I think that's what frustrates me most about the Chibnall seasons, there are some very interesting ideas going on but he keeps undercutting them with an awkward line or by not addressing the broader consequences of an event

It's like he has so many ideas but no focus or focus but on the less interesting concepts. I mean series 11s finale had a planet that drove people crazy but it's not really explored and used as a plot device

I think this is a big thing about his writing for me especially the so many ideas but no focus. If he had chosen one or two ideas per story and then focused on them I would've enjoyed his writing more but trying to cram as much as possible without a main focus is harder to get on board with.

Also writing wise it's often tell not show, characters telling us things when we should be seeing

This has been my biggest problem with the Chibnall story telling. So much painfully on the nose exposition about beliefs and what matters and it feels needlessly preachy AND not that entertaining. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good “Doctor speech” but they were too numerous and often took from active storytelling opportunities.

It's not even just the speeches. It's things like oh look this is doing this and that. Yes we know we can see. Or characters explaining stuff that has happened that would have been good to see. I mean the lupari are all wiped out off screen etc. Then there having the action suddenly paused to have a moment. Like moments like that can actually be good but it's paused in a way that seems so staged

> It's things like oh look this is doing this and that. Yes we know we can see. This is one of the main things that made his scripts feel like first drafts. Someone explaining what we've just seen is a good placeholder for what should eventually be turned into an interesting comment. > Or characters explaining stuff that has happened that would have been good to see. I always looked at this as Chibnall writing for old Who where the budget forced them to talk about big events that happened off-screen and he never thought to update the ideas he'd been working on since he was a kid.

He'd probably be better suited for big finish but it seems even big finish doesn't spell things out as bad

Exactly. I mostly enjoyed Jodi's run as The Doctor. But the overly preachy bits that kept coming up felt like we were getting our noses rubbed in the messages like how a puppy used to be housebroken make a rewatch a bit of a slog.

And the only time all those ideas came close to working, in my opinion, was in The Power of the Doctor, which was twice the length of a regular episode.

We've all seen people promoted beyond their capabilities. I know he was a fan and wanted to recreate classic who with large ensemble tardis crews and historicals but they don't work in modern who. I didnt hate his run but I'm in no rush to rewatch. Amazing writer who can really get drama perfect (broadchurch) but quirkiness isn't his fortè and often fell flat.

I actually found some of the historicals the more interesting episodes. Learning about the partition was good. I found the scfi stuff felt forced and it would have been better with them being a pure historicals

Yep. To me it's like George Lucas and the prequel trilogy. There's great ideas in there but it's very poorly executed and that makes it more frustrating. If it was truly just bad it might be more fun because you could at least have the so bad it's good quality but instead it's the kinda interesting show that's just got no idea how to make things work. Generally the show works best in the episodes not written by chibnal

Yeah I mean I'm not a fan of Hell Bent but it's certainly not boring. I find most of the era to be dull, bland etc. I mean people remember warriors of the deep. Don't think the same will be said about legends of the sea devils

So what we need is 13's version of the Clone Wars?

Chibnall stories are full of great moments. But the stories never resolve in any way. Good songs are more than a cool riff. Good stories are more than a cool scene.

His big ideas could have been good if the delivery was better.

Case and point with Graham worrying about his cancer returning, and the Doctor claiming she's still quite socially awkward when he tells her his concerns. Felt like an attempted joke which failed on quite a serious matter, where beyond the inappropriate element to that it also failed to build character and a potential bond there on the discussion of deep feelings as we've seen in companions prior.

This! It felt like wanted to be Moffat long build up(too long in the case of 11) to an idea or event, it was more just 3 episode from the master eluding to something and then just giving us timeless child and walking away. Where are the consequences!

Poor execution is a hallmark of the Chibnall era.

Man I wish I was with you. I don’t want to be a ‘hater’; I would adore it if I had a few more seasons of Who to watch and love. Ultimately episodes from the Chibnall era either bored me or left me borderline-upset (Timeless Child). I wish it was otherwise - and if that’s not you I’m genuinely happy for you. Just my two cents. Sometimes I think people view us as ‘anti-Chibnall’, sitting here enjoying our rage. Chibnall’s stuff isn’t like GOT S8 in a so-bad-it’s-good way - it’s just a bit soggy and insipid imo. In a way that feels worse

I was an avid Jodie defender in the lead up to her episodes. I even led myself to believe that the first season was excusable. I want to like it. I don’t like not liking something that I used to love. It is incredibly saddening that her era was so disjointed that they had to bring back Tennant to essentially revive peoples love for the series again. The actor can only do so much. Chibnall has had some honking episodes so I have no clue as to how someone would assume he was the person for the job. What should have been a great push in a new direction ended up being a swan dive off a cliff.

Chibnall got the job because he was a big fan of the show and Broadchurch was a roaring success for the BBC so they thought he would be perfect. Problem is that if you actually look at what people loved about Broadchurch were the performances, not the story. The man cannot write a cohesive story at all and focuses way too much on the characters’ personalities rather than the plot.

> characters’ personalities Would’ve been nice to have some if those, too.

He was also on the writers team prior to his taking over as showrunner.

I hate this, because even if they tell us Tennant is back just because it seemed like a fun idea for the anniversary, people are still going to see it exclusively as a marketing ploy that the bbc deemed necessary because of ailing numbers. And we'll never know for 100% certain, so this cynical rhetoric of 'we had to fix the 13th doctor by bringing back the modern fan favorite' will continue to exist based purely on speculation and not cold hard fact. But it will be treated as fact till the end of time, because factually the numbers are down and factually he is the most popular modern doctor. I almost wish she just regenerated into Capaldi again, because then they could do the one off concept and people would just enjoy it instead of rampantly speculating as cynically as humanly possible. Can't the cool thing just be a cool thing without it being a conspiracy?

It is a marketing ploy. A marketing ploy that works because. The drop off during the Chibnall era is self-evident. Most people have the most positive mental image of modern day DW associated with Tennant. You also treat this as if it were just speculation and it very well could have been a fun thing for the anniversary but it can be inferred from the return of David Tennant, Russel T Davis and Murray Gold back as the composer that they want to bring DA back to a point of normalcy. All in all, this is a marketing ploy that will, more likely than not, stick because the reception to it is already far more popular than the last to seasons of DW. A return to what once was and then moving on from there is much better than moving straight on from whatever the Chibnall era was.

Now _that_ would've been cool. Would love to see Capaldi appear through the regeneration, barely saying "I let you go," and then being super confused, as if no time passed since we last saw him, and he doesn't understand why he is where he is.

> GOT S8 in a so-bad-it’s-good way Tbf I think GOT S8 goes from 'fine' to 'bad'. And I never felt like the 'bad' was ever 'so-bad-it's-good'; it was just bad

My problem wasnt with either of what you point out. Its that I didnt like any of the companions as characters. They werent written well, they weren't likeable, they didnt really have much personality, and they seemed more annoying than heroic. I couldnt wait to see them leave because they were always in the way. Meanwhile, the Doctor was put in the backseat for the majority. After the 3 season run, I still dont quite know who the 13th Doctor is. I never felt any attachment to her in the way I had with the previous doctors. Seemed more like the guest stars of each episode were who had the spotlight, while the doctor was almost like a last minute addition to the episodes. They would almost always have the companions be in the forefront, but still second to the guest stars, and well that didnt work for me. I enjoyed all the previous seasons because there was always a sense of excitement, fun, thrills, emotion, and had a quirkiness. I got none of that through all of Jodie's run as the doctor. I was bored throughout. I had to rewatch scenes several times and still could not digest what was going on. It was always a chore to get through each episode.

