I’ve been watching Doctor Who for a long time. Years ago, I found a torrent and binge-watched pretty much everything that was available at the time. I fell in love with the character, the tone, and the wildly creative stories.
Classic Who ended on the Seventh Doctor — Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred are still my favorites of that era.
NuWho was a mixed bag for me. When Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat worked together, it was magic. When they didn’t… let’s just say it showed. My favorite Doctor of the new era is Capaldi — no contest.
Finding the Fourteenth Doctor (and the Missed Specials)
I went into the 14th Doctor’s run and realized I’d missed the specials.
First gripe: Disney, put all your Doctor Who content together in one clear watch order! If you’re going to stream it, there should be a “click here” button that starts with the Tennant/Tate specials in sequence.
The specials were easily the best part of this era so far.
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Special 1 – Tennant and Tate still have that unbeatable chemistry. The way they saved Donna was a bit of an ass pull, but forgivable… even with a genocidal Furby.
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Special 2 – Event Horizon, Doctor Who edition. A bottle episode where Tennant and Tate got to play both heroes and villains.
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Special 3 – Doogie Howser chewing the scenery. Loved the new UNIT setup, the cast, and the way they prepped for the next Doctor.
These specials felt like proper Doctor Who — warts and all. Seeing them after the main new series actually gave me more perspective.
The New Seasons – Good Cast, Wobbly Writing
Both seasons had great casts who did their best with the material. I like the new Doctor — he’s very huggable. Ruby was fine. But I have a major pet peeve…
Doctor Who deals in SCIENCE! The Time Lords removed magic from the universe because it’s unreliable. Even so-called gods weren’t actually called gods (the Toymaker, for instance). Yet every second episode in the new run has the Doctor up against some kind of god.
Season 1 Recap
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Christmas Special with Ruby & the Gremlins – Fantastic start.
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Space Babies – I survived Happiness Patrol and Love & Monsters, so… okay.
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The Music Maestro – Just bad. Incoherent. Worse then Love & Monsters
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Landmine Episode (Moffat) – Good.
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73 Yards (RTD) – Could have been the best episode of NuWho, but it broke its own plot logic in a way that couldn’t be ignored.
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Social Media Episode – Dark but accurate. One of the better ones.
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Rogue – Fun premise, mediocre execution. The “Oncoming Storm” peek when Ruby’s threatened was nice.
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Walking Like an Egyptian – Surtekh was a fine villain setup, but the god rules are undefined. And Ruby… she’s not a normal human. The snow, the anomalies… I have my own theories. They involve the Great Intelligence.
Verdict: Writing was a step down from the specials, but with highlights.
Season 2 Recap
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Robot Rebellion – Campy fun, except… they killed a cat. Not cool.
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New Companion – A nurse with the Doctor works thematically.
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Time Hotel – Sure, why not. But killing a working Silurian irked me. I liked Joy. I also liked Anita, but I saw this story after it ended.
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Lux – Weird. Farscape did it better.
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The Well – Took too long to connect to the Diamond Planet
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Lucky Day – Contained my most hated character in years (well done). The core “engine” concept was excellent (if it weren’t tied to the gods arc).
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Interstellar Song Contest – An hour of me mocking the premise, but that’s part of the fun. More “Oncoming Storm” moments.
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Rani’s Return – Delightful, both of them. But she felt more magical than scientific. I had flashbacks to the wicked witch of the west.
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Omega – My favorite villain from Classic Who (The Three Doctors) reduced to “angry cloud.” He deserved better — even a stinger with a humanoid form would have worked.
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Poppy – Poppy was fantastic and gave the best regeneration justification ever, but
Anita - Anita came out of nowhere for me. but now that I saw the episode...well done.
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Rose Tyler the Time Lord – I don’t hate it like some fans, but… really?
Verdict: Better raw ingredients than Season 1, but the “mac and cheese” was burned and then left outside for days.
Closing Thoughts
I’ll keep watching because I want to see where the train wreck goes. Like all Doctor Who fans, I reserve the right to love, criticize, and complain in equal measure.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk — aka, “What all Doctor Who fans do: bitch about the new season.” :P
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