Doctor in Distress

It’s an open secret that when the latest season of Doctor Who finishes we’re not going to see any new adventures from the Time Lord for some time. Neither of my hearts are broken, in fact I welcome it and I’ve had to question why? What I’ve come to realise is that I want the show to be punished. I want the show to be punished for not being the version of Doctor Who that I want. Though the truth is that it can never be, cause I’m not the eight year old who fell in love with it way back when.

I haven’t enjoyed a whole season end to end since Capaldi’s last in 2017 and I wasn’t mad keen on that at the time, but I’ve continued to watch, largely out of loyalty. There have been some bright spots, and this season has been better that the previous one. There’s been some wonderfully inventive stories which have stretched the format to it’s limit, but also some crushingly tedious ones. There was an episode this season that I paused to see how much longer it had left to run. Doctor Who has been many things in it’s long life, camp, thrilling, silly, thought provoking but rarely boring. That aside, what is that I dislike so much about this latest iteration ? There’s a few things. Quality control is wildly inconsistent. It always has been, but in this Golden Age of TV that won’t cut it anymore, Doctor Who needs a writers room.

The show also doesn’t know who its audience is anymore. I have no problem with Doctor Who leaving me behind for a fresh young demographic. I have 60+ years of mostly okay stories to fall back on for a comfort watch. Recently I’ve been re-watching ‘The Mind of Evil’ from 1971, which is essentially old white guys shouting at each other, but at a time when geek culture is at a zenith Doctor Who only pays lip service by shoe horning characters - not mentioned for 30+ years - in at the tail end of the season. Characters who the new viewers won’t give a shit about. The show has a rich mythos which could be used for stories and whole seasons, but which is largely ignored, except to be used for a finale bump.

I’ve found the Soap Boxing in the latest season tiresome, even though I agree with all the points, but it is an echo chamber. I can’t imagine your average ghastly Gammon is going to have a change of heart because Russell the T shakes his storytelling Space finger at them. The messaging has never subtle - even in the ‘classic’ era of the show - but in this iteration I’ve been half expecting the Doctor to turn to the camera at the end of the episode and say “Well kids, we’ve had a lot of fun tonight, but let’s not forget - insert this week’s message - until next time…” It’s been clumsy and overt. Speaking of the Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa has been disappointing in the role. I was excited to see what he’d do in the role - as he was magnetic in ‘Sex Education’ - but he’s been oddly absent as the Doctor, even when he is on screen. Maybe its the way the character has been written? I’m not overly keen on an emotional Time Lord. Ncuti’s Doctor doesn’t have the gravitas of previous incarnations for me, and we’re talking about a show which has had Sylvester McCoy as its lead.

So, Doctor Who needs to go away and think about what he’s done. However I did get a pang of regret the other day at the prospect of no new Who for the foreseeable future. I cycled down to Penarth pier for the first time since ‘Lux’ was transmitted. It used the pier as one of its main location - my wild swimming destination of choice - making it extra special. I can’t imagine that Cardiff will still be Doctor Who’s home when it comes back. I’m confident that it will come back in a few years with a fresh spin for a new generation, and hopefully I’ll rejoin the Doctor in a thrilling adventure in time and space.