Doctor Who Series 12 Is A Disjointed Mess

if you asked me to sum up Doctor Who in one word I'd say adventure if you asked me to sum up series 12 of Doctor Who in one word it wouldn't be that series 12 of Doctor Who just finished but I wouldn't even be surprised if you didn't know that this series has to be the least advertised and promoted series of new who ever in previous years you knew doctor who was on the BBC wouldn't stop showing trailers the cast would be doing the rounds of press doing interviews and even subjecting themselves to the torture there is the one show it was always obvious doctor who was on the promotion was always strong this was especially the case for series 11 there was a new showrunner and a new doctor a woman no less so it was a big deal every way you looked you saw promotion for series 11 sorry what was the promotion like for their second series impossible perhaps the archives are incomplete every year since 2007 dr. who has had a panel at San Diego comic-con with the only exceptions being 2014 and 2016 in 2014 we were still riding high on the back of the 50th anniversary and we had a new doctor incoming and in 2016 there wasn't even a Doctor Who series coming up to advertise however there wasn't a panel at San Diego comic-con 2019 despite series 12 not being far away so there was no trailer shown no promotion not even a teaser this was a huge mistake because comic-con is one of the best times to release trailers for anything people eat comic-con trailers up because they're just swept up in all the excitement of having trailers pouring out left right and center the only advertising for this series was directed at the people already watching it was all on the Doctor Who social media channels which you'll only see if you're already interested it's preaching to the choir rather than trying to draw in new people with trailers in between other BBC shows it doesn't matter how good your product is if no one knows it's there no one will see it it's what killed annihilation one of the best films are 2018 but that being said as the old saying goes you can't polish a turd I am NOT even surprised that series 12 barely got advertised because it's just not all that good yeah I said it series 12 is extremely disappointing it's miles better than a series 11 but you really need to look at the bigger picture let's look at this another way Sir Alex Ferguson is arguably the greatest football manager in the history of English football under his watchful eye Manchester United saw a revival from a fallen power into the most decorated English football team of the last 30 years however when he retired in 2013 Manchester United would see a shot decline under his successors even the appointment of highly regard manager josé Mourinho was unable to return the clock to its former glory right now match to United a struggling in the hotly contested middle of the Premier League table a fifth or sixth place finish under Ferguson would be seen as a disaster but currently this position is seen as progress and an achievement for most other clubs in the league like Everton and Sheffield United it would indeed be seen as a huge success but it shouldn't be for munch to United this highlights how failure has caused standards to lower dramatically now you're sitting there wondering what the face has to do with Doctor Who but it's simple expectations right now a rock-bottom Doctor Who series 12 has averaged around five-and-a-half million viewers for most other shows this would be amazing but for Doctor Who this is strikingly low in fact is averaged the second lowest ratings of every new who series only ahead of series 10 this is shocking especially when you consider the series 11 premiere alone did double that proving that the audience is there the quality of the episodes has clearly taken a huge dive episodes that would have been average 10 years ago and now the standouts of this current era and I feel like that's not being focused on enough one of Ceres twelves biggest problems is that it takes itself far too seriously don't get me wrong I love when doctor is serious and handles drama but it needs to feel earned series 1 to 10 valence drama with a fun humorous and energetic backbone it was perfectly handled the only humor we seem to get in series 12 is constant snarky comments by the companions this would be fine if it was just one companion doing it like Donna in series 4 but when all three companions are throwing out non-stop snarky sarcastic one-liners it gets extremely tiring there never seems to be fun moments where the main characters are enjoying themselves and having fun there's no excitement they're always so serious it takes away from that mystical fantastical and adventurous core of Doctor Who the companions are one of the biggest problems for this series and the Chris Chibnall era overall after two whole series they're still just blanks laced devoid of character it's important to remember that every previous companion was clearly defined by the end of their first series at the end of series one you knew exactly who Rose was at the end of series three you knew exactly who Martha was and so on with the three companions we have in series 11 and 12 there's just nothing Doctor Who cannot handle three companions from the get-go it's simply not an ensemble show it worked in the 1960s because each story was over twice the length of current episodes there was more time for them to breathe and have things to do when you put three companions in straight away there's no time to properly develop them because you have to spend the whole time balancing them all out and they end up just standing around asking questions as of the end of series 12 I still have no idea what kind of person the 13th Doctor is I have no idea who her companions are they all just exist in terms of the doctor it's like Chibnall rice episodes expecting Jody to put her own spin on the character but Jody doesn't want to deviate too much from how he's written her so there's a huge disconnect if you're going to have