Why the 10th season of Doctor Who doesn’t enthousiasm me so much
Since the 8th season (included), I wait to be in holidays and I bingwatch the new season in one night. Now it's done for the 10th and I'm not really convinced.
The season is not a total failure, she has some good points and even some good ideas (in theory), but there are to much problems and – more important – my attention was never captured by what happens on screen.
Let's talk quickly about the goods points :
- A red string based on the Missy's redemption quest is a good idee, but it's very slippy
- The actors' performance are pretty good
- The Doctor/Bill/Nardole trio give a novel dynamic to the Tardis' team (at least for the New Who serie, I haven't seen the Classic serie yet)
- The serie give us a new companion openly homosexual (usually the LGBT characters of the show aren't in the main cast and in the opposite case there is only a subtext about their no-heterosexuality, like Clara for exemple)
- I found some pictures, some scenes very beautifuls, mainly with Missy, so it's maybe my fangirl side who is speaking
- Like for the other seasons, the season offers us some nice quotation, I think especially about the famous « « Without hope, without witness, without reward »
- The basic postulate of the episodes is generally pretty cool.
- Ok, for the next point it's clearly my « I like the military imagery » side who is speaking but I really like the conclusions of Empress of Mars and The Eaters of Light
- The humour is pretty efficient
But all these goods points are masked by the bads points :
- Bill is not developed, not at all, we know just that she lost her mother and that she is homosexual, nothing else. In the same way she doesn't evolve during the season. I had the impression that she is only here 'cause the Doctor needs a sidekick
- The redemption's quest of Missy has been very badly managed. The reason of her turn-around is never explain and her evolution seems unnatural, some additional scenes would be better. And, in the final she is too submissive, why ?
- The Master is useless. I mean there is no concrete reason for his presence, but fan service. With another villain bound to the Doctor and the Mistress it would be very similar. But the worst is that I find the Master's writing quite bad, incoherent with the character's development since the 3rd season, the character's regressed between End of Time and the 8th season. And it hurts to write this, 'cause the Master is not only my favorite character in the show, but also one my favorite character in general (and presumably with a good position if I have to do a top ten)
- The plots's conclusions are often pretty disappointing
- I had the feeling that I was watching a patchwork made of scenes and ideas deja-vu in others episodes. I know, the auto-reference are common in the show but for the first time I said to myself « damn, this episode has a lazy writing », several time.
This season isn't very bad, she is just dreadfully medium, but it's shitting, because – with the christmas'episode – it's the last run for Steven Moffat as showrunner, Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor and Michelle Gomez as Missy, and if I've never like so much the work made by Moffat while his showrunner's tenure, concerning the actor I hoped a great last season for the actors. But if I have to be very honest, I don't find the last season of David Tennant (the 4.5) very sucessful but it catch up itself with End of Time and with a little bit of luck Capaldi will have a beautiful exit in the christmas'episode.