WHOCHURCH: The Chris Chibnall era

It's him, but he doesn't even sound like he's reading, just remembering.

oh i forgot this existed! i should check this out

i've been watching the macra terror animation, i love it, the story is such a cheap low-budget piece of shit, so much brainless fun

The low-budget nature of the story finally fits the very low budget of the animation. Poor Power and Shada for being test runs.

The way I figure it is that if there'd demand they can always redo Shada. Technically speaking you could probably animate The Macra Terror and The Faceless Ones in a way that would make them look good, but why would you? Even as cheap as it is it's miles beyond anything the fans have come up with. I'm pretty happy.

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

― Everything to do with chocolate (Autumn Almanac), Wednesday, August 1, 2018 12:20 PM (one year ago)

Me too!

― El Tomboto, Wednesday, August 1, 2018 1:04 PM (one year ago)

you love to see it

Sitting down with family to watch @4SylvesterMcCoy & @sophie_aldred #DoctorWho #DoctorWhoonBritBox and the first question I got was, which one is the doctor ? Such a wonderful question to hear ! (tbf Dr Who has always championed #GirlPower with the companions, but nonetheless👍) pic.twitter.com/0pT6YQUDQU

— Ashley Stebbings🎄🎅🎁⛄🤶🛷 (@ashleyst78) December 27, 2019

Wish I was more excited for the new series, but the fact the opening story has the Doctor going to work for noted shitmeisters MI6 is not promising. Probably will features more scenes of the Doctor fawning over the military-industrial complex.

A venerable tradition, Pertwee hanging out with squaddies all the time my favourite era of og doctor who

Sure, but he wasn't a fan of them!

Sure, but he wasn't a fan of them!

― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison)

except when he was

sure, he got in a right proper snit when the brigadier committed genocide, but he got over it fairly easily all things considered

Blerg. Bailed after 20 mins. Might have to skip this season.

This was fine.

It’s just so... witless and straight-edge

Witless is right. How does he keep writing dialogue where people describe what's happening in front of them over and over, while never having any of the concepts and premises in the show connect to each other or follow through on themselves?

Shilling for Amazon (repeatedly) and Uber suggests a possibility that the pro-exploitation ending of Kerblam was rewritten by Chibnall after all.

The Doctor still figuring everything out by googling halfway through the episode and reading the results aloud.

(also how the fuck is this guy in South Africa the Outback supposed to have NBN?)

(^ ok so this gets explained but why didn't it surprise a) the secret service cops and b) the Doctor who knows the place so well she once lived there for 123 years?)

So many of the lines are such dull boilerplate that all but the youngest viewers could finish them before the actors, but they're played as dazzling revelations.

"One last thing, something you should know in the second before you die: everything you think you know.....

...

....

...

...IS A LIE!"

"I thought I was dead."
"No. I'm never going to let that happen to you."
good luck w/ that mate

Also tapping out vs hate watching. Enjoyment affected by the mouth breathing cast, and dialogue, action and tone akin to little Ani pod racing. On the plus side, happy for the viewers establishing this as *their* Doctor, not sharing my annoyances.

why does every scene have to be played as THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT EVER? it is tiring and makes every scene feel the same.

did they all forget that they had a TIME AND SPACE MACHINE in this episode?

(also how the fuck is this guy in South Africa the Outback supposed to have NBN?)

science fiction

Spyfall was fantastic but I do think Chris Chibnall slightly overdid it with all those captions #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/qOhEWMMGjr

— Happy New Pip (@pipmadeley) January 1, 2020

Yeah, all the reference jokes in this were the absolute pits, "worst uber ever" wtf.

James, if it helps, she's actually been recruited by all the secret service agencies on planet earth working jointly, which is lol but somewhat less offensive?

Also the Vox Explainer on big data "govt agencies are full of old people who don't understand technology so they outsource to the private sector" - how about govt agencies are full of neoliberal zealots eager to hand their buddies in the private sector some cash?

Finally saw this. Now sighing, remembering when this show was clever.

thought the master reveal was fairly terrifying, and the monsters were pretty good, but everything else...

i'm used to the doctor being very spiky and uncooperative and arrogant with all government institutions so this one was v disappointing on that front (among many others)

didn't the doctor used to be wildly smarter than everyone else? funnier? both grumpier and more cheerful? not sure what happened here tbh

chris chibnall iirc

yeah, to be fair, the monsters are well done.

i mean EVERYTHING is a lie? the mets didn’t really win the world series in 1969? my mother is... my father and my father is my mother??

she's half her father on her mother's side

I love that y’all can’t even wait for part 2 to start bitching about the plot

Chibnall’s biggest problem seems to be that he thinks this is primarily a show for kids - where did he get such a preposterous idea

Robert Holmes thought it was almost exclusively a show for kids

ima gonna go all out and say this hit my minimum expectations for watchable dr who

(which bar last season frequently sailed way under, at least until stopped watching, so fair play to em)

Monsters effective yep, not sure I buy sacha dhawan...

No problem with it being a show for kids, just want it to be better than disposable trash for kids.

Just watched the first part of Mackenzie Crook's Worzel Gummidge adap, and somehow managed to find a show for kids to be delightful, charming, spooky, mildly witty, and to follow through on the premises and gags that it sets up.

I should give that a go, Wiesel Gummidge terrifies me a a child and I could exorcise that demon.

Kids LOVE long speeches about state work being outsourced to tech giants!

This was fine? Not great, not terrible.

Not sure I'll bother with this season unless I start reading amazing reports on this thread.

I did think it was a nice touch for the Doctor’s favorite spy to be a desk-bound analyst (lol I almost typoed “analist”)

My expectations for last year was "the cast are charming and work well together", and Sacha Dhawan fits in well there. Also "the story might be good if Chris Chibnall isn't writing it"

I honestly spent some time wondering if Lenny Henry had a son - he looks well!

The two Worzel episodes were really, unexpectedly impressive.

I'm kind of with Dan on this, the episode compared to some of Chibs's worst offerings from the prior season is at least competent (though if we start burrowing into the ideological themes (but why) we'd find plenty to object to). In the end, though, the episode is really just a modern techno-thriller in Doctor Who cosplay. No anarchic spirit, no fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants mummery, no cleverness, no ideas. I'd take Moffat at his most indulgent over the dead fish running the show now.

A modern technothriller for kids, where all of the shots fired in the terrible chase hit a part of a bike but not an important part or the cast.

that really was a bad chase

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/X4jF3xTxKWM/hqdefault.jpg

I am working slowly towards the present series with my kids (we've done s1-6 in last 18 months) so won't get to this one for ages, but today's episode seems to be going down very well on twitter

Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful.

Steals directly Rusty's "Master returns and puts companions on the run/undercover by taking over the internet and telling everyone they're bad" device
Bringing Gallifrey back to destroy Gallifrey to bring Gallifrey back to destroy Gallifrey to bring Gallifrey back to destroy Gallifrey as nauseum
Something something arctron something something that's the plot

Anyone who's ever interrupted a simultaneous overwrite like that knows it ends up in a bricked device.

Saying right now that turning off the Master's perception filter so he no longer looks like a white Aryan but a brown skinned traitor is a) a touch racist and b) a bit brutal (but c) why would they even think it was him?)

Ugh.

Also I have seen Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure already.

Actually it's Bogus Journey, isn't it.

Evening jacket look reminded me heavily of Max Wall which presumably wasn't the desired effect.

Everything paid off in part 2 imho

“What’s it doing?”
“TOTAL… transference.”

"TOTAL... shutdown."