Doctor Who is the Greatest TV Show Ever Made: Remastered | Video Essay

because it was waiting and because i was so scared not the doctor why because i've seen him he's like fire and ice and rage he's like the night and the storm and the heart of the sun is ancient and forever he burns at the center of time and he can see the turn of the universe and he's wonderful [Music] so [Music] [Music] hi don't worry i'll keep this short about a year ago i decided to make an hour-long video essay on doctor who my favorite tv show and what i considered and still considered to be the best tv show ever made at least it used to be and will be again very soon lacking proper editing experience writing experience and voice over experience it was ultimately my love for doctor who and my love for doctor who alone that drove the video to its eventual completion and release on october 10th 2020. and here's where i need to pause you may have noticed that there's a funny little eight letter word stitched onto the end of the title and it's about time that we talked about what that entails obviously i already made this video so you may be curious as to why i'm remaking it well that video essay was at least 5 trillion times more ambitious than the type of videos i was making before it and it shows in some places having learned a lot about video essay production and script writing from producing further video essays writing my own fan-made screenplays and absorbing more of the video essay genre as a whole on youtube i have a greater appreciation for those that are far more talented in all these fronts those that composed themselves as a presenter of the medium the entire duration did extensive research and wrote comprehensive and articulate scripts to cover their desired subject and my video essay despite being comprehensive and using doctor who as a whole as the subject only featured a surface level analysis of the show with a few articulate bright spots misrepresentation or misunderstanding of the more niche details of doctor who and not bothering to do the required research and straight up heretical slander for one nightmarish heresy of a chapter i can't believe people put up with so like a regular war doctor i said no more we're gonna do this again doctor who is a show that's so important to me and it deserves to have a video essay that does it justice going forward you guys can expect a far more concrete representation of doctor who as a show and a far more engrossing and informative watch in the face of the infantile predecessor that this video was built from do i expect this video to perform as well as the old one well miracles can happen but i honestly doubt it just by the nature of the algorithm and that's okay i do plan on putting way more into this remaster as you can tell by the proportion at run time with fully rewritten segments entirely new segments more intelligent conclusions connections deductions and inferences akin to my video sas brethren that share this platform with me so it's up to you the viewer to spread the word if you think this is the kind of video that deserves to be shared by all means share it i'm not monetizing this video you might notice that there's no mid-roll ads on that funny little red and gray line at the bottom it's purely a passion project to give a show that changed my life and continues to inspire me to do bigger and better things the respect it deserves and if you feel the things that i say in this video need to be shared if it inspired you educated you or even moved you it would mean the world to me if you shared it but that's more than enough preamble let's get started some paragraphs will be overhauled some will stay the same everything will be re-edited re-scored and have completely new voice over so without further ado let's begin doctor who it's almost an insult god my voice is so high-pitched i can't do it anymore it's almost an insult to say that without a british accent how did i do that before whatever [Music] it's almost an insult it's almost an ins i literally can't make that sound with my voice anymore an established pillar of british culture a show that's been on the air for decades on end and is still going strong to this oh doctor who is a british science fiction tv series that's been around for a while it's a show that's existed since televised media became mainstream and has persisted evolved and otherwise survived against all odds for the better part of 50 years nearing 60 years of doctor who in 2023 60 years how crazy is that despite being as old as conan o'brien doctor who as a show is so little of what it has become in today's society transcending the casual nature of any normal tv show doctor who has a cult fan base that's straight up borders on religion having been around for 50 years and exported to hundreds of countries excluding its birthplace people of literally all ages have come together and bonded over this cheesy science fiction tv show that's been around since the 60s myself included and this is precisely what i would like to explore today what elements of doctor who make it such a personal and important viewing for all that see it how is every piece of the doctor who puzzle arranged in a way that creates an experience that stays with people forever for me doctor who is one of the most influential pieces of media i've ever experienced in my life with its themes and messages carried with me through every waking breath it is the single most valuable digital thing in my life to me without a doubt the show has a terrific and exciting premise dripping with possibilities terrific and flushed out characters strong and creative sci-fi concepts beautiful cinematography superior acting from all of the main cast over the years with a few special little dickens giving particularly noteworthy performances and themes that are grounded in reality that speaks lengths about good character doing what's right and having strong friendships today we're going to be exploring all of this and also why the current era of doctor who doesn't work for me and so many others so grab a soda some popcorn get comfy because i'm about to share everything that is doctor who i hope you're ready so [Music] so in critiquing shows media video games whatever it may be it often can be hard to get your tongue around the words to define what it is that you love about the experience especially in a pitch to those who haven't seen it that goes for doctor who if someone told me that breaking bad was a show with characters that are constantly interacting and changing to create an edge of your seat watching experience with episodes that all serve the larger thesis of the show with constant payoff everywhere you look as opposed to it's a show about drugs and a chemistry teacher akin to what you might see on the netflix summary i might have jumped into it sooner if someone told me that bojack horseman was a personal show about depression with characters that are all flawed in different ways and push each other to heartbreaking extremes and constantly hit new lows and grapple with their choices with a main character as poisonous as he is sympathetic with story beats and dialogue that apply and connect to me on deep levels that equate to a watching experience as relatable as it is torturous as opposed to it's a show about show business with funny talking animals i would have watched it without a second thought but how do we even describe doctor who doctor who is a show that's about literally everything not a very good cell is it so let's start at the beginning with the very very very basics of the show doctor who revolves around the protagonist the doctor that's his name you get used to it while he may look like a human don't be fooled he's actually a time lord an alien race from the planet gallifrey although it's a spectacular coincidence that the race looks humanoid you look human you look tired lord you look human no you look time lord we came first actually there's one big difference he has two hearts yeah that's right a binary vascular system it's pretty cool time lord society can pretty much be divorced from the doctor as for most of the modern era the doctor is the last of his kind survivor of what is known as the time war a war across time and space that left its own planet a burning cinder they're all gone now my family my friend even that sky i should have seen it that old planet the second sun would rise in the south the mountains would shine oh yeah that's another thing uh you may have looked at that big number earlier and been like wow 50 years without a hitch that's impressive yeah back when doctor who wasn't treated like the second coming of christ the tv landscape was a little less kind to science fiction serials and also the scripts started to get a little terrible doctor who got cancelled for a while 16 years in fact before it was brought back to tv for a modern audience given the two arrows are so different in terms of tone budget and quality most fans split doctor who as a show into two different eras the classic era spanning from its birth in 1963 to its cancellation in 1989 and the modern era spanning their revival in 2005 to the present day they are referred to as classical and modern who respectively with the 16-year time gap separating them called the wilderness years named that because the doctor and current companion ace at the end of classic who marched off into the wilderness and remained the final note doctor who fans were left on for the entire duration of the 16-year waiting period and then modern who happened in 2005 and this will be most of the focus for the video essay not that classic who has nothing to offer quite the contrary in fact it's just well uh yeah i'm not quite caught up yet i love classic who it's a bit dated but it helps quite a bit if you watch it as though we're a stage play rather than a cinematic tv epic that transports you to an incredible worlds every week like its modern counterpart and that's not even really a bad thing the visuals barely matter the themes writing and acting are the heart of the stories and the quality of the staging are more like placeholders for your imagination to fill in the blanks approaching classic who from this angle makes watching and appreciating it far easier for me i'm still working on it of course but i can see the heart behind it the reason i'm not featuring it heavily in this video essay is because for me being an artist and someone who loves cinematography i can really appreciate a director who knows how to make an episode look pretty especially rachel talalay who directed the best episode of doctor who okay i'm gonna stop now before i dedicate an additional 50 pages exclusively to heaven son and classic who despite having impressive sets for the time until they weren't just isn't presented as well it's absolutely no fault of its own but it's a big boundary for me in terms of closely analyzing the show aside from the fact that i've barely dipped my toes in it if you do want to learn more about both classic and modern who i'll be directing you to clever dick films doctor who retrospective it's long-form media criticism similar to videos like this but made by an actually talented and educated person and is such an enlightening watch it's so good oh yeah i was talking about doctors premise wasn't i uh yeah doctor's continuity is long and elaborate which can be quite daunting but the stories themselves aren't really heavily serialized and there are several jumping on points across the many series where new fans can jump in and get in on the action and whilst we're on the topic the wide format of the show as a whole is far more episodic than cereal although the series themselves do possess elements of serialization and the lore of the show will occasionally have quota shifts in big impactful episodes such as the previously mentioned time war but it doesn't affect any person's enjoyment in just hopping in and enjoying the fun sci-fi romps that house the lore beats for this reason i've always seen doctor who is more episodic than serialized but the serialization is still quite good the episodic nature of the show is more pronounced by far with the episode formats being the doctor and his companions going to a location whether it be past present or future or any planet in the universe and having an adventure running for monsters communing with locals and learning lessons along the way their means of travel oh only the most iconic vehicle in all of sci-fi aside from maybe back to the future's delorean the tardis no this is hard to believe i know you're not exactly a sci-fi person time and relative dimension in space tardis for short you're safe in here you're safe in here and you always will be yeah it's a time machine it functions as well you know how you would expect a time machine to work as well as functions as home for the doctor and his companions the tardis is a fantastic concept of science fiction and it's honestly a testament to the show's longevity that the tardis's iconography is as well recognized as it has been for decades everything about the tardis's concept is amazing a police box that's bigger on the inside an idea that science fiction enough to be impressive and magical but real enough to make it so you feel as though you can reach out and touch it it's bigger on the inside and it makes perfect sense both in and out of the show in terms of the blanks that our brains can fill out we understand that the tardis is unfathomably massive and goes on for miles with hundreds of different and gorgeous rooms and we can imagine what that exactly looks like all of it packed into that tiny little box along with being a great science fiction concept the tardis is also given a fair bit of characterization and it's explained within the show on multiple occasions that the tardis is sentient it's a living being and it's given quite a bit of autonomy in the show as much as you can for a giant blue box and making the tardis sentient works as a narrative avenue for far more than the funny blue box doesn't like the companion it also establishes a deep bond between the doctor and the tardis both have been with each other for decade well centuries both have been with each other for centuries gone on hundreds of adventures together and it seems nothing can make them part companions of all kinds have come and gone but the doctor in his box will always be together they're an intellectual match for each other sometimes banter and argue but at the end of the day they're connected far more than the human brain can fathom oh also a small thing but i felt like bringing it up the sound design is fantastic every tardis sound is ingrained into my dna here just just listen to the sound it's honestly stupid how emotional hearing that pulsing deep humming can make me it's just so close to home for me that warmth that coziness it's never leaving me i love it the tardis is a fantastic component of doctor who and its majesty and iconography is irreplaceable seeing this brilliant blue box on alien worlds and parked on the streets it's iconic you can strip away everything from doctor who but no matter how hard you try it's impossible to separate these two from the show's dna and it rules now all the elements that fuel doctor who are in place a doctor and a companion the tardis and adventures throughout time and space and that's exactly what the show delivers every week was another installment in the ongoing magic tale of the doctor and his companions and i think that's the most basic answer for why doctor who was so successful that basic formula channels the inner nine-year-old in all of us and only succeeds in hooking any actual nine-year-olds for the rest of their natural life as was i when the young impressionable me sat down to watch planet of the dead with my dad no idea what was to come but that's for later doctor who was an effective piece of television in many different regards which is why nowadays the show is rather legendary which only serves to boost its titanic iconography and widespread popularity it's been around for multiple generations and it's the only time you'll be hearing stories from your grandparents about watching the program since its beginnings back in 1963 during a brand new episode that aired in 2021 in some cases the show outlives its initial fan base some people dying of old age long before the show would even come close to its end and for many people in this generation i think none of us will see a proper end to the show in our natural lives and that's what's so great about it as well it's a piece of media that exists out of time much like the main protagonist does wielding the power of time travel with a nonchalant swagger and unbearable charm the show just keeps going the reason for this aside from the unbeatable formula is that the show constantly evolves with each god my voice is shredded the reason for this aside from the unbeatable formula is that the show constantly evolves with each decade and that's obvious when one takes a crash course in the show every couple of years has a new companion a new tardis new enemies and yes of course a new doctor another relic of doctor whose brilliance that effectively made the show immortal with ease is the fact that the doctor can regenerate the origin for the concept is such a well-known story at this point it feels silly to even mention it but for the sake of consistency here we go the first doctor and then only doctor played by william hartnell was originally hard to convince when signing off for the show all those decades ago but once he was on he was on for life he fell in love with the program despite his declining health conditions nevertheless his illness did impede the production of the show heavily unbeknownst to the ecstatic cardinal of course this would not be a permanent fixture doctor who was in the prime of its life with millions of fans it was here that regeneration was conceived and is brilliantly realized through 2013's an adventure in space and time which i love to bits and what i consider to be the real 50th anniversary special regeneration successfully became a staple of the show and simultaneously posed as a metaphor for how it's existed for so long the show literally becomes something else while still containing that unbeatable formula that started it all if one became tired of a certain format of the show all one had to do was wait a few years and the show would shed its skin and become a brand new doctor who narrative with its own unique display of likeable characters realized worlds and creative sci-fi concepts to bring in children and adults alike other additions to the doctor's roster of tools was the sonic screwdriver introduced in fury of the deep the second doctor's second to last adventure back then all it did was unscrew a screw but as time has gone on it's evolved into a master key for any door in the universe aside from deadlock sealed ones of could open anything course except a deadlock seal also a new addition with the modern series was the psychic paper it's essentially a little slip of paper that shows people whatever the doctor wants them to see as well as receives messages like a smartphone these tools only serve to complement the unbeatable formula and mold to whatever the plot needs and malleable tools are perfect for a show that's constantly in a state of flux however it's not just the demographic that makes the show so popular it's not all numbers and values on a spreadsheet in order to make a satisfying compound of explosive television although those elements are present like i said it's an extremely complex show there isn't anything quite like it therefore we're gonna have to dig a little deeper [Music] going about critiquing doctor who i find it imperative to start with the writing of the show above all else why well because it's like the bones of the program it's both its strongest trait and most integral piece of its inner workings at the core of every single doctor who's story it's the writing that's fueling all of the pizzazz associated with the program the way doctor who works regenerating both the lead and the overall tone of the series with each regeneration a few writers have gotten the highest honor of taking over as showrunner for a particular era for the modern series we've had three and one of them isn't like the other russell t davies who helmed the ninth and tenth doctors and stephen moffat who helmed the 11th and 12th doctors we're just gonna tuck this guy away for later as show runners they obviously oversaw all the creative decisions on the show but also penned the majority of the stories of their particular era guest and recurring writers have been brought on historically for a few episodes but all went through the filter that is the showrunner and doctor who doesn't choose its show enter lightly except for that one time that they did for this reason each era of the show has a concrete and concentrated depiction of both the lead and the recurring characters referring to both companions and the sporting cast like the paternoster gang of series 7 or donna's family of series 4. oh well all are well written and i'll get into the intricacies of that soon but first we're gonna start with the writing of the doctor i'm just gonna come out and say it i think the doctor is the most complex brilliantly written character in all of cinema and i am 100 taking into account that i love heaven sent more than anything on this earth tv shows