Not grumpy yet.

My reaction to the new season of DR WHO?

Well, not too bad.

I’m not trying to damn it with faint praise but the first season of Jodie Whittaker’s time in the role was me saying ‘Let’s wait to see if it improves’, my second was me saying ‘She’s not really being well served by the writers’ and ‘You can’t do that!’ a lot and for the third I’m holding back any enthusiasm lest it comes to bite me in the rear by the end of the season.

Which is only five episodes away. This may be the way for Chris Chibbnal to depart leaving them wanting more or it may be because he and the cast are exhausted.

He started with an in media res full of references to things that happened between the Doctor and Yaz between series which is fine for giving Yaz a bit more depth, competence and confidence. There was a mysterious woman the Doctor was going to meet sometime in the future, a mysterious young man watching at the edge of the universe and the return (briefly for now) of the Weeping Angels and the Sontarans. There’s also a new companion, a new alien race, a mysterious villain who disintegrates people and remembers the Doctor while she does not remember him and the approaching end of all creation.

As Snoopy once remarked “In the Second Half I tie all this together.” Will Chris Chibnall be able to make sense of this along with the utterly blithering elements he introduced in the last series? I dunno. But I will be watching.

My only criticism is that there are too many bits of complicated dialogue being shouted very fast through loud sound effects. I’m going to have to watch them again on iPlayer to pick up what’s going on. This may be me becoming old and deaf, of course. At least I no longer go and hide behind the sofa. I don”t have a sofa for one thing.