Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: bbc, bradley walsh, Breaking Dad, chris chibnall, doctor who, jodie whittaker, john bishop, mandip gil, The Chase

Doctor Who: Chris Chibnall Forgot He Should Be Writing for The Doctor

The latest Doctor Who video is a compilation of companion Graham O'Brien, played by British showbiz veteran Bradley Walsh, and it's very revealing – perhaps unintentionally – that it shows showrunner Chris Chibnall was more interested in writing every other character except The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker). You remember The Doctor, right? She was only the title character and presumed star of the show.

We get it. When you get an actor as great as Walsh, you want to give him as much as possible in the scripts. Chibnall had previously worked with Walsh on Law & Order UK, where Walsh played the British version of the hardboiled, wise-cracking, cynical cop played by Jerry Orbach in the original US show. On Doctor Who, Walsh's Graham was the equivalent of Jesse L. Martin's Joe West on CW's The Flash, the kind, deeply empathetic Dad who could break your heart with just one look.

Graham had the best lines, the best emotional moments, the funniest moments in his run on Doctor Who – you might as well say it was really "The Graham Show co-starring The Doctor". He had the most nuanced emotional arcs. Hell, he had at least four, while Ryan (Tosin Cole) had just one, and Yaz (Mandip Gil) had none (or even a personality) in her first season. There's the arc of Graham trying to forge a relationship with his grandson Ryan, who resented Grace's marriage to him. There's the arc of Graham trying to get past the grief of losing his wife, Grace. There's the arc of Graham grappling with being a cancer survivor and his fear that he might relapse. There's the arc of Graham traveling with an alien and discovering the vast universe out there, and becoming a space adventurer and time traveler. Only that last one has anything to do with Doctor Who or Science Fiction. The other arcs are all typical British soap opera plots that could have easily fitted into Emmerdale, Eastenders, or Coronation Street (which Walsh had been a series regular on back in the 2000s). They're prosaic, almost banal, even clichéd, but Bradley Walsh's charisma and instant relatability sold every moment Graham had in the show. And make no mistake: Bradley Walsh is a national treasure and possibly the busiest man on British Television – on top of starring in Doctor Who, he also hosted the UK's top game show, The Chase, and the traveling reality show, Bradley Walsh & Son: Breaking Dad.

When Doctor Who Isn't Into Doctor Who

Chibnall made the worst mistake a showrunner could ever make: he was not that interested in the title character – and star! – of the show he was making and kept running to the supporting characters, especially latching onto Graham as the one he was most interested in. Sometimes you forget this show was called Doctor Who in the first place. Chibnall was oddly more comfortable writing the soap opera story of Graham and his relationship with his grandson Ryan. The episodes in Chibnall's run that revealed the most insightful moments about The Doctor were written by other – often female – writers. After Walsh left, Chibnall did the same thing all over again, with popular comedian John Bishop as Dan Lewis becoming The Doctor's new companion. Dan was a more compelling and funny character than The Doctor or Yaz, his emotional journey more empathetic and relatable, while The Doctor and Yaz felt written from the outside. It seems Chibnall has been uncomfortable writing female characters (unless they're angry, crying, and screaming as he did on all three seasons of Broadchurch) and would fall on his safety net of the "Sad Funny Middle-Aged Guy who Does His Best". Let Chibnall create and run a show about that character now that he's off Doctor Who. We need a showrunner who actually wants to tell stories about The Doctor as much as the companions.

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