Official Doctor Who Thread

And being replaced by Chris Chibnall- the king of the average/uninspired episode. As I;ve said a few times about Moffat, he's written plenty of stuff I don't like, but he's always been full of ideas.

Chibnall has really just given us average Who by the numbers; I've never watched an episode of his twice because they just wash over me. As always I'll give things a chance, but it's hard to get excited, even though I think it's long since time for Moffat to go.

This likely means Capaldi goes after season 10 too- which, note, has been put back to 2017; no season next year,

Just caught up. This may have been my favorite season, full stop. There are individual episodes or arcs that are transcendent enough that I'd rank them above any one story in this season. But as a whole, I thought it was great. Jenna and Peter found their friggin' groove together in this season; after feeling like Clara never quite fit (even last season with Capaldi), I'm happy to put the pairing of these two up against any companion combo out there.

Lone exception was Gatiss's awful one-off episode. I'll continually forgive him bc of Sherlock, but man, that episode was terrible. My gf and I just stared at each other after that one, like "wtf did we just watch?!" Bottom 5 of New Who easily for me, right up there (down there?) with another of Gatiss's, "Victory of the Daleks." Anyone can get nit-picky of the rest, and I could too, but I was at worst satisfied with each story. And they managed to give us an emotionally resonant ending without needing to feed us the next "big bad" that each season seems to want to do. Maisie did well, River was a welcome surprise, and Capaldi had a few great moments.

I'm fine with the hiatus. Fine with Moffat leaving. I've enjoyed much of what he's done, and his best is probably the best there's been in DW. But everyone runs their course. Ush makes some good points with Chibnall, but I think the most we can hope for is some of the emotional intelligence of his Torchwood stuff (minus the rated-R stuff, obviously).

Interesting side note: since the reboot in 2005, this season marked the lowest collective ratings (in the UK). A trend?

Well, after ten years, anything can lose steam, but the timeslot placement has been no good of late either.

As for Chibnall and Torchwood- presumably we're not talking Cyberwoman here...

That Gatiss one was a disaster though, wasn't it? I just don't get what his block is with Doctor Who. It's a shame, because if he'd turned out some good scripts he could have been a good choice for showrunner (he was interested in reviving the show himself before RTD did it).

But I can make the Chibnall point again here- the concept of a found footage Doctor Who story is good. The concept of monsters born out of sleep is good. The concept of a monster using the Doctor as a means to spread its own creepy viral publicity is good. As it turned out, the episode was terrible in most ways I can imagine, from the acting to the pacing to what the monsters were made out of to an ending so abrupt/confusing there were threads on the fan forums asking when the second part was, or just what the hell was going on. It was actively structure badly, which is unusual for modern Who.

But- this is 'good idea done badly', and I still rate Gatiss as a writer. This is, again, where Chibnall bounces off of me. All I ever see from Chibnall is 'dull idea done ok'. Which is no shame per se, because to be a professional scriptwriter who can reliably turn out usable episodes is no small thing, but I'm afraid it just doesn't do for me in what I like with Who.

Still- we'll see.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
Well, after ten years, anything can lose steam, but the timeslot placement has been no good of late either.

Good to hear it may be from the time slot.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
As for Chibnall and Torchwood- presumably we're not talking Cyberwoman here...

Ha, no. He was the de facto showrunner for its first two seasons, though, even though RTD may have had the official title at one point. I think he wrote 6-7 episodes total. So he has a sense of how to pace a series to appeal to DW's demographic, which overlaps heavily with Torchwood's.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
That Gatiss one was a disaster though, wasn't it? I just don't get what his block is with Doctor Who. It's a shame, because if he'd turned out some good scripts he could have been a good choice for showrunner (he was interested in reviving the show himself before RTD did it).

But I can make the Chibnall point again here- the concept of a found footage Doctor Who story is good. The concept of monsters born out of sleep is good. The concept of a monster using the Doctor as a means to spread its own creepy viral publicity is good. As it turned out, the episode was terrible in most ways I can imagine, from the acting to the pacing to what the monsters were made out of to an ending so abrupt/confusing there were threads on the fan forums asking when the second part was, or just what the hell was going on. It was actively structure badly, which is unusual for modern Who.

