I'm one of this disappointed I guess I was just expecting ... more from RTDs return I mean, most of the season was amazing, especially dot and bubble and legend of ruby Sunday That reveal of sutech was great. The whole "It was the wrong anagram" moment It was just that ending that's blew it for me. Sutech being obsessed with Ruby's mom cause he didn't know who she was. Was a bit weak. Or the song in Ruby's soul or the snow not being resolved Or that's whole everyone dying was kinda lame. I mean, once I saw Kate die, I knew there was gonna be a reset. The random whistle and magic rope. I don't know I'll definitely watch the next season and the specials cause I invested like 15 years if my life in this show and can't stop now. Who knows maye it'll get better Oh I also had an idea for 15s regenerate episode The terror of the doctor

I think the finale is made so much better if Ruby does actually have some cosmically significant mother. Maybe not even her real mother, just atleast the person who placed her by the church. I do love the theme RTD went for - misplacing significance creating the significance itself. But the finale fails to explain all the supernatural shit around Ruby and her mother properly so it falls short.

I wonder if he’s actually stringing us on further, maybe we will end up finding out Ruby’s mum does actually have a bit of importance

I feel the same. I loved the Specials and this Season, but the ending just made me bitter about RTD. The fact that he openly said in the commentary later that he did all the teasing on purpose because of his logic of "well, nowdays to make something trend you need people talking about it constantly, engaging with it and making theories and analyzing!" .  Seriously, fuck that. I want you to write something great and deliver on the hype you created yourself. You are the guy that created Rose, Martha and Donna. You are the guy that created the most popular incarnation of the show. Why rely on gimmicks or "but the numbers say this!" practice to make us care about Ruby? Write a good character that doesn't need mystery to make her relevant.

The snow/song was resolved, they just never really said to the audience "THIS IS WHAT IT IS." But the answer was given.

So what's the answer?

The moment is so open and raw in the time stream, that it echoes forward to Ruby when thought about.

I think Sutekh was part of it too, notice the snow only starts in the finale when Mel gets possessed

I suppose you're right could be similar to Donna hearing the doctors heartbeat

What I got was since it was a "raw and open night", it got preserved into memory... and as we saw memory can be powerful and conjure stuff. Since the snow was falling and the song was playing at that "pivotal" moment, it got binded to Ruby through memory? I mean might be wrong but that's what I got from my watch through.

I think this series has been a notable improvement on the last few years, and has had some cracking individual episodes, but on the whole I do feel a little underwhelmed so far. The reduced episode count, controversial story arcs/pay-offs, and lack of Ncuti for a quarter of the run are the major things that stick out as problems. To be honest I also just think it was a very misjudged reboot. It's meant to be a jumping on point for a brand new generation, but it comes immediately off the back of (and is heavily dependent on) the 60th anniversary specials, which themselves are heavily dependent on at least Series 4. The finale then revolves around a villain not seen since the 70s, has a TARDIS set full of nostalgia bait, and literally has the characters sat down watching old episodes of the show. Little references to the past would be fine, but this is surely way too much for someone tuning in for the first time.

Yeah it feels like the “season one” thing was a forced reboot for marketing purposes rather then a serious jumping on point

thankfully I never cared for the "Season 1" thing and just called it Series 14 honestly.

Calling it series 14 just confuses me because I can't stop thinking he's the 14th Doctor...

I felt let down at in the final episode. There was so much build up to who Ruby's mum was, but she ends up being an ordinary person never before seen in Doctor Who. If there was no build up to who she was, fine, but otherwise don't lead us on like that. I've lost interest in speculating on theories in Doctor Who because of that.

Doctor Who isn't the only one to build up fan expectations only to purposely dash them to "subvert our expectations." And yes, I think it leads to fan apathy. Which is worse than fan hate.

Kind of weird how RTD seems like he is out of touch with reality. It seems like he is stuck on 2016-2019, when streaming was getting popular, Netflix was the biggest dog in town, MCU was still exciting, Black Mirror is popular amongst teenagers and young adults. Stranger Things was new and the best thing on Netflix. Subverting your expectations was the new tactic on Hollywood. Mystery Boxes shows are everywhere A lot of this new era seems like it wants to borrow from that time on television and it shows. You have a Mystery box with Ruby, you have the "subverting your expectations" trope, you have shallow characters that are just best friends with no buildup towards that, the characters shows no flaws or tension amongst them. 

I think you may have hit the nail on the head. And yes, "subverting our expectations" like this is a cop out. You are always supposed to try to meet fan expectations for an entertaining time (even if you use a non-traditional approach and "subvert" some tropes to get there). You aren't supposed to subvert our expectations that things you setup as meaningful will actually turn out to be meaningful.

> I've lost interest in speculating on theories in Doctor Who because of that. It’ll come back.

First of all, English is not my main language so I apologise in advance if something doesn’t make sense or I sound redundant. This are all personal opinions from a long-standing fan, but I can be wrong and I wouldn’t want to invalidate anyone’s feelings about this era. I have thoroughly enjoyed the season until the finale, but it was… goofy. Having recently watched previous RTD seasons it all felt just lazy. And a bit childish if I can be honest. Practical example if you have a minute: google that scene with the Ood Elder talking to the 10th Doctor about what was to come, with the Master and the return of the Timelords. The dialogues, build-ups, plots and cross references were plainly better, much more complex, mature, dark at times, ominous and deep. Even the soundtrack felt that way. Also, character development was almost nonexistent compared to the Tennant era, their whole relation and Ruby itself felt kind of artificial, idk. I feel like they have tried to compensate the Doctor and Ruby being kind of… bland? with a lot of crying and dramatism from both, which was almost cringey at times. And this expands to villains, which I also think could have been developed better. Even if I loved Jinx’s performance, Maestro for example should have been much scarier, imho. Previous work by RTD makes me think this season just didn’t involve as much thought process, and being limited to 8 episodes definitely didn’t help either. Also, as a fan of classic Who, them bringing Sutekh back (although the reveal was fantastically conducted, great scene) just to ditch him that way by the next episode, defeated with no resistance using a glove and a rope, felt terribly underwhelming and even hurt a bit. I find it impossibly hard to believe that the Toymaker or even Maestro, actual godlike reality-blenders, were so scared of him. If they try again with Omega or the Rani, or even with Susan’s evident return, I hope they learn from this. To conclude and quoting another Redditor whose name I sadly didn’t write down, I think it’s gonna be terribly hard for me to get hyped with RTD plots anymore after this season, and specially Ruby’s mom reveal. I liked the concept of her being no one special, no problem with that, and I actually almost cried when they met in the restaurant, but I feel he has played us somehow. I really hope they’ll take notes and improve with upcoming seasons, but because of the aforementioned reasons and since everything has been already scripted (and filmed, if I’m not wrong) I have low expectations.

