WHOCHURCH: The Chris Chibnall era

maybe chinballs feels he needs to play it safe for a first female doctor for fear of a fan backlash (which let's face it would happen no matter what since fandom is cancer) but it's actively working against him if so

Maybe he's just not a very good writer.

well, yeah

Possibly both, though?

Everything so far feels like a very safe white guy version of gender/cultural representation

Part of the pleasure of the RTD gay agendar stuff was how in-your-face unapologetic it was

This is just... politics as twee Instagram memes

I feel like there's been quite a bit of "Doctor delivers a speech to underline her principles and how they apply in this situation"* and that her principles are basically that she's the Doctor? I don't think that any of the speeches would be out of place from Tennant / Smith / Capaldi.

What sort of thing would you consider an analogue to RTD's agenda, Chuck?

*and then sometimes acts to undermine her principles, as was ever the case.

There's no analogue, that's kind of the problem! Just to note that "bad writing" and "playing it safe" aren't mutually exclusive. Are the writers afraid of making Yaz too interesting, or is the actor giving a bad performance, or is the writing bad but well-intentioned - or could it be all three? Certainly there seems to be something disrespectful about hiring a female co-lead then having her stand around while the old white guy gets all the best lines.

it's quite an achievement to build an entire episode around yaz's traumatic family history and have her still remain essentially a cipher tbf

we learn very little about what the doctor thinks, how she thinks, her animating principles, etc.

she gave one animating principle: "Sorting out fair play throughout the universe!"

perhaps it hasn't stuck because her actions endorse and reinforce unfair play in every single episode.

That was a dull episodes.

I think part of the issue is the doctor and Yaz haven’t really had much opportunity to show their onscreen relationship with each other or the other companions. Graham and Ryan have the family bond and so they can show there relationship stitch each other with a lot less screen time because it’s kind of hard coded. There still doesn’t seem to be much of a reason why the doctor and yaz are hanging around with the other two or each other.

We don’t need to go all rose or captain jack on this but the companions need to be more than just an audience for the doctor and the companions need a reason to keep riding around with her.

Could you talk me through that? I feel like I saw a different episode.

By "points fingers", I mean that a lot of time is spent interrogating characters as suspects, especially Becka, the witch finder. An episode on witch hunts shouldn't be a mystery hunt for the real villains.

I didn't like Clarke's 3rd Law being included because it implies that the "tech" aliens are indistinguishable from "magic" witches, so you might as well say that witches were real.

On the positive side, I enjoyed Alan Cumming's performance.

the aliens were just as magic, they were sealed in a hill by a charm

(the lock was shaped like a tree billions of years before trees evolved, lucky coincidence there. especially when it turned out to chop and burn just like wood would, except that it didn't need to be dry)

Again, the writers this series seem not to know what words for big things -- billions, galaxies, etc -- actually mean.

Otm

Particularly irritating example of mythic monster is actually an alien but also alien is actually mythic monster

Tell you what. It's generally understood that, had the show proper (as opposed to the tv movie) been brought back on screen in the 90s, the result would probably have been unhappy. They'd probably have forgotten it was a series for kids, and tried to make it cool, dark and serious, but in a 90s way, and it would have been a bit like the x files, matrix, etc, probably with guns and tits.

Which wouldn't have worked.

The sensible fans understand that RTD's way of doing it, when the time came - camp, irreverent, referential, charming - was the right way. The RTD tendency to use lol throwaway aliens and sf themes works much, much better than war and peace in space, 'serious' star trek ds9 aliens and sf themes, for Dr who.

But but but it turns out the irreverence gets stale and we've seen that with this current series. If you're not trading in high seriousness for genuine heart and charm, aren't you just throwing it away?

I would almost I think prefer it if the series concerned, say, the Great Kraken War, had a long arc connecting episodes, and had lots of boots clomping on floors of dark metal spacecraft. Villains supposed to be genuinely scary would be lining up beloved goodies to be shot. Jodie Whitaker in a trench coat using gun fu, fighting evil aliens but also a dark conspiracy. Yaz and Ryan as engineer and gunner on a black, pointy spaceship. General look very Akira.

Which would be preposterous, but at least it would be something? Key word is I would almost like this alternative.

