DOCTOR WHO: A Complete Review of Series 14 (a.k.a. Season 1 of the Disney era)
An episode-by-episode reaction, including the 60th anniversary specials, the 2023 Christmas special, and 2024’s Season 1.
The following is a collection of every mini-review I wrote on Serializd immediately after watching each episode of the new Russell T. Davies 2.0/Disney era of Doctor Who.
Some edits, corrections, additions, and re-ratings will have been made in the process of compiling everything into a single article, and with the benefit of hindsight permitting a more level head. (Also, the deeply polarising season finale kind of did no favours to the previous episodes, so that will have affected past episode ratings as well. But we’ll get to that…)
SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
The 60th Anniversary Specials
- Episode 1: “The Star Beast” — ★★★
I haven’t even kept up properly with Doctor Who since the back half of Series 11 in 2018, since for some inexplicable reason, Chris Chibnall’s run with the show squandered and dampened the quintessential DW spirit in a way I could feel more than I could explain.
But now, with the return of Russell T. Davies’ writing/showrunning, Murray Gold’s boisterous full-blooded music, and the newfound injection of that sweet Disney fuck-you money to splash about, Doctor Who finally feels like itself again!
Yes, it’s extremely safe, fan-service-y, deliberately filled to the brim with stuff that conservative types are going to call/scream “WOoOoOKE!!” at the top of their easily offended lungs as they meltdown and froth at the mouths (which I’m sure will please RTD to no end, as well it should), and it’s all deeply, hugely corny… but in a good way, because said corniness is earnest.
In short: it’s Doctor Who, baby! And it is/we are SO BACK!
- Episode 2: “Wild Blue Yonder” — ★★★★
Okay, Russell T. Davies, fine… if you’re faithfully committed to keeping everything in canon, and David Tennant is so willing to poignantly embody and emotionally articulate whatever it was Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor went through before him, then I guess I will (at some point) actually catch up on the rest of Chris Chibnall’s run that I skipped, just so I can appreciate and understand the Flux events I’ve only heard about secondhand. BUT ONLY BECAUSE YOU SUCCESSFULLY MADE IT SOUND SOMEWHAT INTERESTING AND WORTHWHILE, AND YOU WENT TO THE HONOURABLE TROUBLE OF NOT DISREGARDING CHIBNALL’S ERA ENTIRELY!
Also, Wild Blue Yonder is a major step up in quality from The Star Beast, and is in the running for a new soon-to-be-classic Doctor Who episode. Occasionally wonky visual effects can be forgiven on a TV scale with such movie-sized ambitions, especially when the show could never have pulled this off in its shoestring-budgeted past, and when the story and performances are this great. More Aniara and The Thing vibes than I was expecting, and all the better for it. And that final scene (pre-cliffhanger) is a joyfully bittersweet reunion sure to stir even the stoniest of hearts. Just a great ep overall!
- Episode 3: “The Giggle” — ★★★★½
I’m scared that my reaction to The Giggle, compared to other people’s in the coming days/months/years, is going to be similar to what happened with Star Wars and The Last Jedi — i.e. I had a thoroughly amazing time, and thought it was one of the best stories told within its wider franchise because of how much it fearlessly pushed the boundaries of its own universe to redefine the rules of what’s possible, while still being a spectacular sci-fi/fantasy romp… only for me to then log online, and find there’s a furious contingent of fans who actively loathe the turns this story took, and think it’s one of the worst things to ever happen in the history of its franchise.
I sincerely hope I’m wrong, and that other fellow Doctor Who fans feel the same as I do. Because with The Giggle, I love how much Russell T. Davies has thrown all caution to the wind, and decided to embrace the idea that there are no limits to this boundless universe, you can have your cake and eat it too, you can do anything and everything, and you can have it all.
It’s bonkers, outrageous, corny (non-derogatory), heartwarming, surprising bordering on controversial (depending on who you ask), spine-tinglingly thrilling, incredible, superlative beyond words, and completely satisfying in ways some fans may have thought forever impossible.
From what I often hear about reactions to Chibnall’s era, there’s the notion that if Chibnall had ever tried something this audacious in his time, people would universally hate it; but if RTD does it, people would be a lot more agreeable to it, thereby showing that people hate on Chibnall just because it’s the popular opinion. I can’t attest to the veracity of that, as I never experienced Chibnall’s big lore-changing swings for the fences firsthand (as in the stuff about the Timeless Child, or the Flux, or whatever other divisive choices he made in his tenure).
All I can tell you is how The Giggle made me feel, and to me, it felt like pure concentrated joy pumped directly into my veins, just like all my favourite episodes of Doctor Who have the power to do.
