#FIRST LOOK AT NCUTI AS THE DOCTOR… LIKE… ON THE TELLY!!!! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

denimbex1986 · 2 years ago

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'The moment Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor regenerated will go down history as one of the great rug-pulls of modern Who.

There she was, standing on a rocky outcrop, ready to hand over the mantle to the next in line. But this time there was an extra twist for those watching. Instead of regenerating into Ncuti Gatwa, who was announced as the next Doctor in 2022 after rising to fame in Netflix's Sex Education, people instead saw David Tennant standing in his place, ready to reprise the role he’d last held thirteen years ago.

To quote the Doctor, as he reacted to this change of plans: what?!

With that catchphrase (can a word be a catchphrase? With Tennant, anything is possible), he was back in the TARDIS, and I was immediately reinvested – catapulted back in time to a version of my teenage self where long scarves were sacred and Converse magically looked good when paired with pinstripe suits.

I wasn’t around for original Who, but watched from behind the sofa as my father (a lifelong fan) turned on the telly for the reboot in 2005. Terrifying as the Daleks may be, this show is catnip for kids: the monsters; the prospect of entering a magic box and going for adventures in time and space; and above everything else, the knowledge the Doctor will ultimately save the day.

Heading up the first rebooted series, Christopher Eccleston came and went, with a brooding kind of mystique to him – a bit too dour for my nine-year-old self, but the baddies kept me hooked: the gas-mask zombies, the Slitheen, even (shudder) the return of the Daleks. And just as I was getting properly into the show, along came David Tennant.

For millions of fans like me, Tennant wasn’t just a version of the Doctor: he was the definitive Doctor. Taking the reins from Eccleston after the show’s excellent but troubled first season (Eccleston has talked about how leaving the show put him on a BBC blacklist and almost destroyed his career), he immediately breathed fresh life into the character.

Alongside the showrunner Russell T Davies (who himself has an impressive list of credits to his name, including It's A Sin and Queer as Folk) Tennant helped launch Who into the stratosphere: suddenly, watching the show was (wait for it) cool, something that both kids and adults would tune in for. In its prime, Doctor Who under Tennant pulled in as many as 13m viewers - a world away from Jodie Whittaker's swansong, which only pulled in four.

Davies’ combination of grounded characters – he always took the time to flesh out the companion’s families and make their lives feel meaningful – and tightly plotted episodes was a winning combination. Think The Parting of the Ways, where the Doctor and Rose tearfully bid farewell on a bleak beach in Norway; or the haunting Midnight, which must be among his bleakest.

Of course, a great script is one thing, but selling it is another. As the face of the show, Tennant could switch from cheeky chappie to ultra-serious blaster of baddies in a nanosecond; yes, Eccleston had the gravitas, but Tennant had that, plus sass. And clearly, he loved playing the Doctor: a lifelong fan himself, he once told GWR FM, "Who wouldn't want to be the Doctor? I've even got my own TARDIS!" It’s a fair point.

Needless to say, I lapped it up; even more so when Catherine Tate came on board as the permanently furious Donna. It was a golden era, but alas, all good things must come to an end. When both Davies and Tennant left in 2010, the show struggled. Matt Smith was charismatic and chirpy, yes, but the writing, under Steven Moffat’s tenure, was blander, the plots more slapdash. Where were the classics: the Blinks, the Empty Children?

As the years progressed, I stopped watching entirely – as did many others. Doctor Who was no longer cool; it was once again the domain of nerds and dedicated fans who were invested enough in the show's lore that the fiendishly complicated scripts made sense (or indeed the show's revolving catalogue of rebooted monsters from the original series). For some, the bad patches were worth toughing out. Which is fine, of course; I’m a nerd myself.

Something was missing; a spark, perhaps. Both Jodie Whittaker and Peter Capaldi’s tenures suffered as a result of poor scriptwriting; the plots were shoddy. The Doctor suddenly started sprouting mysterious incarnations. Why were the Weeping Angels suddenly everywhere? I would read the series reviews and roll my eyes at the screen, longing for the good old days.

