Doctor Who

Doctor Who Anticipation 2024

Tom Charman

Apr 14, 2024 — 1 min read

I haven’t really watched, or finished reading, anything this week, so let’s talk Doctor Who, which is one month away from the new season.

It’s been a while since I discussed it here, so let’s do a quick recap of what I’ve skipped:

Season 9: Very good, great ending
Season 10: Very good, great ending
Season 11: Damn, I was hoping for more but maybe it’ll get better.
Season 12: Um.
Season 13: Gosh, maybe that would have been good if they’d had time.
The 60th specials: Okay, Good, Great, Meh but with good cast.

This, of course, is the kind of incisive criticism you come to this site for. While I was disappointed that we didn’t immediately get another pass at a female Doctor (I pine for Gillian Anderson but I’m fairly sure that will never happen), I’ve been pretty thrilled with the choice of Ncuti Gatwa, who I loved in Sex Education. I found ‘The Church on Ruby Road’ a little disappointing after the massive high from ‘The Giggle’, but that was no slight on his excellent performance.

But now, since we’ve had two trailers for the full^[1] new season, as well as the news of the episode titles and writers, I’m ready to rock through time / fill up my weekly blog quota. Here we go.

The shots of Ruby in what seems to be normal life paint a reassuring story that we’re back to some grounded home-life for the companions, which I quite enjoy.
Gatwa’s “Into dust” speech gives me tingles in the dangerous, Doctor-unleashed way that the Chibnall-Whitaker era, just never did.
I’m stoked that they’re doing a Beatles episode. And the Doctor and Ruby’s jaunty walk across the Abbey Road pedestrian crossing is adorable.
Do we really need more Tennant? I mean it does look like it's just a static picture of him, but still.
I haven’t seen Bridgerton, so I’m slightly put off that there seem to be two individual name checks in the dialogue. Old farts like me watched the BBC Pride and Prejudice.
“There’s a storm coming in.” ... seriously?
I’m very excited that Moffat is back, and anyone who had anything to do with Loki season one is alright by me.

Well, eight episodes. It’s shrinkflation, I tell you. ↩︎

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