A few things I want to clear up: I wasn't trying to imply that the "realist" KZfaqrs I discussed at the beginning don't value themes, merely that they view logical consistency as a necessary building block in order to achieve said themes. I've been made aware that the 1st Doctor's clothes actually did regenerate with him. Never noticed that before! That being said, I still prefer the precedent that the show has established since: AKA the Doctor's clothes staying the same when they change. Just a preference though, I suppose. Episode 3 of the new season was a BANGER (no pun intended) and everything I’ve been looking for in Doctor Who minus a different directing style. I didn't EQ the voiceover audio meaning it's more bassy and plosive-y than usual. Retroactively I think this was a mistake and if I were to post the video again, I'd fix the audio.

I was hoping that the Doctor and Toymaker would play Scrabble and the Doctor wins by recognizing that Mavity isn't a word, I'm so mad they didn't do that

I think myself and the other people you have labelled as realists, (at least the ones I know) agree with your ultimate conclusions about why the things we care about actually matter. Plot consistency and realism with in context aren't themselves the point of telling stories, but are usually critical building blocks that are needed to effectively explore themes and characters.

I don’t know why, but I love the concept of the doctor a) having two companions from different eras in time and b) the two of them getting stuck in the tardis while the doctor mucks about and the two of them opening up about themselves. It just sounds like a really good episode in my head.

I know damn well Andrew Tate didn’t know Doctor who existed until he learned he could be called controversial for talking shit about it

1:03:32 The reason the accent is bad is 10000% on purpose since the Doctor won their last game by copying the Toymaker's voice So now he does the accents and flips flops between them randomly And also I fucking LOVE your version of the Giggle ending WAY more than the let down of the real one

Trial of a timelord is fucking PEAK you PHILISTINE

I feel like taking a historical white person and making them a poc is so much more damaging because it just ignores actual historical people of color just to focus on a white person. It's just kinda pointless because if anyone finds that character interesting, they'll just learn about the actual person

The Fitzroy club was the most interesting part of this video. I know the showrunners were all fans from the 90s, but I didn't quite realise how, well, official the clique of the writers actually was. Great video.

In regards to the Fugitive Doctor I would have made her the fourth incarnation Romana who took on the name of the Doctor as a mark of respect whom she believed to have perished in the Time War.

Doctor Who needs to go back to the classic system of a producer and script editor jointly running the show

This never would have happened if Colin Baker stayed in office for 25 years

Thank you for calling out how performative Russels progressivism is. It seems so forced and lacking understanding of the real issues. It’s hard to criticise because people think you’re just being anti woke, but even from a left wing perspective, he’s just wrong about most of what he says

Had to pause the video to leave a comment real quick applauding the Foxy Jumpscare / Saxon Master edit. Standing ovation.

44:17 i love how they say a male presenting time lord can't just let it go but didn't the 9th doctor kinda let go the POWER OF THE FUCKING TIME VORTEX AT THE END OF SERIES 1? (i mean he did regenerate but before that, we literally saw that he exhaled the fucking time vortex thing like bruh)

Honestly, this video is so refreshing. All of the criticism you’ve made is delivered in such an inoffensive yet direct and confident way, and it’s extremely clear and well thought out without blindly bashing on the show, especially regarding how you handle the more political elements which is a very tough balance to make. And of course you don’t just talk about where you want an improvement, you make an effort to not ignore the positives which worked perfectly. This also proved to me I don’t have to agree with everything in a video to enjoy it, such as the amount of music which I find quite charming in Doctor Who (although that could just be the musician in me speaking). But more importantly it reminded me of what I’d also like to see in the show, which you’d think I’d know already but is actually harder than I realised, while opening up my mind to new ideas I hadn’t thought of. Oh yeah, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously and only when it needs to? For a while I thought I was just getting tired of all the criticism towards this show across the internet (and other franchises too) because so much of it was off-putting, overly negative to the point of being downright hateful, and often pushed itself into one corner, as much sense as that makes. But this video reminded me of how beneficial and helpful good criticism can be, and actually spins it into a positive light which is very impressive. Good research and a good mindset goes a long way! I really hope you get the attention you deserve on this platform because this was fantastic, really great work 😄

The show has always been “left wing” or “woke”. Right from its inspection, the daleks were based off the nazis (a race of pure breed, hatred filled creatures with a goal to destroy anything that looked different to them. Also the whole “exterminate” brings another level of context when you think of it from this perspective). When Russell bought the show back in 2005, it was still maintained that left wing, socially conscious themes, but they were entwined deep within the plot. Aliens that fart in Downing Street using fear to create war? A teenager mother’s fear of acknowledgement of her child during the 1940’s. Cassandra is a take on this need to preserve tradition no matter the cost, for the state of being considered “pure”. Also, the casting back in 2005 was so socially progressive. The main character was a working class girl with a single mother and a black boyfriend. All were fleshed out, real people with their own stories. The issue with the new era, is the need to be incredibly on the nose with their themes. It feels like Russell is screaming “look, it’s left wing. Look how progressive we are”. I miss the subtlety and how grounded them first few seasons from 2005 were.

