[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@pedant and @bluesqueakpip

She’s definitely nailed the prerequisite Doctor-ey-ness but going solely by that clip and trailers it does still strike me as a little default-setting Doc, a bit too Tennant-ey for my liking. But early days, Smith only really came into his own in the Angels two-parter, I think and Capaldi inListen. But we’ll see how Whittaker settles and finds her feet.

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed —

Oooh, I like that cover. I do wonder if that was part of the thinking behind the design of JW’s look that it lends itself more to caricature and stylisation than PC’s did (or at least initially)…

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@blenkinsopthebrave —

I’d be willing to bet that most of that footage comes from the opening episodes and suspect that those interiors might belong to one of those spaceships we’ve seen here. But yeah, they do look very Star Trek, although like I say they definitely gave me an early JNT-era vibe too….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

New trailer… same dodgy music, tho I like it better this time…. very 80s vibe to it, I think…

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@bluesqueakpip —

I was thinking more in terms of the colour scheme as much as anything. It’ll be interesting to say the least if the MCU has some kind of visual or thematic effect on the new series. Even JW’s costume looks a little bit superhero-ey when you think about it.

But it will certainly be interesting if CC is thinking of doing something with the Key to Time (the first and probably most clunky series arc the show ever did.)

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@janetteb MCU — is geekspeak for the extended universe of the current Marvel films. Am I the only one who thinks that all those coloured crystals positively scream ‘infinity stones’?

@bluesqueakpip — RE. the smoke. That kind of reminds me of the spec fan-made ‘ink’ opening titles that can be found on YouTube and which I thought were really quite cool. I wonder if CC has taken a leaf out of SM’s book and used them as the basis for the new official titles.

With regards to an ongoing plot thread, I suspect it will be likely that there will be something like that in evidence throughout the series….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

Most will have seen it by now, but fresh image for the new series released. It’s looking very MCU to me and that’s by no means a bad thing….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@pedant @blenkinsopthebrave et al

Yeah, the music’s terrible. I suspect the remit is to make Who funk and hip with the teens again tho…

But again, a teaser that’s basically not that different from the last one and really left me feeling ‘meh’ once more. I mean, with only four weeks to go, would it kill them to ramp it up a bit now?

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@bluesqueakpip @missy @pedant

Interesting convo

Mark Gattis, writer of Empress of Mars, has said in interview how his first instinct was to object to the casting of Bayo Gbadamosi – on the pretty much the exact same grounds as @missy objecting to David Copperfield; there were no black soldiers at that time and in that place.

Fortunately, before he emailed, he checked. And discovered that he was wrong; that there had been at least one black soldier on the British side and in a regular regiment. It had been the right decision to cast ‘race-blind’.

Yeah, I saw that and thought Gattiss was kind of missing the point. Personally I’m not sure a slavish adherence to verisimilitude is the way to go anyway (which is often misinformed, as in this case, and far more in Thin Ice.) Seems to me that Gattiss is writing for a different audience than, say, Kipling or Conan Doyle would have. Similarly Iannucci is writing for a different audience than Dickens would have been. And these audiences are going to be much more diverse — and not so much because of a particularly different demographic make-up and more because of relative standards of literacy.

Besides which, it just makes for better drama. If the casting had followed Gattiss’s instinct then the relationship between Vincey and sarge (was it?) would have been little more than a ropey piece of Kipling pastiche. The casting of Gbadamosi  gave that dynamic fresh texture and interest and I would actually argue became the best thing in what’s at best a so-so episode.

Same with Thin Ice. I seem to remember a lot of voices on the Graun moaning about all the brown faces in the Frost Fair crowd. Leaving aside that this was more accurate than people suppose, it actually had a dramatic point in the episode, making Sutcliffe’s later racism to Bill not merely reprehensible but illogical and ridiculous to boot.

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@pedant

Also sorry to hear about the diabetes.

And those quizzes were bloody difficult. (25/30 & 23/25) Looks like that Twitch Marathon paid off after all….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed

Since the airdate has now been made official, I don’t think there’ll be any problems, but I’ve parked the earlier post to save our blushes anyway. And yeah, the Beeb does seem to being worryingly dickish about online reaction these days. I suspect the age of relatively benign production/fan relations that we had in the RTD and even SM eras might be a little more strained now.

