We now come to the Twelfth Doctor played by Peter Capaldi, when I initially came out of his era I felt most of it was full of squandered potential and a lot of dissapointing stories that Moffat could’ve done something deep and meaningful with but instead opted for his usual bag of tricks. And don’t get me wrong, a lot of it still bothers me to this day (wasting the return to Gallifrey was unforgivable), but I’m less frustrated coming back to it years later, mostly cos I wasn’t to know we’d be in for more dissapointments later down the line to the point where I didn’t know we had it good. But I can look back on the Twelfth Doctor era for what it is rather than what it could’ve been, and believe me, had it been what it so easily could’ve, this could’ve been one of the golden periods of Doctor Who, as is, it’s got plenty of strong material with one of the most gifted actors to ever play the Doctor. This was role Capaldi was born to play and he relishes every moment. Sadly the same can’t be said for Big Finish as not only has Capaldi made it clear he’s no intention to return to the role, especially not in audio, but the Twelfth Doctor in general is the most lacking in terms of Big Finish content. Even the Thirteenth Doctor has more releases lined up than Twelve has had so far and we don’t even know the titles of what any of hers are called yet! Despite having Jacob Dudman on hand up until recently (and let’s be honest, his Capaldi is not one of his best impersonations) there’s been a noticable lack of enthusiasm for creating more stories for the Twelfth Doctor, part of me even wonders if that mindset would change if Capaldi would agree to join. But that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been some great releases and I think it’s time to get cracking.
Deep Breath - One of the more cintematic episodes of Modern Who, not just from a visual standpoint but a pacing one as well, you’ll notice compared to other episodes that this one really takes its time with a lot of scenes, it’s more slow and there’s a lot more time given to conversations. It’s honestly refreshing given the olympic sprint pacings we’ve had in recent years (especially from the Chibnall era), though perhaps some scenes go on a bit too long, I don’t need five minutes of unfunny jokes from Strax. But it gives Capaldi to really stretch his arms of properly sink in to the role of the Doctor. I love his confrontation with the Half-Faced Man in the climax.
Listen - This was Moffat trying to get in touch with his original writing roots. We’d spent so long with Moffat the showrunner writer that it was nice to have him attempt something more experimental and slightly unsettling. At the time of release this was either extremely loved or extremely hated (boy do I miss the days when THIS was the most polarising episode in the show!). I fall into the former category but I do get where the other half is coming from. Even if I wouldn’t have liked this one, I’d still appreciate it for existing to begin with, same as I do with something like 73 Yards, I’d rather Doctor Who tries something out of the box and possibly fail at it, than not try anything at all.
Mummy on the Orient Express - This was Capaldi’s first univerally acclaimed episode and the first from the best writer of the Twelfth Doctor era, Jamie Mathieson. This guy single handedly gave us three of my favourite Twelfth Doctor episodes and it’s mind boggling why he wasn’t kept on for the Chibnall era, in fact why hasn’t he been brought back at all?!?!?! Mummy on the Orient Express is an excellent and tense mystery horror piece that features my favourite Twelfth Doctor scene near the end on the beach where Mathieson really nails how flawed the Doctor is despite coming through in the end, the Doctor isn’t perfect, he’s not some wizard who waves his sonic screwdriver, spouts some technobabble and makes the monster go away, he’s just someone who’s really good at thinking fast on his feet.
