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

Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devils

Once upon a time, a new episode of Doctor Who was something to get excited about. These days, not so much. The latest special–the second of three to air this year–is a bland affair. It’s not egregiously bad, but is certainly drab and uninspiring. I almost skipped out on writing about it, it was so unmemorable. And strangely cheap looking.

Spoilers, I guess. But really, with an episode so unmemorable, who cares?

Doctor Who: Eve of the Daleks

When Doctor Who: Flux was approaching, my expectations were not high. Two seasons (plus specials) of underwhelming and frustrating episodes under the auspices of Chris Chibnall had made sure of that. But when the episodes hit I was, for the most part, pleasantly surprised–there was some stuff I didn’t like but a solid majority of the story was fun and entertaining and even occasionally brilliant.

So as Eve of the Daleks approached, I was cautiously optimistic. After viewing the story, my sense of universal order in chaotic times is somewhat restored, as Doctor Who reverts to the same sort of flippantly sloppy storytelling that has characterized the last few years. In other words, I was disappointed by the special, both in the sense that it wasn’t very good, and that I had actually allowed myself to think it might be better.

2022 – Things to Look Forward To

Happy New Year!

Life is about faith, hope, love, and all the things that spring from that, like relationships and purpose and peace and joy. However, my blog tends to be more about things that I just think are fun or quirky or interesting. So with that in mind here are some things I’m looking forward to, especially movies & TV shows and the like, in 2022…

And just to be clever like that, here are twenty-two things that we are anticipating seeing in 2022, ranked roughly in ascending order of my interest.

Doctor Who: Flux: Chapter Six: The Vanquishers

Doctor Who: Flux concludes with the last episode of the season, The Vanquishers!

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: Flux: Chapter Two: War of the Sontarans

Doctor Who: Flux continues. Not Doctor Who: Fluxx–that’s a card game, which I think we have in my house somewhere. But the new season of the long-running TV series.

(Daily Doctor Who #352)

Doctor Who: Flux: Chapter 1: The Halloween Apocalypse

Aka, Attack of the Colons!

(Daily Doctor Who #345)

Doctor Who: Flux–not long now…

A release date has been announced and now it’s less than two weeks until the new Doctor Who season gets underway.

(Daily Doctor Who #330)

Doctor Who: Three Years of Jodie Whittaker

Every once in a while I look up the date on a website of Doctor Who releases, and find out what else in my favorite science fiction franchise happened on this date in history. I’ve discovered some interesting things this way. In doing this I’ve realized that today (or yesterday, based on when this gets posted) is the three year anniversary of the debut of the first episode Jodie Whittaker starred in, The Woman Who Fell to Earth, and thus the start of a three year period of being disappointed with the series.

(Daily Doctor Who #318)