Doctor Who Christmas special cancelled

[C8H10N4O2]

I haven’t seen this mentioned yet or any other discussion since the last main thread here:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5313615-was-anyone-else-aware-that-the-new-dr-who-series-was-starting-tonight

Bare bones Beeb article is here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c621ln7vx7qo

Times article has more analysis:
https://www.thetimes.com/article/d4394dfa-d867-4f05-b4ee-05c838083f0b?shareToken=64a751c967e4fd4ad83a8f5328e6d5c9

The Times article syncs more with a lot of the discussion on the thread here - Ncuti deserved better storylines and scripts and the Disney money and special effects were a distraction rather than an enhancement. As the article points out - some of the most popular episodes of all time were low budget episodes which focussed on good stories, strong characterisation and tight direction.

I wonder who will take it on and if it will recapture the spirit of the earlier Davies’ revival.

They deliberately only make a Bond film every 5-6 years to keep the hype up.

The next Bond film is already in pre-production, expected to film next year for release in 2028.

Wholeheartedly agree

It stopped being good when Matt and Karen left

Peter Capaldi just never worked for me

The Jodie Whitaker years were positively unwatchable

I didn’t like RTDs writing the first time around, forever writing ideas and not fleshing them out - often referred to as writing cheques he can’t cash.
The best stories in Doctor Who in the Ecclestone/Tennant/Smith era were all written by Steven Moffat

The Ncuti Gatwa series suffered from big ideas poorly executed with massive plotholes, absolutely riddled with them.

Good Riddance to RTD I say

And an extra Fuck You to Chris Chibnall as well because his disastrous run has had a knock on effect on the series as a whole

I watched a couple of the last series. It came to me that Ncuti was a diversity hire, term i dislike,in that RTD has a certain style of programming and he ticked the boxes, but he was too good an actor for the weak storylines, they just pushed how rtd wanted the personality of the Dr to be.The first three reboot Drs were great(Tennant is prone to chew scenery and personally I can't stand the man, but he can be a good actor). Davis gave us an exciting Dr, but the scripts were great, the character arcs solid and you genuinely cared about them.

All very patronising. You have to be educated you see…..

All those people with … races (sic) forcibly appearing on our screens.

Outrageous.

We should only have actors without a race on the BBC.

I liked him, but rewatched it all last year and took it really personally when he destroyed Harriet. With all the murdering he did over the years, he deliberately brought down a brilliant female prime minister for protectingthe earth. I realise DT was just following the script, but I was annoyed at him for ages after 😂

We were big doctor who fans but after Matt smith it completely lost its way. Since then it’s become a channel to preach ideologies that dominated the storylines beyond actual good story writing. For me, the alien having a they/them gender was the nail in the coffin. It was beyond ridiculous, because this became the focus.

It has been back for 20 years. Time for a break I think. BBC has form for exhausting things and continuing far too long.

Race had nothing to do with it. Instead of writing compelling stories with the message subtly weaved into the background, they’d beat you over the head with whatever issue of the day they felt compelled to, and I agreed with most of the messages, but you know, it doesn’t make good TV to be so heavy-handed with it to the detriment of actual storylines.

I love Capaldi

• Face the Raven/Hell Bent/Heaven Sent

• Listen

• The Zygon Invasion/Inversion

All absolute winners.

… and it is no coincidence that Moffat wrote or co-wrote nearly all of those.

Ncuti is a fantastic, mesmerising actor - saw him live in Born With Teeth and he was brilliant.

interesting how we all experience dr who. I was obsessed through the tom baker years and gave up at Sylvester McCoy. Returning to it when my kids were young tweens I managed Christopher Eccleston, David tennant and a bit of Matt smith, but I realised I couldn’t follow half the storylines and almost needed an excel to catch up. So I gave up with the complicated back stories and themes.

Don't get me started on the Chibnall era.
Rosa. A white saviour had to help her get on the bus. Fuck off.
Every episode needed a suicide to save the woeful companions and the gurning Whittaker.
Space Babies?
Fuck off
And then RTDs diatribe about/ against the fans who dared say it was shit? ( We were more polite).

Yes @ladymalfoy I stopped watching after the Rosa Parks episode. Tone Deaf.

I saw Born With Teeth, too! They were both rather better than the material. Even though one at least appears to be a better screen than stage actor. I didn’t find The Importance of Being Earnest impressive.

(I hope NG is grateful for my patronage - I usually actively avoid West End theatre …)

I thought Jodie Whittaker was great but the storylines did her an injustice ….

Loved Dr Who in the days of Tom Baker etc, thought Christopher Eccleston was excellent as was David Tennant, but then the stories just became increasingly woke, boring threads throughout the series rather than stand alone stories, RTD did a great job in the initial resurrection but increasingly seemed to have lost the plot. It wasn’t the actors playing the Dr who were poor but the storylines. To survive , it needs to either rediscover the type of storylines seen in the mid 70s or the one from the Eccleston/ early Tennant era

Oh I loved Born with Teeth, the whole thing. What didn’t you like? I found it really thrilling. That table jump must have been a killer every night though!

Hard to remember! It was all perfectly nice, and well staged. Maybe just insufficiently deep and searching?

I was at a preview where, as NG clambered from chair to table one of the pieces of furniture wobbled as he put his weight on it - and the whole audience held their breath. And he flicked us a humorously triumphant look as he managed to steady himself.

I have watched from the first episode in 1963 and I stopped watching when they retconned the Doctor's origins and departed from canon in the Timeless Child. Absolute bollocks and a kick in the teeth to years of fandom, not to mention to William Hartnell's Doctor.
Plus all the tiresome wokeism and preaching.
Capaldi was the last good Doctor indeed, I would say he was great.

The thing about Dr Who is that it’s often a bit ’woke’ but in a show not tell way. The last couple of series have been all tell, which is because RTD is a very unsubtle writer. Moffat is much better in my opinion but I think I read that he said he’s not interested in coming back

Me too!

Capaldi is my favourite Doctor by miles - he was brilliant. It hasn't been anything like as good since he left.