Ok, I kind of felt like this was coming… This is a show that I love, and I hate to see it in this condition. I feel like any critique of Doctor Who in its current form is open to, shall we say, knee-jerk backlash. To be clear, this is a critique of the artistic merits (or lack thereof) in the show at present.
What this post is not, is a bashing of:
– the notion of a woman playing the Doctor
– the ethnicity of the supporting characters
– the general moral message of the show (more a bashing of the way that moral message is conveyed)
With that said, numerous things need to be addressed:
First up, and most crucially, Chris Chibnall. I called it from the outset: He is not a strong Doctor Who writer and never has been. 1) He cannot write the character of the Doctor for a start; he just throws in little ‘quirky’ asides every now and then, which feel forced. 2) He cannot get the tone of episodes consistent at all, veering from banal to overly emotional, to uncomfortably dark. Comedy is also non-existent. 3) He has a tendency to have his characters explain the plot, their backstories, and why they feel emotionally as they do. He is very much a “tell, don’t show” kind of writer.
And if rumours are to be believed, he’s buggering off soon. Granted, there are clearly creative differences between him and the Beeb’s ‘diversity’ team, so maybe he has been hard done by, but he is not alone in criticism. The writers he has selected for this series have next to no background in the genre of sci fi. The majority of them are political playwrights who all tend to lean in the same ideological direction (look them up on IMDB). I’m not saying there is anything wrong with that; it’s all about how you adapt your perspective to fit the genre you are writing in. What Chibnall is doing is adapting Doctor Who to fit the perspective of his writers and a general political, journo-friendly slant. And the result is unwatchable, patronising guff. Chibnall has been quite open about the fact that he wanted the ‘bad guys’ from this series to be human flaws, rather than psychotic aliens. Yawn.
Second point: Jodie Whittaker. Now, I was optimistic after her opening 30 seconds in Twice Upon a Time. The first impression she gave was one of humour, much in the same vein as Matt Smith. But now she seems like a secondary character in her own show. She’s not pushy, arrogant and dislikeable in the way that David Tennant’s Doctor was towards the end; she’s perfectly amiable. It’s just, it doesn’t feel like there is any mystery to her. She just pops up to explain the alien stuff and point the sonic screwdriver when the plot demands it. Maybe she will give one of the companions a supporting word, or chuck in the moral message of the week. Sadly, she does not convey the gravitas needed to portray the Doctor. Every now and then the writers will crowbar in a Doctor-y phrase (such as inventing wellies). However, when Whittaker says it, it’s played very straight. There’s no real attempt at humour or any kind of nuance. Granted, the turgid writing gives her very little to play with, but if you take my favourite Doctor, Matt Smith – the main reason he is my favourite is because of the unspoken work he does: the little glances, the mad gesticulation, the bemused expressions between lines, kissing Arthur Darvill unannounced. Whittaker sounds like she is reciting the script, whilst putting a bit of a Tennant-esque twang on it. There just isn’t much depth. Maybe it’s Chibnall steering her too much, to make sure she doesn’t veer too far from his vision of the show.
Thirdly: Morality. Doctor Who has always had a strong moral compass. The trick of a good writer is to not slap the audience with it. But this series has been so blatant in its moralising, so right-on and self-congratulatory in its presentation, that it isn’t actually giving the audience anything challenging; it is talking down to its viewers, lecturing them, patronising them even. If you look at the press releases and interviews, it has been billed as more ‘educational’, which is slightly sinister (we teach you your moral code, you fit in perfectly to society, yes?). There has also been a worrying backlash by journos against the actual fandom – a fandom that has existed for over 50 years. Apparently the fans are “toxic” and by criticising the series for being a bit shit, have been labelled as basically right-wing crazies, homophobes, racists, and every other modern pariah you can think of.
But to steer away from the doom and gloom for a moment – The last thing I expected to say about this series was that Bradley Walsh is by far the best thing about it. Graham is the most genuine character and he is the only one who actually manages to elicit any emotional response or show development over the course of the series. His words and actions have real motivations behind them, he challenges the Doctor and is often reckless in what he says and does. And strangely, he is more of an emotional connection point than the Doctor herself for the other companions (take his conversation with Yaz about meeting the younger version of her nan in Demons of the Punjab).
Also, the musical score for the show is also greatly improved. Murray Gold, while excellent, had a tendency to hit the orchestra/choral button too often, which made the everything feel rather overblown and melodramatic. Segun Akinola actually writes more understated and atmospheric music for the show. He’s not afraid to employ synthesisers or stranger sounds to echo the alien nature of what is on screen. I’m hoping that he stays on.
Episode-by-Episode
The Woman Who Fell to Earth – Played very straight, which I commend Chibnall for. And it actually was the second strongest episode of the series. Nothing was really made about the fact that the Doctor was a woman. The direction and general mood of the episode were very filmic in scope. The characters were all well established (which sadly wasn’t maintained for the rest of the series). This is also Jodie Whittaker’s strongest episode in terms of portraying the Doctor: she pretty much nails the humour, alienness and morality, albeit without really putting enough of her own mark on the character. The episode didn’t break any new ground particularly, but it actually set up quite a positive expectation for the rest of the series.
The Ghost Monument – Again, a decent effort, if nothing really new. I suspect the majority of the series budget went into this one, and it shows – it is a gorgeous looking episode. The premise of a cross-galaxy race and a deadly deserted planet were pretty strong. However, it was possible to notice a few mis-steps coming in. The Doctor’s moralising becomes far less subtle (guns bad, teamwork better), and there is a lot of talking about backstories (what’s wrong with a flashback?). And the new TARDIS? Massive nope. Too dark, too much crystal.