have had their own fair share of contenders for the best written character title but for me none come close to the doctor for a laundry list of different reasons for one thing he's not even human to write a convincing alien that reacts believably and intricately with human culture a race that he is not a part of yet also is intimately close to is stupidly impressive 50 years of character building aside the doctor is the perfect foil to humanity why'd you put up with us then in amongst seven billion is someone like you that's why i put up with the of course it takes an alien to show us the beauty of being human those little things about life we grow to appreciate is what the doctor loves about our species our complexity our empathy our passion all are put under a microscopic lens when the doctor is present because he's a foil in that regard we connect with him more because of his affection toward us that dynamic brings alien and human closer and closer to a point where a line is barely visible between the they're two small to me to make assumptions about how far i will go to protect them because i've already come a very long way and unlike you i do not expect to reach the promised land he's protective of her humanity and its purity because his own race was a corrupt total power and be completely extinct so at a certain point you forget that the doctor even is an alien that connectivity and development through a script is the beauty of subtext and a doctor who is dripping with it despite being a comprehensive character in his own right doctor who has never been above shaking up this character in a major way with any incarnation sometimes a great effect and sometimes not so much but what's impressive is how each incarnation can react and live in its own self-contained series and eras yet also be pertinently relevant to the grand mythos that is doctor who each incarnation is different but they're all a deeper and darker corner of the doctor as a character same software different case this inherently makes the character mysterious divorced from the fact that he's lived a dozen other lives and is still the same person despite it the expansive titanic personality that is the doctor is always present lurking behind the eyes of every incarnation the ancient god who's lived for millennia and seen as much to boot the doctor is a character who is defined by range a man who can go from silly and eccentric to dark and cold in an instant from immensely happy to confused or comforting or angry or sad he's a cavalcade of emotion a spectrum that we can apply to ourselves in comparison a self in certain some places and a complete and utter far cry in others it's truly impressive how expansive the doctor's vast character is and the show almost always depicts that in a satisfying way with a personality as vast as the doctors the show has to check him constantly because of the immense power that he wields by nature of his existence so because of this the show makes the doctor not only insanely powerful and temperamental but instead a good and wise eccentric practicing heroism as much as he can but is constantly challenged beaten and sometimes broken by his enemies revealing the temperamental deity within the doctor has endured a lot of trials over his many adventures and it's only by his nature that the character still remains brave and adamant in his morals this concept of striving for heroism is immortalized in the doctor's moral compass something i've already made a standalone video essay on but i'll paraphrase for the sake of covering all my bases in this video the doctor is a character defined by virtue despite having the capabilities to truly make his enemies suffer he remains a pacifist character because of his morals he believes that violence begets violence that everyone deserves a second chance and an opportunity to be heard out he understands where the aliens come from in the stories because he is one and isn't prone to gunning down an alien threat without first understanding why and if there's a peaceful way to bring about a solution he's also a character who harbors a lot of wisdom and intends to use his millennia of experience to convince the short-sighted of the universe to see reason the doctor also has no desire for self-preservation in terms of resolving a conflict he's more than happy to lay down his life if it leads to a better tomorrow this pacifistic and responsible moral code is the exact thing that is tested within the doctor's character and enemies are constantly waffling on about how the doctor's cowardice and lack of commitment to pulling the trigger is flawed and weak through sympathy through beating and battering at the doctor's values the audience can see his heroism and dedication to standing strong as a role model of sorts to how we should never back down when it comes to doing the right thing no matter the opposition or villainy we face compassion then always it grows strong and fierce in you like a cancer i hope so it will kill you in the end i wouldn't die of anything else and again i'm only paraphrasing i made a whole video about this when a doctor does break in those rare instances it strengthens the moral code to see an objectively inferior solution bring suffering and punishment exhibit a the waters of mars i'll be coming back to this episode later in the essay but for the sake of this section in terms of covering all my bases with the character i may risk repeating myself in some way later on in the essay just know that later on i'll be talking about why the waters of mars is one of my favorite episodes of doctor who while right now i'll be talking about how the themes of the waters of mars strengthen the doctor's character so to save most of why this moment works for later on we're going to skip ahead to what this moment means for the character as opposed to why it's an amazing shocking and heartbreaking moment in its own right because of what captain adelaide brooke does in this scene the audience sees that doing the morally inferior thing leads to loss and guilt among other things it's a moment that works within the context of the show as well as being applicable to people's lives outside of the show a person can watch this episode for the first time understand the rules of the episode and watch it all fall apart and say wow the doctor really shouldn't have done that despite how much not doing it would have hurt him clearly it is more important than ever that the doctor's moral code is not forgotten by him and another person can watch the same episode under the same context and go wow that was a really compelling showcase of how making the right choice is sometimes insanely hard and heartbreaking this episode's themes have applied directly to my own life in an extremely personal way i will never be the same again obviously that's a dramatized version both people would probably just go oh my god that episode was good realistically but in all seriousness the waters of mars helps us understand that the choices we get presented in our own lives are oftentimes extremely suffocating it teaches us that when we similarly reach a crossroads of morality to not go the way the doctor does to not be called by the siren song of personal weakness or cowardice since the weakness most often breeds bad decision making or regret to dedicate yourself to being a strong person is a long and hard battle that you fight for your entire life and it can be tempting to give in and act selfishly from time to time through doctor who we can see that appealing to weakness is to break as a person and that we should always practice impressive feats of endurance as we tackle the issues within our own personal lives day in and day out we should strive to be better than the doctor in this moment no matter how hard it may be this is without a doubt one of the most important doctor who stories to me based on this one theme alone and it has an unending catalogue of so many other great things that i'll be talking about i don't know like in 30 minutes so yeah the waters of mars is awesome and focuses on one of the most compelling character traits of the doctor that despite his best efforts the doctor cuts a lonely figure for himself loving and losing for years on end it's a depressing prospect to be sure but if the doctor can keep checking along so can we the importance of the doctor and his character within our society remains as fierce as it has been for decades for both the people within the show and in real life when you have 50 years of canon to muddle through it takes a lifetime to understand the character let alone take him to new depths which is why i love stephen moffat so much as a doctor here writer for the simple reason that he understands the doctor so much and to have the wombo combo of best doctor writer and best doctor actor ethically and moffatt is another reason i love heaven sense so much and even though we have all-time highs in heaven sent and essentially capability in general every single version of the doctor is brilliant in their own way i've never seen a more subjective opinion in my life that can hold a candle to a favorite doctor ranking list as far as i'm concerned every single incarnation of the doctor is good even colin baker who was the doctor during the show's most strenuous time period i actually like even though he strangled his companion and is also super rude and stuff i think he's unbearably funny we'll pile the heads of our enemies before us like melons in a heap i would enjoy that he's not near my favorite of course but i do not think any particular incarnation of the doctor is even close to bad even john hurt a man who is only the doctor in one episode is incredible you're the doctor too great men are forged in fire it is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame go back to your lives and be the doctor that i could never be make it worthwhile how can you people not love this incarnation hey tell you what just for fun let's rank them right now when else am i gonna have the chance [Music] [Applause] so [Applause] [Music] just throwing that out there have fun in the comments and since we're kind of getting into doctor specific stuff here i figured i'd take a look at a really complex issue in the doctor's massive personality that remains a fierce point of contention to this day so let's have a real debate of this it should be fun should the doctor be a romantic specifically should a love story centering around the doctor and his companion be explored and you know i really need to clarify that the fact that we can even talk about this stuff as fans is amazing but complexity is really the beauty of it and clearly i have my stance and you have your stance you agree in some ways disagree in others i have insane respect for these two i love what they've done with doctor who and could never in a million years dream of writing some of the things that they have these are elements that i don't love because it was never really a way that i connected with the show i connected with the doctor because of his eccentricity and sadness his inner turmoil and explosive writhing personality what a compelling vessel he is and clearly doctor whose writers agree with me but the romance isn't compelling to me this angle of doctor who is the strangest thing to me in terms of why it happened i mean let's think about this the doctor is an ancient and wise nearly immortal alien romantic connection especially with humans who are pretty much as close to mortal as it gets is interesting in the ways that the show explores you know the whole thing that it's doomed from the start so it's all sad in that facet the curious part for me is why this had to be explored in romance in all of the possible ways that it could have been explored in it steps on a few character traits of the doctor that i feel are more compelling the first and most superficial is that the doctor has always been portrayed as asexual of course elements of the doctor's character can change like that one time that they very clearly change that for a particularly handsome incarnation but most doctors have been asexual to all species human being one of them secondly the doctor is nearly immortal the implications are that he cannot spend his life romantically with any other living beings because he will simply outlive them and it's a compelling avenue of lore to be sure but why did it have to be romance immortal angst can and is told in doctor who in other ways and better ways than something as tacked on cliche and forced as romance and in a lot of ways i honestly find it embarrassing that a show that's so fantastical and unique did something as boring as giving the handsome main character an attractive sidekick that he's in love with series 2 did it and series 7b did it and they are my two absolute least favorite series because of it the doctor doesn't need it to be interesting because the very thing that makes him unique is that he exists as a character above what we as humans can identify to see the doctor doing human romance stuff doesn't make him easier to understand as a character but rather simplifies his intricacies and vaporizes the subtext in my opinion and you know the things that doctor who fails at don't really matter because it's a matter of commitment you know doctor who tells a love story featuring a lonely handsome romantic and i look away because it's not what i like but that's not the point it's well written and ripe with subtext and most importantly not for me it's for you know teenage girls and i can look at that as a fan of the 900 year old asexual demigod who has no time for petty human love and be like ah that's unfortunate that they went in that direction but still enjoy the story at large because it's still doctor who and it's still the doctor it's witty and smart and personal in all the ways that i love it with unfortunately some elements that aren't totally doctor who in my opinion romance is certainly done in doctor who in very good ways more on that later but in regards to the doctor i think other traits do what this was trying to do far better and far more consistently with how i feel the doctor as a character would act the living forever befriending and losing friendship is a strong enough bond to make it heartbreaking and it is heartbreaking time and time again and i think the romance does nothing but distract me in the end from the characterization of both rose and clara the big culprits as well as the doctor i can't see it appealing to anyone other than teenagers who are in love with david tennant's gorgeous jawline or jenna coleman's pretty face that's genuinely how i feel but the character rises above all that all the amazing traits i've talked about before really do cancel this out and then some and even then i can absolutely tolerate it for what the show means what the character means and all the amazing things doctor who brings to television all of this all i've said it matters more and it makes this matter not at all and that's the way it should be there's something for everyone in the doctor and that's really the point it's why the character endures why he stays prominent and important and revered by everyone all that the doctor is about is indicative of our world our people and he's a vessel to strive for to identify with to distance from and to learn from he's shown you the importance of intelligence humility humanity bravery responsibility abnormality expressivity hospitality sincerity and vulnerability time and time again his importance is insurmountable and indescribable the doctor is doctor whose highest achievement most grand success and i have no doubt that people will agree with me here finally moving away from the doctor we now get to focus on the side characters of the show more specifically the companions and rather than giving one or two sentence summaries of these characters like i did in my first video essay we're gonna go deep and i mean deep into each one of these characters starting with my absolute favorite companion and working my way down from there and to nobody's surprise my absolute favorite companion and doctor who is the lord and savior himself wilfred mott played by bernard cribbens god this man is so perfect in every way i think everyone is lying to themselves by not putting this man at number one on every companion ranking list so let's look at this what defines a good character and how does doctor who do it well well in writing a character it all begins and ends with consistency a character is given realistic traits and the story maintains that vision and we can break their writing into its own subdivisions the character itself and the way this story introduces the character traits and continues to develop the character within the fabric of the stories as the season goes on this is called characterization doctor who does this extremely well thanks to the award-winning writers behind it all making character traits character flaws linking them together in a real way and building on them akin to how an actual person might react it's insanely important that the characters within the show never break this illusion because as audience identification figures they should be well identifiable if the humans don't act like humans how am i as a viewer supposed to get invested in the human drama surrounding them and even more so those strong character traits and realistic depictions have to be smoothed over integrated into the story and not be unnatural or forced for example a writer creates a companion that's a starving artist waiting for a big break the doctor takes him or her aboard and the series begins that companion's hopes and dreams dictate the way they'll react to the colossal alien beauty the small intricacies of their entire life are pertinent to their every word an artist might be starstruck by the vast beauty and have a strong desire to capture it the gorgeous scenery of far-off alien worlds may render them speechless and their solitude introverted artist personality may want a few moments alone within the alien world to truly feel one with and absorb the circumstances that surround them if the character went wow this is an alien world how smashing that would be bad characterization while the character may have strong traits because the characterization fails the character fails on the fundamental basis consistency your character has to be consistent everything they do characterizes them and you cannot flub that because the illusion gets destroyed they aren't a real character anymore luckily for doctor who they've nipped this one in the bud thanks in part to the stupidly smart writers employed that have grown up with the show most if not all of the main characters and doctors who have been given the love and attention they deserve as characters with wilf being the best but why is that why does the small background character from series 4 get all of my unending because he's just a door now he just checks both boxes and then some he's a strong character with a rich and intimate past and is characterized very well a kindly spunky old man who's lived and learned but isn't above having a bit of fun he's a bit of a goofball but also has some emotional depth to him but honestly the surface level funniness is gripping enough to sell me i mean who could forget these classic wolf moments there's keen eyes up there and they're watching us and they're not friendly dad take those things off no it's not it's christmas it's gone dark it's them aliens i'll bet my attention what do you want this time your green swine dad look you get back inside sylvia they always want the women please come home they're leaving our street alone yeah i've got a weapon it's a paint gun exactly then darling things they've only got one eye a good splodge of paint they'd be blinded [Music] and thank god we got wolff as a full-fledged companion in the end of time parts and thank god he's the emotional crux of that entire story because boy does his character deserve it hearing stories about his life during the second world war how he never took a life how scared he was to pull the gun on the master he's the only supporting character that loves the fact that donna gets the opportunity to travel in time he respects the doctor and cares for him as if he was his own son which is obviously spelled out in tennis last episode we see wolf cry a lot and we connect with him more than any other character i feel because we see everything about him and it is so real that's what good character work can do and wolf is kind of a benchmark for most characters in the show and right behind him is none other than his granddaughter donna one of dr who's finest characters she's characterized as an older woman at a dead end unfulfilling job she's a bit irritable a bit loud a bit spiky but has a soft interior that she keeps strongly guarded in the runaway bride she's ungrateful and self-centered appearing to find the doctor annoying and a nuisance for most of their screen time this was mainly due to her being treated as a one-off for comic relief and that's the purpose she serves but it's a testament to russell's writing that even here the depth is visible even for this off a fully formed character was made and given an arc making her perfect pickings to come back as a full companion in series 4. and as that series goes on the doctor wears away at her defensiveness and they get on quite well we start to see how her unique character could bring a