As a series, Doctor Who has been somewhat hit-and-miss with me. I followed it since its revival in 2005 (thanks to some help from my friends, as I had no cable or Netflix access then), but stopped watching sometime around 2012-2013. The tone of the series had gotten a little too clever for its own good, and a little too detached from its roots as a science fiction show, and the general plotting borrowed too much from the whole “puzzle box” / “everything is connected” approach that was more at home in superhero comics. In sum, Doctor Who had adopted almost every gimmick of modern television writing guaranteed to push me away.
I connected more with the original Doctor Who, low-budget special effects and outdated tales notwithstanding. This past summer, BBC and Twitch TV teamed up to broadcast a Doctor Who marathon, showing almost every available episode from the first broadcast in 1963 to the finale in 1989. This gave me a rare opportunity to finally catch up on the series of which I’d only seen parts before this year. 25 years of shows is too much to sum up, but I found a lot to like in those old episodes; the show rarely strayed from its roots, but never felt stale, even toward the end when one could see the show was running out of steam.
The marathon rekindled my interest in the show, and so I picked up the first of the current season on iTunes, the first episode to star Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor. After watching it – and then watching it again – I picked up the season pass. Now, five episodes in, I’m thoroughly enjoying the show for the first time in a long while.
The new series is, in many ways, the best of both Modern and Classic Who. Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor sheds the epic force-of-nature wizard of her previous incarnations and brings back the travelling scientist and explorer. Her companions this time around are an eclectic lot with a good mix of skills. Ryan (Tosin Cole) is a young black man who is the team’s computer whiz. Yaz (Mandip Gill) is a Pakistani-British cop fresh out of training; her skills in investigation and crisis management make her invaluable in the tight spots the team keeps finding themselves in. Graham (Bradley Walsh) is a retired bus driver and cancer survivor; he’s good at getting information out of the locals, and his unflappable attitude in the face of the weird provides both a steadying influence for the others, and a bit of welcome comic relief.
Outside of the core cast, the guests on each episode are a more diverse lot than we’ve seen before; much more reflective of the multicultural world we live in, and hinting at the immense diversity the universe has to offer. It helps that there hasn’t been a bad actor in the series so far; every performance has been simply stellar. The writing and the science are more grounded; even when the show takes a leap into the fantastic, it still feels believable. Even the giant spiders in “Arachnids in the UK” are made eerily plausible. It’s refreshing to have a show where I don’t feel I have to shut off my brain to enjoy it.
The show has also brought back the historical side of the original Doctor Who, with the third episode, “Rosa”. This episode has the team meet Rosa Parks, and pulls no punches in showing the cruelty of racism in America, or in Rosa’s courage in fighting it. The honest portrayal of racism made it the hardest episode to watch, but also very much worth the discomfort.
Also notable are the absences of what some might consider some Doctor Who staples. None of the traditional antagonists have made an appearance or even gotten a mention; we’ve not seen a single Dalek, Cyberman, or Sontarran. The Time War and Gallifrey are not referenced. The Master (or his future incarnation Missy) does not make an appearance. I found these absences to be a relief; by the time I stopped watching Modern Who, these old antagonists had been used a few too many times, in my opinion, and had been raised to mythic status along with the Doctor. From what I’ve read of the episodes I hadn’t watched, that epic status had only gotten worse with time. While I’m sure we’ll see the Doctor’s old enemies again eventually, I’ll gladly take a few years without seeing another “evil pepper-pot” grace my screen.
Most of all, the themes this season of Doctor Who has embraced are both well-handled and important. We’re stronger together than apart. Thinking beats shooting. Science is beautiful. Kindness and respect are better than cruelty and dominance. All of these themes had been part of the original series at one time or another, but were in abeyance in the modern series. Now they’re back, and they’re brilliant.
When Jodie Whittaker was announced to be the next Doctor, there was, typically, some blowback from fans who thought a woman shouldn’t play the role. In response, Colin Baker had reprised some of his earliest lines of his tenure as the Doctor: “Change, my dear, and not a moment too soon. She is the Doctor, whether you like it or not”. She is the Doctor indeed, and quite possibly the best Doctor yet. Long may she travel.