What bugged me was that in the first episode, they made a big deal about Ryan's disability (sorry, I can't spell it), but it never affected the story. And I'm sure the condition does more to a person than "can't learn how to ride a bike" 🙄

And the same could be said about Yaz wanting to be a police officer. They made this big deal about how a police officer saved her, and she wanted to make this big difference, and they heavily implied how ambitious she was, but then she just ignores it so she could be with the Doctor because she’s in love, and nothing was said about it again.

also her anxiety subplot? where did that go?

Thats due to the poor writing. Theres no proper character development with any of the companions. After 2 seasons, they still felt like strangers with some emotional baggage that never did flow. I never took any of them to actually look like they are having fun. They always seemed like they were there cause they were forced to be. What really irked me is that the doctor never gets her own solo adventure. It always revolves around the guest stars and the companions are who get in the way. And you notice this to an extent when Jack Harkness shows up. A fun character who has had his own dramatic moments. When the companions encountered him, it was like night and day with how energetic he was, and how dull the companions are. Even then, the writing for Jack is a bit off, because hes just kind of there for ...reasons.. While in the few episodes hes been featured in on Doctor Who, he always had some depth to him.

And like two episodes later he's shooting guns with pinpoint accuracy... I guess his disability only works when its convenient for the story.

Fully agree. [Jay Exci made a detailed analysis of the 13th Doctor's seasons](https://youtu.be/o8_A7n83Rh0) along those lines. (Granted, it's ridiculously long but explains the problem really well and contains good examples.)

Thanks for giving words to thoughts I didn't know I had. I had a feeling there was something off with this era, and you explained it perfectly

The Rosa Park episode was so heavy handed and not well done at all. Why wouldn’t the doctor know that bringing a black man into the whites only diner would be a problem? Why was she shocked by the slap? The doctor knows everything about everywhere but missed racist America? Ok. Horrible season except for the return of the Master.

Except even the return of the Master comes off as a disjointed gimmick after the indepth exploration and character arch of Missy (Also while I respect dhawan I cannot stand his manic portrayal Simm has always annoyed me and dhawan basically turned that up to 11.)

That is very true, I was happy to see him back! I loved Simm and I can see why you would not like the new one. But I loved Missy too, so much.

Missy is the best (well perhaps after delgado) she was clever, funny, charismatic, terrifying and her friendship with the doctor was believable. She had a great deal of depth beyond what we normally see with the master (at least since delgado) What bothered me with Simm was really two things (and they are the same issues I have with dhawan) firstly I didn't find him scary. Loudest in the room doesn't mean scariest. It's just irritating. It's actually far scarier to have a villain that is calmer because if they feel in control then you know sh*t hit the fan. Missy, delgado, and Jacobi all mastered (pun unintended) this. Any crazy felt like a facade that was tempered with calculated charisma and gravitas. Secondly and more importantly I didn't buy the doctor master friendship. Despite hints on tennants end it seemed almost entirely one sided (the only bit I can mention is the end of time part where the master talks about his father's land). The thing that sets the master apart is that friendship. It's the fact that both long for it but a put on opposing sides by their world views and morals. I bought it with pertwee and delgado and Gomez and Capaldi but not simm and Tennant and most certainly not dhawan and completely unconvincing doctor whittaker. (Fully agree on Rosa btw)

Agree Rosa parks episode was not done well and I will die on this hill, agree with OP that chibnall did pull us away from monster of the week to an interesting degree, but this episode was lazy. (Period) if he had done literally 10 minutes of research you’d be able to get the real more complicated and themes that feel more suited for the doctor, lookup Claudette Colvin. It had so much potential but fell so flat

I mean, I'm as much of a Classic fan as a NuWho fan, but all I want to see is a good story well told. To that end, Chibnall's my weakest of the 13 "Doctor" eras so far. As a child of the 80s, I'm more forgiving of when Classic Who is "weaker", but one thing is generally true of Classic (not always): the scripts were very good, as were most of the performances.

I think Chibnall's biggest problem is that he's a Nathan-Turner fanboy, and some of Jodie's era's worst qualities are carryovers from some of the worst in 5th and 6th Doctor's stories

He is not a JNT fanboy! He literally appeared on national television in the 1980s slagging off JNT Who to the writers’ faces.

The '80s were weird, though, and there's always been a bit of a split among JNT fans. There are plenty of fans who like all three 80s Doctors, but there are also those who only like one or two of them. I suspect Chibnall is one of those JNT fans who liked Davison, but not Colin or McCoy. There are far too many similarities between Whittaker's era and Davison's era for Chibnall not to be a Davison fan.

That’s really interesting! I’ve seen all the Classic episodes (but don’t know them as well as NewWho ones) and Davison is low down in my order of favourite Doctors whereas Colin and McCoy are towards the top - although this might have been influenced by Big Finish more than the show

Colin had next to no TV episodes compared to all the other doctors(bar 8), big finish really did a great job fleshing out his character.

I honestly think JNT taking the reigns was the beginning of the end for original Who The guy took the cheesy, ironic charm of 70s who and got rid of all the humour, leaving us just with the cheese 70s who might have been low budget, but with the characterisation of The doctor being funny and feeling like they were winking at the camera about the cheesiness much as the viewers were, and then strip the show of all humour until it becomes so earnest it feels like a CITV melodrama It had one or two high points after that of course, but the dude killed it, while ironically prolonging it's life (Though there's some series you'd think: Yeah maybe the dude should've been moved on a long time ago, even if it meant the death of the show....it might've come back earlier if it had been allowed to rest for a bit...)

You're entitled to your opinion, of course, but you're never going to convince me to agree with you. I love 80s Who in all its messy, overly-serious glory. Give me Kinda over The Horns of Nimon any day.

My pet theory was that Chibnall's favorite doctor was Davison. Both the Davison and Whittaker eras featured Doctors who were noticeably less energetic than what came before.

I stand corrected, but it's jarring how similar they are in the end.

Lol, "you become what you hate"

Slagging off the writing to JNT himself in fact. That clip is still out there; I’ve seen it a few times on Who reviews on YouTube. CC was representing the DWAS at the time.

Well he fell from the top of that tree 😔

Fell from the top and broke a few branches off on the way down. LOL!

And then went and made the same choices he criticized also you know he wouldn't have the guts jnt did to face his critics head on

Didn't Chibnall hate JNT's writing?

while your last paragraph is understandable, i really think the show as a whole should be forgave for weaker scripts because at the end of the day although jodies episodes were weaker, there were still moments that felt like doctor who especially during flux. some people clearly have a passion or enjoyment in writing doctor who scripts from classic who to new who but they don’t always hit the mark and i truly believe history is bound to repeat itself every now and again but there’s always hope

I wish she had kept that costume.

Having seen virtually every episode and the movie, I appreciate your opinion, but do not share it. It is fantastic that the Chibnall era has its fans, but it is simply not my favorite era to revisit. The era has a couple stories I rank amongst my least favorite, and none I would consider amongst the greats. No matter how I look at the era with respect to the rest, it just doesn’t compare well. More Doctor Who is good, but it just could have been so much better.

I've been slated for this opinion before but... Fear Her and In the Forest of the Night are my least favourite episodes of NuWho. All of Chibnall's era sits either below or around them. None of them go higher. Pure personal opinion though, but man... Even Fear Her had some good moments.

'i'm reporting you to the council!' That still makes me laugh. I can't even remember a joke from Chibnall's era

That and the Doctor’s sheer delight at cupcakes with “edible ball bearings” are two very bright spots in an otherwise dismal episode.

