With Doctor Who in the news recently following the excellent farewell to Jodie Whittaker’s iteration of the character, it wasn’t a surprise when Disney+ announced they would be the home of the show in the US, rather than BBC America. It’s a big streaming platform and the connection makes some sense. I wasn’t expecting further details to emerge of this deal which turns out to be more than just a place to park the existing show.
It’s been a while since I purposely sat down and watched an episode of Doctor Who live as it aired on TV, but the combination of Jodie Whittaker’s last episode and the promise of centenary celebrations from the BBC made me think this was one to make the effort for. And it turns out, it really was. A ninety minute special, the show was packed full of great story and wonderful characters and did, ultimately, culminate in the cliffhanger to usher in the next DW era.
It’s always fun when Rose comes home and her mum gets involved in the adventure, and I love Mickey being a reluctant hero all the time - such an awkward love triangle going on there. A good adventure with a sensible ending, and plenty of scope for the Doctor and Rose to go on and do more, as we know they do!
The most recent series of Doctor Who came to an end a week or so ago, the second full series to feature the Thirteenth Doctor, Jodie Whittaker. But is she really the Thirteenth Doctor? Such revelations in this series! Spoilers and stuff follow, so do be careful if you read on.
I’m talking to myself again. That’s a good sign.
Firstly, Jodie continued to be wonderful. Her Doctor had a bit more emotional fallout to deal with this time round, and it was interesting to see her isolating from the group a little bit towards the beginning of the series.
It took me a while to get used to listening to the Doctor rather than seeing him/her. Nicholas Briggs voices this first book and his version of the Doctor is a good one, it has that Northern goofiness so that you can immediately tell who it is but I did think it sometimes went a bit too far into the silly voice. Our Doctor can be serious too.
We’ve seen four episodes of the new series of Doctor Who and that’s long enough for me to cast my opinion on the whole thing. Heck, it only took a couple of episodes to know I wasn’t keen on Capaldi, but where do I stand on the Whittaker era?
Good news: I love it! It’s fresh, fast, funny, approachable, likeable, different and new. Here are five slightly more specific thoughts:
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.
It was announced a couple of weeks ago that Peter Capaldi will be stepping down from the BBC role everyone’s talking about – no, not the lead of whatever baking show will replace GBBO, but in fact, the titular role of Doctor Who. It’s no secret that Capaldi hasn’t been my favourite Doctor, and I’ll admit that I have watched only two episodes of his since his tenure began. So unlike many, I’m glad that the show is adapting and changing once again, and I can only hope the replacement is more to my tastes.
I gave it four episodes, and in the end I’m going to have to admit that Peter Capaldi’s Doctor - so far - is not for me. The first episode I had to give the benefit of the doubt because it was a regeneration episode, one in which the characters were finding their feet and getting to know each other all over again.
The second episode was instantly forgettable - something about a Dalek?
Doctor Who finally returns to our screens after a lengthy wait since the Christmas regeneration special. And was it worth it? Erm, no. Sadly, I didn’t like this episode at all, and I will expand on that further below. It’s nice to have the show back though, and even nicer to see the addition of Doctor Who Extra - a bonus ten minutes of content, online, in a replacement for the much-missed DW Confidential.