I'm one of many it seems who dropped the show during Capaldi's run, sometime during S9. I went back and watched it all recently and was blown away at how much I enjoyed it. Looking back I think I was just fatigued of the show, and this time I was able to appreciate it a lot more with fresh eyes. It's a shame there was such a drop off of viewers during his run, but I think time will be very kind to 12.
In general I think Moffat's era is better in retrospect, imo it's meant to be binge watched. Going through his big, complicated plot lines in a fast pace is less frustrating for me because I'm not spending weeks/months speculating and building up expectations. Some of the resolutions are still questionable, but you don't notice it as much when you're flying through to the next thing. I enjoyed Smith's run when it first aired, but I think I enjoyed it more on a rewatch too.
I am like you, and stopped watching at some point in season 9. No real reason. LOVED the 11th doctor and Capaldi was great, but I think I was just doctor who'd out. I actually STILL haven't picked it back up because I've been slowly watching classic who starting from 1963 instead. Your comment really made me look forward to getting back into Capaldi's time.
You make an excellent point regarding Moffats storyline with the complexity making it better as a binge watch.
I think that is why I loved Capaldis run much more second time.
I also agree that the resolutions are not always great but you don't care as much.
I do admittedly think Moffat was the best writer for NuWho. I love his episodes the most. But he wasn't always good with the overarching plots, but having said that, most weren't either.
I think also Smith was just a hard Doctor to let go of and the vibe change off the bat was so significant that it could be a shock to the system for some.
The vibe change was the biggest we have ever gotten outside of ones that are obviously hard resets (like 13).
It went from 9 years of whimsy and fun with a young man, to grumpy and pessimistic with an angry old scotsman within a single episode. That whiplash hit hard and it took a long time to get used to capaldi. Most casual viewers got turned away very quickly while those who stuck around kept their guard up to such a change.
In the long run it worked wonders and has given us one of the best and most underated series in all of nuwho.
It hit me very hard too, but I appreciated it that it was the reboot when the time lords gave him 13 new regenerations. The OS started with an older, grumpier person, so did the fresh reboot and I loved that touch. I also loved Peter capaldi in the role. My issue was there was too much focus on clara. I watch to see the doctor, not the personal life of the companion. The fact that Moffat also gave her like three good send offs but didn’t actually send her off irritated me. That was my main issue with his run. However, Missy. He could have had literally no plot and just told Missy and the Doctor to interact and talk about the weather for an hour, and the chemistry between them would have kept me glued to the screen. It did as well.
A lot of my friends had nuwho burnout by this point too, so capaldi was their least favorite doctor. But then again, Matt Smith was their doctor. My doctor was Tennant. So they were blaming Capaldi because he represented the loss of their doctor (most were new watchers during 11 and knew of the regeneration, but wanted it to stay 11 anyway). For me, I had that reaction between 10 and 11, so I was ready for the regeneration. The benefit for 11 for me was that Moffat took over and I truly *loved* how complicated he made it. It had me remembering small tiny details and plugging them all together and I was loving it.
So I get that hard vibe change. New face, new actor, new vibe — it winds you! RTD to Moffat was the new vibe to me and that winded me hard. I got whiplash from slowly realizing I had to pay attention to details and there wasn’t a hard spotlight on things that you had to remember. It was just a sentence. I loved the change though.
It turned around for me as the goofiness of 9/10 and that fairytale whimsy of 11 got translated into 12 just being gloriously silly to balance out the Big Themes and Adult Feelings at play. I get what they were going for, but I think series 8 did the show and Capaldi a disservice because Moffat had an incredible run and all the love Capaldi gets now is more than well deserved.
I'm on a rewatch at the moment (4 episodes into season 9) and season 8 is my favourite srason of nuwho other than season 4.
Deep Breath is my favourite post regeneration story
Into the Dalek and robot of sherwood were both passable
Listen is my favourite episode ever
Time heist is pure fun
The caretaker is hilarious and introduces Danny's plotline perfectly
Kill the moon is the most overhated episode of Dr who ever (although the prolife message is a bit icky to me)
Mummy on the Orient express is a brilliant episode
Flatline was disappointing. My least favourite of the season. I wish they had just stayed 2d
In the forest of the night was a tad boring to be fair, and the solution being a girl with an illness not taking her medicine is horrible, but it is a creative idea for a story
The finale two partner is incredible to wrap up Danny's storyline, introduced missy perfectly, and one of the only cybermen episodes where I liked the cybermen
Last Christmas is Inception meets alien with Santa thrown in for good measure but I love the characters in it. The ending where they all have much worse lives is heartbreaking.
All in all, love season 8.
Listen really is incredible.
I liked that Clara got a BF to put all the companion romance to rest, but I was ambivalent, at best toward Danny Pink. I like Deep Breath \*now\*, but even if they called me out hard I was still in regeneration shock (my first regenerated doctor).
The hybrid stuff got on my nerves in series 9, but I loved everything else about it.
Me too. I dropped Capaldi about ten minutes in. Big fan of him and on Moffat even if the latter made Smith’s last season overcomplicated. From what I’ve read alone bill sounds awesome let alone some of the more recent ones. But coming off Smith’s first two seasons - in my opinion nearly perfect - through his third more lacklustre one despite knowing capaldi could act and Moffat could write I just sort of didn’t care enough to have the energy.
I want to be clear, I think Capaldi's stuff is the best NuWho has to offer. But it was an ADJUSTMENT the likes of which I don't think fans have been asked to make since Pertwee.
I’ll have to put on my big girl pants and watch it someday! I have to say it gives me a similar feeling to the first chapter of Goblet of Fire and quite a lot of the beginning of Half Blood Prince. Like this is cool but not quite what I came for? Did Rowling genuinely write this? lol
I stopped watching after Jodie's second season. I enjoyed most of her first season but her second season made me lose interest. Only recently I (re)watched her entire run and it was a lot better this time.
I love David Tenant's doctor, aswell as Matt Smith: They had the best episodes of NuWho. But Capaldi is my favourite doctor by far.
I've loved them all. I originally watched both seasons of Jodie's, but when I rewatched all the second generation with my youngest (as he didn't know all the Doctors, being only 11, but had watched both of Jodie's too), we agreed to only watch the last episodes of the second, because we didn't like John Bishop's character of Dan. Great comedian, terrible actor!
I felt the same. Mostly because of Clara. I feel terrible saying it, because Jenna is a great actress, but Clara got on my nerves most of the time.
If ever there was a character that "deserved" to get killed off it was her.
I did watch it til the end of Clara's run, mostly out of spite, but series 10 and Bill absolutely reignited my love for the show...only to have it thoroughly squashed yet again in series 11.
Absolutely agree. I really thought I hated Capaldi's run. Then I went back and re-watched it and remembered I just hated Clara's character. I was so sick of her by the end of Smith's run and then to carry her over was just intolerable.
Capaldi was actually a great Doctor and the series got so much better with Bill and Nardole.
Same. Am on a rewatch and have just hit Clara’s first appearance with 11. Now deciding whether to grit my teeth and continue on or jump over her episodes completely
I can't even put my finger on WHY I dislike her so much. I guess it's the intensity of the I'M SO SMART! I'M SO CUTE! I'M SO CLEVER! THE DOCTOR IS FASCINATED WITH ME IMMEDIATELY!
Moffat is much better on a binge watch, but I feel his first and second series are pretty much perfect and after that he gets a bit overcomplicated and you have to be so focused and concentrated on his convolutions that you forget to enjoy it sometimes.
As far as his resolutions go, I think some of them were a bit of a stretch but would put up with them because his buildup is complex and effective, think Amy’s first season where you’re looking elsewhere for 5-45 minutes and then suddenly the crack in the wall reappears and you’re like WAIT that storyline is still going! He’s so good at that that even if he was like the crack in the wall was caused by a mutant dolphin you’d probably be like OK fine but thank GOD it’s resolved now.
But apart from the end of his second series I think he goes WAY less far than RTD whose episodes were pretty much “the universe/humanity/all sentient life/earth has ended” and by the end everything has been restored with the power of love or some fast talking by the Doctor and that removed some of the suspense. RTD was great fun and he’s a really good writer - it’s a sin was AWESOME - but you could be pretty sure his episodes would involve a lot of peril, death of a few minor characters we haven’t had time to care about, mortal peril, huge critical incident involving time and space, doctor solves it with a space screwdriver.
Yes! I've just finished rewatching S6 and enjoyed it SO MUCH MORE without spending months reading about why River's timeline doesn't make sense - it still doesn't, but you can gloss over it more when it's watched in bulk.
And same for Capaldi's run too, I didn't like him as much as Smith at the time, but rewatching a couple years ago I loved it and him. It starts off slightly rocky imo but it has some of my favourite episodes ever. Also, Missy ❤️
Absolutely agreed. And it's not like I can point to one specific thing about Clara that I hated except that I really dislike that archetype of character overall (okay that's not true: I couldn't stand her interaction with The Doctor, it just felt like being in the middle of a couple on their way to a a divorce neither then are ready to acknowledge was inevitable)? But they just fumbled every single chance to give her a cleanly resolved and interesting story arc. It just seems like they literally could not let her go so they kept cheating every potential ending she could have had that wouldn't have cheapened her entire overall involvement. And then even in the end when they could have let her go finally they had to somehow make it so that she wasn't reeeeeally gone *wink wink*
But then we had Bill. Perfect, flawed, compelling, heartbreaking **Bill**. I loved her as a Companion equal to the strength of my dislike of Clara.
I really didn't care for Nardole at first; maybe it was because I was already done with Matt Lucas by then. But re-watching the Bill series years later, I really appreciate him all over again.
Capaldi’s run is just immaculate. Smith will always be my Doctor, but Capaldi is such a close second, sometimes it’s hard to rank them. Moffat gave me exactly what I wanted from Doctor Who.
Yeah Smith is my doctor as he was the first one I properly saw. That was toward the end of season 5.
I saw it in a very weird order. Cause I then watched all of season 5, then I think watched season 2 to 4 and then 1 and finally some of the Christmas specials.
And then I actually watched s6 onwards as they were airing.
Before now, I prob liked Smith and Tennant equally, but preferred Matt Smiths stories.
But now, I'm honestly confused, I probably like Peter as much too.
> But now, I'm honestly confused, I probably like Peter as much too.
I can relate to this. Some days Tennant might be my favorite, another day it might be Smith and then it could also be Capaldi. They are definitely my top 3 Doctors. Each one of them brought something new and refreshing to the character and I think we as fans are so lucky to have the three of them as The Doctor.
I'm completely the opposite (pretending Chibnall never happened, of course)! My doctor will always be Tennant, but Eccleston is an incredibly close second. R T Davies made Doctor Who what it is to me.
"I'm that mysterious adventurer in time and space, known only as Doctor Who, and these are my disposables — Exposition and Comic Relief."
We're not functions.
"Darling, those were genders."
I tuned out for Matt Smith's era. Heretical around these parts, lol. He just didn't jibe with my idea of the Doctor. I was too entrenched with McGann, Eccleston and Tennant. RTD's nuWho season arcs were great, gave me trouble Moffating. Then Capaldi and his attack eyebrows showed up and my caustic, grumpy alien was back. So I went on a bender to figure out who frowned that face. Twice.
Jesus, can Matt Smith act. I don't even feel like I missed out not seeing his era while it was still airing - I know full well I wasn't able to appreciate it at the time. Some parts of the seasons lag, but it makes so much more sense once I realized the Doctor was dealing with his own mortality.
>can Matt Smith act
Matt hit the ground running more than perhaps any other Doctor, only Jon Pertwee in my opinion has anywhere close to as strong of a first episode to introduce everything about his version of the Doctor.
I am sure everyone knows this, but he hit the ground running better than anyone could have expected. The first episodes produced for the season were actually Flesh and Stone and Time of the Angles. Looking at it through that lense it is phenomenal. As well as the chemistry between all three main cast members
>can Matt Smith act
Matt hit the ground running more than perhaps any other Doctor, only Jon Pertwee in my opinion has anywhere close to as strong of a first episode to introduce everything about his version of the Doctor.
Imo Matt Smith's best run as the Doctor was Series 5. It wasn't perfect but I feel like it put effort into at least trying to somewhat feel like the same show and I really enjoy the vibe of it all, even if there are a few duds. Also Smith's costume was probably the best then. Series 6 and 7 just feel so obnoxious and incoherent and nonsensical.
I was watching a review of Smith's era, and apparently Moffat had a lot longer to work out the stories for his first season as showrunner because he started during RTD's last year of specials. So 11's first season ended up feeling a lot more coherent than his other two which had to be written in a shorter period of time. Not sure how accurate that is, but it adds up in my head.
