This video has been claimed and blocked up the wazoo on my main channel by the BBC. The version I'm posting to RUclips is not the BEST version of this video. If you want to watch this in 4K without some strange editing choices, you can on Patreon. This thing has taken almost 4 months and will likely not make any money. If you want to support me, gain access to a better version of this video AND the companion essay on 'Father's Day' and get tons more, consider supporting me on Patreon. I'd really really appreciate it. I hope you all enjoy this video. Finally. www.patreon.com/LazerzZ
I tell you for a demonetized video youtube certainly put a lot of adverts on this one! Whoever is making royalties money from the clips used is making a lot of money out of your labour weaving them together.
Russell definitely has "second album syndrome". He probably spent years thinking about his first few seasons. He put all his best stuff in it. But now the studio wants another album or they are pulling the plug on the band, so he has to shit out some stuff. He tries to replicate some of his old work, but he's changed and so has the audience. But it's not working
I think we just need a whole new show runner, an actual good one. Chibnil has scared people unto trying new things but now we are suffering the consequences of trying to relive the 'glory' of doctor who without any well thought out substance. All just smoke and mirrors
@@herbion6117 Because here he was pulling the cart before the horse. The importance of Wilf knocking four times was established after he did it (causing the Doctor to regenerate), whereas here the importance was already revealed to us, and the twist was that there wasn't any more of it lol
The 1-2 punch of Dot and Bubble and Rogue is especially weird in retrospect. The Doctor encounters racism for the first time and then we go back in time and pretend that Regency era England was a multicultural, cosmopolitan culture with no racism instead of a brutal, colonial slave state.
When watching it i kept telling my partner who i was watching with how fucking weird it was and how the characters were acting totally different and how the studio clearly mandated they do a bridgerton episode and they even referenced that in the episode several times and lo and behold it was written by totally different writers. I feel like i cant blame rtd for that one too bad, that seems like the studio caused rouge to be shit by insisting on a desperate appeal to a young audience with no overlap by copying another show, and to try and create a jack harkness 2.
@123Voynich you do realize RTD is the showrunner right? He’s the one that commissioned them to write Rogue. He was very much involved through the entire process of making the episode.
Yeah, it was a nightmare. I don’t really enjoy the weird trend of pretending none of this happened and POC characters just slot nicely into the setting, and everything’s happy, and nobody’s treated badly. That’s not what happened, though, and a black man at the ball would’ve been something of a scandal and few people would’ve attended a ball there again. A gay kiss would also have grounds for imprisonment. The tacky incorporation of Bridgerton tropes “This is so Bridgerton” only made it worse. Be Doctor Who. Doctor Who will have a lasting legacy and Bridgerton will be forgotten.
yeah i really felt like they needed to choose one of those things and stick with it. either this is an era of doctor who in which racism is very real and we have to deal with it, or it's an era of doctor who where racism is at most acknowledged in a throwaway line and we pretend it doesn't exist and get on with the time and space adventures. you can't do both and you especially can't do both in back to back episodes. like i gave rtd shit for ten handwaving away all of martha's concerns about racism but "don't worry that's not a problem" is better than "racism IS real, but the british empire was actually suuuuper accepting!"
I think my biggest problem with this season is the man himself, Russell. His behaviour in interviews while addressing some of the criticism feels like he is just tired of the show and wants to get away by acting like people are idiots for criticizing him. For example. Bigeneration he just laughs it off in an interview and says something like ''I imagine fans on the internet are gonna have a lot to say about this'' and proceeds to make the worst theory possible about every Doctor bigenerating just so he can explain Tales of the TARDIS (which he wrote) or Peter Davison looking older on that miniepisode in Series 3. Then, after the finale he proceeds to say stuff like ''Well, I did that because it was fun! This is Doctor Who, it's meant to be silly!''. And he even admits that he did all that mystery surrounding Ruby because it pushes the algorhitm for the show online, since fans make videos about it or discuss it on Twitter and Reddit. And he mentioned on SDCC how fun it would be to bring dead Doctors back to life through CGI. Proceeds to respond to the ''Ncuti cries a lot'' criticism with ''I don't care, I'm doing it anyway''.
However! RTD already used to be *exactly* like that during his first run of the show, and he came across just as irritating. I often read and hear people talking like this is a new issue, and I'm not sure if this is because they forgot what he can be like or if they were just too young at the time to be aware of his interviews from that era. I mean, many of these people are in their late 20s or early 30s who probably didn't do message boards or Livejournal and so on at the time, so I can understand why this is a new thing to them.
22:05 Love to point out the fact that this scene wasn’t in the initial episode and is the result of Disney’s audience testing. All that character building it does for the Doctor was not initially intended by Russel - L
Normally a *"I'm not a bigot"* disclaimer would be completely out of left-field, but given this is a 4-hour video essay about Doctor Who by a gamer channel, it was a breath of fresh air
Just watch the earlier seasons because if I started with this I wouldn't have continued, but watching the older seasons was a world of difference from these seasons
@@R0N1N___ Watch at least one episode from the earlier series. You could watch the episode titled "Blink" from series 3. It is a stand alone episode and you don't need any knowledge about the show.
I’m slowly coming up with a theory. The higher a production value of a show, the more vapid it is likely to become. Obsessed with looking pretty, but without much going on behind the eyes.
the exact same thing happened to star trek. the production of picard was movie quality, but the writing was awful. old trek was made of cardboard and a prayer but it had good scripts.
The bigeneration was so dumb, if they didnt want 14 to regen, why not have him just retire to live with donna and then have the christmas special begin with 15 after an unspecified amount of time
@@ShaggyDabbyDank Except you could just do that with 14 spending an unspecified time off-screen before Regenerating. Any future appearance of 14 will be treated as a multi-Doctor story anyway, so it isn’t like this changes all that much.
That interview from Russell wouldn't be so stupid if he hadn't said, "only Doctor Who fans would get confused about the date" despite being a very normal way of looking at it, and then gives a very Doctor Who fan rambley answer explaining how it makes sense actually
@@Moperandi-k3x To which the question is “Why did Russell write the hero committing a morally uncomplicated genocide by making all the goblins evil baby eaters?” Even with the slaver Sycorax, there was a moral dilemma there that 10 recognised, so why doesn’t 15?
The point isn't that the goblin king shouldn't have died, the point is that the doctor previously has shown much more mercy and regret over killing far worse creatures/people
@@MrGreaves To be fair, Davies did this with Davros too. Guy tried to kill not only the universe but the entire multiverse and he's still "I can save you" after the whole "No second chances, that's the man I am."
@@yteriaereh6467 The only episode that had multiple writers was Rogue, which was co-written by Kate Herron and Briony Redman. Boom was only written by Moffat and all 6 other episodes in the season, as well as the Christmas special and the 60th anniversary specials were only written by RTD.
Never seen Doctor Who before, but I watched the whole thing on Patreon already and it was fantastic! It got me interested and I started watching the show after I finished your video. I'm on series 2 now, and I'm loving it so far! Great job as always bro 🤘
The word that keeps coming to mind when I think about RTD2 is “needless.” Needless in the sense that pretty much everything wrong with this series is an unforced error. Every single creative decision Russell made can’t be blamed on a lack of talent or bureaucratic meddling, it’s all on him and we know he can do better. We all know that what made RTD1 so impactful to so many of us was the emotional, character driven heart of those stories so to see him abandon it and treat us instead to cardboard cutout copies of characters that are 15 and Ruby is just… depressing. And that’s before we get into how nearly every episode is riddled with plot holes, narrative contrivances or creative decisions that are just laughably terrible. It’s all so pointless, because I expect better from the man who gave us 9 and 10. I don’t know how this happened… but it did, and we are all the worse off for it.
I'd say its the exact opposite problem. I don't imagine series 1 (2005) would have been as good if it had only been 8 episodes & people would probably raving about this latest series if it had 13 full episodes. As well as people need to stop pretending the series became bad because of an underwhelming finale: Everyone was raving for the individual episodes. Devil's Chord, Dot & Bubble, 74 yards & Rogue are all hall-of-fame episodes of Doctor Who.
@@samrobotsin All of the episodes you cited are bad. 😂 No, it didn’t become bad because of an underwhelming finale, it became bad because every episode was bad, or at the very least severely flawed. S1 would have been diminished if it only had 8 episodes, absolutely, but it would still have been 8 great episodes like Fathers Day and Dalek. Nothing in S14 even comes close to S1 at its worst.
This is how I feel as well. Like, he did all that mystery box nonsense with Ruby for...what reason? It kind of feels like he wrote himself in a corner earlier by creating the mystery, then he decided to watch the last three Star Wars movies and thought ''Yo, that could work'' and decided to write in the last minute the whole ''Ruby was special because WE made her special''. And it's so weird how back in his first era, this guy managed to write around the main actor leaving the show after one season. He managed to work around BBC wanting to cancel the show and not believing he could make it work. And now with a bigger budget, the support of the BBC, Disney and the fandom, it feels like he is just tired. His writing feels...tired. His biggest comebacks after being gone for 15 years is...bigeneration and ''Ruby's mom is actually normal''.
