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26 July 2026 at 11:01 #78805
Right. Chib. The socio-economic years.
The history eps: Rosa, Demons… yes there’s commentary there but, because it’s buried in the (recent) past, you can (if you want) mentally sanitise it to oblivion. And, worthy though the ambition is, the narrative of Rosa is a problem. Old white bloke on bus. Then we get proper risk in Witchfinder: only it’s strangely undersold; also quite badly plotted. Most historicals are unsatisfactory.
Then Tesla: dunno what that’s about; and Villa, which was very much about the arc. This fatally detracts from what seems a superior script.
We got the Crimean War later but The Flux and the final specials stand alone. Well alone.
The new year specials were the Dalek zone. Yawn.
Arachnids, Orphan and Praexeus were essentially concerned with the environment. Oooh! None of them great stories.
Otherwise series11 was basically a new monster arc: Predator with a tooth fetish rather than cloaking; nasty military hardware aplenty. But there were some nods to sexual and generational politics. It’s interesting that it’s not just RTD2, but then it never was.
Before this, Moff and his mates gave us: scary old people in Amy’s Choice; blokes being idiotic in a flat-share; Nixon! and rogue CIA bods, faith on a space ship; much major sexual politics with Amy. And then a lull in series 7 until we get The Soldier Arc. Thereafter, The Zygon two-parter. A ‘nation of strangers’?
Series 10 really HAS to bring us race and gender: Thin Ice (pretty imperfect), Knock Knock, the unrelated but wonderful capitalist critique of Oxygen, revisited magnificently in the final two parter, and Extremis and the slightly undersold Monk two parter.
This of course is when vulgar noises off became (retrospectively) more noticeable. Thereafter, the new hostility is otherwise all about those creating a specific narrative about RTD. ‘None of this is real!’ as Sylvia would say.
Back to Chib. Kerblam is Amazon, I think… sigh… I can’t go on. This is not a terribly impressive record is it? Hard to distinguish from the other nonsense really.
Except ‘It Takes You Away’ was pretty wild and unique. Or just very odd. Can I watch it again? Yeah maybe.
Season 12 sets up The Timeless Children and you know what I think of THAT. Spyfall reintroduces the Master, who comes equipped with the Delgado/Pratt/Beevers/Ainley TCE. Curious. The Doctor rescues Noor Insyat Khan. Except she obviously doesn’t, does she?
Is all this an attempt to tone down ‘The Plan’ (if that exists)? Because it looks like elements of it, the Cyberman and Gallifrey, Missy and the Cybermen, and ‘I knew him when he was a little girl,’ survived the RTD/Moff era.
Even Tecteun is an alternate origin myth; not necessarily gospel. Maybe a deliberate red herring? The family jewels stay in the safe deposit box.
The Fam are, of course unsupered, companions. Just people. But they didn’t have to be dull, dull, dull. Alright, Thasmin was quite touching, especially the Bedknobs and Broomsticks sequence… er hold on! Was that Chib’s little joke?? Like Moff’s puddle? RTD and concrete slabs? And mopping… remember the mopping.
You’re ok, Chris. I can imagine I didn’t see it.
The two ‘nu’ non/supered companions before then were Martha; maybe Bill as the character was developed. But she IS cooking chips while Missy is in the basement. You couldn’t make it up.
Was it Chib then? Or The Corp? They wanted editorial control. There you are: ultimately a right mess. Though, yes, the ratings were better, or at least as good as Moffs.
But things have changed. Are the ratings recoverable? Can you really prolong a franchise through making it tedious and incoherent?
Of course, Trek is also in trouble. The old narratives are possibly now irrelevant. You REALLY want Daleks? That’s like using tanks against drones.
So, how do these Streamers stay so shiny wonderful. By NOT taxing you. Funny that.
I can’t watch all of it. I can’t afford it. But, from what I have seen, what do I find? Silo gives me ‘bad’ creeps. I can explain that if you want. Severance is wonderful but a slow dark burn, though not as a slow as Pluribus. Now, this looks a million dollars and it really wants you to appreciate every inch and every single second.
Hey! This is ‘A for Andromeda’, ‘Bodysnatchers’, ‘Soylent Green’ and ‘The End of Summer’ (classic ‘50’s sci-fi spot); everything I could smugly want and SO intelligent! But one entire episode seemed to be a woman chipping golf balls through all the windows of the varied condominiums of Albuquerque, while a Paraguayan gent learns to say ‘yellow dog’ in English as he takes a road trip through South America.
Beautiful. Bit boring. Maybe self indulgent.
So, what are you going to do with our 45 minutes of ideas, humour, comment and horror, BBC?
25 July 2026 at 17:12 #78803have you SEEN some of my posts?!
25 July 2026 at 10:34 #78800I’m afraid the BBC didn’t want Moffat anywhere near Ladydoc. And I can see their point.
I also suspect they loaded Chib’s tenure with many, many stipulations; or maybe he thought The Fam up all on his own. BUT either RTD and Moff were both phenomenal auxiliary script editors (and I really don’t think that’s Moff’s forte) or Chib CAN’T be that bad a writer. For all the tick box soap features of Hungry Earth and Cold Earth, he could spin a half decent yarn. So, wherefor tedium and incoherence?
Not really bothered about the Tardis; it’s a prop. Some people loved the original Crowded Tardis but, for all the lunacy of T’floox, Dan did usher in an improvement. A few tweaks and some half decent scripts and Jodie might have been fine. If not a Earth Shattering.
And then The Timeless Children. I am NOT saying either the rehabilitation of Gallifrey, or the new cycle of regenerations were sparklingly perfect solutions, but to take both down in one plot move is absolutely shocking. I don’t understand the sheer hostility. Unless Chib… and The BBC… really thought Moff was an existential threat to the show??
But the hostility IS out there. Moff DID go away and write Douglas Is Cancelled.
