Doctor Who Series 13: Goodbye, Mr. Chibs

[mothman]

Be reasonable! NOBODY is going to (be able to) do THAT. ;-)

The whole Timeless Child storyline is an abomination. Sadly one that's going to be a bit harder to ignore than, say, the throwaway "half human" line in the 1996 TV film...

[Kelvin]

Thing is, I never praise moments like this in isolation.  If the overall tapestry is shite, I'm simply not going to linger on details that are fully overshadowed by everything else.  This isn't exclusive to Chibnall, and making an exception for him would be untruthful.

I hate Chibnall's show, but this is a ridiculous argument; RTD and Moffat had vastly superior series, so because the overall tapesty was great, should you not criticise any moments in isolation? Series 10 is a high point, so should you not mention the fact you don't like the fake regeneration mid way through? You are making an exception for Chibnall.   

[daf]

the throwaway "half human" line in the 1996 TV film...

Which was a thing lazily nicked from Star Trek (Mr Spock) - monkey see, monkey do!

[Rev+]

Specifically 'facial'. After the conversation about his 'non-Aryan' appearance (which, as we see in the exchange above, is the reason the Master is using the filter), there's no way to divorce the fact of the Master's ethnicity from the Doctor's decision to expose his face.

The weird thing about this is that it must have been mostly written before casting for a new Master had taken place, and revised later to include the 'not exactly Aryan' stuff.  If John Simm was still in the role the deception would have suggested he was imitating someone those around him already knew, having done in said person with a breadknife or something.  Having the filter removed and him being revealed as just some tooler who'd lost his disguise is fine, and this is probably the origin of that scene. 

I'm being very generous here, but I suspect the Nazi scene was written way earlier than the other one mentioned, and that the end result was just a reflection of how half-arsed the writing and re-writing is at present.  Chibnall might be shit (at this) but I really don't think he'd write a scene quite like that intentionally.

[Replies From View]

I hate Chibnall's show, but this is a ridiculous argument; RTD and Moffat had vastly superior series, so because the overall tapesty was great, should you not criticise any moments in isolation? Series 10 is a high point, so should you not mention the fact you don't like the fake regeneration mid way through? You are making an exception for Chibnall.

I realise this might open me up to charges of hypocrisy or inconsistency, but for me it's different when it's a shite tapestry with passable/mediocre fragments, vs largely positive with some terrible moments.


Maybe I just hone in on shit bits, but yeah I ranted about that fake regeneration in the middle of series 10 and went far enough to say it completely ruined it.  Maybe it's easier to poison something with a tiny drop of shit than save it with a tiny drop of mediocre.



But yeah, point taken.

[canted_angle_again]

Here's a relatively balanced guy trying to find positives that are worth keeping from Chibnalls reign...

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

[Norton Canes]

New aliens:



They look great, I'm going to invent some stories in my head for them.

[JamesTC]

They are called the Turooklan-glargerds.

[JamesTC]

No they aren't, I made that up.

[Spoon of Ploff]

They look a bit like toothless Tim Shaws

[Replies From View]

They'll look great against, for example, a fiery orange template

[Replies From View]

remember other colours stu

[Replies From View]

They look a bit like toothless Tim Shaws

I quite like the pearlesque, underwater, coral and lichen vibe they're going for.


My sensory needs want to rub their sandpapery faces

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

gives me frank and fem cenobite vibes. or even frank and julia vibes

[canted_angle_again]

Dunno where to put this so here is good enough - couldn't the weeping angels perpetually feed on one person forever if that person had a time travel machine? I mean they could just, pop back in their machine and go back to the same point get 'touched' and then repeat?

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

Dunno where to put this so here is good enough - couldn't the weeping angels perpetually feed on one person forever if that person had a time travel machine? I mean they could just, pop back in their machine and go back to the same point get 'touched' and then repeat?

this was the idea in the angels take manhattan, no?

[samadriel]

Dunno where to put this so here is good enough - couldn't the weeping angels perpetually feed on one person forever if that person had a time travel machine? I mean they could just, pop back in their machine and go back to the same point get 'touched' and then repeat?

Wasn't there some crap handwave in the first Weeping Angels story that for some reason the Doctor couldn't just retrieve the girl who had been sent to the past?

