Doctor Who Is Finally Good Again Why Flux Has Fixed Whittakers Era

Doctor Who Is Finally Good Again: Why Flux Has Fixed Whittaker’s Era

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Chris Chibnall’s era of Doctor Who has struggled over the last few years – but his new approach in Doctor Who: Flux has seen him find his feet.

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Doctor Who Is Finally Good Again Why Flux Has Fixed Whittakers Era

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Doctor Who: Flux episode 2.

Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall’s era has proved incredibly divisive – but Doctor Who: Flux has fixed the problems and made the show good again. No one can fault current Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall on his ambition; not content with telling stories featuring the first female Doctor, he implemented a Timeless Child retcon that rewrote the history of the Doctor and the Time Lord race. It was the boldest change in Doctor Who lore since 1969’s “The War Games.” Unfortunately Chibnall’s reach has been greater than his grasp; seasons 11 and 12 of Doctor Who failed to fulfil their potential, with clunky writing, under-developed companions and stories that lacked real resolution.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced Chibnall to take a very different approach with Doctor Who season 13, however. “Doctor Who is one of the most difficult shows to produce,” Chibnall explained in an interview with Doctor Who Magazine, “and we were aware that [the pandemic] would make it even more difficult. We’ve tried to keep pushing the show every year, and we didn’t want to let the ambition of the show down. But to continue with the previous number of episodes was financially, logistically, and operationally impossible.” As a result, Doctor Who season 13 is only six episodes in length; it also has a single overarching narrative running through the series. The closest comparison is with the classic series of Doctor Who, where multi-episode arcs were the norm and six-episode stories weren’t especially unusual; but that comparison isn’t perfect, because Chibnall has adapted the format to give each episode its own individual A-plot as well, while the sub-plots continue to build in the background.

Two episodes of Doctor Who: Flux have aired to date, and it’s becoming clear Chibnall’s experiment has worked – transforming the show and arguably at last fulfilling Chibnall’s vision of redefining Doctor Who for the 2020s. At last, the showrunner has found his feet, and his era of Doctor Who… is good.

The Serialized Nature Of Doctor Who Season 13 Really Works

Doctor Who Is Finally Good Again Why Flux Has Fixed Whittakers Era

Chibnall is an old-school Doctor Who fan, and often that’s worked against him, because he’s tended to draw too deeply on classic lore and failed to adapt his ideas for the post-2005 relaunch. On the face of it, Doctor Who: Flux follows the traditional format, with an overarching narrative running through multiple episodes, each ending with a dramatic cliffhanger (albeit one slightly marred by the instant trailer for the next episode). But Chibnall has rightly concluded that approach wouldn’t quite work in the modern era, especially not when the single story takes up the whole series. He’s tweaked it by launching a cosmic tale that runs throughout time and space, beginning on Earth in the present day, then taking the Doctor to the Crimean War, and on to the mysterious Temple of Atropos. It’s a smart adaptation of the classic multi-episode story, allowing for momentum to build while retaining the sense of wonder and discovery. There’s never been anything quite like Doctor Who season 13 in the show’s entire history.

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Russell T. Davies chose to drop the serialized format when he relaunched Doctor Who back in 2005, because he believed it wouldn’t work in popular culture. But culture changes, and now serialized storytelling is all the rage, so it makes sense for Doctor Who to embrace it. It helps that this plays to Chibnall’s strengths, as he demonstrated in Broadchurch; moving to this format has therefore freed him to tell the kind of story he wants to tell. There’s a sense of boldness and confidence in Doctor Who: Flux that hasn’t been there before in the Chibnall era, for all its lavish production value, and the format is what has given the show this confidence.

Jodie Whittaker’s Performance Gives Doctor Who: Flux Momentum

Doctor Who Is Finally Good Again Why Flux Has Fixed Whittakers Era

Jodie Whittaker’s performance is much improved for Doctor Who season 13 as well, in large part because of the directing. The Doctor has always tended to give lectures and infodumps, but in the Chibnall era these have typically brought the story’s momentum screeching to a halt because the Doctor would simply stand still to deliver them, and the cameras would focus on her face. Now, there is a newfound kinetic energy to Whittaker’s Doctor; she doesn’t stand still anymore, but instead is always moving, always fidgeting, as though she’s full of energy and always eager to move on. This is coupled with Whittaker’s uniquely expressive face, with the actress moving through a range of facial expressions at speed, emoting in a remarkable way. Her portrayal feels comparable to that of Patrick Troughton or Sylvester McCoy, classic Doctors who used their faces to great effect.

The Timeless Child retcon appears to have had a lasting effect on Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor, because there is an edge to her that wasn’t there before, a darkness that feels almost like a thunderstorm about to break. This is most notable in her changed relationship with Yaz, who senses the Doctor is now keeping secrets from her, but can’t get the Doctor to open up. The tension between the two was palpable in Doctor Who: Flux episode 1, and for a moment it honestly seemed as though they were about to part ways because of the Doctor’s secretive nature. Companions like Yaz serve as audience surrogates, helping viewers know how to relate to the Doctor themselves, and so this tension makes Doctor Who season 13 feel ever-so-slightly off-balance, in rather an effective way.

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The Balance Of Companions Works More Effectively

Doctor Who Is Finally Good Again Why Flux Has Fixed Whittakers Era

Doctor Who seasons 11 and 12 saw the Doctor travel with three companions, and unfortunately that proved too much for the scriptwriters to handle. Even the best stories, such as “Fugitive of the Judoon,” tended to see the Doctor separated from her fam; they worked on the B-plot, while she worked on the main one. It meant the companions were woefully underdeveloped, often feeling tangential rather than essential. Oddly enough, Doctor Who: Flux follows the typical Chibnall arc, stranding the Doctor in the Crimean War, spiriting Dan away to the present day, and transporting Yaz to the Temple of Atropos. But this time it works, precisely because of the balance between individual episodes and the overarching narrative.

It’s interesting to note that Doctor Who season 13 is trying to handle new companion Dan Lewis, played by John Bishop, in a better way than the old gang. The first episode spent quite a bit of time in Dan’s world, and the decision to transport Dan to the present day allowed him to act in his home environment and interact with his parents. Chibnall’s scripts are trying to flesh out Dan’s character and his personal world before he really dives into more cosmic adventures, so viewers have a better relationship with him.

Has Chibnall Finally Succeeded In Reinventing Doctor Who?

Chibnall has always clearly had the ambition of reinventing Doctor Who for the 2020s, hoping to leave a permanent mark on the franchise. It had previously seemed as though he intended to achieve this by rewriting the Doctor’s canon and lore, but ironically the coronavirus pandemic has forced him to implement a change of format that may prove far more influential than any retcon. Davies was right to drop the serialized approach to Doctor Who when he relaunched the series in 2005, but longer-form storytelling is in vogue once again after the particular success of Game of Thrones. Now, Chibnall has shown how to make that work in modern Doctor Who, and it’s a lesson Davies would be wise to heed when he returns for season 14.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/doctor-who-season-13-whittaker-chibnall-good-fix/

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