new-nu-Who: RTD2 (Doctor Who on telly 2023-?)

Yeah but he isn’t playing mind games, he’s just killing people like a superpowered version of The Joker

in order to FUCK PPL UP MAN (including you, pwned by the NPHmaker)

Star Beast ratingswatch: two days RTD said it was up to 8.7 million, and today on instagram said 9.0. That puts it, on 19 days, higher than the +28 for anything since Rosa (Chibnall's third episode, October 2018).

(Chibnall's debut, on 11.46, was the highest consolidated since +28 started being recorded with Last Christmas.)

7-day for Wild Blue Yonder projected to be 7.1M on TVs, again around 200k on devices.

7.142M - beaten by I'm A Celebrity stripped and Saturday Strictly; beat the Sunday Strictly and the Bake Off final. 9th most watched episode, 3rd most watched programme for the week. TV-only details: 2.752M live, 2.118 catchup same night, 1.992 same week and a 41% share.

Star Beast is the 9th (behind all of Happy Valley, and two of Death In Paradise), and WBY the 22nd, most watched episode of drama on +7 for 2023, and Star Beast's 28 only expires at the Christmas weekend, so we might see timeshift on the other two leap up after Xmas special tx.

Is +28 the ratings in the first 4 weeks?

maybe i should have paid more attention since i didn't understand half of this episode. i guess it's using the crack in time to do its version of it's a wonderful life? but the character never regretted their life so it just seems odd.

Yeah the goblin storyline seemed very poorly thought through - RTD spent all his narrative logic on the specials.

Ncuti is top though.

I liked all three of the Tennant episodes, but found something off about this one, the goblin song was really bad, just sounded very generic and unimaginative. Ncuti was great throughout, yes.

Christmas specials have always been so-so? The first ever Tennant one is the only I can remember liking that much.

Most of Moffat’s were great, a few were big flops. (Chibnall of course didn’t do any.) Rusty’s were usually an excuse to make even less joined-up sense than usual.

I had seen so much Goblin Song in previews that it made a fab opportunity to grab a cup of tea and check the status of items cooking.

Other than that, with a fair amount of Xmas Zubrowka in me, really enjoyed that and love Ncuti Gatwa. He’s already nailed it.

As a Doctor Intro this lacked something imo, certainly compared to The Eleventh Hour which also had to introduce companion(s) and may be unparalleled in that but not sure what exactly - some more meta-commentary from the Doc maybe just to flesh him out more (we didn't see him picking out trousers)...glad he mentioned being adopted at least. Liked everything else more or less. Completely failed to recognise Anita Dobson.

She's got to be The Rani, right?

Probably although feels a bit off to cast someone in that role who also could've played them in the late 80s! But you could say the same of Jacobi...

i think rtd is following up on the mystery woman subplot in "the end of time". although the name mrs. flood suggests she could be related to the pond/river clan.

hate the Rani but a new version might be better I suppose

Rani...rain...flood...RTD you dunnit agane.

Apart from the Christmas Carol and maybe The Husbands of River Song (and that's just for seeing Alex Kingston and Capaldi together) I think they've generally been a bit naff, but they're Christmas fare - singing Goblins and "The Doctor's first chart hit" are about par for the course.

I did like the quick mention of "rent controlled" as a reason how you can afford a flat like that in Notting Hill on one-ish salaries (did they mention what Ruby does?)

I'm looking forward to finding out more about Ruby, she seems just a reset of Clara right at the minute.

Also notable in actual use of science-fiction (ish) as a plot resolver!

Last Christmas was absolutely the best Christmas one and also actually good. I generally enjoyed Moffat’s except for the superhero one which I found unwatchable.

Agree with those who said this was lacking something, but watchable enough. Eleventh Hour still the masterclass for new-era Doctor intros but unencumbered by need to be Seasonal I guess.

Still trying to work out their strategy for new viewers but thinking maybe there isn’t one? I figured this might be the jumping-on point but it didn’t really feel like it - partly the Xmasness and partly the fact that it was billed as “Doctor Who Special 4”. Although I read somewhere (perhaps here?) that the actual new season will be referred to as “Season 1” so perhaps now everyone is introduced the can get on with having some good solid adventures.

As a Doctor Intro this lacked something imo,

pfft, what more could a viewer want to wrap up an intro episode where Ncuti Gatwa has said "I am the Doctor" five to twelve times already, than him replying to a final question "explain your premise quickly to new viewers please?" with "...I ...am The Doctor!!!!!"

Moffxmas: A Christmas Carol, Last Christmas and Husbands Of River Song are all megabangers, superhero one and Woman/Wardrobe are disasters, The Snowmen is a really fun way of threading the casuals/n00bs/fans needle in multiple directions and leaning into the hegemonic Christmas imagery via time travel...
and for all their respective awkwardnesses:
Time Of The Doctor does an astounding job of cramming an entire planned Season 8 narrative arc into one hard time limit of 60 minutes*, letting Smith play an entire emotional arc largely solo, and turning The Doctor into a sun god at the pagan holiday;
Twice Upon A Time falls back on comedy runarounds and normie-fanservice in a way that Moffat usually tried harder than -- but he had to rush this one out as his THIRD return to the series since resigning less than 18 months earlier, so making it two old men feeling exhausted with Dr Who and preparing to FINALLY give it up, really has resonance.


