The Doctor loves JKR

Yup. All brilliant female characters. It's one of the reasons I got rather non-plussed at all the 'now girls will have a great role model to enjoy in Doctor Who!' when Whittaker was cast. Clearly being said by people who had only ever watched comedy sketches about Doctor Who, not the actual programme which has had lots of strong female characters since it came back with Eccleston.

Meh. I'm in a grump now.🤣

Oh and Amy. I liked Amy too.

BuntingEllacott

Completely agree with all you say. It's so disappointing given how brilliantly Missy, River Song, Donna and Rose were written.

ToadsThePeanutButterSnob

Yes , I agree. The writing is terrible. It has her grovelling and apologising to the truly awful Yaz and Ryan.

Donna did brilliant takedowns of Tennant when he got too uppity; as did Amy (remember the line about "did you wish really hard" when the spirit of the Tardis is embodied by the extremely attractive Suranne Jones) but here the Doctor is made to seem lesser than this pair of dead weights and supposed to be grateful to them.

I am extremely hacked off that the quality of the writing being so poor means that the show's falling ratings will be blamed on the fact that the Doctor changed sex. It's nothing to do with that, and I've stayed well out of most fandom conversations about it because you either have very, very over eager Whittaker fans who seem completely detached from reality on the one hand who won't brook any critique at all and seem quite happy for the rating to drop off a cliff because the show is for the righteous or something, or you have the angry YouTubers who love to rip any woman-led creative endeavour to pieces as too 'woke' on principle and who claim the female Doctor was inevitably going to be shit, which just isn't true.

I loved Capaldi too. Troughton is my favourite, which is why I like Smith so much, but Capaldi was a class act who was let down by Moffat running out of steam with his ideas, imo.

Mind you, RTD and Moff had a more impressive budget and the show had the benefit of being rebooted at the small bridge of time before streaming services changed the way we watch telly forever, so there was a genuine 'family viewing' element which will never occur again that contributed to the juggernaut that Doctor Who was with Tennant and Smith, and that's not really something Chibnall, Whittaker or anyone else can rewind to.

I'm really struggling to see how anyone can love Jodie Whittaker's interpretation of the Doctor. She has turned the character into something very weak and feeble.

Her dependency on her "fam" is troubling. Graham at least has some kindness but Ryan manages to be patronising, condescending and dull. Yaz is a tedious spoilt brat. Why anyone would want to hang out with them is puzzling.

I think if it had ended with a bang at that 50th anniversary event that would have been better

Heartily disagree. I loved Capaldi, much preferred him to Matt Smith. Love Jodie Whittaker, it is a shame about some of the scripts, but I felt like that through the RTD era a bit as well.

Nah, RTD went at the right time, and so did Moff. For my money, they should have given control to Toby Whithouse. Proven track record in decent, successful sci fi showrunning and some quality Who episodes to boot. Huge opportunity missed, imo. I'd be happy to see Whittaker give it a go with a different show runner. Chibnall actually told her not to research previous Doctors. I can't help thinking it really shows that, for different reasons, neither of them really have a solid grasp on the character.

And yeah, Barrowman is well known for getting his cock out for a laff. I hope he's decided to keep it penned up in recent years, but it's one of his least endearing traits.

That hit new lows of tedious sickliness. I gave up on Jodie Whittaker's doctor ages ago. The writing was terrible, she was so weak and needy and Yaz and Ryan were beyond dull. I couldn't have imagined a show so awful that it would be possible to say Bradley Walsh was the best thing in it but he was.

Just caught the New Year special after reading this thread and it's become even worse. I was so rooting for the Dalek thingy to kill off Yaz- what a sulky, whiny character she is as well as the actress being completely wooden. I suppose actually being sulky and whiny is as close to real acting as the actress has ever got. The shove was absolutely awful - incredibly poor writing. Seriously do they really expect anyone to warm to Yaz? Prior to Yaz Martha Jones the dullest companion but compared to Yaz even Martha looks interesting.

Ryan is terrible too. Completely blank expression- although I suppose that matches his almost blank mind. Captain Jack eclipsed the lot of them.

I'll contribute to a crowdfunder.

We've been watching old series over lockdown, and while there were particular problematic areas (when we binge-watched Doctor Who episodes, we started noticing how he characterised mothers), he could write and plot!

I think they need to give RTD all the money to return. I can't believe I thought it was time for him to move on towards the end of his run. Not considering how poor Doctor Who is now. The New Years episode was abysmal. Not sure I can watch anymore

I think the show has been fatigued and has been for some time. I actually think Chibnall has penned some good episodes and Whittaker has been ace. I’ve even liked the companions and the ensemble feel of it all.

Unfortunately because it’s now a sacred cow series of the BBC and they won’t let it go for the decade or so to lie fallow it’s been on a trajectory of diminishing returns and will go out with a whimper and not a bang.

I think if it had ended with a bang at that 50th anniversary event that would have been better, and whilst I felt there have been flashes of brilliance since they have been too far between.

Nothing to do with a female doctor, and I like the creatives that have been involved, but it’s something of a poisoned chalice at this point.

Jodie's character is a work-experience kid; it is possible to be very confident in the role of a work-experience kid.

I don't think Jodie's nervous.

Well, I really liked the episode, and I can't help coming back to this thread, it's just making me giggle now

• Captain Jack a willy waggler middle aged man (WTF, leave Jack alone, I love him lol)

• Ryan's a garden chair

• Any lady who's middle aged and does something bad is a Karen

Jodie's a work experience kid (not seeing that at all, seems quite confident in the role to me)

Christ, is there anything else people can moan about

New marginalised minority: people who have persisted and watched all the new episodes since Chibnall took over.

This cartoon on twitter amused me:

twitter.com/spleenal/status/1345116915954548739?s=19

I am glad Graham and Ryan have left. They are both terrible.

I was hoping for an all female tardis team but alas she is getting a new Male companion.

I don't think Jodie Whittaker is the problem. She's actually a good actress but she is the victim of terrible writing. I did like last nights episode and thought she was better in this one. Hopefully this means the next series will be better.

I hated that Yaz shoved the Doctor and didn't even apologise at any point.

Wonder whether it will now be argued that it doesn’t work with a woman as the doctor. Perhaps it would have been better with a scriptwriter who didn’t know her sex, or someone who was unsexist enough to have written with “the doctor” in mind, and not a “woman doctor”

Good about JKR, but I agree with other posters about this Doctor, especially the 'being lectured on current affairs/wokeness by a 13yo' bit. We too gave up before the end of the first series.

Well, if they're going to do companion witb a crush on the Doctor, there'd have to be some actual chemistry. A petulant shove after some self pitying mooning, and a Doctor with all the command of a room as wilted celery? Pass.

And honestly, Barrowman, bog off back to Arrow and waggling your dick inappropriately in interviews. Actually, no, you can stop that second bit. But also quit with the middle aged man desperate to be relevant schtick too.

I've got a horrible impression they're going to go down the route of human-in-love-with-the-doctor for Yaz as well.

They've done that. We've had Rose, we've had Martha. Can we please have healthy platonic relationship?

Nailed it. She is so uncertain. Like a frightened work experience kid.

Exactly. I stayed for maybe 3 episodes, hoping that it was just a thing, and she'd suddenly click into focus as a sharp doctor. But no. Kept up the whole 'who am I' schtick.

Yup. It has been so disappointing to see the female doctor played like this. With boring sidekicks obviously picked to cover diversity quotas. And tedious moralising storylines.

I want escapism, action, humour, fantasy, excitement. This series has certainly not delivered.