Now Jodie Whitaker has complete her tenure as the Doctor, it is time to rank her last series. There were four stories in Series 13. Although a quater of the stories, the first one, Flux, made up 2/3 of the episode count.
My ranking is thus.
4. Legend of the Sea Devils: 5/10 - This episode bought back the Sea Devils, a long awaited return of a classic series monster. However, was it any good? No. The story was weak, and it came across very cheap. It had similar issues to many previous Whitaker episodes. This includes a lot of mixed messaging of morality. For example, the Doctor stopped the execution of a Sea Devil, only for the next scene to have Dan murder Sea Devils for comic relief. It was overall quite a poor story, but there have been far worse in the Whitaker era.
3. Flux: 5/10 - Flux was six episodes of really quite mixed quality, as seen in my review of it last year. Episode 4, Village of Angels was quite spectacular really. A solid script where the Weeping Angels were used effectively. Episode 2, War of the Sontarans, was also quite a good episode. However, the other episodes were quite disjointed. The first episode set the story up pretty well but the last episode wrapped things up horrifically. I can think back now to the Doctor voicing over the top of the McGuffin as it sucks in all the flux. Let us not forget this episode also had mixed moral messaging. The Doctor stopped the Crimean soldiers from blowing up the Sontarans, only for her to commit mass genocide in the last episode. Episode 3 has to have a special mention though. It was unbelievably boring. It is the worst episode in Doctor Who history. I have never hoped for an episode to end so much before in all my life. Painful.
2. Eve of the Daleks: 7/10 - This episode was quite a bit of fun. It was quite a simple story, but there is nothing wrong with that. It just wasn't anything particularly special. Some of the dialogue, as is the case in any Whitaker era episode, was quite ropey, but overall this was quite a good story.
1. Power of the Doctor: 8/10 - Whitaker's last episode was actually quite good. It has a lot of flaws, an awful amount of plot holes, but I have to say the fan service has certainly got me for now. It was quite an epic. I do think Dan and Yaz's exits were quite poor, they were just binned off. The Doctor's regeneration cause was also as if Chibnall had forgotten that he had to make his Doctor regenerate. Which is probably the case to be honest. The dialogue in places was also very ropey. I am particularly thinking of the scene were Ace and Tegan talk over the Ipad. The plot also was very confusing and made no sense. The Master could just pretend to be a shape shifting alien, the Doctor, without taking her body surely? That being said I enjoyed seeing Ace and Tegan back and all the other companions at the end. And of course the classic Doctors. But none more so then the fact David Tennant is back! As the current Doctor! This is something I, along with many others, predicted, but it was still a great thing to see. I squeeled with joy. I also have to say with this episode that Jodie Whitaker and Mandip Gill's acting was superb, and probably the best of both of their works. I think the story probably should have had more screentime for the Doctor. I don't think I can recall a single proper regeneration story where the Doctor leaving does not have the most screentime. I imagine both Yaz and the Master had more screentime than her in this episode. More plot holes I have to mention is how did Tegan survive her fall and if the Cybermen were able to shoot Ace, why could they not just leave? Also why was Ashad there? What was the point? Same goes for Vinder. Completely pointless. I am just pleased they did not say that he was the Doctor's father as I worried.
Overall, a pretty poor series, but that is normal for Whitaker. Stay refreshed for my top 10 Whitaker episodes and my latest series ranking.
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