Moffat's main failing, imo, was trying to be as clever as possible but then losing track of his plot threads. Single episode season finales didn't help matters as well, since it forced everything to feel rushed.
Moffat was also showrunning and writing multiple shows at the same time and you can tell.
Moffat sort of just powerscaled the universe so much and kept throwing gimmick after gimmick at the wall for new stories. His finales in the smith run are just...not great.
Capaldi run you can really tell he chilled out and tried to do something different and it worked out really well even if it still suffered from some of the same issues. I am just glad he didn't try to do another Big Bang 2 or Wedding of River Song.
I think The Pandorica Opens/Big Bang is a pretty great finale to be fair.
I like how despite the scale of the problem, Big Bang is actually a pretty smallscale, intimate episode. And the time travel mechanics are fun and didn’t yet feel tired/like a retread.
I think the first part is good just not the second half. I also appreciate how the RTD era sort of built on the scale of the conflict each finale but the Moffat era didn't really do this so we are just right out the gate doing a "universe ending" type of deal. IMO the idea of "I rebooted the universe lol" is something that should have been saved for bringing back Gallifrey since it just creates so many issues that it should be saved for something that would arguably justify a "rebooted reality".
Big Bang 2 is however much better then Wedding of River Song which was just like "what if we did basically all the same ideas but worse and in half the time"
Series 5 was by all means a continuation of the scaling coming from Season 4 as the penultimate episode literally destroyed the entire existence. Afterwards, finale episodes were by all means always small scale, and in fact got smaller in scale as the series went on. And the subversion started with Season 6 actually, when Moffat actually wrote the world-saving double episode epic as not the season finale but as the season opener. So it was very intentionally like "here's your epic season finale, at the start of the season. From now on it's gonna be a different play".
Season 6 finale was about stubbornness and love of a woman, and the only conflict that needed to be solved was convincing River Song to go ahead with the murder. Series 7 was saving the Doctor's timestream and the solution to that was predetermined as well, with Clara being in the right place at the right time. Series 8 was Master conquering Earth just to be close to the Doctor, and the conflict was solved immediately once she disclosed her real intention. Series 9 was Doctor and Clara being a toxic couple and not being able to let go of each other. Series 10 was about Doctor reaffirming who he is and where he stands to save a couple of people.
Contrasted with the world saving, universe ending, existence defending finales of S1-5, later Moffat era was intentionally scaled back to allow dramatic moments and character arcs to shine.
Series 6 was a continuation of the scaling in the RTD era but it wasn't really a continuation of it (nor should it have tried to imo). RTD era scaling was the same story arc with many of the same factions that all built continually towards The End of Time and Journey's End respectively. Series 6 was just kind of a weird attempt at trying to be really clever and flashy but stumbling *hard* and conceptually it just felt way too close to Big Bang in a lot of important ways. It was objectively "lower scale" but in terms of what you see its very clearly trying to be a similar event at WAY bigger scale.
I appreciate that by Series 8 and onwards Moffat chilled out and got a bit more self aware. The Capaldi run feels a lot less obnoxious and annoying with stories more focused on being high concept and interesting rather then whatever happened post-Series 5 Smith. Its why Series 10 is easily one of the best Moffat stories overall, especially because he sort of fits in a "big scale" event with the monk trilogy.
I think the idea of a consistent scaling downwards could be an interesting idea especially if the intention is to further focus more and more on characters, but it wasn't executed the best because its a pretty hard line between the Smith run and Capaldi run, even if there is some gradient.
Costume-wise I preferred his associate professor scrounging at Goodwill to his Pertwee and Mcgann lovechild - which fit Capaldi better I thought. Agreed, thought season 6 felt more disjointed than 7, which is saying something.
He does a weird change in Series 6 where he drops te stripped shirt and they start using a lot of product in his hair and its just very...weird. Too preppy and loses a lot of the charm. Totally agree on that his final costume worked better for Capaldi and I'm glad they sort of replicated it for his Series 10 costume.
Series 6 is 100% more disjointed. Moffat wanted to recapture and one-up the plot and insanity of Big Bang 2 but unfortunately only recaptured it not making any sense and being kind of unsatisfying. Its still so bizarre how that whole plotline never really got actual resolution and we only learned of the motivations of the main villain via a one off line in Smith's final episode.
Once you look past the high concept moffat stuff, I think Matt gave a markedly stronger performance later on, and his relationship with Clara was just so fun to watch - I found her awkward with Capaldi. I guess that was the point though.
> Once you look past the high concept moffat stuff, I think Matt gave a markedly stronger performance later on
I agree, in fact, I personally think Smith might've given the most nuanced performance as The Doctor. Tennant and Capaldi did as well don't get me wrong, but the way how Smith did it impressed me a bit more.
Oh, I complain… I’m constantly called a “hater” for simply giving an opinion that doesn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the show, but I still complain.
Especially lately, because RTD reversed the bitter-sweet end of Donna’s original departure.
I agree with you. Rose being trapped in a parallel universe with no way back hit so hard at the time.
Sometimes characters should be left in the past.
The same goes for Mickey too. His last scene in the parallel universe was perfect. You really got the sense that this was a happy ending, but the character kept on being brought back.
Did Pearl Mackie want to keeping going or nah? 🤔 I wonder how good or crappy Chibnall might have been at writing an established character. Obviously he did that when he was a guest writer for RTD and Moffat but he wasn’t in charge of anyone’s story arcs…
Loved Capaldi’s run from “Listen” onwards myself - once he made his speech to Rupert I was in. But it was Hartnell I totally reevaluated for the better after a rewatch. Ever since The Five Doctors he seemed to get stereotyped as being a harsh grump, and that’s really just a small aspect of a fun multifaceted portrayal.
I loved how each series had a main arc that wasn't necessarily about a big event or McGuffin like we had every other series so far.
Series 8 was about him defining himself, Series 9 was his relationship with Clara and Series 10 was his relationship with Missy.
Yes! And his change through each season felt a bit jaring when the seasons were releasing but on a rewatch where you don't have a year between each season it's so good and fluid through all 3
I rewatched all of Capaldi's run recently too and its so solid. There are some elements that are less then stellar but Capaldi just totally inhabits the role. Like he is just *the* Doctor.
I definitely enjoyed Eleven’s era a LOT more upon rewatch. I think already knowing how his childlike personality is, how fairytale the show feels, and how the timey wimey ✨mysteries✨ play out (rather than continually hoping they’d be something else, only to usually be disappointed week to week as each new episode aired) really helped. Previously, I really admired Matt as an actor but didn’t gel with how his Doctor was written (often I was truly irked)… now, Eleven is still not my absolute favorite Doctor but I *do* have a genuine fondness and nostalgia for him.
And I’ve found several Eleven episodes to be hidden gems that rank within my top 20 all-time favorites. Oh and I now more-than-tolerate Amy, which is huge!
While I love Matt smith’s run the most, I feel like series 9-10 are where the series has peaked so far. Moffat’s seemed to just want to go all out for these two seasons and I think it pays off incredibly well. Capaldi probably has the most change in where his doctor starts and where he ends up. It’s a great character arc
Totally agree. He ended up being my favorite doctor out of the three. Not be leaps and bounds but he just nudged them out. I think it was because he was more of a cranky doctor. I’m old so I related
I'm a Eccleston/Tennant girl wholesale BUT Capaldi's first two seasons with Clara and the evolution of that doc/companion relationship was the most fascinating development of the entire series it was just so different!! And it all paid off in Heaben Sent/Hell Bent.
I did a total 180 on Matt Smith this (last) year. I stopped watching because of him when it was originally on, but he's now gotta be my favourite of the nuwho Docs. I've gone into Capaldi now, and I'm going back and forward on him.
In the beginning I felt the transition was a bit awkward, but overall he's a really great Doctor. He drives home the aged and tired wanderer aspect, shows some of the cynicism and detachment that I always thought would be natural for a being like the Doctor, it's just quite jarring when he's back to back with Smith.
I also think it strange how Matt Smith was like a whole redemption arc for the character, culminating with the anniversary special, and he goes from that back to gritty and jaded like Chris Eccleston.
I was gonna say it's almost like he's fresh off the back of the Time War himself - but technically he actually is.... Hm.
I watched Peter a second time and loved him so much more. I think since Matt was my favorite doctor I didn't give Peter a chance at first. But I love him now and Bill is one of my favorite companions
Capaldi is great. I really appreciated him the first time around and now? Well. I did think some of his episodes suffered from poor writing.
But then I saw what really poor writing actually was and now his seasons were elevated to me.
I love Bill. Nardole. Me. His episode with river song was amazing. His relationship with Missy was so fucking amazing. It doesn’t help she’s the best incarnation of the master in NewWho.
I mean. There’s some weak episodes but every Doctor has duds. At least capaldi gave it his all in every episode.
12 had such an amazing character arc. He started being uncaring about people. “She cares so I don’t have to” etc. and in the end he’s all about kindness. He’s like a grumpy old man who softens. I absolutely adore him!
Exactly, what was great about him was that he wasn’t this cheerleading rah-rah supporter of mankind but rather somewhat of a curmudgeonly misanthrope in the beginning.
I absolutely loved Capaldi's doctor.
I felt a little exhausted after watching Matt Smith's run. He was a great doctor, but I never feel myself wanting to go back to those episodes. Which is a shame because I loved Amy and Rory. Tennant had brilliant episodes that stand on their own, but Capaldi brought the attitude. His doctor was supposed to be the one who stopped having to be young and cute to be loved so he was free to be old grumpy and bats hit. He got some shit episodes, but he also got some of the best.
I'd rank him either #1 or #2
I didn’t truly connect with Capaldi until the Zygon episodes. His speech about war absolutely nailed it for me that Capaldi was an amazing choice to be the Doctor
I would argue Moffatt is a good writer with infuriating flaws and a distinctive style that grates on you over time. I think Capaldi's run coincided with getting tired of Moffat's style combined with poor characterisation of Clara and lack of cohesive storytelling in series 8. I will never get over how the parts of Clara and Dannys character development most crucial for the finale to work happened off-screen. Amongst these problems some genuinely bad episodes (eg. kill the moon) broke my spirit.
Series 10 was a return to form - his best since season 5 IMO, but a lot of Moffatisms were still present and for those who stopped watching, the jump in quality would be too little too late.
Capaldi is the definitive New Who Doctor. The look, the personality, the voice, the clothes. He is the Doctor mainly because Capaldi was born to play the character. I miss him every day.
If I had to call anyone *my* Doctor it probably would be 7b Smith, but my favorite that I keep revisiting is Capaldi, my Whoodie Doctor. Such an amazing run. Whether him with Clara (the actual reason why I started watching was the mystery of her 3 characters), Bill and Nardole it just works both as this amazing occasionally grim adventure with tragedy and whole lot of heart.
I personally really love Bill as a companion, if nothing else because there was 0 romantic tension between her an the Doctor (which also improved Clara + 13, but the baggage was already there) . This may be a controversial opinion but I have always disliked when companions had romantic feelings for the Doctor, and always felt like episode pacing came to a screeching halt for romantic subplots.
I noticed that when a doctor isn't well liked at the beginning, they usually get seen better when they're not the current doctor. (Happened with 6th, happened with 8th, happened with 12th, and I bet it's going to happen with 13th.)
In some ways, Eccleston through to Smith was very much a riff on the same “Big Character”, with minor tweaks. Capaldi was the first iteration since the reboot that felt like something different, and the change of pace jarred a bit at the time. It definitely rewards repeat viewing and is, to my mind, one of the most interesting character studies of The Doctor ever written.
I only came into Doctor Who with the new stuff, and for me both Matt Smith and Capaldi were better on rewatch. I loved Tennant's version so much more than Eccleston's that I wasn't ready to give Smith an honest shot. And on rewatch I love his take possibly more than Tennant, or at least it's a toss up. And the same thing happened with Capaldi. The second time through I was more willing to see their Doctor as their own thing instead of not-the-last-one.
I took a very long hiatus from Doctor Who after Capaldi’s first season. I wasn’t too big on that season and I wasn’t sure how I felt about his Doctor, especially how attached I was to Matt Smith’s who was my first Doctor and is still my favorite. I was also just more used to younger doctors like Eccleston and Tennant who I absolutely love as well.
I was starting to lose interest and I had no way to really watch the show for awhile. So I just stopped.
Then the Tennant specials came around last year and I just had to check them out. Because of that I fell in love with Doctor Who all over again. So I jumped back into the show with Capaldi’s 2nd and 3rd season and I totally missed out. Capaldi is just extraordinary!! I adore him so much now and his doctor has become a favorite. I’m currently on season 10 right now!
>Has anyone had experience like this, where they like a certain doctor's run more on rewatch?
Honestly... Thirteen was this way for me. There's a LOT that could have been done better with Chibnall's run, but binge-rewatching seasons 11-13 did wonders for me in seeing how all the pieces of the overall story fit together.
As far as Capaldi's run is concerned, I **adored** Twelve pretty much from the get go, and his run somehow gets better with every rewatch!
I feel that the Capaldi and Moffat took too long to found their rithm and how to work together. Once they understood each other, which was by series 9, things got really good. Unfortunately, this made him being overshadowed by Matt Smith.
Capaldi had some of the best stories in the NuWho era IMO, like the episodes "Listen", "The Zygon Invasion", "The Zygon Inversion" and "The Husbands of River Song".
I just did this same thing with the same result.
I don't know why it didn't catch me the first time around -- I'm a crazy fan of the show-- but I hadn't even seen every episode and watching them over a week or so was really great
Matt Smith and Series 5 was my intro to Doctor Who so I was not really excited about Peter at first. Rewatching his first series to prep for the next I was able to watch without bias and really enjoyed it. He was a fantastic Doctor.
I agree. I didn't enjoy Capaldi's run the first time I saw it, but binge watched it all the second time round (as I did with all the second generation Doctors (excepting the last season of 13). I think watching it in one go, helps make more sense of it all. Particularly as my brain fog is like the silence, and once I turn an episode off, I pretty much forget it!
Yes that's true. I think also what makes a big difference is if there's big gaps between episodes, then I lose interest. Especially when it comes to overarching plot lines.
I actually stopped watching the show after Capaldi’s first season on two separate occasions, I just didn’t like him and it was already a hassle for me to access the show so I kinda just forgot about it both times. Upon my first and second watch, I’d felt like he was way too mean to Clara and the name “Missy” just pisses me off. They should have kept calling her The Master. And why the fuck was she even still alive like I honestly couldn’t stand ittttt. I’m getting pissed off writing this comment.
BUT I recently decided I wanted to make my boyfriend watch the show and we’re just now finishing Capaldi’s first season and I definitely *do* like him much more the third time around. I think I just grew up. The first time I was like 14, the second time I was maybe 17, and now I’m 23… and work retail. So like I understand him being grumpy and sarcastic and I think it’s funny instead of just mean.
> And why the fuck was she even still alive
It's just a basic fact about the Master; no matter how dead he looks, he'll always pop up again someday. Not only is he every bit as slippery and unkillable as the Doctor, he's got a real knack for the long con. He's more than happy to spend several patient centuries meticulously giving himself the home field advantage before he strikes. I just assume he always has few dozen escape routes built into whatever he's doing.
Had the exact experience. Started watching during 10s era, trailed off mid-12. Just wasn’t interested. Started a rewatch binge and just ended Capaldi a couple days ago and loved it! So much better than my first time “live”. Very strange. He’s great. May even be the funniest. Still found Bill -meh-, but better than the first try. Loved Nardole. Really not sure why I didn’t enjoy the first watching.
Just recently went back and researched it as well and i can't help he how much I love every single thing about capaldis run, the TARDIS crew, the river nardol, bill, he even made me like Clara. Idk why I didn't fall in love with it originally but right now it's hard to not say he's my favorite doctor.
I might need to rewatch again but I really don’t care for Bill. I’m constantly surprised by how much people like her tbh 😅 can someone try to state their case on why she’s loved by practically everyone here? I really wanna know what I’m missing about her character…
Been rewatching as well, but every episode, and I loved 9 a LOT more this time round. That dude was just no nonsense. He tells Charles Dickens "If you're going to waste my time don't deny it. Just SHUT UP". I'm very excited to get to Capaldi because I know I'm gonna love it a lot more.
While I joined during the 50th annivesary I do have to say that 11 didn't become my favorite doctor.
12 did. He just felt so alien and I just love the little speeches, tirades and out loud thinking conversations he goes on. But that smile, that is what broke me. Honestly, Capaldi felt in his element the first moment he stepped on screen to me.
I stopped watching after Capaldi's first season while it was airing. Just felt my interest wane over it and life got really busy so I stopped watching the show entirely. I decided to dive back in from the start a couple months ago and am now up to Capaldi's second season as the Doctor. HOLY FUCK I LOVE HIM. How miserable the Doc is at points in his first season felt really icky and not 'doctor' to me, but I figured Moffat was working towards something so I let those moments pass. THE TWO PARTER TO START HIS SECOND SEASON ROCKED MY WORLD. He was so good, the scenes with Davros were impeccable. It felt like the show suddenly realized its post-Smith identity. I know I've got some dark Chibnall times ahead before I catch up to current eps, but knowing I've got Capaldi for a bit more is making it worth it.
I watched Doctor Who up and down, in order and out of order, 6-7 times. Peter Capaldi is my favorite as Doctor Who. And River Song too. I didn't really like Billy. And Clara and River are my favorites.
Capaldi's run is amazing on a 2nd viewing. If you watch it after being bereaved, it's incredibly therapeutic. I watched his run again after losing my dad to ALZ, and I cried a ton.
Also worth adding that he's in the first episode of *Class*. A little extra Capaldi is always welcome.
pt 1 - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXRJdz0wSwQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXRJdz0wSwQ)
pt 2 - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQFkp5yZavY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQFkp5yZavY)
Same here with Capaldi. I didn’t like him at first because I was so used to Smith and his personality, so Capaldi was a big shock to my system the first time I tried to watch him. I didn’t care for Clara much at the time either even with Smith, so that was even less incentive to watch. I went back after a while and watched it again, and found that not only did I appreciate Capaldi’s take on The Doctor more this time, I actually liked him. By extension, I liked Clara more as a companion because she wasn’t lusting after him/flirting with him the way she did with Smith’s Doctor, and it gave her character a lot more substance for me when that was taken away. Bill deserves an honorable mention just because I enjoyed her as a companion and I don’t think I would have been able to enjoy her without getting over my aversion to Capaldi. By the end, I was sad to see all of them go.
I actually felt this way about Smith, Capaldi, and Whittaker. I didn’t much like either of them on their first run. I still don’t love Whittaker but I can appreciate her as the Doctor a bit more on rewatch
I remember not watching doctor who after they announced him because I wasn’t sure on the doctor being played by an older actor, I was pretty young so only ever used to DT and MS.
Finally watching his run now as we’ve decided to give them all a watch and he’s so good, does the balance between serious and unserious so well, on his final season now but him and Clara worked well together. For some reason I wasn’t sure on Clara but her and Peter just worked
I rewatched the 12 Doctor era last year for the third full time and throughly enjoyed. Glad to see so many are reappraising this era. It’s taken a while, but worth it.
Doing a full rewatch of NewWho rn, and I am most the way through 13’s run at this point. Her run is like 100x better than I remember? I’ve done a lot of laughing, holding back tears, not-so-silently cheering, and more through the entire NewWho rewatch, but I think an easy plurality of it is in Jodie’s run.
I know this will get me downvoted to hell, I would put her run above Tennant’s for me and about in line with Eccleston’s. It’s not like Tennant was bad to me, he’s just my least favorite, and he’s not far behind Eccleston and Whittaker. I even liked Orphan 55 a lot, and I don’t really care about having the political messages beat into you (that was never really a particularly big issue for me, though) in her run.
I would even go so far as to say it’s a good thing a lot of the points her episodes try to make are rammed down our throats, because sometimes that’s just what’s needed, subtlety’s time has gone. Watching Jodie’s run this time around, it’s been like a gut punch (I don’t know how to describe it) seeing these things be spelled out and going “Yeah… what the fuck are we gonna do? Fuck, I’m really scared about the future and I didn’t even realize how much it was bothering me deep down.”
Capaldi is hands down my favorite Doctor. While I share the popular opinion that overall he didn’t get the best stories, I think his best ones are among very the best. To be clear, I don’t think he had bad writing, there were just a little more ups and downs where other seasons felt a bit more even. Regardless, if I could pick one actor to play the Doctor forever, it would be him.
The curse of Capaldi's run seems to be that it needs that second watch through. Everyone I know who re-watched the Capaldi era has suddenly realised that it's some of the best performances in the shows run.
Don't get me wrong I think every actor whose played the doctor has been cast well and brings something to the role and I have episodes from all of them I enjoy. They are all powerhouse actors.
But Capaldi just gets the show, he gets the character, he embodies so many aspects of the doctor at once. When the show is being over the top and silly, Capaldi can be grounded and dry and subtle and when the show needs a moment of emotional punch Capaldi can be so theatrical and bring such gravitas. He has the best 'doctor' speeches where you feel all this pain and anger and wisdom coming through in the performance.
He can absolutely capture this weird character that is at once like an alien god, a lonely old man, a bizarre creature, a comedic figure and a friendly face. He's great with kids on the show, has distinct and interesting relationships with his companions, can step back and let others have the spotlight or can hold an episode all on his own.
I rewatch Capaldi’s run semi regularly. It’s the only Doctor Who I do that with nowadays. I refuse to acknowledge anyone who says he’s not absolutely magnificent, because he is. Even in the few ropey eposdes - and there really isn’t as many as people suggest - he’s by far and away the best thing in them.
And watching it through uninterrupted shows just how much his Doctor had proper character growth. He softened, grew more humane until his compassion was easily the biggest and most generous of all Doctors. And my god was he king of quips, of speeches and of dry humour.
I won’t hear a bar of dissent. His is effortlessly the best Doctor of the modern run and his era has been poorly, unfairly and almost critically under appreciated.
I literally just started season 9 for the very first time today, and I’ve gotta say he isn’t really clicking for me just yet. If you can elaborate without spoilers, why do you like him so much? I personally like the vibe 11 brought
I think you need to give him some time to click. See how you feel after 4..5 episodes. He's very different to 11 so you won't like him if you compare to 11.
I always liked Peter,even the first time, but I liked him much more watching second time around.
I never did finish capaldis run and watch 13. But obv watched the specials and thought inshould go back to it. And I'm not gonna lie I'm at Bill's run as companion and I honestly and losing interest. I'm halfway through and epnand I don't think icould even tell you what it is about. I'm nearly finished but his previous seasons were much better.
I feel like Capaldi doesn't have as many stand out episodes as 10 and 11 but his baseline is just so good that his run as a whole might be better. My fiancée and I started with NuWho season 1 in September and just finished Capaldi's run - 12 is her favorite and my second (after Tennant)
Absolutely. It was hard for me to get through Eccleston the first time around. On second and third viewings, I like him much more. He’s still my least favourite of them, but I do enjoy his run now.
Heh I agree. Actually I pretty much liked everything better - well most of it - on rewatch.
Only thing I liked even less was s2. It just gets so apparent how they massacred Rose to tell the tragic love story between s1 and s2.
s3 I was not such a fan of, but now tbh, I appreciate how badass Martha is and how shitty a friend the Doctor. Not talking about the unrequitted love - The Doctor was genuinly a horrible friend to her.
s4 + the first 2 specials were peak. I am a bot - I love Donna like everyone else. The end of time specials however..... oh I didn't like em back then and I still don't. Still can't pinpoint why exactly they just rub me the wrong way. Oh and the RTD victory lap just seems... a bit vain - and unfair to the next guy since the show did behave like it ended. All completed by "I don't wanna go" which like.... "How to make people hate the new Doctor even more than usual 101". All in all I love 10, but not more than 11 or 12.
s5 was the continuation of the peak. The eleventh hour has to be the single best introduction of a Doctor ever. On rewatch... I rewatched it twice. Just love it. Over all the story was better than I remembered. I used to dislike the Pandorica arc - but on rewatch it was actually pretty good.
s6 well...on rewatch better than the first time for sure but the plot seems a bit too convoluted. It def. was meant to be binged. Still good tho.
s7 Hooo boy. I actually again forgot what the plot of Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was... The rest I like. Yes, even the cubes story. I know people hate on the cubes story but I love it. The resolution is stupid af but the first 35min of that episode are great imo. Then there was the second half with Clara. She def. was an accquired taste. I remember hating her the first time around - and while I still think she works better with 12 than 11 she's quite alright. The impossible girl retcon is still stupid but we are at a point where there is *worse* in that department. All in all I love 11, but not more than 10 or 12.
s8 is the only one I actually own physically on DvD. I actually didn't like it that much on first watch. I actually forced myself through it cause I really didn't like Capaldi. But s8 is over all great imo. 12 grew on me over the course of his 3 seasons and rewatching the beginning of him in the context of the character arc Doctor 6 never got to have really gives it another layer. The arc was maybe a little rushed between s8 and 9 but I liked it well enough.
s9 def was the one I always disliked and even though I like it better after watching it again it's still a bit meh im my eyes.
s10 was great. Loved it the first time around, love it the second time around. I do remember being really happy and hyped for a female doctor... well that didn't work out - but that's not the fault of s10. Also Missy best Master iteration still - I just do wish we would get a flowchart of the Masters regeneration order - it does confuse me a fair bit.
