Doctor Who (Season 1)
Available on BBC iPlayer
After an explosive set of anniversary specials last year, Doctor Who’s huge reboot has officially kicked off. Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson are the new faces of the show and Russell T Davies is at the helm for this historic partnership between the BBC and Disney+. As such, this freshly regenerated iteration of the programme promised to capture the hearts of modern audiences and remain faithful to what came before. Anyone could tell you that a lot was riding on this season to be a success and, whilst some may lead you to believe that this hasn’t been the case, I thoroughly enjoyed this outing for the new TARDIS team.
The biggest reason for this run of episodes being so much fun is that no story feels the same. For a show like Doctor Who, this has been sorely needed for the past few years. It is incredibly refreshing that this season has delivered something totally different each week.
We open with a fairly standard sci-fi adventure in Space Babies, an episode that, whilst flawed, still has a fun premise and enough good humour to keep me engaged. However, we then take a sharp left turn into possibly the strongest three episode run I have seen from the programme. The Devil’s Chord is a musical romp with a villain so extra that they make the Kandyman look like Hannibal Lecter. Jinx Monsoon shines as the devious Maestro and the musical number featured at the end of the episode perfectly sums up just how crazy Doctor Who should be.
Steven Moffat then makes his return with Boom, a Hitchcock-esque episode where the Doctor spends the majority of the story stuck on a landmine. This is then followed by the Doctorless 73 Yards, which is almost indescribable in its atmosphere and mystery. Millie Gibson pulls out all the stops with her performance here, and Davies’ enigmatic adventure unfolds in the most stunning way, with pitch perfect direction from Dylan Holmes Williams. These episodes being back to back with each other is the perfect example of how varied the Whoniverse can be, and why this will always be its strongest attribute.
I must also mention how much of a great pair Gatwa and Gibson are. Whilst the latter’s character is unfortunately written as more of a mystery box than a properly fleshed out human being, the performance makes her more interesting than she would be had she been played by someone less energetic. Meanwhile, Gatwa is possibly the best modern Doctor and remains the strongest performer in almost every episode. Their dynamic together is totally electric and I can absolutely see them becoming an all time favourite Who duo. The guest stars this time round are also some of the best we’ve had in ages. Jonathan Groff’s Rogue is a fantastic alien bounty hunter who I hope we haven’t seen the last of, whilst Verada Sethu also makes her fantastic debut ahead of her companion role next year. The returning Bonnie Langford also gets to have a lot of fun in the finale, as Mel becomes a proper part of the team for the latter half of the story.
The finale itself I think is where the ball is dropped slightly, which is becoming commonplace for a RTD run of Who. Whilst The Legend of Ruby Sunday offers up a truly amazing cliff-hanger with the return of classic Who villain Sutekh the Destroyer, the preceding 40 minutes are spent with the main characters in UNIT HQ essentially discussing fan theories about the identity of Susan Triad (whose mysterious appearances unfortunately lead to the most underwhelming conclusion). The second part of the story, Empire of Death, is one that took me a couple of watches to eventually come round on. It is, for lack of a better term, quite wishy-washy with is answers to the various threads that have been woven throughout the series, but the character work and brilliantly exciting set-pieces help to make the episode an incredibly enjoyable end to it all. I particularly appreciated the twist of Ruby’s mother just being a regular person.
As a fan, I’m incredibly happy with this set of adventures. Doctor Who has gotten off to a totally fresh start with this new reboot and I cannot wait to see where it continues to go next season.
