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Dr. Who had lost its way a long time ago. I do not blame the actors, who have all been good.

It really has been the writing that has let it down. Too many member-berries, too much eccentricty, not enough cracking dialogue, and not eough solid Doctor and Companion interactions that highlight that the Doctor is not-all-right.

It tried to do monster-of-the-week with an overarching thread, but that type of story-telling is a bit played out now-a-days. I hoestly think the Doctor is perfect fit for Monster-of-the-week or planet-of-the-week or even theme-of-the-week story telling. It needs to get back to more of that.

I stopped watching after the transition from Matt Smith To Peter Capaldi. I'm sure there were some good episodes, but after watching since Tom Baker to the series revival with Eccleston I was ready to move on for a bit and just never felt compelled to go back.

Tales from the Crypt Season 7.

The final season, and Gor blimey apples and pears Mary Poppins! It’s only gorn and gorn all British, ain’t it? Roll out the barrel!

Happy to say that whilst a chance of pace? The quality is still here and there’s a lot of fun to be had.

Highly enjoying The Owl House on Disney+ with my daughter. Anarchic and hugely entertaining with a solid story arc and great world building. Yes it’s for kids, and plays out like 80s US school dramas, but the world is awesome. Especially Hooty!

 aku-chan wrote:
Yeah, it'll be a shame if this is it for Dr. Who, even though it hasn't been particularly good for a while now, I still enjoyed watching it.

Echoing what others have already said, if the show does come back, I would love to see it return to its roots. No more superhero Doctor saving the whole universe every week with their super special Companion/unrequited love interest, just let them be this eccentric alien hobo bumbling their way through time and space and getting up to shenanigans.
And also try and find a showrunner more interested in telling a good story than leaving their sticky hand prints on the lore.

(I'd also like no more "magic wand" sonic screwdriver, but I think that's 100% a lost cause at this point!)

The whole love interest thing was very unfortunate and a little creepy given the age differences. And the whole sonic screwdriver reliance is very bad.

Yeah. Also please, no more psychic paper. I’ve never liked that. I get it’s a time saving plot device, but it just always felt lazy to me.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Yeah. Also please, no more psychic paper. I’ve never liked that. I get it’s a time saving plot device, but it just always felt lazy to me.

For me things like that all depend on how they are used and presented.
It's like the sonic screwdriver - it did stuff in old Who but it was just there as a tool and nothing more. It didn't steal the show nor the moments.

In New Who there's a distinct shift and such tricks become repeat major solutions that make it feel like the Dr (or companions) does very little and the solution is always the fancy tool/item. They end up stealing the show and the problem there is that the characters start to lose value*



*which then often prompts writers to start pushing tell rather than show elements. Eg how so many characters tell us how amazing/awesome/terrifying etc... the Dr is. We don't see him do the things; other characters just keep telling us he's those things
It doesn't help that they handwave a lot of the Timelord War as this deep, dark depressing moment which is, again, often off-screen in intervals we don't see, but endlessly hear about.

The old Doctors never used psychic paper. There natural authority and way of doing things was enough. When in-control types asked who he was, he simply said, "I'm the Doctor." and his air of authority and power was enough to carry him. I miss that.

 Flinty wrote:
Highly enjoying The Owl House on Disney+ with my daughter. Anarchic and hugely entertaining with a solid story arc and great world building. Yes it’s for kids, and plays out like 80s US school dramas, but the world is awesome. Especially Hooty!

Love that show. Became a real comfort watch for me. Recommend it wholeheartedly.

And yes, Hootsifer is an absolute gem. They manage to thread the needle of "character which is annoying to people in-universe but not to the audience watching" with him.

The other two shows which make up the trifecta of the modern great Disney animated shows, Gravity Falls and Amphibia, are also very much worth a watch!

Revisiting Punished, One Last Kill

And I’m liking it even more. The first bit makes Castle look like a right English Monarch that reigned from 1016 until his death in 1035.

We see him having completed his revenge, and doing absolutely eff all about just how badly he’s destabilised his neck of the woods.

Then? We see him accept his self-caused responsibility and become a protector. Thinking beyond himself and his own vengeance.

So we get this nice loop from anti-hero (taking out people that absolutely caused untold misery) to uncaring English Monarch that reigned from 1016 until his death in 1035 and thinking of no one but himself, and then a somewhat more heroic anti-hero, using his same extremely questionable approach to protect the little people. Yet, in doing so? Almost, kind of, and I think I’d like to see that explored more in future, the very thing he originally set out to destroy.

Among Us

I know nothing about the game this is based on, apart from the fact it was really, really big during Lockdown time.
The show itself is a surprisingly good animated, horror/comedy take on The Thing, it's such a shame it's come out so long after the sun has set on its time in the pop culture spotlight, it's going to get completely overlooked and it quite frankly deserves better.

Squatters, Get The Flip Out Of My Home

Lightweight documentary series on squatters in the USA. Oddly entertaining.