Jodie Whittaker is The New Doctor – My Reaction

As you probably know yesterday the BBC announced that Jodie Whittaker will be playing the 13^th Doctor in the next series of Doctor Who. This announcement has sparked a lot of reaction, debate and conversation online and I thought I should add my voice to this.

First off, it is far too early to be judging what the new Doctor is like. We haven’t seen her in an episode yet. We haven’t even seen what her costume is going to be. We really don’t know what she is going to be like. This immediate knee jerk reaction to dismiss the new Doctor happens every single time. I remember the near total dismissal when Matt Smith was cast and now he is regarded as one of the best Doctors. I think everyone who has already written her off – whatever their reason - needs to give her a chance first.

I have seen some reactions that seem to think because we’ve had Rey in Star Wars and Wonder Woman has had a movie that we don’t need any more women in sci-fi/fantasy. This just completely misses the point. The number of men compared to the number of women in sci-fi/fantasy is still vastly unequal. It would be nice if we could get to a point where women in sci-fi/fantasy are just seen as characters rather than female characters however part of that coming about is through choices being made like casting a female Doctor.

The Doctor being female is definitely going to change the dynamic of the show. But that’s not a bad thing. Change has always been at the core of Doctor Who. Whoever was cast as the 13^th Doctor was going to change the dynamic of the series. The grandfatherly 1^st Doctor has a completely different dynamic to the cool 10^th Doctor. Doctor Who never stays exactly the same and introducing the first female Doctor is just another change.

Sadly Doctor Who has been in a weak position lately. Whatever your opinion is on the 12^th Doctor, Clara Oswald, Bill Potts and the past few series it is hard to deny that the show is in a precarious position. Ratings have been declining and main stream appeal has been lost. Christmas 2016 was the first one since 2005 were none of the major high street stores listed Doctor Who toys in their Christmas gift guides. There’s not really many younger viewers becoming Whovians at the moment.  Before the announcement yesterday I had assumed that the BBC would see a female Doctor as too big a risk given the uncertainty around the show’s future. However the BBC seem to have decided that right now is the time to take a bit of a risk and finally cast a female Doctor. It was possibly a casting decision that was motivated by a want to get people talking about the show again which it certainly has done! I hope for the sake of the shows future that this is a risk that will pay off in terms of support for the series.

Also I’d like to see how River Song will react to learning that her husband is now her wife. River’s story was nicely concluded in The Husbands of River Song. However I would be really interested to watch Jodie Whitaker’s Doctor meeting her wife, Professor River Song.

Right now it is too early to say if Series 11 of Doctor Who will be good and if Jodie Whitaker is going to be good as the 13^th Doctor. A lot is going to depend on who her companion (or companions) are, what her stories are like, how her Doctor is going to be written and what monsters is she going to be fighting. However I have faith that Doctor Who is about to enter a new era that will end up being a very highly regarded and much loved era.

Doctor Who – Extremis Review

Spoiler warning, it probably is impossible to talk about this episode without giving a few spoilers. This episode is best watched without knowing what’s going to happen so please only read this review after watching the episode.

First off, Pearl Mackie once again was excellent as Bill Potts. Bill is a really likeable companion and she brings a great sense of excitement as she sees new things. But Pearl is also great at delivering the emotional beats that are necessary, there’s more to Bill than her one-liners.

Speaking of companions, I like Nardole. He’s been a good addition to the main cast and Matt Lucas brings a welcome dose of humour which is something that has been missing from the programme over the past couple of years. I also liked the revelation in this episode that River Song sent him to look after the Doctor. It’s nice to get a reminder that even though River has gone she certainly hasn’t been forgotten.

I think the plot of this episode can best be described as the Doctor Who version of The Matrix. But before we got to that twist this was an episode about a mysterious book that should not be seen. I liked the mystery aspect of Extremis, it was an intriguing concept which was interesting to watch unfold. I simultaneously wanted Bill and the Doctor to read the Veritas to find out what it was but also really didn’t want them to. I also really liked the twist when it turned out that everything we had been watching was actually a simulation and the Doctor was really sat outside the Vault all along. This is one of those episodes that will be good to re-watch once you know how it all ends.

