I’d say the arcs in Capaldi’s era are more to do with the stages of grief.
S8: death and denial
S9: Anger and bargaining
S10: Acceptance and moving onwards.
As opposed to the RTD-type mystery boxes.
But I’d still agree that it leans towards modern than classic.
I just meant that series 11 doesn’t have any kind of arc, and the companions aren’t “impossible girls” or anything, so it’s a bit more like Classic.
Exactly 
I’ve not seen Whittaker’s run and the chunk of classic that’s been mentioned, but now you say it, I do think that why I’m liking Capaldi’s era much more than the previous rest of NuWho is that it feels a little bit Wilderness-y. Like they’re willing to experiment a bit and not be afraid to possibly alienate potential audiences by doing weird shit.
Like Twelve is very in your face manipulative and mean but underneath really sweet and caring. Pretty much the opposite of the most popular incarnation. There’s the whole whatever you want to call what he has with Clara, which is so different and kinda 8/Charley even? And Deep Breath, Sleep No More, Heaven Sent, all the S9 two parters actually, are all so uniquely structured and very risky approaches compared to ‘the usual formula’. And yesterday I watched Oxygen and there they just throw away all subtext and have the Doctor say: Capitalism was a mistake, and idk, it feels tonally more Big Finish, for example, than NuWho to me.
I would even say that Moffat series overall is the least similar to classic Who. It is much more focused on the overarching plot than both RTD and CC (except for Flux).
The historical stories in Series 11 are done in a Hartnell-esque way aimed for more educational than NuWho’s typical ’bit of an action romp fun fest with a celebrity historical’ gearing.
Arachnids aims for the same underlying ecological tragedy that Green Death is. Business interests ■■■■ over a bunch of creatures such that the Doctor then has no way to help him, and has to try and rationalise what’s the most humane way to see them die. Three poisons the maggots, Thirteen locks them in a room.
Kerblam is just - and I did not think about this until I read the Obverse analysis book on it - a story in the same space as The Robots of Death. It’s about automation, rather than the backgrounded elements of the society - which the Doctor doesn’t confront after the demise of a murderous extremist who has understandable motivations related to those elements. (Capitalism and slavery, respectively.)
Series 12 contributes to this still a bit but moves away a fair bit. But yeah - Praxeus is a touch Sea Devils and Green Death, whilst Orphan 55 is a (struggled) speedrun of The Mysterious Planet.
You’ve got a trio of companions around the Doctor a la Davison, and the Doctor is more blunt and guarded a la aspects of what you get with Colin & McCoy.
Things like that.
If he came near me with them I’d shove them up his eye of harmony!
I’m liking those parallels @NullScenario - I can definitely see what you’re getting at with 12 and 13.
Been thinking about this quite a bit now that I’m listening to Eight and Charley’s first season again after many years. They have a different flavor of codependency in comparison to Twelve and Clara, but it is, as you put it, a similar ‘whatever you want to call it’ Doctor/companion relationship. “I can fix him!” – proceeds to make him worse. More reasons to why these two TARDIS teams are stellar.
The Perfect Mentality when you want to be a Companion of Dr.Who!
Wait now that Scherzo is a 9/10 for me I need not only a new controversial take but a new personality…
I wouldn’t really call this an opinion, but it seems to be controversial (at least in some places where I bring it up), but River Song is not a Time Lord. Being a Time Lord requires one to earn that title from the academy on Gallifrey, and River has never been to Gallifrey. She may have the ability to regenerate, but that is not a trait exclusive to Time Lords (though I highly doubt they would willingly give out that ability to other species, they are not the only ones who can have it). I think more accurately she’s a child of the tardis (or a proto-time lord, which i think is the official explanation, but is still different than a time lord)
We actually discussed this a bit earlier, in the “Your 18th favourite Time Lord” thread.
I know she says something about being a ‘child of the TARDIS’ but I think it was more to do with being conceived in the Vortex, and then the Church did some DNA trickery in the same way Tecteun did with the Timeless Child.
