The Power Of The Doctor: Ranking - 246

    The Power Of The Doctor

(BBC Anniversary Special, Dr 13, 1, 5,6,7,8,10/14 with Yaz, Tegan, Ace and (briefly) Dan, Ian, Graham, Mel and Jo Dan, 23/10/2022, showrunner: Chris Chibnall, writer: Chris Chibnall, director: Jamie Magnus Stone) 

Rank: 246

'It's the end...but the moment has been prepared for #13, in an episode full of hellos and goodbyes, returns and disappearances, in a special episode marking 100 years of the BBC'

It’s the end – but the moment has been prepared for #13. It’s a pretty final end too: the last appearance of the 13^th Doctor, her companions, her showrunner, executive producer, even her composer (the aspect I was saddest about: Segun Akinola produced some truly lovely music during those four years)  – and very nearly the show itself. Though the BBC have been coy about the details, from the sound of it there was a strong possibility that if Russell T hadn't stepped in then this would have been a final end for Dr Who on telly. While writing it, plus a fair bit of the extended filming (I mean obviously they knew when they filmed the regeneration, but that was eight whole months later), that’s what everyone making this story thought: that this was the finale not just for a Doctor or a showrunner but an entire era, perhaps of the whole series for good. It was, as it happened, the end of the show as it was being made, as a purely BBC programme before being sold as a co-production to Disney, so it’s extra fitting that this special is a bit of a one-off, created for the Beeb’s centenary year (if nothing else it’s good to have the BBC acknowledge their longest running TV programme at last, which had been around for fifty-nine of those hundred years and on screen for forty-three of them, after ignoring it for all their past anniversaries, like a belated pat on the head from a parent). ‘Power’ is an interesting story in retrospect because it’s full of all the little signs of why things were going wrong, leading to falling ratings and a bit of uncomfortable sighing from the fanbase: characters we’ve invested time in come and go and are ignored, there’s an incomprehensible plot that makes little sense if you stop to think about it, lots of characters standing around talking without actually doing anything and a ‘comedy’ dance moment that’s meant to be funny but is surely a candidate for the cringiest thing shown on the BBc in its entire hundred years. And yet, despite all the odds, the Chris Chibnall era still ends on a relative (dimensions in timelord) high, with a story that manages the impossible task of showing all the many myriad reasons why we love this impossible, crazy, monkeynuts series. Though much of the preceding few years had felt like a wake, at last it felt like a party.

Thank goodness it isn't, but actually if this had been the end of everything then it would have been a sweet and rather fitting way to go, with flashbacks to pretty much every era of the show’s (then) fifty-nine years across it’s extended ninety minute running time. There are old Doctor holograms from all eras, old companions from the 1980s running around in person, old companions from the 1960s and 1970s in a really sweet ‘support group’ that meet to discuss their memories of the Doctor and the return of UNIT. Against all odds all of these feel spot on and show what love and knowledge Chibnall really did have for this series. There’s Ace, older and wiser but still her recognisable self, out saving the world jumping off buildings and blowing things up (while joking that ‘Beyonce got her moves from me!’) There’s Tegan, also older and wiser still boisterous and feisty and exploring the world and doing good along the way. There’s UNIT still saving the universe from monsters and undesirables, with the Brigadier’s daughter still at the helm and offering up her life to save everyone only a few years after Chibnall had seemed to kill them off for good. There are Daleks and Cybermen galore, in a team-up with The Master, who’s ‘final end’ with The Doctor closely resembles the plan for the 3^rd Doctor’s final story in 1974 (see ‘Planet Of The Spiders’ for more). There are holograms of Dr 1 (the David Bradley version) 5,6,7 and 8 plus the Fugitive Doctor sparking off each other like all good multi-Doctor stories. There’s also that wonderful closing meeting of as many of the Doctor’s old friends as could make the filming date, two of which haven’t been seen since ‘The Chase’ (yes, that is a Bradley Walsh gag!) Along the way old scores are settled, old memories are invoked, old catchphrases spoken and old guilts are brought out into the open so everyone can be forgiven and the universe can be put right one final time. It’s like the best reunion party, one where everyone gets to do their party pieces and everyone remembers what fun they had while they were together, while taking one last bow not knowing when they might be together again. Say what you might about his era, Chibnall knows his Who well and every part of that affection is poured into this loving script. If Big Finish ever need another writer to capture old eras then they need look no further, because for large chunks of this story this is Chibnall at a career best. 

