(This review may contain spoilers).
Despite having been drawn into the newer series of Doctor Who, I found Twelve quite difficult to get behind. For a lot of this series, I felt he lacked the compassion for people in general that was so prevalent in the previous Doctors… in particular Ten, but Nine and Eleven demonstrated that well, too.
Although I didn’t mind Clara as a character at first, I did feel that, by the end of this series, she’d crossed a line. I found it hard to take her seriously as a companion and I thought that the Doctor seemed pretty obsessed with her.
To be honest, it wasn’t until the episode with Ashildr in that I felt the Doctor was starting to care more about people/races, rather than just his companion. I thought it was an interesting element to show that he’d chosen the face of his current regeneration for a particular reason… and he became a much more likable Doctor over the course of several episodes, in particular the one where Bonnie made an appearance.
It was good to see that there were some running themes through this series… in particular when it came to Lady Me. Her second episode caused me to develop a strong dislike of the character… but by the end of that one, I liked her a bit more. I felt that she came across as a more compassionate character… though I felt bad that she lost the innocence she’d once had.
I was a bit disappointed when it came to the episode with the sand men. The ending of that one was left hanging and I thought it should have been ended properly. Besides, there was an issue that wasn’t dealt with at all at the end… and I couldn’t help feeling a lot of empathy for the female Grunt soldier.
I wasn’t especially keen on the fact that each of the episodes ended on a cliffhanger. I would have preferred seeing more of a self-contained storyline. The episodes with the ghosts were especially creepy… but the effect was ruined due to the Doctor’s lack of compassion.
I’m not sure I really liked the ending of this series. There was a lot of potential that I felt fizzled by the wayside… and the twist didn’t really work. What happened to Clara had happened so much to her, I found it hard to feel anything other than annoyance at her.
I do intend to watch the Christmas special and hope that it’ll have a better version of the Doctor. But I won’t be watching this particular season again.
Ink of Blood 