Someone showed me a clip of the regeneration scene from the 60th anniversary special of Doctor Who. That one scene was enough to convince me that we can't blame Chris Chibnall for the sad decline of the show, and that the return of Russell T Davies isn't going to magically save it.
I stuck with Jodie Whittaker to the end of her first season, because she and her co-stars were clearly doing the best they could with the garbage scripts they were handed. It's not their fault that modern Dr Who has devolved into a schmaltzy, poorly-written parody of its former self. But the New Year special with the zombie dalek building its own armour in a farm workshop was where I had to draw the line. I just couldn't keep up any suspension of disbelief after that.
The rot set in during the Matt Smith era and arguably I ought to have tuned out after his final ludicrous Christmas special with the wooden cyberman. But somehow I convinced myself the arrival of Peter Capaldi heralded a return to form and there were some genuinely great episodes during his tenure. Heaven Sent, for example, is classic Who. It's just a damn shame that the writing went downhill so badly just when Jodie Whittaker took the reigns and shows no sign of improvement for Ncuti Gatwa.
> The rot set in during the Matt Smith era
I agree. (Not that I think he was a bad Doctor. Same with Capaldi, btw.)
Incidentally, it was around that time that an Australian friend and I both agreed that the next Doctor should be a woman. So, if anything, the producers were behind the fans on that one. That's why it made me so angry when they decided to blame us for the disastrous Whittaker tenure.
@josemanuel From the tail end of Tennant on, Doctor Who scripts have mostly had more in common with this than classic Who:
Rowan Atkinson is Doctor Who | Comic Relief
@josemanuel
All the actors have done their best with the scripts they had, including those playing The Doctor. The wooden cyberman and fez gags were not Matt Smith's fault. The sonic sunglasses and electric guitar, and constant eyebrow gags, were not Peter Capaldi's fault. The dalek with god-like powers, and making a sonic screwdriver in a farm shed, were not Jodie Whittaker's fault. The blame for all this lies squarely on writers who thought they were writing parody episodes for Comic Relief.