It would not surprise me if Kate Herron also writes a stronger episode than most of RTD's output.
Doctor Who: The Fifteenth Doctor |OT| Ncuti Stars (Season 1 debuts on May 10th/11th)
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It would not surprise me if Kate Herron also writes a stronger episode than most of RTD's output.
Don't try and turn the fact that Ncuti's favorite episode is Moffat's as some criticism of RTD.
That's absurd.
That's absurd.
I don't think that's right at all. The Doctor didn't help the Daleks during Genesis. And I don't recall any suggestion they got space or time travel from him. They were created after a nuclear war, so already had rocket technology. And the Doctor's very first companions used a Dalek time machine to get home, because it was more reliable than the TARDIS.
In the original programme, the Doctor was unique because he was a renegade but he wanted to help people, unlike other renegades who were total dicks. But that was the only thing special about him.
'Mad Men' Paid $250K for Beatles Song
Show creator says it was necessary to authentically portray the Sixtieswww.rollingstone.com
I am not saying he helped them directly, I mean he changed the course of their history and giving them foresight of the future.
their conception of the future.
I'm thinking more about the interrogation scenes.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agxQhMZC3dc&ab_channel=DoctorWho
Nobody is saying RTD is a bad writer. But I do think Moffat is a much better writer than RTD.
Yesterday I said RTD is good at writing season finales. I feel that's where RTD really shines as a showrunner. He knows how to end seasons on a very strong note.
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idk why, but I was kinda expecting like the actual Paul to show up for a 5 second cameo. No actual beatle stuff in the episode was rather disappointing.
beatles in doctor who is pretty historical
The Beatles - Ticket To Ride [Top of The Pops, Riverside Studios, London, United Kingdom]
Television: Saturday 10/04/1965 The Beatles filmed an appearance for the BBC television show Top Of The Pops on this day at Riverside Studios in London. They...
youtu.be
The Doctor destroys the recording and the Daleks revolt against Davros, so Davros' knowledge doesn't help them (until they decide to bring him back, thousands of years later when the Daleks have already waged countless interplanetary wars).
But this is really beside the point. As the hero of a TV show, the Doctor caused lots and lots of major events. But they were the result of choices he made. He was just some guy doing the best he could, fixing bits of the universe that had gone wrong. The original series had nothing even close to the Timeless Child shit, or the worst excesses of Moffat's run.
Yeah, it kinda sucks that we're getting such a low episode count and RTD is the sole credit on nearly everything. He's got some hits but he can be wildly inconsistent. I hope he backed off for season 2 and just did the premiere and finale or something.
In fact I'd say one of his biggest strengths in his first run was new companion introductions and this time around he really rushed through it with a big exposition dump so idk. I wasn't that impressed by his finales on my recent rewatch. Decrepit baby Doctor being revived by the whole world believing in him like Tinkerbell and then floating towards the Master in an A pose is one of the worst things I've seen from Who.
In fact I'd say one of his biggest strengths in his first run was new companion introductions and this time around he really rushed through it with a big exposition dump so idk. I wasn't that impressed by his finales on my recent rewatch. Decrepit baby Doctor being revived by the whole world believing in him like Tinkerbell and then floating towards the Master in an A pose is one of the worst things I've seen from Who.
It is a bit negative! I for one loved both episodes and want to kiss everyone involved.
I watched these episodes after not watching the show for years, mainly for Ncuti but also the impression I have got that the show was getting something of a 'reboot', bigger budget, trying to take it to the next level etc...
I thought Space Babies was fine, but it wouldn't keep me watching.
Jinkx Monsoon made the second episode for me, such a notable difference when you have someone with real presence having fun on the screen. Still, around the edges I struggled, especially that final musical number... yikes.
I will probably give another episode or two a go, and it's fine the show isn't for me anymore, but I was overall a little underwhelmed.
I thought Space Babies was fine, but it wouldn't keep me watching.
Jinkx Monsoon made the second episode for me, such a notable difference when you have someone with real presence having fun on the screen. Still, around the edges I struggled, especially that final musical number... yikes.
I will probably give another episode or two a go, and it's fine the show isn't for me anymore, but I was overall a little underwhelmed.
I was joking, the 44% score is gonna clearly be a mixture of some of the anti-woke crowd and people who just didn't vibe with the new episodes.