24 July 2026 at 20:04 #78797The ‘23 specials contained a few clues. Sylvia runs around yelling ‘none of this is real!’ For forgetful Donna’s benefit. This is BEFORE Mavity raises its now possibly completely irrelevant head.
Und zen ze Toymaker scene mit der outrageous Central European mugging. This would seem to be a straightforward catchup. Hmmm. Really?
Yes Rose and Donna were ‘supered’ companions, and Martha was NOT, and all the better for that. There again, Moff might be considered quite sadistic to ‘his’ companions. RTD’s lot did live more or less complete lives. Rose’s was presumably an alternative true love story in Bad Wolf Bay. Donna had a fourteen year hang-over. Martha got Micky. Aaaah.
Bill gets a return as part of Testimony. Aren’t all women made of gIass (as it were)? Is Clara the actual girl who points 1 to the ‘correctly malfunctioning’ tardis in ‘Name’? None of that tine-stream fragment nonsense. Amy presumably gets to witness bebop, beat poets, greenwich village, ceebeegeebies… does that qualify as enrichment?
The toymaker makes an accusation, surely? So, is RTD also? Meta? Could be. Of course, we didn’t know how the return would work out…
The Flux… I reckon that’s Streamers, that is. It’s what Chib is being told. By The Man. It’s where yer wanna be, honest Chris (he’s… unsure). We’ll see yer right. (Heavy cracks knuckles) I got this biltong cheap dahn the market. There yer go.
Chib did a press release recently. When I feel stronger I may take a look. But my first impression was ‘meh, meh, mumeh, meh, meh…’
24 July 2026 at 14:41 #78795I observe these were criticisms made of Moffat. They are aren’t my accusations. But, yes, RTD was also quite up for all that. Personally, I don’t really understand the angst, other than it being the natural tension of a kiddult scifi show. To me it’s Hinchcliffe/Holmes vs Whitehouse or JNT/Seward vs Grade.
I went out and researched some details: and there you are. Moffat seems to have got it in the neck, because of falling ratings and the burgeoning streaming scene. Moffat was aware of this and kicked back, which didn’t win him any new friends, but it entertained me.
Now if someone said ‘Time of The Doctor’ was barely coherent mate, or your sub edding of ‘Kill the Moon,’ ‘Nightmare in Silver,’ ‘Sleep No More’… etc left much to be desired, I would say ‘yeah, they have got a point.’
But are you seriously going to what? Rigorously define and distinguish humour, suggestion and innuendo, to protect the kiddie winks, until every character is two dimensional and speaks soap opera cliche? Because, as you may have noticed, I’m not particularly keen. Or you could remove the politics by making The Doctor a woman. Absolutely no reason why that shouldn’t work. Is there?
But, tone it down Chris. Ah. Well…
@thane16. I find it hard to discern any Chib message or theme, perhaps because I’m not eager to go back and check. It’s hard work. Or do you mean a societal theme was meant to replace Companion Interaction? Could be. Big push to ‘The Doctor is asexual’ claim accompanying RTD2. That IS a retcon. Also, once The Corporation or the showmaker do retreat, there’s no way back. ‘You’re lecturing me.’ ‘Ere luv! Where’s the Dalek?’
Maybe RTD thought he was brought back as the saviour of the show. He seems to have designed an arc accordingly, chock full of meta, aimed at the haters. And an incomplete arc explains some of the odd imagery. Maybe he took the brief and tried to us it to scare off Disney (surely not?)
Whatever was planned, it’s not going to happen now. Was he deluded? Dunno. Someone at the corporation signed off those press announcements. Someone changed their mind. New chairman 2024. New DG May 2026.
23 July 2026 at 20:58 #78783@thane16 @dentesrthurdent @whohar
Thought I’d move over here…
Right! Neither I, nor Cardinals Fang or Biggles quite expected that!
Personally, I start off with the existential question ‘why should any right-minded Whovian be u fuly critical of Moff?’; and ‘how could the show written by Chib be both SO tedious AND incoherent.’ It shouldn’t be possible.
Not saying Moff was perfect but, as he kind of pointed out himself, he entertained.
The pointiest criticism (aside from the disintegrating first arc and the scattergun script edding) is levelled at the scene in ‘Listen’ when Clara is seen to observe approvingly her own derrière. Like the ‘The Test’, I can only observe it is there.
Bloke Adjuncts? Rose and 9/10 get on famously. Martha is disappointed. Donna was designed to confound hanky panky. Amy is, improbably, the Doctor’s mother in law, River is his (psycho) wife, Clara is… um… his ‘guardian angel’?? Skip Ashildr…
And Bill does the chips. Though she does have a good long look at the pictures of Susan and River on 12’s desk. And though she doesn’t know it, Missy lurks in the basement.
And her mum was (very briefly) in Day of The Doctor.
Was this tendency because the Doctor was (then) male, and the companions, as ever, were female. Or did Moff and RTD utilise ‘a plan’, whereas Chib thought he didn’t have to (though I would argue he did).
And then Chib got the Ladydoc. And The Fam.
22 July 2026 at 10:06 #78775The Test. I did kind of say Moff didn’t really care. Do I? Well, it’s there now. You would think it might be successfully extolled at some point. And yet examples are few. To the extent that Dan ended up giving Yaz the talk… I mean… ah???
But Moff (and Jamie Matthieson) did lock Clara and Maisie in the baggage car of The Orient Express in Space, where Maisie is heard to say ‘here we are, talking about some man.’ Now, I think that’s hilarious. The current Commissioner of Drama (I assume he’s still there) wasn’t yet in place.
Some people were annoyed that Moff’s companions were obvious bloke adjuncts. They have a point. I’ sure Bill ‘molested by a puddle’ also had some people frothing. It’s either that or laugh. Moff was a trooper for carrying on for another two years, but he wad on his way. All hail The Commissioner.