RTD should not be able to comment on "canceling" given how many actors in his first era were Sex pests

Man, now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m upset we haven’t had more interesting companions. What’s about one who actually has already met a future version of the doctor (a la river song) but holds a grudge over being left (we haven’t had a traitorous companion in ages) and even is upset the doctor doesn’t recognize them until they realize it’s an earlier doctor and slowly they come to understand things their doctor did to avoid creating paradox’s while setting them up to become a full, complete person with their pervious incarnation

2:08:11 "the fat black woman" 💀💀💀 the fact that someone unironically said that blows my mind

15th feature-length doctor who video essay i've watched this week thanks youtube

I want a season where The Doctor just says, "I'm bored with Earth at the moment..."

I agree with your point about the show starting to slip into pantomime, but I am confident that like the McCoy years, Russell will notice fan reaction and tint the show much darker. Also, we do know that Russell starts most of his seasons quite light and goes to darkness quickly. I think we will be put at ease with Boom and 73 Yards. We also know at least 4 new writers are working on episodes for next season, so there is hope there. The difference is that Doctor Who is in a much different place culturally than it was in 1987, and I believe the show will survive to become something new, mainly because disney plus can't afford to let go of hosting a property like Doctor Who. There will always be growing pains, but I am sure the show will find it's way.

Then a few days off this video we got boom and 73 yards both being departures form the show’s formula especially 73 yards! One of the best episodes in years

Opening KZfaq to find that Verdana has a new 3 hour Doctor Who video - Pure euphoria 🎉

Not showing us David Tenant in Jodie’s costume is a crime. I want to see that

Here are the time cards. 00:00:00. Intro 6:56 chapter 1 how to criticize doctor who 27:09 chapter 2: the star Beast 50:50 chapter 3: Wild blue Yonder 1:03:08 chapter 4: The Giggle 1:25:00 chapter 5: Church on ruby road 1:41:54 chapter 6: politics and Who 2:02:57 chapter 7: the backlash 2:13:50 chapter 8 stuck in time loop 2:25:06 chapter 9 Fitzroy club 2:46:20 chapter 10 Doctor what? 2:54:53 bonus chapter space babies and devils chord

Holy heck is it refreshing to see a video like this that isn’t just clickbait misinformation calling the show woke 😭😂 Loved this video essay. Hit the nail right on the head. It’s clear the show is being produced to keep it going, not because there’s really any distinct passion being put in to do something fresh with it. Honestly I think the show would benefit from losing its “significant” budget increase and invest in new talent. But the industry’s so rigged that legit probably won’t happen. Omg someone who points out that awful scene of 12 laughing on the boat. My night has been made 😂

I’ve seen comments basically saying the same thing and I agree that this video is so refreshing. The fandom often feels like it’s caught between 2 extremes in terms of politics, where some use the show’s poor execution of messaging to attack the groups it’s portraying, whereas others prioritise this messaging over the plot itself. It’s so nice to finally find a video that allows for discussion, without alienating those who respectfully agree/disagree with the order of messaging and plot. It makes me proud to be part of the fandom, and I wish there were more people in the community who treated the show with the same respect and criticism that you do. The show isn’t perfect, but it’s also not “doomed” - yes there are consistent mistakes perpetuated, but there is also like you say a boundless potential for the show. I really like your idea of the show being a celebration of its medium, and being ever changing. I know I’ve more or less paraphrased the points you’ve made in the video, but honestly it’s fantastic

literally was just in the middle of watching your doctor ranking for the seventeenth time, i am so here for this

American here, who drives a decent amount of time to get to work. Found what I’m listening to this morning.

It’s me, Wii Tank Ricochet Guy. This video is helping me get through a hard time. Thank you for your service

Boom and 73 yards seemed really tonally different, what did you think of them. I personally thought they were great

I just find the lack of subtlety in the themes and political messaging frustrating and cringe.

I never watched an episode of Dr. Who but I'll watch someone critique something they love for 3 hours anytime. Great editing and sense of humor.

Wait… so it’s bad if David wears women’s clothes for a few seconds but not when Sacha does a forced regeneration into the 13th doctors body?

