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

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Perhaps from a Naked Attraction booth.

Maybe buried in the credits of an episode of Rick and Morty.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

How will they do the next one?

Arrives on a bulldozer halfway through an episode of The Wall.

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Just started listening to the audio story 'Blood of the Daleks'.  Even though it lacks visual information, so depends on characters always pointing out what's physically around them, it is infinitely less expository than Chris Chibnall's stories.  It's quite bizarre how much characterisation is achieved by contrast.

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Arrives on a bulldozer halfway through an episode of The Wall.

Or pictured on the drinking bottles of the dragons in Dragon's Den.  Never shown in close-up or anything, no attention drawn to it in any way.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Or pictured on the drinking bottles of the dragons in Dragon's Den.  Never shown in close-up or anything, no attention drawn to it in any way.

"Twitter went crazy last night, but you probably don't know why." #TheosCup

[An tSaoi]

I don't watch Dr Who, so sorry for the intrusion, but I know some people who are into it, and they say they're fine with any gender, age or ethnicity, but they're adamant that the actor must be British. Is this a common feeling among Dr Who fans, and if so, why is the nationality of (what I understand to be) an alien character set in stone when the other factors are variable?

[daf]

Interesting question. On a gut level, it's probably because it's a British show, so say having an American Doctor would feel like it was being taken over, and wasn't 'ours' any more.

Having said that, I wouldn't be against a New Zealand or Australian accent in the Tardis (he could put it down to being influenced by Tegan) - I'd also be partial to one of those precise Scandinavian twangs, like Bjorn from Abba, or Bjork from The Sugarcubes.

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Not only from "our" point of view.  Fans in the US, for example, want it to continue feeling like a quintessentially British show.

[Cloud]

Probably a bit of national pride there also.  I think it's not so bad being proud of a British series with British actors (regardless of skin colour or ethnic origin or whatever) as long as it's not for the sake of being racist or pretending that the UK is perfect and has a perfect history.  We've become a bit shy of the whole idea of national pride due to it being weaponised by racists and national supremacists but there's nothing wrong with the concept of pride in one's country in itself and stuff it produces like Doctor Who, generally, IMO.  (He says hoping not to be mobbed and called a flag waving alt right neo Nazi.)

Maybe, but IIRC you can see a marked difference in the way Tennant and Capaldi are written in their first, then second seasons. Tennant is doing a lot of Ecclestoney shouting, which he's not really very good at, and which is traded for quiet fury in later episodes. With Capaldi the differences are a bit more obvious, and perhaps based more on audience reaction to the way his "difficult, not user-friendly" Doctor was written, but still - I can see taking a bit of time to fine-tune the character in writing from season to season being pretty much the norm, and Smith getting it immediately being the exception.

Not sure if it was intentional but I took Capaldi as a callback to Hartnell's First Doctor.  Both started out rather cuntish, both had "did he just... would he have killed that guy?" moments, both mellowed out and became quite warm characters towards the end.  Except Capaldi's went a bit 'wacky' as well.

I wonder how much that might be the case for any series.  Say for example Sherlock; do the characterisations/performances change at all between series as the performers/writers get the hang of the format?

Or any series, really.  I'm not saying there is or isn't - it's just interesting.

In relation to what I just said above, I thought Picard was fairly similar during TNG.  He seemed to me to start out quite abrasive but was a very warm character in later series.  Part of this of course was just the natural progression of living with the same crew for 7+ years and becoming something of a family.

[M-CORP]

So when is the new showrunner announcement likely?

Moffat was apparently announced in May 2008 which would have put it at the end of Series 4 and just before the year of four specials that marked the end of Tennant's time and just under two years before Matt Smith's first episode. Chinball was announced in January 2016 though it was well over two and a half years before his first episode appeared.

So following that pattern and assuming Series 14 (or a 60th Anniversary special) appears in late 2023 an announcement of a new showrunner shouldn't be that far off.

I'm not so sure. They might have already found someone, but I find the BBC's coyness on the subject very odd. The official statement doesn't even mention the long-term future, and elsewhere they mention 'the new generation of Who' - it reminds me of the BBC telling Radio Times that they saw a bright future ahead for the show... back in December 1989. And we know how that turned out.

Maybe a new team is coming in, and maybe if the show was being cancelled the BBC would actually be honest about it this time around. Either way, I sense it may be a while until we get an announcement. But then it may not; my senses have deceived me before.

[mjwilson]

Yeah it does feel different this time, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't have any idea who the new showrunner is yet.

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In relation to what I just said above, I thought Picard was fairly similar during TNG.  He seemed to me to start out quite abrasive but was a very warm character in later series.  Part of this of course was just the natural progression of living with the same crew for 7+ years and becoming something of a family.

