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March 28, 2024, 08:47:16 AM

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RTD back for Doctor Who

Started by Jack Shaftoe, September 24, 2021, 04:17:47 PM

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Mister Six

Quote from: Replies From View on May 11, 2022, 10:33:40 AMI don't really want to call using new writers a "Chibnall" thing.  JNT often tried to give new writers a shot at Doctor Who so we could call it that instead.

Personally I think it needs to be new writers from now on.  Fans of 1970s and 80s Who have had their turn and defined an era, but it's time to move on to fresher pastures.

With some old hands to lighten the load, though. The Sea Devils story shows the dangers of hiring inexperienced writers, however much innate talent they might have.

My only concern is that with a couple of exceptions (hi, Maxine!), the new writers have mostly been churning out quite worthy but bland stories. That might just be Chibnall attracting beige writers or him rejigging everything to remove any spark of charm or strangeness.

Hopefully RTD can find new writers with odd sensibilities and a spark of brilliance, and in any case his rewrites will be stronger than Chibnall.

But having a Moffat or two that can crank out a solid-to-great story without much supervision will help him a ton.

Mister Six

Quote from: Ron Maels Moustache on May 11, 2022, 11:13:48 AMI've just been through it scene by scene to check it wasn't just my negative feelings about the whole Chibnall era colouring my memory of it, and as far as I've been able to tell there's one, just one, short moment 15 minutes in that features anyone other than the speaking characters - the main cast walk across a bridge and you see a couple of people out of focus in the background and someone else walks past. That's it, in the whole episode. Apart from that it's a ghost town.

This happened so frequently (Kerblam is another odd one - an entire planet that's a warehouse, except there's only about 15 people on it, and you only see 10 of those in a single shot at the end) that I assumed they must have hacked down the budget by deliberately avoiding hiring extras where possible.

It does make it all feel very cheap and empty, though. I'd rather have had fewer whizzy CGI Daleks and more crowd shots, to be honest.

Replies From View

Curious that RTD is talking about the centenary episode rather than Chibnall.  As if Chibnall is already now taking a backseat even regarding his own stories.

https://thedoctorwhocompanion.com/2022/05/10/doctor-who-centenary-special-to-air-as-a-90-minute-episode-in-october-according-to-russell-t-davies/

pigamus

What's 'supersizing' the show going to mean then, do you reckon? Lots of crappy spinoffs? A movie?

Replies From View

Quote from: pigamus on May 11, 2022, 04:59:11 PMWhat's 'supersizing' the show going to mean then, do you reckon? Lots of crappy spinoffs? A movie?

I'm not sure who has been using the term - was it RTD or someone else?  Maybe it means expanding a series back to 13 episodes from 2021's 6?

You might say that 6 episodes was an anomaly but I bet it would have been cemented as the norm if the BBC could have gotten away with it.  It's my firm belief that this is the true reason for the split series 6 and 7.


My guess is that at its core we'll have 13-episode series back after their gradual shrinkage since series 8.  Around them, we'll get some mini-episodes or budget going into free-to-play games, things like that to hype up the show and generate excitement.  A return of something like Doctor Who Confidential showing the actors at work being themselves and ensuring fans are clued in about returning villains.  Maybe a year or two later we'll start getting spin-offs.

Mister Six

Quote from: Replies From View on May 11, 2022, 04:58:22 PMCurious that RTD is talking about the centenary episode rather than Chibnall.  As if Chibnall is already now taking a backseat even regarding his own stories.

https://thedoctorwhocompanion.com/2022/05/10/doctor-who-centenary-special-to-air-as-a-90-minute-episode-in-october-according-to-russell-t-davies/

Fucking 90 minutes of Chibnall! Christ almighty.

Replies From View

Quote from: Mister Six on May 11, 2022, 05:57:52 PMFucking 90 minutes of Chibnall! Christ almighty.

I just think of an episode like Time of the Doctor that really needed just ten more minutes to spread properly and not feel rushed.