I agree much more with the way Capaldi frames the show as about death, rather than about change. But it's a similar point either way. Ultimately, imo, the real problem with New Who as a show starting all the way back in 2005, is that clique, the fitzroy club. This is one group of people who are explicitly fans (the way they write the show is very much a fan perspective, see the Doctor immediately becoming a legendary war hero, the last of the time lords, as soon as the revival begins). One group of people who whilst differing from each other do have huge overlap in their personal ideas of what a show they never worked on (in it's original run) should be. One group regurgitating the same basic formula and ideas for almost 2 decades. It needed new blood a decade ago. It needs it now more than ever. You mention that Doctor Who was for the first several decades of it's life, famous for being scary. Now that's only one part of a larger whole, but there was a general idea of what Doctor Who is back then. Being scary was part of that. But whilst people can all point out creative shifts and say "it's about change", the reality is that that generalised idea of what Doctor Who is, changed because the show was rebooted by people with a very fan perspective direction, who based their reboot on totally different things first and foremost (buffy especially) in the hopes of making a dead niche show mainstream. And then the show regurgitated itself for 2 decades gradually placing less emphasis on what Who used to be known for and placing more emphasis on what was being done successfully in 2005. We gradually got a stale show, that managed to be stale whilst also moving further and further away from what Doctor Who was as a show/idea in it's original run, without making any real progress into new creative direction despite this. You call the fitzroy club a clique and it absolutely is, which has it's own totally separate list of issues, but in terms of why the show is where it is today, this is the biggest reason imo. It doesn't need RTD and Moffat back, it desperately needs new blood. (I know some fans like to create huge conspiracy theories around the whole fitzroy club idea and others like to laugh off the mere suggestion that the people running this show since 2005 do form something of a closed circle even if only by considerable overlap. Whatever your opinions are though, it is true that the show has had a lot of the same faces bts since 2005 and that it's been redoing the same basic formula since 2005 with very rare exceptions)

“A benevolent eldritch alien, plus bewildered sidekick, defeating evil using a combination of intelligence and whimsy” is how I like my Doctor Who thanks.

I WANT ALL OF THOSE EPISODE IDEAS!!! somebody send this to the showrunners ASAP. Well said, literally all of it.

i really respect the actual criticisms instead of surface-level anti-“woke” bullshit, great points all around!

THE KING RETURNS WITH ANOTHER BANGER Loved both your previous Who videos, super excited to see this one! Edit: Just finished watching. it's like you opened up my brain and read out all of my thoughts on this show for 3 hours.

This is gold. I have loved Doctor Who forever. As a kid in the 80s I liked the show because it was weird and scary and kind of dark. (Adric’s death was quite impactful). As an adult I like the show for the same reasons, but over the past few years it has become unwatchable for me. I came back to see what the new Doctor was like (he’s great), but holy shit, the stories are terrible. That’s what it always comes down to; a well told story. I’m getting pretty sick of people blaming politics or race or gender or sexuality or anything else they can think of on why Doctor Who sucks, when the ONLY reason it sucks is because the stories are shit. A good writer can incorporate any message into a story and people will hardly even notice it’s there, but they will absorb the message. That’s the point of using stories to get a point across, you can be subtle. This new series is terrible so far, RTD is just awful. Strange that the cash-strapped shonky production values of the classic series were tolerated largely because of the storytelling of the show, while now they have proper Disney money the writing has gone bung. Also I completely agree about the music in the modern series, it has ruined a lot of great scenes. Finally, even though I was six years old when it happened, I really liked it when Adric died, he was fucking annoying.

Actually, Trial of a Timelord was lightyears better than these new episodes. Also because Colin's era is actually PEAK. And yes, this is a hill I'm willing to die on.

The doctor activated donna because he couldn't figure out how to stop it on his own. The doctor donna is part donna part time lord. She can think of things that he can't, as established in the finale of season 4. Otherwise great video.

He finally recovered from the fnaf smash or pass

Finally someone agrees with me about the dang music

As a canadian who fan im so happy u stood up for us 😂

I’m starting to think that excessive fan arguing means the IP has been “mined” for too long. You’ve got extremely varied people emotionally invested across decades, and you’d satisfy them better by launching new story concepts for them to love or ignore. We all face the explore/exploit tradeoff in every industry, but entertainment is leaning 95% into “exploit”, while fans get blamed for the predictably poor results.

