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variousqueerthings · 7 months

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TOP THINGS I'M EXCITED FOR IN THE NEW RTD RUN

getting the obvious out of the way, ncuti gatwa

but more specifically, ncuti gatwa is going in with such an exciting awareness of what he got out of doctor who and how that will inform his take

and both he and millie gibson are firmly taking doctor who into the next generation. I don't know a lot about her (and youknow, I'm getting older, so she seems awfully young, but that's really all I know and isn't enough to form an opinion on -- but susan vibes? hoping she won't be a rose!repeat, but I really really don't think that's the intention here), but gatwa is also next!gen whovian (like me), which is very fun. it's a nerdy show, I like it when nerds are involved

the wardrobe is looking so goooood. three also had quite an extensive repertoire especially, and this feels quite closely aligned with that campness (not specifically the exact style ofc, new doctor, but Vibes)

the other obvious out of the way, dtennant and catherine tate

specifically that there's a lot of potential in the 60th anniversary to properly wrap up ten's and donna's arcs in a way that organically interacts with the previous ending they had. some really fun potential to play with theme and genre in that, I'm a sucker for recontextualisation, and for dtennant having a bad time (but then maybe at the end... an okay time?)

I hope this will also more effectively merge the rtd run with moffat's and chibnall's. they did do a bit more of that as they went along, but I think they both went too hard on the reset button (especially moffat). we did then get some more... what I'll call continuity, but it took a bit (look, I know, the continuity is madness on this show, but I like to know it's the same story at least, and not totally excise what came before)

also donna has a kid now, played by yasmin finney. I'm excited for all of that, the fact that she's called rose, casting yasmin finney, another form of bringing it into the present, rather than it being all about the past, the fact that she's teased in the trailer, but there's so much more to see

speaking of casting -- camp and queerness! so many of the casting announcements have been queer actors, and you know rtd loves queering shit up, and he's got soooo much more freedom to do so now than he did in 2005. It won't just be in the casting, it'll be in the stories and the character-writing

references to classic!who and other dw!materials, as always, and of course rtd loves that. I just like how much of nu!who is having fun with classic!who. and updating it of course

I said it before but. I like watching dtennant be upset. he does it very well. perhaps even tears who knows...

EDIT: CONSIDERING THE NEW THEME SONG REVEAL ALSO FORGOT TO SAY MURRAY GOLD'S MUSIC!!!

some things I'm hoping for:

that the continuity of the last series won't be severed, especially in regards to the various regenerations that have been since ten

similarly that ten's arc interacts both with how they died/what happened with donna, and that they've been other bodies since then and so there has been growth and change, but what does that mean to a multi-lifed being?

that ruby and the doctor won't have a romantic will-they-won't-they and that generally the doctor continues to be a character through which those sorts of things can be interrogated (perhaps more deliberately now than in the past....)

that there will be some more ideas about gender, as has been increasingly played with over the last few years

that ncuti gatwa being black influences the kinds of stories being told in regards to what kind of history and future is important

that rose's part in the specials is important (I mean, even the fact that she's donna's kid is already important, but on her own as well -- that she gets something cool to do)!

that UNIT won't be toooo involved. I'm currently watching three from the start and I remember that UNIT does a lot in that one, and that's fine, I get that there's precedent. but also they're not my favourite part of DW, generally the doctor being associated with Institutions of a military nature. makes sense for three, who's relatively trapped on earth, and I like the way it's one of humanity's ways of reacting to alien life both in classic and nu!who, but never trust military. anyway, UNIT's fine for the specials, also ties in previous seasons with kate, but hoping won't be so much in ncuti gatwa's arcs. or that there's more conflict involved with them being involved

that new writers are brought onboard, especially women, black writers, and millennials

that it'll still be sincere. that it won't suffer from irony poisoning and over-reliance on references (don't think the latter is so much the issue), and that the bigger budget won't erode its ability to tell deeply personal intimate person stories, which has been an issue over the last few years and could be a problem in future. this isn't the show of massive explosions and michael by action, it's the show or a bunch of nerds who want to see practical effect aliens and cry about them

#doctor who #dw #david tennant #rtd #russell t davies #catherine tate #ncuti gatwa #millie gibson #the doctor has travelled with minors before -- not that millie is a minor #but we dont know how old ruby is yet do we?#and whether she's 19 playing 19 or 19 playing a 15 or 16 or 17 yr old #there's more im sure but off the top of my head this is it

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13docwriting · 5 months

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NOTE: this post was made on November 26th, 2023, before the 60th specials aired. I wasn't going to post it but due to the recent episodes, I feel it really fits. It's me, more than a year after the Power of the Doctor! As time moves on and more spoilers / interviews / trailers / content comes out for the 60th (and then some), my already limited hope continues to dwindle for human kindness. Why? Here's my twenty page essay down below! (I'm not kidding, it's 20 pages)

The Thirteenth Doctor has been a life changer for me, as many could tell from my username. Chibnall's series came to me in the midst of the pandemic and a very hard time in my life. Ironically, my motivation for watching DW once again after more than a four year hiatus of the show was actually the idea of the Doctor being a woman. My reason to stay, however, was the stories we received. I've lived through the Chibnall and Jodie bashing on this hell-site in real time. I've read downright nasty comments on any/all of Doctor Who's social media posts about thirteen's series. I've seen people call each other horrible names for simply liking one of the Thirteenth Doctor's episodes... And now, as her series has ended a year ago, I'm even more saddened to see her era get pushed to the side as if to be forgotten. Nobody came at me with the whole "it's not because of Chibnall/Jodie's era! DW just needed a reboot!" I would have agreed! I would have agreed that a fresh coat of paint would have helped DW gain some more traction, especially in the states! The more people who watch DW, the better! But the change RTD is presenting and the continued changes come at the cost of dealing with bullies online and defending something I love with all my heart.

