@WhoHar    Oh, thanks for reminding me of that.   It was of course under RTD’s oversight, but how could I have forgotten?

@whohar

Ok. I knew about new showrunners choice and the rationale. My response was a bit Carry On.

Though coming straight after Dharwan stepped out in Whitaker’s it was uh… THERE.

Really, 13>14 WAS more loaded than 12>13. Again, does this reflect the unrelenting blandness of 13?

@whohar @ps1l0v3y0u Thanks, and yes, I agree. In many ways, Chibnall’s tenure was a disappointment. But I always have it in the back of my mind that the blame may not land squarely on him, because I don’t know what was going on behind the scenes. Still, in most cases, the writing just did not come together for me, and since he did most of it, it…[Read more]

@whohar @nerys @translatorcircuit

I suppose you have to say Chib and… what would you call it… gender avoidance (?) was a reasoned response to a particular narrative problem. The Doctor is always challenged by regeneration. He’s never the man he’s assumed to be, so SHE might not turn out to be convincingly feminine… uh. This is a case in point i…[Read more]

@nerys @translatorcircuit @ps1l0v3y0u

@whohar (i think) mentioned that Chib didn’t tell the (other) writers in series 11 that 13 was a female Doctor

Yes, twas I.

Even before I’d heard this rumour, my view was that Chibnall had really wasted an opportunity to do storylines that reflected the change of sex/gender. There’s so much potential t…[Read more]

@translatorcircuit @nerys

@whohar (i think) mentioned that Chib didn’t tell the (other) writers in series 11 that 13 was a female Doctor. Not seen this source myself. Was the female doctor really a secret that long? Also Chib wrote or co-wrote all but 4 eps anyway.

Series 12 of course has the ep with Byron behaving badly: that was NOT a co…[Read more]

@whohar @nerys @dentarthurdent @janetteb

design by committee? More dictact in my opinion, and contrary to the spirit of the show at that. I’ve probably said too much already.

The question is, with so much (supposed? imagined?) interference, why HAVE the main parties been so diplomatic? Well Andrew Cartmel wasn’t. Moffat has made the odd sal…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u @whohar @janetteb @dentarthurdent I do agree with you about disliking what Chibnall did to the canon, especially with Gallifrey. But then, I was disappointed with how Gallifrey was handled after the 50th anniversary special. Here we had the Doctor’s jubilation at setting out to find it, and then we got little joy (I mean that in the…[Read more]

@janetteb @whohar @dentarthurdent

Final word.

My initial thought re Chib was that the undoubted mess revealed a degree of incompetence and that was it. BUT I was also aware of criticism of Moff, suspicious about incongruities in his story lines (though I suppose that could also be the way Moff rolls); also a little surprised that the Being Human…[Read more]

@janetteb   @ps1l0v3y0u  @whohar    @janetteb     Like Janetteb, I found Chibs’s rewriting of the whole Who timeline too much to take.   ‘Future’ events (by which I mean ones the Doctor’s timeline hasn’t reached yet) can do what they like, but ‘past’ events had better fit into the sequence or they just confuse and annoy me.   Which am I supposed t…[Read more]

Moff’s legacy:

Timelords rehabilitated

The Doctor gets a new regeneration cycle

1 is 1, he turns the cylindrical uncamouflaged Tardis into a police box.

All three are trashed in TTC. Not just (sarcastic) ‘cheers Chris.’ More… ‘Oh that’s a bit vindictive really… was that REALLY your idea?’

@ps1l0v3y0u and @Whohar and there you have my objecti…[Read more]

@translatorcircuit @whohar @janetteb

colorisations and edits… The Daleks was well received; War Games not, and rightly… I was very excited at the time: it’s an outstanding story but it should really have been divided into two specials… War Games and Time Lords. However, the original 250 mins is far too long.

Sea Devils? I’ll have to watch it.…[Read more]

@whohar Sea Devils was a good story but like all Who at the time, plenty of padding and shades of sexism. It is one of my favourite Pertwee stories. RTD has a good point about the name. It is probably time it was changed though as you say, Homo Aqua is not entirely accurate but it has a nice ring to it.

cheers

Janette

@whohar it sounds like just a hatchet job of “The Sea Devils”, which was only six episodes long AND in colour! As for the spinoff, it looks and sounds like it doesn’t even feature the same species as the Sea Devils. They look quite different and are called “homo aqua”, so there’s no point showing this story before it!

@whohar @winston @janetteb

Doctor Who… new directions.

What are we dealing with?

Culture Wars: there is a lot of noise. Is it it real? I prefer continuity in terms of the show’s development and its tradition. I don’t like to feel we (the fans) are being dictated to. Trouble is everyone points at the ratings. A new showrunner won’t necessa…[Read more]

@janetteb  @whohar       I am not sure how I feel about this.  There was such high hopes for RTD’s  return and everything seemed to go wrong. There are so many reasons and I am not sure it was all his fault but I guess like the captain of a ship…

There was a lot of really good stuff  in the last couple of series and the 15th Doctor was excelle…[Read more]

@WhoHar Interesting names both. I had to research McTighe. I liked his remark that he entire career has been aimed at getting to work on Dr Who. Thorne has done some sterling work but not sure he has the flair required for Dr Who. Also he does seem to have a lot on his plate at the moment.

I have suspected that the 26 Yule special is RTD and Bad…[Read more]

@whohar @janetteb

Anyone got the low down on Tony Jordan? Obviously there was someone of the same name involved in Life on Mars… not saying there’s necessarily any jockeying for position or strange briefings going on but…

Also… Piers Wenger took over from Ben Stephenson a year after he left in 2015. Stephenson got a lot of flack from the right w…[Read more]

@whohar thanks for the link. It sounds as though the 26 Yule special might be RTD’s swansong. I expect there will be big announcements next year, new partnership,new show-runner new Doctor. Fingers crossed they chose well and realise that it takes more than just a big budget to make good Dr Who.

cheers

Janette

@dentarthurdent @camdudetenger2018 @translatorcircuit @whohar

major points

1. BP… short term fix? Then why the bi generation? And how did Ecclestone know? It was coming.

2. Did the BBC NEED a streaming partner in the first place? I’ve theorised it was a long term ambition… starting 2015. Maybe they now realise they c*cked up. Or they hope the s…[Read more]