Doctor Who

[ZERO_ninja]

Didn't mention at the time since I hadn't been posting here, but as of my series 9 blu-ray steelbook arriving I now own every extant episode od Doctor Who. =D

 

On 23/01/2016 at 1:06 PM, Patticus said:

Pretty surprised Gatiss didn't get the gig, to be honest. He looked a lot more heir-apparenty than Chibnall.

Replying quite late to say, Gatiss doesn't want to be showrunner. He's been asked a few times in interviews and while he's never outright said "I'd never take the job" it's pretty clearly come across that he doesn't really want to and he's happier just writing single episodes when given the chance to.

[Doctor MK]

The cast of Class has been revealed!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/entries/c6c27089-2572-44f5-ae60-7b8ecc86761b

Quote

“Time has looked at your faces now. And time never forgets…”

What if your planet was massacred and you were the sole survivor?

What if a legendary figure out of space and time found you a place to hide?

But what if the things that want to kill you have tracked you down?

And worst of all, what if you haven't studied for your A-Levels…?

On the first day of term, BBC Three today announce the stars of the Doctor Who spin-off series Class - exciting young new talents Greg Austin, Fady Elsayed, Sophie Hopkins and Vivian Oparah. They will be joined by Katherine Kelly, as she takes the role of a teacher and powerful new presence at Coal Hill School.

To celebrate today's announcements we've created a special video from set - you can Meet the cast of Class in 360°!

Like all sixth formers, these four Coal Hill School students have hidden secrets and desires. They are facing their own worst fears, navigating a life of friends, parents, school work, sex, sorrow - and possibly the end of existence.

Coal Hill School has been a part of the Doctor Who Universe since the very beginning, but that has come at a price. All the time travelling over the years has caused the very walls of space and time to become thin. There’s something pressing in on the other side, something waiting for its chance to kill everyone and everything, to bring us all into Shadow.

Fear is coming, tragedy is coming, war is coming. Prepare yourselves, Class is coming.

Award winning YA writer and Class creator Patrick Ness, says:
“We searched far and wide for this amazing cast, fantastic actors who understand what we’re aiming for with this show. And how lucky we are to get Katherine Kelly! She’s been stunning in Happy Valley, The Night Manager and Mr Selfridge, just wait until you see her here.”

Steven Moffat, Class and Doctor Who Executive Producer, says:
“There’s nothing more exciting than meeting stars that nobody’s heard of yet. We had the read through of the first few episodes last week, and there was a whole row of them. Coal Hill School has been part of Doctor Who since the very first shoot in 1963, but this new show is anything but history. Class is dark and sexy and right now. I’ve always wondered if there could be a British Buffy - it’s taken the brilliant Patrick Ness to figure out how to make it happen.”

Class is a YA series set in contemporary London. It is scary, funny, and as painful and sharp as youth. It will also shine a light on a whole new corner of the Whoniverse.

Damian Kavanagh, Controller, BBC Three, adds:
“I can’t wait for Class to arrive on BBC Three. BBC Three will always back best young British talent.”

From Writer Patrick Ness, Director Ed Bazalgette (Poldark, Doctor Who), Producer Derek Ritchie, and Executive Producers Patrick Ness, Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin, the BBC Cymru Wales production, co-produced with BBC America and BBC Worldwide, starts filming today and will premiere on BBC Three this year.

Further casting will be announced in due course

Filming begins today, definitely looks interesting. I'm presuming the "legendary figure" teased in the press release is The Doctor himself, and at least one of the young characters is going to be otherworldly but in hiding at Coal Hill School. Or something.

[PickleBrows]

They're a bit older than I was expecting, definitely a good few years above the usual 13-15 that's been used in school shows on the BBC before.

It seems like an interesting concept of basically doing the Susan Foreman thing but with more emphasis on the risk of being discovered. I'm looking forward to seeing this in action!

[Patticus]

I really can't help but think that Class looks like it's going to be terrible. I mean, the cast looks like a catalog of stereotypes - cool guy with some hidden useful talent, serious uptight guy with knowledge, serious book-wormy woman who may be in a Fight Club, quirky cool "down wiv da kids" woman, "sexy" glamour puss woman. I mean, it all just looks so... eurgh. I wasn't expecting much anyway, but even so, it's just so... so typical, and they all look so irritating.