The bizarre thing is that Russell knows this stuff, has written this well (and not just for his earlier Who era, but recently in shows like It's A Sin and Nolly)- I'm genuinely fascinated how this season came together - it's like the production team were so dazzled by the new investment and its bells and whistles, that they forgot the basics. I really hope the next season rectifies these issue, but as it was largely made before the broadcast of Series 14, I'm worried that it'll have the same flaws.
I think if we make it to series 16/ season 3 we will get a course correction, I just hope we make it that far, ratings and cancellations and all I worry we might not make it to the fix
I still really think the Star beast and Wild Blue Yonder should have been 15th doctor episodes. Star beast being the new aliens of London. Ruby’s normal life and her life with the doctor clashing together (Carla even fosters and may have taken a shine to the meep) it would make sense that Ruby might want to pop home after the events of boom And WBY would have been a good character exploration for both characters, showing how strong their relationship is
Super sorry to hear about the copyright issues. The BBC's been really weird about this as of late - I know Council of Geeks has been having trouble with them lately as well. Here's hoping they knock it off sooner rather than later!
Fantastic video. I absolutely love RTD's first era, so obviously I was disappointed that I haven't quite been clicking with his second one. You put all my feelings into words.
Thank you, even as someone who likes this series. Im glad theres a good faith video out there that isnt grr minorites or grr black or trans people. Its tiring how rampant bigotry is in the DW fandom. As messy it is, Boom, 73 Yards and Dot and Bubble were all very good imo. Also the reason Russels given for low episode count is the old count made his mental health really poor with how much work it was
@@Luna-pk7gz Hahahaha… no. Boom is one of the worst prices of poorly written drivel the show has put out in recent memory, with only a couple of scenes in the beginning that actually work, everything else is unmitigated awfulness. That Moffat managed to trick people into thinking this garbage was not just passable but good is a feat that will never cease to amaze me.
I feel like a very easy way to make Sutekh’s return fit is to make it about the Doctor’s fear of death. He doesn’t want to go and find Susan because he thinks she’s dead, and if he doesn’t return to where Susan left he won’t have to deal with the loss of his granddaughter. Have Sutekh be a representation of that fear (and rewrite 73 Yards so it’s really about Ruby’s fear of abandonment).
The funniest thing about Suhtek being on the TARDIS is that the TARDIS got copied in The Giggle, and tho Russell denies it, you have to remember Ncuti took the duplicate, not the original. Meaning Suhtek was duplicated and the original Suhtek is still on 14s TARDIS. Oh my days Russell you're never gonna explain that one are you?
@cameronbaker97 It would've worked perfectly fine, if they had Meastro be the final villain of this season instead of Sutekh. Episodes 1-8 easily could've taken place across 6 months, and the line "But you never hide" would've had much more meaning behind it.
You’ve perfectly encapsulated my thoughts about this series as I was watching it - especially on the finale. All of your criticisms of the substance of the show (or lack thereof) I completely agree with, and your reasoning for why the show is like this are equally valid - not to mention RTD writing the show during a writer’s strike where he didn’t have access to a writer’s room. Honestly, even if he did, Russell appears narcissistic to me and I wouldn’t be surprised if he would still have taken it all on himself - he is constantly masturbating in press (he spoke about mavity, a running gag he instantly forgot, “immensely funny and very very creative”) and even on screen (the first part of the finale in UNIT feels like this). Returning to a showrunner and a previous doctor also is anathema to the show which has always prided itself on constant change and innovation. I understand why the Beeb decided to go with a “safe pair of hands” in RTD after the Chibnall debacle, but really what we needed is giving it to a new creative team!
Did you see Mr Tardis' video? He thinks the sonic can't resemble a gun because this Dr is black ...black American kids playing Doctor Who, maybe with the toys...
@@herbivarsawus4359 Yeah, we can’t let kids see something that looks like a gun. We can only let them actually have guns when we make the child scientist working at UNIT have a machine gun on wheels. 🤣
YEAH IM GONNA GET POPCORN FOR THIS!!! So sorry man about all the copyright stuff my god, I was following along on twitter, I'm super excited for this, thank you so much
Haha, I think Russell, for all his faults, doesn't let criticism waver his vision. Maybe I do think he needs to reflect and figure some shit out, but knowing the man, he does tend to just make the things that he wants regardless of reception and tbf, I have to respect it.
41:46 This is something I heard before and while I don't disagree about comparing Clara and Rose, especially in regards to "not caring about the risk of death" for Clara I think it misses something. In Before the Flood Clara has a very emotional outburst, telling the Doctor "Not with me. Die with whoever comes after me." Clara accepts her death on some level. Yes she doesn’t think the risks she takes will lead to her death right away but on some level she knows she will die. Even in Face the Raven after Doctor said he couldn’t fix it she accepted it, and affirmed it in Hell Bent (until Moffat wrote the "long way around" line but I have and will continue to ignore that). She knows she will die eventually and the Doctor will move on. While Rose, atleast to me, seems to believe she can somehow travel with the Doctor forever. I am not saying "Rose is immature and Clara is mature", it is perfectly resonable to believe Doctor can make people immortal (I mean look at Me) but I think the way Rose and Clara views death is very different. Yes I care so much about Rose and Clara comparisons that I used my one comment to talk about a 15 second bit of a 4 hour and change video. But I would argue caring about very small things to a, frankly sometimes stupid degree is part of being a Doctor Who fan Edit: 3:25:59 I think memory Tardis is not fine. Doctor says "It's a Tardis remembered. It's made of memories. Ruby, it is feeding off you, yeah? Give it everything you've got, babes. Remember it harder." implying it's Rubys memories making that Tardis but Ruby shouldn’t know any of the things inside memory Tardis. This is such an oversight, it could have been changed simply by having the Doctor say "It is feeding off my memories" but I suppose even in the writing process RTD just wanted focus on plot and not thing about anything esle since Doctors history is a jigsaw puzzle now
Sutekh could’ve easily fit the family theme they were going for if RTD had used his backstory to parallel Ruby’s. In Pyramids of Mars he was intentionally locked away by his family. Granted it was for trying to destroy the universe but still. It could’ve been a kung fu panda 2 situation with Sutekh getting to project his own abandonment trauma onto Ruby and even the Doctor. “You want to know so badly? You think that knowing will heal you? Fill some… crater in your soul? Well here’s your answer. Your parents didn’t love you. But here… let me… heal you.” And then he could try to kill them again. I personally would’ve gone the route of Sutekh keeping them alive so he wouldn’t be alone in the universe. Ruby could figure it out first, call him out, only for sutekh to kill her but then prove her right when he refuses to kill the Doctor. Then the doctor could suggest the death+death=life bs that would still get us sutekh hanging outside of the tardis on a dog leash, AND allow 15 to choose to betray sutekh and condemn him to the time vortex again (or kill him whichever works).
Dr who hasn't been good since series 11 imo. The rampant adhd that kept getting worse and worse, the overbearing preschy-ness, the sonic screwdriver that fixes every damn problem, and so many more issues. The writing quality has gone so far downhill since 2017 that I can count the number of enjoyable episodes since then on 1 hand. But that's just me. I went back and watched the classic show after re-watching the new series recently and while there are definitely some duds in there it feels so much more genuine and they act like regular people in that show (for the most part). Idk if it's just me but the adhd nature of the new series has really soured on me over time.
Series 11?? Even though Capaldi was a great doctor I wouldn't call any one of his seasons great.. The show hasn't been great since the 50th anniversary
@@mullaoslo That's just wrong. The Capaldi era gets a bit divisive but S9 and S10 are considered some of the best. S7 wasn't well received either or you could even say S6. Basically it doesn't matter.
@@Comicbroe405 i give season 6 and 7 leaway becuase Moffat was at least able to keep the overall storyarch of 11 and the mysteries around him interesting until the end.. Some answers where underwealming like the silence but at least I was interested until the reveal.. I'll agree s 9-10 where an improvement over the seasons 6-8 but I'll take the best episodes of the latter over the best of the former every time.
Great video. You’ve outlined pretty much every issue I have with the new season and its characters. What a great 4 hours I’ve spent watching this (over the course of 3 days). And it’s really nice to see a critique that isn’t just “woke bad”. Loved your deep thought process, style, editing format, personality and morals.
I feel like this season of Doctor Who was about Russel “righting old wrongs”. Taking strong social stances, fixing old continuity errors, and these things took precedence over telling a good story. Series 1 was about writing a great revival that could stand on its own and outlive him, but this one seems like a misguided attempt to fix things he maybe felt guilty about, like acknowledging the Shalka Doctor.
The problems with this season (and like half of new who) could just be defined simply with "aging super fans run show they're fans of". A bit harsh perhaps but true all the same. Who needed new blood a decade ago.
