Reviews

This epic finale to the Chibnall/Jodie era is good fun and one of the top 5 episodes of the era. It isn't perfect as I feel too much unnecessary stuff was thrown in but the nostalgia with old faces returning is a wonderful aspect which lifts the episode hugely.

The moment when the 13th Doctor finds herself meeting manifestations of her consciousness, the "Guardians of the Edge", in the form of the 1st, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Doctors is a truly magical addition. I am thankful to Chibnall for finding this tenuous excuse to bring back David Bradley, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann in their more aged forms. It was fantastic to see them all as they are now. They all perform their cameos perfectly in a way that CGI de-aging wouldn't have matched.

It is nice and fitting that Jo Martin gets to return as a manifestation of the Fugitive Doctor too and it is fabulous to also get the return of former companions.

Sophie Aldred is Ace in more ways than one and her role in this is "wicked". Bradley Walsh popping back up as Graham and teaming up amusingly with Ace is great. Tegan gets a good role in the story too and the cameos at the end of Jo, Mel and especially Ian were terrific to see. The emotion I felt seeing William Russell making his long, long overdue return as Ian Chesterton was huge.

The scenes with Davison meeting back up with Tegan and McCoy meeting back up with Ace are superbly emotional too. The joy and warmth of those scenes just shines through. They were tremendous scenes.

These elements should result in a 10/10 classic and I am sure some fans do rate it at that top level but there are aspects of the episode that I am not so keen on which hold it back a little bit in my ratings:

I don't like the opening scenes with the space train. I find it unsatisfying in how it is done. The CyberMasters are not all that formidable, being defeated by a handful of train guards before regenerating. I don't get why the train guards recognise regeneration energy and feel the whole scene is just a bit cheesy and clunky.

Dan leaves, rather unceremoniously with the Doctor dumping him at the ruinous site where his house once stood and showing no care for this predicament.

Then Vinder inexplicably returns. I do not buy into the contrived, overly convenient scenario of someone the Doctor met before in another part of space and time just happening to bump into the Doctor again by crossing the galaxy through a wormhole searching for the "qurunx" energy that the Master is using for his scheme. I wish Dan, Captain Jack or someone else more fitting had played the role in the story Vinder did.

I think the reset of the volcanoes and other resolutions were rather weak deus ex machina endings. I found the qurunx a bit strange and the way it is used to blast the Doctor was not the best climax for my taste either. I also found it odd how Yaz dropped off the rest of the companions while the Doctor is unconscious. Wouldn't they want to check she was ok or say goodbye before leaving?

There are so many elements crammed into this story - The Master, Rasputin, altered famous paintings, CyberMasters, Ashad, Daleks, Vinder, old companions, former Doctors, UNIT, missing seismologists, volcanoes, space train heists, a stolen sentient energy hiding as a child.... etc. It is epic spectacle but a little bit messy at times.

However, it is fun, exciting and has lots of excellent stuff in it. The use of old cast members is my favourite element but I also enjoy various other parts:

Sacha Dhawan was good value and a formidable adversary. I liked the Master as Rasputin. I even laughed at the crazy and incongruous dancing to Boney M's disco hit!

The cinematography, effects, music and dynamic pacing is all good.

Jodie Whittaker and Mandip Gill perform well in their finale and Jodie's final words "tag, you're it" were good.

The regeneration looked great and was both hugely intriguing and really exhilerating as we see David Tennant return and his clothes change! I believe this will be explained in the forthcoming 60th Anniversary.

Episode Rating: 8.5/10.

2022 Specials Ranking: 1st out of 3.

This Children in Need charity special mini-episode is absolutely joyous.

We get the 10th Doctor meeting up with the 5th Doctor in a really lovely, funny and engaging little interaction.

It was marvelous to bring Peter Davison back and his banter with David Tennant is really funny and utterly charming.

Also this is well enough done to make it actually work as part of the ongoing series forming a link between Last of the Timelords and Voyage of the Damned. It massively improves on Dimensions in Time, showing how to do a charity special properly.