It’s not so much Hell Bent, though The Diner, the Star Wars Elevator, and the bust chameleon circuit is begging for Occam’s Razor to fall. I’m thinking Day of The Doctor (Gallifrey), Time of The Doctor (regenerations), and Twice Upon a Time (the First and Original). I think some people questioned the elegance of the first two solutions… ‘Time’ was a bit duff… but the quality of Moff’s other invention and writing bore all before it.
And I actually think RTD was on board re Gallifrey… and indeed Chib’s Cyberlords also echo The Doctor Falls; maybe so does Missy turning up with Gallifreyan tech and an army of Cybermen. It seems to me there was a plan. And Chib was encouraged to turn it against itself.
The Plan puts Who beyond the BBC’s editorial control and that means perpetual trouble. Right wingers don’t like ideas. That’s the kind of thing that gives people funny ideas. But sci fi IS about ideas. Hmmm. Can’t you make it more like a soap?
People only want to look at David Tennant anyway.
21 July 2026 at 15:14 #78771Moff: you know where my sympathies lie. But there are those who cannot stand him, consider him ‘unwho’. He clearly wasn’t bothered what side of the Bechdel Test he landed. I am inclined to think an awareness of the principle of the Test should be enough. In the words of Arcade Fire: ‘I guess we’ll just have to adjust.’
BUT the plots did sometimes get out of control. And most people DID tend to live. The Toymaker’s repeated comment, ‘well THAT’S alright then’ was telling. At least it wasn’t the bemused tone that greeted Der Floox.
The Timeless Children was however aimed deliberately and squarely at Moff: Gallifrey, the regenerations and ‘the original’, not all of them particularly elegant it’s true, but all flushed away in a single ep.
I’m not sure how you find any message at all in Chib. Perhaps my attention span was defeated by his improbable combination of tedium and incoherence.
20 July 2026 at 22:21 #78769Hi!
I went off on one a bit. How could RTD speak so convincingly about the special that wasn’t? The BBC authorise the press releases don’t they?
But, what with the dire ratings, it was hard to see how there wouldn’t be a problem at some point. Murky business.
The furore over Billie Piper was really quite distressing. She’s an actor. What’s the problem?
Not had the heart to finish The War Between the Land & Sea but I shall. What I saw was ok without setting the world alight. Not sure how Disney or RTD thought it would pan out.
My Moff theory stems from the observation that his original co-executive producer later returned, to bid him farewell and usher in Chib. The BBC didn’t like the innuendo, the sexual politics or cybermen blowing up in 2014. Moff would have gone in 2015 but Chib ‘wasn’t ready.’ The later dismantling of The Moff legacy confirmed my suspicion.
Beyond that, what did the BBC want? To get someone else to fund the show and flush away the show’s history.
Yes, I should actually try to watch more of Foundation. I am fussy about sci-fi and those books are particularly iconic. I certainly don’t imagine a story extolling Azimov’s slow deconstruction of determinism, even if that is the story. But sci fi has to be about ideas. Or it’s space opera. If you want space opera, let’s have Lensmen. Cleon, as an anagram of clone, was not at all<span class=”Apple-converted-space”> </span>impressive.
I also think a certain deceased international undesirable modelled himself on Hari Seldon and his organisation on The Foundation. Now, that might be fun.
Otherwise, Azimov himself acknowledged technological advance was an issue. Answer: set the bar low; Galactic Empire held together by gaffer tape; epic, dreadnoughts, soviet era environmentalism and rust-belt scenery gorn; even though they don’t know it, it’s a joke.
The fun and games starts with The Mule anyway.
Azimov’s later books could be more than a bit embarrassing. The Elijah Bailey series was good and even prophetic; thinking about our emperor of Mars unelect. I DID like Foundation and Earth… a mixture of The Odyssey and really fantastic new and yet inevitable ideas.
Also, if you can find it, The Gods Themselves is entirely original.
14 July 2026 at 11:47 #78758For All Mankind has been recommended to me. Not sure its on my package though. Anna Maxwell Martin ought to make an appearance in Line of Duty too.
Slow Horses entertains and annoys. It would seem to occupy a very ‘LeCarresque’ universe and I’m not sure that takes kindly to send up. The ex CIA mastermind was ludicrous.
Chris Packham seems to be trying on Sir David’s mantle. I did like Attenborough’s First Life, from about 15 years back. Lots of Ediacara Hills and Burgess Shale. But the first enigmatic Precambrian complex life form was discovered in Leicestershire!
It sounds as if the things you didn’t like in Small Gods were what attracted me. It was an effective satire.
Wish list for sci fi or other adaptions?
I mentioned Heliconia. The Lensman Series has never seriously been tackled. Or Earthsea! Azimov’s Elijah Bailey. Mind you all those could get hideously mangled.
But someone, one day, what with CGI, MUST tackle Peter Robinson’s Goshawk Squadron.
11 July 2026 at 09:48 #78754TP… have I the patience to read the whole canon? I read Colour of Magic and Small Gods many years ago. Very enjoyable and intelligent. But that would be a big commitment.
There was a discussion online about whether anyone could make a satisfactory series from Aldiss’ Heliconia books. Having been quite unimpressed by what was attempted with Foundation, I thought it would be unwise. But I’d love someone to try.
@janetteb. I hadn’t noticed costume issue with Other Bennett Sister. I really wouldn’t know. The vibe with much recent factual Austen programs is that Jane is a (very) proto modern woman, so riffing on modern concerns is fair game. I enjoyed the general fluffiness of it and the gold-diggery of ‘the others’ was delicious.
An interesting and modern parallel was the episode of ‘Fake or Fortune’ concerning the portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle and Lady Elizabeth Murray, great nieces of William Murray (Lord Mansfield), who of course inspired Mansfield Park. Dido was born in the west indies but raised as a gentlewoman at Kenwood (Hampstead) Murray prevented slavery from becoming legal by precedence in Britain, but was obliged to make Dido his ward for her protection.
