Doctor Who: Season 25 Recap

This season was a vast improvement on Seasons 22 through 24. Overall we get a little bit more focus, and better characterization. McCoy is darkening up the performance a little more by this point, and Ace is a far more interesting and entertaining companion than Mel, who was more of the boring screaming companions that I thought they were done with after Sarah Jane.

That all said the series is still struggling with confusing plot points and some weak writing. But Script Editor Andrew Cartmel and his team of writers began working towards something, making the show a little more watchable and mysterious. JNT had by this point tried to leave and been refused, I think he was doing his job to the bare minimum, and let Cartmel run with his ideas.

So here we have seeded the first elements of the so-called "Cartmel Master Plan" in which Cartmel and the other writer attempted to give the show something new to run with, and add more mystery to the Doctor. This was a good plan, because really we had just learned to much about the Doctor in the last 25 years, so what if we start to peel away a bit about his life and realize that there's more than meets the eye. When you think about it, we didn't meet the character until he was about 400 odd years old...so there is a whole 400 years of mystery to peel away.

NEXT TIME: The Beginning of the End