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2 February 2026 at 19:39 #78510
everybody dies finale
Oi! Spoilers! 🙂
I’ll be intetested to see what, if anything, comes out of their new ProdCo. I think the trick with reboots is to make it sympathetic to the original, and have some common themes but not be enslaved by what went before. Seems simple but it’s not.
The Who that came back in 2005 managed it very well, although it had the advantage of cut through with the general public. i.e. almost everyone knows what a Tardis and a Dalek are.
Blakes 7? Not so much. That’s not to say it shouldn’t be attempted, and the lack of knowledge about B7 in the wider public may give them more scope. A new series of stories rather than a rehash of old ones is, for sure, the way to go.
30 January 2026 at 04:45 #78507Agree – he was saying it in reference to his love of the original Blake’s 7 which, as I’m sure you’ll agree, was shonky as hell, but very entertaining. It comes down to story and character imo. The issue now is that, because SF is normally so seamless, that is the expectation for all shows going forward. I know people who bemoan modern effects in some shows (which do appear to have worsened, probably down to the SF companies now not being prepared to be vassals for the big studios).
I took his comments at face value and I don’t think he is positioning himself for more Who – he was probably asked his opinion. He seems to be moving in his own direction anyway, and I’ll be interested to see if a B7 reboot does happen.
Re: the writing. Technically it was OK (bar the finales which were, as you say, a dog’s dinner) but it just didn’t grab me as much as it could / should have. YMMV.
Any other show would reboot
Yes. And I think this is a problem for Who but I also think it may be the only way out from the continuity spaghetti. I’m not against it in principle, but if they do go down that route, it needs to be with a completely fresh team: no old showrunners, or writers, or friends of old showrunners or writers. Given the job he did with Andor, I’d give Tony Gilroy a shot. It would need a partner for the BBC though.
29 January 2026 at 00:13 #78505This is interesting from one-time Who director Peter Hoar. A potential Blake’s 7 Reboot, via his new prod company Multitude Productions:
He also has some comments on the D+ Who era, as well as tv in general, and the need (or otherwise) for a showrunner / using other wirting models.
16 January 2026 at 04:08 #78499@janetteb @thane16 @ps1l0v3y0u @nerys @whisht
Yes, the bushfires were fairly close – about 50km / a half hour drive away. We saw nothing until last Saturday when the sky filled with a light smoke, turning the sky orange-brown and the sun a vivid red. Something that would have signaled the end of days to those unscientific folk in times gone past. Maybe they’re right…
And now, the rains. 180mm (7″) in 6 hours just down the coast. Mass flooding with cars swept away and the Great Ocean Road closed while the SES (Emergency Services) try and deal with the deluge. The winds are now whipping up, so Victoria is getting a battering atm.
Some interesting observations on music, both classical and more contemporary from the board here. Thanks to all. Seems my musical tastes are significantly different from most on here. This is a good thing imo as it gives me an “in” to find new (to me) material
IIRC this is the second Christmas in a row where you have had sad news or issues to deal with. Hopefully Christmas 2026 will be better. And great shout on Rear Window btw.
12 January 2026 at 09:07 #78486As a relative neophyte to classical music (outside of the better known pieces), do you have a link / source to a Brahms primer? ie a where to start with Brahms type thing.
12 January 2026 at 02:14 #78483@thane16. <waves>
Keep me posted on the dates please (either here or DM), and I’ll see if can attend – bushfires notwithstanding.
11 January 2026 at 15:05 #78480Land/Sea will be on Disney+ next month. Or you could use a VPN to access BBC iPlayer and see if it is there. Otherwise, it’s looking for one of the less legitimate streaming services.
I’m going to wait for D+.
And, if you are happy to say, where and when will you be doing your Brahms gig?
23 December 2025 at 17:43 #7843422 December 2025 at 01:49 #78430Not on Disney+ until February apparently. Which tells it’s own story.
Happy people are enjoying it so far.