But- this is 'good idea done badly', and I still rate Gatiss as a writer. This is, again, where Chibnall bounces off of me. All I ever see from Chibnall is 'dull idea done ok'. Which is no shame per se, because to be a professional scriptwriter who can reliably turn out usable episodes is no small thing, but I'm afraid it just doesn't do for me in what I like with Who.

Still- we'll see.

I think you're kinder to Gatiss and harder on Chibnall than me, but I don't disagree with your individual points.

Not sure if anyone else uses Twitch on here but they're doing a Doctor Who Marathon on there.

Already got all the Classics on DVD. Don't need to marathon nothing.

And NU WHO is EMO BEeItch SHIT!

If you say so closeted SJW.

I do Say So you Mind Numbed Millennial Nimrod.

This new season is v good. It’s nice to be a fan of the show again, and looking forward to each new episode.

Peter capaldi has good moments but never resonated for me. Jodie Whittaker has been consistent and believable. She’s still growing into the role, and the writers are figuring out how to use her. But what I’ve seen (up to the solitrax episode as of tonight) makes me optimistic about where the season will rank. I’m saying top half of nu-who for sure, possibly top 3.

By far my favorite part is the ensemble companion cast, and we haven’t seen that since Mickey and Jack tagged along for a few event episodes, as far as I can recall.

(To be clear, Solitrax made for a very poor episode. Too much exposition from the Doctor. It would be a great short story instead.

I’m enthusiastic regardless because the supporting cast had things to do *despite* the weak script. Definitely a saving grace in an hour otherwise dominated by a handwaved explanation of the villain and how there’s no compromise or happy ending.)

I've decided I fancy the actress who plays the Doctor and would bang hard

Nice, ratings are down tho. They should have never made the doctor female but hey sad wokesters gonna woke.

Still, she's bangable.

The female Doc got me to watch the show for the first time since the seventies. Totally enjoying the new Doc.

been watching this show for years.. i enjoy jodie whittaker as the new doctor

Yeah Jodie is both bangable and doing a good job, who'd have thought it!

I decided to stop watching the show before Capaldi had announced he was leaving and decided that them casting a woman wasn't enough to get me back whether she's bangable or not (she is). I will almost definitely catch up with them at some point but the casting of a female Doctor felt like a Hail Mary to win back viewers and if the writers couldn't do anything good with Peter Capaldi then I don't really trust them to handle anything else TBH.

Originally posted by samhain
I decided to stop watching the show before Capaldi had announced he was leaving and decided that them casting a woman wasn't enough to get me back whether she's bangable or not (she is). I will almost definitely catch up with them at some point but the casting of a female Doctor felt like a Hail Mary to win back viewers and if the writers couldn't do anything good with Peter Capaldi then I don't really trust them to handle anything else TBH.

Originally posted by samhain
I decided to stop watching the show before Capaldi had announced he was leaving and decided that them casting a woman wasn't enough to get me back whether she's bangable or not (she is). I will almost definitely catch up with them at some point but the casting of a female Doctor felt like a Hail Mary to win back viewers and if the writers couldn't do anything good with Peter Capaldi then I don't really trust them to handle anything else TBH.

Originally posted by riv6672
Wasn’t there a female Master at one point? If so, then the precedent was set at some point yeah?

Yeah.

Make whoever whatever gender you want. Just leave the social media winks out of it.

Like "I've had an upgrade" comments. They do that shite on purpose because they WANT people complaining in a million videos and reddit/Twitter posts bringing them free exposure, but that stuff is also toxic as hell and turns fans.

Originally posted by riv6672
Wasn’t there a female Master at one point? If so, then the precedent was set at some point yeah?

Oh yeah, she was pretty awesome as The Master too. I have no qualms whatsoever about there being a female Doctor, it was just the timing of it for me personally as I had decided I would stop watching the show before the new Doctor was announced, then when it was announced I was like; 'Well great, now people will think I'm sexist if I don't continue watching.' and I wonder how many viewers who were on the fence about the show they managed to pull back in with this tactic.