I'd like to remind everyone that Chris Chibnall did not just barge his way into Doctor Who. He has written episodes for DW for a while before he took over as showrunner. Tenth Doctor: 42 Eleventh Doctor: The Hunger Earth, Cold Blood, Pond Life, Dinosaurs in a Spaceship, the Power of Three. Recognize some of those titles? Yeah, even when I was a wee lass, those were some of the best episodes DW had ever done. "42" scared the crap out of me in the best way, "Dinosaurs in Spaceship" had me smiling ear to ear, etc. etc.

Don't just take my word for it, read some of the reviews for those episodes. They are highly positive if not still mid-range.

That being said, I have a hard time believing that every single one of Jodie's episodes have been awful. And, if not outright stated as awful, certainly below every single nuwho Doctor.

Was there some not-so-great episodes? Yeah, of course! But every Doctor has had some questionable episodes. With a show that has a new plot nearly every episode, you're going to have some misses! My point being... Chibnall CAN write good episodes and, with that being said... Why HAS Thirteen's era been considered one of the worsts? Well, I think it's because, as always, people hate change. We've just come off of Twelve's era which was rooted in deep and meaningful conversations with a underlying of, dare I say it, Time Lord Victorious. Twelve holds a special place in my heart for the amount of care he showed through his era. From the Twelve's darkest moments, Thirteen is born. Thirteen is a ray of sunshine that holds hope in the palm of her hand. She's happy, bubbly, and ready to smile. She wants the universe and everything it has to offer and she's ready to travel the stars again.

Chibnall introduces a series of stories that are rooted in that hope. There's kindness at every turn, there's compassion, there's empathy... Is that the reason people hate her era? No. A new Doctor has never stopped anyone from getting back into the show. So, it's the writing, you say? I have one thing to say to that: Prove it. Point me in the direction of bad writing without ONCE mentioning the word "woke". If you found Jodie's era to be preachy, perhaps there's a reason that you take offense to it. DW has always been a progressive show and it will forever stay that way. And I am the first one to admit that, again, there are weak episodes. There IS some bad writing, but the hate that Jodie's ENTIRE era gets, I feel, is unjustified. So, if not writing, must be the acting! Where? When? I had no problem watching Jodie Whittaker be the Doctor. She's quirky and fun and eccentric... She has a thousand different emotions on her face at one time. Any actor that knows how much a smile can hide is a talented one. Besides that, her work on Broadchurch and her newer works (One Night, Time) have some raving reviews. She clearly has talent. So, not the acting or writing... Companions, then? Why? "The fam" had all of their moments to shine. I won't say their character arcs were perfect, especially for Ryan and Graham, but they did have their own arcs. Was it the fact that there were three totally separate companions at once? Was it just too big a job? I can't answer that one. I personally felt that they all got a good ending, one that makes sense and that isn't tragic for the sake of tragedy. This my be my opinion piece, but I liked having multiple companions that had their own little storyline, but that's MY opinion and I'm fine with someone calling me out on that. Let's go really basic... It's because the Doctor isn't meant to be woman, right? Oh, so, the Master can be a woman and that's totally fine, but when it's the Doctor... Woman can be villains but they can't be the main protagonist, right? I didn't see people up and arms over Missy, why was Thirteen so different? I remember seeing her very first introduction trailer and having people immediately be upset by the gender change. Well, forget my opinions, let's look at the statistics and viewings numbers, right?

HOW ABOUT NO. Remember the writing strike that just ended? Remember how regular cable has been nearly done with? Remember how writers are fighting to earn something for streaming services? We can't rely on normal/live views while a literal pandemic was happening, while streaming has become the norm, while watching online for free has existed for so long... Views have CHANGED. The way people consume media has changed, especially during the pandemic. Now, for an excuse... The pandemic happened. It changed how people were filming, it changed how close people could get to one another in terms of acting, it changed filming times and locations. I can't confirm, but I know that the Flux storyline was cut by two whole episodes, which could be the reason a lot of people felt disappointed by the end of the Flux. Chibnall and Thirteen's era had so many real-life obstacles to overcome that past era's did not have to deal with.

I'm tired, alright? I'm tired of defending my love for a character. And to have that love be spat out in the form of a different writer by.... 1. Discarding the Thirteenth Doctor's iconic outfit after a regeneration for the first time ever (under the guise of calling it "drag" if Tennant was to wear her outfit even after a male co-star had just worn it.) 2. Introducing a very popular Doctor back into the show ("to gain views") 3. Doing a soft reboot by calling the new season "season 1" (could be Disney's fault, but I'm not entirely sure of that fact) Every day I read another article about how RTD is "saving" Doctor who when I myself have been saved by the Doctor already. I didn't ever need to justify my love of a character until today.

#anti rtd #doctor who #doctor who spoilers #dw spoilers #opinion piece #13th doctor #dw fandom #thirteenth doctor #dw

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being-of-rain · 4 months

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I wasn’t really a big fan of The Giggle by the time I finished watching it, and I liked it less the more that I thought about it. Which is a real shame, because I think it was full of a lot of great ideas that were squandered with poor execution. I didn’t really want to just post pages of negativity, so I’ll quickly skim through a list of things I think could’ve been done better, and maybe I’ll expand on some of them later or if I’m asked about them. Still, this is your warning for negativity.

The whole 'screens are evil and making everyone think they're right' felt so shallow and cheap, especially because it was set up as the main obstacle and then largely ignored. A lot of the characters at UNIT really didn't do much (I totally forgot about The Vlinx after my first watchthrough) but I think that didn't bother me much while watching because I was used to Chibnall regularly ignoring characters like that. It was nice to see Mel again, but she didn’t really serve much purpose.

RTD’s take on the Toymaker is quite similar to his take on the Master, which was sometimes fun and sometimes annoying (specifically the German accent, which lost its appeal pretty quickly for me). But he felt pretty hollow and full of wasted potential beyond that, feeling like he was there just to give the episode a villain. Although speaking of the Master, his brief inclusion was hilarious and an easy way to write him back into the show later, nicely done.

The last third of the episode had some many intriguing and potentially awesome ideas behind it. The new Doctor turning up partway through a story? Cool! The Doctor defeating his final villain alongside the next star of the show? Fun! The Doctor getting self-care and words of wisdom from his next self? So heartwarming! One Doctor retiring to be happy while his next incarnation travels off to continue the adventures? A fun use of the show's format!

