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No series of Doctor Who is perfect. Here are the biggest mistakes committed by every single one!
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00:00Some Doctor Who series are better than others.
00:02I think most of us will agree that Series 5 is better than Series 7, for example.
00:07And if you don't, what is wrong with you?
00:10Sorry, compose yourself Ellie, compose yourself.
00:12Anyway, with a brand spanking new season on the horizon,
00:15I thought it was a good time to look back at the biggest misstep committed by every series of the 2005 revival.
00:22It could be something small like a problem with one episode,
00:25or something that casts a larger shadow over the series itself.
00:29Anyway, enough of that spiel, let's crack on.
00:31I'm Ellie for WhoCulture, and this is the single biggest mistake every Doctor Who series has made.
00:37Series 1, Misjudged Comedy
00:39For the most part, Series 1 was a triumph.
00:42RTD knew how important this was, and so threw the kitchen sink at it.
00:46And it shows.
00:47There's gripping drama, like the Doctor's confrontation with the Metaltron Dalek,
00:51or his dinner date with Margaret.
00:53There's rich emotion, I mean, no episode is more tragic than Father's Day,
00:57but obviously there has to be an honourable mention to the Doctor's time war trauma as well.
01:01And of course, there are scares.
01:03Are you my mummy?
01:04There's also comedy, some of which lands, and some of which doesn't.
01:07For every genuinely funny gag, like the Doctor being oblivious to the London Eye in Rose,
01:12or his happy medium line in The Unquiet Dead,
01:15there's a burping bin and a farting alien.
01:17Sure, a large part of the show's audience is children,
01:20and younger viewers probably enjoyed these moments of goofy humour.
01:23But in hindsight, they kind of seemed a bit misjudged.
01:26The mission statement of the 2005 revival was to prove that Doctor Who deserved to be taken seriously.
01:31Including a slapstick burp in your first episode somewhat clashes with that goal.
01:36Similarly, Aliens of London and World War 3 is remembered as a silly story rather than a sharp satire,
01:42all thanks to the Slitheen's flatulence.
01:44Unsurprisingly, there were far fewer moments like these thereafter.
01:48Series 2, Fudging the Opener.
01:50Series 2 is a strange beast.
01:52As the second series of Doctor Who's revival, but the first to feature the 10th Doctor,
01:56it's both a second chapter and a first chapter, a continuation and a fresh start.
02:02Though David Tennant had already been launched on Christmas Day,
02:05it's definitely possible for that first series to be a successful jumping on point too,
02:09as we're hopefully about to see with Shuti Gatwa.
02:12However, Series 2 isn't exactly proof of concept.
02:15Despite some fan-pleasing elements, such as the return of Cassandra and the face of Bo,
02:19and a fantastic location in the new New York Hospital,
02:23New Earth is a lame series opener.
02:25It does nothing to really hook new viewers or set up the rest of the series,
02:29and it feels too familiar with the 10th Doctor Rose pairing having already been established
02:34and already becoming slightly unbearable.
02:36Plus, the Doctor and Rose aren't even the Doctor and Rose for half of it,
02:39which seems like a bit of an obvious misstep for the series premiere.
02:42The production team weren't even 100% sure which episode to put first,
02:46with Tooth and Claw and the girl in the fireplace both considered.
02:49To be honest, neither of those would have worked particularly well either,
02:52but what we did get wasn't that much better.
02:55Series 3, The Rebound Doctor
02:57The early years of the revived series did lots to develop the Doctor as a character.
03:02Series 1 made him a war survivor,
03:04Series 2 made him a romantic hero,
03:07and Series 3 made him a bit of an arse.
03:10It's understandable that the Doctor would still be reeling from the loss of Rose
03:13when his next companion came along,
03:15but the writers leant way too far into the Doctor's rebound characterisation,
03:19and his frosty attitude towards Martha just comes across as unnecessary.
03:23It's a double-edged sword,
03:24since the Doctor's mistreatment of Martha is what allows her to come into her own.
03:28Indeed, episodes like Human Nature and The Family of Blood
03:31use her unrequited love to interesting effect.
03:34And then you have scenes that play it for laughs,
03:36like the Doctor and Martha sharing a bed in The Shakespeare Code,
03:38or the whole one-more-trip thing in the first half of the series.
03:42Yes, the Doctor is an alien with questionable social skills,
03:44but the idea that he could remain totally ignorant of Martha's advances is ridiculous,
03:49stretching plausibility to the point of farce.
03:51And it's kind of painful to watch at times.