three companions you have to work for it and build it up slowly you don't put them all in the TARDIS straight away take Amy and Rory for example for half of series five it's just Amy in the TARDIS meaning you can put the spotlight directly on her and we can get an idea of who she is and what she can do we knew Rory exists because of the eleventh hour but we don't see him again until vampires of Venice where he joins them for four episodes we clearly know both their characteristics which means they're not jostling for screen time when River Song is then mixed into the dynamic it works fine because once again we already know who she is from previous episodes so you don't have to worry about trying to develop all three characters at the same time it's a staggered approach and it works perfectly if series 11 had used Ryan as the sole companion until say arachnids in the UK where Graham joins you'd get a better idea about both their characters then in series 12 Yass joins full-time and there you go three companions who we've actually spent time getting familiar with one by one the lack of character development in series 11 severely impacts series 12 because you could put literally any episode of either series after the ghost Monument and it wouldn't make a single bit of difference I'm honestly not at all exaggerating when I say can you hear me was the first episode of this era tower actually got any kind of idea as to who these people are that's their 80th episode by the way it should never take that many episodes for any character to be developed can you hear me finally gives ya some character development after she was virtually invisible during series 11 if we had gotten this episode early during that series it would have done a lot to make the audience relate to the main cast in fact this was the first episode I was able to look at Jodie Whittaker and go yeah that's the doctor we finally had a tight personal story unlike most episodes in the Chibnall era of Doctor Who everyone had something to do and it ended on a really touching note about mental health and why we should take it more seriously this really struck a chord with me as someone who has struggled with mental health for pretty much half my life at this point the Eternals are a good allegory for mental health issues because they can never truly be destroyed and are always lurking the Eternals were acted perfectly and served as great villains along with time back into the wider universe of Doctor Who since other eternals have appeared before in classic who I love that Zelan preys on the doctors nature by tricking her into free and rockier the doctor is so obsessed with doing the right thing that they can be easily manipulated it's an interesting direction to take I know it's a controversial scene but I actually found the doctor really relatable at the end when she is awkwardly struggling to comfort Graham because I always feel like that in those kinds of situations it would have been disingenuous of the doctor to offer up the same old sh t everyone always says instead she acknowledges that she doesn't know what to say and that's okay visually can you hear me was phenomenal it simply looks fantastic the episode has a brilliantly surreal atmosphere with its dream sequences and creepy scenes the use of cave painting like animation is done perfectly although the narration over it comes across as a bit too expositional and that's one of the biggest issues of this series the exposition ever since the start of series 11 the constant use of exposition has ruined these episodes for me I know everyone says but chip no definitely doesn't seem to understand the fundamental concept of show don't tell this is a writing concept that basically says what it does on the Tim you show people with something rather than just telling them about it but instead of doing this the episodes are all talk as if the audience is too stupid to work things out for themselves you use the chameleons arch to hide your identity to hide your mind even from yourself that's why the sonic didn't pick it up and Lee was your protector every time we meet a historical character the doctor stands there with her mouth for Gabe and breathlessly reads out their Wikipedia summary it's a shame because nikola tesla's night of terror was one of the strongest episodes even with its awful name nikola tesla's night of terror was the first Whitacre era episode I truly enjoyed through and through KaBlam was good but it was still just an above average episode however nikola tesla's night of terror is surprisingly good the supporting cast is brilliant with gore envisioned eh stealing the show with his portrayal of Nikola Tesla much like Tony Curran as Vincent van Gogh in series 5 you really believe that Goran is Tesla because he brings the role to life so effortlessly I also like how the ski throw reflect Edison passing off other people's inventions as his own it's a great use of using a monster to illustrate the overall theme although said Monster is just a ripoff racnoss it's a very solid episode and it would fit into any other doctor's tenure just fine that's something to be proud of because almost no other series 11 and 12 episodes can okay I'm going to come out and say it I didn't like how the story arc of this series turned out every arc heavy episode was really weak and relied on big surprises to hide their deep flaws the first big surprise of this series was the Masters return in spiteful Part 1 this sent the fanbase into a frenzy and everyone loved it saying it was an amazing episode but it wasn't spiteful part one Proust if you put one crazy surprise twist after 50 minutes of nothing happening the fans will think it's a perfect episode seriously this episode is so painfully slow and boring until the last 10 minutes where everything happens at once to me the whole episode comes across as generic science fiction it doesn't feel anything like Doctor Who instead it's like some awful CW time-travel show like legends of tomorrow or something most of the events of the