A century later the name and status of Dido had been lost and the portrait was described as ‘Lady Elizabeth Murray and a servant.’ The Georgians do seem closer to us than The Victorians.
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</div>9 July 2026 at 18:23 #78748Moffat… you would think Clara the Dalek was such a rich scene that the whole two parter was written around it… and indeed Clara can only save herself (apparently) by invoking a word which a Dalek shouldn’t be able to express. And so resolves the story. And leave many unanswered questions.
Adams… I still invoke the locked filing cabinet in the basement equipped with a ‘beware of the leopard’ sign. It’s very British bureaucracy.
9 July 2026 at 11:06 #78742@whohar @jeanetteb
Yes, I’ll be watching the new series of Ludwig. Gentle comedic mystery. The Other Bennett Sister was dismissed as light-weight but that again was part off its charm: it actually worked.
Silo season 3 coming soon… in 2 minds about it, but I’ll watch it. Pluribus intrigued by I couldn’t stay with it; may go back to it. Also Slow Horses (the last story was better), Severance, and Line of Duty in production.
Chris Packham has a series about early evolution which intrigues.
9 July 2026 at 10:50 #787412 July 2026 at 22:09 #78733Paul McGann as The War Doctor would have been fascinating. We got John Hurt instead.
Otherwise…
I AM annoyed with The BBC:
Putting Grade and the first cancellation aside…
In my opinion they undermined Moffat.
They set an agenda for Chibnall. Who was pretty poor anyway.
They give every impression that they want to sell the show… you can call it ‘putting it to tender’ if you want. They get broadcasting rights; someone else carries the can.
But what happened with the BBC abandoned special? It was clearly never just a figment of RTD’s imagination. They must be divided over the show because…
… they’re in a right wing press/streaming competition bind. And we are, all of us, as far as the press and the streamers are concerned, toxic fans. Yep! That’s us. Because we like the show. But most of us rather actually like Steven Moffat, and they can’t cope with him again.
Probably, ‘kiddult,’ as a genre… frothy, not too serious, but some real threat and jump moments, isn’t actually possible anymore. Not sure The Streamers will touch it. It would need a reinvention, to be ‘like’ something probably irrelevant to WHO. And I would never want someone to do to Who what Apple did to Foundation.
The issue are ratings: we ARE niche, toxic, unrealistic, sentimental and NOT amenable to soapification, the holy grail for the proper hack.
And yet somehow we still exist, somewhere, down the river. Sold.
28 June 2026 at 16:50 #78712I shall consider my response to all these parallels. Couldn’t give a two peeps on Bessie’s horn about Jimmie Bend-Sinster.
The rest is too raw.
Moffat’s recent response to the ongoing Whovian Torture sounded quite alarmed. The corporation is in charge, why are they asking a very ex show-runner?
Who has The Ming Vase??
22 June 2026 at 23:51 #78706Someone posted a clip of Star Beast on Meta with subtitles and there is Donna’s mum screaming to a hall full of 14, Donna, Rose and The Meep… ‘None of this is real!!’
Which is kind of what I’ve been saying.
17 June 2026 at 16:24 #78702cbeebies… always look on the bright side of life. Or time for bed.
15 June 2026 at 10:05 #78698@dentarthurdent @janetteb
I’ve said enough. I think we agree that something peculiar happened with the show at some point, and this was manifested by the mess of Chibnall’s tenure and the unsatisfactory elements of the latest RTD run. I don’t think the BBC are interested. And they now seem happy to blame showrunners. Michael Grade all over again.Perhaps now the story has broken someone will eventually confirm what actually happened.
HG Wells. War of the Worlds is genius. I’m also a big fan of In the Days of The Comet. There’s a fascinating scene where the protagonist is punched out and it’s so vivid, I was sure it must be inspired by Herbert being assaulted by Hubert Bland at Paddington station when Wells attempted to elope with Bland’s daughter. The book was published in the same year 1906. Maybe Wells wrote it quickly. Maybe Herbert knew all about getting regularly thumped.
I also read somewhere recently that Tolkien approved of (presumably early) Azimov. I need to confirm that. CS Lewis was, of course, both fascinated and appalled by Wells.
13 June 2026 at 20:47 #78692@translatorcircuit @nerys @janetteb @whohar
the cbeebies thing is frankly an insult. Kid’s show.
I might say the bbc’s behaviour was inexplicable but you may well get your wish @translatorcircuit, the days of The Corporation as we know it could be numbered. They know it. They literally cannot afford a challenging exciting show.
This may explain their frankly truculent behaviour; some people may consider RTD and Moff arrogant but they clearly loved the show. What is the BBC’s vision? A kid’s cartoon? Chib’s incoherent and interminable Soap? Somehow, I’m not sure they’re as committed.
Were there successful season closers in Nu Who? Doomsday entertained until Rose’s extraordinarily improbable rescue. Last of the Timelords without Doctor Dobby would have served. Bits of End of Time were magnificent.
Moffat handled season ends well… down-played them at the start. Hell Bent and Doctor Falls with their related eps were of course utter triumphs. Time of the Doctor did rather unravel after 20 minutes. Death in Heaven is a conundrum: something very odd going on with that and Last Christmas. Entertaining though.
Arcs. Both writers mixed it up or disguised the arc. The second half of season 7 was a bit uneven but wonderfully entertaining.
Annoying comments about Leela’s ‘instincts’ vs reason aside, the classic Holmes/Hinchcliffe run was all stand alone eps. The War Games, Unit and the Master IS an arc, extending to include 4’s first season too. The Key of Time is obviously an arc, and the whole of 5’s sorry travail. 7 and Ace most definitely had their own arc.
Arcs go hand in hand with the problem of continuity. You can do stand-alones, and by all PLEASE no Universe ending threats, but in Who the history of the show IS its meaning. Chib may have been operating under instruction or simply someone who couldn’t actually hack the job, but the removal of arcs and continuity may mean incoherent boredom.
12 June 2026 at 07:44 #78687@whohar @janetteb @translstorcircuit
The Big Spoof? As you say, surely not. The only explanation must be the slow motion car crash. This was coming since RTD finished series 4 with The Parting of The Ways.
At some point the special was planned and The BBC then decided they couldn’t back it. It’s not the same institution that brought the show back. The show is too difficult, too much of a target. The sub-canon sausage machine too bland, I’m afraid.
What we’ve seen is a struggle for what the show really means… trying NOT to use the word ‘soul’… so obviously Disney was never going to work. Then what?
Seriously, has Ben Stiller ever indicated he’s a fan? That’s about the only level of production value, tension, humour and pointy-stickedness that would be acceptable.
But it’s competitive tender. Expect gaffer tape and blu-tack soap with daleks. Hint: stormtroopers were scary 18 years after WW2. They’ve been deconstructed. It’s the omniterror now.
11 June 2026 at 09:49 #78685@whohar @janetteb @translatorcircuit
The cliff-hanger, as Belam says, does seem to be the key, almost a taunt. ‘You want a show based on continuity but without continuity? Try THIS.’ This suggests both sides knew what was coming.
I am actually very annoyed, mainly with the BBC. I’m afraid for The Corporation too; it’s been in right wing’s cross hairs since the advent of satellite and cable, and it’s senior management have made appalling misjudgments about celebrities. They need shows that are bankers ratings-wise. In this respect RTD was set up to fail. But of course, this was also a long term set-up.
Who seems to have been a particular target since it’s inception: the bug eyed monster question , kiddie winkies hiding behind the sofa, the… erm companion conundrum, and ultraviolence. When the right wing philosophical machine began to blame the 60’s in earnest, it couldn’t be good for Who.
RTD 1 did not pull punches: companion conundrum taken to the nth, sexualised concrete slabs, lycanthrope royals, the ENTIRE script of Empty Child/Doctor Dances and, oh yes, he found a star writer who was even worse. Well, if we can’t dodge Steven Moffat, we better bring him under control. My view is they appointed The Man to do just that. But Steven wouldn’t be tamed. He kept harking back to continuity. So The Man left briefly to look at what the competition were doing, and came back with someone more biddable, part of the same team too! Continuity!
Interesting thing about Moffat, he didn’t think he would survive season nine, we got three special s and series 10 because the third season of Broadchurch had to be completed. But he said the show was sketched out til 2020. Does that mean there was an actual plan? Cartmel had a plan. RTD and Moff had arcs, and they obviously shared ideas, and with Mark and Toby too.
They do Meta too! Do I NOT like that. People might think the show is under threat, like Trial of a Time Lord. They might think WE’RE the monsters. But Moff starts writing about A Hybrid, and a Confession Dial. What was THAT supposed to mean? Just because we asked him to pen a cartoony special to attract a bit of interest from these new streaming platforms. It’s a good idea. Maybe one of these can fund the show. And take the flak.
But plans. Evidence for. There is the question of origin and family. In NuWho that was seeded with The Library, and The Woman and Wilfred’s question at Donna’s wedding. Interesting that this specifically should be turned on its head by Chib, then resurrected by RTD.
Some of you may be aware of my opinion of the Girl Who Died. I also pointed out that, once practically 2 seasons of meandering dull, badly written and continuity free Who was out of the way, Chib deliberately trashed Gallifrey, the regenerations, and The First, in the most infamous story of all. Get In! But maybe Chib was flushing away Ashildr too.
Why so tense Chris? Were you operating under instruction?
How specifically was Disney brought on board? And when and how did the saviour return? Anyone know? Obviously The Mouse was a ‘kid show’ move. No hebephile bait or gender politics please. Well, Russ was never on board for that was he? Were those two series a hatchet job to get rid of the inappropriate partner, an engineered Parting of The Ways? And there you are, had Russ been down this Meta road before?
Then there is V’linx, V’indicator, Villengard… it is actually the new Trial of a Time Lord with a cast of Who’s greatest hits in cartoon form: Sutekh and maybe The Fendahl too, the Mara promised and teased in The Well, Midnight, River/Jack, and Coal Hill lost in the fog. And virtual reality: how relevant! All this could be yours. Or do you really want that soap?
I get the sense of brinkmanship from both sides, The Beeb furious that they were put on the spot. But how did that initial plan for a Christmas Special come about? That’s The Corporation upping the ante; it couldn’t be publicised without their approval.
Of course no actors were approached to be The Doctor; it was Billie. Of course Russ didn’t have to write, it was already in the bag. He’s a man literally with a plan, and the Corporation can no longer allow that.
Bobby is in the shower. Will he ever come out?
Maybe we should all collaborate on an arc. Heavy to Meta.
10 June 2026 at 15:37 #78678@whohar @jeanetteb
The bbc are not holding the purse strings without creative control. But if someone else holds the purse strings and annoys the telegraphed mailfist, that’s not our fault.
yours faithfully PW
10 June 2026 at 13:48 #78675Well, I did say I’d be quite annoyed.
The ratings were an insurmountable problem.
BBC funding issues and allergy to continuity writing win out.
7 June 2026 at 17:09 #78671the food. I can’t speak from experience, just observe that somethings were available in the 60’s are not available now. Funny you mention ‘boiling’… until the early 70’s you might still observe people with boils, plaster or no. Urrhhh!!!
But, in the late 70’s I was taken to Italy and my tastebuds were reeducated. Thank you.
Thereafter, 80’s American bands would come to London to record and moan about the absence of Taco Bells. Everything evened out…
Got to say, when Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives hits North Carolina hits our screens, my mouth waters. Them I wonder why, wherever I go (locally) I have to choose between pulled pork, unidentified frying objects and the idiot sandwich.
Which hasn’t always been the case. I’m afraid British cuisine was dealt a bitter blow by Brexit.
5 June 2026 at 20:54 #78666Are you revisiting Robot Revolution too?
Lux was enjoyable but maybe slightly empty. Like a cartoon. Need to go back to it. Especially the fourth wall moment.
There were better stories in the season. Maybe NOT Revolution nor Reality War.
The celluloid fire was both telegraphed and suspect. I have a feeling RTD (and Chib) rather sold the ‘recent’ history short. What about the south of returning war veterans, civil rights tensions and McCarthy? What would sixties really mean without the music? In contrast Cartmel got stuck right in with Remembrance. And Lantern was strong on male chauvinism.
But Lux cries. Tears. Snow. REG in Rogue’s scan.
Vreenak says. ‘It’s a FAAKE!’
2 June 2026 at 08:10 #78663hmm lots of desperate sounds from the sheep pen.
i and The Independent basically reprinted the ‘no actor will do it’ story and blamed it on The Sun.
There was a ‘fans’ questionnaire: who was Rose at end of Reality War? Who should the next Doctor be? Will The Abzorbaloff return?
Then someone spectaculated that the special had already been filmed in secret.
RTD conducted a radio interview with Gary Davies and promised an announcement in a fortnight, the (jokey) reason for the delay being BBC lawyers.
Apart from that it was the barking of dogs.
I suspect ragebait baiting. Is that a thing?
I shouldn’t look really. It’s wild out there.
27 May 2026 at 09:29 #7865926 May 2026 at 11:18 #78657… or have ‘the rooms’ only just woken up to all the Virtual Reality/Alternate Universe clues? Mavity, V’linx, REG, song and dance, unDoctor-like reactions… we were even shown another ‘fake’ VR/AU within the one that’s been there since… NOT WBY but The Star Beast… ‘The Boss’ remember?
Why can’t The Doctor sort out the world? He can only reveal metaphors, as always. The rest, I’m afraid is up to us. Just like Wagon Train to The Stars but without the gunboat.
20 May 2026 at 08:06 #78651<p style=”text-align: left;”>@whohar</p>
I believe a lot of Moff Specials filmed as late as October of the year of broadcast. But no, there hasn’t been much news… I thought it might be because I dumped a lot of rubbish off my feed.The constant anti-Piper briefing might qualify as ‘rubbish’; Tennant’s involvement isn’t critical is it?
17 May 2026 at 09:44 #78648@janetteb @nerys @dentarthurdent
well, you all seem to be taking The Darkness at The Edge of Moff in good heart.
In the words of Graham Chapman, ‘lucky we didn’t say anything about the dirty knife…’
14 May 2026 at 15:17 #78644And THEN Moff turns the horror UP!
Another ‘patient’ is apparently saying ‘Kill Me’. He’s lurching up behind Bill when Razor brains him.
Then, just in case we did’n’t get it, another candidate for full conversion announces, ‘Me Die, Me Die…’!
There are so many ideas there. I’m still not sure if the Saxon/Missy pay off was what it seemed.
10 May 2026 at 20:24 #78639yes, rec = recommendation.
I’m fairly sure Peter told Steven Moffat that the Mondasian Cybermen were the scariest thing he remembered. Moff thought they were rubbish but went away and thought about it. What a feat of imagination to imagine the Cyber factory as a terrifying Bakelite hospital and set it on a time dilated spaceship. The scene where the nurse seems to adjust the ‘baghead’s’ drip but then Bill discovers she’s just turned the volume of his speaker down…
10 May 2026 at 08:03 #78636The detailed instructions he gave Ollie Reeder on where he should insert his I-pod and how Malcolm would then change the playlist…
Roger Allam was as (genuinely) classy as ever as Peter Mannion.
9 May 2026 at 20:45 #78634Malcolm Tucker and The Thick of It was revolutionary here. And Peter owned that hostility and vulnerability… which it seemed Moffat deliberately airlifted into Who. Not so much swearing.
Just had/having an online argument with a Big Finish fan for whom Moff is antichrist. Truly Who is broad church. But not for Chib maybe.
7 May 2026 at 22:00 #78632It seemed to be very much about Peter being a fan, his devotion to the classic show… and adjusting to overwhelming public recognition.
What he had to say about The Thick of It and Armando Iannucci using improv was interesting, because it seems to me a lot of that spilled over into 12. But then, to judge from what we saw of the read-throughs during Moff’s tenure, and his general relaxed treatment of his thespians, this was surely no accident.
And, let us not forget, the Mondasian Cybermen were Capaldi’s rec.24 April 2026 at 19:28 #78629I looked up black turnstones because I’d never heard the ‘ruddy’ prefix. They’re eastern Pacific I think: so never seen one.
London has a large population of Raptors now: Peregrines, kestrels, and a sparrowhawk made a kill in the garden last year. You now often see Buzzards and Red Kites out of town.
Best spot this year was a Ring Ouzel making its way from the med to the north.21 April 2026 at 22:16 #78624we are unfamiliar with the black turnstone here, and so neglect to name the Eurasian/atlantic species ‘Ruddy.’ The former slipways from pier… a mile off the town… are sheltered from the breeze and people so that’s a favoured roost. They are very cute and partial to crumbs.
20 April 2026 at 18:31 #78621I daresay I reached for the M word too soon. But then you look at Meta and think uh-uh. It’s rage bait I know but surely, if you want to understand the ridiculous reaction to post Chib Who, it’s there.
Have we really moved on from the “Liz Shaw is a scientist/give us a screamer” dichotomy? (Ooh long word)
The Moment is something else and also, through Badwolf, a resolution of the Time War. That only makes the case for Billiedoc stronger.
Maxil/6 IS difficult. Like urghhh??
But 12’s face is specifically there to save Ashildr. Why? Well, fortunately, the Doctor also still speaks baby… and then you wonder why he suddenly started talking about mothers.
