there's a video on youtube that speculates that the big shake-up promised for the finale might be some sort of time-loop reset that loops back to 13's regeneration and all this bigeneration stuff, among other things, turns out to have happened in an alternate reality or something and mostly doesn't count. TBH, there's not much about that which would bother me - although if you WERE going to "reset" who not go back to before all the "timeless child" stuff?
Haven't seen it yet (slow pirates apparently)but since I don't avoid spoilers I... have a lot of questions about things that apparently made no sense but more to the point - this feels a LOT like we just passed over the shark well and truly. I can't imagine whatever the next episode ends up being manages to mop up all this however, I do have one guess (or maybe not so much a guess as a wish?). It would be a relief to me if this...incarnation? ...ended up, at the end of the Christmas special (or whatever comes next), reintegrating with 14 and puts the entire ridiculous bi-generation bullshit to bed for good and between them, regenerates into whoever ends up being the proper 16th. I'm not sure that even then I can overlook all this garbage. I was prepared to say that 15th second season was a huge improvment over the first and now.... Oh, also, I'm NOT a fan of quick exit doctors, especially with such short seasons. I think they ought to have a clause in the contract that if you take the role you do at least 40 episodes (50?) but...I find this one a misfire and won't miss him. I'd have much rather had Chiwetel Ejiofor.
There was not a lot of sense, the first half wasn't bad - RTD finally landing a resolution was a bonus, and, had it left it there, maybe with Ruby as the cypher for the audience for the loss of the Doctor's child no one remembered, there'd have a been a few questions, a few bones to pick, but nothing overly contentious. But he didn't leave it there, did he? Noooooo. We can't have a Dr Who finale without glowy magic stuff can we? So let's go save Poppy! And let's pull some VOY level bullshit whilst doing so! And - for good measure - let's have the Doctor look to regenerate into Rose, in a desperate attempt to get another series greenlit, but cover our bases by not introducing her as The Doctor as the cratering ratings may mean she'll be older than Anita Dobson by the time the next series is filmed. The sad thing is, this has been one the most balanced series we've had for some time - inclusive, without being overly preachy - and a lot of the writing has been good. RTD unleashing his inner post-Davison JNT hasn't helped, and I despaired when the first ep seemed to take off from last series' nonsensical take on an issue, taking an infantile attitude to the manosphere at a time Adolescence was in the news, but after that it really started to get into gear. Gatwa has been excellent as a light Doctor, he was never meant to have much gravitas, this was a regeneration cleansed of centuries of trauma, but could still turn it on when needed. Sure, no Capaldi, but again, he wasn't meant to be. It all needs taking out of RTD's hands, thank him for his efforts, find someone who hates sci-fi and never liked Dr Who and give it to them with a remit to get people watching it again. Stories need to take priority, mythos and posturing can be painted on as needed, and a fan on a mission to be socially relevant won't do that.
Do you (or more likely, the YouTuber(s) you are parroting) know that the Doctor often relates to humans, the things experienced by them and the Earth history he has witnessed/experienced in his centuries of existence? Or that in conversing with humans, he often discusses things in terms that they relate to rather than/in addition to things for which they have no point of reference? If so, why would it matter that this version of the Doctor says he feels "comfortable as a black man in a barbershop in Africa" or whatever the actual phrase he may have used? I feel obligated to say that I am about a season or more behind on Doctor Who so I don't know the context of this comment, and normally I'd advise against commenting on something someone hasn't seen. But I don't think responding to FF here requires me to know the substance of the actual show to point out the flaws in his questions.
"But he didn't leave it there, did he? Noooooo. We can't have a Dr Who finale without glowy magic stuff can we?" Reportedly the episode was written and shot but when Disney (mainly) kept dragging their feet about the future and Gatwa decided to avoid getting trapped in development limbo and so opted out - which compelled Russell (apparently) to shoot and add 20 more minutes to do some resolution on 15th tenure (which, that is, wasn't expected to end) Some speculate that tossing in Piper was basically a concession that they'd not be able to get another actor to commit to 16 given the uncertain situation. Having now seen it, I can see how this (presumably unintentionally) would set up some tidy housecleaning in the next special(?). Not that I have any illusion that Russell would actually do this but this is a way out that makes some sense (inasmuch as any Doctor Who makes sense. Let's say this Piper incarnation (since she's not Rose and not formally identified as the Doctor) is an "exception" like the so-called Metacrisis Doctor that doesn't get a number. She is a sort of incarnation of the "Bad Wolf" person that is being forced by the TARDIS/Vortex because there's a crisis the characters don't yet realize. Something something about the unleashed gods and all that stuff is causing an instability that could wreck the time stream and the Rani only made it worse by mucking with reality and bigeneration was an early symptom of reality tearing. So something something the key to resolving all this involves reintegration and in the climax she has to seek out 14 and they regenerate together into the ACTUAL 16th and the whole bigeneration bullshit is once and forever buried never to be referenced again. And the TARDIS chose Rose's face to create the instant trust relationship necessary to get 14 to fully commit. You clean up the "other Doctor" lose end, you make it possible to decanonize anything you don't like since the Toymaker (and keep what you want), you drive a stake through the heart of bigeneration (including the Rani), and you have an organic way to put Piper and Tennant on the same stage one last(?) time. It would basically upgrade the whole thread of these two seasons without invalidating Gatwa's "Therapeutic Doctor" persona. If you ever wanted to, you could tell a future story resolving Ruby's real mother (not recommended but it can be done) or any other thing that seemed poorly wrapped up* in this era because of the whole broken reality business. It would actually be a very neat wrap up....but Russell never really cared for neat. *like "mavity"
Capaldi-Doctor was from a memory of the other Capaldi character. Once you establish that wrinkle to regenerating, the Doctor can essentially be anyone they damned want.