24:53 - "...the Doctor stole a broken TARDIS from Galifrey, landed it in a London junkyard in the 1960s, it assumed the form of a police box to blend in, the Chameleon Circuit broke, and when he took off it retained that shape forever more... this of course begs the question; if the Fugitive Doctor comes before the First Doctor in the timeline, why does her Tardis look like this?" Hello! Off-the-cuff fanwank incoming! I can think of at least three answers to this off the top of my head. The first one is the most boring and straightforward, so I'll get it out of the way; at some point, some incarnation of the Doctor meets with the Fugitive Doctor, and gives/lends them the TARDIS to go off on their adventures; maybe they go and rescue them in the first place, starting the whole thing off. Heck, as of The Giggle, there's canonically a second TARDIS out there (and I doubt this is the first story where multiple TARDIS's have been about), for all we know Tennant's 14 genuinely retires and gives it to them. Basically: it's time travel, so just because they're an older Doctor, doesn't mean they have to have an older TARDIS. It would be far from the first time we've seen one of the Doctors interfering with or aiding a past, future, or wholy alternate version of themself. We just haven't seen this particular instance happen in the show, yet. The second is even more dull; because of timey-wimeyness, the Fugitive Doctor quickly realised that The Doctor is already known throughout time (due to the adventures they and their later forms will have), and is known to have a TARDIS that's a blue police box, so eventually decided to go with it, and set it to always use that form. Man, I'm having trouble staying awake just typing that, I'm so sorry. The third and final ties more into modern Who's habit of making things that happen to the Doctor "now" tie in to their timeline as a whole. Why does 12 have that face? Because it's a reminder of the family in Pompeii that they broke the rules to help. Why does Bad Wolf keep showing up to 9? Because it's Rose in the future scattering the message through time to link herself to the Doctor. Coincidence and mystery show up time after time, and often part of the twist is that cause and effect were not what you thought. This could apply here; it isn't, in fact, that the First Doctor happened to crash in the 60's, and the TARDIS happened to get it's appearance stuck. It's that _earlier_ versions of the Doctor did, and had their own adventures through time in a Police Box-shaped TARDIS. So then, "later", when the First Doctor goes and steals that TARDIS, either 1) They on some level remembered that time and form as familiar, and subconsciously guided themselves to crash in the '60s and stick the TARDIS in that shape, or 2) The TARDIS they stole was their earlier TARDIS that either was able to temporarily disguise itself or had straight-up been fixed by that point, and placed itself where it would be "stolen" by the First Doctor, and it's "stuck" in that form now because that's what was familar to it through it's time with the earlier Doctor/s. Again, hardly the first time the Doctor has been led by their subconscious, or that the TARDIS has acted on it's own intelligence out of its devotion to the Doctor. So, no; this isn't inherently illogical, and if you resist the urge to turn off your brain and _actually think about it,_ you can see the creative possibilities that this seeming inconsistency can provide. Imagine if someone who actually knew about writing gave a go at answering this, instead of some rando in a KZfaq comment typing the first things that come to mind? Do I believe, for a single second, that the team behind the episode had any of this in mind when they showed their classic police-box TARDIS? Absolutely not, completely ridiculous, they just knew viewers know the TARDIS looks like that and didn't want to spend precious minutes (and prop-dept time and money) explaining that, yeah, that random thing behind them is what their TARDIS looks like right now. The crime here isn't that they gave us that unanswered question. That's absolutely fine; Doctor Who, and indeed TV shows as a whole, would be much more boring if every question the viewer might have while watching an episode was wrapped up that same episode. Mystery is good, actually, even if it's created without knowing what the answer is, even if it's created _by mistake_. The crime is that they never answered (or even acknowledged) this aspect, and presumably never will. Aren't you interested in what the actual canonical reason for how the Fugitive Doctor has a Police-box-style TARDIS before the First Doctor got it? I know I am.

The Doctor has always been for EVERYONE. Wild that it was at its most inclusive when it wasn’t performative.

Really can't wait to see what you thought of Boom & 73 Yards after all this!

If nothing else I hope this season is sucessful because the amount of potential that Gatwa has as the doctor is so exciting and I really want to see him become one of the bests

24:03 All that they needed to do was make the lighthouse be the exterior of the Fugitive Doctor’s TARDIS. You wouldn’t have the ridiculous police box conundrum and logically it would make sense as an object blending into its surroundings.

This is such a well made video essay. Id have to agree with every god damn point you made. No regrets for how long I spent watching this video.

This is one of the greatest Doctor Who video essays I've ever watched. It finally brings out so many aspects of the show which has been bothering me for years, yet nobody ever talks about them, but there is also so much new outlook which I have been missing in the community lately, since all the Whodom just became a lot of complaining. It just felt tailor-made for me, and I laughed out loud multiple times because of the accuracy of some statements. Thank you!

When the world needed him most he returned

I would say the goal of Doctor who is. Saying anyone can be the doctor, anyone can be a hero. You just need to be clever and clever doesn't come from being smart. It comes from. thinking of a unique and creative plan.

1:41:09 "I was fondled" *Uncomfortable closeup* "I love that!"

