Well, that's the end of the Thirteenth Doctor. Does anyone else feel like she still never quite hit her stride?
Cons:
Dan ended up being one of the most useless companions in Doctor Who history! I found him so charming and interesting to start, he had so much potential, but pretty much all his adventuring with the Doctor happened offscreen. We never got to establish a relationship between him and the Doctor properly.
And that's just generally true of so much of this Doctor's run. I loved the stuff with her and Yaz. There was a brief spark of something great with the Fam, there for a while. It sure was great to see Graham. But in terms of who this Doctor is, and what her specific vibe is, I don't think I ever really clicked in with it. It's not the acting, I think that was pretty damn solid across the board. It just felt like someone was holding these seasons back from reaching their full potential.
The plot got a little too messy and convoluted, and I'm going to praise the frantic energy in the "pros" section in a second, but honestly between the Master and the Daleks and the Cybermen and the cameos, I was getting a little dizzy with all the different stimuli, and I'm not sure I had a chance to properly appreciate much of what was happening on my screen.
After all that from Yaz and the Doctor, they couldn't even give us a goodbye kiss? Come on. They created a whole convoluted scenario so we could see 10 and Rose share a kiss, and Yaz and 13 can't even have a little goodbye peck on the lips? Sigh. That's a big disappointment.
Pros:
I did like the chaos, as I said. We started off strong with a space train and a Cyberman fight, we had plenty of crazy and wacky set pieces, with volcanoes exploding and Cybermen shooting themselves through a holograph of a future-Doctor, and a gang of companions around the console of the TARDIS... there was a lot of iconic imagery here, and even when I wasn't 100% clear on what the heck was happening in the plot, I honestly didn't care all that much, because I was still caught up in the energy.
Tegan and Ace are pretty great! I have no familiarity with Classic!Who at all, but these two had so much fun energy, and their chemistry with the Doctor was undeniable. We got some cute energy with our current regeneration, but also brief moments where they got to talk to their Doctors. Honestly, I felt more energy between those older Doctors reuniting with their companions than I ever got between this Doctor and, for example, Dan.
The Master's plot, and his desire to literally become the Doctor, makes no real sense whatsoever, but I will say that performance-wise I loved watching the Master be utterly deranged, and I did like the psychological aspect of the Master's obsession with the Doctor being... envy of her. Wanting to be her literally, because there's nothing else big enough to encompass his dissatisfaction and longing.
Also it was fun to see Vinder, but mostly because I've fallen extra in love with Jacob Anderson since the last time I watched this show and saw that character. He's a bad-ass. Best moment was the Master thinking that any friend of the Doctor's wouldn't shoot a gun at someone, and Vinder being like "BITCH you thought." That was pretty great.
WHY didn't Yaz and the Doctor share a kiss when they were sitting out on top of the TARDIS? Cowards. I'm just saying. But setting that aside, I loved how much their bond got to have a final spotlight. Even as the Doctor lists all the companions who traveled with her during this regeneration, it's Yaz who got to be with her last, before she goes off alone to meet whatever comes next.
And then the wonderful idea that Graham came up with, to create a support group for former companions! All of them sitting around and chuckling about the crazy adventures they've been on. I absolutely adore that idea and hope somehow we can check in with this group at some point in the future.
And then the regeneration itself! Honestly I'm going to reserve judgment about David Tennant. Obviously I love him, and it'll be fun to see him, but at the same time this feels like it's banking on nostalgia to a comedically absurd degree. Instead of judging those last twenty seconds, I'll judge Jodie Whittaker on her breathtaking mixture of sadness and joy in those last few seconds. She did a beautiful job with a role that suffered many years of extremely subpar writing for the show. I wish we'd done more justice to her time as the Doctor, but I'm glad we got to hang out with her for a while all the same.
8/10
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