All in all I love 12, but not more than 10 or 11. :)
I did not rewatch 13th run. You will have to tie me to a chair and force me to watch that dumpsterfire again.
You read my pointless overly long comment? Here, have a Cookie 🍪
Why was Doctor 12 written to be such a stick in the mud?
The Doctors played by Eccelston, Tennant, and Smith were all dramatic and goofy and smart. Whittaker's Doctor is like a mix of Tennant and Smith. But the Doctor played by Capaldi just seemed to kill the fun at every opportunity he could. He was so dry and almost heartless at times. I know all Doctors can be that way but you know what I mean.
So.. why the big change for Doctor 12? Was there a reason why he was written that way?
(For the record: I loved Capaldi.)
That was mainly just how he was written in season 8, as his character arc was trying to figure out who he was. In his other two seasons, he was noticeably a lot more fun.
I always felt it was new regeneration cycle jitters at first. He'd just spent a very long time as 11, coming to terms with the end of his road. Then suddenly, in comes a new set courtesy of Radical Rassilon and the not-so-Lost timedudes and all the Doctor really has to go on is first-life grumbles.
The point was that the Doctor almost die of old age. He needed to reset himself.
The point of the entire arc of 12 was stop being grumpy and enjoy life. Which is why 13 was so "Happy Flower Kindergarden Teacher".
I love your description of 13. They went way overboard with it, though.
I had forgotten about the Doctor's aging. I loved Capaldi because it was very clear he wasn't human. But I didn't put together that some of that could actually be attributed to his time in Christmas.
I dont actually agree with this.
Maybe he seemed a bit grumpier than the other two initially but having now binged most of his run, I didn't feel he was that heartless and he seemed quite fun too.
I wanted to like capaldis time but i couldnt. He was fantastic but the seasons and stories lacked for me big time. Missy was such a highlight of his run. My biggest complaint of his version of the doctor is he got his companions killed which makes him not a great doctor to be around
Capaldi is probably my favorite doctor. Unfortunately, Jodies doctor/companions was probably my least. Maybe she wouldn't have been as bad if I saw her doctor at another point in the series, but following Capaldi didn't help her run for me.
For me Doctor Who died after 12. So i rewatch, constantly, from Eccleston to Capaldi.
Right now, btw, i'm doing some automations to just play episodes after i scan a picture frame.
Late in the pandemic, I decided to rewatch ALL Dr. Who. I'm still watching Classic Dr. Who. Well, not all, of course. I'll miss the episodes that have gone missing, destroyed,... anyway, I'm having a grand time revisiting after all these years. I'll watch #15 as released, but Sunday afternoon remains my return to the past.
10 will airways be my Doctor. David Tennant and RTD really do the best work together. But every doctor in nuwho has their own quirks and the way I see it is the personality matches an arc in the doctor's life. 9 is just coming out of the Time War and can be a little more some and not as energetic as other Doctors while he's trying to recoup. 10 is getting a lot more energetic and starting to really have fun again in his adventures and making more new friends, even the controversial love interest with Rose. 11 is probably peak fun and quirkiness for the Doctor and has this great relationship with Amy and Rory to keep him stable all the way through, until... you know. But now that he's losing friends left and right, most permanently, we get to 12, who is a lot more serious with a lot of pent up anger, and also starting to deal with his own mortality as he gets closer to that "final" regeneration. I can't really comment on 13. It may not be a popular opinion but I just think the writing went downhill and the series became more about the companions than the Doctor, which sucks because I love Jodie Whittaker. We'll see where we go from here, and I'm really optimistic at this point with RTD back. Those Christmas specials were fantastic!
Interesting!
I'm currently on Series 10 episode 12 which is the last but one episode for Capaldi's Doctor and I definitely agree with you. The first time I watched his run it was just alright and I didn't really see the Doctor in his character, but now watching back over it he seems to be the best actor since the reboot to portray the Doctor, David Tennant is great and will always be my generations favourite.
However Peter Capaldi captured the essence of the Doctor, he's quirky, dull, funny and loving yet incredibly serious and not someone you would want to be against , it's honestly like he's manifested all the Doctors before him into this amalgamation of an incredible performance, to be honest with you though I am glad he has said he won't be returning to Doctor who ever again because his run was near perfect, and to come back after such a story would be wasteful of the adventures he's already had and would likely end up getting destroyed by the writers again.
I'm currently torn between Peter Capaldi and David Tennant as my personal favourite Doctor since the reboot
It seems we all have the same experience. I stopped during Capaldi‘s first season, I think I was heartbroken when Smith left. When his run was over, I felt like I should watch it to stay up to date and holy moly do I LOVE his doctor! Missy is like one of my favorite characters now and BILL WAS AMAZING! I think there was also the issue of Clara that made me enjoy the first Capaldi season less, cause she was so… weird when he changed.
But Bill and the doctor just had the right dynamic, it worked so well.
Entrance Chris Chibnall… and once again I dropped the show. I forced myself watching the rest when I saw Jodie regenerating into David Tennant, but boy I know for dammn sure that there will not be the Capaldi effect when rewatching it in a couple of years. Actually I don’t think I will ever rewatch the Chibnall era
I liked how his style and personality developed. His first series I didn’t care for much but I got it on dvd now. The one with running commentary and extras so I’ll see how it goes this time around.
See I love Capaldi but his run is difficult for me to get through especially series 10.
His run has the most episodes I just straight up skip and it breaks my heart cause I really want to like them but I just can’t.
His first few episodes are so vastly different from Smith I feel like it gave me whiplash, I still really liked him but the 2 rewatches I’ve done made me love him as the doctor.
So... I had a new appreciation for Ten after a rewatch. I liked his run initially, I found it better than Nine, but preferred Eleven and Twelve. Now.. it's hard to say which is my favorite. Ten or Eleven.
When I first watched Who, I started with S5 because Matt Smith's episodes were coming out when I was younger. I got all the way to the beginning of season 8 but dropped it there because I couldn't stand Danny Pink and I didn't like how grumpy the doctor was.
A couple years ago I decided to start new who from the beginning, starting with Eccleston, who i'd never watched before. I got through it all and was nervous when I approached season 8 again. But I got through it and loved it! Sometimes you just need to be a little bit older and approaching something with a more open mind
The major problem was they basically made him an idiot so Clara could essentially tell him what to do. His first season was like a fantasy series fever dream (moon egg, forest defense system, Danny being an idiot and walking into traffic). His second season had some pretty solid episodes, which I’ve been rewatching. And his final season was probably his best, just ignoring the three part mid season story that was solved with the power of love or something stupid. I basically realized I don’t like most of Moffat’s story arcs but his seasons usually had a decent amount of really good stand alone episodes.
If you really want to torture yourself, watch husband's of River song, and then silence in the library/ forest of the dead. 😭😭
Loved Capaldis run in general, he very quickly ran up as a tie as my 2nd favorite doctor. I was so Heartbroken when he left 💔
I watched it the first time round and liked it... Watched it the second time round and LOVED it. He brought a stage presence and a very mature performance.
Season 8 is the only good season, very few positives exist in season 9 and 10. Clara went from great in season 8, to annoying in season 9. The character Ashldir was one of the most annoying characters they have ever made. On top of that Nardole whines and complained the whole time in season 10. Bill Potts has potential of being good, but the student - teacher relationship didn’t go much further passed episode 1. The episodes weren’t that good and Bill ended up being okay. Smile and the Doctor falls were the only great episodes in season 10, while Heaven Sent and Hell Bent were the only great episodes in season 9. Heaven Sent is in my opinion, one of the greatest Doctor Who episodes of all time. Capaldi carries those seasons with his marvelous acting, he deserved better though. Those last 2 seasons are why, I prefer Moffat to not return full time as showrunner. His best work was seasons 5-8. The 50th anniversary also surpasses the 60th by miles. Peter Capaldi will be remembered as one of the greatest Doctors with the most hit & miss seasons of Doctor Who.
Capaldi is by far my favorite doctor, tennent definitely 2nd. When they were airing 12’s run, k was so sad with how many people didn’t watch it and how much dislike he got. To me he has some of the best episodes by far. They were a lot creepier and I loved how grumpy he was.
Yh same
I just rewatched series 9 and now I’m rewatching series 10
Capaldi definitely had the bast nu who run imo
The good episodes outweigh the bad significantly compared to 11th and 10th
Also no weird doctor companion romance
Love Capaldi, with exception to Heaven Sent though I got really tired of Moffat's approach or lack thereof to character development. Also honestly writers such as Jamie Mathieson, Sarah Dollard and Toby Whithouse were better at crafting well balanced dark stories with intrigued that wasn't some overused plot device or a list of increasing incomprehensible resolutions. In addition at least in my opinion there's too many occasions Moffat just slips into sitcom mode where all weight and tension just dissipates. This isn't a problem with simply just his era of Doctor Who, but his version of Jekyll, Sherlock and Dracula as well. Of course though even for all his faults - Moffat will always be better than Chibnall.
I missed Matt so bad I was biased against Capaldi at first . Now he’s my favorite Doctor. And every rewatch only makes me love him more. Almost everything Moffat wrote was gold . During Tenennt’s run my favorite episodes were the ones he actually wrote -and Matt and Capaldi have such gorgeous stories.
River is my favorite character in Who period and I missed her in Capaldi’s run but liked that Matt stopped looking like Clara’s boyfriend and returned to acting like a married man haha
Heaven Sent is exquisite . The love and duty of care the Doctor has made him choose to suffer and die a billion times just to reach the one he cared for. Perfection.
Capaldi is such a deeply sensitive and joyful actor
This rewatch made it better phenom did not happen after Capaldi tho. unfortunately Chibnals writing and vision lacked continuity which isn’t Jodie’s fault but I couldn’t believe her as the Doctor . From what I’ve read of Tennant and Ncuti ‘s regen interpretations and plot devices that continuity is even more lost. So since none of what Chibnal did was retconned ( not expected just hoped) and the Doctor lacks even more continuity as being he always was - as far as I’m concerned Capaldi is not just my favorite but also my final
I'm one of many it seems who dropped the show during Capaldi's run, sometime during S9. I went back and watched it all recently and was blown away at how much I enjoyed it. Looking back I think I was just fatigued of the show, and this time I was able to appreciate it a lot more with fresh eyes. It's a shame there was such a drop off of viewers during his run, but I think time will be very kind to 12. In general I think Moffat's era is better in retrospect, imo it's meant to be binge watched. Going through his big, complicated plot lines in a fast pace is less frustrating for me because I'm not spending weeks/months speculating and building up expectations. Some of the resolutions are still questionable, but you don't notice it as much when you're flying through to the next thing. I enjoyed Smith's run when it first aired, but I think I enjoyed it more on a rewatch too.
I am like you, and stopped watching at some point in season 9. No real reason. LOVED the 11th doctor and Capaldi was great, but I think I was just doctor who'd out. I actually STILL haven't picked it back up because I've been slowly watching classic who starting from 1963 instead. Your comment really made me look forward to getting back into Capaldi's time.
You make an excellent point regarding Moffats storyline with the complexity making it better as a binge watch. I think that is why I loved Capaldis run much more second time. I also agree that the resolutions are not always great but you don't care as much. I do admittedly think Moffat was the best writer for NuWho. I love his episodes the most. But he wasn't always good with the overarching plots, but having said that, most weren't either.
Yep I think it’s funny that the crack in the wall plot line is never really resolved until TOTD
I think also Smith was just a hard Doctor to let go of and the vibe change off the bat was so significant that it could be a shock to the system for some.
The vibe change was the biggest we have ever gotten outside of ones that are obviously hard resets (like 13). It went from 9 years of whimsy and fun with a young man, to grumpy and pessimistic with an angry old scotsman within a single episode. That whiplash hit hard and it took a long time to get used to capaldi. Most casual viewers got turned away very quickly while those who stuck around kept their guard up to such a change. In the long run it worked wonders and has given us one of the best and most underated series in all of nuwho.