As a fan who watched all the 5th Doctor era as a kid itwas so special for me and indeed David Tennant was also a child fan of Davison (who weirdly became his father-in-law in real life). All the references are great and it is a joy to watch.

My Rating: 9/10.

The first time I watched this I was nervous and had major doubts that it would bring the Flux story together but I still had some (naive) hopes that it could. I was sadly wrong to still have hope because Chibnall, in my opinion, crashed and burned the whole Flux story. For me, only Village of the Angels really stands up on rewatching it. That is a jewel amidst the mess of the rest of the story.

I felt utterly betrayed as a viewer having invested in the story only to find it didn't lead towards satisfying conclusions especially as I had defended Chibnall against criticism from other fans. Some fans were too extreme and prejudiced in their attacks on his era so I stand by my view that there was good stuff in Chibnall's era, that him and Jodie deserved a chance and did not deserve personal abuse. However, essentially I am sad to say there was a lot of truth in claims that his writing was not good enough.

This review is going to sound like an utterly negative rant I'm afraid but please bear in mind I always try to enjoy episodes, try to look for positives, try to be fair and open minded. Two episodes earlier I scored Chapter 4 as a 9.5/10 showing I was very open to appreciating quality when it appeared in this series and era. I gave this story an equally open minded chance but after due consideration this one is just one of my least favourite episodes ever, sorry.

I feel Chibnall tries to dazzle us with lots of tricksy editing together of complicated, supposedly epic storylines in Flux in an attempt to copy Moffatt's popular style. It actually worked for some fans who say Series 13 was Chibnall's best. They are entitled to that different taste but for me it is easily his worst and one of the 2 worst seasons of Doctor Who, just above Season 24 of the classic era thanks to Village of the Angels dragging up the average. I think it demonstrated Chibnall was out of his depth as showrunner.

It looks great, has good music, is well acted and has good effects. That is all it has, really, in my view.

I am very sorry to those who love it but I feel it all turns out to be lacking any substance or internal logic and has some utterly nonsensical content that leads the whole story to fall flat:

The Joseph Williamson story was all for no purpose. You could have had the whole Flux story without Williamson and it would not deduct even the slightest from the story. It would just reduce the needless confusion by removing one convoluted aspect.

The Vinder and Bel story also goes nowhere. They are just cipher characters to carry a pointless plot. Their journeys to find each other has no impact on any of the rest of the story. Theories were widespread that they must have significance, perhaps as the Timeless Child's parents or another mysterious importance. But no they just were two random add-on companions. Well why didn't Chibnall just split up the TARDIS team and give Yaz and Dan the roles taken by Bel and Vinder, trying to find each other and find the Doctor? Oh, I forgot, they DID get split from the Doctor and had a quest. So why do that same plot with 2 side characters as well and make it seem like it was leading to a revelation when it went nowhere? Giving Yaz and Dan more valuable character time would have made more sense than shoving in this whole needless arc. Giving Jericho and Claire, whose characters had more meaning and impact in the plot, more screentime instead of introducing Bel, Vinder and Di would have been better too I think.

The whole Flux threat gets solved by Di the museum guide! How does she have the scientific solution that the Doctor fails to see?! And it is a convenient easy deus ex machina getout anyway with no clever aspects and seemingly leaving most of the universe destroyed?! And why did the Ravagers even kidnap Di? How did it serve their plans? Everything Di said and did could again have been done by one of the more significant characters instead to better effect or she could have been a far better written character if they cut out lots of the excess messy plot threads and concentrated on making her story work.

The idea of Time as a powerful being is dumb, illogical, uninteresting and pointless to me. It is mind boggling to suggest that Time is a sentient power in battle with space and far too big an idea to just throw in casually before disappearing again. Why did Chibnall bother with this aspect?

The setup of Tecteun as a vital part of new lore is thrown away as she gets wiped out suddenly. All that build-up and apparent importance is gone in a moment with nothing resolved.

The setup of Swarm and Azure as powerful, menacing villains is equally thrown away by them also being wiped out suddenly. What a waste and why even have 2 of them. They ultimately were again just random elements with no satisfactory journey or destination.

