I remember when 2020 seemed a long way away!
Hope we get some news soon on exactly when this is coming.
Doctor Who – What The Flux?
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I just got the chance to watch the New Year special. I enjoyed it. The story was a bit thin for the runtime but it was a decent romp, Dalek v Dalek was fun and it was nice to see Jack back.
But all the stuff about the companions leaving felt a bit arbitrary – being left alone for a few months was never made to feel like a big enough deal that they would grow apart so completely, and it all felt completely separate to the main story rather than integrated with it. You could imagine them shooting every permutation of the “who’s staying?” scene and then running whichever one matched the actors’ contracts, and it not making any difference.
I disagree, while the 3 companions hasn’t ever really worked (Yaz was a spare part in her first series and Ryan in the second) I think all of that was set up logically in the series. The focus on Yaz in the last series was on her being adventurous and jumping into action without much thought while Ryan was far more reluctant, this episode then added to that at the start with her being intent on finding the Doctor while he’d more or less moved on. Ryan growing closer to Graham and accepting him as his grandad was his arc in series one so them sticking together makes perfect sense too. Switching to Yaz staying at home would be out of character.
I think it’ll work better if they stick to 2 companions for the next series, there was never enough airtime to fully use all 3 at the same time.
Speaking of which, while I know he does standup and panel shows I first saw John Bishop in a dramatic role playing the father of the twins in Skins and he was really good in that so I’m fine with the casting. I think the ‘middle aged man’ thing is likely due to casting a young woman as The Doctor, it kind of reverses the dynamic we’re all more used to.
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I disagree, while the 3 companions hasn’t ever really worked (Yaz was a spare part in her first series and Ryan in the second) I think all of that was set up logically in the series. The focus on Yaz in the last series was on her being adventurous and jumping into action without much thought while Ryan was far more reluctant, this episode then added to that at the start with her being intent on finding the Doctor while he’d more or less moved on. Ryan growing closer to Graham and accepting him as his grandad was his arc in series one so them sticking together makes perfect sense too. Switching to Yaz staying at home would be out of character.
Yeah, I suppose that is fair as far as the larger series goes. But within this episode it all felt a bit bolted on at the end (and kind of went against the grain of Ryan and Graham starting off the episode in a place where they had moved on from the Doctor, and then becoming part of the Tardis crew again by the end, to the point where they’re off to plant bombs on a Dalek mothership).
It also muddied the waters to have them ending the episode by moving away from the Doctor and their adventures together, but at the same time being given the psychic paper and apparently getting ready to go off on globetrotting adventures of their own.
That doesn’t jibe with the idea of Ryan wanting to stay at home and be close to his mates, quite the opposite, and overall it makes it look like they actually enjoy their life of adventure in the Tardis but just don’t like hanging around with the Doctor any more – which I suppose adds to the Chibnall take of this Doctor being a bit awkward and antisocial, but is an interesting decision when the Doctor is meant to be the fun heart of the show.
I guess there may also be an element of setting them up with a status quo that allows them to return again later with one-off appearances.
I think it’ll work better if they stick to 2 companions for the next series, there was never enough airtime to fully use all 3 at the same time.
Yeah I agree, and like I said earlier I’m glad Yaz is staying as she’s my daughter’s favourite and I think has the most potential as a standalone companion.
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I took the last scene with Ryan and Graham as being the two of them preferring to just spend time together in the “real” world rather than rushing straight back into the crazy, even though they had the psychic paper that would let them. Everything they went through with the Doctor brought them closer together and that’s all they really needed, with the approval of Ghost Granny to boot. I might be wrong, the script didn’t convey things very well.
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took the last scene with Ryan and Graham as being the two of them preferring to just spend time together in the “real” world rather than rushing straight back into the crazy, even though they had the psychic paper that would let them.
I took it that way too, they were talking a good game with saving the planet but really were set for the mundane life in Sheffield. I guess it’s open to interpretation but that’s how I read that final scene and found it quite poignant that way.
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I suspect that the true answer as to what happened to Graham and Ryan next is “Big Finish audios in three years time”.
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Ghost Granny
Big Finish audio in four years’ time.
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Sanjeev Bhaskar
Also a very good choice.
Although tbf they could cast literally anyone and I would still only watch, at most, an episode per year.
At the moment you’re lucky if they make that many.
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At the moment you’re lucky if they make that many.
No worries, I always watch the same one anyway. The Van Gogh episode.
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I’ve been slowly making my way through the blu-ray of Tom Baker’s final season the past few weeks and — look, I know complaining about Adric is rather cliche and like shooting fish in a barrel, but watching Warrior’s Gate just now, it something struck me: he’s so bloody unenthused about being on the TARDIS.
