WHOCHURCH: The Chris Chibnall era

It says a lot about my connection to the most recent Who season that I keep seeing all of these episode titles and I have to think really, really hard about which stories those actually were

Meanwhile, someone just needs to say some random shit like "Terleptil" and I'm immediately like "Oh yeah, The Visitation was my jam" as if that wasn't 38 years ago

Yeah, I can remember specific camera angles from Trial of a Time Lord, which I haven't seen in... 34 years?

You know how the Morbius costume is horrifying because it's so cheap? Like, if it had been a proper expensively-tailored costume it wouldn't have been half so creepy? That's sort of how the writing works now. The scene where Benny (of "BENNY!" fame) dies, offscreen in a really offhanded and confusing way, is so poorly written, it's like a scriptwriting-uncanny valley. It made me feely genuinely uneasy to watch.

The various ways in which the current TARDIS crew is like "oh well that person died, come on we've got a corridor to run down" are legitimately funny to me; it's like every time they get a script, Cole, Gill, and Walshhave a competition to see who can get the most callous take possible on camera

It's so weird and nihilistic even when it's unintentional. I hate it! Having said, that, I just watched The Brain of Morbius for the first time, and lol'd at the end, when Baker and Sladen were like, "ah fuck it, let's just murder solon and get out of here"

I think Davison is the only one who really had a consistent throughline of being really upset about the carnage surrounding him

Now I have Britbox I'm going to catch up on some Davison. I remember watching the Five Doctors, but I must have been... 5 at the time? What are his good ones?

I love Davison to bits so I'd say "All of them"

If forced to choose a smaller selection:

Castrovalva
The Visitation
Kinda/Snakedance
Black Orchid
Earthshock
Mawdryn Undead/Terminus/Enlightenment
The Awakening
Frontios
The Caves of Androzani

Back on Orpahn 55 though, I think it's super hilarious that the Earth has died like 700 times on this show and NOW the Doctor is all "hey, maybe the future can change" because she had a bad spa day

Why would you put a virtual reality holiday complex on a zombie planet - isn't the point of virtual reality that it can be... anywhere? What was the point of the doglady and the Inbetweeners guy? How did Benny get so far out when he wasn't in the tank? Why was Laura Fraser the security guard *and* the hotelier?

Obviously these questions aren't worth asking seriously, but, on the other hand, WHY?????!!!????

Tosin Cole's thumbsucking goodbye with his romantic interest, moments before she kills herself, gets my nod for most memorable/awful image

(Also thanks for the list!)

I loved that the mother/daughter reconciled just so they could immediately throw their lives away

(so powerful)
(so iconic)

Also let me know when you start on Davison, I could talk about those stories all day (and in fact, I'm strongly considering signing up for Britbox myself just to watch them)

I recommend it. Outside of Doctor Who, there's not a ton of good stuff on there, but there's a few amazing shlocky things that are otherwise difficult to find (The Prisoner in HD, Hammer House of Horror, that sort of thing)

I'm going to watch Kinda I think

I do sort of think Davison is best enjoyed chronologically but that's largely because it's how I watched them originally; there is a good amount of inter-story arc that is a little confusing if you don't watch them in order (although I think you're safe starting with Kinda, it does kind of jump directly into the 5 + 3 template established in Castrovalva of "let's deal with everyone's vacation schedules by hiding a companion for a story and hope no one notices")

Yeah, Kinda's a good standalone pick.



(Also Davison's first season was made wildly out of order, with his first story not even being written, or devised as being a sequel to Baker's final, until six months after The Visitation, his fourth story, was commissioned. Production also shut down for two months between The Visitation and Kinda (in that order) because Davison had to go to his day job as the lead of a sitcom.)

((It's not a vacation schedule that sidelines Nyssa in Kinda - the scripts had been written so far back that she didn't exist yet.))