Just chucking my two cents into the ring, the show definitely has good intentions but the execution of those intentions is where it struggles the most. You have three major elements when it comes to a show or movie, you have: a) the performance of the actors involved b) the script/writing material the crew has to work with and c) the creative direction they go with that ties the whole thing together. Of course there are many other elements that make up the production process but these Key Factors are universal to all kinds of media from TV Shows and Movies to Audio Dramas and Theatre. Get all three or even 2 out of those 3 up to scratch then the show or movie will work. You can have the best of intentions but if those Key Factors don't line up then the project will not go over well. So when it comes to something like diversity in Doctor Who, it's never the problem. The main show in the past, the spinoffs (eg: Sarah Jane Adventures & Torchwood) and past Big Finish audios have done a solid job working with diversity and loads of people have been onboard with that. Heck the premise of the show being able to go anywhere and anywhen, it's pretty much expected you're going to meet all sorts of people, aliens, creatures and worlds. It's just in recent years, the franchise seems to be struggling with getting those 3 Key Elements working together to get those ideas across. For a show that's been running for more than 60 years, it's not going to be a home run every time and it can be a struggle to keep coming up with fresh ideas without retreading on what's already been done. Honestly with a few tweaks here and there, the show could run a whole lot more smoothly.
As individual episodes. It was a great season. But as a season. Not so much. The only reason for this is because of the opening episode and finally. Every other episode was brilliant.
I'll still take this over Chibnall. Despite the flaws of this season (and B O I there are a number of them) I still want to watch on. I gave up on Chibnall after Spyfall Pt 2.
I've seen a couple reviews for the show and all I can say is it had the worst written finale I have ever fucking seen. How do you kill death with death? If you brought the god of death back in time to his younger self, wouldn't you just be making death twice as powerful. In that time he wouldn't kill himself
I think the idea is meant to be in math where two negatives make a positive. Dragging Sutekh throughout the time vortex is killing him all the times he killed the universe essentially undoing what he did.
I often feel as if the writers think accepting the death of Gallifrey is to be no longer sad about it. But that’s not true, accepting the death of your people and your planet can still be felt, can still be sad. It can still be something that makes you emotional. The difference would be no longer crashing out at the mention-that would be the healing. His attachment to Gallifrey is cheapened by the fact that its like 14 doesn’t actually care.
This is a good critique, could use a little editing and scripting to cut down a little bit on the runtime, but good points brought up and solid analysis. Hope you keep improving and making better essays and i get a wonderful season 2 critque! Enjoyed this thoroughly
Absolutely incredible video mate, this is my first time on your channel and you did such a great job articulating everything I felt watching the season. Seriously entertaining too, laughed out loud a lot watching this - I am a sucker for that clip of 9 though 😂👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻
This is the best critique I've seen of S14/1, and I agree with pretty much all of it. I've never really held RTD in as high regard as many others do, as I've always had fairly fundamental issues with the way he wrote certain elements of the show, but I was still hopeful when it was announced that he was returning. With S14/1, felt like all of those elements I didn't like were elevated here, and I think you hit the nail on the head about him needing more writers on board to talk him out of doing certain things. In addition, the parts of the show where he was usually strong were severely lacking too. I hope he can turn it around, because I really like Ncuti and Millie and it'd be a shame to waste the talent they provide.
This idea is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC! Been watching it in parts on and off for the past month, and I love how much of a leveled critique of Series 14 it was. No hatred, just a genuine critique. Doctor Who, and other fandoms, need leveled critiques like this.
I think this is the first time I'm gonna be fully agreeing with a negative critique of yours. Loved the eps individually but as a series it's such a mess. Also would love to see a video on just Capaldi alone.
I remember texting my friend in the week between episode 6 and 7 saying “knowing Russell, Ruby’s mum is going to be totally ordinary to go with his ‘I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t special’ mantra” and I was so unhappy about being right lmao
Okay, poised to press ‘play’. I’m probably not going to agree with all of what follows, but really, thumbs up for the time that goes into long-form essays like this. Certainly helps my working day to listen to them.
Very good video. So good I watched the whole thing in one sitting! There’s so much truth in your comments about the lack of character arcs. I felt no connection to Ruby at all and it’s such a shame. I also think your final point about ‘generating content’ is very pertinent. It’s a shame that Series 15 was already in the can before 14 had even aired. You’re right to say that the same flaws will likely still be there. We can only hope that 16, if it gets the green light, is better.
Many issues that this season suffers from aren't that new, though, and they already plagued RTD's first run. There too were rubbish resolutions or beats that were ill-conceived or just weren't thought through properly. I remember discussions on 00s message boards that said things which were pretty similar to the ones being brought up here. The difference just is that the character work simply isn't as good, making the faults matter more. I also hold the strong belief that everything concerning Ruby's mother was a last-minute rewrite because there's no way that this resolution to the storyline was the original plan. Of course, the PR said something else eventually, but the whole kerfuffle concerning Millie Gibson at the beginning of the year must have been about something, and this is what the behind-the-scenes drama led to. But we probably won't know for sure until someone decides to speak up about it, possibly decades down the line, like Christopher Eccleston did, for example.
It would have been a good place to end Icl but DW can go on as long as it wants. Fresh blood is all that it requires. The best eps of the Chibnall aren't even his.
Oh, there is some stuff after Capaldi that I would even call very good, but I am ever more certain that it is not worth the associated pain of watching entire seasons for context (and that's the only way I'm capable of watching Who)
I am going to have to watch this in multiple parts because unfortunately life is getting in the way, but so far this is such an amazing video essay! Both your criticism and praise of the show is very authentic and I can tell just how much you love this show, even though the new series wasn’t the best. It’s refreshing seeing someone give such an honest and well-thought out take on something they didn’t enjoy.
I thought, the third one being a bit of a mess of plot threads and the first having some cringe lines aside - the specials were excellent (even if bigeneration feels extremely weird), I really liked the the first christmas special with its more aggressively whimsical tone, but ahh the actual episodes. It kind of feels like RTD is having some midlife crisis (and with the death of his long term partner a few years prior, he really might be). I guess bigeneration and whatever the fuck they did with Davros in the children in need special (beyond simply saying 'heres another young davros') were warning signs. He clearly wants this to be the whimsical even-more-tumblr-centric-than-moffat-somehow 'healing' doctor, but then he's also straight back to last of the time lords, my granddaughter is dead, oh no the flux killed everyone (even though they could totally have fixed that off screen and the show would be better for it - it seemed pretty clearly there as something to be 'fixed' somehow) angst shit. Combine that with the 'the plot making any damn sense is secondary to vibes' writing that I've only ever seen in bad anime before, including the doctor escaping harm by imagining himself into his TARDIS. ...god, at least try to make your show feel in someway like the show you used to write for. Can anyone here imagine Eccelston have resolved the first series finale by just wishing himself back into an imagination tardis instead of being rescued by Rose? I don't want to hate it, but man it's been a disappointment and a half.
Okay but doesn't 4th wall breaks being more common make it *less* confusing though? If it was a one-off, it'd be seen as a strange anomaly in the same vein as the infamous *"A merry Christmas for all those at home"* or whatever it was. The fact that it happens regularly shows that it's just part of the style of the new era of the show now. Having more than just her do corny fourth-wall breaks would distinguish it from some singular, in-universe special power that this one character has. That being said, this would make the whole thing being a Truman show have obvious plot holes, as then Ms Flood *would* need to be the only one doing it. It'd be a really compelling idea regardless though, and I think I'd still prefer that overall, but I digress
Just finished watching the video all the way through. Solid work mate. A solid breakdown of Series 14 and fair feedback on the show as a whole. Covering both the positives and the areas in need of improvement. Really enjoyed your video :)
Ever since Matt Smith transitioned to Peter Capaldi the Doctor is now Gallifrey. That’s my theory on the split. But which doctor got Gallifrey’s energy? Perhaps half to both?
The main problem with series 14 for me (I refuse to call it season 1) is that all of the episodes felt generic in story and character, like Space Babies was the space station episode, The Devil’s Chord was the recent history episode, Rogue was the regal episode and so on it just felt like the most basic versions of what these plots are capable of and like the writers especially Russell were on autopilot the entire time with the only one putting any original effort being Steven Moffat which shows to me why he was such an amazing writer in the past (imo he was a better writer compared to showrunner) and with how exceptional BOOM was I’m very curious to see what he does with this year’s Christmas special
4 hours talking about Doctor Who? Yes please! I didn't expect to watch this in one go but here we are, too much time on my hands clearly. I've found talking about this new series to be quite exhausting since it aired, the faults being so blatant and bewildering from such an excellent writer. All I'll say is I was so disappointed by the return of RTD and the underutilisation of Ncuti who could be such an incredible Doctor. But I think having a conclusion that is hopeful, that does try to give RTD the benefit of the doubt because he had a herculean task and he shouldered it almost by himself, is interesting. He's made some massive mistakes and now the sheen of his return is slightly marred, maybe the focus can return to making excellent stories with deep interesting characters instead of trying to make Doctor Who as popular as it was before artificially. We can only hope.
