Posted in: BBC, Disney+, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: chris chibnall, doctor who, russell t davies, steven moffat

Doctor Who: Each Doctor's First Ep Feels Like a Pilot for a New Show

Doctor Who has a unique way of renewing itself that other shows don't have, making each Doctor's intro feel like a pilot for a new show.

Doctor Who is a unique show in many ways, and why it has so many fans, but the most unique part about it is that every time a new Doctor arrives, their first episode is practically the pilot episode of a brand new show. No other show before or after can do this, and that's fascinating. You could almost say Doctor Who hasn't been one show but fifteen.

Doctor Who: The Old Days

In the 1960s, when William Hartnell had to leave Doctor Who due to his health issues, many of the same writers were still working on the show, so when Patrick Troughton took over as the Second Doctor, the show still felt the same, consistent in tone, mostly. But since they had a younger Doctor who could do more physical work than Hartnell, the series gradually began to feel different. Troughton brought a slapstick comedy vibe to the Doctor in between the serious parts. When Jon Pertwee took over in 1970, the series took on a new look and feel with colour photography and a more action-bound James Bond vibe. His stories are set initially on Earth, but his last seasons started to take place on another planet. By the time Tom Baker came along, the UNIT part of the story was phased out, and his run was space and time travel with some gothic horror and wackier humor. Peter Davison's time was a team show with the youngest Doctor at the time who traveled with multiple companions like bickering college roommates. Colin Baker fronted the darkest and most violent era of the show with the angriest Doctor. Sylvester McCoy's series was about a manipulator of events across Space and Time. Paul McGann's TV movie and failed pilot was a slick and kind of dumb mid-90s US Science Fiction show.

A New Show With a New Doctor in the Modern Era

The vibe that a new Doctor's first episode is a new show is more consistent in the modern era, to the extent that both Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat have said as much. It felt more so when a new Doctor entered with a new showrunner as with the two Doctors Moffat created, then Chris Chibnall's era with Jodie Whittaker felt like a different show with a difference in tone. Come to think of it, each of Peter Capaldi's seasons felt like a different show because of the different approaches to his Doctor in each season. Davies returning for the Disney+ era made it a new show again, first with David Tennant in a sequel to his run but brighter and flashier, then Ncuti Gatwa's era is yet another new series that's more emotional and bright with a bigger budget. It's the same show but different. In that way, Doctor Who is pretty much all television.

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