Was anyone else aware that the new Dr Who series was starting tonight??

[bizzey]

😮..I have come across it by accident.

Last year it was was well advertised.
The TARDIS flying on the BBC screen at every opportunity and so.

I do record a lot of my programmes so maybe I missed it ?

But I didn't last year 🤔.

And I really thought they said it was going to be May for the new series ?

Have I been on another planet ? 😂😂😂 !!

The Rani seems to have gone to Aldi to get a device that can replace the need for a Tardis

I thought it was like the gadget that Jack Harkness has always had - the Vortex Manipulator
Maybe just a blinged up version of that.

I don’t think Jonathan Groff was available/affordable to come on set - the TV broadcast in Wish World looks like it was shot on green screen wherever he happened to be dialling in from.

But yes, rescuing Rogue as a final act would have been brill!

Hmmmmmmm.

I feel like they've pulled a reverse "impossible girl" scenario with Belinda.

Clara was wildly annoying in her first series because she didn't make sense, she was a mystery instead of a character.

But surely they had a huge opportunity to make a few things "not make sense" about Bel, intrigued the viewer, and instead they made her the dullest and most functionless companion ever - Anita did more of consequence, and she was in one episode.

I'm not even going to talk about the Billie Piper thing.

Well that was a bit of an anti climax .

I found this one particularly annoying

best line was the 2 raniis , goodnight from me

all the Poppy claptrap

That was all very “and it was all a dream”.
The two ranis gag was the high point.
I’d rather have not seen Omega, it was scarier as a mysterious threat behind a door than a cartoon skeleton.
Is The Doctor declaring his love for his previous generation the ultimate narcissism?

That was not good. What a mess it was. I’m actually disappointed. I enjoyed the set up last week so this hodge podge of a finale has really dulled my enthusiasm. I’m going to watch from Chris Ecclestone again I think. They used to know where the doctor was heading and what the bigger story was, even in the stand alone’s. None of that finale felt earned.

What annoys me most is that the Doctor just didn't behave like the Doctor in nearly any of the series. I liked Ncuti and his energy but point of the Doctor is he isn't human - he is very old and very wise.. so he just knows more and is fiercely pacifist. So no guns. But most of the time he just seemed clueless and emotional and as caught up in the action as everybody else.

I think all the 'Gods' and 'magic' stuff didn't help. I do like the fact that 73yards has had some permanent effect on Ruby (even if it is a teeny bit 'impossible girl') but any other incarnation of the Doctor would be intrigued by that he'd never gloss over it. Never mind her distress.

Like others I found it a massive anti climax. Gutted that Ncuti is going so soon - he never even got his own “uniform” let alone a decent set of scripts and stories, not to mention several of “his” early episodes were given to Tenant instead and were very Doctor lite.

Some great episodes but mostly not, don’t know if its the Disney influence or just the Fitzrovia hubris but overall its been disappointing. I wonder if "The War Between the Land and the Sea” will be worth a watch?

Just seen the Times reviewer on the series and he captures a lot of my thoughts and others I’ve seen on this thread, particularly the million disparate and unpursued ideas, the excessive and overblown soundtrack and the pious lecturing laid on with a trowel. Maybe it needs a rest, I hate the idea that its finally dead so I’ll hope it comes back at some point in the way that Eccleston and Davies brought it back before. Maybe it needs a new writer who grew up as a fan but has a fresh take.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/2ad762f9-c2c4-4b71-81eb-f14d7bafbdb6?shareToken=c0557be7b51925375897e4a7e9f6e32b

I don’t mind Ncuti not having a uniform (honestly, with an infinite Tardis wardrobe, why would you wear the same thing every day?) as he certainly had a consistent style.

I don’t know why we needed Omega at all. Here’s Mrs Flood and then the Rani being perfectly fine mysterious villians, then Omega appears for 5 mins, eats the Rani and gets fried by the doctor. At least Sutekh had to get dragged through the time vortex for a bit to finish him off.

That’s a great article.

I quite enjoyed that. But I have questions.

He has a granddaughter but the time lords are sterile?

I thought they were bringing said granddaughter back or did I miss that.

I had avoided all rumours until I saw it scrolling through news right before watching it!

I’ve only got the two ranis joke when I read this thread!

