Personally I am not happy about this development, I think this smacks of course correction when it should be an advance forward. Despite the clamour, I liked most of what Chibnall has done, and thought the best way forward was a similar bold move, and this regression is not that.
That was, indeed, Jo Martin, as mentioned.
I think the best place to speculate on the next Doctor is the casts of RTD’s recent work.
I just looked up his recent work. And realized that I’ve seen none of it and then remembered how overall disappointing Torchwood was. (It also didn’t wrap up “Miracle Day” well. Endings are not his forte.)
Not me. I like them, as long as they’re not overused. They tend to get used once a season or so, which isn’t over the top.
It was a Steven Moffat production rather than Russell T. Davies, but I thought Dolly Wells’ gender-flipped Van Helsing from last year’s Dracula mini-series pretty much was the Doctor. I’d love to see her playing the Doctor with the same approach to the character.
Without conscious thought I have not been on board with the current doctor. A good portion of that is my partner of the last few years is not a fan at all. But in that time I’ve been able to catch up with other shows she doesn’t like on my own. I saw the first episode with Jody and it didn’t hook me. To be truthful I wasn’t that thrilled with the direction with Capaldi but I’m a big fan of his work so I stayed on board.
This, this, so much this. I really wanted to see Jodie make it, if only to prove that a female actor could play the Doctor. But she never showed any of the arrogance of the Doctor; the subtle sense that he/she knew he/she was the smartest person in the room. All the successful Doctors - Baker, Tennant, Smith, and yes, Capaldi, who’s in my opinion the finest actor to ever play the role - showed you the steel under the charm. Even Matt “Doctor Goofy” Smith. Jodie never did.
Jo Martin, on the other hand - the Fugitive Doctor - nailed it. I would love to see her come in as the next Doctor.
Jodie is a fine actress, and Bradley Walsh had the capacity to be one of the most interesting companions in the show’s run - he’s a good actor; his reaction in the Rosa Parks episode, when he’s realizes that he’s the man who forces the bus driver to order Ms. Parks to the rear of the bus, is a lovely bit of understated nonverbal acting. It shows what the cast could have done with the right scripts. Unfortunately, they were never given those.
So, sorry Jodie wasn’t a success, but very glad to see Chibnall go, and RTD come back. And really crossing my fingers for Jo Martin.
I’m thoroughly tired of the Daleks and the Cybermen (I’ve been watching the show on and off since the Tom Baker years), but a sufficiently talented writer can still tell an interesting story with them - e.g., “Asylum of the Daleks”, and the two-parter “World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls”.
Completely agreed. Im not at all familiar with the classic show but that ability to twist on a dime from “relatable and kind clown” to “biggest badass in the universe” was the lynchpin of Tennants and Smiths runs. Capaldi had similar moments later in his run while adding some pathos. Eccleston was completely unique from the others but he still hit that “smile while gritting and bearing” thing going on. I really want Whittaker to have a moment similar to the end of the pandorica arc or that speech ten gave to that spider queen alien.
RTD coming back leaves me with mixed feelings. It feels like a course correction but that might be necessary right now. It also feels like a step backward which coming on the heels of the first female doctor is kind of an admission of defeat. I’m sure the show will be better moving forward, but I’ll be very interested to who the next doctor is. If Chibnall doesn’t hit a homerun in the next season he’ll be seen as a failure I think longterm. Rightly or wrongly I don’t think Whittaker will be blamed for it. We will see another female doctor down the road, probably sooner than later.
Regarding the female doctor speculation. Am I the only who would have loved to see what the actress who played Missy would have done with the doctor role?
The fans I’ve seen are very hopeful that RTD is the right guy to not back down on the Doctor becoming female. He apparently wrote a novelization of the pilot (“Rose”) that features a black female Doctor, so we know he’s okay with the concept. (Plus it’s not like he wasn’t progressive in his original era.)