If they wanted a real spin-off, they'd abandon the school (which admittedly once had promise in a Demon Headmaster sort of way) and do some sort of Sherlock-grade mini-series', each one following a different set of characters, races, scenarios and such. With only a small handful of episodes each series, episodes would have correspondingly higher budgets, look nicer and hopefully have better writing. I just want to see a creepy, dark series focusing on the creeping threat of a quietly renewing Cyberiad (maybe with shades of Flash Gordon and other 70s and 80s sci-fi), maybe a period sci-noir thriller involving Amy and Rory in mid-20th century New York.

[Salamander]

It does feel a bit artificial, doesn't it?  With the past spin-offs, you had something there that was already popular in the main program and that people wanted to see more of.  Torchwood had Captain Jack; The Sarah-Jane Adventures had Sarah-Jane.  Class has... Coal Hill School?  I don't think this was really something people were demanding to see more of, in comparison to something like the Paternoster Row gang which even have a ready-made premise for a spin-off (Victorian detective stories with aliens).

I don't want to be cynical about Class, because a lot of people have been trying to drag it down essentially as punishment for the BBC for the (unavoidable) absence of a new season of the main show this year... but I don't think they've really given us a hook yet for what this is going to be like and why it exists.

[Salamander]

The new companion is going to be announced tomorrow!  At, um, halftime during the evening football!  For some reason!  Here's a teaser.  Spoiler alert, the new companion has legs.

Here are the official bookies' odds on the possibilities:

Spoiler

There was a lot of buzz around #3 earlier in the year, but apparently a recent flurry of bets has hit on #1.  There's tertiary evidence for either of them.  It will be interesting to find out, and also kind of pointless, as the next episode will be this year's Christmas special... and apparently the new companion won't be in it.

Edit: The Doctor has become very concerned about getting muddy footprints in his nice shiny TARDIS and requires everyone to take their shoes off before entering:

[Doctor MK]

First glimpse at the new companion's hand, too...

Just over an hour and a half to go now. Let's hope it's a good 'un!

[Gatestormer]

That still makes me wonder if we're getting some kind of short film or trailer or something. 

[Big Panda]

Huh, Bill can be a girls name. Who knew.

[Salamander]

Well, the bookies nailed it, but I guess that doesn't really matter when all the choices are people you've never heard of.

16 hours ago, Gatestormer said:

That still makes me wonder if we're getting some kind of short film or trailer or something. 

Congratulations, you were right!  Apparently it's a clip from a future episode:

Some fast facts about Pearl Mackie...

(Edit: To be clear, the Twitter thumbnail text for the video described it as an "exclusive scene from a future episode," but a lot of people doubt that.)

[Patticus]

The YouTube thumbnail with the new companion's half face shirt and that denim jacket looks like they're joining forces to create a whole face.

[Doctor MK]

First exclusive interview with Pearl Mackie:

Just a shame we have a whole year to wait before we see her in action again!

[Debug Ring]

18 hours ago, Patticus said:

The YouTube thumbnail with the new companion's half face shirt and that denim jacket looks like they're joining forces to create a whole face.

I thought the same thing actually.

Speaking of her t-shirt, it's a picture of the inside sleeve of Prince's Purple Rain vinyl. Strange enough really. That also makes me think she's from a few decades ago, 80's vibes. The hair, jacket, jeans, shoes, and Prince t-shirt all make me feel this way. But it could also pass as modern fashion too I guess. We'll have to wait. Hope she isn't contemporary, it'd be good to change it up, as we haven't with the revival series yet.

[Doctor MK]

Steven Moffat confirms that Bill is from the modern day, that she's set to debut in the first episode of Series 10 in 2017 (with a "guest companion" for Christmas this year), and that she'll run "throughout that series"

http://www.doctorwho.tv/whats-new/article/steven-moffat-reveals-pearl-mackie-to-debut-in-2017-her-name-and-when-s-she-s-from

Bit of a disappointment that Bill is yet another 21st Century girl, but eh, at least she sounds a bit different personality-wise. I wonder how long running Bill will be though, will she (and/or Peter Capaldi) be handed over to Chris Chibnall for the start of his tenure as showrunner or will she be a one-series character who helps to see Moffat's era out?

[Salamander]

Well, Chibnall has asked Capaldi to stay on - last we heard, Capaldi was mulling over the offer and hadn't either accepted or declined - so it wouldn't be unbelievable for Chibnall to want Bill to stay on, either, or at least for the series to be written to give him that option.  Retaining the Doctor and the companion in a new showrunner era might make a more comfortable transition than the shift from RTD to Moffat, where everything and everyone changed.  (And it worked, don't get me wrong, but it's easy to see how that could have made life difficult.)

