REVIEW: Doctor Who: Series Fifteen

This review contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.

A beautiful yet disappointing end to an era.

What started out as a collection of some of the best episodes of Doctor Who as a whole turned out to be one giant, meaningless waste. At the beginning of this series, I had so much hope and love for this show. Now all I feel is sadness, confusion, and uncertainty (and a little bit of shame).

For me, the series started out great. The Robot Revolution, while somewhat campy, was a good episode to ease the viewer in. Lux was a fun romp that continues with the Pantheon of the Gods storyline, and The Well took one of my favorite episodes and continued it as an indirect sequel without ruining the source material. Lucky Day was a better Doctor-lite episode than the previous series' 73 Yards in my opinion and gave a good insight to what was going on with Ruby Sunday and UNIT back on Earth. The Story and the Engine was a masterful exploration of culture and mythology, and The Interstellar Song Contest was a campy and fun think-piece on war and genocide.

Then came Wish World, which I actually really enjoyed. It was bizarre, had a mixture of WandaVision and Loki vibes, and built up so much hype for the next episode... which had me very, very worried. If you recall, the same thing happened with the last series, in which The Legend of Ruby Sunday built up a lot of hype with the return of Sutekh only to conclude with a subpar and poorly paced finale. However, I kept my optimism up and my mind open in preparation for the finale.

The Reality War is one of the worst episodes of modern Doctor Who. It takes all of the storylines from throughout the series- Mrs. Flood, Conrad Clark, the return of Poppy, Susan, and Rogue- and either completely butchers or completely ignores them. Despite remembering who they were, the romantic tension between the Doctor and Belinda felt so out of place and made me uncomfortable, especially after the return of Rogue. I did not understand the Poppy storyline at all, or the insistence to keep her alive. There was also no explanation with how Poppy existed and was also the same or not the same Poppy from Space Babies. So, the Doctor decides to use regeneration energy to make Poppy real, change Belinda's entire life, and fix all of the inconsistencies left behind by the Wish World, essentially committing suicide? I'm sorry, but no thanks.

On the other hand, there were some things I liked but not much. I was happy about the return of Anita from Joy To The World. I thought Millie Gibson really stood out in this episode; her performance was great and probably my favorite side character of the series. My favorite part of the episode though was the return of Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor. I've always wondered how Thirteen would've done had she been written by another showrunner, and this gave me a great insight. This was probably one of my favorite performances of her tenure and seeing her again after three years made me tear up. I do think that Ncuti's regeneration, had it been under different circumstances, was gorgeously done. Choosing to regenerate by Joy's star was a beautiful homage to his time on the show, and the special effects looked amazing.

And then, in one of the best examples of absolute bullshit stunt casting ever, Russell T Davies makes the insane decision to bring back Billie Piper (who previously played Ninth and Tenth Doctor companion Rose Tyler) as the Sixteenth Doctor. Or maybe not, as she was not credited as the Doctor in the credits unlike Ncuti Gatwa and Jodie Whittaker. Don't get me wrong, I love Billie Piper and believe she's a phenomenal actress, but I will always remember her as the quirky and loveable Y2K chavvy girl Rose was. It was one thing to bring back Piper as the Bad Wolf in the fiftieth anniversary, as it made sense, but this seems like a desperate attempt to get fans who had jumped ship years ago to flock back and keep the show alive.

So in the end, what is the payoff? Belinda is changed to being just a mother instead of a nurse with a planet named after her, Poppy is changed to being just a daughter (and a human) instead of the leader of the Space Babies. Omega was killed off as quickly as he arrived and was thus wasted, The Rani was killed off in the most unsatisfying way and was thus wasted, and Mrs. Flood was reduced to a subservient minion who cowardly escaped in the end. The Doctor regenerates, just after I felt like Ncuti was finally starting to feel like the Doctor, and it felt completely unnecessary and forced- which, in my opinion, confirms the rumors that he was fired from the show. I think this confirms that the return of Russell T Davies, while brilliant in some respects, has caused the show to fall back on too much of his nostalgia for his first tenure. This show needs fresh minds and fresh material.

The Fifteenth Doctor era, while I loved some aspects of it- particularly the acting and improved special effects- will be remembered the same as the controversial Sixth Doctor era of modern Doctor Who (at least by me). And God, I hope that's not a harbinger of the future.