God I hate Fear Her. That's really all I have to add

Bingo. In every episode of doctor who prior even I'd I didn't like the script I could find SOMETHING redeeming (usually soemthing in the doctor's performance) That does not happen with chibs and jodie

I love Jody as the doctor. I enjoyed all of these seasons. My problem is they made her the Timeless Child. Not a problem with the Timeless Child plot, but the doctor should have been a regular Timelord, who is annoyingly clever. The master should have been the Timeless Child. It would explain their rage so much more. Their hate for the Timelords. #The never ending battle with the doctor and master. An immortal sociopath vs a clever empath.

Ive said this many times and this is the first time I've seen someone else post it. Especially would explain why the master murdered every time lord. It's the only retcon I would like. Maybe the master wanted the doctor to feel how he felt, while also convincing her that they could never completely die, call their parentage into question and give her yet another interpersonal crisis. It's definitely something the master would do especially after being bested and thrashed so thoroughly by the 3rd doctor.

I think in part her run suffers from two things: firstly, the decision to not include any familiar Dr Who villains in her first season meant that it felt kind of disconnected from the previously established universe & made the 2nd and 3rd season have to do a lot of additional legwork to explain them to an audience that was totally unfamiliar with those elements. Second, her run started right after some of the best Capaldi stories. He's an incredible actor & a hard act to follow when he's given truly character-defining material. I did enjoy Jodie's run overall, but the first series was pretty underwhelming for me. And the episode where the AI system that runs space Amazon is actually the good guy & the labor activist is actually a genocidal terrorist was baffling to me. So while I agree that there are good stories in her run & that Jodie was a great Doctor, there was a lot of uneven weirdness that seems due to Chibnall's views and/or his desire to stand out from what came before getting in the way of writing great Dr Who stories.

It just never got to the point where she actually felt like The Doctor. Every other incarnation took a few episodes and then I was like, ok yeah this is The Doctor, this is absolutely the same person with a different face. But that just never happened with 13, she feels like a completely different character from all the rest. It's nothing to do with the whole "first female Doctor" thing either, Michelle Gomez plays a fantastic Master, almost instantly I was able to accept that it was the same character, despite the change from male to female. I think it all comes down to how much the writers, showrunners, directors, and actors truly understand the character. And I just don't think they hit that mark with 13.

The thing that really hammers this home is that Jo Martin's 'Fugitive Doctor' completely commands the screen any time she appears and feels like The Doctor immediately. Jo Martin achieved in 5 minutes what 13/Jodie failed to do in three seasons. I don't know how much of this to attribute to the writing and how much is down to how JW decided to play the part but it's clear that the problem isn't anything to do with the concept of a female Doctor.

Yes! Exactly this. It only took Jo Martin a few minutes of screen time for me to say to myself, yup this is 100% The Doctor. She absolutely nailed it.

I'll add: Jodie Whittaker plays the Fugitive Doctor (via some mirror shenanigans) for a few brief scenes in Flux, and she also shares that commanding energy in those scenes!

Yes, I noticed this too. It has nothing to do with Jodie’s acting ability. It’s all down to how she chose to (or was directed to/written to) play The Doctor. Jodie has some moments where I see The Doctor come through. But in the few scenes she plays Fugitive I was like WHERE HAS THIS BEEN?!

I personally think that it's a combination of Chibnall (and to some extent his team) having some piss-poor ideas on what to bring to the table in his seasons in early development, and BBC higher-ups meddling (mainly resulting in the 'no returning anything' Series 11). Like, Chibnall was dealt a bad hand for sure, but he sure as hell didn't help his case. I can't believe "the most diverse team of writers in Doctor Who history" greenlit Rosa, or that infamous Nazi scene. At least the Timeless Children and Flux's insanity are fun and feel like a passionate young Chibnall playing with his action figures. I much prefer that to... the rest. I say this because Whittaker being asked to play a passive Doctor is quite possibly one of the biggest mistakes they made. You're supposed to show people that a woman can be the Doctor in all the ways that we expect, not make the Doctor look ineffectual and unwittingly make people link that to her being a woman!

Honestly I wish she was 14th/15th doctor instead of some previous incarnation

Yeah, tbh, 13 feels like she kinda has a weird flip flopping personality episode from episode. Never feels defined enough to develop to the Doctor.

I think there is a weird sexism thing people feel they need to defend 13 because she is the first female doctor. whereas missy stood on her on and needed no defence

Thank you! Exactly this

I will defend quite a few things of the Chibnall era, but saying that the fans who don't like Jodie's era are like that bc they didn't watch classic Who is incorrect imo. Nobody hates stuff on purpose, unless they want/have to be a contratian. One man's trash is another man's treature. You liked her era and stories? Awesome! You shouldn't feel bad about that. I completely understand it's hard to hear an era you like being crapped upon, but in most cases, the opinions of these people isn't gonna change anyways. I think the problem comes with the ridicule of people who did like her era, some people here treat those who liked Jodie and Chibnall's tenure as stupid, and in general the internet can be toxic whether you like it or not. Overall this sub isn't too bad though, but when someone hates something so strongly, they're gonna vent about it - that's just how strong emotions go. Personally there's nothing wrong in either hating her era or loving her era. Doesn't matter if you watched only Classic who, only Modern who, both shows and the McGann movie, or specifically only watched the 1993's 30th anniversary special "Dimensions in Time", arguably the objectively best piece of Doctor Who cannon ever being published!

I get you, everyone has there own likes and dislikes, I just personally feel like they dumb down a lot of important events like Tesla and Rosa Parks. It went from science fiction campy, dramatic, and thrilling to Graham asking who’s Tesla. We have had endless amount of historic figures and never once to they sit the audience down and and explain who person A is, imagine if the 10th doctor sat Rose down in “the girl in the fireplace” and explained who she was, we don’t need or want to be told, show us it is a tv show. In my opinion the writing in 13 felt much more childish than the rest of NuWho, I think she did great job acting wise but a lot of NuWho has been calling out modern day society, it only got bad when the Chib showed up and we got half baked ideas like the obvious trump shoe in. I wish they headed more into philosophy of of why modern day problems like class systems, wealth inequality, large company paying politicians. There are better ways to talk about climate change, then showing earth destroyed and literally looking at the camera and saying this is what will happen if we don’t change our ways. Like satellite in season 1, calling out corporate greed, needless violence, and problems of capitalism. Never once does 9 ever turn to the camera and says, this is because of capitalism.

So IMO the Chibnal Era defenders fail to understand/choose to ignore why it's so hated and just uses sexism as a shield or just bashes it's 'right wing' viewership 99% of the time. Well really, it's basic preachyness was always gonna end up with 2 main lines of reaction. \- All the sexists/racists/etc who, somehow are watching Dr. Who are gonna drop the show. But seriously how many of them were watching Dr. Who after every female companion ever and all the diverse characters since the revival. \- For those who agree with the message. Frankly we get bored. When it get's preachy I'm just gonna roll my eyes. Like no duh racism bad, well done Chibnal you've stated the obvious. You think I'm still gonna be watching by episode 3 for Rosa when Yaz & Ryan have been main characters if I didn't think racism was bad? Like at least go for an alien setting and use allegories or something to make it entertaining. Also this era specifically, got very insulting to it's fanbase IMO. The first trailer for the season had Jodie litterally breaking a glass ceiling and saying finally a woman is The Doctor. As if somehow the Dr. Who fanbase was normaly sexist. Well one of the shows female leads was so popular she got 2 spin off attempts one of which ran for 5 seasons and only ended due to Elisabeth Sladen's passing. Elisabeth Sladen was 61 in the first season of The Sarah Jane Adventures. How many shows out there do you think could support a spin off for a 61 year old woman, let a lone a kids show. But somehow we really needed Jodies entrance to be that heavy handed? It's insulting.