I was just about ready to hang up my sonic screwdriver for good - at least until I heard that Russell T Davies was coming back as the series’ showrunner once more, along with Tennant and Catherine Tate as his companion Donna. The classic gang, back together again, and returning for one more bite at the apple before passing on the mantle to Gatwa.

Bringing Tennant back was a masterstroke from Davies. If my ears pricked up, so too did the ears of thousands of ex-Whovians, hungry for some sweet nostalgia. And we’ve been amply rewarded: that first sight of Tennant strolling around London in his revamped Tardis made me squeal like a child. As did the first mention of “Allons-y!”, his old catchphrase.

Watching him bounce around the universe with old companion Donna has been a joy; even better, this is a Doctor brought firmly into the modern-day universe. He’s still recognisably himself, but this time around he has crushes on Nathaniel Curtis’ Isaac Newton (“He was so hot... oh! Is that who I am now?”) and lets Donna and her daughter Rose (Yasmin Finney) school him on pronoun usage. You can sense the mischief in Davies’ pen, as well as the clear love he still has for the series, peppering his scripts with Easter eggs galore.

So as the third and final special approaches, I’m not ready to let Tennant go yet. How could I be? We've only just gotten him back, but wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey rolls on, and it's been a joy to see the show looking more invigorated than it has in years.

Job done? With Davies in charge, I'm optimistic that the soft reboot he and Tennant have kick-started will continue in style. Gatwa has big shoes to fill, but one thing's for certain about Doctor Who: it's all about change. Roll on the future... but if Tennant ever decides to make another guest appearance, I'll be there in the blink of a Weeping Angel's eye.'

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secret-diary-of-an-fa · 1 year ago

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Doctor Who: Space Babies and The Devil's Chord Review. Because Why the Fuck Not.

I was watching the BAFTAs the other day. No, that’s not quite right. Let me try again: the BAFTAs were happening in front of me on a TV at someone’s house and I was powerless to look away. It may be the first example I’ve ever seen of a circle-jerk being staged in the middle of a car-crash: a whole fucking hall-load of people congratulating themselves on having shat out another year’s worth of insipid, uninspired telly (sometimes about Issues with a capital I, often about nothing at fucking all) while the entirety of culture burns to a cinder around them. What a bunch of arseholes. The highlight was confused non-arsehole Timothy Spall looking like he’d wandered on-set from a parallel universe and giving a rambling, unrehearsed speech about nothing in particular, which went on uncomfortably long and which I sincerely hope annoyed the tits off everyone else present. Meanwhile, the special award for creepiest moment has to go to Floella Benjamin (she of Round Window frame- I mean fame) staring straight into the camera and declaring her undying and unconditional love for the viewer. Made my skin crawl a bit, if I’m honest, like maybe she had a really powerful pair of binoculars and she’d be watching me the next time I went for a poop, whispering sweet nothings into the night air. Meanwhile, conspicuous by its absence from this glittering orgy of beige content was Doctor Who, the show I’m actually here to review! Now that’s a seamless fucking segue, innit?

The first two episodes of Who (2024) aired back to back this Saturday and, as both a lifelong lover of good Who and an overprotective psychopath who’d happily kill anyone whose ever besmirched it with a bad episode, it falls to me to judge this double-bill outing. Since I’m neither a grovelling fuckwit in the access media nor a knee-jerk reactionary pillock, I might be the only person on the internet who’s prepared to give you a genuinely unbiased opinion based on the actual quality of what ended up on screen. Don’t think that means this review will be reasonable or genteel in its tone, though: I’m still a stone-cold cunt with impossibly high standards. So, without further ado, let’s dive in. I’ll take a very brief look at the individual episodes, then try and figure out what they say about the series overall and where it might be headed.

