I'm just here for Doctor Who.
Eh, my perspective is different to a lot of people because I'm into the EU, so I have firsthand experience of:
a) poor writing on the show's part in no way ruins a Doctor becuse they're always going to show up in novels and audios, with different writers, so you end up with the much-maligned Colin Baker actually being a lot of people's favourite Doctor on audio
b) revelations and reveals no one likes just get ignored, else the Doctor would still be half-human.
I have my issues with Chibnall's run, but I'm more likely to blame Chibnall than I am Whittaker.
Thirteen as a Doctor has some really nice traits. The Doctor as someone who's incredibly competent but still likes to chill sometimes is a recurring trait, and for Whittaker it's just ramped up to the point that next to nothing actually bothers her. Once you've stared down a few gods, why on earth would you be bothered by some generic alien species? The whimsy's ramped up for her because she's accepted the fact she doesn't need to be scared. That's why you end up with moments like Resolution where what would normally be the big dramatic confrontation with a Dalek has her just laughing her head off at it in genuine amusement because why would she be afraid of some tin can she's defeated dozens if not hundreds of times before? She gets serious when lives are in danger, but beyond that she takes nothing seriously because, well, why would she? It's reminiscent of Seven being faced with the so-named Gods of Ragnarok and literally deciding to just do parlour tricks.
It's a character angle I love, albeit it comes with a few things I'm not a huge fan of, like Chibnall bringing back RTD's near-deification of the Time Lords.
Her companions, yeah, they took two seasons before their characterisation felt distinct. Graham was the jokey guy, but they were flat beyond that. I'm hoping her next season sees Graham and Ryan leave, because the story would allow for it and focusing in on just Yaz, who's now clearly a much more reckless character, has really interesting potential. I've heard from someone who watched the classic series when it was on that it's reminding them of Five's era, where there were so many companions that none of them were made particularly interesting because attention was split too much between them. I like them in theory, and I was interested in the dynamic of multiple companions, but so few episodes do anything with all of them that they either need to cut down the cast or have more multi-parters.
There are still good moments. Rosa, Demons of the Punjab were great and bringing back near-straight historicals certainly plays to the series' strength as there's a more established setting to split the cast up in. Spyfall Part 1 was a solid romp, The Haunting of Villa Diodati was mostly brilliant with a wonderfully expanding scope (and hilarious when you remember that according to the audios, Eight's going to show up and bug them the next day). It's just that they tend to be significantly better than most of the surrounding episodes as opposed to more minor peaks, and they generally work because of some focal element beyond the main cast, whether the historical side, or atmosphere/villain design. There's no good character episodes.
Then there are episodes like Witchfinders and It Takes You Away that feel more like they should have been two-parters, with a perfect point for a cliffhanger, but because they're not that they feel rushed and lack the impact they should.
My biggest concern is Chibnall.
One, I know Broadchurch was meant to be stellar, but I think he wrote, like, every episode of that which means he had so much more creative control, and I feel his editing muscles have gone downhill because of it. So many things should have been tweaked and changed, but weren't. You could cut the whole last act out of Witchfinders, shake up Timeless Children (more on that later) and so many complaints would have gone away, but...
Two, taking DW back to its more edutainment roots isn't a terrible idea, but he struggles with sublety, Orphan 55's the best example, quiet theming would've worked better than just having the Doctor look directly into the camera. That being said, that ties into:
Three, the unfortunate meta problem of the audience. RTD wrote a show for kids, and I was a kid when I watched it. Moffat took the Harry Potter approach and had the show grow up somewhat with the audience, tackling darker and more mature themes, something like World Enough and Time's 'pain... pain... pain...' is spine-chilling even as an adult, that probably would've sent me behind the sofa years ago. Chibnall's gone back to focus on a younger audience, so you get something more like the Doctor as Barney the Dinosaur with a bunch of random people to bounce ideas off of on a monster-of-the-week romp, but, well, a lot of the audience aren't kids any more. We've been spoiled by years more stuff. Imagine, say, Chibnall writing the Slitheen, aliens that invade the Earth by farting a lot, he'd be bloody crucified but no one really cared back then.
Four, I don't actually know if he wants to be writing Doctor Who. His first season was devoid of any continuity, his second season completely screwed over Moffat's last without even a word, RTD got very surface-level nods that were nearly copy-pasted script-wise, though at least there was some Classic acknowledgement. It's just a bit weird.
Things I will stand by are:
Jodie Whittaker is a good Doctor, with a fresh interpretation that has serious potential, but it's hampered by the writing's unwillingness to commit to anything deep.
The companions individually are interesting and have personalities that mesh well, but they take too much screen time from each other so no one gets a chance to stand out.
The idea of multiple companions all playing off each other is a good one, but there need to be more multi-part stories or fewer companions to give them focus.
Individual episodes are good, but the overall quality is lowered enough that first impressions and expectation can dampen enjoyment of what would otherwise be great.
Chibnall's approach isn't irredeemable, but it's unclear what the target demographic is.
The actual monster design last season was top tier, even when the monsters themselves were just ok.
Plus part of me's just annoyed that with the whole run of the new series, we've never gone back to the days of having a companion that isn't from Earth in the present.
It doesn't help if you engage with the fandom and run into people that still think Ten and Rose are the only actual thing that counts as Real Doctor Who and everything else is wrong, negativity poisons a lot.
Timeless Children is... complicated, I could talk a lot about the reveal and my mixed feelings, and how overblown the reaction has been, but it is an episode that epitomises a lot of the flaws in the writing to me. It has two moments that were some of the darkest TV-Who's ever had to offer, and they were completely ruined by light sweet gentle music or a lack of focus that it felt like either Chibnall didn't think it through or (if I'm right) he wrote a dark story, then hastily scribbled over it on the second draft because he's much more intent on making a younger-oriented show even when it screws over the story he'd actually written. It genuinely felt like there were two drafts vying for dominance and as a result neither quite worked.
The reveal though, eh, the people saying Chibnall killed Doctor Who need to grow up. Doctor Who survived:
and
It's been going almost sixty years at this point, there's always good and bad mixed in. This isn't the best it's been, but there are still good parts mixed in with the lack of focus. I'm hoping Chibnall's learned from the objections for his next season, just like he acknowledged the objections from people who wanted continuity for the last season.
But honestly, I just love Doctor Who in its basic premise, and I take a perverse kind of joy in trying to fit all the continuity together because you get some fun reveals that way. (Leela's the Doctor's mother and the Doctor is a vampire). It isn't that bad, Jodie Whittaker does a damn good job as the Doctor, but I don't think Chibnall's up to the job of showrunner. None of his episodes for Doctor Who were outstanding (as opposed to Moffat taking over after having written some of the best of the first four seasons), and while his pedigree on other shows is apparently good (I'm not familiar) it doesn't translate to weekly sci-fi or to everything else running a writer's room requires. From what I've seen he's either not been head writer, or been head writer while also writing most of a show, on almost all of his past projects (judging by wikipedia). He was involved with Torchwood but, like, the first two seasons weren't exactly consistently good, and the third series (which seems to have been done without him) was by far the best so...
I'm hoping he's picking up the skills necessary to wrangle multiple writers and edit all those distinct stories into a cohesive whole, but I thought we'd reached that point after Resolution so eh. I'm still enjoying it well enough, even if it's not as good as the seasons before he took over.
This was more rambling than anyone wanted but once I start I can't stop
DOCTOR WHO DOCTOR WHO DOCTOR WHO