REVIEW: Doctor Who: Series Eleven

This review contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.

What. A. Disappointment.

Firstly, I want to say this is not hate towards the gender of the Doctor this series. I love that Doctor Who finally cast a female Doctor and I will not tolerate any sexism towards Whittaker or the BBC.

Now, onto the review.

Series Eleven left much to be expected. While I do find it lacking in multiple areas, overall it just didn’t feel like Doctor Who. There are a few things I didn’t like about this series.

The acting, both by the Doctor and the companions was subpar. In an interview, Jodie Whittaker stated that she had no background knowledge of the show, nor was she going to be watching the show. That is where my first issue arises, as I feel that this decision made Whittaker unable to portray the Doctor as accurately as possible. While there is some semblance of the Doctor in her character, there is somewhat of a disconnect between her Doctor and past Doctors that I’ve never seen before.

As for the companions, the BBC tends to cast unknown actors and actresses to play companions. While there has really not been an issue with that in the past with, for example; Billie Piper, Karen Gillan, Jenna Coleman and Pearl Mackie, I did find the companions to be a inadequate. Mandip Gill’s line delivery tended to be awkward, and Tosin Cole sounded like he was reading directly off the script at times. Bradley Walsh really played the best companion of the group, though not by much. Though what can you expect from The Chase host?

Next, my biggest problem with this series, the writing. From the moment Chris Chibnall was announced as the head writer after Steven Moffat’s departure, I was disappointed. I had always disliked Chibnall’s work on the show before, but I tried to keep an open mind throughout watching the series.

Needless to say, I found the writing for this series unsatisfactory. The writing of this era so far compared to the writing of Davies and Moffat’s eras contrast drastically.

Finally, here are the (very few) things I did like about the show. Rosa, Kerblam! and The Witchfinders really stood out as the best episodes. Vinette Robinson was phenomenal as Rosa Parks, and I even shed a few tears at the final scene. Kerblam! was a creative episode, and I loved the fez reference. Alan Cumming as King James really carried his episode, The Witchfinders and I found the episode likable because of him.

I obviously didn’t like this series, and that’s okay. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. If you absolutely loved this series, I respect that. For me, this just didn’t click. I can only hope it gets better in Series Twelve.

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