Jodie Whittaker was an inspired choice to take over the title role in TARDIS have kept her version of the Time Lord disappointingly earthbound. The show - a sci-fi institution that's been around in some form for seven decades and counting - is undergoing something of a slump in popularity. This is a true shame because Whittaker is magnificent in the role, melding the Doctor's weirdo energy with a kindhearted team player that has resulted in the warmest, most inviting Doctor of the modern era.
Whittaker aside, the current iteration of the series is unquestionably riddled with problems. Doctor Who has struggled to find an identity for itself ever since Steven Moffat left as head writer in 2017. Moffat's era was not without its critics - the transitional seasons between Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi were a rough ride - but the series always knew what it was trying to do, telling the fantastical tales about a mad man with a magic box. The fairytale whimsy turned some viewers off, but it was without question a winning formula.
Doctor Who has endured various creative lulls over its decades-long existence, though this is arguably the first serious lapse in quality since it was revived back in 2005. To lay all that at the feet of Whittaker is completely unfair since she's pretty clearly the best thing about the show these days. The fault lies with two different problems; one easily solvable, the other not so much.
Too Many Companions
Jodie Whittaker's Doctor was immediately saddled with three full-time companions; Graham O'Brien (Bradley Walsh), Yaz Khan (Mandip Gill), and Ryan Sinclair (Tosin Cole). There's nothing particularly wrong with any of these characters, but none of them stand out as particularly memorable either. They don't offer anything new so far as companions go, often feeling like a greatest hits of better characters. Even if they were on the same level as Donna Noble or Rose Tyler, having three companions essentially means there's little to no time for any of them to grow into fully-formed characters.
Modern Doctor Who is generally such a manically paced endeavor that character development happens on the fly, and for that to work there needs to be a solid foundation for the companions, which the current three simply never had. Graham and Ryan are leaving the show before season 13, though a new companion, Dan (John Bishop), will take their place. Two companions have rarely proven a good idea either, but it's unquestionably better than three.
Bad Writing
When Moffat departed Doctor Who in 2017, he was replaced by Chris Chibnall as executive producer and head writer. Chibnall first rose to prominence in the U.K. due to his wildly successful thriller series Torchwood before becoming the head writer - but that ion hasn't equaled strong storytelling.
Chibnall's first season felt listless; it avoided most of the classic villains and tropes to freshen up the series, but the resulting season felt like it lacked direction or purpose. Chibnall also loaded the TARDIS with new characters without bothering to give audiences a reason to root for them beyond the fact they're the Doctor's friends. Dull as his first season could be, the second series showed signs of life before completely falling off the rails. "The Timeless Child" plot is a loser and threatened to upend way too much of Doctor Who's history in service of a lousy "chosen one" arc for the Doctor that betrays what the character is supposed to be about.
How To Fix Doctor Who
Rumors have been swirling that Whittaker may be departing Doctor Who after her third season. That would be a shame since she deserves a long, successful run that hasn't really been set up for her yet. In many ways it echoes the fate of Peter Davison's Doctor; cast after the monstrously popular Tom Baker departed after a seven-year run, Davison's fresh-faced, earnest Doctor was hamstrung by wildly inconsistent writing and a flood of underwhelming companions.
It's too late to salvage Davison's era, but there's still hope for Whittaker's. The easiest - though most improbable - way of fixing the show would be to bring on a new head writer. Chibnall has simply never been a great Doctor Who writer and he's shown little sign of improvement as a sci-fi storyteller over his first two seasons. The reality is Chibnall is likely not going anywhere since he's still an important, in-demand creator the BBC is keen to keep happy. Barring some sort of viewership collapse, Chibnall is likely to remain for the long haul.
That means the show is likely to improve only in incremental pieces for the foreseeable future, but there are still ways to make it a tangibly better experience. For one thing, the series should refocus its attention on the Doctor herself, and less so on the companions. There have been times when the show has chosen to spotlight the companion over the title character, but interesting, dynamic companions are needed for that to work - and there aren't currently any that fit that bill.
The show also needs to embrace its sense of humor and manic pacing again. Too often Chibnall's Who feels glacially paced, and it can take itself a little too seriously. The golden age of Doctor Who seems a long way away these days, but that is in no way the fault of Jodie Whittaker. She's singlehandedly making the show watchable at this point and deserves some help in making the show great again before she exits the TARDIS for the next performer. Whether or not that can happen under Chris Chibnall remains to be seen, but the show needs to try something drastic before the next regime inevitably takes over.