And hope you are all having an enjoyable festive period…
9 December 2025 at 22:01 #78423The overall effect may also become quite silly.
That’s my concern, and that the whole thing will be clumsily preachy about the environment (rather than cleverly showing us the ways the planet is being destroyed.
You just know she comes from a family with an aga and the smell of wet dog in the kitchen in the morning.
This is excellent
9 December 2025 at 10:30 #78420Much obliged. I think I’ll probably wait, as there is too much good stuff available right now, and coming up. Maybe if I get through my backlog over Christmas…
9 December 2025 at 08:10 #78418Anybody watched the Sea Devils spin off yet?
And, more importantly, is it any good?
We don’t have it down here so I can either wait until February or go looking for an unofficial version. Not sure it is worth the bother, so would be interested to know what people think.
24 November 2025 at 23:13 #78382@nerys @dentarthurdent @ps1l0v3y0u
do you have a source or is it rude to ask?
I don’t unfortunately. Just observations. I’ve been wrong on the finale pretty much every time, so the law of averages suggest I’d get something correct eventually.
Apparently, there was a source on Reddit who was leaking information about the last series. So uncannily accurate that it had to be an insider; I am not sure what their motivation was – presumably disgruntled. I found this out just after the finale aired.
I fear I have a long wait before the next batch of DVDs is released in Region 1.
I bought myself a region-free blu-ray player, which I’ve found very helpful in this regard. But, yes, I think there’s going to be some delay for new Who. Options are either Big Finish (I am hearing good things about Jodie Whittaker’s stories on there), or rewatching the classic serials. I’ve just ordered the War Games in colour blu-ray (although I hear it’s a hatchet job but I do like watching Troughton). Slim pickings for a while I think.
24 November 2025 at 11:46 #78376I’ll bet that when RTD invented the Villengard arms factories (in The Doctor Dances) he had no inkling of where the Moff would go with it.
Moffat wrote that. It’s all him.
24 November 2025 at 09:22 #78374My response was a bit Carry On
Carry on Cyber
Carry on up the Tardis etc.
13>14 WAS more loaded than 12>13.
100% agree. Strange really. Probably due to the return of Saints David and Russell.
23 November 2025 at 23:40 #78372@ps1l0v3y0u @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.
Maybe. Noting that Chibnall also told Jodie Whittaker not to watch any previous Who, maybe he was trying to do a soft reboot type-of-thing.
23 November 2025 at 23:37 #78371@ps1l0v3y0u @translatorcircuit
RTD wouldn’t have turned that chance of a laugh.
Tradition on Who is for the new showrunner to write the regeneration scene.
Apparently, it was RTD’s choice. He made a comment that he didn’t want to have a man in women’s clothes as he didn’t want to offend (IIRC) people in the trans community.
There is precedent. When 4 regenerated in 5, his shoes changed from boots to trainers. Never explained either and widely viewed as a continuity error.
23 November 2025 at 01:00 #78357@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 there but instead we got “The Fam”.
18 November 2025 at 21:37 #78329I think the reason Chibz gets a ‘free pass’ from other showrunners is just politeness or ‘professional courtesy’. You don’t badmouth your fellow workers even if you think they’re crap.
Absolutely understand this. What I don’t understand is why RTD doubled down on it in the latest two series. He could have written something contradictory (unlikely), or quietly shelved it, so it was never mentioned again.
you make not like The Doctor being too special, but why are all the other time-lords such crashing bores?
So, that’s the point really. The TL society was too stifling and bureaucratic, so the Doc wanted to leave, explore and help. It’s a direct juxtaposition with the other TLs.
I read recently that Chibnall didn’t tell any of his writers that the Doc was female until after they had submitted their first drafts. You can tell if you look at the finished versions of the eps – just a few, mainly cursory allusions to the change. Think about this. Chibnall (presumably) wanted a female Doc but then mentally went “yep that’s done” and then did nothing with it. This is appalling tokenism and it’s shameful if true.