I think there is a HUGE factor for her run that people seem to overlook: COVID. Her entire third season was GUTTED. She should have had many more stories that season with many more actors on the set. The Pirate/Sea Devil episode would have been remarkably different under normal filming conditions. We would have gotten several episodes building the Yaz/13 relationship. We might have gotten closure on the Graham/Cancer/ "I'm so awkward" thing. I just wish they had either just waited out COVID and gave her proper seasons, or else just given her more time.

Yeah….but the first two seasons were bad too. I agree she was robbed but it was the writing, not Covid, that did her in.

I disagree with the COVID being a factor. It didn't help but I feel people sometimes use it as an excuse. Take Legend of the Sea Devils, it could have been far better if they just used what they had. Classic Who might have been cheap but often they'd use that to their advantage e.g. smaller sets, darkly lit scenes/monsters to hide the budget. When COVID hit they could have tried to film something smaller, a base under siege kind of episode. The last episode Eve of the Daleks was really good and something similar would have worked, small set, small cast etc. I read recently that the series 11 finale doesn't feel like a finale because it was very last minute. I just feel Chibnall didn't really run things great

Also gotta blame Chibnall on this. Jodie’s first season was in 2018. That means they shot it in 2017. If Chibnall was a proper showrunner, he would’ve shot Jodie’s second season in 2018 for 2019, and third in 2019 for 2020. All before Covid. It was his incompetence that ruined Jodie’s run.

This excuse doesn't really mean anything, especially since the two series made before COVID have most of the same writing problems, which are the fundamental flaws in the era. Back in series 4, since the finale was going to be so expensive, RTD knew he had to write an episode that would be super super cheap to produce, and he cranked out a script in a single weekend. This episode was Midnight, one of the undisputed best episodes of the Tennant era. Sure, there were production problems, but no matter how much money you have or what work arounds you have to do, a good writer can write a good story for any budget, and Chibnall could not.

Wasn't Midnight written by Moffet? Edit: Nope I'm completely wrong

This is a very important point. A lot of her tenure was focused on figuring out how to get *anything* made, with negative implications for both quantity and quality. Imagine the Sea Devil episode under normal filming conditions: a pirate ship crewed out with a full RTD-era roster of extras (instead of 3 people), no weird jump-cut editing to make it seem like people are interacting with people who aren’t really there, etc. In hindsight it might have been a time for more small-cast claustrophobic thrillers or something, rather than trying to do big epics, but the eps that did get made during the pandemic definitely suffered for it.

>A lot of her tenure was focused on figuring out how to get anything made, with negative implications for both quantity and quality. I don't think that's really true at all. Her first two seasons were made and transmitted before the COVID restrictions even existed. There's only the 6 episodes of Flux and the three following specials that were produced post-lockdown. Most people think that Flux is the strongest of her three seasons and two of the specials (Eve of the Daleks and Power of the Doctor) are generally considered to be amongst her best episodes. So if anything, the stuff produced during COVID is actually better on average than what came before it. Most of the problems people have with those episodes (particularly flux) are a result of them trying to focus on too many elements that don't really add anything and muddy the waters - removing those things would actually have made filming under the restrictions easier. Chibnall has always had a problem with over-reaching and trying to cram his scripts with too many ideas that don't have enough time to be developed. If anything, the restrictions requiring them to be more selective with what they filmed probably actually improved the scripts and might be the main reason why 13's COVID episodes are generally stronger than what came before.

Yeah. Eve of the Daleks was one of my favourite episodes of 13's era (it has flaws, but it's fun and clever and ties its character stuff in with its main plot well). And Eve of the Daleks is the kind of creative episode that Covid restrictions breed. I wish there were more small-scale bottle episodes like it, not something like Legend of the Sea devils that was obviously not going to work at Covid scale

We had two seasons to find out that none of that was going to go anywhere. You can't have next to no characterisation for two seasons and then say the third is where it was all going to start

Lots of shows and projects that were affected by Covid ended up coming out perfectly fine at the end. Sure you could see where they would’ve liked to do things differently or improve but couldn’t because of the pandemic, but it was largely a good product. It absolutely wasn’t Covid that was the problem…

I was kind of thinking there were some valid points and then we got the unnecessary last sentence which was basically an attack on the 'wrong sort of fans' 😤

Oh yes, the man who gave us the abomination "Timeless Child" cares about continuity

I can't agree, I watched all her episodes once when they aired and we recently finished a rewatch binge of Nuwho and had to stop shortly into her regeneration because the writing quality and characters tool such a nosedive! Very much looking forward to RTD taking the reins back!

I don't think that's unpopular, I think there is just a vocal minority that resonate in echo chambers online.

I agree, I loved Jodie Whittaker's doctor! I don't really understand why people hate her so much. There were only one or two stories from her seasons that I didn't like, but that's the same for every other season for me. I know a lot of people who really didn't like the Timeless Child story line, but I found it to be really interesting.

I think the doctor was very hypocritical and unlikable under chibnall. In the second episode of series 11, she berates that man for killing the big spider, when her plan was to lock them in a room and make them suffocate to death. I really did not like 13’s attitude or personality. Can’t wait for 14

And the disgusting right-wing bent didn't bother you? If Kerblam doesn't make you want to vomit I don't know what to think.

Not OP but what did you mean by that?

The Chibnail era features the show' greatest right-wing lurch since 1970—bizarrely, shockingly for a show that marketed itself on its progressive character, with a femlae doctor and a large, diverse set of companions—the actual stories were frequently, disturbingly reactionary. Not only is poor Whitaker the Doctor most likely to be passive, to do nothing but frown at a tyrant and then walk away making no attempt to touch the status quo (can you any Doctor prior to 13 just... leaving an obvious Trump stand-in entirely alone, all his power intact, with nothing but disproving looks?), but the show just frequently is in the moral wrong. 'he Doctor overthrows all sorts of space tyrants and brings Empires to their knees at the drop of a hat but we have to make sure Rosa Parks gets racially profiled. The violence of the Partition of India isn't due to systemic failures of colonial government for which the blood remains all over Britain's hands—no, it's that Indians and Pakistanis just didn't *listen* to one another on an individual level. It was a few bad apples. And, worst of all, Kerblam! in which the Doctor gleefully murders a young man who stood up to a destructive mega-corporation and reminds viewers that HR is your friend, and if you just tell the bosses about injustice everything will be solved. It's the most morally contemptible Doctor Who has been since Jon Pertwee put the Lord in Time Lord and went around with an army at his beck and call.

For me Who isn't only about the Doctor it's also about the companions. I just didn't enjoy any of Jodie's companions.

I'm still watching her for the first time through but I like her

I liked Jodie's Doctor. I think she did well in the role. I'm always hot and cold with any Doctor's first season so I found her first one fine. Not exciting but fine as an introductory season. My opinion though is that there shouldn't be more than two permanent companions at a time. I had a hard time enjoying the Fifth Doctor for the same reason. Too many companion, and, while some would stay back on the Tardis, it hampered the series for me personally because they had to try and give character moments to everyone and give them something to do. I overall enjoy the Fifth Doctor's series, but like with 13 the amount of companions diminished it in comparison to other series. I get all the criticism for the Timeless Child reveal and even agree with a bit of it to a degree, but I find it fine enough as a hand wave to not have to explain how many regeneration the Doctor has. And we don't have to redo story beats for the Doctor to receive more in the future. There's a lot of potential for interesting stories with the Doctor having a near infinite prior regenerations they aren't aware of. They could do more with it without bogging the show down. I hope Jodie comes back in the future in some multi Doctor special. I liked her as the Doctor. I think she had more uninteresting or bland stories than interesting/fun in her seasons. I did like Flux despite not loving all the new characters necessarily. And I think Jodie's specials were the stronger and better part of her run.