I am once again going to die on the hill that the meep pronoun bit is a good joke. People who dislike it are literally just hearing the words, "you're assuming a pronoun," and then just don't listen to the punchline.
I think the 15th Doctor should not only use all the happiness and jumpiness as a facade, he should be *scared* of who he is in some way. Maybe give him a moment similar to what 6th had in one of the novels, obliterating a robot with a coat hanger, after which he just sits there emotionless
Okay, so I think the reason she doesn't react to dying is mainly because they brought back Moffat, (tbf that's largely the reason she died anyway, damn him!) and he's already done this so many times that now it's just a thing he does, he's explored it in deeper ways and how the death and resurrection effects the characters that now he's on autopilot with it and it's just, whatever. I disliked a lot of the Moffatisms returning but nothing in that episode made me groan louder than that moment
On the point of the master reveal Vs the sutekh reveal, it's so much more impactful because the episode has established yanas character with a stellar performance from Derek Jacobi, with Susan triad however we literally get like three lines before the reveal?
BTW the plot of the episode about the Maestro reminds me of a movie that I've watched when I was little "Martians go Home". They were summoned by music and the way to deal with them was music again :D
A very well made video and well done on getting all completed so quickly. I can imagine that this was HELL to get through the copyright system. I personally enjoyed the series, but agree with a lot of what you said in the broad strokes. That said, I feel like there's a lot of padding here, a lot of repeating yourself to try and stretch out the run time of the video. But then again, I have to put the blame for that on BBC and Disney for foolishly labelling S14 as Season One. It's just a baffling move and so its perfectly justifiable for you to, as you do in this video, spend large portions directly comparing it to the 2005 Series One. If you view it as a Series 14, the 'speedrun catch-up' makes a lot more sense from a writing perspective, although it is personally in my opinion the clunkiest segment in the whole series writing wise (rivalled only by the Ruby mum reveal in EoD.) The 8 Episode problem is so large and effects the whole series but I don't think it can be helped, I'm sure if they could use their magic wand to make more episodes they would. Doesn't mean we can't still point it out because like it or not it changes everything about how we view the series but it isn't as simple as a math equation (minus money from special effects = more episodes!) Personally I think most episodes in the series, as standalone episodes, are actually rather good. But put together into a series it comes out less than the sum of its parts. And I think that's because the 45 minute format fundamentally sucks. New Who in general is majorly flawed but in the past its covered its flaws with high episode counts. I think if they _did_ want to actually do a new reboot, they needed to change the whole format of the show so it couldn't be directly compared to what came before. Especially in this current climate where nostalgia is king, calling a new series Season One is just begging for it to be torn apart and directly compared to the beloved episodes of old, just as you did with 73 Yards and Turn Left or Space Babies and Rose/End of the World. I feel like 73 Yards is better compared to Heaven Sent than Turn Left but that's neither here nor there. Either way, great video, keep up the great stuff
@@dwfan91- I am genuinely interested in why you think 73 Yards is better compared to Heaven Sent than Turn Left? The only comparison I can think of is you could argue both Twelve and Ruby have to face a fear?
@@SuperDoctor9 character alone, being chased by slow moving 'threat' which is actually a metaphor for their trauma, looping around, forced to go through never-ending trials to prove themselves. episodes take place over a far longer period of time than the audience first thinks when they start it and in general each episode's place in the series is generally more similar to each other than they are to turn left. there's more there but thats the basic gist. im almost convinced rtd watched heaven sent and thought to himself 'I can do that' and wrote 73 yards
@@dwfan91- That's interesting, I can definitely see the similarities with them both being followed and that being a metaphor and the length of time. But I'd argue Turn Left and Heaven Sent have more similarity in their placements in the series, both have to be where they are to work, whereas 73 Yards really could have been placed anywhere in the series as it has basically no impact on the characters or the series arc. Thinking about it there are more similarities between Turn Left and Heaven Sent than 73 Yards, both have to sacrifice something in the former whereas Ruby has people taken from her but she doesn't really choose to sacrifice anything. I realise I'm biased against 73 Yards as I think the other two episodes are far better, and I still think 73 Yards is a poor man's Turn Left, but an interesting perspective all the same!
I found your channel about a year ago and although I've only checked out the videos of the games I like, I really like your styles. I'm also not a huge fan of Doctor Who, I grew up when it was mostly the Baker and McCoy stuff being played. Although I love Sci-fi the campiness never connected with me. Where my interest comes in is for some of the lore. I have seen some of the franchises I love, like Star Trek, be destroyed by poor writing and ideology. There are many content creators out there who dismantle what is being done to once-loved franchises., but it's actually nice to have that done with a bit of dignity. Sometimes things get unnecessarily personal towards the performers. But at the same time, they seem to play the race card or sexism card when poor writing is called out or simply for people choosing not to watch something. Again, great channel and the dignity is refreshing.
I genuinely really enjoyed this season aside from the finale and 73 Yards is amazing, but I noticed I don’t really consider the whole at all. I got mad at the mention of 73 Yards in the finale cuz I wanted it to stay in its own bubble. It kinda cheapened its impact cuz it doesn't even explain anything, Doctor just said a random thing as if it was an explanation. Tho I agree with most of the criticism in this video. While overarching story was catastrophic, the episodes were good and some amazing. So I'm for now happy Doctor Who isn't boring anymore. Tho I hope for RTD to get his stuff together or a new showrunner that's competent.
58:17 ive only seen like 6 episodes of dr who in total, and three of them were gatwa’s doctor episodes. I just love video essays! Thanks for including summaries of eras and events 😂
This video has been claimed and blocked up the wazoo on my main channel by the BBC. The version I'm posting to RUclips is not the BEST version of this video. If you want to watch this in 4K without some strange editing choices, you can on Patreon. This thing has taken almost 4 months and will likely not make any money. If you want to support me, gain access to a better version of this video AND the companion essay on 'Father's Day' and get tons more, consider supporting me on Patreon. I'd really really appreciate it. I hope you all enjoy this video. Finally.
www.patreon.com/LazerzZ
I tell you for a demonetized video youtube certainly put a lot of adverts on this one! Whoever is making royalties money from the clips used is making a lot of money out of your labour weaving them together.
@@markpostgate2551 RUclips: "We have to preserve the sanctity of anita dobson!!"
Russell definitely has "second album syndrome". He probably spent years thinking about his first few seasons. He put all his best stuff in it. But now the studio wants another album or they are pulling the plug on the band, so he has to shit out some stuff. He tries to replicate some of his old work, but he's changed and so has the audience. But it's not working
I believe he should have partnered up with Moffet and become co-showrunners. They could keep each other in check
I think we just need a whole new show runner, an actual good one. Chibnil has scared people unto trying new things but now we are suffering the consequences of trying to relive the 'glory' of doctor who without any well thought out substance. All just smoke and mirrors
It's confusing because his recent non DW stuff like Years and Years was great!
The whole "HUGE build up for someone who turned out to be completely ordinary" RTD did himself infinitely better with "He will knock 4 times...".
@@herbion6117 Because here he was pulling the cart before the horse. The importance of Wilf knocking four times was established after he did it (causing the Doctor to regenerate), whereas here the importance was already revealed to us, and the twist was that there wasn't any more of it lol
oh hello
And I think with this comment, the 3 months this thing took was all worth it 🙏🏻
Oohoohoo so good.
Lol ima rewatch that one after this one.
The 1-2 punch of Dot and Bubble and Rogue is especially weird in retrospect. The Doctor encounters racism for the first time and then we go back in time and pretend that Regency era England was a multicultural, cosmopolitan culture with no racism instead of a brutal, colonial slave state.
When watching it i kept telling my partner who i was watching with how fucking weird it was and how the characters were acting totally different and how the studio clearly mandated they do a bridgerton episode and they even referenced that in the episode several times and lo and behold it was written by totally different writers. I feel like i cant blame rtd for that one too bad, that seems like the studio caused rouge to be shit by insisting on a desperate appeal to a young audience with no overlap by copying another show, and to try and create a jack harkness 2.
@123Voynich you do realize RTD is the showrunner right? He’s the one that commissioned them to write Rogue. He was very much involved through the entire process of making the episode.
Yeah, it was a nightmare. I don’t really enjoy the weird trend of pretending none of this happened and POC characters just slot nicely into the setting, and everything’s happy, and nobody’s treated badly. That’s not what happened, though, and a black man at the ball would’ve been something of a scandal and few people would’ve attended a ball there again. A gay kiss would also have grounds for imprisonment. The tacky incorporation of Bridgerton tropes “This is so Bridgerton” only made it worse. Be Doctor Who. Doctor Who will have a lasting legacy and Bridgerton will be forgotten.
oh man thats true!!
yeah i really felt like they needed to choose one of those things and stick with it. either this is an era of doctor who in which racism is very real and we have to deal with it, or it's an era of doctor who where racism is at most acknowledged in a throwaway line and we pretend it doesn't exist and get on with the time and space adventures. you can't do both and you especially can't do both in back to back episodes. like i gave rtd shit for ten handwaving away all of martha's concerns about racism but "don't worry that's not a problem" is better than "racism IS real, but the british empire was actually suuuuper accepting!"