* when Chibnall was given 50-65 mins for his regular series episodes, and up to EIGHTY-SEVEN for his specials in which nothing happens, imagine how much more of a year's plot Moffat could have worked in at that length.

This was not very good and I’m extremely annoyed

Nobody posted this! Felt a small number of genuine human emotions, probably due to the music as much as anything - but it looks kinda fun?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoyV65HoRFA

He's back! and it's.. season 1.

I give that until mid-April

now that Ned’s gone should we re-poll whether to include spoilers in these threads

(checks watch) okay it’s been a decade and there’s probably only nine of us still reading / watching so it probably wouldn’t be conclusive

I haven't seen it mentioned here but they've announced that Moffat has written an episode for the new series
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2024/doctor-who-steven-moffat-julie-anne-robinson-new-season/

now that Ned’s gone should we re-poll whether to include spoilers in these threads

...just use the 'hide' tags as per?

Nice to see no classic adversaries in the trailer although you know they will, plus a fucking Ood will show up by the end of the year

Also Ned last posted, like, seven hours ago?

Hmmm

i mean, this is the devil’s bargain you make when you get RTD back

but that Captain Poppy babby was super cute w the Doctor

Well it can improve. So hope it does.
2nd episode had some sartorial excellence. But is increased budget going to mean more dance numbers. Didn't find the music there memorable or particularly early 60s.

Just hoping it isn't overly conscious of very young audience. Though elements of 2nd episode were pretty creepy. But that has been true throughout the show's history.

Yeah it does feel like a pivot to young-uns again - burping bin and rubber arm territory - which is ok ofc! I will be interested to see if it lands a co-viewing audience in the streaming space… also interested to see what Moffat does next week

Spaceship powered by nappies and bogeyman made of bogeys was awful. The second one was also hokey as fuck but redeemed by an excellent villain.

I'd be hating on all this fourth wall breaking had I not only recently watched a few T Baker stories where he does it a bunch.

Space Babies got better as it went on but The Devil's Chord started strong then kinda lost it at the end.

i set the video for the making-of bits but neglected to set the video for the actual show... it's repeated tonight on bbc3 though.

i guess anybody who doesn't like it has the whole history at their fingertips now so they can go whistle.

I'm trying to resist the temptation to over analyse this, cos tbh you'll either enjoy the gonzo space fantasy energy of it all, or you won't. (I don't think there's a critical read on this that goes "this would have worked better if x, y z..."). I was charmed by the manic energy of it all, but I can fully believe that tons of people, fans esp, will hate it. Second episode obviously significantly better than the first. I absolutely salute the refusal to be "respectable sci-fi".

One thing I think's interesting is that RTD clearly believes that the format/formula of Doctor Who takes care of itself. Moffat was (is? we'll see next week) far more concerned with the untapped narrative potential of the show's time travel macguffin, and Chibnall clearly has incredibly fixed/conservative/by the numbers views of what a Doctor Who story *is*. Whereas Davies sees it as a method to inject madness into other televisual settings - Hollyoaks/Strictly/Ant&Dec in 2005, Marvel-inflected space fantasy in 2024.

Only real downer for me is the excessive faith in what Murray Gold brings to the table. The choreography in the Ep 2 dance number was delightful, but the song just sounded like a library track tagged with the keywords "brassy showstopper". In a story about the restorative power of music, that's a real flaw. I'm relaxed enough in my fandom to have no issue with song and dance numbers, I just don't want Gold to be writing the songs.

I find the music extremely intrusive and distracting. Every conversation has a background of syrupy Muzak behind it.

I very much enjoyed how loony both episodes were

I would've had a scene with Ringo where he reveals he thinks music sound better now.

was 1st episode a deeply unsubtle pro-choice comment?
won't turn allow baby farm to be turned off but won't do anything for the babies born.

yep, totally fine with it

Likewise the blatant 'homages' to Alien Resurrection's perhaps most horrific scene (except here no doubt to the newfound delight of the space babbies the bogeyman just grew its lower torso back no problem) and It respectively.

“Space Babies” had almost no subtext, it was great

i watched space babies. episode was fine, but aimed at a younger viewer than i. did they ever explain why the babies remained babies? every other plot point got repeated around 4 times. how many times does the doctor need to say he was scared of the monster?

Space Babies was fun for what it was but i would probably never want to watch it again. the doctor intentionally making all the babies cry seemed out of character but also... lol

The Devil's Chord would've been fine without the musical number which was really truly awful ugh

i quite enjoyed Devil’s Chord! jinx a great villain - agree that the finale song was naff. wish they’d somehow given jinx a closing number instead.

Space Babies was pretty annoying, but at least annoying in a far more imaginative way than someone like Chris Chibnall could ever conceive of.

And yes, what blackmail material does Murray Gold have on RTD?