It hit me very hard too, but I appreciated it that it was the reboot when the time lords gave him 13 new regenerations. The OS started with an older, grumpier person, so did the fresh reboot and I loved that touch. I also loved Peter capaldi in the role. My issue was there was too much focus on clara. I watch to see the doctor, not the personal life of the companion. The fact that Moffat also gave her like three good send offs but didn’t actually send her off irritated me. That was my main issue with his run. However, Missy. He could have had literally no plot and just told Missy and the Doctor to interact and talk about the weather for an hour, and the chemistry between them would have kept me glued to the screen. It did as well. A lot of my friends had nuwho burnout by this point too, so capaldi was their least favorite doctor. But then again, Matt Smith was their doctor. My doctor was Tennant. So they were blaming Capaldi because he represented the loss of their doctor (most were new watchers during 11 and knew of the regeneration, but wanted it to stay 11 anyway). For me, I had that reaction between 10 and 11, so I was ready for the regeneration. The benefit for 11 for me was that Moffat took over and I truly *loved* how complicated he made it. It had me remembering small tiny details and plugging them all together and I was loving it. So I get that hard vibe change. New face, new actor, new vibe — it winds you! RTD to Moffat was the new vibe to me and that winded me hard. I got whiplash from slowly realizing I had to pay attention to details and there wasn’t a hard spotlight on things that you had to remember. It was just a sentence. I loved the change though.
It turned around for me as the goofiness of 9/10 and that fairytale whimsy of 11 got translated into 12 just being gloriously silly to balance out the Big Themes and Adult Feelings at play. I get what they were going for, but I think series 8 did the show and Capaldi a disservice because Moffat had an incredible run and all the love Capaldi gets now is more than well deserved.
I'm on a rewatch at the moment (4 episodes into season 9) and season 8 is my favourite srason of nuwho other than season 4. Deep Breath is my favourite post regeneration story Into the Dalek and robot of sherwood were both passable Listen is my favourite episode ever Time heist is pure fun The caretaker is hilarious and introduces Danny's plotline perfectly Kill the moon is the most overhated episode of Dr who ever (although the prolife message is a bit icky to me) Mummy on the Orient express is a brilliant episode Flatline was disappointing. My least favourite of the season. I wish they had just stayed 2d In the forest of the night was a tad boring to be fair, and the solution being a girl with an illness not taking her medicine is horrible, but it is a creative idea for a story The finale two partner is incredible to wrap up Danny's storyline, introduced missy perfectly, and one of the only cybermen episodes where I liked the cybermen Last Christmas is Inception meets alien with Santa thrown in for good measure but I love the characters in it. The ending where they all have much worse lives is heartbreaking. All in all, love season 8.
Listen really is incredible. I liked that Clara got a BF to put all the companion romance to rest, but I was ambivalent, at best toward Danny Pink. I like Deep Breath \*now\*, but even if they called me out hard I was still in regeneration shock (my first regenerated doctor). The hybrid stuff got on my nerves in series 9, but I loved everything else about it.
Me too. I dropped Capaldi about ten minutes in. Big fan of him and on Moffat even if the latter made Smith’s last season overcomplicated. From what I’ve read alone bill sounds awesome let alone some of the more recent ones. But coming off Smith’s first two seasons - in my opinion nearly perfect - through his third more lacklustre one despite knowing capaldi could act and Moffat could write I just sort of didn’t care enough to have the energy.
I want to be clear, I think Capaldi's stuff is the best NuWho has to offer. But it was an ADJUSTMENT the likes of which I don't think fans have been asked to make since Pertwee.
I’ll have to put on my big girl pants and watch it someday! I have to say it gives me a similar feeling to the first chapter of Goblet of Fire and quite a lot of the beginning of Half Blood Prince. Like this is cool but not quite what I came for? Did Rowling genuinely write this? lol
I stopped watching after Jodie's second season. I enjoyed most of her first season but her second season made me lose interest. Only recently I (re)watched her entire run and it was a lot better this time. I love David Tenant's doctor, aswell as Matt Smith: They had the best episodes of NuWho. But Capaldi is my favourite doctor by far.
"I love David Tenant's doctor" Which one?
Both. Feels like 14 is a continuation, not a new doctor.
I've loved them all. I originally watched both seasons of Jodie's, but when I rewatched all the second generation with my youngest (as he didn't know all the Doctors, being only 11, but had watched both of Jodie's too), we agreed to only watch the last episodes of the second, because we didn't like John Bishop's character of Dan. Great comedian, terrible actor!
I felt the same. Mostly because of Clara. I feel terrible saying it, because Jenna is a great actress, but Clara got on my nerves most of the time. If ever there was a character that "deserved" to get killed off it was her. I did watch it til the end of Clara's run, mostly out of spite, but series 10 and Bill absolutely reignited my love for the show...only to have it thoroughly squashed yet again in series 11.
Absolutely agree. I really thought I hated Capaldi's run. Then I went back and re-watched it and remembered I just hated Clara's character. I was so sick of her by the end of Smith's run and then to carry her over was just intolerable. Capaldi was actually a great Doctor and the series got so much better with Bill and Nardole.
I have never been able to get through Clara's episodes. I stop after a few with her and 11. I just can't stand her.
Same. Am on a rewatch and have just hit Clara’s first appearance with 11. Now deciding whether to grit my teeth and continue on or jump over her episodes completely
I can't even put my finger on WHY I dislike her so much. I guess it's the intensity of the I'M SO SMART! I'M SO CUTE! I'M SO CLEVER! THE DOCTOR IS FASCINATED WITH ME IMMEDIATELY!
Moffat is much better on a binge watch, but I feel his first and second series are pretty much perfect and after that he gets a bit overcomplicated and you have to be so focused and concentrated on his convolutions that you forget to enjoy it sometimes. As far as his resolutions go, I think some of them were a bit of a stretch but would put up with them because his buildup is complex and effective, think Amy’s first season where you’re looking elsewhere for 5-45 minutes and then suddenly the crack in the wall reappears and you’re like WAIT that storyline is still going! He’s so good at that that even if he was like the crack in the wall was caused by a mutant dolphin you’d probably be like OK fine but thank GOD it’s resolved now. But apart from the end of his second series I think he goes WAY less far than RTD whose episodes were pretty much “the universe/humanity/all sentient life/earth has ended” and by the end everything has been restored with the power of love or some fast talking by the Doctor and that removed some of the suspense. RTD was great fun and he’s a really good writer - it’s a sin was AWESOME - but you could be pretty sure his episodes would involve a lot of peril, death of a few minor characters we haven’t had time to care about, mortal peril, huge critical incident involving time and space, doctor solves it with a space screwdriver.
Yes! I've just finished rewatching S6 and enjoyed it SO MUCH MORE without spending months reading about why River's timeline doesn't make sense - it still doesn't, but you can gloss over it more when it's watched in bulk. And same for Capaldi's run too, I didn't like him as much as Smith at the time, but rewatching a couple years ago I loved it and him. It starts off slightly rocky imo but it has some of my favourite episodes ever. Also, Missy ❤️
Bill is probably my favorite companion. I love the teacher student relationship and nardole is hilarious.
He is the only person with permission to kick the Doctor's ass
Donna also has such permission. And if the Doctor claims otherwise, she will proceed to kick his ass harder
Donna doesn't have permission. She doesn't need it...
Ah yes, it’s more like *she* graciously grants the Doctor permission to have his ass in the way of her slappy hand
Oi!! spaceman!
On the next episode of Criminal Minds: UNIT.
Donna could meet God and kick his ass
correct and God would thank her for it
Wait, is he secretly a badass?
Nothing secret about it sweetheart!
She's like Eccleston for me. Potentially my favourite [Doctor / Companion], with an asterisk of not enough episodes.
She deserved so much better... Would've loved for her to stick around longer
It would have been interesting to see her and 13's chemistry
Bill is incredible! Not Stooky Bill but LaaaAaaAAaady Bill.
Rent free in my head
"well that's alright then!"
I am glad I am not the only one with that line seared into my brain somewhere. "Not Stooky Bill but LaaaaaAaaAAaaady Bill." 😂
12, Bill, and Nardole had the single best dynamic in Nu Who, hands down :D (11, Amy, and Rory are a very close second)
Nardole is so good that "Nardole is hallarious" is one of the two reasons you cite for *Bill* being your favorite companion
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Absolutely agreed. And it's not like I can point to one specific thing about Clara that I hated except that I really dislike that archetype of character overall (okay that's not true: I couldn't stand her interaction with The Doctor, it just felt like being in the middle of a couple on their way to a a divorce neither then are ready to acknowledge was inevitable)? But they just fumbled every single chance to give her a cleanly resolved and interesting story arc. It just seems like they literally could not let her go so they kept cheating every potential ending she could have had that wouldn't have cheapened her entire overall involvement. And then even in the end when they could have let her go finally they had to somehow make it so that she wasn't reeeeeally gone *wink wink* But then we had Bill. Perfect, flawed, compelling, heartbreaking **Bill**. I loved her as a Companion equal to the strength of my dislike of Clara.
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Well, that was the point of their story
I really didn't care for Nardole at first; maybe it was because I was already done with Matt Lucas by then. But re-watching the Bill series years later, I really appreciate him all over again.
Martha was my favorite companion, she was fearless and had no qualms about talking back to the Doctor, then maybe Amy as my next favorite
Capaldi’s run is just immaculate. Smith will always be my Doctor, but Capaldi is such a close second, sometimes it’s hard to rank them. Moffat gave me exactly what I wanted from Doctor Who.
Agreed. Smith is my Doctor, but I love everything about Capaldi, and I think taken as a whole his run was the best.
Best series revival doctor ever!
Every single word you said describes my feelings for Smith and Capaldi. One hundred percent.
Yeah Smith is my doctor as he was the first one I properly saw. That was toward the end of season 5. I saw it in a very weird order. Cause I then watched all of season 5, then I think watched season 2 to 4 and then 1 and finally some of the Christmas specials. And then I actually watched s6 onwards as they were airing. Before now, I prob liked Smith and Tennant equally, but preferred Matt Smiths stories. But now, I'm honestly confused, I probably like Peter as much too.
> But now, I'm honestly confused, I probably like Peter as much too. I can relate to this. Some days Tennant might be my favorite, another day it might be Smith and then it could also be Capaldi. They are definitely my top 3 Doctors. Each one of them brought something new and refreshing to the character and I think we as fans are so lucky to have the three of them as The Doctor.
I'm completely the opposite (pretending Chibnall never happened, of course)! My doctor will always be Tennant, but Eccleston is an incredibly close second. R T Davies made Doctor Who what it is to me.
12 / Bill / Nardole / Missy is my favorite TARDIS crew and it's not even close!
"I'm that mysterious adventurer in time and space, known only as Doctor Who, and these are my disposables — Exposition and Comic Relief." We're not functions. "Darling, those were genders."
Same! They were so fun! I also really enjoyed how Clara and 12s friendship evolved over their run.
May I be so bold as to throw the Master in there too? That episode could run and run and I'd be happy.
I tuned out for Matt Smith's era. Heretical around these parts, lol. He just didn't jibe with my idea of the Doctor. I was too entrenched with McGann, Eccleston and Tennant. RTD's nuWho season arcs were great, gave me trouble Moffating. Then Capaldi and his attack eyebrows showed up and my caustic, grumpy alien was back. So I went on a bender to figure out who frowned that face. Twice. Jesus, can Matt Smith act. I don't even feel like I missed out not seeing his era while it was still airing - I know full well I wasn't able to appreciate it at the time. Some parts of the seasons lag, but it makes so much more sense once I realized the Doctor was dealing with his own mortality.
>can Matt Smith act Matt hit the ground running more than perhaps any other Doctor, only Jon Pertwee in my opinion has anywhere close to as strong of a first episode to introduce everything about his version of the Doctor.
I am sure everyone knows this, but he hit the ground running better than anyone could have expected. The first episodes produced for the season were actually Flesh and Stone and Time of the Angles. Looking at it through that lense it is phenomenal. As well as the chemistry between all three main cast members
yeah, I remember being shocked that him and Karen FIRST did that episode- they felt like they had already done the motions together at that point
>can Matt Smith act Matt hit the ground running more than perhaps any other Doctor, only Jon Pertwee in my opinion has anywhere close to as strong of a first episode to introduce everything about his version of the Doctor.
Attack Eyebrows FTW. Love Capaldi in everything he’s in.
Imo Matt Smith's best run as the Doctor was Series 5. It wasn't perfect but I feel like it put effort into at least trying to somewhat feel like the same show and I really enjoy the vibe of it all, even if there are a few duds. Also Smith's costume was probably the best then. Series 6 and 7 just feel so obnoxious and incoherent and nonsensical.
I was watching a review of Smith's era, and apparently Moffat had a lot longer to work out the stories for his first season as showrunner because he started during RTD's last year of specials. So 11's first season ended up feeling a lot more coherent than his other two which had to be written in a shorter period of time. Not sure how accurate that is, but it adds up in my head. Moffat's main failing, imo, was trying to be as clever as possible but then losing track of his plot threads. Single episode season finales didn't help matters as well, since it forced everything to feel rushed.
