About five years ago, I expressed my reservations about RTD returning to run DW.
There were moments I really enjoyed in RTD's second run, and every so often I saw reason to hope the show might find its footing, but those moments were far too few. The moments where I cringed and groaned far outnumbered them. So much wasted talent and potential there.
When it comes back -- and I trust it will someday -- I hope the trans-inclusion, and all the wokeness the reactionary faction of fandom railed against comes back with it. There was a wholesomeness to the series that I truly loved. And yet, if you ever say to me, "there's a twist at the end" of something I may faint dead away. I blame RTD for the structural mess, the misuse of old baddies, the dead-ends and thudding disappointments, and I think my instinct that this would not end well was well-founded.
And five years later, I see that JMS is still lobbying for a crack at it. I feel like I did five years ago about that, only more so. I want to see someone new take the show in a new direction. Could JMS do that? Maybe? It would definitely mollify some faction of fandom, and I think at least in terms of crafting a story JMS could not make as much of a hash of it as RTD did, but I don't know that I could muster up any excitement to see what he brings to the Whoniverse. As much as I loved the Moffat era, I don't want more of that either. I've seen JMS make great TV and write brilliantly. But -- I've already seen it. Paradoxically, I don't want something I've already seen, though I'm about to argue I actually do; I want to see the show go somewhere new that reminds me why I loved the classic series, and why I loved the new series, too, without getting bogged down in the past.
TV has changed so much, I'm just not sure what I want is something there's any real market for. I miss the old pre-return format. Give me twenty episodes in a season, low-budget scrappiness, and a Doctor who walks in eternity -- while Sarah Jane clowns him. (But, don't make the old mistakes either, keep the recent eras' big-hearted inclusiveness and don't make me twist myself into terrible contortions to try to find a way to make "Talons" acceptable.)
But, just as with RTD himself, I fear there's no going back, only finding a new way forward. I want stories about a character who seeks to remedy injustices, to help the oppressed, and -- with the help of companions who are learning as they go -- works with the people who were already trying to do the right thing find the levers to pull that will win over those who seek to dominate. I want a Doctor who can help find those levers based on a long history of helping others, understanding that Marx was as important to understanding the world and our place in it as Darwin, careful study and observation, and the strength of right convictions which gives them distinctive insight.
Charlie Jane Anders has written thoughtfully about what the show should look like when it comes back and I reckon she's pretty much nailed it.
I'd say I'm sorry to see Doctor Who end again, but I don't know that I was very sorry to see it end the first time around either. Then, as now, it had become almost unwatchable, incompetently produced television that needed a shut down and restart to clear the cache.
