WHOCHURCH: The Chris Chibnall era

I can’t believe sic forgot the pting

not a K or S sound (the Zs are extra space-laziness), and notably created by a non-Chibnall writer for a Chibnall-written episode

That’s not how you introduced your list

I introduced my list by saying "these are not every new alien"

including every other alien that wasn't in my list would have made it a list of every new alien

The episode was "The Tsuranga Conundrum" so I think we still get there via misapplication of the transitive property

Chinballs talking up the finale:

“We’re not just going big on the finale in episode 10... [episode 9 is] a big, space-spanning, spaceship-lasery, Cybermanny sci-fi story. Properly epic.”

Chibnall is more tight-lipped about “The Timeless Children.”

“We’ve been playing out this mystery for a while now,” he says. “Obviously the Timeless Child was first mentioned in Jodie’s second episode and then came back in force when the Master returned at the beginning of this season and told her that everything she knows is a lie. ‘The Timeless Children’ — plural! — will pay off a lot of the strands that we’ve set running both last year and this year. I’m going to do classic British understatement here: It’s a relatively seismic episode for the Doctor, and for the show. You will get some answers, but you will also be left with a whole load of new questions in true Doctor Who style.”

How does Chibnall think fans will be left feeling once the episode is over?

“It is an emotional and narrative roller coaster — for the characters, for the audience,” he says. “I think you’re going to need a very strong drink. It’s a 65-minute finale, so on BBC America that will go longer, obviously. It’s big, it’s action-packed, it’s very, very epic and very, very emotional, and there is a blistering performance from Jodie Whittaker in that final episode. People, I think, are going to feel wrung-out and possibly a little bit open-mouthed.”

Cyberman was effectively unpleasant.

Nearly as unpleasant as the last time Chibnall thought "let's make the Cybermen extra-scary by having only one of them, and making it only partially-converted"

http://www.tvtyrant.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/picture-21.jpg

I think you’re going to need a very strong drink.

What, even the kids?

I'd forgotten just how ludicrous that cyberwoman design was.

bit mixed this week, i thought.

on the one hand, a basic competency with dialogue, character and atmosphere, that’s been missing for the whole chibnall era. it was fun to watch, not a chore, for a change

on the other hand: straight-to-video cyberman in the second half much less interesting than heaven sent redux first half; more over-lingered-on murders; and doctor still talking in HR-bullshit-speak - “flat structure” turns up again, yay

also “this keeps changing, like a puzzle” - is that a thing puzzles do, ryan?

lol: Chibnall didn't tell Moffat that The Master was coming back, and Moffat asked Sacha Dhawan not to spoilerfy anything, but Dhawan blew it immediately through not having done the slightest bit of research about his important and venerable chara being a nerd:

“I was having dinner with him. I said ‘Look, don’t tell me anything about what you’re doing on the show. Because I don’t want to know. But are you enjoying it?’.

“He said ‘Oh it’s great, apart from all the really complicated dialogue like, oh, Tissue Compression Eliminator.’

“I thought… I know exactly what part you’re playing, just from that!

“I slightly regretted I didn’t get the reveal on camera, because I’ve had years of knowing what’s coming. I would prefer not to know.”

looool

ok thats great

Someone at the BBC decided that Chibnall's inability to write distinctive dialogue that identifies a character might as well be treated as a feature, not a bug:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP-nhW9b3Ko

"I had a similar line, that's all I'm saying"

This one had an intriguing story even if the execution was as shoddy as last year’s finale. But that’s some sort of improvement I guess.

Otherwise felt very Colin Baker-with-a-budget. Disappointing that the inevitable cameo at the end was _____ not _____

Some people have linked the Trig Point that ___ and ___ were standing at in the finale trailer at the end to the one in the "Introducing Jodie" trailer that she finds the TARDIS key one and speculating Chibbers' long game is better than people thought.

Based on a now-deleted tweet by Mandip of a filming shot (and particularly since ___ is visible in the background), there's now mad speculation that ___, ___ and (most bizarrely ___ are actually ___, ___ and ___ (!) respectively.

gonna assume at least three of those blanks are "the Rani," based on the previous 15 years of online speculation

pretty confused by the Garda/Cyber thing

Rise Of The Cybermen
Ascension Of The Cybermen
coming in 2034: Elevation Of The Cybermen

Why did partial cyberman start molesting the cybermen in storage for no apparent reason?
How did spaceship that was missing foo many parts to fly get going with about 30 seconds of work?

