WHOCHURCH: The Chris Chibnall era

I wouldn't say Jodie was in ascendancy as such - she'd spent three years in an admittedly well received by ultimately written by Chinballs show (and all the hype around it was about Tennant and Coleman). I wasn't aware of having actually seen her in anything apart from the Joe Cornish movie Attack The Block when she was cast.

Capaldi was obviously the exception to this but I'd argue outside of TTOI the reaction of most people would be that he was "that guy". I suppose he was in World War Z about the same time and that could be considered his big break in Hollywood (although filming in Glasgow could have helped casting choices...). And of course it was nearly 20 years after he won an Oscar.

I can’t see Olly doing all the extracurricular stuff (and there’s all those orgiastic Y&Y videos to keep the tabs busy worrying about The Children) but I like him as an option. Michaela Coel just picked up a BAFTA so I don’t think she would say yes, but Lydia West might if they keep it female.

Tennant ascendancy way overstated, his big roles going into Who were in Blackpool and starring for Rusty in Casanova.

Ecclestone is an odd one. After Our Friends In The North he just seemed to do the bit parts he wanted until Rusty cast him in The Second Coming and then straight on to Who.

what is everyone talking about

*searches*

olly alexander? i assume this means the next showrunner is lined up?

why is everyone acting like something made up by The Sun is actually real, especially when it has been denied by both Alexander and his agent, and would mean he's taking over in the 60th anniversary year, two years away, if true?

Especially especially when everyone knows it's Kris Marshall.

i very much don’t think it was real i just needed to know The Definitive Sic Take so thank you for that :)

https://media1.giphy.com/media/96wcP8dvzFo5y/giphy.gif

lol

that said the post chibz regime is a matter of when, not if, given the abysmal numbers, and given how long it takes to set wheels in motion and clear diaries, two years from now isn’t that weird of a timeframe to be actively planning imo

that said the post chibz regime is a matter of when, not if

Well, every showrunner's tenure is finite.

given the abysmal numbers

You always say this, but it's been fairly consistently getting around 5-6 million since Capaldi's second season in 2015, and still occasionally scraping into the top ten for the week. If the people who hired him because they think he writes good television are still making the decisions, it seems unlikely they'd see that level of performance as boot-worthy.

(And it's not like he's allowed an obvious successor to shine under his watch, either - whether the disastrously incompetent aspects of McTighe's episodes are down to Chibnall rewrites or not, he's the only showrunner-level freelancer in the Chibnall era.) ((Although his job on the blu-rays might help him look like a reliable pair of hands.))

the AI scores are bad too

it’s bad

the show is bad! but does the BBC angrily fire other showrunners and revamp the series when they retain their audience for five years, and rank in the top ten-to-thirty programmes of the week

(gets more than double the average prime time ratings on co-producer BBCA fwiw, and nearly double fellow-co-production Killing Eve -- which got renewed for a fourth season, and for the first time is promoting a writer who co-wrote with the showrunner on S3, instead of dropping in a whole new showrunner from scratch)

crossover imo

Doctor Ruth, Doctor Villanelle, Doctor Eve and Doctor Carolyn are all pre-Hartnell incarnations and will fill the TARDIS with bras for the 60th anniversary special

Sandra Oh's casting was foretold, of course

https://i.imgur.com/OCjiPxm.jpg

Chris Chibnall has revealed that #Series13 will be all one story! "It's definitely the most ambitious thing we've done since we've been on the series" #DoctorWho

— Doctor Who (@bbcdoctorwho) July 25, 2021

The Trial Of A Timeless Child

- across 17 Chib-era stories with new aliens in, we've had

Tzim-Sha, of the warlike Stenza
space racist Krasko
pilot's brother Durkas *
alien tree monsters the Morax
amnesiac pilot Paltraki vs the religious Ux in The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos
interdimensional Kasaavins
spider monsters the Skithra
plastic virus Praxeus
nightmare werewolf monsters the Chagaska, created by fear-eating gods Zellin and Rakaya
and what is Ko Sharmus?

imagine Chibnall's terror everytime he meets a Keith or a Cassie or a Max, running and hiding under his desk because K and S sounds in names invariably mean "alien baddies" to him

* (not a baddie but caught hacking into medical records)

― Fantastic. Great move. Well done (sic), Monday, February 17, 2020 6:48 PM (one year ago)

it appears we may have been overlooking Nevi, Vilma and Vorm (all from the one story), Ravio, and Jarva Slade as an indicator of how he names non-baddie aliums

Here's a first look at Jacob Anderson as Vinder in #DoctorWho! #Series13

Read more here ➡️ https://t.co/k0U70diTWs pic.twitter.com/NHHvAMPMfO

— Doctor Who (@bbcdoctorwho) July 25, 2021

“I’m the Doctor, this is Yaz, this is Dan!” ✨ #DoctorWho #Series13 pic.twitter.com/BSoyjyH3XG

— Doctor Who (@bbcdoctorwho) July 25, 2021

dan

dan

Seems weird that Yaz is in the background, while Dan is in the foreground, if not in front of, the Doctor.

father_ted_cows.gif

Lol, I've been watching through that series for the first time and I got to that episode last week.

splashing out a decent chunk of budget on the regeneration, at least

(🧐)

Jodie Whittaker to step down from lead role in Doctor Who in Autumn 2022 along with showrunner Chris Chibnall, BBC confirmshttps://t.co/IM304mYXCa

— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) July 29, 2021

Probably alone on this, but I would have loved to see Whittaker stick around for a not terrible showrunner.

nah, I agree. but mostly just happy chibnall is fucking off.

