Doctor Who season 14 review: The sci-fi staple gets a bigger budget and zippier pace

It feels as if we’ve waited forever for the new season of Doctor Who to drop. And sure, we knew the TARDIS was in the capable hands of the impossibly charismatic Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa, you were born to wield that sonic screwdriver!), but longtime fans couldn’t help but feel a little trepidation over the show’s move to Disney+. Would this make for lighter and fluffier fare than we’re used to? More singing? More impossibly sweet happy endings?

Well, we’ve only been offered a peek at the first two episodes, but it’s safe to say that the show, which kicks off its fourteenth season on May 10, does feel quite different than what’s come before. The budget is bigger, for starters, which means the Doctor doesn’t spend as much time wandering around London and Cardiff as he once did. The pace is zippier, too: Not to get all Moira Rose about it, but each episode rumbles along at a dangerously rapid velocity, with barely a moment for the Doctor (or viewers) to take a breath. And, as already hinted by showrunner Russell T Davies, the show takes a sly step towards the realm of fantasy, which is likely set to displease some hardcore sci-fi fans primarily because logic and scientific explanations (traditionally the bread and butter of the genre) aren’t always to be found in abundance.

Still, the Doctor and Ruby Sunday do what the Doc and his companions have always done best: travel across time and space, embarking on zany adventures all the way from Regency England to the cold and clinical Baby Farms (exactly what they sound like) of the future. Which means, yes, you can expect the dynamic duo to don costume after costume as they come face-to-face with the likes of the bogeyman and the Beatles, not to mention the Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon), a musical villain who just so happens to be part of a pantheon of playful and terrifyingly powerful gods.

Gatwa, as mentioned already, is a brilliant Doctor, all wide-eyed enthusiasm and buttery-smooth charm. Unlike the Doctors who came before him, Fifteen is also in possession of some much-needed self-awareness: This is a time-traveling alien who’s in tune with his emotions, recognizes when he’s afraid or when something’s off, and is far less prone to furious flare-ups as a result. It makes for a kinder hero, particularly as he even seems to better understand humans and their pesky need for connection. Indeed, he happily hands Ruby a fully-charged mobile phone without even needing to be asked, solely so she can calm her nerves and check in with her mum.

Millie Gibson, meanwhile, gives her all as the Doctor’s spirited companion and she makes for a believable character, asking the sort of questions (like, say, what might happen if she trod on a butterfly in the time of the dinosaurs) and making the sort of oh-so-human demands (why go witness the birth of Jesus Christ when you can go hang out at Abbey Road during the era of the Beatles?) that we, ourselves, might make of the Doctor if we were lucky enough to be granted access to the TARDIS.

That said, there’s no denying Ruby has a whiff of the “Impossible Girl” about her, by which we mean she’s less of a Rose Tyler or Donna Noble (ordinary women doing extraordinary things) and more of a Clara Oswin, Amy Pond, or even a Rey Palpatine, if you fancy getting all Star Wars about it. The Christmas Special—yes, the one with the singing goblins—made it clear that there’s more to our girl than meets the eye, and the new batch of episodes really leans into that. Hard. Whether viewers find this extra layer to be a delicious added whiff of mystery or a distraction, however, remains to be seen.

All in all, there’s lots of fun to be had in this new Whoniverse installment, which is packed to the brim with comedy, camp, and chemistry. It feels uneven in places, true—and, with “Space Babies” coming straight after “The Church On Ruby Road,” a tad overloaded with chubby-cheeked infants—but it sure does make for dopamine hits aplenty. And while some of the visuals are more than a bit clunky (we’re thinking, in particular, of the musical notes in “The Devil’s Chord”), the story makes up for these missteps.

Will everyone enjoy it? We suspect the show will find scores of new fans thanks to its exhilarating adventure-of-the-week format, especially as it’s been set up to ensure they don’t have to have watched all of the 875 episodes that have come before. (The season premiere even offers up a quick Doctor Who 101, as Ruby asks all of the questions that newbies will need answers to.)

By that same regard, though, it’s likely some longtime fans might find it hard to stomach the changes to their favorite show, particularly its aforementioned shift from pure sci-fi to fantasy. These individuals, however, have already been given the perfect goodbye: They can, much like David Tennant’s weary Fourteenth Doctor, gracefully bow out and reflect on the “good old days” rather than, y’know, hate-watch and moan about the show on Reddit.

Come for the fun and frolics, then, and stay for the mystery–because we predict this season is building up to something big. And we’re pumped to find out what.

Doctor Who season 14 premieres May 10 on Disney+