Extremis has filled us in on what’s in the Vault. I was really hoping that the Vault was going to turn out to be a series long arc and so I was disappointed that we got a more or less full reveal in episode six. After Knock Knock it was not a surprise to learn that it was Missy lurking in the Vault but it was still interesting to learn the how and why. I really don’t like Missy but she wasn’t actually that irritating in this episode, the flashbacks to her where nicely used throughout the episode and I liked the way that they contrasted what was happening as the story unfolded.

Missy wasn’t actually the main villain for this week. Instead we got some zombie like creatures – I don’t know what they’re called yet but the BBC Doctor Who website is calling them the Monks. Their design kind of reminds me of the humanoid form of the Pyrovile’s from 2008’s The Fires of Pompeii. After the first few weeks lacked proper monsters these were interesting creatures to see. We don’t know much about them yet which is intriguing to watch. However they are clearly very powerful and they are planning a massive invasion of Earth.

I don’t know if it’s just because I’m out of the loop but I was surprised to find out that this episode leads into next week’s episode, I thought it was another standalone story. I actually really like the way that Oxygen, Extremis and The Pyramid at the End of the World will all link together. It reminds me of how back in 1975 The Arc In Space, The Sontaran Experiment, Genesis of the Daleks and Revenge of the Cybermen all linked together. Each one can be viewed as a story in its own right but they all link together.

In conclusion, this was an interesting episode with an intriguing concept and finally some really cool monsters! Extremis also did a good job at tying up several dangling story threads whilst also setting up a second half. Once again Series 10 has given us another solid episode of Doctor Who!

Doctor Who – The Pilot Review

Doctor Who is back, and it’s good!

Last night the first episode of the new season of Doctor Who aired and it was good, it feels like the show is back on track where it should be. I am pleased to say that I was not disappointed by The Pilot.

Peter Capaldi is the Doctor! After two seasons of doubting him I finally feel like Capaldi has become the Doctor that he should have been from the start. I won’t go into detail this time about all my problems with the 12^th Doctor, I already talked about that in my Return of Doctor Mysterio review and my pre-Series 10 post. However I felt like in The Pilot we got to see the full range of who the Doctor can and should be instead of just some grumpy guy moping around which is what he has been for the past couple of series. This is finally the 12^th Doctor as he should be, someone who is strange but funny and also compassionate. I particularly liked the little touch of having a picture of River Song and Susan on his desk, it helped to make the Doctor feel like he was still a part of what has come before him.

Setting the episode in a university was a brilliant idea. It just makes so much sense to see the Doctor in that environment. The scene were the Doctor was lecturing at the university was great, that speech felt reminiscent of some of the epic speeches that Matt Smith used to give. I think I agree with the Doctor’s summation that being a student is about texting, snogging and vegan wraps! (Even though I’m not out snogging!)

I liked how this episode was setting up some of the later series. The Doctor was at the university because he is protecting something that is hidden in a vault, it wasn’t specified what was lurking in the vault but I bet that whatever it is will become relevant later on in this series. The brief appearance from a Dalek was good. I hope that was it for the Daleks in this series. I don’t want them to be a big bad in yet another series but it was good to see the Daleks briefly appear as a reminder that they are still lurking out there.

Let’s talk about Bill Potts now. This was the first episode for her she shone as the new companion, I’m looking forward to getting to know her more over the coming weeks. To me it feels like there is something about Bill that is reminisicent of both Rose Tyler and Donna Nobel. I think Bill is going to be a welcome addition to the TARDIS. Bill is particularly notable as the first LGBT companion, I thought her sexuality was well handled in this episode as part of the plot revolved around her having a crush on a woman. Bill is definitely a lesbian, it is part of who she is however – at this point - it’s neither being ignored or defining her. Also she got even cooler when it turned out that she’s into sci-fi!

Tonally I think The Pilot was closest to 2008’s series opener Partners In Crime. In some ways it was a fairly standard new companion episode. We had the glimpse into her life, then the weird thing happening, the meeting with the Doctor and of course the ‘it’s bigger on the inside moment’. But most importantly this episode was about the Doctor meeting his new best friend.