WHOCHURCH: The Chris Chibnall era

There’s definitely something bleak and nasty about the horror episodes of that period, in a way that’s very different to the darkest stories of the Tom Baker era. The shoddiness just makes everything more horrible by default, like the show’s being mounted on the cheap in the middle of an apocalypse. Maybe Androzani through Happiness Patrol?

the bleakness of Saward is a different tone to the bleaker stories of Cartmel -- Saward's rings of aspiration toward cultural masculinity, but as he doesn't believe in it himself, the stories end up riddled with nihilism. Cartmel is out to actively interrogate cultural attitudes and assumptions, so the bleak stories there tend to be "structured society and authority are bad and tend toward fascism... let's overthrow the paradigm and build a new, inclusive world."

like: Revelation and Paradise Towers are both deeply influenced by 200AD, especially Wagner/Grant and Mills. But the conclusion of Revelation is "LOL EVERYTHING'S SHIT AND LOVE IS A LIE," whereas Towers' is "the oppressors should be overthrown and young women should be in charge of everything. also, spraypaint things pink."

xpost: the brand new idea that the producer of Doctor Who repeatedly teased in the press from 1981 to 1987, and that the original creator of Doctor Who formally advised the BBC to do in 1985 when the show was moribund

they should have strapped the doctor to a rotating wheel and thrown knives at him

they should have strapped the doctor to a rotating wheel and thrown knives at him

― karl wallogina (Autumn Almanac)

if by "the doctor" you mean "michael grade" i agree

Jodie is having too much fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eosZSZKo1DM

Switching topics, it seems that the PR is making a concerted effort to use "friends" in place of "companions," like they're spreading out the agency so that it's not just Doctor and Her Assistants?

Note that I'm basing that last observation on a sample size of two.

PR and branding are relentless on calling her The Thirteenth Doctor, which is fucking insane imo

otm, she’s at least 15.5

I wasn't aware that Moffat wrote a Target novelisation of Day of the Doctor (!) earlier this year. I picked it up for a summer beach read - it's basically exactly what you'd expect a Moffat novel to be: too many jokes, too pleased with itself, but with a core of idiosyncratic genius. I expect it'll be living hell for certain type of DW fan, and I might want to throw it out of the window by page 120, but so far so good.

I wasn't aware that Moffat wrote a Target novelisation of Day of the Doctor (!) earlier this year. I picked it up for a summer beach read - it's basically exactly what you'd expect a Moffat novel to be: too many jokes, too pleased with itself, but with a core of idiosyncratic genius. I expect it'll be living hell for certain type of DW fan, and I might want to throw it out of the window by page 120, but so far so good.

― Chuck_Tatum

page 120? a true target novelization would be over by that point

It's a tolstoyan 229 pages

otm, she’s at least 15.5

ha

no it seems incredibly dumb to incessantly imply to new audiences that they need to know anything about the show beforehand, let alone do very specific research about 14.5 actors who have previously acted in the role, which leads to "oh what there's fifty-five years of this I'm supposed to know about already?!"

Jodie Whitaker is Doctor Who, that's all kids need to care about

there are also new Target novelisations of Rose by RTD, The Christmas Invasion by Jenny Colgan, and the final Capaldi special by Paul Cornell.

The Cornell looks like a fairly straight adaptation; the Moffat one is basically "my special plus everything they couldn't afford/wouldn't let me do" and you'll probably like it if you liked "continuity errors"

Also apparently it puts Peter Cushing into contuniuity somewhere

the final capaldi special is the one where nothing fucking happened, right? i can see why one would want to novelize that one.

like: Revelation and Paradise Towers are both deeply influenced by 200AD, especially Wagner/Grant and Mills. But the conclusion of Revelation is "LOL EVERYTHING'S SHIT AND LOVE IS A LIE," whereas Towers' is "the oppressors should be overthrown and young women should be in charge of everything. also, spraypaint things pink."

― kelp, clam and carrion (sic), Thursday, July 19, 2018 9:25 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not sure if Saward was ever really hip to 2000AD, that was more Cartmel's area of interest. Although he did commission a script from Pat Mills that came close to actually getting made a few times, so who knows.

no it seems incredibly dumb to incessantly imply to new audiences that they need to know anything about the show beforehand, let alone do very specific research about 14.5 actors who have previously acted in the role, which leads to "oh what there's /fifty-five years/ of this I'm supposed to know about already?!"

if this is new pr framing, perhaps they’re being ultra defensive because of the whole ~~~lady~~~ thing

Jodie Whitaker is Doctor Who, that's all kids need to care about

100% agree

Me too!

reviving so we can talk here about how close October 7th is

Meant to post this earlier, but Jodes was living it up in July:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eosZSZKo1DM

day of broadcast move would be a MASSIVE bummer & pain if I was still coordinating TV scheduling on the other side of the international date line

watch it now on iVoo

So when is this starting, then?

October 7. A SUNDAY!

Is sic asleep? OK let's go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCt6f1Ttmy4

Liking everything apart from the Aaaaah, BODYFORM-ish power ballad all over the trailers and adverts.

All is forgiven M Gold...

yeah that song is fucking awful

i'm not going to go quite that far re: m. gold - two wrongs don't make a right - but i did find it super-distracting, to the point where, having just watched the trailer, i have no idea what was in it except for bad music.

Interesting lack of Classic Foes unless I missed 'em.

finally a Doctor Who workout video

Tardis spin class!

Interesting lack of Classic Foes unless I missed 'em.

― nashwan

apparently chibnall is making a clean break, at least based on the complaining article i read on the mary sue - no old foes.

I am 100% in favor of a couple seasons without Daleks or Cybermen

BREXIT MEANS BREXIT nashwan!

The Macron Terror

you know a dalek or cyberman will show up eventually; I give it until mid-second season.

i think they should bring skagra back instead (as long as they don't do it by remaking shada YET FUCKING AGAIN)

Had never seen this young Doctors image before. Davison basically unrecognisable.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DnmWPu7UwAAoSsX.jpg

Sean Pertwee!

in the full Davison pic he’s on a bus on the way to a ‘70s rock festival (and 18 iirc)

Davison basically unrecognisable.

And Ecclestone.

Oh no wait, that's John Hurt.

Worzel has a bit of the Shia Labeouf about him.

i love the aesthetics of some of these photos, the way they evoke certain eras as much as they do the actors being photographed. tom baker being photographed in the same way as the young bill hartnell, mugshot jon pertwee, grunge peter davison, and then especially the run of the first four new series doctors going from airwolf to mall photo to john mayer album cover to new wave band. also, the colin baker photo, with some of its more distinguishing features cropped out, is super evocative of his first scene in "androzani" (did graeme harper direct that scene, btw? it's probably the weakest part of the episode - colin baker staring at the camera just doesn't work very well imo)

yeah, Harper directed (Moffatt was on set to watch, though!)

'Doctor Who' is actually a codename

And they’d lost two days of shoot, and threw away loads of script pages* to get finished in time - if the final shot of the day/week/recording block looks perfunctory, that’s because it was: they got done just before the unions shut down for the day.

*including a big action scene featuring the magma beast chasing the Doctor and leaping chasms, so swings & roundabouts