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filkry

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,890
Bill was good. The Doctor was always well written but isn't, you know, human. I'm not saying I disliked his writing. Like I said, my biggest complaint is that sometimes he didn't give his great ideas enough room to breath.

If we want to talk character development, then obviously Graham stands out, but I wasn't talking about development, but how human characters felt. To use a non Moffat example, I mean it in the same way Rose often didn't feel 'human' in season 2 (Tooth and Claw and The Idiot Lantern stand out). Clara was great in her governess form, but I really didn't like the first or third version of her. I wish they'd stuck with the original plan to have the governess become the companion.

The teams interactions with all the staff in Kerblam! really sell you on the idea that they're still essentially human. They treat the people they run into like equals, even though they're doing menial jobs. They aren't 'special' in some scifi cosmic way like most of Moffat's companions. Those are the stories Moffat liked to tell. Amy, the girl with the crack in her wall. Rory the man who died a lot and who spent thousands of years as a Roman auton. Clara the woman who became thousands of versions of herself all for the Doctor. It's understandable that they aren't particularly recognizable as humans.

And to be as transparent as possible, I loved Nardole because he was unashamedly alien. Osgood was a very 'human' character, even if she stopped being human.

I guess I like the Doctor to be offset by characters that represent humanity, and the current team are wonderfully human.

Rose was at her best when taking the time to chat to a plumber or enthusing about chips. Not yucking it up while people died.

Just my own tastes. It wasn't my intent to imply that Moffat *can't* write humans who behave human. But he rarely seemed interested in it, almost seeming to suggest that it's admirable for people to refuse travel with the Doctor.

This very much so. I think Yaz could be amped up a bit, but the other two are great.

I enjoyed the series overall. I was very ready for a season with no overarching mystery and lower stakes, and this delivered. I agree with the criticism that the CC episodes all kind of failed to close it out, but otherwise I don't have many criticisms. It's weird to say that I don't think this season will ever be one of my favourites, but it was what I needed out of Who right now - temperance, ambiguity and curiosity.

It actually really felt like 8th Doctor Big Finish dramas to me (classic range). Especially the final two episodes, which were so auditorially rich.
 

M.Bluth

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,238
Finally got around to watching the finale, and I had a good time. Mostly. It's the most exciting episode all year.

But the glaring problems persist. Still only care about Graham. Still weirded out by the Doctor's bullshit morality. When she told Graham that if he killed Tim Shaw he'd become the same as him....
giphy.gif

What?! I thought they'll talk about revenge's corrupting effect, but nope, instead it's still the "all killing is bad" nonsense. Nevermind she's soon probably will blow up a bunch of Daleks on new year's (or at the latest in s12).
And how come Ryan doesn't want to avenge his grandmother? He's known her for longer, she's the one who raised him ffs, but he doesn't even consider taking revenge for a single second?! How weird!

And, anyone else thought it was incredibly odd that they didn't bother to get a couple of shots of people on Earth freaking out because there's this giant laser swallowing the planet?

So what did anyone besides Graham learn at the end of this season? Ryan finally accepted Graham which is good but predictable from scene 1 of the season, can't see any other point of growth there. Yaz is still Yaz, she's mostly a waste of space, especially since this Doctor asks as many questions as the companions, so even for that narrative function she's not necessary. The Doctor spared Tim Shaw's life and he ended up enslaving two gods and stealing the entirety of a bunch of planets. You'd think the lesson there is "no loose ends," but nope, doesn't even make sure that he's imprisoned properly.

Overall, an okay end to a very disappointing season that lacked both narrative and character arcs, that had concepts wasted by not addressing basic scripting issues, that had a Doctor without wit or wisdom or the slightest hint of an edge, a TARDIS team that is so basic and bland it would look paperthin even in the early 80's.

I hate that I didn't like it. I hate that this is what Chibnall managed to deliver for the first female Doctor. I cringe at the thought that we might end up only managing to credit this era of the show for casting a different gender in the role as its only innovation and not much else.

Goddammit, why?!
 

Halbrand

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,612
Finally got around to watching the finale, and I had a good time. Mostly. It's the most exciting episode all year.