Just to note, the ratio of episodes that RTD has written for this series is similar to the number of stories he wrote for Series 1 of Doctor Who 2005... and he's said that it was a conscious decision to mirror that. And has suggested that, y'know, his number of episodes halved for Series 2. And the same will probably be true here.
I mean, writing 8 out of 13 is very different from writing 6 out of 8 (if it was a conscious decision to match the ratio, he'd have only written 5), especially when you count the 4 aired specials that he wrote and the 2024 Christmas special that he also wrote. So he has sole credit on 11 out of the first 13 scripts of this era.
I've mostly been enjoying his second run so far but he has tendencies as a writer that grate on me at times and I don't really like seeing a stretch of episodes that long mostly dominated by any one writer.
Watched the two episodes and they're both fine at best.
I'll never understand why Doctor Who is such a hard show to make good. If you have a good story of literally any type, you can probably make it work as a Doctor Who episode. And then the challenge of "find any story of any kind that is in any way interesting" is so insurmountable that several different showrunners give it a go over a decade+ and manage just a handful of great episodes between them.
Anyway, Moffat writing for a RTD-run series has never failed once so I'm going to cry if Boom is bad.
I'll never understand why Doctor Who is such a hard show to make good. If you have a good story of literally any type, you can probably make it work as a Doctor Who episode. And then the challenge of "find any story of any kind that is in any way interesting" is so insurmountable that several different showrunners give it a go over a decade+ and manage just a handful of great episodes between them.
Anyway, Moffat writing for a RTD-run series has never failed once so I'm going to cry if Boom is bad.
It's just a money thing. The Beatles are extremely expensive, and probably hard to justify for a few minutes when that money could go to a ton of other stuff on the show.
This isnt a knock on RTD, but Moffat for me reliably understands that for any episode you need a core anchor. A hook, and typically a scene or two that breathes, isn't hurried, has a decent back and forth with two characters that on the face of it doesn't tell you much but equally tells you everything you need to know about the characters and set-up / themes of the episode.
RTD is a broad strokes man, whereas Moffat is more of a details man IMO (and I know people have their own criticisms of both)
A lot of it is just about the damage of slipping down to 8 episodes, really. If it was still 12 or 13, chances are the other 4 would be written by others. But it's just a reality of modern TV production.
Anyway, RTD has made clear in interviews you'll be getting what you want (more writers) next year anyway. And we even have the rumour mill saying one of the two upcoming Christmas Specials is by Moffat, though we don't yet know which one.
RTD said in Doctor Who Magazine back during the 2022 holiday season that he was in the middle of writing 2024's special. So if he is it'll be 2025's.
I'm curious when we'll start to hear about spin-offs. Another thing RTD has talked up a lot about this era is expanding the "Whoniverse" like he did with Torchwood and SJA.
I think they already started production on the sea devils spinoff, so an announcement should come any time I'd think.
- Wild Blue Yonder
- The Church on Ruby Road
- The Devil's Chord
- The Star Beast
- Space Babies
- The Giggle
I honestly think Church is easily the worst one of the new episodes so far. Something about it just felt off. (Now THAT was a crappy musical number)
Wild Blue Yonder is easily the best for me, but I'm a sucker for any time they lock the Doctor and friend on a spaceship and have them stalked, so go figure.
Wild Blue Yonder is easily the best for me, but I'm a sucker for any time they lock the Doctor and friend on a spaceship and have them stalked, so go figure.
Bad Wolf sets up a new production company for each show it makes. Even season to season - so the season we're watching now was run by "Whoniverse1 Limited", and the second season ran thru "Whoniverse2 Limited". Anyway, there's a company for an unidentified new show whose name matches up to rumours of what the show would be: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/14316420
So it'll be soon!
That's the Sea Devils show right? Really curious how they handle them. I think their appearance might need a bit of an update if they want them to be properly menacing again. (Let's ignore everything Legend of the Sea Devils did)
Huh... Reading up on the info that's out there, the premise does nothing for me but I'll keep an open mind. I have no experience with Classic Who and Legend of the Sea Devils was terrible even for Chibnall so they've got a lot of work to do lol. Hopefully it includes a redesign.
The one thing the sea devils don't need imo is a redesign. Their look in legend of the sea devils was maybe the only good thing about that episode.
The idea is that it's an anthology thing. So it's all "The War Between: X & Y". And so one limited season could be a war between, I dunno, the Sea Devils and Silurians, and be on Earth, and involve the UNIT cast from the main show. Then the next could be The War Between the Sontarans and the Rutans, and would be all in space away from everything else. At least, according to rumors.
