What is the base value of cameos from former Doctor Who actors? "The Power of the Doctor", the Doctor Who special from a couple days ago, kind of answers that question. Bringing in some heavy hitters from the series' long history and pairing them with another empty Chris Chibnall script and unfeeling direction from Jamie Magnus Stone, it has about the emotional impact of watching security footage of Doctor Who actors signing autographs.
It was also Chibnall's final episode as showrunner as well as Jodie Whittaker's final episode as the 13th Doctor. In case you've somehow avoided the only news anyone's been talking about regarding Doctor Who lately, the special ends with spoiler Whittaker regenerating back into David Tennant, who will play the 14th Doctor for returning showrunner Russell T. Davies. They even took the unusual step of having his costume regenerate. I guess Davies doesn't even want to deal with the 13th Doctor's costume.
Much like the conclusion of last year's Doctor Who season, Chibnall handled having several insubstantial plots running simultaneously by putting clones of the Doctor everywhere, in this case she's a hologram that somehow shows up on everyone's eyeballs. And if you thought that was a flimsy plot device, how about Graham randomly showing up in a volcano with no explanation? Or the Master impersonating Rasputin for no reason? Or concocting an elaborate plan that basically amounts to wearing the Doctor's clothes?
As publicised, Ace and Tegan, companions of the Seventh and Fifth Doctors, respectively, appear in the special, introduced as UNIT consultants. Chibnall awkwardly plunks exposition into their dialogue to establish the decades since they'd seen the Doctor, apparently serving no purpose other than to place Big Finish stories outside the canon, stories that happen to have been better written than anything Chibnall's ever dreamed up. As a Doctor Who fan, I was excited to see so many actors returning--and it turned out to be a lot more than just Tegan and Ace. And there is some value in the chemistry these actors bring with them. But these same actors are in the better written, less rushed, Big Finish audio plays. I started to get the feeling that Chibnall's departure wasn't just overdue, it's like taking a gun out of a child's hands.
Okay, that's hyperbole. This boring special doesn't deserve anything so colourful.
There are other problems. Dan, the character who barely qualified as a companion, leaves without emotional impact. The whole "Thazmin" thing seemed to be utterly forgotten. It all just felt so damned rushed, like they had no proper teleplay, just an outline. Hopefully this is the last we'll see of this kind of thing.
Doctor Who is available on the BBC's iPlayer in the UK and HBOMax in the US.
Twitter Sonnet #1635
A lonely spider hunts to clean a home.
A shadow man discerns a crooked watch.
With sev'ral legs the saviour's wont to roam.
Without a word the pixels poured a scotch.
The purple paste could hold a pint of teeth.
The knee would pull apart a leg to walk.
Above the noble skull she wove a wreath.
Balloons escort the tongue at home to talk.
The grassy arrows wilt to black at night.
The melon bought at desert's edge was dry.
A stone that's barely human couldn't fight.
The paper came to sell but cuts would buy.
Familiar faces line the pummelled rack.
To swiftly cram a past in ragged sack.
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