Doctor Who Finale “The Power of the Doctor” Marked Beginning of the End Four Years Ago

As the longest-running sci-fi show in history, Doctor Who puts a huge responsibility on whoever plays the Doctor. For Jodie Whittaker, who debuted as the Thirteenth Doctor in 2017, the weight was heavier still. She was the first woman in the role, and her casting immediately stirred up some of the internet’s worst grifters.

Much was at stake for the show’s creatives, including showrunner Chris Chibnall. Given that pressure, Whittaker’s final episode feels like a bigger betrayal. It lets down the show’s future, and it lets down Whittaker and her time as the Time Lord.

The Power of the Doctor fails everyone involved

“The Power of the Doctor” finishes a multi-episode arc in which the Doctor fights the Daleks, the Cybermen and the Master. All three want to destroy humanity. The Master disguises himself as the historical Russian figure Rasputin and sets himself up in Russia in 1916. From there, he plots with the Daleks and the CyberMasters, a new race of Cybermen who constantly regenerate, to trigger volcanic eruptions around the world. He also has a twist of his own. He plans a body-swapping regeneration that would forcibly turn him into the Doctor.

As expected, the Doctor foils the Master, the Daleks and the Cybermen. But first a defiant, defeated Master mortally wounds her with a laser beam. She has to leave her old companion Yasmin Khan (Mandip Gill) and regenerate into David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor. The change brought back a familiar face and a familiar showrunner, Russell T. Davies, who wrote the episode’s final moments.

On its own merits, “The Power of the Doctor” is easily one of the best episodes of Chibnall’s era. It sets the Doctor against insurmountable odds, and watching the Time Lord work out how to do the impossible is a joy. But the episode closes an era with more misses than hits, so it mostly highlights the weaknesses in Chibnall’s writing and direction.

One of the most common complaints about Chibnall’s run as showrunner was his heavy reliance on monologue over story. Critics also pointed to his overt nostalgia and his failure to develop the relationships between the Doctor and her companions. The first complaint is somewhat forgivable. Doctor Who episode lengths have varied over time, and Chibnall had to rely on specials rather than full seasons.

By the time “The Power of the Doctor” arrives, though, his focus on replaying old hits is hard to ignore. He revisits the Doctor’s greatest enemies and storylines instead of concentrating on the core relationships of the cast. The result is a lackluster finale that ends not with a bang but a whimper.

Beyond time travel and fighting villains, the bond between the Doctor and her companions is the heart of the show. Chibnall reunites classic companions Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding) and Ace (Sophie Aldred) with returning Doctors. Those Doctors are the Fifth (Peter Davison), Sixth (Colin Baker), Seventh (Sylvester McCoy) and Eighth (Paul McGann). The choice suggests he understands how much the Doctor-companion relationship matters.

Still, the reunions are lovely, but sidelining Thirteen and Yaz always felt odd. Yaz has been with Thirteen since the start of her time in the TARDIS, and this is Thirteen’s last episode.

The choice looks worse because of Yaz’s story. Her growing confidence in herself and her choices has been rewarding. Yet we never see that confidence pay off in her romantic relationship with the Doctor before it is tragically cut short. This is the first same-sex relationship we’ve seen the Doctor in after more than 50 years. Compared with the Doctor’s heterosexual relationships with companions like Rose Tyler, Clara Oswald and River Song, the would-be romance between Thirteen and Yaz feels insulting in its lack of substance.

The episode also makes a flat swansong for Thirteen because it fails to center on her, largely because it reintroduces David Tennant. Whittaker gives a breathtaking performance when she realizes she won’t get any more time with Yaz. But Tennant’s return a few moments later feels like Chibnall and the BBC threw in the towel. Instead of going bold and trying something new, they retreated to safer waters.

Tennant’s return did pay off. His brief stint as Fourteen made Doctor Who more popular than it had been in years. But “The Power of the Doctor” also marked the end of a Doctor Who willing to take risks. That loss would haunt Davies over his next two seasons as showrunner. It eventually left the show on extremely shaky ground, waiting for someone with fresh, bright ideas to save it from extinction.

Source: Polygon