Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor

And now, after many moons, the Chibnall-Whittaker era of Doctor Who has come to an end. My thoughts are many.

I have not been the biggest fan of this era of the show. Jodie Whittaker is appealing enough, but I have found her performance too broad to be actually engaging. In spite of the occasional bright spot, Most of the stories have been either underwritten or badly written, and filled with bland characters and uninspiring plots. There have been a handful of “shocking plot twists” that were memorable for all the wrong reasons, which leaves one tempted to rant that the last three seasons haven’t only failed to move the show forward in a positive way, they have actually done the series a bit of harm.

But of course, that’s just a grumpy old fan ranting away. What about The Power of the Doctor itself?

Spoilers Lie This Way

Dragonfire [Classic Doctor Who]

Doctor Who has long been my favorite show, but until recently rewatchings of old episodes have been few and far between.  This has changed in the last couple of years as I have been using birthday and Christmas money to buy some of the old episodes, usually enjoying them with one or two of my nerdier daughters. This year, though, my wife and I bought a year of Britbox for each other as a gift, which gives me access to nearly all of classic Who. My middle daughter and I decided to watch a story, and when I asked her which Doctor she wanted to see, she said her favorites are the Second and the Seventh. We’ve seen most of the existing Second Doctor stories so we went to Dragonfire, because it’s not too long and she’s a big Ace fan.

Doctor Who – 1987 – All the Years

Doctor Who – All The Years is a quick examination of what was happening in the world of Doctor Who over all its years of existence. I’m not attempting to create a thorough history–just brief look back at the real-life timeline of my favorite TV show. Go back to the beginning and read about 1963 here.

(Daily Doctor Who #356)

Doctor Who – 1986 – All the Years

Doctor Who – All The Years is a quick examination of what was happening in the world of Doctor Who over all its years of existence. I’m not attempting to create a thorough history–just brief look back at the real-life timeline of my favorite TV show. Go back to the beginning and read about 1963 here.

(Daily Doctor Who #336)

Doctor Who: Flip-Flop [Big Finish]

Flip-Flop was the 46th entry in Big Finish’s “Main Range” or “Monthly Range” of Doctor Who audios (released back in 2003), featuring Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and Bonnie Langford as Mel. It was a uniquely formatted story, featuring two sets of two episodes each telling parallel stories that could be listened to in either order.

(Daily Doctor Who #263)

Doctor Who–Early Births & Deaths – Part 1

From time to time I’ve been writing up posts covering the activity of Doctor Who during particular calendar years. So far there are posts up for every year from 1963 to 1978.

Only in the last couple of these–1977 & 1978–have I started including notes about significant births and deaths of real-life people related to the series. That means there are fourteen years which I have covered in general, but not in this area.

(Daily Doctor Who #243)

Daily Doctor Who & Daily Spoon

I’ve covered lots of different topics over the years–Star Trek, the Legion of Super-Heroes, movies. And lately, I’ve been writing a lot about Doctor Who.

(Daily Doctor Who #226)

Doctor Who: Bang-Bang-a-Boom! [Big Finish]

Bang-Bang-a-Boom! is the 39th entry in Big Finish’s “Main Range” or “Monthly Range” of Doctor Who audios, this time starring Sylvester McCoy as the 7th Doctor, accompanied by Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush. The story is largely a satire, set in an outer-space version of the Eurovision Song Contest, which is only a little stranger than the real Eurovision Song Contest seems to be at times.

(Daily Doctor Who #223)

Time and the Rani [Classic…??…Doctor Who]

Doctor Who has long been my favorite show, but in recent years rewatchings of old episodes have been few and far between.  But recently I decided to spend some of my 50th birthday spending money on some of these adventures, and enjoy them with one or two of my nerdier daughters.

Doctor Who: The One Doctor [Big Finish]

Back in December 2001, Big Finish Productions released The One Doctor, their first ever “Christmas episode”.  This isn’t a trend they continued for very long, but it’s interesting to note that this precedes Doctor Who‘s first modern “Christmas episode” by a good four years.  In any case, this story features Colin Baker as the 6th Doctor, and Bonnie Langford as his companion Melanie Bush.  But it also features Christopher Biggins as the Doctor, and Clare Buckfield as his companion, Sally-Anne Stubbins.