by The first series of Russell T Davies’ return to Doctor Who – and Ncuti Gatwa’s first season at the helm of the world’s longest-running sci-fi show – concluded with Empire of the Dead on Saturday. But what did the superfans of the show’s first season do with Disney’s support?
We spoke to four people: Tony Jordan, 65, co-ordinator of the Doctor Who Society, who has been watching since he was four; Lauren Amelia Miller, 31, a disabled writer and actress who has been a fan since she was five and has a Dalek nicknamed Woody; Zoe Butler, 23, a civil servant who started watching in 2005 and cites David Tennant as her favorite Doctor; and JJ, 28, who works in digital media, blogs on Doctor Who and has been a fan since 2012.
How is Ncuti Gatwa done?
Lauren: Ncuti has done a great job. His angry speech at the end of Dot and Bubble felt less like Doctor Who and more like he was telling us his personal story. It was cruel and twisted. He is an extremely complex performer.
Zoe: A certain campness is fun, but he was shooting Sex Education and so there is a level of difficulty connecting with the character. He doesn’t quite feel himself.
Tony: I don’t think we’ve seen enough of it – we’ve had two Doctor-lite episodes. I think he’s a great actor but I’m not sure if the role is written right for him. It’s a pity that he hears every episode. He has a wonderful twinkle in his eye, but the scripts need to be more challenging.
JJ: He has the potential to be one of the best Doctors we’ve had, but this season felt a bit of a mess. Boom and Rogue gave me a sense of his particular Doctor, or it was a generic mix of technobabble pop culture references, exposition and RTD style. I like the little quills and the flower he said but there were too many times when he had no answer for anything and felt like a sobbing passenger in the plot.
What was Disney’s influence?
T: Debate. Disney wanted many performances for its audience. You can see the money on the screen although it is not unlimited. Some would say that the Daleks circled the Albert Memorial and Westminster Bridge in 1964 [in The Dalek Invasion of Earth] it was more iconic and powerful than anything this year.
Z: I love the wardrobe, but the special effects budget is not being used as cover for a weak plot. Some of the best Doctor Who episodes, like Midnight and Blink, come from desperation and no money – so they work on the script to sustain it. Much of the suspense and mystery in this series came from special effects. The first 30 minutes of the episodes are good, then a lot of production money has been spent on tying up loose ends and making them look good.
L: I have friends in Orlando and Belgium who can watch now thanks to Disney which is just great.
What do you make of the ratings?
T: Disappointing but we are in a different world. We are at 3-4 million but still in the top 10 BARB. Linear TV is dying faster than expected. I have no doubt that Davies is right when he says that Space Babies had 5.8 million with BBC Three screening and iPlayer viewing.
What do you make of the metaplot?
L: The writers set up these stories well, but the fans create such fantastic stories in their heads that the real story sometimes disappoints them. I think that’s a risk Davies is happy to take.
Z: It felt a little hasty towards the end. Sutekh was a fun villain but the idea of stopping the God of Death was curious about Ruby [Sunday, played by Millie Gibson] The mystery was sweet but it made no sense. The snow made no sense. I didn’t like that plot at all.
And the individual episodes?
L: 73 Yards took the simplest folk tale and created something dark that reminded me of the Gothic books I used to read as a child. The Devil’s Chord resonated with me, not only because of Jinkx Monsoon but also, as a singer, for fear of the music being taken away. He was like the Weeping Angels, making us fear the simplest things.
J: The final twist of Dot and Bubble [the people who the Doctor was trying to survive turned out to be white supremacists and ultimately refused his help because he is black] it’s possibly my favorite scene in the entire show, and it confirmed my concerns about the lack of black writers for the first mainstream black Doctor. The idea of laying down breadcrumbs for a clever racist “twist” at the end just seems like a white liberal writer who is arguing behind his back to “address the issues” with the use of trauma flipping. black as cheap shock measures. The Doctor’s first experience of racism until the end of this ridiculous episode shows me that Davies didn’t really understand the depth of the issue. It was a moment that felt strange and offensive in both conception and execution.
What do you make of Millie/Ruby?
T: I thought she was the best element of the whole season. The viewer’s eyes and ears are good companions, and I credit Davies for making her smart and have her own story.
J: She wasn’t given many unique traits. It felt like someone had taken the broadest traits from previous companions and made it Gen-Z and Northern. There was no sight of her and the Doctor just hanging out, which meant they felt more like colleagues than best friends.
And what of the baddies?
T: Sutekh was well organized but not well served. I loved Maestro.
Z: The baddies in this case felt like humanity, which I liked. It is more interesting and complicated when the monster is a reflection of humanity. Maestro was brilliant as a villain – no notes on Jinkx’s performance but I wish there was a more satisfying tension between Doctor and villain.
What is your end of term report on Russell T Davies?
T: It could do better. There were some good things. He laid it on a bit thick with sex and gender early on, but got out of the way. I wonder if we’ll see Rogue – Captain Jack 2.0 – again. I thought Jonathan Groff was very good. Another gay singer/actor from North America – RTD is a creature of habit.
Z: It was too fast to build tension. I like the return to the campness and fun adventure, and a lot of the concepts are interesting, but they felt like remakes of better versions. He needs to slow things down, and his signaling could be looked at. If you are going to include questions then really dig into them rather than using them as cheap asides. If you make a well-thought-out episode, it won’t seem like you’re trying to be “woke”.
J: I thought this season was pretty weak as a whole and on an individual episode basis. There wasn’t enough time to stop and dwell on anything, which meant that each episode was oddly paced and there wasn’t room to add depth or explore the concepts introduced.
L: Doctor Who has always been hit and miss but it’s not afraid to try something new, and this is its beauty. It was a great “first series” for Russell T Davies. It wasn’t the most dramatic, but it spoke to the core values in dynamic families. It’s a generation of people who know what they want and who they are. It might be difficult for older fans, but I love that the show is tackling disability representation and jokes.
