinion before going into the sort of rage that has resulted in fandom being so divided over the last five years.
The Writing: First and foremost, the problem lies with the quality of the writing. Episodes were often boring, lacking any obvious threat to the main cast – of which there were too many to know what to do with – and just oozing exposition. Watching it all (or most of it at least) again over the last couple of months it’s incredible how often the Doctor was used to move the plot along with direct explanations of what was going on and why. Similarly, throughout all three seasons, the companions just so happened to know all about some incredibly niche historical figures and would explain it to the audience in the first few minutes. All style and no substance.
The Acting: Well it often wasn’t great, was it? Two stand-up comedians, the world’s least charismatic companion (Ryan), an awful portrayal of the Master and a leading lady who was unable to break free of the status of budget David Tennant. I wish Jodie Whittaker no ill will, but as I said in my Power of the Doctor review, as an actor she’s not in the same league as her predecessors in modern Who especially. If we were to compare her skills to every Doctor for their TV work alone (by which I mean Colin Baker is much better in Big Finish), she’s in the bottom three. Not awful, but there have been others who are
better. And before anyone says it, no it’s not because she’s a woman either. Just look at her acting credits in comparison to the others. Even the most ardent supporters of the Doctor being played by a woman seem to be more in favour of Jo Martin than her.
The Destruction of Established Lore: The Timeless Child stuff pissed off a lot of people, including me. I could have got on board with there being a missing Doctor, played by Jo Martin, but they took it too far, and actually, they failed from the first moment by having her TARDIS as a police box. I’m sorry, but the lore of the TARDIS was established in the second episode back in 1963 and has been continually referenced in the subsequent near 60 years; it doesn’t take much to stick to that bit. But the notion of the Doctor being this Timeless Child simply didn’t work. There were so many, so many examples of how s/he is just an ordinary Time Lord that it didn’t make sense. In recent months I’ve seen it written that originally Jo Martin’s character was meant to be some random Princess on the run, and at the last minute someone decided it should be the Doctor. Utterly incredible if true.
The Dropped Threads: But even if you’re going to go with that ridiculous storyline, try to see it through. Instead, it – much like other things like Yaz’s sudden love for The Doctor – was just dropped without any resolution.
Overuse Of The Daleks, The Cybermen and The Master: I can’t say this is something exclusive to this era, but it definitely seemed worse than normal. I mean…two years in a row we had the same bloody story on New Year’s Day. Also, there was no explanation for how the Master was still alive and why he’d had such a change of heart following Missy’s redemption.
The Music: I love Murray Gold, but I thought it was time for a change. Sadly this was not a change for the better. Yes, music is entirely subjective, but it didn’t do it for me. I felt the music in this era often sucked the life out of the show rather than added to it. Bring back Murray.
The Fans: You know the old saying; “Everyone is the hero of their own story”. You also know the new-ish saying; “Twitter is a cesspool”. Combine those two things and you have Doctor Who fandom since 2017. There are people out there who formed a cast iron opinion on Doctor Who – with zero critical analysis of what they were actually seeing on screen – based on their political beliefs. Now sure, that kind of crap has permeated just about every aspect of society, but it’s just so tiring that it’s happened to a TV show that is meant to be entertainment for the whole family. As a reminder, the whole family ranges from the young child through to the grandparent and it includes people who have watched the show before this era and those who are new to it now. Sadly, Doctor Who has been subject to an ideological/demographical land grab by two warring factions of fans who believe they have ownership over the direction, writing and casting of the show. Really, neither of these sets of fans have shown themselves to be particularly well-balanced, and I’ve sat back in a sort of disgusted awe at the sort of “If you’re not with us, you’re against us” mentality of people who are so angry and rude to those who don’t share their opinions. And when their hostility is met in kind, they retreat into a sort of “You’ve triggered me” attempt to take the moral high ground. My advice to you reading this, whoever you are and whatever beliefs you may have, is that you have no right to the ownership of the show. The show is not written with you in mind and it’s not a case of it being “your turn” to have the casting reflect what you want the show to be. It’s meant to be entertainment for all the family and should be free of any and all kinds of political distraction. You don’t see this level of disharmony over shows like Line of Duty or fucking Poirot do you? I suspect though that the reason for this is because, as I say above, Twitter – and indeed the internet in general – can be a bit of cesspool. If I didn’t witness this awful culture war among fandom, I’d just think of the show as poorly written and being lumbered with this last major issue.