Another twenty-first century girl is disappointing, though.  I recognise that this is partly because the show doesn't really have a multi-companion structure any more, so if you're going to have just one companion it's probably better if they're easier to identify with than the mysterious and alien Doctor, but it is so very samey.  It's especially regrettable considering that Clara was originally planned to be a Victorian companion before Moffat came up with her "Impossible Girl" storyline - so the opportunity was there!  And then it slipped away.

[Doctor MK]

Bump! Time for some big Series 10 news, which I don't think anyone saw coming...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/entries/6d059f23-2325-4a46-9b5e-cd0ad94b4a59

In possibly the most bizarre move since... well, ever... Matt Lucas is reprising his role as Nardole from The Husbands of River Song as a regular character alongside Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie! 

I like Lucas and there is precedent for star castings to turn out brilliant (just look at Catherine Tate!) but I'm struggling to see why Nardole of all people deserves to come back for a full stint, especially as he was a disembodied Hydroflax head at the end of the Christmas special. Who knows, eh!

In other news, Steven Moffat is (unsurprisingly) writing Episode 1, and Episode 2 is being written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce (of Series 8's In the Forest of the Night fame, or shame, depending on your outlook). Other writers will include Sarah "Face the Raven" Dollard and newcomer Mike Bartlett.

This is shaping up to be an... interesting series, shall we say? I'm a little sceptical I must admit, but I like to think Steven Moffat has something grand in mind for his final season. 

[Big Panda]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/can-matt-smith-first-doctor-8382104?ICID=FB_mirror_main

Unless I'm interpreting this wrong, they're talking about the Doctor literally regenerating back into Matt Smith in the future.

And this is how I feel about that notion:

I love Matt Smith. He's one of my all-time favourite Doctors, and I'd be estatic to see him return.

...for a one-off appearance in a multi-Doctor special.

Now, the possibility of the Doctor being able to revisit one of his old incarnations was hinted at with the Curator in Day of the Doctor (and flat-out canonised if you wanna consider comic stories as 100% canon) and I admit it's an interesting idea that I'd love to see explored.

But to do it with Matt, especially so soon after his initial departure? I feel it'd take away too much from his final scenes, which where packed with emotion (his surprise return in Deep Breathe was already pushing it a bit).

[Salamander]

I wouldn't worry about it.  It's a complete non-story based on ancient quotes not made in connection with each other.  For some reason, Doctor Who articles seem to be really popular with the cheap press, so they're always churning out these fantasy articles based on literally nothing, along with a healthy mix of just plain getting things wrong.  Never will I forget my personal favourite, "Doctor's Old Foe Is Proper Boe," which described minor ally the Face of Boe as "the Doctor's archenemy."

[PickleBrows]

I don't think it's the worst idea they could possibly try, not to say that they necessarily should do it but it'd be interesting to see.

Imagine if they actually made the effort to keep the regeneration a secret rather than another "X will regeneration on this date and Y will take over". Capaldi's Doctor unexpectedly regenerates at the end of a series which throws the audience off, having not had any warning about it, and then to completely bewilder everyone even further we see Matt Smith come out the other side of the regeneration.

It's definitely a bit of a head scratcher to work out though. In-Canon you'd have to really have an explanation worked out as to why this happened. I don't think you could get away with the light level of acknowledgement that Capaldi's face got between Series 8 and 9. Is he literally going to be 11 again or is he the 13th Doctor but is identical in every way to 11? The only way I could see this working is that the Doctor gets into a situation so bad that healing himself won't cut it and ends up doing full degeneration in order to save himself and or the world/universe.

There could be something interesting in the idea of 11 finding himself back but in a world that's moved on. From his perspective, just a second ago he was regenerating with the distraught Clara by his side but he realises that the "reset" on the clock tower was in fact the entire regeneration and his little discharge in the TARDIS was just an explosive bit of excess. This time,it's the world that's changed, not him. What are the consequences of degeneration? How does he deal with the concept of the universe being acquainted with a successor that he never became? 

The thing about that whole idea though is that it would probably be taken as a slap in the face to the Capaldi era unless the handled it carefully? How would Capaldi feel about his era ending by reverting to the old one? If it's made clear that the universe still knows of the 12th Doctor and it's only 11 who would never know him then there's at least a bit more dignity in the whole thing.