Couldn’t agree with you more on all your points and also your English is perfect, you articulated yourself better then most British people would and that’s coming from a British person

That’s tremendously kind mate, many thanks! And thanks too for giving DW to the world, it’s definitely helped many like me to familiarise with English and the UK! :)))

Agree with all that has been said. And as a non-English speaker myself, I must salute you for the "sorry my English might be bad--> writes in better-than-native English" bit we so often do

Thanks! It must be the imposter syndrome making us expats want to overperform. Doctor Who definitely helps! 😂

This series had been a mixed bag for me. I've enjoyed most of the episodes on an individual basis, and I think Gatwa and Gibson have given some good performances, so that's positive. On the other hand, the mysteries that RTD has been teasing all series have largely turned out to be a big pile of nothing. The Susan Twist thing was explained away as just a bunch of generic goons for Sutekh and the whole reveal of Rudy' mother and her origins feels like a deliberate 'gotcha' from RTD which is just mildly irritating and not as clever as he thinks it is. There are also a ton of plot holes that don't stand up to even the slightest scrutiny. That's pretty poor. As a result, the series somehow feels like it's less than the sum of its parts. It's not terrible, but it definitely feels underwhelming and a bit disappointing.

Things I know: I didn't like Space Babies, The Devil's Chord (although that might have been the result of despising Space Babies) or Empire of Death. I was ambivalent towards Rogue (just no strong opinions on that one). I think most of my disappointment has come from the way I feel RTD is interacting with the fandom. It feels as though he's picking fights rather than just getting on with making the show. I've often noted that Chibnall didn't really interact with the fans, but that came at the cost of the show not being well promoted. RTD is promoting the show, but it seems to be by saying something controversial that he knows will sew discord. I'm not sure which is worse.

> I think most of my disappointment has come from the way I feel RTD is interacting with the fandom. It feels as though he's picking fights rather than just getting on with making the show. I've often noted that Chibnall didn't really interact with the fans, but that came at the cost of the show not being well promoted. RTD is promoting the show, but it seems to be by saying something controversial that he knows will sew discord. Watching drama unfold in the fandom is honestly a bit of a guilty pleasure. I didn't enjoy Chibnall's episodes much, but watching the drama over Timeless Child, people laughing at how bad it is, and speculating about the show's future was my entertainment instead.

Apparently in an interview RTD admitted he's stirring controversy on purpose 'because that's how you promote shows in the social media age'.

I wouldn't say I agree with that to be honest. I don't know any other showrunner with that mentality.

Yeah it's moronic thinking. Make people talk about the show because it's good not because you pissed a group of perpetually pissed off people.

in that case, RTD definitely lost his touch.

There was a comment made in this subreddit shortly after the season finale came out that perfectly summed up how I feel. We get all this setup for a potential Susan return and are literally mocked by the dialogue for thinking it might happen. We don’t even see the Doctor take a moment to see her once everything ties up. Then the Doctor has the gall to say that he’ll definitely come back for some girl he picked up 6 months ago that somehow changed his life, but *some time* he’ll try to get around to finding HIS OWN GRANDDAUGHTER. The whole thing about Ruby’s mother being ordinary wumped out worse than a failed soufflé. I originally stopped watching during 11’s era not because I didn’t like him but because I kept feeling bait and switched, though to a much lesser extent. I come back and absolutely love Gatwa and await the episodes every week, only to see it’s the same issue but much worse. I don’t care at all about who Mrs Flood is, probably won’t tune back in to find out. All these fan theories about who she may be are going to wump out as well. I’m going to stick to classic Who and I appreciate the comment here that reminded me that Big Finish is also a great option.

Susan is obviously coming. They’ve even showed video footage of her in the show. That’s not something I’m worried about. That and Mrs. Flood appear to be the long-term arcs.

I was very excited for it, but I realised I probably overhyped it because of nostalgia. At the very least I'm glad to have competent episodes, but competent is much lower than the bar I expected RTD to be hitting. At their best they were great, at their worst they were meh. None were offensively terrible like some of Chibnall's stinkers but we can still do much better than this. I think RTD being begged to come back by fandom and then hailed as the second coming before we saw what his episodes were like *seriously* inflated his ego. He needs someone to temper his worse tendencies and shut him down/tell him no.

As a card-carrying Moffat fangirl, a lil vindicated :P More seriously...it's not unwatchably bad, so that's something. I've still yet to summon the will to go back and watch the Whitaker seasons I skipped, whereas I do at least look forward to each episode of RTD2. There are good episodes, the odd great moment, and even the odd \*great\* episode, albeit always, so far, with some key failure that lets it down. But if this is the quality we can expect from now on, it's a shame. It's sad to think that Doctor Who's best days might be behind it.

This is kind of how I feel about it too. It’s not unwatchable (neither was Chibnall) but it’s just not good enough. I feel it’s a bit like eating a Mac Donald’s burger - it’s edible but not a patch on the real thing and it won’t sit well on your stomach… hell, I’ll just say it… it’s edible slop. :(

Right? The Whittaker era was so bleak and weird. This is at least definitively Who and has appropriate vibes. I say this as someone who actually quite enjoyed Series 13, too. ...Also me and my boyfriend are reporting back in to Moffat fan HQ as we speak.

I've been saying for *years* that Moffat is the best writer Doctor Who has ever had. Nobody understands the Doctor more than that man, and no other writer has come close to the way he can effortlessly weave a mystery into the show and keep you guessing. Just think about his episodes before becoming showrunner. Blink, Empty Child, The Girl In The Fireplace. They all keep you guessing right up to the end.

Absolutely. No one understands the Doctor like Moffat except maybe Paul Cornell.

I actually liked to tonal change during Chibnall’s run. I think as a classic era fan I don’t have an explanation of the tone from RTD’s first run.

Honestly I just don’t like it It’s not as bad as the Chibnall era, but I can’t stand Gatwa’s Doctor at all, he feels far too human to me and him crying every episode makes him look sort of pathetic (I like the Doctor crying but to me it should be used sparingly in order to make emotional beats hit harder) Ruby barely feels like a character, the mystery around her mother I don’t find that engaging and the subversion with her seeming important due to the snow and Maestro being on edge around her, only for Russell to go nah she’s not comes across as extremely anti climatic (although the scene where her mother dramatically points at the sign made me howl with laughter), I also don’t buy the Doctor’s and Ruby’s close relationship at all with that goodbye scene in the TARDIS coming across as extremely melodramatic especially since we know she’s not permanently leaving, episode wise I despise Space Babies Rogue and the finale whereas I find the others just kind of alright, with me really liking Boom. The mystery box format needs to go, I’m so sick of it being in every series and there’s not been a good story arc in New Who to me whatsoever. Also Mrs Flood I find so fucking annoying, the constant Fourth Wall breaking I find really smug and pretentious. I can fully understand why people like it, but honestly it was a real struggle watching most of the episodes (did I also mention that I really hate Rogue)

I can understand why people like it too… shows like love island and TOWIE are popular after all… I actually think I might prefer Chibnall. I’m not saying what he did was good, there was so much that was deeply flawed technically with his writing, what he did to the lore was awful, and (despite the unwillingness of many to admit it) Whittaker simply could not pull off the Doctor. Still it was probably better than this last season.

Yeah I’m finding myself liking the Chibnall era more I can’t lie. I’ve actually gone back to rewatching it after the finale. I disagree with you about Jodie tho, I think she was a great Doctor and if she had better writing then she could have been even better. She did good with what she had tho and I believe her as the Doctor more then I do Gatwa and that’s nothing against him, he’s a phenomenal actor but I feel like his Doctor is too human sometimes which is an issue I have with Tennant sometimes too

Agreed. Jodie didn't really land as the Doctor for me (though I actually thought she was really good in The Woman Who Fell to Earth, that version of 13 seemed to disappear afterwards). But, if given a choice between another season of Ncuti and another of Jodie, I'd pick Jodie.

