https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3830636.html

I am not one of those who delights to dump on the Whittaker/Chibnall era of Doctor Who. I think it's had its highs and lows, and while its highs have not perhaps been as high as other eras of the show, its lows have not been epochal either (though we came close with Kerblam!). I was astonished when a Twitter poll of all 296 Who episodes up to mid-2019 put The Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos at the very bottom, behind even The Twin Dilemma; I can only guess that a lot of those voting had not seen The Twin Dilemma, and to be honest, I can't really make a strong argument as to why they should.

However. Chibnall has clearly not been as assiduous in pushing spinoff material in the way that Stephen Moffat was, let alone Russell T. Davies, and the first two Thirteenth Doctor annuals, for 2019 and 2020, are the least impressive by far in a series of publications going back to 1965. The 2021 Annual was a step up; I'm afraid that this year's is half a step back down again. Marketed to kids who have been watching this year's six episodes, it goes into detail about last year's ten, just like the last annual did, with the addition of this year's New Year special and a little bit of retrospective acknowledgement of the show's history. There is no original fiction; the comic strip is a print adaptation of part of the (excellent) 2020 Daleks! animated webcast. There are some pointless games and quizzes. When you compare it to the 2006 annual, the first produced by Russell T. Davies, there really is no competition. ( )