I have always loved Doctor Who.

I was 5 when it started in 1963, and it has just celebrated its 60th Anniversary. Over the years I have watched just about every episode that aired in both the Classic and Modern incarnations.

What I have loved about Doctor Who is the sheer imagination, creativity and story-telling skills of the writers, producers and actors. The Doctor has had many faces, many companions and many producers in its time, but it has always known how to tell big stories.

I lost all faith during the Chris Chibnall/ Jodie Whittaker years. I wanted to like Jodie as the Doctor but the stories were just boring. She really lost me when she did a long monologue about how climate change had produced these wild monsters and it was all our fault. I tried a few weeks later, but the story was so forgettable that I decided it wasn’t worth the effort. With Chibnall only producing a season every second year, it was all too easy to not be bothered.

But a year or so ago, rumours started to emerge that Russell T Davies was coming back to the Whoniverse (an era christened RTD2). A new bountiful human empire was promised in which all the wrongs of the past would be overturned and Doctor Who would return to its previous era of brilliance.

They have resurrected David Tenant as a kind of bridge into the new era before Ncuti Gatwa takes over next year.

The downside amongst all the good news is that the international streaming rights have been sold to Disney Plus. I am guessing that Disney are paying huge bucks for this which can be invested into the production of the series.So everybody outside the UK who wants to watch the latest Doctor Who has to subscribe to Disney Plus, or a VPN or use Pirate Bay.

I decided to do the proper thing and subscribe to Disney Plus. For $13.99 I can see the 3 60th Anniversary specials plus the Christmas Special. Then I can cancel my subscription until the next season releases next year.. unless I find something compelling on Disney.

So what was the first Special “The Star Beast” like?

The Doctor finds himself in London and runs into his old friend Donna Noble. Donna was quite the character- very outspoken and loud. In her last appearance in the show, Donna had absorbed all the knowledge of the Time Lords, and if she ever recognised the Doctor again she would surely die.

An alien space ship crashes, carrying The Meep, a cute looking furry creature. Donna’s daughter, Rose, takes him/her/it home. It turns out that The Meep is actually a very ferocious and cruel creature intent on galactic domination. The Doctor, Donna and Rose are able to save the planet and everything is good.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad episode of Doctor Who. Not in the top 10 best ever, but mostly a pretty solid story. I thought the bad guy form of the Meep was a bit cheesy, but overall the story was good.

The Star Beast is a good return for Davies and sets the stage for some good stories in the future.

The Doctor is back!

I watched the latest Doctor Who episode, “The Power of the Doctor” yesterday.

It was Jodie Whitaker’s final appearance in the role. After 4 years of avoiding what was once my favourite TV show, I thought I would give it a go.

The reason that I gave up on Doctor Who was that it went all woke and preachy in the first season of Jodie and show runner Chris Chibnall. Also the stories weren’t that good and often just disappointed me.

The “Power of the Doctor” is a feature movie length episode that captured all of the awesomeness that science fiction is meant to do. Having said that, I think it should have been quite a bit shorter, maybe 75 minutes would have done the job. There seemed to be a couple of unnecessary scenes that could easily have been cut.

It seemed like Chibnall decided that the more traditional villains the better with the Daleks and Cybermen teaming up (yet again) and the Master co-ordinating things.

The action links events in pre-revolution Russia in 1916 and the present time. The Master has the Daleks plotting to set off tectonic plate movements that would activate earthquakes and volcanoes all around the world. He also forces the Doctor into a “forced regeneration” which allows him to take over the Doctor’s identity and wreak havoc all over the universe, destroying the reputation of the Doctor forever.

Sacha Dhawan is brilliant as the Master. The story is very good, although there are some plot holes. It was amazing to see some of the companions and doctors from the classical era, and a surprise appearance by David Tenant.

Well done to the Doctor Who team. I am now excited to be looking forward to the next era of the Doctor under a regenerated Russell T Davies and the new Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa

I watched the new Doctor Who festive special last night.

It wasn’t awful, although it was too long. Could have been better if it was 60 minutes not 75.

A couple of plot holes, but not too bad. The standard Dalek Invasion plot of people trying to use the Daleks for their own purposes- that never ends well.

The plot twist of using Daleks to destroy one another was interesting.

I might even check out a couple of earlier episodes from the series- maybe.

I just watched the “New Year Special” of Doctor Who. Like the rest of the season, it was a disappointment.

The plot had potential, I would give it that. But as we have come to expect, the story just fizzes out.