episode never come up again such as the whole spy thing hell they even got Steven frying to say a few sentences and then die and never get mentioned again talk about wasting a big-name actor to be brutally honest spy for part one is a waste of an hour spy for part two is a marked improvement on part one but it's still far from great it's paced slightly better than part one but it still falls into the same old trap and does no favors for the doctor yaz and Ryan as characters admittedly the master is good in this episode I wasn't sold on him at the end despite all part one but such a Diwan gets so much better throughout part two however the biggest problem is that the villains plan makes no sense and was solved off screen you just kind of sit there thinking wait that was it Bartz and even pieces out never to be seen again much like crass Coen Rosa the entire episode has no logic to it and falls apart when you question even the slightest thing which is a big mark against it but it's still much more enjoyable than almost every Whitaker episode that came before it I am glad it gave us the interesting start to a story arc with a surprise appearance of destroyed Gallifrey after absolutely no series long arc in series 11 however the next arc heavy episode destroyed all of my anticipation of this series arc I wanted to like fugitive of the Judoon I really did it's got the return of an original new who monster Captain Jack Harkness and Time Lord law but it's all just wrong it's three different episodes awkwardly smashed together into one and that really detracts from it after the initial joy of Captain Jack's return you quickly realize it has absolutely nothing to do with the episode itself and it's just an exposition domp before he goes away again it's like Sarah Jane Smith coming back in the Lazarus experiment and saying to Martha hey you know that Harold Saxon guy better keep an eye on him because he'll be important later and the doctor needs to stop him okay bye that being said I did like how the Judoon were used in this episode although it was the perfect opportunity to give yaz more to do yet they still didn't do anything with her despite her being a police officer in an episode featuring space police honestly the biggest reason I hated this episode is what it did law wise but that's just my personal opinion on the wider arc I thought that the episode was a game of two halves because fugitive of the Judoon really shows how quickly an episode can go downhill with a singular narrative decision that being a pre Hartnell doctor most of this episode was also just obvious set up for the finale which would have been fine if this was a focused children of earth style series but when you still have two unrelated episodes left before this information is even relevant it just ends up feeling like a big exposition dump and makes those next two episodes feel unimportant and well to be fair practice was very unimportant practice is a big boring ball of meth it's so boring basically this year's ghost monument practice is essentially the movie Birdemic if it wasn't even so bad it's funny I went into this episode with a lot of hope because it's written by Pete McPike who wrote KaBlam the only serious 11 episode I liked this left me incredibly disappointed when I watched praxis I found the pacing far too slow and there are too many characters taking up screen time I felt nothing for any of them the plot is so muddled and we're jumping from location to location so quick it gives you whiplash it's like the code open a spiteful part one but an entire painfully long episode there's too much going on for the story to end with any sort of satisfying conclusion which results in yet another rushed ending it is nice to see other parts of the world in Doctor Who and the effects of the Praxis disease are very good but that's about it for positives this episode just did absolutely nothing for me and made me feel so empty and numb to the entire show even talking about it now makes me so bored I don't want to talk about it any further it almost put me off the rest of this series entirely I found a complete mess and not even a fun mess like often 55 often 55 is laughably messy much like fear her it's so bad it's good the episode starts off quite well but then the pacing gets thrown out of the window and stomped on by a rampaging herd of wild mediocrity it almost feels as if they completely forgot to film the entire middle of the episode the whole cast leaves to go on a post-apocalyptic road trip before coming straight back to the main setting it's completely pointless and serves only to derail the episode the whole story ends up overly complicated and we don't have to care about the supporting cast they're just there oh and don't forget about our Lord and Savior Benny the revealed that they're actually on earth is fine I guess but it's poorly executed in my opinion it feels hum fisted because the global warming message would still work even if it wasn't Earth the ending is also really stupid because the doctor doesn't go back to save the two characters who stayed behind to die she literally uses the TARDIS to save dad in character two episodes later in Prak seus which makes this look even worse for her not doing it at least often 55 is entertaining ly bad the infuriating story arc picks back up in the haunting of Villa do-dirty which in episode I still don't know how I feel about there's just something off about it and I can't put my finger on it I wanted to love it it has ghosts Cybermen and a good sci-fi premise with the shifting infinite house on paper it's the perfect setup for a Doctor Who episode and as you may know by now Cybermen are my favourite Doctor Who monsters however the whole episode just left me confused not because of the plot or the narrative but I just wasn't sure what I even felt that has never happened to me before with anything I always know when I like or dislike something but this was the first time I've been left Jenny only confused and unsure of what I think of it I think the pacing