I'm reminded now of Michael Scott in the US version of The Office.  He started out as quite unlikeable in season 1, and in season 2 they consciously moved him away from the David Brent template into something more his own.

Andy was completely altered as well.  He was nothing but an irritant until he was put through anger management after punching a hole in a wall, then he came back as someone with more empathetic qualities who'd be able to last the entirety of the show's run.

Not sure if it was intentional but I took Capaldi as a callback to Hartnell's First Doctor.  Both started out rather cuntish, both had "did he just... would he have killed that guy?" moments, both mellowed out and became quite warm characters towards the end.  Except Capaldi's went a bit 'wacky' as well.

In following the youngest Doctor with an older, more prickly version, I'd say they were experimenting with the template created when Peter Davison was succeeded by Colin Baker.  JNT's intentions with Colin Baker were, of course, to evoke Hartnell's first Doctor.

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it does feel different this time

[purlieu]

In following the youngest Doctor with an older, more prickly version, I'd say they were experimenting with the template created when Peter Davison was succeeded by Colin Baker.  JNT's intentions with Colin Baker were, of course, to evoke Hartnell's first Doctor.

A Doctor who mellowed by the end of his run, the last series of which was broadcast after a year's delay. Followed by a new script editor who brought over no former scriptwriters, and the show moving to a less conventional slot, opening with a dramatically low-par series. Hmmm.

Six years off followed by a movie, everyone.

[mothman]

I'm sure it was talked about at the time it was first on, but I just watched the Delia Derbyshire thing on Arena and it was really good.

[The Roofdog]

Tennant didn't get one of those bullshit BBC reveal shows, they just dropped these images, but I'm honestly not sure if I will ever find a Doctor reveal as exciting as this one. I fucking jizzed my pants. And now I don't even rate him that highly, but this photo in a car park still does it for me.

[Malcy]

I'm sure it was talked about at the time it was first on, but I just watched the Delia Derbyshire thing on Arena and it was really good.

I lasted about 20 minutes and gave up. I had been looking forward to it coming on but I was so bored.

[McDead]

A Doctor who mellowed by the end of his run, the last series of which was broadcast after a year's delay. Followed by a new script editor who brought over no former scriptwriters, and the show moving to a less conventional slot, opening with a dramatically low-par series. Hmmm.

Six years off followed by a movie, everyone.

That low-par era also started digging into the character's pre-Hartnell origins. "More than just a Time Lord" indeed.

[Rev+]

There's absolutely no way the departure would have been announced at this point if they weren't ready to announce the next showrunner, and probably the next doctor.  We've got about two years until it becomes relevant at the earliest.  If anything, Chibnall and Whittaker were pushed into the announcement in order to build up the hype that's been lacking for so long.  The ink on the contracts will have dried long ago.

[Chairman Yang]

Well it's not me, so that narrows it down.

[Deanjam]

Well it's not me, so that narrows it down.

Damn. I'll never see that tenner back from betfred now.

[Blofelds Cat]

Idris Elba for one season and done as part of relaunch strategy...with a new actor then taking over long term...you heard it here 1st...***drunkenly taps shide of nose***

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Edit:  never mind I thought you meant Isla Nublar

[Huxleys Babkins]

Gutted it's not Yang.

[pigamus]

I think they need to cast a very sexy Doctor to get people's interest back. Sexiness probably more important than acting ability if you want the brutal truth.

[imitationleather]

Tennant didn't get one of those bullshit BBC reveal shows, they just dropped these images, but I'm honestly not sure if I will ever find a Doctor reveal as exciting as this one. I fucking jizzed my pants. And now I don't even rate him that highly, but this photo in a car park still does it for me.

Yeah, I too was very excited when I saw that. I just wish that what ended up being Tennant's Doctor in any way matched the tone of this picture.

[pigamus]

Dunno about that, he looks rather smug. Which he was.

[Psybro]

Not only from "our" point of view.  Fans in the US, for example, want it to continue feeling like a quintessentially British show.

It goes both ways, in that I never thought Superman should be played by a Brit. Batman, sure, he's an aristocrat that once lived in Knebworth House with an English butler, but a Kansas farmboy who saves the world from totalitarians?

[Norton Canes]

I'd have no qualms about an American playing the Doctor, no sense inbeing parochial. I don't watch many U.S. shows though so I don't have anyone particular in mind.

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It goes both ways, in that I never thought Superman should be played by a Brit. Batman, sure, he's an aristocrat that once lived in Knebworth House with an English butler, but a Kansas farmboy who saves the world from totalitarians?

But he performed it with an appropriate accent, right?  Maybe that would work both ways - maybe people just don't want a Doctor that speaks with an American accent.  But it's a slippery slope... pretty soon once you've opened that door if the show's a hit you're going to have big name US actors playing with their own accent because why not.