legendary dynamic to the tardis she actively challenges ten which is so refreshing after two seasons of companions making googly eyes attendant she's sensitive understanding and caring when it matters and has the strength and iron to put her foot down when the doctor doesn't do things her way and through this these two fantastic characters do a brilliant ballet of great banter moral quandaries and supremely funny dialogue through having the doctor and donna's mouthy and challenging characters just interact with each other in this story through this both the doctor and donna are refined the doctor gets knocked down a few pegs and donna gets exposed to new and empathetic perspectives causing her to humble herself and become a better person by the finale she's hardly the character we first met in the runaway bride which makes it all the more tragic that she loses her memories and regresses as a character back to square one she remains one of doctor who's greatest and her fantastic depiction makes series 4 one of the show's greatest series as well after donna i'm gonna go with oh god uh amy and rory if you want me to actually rank them i'd honestly probably put rory first but i'm gonna talk about them at the same time they're both excellent in all the ways that donna was but brilliant in a whole new way they portray one of doctor who square pegs for me in a good way romance why does it work you know why it works my words are wasted so anyways amy is characterized as a confident energetic and sexy but not in a male gazy way or indeed in a male gazy way if that's how you feel i don't because this obligatory sexiness is only around in a few scenes which makes me think it was used for characterization that amy isn't afraid to be forward or outwardly confident which is a character trait that stayed for the series length anyways i got a bit sidetracked there amy is written confidently and youthfully she's inquisitive but a bit vulnerable clever and aware but not stepping on the doctor's massive intellect mainly focusing on the little bits that the doctor misses she's always down to take a threat head-on do some running and put up a good fight she's got a voice and by god people are going to hear it she swept off her feet by the oblivious 11th doctor and through her tardis adventures her dedication to rory her fiance is tested and strengthened she's constantly challenged in her loyalty to rory but learns time and time again that the superficial aspects are less important than the deep intimate parts parts that rory delivers in strides with he's heroic but a bit dopey funny and sarcastic and loyal to amy until the end it's through his unending love for amy that he develops great confidence and strength he's her hero but it isn't egregious he's driven by compassion for amy and amy while unwilling to outwardly reciprocate that deep down loves rory immensely through the adventures on the tardis rory and his dedication to amy is always at the forefront of his decisions they're inseparable their values are always consistent they're a couple that are so intimately and realistically written it hurts the stories continue and they get closer and closer together they ride or die for another and it eventually leads to their end they go out together twice and if that isn't a true test of their loyalty i don't know what is after them i'm actually gonna go for clara clara's kind of weird first off there's three of them and of the series that modern clara is the main companion of i think clara in series eight and nine had the most interesting dynamic because of this idiocity clara honestly brings something so unique to doctor who specifically because of her amazing chemistry with capaldi in these seasons and how it all lined up in that way after matt smith's regeneration this companion who was written as a mystery box with a pretty face to flirt with the handsome time lord and the harsh asexual scot who is constantly fighting to retain dominance in the companionship is just fantastic it's the donna relationship in the ways that these two are constantly opposing each other specifically in series 8 but it's taken to an 11. donna and 10 bicker about silly things and that's the fun of it but clara is shaken and 12 is shaken too both are on the fringes desperately trying to gauge the other but can't this is a wholly more volatile relationship the fun is fun the banter is fantastic and refreshing but when the doctor messes up boy does it strike a chord kolara isn't a character who's just gonna stand on the sidelines she's characterized as extremely confident and able to keep up with the doctor in a way that any other companion could not she's stupidly independent a character trait that she's picked up and emulated from the doctor she's by far the most successful in terms of being a companion but that's precisely where her flaw exists she takes it a bit too far too confident too reckless the bond that she and 12 develop through their unending adventures makes the moment where they realize that this has gone too far become so heartbreaking they push each other to stupid extremes because they both consider themselves dominant in the relationship it's a great relationship that's written so well and despite what people will tell you i think clara genuinely remains on the better end of doctor who's companions that control freakishness is without a doubt her achilles heel as well as her strongest character trait and it's quite an inventive mix ah jeez um next up let's have a [Music] bill a youthful spunky and empathetic character that's taken on by the doctor after seeing a spark of wonder in her she's a back to basics companion but offers something fresh to the formula she's lesbian obviously and this gives her a whole new set of eyes through which she sees the world in some ways and in others it stays totally the same she has insane agency and flair asking a lot of questions but is more interested in the implications around the answer rather than the answer itself nothing is black and white yes and no right or wrong when it comes to the universe i think the thing with bill is that so much of her is self-explanatory i suppose most of the beauty is the naivety and how pearl mackey plays her the mouthy and inquisitive performance is just perfect and 12 bill and nordl is a great trifecta of characters and the contrast between them makes for the best dialogue as bill progresses learning about the universe providing 12 with a new and energetic perspective after the deep baggage that was both the death of clara and river bill learns to hold on to who she is the concept of personality becomes a prime question of the finale and bill a fiercely passionate character incites a lot of great questions about what we define as humanity with all of it based in her down-to-earth slice of life character as an audience identification figure it really doesn't get better than bill next we'll have martha she's characterized as a bit more old school smart being a doctor of medicine obviously she's a person who's worked hard to get to where she is or at least tried to make a name for herself by being a problem solver and while martha was a victim of some of the more unfortunate doctor companion dynamics i think martha really stands out in her sheer amount of grit and capability martha hardens with her adventures in the tardis to a heartbreaking degree throughout series 3 martha's tardis adventures are closer to a gauntlet of progressively harder challenges which only makes the continuation that she becomes a unit soldier in series 4 all the more compelling and also tragic the doctor and his meddling being the reason for this decision while martha still got in on the wonder and excitement she also exemplifies the difficulty of tardis life and martha was always always capable in a pinch it's the crux of the finale and her character's iron and determination against the odds truly makes her feel unique and at the same time she isn't really characterized as the tough one she's more sarcastic and wonder filled obviously a fan of tennis puppy dog eyes but she's far more willing to literally jump in roll up her sleeves and help as many people as she can more than any other companion i think of 42 immediately where she just at the drop of a hat decides to help this random guy get to the bridge and take control of the ship out of the company of the doctor and chris chibnall wrote that one obviously it has other problems but the characterization is not one of them i think at least for these two and then rose wow this looks really bad to be fair i did say that all the main companions in doctor who are well characterized and rose is no exception and i hope that we can be mature and recognize that even if she's my least favorite big main companion she's still phenomenally characterized rose is modern who's first companion and for some people that means she's the best i disagree but that's okay characterized as empathetic and caring but naive and short-sighted rose enters the ninth doctor's life post-time war trauma providing him with a positive influence she's a character that gets introduced to tardis life and never looks back completely discontent with her life up to that point she up and leaves to dedicate herself fully to this time lord stranger why i love you yeah but she's pretty well characterized having a lot to say in any given situation occasionally butting heads with the doctor but mostly just a helpful lively companion it's purely a symbiotic relationship with these two and is every bit as addicting for both parties the show mostly acknowledges this with a few missteps so in the end we get like a seventy percent in terms of what i like in a doctor who companion with the entire missing thirty percent being from this constant flirting rose in series one is so well characterized and series 2 rose is why she's down here but again still a great character because they're all great doctor who's characters and how they react in the sci-fi sandbox is absolutely its strongest element in my opinion obviously the doctor blows me away and keeps me coming back to the show but even the recurring and mainstay supporting cast have something to offer to the formula and leave me with a watching experience where i've truly learned something about myself through the characters and their world and that's what it's all about [Music] there's always a golden rule i've kept when i watch a film or anything really a piece of media is at its best when it leaves you with a lasting impact that doesn't mean something has to necessarily be political or educational to leave a lasting impact in fact my favorite kind of lasting impact is getting absorbed in a world and its characters because the conflicts they face are relatable believable or compelling consistency is key but my actual favorite lasting impact is a subcategory of a fleshed out world and i've already mentioned it sub text for example let's take two amazing games half-life 2 and the legend of zelda ocarina of time both are incredible games with incredible worlds and unmatched storytelling i mean there's a reason these two are the most talked about games when it comes to the best games of all time however the reason half-life 2 isn't number 7 on my top 10 favorite games and ocarina of time is at number one is subtext half-life 2 succeeds by being committed to its thesis the idea that players should feel part of a story as opposed to watching an interactive movie on top of having good characters perfect pacing strong elements of mystery and an epic scope ocarina of time succeeds by having a story about childhood that slowly evolves into a story about growing up and coming of age the difference if it wasn't immediately obvious from those sparse cliff notes is that with half-life the lore is written in ink the events that take place are exactly how they're taken at a glance of course it goes deeper from there and half-life's world building is without a doubt the best in the business but with ocarina of time the story is built on strong and ever-changing themes the way the characters and link himself grows in the story is crafted to keep you thinking and again if any game makes you think it would be half-life too but so much is left up to interpretation and occurring of time in comparison the simplistic format in the story is specifically made to make you feel to insert yourself into link's story and grow and change with him how does that make you feel as a player these are the feelings that video games should be made for and both of these games are just choice in the entire genre ocarina's story follows maturity in a way that meshes perfectly with its realized world puzzle solving compelling narratives and dynamic gameplay to successfully solidify it as the best story in video games in my opinion that shouldn't take anything away from half-life's incredible world i mean the game speaks for itself it's just that i connect with a valuable subtext a bit more than a really really solid world i like half-life by the way if you weren't picking up where i'm going with this doctor who is subtext central which makes its overarching narrative something i always come crawling back to because the character of the doctor is so 12 dimensional a story that he inhabits has like 144 dimensions there are so many good doctor who stories but we're going to zero in on two masterpieces here and i've already mentioned both of them heaven sense and the waters of mars let's save the best for last shall we [Music] in this episode we get treated to something extremely unique in the fact that the doctor kind of loses it a little in this episode [Music] yeah just a little okay jokes aside this script is so grown up i cannot applaud these writers enough for this story in a doctor who confidential interview david tennant said something that made me value this episode leagues more what's exciting about a story like this is that with a a series which is ongoing uh and a character who who must be essentially unchanging um is that there's a limit to what you can do with that character you know he he kind of pretty much always has to win the day and pretty much always has to be reset to zero at the end of every story and we're in the sort of unique position now because we know that the 10th doctor's story is coming to an end where we can start being a little uh bolder with that we can start telling stories about this character that you can only tell once this story is a one-time thing we will never see something like this again from doctor who it can only ever happen at the tail end of the story all this build up all this tension the doctor endures this is the climax of all of that and comes at a very logical time in the narrative so what's the gist here the doctor lands on mars in the near future and gets tangled up in the affairs of the first outer space colonists ever obviously these people are very famous and the doctor knows who they are but the audience doesn't the audience should be like oh why do i care but the world building and writing specifically puts these characters at the center of a huge domino effect so before long the audience knows how important these characters are to the future of humanity we understand at the stakes then the deadlock seal in this whole fiasco is the doctor's comment here i really should go i'm sorry i'm i'm sorry with all of my hearts but it's one of those very rare times when i've got no choice this is a fixed point in time we saw this previously in the fires of pompeii the idea being that some events in time are simply too important to meddle with such as the pompeii tragedy and of course bully base one's destruction these people die today and that is just how it is nothing can be done anyways more hijinks ensue the flood appear and start killing people the doomsday clock is ticking at this point the doctor continues talking himself into sticking around despite the circumstances throughout the episode because he loves these people and can't bring himself to abandon them at the end of their lives fast forward a bit more and the crew discover the flood and decide to flee the mars base with their lives captain brook who had been unsure of the doctor's agenda for the whole run time finally allows him to leave in fact she orders him to do so all the crew dash around carrying cargo to the escape rocket as the doctor watches and this moment is so powerful the doctor is so torn inside he watches the crew panic to escape frozen desperately wanting to act tenants acting jeez and yes this is acting just standing there it's incredible the audience kinda expects him to try and do something but he doesn't and this is a logical character progression for ten everything he does just makes it happen we see that in the fires of pompeii so he expects that if he does interfere all that will lead to is more anguish he has no choice but to walk away as the doctor attempts to leave out of the airlock it seems captain brooke could read his expression she's gotten wise and confronts the doctor in the airlock and he has no choice but to tell her their fate with a heavy heart i suppose this is a good time to bring this up since we're kinda talking about characters the characters in the story are fantastic and i think this one line from roman sums it up perfectly mia stripped the cargo down to essentials roman on your feet but we came all this way this poor kid out of all of doctor who's one-off characters these are without a doubt what i believe to be the best they're all smart and capable wise to their circumstances immediately have a ton of humanity and are all unique and interesting which is important because we need to see that staggering contrast when they all die captain brook and ed just being fantastic and their dynamic is just as great captain brooke being overbearing to him because he's the most ambitious and likely to do something stupid and on impulse and ed frustrated by those confines only wanting to help as much as he can the tragedy of these characters being that they're so passionate about what they do is where this episode's pathos really shines they overcame trials and tribulations to get here and it's being taken away by sheer circumstance captain adelaide brooke the main supporting character of this episode is so strong literally and metaphorically she's characterized as intelligent and rational but a tad overbearing when it comes to her crew you can respect her careful decisions because they are on mars after all and there can be no room for error as well as identifying with the trauma that made her the way she is today her entire bloodline is pertinent to the story's canon with a lot to be said about the morality of time travel something that doctor who has historically been pretty loosey-goosey about she's brave and pragmatic takes a plethora of precautions but isn't afraid to take a stand for something she detests what a character to focus on indeed at the start of the episode we sympathize with the doctor's dilemma but as the story goes on she becomes the voice of reason a well-realized character that still has a fear of dying which is incredibly sensible given the situation [Music] she reacts very realistically but ultimately understands that if there was something to be done he would have done it and releases him the doctor hikes back to the tardis still tapped into the crew comms he is forced to listen to their dying screams like nails on a chalkboard if he was going to do something it's already too late steffi gets cornered in a room roman is killed by stray water droplet and ed gets infected while attempting to escape in the rocket he is forced to commit suicide in order to stop the flood's plans of hijacking the rocket it's a heroic sacrifice on ed's part with one last good deed to save the earth upon rocket detonation the doctor is knocked to his feet he turns around fire engulfs his surroundings and he goes back and wait what he's going back but this is a fixed point can he even save them what'll happen can he even pull it off what is going on this is amazing like i showed in the intro the doctor has utterly had enough with this fixed point nonsense that he's had to put up with the time lords are dead why should he it's truly a selfish moment for the doctor but is totally earned after being completely responsible for his whole life that doesn't make him right let me be clear but it is an earned character moment then all of a sudden brooke activates action 5 and is going to nuke the whole base for the sake of time someone has to stop the doctor from destroying the whole of history and she'll do whatever it takes to ensure that he will be stopped he barely does it and puts his own life on the line but manages to save what little survivors there were [Music] i think that's when you really see a change doctor you've seen him fighting evil and vanquishing time back on mars when he arrives on earth that's a different man there's an arrogance about him there's a superiority about him he is superior in many ways he's not in many ways he's just becoming what he could be there's no going to thank me so you see him almost looking at the humans with contempt and almost enjoying the fact that he's more learned than that he's got more knowledge and loving the fact that he's rewritten history don't you get it this is the 21st of november 2059 same day on earth so he's in a very very dangerous path as he steps out of that tardis because he's becoming omnipotent