Doctor Who

[StephenTJackson]

Oh my God, can someone please put Russell T. Davies in a quiet, possibly padded room for a while? He is going on and on and on about what awful nasty bigots anyone who doesn't like anything about the show is, how he is upsetting all the right people, how Doctor Who really feels like a "gay" show now, calling any site where it's not 100% praise a hate site...

The man has lost it.

Art is supposed to be for everyone, I really hate living in this era where we find ourselves being told "this show is not for you" if we are not a soap box ranting identity politics obsessed metropolitian luvvie. It's absurd and it's everywhere - see what's been going on with Starfleet Academy.

It's always the same type of writer/showrunner and the actual powers that be need to do what Pixar recently apparently did, which is tell them that the IP is not their therapy session.

No wonder there are reports of people watching older shows more nowadays.

As a gay man myself, Doctor Who doesn't feel like a gay show, it feels like a tragic show. That has completely lost the plot, is an exercise in endless box ticking and forgets to write actual characters with personalities and depth. And forgets to write actual Sci-Fi plots. The show is shit now. And it isn't because it's woke, it's because it's badly written, directed and produced. Shoe horning issues in rather than making them feel natural parts of the show.

 

[StephenTJackson]

I've seen a lot of talk about that online, I suspect it's so RTD can have us excitedly speculating, have a year or so to come up with some clever story line of why she isn't the doctor and then fudge it and bore us with she is the doctor after all storyline, I feel that's what he does a lot, sign posts an interesting concept or idea but doesn't have it in him to explore it so it either tails off boringly or gets into some convoluted nonsense that ends a bit boringly . Bit like this post

There has been so many plot strands over the last two years that haven't gone anywhere. Like all of Ruby's storylines, why can she make it snow, her mother storyline was a mess etc.

Belinda was just the biggest waste of space companion of New Who, even worse than Adam. We didn't learn anything about her. She just wanted to get home. It was just all awful.

It hasn't helped anyone having such short series, but that's why the focus needed to have been on plot and characters so much as opposed to VFX.

 

[Don'tlookEthel]

I've seen a lot of talk about that online, I suspect it's so RTD can have us excitedly speculating, have a year or so to come up with some clever story line of why she isn't the doctor and then fudge it and bore us with she is the doctor after all storyline, I feel that's what he does a lot, sign posts an interesting concept or idea but doesn't have it in him to explore it so it either tails off boringly or gets into some convoluted nonsense that ends a bit boringly . Bit like this post

 

[annanuttall]

Spoiler: Ummm

Billie piper is a Doctor - how the hell will that work?

There was a leak about this for weeks on Reddit. I like Ncuti Gatwa, but he just didn't fit the Doctor role for me.

 

[StephenTJackson]

Last night's episode wasn't bad mainly because Ruby and Conrad were back. For me Ruby has been the best overall character in the last 2 series. She's the only one I really care about. Belinda is OK but her personality hasn't been developed enough.

Ncuti disappointingly can't pull off acting 'straight' at all. There's plenty of gay actors who can do this but he's obviously not one of them. If you compare him being John Smith to when Tennant did it there's no competition. Tennant was able to appear as a totally different character to the doctor. Ncuti just doesn't have the same level of acting skills.

The new Rani is promising in the part but so far just a standard villain. I had no idea why she had chosen to steal a magical child and let Conrad's wishes come true. Why?
The visual effects were enjoyable again with the bright colours and skeletal walking dinosaurs.
Perhaps all will be explained next week when Mel recognises the Rani 🫠

Tennant when he did the flip between human John Smith and Timelord even in one sentence you could see his whole persona change in an instance. It was a great acting performance by Tennant. It was brilliant.

Ncuti is just always playing a version of himself, never even The Doctor.

I just find all the villains these last two series to be a bit naff, apart from Conrad, who is just deliciously awful.

Bigger isn't always better and all the Disney money and VFX budget in the world doesn't save crap writing and poorly developed characters. I'm even not at all happy about the Kate Stewart romance minor sub plot.

The ever attempting desire to make the series arc finale bigger than the last is not working. Because doctor who has ended and rebooted the universe as its series finale so many times now, it's tired as a device.

 

[TheStrawberryThief]

I really enjoyed this episode. I wish we could have had a few more episodes for ' fun romps' this series.

I hope we get to see Rogue again, he seems fun. The Doctor does seem to have a thing for slightly naughty people.

