Doctor Who: Capaldi Says Tennant Who?

Peter Capaldi (The Thick Of It) comes back as the Doctor alongside Jenna Coleman (Waterloo Road) and guest stars Maisie Williams (Game Of Thrones).The Doctor and Clara now have established an equal partnership and are taking full advantage of the fun, thrills and joy rides that having unlimited scope of time and space. Battling wispy ghosts, battle born Vikings and the blood thirsty, Sons Of Skaro, the Daleks. An alien race designed to kill without mercy. Did I forget to mention the return of Missy? She is back to irritate the Doctor once more and the Zygons instill fear as they shape shift into human clones.

The new series of BBC’s Doctor Who is a much-needed improvement on the abomination that was season eight. It consists of better storylines, most of which were linked up with appearances from Missy (Michelle Gomez) and Ashildr/Me. Doctor Who is all about choices. The choices we make can have drastic consequences in the present can have foreboding consequences in the future or the past depending on how you look at things. The Doctor saving Ashildr thus making her immortal was good in the present but in the future she began to do some damage across time and space. Or was it the past? She grew bored and it’s not as if she was short on time. is it? Which then leads into spoiler territory. Spoilers…spoilers…still reading…which leads into Clara’s grave exit. If The Doctor left Ashildr to die, then she wouldn’t have been able to do her unsavoury activities on “the street” thus Clara would still be alive. Clara’s gone and the fandom is better off for it. She’s the Felicity Smoak (Arrow) of Doctor Who. She’s just awkward to be around and highly irritating.

The Doctor having a little both with local Odin impersonator

By Odin’s Beard! The Doctor is having a little bother with the local Norse God impersonator

Last season, I was convinced Moffat had butchered Doctor Who to the point of no return. He had butchered it good and proper with a meat cleaver but he’s rectified his mistake this season. I think he gave up last season and decided to walk over a keyboard and call it a script but this season he has improved somewhat. The stories are witty, intelligent and thought-provoking backed with great performances from Peter Capaldi, Maisie Williams and Jenna Coleman. Yes, I like Coleman as an actor, just not her character very much. The Doctor is an old man yet he’s reliving his youth. In season eight, he was like the grumpy cat meme. This season had the essence of some of the Tennant stories yet it wasn’t so kiddy and amusing.

The stories weren’t so amusing like in Ten’s day. David Tennant (Jessica Jones) as The Doctor was a kid at heart and only pretended to be an adult when he needed to be. He was passionate, intelligent and so full of fire. Capaldi has grown up a lot more. He’s experienced life and has become more grumpy because of what he was seen but at the same time, he misses his younger days of Matt Smith (Eleven) and David Tennant (Ten). What makes it funny is that Ten hates cats as we find out in the episode, Fear Her.

Grumpy Who?

Grumpy Who?

I really like Capaldi as The Doctor. He’s become more comfortable in his role since last season. His performance last season was awesome but was overshadowed by the train wreck writing, but this season his performance was even better and backed up with great plot but also the onscreen rapport with his fellow characters including Missy (Gomez), Clara (Coleman) and Me (Williams). I also really like that they’re reinventing Who with new characters because with Ten and Eleven, they kept bringing back old characters. Allow this great show to introduce new character who will then become nostalgic faces for a new generation of fans. To keep bringing back Micky, Rose, Martha and their ilk was beginning to get boring. The introduction of Capaldi has made me say “Tennant Who?”. He’s probably the most talked about Doctor but Capaldi is on par with Tennant and at times, I think he’s even better but this maybe due to the hints of Malcolm Tucker in the twelfth Doctor.

Season 9 was great for 99.99% of the time but  episode eleven (Heaven Sent) was a letdown in my opinion. It seemed to drag on forever. It didn’t really feel like it went anywhere. It led into the next episode but I grew bored and that hour felt like three hours. Spoilers coming now…3….2…1…The return of the thought extinct race was strange. The Timelords were supposed to have been destroyed in The Time War, a war that was time locked. It’s a welcome sight to see more of these immortal beings other than grumpy cat-faced Capaldi. Death to a Timelord is like a mortal man getting a paper cut, as was evident in the finale. The Timelords seemed to be his foes more than his allies when they previously cropped up in other episodes. I’d like to see The Doctor work with his race instead of against them in the future.

Gallifrey: The Timelord Homeworld

Gallifrey: The Timelord Homeworld

I didn’t think I was a fan of Maisie Williams since seeing her as the she-wolf Arya Stark in HBO’s Game Of Thrones. It turns out that I liked her a lot in Doctor Who so it seems I’m not a huge advocate of Arya Stark. It must be how hyped up she is in the fanbase. Williams is a great actor as proven in this. She’s an anti-hero that you sort of love to hate. Michelle Gomez (Gotham) as Missy (The Master) is another great talent. She’s an anti-hero/villain that you love to hate and her acting prowess just gives her intense aura. She draws you in and is very commanding. She dominates every scene she’s in, much alike James Spader’s Raymond Reddington in NBC’s The Blacklist.

In conclusion, Season 9 was a grand improvement on its predecessor. But it is Doctor Who after all. You can’t judge too harshly as the show is good because it’s shit. It’s cringeworthy but not to the point that you want to turn off your television and ponder this show’s existence. Doctor Who, much alike James Bond is a major British icon in British popular culture that has been around since the mid 20th century. Capaldi is a grand addition to the list of British alumni who depicted this character. This season has been on form. The exit of Clara means that a new assistant is needed. I would not be surprised if Maisie Williams takes up the mantle returning to her original clan name of Ashildr.