and that's not good no one should have that much power tough that's how i imagine someone like the master became the master was by taking all the power a time lord has and using it and exaggerating it until there's no going back the time lord victorious and there's no one to stop you and where that might lead is is almost uh impossible to quantify i mean if he's if he's willing to do this then what's to stop him go back into the time more wants to stop him uh going back and and filling donna's mind again what's to stop him go back and making sure rose never goes into the alternative universe there's so many things open to him now uh he's literally ripped ripping time apart suddenly this time lord victorious becomes this terrifying figure adelaide could see it because she's watched the doctor throughout the story eventually adelaide realizes she's being forced to act the doctor right now is truly unstoppable i mean think about it through one final attempt to spite the doctor and snap him back into it she kills herself and her home and geez the editing here is perfect graeme hopper really knows how to sell this repeating moment stuff to make this impact last and the music as well the impact hits the doctor right between the eyes and he realizes that what he's done and led to is truly terrible that someone had to kill themselves just to crack his arrogance he learns the most valuable lesson with great power comes great responsibility despite the circumstances it is absolutely brilliant and a whole new low for the character there will never be another doctor episode like this [Music] let's go before we start i think it's important to point this out heaven's sent is so much of an undisputed masterpiece that it has its own separate track listing in the series 9 soundtrack separate from both the rest of series 9 and the finale hell bent that alone should tell you all that you need to know listen i could oh yeah this is what my camera comes on listen i could sit here and tell you why heaven sent is my favorite episode i could just praise the music the cinematography the directing the acting the writing the subtext the themes the set design i could just praise and praise until the sun goes down [Music] so the episode opens with a monologue from peter capaldi as you'll quickly realize this monologue extends for the full 50 minutes and doesn't end until the end credits so if you wanted the high concept box ticked on a doctor who episode don't worry haven't since got you covered for this first chunk of capaldi's episode long monologue he speaks about some mysterious thing that follows you until you die you will run it will walk you will rest it will not one day you will linger in the same place too long you will sit too still or sleep too deep and when too late you rise to go you will notice a second shadow next to yours your life will then be over immediately there are three different interpretations for what this thing could be and only one of them is spelled out these three interpretations are the veil the creature that attacks the doctor throughout the episode the doctor himself as he declares during the cold open transition to title card i am the doctor i'm coming to find you and i will never ever stop and the final and more hidden answer is that this nameless thing is death itself this catapults us into the themes and subtext running throughout the episode the doctor is trapped in a castle with mysterious properties whilst a creature tracks his every move never faltering conflict with the enemy is inevitable and should the doctor hope to survive an encounter with the veil the only way to stop it is to confess his secrets a true challenge for a character like the doctor deeply entrenched in mystery the doctor must use his intellect and wit to escape the castle all the while operating in the wake of the death of clara there are many reasons to watch this episode the beautiful cinematography like seriously seriously seriously it's beautiful capaldi's terrific acting sorry i'm late jumped out of a window the great sci-fi concept is placed in the series 9 narrative as the penultimate episode but what i want to cover are its themes because in a way it's the most important part of any work of cinema that's trying to strive for something themes are the roots of cinema heaven sense theme is death or more specifically dealing with a traumatic death because this episode happens directly after face the raven a story where clara dies at the hands of the raven after overstepping her capabilities and trying to be like the doctor there are several thematic ripples that seep into this story chief among them the sorrow and grief that occurs in the immediate impact of a terrible tragedy and the story holds no punches in portraying it as the devastating traumatic event that it is this story in general is one big metaphor which takes moments that work on their own as a terrific message about loss on top of being strong doctor who stuff most notably the climax of the story the doctor realizes that in order to escape the castle without confessing about the hybrid will force him to revive a copy of himself over and over to slowly but surely chip away at the spantium wall the subtext in this instance is that the doctor chipping away at the wall is how the process of grief feels trapped in a cycle repeating the same actions trying to move on when it feels so impossible with the spantium symbolizing moving on freedom from the cycle the castle itself being described as a torture chamber also doubles on how life can feel like torture when in deep anguish and there's only one real moment when the script straight up addresses this fact and this moment is surprise surprise amazing firstly a moment where the doctor actually breaks down after keeping up a facade of bloodthirsty vengeance on the outside in his dedication to escape the castle when in the comfort of his storm room or his mind palace so to speak he has to face up to something even if he escapes this challenge even if he gets out and defeats the veil clara is still dead and you'll still become whatever i do you still won't be there so good we've had tons of scenes of the doctor crying and god this is the best one mainly because it shows that the performance doesn't have to mirror the intensity of the emotion this quiet crying the doctor falling down resting his hands on his face showing the frustration and feeling the way that he does it yet again is another example of capaldi's terrific acting then the doctor gets his closure clara appeared you are not the only person who ever lost someone it's the story of everybody get over it beat it break free doctor it's time get up off your ass and win clara appearing here obviously symbolizes the moment that you free yourself from the grief of a loss and decide it's time to move on which is obviously way harder than it sounds because moving on is such a long process and requires a lot of strength and dedication when you lose someone it's very much like a chunk of your life is just gone it takes a long time to fill that hole with something else and can even feel like billions of years like the doctor had to go through and the final reason that heaven sent is my favorite piece of cinema ever is that its themes applied very truthfully to me pretty recently a friend of mine passed away two years ago to suicide and the emotional fallout was devastating before i move on i have to say that i personally have come to terms with his passing even more so since the first time i made this video but at the time it was insanely hard he was in a lot of my old videos along with my other friends we talked and played games together almost every day our little 4-man crew had hangouts every week for a whole year at one point when the news broke the devastation that was life for a while was truly intolerable at times the ramifications of his passing had caused irreversible damage in our social circle and for a long time it felt like things could never be the same again during this time the only place i found solace was in doctor who and i binged heaven's sent every day for weeks on end touched by the intimacy of the story heavensen helped me find my closure and realized that the memory of him wouldn't always be a sad one the way it is now and has been for some time to this day i have never resonated with a piece of drama in the same way heaven sent and doctor who in general is forever seared onto my heart in the previous chapter i focused primarily on the episodic quality of the show choosing my two favorite episodes and talking about why they stand out to me based on their own quality but it would be silly to not consider how doctor who handles the more serialized side of the program the series arcs twist endings and continuity shakeups in its run mostly in addition with the modern series and yet another reason classic is getting sidelined for this essay doctor who with every season has some sort of mystery being unraveled with seeds being planted for the diligent fans to pick up on or if you're series 5 explicitly panning on the cracks in time at the end of every episode so even the most oblivious person couldn't miss it usually the mystery is resolved by the series end in a giant world ending series finale where a main character almost always dies in one way or another or if you're series 10 where everybody dies not all series arcs are created equal of course but all are in the end at least in some facet satisfying unless you're series 6 or we have two episodes explaining everything in the midpoint of the series doddle around for the rest of the episodes and then drop the ball when the finale comes so i'll quickly cover all the series arcs in the show and give my opinion on both the arcs and the series overall and then at the end of this chapter focus on my two favorite twists in doctor who so you know if you're not caught up yet i'll give you a spoiler warning for what i'm going to talk about when we get there and if you're sad that i'm not hardcore analyzing these series trust me you don't want it i workshopped a 5 000 word version of this chapter where i did exactly that and it ruined the pace of the entire essay it was so torturously boring this video may be long but i'm not rambling about pointless stuff it's structured so i'm just going to keep it moving here series 1 doctor who's first series it's eccleston's only series so it's given a lot of weight because of that and has some good episodes but i think the show is still finding its modern footing the rosen 9 dynamic is suitably the heart of all the drama which makes the series feel really intimate between these two characters which is good the bad wolf story arc is certainly serviceable and actually sets up the deus ex in the finale which some series don't have the luxury of saying and the bad wolf entity has so much payoff with how it emerges and effortlessly destroys the daleks which results in nine's regeneration in summary a small and personal series that ends big and awesome yet still rooted in its characters that we've seen flourish i'll put it there series 2 rough one for me we have some gems of episodes here but i gotta be honest the 10 rose stuff sinks this one for me a lot like i've already mentioned i enjoy tennant as always i got nothing against this series per se but we have some weak episodes here man some good ones too let it not be forgotten and the series arc is quite climactic too and again is rooted in character and in a weird timey winey way actually resulted in payoff for rose's character which was fun for me to see army of ghosts and doomsday is a great finale it ends rosa's story in a rose ending for those that wanted that so i guess this is just a series that isn't for me worth a watch of course but i'm throwing it there series 3 huge improvement i enjoy martha quite a bit more as an independent companion not that rose wasn't i think martha is just more fun to watch and has a stronger character like i've mentioned episodes are better across the board the show looks better feels better and the serialization is better but you know more on that at the end love series 3 a lot this feels like a complete adventure in the doctor who saga putting it there series 4 another massive step up series 4 has doctor whose strongest elements strongest episodes strongest finale i got no fear in saying that this is my favorite series in doctor who she goes at the top baby the david tennant specials love this love these episodes my first episode of doctor who masterpiece set up to a gem gem and i don't even really count this one but it's okay i guess it's going right there i'm not moving it there is no debate series five moffett's first series of doctor who and god do i love this one i think it's probably my most rewatched series of doctor who and for good reason series 5 breathes new life into the franchise the show has never looked better matt hits the ground running all the characters have more depth than ever episodes are fantastic and the finale maintains that vision so many strong and iconic elements it defines the moffat run number two series six a series that gets a lot of hate and i don't really share that sentiment series six was the peak of my doctor who obsessiveness i had been watching the show for a good two years and every episode in this series felt so exciting all the characters were so comfortable and slipped into their roles like butter and every element of them was just firing on all cylinders the episodes in this run are very good with a few really really huge standouts that i revisit regularly but the serialization is where most people take issue with this series and yeah contrivance wraps this one up unfortunately the elements are there and they keep me watching so it's a fun series it's going uh there series 7a things are going downhill at this point for me while 7a keeps the strong characters the five episodes that occupied the 2012 doctor who run range from awful to superb it's a mixed bag by definition but rooted in the characters that i love with a tragic end that wraps up the threads that we were following i still don't really hate this one but she's going a bit lower series 7b i'm starting to get angry i think 7v is a series of doctor who that genuinely doesn't have an episode that i would want to revisit aside from day of the doctor and time of the doctor and those don't even really count i think clara is wasted here used only as a plot device most of the time 11 as much as i love him and matt smith's performance starts to feel a bit how should i put this out of character or maybe even overplayed sometimes which feels kind of dumb to say but i said it i think it's still a great iteration of the timelord hero but 7b's weak episodes weak companion wasted doctor and confused finale makes it my least favorite series sorry if you love this one i know it has its fans i've seen them series 8 capaldi's first series i think we're still climbing out of the ravine that 7b left us in and series 8 while an improvement to be sure is a series that exists out of necessity it's a stop on the wild ride of capaldi's tenure that isn't my most favorite thing ever good things exist obviously clara is miles better and this dynamic obviously works more for me as i've said capaldi is my favorite doctor and he gets some nice moments but i think episodes are more weak than strong and the finale isn't anything to get excited about although missy is without a doubt my favorite master so i think this spot fits nicely series 9 capaldi skyrockets up to fantastic i love this series a great deal more with clara at her best capaldi honing his doctor more to align with my ideas stories are a mixed bag i would say but there's more good than bad definitely evan sent is in the series and the finale at least i think is intimate and moving series 9 is capaldi having the time of his life and i'm there for it man he goes up there series 10 the final stint of the doctor who series that you know i'm including here and it is while not my favorite capaldi series very very good i think i enjoy the 12 and chloride dynamic a bit more than the 12 bill and nardo dynamic and some of the episodes are less preferable to 9 for me but capaldi is at his absolute best as the doctor some episodes are just a standout for the whole show and the finale is what i believe to be doctor who's best capaldi goes out with a bang and puts a nice bow on his entire run of doctor who and it of course goes right there for me so uh yep that's all of them anyways i'm going to talk about something that i really want to talk about my two favorite twists in doctor who these are twists that are imbued with the same bombasticity and delightful chaos that defines doctor who and i honestly can't wait the four knocks twist in the david tennant specials is [ __ ] 100 doctor whose best twist and one of the best in television as a whole it occurs to me that there is a small portion of the community that actually doesn't like this scene so uh oh we're gonna have to have a debate never miss a chance to tell people that they're wrong now so this scene happens in the end of time part two david tennant's last story and this scene is the catalyst for his regeneration love this story by the way so the master is back from the dead because literally magic and he's gonna kill the doctor he will knock four times that was a prophecy knock four times and then the tenth doctor is convinced that the he will knock four times motif relates directly to the master the master is going to kill him because honestly how could it be anything else basically to make a really long story really really short everyone on planet earth becomes john simm except for this guy this girl these cactus aliens and this handsome pinstripe suit-wearing gentleman the master is in control of the entire globe so the doctor has to hide off world on a spaceship the time lords are escaping the time war and planning to destroy time itself the doctor's hand continues to get forced throughout the story his better judgment to save the planet and the universe at large puts him directly in harm's way and risk of fulfilling this prophecy he crashes into the scene wealth goes into this thing wait and the doctor stands valiantly against the time lords wielding a weapon he had shunned moments ago not backing down he destroys the link the master saves the doctor's life and tenant rises from the ground absolutely content that he survived ah jeez it's good goosebumps man every single time these two characters are so strong and in this one intensely moving scene the cards are finally down the doctor has to make a truly difficult decision after thinking he narrowly avoided death will he save wilf or save himself and what a beautifully personal decision it is we had all this commotion and chaos moments ago and we thought this was where the doctor was going to go down fighting but then actually once they're gone which turned out to be the time roads and timothy dalton and the master and everything once they're gone it would come down to a really simple personal thing which is just saving one man's life the choice is made before the scene even begins the doctor will step in that cage and sacrifice himself i don't believe that there's a single person who's watched this scene and been on the edge of their seat thinking oh my god will the doctor actually leave him no of course not and that was never the intention the beauty is how the character reacts and it is a briviera performance from david tennant that breaks my heart we empathize with the doctors doctor's unyielding desire to live because let's not forget he thought he was going to die in this episode no regeneration he's been through a gauntlet of stress and loss and his lack of agency in this moment results in an explosive rage he breaks down and yells at wilf and obviously these are surface level insults the doctor doesn't mean them and wolf doesn't believe them he's just releasing the tension and for such a powerful decision in the show's canon i don't think the moment would have had any staying value if tenant just immediately climbed to his knees and stepped into the chamber without hesitation which is apparently what some people would have preferred obviously that's how the doctor feels internally there's no hesitation in his decision he's not pondering any of it look behind his eyes there is no choice to be made his mind isn't racing his fate is sealed the doctor is a hero he cares for wealth he has no desire for self-preservation every component of the situation says that he's laying down his life for him and the energy of the scene and how shocking and heartbreaking the twist was should have resulted in a more explosive reaction because the emotion has to be released and that's exactly what the episode does holding on to this moment for just a little longer savoring life before he has to let it all go this is an entire run's worth of baggage and turmoil being released and the extreme picturesque captivating and unforgettable moment that it is results in a scene that is a massive glowing beacon of everything that doctor who is about it's so much of what the show is this heightened science fiction epic talking about people and choices and morality this is my favorite scene in doctor who i'm not joking and i hope my explanation may have swayed those of you on the side of the doctor's temper tantrum to see a different viewpoint and now that we've covered that more