Doctor Who Fans - What did you American fans make of the last season of Doctor Who?
 

Well the last series to me was obviously different - Female doctor and a huge push for inclusion. Her 'gang' kinda seemed a bit like Scooby Doo, with all ethnicities and persuasions being accounted for etc, but thats kinda by the by to me...

Last night my DVR randomly recorded an episode from a few years ago - The Girl Who Waited - and I thought the story was fantastic. The girl gets caught in a separate timeline and ages by 34 years before she can be rescued etc. All on far away planets with Robots and all sorts of Sci Fi stuff. Really good classic Dr Who episode without relying on the main villain characters like Daleks or Cybermen...

Then think about the last season with the Female Dr... No main villain character at all during the entire season, but plots like her having to go back in time to ensure that Rosa Parks gets on the Bus etc... Or going back to Pakistan and India during the times of the British colonial conflicts etc. Not terrible storylines in the overall scheme of storylines, but where was the sci fi? Where was the outer space, future tech etc etc that made Doctor Who into Doctor Who?

I didn't realise quite how poor it had got until I saw that old random episode last night. Im certainly not looking forward to the next season, but naturally when the last season was being shown, the papers and internet were all full of praise for how different, updated, 'woke' and progressive the new series was - Kinda a case of 'I think they protest too much'...

So what did you lot make of the new 'Direction' of Doctor Who?

I watched it, but it just wasn't the same. Though, I thought Matt Smith was terrific and wasn't enthused with Peter Capaldi when he first took the role, either. I couldn't help but notice that this past season the Doctor provided additional tech to the companions - trackers and communicators - not sure why that is now necessary.

That said, I wasn't home to watch the holiday episode and have not been able to find it anywhere, since. Which is frustrating.

I think Jodie Whittaker has potential as the Doctor, but she needs better stories. It took me a season or two to accept the other Doctors fully as well, but at least their stories were better.

This last season didn't feel like Doctor Who at all.