Doctor Who - Series 11 (Part 2)

[Replies From View]

To be fair, while the beard was patchy, it was mostly very good.

Meanwhile, here's Chibnall's offering:

Those are iron filings I think.

[Thomas]

Whoopi Goldberg has revealed that years ago she asked BBC bosses to give her the lead role in Doctor Who.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-47128578

The 63-year-old actress said: "The idea of that just so made me happy. But they were like, 'Um, no.'"

[Alberon]

Depends how good her British accent is, I suppose.

But if she wants to be in it, get her. But for one of the non-Chibnall ones obviously. Can you imagine wasting her on shite like 'Arachnids in the UK'?

[olliebean]

Depends how good her British accent is, I suppose.

The Doctor has already been Scottish twice and Northern twice; I don't see why she couldn't be American.

[Replies From View]

Casting of the 1996 TV Movie followed the logic that the Master could be American but not the Doctor, as the show had to retain a quintessential Britishness (whatever that might mean these days).

It wouldn't surprise me if one of the production companies in 1996 was pushing for an American Doctor until McGann was cast.  I doubt Goldberg was considered for any of the post-2005 Doctors.

[olliebean]

the show had to retain a quintessential Britishness (whatever that might mean these days).

Well, Englishness is nothing to aspire to these days, and Scottish has been done, so... time for a Welsh Doctor? What's Peter Baynham up to these days?

[mothman]

Sure, yeah, why not, open up the accent to the rest of the British Isles. but, be warned - this way lies Nesbitt.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

James Nesbitt is a good actor, people only dislike him based on those annoying cheeky chappie BT ads he did years ago.

Dunno if he'd be a good Doctor or not, but that's by the by.

[Psmith]

If David Tennant had used his Scottish accent I might have liked him.

[BritishHobo]

Reckon the RTD years will be the Welshest it's pushed. I wonder if he ever considered going for a Welsh companion/Doctor. Despite spending a lot of time in Cardiff, and Torchwood going all-in, his Doctor Who stayed pretty fixed on London.

[Johnny Yesno]

Sure, yeah, why not, open up the accent to the rest of the British Isles. but, be warned - this way lies Nesbitt.

I think Rab's accent would be a bit much for the American market.

[daf]

Picking the bones out of series 11 from Full Fat Videos
- poor villains
- inconsistent Doctor
- Under-developed character arcs

Pretty much on the money, I thought.

[Norton Canes]

WAY too much vocal fry to listen to that.

[Mango Chimes]

WAY too much vocal fry to listen to that.

Yeshe'sgotthatirritatingwayofspeak_ing thatseemstobeverypopularwithEnglishmenonYou_Tube whogivetheseveryaffectedlyfastandalmostmonotonevoiceo_vers wheretheyjustdipattheendofasent_ence orpartsent_ence

I get the impression people think it sounds intelligent.

Hey, here's a question: is Doctor Who a lot less visibly merchandised than it used to be, and is this a sudden change or had it gradually dipped over Moffat's time on the show? I was in WHSmith the other day, and just remembered it used to be full of Cybermen and Dalek shite, although I probably am thinking more RTD era than recently. And there's now fuck all. (This isn't a CHIBNALL KILLS WHO complaint, as I think the RTD visibility is naturally unsustainable, but it's absence suddenly stood out to me.)

[Replies From View]

Especially noticeable is that the p'ting was nothing except a very obvious attempt to get a toy going, but it somehow hasn't happened.

Maybe Chibnall hasn't got a hang of that stuff yet.  The showrunner's role never stopped at just the episodes when RTD and Moffat did it, and maybe Chibnall just hasn't got around to hoiking toy lines.

[Small Man Big Horse]

To be fair the merchandise side of things seemed to dry up towards the end of Moffat's run, there's still a fair amount made but I've only ever seen it in places like Forbidden Planet for the last few years.

[Kelvin]

Especially noticeable is that the p'ting was nothing except a very obvious attempt to get a toy going, but it somehow hasn't happened.

Maybe Chibnall hasn't got a hang of that stuff yet.  The showrunner's role never stopped at just the episodes when RTD and Moffat did it, and maybe Chibnall just hasn't got around to hoiking toy lines.

Let's be honest. If asked to come up with exciting new toy ideas, Chris Chibnall would come up with an orange and teal ball.

[Alberon]

The audience has gone up this year so maybe the merchandise bandwagon will ramp up again.

[olliebean]

Especially noticeable is that the p'ting was nothing except a very obvious attempt to get a toy going, but it somehow hasn't happened.

Maybe Chibnall hasn't got a hang of that stuff yet.  The showrunner's role never stopped at just the episodes when RTD and Moffat did it, and maybe Chibnall just hasn't got around to hoiking toy lines.

I suspect less "hasn't got around to" than "can't be arsed to".

[Replies From View]

I suspect less "hasn't got around to" than "can't be arsed to".

I would assume he has a corporate responsibility to do that though?  I don't know how these things work.  My feeling is that if BBC Worldwide (or whoever) were pushing for toy lines, Chibnall would have to be doing it as part of his showrunner job - lacking the time or not being arsed wouldn't factor into it.  The sense is that Doctor Who is no longer viewed by the corporation as a franchise to push toys.

[Norton Canes]

Probably wrapped up with the whole move to Sunday night, different kind of show thing.

[Replies From View]

Probably wrapped up with the whole move to Sunday night, different kind of show thing.

Yes and the deliberately more shit writing, and everything.

Just generally pushing Doctor Who into being a less well-regarded show.

[Mister Six]

Oh come on, there's no grand conspiracy to destroy Doctor Who. Chibnall got the job because nobody else wanted to do it and there was still critical acclaim from Broadchurch. Episode counts are down because the BBC's got less cash to slosh around. Merchandising is down because it's no longer the shiny new thing that the Beeb wants to push, and likely because toy manufacturers don't want to fork out for licences for a show that's only going to air 10 episodes every two years rather than 14 a year. Sunday night is probably an effort to boost ratings after years of them stumbling downwards.

The Beeb might be ambivalent about Who, but they're not trying to kill it.

[Replies From View]

Oh come on, there's no grand conspiracy to destroy Doctor Who.

There is.  You know when people say "Have you seen the new series of Doctor Who?  It's supposed to be really shit"?

Well what they mean isn't "I hear that it's really shit," but "It has been deliberately designed to be really shit".

FACT.

[Mister Six]

Well when you put it like that...

[Bingo Fury]

You may jest, but from quite early on in Moffat's tenure there were people seriously espousing the theory that his creative decisions were strategically designed to destroy credibility in the show and dent the ratings so badly that it could be taken off air. I haven't gone back to Gallifrey Base since the Chibnall/Whitaker series started, so Christ alone knows what they're saying about that.

[Johnny Yesno]

WAY too much vocal fry to listen to that.

Yes, and made even more irritating by the fact that I couldn't remember the term for it. Thanks for slightly taking the edge off.

[Small Man Big Horse]

The Doctor Who comic continues to be better than the series, though I've noticed that Yaz and Ryan are still pretty bland characters in it and rarely say anything interesting. Jody Houser writes Whittaker far better than any of the tv writers do though, it's a fun plot and I'm enjoying it a fair bit, so I'm glad it exists, especially during this Who-less year tv wise.

[Mister Six]

#YazQuestion!

[Small Man Big Horse]

Heh, I did do that deliberately. And I checked to see how much interaction she had with Ryan and Graham as well (two bits, both pointless) so it seems Houser doesn't really know what to do with the character either. But these are early days and the three issues so far would probably make up only half a tv episode, so it's a bit unfair to judge her on that just yet.