Part of that is just Matthew Waterhouse’s permanently petulant acting, but the script is as fault too. He’s not just getting to see beyond his own world, he’s exploring a different universe (tho frankly, once he leaves Alzarus that’s moot – any other planet is going to be an adventure, whether it’s in N-Space or E-Space). He should be excited – think about that spirit of adventure Rose has, the sheer joy of travelling and possibility. Adric has none of that. He just sort of whines and sneers about everything and never seems in awe of anything. Which, given he was intended to be something of an audience surrogate character, he really should be, because the audience should be.
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That’s a good line-up for those Behind The Sofas.
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‘Doctor Who’ Star John Barrowman Says He Hopes the Next Doctor Will Be Trans
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Wasn’t the last Doctor transgender, strictly speaking?
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The Doctor is a gender-shifting character. But Barrowman is talking about the actor.
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If we’re going down that road, the Timeless Child presented as female, so all the Doctors we saw until Thirteen were trans because they all presented as male.
(But yeah, Time Lords regenerating and shifting gender isn’t the same as a person who’s trans and was assigned the wrong gender at birth. And a trans/non-gender conforming actor playing the Doctor would be pretty cool)
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Big Finish will probably do it first.
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Sure, that’d be cool. Go with a non-binary Doctor while you’re at it, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t get bored with the female-male dichotomy. Buuuuut I’d guess they’ll go with a non-white Doctor first.
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Doctor Potato-Head!
You heard it here first, folks!
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What if the next Doctor is one of those farting aliens? Let’s think outside the box.
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I’ve cracked the code. The next Doctor will be a levitating green glowing bagel.
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I’ve cracked the code. The next Doctor will be a levitating green glowing bagel.
So….Jon Pertwee again?
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What if the next Doctor is one of those farting aliens? Let’s think outside the box.
The farting aliens can literally choose the gender they present to the world and change it whenever they want. I think this concept needs to be explored further.
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I’ve cracked the code. The next Doctor will be a levitating green glowing bagel.
So….Jon Pertwee again?
No, I hear they’re going with deepfaked Marlon Brando.
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I think this concept needs to be explored further.
But exclusively via the medium of farting.
(In fairness, if it’s a Chibnall script we won’t notice the difference.)
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I hope the next Doctor is Jo Martin and the new showrunner retcons the shit out of Chibnall’s Timeless Child crap.
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Yeah, I mean the show has done the same with stuff like the half-human line from the McGann TV movie, so if there’s a collective will to just ignore it then it’s easily done.
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I’m still not convinced it’s all 100% as it appeared when the majority of it comes from a hugely unreliable narrator in The Master.
Even if it is the next boss gets a big get-out clause because the majority of it comes from a hugely unreliable narrator in The Master.
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Yeah, it does feel like there’s still more story to be told there and maybe not all is as it seems, and I think Chibnall has suggested as much.
(Although I’m sure any reversal will be characterised as him buckling to fan pressure after the negative reaction, even if it was the plan all along.)
I didn’t really mind the revelations about the Doctor as it doesn’t fundamentally undermine the show or the character for me, aside from removing a little of the mystery around the Doctor.
But either way I’m not sure if it was great place to leave the story to sit for a long time. The increasing gap between seasons means it’s going to be getting on for two years before the show cycles around to dealing with it again.
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I didn’t really mind the revelations about the Doctor as it doesn’t fundamentally undermine the show or the character for me, aside from removing a little of the mystery around the Doctor.
I agree really, the appeal of Who to me has never been the ‘canon’ which to be frank is sketchy as fuck and contradicts itself continually but rather the ability it has to tell virtually any story. I like the variety and anthology nature of it while also keeping the same central concepts.
I do know people take different things out of it and ones who were particularly into the novels while the show was off air I seem to find are more into the ‘lore’ aspect. Which is just as valid as our take but that can be true for many things, I’m the one who only liked the quirky one-off episodes of the X-Files and didn’t like the rest of it to be honest.
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I didn’t really mind the revelations about the Doctor as it doesn’t fundamentally undermine the show or the character for me, aside from removing a little of the mystery around the Doctor.
I agree really, the appeal of Who to me has never been the ‘canon’ which to be frank is sketchy as fuck and contradicts itself continually but rather the ability it has to tell virtually any story. I like the variety and anthology nature of it while also keeping the same central concepts.
I do know people take different things out of it and ones who were particularly into the novels while the show was off air I seem to find are more into the ‘lore’ aspect. Which is just as valid as our take but that can be true for many things, I’m the one who only liked the quirky one-off episodes of the X-Files and didn’t like the rest of it to be honest.
