Doctor Who

[ladyfiona 2,577]

Ncuti is already filming Series 15 (we just finished S13 + specials) so they are literally a year or more ahead of things. So far i've not seen anything to indicate Indira Varma or The Master based on filming location images.

[The Old Crem 3,582]

Just now, ladyfiona said:

Ncuti is already filming Series 15 (we just finished S13 + specials) so they are literally a year or more ahead of things. So far i've not seen anything to indicate Indira Varma or The Master based on filming location images.

https://variety.com/2023/global/global/doctor-who-indira-varma-duchess-game-of-thrones-1235624006/
 

Duchess in Hindi is pronounced very similar to Rani. 

[The Old Crem 3,582]

10 minutes ago, Commtech Sio Bibble said:

My main take away is that it certainly feels like a soft reboot.

Maybe but the fact there are loose threads from this special that are surely going to be picked up again means it’s unconnected.

[RoverAndOut 4,746]

40 minutes ago, Commtech Sio Bibble said:

My main take away is that it certainly feels like a soft reboot.

 

Which is basically what RTD has been promising. Hence it's Season 1, not Series 15 or whatever we're on now. Doesn't hurt after nearly 20 years back on the screens.

[Bibliogryphon 9,570]

I felt the episode was less than the sum of its parts. It was just a collection of set pieces each one of them performed competently but no sense of flow or narrative.  I liked NPH as The Toymaker and the Spice Up Your Life scene was very well done but it was wrapped up too conveniently.  As soon as we got to the Biregeneration scene all I wanted was for 14 to go and leave the stage for 15. 

 

We know that Bonnie Langford has filmed some scenes with Ncuti Gatwa so I think the stage is set for some continuity but there were also rumours of a UNIT spin off which could use DT ala Jon Pertwee.

 

Wild Blue Yonder was the best of the three specials. 

[Commtech Sio Bibble 2,028]

On 09/12/2023 at 19:48, Commtech Sio Bibble said:

Erm ok... Not sure how to feel.

Having now given it more thought I really really don't like the idea of the bi-generation. For me it breaks a core theme of the show, that being moving on and accepting change. Having any Doctor NOT die at the end of their run makes it so that the show cannot fully move on. I'd also say that the issue is made worse by it being Tennant as I was never a fan of the 'I don't want to go' final line and it now feel like he has got that wish, when I was watching I thought they had fixed the issue by making him accept death this time but by having him alive it undoes that potential arc. I also think it makes The Doctor feel less like one character who changes every few years and instead is multiple different characters. I think it hurts the show more than the impactless Timeless Child.

[ladyfiona 2,577]

Spoiler clip for Christmas Day:

 

Spoiler

 

OH.MY.GOD.

 

I love it.

 

Said musical number in episode clip in spoiler is now currently number 2 in the UK charts, lol. All hail Murray Gold.

[RoverAndOut 4,746]

19 hours ago, Commtech Sio Bibble said:

Having now given it more thought I really really don't like the idea of the bi-generation. For me it breaks a core theme of the show, that being moving on and accepting change. Having any Doctor NOT die at the end of their run makes it so that the show cannot fully move on. I'd also say that the issue is made worse by it being Tennant as I was never a fan of the 'I don't want to go' final line and it now feel like he has got that wish, when I was watching I thought they had fixed the issue by making him accept death this time but by having him alive it undoes that potential arc. I also think it makes The Doctor feel less like one character who changes every few years and instead is multiple different characters. I think it hurts the show more than the impactless Timeless Child.

 

Don't think it's intended to happen every time  (Ncuti Gatwa won't stick around when Jodie Comer becomes the 16th Doctor ). Bigeneration was assumed to be a myth (which suggests it has happened in the past). I'll be honest, although I've been a huge fan of New Who, and I'm perfectly comfortable with Jodie Whittaker becoming the 13th Doctor and the Timeless Child reveal, while awkward and making the Doctor somewhat god-like, I'll accept. But the simple fact is, I remember only bits of Peter Capaldi's run and even less of Jodie's. There's some good, even great, episodes in there, but I've only seen a lot of them once or twice. I've had a lot more on over the past decade, I'm a bit older, so I've not done the umpteen run-throughs I've done of the Eccleston, Tennant and Smith eras previously. Basically, all this is prefacing that what I'm about to say is very vague and non-specific. But in recent years, the Doctor has gone through a lot and its body has been altered in several ways over the past decade. Matt Smith's Doctor got a new regeneration cycle of unspecified length for helping to save Gallifrey, Capaldi's Doctor spent a billion years trapped in the Confession Dial, Jodie discovered she's actually been regenerating for centuries, if not millennia, prior to Hartnell. And then there was that thing where the Master transferred his consciousness into the Doctors body and back in The Power of the Doctor. Is it really that outlandish to suggest that all this could cause a case of bigeneration within the Doctor's stressed and traumatised body? He's retiring to Donna's garden to recuperate for this very reason. I'm curious to see what RTD has planned for Tennant's Doctor - it's hard to imagine that he's left him there "just in case" (but maybe he has?). I suspect, from first viewing, that Gatwa's portayal could be such a force of nature, we may quickly forget Tennant is pottering around with Wilf in the Nobles' house but we'll see. RTD rescued Doctor Who, I trust him not to kill it off inside 3 episodes.