I look forward to Ncuti Gatwa’s era producing more episodes that do likewise anew…
- Christmas Special: “The Church on Ruby Road” — ★★★★
Ncuti Gatwa is officially the coolest motherflipper on the entire planet.
His style (and that jacket)!
His swagger!
His moves!
His pipes!
His infectiously ebullient joy, and deeply humane pathos!
He is The Doctor, and the world is just that tiny little bit better for it.
Merry Christmas, indeed!
Season 1 (2024)
- Episode 1: “Space Babies” — ★★
Mostly charming. Kind of overly childish, even for the kid-centric demographic that DW is intended to appeal to. Sort of sickeningly whimsical and saccharine. Definitely has way too much shades of Baby Geniuses than is sensible. As a quasi-remake of S01E02, The End of the World, it pales in comparison. But the Bogeyman monster design is great (especially with the aid of all that Disney money making it look extra convincing), the verrrrry light political points made about society’s treatment of children and refugees give the overall fluffy tone a little bit of bite, and the chemistry between Ncuti’s Doctor and Millie’s Ruby is electric in how fun and enthusiastic they both are.
It’s rather bad, yet kind of good, and what’s more Doctor Who than that?
- Episode 2: “The Devil’s Chord” — ★★★
Do you think Russell T. Davies has seen Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, by any chance? Y’know, what with that film and this episode both having a sequence where duelling combatants battle by using literal corporealised musical notes, and all…?
- Episode 3: “Boom” — ★★★★½
It’s like HBomberguy once said in his classic “Sherlock Is Garbage and Here’s Why” video:
Steven Moffat is at his best when he’s confined to telling a single story, within one or two episodes, of a show he’s otherwise not in control of, and where he has to deliver a beginning, a middle, and an end to a standalone tale that doesn’t have the luxury/indulgence of stretching things out across multiple episodes or seasons. Force him into those limitations, especially within Doctor Who, and you get gold like Blink, and now Boom, which is so far unequivocally the best episode of Ncuti’s first season that I’ve seen so far.
Quite the whiplash to go from the goofy, schmaltzy, over-the-top nature of the RTD-penned opening episodes, Space Babies and The Devil’s Chord, to the Moffat-penned Boom, which bears many of the best hallmarks of his days as showrunner, particularly during the Capaldi era. If it weren’t for the streak of humanism that leaves it feeling hopeful instead of nihilistic, Boom could have easily (understandably) had a tone of dour bitterness through the topics it broaches. Like, it’s a dark sci-fi satire of the intertwining concepts of über-late-stage capitalism, the military industrial complex, wartime propaganda, religion and warfare conjoined in unholy matrimony, healthcare cost-cutting, A.I., and the corporate profiteering that benefits from dehumanisation and death. To pack all of that into a less-than-hour-long piece of narrative worldbuilding so efficiently, provocatively, yet relatively effortlessly, is a hugely commendable achievement on Moffat’s part. Which is a begrudging admission to make, considering I still can’t forgive how grossly he cocked up Sherlock. (HOW CAN YOU BE SO GOOD AND SO BAD AT WRITING, STEVEN?!?!!)
The script’s not faultless or anything, as I think he makes the daughter Splice come across a bit too unbelievably stupid for her age (and there’s only so much disbelief you can suspend by saying that she acts so irrationally because she’s a kid and she’s grieving; at a certain point, it’s just contrivance to allow the plot to play out the way Moffat needs it to). But overall, the strength of Moffat’s one-and-done storytelling, the extra political pointedness of the episode’s themes, and especially Ncuti Gatwa’s fantastic performance, make Boom a high point for this season, and one of the show’s best episodes ever.
- Episode 4: “73 Yards” — ★★★★
Imagine if Russell T. Davies opened up Doctor Who to the realm of fantasy and the supernatural, all just so that he could fulfil 2013 Tumblr’s dreams to actually make SuperWhoLock canonically possible.
😂
But seriously, what an episode.
No title sequence. 98% without The Doctor. No definitive expositional explanation. Just fully Millie Gibson owning the episode, and an It Follows-esque spooky folk-horror threat that’s unnerving because of how little about it is explainable or logical. If RTD keeps it an ambiguous mystery from now on, all’s the better, as that’s the sauce that keeps it so beguiling, keeps it lingering in the mind, keeps it haunting you.
Even though I fairly quickly guessed the essence of the “twist” (if you would even call it a twist?), that was of lesser importance to me than the question of “why?”, and “where do we go from here?”
In that respect, 73 Yards really kept me on my toes with its otherwise overall unpredictability.
If Space Babies and The Devil’s Chord were RTD playing the hits and keeping it somewhat safe, this is the first truly great episode he’s written for the season so far, in my opinion. More please, Russell!
