I’ve only watched modern Doctor Who sporadically as I’ve always felt they have a hit rate (for me) of about 1 episode in 3. But I actually managed to watch the entirety of it (from Rose onwards) during lockdown, and for most of it I was much more impressed than I expected to be. It did feel though, that the last two series (11 and 12) were much less satisfying than those that had gone before it. I think Whittaker’s take on the doctor was a noble experiment - a laudable attempt to strip the character of that patrician charm where he walks around the place like he owns it, to somebody a bit more relatable who can show a more vulnerable side. But for some reason, it just doesn’t come off. She comes over sometimes a bit inconsequential and even gormless. Something the doctor should never be, IMO. The whole man/woman of the people thing was done a lot better by Eccleston, I think.
I always find the comments section interesting in The Guardian, as there it’s considered very gauche to say nothing but positive comments about the current incarnation, and reason to me seems to be because the show has become a proxy for the wider cultural war. As a lefty kind of guy, I’d love to say it’s all a cracking success, but it just ain’t, to the point where I don’t truly believe people who say they do enjoy it. There’s just so much that isn’t working about modern Who, from script to direction to performances. I don’t hate it, and each season so far with Chibnall has had sparks of something good about to happen, but they seem to be few and fleeting.
One thing that has always got my goat with modern Who (and this is not just Chibnall-era) is what I call “non-peril scene of peril”. This is when the protagonists are in what appears to be a highly dangerous situation, yet treat it as if it’s nothing, thus undercutting any sense of danger. The cold opening of the first episode in Flux was a case in point. What’s the point? I guess it’s to show how “bad-ass” the Doctor and Yaz now are, but surely they’d still look cool if they’d take the situation seriously and still managed to extricate themselves? I watched it my son, who’s nearly 18 and hasn’t watched since the Matt Smith era, and I felt embarrassed I suggested we watch it. What an awful first impression! The rest was a lot better but mostly amounted to setting a lot of plates spinning. I’ll continue to watch and continue to hope it gets a bit better.