First off, Episode 1: Space Babies. It probably isn’t the worst episode in Doctor Who history, but with a monster made of snot and a supporting cast comprised of talking babies, it may be the most wilfully and determinedly stupid. It’s a bit like it was made on a dare- like someone said to showrunner Russel T. Davies “I bet you can’t get away with an episode about of a bunch of infants trapped on a spaceship with an evil sneeze” and he was drunk enough to reply “I’m Russel The Davies! I can do whatever I fucking like, except use my legs for walking right now!” There’s some enjoyable stuff here- mainly Ncuti Gatwa having to simultaneously act well, but also not act convincingly enough to scare the actual, real live toddlers they used on-set. Meanwhile, the monster is very, very obviously a rubber suit with wonky fingers whenever it’s not a dodgy CGI effect. I don’t mind, per say, since wobbling sets and crap costumes are part of the charm of Who, but it does beg the question: WHERE THE FUCK DID ALL THE MONEY DISNEY PUT INTO THE SHOW FUCKING GO?

Next, Episode 2: The Devil’s Chord, which is mostly a vast improvement, though I do have some gripes. An entity calling themselves Maestro, created by the Celestial Toymaker, claws their way into the world via the mind of a musical genius (and the top of a grand piano) and begins stripping all melody from the universe, aiming to silence the Music of the Spheres itself and create a formal lament or dirge from the infinite sorrow: the ultimate artistic statement made using the ruins of a dead cosmos. On a purely conceptual level, it’s fantastically interesting, macabre and inventive. I also quite liked the Beatles cameos, since it takes place in the 60s, but they don’t really get a lot to do and it feels like an opportunity was missed to turn them into the emotional backbone of the episode. Surely Maestro should be a lot more interested in/hostile to these musical geniuses? Without her expressing the slightest inclination to single them out, there’s no sense of immediate physical threat, relegating all the menace to the conceptual level. There’s also not much reason for the Doctor to talk to them, so we’re deprived of the chance to see this new take on the character interacting with people other than companion Ruby Sunday and the odd talking baby (I really hope those aren’t going to be a recurring thing, by the way). Meanwhile, drag queen Jinkx Monsoon (who doesn’t seem to know that you don’t need a K if you’re going to add an X) does a passable job as Maestro. She’s got the over-the-top theatrics of a self-amusing supervillain down to a fine art, but she doesn’t quite have the presence to land her more serious lines. There’s no equivalent here to the spine-chilling “This is only a face, covering a vastness that will never cease” bit from the Tennant episode The Giggle. Which is a shame, because clearly Monsoon isn’t a bad actress, she’s just new at it and probably needed more coaching to land the heavy stuff.I do also have one other minor complaint: the musical number at the end isn’t good enough for an episode that’s all about music. They clearly wrote it especially for the show, but it’s just a bit rubbish and they could have just covered an infinitely more lyrically interesting Beatles song, couldn’t they? Fucking idiots. On the plus side, I really can’t emphasise enough how engaging the idea of the episode is. And we do get an amazing shot of London devastated by some kind of war in an alternate future, which was ace. Honestly, I know I sound like I’m complaining a lot about this episode, but it was actually a lot of fun. I just hope that the show hits its stride and preserves the good elements while evolving past the stuff that doesn’t work.

See, there’s a lot of positives here in the double-bill: there are interesting ideas and a fair amount of creative risk-taking, which- even when it doesn’t work- is evidence of a show willing to experiment and find what works. But there is also a huge, overarching problem that needs to be addressed before this latest Who reboot can hit its stride. Bluntly,if I had to describe this double-bill season opener using one word, I’d probably choose the word ‘rushed’. In both Space Babies and The Devil’s Chord, but especially the latter, the story zips manically from plot-point to set-piece and back again with very little breathing room in between. Jokes that ought to be set up early and then pay off later to create space and a sense of continuity just get told with mechanical, rapid-fire pacing and then forgotten (there’s a bit about changing the evolutionary history of the human race by stepping on a butterfly that flies past so quickly it’s barely worth a smirk). Characters who needed to be fleshed out just aren’t because there isn��t time to do that and also stage ridiculous musical number (as a result, there’s never much sense of threat. We know the show won’t kill off the Doctor or his companion, so the cannon-fodder who might die need to be well-characterised enough that we give a shit). Many of the effects look like they were thrown together in an afternoon because the production team decided to go for cheap-and-easy CGI over practical, tactile, more believable effects. Most egregiously of all, there’s even a certain obviousness to the way things look and function. Sometimes, it looks like the show designed its props and sets by going through a big catalogue of sci-fi and costume-drama tropes and places and then just picking out whatever matched best. Compared to the craftsmanship put into, say, WWII London in The Empty Child or the sprawling planetary library of Silence in the Library (both of which were realised on piss-poor budgets compared to current Who), it’s woefully disappointing.