Also some big assumptions that ___ is ___ based on some throwaway dialogue in The Hand of Fear and The Invisible Enemy.

gallifrey is kind of like Movie Australia in that you can always see that one building from everywhere.

Where are you guys seeing this speculation? the only other who boards i look at are on reddit and they're a mess.

chinballs lol

I thought this was Chibnall's best episode of Who yet (faint praise, 7/10). This season he did manage to set some ideas up then pay them off in later episodes. Too bad the set-ups were mostly shit -- mind-raping ada lovelace, jack harkness doing nothing in one room, etc.

I actually enjoyed this! Remarkably competent, the mystery is actually mildly interesting, some actual ideas and such. The quips were all duds, however.

some actual ideas

o rly?

Yes.

I would enjoy reading a longer post about them if you have the time.

Be fair, there are definitely ideas in this. I'm not sure Gallifreyans being descended from the good people of County Cork will turn out to be a GOOD idea, but it's an idea.

If local garda Brendan ends up being Doctor Who’s mum instead of The Lone Cyberman, I will doff my cap to his chibs

God ok maybe actually watching this is less dispiriting than merely reading about it from a safe distance?

The idea of Chibnall using crayon to scrawl his Big Ideas all over the show's mythos is... dud

Reading the novelisation of Day Of The Doctor, and enjoyed a new joke in (the completely rewritten version of) this scene so much I looked it up to compare & contrast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUjH-ksc2Z4

and god, the amount of visual & audio storytelling in this two minutes outdoes the average Chibnall episode in total. It's bonkers that so many Moffat eps got injuriously filleted down to 43 minutes when Chibnall gets 49 every week, and just fills it with three members of the cast describing what's happening to each other, instead of using moving pictures and editing to communicate to the audience

The novelisation of Day of The Doctor (and audiobook of same) is one of my very favourite Doctor Who things.

Despite having watched DOTD several times I only just noticed the totally intentional and acceptable joke of how they got from the Tower of London to Trafalgar Square so quickly in that clip.

He’d guessed what had happened the moment the TARDIS had been lifted off the ground, and he’d dashed straight for the phone when itstarted to ring. As he threw himself out of the door hundreds of feet above London, he’d reflected, not for the first time, that wiring your principal communications device to the outside of your spaceship was not always practical. He managed to grab the phone, and Clara his ankles.

‘I’m so sorry,’ said Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, the head of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. ‘We had no idea you were still in there!’
‘You phoned me!’ screamed the Doctor, hoping Clara would manage to keep hold.
‘You’ve listed this number as your mobile.’
‘It’s the TARDIS — how much more mobile do you get?’

btw

Just to be perfectly clear, there's no breed of Irish woman who, when her husband returns from town with a baby that he didn't leave for town with, will rush towards him with silent wonder.

(I thought the character moments were better than usual, though the plot script was much much worse)

Why did partial cyberman start molesting the cybermen in storage for no apparent reason?

That would be the ascension, the exact import of which is yet to become clear.

How did spaceship that was missing foo many parts to fly get going with about 30 seconds of work?

Very poorly!

But they only molested two or three of them. Very odd.

Only three of the Lone Cybermens, and one drill. Guess they don't have time to do the thousands of tinned Cyberpeople in one episode.

A friend has pointed out that this is the first sight of Ireland in Doctor Who - obviously if we're a race that can turn the last Timelord into the last Cyberman, some buildup was required!

turn the last Timelord into the last Cyberman

Did I miss something?

Just speculation - the puzzle of the episode is "who is Brendan?" - he could be the Da out of Derry Girls, but he might also be Ashad.

Ah okay - even if he's a Time Lord, there are two others in this episode, another one in this series, and an entire planet of them onscreen in this ep though, which rather threw me

That Matt Smith clip feels v bittersweet

I mean, even the throwaway ravens line is better than 99-100% of the past two seasons

Otm re the novel by the way. It’s like all good Moffat and very little bad Moffat (ok, Osgood chapters notwithstanding)

yeah that clip mercilessly drove home the diminished circs of the current show

man jenna coleman was so so so good

novelisation of Day of The Doctor is one of my very favourite Doctor Who things.

Just read “Chapter 10” (the fourth chapter) and yeah, this is definitely the best Who novelisation ever, probably the best Who novel ever, and maybe the best piece of Dr Who ever

Sooooooo...

Ehh.

Pretty impressive that they got JJ Abrams to write, and Barry Letts to direct, an episode in 2020 though