controversial twist we can take a look at something a bit more mutually agreed to be an amazing twist the masters return in series 3. yeah you probably saw this one coming so let's get down to brass tacks throughout series 3 this guy called harold saxon is name-checked all the time and seems to express some interest in martha and her family and specifically the doctor although we know about him is that he has some form of political power but his identity is completely unknown it's only at the end of series 3 that the picture becomes clear the doctrine martha are taken to the end of the universe and meet the friendly and humble professor yana trying to save the human race beyond the collapse of reality itself through utopia the doctor and professor yana worked together to launch the rocket develop a bond and it all gets dashed by the rocks when yana overwhelmed with the concept of time lords and time travel pulls out this a fob watch or rather something disguised as a fopwatch three episodes ago and human nature and the family of blood we found out exactly what the episode had been baiting us the whole time there's actually something here who is he what'll happen how will the doctor react the episode builds and crescendos to an amazing intense scene where professor yana flicks open the pocket watch as the rocket detonates and in one slow turn everything changes forever some stuff happens that i don't feel like explaining and then the master regenerates into jon sim he appears completely confident just out of regeneration and playfully mocks the doctrine his companions in danger alludes to the fact that he does have a massive plan to be revealed and then steals the tardis what a cliffhanger and in the next episode we discover that harold saxon is the master's human disguise and that through an array of satellites used to brainwash the human race gets inducted as prime minister of great britain so here the audience finally realizes that the master had been around all series long trying to keep tabs on the doctor as harold saxon and that this moment had been coming all series long and us doctor who fans are like sheep we eat up all this nostalgia bait every single time even though it always happens every single time the same way over and over because what's always exciting about it is that it's new how is this new master gonna be even more awesome than the last watching for the first time you have no idea the amazing stuff that'll come in the next episode and this new and menacing take on the master as a reveal to build up to all series long and bank all of the serialization on is pretty flawless all the performances are on point and to go further from that the story also explores how the master and the doctor are connected with a tragic end to their story even if it only was for a series and a half and while these are my two favorite twist endings in doctor who's run that's not to say that all the others are worthless but you already knew that you finished a doctor who episode and rapidly spammed left click on the next episode button before we've all been there doctor whose premise and strong characters make for a great springboard to explore any number of things for the duration of a series and the variation and style of each one really makes each series feel complete and engaging after all if there isn't anything actually compelling you to watch the next episode to find out what happens what kind of tv show is that well i guess you'd have malcolm in the middle or family guy or something but those are episodic shows doctor who prides itself in doing both so it's great that most or all of the time in doctor who's run the serialization is in its favor it's like hitchcock said drama is life with the doll bits cut out i can't think of anything that describes doctor who better life but with the dull bits cut out art is something very important to me i've been an artist my whole life starting off playing guitar and piano as a little guy and then moving towards visual arts in my middle school years it didn't matter where i was on campus the cafeteria the soccer field the bleachers art class math class english class the bus ride home everywhere i went i always had a sketchbook and pencil tucked firmly under my arm i doodled to the point of obsession geeking out over youtubers i loved movies i loved video games i loved and of course tv shows i loved so many pages full of hastily etched fan art that was of course awful but the obsession became passion and as the years have gone on my feelings toward the medium have been refined nowadays i still specialize in visual arts as well as doing you know all this but really the art of film truly has my heart the beauty of film and cinematography blows me away and a cinematographer that has an eye for gorgeous staging lighting creative shots or inspired imagery like rachel talalay just fills me with inspiration the second hand love for the arts that all of the amazing directors behind doctor who give me inspires me to go off and make my own art honestly while i was at art school i would literally watch doctor who episodes while painting to get inspiration i am not remotely joking it's true every time the canvas was in front of me i had to pull out my phone and earbuds and open up amazon prime video which doctor who was on for free back then or i literally couldn't get in the zone in regards to the show's actual cinematic beauty man is there anything i can say that wouldn't be completely self-explanatory doctor who is the most beautiful tv show i've ever seen in my life and it all comes down to the show's complete understanding of the science behind color the utility in a color palette where the beauty and variety and stylization lies and where the beauty in normal and unhindered visuals lies the clash [Music] them between always got jobs oh great the butchers are contrasts ingrained into the show that parallel to us as viewers constantly being exposed to new sci-fi craziness in every episode coming from the understandable liveliness of earth you may be saying uh yeah obviously but i bring it up because this feeling is evoked through the show's visuals and the show's visuals alone it does the most grunt work out of any facet of the show the absurd amount of creativity and inventiveness of these connoisseurs is criminally underappreciated in the film world it is a murder of every day's truth that doctor who cinematographers go unappreciated for a single second longer for example let's take a look at one of doctor who's most beautiful episodes the god complex the visuals just jump out made by the high fidelity cameras gifted to the production in the form of arya alex's xt plus ari alexa cameras have been used to shoot such beauties like gravity blade runner 2049 1917 parasite green book birdman and so many more so it's no surprise that the image is very high quality and it's kind of really awesome that doctor who a bbc production got such good cameras of course the tools are one thing and how the directors use them is another thing entirely the lighting of the sets is housed by warm lamps that have both a certain quality of local brightness that casts the scenes and shadow occasionally but also makes the scenes quite bright based on their sheer numbers the yellow lights mounted to every wall every countertop every table bathes the scene in warm colors but we don't have any lens flares or glare or harsh over lighting the disciplined lighting is thoroughly impressive on top of the careful lighting use the costume designer's use of varied colors in cohesion with the warm environment makes the characters both identifiable at a glance and believable and realistic to the outfits this isn't color vomit and it isn't too much of one color the hotel walls and floor are made of cream yellow brown and red primarily warm colors and the wardrobe of the cast is made of either neutral or cool colors rito wearing blue hospital garbs gibbous in a baggy charcoal suit or like a cardigan i guess joe wearing a dark navy suit and a yellowish tie to compliment it howie wearing a blue t-shirt and light gray hoodie rory wearing a what is it like a dark dark navy or maybe just black jacket and a button-up blue and green shirt and amy wearing a black leather jacket denim short skirt and a white blouse with a pink undershirt even the doctor who wears primarily warm colors has a blue bow tie on for this episode this is stellar because it gives us such a clear picture of the scene this is the background this is the foreground this one is howie this is what he would wear and the result is a kaleidoscope of realistic color that doesn't appear washed out or neutral what a concept this is a balanced doctor who strikes quite often an episode can be moody or dark yet still be colorful and gray look at something like day of the moon this is a dark scene but there's still quite a range of color here and is a far cry from a black scene doctor who is a prime example of how you should shoot a scene i mean that i shill these visuals so much they're so underrated here just to have my own fun take a look at my top 20 favorite shots in modern who enjoy [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh oh foreign [Music] [Applause] every viewer who ever turned on doctor who has taken him into his heart he belongs to all of us i don't remember doctor who not being a part of my life it became a part of growing up it's in my dna clearly i would kill to have dinner with peter capaldi doctor who being a show that's older than most if not all of the actors in it throughout its history a gift to those that step into the show nowadays something totally unique to the world of acting i'm very proud of everything we've done and thank you all very very much most people in britain have fond memories of watching doctor who and their youth and that includes actors and they approach the show and its characters very carefully and if you're one of the very rare people in the whole of britain that hadn't connected with the show at the very least the attention that doctor who would give your career can make or break it so in one grand statement if you're an actor and get invited onto doctor who you better make that the best performance of your career for this reason most of the performances in doctor who are very good even for small roles but it's especially noteworthy when approaching the performances of the main cast of the show throughout the years inhabiting the roles for months and years on end the characters really do become larger than life this gives the roles some artificial depth to the point where even in the episodes that don't really mesh with characters as the actors understand them the actors given an innate sense of how their character would react and feel elevate their writing to a considerable degree across the board so much finesse is given so much love and attention by everyone and by no one more than the actors and in some instances peter capaldi the performance literally changes my life and inspires me to love film again because seriously peter is a perfect actor and the fact that we got him in doctor who is a gift i hope the world never forgets i'm not on the phone i'm right here standing in front of you [Music] please just just see me so naturally we're gonna zero in on my two favorite performances in the show and what makes them work as you know has been the formula for the essay because everyone wants to sit here for six hours and hear me say billy piper did a really good job you know frima really brought something new to the companion dynamic karen gillan had so much life in her portrayal so on and so forth as for the two standout performances they go to none other than my boys david tennant and peter capaldi first let's be up front this role was a dream for both the actors we're focusing on both are lifelong doctor who fans with tenant going into the acting world solely with a dream of getting such a role so when he finally got it he wasn't going to slander that chance in any way tenant is a large part of why people love the rtd era of doctor who and no it's not because he's hot at least i hope tennant's version of the doctor is markedly more human than his predecessors he responds to human emotions in a real way he comforts people reassures people i'm so sorry i'm sorry i'm so sorry i'm so sorry i'm sorry i'm so sorry sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i am very very sorry i am very very sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i swear i'm so sorry i am so so sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i am so sorry it's not a quality that i subscribe to in the doctor per se but it's the man's take and it's definitely not bad just different because of the human writing it's easy to be drawn to him as a leader and friend someone to confide in and trust and tenant's performance is certainly mirrors that he's sweet charming funny and intelligent but takes the time to make sure people understand which you know some doctors don't even consider rattling off a million words a minute without pacing oneself of course a performance so one note couldn't be this memorable so there's an aura of mystery intensity rage which is something that eccleston forged and tenant owned his doctor is more vicious intense unforgiving and even says as much in his first episode no second chances i'm that sort of a man and the journey his doctor goes on losing people time and time again and eventually dying alone there's some sorrowness to his progression as the doctor once a happy and joyous pair went in the company of billy piper's rose but now alone and hurt but that's just a part of time lord existence you lose everyone you love when one is immortal and that melancholy is perfected nowhere else in intent and i find myself revisiting his doctor to see that side once again it's pretty hard to tell whether the credit should be given to the writing or the performance but at the very least almost nothing is lost in translation between the script and the screen tenant imbues the doctor with such flair and life and energy and the complete sympathetic nature of these two and their concentrated depiction of the lead makes russell's era of doctor who beloved by so many it truly is the performance of a lifetime and then capaldi how many hearts will be broken how many lives shattered how much blood will spill until everybody does what they're always going to have to do from the very beginning sit down and talk now i've made it no secret in this video at this point that peter capaldi is my favorite doctor but is actually also my favorite actor ever and i've never seen him in anything else other than a doctor who aside from james gunn suicide squad which has since come out since the first video and i was absolutely giddy in theater seeing my boy peter on the big screen in a superhero movie and duh his performance was fantastic even if we didn't see a whole lot of them peter cavalli's doctor is the single focus of his tenure his character gets a laser-focused progression from season to season and his arc into one of the best doctors ever is a sight to behold and one of my most memorable experiences from watching a tv show there's a brilliant video on youtube called 26 minutes of peter capaldi acting or something and it's a compilation of all his greatest hits in doctor who and i'll be sure to link it below to get his arc in doctor who essentially and fast forward although if you want the whole thing i gotta recommend subscribing to hbo max or buying a dvd set if you're like me and the physical media to watch his tenure for yourself peter capaldi was not just a childhood doctor who fan but a lifelong doctor who fan and it is unbearably poetic that the man finally got his role and stomped all of his predecessors as far as i'm concerned people always ask me what is about the show that appeals so broadly the answer i would like to give and which i'm discouraged from giving because it is not useful in the promotion of a brand is that it's about death and it has a very very powerful death motif in it which is that the central character dies and i think that is one of its most potent mysteries because somewhere in that people see that that's what happens in life you have loved ones and then they go but you must carry on peter's arc is perfect he starts unsure of who he is as this is a brand new regeneration cycle for him we get the sense that the doctor knows what to do but he doesn't know if that's him he's confused on who he is and if that wasn't bad enough the one relationship that lingered through regenerations that one being with clara is extremely fraught we get that the doctor is desperate to find himself and be who he knows he has to be again series 8 ends with the doctor learning his lesson and learning to be himself he loosens up and injects more personality and fun into himself that is until things get dark and reckless and clara dies the doctor becomes furious with the time lords who inadvertently caused clara's death which is obviously her fault but the doctor is foolish and blinded by rage he destroys himself and breaks all his own rules becoming the hybrid and yes i like hellbent and i'm tired of pretending that i don't after he comes to terms with the loss the doctor has finally become the perfect medium not strict and serious not too fun and reckless but wise and responsible and kind and remarkable everything that i love in the doctor all building up in this incredible speech in his penultimate episode verbalizing all the lessons the doctor has learned about life and himself solidifying capaldi as my favorite doctor and doctor who winning is that what you think it's about i'm not trying to win i'm not doing this because i want to beat someone because i hate someone or because because i want to blame someone it's not because it's fun god knows it's not because it's easy it's not even because it works because it hardly ever does i do what i do because it's right because it's decent and above all it's kind it's just that just kind if i run away today good people will die if i stand and fight some of them might live maybe not many maybe not for long hey you know maybe there's no point in any of this at all but it's the best i can do so i'm gonna do it and i will stand here doing it till it kills me you're going to die too someday how would that be if you thought about it what would you die for who i am it's where i stand where i stand it's where i fall i don't think there's a single soundtrack out there that is as how should i put this completely and utterly perfect as the doctor who soundtrack composed by murray gold there has never been a day where i won't look at gold's absolutely enviable work on doctor who and be completely awestruck the songs in this show and the sheer amount of absolute classics in their own right is positively staggering taking huge inspiration from composers like danny elfman and having the luxury of the national orchestra of wales at his disposal massive orchestral anthems choirs and beautiful swelling medleys have become the staple of doctor who and is inseparable from its identity it's just a match made in heaven man i go as far as to say that murray gold is the most important component of doctor who it's fascinating to look at it in that regard because he's been on the show the longest from 2005 to 2017 the entire duration of the revival until chris chibnall's run might be doomsday actually i mean in that there there is a fan base you know that was the one that sort of made people's ears prick up so but i also i love i am the doctor for matt as well and and rose's theme and gallifrey you know i really i do like those pieces my i would say that my choices would be pretty much consistent with what other people would choose as well i mean god you know the one the one with catherine jenkins you know i i like that one and valet detroit you know that that was fun i'm fond of them and god man they just get me feeling a certain way he's an absolute genius how many tracks man how many iconic and orgasmic delicacies to our eardrums has murray gold gifted our petty human ears with whether it be the thundering and tectonic crescendo of the majestic tale the swelling and tear-jerking build of the shepherds boy [Music] the booming choir of ballet hashem [Music] uh a similarly great vocal performance in the long song [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] irreplaceable iconicism of i am the doctor [Music] [Music] the magical wind instruments of a madman with the box [Music] [Applause] the odd hums of the 10th doctor's theme [Music] [Applause] [Music] the rich base of a good man [Music] and the undisputed masterpiece wilfswiggle [Music] so his music is so grand and orchestrate and it's so appropriate for a show like doctor who with tons of lore and build up to transform the narrative into a sci-fi epic with iconic moments left and right and with murray gold's masterful music to provide accompaniment to these moments every scene is molded into the type that plasters a huge grin on your face every time you watch it the music is so beloved in fact that there have been three performances of doctor who's music at the proms where fans all came together at the royal albert hall in 2008 2010 and 2013 and witnessed an unforgettable performance of doctor whose greatest medleys by the albert hall orchestra god i wish i could have been there it would have been the highlight of my life murray gold's music is so close to my heart and in case you didn't notice has been scoring this entire video and it was something that i absolutely had to include it's so much of doctor who's identity and to not included would be a sin of the highest order so many of them i believe to be some of the absolute best pieces of orchestral music ever composed and are so underrated by the film industry nominated time and time again at the bafta awards to never win only winning once at the ifmca in 2013. i mean what a tragedy murray's notoriety should be unending producing hundreds of original tracks in his 10 series stay on doctor who straddling genres all the while the man is a complete and utter genius and a person that i wholeheartedly respect let's make it so his music is never ever forgotten by holding it in high esteem for years to come doctor who fans are passionate bunch and the love that i see within the community for gold's work certainly gives me high hopes here's my playlist you can find it on spotify if you're curious what my all-time favorites are there are a lot of them [Music] [Music] finally the chibnall era let's do it right this time for those unaware the last time that i made this video the penultimate chapter was exactly this the chibnall era a chapter focused solely on chris chibnall the new showrunner's take on doctor who and why i thought it was a butchering of everything fundamentally remarkable about doctor who however the first essays take on the chibnall era is one of the best living examples of audience entitlement i've ever seen let alone participated in in my life simply because i was a hardcore doctor who fan i decided to exempt myself from the fundamental rules of critique and instead opted for cynicism and weak banter to depict the chibnall era in a video that up until that point had been very well structured i suspect this chapter sank the video for a handful of people and i don't blame them for feeling that way make no mistake i do hate the chibnall era and my hatred remains as fierce as it was back then but this time around i hope to amend that heresy and provide an index of points that i believe to be damning of chibnall's failure as well as entertaining i have obviously actually watched the episodes this time and taken an index of detailed notes on flux when we get to it which i've publicly released as review videos as you all may or may not know i did my research and funnily enough my feelings haven't changed since last year the difference this time well some actual criticism aside from chris buddy where is the consistency here yeah a mountain of preamble but this is a long chapter man let's finally get into it my relationship with the chibnall era of doctor who has been quite the tale it all started before i was in the loop of online discourse back in 2017 when jodi whittaker was revealed as the 13th doctor i think back then i might have been skeptical because i was a kid and an idiot on top of seeing the doctor as a masculine character and of course my hero so i think i was afraid that i wouldn't be able to connect with 13 in the ways i had the others but there was no doubting jody's capabilities i have to be clear i thought jody would have killed it which she did i may make some derogatory jokes moving forward addressing jody as a person in criticism as opposed to the doctor the character that she plays but it's just because she's a funny person she seems like an endless joy to be around and i blame literally not a single iota of the chibnall run on her i mean did you hear how many jokes i made about how hot david tennant was and that man is one of the best working actors alive today just know that my hatred of the 13th doctor is very much attached to the character less than the amazing actress playing her and that includes the baseless claims of sexism it's a golf we need to get past i understand but i just had to preface that i intend to attach genuine criticism to this portion of the video not it's a woman therefore it is bad i genuinely love jodie whittaker as an actress and when she gets the right script her acting shops are very clearly present anyways i had fallen out of watching the show years prior because i was a stupid kid and my attention had waned to other things for some reason but i hopped back on in 2017 with series 10. i watched the episodes as they aired after school having dropped off after matt smith's regeneration and very eager to catch up on capaldi's doctor i did so and my love of doctor who was rekindled and with brand new doctor who on the horizon once again life was good completely oblivious to how people were understandably nervous about chibnall's helming of the show i tuned into the premiere episode when it came out promptly decided that this wasn't the show that i had loved and never looked back it was at this point that i got into the public discourse saw the reception and forever decided that chibnall's era was a nightmarish heresy and bastardization of doctor who and i would just wait in silence for the show to return to its former glory or just accept that the show had died then and there and that is very much reflected in my first essays take on the chibnall era however i've since determined that it's important to form your own opinions on things especially if you're a film geek like me so that's what i've done formed my own opinion on series 11 12 and 13 of my favorite tv show of all time let's get down to brass tacks as you guys probably know what's coming next it's worth mentioning right out the gates that you should absolutely watch these series right now and form your own opinions on these sorts of things as bright spots exist in the show as they always do and you should absolutely find them on your own never do what i did and become a mouthpiece for someone else's opinions what i'm about to say may sound similar in some ways to what i said last time around but the difference is i came to the conclusion myself let's get started [Music] i suppose in going about critiquing these three series i can parallel the order in which i covered the rest of the show in this essay starting with the premise naturally cursed chibnell's doctor who shares a lot of similarities to the doctor who that i know there's a character called the doctor she's an alien she has human friends her ship looks like a blue box she wields a buzzy toy and fights bad guys you've probably heard this criticism before but i'm going to repeat it here chris chibnall's doctor who is a dumbed-down version of the show that i just spent the last two hours praising chris chibnall a person who has written very good things and is also an enormous doctor who fan has created an era of doctor who that is nothing familiar to me this sort of change happens frequently and it's typical for the fanboys to get up in arms about whatever new tone the show is taking and complain about it which is hilarious nowadays i consider myself to be pretty level-headed when it comes to this change and it's plain as day to see that something larger is wrong here in the chibnall era and that's precisely what i would like to explore today what elements of the chibnall era make it such a boring and surface level experience how is every piece of the chibno era puzzle arranged in a way that creates an experience as forgettable as it is detrimental to doctor who's grander mythos for me the chibnall era is one of the most disappointing experiences i've ever had in my life and the sacred grounds that shibno haphazardly steps over to make way for his bold new plot makes for a roller coaster of an experience with a bottom line being that i believe it to be painfully sloppy and horribly misguided the show takes doctor whose terrific premise and frequently wastes it within its plotting has awful and underdeveloped characters included for no reason other than to be supporting characters weak and uninspired sci-fi concepts that are simply derivative of the good ideas past show writers have had cinematography that is utilitarian and consistent to the visual language of broadchurch which i don't need to tell you doesn't work with the accomplished color of doctor who's past acting that is genuinely as good as it could possibly be with the material provided music that while well composed and has iconic themes for all the characters ditches the orchestra and grandiose bombasticity that murray gold defined as uniquely doctor who for odd hums and ambient chords which feels uniquely unlike doctor who almost every element in its production is a downgrade with a few special little dickens being particularly awful elements and themes that are non-existent confused and or misleading that speaks length about how to not write a doctor who series right now we're going to be exploring all of this so grab another soda i guess get some more popcorn because i'm going to talk about why i don't like this era now let's do it [Music] it's a real sea of mess this whole era we're going to go through every single bullet point as i've said but first up on the chopping block is the chimneal era's biggest problem the writing this whole issue just begins and ends with the fact that chris chibnall is the showrunner and believes that doctor who is a show for kids and only for kids which i don't need to tell you isn't really the case this is an idea he has followed in his entire run of the show so far characters don't feel like characters which is a massive deal the actors try their best but it's impossible to gain a picture of a character like ryan or yaz because they're pretty much a different person in every scene the concept of characterization is a practice that was exempt from all of the brainstorming sessions galvanized in personally my biggest and never-ending problem with the chibnall era the doctor i'm so sad that i even have to say this there should have been at least 10 nasa scientists employed to read over every doctor line chris wrote to make sure it was worthy of being inserted to the canon of this centuries-old character the lack of subtlety is unfounded god where to begin there isn't a single thing about the 13th doctor that works aside from the occasional well-written remark in a sea of contradiction and i think it's all condensed into this one exchange in the ghost monument where the doctor attempts to justify her pacifistic tendencies to ryan a newcomer to the tardis the legendary jayetzky has already covered this in an unrivaled critique of the chibnall era and i would be surprised if i didn't mention that titan of a video essay at least once more in this section but it's important to note that this is the moment that destroyed my impressions of the chibnall era beyond repair back in 2018. this infuriated me beyond words the doctor's moral code is one of the most well-written character dynamics in the history of the medium and the unforgivable stain on doctor who that is every line of chibnall's canon destroyed everything i thought i loved about this incredible piece of the doctor's immense character it would be impossible to relay my qualms with this scene without in some way repeating what jay said in his critique but let's begin already the ghost monument is the second episode of series 11 and features our character's first journey to an alien planet and a rollicking adventure to find the tardis and get home the episode fails in theming characters dialogue stakes subtlety creativity and everything in between along with completely misunderstanding the doctor's anti-gun principle in this scene where the doctor and company are antagonized by some sniper bots with guns forcing them to hide in this little cult-to-sac hidey-hole thing under this ruined temple ryan a companion of the doctors picks up a rifle from the ground hellbent on using it in self-defense the doctor is firmly against it for reasons that the show doesn't understand and the scene plays out ryan goes against the doctor's wishes and runs out to engage the drones he shoots them and they go down for a bit before standing back up resulting in ryan doing haha funny run back to cover bit where the doctor finally affirms her viewpoint great scene right the character gets to express himself in a dire situation the characters clash and we affirm the correct line of reasoning morality secured uh no no this scene is the antithesis of that understanding that the doctor doesn't use guns but not really understanding why which is reinforced in the dialogue no guns never use them uh okay why though we don't get an answer we don't actually get a moment where the show says guns are part of a vicious cycle of violence we don't actually get a we have to be better than the moment we don't get a i never would moment we don't get a coward any day moment we get guns never use them why please for the love of god explain to me so this line is a problem but the scene's themes are even worse ryan runs out and uses the gun on the enemies and it doesn't work and then following it the doctor says now do you see why i don't like guns and immediately we have some problems what so you don't like guns because they don't work what who wrote this this is a fundamental flaw in the script this makes literally no sense and should have never made it to the final draft the doctor doesn't avoid guns because they don't actually work the doctor doesn't use guns because he is a morally virtuous character it is a conscious decision the character makes because he chooses to be better than his enemies and conduct himself peacefully he and this is the kicker everyone take note of this and put it on a motivational instagram post or something the doctor doesn't go into conflict seeking to defeat the bad guy but to resolve the conflict in the most peaceful way possible he doesn't run into danger armed because he has no desire to harm anyone but instead to help everyone and this line now do you see why i don't like guns isn't even remotely close to correct it's embarrassing and only gets worse in the finale where the doctor justifies her nonsensical stance on any particular issue the plot presents her with being just ah well i'm inconsistent this is the philosophy behind everything the doctor does in chibnell's run not principle not morality not justice or honor or valor or even kindness just ah well i'm inconsistent the doctor is a character that sometimes doesn't do what she means so let's just do it every time and then call it a character let alone the headlining character in the most beloved science fiction show in the entire world this never goes away literally ever it's a problem in series 11 it's a problem in series 12 and yes it's a problem in doctor who flux which we'll get to this moment in kerblam this moment in erections in the uk in the battle of ravskurov kolos and demons of the punjab in spyfall orphan 55 fugitive of the jedun ascension of the cybermen the timeless child and many more the doctor is characterized as someone completely different in every single scene the fundamental rule of consistency is not only completely lost on the doctor in this era but mutilated beyond repair the inconsistency is never not an issue on top of all of the other problems in this incarnation the complete lack of subtlety loosey-goosey rules on murder random angry outbursts that come from nowhere terrible pop culture references and a fundamental misunderstanding of the doctor's depth selflessness abnormality expressivity vulnerability hospitality bravery heroism kindness forgiveness and about a million other character traits of the doctors that were messily parodied in the 13th doctor make for the most insanely confusing iteration of the doctor yet you know aside from oh you know the doctor's quite abnormal right let's just do a funny i'm an alien and oblivious to human social cues here that'll be great so if you like that 13's for you as for me i go for actual characters [Music] in the same exact vein as the doctor companions and recurring characters in chibnalls who do not exist jodie whittaker clearly took a belated trip to home depot because not a single character exists within the void of words leaving the portal mounted to these actors faces remember back when i was talking about how doctor whose characters are actually good man good times yeah back literally an hour and a half ago i said that in writing a character it all begins and ends with consistency your job as a writer is to make the character believable and in every single line after some intense reverse engineering it can be understood as to why the characters said it a character's entire past present and intricate detail of their entire life is pertinent to their every word so how do you think chris chibnall fares yeah no there isn't anything to be said because there are no characters these are rocks or planks of wood or whatever witty remark you want to make following jody around mostly delegated to moving the plot forward or doing funny i'm a human and don't understand that that may sound unfair because if you've watched the show these characters seem to be kinda okay you know they sometimes butt heads with a doctor and have some fun banter sometimes what's the deal well a disciplined eye reveals all and attempting to index character traits for someone like ryan or graham as the series goes on you'll find yourself crossing out and erasing character traits as you go in series 11 and 12 we have three main companions throughout its run we'll cover everything within the proverbial series 13 later but for the other two seasons these are the characters that we get let's start with ryan ryan is in my opinion the weakest character of series 11. i think he improves both in performance and depiction to eventually use her piazza in series 12 but in 11 i think he's the worst in a landslide in terms of function ryan is the youngest spunky one in chibnall's mind he's unpredictable and athletic as well as short-sighted and uninvested he has a complicated history with his parents something from his past that haunts him through most of the episodes and he also suffers from dyspraxia a coordination disorder which prevents him from doing some motor tasks so this is a pretty nice list of character traits this could really work so tell me you're asking what's ryan's actual personality like is he self-centered is he aggressive is he introspective or sarcastic or afraid or entirely self-confident what are his hopes and dreams his fears and insecurities who is ryan other than a list of character traits i don't know here's the thing this is a really cute index of traits it really is but where everything is lost is in the actual show the actual character of ryan is he self-centered is he confident is he introspective yes he's all of those things and so are all the other characters in shipnel's who which is infeasible because some of those traits are literally complete opposites of each other this is precisely the problem and it's the same for all the other characters as well graham is characterized as an older gentleman who longs for a good relationship with his grandson ryan who more or less loathes him because he doesn't support his relationship with his grandmother grace when grace unfortunately dies by the end of the first episode their relationship is on the rocks and the further intrusion of the doctor into their lives causes them to connect and bond over the series and by revolution of the daleks ryan and graham have an established connection and care for each other enough for them to leave together when ryan decides tardis life isn't what he wants anymore again a really nice journey on paper graham is just as inconsistent and temperamental of a character as ryan is despite bradley walsh's standout performance we'll make graham a bloodthirsty vengeful samurai in one episode because the plot demanded it and then in this episode he'll be a peaceful and wise grandpa despite graham being a bit older than the two other companions and having a lot of life experience he asks just as many questions as his younger compatriots and rarely has moments where his character shines he's just a dot in the footage most of the time same for yaz let's establish that she's a talented young police officer that is entirely confident in stressful moments and then in all of the episodes afterwards let's make her the typical scared weak companion here yaz will say something that she would literally never ever say just to speak directly to the audience about how important nikola tesla was let's give ryan a youtube channel in the first scene of the first episode and then never bring it up again so the audience is constantly wondering why that scene was in the script in the first place these are the characters we get for this run they are not characters you could swap who says which line in the scene around and around and it wouldn't make an iota of a difference to the plot which i think is the biggest tell of weak characters out of them all i mean imagine if in journey's end we accidentally swapped donna and rose's lines in the script that would change quite a lot but for the entirety of both series 11 and 12 they just say stuff like this and how do you feel about that are you joking how's your house out there how do we do that how old we are so what's going on then he's not really old how's it eating all that stuff as you can probably tell this is not an audience identification figure this is a narrator it just sort of ignored you and we have three of them the stories in chibnalls run range from an ill-structured