- Episode 5: “Dot and Bubble” — ★★★★½
I was already beginning to think that Dot and Bubble — in its allegorical tale of power and privilege allowing people to willingly turn a blind eye to atrocities happening right next to them — would make for an ostensibly unlikely, yet nonetheless thematically fitting companion piece to Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest.
And then the ending happened.
And that just made the comparison to the film even stronger.
And just like The Zone of Interest acts so well as a broader commentary on more than just the horrors of World War II, so that it encompasses the feeling of how people today choose to be blind to the genocides happening around them all around the world, so too does Dot and Bubble feel like a terribly timely metaphorical story about how social media bubbles (the most obvious satirical jab the episode makes) have been enabling so many people to believe, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that Israel somehow isn’t committing genocide against Gaza, even though it should be painfully crystal clear to anyone with eyes and a brain stem that that’s exactly what’s happening.
But sure, there is no war in Ba Sing Se…
- Episode 6: “Rogue” — ★★★★
Before the more noticeable classical cover of Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ happened, did anyone else catch the string quartet playing a classical version of Billie Eilish’s ‘bad guy’ during The Doctor’s first conversation with Jonathan Groff’s dashing Rogue?
Also, I love how Neil Patrick Harris and Jonathan Groff continue to circle around each other in their shared filmographies. I don’t know if it goes as far back as Glee, or if it stretches even further back into the past than that, but from Glee onwards, look at it:
NPH works with David Fincher on Gone Girl, then JG works with Fincher on Mindhunter; NPH and JG both appear in The Matrix Resurrections; now they’ve both turned up in Doctor Who, where NPH has played The Toymaker, and JG has played Rogue!
And this is just the pattern I’m aware of! There could be even more instances of their paths crossing in these ways that I’m not privy to!
Anyway, the episode was a grand ol’ fun campy hilarious moving joyous romp of a time, in classic silly Doctor Who fashion. (And also Rogue is the best new feisty scoundrel love interest for The Doctor since River Song, and I hope they bring Groff back some day…)
- Episode 7: “The Legend of Ruby Sunday (1)” — ★★★★
The only things missing from that list of “I am…” statements of portentous doom were “I am vengeance”, “I am the night”, and “I am the one who knocks”…
😁
(But seriously, WHAT A CLIFFHANGER. 😱)
- Episode 8: “Empire of Death (2)” — ★★★
What an… interesting finale.
Plenty of the bombast and spectacle and drama and big ideas you’d expect to be crammed into an RTD-penned Doctor Who season-ender, and with just as much messiness as that prospect usually entails.
A lot to love, of course, but also a lot that feels too rushed and underdeveloped to really hit as hard as it ought to.
I feel like I’ve given RTD a lot of leeway so far with his second era of running/writing the show, giving the benefit of the doubt that things would mostly come together satisfyingly under his watch, and that I could reasonably appreciate it all on a holistic level without worrying too much about the finer details that might not hold up to scrutiny. Y’know, the Tenet approach of just letting yourself feel it, rather than think it; or if you prefer, the Top Gun: Maverick mantra of Don’t Think, Just Do.
But even from my perspective as a DW fan who’s unfamiliar with most of the early lore of Doctors 1 through 8, and whose love of the show isn’t necessarily predicated on how stringently the show may or may not keep to its 60+ years of continuity… I can only suspend my questions about in-universe logic and writerly intent so far, and Davies is pushing it.
For all the buildup to Sutekh’s reveal — a literal god of death, and basically the Thanos of this season of Doctor Who, right down to the turning of an entire universe’s worth of people into nothing but particles of dust, in an act that will obviously be relatively easily reversed by the heroes later on — the means to defeat this Osiran alien/godlike being were a bit too easy, given the sheer cosmic scale his threat represented to all of existence. (And wait, is he an Osiran alien as was stated in his original appearance in Pyramids of Mars? Or is he a literal god, thanks to the Doctor’s salt trick in Wild Blue Yonder making beings of the supernatural and superstitious and eldritch variety actually become real in our reality?)
And how does Sutekh’s dust of death work? Because judging by the (admittedly haunting) scene with Sian “Fleabag’s sister” Clifford, the dust can kill non-linearly through bloodlines, or something? How did she survive in the first place, given that everything and everyone else was vaporised by Sutekh’s death dust? Is it just so that she could exist long enough to give the Doctor (and us as the audience) a face to latch onto to represent the tragedy the dust’s impact had on the universe, and everyone affected by it? And how long had it been between Sutekh erasing most everyone in the universe in one fell swoop, and the point where the Doctor finds this one person on this one planet who has survived long enough to remember she’s forgotten there was a life she once lived? Not to mention that the dust has been around seemingly long enough to make an impression as this existential parasite that eats away at memories and history for those not already killed by the dust in the initial attack?