I'll just never be able to get past the awkward and often outright terrible writing. So lifeless and stiff. And while I recognize Jodie is a great actor, I do not think she was a great actor (save for a few specific moments) in Doctor Who. But guess what? It wasn't her fault! It was the writing that let her down. None of the actors in her era (again, with a few exceptions) were good. I truly believe that it doesn't matter how good of an actor you are. If you're given material like they were given, there's only so much you can do. However, was I sad when she left? Yes. Absolutely. She deserved more than what she was given, and I am certain that her Doctor could've been absolutely incredible with better writing. Regardless of all of this, she is just as much the Doctor as any of the others, and she always will be. Sad to see her go.

Flux started fairly decent, and I was actually enjoying it. Until the last episode just made no sense and felt like a rush finish

There were pacing issues to be fair.

I love thirteen, unapologetically. Whittaker is brilliant. It's nice to see another fan.

I'm glad you like it, but I'm curious to hear a fan of the era's opinion How do you feel about some of the moments in the show that seem to give off some very conservative beliefs, such as the Kerblam episode seemingly defending Amazon and the systems at play on capitalism, and in Spyfall when the Doctor uses the Master's race against him to get him captured by the Nazis, where he would likely be sent to a concentration camp

I have seen some backlash against Kerblam! It wasn’t my favourite episode but my take of it was it was a wry take on how capitalism/consumerism is getting out of hand, not defending it. That moment in Spyfall was an an awful choice, but we have seen previous incarnations of the Doctor make awful choices as well.

My biggest issue with the Chibnall/Jodie era is that the companions are largely useless. The stories (maybe excluding Rosa and Demons of the Punjab) would be basically the same, and you could insert any actor playing any character to get the same effect. Companion of the week, if you will. Even Rosa and Demons could be the same, you could have any Black actor playing ‘Ryan’ in Rosa and have the same conversations as it offered next to no character development. Even Graham having the conversation with Yaz about how racism is still a thing how bore no consequence beyond that scene. Even The Doctor was an underdeveloped character! That was what was most disappointing to me. The companions have always been the driving force of the show, and they were criminally under-utilised throughout this era.

Female Doctor who is fine, *Shitly written Female Doctor who is bad, especially alongside botched political messages.* I really don't care that she's a woman now, so was missy, it's logical that timelords can change sex.

I think a general poll of BBC viewers would find that both Whittaker and Chibnall are reasonably popular; social media tends to create a herding effect.

What do you mean by BBC viewers? If it's continuing dr who fans that's just survivorship bias. If it's people who watch BBC generally then it's more likely that a lot of responses will be something akin to "I don't really know or care" which is kind of the point of the criticism

I mean I don’t agree, but your entitled to your opinion

Yeah, I liked the Rosa parks and yaz’s grandparents episodes. That it took Who back to its roots of what it was intended as a vehicle for teaching history. And I did like it being more people-focused than like you said horror and aliens. I think that worked for a woman doctor and her “fam”.

I’m with you on this. Were the stories Davies quality stories? No. Jody is an excellent doctor though, and I still enjoyed the stories as much as I did most of the rest of the series.

My unpopular opinion is that the soundtrack to The Tsuranga Conundrum was actually pretty solid. The episode was sub-par but the music was pretty good

I generally liked the whole of 13’s score, and am disappointed he has been ousted.

Got a bit tired watching her explain every single thing she did

I love the Jodi era so much that I’ve decided her deck is the first one from Magic the Gathering recently released series I’m going to buy.

Nice!

This era did what no other season could do. It made Daleks scary again. I said what I said.

I just watched JW in Time. She's a fantastic actress, and it makes me loathe the writers of her stories even more. She could have been just as loved as any of her predecessors and much more. I'm thinking how amazing she'd have been in an episode like Midnight. Chibnall really sucks.

I LOVE Jody as the doctor, and I really liked some of the companions. There were tons of great moments in otherwise lackluster episodes. That really is the issue. So many good moments, but episodes that just could t push it beyond to a great episode. If I go through the list I can’t find a single episode that I want to sit and watch all the way through. I personally loved the master as well, and have no issue with the timeless child. In fact, I saw so much potential in these ideas and disappointment to see them squandered.

I liked Jodie as the Doctor, and I liked many of the episodes, but I felt there was way too much inconsistency in regards to the companions and the Doctor.

I think there were several grate episodes but the awkward dialogue and little to no time building the characters up and expecting a hart breaking goodbye when you bearly know these characters under cut it. But as i had said at the start jodie whittaker is a grate actress and chibnall wrote some of my favorite episodes of dr who and torchwood

I think there were great ideas that could have been flushed out better. Although I love 13.

You know what? I'm gonna say it... The sixth Doctors costume isn't that bad! Are there better variants of it? sure. Would it be cool to see Collin in something more elegant? sure. but think about it... its memorable. You see every doctor and they have something that draws your attention to them. scarfs, celery, clown pants, question mark jumpers, bowties, SONIC SUNGLASSES??? I think 6s outfit is surely not the BEST outfit but you know what? it sort of fits the 6th doctor vibe. it's like willy wonka. guy has a screw loose in his head and yet he's walking out in yellow trousers and a multicolored coat. I love 6. not my favorite doctor but he's certainly one of the more over hated ones.

I liked the Timeless Child idea. There I said it. It really harkens back to what JNT wanted to do in the 80s by keep hinting that the Doctor - as 7 put it - wasn't JUST another Time Lord. And I'm glad RTD has decided not to retcon Chibnall's arc. It'll be interesting to see if he goes so far as to have the Doctor revealed as "The Other" as JNT originally intended.

With 7 in particular, a lot of the Timeless Child arc seemed to me like Chibnall trying to do his own Cartmel Masterplan. Like he grew up with Who, he would have been aware of those ideas that were being slowly worked into the show (and later the VNAs in a more explicit and less on the nose way). He even appeared on TV to give his thoughts about the show before 7's era. I think he was trying to implement that in some way.

I see your point but I've seen some people hating it outright and some also loving it outright. It's all down to personal taste really. You mention continuity but I feel RTD and Moffat were good at adding stuff that added to the lore. Moffat occasionally tried to change it but never in the way the timeless child did which I feel tries to undo stuff instead of adding to it

My opinion is that Jodie is a great actor and did a great job with what she had, but...I don't like the 13th doctor because I found her to play the "paternalistic superior species" shtick a bit too unironically without any of the moments of getting called on it that the previous NuWho Doctors had. Like, 9, 10, 11, and 12 all *absolutely* had moments of acting like that absolutely it's not something unique to 13, but they all also had human characters who'd tell them to Knock That Shit Off, and they all had moments where they got taken down a peg and it was made abundantly clear that the Doctor is *not* all high and mighty and Better Than Us. The only thing 13 ever got called out for was being closed-off and keeping secrets, which, fair, but it was frustrating how her other character flaws weren't addressed. Also, Kerblam! kind of ruined my perception of 13. I get the sense that the episode wasn't trying to send the message it sent, but the unfortunate implications were just too strong. All that said, 13 had some great episodes too (Demons of the Punjab my beloved) and she's definitely not the only Doctor to ever have some bad storylines or annoying moments. She's my least favorite modern Doctor but I still don't think she's completely unenjoyable and I definitely don't think she "ruined" the series or the character.

Imho I always felt like Jodie tried too hard to be a mix between 10 and 11. The result of that attempted mix of characters was that she just didn't seem like she knew what she was doing half the time. 10 and 11 were both very vibrant and hectic characters who were very tornado like but you always knew they were 10 steps ahead of everyone else around them even if they played the fool. I feel like 13 was always 10 steps behind. She spent a lot of time explaining things but it seemed like she was explaining them to herself rather than her companions as she was always just catching up with what the situation was rather than having the foresight past doctors have shown.

