PrimeWire

It wasn’t a train-wreck, and that feels like a win. sigh

The stories of this season were some of the best in years. (I realize what faint praise I’ve damned them with, but I said what I said.) I loved “The Church on Ruby Road” so much! It was like watching Labyrinth for the first time, except without getting dye from my girlfriend’s mohawk all over my shirt. “The Devil’s Chord” and “Dot and Bubble” were also very well done, and “Rogue” was some wonderfully subversive meta fan service.

Millie Gibson has been perfect as the first official Disney+ princess-companion. She will be missed, though I’d loved to have seen a character with any amount of psychological depth to go along with her perky everything and skill as an emotive actor. And Ncute Gatwa has done a fine job as Peter Pan to her Wendy. I just hope now that Tick-Tock is dead, that they give him more to do than campy struts and leaking saline. His range is amazing; he just needs more amazing lines to go with it——not just one-liners.

And… would it kill him to reverse the polarity once in a while?! Honestly! I feel like the showrunners spend most of their time running scared from the canon. It makes me wonder why they even want to be doing Doctor Who, or if that’s what they want at all. So it was nice to see a baddy from days of yore, even such a minor one, make a reappearance.

As I said, the ideas were great. But unfortunately a lot of the dialog was pretty weak. That’s my biggest criticism. But it didn’t leave me questioning my life choices, like most of Chibnall’s and no few of Moffat’s scripts did. Overall, I’d say it’s a big improvement, and it leaves me hopeful for the future.