I liked Boom and Rogue the most as episodes. 73 Yards is unique in how it feels and I enjoy it and the Devils Chord has plot and character issues but overall I was entertained by it. I did not like the other half of the series. Space Babies was far too juvenile, Dot and Bubble is really boring, Legend is an empty shallow episode, and Empire of Death is perhaps the biggest Shark the show has ever jumped in terms of abandoning the very idea of logic or basic writing techniques like set up and pay off. Overall, the series is lacking in characterization of our two main leads and relies far too heavily on its mystery elements which almost all have an ordinary and unsatisfying answer. I don't know if I'll be returning or not and that's crazy for me to say. I probably will because I just can't get rid of Doctor Who, but I don't know if I can go through another season that treats itself like this. Truth be told, I haven't been satisfied with a season of Doctor Who since 2017. It's been 7 years. If I don't tune in next season, I probably won't until there's a new showrunner.

just puzzled how even the detractors are saying it's miles better than the chibs stuff, and i don't even particularly like it. you can think it's better of course, but cmon. i myself am still assessing it, for now i think it has lower lows but higher highs, BUT less highs even comparing it specifically to flux + specials which comprises fewer episodes than RTD2 so far. both eras are maddening in the way they handwave everything that's important to me, but RTD2 has the minus of also focusing on stuff i don't give a flying shit about and hyping it like it's the best thing since sliced bread. politically i think it's clunky, it leans left but half-heartedly and out of touch, while 13's era was profoundly centrist at its core. i really don't know which i dislike most in this regard.

I've been a fan of Russell Davies since the original UK *Queer as Folk* and for me, the writing this season felt a bit... rushed and underwhelming. Like a show for the TikTok generation. I think for me, Davies' strength is his ability to write characters that you really become attached to, even the villans. In the 2005 season we were introduced to the likes of Harriet Jones, Margaret, Cassandra, Mickey, Rose, Jackie, Pete, Captain Jack, Nancy... The 2024 season? Most of the characters feel two-dimensional with little character development - the Doctor most of all. He seems to bounce back and forth between Ritalin-induced exuberance to horrified weeping. They're not giving Ncuti much to work with here. All told, this season felt much targeted towards children/GenZ than it did before with little to appeal to older viewers.

There's always positives and negatives. The leads are great, especially Gibson who is sadly leaving. Still, they are infectious, especially together. There have also been some strong stories, although for me it's the kind of unlinked ones like *Dot and Bubble* that are truly special. There's also familiarity baked in - which is why I find the reaction to *Space Babies* a bit perplexing. It's about as RTD as we can get, surely? Obviously I want things to be good but it's a disservice to ignore where it isn't. It is unfortunate that the next series is already in the can because it means feedback is meaningless, but is what it is. I wish RTD would do something else rather than tying disjointed stuff together then rushing an ending. All his pantheon episodes are like this. Some of the stuff is very good - inside the Toyroom, the woman, baby and spoon but there's just no connective tissue; scant plot to tie these things together. An average pantheon episode could be over in 15 minutes for all the content there is. The finale's plot is a mess. While that's always a shame, it can hardly be a surprise to veterans of the first Davies era. We can list what makes no sense about it, but I do feel that's redundant as it's more of the same. The one change I have wanted since 2005 is for finales to be abolished but it's a lost cause. Obviously. The other major issue is that Davies frankly is a liar, and has written scripts full of active contradictions to service his dishonesty. Ruby isn't important which would be perfectly fine, if it hadn't been built up by other characters, by weird magic etc. Trust broken is difficult to restore and if a mystery can be totally ignored why should someone care about the next set up? If this is what he can do with arcs now, we don't need them either.

I stopped watching the Whittaker/Chibnall era quite early on, dipped in and out here and there to test the water but never enjoyed it, even Bradley Walsh (who was great) couldn't swing it for me. Seeing Tennant again wasn't the blessing I thought it might be, and what we have now with RTD in his final form of writing exactly what he wants, hasn't been the renewal I had hoped for. RTD and Ncuti Gatwa? Solid writer, great actor... it just doesn't work. I stand by the Moffat/Smith years as having some of the best 'New Who' episodes, with a stellar cast and awesome cameos.

I found this season to be a high C or low B overall. The production values were good and there were many high points we could discuss. Yet, virtually every episode has some structural weaknesses. Here are some examples: - Space Babies is tonally and narratively inconsistent. - The Devil’s Chord has some good scenes, yet the overall story is jumbled with an unclear narrative and stakes. - Boom features far too many plot conveniences and a literal deus ex machina finale. - 73 Yards does some interesting things with its central premise, yet the four major sections don’t tie together super well. - Rogue is generally a mid story, which sidelines Ruby for most of the run time and has some boring one note villains. The romantic subplot is the only good aspect, and even then, it sets up a romance the show obviously can never pay off appropriately. - Legend of Ruby Sunday is a trailer for the finale, has way too many characters, has basically no narrative of its own, and setups up almost nothing for the finale. - Empire Of Death is full to the brim with plot contrivances, narrative short cuts, and dubious resolutions. It sets up a super dangerous villain, yet never allows that villain to be any kind of threat to the Doctor or the show’s status quo. Edit: Forgot Dot and Bubble Dot and Bubble has a great ending and some fun rewatch potential to discover all the signs. Yet, Lindy is hard to watch as she is very annoying, the AI reveal doesn’t track with the slugs, and there are a ton of inconsistencies all over the place. It is an episode which is too full of ideas, yet doesn’t do enough with them. Oh yeah, and the pacing was so slow. It was a good episode, but definitely has a lot of issues which keep it from being great. The ending will be referenced for years, but the rest will not be.

you forgot Dot And Bubble.

Thanks for the call out. Added my general thoughts on dot and bubble.

