Doctor Who

[Professor James Cade]

I was a fan of Missy (Even if she did become a bit soft). I'm glad when they brought back John Simm it reaffirmed that she actually was the Master and the writers didn't find a way to undo that little reveal (I just had a nasty feeling they would).

I don't know about the actress herself because I didn't watcj Broadchurch so I have no opinion on her. As for the concept itself, I'm impressed the writers had the balls to cast a woman. Maybe it is forced, but so what? They've been playing around with the concept that time lords are gender fluid (gender neutral? Gender bending?) So a female doctor was coming, whenever it happened people were gonna suggest its forced.

My hope is it isn't a one off gimick and that going forward the best person is selected for the role. Not the best man.

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Wow I can't believe they just stopped making Doctor Who for so long it's so weird how there haven't been any episodes since David Tennant left I missed it so much

In all seriousness, I'm excited to hopefully get back into Doctor Who. I grew up watching it with my parents, but the last few seasons completely & totally put me off. Jodie Whittaker was hands down the strongest actor in Broadchurch, there were multiple scenes that had me forgetting she was acting at all, she was so legitimately emotionally engaged in everything going on. She's going to do an amazing job, and I really hope the writing is good enough to give her the run she deserves. It's beyond about time there was a woman in the role, this feels like the start of something really great.

 

[Nicolas King]

I'm not sure I agree. From the reactions I've seen online all this preparation still wasn't enough to make a lot of fans get on board, so it was probably necessary to get as many on board as there are now in the first place and it might never have been approved because of the negative reactions it would get.

Oh well?
The first interracial kiss on American TV was on Star Trek - there was no prepping for it, the network tried to kill it, it happened anyway. People got over it, were fine with it, or had their little tantrums. But they didn't spend years suggesting that it was possible for humans of different races (let alone aliens of different species!) to get it on, test the water with less objectionable changes, and then act like it was daring to finally do it.
I have no respect for how they've done this because it was so focus grouped and progressive-ized that it's remarkably cold, calculated, corporate, and humdrum. If they'd made the change before they'd hinted at it for years and people were rallying for it to happen for as many years, if they'd surprised us with "lookie Time Lords can regenerate as a different sex!" when the idea first struck them (or, better still, when they first had a woman audition for the Doctor who would be good in the role; I'm sure this actress is fantastic, but by no means the first woman who could have possibly played the Doctor!)... well, then I'd be excited and impressed.
I'm completely on board with whoever playing the Doctor, and the Doctor being whatever, not interested in the faux-politics of it.

 

[November Albertson]

People in real life either know me for my love of HP, Narnia, or Doctor Who. Honestly I get so many questions over Doctor Who but I haven't watched in the longest time. I started with Matt Smith and then went back on Netflix and watched from the reboot. Watched some of the older stuff (mostly when I was tired but not ready to fall asleep and then passed out halfway through an episode, only then to wake up to another Doctor on the screen). I think it's interesting all they've been doing, I'll have to take the time to watch all the newer stuff with Bill, and the ones before that I haven't gotten to.

Well all that to say, I'm glad the show is doing another new thing for itself. It'll be interesting to see how this woman portrays the Doctor, each one has been so different yet I think we are all still waiting for a Ginger Doctor right? I also wonder if Male/Female is really the same for the Time Lords. I mean here we have a time lord who is a Grandfather coming up as a woman like would that be weird for them or just part of daily life? Guess we may not ever know....unless one of you knows
​

 

[Hayley Elridge]

I'm really keen for this, I love the idea of a female Doctor. It's about time (hehehe) they branched out from the succession of white men. And yeah, maybe they laboured the point that it was possible a bit too much, but isn't doing that a hallmark of Moffat's terrible writing anyway? Since we're finally getting rid of him I have high hopes for this to be done well.

Personally I wasn't a fan of Missy, not because she's a woman, but because she was so utterly unlike the Master as John Simm played him. Time Lords are known to change their personalities somewhat between regenerations, but not so much as to make them completely unrecognisable. And 'Missy'? Really? Why would a Time Lord change their name at all, let alone to something as wimpy as that?

Judging by how infrequently we've seen it in canon, I suggest it must be reasonably unusual for Time Lords to change gender, but not unheard of. I would expect a lot of silliness about getting used to a new body, because they do that whenever the Doctor regenerates. (And yeah, they really need to be ginger at some point.)

 

[Nicolas King]

And 'Missy'? Really? Why would a Time Lord change their name at all, let alone to something as wimpy as that?

I mean, "mistress" is the feminine for "master," classically.
And I'm not sure, but I think it wasn't supposed to be obvious that she was the master regenerated at first, hence the short form.
So the reason for the main change is gender, and the reason for the shortening is suspense (which is an out of universe, and not in universe, reason).

---

In other news, analysis shows 80% of the reactions to this are positive: https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/react-doctor-who-13/

Which does suggest that the media likes to make mountains out of mole hills. (But also that 20% of Who fans are still idiots.)

 

[Nicolas King]

@Zennon Baros - To respond to your shouty message - I do still watch Doctor Who! But I'm 2 episodes behind.
I've seen some posts on reddit already (*shakes first*) that spoil a big piece, but I think spoilers don't actually bother me that much.

I mostly hope that the master we've seen in this series is also somehow a wartime clone (or the original?) like must be the case with the two doctors we've got - because otherwise they wasted a whole redemptive arc.

