I'm here to complain about Doctor Who

[promethia_tenk]

Because I'm a fan, dammit!

So, the new season of Doctor Who has not been doing it for me. Bless Jodie Whittaker and her Doctor, they are blameless in this. She's delightful and perfectly cast.

And, hey, the plots have mostly been middling to rubbish, the dialogue is dull and frequently clunky, and the writing in general is uninspiring. But if you were unprepared for any of this then you didn't do your homework.

What's really getting to me, though, and the thing that I was definitely not prepared for is how little emotional investment I feel in any of it. If Chibbs can do anything, surely he does characters and their relationships, right?!?! I've been batting around reasons for why things aren't clicking. Do we just need more time? (Torchwood was solid dreck for a season and a half before erupting into brilliance.) Is three TARDIS companions one too many? (Quite possibly yes, I'm thinking.) Am I just bitter that somebody thought we still needed a white dude on the cast? (Yes.) But I recently read a review somewhere that really snapped things into perspective for me, which noted that Ryan and Graham are now the heart of the show. And, frickety-frak, the reviewer is right. Ryan and Graham's relationship has been the major emotional through-line of the whole thing, has born most of the emotional weight. And it has been rather nice to watch, for what it is. I don't have a problem with their relationship in and of itself. I rather love Ryan, who is so my favorite. (Graham is fine.) But in the meantime Yaz is still underdeveloped and the Doctor hasn't really established a meaningful bond with any of them yet.

So let me ask you: how is it that, in getting a female Doctor, the show has somehow become more male-centric?

Comments

[owlboy]

Graham is my favourite, but I've kind of been wondering if that's because the narrative is giving The White Guy all the depth. I feel like I don't really know anything about Yaz and Ryan other than that she's a police officer, and he's tremendously isolated/dyspraxic, which hasn't been dealt with since the first episode.

[nostalgia]

She's a bit... Bland.

[elisi]

Torchwood was solid dreck for a season and a half before erupting into brilliance.
I thoroughly resent this statement. Torchwood was amazing from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang onwards.

[sea_thoughts]

I think three companions is too much when you're also introducing a new Doctor, sadly. I quite like the Team Confused dynamic but it doesn't feel like Ryan and Yaz are getting much focus. Jodie is still the highlight of the series for me. (What I wouldn't give for some of Moff's dialogue or visual gift, though.)