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The Changing Faces of Doctor Who
Jan. 2nd, 2021 02:14 pmThinking about it, I haven't properly been in Doctor Who fandom since the Tenth Doctor. Even though I was as ready as anyone for RTD's 'the Doctor is a Jesus allegory, actually' nonsense to be over I had just such a visceral 'nope' reaction to the Eleventh Doctor. Partly it was that those first few seasons were Moffat at the height of his incomprehensible nonsense for the sake of incomprehensible nonsense bullshit, but in retrospect just as much of it was that I didn't like the blokey, hipster-ish take on the Doctor that characterised Eleven, and having tried to watch him in other things I now realise that I just find Matt Smith a grating and unpleasant screen presence.
I really liked the two seasons of Twelve and Clara, but never watched Capaldi's last season because I found Matt Lucas's Nardole physically unwatchable. What logic moved them to make a one episode, stunt cast, joke character a series regular remains a mystery unto me. We will circle back to stunt casting.
I was so happy at Thirteen's casting. I'd wanted a female Doctor since I was seven and first saw Ace batter a Dalek with a baseball bat; I think I had a little cry at the announcement. And then Thirteen's run was... fine. The episodes are generally somewhere between medium-to-good and medium-to-bad, but generally somewhere in the area of fine. Chibnall was neither as good a showrunner as the first series of Broadchurch had led people to hope nor as bad as the bikini clad Cyberwoman episode of Torchwood had led people to worry; he was firmly in Broadchurch S2 territory. The new companions were fine even if there was at least one, and possibly two, too many of them), Jodie Whittaker was fine as the Doctor, even though the scripts often weren't giving her much to work with.
Even the thing that really got people's blood up, The Timeless Child, was fine. Even when I was deeply into Doctor Who I didn't care about Time Lord lore, and I filed The Timeless Child away in the grab-bag of intermittent canonicity where I keep looms and the Doctor being half human.
So that's where I was when I sat down to watch the Doctor Who New Year's special.
( Another R-Word of the Daleks )
I really liked the two seasons of Twelve and Clara, but never watched Capaldi's last season because I found Matt Lucas's Nardole physically unwatchable. What logic moved them to make a one episode, stunt cast, joke character a series regular remains a mystery unto me. We will circle back to stunt casting.
I was so happy at Thirteen's casting. I'd wanted a female Doctor since I was seven and first saw Ace batter a Dalek with a baseball bat; I think I had a little cry at the announcement. And then Thirteen's run was... fine. The episodes are generally somewhere between medium-to-good and medium-to-bad, but generally somewhere in the area of fine. Chibnall was neither as good a showrunner as the first series of Broadchurch had led people to hope nor as bad as the bikini clad Cyberwoman episode of Torchwood had led people to worry; he was firmly in Broadchurch S2 territory. The new companions were fine even if there was at least one, and possibly two, too many of them), Jodie Whittaker was fine as the Doctor, even though the scripts often weren't giving her much to work with.
Even the thing that really got people's blood up, The Timeless Child, was fine. Even when I was deeply into Doctor Who I didn't care about Time Lord lore, and I filed The Timeless Child away in the grab-bag of intermittent canonicity where I keep looms and the Doctor being half human.
So that's where I was when I sat down to watch the Doctor Who New Year's special.
( Another R-Word of the Daleks )