'Power of the Doctor' Ends Weakest Era of Modern 'Doctor Who'

by Julian Spivey

Photo: BBC

The Chris Chibnall/Jodie Whittaker era of “Doctor Who” came to an end on Sunday, Oct. 23 with “The Power of The Doctor,” which said farewell to Whittaker’s incarnation of The Thirteenth Doctor.

The Chibnall/Whittaker era was a disappointment. Sure, there were some good episodes during the duo’s four-year run, but it wound up being the weakest iteration of The Doctor since the show was revived in 2005. I had such high hopes for Chibnall as showrunner of “Doctor Who” after the last few seasons of Steven Moffatt’s run had grown stale for me. As a fan of Chibnall’s crime drama “Broadchurch,” I knew his talent was great and thought he could bring some nice change to the long-running sci-fi series. I was wrong. A lot of fans blame Whittaker, but that’s just not fair. Chibnall was in charge of the series and should be the one to take the blame.

“The Power of the Doctor” was the last of three 2022 “Doctor Who” specials after “Eve of the Daleks,” broadcast on New Year’s Day, and the truly horrible (the worst modern episode of “Doctor Who” in my opinion) “Legend of the Sea Devils,” which aired on Easter.

“The Power of the Doctor” begins with The Doctor and her two companions Yasmin Khan (Mandip Gill) and Dan Lewis (John Bishop) trying to save a high-speed train from a new race of Cyberman, known as the CyberMasters. When Dan is almost killed during this mission he decides he’s ready to call it quits and return home. It was the most unceremonious end to a companion at least during the modern times of “Doctor Who” going back to 2005. It was frankly laughable, but also seemed completely befitting Dan because he seems like a footnote in the show’s history. The least interesting companion of the modern era.

The bulk of the story revolved around The Master (Sacha Dhawan) trying to force a regeneration of The Doctor so that he could overtake The Doctor as himself. Part of his plan to do this includes destroying the world by uniting two of The Doctor’s most hated villains (and the two most used in the series) the Cybermen and Daleks.

Dhawan did a nice job as The Master during the Chibnall era, one of the few true highlights of this era. I can’t say I prefer him to previous Masters of the modern era in John Simm and Michelle Gomez, but he certainly put his little spin on the character and didn’t disappoint.

The story of “The Power of the Doctor” is fine if nothing special and it may even be the finest finale for a Doctor actor since David Tennant’s more than a decade ago. I was disappointed in Matt Smith’s finale and honestly can’t remember anything about Peter Capaldi’s finale.

What “The Power of the Doctor” does nicely is fan service when it comes to giving long-time fans of the show familiar faces in former companions Ace (Sophie Aldred) and Tegan (Janet Fielding) and to a lesser extent cameos by former Doctors Peter Davison (fifth Doctor), Colin Baker (sixth Doctor), Sylvester McCoy (seventh Doctor) and Paul McGann (eighth Doctor). These were nice for me, but I’ve only been a viewer of the modern series, so I’m sure they were even more exciting for fans of both eras of “Doctor Who.”Sacha 

The appearance of a past companion that excited me the most was the brief appearance of Graham (Bradley Walsh), who was my favorite companion of Whittaker’s tenure as The Doctor, though why he was around in the storyline was never really explained and quite confusing. It would’ve been nice to see Ryan, but actor Tosin Cole was either unavailable or uninterested.
The ending of “The Power of the Doctor” was genuinely surprising.

We knew that Russell T. Davies, who rebooted “Doctor Who” in 2005 and ran the show until 2010, was returning to run the series and that Ncuti Gatwa had been hired to be the next Doctor. We also knew that David Tennant, who’s likely the most favorite Doctor among fans, would be returning for a few specials for the show’s 60th anniversary next year.

We assumed when Whittaker’s Doctor regenerated at the end of her finale we’d get our first appearance of Gatwa as the Fourteenth Doctor, but it turns out the Fourteenth Doctor is, in fact, the Tenth Doctor. Whittaker regenerated into Tennant. So, it seems Gatwa will actually be the Fifteenth Doctor when his tenure begins sometime in 2023. The Tennant specials are set to air in November of 2023, giving “Doctor Who” fans a long wait before any new episodes.