[Norton Canes]

It would be a sort of Weeping Angels version of chewing the cud

Or constantly masticating the same piece of flavourless chewing gum

[Malcy]

More guest cast announced including Jonathan Watson and Sue Jenkins who played Jackie Corkhill on Brookside.

https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a38005446/doctor-who-flux-guest-cast-revealed/

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

woo

[Replies From View]

More guest cast announced including Jonathan Watson and Sue Jenkins who played Jackie Corkhill on Brookside.

Did they perform the role side by side, with the other characters perceiving them as only one person, or did they take turns?

[Cloud]

New aliens:



They look great, I'm going to invent some stories in my head for them.

They look like they belong on Babylon 5

[Replies From View]

vaguely remind me of the battlefield monster thing, the blue one of it

[Mister Six]

RT interview with Chibnall in which he claims to have been looking for a replacement for a year...

It will be all change for Doctor Who in the coming months as Russell T Davies has been named showrunner for Doctor Who's 60th anniversary in 2023 and beyond, replacing current boss Chris Chibnall.

Chibnall will exit alongside the Thirteenth Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, and while we wait to find out who will be cast as the next Time Lord, Chibnall has been chatting to press, including RadioTimes.com, ahead of series 13. As you'd expect, the subject of his departure came up and it turns out that he stuck around for longer than he thought he would.

"It's taken longer than expected if we're being honest. I've been throwing batons at people for about a year now. And finally, someone's picked it up," Chibnall said on the search for his replacement.

"We had that conversation right at the start, and I hope you can see that the atmosphere is so team-oriented and so positive, it is a proper family atmosphere. This cast and this crew are so close – you wouldn't want to do it with other people, because it's just been its own little, discrete show. And then the next version will be its own discrete show, just as Peter [Capaldi]'s era was, and Matt [Smith]'s era was, and David [Tennant]'s was."

While the Cloister Bell may be sounding on his time in charge, Chibnall insists he has nothing but fond memories of his time on Doctor Who.

"You couldn't enjoy it any more than we've enjoyed it. It's been such a laugh and such a privilege," he said. "And I think we've been deliberately very mindful of being in the moment. Obviously, I've known Russell and Steven [Moffat] for a long time and part of their advice was just: 'Enjoy it while you're doing it, because afterwards you really miss it.'

"We've definitely approached it like that. I don't feel any sadness about the end approaching. It's just: 'We came in, and we did what we set out to do.' And I feel like there's been an incredible atmosphere while we've been doing it. So it feels really good. And frankly, I'll get to see my family again, which would be really nice."

Series 13, titled Doctor Who: Flux is due to start its six-episode run on Halloween with further specials lined up for the current team, taking the show up to the regeneration and the return of RTD in 2023.

This is about the most enthusiastic and engaged I think I've heard Chibnall be about Who since he took over. It was pretty apparent from the struggles Moffat had finding a replacement that Chibbers was taking on the job begrudgingly to help out his mates, although in retrospect I wish he hadn't.

Still, didn't he used to say he had a five-year plan, or was that just a rumour? Technically he'll have done about five years when he leaves, but he can't have factored a global pandemic into that schedule. Smacks a bit of "No, I wasn't fired for being shit and tanking the ratings," but I can't blame him for that, I guess.

Wonder if anyone feels sadness about the end approaching?

[A Hat Like That]

"...And since I achieved all of my goals in one term, there was no need for a second. "

[Replies From View]

That line about not being able to see his family in this time was weird.  Certainly the pandemic has played its part in people not being able to see each other, but I absolutely cannot believe that 6 episodes in 2 years has absorbed him to the same degree as RTD's 28 episodes plus spin-offs.  It sounds like he's been taking the information and advice from RTD and Moffat and copy-pasted them into his own murmurings even though it's been a different situation.  Kind of like Troughton's advice to Davison about three series being optimum, even though in the 60s they were producing 44 episodes per year.

[mothman]

They look like they belong on Babylon 5

You take that back! You take that back right now! MOMMM..!!!

[pigamus]

Still don't really understand why there aren't people queueing up to do Doctor Who. Is it just because they think they can't top what's already been done?

[Replies From View]

Poisoned chalice isn't it.  When you do the job properly it's overwhelming, and maybe there are refusals higher up in the BBC to reconfigure the job into multiple parts.

[olliebean]

Title and synopsis for episode 1 (from https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00116r4):

The Halloween Apocalypse

On Halloween, all across the universe, terrifying forces are stirring. From the Arctic Circle to deep space, an ancient evil is breaking free. And in present-day Liverpool, the life of Dan Lewis is about to change forever. Why is the Doctor on the trail of the fearsome Karvanista? And what is the Flux?