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Doctor Who [Spoilers]

CharmerKamelion said:
Does Steven Moffat get paid every time someone blinks??

DON'T BLINK!
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Series 13 trailer just appeared:

Laughed at "Hiya", but otherwise none the wiser. I have heard this will be an ongoing story instead of standalone episodes, but I don't know, really.
 
GNC said:
Series 13 trailer just appeared:

Laughed at "Hiya", but otherwise none the wiser. I have heard this will be an ongoing story instead of standalone episodes, but I don't know, really.
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To quote Verruca Salt -

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After the year and a half, we need something brilliant!
 
Breaking News

From Broadcast Magazine

Paywalled

"Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker to leave Doctor Who
Showrunner and star prepare to depart amid ’three series and out’ pact
Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker are to leave Doctor Who at the end of the next series, which will conclude with a regeneration episode to tie in with the BBC’s centenary.
Chibnall and Whittaker
The pair have worked together on two series of BBC Studios’ long-running fantasy epic, with a third currently in production.
That series will air as a six-parter this autumn followed by a Christmas special, Easter special and a final feature-length special at which point Whittaker’s Doctor will regenerate into her as-yet-unannounced replacement.
Showrunner Chibnall replaced Steven Moffat in 2017 and one of his first ground-breaking decisions was to cast Whittaker as the inaugural female Doctor, having worked with her on Broadchurch.
While the decision was met with derision by certain pockets of the Doctor Who fan base, the show has since gone from strength to strength, most recently consolidating to 5.8m (24.8%) in a Sunday 7pm slot, having opened to 7.2m (26.6%) on New Year’s Day.
Chibnall instilled a writers’ room-style culture to the show and signed up diverse writers and actors including Malorie Blackman, Vinay Patel, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill, while introducing storylines that covered the likes of the US civil rights movement.
Chibnall said he and Whittaker had “made a ‘three series and out’ pact” when they signed up for the show.
“Jodie’s magnificent iconic Doctor has exceeded all our high expectations,” he added. “She’s been the gold standard leading actor, shouldering the responsibility of being the first female Doctor with style, strength, warmth, generosity and humour.”
BBC drama director Piers Wenger said the pair had “made history and their time on the show is indelibly marked on our memories”."
 
Here's the announcement on the BBC website

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertai...6IExXTfuphZoSyzqvYrtdl_riypxeG-TMWstH8MMitWto


Jodie Whittaker is to step down from the lead role in Doctor Who, the BBC has confirmed.
The first woman to play the Time Lord will bow out in Autumn 2022, along with showrunner Chris Chibnall.
Whittaker will star in a new six-part series later this year, and three specials next year, before she exits...
 
Hogarth999 said:
Chibnall is no great loss but I feel that Whittaker could have been very well received if given far better material to work with.
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I'm glad Chibnall is going he was the worst thing about it all. I don't think Whitaker is a good enough actor for the role. When Dr Jo was on she nailed it in that one episode, something for me Jodie has failed to do in all of her time there.
 
Hogarth999 said:
Chibnall is no great loss but I feel that Whittaker could have been very well received if given far better material to work with.
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I feel that's been an issue with Dr Who for a while - despite being the most technically gifted actor of them all (discuss) Capaldi often seemed to be fighting against the script as much as anything else. When he got a good one - eg the Gaiman-scripted episodes - he absolutely transcended.
gordonrutter said:
When Dr Jo was on she nailed it in that one episode
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Absolutely agree. She had the "otherness" instantly.
 
It does feel like we've had two Doctors in a row who haven't been able to live up to their full potential, except in brief glimpses. Here's hoping that doesn't become a hat-trick.

Wild dreamland thought: can you imagine a Dr Who run by Gaiman? *shivers*
 
As Tom Baker observed, she'll have to adjust to not being a hero to children anymore, apparently it's a bit of a culture shock. Still, four years isn't bad for a Doctor these days. Now the most boring bit of DW awaits... speculating on who the next Who will be.
 
GNC said:
As Tom Baker observed, she'll have to adjust to not being a hero to children anymore, apparently it's a bit of a culture shock. Still, four years isn't bad for a Doctor these days. Now the most boring bit of DW awaits... speculating on who the next Who will be.
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Knowing the BBC will probably want to go for diversity, I personally think Adrian Lester would be a pretty good choice
 
Nosmo King said:
I personally think Adrian Lester would be a pretty good choice
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I think Jo Martin did an excellent job playing the once and/or future Doctor.

It's not about wokeness / diversity / whitewashing / blackface it's about whether the actor and the scripts that service them are up to par. Given these two conditions I don't care if they find a purple midget to do it. If they're believable, they're the Doctor.
 
stu neville said:
Capaldi often seemed to be fighting against the script as much as anything else. When he got a good one - eg the Gaiman-scripted episodes - he absolutely transcended.
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I don't like to be pedantic - what am I saying? Of course I do. I'm a Doctor Who fan - but I'm pretty certain that Neil Gaiman didn't write any of the scripts of Peter Capaldi's episodes. He wrote 2 for Matt Smith's Doctor, which were "The Doctor's Wife" (which I thought was passable, with a few great moments and some cracking dialogue) and "Nightmare in Silver" (which I thought was a very apt title, though how much of the garbled mish-mash that reached the screen was down to Mr Gaiman is debatable!). I've been struggling to think if he was involved in scripting or co-scripting any other DW episodes, but I can't think of any others..... :crazy:
 
stu neville said:
I think Jo Martin did an excellent job playing the once and/or future Doctor.