 

[Mark81]

As someone mentioned previously, nothing wrong with political or 'woke', but so few writers (in general, not just dr who) can do it without it being heavy handed and so blindingly obvious.

I enjoyed Eccleston and loved Tennant. Really liked Matt Smith but his run was when the stories started to decline and it just got worse and worse. The need for big overarching ideas and stories swamped it. The Ecclestone and Tennant eras that focused on more quality self contained episodes were far stronger.

Dr who just vanished up it's own asshole of self importance.

 

[Tangerine Dream]

This is tl:dr but I've had some thoughts.

Interesting article about how Billie Piper is not going to be the next Doctor despite that appearance and all the mystery and hype around it.

The role is supposedly thought of as a poisoned chalice at this point in time and I wouldn't be suprirsed it that was actually true and not just tabloid speculation bollocks.

The show is in a horrendous state.

It was going off the boil long before Chibhall came along. Then they tried his soft reboot and the first female Doctor, which was a big miss. Then they got RTD back but it was a completely different writer/person from the RTD who had revived the show almost twenty years prior and he destroyed anything that was left with some of the worst writing ever seen on TV. I don't even think the problem is "woke" storylines, almost any story can be worthwhile if told well... but industry people can't seem to tell stories anymore. It's all about putting the Issue front and centre at the expense of anything else that might make good telly and because the industry has become such an echo chamber where it has become the norm for so-called professionals to get into public fights with the fans on social media, I don't see how things can get better.

Doctor Who has always had a political edge, it was never a problem until the modern era where writers are able to run amok and make everything they work on no more than a vanity project, an ego massage.

I think there's only one way to save Doctor Who specifically and that's along the lines of what Chris Eccleston said in terms of if he'd ever do the role on TV again. You've got to have a complete clear of everyone who has been running it since 2005 but especially Phil Collinson, Jane Tranter, sack Julie Gardener. It's not their show but they've been treated like it is from those at the top. The main reason it's sale is you need to refresh things now and then. Having the same team in charge for 20 years hasn't worked, time for the BBC to admit it.

 

[StephenTJackson]

Ncuti is gonna be amazing.

I'm more excited than ever for RTD2 era Doctor Who.

 

[TheStrawberryThief]

RTD uses being progressive/liberal as a shield for his bad writing.

He has always had a very particular way of writing characters and dialogue, it is instantly recognisable in his shows. In his older stuff there was always a very human core to everything, he came from writing soaps and I think it gave him a good ear for writing normal every day people in odd situations.

However his writing feels like it has got worse over time. His characters can feel very preachy and unsubtle. It is like listening to a student who has been at uni one term and has came back loudly proclaiming to everyone that they are now a communist vegan.

If anyone doesn't like it, he says 'ooooh I am upsetting the bigots I must be doing something right!'. However most people simply don't like being patronised.

He still has good shows in him. I think he works best when writing a tight limited series. I thought Nolly was great for example of this.

 

[kachoochoo]

nnnnoooooooo! can't wait another week for the conclusion!

was proper screaming by the end

 

[RedFlagsAhoy]

I saw a bunch of spoilers for dot and bubble this morning, but actually seeing it play out was horrendous

lindy and her pals deserve nothing

I managed to go in spoiler-free.. we are firmly team Space Slugs in this house!

 

[Mark81]

I really liked Ncuti in Sex Education, and thought he was a break out star

But Dr Who and The Importance of Being Ernest has made me reconsider. He's very charismatic and charming, but I'm beginning to think his range is limited to variation on himself.

I think Dr Who needs to be rested for a good while. Its been struggling for ages, especially on the writing front.

 

[Grillyguy]

I'm currently doing a rewatch of the Doctor Who I've missed as I initially stopped watching at the end dof Matt Smiths run. I've on Series 11 - Jodie Whittaker's first season, just finished Demons of the Punjab.

I think she's good as the Doctor but the episodes are dragging! There's too much talking, not enough action, and I can't help but thinking that the doctor and the companions don't actually do much to save the day? Or they're not needed to save the day. For example the giant spiders were always going to die anyway?

 

[StephenTJackson]

I just watched an episode from Tennants first series and the story telling was so much better then as it was paced so the audience could follow it. A mystery presented itself and the doctor investigated so the twists and turns were mostly explained as it went along without a whizz bang ending of everything being shouted out in the last 5 minutes, just the doctor finally outwitting his enemy by being ingenious and secretly one step ahead.