And that leads me to the incredibly thorny subject of…
Political Correctness/Wokeism/Preachiness: As I wrote this, I went to Twitter and immediately found exactly the point I make above – two political extremes pitted against each other. I saw someone whose Twitter handle screamed ‘Ultra Left Wing’ retweeting a video of Jim Davidson on GB News talking about how Doctor Who has gone all woke, saying “Friendly reminder that Doctor Who has been woke since 1963”. And then one of the first replies – in amongst many from people with almost identical twitter profiles – was someone saying “Not a single one of them can tell you what they mean when they say “woke”. Because if they told you what they think it means they’d have to admit they’re racist, transphobic, misogynists”. I will try to take up this debate as someone who firmly occupies what I believe is a well-balanced, central viewpoint.
Woke is defined as being aware of injustice in society, while Political Correctness is the avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against. Meanwhile being political and preachy is another kettle of fish entirely; it’s about using the show as a platform to air political and/or topical grievances.
So yes, Doctor Who has always been woke, it’s largely held true to the level of political correctness of the time (so stop trying to disown stories from the 60s and 70s that don’t conform to 2022’s PC standards) but Doctor Who has never been so regularly confronting of current social and environmental issues as it is now. I think people just bundle that in as either being ‘woke’ or ‘not woke’ to suit their argument.
What we’ve seen served up by Chris Chibnall has been week after week of stories that lack subtlety as they confront political issues that he no doubt feels strongly about; issues that people looking for a bit of light entertainment on a weekend evening don’t necessarily want to have thrust down their throats. In 24 stories we’ve seen racism (twice), anti-capitalism/automation, pollution (two weeks in a row), mental health, and gender equality (too many times to mention) presented ahead of good storytelling.
There is nothing wrong with doing this if it’s done correctly, and I doubt anyone of a fair mind would take issue with the show occasionally being used as a vehicle to either highlight or reflect the issues of the day; this is, after all, something that we’ve seen occasionally across the show’s history. Curse of Peladon was made to reflect the UK joining the EEC, The Green Death was about pollution (a hot topic of the time that was also highlighted in other shows like The Goodies) Monster of Peladon reflected the miners’ strike, The Sunmakers was down to Robert Holmes’s frustrations about HMRC and so on. And they were done to varying degrees of subtlety and writing quality.
But that’s a handful of examples over 26 years as opposed to numerous examples across 24 stories. And before anyone starts to say “Well, I think you’ll find the Space Museum was about the issue people have today with not cherishing our local museums” or other highly tenuous, reaching nonsense, there are only a handful of examples across 26 years.
Orphan 55 is the worst example of the era because it combined being incredibly preachy and directly lecturing – presumably to adults rather than kids – with being absolute dogshite. Compare that to the Green Death, which is on the nose about environmental issues in a non-condescending way. But what’s it remembered for most? The final scene where Jo gets engaged and the Doctor leaves, a sad, lonely figure driving into the night. And guess what? It’s a very well-liked story. You can do political, you can do topical and you can do environmental if there’s a good story in there to prop up the point you want to make.
But that’s what it comes down to; mostly these complaints wouldn’t matter if Chris Chibnall was a good writer and showrunner and his episodes were entertaining. And I say mostly because even though both Rosa and Demons of the Punjab are actually good, I don’t think we needed two similarly themed episodes broadcast within weeks of each other; then again that’s down to being a poor showrunner, isn’t it? But anyway, generally speaking, the episodes were neither well written, nor entertaining, and what happened as a result? The general public – the sort of people who matter if you get upset about ratings – switched off. So although you and people like you on social media may have enjoyed Doctor Who over the last 4 or 5 years, you were in the minority. And the fact that there are so many people branding the show as woke – whether they’ve misused the term or not – and not watching it as a result, shows that. And it’s a problem that will hopefully be fixed by having a good showrunner and a stronger cast take over.