42:45 Honestly you explaining how impactful the original departure of Donna was got me more emotional than the actual fake-out death scene of Star Beast, which just felt so obviously shock-value bs, why can’t ANY showrunner for gods sake just leave their companion alone to either die or be trapped back on Earth. I’m glad they did this with Amy & Rory, it felt satisfyingly tragic. But Bill, Clara felt like SUCH a cheat, I love Clara as a character, and her end felt fitting for her going too far into trying to be a Doctor, and then screwing up, the whole ‘lets go travel in a diner-tardis as two immortals’ felt irritating as hell. Its really amazing when the show explores the idea of a companion seeing all the wonders of the Earth and then being forced to adjust back to real life like Sarah Jane; or being forced to sacrifice something the way Rose did.

Finally, a modern who retrospective video that fairly criticises the episodes instead of - 2:08:08 Great video by the way 👍

another thing i'd like to comment on now that i've finished the video is, in my opinion, the time the show _did_ successfully reinvent itself, which is between 1969 and 1970. This period very much mirrors 1986 and 2023 in several ways, the show was declining in ratings, consistently being regarded as cheap while struggling to pull off the types of scripts that it needed to on such a limited budget. So the decision was made to reinvent the formula by stranding the Doctor on earth without the use of his Tardis, ousting the old production team in favor of some fresh blood, and guess what? The following two seasons are some of the best material Classic Who has to offer. They're far from perfect but Season 7 in particular is just so good overall that the weakest story in it, Ambassadors of Death (in my opinion anyway), is still around a 7/10. And this worked out great for the show, with it reaching popularity it hadn't had since Season 2, which was able to be maintained well into Tom Baker's tenure. I don't think a shakeup to the formula as radical as that in 1970 is needed necessarily, but taking cues from how that reinvention was handled would go a long way.

The way I see the whole timeless child stuff is that the doctor believes it to be true but that doesn't mean it is true.

another banger from verdana. always look forward to what you post because regardless of what it is it's always high quality

Holy, some of the editing in this video essay is incredibly hilarious and random without even drawing that much attention to itself, its really cool seeing literally all of Who’s weird little moments being compiled

thank god. Was enjoying this critique but I’m so used to KZfaq feeding me insufferable anti-wokers i have to go back and click “Not interested in this channel”, i was waiting for the anti-woke rant that never came. Subscribed.

I myself am a new doctor who fan who jumped on with the star beast then went back to watch the rest

Several hour long doctor who essays must be one of my favourite genders

I see things like traditional villain depictions of them being disabled or disfigured as less of a “They’re evil because they’re disabled” and more of a “Their evil lead to their own disfigurement”

Excellent video - definitely agree that the reverance around RTD's glorious return isn't quite as glamorous or as show-salvaging as everyone made it out to be. I especially love your takedown of Series 6 - The Wedding of River Song is one of my least favourite episodes of the revival

I largely agree about the music in funny scenes, but teh dramatic cymbal i9n "stormageddon dark lord of all" made me chuckle, and me noticing it made it a lot more funny

Brian Cranston on hotwings said that a character absolutely cannot think what they're doing is funny, or it ruins the joke. I think that extends to the music point you were making.

Three hour video essay on a show I've never even seen? Hell yeah

What an amazing video! Love your content. I was listening to it while at work and kept laughing out loud at the editing and stuff you said. I've been a Doctor Who fan since I was a kid and the thing that's sadly put me off it in recent years is the fact that the lore has become such a mess that I can't feel invested in it anymore. This has been a problem for a long time but the Timeless Child retcon is really what tipped it over the edge for me with a huge amount of preestablished lore now making no sense and the Doctor not being from Gallifrey really invalidates some of those amazing story elements from RTD's first run in my opinion about him being the last of his species because technically he isn't the same species. Anyway, please make more vids like this one they are so well made and hilarious.

This video is brilliant, an actual in depth look at the new episodes for what they are rather than moaning about 1 or 2 scenes that people are getting upset about. It’s a fantastic look into the culture that this show has seemingly created. Unbiased in the correct way, well done for this 👏🏻

There's quite a few things I want to say in agreement with the points you made but I'll stick with just this one. I 100% agree that Devil's Chord should have fully committed to being a musical. I easily forgave Wild Blue Yonder not being the big 60th anniversary cameo-central extravaganza because what we got instead was a great episode. But I'm having a hard time being as forgiving of Devil's Chord for not being what I expected/wanted because what we got was a half-assed average episode with some good moments scattered throughout. When you brought up the idea that Doctor Who should change up the genre as often as possible, it made me think on just how badly I was looking forward to the "musical episode of Doctor Who" and just how let down I felt. Then again, I hate both The Goblin Song and There's Always A Twist, so it's very possible I wouldn't have been happy with the outcome anyway. No-one hates Doctor Who quite like the fans, right. I do genuinely want to enjoy the show. It's just hard at times. Especially with these recent episodes, I just have an easier time finding the problems, they stick out and keep me from enjoying the better aspects fully. I'm sure Space Babies must have had redeeming qualities. But the problems I had with it are so numerous that I couldn't look past them. I can only hope that when Russell says 73 Yards is the best thing he's ever written, that it is not hyperbole. I can only hope that he hasn't interfered too much with Rogue. I can only hope that if Boom is also largely free of his oversight, that it is the good side of the coin flip that is a Moffat penned episode. Sorry for the venting in the latter half there. Great video!