But the glaring problems persist. Still only care about Graham. Still weirded out by the Doctor's bullshit morality. When she told Graham that if he killed Tim Shaw he'd become the same as him....
Yeah, this in particular and everything else in your post, are exactly my thoughts

Based on the previews I was expecting this series to simply be bland and dull, but the most offensive thing about this series was just how badly the Doctor was written
 

Trike

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Nov 6, 2017
2,391
This series has been super disappointing as a whole. The finale felt more like the second part of a two part story. The villain felt more like a plot device than a threat.
 

LL_Decitrig

User-Requested Ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,334
Sunderland
I hate that I didn't like it. I hate that this is what Chibnall managed to deliver for the first female Doctor. I cringe at the thought that we might end up only managing to credit this era of the show for casting a different gender in the role as its only innovation and not much else.

Goddammit, why?!

Doctor Who was a great show during Series 1-10, but it had acquired an ever smaller niche audience that grew ever less satisfied. Series 11 has better ratings and has stunned casual audiences by showing the capacity of this medium to cover historical events in an accessible way.

And you ask why?

In Reith's own words: inform, educate, entertain.
 

M.Bluth

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,238
Doctor Who was a great show during Series 1-10, but it had acquired an ever smaller niche audience that grew ever less satisfied. Series 11 has better ratings and has stunned casual audiences by showing the capacity of this medium to cover historical events in an accessible way.

And you ask why?

In Reith's own words: inform, educate, entertain.
That wasn't what I was talking about when I said why...
 

ChrisP8Three

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,006
Leeds
Well i'm well behind on this but managed to watch the last few episodes last night

My thoughts

I love the Doctor, mostly - up to the last few episodes i loved her characterisation which seemed to draw heavily on the Tennant era personality, but the tail end of the season she got a little, well dull! the Rita Sue and Bob too episode was all over the place, the plot was dumb and all over the place with the Doctor bumbling around not knowing what was going on until the very end when she discovered Becca was possessed and suddenly knew everything again and fixed everything in the last 5 min.

The last episode itself was fun, but again felt lack luster - I agree with everything M.Bluth said, The strange all killers are the same bullshit was off coming from a being who has killed many many times and stranger in the false equivalence of a mass murder to Graham wanting to stop this monster once and for all! Maybe just maybe if she had gone on and explained about how then you go down the same dark path and can become the same, or maybe had the monologue Ryan had with him about being the better man and finding a way, but no! you kill and you are the same and i'll leave you here. And where did this morality come from? previous companions have killed and the Doctor has had no issue, it just felt very much out of place.

The villain felt like they were shoe horned in, that they needed a villain for the ideal/threat they'd thought up and use Tim Shaw because it fit neatly of coming full circle on the series.

I do share some of the same thoughts on Characters, I loved Graham he's been great throughout the series and felt like he's had some real emotional development. Ryan too i felt developed but it was more in bursts, first few episodes he did then he was just along for the ride, then in the last two he's had sort of development in acknowledging Graham, but that in itself felt more as an avenue for more development of Graham
I like Yaz, i do, but i've felt like she's had little to no development since the first episode and Third (?) with her grandparents but even that was more she learned something than developed.

I've enjoyed the series as a whole more than Capaldi's, whilst he had some stellar episodes, he suffered from poor writing so i overall didn't enjoy his run. So far this has felt more consistent but i think that might be because two of the characters carried the series (The Doctor and Graham) and were more interesting than Capaldi's group.

2020 for more however is just not good, far far too long!
 

Halbrand

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,612
I'm pretty sure the ratings boost was due mainly to the interest in a female Doctor. The premiere's ratings were undeniability great, but the ratings have had a significant downward slope in a way that no other season has, with the finale getting lower ratings than Capaldi's first finale.

By the finale S11 had kept 63% of its original audience, while Series 8 had kept 83%, Series 2 95%.
 

Cosmonaut X

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,946
I'm pretty sure the ratings boost was due mainly to the interest in a female Doctor. The premiere's ratings were undeniability great, but the ratings have had a significant downward slope in a way that no other season has, with the finale getting lower ratings than Capaldi's first finale.

