hugh loughlan

Turgid. Plodding. The scale of this epic tale has overshadowed any pretence at real drama in this short production. We know the end result so the journey must be more compelling. Interesting choices with regard to ethnicity in casting choices and the approach to romantic love. Aside from those stabs at making the story contemporary there is not a great deal on offer I am intrigued by the story and wanted to be intrigued by this rendition. A missfire in my view.

It would seem the general consensus is that this latest version of Doctor Who is seriously falling short of the mark. I have to say that the introduction of a female doctor felt innovative, exciting and timely. Personally, I don’t have any problem with the subject matter covered so far and I think that Jodie Whitaker is a fine actor and could develop into a compelling doctor. Also, I am not concerned about the ‘liberal’ direction the show has taken. All great drama has, to some extent, a social message or a least contains an analysis of personal and social issues. However, on the evidence so far, the team behind this latest version are not making the best use of the lead’s talents or displaying any grasp of subtlety in telling their story. This is a production where you can absolutely see the joins. It lacks any sense of suspense and tha actors, who may we’ll be talented performers, are saddled with a truly juvenile script. There have also been some serious missteps at the planning stage. There are simply too many characters to allow real character development to shine through and the task of giving them all something meaningful to do imposes a choppy structure on the show robbing it of any sense of natural flow. I can appreciate that they are avoiding an overriding story arc in order to minimise the danger of the narrative becoming iverly complex or obtuse. The problem though is that stand alone episodes really need to be of very high quality in all departments to grab and hold your attention. They haven’t managed this to date. I would say back to the drawing board but unfortunately that seems to be where the stories have been concocted.