Doctor Who: Series 13 (2/5)
This season is, appropriately enough for the presence of a bi-pedal canine, dogshit.
Okay, that's not entirely fair - the main culprit is the final episode, which is absolutely wretched, but the rest of the season isn't much better, save one exception. I think this is the worst season of Chibnall's run, and ergo, the worst season of NuWho. So, we have a combination of worst showrunner, with the worst season, starring the worst Doctor, and having the worst companion. Yay...
Anyway, so there's this thing called the Flux that will destroy the universe. Spoiler alert, it does destroy the universe (bar Earth) by the end of the series, and the universe remains destroyed. No idea as to how this affects the wider Whoniverse canon, but hey, why put thought into things the writers refuse to? The reason Earth is saved because of these dog aliens called lupari that are "species-bonded" to humanity. What this means, or how this works, is also never explained.
The Flux is released by these aliens called the Swarm, who are very bad people who do very bad things, for very bad reasons. Meanwhile, there's a sideplot of a character surviving the Flux that's pregnant, that goes nowhere. Yay.
Not to worry, the Doctor's new companion Dan, is here, who's got to be the most useless companion we've had yet. I actually think it was a good idea to cut the companion no. at the end of season 12 to just Yaz, since the characters were spread thin, but series 13 beefs up the no. of supporting characters so much that Yaz is left with even less to do. And as for Thirteen herself...well, Whittaker's probably at her best here, but sorry, the writing is so wretched that she can't save it.
So, Thirteen makes contact with her 'mother,' Tehteun, who reveals that the Timeless Child nonsense from series 12 is indeed true. I wouldn't mind so much, since the prospect of these two characters meeting does carry some emotional heft, but nup, mummy's killed off quickly, because we need to see a wave of anti-matter destroying the universe, that's stopped by having it collide with matter...even though it's been colliding with matter throughout the entire universe, and that didn't slow it down...
Also, the sontarans invade Earth in both the 19th and 21st century, and nothing changes. The sontarans are apparently quite happy to genocide all of the lupari, but humanity emerges scott free. Yay. I mean, it's not as alien occupation would involve casualties or anything like that...
Oh, and we have UNIT, and Kate Stewart, and apprently flashbacks to evil guy solves the UNIT dating controversy, or something, I...really don't care. The series is stretched enough as it is, I have no idea why we're taking this detour.
So, bad guys are defeated, Doctor meets Time himself (itself?), who gives vague, ominous words and fuck it, I don't care anymore. Just because there's universe-altering stakes doesn't mean I'm going to be invested. Y'know, watching this actually makes me appreciate Moffat more, because his run involved the universe being restarted (and that worked), and his overall plot was fairly convoluted, but it actually came together in the end. Chibnall...look, I hate picking on individual people, but Chibnall isn't Moffatt, let alone RTD.
The one good thing I can really give this series is its Weeping Angels episode, which is the best the Weeping Angels have been in a long time. Tense, exciting, and mostly self-contained. And all of it more interesting than this throw everything at the kitchen sink approach.
So, yeah. I didn't like this season. But then, I've only really been watching DW out of oblitgation for awhile now. Maybe RTD can save it, maybe not, but there's precious little to reccommend from Chibnall's run, and series 13 as a whole certainly isn't among it.