Anyone see the new episode? Another quasi-historical, it seems. I haven’t seen it, but finally watched last week’s episode yesterday… it was better than the spiders, and I actually liked the monster. Still not extraordinary, but it was decent. I still didn’t really feel anything for the characters. Oh, and I still miss Capaldi.

Also been watching the Hartnell era, most of it for the first time, and I just adore it. The Rescue and The Romans were both extraordinarily good, and legitimately funny in the case of The Romans. I’m waiting on receiving more DVDs of his, but I expect even the more maligned stories like The Gunfighters to have something for me to enjoy.

So why do I love Hartnell and don’t particularly care for this new series? It’s all in the writing, the characters, and the tone. There’s a lot more time spent just getting to know the characters, where they just goof off for a good five minutes, and Hartnell has a lot of presence that Jodie just can’t match (and I don’t really think any who have followed him have). The stories are witty, and don’t take themselves too seriously, which is just a joy.

By contrast, Chibnall seems to be taking these generic stories way too seriously, and doesn’t give enough for our characters to really do. Jodie still hasn’t established her Doctor, and I’ve been able to insert other Doctors into her place and the story remains relatively unchanged. It’s just so generic by contrast, which is kind of crazy given how ridiculous the concept of the show is.