[TV] Doctor Who (spoiler alert)

[nickbrighton]

Anyone watch the episode on sunday? I think for me the best bit was the clip of the next episode showing Ace returning!

I watched it and as I have been for almost all of the past several years was very disappointed in it. It was billed as a special- but was the same length as most of the usual episodes, and the content was far from special.

I agree the "next time .." trailer was by far the best thing about it

Rumour has it that when Russel T Davis takes over he is basically starting again, a complete new take and ALL the previous 60 years will be a completely disregarded

Given that the current showrunner and head writer has completely changed the entire origin and premise of the show, I can see why he would scrap it all. He has been written into a corner with no real way of getting the series back to its roots and back on track.

The series has been in an accelerating decline since half way through Matt Smiths time, so a complete rebooyt as was done with Battlestar Galactica will be very welcome

 

[Biscuit]

Anyone watch the episode on sunday? I think for me the best bit was the clip of the next episode showing Ace returning!

Despite the promotion it got the lowest viewing figures of any Doctor Who - ever. It was actually beaten by a repeat of the Antiques Roadshow on BBC2.

Totally agree the 'next time' trailer was the best bit. Exciting to have Ace and Tegan back.

Can't wait for RTD to take over and hopefully breathe some life back into the show.

 

[Super Steve Earle]

Watched it tonight and was immediately laughing at useless Jodie running around waving her sonic screwdriver in the air again. The Doctor used to have a mystique and was a font of all that happened around him (yes him). He didn't need a sonic screwdriver to tell him all the answers, he just knew. The original Sea Devils had bit of menace to them, but these - not really. Flying like daleks, inconceivable. Waving electronic swords around? Unlikely. Ghost ships that fly up and down in to the sea? Twaddle. Locked in a statue by a small glowing stone? I think not. Get rid of Chibnall. Get rid of the yakky Whittaker whose teeth enter the scene 5 minutes before she does. Get rid of the all knowing solution to everything screwdriver and revert to original version. This was a poor episode and don't get me started on the lesbian stuff - added nothing but a tick in a box. I hold out little hope for the Cybermen episode either. They lack the cold, implacable menace of the originals. Strange how with all the tech available, they were less not more last time around.

 

[Brovion]

I knew it was on on Sunday, but didn't bother watching it (and there are earlier posts from me on this thread saying I wasn't going to watch any more of the Chibnal era). However, even though I hadn't asked it to, my Sky box had very kindly recorded it for me. My wife was working last night so I thought 'what the hell, it probably isn't as bad as I remember it' and started to watch.

Oh dearie me it was dreadful. I take back what I said about Whittaker - she IS the worst Dr Who of all time. Yes a lot of it is down to the appalling writing and ludicrous hole-ridden plots, but she simply hasn't got the presence - it's like watching the Doctor being portrayed by a teenage boy. I still have no problems with the Doctor being female/non-binary, but someone like Ruth Wilson would have been a better choice..

Anyway I stuck it out for about half an hour and then gave up. I can guess at how it ended though: somehow she got herself into a position where she could wave her sonic screwdriver around, re-wire some alien circuits, pull some levers, push some buttons, (all with suitable sparking effects) and voila! The world was saved. And whilst she was doing it she was probably still able to moralise about how bad humans are and how we're destroying the planet.

It was interesting that nick mentioned that RTD may scrap the canon and start again. I cautiously welcome that, as the current Who universe has become ridiculous. However I'd like the starting point to be the same as before, i.e. the Doctor (who is basically human not a powerful, all-knowing demi-god) hiding out on earth in the 1960s having stolen a Tardis. I don't want to know his backstory and how he got there, but taking it from 'An Unearthly Child' and starting again? Fine.

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

Well i enjoyed the episode anyway and i think Whittaker is alright.

That said, looking forward to a reboot.

Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk

 

[BBassic]

The entire Chibnall run has been pretty disappointing, which is a real shame because I think with better writing / planning the Whittaker Doctor could have been something special.

My other half said something interesting about it whilst we were watching Sunday's episode - that as old as the Doctor is, as mysterious and powerful as they are the Doctor as written by Chibnall and performed by Whittaker is almost childlike. There's none of the danger that Ecclestone had about him, none of the gravitas of Capaldi. It's almost like none of the previous Doctor's personalities come through at all, bar the odd catchphrase thrown in.

I also don't think Chibnall did himself any favours by casting Whittaker in the first place. That's not a slight against her as an actor or the idea of a female Doctor generally; it makes complete sense that an almost immortal shape-shifting alien could feasibly switch gender at some-point but we still live in a world where people were going to froth at the mouth about it regardless. With one move you've instantly switched off a portion of the audience who now aren't going to like it on principle.

