Doctor Who (2024) - Season 1

While Ncuti Gatwa had already appeared as the Fifteenth Doctor in two specials, this marks his first full season. Time to make up the balance.

This season of Doctor Who is significant not only because it’s Gatwa’s first season, but also because it is the first time Disney holds the broadcasting rights outside of the United Kingdom. This shift has led to the season being referred to as the first season of a new show, for a whopping total of three ‘Doctor Whos’ on this website (Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005), and Doctor Who (2024)). Now the question is: does a reset of the counter also translate to a reset in the series?

This season maintains that Doctor Who feeling

I would say not so much. This is season is in many senses a continuation of Doctor Who (2005). Of course, the familiar blue box and theme song play a part in this, but one can also not underestimate the importance of the return of showrunner Russell T. Davies (also known as RTD). RTD was the showrunner at the beginning of the 2005 revival, left around 2010, but has now taken it upon himself to bring back some of the former glory to Doctor Who after some disappointing seasons from Chibnall, the previous showrunner. RTD’s involvement must certainly have helped maintain that Doctor Who feeling.

Another point of continuity is that, like previous seasons, this season is all over the place, with the different episodes in wildly varying settings and with wildly varying story lines. The Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa, Sex Education) and his new companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson, Coronation Street) visit different planets and different time periods on Earth. Because of the wildly varying nature of these episodes, it is difficult to draw a single conclusion on their quality. Most people like one episode better over the other. My personal favorite was “73 Yards”, in which Gibson really gets to shine, and shows that despite her young age, she is a formidable actress. A particularly daring episode is “Dot and Bubble”, which is both serious and silly, and most of all confusing till the very end. I personally didn’t like “Boom” much, as it was too on-the-nose for me and could have been more subtle in its messaging, but many fans loved it. On the other hand, “Space Babies” is generally hated, while I thought it was perfectly average. Taste differs, is all I can say.



During these episodes, we get to know the Doctor as a whimsical, enthusiastic, and sometimes emotional figure. Not everyone liked this Doctor, some even arguing that Disney or RTD made an unrecognizable Doctor. I do not agree with this. The personalities of the Doctor have always varied wildly between the different Doctors. I therefore think the Doctor cannot be ‘too anything’. While reading through the reviews online, I noticed that while for some people it is a genuine preference for a different type of doctor, a lot of it is also thinly veiled racism (first Black Doctor), sexism (men shouldn’t cry) or homophobia (Gatwa is too queer). I liked his portrayal of the Doctor, as he manages to get a good mix between crazy and more serious, and think (hope) he will grow on people over time.

If we are to critique Gatwa for anything, it’s his occasional stiffness. This varies from episode to episode, but at times, his enthusiasm, dialogues, and actions can seem a bit wooden. Gibson does much better in that regard. That does not take away from that Gatwa’s overall performance as a Doctor is good, and it’s likely that he will only improve in the seasons to come.

Russell T. Davies is great at writing stories that build up suspense, but rarely manages to close the stories in a way that does justice to the build-up

Yet, an even bigger problem this season is the fumbled endings. RTD is great at writing stories that build up suspense over an episode or even a whole season, but rarely manages to close the stories in a way that does justice to the build-up. Almost all episodes have this problem, most notably the season finale. The first episode of the two-part finale has an 8.2 on IMDB at the time of writing, while the second episode, the season finale, has a 6.7. This 1.5 point difference exemplifies the fumbled endings, as it is by no means the only part of this season that suffers from this. The aforementioned “73 Yards” episode has a bit of the same problem, as well as “The Devil’s Chord” or, well, almost all other episodes. Concerning the season finale specifically, the fandom is in heated discussion on whether all the loose ends left by RTD are the setup for the following season, or rather just poor storytelling on his part. Only time will tell.

Besides these problems (a sometimes wooden Doctor and fumbled endings), I found this season very enjoyable still. It was fun and each episode left me waiting for next week. I would urge fans to give the season (and the Fifteenth Doctor) a chance. It was an enjoyable and wild ride.