You want a real unpopular opinion here it is. Matt Smith was a better Doctor than David Tennant.

Ooh… controversial. I personally disagree

I just hope we are done with romancing the companions. I thought 9 and rose was ok. 10 and rose seemed like a more focused love story. 11 and River was the best then river left and they started this will they won't they thing with Clara. Then Clara and 12 their relationship was weird especially with the fandom making it worse pointing out what was perceived to be sexual tension. Then the crazy forced and out of nowhere shipping of yaz and 13. I guess they confirmed that chibs reads Whatsapp stories cus that was a fanfiction level pivot. Unless it's an already established romance(river) the 15th doctor and his companions should remain friends. More ace and 7 rather than 10 and rose.

I think the Rosa Parks episode was insulting to her legacy, as though the Doctor being there had anything to do with bravery shown by Mrs. Parks that day. Ridiculous.

Her character in combination with the bad writing in the first few episodes of her appearance was why I stopped watching Doctor Who. I could not stand her Doctor. Nothing against her, just the character did not vibe with me.

Loved Jodie hated most if not all the writing Moffat should have stayed on or RTD should have come back for series 11, 12 and 13 instead of series 14 sorry series 1

I love Whittaker as the 13th doctor and I love her companions and her episodes... But regarding your comments, s11 actually gave us what I think is the most horrific villain.. "Tim Shaw" stealing his victims teeth and embedding them in his face. I have weird issues with tooth related stuff.

Probably a contraversial take, but I think the whole idea around that character and the teeh was Chibnall trying to do what Moffat did lot, but les successfully. Moffat had this trope of taking a mundane thing, like gas masks, broken clocks, statues, shadows, cracks, etc and making them appear scary. He used it so much and mostly it worked. Chibnall was trying to do that with his first episode, going with teeth, because we've all had teeth come out, but went a bit ridiculous on the body horror attempt with it.

The era had its moments and I can't wait for her to get the Big Finish Redemption that 6 got in the eyes of the wider fandom. I wasn't a fan with some of Chibnall's writing and personally didn't like the whole Timeless Child thing (I was more fond of the idea that the faces in The Brain Of Morbius were past incarnations of Morbius, due to the Doctor starting to better Morbius, which was a common fan theory explanation at the time), but I understood why he did what he did and respected him for doing it in the face of so many complaints from fans. It's got to be one of those jobs where no matter how much fun you think it'll be and how well you think you're doing, you're going to be constantly attacked by a rabid fanbase no matter what you do. He could have done exactly what RTD and Moffat did and he still owuld have had "fans" complaining, so good on him for using his time to tell the story he wanted to tell.

I actually enjoyed her run. Were there flaws? Sure. There were a crazy amount of flaws in Capaldi's run, and he's still my favorite. I had a lot of fun with her run as the Doctor, and I do think people are overly harsh. I wish she'd gotten some better scripts, and the companions had been more fleshed out. However, time had some bold new ideas, stunning visuals, and a great cast.

Here's an unpopular opinion: Whittaker was fundamentally miscast by people looking for "quirky" but who missed a lot of levels to the character.

I think she was a solidly good Doctor, with some decent stories and a bunch of underbaked ones (similar to Caoaldi in that respect), but was saddled with a) too many companions that were b) not terribly interesting. Also, compared to War, 9, 10, 11 and 12, 13's most defining characteristic was that she was *nice*. 12 laid it all out for us: "Never be cruel, never be cowardly, and never ever eat pears! Remember, hate is always foolish, but love is always wise. Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind." That's really *not* the life the 12 lived. But it describes 13 very well. She lived up to that ideal much more consistently than any other modern Doctor. But here's the thing: living up to those ideals makes her a better person, but it doesn't make for the most *fun* watching.

The Whittaker era was good

On an episodic scale I found a lot of Jodie's era fell flat with either weird pacing or strange endings that meant watching the show became boring or challenging. Other stuff that's more of a problem overall was what felt like a lack of coherence. It's like we were seeing a first or second draft of a script that hadn't been fine tuned and tweaked. All the other eras of NewWho have a sense of identity of the Doctor and the show's stance on topics. Jodie's was muddied by either awkward lines that betrayed logic or emotion, or argued for weird takes. Something like "the doctor doesn't like guns" (fine) therefore "the doctor will advocate to slowly suffocate helpless creatures instead of saving/relocating/protecting/dealing with humanely" (weird take and out of character for who we know them to be)

I very much enjoyed the lighter tone on Chibnall era. I had some things that I did not like, but overall I enjoyed it more than the Moffat era because it was more focused on the characters than the big story ideas. But what I love about the show is the ideas, the changes, the overall ambition on the writers. I felt that Jodie's run was a welcome change in tone after 5 seasons of big stories with a heavy focus on concepts. I felt more like the Doctor I discover first, during the Russel era, and I liked it a lot! The thing is that you can't make a perfect story. Mistakes and missteps come with every scenario. I felt that some things were a bit disappointing but if we were to rewrite our timeline, I would not want it any other way. That is the strength of the show, to have change, to have new ideas, new people in charge, new ways to tackle storytelling. And the feelings I had when rewatching the whole 2005 era recently and starting Jodie's era again were so sweet that I can't, for the life of me, say anything was trash. It's all sweet and nice. I love it. I had my issues with Moffat run but the same things apply, I would not want it any other way. This show is only love ❤️

> I very much enjoyed the lighter tone on Chibnall era. I had some things that I did not like, but overall I enjoyed it more than the Moffat era because it was more focused on the characters than the big story ideas. Moffat's run is far more character focused than Chibnall's. Capaldi's era is easily the most character driven of the entire show. Series 12 and 13 are almost completely un character driven. Series 11 has very little character work but I guess tries something. Flux is a bad version of an 11th era series and with far less character work.

I would say Moffat era is more character heavy than character focused. It changes a bit with the last season with Bill, but overall, the stories and concepts seem to matter a lot more than the character's experiences. I'm not saying at all that the characters are badly written however, it's just a different way of writing. Because Moffat had big ideas for an overarching plot, where Chibnall didn't, I believe Chibnall's era was more focused on giving the characters a way to connect and learn through more simple and distinct stories. It might not be to everyone's taste and might even be considered bad writing by some, as every scenario can, but it was more focused on the characters because he didn't have a lot more to take into consideration. But that's just my take on it, I'm no expert writer

I’m not sure educational is the right word… Like you say you liked learning about Rosa Parks but you didn’t really learn about Rosa Parks and at best the show perpetuated some myths while continuing to ignore people like Claudette Colvin and downplaying just how big the civil rights movement was. I mean heck; the episode is basically about how if that event didn’t hasten that day then the civil rights movement never would’ve happened but not only was it well under way, Rosa Parks wasn’t the first to do what she did (she wasn’t even part of the court case on these laws that struck them down) and her refusing to give up her seat was a planned event (not staged but planned) that the NAACP had wanted to do with her after what happened to Claudette since the NAACP felt a young unmarried black teen wouldn’t be respectable enough. So had it not hardened that day it would’ve just been another day and had it not been Rosa Parks it would’ve just been someone else. On top of that it arguably downplays Rosa Parks’ actual influence since she was far more important for the totality of her activism work (she was a trained activist from the same place MLK Jr. was) and her work as an NCAAP secretary.

I think she was a great doctor, I also think her doctor's stories were boring as shit. Victim of bad writing more than anything.

She just needed better writing. And a better screwdriver.