My issue with it isn’t so much with canon but that it speaks to a fundamental difference in thought about the character. I always liked that the Doctor is a fairly normal person (for his society) who essentially dropped out and decided to make a stand for things on principle and because of his own moral compass. Even with the heavy mythologising that RTD and especially Moffat bolted on (as a consequence of his actions) there’s an everyman element to it. He’s just another Time Lord that stood up for what he believed in and made change. (Admittedly Cartmel moved away from that, but it was done in a way that improved the show from what it had been).
Chibnall’s take is instead that they were born special, so special that they’re essentially the root of their entire civiilisation, they were so destined to be special that even after having their life and memories erased they found their way back to it. The Doctor just becomes another boring “chosen one” style cliche, really.
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I do see that point of view and I think it does weaken the character a bit.
But if you treat canon as loose and not really extending beyond an individual showrunner’s tenure then it helps to stop it feeling like it destroys the entire series as a whole.
I tend to look at it like different takes on a comics character in different writers’ runs – some are better than others but they don’t invalidate each other, they’re just alternate versions and approaches.
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But either way I’m not sure if it was great place to leave the story to sit for a long time. The increasing gap between seasons means it’s going to be getting on for two years before the show cycles around to dealing with it again.
Or maybe that will work in its favour. It’s been so long that I can’t remember all the details of the stupid revelations (that may be helped by the fact that I had a vested interest in forgetting them) so if they change them now I won’t notice or care.
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I was confused because I was thinking how can you keep her if you retcon the timeless child.
The “Timeless Child” isn’t, in and of itself, a bad concept. That the Timelords effectively stole the ability to regenerate from an alien entity is actually kind of interesting.
But where it falls flat is that the Doctor is the Timeless Child. It’s just going a bridge too far into the mythology, and it harms the Doctor’s essential nature. Before, the Doctor chose to be special. Now, the Doctor was born special.
And it also opens up a Pandora’s Box where now any writer can start pulling unseen Doctors out of their asses right and left. I thought that the War Doctor was an interesting idea, where there was a “lost” incarnation of the Doctor. Now there are potentially thousands of them out there. God, I can’t even…
If I were in charge, I think the simplest solution would be for #13 to regenerate into Jo Martin, and we would see the flipside of “Fugitive of the Judoon” where we see why she used the Chameleon Arch, hiding her identity from her previous incarnation, and then lied to her about not knowing who she was. All the while she’s off running around searching for the real Timeless Child herself.
(And I really liked Jo Martin’s performance in that episode, and that’s another reason I’d like to see her play #14. She had the gravity that the Doctor has lacked for a long time.)
(Plus, I’ve always thought it might be interesting for the Doctor to meet and interact with their next incarnation. Tom Baker and The Watcher doesn’t count.)
But maybe Chibnall does have some kind of long gameplan in mind, and, as others have said, the Master is an unreliable narrator…
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The Master being an unreliable narrator is a good hook to hang a future retcon on. But I can’t believe it was an intentional falsehood on Chibnall’s part. It’s too elaborate a bit of business and too long is spent on it for it to be that. And then leaving it unchallenged across an inter-series void? It would be a really poor way to structure a pay off. Which I suppose would be on brand for Chibnall.
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Good morning to no-one except the Jr editor who released the footage of David Tennant talking utter nonsense, which was only filmed to be fodder that appeared on the TARDIS monitor, on mute, in the background of a scene in The Family of Blood whilst Martha delivers her lines. ✨ pic.twitter.com/k0N4H9o4Oh
— SeanMossy (@SeanMossy) March 12, 2021
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The youngest, who is not DW fan, has discovered he likes Murray Gold’s scores. When he’s playing them I like to move three rooms away and whisper the dialogue so he gets an authentic New Who experience
— James Roberts (@jroberts332) March 23, 2021
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I picked up the US blu-ray of Peter Davison’s first season recently (ordered a few weeks ago, arrived a couple of days ago). Not got around to watching any of it yet.
New news today:
BBC Studios have announced a new range of standard packaging releases as part of its Doctor Who: The Collection blu-ray range, beginning with Seasons 12 and 19
Over the past few years, Doctor Who: The Collection has allowed fans to rediscover Doctor Who‘s classic era, as several seasons from the show’s original run have been released on limited-edition blu-ray, complete with new special features and updated special effects.
Now, fans will have a second chance to fill gaps in their collections, as BBC Studios introduce a new standard-edition range of blu-ray releases under the Doctor Who: The Collection heading. The first additions to this new range will be Seasons 12 and 19, which see Tom Baker and Peter Davison‘s respective debuts as the Fourth and Fifth Doctors. Until now, the Collection editions of these seasons had only been available as limited edition box sets, both released back in 2018.
