Doctor Who 2018 S11*

Neil Gaiman would be awesome. But I can't see him doing this.

 

The Radio Times claims that Chibnall has not been fired and that it’s business as usual in Cardiff. I will stress though that the source is “a well-placed Doctor Who source” and not an official press announcement by the BBC.

Doctor Who departure rumours branded “nonsense” by insiders

 

Doctor Who will never be the same again after season 12 twist

No one's started a thread for the new season or have I over looked it?

 

Hung back from commenting on the first episode of the new series till I'd seen the 2nd part.

Great start. However; the 'new' Master reeks a little too much of the John Simm version for comfort. That's been done. Move on. Unless there's some unveiling to come, I wonder if they've bottled it a bit with Missy? There was more to develop there. This feels like a backward step.

Also, I've mixed feelings about the continuation of everyone the Doctor meets is a famous historical figure. Felt a little educational. Chibnall, stop it. Now.

Still I can't warm to the new 'fam'. Graham feels like the comedy extra and Ryan the worthy cause. Ticking viewer/BBC management 'PC' boxes. Only one I like is the young copper. Oh for another Leela, Victoria or Polly.

 

I tried to read that but it seems to have been written by a ten year old girl.

 

I also hate the episodes when the Doctor goes back and meets a famous person from the past. I think it's far too easy with those episodes and i'm not interested in watching a scifi show that goes back to see Charles Dickens or whoever.[should be about monsters and aliens.]

Personally i won't be watching the series anymore. Like too many shows these days i get the feeling the viewers are being lectured in PC.
Did someone imply earlier that the actress who played Missy isn't in the show anymore? If that's true then it's a shame.

 

Really you should know better this is a kids programme and the BBC remit is to educate and entertain.

 

No, I don't mind it doing that, but it shouldn't be every single story line - which it seemed to be going that way. We'll see how it progresses.

 

I have to say it's a pretty poor show.

 

I agree that the new Master didn't seem to add anything new to the character. I preferred Missy because I felt there were more layers to her character.

I don't mind historical figures being thrown in occasionally, after all the original goal of the show back in the 1963 was for it to be educational. However, there is definitely a limit to how often you can do it before it gets tiring.

As for the companions, I'd say Yaz is my favourite. Having 3 companions is a bit much and leads to problems where the individual characters can't develop as much as they could. Similar problems that faced the group of Adric, Nyssa and Tegan back in the Davison era. Too many companions to let any of them shine individually apart certain moments.

 

It’s an interesting position to take to, on the one hand, complain about the show being too PC and on the other hand complain about Missy no longer being around. When she was introduced as the new Master the first thing people ranted and raved about was that the choice of turning him into a woman was too PC. Just sayin’.

 

Considering the amount of hype, Norton Show appearance, trailers etc., and the dire competition then for the opening episode to have lost 300K viewers on last season really isn't good, is it?

Those laser shoes were not only a completely silly idea, but the special effects were neither special nor effective, as I said more suitable for Cbeebies than primetime BBC1, they must have spent all the budget on sunny locations.

 

Personally I didn't mind the Master being a Nazi, he'd fit right in and there was even a Muslim SS regiment so even that's not the problem they make out and I think they've used pshic paper and perception filters so much we are all familiar now, I didn't mind the performance, I just thought it was weird they just junked Missy, but if Gallifrey isn't safe I guess nothing is. I didn't like them making out that Paris was heavily bombed, when other than a few suburban industrial targets it was left alone, hardly the sea of fire we saw pictured, at least it wasn't Daleks in Spitfires though.

The thing that really, really annoys me is taking a genuine heroine like Noor Inayat Khan who was murdered by the Nazis and so poorly weaving her into the episode, he can track them to the room, but then leaves after emptying a couple of mags into the floor, totally nonsensical and for me it's offensive, stop exploiting heroic historical figures, Rosa Parks being another example, to tick BBC diversity targets, give them the coverage they deserve and make proper documentaries about them instead.

There is actually a documentary about Noor Inyat Khan which makes much better viewing than this episode of Doctor Who.