(((Castrovalva - Davison story 01 - was taped five months after Davison 02, Four To Doomsday. By the time it was commissioned, the show had lost its interim script editor, so producer JNT was acting in the role as well*. With his characteristic understanding of story values, plotting, and arc themes, on engaging the previous season's script editor to sequelise that guy's own script for Baker's Logopolis, he gave the following structural notes:

Nathan-Turner instructed Bidmead to incorporate changes to Nyssa's costume which had been implemented for Four To Doomsday, including the replacement of her skirt with corduroy trousers, and the elimination of her tiara and fur stole. He also asked that Bidmead include the Doctor's addition of a celery stick to the lapel of his cricketing jacket.

* the 1980s Who production team consisted in full of producer JNT, a script editor, and JNT's secretary.)))

his day job as the lead of a sitcom

I'd always previously assumed this break was for All Creatures Great and Small, I'd never even heard of Holding The Fort or Sink or Swim, one of which I guess you're actually referring to? Just been checking youtube clips and oh wow, he plays northern (very badly) in Sink or Swim, amazing!

It was Sink Or Swim. If Who hadn't moved to a Monday/Tuesday schedule that year, he would have been on TV weekly from the beginning of January to the end of October.

The Davison blu-ray set is my favorite so far because their commentaries are by far the most entertaining... they're constantly making fun of the show but also clearly love it.

DOCTOR WHO BOSS EXPLAINS THE MEANING BEHIND FESTIVE SPECIAL TITLE

“I think it has more than one meaning,” Chibnall told Radio Times. “I think you’ll understand when you’ve seen the episode! There are loads of different ways you can interpret that title, whether it’s a Dalek revolution, or whether there’s a revolution involving Daleks…”

Also, Chibnall added, the “revolution” in the title refers to the non-Dalek characters too. With Bradley Walsh and Tosin Cole set to depart the series in the special, the TARDIS team will be in for a major shake-up, and generally speaking the series cast looks set to be “revolutionised” ahead of the now-filming season 13.

“I think there are things happening within the episode emotionally that will change the dynamics on board the TARDIS too,” he said. “We’re doing everything in there.”

There are loads of different ways you can interpret that title

I choose to believe that it refers to 50 minutes of a lone Dalek revolving on the spot, wobbling a bit

while Nick Briggs squawks ~ SLOW-ROTATE ~ into his ring modulator app

Beatles tribute musical ep

trufax: the Beatles were going to appear in old-age makeup in "the future" in 1965 Dalek story The Chase, but Brian Epstein nixed it.

Instead, the TARDIS crew tuned into a Top Of The Pops episode from that year on their Time Telly and grooved to a performance by the band (space orphan Vicki had been to the Beatles museum in Liverpool*, but for some reason until now "didn't realise they played classical music"). This is now the only surviving TOTP footage of the band, due to this Who ep being recovered after both programmes' archives were wiped.

* one of Who's best joke-that-came-true predictions of the future, alongside decimal currency, a BBC3, the first female Prime Minister, and Dr Who carrying the Olympic torch in the 2012 relay.

And the UK becoming a doomed fascist state.

RTD did it better in Years & Years

The Radio Times appear to be making a whole separate feature out of each proper noun that Chibnall said in his interview: they get another six-"page" 426-word article out of

“It was always the plan to do it* in the second year. I knew from the start, and it was part of what I talked to Charlotte and Piers about, just opening up the mythology to more stories.
“The purpose was to bring narrative opportunity and to be able to go to places that were shut off before now. That’s the big thing really.”

“When people were having opinions about the first female Doctor, I thought ‘well this is going to be interesting, because we haven’t even started yet!’”

“You'll have to wait longer to see how it plays out.”

*the Timeless Child storyline mentioned in Chibnall's second episode

In another interview, Bradley Walsh applauds Doctor Who for tackling real-world issues.

“We on the show have carried through global issues…it’s been a through narrative of almost every single episode. Whether it’s Rosa Parks, or whether it’s the plastics episode. Whatever it is, it’s a whole narrative through the series.”

