Why The Power of the Doctor Failed Jodie Whittaker
Jodie Whittaker’s time as the Thirteenth Doctor carried enormous significance. As the first woman to play the central role in Doctor Who, she entered the programme under intense scrutiny, including hostile criticism from online reactionaries. Her final episode therefore needed to do more than conclude a story: it needed to honour her Doctor.
Instead, The Power of the Doctor became an uneven farewell. The special contains exciting threats, emotional performances and an impressive collection of returning characters, but its focus repeatedly moves away from Whittaker and her relationship with Yasmin Khan. That choice makes the episode feel less like a confident ending and more like a retreat into familiar territory.
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A huge story with too much competing for attention
The special brings the Doctor into conflict with the Daleks, the Cybermen and the Master, each pursuing the destruction of humanity. The Master adopts the identity of Grigori Rasputin and operates in Russia in 1916, while plotting with the Daleks and the CyberMasters. These new Cybermen are capable of repeatedly regenerating, adding another escalation to an already crowded threat.
The villains’ plan involves triggering volcanic eruptions around the world. The Master also intends to use a body-swapping regeneration to take over the Doctor’s body. The Doctor ultimately defeats the Master, the Daleks and the Cybermen, but victory comes at a devastating cost.
A laser strike from the defeated Master mortally wounds the Doctor. She is forced to leave Yaz behind and regenerate into David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor. Tennant’s return also brings back Russell T. Davies, who wrote the episode’s final moments and would later return as showrunner.
Its strongest elements expose its weakest ones
Viewed by itself, The Power of the Doctor is among the better episodes of Chris Chibnall’s era. The Doctor faces apparently impossible odds, and Whittaker gives the character determination, warmth and vulnerability. The problem is that the finale also has to serve as the conclusion to an era often criticised for prioritising speeches, nostalgia and exposition over story momentum.
Some of that unevenness can be explained by changing episode lengths and the use of specials instead of conventional full seasons. Even so, the special leans heavily on returning enemies, familiar story ideas and celebratory callbacks. Those elements leave less space for the central emotional relationships that make Doctor Who work.
Chibnall clearly understood the value of the Doctor’s bond with companions. The special reunites classic companions Tegan Jovanka, played by Janet Fielding, and Ace, played by Sophie Aldred. It also brings back the Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison; the Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker; the Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy; and the Eighth Doctor, Paul McGann.
These reunions can be genuinely moving, but they create an unfortunate contrast. Thirteen and Yaz had travelled together since the beginning of the Doctor’s time in the TARDIS, yet their connection receives less attention than the parade of returning faces.
Thirteen and Yaz needed a proper conclusion
Yaz’s growing confidence is one of the more rewarding developments in Whittaker’s era. However, the series never gives her relationship with the Doctor a satisfying resolution before the story ends. The possibility of romance is raised, but it is not meaningfully explored.
That lack of substance is particularly frustrating because Thirteen and Yaz represent the Doctor’s first potential same-sex relationship after more than 50 years of the programme. Compared with the developed heterosexual relationships involving Rose Tyler, Clara Oswald and River Song, the treatment of Thirteen and Yaz feels hesitant and incomplete.
Whittaker delivers a powerful performance when Thirteen understands that she will not spend more time with Yaz. The moment should be the emotional centre of the regeneration story. Instead, the rapid arrival of Tennant’s Doctor shifts attention away from Whittaker’s farewell.
David Tennant’s return changed the meaning of the finale
Tennant’s return was an effective audience draw. His short period as the Fourteenth Doctor helped make Doctor Who more popular than it had been in years. Yet, within this particular special, the casting choice can feel like a safety net arriving just as Whittaker’s era should have taken its final creative risk.
Rather than giving the Thirteenth Doctor a conclusion centred on her own identity, the episode places its biggest surprise in the future. That decision weakens the sense of closure for Whittaker and makes her departure feel secondary in her own final story.
The wider criticism is not that classic characters or familiar villains have no place in Doctor Who. It is that nostalgia works best when it supports the current Doctor’s journey. Here, the returning cast and the next Doctor’s introduction often compete with the story that should have belonged to Thirteen and Yaz.
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A missed opportunity rather than a complete failure
The Power of the Doctor is not without merit. Its scale is ambitious, its threats are recognisable and its returning Doctors and companions create several heartfelt moments. Whittaker also proves that the Thirteenth Doctor had plenty more emotional territory to explore.
That is precisely why the ending is so disappointing. The special concludes an era with more misfires than successes, but it also shows how effective Whittaker could be when the story pauses to focus on her. The finale’s central mistake is allowing its celebration of the past and its promise of the future to overwhelm the present.
Tennant’s return ultimately succeeded as a short-term revival strategy, but the episode also marked the end of a version of Doctor Who that was willing to push into uncertain territory. That loss would continue to affect Davies during his next two seasons as showrunner, leaving the programme on unstable ground while it awaited a fresh creative direction.
Whittaker deserved a farewell built around the Thirteenth Doctor’s choices, friendships and legacy. Instead, her final chapter became a crowded handover between eras. The result is an episode with enjoyable ingredients, but not the decisive, character-led ending her Doctor needed.
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