Time for a new controversial opinion from me. I’ve just rewatched Season 14 which, as most of us will agree, has some fantastic stories in it (Chris Boucher for the win here, with both the sublime Face of Evil AND the extraordinary Robots of Death. That said, one thing that I really felt was that I actually prefer the way that the Fourth Doctor is written during the Graham Williams years in many cases. Don’t get me wrong, Tom’s performance is dazzlingly good throughout the Hinchliffe years and there are stories during this run that give him a pitch perfect Doctory characterisation… and YET it’s striking to me just how often stories in this era treat him as an imposing action hero type. The Deadly Assassin is particularly culpable (much as I enjoy that story). I actually find that Boucher, of all the season 14 writers, seems to get the Doctor’s character best.
From Season 15, the brilliant eccentricity of the Doctor is foregrounded more. Granted, as the Williams years continue, Tom’s performance becomes more self indulgent at times (which can be frustrating). Nonetheless, the wittiness of the Fourth Doctor is much more evident in Seasons 15, 16 and 17.
Whenever I watch Williams era Fourth Doctor stories, I can’t help but enjoy myself. Wit, imagination and ambition (often far outweighing the budget of the series to deliver) are evident and abundant. Love it!
Big Finish’s handling of The Sixth Doctor, which was often such a highlight, has been astonishingly poor ever since, and including, the Water Worlds set three years ago. They’ve really lost their way with him.
Of course, I could be completely wrong - I’ve not bothered with many 6DAs since then, and they might have all been brilliant. But judging from the reviews, they’ve been decidedly mixed, describing exactly the issues that have turned me away. It was only the Sontarans vs Rutans set that reminded me how good Colin Baker can be, and how enjoyable Old Sixie is - but I’m aching for some decent stories for him that aren’t celebratory get-togethers or self-indulgant releases, that are suited to this manic but layered incarnation.
The same could be said for The Seventh Doctor, but I think an effort is being made with him, at least. The recent ditching of Naomi and Harry is a step in the right direction!
For the love of stories? Let’s tell some stories featuring these two!
Adding to that, I’ve felt in recent years that many of the classic Doctors have been a little bit sidelined and directionless… I really think killing the MR has been a bad move, and I think the desire to bring more New Who elements to audio has - though been brilliant in its own way - been sad for those of us who love the Classic Doctors and that Classic style
Post-Stranded 8 is a great example of this IMO. Like I can’t fathom the situation right now. They do box-sets with 8, they are a hit, they do more, and move everything to box-sets. However, one key element that made them a hit was their arcs. Sixie’s had an arc, 8’s had nothing post-stranded apart from this new Time War series. That’s it!? I really think they need to do more of this style of storytelling.
I’d be happy for them to move all of them to the boxset format of 3/4 stories around an hour, like they did for 6 during the Hebe arc. I know that’s not a popular take though.
Its like what I said a lot in other threads abt the Spy Master & Missy ranges, they feel just idk lacking due to the lack of arc. I love an arc, even a small one. It goes a long way. I am a huge 8 stan, but his output recently while good just isn’t hitting the same.
I don’t think it’s heavy plot arc that’s the issue necessarily - not for me anyway, it’s the lack of consistency. There’s no sense of continuity - take Eight for example, there’s been one LivHelen box then an Audacity one but surprise it’s actually a Charley one and now we’re back to LivHelen… it’s messy.
I don’t mind the individual Doctor ranges, I think that works fine, and I am happy with stories that don’t really connect too hard, but I think a lot of the success of the MR was that you knew every month you were getting one story with a Doctor and the same companion. Now with boxsets, you’re lucky to get one box a year and there’s no guarantee that the characters will even be the same.
For me I loved the arcs and it was a huge draw for me with 8 so I really feel the lack of it right now. I wonder if they regret giving Liv and exit, given we haven’t moved post-Stranded. Also the fact we’re getting more Charley is kinda just a drawback for me too, not a fan.
I think the companion aspect is one thing the 3DA’s seem to be getting right, alternating between each set rather than back-to-back same companions.
It takes some getting used to for the Eighth Doctor for sure because we’re so (I am anyway) used to him being an ongoing concern. Now he’s being treated like any other past Doctor (except for his Time War stuff which feels like his “current” era) and yeah, it sort of feels off for him.
I’m not sure if it’s the epic arcs of his that I miss or just the feeling that Liv and Helen were having an ongoing series. I love that team the most out of the 3 Eighth Doctor threads at the moment and to have it feel a bit broken up now is sad on some level.