Okay, I think I offically hate this finale after letting it settle and think on it. Suetekh was wasted. He kills everyone except for Doc, Ruby, and Mel for BS reasons. Then does absoulte hug all. Like they couldnt afford to actually do anything with that CGI model. The whole plot feels "becuase I said so" way of writing. It misses pretty much all the great character work that really made me like RTD's past few seasons. Nothing feels earned, everything is undone; there's no lasting effects of this happening. Nothing gets answered, And I don't mean "oh so there's lingering questions" I mean, stuff that fells like it should have been answered, should have been important... just isn't. Its not addressed, its not brought up, at best things are just handwaved. People want to complain about changes to lore and how stuff just changes... but at least those plots still made sense. It still felt like effort and thought went into trying to make them work. Maybe not work well. But here... everything feels like stuff just happens, and either they changed their minds or had to rewrite, or something... and nothing fits nothing works with the resolution. None of the huild up leads to anything. Its all.... nothing. All hollow and empty. The more you think about it, or the more I think about it, the less sense ANY of it makes. it's just a massive string of "And then"s. This season as a whole has lacked any down time or small character moments. We never really get to know Ruby or this Doctor all that well, or see them have much connection or chemistry because so often they're doing their own things separate from one another. This makes what should feel like the typical tearful farewell just... again very hollow and empty. And maybe this should be Ruby's end. Her story is over, its tied up with a bow; and last time we got that keeping the companions around felt largely superfluous.
I wasn't a big fan of Chibnal's run, but even its better then this... if only slightly. I had high hopes for RTD's return, he helped revitalize the show for a new era, and it felt like he could do that again... but this... I'm not sure this is it... So much of it feels either by the numbers, completely safe, or like he's copying the homework of recent movies and not in a good way. There's only been 3 episodes that i really liked this season, 4 if we include Church as part of the season. It just feels like they got blinded by having the Disney budget becuase they no longer had to be clever to get around their limitations.
