The Power of the Doctor

[Devilishrobby @devilishrobby]

@oblique having read the articles especially the RT article which seems to have down played Disney having overly too much content control and emphasised that the deal is more about them taking over the overseas distribution of Who. Now whilst I may have issue with the apparent domination of the streaming  side of the entertainment business Disney seems to be embarking on, as I think I’ve stated  else where there may be positives in this for both the who production  team and the BBC in that this brings  funding to the show and irrespective of everyone’s feelings on how the BBC is funded the next few years are likely to be tough.It also will possibly provide a larger audience base especially outside of the UK where Who is more of an institution, which in part may help prevent Disney trying to change the the look and overall content. Let’s be frank Disney have had a history of trying to “famlifying” shows content when they’ve taken over or have become involved in existing shows but Who at its core has always been a family orientated show and let’s face it who wasn’t that little  kid behind the settee at some point😉 so Disney shouldn’t have a problem. As for the GFR article it seemed to be more about hyping up fan reaction than actual facts.

[TranslatorCircuit @translatorcircuit]

@oblique

Hidden news! As Doctor Who will be financed by and shown on Disney+ , doesn’t that mean that in future each Doctor Who series will be only six episodes long, as this is the standard length for a Disney+ series?

[impuredalek @impuredalek]

Don’t know how I feel about Disney+ buying the rights. Bit of a controversy lol

[Devilishrobby @devilishrobby]

@impuredalek my understanding Disney haven’t bought the”rights”  the bbc keep them they’ve just bought the streaming distribution rights. Unlike the rights to produce the show which as I’ve said the BBC hold and others like the Terrance Dicks Estate (I think it is) who hold the copy right to the Daleks so Disney can’t just go and produce their own version of Dr Who (thank god). They do however hold the overseas streaming and distribution rights through their Disney+ platform as part of the deal it appears they’re injecting a s**tload of money into the future production of Who though how much creative control  hasn’t been actually been specified, personally I hope the BBC are keeping overall control and I don’t think RDT would stand for too much interference.

[impuredalek @impuredalek]

thank god

[Captain Lando @captainlando]

Thank God Jodie Whittaker is done she made the show unwatchable…. so happy to see Tennant back and super excited for the 15th… dw needs to stay away from the woke narrative though

 

[Captain Lando @captainlando]

Oh Thank God Jodie Whittaker is done she made the show unwatchable…. so happy to see Tennant back and super excited for the 15th… dw needs to stay away from the woke narrative though… just stay true to who

 

[TranslatorCircuit @translatorcircuit]

@captainlando Jodie Whittaker was fantastic as The Doctor! Of course, whenever there’s a new Doctor I can’t help thinking if it really is The Doctor, but I certainly remember feeling in Jodie’s second episode “The Ghost Monument” that she was The Doctor, saying the type of things The Doctor would say.

Unfortunately, lots of people started a propaganda and brainwashing campaign against Jodie! I think one of the nastiest critics was bowlestrek on YouTube, whose account has now been “archived”! It’s not difficult to imagine why. He criticised her facial expression and everything imaginable. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d made a video saying that Supergirl should be played by a male actor and the character name changed slightly to Supergale, using super breath lots of the time, or Supergael, originally from Ireland, or whatever, just so long as the role was played by a male actor. He also hates Star Trek: Discovery.

I also think that The Timeless Child storyline is a stroke of genius to make the whole concept of The Doctor progress and refresh the series. Of course, lots of people who gave up watching Doctor Who during The Thirteenth Doctor’s Era have never heard of this, so I think it must be mentioned in some future stories, so they have to go back and watch what they’ve missed then re assess it. I think the relevant episodes are “The Ghost Monument”, “Fugitive of The Judoon”, “Ascension of The Cybermen” and “The Timeless Children”, although it was mentioned or at least hinted at in a few other episodes.

I’m very disappointed at David Tennant returning. This is because it’s just playing it safe, even though it’s only for a few episodes.