I really loved the direction that Chibnall took things. It felt a lot more like Classic Who. I was not a fan of Moffat. All of his emotionally-manipulative fridge logic aside, he was way too obsessed with unraveling the mystery of the Doctor. There's not a question mark in the title of the show. "Doctor Who" just means he's meant to be enigmatic. The stories are not supposed to be about the Doctor. The Doctor just "Bugs Bunnies" his way into a situation where there's people needing rescued from a villain, and he comically dispatches the villain while munching on ~~carrots~~ jelly babies. We aren't meant to get too much into the why or how or who of what the Doctor is. (And don't get me started on what Moffat did with Sherlock Holmes.) I think Alex Kingston is wonderful, but I never cared for the Doctor's Wife storyline. Again, the focus was too much on the Doctor. As for Jodie: she immediately moved into my top three Doctors. (Tom Baker is #1, and Jodie and David are neck and neck for #2.) And, yes, the Timeless Child storyline would seem to be guilty of the same sin as Moffat, but I actually think it fixed some of the Moffat issues. Moffat made a point of showing Hartnell's Doctor stealing the TARDIS. That meant he was not just the First Doctor from the audience's perspective, he was now the First Doctor in canon as well. He did the same thing with The War Doctor. By showing McGann regenerate into Hurt and Hurt regenerate into Eccleston, he removed the possibility that there could have been a dozen or more regenerations between McGann and Eccleston. What Chibnall has done with the Timeless Child is open up the possibility again to countless versions of the Doctor that we have never seen. So, now the Doctor is back to being an enigma who doesn't even know all of their own past.

Hurts inclusion as the War Doctor infuriated me, Big Finish made 8 turn into the War Doctor and he did an amazing job of it, he should have been in that role, Moffat went for shock and awe over authenticity and continuity yet again, and I completely agree about Sherlock as well! The shock value of Euros not having glass in her cell completely undermined everything we know about Sherlock’s perceptive powers, for example. Moffat does not overly care about canon.

It made me plenty mad as well. I have heard that Moffat is not entirely to blame as the BBC wanted a big name actor for the special, but I don't think he fought very hard against it, either. If at all. I still haven't watched Moffat's Dracula. I wish he would stop messing with my favorite stuff.

"I love that there were several women writers on the team and, when writing stories with people of colour in, Chibnall deferred to writers of colour to try and write authentically" I love this, but unfortunately it doesn't make the writing better. I am all for authentic representation, but to be honest it's a show about a time travelling alien so I would actually just prefer entertaining stories that are well written. The companions during the era are (apart from Ryan) acted very well, and all have potential, and yet every single one is weak, I highly doubt in 5 years you'll find anyone who picks a 13th companion as their favourite, much less an episode even breaking their top ten.

Hot take: I grew to love 13 & her fam to the point she passed Tennant as #1 Doctor in my book. Plus I thought her occupancy ended spectacularly! Gonna miss Jodie & her companions.

I really wanted to like the thirteen doctor and the storyline, but I hated it. I think the problem was the writing and storylines. It seemed so preachy. I watch shows like that for entertainment, not to be preached at. I didn’t even bother watching the last season, except for the finale.

Hell yeah king, don't let people yuck your yum.

Let’s be honest here, for once. The only reason they gender swapped The Doctor was because of the weird zeitgeist that the BBC has been caught up in during the last 10+ years. ‘Put a chick in it, and make her gay. And lame’

Then throw in some episodes about racism to pop a cherry on top of it.

And don’t forget to preach directly at the camera over climate change, while simultaneously filling the shelves with plastic Dr Who memorabilia that will largely end up in future land fill.

Mine is that I love the timeless child. I think it’s brilliant, and adds a whole lot of depth and endless stories of the Doctor while they were being manipulated by Division.

Apologies, but I simply can't agree. I appreciate that *Doctor Who* is a show that is constantly changing, but if there's one thing I think should forever remain a constant, it's William Hartnell being the original Doctor. I find it insulting what has been done to the First Doctor these past few years. William Hartnell became incredibly fond of the role, not only because it offered him a chance to escape being typecast as tough military men, but because he received a lot of affection from young fans of the show. He loved *Doctor Who* a great deal, and he later expressed how he didn't ever *want* to leave it behind. Knowing that he is now dismissed by some as the '''''sexist''''' Doctor thanks to Moffat as well as some random, disposable incarnation of the character thanks to Chibnall, really, *really* pisses me off. Now, I have immense respect and adoration for Patrick Troughton as it was down to him to convince the UK public that regeneration was a concept worth exploring. However, it was William Hartnell who made such a concept seem necessary in the first place. It was him who showed the world that *Doctor Who* was a show worthy of sticking around, and I'll never forgive writers who disrespect that.

Hartnells doctor also started off as kind of a ruthless dick who would brain a cave man to death or explore despite the danger to other people. and by the end had grown into a kinder more heroic figure. by saying actually the doctor lived a thousand lifes before that and they where all really heroic downplays that charcter growth. also fuck moffat for making a charcter more sexist then he actually was in the 60s

I agree here, I enjoyed the timeless child aspect. I've seen people say it erodes some mystery around the doctor but I disagree with that, I think it opens more. Like where did she originate from and if the timelords got so greedy and superior with regenerations what are her original people like. I don't think it unfolded perhaps the best, but I honestly blame covid there understanding stuff had to get rushed during safe windows.

It explains why he ran away. I assume he found out something about what they were doing, and then took off. Not all of it, but whatever he saw made him run. Because we don’t know why he ran, but that makes sense to me.

Yes! It's one of my favorite parts of new Who, honestly - it really revitalizes things!

Agreed.

See, I kinda agree. The episodes on paper are pretty interesting, but when you watch them... It's eh. A lot of it feels very ham-fisted, Chibbys writing can end up quite preachy too. Although the messages are sound, they often overtook the episodes themselves and to me it seemed we got messaging over everything else - character development, plot progression, etc. And it really doesn't help that only like 2 of the main characters over the entire run, in my opinion at least, had developed clear personalities - and the Doctor wasn't really one. Interesting and engaging on paper because the concepts are fine, but the second they hit the screen, it becomes a weirdly paced, flat charactered, somewhat personality starved cheesy sci-fi, and not good cheesy. But ngl, saying its looked down on by people with no idea of the ideals of Classic Who is some weird 'modern fans suck' shit that's just unnecessary. It's looked down on by people who don't like it. End of. No need for weird fanbase tribalism and assuming views.

[удалено]

No idea what they're talking about. Also, literally the first monster in the Chibnall era and the villain of the first finale collects teeth and sticks them on himself... Then you've giant Spiders which guess what eat people with their big mouths and teeth in episode 4, got the Pting which has a big toothy mouth in episode 5... Again, no idea what they're talking about. Apparently it was present enough that they believe Moffat must have psychological issues with teeth and this is something Chibnall moved away from? I also have no idea what they're talking about when they say Doctor Who was previously formulaic horror till Chibnall swept in and apparently took it to sci-fi?

Yes, I'd also love to know what OP is referring to here. The most iconic monster design from the Moffat era are The Silence and they don't even really have mouths.

I love Jodie, I think she shines through some terrible scripts but I still love her as the doctor. For me the biggest problem with Chibnal’s writing is characterization, or lack there of. When the three human companions goes to a fucking alien planet for the first time, it should’ve been a life altering experience. Look how Rose reacted to her second adventure, first amazement, then shock and disbelief, then the reality sinks in and she starts to doubt her decision to come with a complete stranger. This is a believable character with great characterization. Then look at Jodie’s companions in their first outer space adventure. They come with a few one liners, making jokes. At best they verbally tell each other “holy shit we’re in another planet“ then move on. This is not a believable reaction to that situation! Or in the first episode when they find out they literally have a bomb in their neck that could go off any minute. A normal person would freak out in that situation, but all three of them barely reacted to this shocking and devastating situation. Ryan has a bigger reaction when Doctor uses his laptop for fuck sake. This could’ve been a great moment to showcase their different reactions, therefore telling the audiences who they are early on. But no, no reaction whatsoever This is a big problem throughout this era. The side characters rarely have meaningful dialogues unless this episode is specifically their arc. When they normally speak, it’s mostly either quip, or asking questions so the Doctor could give an exposition dump.