Is there ‘A Plan’ and will The Corp permit it? Or did Moff write all those jokey ‘did that look familar?/that’s a bit weird’ sections to wind The Corpmen up? And why did Chris then deliberately and specifically trash Gallifrey/regeneration/doc 1?
And why is it about RTD (apart from the ratings) that scares the people on Meta so much? They DO seem to be quite M.
Oystercatchers are like clowns of the avian world. Often see a few at Barnes Wetland Centre. At Arundel and Amberley I have seen Sea Eagles… released a few years ago on the Isle of Wight and they now roam the south coast. They are enormous, not quite light aircraft but unmistakable. When I went to Arundel in March, it was only Buzzards being mobbed by Rooks.
Now, if you want to see Turnstones in April, try the end of Southend Pier.
20 April 2026 at 09:20 #78617Camp: a heightened level of artifice, affectation and exaggeration. So Cassandra plays on the audience’s assumed (and evidenced) attraction to David/Billie. Whilst very much dressing as lamb.
Who has always flirted with humour and camp… possibly something the show runners had to accept from Hartnell’s mangling of some of his lines, and the ridiculousness of many of the monsters.
I was making more of a general point about possible plot lines: two docs with a connection; maybe good doc/bad doc; what’s in the history? You know my predilections. And predictions.
If that puts the bed the frankly misogynistic ‘phsoar! They can’t make Billie the Doctor, she’s Rose!’ tendency, I’m happy.
But. If.
17 April 2026 at 00:47 #78614the anniversary is there to keep the show in the eye-line.
it is about Billie/David which was always on the cards, surely?
New Earth has Billie/David possessed by Cassandra. Hmmm. Camp.
it’s one or two fingers yer face for the average online Who presence who doesn’t like women Doctors/RTD/or indeed the entire show. Ever. Though they ensure us they do. Especially the daleks.
I think it’s a good sign!
How’s Piers Wenger doing?
15 April 2026 at 17:48 #78608Gina Rinehart sounds ‘interesting’. Nice family.
Just lost a court case hasn’t she? I saw the headline this am, strange synchronicity… unless you also saw the headline.
Yes, you would think the New Earth thing might be kick-starting something about David and Billie, the Christmas special, or the shape of Who to come. I must brace myself for the torrent of Billie and RTD online hate which must surely follow.
14 April 2026 at 19:51 #78606I’m VERY happy Orban’s gone.
I’m afraid… and or realistic… that Magyar got in on the basis of delivering affordability. But there’s war in The Gulf now…
Perhaps some of europe’s would be populists are sniffing the caffeine and thinking errr… I dunno tho. But Putin is 82% democratic. There will be another Russian election in a few years and the odds are he’ll still be 82% democratic. The chaotic west (Xi’s phrase not mine) will have how many elections in that time?
Just got to be lucky/unlucky a few times.
14 April 2026 at 12:29 #78604The Orban news IS good. But… Magyar used to be a supporter of his, and we don’t really KNOW what he’ll do with his huge majority and popular vote. At least any voices claiming a fix seem to be muted.
I’m afraid that’s NOT the end of European Popularism.
5 April 2026 at 17:18 #78590Joy To The World: appendix.
Looking again at the progress of the Star Seed, Joy IS on record as saying she needs a room further back in time. Even so, Joy is still an accident. The Silurian clearly intended The Doctor to get the Star Seed, NOT Joy. Was that was always the intention? Because we have seen, the Silurian was chosen deliberately to get access to the ‘right’ room. So, was The Doctor a known risk to be eliminated? Star Seed couriers do not seem to have a good life expectancy. Nonetheless, why did the Star Seed need multiple couriers?
’Joy to the World’, like the rest of the Disney reboot, was interesting but not all that coherent, maybe rushed?
In any case, the Star Seed may not have been due to go off in 3BC, though we know it did. Or something stellar may be convenient. Maybe it didn’t matter exactly when, just NOT too late, whenever too late was.
‘Flesh will rise’… so, Villengard is NOT curating the nativity, cos that REALLY doesn’t sound like Moff or RTD.
And Joy becomes organic warp drive at the end: an organic Star Seed Elevator. Is that what ‘flesh will rise’ means? That’s obviously what we’re supposed to think.
I observe that Moffat deliberately seeds numerous narratives as he goes along, for himself perhaps, or for those yet to come, if they happen to fancy the look of them. Some may be abandoned… but ARE they? Surely he’s not coming back… or IS he? If not you would think it a lot of it is loosely planned – but HOW?
RTD2, whether you like it not… and it’s quite difficult to like it all… DOES seem in sympathy with Moff. Think of The Toymaker. ‘Well THAT’S all right then’ is the acerbic summation of the fate of each of Moff’s companions. The Fam and Dan may not need a mention because they revert to normality and are given support groups as opposed to existentially challenging new realities. BUT The Toymaker does greet The Flux like it’s something off the sole of his shoe.
You don’t want to tread stuff into the DW carpet.
7-2-1-4… has anyone yet suggested these represent ‘key’ incarnations of The Doctor?
The Gods of Ragnarok?The Mindrobber?
The ‘Heresy’ of The First and The Original.
The Fendahleen? Or The Watcher??
Or is it just RTD’s PIN number?
3 April 2026 at 12:21 #78583Joy to the World.
Looks like Moff ‘gets’ Christmas Who. Chib wasn’t allowed (or maybe he didn’t fancy it). You would think RTD finds it a tedious time of year: the decorations are tacky, the tv is rubbish, people eat too much, the snow is fake and people insist on laying hospitality on you whether you want it or not.
Now Moff…
1. Scrooge & childhood/lost love
2. Narnia & life and death & family
3. More Victoriana & Travers/Lewis/Nesbitt/Conan Doyle/Henry James (Ghost Story for Christmas);
4. Christmas dinner, meet the relatives & church &… well resurrection? (isn’t that Easter? ‘Time of the Doctor’ got away from him)
5. Christmas iconography – Santa & sidekicks, christmas hits & family again;
6. The Big Question… how do exes spend their christmases? Also more dumb scifi & heist blockbusters;
7. Superhero films/Two men and a Baby, & loss;
8. The Christmas Truce. Resolution and continuation.
So lots of theme and literary nouse, most pleasing to my eyes, ears and brain, but no wonder other people got twitchy, wanting classic monsters. And A Man. The barking of dogs.
