13th Doctor Announcement.

I’m worried about this…but not for the reason you think.

Sooo…a woman.

I think it’s pretty clear that this was going to happen. The build up to it has been “hinted” throughout the latter stages of series 10, with all the subtly of a club hammer.

In terms of Doctor Who’s survival, this change up would seem a logical step in the right direction. However, I remain pessimistic about the likelihood of it’s success.

And it has nothing to do with Jodie Whittaker.

My issue is with Chris Chibnall. Frankly, I have found most of his Who episodes to date…well…boring. I’ve reviewed most of them and the common theme is that he doesn’t have an eye for filler. Say what you will about Moffat, but at least his chit-chat and somewhat glib humour give you something to watch. Chibnall has never really been able to balance the action side of Doctor Who and the talky side of Doctor Who.

The other massive issue I have with him comes from his other work. I consider series 1 of Broadchurch amongst some of the best drama of the last 10 years. However it’s two sequels…well let’s just say I kind of felt like I missed the timeframe for reviewing them, but this seems like a good opportunity.  Series 2 completely removes the suspension of disbelief with a courtroom scene in which a judge orders a jury not to consider someone’s confession. Evidence in a criminal trial is subject to a pre-trial hearing so if defence had an issue with a confession they would have had to raise it prior to the trial. The judge would then decide if the confession was admissible as evidence. If the judge agreed with defence, the jury would never hear about the confession so it couldn’t prejudice their view at all. What does this have to do with Doctor Who?

Well if Chibnall is willing to throw both legal research and common sense out the window in the name of drama, how bad is it going to get when he’s working with a time travelling phone box?

Moving on to series 3 of Broadchurch…well…let’s discuss sexual crimes…I mean let’s discuss all of them. That’s what Chibnall tried to do with this series, to disastrous effect I might add.

The series follows the story of a character who’s been the victim of rape and then tries to build subplots around other characters who are either involved in or victims of other sexual crimes. The fact that DI Hardy’s daughter just so happens to be one of these victims seems too coincidental to be believed. Linking obtaining violent pornography to committing sexual crimes is a significant oversimplification of the issue. And most importantly, dotting those elements around the periphery of the main story doesn’t allow enough time to develop any of them. The issue of consent (that has become the centre of a national discussion) is what was at play in this series. The idea is that someone who would steal a nude photo of another person and distribute it has the same attitude towards consent as a rapist. This is, however, never explored by Chibnall (or any of the writers), as there simply isn’t enough time.

This is a problem. The BBC likes to use Doctor Who as a vessel for morals as well as entertainment. A head writer who likes to shove as many lessons onto the screen as possible and not leave enough time to explain any of them just isn’t going to work.

This becomes distinctly important, when you consider that Chibnall is invariably going to have to deal with issues of misogyny and women’s rights. I personally don’t think that Chibnall is up to the task.

His work on Who has shown a lack of ability to hold the audiences’ attention and his work on Broadchurch has shown a lack of longevity to his story arcs.

When doing something as radical as changing the Doctor into a woman (a move that will alienate a chunk of the audience) the show needs a head writer who can handle it.  As far as I’m concerned, that’s not Chris Chibnall.

Jodie Whittaker will have to be judged (as all who’ve played the Doctor) on her performance. But even the best actor in the world can’t work in a part if the writing isn’t good enough.  

Doctor Who: Face the Raven

That was awesome.

So this episode came from the mind of Sarah Dollard, most well known (in the BBC that is) for her contributions to Merlin and Being Human. It’s more the Being Human experience that’s used here, with supernatural elements, explained with “science.”

Dollard also has a talent for making the audience want to see the darker side of the characters. Where most writers would play it safe and shoehorn in the “we must  be better than them” message, Dollard has us begging for the Doctor to unleash The Valyard.

To give a brief overview, Maisie Williams returns as Lady Me (now Lady Mayor) who is preciding over a hidden street of alien refugees in London. Trouble arises when Rigsy (another returning character) falls foul of the residents of the street and calls the Doctor for help.

Spoilers to follow.

So it turns out that everything that happens is all part of some elaborate plan by Lady Mayor, operating under threat from some unknown enemy, to teleport the Doctor away for punishment. Oh and the big twist; Clara’s essentially caught in the crossfire of their maneuvering and dies. This is apparently Jenna Coleman’s exit to the series and comes as full on shock. Usually, the Doctor would pull out a way to save a companion in these circumstances, but no; she’s dead. I mean I hope she’s dead; I like Clara as a character, but after the whole Osgood thing, I cannot get behind some characters being invincible.

Clara’s exit is marked perfectly by Capaldi. The Twelfth Doctor does not cry (like the 10^th and 11^th) or make empty threats (like the 9^th). He tells Lady Mayor that he is going to destroy everything she has built and ruin the lives of everyone she has saved. I get the impression that his promise to Clara (that he wouldn’t seek revenge) is the only lie he told throughout the whole monologue. As soon as Clara’s gone, he essentially tells Lady Mayor that the next time they meet he’s going to kill her. None of the other Doctors (of the revived era) could have delivered that message the way Capaldi does. that performance does take focus slightly from Coleman, as she acts out Clara's final moments.

The episode’s not perfect; Clara’s adrenaline junky phase is just annoying and laid on far too thick.

But those are minor quibbles in terms of a fine episode.

Doctor Who: Deep Breath Review

Well that was good…I think…

This is the problem with the way that Moffatt puts together a series; the formula is predictable. We get a first episode to introduce the core themes of the episode and then a set up for the series’ red herring (this case being the “promised land”).

The problem is I can’t figure out if that offsets the quality of the writing, acting etc. on an episode by episode basis. I’ve got some thoughts about what the promised land is and who that woman is, but I can’t say that I’m half a as curious about it as I was about the Pandorica or the Silence. So we’ll just have to see how this pans out; you never know; maybe Moffatt’s brave enough to put in a red herring that’s supposed to look like a red herring and is actually a red herring for a red herring.

Anyway, onto the episode.

We now have an openly Scottish Doctor, which leads to many new independence and moaning jokes; supposedly to replace the ginger jokes from Eleven’s era. I will say they’re pretty well put together and Capaldi (as ever) has a great talent for comedy. At the same time he avoids becoming Malcolm-Tucker-Doctor, as many had expected, by toning down the anger and upping the general confusion and quirkiness of the character.

The point at which things start to get violent is a really good example of how he can switch the character up. “I have a horrible feeling I’m going to have to kill you” is a line I don’t think any other Doctor could have delivered and that’s saying something considering that this is Capaldi’s first time out in the role.

I also like the way that the fan reaction is incorporated into the Doctor’s dialogue. He wonders out loud why he would now be older than his two predecessors, suggesting that he unconsciously chose a form that had “frowned lines onto” it’s face.

Jenna Coleman does a good job as Clara. Her reaction to a newly regenerated Doctor is a thousand times better than that of Rose in The Christmas Invasion. Clara remains unsure who the new Doctor is but (after some prompting by Vastra) accepts that it’s him and that he’s dealing with a crisis. Rose by comparisome appeared to take it a personal slight that the Doctor would change his appearance without first consulting her and sat around saying things along the lines of “yeah there’s an alien invasion happening by what about my problems?”

We have another goodbye from Matt Smith, which wasn’t strictly necessary, but was a nice way to resolve Clara’s issues with the new Doctor.

Overall, nice episode but the series set up we’re seeing is something we’ve all seen before.