But Sundays it is, which strikes me as the right move. Takes Who away from the Saturday evening battleground and gives it a chance to breathe. It’ll be interesting to see if there is any manifest difference in the overnights with the change.

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@pedant

Yeah, I saw that. Moffat’s tribute is wonderful. Pickwoad totally made his mark on the show, which I imagine is not that easy to do after 50+ years.

@tempusfugit

Welcome to the site.

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

Michael Pickwoad, who did really amazing work as production designer in the Matt Smith/Peter Capaldi eras, including a pretty stunning console room, has passed away.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/entries/f6239164-b00e-48ea-824f-94ff6de67428

 

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed

That’s interesting, assuming it’s not just a slip of the keyboard. Personally, I think Sunday might be a pretty good home for the show these days. There’s no point in getting sentimentally attached to the Saturday teatime slot. TV viewing has changed immeasurably since the 60s and 70s.

What will be equally interesting is if they also, as rumoured, make the whole series available on iPlayer in one hit as they did with Hard Sun. I’d be genuinely surprised if they do….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

This is a great discussion and the only thing I could really add to it is ‘what @pedant said’….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

I kind of thought that daffiness and idiosyncrasy have always been a big part of the Doctor’s essential character — even the more serious ones. And is she really supposed to be ‘relatable’ rather than ‘enigmatic’? She’s called Doctor Who, after all (and that is resoundingly canon now)

I also notice that this utterance has incurred some profound displeasure on the Twittersphere, some from no less a mighty personage than Jo Grant herself…..

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@missy

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Hope your OH is on the mend. Good to have you back with us.

@craig

Also sorry to hear of your employment woes. Hope it’s all going OK and that there’s new things on the horizon. I too have pretty much been having a jobless year. Needless to say, don’t worry about the site until you get yourself on an even keel (and if there’s anything I can be doing, don’t hesitate to give me a shout.)

On the brighter side, at least you’re catching up with your movie watchlist…. 🙂

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed @bluesqueakpip @blenkinsopthebrave et al

Yeah, you can’t really tell much from that unlit shot. And it is definitely a step back towards the 9/10 interior, which I was not a massive fan of. Also impossible to tell from this one shot about the sense of scale in the console room as a whole. One of the things I loved about the 11/12 console rooms was their multi-level aspect, that really opened the TARDIS out. But if CC is aiming for little more than a bit of preliminary chat and then out to the adventure a la BG Who, maybe that’s all he thinks he needs. And it won’t be possible to make any kind of call till we see proper production shots.

As I’ve said before, I think CC has made a (totally understandable) error in trying to operate in as much secrecy as he has. RTD learned this the hard way with the 9 regeneration debacle. SM seemed to be savvy enough to drip feed enough tidbits (often outrageously red herring ones) to keep the mad speculators happy and off his case and that to me seems to be the only approach you can take these days.

But what with the sonic, and now this Crystal Maze-type console, I think I’m with @janetteb when I say that every time I get hopeful for the new series, there seems to be something to dampen that enthusiasm…

Mind you, I thought 11’s console room looked insane when I first saw it and I ended up loving it….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

What the Moff did next …

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/time-travelers-wife-drama-steven-moffat-scores-hbo-green-light-1131042

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@pedant

Yeah, I watched it. And as I said above, I can understand that motivation. But at the end of the day, I think it’s the wrong decision. Expecting curiosity about Whittaker to carry all before her is not going to be enough. You need a little bit of wow factor in there too. RTD understood that, and so did The Moff, for that matter.

But as @blenkinsopthebrave says, I suspect we’ll get a few more crumbs of anticipation before October….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@bluesqueakpip —

Yeah, that’s undoubtedly true. Still, I’m sure they must have some post done by now. Maybe not.

Still, the new Star Trek trailer had me considerably more stoked than this did…. never thought I’d say that….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@blenkinsopthebrave

@janetteb

I’m assuming that CC won’t want to go full granite quarry on us but going by the trailer I’m not seeing the much-vaunted new, cinematic look. I thought both the RTD and SM eras totally had a cinematic look — the battle at Stonehenge and Demon’s Run leaping to mind — so I’m not seeing that much of a difference so far. Still, early days.