It’s not just for pure nostalgia either but makes the most of a very Dr Who plot about absence. The Doctor is so used to swanning about the universe and avoiding congratulations and thankyous that it’s hearts-warming to see him finally receive the love from the people he’s saved and who’s lives he’s changed for the better. Every single person we meet in this story has been changed by him in some way, for better or worse, but that aspect all comes from who they are: the monsters are triggered, shocked at someone trying to undo their control over the universe and expect them to be responsible as she lives in their heads rent-free, while The Doctor inspires her friends to do better, to do good, to make more of their lives, still in their hearts even when she isn’t there. It’s also a story about how life is too short, that none of us get to choose our ‘death’ (even The Doctor) and how important it is not to leave things unspoken (just to ram that bit home there’s a sub-plot about Tegan having an adopted son who won’t talk to her, which gets dropped early on). In that sense this story is like ‘Turn Left’, Chibnall doing a Russell T and exploring The Doctor through all the ways he touches people, only this time it’s specifically The Doctor that suffers rather than the universe. I do wonder, too, if this plot isn’t a plea to the BBC: please don’t cancel this show. Do you see the good it does? Do you see the places it’s been? Do you see what it’s done for the audience? Not since the regeneration in ‘Logopolis’ has a story reached out and put it’s arm around us and made us ‘feel’ like a part of the action, that we are one of the companions gathered around that village hall, chatting away with our own memories of The Doctor (the layout really struck me as being like so many Dr Who conventions and fan meet-ups that went on during the ‘wilderness years’ as fans fought to keep faith in the series alive: in that sense it’s exactly like ‘Love and Monsters’ too). Given how much of this story is a metaphor (‘look at all the things you’re going to miss if Dr Who gets cancelled!’) I’m also not sure who The Master represents. Michael Grade perhaps? Alas, though, this time around Who had nothing to blame for itself for losing audience patience and viewing figures, because as welcome as all the old-new bits are across this special, most of it is just same-old same-old and a bit less, well, special.

It’s the modern ‘Chibnall’ era stuff that falls apart and quite badly too, with nonsensical plots and empty characters, as if even after writing for them for three years in some cases Chibnall still doesn’t know who these people he’s created are. Considering this is the last time we see the 13^th Doctor, Yaz and Dan then they get a pretty poor send-off, with limited screen time and almost nothing to do. Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor does almost nothing this story again: she’s the victim for half of it, then has to be rallied into action by all her earlier selves (who seem a bit peeved she’s given up so easily to be honest). It’s not much action either: her friends do most of the work for her. On the one hand that makes perfect sense: like many of the best ‘special’ episodes this is an affectionate story about The Doctor and what she means to people and it’s her absence at the heart of this story that see so many friends reunite to try and save her, to repay the kindness that they were shown in whatever era it was, to save her the way they were saved. Only, if you were new to the series, you wouldn’t see anyone particularly worth saving: the 13^th Doctor is at her worst here, moody, rude, arrogant, obnoxious and dismissive, always lost in thoughts that she won’t  share and feeling deep emotions that she doesn’t express. You can kind of tell that Jodie Whittaker’s had enough and decided to leave, something compounded by the fact she found out she was pregnant shortly before filming (now that’s method acting, possessing two heartbeats for real!)

The much-discussed ‘Thasmin’ romance (that fans spotted between the Doctor and Yaz in the ‘Flux’ season and which Chibnall liked and decided to write in across the final three specials) is a case in point: we were promised a proper heartbreaking goodbye between two unrequited lovers that could never be as they poured their heart out to each other and The Doctor finally knew what it was like to be loved, right before she ‘dies’. In practice? Two actresses sit on top of a Tardis looking bored and staring into space away from each other. Just compare this to the finale, with all the affection from all the past people the Doctor has touched; these two don’t feel as if they know each other at all, despite spending three seasons, thirty-one episodes and four years of on our screens together. The Doctor got more love and affection from The Master this episode. Even if it’s of the toxic kind. Poor Dan has it even worse; despite being a regular he disappears ten minutes in and only comes back in at the end and doesn’t even get a proper ‘goodbye’ scene. Not since poor Dodo became brainwashed and booted off-screen has a companion been treated this badly.