The pocket watch of memories is literally thrown in the bin. The stories of the Timeless Child, Division, the Fugitive Doctor and the visions of a mysterious Lungbarrow type house just gets dismissed casually and left hanging. Why did he meddle with lore so controversially if he didn't have a plan to deliver a meaningful conclusion?

The Doctor being split into 3 makes no sense and is a total gimmick to make the Doctor be where she is needed. Another unnecessary element thrown in that adds to the messiness of it all. All the flitting around in timelines is for no purpose and is just confusion for the sake of it. Who are the Fugitive Doctor's companions? Why do people appear with the wrong faces? Just because, it seems!

The so called comedy scenes with Sontarans have some of the most cringe making, unfunny bits of dialogue ever in the show for my tastes. The Sontaran groaning "choc-o-late" as he is tempted to betray military secrets for candy is, perhaps, the lowest point of Doctor Who in my opinion. It is ridiculous and makes Horns of Nimon look like Shakespeare. Some may see it as a "bit of fun" but my kids didn't laugh or smile and I certainly didn't. It is just embarrassing.

The Sontarans look good and have an extremely powerful military presence that potentially made them great villains again but it all gets thrown away to use them as comedy stooges as if it is an episode of The Simpsons!

The Grand Serpent does nothing, wasting yet another large element of the build-up episodes and he is inexplicably dumped on a rock in space which, bizarrely, apparently has an atmosphere and gravity?! What?!

I hate being so negative about an episode of my beloved show. But honestly, on my second rewatch this dropped into the running to be one of the worst single episodes of Doctor Who ever for me because it is such a car crash of unfulfilled ideas. It is certainly in my bottom 3. It left Flux as a whole story feeling to me a totally ill-conceived mess and the lack of good endings spoiled my view of a lot of the previous 5 chapters. Really really sad.

My Rating: 3/10.

Series 13 Episode Ranking: 6th out of 6.

Overall Flux Story Average Rating: 4.75/10.

This is the start of the 6 part Flux story. Up to this point I had been a big defender of Chibnall and Jodie, begging other fans to give them a chance and look for positives. Sadly, this was where it went horribly wrong for me as Flux made me feel Chibnall was totally out of his depth and the significant flaws of his era were now getting worse not better. Ironically some fans find Flux fun and an improvement in its attempt to do Moffatt style spectacle and convoluted storytelling but in my view it failed badly.

I find the opening scene of the Doctor and Yaz trying to escape Karvanista embarrassing. I cringed all the way through it. Just silly nonsense. The only marginally funny bit (in a corny way) was the voice activation "release" working when the Doctor says "what a relief". The rest was dire.

The second scene with Joseph Williamson begins one of the many pointless threads of the story. The whole Williamson Tunnels subplot is not needed and scenes like this just add to the confusion for no gain.

The third scene with Dan and Di would be ok if the subplot of Di's involvement ended up being worthwhile but once you see all of series 13 you realise Di was just thrown into the mix without any sense behind the idea. It is great to include a good actor with a 'disability' but not if there is no logical reason for the character to be involved. It smacks of tokenism.

The fourth scene with Swarm escaping imprisonment is mostly great. Swarm is fascinating and looks good with clearly menacing power. But why is he suddenly able to escape after eons of imprisonment? And why wasn't this the opening scene? His "happy halloween Doctor" line was surely meant to lead into the opening titles. Why was the silly Karvanista scene chucked onto the start? But also, why does an alien from another world recognise that the time travelling Doctor is going to be experiencing Halloween? Lol. Despite these reservations, the scene of Swarm escaping is a plus point of the episode.

The leaking TARDIS aspect is totally weird and is never really explained.

John Bishop quickly establishes Dan as a good hearted guy and a potentially good companion. But the scene with the adult trick or treater is a waste of time with no point and I didn't find it funny. The rest of his introduction is fine.

