Doctor Who Megathread

[brucejoel99]

On the one hand, this comes from the Mirror, which runs on accuracy levels that basically amount to "a broken clock is right twice a day." On the other hand, this is being reported by Nicola Methven, who's very reliable on this kind of stuff. Personally, I'm a bit disappointed. I've had some issues with the show recently but I always found Jodie to be a pretty great Doctor, so I wanted her to be the one who finally breached the 3-season barrier, but given that 10, 11, & 12 all stayed for 3 seasons, this isn't particularly surprising:

https://twitter.com/MirrorBreaking_/status/1345851763337941000

[brucejoel99]

Did the chauvinistic internet nerd bros get the better of her?

Regardless of whether that's true or not, the Doctors' tenures seem to be getting shorter. Or is it just me?

No, if she leaves after three years, it will be the same as her two predecessors, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi.

Yeah, 3 seasons has been the modern series' norm (with Eccleston being the obvious exception), though Tennant's reign was stretched out a bit longer with specials instead of a 4th season of his own in 2009-10.

[brucejoel99]

Did the chauvinistic internet nerd bros get the better of her?

Regardless of whether that's true or not, the Doctors' tenures seem to be getting shorter. Or is it just me?

Not really. No Doctor since Tom Baker has lasted longer than three seasons for one reason or another.

That said, I'm hoping that Big Finish picks up the rights to the Whittaker era soon, see how a different writer's team handles Thirteen. (Granted, at best it's going to be the Thirteenth Doctor Chronicles, but...)

I was about to say "at least we'll see her in the 60th, so maybe Chibnall's successor can give her something a bit better to work with," but then I remembered Chibnall's staying & it's only 2 years away. Mfw:

[brucejoel99]

Chibnall is out too.

Sad to have it confirmed that we'll indeed be saying goodbye to Jodie so soon, but glad to hear this.

[brucejoel99]

To quote the once-&-future show-runner himself, "Marvelous! Hooray!" This must be the most unexpected Who news since at least "Introducing John Hurt as The Doctor," if not the out-of-the-blue announcement back in 2003 that the BBC was bringing the show back thanks to RTD. Seriously, though, this is incredible news! This is probably one of the best possible things that could happen to the show. If anybody knows how to rejuvenate this show & make it popular again, it's RTD.

Russell T. Davies is back as showrunner starting with 6-0.

Interesting.

Quite. IIRC, I once read a rumor that RTD had an agreement with the BBC that, should they ever be in a dire position in which another cancellation was on the table, they'd bring him back into the fold & give him a series to right the ship. Said rumor also lines up with what he once publicly said: that if the show was ever in trouble, he'd come back to save it (IIRC, he said that at a convention as part of a response to a question about Moffat sorta doing a similar thing back in 2017: the Moffat-Chibnall transition had almost caused the annual special to be canceled, as Moffat planned to leave after the Series 10 finale & Chibnall didn't wanna begin his run with a special; when Moffat learned of Chibnall's plans, he was concerned that the show would lose its specials in the future if it missed a year & so decided to remain show-runner long enough to rewrite his plans for the Series 10 finale & allow Capaldi to appear in a final Moffat-produced episode, which became "Twice Upon a Time"). Of course, that obviously doesn't speak well of how the current show is viewed right now, what with ratings having been falling for a while & The Timeless Child being so bad that even hard-core fans are giving up on the show (a phenomenon which I can personally attest to: it took me 8 months to get around to watching the most-recent special).

Who is the new Doctor going to be?

[G]iven that it's RTD, there's a strong chance he'll pick an actor he's worked with to be the Doctor. His two big recent dramas Years and Years and the utterly f-cking excellent It's a Sin have a good ensemble cast.

I'm not gonna lie, I could half-see the 14th Doctor just being Tennant again at this rate, as fan-servicey as that'd be. It may be difficult to generate interest in Who post-Chibnall failures, & such a move would undoubtedly intrigue viewers enough to tune in once again, regardless of the fact that such a desperate move to try & recapture the show's old glory would also undoubtedly result in my excitement for RTD's return reverting to sadness over the show's ongoing calamities.

On the other hand, maybe there's just really been something to those Olly Alexander & Lydia West rumors this whole time.

[brucejoel99]

I am honestly legit ecstatic that RTD is returning. Ultimately, his tenure is what got me into the show in the first place. The Eccleston/Tennant Era will always be my favourite. I've written so much here about how I've felt about Doctor Who over the years. I've always felt RTD is by far the best showrunner. With that said, the occasional two-parter from Moffat wouldn't be a bad idea. I don't think Moffat was a strong showrunner, but he was a strong writer under a different showrunner. His stuff under RTD was some of the absolute best. I could start rambling on about the best episodes during his tenure, but I won't right now.

100% agreed. Moffat was best writing-wise when he got an individual story that he's excited to tell, whereas RTD is better at continuously coming up with stories in order to put a cohesive narrative arc together without getting bogged down.