The movement on their mouths and necks was one of the only times I've found a monster design in Who genuinely off-putting in a bad way. Maybe I could warm up to it with better effects. The Meep and the Goblins did a good job of combining CG with real puppets/costumes.
The Space Baby episode was an interesting concept but the episode didn't really work for me. The CGI they used the move the babies lips when talking just wasn't that good. I remember at one point after the babies use the flame thrower you could see one of the babies had their hand over where the flame came out (because they're babies and like to hold things). I think this episode would have worked better as a novel or comic book where they didn't have to use real babies and could have the babies in your mind's eye or in a drawing.
The Beatles episode was better. It certain had some issues (the song wasn't that good, the episode itself didn't' make it clear why the Doctor thought Maestro was such a threat though if you watched the third special you would know, how exactly Maestro's powers affected time and if the 20s-60s still had no music) but overall I liked it better than the first.
Even with my issues with the episodes I still had a better time than most episodes in the last era of Who. I though both the Doctor and Ruby were good in this one. Looking forward to see what Moffat has cooked up next week.
The Beatles episode was better. It certain had some issues (the song wasn't that good, the episode itself didn't' make it clear why the Doctor thought Maestro was such a threat though if you watched the third special you would know, how exactly Maestro's powers affected time and if the 20s-60s still had no music) but overall I liked it better than the first.
Even with my issues with the episodes I still had a better time than most episodes in the last era of Who. I though both the Doctor and Ruby were good in this one. Looking forward to see what Moffat has cooked up next week.
I thought the two episodes were decent. I enjoyed them more than pretty much any of the Chibnall era episodes so it's a marked improvement for me. Definitely a little cheesy and could have done without the dance number etc. but overall decent enough.
I usually gawk at multi-episode debuts for hour-long shows, but it makes sense here given that the second episode was more relevant to series arc. Otherwise, I thought both episodes were solid. And given the state of CGI in past episodes, weird mouth CGI is far from the worst thing to happen.
Even Rose has her fans.
I don't think we had a companion on nuWho that's as hated as some of the ones in the classic shows.
I think the issue with the baby mouths was that seemingly only the mouths were CGId, so the facial expressions and eyes didn't match what was being said.
There was a short period for a while where it felt like Clara was going to get an Adric-level pushback, but I think MOST of that has died down after people had a chance to view Jenna's role in the show as a whole arc. Nowadays the most vitriolic hate tends to feel fairly fringe.
Yep. Especially on Eric, where his face constantly had this look of O____________O concern no matter what lines he was delivering. Which isn't great when he's the baby who gets by FAR the most screentime and the most direct close-ups. They probably should've just made the babies telepaths instead of speaking vocally.
As a longtime fan, I agree, if only because with every subsequent showrunner, we see them need to put their stamp on the mythology of the show by changing it dramatically, often for the worse. For RTD it was killing off the Time Lords. Then bringing them back and getting rid of them again. For Moffat, it was a several things, including, you guessed it, bringing back the Time Lords, again. For Chibnall, it was totally retconning everything we thought we knew about the character, and killing the Time Lords. Again. Sigh. It's hard to care about Gatwa emoting over the Doctor being the last of his kind when we've seen it go back and forth so many times. When I saw that scene in these new episodes, my first thought was "give it time, pal, they'll be back." Comic books have power creep, but there's also lore creep, and it drags everything down because no one can just leave it be what it is.
People just want Doctor Who to be good. But since everyone has often wildly differing opinions of what good Doctor Who actually is...
Well, one issue is that we know what babies look like, and they don't move their mouths like that, so even if you could pull off photo realistic baby mouths they're still going to look wrong to our brains. I've seen it done *better* to be clear, but it always looks very very wrong to me.
I accepted it early on though, and frankly got a lot of enjoyment out of how confused the babies looked no matter what else was going on, or what emotion they were meant to be conveying. I think it's very very funny to think about filming those scenes as babies who have zero chance of comprehending why they're in such a strange environment get rolled around by people in green morph suits. Granted that made it hard for me to believe in the space babies as real characters, but I still had fun with it.
So overall I'm still not too sure how I feel about 15's era. It's overall decent so far, but the show isn't necessarily going in a path that I personally find interesting. That doesn't mean it's bad, but I find....I feel like the recent episodes are a little light on the mystery, a little light on the intrigue.
