Doctor Who Series 12B: The Timeless Chibnall (Xmas special & pre-Series 13 chat)

[Thomas]

Aside from the tedious Ryan/dad side plot, and the science lesson microwave resolution (lol), I seem to recall Resolution being Chibnall's strongest effort to date.

Obviously, as people have since pointed out, the possessed role should've gone to Yaz, for reasons of peril and the existence of Yaz, and the ep featured one of the lamest, most robotic joke cutaways in the show's history - but strongest effort yet.

[pigamus]

The colours had a lot to do with it. A lot to do with it.

Perhaps not as much as asking Mark Gatiss to write the story... but still.

From a conceptual point of view, I like what Chibnall has done. A Dalek mutant creature is forced to make a new casing out of whatever scrap materials are to hand, and as a result, it looks well shonky. Then (taking a guess at the plot of the forthcoming special here) it creates more casing in its image. That's fine.

Yeah but that makes it sound like Frankenstein's monster, which would be brilliant. Not like something out of the Argos catalogue.

[Mister Six]

Aside from the tedious Ryan/dad side plot, and the science lesson microwave resolution (lol), I seem to recall Resolution being Chibnall's strongest effort to date.

I still think The Woman Who Fell to Earth was his best work. Good villain, great monster design, script held up, characters seemed to have arcs and a point. Only Grace's pointless death let it down.

the ep featured one of the lamest, most robotic joke cutaways in the show's history

Although the bit about Trump cancelling UNIT by withdrawing funds was quite good. I assume someone else pitched that in the writer's room.

[Replies From View]

It was passable at best, I thought.  It set up a standard that, if sustained, wouldn't have been awful, but it really needed to be an example of the show at its worst under Chibnall, not his best effort.

The very least I expected from workmanlike, plot-by-numbers Chibnall was the ability to make something of those vague character sketches (ok so Ryan has dyspraxia; it's a minimal thing here but the plan will be to build on this) but he couldn't even do that.

When the apparently strongest episode is just a string of ultimately loose ends that went nowhere, it's weakened further, in my view.

[olliebean]

Will the story itself be shit? Well we'll have to wait and see won't we.

It's Chibnall, so we can probably make a reasonable guess.

[Norton Canes]

The top's not even on straight, is it?

[lipsink]

I don't really get Chibnall. I mean. What is he? Is he just lazy or even bothered making programmes? His scripts don't even seem like he's put much thought into them and he barely does any interviews or show enthusiasm about the show. Doctor Who should be his dream project but he doesn't even seem fucked about it.

[Mister Six]

I'd genuinely like to know if he's aware of how shit he is. He didn't want to take on the job (hence Moffat coming back for S10 while the search went on), and he's obviously quieter about the show than Davies and Moffat were. Is that just because he's a bit more shy, or is it because he knows he's a chancer who's somehow managed to fall continuously upwards for the past 30 years, somehow being allowed to showrun not just Doctor Who's ballyhooed adult spin-off, but also (eventually) the show itself.

On the other hand, how could someone with a functioning awareness of what is good and bad allow Arachnids in the UK to end up on screen?

It's a mystery.

It was passable at best, I thought.  It set up a standard that, if sustained, wouldn't have been awful, but it really needed to be an example of the show at its worst under Chibnall, not his best effort.

The very least I expected from workmanlike, plot-by-numbers Chibnall was the ability to make something of those vague character sketches (ok so Ryan has dyspraxia; it's a minimal thing here but the plan will be to build on this) but he couldn't even do that.

When the apparently strongest episode is just a string of ultimately loose ends that went nowhere, it's weakened further, in my view.

YMMV and all that. It had a verve and excitement (relative to usual Chibnall output) that was totally lacking in Resolution for me. Resolution just seemed dreary, meandering and unsure exactly where it was supposed to go, whereas TWWFTE fairly galloped along as it pulled the various characters together. That it wasn't paid off in subsequent episodes is a shame but doesn't retroactively spoil it for me.

[Replies From View]

The top's not even on straight, is it?

I perceive it like this (except vertical):

[Norton Canes]

Yeah, it looks like some sort of notch that the eye stalk fits into. But also the whole 'helmet' (sorry, it looks more like a helmet than a dome) just looks like it hasn't been put on straight.

[Alberon]

Scrapheap Challenge Dalek from Resolution on the left and new Dalek from Revolution of the Daleks on the right.

The fact the 'real' version of the Reconnaissance Dalek is so close to the self-built version is a real shame. Previously the one from Revolution looked liked it really had been thrown together by a Dalek in a hurry, but making it so close to the 'real' one cheapens it somehow.

Everytime they move away from RTD's ironclads the thing ends up looking like a toy. I wouldn't mind a redesign, but they haven't managed to better the 2005 one.

[VelourSpirit]

YMMV and all that. It had a verve and excitement (relative to usual Chibnall output) that was totally lacking in Resolution for me. Resolution just seemed dreary, meandering and unsure exactly where it was supposed to go, whereas TWWFTE fairly galloped along as it pulled the various characters together. That it wasn't paid off in subsequent episodes is a shame but doesn't retroactively spoil it for me.