[ladyfiona 2,577]

I trust RTD. I have watched a lot of his post Doctor Who stuff such as It's A Sin, A Very English Scandal and Years and Years and all were amazing. He knows his audience and has a passion for Doctor Who. He's not about to fuck things up. Don't judge Ncuti based on 10 minutes and a sneak peek.

 

If he starts doing Blue Peter competitions to create a monster, then you need to be worried.

 

[Sly Ronnie 878]

8 hours ago, ladyfiona said:

Spoiler clip for Christmas Day:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

OH.MY.GOD.

 

I love it.

 

Said musical number in episode clip in spoiler is now currently number 2 in the UK charts, lol. All hail Murray Gold.

 

[Bibliogryphon 9,570]

16 hours ago, ladyfiona said:

I trust RTD. I have watched a lot of his post Doctor Who stuff such as It's A Sin, A Very English Scandal and Years and Years and all were amazing. He knows his audience and has a passion for Doctor Who. He's not about to fuck things up. Don't judge Ncuti based on 10 minutes and a sneak peek.

 

If he starts doing Blue Peter competitions to create a monster, then you need to be worried.

 

 

During the wilderness years RTD wrote a Doctor Who book where an alien lifeforms had contaminated cocaine and at least one of the Doctor's companions is implied to perform gay sex acts in the backseat of a car. It did not so much push the envelope of what was acceptable on screen, more like rip the envelope to shreds and set fire to the remains. 

 

In all three Specials he has fallen back into his old ways of Deus ex machina resolving the plot thereby robbing The Doctor of any agency. I am hoping that there will be a influx of new writers in the main series that let Ncuti Gatwa give a really strong performance and not just be wallpaper over the cracked plots as CE was required to do

[RoverAndOut 4,746]

23 hours ago, RoverAndOut said:

Don't think it's intended to happen every time.

 

Although RTD's comments since have suggested maybe it has? Not sure what it means for future regenerations though.

[RoverAndOut 4,746]

Fun episode tonight I thought. Loving Gatwa and Milly already and enjoying the questions already thrown up. And who is Anita Dobson?! 

[Sod's Law 445]

Still struggling to process the Fraggle Rock-style musical number in the middle, but then again, this was a Christmas episode and it's not like they've ever aimed to be hard-hitting and gritty drama. My only real problem was how quickly Milly's character seemed to accept the sheer weirdness of what was going on around her (in this case that goblins took her foster sister) compared with past companions who spend a good part of their introductory episode getting their heads around the madness that's going on around them. Otherwise, great cliffhanger and amazing trailer. And how likely that Ruby's DNA test shows non-human DNA...?  

[ladyfiona 2,577]

Possible spoilers/theories:

 

Spoiler

- Ruby dropped herself at the Church to complete some kind of timey wimey thing. (Ruby is her mother)

- Anita Dobson is either The Master, Missy, Susan, The Rani or even an older Ruby making sure things go smoothly. She's too much of a big actress to just be a random elderly neighbour.

- Mrs Flood = Daughter of River, Grandchild of Amy Pond etc.

- "Mavity" keeps hanging around so that is having an effect.

 

 

[Sod's Law 445]

On 26/12/2023 at 01:54, ladyfiona said:

Possible spoilers/theories:

 

  Hide contents

- Ruby dropped herself at the Church to complete some kind of timey wimey thing. (Ruby is her mother)

- Anita Dobson is either The Master, Missy, Susan, The Rani or even an older Ruby making sure things go smoothly. She's too much of a big actress to just be a random elderly neighbour.

- Mrs Flood = Daughter of River, Grandchild of Amy Pond etc.

- "Mavity" keeps hanging around so that is having an effect.

 

 

The first one I can well see being the case, or alternatively a future version of Ruby herself (although that wouldn't explain their different accents). The Master? Probably too soon/obvious. We already had the tease with the ring scene at the end of The Giggle and I think the Master is ready for a couple of years off to build up to his/her eventual return. And she's highly unlikely to be the Rani because the rights to that character aren't owned by the BBC and whoever owns the rights hasn't given permission. And River Song is a Moffat character through-and-through. I don't think anyone ever wrote for her except Moffat himself. 

