Tony Atkinson
1 min readJul 22, 2020

Basically, there are two things wrong with the current Doctor.

Jodie Whittaker, though a fine actor, has somehow lost the dark edge that her 'New Who' predecessors gave the character. To an extent, it's because she's playing the character Troughton- style. But she's too bright and bubbly, she hasn't left herself enough room to suddenly turn dangerous without it jarring. Her constant references to the companions as her 'fam' changes the entire purpose of the companion(s). Which is summed up in Capaldis' rejoinder to Clara describing herself as the Doctors' 'carer' "She cares so I don't have to!" The companions are human, the Doctor isn't, the humanity is what they supply. but Whittakers' Doctor is too human.

The other thing was that during her first season, the writers, having got the PC female Doctor people had been nagging for for years, promptly wrote a slew of 'socially-conscious' scripts about women, race, the environment, colonialism, unregulated science, capitalism etc. All very worthy and some, like the Rosa Parks episode, quite powerful, but not Doctor Who stories! You will never know how glad I was to see that Dalek in the Christmas Special. That WAS a Doctor Who story!

Tony Atkinson

Snapper-up of unconsidered trifles, walker of paths less travelled by. Writer of fanfiction. Player of games. argonaut57@gmail.com