17 November 2025 at 23:25 #78324Moff’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
This is why I am surprised Chibnall gets such a free pass from the previous showrunners. He must have known what the implications of his (borrowed) idea would be, and he did it anyway. Hubris, or ego-driven perhaps: “I want to leave my mark on this show”. Well, he certainly did that. I’d imagine Moffat was fuming.
I don’t like TTC at all, although it does explore some interesting ideas, as the Doc effectively becomes an abused child due to Tecteun’s experiments. This is pretty dark for Who though and could have been done another way if he wanted to go down that route. The main reason I dislike TTC is that it makes the Doctor special, and therefore less relatable and less interesting. I prefer him/her to be the rebel, the maverick, the outsider, and that his/her good deeds are motivated by trying to do the right thing rather than being (inherently) a saviour. The fact that it was all done so cack-handedly doesn’t help of course.
17 November 2025 at 03:50 #78315I wonder if the BBC are going to continue to produce these condensed / colourised / re-scored versions of classic stories. They’ve done Docs 1, 2 and 3 now, so presumably a Tom Baker story is due next. I wonder which one. They previously did a feature-length version of Genesis, which was transmitted and is also available on Blu-ray I believe.
Re: the spinoff, all of us here in the colonies are going to have to wait until February when Disney+ show it, unless you can find a cough…cough… unauthorised stream.
17 November 2025 at 02:29 #78313I don’t know if the re-edit of the original episodes into a feature length one will be an improvement. Some of the older Who stories did suffer from padding, although I can’t recall if that’s the case here. And television in the 1970s tended to be more influenced by theatre (compared to modern shows which tend towards the filmic) so can sometimes seem a bit slower. This will be the third time the BBC has done this, after The Daleks, and The War Games.
RTD is on record as saying that “Sea Devils” is a slur and has come up with the new name of “Homo Aqua”. It makes sense that the creatures would have an actual name, although I’m not sure the one he’s picked makes a whole bunch of sense, scientifically speaking. But they are meant to be the same monsters as the classic series. I’ve not seen all that many publicity shots but I think there will be two versions of Sea Devils, one of which looks like the original version, and one that doesn’t. Hopefully there’s a good in-story reason for this.
16 November 2025 at 22:55 #78310New edit of the 3rd Doctor Sea Devils story:
https://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/doctor-who-sea-devils-special-106375.htm
Airing on the same* day as the spinoff
*Same day unless you are in Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada…..
6 November 2025 at 23:44 #78288Some rumours circulating that RTD and Bad Wolf will be out once the 2026 special is done.
Rumours also that Pete McTighe and Jack Thorne are in the frame for next showrunner.
1 November 2025 at 03:18 #78281I expect there will be big announcements next year, new partnership,new show-runner new Doctor.
I hope so. My guess is that the 2026 Christmas Special is a kind of placeholder while the BBC / Bad Wolf figure out the next move. If we don’t start to hear something by say Easter next year, then I’d be expecting a delay until the new season proper.
Anyone got the low down on Tony Jordan? Obviously there was someone of the same name involved in Life on Mars…
That was my first thought too but it’s not the same guy. This Tony Jordan runs the DW Fan club.
30 October 2025 at 23:17 #78276Deadline article on the BBC and D+ fallout.
https://deadline.com/2025/10/why-disney-ditched-doctor-bbc-1236601181/
29 October 2025 at 23:49 #78268@dentarthurdent @camdudetenger2018 @translatorcircuit
Who out there could really shake it up? Don’t have to be a fan
I think not being a fan should be in the job description for the next showrunner or, at least, someone who’s not been involved in the show before. Someone who is sympathetic but not overly in thrall of continuity. I don’t know who I’d pick. And, while this might seem contradictory, there are a lot of good stories coming out of Big Finish, so the BBC could do worse than going to that well.