may be the problem because it felt like the reveal of the Cybermen should have been a bit more impactful and dramatic as a cliffhanger - a part - but the show just plays it off like it's nothing and talking about the Cybermen it somehow seemed more robotic than all the other new who Cybermen despite trying to move away from the aspect it basically felt like a Borg from Star Trek got lost and walked on to the doctor who set the standout highlight is that much like can you hear me Jody actually manages to feel like the doctor thanks to her speech about the responsibility on her shoulders because sometimes this team structure isn't flat its mountainous with me in the summit's in the stratosphere alone left shoes it's one of her only doctor-like moments since she has been the character however as a whole the episode feels so disjointed and messy like a lot of the series 12 episodes but I'm still not sure why I think my biggest problem with series 12 is they feels too cynical it always expects the worst out of everything and everyone often 55 and practice are really pessimistic about the future Tesla's night of terror flat-out tells us nah Tesla went broke and died sad and alone we had similar stories with Dickens and Van Gogh in previous years but those were handled differently with a much more optimistic slant on their bittersweet endings but series 12 just seems so pessimistic and cynical throughout and now we come to the finale beginning with the episode ascension of the Cybermen yay another new who finale with the Cybermen I definitely haven't got sick of those by now the Cybermen aren't even good in this episode either those flying Cyberman heads just look ridiculous and stupid we have a tiny war of just seven humors with stupid forgettable names against three Cybermen which means the stakes feel incredibly low night mein silver worked because it was a ragged punishment platoon of soldiers against millions of Cybermen by one they got picked off and the stakes felt high it was representative of a wider conflict but in ascension of the Cybermen we're watching the entire conflict there's nothing more to it eventually we find out there's just a giant ship full of Cybermen because plot why weren't they already activated it's a story that makes you ask all the wrong questions it is paced well but nothing really happens people just talk and pass exposition back and forth to each other the only compelling thing about the episode is the brendan subplot it's interesting because it's not clearly connected so you want to find out how it relates to the wider story it's actually a nice human story it's just a shame that it feels almost too disconnected I found myself more interested in the story of this mysterious Irish man's life than the outer space battle between the doctor and the Cybermen I wanted to skip ahead to the next part of the brendan story oh how naive I was I feel like Andrew Allods tweet notes do a pretty good job explaining what I felt about ascension of the Cybermen it's just not really a good part one of a two-part story it tries using Gallifrey and the master as some huge cliffhanger but you knew going in that they'd play a part the whole series we have known Gallifrey was destroyed by the master so we were always expecting him to show up at some point to explain why it's redundant we don't need a whole episode telling us that next episode is important that's not what the first part of a two-parter should do essentially the Cybermen just feels like a trailer building up to the actual main feature and the actual main feature was without a doubt the most insulting self-destructive and turgid episode in Doctor Who history not only did Chris Chibnall jump the shark so high ended up in the stratosphere but he also did it in the most boring and unengaging way possible we spend 65 minutes watching people talk talk talk it's just exposition dump after exposition dump with a borderline incomprehensible plodding story that means nothing to almost the entire audience only hardcore fans I won't even talk about the Lyon Cyberman because the episode itself clearly didn't care about him either but those timeless Cybermen were pretty hilarious I can't lie the biggest talking point of this episode is the big revelation that the doctor is literally the most important thing in the universe and is the entire reason Time Lords exist and can regenerate the episode throws this revelation at you pretty early on so you end up waiting the whole time for it to turn out to be some kind of trick but nope that's who the doctor is now I know she is special because she's the star of the series but I've just always preferred the idea that the doctor was a non conforming Time Lord who ran away rather than the reincarnation of the being that started it all I feel like it stripped away the mystery of the character why does the doctor need to be special the whole message of Doctor Who has always been that anyone can make a difference but now we're being told our main character our role model isn't a normal person anymore they're above us because they were born that way it goes against the entire message of the show and that's the reason I hate this so much the doctor is the one character in Doctor Who that shouldn't have a proper origin story but honestly I still feel like this is all too recent right now my head is still all over the place and mostly clouded with rage so I'll probably revisit this whole thing down the line the timeless children was just such a slow and exposition heavy episode regardless of what it did to the law it just wasn't done well at all it was bloated more like an audiobook since the master just narrates everything the whole time but you know what it all makes so much more sense when you realize this whole story arc is Chris Chibnall childhood fanfiction let's address the elephant in the room series 12 has often been accused of being too political and preachy first off no series 12 isn't to political doctor who has always been incredibly political it's part of the show's