But for me these ideas just didn’t work or didn’t fulfill their potential, and it’s mostly because there’s no narrative justification for them. No cause and effect. There’s no given reason for the Doctor to bigenerate, it just happens. There’s no particular reason that it was the Doctors rather than the Toymaker who won the game of catch to save the world, it just happens. Without any narrative reason the third act feels so unsatisfying, like spectacle for the sake of spectacle, and (I don’t say this lightly) incredibly lazily written.

That lack of story reason also undermines the ending, clearly the thing RTD was most interested in, by making it feel unearned. Like a first draft script that worked backwards to make it happen. The retirement ending itself I have mixed feelings about, which I’m not sure I can fully articulate. One thing I love to see is that RTD can actually do a genuinely happy ending rather than making every ending a tragedy. But said happy ending feels a little too ‘married-with-kids-and-a-white-picket-fence’ to me – though obviously I can’t stress enough how relieved I am that romance didn’t factor into it. It just felt like it wasn’t set up well enough. I’d probably like it a lot more if they made clear if Tennant’s Doctor was going to turn into Gatwa’s Doctor or if they’re just separate people now. It was sweet of RTD to try and bring a conclusion to the ‘Doctor is traumatised’ thing that he introduced to the show 18 years ago, but he did it poorly. At least it offers interesting new possibilities for the show going forward!

With all that said, in the end The Giggle felt to me like RTD retreading some of his biggest flaws as a writer, and throwing in a few borrowed from other showrunners for good measure. It was a disappointment both because of the good ideas just below the surface, and because it came after a very fun first episode and an incredible follow-up.

But like I said, I’m excited to see what the show does next! I saw talk that there’ll be lots of mythical and unnatural creatures turn up due to the Doctor’s salt thing, which is super cool. And obviously I’m excited for more Gatwa! I haven’t really felt a lot of reason to be excited about Ruby yet, but as always I’m ready to fall in love with the new companion quickly!

#my thoughts #dw spoilers #ten #donna #toymaker

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mysticaltora8276 · 2 months

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I’ve just like to say I don’t hate Russell T. Davies writing (well mostly there are plenty of elements that annoy me but that’s true for any writer so we’ll leave it at that. )but I don’t know the 60th anniversary specials just come across as very self congratulatory about his run and it really annoys me. Not to mention that for a 60th anniversary like ignoring things that came before it. No bringing in a character from the First Doctor’s run or an obscure character comic book run does not make a 60th anniversary. There were just some awkward bits of dialogue, and like I’ve said before this obsession of Russell to basically make the Doctor is mundane as possible instead of focusing on the fact that that they are a traveler and an alien and taking people to extraordinary places instead of glorifying the mundane. Again glorifying the mundane is not a problem, but I must ask why would you take someone so extraordinary and try to make him normal? With Moffat when the Doctor was in a normal setting, they didn’t stifle who the Doctor was. Same with Chibnall. The Doctor was still a unique entity and kind of stuck out a mundane settings, but that was the charm. The Doctor is an oddity that comes and takes you to extraordinary places not someone who desperately wants to be normal. The Doctor was and is an eccentric and proud of it. The only time it made sense for the Doctor to want mundanity was Nine and that was only because he’d been through a war but even still the Doctor traveled and were fine with being an eccentric. The Flux was a traumatic moment yes, but remember this is the series in which the Master destroyed just a quarter of the universe…. By accident. Yes, they should address it, but not by clipping the Doctor’s wings. Maybe it’s just me, but it was across as basically saying “are you eccentric? Do you like to travel? Well, then for recovery instead of you know, allowing the person to still be your own unique person you have to basically conform to what I the writer think is necessary even if goes against your character, and take away all your uniqueness.” It just feels a little bit stifling to me. I mean they could’ve had him just taking short trips to planets and taking it easy there from place to place and then coming back instead of constantly staying in one place which may I remind you they hated in previous incarnations?

Edit: Three was exiled on Earth and hated every single second of it. He liked helping but the fact he was stuck there drove him crazy. Eleven retired to Earth twice. Once due to the Ponds being dramatically taken away from him and once Clara came in he jumped at the chance. And he literally locked himself away. The second time was when he was trying figure out about Clara and once he got it he was off once more without a second thought. And that’s not even counting the other time he stayed on a planet when he defended Christmas for a hundred years so the people wouldn’t be wiped out. Twelve stayed on Earth for seventy years to watch over Missy but as soon as Bill comes he books it because he is going stir crazy. He even makes it clear that he’s barely keeping it together. So yeah the Doctor doesn’t do well with being tied down.

And that’s not getting into the whole conversation about family….excuse me the Ponds and the Fam would like a word with you. And their home is the TARDIS. Their fav planet is the Earth yes but ultimately it’s the TARDIS traveling that’s home.

Edit: Oh yeah as for “I have a family now” remark….Excuse me does the name Susan Foreman mean anything?! Susan smack your grandfather he’s being a moron again!

#doctor who #anti rtd #sorry in advance #I just got an annoyed of the constant yammering

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cyber-corp · 3 months

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Looking back, I think the ideas of the Timeless Child and the Flux were both decent ideas but with really dull execution. I think the problem was that Chris Chibnall came up with two really cool ideas he had, then didn't know what to do with them. The 13th Doctor gets told directly she caused the Flux and we never get to see her struggle with the consequences for the rest of her era.

But I do think RTD reinvigorated those concepts and (for the most part) wrote them better. We actually get to see the Doctor struggle with causing the Flux and being the Timeless Child through 14's short monologue ("We stand here now on the edge of creation, a creation which I devastated!") and 15's parallels with Ruby Sunday as a foundling ("I've got no family.")

I just wish they were given the development back when they were established.

