Here's a weird thing: for me, the best bit of the recent Doctor Who finale, "The Reality War" was the appearance, very briefly, of Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor. And yet, as I've mentioned before, I really didn't care for that era of DW - while JW is very definitely a talented actor and has done good work in other things, I felt she was sorely let down by the material she had to work with and was asked to play the role in a manner I found fairly grating.
But that's not the only time that's happened.
One of the best parts of the (very excellent) "Star Trek: Prodigy" was seeing Janeway back in action (and, for that matter, Wesley Crusher, Chakotay, and others). But back in the day, when watching "Star Trek: Voyager" I really didn't like Janeway, or indeed most of the rest of her crew. And, as I am gradually rewatching ST:V, I'm finding that this wasn't just a bad first impression - much of that series just isn't great.
Then there's "Ahsoka", in which the reappearance of Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker made for the very best part of the very best episode (which itself is probably the single best thing Disney have done with Star Wars... including "Andor" and "Rogue One"). And yet, while HC received a lot of very unfair flak for his portrayal, the prequels were really not great (and, for my money, the best of them is "The Phantom Menace", in which he does not appear).
It's very odd.
Part of it, I think, may be just the passage of time. And with so much of the newer material really not being great in general, perhaps time is kind to those things.
But perhaps part of it is that these things fit better in the hands of other writers - that RTD was able to draw something out of Thirteen than Chibnall was, because it wasn't his beloved character.
Or maybe it's just that these things are good to see but strictly in small doses. Who knows?
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