Yeah Chibneall is the first showrunner of the modern era (at least) to not have anything like a signiature tone or storytelling style, and it seems like he hasn't even bothered to look for one. I enjoyed the first episode as a slick undemanding reintroduction but was expecting the season to open up into stories of more substance later on. But everything since has been so thinly written as to not really be worth commenting on. What has everyone been doing for a year?

Not yet hate watching, but that was a hard episode to sit through. Lots of obvious exposition and loudly repeating someone else's lines. Felt like Alan Cummings' eye contractions were begging a drinking game.

I actually thought the witch finder episode was entertaining faff, but not enough so that I'm willing to die on a hill for it. The tone was all over the place, though.

That said, we just need Julianna Marguiles and Archie Panjabi to guest star and we'll have the whole Good Wife gang this season.

Yes, Panjabi would have been a way better Doctor

Given the longass list of guest stars after episode 1, feels like only Siobhan Finneran and the actress who played Rosa have been any good - Cumming is an automatic gimme and doesn’t count

Yes, Panjabi would have been a way better Doctor

Bung a dung
Bung a dung
Bung a dung

Bong a dong

Bung a dung
Bung a dung
Bung a dung

Bong a dong

Wooo-ooooh
Wooo-oooo-oooo-ooooh

Doctor who in velves sucking up to squaddies and driving a dumb fucking edwardian car or gtfo imo

ok the climax was a bit laboured (cf DOCTOR WHO) but that was FUCKING AWESOME

It was an episode vmic: some very good bits and some sub-Gaiman bollocks with Kevin Eldon.

Right. Pretty good that one.

Balloon lamp and moths can Fuck off. But I liked how it was a frog on a chair at the end

sub-Gaiman bollocks otm

that was ok. some decent jokes, finally! and for once the story seemed to be heading somewhere genuinely unpredictable, even if it ended up somewhere pretty daft

but whitaker is choking at those monologues - it's horrible to watch

graham looking sad gets me every time, but they're overelying on it now

Would like to see that improve from there over the course of a series but wasn't that it until the Special? & then what?

Only been a couple of this series that I've enjoyed . So do wonder what direction from here.

Yeah hate to say it but Whittaker was the only thing I didn’t like about that, really hoped she’d have setttled into things by this stage but she’s becoming really one-note and the note isn’t the right one.

Still the best episode of the year though I think.

I thought because we were dealing with time lord mythology, the sentient universe turning out to be a frog on a chair was appropriate

The one note Whittaker has landed on feels a bit like a secondary school teacher putting on the kind of enthusiastic front that you start to see through by about the second term of second year, but, importantly I felt the same about Tennant and Smith a lot of the time.

This episode was properly in gear though, I thought.

A lot of the time I'm not convinced the doctor character understands any of the science babble.

Which is also true of most of the classic doctors, and also it's a key part of the character to be probably a complete charlatan, but they were just convincing enough

I just got caught up and watched the last three episodes... not bad, Amazon Robots on the Moon was pretty naff but the Witchfinder was a solid goofball romp very much in the spirit of Tom Baker, and Daughter of Backwards Slayer T-Shirt was charming and great.

Whitaker is coming off kind of weak as the season progresses. Theories: They were keen to have a lady Doctor but it doesn't mean they know how to write one AND/OR latent sexism in me, the viewer, is making it hard to buy her as the Doctor, even if I am also keen, and so her performance reads as off somehow.

Enjoyed this one. Good writing & the design was really cool (the triangle attic thing, the red lantern ballons, the big moths, the frog etc). Kevin Eldon was great...really wanted him to whisper “DIRTY” in the Doctor’s ear tho lol

Loved that they used a blind actress to play Hanne. I thought she was excellent, and her Norwegian accent wasn’t half bad imo.

Amazon Robots on the Moon

Amazon Warehouse On The Moon was the version I thought of and couldn't be bothered to post

I liked this one. Some clunky exposition but it made sense in the end.

also: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LotusEaterMachine

So this was a monster that was supposed to be in tonight’s episode but got cut?

So you cut this cool ass looking creature but left in... a frog. That’s fucking ridiculous and shameful! pic.twitter.com/oK7wV3arQU

— Brumblebee 🐝 (@Redheadedchinny) December 2, 2018

Television's The Actor Kevin Eldon seemed to be doing a character that we would now associate more with Steve Pemberton than him, which I struggled with.

