The Power of the Doctor

WARNING: This is nearly constant "fan service", full of old characters, throwbacks, references, etc, from "classic Who" from decades ago. As a classic Who fan, this is so, so enjoyable, a 8-9/10! *However*, if you have only seen "new Who" (since the 2000s), most of this will be lost on you and although I think you'll like it, it sits at more of a 6-7/10.

This episode was definitely Chibnell and Whittaker's best, and that makes me annoyed! Suddenly I'm thinking "okay, where was this quality for the last three seasons?!" and I'm actually sad to see them go!

It's action-packed, lots of fun, very emotional in places, and fills-in some of Chibnell's previous plot, which is good. There's a good twist at the end that will lead us until the 60th, with Russel T Davies return. There are still far, far too many questions Left unanswered from this tenure though, *especially* "The Timeless Child". This episode itself has a few unanswered questions, too, but *hopefully* you are having so much fun (like me) that you were able to ignore them.

I can definitely see myself rewatching this, which is the first time I've said that about any Chibnell-Whittaker episode!

You'll enjoy it more if you're a classic Who fan, and if you are able to ignore plot holes and unanswered questions, but I'm not sure I can recommend it outhetwise, sadly.

I really enjoyed this end to Jodie's tenure, and was surprised by the speed with which the story started to wrap up, with a departure only a few minutes in.

The remainder featured a cast which was by no other name, Exceptional, and a perfectly twisted trio of Classic Baddies at their very best/worst. All the characters fulfilled their expectations and More, and seeing old with new was as always a real thrill for fans of both OG and Reboot.

The last third was a tad slow, and I didn't think the final conversation of the Dr with the person it was with, did any sort of Justice nor gave any sort of closure, which was annoying at best, lazy writing at worst.

But then the end scene... oh f me Wke, this was Brilliant! Can't wait for Season 14.

It's apparent that Chibnall took some inspiration from, not only past Doctor Who finales, but also the MCU. It's all nostalgia-bait and cameos, that sacrifices any competent or worthy story telling. The inclusion of past characters, whether they're part of the main group or a simple point-at-the-screen feature, doesn't enhance what's going on; in fact, they serve no purpose. Take them out, and you would have basically the same episode, with a few very minor tweaks. I would consider my self an avid fan of the classic run of the show. I haven't seen it all, but enough to comment about this. The emotions this episodes tries to tug by bringing these characters back don't register at all. In the hands of a competent writer, then perhaps I would take it away differently; however, knowing the losses of the past few years has taught me to not expect anything from this era's finale, and yet I still sigh and eye-roll. It was certainly risky trying to cram all these together, but doing so left many holes, specifically with the absence of certain people.

Even when you ignore the crowd-pleasing attributes, the central story is still stuffed and bloated. The Master! The Cybermen! The Daleks! Wow, the Doctor's big 3 antagonists all to do....nothing, essentially. The Daleks take an off-screen approach to provide no threat in the slightest. Chibnall has blatantly overused the Daleks - and to an extent, all 3 of these vital villains - in his tenure as showrunner. Constantly regurgitating them out for some of the poorest written episodes in TV history, just to make them look like fools and weak. I'm sorry, but wasn't it established countless of times in the revival that the Daleks are the universe's ultimate threat? The most powerful race? Of course, we see plentiful of failures, yet we still witness their pure evil. Guess Chibnall forgot to include that very core characteristic when throwing them in here. This can be said again for both the Master and the newish Cybermen. Trying to amalgamate beloved appearances from both sides into one highlights the consistent flaws that persist in Chibnall's run. His whole shtick with his finales are nothing more than contrived fanservices that build up to nothing.

As for the central plot, it's still pathetic. So the man did it, he actually made 0 decent episodes for his singular-doctor era. What an idiot. What a fool. Let's pray he is blacklisted from working on Doctor Who. It's actually quite irritating attempting to articulate exactly why the plot was bad, because the plot doesn't exist. The characters, which I've already elaborated on, force the plot to happen. That's not good writing. Good writing allows the characters to make decisions and then follow the story from there. What's happening here is the characters do certain actions because why not. There's no history, just recycled motives. They just exist because the episode wanted them to. What do they do? What do they want? Oh they just want to kill humans/destroy the Earth, again, using some uber-complex plan that involves out-of-nowhere devices that contradict written lore, again, and hoping the Doctor doesn't stop them even though they do, again. No nuance, no spices or flavour to appear different. I wouldn't even dare call it a reskin, it's just repeats after repeats.

Visually, it's still horrendous as well. Doctor Who trying too hard on effects is pointless, because evidently, the show has never been about how pretty or realistic it looks. Yet with the desperation to make all the crap on screen look somewhat tolerable, it achieves the polar opposite.

I'm obliged to note on the final minutes. To no one's surprise that this certain event was going to make it in. Again, it's just another attempt to make the viewers smile and eager to continue watching after the appalling 3 seasons we've had. Clever, admittedly. It's obviously the only way they could make us care to tune in next time, which I'm sure we will, excited for a promising, well-deserved good episode with a new writer.

I think Whittaker could have been a great Doctor. I don't blame her for the lackluster show she was involved with, I blame Chibnal. I know he is a talented individual, but I do not think that he and his team of writers were up for the task of working on such a beloved and iconic series. What 13's entire run lacked was the joy that Doctors 9-12 had. When I say joy, I do not mean in her performance, which I liked, I mean in the stories themselves. Her finale had that and I would have really liked the rest of her tenure to have reflected that fun. If it had, I do not believe she would have been unfairly disliked by the fan community. Because, let's be honest, fans are jerks.

It might just be my expectations at this point were extremely low, but that was the best of Chibnall's run.

Yes - the plot doesn't make any sense, there are plot holes you could drive a train through, and some of the lines sound as if they were read off a cue card.

But the spectacle of the thing more than makes up for it - throwing just about everything at the screen in the hope something sticks. - just don't spend any time trying to work out what's happening.

Massive fan service - if you aren't familiar with Classic Who, there will be moments of pure bafflement as old characters pop up with no explanation.

And finally, the best regeneration of NuWho.