Aaaaaaaanyway.
You know I watch Dr Who on a loop, but after doing my big review project, I came to the realisation that I knew there were stories I just didn’t enjoy and there was no point in even attempting to watch them anymore. So they have been dropped from subsequent loops.
That list includes…
- Underworld (episodes 2-4, I like episode 1)
- The Armageddon Factor
- Warriors’ Gate (I’ll watch the first and last 5 minutes and that’s it)
- Time Flight
- Arc of Infinity
- Terminus
- Planet of Fire
- The Twin Dilemma
- Mark of the Rani
- Time & The Rani
- Silver Nemesis
- Survival
- The TV Movie
- The Doctor’s Daughter
- The Vampires of Venice
- Hide
- The Crimson Horror
- Sleep No More
- The Eaters of Light
There are 10 Jodie Whittaker stories that I will add to that list. That’s 41% of her run compared to 4% of the rest of modern Doctor Who. It’s an astonishing number.
But they are just either outright bad or so boring that I just don’t feel the need to watch them anymore.
And so with that, let’s get to the ratings.
The Stories
24. Orphan 55
This should come as no surprise to anyone, because frankly, it’s the worst episode of Doctor Who. Preachy, nonsensical, extremely badly acted and criminal costume design. I hated it when it was shown and made a conscious decision never to watch it again.
23. The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos
This is what Scottish people would refer to as a wet pump of an episode. Utterly unbecoming of a season finale and it had a stupid name. That’s about all I can remember about it because I didn’t watch it again this time, and I think I fell asleep when I tried to watch it on broadcast.
22. The Ghost Monument
Nothing happened in this episode. Nothing. Looked lovely though.
21. The Tsuranga Conundrum
Again, nothing happened. The only reason it finishes higher is that I watched it again, and was taken aback by how different the guy from Ted Lasso is in it.
20. Ascension of the Cybermen & The Timeless Child
So this one, at last, has stuff going for it, and almost worked with the Earthshock vibe in the first episode, but the second episode was an affront to Doctor Who, and thus must never be forgiven! 🙂 And I fucking hated the Master in it.
19. Legend of the Sea Devils
As per my review last week, this is an absolute stinker, and yet there are five episodes even worse than it.
18. The Woman Who Fell To Earth
Another episode that just felt so limp, even though it had a lot of time, effort, and budget spent on it. This was the show’s chance to capitalise on public interest and yet 2 million people chose not to tune in the week after.
17. Nikola Tesla’s Night Of Terror
Humdrum. And I don’t like the guy who plays Tesla either.
16. The Witchfinders
Another chore of an episode. It took me over a week to watch it this time around because I just kept falling asleep. It wasn’t visually pleasing and the plot was without life.
15. Spyfall
An action-packed first episode with a good cliffhanger made way for more Master crap and a confused and outright dull second part.
14. Can You Hear Me
We’re now into the episodes I will watch again. This one has its flaws but there’s enough in it for me to want to come back to it at some point. I do love how upset people got with the Doctor’s reaction to Graham. That episode just upset everyone.
13. The Haunting of Villa Diodatti
At the time I said it stood out as one of the better episodes of the series it was in, and when you consider its standing, that’s probably still a fair reflection. It was ok and it did serve to set up the finale; it’s just a shame that the finale it set up was so bad.
12. It Takes You Away
Shout out to Ed Watkinson who I follow on Twitter. He loves this story and often champions it. I think it’s different and different can be good. It’s a story I’d happily watch again but just don’t have too much love for.