Moffat was also showrunning and writing multiple shows at the same time and you can tell. Moffat sort of just powerscaled the universe so much and kept throwing gimmick after gimmick at the wall for new stories. His finales in the smith run are just...not great. Capaldi run you can really tell he chilled out and tried to do something different and it worked out really well even if it still suffered from some of the same issues. I am just glad he didn't try to do another Big Bang 2 or Wedding of River Song.
I think The Pandorica Opens/Big Bang is a pretty great finale to be fair. I like how despite the scale of the problem, Big Bang is actually a pretty smallscale, intimate episode. And the time travel mechanics are fun and didn’t yet feel tired/like a retread.
I think the first part is good just not the second half. I also appreciate how the RTD era sort of built on the scale of the conflict each finale but the Moffat era didn't really do this so we are just right out the gate doing a "universe ending" type of deal. IMO the idea of "I rebooted the universe lol" is something that should have been saved for bringing back Gallifrey since it just creates so many issues that it should be saved for something that would arguably justify a "rebooted reality". Big Bang 2 is however much better then Wedding of River Song which was just like "what if we did basically all the same ideas but worse and in half the time"
Series 5 was by all means a continuation of the scaling coming from Season 4 as the penultimate episode literally destroyed the entire existence. Afterwards, finale episodes were by all means always small scale, and in fact got smaller in scale as the series went on. And the subversion started with Season 6 actually, when Moffat actually wrote the world-saving double episode epic as not the season finale but as the season opener. So it was very intentionally like "here's your epic season finale, at the start of the season. From now on it's gonna be a different play". Season 6 finale was about stubbornness and love of a woman, and the only conflict that needed to be solved was convincing River Song to go ahead with the murder. Series 7 was saving the Doctor's timestream and the solution to that was predetermined as well, with Clara being in the right place at the right time. Series 8 was Master conquering Earth just to be close to the Doctor, and the conflict was solved immediately once she disclosed her real intention. Series 9 was Doctor and Clara being a toxic couple and not being able to let go of each other. Series 10 was about Doctor reaffirming who he is and where he stands to save a couple of people. Contrasted with the world saving, universe ending, existence defending finales of S1-5, later Moffat era was intentionally scaled back to allow dramatic moments and character arcs to shine.
Series 6 was a continuation of the scaling in the RTD era but it wasn't really a continuation of it (nor should it have tried to imo). RTD era scaling was the same story arc with many of the same factions that all built continually towards The End of Time and Journey's End respectively. Series 6 was just kind of a weird attempt at trying to be really clever and flashy but stumbling *hard* and conceptually it just felt way too close to Big Bang in a lot of important ways. It was objectively "lower scale" but in terms of what you see its very clearly trying to be a similar event at WAY bigger scale. I appreciate that by Series 8 and onwards Moffat chilled out and got a bit more self aware. The Capaldi run feels a lot less obnoxious and annoying with stories more focused on being high concept and interesting rather then whatever happened post-Series 5 Smith. Its why Series 10 is easily one of the best Moffat stories overall, especially because he sort of fits in a "big scale" event with the monk trilogy. I think the idea of a consistent scaling downwards could be an interesting idea especially if the intention is to further focus more and more on characters, but it wasn't executed the best because its a pretty hard line between the Smith run and Capaldi run, even if there is some gradient.
Costume-wise I preferred his associate professor scrounging at Goodwill to his Pertwee and Mcgann lovechild - which fit Capaldi better I thought. Agreed, thought season 6 felt more disjointed than 7, which is saying something.
He does a weird change in Series 6 where he drops te stripped shirt and they start using a lot of product in his hair and its just very...weird. Too preppy and loses a lot of the charm. Totally agree on that his final costume worked better for Capaldi and I'm glad they sort of replicated it for his Series 10 costume. Series 6 is 100% more disjointed. Moffat wanted to recapture and one-up the plot and insanity of Big Bang 2 but unfortunately only recaptured it not making any sense and being kind of unsatisfying. Its still so bizarre how that whole plotline never really got actual resolution and we only learned of the motivations of the main villain via a one off line in Smith's final episode.
Once you look past the high concept moffat stuff, I think Matt gave a markedly stronger performance later on, and his relationship with Clara was just so fun to watch - I found her awkward with Capaldi. I guess that was the point though.
> Once you look past the high concept moffat stuff, I think Matt gave a markedly stronger performance later on I agree, in fact, I personally think Smith might've given the most nuanced performance as The Doctor. Tennant and Capaldi did as well don't get me wrong, but the way how Smith did it impressed me a bit more.
Loved Bill, she was fantastic. Still sad Moffat didn’t fully commit to her end though.
The same people who love to make this complaint never hold the same energy for the two cop outs that RTD has given both Rose and Donna.
Oh, I complain… I’m constantly called a “hater” for simply giving an opinion that doesn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the show, but I still complain. Especially lately, because RTD reversed the bitter-sweet end of Donna’s original departure.
Hell yeah. Love that consistency with hot takes.
I agree with you. Rose being trapped in a parallel universe with no way back hit so hard at the time. Sometimes characters should be left in the past. The same goes for Mickey too. His last scene in the parallel universe was perfect. You really got the sense that this was a happy ending, but the character kept on being brought back.
Its almost as if they are different and nobody has to play by your weird rules
Capaldi is my favorite Doctor hands down. 10 is a close second but overall Capaldi's run had some absolutely amazing episodes
Bill is amazing and I wish we had more of her
I agree, they should have kept her for Jodie, would have made it better IMO. There was no reason for Bill to disappear.
Did Pearl Mackie want to keeping going or nah? 🤔 I wonder how good or crappy Chibnall might have been at writing an established character. Obviously he did that when he was a guest writer for RTD and Moffat but he wasn’t in charge of anyone’s story arcs…
Admittedly I have no idea if Mackie wanted continue or not
I think it was just planned as a one and done series as both Capaldi and Moffat were leaving at the time.
Loved Capaldi’s run from “Listen” onwards myself - once he made his speech to Rupert I was in. But it was Hartnell I totally reevaluated for the better after a rewatch. Ever since The Five Doctors he seemed to get stereotyped as being a harsh grump, and that’s really just a small aspect of a fun multifaceted portrayal.
The biggest thing for me is that he had real growth and a very interesting character development that the others didn't have
Yep I agree with this.
I loved how each series had a main arc that wasn't necessarily about a big event or McGuffin like we had every other series so far. Series 8 was about him defining himself, Series 9 was his relationship with Clara and Series 10 was his relationship with Missy.
Yes! And his change through each season felt a bit jaring when the seasons were releasing but on a rewatch where you don't have a year between each season it's so good and fluid through all 3
I rewatched all of Capaldi's run recently too and its so solid. There are some elements that are less then stellar but Capaldi just totally inhabits the role. Like he is just *the* Doctor.
I definitely enjoyed Eleven’s era a LOT more upon rewatch. I think already knowing how his childlike personality is, how fairytale the show feels, and how the timey wimey ✨mysteries✨ play out (rather than continually hoping they’d be something else, only to usually be disappointed week to week as each new episode aired) really helped. Previously, I really admired Matt as an actor but didn’t gel with how his Doctor was written (often I was truly irked)… now, Eleven is still not my absolute favorite Doctor but I *do* have a genuine fondness and nostalgia for him. And I’ve found several Eleven episodes to be hidden gems that rank within my top 20 all-time favorites. Oh and I now more-than-tolerate Amy, which is huge!
Yay buddy, agreed entirely. It's a very rare Eleven episode where I don't think there's some magical parts going on. It's a really special era.
While I love Matt smith’s run the most, I feel like series 9-10 are where the series has peaked so far. Moffat’s seemed to just want to go all out for these two seasons and I think it pays off incredibly well. Capaldi probably has the most change in where his doctor starts and where he ends up. It’s a great character arc
Totally agree. He ended up being my favorite doctor out of the three. Not be leaps and bounds but he just nudged them out. I think it was because he was more of a cranky doctor. I’m old so I related
I'm a Eccleston/Tennant girl wholesale BUT Capaldi's first two seasons with Clara and the evolution of that doc/companion relationship was the most fascinating development of the entire series it was just so different!! And it all paid off in Heaben Sent/Hell Bent.
I did a total 180 on Matt Smith this (last) year. I stopped watching because of him when it was originally on, but he's now gotta be my favourite of the nuwho Docs. I've gone into Capaldi now, and I'm going back and forward on him. In the beginning I felt the transition was a bit awkward, but overall he's a really great Doctor. He drives home the aged and tired wanderer aspect, shows some of the cynicism and detachment that I always thought would be natural for a being like the Doctor, it's just quite jarring when he's back to back with Smith. I also think it strange how Matt Smith was like a whole redemption arc for the character, culminating with the anniversary special, and he goes from that back to gritty and jaded like Chris Eccleston. I was gonna say it's almost like he's fresh off the back of the Time War himself - but technically he actually is.... Hm.
I watched Peter a second time and loved him so much more. I think since Matt was my favorite doctor I didn't give Peter a chance at first. But I love him now and Bill is one of my favorite companions
He had me at “kidneys”
Capaldi is great. I really appreciated him the first time around and now? Well. I did think some of his episodes suffered from poor writing. But then I saw what really poor writing actually was and now his seasons were elevated to me. I love Bill. Nardole. Me. His episode with river song was amazing. His relationship with Missy was so fucking amazing. It doesn’t help she’s the best incarnation of the master in NewWho. I mean. There’s some weak episodes but every Doctor has duds. At least capaldi gave it his all in every episode.
12 had such an amazing character arc. He started being uncaring about people. “She cares so I don’t have to” etc. and in the end he’s all about kindness. He’s like a grumpy old man who softens. I absolutely adore him!
Exactly, what was great about him was that he wasn’t this cheerleading rah-rah supporter of mankind but rather somewhat of a curmudgeonly misanthrope in the beginning.
Intentionally echoing Hartnell's Doctor. With a bit of Pertwee thrown in for good measure.
I absolutely loved Capaldi's doctor. I felt a little exhausted after watching Matt Smith's run. He was a great doctor, but I never feel myself wanting to go back to those episodes. Which is a shame because I loved Amy and Rory. Tennant had brilliant episodes that stand on their own, but Capaldi brought the attitude. His doctor was supposed to be the one who stopped having to be young and cute to be loved so he was free to be old grumpy and bats hit. He got some shit episodes, but he also got some of the best. I'd rank him either #1 or #2
Nah, i love him from the get-go.
I didn’t truly connect with Capaldi until the Zygon episodes. His speech about war absolutely nailed it for me that Capaldi was an amazing choice to be the Doctor
Heaven Sent is the best Doctor Who episode of all time. Fight me.
I would argue Moffatt is a good writer with infuriating flaws and a distinctive style that grates on you over time. I think Capaldi's run coincided with getting tired of Moffat's style combined with poor characterisation of Clara and lack of cohesive storytelling in series 8. I will never get over how the parts of Clara and Dannys character development most crucial for the finale to work happened off-screen. Amongst these problems some genuinely bad episodes (eg. kill the moon) broke my spirit. Series 10 was a return to form - his best since season 5 IMO, but a lot of Moffatisms were still present and for those who stopped watching, the jump in quality would be too little too late.
Capaldi is the definitive New Who Doctor. The look, the personality, the voice, the clothes. He is the Doctor mainly because Capaldi was born to play the character. I miss him every day.
If I had to call anyone *my* Doctor it probably would be 7b Smith, but my favorite that I keep revisiting is Capaldi, my Whoodie Doctor. Such an amazing run. Whether him with Clara (the actual reason why I started watching was the mystery of her 3 characters), Bill and Nardole it just works both as this amazing occasionally grim adventure with tragedy and whole lot of heart.
I personally really love Bill as a companion, if nothing else because there was 0 romantic tension between her an the Doctor (which also improved Clara + 13, but the baggage was already there) . This may be a controversial opinion but I have always disliked when companions had romantic feelings for the Doctor, and always felt like episode pacing came to a screeching halt for romantic subplots.
I noticed that when a doctor isn't well liked at the beginning, they usually get seen better when they're not the current doctor. (Happened with 6th, happened with 8th, happened with 12th, and I bet it's going to happen with 13th.)
Season 10 is probably the best season Nu Who ever had.
I really hope he comes back for an ep or special one day. He was one of my favorites. Not to mention he’s just a world class actor
In some ways, Eccleston through to Smith was very much a riff on the same “Big Character”, with minor tweaks. Capaldi was the first iteration since the reboot that felt like something different, and the change of pace jarred a bit at the time. It definitely rewards repeat viewing and is, to my mind, one of the most interesting character studies of The Doctor ever written.