‘I have loved being with you Yaz and I have loved being me’ The Doctor says finally, but it takes an age to get there and it’s what you say to a dying pet, not your best friend and (in a parallel universe somewhere) romantic partner. ‘Let’s not say goodbye’ retorts Yaz and so they don’t. That is, admittedly, perfectly in keeping with these two who have struggled to express themselves since we’ve known them (as ever in these pages, Yaz seems less sketched in as a character than all the supporting ones we only get for a single story). What’s particularly galling about this though, even for someone who thought the ‘romance’ a non-starter, this entire story has been about expressing yourself and not letting past fears stop you from reaching out to those you love. That’s what’s been eating Tegan up about being abandoned, until the 5^th holo-Doctor comes forth to give her closure, telling her how proud he is of her and all she’s achieved and how he’s never stopped thinking about her. That’s what’s been eating Ace up too, since her clash with the 7^th Doctor that saw her walking out (umm, whichever time this was: there are variations on why in ‘The New Adventures’ Big Finish audios – where she quits and rejoins a few times over the years – Sophie Adred’s own book ‘A Childhood’s End’ and the unmade season twenty-seven story ‘Thin Ice’ by Marc Platt that was her intended leaving story finally completed for Big Finish’s ‘lost stories’ range – basically he manipulates her into taking a course at his old academy that outs her in danger without her permission. Again. More on those below). That’s what’s haunted a lot of the companions in that support group: they didn’t always get to choose when to say goodbye and have spent their lives back on Earth with plenty of time on their hands to think about things since. That’s why Yaz and the Doctor and especially Dan deserved a proper goodbye: because they’re going to spend the rest of their lives wishing they’d had one.

Just look at how whatever mysterious event that went on between The Doctor and The Master has been eating him up ever since they were little. Though you could argue that a lot of the Master’s attempts to take over the universe are for power and nothing more, this one is so clearly personal aimed at getting revenge on The Doctor and undoing all her good hard work down thirteen regenerations (and more, supposedly).What happened between them to cause their issues to fester so? The Master is unhinged even for him this episode, setting up such an elaborate obvious hoax. I mean, he looks so unlike Rasputin that the only way to make that plot point even vaguely make sense would be to go round hypnotising every single person who ever existed after Rasputin just to keep his cover. Plus he wasn't a baddy. Make The Master Napoleon or Hitler or Trump or David Cameron if you want to go down that route. What a missed opportunity, too, to reveal that in the Dr Who universe Rasputin avoided being killed so many times over because he was a timelord with special powers. The worst thing is in the end it doesn’t matter: The Master could have disguised himself in a pub opposite where the Tardis lands for all the difference the ‘Russian clues’ make to the plot in the end.

The Master, too, isn’t quite right, even compared to the last couple of times we saw him. It’s not just that his plan is bonkers (we’re used to that). It’s not that his plan is wicked (that’s usual too). It’s not that the acting is OTT (we’re used to that too). It’s the envy: he’s so desperate to have The Doctor’s life that he’s prepared to force a regeneration and take over her life, even down to ‘becoming’ her and all her past selves (a great opportunity for lots of old props!) This is so far removed from The Master’s earliest days, where he gloated as a school bully would to a victim, one who’s cocky enough to believe that they could never be caught, that it makes you wonder if he’s alright. We’ve had hints that he’s secretly thin-skinned and scared of The Doctor (his phobia in ‘The Mind Of Evil’ was being mocked) and lots of plans have tried to take over Earth purely because it’s ‘The Doctor’s favourite planet’,  but this sort of petty point scoring is new. I’m not sure it fits a character who’s spent so much of his life pretending that The Doctor is of no consequence to him and it’s not a very Mastery plan anyway (doesn’t he remember what happened the last time he matched up with The Daleks in ‘Frontier In Space’? Or the last time we ever saw him when he was working with the Cyberman in ‘The Timeless Children’?) Plus we’ve already seen it, sort of, in ‘The Name Of The Doctor’ when it was The Great Intelligence having a dumb Bond moment. The Master is also so past the point of being unhinged by this story that he doesn’t feel like a threat - even when he’s confident, even when he’s – good God – dancing to Boney M (it’s hard to be scared of someone who dances that badly. I’m just relieved this hasn’t become a thing and we haven’t had dancing Daleks or Davros since).  I wish they’d done more with The Master. After all, for most of the companions in the main story his return is a big deal: i Yaz only just escaped with her life last time while he threatens the person she loves most in the world (alas mostly she stands in the Tardis looking grim but not saying much), while Tegan saw the master kill her aunty Vanessa, Ace lost her childhood friends to the planet of the cheetah people under The Master’s control and very nearly joined them. We know Ace and Tegan and sort of Yaz can blow up Daleks and Cybermen with the best of them but The Master? After everything they’ve seen him be capable of? That’s another story we don’t quite get.

