Doctor Who (2024)

Thanks to Disney buying part of Dr. Who, and it being rebranded as the Whoniverse, we have the third season one… Classic Who, Nu Who and Whoniverse. Much though I loved Jodie and Mandip as Thirteen and Yaz, I was not the biggest fan of Chris Chibnal's writing. When he got it right (in my opinion), he was great but, for me, too many of the scripts didn’t hit the mark. This season has had one show that was a complete miss for me and given it was trying to serve as a new show pilot for Disney while not being a new show to me (I’m old, I remember watching John Pertwee, live on a Saturday night) I’ll cut it a bit of slack. With a bit of time and reflection, less adrenaline and emotion, the finale has some serious issues too. It doesn’t make sense if you stop to think about it. But in the moment I didn’t care. Otherwise, I liked all the episodes, in the moment and afterwards. Some were stronger than others, but they were all at least good in my opinion. This season has three arc-long questions. Two get resolved, the other is not forgotten but left for us to speculate about. I’m ok with that. I would have been less ok if they’d forgotten the third question or left more hanging. Other than those moments, which are really for the fans who are watching it all and will not register with a filthy casual, the episodes stand alone. However, they have a horror vibe. It’s not scream and run, at least not for me, but it did bring back happy memories of Dr Who in my youth. I never actually did this, but the cultural conversation, what we’d meme about today, was “you watch it from behind the sofa, and hide when the scariest bits are showing.” It’s hard for me to judge all these years later if it hit that mark but it gave the impression it might. Horror is a wide-enough genre that the stories don’t feel like they’re retreading the same territory from week-to-week. Because the XIII-Yaz romance grew from the actors, although unlike Root and Shaw the writer ignored it, it always felt organic to me. The directors let them flirt even if the script didn’t demand it. But an openly gay lead and a gay show runner? From the Bridgerton-inspired episode where a man proposes to him, to lots of little moments, this just feels gay throughout. Which made me happy. I’m sure there will be people who turn off in disgust, but most of them have abandoned Disney already, I’m sure. I have seen comments from people who don’t believe the friendship between XV and Ruby. I have to say I disagree. They’re not my favourite partnership, even in Nu Who, (Clara and XII, then Yaz and XIII) but they’re far from the worst. That said, I think, in terms of building that relationship, the show suffered a bit because Ncuti was also shooting the final season of *Sex Education* so basically missed one episode and they had one episode that leaned heavily on a guest to lead it. (Those of you that remember *Blink*, will remember how that was structured around Sally Sparrow. Although the story is totally different here, the impact is broadly the same. No conversations with video tapes though.) So we only have six episodes to build a relationship. It worked for me but on-screen relationships are weird and idiosyncratic in how we perceive them. One thing that is a change, and I’m not sure if it’s a reaction to Disney's money or RTD getting cheeky, there are quite a lot of little jokes that rely on really deep knowledge of British culture. You might get the joke about not making the tea, but I have a feeling it just lands as nasty outside the UK, but Susan Twist's dancing certainly landed for me and left the Americans I know that watch confused. Although I have some little quibbles about this season, I liked it overall. Other seasons may have had plots or arcs I preferred, different ones have had Doctors and companions I preferred, but it’s been a while since I have liked both parts this much. Bechdel Test: Pass. Having Ruby as a second lead, and in one episode as the main lead (Ncuti was doing *Sex Education* and barely present) gives you a good start. But she always has women around to talk to. Most of them also talk to each other. Some of those conversations are about men, typically but not solely The Doctor. But they talk about science, ancient evils, the hundreds of photos of young Ruby, whether granny will ever get a cup of tea and all kinds of other things. Ko Test: Pass. Largely this is down to Ruby’s mother and grandmother. It’s not only them, but they’re in almost every episode, and when they’re there, they do enough, usually both of them, to pass. In episodes where we don’t see them, we almost always have another character who picks up the slack. I have decided that the one particular episode which doesn’t pass, very deliberately doesn’t pass, does so in such a deliberate way that I’m not going to count it in here as leading to a fail. Often I’ll let one episode slide because I’m not sure, or I forget it. One where they deliberately break it to make a statement, I can choose to not count because of the impact I think the statement had. Russo Test: Pass. We obviously have The Doctor. There are other characters around as well, probably most notably Rogue, but various others at various points. But an easy pass. Baby Whovians are up in arms about The Doctor and his first gay kiss (mostly positively “at last!” kind of up in arms that I’ve seen) ignoring Captain Jack and IX who kissed way back in season 1 of Nu Who. That said, this is the first time The Doctor has initiated a same-sex kiss. Regardless of that, definitely a pass.