And, all that said, I don’t think the BBC are now able to pick up the phone and pick-and-choose who the next writer/showrunner will be. Who as a show is damaged goods right now, and then there’s questions about budget (presumably a lot lower than it has been on Disney and maybe even lower than the Whittaker era, due to overall budget constraints within the Corporation), and also control. Who controls Who? Is it still the BBC, or is it Bad Wolf?
All these things will matter to any incoming showrunner, especially if they are a name.
Actually, if I could pick, I’d go with Tony Gilroy, the Andor showrunner.
29 October 2025 at 04:19 #78264@dentarthurdent @camdudetenger2018 @translatorcircuit @ps1l0v3y0u
‘Going nowhere’ – what a curiously ambiguous turn of phrase
Yes agreed. I think a previous post actually said “Rest assured, the TARDIS is going nowhere” which is even better / worse.
28 October 2025 at 22:20 #78260At last some real news! And it’s about as positive as it’s going to get right now.
I see also that TWBtLatS will be shown later this year; looking like Disney want out quickly. But hopefully this will be shown around Christmas this year.
Still, lots of unresolved questions:
So RTD2 is going to write the Christmas special. Is this a case of “you need to fix this Billie Piper stuff before you go Russ” or will he / BadWolf be given the gig full time? Hopefully it is the former – the show needs fresh blood.
What happens to the episodes currently on Disney+ ?
And the big one: what is Billie Piper’s role going to be? I read a theory that her character is kind of a cipher for the Doc, and she has appeared due to some side-effect of the bi-generation. The thought being that her character and 14 will ultimately merge to produce 16. I can see this working as a one-off special.
Presumably, if it is something like the above, we should start to see a lot of speculation over the casting from, well, about now. Fire up the tabloids!!
And the big, big question – can this site produce enough bonkers theorising and speculation to fill the gap to December 2026. <looks away coquettishly>
24 October 2025 at 03:35 #78237This is the problem when there is no real news from the BBC, or anyone y’know actually connected to the show, something always steps in to fill the void.
NatureJournalism abhors a vacuum.“Peter is teaming up with fellow Doctor Who legends Colin Baker and Tom Baker for his next project. The trio are starring together in a production of A Christmas Carol. It’s a radio play that sees Peter play Charles Dickens while Colin is Ebenezer Scrooge and Tom is Jacob Marley. They’re touring the country from November 7 with shows in Shrewsbury, Dorking, Crawley and Winchester.”
I have lots of questions about this and, given it’s the Star, a shovel full of salt is needed. 1. Why are they touring a radio play? 2. Tom Baker is 91 – good on him if he can still tour but it seems somewhat unlikely. 3. A fairly niche selection of venues to tour – and I say that as someone who has intimate knowledge of one of those places – so why there? 4. Bit of a stretch to call Purvis a Dr Who legend, isn’t it? He’s better known for Blue Peter.
I guess we should probably ignore all these minor press outbursts, but where’s the fun in that? That said, it doesn’t really sate my hunger for some actual Who news.
23 October 2025 at 04:56 #78231Is someone seeding the narrative?
It certainly is odd timing to have two similar-toned stories so close together.
I notice from the link you sent that Purvis had said something similar in an RT article a few months ago but it wasn’t reported with the same slant. Headline writers (normally sub-editors) produce a headline that doesn’t always reflect what the article actually says. This is often deliberate, in order to put the reader in the “correct” frame of mind prior to them reading the article. It is therefore often instructive to read the article without the headline if you can. All that said, Purvis does seem critical, noting that in the other article I mentioned, he says he’s not watched it since Pertwee (!) as he wasn’t a fan of the England (Earth) -based stories.
There appears to have been more Who “news” in the last couple of weeks compared to the previous couple of months. Unlikely to be coincidence.
Something is definitely afoot as they say. Someone briefing against Russ is my guess. If I am right, I’d also guess whomever it is wants him out.
20 October 2025 at 11:32 #78229The holy grail of lost shows must be Fury from the Deep or Evil of The Daleks. Fingers crossed.
