End of an Error

I tend not to like regeneration episodes of "Doctor Who" - with very few exceptions they are overshadowed by the great big change that is to come, which detracts from the story they're in the process of telling. The big exception to this was the Ecclestone -> Tennant switch, which had the advantage of being a massive surprise. Given that "Power of the Doctor" was also the final episode of the Chibnall era, which I'm afraid I just haven't rated, I wasn't terribly hopeful.

The good news is that it was better than I'd expected. The story suffered from just throwing far too much on the screen too quickly and not really allowing anything to breathe, but it did at least seem to have some sort of coherent narritive in there. And Sacha Dhawan was excellent as the Master, so giving him more screen time was no bad thing. (That said, I kept expecting him to morph into Orlo from "The Great". Which would have been interesting. Huzzah!)

There are spoilers from here on out, some of them massive. So you know what to do...

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The other really thing about PotD was the big play on nostalgia - the appearances by several Doctors and Companions past, the references to Adric, Ace's baseball bat, UNIT... it all added up to an episode that was more for me than for current audiences, I think. It was good to see Ace back in action (always a favourite), and really quite nice to see Baker and McCoy back in the saddle for what is likely to be one last ride. (Also good to see Davison and David Bradley back.)But my biggest takeaway there is that I'd still really like to see McGann getting a mini-series at some point...

Of course, one thing that Chibnall has messed up is that the reverence given to the First Doctor now makes no sense whatsoever in-universe. It still plays for the audience, a bit, I guess, but now that he's not the first, he's actually just one particular incarnation - might as well just roll the dice and pick someone, or even just cast someone random and put them in position. After all, why not? (Grr.)

One thing I was a little surprised not to see, though I'm not sure exactly where it would fit, was one final scene back at The Edge, where we see Thirteen, post-regeneration, walking to join all her predecessors. But on the other hand, the Companions Support Group was a better idea...

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And with that the Whittaker era comes to an end. It's a shame, as it had such potential, but I still maintain that she was badly served by most of the material she was given, and was asked to give a performance that was itself disappointing. Not her fault, but I'm afraid it does leave Thirteen at the bottom of my ranking.

And it also marks the end of the Chibnall era. I'm much happier about that, and really intrigued as to where RTD takes us from here. I just hope he has a really good explanation for Ten coming back...