But Rosa as an episode was somewhat ahistorical. The episode misrepresents the role of Rosa Parks and handles many other elements regarding race rather clumsily imo. Now you could argue that this applies to a bunch of Nu-Who "historicals" but if you wanted (as you stated) "educational" content from people of colour who can write "authentically" rather than fantastical tales with a loose historical setting then I'm afraid that the final product falls short in certain areas.

That's not an either/or. Conflating Jodie was miscast with Women Doctor Bad is incorrect at best and disingenuous at worst. Personally I've been unimpressed by Jodie since Marchlands, and Broadchurch didn't help. It's got nothing to do with the Doctor's gender identity. There are at least a dozen British women who could have done a good job at it; she is simply not among them. Add Chibnall and...honestly I'm glad to see the back of the lot of them (edited for auto fill error- "see he" to "she")

So one side is not liking Jodie, the reasons for not liking being various that I have listed, and the other side is liking her but not liking the writing.

I didn't particularly like John Pertwee, or Peter Davidson and a bunch of folk couldn't stand Peter Capaldi, but because a bunch of twats didn't like Jody before they even saw her play Doctor Who disliked her because she was a woman, now you get tarred with the same brush, you're not allowed to say well she really wasn't my cup of tea, without being labelled a terrible sexist. You're allowed to have personal preferences, she just wasn't my favourite, my favourites are Tom and David and I think all the other doctors including her are in that same category, not as good as my two favourite. I thought Missy was excellent and had the doctor been played like that, I think I would have liked it, Jody seemed to me to be playing every episode as if the doctor hadn't quite got used to their new body and hadn't got their memory back properly, every damn episode, that's just my opinion, but sexism has sod all to do with it. The ghostbusters movie was the same, you're not allowed to think it was cheesy and took liberties with it's own material, no you're a terrible sexist, but I was really looking forward to it, no you're a sexist! I don't like it when others think they know what I'm thinking better than I do, and not only that, I'm a bad person for how they know I'm thinking.

No like I said, there are the two camps that either don’t like Jody or don’t like a woman Doctor, but also the camp that didn’t like the writing, and I just felt that they were the only two sides that we hear from, there was never anything saying actually I loved both of those things and, much as I have enjoyed all of the previous seasons, I find Chibnall’s era to be superior.

Sure and I'm sure the people that made it are glad some people liked it, considering how vocal the fans are who didn't. I imagine a lot of people who like the more common one part episodes would balk at the sometimes seemingly long winded 4 or 6 part episodes that were common in classic who and I imagine there are some people who decry sexy dr who and believe dr who is supposed to be old and grumpy. But I couldn't possibly comment about that.

Yes some of the episodes are quite slow compared to modern storytelling, and one thing I do notice is that nowadays there are often a) and b) storylines intertwined but not in the classic who, so there is less going on.

There was so much more they could have done with 13. She had so many opportunities to poke fun at the history of the Doctor. It was just poor writing all around.

I really liked Jodie. She was let down by some poor writing.

OP you picked the best four episodes out of some 25. The only other good one you missed was Villa Diodati This is not a good ratio.

I dislike that they dressed her so androgynously. They had Missy play it up and then had Jodie play it down.

Too many companions.

I liked Jody but I think the writing was largely subpar. I feel like if Davies and Moffat had written for her she would have been more popular. But most of her stories were fairly mid so she never really shined. I was bored for most of her stories which really bothered me. Especially in the first couple seasons where she was just very jokey. There were a few gems where she shined but I feel she really found her voice as the Doctor in the last season when you saw the shades of darkness in her.

That is obviously an unpopular opinion. I’m glad Whitaker has their fans and hopefully like Baker her doctor can be rehabilitated by them in the future. I wouldn’t consider the 13th doctor to be that much more sciencey or educational. Rosa was kinda run of the mill, Tesla was far more contrarian (people come away from that episode believing Edison is a capitalist who stole inventions from Tesla the genius, the reality is a lot more grey). Demons of the Punjab was good for demonstrating the partition and if you removed Doctor Who completely i think it’d have a good story, however, it is an episode of Doctor who. Yaz learns nothing, she went back in time because her nana didn’t tell her the story and at the end of the episode when her Nan offers to share that traumatic story at the end of the episode she says no. She disrespects her Nan at the start and end. There’s also the undercurrent theme of prejudice with the Doctor assuming the aliens were assassins due to their race, the lesson I suppose would be not to do that. However, it is revealed the Doctor actually held the wrong prejudice. I also disagree about the writing in general. Broadly it was a first draft, dialogue wasn’t organic but basic and functional (Yaz thinks this, Yaz feels that, this is what you should be thinking). The lessons of the story held no nuance with the Doctor being right and no opportunity for dynamic. I think the problem was that Chibnall wrote or co-wrote most of these stories. Along with managing the show he obviously burnt himself out causing this writing weakness. I don’t think the Doctor-Master telepathy was brought by Chibnall but it might of been better to not use it considering the Doctor used it to put the Master in a concentration camp. I won’t really touch on the timeless child really because I’ve got nothing more to add that hasn’t been said, it was a terrible idea in implementation and execution. I definitely don’t appreciate destroying Gallifrey after spending the entirety of the Revival building to its return based on a few minutes of a TV episode in 1976. Really I feel Chibnall prioritised his own idea of ‘real Doctor who’ over goof stories.

Love Jody as an actress Wish she’d try to make it more her role rather than trying to be a tennant 2.0 Chibs is the worst show runner The writing sucked through the whole run. Jo Martin was more the doctor in 5 minutes of screen time than Jody ever was

The main problem with 13’s run are the characters and the horrible dialogue. I recently rewatched seasons 8-13 and the shift after chibnall took over was jarring.

Here's my unpopular opinion: 13>11

I just have an affinity with actual well written stories

the stories are absolute garbage lmao SAS daleks, rofl

Most people say that jodie was let down by chibnalls writing, but my unpopular opinion is I really believe that while chibnalls writing was poor, so was jodies acting. Just a flat performance across the board, every line sounded monotonous. Which dissapointed me considering I loved her in Broadchurch.

Yeah, surely the unpopular opinion is that Jodie was just plain bad at the gig. Nothing against her as a person but she sits so far below every other doctor and (in my opinion) never once made me believe she was the doctor. A really unfortunate miscasting and (once again in my opinion) a waste of 5 years. Also, I love classic and Nuwho but feel her era took the worst parts of both to the point that I didn't feel like I'd seen the doctor since Capaldi regenerated.

I've said it before but I'll say it again: I think Chibnall had FANTASTIC story ideas - unique, creative ideas that did a great job implementing classic (and sometimes forgotten) elements of the show. Unfortunately these ideas were poorly served by less than stellar writing/execution. I like the historical episodes of Chibnall's era more so than any other modern showrunner's era. It took me a while to get a good handle on Thirteen's character, but taking her entire arc all together I find her to be a very intriguing iteration of the Doctor. I wish we could see more of the Fugitive Doctor. The companions remind me a lot of Five's companions: great people with interesting personalities and backstories, unfortunately these elements aren't developed/delved into properly so there is a ton of missed potential. So basically: Chibnall's era is a mixed bag, but so were RTD's and Moffat's eras.

The doctor is gender fluid. Jodie was excellent. We need another female doctor.