Disappointing Doctor Who Season

One of my great loves for a very long time has been Doctor Who. I watched the old series fanatically, and I have adored damn near everything they have done in the new series, although I find more and more problems creeping in as they continue.

For those not familiar, the Doctor is an alien time traveler who has the ability to regenerate rather than die, which helpfully lets the series continue after the lead actor is ready to move on. The new series has had three incarnations, played by Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, and Matt Smith.  (The previous series went through seven incarnations over 26 years, and Fox did a TV pilot in 1996 that introduced one more incarnation that is considered canon)

I've tried, really tried, to like Smith. At first I thought him too young (only 28), but then I saw him in costume, and I thought they had overcome that problem. But the fact is this season has been mediocre at best. Part of the problem, certainly, is writing. It's derivative and unimaginative and incongruous, rather than clever, smart and witty like some of the previous seasons.

But I can't keep solely blaming the writing. Matt Smith is dull. They are not giving him much to work with, but he is doing nothing with what he has. In "The Pandorica Opens", the Doctor is reunited with Rory, who he believed to be killed and erased from existence. At first, Smith's Doctor is too preoccupied to notice, which follows his character. But when it does dawn on him who is before him he does…nothing. There's just awkward silence, almost like he's waiting for a direction. Had it been Tennant, he would have screamed for joy, picked him up and spun him around. If it had been Eccleston, he would have been demanding and accusatory, furiously insisting he be told how this is possible. But Smith just stands there.

And just to hammer home the point, my husband and I caught an old Tennant episode last night, and at the first commercial with both spontaneously confessed how clearly superior Tennant was, far more than either of us expected. We aren't huge fans of Tennant, but he's 100% better than Smith.

There's a great video on YouTube somewhere on the failures of Episodes I, II, and II in Star Wars, and one of the best points comes from an exercise in which you pick a character and then try to describe them without referring to their job or their appearance. You can do it with the original characters, but not with most of the new ones. Han Solo is cocky, a rogue, a ladies man, does his own thing, does a bit of fence sitting but ultimately stands by his friends. Amidala is...um...huh. Amidala has a poor choice of boyfriends. That's about as far as I can go.

You can do the same thing with Doctor Who. Both Smith's Doctor, and his companion Amy Pond suffer a similar lack of definition. They're just two vague characters that go along with the plot, and the plots themselves are hamfisted efforts with little originality or creativity, instead depending on things like bringing back fan favorites like the Weeping Angels without recognizing that their previous episode was so cool because of the skilled writing, not just the presence of these particular adversaries.

I'm hearing rumors that Smith will not be kept on for next season. That's probably a good thing, but only if they understand the problem is more than Smith.  The writing needs to return to it's roots.  And they absolutely have to cast the right person for the Doctor.  I think they've been stressing demographics too much, making the Doctors progressively younger.  The Doctor doesn't need to be sexy!    Nor does he need to be someone to whom the fans can relate: that has always been the point of the companion.  The Doctor IS an alien, after all.

You can check out a two minute survey of this season on YouTube, which at least gives the flavor of what Doctor Who  is supposed to be.  For those who haven't seen the entire season, there ARE spoilers.

Also, in terms of comments, please remember that Americans have not yet seen the season finale.  It airs this weekend.