Are the consolidated figures in for the finale? Hadn't seen them yet - I know It Takes You Away dipped under 7 million total (overnight+consolidated) but I'd be surprised if the finale was lower, and I was expecting it to be in the low-mid-7 million range, which would put it near to Capaldi's first finale, and a decent figure for the final episode compared to the figures over the last couple of series. Not as good as it could have been if the early figures had held up, but I think a decent chunk of that was typical new Doctor novelty + the curiosity of seeing the first female Doctor.

The percentage drop-off looks worse, but that's arguably because the huge figures for the opening of this series skewed things. If the figures end up typically over 7-ish-million per episode this series, that's a big improvement on both of Capaldi's previous series.
 
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PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
115,341
Whatever. You're wondering why the show isn't what you've grown to expect. Don't complain because you don't like the answer you get.

I think there could've been a way to achieve the three things you mentioned while also delivering stories that aren't so...bland, and a Doctor who doesn't feel like an accessory to her own show. Chibnall is just not a very good writer - he's definitely a solid producer, but he simply doesn't seem to have the chops necessary to be head writer.
 

Santiako

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,151
Finally watched the finale. What an awful season. Nothing worked for me. I really wanted to like Jodie as the Doctor but she was really bland, hopefully she grows into the role with better writing. The companions were interchangeable nothings.

Bleh, my biggest hope is that when the show comes back in 2020 it comes back without Chibnall attached.
 

LL_Decitrig

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Oct 27, 2017
10,334
Sunderland
I think there could've been a way to achieve the three things you mentioned while also delivering stories that aren't so...bland, and a Doctor who doesn't feel like an accessory to her own show. Chibnall is just not a very good writer - he's definitely a solid producer, but he simply doesn't seem to have the chops necessary to be head writer.

I think I can concede that criticism, albeit I have enjoyed a lot of his writing. He's following two of the greatest writers the show has ever seen, and that's a very sticky wicket to play.

Most of the stories that really stood out in Series 11 were by supporting writers. I don't think that's a bad thing. This is a show that almost any writer can treat as a blank slate, and the success of the two major historicals in this series must surely make this franchise a very attractive proposition to any young writer looking to make their mark.
 

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
115,341
I think I can concede that criticism, albeit I have enjoyed a lot of his writing. He's following two of the greatest writers the show has ever seen, and that's a very sticky wicket to play.

Most of the stories that really stood out in Series 11 were by supporting writers. I don't think that's a bad thing. This is a show that almost any writer can treat as a blank slate, and the success of the two major historicals in this series must surely make this franchise a very attractive proposition to any young writer looking to make their mark.

I think the issue really comes down to the fact that there weren't enough of the standout guest-writer episodes. The ones we did get were so head and shoulders above the rest that they really expose the weaknesses of Chibnall's general style as a writer.
 

LL_Decitrig

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I think the issue really comes down to the fact that there weren't enough of the standout guest-writer episodes. The ones we did get were so head and shoulders above the rest that they really expose the weaknesses of Chibnall's general style as a writer.

I'd like to wait a few more weeks so we can look at the audience numbers over the whole series, which typically take three weeks to come in.

I've lived through entire decades in which I felt Doctor Who was no longer suited to me as a viewer; it often had problems with the sheer breadth of its audience. The show has slowly won back my favour, but I'm really ancient now so I'm not the kind of audience they need to cater for. My age group probably represents about 5% of the audience.

And my feeling about Peter Capaldi's run really brought the point home to me. I love Moffat's writing style, with his corkscrew plots that just evaporate in the finale, and I've always loved Peter as an actor.

You know that bit in The Doctor's Wife where Eleven says "She's the TARDIS, and she's a woman" and Amy looks shrewdly into his eyes and replies "Did you wish really hard?" That's what Peter's time was for me. Black velvet jacket and shades, a happy curmudgeon with a vaguely Stratocaster-like Yamaha guitar, whose hearts melt at the sound of a baby crying. And he got to play Doctor Who opposite one of the greatest comic actors the show has ever seen, Michelle Gomez as Missy.

But that kind of writing and casting is probably too much of a niche taste. I loved it but even on this forum it obviously wasn't universally loved. A TARDIS full of wrinklies!

