TheGillMan
Picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue
- Joined
- May 2, 2025
- Messages
- 747
I liked both Whitaker & Gatwa in the role. Both suffered from writing issues, in my opinion. Whitaker and her companions were all great, but the stories were inconsistent, at best. Many times, the episodes had great ideas for stories, but they weren't executed well. "The Timeless Child" was the most controversial episode, and it's no surprise why, but honestly I didn't have an issue with the idea behind it....just how it was handled. The concept of a template for the Time Lords regeneration abilities was interesting...but how it was presented was half-baked at best. I'd love to say that the way Jodie's Doctor was depicted showed growth throughout, and that is why she is so different from the first to last episode, but no....I really think the writing team just didn't know or care how to make her a consistent character from episode to episode. Jodie did her best with the material she was given, as did the actors playing the companions. It's to all their credit that they were able to make something even remotely watchable out of what was just bad scripts.
Gatwa's era is a hodgepodge of tones. When it was good, it was really good...but when it was bad....woof. Part of this comes down to the ridiculously truncated seasons. Hard to have a lot of growth and development for a new Doctor when you're only given eight episodes per season plus a special. Many of the weaker episodes wouldn't have been as distracting had they not made up such a bigger percentage of the season as a whole. As for how Gatwa himself was in the role, much like Jodie, I thought he did a good job with what he was given. I have no issue with an incarnation of the Doctor being queer...I mean, shouldn't a species that can change sex be naturally inclined to like both sexes anyway? I did feel that there was a bit of heavy-handedness when it came to some of the stories focusing on his race or sexual preference, and to a certain extent I get it. Davies wanted to address some of those social issues, especially while having a black, queer actor in the role. To me though, the best sci-fi addresses those kinds of things in a more metaphoric way, and Doctor Who has a long history of addressing social ills through stories featuring alien races as stand-ins. I prefer that approach, as I think it hits home better when the audience sees an issue from the outside of what they are used to.
Gatwa's era is a hodgepodge of tones. When it was good, it was really good...but when it was bad....woof. Part of this comes down to the ridiculously truncated seasons. Hard to have a lot of growth and development for a new Doctor when you're only given eight episodes per season plus a special. Many of the weaker episodes wouldn't have been as distracting had they not made up such a bigger percentage of the season as a whole. As for how Gatwa himself was in the role, much like Jodie, I thought he did a good job with what he was given. I have no issue with an incarnation of the Doctor being queer...I mean, shouldn't a species that can change sex be naturally inclined to like both sexes anyway? I did feel that there was a bit of heavy-handedness when it came to some of the stories focusing on his race or sexual preference, and to a certain extent I get it. Davies wanted to address some of those social issues, especially while having a black, queer actor in the role. To me though, the best sci-fi addresses those kinds of things in a more metaphoric way, and Doctor Who has a long history of addressing social ills through stories featuring alien races as stand-ins. I prefer that approach, as I think it hits home better when the audience sees an issue from the outside of what they are used to.