Yeah it had this really sickly vibe to me. Just felt wrong. The "wifi's gone off" gag and the call centre woman... felt so dismal and gloomy.
Plus, I just hate the idea of a Dalek going around outside of its tank and being perfectly capable. They are pathetic, irradiated, fucked up creatures - they need the tank to survive. This isn't just some fannish "THEY CAN'T CHANGE THAT, THEY CAN'T DO THIS" it's genuinely fundamental to what they are and what they represent, and it shows Chibnall really really just doesn't understand them if he thinks he can just add a new mind control gimmick to the creature itself. Just make a new monster if you're wanting to do that!

[Replies From View]

Correct.

[Norton Canes]

I don't get this obsession Dalek designers have had from 2005 onwards with greebling, embossed panels, and a surfeit of other extraneous details. The basic shape that Ray Cusick designed in 1963 is so strong and distinctive; as long as that's retained, less is definitely more. Anything else is just a distraction.

[Catalogue Trousers]

Whine, whine, moan, moan. No one's making you watch this. If you fancy RTD's Daleks that much then just go marry them.

[Alberon]

Not... watching Doctor Who?!?

Are you mad?

[JamesTC]

It is actually quite good not watching it. I still get to mock how shit Chibnall is yet I don't have to suffer through his shite.

[Replies From View]

Whine, whine, moan, moan. No one's making you watch this. If you fancy RTD's Daleks that much then just go marry them.

Catalogue Trousers famously sleeps with a sex doll of Chris Chibnall.


(In case you were wondering.)

[Alberon]

It is actually quite good not watching it. I still get to mock how shit Chibnall is yet I don't have to suffer through his shite.

I sat through Time and the Rani! Twice[nb]Well, I had to get the DVD, didn't I?[/nb]!! I'm not stopping now.

Bring it on, Chinball!

[JamesTC]

I sat through Time and the Rani! Twice[nb]Well, I had to get the DVD, didn't I?[/nb]!! I'm not stopping now.

Bring it on, Chinball!

Time and the Rani is better than every Chibnall episode that I've seen (his first 11 episodes across Who and Torchwood).

Yes I went and counted.

[Replies From View]

Yeah there's no precedent in Doctor Who for how shit Chibnall is.  Nobody else has come close to so fully combining tin-eared dialogue, clunking paint-by-numbers story structure, useless characterisation, endless dead exposition and pedantic history-wrecking revelations that somehow serve no dramatic function whatsoever.


Time and the Rani, Timelash, none of them come close to matching Chibnall's cavalcade of utter nothingness combined with a hubristic redefinition of everything the show has ever been to this point.



Chris Chibnall:  Unprecedentedly Shit Man

[JamesTC]

He was even responsible for turning me off Who before he took over. I really wasn't into Series 6 after loving Series 5 (aside from the Silurian two-parter, THANKS CHIBBERS) and then I came to the opening Dalek story of Series 7 and it was just deflating how little I enjoyed it. I looked to the next few episodes and saw Chibnall was the writer of two of them and I just gave up and have only come back for a few episodes (50th and the next few).

[Mister Six]

Give season 10 a whirl.

Actually, fuck it, do 8-10.

[Mister Six]

First proper look at the new Dalek design.

Just realised - it doesn't have a sink plunger, does it? Rubbish!

[JamesTC]

Give season 10 a whirl.

Actually, fuck it, do 8-10.

I watched a few of Series 8 after the regeneration as I like Peter Capaldi. Still didn't do it for me.

If 1-10 are released as part of The Collection Blu-Ray then I'll get them all and give them all a watch/rewatch (skipping the Chibbers shite and a couple of other shit episodes that I never want to revisit).

[Catalogue Trousers]

Catalogue Trousers famously sleeps with a sex doll of Chris Chibnall.


(In case you were wondering.)

How dare you talk about Vulcanised Clara that way!

[Norton Canes]

Confirmed:  'Revolution of the Daleks' will see the return of Jack Robertson

Anyone - without Googling?

[lipsink]

Feel like the golden age of New Who was Series 1 to 6. 7 starts off well and then is patchy. Once Clara finally fucks off and Moffat gets some time off from Sherlock then Series 10 is properly good.

I have a pal who is a lifelong Who fan and  stopped watching as soon as Chibnall took over. Like he hasn't even watched an episode of it under Chibnall. That's how poorly he thinks of him.

[Alberon]

Confirmed:  'Revolution of the Daleks' will see the return of Jack Robertson

Anyone - without Googling?

Honestly not a clue. Sounds like someone from Neighbours.

[Spoon of Ploff]

Confirmed:  'Revolution of the Daleks' will see the return of Jack Robertson

Anyone - without Googling?

It's a skill I suppose. Smearing something in so much shit you'd think it was impossible to add anymore. And yet there's Chibbers, with another stinking turd in his hand, and by god he'll make it stick.