attempt at recapturing the magic of planet of the spiders this one that's the worst doctor who episode ever made probably an episode that has some of the most unbearably awful writing ever here's a little taste all right monday do your worst god i can't believe they made joe martin say that and the timeline i can't exactly focus on my two favorites because spoilers i don't have two favorites so i guess i'll pick the one episode in chibnall's run i genuinely believe to be good and an episode with a lot of potential that was squandered for no good reason the haunting of villa di adati and it takes you away let's save the best for last shall we it takes you away is the 9th episode of series 11 and features one of the best doctor who science fiction concepts ever here's a brief rundown in a house in norway the tardis crews stumble upon an abandoned girl she says that her father has left her with no explanation and it's up to our heroes to solve the case we find out later that inside one of the mirrors in this house is an alternate dimension where the dead people of your life appear as they were before they died the girl's dad is living here because he misses his wife and wants to stay with her for as long as possible following that we see grace who appears before graham and bradley walsh delivers one of the most moving lines in the entire show don't do this to me all of us have lost someone in some way or another and for me speaking as someone who lost one of his closest friends in the time between falling asleep on august 19 2019 and waking up on august 20th 2019 only to be met with the worst phone call i'll ever get in my life i would give anything to see him again and as it turns out the dead people aren't real and it's up to our characters to be the bigger people and move on oh my god is that not an awesome idea to explore for an episode that's like heaven sent two or something but the problem is that this is as far as this goes it only gets as far as a concept a pitch to the audience if this idea was the whole episode this genuinely could have been superb but it isn't we have a b plot in this episode following the anti-zone or whatever with ribbon aliens and deadly mobs and ryan babysitting hannah it just butchers all of the potential it had i don't understand how you can make an episode where you enter a dream world to live with loved ones who are now dead and make literally zero of it moving the dialogue here doesn't even try it goes no distance at all nothing of the character's sadness is explored nothing of the subtext of it and the depth of it it was just an idea for this episode this should have been the whole thing it should have gone a lot deeper and had a lot better dialogue just this episode disappointed me so much [Music] and we finally get to talk about the best chivnall episode in a landslide the haunting of villa diadatti this is a genuinely good episode particularly because it's not written by chris chibnall it is written by the amazing maxine alderton who would later return in doctor who flux to co-write village of the angels a fan favored by the looks of it this is the one episode chibnall didn't get his grubby hands on and it shows the episode is set in villa di adati with an ensemble cast of all sorts of fun and unique characters i think i genuinely liked every single one of them my favorite to nobody's surprise being lord byron he's so good she licked it she is the most baffling creature i've ever been acquainted with human protein the doctor is better companions are genuinely well characterized and the episode played with some fantastic science fiction ideas this is also the episode that introduces ashad the main antagonist of the finale aside from the master i think he's really great in this episode there's not much i can say other than it was very well written and a lot of fun if you want to watch any chibnall episode this is the one you'll get the most from it's genuinely such a far cry from the rest of the lineup when placed up against the other series of doctor who i think this is probably like gridlock levels of good not remarkable but more good than bad a noble effort to be sure and maxine's ability to stay her hand and focus on the characters doctor who's strongest element resulted in a fantastic episode this has yet to be usurped by any chibnall story including flux yeah you heard me village of the angels lovers but that's it for series 11 and 12. the haunting of villa diodati is the only good episode that is so sad the rest are unfortunately all dumb and wrapped up by contrivance they all have painful lines misplaced themes dissuasion from pathos for whatever reason complete lack of subtlety a constant need to explain everything and on top of all that most of them do absolutely nothing they're pretty easy to forget and it might do you quite a bit of good to do so god as this chapter goes on i just get more and more depressed let's talk about the chris chibnall series and throw them on the doctor who series list yeah series 11 the weakest chris chibnall series in my opinion it doesn't make for a great first impression and even though massive problems exist in the following chibnall series with most of it a fault of their own i feel like chibnall was just playing ketchup ever since this series series 11 is a complete bore fest characters are at an all-time low episodes are dumb the serialization is non-existent the doctor is insufferable and doesn't factor in any way with the rest of the show it's just its own condensed awful series series 11 is in my opinion probably doctor who's worst series classic included it surely knew who's worst series 12. slight improvement i suppose the lows are still as low as they were in series 11 just happen less frequently characters feel more useful to the stories and are naturally fitting into their niches despite chibnall fighting tooth and nail for the opposite and it helps the stories quite a bit in general i think series 12 feels like it has a clearer vision than 11 and there are a slew of small factors that make that feeling feel that way i imagine seeing old villains contributes to that old characters mysteries which i'll get into in a second and the new characters feeling more familiar but that's pretty much as far as it gets only a feeling a sense that things have changed without that really being the case everything is still just as dumb characters are inconsistent plot points are illogical villains make no sense jack's lines are so bad and the whole thing just kind of coasts along on a floaty trolley the entire time it isn't a fun experience except for the haunting of villadiadatti also series 12 is the first chibnall story with an overarching narrative some serialization i guess series 11 was the zem shaw story but only three episodes in series 11 alluded to him unless you count grace episode 1 2 and 10. those are the only ones in series 12 the story plays out in episodes 1 2 5 8 9 and 10. realistically every episode should have at least some sort of thread but i won't complain and i won't beat around the bush this is some of the absolute worst serialization i've ever seen and is so unbearably cliche i can't believe chibnall was even able to write these words without suffering a full-blown laugh attack with how fundamentally unengaging it is so throughout series 12 we continually hear everything that you think you know is a lie this does not keep me watching at all this is a mystery box even more so for usual doctor who this super duper important mcguffin and the plot compelling the characters to find the answers but nothing for me to be rooted into a site aside from chris chibnall writing into his stories oh yeah by the way i turned the doctor into space jesus in the 10th episode you're probably gonna want to stick around for that so that's basically our serialization for series 12. chris chibnall saying there is a mystery it's a joke there is no mystery in saying that there is in fact a mystery an episode ends on a cliffhanger and it feels cool and whatever but i feel no desire to watch the next episode because i know that literally everything can be resolved by stupid nonsense the cliffhangers in the old series weren't anything special but there was some actual mystery and pathos fueling my desire to click next episode none of that is here it's pretty much all stupid fun and has no depth and here we are 2 hours 27 minutes and 7 seconds into this video and we finally talk about it series 12 is an improvement from series 11 in the smallest possible way measurable but this new line of lore written by my friend and hero chris chibnall single-handedly ruined it this is the dumbest thing yet written by man it is everything that doctor who has been avoiding doing for decades and not a single person put their foot down and stopped chris from desecrating the sacred cannon a testament to his entire run of the show i present to you the timeless child the doctor is now the timeless child the doctor is ground zero for regeneration she is the origin of the ability not only is she as a character fundamentally important to the time lord story now something that wasn't really the case for the past 50 years aside from the aborted carmel master plan she isn't even biologically a time lord and exempt from all of that ludicrosity aside from the fact that the fugitive doctor's tardis looks like a police box despite being allegedly preheartenal aside from the fact that she has no idea what a sonic screwdriver is making her placement and the timeline of doctors even more confusing aside from the fact that it completely breaks the valiart as a character river song as a character and the function of the time vortex aside from the fact that it breaks the canon of episodes like time of the doctor night of the doctor name of the doctor hell bent listen the three doctors the five doctors the brain of morbius and right conning the 50th anniversary special twice despite contradicting the knowledge of the daleks the cybermen the silence testimony the great intelligence the atraxi the tesselecta and most tragically the intelligence of the doctor herself we have to remember that all of this cannon was messily stirred up just to have a mystery for series 12. it doesn't change anything which i think is the worst part of all of this it doesn't matter who cares if the doctor is the timeless child says chris this will be fun are you kidding me everyone cares man [Music] general consensus from what i could see about what people are saying the only good thing about chris chibnall's who is that the visuals are improved and i immediately go you have to be joking because it's a tense issue do you define good as stylized and realistic or you know what i define is good one look at it and you go okay yeah this looks absolutely nothing like doctor who and it's not out of the production's hands you know people need to realize that the surreal colorful sci-finess of past seasons was absolutely intentional a careful team of hands went into crafting those sets and capturing those colors and their work paid off doctor who has the most accomplished aesthetic i've ever seen in my life aside from like into the spider verse the show can afford to be artsy and creative as well as just being beautifully shot in its own right in chris chibnall cinematography we ditch all the spectrum of colors and usually just settle on gray or yellow tint the entire show in black and backlights every scene to the point of nauseam we still have some iconic shots that i love my favorite probably being this one from revolution of the daleks i'm not sure why the characters did this aside from getting the shot but it's a nice shot but this isn't all the past two eras of modern who were it wasn't just you know shot reverse shot and occasionally we got some cool stuff all of it was gorgeous here are some normal shots from time of the doctor and look at the difference looking back at chibnall cinematography i can't believe people think this looks good i'm not a fan of the muddy colors i'm just not i'm sorry i hate it truly this is the very antithesis of all that doctor who is about we have so little color but in the same vein we also have scenes with too much color most egregiously the tardis the dramatic lighting and bright orange and blue do not complement well in my opinion the aesthetic is interesting and unique but the tardis a home base a safe haven a warm place to be appears way too dark and way too inhospitable for me to think that it's a good design looking back at some of my favorite tardises they feel like a home and feel like they belong to their respective doctor but in this one dude where do i even sit on these metal hexagons what about some chairs some fill lighting let me actually see the scene on top of that the jagged pillars that frame the console break up the environment so at some angles the tardis feels cluttered and claustrophobic and other times it's barren and open i would not want to just hang out in this tardis opposed to the fun and wacky 11th doctor's tardis or the expansive and homey 12th doctor's tardis i would kill to spend a week in either of them if i was a companion i would only want to stay aboard 13's tardis for as long as it takes us to get to the next adventure which the characters seem to match so i don't know maybe they agree with [Music] me performances are good one officer played well as always and the characters that do return get more opportunities to let their acting shop shine later on but even right out the gates performances are fine except for i'm sorry even though i love his energy and he seems like a delightful man i think he severely overplays the master the size of the roll got to his head i'm sure and all this is compensation for a performance he believes needs to be theatrical his charisma is infectious and his confidence is apparent but i think lines are occasionally too over the top with this master and the childish mannerisms are repeated a bit too much for my liking i was on the fence about this performance for a while i thought maybe it was good and i wasn't seeing it in the right light but after some thinking this is the one i'm singling out he's a splendid actor and i don't really believe his performance to be unwatchable but rather critically misguided michelle gomez still proudly holds the crown for best master for me but that's alright across the board performances are not what we should be talking about these are totally okay [Music] and then we get to the music composed by sigin akanola and this just isn't fair man i have to open this by saying this is a fierce competition both of these composers are fantastic and have such a clear vision for their tracks i have nothing against sigin i think his doctor who title theme is really unique and his character themes are memorable i like 13's theme i like the spymaster's theme i find his meditative and serene approach really moving when it works but he's up against murray gold there's no contest everything he makes is doomed to feel like a downgrade while the standout tracks do stand out most of the music just kind of meshes together with little variation from the formula and while segin puts his little spin on it to make it at least feel new gold's music just fit like a glove every track had character and that is what i remember the most about gold's work i mean just think of all of the songs he gifted us within his tenure i know i literally just talked about it a chapter i go but a day shouldn't go by where we forget or take that for granted murray gold completely spoiled me with his masterful composition of a doctor who soundtrack so much so that sagin will just always be in his shadow which is horrible but true at least in my opinion sigin's music isn't bad at all but for me the character of the music is what i value which is sagin's achilles heel unfortunately this is the one i would recommend you watch and form your own opinion on after taking a closer look at his spotify tracks i have found some diamonds in the rough but for me i'd take gold back in a heartbeat doctor who flux is the most recent series of doctor who the final episode aired 20 days ago and its premier episode aired on halloween night it was a six episode run that was heavily serialized with its own unique characters threats and ideas this was chibnall's magnum opus his final official series of doctor who unless you count the coming jody whitaker specials as their own series which i am doing and have done for something like the david tennant specials this was the first time i had tuned into new doctor who with the entire rest of the world in a long time since twice upon a time i follow several doctor who pages on instagram i watch my own doctor who reviewers on youtube so i rode the hype with everyone else halloween night came and i decided this was something i had to get in on for the sake of russell at least so what's the takeaway you're asking was doctor who flux the jody whitaker series doctor who fans have been waiting for was it a phoenix up for doctor who did it revive my favorite tv show of all time to pave the way for the future or was it just more of the same a heartbreaking disappointment well doctor who flux is a complicated series there's a reason those review videos are an hour long there's a lot of stuff in these episodes so i'm gonna treat you to a rundown of the plot of doctor who flux not from the order of the episodes but chronologically in the events that happen get ready for a hearty couple paragraphs revolving heavily around the timeless child reveals of the past series the doctor tries to unearth the secrets of her past lives something that she knows is connected to the mysterious division from fugitive of the jedun division and organization of rogue timelords inducted the doctor and techtayun the scientist to extract a regeneration from the doctor as a child into its ranks escaping the division labs to eventually end up okay i've never understood is this supposed to be earth or gallifrey it's got to be earth right there's no way this is gallifrey anyways the doctor pulls a superman and gets raised by a human couple until division operators wipe his memory it's around here that the fugitive doctor happens i think all this stuff with the chameleon arch makes no sense because the doctor looks like this and also like this at the same time which is impossible anyways history passes and the story that we know begins in an unearthly child don't ask because an answer doesn't exist many years later with the 13th doctor now knowing the truth and attempting to uncover the secrets of her past with division the surviving operatives of division attempt to cover their tracks by creating the flux to destroy the n-space or the universe the one that we've been following for the past 58 years unless you consider the events of the big bang a discrepancy i guess it would be because amy's parents never got eaten by the crack in this universe but it still applies the flux begins tearing away at the universe with division utilizing conversion plates i think planning to live outside of the universe forever in order to stop the doctor from defeating the flux inevitably division calls weeping angel operatives to action in order to transport her to division headquarters where she'll be imprisoned with no means to save the universe from the flux except she can just remove the conversion plate and gets plopped right next to her tart with the flux now heading for the earth the lupari a race of dog people assigned to their own specific human attempt to transport the humans off world pending the destruction of their planet dan one such human is saved by his lupari carvanista a former operative of division as well as the companion of the fugitive doctor tracking energy readings from her tardis the doctor confronts dan in carvanista rescuing dan and working with carvinista to shield the earth from a flux by commanding every lupari spacecraft to shield the earth from the flux the tardis is then attacked by the flux and well it's not even destroyed because it's there and war of the centaur dude this never gets explained i guess harry potter operated in and saved the doctor and friends transporting them to the battlefield of the crimean war doctor who flux proceeds to have a santaran story that barely matters yaz and dan who magically disappear from the scene to have subplots get sent to the temple of atropos and modern-day earth respectively dan's subplot does not matter but yaz's does quite a bit because it's here that the temple of atropos is introduced a temple that houses the mori beings that control the flow of time vendor a new character also joins yaz in this scene where they putter around the temple for 45 minutes once the doctor gets done with her pointless ontario adventure she makes her way to the temple of atropas with dan to encounter swarm and azure beings that have a history of conflict with the timeless doctors now holding vendor and yaz hostage not before killing the mori and destroying time or something the doctor in the span of a micro second saves everyone but through a series of very confusing cuts that does not get explained the doctor and friends get transported to their own past so the audience has an excuse to learn about them we see the siege of atropas where the fugitive doctor first encountered swarm and azure we see vendors encountered with the grand serpent dan's uh history with diane uh why is this in the episode again after