I feel the new series is the most radical reset since 2005, and obviously it's going to upset a lot of fans who have their expectations overturned by Thirteen's style and the relatively modest stakes. So what if her team saved umpteen planets and their occupants from destruction? She didn't run a victory lap and take sole credit. It's got to be a bit jarring when you see her make it all look so effortless.

The regular TARDIS crew this series is larger than it's been for most of the 55-year run. I don't mind that, really, and I would really have loved more episodes with those kids from Forest of the Night in the TARDIS. So count yourselves lucky. If it were up to me, you'd all have to deal with Bradley, who always forgets his anger management when the Daleks are going around exterminating people, and Maebh, who tells Twelve with childlike directness: "You helped me loads. I thought it was all my fault. I feel much better now." One of my adult kids is basically Maebh, I wish Doctor Who could tell them it's not their fault. I'm sure the clinicians who try to help me to care for them would appreciate the anger management joke.
 

Ignatz Mouse

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,741
I'm taking a middle ground that this season wasn't great, but it certainly wasn't the disaster it's being made out to be. Biggest issue for me (and I think, others) is that the season's strengths aren't where we want them to be-- namely, the character dynamics and the finer points of some the plots.
 

LL_Decitrig

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Oct 27, 2017
10,334
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that's a subject matter and a plot point, nothing to do with the execution.

Well that's how to get the audience.

Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat are both brilliant writers and great showrunners who risked their health to keep the show going. The result, though I maintain that the quality was ridiculously high, was a dwindling and increasingly cynical audience. Such is the nature of fandom.

Not once in twelve years did the show focus on young people of Indian and African heritage and explore their background in a way a small child could understand. Ryan steps out of the TARDIS and picks up a lady's dropped glove, provoking a major incident. Yaz visits her mother and finds that her first love was a Hindu neighbour who died in a terrible civil war that has been all but forgotten.

Shit, this is brilliant, audacious stuff! Why aren't you excited about this? I know you probably never saw The Trojans (Myth Makers) or Marco Polo, but come on!
 

Corky

Alt account
Banned
Dec 5, 2018
2,479
Well that's how to get the audience.

Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat are both brilliant writers and great showrunners who risked their health to keep the show going. The result, though I maintain that the quality was ridiculously high, was a dwindling and increasingly cynical audience. Such is the nature of fandom.

Not once in twelve years did the show focus on young people of Indian and African heritage and explore their background in a way a small child could understand. Ryan steps out of the TARDIS and picks up a lady's dropped glove, provoking a major incident. Yaz visits her mother and finds that her first love was a Hindu neighbour who died in a terrible civil war that has been all but forgotten.

Shit, this is brilliant, audacious stuff! Why aren't you excited about this? I know you probably never saw The Trojans (Myth Makers) or Marco Polo, but come on!
I was excited about them doing that. But I don't think it was good. Both those things can be true
 

Secretofmateria

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Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,424
Capaldi was a really fantastic doctor, but he didnt really come into
His own til series 9. So im willing to give this doctor the benefit of the doubt as once next season rolls around we will all
Be used to her as the doctor and hopefully she will get some proper character development
 

SigmasonicX

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,465
I'm glad they did an episode about it, but I know for a fact that my (Indian) dad will find the episode boring and even condescending.
 

LL_Decitrig

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I was excited about them doing that. But I don't think it was good. Both those things can be true

Yeah. It sucks for me being the person who knows how much better I would have produced the latest Doctor Who. This year and every year since 1970. Yet Doctor Who has managed to survive without my superior expertise. I'm utterly galled by this, as you might imagine.
 

SigmasonicX

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,465
Yeah. It sucks for me being the person who knows how much better I would have produced the latest Doctor Who. This year and every year since 1970. Yet Doctor Who has managed to survive without my superior expertise. I'm utterly galled by this, as you might imagine.
You can have valid complaints without being able to do it better yourself. I'm ashamed you decided to go for an argument like this.
 

Corky

Alt account
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Dec 5, 2018
2,479
Yeah. It sucks for me being the person who knows how much better I would have produced the latest Doctor Who. This year and every year since 1970. Yet Doctor Who has managed to survive without my superior expertise. I'm utterly galled by this, as you might imagine.
Are we really doing the 'you shouldn't criticize something if you couldn't make it' thing?
 

