LogFAQs > #964963167

11. Series 12 (The Doctor: Jodie Whittaker, Companion/s: Ryan Sinclair, Graham O'Brien & Yasmin Khan)

*SPOILERS BELOW FOR SERIES TWELVE OF DOCTOR WHO*

Best Episode: Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror
Worst Episode: The Timeless Children

Everything I just said about series six basically applies to series twelve. The season feels like it forgoes a lot of what makes Doctor Who good in favor of trying to tell some grand, overarching storyline that places the Doctor at the center of the universe. It's actually worse than season six in a very distinct way, because Chris Chibnall decided to overturn fifty plus years of continuity in order to throw in a big twist about how the Doctor doesn't know everything about her past, and in fact she's the child from whom all of Time Lord power spawned. It's extremely dumb and honestly upsetting, because it's a pointless plot twist that ONLY serves at the kind of cheap, mystery box twist you would use to get people watching a season finale/season premiere, before ultimately everything is reset at the end of the episode.

Despite being actively worse than series six in that regard, I still rank it higher for a couple reasons. First off, if you've got two seasons that are similar in theming, I'm gonna give the edge to the season with better acting. Sorry to the Matt Smith fans out there, but I dislike him as the Doctor a lot of the time. I don't think he fits the role well. Jodie may have a shit script to work from, but she manages to toe that line between upbeat and quirky, and serious and forlorn in a way not unlike Eccleston, Tennant and Capaldi. She's able to elevate bad writing to be passable in a way that Matt Smith could not. Hence, a lot of the episodes in series six suck outright, whereas the episodes in series twelve are just okay. There's not a lot of GREAT episodes, and even the best (Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror) doesn't come close to Girl Who Waited, but at the very least, I got out of the season with minor dislike for the individual stories.

I think series twelve is also helped a lot by the fact that it's only really bad in retrospect. Timeless Children is an awful episode that ruins the season, but up until that finale, I admit to being intrigued. The introduction of the Alpha Doctor (or whatever you want to call her) in Fugitive of the Judoon was interesting and if they'd managed to stick the landing, I think it could have been solid. They just completely botched the ending by trying to go too big and trying to make the Doctor the focal point of her entire race. The reintroduction of the Master, while not as good as John Simm and DEFINITELY not as good as Michelle Gomes, was still a fun return after series 11 took pains to keep all stories completely original. And I think the return of the Cybermen, as much I don't care for them, was needed to combat Chibnall's lacking writing style.

Really, that's what it comes down to: series twelve sets up a lot over the course of its run, and it stumbles flat on its face in the finale. Between building the Doctor up far too big (and effectively setting into motion series 13), wiping out all of Gallifrey, and just generally biting off more than they could chew...it hurts the previous storyline episodes leading up to it in retrospect. And given that Chibnall's tenure as showrunner was already weak, this did not help matters. I still think it's better than series six, but it's admittedly a close call.