SUMMARY
- Doctor Who Season 15 should avoid big canon changes like the Timeless Child and focus on characters.
- Season 15 needs the Doctor to play a prominent role in most episodes for better engagement.
- The upcoming season should resolve mysteries from Season 14 and bring back classic villains for continuity.
Doctor Who Season 14 had some highs and lows, but unfortunately, the latest revival of the show by Russell T Davies had a few too many flaws to easily overlook, which need to be corrected in season 15. The show has a long histroy on TV, dating back to 1963, which actually makes Doctor Who the longest running sci-fi show of all time. However, Doctor Who has always had to adapt and change over time to connect to new audiences and remain contemporary.
In 2005, the show had its biggest revival to date, after a long hiatus of over a decade, with only a TV movie released in that considerable gap. Now, after the show has been consistently on the air for almost every year since 2005, its popularity began to take a dip, and former showrunner RTD agreed to step back in to steer the show to greener pastures once again. Despite RTD’s highly anticipated return, however, the show’s latest revival did not go off without a hitch, but if it can catch these 10 issues ahead of season 15, it should be in good shape.
10 Doctor Who Season 15 Doesn’t Need Another Big Canon Retcon
For whatever reason, the most recent seasons of Doctor Who, both under the stewardship of RTD and Christopher Chibnall, who held the role immediately before him, the showrunners have opted to make major changes to Doctor Who’s history and lore. From the introduction of the Timeless Child, which completely alters everything about the Doctor, to bi-generation, a heretofore unforeseen occurrence in the Whoniverse and now Sutekh, the show simply doesn’t need drama that changes the Doctor’s past.
The strength of Doctor Who’s stories doesn’t come from how big the mystery is, or how damaging it could be for the Doctor, but the incredible characters that appear, and the Doctor managing to save the day just in time. The last thing Doctor Who season 15 needs is another huge reveal that retcons the history of the show, and results in far more questions than answers. Instead, season 15 needs to focus on the characters more, and less on some new bizarre revelation.
9 Doctor Who Season 15 Needs More… Doctor Who
While some of the best Doctor Who episodes in the show’s history have been able to excel without the Doctor having a prominent role, the show is still centered on the Man in the Box. “Blink” was a masterpiece by writer Steven Moffat that introduced arguably the best new villains in modern Doctor Who. However, these Doctor-lite episodes should remain considerably less common than the episodes that put the Doctor front and center.
However, Doctor Who season 14 had a total of eight episodes, and two of them featured the Doctor as a small supporting role rather than the star of the show. That means 25% of the latest season didn’t even make the title character a prominent part of the story. This wasn’t necessarily bad, and “73 Yards” and “Dot and Bubble” ended up as some of the strongest episodes of the season, but season 15 needs to have the star as a bigger part of the action.
8 Doctor Who Season 15 Must Solve Mysteries Without Adding More
One of the most compelling parts of season 14 also ultimately led to disappointment from fans when numerous mysteries were set up without a clear or satisfying resolution. Once again, a show where the very title is a question is bound to give life to some big mysteries, but the show needs to have balance. With so many questions still lingering after season 14, season 15 should focus on answers over questions.
It’s OK to set up exciting and compelling narratives, but leaving loose threads dangling in the air with no further explanation is simply cruel. The mystery of Mrs. Flood, where Susan Forman could be, what alternate timeline Ruby said to everyone to make them run scared and who Ruby’s father is are just a few of these questions which all remain unanswered. Before piling on more overarching mysteries, the show needs to resolve at least some of them.
7 Doctor Who Needs A Companion Balance With Millie Gibson & Varada Sethu
At the end of season 14, Ruby said goodbye to the Doctor, but both due to the promotions for season 15 and the cast and crew, it’s confirmed that Ruby returns in season 15. It is also confirmed that Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor will be joined by a brand-new companion, played by Varada Sethu. This creates a complex situation where the Doctor and the show will need to balance two companions.
Similar to the previous point on mysteries and answers, neither companion can have too much of the focus. Meanwhile, the show also can’t give too little screentime to an incoming companion. Striking this balance will be pivotal for the success of the show. Despite the Doctor’s history with multiple companions, the modern era has largely seen them travel with one primary companion.