Karvanista's appearance scene with Dan has a bit of decent humour but is pretty daft and the design of Karvanista looking like a dog (like a second rate Chewbacca or a bipedal version of Dagget from Battlestar Galactica) is not a great idea in my opinion. Neither is Karvanista leaving a laptop behind and shrinking Dan's house. Just done for show. Not a big negative but this all adds nothing for me.

Why does Karvanista kidnap Dan anyway? If the plan is to protect Earth/humanity then kidnapping one human at a time (with some difficulty) is an unconvincing plan.

What is the point of Azure being hidden as a human in a research facility? This goes nowhere and has no purpose.

These are all early signs of the hot mess of half-baked ideas that characterise almost all of the Flux story.

The only good bits in the first 25 minutes are Swarm seeming an intriguing and menacing villain and Dan being a decent new companion.

The next good addition is Claire (very well acted by Annabel Scholey) and her intriguing introduction which leads to the only bit of Flux that ends up being brilliant - Village of the Angels. After another clunky scene of dialogue between the Doctor and Yaz we get a great, chilling scene of a Weeping Angel attacking Claire which adds more mystery and a real thrill. The way Chibnall uses Weeping Angels this series is better, in my view, than they were used in most Moffatt era encounters and this is the one big plus of Series 13.

Then we get the introduction of Vinder. He is well acted but by the end of Flux we we see there isn't any reason for his inclusion in the story. Him and Bel are just randoms.

We see visually impressive scenes of the Flux phenomenon which ultimately (in Chapter 6) turns out to be a throwaway threat with an inadequate resolution so the whole Flux threat feels weak when rewatching.

We then get further unimpressive scenes of Azure being inexplicably converted back from a human plus the Doctor talking mumbo jumbo to Yaz and confronting Karvanista in a way that attempts to go for comedy rather than drama.

Vinder tries to escape the Flux and Dan is rescued and then yet another thread is thrown into the mix as Sontarans prepare for an attack. The new retro look of the Sontaran design is good and at this stage it appears they will be a strong adversary. Sadly later in Flux the Sontarans are turned into a joke even more than they were in Moffatt's era.

The final scenes are a mix of good and bad. Good bits of dramatic cliffhanger elements are provided with the Flux threatening the TARDIS and Swarm threatening the Doctor. However, Azure taking Di is weird and has no logical reason. Meanwhile, the Doctor's split-second ability to formulate a plan of creating a magically perfectly fitting barrier of conveniently, and inexplicably Flux immune, Lupari ships is just silly.

The one bit of this which stands up really well on rewatch are the Angel scenes with Claire which are superb. There is also a suitably dramatic bit of setup for the next episode which feels quite epic so I will give credit for that too.

I must also praise the decent acting, great music, great visual effects and filmic quality look of it all.

Story-wise, though, it is a jumble of what mostly turns out to be nonsense. So, although it had some potential on first viewing, it ends up very disappointing for me when rewatching with knowledge of how it all ends. All style and no substance.

My rating: 4.5/10.

Series 13 Episode Ranking: 3rd out of 6.

This is the second of Chibnall and Jodie's three New Year Specials featuring Daleks. It is a lot of fun but is, in my view, flawed (as usual in this era).

What is great is that John Barrowman returns as Captain Jack and gets to team up with the 13th Doctor. He is as good as usual. I don't think Chibnall allowed enough warmth or chemistry between him and 13 though. It feels like 13 is cold towards him despite him rescuing her. I don't really see why she would be so dismissive of him as I feel their relationship has moved on and she should be grateful and happy to see him.

The rescue is a bit unconvincing, I think, as is the opening sequence where MI6 entrusts transport of a Dalek casing to one person without any security at all. And did the people stealing the Dalek guess which burger van the driver would stop at or did they put assassins in every burger van on the route? Again it just feels slapdash writing that is lacking credibility.

The episode is mostly entertaining and enjoyable though, with good action, some nice banter at times and menacing Dalek confrontations. The return of Daleks acting as puppeteers of humans is fun because that idea is scary and cool.

