Doctor Who

[Deborah54]

This will be my 12th Doctor. I’m a big Doctor Who fan. Happy memories of Sat with my dad watching cyber men and darleks.
But what the hell has happened? I’ve just finished, well I managed 25 mins, before I couldn’t take it anymore the 1st episode with the new Doctor and sidekick. Awful acting with a ludicrous plot (yes I know it’s fantasy) but it’s never been this stupid. Can’t help but think the BBC aren’t bothered and think they can put out anything and we’ll watch. Russell T Davies should have his pens taken off him and spare us anymore pain.

I can’t be the only Doctor Who fan who thinks like this. Absolutely Gutted 😞

What I don't understand is the relation of Rogue to the rest of the shapeshifting ignoramuses (ignorant because not genuine Regency as in Austen, or fiendishly well researched as in Heyer). Before the opening stuff he appears to be taken over by a nasty alien who wants to cosplay being Byronic on steroids, mad, bad and dangerous, but then is anything but. (Maybe Byron not on steroids as in Greece).
And where did the Bridgerton cast come from if this is a simulated English Regency ball?
Not enough explained in too short a time.
I used to take school trips round Dover Castle, with its history from Iron Age oppidum, Roman pharos, norman and Plantagenet building and battles, civil war (that's our civil war) capture, Napoleonic defences and prisoners and a mention of WWII work. I wouldn't now. It's all focussed on Henry II and been dressed up with fake tapestries and furnishings, Disneyfied was the expression, I think. Though Disney not involved. And that's what they are doing to Dr Who. No explanation of how the Dr and Ruby get somewhere, where it is (did they know it was fake?), why they are there; just isolated episodes, with no before or after for the people in the story. What's going to happen to the ball goers?

I really enjoyed yesterday's episode. Sci-fi, fantasy and period romance combined! My three favourite genres for TV drama, all wrapped up into one package. What's not to like?! Personal taste of course... 😊

@Treaclewell - this might help you; scroll down to Plot:

https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Rogue_(TV_story)

(I am not suggesting that a synopsis is generally necessary for this episode - but if any viewer misses a plot point it’s helpful to see it written down.)

It wasn't fake though. The shapeshifters were "cosplaying" in reality weren't they?. It wasn't actually Bridgerton. There have always been non-historically accurate black characters in the show.

No explanation of how the Dr and Ruby get somewhere, where it is

There often isn't a reason for the doctor and his companion being somewhere other than basically sightseeing. They don't always categorically state why they are somewhere - in this case I assume Ruby wanted to visit the Regency era. As for where it was, it was Bath in 1813. It said so on screen right at the start.

Before the opening stuff he appears to be taken over by a nasty alien

Rogue wasn't taken over by an alien

@SoupDragon I was rather hoping that by linking a synopsis above we could avoid the next fifty posts explaining the basic plot …

I enjoyed it, I thought it was the Slitheen episode all over again and Rogue was Captain Jack all over again, none of which I minded as they were both favourites of mine.

I thought the black characters were due to colour blind casting (here and in Bridgerton which I have never watched) and I thought the lack of reaction to the Doctor was due to that thing the Tardis does to help you blend in, so that, say, you can be in Victorian England in a mini skirt and no one bats an eyelid.

I thought the black characters were due to colour blind casting (here and in Bridgerton which I have never watched

Honestly probably better to watch Bridgerton first - before trying to explain its significance in Doctor Who!

Yes I think it has to be the Tardis perception filter at work. They're not actually in Bridgerton-world, they're in our Regency Bath with four alien visitors.

The OTT costumes, modern tunes and apartment absence of Napoleonic war (the Shapeshifters needn't have bothered declaring war on France) were artistic licence, nodding to the inspiration.

I do think that the Dr appearing in an upper class regency setting would have drawn attention and comment - the ball attendees were meant to be real people. It feels like lack of attention to detail that no one would remark on his skin colour but they would all be scandalised by two men dancing.
And where did all the people disappear to when the aliens and Ruby were trapped in the holding cell?

I think they could do a lot with this reboot by showing the Dr's experiences as a black man in contrast to his other lives. Or if they cba they could at least say that the tardis perception filter makes the Dr and Ruby fit in appearance wise, wherever they go, in the same way that it translates languages or their tech gives them useful skills for whatever society they find themselves in, like they did with Ruby's ability to dance.

