Doctor Who: An Update

Here's a quick update on Doctor Who. You can read earlier reports from nearly a decade ago here and here. Back then I was just starting the Clara episodes (Series 7), and Matt Smith had been around quite awhile.

Since then, I've loved practically all the Matt Smith episodes. And also the Impossible Girl (Clara).

Series 8 brought in the next doctor: Peter Capaldi -- again, strong episodes. I figured they needed to bring in an older-looking guy to explain River Song's comment about him being old. Heheheh! And talk about some really awesome plot twists with River and company! And possibly some of the best episodes. My favorite so far being the one where Capaldi is stuck in a time/loop castle with an awesome ending.

And then a fun exit for River Song and Clara -- will they be back?

Series 11 brought in our first female Doctor: Jodie Whittaker. She does an awesome job, but the quality of the episodes just dropped like a rock. It was almost as if the writers decided, "Now that we have a woman, we've cracked the 'political' suit and we can hit everyone with uber political episodes."

Though I loved Jodie's performance, and even Missy's character (the female Master), I always despise when writers sacrifice plot for politics. The episodes in Series 11 were thus hit and miss -- some good episodes among some bad ringers. It was good enough to keep me pushing through to the end of the season, and I seem to remember a decent closer, though I can't for the life of me remember what happened.

I do remember the worst episode: the one with the spiders. It was by all measures -- just bad. MST3000 bad. It featured one of the worst American caricatures I've ever seen -- "I love guns -- give me a gun. Let's kill everything. I'm going to become President of the US and destroy everything." I'm pretty sure they were going for some kind of Donald Trump. Maybe he wrote the episode? The plot was just so convoluted - designed to set up some really poorly done political statement. 

Series 11 was overall so bad that I'm taking a break. I just have no desire to start Series 12 (the last one currently available), but I know one day I'll do it -- I haven't written off the show yet. Though I want to yell: "Give Jodie something good to work with like you did with Christopher, David, Matt, and Peter!" To give her crap is, I think, the worst insult one could give a woman Doctor. She can handle it -- just bring back the good writing you did for 10 series. You can still have the politics -- just introduce it organically and don't sacrifice the plot.

And there you have it ... we'll eventually see what comes next ...