Doctor Who - Series 12, Chibnall's Revenge

[Ambient Sheep]

I'm happy to get with #teamjodie just not #teamchibnall

[JamesTC]

Eccleston is happy so long as there are no burning sofas falling from the sky.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Would you also recommend RTD's novelisation of Rose?

I would, it's great. When I read it and Day of the Doctor I felt there were a couple of points where RTD and Moffat were taking cheeky (and entirely friendly) potshots at each other's versions of the show. I can't remember what made me think that, but I liked it. Anyway Rose is much more straightforward than DOTD but still good fun. RTD goes back and makes Mickey into a character.

[purlieu]

That's nice, given his role in the show was literally to be bullied by The Doctor.

[weekender]

I'm happy to get with #teamjodie just not #teamchibnall

#companion2 and #companion3 try to look sad

[Ambient Sheep]

#companion2 and #companion3 try to look sad

Are they not part of #teamjodie?


Im assuming you're also implying that #companion1 does actually have enough skill to act sad.

Or you've just completely lost me which, let's face it, is very easy to do these days.

[bobloblaw]

Weird how it's still deemed lolbantz when it's really only a couple of steps away from what Louis CK was done for.

Keith Allen is known for having a similar condition; things like placing his cock on his mate's shoulders while they were sitting down chatting with someone, and things like this.  Popping his knob in their beer for a hoot.

Tales are legion of Chris Evans performing similar antics at every opportunity (the DJ, not the actor, nor the one who works with Richard Herring, as far as I know)

[Replies From View]

Surely we are within our rights to shove a fork or knife (whatever is on the table) into the body of any of these errant cocks if and when they appear?  It'll teach their owners a much-needed lesson.

For example let's say you were in court one day for stabbing a cock in a public place.  Stabbing it so it bled and part of it even broke off.  Who would the court stand with when you tell them that the cock's owner decided to pop it liberally into your private space - on your shoulder or in your drink, say - and that you were going to stab in that direction anyway before the cock materialised?

[Replies From View]

Such fun mortifies Bob Mortimer.
https://youtu.be/PwyUf0OlBsM?t=2515

It's great how Bob plays with his bottle as he fumes about it.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Surely we are within our rights to shove a fork or knife (whatever is on the table) into the body of any of these errant cocks if and when they appear?  It'll teach their owners a much-needed lesson.

For example let's say you were in court one day for stabbing a cock in a public place.  Stabbing it so it bled and part of it even broke off.  Who would the court stand with when you tell them that the cock's owner decided to pop it liberally into your private space - on your shoulder or in your drink, say - and that you were going to stab in that direction anyway before the cock materialised?

Come on mate it's just banter! Alright mate calm down it's just a bit of banter! Mate. Come on. Mate. It's just a bit of -- WAHEY!!!!! HA HA HA HA!!

[Deanjam]

Cocks out lads! Banter-banter-banter!

[Replies From View]

Seriously though, let's say you had a steak knife in your hand and TFI Friday's Chris Evans sauntered up to you and cheerfully popped his knob on your shoulder.

You wouldn't give it a quick slice down the side?  And then ask the waiter for a fresh steak knife?

[Huxleys Babkins]

These stories always remind me of an anecdote from Richard Herring where Keith Allen burst into a pub and roared "who wants to suck my cock?" and nobody reacted, causing him to look about desperately for someone he knew before meekly slinking out the door.

Sure, stab the Don't Forget Your Toothbrush star in the winkle, but you'll give him an anecdote he can use for years and probably get another volume of his autobiography out of. Indifference is the only way you can hurt these cunts.

[weekender]

Are they not part of #teamjodie?

Im assuming you're also implying that #companion1 does actually have enough skill to act sad.

Or you've just completely lost me which, let's face it, is very easy to do these days.

I was implying that, as characters go, The Doctor and Graham were fairly averagely-to-well written and played by obviously very good actors.

Ryan and Yasmin were not well-written characters (apart from Ryan in the first episode, where his dyspraxia showed some promise, but was quickly forgotten about, presumably because it might make him interesting?) and played by actors who I didn't consider to be particularly good - although I do acknowledge that they can only really deal with the material they're given.

Imagine the script for this particular scene, and then imagine it being played out by Ryan and Yasmin. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvbQ4wJak_c

Anyway, I think it's unfair to like/blame #teamjodie as some of them are OK.  Similarly, it's probably not OK to blame #teamchibnall as lots of the team who worked on S11 were probably also trying their best.  I seem to remember liking Jamie Childs as a Director, even if I didn't necessarily like the episode - although two of the ones he directed (It Takes You Away and Demons of the Punjab) happened to be two of the three episodes I enjoyed from S11 (the other one was Rosa).