Flatline - If you read the behind the scenes for Series 8, this was actually the first script Mathieson had written and they liked it so much they gave him Mummy to write as well. Which was very encouraging going into this one and it didn’t disappoint. Flatline may not look like it on the surface but it’s one of Modern Who’s most creative episodes I’ve come across, we get some wonderfually bizarre andimaginative imagery from the TARDIS getting gradually smaller, all the clever practical effects with the Doctor’s normal sized hand passing Clara objects from her handbag and even the Doctor’s hand moving the tiny TARDIS like Addam’s Family. And that’s not even getting to the monsters themselves, they’re a fantastic idea and also feature some great imagery even if some of the cgi looks a bit off at times (and I don’t mean when it’s intentionally made to look off). This one’s just a joy to sit through
Dark Water/Death in Heaven - I like this mostly for part one, less so with Death in Heaven, but I didn’t hate it as much as some people, again, time has been a lot kinder to this compared to other finales we’d get in the years to come. I will say though, I haven’t forgotten what Moffat was teasing us with from the next time trailer for Dark Water, it’s quite honestly the most shameful thing he’s ever pulled as a showrunner. Teasing the idea of Clara turning evil and being revealed as a pawn of Missy’s. And then once you watch this story and none of what the trailer teases us with is even hinted at outside of an obvious and kind of forced ploy from Clara to dupe the Cybermen, which left me wondering “Why didn’t you write this story Moffat?”. Cos another thing I never forgot was how he hyped u Series 8 by claiming it to be “The biggest departure since Series 1”, and here he teased us with the perfect opportunity to really do something the show hadn’t attempted before and he just false advertised it for yet another run of the mill Moffat finale! Yeah you may not like what Chibnall gave us but at least he never lied to us!!! Anyways, Dark Water features some of Jenna Coleman’s best acting, especially in that first ten or so minutes when she realises Danny dies and she tries to force the Doctor into breaking the laws of time to save him. Great stuff! And then we get our showstealer for not just the story but the Capaldi era in general, Missy, the first ever female incarnation of the Master. Missy just defines this era alongside Capaldi, when you think the Twelfth Doctor era, you think of Missy and her great character arc.
The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar - Another bit of wasted potential that really ticked me off at the time, you open your story with the Doctor coming face to face with Davros as a child and then you immedieatly cut away from it for a standard Moffat location jumping story to waste time before the plot kicks in whilst occassionally cutting back to it every so often giving it a grand total of seven or so minutes. Big Finish did an excellent mini-series chronicling the life of Davros pre Genesis of the Daleks which includes a fantastic opening chapter with him as a teenager. It goes into great detail about how messed up Davros was and how the war and his dying world shaped into into the monster he’d later become. What we get in The Magician’s Apprentice is nothing like that, in any way shape or form. But again, comeing back years later and looking at it for what it is, it does feature some of my favoruite scenes between the Doctor and Davros, this whole story is practically carried by Capaldi and Julian Bleach to the point where I felt it didn’t really need the Daleks.
Under the Lake/Before the Flood - A very timey wimey episode that’s surprisingly not written by Moffat, and it’s kind of nice for a non-series essential story to be getting the two part treatment…yeah remember when that was a thing the show would do. Honestly this was also a first for the show in a few years as well as since 2011 they ditched the regular two part format and the show for whatever reason outside of Series 9 hasn’t figured out yet that some stories need more time to tell themselves. This story has the aventage of being able to properly flesh itself out and is a true to form base under seige story with the Doctor, Clara and your typical base personel trapped in an underwater base besieged by ghosts. It features a great mystery that builds grdually to a satisfying conclusion with some well exectued time travel twists
The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion - This is honestly here for that climax in part two, you all know the one I mean, granted some people have complained that it’s overly written which I do agree with but you can’t deny Capaldi just owns this scene and it’s kind of refreshing to have the Doctor actually succeed in talking the villain out of their evil plan. We also get another great performance from Jenna Coleman as the main villain of the story. I’m really not a fan of Clara, honestly I think Jenna Coleman is better suited to villainous roles, heck if Moffat had gone with the whole Clara being evil in Dark Water, I’d have even bought her as Missy!!!
Face the Raven - Clara dies!!!..nuff said
Heaven Sent - If this episode was a meme it would be the Homelander “perfect” meme! This is my favourite episode in the show, Capaldi may not be my favourite Doctor but for one glorious hour he was the best Doctor of all time. It’s visually spectacular, has great twists, some of Murrary Gold’s best musical work, it really plays to Capaldi’s strengths as the Doctor, has an excellent theme of conquering grief and my god that last fifteen minutes! When I first watched this episode I must’ve gone back and replayed that climax five times! And of course we get a great cliffhanger and in a perfect world we’d all love to imagine it led to an equally amazing finale. Now I’ll be fair and say there was no way Hell Bent could’ve possibly lived up to the standard Heaven Sent set, it’s like Triple H v Randy Orton at Wrestlemania having to follow Undertaker v Shawn Michaels (yeah big pro wrestling fan here) . But it still could’ve been a lot better than what Moffat gave us!!! I’ve been kind to Dark Water and Magician’s Apprentice for not following through on the more interesting stories they teased us with, Hell Bent doesn’t get the same courtesy, it’s still one of the worst things this show ever gave us.