And why did it physically snow every time Ruby thought of the night she was left at the church on Ruby Road? That was never answered or explained. Not by the identity of the mother, nor by any extraordinary circumstances of her birth, nor by the aforementioned “supernatural stuff can happen now” excuse that could’ve been exploited to justify the snow’s recurring appearances. But I guess either Russell forgot, or it didn’t really matter?
And why would Ruby’s mysterious mother mysteriously point in such a way that looks so ominous, if she was just pointing to the sign on the road as a way of naming her daughter? She was just… doing that for herself? So she would know that she intended for her daughter to be named Ruby? What if the people who found her daughter had wound up calling her a different name? What purpose would it serve to point at the Ruby Road sign then, if she was just doing it silently to herself, not to know that she’d be captured on grainy CCTV from afar, recorded onto a VHS tape that would one day be reconstructed into a quantumly upscaled 3D image in a “time window”, where viewers observing her actions would then interpret her pointing as her pointing at the Doctor?
NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE.
Well, not until you think of it as Russell taking a leaf out of the J.J. Abrams playbook, by first merely assembling a collection of intriguing “mystery box” images and ideas that would act as a season-long mystery stringing together all the episodes, before leaving the actual connective-tissue explanation for those images until the last minute, and winding up with all these contrived, unconvincing solutions that don’t feel properly thought through or coherently articulated. (It should be noted that this is not the first time The Rise of Skywalker came to mind because of this episode’s slapdash writing. Even the apparent solution for defeating Sutekh feels akin to the apparent solution to defeating Palpatine in TROS, in that it makes you wonder: “Well, if he wasn’t killed by something like this the last time he was supposed to have died, how can we fully believe that this time they’ve definitely killed him for real?”)
Such lack of forethought or meticulous planning will undoubtedly happen with one’s scripts when, as Russell revealed in that Imagine BBC documentary about him, “often the first draft is also the final draft” when it comes to him. And if that is indeed the case, and he didn’t misspeak or get misquoted, then that would explain a lot of the sloppier elements of the writing that have run throughout this season. If he’s not fully thinking through the ramifications of his plot decisions, and he’s not going back and rewriting his drafts to tidy up and fine-tune them, then problems like this are going to persist.
But look, I wouldn’t say Empire of Death is the worst thing ever, or anything like that. It’s perfectly serviceable, fantastically acted by everyone involved, the VFX are incredible, and there’s fun and pathos to be found in bulk. Generally speaking, it wraps up the season in a decent bow (albeit one that’s both too neat, and too loose), and there are lingering (intentional) questions left unanswered that make me look forward to seeing what comes next.
Though let’s be real, I was always going to want to keep watching past this season anyway, when Ncuti’s Doctor is so enthrallingly entertaining to watch, and when, overall, the spirit of the show feels right again, after the Chibnall era felt so peculiarly off for so long, despite Jodie Whitaker’s best efforts to elevate the proceedings with her performance, because unlike the writing she was given most of the time, she at least understood what the Doctor’s vibe should be.
Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t (couldn’t) go see this at the cinema as part of the two-episode big-screen event that was held in the UK to mark the occasion, because paying money for the travel and the ticket to see it in that format might’ve made me choose to ignore and deny the parts of the episode that didn’t work for me, so as to feel the cash expense would’ve been worth it. And all I missed out on was the communal experience of watching the finale with fellow fans, so… yeah, totally worth it… ahem…
Series 14 / Season 1 Overall Rating: ★★★½
I wavered between giving this season of Doctor Who a strong 3.5, or a tentative-but-even 4 stars, but having sat a little longer with my thoughts on all the episodes to date, a cumulative average of 3.5 stars feels more than fair, considering how the last episode’s missteps could reasonably undo a lot of previously engendered goodwill, if I were to let it.
And all of that comes down to the strength of episodes 3 through 6 — Boom, 73 Yards, Dot and Bubble, and Rogue — and the magnificence of Ncuti Gatwa’s performance as The Doctor, plus Millie Gibson’s performance as Ruby hugely elevating what minimal characterisation she gets from the material given to her.
If they had swapped the places of The Devil’s Chord and Rogue in the season order (as someone on Twitter made an excellent case for), plus given the season a few extra episodes of standalone tales, and if Russell could’ve come up with a finale that didn’t feel so rushed and sloppy in the lacklustre answers it gave to the season-long arc of mystery he’d been setting up, then this season could’ve rated so much higher.
But still, I don’t feel like I wasted my time when Ncuti’s Doctor is this brilliant, and as it stands, the show properly feels like Doctor Who again after the Chibnall wilderness years, and that’s enough for me.