Going back to the original nuWho showrunner may be what would give the BBC cover for not reverting everything else. They know the issue is that things changed a bit too much and didn’t strike gold in those changes. RTD can encourage fans that the show is in good hands while still moving forward on the idea of exploring other types of people the Doctor can be.
(I personally thought that the worst thing they could have done was have the Doctor be female for the first time but then drop the fierceness. It plays into female stereotypes. If anything, I’d expect a female Doctor to be more fierce and more of a leader, while taking advantage of people underestimating her. Also, it was stupid to go back to single-part stories at this time, too. It’s just dumb when doing a controversial change to throw in more changes that can all go wrong, making it seem like the controversial change was the problem.)
The main negatives I’ve seen that seem to have any weight to me is some concern that it decreases the likelihood of Eccleston getting involved with anniversary specials, due to the bad blood between him and RTD. Everyone loves Eccleston so much and really want to see him play the Doctor onscreen again.
The stuff about moving backward and regressing? Nah. I don’t think that’s too much of a concern. It will go back a bit, to find its footing again, but it will also move forward. And a lot of fans, new and old, will be back to watch it happen.
Unfortunately (well I’m sure fortunate for her) Catherine Tate has landed the starring role in her own series.
She is, IMHO, the best companion the Doctor has had in the new series(even though I disliked her in her debut appearance in the Runaway Bride), and her brief moment as the Doctor was, well, brilliant.
I was hoping for her when it was first announced that they would be casting a woman as the new Doctor, and while I doubt it would happen, I’d love to see her portrayal as the next.
But, Jo Martin would be good as well. She was pretty much the only good part of that entire tiresome arc.
This would have been awesome!
Michelle Gomez (Missy) is pretty much always awesome but specializes in crazy. She just joined Doom Patrol and was a great part of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
I first saw her as the batshit crazy HR director on Britcom, Green Wing.
Those are very good points, thanks. I know they touched on her Doctor being dismissed because she was a woman and I can’t tell if that’s how they wanted to treat it? I do agree they never filmed anything that showed her walk into a room, take charge, and then later have someone comment that they followed a woman. (More thinking a period piece.) If they did, it didn’t stick.
imo, Moffat is great at moments but not stories. He did an interview where he was dismissive of people not understanding his story or “getting” it. It takes good writing, not just an astute reader/viewer, to have the base of a good story. There are hidden gems in his tenure, such as when Capaldi says, “Hello, Sweetie” to River but most of it was meh.
My wife described Matt Smith as a muppet on meth and I haven’t been able to get that out of my mind. What ruined Moffat’s tenure for me was that the Doctor’s companions were used more than the Doctor was. In contrast, Rose was an important character and companion but it never felt like The Rose Story as it did the Pond’s story or the Impossible Girl story. Obviously, that’s my opinion.
What didn’t help me with Chibnall’s run was a very lackluster, no subtlety Master and too many companions. During one episode, the lines the companions had were so bland, you could have mixed up who said it and it still would have worked. They had no character unto themselves. I’m hopeful with only two companions, although I would have liked it to be only the Doctor and Yaz.
So, that is why I’m excited for RTD to return. It’s not guaranteed that I will like it but I’m hopeful.
Those are also good points. I would put her as blander than Davison. However, it doesn’t help that Davison was sandwiched between the most popular Doctor and the most infamous (?) Doctor. The fabulous Baker boys certainly left their mark on the character. I think during Davison’s run, they were trying to do safe stories, again going back to historical and then futuristic but I can get behind that they didn’t leave their safe zone with stories.
She was also the best part of The Flight Attendant.
Now that Tom Ellis is done with Lucifer maybe he could take a run at The Doctor?
And the Weeping Angels are also back, apparently.
I believe the new series starts Sunday.
Yuck.
If Blink was a one off it would have been perfect. There is just way too much wrong with them as a concept to keep using them. They really make no sense if you have to think more deeply than timey-whimey.