Toecutter
Member
It's totally down to Chris Chibnall, the 'genius' that gave us Torchwood's "Cyberwoman" - why they gave the keys to the franchise to him, I don't know. Then again, while "Orphan 55" was the weakest episode I've seen for a while, it's not like Doctor Who isn't peppered with weak episodes every season, even in the golden Tennant era (looking at you, "Fear Her" & "Love & Monsters").
For what it's worth though, I think that Jodie Whittaker is good at the part - you could pretty much replace her for Matt Smith in any of his episodes and get much the same effect. It's the writing that's at fault. While Steven Moffat kind of ran out of steam at times towards the end of his run, he did write some of the strongest episodes going back to the first series of the 2005 revival. Now that he's gone, there seems to be a bit of a void.
If you didn't stick with Capaldi after his rough first series though, I'd recommend at least watching season 9's "Heaven Sent" - it's possibly my favourite ever episode of Doctor Who and shows what Capaldi can do outside of the awkward writing of his early episodes.
For what it's worth though, I think that Jodie Whittaker is good at the part - you could pretty much replace her for Matt Smith in any of his episodes and get much the same effect. It's the writing that's at fault. While Steven Moffat kind of ran out of steam at times towards the end of his run, he did write some of the strongest episodes going back to the first series of the 2005 revival. Now that he's gone, there seems to be a bit of a void.
If you didn't stick with Capaldi after his rough first series though, I'd recommend at least watching season 9's "Heaven Sent" - it's possibly my favourite ever episode of Doctor Who and shows what Capaldi can do outside of the awkward writing of his early episodes.