Either would be great. Anything that either completes, or is a complete Troughton story would be welcome. But…if I have to pick a single episode, then I’d go for part 4 of The Tenth Planet.
17 October 2025 at 03:57 #78225And some potentially positive news about one (some) missing episodes, in this podcast:
https://missingepisodes.podbean.com/
Light on details but seems to suggest there is at least one Classic Who ep out there, ready for restoration.
17 October 2025 at 00:21 #78224That’s an interesting link and it echoes some of one of my earlier posts on this subject.
It looks like Sherman is saying that there can be no new media with Piper as the Doc because we don’t know for sure that is what she is. And, in that respect, the broader narrative around the Doctor has come to the “full stop” because there is no current Doctor. This affects spin-off media but is probably also hampering RTD2 in that he can’t fully progress his next season, until there is casting certainty. I ‘d love to be party to RTDs thought processes right now – he was in mid-arc, and now his current Doc has gone. What does he do? Rework the existing scripts / outlines, or start afresh? Will he have the motivation and energy to carry on? Will the BBC / Disney / AN Other streamer want him out?
I don’t know what Shearman’s motivations are for saying this right now – he has written for Big Finish in the past, and those stories were well-received I understand, so I’m not sure he needs to necessarily fish for work. Maybe he was just asked by someone. This looks like a story that was picked up by the aggregators (great name for a Who villain btw), and the RT have run with it. They will have a fan-led / BBC-approved viewpoint, so you’d expect a more positive outlook.
I don’t think Shearman means the show as a whole is dead. It’s clearly not and he knows that (although it is possibly on life-support).
As for “Tennant is back, so Piper can now return” type comments, that may now be how things eventuate. But it’s not part of some masterplan – remember that Tennant only agreed to step in because Gatwa wasn’t available for the filming of the 60th. And Piper stepped in because Gatwa wanted to leave early. So, we are maybe now going to go down that Bille vs David path but driven by external circumstances rather than RTDs original plan or any kind of in-show narrative. It’s happened before.
My biggest concern with all this is that the show will end up eating itself due to constant self-referencing. The RT said, “I think Doctor Who nostalgia is something to be celebrated.” Agreed, up to a point. But that’s not the way to attract a new audience, a new generation of fans, and that could ultimately lead to the show’s demise. Maybe I’m being pessimistic, but there are parallels with the late Classic era. It would be an interesting aside if RTD is the one to re-start the show and also be the one to cause its demise, with Billie Piper as its bookends. Hope not.
16 October 2025 at 06:43 #78218if the hero walks into an ambush ‘now’, WHY doesn’t he just hop into his time machine and go back to yesterday and warn himself.
Classic Who had two main ways of dealing with this – the aforementioned Blinovich and also the fact that the Doc was not able to control the Tardis well enough to allow him to just go back a few hours and either warn himself or otherwise change his own history. In the modern era we now have the concept of fixed points in time. There are likely other “rules” like this that Who has devised, only to break when convenient. Or forget about.
There was a BBC television show first broadcast in the 1970s or 80s I believe, which dealt with the grandfather paradox, but I don’t believe this kind of thing happened in Classic Who all that much. There are more knowledgeable people on here who can perhaps fill in my knowledge gaps.
If you can find a copy of Day of the Daleks, Special Edition, I think it’s definitely worth a watch. As an aside it also had Ogrons in it, which I am surprised haven’t made a reappearance since the reboot.
time dilation in a strong gravitational field head-on, in World Enough and Time
Yes, that was excellent. IIRC it was Moffat’s son who informed him of the phenomenon, which allowed Moffat’s fiendish brain to include the Mondasian Cybermen in a 12th Doc story. Apparently, Moffat had asked Capaldi which Classic-era monster he’d like to see during his run. Capaldi said Mondasian Cybermen or Axons. Moffat (rightly) baulked at Axons, and WE&T was born.
16 October 2025 at 04:24 #78216@janetteb @dentarthurdent @ps1l0v3y0u
I think Moffat just can not resist a time paradox, his favourite narrative toy.
I think what’s interesting about Moffat-era Who in this regard was the way he used time to drive the plot. Time became almost like another character in the story. Whereas in most Who stories, time was a narrative device to get the Doc and Companions to where they needed to be, so the story proper could then commence. There were exceptions to this of course, and I recall The Day of the Daleks (Doc 3) that had time paradoxes and many time-related shenanigans (good word shenanigans), as well of course the (in)famous Blinovitch Limitation Effect.
Chibnall in Once, Upon Time was a bit more literal, deciding to name a planet (character?) “Time”.
13 October 2025 at 23:38 #78203So, assuming the show does come back, does that mean we know where it’s going. If I were Russ I’d be banking some footage of key people.
I think the BP reveal is a kind of placeholder while the BBC/BW negotiate with Disney / AN Other partner.
Once that’s sorted then they will decide on the creative side of the show, and what BPs role in it will be. I don’t think they know yet – she could feasibly disappear almost immediately and be replaced by the long-term solution, or she might be the long term solution.
In the meantime…crickets. No date for the spinoff, no date for the next season, no discussions on whether the show is in hiatus, no casting announcements for e.g. companions etc.
And all this stems from Gatwa’s decision to leave the show early, which stems from RTD pushing for Gatwa as the lead, which stems from the BBC asking RTD back to fix the show, which stems from Chibnall’s dire run. Thanks Chris.
13 October 2025 at 23:24 #78202Speaking of faces turning up later, I’d forgotten that Karen Gillan played the soothsayer in “Fires of Pompei.”
And Freema Agyeman, who was in the Torchwood team in Doomsday. This was later explained as her character being Martha’s cousin.
13 October 2025 at 14:41 #78194And oh she’s older! Tut, the shelf life of the female tv personality…
You’ve misunderstood my comment. I wasn’t commenting on BP’s age. As I’ve said elsewhere, she is a fine actor. And yes, she would probably do a great job as the Doc.
But, for the same reason I wasn’t a fan of Tennant coming back (and to a lesser extent RTD), I’m not a fan of this new direction.
13 October 2025 at 00:23 #78185Whether deliberate choice or subconscious, the fact remains that the Doc’s new regeneration is (possibly, we don’t know for sure) the face of an old companion. And one to whom he had romantic feelings. And it’s not even the same face. It’s an older version. I find it odd, and I really don’t like it. I understand that there are in-story precedents but, just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should do something.
I don’t think it muddies the waters in the broader Whoniverse, whatever that means. I regard the TV series as canon, all the rest is derivative or symbiotic entities
I think the BBC / Bad Wolf have made a rod for their own back regarding keeping the show current. Let’s take the spinoff (whenever that airs) as an example. Are the BBC furiously editing (or even reshooting) that show (hence the delay) to remove any mention of 15 as the current Doc? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps they don’t need to, I don’t know. The point is that they now have to consider how the wider Who-related stuff is going to be presented in light of the decision to have BP’s face and voice as the last thing transmitted on TV. This covers not only TV but things like merch and other media (e.g. books and audio). These are money spinners for the BBC and help keep the main show on air, so are important financially even if they are not considered crucial to the main narrative. Not having a current Doctor makes that more difficult. I know that much of the non-TV material uses previous incarnations, but this is the first time I can recall that we don’t know who the actor is playing the Doctor. Even during the gap, McCoy was still ostensibly in the role as 7. The whole thing feels like a misstep borne out of desperation.
12 October 2025 at 05:41 #78181Agree that Bille Piper would be good in the role. But the Doc taking one of his companion’s faces just seems a little bit…creepy maybe isn’t the right word here but it’s not far off.