Don’t get me wrong, Who is still worth a watch. Ncuti Gatwa’s a decent leading man, even if he hasn’t been given time to settle into the character thanks to the manic pacing of his adventures, and it’s obvious Russel T. Davies isn’t short of ideas, even if some of them are curate’s eggs of dubious quality. But if the show wants to get back to the height of its popularity, it needs to slow down and smell the roses a little. The production team need to be encouraged to do things the hard way, because it looks better. The plots need more talking and detailed character interaction to compliment the action and silliness. When something bombastic and over-the-top is happening, it needs to feel earned. Who people: start throwing in a few two-parters and de-emphasise the Disney money you’ve been given in favour of careful plotting. There’s something worth loving here, but it’s buried in quite a lot of bullshit at the moment. Get a shovel and dig it out.

EDIT: I would like to acknowledge that the thing about the Doctor being able to hear the show's incidental music is the fun kind of stupid and not the annoying kind.

#secret diary of a fat admirer #Doctor Who #Dr. Who #Space Babies #the devils chord #15th doctor #ncuti gatwa #ruby sunday

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cipher-fresh · 2 years ago

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[ID: A photo of David Tennant and Ncuti Gatwa posing for a picture in costume as the Doctor on the UNIT helipad during The Giggle. A section reads “It feels weirdly full circle and like the universe has put us together…-Ncuti Gatwa”. An interview with David and Ncuti is shown below

What were your first impressions of one another? Had you met before the other week?

David: "No, that was our first -"

Ncuti: "We'd talked on the phone."

David: "We had, yes."

Ncuti: "But we first met at the stunt rehearsal [for the Toymaker's game of catch] two weeks ago [10 June 2022]. My first impression of David was, ohh wow, he's real."

David: "[Bursts out laughing)"

Ncuti: "And then also just, ohhh, his voice sounds like it does on the telly!"

David: "[Laughing harder)"

Ncuti: "I couldn't believe it. And then Catherine [Tate] as well. It's like, oh my God, they're actually real! They're here!"

David: "You thought I was some mythological creature?"

Ncuti: "[Over the sound of David guffawing] Yes, but I fell in love with you instantly. Instant warmth, I felt. And instantly sound. I felt comfortable and at ease."

David: "Ohh, that's good."

Ncuti: "I'm so happy that we're doing this episode together. What an amazing person to learn from and do this with. What a gift. This is such a gift."

David: "And for me. I thought, well, what a treat to be alongside this cool young buck. This thrusting new talent -"

Ncuti: "Ha ha!"

David: "- that this old man gets to stand next to and bask in some of the reflective glory."

Ncuti: "You have more energy than me, though, can I just say! I look at you and I'm like, 'Where's all this energy coming from? I need to sit down.'"

David: "I'm just trying to keep up, that's all it is." /End ID]

How cute are these two 😫

#image #doctor who #david tennant #ncuti gatwa

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denimbex1986 · 2 years ago

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'The Doctor has always had a complicated relationship with time and space, and never has that been truer than in the case of “The Star Beast”, the first of three episodes marking Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary.

It’s a new show starring an old Doctor – David Tennant, who becomes the Tardis’s 10th AND 14th custodian. Meanwhile, as the franchise recovers from the disastrous tenure of Chris Chibnall and forges a new future, it is turning to a past showrunner, Russell T Davies. As if that wasn’t enough to put fans in a spin, “The Star Beast” is an unabashed homage to heartwarming 1980s escapism such as ET – with a thoroughly modern twist on gender identity.

Confused? Tennant seems to be. He emerges boggle-eyed from the Tardis in present-day London at the start of this enjoyably light-weight and wholesomely hokey helping of Who.