Captain Jack adds some quality and all the companions perform well. We say a sad farewell to Graham (especially) and Ryan with a touchingly sad exit scene. Bradley Walsh was superb and made Graham a top level companion despite very patchy material. I am glad he later returned for Jodie's final episode. I reckon Tosin Cole was overly harshly judged and just was let down by the material too much of the time. I think he was a decent companion and quite endearing.

The Doctor inviting Dalek armies to Earth to deal with the mutated Daleks on Earth is another unconvincing aspect. Far too risky.

Overall this is a mixed bag - enjoyable, not bad, but has a few too many flaws really, in my opinion.

My Rating: 7/10.

Series 12 Episode Ranking: 7th out of 11.

This is the most controversial episode of Doctor Who ever. The Timeless Child arc comes to its climactic reveal telling us the Doctor was the Timeless Child who had the power of regeneration and whose DNA was used to create the regenerating ability in all Timelords.

The biggest complaint people have seems to be that they feel it means William Hartnell was not the first Doctor and that it changes the lore hugely. I actually don't see it as that terrible in terms of the lore simply because I choose to interpret it in a way that I find acceptable rather than the way Chibnall seems to have intended it. In any case, though, I still have issues with how this episode fumbles the presentation of the storyline's conclusion.

We hear the whole explanation of the Timeless Child storyline being narrated by the Master alongside images from the matrix. Chibnall's insistence on constant spoken exposition is a major weakness of his era and whilst Sacha Dhawan is superb, having this as a long chunk of spoken exposition (yet again) is not the best way to do it. They could have simply SHOWN us the story in flashback.

The rage the Master feels about the Timeless Child would have been given greater context if HE was the Timeless Child (maybe even with the Doctor having been Tecteun in a previous life and experimenting on the Timeless Child who became the Master) or perhaps them BOTH being "Timeless Children" found together and experimented on. I would have liked some involvement from the Master in the backstory.

As it is, unlike many fans, I can accept having a pre-Hartnell existence but would have liked that to be confirmed as a very separate existence where they were not known as the Doctor and didn't travel in a police box TARDIS. It could easily have tied in neatly with the Lungbarrow/Cartmel Master-Plan type scenario talked about and widely accepted since the 80s where one of the first Timelords, known as The Other, ends up being thrown into the "looms" which ultimately causes their DNA to be reborn as the Doctor. I don't like that this story reveal leaves the suggestion that the Fugitive Doctor came before the First Doctor. That isn't expressed clearly in a way that couldn't be explained differently in a future story though.

I like to believe that the Timeless Child incarnations are an entirely separate life, known as the Other and that the Fugitive Doctor is actually a secret, hidden incarnation between the 2nd and 3rd Doctors tying in with the Season 6B theory.

My head-canon is that the Timelords halted the 2nd Doctors forced regeneration in the War Games and offered him the option of coming back to Division and going on missions for them. He accepted and the Season 6B theory comes into play with the 2nd Doctor travelling for many years on missions. My theory is the 2nd Doctor finally regenerated into the Fugitive Doctor and continued on missions for Division but she learned of the secret Timelord origins and realised she disagreed with Division's manipulation of the universe so rebelled and went into hiding. When she is recaptured she is forced to regenerate into the 3rd Doctor and has memory of life as a Division agent erased and placing him in 2nd Doctor clothing to help hide the truth.

If I use my "head canon" then I have no major objection to the earlier existence as The Other who was rebooted as a baby who is essentially an entirely new person who grows up to be the First Doctor. Even if we accept the Fugitive Doctor was before Hartnell it is clearly expressed that the Doctor was forced to be reborn as a baby with no memories who grows up to be the Hartnell Doctor. I am satisfied that this means Hartnell is the start of a new life and therefore still the "first" and the "original" of a new existence

I have a problem with the way it is revealed both due to the spoken explanation and the unnecessarily controversial way it is left for fans. I also have a problem with the way it was confusingly previewed as a story of a police officer in Ireland. That was needlessly convoluted and muddies the waters further.

The Cyber-Timelords are a bit odd too. If they regenerate wouldn't they correct their cybernetic alterations?