And yet, the stuff that’s here to make you feel nostalgic works so incredibly well even the best Who writers would have struggled to make it work this well with this much glorious attention to detail. There are loving nods to every single era in there somewhere and it feels like there is more the more you look. The Hartnell era is featured through the David Bradley hologram: the actor can’t get the mixture of grump and eye-twinkle that he captured so well in the ‘Adventures In Space and Time’ docu-drama in 2013 but he does a better job of nailing the First Doctor’s loving grandfatherly authority than he ever managed on radio for Big Finish and it’s a worthy performance. It’s so wonderful to see Ian at the end too, with William Russell’s last acting appearance two years before his death at the age of ninety-nine and his last line (‘did you say she?’) is delivered in just the same way. His appearance even put him in the Guinness Book of World Records for longest gap between playing the same part on television (an impressive fifty-seven years). The second Doctor gets shortest shrift – sadly Reece Shearsmith doesn’t return as the 2^nd Doctor from the same drama but we do get The Master playing ‘The Skye Boat Song’ on the recorder after absorbing The Doctor’s doctorness. There’s UNIT and Brigadier Junior to represent the 3^rd Doctor, while Jo Grant pops up at the reunion. The 5^th Doctor and Tegan get a lot of screentime. Mel turns up at the reunion to represent the 6^th and 7^th Doctor eras (such a shame she doesn’t get time to chat to Ace like the olden days of ‘Dragonfire’!) while the 6^th and 7^th Doctors have great fun trading insults with the 8^th Doctor (marking only the third ‘official’ TV appearance of the McGann incarnation. In keeping with the whole ‘metaphor for the holo-Doctors being their TV selves analogy it’s notable how he’s so ‘apart’ from the others, refusing to wear the same robes or play the same games, much to the 7^th’s consternation: a reference, perhaps, to the only story pre-Disney to be made by another company and in that case another country to boot?) It’s just the 4^th Doctor who feels a bit forgotten for once, though even then there’s a scarf (although it would have taken some explaining how his companions got to Earth – apart from Sarah Jane of course, who would have had the perfect hole for a cameo had she still been alive, though it would have been good to have her old K9 running around at least: the church hall floor looks flat after all, unlike most of his cameos!) They don't actually get a lot to do but it’s so lovedly having Tegan and Ace back is wonderful and they make a great double-act, the show's early 80s and late 80s idea of feminism making a good contrast against Jodie's Doctor to show how much has (and hasn't) changed while being true to both their characters (we're just missing Leela for the trio!) Cheer Tegan on as she faces her fears (and she has more reason tohate The Master than anyone after what happened to her Aunty Vanessa). Laugh at Graham being bossed about by Ace. Had it proved to be the show's last ever scene then the one of the companions self-help group would have been a truly perfect ending. Weep at the first appearances of Mel in 40 years and Ian's in 58! (Trivia: the empty chair you see should have been Polly's but Anneke Wills was late for filming having been 'distracted by some gardening that needed doing' ; I like to think though that it means Ian's still with Barbara in this timeline and she's just popped to the loo). Yes it could have been longer and even more moving, with lots of references to old stories and a chance to see the actors we know well from conventions interact as their characters (trust Graham to take the flipping thing over too, despite having less interesting stories to tell than any of them!) But that would have nudged the story over from ‘BBC special designed to appeal to everyone’ and ‘a story only made for fans’ and that, to some extent, is where things went wrong last time the show was cancelled. For the most part it’s a delightful epilogue to a crazy fifty-nine years, full of sights we thought we’d never get to see again and to see our old friends are seen safe and well and thriving is the best tribute we could have had.  

