Doctor Who Is NEW! (Sort Of) The Season Gone By

 It's been a minutes since the episode "Empire of Death" and I'm writing this bonus edition of Doctor Who Is NEW to look at the season gone by.   

What exactly was the season gone by?

If you're old school Doctor Who counting back to 1963, it was season 40.

If you're counting the modern era from the show's revival in 2005, it's season 14.  

And if you're following the menu on Disney+ (I for one welcome our new rodent overlords!), it's season 1. 

And just how many episodes were in season 40/14/1? Well, the Disney+ menu counts the Christmas special as part of the season so that brings the count to 9. 

So how did Doctor Who fare for this season 40/14/1 gone by on it's new streaming platform?  

Well, for a season 40, I would say kudos to a new season that challenged our expectations and found new exciting ways to tell stories of the Doctor and his friends after all this time. 

As a season 1, well, maybe no so much. 

For a season that was designed to launch Doctor Who on a new platform in front of a new audience with a new Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), I'm not sure this season gone by was necessarily the best face forward to present.  Two whole episodes that were Doctor lite and other stories where the Doctor was a virtual bystander.  

People stepping up inspired by the Doctor to help save the day is a common Doctor Who trope but in a season that is ostensibly a first season with a new person as the Doctor and only 9 episodes, the cumulative effect of this season gone by is not the best look.   

Let's be clear that when he is own screen, Ncuti Gatwa is magnetic as the Doctor with his broad smile, his expressive eyes, his boundless energy.  I just think that he would've been better served by stories that put him more front and center of story resolutions.   

"The Church on Ruby Road" and "Empire of Death" are excellent examples of the Doctor being decisively instrumental as the hero of the story.   

Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday impressed me early on in "The Church on Ruby Road" and props to her strong performance in the Doctor lite episode "73 Yards".  But despite the big mystery surrounding the circumstances of her birth, I feel like Ruby got shorted a bit by the time the season came to an end and I didn't feel the spark of chemistry between Ruby and the Doctor as I expected after their introduction in the Christmas special.   

When Ruby leaves the Doctor at the end of the season and tells him "I love you", it's an expression that felt lacking in emotional weight. It was sure as hell not as powerful as Rose Tyler's plaintive "I love you" to the 10th Doctor back in 2006.  But that felt earned as she just spent 27 episodes over 2 seasons in the company of the Doctor.

I think what really hurts the season gone by is it's brevity.  There's so little time to explore the Doctor and Ruby's relationship, fewer opportunities to explore  different worlds and times.   

Now all this is sounding a bit negative and let me say, that for any flaws that existed with the season gone by, I was genuinely excited and engaged with Doctor Who in a way I haven't been for several years.  

While some fans complained about certain weird and goofy elements of the season, I for one was all for bringing it on.

• Time travelling goblins? Why not?
• Space babies? Bring it! 
• A god like entity to steals music? Sure!  
• Ending an episode with a musical dance number? Have we gone too far? Or not far enough? 

Why not move Doctor Who beyond the strict confines of science fiction and explore the limitless options for fantasy?

A shout out to Jinkx Monsoon for her role as Maestro in "The Devi's Chord" who brought to life the most memorable character ever in Doctor Who.

Then Jonathan Groff shows up as Rogue and seduces the Doctor and damn!

Tip of the hat to Russell T Davies for his deep dive into Doctor Who mythology for the season's big bad, Sutekh, going all the way back to the 1970's from "Pyramids of Mars" instead of giving us the Daleks (again) or the Master (again) or the Cybermen (again).  I do hope we get to revisit those iconic foes in the future but  RTD shows there's so much buried in the deep rich tapestry of Doctor Who lore.  

All in all, the season 40/14/1/gone by did what it needed to do and make Doctor Who fun again. Yes, there were flaws but nothing so bad to overwhelm my enjoyment of the season.  

And that is that for Doctor Who Is NEW at least until the 2024 Christmas special.

In the coming weeks, I will be posting Doctor Who Is CLASSIC with posts about...

• The Pyramids of Mars  (of course)
• The Time Warrior 
• Paradise Towers 

And more! 

Until next time, as the Doctor would want us to, remember to be good to one another.