[brucejoel99]

Not really that big of a news item, but with this confirmation that Jodie & Mandip have wrapped filming on the specials (the tweet doesn't explicitly say it, but filming reports confirm that this is Jodie's regeneration episode that just wrapped), this makes Jodie the first 3-series-rule Doctor (i.e., not including 9 & Rose) to have a companion traveling alongside them from their first episode to their last:

https://twitter.com/bbcdoctorwho/status/1448340285264646146

[brucejoel99]

Series 13 begins on Halloween night!

The trailer is also amazing. If Flux is half-as-good as its trailer implies, then we may yet still be in store for a Chibnall-era redemption arc of some sorts after all, especially if the "flux" in question is something along the lines of diverging, alternate timelines collapsing in on each other. Presumably, such a storyline would relate to the Timeless Child-arc, opening up the possibility of a decrease in the unpopularity thereof, if only by just a bit, especially if it were to involve a potential restoration of Gallifrey. Just imagine Chibnall walking away from all of this having been able to have his cake & eat it too (it also doesn't hurt that at least 1, & possibly 2 of the background characters fighting in this trailer's Sontaran war kinda look like Morbius Doctors. Granted, it's probably nothing, but were Chibnall to somehow use each episode to feature & contextualize a Morbius Doctor, that'll be so amazingly stupid & hilarious, but in a good way that could honestly be loved):

(Also, the Ood!! Also also, I really hope the skull monster talking to 13 is crispy Dhawan. He got death particle'd, after all.)

[brucejoel99]

With all that said, this isn't going to be a regeneration story. There are three specials planned for next year. Hopefully, Series 14 will premiere early in 2023 rather than later. After all, it will be coinciding with the 60th anniversary.

Hate to break it to you, but S14 won't air 'til after the 60th anniversary, which will be RTD & the 14th Doctor's 1st episode.

[brucejoel99]

With all that said, this isn't going to be a regeneration story. There are three specials planned for next year. Hopefully, Series 14 will premiere early in 2023 rather than later. After all, it will be coinciding with the 60th anniversary.

Hate to break it to you, but S14 won't air 'til after the 60th anniversary, which will be RTD & the 14th Doctor's 1st episode.

For sure?

Yeah, the press release announcing RTD's return said that he'll be taking the helm from Chibnall, whose final episode is confirmed to be the BBC centenary special featuring Jodie's regeneration next year, for the 60th & the series thereafter.

[brucejoel99]

Episode was ok, nothing special but Ace and Tegan back for the final episode! One more episode left until everyone starts hating RTD again and the “homosexual agenda” attack returns.

Oh, I can't help but dread their returns. Don't get me wrong, I f**king love Tegan & Ace... but they're still returning in a Chibnall episode, after all. His cramming them into his already-overstuffed finale (from the trailer alone: regeneration & multiple arc wrap-ups, Yaz & Dan's goodbyes, the Master, Kate & UNIT, Vinder, Cybermen & Ashad, Daleks; THERE'S A SHI*TON MORE BASED ON SET LEAKS, BUT I WON'T BE REPEATING BLATANT SPOILERS HERE) really rather neuters most of my excitement over their return, given his writing & the quality of his show (I mean, c'mon, when Tegan left the TARDIS because she couldn't stand the violence anymore, you can't have her LITERALLY FIRING A MACHINE GUN in her very next appearance on the show & expect to be praised for it), so no way am I getting fooled into being excited for this episode by Chibnall cheaply wheeling out some fan-wank cameos. At least only one more Chibnall episode still needs to be endured for this collective ordeal to finally be over.

There's just no way to reasonably hope that this episode will be coherent. I wish the cameos had been saved for the 60th.

[brucejoel99]

Personally, I would've preferred that another woman be selected in order to specifically counter the notion that 13's run was bad because it was Jodie, a woman. However, at least the show isn't going backwards by casting Gatwa. Plus, he's RTD's choice, so I have no doubts about his ability to actually pull the role off. Here's to a hopefully great new era!

[brucejoel99]

Don't do that. Don't give me hope:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/steven-moffat-interview-love-way-powerful-sex/

But what does he, as Doctor Who's showrunner for six seasons between 2010 and 2017, think of Ncuti Gatwa, who has just been chosen to be the next Tardis incumbent? "Finally I can admit it," he says. "I've seen the new Doctor in action. Russell [T Davies, who is about to take over the reins of the show again,] showed me the audition tape a while back. He is magnificent: all at once a brand new hero and the same wonderful mad old Doctor we've always known. Trust me, we are all in for a treat."

https://c.tenor.com/mITYlHjpnvoAAAAC/ready-ing.gif

[brucejoel99]

Some new announcements have been made regarding the 60th, mostly because of leaks forcing hands: Tennant is coming back, as is Catherine Tate's Donna, Bernard Cribbins as Wilf, & Yasmin Finney as Donna's daughter, Rose Temple-Noble, with Rachel Talalay directing. There was a plot leak last week that's now lining up with these announcements, but in the interest of this being a plot spoiler-free thread 'til after episodes have aired, I won't divulge those in here but upon request.

[brucejoel99]

My Doctor was back. And it was ace.

It was a certain other pairing & "Now, brave heart!" that did me in 😭