Doctor Who

As a big fan of Doctor Who, I must express my deep disappointment with the new season. To be honest, it doesn't even feel like Doctor Who anymore. I had high hopes for Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor, as I find him to be a brilliant actor. His performance, along with Millie's, is not the issue. The fault lies entirely with the production team.

The dialogue and plot is painfully bland, lacking the intelligence, wittiness, depth, and big thinking that have always been the hallmarks of Doctor Who and the reasons I fell in love with the show. Instead, we are left with something that feels like Disney-esque, slapstick, easy entertainment. This transformation makes the show hardly worth watching anymore.

I deeply hope that the production will improve and bring back the Doctor Who we love. And if not, that the other Doctor Who, who was left when Ncuti and David split in two, will be revived after his vacation and rest with family, and give us back our Doctor. Thank you.

Disney took, in my opinion, the best show to ever be written & turned it into a sci-fi version of High School Musical. I'm truly disappointed. The actors are perfect, the set design & costumes are amazing, however the writing is cheesy at best. Its just so childish and corny. They took a family friendly grown up show & turned it into a "Disney Channel" kid's comedy. The Doctor is a leader, he's a character that has been around longer than we can imagine & has knowledge & abilities to match. He's a leader & a problem solver. These writers have turned him into a sobbing, clueless man, who completely lacks leadership skills. All the while randomly breaking out in song. It's cheap & shallow, lacking the complexities that made the previous Dr. Who's so magical.

While the new Doctor Who era is watchable, there are some areas that could be improved. Ncuti Gatwa's portrayal of the Doctor still comes across as more whimsical than a deeply intellectual and ancient being, with showrunner Russell T. Davies leaning heavily into a campy and lighthearted tone. Millie Gibson brings a certain charm as the new companion, though the overall lighthearted approach raises questions about whether she will have opportunities to showcase a broader acting range assuming she is capable. Gatwa and Gibson do have an enjoyable on-screen chemistry that makes the Doctor work better than one might expect given the strange tonal choices.

The new season's shift toward a more supernatural or fantasy-focused storytelling is a departure from previous eras and abstracts the show's connection to exploring our actual universe in favor of a very light fantastical setting.

In casting recent Doctors, there seems to be an emphasis on eccentric personalities over projecting a sense of gravitas befitting an immortal, genius alien. Previous Doctors all balanced eccentricity with an underlying aura of experience and depth that has been lacking. While an improvement over the previous era in terms of maintaining interest, this new season is at least not boring, if odd, it struggles to maintain tonal and thematic continuity with classic and new era Doctor Who.

The season's specials in particular featured heavy-handed moralizing that came across as simplistic rather than cleverly insightful at times, unintentionally veering into parody. I hope that Russell T. Davies can recruit talented writers who can inject more depth, nuance and flair into the stories. This would give Ncuti Gatwa more opportunities to explore the Doctor's ancient, complex character beyond just the eccentric surfaces.

Somehow, and this is quite a feat, a few episodes of the Chibnall era stand out as being almost psuedo doctor who, and really very little of this new era feels like that. A few have the plot trappings of it, but the characters all feel wrong.

I have no issues with the cast and they have a good vibe, I'm particularly enjoying Ncuti in the role. I wasn't actually aware of him before this but he really does have some good energy. Too early to tell regarding the writing so I'll reserve judgement. It's been better than Chibnall but that's not a difficult accomplishment. My biggest issue is the overall feel of the show. They say Disney has no real input so why does it feel like a Disney show? If it doesn't pick up I may just give up and go back to watching the older seasons. Given the recent performance of Disney shows this really isn't a good start and I hope beyond all hope it finds it feet because this isn't what the majority want.

The story is pointless, flat, contradictory, boring and embarrassing. The healing and wise Doctor known as the preserver of values, life and the saviour of the Earth and the universe has mutated into a leading figure in a third-rate Punch and Judy show. Just as the Doctor has completely lost his grandeur and wisdom, the story has lost its brilliance. Where has the genius gone that in the series' heyday manifested itself in brilliant speeches, in exposing social and societal inequalities (when he uncovered the Ood scandal, for example) and ultimately through the wit, charm, cleverness and compassion of the main character? The Doctor has degenerated into a puppet, a shadow of his former self.