36:26 - "Near the end of the episode The Doctor is forced to give Donna back her memories in order to save the day, thinking it will kill her in the process. ...When the Doctor's in the middle of his work, a glass divider comes down separating him from the controls he needs... at this point, in my mind the next logical step would presumably be to dictate to Donna what buttons she needs to press and to be fair he does... but then he kind of just gives up and goes for the nuclear option instead. But why? It's not like he couldn't have just kept dictating to her what he needed to do. I suppose if you want to play Devil's Advocate, you could argue that since they're pressed for time dictating what to do wouldn't be fast enough, but I don't know if I buy that." Oh, hi, it's me again! I guess I'm here to play Devil's Advocate, although... I mean, I feel like framing it that way is a bit odd, and perhaps a touch unfair, like you're priming the audience to dismiss anyone who disagrees with you as just contrarian. We're in classic ticking clock territory here, there's a literal countdown ticking down the seconds until... But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, "he kind of just gives up"? I mean, they do literally say just beforehand that "We've run out of time. If there's anything else I could do...". That does seem to imply that, y'know, the Doctor's been trying things, and they know that it won't be enough to keep going that way. And, hey, maybe someone playing Devil's Advocate to my Devil's Advocate may say "there's no way they'd be able to be sure of that", but later on (when Donna's been activated) they're both able to predict how much time she has left to live down to the second, so, I dunno, makes sense to me that they'd know. And it makes sense to me that it would make a difference, because... Look, Verdana, you run a video analysis KZfaq channel, you're presumably a techy person. Have you ever been trying to help someone with a problem on their PC, maybe an older person who isn't tech savvy, and rather than just give you the keyboard and mouse to fix it, they demand you talk them through the process? I have. I've known the utter frustration that is saying "Now click on the 'Edit' button at the top. Right at the top. Move the mouse up. Up. Up. Keep going, all the way to the top. Up. Up. Up. Right at the top. Up. There you go, now click on it. Excellent, now... OK, why did you just hit cancel? Never mind, just go and click the picture again... The same picture from before, at the bottom... Go down... down...". So, yeah, scale that up to a Doctor-level genius trying to tell someone who is functionally a completely normal person how to disable a spaceship they're inside. "Now turn the green dial, the one on that wall, no, look over here, see where I'm pointing, that wall, it's about knee height, 3 in from the left, the... Right, that was the blue one, I said the green one, we'll need to reset that panel now..." I can totally buy that that would take too long, but taking a minute to activate the locked-away Timelord gubbins would give them enough time. Like if you could flash a torch in that tech-unsavvy person's face for a few seconds, and then they go go "ahh, I get it, so just bring up the log file, look for the error code, and... ahh, the USB connection halted, I just need to turn it off and on again! Of course!"; look me in the eyes and tell me that wouldn't be faster than an hour of "Drag it over to the left window. Just put the cursor on it, then hold the button down... no, the left button. The _left_ button. Not on the keyboard, the left mouse button. OK, you see the menu that keeps popping up? That means you're clicking the right button. The _right-hand_ button, not the _correct_ button. No, I know you're holding the mouse in your right hand, I mean..." Plus, y'know, the moral aspect of _killing someone for the greater good_ is probably worth a minute's chat with them first. Which is almost exactly how long they take, actually. (And, while we're here: "the Doctor spends 2 full minutes moping about having to kill Donna"? Come on, it's their best mate in the universe, discussing with her that she's about to die is a pretty big stretch for the word "moping". And "2 full minutes" of moping? Nope. From saying they're out of time, until starting to read the activation phrase, is 73 seconds. I checked. It *is* 2 full minutes between them saying they're out of time and her activating, but almost half of that is actually doing the thing, so...?) Once Donna's activated, it isn't just that now she knows where the switches are... it's that *she's coming up with her own ways of subverting the launch.* So when you say "...she only has to flick, like, 3 switches to save the day", while we don't actually see how many switches she flicks, in doing so she "tripledrives the particle manifesto", "oversteps the umblical feed", "vindicates the cyberline", and "roasts the hyperfeeds", while the Doctor looks on in amazement. Then, he (free of having to shout instructions) rushes off to "maximise the stressfold links", while Donna "Channels up the booster drive", the Doctor "inculcates the plexidrones", and Donna "shatterfries the positrons". She then does some other stuff (without saying what's she's doing, but *definitely* including flicking at least 5 switches in this step alone), and then does "this", which is another ~7 switch flicks. Most of that happens with Donna off-camera, so we don't know how difficult it is... but if the Doctor thinks they couldn't talk someone through it all in the 3 mins and 50 seconds they had left when they said time was running out, I'm inclined to trust them. Of course, the real reason for this whole scene is _it's the emotional culmination of both the episode's story, and the almost decade-long story of Donna Noble._ Like, mate, come on. Stories are not just about logical people doing the most efficient thing in a given moment. They are (and should be) about heart, and feelings, and emotions, in the characters and the viewers. That episode, and Donna's apparent death, made me give a shit about my least favourite companion. That scene isn't about if Donna will be able to flick the right switch in time, it's about the Doctor screaming "Why does it have to be this?", right before (as far as they know) sacrificing their best friend to save millions, and her going along with it to save her daughter. Maybe it didn't hit with you, and, sure, that's fine... but acting like this is some massive crime of writing against reason rather than just admit you weren't personally emotionally invested is, to be frank, some CinemaSins level bullshit. I'm sorry, I know that's harsh, but I think it's justified. (Ooh, also: as the glass partition closes the announcer voice says the "Double Dagger Drive" is installed, so presumably the Meep has to "Bisect the Manifold" because it has two engines that need to be kept seperate. That is obviously completely contrived, the VO line was probably added in post-production, and I invite the reader to think about how they would've achieved setting up this scenario where the Doctor and Donna are seperated physically and both need to do things that require Doctor-level skills and also the Doctor is close enough to reactivate Donna in a way that is less contrived and fits the episode up to that point. Bonus points if it still allows for the two to see each other full-body, so the camera can really capture their performances off each other.)

