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Doctor Who Series 12 Review

Although a definite improvement upon its predecessor, the twelfth season of Doctor Who still has its fair share of problems. The show needs to improve even more in the future.

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“I don’t suppose you’ve seen anything weird around here?“

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I was glad to witness a more confident, more dramatic and better season than the first one for this new incarnation of the Doctor. Still, she deserves much better treatment as the actress herself does too. So let’s break it down.

Spyfall is a two-parter, and a solid one, but I only found Part 2 engaging while Part 1 was not particularly good as a season opener. Overall, the Master is a lot of fun here and I continue to like the new actor playing him, but the story favors action over genuine drama or emotion way too much.

Whereas Orphan 55 is the most forgettable, most uninteresting and messy episode of this bunch, Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror is excellent without a doubt. It’s one of the best episodes of this season that serves as a killer period piece that is insightful and complex. Tesla here is showcased as a genius, but one with bad marketing and business skills. It was refreshing to finally see an English show portray this character so right – from a terrific performance from Filip Visnjic to a great character arc as a misunderstood genius immigrant to a terrific dynamic that the Doctor has with him. All of it undeniably works.

Fugitive of the Judoon changed everything, and mostly for the better. It’s a powerful, hugely entertaining and very eventful episode that introduces us to this previous, utterly unknown version of the Doctor. The two Doctors share some quite funny banter, but the entire mythology established here, although a bit too overwhelming and extensive, was cool, refreshing and undeniably intriguing.

I really did not care for Praxeus. It was this overly preachy ecological tale with a tacked on message about the environment, thus signifying everything that is wrong with this new era of Doctor Who – it’s overly concerned with politics and world issues. Can You Hear Me? started off fascinatingly in medieval Aleppo, but soon it crumbled with quite bad execution.

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The Haunting of Villa Diodati is not that interesting of a historical episode about Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley. Ascension of the Cybermen is quite engaging in the lone, different Cyberman trope, but overall too chaotic. The Timeless Children is a solid and fun finale with a great turn from the Master, but at the end of the day it changed too many things, though it ended on a powerful cliffhanger.

In conclusion, I did like this season to a certain degree. Some episodes are so much fun and even game-changing, but others are messy and overly political. Jodie Whitaker continues to be strong in the role, but the Doctor needs to be better written. The same goes for her companions with only Graham receiving at least some kind of a complex role here.

Worst Episodes: Orphan 55 and Praxeus.

Best Episodes: Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror and Fugitive of the Judoon.