Well, now that we’ve seen “The Power of the Doctor,” I can officially make this post. The Thirteenth Doctor era has a lot of ups and downs for me, but I’ve loved Thirteen herself since “The Woman Who Fell to Earth.” Here’s to this lovely, lively Doctor, who always shone despite at-times lackluster writing.
From the moment she bursts onto the scene—yeah, falling from the sky and through the roof of a train—Thirteen is a livewire. She’s a bundle of brainy, occasionally nervous energy. I love her penchant for tinkering and inventing, starting of course with her new sonic screwdriver. We’ve seen other Doctors mention that, back in the day, they invented the sonic, and we’ve seen various Doctors MacGyver together wild devices, but Thirteen’s the one we most often really see at work. Welding masks, smelting pots, you name it—she’s a very tactile Doctor who loves making things and seeing them come to life.
Many Doctors, especially in new Who, have a lot of outward sunniness that, while in large part is genuine, also masks some inner pain. Thirteen’s sunny ratio is probably higher than a lot of her predecessors. She delights in showing her companions new things, cheerfully namedrops historical figures she’s rubbed elbows with, and finds joy in everything from a spaceship engine to a button on the TARDIS that dispenses biscuits. Even when she’s captured by the Judoon and locked up for 19 years, she explains her absence to her companions (who’ve only passed a year in their time) by excitedly shouting, “I was in space jail!” It would be easy for someone to look at this Doctor and only see the happy shiny parts.
But like all Doctors, Thirteen has her demons as well. When she comes up against an alien who’s committed awful atrocities, she goes steely and cold. When she learns some life-shattering secrets about her past, she struggles to make sense of it. When she encounters people on her adventures who get killed, she gives their passing the solemnity it deserves. “The Oncoming Storm” or “The Lonely Angel” aren’t the first monikers that might come to mind when you look at Thirteen, but she still has those parts in her.
And for all that she gleefully embraces her “fam,” she also has her secretive or stubborn moments. This is especially true with Yaz in series 13. After she’s heard the revelations about the Timeless Child, Thirteen gets obsessed with chasing leads that might help her uncover a few of the mysteries about herself, and this makes her dive headlong into dangerous situations that don’t make sense to Yaz, because the Doctor won’t tell her what any of it is about. She starts laying down the law with a “because I say so” attitude, and increasingly, that’s not good enough for Yaz.
Even though, as far as Doctors go, Twelve and Thirteen don’t have a ton of similarities, one thing I do feel they have in common is that, on the whole, they’re better Doctors than the era they’re given. While I thought Twelve had some really aggravating writing, especially in his first season, Thirteen deals with some rather ho-hum writing—again, in her first season in particular. Jodie Whittaker is excellent from day one, and Thirteen continually brims with everything Whittaker is capable of, but during her tenure on the show, the series doesn’t consistently give her the opportunity to show that off to full effect. It’s a bummer to me to think that Thirteen, like Twelve, probably won’t be looked back on as fondly as Ten or Eleven, because as a Doctor, I think she’s terrific. Whenever the show is firing on all cylinders, Whittaker lets loose and Thirteen steps up, and she more than shows that she’s every inch the Doctor her predecessors are.
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