I think my biggest problem with this season is the man himself, Russell. His behaviour in interviews while addressing some of the criticism feels like he is just tired of the show and wants to get away by acting like people are idiots for criticizing him.
For example. Bigeneration he just laughs it off in an interview and says something like ''I imagine fans on the internet are gonna have a lot to say about this'' and proceeds to make the worst theory possible about every Doctor bigenerating just so he can explain Tales of the TARDIS (which he wrote) or Peter Davison looking older on that miniepisode in Series 3.
Then, after the finale he proceeds to say stuff like ''Well, I did that because it was fun! This is Doctor Who, it's meant to be silly!''. And he even admits that he did all that mystery surrounding Ruby because it pushes the algorhitm for the show online, since fans make videos about it or discuss it on Twitter and Reddit.
And he mentioned on SDCC how fun it would be to bring dead Doctors back to life through CGI. Proceeds to respond to the ''Ncuti cries a lot'' criticism with ''I don't care, I'm doing it anyway''.
However! RTD already used to be *exactly* like that during his first run of the show, and he came across just as irritating. I often read and hear people talking like this is a new issue, and I'm not sure if this is because they forgot what he can be like or if they were just too young at the time to be aware of his interviews from that era. I mean, many of these people are in their late 20s or early 30s who probably didn't do message boards or Livejournal and so on at the time, so I can understand why this is a new thing to them.
22:05 Love to point out the fact that this scene wasn’t in the initial episode and is the result of Disney’s audience testing. All that character building it does for the Doctor was not initially intended by Russel - L
Okay, that's super interesting to know
If you're here for the Assassin's Creed part it's at 3:20:58
LMAO this franchise will never escape him
Normally a *"I'm not a bigot"* disclaimer would be completely out of left-field, but given this is a 4-hour video essay about Doctor Who by a gamer channel, it was a breath of fresh air
i am one
@@based980 Giga obvious bait bruh you didn't even try
@@WiloPolis03 yet you still responded
@@based980 Yeah I don't care about that tho so it doesn't matter 🗿
I'm something of a bigot gamer myself
I love how essentially A death god stayed around because he was interested in the Doctor's Drama and was just irritated with the Ruby mystery lol
Sutekh: SERIOUSLY, WHO IS SHE?!
Doctor: I DON'T KNOW EITHER!
Sutekh: FUUUUUUUU-
I'll come back to this in about 4 years when I watch Doctor Who and let you know
Can't wait to watch this 4 hour video about Doctor Who even though I've never seen a single episode.
After watching this, would you watch doctor who?
@@foxperson8943 Nah
@@R0N1N___😢
Just watch the earlier seasons because if I started with this I wouldn't have continued, but watching the older seasons was a world of difference from these seasons
@@R0N1N___ Watch at least one episode from the earlier series. You could watch the episode titled "Blink" from series 3. It is a stand alone episode and you don't need any knowledge about the show.
I’m slowly coming up with a theory. The higher a production value of a show, the more vapid it is likely to become. Obsessed with looking pretty, but without much going on behind the eyes.
I'll say it once, I'll say it a million times. Limitations make great art.
@@williampickering356I doubt that, even with a budget of two dollars the writing will probably be the same
the exact same thing happened to star trek. the production of picard was movie quality, but the writing was awful. old trek was made of cardboard and a prayer but it had good scripts.
The bigeneration was so dumb, if they didnt want 14 to regen, why not have him just retire to live with donna and then have the christmas special begin with 15 after an unspecified amount of time
Oh yeah like 8 to 9
They likely want to leave the door open for 14 and Rose Noble to be able to interact with 15 and future incarnations.
@@ShaggyDabbyDank Except you could just do that with 14 spending an unspecified time off-screen before Regenerating. Any future appearance of 14 will be treated as a multi-Doctor story anyway, so it isn’t like this changes all that much.
That interview from Russell wouldn't be so stupid if he hadn't said, "only Doctor Who fans would get confused about the date" despite being a very normal way of looking at it, and then gives a very Doctor Who fan rambley answer explaining how it makes sense actually
This is unquestionably, far above, the best commentary on the recent 8-episode plus whatever whatever-the-fuck-that-was that I have seen.
To be fair about the moral implications of killing the goblin king, he literally eats babies.
And Sutekh eradicated the entire universe but the Doctor cried about killing him
@@MrGreavesit's okay when it's okay
@@Moperandi-k3x To which the question is “Why did Russell write the hero committing a morally uncomplicated genocide by making all the goblins evil baby eaters?”
Even with the slaver Sycorax, there was a moral dilemma there that 10 recognised, so why doesn’t 15?
The point isn't that the goblin king shouldn't have died, the point is that the doctor previously has shown much more mercy and regret over killing far worse creatures/people
@@MrGreaves To be fair, Davies did this with Davros too. Guy tried to kill not only the universe but the entire multiverse and he's still "I can save you" after the whole "No second chances, that's the man I am."
So *"The Doctor Lies"* and *"I made a jigsaw out of your history"* is like the Doctor Who equivalent of *"Scott Cawthon doesn't do coincidences"*
Are we sure RTD didnt use a ghost writer for season 1 cause holy shit how does one person lose that much skill in writing
correct me if im wrong, but we literally had multiple writers for each episode
@@yteriaereh6467 The only episode that had multiple writers was Rogue, which was co-written by Kate Herron and Briony Redman. Boom was only written by Moffat and all 6 other episodes in the season, as well as the Christmas special and the 60th anniversary specials were only written by RTD.
Lol,, exactly yes, and his name is Chatgpt! 😜
Christopher Ecclestons doctor is the most underrated doctor of all time ❤
*overrated
Except that everyone has this take. I'd argue either Hartnall or Colin Baker is the most underrated.
@@seancampbell7884 Nu-hu & DW are not the same thing. OP is obviously a Nuvian.
Never seen Doctor Who before, but I watched the whole thing on Patreon already and it was fantastic! It got me interested and I started watching the show after I finished your video. I'm on series 2 now, and I'm loving it so far! Great job as always bro 🤘
Doctor Who: _Another era needing deconstruction on the same level as The Fall Of Doctor Who_
Jay Exci: MIA.
James: *Fine… I’ll do it myself.*
Era has just begun. It doesn't need a deconstruction rn, moreso good criticism that needs to be listened to.
A 4 hour video after 1 season is kinda crazy tho
@@MuttonErase Only thing crazier is how much of a letdown this series was.
@@MuttonErasehow is that crazy?
@@shutit8949 nvm I thought series 11 (the one jayexci did a video on) was multiple seasons
The word that keeps coming to mind when I think about RTD2 is “needless.”
Needless in the sense that pretty much everything wrong with this series is an unforced error. Every single creative decision Russell made can’t be blamed on a lack of talent or bureaucratic meddling, it’s all on him and we know he can do better. We all know that what made RTD1 so impactful to so many of us was the emotional, character driven heart of those stories so to see him abandon it and treat us instead to cardboard cutout copies of characters that are 15 and Ruby is just… depressing.
And that’s before we get into how nearly every episode is riddled with plot holes, narrative contrivances or creative decisions that are just laughably terrible. It’s all so pointless, because I expect better from the man who gave us 9 and 10.
I don’t know how this happened… but it did, and we are all the worse off for it.
Absolutely agree
I'd say its the exact opposite problem. I don't imagine series 1 (2005) would have been as good if it had only been 8 episodes & people would probably raving about this latest series if it had 13 full episodes. As well as people need to stop pretending the series became bad because of an underwhelming finale: Everyone was raving for the individual episodes. Devil's Chord, Dot & Bubble, 74 yards & Rogue are all hall-of-fame episodes of Doctor Who.
@@samrobotsin All of the episodes you cited are bad. 😂 No, it didn’t become bad because of an underwhelming finale, it became bad because every episode was bad, or at the very least severely flawed.
S1 would have been diminished if it only had 8 episodes, absolutely, but it would still have been 8 great episodes like Fathers Day and Dalek. Nothing in S14 even comes close to S1 at its worst.
This is how I feel as well. Like, he did all that mystery box nonsense with Ruby for...what reason? It kind of feels like he wrote himself in a corner earlier by creating the mystery, then he decided to watch the last three Star Wars movies and thought ''Yo, that could work'' and decided to write in the last minute the whole ''Ruby was special because WE made her special''.
And it's so weird how back in his first era, this guy managed to write around the main actor leaving the show after one season. He managed to work around BBC wanting to cancel the show and not believing he could make it work.
And now with a bigger budget, the support of the BBC, Disney and the fandom, it feels like he is just tired. His writing feels...tired. His biggest comebacks after being gone for 15 years is...bigeneration and ''Ruby's mom is actually normal''.