At the moment I’m cheering myself up by watching as many classic Doctor Who episodes on Britbox as possible. This has reminded me that in the First and Second Doctor’s Eras the BBC actually managed to produce 40-45 episodes of Doctor Who each of about 25 minutes per year! What happened to change this? Who made the decision? It was cut down to 25 episodes per year with the beginning of The Third Doctor’s Era. People might say that nowadays it’s impossible to produce even 40 episodes of any TV series, but the BBC manage to do this with Eastenders (which has featured lots of Doctor Who actors), Casualty, and Holby City, so obviously it’s not impossible. Of course, these series don’t have many special effects, but I’d prefer less special effects if it meant more Doctor Who. Later on classic Doctor Who was cut down to just 14 episodes per year before being axed completely!

I think there should be a spin off series from the classic Doctor Who featuring the further adventures of Romana, who told The Doctor as she was leaving that she’d continue to do what they’d always done. The Doctor replied “What, with no TARDIS?!”, then she said she’d learn to use the Gateway, like The Tharils in this story did. I think this would be a much better series than the adventures of Nyssa, which I heard a rumour about earlier in 2022.

 

 

 

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

Thoughts after first watching The Power of the Doctor.

Well that was a LOT better. Partly because the threat was finite and comprehensible and not completely OTT like the Flux. Partly because Whitdoc’s irritating mannerisms have got cut back and only popped up a couple of times.

Quite what Rasputin and the Winter Palace had to do with it all, I can’t figure out. Seems like there was going to be a Russian Revolution plotline that got lost.

The episode actually got better as the episode progressed and the excesses of Chibs’ imagination settled down a bit.

I groaned at the captive child and was considerably relieved that it was only camouflage. The Qurunx is a neat idea, I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of it, but I guess it did what was needed of it plot-wise.

Bringing back Ace and Tegan was shameless fan-service but worked okay.
The idea of the recycling previous Doctors sounds really tacky but actually worked surprisingly well. And the idea that they were just voices in the Doctor’s head was, I guess, the most practical way to do it (rather than having a mass intersection of the various Doctors’ timelines, which would have the practical problem of them all remembering the encounter when they returned to their part of the series. Though I think the Moff came up with a fix for that in Day of the Doctor.)

I still think Ruth would have made a better Doctor than Whittaker.

Minor quibble, why did Graham have to pop up inside the volcano for a pointless bit of comedy business that just took the edge off Ace’s guerilla warfare attack? She certainly has upgraded Nitro-9 judging by the way it blew all the Daleks out of the volcano.

I quite like that Yaz learnt to fly the Tardis. Clara did. Not sure if anyone else. The Companions’ Committee for Operating the Tardis caused me to groan the way it did in The Stolen Earth, though I have to say its implementation – each one just pull one lever when commanded – was a lot less comic-opera cringey than Stolen Earth was.

I thought Yaz’s farewell was quite well done. In fact Yaz was by far the best Companion of this Doctor’s tenure.

And Companions Anonymous was an interesting idea, and I suppose surprisingly credible – a reunion of past Companions because who else could they talk to?

The transition into Ten again was remarkably painless compared with Twelve to Thirteen. No burning Tardis crash-diving. But I do hope Ten re-models the interior. I haven’t noticed those columns nodding recently like some bizarre sex toy, maybe someone realised how absurd they looked and switched them off.

So overall, one episode I might watch again.

Now to see what everyone else thought.

[janetteB @janetteb]

@dentarthurdent. We are still to watch this episode. I have been putting it off but we plan to watch it before the specials air later this year. Your review gives me more confidence about it. I have decided not to watch the Flux series which saddens me. The destruction of Gallifrey lost me. But I do want to see J.W’s final episode. I agree that Yaz was the best of her companions. She tended to be pushed into the background in the first series which was perhaps to her advantage as her character was not as inconsistent as Ryan and never became annoying like Graham. I wish thet her family had featured more too.

So Thank you again for the review.

Cheers

Janette

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

Hi @janetteb Yes I agree that Yaz was probably the best-written of the companions, eventually. It was maybe fortuitous that she took a back seat for a while until the writing had settled down a bit. And I did like her family (unlike Martha’s!)

I don’t think you’re missing much by skipping the Flux episodes. I found the whole story way too confusing to follow. However, the first of the post-Flux specials, Eve of the Daleks, was quite good and worth a watch. And Power of the Doctor, as mentioned, is not bad, and worth it for the curiosity value of seeing Ace and Tegan and various Doctors again.

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