A 3 Hour Verdana video essay!?! Made my day

That impersonation of Reaper 😂😂😂

First, binging all if New Who when I first found out about it in 2020. Then, a five hour video about Doctor Who. Now, watching a three hour long video in one sitting. Life is good (thank you so much for the EXTREMELY thoughtful and informative video 😊)

Russel t Davies, who’s the show runner. Great writer. Steven Moffat who’s coming back for some episodes. Great writer. The problem is we need new great writers or the show isn’t gonna last too long, and only one episode this season has a new writer.

BABE WAKE UP NEW VERDANA DROPPED‼️🗣️🗣️🗣️

Regarding the Davros situation, I think it's extra confounding after watching The Devil's Chord. If Russell didn't want to perpetuate the trope of disabled characters being villains, why did he then decide it was fine to perpetuate the trope of flamboyantly queer characters being villains with the Maestro? To be clear I don't think there's any problems with Davros or the Maestro, I just think once you start laying down arbitrary rules like Russell did, you'll eventually do something that comes across as very hypocritical.

I love the editing here. You've made me chuckle many times 😂

Really good video, well done. You gave me a chance to look at my own feelings regarding the recent episodes, and I think you nailed what Doctor Who is.

Another banger. As a casual viewer I like feeling like I am absorbing your vast knowledge of Doctor Who.

Thank you for addressing the cringe cultural war with nuance and a balanced mind, and actually reviewing the episodes on their actual objective qualities. Plus, as of "73 Yards", the new era seems to be finding its feet with a great range of tones and themes. Keep up the great work

I hope you know that people will be looking back on this video for years to come. Excellent work and I appreciate your dedication to expressing your opinion so thoughtfully 👍

With Gaiman's second episode Moffat had no choice but to rewrite it, not because it was bad but because of the BBC's forced changes to Clara. Moffat had originally planned Victorian Clara and her two wards as being the main Clara and her duel Victorian life her main background, but at the last minute BBC execs got cold feet and insisted the companion be contemporary to be more relatable. Unfortunately, this change was so late in the day some scripts, including Gaiman's, were already written for Victorian Clara. This is why the hasty barely there new background for Clara exists in her first proper series as companion, and why the hastily shoved in children are there- rewriting Gaiman's episode without the children was too big a task, altering them to be from modern times less so. If you notice in that episode Clara's dialogue is more like the clipped precise manner of Victorian Clara too. Regards series 6 and points in Time, you have to realise the Web of Time is a construct made by the Time Lords to create the universe in the shape and form as we know it, they made it, and the fixed points are what keep it in place. It's a double edged sword- it solved the issue they had of our universe being chaotic and unstable and unbelievably violent, but at the cost once established it has to exist forever or the whole universe comes crashing down. The Silence we are told turn a Still Point in Time into a Fixed Point- the manner by which they do is through the power of story - as we see throughout the series with legends about River and the Doctor, the Doctors death by an Impossible Astronaut (that's why it's an impossible astronaut, the story has to be both mythic and mysterious to catch on) and we get even nursery rhymes about it, doing all this creates enough belief that it forms a fixed point, but all the Silence did was create a fixed point that the Doctor would appear to be killed there and everyone would believe it. The get out for the Doctor was that all time required of him was to appear to die to fulfil the fixed point. He wasn't saved because he was in the tesselector as such, he was saved because everyone thought the tesselector was him and he was dead, the tesselector let him meet the criteria, he was both present for real on the beach and he appears to everyone else to have died - that was the fixed point.