I also am not keen on the final scenes with Ko Sharmus getting shot and pressing the button AFTER being shot. Pure unlikely luck which could have so easily failed. Why wasn't he pressing the button BEFORE he was shot? That would have been far better.

I rate this episode low for Doctor Who due to the clumsy and overly controversial culmination of the previously intriguing arc. I personally do give it some credit though as I found the episode dramatic, exciting and fascinating in a way at times, very well acted, beautiful looking with great effects and good music. I am ok with the lore addition IF I interpret it my way. So I won't judge it quite as harshly as some fans do perhaps as it IS open to interpretation and is open to be improved in future stories. The Master could even be tricking the Doctor, in theory. But I cannot credit Chibnall or this episode very much in terms of writing quality when I am having to do so much work to make the story work for me!

My Rating for this episode: 4.5/10.

Series 12 Episode Ranking: 10th out of 11.

(Rating for Ascension of the Cybermen: 7.5/10. Therefore rating for overall 2-part story = 6/10.)

Review of all 4 parts continued:

The Keeper of Traken

I have strong memories of seeing this on its original broadcast. I found the Master and the Melkur creepy and thoroughly enjoyed the story. Many years later this was the first classic story that successfully thrilled my young son. So I have very positive experiences of this story.

Some fans understandably are less keen on season 18 as it is a bit less 'fun' than preceding seasons but I like dark and gritty Doctor Who and I really like most of this season. Stories occasionally show JNT's tendencies to have too many arguments between characters and aggressive scenes but Chris Bidmead (and perhaps Terrance Dicks overseeing/advising) seem to help JNT to create a serious science fiction series and this story is one of the best of the season. I also think it is actually really fun.

The story involves the elderly Keeper of Traken asking the Doctor for help as he senses his imminent successor is going to be threatened by evil. Sure enough a calcified statue - Melkur - is secretly hiding the Master who manages to take control of the incoming Keeper's body.

This new leader, Tremas, is played by Anthony Ainley as a pleasant character and father of new companion Nyssa. He then becomes the new Master and is deliciously evil. Ainley plays his differing dual roles superbly and the Master was returned in style after a long absence.

Tom Baker is great as ever and Nyssa is introduced pretty well as an intelligent companion although why JNT thought 2 highly intelligent young companions were required at the same time, with Adric having joined not long before, is a bit of a headscratcher. An early sign of JNT's poor decision making I think.

Anyway, there is sinister drama, enjoyable characterisation and nicely written dialogue. An excellent serial.

My ratings: All 4 episodes 9.5/10.

Review of all 4 parts:

The Keeper of Traken

I have strong memories of seeing this on its original broadcast. I found the Master and the Melkur creepy and thoroughly enjoyed the story. Many years later this was the first classic story that successfully thrilled my young son. So I have very positive experiences of this story.

Some fans understandably are less keen on season 18 as it is a bit less 'fun' than preceding seasons but I like dark and gritty Doctor Who and I really like most of this season. Stories occasionally show JNT's tendencies to have too many arguments between characters and aggressive scenes but Chris Bidmead (and perhaps Terrance Dicks overseeing/advising) seem to help JNT to create a serious science fiction series and this story is one of the best of the season. I also think it is actually really fun.

The story involves the elderly Keeper of Traken asking the Doctor for help as he senses his imminent successor is going to be threatened by evil. Sure enough a calcified statue - Melkur - is secretly hiding the Master who manages to take control of the incoming Keeper's body.

This new leader, Tremas, is played by Anthony Ainley as a pleasant character and father of new companion Nyssa. He then becomes the new Master and is deliciously evil. Ainley plays his differing dual roles superbly and the Master was returned in style after a long absence.

Tom Baker is great as ever and Nyssa is introduced pretty well as an intelligent companion although why JNT thought 2 highly intelligent young companions were required at the same time, with Adric having joined not long before, is a bit of a headscratcher. An early sign of JNT's poor decision making I think.

Anyway, there is sinister drama, enjoyable characterisation and nicely written dialogue. An excellent serial.

My ratings: All 4 episodes 9.5/10.