There are two things that science fiction is about:

1. Awe at the vastness of the universe, the potential for huge threat and huge opportunities, all at a scale we can only imagine. It all has to be “scientifically” plausible and in some ways consistent with the laws of nature.
2. Action. Lots of running and things exploding.

And for “Doctor Who” there has to be a sense of humour.

I think just about every episode of Doctor Who this year has failed in the “awe” department. the aliens have seemed mostly pretty poor imitations of people with a few extra physical powers. Most have also failed in the “Action” department also with far too much group therapy and way too little running.

The New Year special, called “Resolution” goes for a full hour, but would have done better in 30 minutes.

The story begins with a prologue about humans defeating a powerful for 700 years ago then cutting it into 3 parts and taking them to separate parts of the world and guarded in perpetuity to prevent it being revived. Unfortunately the guardian of the piece sent to Sheffield is killed and unable to bury his bit. So when archaeologists dig up the site, they manage to inadvertently revive the thing, which summons its other bits and ends up being a disembodied Dalek scout, which takes over the female archaeologist, and eventually the Doctor saves the day.

Great potential in that story, but…

• The way the Dalek took over the body of the archaeologist was so predictable it was, well, a cliche.
• The Dalek looked pretty pathetic after it rebuilt its shell. Sure it exterminated a few people, but nothing there to inspire terror.
• Nobody watches Doctor Who to marvel at characters’ skills in counselling and family reconciliation. We didn’t need to see Ryan and his dad get together and resolve a life time of parental neglect.
• The ending just didn’t make sense.

Other people have pointed out the leftist virtue signalling in various episodes. To my mind that is incidental. The real issue is the crap stories they have been dishing up. You can put up with a little bit of socialist identity politics as long as there is an awesome story being told.

For some reason that I don’t understand the current team can’t make a season every year, so we won’t see a new episode of Doctor Who until 2020. So it would be a very good thing if some executives from the BBC had a chat with Chris Chibnall, and possibly Jodie Whittaker, and said, “Look it’s not working. Goodbye.”

After what I though was a very ordinary episode last week- I actually used the word “boring”- this week’s episode was very good.

The Doctor and her team arrive in Montgomery just prior to the Rosa Parks incident that launched the civil rights movement in the United States. A new character is introduced who has travelled from the distant future to prevent Rosa Parks from getting on the bus. For some reason this incident is a turning point in the history of the universe so the stakes are high on both sides.

I thought the story was good and a bit of a different twist on the usual time travellers trying to change history theme. I found the ending just a little unsatisfying and would have liked a bit more of an explanation about why this particular moment was so important to the whole universe. Maybe that will come later in the series. Maybe it was a sop to the American audience.

I think it was a good portrayal of what real racism looks like and how evil it is. It is disturbing that these segregation laws were in place almost in my life time, and that Australian towns had similar policies in place not so long ago.

So this week was good enough to keep me coming back, but I still have reservations.

I finally caught up with the new Doctor Who this afternoon on iview. My experience was somewhat spoilt by our media computer freezing from time to time. Maybe it had problems  adjusting to a female Doctor too.

My first impression was that it was really good. In fact Jodie Whittaker in this role reminded me a lot of Christopher Eccleston, the first doctor in the revived series. Eccleston’s Doctor had a Manchester accent, leading to the classic exchange with Rose where she says, “You can’t be an alien; you’ve got a northern accent” and he replies “Lots of planets have a north.”

So Whittaker’s Doctor has what I’m guessing is a Sheffield accent, given that the episode is set in Sheffield and she sounds pretty similar to the other characters.

My biggest fear in casting the Doctor as a woman in this season is that it’s going to go political on us. That is what really killed the program the first time around when script writers turned it into an anti-Thatcher propaganda show and people just turned off.

If they keep it all laughter and irony it will be glorious: classic Doctor Who with no axe to grind, message to sell, virtue to signal or awareness to raise.

But did you notice that the strong characters were all women? The male characters were all weak and needed rescuing by the women. There is lots of ethnic diversity so the white patriarchy is kept in its place.

It will be interesting to see how this develops. I just hope they can keep the SJWs away from it or they will kill it again.

I don’t suppose anyone from the ABC reads my rants, but in case they do. 6 pm on Monday. Really? Does the ABC have so little faith in Doctor Who- with a female lead at that- that they can’t find space at a time when adults are watching? Is it really on a par with Antiques Road Show” and “Pointless” and the other rubbish that fills in the space while we are all watching the news on commercial stations?

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