@ABirdsEyeView Dr Who does address racism - both last week in dot and bubble, and in Victorian England with Bill. Plus Jodie visited Rosa Parks. That’s all off the top of my head.

i am gonna take a punt that Bridgerton doesn’t feature homosexuality, even if it does have black characters, hence the more shocking part of that

It does, but it seems odd to do dot and bubble and then ignore it completely in the next episode, when that episode takes place in regency England.
It's like they'd decided the audience wasn't capable of thinking about what it must be like to be both gay and black in those times.
Idk I think dr who has become clunky and is missing opportunities to weave continued storyline over the series. Instead it feels like each episode has no link to the others, bar the Susan Twist thing

Bridgerton has loads of homosexuality, although it's set in a world with more or less the same amount of anti-gay prejudice as the real Regency.

In any case, this story isn't set in the fictional Bridgerton universe, it's set in the real world, albeit with a fairly loose approach to realistic music and costumes from the production team.

Ah, ok - so it exists in that Shondaland universe but is still “shocking”

I think it’s ok for Dr Who to focus on homophobia one week and racism another week 🤷‍♀️

as for continued storyline - Moffat was an absolute ONE for everything being in the arc, to the extent that it was a shock if he did a “standalone”. RTD was less so, with Bad Wolf/the Harold Saxon posters being peppered in episodes rather than being a focus, until the finales.

Rude

"It feels like lack of attention to detail that no one would remark on his skin colour"

But there were loads of non-white people in the ballroom in the episode last night.

It was okay - it bumbled along entertaining enough but very superficial.

If I hadn't grown up with WHO wouldn't be bothering with the series as there are many other shows do that better. Though only really watching now due to youngest still being willing to watch with us and that is waning - she increasingly complains the episodes are odd though not last nights that was fine.

As a very young child staying with older relatives I was insistent had to watch Dr Who - when it was rebooted we saw kids running back from playing in park to watch Dr Who - I don't think this series has that magic - not sure what that magic ever was but it's absent.

You could say that's a product of digital age - but I got sucked into Alice in Borderland on Netflix to point of being excited to see the next episode - not I thought my cup of tea as hated squid games - but the writing and acting got me hooked.

Belatedly realised that while BBC Dr Who doing such a massive plug for a Netflix show is weird, Disney+ Dr Who plugging Netflix is positively inexplicable.

I can't imagine that the new funders were delighted.

Surely it would bring a Netflix audience who aren’t attracted to the MCU to Disney? That can’t be bad.

I think it's more Bridgerton is in the zeitgeist - I haven't watched it but am aware of it and it's casting choices.

Surely it would bring a Netflix audience who aren’t attracted to the MCU to Disney?

In UK they could see Dr Who on iPlayer anyway - but even those abroad who can't not sure those watching Bridgton will be aware or bothered than a one episode of another genera show used Bridgerton as a backdrop - would that really be enough to encourage them to subscribe to another digital service with associated bill. Plus there already more on Disney + then the MCU. (Reminds me my £1.99 offer on Disney+ is coming to an end soon).

Must admit I didn't pay much attention to the background people (was doing the ironing at the same time), except they did seem to go missing in the wedding scene after the aliens were trapoed. But maybe that's explainable as them running away as soon as they were able.

Re shondaland, has anyone noticed the constant plugging of Amazon prime in her Greys/Station 19 stuff recently. Have the networks pulled the funding or something?

Geeky, disgruntled - worth reading as out of the usual run of reviews:

https://www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/rogue-review

I love Bridgerton. Bridgerton has an internally consistent origin story to explain the number of non-white characters. It doesn't have colourblind casting, genetically related characters are all the same race (or mixed race where appropriate). And I properly ugly cried at the end of the Queen Charlotte series which was my favourite so far.

Ruby and Doctor Who were not in the Bridgerton world, they were in the 'real' Bath of 1813, the references to Bridgerton were just a comment on the zeitgeist. There was either not enough people from non-white ethic backgrounds for it to be in the Bridgerton world or too many for it to be the real Bath. I understand that RTD probably doesn't want NG to constantly have to deal with racism but there was a contrast between the depiction of a very racist future world vs an historic world which we know was racist being shown as not being racist and that could have been avoided by changing the episode order.

Paul Forman and Jonathan Groff are both tall, dark and handsome but not interchangeable.

Paul played Lord Barton, a baddie (cad) killed by the alien at the start.
Jonathan played Rogue, the bounty hunter pursuing the alien.

I think they are both hot but as a past review stated, Ncuti's lipsync was absolute filth ! I may have revisited that part more than is seemly.

I managed to get confused between the two at the beginning: I haven't seen Jonathan Groff since Glee series 3, and I was doing the ironing.

I did sort it out eventually.