What is clear from the trailer so far is that Whittaker is on track to be a great Doctor, I think. I’m also incredibly relieved by a couple of the clarifications CC made during the SDCC panel….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed

@blenkinsopthebrave

et al

oooh, I do like that poster. It’s very cool and striking. As to the trailer, yeah, didn’t really give much away. Like Blenkinsop, I suspect we will get a slow drip of teasing details over the summer. Maybe a ‘monster trailer’ nearer the time. I really do hope so. I get what CC is trying to do but that’s two trailers now that have left me a bit ‘meh’. I feel that at least one of those should have left me totally stoked…. but not yet they’ve not.

Whittaker looks likes she’s going to be great though. I’m definitely starting to get that Tennant vibe off her….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed

Best. Domino’s. Ad. Ever.

Rather underwhelmed by that but it is only a teaser. Hope they pull something a bit more impressive out of the hat at SDCC.

Cheers for posting so promptly though.

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed

Wow. I’ve never seen that before. What is that, an used prop from the movie? Apart from looking a bit like some kind of torture implement, it certainly bears similarities to the JW device, whatever it ends up turning out to be. It also looks a little bit like a lightsabre too…..

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed

It’s got three settings. I suppose the sonic jokes with a female doc were going to be inevitable, so perhaps making them too obvious as to be worth making in the first place is a smart move.

If nothing else, it’s a gift for a caption competition….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed

I have to say the goggles are cool but I’m definitely not sure about the sonic looking quite so much like a sex toy….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed

Yep, clip gone. But can that really be the sonic? Looks oddly un-tech and more than a bit, well, phallic…

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

Anyone been watching the Who marathon on Twitch? I was a bit meh about the whole idea to begin with but I’ve become addicted. It’s like watching an rapid crash course in the BG show. Certainly I’ve totally revised my opinion of Pertwee who as many of you on here will know I was kind of snippy about in the past, but he truly is a terrific Doctor. He’s totally shot up in my estimation. To the point that I was genuinely gutted and more than a little initially outraged to see him replaced by that googly-eyed upstart. (Though have to say that Terror of the Zygons confirmed to me that they’ve always been a bit rubbish and don’t quite understand why they’ve since been brought back multiple times over other more deserving monsters.)

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed

Now there’s a challenge for Character Options. Jim The Fish with working dam and glitterball.

Love that pic btw

 

 

 

 

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed —

It’s Monday! pic.twitter.com/f6GnE6zFgV

— Andrew-Mark Thompson (@Andydrewz) May 14, 2018

 

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@bluesqueakpip and @janetteb —

Of course. RL can be a bitca sometimes. Was in no way having a pop at @craig. Just wondering what the state of play was.

That commentary sounds really interesting, Pip. By all accounts, it sounds like it was a hair-raising experience production-wise. Certainly being a script-editor on those old studio treadmill days must have played hell on the old blood pressure.

As to acting styles, yes I think that’s totally true. Like most studio-based TV in those days, oild school Who definitely has much more of its DNA in theatre. AG Who takes its cues from cinema far more.

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

Have we abandoned this one? Hope it wasn’t my uncharitable kicking that’s the reason. It strikes me that a story about a mentally unstable president being influenced by outside agents to screw up your planet couldn’t be more topical at the moment…

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed —

Just binge-finished it tonight and I can guess why it might push the buttons of those who insist on having their buttons pushed. There are a few times when you feel the Moff is enjoying tweaking some particularly sensitive noses. Still no genuine cause for outrage though. Personally, I thought it was marvellous. A genuinely affectionate love letter to the series as a whole, and its fandom. Oh, and the sheer amount of Easter eggs — it’s like the Ready Player One of Who books.

And RE. p123 — yay!!

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@cathannabel —

Sorry a bit late to this party. The 24-hour inspire looks great. Best of luck with it, and with your lecture.

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

If anyone is looking for a fresh Who fix over the agonising summer drought, I’d heartily recommend the new series of Target novelisations, which are adaptations of actual Nu Who stories. Steven Moffat’s The Day of the Doctor is shaping up to be excellent so far, deepening the story we saw on TV considerably as well as being as narratively playful and inventive as you’d expect. I’ve also got Paul Cornell’s Twice Upon A Time and RTD’s Rose lined up too.

It’s like reliving my childhood. But in a good way.

