Power of the Doctor

[shadowkat]

Finished watching Power of the Doctor - which was one hour of The Doctor, and one hour of commercials (the same ones over and over).

Oh well, Disney + is going to start streaming it soon - so this won't be a problem.

Possibly the best episode that I've seen of Chinball/Whittacker run. I tried watching various episodes but gave up half-way through due to boredom. There were a few decent ones in the first year or so.

This one was a good end to her run. And by far, one of the better episodes. It works on its own merits. The finale's of each Doctor's run are actually fairly good for the most part - or at least for the five Doctors that I've watched to date.

I was already spoiled on the regeneration. Although I was surprised by the It's not the guy we thought it would be, it's David Tennant, the new guy is the next Doctor or the 15th Doctor? Not on the guest stars - but I also haven't watched the old Who, so didn't recognize them anyhow.

Considering it was set up for a lot of 60th Anniversary cameos - it had good plot, and worked all the way through. Also had good villains, albeit previous ones, which have been used repetitiously over 60 some years (which may well be on purpose - considering next year celebrates 60 years of the Doctor, sheesh, the 50th anniversary didn't feel like it was all that long ago, sometimes). I honestly think Stephen Moffat was the only one who came up with cool new villains/monsters, improving on the former ones. Moffat had the Time Angels, Parasites of the Air, and the Quiet. Plus River Song.



Regarding the Regeneration - which happens twice in the show. Once - the Master takes on the Doctor's persona. And the second, actual regeneration - it's David Tennant. Which kind of makes sense in a way - 1) there was a false regeneration - so they regenerated back to a previous version. 2) it gives RT Davies time to get the audience used to a new guy - and pulls them back in with the fan favorite. Fans prefer Tennant to others.

Tennant is by far the most expressive of the Doctors, and romantic.

Don't get used to Tennant - he's only around for three to four episodes including the 60 th Anniversary Special - and is mainly in the role again for it. (I have a feeling Matt Smith wasn't available. Or may only have been for the 60th special, Tennant's version was also more popular than Smith's.) They are also bringing back Donna Noble as his companion. With a new Rose (not a recast Rose Tyler).

They are kind of rebooting it again - because it lost viewers during Chinball's run. Not because we had a female doctor who, but because the writing was abysmal and Whittacker wasn't that good in the role. I'd have cast someone like Alex Kingston or with more oomph. Whittacker came across as a bit dull. It's the same with the male versions - Tennant is a favorite because he's so colorful. As was Matt Smith. Eccleston was also fun - because he brought a bit of an edge to the role.

Anyhow, the episode was interesting in how it focused on the companions and how they get a bit discombobulated when the Doctor finally leaves them behind. I'm not sure what happened to the young man traveling with Yaz and Graham and the Doctor. The replacement for Graheam and the young guy, was ditched early on in the last episode. He was not a good choice for a companion. Yaz actually was the best of that group companions. Because they get a bit discombobulated and disoriented - they form a support group, where they can discuss their unique adventures with people who understand and believe them.

So we see all these former companions from the past 60 years of Doctor Who, who range between their late fifties to eighties. I don't know them, but I'm guessing they were the Doctor's companions in the early 1960s through the 70s and 80s.

Two, from the early 60s were featured in this episode - Ace and Teague. Along with their versions of the Doctor as holograms.

I actually liked the plot of this one better than the fiftieth anniversary special plot with all the cameos - which didn't make much sense. Also, this is one of my favorite versions of the Master.

I'm a bit leery of RT Davies taking over the mantle again - because his plots don't always make sense. OTOH, they tend to, on the average, make more sense than Chinball's.

I hope he hires some good writers and doesn't keep the previous crew.

Comments

[mtbc]

I too hope he hires some good writers! For me that's been the largest letdown in recent years. RTD did do some good stuff but often at needlessly epic scale, good Doctor Who stories don't have to have universe-spanning impact with the Doctor as some kind of intergalactic celebrity. I do think Moffat's first Weeping Angels story - Blink, maybe? - one of the best of recent times. I think Whittaker could have worked with better writing, I sometimes caught her doing Acting about as well as one possibly could with some execrable dialog, and maybe that dialog improved over time, but that's such a low bar. Maybe you're right that she wasn't the best choice, it'd have been nice to get better chance to discover that.

I wondered what anybody would make of this episode if they weren't much familiar with the old stuff so it's interesting to read your perspective. I mean, references to things like Aunt Vanessa, I don't know what fraction of the current viewers remember details like that, nor how bothersome it is to be ongoingly assailed by them if one doesn't. (It's not an important one but one might worry it is!) My main concern was to what extent it would be enough apparent what relationship all these characters have to each other without already knowing the backstories.

This was absolutely one of the better ones of late, yes. It still doesn't much include what I actually most liked about the older show but I'll take anything that makes it decent enough to keep on running and having opportunities, especially if we get showrunners light on wanting to also be the writers.

[shadowkat]

I've not really seen any of Doctor Who prior to the RTD Era. So, I can't relate to old school Who at all. Also I had no idea who Ace and the other companion were, or who the old Doctors were or the Professor reference.

I think it was more of an anthology series prior and was more of a kids version of say the Twilight Zone? That's from vague memories of the episodes that I saw in the 1970s on PBS.

RTD and Moffat made it a bit more serialized with a through arc (which admittedly works better for me because I prefer serials to episodic format. Give me a soap opera over an anthology series any day of the week. I'm not a short story fan, more into novellas and novels.)

But, that said...there's a lot of uneven and bad writing in the RTD and Moffat years. My favorite episodes of the RTD time period tended to be the stand-a-lone episodes or two-parters. Blink. Family of Blood. Human Condition. Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead (favorite). Moffat era? I liked the River Song arc, and I liked the arcs better than the stand-a-lones. But I did not like the David Capadali period as well...

So it depends. Television for the most part is dependent on the writing.

[mtbc]

In the prior era, there was rarely an arc that lasted for more than a story, which were typically no longer than six shorter episodes, each season having a small handful of stories. They were at least long enough to somewhat explore and develop characters; similarly, I think it's no coincidence that many of the better of the modern era are the two-parters.

(The key to time stuff might have gobbled a whole season or so but it was a fairly loose arc really.)