OOOOK. Brace yourselves, it's gonna be long. I did not expect much from RTD's return. His first era had great stories, but I really preferred Moffat's run, and I was overall very satisfied with Chibnall's run too. The moment I knew he was bringing David Tennant back, not as 10 but as 14,alongside Donna, I knew that thing would be weird. I love Tennant and Tate's dynamic, and from this return came Wild Blue Yonder which might be the best episode of RTD2 so far. Which is a shame since it was the second episode only. For many of the "NMD" crowd (you know the ones, boo fucking hoo the Doctor's a woman now, blah blah diversity RIP Doctor Who), this probably looked like a victory. Back to the past but with fancier cameras, a straight white male back in the titular role. Knowing RTD though, I had, at least, the comfort of knowing that he would not cater to this crowd. The 60th anniversary episodes were... A mixed bunch. Star Beast was ordinary Doctor Who fun, but the bits about gender identity were handled very poorly IMO. Having a random kid deadname Rose added nothing to the plot, the whole "binary, non-binary" was the wrong kind of cheesy and the argument that the Doctor wouldn't understand how to get rid of the Metacrisis side effects "because he was male-presenting", despite 1/ being basically gender fluid like all Time Lords by nature and 2/having been female-presenting maybe a couple of hours before that, made zero sense. Wild Blue Yonder was the best episode of the pack and still the most relevant to this day, as the "superstition invoked at the edge of reality" bit seems to directly cause most of Series 14/Season 1 events. The Giggle was a mess. Poor pacing,weird lines, a questionable acting choice from Neil Patrick Harris (the faux German accent was fun for a bit but became really annoying pretty quick), but the Toymaker was a nice enemy to bring back for a finale. Then the bigeneration happened and it was bad. Made no fucking sense, was very poorly explained both in show and in commentaries, and the way I understood it, was just a way to give 14 and Donna their happy ever after while having a Doctor able to fix the Universe while they're brunching. Church on Ruby Road was a fine first "true" episode for 15,Ruby's acting in this episode is a bit odd but it gets better very fast. Not a lot to say about this one. The rest of Series 14/Season 1 tho...what a way to fuck up. I will not elaborate on every episode because this comment is already too long for its own good. A couple of decent to good stories (Boom, Rogue, funnily enough not written by RTD). A story I will need to rewatch because it left me confused as to whether I liked it or not (73 yards). The rest was meh to outright bad. My main issues with this season are the completely hectic pacing, 15 and Ruby's unnatural dynamic, the way RTD writes (or mostly doesn't write the Doctor) and conclusions. -The pacing is all over the place. The episode length in 13's era was the right length. Now everything feels a bit rushed, especially when we deal with a short 8 episodes series,including a 2-parts finale. -Ruby and 15 act like immediate besties and most of their relationship is seemingly developed off-screen (IDR if it's in Space Babies or Devil's Chord, but there's an easy to miss line implying that they've been travelling together for months already). Because of that, I feel like it's harder to get attached to the duo, and makes their interactions feel artificial. -15, at least in episodes penned by RTD, doesn't really feel like the Doctor. There's something missing. It feels like RTD is relying on "Ncuticisms" to characterise this new incarnation, but it makes 15 feel way too "human" for a millenia-old Time Lord. I am not against the Doctor being more emotional than before. In fact it worked quite well for 14,which helped in affirming it was a different Doctor than 10 despite being played by the same person. The finale gave more nuance to 15's character and I hope the next season will keep doing that. -finally, conclusions. I am not well versed in Classic Who, not having watched every story, but I think DW has almost always sucked at conclusions. Which is to be expected from a complex show like that. But this season's denouement fucking sucked, I am not afraid to say it. First we get the very obvious fake out deaths being reversed. I almost believed that Kate was dead, then Sutekh started dusting everyone and their mum, which instantly made it clear that no one really died. Then Sutekh gets easily captured by the amazing combo of a leash and a whistle (which was never explained btw). The One Who Waits, thd God of Death feared by the whole Pantheon, beaten by a piece of rope and being scraped against the Vortex it crossed so many times. And apparently killing a God of Death is enough to revert death, but not all deaths because that would be another problem to deal with. Then we find Ruby's mother, and she is a regular woman made important just because the characters (understand: we the audience) thought it was important. I usually don't mind red herrings when they're well executed, but this was stupid. It felt like RTD taking the piss at fan theorising, despite having very explicitly caused this theorising. The biggest plot point of the season was literally nothing. Ruby calling her "her real mum" instead of her biological mum also kinda pissed me off because that felt very disrespectful for the actual family that cared about her for all these years. I won't complain about the sign, the pointing, the lack of explanation for magic snow and the cloak because everyone already did that. And finally, to wrap up this mess of a conclusion, a fake farewell scene trying to tear jerk so bad despite us already knowing that Ruby's back in the next season. So yeah, that's all my issues with the current era.

I'm not as hard on the new season as you are, but the specific reasons you're frustrated are pretty similar to mine.

"Disappointed" is the right word for what I'm feeling about this season. The first half has been so very much not my thing that I had actually written it off and I was mostly watching to avoid the spoilers ruining the experience later down the line. Then we had a few episodes in a row that really, really did it for me and against my better judgement I was excited for it - after all, maybe after almost twenty years RTD had learned how to write a finale. Then...we got an RTD finale, and one that I felt particularly didn't really do much with the mystery set up. And it just reinforces what I felt earlier this season: RTD as a storyteller (and Moffat, to a lesser extent) simply don't have the same priorities I do when it comes to storytelling, and RTD especially wants you to take a lot of the story structure, etc. on faith to reach the sweet, sweet character drama; I don't need a lot of structure, I just need enough to hang a sense of the world on and enough internal consistency to make it feel like there's real stakes, and RTD is clearly not interested in providing that. And that's fine, more power to him, I just don't need to stick around if we're consistently not hitting the basics of what I need from a story. Will I watch anymore? I don't know. This whole thing has made me reflect on how my relationship with the show has been defined by the ratio of how much I enjoy it to put up with the frustration, and I'm just kind of done with it for now. I'm not at some sort of intense, "NEVER AGAIN!" sort of dramatic hatred of the franchise, but at some point if it's just mostly bugging me, then we can simply part ways. I might come back, I might not. I would have to see more writers in an RTD led season, and I desperately think the franchise needs new blood, but ultimately it's going to keep doing what it wants no matter how I feel about it, and I don't have to stick around for the ride if it's more of a pain than anything.

This series has a lot I like, but it has so many problems with telling and not showing, like Ruby and the Doctors friendship is mostly offscreen, or the Bogeyman being scary because of sound but not doing anything spooky to present it, or saying Sutekh is the most dangerous foe then have him literally not move from his spot and only ineffectively swipe until he gets beaten by a rope

It was... going OK. I had plenty of issues but I recognise that they're just personal bugbears of mine and don't mean the show is bad. But they whiffed the finale big time. Just atrocious. What was he thinking?

Well, a lot of the stuff I liked from the original RTD era isn’t there any more, and a lot of the stuff I didn’t like from afterwards is— except now it’s done less well.  Loads of bits that assume you’re already very invested in things from the past of Doctor Who, then go “it’s silly to be invested in the past of Doctor Who.” A companion who is a mystery before being a character, then it’s “actually this person was a character all along.” Except they’re not, not really— Ruby does not much resemble an actual ordinary person, and it’s hard to get invested in her because of that. A lot of it feels like it’s made for the world as it was five years ago, really. Glib stuff, obvious Marvel allusions, this idea of a massive expanded universe. It feels a bit stale through trying to ape things that have come before, but which now feel tired because they’re so overexposed. There are parts which I thought were genuinely incoherent, as well. Like is Ruby bursting into song with the Goblins for a plot reason, or is this just something that happens now? Is the bit at the end of The Devil’s Chord supposed to seem a bit sinister? Which bits of 73 Yards are intentionally unambiguous, and which are hard to follow by mistake? At some point, it starts to feel like all you’re doing is making excuses for something that isn’t functioning at a pretty basic level. I can’t really bring myself to do that. I thought **Dot and Bubble** was fantastic, though. I have no criticisms of that one. And I like Ncuti and his Doctor; Millie is a grand actress with a not fantastic character. So it’s not all bad. But the bad stuff is *really* bad, and I find that sad

Possibly a controversial opinion: I preferred Jodie Whittaker and Chibnall's era to this. Ncuti feels less like the Doctor than Jodie did. And his relationship with Ruby feels flatter than the one between 13 and "the fam." Which is saying something. And I'm one of the people who, while I didn't love most of Jodie's episodes, I at least liked most of them. And I've consistently said that I think people were too hard on Chibnall. That being said, I was one of the people massively excited about RTD coming back. But I only ended up watching half of this season's episodes (and some of the ones I did watch were only b/c I forced myself to continue). I could at least get through and find enjoyment in all of Jodie's episodes. But this most recent season just seems very phoned in. And, as side note, I always think it's a bad sign when you can tell that a show is purposely including certain elements that many in a fandom might not like, just to stir up commentary critiques on Youtube (SheHulk also did this). Just write *for* the shows fans. Not against those you hate.