#doctor who #the flux #timeless child #chris chibnall #rtd #13th doctor #14th doctor #15th doctor #gecko boy

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evviejo · 2 years

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“It wasn’t part of the plan,” [Chibnall] says. “You’re in a constant dialogue with the show because you see things come through and you think, “That’s interesting - we can slow burn that.” And that’s sort of what happened with this. If you look at Arachnids in the UK (2018) it’s there front and centre in the scene where Yaz’s mum asks, ‘Are you two seeing each other?’ and the Doctor says, ‘I don’t think so. Are we?’ Later in the episode, when Yaz describes the Doctor as the best person she’s ever met, we noticed a real intensity to Mandip’s performance. “It started to read on-screen, maybe partly because of Jodie and Mandip’s friendship off-screen, but partly because it just came through. We started making very deliberate decisions in terms of costume and started laying some things in.“

#dwedit #doctor who #thasmin #thirteen x yaz #the doctor #thirteen #thirteenth doctor #yasmin khan #yaz #jodie whittaker #mandip gill #my gifs #thasmin*#thirteen*#yaz*

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sandymybeloved · 2 months

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okay this is going to be a bit random and tangenty and quite personal and very long but here we go because I am having thoughts.

so I just watched this video about the fandom hating whatever is new. the video itself is fine but the thing is it perfectly described the realisations I had in myself of how I came to a lot of my opinions of Doctor Who after joining the fandom

I have been a Doctor Who fan for borderline my entire life. That is not an exaggeration, "who was your first doctor" doesn't have a clear answer for me, because I have been watching from such a young age it could be any of 9, 10, or 11 depending on how you define it. I was two and a half when the revival started, both my parents were doctor who fans growing up, and watched the revival from day one. My earliest memory of Doctor Who is of Gridlock, but the chances that was my actual first episode may as well be zero. I watched and rewatched every available episode basically from the time my parents first got streaming.

I say all this to emphasise my joining the fandom was extemely extremely secondary to my love of the show. That sounds really trivial, everyone in the doctor who fandom joins because they love doctor who, but the difference for me is the when, I have loved doctor who for more than twice as long as I have been interacting with the Doctor Who fandom.

I was about 13 when I first started interacting with the fandom in earnest, around the time series 9 was airing, mainly through watching peoples reviews on YouTube. I think broadly this was good for me, I was getting something healthy out of them, either they were episodes I had watched douzens of time over the years leaving me with well cemented opinions on them, or for new episodes, because it takes time for people to make reviews, I had had enough time to at least know if I liked them or not. Watching these reviews informed opinions I already held or gave me a new perspective, what they did not do was dictate my opinion

I was 16 when the Chibnall era started, and it was during series 11 that I first started reading peoples opinions on episodes. This was very bad for me. I was not great at knowing why I did or didn't like something. I'd watch something, and to whatever extent enjoy it or otherwise, not immediately, but shortly after, I would go and look at what other people thought, and it was usually pretty negative. I remember it not seeming so at that start, but slowly fandom consesus was worse and worse.

Slowly, it felt like it was wrong to like an episode. Not in any extreme way, I never fell into not my doctor types, i never believed the ratings mattered, but I was at an age and a point in my life where my opinions were easily swayed, if everyone said an episode was bad then surely it must be, unless my opinions had been cemented by time and countless rewatches, it didn't feel like I disagreed, it felt like I was wrong.

[wow okay, that video really got me thinking apparently, for some reason its gone midnight, so I'm going to bed and will finish writing this tomorrow] [okay hi back now]

The problem was very much my own. Shockingly, not knowing why I liked or didn't like something, and immediately going online and reading articulate points about why it was bad was not going to help me understand my own opinions, it was going to make my differing opinions, which lets be real here was just when I liked something, feel incorrect

I think it got so negative so quickly because a similar thing was happening to a lot of people. There was a group of people who were never going to like it, but weren't going to say the real reason because the majority of the fandom didn't think it was inherently bad that the Doctor was a woman now. But if you can find something in the episode that you can legitimately complain about and shout about it loudly enough that it becomes the main talking point for the episode, then a lot of normal fans are inevitably going to come away believeing it, and after enough episodes its the whole era thats bad, not just individual episodes

By the time series 12 rolled around I was going into episodes expecting not to like them, and subconsciously looking for what the complaint was going to be. It may as well have been impossible for me to like an episode, because watching new episodes of a show you love looking for things to hate in it is not going to lead to you liking it

Some things did still break through but not for legitimate reasons, as soon as an episode would end I was on the internet before giving myself a second to form an opinion, if people seemed to like it, I liked it, if people seemed to hate it, I hated it. By opinions weren't being influenced at that point, they were being dictated

I realised something was wrong with the way I was interacting with my favourite show some time before Flux. Timing wise, it must have been during Revolution of the Daleks. I had been watching Doctor Who with my parents all my life, from the time I was old enough for it to be consistently before my bed time, every new episode I watched with them. While my mum has watched every episode since 2005, most of them multiple times, I have long since considered her a much more casual fan than me. We never really talked about episodes and things we didn't like, but we sat down to watch this episode, and she said she expected it to be bad. It was incredibly alien to me and like a great big flashing neo sign screaming at me that something was wrong even though I agreed. If the Chibnall hate was at such a fever pitch and prevelance it had reached my mum what was it doing to me

That was the catalyst that really made me realise a lot of my opinions weren't really entirely my own, and that going into new episodes expecting to hate them and looking for something I didn't like was warping my perspective.

I did make a conserted effort with flux to digest the episodes at least a little bit before seeking out other peoples opinions, but by that point it was sort of too late to save my opinion of the series as a whole. I did end up liking a couple episodes but I was still in a Chibnall bad mindset, if you will. I felt very weird about enjoying any individual episodes, but at least I knew I liked them.

After that, Eve of the Daleks and Power of the Doctor I was able to just enjoy, I reached a point where I was a lot more comfortable disagreeing from time to time, because it felt good to know those opinions were just my own, but my opinions on earlier episodes still hadn't changed

before Power of the Doctor, I tried to rewatch all of the Chibnall era, but I only made it half way through series 11. New episodes I could form opinions on for the first time, but my dislike for series 11 and 12 was pretty deep rooted, every time I watched an episode and came away liking it, it felt like I was getting it wrong, I was watching the episodes incorrectly and coming to incorrect conclusions, because how could I and seemingly everyone else be wrong for years. It also made interacting with the fandom not fun in its own way, If I liked Ryan now, and everyone else was constantly complaining about him, it felt bad

I needed more time and distance, and for everyone elses focus to shift, so its only really since the 60th that I've felt able to actually revisit it with a clean slate to form my own opinions, because everyone is shouting about something else now. And hey I'm almost done with series 11 and I liked most of it

I don't think everyone is regurgitating percieved fan consensus, I don't think its bad to not like the Chibnall era, and I don't think fan consensus is necessarily always wrong, but I do think being bombarded with other peoples opinions before your own has really solidified is a recipe for disaster if you don't do it critically.

Watching that video was very strange, because I have thought about this all before, but seeing someone else describe how they saw a lot of the fandoms opinions on the Chibnall era as regurgitated and not really holding water, and not really meaningfully held was like watching someone grab my teenaged self by the throat and begging them to realise what they were doing and how unhealthy for them it was

umm yeah, I don't know how to finish this, uhhh, critical thought good, blindly accepting popular thought as your own bad

#doctor who #what the hell did I just write and why did it take me several hours #okay #bye

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sapphichymns · 2 years

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What does Chris make of the 'Thasmin' phenomenon? "I'm aware of what that is," he says, smiling. "I'm aware of its existence!" The Doctor's burgeoning relationship with Yaz (Mandip Gill) was something that evolved during the series.

"It wasn't part of the plan," he says. "You're in a constant dialogue with the show because you see things come through and you think, "That's interesting - we can slow burn that." And that's sort of what happened with this. If you look at Arachnids in the UK (2018) it's there front and centre in the scene where Yaz's mum asks, 'Are you two seeing each other?' and the Doctor says, 'I don't think so. Are we?' Later in the episode, when Yaz describes the Doctor as the best person she's ever met, we noticed a real intensity to Mandip's performance. "It started to read on-screen, maybe partly because of Jodie and Mandip's friendship off-screen, but partly because it just came through. We started making very deliberate decisions in terms of costume and started laying some things in.

I remember Maxine [Alderton) adding the line to The Haunting of Villa Diodati (2020) where Claire talks about Byron being an enigma and Yaz says, 'I know someone like that." "We talk about how great Jodie is, but Mandip is just as good. She's the most incredible person, so funny. There's so much she can do. She could easily play the Doctor."

- Chris Chibnall for the Doctor Who Magazine

#Doctor Who #13th Doctor #Thirteenth Doctor #Jodie Whittaker #Yasmin Khan #Mandip Gill #Chris Chibnall #Thasmin #...mostly tagging it because it is indeed #written down there

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denimbex1986 · 4 months

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'Doctor Who executive producer Russell T. Davies warned everyone that the 60th anniversary special episodes were going to introduce some interesting new twists to the mythology of the series meant to set the stage for actor Ncuti Gatwa’s debut as the Time Lord. Some of those changes — especially those specific to the Doctor’s companions and nemeses — have been easy to understand as Davies updating Doctor Who lore to better reflect modern sensibilities. But when it came to the arrival of the newest Doctor — the first leading incarnation of the character to be played by a Black, queer man — Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary special absolutely fumbled the ball by forcing Gatwa to exist in another actor’s shadow.

Regeneration, the transformative process in which Time Lords like the Doctor become new, drastically different versions of themselves, has always been a fascinating part of Doctor Who’s mythology and the BBC’s convenient way of passing the mantle on from one actor to another. Though the Doctor usually recalls the events of their past lives, they’ve always been their own distinct people who go on to have adventures with new companions. The regular casting changes all around are how the series has been able to run for 60 years.

In the post-2005 Doctor Who revival under showrunners Davies, Steven Moffat, and Chris Chibnall, regenerations have been momentous events that gave viewers a taste of what’s to come while saying goodbye to the Doctor’s previous face. But ever since the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) regenerated into a new form resembling the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant), it’s been clear that something unusual has been going on inside of the Doctor — something “The Giggle,” the third and final of the 60th anniversary episodes, explores in detail.

After finally setting things right with Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) in “The Star Beast” and then spinning off with her on a nightmarish journey to the edge of the universe in “Wild Blue Yonder,” the Fourteenth Doctor (Tennant) returns to Earth in “The Giggle” to do battle with an updated version of classic Doctor Who villain The Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris). In his original form (portrayed by Batman alum Michael Gough), The Toymaker was introduced as a game-obsessed being from unknown origins whose knack for defying the laws of physics and inventing deadly “toys” made him a unique threat to the universe. In “The Giggle,” the character returns to the small screen for the first time since his initial appearance with a maniacal plan to destroy the world by hiding a secret rage-inducing signal that’s coded into every screen on the planet.

Ahead of “The Giggle” airing, Davies spoke candidly about wanting to use Harris’ turn as The Toymaker to address the context the character was originally introduced in and Doctor Who’s history of depicting him as a distinctly Asian-coded white man. Here, The Toymaker is presented as an off-putting German man who can’t quite keep a grip on his multiple affected accent. And “The Giggle” spotlights The Toymaker’s protean nature as a clever way of emphasizing just how disturbed the Fourteenth Doctor has been by his inability to fully understand what’s been going on with his own regeneration process.

With “The Giggle” being a special episode in which the stakes have to be high, The Toymaker’s plan for world conquest seems poised to work as he prepares to kill Fourteen by shooting him in front of Donna and fellow companion Mel Bush (Bonnie Langford). But rather than dying from being zapped through the chest with a massive laser, the Fourteenth Doctor is left relatively unharmed save for an odd feeling within himself, and when Fourteen asks Donna and Mel to pull both of his arms, his body begins to split in two.