 

[Zennon Baros]

Yeah, the finale doesn’t do much to give anything about the Master up. All I know is I have many more questions coming out of the finale than I had going in and though I greatly enjoyed what they did, I have to question whether it was a bit too much for the amount of time they had to do it in.​

 

[Nicolas King]

Even with quarantine levels of time on my hands, I still haven't watched the last 2 episodes of the most recent season.
Can anybody inspire me that I ought to?

 

[Tristan Drage]

Even with quarantine levels of time on my hands, I still haven't watched the last 2 episodes of the most recent season.
Can anybody inspire me that I ought to?

@Nicolas King: If you haven't watched these already, since a few weeks have passed- there is an intriguing backstory developed about Gallifrey. And you learn about the truth about "Ruth." Sorry, sorry...

 

[Zennon Baros]

I've gone back and forth on this for a while and, to be honest, I just don't know how I feel bout the finale anymore? I was really keen for it for ages, but as I've watched it more times, it's become increasingly more obvious that it was rushed. They had two seasons to build this up and they still managed to rush everything in the last episode. With how jam packed it was, its so easy to forget that it was only one episode because so much happens and it jumps around a lot that you get kind of lost in translation. I don't agree with the majority of naysayers, but to be honest, I just don't think Chibnall has the lore knowledge to pack this up. Which is funny, because he used to be on the Doctor Who convention panel in the 80s and made a big fuss about changing canon, only to them come out and do something huge himself. Admittedly, when you look at it, it doesn't so much change canon (like naysayers are suggesting) but expands it, only I don't trust that Chibnall has the ability to pull it off how it deserves to be pulled off. Generally speaking, I love the idea ow what they're trying to do, but I don't like the execution of how they've pulled it off and you know obviously it's not over. I didn't find any of the reactions to be very believable. The Doctor - to me - is supposed to be the main focus whenever they're on screen, but that just wasn't the case for me here. The Doctor is arguably the only main character (despite switching out actors every couple of years of course) and so whenever she is on screen I should want to know what's happening, but at the point, I don't care. Most of that has to do with the storyline. The writing itself isn't a problem, for me its the way it's been carried off. I wasn't a fan of Broadchurch for this reason, and I wanted to give Chibnall a chance, but personally, for me, he's not far above Moffatt.​

 

[January Chase]

So I'm back on this again. I really liked the christmas goblin episodes and the three david episodes were a nice send off. LOVE Rose - Yasmin Finney was a great choice for the role though I'm not sure yet how I feel about the whole mother/daughter two hearts time lord schpiel but eh - I didn't like the way Donna ended personally so I'm glad they brought her back. I'm not specifically happy about *how* they did it mind you.

Jodie's run was rather tepid for me. There were parts I liked and parts I didn't. I didn't like Yas much at all and mostly I think that was her personality and the fact I didn't feel like I got to know her. She was always just on the TARDIS and I was never sure if she really felt like a real person, not like Ryan and Graham did. She *did* manage to grow on me by Jodie's last season, but eh - felt a little too little too late by then and I didn't like the whole Flux story line much at all??

Still, loving Ncuti as the Doctor - though I want to see a lot more of this therapy Doctor. I feel like I need to really trust the process this time.

Spoiler: whole season spoilers

I wasn't a massive fan of Space Babies, or the Beatles episode - I know *why* they couldn't put any actual Beatles music in, but it just felt pointless in that regard. There were plenty of other "genius musicians" they could have used and it felt like they didn't use the Beatles at all. So we had another series of this impossibly complicated companion Ruby that was building up to something massively lore building (or breaking) with that song in her heart. Boom was the first episode I really vibed with and (for me) they really got better from there. The first episode to properly feel like a Doctor Who episode though was 73 yards, and the fact it came up later on was genius. Even if some of it still left me with way more questions than answera.

I was expecting some massive twist and I still don't know if we got that massive twist? Obviously one of the reveals was that Ruby actually isn't all that special and the 73 yards is how far the TARDIS' perception filter reaches - which I feel like I probably should have guessed because I'm sure there's been a mention of it in Doctor Who canon lore somewhere that I should have remembered. I knew it was significant I just wasn't sure where.

I was really pleasantly surprised that the "filler episodes" weren't filler at all and Dot and Bubble was one of my more favourite episodes. I was genuinely horrified when I figured out that everyone on the planet was white because it hadn't even occured to me and I had to go back over the episode and check because I couldn't believe it hadn't even jumped out at me. The episode had felt really off the whole time and so figuring out why was devestating. I loved seeing them actually work with who Ncuti is and let that come out. After more than 60's on screen, I'm so excited to see that Doctor Who is still able to make stories that are new and different and I can tell that Russel is really sitting in his element with this, and dying to tell all kinds of new POC and Queer stories - he has the right man for the job in the top spot. Ncuti will be brilliant.

Coming back to Russel though - I'm a little worried he might be faling into one of his experimental periods because so far the pay off on these stories hasn't been worth it to me and it feels like he's going to big overarching plot rather than a smaller plot of the season story. Traditionally that's worked well for him in other shows, but I don't yet know if it works for the Doctor. Guess we just have to wait and see.

And the thing about Ruby not actually being any more important than she really was because they *thought* she was important? I thought that was quite genius.