Doctor Who 2018 S11*

Not with the same creative team on bored. I mean board.

 

Is it really “politically correct”? Since the Doctor changed gender she’s become less confident, more easily daunted (throwing a big wobbly at the end of the Ghost Monument for no apparent reason), more maternal/caring (always checking in on the well-being of her companions - sorry, her “fam”). You could argue that the show is displaying quite a (small c) conservative concept of the feminine, a disappointingly stereotypical idea of what a female Doctor could act like.

In the last episode, we had an older white guy lecturing a black guy on being a bad parent - that’s not really good optics if the show is pursuing a PC agenda, is it? Yes, we have more companions of colour this season, but most of the narrative attention seemed focused on Graham’s journey as a character. If there was a season arc, it involved leading up to him rejecting revenge in the Tim Shaw showdown.

 

I do agree that The Guardian seems to review the show according to how closely they (rightly or wrongly) perceive it as adhering to their own agenda, rather than on its inherent quality. They’ve been crowing over the throwaway Brexit/UNIT funding gag, for example.

 

Nah, it would take quite a lot to outdo “The Ghost Monument” in the awfulness stakes: after setting up the big scary death planet that’s the final endurance test of the intergalactic Wacky Races, the worst obstacles are some inept shooting robots + sentient rags that are easily incinerated with the aid of a cigar (there go the Doctor’s non-violence principles: speciescide). The point at which the Doctor and her “fam” stop in the tunnels to inspect the scorch marks on the walls and conclude that, yes, they were probably made by the same robots that have been shooting at them for the past ten minutes is the point at which I realized Chibnall really can’t write for toffee; so many repetitions of exposition and weird dramatic longueurs.

 

Clearly not a popular opinion in this thread, but I thoroughly enjoyed "Resolution" (best Dalek story in a decade IMHO), and series 11 as a whole.

 

Good for you. What aspect of it did you enjoy? I thought the human possession element at the start worked pretty well, but it became a lot less interesting once the Dalek was back in its case. I think “Into the Dalek” has been the only decent Dalek story since the Ecclestone-era “Dalek”. It must be hard to write good Dalek episodes, since the thing that makes them scary - their absolute monomania - makes them one-dimensional. Getting one out of its casing was a reasonably good way of coming up with a fresh slant (though a bit reminiscent of Gattis’s de-shelled Ice Warrior episode, perhaps).

 

I caught the first season of Class and though it was awhile ago I didn't feel it was a total waste of time, but it's connection to Dr. Who wasn't very much anyway. Would I watch Class or any Who past Eccleston more than the once? No, pretty unlikely, but there is some classic Who like that as well.

 

I just caught up the the last five episodes. I really enjoyed these and thought the series took a bit to kick in.

Loved the episode the hit on “ Amazon.”

And She is great Dr Who. .

 

I think this is the most boring season in ages. It's not the Doctor or even the fact they didn't seem to want to choose who will be her best companion and make the TARDIS a crowded place.
It's the stories. Every season had its weak episodes, but ever 2-3 boring ones are followed by a good or even a brilliant one.
Not this season so far. The arrival of one the Doctor's arch enemies was surprising nor exciting (or even suspenseful); I begin to think the introduction of an jet-powered warbling dustbin is about 20 years past its sell-by-date.

 

I agree about it being the most boring season and I think that it was a serious mistake to forego having a running story arc. Bookending the series with Tim Shaw didn’t cut it. We needed more of a reason to tune in week after week, and in the past even weak episodes often had little teasers as to what to expect in upcoming episodes. Without a Bad Wolf, Torchwood, Tranzelore, crack in the wall, type thing going for it it fell flat. I thought they were going somewhere with the mention of a “Time Child” in the second episode, but that wound up being nothing.

 

Really enjoyed the new years' episode. It's pretty obvious that was supposed to be the series finale, and while I'm still skeptical of Chibnall as showrunner/writer, at least it ended the season on a fantastic high note and gave me a little more hope for next season, now that they've spent some time with the characters and the new Doctor.

I agree with this, but I think it was a conscious decision to avoid repeating previous patterns and start fresh. I also feel like it was perhaps a decision born out of conservatism, that being with a completely new cast, doctor, crew, writing team, etc, to keep it simple and avoid the trappings of a season-long arc. I really loved that aspect of the show, but I also see the danger of doing so right off the bat and then being trapped by it as you move through a first season. Yes, seasons 1 and 5 did this really well, but I get the decision not to, and I think something along these lines will probably creep up next year.

 

I think the decision to avoid a season arc and multi-part stories was the right one. The season (and multi-season) arcs have been ineffective more often than not, either anti-climactic or needlessly convoluted and protracted (by the time Moffat revealed who blew up the TARDIS I’d forgotten that it happened). One-off stories seem an easier entrance point for a new audience, or a wider audience, which is what they’re courting.