11. Praxeus
For those paying attention, we’re now finally into the episodes I genuinely do like. One of the positives about the show in this era is that it certainly looks good a lot of the time. This one had a sense of scale but it also had what I would consider a pretty interesting and culturally relevant story without being too in-your-face about it. And the guest cast was good too.
10. Revolution of the Daleks
Good cast again, and quite good fun, but this one is too much of a retread of what we saw just one year earlier.
9. The Power of the Doctor
Without the nostalgia, this would probably be in 17th place at best, but I’m a sucker for paying homage to Classic Era Who (which ironically is one of the reasons I really dislike the Jodie Whittaker Era; because it so often did the opposite). So here it ranks at 9.
8. Flux
If I was to rank individual episodes of this story in this list, I would say that Village of the Angels would finish on top, but I have a procedure and so it was only one part of a six-part story. Other elements unfortunately let it down, but it wasn’t all bad.
7. Demons of the Punjab
Again, this is an episode I genuinely like, though as above, it was thematically very similar to an episode broadcast a few weeks earlier. The villain in this episode is a troubled young man, and it felt real. The first Jodie Whittaker season essentially ignored Yaz, in spite of her being the best actor in the main cast, so it was good to see her character have a chance to develop.
6. Arachnids in the UK
I don’t get the hate for this one. It’s fun, a bit creepy for people who hate spiders and Chris Noth is wonderful in it. It feels like an RTD era episode.
5. Revolution
That they tried something different with the Dalek, and made it a bit more menacing was a nice change. Another episode with a good guest cast and a bit of development work with Ryan’s dad. It did the job for me.
4. Rosa
Confronting issues of political correctness is not a bad thing if it’s done ok, and in all fairness, this one was done well. I enjoyed it the first time around and in subsequent viewings. My only issue was the character of Krasko, who was a Playschool level villain.
3. Kerblam!
Another fun episode that felt very much like the sort of story Sylvester McCoy would star in. Made sense, was well-written and reflected the modern world without being too in-your-face about it.
2. Fugitive of the Judoon
It might surprise you that this is as high up as it is, but taken in isolation, it’s actually really good. Every member of the main cast it well accounted for, there were some great surprises in there and it asked a lot of questions that a good writer and showrunner could have developed and answered in a satisfying way. The fact that Chibnall made an absolute cunt of it does not detract from the quality of this episode on its own.
1. Eve of the Daleks
I’ll always be a sucker for a Time Loop episode. Great stuff.
The Companions
4. Ryan
I don’t think it’s fair to say Ryan is the worst companion in Doctor Who history; he’s just the worst in all of modern Who. I’ve never seen such an insipid, uninspiring performance. Maybe it’s the writing, maybe it’s the attempt at the accent or maybe it’s just him. He was rubbish.
3. Graham
While it is difficult to separate Graham and Dan, I would say that a combination of poor writing, being stuck in an overcrowded cast and too often not displaying the sort of emotion that someone should do in the situations he found himself in puts Graham in 3rd.
2. Dan
His character had more room to breathe, his dialogue was snappy and he formed a good double act with Yaz.
1. Yaz
Although she was let down with very little development in her first series, I thought Yaz was the best actor in the cast and managed to be a strong, likable companion that didn’t outstay her welcome. Often was the case that she was stronger than the Doctor, which is a bit silly really.
The Cliffhangers
3. Flux Episode 2
I mean…we don’t have much to choose from here when a totally forgettable cliffhanger, the likes of which were seen every week for 26 years makes the top 3.
2. Flux Episode 4
The Doctor is turned into a Weeping Angel. Shame the resolution was so easy.
1. Spyfall Episode 1
Even though it resulted in my least favourite Master and it was never explained how he even came to be here, it was a fun cliffhanger. Just a shame what came after it.
The Music
I always include this in my rankings of era, but as I said above, none of the music did it for me. Just awful.
Thanks for reading and as someone who is always keen to debate an issue in a constructive manner, I’d welcome any comments. You can get me on Twitter @sgmilne