Rosa – The bad guy being some generic neo-Nazi from the future felt a bit flimsy, especially when he literally gets zapped out of the episode part way through. It felt like this should have been a true historical, rather than shoehorning in a sci fi element. It’s laudable for the show to broach such a difficult subject, but it felt like having the Doctor et al present at the pivotal moment in the story cheapened the pathos. In fact, Bradley Walsh’s character is the one who genuinely wants out of it! There is also a bit too much commentary/unnecessary moralising from the Doctor, rather than just letting the events unfold and leaving the audience to make their own minds up. And I really wasn’t a fan of that song at the end…
Arachnids in the UK – Case in point for the show talking down to its audience: Donald Trump does not need lampooning. There were some good moments, mainly people being killed by giant spiders. However, a less-than-subtle environmentalist/anti-capitalist message soured it. Add to that the Doctor’s double standards in rebuking the spiders being killed by guns, yet happily locking the rest of them away in a vault to suffocate (humane?). Go figure.
The Tsuranga Conundrum – Dross. The cracks in Chibnall’s writing are laid bare here. The initial set up of the medical ship is solid, but then the strongest guest character (Astos) is promptly killed off, and the rest of the episode drags interminably, with characters running around the same corridors, explaining the plot, their backstories and why they are feeling so emotional about stuff. The tone of the episode is all over the place, what with the ginger man giving birth in the middle of it all. And as for the CGI “monster”… (why didn’t they just zap it and chuck the little bleeder out of the airlock straight away?) Also, the episode ends with the characters not getting back to the TARDIS, which was left in another galaxy, so presumably that is just resolved between this episode and the next one. It’s not necessarily a bad thing that no one will be able to remember the godawful title of this dirge…
Demons of the Punjab – Again, another historical where an alien was shoehorned in for no narrative purpose, even if the concept of said alien was actually pretty decent, on its own. The denouement (that Prem will die) is blurted out halfway through the run time and the majority of the episode is once more, characters talking to each other about the plot and themselves. As with Rosa, there is nothing wrong with an episode addressing a serious subject matter (e.g. mental health in Vincent and the Doctor), but the dialogue was so prescriptive and stilted that it gave the actors nothing much to work with, although the depiction of the historical events and how it affected ordinary Indians and Pakistanis was sensitively done. And this was the episode that made me realise, Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor does not engage with her companions at all, not with any depth.
Kerblam! – By far the strongest episode of the series. And it’s about space-Amazon (also there’s a lovely 11th Doctor reference). The pacing is spot on, the guest characters are well introduced and developed – and acted – and finally it feels like the companions are given enough to do to make them seem like plausible characters. And it actually elicited a laugh from me, when Ryan jokes about his dyspraxia before jumping down the parcel chute. That’s how the tone of the show should be. It doesn’t preach or lecture; it just gets on with it. And the plot twist was a refreshing counterpoint to the rest of the series (i.e. the big faceless corporation and the creepy robots are actually doing the right thing all along).
The Witchfinders – What’s that? Subtle feminist undertones? When the alien is a phallic mud monster that issues forth from the ground in order to “fill” the bodies of the people on the planet with “rage and force and hate” (whilst also being described as Satan), it doesn’t leave much to the imagination… And yes, I would be interested to see just how many times the word “fill” was employed in that script. This episode seems to borrow a fair amount from the original Evil Dead and the zombies are a bit close to the mark in terms of visual scariness for Doctor Who. Alan Cumming’s James I is an internet hit unsurprisingly. He hams it up something fantastic, whilst dropping in some not-so-subtle homosexual asides. The scene where he interrogates the Doctor is easily the strongest of the episode, partly because we actually see the Doctor properly engaging with someone. However, once again, Bradley Walsh steals the show.
It Takes You Away – One of the oddest episodes of Doctor Who I have ever seen. It felt like bad fan-fiction. Cabin in the woods bit, portal thing, cave bit, mirror universe bit. It felt like something of a mess. And it ends with the Doctor having a conflab with a frog that has a dead woman’s voice and everything ends up hunky dory. I mean, what? At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, Graham is the only character who adds any emotional heft to proceedings.
The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos – The what of what? Having a wanky, unpronounceable title does not a decent sci fi episode make, Mr Chibnall (and guilty of that twice in the same series). Mark Addy completely phones his performance in – just listen to the way he delivers “You’ve found my crew, thank you.” Deader than a night out in my home town. And the plot? Chibnall has even resorted to ripping off the premise of Russell T Davies’ most overblown series finale. And hang on, if they can just steal planets to blow the Earth up, why didn’t they just steal the Earth in the first place…? This is sci fi from the brain of someone who doesn’t know how to sci fi. Moffat and RTD were not without their flaws, but at least they understood the show and genre they were writing for. This episode is basically the characters explaining the plot and saying silly, made up words to each other until there’s a bit of a deus ex bullshittia and run time is over. The worst thing is that the episode takes itself so seriously, which just makes it godawfully boring. Surprisingly Graham, once more, is the only one with any real motivation and character arc. I basically cheered when he told the Doctor he was going to kill the alien.
And as to the lack of Christmas Special (out of ideas apparently), there are clearly production problems. Doctor Who used to manage 13 episodes plus a Christmas special every year, but now it has fizzled down to 10 episodes and no special. The same was true in the Moffat era – reduced production simply meant there were back stage issues, despite all the positive PR the BBC is desperately churning out.
As I said, I hate seeing my favourite show in the doldrums like this. I have 1 request above anything else: Can we please just have the escapism back? I don’t want to watch Doctor Who to be reminded how utterly shite the real world is and how people are bastards, thank you very much. Now, I’m off to rewatch all of Matt Smith’s era and pretend it never ended.
Confessions of an anxious martial artist 