Truly, racism and the danger of plastics had never been addressed in children's TV entertainment "Doctor Who" before Chris Chibnall's and Bradley Walsh's arrival.

“I mean my favourite episode of all the shows…I think I’ve made 22 now…was the Rosa Parks one, by a country mile. And how relevant has that now been, over the last year?”

“I think Chris Chibnall himself is not frightened to confront stuff like this. And I think that’s great. And I think the fact that we have someone like the boss…and the boss is Jodie Whittaker by the way, the boss of the acting department…is great.

“Her compassion, her thoughts and the way she wants to live her life, in every day, comes across onscreen. And she’s a very compassionate woman. She really is. And her humility and everything is off the radar.”

Jodie Whittaker advocates torture, mass killing and corporate enslavement IRL. Good to know!

jfc that is.... a take

Look, I'm sure Walsh doesn't actually pay attention to the text of the episodes, and probably doesn't even read the pages that Graham doesn't appear on (especially as he's rarely even on set, with them block-scheduling his production days around his day jobs). But it's funny that he'd attempt to opine about the show's context while plainly having a very vague idea about what it historically, or the current episodes, are about.

(Also funny that he accidentally suggests he thinks p much every episode except Rosa sucks.)

The bit where Walsh has to sit down in the bus seat to block Rosa is probably the best scene Chibnall has been involved with (so emotion!) even while it points to his obsession with turning every bit of drama into “how does this make the old white guy feel?”

(Also funny that he accidentally suggests he thinks p much every episode except Rosa sucks.)

He'd be half right.

Chibnall's big plan of giving up the Christmas special, in order to move to New Year's Day for an injoke (then skipping a year), sees his big lead-in this year being the sixteenth BBC repeat of Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.

Actually, since those first fifteen screenings were in 15 years from 1994 to 2009, there might have been another showing or nine in the eleven years since.

Kevin Costner would have made a good Doctor.

hey I wonder if His Chibs is going to totally fuck up the Daleks like he did the Doctor’s backstory

here’s hoping

I am watching my first Whocurch, is there always this much clumsy exposition?

It's Chibnall, so yes

why does it take upwards of 20 minutes to travel to Japan in the tardis?

To put it in as non-spoilery terms as possible, the post (mid? don't know, I didn't watch it live) credits sequence isn't on the iPlayer version.

lol brilliant. about as great an on-demand experience as the (excellent) 2-hour robyn takeover on 6 music last night which when listened back still contains the news updates with the latest coronavirus deaths.

I heard some of that, think she played Teardrops by Womack & Womack twice in a row, or it was a massive 12" mix, or the song stretched time out to about 30% speed, one or more of those.

I’m not really pushing the boat out here, but I felt like that wasn’t very good.

i haven’t seen it yet. waiting for the ilx consensus. been burned by the chibster one too many times.

Just another Chibnall episode that kinda sits there, telling an indifferent story with indifferent dialogue, coming up with a few good ideas but wasting them immediately, and never thinking through the political optics of what it’s doing.

So the prison plot was utterly redundant except for shoehorned continuity references and to introduce Jack who only was in it to bust the Doctor out and provide continuity references .

I rewatched the last series through boredom and Jodie gives it all the enthusiasm of a table read. I know she can act so it can only be because of just how bad Chinballs' writing is.

This was an ok bit of the lightest possible fluff, dragged down by DO YOU SEE real world politics references. It was very nearly watchable.

If anybody said "SAS daleks" one more time I might well have turned off mid-episode.

Was going to ask if this was standard issue Chibnall time-wasting or actively rage-inducing Chibnall continuity-wrecking to no good purpose. I guess it's a relief if it's just the former?

Will watch tonight, but can't say I'm terribly enthused, which given my lifelong obsession with this show is a bit sad.

Definitely a time-waster. No offensive "evil refugee" story this time, at least.

One character says "Do you really want me to answer that?" and the answer should have been YES, WHY WOULDN'T I