[Review] Power of the Doctor

The 13th Doctor's finale has come and gone and after viewing it (once), I feel I have to go over the predictions I posted in a Previous Post and see where this one hit and where it failed.

And where I hit and where I failed.

Let me start by repeating my two main predictions:
- A lot of character, too many for the run time
- A great premise
- An over-convoluted plot
- The Shipper's paradise.

Well... there were a characters. Yup. There were A LOT of them. Both on the good and bad sides. Now... This one played around this, by doing some clever things. First, Dan was pretty much written off right at the start. I was not happy seeing the most interesting character of the crew getting kicked out early. Frown #1. But from that point on, it was great to see old companions, each of them adding to the story and its resolution. Even the final cameos added to the story in a positive way. The appearance of old Doctors was favorite part of it. Their use was clever and added to the plot.

I really think Chibnall was helped by having established characters to use rather than having to build them up (though having seen what he did with Captain Jack, this argument does not really stand). Perhaps it was Tegan, Ace, and Kate who refused to a plot that was pretty lame. I guess I'll never know but whoever edited the script finally said "no" to the worse ideas.

Now if I have a criticism, the daleks had nothing to do here, just over-crowding. They could've been skipped or replaced by the cybermasters without affecting the plot. I would have removed them.

Only Vinder added nothing to the story. His inclusion did not add anything. I still don't know what he was doing in the story.

I am sad that Sacha Dewan is also stepping down as the Master, a bigger loss than Jodie Whittaker's Doctor. I really liked him as he overshadowed the Doctor throughout his tenure. I am hoping he comes back later, similar to when John Simms returned. I thought he was very convincing as Rasputin. And the Master and Rasputin are a match made in heaven.

The great premise... This one I don't think I hit the mark. I can't quite say the premise was particularly great. That said, the premise and the hook are not the same. The hook (or hooks) were actually pretty good and had me wondering where the story was headed from the get-go, but in a good way. It proceeded forward at a good pace, with the plot advancing and characters helping and doing something.

Over-convoluted plot... Yeah I called this one. The plot was pretty convoluted, trying to be overly clever. This is where the story loses points. The whole "Forced Regeneration" thing is unclear... What did it hope to achieve? What was the goal? If the Master became the Doctor, okay... That whole thing made no sense. I just don't see what the end point was. What was up with the two random planets fighting each other? I thought it was Earth and Mondas (home of the Cybermen). Just another random element

The story was filled with winks and nods to classic Who - references that mostly lead nowhere, but that Who-nerds thought was pretty cool. Now there is nothing wrong with that, but it would have been more interesting had such nods happened throughout the season. Also, there is no explanation for the Flux, why half the universe was gone. I guess this whole season is something that will never be mentioned again.

Shipper's paradise. I got this one COMPLETELY wrong. They nodded to it, but did not do much with it. So a big plus.

So in the end, I am not sad that Jodie vanished. I'm not sad the Chibnall era is over. This was without a doubt, the BEST episode of her tenure.

What's your score, JP? I would give this one a solid 3.25/5, which rounds out to a 3/5. I can live with that. The episode was entertaining and most of the plot was good. As much as I wanted to hate it, I found the story was very enjoyable. But with a little time, it is only "fine". I don't hate it that's for sure and think was one of Jodie's best, despite the plot hooks. I expect there is little-to-nothing that will be referenced the era of the 13th Doctor. It will just be ignored and forgotten.