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@bluesqueakpip —

Yeah, sorry if that came across as on the overly grumpy side. (For the record, I did watch the rest of The Aztecs and did quite enjoy it — but just couldn’t find that much to say about it.)

OK, let me try this again and hopefully be a bit less 12th-Doctor-ey about it.

where the Doctor mentions that he’s visited other planets that are far more advanced

That’s interesting. Don’t remember that and I kind of like it as a concept. The idea that they conquered time and then just gave up on technology sounds very Time Lord to me. Very arrogant and complacent.

‘Scenery chewing’ and ‘Tom Baker’ are kind of synonymous, really, don’t you think?

Oh, definitely. OK, maybe ‘phoning it in’ is the wrong way to put it. Maybe I’d say this story is a good example of something that marred a lot of the Graham Williams years — an inability to channel Baker or put a dampener on his worst excesses. This should be the responsibility of a number of people, primarily the producer and the director but the companion helps too. Baker works best when his Doctor’s bluster and arrogance is being undercut and gently mocked by his companion. Liz Sladen was a master at this, as was Lalla Ward, when her time came. Lou Jameson was able to do this too on occasion though I think Baker found it easier to overshadow her by playing the ‘you’re just a savage’ card. And here the Doctor and Leela share barely any scenes at all, letting Baker pretty much off the leash.

Now, I don’t mind the essential humour of Baker’s Doctor — used to love it, in fact. It worked best in the Hinchcliffe era, when it was reined in and provided a nice counterpoint to the gothic horror.  But here it’s too much, as it often would be in the Williams era. Tonally, it only really worked when both Lalla Ward and Douglas Adams came on board, with Adams’ writing working perfectly for this approach and Baker being willing to become part of a double act in the ‘battle of wits’ with Ward.

When I watch this I don’t get much of a sense of Baker taking the story itself seriously. It’s just a backdrop for him to grandstand against. I don’t believe in the Vardans. I don’t believe in the reality of Gallifrey. And largely this is because Baker isn’t that bothered about trying to sell it to me. It feels more pantomimic than anything else.

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

I’ve gone on record before as disliking Gallifrey stories in general and it’s probably this one that I’m usually thinking of as the worst culprit. True, as @bluesqueakpip says, it was something of a rush job but I’d disagree with Pip in that I think it shows in almost every aspect of the production. The set design is awful and if there’s one place that really should blow your socks off visually, it’s Gallifrey. The costumes look tired, the technology, for the most advanced race in the universe, looks ridiculous. Even the TARDIS console room is looking decidedly tatty too. (Although this could be something to do with the relocation for a lot of the filming thanks to industrial action shortly before.)

Performances are not much better. Baker is deep in his ‘phoning it in’ phase but is better when he’s going his ‘Doctor on autopilot’ stuff than in the scenery chewing ‘I’m dead unhinged me’ stuff later in the episode. (Although it’s good to see that Time Lords are not immune to voting in nutjobs as president. Maybe in the next episode we’ll see the Doctor tweeting his random thoughts into the Matrix.) In other performances, Andred is terrible, the other Time Lords are mostly OK. Milton Johns is as great as ever at playing the spineless toady and Lou Jameson shines as Leela (as she pretty much always does).

Apologies for the misanthropy, but to me this is a good illustration of just how bad BG Who could be. OK, it’s not Timelash bad, but it’s not that much better, in my view.

Pah.

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@ddoherty95 —

At the moment, for me it’s Heaven Sent, by a country mile….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@ddoherty95 —

Pretty much what everyone has said above. It’s impossible to have a BEST doctor because they’re all so very different and fulfilled different roles in the show’s history. You could argue Hartnell because he was the first. Or Troughton because his is the template from which the Doctor as we know him now essentially springs. Or Tom Baker because he had had the biggest ratings (or perhaps audience share would be a better way to put it) in the traditional sense of the word.

But everyone has their favourite Doctor, and that might even change over time. At the moment, Capaldi is my favourite Doctor hands down and on the marathon rewatch I’m doing at the moment he just seems to improve with every watch. But at the same time I was a big fan of Tennant until Smith blew him out the water with pretty much his first appearance. Then Capaldi supplanted Smith, albiet in a more gradual way. Who knows, maybe in a year’s time I’ll be swearing blind that Whittaker is my ‘best’ Doctor?

