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

Fictional Characters Who Came Face to Face with their Double [Random Pop Culture Top…something] – Part One

A little while ago I wrote about Fictional Twins (see here) and that got me thinking about all those other instances that were kind of like twins, but not really. And that’s led to this post, which is about all the different reasons that I can think of that characters in fiction run into apparent duplicates of themselves, and some of my favorite examples of each!

So the list here isn’t a countdown exactly–it’s in more of an intuitive order than a “worst to best” order. Each entry on the list is a reason why characters have exact doubles out there for them to run into (and there are a lot of reasons, it turns out), accompanied by one of my favorite examples for that reason.

And to be clear, we’re not just talking about stories where doubles of characters exist, but specifically where characters comes face to face with (it would seem)…themselves.

Doctor Who: Out of Time 1 [Big Finish]

At the height of COVID, Big Finish figured out how to continue to record original Doctor Who audios by recording remotely. One of their many exciting projects was Out of Time, the first of a series of adventures which paired Tenth Doctor actor David Tennant with the stars of the show from the classic era. First up was the legendary Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker.

Doctor Who: Medicinal Purposes [Big Finish]

As is well-known, Doctor Who started off with a desire to be at least somewhat educational–bringing up both scientific and historical concepts in a way that allowed children to learn about them. This was most obvious in the “pure historical” adventures of the 1960’s, where the Doctor and company would interact with the likes of Marco Polo and Richard the Lionhearted. Though this focus fell by the wayside in most of the show’s history, recently you can see Chris Chibnall doing his level best to teach his audience about less celebrated points in history. And every once in a while, a Big Finish audio comes along that has the side benefit of informing its listeners about real-world people and events. Medicinal Purposes is one such audio–at least it was for me.

Spoilers (for real)

Stuff I’ve Read, Watched, Done – May 12, 2022

In the last two weeks, my wife and youngest daughter have been away seeing my oldest daughter as she has finished her missions training program.  Then they went onto another place to see my wife’s family, including her father who is hot well.  My middle (and arguably nerdiest) child has remained home with me, as she is in the midst of her Year 12 studies, which are pretty demanding and certainly require her consistent attention.

But this has opened up room for a whole lot of TV and movies.

Doctor Who Timeline: Debuts & Departures Timeline

I found myself getting curious about the various ages of different actors and creators involved with Doctor Who over the years, and so today we have a little timeline that tells us throughout the years of when people were born, when they debuted on the show, and when they died (for those no longer living).

Doctor Who: Infinity Quest [Animated Serial]

I have long been aware of The Infinite Quest, one of two animated Doctor Who stories produced featuring David Tennant as the 10th Doctor, but for years I haven’t had a chance to see it. Now, thanks to the convenience of Britbox, that has all changed!

Doctor Who: Ranking the Modern Series Openers

I was listening to an old podcast the other day about Asylum of the Daleks, recorded shortly after the episode aired, and in it they mentioned that this was one of the better season openers, with, I think, only The Eleventh Hour and Partners in Crime as rating higher. 

(Daily Doctor Who #362)

Doctor Who: The 51 Episodes I Love the Most – Analysis

Quite some time ago, I posted a video about the 51 episodes of Doctor Who that I love the most. I’ve always had it in the back of my mind to do a quick analysis of my choices. Today, that idea has gone from the back of my mind to the front of my mind to my fingers to this blogpost and now soon, into your brain. After that, who knows?

(Daily Doctor Who #359)

Doctor Who: Time Away from Earth (Modern Era)

Doctor Who is a series about a wanderer in time and space who travels using a machine capable of going to anyplace and anytime in the universe. But it is also series which was produced by human beings on earth in the present day (whenever that was at the time).

(Daily Doctor Who #324)