According to the new Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), bi-generation — a Time Lord simultaneously regenerating into two separate selves — was supposed to have been a Gallifreyan myth. But as Fourteen and Fifteen team up to defeat The Toymaker, “The Giggle” makes obvious that this era of multiple contemporaneous Doctors is here to stay, and while that’s sure to delight the legions of Doctor Who fans who’ve come to see Tennant as the quintessential Doctor, it’s impossible not to read the episode as having stolen a lot of Gatwa’s thunder.

When Gatwa was first announced as the actor who would be taking over the Doctor role following Whittaker’s three-series-long run, it felt like the BBC finally had the common sense to lean more into Doctor Who’s core ideas about imagination, exploration, and discovery across time and space. No matter how vehemently Doctor Who fans might want to deny it, the fact that the Doctor — a shapeshifting alien from a planet full of brilliant time travelers — was almost exclusively portrayed by white men until 2017 was small-minded, racist, and sexist in equal measure.

Despite their being late to the party, Whittaker’s Thirteen and Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor both demonstrated how Doctor Who could stay true to its narrative essence while also allowing the Doctor themselves to better reflect the real-world diversity of the fandom that loves the character. Gatwa’s run has seemed poised to do the same. But everything about the way “The Giggle” brings Fifteen into the picture — from the way he’s left standing in his underwear while Fourteen remains mostly clothed to the implication that the two Doctors will seemingly coexist — makes it seem as if Davies is trying to placate the contingent of fans who don’t want to accept a queer, Black actor playing the Doctor role by keeping Tennant in the mix.

Those fans vocalized their displeasure at the idea of a Black Doctor in the same way that people griped about the idea of a Black Spider-Man, a Black Captain America, or a Black James Bond. They’re the same people who’ve lost their minds at the sight of Black April O’Neil and can’t wrap their minds around the concept of Castlevania: Nocturne’s Black vampires. They’re also the people that love Mace Windu but hated it when Finn picked up a lightsaber and then promptly disappeared for much of the recent Star Wars movies. Point is: these fans are an unfortunate fixture in many genre fandoms, and while some aspects of “The Giggle” actually comment on how dangerous their specific brand of rage can be, the whole situation with “bi-generation” plays like Doctor Who catering to the fandom’s less-enlightened desires.

You can tell that Davies means for it to be poignant and touching in moments when Fifteen confronts Fourteen about his need to deal with his emotional baggage or when the companions express their excitement at meeting a new Doctor. But all of that goodwill is immediately squandered when you have characters (who know better from firsthand experience) asking whether the Doctor comes in a variety of colors.

The trappings and optics of “The Giggle” also add an unfortunate kind of magical negro quality to Fifteen’s heart-to-heart talks with Fourteen, which is a concept that seems like it might be lost on Doctor Who’s writers room. The two Doctors defeat The Toymaker together, but the episode’s real emotional climax comes as Fifteen explains himself as the product of emotional healing that Fourteen hasn’t yet done. The concept of a time traveler “doing rehab out of order” certainly sounds cool on the page. But within the episode itself, it frames Fifteen less as his own person living for himself and more as a source of emotional support for Fourteen, who ends up being inspired by Fifteen’s sage wisdom.

What’s most concerning, though, is the way “The Giggle” implies that the Doctors will now coexist, seemingly as Fourteen joins a bunch of the older companions like Donna, Mel, and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) as part of a new spinoff project revolving around UNIT, Doctor Who’s answer to Marvel’s SHIELD / SWORD / SABER.

As distinct as each of the 60th anniversary special episodes have been, they each did a fantastic job of digging into the reality of how, after decades of journeying with their ordinary human allies, the Doctor has left more than a few of them behind and feels a profound kind of regret about it. More new stories centering Fourteen and the classic companions could create a way for Davies to dig deeper into that aspect of the Doctor’s psychology, and with Tennant’s tenure as Ten / Fourteen being so beloved by Doctor Who fans, it’s not hard to understand why the BBC might want to keep him around indefinitely.

But part of what made it possible for Tennant’s initial run as the Doctor to become a monster success was the time and space he was given to fully own and make the character his own, independent of his immediate predecessor. “The Giggle” doesn’t wholly preclude Gatwa’s ability to do the same, but simply by making this era one he might have to share with Tennant, Doctor Who has already put him at something of a disadvantage.

Of course, we won’t know until the upcoming Christmas special starts to air exactly how Doctor Who will address bi-generation’s larger ramifications and what sort of figure Fifteen will be on the show. But with the Fourteen still running around, and maybe getting ready to pull everyone’s focus back over to what’s going on in his new life on Earth, it feels like the Fifteenth Doctor might end up having to share his spotlight in a way that the character hasn’t been forced to previously. Let’s hope that doesn’t end up being the case...'

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dalesramblingsblog · 6 months

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Now I don't want to seem too sour on The Time of the Doctor... even if one might argue that taking a break from the arc for two and a half years was a mistake I think that there's some very nice emotional moments.

Do you think that it was consciously being the opposite to The End of Time, in 11 accepting his fate and saying how it's natural? As I know that 10's last words and his angsting about how regeneration is death... well, they haven't exactly been popular and all the other New Who Doctors have taken regeneration much better.

I'll be honest, this is one thing I've never really understood about the fan reaction to The End of Time. The done thing seems to be to read it as Davies crying about how the big meanie Moffat is gonna come along and take away his precious Doctor Who by casting some nobody called Matt Smith in the role, and I just... I'm so tired.

(Not saying it's done by you in particular, mind, as usual I'm just kind of using a point in our conversations to springboard into talking about generalised fan reactions.)

Even as someone who generally prefers Moffat's handling of the mythologisation of the Doctor, I've never gotten the impression that Davies ever intended a lot of the hubris of the Tenth Doctor to be taken remotely seriously, and the fact that so many fans opt to do so and present it as evidence that the era uncritically embraces "The Doctor as God" or whatever.

Do I think that the Doctor occasionally exerts a little too much gravity over the narrative in the Davies Era? Absolutely. But realistically, it's not too much more gravity than they exert in basically every other era of the programme by sheer dint of the fact that the show is named Doctor Who.