DNA however as I've said before its political messaging has always been handled in an expertly subtle and tasteful way the problem with series 12 is not the message it's the medium it often feels like each episode has a dedicated moment where someone turns to the camera and explains the moral of today's story in case you hadn't already worked out it may as well do what star wars the clone wars does and put a little tighter start explaining the moral of the story with previous stories this simply didn't happen because the messages were already clear even the 12th doctor giving a very unsubtle anti-war speech in the saigon in version was made great by the performance and screen presence of Peter Capaldi I can't help but feel like Jodie Whittaker was miscast I personally don't think she has that inherent authority as the doctor the doctor is a character that always works the room taking charge and staying two steps ahead of the situation is part of the very nature of the character the only thing consistent across every incarnation but the thirteenth Doctor is constantly out of her depth and I don't think it's an intentional narrative decision I personally think this is a combination of Jodie Whitaker's lackluster screen presence and Chris Chibnall garbage writing if you asked me to sum up series 12 of Doctor Who in one word I'd probably use the word disjointed the structure of series 12 episodes are so predictable and segmented it's like when a writer writes out a bunch of post-it notes to plan out their story but they don't join them together properly it's how I wrote stories as a kid very staccato like just going for a moment-to-moment and placed a place without letting anything breathe none of it seems to flow nicely it's just like the writers are trying to meet their story beats it doesn't feel like it's Doctor Who it feels like it's constantly battling with itself the tone is always muddled and episodes fill right there multiple episodes smash together like an intern was running to the production office with all of the scripts and tripped over putting all the pages back together in completely different orders there's simply no identity with Davies Moffat Hinchcliffe from virtually every previous head honcho there was a clear direction and identity for the show I simply don't see that right now under Chris Chibnall it doesn't matter how fancy and expensive your cameras are where you film it which big-name actors you bring in when the stories aren't good you can't disguise that bad scripts about scripts you can't dress it up with fancy production design the Davies era had these amazing scripts that made you completely forget just how low-budget actually was when you compare it to series 12 that's why I struggled to see quality in series 12 because all the episodes are just average Davies era episodes without the good writing that made them what they were and in terms of the general direction series 11 was skewed too heavily towards new viewers but series 12 was skewed too heavily towards pre-existing fans it's like the show right now doesn't know what it wants to be I can't help but feel like Chibnall has tried to take the key elements of the Davies and Moffat eras but completely misunderstood them and awkwardly patch them together without understanding the spark needed to make those elements work and a big part of the success of the Davies and Moffat eras was the music Murray gold score was always fantastic and helped make moments memorable this simply isn't there anymore I don't feel like the low-key background hum score of Sagan a canola suits Doctor Who nothing is memorable there are no adrenaline-pumping themes to underline intense action scenes there are no clear instantly recognizable light motifs like Murray gold Cybermen Gallifrey or dr. light motifs instead everything just kind of sounds the same and it all drones on in the background much like stranger things or other modern drama music now that we've reached the end I want to make one thing clear I don't want Doctor Who to fail I never have and I never could it's the single best TV show ever created and I say that without a hint of irony it's a show that has inspired generations upon generations of writers directors scientists and all sorts of other people if dr. who was to be counseled which it inevitably will at some point in our lifetime I don't want it to go out like this I personally do not like this current era of Doctor Who I don't like Chris Chibnall as a writer and I don't think Jodie Whittaker was a good choice for the lead role but I accept that there are a lot of people who very much do love this era children will be inspired by it just as every other era has done before it but in its current state Doctor Who is not sustainable viewership has plummeted to a level where you cannot use the usual excuses anymore there is something fundamentally wrong with the show right now and something has to change I don't know what it needs to do but if dr. who wants to ever return to the cultural and commercial glory days of David Tennant and Matt Smith it needs to reinvent itself which is funny because the franchise kind of has a knack of being able to do that but what did you think of series 12 did you like it or did you not like it let me know in the comments and thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: Harbo Wholmes

Views: 201,891

Keywords: doctor who, doctor who series 12, jodie whittaker, weeping angels, doctor who weeping angels, harbo wholmes, doctor who ruth, doctor who ruth reveal, doctor who timeless child, doctor who series 12 review, doctor who worst series, worst doctor who series, doctor who series 12 finale, doctor who series 12 finale theories, doctor who series 12 ratings, doctor who ratings 2020, doctor who thirteenth doctor, doctor who series 12 cybermen, doctor who series 12 gallifrey

Id: apbK_x3F-18

Length: 33min 18sec (1998 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 05 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Still a better season than season 11