03:53Series 4, Underdeveloping The Doctor and Donna
03:57Series 4 is one of the modern era's strongest, without a doubt.
04:00The show's popularity was at an all-time high,
04:03with one of the best-ever Doctor companion pairings,
04:06some of its most memorable monsters,
04:08and a truly epic finale.
04:09To be honest, it was quite difficult to think of a mistake the series made,
04:13so we've settled on something that was there,
04:15but in too short supply.
04:17The Doctor and Donna.
04:18Now, that might seem like a strange thing to say.
04:20After all, the indomitable duo are present in all 13 episodes,
04:24but they don't always get lots to do together.
04:27There are only four stories,
04:28where it's just the Doctor and Donna all the way through.
04:30Partners in Crime, The Fires of Pompeii, Planet of the Ud,
04:33and The Unicorn and the Wasp.
04:35Every other story either features returning companions,
04:38such as Martha, in the middle of the series,
04:39and then absolutely everyone in the finale,
04:42is Doctor or companion light, such as Midnight and Turn Left,
04:46or splits the Doctor and Donna up for a prolonged period,
04:49as is the case in the second half of every two-parter.
04:52The result was that, while they had a fun relationship,
04:55it was never really developed beyond mates having a laugh.
04:58Now, you could argue that's a positive,
04:59but it would have been nice to see a bit more nuance as well.
05:02Why can't we have our cake and eat it too?
05:04Series 5, The New Paradigm Daleks.
05:07Series 5 was the freshest Doctor Who had been since 2005,
05:11with a host of updates, redesigns, and revisions.
05:14But not all of them went down well.
05:16Fans could take a new Doctor,
05:18a new companion, a new TARDIS,
05:19a new Sonic Screwdriver,
05:21a new title sequence,
05:22and a new arrangement of the theme tune.
05:24But the new Daleks were a mess.
05:26Sure, these Scar-o-skittles weren't universally hated,
05:29but they also weren't universally loved.
05:31Fans were quick to make fun of their bulkier proportions
05:34and colour-coded liveries.
05:35When the universe's deadliest aliens are being compared to Teletubbies,
05:38then you know you're in trouble.
05:40So strong was the backlash that the new Paradigm Daleks
05:43were retired almost immediately.
05:44Some efforts were made to improve the props,
05:46with the bulky back section removed and a more metallic colour scheme.
05:50But it was too little, too late,
05:51and the bronze design was reinstated.
05:54No one has dared to update the Daleks since,
05:56with models like the reconnaissance scout and defence drone
05:59presented as one-offs,
06:00rather than the new status quo.
06:02But with a new era dawning,
06:04will the Daleks be redesigned again?
06:06Well, if so,
06:06we can only hope that they're received better this time round.
06:09Series 6, week finale.
06:11Just gonna put it out there,
06:13I did not write this,
06:14and I fully disagree.
06:15Series 6 could have been remembered as one of Doctor Who's best.
06:18The first half of the series gets a lot right.
06:21There's an incredible two-part opener,
06:23a sense of dread throughout,
06:24and some of the show's most unsettling monsters
06:26in the form of the silence and the gangers.
06:29It all built to a dazzling mid-series finale,
06:32with a cliffhanger that was both satisfying,
06:34and yet left you chomping at the bit to see what was next.
06:37And while Let's Kill Hitler might not be the most convincing premiere,
06:41the series' second half has its fair share of quality,
06:44including all-time greats like The Girl Who Waited and The God Complex.
06:47Everything was resting on the finale,
06:49which sadly didn't quite stick the landing,
06:51if you say so.
06:52I still think it's great.
06:53There's a nice sentiment behind The Wedding of River Song,
06:56with River's bid to save the Doctor,
06:58a metaphor for the devotion of the show's fans.
07:00But as a single-parter,
07:02it's way too overstuffed.
07:03And in the end,
07:04the resolution to The Doctor's death was very underwhelming,
07:07not least because the previously on segment
07:09heavily signposted that the Tesseletter would be involved.
07:12Okay, I will concede,
07:14the Tesseletter was slightly predictable.
07:15But I still stand by when I say The Wedding of River Song is not that bad.
07:19Series 7 – Ditching Two-Parters
07:21Following the heavily serialised structure of Series 6,
07:25Stephen Moffat went the other way for Series 7.
07:28Multi-part stories were out,
07:29and standalone adventures were in.
07:31Blockbuster was the buzzword,
07:33with the show exploring more genres than ever before.
07:35The episodes even got their own movie-style posters.
07:38As a strategy to drum up week-to-week excitement,
07:41while simultaneously silencing complaints about convoluted storylines,
07:44it seemed sound.