This time, RTD obviously didn’t fancy two Xmas specials in a row. Nonetheless, considering the erm ‘resolution’ of season 2, he must have suggested some of the plot elements. It would nice if Moff got another gig, tho I’m not counting on it. Nonetheless, there are elements of continuity that suggest he might – I’ll explain later.
No matter; what does ‘Joy’ bring? Hmmm. Lonely desperate people trapped in strange hotels: family illustrated by absence. The resolution is the ‘star seed’ which becomes the holy star. What then of ‘flesh will rise’? Honestly? Dunno. Someone must become incarnate or be resurrected. But this is the dastardly Villengard corporation! Somehow, I doubt even RTD would want them to have orchestrated the nativity. Trev’s communication implant leads The Doctor and Joy to the star seed as it’s about to germinate, having previously been planted in the stomach of a Theropod in the Cretaceous.
Question… why didn’t the Silurian manager go straight to The Cretaceous? Was the seed meant to go off in 66,002,024 AD or thereabouts? Instead of 3BC. But then Joy decides she wants to go to a tree-house in The Cretaceous… why? Well, Joy is an accident. Was the Manager trailing a coat for The Doctor and therefor chose a door at random? Was he actually meant to take the Star Seed to Middle Earth (hope you noticed he walked past the door to Bag End?)
Silly. Or very dark. Because Joy does seem to have a death wish. Did that come from Moff or RTD? The Doctor’s cruelty to Joy was worthy of 7 and Ace.
The teleport/warp speed thing at the end puzzled me, but it’s presumably a built-in feature. Of course those dastardly V people never wanted to blow up the world! Not yet anyway, they just wanted make someone incarnate like they said. No, not Jesus. So who?
Villengard, V’linx, V’indicator (if that counts), REG’s face in Rogue’s scan… the Valeyard. Btw did you notice, the people possessed by the Star Seed have Harmony Shoal eyes? Anita is hired by The Time Hotel and she does what The Boss says.
Villengard and Harmony Shoals SEEM to be Moff’s inventions, unless they were always part of a ‘hypothetical’ Cartmel 2.0 plan. I think Moff might want to revisit those toys.
The progression of Star Seed carrier from weirdo to Joy is peculiar: presumably only Trev could legitimately approach The Manager. How does The Doctor get the security code? That was technobabble that were; know it anywhere. Or Moff had some advanced maths in mind. Or it’s a Time Lord/timey-wimey thing.
The Orient Express and Everest pleased my eye, anyway.
2 April 2026 at 08:18 #78579I suppose the ‘New Unit’ is the official RTD2 version of Torchwood. And I didn’t really watch Torchwood. Is it heresy to say you can have too much Barrowman?
The genesis of the post 1970’s UNIT is interesting because, under RTD1, the Sontaran 2 parter, and the Planet of Death, they’re just a bunch of mooks (and Malcolm). There was a time when we were comfortable laughing at a bunch of squaddies. No more.
The current incarnation with Kate is started by Moff and then resurrected by Chib in ‘Power’… but that does seem to have been seeded by the RTD2 handover… unless he simply ran with it, because it was written in such a rush??
I’m sorry, it’s an awful mess, a greater backslapping laugh free grave for dialogue than The Fam. Plus fearful technobabble. And the V’linx. The V’linx must be a link to the greater arc. Which means it (and UNIT) won’t go away in a hurry. Oh dear.
Must watch ‘Joy’ again. Like most Moff, replete with great ideas.
19 March 2026 at 21:47 #78570What IS that possum about? Can you imagine? ‘I thought they were my friends…. But they’re ALL DEADDD!’
Where is The Doctor? I noted the recent flurry of reports along the lines of ‘No-one wants the Job!!!’ Is that rather that no-one has been approached/auditioned because the position has already been filled???! You know who I mean.
No! It MUST mean it’s all going down the pan and no one wants to be associated with Russ. I mean obviously!
Another extraordinarily unserious post asked for candidates for the 16th Doctor because ‘Billie would be ridiculouse’ (sic… unless… was that actually a two brain cell insult? nahahaha!)
From the 13th doc AI snogging pics (unsolicited I hasten to add… and don’t ask) through the amnesiac lll-disguised homophobic/gender critical slagging off of RTD, and now the blatant trashing of the idea of a second (or third) woman Doctor, it is grim out there in cyberspace.
Memo to self: must avoid cyberspace.
Could do with more good news, certainly.
13 March 2026 at 17:13 #78565re noises. Different continents. It’s the repetitive/dumbly self satisfied aspect of the cyber aspect that raises the blood pressure I suppose, but how can you really annoyed at possums? Awww.
Locally, we have fun with foxes. There are some seriously fat ones in Kew Gardens and they want your egg sandwich NOW.
I did hope I had been VERY good and we might get the glory that must be Fury From the Deep, but I’ll settle for Katrina and the airlock, if just to compare with Tasha Yar for pointless exits. What a waste of an interesting companion! Criminal really.
11 March 2026 at 12:43 #78563Can’t say I was a huge fan of JNT, but there is a argument that he kept the show going for longer than might have been the case. And he did then nearly save it through the agency of Andrew Cartmel.
RTD WAS the show’s saviour 2 decades ago. I’m sure Chris Chibnall has a middle name too.
As, I expect, do Michael Grade and Piers Wenger.
JNT wasn’t to blame for the genre decaying effect of Star Wars, and current dog chasing squirrels noises of the internet do not herald the glorious return of The Daleks but the slow strangulation of the show.
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