Oh look, there's an interesting correlation - I enjoyed the most the ones that weren't written by Chris Chibnall.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Oh look, there's an interesting correlation - I enjoyed the most the ones that weren't written by Chris Chibnall.

I think that was the case with most people. Though I did quite like the New Year's Day special, though perhaps my expectations were so low by that point that anything which didn't make me want to bash my head against a wall was considered a good thing.

Oh, and t's great to see you back here by the way, your presence was missed.

[Replies From View]

Why was the story even called 'Resolution'?

[Kelvin]

Why was the story even called 'Resolution'?

Because Chibnall had resolved not to make it absolutely shit.

[Mister Six]

Why was the story even called 'Resolution'?

Because it was set on New Year's Day, the day after people make their New Year's Resolutions. And also because it resolved the burning question of how the lad who's so boring I can't even remember his name would react to his dad being back in his life, following a letter that was mentioned in two episodes about nine months previously.

That's about as clever as Chibnall gets.

Do you think he knows how shit he is at writing? Do you think he has some other, actual talent that he wishes he could make money from instead?

[Replies From View]

Oh yeah it was the resolution to a story arc from series 11 kind of.

Not good enough.



I am happy with the title 'Resolution'.  I like that it came from abandoning the Christmas Special slot and going for New Year's Day instead.  It's just that the title 'Resolution' was then wasted.  A writer like Moffat could take the theme of Resolution as promises made to oneself, and make something magical, thrilling and horrifying out of future selves being bound and restricted by singular naive hopes.

I dunno, just don't use a title that relates only to the day the episode is on telly and nothing else.

[Phil_A]

Don't forget Chekov's Microwave, the rule that states if a character is seen with a newly purchased microwave oven in Act One, said oven must eventually be used in Act Three to prevent an alien invasion.

I wonder if Chibnall was actually pleased with that - "Ooh, if I put a bit with a microwave in early on, it will cleverly seed the eventual denouement of the episode! People will be going, "A microwave?" and they'll forget about it because what's going on is so THRILLING and MAD and HEARTBREAKING, then right at the crucial moment, BOOM! The microwave comes back! That's BRILLIANT, me! I'm going to open a packet of hobnobs!"

[Replies From View]

Heh, yeah.  I am sure that's the best he can do, plot-wise, and that he's proud of it as storytelling.


With Chibnall episodes you can always continually feel his creaking, straining efforts to piece his plots together.  They never feel organic - they always have this paint-by-numbers quality of "I need this scene to get to here, then this scene to get to here", with characters regularly doing little except announcing these exact things in order to move us through.


I still laugh thinking about that Silurian two-parter in Series 5, when Rory had to stand in a grave for ten minutes because the story didn't need him back in yet.

[Mister Six]

Right, whereas Moffat is masterful at seeding ideas almost in passing, so they can be used later - like the nanobots being used to heal Rose's burned hands in The Empty Child, so we're aware of them when they turn people into zombies later. But at the time it just seems like a magical way for Captain Jack to woo her.

[Norton Canes]

'Resolution of the Dalek' would've made a better title, or at least a more apposite one, reflecting the resolve of the titular creature to refashion itself.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Yeah, but then you'd spoil the surprise of who the monster was going to be.

Perhaps we could rename it retrospectively, like how The Mutants became The Daleks.

[olliebean]

Yeah, but then you'd spoil the surprise of who the monster was going to be.

Oh, you mean the "surprise" that was given away in the trailers?

[Huxleys Babkins]

Two wrongs don't make a right!

[Deanjam]

Two wrongs don't make a right!

Yes they do!

[Thomas]

I was wondering if the title sequence would add 'of the Dalek', but it didn't and I thought 'oh, it didn't'.

The thing about killing a Dalek with a microwave is that you have to leave it to stand for a minute before checking that it's dead.

Perhaps Chibnall misremembered the delta wave from 'The Parting of the Ways' and thought it was canon that Daleks are susceptible to microwave ovens. 'Do I have the right... wattage?'

[Small Man Big Horse]

There's speculation that Sean Pertwee might finally appear in the show, but in what role is currently unknown. https://thedoctorwhocompanion.com/2019/06/28/will-sean-pertwee-be-in-doctor-who-series-12/

[Deanjam]

If it's not an evil version of number three then what's the point!