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 ? 😂😂😂 !!

Yeah it was a great premise but very badly executed.

Week 2.
more kiddy this week. But I liked the reappearance of an old enemy and mrs flood in an unexpected place.
what’s the significance of May 24th?

Once again I assumed nobody on MN had watched. I found Ep2 simply boring - though the Dr Who fans were fun. I don’t know what it is they’re getting so wrong - I just can’t locate anything deserving of an emotional reaction on my part. It’s all so flat and pointless.

May 24th is apparently the date of this season’s finale.

Ep 2 just didn’t make sense. Celluloid film burns but it doesn’t explode, so how did the wall blow up?
How would the Doctor know “episodes” by name from inside the Whoniverse?
Why did the missing theatregoers just reappear (surely the film they were trapped in was destroyed so the caretaker’s wife would be just as likely as them to be miraculously spawned from the explosion)?
The episode jumped the shark when it started talking about itself mid-episode. In other long running programmes that’s usually something that happens in the final few episodes.
I don’t like the shiny Disneyfication of the new Who Era, it sits badly with the edgy grittiness of earlier series’, and somehow as the budget went up the effects quality went down.

We enjoyed it - loved the Miami vibe and the style of it. Quirky rather than moving though I thought the cinema operator story and the mum were moving and well acted

Has it lost edginess? That would be ironic … But something’s missing. There’s no danger - for anyone, not just the two people being paid to be in every episode. I just can’t feel anything about all the scampering about. It’s not the actors, who are clearly doing their best. It can’t surely be that too much production money is making the show too safe? This weekend I’ve been to watch the Ryan Coogler film Sinners, which apparently cost $90 million to make, and almost vomited from fear and sorrow. I want Dr Who to prompt even a fraction of that reaction in me.

So I guess it must be the writing …

I think the story was there but perhaps not deep enough

I gave up 2 doctors ago. It’s woke shite now.

I gave up on this one but will watch the next.

This was too boring for me. I like the new companion but not enough doctor and rubbish robots. I must have missed what happened to the old companion too - did she leave? I didn't mind her but don't like it when the companion is the doctor's best friend in ten seconds then is gone.

I like the new doctor though so I'll watch the next one and see if it's better - there were some great episodes last season and some crappy ones in between.

Thing is, I am probably classed as pretty woke and it's pissing me off too! It's just not being written well and getting quite dull.the only two episodes I have liked since RTD came back were the Toymaker and the time travel hotel.

The evil cartoon is a pretty rubbish plot, but it could have had much more tension. Who framed Roger Rabbit managed real depth of emotion from the cartoon shoe getting murdered! Yet all we got was exposure to sunlight makes the god dissipate into nothing. Such an anticlimax.

I did know it was coming but I don't watch it any more, not after Capaldi and after the Timeless Child changed all the canon.
I had a quick hopeful look after RTD and Ncuti arrived, but it was just a preachy vehicle for their ultra woke views, plus they told us to basically bugger off if we didn't like it.
So I went and “touched grass” as instructed.
Quite upset about it all, actually.

I’m still watching but no longer wait breathlessly for the next episode. In fact I forget it’s going to be on most of the time.

The breaking the third wall was interesting. But it’s not found it’s feet for ages and it’s such a shame.

I found this one boring. It felt too similar to a Buffy episode (or maybe two combined, the one with the ventriloquist dummy come to life, and the one with the dancing until they combusted).
I feel like we still don’t know this doctor, and we really don’t know the companion and I’d like to know them better before a green screen episode.

I did like the fans watching, especially as one was played by Brontë Barbe who was a contestant on Over the rainbow back in the day.

I think an 11 year old would have found it packed with ideas and a bit scary which is the target viewer really

It seems the ideas are there but they don't know how to tell them or just stuck halfway. It had potential then lost it halfway through!

I thought the whole Blink being their favourite was because they were about to 'blink' our of existence but nope..turns out that was a actual conversation about the episode

It's all rather rushed and superficial, isn't it? The depth shown in previous incarnations isn't there and it's because the plot isn't developed enough so the characters rush from emotion to emotion

It was bit too meta, but I enjoyed Ncuti and Belinda’s energy together, sorry can’t remember actress’s name.

Yes, I think that’s a big factor, @LadyMacbethssweetArabianhand - there’s no gravitas.

I watched the most recent episode on iPlayer, and then found myself watching the first episode with Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper (it automatically segued onto that from Lux for some reason).

So much more gripping. Billie Piper especially had such a believable, rounded character, with her mum and job and boyfriend. And Christopher Eccleston was so quick and spiky.

I like both Ncuti Gatwa and the Belinda actress, but the stories seem softer and more sentimental. And yes, Lux was too meta.

It’s probably been discussed on previous Dr Who threads - but I do wonder if the productions are geared to making NG actually bland. Because they think …

I mean he was the opposite of bland in Sex Education and I was beside myself with excitement about his move to Who. But he’s made to be so relentlessly nice, and smiley and totally unthreatening. No negative reactions apart from pretty tears. It’s stupid, and disappointing and he must be longing to do something where he can display a full range of adult emotions - be powerful and cruel and violent and as horrible as a human being caught up in big events might need to be.

Definitely. That's the thing all previous doctors though not sure about Jodie as didn't watch had their speech or powerful moments. We've not had that so far.

Also doesn't help it all seems very disjointed.

What's wrong with Doctor Who now is:
1- the Doctor has lost his unsentimental, slightly spiky edge. All the crying is so out of character, it doesn't work.
2 - too preachy
3- Not scary anymore

I really miss Capaldi. He didn't cry when Clara died but the grief and anger was palpable. Now everything feels saccharine and meaningless. Crying every episode renders it meaningless. He shouldn't have cried even once, that's not the Doctor. The writers have totally lost him.

Just watched the third episode and really enjoyed it,

Feels like it might be a patchy series again with some good episodes. It’s been like that for years, I suppose it’s difficult to keep the standard consistent.

Okay … 10 minutes in and this is already the best episode for ages.

Finally! Finally …

Happy with that.

RTD couldn’t resist a little lecture in the middle, but apart from that - heart thumping, whilst grinning, whilst slightly afraid …

Proper.