Border

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,859
I've always found the show's historical episodes to be pretty supremely corny and tedious. I don't want or expect this show to explain history in a way that a small child could understand. I gain nothing from seeing The Doctor interact with famous historical figures, and having those people be the centerpiece of an episode seldom works.

That's not to say that it's an inherently bad idea, just that the execution is almost always lacking. Empty Child/Doctor Dances set a high watermark that has never really been reached again.
 

Kschreck

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,061
Pennsylvania
My problem with the season is that it felt like it was written for small children. No real substance to the story at all (my opinion). There were a few "ok" episodes but ultimately no real story arcs and mostly throw away villains and such. It's essentially a childrens show with absout as much story substance as a Saturday Morning cartoon.

My favorite seasons of Who are still Series 5 and 6. There was a lot more mystery, adventure, etc going on. The stakes were higher, the characters were more interesting, there was stuff to really talk about. The BBC did it's best work to turn Who into a childrens show which is why small school children are always used in the promotional material.

Nothing against children shows, mine you. Just not really my cup of tea. All of this is my opinion. For those who enjoyed the season then that's great!
 

Halbrand

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,612
LL_Decitrig , I really do appreciate your insight given you've been watching the show since the beginning, but I haven't seen the reception to a new Doctor this overwhelmingly negative in the revival before. The premiere seemed to be a success at least regarding ratings and the Rosa Parks episode got a lot of attention, but the general consensus I'm seeing everywhere now is disappointment and a sense of being underwhelmed, at the least. Ratings have dropped episode to episode like no other season, so I'm not sure it's really building a new, casual audience, and alienating fans isn't going to work out well. The showrunner hasn't written any episodes that anyone has described as being great.

Series 11 had the most radical change for new Doctor Who as you said, but I really don't think people's complaints are down to it not being what they're used to. There's just no depth and not much entertainment.
 

APZonerunner

Features Editor at VG247.com
Verified
Oct 28, 2017
1,724
England
My problem with the season is that it felt like it was written for small children. No real substance to the story at all (my opinion). There were a few "ok" episodes but ultimately no real story arcs and mostly throw away villains and such. It's essentially a childrens show with absout as much story substance as a Saturday Morning cartoon.

My favorite seasons of Who are still Series 5 and 6. There was a lot more mystery, adventure, etc going on. The stakes were higher, the characters were more interesting, there was stuff to really talk about. The BBC did it's best work to turn Who into a childrens show which is why small school children are always used in the promotional material.

Nothing against children shows, mine you. Just not really my cup of tea. All of this is my opinion. For those who enjoyed the season then that's great!

The funny thing is the flip side is I think this has been a less engaging series for kids (anecdotal evidence, admittedly - but my partner is a teacher and thus has a relatively good idea of what is being talked about and inspiring play in the playground) than I'd like Doctor Who to be. It's doing good stuff - episodes like Rosa and Demons are important - but kids love a bit of shooty-bang and exciting running around, and this hasn't got nearly enough of that.

I think a chunk of the kids audience was lost as the series became embroiled in deeper over-arching plot lines during Moffat's era, and while this returns to something closer to the lighter-on-arcs style that Davies oversaw, it lacks the bombast to really get kids excited, at least from what I've seen. I doubt there's many kids in playgrounds running around pretending to be Tim Shaw. This is also why it moving from Christmas Day makes sense - if the special episode is in line with the rest of the series, its lower key attitude doesn't really make sense for 7pm on Christmas Day anyway.

And here's the thing: the show is a children's show. David Tennant said it best when he once said that the show really belongs to the children watching - of which at one point he was one - the adults just borrow it and also enjoy it. At its best, Doctor Who should have something of the quality of a Pixar movie; immediately engaging and never boring to children, but interesting and thought-provoking to adults. I feel like RTD's era expressed that best, but Moffat also had a good bash at it before giving way to hardcore fanwank and increasingly convoluted plots.
 

EvilChameleon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,793
Ohio
Hoping for an all-women writing room next year. Chibs should just say "here's the overall arc, make it work" and let literally anyone else write the episodes.
 