I haven't enjoyed Ncuti at all, the crying, the hamming it up, it was a relief when he regenerated.
Rose Noble shoehorned in to tick a box and then not used to any great effect..Disability 'we're invisible' used as a box-tick and then conveniently forgotten - yes visibility is so important, but it becomes tokenistic when characters are little more than props with an occasional line of little consequence.
Finally get a strong female villain. Gets eaten by shonky CGI - where is the Disney money going?
Roared with laughter at Belinda's 'Daddys home' as the Doctor took off his coat and changed into a kilt. Haven't enjoyed the costume changes.
I have also not enjoyed everyone looking at Ncuti as if they want to rip off his pants and Jodie saying how handsome he is was a hard eye roll from me... But it was lovely to see her and made me realise how much I missed her. 'I should have told Yas I loved her was unnecessary.
High point - Anita's realisation that the Doctor is gay. A lovely little subtle blink of a performance, that underlined how Ncuti overacts everything.
At this point I'd obviously love anyone that he regenerated into, I adore Billie Piper as an actress, I hope it isn't a RTD jolly little jape and she's firmly in.
I've fallen out of love with it a bit. I want that big love to come back.

I think the idea that it needs a break and then someone who was a kid and grew up with Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, or Jodi Whittaker, comes back to write afresh is an astute call by a PP.

It’s the heart that’s gone. I remember DTs regeneration, and MS’s. I really cared. I was so sad to see them go and so excited to see what was next. The writing was full and the characters a whole. They’ve forgotten that bit of late.

I agree with that times article that the episode with Rose Aisling Ellis was one of the best written for this doctor. It was like RTD remembered what he was doing for an hour.

I liked it when Dr Who was brought back by Christopher Eccleston and I watched it through to when David Tennant (my fave) regenerated to Matt Smith. But that's when I stopped. I saw the odd special but it was never the same for me. I did watch a bit of the new guy (forget his name) but couldn't get it.
Now my major issue is with how many time the doctor has regenerated. I was of the understanding The Doctor could only do it 13 times. So has this been explained somewhere I've not seen that has extended this?

It’s been explained twice now. When Matt Smith regenerated the time lords from Gallifery gave him the extra life force to regenerate and sort of reset the ability. (Quick attempt to explain a long arc 🤣)

But then Jodie Whitaker’s incarnation retconned the whole story of the Doctor with the timeless child stuff so in theory the Doctor is different and has actually regenerated many more times than we have seen or the Doctor remembers and is effectively immortal. Again, a precis!

I just need to add the thought that Laurence Fox is most likely raging at Billie getting arguably the biggest gig on telly - presuming she has actually got it and it's not RTD having a little laugh at our expense. Which makes the casting just a little bit better for me.

Ncuti has been the worst doctor ever, glad it's finished, can we not let series just die of into space!

I think most of us would prefer it improved than died off!

How is Omega the creator of the time Lords, and the doctor the Timeless child?

So many contradictions. The CGI was terrible.

Poppy was confusing.

Poppy was very confusing. shocked that the doctor actor left so quickly.

It's just so bad I can't watch it. So worthy. I call it Dr Woo.
I've been watching it since childhood in the 1960s and it's always been something to look forward to until the last few years.
The next Dr will be a drag queen.
RIP my happy childhood memories.

Rose Noble shoehorned in to tick a box and then not used to any great effect

Do you mean last night, or in general? She was pretty integral to the first of the 14th Doctor episodes and, as she ended up working at Unit, why shouldn’t she have been there in the finale?

Best not to watch, then, if it retrospectively ruins your childhood.

Urgh, I hate all the fucking about with Gallifrey/origins that the new who writers have done. I never did get my head around the timeless child stuff!

What a mess of unresolved threads.

Why did they try to pack several series worth of plots into 8 episodes?

Why was Poppy in the story traveller episode if she isn't imagined into being until Conrad's wish world?
Why did they rally the power of disabled people, only to have Shirly run back to unit and them all be ignored?
Why didn't they find a way to plot the baby's genetic signature back to it's parents and have a happy ending for them?
Why is someone giving Ruby's mum a baby when she has rejected Ruby multiple times?
Why have they totally wasted Rogue? Him and Ncuti's doctors were perfect for each other. Now even if they do rescue him, it will be a different doctor.
Why have they totally wasted Belinda? She was the best companion in ages. Now she can't be with The Doctor as she is looking after her daughter.
Why did they introduce the brilliant Archie Panjabi just to be eaten two episodes later?
What was the point of Omega for 30 seconds as god of the week?

Gahhhhhhh! With a longer series, and less virtue signalling just then not pursue the idea, a lot of the issues could have been resolved. Maybe they should just copy 1980's cartoons amd have He-Man walking through the woods at the end saying "drugs are bad kids". Then we can just fast forward the moralising. Ncuti deserved better writing