Doctor Who Series Ten Review
Hello Everyone,
Doctor Who series ten has closed the TARDIS doors on the Moffat era. This news might delight or devastate you but this post is here to review series ten as a whole. If you want to read my thoughts on Steven Moffat and his writing please read my open letter found here. (This review will obviously not take into account the 2017 Christmas episode which will be the last Doctor Who Episode written by Steven Moffat)
Warning: Review contains major spoilers for Doctor Who series 10!
Good
Series ten of Doctor Who had a lot of goals. It had to apologise for the fans for the ending of series nine and restore faith in the show, it had to introduce Bill Potts to the viewers, start the Twelfth Doctor’s swan song for his regeneration and series ten had to bring to a close all the unresolved subplots Moffat had created. Did the series achieve these goals? Generally speaking, yes. I really liked this series. The first episode, The Pilot, felt like an adventure which I think is exactly what Doctor Who should feel like. Bill Potts was instantly relatable and Pearl Mackie’s acting skills were terrific as were the rest of the cast. I’m glad Bill’s sexuality wasn’t thrown in our faces (one of my few criticisms of the previous writer Russell T Davis). The other companion, Narnol wasn’t as annoying as I feared he would be. The mystery of the vault was intriguing but when you’ve seen the trailer which includes Missy, it doesn’t take long to put two and two together. Of course, we can’t talk about series ten without talking about the return of John Simm as The Master. It would have been more of a surprise if he hadn’t appeared in the trailer beforehand but what a fantastic story for the series finale.
Bad
Although World Enough and Time and The Doctor Falls were great episodes I felt that other stories didn’t live up to their potential. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy them but I thought there was more that could have been done. I was very disappointed in Extremis, it was basically the Matrix minus the kung fu and was a complete fob out. I wasn’t a fan of the monk trilogy at all, they were too similar to the previous Doctor Who villains, The Silence. Aside from the Monk statues being erected and then torn down there wasn’t much impact on the earth as a whole. I also felt we were missing a Dalek story. The Daleks appeared in The Pilot for a few moments and again in The Lie of the Land but aside from Into the Dalek (series eight, episode two) the Twelfth Doctor hasn’t had many Dalek interactions. The only criticisms I can give to Bill are that sometimes, particularly in the early episodes she falls into the damsel in distress role. In Oxygen for example Bill doesn’t contribute much to the story other than being there for the Doctor to save. These moments are rare and later in the series, in The Lie of the Land, for example or even as early as Thin Ice, Bill really comes into her own. My other criticism is the marketing of Bill. She was advertised as the first openly homosexual character in Doctor Who history. What about Captain Jack? He flirted with women, men, aliens practically anything that moved. That isn’t taking into account his activities in the Torchwood series. What about River Song or Madame Vastra the Silurian? Even Amy Williams to some extent. There some some subplots and potholes left unanswered and I feel these have been swept under the rug. Admittedly I have to think hard to name some of them so this problem will only effect hard core Doctor Who fans.
General thoughts
The good points of this series far outweigh the bad. It wasn’t the best series in Doctor Who history but it was a brilliant way to end the story of the Twelfth Doctor and Bill.
…and finally, because everyone else seems to have done them, I’ve made an official list of my personal favourite Doctors and Companions ranked in order of highest to lowest.
Doctors:
Eleventh – Matt Smith
Tenth – David Tennant
Ninth – Christopher Eccleston
Twelfth – Peter Capaldi
War Doctor – John Hurt
Companions:
Amy – Karen Gillan
Rory – Arthur Darvill
Rose – Billie Piper
Bill – Pearl Mackie
Donna – Catherine Tate
Martha – Freema Agyeman
Clara – Jenna Coleman
Thank you for reading my review. What did you think of series ten? How does your favourite Doctor/Companion compare to mine? Let me know in the comments below or on social media and I’ll see you next time.
My previous Doctor Who reviews can be found linked below:
Review: Doctor Who Series Nine Episode Two: The Witch’s Familiar
Review: Doctor Who Series Nine Episode One: The Magician’s Apprentice