Stuff kept coming up that made it difficult to do mini-reviews of each episode, so I'll round this up now. Overall, I liked this season. The most significant improvement was in the historical episodes, which are no longer just about random monsters threatening humans in the past (instead of in the future) but actually look at significant historic events as interesting in themselves. This is much more rewarding that simply dumping random alien monsters in random historical situations for no obvious reason, and gives a valid excuse for moral commentary. Since the show does this anyway in its more conventional sci-fi episodes, this feels entirely consistent : we've already seen plenty of aliens acting immorally, now we see humans in a similar light. Good stuff.
There was also plenty of contemporary fun to be had. Back in the Russel T. Davies era (when Obama was still a quasi-messianic figure to most of us) we already had some occasional political commentary, so while this season takes it a bit further, it's not doing anything especially novel. And contemporary politics damn well deserves to be mocked, because it's utter shite. Considerably more shite than it was even a few years ago, in fact.
The quality of the effects has also definitely stepped up a further notch. The overall writing remains in keeping with the established style and there's been a distinct lack of duff episodes which plagued earlier seasons. The music's got a bit more subtlety too, though a bit too much for my tastes. The pacing is good and feels well-balanced.
Unfortunately, while there are no duff episodes, there aren't any really outstanding ones either. There are good episodes (such as this one) with occasional really good moments, but there's nothing comparable to Blink, Listen, or Heaven Sent. It's like the quality has been smoothed out. Overall, I think I prefer enduring the stupid episodes with giant wasps in order to get the genuine heroism.
Similarly, what seems to be seriously lacking is character. Every single person is... okay. Not bad, not great, just okay. Occasional good moments, but overall not especially memorable. As the lead, the Doctor embodies this most of all - it's like all the moral ambiguity has just evaporated for no reason, leaving behind a small, polite and helpful character devoid of anything interesting. I don't know if it's the actress (probably not - see Broadchurch) or the directing, but the comedic lines (while still well-written) just fall flat. Worse, we get little sense of anything that really challenges the Doctor. She's always small, polite and helpful. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Arachnids episodes, in which the Doctor simply backs down in the face of Trump-like aggression. That is simply not how a 2,000 year-old Time Lord who has "lost things you will never understand" would ever behave. Much, much more anger and darkness is needed.
It's a similar story for the side characters. Having more companions is fine, but they're none of them particularly interesting. This episode features a rather nice speech by Ryan's dad, but if it had been delivered verbatim by the Doctor it would have been far more interesting. Like the Doctor herself, they have occasional moments, but too few to ever rate any of them as memorable characters.
This episode is pretty decent though and quite a lot of fun. This Doctor becomes more interesting when there are clear villains to face. Ostensibly, more nuanced characters should be better, but outright villainy provides an all-too-rare excuse to see some decent acting and do something besides being polite and helpful.
Now, I like Doctor Who being a fundamentally optimistic and family-friendly show. But that's never meant that everything had to be quite this bland before. The current season isn't bad by any stretch, but if it carries on like this is runs the risk of becoming deadly dull. It's a good watch, but generally speaking it lacks that certain fire and element of risk. Surprisingly, given a sudden gender change for a character that's been on our screens for over half a century, it's been playing things just a bit too safe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWlgh81zFGw
Bland is right. The most interesting thing across the series was the sound design.
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