It's done now though. Now that it's canon a Doctor can be either gender it can be done again and we'll be spared the "bUt ThE dOcToR iS a BoY!!!" whining next time around.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

I'm looking forward immensely to the change of doctor after the next episode.

Whitaker has been poor, or rather the character penned has been awful.

That said, the last 8 episodes have been generally much better than her first 2 series.

Anyway, just 1 more episode and then Davies takes over to hopefully sort out all the problems.

 

[jakarta]

I say bring back K-9 as the next Doctor to prove how inclusive the Series can be to Robotic Dogs...

 

[FamilyGuy]

Watched it tonight and was immediately laughing at useless Jodie running around waving her sonic screwdriver in the air again. The Doctor used to have a mystique and was a font of all that happened around him (yes him). He didn't need a sonic screwdriver to tell him all the answers, he just knew. The original Sea Devils had bit of menace to them, but these - not really. Flying like daleks, inconceivable. Waving electronic swords around? Unlikely. Ghost ships that fly up and down in to the sea? Twaddle. Locked in a statue by a small glowing stone? I think not. Get rid of Chibnall. Get rid of the yakky Whittaker whose teeth enter the scene 5 minutes before she does. Get rid of the all knowing solution to everything screwdriver and revert to original version. This was a poor episode and don't get me started on the lesbian stuff - added nothing but a tick in a box. I hold out little hope for the Cybermen episode either. They lack the cold, implacable menace of the originals. Strange how with all the tech available, they were less not more last time around.

What he said!

 

[darkwolf666]

Think they need to find a new Doctor in the mould of Christopher Eccleston’s incarnation.

They need that slightly angry, bitter, disgruntled style character brought back - it’s all got too soft.

 

[Worthing exile]

Watched it tonight and was immediately laughing at useless Jodie running around waving her sonic screwdriver in the air again. The Doctor used to have a mystique and was a font of all that happened around him (yes him). He didn't need a sonic screwdriver to tell him all the answers, he just knew. The original Sea Devils had bit of menace to them, but these - not really. Flying like daleks, inconceivable. Waving electronic swords around? Unlikely. Ghost ships that fly up and down in to the sea? Twaddle. Locked in a statue by a small glowing stone? I think not. Get rid of Chibnall. Get rid of the yakky Whittaker whose teeth enter the scene 5 minutes before she does. Get rid of the all knowing solution to everything screwdriver and revert to original version. This was a poor episode and don't get me started on the lesbian stuff - added nothing but a tick in a box. I hold out little hope for the Cybermen episode either. They lack the cold, implacable menace of the originals. Strange how with all the tech available, they were less not more last time around.

Totally agree with all of this. Let us also get rid of the comedians who think they can act as well. It's like the Producer saying 'look we know it is poor so let's throw in Bradley Walsh and John Bishop to get some more viewers'.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2022/doctor-who-david-tennant-and-catherine-tate-return

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Some serious grizzling on this thread.

I'm a lifelong fan (since the first episode). If you think the current incarnation is duff, let me remind you how hammy the legend that is Tom Baker was. His cameo in Little Britain was a homage to his Dr Who character. Incidentally, at a book signing, once, he offered Mrs T a Jelly Baby

And if you want shitness that has, nevertheless, weirdly accumulated charm through the rose tinted restrospectroscope, I give you these:



Honestly, the winging on this thread reminds me of 'Gross is gash'; 'what does Maupay actually do?', and 'Bissouma is off'. Kenny Beamish. FFS.

It's fine, fine entertainment. All of it. Even Maupay.

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

David ****ing Tennant here we go

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[Brovion]

Some serious grizzling on this thread.

I'm a lifelong fan (since the first episode). If you think the current incarnation is duff, let me remind you how hammy the legend that is Tom Baker was. His cameo in Little Britain was a homage to his Dr Who character. Incidentally, at a book signing, once, he offered Mrs T a Jelly Baby

And if you want shitness that has, nevertheless, weirdly accumulated charm through the rose tinted restrospectroscope, I give you these:

View attachment 147867

Honestly, the winging on this thread reminds me of 'Gross is gash'; 'what does Maupay actually do?', and 'Bissouma is off'. Kenny Beamish. FFS.

It's fine, fine entertainment. All of it. Even Maupay.

Disagree. (And I too have been a fan since the first episode). Whilst the 'eggbox and squeezy bottles' sets of the 'classic' era were indeed laughable (and we thought so at the time), the stories and the character were better. Rather like football (where we demand that each season is better than the last), the showrunners of Dr Who seem to feel that it always had to get better and bigger with each season. Consequently the Doctor has gone from a fugitive who didn't know everything, didn't understand everything, and was just an almost-human traveller lost on the seas of time, to this all-knowing, powerful, almost indestructible demi-god. The plots too have gone from trying to get demons out of a village in Surrey, to saving and rebooting the entire universe. I think the premise of the show was better in the Old Days and I'd like to see it scaled back. And some decent stories, obviously.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

Some serious grizzling on this thread.