Moreover, Davies' musings on "regeneration as death" are not really too dissimilar from points made by Kate Orman in The Room With No Doors about a decade earlier. Those Davies-esque distinctions which do exist come about mainly as concessions to the fact that where Orman was writing the functionally-penultimate novel in a line of books which had garnered a small yet passionate cult following only to be smothered by the BBC once they realised just how profitable this whole Doctor Who thing might actually still be, The End of Time came at a point where Doctor Who was a legitimate cultural behemoth.

And while one might be tempted to write off any suggestion that that behemoth status was attained by elements specific elements to Davies as auteurish hubris of the worst kind... it's not an entirely incorrect judgement.

Obviously Doctor Who survived without Russell T. Davies; the fact that we're still here nearly fourteen years later talking about it as a regularly airing television programme - a gap almost as long as the Wilderness Years themselves, mind - proves as much.

(The unjustifiably snarky comment to make here would be that we're doing so barely two weeks removed from a return by Davies to the position of showrunner, but that runs the risk of being rather uncharitable to both Moffat and, yes, Chibnall.)

Indeed, Doctor Who continued to be enormously popular without Russell T. Davies, and eventually managed to be enormously popular without Matt Smith, even if we had to take the long way round - sorry - by suffering through a good decade's worth of "Here's why Kill the Moon/Hell Bent (reader's choice) is the worst episode evar!!!1" takes.

While I do think it's certainly possible that Moffat could have, somewhere along the line, decided to structure The Time of the Doctor as a response to The End of Time - Hell Bent loudly rejecting the climax of the episode that serves as the absolute zenith of Doctor Who's cultural relevance within the United Kingdom certainly proves he's not above a bit of friendly nose-tweaking of the Davies years' "greatest hits" - however, I think that belies the frankly far more interesting way in which it serves to pay off themes that were baked into the Eleventh Doctor's characterisation ever since The Eleventh Hour.

Hell, it really pays off themes that have been evident in Moffat's wider oeuvre since at least Joking Apart, in its focus upon deeply flawed men who really could do with learning not to consistently disappoint and fail the women in their lives.

(And yes, here's the point where I note that this is just as reductive a reading as boiling down Moffat's use of gender - which certainly has its flaws, don't get me wrong - to "Oh he's a raging misogynist who despises women and gets high off his own cleverness." So I mean, if this post happens to reach that side of Tumblr, hello, how're you doing?)

Anyway, this all kind of gets at what I was talking about last time, where modern Doctor Who fans really seem to desire a very rigid and auteurish brand of showrunning, to the point of treating each showrunner as if they're a League team with their own set of rivalries, as opposed to three guys who seem to be on basically good terms with one another on account of having come up through pretty much the exact same wave of fandom.

And it is, I think, a little silly.

#doctor who #ask #tenth doctor #eleventh doctor #russell t davies #steven moffat #kate orman

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eleonkraken · 9 months

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I'm back on my thinking about Doctor Who bullshit and like,

why do people unironically like and/or enjoy the Chibnall seasons?

I understand that people who view tv uncritically might enjoy it. It's hard to understand because I would think even those people would struggle not to be bored by most Chibnall episodes but I concede that it's possible.

The part that really drives me to distraction is how people who really care about Doctor Who can unironically like, and even love, this era of the show.

Why is that a thing that people do? I've been trying to come up with explanations but I don't know if they make any sense.

Because there's an actor in it that you think is incredibly skilled, feel personally invested in, or just generally really like.

Because there are more women and people of color in the show now than before, a more international focus, and more poc in prominent roles behind the scenes

Because you're a huge fan of Doctor Who in general and you go into it with a predisposition to forgive flaws and focus on the good. If you let anything ruin your enjoyment of the era then you've lost the chance to experience new Doctor Who for several years.

Because you gave up on Doctor Who at some point during Moffat's run due to his problems with plot and/or misogyny. You came back to find a female Doctor with a different showrunner and feel personally invested in the new era being just as good as, or better, than the preceding one (because you feel so much animosity towards the preceding one).

Because you feel that there's something that Doctor Who did terribly prior to Chibnall that has now been resolved, and this makes you appreciate the entire era (although I don't know what that would be).

Because you ship the Doctor and Yaz and you've participated in the creation of a fandom with its own fanon surrounding the two of them. You enjoy watching episodes that feature them because you're able to focus on their relationship through this fanon lens. (You're sad and/or annoyed that there aren't enough popular wlw ships so you feel protective and defensive of them and the perceived quality of the episodes in which they appear).

Maybe you can help me out, DW tumblr. Why do you like series 11-13?

#doctor who #thirteen #chris chibnall #thasmin #hit me with some discourse i am so bored

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superwholockednico · 6 months

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First time watching the 13th doctor Thoughts

First off, this is my first time getting 'not my doctor' syndrome. I think this may be because all the other doctors were already doctors when I started watching Doctor Who.

(While all of capaldi's seasons weren't out then, I was aware going into the fandom that he was one of the doctors. I also watched all the seasons near consecutively during summer break, so I never had time to be like. Noo I want to watch the last doctor. Because I just wanted to watch more doctor who.)

But this time it was different. I was looking at a lady I knew as an actor (from Chibnall's other work, Broadchurch (my beloved!)) and from her cover of Yellow, of all things.

Perhaps more importantly, I came in knowing many people didn't like her seasons. Which is weird.

Like, it is a weird experience going into a show you love being like. Ok so is it as bad as people say.

I have experience in this. I watched supernatural. (of course) And I was a bit behind on the show, always a handful of seasons behind, so I knew I was heading nowhere good. But with supernatural, you never know when it gets bad (expect the last episode. I know that one is ass). The best episodes are in the worst seasons and the worst seasons sometimes have the best ideas and its a mess. But people (on twitter, especially) gave me this idea that 13's seasons were all worse quality.

It really wasn't.

Now I'm only on season 1, and the timeless child arch is still to come, which I fear as I don't like the concept from what I've heard (i really like the idea of the doctor as just some person fumbling around, hence why I like 12 better than 11). But for now. It's a pretty good show.

The episodes feel very rewatchable to me.

