So, my review with very minor spoilers and a scene-setting rant at the start...


So, Doctor Who, eh? I was a bit worried in the run up to this. I really disliked nearly all of Moffat's run. Though I enjoyed the first season of Matt Smith's Doctor Who, I quickly found the Emperor to be sans wardrobe. Each season-arc mystery relied on blink and you'll miss it (oh-ho!) hurriedly mumbled dialogue that we'd desperately have to store away in the hope it'd result in a finale making sense and even when the cliffhanger was resolved, the result would just mean the immediate setting up of another irritating mystery. Characters revealed themselves to have no natural motivation or agency, but were merely slaves to setting up the next pointless clue or indulge in a bit of meme-generating quippery or fan-service. The charisma and acting chops of Karen Gillan were wasted on Amy Pond, an initially very likable character who somehow became a selfish, sullen emotional cripple. She was then replaced by Clara, a character created purely to be the component of another mystery, with Moffat seemingly unaware that if you don't give a damn about the characters, you don't give a damn about the plot. Matt Smith's season crashed following Moffat's attempt to infect the entire history of the canon with idiocy and what remained burned to salty ash with a Christmas episode that made no damn sense and failed to generate any feels, despite his heroic efforts, which was then followed by Capaldi's introduction doubling-down on the sins of the previous re-generation. Only the 50 Year special offered some relief, with it being a pretty entertaining adventure - despite some irritating ret-conning. Bill Potts proved marginally more interesting but by then it was too late. I just couldn't give a damn about anyone involved. I dipped in for the odd episode to see if things had improved, but they hadn't. It was the same thing again and again; characters doing things for no reason other than to advance the plot and the Doctor being selfish and obnoxious with everyone constantly talking about him - somehow he became Poochie. Only without the grace to die on his way to his home planet.

I had no beef with the acting. Jenna Coleman has been great in other shows, but clearly she was struggling with no direction as to what her character was supposed to be. Capaldi gamely tried to create something but was saddled with the turn-on-a-sixpence emotional switches and meme-slavery that Matt Smith suffered under. But by God, it was as if Moffat was deliberately trying to make me hate the show. I effectively gave up with the Skaro two parter with Davros and Missy, which made no earthly sense and yet-again found a way to shrink the universe with the Doctor having being involved with every-important-thing-ever. I returned briefly for a couple of odd episodes to test the waters, but couldn't make my way through them, and only watched one full episode after that - the final Christmas special. Which was terrible.

So I was scared going in to the new season. Chibnall had clearly gained confidence with Broadchurch, but would he be pressured by the BBC into presenting more of the empty shine of Moffat's era, the misguided fan-service and plots designed merely to generate tumblr-memes? It was a damned odd thing - despite Moffat having finally broken into America during his run, the increasing emptiness of Doctor Who was threatening to irredemably break the show itself. Perhaps the BBC would just ask for more of the same? So it was with some nervousness that I sat down Sunday night to watch it.

Phew. Real characters.

Yes! Chibnall's season debut opens with people with a down-to-earth problem speaking in a normal, down-to-earth fashion! And sure, weird things soon start happening but at no point did I stop feeling that these were real people. (Although admittedly that was mildly threatened with the old issue of Doctor Who characters accepting ridiculous amounts of confusing alien danger far too readily. But that's par for the course with Doctor Who.) My first real test of whether a show had believable characters is if I find myself wondering what they did before, how they'd react in other situations, what they might be talking about between adventures to each other. That never happened with Moffat. I never bought either Amy or Clara as a human being. So yes, I liked the characters, I felt concern for them. Score one for Chibnall.

Then there was the way the effects and cinematography spectacle were more grounded in a sense of our daily reality, how the special effects were less grandiose but more realistic. The shot from the juddering train of the flashes in the sky. The slightly dream-like encounter with the projections in the wood. It felt less cartoony, again more down-to-earth. Simple shots like people getting off the train and disappearing into the night.

Then there were the brief moments that made us feel for the human victims. Words spoken over a body, a phone call taken before a death. Sometimes a little on the nose, yes, but infinitely preferable to humanity being reduced to mere spectators and buffoons designed to make the Doctor look teh-awesome.

The plot itself was no great-shakes, though good-enough for a character introduction piece. There was some good humour, some spooky bits, a sense of wonder. That was enough for me. The important thing was that we had characters I could believe in again and an atmosphere that shared those uncanny moments of super-realism that Russell T Davies hit now and again - especially with Eccleston's 'The Second Coming'. And it was set in Sheffield. Bonus.

As for Jodi Whitaker - well, she was pretty darn good. I bought her as the Doctor. Science fiction storytelling has done the male-to-female before in Moorcock, LeGuin and Moore so I was perfectly fine with the show expanding its story-telling horizons by making this change. Hell, Virginia Woolf's wonderful 1930's time-hopping gender-change novel Orlando revolves around it, and all the critics and readers loved that back then. I don't think she's one of the great Doctors yet, but I can see that happening.

In all it restored my faith in the series. I can now happily watch Doctor Who again without wanting to throw a teapot at the TV screen. Phew, thanks Chibnall.

Four out of Five