I'm a lifelong fan (since the first episode). If you think the current incarnation is duff, let me remind you how hammy the legend that is Tom Baker was. His cameo in Little Britain was a homage to his Dr Who character. Incidentally, at a book signing, once, he offered Mrs T a Jelly Baby

And if you want shitness that has, nevertheless, weirdly accumulated charm through the rose tinted restrospectroscope, I give you these:

View attachment 147867

Honestly, the winging on this thread reminds me of 'Gross is gash'; 'what does Maupay actually do?', and 'Bissouma is off'. Kenny Beamish. FFS.

It's fine, fine entertainment. All of it. Even Maupay.

Reading the interviews with the producers and what not, it all appears to be about "engaging with a new audience" and all that. That's fine but unlike Graham Potter who has largely taken the "Lump it to the big man" crowd with him they've succeeded in upsetting the long term fans and winning few if any new ones. I like TV I can watch with my lads but they've long since given up with Dr Who and think is rubbish. To continue the football analogy, the current producer is Martin Hinshelwood.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Reading the interviews with the producers and what not, it all appears to be about "engaging with a new audience" and all that. That's fine but unlike Graham Potter who has largely taken the "Lump it to the big man" crowd with him they've succeeded in upsetting the long term fans and winning few if any new ones. I like TV I can watch with my lads but they've long since given up with Dr Who and think is rubbish. To continue the football analogy, the current producer is Martin Hinshelwood.

Is this the view for just the Whittaker doctor (which I can understand) or more?

I posted some time ago that each of the reboot series comes across quite differently on second watch.

I can't quite get my head around all the disdain. It reminds me of 'I voted labour in 87 but since then they have let me down, and whabout Corbyn, I'll never vote for them again!'

Oh well. Never mind

 

[Iggle Piggle]

Is this the view for just the Whittaker doctor (which I can understand) or more?

I posted some time ago that each of the reboot series comes across quite differently on second watch.

I can't quite get my head around all the disdain. It reminds me of 'I voted labour in 87 but since then they have let me down, and whabout Corbyn, I'll never vote for them again!'

Oh well. Never mind

I think we can all agree that we hope it gets better when RTD comes back. I'm not avidly watching the latest lot of episodes including the ones at Xmas - In part due to my wife offering commentary on how bad she finds JW whenever she walks in the room - but they've been average at best.

As an aside, You have a point that some episdoes can be better / worse on a 2nd viewing. I never realised how annoying Martha Jones was (She was obviously bonused on how many times she shouted DOCTOR) and Tennant's portrayal of the Doctor like he'd always had about 3 pints was grating after a while but it all seemed to work at the time. Equally caught some Capaldi stuff that is actually very good. Unfortunately, I think this run will be "bad at the time and bad in hindsight"

We will see. Roll on the new bloke. Tennant and Tate less so.

 

[Brovion]

Is this the view for just the Whittaker doctor (which I can understand) or more?

I posted some time ago that each of the reboot series comes across quite differently on second watch.

I can't quite get my head around all the disdain. It reminds me of 'I voted labour in 87 but since then they have let me down, and whabout Corbyn, I'll never vote for them again!'

Oh well. Never mind

Why can't you? Some people like the fact that's it's become overblown and pompous and others don't. I'm in one camp and you're in the other

 

[JBizzle]

Although I've not been a big fan of Whittaker's Doctor (I struggle to remember a single frame of her 1st two series), I genuinely enjoyed the Flux series. One of the best for an engaging storyline and had the Doctor on the back foot for most of it rather than using the screwdriver as a 100% get out every time. I do find that since Tennant the over-aggrandising of the the Doctor as some kind of mythical being has taken away from some of the more intimate, smaller tales that were less reliant on big effects and over-arching mysteries and more on the human stories within. The one with the gas mask kids, the first weeping angel episodes, for example, were really small in scale but big in story. Where Doctor Who tends to succeed (for me at least) if when it's not trying to compete with big budget HBO-style TV series and just focuses on telling a good yarn.

My hope is that when RTD returns, they do away with some of that and focus on those smaller week by week stories, not just Doctor monologuing about being a genius and then zapping something with the sonic.

That said, I have enjoyed all the modern Who series in parts and each Doctor has brought something new and interesting to each iteration. I just wish that at times the writers game the actors a little more with which to work.