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Releases within the new, standard packaging Doctor Who: The Collection range will feature a standard, plastic blu-ray case inside a slipcase, plus a condensed, standard-printed 12-page booklet featuring disc breakdowns and selected illustrations. This new range will include all of the watchable content and special features included in the Limited Edition Packaging release, and will be available ongoing.
Meanwhile, new releases within the Collection range will now be marketed as Doctor Who: The Collection Limited Edition Packaging. These new released will continue to offer bespoke, premium packaging featuring a beautifully presented box containing the discs, plus a full-length premium-printed booklet, which includes illustrations and in-depth behind the scenes insight.
Doctor Who: The Collection Seasons 12 and 19 are due for release on 31st May 2021, and are available to pre-order now from Amazon, HMV, and Zavvi.I’ll be honest, mixed feelings right now. But it’s nice they’re going to be properly available over here now and saves having to import the others from the US.
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I’d seen the Red Dwarf one but the second one might be even better.
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My opinion of that video is Eccleston is very professional and I wonder if that video was influenced by his experiences doing the audio(Did Wilfredo finally get him trained to stand there and and use his voice correctly)
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A female doctor would only have been better received with a better show runner to boot.
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Social media just allows small groups to make a lot of noise is all the difference is for me. I mean I don’t think anyone here or anyone I’ve spoken to in real life has any great objection to a female doctor. I just see people pissing and moaning on Twitter or wherever.
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Looks like John Barrowman should have kept his knob in his drawers.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-57114481.amp
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Yeah, I think it’s more revisiting past events that were dismissed at the time. There have definitely been people beating the drum online for a few years that what Barrowman considered fun japes were not necessarily as fun for the people he was doing them at.
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It’s an interesting one because he was disciplined for it, at some points. Julia Gardner dealt with him on Who and he seemingly kept it in his pants after that (I don’t know if that’s before or after James Marsters had issues with him on Torchwood though). He got bollocked by the BBC for flashing while on Radio 1 (and its webcam). It seems he was tolerated on Arrow. But I guess the fact that he kept starting up doing it again is as much the issue.
I really hope he wasn’t doing it while he was a presenter on Live & Kicking…
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The Barrowman response seems a little over the top to be honest. From what I’ve read he didn’t harass anyone but got his cock out for laughs, he was reported to the producer and she rebuked him and it stopped.
He was definitely in the wrong but it seems a bit much to cancel him 15 years after the fact. Unless there’s more I’ve missed.
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The Barrowman response seems a little over the top to be honest. From what I’ve read he didn’t harass anyone but got his cock out for laughs, he was reported to the producer and she rebuked him and it stopped.
He was definitely in the wrong but it seems a bit much to cancel him 15 years after the fact. Unless there’s more I’ve missed.
I think there is a danger with all this sort of stuff that there is only a binary response – behaviour is either completely acceptable and beyond reproach, or completely unacceptable and they should lose their career over it. And especially so when there’s any kind of sexual element involved.
But I think people should be able to make minor mistakes and not have to face the harshest sanctions for them. There has to be some perspective and proportionality. It sounds like Barrowman did something a bit silly and was suitably rebuked, that should be the end of it really. The Noel Clarke stuff has just dragged it all into the open again.
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What is that? Brent Spiner presents Pimp My Dalek?
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Well, they are fully functional….
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Oh, god, I really hope that’s a preview of Lore in Picard Season Two.
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I see rumours that Whittaker will be off after two specials to follow the next season (which has been truncated to eight episodes).
Sounds plausible. We’ll see.
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Replace “long-running plot points” with “The Timeless Child” and “wrapped up” with “written off and never spoken of ever again” and I agree entirely.
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I’d prefer that they kept her and got a better showrunner.
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Were there gaps back in the day? Were there months or years while people waited to see how Peter Davison would differ from Tom Baker?
It ran almost uninterrupted throughout the 60s, with the most being a month or two between seasons, and then in the seventies and eighties it was mostly six months on, six months off, up until the end of the Peter Davison run. The later seasons, when they were short on money, had shorter seasons and bigger gaps, with eighteen months before Colin Baker’s final season.
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It was much more regular back in the classic era, as it was churned out by the BBC studio system same as anything else. The only long break was the “rest” it had when it was nearly cancelled in the mid-80s.
The irregular release of series now seems to be, at least in part, down to the BBC seemingly being determined to make a few actual episodes of Doctor Who as they can without cancelling it. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the COVID-related reduction in series length was quietly kept as the standard length of the series going foward.
