This has so far been the hardest post by far to try to distil down to a manageable scope. Even finding a picture of it was a challenge, and the one I ended up going with is nice looking but in no way representative.
But, we're going to try this and it's going to be fun. Let's talk about Doctor Who.
Specifically the first 11 seasons of the 2005 revival which neatly covers Doctors Nine to Twelve as well as the first season of Thirteen. I'm not going to break down separate Doctors, seasons or episodes. This is going to be a bird's eye perspective of what is an impressively elaborate and varied television landscape.
This has so far been the hardest post by far to try to distil down to a manageable scope. Even finding a picture of it was a challenge, and the one I ended up going with is nice looking but in no way representative.
But, we're going to try this and it's going to be fun. Let's talk about Doctor Who.
Specifically the first 11 seasons of the 2005 revival which neatly covers Doctors Nine to Twelve as well as the first season of Thirteen. I'm not going to break down separate Doctors, seasons or episodes. This is going to be a bird's eye perspective of what is an impressively elaborate and varied television landscape.
My History / [time travel joke]
The very first Doctor Who episode aired in 1963, thoroughly before my time. This era of Doctor Who came to an end in 1989, technically not before my time but it wasn't something I was actively aware of (in my defence, I was basically still a toddler at the time).
There was a tv movie in 1996, which features the ~only appearance of the Eighth Doctor, which I definitely saw on tv at some point while growing up, but it was confusing without the decades of context and, as discovered on a recent rewatch, also just not great.
Then, in 2005, the revival happened. The Ninth Doctor had arrived, with him came a reentry point to the series for people that had never heard of it. I'm pretty sure I didn't immediately jump on board then, because I binged through a lot of the first few seasons when I did start watching it, but eventually I gave it a shot and I'm so very glad that I did.
A note on episode quality: I wasn't sure where else to slot this in, so let's put it in the History section so it's out of the way early. I love this show, it's inventive and clever and- you know what, I'll get to all that in the actual review bit. However, this show is (and always has been) written by a lot of different people and tries to be a lot of different things. Some aren't for me and some pretty unanimously just didn't work. That's right, one of my favourite shows has episodes that I just really dislike.
How this plays into the corners is something you'll have to wait and see to find out...
Plot summary / Wait, let me get the giant flip chart...
It's the Earth we know, in a universe that we thoroughly don't know. Aliens exist, they are many and out there and look a lot like humans in weird clothing, colours or face prosthetics. Travelling this galaxy of both the known and the unknown is The Doctor, righting wrongs wherever they go.
The Doctor is an alien too, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. They look human enough, and tend to blend in with humans, but there are a number of physiological differences that range from the critical (they are thousands of years old and regenerate into a new form when lethally wounded) to the hardly ever relevant (having two hearts and being able to understand the language of babies).
Maybe it's because The Doctor externally resembles a human so much that they tend to have human-focused adventures and usually travel with at least one human companion. Their vehicle of choice is again something alien that looks human, a blue police telephone box that is actually a ship called the Tardis. It's bigger on the inside and can travel through space and time.
That's right, time. This show is about as much about space travel as it is about time travel, which means The Doctor can be stopping an invasion of shapeshifting aliens from taking over the present-day British Parliament one week, then meet Vincent van Gogh the next week to help him deal with an invisible alien monster the next week and to round it all off take a quick hop into the future to see what can be done about a giant colony ship that is slowly falling into a black hole.
(These are obviously all real episodes)
The format tends to consist of standalone episodes with a two-parter every now and then, but there's usually slightly more going on along the sidelines. The companions have stuff going on in their own lives that made them tag along with the Doctor which is gradually revealed over the course of a season / their run, and there's usually something large going on that most weekly adventures are indirectly caused by.
To give a non-spoilery example of the latter, a lot of season 5's events are very clearly caused by a tear in the fabric of reality, and the finale is about finding out what is causing it and how to fix it. (Did I mention the piles of pseudoscience nonsense yet? It has tons of that)
To give a non-spoilery example of the latter, a lot of season 5's events are very clearly caused by a tear in the fabric of reality, and the finale is about finding out what is causing it and how to fix it. (Did I mention the piles of pseudoscience nonsense yet? It has tons of that)
Corner 1: Adventure 9/10 / "So... all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will - where do you want to start?"
- 🚀 The possibilities are endless, yet the adventures self-contained.
- 🚀 See characters you've come to care about over the course of the show interact with legendary figures from history.
- 🚀 Wrongs to be righted, sights to be seen, conflicts to resolve.
- 📋 ...but not all episodes are like that. It still wouldn't quite have managed a perfect score otherwise, but a lot of the penalties in this corner are for the occasional nonsense episodes. Mostly the ones that take place in dimly lit space stations or submarines, veering closer to horror tropes and less to adventure. They are rare, and partially even subverted by other episodes, but they sure aren't great.