There are a few rumours circling over that, I suspect we'll find out in a couple of years or so. With retconning, I can't see them doing it - not that I'm against it, especially if it gets rid of The Timeless Child concept, and especially that mavity BS. I reckon she'll turn out to be Rose from the other reality, and they switched because reasons, and there'll be a team up to introduce the new Doctor, as it's fairly clear RTD is hoping nostalgia will bring viewers back. Surprised they didn't have Omega played by Peter Davison to be honest, the underverse having reversed his new body failing.
We had prior to that, Colin Baker for example, so it's only ever come up in the age of social media where everything needs an explanation that would hold up in court. About the only positive thing about a religious upbringing is the capacity to suspend disbelief in any old bollocks.
Also, I resent the fact that he left the Rogue thread unresolved after unnecessarily teasing him in Wish World. I mean, I resent the lack of resolution anyway but I REALLY resent rubbing it in with an unnecessary reference.
There was so much unresolved, and needlessly chucked in. Was Susan just in there as a misdirect? I was half expecting it to turn out that Poppy was Susan's mum, thus solving the granddaughter question. The other half of me was kind of expecting Poppy to be the Timeless Child, meaning the Doctor was his own dad, it would have fit with RTD's sudden infatuation with paradoxes (we had one at Christmas with the code, and here with the certificate) - it would also have meant the Doctor was like Dave Lister from Red Dwarf, which had the following sketch form in my noggin... The sound of a TARDIS dematerialising fills the air, and what fades into view is not the expected blue Police Box, but a red Telephone Box. The door opens, and out exits a Time Lord, waving about a sonic baseball bat, Chameleon, a Cheetah Person, and a hologram of Vislor Turlough, and they're all dressed oddly. Doctor (in a thick Scouse accent): Alright Master, you've messed with the boys from the TARDIS once too often. If you wonderin' why we're dressed as posties, it's because we've come to deliver a twattin' - first class Chameleon: Oh Mr Doctor Sir, I'm afraid there's been a terrible mistake. What I thought were clothes representing British postmen are, in fact, what were left by Evri* delivery drivers. As such we are in the wrong place, the wrong time, and, according to my calculations, lost. Turlough: Can't you get anything right you mechanical moron? We'd be better off gluing a pocket calculator to vacuum cleaner. In fact, let's swing by the 20th Century, and pick up Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder to navigate, couldn't do any worse than you lot. Cheetah Person: Weee-ow, look at all this parcels! You think there'll be better clothing than you bozos made me wear in any of them? I mean, that'd be a Children in Need Dr Who special and a half... *Famously shit delivery company for our non-British members.