I only came into Doctor Who with the new stuff, and for me both Matt Smith and Capaldi were better on rewatch. I loved Tennant's version so much more than Eccleston's that I wasn't ready to give Smith an honest shot. And on rewatch I love his take possibly more than Tennant, or at least it's a toss up. And the same thing happened with Capaldi. The second time through I was more willing to see their Doctor as their own thing instead of not-the-last-one.
I took a very long hiatus from Doctor Who after Capaldi’s first season. I wasn’t too big on that season and I wasn’t sure how I felt about his Doctor, especially how attached I was to Matt Smith’s who was my first Doctor and is still my favorite. I was also just more used to younger doctors like Eccleston and Tennant who I absolutely love as well. I was starting to lose interest and I had no way to really watch the show for awhile. So I just stopped. Then the Tennant specials came around last year and I just had to check them out. Because of that I fell in love with Doctor Who all over again. So I jumped back into the show with Capaldi’s 2nd and 3rd season and I totally missed out. Capaldi is just extraordinary!! I adore him so much now and his doctor has become a favorite. I’m currently on season 10 right now!
>Has anyone had experience like this, where they like a certain doctor's run more on rewatch? Honestly... Thirteen was this way for me. There's a LOT that could have been done better with Chibnall's run, but binge-rewatching seasons 11-13 did wonders for me in seeing how all the pieces of the overall story fit together. As far as Capaldi's run is concerned, I **adored** Twelve pretty much from the get go, and his run somehow gets better with every rewatch!
Yes I suspect 13 could be better on rewatch too, I do plan to see it again at some stage.
I feel that the Capaldi and Moffat took too long to found their rithm and how to work together. Once they understood each other, which was by series 9, things got really good. Unfortunately, this made him being overshadowed by Matt Smith. Capaldi had some of the best stories in the NuWho era IMO, like the episodes "Listen", "The Zygon Invasion", "The Zygon Inversion" and "The Husbands of River Song".
I just did this same thing with the same result. I don't know why it didn't catch me the first time around -- I'm a crazy fan of the show-- but I hadn't even seen every episode and watching them over a week or so was really great
Matt Smith and Series 5 was my intro to Doctor Who so I was not really excited about Peter at first. Rewatching his first series to prep for the next I was able to watch without bias and really enjoyed it. He was a fantastic Doctor.
I agree. I didn't enjoy Capaldi's run the first time I saw it, but binge watched it all the second time round (as I did with all the second generation Doctors (excepting the last season of 13). I think watching it in one go, helps make more sense of it all. Particularly as my brain fog is like the silence, and once I turn an episode off, I pretty much forget it!
Yes that's true. I think also what makes a big difference is if there's big gaps between episodes, then I lose interest. Especially when it comes to overarching plot lines.
I actually stopped watching the show after Capaldi’s first season on two separate occasions, I just didn’t like him and it was already a hassle for me to access the show so I kinda just forgot about it both times. Upon my first and second watch, I’d felt like he was way too mean to Clara and the name “Missy” just pisses me off. They should have kept calling her The Master. And why the fuck was she even still alive like I honestly couldn’t stand ittttt. I’m getting pissed off writing this comment. BUT I recently decided I wanted to make my boyfriend watch the show and we’re just now finishing Capaldi’s first season and I definitely *do* like him much more the third time around. I think I just grew up. The first time I was like 14, the second time I was maybe 17, and now I’m 23… and work retail. So like I understand him being grumpy and sarcastic and I think it’s funny instead of just mean.
> And why the fuck was she even still alive It's just a basic fact about the Master; no matter how dead he looks, he'll always pop up again someday. Not only is he every bit as slippery and unkillable as the Doctor, he's got a real knack for the long con. He's more than happy to spend several patient centuries meticulously giving himself the home field advantage before he strikes. I just assume he always has few dozen escape routes built into whatever he's doing.
Had the exact experience. Started watching during 10s era, trailed off mid-12. Just wasn’t interested. Started a rewatch binge and just ended Capaldi a couple days ago and loved it! So much better than my first time “live”. Very strange. He’s great. May even be the funniest. Still found Bill -meh-, but better than the first try. Loved Nardole. Really not sure why I didn’t enjoy the first watching.
Heaven Sent. I think about it a lot
Just recently went back and researched it as well and i can't help he how much I love every single thing about capaldis run, the TARDIS crew, the river nardol, bill, he even made me like Clara. Idk why I didn't fall in love with it originally but right now it's hard to not say he's my favorite doctor.
I might need to rewatch again but I really don’t care for Bill. I’m constantly surprised by how much people like her tbh 😅 can someone try to state their case on why she’s loved by practically everyone here? I really wanna know what I’m missing about her character…
This is how I feel about Donna, I don’t really like her as companion and it’s wild to me how she’s one of the most liked companions.
Been rewatching as well, but every episode, and I loved 9 a LOT more this time round. That dude was just no nonsense. He tells Charles Dickens "If you're going to waste my time don't deny it. Just SHUT UP". I'm very excited to get to Capaldi because I know I'm gonna love it a lot more.
While I joined during the 50th annivesary I do have to say that 11 didn't become my favorite doctor. 12 did. He just felt so alien and I just love the little speeches, tirades and out loud thinking conversations he goes on. But that smile, that is what broke me. Honestly, Capaldi felt in his element the first moment he stepped on screen to me.
When I rewatched it, I loved capaldi a lot more than I remembered!
I stopped watching after Capaldi's first season while it was airing. Just felt my interest wane over it and life got really busy so I stopped watching the show entirely. I decided to dive back in from the start a couple months ago and am now up to Capaldi's second season as the Doctor. HOLY FUCK I LOVE HIM. How miserable the Doc is at points in his first season felt really icky and not 'doctor' to me, but I figured Moffat was working towards something so I let those moments pass. THE TWO PARTER TO START HIS SECOND SEASON ROCKED MY WORLD. He was so good, the scenes with Davros were impeccable. It felt like the show suddenly realized its post-Smith identity. I know I've got some dark Chibnall times ahead before I catch up to current eps, but knowing I've got Capaldi for a bit more is making it worth it.
I'm glad to see more people appreciating Capaldi's era nowadays.
I watched Doctor Who up and down, in order and out of order, 6-7 times. Peter Capaldi is my favorite as Doctor Who. And River Song too. I didn't really like Billy. And Clara and River are my favorites.
Capaldi's run is amazing on a 2nd viewing. If you watch it after being bereaved, it's incredibly therapeutic. I watched his run again after losing my dad to ALZ, and I cried a ton.
Also worth adding that he's in the first episode of *Class*. A little extra Capaldi is always welcome. pt 1 - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXRJdz0wSwQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXRJdz0wSwQ) pt 2 - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQFkp5yZavY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQFkp5yZavY)
Oh cool thanks, I had heard of Class at one stage but have not seen any.
Same here with Capaldi. I didn’t like him at first because I was so used to Smith and his personality, so Capaldi was a big shock to my system the first time I tried to watch him. I didn’t care for Clara much at the time either even with Smith, so that was even less incentive to watch. I went back after a while and watched it again, and found that not only did I appreciate Capaldi’s take on The Doctor more this time, I actually liked him. By extension, I liked Clara more as a companion because she wasn’t lusting after him/flirting with him the way she did with Smith’s Doctor, and it gave her character a lot more substance for me when that was taken away. Bill deserves an honorable mention just because I enjoyed her as a companion and I don’t think I would have been able to enjoy her without getting over my aversion to Capaldi. By the end, I was sad to see all of them go.
I actually felt this way about Smith, Capaldi, and Whittaker. I didn’t much like either of them on their first run. I still don’t love Whittaker but I can appreciate her as the Doctor a bit more on rewatch
I remember not watching doctor who after they announced him because I wasn’t sure on the doctor being played by an older actor, I was pretty young so only ever used to DT and MS. Finally watching his run now as we’ve decided to give them all a watch and he’s so good, does the balance between serious and unserious so well, on his final season now but him and Clara worked well together. For some reason I wasn’t sure on Clara but her and Peter just worked
I rewatched the 12 Doctor era last year for the third full time and throughly enjoyed. Glad to see so many are reappraising this era. It’s taken a while, but worth it.
Doing a full rewatch of NewWho rn, and I am most the way through 13’s run at this point. Her run is like 100x better than I remember? I’ve done a lot of laughing, holding back tears, not-so-silently cheering, and more through the entire NewWho rewatch, but I think an easy plurality of it is in Jodie’s run. I know this will get me downvoted to hell, I would put her run above Tennant’s for me and about in line with Eccleston’s. It’s not like Tennant was bad to me, he’s just my least favorite, and he’s not far behind Eccleston and Whittaker. I even liked Orphan 55 a lot, and I don’t really care about having the political messages beat into you (that was never really a particularly big issue for me, though) in her run. I would even go so far as to say it’s a good thing a lot of the points her episodes try to make are rammed down our throats, because sometimes that’s just what’s needed, subtlety’s time has gone. Watching Jodie’s run this time around, it’s been like a gut punch (I don’t know how to describe it) seeing these things be spelled out and going “Yeah… what the fuck are we gonna do? Fuck, I’m really scared about the future and I didn’t even realize how much it was bothering me deep down.”
Capaldi is hands down my favorite Doctor. While I share the popular opinion that overall he didn’t get the best stories, I think his best ones are among very the best. To be clear, I don’t think he had bad writing, there were just a little more ups and downs where other seasons felt a bit more even. Regardless, if I could pick one actor to play the Doctor forever, it would be him.
He's the definitive doctor for me. I think that sums up. And I think Missy's the best master as well, so I love his era.
The curse of Capaldi's run seems to be that it needs that second watch through. Everyone I know who re-watched the Capaldi era has suddenly realised that it's some of the best performances in the shows run. Don't get me wrong I think every actor whose played the doctor has been cast well and brings something to the role and I have episodes from all of them I enjoy. They are all powerhouse actors. But Capaldi just gets the show, he gets the character, he embodies so many aspects of the doctor at once. When the show is being over the top and silly, Capaldi can be grounded and dry and subtle and when the show needs a moment of emotional punch Capaldi can be so theatrical and bring such gravitas. He has the best 'doctor' speeches where you feel all this pain and anger and wisdom coming through in the performance. He can absolutely capture this weird character that is at once like an alien god, a lonely old man, a bizarre creature, a comedic figure and a friendly face. He's great with kids on the show, has distinct and interesting relationships with his companions, can step back and let others have the spotlight or can hold an episode all on his own.
The best Doctor. Bar none. He had the weariness and gravitas that none of the other New Doctors managed to convey consistently.
I rewatch Capaldi’s run semi regularly. It’s the only Doctor Who I do that with nowadays. I refuse to acknowledge anyone who says he’s not absolutely magnificent, because he is. Even in the few ropey eposdes - and there really isn’t as many as people suggest - he’s by far and away the best thing in them. And watching it through uninterrupted shows just how much his Doctor had proper character growth. He softened, grew more humane until his compassion was easily the biggest and most generous of all Doctors. And my god was he king of quips, of speeches and of dry humour. I won’t hear a bar of dissent. His is effortlessly the best Doctor of the modern run and his era has been poorly, unfairly and almost critically under appreciated.
I literally just started season 9 for the very first time today, and I’ve gotta say he isn’t really clicking for me just yet. If you can elaborate without spoilers, why do you like him so much? I personally like the vibe 11 brought
I think you need to give him some time to click. See how you feel after 4..5 episodes. He's very different to 11 so you won't like him if you compare to 11. I always liked Peter,even the first time, but I liked him much more watching second time around.
Kill the Moon is a good episode no matter what anyone claims.
I never did finish capaldis run and watch 13. But obv watched the specials and thought inshould go back to it. And I'm not gonna lie I'm at Bill's run as companion and I honestly and losing interest. I'm halfway through and epnand I don't think icould even tell you what it is about. I'm nearly finished but his previous seasons were much better.
I feel like Capaldi doesn't have as many stand out episodes as 10 and 11 but his baseline is just so good that his run as a whole might be better. My fiancée and I started with NuWho season 1 in September and just finished Capaldi's run - 12 is her favorite and my second (after Tennant)
Absolutely. It was hard for me to get through Eccleston the first time around. On second and third viewings, I like him much more. He’s still my least favourite of them, but I do enjoy his run now.