The Pilot - The bad taste left in mine and I’m sure many fans mouths was still present almost two years later when Series 10 finally aired after a year long hiatus with two Christmas Specials (I’m no fan of the Christmas Specials!). So it was a feel good experience watching this episode that gives us a new companion who’s instantly more fun to be around than Clara, but it also taps into Moffat’s strengths in turning the ordinary and mundane into nightmare fuel. In a lot of ways The Pilot does feel like a great jumping on point for newcomers, it’s just a shame this was Moffat’s last year and this would be the first of multiple times the show would attempt a reboot.
Thin Ice - I think this would’ve been one of Twelve’s best if it had been a pure historical, I was just loving a lot of this exploration of Victorian London during the frost fair days and seeing it through Bill’s eyes. Even though Victorian London was an overused setting in the Moffat era, Bill really brought this fresh new look to it through her amazement and curiosity and it also does a great job tackling some of the heavier realites of the time. It just kinda loses me with the giant fish, bit of fact checking (I know, in a Doctor Who story) but the Thames isn’t exactly deep enough for a thing that big to go unnoticed, also how exactly did the villain chain it up?
Oxygen - Jamie Mathieson really needs to come back to Doctor Who, I don’t even care what medium, though the show does desperatly need writers other than Russel now more than ever. Oxygen is an excellent base under seige and has some fantastic worldbuilding that really tackles the idea of capitalism in space and the one thing corporations would exploit from a world that moves deeper and deeper into space. It’s one of the cleverest Modern Who episodes I’ve come across and one of the boldest given what happens to the Doctor as a result of this story.
Extremis - Which brings us to Extremis where the Doctor is forced to send the story completely blind as he’s approached by the Vatican to decipher an ancient text that is said to drive all who read it to suicide. This is another old school Moffat story that reminded me a lot of Silence in the Library, this has so many ideas that you’d think would fall apart but Moffat manages to balance them out perfectly with some great twists and concepts being used. Especially the big reveal to the Veritas and the Monk’s true nature. Series 10 really is one of the most underrated in the show, it really doesn’t get the appreciation it deserves. Moffat had long outstayed his welcome by this point as showrunner but somehow he made me wish with Series 10 that he’d stay on for just a bit longer.
World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls - This is the best series finale in all of Modern Who, in fact had this been Capaldi’s regeneration as was originally planned, I’d have called this a regeneration story on par with The Caves of Androzani. This is the best the Cybermen have ever been portrayed in the show, it’s a very worthy parallel of Spare Parts from Big Finish, really nailing this society in a spaceship on the edge of a black hole (with time flowing faster on one end) that’s on the brink of collapse and it’s people on the brink of death, gradually replacing their humanity with the cold precision ofmachine logic. Bill is put through the most traumatic ordeal any companion of the Doctor has ever gone through, it’s so bruallty unforgiving towards her. To the point where I wasn’t as infuriated with the deus ex machina ending for her as I thought I would be, mostly because of how much I liked Bill and giving how relentless this story was to her I was glad for a bit of levity at the very end (though that line about putting her back home as her normal self did kill the moment slightly). We also get a great sendoff to not one but two Masters as Missy and the John Simm Master come face to face in a teamup that could only end one way.
Emancipation of the Daleks - Skipping all the way to 2022 from Big Finish, we have their third Audio Novel, read by Dan Starkey, who honestly does a better impersonation of Capaldi than Jacob Dudman. In truth, nobody’s done a great job filling in for Capaldi, I think Capaldi’s voice is just so unique that you really need the man himself to pull it off, and sadly that may never happen. But Starkey’s the best we’ve had so far in another banger Audio Novel that the most interesting release Big Finish have given for the Twelfth Doctor. It’s Jonathan Morris so naturally there’s a lot of time travel shennanigans, really this is his magnum opus and the best Twelfth Doctor audio to date. I’ve not yet listened to The Chaos Cascade but I’ve hear great things so maybe it could top this, maybe that’s the Twelfth Doctor’s future in Big Finish, just big epic audio novels.
So those are my picks for the Twelfth Doctor, be interested to read your thoughts and I’ll see you all tomorrow
