![]() Whittaker is asked to play a couple of different versions of the character throughout the episode. She gets several solid moments here as the Doctor is forced to confront various pieces of her past and face down her regeneration. Still, Whittaker has been a wonder throughout her tenure and frequently done great things when given very little, and that's certainly something that happens in this episode at various points. I've spoken elsewhere about how frustrating I've found a lot of the Thirteenth Doctor era, which has often felt like one step forward, two steps back both in terms of the story it's telling and in the way it has treated the entire concept of having a female Doctor in the first place. And Whittaker's talent in this role is such that she manages to convey writing that often feels painfully thin into something emotionally meaningful. There are moments when the Thirteenth Doctor feels like the least important (and often least active) part of her own show. Its narrative is overstuffed with so many pointless twists, secondary characters, and rapid-fire lines of exposition that you'll have a hard time explaining the plot of the story you just watched to anyone who hasn't seen it. The show looks incredible, with fantastic cinematography and visual set pieces. (Poor John Bishop is barely even present, and as much as I love Jacob Anderson in other things, I have no idea why Vinder exists in the world of the show.)īut, largely thanks to its deft deployment of classic characters and nostalgic throwbacks, even the most hard-hearted of fans will find plenty to love here, even if you might end up thinking that as outgoing Doctor Whittaker deserved a bit more of the episode's focus in her final outing.Īs an episode, "The Power of the Doctor" is full of many things we've come to expect from the Chris Chibnall era. ![]() The episode brings back so many supporting and ancillary characters that it often struggles to give them anything worthy to do. Granted, its story specifics fall apart under the slightest scrutiny. While it doesn't succeed in every aspect of that brief, it's a big, chaotic spectacle that provides enough fan service to paper over most of its narrative cracks. "The Power of the Doctor" is a feature-length special that has to serve many masters (pardon the pun). ![]() Its the end of multiple eras on Doctor Who as the series says goodbye to Thirteenth Doctor Jodie Whittaker, showrunner Chris Chibnall, and its fifth decade, all while celebrating the 100th anniversary of the media corporation that made it all possible in the first place.
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