Like my favorite Doctor Who episode of all time is Midnight, that whole episode is one big mystery, it doesn't really even have a resolution. My favorite horror stories are those in which you never truly even know what you're up against, and that episode plays into it brilliantly.
I like when the show plays with your expectations and shocks you with a sudden revelation, like in the first Amy episode with the Weeping Angels where, as they're walking through the mausoleum, it suddenly dawns on the Doctor that the dead statues should have 2 heads....but they only have 1, or when the 10th Doctor comments that the ticking clock in the girl's bedroom is broken, so why is there still a ticking noise.
I like a big build up to a solution, like in Tooth and Claw where you find out the prior owner of the house knew about the wolf and designed the entire house to be a trap after decades of planning, it all leads up throughout the episode like the mistletoe in the walls and continually requesting the diamond get recut even after his death to the revelation that the telescope isn't a telescope.
In comparison, while for example I like The Toymaker and I like Maestro as characters, as they're portrayed, the solutions to defeating them almost feel like a backhanded 5% of the episode.
Essentially, if Doctor Who is channeling a lot of Scooby-Doo style elements, I like it a lot.
Or 12 but in a different way, one glance from the angry eyebrows and that thing would be running.
Like my favorite Doctor Who episode of all time is Midnight, that whole episode is one big mystery, it doesn't really even have a resolution. My favorite horror stories are those in which you never truly even know what you're up against, and that episode plays into it brilliantly.
I like when the show plays with your expectations and shocks you with a sudden revelation, like in the first Amy episode with the Weeping Angels where, as they're walking through the mausoleum, it suddenly dawns on the Doctor that the dead statues should have 2 heads....but they only have 1, or when the 10th Doctor comments that the ticking clock in the girl's bedroom is broken, so why is there still a ticking noise.
I like a big build up to a solution, like in Tooth and Claw where you find out the prior owner of the house knew about the wolf and designed the entire house to be a trap after decades of planning, it all leads up throughout the episode like the mistletoe in the walls and continually requesting the diamond get recut even after his death to the revelation that the telescope isn't a telescope.
In comparison, while for example I like The Toymaker and I like Maestro as characters, as they're portrayed, the solutions to defeating them almost feel like a backhanded 5% of the episode.
Essentially, if Doctor Who is channeling a lot of Scooby-Doo style elements, I like it a lot.
Or 12 but in a different way, one glance from the angry eyebrows and that thing would be running.
I think we all hopefully hold fire on any summaries of 15's era after only a small handful of episodes (only three fully with him). Also its quite possible a lot of this is setup. He may take a darker turn at some point and he's in a honeymoon phase due to Tennant's weird reincarnation refreshing/resetting him so he's unburdened - for now.
I'm curious if they'll do something like that. Although with RTD who the hell knows - maybe it just an entire season of wish/magic/pixies
I'm curious if they'll do something like that. Although with RTD who the hell knows - maybe it just an entire season of wish/magic/pixies
I liked the music ep a lot I just really wish the ending musical number wasn't so whatever the fuck that was. I felt like I wasn't in the joke or something. What the fuck was the twist? Was the twist that we were doing a musical number? Not a great twist for the end of a music themed episode. I know the Beatles are too expensive but we have fucking disney money and the bbc, they couldn't pull something?!? They keep using that Bowie song in promo's but couldn't use it in the ep? It would have been such a better pay off, emotionally, thematically, to have it actually end with a song everyone knows. Didn't the beatles do a lot of covers back in the day? Couldn't they have done one of their old covers with their fake beatles? The rest of the ep was pretty good tho.
It was a literal twist. As in, the dance called the twist.
It's a joke. Whether it lands for you or not is a different matter.
That would have been more confusing, I'd expect.
'The Twist' is a song about the dance, which was popular before it was written.
Agree to disagree on it being more confusing. I have enjoyed most of the musical numbers we've had in this recent run, this one just didn't do it for me and if it had simply been a licensed song it would have been a homerun.
It's just a really bad song. Both this song and the Goblin Song are just the lyricists listing a bunch of things that vaguely rhyme. It's bad songwriting, no two bones about it.
If Rusty wants to keep doing musical numbers, he needs to hire someone with actual experience writing musical theatre. This isn't good enough.
If Rusty wants to keep doing musical numbers, he needs to hire someone with actual experience writing musical theatre. This isn't good enough.