Anyway, I didn't think much of this one - some great ideas in it but The Solitract danced too close to the Rusty "Ancient before time oooh dys" trope to convince me (although I acknowledge that's my issue and not Chibbers or anyone elses). Lol'd hard that all the f4nw4nk pre-series about who the Doctor was kissing goodbye to in the pre-series trailer (OOH IT'S RIVER OOOH I BET IT'S CAPTAIN JACK OMG ROSE IS COMING BACK AH IT'S THE MASTER) turned out to be a poor quality rubber frog that talked out of sync with the audio. Fair made me nostalgic for the Bandrils.

Well done the Guardian for pointing out the Artic Monkeys plot hole, that the t-shirt promotes an album that didn't come out until 2 years after the first Norwegian show. Admirable commitment to fact-checking.

So you cut this cool ass looking creature but left in... a frog

cutting otm imo

I've quite enjoyed not caring about this series and knowing that none of the plot has to work and just handwaving 'ah it's just SF it doesn't have to make sense' like you're supposed to.

So, my series ratings:

TWWFTE - not a dreadful setup episode, The Doctor's regeneration traumas are dealt with a bit too quickly but putting together such a big team so quickly was always going to be difficult and having to spend/waste (delete to your preference) so much time on it is a forgivable sin that invariably leads to a largely non-threatening and non-memorable monster of the week. A solid 6/10.

Ghost Monument - essentially part 2 of 'putting the band back together' so suffers the same issues as the former ep. The TARDIS is revealed too quickly for the dramatic tension to really work though a Marinus-style fetch quest isn't a bad plan especially one that ditches the trial plotline. Actually could have done with a second part and the TARDIS reveal moved to the second ep which would have won it another couple of points but as it is 5/10.

Rosa - not sure this actually worked based on NuWho mythology. Are we really supposed to believe that the single most important event in racial history of the universe (as pointed out at the end) wasn't a Fixed Point In Time (TM Plot Hole Maguffin Enterprises) and could therefore be changed by Black To The Future dude? Too much earnest overacting in this for it to be fun for the viewer. 3/10

Arachnids - giant sized real world things always work for monster of the week and this is no exception with a plot that rattles on and wins the day with SCIENCE (and Grime for da kidz innit). Gasp as people have conflicted moral attitudes! 7/10

Tsuranga - space hospitals, on the other hand, are a bit played out in NuWho and even a baddie designed for the Christmas merchandise market can't save it from being a bit of a clunker. Yaz is clearly becoming a bit Liz Shaw despite Chibbers' best intentions because she's always less "what is it Doctor?" and more "we did this in school". It'll be good when she explains when they did neutron flow in GCSE physics. 2/10

Demons of the Punjab - what could have collapsed into a Rusty Family mess works well with a fake-out when the bad guys turn out to be the ambivalent guys and the bad guys are actually the Hindus (a bit like the viewers when we thought the white guys were going to be that bad guys before the episode aired, ah dys). Very close to a pure historical so very close to being very good Who. 7/10

Kerblam! - technology going bad and killing people has been done to death so the twist that it wants to save people and activists are doing the plot is kind of welcome. Hurray question mark. Exactly people sized robots are a mark of Who and this could have easily slotted into Pertwee's industrial unrest/rolling UK politics thread era (Badgers of Peladon, Mutants etc) so the nostalgia factor is v high but not in a For The Fans way. 8/10

Witchfinders - lots of dressing up and the campest cameo since Soldeed makes this a joyous romp. The plot itself is more than a bit flimsy though so docked at least one off for that. 8/10

Let The Right One Back - see above.6/10.

The anti-zone monster that they kept in seemed like filler too. I assume they were going for a Clive Barker vibe? (n.b. I have never read or seen anything by Clive Barker first hand.)

Television's The Actor Kevin Eldon in a Doomlord mask doth a cheap monster make.

seemed like filler too

take your pick on tonally disruptive or a useful red herring

(I think I lean toward the latter, but also think the episode was 10-15 mins too long & could have lost the Eldonraiser altogether)

That was far from a masterpiece but better than some of the Pip and Jane Baker with a budget so far this series.

Eldonraiser

RIBBONS call him by his name!

maybe it was filler but obviously that is exactly what the other side of the mirror should look like so well done Who

the MOTHS were both scary and non-scary in that obviously fake queasy-making way that is somehow always much more unsettling than more "realistic" cgi

Ribbons of the Quawncing Grig

maybe the dad should have been wearing a STYX shirt