 

No, he wouldn't. He'd consider their petty squabbles as trivial and he use them for as long it served his purpose. This reboot is very small and simple compared with the original series. I'm sure many people prefer pretty, shiny sets that don't wobble to actual plots and characters. The viewing figures dropped through the last series and started lower for the current. This is nothing more than fan fiction. No one working on the reboot seems to be anything than a gushing fan. Perhaps if they got people who can actually write for a living it might improve. They should s how that that clip of an entitled Chibnall whining to a panel about the state of DW in the '80's. It hilarious and should prevented working for anything like the BBC ever.

Well, documentaries do a whole different job to 'drama' so they're likely to be 'better viewing.' DW isn't one. Nothing wrong with having historical figures. They don't have to be an accurate relection of their life. It's meant to be entertaining. As a nurse I feel offended everytime one is shown in a bad light because it's drama.

 

I wish people would stop citing tv ratings as evidence of popularity or of show quality. This is no longer the 20th Century. Cable is no longer the only way to watch anything and ratings for everything, not just Doctor Who, are going to continue to drop as commercial tv wanes and on demand continues to become the norm and not the exception.

 

Well said sir.

 

After seeing the second episode I'm not 100% confident I'm going to like where this is going but I think this series has much more promise than the last one so I'm giving it a chance. I like Jodie Whittaker but Chibnal's writing and tone haven't appealed to me in the same way that I hoped it would pre-series 11.

 

That's fine, but another one of the BBC's Christmas special's "Gavin And Stacey" got 11.6 million viewers or 49% of the audience so even in 2019/20 there is a large audience for popular programmes on broadcast TV, it's just that "Doctor Who" isn't attracting that audience.

 

And back in 1989 that same show probably would have gotten 30 million not 11. Times have definitely changed. Show used to get cancelled over a paltry 11 million.

 

I am a big fan but I have decided to give up on it now. I echo the comments of Dubmart above. It is so dreadful and I find Jodie painful to watch as the Doctor, pulling her facial expressions as if that is a substitute for good acting.

I struggled through last season but life is too short for watching crap like this.

It's poorly written, poorly acted, looks cheap, there are too many companions, the constant in your face diversity agenda and yes, I do agree it's cheap to use many heroic people of the past in the way they have done.

I'm not some sad incel or something, I have no issue with diversity and love what Marvel have done with Black Panther and Captain Marvel, we need more of that. But the way this show is doing it is painful and cheap and without any style or skill.

Rant over. If you enjoy the show then I'm glad. Hopefully in the future it may become essential viewing again like it has been at certain times.

p.s. I watched Watchmen over the last few months. That is how you make a modern TV sci-fi mystery show, and touch on subjects relevant to modern times. Compare these two shows and it makes you realise how dreadful Who is.

 

BUT, as someone pointed out earlier, Dr Who is a family show and historically (ouch!) has been aimed at a younger audience. It's not meant to be snappy or hip. I can't be. It shouldn't be. Looking at it from the other side, 'Watchmen', as good as it was, could never be Dr Who. At all times remember your target audience. Kids are the lifeblood. Lose them and the show's dead.

 

I think they totally underestimate the kids and talk down to them. The show was hugely popular in the 70's with some very mature content. You don't need to make it the Sarah Jane Adventures to appeal to kids.

 

Yes you need to look at consolidated figures but if you look at those for Season 11, they both trended downwards. So even though current numbers are only for TV viewers, it can still be an indicator of a general drop. Full figures aren't available yet, as far as I can tell, for Season 12 eps 1 and 2 but early indicators do not look good, unfortunately.

 

I liked the first epiosde, haven't seen the 2nd yet.

An alternative view..

Too woke? Nope – Doctor Who is more offensive than ever

 

What a poorly written article that pretty much entirely fails to understand most of the complaints about the current series because Guardian writers obviously live in an entirely different reality from most of us, yeah the real problems with Doctor Who is that it's not diverse enough and the lack of LGBT representation+.

The real problem is that Jodie is a crap Doctor, her character has barely evolved, lacks depth and just comes across as very, very annoying, if you are going to have a female Doctor get someone who can carry it off, Jodie can't, the other problem is that Chibnall can't write good sci fi, if only we had a modern Terry Nation.