Compared to the much more interconnected stories going on in 11 and 12's run, every episode of season 11 could be watched alone with little explanation. Not that that is better or worse, but it means I can def go back and pick a random episode to rewatch whenever I need.

And It is fun!

Almost every episode in this season was super fun! Obviously they had some more emotionally charged ones ('demons of punjab', 'the battle of ranskoor av kolos' (the finale), and maybe a bit of 'It Take You Away') but overall there were a lot of really fun moments and sites and it was somewhat whimsical at times but not in the same way as 11. The peak example being Kerblam!

The characters were also what made it so fun.

They're a jolly little crew of fellas traveling through space togather. No one feels like the 'main character' (ok Ryan sort of does. Because he started off the show you know, Rose style?). So far, it is Yasmin who feels like the tack on.

Which is funny because the only companion I've heard about at length is Yaz and how great she is and so far I am like, oh yeah, she had a few episodes (Arachnids in the UK and Demons of Punjab). Like I don't really care about her yet. I don't feel connected with her.

You know who I do feel connected/invested in. MY OLD MAN. GRAHAM CRACKER. (not cus he's white, it's a brand guys). i love this old man. I feel for him. I wanted his revenge when he wanted his revenge. I was so happy for him when he was happy that Ryan called him gramps (or whatever he called him). Like I was literally giggling cus he was happy over it and that made me happy cus I was emotionally invested in him!

I liked the idea of Graham before I watched this season actually, due to a reddit post where someone was like, best crossover would be three old men (the 12th doctor and graham and wilf) running around for an episode. And I was like, omg that is an amazing idea.

Okay I need a whole post for the Fam and how I actually love having a little crew in the tardis. Next post it is.

#watchthrough #doctor who #doctor who watchthrough #watchthroughs #dw #13 #thirteenth doctor #chris chibnall #chibnall #chibnallwho #thirteen #graham

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gallifreyshawkeye · 4 months

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Intro for anyone new, Hiya/Update for anyone from "yon olden days"

The tldr: my kids have brought new joy into old fandom and old hobbies and my older kiddo has asked me to finish the series PROPERLY and make Alec Hardy not sad anymore (😆) and to write Tentoo whump (child, you have NO idea what beast you have unleashed!).

So I have found myself coming back to this blog thanks to my kids after a hiatus of several years due to (partly) said kids taking up an increasing part of life, as they should, on top of everything else. BUT, they are now late elementary and early middle school age and I decided a few months ago it was time to properly introduce Doctor Who to them as a show to watch. So we started properly with Rose and Nine and they were hooked harder than I could have ever hoped. They chose to watch nothing else until they had binged ALL thirteen seasons in about only four months! It was amazing!

It was also really cool to watch it again from as fresh and unbiased a perspective as I think I'm ever going to get. 11 and 9y/o's aren't influenced by other fandom perspectives, I refused to give them any spoilers along the way, and the whole experience was overall just such an unexpectedly refreshing and renewing one I can't put it into words. It's also been fascinating to get their takes. Here are a few:

- Ten is both their favorite Doctor, but Twelve isn't far behind at all, and my 9y/o son has them at almost a tie. In fact, when I asked each of them which Doctor they would want me to write a fanfic about, my son picked Twelve.

- They both haaaaaaaated the hand waving-ness of Moffatt's grand story arc conclusions: the Doctor being brought back by Amy simply remembering him, the soppy/cheesy way Clara got the Time Lords to give Eleven more regenerations, the entirety of Amy's pregnancy, and for that matter River having regenerations simply by being conceived in the TARDIS they never bought into. You should have seen the skeptical looks on their faces when they heard that line given as an explanation! It was quite priceless! And like I said, I gave no spoilers, no personal opinion ahead of time, nothing. I deliberately let them simply watch the show for what it is.

- They both liked Bill and Nardol way more than Clara

- Both were super confused by the the absolute mess of character arc in Chibnall's era. Not so much for the Doctor, they thought she was ok, just kinda bland, but the Master. They were in complete agreement that nothing he did made any sense whatsoever.

- They were in disbelieving shock and over the moon when David Tennant showed back up as Fourteen when Thirteen regenerated, and they were FURIOUS that they were going to have to wait six whole months before the specials came out 😆

As an added bonus, my 11y/o also has become quite the David Tennant fan. They were so devastated when Ten regenerated, they immediately wanted to watch something else DT was in, so in the process of listing things off, I mentioned MAAN as something him and Catherine Tate did together that was non-angsty and even after emphasizing that it was Shakespeare, they still chose to watch it (not that I was complaining! ;) ). They were literally sliding off the couch with laughter at the absolute comedic perfection that is DT and Catherine Tate in MAAN, and it's been all things David Tennant ever since! I got lots of things thrown at me during the course of Broadchurch because of, and I quote, "His stupid sad eyes and his stupid face!" and I have been ordered to write a proper ending that makes him properly happy. So maybe I'll have to dust off the epilogue fic I'd been writing all that time ago and finish it off for good.

Meanwhile, Doctor Who has been rewatched from the beginning nearly all the way through again and is pretty much the only show my son currently chooses to watch besides his favorite Minecraft YouTuber (Grian, for anyone interested and who knows that realm of things).

So it's been in the process of both my children falling into these fandoms as much on their own as it is possible for children their age to do so, that I have found myself back here. It started because I was looking up some of the whump gifsets I made of Ten in the episode 42 to show my 11y/o, and partly as a confession of sorts to them of how deep into the fandom I used to be.

And then the specials came out and there was Fourteen's beautiful face and big sad eyes (yes my 11y/o has a phenomenal point!), and now I've also found myself relistening to all the Eighth Doctor audios, and idk, whatever the combination of reasons I've found a new joy in it all.

And it's all combined to make me feel like I can write again, like something's been freed or been unlocked. I can imagine scenes and character arcs and come up with new characters and revel in meta minutia that will never explicitly make it onto the page but is vital for plot consistency.

I feel like I found part of myself again.

#personal #texty post #yes I will post new fic when it's done #but I'm properly plotting first this time so it might be a hot minute

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