@@Longshanks1690 All they episodes they cited were fantastic. 😂😂😂
The bizarre thing is that Russell knows this stuff, has written this well (and not just for his earlier Who era, but recently in shows like It's A Sin and Nolly)- I'm genuinely fascinated how this season came together - it's like the production team were so dazzled by the new investment and its bells and whistles, that they forgot the basics. I really hope the next season rectifies these issue, but as it was largely made before the broadcast of Series 14, I'm worried that it'll have the same flaws.
I think if we make it to series 16/ season 3 we will get a course correction, I just hope we make it that far, ratings and cancellations and all I worry we might not make it to the fix
I still really think the Star beast and Wild Blue Yonder should have been 15th doctor episodes.
Star beast being the new aliens of London. Ruby’s normal life and her life with the doctor clashing together (Carla even fosters and may have taken a shine to the meep) it would make sense that Ruby might want to pop home after the events of boom
And WBY would have been a good character exploration for both characters, showing how strong their relationship is
Super sorry to hear about the copyright issues. The BBC's been really weird about this as of late - I know Council of Geeks has been having trouble with them lately as well. Here's hoping they knock it off sooner rather than later!
Fantastic video. I absolutely love RTD's first era, so obviously I was disappointed that I haven't quite been clicking with his second one. You put all my feelings into words.
Thank you, even as someone who likes this series. Im glad theres a good faith video out there that isnt grr minorites or grr black or trans people. Its tiring how rampant bigotry is in the DW fandom.
As messy it is, Boom, 73 Yards and Dot and Bubble were all very good imo.
Also the reason Russels given for low episode count is the old count made his mental health really poor with how much work it was
Real
@@Luna-pk7gz None of those episodes are good. 💀
@@Longshanks1690 They are imo. Boom is a very well done episode as expected from Moffat
@@Luna-pk7gz Hahahaha… no.
Boom is one of the worst prices of poorly written drivel the show has put out in recent memory, with only a couple of scenes in the beginning that actually work, everything else is unmitigated awfulness.
That Moffat managed to trick people into thinking this garbage was not just passable but good is a feat that will never cease to amaze me.
Those episodes only stand out as what came before was doggy doo doo. Obviously they are gonna be better if the standard is as low as it was
I feel like a very easy way to make Sutekh’s return fit is to make it about the Doctor’s fear of death. He doesn’t want to go and find Susan because he thinks she’s dead, and if he doesn’t return to where Susan left he won’t have to deal with the loss of his granddaughter. Have Sutekh be a representation of that fear (and rewrite 73 Yards so it’s really about Ruby’s fear of abandonment).
The funniest thing about Suhtek being on the TARDIS is that the TARDIS got copied in The Giggle, and tho Russell denies it, you have to remember Ncuti took the duplicate, not the original. Meaning Suhtek was duplicated and the original Suhtek is still on 14s TARDIS. Oh my days Russell you're never gonna explain that one are you?
Watching the 4 hour LazerzZHD critique instead of the actual series so I have one degree of separation of the destruction of my love of a franchise
about the 6 month time skip, there is one reason for it: Big Finish
@cameronbaker97 It would've worked perfectly fine, if they had Meastro be the final villain of this season instead of Sutekh.
Episodes 1-8 easily could've taken place across 6 months, and the line "But you never hide" would've had much more meaning behind it.
You’ve perfectly encapsulated my thoughts about this series as I was watching it - especially on the finale. All of your criticisms of the substance of the show (or lack thereof) I completely agree with, and your reasoning for why the show is like this are equally valid - not to mention RTD writing the show during a writer’s strike where he didn’t have access to a writer’s room. Honestly, even if he did, Russell appears narcissistic to me and I wouldn’t be surprised if he would still have taken it all on himself - he is constantly masturbating in press (he spoke about mavity, a running gag he instantly forgot, “immensely funny and very very creative”) and even on screen (the first part of the finale in UNIT feels like this). Returning to a showrunner and a previous doctor also is anathema to the show which has always prided itself on constant change and innovation. I understand why the Beeb decided to go with a “safe pair of hands” in RTD after the Chibnall debacle, but really what we needed is giving it to a new creative team!
Did you see Mr Tardis' video? He thinks the sonic can't resemble a gun because this Dr is black ...black American kids playing Doctor Who, maybe with the toys...
@@herbivarsawus4359 Yeah, we can’t let kids see something that looks like a gun.
We can only let them actually have guns when we make the child scientist working at UNIT have a machine gun on wheels. 🤣
YEAH IM GONNA GET POPCORN FOR THIS!!! So sorry man about all the copyright stuff my god, I was following along on twitter, I'm super excited for this, thank you so much
I wish with all my being that Russell would watch this video
Haha, I think Russell, for all his faults, doesn't let criticism waver his vision. Maybe I do think he needs to reflect and figure some shit out, but knowing the man, he does tend to just make the things that he wants regardless of reception and tbf, I have to respect it.
These must be truly dark times if saying something as simple as 'I'm not a bigot' makes me immediately subscribe
41:46 This is something I heard before and while I don't disagree about comparing Clara and Rose, especially in regards to "not caring about the risk of death" for Clara I think it misses something.
In Before the Flood Clara has a very emotional outburst, telling the Doctor "Not with me. Die with whoever comes after me." Clara accepts her death on some level. Yes she doesn’t think the risks she takes will lead to her death right away but on some level she knows she will die. Even in Face the Raven after Doctor said he couldn’t fix it she accepted it, and affirmed it in Hell Bent (until Moffat wrote the "long way around" line but I have and will continue to ignore that). She knows she will die eventually and the Doctor will move on.
While Rose, atleast to me, seems to believe she can somehow travel with the Doctor forever. I am not saying "Rose is immature and Clara is mature", it is perfectly resonable to believe Doctor can make people immortal (I mean look at Me) but I think the way Rose and Clara views death is very different.
Yes I care so much about Rose and Clara comparisons that I used my one comment to talk about a 15 second bit of a 4 hour and change video. But I would argue caring about very small things to a, frankly sometimes stupid degree is part of being a Doctor Who fan
Edit: 3:25:59 I think memory Tardis is not fine. Doctor says "It's a Tardis remembered. It's made of memories. Ruby, it is feeding off you, yeah? Give it everything you've got, babes. Remember it harder." implying it's Rubys memories making that Tardis but Ruby shouldn’t know any of the things inside memory Tardis. This is such an oversight, it could have been changed simply by having the Doctor say "It is feeding off my memories" but I suppose even in the writing process RTD just wanted focus on plot and not thing about anything esle since Doctors history is a jigsaw puzzle now
Sutekh could’ve easily fit the family theme they were going for if RTD had used his backstory to parallel Ruby’s. In Pyramids of Mars he was intentionally locked away by his family. Granted it was for trying to destroy the universe but still. It could’ve been a kung fu panda 2 situation with Sutekh getting to project his own abandonment trauma onto Ruby and even the Doctor.
“You want to know so badly? You think that knowing will heal you? Fill some… crater in your soul? Well here’s your answer. Your parents didn’t love you. But here… let me… heal you.”
And then he could try to kill them again.
I personally would’ve gone the route of Sutekh keeping them alive so he wouldn’t be alone in the universe. Ruby could figure it out first, call him out, only for sutekh to kill her but then prove her right when he refuses to kill the Doctor. Then the doctor could suggest the death+death=life bs that would still get us sutekh hanging outside of the tardis on a dog leash, AND allow 15 to choose to betray sutekh and condemn him to the time vortex again (or kill him whichever works).
Dr who hasn't been good since series 11 imo. The rampant adhd that kept getting worse and worse, the overbearing preschy-ness, the sonic screwdriver that fixes every damn problem, and so many more issues. The writing quality has gone so far downhill since 2017 that I can count the number of enjoyable episodes since then on 1 hand. But that's just me. I went back and watched the classic show after re-watching the new series recently and while there are definitely some duds in there it feels so much more genuine and they act like regular people in that show (for the most part). Idk if it's just me but the adhd nature of the new series has really soured on me over time.
Tbf the sonic fixing everything had been an issue for a long time. Also in ep 2 we actually got one of its coolest uses yet.
Series 11?? Even though Capaldi was a great doctor I wouldn't call any one of his seasons great.. The show hasn't been great since the 50th anniversary
@@mullaoslo That's just wrong. The Capaldi era gets a bit divisive but S9 and S10 are considered some of the best. S7 wasn't well received either or you could even say S6. Basically it doesn't matter.
@@Comicbroe405 i give season 6 and 7 leaway becuase Moffat was at least able to keep the overall storyarch of 11 and the mysteries around him interesting until the end.. Some answers where underwealming like the silence but at least I was interested until the reveal..
I'll agree s 9-10 where an improvement over the seasons 6-8 but I'll take the best episodes of the latter over the best of the former every time.
@@mullaoslo Yeah I can't see that take at all considering some of the eps but sure man it's your opinion I'm not gonna say that's wrong.
Great video. You’ve outlined pretty much every issue I have with the new season and its characters. What a great 4 hours I’ve spent watching this (over the course of 3 days).
And it’s really nice to see a critique that isn’t just “woke bad”. Loved your deep thought process, style, editing format, personality and morals.
I feel like this season of Doctor Who was about Russel “righting old wrongs”. Taking strong social stances, fixing old continuity errors, and these things took precedence over telling a good story. Series 1 was about writing a great revival that could stand on its own and outlive him, but this one seems like a misguided attempt to fix things he maybe felt guilty about, like acknowledging the Shalka Doctor.
The Bill erasure hurts me
The problems with this season (and like half of new who) could just be defined simply with "aging super fans run show they're fans of".
A bit harsh perhaps but true all the same. Who needed new blood a decade ago.
The spoon had to be given as an act of kindness, no questions.
Just chucking my two cents into the ring, the show definitely has good intentions but the execution of those intentions is where it struggles the most. You have three major elements when it comes to a show or movie, you have:
a) the performance of the actors involved
b) the script/writing material the crew has to work with
and
c) the creative direction they go with that ties the whole thing together.
Of course there are many other elements that make up the production process but these Key Factors are universal to all kinds of media from TV Shows and Movies to Audio Dramas and Theatre. Get all three or even 2 out of those 3 up to scratch then the show or movie will work. You can have the best of intentions but if those Key Factors don't line up then the project will not go over well. So when it comes to something like diversity in Doctor Who, it's never the problem. The main show in the past, the spinoffs (eg: Sarah Jane Adventures & Torchwood) and past Big Finish audios have done a solid job working with diversity and loads of people have been onboard with that. Heck the premise of the show being able to go anywhere and anywhen, it's pretty much expected you're going to meet all sorts of people, aliens, creatures and worlds.
It's just in recent years, the franchise seems to be struggling with getting those 3 Key Elements working together to get those ideas across. For a show that's been running for more than 60 years, it's not going to be a home run every time and it can be a struggle to keep coming up with fresh ideas without retreading on what's already been done. Honestly with a few tweaks here and there, the show could run a whole lot more smoothly.
The cure for bad doctor who, big finish baby. 8th doctor is amazing
13th Doctor is coming there too!
@@Comicbroe405 Given what BF was able to do with Colin, I'm actually really looking forward to seeing what they do with Jodie.
Yeah, you pointed out the flaws I HAD with ruby, she just..seemed off
As individual episodes. It was a great season. But as a season. Not so much. The only reason for this is because of the opening episode and finally. Every other episode was brilliant.
I didn't think Doctor Who could get worse than whatever the fuck Chibnall did, I was wrong.
I'll still take this over Chibnall.
Despite the flaws of this season (and B O I there are a number of them) I still want to watch on.
I gave up on Chibnall after Spyfall Pt 2.
Finished watching this on Patreon a few days ago and I must say, it's banger, maybe my favourite LazerzZ video to date. Congrats on the upload 👏 🎉
I've seen a couple reviews for the show and all I can say is it had the worst written finale I have ever fucking seen. How do you kill death with death? If you brought the god of death back in time to his younger self, wouldn't you just be making death twice as powerful. In that time he wouldn't kill himself
I think the idea is meant to be in math where two negatives make a positive. Dragging Sutekh throughout the time vortex is killing him all the times he killed the universe essentially undoing what he did.
Trickstar is definitely in need of a return. Severely underrated ❤
I often feel as if the writers think accepting the death of Gallifrey is to be no longer sad about it. But that’s not true, accepting the death of your people and your planet can still be felt, can still be sad. It can still be something that makes you emotional. The difference would be no longer crashing out at the mention-that would be the healing. His attachment to Gallifrey is cheapened by the fact that its like 14 doesn’t actually care.
Ok cool video and all but have you considered 'Jigsaw Salt Toymaker Sutekh Magic The Doctor Lies'? Checkmate.
He's not coming back from that one.
this is a wonderful retrospective that sums up a lot of my feelings brilliantly, very good work
This is a good critique, could use a little editing and scripting to cut down a little bit on the runtime, but good points brought up and solid analysis. Hope you keep improving and making better essays and i get a wonderful season 2 critque! Enjoyed this thoroughly
Absolutely incredible video mate, this is my first time on your channel and you did such a great job articulating everything I felt watching the season. Seriously entertaining too, laughed out loud a lot watching this - I am a sucker for that clip of 9 though 😂👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻
A Capaldi one would be amazing…
Capaldi's with River Song was what their relationship should always have been
This is the best critique I've seen of S14/1, and I agree with pretty much all of it.
I've never really held RTD in as high regard as many others do, as I've always had fairly fundamental issues with the way he wrote certain elements of the show, but I was still hopeful when it was announced that he was returning. With S14/1, felt like all of those elements I didn't like were elevated here, and I think you hit the nail on the head about him needing more writers on board to talk him out of doing certain things. In addition, the parts of the show where he was usually strong were severely lacking too.
I hope he can turn it around, because I really like Ncuti and Millie and it'd be a shame to waste the talent they provide.
Thank you, really glad you enjoyed the video!
This idea is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC! Been watching it in parts on and off for the past month, and I love how much of a leveled critique of Series 14 it was. No hatred, just a genuine critique. Doctor Who, and other fandoms, need leveled critiques like this.
I think this is the first time I'm gonna be fully agreeing with a negative critique of yours. Loved the eps individually but as a series it's such a mess. Also would love to see a video on just Capaldi alone.
I remember texting my friend in the week between episode 6 and 7 saying “knowing Russell, Ruby’s mum is going to be totally ordinary to go with his ‘I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t special’ mantra” and I was so unhappy about being right lmao
Okay, poised to press ‘play’. I’m probably not going to agree with all of what follows, but really, thumbs up for the time that goes into long-form essays like this. Certainly helps my working day to listen to them.
Very good video. So good I watched the whole thing in one sitting! There’s so much truth in your comments about the lack of character arcs. I felt no connection to Ruby at all and it’s such a shame. I also think your final point about ‘generating content’ is very pertinent. It’s a shame that Series 15 was already in the can before 14 had even aired. You’re right to say that the same flaws will likely still be there. We can only hope that 16, if it gets the green light, is better.
Many issues that this season suffers from aren't that new, though, and they already plagued RTD's first run. There too were rubbish resolutions or beats that were ill-conceived or just weren't thought through properly. I remember discussions on 00s message boards that said things which were pretty similar to the ones being brought up here. The difference just is that the character work simply isn't as good, making the faults matter more. I also hold the strong belief that everything concerning Ruby's mother was a last-minute rewrite because there's no way that this resolution to the storyline was the original plan. Of course, the PR said something else eventually, but the whole kerfuffle concerning Millie Gibson at the beginning of the year must have been about something, and this is what the behind-the-scenes drama led to. But we probably won't know for sure until someone decides to speak up about it, possibly decades down the line, like Christopher Eccleston did, for example.
you know this video is goated when twitter complains about it
congrats dude, loved it start to finish
Never watched doctor who but will watch the 4 hour video about doctor who because gamer James is cool
When Capaldi said "Doctor, I let you go" it was a message for us all to do so as well
It would have been a good place to end Icl but DW can go on as long as it wants. Fresh blood is all that it requires. The best eps of the Chibnall aren't even his.
@@Comicbroe405not really saying much.
@@lewgallagher463 Kinda am cuz lot of ppl dismiss the Chibnall era as fully bad when its not & the new writers can clearly bring new perspective.
Oh, there is some stuff after Capaldi that I would even call very good, but I am ever more certain that it is not worth the associated pain of watching entire seasons for context (and that's the only way I'm capable of watching Who)
@@yavoth5850Yeah that's fair.
Possibly one of my favourite videos yet, perfect balance of funny, critical but also really fair and good faith 💚
_They feed off of coincidence, just like Russell_
😂😂😂
The speedrun cracked me up hard.
OMG you know Alan Wake :D
I am going to have to watch this in multiple parts because unfortunately life is getting in the way, but so far this is such an amazing video essay! Both your criticism and praise of the show is very authentic and I can tell just how much you love this show, even though the new series wasn’t the best. It’s refreshing seeing someone give such an honest and well-thought out take on something they didn’t enjoy.
I thought, the third one being a bit of a mess of plot threads and the first having some cringe lines aside - the specials were excellent (even if bigeneration feels extremely weird), I really liked the the first christmas special with its more aggressively whimsical tone, but ahh the actual episodes. It kind of feels like RTD is having some midlife crisis (and with the death of his long term partner a few years prior, he really might be). I guess bigeneration and whatever the fuck they did with Davros in the children in need special (beyond simply saying 'heres another young davros') were warning signs. He clearly wants this to be the whimsical even-more-tumblr-centric-than-moffat-somehow 'healing' doctor, but then he's also straight back to last of the time lords, my granddaughter is dead, oh no the flux killed everyone (even though they could totally have fixed that off screen and the show would be better for it - it seemed pretty clearly there as something to be 'fixed' somehow) angst shit. Combine that with the 'the plot making any damn sense is secondary to vibes' writing that I've only ever seen in bad anime before, including the doctor escaping harm by imagining himself into his TARDIS. ...god, at least try to make your show feel in someway like the show you used to write for. Can anyone here imagine Eccelston have resolved the first series finale by just wishing himself back into an imagination tardis instead of being rescued by Rose?