Yeah, would've liked Whittaker to stay.

I agree, but I can see why that's not likely.

god why can’t it be sooner

(re chib’n’all ofc, no feelings at all about whitaker other than i feel sorry for her having to wade through so many terrible scripts)

I don't know if the BBC would ever consider an American to show-run #DoctorWho, but if so, I would be there in a heartbeat. (Well, technically two heartbeats, since two hearts....) https://t.co/SD0N8gtNmL

— J. Michael Straczynski (@straczynski) July 30, 2021

BRING BACK CHINBALLS

Only 9 more Chibnall stories to go? Yay! But how much of the furniture can he piss on on his way out?

Mr Veg just said re Stracynski "yeah that's exactly what Dr Who needs - a smaller fanbase that's 50 times more rabid" and i lol'd

but also i am not much of a bab5 fan anyway so

Only 9 more Chibnall stories to go?

Only four more stories, over nine more episodes.

Babylon 5 had an episode where there was some sort of interfaith day and the different alien races were introducing their religions to everyone, and the hooman station manager had to think about who would represent humanity in this. At the end he decides to bring in representatives of all the different earthling faiths.

Dunno why I got so offended on behalf of the fictional alien races that the show just assumed of course humanity would be the only ones amazing enough to have multiple religions but god it's so stupid.

JMS's run on amazing spider-man was notoriously bad. I don't trust him with existing properties.

He tried to retcon the radioactive spiderbite with some nonsense about spider gods granting their blessing. A combination of "who cares" and "NO" which was a lot like Chibnall's Forgotten Child arc.

I mean, he did also write one of the best (and one of the first) multi-year storylines on a sci-fi tv series, but I'm not sure that's a skillset that Doctor Who needs right now?

So after being announced as 8 parts the other week, and the regeneration specials as a trilogy next autumn being announced a couple of days ago, it's now being announced it's a 6 part series with a New Year special, a spring special and an autumn regeneration special to tie into the BBC Centenary celebrations.

It's almost like they're making it up as they go along.

The trailer was a masterclass in showing and telling viewers practically nothing.

Look, the next Doctor is going to be James Corden and you all need to just accept it now.

Kevin Sorbo IS The Doctor

The Kris Marshall omnirumour has got to be right one of these times.

On a more serious note, my money's on a Jed Mercurio/Vicky McClure combo for a deal to go up to the 50th Anniversary celebrations.

The trailer was a masterclass in showing and telling viewers practically nothing.

You think doing that for the length of a trailer is impressive, you should try watching some of the whole episodes from the last couple of years wocka wocka

So after being announced as 8 parts the other week, and the regeneration specials as a trilogy next autumn being announced a couple of days ago, it's now being announced it's a 6 part series with a New Year special, a spring special and an autumn regeneration special to tie into the BBC Centenary celebrations.

It's almost like they're making it up as they go along.

"announced as 8 parts the other week" definitely didn't happen, and I haven't seen a "regeneration specials as a trilogy next autumn" announcement, and the fact that the series has already been shooting for eight months suggests that they have written it already.

Actually, the 8 part story is much older

https://gizmodo.com/doctor-who-season-13-will-be-just-8-episodes-long-1845647549

a length that persisted until very recently

https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/doctor-who-series-13-jodie-whittaker-leaving-rumours-the-next-doctor-and-the-future/

Oh actually here's 8 episodes even in a story about the Jodie announcement

https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/doctor-who-star-jodie-whittaker-23255685

The trilogy of specials was read out on radio 4. I'll concede it may have just been the highlighted bits of this BBC report:

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-57940451

"three specials, the first of which will be broadcast on New Year's Day 2022, with another later in spring 2022.

Whittaker's final feature-length special, where the 13th Doctor will regenerate, will transmit in autumn 2022 as part of the BBC's Centenary celebrations.

But hey, you do you.

The Gizmodo story does not say anything about an eight part story at all, and Chibnall does not even commit 100% to the production run resulting in eight episodes in his quote. The Den Of Geek story contains no announcements of any kind, or even any original reporting. I’m reading on my phone on a bus, but I didn’t see anything in that aggregation about an eight part story. It does, however, explicitly says that the production run of eight episodes is likely to be split between a six-episode 2021 season, a New Years Day 2022 special, and another 2022 special, which turns out to be what is happening. The Mirror story cites an anonymous “insider,” and claims that the does not claim that the full eight episode production run will air as one series, but not that it is a continuous eight-part story.

And I didn’t click through to the BBC story, because the bit you quoted already doesn’t say trilogy, and specifically says that the specials will be spread out through the year!

(ie there’s plenty to be annoyed by with IRL Chibnall, you don’t need to also make up a guy to get mad at)

Since you missed THE ACTUAL FUCKING TITLE of the Gizmodo story, it's pointless interfering with your crusade.

You win, drink your weak lemon drink NOW!

Bye.