So that’s the past well catered for and the past handled pretty terribly. What about the future? Well, it should have been the moment we all fell out of our chairs. There the Doctor is, with a typical 13^th goodbye speech (she’s the only regeneration to ‘die’ alone, by choice, sending Yasmin away) which is trying to be clever but just sounds daft (although I rather like her closing ‘tag – you’re next’ line: how come twelve regenerations in and no one had thought of that before? Funnily enough it’s one of the first lines Chibnall wrote for his Doctor, coming to him during the writing of his first batch of stories, but it sums her up well). Then there she is turning into a he, the orange light transforming her into…David Tennant remembering his teeth and asking ‘what?’ just like the old days. It will all be explained (well, vaguely: The Doctor likes old faces apparently, which is why he once looked like the Roman guy from ‘The Fires Of Pompeii’, complete with Scottish-Roman accent) but for now it’s a shock, to him as well as us. Normally I don’t mind production spoilers – usually they’re pretty safe to ignore and such a mess of fact and rumour they’re nearly always different to what you end up seeing anyway. But this one was a shame: the only era that wasn’t properly catered for is the modern one (mostly because the 2013 special ‘Day Of the Doctor’ had treated them well and the actors were mostly busy) and to have that icing on the cake with the promise of new adventures with an old face alongside an old showrunner seemed intoxicating. Unfortunately that rumour was just so strong and so prolific that everyone must have known about the shock by the time it happened, even people who had been accidentally kidnapped and taken to the stone age to live in a cave. Brief as it was this moment was not without controversy either: debate raged as to whether The Doctor should have transformed in the 13^ths’ clothes. Most Doctors do after all, though there are exceptions (such as Hartnell into Troughton and we don’t see Troughton into Pertwee). I suspect Tennant, hero as he is to the LGBTQ and particularly the Trans community, would have been all for it, but Russell T feared that people would talk about nothing else and it would be ‘weaponised’ or ‘seen as mockery’ and overshadow Chris’ last story. Well, so what: given that Russell’s next scripts take the same ‘everyone is safe here’ attitude better to have the haters realising this was no longer their show now. Just as predictable a row, though no one seems to have seen it coming, was the fact that the filming of the regeneration took place randomly (no reason for it in the episode) on top of the rock on Durdle Door in Dorset. The BBC were allowed to film there only under strict regulations for health and safety, which they followed (all the parts with actors were done with green screen back in the studio anyway).

 Unfortunately a miscommunication meant that the safety precautions there were edited out of the final broadcast and the local council were horrified, fearing that legions of rabid fans would clamber up it assuming that as The Doctor did it they were free to as well (though none have, as far as I know).
So that’s an era ending in controversy, with a bunch of characters who seem to be going before we ever got to know them at anything more than surface level, in an often messy noisy and confusing special that treats old monsters badly (there weren’t many Daleks or Cybermen – though when Chibnall finally started talking about ‘returning monsters’ for an awful moment I thought given his tradition the ‘last’ story might end with a match-up between the p’ting and Tim-Shaw!) and not a lot actually happening. The plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense, leaves most loose ends untied (err, what ever happened to those volcanoes, I ask nervously?), had whacking great plotholes (surely The daleks know that if The Master lets The Cybermen convert humanity in 1915 there’ll be nothing for them to blow up in 2022?) and is mostly an excuse to shoehorn some big set pieces in between lots of noisy blowy-up type things, without even the sense of other multi-Doctor stories (take your pick of ‘Two’ ‘Three’ ‘Five’ Doctors and ‘Day Of the Doctor’. Okay, so it makes a lot more sense than ‘Dimensions In Time’ but that was a pretty low bar). The acting is variable, particularly after Dan leaves and before Ace and Tegan show up. Given that this episode was pitched to encourage people who maybe hadn’t seen Dr Who in a long time (or perhaps ever) to check it out, having a slurring baddy cross-dress in the Doctor’s clothes and boogie simply doesn’t cut it, making you wonder if Chibnall ever really understood Who at all.  Yet it’s also a sweet story full of lovely hellos and goodbyes that properly sums up all the imagination, intelligence, wit, warmth, eccentricity and morals of this greatest show in the galaxy (Chibnall writes some of his best lines here too, such as Ace’s dig at The Master ‘the last time I saw you [in ‘Survival’] you were a cat’ ‘a man’s allowed to experiment!’ while The Master’s reference to his ideas his ‘Master’s Dalek Plan’ is a knowing nod to ‘The Dalek’s Masterplan’). Somehow ‘The Power Of the Doctor’ successfully sums up two eras perfectly: the overall glorious run of fifty-nine years of wonderful adventures and the sometimes clumsy era which ended with this story. Watching this story you can see both why this glorious series has lasted so long and why it might currently be in trouble. Even so, there’s a lot more that this story gets right than it gets wrong and it was a surprise to many I think just how strong this story was (so many doctors! So many companions! So many monsters!) In the spirit of the story’s own plot, it was a belated unexpected present that allowed us to forgive and forget, to move on and heal from such nonsense as pre-Doctor timeless children and fluxes re-writing plot history on fast forward and make peace with a difficult era. For at last, this was a Chibnall special that really did feel gloriously, gorgeously special. Because it’s Dr Who. All of it is special, every single precious bit of it and to have it in our lies at all is worth celebrating. Even though it was the BBC’s birthday party rather than the series’ this one ticked most of the right boxes and a splendid time was guaranteed for all (well, maybe not The Master…)

POSITIVES + The hologram is an inspired Avatar-style way of getting as many Doctors to appear as possible without having them all there to overwhelm the plot. It's a shame there's no Tom Baker (who was reportedly ill when they were filming it - I suspect Paul McGann got his lines as they feel more 4^th Doctor-ish) but we do get Doctors 5,6,7,8, David Bradley's impression of 1 and in the regeneration sequence 10/14 as well as 13. That's more Doctors than we've had in any other episode in this book! They all feel like their characters too: tDr 5 is the weary voice of reason old before his years (even if those are visibly catching him up now), 6 is feisty and larger than life, 7 is dotty and eccentric, 1 is a right old grump and 8 sees McGann stealing the show, just as he did for the 50th. It's Dr 5's talks with Tegan and Dr 7's talks with Ace that have the biggest emotional whallop though. More in the forthcoming spin-offs, pretty please – especially the 8^th Doctor who is so long overdue his own TV run.  

NEGATIVES – Poor Dan. He got so close to cutting it, committing to his new adventurous life and finding out things about himself he never knew he had. His arc really seemed as if it was going somewhere: he was going to get the girl he was too shy to ask out, get that dream job he always wanted and save the world, with the newborn confidence that only being around The Doctor can give you. But no: ten minutes into the story he suddenly bottles it and decides that he's had enough and quits, even though there was nothing in that ten mins that should have made him feel he was 'pushing his luck' (I mean, riding a train in the sky – a neat repeat back to where we were in ‘The Woman Who Fell To Earth’ but with The Doctor now fully in charge, by the way - is a lot nicer than, say, being exterminated over and over or being attacked by reptilian pirates like he was in his last two adventures). His whole character arc was about him feeling neglected and forgotten, so it’s sad that even the Doctor and his own creator seem to do this to him, shunting him out the way to apparently concentrate on the ‘Thasmin’ relationship that sadly never properly gets going beyond some longing looks and another awkward conversation (why not give him Vinder’s role? There was absolutely no reason for that cameo at all). Bear in mind, too, Dan's house was blown up in his first story so he's effectively homeless and the Doctor doesn't offer to buy him one to say thankyou, the way Dr 11 did Amy and Rory. It's a rotten end to a decent companion who deserved more. Why not just give him a big farewell scene in the previous story if he's surplus to requirements? 

BEST QUOTE: The Master: ‘I have allergies. I'm human-intolerant’.