6 Doctor Who Season 15 Shouldn’t Play To Audience Expectations
While Doctor Who season 14 did generate a huge amount of discourse about the series online, it also did a great job of subverting expectations. While some moments and characters were speculated to appear, the show moved in new directions that effectively surprised and delighted many fans of the show. Carrying forward this strength would be a positive.
However, it should do so in moderation, and in ways that make sense. a show as high caliber as Doctor Who, with access to all of time and space, has every opportunity to subvert audience expectations, and do so in a clever way. For much of the history of the show, this has been managed to great success, so it should avoid playing into audience expectations whenever possible.
5 Doctor Who Season 15 Also Shouldn’t Mislead The Audience
On the other side of that same coin, the show should strive to avoid misleading the audience in totally outlandish ways. For example, season 14 played heavily into how special Ruby Sunday was. From the first episode, “The Church on Ruby Road,” to the penultimate episode, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday,” Ruby’s significance in the universe was played up to a huge extent. However, the finale revealed that Ruby was just a regular girl, with a regular mum, and nothing too strange about her.
Except, the entire season established she was strange and cosmically mysterious. Ruby made it snow inside spaceships and on war-torn alien planets. She made Christmas music play out which defeated the God of Music, Maestro, and the episode titles themselves pushed her importance. While the reveal that anyone could be special and important is a beautiful message, the approach was a major misfire that made the season confusing and somewhat disappointing.
4 Doctor Who Season 15 Should Bring Back More Classic Villains
One thing that really was a huge plus for season 14 was just how much it focused on classic villains and stories. For a show with a history that extends over 60 years, there’s a wealth of material to go at, so it’s great to see old stories return. Characters like Sutekh and old companions add to the growing story and universe.
It would also be nice to see some of the fan favorite classic characters make a return in Doctor Who season 15, such as the Daleks and Cybermen. These classic characters help to connect the stories across generations, and make it feel like one large and ever-expanding story, rather than a reboot or revival. Giving more attention to the classic parts of the show is a major strength and one that should happen even more going forward.
3 Doctor Who Season 15 Needs To Be Consistent, Avoiding Even More Big Changes
Also to aid in making the show feel consistent and familiar for older fans, and contemporary and exciting for new Whovians, it needs to stick to a style and method of storytelling. The show is almost unrecognizable today from the earliest episodes, but thanks to some key details that have persisted from the first episode to now, it always manages to feel like the same show. However, when too many big changes happen all at once, like a new companion, a new Doctor, a new style of filming, and exclusively new villains, it can start to feel very different.
Doctor Who season 14 set the pace and tone for the show’s next era, and managed to connect with some of the oldest elements of the series. Hinting at a return for Susan, having the Doctor discuss his history and family, and bringing back old rivals. Now, season 15 simply needs to carry that momentum forward and avoid any major alterations that could break up the flow.
2 Doctor Who Season 15 Shouldn’t Be So Quick To Dismiss The Villains
While Doctor Who season 14 did many things right, there were some things that could have really been improved. For instance, how easily some of the biggest threats and rivals to the entire universe were ultimately dismissed. In larger part, this is a reference to how Sutekh was defeated, but there were other moments that felt like the villains were too easily overpowered, despite a build up in the episode, such as Maestro.
Doctor Who season 15 should be more careful when building up, and finally tearing down the villains that it professes to be so incredibly powerful. The Doctor is a genius, yes, and companions like Ruby are brave and powerful, but when the supposed God of Death is put on a leash and dragged through the time vortex, for the second time, it feels underwhelming. Season 15 should be more careful with how it disposes of the villains.
1 Doctor Who Season 15 Could Really Use More Steven Moffat
RTD is a fantastically talented writer and showrunner who has lent his talents to extraordinary shows such as Doctor Who, as well as creating incredible original series like It’s A Sin, and Queer as Folk. What he brings to the table for Doctor Who is undeniable. However, he is also an incredible collaborator who brings out the best of other peoples talents.
Steven Moffat was the showrunner after RTD, and a frequent writer throughout RTD’s tenure. In Doctor Who season 14, Moffat wrote arguably the best episode of the season with “Boom.” Moffat is a spectacular talent who has a knack for compelling storytelling, and creating some of the Doctor’s best dialogue. Bringing him back to write episodes for Doctor Who season 15 would certainly result in more great stories.
