• DrBen replied to the topic Kerblam!

    Another solid episode, with good writing, good acting, and good directing.  Thirteen continues to impress.

    That said, I’m beginning to miss some of the timey-wimey bonkers elements of previous incarnations (har) of the show, as well as hints of larger (series arc) plot points.  I recognize that that’s not Chibbers’ style, and that he is clearly g…[Read more]

  • DrBen replied to the topic Demons of the Punjab

    Two full boxes of Kleenex this week. Beautifully written, performed, and shot.

    @jimthefish I’ll have to respectfully disagree. This season does have a completely different feel from prior seasons, for a multitude of reasons, but Thirteen is undoubtedly the Doctor in my opinion. A bit more unsure and sentimental, perhaps (like some early E…[Read more]

  • DrBen replied to the topic The Ghost Monument

    Another solid episode. A clever idea and good performances all around. Solid Who themes about teamwork and perseverance and all that.  Chibbers is really digging into the Graham/Ryan relationship to great effect. I hope they will give Yaz more to do.

    Whittaker is undoubtedly the Doctor. I could have heard the line, “Didn’t I tell you? I’m *reall…[Read more]

  • DrBen replied to the topic The Woman Who Fell To Earth

    Loved it!  My 10-year-old daughter is now a Whovian. I agree with those who said that Thirteen is somewhere in temperament between Ten and Eleven, with some pretty clear Tennant-isms at times. I liked that she was light and breezy with the character, as Twelve was a little portentous towards the end.

    All in all a good start and I can’t wait fo…[Read more]

  • @ichabod raises some interesting points about Twelve believing he’d rather die than regenerate.  I would be interested to hear from someone with more subject-matter knowledge than me on the subject of The Doctor as Manic-Depressive.  If you think about, Eleven was ready to die.  He was a Time Lord who had reached the end of his allotted re…[Read more]

  • I need some distance before I know for sure, but Peter Capaldi’s Doctor may turn out to be my favorite AG Doctor.

    I do think the writing during his era has been a tad inconsistent, although, as @jimthefish notes above, not nearly the number of stinkers as in the early RTD era.  For me, the writing was more consistently good during Matt Smith’s…[Read more]

  • @mirime – For all we know Gallifreyan has gender neutral terms and the Tardis just translates as appropriate to make sense to us. Bill points out that they still call themselves Time Lords despite the Doctor saying that they’re way beyond us on gender, but perhaps subtleties get lost in translation

    Well, it’s certainly true in-universe that th…[Read more]

  • @craig – Oh how wonderful.  I am SO looking forward to just listening to her speak for the next 3+ seasons.

    @jimthefish – I think it’s such a difficult balance between fan service and innovation.  I am certainly one of the first to get excited at a call-back to something I know (“Sontarans perverting the course of human history!”), but you are a…[Read more]

  • @habemusdoctorem – Well, in BG Who, all the Doctors used received pronunciation until #7 (Sylvester McCoy), who got to use a hint of his native Scottish brogue.  Tom Baker, for example, is from Liverpool, but I doubt you could find any video of him speaking in his native accent.  I can’t recall any companions off the top of my head with re…[Read more]

  • Agreed, @holodeckguy – I used subtitles for most of Capaldi’s first season.  The music is too damn loud!

    I just love Yorkshire though.  Would love for her to refer to the TARDIS as “luv.”

  • @nick – Broadchurch was supposed to be a particular place, wasn’t it?  On DW, after all, lots of planets have a North.

  • So I haven’t seen Broadchurch or anything else Jodie Whittaker has been in.  Watching the “Adult Life Skills” trailer just now, however, has brought me to what is THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION:

    Is she going to get to keep that wonderful Yorkshire accent?

  • @holly110 – It’s more about knowing your audience.  There are a ton of dark corners on the Internet where you can post about how much you hate this decision and how the show is ruined forever.  A quick perusal of this site, however, reveals a membership of people who view Doctor Who with enthusiasm and hope, who acknowledge its shortcomings but n…[Read more]

  • @juniperfish – That would be fun.  A lot of “my dear girl” and so on.  I have also missed Vastra and Jenny — I still very much want a “Paternoster Gang” spin-off series.  Clara and Ashildr could show up in their Diner-TARDIS for the occasional cameo.

    @mirime – I suspect we’ve seen the last of Missy (in that form, at least) but boy would that be…[Read more]

  • @blenkinsopthebrave – Why aren’t we coming up with bonkers theories about S11?

    Capital idea!  OK, here goes:

    • The S11 premiere will have to deal with the elephant in the room.  The difficulty, however, is that the Doctor is now thoroughly alone with no one to say “you’ve changed!” — no Bill, no Nardole, no Missy, etc.  She can’t go immed…

    [Read more]

  • @frostfair – I agree that it will not be ignored.  Indeed, it is the elephant in the room, so to speak.  I only meant that I don’t think the Doctor’s gender switcheroo will impede her in any meaningful way.

  • The discussion (here and elsewhere) that “if we let things slip, the Doctor could just as easily be a cow or a dolphin or a small lump of green putty I found in my armpit one midsummer morning” reminded me of something important.  No, in fact the Doctor could NOT appear as another species, because it is canonical that Time Lords look human (or…[Read more]

  • Her “sexual bias”?

  • @glasgowboy

    “This concerns the changing of a character that has been formed over 50 years.”

    Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but Doctor Who is a television show about a character who LITERALLY CHANGES into a new person every few seasons.

  • @only1loki and others expressing similar thoughts:

  • Load More