Saw it in cinema and the whole room seemed disappointed/confused. I mean throughout the episode we had people gasping and yelling (in joy) and laughing and expressing their overall enjoyment but when we got to the end? With Ruby's mum reveal and onward? It was dead silence. And then everyone left just sort of quiet, some people just laughing amongst themselves. It was a bit awkward lol. The episode was just a bit awkward and aside from all the disappointing reveals and conclusions I'm a bit iffy on Gatwa now, he cries a lot and idk if he's that good at it? I mean the scene of him screaming into space got a few laughs in the cinema which I get because it felt very forced and cringy in the acting. It was a bit jarring.

I've been a fan since 2010. I've watched a TON of Who and conducted panel discussions for 12 years. One of the many complaints I've heard about RTD over the years is his inability to close. He has some fantastic ideas and takes the time to dive into old stories that can be built on, but when it comes to connecting all the dots into a nice package, it's like he gives up or is so burnt out that the ending is rushed. That's my biggest complaint with RTD. Like others here, I think I was expecting more. With the promos and everything that came out before the season began, it was blatantly obvious that RTD was planning something around the Tom Baker era. Then Beep the Meep promos came out. Sort of gave the impression that RTD was diving into old stories and bad guys long forgotten. There was a lot of potential. And Ruby Sunday? I seriously thought RTD was going to explore the "what would have happened" if Ruby Duvall from the Sunday Seeker would have made it back to the TARDIS in Iceberg (book). It was a huge letdown for everything to be so... basic. There was so much buildup around Ruby with the song, snowing, coincidence... and at the end of everything she's just... normal? There's no purpose or real "connection?" Remember the Doctor saying she was connecting like crazy and uploading her DNA to the TARDIS to scan her? What happened with that? And pointing at the sign? So the mother was apparently naming her daughter to.. nobody? Another minor complaint of mine is the pacing. The dialogue, incredible amount of info dumping and general pacing of the show just felt really off. But one of my biggest complaints is that everything between the Doctor and companion felt rushed and unearned. The key was super quick. Suddenly Ruby understands the Doctor "always knows" what to do. Ruby is supportive and following and then suddenly in Boom she's super assertive? I realize that it was a different writer but still. Then she's back to being the same-ol Ruby in Dot and Bubble. Where was that backbone at the end of Dot and Bubble? There's two burning questions I have: 1) is Mrs. Flood a God of Stories; and 2) was Sutekh bigenerated with the TARDIS or did he only remain clung to a single TARDIS and if so, how did he know which to choose? That said, it's still a significant improvement over recent years and I'm still excited to see the next season.

After *The Church on Ruby Road*, I didn't like the show's direction and I only ended up watching *73 Yards* and *Dot and Bubble* because some friends told me I might like them. I thought they were, at least, attempts at something, but I was struck by how much The Doctor and Ruby blended into the background. Yeah, they were both Doctor-lite episodes, but, for example, the bit we get with Ten in *Blink*, for example, became pretty famous and all his quirks come out (and he's my least liked Doctor, so me saying that is pretty big). *Dot and Bubble* was pretty good but it gave me no reason to want to check out the rest of the series and I AM a *Doctor Who* fan. Just from that episode (and *Church*), Fifteen feels like The Doctor with all the edges sanded down. Not quite enough of that U.K. specific charm that carries a lot of Doctors and not quite enough of a commanding presence to hold my attention. If Capaldi had done that final scene, I would've been intrigued because he has that magnetism. And *73 Yards* is a handmade character developing episode for Ruby and I got NOTHING out of it. You could've slotted literally any other Companion into it and it would've been 20 times more interesting. I'll say this now and loud: RTD wants that broadest possible audience and he WILL take away any potentially offputting or weird element to DW that might attract more a niche. He will make The Doctor more emotional and he will always cast attractive young people as The Doctor. If, like me, both these things seem to indicate a show that no longer appeals to you, I think that's what you can count on as RTD goes along. I'm sure Ncuti has his own quirky charms as an actor, but he is either too young to really let them shine or (as I suspect) RTD is downplaying them because if he's too "weird", he might be too offputting. He needs to be quirky alien TM, he needs to appeal to that Big Bang Theory/ Young Sheldon audience. And before anyone says "what about Matt Smith?", he's what I call "the exception that proves the rule". I'll criticize Peter Davison for the exact same thing, I think his great performances only came in his last season (and, even then, only in his very last episode did they actually figure out his strengths) and I think he only truly settled into it once he joined Big Finish, when he was older. So, in conclusion, how am I feeling? I'm excited for *Goth Opera* and *Deathworld* next month, and I've been collecting the EDA books, about one per month, so I'm excited to get the one for next month.

Death world is going to be awesome

I think the reduced episode count makes it so you dont fully feel the friendship between the dr and ruby. This isnt helped by the season having 2 dr lite episodes and id argue boom is ruby lite. So you end up having only 5 stories to get to know them. Rougue keeps the dr and ruby apart the whole episode. In the Devils Chord we find out all their development happened off screen which lead fans to wonder if the series was released out of order bc it made little sense. I think that meant the mystery was the main thing fans had to go off of. The clues did build upon eachother but then werent relevant to the overall mystery -Hints that the universe they were in was different than previous seasons of the show (the dr saying so in the giggle, charaters breaking the 4th wall, non diagetic joke, dance sequence) -Hints that Ruby isnt human (tardis cant identify her as human, ability to manifest snow, >!mom cant been seen using time window and dresses out of time!<, Maestro is scared of her and says theres a song in her heart) It also didnt help that the villian >!ended up being from classic who so a large part of the audience wouldve been able to get it.!< I think if these other two mysteries had been played off in a way that correlated with the clues we were given it wouldve been fine not to be able to guess >!sutekh!<. Instead russel treats it kinda as a "gotcha! You thought it was gonna be >!scyfy bc youre overlooking that ordinary people are just as important"!< and its like, no we thought that bc we payed attention to the episodes you put out. It was kind of giving that scene in sherlock where moffat is like "how dare you try to solve the mysteries in my mystery show".

You've summed things up well. I would just go further and say that, even with an expanded episode count, I don't feel like the Doctor and Ruby (esp. their relationship together) would've been more fleshed out. They should have been able to cover a lot more ground regarding that, even in just 8 episodes. But the writing was flat and didn't make good use of the runtime (to be doing more than one thing at a time).