Also, the decision to use a previous companion for the last 30 seconds of the current run, really muddies the waters in terms of what’s happening in the broader Whoniverse (ugh), in that we simply don’t have a current Doctor. We don’t know what BPs appearance means, it’s been (deliberately) left open. If another, previously unknown face, had appeared then we’d all have gone “Ah, so that’s the new Doc” and moved on. Or maybe a fade-to-black as the regen energy consumed 15 would have been a more palatable halfway house option.
I absolutely understand that real-world practicalities are now driving what’s happening on screen. RTD2’s insistence on having Ncuti Gatwa as 15, even knowing he was not available for a chunk of the first season and unlikely to stick around very long, means that RTD2 / Bad Wolf Productions is responsible for a lot of the mess the show is now in. I would be interested to know at what point Gatwa told Davies he was going to leave. Looking at the way the final 20 mins of the finale was (hastily) re-written, I infer that it came a bit out of the blue.
And all that coupled with the Disney tie-in, Tennant’s reappearance as 14, the additional pressure due to the budget increase, plus RTD2 stepping in again (which I imagine was less than ideal for him) and there have been a catalogue of decisions which have resulted in the show seemingly on the brink. And this is without mentioning some of the in-show decisions which were critically not well-received further adding pressure and contributing to the falling ratings.
My hope is that the lack of news re the show’s future is a positive sign, and the BBC are frantically negotiating with someone in the background.
Of course, as it has in the past, a new Doctor and a new writing team can swiftly bring the show back to former glories. Hopefully they get the chance to do it.
10 October 2025 at 09:53 #78170Im a big fan of Capaldi and, yes, we would certainly be poorer for not having him in Who. But Moff + Whittaker would have served up some treats I think.
There are a lot of reactionary folk on The G (more now than ever it seems), and the “Moff can’t write…” comments were rarely backed up by anything logical, so my assumption was that they just didn’t like an episode and were…venting. Keeps.’em off the streets I suppose.
I will go against the trend a bit here and say I hope Billie Piper isn’t the next Doc. Nothing against her at all, but the idea of it is just too gimmicky for my taste. I had similar feelings about Tennant coming back in as 14.
Although, at this point, I’ll take whatever is on offer…
10 October 2025 at 02:00 #78165Very interesting, although I must say that the press criticism passed me by at the time. I do remember seeing “Moff can’t write women” and “Mary Sue” in the comment sections of t’other place, and, yes, he could verge on cartoonish characterisations sometimes. I think he did, clearly, pave the way for the first female Doctor as he introduced (IIRC) the notion that TLs can regenerate into other genders / sexes.
Showrunning Who is a tough gig, especially when you are writing so much of the content, and I suspect he was burnt out by the end of Capaldi’s run. He had certainly peaked in terms of content I ‘d say, although Capaldi’s last season was the best of his run imo. He definitely had stories that were more companion- (ie female-) led, so maybe that shows where his preference lay.
If Moff did want to write a female Doc, then, with hindsight, maybe the 11-12 regen should have been Whittaker’s rather than Capaldi (first of a new cycle of regens would have been a nice tie-in here) and Moff could have at it (as it were) with a female lead. Then Capaldi after with a new showrunner. Sounds like the BBC didn’t want to risk him, but we’ve ended up with Chibnall and now RTD2, so what do they really know.
8 October 2025 at 05:58 #78159But Moff became a marked man.
I’ve seen you allude to this before; any more context / details?
17 September 2025 at 03:57 #78116Decision delayed until 2026. See my earlier post for more details.
8 September 2025 at 03:11 #78109“Disney Decision on Doctor Who’s Future Delayed Until 2026, Says Bad Wolf”
https://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/disney-doctor-whos-future-2026-106117.htm
Not really much of a surprise, given that we are in September and they haven’t aired the Spin-off episode yet.
I did see that the BBC and RTD / Bad Wolf are having some creative disagreements about the way the show should go in the future. RTD wants a more campy, fun tone, while the BBC want to aim more at the teen market.