You then got to consider how long this whole thing lasts. Does Matt Smith treat this like a new thing and do the full average three-year run or does he get a shorter run on account of him being a returnee? If he's gone again too soon, then the 11th 2.0 era is going to feel like an awkward tangent between the 12th Doctor and... what ever number would be coming after 11 leaves again.

From a real-world perspective  you'd need to justify why you brought the previous Doctor back instead of getting a new face in. You can't really just say "Peter's leaving and Matt wanted back". There's an endless list of people that line up each time the Doctor gets recast and I just can't see them literally not even looking at any of them.

Despite all of that, I could have still seen some possibility in this...if Moffat weren't on the verge of stepping down. Now, Moffat's not the only writer that can do the Eleventh Doctor but is the first thing Chibnall wants to do really going to be writing for an existing Doctor? I'm obviously not counting Capaldi in that, if he stays beyond series 10 then he obviously just transfers over.

 

[Doctor MK]

Matt Smith is a great actor, and The Eleventh Doctor was fantastic... but for him to come back full time, and so soon? No. Just no.

I feel, more than any other New Who era so far, Capaldi's has been the most "interrupted" (if you will) by throwbacks to previous Doctors. He's yet to have one full series where he is the only Doctor in the limelight - Matt Smith returned in Deep Breath (the very episode after he regenerated!), David Tennant got a flashback in The Girl Who Waited, and then of course the whole Zygon two-parter was a continuation of what Smith/Tennant/Hurt started in The Day of the Doctor. I've no real issue with the previous Doctors showing up or being referenced post-regeneration as they are all the same character at the end of the day, but it feels a little bit like Capaldi hasn't been able to completely own the role because there's constant reminders of what's come before. Maybe that's why they gave him Heaven Sent, just so the audience could be reminded what a full-on Twelfth Doctor experience is all about.

But as others have said too, it's just not fair for an old Doctor to return properly. There's so many people who'd love a shot at the role - the whole damn point of regeneration is that it brings change and a new direction for the show, not just a rehash of a few years ago - and someone else deserves a chance. Bring them back for multi-Doctor adventures, by all means, or even a one-off solo outing like Paul McGann in The Night of the Doctor, but I think a whole new Matt Smith era would just be total pandering to both Smith himself and the anti-Capaldi brigade. It's like when Tennant left all over again and everyone wanted him back over Smith. It ain't gonna happen.

[Salamander]

3 hours ago, Doctor MK said:

It's like when Tennant left all over again and everyone wanted him back over Smith.

A period which, as I recall it, saw exactly the same "rumours" and "reports" disseminated for the sole purpose of stirring up trouble.

[Big Panda]

So, yeah, this is a thing that's happening...

http://www.markwho42.net/2016/07/23/david-tennant-to-bring-the-10th-doctor-to-family-guy/

[The Tenth Doctor]

10 minutes ago, Ernest-Panda said:

So, yeah, this is a thing that's happening...

http://www.markwho42.net/2016/07/23/david-tennant-to-bring-the-10th-doctor-to-family-guy/

Oh sweet God no. David why? IT'S TITLED DOCTOR WHO FARTED! Just....no.

[ZERO_ninja]

And I'd finally been starting to come around to actually liking Tennant's Doctor all these years later too. Oh well, maybe in another 7 years he'll come around for me again and not do something like this to derail it...

[ZERO_ninja]

So in light of finishing all of classic Who last year I'd been rewatching nuWho, in part just to refresh and in part to get to appreciate when it'd tie back or be influenced by older stories and such.

I have a dilemma now though, no secret to anyone who knows me that Tennant is my least favourite Doctor, but back during his era I did vary on how I felt about him. Never a favourite, but by the time of Waters of Mars I did really love him none-the-less. In this rewatch I decided to watch Day of the Doctor twice, once for where it happened for Tennant's Doctor and again later for Smith's Doctor, in part because honestly I thought "if I watch the special before End of Time I'll maybe enjoy Tennant's presence in it a lot more, being at the point where I most like him". As it happens that really fucking worked, even more than I expected it to.

So now I have a problem, I actually like him so much I don't want to watch End of Time again, but I can't bring myself to skip it either. Though I really can't see a way I can sit through EoT and not find myself back in that awful place with the character again. With his self agrandising, self pity, and all the bollocks of how he doesn't want to regenerate because totally different man, then his actual exit where he just goes on a fucking tirade bullying a brave old man for being an unbelievably brave old man, making Wilf feel like complete and utter shit for his bravery and then leave him to carry that guilt he should not be carrying for the rest of his days. Not to mention his terribly self indulgent companion walk and his awful final words. =/