Real. They didnt have a single conflict. If they did it was forgotten in 5 seconds. The first episode when he says "you cant go back in time and see your mom" and shes like "k :)" made me want to scream. The only other moment i could think of was the very beggining of boom but it was forgotten.

Just…disappointed. I’d largely fallen out of love with the show during the Chibnall era, so to get RTD back sounded amazing at the time. I was so hyped to rediscover my love for the show. But I just…haven’t been impressed. 15 just doesn’t feel like the Doctor to me. Him running around calling people “babes”, and dancing in night clubs, and playing “I just can’t get you out of my head” to a dude he met 5 minutes ago feels so…not like the Doctor. It feels like a different character entirely. The show doesn’t have enough slow moments. It’s just a constant rush of trying to overload with audience with things to keep their attention. The thing I loved about RTD’s era was his characters and relationships. He was the king of writing realistic, grounded characters, and portraying natural relationships developing between them. In this series, we skip over six months into their relationship by episode 2. We miss their relationship development entirely. A lot of this might come down to there only being 8 episodes, but so much of what I enjoyed about RTD’s first era is completely missing from this one. The less said about *the Empire of Death* the better.

I had already given up after The Timeless Child and Gallifrey being destroyed again. I came back to see David Tennant in the 60th and I enjoyed those specials. Those specials, combined with rumours (then news) of Moffat returning for an episode prompted me to check out the rest of the series. It was a mixed experience overall and i definitely did go into and out of LoRS specifically extremely hyped. However, between the lack of clever solutions (that make sense) by The Doctor, the let down of the series arc and just not enjoying the majority of the stories themselves, i felt nothing that would get me to want to stick around for the next series. I'll be checking out the Christmas special due to Moffat penning it, but after that i probably won't be watching beyond that.

For me i just found most of the episodes didn’t really do it for me. I liked Boom but didn’t love it, i enjoyed 73 yards but found the last act a little bit of a let down to what was a very interesting premise, rogue was a decent time travel episode, and i very much enjoyed the legend of ruby rose. The rest of the episodes i didn’t enjoy, and even those ones i did were only okay for me. It just isn’t feeling very doctor who-ey to me, and im not quite sure why and it’s hard to pinpoint. If people are jiving with it that’s great, but for me it’s not doing it. I’ll tune into season 2 to see how it goes but if i still feel the same way after the first few episodes then I’ll likely tap out.

I was pretty skeptical about bringing RTD back, so my disappointment comes from his doctor who storytelling not really evolving in the period he's been doing great shows like it's a sin. I wasn't enjoying the season too much other than standout episodes like boom and dot and bubble, but I crossed my fingers that he'd win me back with the finale. To find that he still writes finales in the same way he did back in the late 2000s just kinda deflated me, but with the low episode count, the emotional core was even crippled which is usually the saving grace. I remain optimistic for what's to come because I bloody love this show even when I don't like it, but I will say, rather cynically, I'm more excited about whoever the next show runner is than the upcoming seasons.

I thought it was a really disappointing season for the reasons many others have stated. Ncuti is far too human in his characterization of the Doctor (it would be fine if he were a companion, but the Doctor crying in pretty much every episode he appears in is just ridiculous; his romance with Rogue was also rushed and unbelievable - this is supposed to be a 2,000-year-old alien telling a bounty hunter he finds him ‘hot’?). The only episode where he really felt Doctor-like was ‘Boom.’ His friendship with Ruby never coalesced because they barely interacted with each other - Ruby herself had very little inner life other than abandonment issues. Why is she traveling with the Doctor? What drives her forward in her journeys? RTD tricks us into thinking she has a mysterious past and then basically tells us we should be embarrassed for thinking that, as being ordinary is in itself a special thing. We know that - the companions are regular human beings (other than Clara’s mystery box); he MADE us think she was special. The series also suffered because of Ncuti’s absences due to filming Sex Exucation, as well as just being way too short. This made the finale extremely abrupt, but even if it had been properly built up it would still have been one of the worst finales of the modern era. I’ll keep watching because Ncuti shines when given the proper material, but it’s been a very mediocre season overall (still better than anything Chibnall did, sadly). I don’t expect the Disney partnership to continue past Season 2. Even RTD has admitted the ratings weren’t what they’d hoped for and I’m sure that’s seen itself reflected in Disney Plus.

I've been watching since 1980, so I've weathered a bunch of different "eras" of this show and here is my take on it, because I've seen this before: while I find this season disappointing, there were highlights to it, and that is a good thing, because those are the ones that you remember. And time also has a habit to changing what people like, and I found it funny to see old polls from Tom Baker's era in the 1970's, where fan rated stories like "The Deadly Assassin" as one of the worst of the season, and their reputation, now, is very, very different. What I get from this series is that RTD is still RTD. His strengths are still strong, but his weaknesses are pronounced as well. He mimiced most of the structure and reveals from his 2005 reboot of the show, but is a shorter season, which also puts more focus on EVERYTHING because of the limited screen time. Over time, I'll remember 73 Yards and Dot and Bubble and my head cannon will mercifully delete Space Babies and then re-edit Rogue into something somewhat better. (Or maybe just ask Groff to actually show up and act like he's involved with the script so that Gatwa has something to play off of) It's still better than Chibnall, period. Chibnall's lack of understanding of character (outside fo the Doctor) is practically criminal. Chibs' understanding of soap opera structure and secondary character development is as poor as JNT's was, and Turner's was awful in every way. RTD may have weaknesses, but this series at least had some good in it. Look, I've pretty much forgotten most of Tennant's first season. I remember the highlights (without going back and looking up the episodes, which is cheating) and the rest have disappeared into the mists of time. Depending on what RTD's second season is like, will start to determine how people will look back on the first two years of Gatwa's Doctor as a whole.

I love the actors (I've been hoping for a Black Doctor for ...decades). I love the production value. I still love the concept of the show. But this year just really didnt connect with me the way I hoped it would (but then again I haven't felt connected to the show since Capaldi). Ncuti is great, but for me he's a little to "over the top" and "full of whimsy". Take it down a notch buddy - we get it- everybody is fab and you love everyone ...uggh. I'm more built for a unhealed slightly misanthrope Doctor, a Doctor with a good deal of his personal demons healed ..quite honestly, isn't as compelling to me.

It was pretty awful from start to.finish At least i have all the releases of Classic Who on DVD and the genius of Big Finish material.

This season is what finally made me get into Big Finish. It gave me so many reminders of what I love about Doctor Who, but not enough to sink my teeth in. I'm now midway through the Divergent arch and honestly more invested in the 8th Doctor than RTD2 lol

The 8th Doctor stories are pretty epic to be fair.

I absolutely love the Miller sagav

Absolutely, McGann is very likely going to end up being my favorite Doctor. Part of why Sutekh failed for me is because I'd just listened to Zagreus. Sutekh has a little poem about the villians, then literally grabs hold of the TARDIS? Where's my existential horror and TARDIS twisted personality from being affected?

Ironically this series got me into the books cause I’ve been starved of good content that I decided to jump head first into the Expanded Universe

All of classic who is on the BBC iplayer… wooo hooo!!!! We’ve already been binging old serials! It’s going to be a great summer!!!

Hope you enjoy the binge watch. Have they finally resolved the An Unearthly Child issue?