I don't want to hate it, but man it's been a disappointment and a half.
Fantastic video! Thanks for voicing the issues many of us had about series 14, and doing so critically and with love for the show. ❤
Well, I know what I'm doing for the next 4 hours.
Okay but doesn't 4th wall breaks being more common make it *less* confusing though?
If it was a one-off, it'd be seen as a strange anomaly in the same vein as the infamous *"A merry Christmas for all those at home"* or whatever it was.
The fact that it happens regularly shows that it's just part of the style of the new era of the show now. Having more than just her do corny fourth-wall breaks would distinguish it from some singular, in-universe special power that this one character has.
That being said, this would make the whole thing being a Truman show have obvious plot holes, as then Ms Flood *would* need to be the only one doing it. It'd be a really compelling idea regardless though, and I think I'd still prefer that overall, but I digress
Just finished watching the video all the way through. Solid work mate. A solid breakdown of Series 14 and fair feedback on the show as a whole. Covering both the positives and the areas in need of improvement. Really enjoyed your video :)
Thank you so much
@@LazerzZ No Worries 😁😎
Always a joy to watch, good stuff mate!
Ever since Matt Smith transitioned to Peter Capaldi the Doctor is now Gallifrey.
That’s my theory on the split.
But which doctor got Gallifrey’s energy? Perhaps half to both?
This perfectly articulates why I disliked this series finale which I was struggling to put my finger on. Absolutely phenomenal work!
The main problem with series 14 for me (I refuse to call it season 1) is that all of the episodes felt generic in story and character, like Space Babies was the space station episode, The Devil’s Chord was the recent history episode, Rogue was the regal episode and so on it just felt like the most basic versions of what these plots are capable of and like the writers especially Russell were on autopilot the entire time with the only one putting any original effort being Steven Moffat which shows to me why he was such an amazing writer in the past (imo he was a better writer compared to showrunner) and with how exceptional BOOM was I’m very curious to see what he does with this year’s Christmas special
4 hours talking about Doctor Who? Yes please! I didn't expect to watch this in one go but here we are, too much time on my hands clearly. I've found talking about this new series to be quite exhausting since it aired, the faults being so blatant and bewildering from such an excellent writer. All I'll say is I was so disappointed by the return of RTD and the underutilisation of Ncuti who could be such an incredible Doctor. But I think having a conclusion that is hopeful, that does try to give RTD the benefit of the doubt because he had a herculean task and he shouldered it almost by himself, is interesting. He's made some massive mistakes and now the sheen of his return is slightly marred, maybe the focus can return to making excellent stories with deep interesting characters instead of trying to make Doctor Who as popular as it was before artificially. We can only hope.
This video is fantastic! I thoroughly enjoy your breakdown and analysis.
I am once again going to die on the hill that the meep pronoun bit is a good joke. People who dislike it are literally just hearing the words, "you're assuming a pronoun," and then just don't listen to the punchline.
characters don't have to change/ go through an arc, a show can work with a static character.
yessss finally someone who understands what the actual problems with this season were i feel so seen
I liked Series 14 and watches this entire video. I still like Series 14 and think that supporting the show is what will help it flourish.
Always good to support a show we love, but if we don't show when it needs improvement, it will never change.
The 70s UNIT theme when talking about 3 & UNIT 🔥
I think the 15th Doctor should not only use all the happiness and jumpiness as a facade, he should be *scared* of who he is in some way. Maybe give him a moment similar to what 6th had in one of the novels, obliterating a robot with a coat hanger, after which he just sits there emotionless
Okay, so I think the reason she doesn't react to dying is mainly because they brought back Moffat, (tbf that's largely the reason she died anyway, damn him!) and he's already done this so many times that now it's just a thing he does, he's explored it in deeper ways and how the death and resurrection effects the characters that now he's on autopilot with it and it's just, whatever. I disliked a lot of the Moffatisms returning but nothing in that episode made me groan louder than that moment
On the point of the master reveal Vs the sutekh reveal, it's so much more impactful because the episode has established yanas character with a stellar performance from Derek Jacobi, with Susan triad however we literally get like three lines before the reveal?
“I won’t keep you.” Bro you kept me for 4 hours. And I was riveted. More! More!
BTW the plot of the episode about the Maestro reminds me of a movie that I've watched when I was little "Martians go Home". They were summoned by music and the way to deal with them was music again :D
A very well made video and well done on getting all completed so quickly. I can imagine that this was HELL to get through the copyright system. I personally enjoyed the series, but agree with a lot of what you said in the broad strokes. That said, I feel like there's a lot of padding here, a lot of repeating yourself to try and stretch out the run time of the video. But then again, I have to put the blame for that on BBC and Disney for foolishly labelling S14 as Season One. It's just a baffling move and so its perfectly justifiable for you to, as you do in this video, spend large portions directly comparing it to the 2005 Series One. If you view it as a Series 14, the 'speedrun catch-up' makes a lot more sense from a writing perspective, although it is personally in my opinion the clunkiest segment in the whole series writing wise (rivalled only by the Ruby mum reveal in EoD.)
The 8 Episode problem is so large and effects the whole series but I don't think it can be helped, I'm sure if they could use their magic wand to make more episodes they would. Doesn't mean we can't still point it out because like it or not it changes everything about how we view the series but it isn't as simple as a math equation (minus money from special effects = more episodes!) Personally I think most episodes in the series, as standalone episodes, are actually rather good. But put together into a series it comes out less than the sum of its parts. And I think that's because the 45 minute format fundamentally sucks.
New Who in general is majorly flawed but in the past its covered its flaws with high episode counts. I think if they _did_ want to actually do a new reboot, they needed to change the whole format of the show so it couldn't be directly compared to what came before. Especially in this current climate where nostalgia is king, calling a new series Season One is just begging for it to be torn apart and directly compared to the beloved episodes of old, just as you did with 73 Yards and Turn Left or Space Babies and Rose/End of the World. I feel like 73 Yards is better compared to Heaven Sent than Turn Left but that's neither here nor there. Either way, great video, keep up the great stuff
Love your videos man great comment
@@hexogramd8430 thank you, his video was great too
@@dwfan91- I am genuinely interested in why you think 73 Yards is better compared to Heaven Sent than Turn Left? The only comparison I can think of is you could argue both Twelve and Ruby have to face a fear?
@@SuperDoctor9 character alone, being chased by slow moving 'threat' which is actually a metaphor for their trauma, looping around, forced to go through never-ending trials to prove themselves. episodes take place over a far longer period of time than the audience first thinks when they start it and in general each episode's place in the series is generally more similar to each other than they are to turn left. there's more there but thats the basic gist. im almost convinced rtd watched heaven sent and thought to himself 'I can do that' and wrote 73 yards
@@dwfan91- That's interesting, I can definitely see the similarities with them both being followed and that being a metaphor and the length of time. But I'd argue Turn Left and Heaven Sent have more similarity in their placements in the series, both have to be where they are to work, whereas 73 Yards really could have been placed anywhere in the series as it has basically no impact on the characters or the series arc. Thinking about it there are more similarities between Turn Left and Heaven Sent than 73 Yards, both have to sacrifice something in the former whereas Ruby has people taken from her but she doesn't really choose to sacrifice anything. I realise I'm biased against 73 Yards as I think the other two episodes are far better, and I still think 73 Yards is a poor man's Turn Left, but an interesting perspective all the same!
I found your channel about a year ago and although I've only checked out the videos of the games I like, I really like your styles. I'm also not a huge fan of Doctor Who, I grew up when it was mostly the Baker and McCoy stuff being played. Although I love Sci-fi the campiness never connected with me. Where my interest comes in is for some of the lore.
I have seen some of the franchises I love, like Star Trek, be destroyed by poor writing and ideology. There are many content creators out there who dismantle what is being done to once-loved franchises., but it's actually nice to have that done with a bit of dignity. Sometimes things get unnecessarily personal towards the performers. But at the same time, they seem to play the race card or sexism card when poor writing is called out or simply for people choosing not to watch something.
Again, great channel and the dignity is refreshing.
I genuinely really enjoyed this season aside from the finale and 73 Yards is amazing, but I noticed I don’t really consider the whole at all.
I got mad at the mention of 73 Yards in the finale cuz I wanted it to stay in its own bubble.
It kinda cheapened its impact cuz it doesn't even explain anything, Doctor just said a random thing as if it was an explanation.
Tho I agree with most of the criticism in this video. While overarching story was catastrophic, the episodes were good and some amazing. So I'm for now happy Doctor Who isn't boring anymore. Tho I hope for RTD to get his stuff together or a new showrunner that's competent.
58:17 ive only seen like 6 episodes of dr who in total, and three of them were gatwa’s doctor episodes. I just love video essays! Thanks for including summaries of eras and events 😂
I very much doubt things will change. Rtd flew too close to the sun this time.