Whatever happens, we know Doctor Who is due for a shake up in the status quo. Bradley Walsh (Graham) and Tosin Cole (Ryan) will be out the TARDIS door going into Series 13.
Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan) will be sticking around for the next season which may finally get us some character development that has been tentatively hinted at in previous seasons but frustratingly left unexplored.
In an interview with the Radio Times, Mandip said she was "not ready for the journey to end", adding, "We started to see Yaz with her mental health storyline last series, and started to see Yaz a little bit more. So that can sort of be explored a little bit further – there's room now to explore that. It never probably felt like the right time to do it before. So I'm looking forward to it."
I presume the TARDIS will be a bit less crowded in the coming season assuming Chris Chibnall is not thinking about how to replace Graham and Ryan. Look, if he wants to bring in Jack Harkness for an occasional spot, that's fine by me but I think the Doctor/companion dynamic is better served with a one on one relationship.
As an old school fan, did Chris Chibnall learn nothing from the lessons of the 5th Doctor era?
Meanwhile, there is scuttlebutt around Jodie Whittaker’s continued involvement with Doctor Who. Recently, Jodie said in an interview that she is still committed to the role of the Doctor. Heading into her 3rd season as the Doctor, Jodie isn't expressing a desire to leave.
Her agents allegedly have other ideas.
Doctor Who's ratings have been a challenge to put it politely. The numbers are not getting better.
According to a rumor from YouTuber Tzvi Lebetkin, Jodie Whittaker’s agent is telling her to exit the show before it gets worse.
Here is the narrative per Lebetkin: "Jodie Whittaker’s agent has been screaming at Jodie Whittaker. She’s got to get off the show. She’s got to get off the show because [her] agent business is looking at the reality, not the fantasy. And the reality is the ratings have been on a nose dive. It’s been an incredibly successful show, an incredibly successful international juggernaut, which is coming off one of the most successful periods ever. And now it’s now gone to one of its least successful periods ever and she is the public face of that.”
I have to admit to my own diminished enthusiasm for Doctor Who in recent years. I am not inclined to blame this on Jodie Whittaker but more on the creative direction of the show under Chris Chibnall.
Let me repeat something I said earlier in this post: As an old school fan, did Chris Chibnall learn nothing from the lessons of the 5th Doctor era?
The focus of Doctor Who must be first and foremost the Doctor. In a crowded TARDIS with 3 companions back in the early 1980s, Peter Davison's Doctor had to compete for attention in what was ostensibly his own show and the same thing has been happening to Jodie Whittaker.
And there has been a recurring problem with the writing on Doctor Who. As I noted in my blog post on Monday, March 16, 2020, Series 12 gave us a level of energy and excitement that Series 11 did not provide. But the big moments that came from that energy and excitement were not earned.
The recent revelation that that Jo Martin's mystery Doctor was a last minute addition to the show's mythos underscores the scattershot approach of Doctor Who under Chris Chibnall.
I like Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor. But she deserves better than what she's been given in terms of really strong stories that serve a well thought out strategy.
It appears that both Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall are going to still be with us for the foreseeable future. But if someone has to go, I hope Jodie gets a shot at the Doctor with a different writer.
I hope "Revolution of the Daleks" is a serious and significant redemption of Doctor Who under Chris Chibnall.
And that Doctor Who finally becomes fully worthy of the talents of the extraordinary woman at the TARDIS console.
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