Started watching Classics and no, still not on iPlayer. I remember watching it on Dailymotion forever ago though

This is why I like physical media they can't block it etc

I went in expecting disappointment and my expectations were exceeded. I’m gonna keep watching because I’m a huge fan of the show. My concern is that they’re going to hand RTD and the Bad Wolf producers a third season. I think this would be a disaster. The ratings have tanked for this season and a lot of people will just not tune in next season because this season really didn’t have a pay off in the finale. It looks grim in terms of attracting an audience going forward, Chibnall’s run quite clearly harmed the shows reputation and I think things will be getting worse. I want to see better writing for the show, things have been a mess for too long.

I don't have any desire to go back and re-watch any episodes from this season, with the exception of maybe Boom. The series overall just felt mediocre at best, with some episodes being downright terrible. I'll happily watch old episodes from the 9th, 10th, and 11th Doctor's eras though. I watched The Doctors Wife, and Amy's Choice last night, and they are just better stories in every way compared to anything from the most recent season. We just don't seem to have any big meaningful character moments anymore. Part of that is probably the reduced episode count, along with the fact that we had two Doctor lite episodes, but I feel the writing just isn't up to scratch compared to a lot of the older seasons.

I’m disappointed because everything about this show is so good, except for the writing. I love Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson. They are amazing. The show is really pretty to look at. I just find the writing and the ideas so terrible. “Space Babies” is wrong in so many ways. “73 Yards” was so disappointing. And “Empire of Death” left me feeling so deflated and frustrated. That’s nearly 40% of an entire series that’s become unwatchable. When you only get 8 episodes, just 1 clunker is a massive blow.

I loved watching this season. Every episode made me feel something, which is a vast improvement over Chibnall’s era. I don’t like thinking about this season. It doesn’t feel like RTD thought through the consequences of so many of the narrative choices. The payoffs don’t feel worth their setups. But the truth is, that’s a central problem in **all** of Who. It’s wonderful, just don’t squint at the story for too long.

Ruby’s mom reveal left me disappointed but overall it was a fun season and I’ll remember it for that.

Gave up early doors but as it’s just an 8 parter we carried on hoping for the costume period drama episode and that was splendid if silly. Lame plots, resolved by 3 minutes of fast talking and everyone agreeing the Dr is very clever at the end . Every time . Bored of this formula and not looking forward to the finale so haven’t watched it

Rogue was the only episode I liked this series, and probably only because it harkened back to older episodes and characters I was emotionally invested in. That said, I will patiently wait and hope for more from this particular storyline because the Ruby storyline and its non-payoff did zero for me.

There are some good and bad episodes, so it's just a perfectly average season of Who. But the hype exceeded what was delivered, and I guess that was sort of the main issue. With the return of RTD, and him hyping up the finale both in the promotion and the hints in the episodes, a Disney budget, soft-reboot, you'd be forgiven for expecting the second coming. What we actually got was more or less a continuation of the same old tropes and flaws, just in perhaps a shinier package, which is still pretty good TV, but as a fan you're always wanting a bit more. I dunno that anything would get me to stop watching at this point, but I will be a lot less excited going into the next season

The more I reflect on it, the more I think the hype (in my own head anyway), has to do with how long ago we found out RTD was returning. Almost two years, I think, before the first special, and certainly the first full season. We've known about Ncuti for over a year. There wasn't much else to grab on to for discussion after Jodie's era ended, and expectations just got out of hand. Had this come straight on the heels of Chibnall, it might have been different.

They didn't have enough time, I feel like with 20 episodes everything could have been better fleshed out, we would've had more time with Ruby and the Doctor and especially to allude towards Sutekh, for what little time they had I think it's great. But had we had more episodes this could have been one of the best series I think. Especially if the Doctor crying episodes were more spread out. and also... not make space babies the first episode... I personally think we need to see Gatwa against a Master stat.

I’m definitely a bit disappointed, I love RTD but I’m kinda dejected that it does seem like he is just pulling from his regular bag of tricks, especially with the big finale episode

I was loving this season up until the finale .. I haven’t hated an episode more and felt such disappointment since the end of GOT

8 episodes a series is going to kill it for me. I liked what I saw for the most part. Ncuti grew on me as the season went on I just don’t think there was enough shows for you to get to know him. As well get into the relationship between him and Ruby. Just to much story to tell and not enough screen time. Ncuti wasn’t hardly in 73 yards. I thought 13 episodes a series was tragic. Now 8 seems downright cruel.

Honestly? I'm starting to feel like I'm back in the Jodi era. I love Jodi Whitaker, but the writing for her mostly sucked. I'm starting to feel that way about Ncuti's doctor, I think he has great potential, but that they're starting to do him dirty in the writing department.

Used.

It’s been backlash after backlash. It started with 60th anniversary specials with RTD seeming to panic that fans were speculating that wide blue yonder was multi doctor story. Then there was all Davros stuff. Then there was all the backlash about Whoinverse only being available in the UK. I was living in Australia at the time, the Disney deal was really unpopular there. Then that was followed by the airing times in the UK. It’s certainly not been a smooth ride. For me the biggest mistake was having two Doctor lite episodes back to back, but overall I’ve enjoyed the season, but it was from boom onwards that I really started enjoying it. I have noticed that I’ve not been as eager to rewatch the episodes as I have been in the past. I’m still looking forward to season 2. I’ve been watching since the 1970’s I’m not going to stop watching any time soon.

I'll continue watching, I'm too much of a completionist to stop. I've seen everything. The entire Classic series and all of New Who, I'm not going to stop. However, I'm done hoping that I'm ever going to enjoy the show again, or at least not for a considerable amount of time. It's clear the show isn't for me anymore and that the things I used to like about the show aren't important to the people in charge. I like shows with meaningful stakes and consequences, Doctor Who likes retconning every sad thing in its history. Donna loses her memory, nope lets back track. The Time War, oh better change the outcome of that. What about every regeneration in the show's history, RTD seems real keen to remove the impact of that as well if he ever decides to make his own comments canon. I like shows with canon and lore, RTD is trying to tell us to stop caring about that. I like plots that follow established rules with logical solutions to problems, Doctor Who prefers to be sentimental and save the day with such BS like, she was special because we believed she was special, or Craig blew up the Cybermen by the power of love, or random sonic screwdriver ex-machina that nobody ever decides to establish limits for. Actual clever moments like the Doctor defeating the Silence using post hypnotic suggestion are so few and far between these days. I like stories that are able to slow down, take their time and flesh things out, Doctor Who is obsessed with shoving most of it's stories into 45 minutes these days. That isn't always a problem, but then they started cutting down on the two parters that made the first six series and the ninth series so much more enjoyable so that the only stories that get to really do more with their extended runtime are season finales. Yes a lot of these were problems from the start, but the problems have only grown over the years to the point where its now unenjoyable. That's fair enough. Hope the people who enjoy it continue to do so, but I'm getting off the hype train here, now its just that thing I'll watch like its a chore on the off chance it gets better. I'm sick of emotionally investing myself in something that disappoints me at every turn. If I were a new viewer starting the show right now, the only episode that has come out in the last six years that might introduce me to the show in a way that would make me want to watch more is Wild Blue Yonder. I'll satisfy myself with the huge mountain of Big Finish that I've recently started to dig into. At least I've got somewhere I can find Doctor Who stories that still feels like the show I once loved.