 

Given that this is meant to be a 'soft reboot' for the show so that new audiences can be scooped up without having to be versed in the 'lore' of the show, I'd put my money on her being a new character of Russell's creation rather than a returning Moffat-era or obscure 'Old Who' villain. 

[ladyfiona 2,577]

2 hours ago, Sod's Law said:

Given that this is meant to be a 'soft reboot' for the show so that new audiences can be scooped up without having to be versed in the 'lore' of the show, I'd put my money on her being a new character of Russell's creation rather than a returning Moffat-era or obscure 'Old Who' villain. 

 

First rule of RTD is never believe anything he says. I know from following social media/interviews etc that he and Moffat still talk. Moffat even talked with RTD about scrapping an bit in the opening credits for 14 and Donna. You would think Weeping Angels were just a Moffat thing but yet Chibnal still used them.

[Dying Probably 578]

On 26/12/2023 at 01:54, ladyfiona said:

Possible spoilers/theories:

 

  Hide contents

- Ruby dropped herself at the Church to complete some kind of timey wimey thing. (Ruby is her mother)

- Anita Dobson is either The Master, Missy, Susan, The Rani or even an older Ruby making sure things go smoothly. She's too much of a big actress to just be a random elderly neighbour.

- Mrs Flood = Daughter of River, Grandchild of Amy Pond etc.

- "Mavity" keeps hanging around so that is having an effect.

 

 

 

Spoiler

Potentially the funniest answer would be just "Dimensions in Time".

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Dying Probably
Spoilering

[The Old Crem 3,582]

18 hours ago, Sod's Law said:

The first one I can well see being the case, or alternatively a future version of Ruby herself (although that wouldn't explain their different accents). The Master? Probably too soon/obvious. We already had the tease with the ring scene at the end of The Giggle and I think the Master is ready for a couple of years off to build up to his/her eventual return. And she's highly unlikely to be the Rani because the rights to that character aren't owned by the BBC and whoever owns the rights hasn't given permission. And River Song is a Moffat character through-and-through. I don't think anyone ever wrote for her except Moffat himself. 

 

Given that this is meant to be a 'soft reboot' for the show so that new audiences can be scooped up without having to be versed in the 'lore' of the show, I'd put my money on her being a new character of Russell's creation rather than a returning Moffat-era or obscure 'Old Who' villain. 

Spoiler

A rumour going around is the Valeyard is returning. 

 

[Sod's Law 445]

1 hour ago, The Old Crem said:

  Hide contents

A rumour going around is the Valeyard is returning. 

 

Spoiler

Not impossible, but again, it's going to take a lot of explaining for the new viewers that the current production team wants to attract to the show. Maybe if the 14th and 15th Doctors can both regenerate, then this is a future incarnation of 14 who's gone rogue? 

 

[prussianblue 1,026]

I'm continuing my Hartnell run and I endured The Gunfighters yesterday. Not keen on westerns anyway, and it didn't change that. I lost track of who was who (no pun intended), and I was mostly bored to tears. But dear god the worst part was that fucking song! How anyone in the production thought it was good enough to use once, let alone another ~500 times. Lynda Baron was also a weird choice of vocalist.

 

Onto The War Machines now and a considerable improvement in the viewing experience. Hartnell in a fab Swinging London nightclub, the dire Dodo soon to be gone, and Michael Craze doesn't hurt to look at.

[Sly Ronnie 878]

36 minutes ago, prussianblue said:

I'm continuing my Hartnell run and I endured The Gunfighters yesterday. Not keen on westerns anyway, and it didn't change that. I lost track of who was who (no pun intended), and I was mostly bored to tears. But dear god the worst part was that fucking song! How anyone in the production thought it was good enough to use once, let alone another ~500 times. Lynda Baron was also a weird choice of vocalist.

 

Onto The War Machines now and a considerable improvement in the viewing experience. Hartnell in a fab Swinging London nightclub, the dire Dodo soon to be gone, and Michael Craze doesn't hurt to look at.

 

The interesting thing about The Gunfighters is that it is the only story in which Hartnell's costume doesn't seem out of place!

[msc 18,437]

I love The Gunfighters. Cracks me up no end.

[prussianblue 1,026]

New year, new doctor. Now working my way through the Patrick Troughton stories (currently The Faceless Ones). He's not one I was previously very familiar with, which I put down mostly to him being the main victim of the wiping policy.

 

I know he was my mother's favourite doctor, and I am enjoying his take on the role, but it seems funny that I'm experiencing him far more as an animated character courtesy of the recreations. Will I take to the real man as much? 

[RoverAndOut 4,746]

This is exceptionally well done and should give a good few of you a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. It was thrilling to me, and I'm nowhere near as familiar with her as some of you lot (I really need to watch more Classic Who, especially now it's on iPlayer!)