I don't understand why Russell T Davies isn't able to do this anymore. Loads of things have either gone right over my head or we're just not explained at all.

Have to agree about Belinda, she was just a plot device for this series and never got a chance to display any real personality. Not the fault of the actress who did her best but a fault of the writing.

Series 1-4 of New Who I can rewatch endlessly. It's brilliant.

Even Love and Monsters with it's grim blowjob joke is better than anything RTD has done the last two years.

 

[Don'tlookEthel]

being from Manchester when she's apparently lived in London all her life

Yes this is winding us up too!

 

[CariettaWhite]

It’s awful. Not impressed with Ncuti’s acting and Millie is even worse. She annoys me in the same way Clara used to - flitting around being so perky, chippy and chirpy.

Aneurin Barnard acted the pants of everyone. He’d be great for the next Doctor.

 

[Tangerine Dream]

While series 1 way back in 2005 had some daftness like the farting aliens, I watched The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances last night.

Oh my good grief.

How a show that could produce episodes like that, storytelling like that, acting like that eventually became whatever the ever loving fuck Chibnall and then RTD 2.0 turned it into needs to be studied at the highest level.

Unrecognisable does not begin to cover it, not even when you make sure to account for how much society, attitudes and production style can change within twenty odd years.

What an absolute tragedy.

Was inspired to rant because there is rumour that the BBC can't find anyone to play the doctor (this was rumoured months ago, from the way it is persisting I feel it might be true) and RTD said he's not filming anything else 'this year' after talking about his new series The Tip Tow. This show is in a much worse state than even the 1989 end of the era. Needs resting for at least ten years, then a completely new team of people who actually love what it should be to try again. No trace of any of the current lot who have been there since 2005, they are poison to the brand now.

 

[Sibz]

73 Yards hmmm..... I thought there was good and bad in this episode. The premise was interesting and quite creepy. For a while it felt promising if a little thin. The Welsh locals were unaccountably hostile and one of them seemed to be doing a parody of Little Britain's "I'm the only gay in the village".

Once again the doctor steps on something (is this a theme 🫠). I don't know why he was dressed as Paddington bear and where did he go to? He had no presence in this episode at all.

I felt disappointed at the end that we didn't find out what the woman said to make everyone run away screaming particularly Ruby's mum and Kate Lethbridge Stewart. I was glad to see Kate again but it was a missed opportunity when she also ran away without explanation.

Ruby just doesn't fit with her family. Are we supposed to believe that her mum has looked after her since she was abandoned as a baby?
She has none if their mannerisms or speech patterns. She sounds more like the lodger because for some unknown reason she has a northern accent instead of a London accent. It keeps bugging me. Why didn’t they cast someone with a London accent?

Ruby's mum ostracising her with no real explanation was very grating.

I wanted to like it and it was intriguing, but there were so many unanswered questions...

- Who made the fairy circle?
- Why did the Doctor disappear?
- What did older Ruby say to people to make them run?
- How was older Ruby able to follow her around for 65 years, what did she turn into?
- How was she able to follow her when she was in a car or train?
- How did Ruby not go mad or have a breakdown after being abandoned by everyone she trusted and stalked for 65 years?
- Why were flowers being left at the Tardis?
- Why does Anita Dobson keep popping up?

 

[Scotch Mist]

73 Yards hmmm..... I thought there was good and bad in this episode. The premise was interesting and quite creepy. For a while it felt promising if a little thin. The Welsh locals were unaccountably hostile and one of them seemed to be doing a parody of Little Britain's "I'm the only gay in the village".

Once again the doctor steps on something (is this a theme 🫠). I don't know why he was dressed as Paddington bear and where did he go to? He had no presence in this episode at all.

I felt disappointed at the end that we didn't find out what the woman said to make everyone run away screaming particularly Ruby's mum and Kate Lethbridge Stewart. I was glad to see Kate again but it was a missed opportunity when she also ran away without explanation.

Ruby just doesn't fit with her family. Are we supposed to believe that her mum has looked after her since she was abandoned as a baby?
She has none if their mannerisms or speech patterns. She sounds more like the lodger because for some unknown reason she has a northern accent instead of a London accent. It keeps bugging me. Why didn’t they cast someone with a London accent?

Ruby's mum ostracising her with no real explanation was very grating.