07:45But in hindsight,
07:46doing away with two-part stories wasn't the best idea.
07:49Every story now had to be crammed into a 45-minute runtime,
07:53even if they demanded longer.
07:54As a result,
07:55some episodes felt extremely rushed,
07:58with The Power of Three the most notorious example.
08:00The story of the slow invasion would have been a perfect two-parter,
08:04with the moment the cubes revealed themselves serving as the cliffhanger.
08:07The same is true of the series' finales.
08:09Just imagine how much grander
08:10The Angels Take Manhattan
08:12and the name of the doctor would have been
08:13if they'd had more room to breathe.
08:15Ditching two-part stories led to far too many mediocre and forgettable stories.
08:20And it's no surprise that Series 7
08:21is easily Matt Smith's weakest run on the show.
08:24Series 8.
08:25Misjudging Capaldi's Introduction
08:27From Ben and Polly all the way through to Rose,
08:30every companion who has straddled two doctors
08:32has been sceptical of the new incarnation to begin with.
08:35But they always come around eventually.
08:37The one example where the bad feeling didn't dissipate immediately
08:40and instead continued well into the series
08:42is Series 8.
08:44The 12th Doctor is easily the most unlikable since The Sith,
08:47at least to begin with.
08:48And his rocky relationship with Clara in Series 8
08:51is unlike anything else in the revived series,
08:53before or since.
08:54On the one hand,
08:55the decision to go hard with this uneasy dynamic is commendable,
08:59and made for some great character drama as well.
09:01But looking back,
09:02making the 12th Doctor such a stark contrast to the 11th
09:05perhaps wasn't the wisest decision.
09:08Average ratings dropping by over a million in Series 9
09:11indicated that something about the Series 8 Doctor
09:14didn't quite click with audiences.
09:16Add to this the fact that Matt Smith has a cameo
09:18at the end of Capaldi's first episode,
09:20a device which neatly establishes
09:22that the Doctor is still the same person,
09:24but ultimately just makes you miss the old guy,
09:27and Capaldi's introduction really didn't do him any favours.
09:30Series 9 had a different kind of story arc,
09:36with the various hybrids mentioned through the series
09:38an allusion to the Doctor and Clara's toxic relationship
09:41rather than anything literal.
09:43It's much more abstract than usual,
09:45and has grown in appreciation in recent years.
09:47Less forgivable is the decision to bring
09:49the Doctor and Clara's story to a close
09:51without the person who orchestrated their friendship
09:53in the first place.
09:55Missy
09:55Missy wasn't physically present at the Doctor and Clara's beginning,
09:58with that crucial phone call taking place off screen.
10:01But when she finally reveals herself as the woman in the shop,
10:04who not only put the Doctor and Clara together,
10:06but kept them together,
10:07it's clear that she has bigger plans for the pair.
10:09The rampage that the Doctor goes on in Hellbent
10:12is the closest thing we get to a realisation of these plans.
10:15So why is Missy not there watching,
10:17even from the sidelines?
10:19It's especially puzzling when you consider
10:20that she was present in the series opener.
10:23Having Missy back for the finale
10:24would have neatly bookended both series 9
10:26and Clara's time in the TARDIS.
10:28She feels conspicuous by her absence.
10:31Series 10
10:32Spoiling John Simms' Return
10:33By the time series 10 aired,
10:35Doctor Who had been back on our screens for over 10 years.
10:39As such, the show was beginning to look to
10:41its more recent past for inspiration.
10:43In 2015 alone,
10:44the Shadow Proclamation,
10:46the Red Supreme Dalek,
10:47Julian Bleach,
10:48and Alex Kingston
10:49whoop!
10:49all returned.
10:50But the biggest surprise of all would come in 2017
10:53when Mr Razor was revealed to be
10:55John Simms' master.
10:56Dun, dun, dun!
10:58Except it wasn't really a surprise at all, was it?
11:00At the press screening for the pilot,
11:02a trailer was shown containing Simms
11:04on the condition that the assembled journalist
11:06would keep quiet,
11:07which The Sun took as an invitation
11:08to leak the story almost immediately.
11:10Even if the news hadn't been leaked,
11:12it would still have been confirmed well in advance
11:14in the Coming Soon trailer
11:16attached to the end of the first episode.
11:17With ratings dipping from series 9,
11:19holding the reveal back until the moment itself
11:22would have been a vital injection of hype,
11:24giving the BBC a whole week before
11:26The Doctor Falls to drum up promotion.
11:28The fact that they chose to spoil
11:29one of the show's most shocking moments instead
11:31is just baffling.