Ignatz Mouse

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,741
I do think people are forgetting how negative the Neogaf thread was about S8. It was pretty similar, right down to "I like Capaldi but he isn't being given good scripts and he's being written weird."

I happen to think S8 was better than S11, but I think there's a certain about of warming-up that has to happen with a new Doctor and a new tone, and that takes time.
 

LL_Decitrig

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Oct 27, 2017
10,334
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My problem with the season is that it felt like it was written for small children.

Probably was. Obviously not sophisticated enough for the likes of us. But we'll be dead soon, so that problem will solve itself.

My favorite seasons of Who are still Series 5 and 6. There was a lot more mystery, adventure, etc going on. The stakes were higher, the characters were more interesting, there was stuff to really talk about.

Yes, but where were you when I was standing up for Series 6 and it looked like I was the only one who even liked it, let alone absolutely loved it? "I thought it would taste more like the gums." How could you not love a guy who is talking like that about a bottle of wine he was given by Napoleon Bonaparte?


The BBC did it's best work to turn Who into a childrens show which is why small school children are always used in the promotional material.

Erm, it's a family show and always has been from day one, and children have always been a particularly important target audience. This is why it's always broadcast before the watershed on BBC1. The Torchwood spin-off was almost invariably written and broadcast for an adult audience.
 

LL_Decitrig

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The funny thing is the flip side is I think this has been a less engaging series for kids (anecdotal evidence, admittedly - but my partner is a teacher and thus has a relatively good idea of what is being talked about and inspiring play in the playground) than I'd like Doctor Who to be. It's doing good stuff - episodes like Rosa and Demons are important - but kids love a bit of shooty-bang and exciting running around, and this hasn't got nearly enough of that.

Yeah, as kids we always loved to play Daleks. I remember a school Christmas party in the mid-sixties in which we all started a great battle of Daleks against the rest. It was glorious, we just loved the momentous sense of occasion. In the playground we'd play Jerries versus English.

My favourite was (and remains) Machine Gun, in which we'd all run, one at a time, at a classmate who had an imaginary machine gun, then we'd contrive to die in the most theatrical manner we could. It was never not fun.
 

JediTimeBoy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,810
Yeah, as kids we always loved to play Daleks. I remember a school Christmas party in the mid-sixties in which we all started a great battle of Daleks against the rest. It was glorious, we just loved the momentous sense of occasion.

Yes, and at this year's xmas party, kids will pretend to be killer bubble wrap. Sums up the just ended series really.
 

LL_Decitrig

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Yes, and at this year's xmas party, kids will pretend to be killer bubble wrap. Sums up the just ended series really.

I love it! I really know you think that's a killer remark, but you're talking to somebody who used twigs as guns and shrubs as spaceships. Find a child in your family who has seen the episode in question, give them a sheet of bubblewrap, and I guarantee you an instant smile.
 

Kino

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,316
I do think people are forgetting how negative the Neogaf thread was about S8. It was pretty similar, right down to "I like Capaldi but he isn't being given good scripts and he's being written weird."

I happen to think S8 was better than S11, but I think there's a certain about of warming-up that has to happen with a new Doctor and a new tone, and that takes time.
Yeah, reception for series 8 was dire back then. I'm a casual follower of Who, but from what I've seen, the fandom seems to fall into the same cycles that plague final fantasy and Zelda.
 

M.Bluth

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,238
I don't get it. Isn't the improved audience profile important?
I'm talking about the frustration of it not coming together for me, I hoped that Chibnall will surprise me and take the show to a place where it expertly synthesizes the best of RTD and Moffat's eras striking a fantastic balance. But since I found that it lacked both the charming real-life characters of RTD and the exciting plots of Moffat, and the wit and poetry of both, it's disappointing to say the least.

Not once in twelve years did the show focus on young people of Indian and African heritage and explore their background in a way a small child could understand. Ryan steps out of the TARDIS and picks up a lady's dropped glove, provoking a major incident. Yaz visits her mother and finds that her first love was a Hindu neighbour who died in a terrible civil war that has been all but forgotten.