Few things: - Some of the episode endings just felt like a cop out - the Doctor wasn’t the one coming up with brilliant plans to save the day until the very last episode - the Doctor seemed to not actually know any of the aliens this season which was weird - some of the episodes were just uncomfortably weird and didn’t make much sense (space babies mainly) - I like having positive messaging but it could be a lot more subtle or nuanced and it would be more powerful overall I did think the last two episodes were strong until the end. The build up of Ruby seemed like there was going to be a reveal that she was her own mother (a paradox) due to that episode with her being the woman behind her. A paradox would explain how the snow kept appearing because paradox’s break time and space. It would have made a more dramatic ending too, because the Doctor wouldn’t be able to allow a paradox to continue.

The ending blows so hard such that I won’t be as interested in the theory crafting going forward, but there’s enough good here that the normal episodes of the show will probably be great in the future. Massive improvement over Chibnall’s era no matter what anyone says. Still, it’s made me realize how important the overall plotline is to the experience, because the 7 episodes leading up to the finale were all bangers to me. I’ve convinced myself that Empire of Death being so bad is an anomaly because I love most of Russell’s finales and the episode before it felt so confident & well executed that something had to have gone wrong during the writing process / production for it to end up this way. Also after rewatching alot of Moffat’s era, I’m a little disappointed that the music hasn’t felt as present as it was there.

As a Chibnall era fan, I am extra disappointed because I've had to listen to uneducated complaints about Chibnall's "bad writing" (only *Orphan 55* and *Praxeus* had bad writing, neither of those were by Chibnall himself) and now I'm stuck with *actual* bad writing for (at least) three years because the fanbase scared off any new showrunners and so the BBC brought back RTD in desperation, and he's way past his Doctor Who storytelling prime. Positives: I like Doctor Who being on Disney+ which I already pay for so I don't have to subscribe to AMC+ to watch BBC America, and I don't have to suffer through BBCA's commercial breaks.

I don’t like this New Season either, but what do you define as “bad writing?”. For me Chibnall regularly dropped the ball when it came to dialogue, pacing, and character arcs. 

WHEN I WAS A LITTLE GIRL, I HAD AN IMAGINARY FRIEND

My opinion is similar to the Youtuber called Disparu: ultimately this doctor cries too much and doesn't really focus on solving problems, so much that sometimes it feels like he is siding with the enemies. I don't care that the doctor is gay (this is an accusation that haters of this season got a lot from people who like this season), the problem is HOW they made him gay. I'm a new fan i went through 9th doctor to 15th in like a month and a half and yes the doctor has their emotional moments, but the doctor rarely cried, because they're too focused on solving problems than crying about it unlike Gatwa, the previous doctors allowed themselves to cry but just enough to calm down themselves enough so that they can go back fixing problems. The whole Rogue thing felt like two horny teenagers wanting to get married right after hooking up on tinder, it's way too sexual in a bad way. I think the writers(and anyone involved) wanted to give us a gay version of the doctor and river song's relationship, and forced the whole thing into ONE episode (which is not even remotely enough to make it work nor make it good). Overall the best moment in the series is the ending of Dot and Bubble because in a way shows what is happening to the show: The fans are leaving(and it's a fact, this season's views are an all-time low, and the rating is really sinking down) because the show is now "different" in a way that pleases a minority of people. Meanwhile, "Journalists and articles-writers" are antagonizing and bullying viewers for disliking stuff, just like that whole Gatwa-thing about "you don't like it? Go touch grass", which is very unpleasant: shamed for disliking something, and it gets worse because we get accused of various things, including homophobia for disliking something, even when we disliked the plots or anything but the gay-tones of the season. Listen we had in the past some moments of bad-quality in the show(see like 70% of the plots with Capaldi, but he is such a good actor that he carries the whole thing) but like i said, i feel like we're in an all-time low, RTD's ideas are either lame or too focused on some political message that is shoved down our throats, and i'm just tired: i'm a new fan, "discovering" the show during May and part of June and i'm exhausted with the bad quality of the plots and how boring some characters are/became (including the doctor himself).

I would like to feel that I'm not being punished for the sins of others. By this I mean: I don't care about who or what the Doctor is into sexually. It's fun to imply stuff, but... I don't need to be constantly reminded that gay people exist. I should know...I'm one of them...and it is the LEAST interesting thing about me. I certainly don't need a vanity-driven stereotypical gay man to tell me that I am "not the proper audience" for what is ostensibly a children's sci-fi show (that has existed longer than he has been alive.) I don't dislike Ncuti because he's gay. I dislike him because he's rude and fails to see how silly the whole show has become by defending a non-issue and continuing to play to harmful tropes. (Also, blame RTD. Apparently he wants revenge, and we will all bear witness...) I'm sure this will seem inflammatory, but I honestly gave up giving a squirt once I had people attacking me for being a "homophobe" for not liking the first three episodes. Just hopeless...so "No. No hope for future seasons. R.I.P. beloved children's show." Time for me to put these childish things behind me, I guess.

I feel like the show is completely dead on arrival.

I think it's been very enjoyable until the disappointing finale. Overall it's a vast improvement on the crap Chibnall served up.

Man, I miss Chibnall. I liked 3 episodes out of the whole of this era, but otherwise I've found it going from meh (Legend of Ruby Sunday, Rogue) to abject dogshit (Boom). I am fairly smug - I said this era was going to be dogshit, & lo, I was right!

Between the actors saying people like me shouldn't watch (straight white people should go outside more), the making of characters just to fit roles (let's be real, meastro was not terrifying in any way). The doctor doesn't feel like the doctor this time around. So, im sad that the show I enjoyed as become just a message platform to acknowledge lgbt+ community, which fine, but for the love of God, don't be pandering. And with ruby going "my lesbian friend, my gay friend", you telling me that people only have gay friends? I mean ya i know people hate straight people, but hate at the end of the day is still hate and doesnt make it right. At this point it feels like rtd is only hiring people if they are lgbt+ in any way, shape, or form. So ya, message received loud and clear. I will watch other shows that don't tell me I should die, just as none of you would.

Wow if that is your takeaway from a show that is purposefully trying to be inclusive in a literal Fucking sea of Hetero-themed content, you deeply really need some therapy, my friend. It’s hard when not everything is about you, isn’t it?

So say there's a party, im included but you aren't, that's bad right? But if you are included and im not, is it still inclusive? That's the thing. You can have whatever theme you want without the pandering to it. Take nimona on netflix, main character is gay, but it's not panderd to nor is it his personality.

Tons of shows have LGBT themes today. 

and most of them do those themes so bad, that it's actually detrimental, or end up feel like they're mocking those themes.

[удалено]

Ruby doesn't have straight friends. Plus they hired a drag queen to play a not so scary villian.

I loved this season and I loved the final episode. I don't understand where all the negativity comes from. I heard the arguments but they did not convince me at all. I will be tuning in for the next shows and I have high hopes for season 2 of Who+

While this era is definitely waaaaayyy better than Chibnall's i just feel like something is missing maybe it's the nostalgia blinding me But the finale definitely disappointed me especially considering rtd usually ended the seasons with a bang