Dark Horizons says Dr. Who is dead at Disney, but they're shopping it around elsewhere and "results are encouraging". They also say that numbers were bad during the latter half of Smith, and all of Capaldi. So, the "Whittaker killed it! " myth can go eat shit. https://www.darkhorizons.com/doctor-who-dead-at-disney-but-still-alive/
It makes the BBC too much money to go away for long, so it'll be back in some form with reduced budgets - and Whittaker was never the problem, the writing was. Average season ratings stayed around the 7/8 million until 2013, then they dropped down to 6/5 million, bumped up a bit when Whittaker started (almost 8 million), then fell to almost half that before Tennant came back to bump it up to over 7 million. Gatwa has seen under 4 million, and sliding down. Went watching Nick Mohammed, and he pretty much skewered the BBC in what explains some of the issues with Dr Who. He pitched a sitcom, and the execs were initially interested assuming he was South Asian heritage (he's not) and the sitcom would be about that - when it came clear it wasn't, interest waned - there's no interest in giving minorities agency. There is lots of interest in grovelling to minorities though, because that level of British TV is a pretty shallow pool of expensively educated white males, who feel terribly guilty about that, and strongly feel that we, the viewer, should suffer their sins by them projecting that guilt upon us, so they can feel better about it all. It turns out a light entertainment program, originally aimed with children in mind, is a poor vehicle for that. Add that to writing that has frequently been terrible, repetitive threads (the same face appearing every episode? When did they last do that? Oh yeah, last series), a sad need to make every season a Big Event - you know, I bet Hefner got bored of fucking supermodels, and would have got better jollies boning some semi-interested council estate chav behind a kebab shop, bent over a bin, whilst she munched her way through a doner with chili sauce, that's how I feel about yet another Big Event. It's exhausting. Smaller stories, more personal, more viewer investment. No one is too small for the Doctor to care about and save, instead this last series we started off with a death count Tarantino would be clapping about, wipe away a tear, and get one with it, eh? You've someone with a magic box, who wants to explore, see things through others' eyes, and beat the bad guy. There was a great bit on Reacher were Nealy tells him he doesn't want the bigger guy to beat the smaller guy. That's the Doctor. We're at a point where a guy who kills his enemies is a better fucking Doctor, and he's not got a magic box with all of time and space at his disposal. The morality tales can be weaved in that, but the foundation is entertain. Do that, and he viewers will slowly return, another stunt like with Tennant and you get a bump that doesn't last.
They lost half of their audience over injecting woke ideology into the writing instead of focusing on story and characters first. Of course they’ll blame the fans and probably call them racist for their failure.
No, there has been what you'd call woke in the stories almost from the start. Writers like Hulke, who was an anti-military communist, let his beliefs colour his writing, for example, and we had tales like Green Death, Inferno, and even Loch Ness Monster, which leant heavily into environmentalism. Strong women - for the time anyway - were a feature of the stories. What has changed is that is has gone from informing the writing to informing the viewer. That is what turns people cold, having a pulpit shoved into their face, rather than using allegories, or having an external view on human behaviour, to let people think and come to their own conclusions. The last series dialled that back a lot, and was all the better for it, albeit it wasn't without its flaws. Next step is to dial back on the large scale destruction - the restart was heavily informed by how Buffy was written, well, there was an episode of Buffy where they made light of yet another apocalypse, mocking the TV industry's need to try and top the last big event. RTD might want to watch that on repeat.
Absolutely 100% spot on. We've had phenomenal acting talent for the past three Doctors - Capaldi, Whittaker, Gatwa - but the writing and storytelling has gotten progressively worse with each series. There have been a few standout episodes, but the production has never done the actors' justice. So frustrating.
Just like Star Trek has been "woke" long before that was a word, Doctor Who had been woke long before they dared cast a lady doctor or a Black one. I'd presume that probably since its revival with Eccleston, although I don't remember individual episodes of the series that well.
Ace was heavily coded as bi even back in the Classic Series. And let's not even fucking LOOK at the novels put out during the 1987-2005 hiatus (or since the 1990 FOX movie). Plus messages of accepting people for who they are have ALWAYS been coded into the show - the main character is a being who changes their face and personality on a regular basis, FFS! A friend (there's still enough redeeming about them) who moans about "WOKE!!" pointed out that the show used to subtext all this, so you could watch with kids. I like to give kids more credit than that - they pick up on adult cues VERY well and parents refusing to acknowledge certain people exist/are worth discussing until kid is "old enough" instils "these people are different and thus possibly not people". And some anvils need dropping, etc. I will admit RTD has been a bit hamfisted about it.
I didn't, I literally disproved it by pointing out that it has been in the writing from the early days, and all that has changed is that it has gone from being part of the stories, to lecturing the viewer. Now, I appreciate you're a dipsomaniac troll, who uses the internet as some kind of psychological crutch, and so admission of being incorrect on a message board fundamentally undermines your ego, but thing is, I'm neither your sponsor or your shrink, nor am I about here enough to sate your masochism, so shoo.
Lecturing the viewer is exactly what I’ve been saying about Star Trek and people that say Star Trek has always been “woke” either don’t understand the term or are completely sucked in to the ideology. Thanks again for once again proving my point.
Please define "woke" as you intend it. I'd say that by any reasonable definition, Star Trek has always been about diversity, equity and inclusion. In fact, the original series coined the phrase "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations." Although I guess you got me that I'm "completely sucked in to" such parts of Trek ideology as there's no room for bigotry on the bridge, the concept of outgrowing racial hatred and discrimination, etc. And once again, if you don't find TOS episodes like "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" heavyhanded, you have no business calling anything in modern Trek that. It's not exactly subtle what the writers are saying there.
There's no way to win this argument. If Disney cancels nuWho, it will be because the last two Doctors were not white men, i.e. default characters, with which people, i.e. white nerds, do not particularly identify. The die is cast. No way around it other than to not cancel the show.
