The last time I talked about Doctor Who, I was pondering the news that Peter Capaldi would be stepping down from the show. I talked about the rumours that there might be a female Doctor and how I wasn’t sure that’s where I wanted the show to go. Well, that’s where the show is going and I have completely changed my mind. I’m on board. I can’t wait to see what Jodie Whittaker does with the role and I think it’s a fab breath of fresh air into the show.

However, as I said in that last post:

I worry that I will be captivated by whoever takes over and then have to sit through all the previous episodes to catch up with the show.

Ding, ding, ding! That’s exactly what happened. And not only did I decide to catch up on the episodes featuring Mr Capaldi but I went right back to the beginning. I journeyed through the now less-intriguing first series, through the wonderful Tennant years, through the rollercoaster of emotions that was the Pond era, and then to Clara.

Oof.

What I have discovered with this recent rewatch, which I finished just a few days ago, is that although Capaldi is not my favourite incarnation of the Doctor, I don’t think it was him that turned me off the show.

His series with Bill and Nardole was so much better than the one that went before it, and by the time Clara exited the show, I was more than ready to get her off my screens. It’s not even that Jenna Coleman was doing a bad job, and I think there was a very interesting nugget of something in her increasing recklessness towards the end that finally caught up with her. But that character just grated on me in all the wrong ways.

So freed of Soufflé Girl’s influence, things took an interesting turn. I could have done without the constant appearances of the guitar, and I’m really not sure what I make of sonic sunglasses, but generally, Capaldi did a better job than I initially thought.

Skipping his series’ meant I had also previously missed out on Missy, and my god, I love that rogue Time Lord. Michelle Gomez has been a firm favourite since Green Wing and her in turns manic, crazy, fun-loving, eventually perhaps just maybe doing the right thing, version of the Master was brilliant. Those last few episodes where Missy managed to catch up with herself were brilliant.

And I must say that final episode, Twice Upon a Time, well I did cry at that. It led us nicely on to the Thirteenth Doctor, who is sure to be lucky for some (and probably unlucky for others). The Doctor Who Twitter account keeps on asking: “The Doctor is ready. Are you?” And finally I can say, I am.