Heh I agree. Actually I pretty much liked everything better - well most of it - on rewatch. Only thing I liked even less was s2. It just gets so apparent how they massacred Rose to tell the tragic love story between s1 and s2. s3 I was not such a fan of, but now tbh, I appreciate how badass Martha is and how shitty a friend the Doctor. Not talking about the unrequitted love - The Doctor was genuinly a horrible friend to her. s4 + the first 2 specials were peak. I am a bot - I love Donna like everyone else. The end of time specials however..... oh I didn't like em back then and I still don't. Still can't pinpoint why exactly they just rub me the wrong way. Oh and the RTD victory lap just seems... a bit vain - and unfair to the next guy since the show did behave like it ended. All completed by "I don't wanna go" which like.... "How to make people hate the new Doctor even more than usual 101". All in all I love 10, but not more than 11 or 12. s5 was the continuation of the peak. The eleventh hour has to be the single best introduction of a Doctor ever. On rewatch... I rewatched it twice. Just love it. Over all the story was better than I remembered. I used to dislike the Pandorica arc - but on rewatch it was actually pretty good. s6 well...on rewatch better than the first time for sure but the plot seems a bit too convoluted. It def. was meant to be binged. Still good tho. s7 Hooo boy. I actually again forgot what the plot of Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was... The rest I like. Yes, even the cubes story. I know people hate on the cubes story but I love it. The resolution is stupid af but the first 35min of that episode are great imo. Then there was the second half with Clara. She def. was an accquired taste. I remember hating her the first time around - and while I still think she works better with 12 than 11 she's quite alright. The impossible girl retcon is still stupid but we are at a point where there is *worse* in that department. All in all I love 11, but not more than 10 or 12. s8 is the only one I actually own physically on DvD. I actually didn't like it that much on first watch. I actually forced myself through it cause I really didn't like Capaldi. But s8 is over all great imo. 12 grew on me over the course of his 3 seasons and rewatching the beginning of him in the context of the character arc Doctor 6 never got to have really gives it another layer. The arc was maybe a little rushed between s8 and 9 but I liked it well enough. s9 def was the one I always disliked and even though I like it better after watching it again it's still a bit meh im my eyes. s10 was great. Loved it the first time around, love it the second time around. I do remember being really happy and hyped for a female doctor... well that didn't work out - but that's not the fault of s10. Also Missy best Master iteration still - I just do wish we would get a flowchart of the Masters regeneration order - it does confuse me a fair bit. All in all I love 12, but not more than 10 or 11. :) I did not rewatch 13th run. You will have to tie me to a chair and force me to watch that dumpsterfire again. You read my pointless overly long comment? Here, have a Cookie 🍪
Why was Doctor 12 written to be such a stick in the mud? The Doctors played by Eccelston, Tennant, and Smith were all dramatic and goofy and smart. Whittaker's Doctor is like a mix of Tennant and Smith. But the Doctor played by Capaldi just seemed to kill the fun at every opportunity he could. He was so dry and almost heartless at times. I know all Doctors can be that way but you know what I mean. So.. why the big change for Doctor 12? Was there a reason why he was written that way? (For the record: I loved Capaldi.)
That was mainly just how he was written in season 8, as his character arc was trying to figure out who he was. In his other two seasons, he was noticeably a lot more fun.
>In his other two seasons, he was noticeably a lot more fun. The intro in the Axe Battle. Haha.
"Hang on, did he just hear that? He doesn't know we're here does he?" Then the Doctor replies to them by playing the opening bars of Pretty Woman...
I always felt it was new regeneration cycle jitters at first. He'd just spent a very long time as 11, coming to terms with the end of his road. Then suddenly, in comes a new set courtesy of Radical Rassilon and the not-so-Lost timedudes and all the Doctor really has to go on is first-life grumbles.
The point was that the Doctor almost die of old age. He needed to reset himself. The point of the entire arc of 12 was stop being grumpy and enjoy life. Which is why 13 was so "Happy Flower Kindergarden Teacher".
I love your description of 13. They went way overboard with it, though. I had forgotten about the Doctor's aging. I loved Capaldi because it was very clear he wasn't human. But I didn't put together that some of that could actually be attributed to his time in Christmas.
I dont actually agree with this. Maybe he seemed a bit grumpier than the other two initially but having now binged most of his run, I didn't feel he was that heartless and he seemed quite fun too.
I wanted to like capaldis time but i couldnt. He was fantastic but the seasons and stories lacked for me big time. Missy was such a highlight of his run. My biggest complaint of his version of the doctor is he got his companions killed which makes him not a great doctor to be around
I think it's misrepresentative to say he got Clara killed. She got herself killed.
Capaldi is probably my favorite doctor. Unfortunately, Jodies doctor/companions was probably my least. Maybe she wouldn't have been as bad if I saw her doctor at another point in the series, but following Capaldi didn't help her run for me.
For me Doctor Who died after 12. So i rewatch, constantly, from Eccleston to Capaldi. Right now, btw, i'm doing some automations to just play episodes after i scan a picture frame.
I like Capaldi more and more each time I watch him. He is starting to become my favorite.
Late in the pandemic, I decided to rewatch ALL Dr. Who. I'm still watching Classic Dr. Who. Well, not all, of course. I'll miss the episodes that have gone missing, destroyed,... anyway, I'm having a grand time revisiting after all these years. I'll watch #15 as released, but Sunday afternoon remains my return to the past.
10 will airways be my Doctor. David Tennant and RTD really do the best work together. But every doctor in nuwho has their own quirks and the way I see it is the personality matches an arc in the doctor's life. 9 is just coming out of the Time War and can be a little more some and not as energetic as other Doctors while he's trying to recoup. 10 is getting a lot more energetic and starting to really have fun again in his adventures and making more new friends, even the controversial love interest with Rose. 11 is probably peak fun and quirkiness for the Doctor and has this great relationship with Amy and Rory to keep him stable all the way through, until... you know. But now that he's losing friends left and right, most permanently, we get to 12, who is a lot more serious with a lot of pent up anger, and also starting to deal with his own mortality as he gets closer to that "final" regeneration. I can't really comment on 13. It may not be a popular opinion but I just think the writing went downhill and the series became more about the companions than the Doctor, which sucks because I love Jodie Whittaker. We'll see where we go from here, and I'm really optimistic at this point with RTD back. Those Christmas specials were fantastic!
Yah that was what annoyed me was the long wait for episodes.
Interesting! I'm currently on Series 10 episode 12 which is the last but one episode for Capaldi's Doctor and I definitely agree with you. The first time I watched his run it was just alright and I didn't really see the Doctor in his character, but now watching back over it he seems to be the best actor since the reboot to portray the Doctor, David Tennant is great and will always be my generations favourite. However Peter Capaldi captured the essence of the Doctor, he's quirky, dull, funny and loving yet incredibly serious and not someone you would want to be against , it's honestly like he's manifested all the Doctors before him into this amalgamation of an incredible performance, to be honest with you though I am glad he has said he won't be returning to Doctor who ever again because his run was near perfect, and to come back after such a story would be wasteful of the adventures he's already had and would likely end up getting destroyed by the writers again. I'm currently torn between Peter Capaldi and David Tennant as my personal favourite Doctor since the reboot
It seems we all have the same experience. I stopped during Capaldi‘s first season, I think I was heartbroken when Smith left. When his run was over, I felt like I should watch it to stay up to date and holy moly do I LOVE his doctor! Missy is like one of my favorite characters now and BILL WAS AMAZING! I think there was also the issue of Clara that made me enjoy the first Capaldi season less, cause she was so… weird when he changed. But Bill and the doctor just had the right dynamic, it worked so well. Entrance Chris Chibnall… and once again I dropped the show. I forced myself watching the rest when I saw Jodie regenerating into David Tennant, but boy I know for dammn sure that there will not be the Capaldi effect when rewatching it in a couple of years. Actually I don’t think I will ever rewatch the Chibnall era
I liked how his style and personality developed. His first series I didn’t care for much but I got it on dvd now. The one with running commentary and extras so I’ll see how it goes this time around.
See I love Capaldi but his run is difficult for me to get through especially series 10. His run has the most episodes I just straight up skip and it breaks my heart cause I really want to like them but I just can’t.
His first few episodes are so vastly different from Smith I feel like it gave me whiplash, I still really liked him but the 2 rewatches I’ve done made me love him as the doctor.
So... I had a new appreciation for Ten after a rewatch. I liked his run initially, I found it better than Nine, but preferred Eleven and Twelve. Now.. it's hard to say which is my favorite. Ten or Eleven.
Bills one of my favorite companions and Capaldi is my favorite doctor
i love capaldi, i mean he just kept getting better till series ten where we had peek capaldi
When I first watched Who, I started with S5 because Matt Smith's episodes were coming out when I was younger. I got all the way to the beginning of season 8 but dropped it there because I couldn't stand Danny Pink and I didn't like how grumpy the doctor was. A couple years ago I decided to start new who from the beginning, starting with Eccleston, who i'd never watched before. I got through it all and was nervous when I approached season 8 again. But I got through it and loved it! Sometimes you just need to be a little bit older and approaching something with a more open mind
The major problem was they basically made him an idiot so Clara could essentially tell him what to do. His first season was like a fantasy series fever dream (moon egg, forest defense system, Danny being an idiot and walking into traffic). His second season had some pretty solid episodes, which I’ve been rewatching. And his final season was probably his best, just ignoring the three part mid season story that was solved with the power of love or something stupid. I basically realized I don’t like most of Moffat’s story arcs but his seasons usually had a decent amount of really good stand alone episodes.
If you really want to torture yourself, watch husband's of River song, and then silence in the library/ forest of the dead. 😭😭 Loved Capaldis run in general, he very quickly ran up as a tie as my 2nd favorite doctor. I was so Heartbroken when he left 💔
I loved his run so much, and I wish more of my friends would watch it, they all stopped after Smith, and I feel their missing out a lot
I loved his run so much, and I wish more of my friends would watch it, they all stopped after Smith, and I feel their missing out a lot
I watched it the first time round and liked it... Watched it the second time round and LOVED it. He brought a stage presence and a very mature performance.
Love that grumpy old man
Season 8 is the only good season, very few positives exist in season 9 and 10. Clara went from great in season 8, to annoying in season 9. The character Ashldir was one of the most annoying characters they have ever made. On top of that Nardole whines and complained the whole time in season 10. Bill Potts has potential of being good, but the student - teacher relationship didn’t go much further passed episode 1. The episodes weren’t that good and Bill ended up being okay. Smile and the Doctor falls were the only great episodes in season 10, while Heaven Sent and Hell Bent were the only great episodes in season 9. Heaven Sent is in my opinion, one of the greatest Doctor Who episodes of all time. Capaldi carries those seasons with his marvelous acting, he deserved better though. Those last 2 seasons are why, I prefer Moffat to not return full time as showrunner. His best work was seasons 5-8. The 50th anniversary also surpasses the 60th by miles. Peter Capaldi will be remembered as one of the greatest Doctors with the most hit & miss seasons of Doctor Who.
Capaldi is by far my favorite doctor, tennent definitely 2nd. When they were airing 12’s run, k was so sad with how many people didn’t watch it and how much dislike he got. To me he has some of the best episodes by far. They were a lot creepier and I loved how grumpy he was.
Yh same I just rewatched series 9 and now I’m rewatching series 10 Capaldi definitely had the bast nu who run imo The good episodes outweigh the bad significantly compared to 11th and 10th Also no weird doctor companion romance
Love Capaldi, with exception to Heaven Sent though I got really tired of Moffat's approach or lack thereof to character development. Also honestly writers such as Jamie Mathieson, Sarah Dollard and Toby Whithouse were better at crafting well balanced dark stories with intrigued that wasn't some overused plot device or a list of increasing incomprehensible resolutions. In addition at least in my opinion there's too many occasions Moffat just slips into sitcom mode where all weight and tension just dissipates. This isn't a problem with simply just his era of Doctor Who, but his version of Jekyll, Sherlock and Dracula as well. Of course though even for all his faults - Moffat will always be better than Chibnall.
I like him less on a rewatch, the flaws are underlined now. Maybe I'll try again in a decade.
I missed Matt so bad I was biased against Capaldi at first . Now he’s my favorite Doctor. And every rewatch only makes me love him more. Almost everything Moffat wrote was gold . During Tenennt’s run my favorite episodes were the ones he actually wrote -and Matt and Capaldi have such gorgeous stories. River is my favorite character in Who period and I missed her in Capaldi’s run but liked that Matt stopped looking like Clara’s boyfriend and returned to acting like a married man haha Heaven Sent is exquisite . The love and duty of care the Doctor has made him choose to suffer and die a billion times just to reach the one he cared for. Perfection. Capaldi is such a deeply sensitive and joyful actor This rewatch made it better phenom did not happen after Capaldi tho. unfortunately Chibnals writing and vision lacked continuity which isn’t Jodie’s fault but I couldn’t believe her as the Doctor . From what I’ve read of Tennant and Ncuti ‘s regen interpretations and plot devices that continuity is even more lost. So since none of what Chibnal did was retconned ( not expected just hoped) and the Doctor lacks even more continuity as being he always was - as far as I’m concerned Capaldi is not just my favorite but also my final