Also interestingly, there are rumours that the BBC / BW are talking to another (non-Disney party) about coming on board. Said party also favours a more adult tone, and they have put up several well-known writers (no names) as part of the negotiations. This implies they want more control over content after Disney’s mainly hands-off “off you go Russ” approach. My guess is that it is either Amazon or HBO.
I think some fresh ideas are needed at this point. My only concern (echoed here I would imagine), is preserving the essence of the show while moving it forward, and keeping that British sensibility running through it.
8 September 2025 at 02:47 #78108Distraction most welcome!
I’ve never seen FftD, but it’s on my 2nd Doctor hitlist. There’s something about Troughton’s performances that I find very engaging. The first episode of his I watched was the Three Doctors, and I’ve been keen to complete my education since. Only seen a few to date: Tomb, War Games, and a couple of animated ones (Power of the Daleks). I tend to go for the few (mostly) complete live-action stories, where possible, as there is something lost in the animated versions. As you say, good to have them here at all.
Interestingly there are strong rumours that a number of the lost episodes are in private collectors’ hands. For various reasons (e.g. fear of prosecution, chance for reward, bloody-mindedness…) there is a reluctance on their part to hand them back to the BBC. Also interestingly, while there are audio recordings of all the episodes, the BBC are holding off animating some of them. I wondered if it’s to do with the scheduled release to Doctor Who – The Collection (the Blu-Ray sets of each classic season). They’ve mostly done Docs 3-7 (about three or four seasons to go I think) but have only released Season 2 of Docs 1 &2 seasons to date. I suspect it is due to the extra work required in animation, although a part of me hopes it is because they are negotiating the return of some of the missing eps.
I’ve just finished the Web of Fear which, all normal caveats aside, was a decent watch. Could easily have been a 4-parter though. Episode 3 was animated, which was generally ok, although I did notice that the characters’ arms tended to move almost constantly, and some of the figure movements tended on the jerky.
Interestingly, there was one episode (2) in which the Doc is completely absent. Proper Doctor-lite that one. Also, I noted in the credits that one of the Yetis was played by a certain John Levene.
2 September 2025 at 06:55 #78096Steven Moffat’s qualities that he looks for in an actor playing / the character 0f the Doctor
“Attractive, but odd. There is something utterly odd, a sort of benevolent, kindly, slightly incompetent impersonation of a human being. The Doctor is never quite right.”
“But also there has got to be an edge, slightly dangerous, the most dangerous [person] in the universe, all of those things. It is a tall order.”
He added that the Doctor is forever trying to look cool, yet never quite nails it. “He is really trying, or she is really trying. [They are] not quite there. ‘I am really cool because I got a bow tie’. ‘I have got a nice suit.’ ‘I put my trainers on.’ There is just something off kilter about them.”
“Above all, it is someone that little kids would want to run up and take that [person’s] hand and feel absolutely safe. That is what the Doctor is about. Somewhere between Indiana Jones and Willy Wonka.”
I would add “Humanlike but Otherworldly” but otherwise I think this is pretty much spot on. Would be interested to know what the Forum thinks.
26 July 2025 at 08:49 #78056Fugitive Doctor Multimedia adventure “Circuit Breaker” announced:
https://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/doctor-who-circuit-breaker-106056.htm
Spanning audio dramas, comics, mobile games, novels, and digital storytelling,
The story sounds interesting.
16 July 2025 at 01:44 #78050Who *was* one of the least macho sci-fi’s, once. The last few eps, the Doc has been getting increasingly macho, shooting things with his enhanced sonic gun – I mean screwdriver, posing with macho orchestral music blaring – kind of the opposite of what RTD said.
100% agree. The messaging coming out of the show continues to be at odds with what we see on screen and what we know.
And I know everyone was desperate to be nice about Jodie Whittaker but…
Yeah, the reaction was a bit OTT for me. Apparently she is in a good Big Finish audio right now, with Yaz. Maybe BF will rescue 13s reputation the same way it did with 6.
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