I’m so thankful. It is very easy to blame Chris Chibnall and the truth is, he has been the worst show-runner of the modern era, but the truth its…Whittaker did nothing to elevate the material and make the Doctor fun. She is the worst Doctor of the modern show and I will never re-watch her run. It’s one of the most boring sections of the show I’ve ever seen, though I have often heard it was this dull back in the mid-80’s when Colin Baker played him.
Anyway, I am very glad they are both leaving and I hope that when the BBC looks for a new writer to take over, they go outside the whole thing and find someone who can make it as good as it was when David Tenant was on the show.
I think Wittaker (and the other actors) did the best they could with what they were given. It’s that I don’t think Chibnall is either a good writer or showrunner. By which I mean, as part of a group of writers Chibnall is fine, but not for carrying a whole show. At best he’s good, but unfortunately he all too often fell short of that. Moffat had some real stinkers from time to time, but he averaged out between satisfactory and good, and occasionally he really hit is out of the ballpark.
I think Whittaker, like C. Baker, would have been a much better Doctor with a better writer.
I just hope Chibnall’s replacement is better than he was.
What little I saw, I didn’t think the stories were good. But I didn’t think the actress was bad. She just seemed to have been written in a way that didn’t feel like the Doctor. The part I saw, she didn’t feel like someone who would take charge.
I’ve liked it fine. Some of the episodes that visited historical figures and events were really good.
There were too many Companions, making it hard to keep everyone involved in the story without turning them into useless hangers-on half the time; and the stupid “thousands of regenerations in the Doctor’s past” rewrite was just lunacy. But I liked everything else just fine.
I like Jodie Whittaker a lot, and she was a welcome change from Capaldi, who I did not warm to at all. I am disappointed her run is ending seemingly so soon (though not really soon, there’s still a year or more of episodes left).
I’m glad Chibnall is gone but sorry to see Whittaker go. And unfortunately, the idiots who were triggered because they went with a woman Doctor now are going to think they were right and won.
Now, I’m a big Doctor Who fan. Big, as in I’ve changed cable providers twice when my current one dropped BBC America. Big, as in I’ve rescheduled life events to watch episodes. Big, as in I threw a viewing party when they had a show to announce the 12th Doctor. I’m a fan.
And Chris Chibnall ruined it. His run has been truly abysmal. I have a whole season on my DVR that even Covid lockdown boredom didn’t drive me to watch. Jodie is a fine actress, I’m sure, and she had a few good moments, but she wasn’t The Doctor. (And I’m not one of those who was mad about a female Doctor, though I was peeved s/he wasn’t ginger.)
The 9th Doctor was just back from the Time War, a bit gruff, a bit shell shocked, but over his season he mellowed and shed a bit of his survivors guilt. The 10th Doctor got a bit of a God complex during his run, survivors guilt turned into a feeling of invincibility. The 11th Doctor cranked that up to 11(!) and had to be brought down a few hundred pegs when he got too big for his britches, but he embraced a joie de vivre and put the horror of the time war (too far) behind him. The 12th Doctor took a while to grow on me. I think he was trying on a few personae to see who he wanted to be, and worried about being a good man, but in the end he accepted himself for everything that he was. There was change, but it was growth. It was evolution. It made sense. The 13th Doctor was rude, rash, flippant, and had none of the growth or personality of any of her predecessors. She didn’t evolve or change, she was an entirely different personality devoid of any of the things that make the Doctor who they are. It was an entirely different show. It was simply not good.
I look forward to a new showrunner and a new Doctor. I hope whoever they are that they respect tradition, even if the stretch it and play around with it and make it their own.
I didn’t mind Jodie Whittaker, but I kind of feel like most of the stories were dull and uninteresting, as were the companions. It certainly didn’t feel like they had access to a machine that could go anywhere and anywhen in the universe,
I was a pretty loyal fan from Eccleston through Matt Smith (and Tom Baker from the old days). My loyalty began to waver with Capaldi, but there was some really good stuff then too. But when the companion changed from Clara Oswald to Bill and Nardole, I had to check out. I just couldn’t understand them. The dialog was always difficult enough to get from people I could understand, but when at least two out of three verge on incomprehensible, it isn’t worth the effort any more.
I’ve dipped my toe in on the current Doctor’s run and I think it’s worse. Maybe I need to start recording them and playing them back 20% slower, with subtitles turned on. It won’t be as much fun but at least I’ll be able to follow the story. For the record, I had no problem with a woman as the Doctor, but I don’t think she was the right woman. Or maybe it was the writing, I haven’t watched enough to be able to tell.
So yes, new Doctor, new writer, and actors who can soften up their accents for other countries, and I’ll try it again.
Doctor Who is declining just like it did in the 80’s. Tom Baker was the high point. Peter Davidson was OK. The show was still popular. The production and writing never recovered during the Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy years.
David Tennant and Matt Smith were the high points of new Who. The production and writing since has gotten progressively worse with Capaldi and Whittaker.
Responsibility starts with the producer and writers. Casting, costume, and the sets are crucial. I hated the bare, white room Tardis set in the 80’s. I never liked Capaldi’s portrayal of the Doctor. They gave him a part-time assistant that taught school. Whittaker was saddled with uninteresting Assistants.
I agree with all the above ( and I’ve been watching since the very first episode! )
Jodie is a superb actress (see Broadchurch (TV Series 2013–2017) - IMDb, which was truly great. (Interestingly written by Chibnall - so he should stick to police dramas.)
Bradley Walsh is multi-talented - I would have preferred him as the sole Companion.
I have to say, though, when she was cast, and the headlines were all “Female Broadchurch Star is the New Doctor!”, my first reaction was, Woo-hoo! Olivia Coleman! Wait… her?
I thought Jodie was quite good as the doctor, but the scripts failed her. Only a handful of the stories showed any life. Ryan was too bland as a companion and there were no particularly memorable guests (other than the Master, who was too over-the-top).
I’d like to see her with some good scripts and hopefully the next showrunner will do a better job.
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