Peter Capaldi is leaving Doctor Who

[vanguard96]

I actually really liked the finale apart from Bill's fate. The Master and Missy's last scene was perfect.

Never liked Simm. She was great best since Delgado

[vanguard96]

Thought is the doctor was gone in most of The Tenth Planet and kinda wanders in at the end saying "I'm feeling a bit frail" or whatever the line is. So the thinking is while he was gone he runs into Capaldi's doctor and they have an adventure while the companions do their thing in the original story. So both regenerate from it. This is from the rumor the first doctor will be back at some point too. Could be so wrong, but I would like it as one last Moffatt timey wimey story.

Based on the finale (at least until Christmas), it looks like you're very likely right. They're going to use David Bradley to play the First Doctor. I watched the 2013 An Adventure in Space and Time and I thought he was really great in it as William Hartnell.

I did mostly enjoy the two-parter finale, but I'm afraid they're going with the hard turnover like with RTD to Moffat. I did not like the change from Series 4 (my personal favourite) to Series 5. It looks like they're going to change the Doctor, companion(s), and the Master. I wish they would make these show runner changes easier on the big fans. I would have at least liked to see Bill as companion for the next Doctor, not to mention have Missy return (although I suppose the latter is definitely possible again as we now know that Simm's Master regenerates into Missy). Even so though, there's no way the Master is dead for good. Missy's apparent death seemed too convenient for the plot. She'll either appear as she has or she'll be back after another regeneration.

Series 4 is great - Partners In Crime, Fires of Pompeii, Silence in The Library / Forest of The Dead (River the big link to 11), Turn Left were great. Not a big fan of the two parter to end it - messy tying up loose ends and falls back on standby Daleks.

Then the specials sort of do it again but with SIMM and Dalton in the End of Time. The latter great in his turn as Rassillon. Waters of Mars was very good. The Next Doctor was solid for a Christmas Story. Planet of the Dead was sort of mixed.

That said Series 5 while it had a plain Beast Below and a weak Dalek tale in its first had the sterling Flesh & Stone / Time of The Angels an Aliens level spin on the Angels. Then Vincent & the Doctor was a good character piece. I am not a big fan of the Silurian story but adore The Lodger. Pandorica/Big Bang is "timey wimey" and large scale. I don't love it but it is better than Series 3's for sure

As for Capaldi's finale, in a sense they did not try to tie together as many loose ends as with Stolen Earth and End of Time. Which was good. I did not care for the evolved Cybermen. Cannon fodder. Simm's Master though deeper here than under RTD took away from the visible conflict of Gomez's Master.

Bill's transformation scenes were excellent TV. Mackie sold it well. Her acting in this exit episode was well played again but too hokey to have a very similar "cheating death" trope of flying away with the Pilot.

Clara & Me had a remarkably similar coda in Hell Bent the wishful, feelgood conclusion after the deep brilliance of Heaven Sent.

For World Enough and Time the network BBC America should stop spoiling the endings this was the worst so far - they had a reveal of key shot at about 45 minutes in of the cliffhanger - other than that it was the best episode of a so-so season story wise which had very good acting from Pearl and Capaldi. Lucas' Nardole was disappointing very nebulous. A sideshow act?

While it did not trample on all of the backstory of Bill like Hell Bent did, it had a similar feelgood ending that took away from perhaps an even more stunning conclusion. Lots of fanfic awaits.

Rachel Talalay directed stories:
Moff's 12th Doc "Closer"

Dark Water 8 /10
Death in Heaven 6 / 10
Heaven Sent 10 / 10
Hell Bent 7 / 10
World Enough and Time 10 / 10
The Doctor Falls 8 / 10

I suspect The Doctors will combine aspects of setup which Moff is very good at and heartfelt slightly maudlin feelings which is in my book not my favorite aspect of his storytelling. Especially come Christmas time.

I don't watch much scripted TV drama so I am not familiar with Chibnall. Should be interesting. But a long long time of speculation on how it goes.

[vanguard96]

HERE WE GO!

The next doctor will be announced after the Wimbledon Men's Final this Sunday!

I hope to God it's not Kris Marshall.

When is the Wimbledon final usually finished? British GP is from 2 pm local time so I hope not during the race

[vanguard96]

As I mentioned to my FB friend today and as Colin mentions if the announcement makes you drop your fandom of DW then you are probably not a fan. I think she will do quite well - though I've not watched Broadchurch. Great timing for that show's ratings - I imagine.

And for DW itself in the UK each season's ratings in the UK fell vs the one before it and the last season was the lowest rated in the new series. Will it be a shot in the arm for the series?

After the initial glow of the new Doctor, and the Doctor being played by a woman will the stories be any good? Will they continue to rely on tropes, cop out endings, wish fulfillment and backtracking on their own story to give happy endings?

Will they introduce red herrings like a big potential mystery for Bill's mom but then do little with it?

Will they introduce characters but then just have them there for a laugh (Nardole) even though character arcs have been the key way they tell the stories?

Will they use the show as a thinly veiled attack on the left's cause celebre of the week - capitalism, sexism, racism, Islamophobia, transphobia, etc with even more diatribes like Capaldi's monologue at the end of Oxygen?

Will they continue to have lots of character heavy stories that have plots and settings are ultimately replaceable with throwaway villains and monsters for a pivotal point in the description of character's sexuality and on-screen romances?

Will another historical classic monster get 'the much needed' modern gender balancing - next could be female Sontarans or Draconians - but then not really tell us much more about them? If it is well done that is what counts - not simply making up numbers or quotas to appear in GLAAD or some gender diversity tracker or get a quote from some random non-fan columnist in Huff Po.

[vanguard96]

But its not a gendered role though!  Never has been (well, since the whole regeneration concept was invented... in 1966!), and now quite clearly never will be.  Your ludicrous comparison with James Bond (which is a gendered role - although I'm actually interested about how a James Bond film with a women lead would go) falls down purely because of that point.

I mean this is a level of closed mindedness about an always evolving TV series that's both very silly - but also expected considering who I'm talking to.

How can you say the doctor has never been a gendered role while James Bond has??? What about when he asked Clara if he was a good man? What about "The Husbands of River Song?" What about being the "mad man in a silly blue box?" Before Missy and that one Time Lord general there was nothing to suggest that Time Lord's weren't a specific gender, and over all those years the doctor was always a man. And no, comparisons to James Bond is not "ludicrous"... how were those two character's gender ever portrayed differently over all these years?

Yet, some left-minded 'multiculturalism' folks are complaining that they did not go far enough by casting a white woman instead of a 'woman of colour' - NPR's commentator mentioned it last night.