![]() An anthology series featuring familiar characters from the Whoniverse who aren’t the Doctor. Maybe the BBC needs to try something other than carrying on. It feels as if it is telling an increasingly self-absorbed meta-story about its own run, accompanied by a very vocal online fandom that isn’t quite sure what it wants, but knows it doesn’t want this. The ability to travel anywhere in time and space makes Doctor Who a series that could potentially tell a million brilliant different stories, and Chibnall’s innovation of “the Timeless Child”, meaning there are potentially dozens of guest star Doctors Who we have never met before, opens it up to go in new directions.īut it doesn’t feel as if it is close to telling a million brilliant stories. ![]() But while Doctor Who looks better than it ever has – the sequences of the Cybermen marching through their battle cruiser towards the end of the last season were worth the price of admission alone – everything around it feels tired. Photograph: BBC/PAĪs someone who loved Tom Baker as the Doctor in the 70s, I have found the success of the 2005 revival wonderful to watch. David Tennant and Billie Piper as the Doctor and Rose Tyler. It feels as if, over the 16-year run, the volume of the story arcs has gradually been turned up to a Spinal Tap-esque 11, and now it can’t be turned down. ![]() Yet when the showrunner, Chris Chibnall, tried to lower the temperature slightly with his first series finale, which only featured a returning lesser-known villain threatening to destroy the Earth, it was widely panned as low stakes. But how many times can the Daleks be destroyed and then return, the Master/Missy be dead then reappear with a new face, or the Earth be invaded but still hardly anyone acknowledge that aliens are even out there? The series finales have also been getting increasingly grandiose over the years. The decision to cast a woman as the Doctor has also meant the franchise became a pawn in the culture wars, further souring relationships in the fandom, and making the social media posts of the show’s creators and stars toxic to wade through. Sometimes it feels like the show is being buried under the weight of its own continuity.Ī gender-swap of the role brought attention and initially high ratings, but viewership has since settled at much the same levels as under Whittaker’s predecessor, Peter Capaldi. Failure to adhere to the continuity of some throwaway line from a script 10 years ago will send legions of fans into a frenzy, taking to their social media and YouTube channels to shout about “lazy writing”. There is now 16 years of new lore, as well as all the stories from the 60s, 70s and 80s for fans to think about every time there is a new story. When Russell T Davies revived the show, he was very clear in his pitch to BBC executives that this wasn’t just TV about a 900-year-old Time Lord who could change their face – it was about two friends travelling through time and space having adventures and righting wrongs. There is also an increasing story-structure problem.
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