Mister Six

Truly, God has forsaken us.

mjwilson

Quote from: Kelvin on May 11, 2022, 08:59:54 AMI don't think Chibnall's done a single solo episode as showrunner that reaches that standard, but I'd argue Rosa and The Frankenstein Villa one, plus maybe one or two more by other writers could be described as good.

Frog on a chair (I refuse to learn the real title of this episode).

Replies From View

Quote from: mjwilson on May 11, 2022, 06:22:07 PMFrog on a chair (I refuse to learn the real title of this episode).

I haven't seen it since it aired but I was shocked by the positive reaction it got here.  I think people must have just had incredibly low expectations.

Maybe go into it again with an open mind and see if you can persuade yourself that it was shite.

Malcy

Quote from: Replies From View on May 11, 2022, 06:28:45 PMI haven't seen it since it aired but I was shocked by the positive reaction it got here.  I think people must have just had incredibly low expectations.

Maybe go into it again with an open mind and see if you can persuade yourself that it was shite.

Kevin Eldon was in it. By law it therefor cannot be shite.

BritishHobo

Was that the one where Ryan's dead nan shows up and they never give Ryan a scene with her?

Mister Six

Yep. I'm another supporter of the episode (I think it's a fantastic conceit, and I love the execution, frog and all), but it does have its flaws - that one, and The Doctor not giving the dad a royal bollocking for basically mentally abusing his disabled daughter.

I'm going to quite unfairly say that the latter was in there when the script was submitted, but Chibnall took it out because his moral compass immediately becomes demagnetised the moment he goes anywhere near Doctor Who.

Replies From View

Quote from: Malcy on May 11, 2022, 06:30:28 PMKevin Eldon was in it. By law it therefor cannot be shite.

You especially loved him in An American Tail 4: The Mystery of the Night Monster.  It is your favourite ever film.

Mister Six

Edgar Wright has put up two Instagram posts - one of a blue door with "wet paint" written on it, and another of a series of hexagons. RTD has liked both.

Edgar Wright stepping into the director's chair for the 60th, then?

EDIT: My god, imagine Wright having to struggle with a Chibnall script. Desperately hope he's not doing the centenary. But I imagine he would have teased it long before.

Replies From View

I don't associate hexagons with Doctor Who... what's the connection?

Midas

the original TARDIS console was hexagonal

Replies From View

Blimey how tenuous.  Not doubting that he's dropping hints, but that's a stretch.

pigamus

They've decided the old console room had hexagons for some reason. I think it does in Twice Upon A Time?

Midas

i suppose the "roundels" in the RTD-era TARDIS were hexagonal too


pigamus

Yeah it's interesting that actually - the old console did have a sort of hexagon floor plate thing round it, plus I think the original ceiling thing, the one they dropped as it was too much of a faff, that was hexagonal? Plus the zigzag hinges on the internal doors, they give the impression of a circle inside a hexagon even though they weren't quite. So it's not quite a misremembering of what the old TARDIS looked like...

Replies From View

So the real reason they like to announce new Doctors in the middle of football matches is that the interconnected hexagons and pentagons forming the surface of a leather football is code for Doctor Who.

pigamus

RTD's going to feel pretty stupid when it turns out to be Blockbusters

purlieu

Lots of hexagons in the new era, the roundels have usually been hexagonal, some of the RTD era DVD covers had them on. The RTD-era books all have hexagons on the spines:

McDead

The Daleks are hexagons. Well, not really, but they are funny looking.

Replies From View

Kids these days must be sick of hexagons in all Doctor Who related media, and I'd have assumed that with a fresh reboot situation RTD might have sought out a few other shapes for the spines of the novelisations. 

pigamus


Replies From View



Mister Six

Quote from: purlieu on May 11, 2022, 10:46:48 PMLots of hexagons in the new era, the roundels have usually been hexagonal, some of the RTD era DVD covers had them on. The RTD-era books all have hexagons on the spines:



Yep, and they were all over the RTD-era official website: