Is Doctor Who Series 11 Bad?

"Shes the only person in the friend group who has a car" shutup! That's how I made friends in high school

"only idiots carry knives" LITERALLY THE NEXT EPISODE saves a man's life with a knife ... Both episodes were written by the same guy

It's evil to kill spiders, but then there's 'Kerblam!'... where it's okay to kill a kid. I really don't understand Thirteen yet and I don't think the writers do either.

The biggest problem for me was that it wasn't fun. Sure doctor who had its writing inconsistencies, but there was never a season that was completely B O R I N G, until there was. Nearing the last episodes of season 11, I wasn't thinking "oooh let's see what's happening this week" but rather "let's get this over with". It makes me sad.

The spider episode especially felt they were trying to force familiarity with the character of the Doctor, i.e. no killing, no guns; however it was just so forced as well as completely missing the mark in terms of being humane.

My problem with series 11 is that it was so boring. The Doctor is just nebulously good, her companions are just nebulously good. Everyone who disagrees with the Doctor is bad. There's no interesting moral conflicts between the characters or in general. When the show does get close to having one they ultimately ruin it by either just cutting it off or having something that just makes no sense. Kerblam is decent up until the ending where it just trips over itself by having a character turn out to be a mad terrorist who wants to kill people and then doesn't, then does again because robots have almost entirely replaced human workforces, and his plan to fix it is to blow up customers with explosive bubble wrap. That's right, bubble wrap. The only other remotely interesting conflict is where Graham wants to kill blue tooth face man for killing Grace, he confides in the Doctor that he wants to do this and feels like he needs to, she then tell him no, don't do that or you can't fly in my box any more. So he doesn't. He 'almost' does but the show has been so bland up to that point that Graham deciding not to kill him is so predictable it's not even funny. Another problem with series 11 is that the Doctor is a massive hypocrite and keeps changing her mind about what she should be doing. She rages at Ryan for picking up a gun and trying to shoot at some mindless, non-sapient, robots. But she has no problem using weapons herself later in the series. She also keeps flip flopping over whether she wants to mess around the timeline of events. It's at its worst in Demons, she takes the whole gang even though it's really only relevant to Jaz. The Doctor tells them they can't play around with time but changes her mind back and forth because her companions decide that they do want to mess with the timeline. At the end everything happens as it's supposed to anyway so wasn't even any point really, which describes the demons themselves whose only reason for being there is to watch people die. The only reason series 11 will be remembered is because of the gender swap, aside from that it is just sort of nothingy. It's not even worth getting angry over really. If I was jumping in for the first time, I probably wouldn't watch anymore of the show and I probably would have watched it to the conclusion only because I have nothing else better to do. That's probably the best way to describe series 11.

Kerblam! came pretty close to being a true high point for the season, something like a modern-day Sunmakers or Happiness Patrol... but it totally flubbed the landing by taking the position that capitalism is an unqualified good thing. It spends its first two acts highlighting all of the questionable ways Kerblam! treats its workers, only to spend its final act effectively saying, "Nah, it's fine - oh, hey, look, we managed to monsterize bubble wrap as a tribute to the classic series!" Doctor Who is a series that needs to be better than "Well, at least it didn't embarrass itself." I felt like I was watching a season full of "proof-of-concept" pieces - the bulk of which worked, but didn't go anywhere beyond that. Jodie Whittaker is a great actress (and the concept of a female Doctor is one that is frankly overdue), but Chibnall really needs to get someone on board behind the scenes to do some serious script editing for him, someone with vision and bravery... because that was sorely lacking in this most recent season.

Don’t forget that season 11 saw the exit of an amazing artist: Murray gold, who had been influencing the show’s tone with his music. Truly great stuff

if a hot, cool, god-like being jumped into my life and whisked me off to whimsical adventures I'd probably fall in love.

"If Graham and Ryan had their own time machine they would stop hanging out with her" is even funnier given that Season 12 ended with them noping out with the psychic paper and having their own adventures without The Doctor lol

I was kind of hoping 13 would be sort of a reverse 12. I feel like every next doctor is a reaction of the last in a major way, like 11 choosing to reject responsibilities and guilt after how unfairly 10 had to die, or how twelve doubled down on being pragmatic and cynical after centuries of being a buffoon before. I guess I was hoping that there would be a sort of double edged sword to 13's extremely fun and awkward personality. Like, if anything upset her bubbly perspective, then there would be a risk of her snapping and showing a side of herself protective of her companions and her own joy to dangerous degrees.

I'm fine with a female doctor and a diverse cast but season 11 is just poorly written. I want it to be good but I just found myself bored and engaged.

This video is a breath of fresh air. I'm highkey tired of those "season 11 bad because WOMAN??" videos popping up in my recommended. I adore the effort you put into your videos Quinton, keep it up!

Good to see someone present a more neutral opinion towards the show, in a setting where you either have to love the show or absolutely hate it

"Also, Yaz is there" Feels to me like the new "what about Zoydberg?"

oh shit i stumbled across an actually decent, balanced video on Dr who s11! I'd heard rumours but never believed them to be true.

Here’s a note Hartnell made us understand his character within his first 20 minutes. Troughten took one serial to show us that regeneration can work. Pertwee made his impression in 1 episode. Baker managed it within a 5 minute introduction scene. Davison took a while but you always knew where you stood with him. C.Baker did it in his first serial (for better or for worse). McCoy in his first season showed the direction he was going to take his character. McGann has many distinct personas and all feel familiar to me. Eccleston took half an episode and you knew he was wounded. Tennant did it in one monologue after being asleep for the whole episode. Smith again did it in 5 minutes. Capaldi nailed it in the first episode. After 10 episodes, I still do not feel like I understand who she is as the doctor and where her morals truly are.

My main issue with the 13th doctor is the whole "I'm-so-awkward-cause-Im-an-alien" bit. Like the doctor is like 1000+ years old at this point and has shown a level of basic understanding of basically everything. Like even when past doctors did find something new, they never have had a problem integrating fairly convincing. It makes a more interesting character with potentially infinite stories to tell. The new "humor" makes the doctor less interesting and overall makes the show boring

The whole thing felt cobbled together at last minute to me - I quite like Jodie and the wider cast and there's bits and pieces of good ideas in there - centring a series around Ryan and Graham grieving over Grace's death and growing closer - but the interesting ideas are so underdeveloped that I never felt like I was going on any kind of journey with these people. Ryan and Graham's growing closer only really happens in a handful of token scenes when the writers remember 'shit we're supposed to be engineering a character arc here' - the most baffling decision of all was putting the episode where they both come to terms with Grace's death and Ryan starts calling Graham Granddad BEFORE the episode where they confront Tim Shaw again and Graham goes 'right I wanna kill him for revenge' - those two episodes needed to go the other way around. it just didn't feel like anyone really thought the structure of this grief arc through

I have to say, It Takes You Away bugged me because of the total non-twist (POSSIBLE SPOILERS) SHOW: Oh look it's people they loved who are dead. VIEWER: Okay they're not real though. SHOW: No, they totally are real! VIEWER: Interesting, what's the deal then? SHOW: Psych! They weren't real!