FIRST CONTACT
The new Doctor dominates the discussion as we plunge our hands into the SFX mailbag.
Medium Atomic Weight, email A show back to its near-best, with the sparkiest dialogue between Doctor and companion since the Seventh Doctor/Ace, Mondasian Cybermen more terrifying than Cybermen have ever been before, and a simple yet intriguing season arc culminating in a sublime finale.
Rob Graham, email Not a single bad or dodgy episode in the whole run – and that’s something I haven’t said for years.
Thomas Huartson, Facebook The best season Steven Moffat has crafted, and he did it by scrapping his usual complicated narrative approach and keeping things simple. Nardole provided brilliant support, and Pearl Mackie was phenomenal as Bill.
Emmet O’Brien, Facebook The Doctor’s speech about being kind was Capaldi at his best, and one of Moffat’s best summations of the character as a whole. Twelve started brittle and cold, but in the end turned out to be one of the warmest and most vulnerable of them all. He will be missed.
Ian Salsbury, Facebook There is a tendency to put the companions into such ridiculous situations that it requires a ridiculous resolution, and that happened again here. SFX I thought season ten was the best since season five, and it’s clear many of you agree. Altogether less consensus, however, on the subject of the casting of Jodie Whittaker…
Neil Hickman, email Will gender be a coin toss at every regeneration from now? Will he be skipping through time changing sex? It all seems a bit too weird, even for Who. Apparently being a huge fan of tons of female characters doesn’t count if you don’t like this idea – you’re just a sexist, end of.
Darren Wallace, Facebook The BBC should be ashamed of themselves. They are changing a beloved character’s sex, not for the story or the show, but to seem modern. It’s despicable the BBC see gender as political point-scoring.
NA Healy, email If the BBC wants to create a fictional role model for little girls why don’t they make a brand new SF show from scratch, with a strong female lead? It comes across as an exercise in meeting the BBC policies on diversity, or a shock tactic to boost ratings.