It's not about wokeness / diversity / whitewashing / blackface it's about whether the actor and the scripts that service them are up to par. Given these two conditions I don't care if they find a purple midget to do it. If they're believable, they're the Doctor.
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I agree, however given how things are at the BBC at the moment, I have a feeling the next doctor will be a diversity pick. I think Adrian Lester is a great actor who can do serious with a touch of comedy, which is what the doctor is about. IMO
 
Nosmo King said:
I think Adrian Lester is a great actor who can do serious with a touch of comedy, which is what the doctor is about. IMO
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Yes Nosmo, Adrian Lester would be a great choice. He is a fine actor. I shared a stage with him a few years ago. Well, he was acting and I was in the audience, but also on the stage. It was an odd experience and an odd theatre.
 
Prior to Jodie Whittaker being cast, I remember being told that Chris Chibnall was expected to make a 'progressive' choice when casting the Doctor (which I took to mean his Doctor would not be 'pale, male and stale'). I think the same will likely still apply to the next choice for the role, whoever makes that choice.

Just as interesting to me is who might be in the frame to be Chibnall's successor as showrunner/principal writer. What a responsibility. I can't think of anyone who stands out as an obvious candidate for the job now. Chibnall wasn't exactly obvious, but he wasn't a big surprise either. It's hard to think anyone would want to do it. It must be a hell of a lot of pressure.
 
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CharmerKamelion said:
Prior to Jodie Whittaker being cast, I remember being told that Chris Chibnall was expected to make a 'progressive' choice when casting the Doctor (which I took to mean his Doctor would not be pale, male and stale). I think the same will likely still apply to the next choice for the role, whoever makes that choice.

Just as interesting to me is who might be in the frame to be Chibnall's successor as showrunner/principal writer. What a responsibility. I can't think of anyone who stands out as an obvious candidate for the job now. Chibnall wasn't exactly obvious, but he wasn't a big surprise either. It's hard to think anyone would want to do it. It must be a hell of a lot of pressure.
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It wouldn't surprise me in the least if, like with a lot of shows and films recently, if the BBC went with Phoebe Waller-Bridge as the new writer.
 
Nosmo King said:
It wouldn't surprise me in the least if, like with a lot of shows and films recently, if the BBC went with Phoebe Waller-Bridge as the new writer.
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She's a very gifted writer (and performer) but genre is very important, too. Realistic, sophisticated dialogue is brilliant, she can do comedy and thriller, but can she also do sci-fi?
 
CharmerKamelion said:
Prior to Jodie Whittaker being cast, I remember being told that Chris Chibnall was expected to make a 'progressive' choice when casting the Doctor (which I took to mean his Doctor would not be pale, male and stale). I think the same will likely still apply to the next choice for the role, whoever makes that choice.

Just as interesting to me is who might be in the frame to be Chibnall's successor as showrunner/principal writer. What a responsibility. I can't think of anyone who stands out as an obvious candidate for the job now. Chibnall wasn't exactly obvious, but he wasn't a big surprise either. It's hard to think anyone would want to do it. It must be a hell of a lot of pressure.
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The first two are physical traits; the last is entirely determined by a dully formulaic combination or writing and acting.

I don't see how the two former categories necessary lead to the latter; you must be suggesting causation, as no one would intentionally choose to cast a stale actor. If you're suggesting staleness as a product of age, I simply don't accept it: quality doesn't have a best before date.

Very catchy turn of phrase, though.

My brief forrays into the relaunch-era Who lead me to believe that the main drag on quality is/was the writing. Perhaps I've been unlucky in my random sampling, but the half a dozen I've seem since Eccleston were dull as ditchwater, and none of that was a product of the sex or ethnicity of members of the cast.
 
stu neville said:
She's a very gifted writer (and performer) but genre is very important, too. Realistic, sophisticated dialogue is brilliant, she can do comedy and thriller, but can she also do sci-fi?
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I thought 'Killing Eve' was brilliant, just the right amount of black humour to offset the brutal violence.
 
Yithian said:
Very catchy turn of phrase, though.
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I can't claim any credit for the phrase 'pale, male and stale' . It isn't my creation. It's an expression I've heard quite a lot in recent years by some people to suggest that older white men are more likely to be in privileged positions. Therefore (in relation to casting someone as the Doctor) choosing someone who isn't all of those things (for example, Jodie isn't male and she isn't particularly old) is deemed by some as a progressive choice (as the Doctor has customarily been played by (mostly) older white men). I am not saying I agree to disagree with any of those judgements. I'm one of those fans who will be happy with anyone who is a decent actor (or actress, to use the old-fashioned term!) playing the Doctor. I've liked them all, to greater or lesser degrees. I find it heart-warming (like Werther's Originals) that pretty much everyone who has been cast has appreciated the fact that it is a special role that only a handful of actors are privileged to take on and they each have given it their all. And I always feel a bit sad when they move on. There is something quite melancholic about knowing a Doctor is on borrowed .... er.... Time.
 
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