11:33Series 11
11:34Being Too Stand Alone
11:36During the Moffat era,
11:37there was a perception that Doctor Who
11:39had become too complicated.
11:41Consequently, the BBC was keen to make
11:43the 13th Doctor's adventures completely stand alone.
11:46The idea was that you could watch Series 11
11:47without any knowledge of what had come before.
11:49The same was true of the episodes themselves,
11:52with the only real through-line
11:53being the developing relationship between the fans.
11:56Series 11 certainly achieved this,
11:58but at a cost.
11:59It went too far,
12:00and Doctor Who lost the identity
12:02it had spent 13 years creating.
12:04Pre-existing elements
12:05don't automatically alienate new viewers
12:07if implemented correctly.
12:09It's not even like all the new original stuff
12:11was any good.
12:12When the highlight of your series
12:13is the bloody pating,
12:14you know you've messed up somewhere.
12:16World building also suffered,
12:18with a weak attempt to bring things full circle
12:20with Tim Shaw,
12:21and oh, nope, that's it.
12:23Not to mention several awful episodes
12:25like The Ghost Monument
12:26and The Saranga Conundrum.
12:27A back-to-basics approach
12:28to entice new viewers
12:29isn't a bad idea on paper,
12:31but Series 11 lacked identity and cohesion,
12:34a failed experiment that unsurprisingly
12:36was abandoned the following year.
12:38Series 12
12:39Too Much Filler
12:40Now, we can already hear you asking,
12:42well, what about The Timeless Child?
12:43And while we aren't fans of it either,
12:45Series 12 would still have had problems
12:47even if you took that out,
12:49and frankly,
12:49we're quite sick of talking about
12:51The Timeless Child at this point.
12:52With more of an arc than Series 11
12:54and some actual acknowledgement
12:55of Doctor Who history,
12:57Series 12 did a much better job
12:59of keeping fans engaged.
13:00The decision to open the series
13:02with a two-parter,
13:03close it with a loose trilogy,
13:05and have a game-changing
13:06tentpole story slap-bang in the middle
13:08created a greater sense of momentum
13:10and of one developing story.
13:12These instalments account for
13:1460% of Series 12's episode count.
13:16Add in Can You Hear Me,
13:17which lays groundwork
13:18for Ryan's imminent exit,
13:20and you have seven episodes
13:21that are essential viewing.
13:23Unfortunately,
13:23the same can't be said
13:24of the remaining three,
13:26which are almost completely pointless.
13:28Sure, there's the odd reference
13:29to the ongoing arc here and there,
13:31but they feel more like hangovers
13:33from Series 11,
13:34and they kill the momentum
13:35of the series.
13:36Add to that the fact
13:37that Orphan 55 and Praxeus
13:39are true abominations,
13:40and the series would have definitely
13:42been better off without them.
13:44Series 13,
13:45Too Many Story Threads
13:47Faced with the challenge
13:48of how to make Doctor Who
13:49during COVID,
13:50Chris Chibnall returned
13:51to his Broadchurch roots,
13:53opting for a story
13:54that was completely serialized.
13:56Marketed as an epic six-part saga,
13:58Series 13 raised the stakes
14:00with the universe-spanning
14:01central mystery,
14:02multiple story threads,
14:04and the show's first proper
14:05ensemble cast in years.
14:06But was there perhaps
14:07too much going on?
14:09Case in point,
14:09Kate Stewart.
14:10Nice as it was to see her again
14:11in Survivors of the Flux,
14:13introducing her so late in the game
14:15and with so many characters
14:16already on the board
14:17meant that there wasn't room
14:18for her to do anything
14:20in The Vanquishers.
14:21After six years away,
14:22it was hugely underwhelming.
14:23Likewise,
14:24waiting until the finale
14:25to wrap up basically
14:26every story thread
14:27wasn't wise,
14:28and teasing revelations
14:29about the Doctor's past
14:31then not delivering
14:32was disingenuous.
14:33There's a point in The Vanquishers
14:34where almost every hero character,
14:36including two Doctors,
14:37is stood in the TARDIS,
14:39idly watching on
14:40as the Doctor explains the plan.
14:41It really does serve
14:42as the perfect metaphor
14:43for Flux's primary failing.
14:45And there you have it,
14:46but while we're on the topic,
14:47why not check out
14:4810 Doctor Who moments
14:49that made you go
14:50WTF were they thinking?
14:52In the meantime,
14:53I've been Ellie for WhoCulture,
14:54and in the words of
14:54Riversong herself,
14:55goodbye, sweeties.
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