- 🚀 -not knowing if what you're about to watch will be good can technically feel like an adventure though.
- 🚀 The possibilities are endless, yet the adventures self-contained.
- 🚀 See characters you've come to care about over the course of the show interact with legendary figures from history.
- 🚀 Wrongs to be righted, sights to be seen, conflicts to resolve.
- 📋 ...but not all episodes are like that. It still wouldn't quite have managed a perfect score otherwise, but a lot of the penalties in this corner are for the occasional nonsense episodes. Mostly the ones that take place in dimly lit space stations or submarines, veering closer to horror tropes and less to adventure. They are rare, and partially even subverted by other episodes, but they sure aren't great.
- 🚀 -not knowing if what you're about to watch will be good can technically feel like an adventure though.
Corner 2: Smart 8/10 / "Run, you clever boy. And remember."
- 💤 Have you ever said "there is no way that would work like that?" at a plot development in a piece of media? If that's something you're prone to do you'll have to hold back remarks like that a lot to get the most out of Doctor Who. Suspension of disbelief is mandatory to enjoy this show and its many pseudo-sensible twists.
- 💡 But what twists they are! When it's firing on all cylinders the show will amaze you, pulling off incredible twists, firing Chekhov's guns that were sometimes introduced entire seasons ago.
- 💡 The Doctor is always* dedicated to finding the best solution to a complex situation.
- 💤 *: Always? Nothing is ever always in this show. There are exceptions to basically every rule. Some deaths could have quite easily been prevented (even without time travel, which is rarely an active plot point during the episode), some solutions are wilfully not chosen. They're rare, and they're rarely not clearly motivated through context, but they are jarring when they do pop up.
- 💤 Have you ever said "there is no way that would work like that?" at a plot development in a piece of media? If that's something you're prone to do you'll have to hold back remarks like that a lot to get the most out of Doctor Who. Suspension of disbelief is mandatory to enjoy this show and its many pseudo-sensible twists.
- 💡 But what twists they are! When it's firing on all cylinders the show will amaze you, pulling off incredible twists, firing Chekhov's guns that were sometimes introduced entire seasons ago.
- 💡 The Doctor is always* dedicated to finding the best solution to a complex situation.
- 💤 *: Always? Nothing is ever always in this show. There are exceptions to basically every rule. Some deaths could have quite easily been prevented (even without time travel, which is rarely an active plot point during the episode), some solutions are wilfully not chosen. They're rare, and they're rarely not clearly motivated through context, but they are jarring when they do pop up.
Corner 3: Heart 9/10 / "Doctor, please tell me you know who I am. "
- 💖 The Doctor is a chosen moniker, they have a desire to help.
- 💖 And helping is done nonviolently. The Doctor doesn't carry weapons, doesn't* ride into battle and doesn't* go to war.
- 💖 All of this is done with enthusiasm, with wonder, with curiosity, with love. The forces driving the Doctor to do what they do are some of the most sincere and good of any character I know.
- 💖 The show doesn't shy away from complex and sensitive topics, and usually pulls them off quite well. Even if they don't stick the landing it's easy to see that it comes from an informed and sincere place.
- 💔 -buuuut as always there are exceptions to the rule. The "The Moon Is An Egg And We're Talking About Abortion" episode made a lot of viewers abandon the whole season.
So, no perfect score in any of the categories, but those are some high scores.
Possibly even the best triangle we've seen so far.
Yep, that's going to be the triangle to beat. Is this going to be the first >100 score though?
- 💖 The Doctor is a chosen moniker, they have a desire to help.
- 💖 And helping is done nonviolently. The Doctor doesn't carry weapons, doesn't* ride into battle and doesn't* go to war.
- 💖 All of this is done with enthusiasm, with wonder, with curiosity, with love. The forces driving the Doctor to do what they do are some of the most sincere and good of any character I know.
- 💖 The show doesn't shy away from complex and sensitive topics, and usually pulls them off quite well. Even if they don't stick the landing it's easy to see that it comes from an informed and sincere place.
- 💔 -buuuut as always there are exceptions to the rule. The "The Moon Is An Egg And We're Talking About Abortion" episode made a lot of viewers abandon the whole season.
So, no perfect score in any of the categories, but those are some high scores.
Possibly even the best triangle we've seen so far.
Possibly even the best triangle we've seen so far.
97.43
So close! That's still a phenomenal score though, which makes sense since it's a show I really love.
If only the episodes were all consistently good, it could have landed even closer to that maximum score.
I haven't really covered a lot of tv shows so far (not counting anime, which I wouldn't), let's get a couple more of those in before we move on to something else again. The scores won't be that high though, because they're full of jerks.
If only the episodes were all consistently good, it could have landed even closer to that maximum score.
I haven't really covered a lot of tv shows so far (not counting anime, which I wouldn't), let's get a couple more of those in before we move on to something else again. The scores won't be that high though, because they're full of jerks.
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