all this nonsense the weeping angels who have now sniffed out the doctor's position attempt to secure her and transport her to division and tech tyoon our characters put up a noble fight but the angels win in the end the doctor is transported to division and the companions inexplicably travel the world for two years in an attempt to return to the present day they eventually do when joseph williamson a man who has occasionally cropped up throughout flux very briefly barges into the scene where dan explains that he's the man behind the williamson tunnels a real thing that does not actually have the power of time travel but it does in doctor who flux so the companions use said doors to return to the present day the doctor who at this point has met techtayun and discovered all the secrets we already know discovers a fob watch which tech tayun explains contains the doctor's memories swarm and azura then come in even though they were not invited kill tech tyun and the doctor removes her conversion plate and hopes that it will allow her to escape instead of returning her to the universe safely through some anomaly the doctors instead split into three different versions of herself that all happen to appear right where they need to be for the plot to resolve swarm and desert dilly dally just long enough for the other two doctors to meet each other defeat the grand serpent defeat the centaurons who are here for some reason defeat the cybermen and daleks who are also here as well as defeat the flux the ravagers teleport to the temple of atropos and meet time in its physical form where it scolds the ravagers promptly kills them and leaves the fob watch for the doctor to retrieve time then assumes the form of the doctor alludes to the 13th doctor's eventual regeneration and the jody whitaker specials and the doctor leaves with the fob watch which she decides doesn't need to be opened she casts it far into the tardis with the secret of the timeless doctors to be revealed later or maybe not who knows so that's flux i'll sum up my thoughts now was it a huge improvement from the past no in my opinion biggest point of damnation is the temple of atropos and the desire to give time a voice time is not a person time is not a living being in any way it does not have a voice it is a force of nature it's about as daft as giving gravity a voice only for it to say oh i pulled things to the ground it's fun so that was an idea that sank flux wholesale for me the division stuff while a cobweb of loret conning that still feels the reverberations of timeless child was a far better idea for flux that should have been the focus and i can tell you now having watched the whole thing the inclusion of the temple was exactly zero percent needed and broke exactly 100 of the established function of time in the history of doctor who and that genuinely aggravated me characters are better on a micro scale but not on a macro scale largely the doctor and friends are all the same the doctor genuinely felt the exact same which depressed me the more and more i realized that was the case on an initial watching we know just enough about the characters to gain a fuzzy picture of them and then get nothing else past their introductory scenes and dan is no different i'm a sucker for sad wise old men apparently so i can't really see myself liking dan over graham but dan is probably the best companion of chipnulls i still don't find him particularly good or fun just unbearably average dan was the character that flux needed but he was ruined by chibnall's inability to characterize consistently through the story's drama far more fun characters exist in flux though most notably with carvinista jericho and vinder with an honorary mention of belle they're all surprisingly well characterized and their overshadowing of flux's actual companion was really surprising still there wasn't much depth to any of it the stories were by far the most disappointing facet of flux mainly because it felt like more of what i'd already seen war of the santarans was clouded with chibnall's typical confused writing once upon time tried to make a gimmicky idea carry the serialization for 50 minutes of run time the vanquisher's repeated flux's already uninteresting ideas but with even more lazy writing to create a lackluster finale in many people's eyes i won't waffle on about them because there's only six of them and i've done exactly that already i don't think any of them hold a candle to villa di adati which again is only gridlock levels of good i'm not a fan of the timeless child i'm not a fan of the division and super secret past lives and this whole story about the doctor not knowing who she is it feels hilariously rushed and uncompelling considering how it was awkwardly jammed into the story so flux in a large sense really disappointed me in terms of course correction reverse engineering timeless child dispelling the right cons and setting the stage for series 14. instead flux was the inverse not just a lack of observation but a direct reinforcement of timeless child many times throughout its run as the episodes got on and i got used to it i accepted the vision for what it was more openly despite how much i hate the timeless child the crux of my feelings i enjoyed some aspects of division until i took a step back and remembered the sin that launched this story my ultimatum episodes are still bad characters are still largely disappointing but the serialization is a toss-up for me chibnall caliber still without a doubt but probably his best so far with the largest quotation marks imaginable i can absolutely see how this series deeply offended you if you are on that camp though i just can't seem to break my mk ultra programming apparently when it comes to division it goes there for me so much of the discussion has become law now which is suffocating i feel this seclusion is something that should have never happened this alienation of the doctor who fanned him the jody whitaker seasons are hot garbage says everyone and the conglomeration that is the origin of this fact has lost its voice it's become a cesspit of online hatred people using it to justify the fact that they simply don't like the chipmunk run why i ask to get nothing other than well because it's bad in response yes the chibna run is bad it's a resounding and unequivocal yes for me but bellyaching is no solution death threats and hate mail and endless endless cacophony do nothing but dissuade the masses from the fundamental rules of critique as i did last year i urge everyone to find a voice in their complaints we learn nothing as humans in letting hatred fuel us i've come to terms in some ways with the chibnall era i don't hate chris chibnall because he's a person i hate what he has done with doctor who but at least he tried something new i genuinely give him brownie points for that we still have the jodie whittaker specials to look forward to paving the way for russell t davies series 14. where doctor who goes from here i know not the future holds much uncertainty and while my time with chipmunk series has been an insufferable experience the heart of doctor who lives on it is clear as day this is an all-time low of a divot we live in now but doctor whose prosperous future is as set in stone as it was back in 2008 hope is on the horizon and i have to thank chris cypnell for creating an era of doctor who that fans around the globe can unanimously say yes it's bad and i love it for that the chibnall era was the reality check that we all needed something to make us all see how much we truly took the old series for granted the greatest teacher failure is so i urge all of you watching to try take something away from the chibnall era aside from blindly hating it if you love it good for you i respect and envy that love because i sure don't feel it and if you hate it as do i discover why i hope this chapter did exactly that man this is it how do i sum up everything that makes doctor who a definitive part of my character i guess i can start by saying that i consider art to be the single most important facet of human existence because it's a vessel of self-expression that helps us as humans connect and live together and i think to explain this i'll read an excerpt from my college application essay a paper on exactly this the importance of art the experience of art is in the end a journey to find the truth of ourselves a declaration that encapsulates perfectly where exactly art's importance is found further affirmed with a rhetorical question what exactly do we hope to achieve in this life to be an artist is to be a storyteller with layers of paint masking its intimate answers it is not in the story of the art nor the story of its journey but rather within the stories of those that take away from it that its worth becomes everlasting art lives in the connection between the artist and his fellow man it exists with no gate for everyone must be let in it speaks to me in a really profound way the concept of storytelling never shying away from my interests art is everything to me the ultimatum of life itself not just in painting or in writing but all of art and all of its forms they all have the capacity for empathy and love and importance a tapestry of carefully planned paint strokes of people once close to me a musical piece that overwhelms the senses in an impeccable crescendo an unforgettable performance that reflects the feelings that we've all felt in our lives a frame in a scene that feels picturesque and surreal and stories about people that teach us something about ourselves and my journey into the world of art began with doctor who it's been a part of me for as long as i can remember the most fuzzy memory i have is of me at about 6 or 7 watching the doctor sit down on a bus seat and wish michelle ryan happy easter back then the show immediately captured my imagination as i'm sure it did for most other kids ever since then i've been an unconditional fan i watched religiously with my family it was a definitive part of my life legitimately i've grown up with the show and even today it still amazes me those childhood memories of watching the show every saturday night eagerly awaiting each episode finally resurfaced having doctor who merchandise all over my room writing my own stories based on the show i'm convinced its influence is why i'm so fond of the arts and self-expression the vessel of doctor who and its immortality felt its grip on me and ever since those days i've never been the same the inspiration and wonder the show gave me was infectious i remember playing out episodes in my imagination dancing around my room in an ill-fitting tweed jacket and clip on bow's eyes since i didn't know how to actually tie one i treasure those memories extremely fondly the doctor was my hero and i deeply loved and still love the show with all my heart i probably have and continue to give everyone that comes within five feet of me earaches from how integral it was to my life i couldn't wait to see the doctor show all the bad aliens who's boss the magic the adventures and more specifically the characters held a place of my heart the doctor first and foremost of course all the show's delicate creases and folds compelled me to pursue a virtuous lifestyle as i grew up so much so that i still use the show to stay a strong person to this day all of doctor whose beautiful turns of phrase all of its themes and characters to never be cruel or cowardly to help anyone no matter what without hope without witness without reward these are lessons that actually mean something not just anthems he calls upon when it's time to do the right thing it was through dr hugh's grandiose presentation and intimate finesse in portraying these things that the true beauty and nobility was shown to me the doctor an unending fiery role model throughout my life showed me exactly that how truly difficult it is to be a good person and the doctor may break a few times but the moral of the story is that he never gives up that tells me that even if i break never give up on trying to be a good person it was the doctor who taught that to me god i sound like rose the doctor showed me a better way of living your life it provided fun entertainment every week in my childhood that kept me pressed on doing the right thing and continues to keep me steadfast to it in my adolescence but at the same time it's not so black and white the beauty in this life isn't that we become better people but rather as sarah jane put it pain and loss they define us as much as happiness or love the beauty in this life isn't just that we become better people but rather that we become better people through the lows and the suffering life cannot exist without the other it would have no meaning no importance and a doctor who exhibits that aspect of life elegantly and sincerely with heart and emotion and excitement and passion and love touching the hearts of millions of other people like me doctor who has always used the facade of subtext to hide a more complex story within and their subtext right in its description doctor who is not a sci-fi but a parallel to life everything about life what makes it great what makes it horrible what makes it scary and sad and confusing but above all else what makes it a spectacle there are worlds out there dripping with adventure but the world right outside your door is just as exciting the ultimatum of life itself is art all of art and all of its forms a musical piece that overwhelms the senses an impeccable crescendo an unforgettable performance that reflects the feelings that we've all felt in our lives a frame and a scene that feels picturesque and surreal and of course stories that take us on fantastical journeys with compelling characters and interesting sci-fi concepts to discover who we are and where we belong stories that teach us lessons about life and loss stories that tell tales of morality and decisions stories that speak of the importance of fear and the strength of compassion stories that show the intimacy of love and the value of nobility doctor who strives to inspire everyone out there to be the best person they can be to take your life and make it amazing and it's also a metaphor for death an exciting sci-fi kid show a religious family program a comedy a [ __ ] a soap opera and above all else a drama life but with adults cut out all wrapped into a brilliant sci-fi epic spanning 58 years 54 companions 39 seasons 16 tardis's 13 doctors 10 sonic screwdrivers and one unending story that's doctor who and why it is the best show on tv doctor my friend we have fought monsters together and we have won on my own i fear i may not do as well [Music] [Applause] i left gallifrey to answer a question of my own by any analysis evil should always win good is not a practical survival strategy it requires loyalty self-sacrifice love some things are worth getting your heart broken off well pain and loss they define us as much as happiness or love two sides one coin so all the time the inside's bigger than the outside this is the gateway to everything that ever was special is made of wood whatever can be you're an alien yeah humanly womany i can dance yeah traveling with you made me feel really special onward thank you thank you [Music] it's always you and her isn't it long after the rest of us have gone what in the end are any of us looking for we're looking for someone [Music] happy crying [Music] afterward by emilia williams hello old friend and here we are the singing towers of darium here we are at last you and me on the last page you know what the hardest thing about knowing you was letting you go by the time you read these words rory and i will be long gone so know that we lived well and we're very happy and above all else know that we will love you always i think once we're gone you won't be coming back here for a while and you might be alone so lonely so very very alone which you should never think that's all such a lonely little boy lonely then and lonelier now everything ends how can you bear it as always don't be alone but everything begins again too and that's always happy doctor it's time be happy you act like such a lonely person you didn't know i was coming why would you set me up because we always do but look at you you've got the biggest family on and after earth man you stole the magic box come with me whenever whenever anywhere in times where do you want to start i'm just a bloke in a box actually to make a difference for my life i was gonna be with you but it worked shut up of course live [Music] please don't change see that number right there you know what that means right i wrote a script for this part of the video but i'm deciding not gonna use it thank you for watching seriously to dedicate three hours of your time to get to this point right now and hear me say this to you is just so i'm so grateful thank you so much this is a video that i wanted to make so badly i wanted to make it last year but i was so horribly inexperienced in every facet of making the video when i set out to make this one i just wanted to expand it in so many ways i had seen you know more people i watch video essays regularly that's one of the bigger reasons that i actually started this whole thing but after taking a closer look at just how much effort some of my fellow video essays have put into their work i decided my video essay was just not good enough i could do better so i set two months of my time away i dedicated myself fully to editing this video almost every day the last hour of this video was edited in five days which was very stressful it's been the most chaotic christmas for me but i love doctor who so much and this was an absolute joy of a time so if you've made it this far if you enjoy what i've had to say if you think anything i said had any worth at all please like the video comment especially because i want to hear what you guys think just do everything in your power to push this video out there don't let it get buried by the algorithm so more people can find it and love it you know share with your friends spread the word do all that dumb stuff that i talked about at the beginning i am not monetizing this video i just want people to find it and love it i put so much into this it helps me so much and of course the big one subscribing it's free you can unsubscribe at any time if you would like to please do it helps me a lot to put my type of content into perspective i think pyrocynical is probably the most similar to my type of video style right now and what i'm going for you know the long-form media criticism on the side every couple months and then the smaller content for him it's commentary and for me it's probably going to be gaming other inspirations are the act man jayetsky definitely uh clever dick films obviously uh full fat videos liam triforce and then like jay schlatt's old gaming videos before he switched to commentary if you watch any of those gentlemen i'm very similar in style i feel if that's not enough here have a comprehensive list of everything that i love of those the ones that i'm most likely to make long form video essays on are well the biggest one is half-life i love half-life i got into that whole valve scene pretty recently like last year or the year before and i love those games i love every single half-life game to death i love what valve does i can't wait for half-life 3. i will absolutely at some point make a three-hour video essay on those games portal is a pretty big one too the zelda games minecraft subnautica for sure bioshock maybe the resident evil games the spider-man movies when i feel like it uh oh and call of duty zombies i know right you would have never expected it yeah i love cod zombies i have ever since i was like 12 13 when i got my first xbox playing b03 with uh dylan and caden caden's the one that passed away but yeah i'm an uber fan of zombies i love it to death maybe a video essay on them probably just streaming them i just want this whole discussion you know i don't want a wall there there's no reason for it because you guys are just like me art is the most important facet of human existence and if you feel the same unyielding passion to create like i do go make it light the world up make the doctor proud it is so important thank you for watching it means the world [Applause] um so [Music] [Music] good [Music] you

Channel: Brub52

Views: 119,632

Keywords: Doctor Who, Video Essay, Television, Modern Who, Murray Gold, Peter Capaldi, Heaven Sent, Steven Moffat, Russel T Davies, Classic Who, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Chris Chibnall, Review, Documentary, The Doctor, TARDIS, Film, The Waters of Mars, The Doctor Falls, Amy Pond, Rose Tyler, The End of Time, The 10th Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, The 9th Doctor, The 11th Doctor, The 12th Doctor, The Daleks, The Weeping Angels, Flux, The 13th Doctor, The Pandorica Opens

Id: kO7LY6Xz7Ow

Length: 184min 3sec (11043 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 25 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/ki700]

Three hours? Jesus.

[u/ConnerKent5985]

That was just bad and sloppily executed.

[u/Michael_Riendeau]

One thing that irks me, and it's in this video, is this talk of "alienation" of the Fandom and claim of universal hatred towards the Chibnal Era. It's just absolute nonsense and is essentially: "I don't like this, therefore everyone must not like this either."

[u/anNPC]

this is fucking amazing thank you