It wouldn’t have taken much reworking of scripts to construct some sort of thematic arc to the season, leading up to Graham confronting Tim Shaw - a few scripts touched upon when/if killing is ever justified. But that would have required some sort of intellectual rigor on the part of the showrunner, and there’s little evidence of that.

 

When Ryan's dad showed up about 10 minutes in I tuned right out. The new Doctor Who keeps going more soap opera when I keep hoping for more sci-fi.

 

LOL...yes. I think they should combine Dr Who and Eastenders, that would be fun. They could go back in time and change things. Would breath new life into both franchises.

 

While you're at it, cross it further with Red Dwarf: The Geriatric Years and you might really have something!

 

It already happened back in 1993. Trust me you never want it to happen again!

 

Actually, her performance reminds me much more of David Tennant early on.

 

Yes, they both have a tendency to gurn!

 

How did it all go so soft after Eccleston helped bring back the alienness? It's like they've all been retreads of Peter Davison from then on. Except Capaldi who just seemed like someone who walked in from a detective series and they made him The Doctor as someone else didn't show up on time. Lets have some real sharp alienness again that's not cuddly, something really worked out by writer and actor. No more jolly jaunts wheee what fun for the kiddies... more bloody menace... and your not sure what this alien guy who says he's good might actually do and whether if you're with him you will still want to be next week! Do the Colin Baker thing the right way.

 

Capaldi is a lifelong Dcotor Who fan who loved the classic series. He wanted badly to play the role and planned on staying a long time (until he was forced out). The series being run-down during his tenure had nothing to do with Capaldi's rendition, and everything to do with atrocious scripts and increasing BBC interference which culminated in the travesty that was this season past.

Can't argue with that. I would also wish that someone who actually knows science fiction would run things so that we don't get absurd scripts like the moon/egg thing, et al. But alas, that won't happen until Chibs and co leave and the BBC pulls its collective head in (and the current 'fam' gaggle is jettisoned).

 

I figured he'd have to show up at some point. The whole thing was like entry level Son & Estranged Dad tv trope i.e. Estranged Dad is in danger, angry son realises how much he loves his Dad and yells out "Daaaad" then the relationship is much better. It's the Dad in danger bit that really disappoints. You can have their relationship rebuild as part of the story line and not have to reduce yourself to that sort of level. I expect it wouldn't so annoying if the rest had been stellar.

 

I didn't know that, or maybe I did but forgot. What's the story there?

I really hate that actually. I suppress my feelings about it but I really hate it.

 

Red Dwarf actually crossed-over with Coronation Street, but unlike that earlier Who Eastenders thing at least it had a few decent jokes.

I didn't know about Capaldi leaving sooner than he wanted, I think I did hear him say in an interview he was a fan but that could've struck me as just a nice thing to have said at the time. His Doctor never quite came together for me, seemed half finished somehow, so maybe he should've been given more time and perhaps more input?

 

Chibnall doesn’t seem to have much of a handle on what sort of Doctor the latest incarnation is. There was that “sorting out fair play throughout the universe” speech in the...first?...episode, but since then the Doctor has seemed minimally interventionist: she didn’t make sure there were any consequences for the magnate who built his hotels over toxic waste, she didn’t attempt to rescue the sister of the chap they met in the first episode. Which is she, heroic upholder of fair play or cosmic potterer who gets involved when it can’t be avoided?

The Doctor has seemed inconsistent on the question of violence, too. We had her upbraiding the chap for kicking Tim Shaw off the crane, but she’d just stood by and let him download the bombs into his system. She was prepared to let the giant spider asphyxiate and criticized the magnate for shooting it for the “wrong” reason; then she left the spider offspring locked in a room to, presumably, eat each other or starve to death. In the first episode, I seem to recall she criticized Tim Shaw’s species for holding their trophies in stasis, permanently trapped between life and death...then the pay-off to Graham’s showdown with Tim Shaw was them sticking him in stasis, grievously injured...effectively a form of fully-conscious solitary confinement for eternity. This was presented as preferable to killing him, rather than a cruel dodge to avoid moral responsibility.

I guess some of this inconsistency is baked into the character - for an exponent or making violence the last option, the Doctor has racked up quite a bodycount over the years - but I get the impression that Chibnall hasn’t really thought through the Doctor’s hypocrisies - they seem like the byproduct of sloppy writing rather than any kind of implied critique.

The Doctor checking in on the welfare of her “fam” seems like the result of some kind of focus group that determined Capaldi’s Doctor wasn’t cuddly enough. The Doctor is an alien; I like the thought that s/he has a moral code but isn’t necessarily very well tuned-in to “appropriate” human behavior, even after centuries of exposure to it. I like the Doctor being decent but sometimes thoughtless or insensitive; that’s (partly) where the impression of alienness or otherness comes from. I miss that.