Davies would never say so out loud. But he’s clearly trying to undo the damage of the Chibnall era. During that time, Who got caught up in convoluted storylines and viewers fled for the cyber-hills. That back-to-basics strategy comes as a relief after the episode is preceded by a Marvel-type intro. It features Doctors past and present and the word “Whoniverse”. The glitzy flourish is presumably aimed at international fans tuning in via Disney + under a new deal between Broadcasting House and the Mouse House.

As he zigs and zags between the need to rewind from Chibnall and appeal to Disney + subscribers, the obvious temptation for Davies is to mess with the magic of Who. But no. Aside from a slightly tweaked theme tune, his new Who could not be more old school. The storyline is so straightforward that an eight-year-old could grasp it; which is precisely the audience Davies had in mind, as he explained to journalists this week.

Yet if uncomplicated, “The Star Beast” never talks down to the viewer. It has lots of action and lashings of intergalactic banter. Plus, there’s a genuine twist halfway through when a key protagonist is revealed to be the opposite of who we thought they were. Shocks are turning into Davies’s forte. When Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor regenerated in January 2022, the expectation was the character would return as the already announced 15th Doctor Ncuti Gatwa. That will happen a little later. The Sex Education actor will make his bows in a Christmas Day special. But until then, the Doctor is back in the capable clutches of the excellent Tennant, who returns to the frontline of time-hopping tea-time telly with a visible spring in his stride.

He’s materialised in Camden just as an alien spaceship whooshes over London. Mysterious forces have summoned the Doctor and reunited him with beloved side-kick Donna Noble (a fantastically caustic Catherine Tate). Whovians will know the Doctor previously wiped Noble’s memory of him. That was to prevent her mind from shattering after she plugged into his brain to defeat baddie Davros. With that part of her consciousness still sealed off, she is puzzled to meet this jittery stick-insect with quizzical eyebrows.

She is accompanied by her daughter Rose (Yasmin Finney), revealed later to be transgender. It isn’t simply a character detail. Rose’s non-binary identity plays a crucial part in an exciting denouement. It involves her mother coming to terms with the Time Lord data dump she downloaded during her earlier adventures (it’s complex – but what do you expect of Doctor Who?)

Rose is a budding artist who specialises in fluffy toys. She is soon playing hostess to an unexpected new furry creature, “the Meep”, who has turned up at her house. Voiced by Miriam Margolyes, the Meep is adorable with tassels on – and it looks like the episode is going to turn into Davies’s love letter to ET.

There is some of that. As the Doctor tracks down Noble and the Meep, a duo of insect-like Wrarth Warriors have landed and are apparently using brainwashed soldiers to hunt Rose’s furry chum (Ruth Madeley cameos as a scientist with paranormal military corp, Unit). Then comes that bombshell. The true villain is actually the Meep, whose adorableness is a ruse.

The Doctor uncovers this truth in a fake courtroom sequence, for which he dons a barrister’s wig. Whittaker’s Doctor had many winning attributes: she was funny, gutsy, compassionate and ill-served by some atrocious storylines. But she could not have carried off the zany humour with which Tennant delivers in this scene. He’s hilarious throughout – while also coming to terms with weird new feelings of human warmth (presumably a hangover from Whittaker’s 13th Doctor).

It’s great fun, and you have to feel for Gatwa, who will have his work cut out when he takes over the Tardis. It will be like going on after Freddie Mercury at Glastonbury. Tennant captures the essence of the Doctor. He really does feel like a time-traversing alien trying to pass for a human, and it will be a daunting act to follow. Still, that’s a worry for another day. For now, Who-heads will be relieved and delighted to know that, after the lows of the Chibnall years, the Doctor is back to his eccentric best.'

#Doctor Who #60th Anniversary #The Star Beast #Ncutu Gatwa #David Tennant #Catherine Tate #Donna Noble #Russell T. Davies #Yasmin Finney #Rose Noble #the Meep #Miriam Margolyes #Ruth Madeley #Shirley Anne Bingham

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