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed —

Actually it doesn’t look as bad on the page as I might have thought (although this is obviously just a mock-up from someone on Twitter) but it still doesn’t have quite the impact as the Moffatt-era one.

Still, it’s growing on me…

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed —

Hmm, not sure I’m loving that. Seems a bit insubstantial for my liking — can’t imagine it looking particularly impressive on book and DVD covers, for example. It’s a bit like the RTD-era logo I suppose but it also reminds a little of the McCoy-era logo and that’s surely not a good thing….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed —

Yes, have been dipping into it. I really wish I could have seen that Moffat panel. Sounds like he was kicking ass.

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@toinfinityandbepond —

bumbags will never be cool. And if they become so, I may have to retire to a pocket universe…

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed —

Yep, it’s definitely got a Tennant-ey vibe about it. And that lamp is seriously weird. Not sure I like it really.

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

Well, not that bad actually. And the first thing that you’re struck with is just how different the TARDIS dynamic is, how low in the mix the Doctor is, as it were. In the context of templates for a female Doctor, this (and the other Hartnell we’ve watched) suggests to me that Barbara is a much better fit than Susan. Jacqueline Hill is once again great here — although Babs is perhaps a bit too light-fingered for her own good. Going a bit Lara Croft on us and no mistake.

In general, I’m afraid I don’t really love the historicals and it’s for a couple of reasons which @bluesqueakpip touches upon above. Part is the sheer theatricality of them (which seems to get dialled down a bit in the SF ones so not sure it can be chalked up to the standards of the time). And it’s not so much Old Vic as bog-standard provincial rep. The sheer amount of ham being served up always ends up putting me off.

The second is that I feel there’s always something vaguely colonial about the historicals — and some of the SF stories of the Hartnell era. That there’s a vibe of nice middle-class white people being injected into other cultures to comment on how odd (and often how wrong) they are. It might just be the authoritarian nature of the set-up in the Hartnell era, that got swept away by the time you get to Troughton, or I might just be overstating it, but there always seems to be something a bit post-imperial about stories like this to me.

On a story note, I notice that Babs and Susan once again quickly make sure they’re not saddled with the Doc. Not fast enough, Chesterton. Not fast enough.

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@missrori —

Sorry, it’s been tough for you of late. And while it’s probably not what you want to hear, it’s probably a bit of a waiting game. As you know, it’s a transitional time for the show and Capaldi (and others from the Moffat era) will be in the process of starting new projects, maybe even putting a bit of distance between themselves and Who, if only for the time being. On the plus side, once we get closer to an air date, the new cast and crew will undoubtedly be hitting the festival circuit and I’m sure there’s going to be lots of cool stuff happening later in the year.

All good things and all that… hang in there….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed —

Yep, there’s been a lot on the Twitterwebs. Wonder if the bumbag is an episode-centric thing (or Whittaker’s while she toodles around set) or a regular part of her Doc’s kit….

Other impression from today’s pics is that I can’t help feel they’ve gone OTT with the scuzzy nature of the new TARDIS. I kind of miss the brilliant shiny blue of Matt’s run….

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@trinajoanne — personally I find the best Who news source is the mighty @wolfweed.

Speaking of which, I don’t have a massive problem with Who moving to Sundays and can even see the wisdom in it. Saturday evenings is just too much of a ground zero for ratings these days. Even if you hold your own there, if something beats you then it can feed into a narrative of ‘failure’. Who was a good fit for Saturdays back when it was 25 minutes and tucked between the sports results and the ‘proper’ evening telly. Sundays, by contrast, is a less competitive field and it’s also a good slot to have with a more captive family audience.

However, I have seen compelling arguments against moving it, namely that it might stuff up BBC America’s Saturday nights and also mean that Australian viewers won’t be seeing the story until early Monday.

And am I the only one who doesn’t see the point in a special edition of Enemy of the World. I know it’s not exactly a story that I’m in love with, but surely there’s other classic stories that deserve a bit more remastering love first?

 

[JimTheFish @replies Time Lord]

@wolfweed —

that video is fascinating, as well as being a total blast from the past. I’m hoping we see more art-related documentaries from Dr Funkenstein in the future.

Cheers for that.

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