One of the best videos I’ve ever watched. You’ve hit on so many points that help explain my growing disenchantment with Who since it’s new series high point (for me the Tennant/Tate season, though I did think the last two Capaldi seasons were mostly really good). Just simple things like the over-intrusive music, the editing and the overemphasising of supposedly progressive points all just detract from the quality and enjoyment, add in the very cringy cringe elements…. It’s a mess The best of classic Who, and also new Who featured superb scripts and acting and atmosphere, yet the first and third of these (at times the second too) have been ever more thrown out the window recently. But why? By contrast, even the best of the mostly awful Chibnall era - Demons of the Punjab and Haunting of Villa Diodati - show that it can still be done, but for some reason they just don’t choose to do it. These people are meant to be fans (which I think is actually a bad idea for show runners), yet they don’t seem to know what good Who is…..

You’ve clearly put hundreds of hours into writing and editing this video and you deserve more views and you will get more views in time

This might sound cringe, but if there’s any recent inspiration to take of a sci-fi show constantly mixing it up and doing weird new shit, that’d be Rick and Morty, I always felt bummed that Doctor Who wasn’t trying out more wacky ideas the way that show was. And talking of constantly changing shows, Smiling Friends manages to change it up stylistically every single episode, always some new art-style, some weird vibe or genre or idea they explore, it’s fun, any episode you don’t like the next one might hit the spot. The refusal to get more guest-writers is killing this franchise, just like every single IP trying to mine nostalgia, its just not working.

Ncuti Gatwa is actually a good actor . The problem is the writing for some episodes.

I very much agree with your final point that the Whittaker series was a better creative direction for the show to focus on. Harkening back to the past is only a recipe for stagnation. In general, I've always been very disappointed with how... amateurish the writing on doctor who feels. As much as I liked both Smith and Capaldi as doctors, the writing and editing made the show feel very cheap and lifeless, for me. Knowing all the behind the scenes drama only makes sense tbh. Amazing video as always verdana

I hope we all can agree that talking heads like Clownfish TV and Nerdrotic calling it dead for being 'woke' or whatever are disingenuous shock jocks at least in this context.

Tbh the idea about the Doctor revisting places besides Earth does sort of happen, though often in the form of revisiting time periods. Examples would be The Long Game / Parting of the Ways where it visits the same place and directly shows his affect on the timeline, the New Earth trilogy all being set in the year 5 billion and having recurring elements between them (Cassandra, the Face of Boe, the New Earth planet), the Ood time period (Satan Pit and Planet of the Ood plus End of Time shows how PotO Ood are getting on), the recurring use of the 51st Century and the Church in Moffat's era and beyond, etc.

Thank you for pointing out the sound mix. I thought it was just my tv.

RTD seems like he has a gun pointed at his head in some of these interviews like dude representation isn't black and white and acting like it is is not only making you and your writing seem somehow more problematic but also seems to be stressing you tf out lol. Also, just wanted to say that I absolutely love your idea for how to defeat the Toymaker, like it feels like a genuinely Doctor Who solution, and I would love to see some sort of similar hijinks to defeat a villain in this coming series, especially considering that the show is becoming more fantastical with its lore.

And a final note, the most important part of your video thesis was the last part - tearing apart the increasingly baleful domination by the Fitzroy Club. I hate cliques. And ‘writerly’ cliques are the worst, pompous, arrogant, self-important. Anyway the long eclipse of Who allowed them to develop and stamp their vision on the new show, and it worked, till they ran out of ideas - pretty much by the end of season 4…. And now they’re so possessive of it that they won’t let go, and their idiotic worshippers won’t let them be moved aside It’s like the awful late 70s/early 80s DWM group all over again, except they never actually held the reins (well Levine aside perhaps). God this is all so frustrating.

Honestly I've always thought it would be interesting to see Toby Whithouse as showrunner. Am I crazy?

i watch ONE 3 hour doctor who video and now my ENTIRE FEED is FULL of DOCTOR WHO