Shit, this is brilliant, audacious stuff! Why aren't you excited about this? I know you probably never saw The Trojans (Myth Makers) or Marco Polo, but come on!
Because as a brown dude myself, I'm not impressed when it feels like the entire point of a PoC character is to educate white people about the most basic stuff of their race's struggles. This reads a bit more harsh than I mean it, but whatever, let me elaborate why everything post WWFTE pisses me off in that regard...

You watch ep1 and all the characters are full of potential, of course they're not fully rounded just yet, but immediately there's a lot of stuff in there for the show to explore.

Ryan has dyspraxia, an absent father (a cliche but fine, whatever), struggles to accept Graham, insecure about his job and by extension his intelligence. Well, what does the show do with all that? His dyspraxia is mentioned in two episodes before climbing a ladder or going down a chute. His father is mentioned once in Arachnids just so him and Graham can have a moment, and I don't think his job comes into play other than a tiny complaint in Kerblam. Point is, they're all "mentioned," aside from accepting Graham, none of those elements manifest in his character, his actions, or influence any decisions he makes. How is he different in episode 10 vs episode 2? Couldn't tell you.
Which means that when he experiences racial discrimination or talks about his past experience, it could've been any other black kid in his place. Which while one could argue that yeah, it's the universal experience of any black person in majority white countries so of course it could've been any other black kid, but I would say that that's too abstract. Any decent person knows, if not by first hand experience then at least intellectually, that PoC get discriminated against. In fiction like this I don't want to hear what "Black Guy #4" could've said about racism in a broad very generic way, I wanted to hear what Ryan had to say about it, and there's a huge difference. Because while any black guy might get harassed by the police, the ingredients that make up Ryan as a character can result in a unique experience that is different than say, Micky's.
Over the course of the season he lost more and more specificity, becoming an extension of Graham and little else. When he doesn't even get the chance to interact with his dead grandma in It Takes You Away, it became really hard to not feel that he long have fulfilled the point of his existence on the show, which is to get slapped in 1950s Alabama, and get to gawk at American Civil Rights heroes, even though he admits in that same episode that he barely paid attention to them before.

Yaz is even worse off. In episode 1, she's an ambitious, young and underappreciated policewoman who wants to be in charge at some point, and we later learn that apparently her family would love to know if she ever dates anyone. God, I just realized writing this that even those early bits weren't that fleshed out for her. Poor Yaz. Anyway, again, only time her training seems to come up was in Kerblam for a couple of seconds. Nothing else is done with her. So she's there to agree with Ryan that PoC get discriminated against and then get the team to 1947 Punjab for a story that she barely factors into aside from being from a Punjabi family, which is neither specific or unique to her as a character.
Again I wonder to myself, how is Yaz different in episode 10 vs episode 2? What is something that only Yaz would say or do? I've got nothing.

Chibnall deserves major props for making diversity a priority. But just seeing PoC faces on screen is no longer enough for me, they have to actually be more than their racial background, you have to make them into actual characters, something RTD already managed to do a billion years ago.

Capaldi was a really fantastic doctor, but he didnt really come into
His own til series 9. So im willing to give this doctor the benefit of the doubt as once next season rolls around we will all
Be used to her as the doctor and hopefully she will get some proper character development
I do think people are forgetting how negative the Neogaf thread was about S8. It was pretty similar, right down to "I like Capaldi but he isn't being given good scripts and he's being written weird."

I happen to think S8 was better than S11, but I think there's a certain about of warming-up that has to happen with a new Doctor and a new tone, and that takes time.
I very much remember the s8 GAF thread because it seemed that I was the only one loving it.
The major difference, however, is that when people say Capaldi didn't come into his own until s9 or that people were slow to warm up to him... that was the point. 12 had an arc in that first season. Now of course people are free to like or hate that idea, but him very slowly figuring himself out was part of the plan.

That's not the case with 13, because I would argue that she's there right away. It's just that Chibnall's dialog for her is pretty damn terrible and seems to think that the Doctor doesn't need a character arc of her own.

My problem with the season is that it felt like it was written for small children. No real substance to the story at all (my opinion). There were a few "ok" episodes but ultimately no real story arcs and mostly throw away villains and such. It's essentially a childrens show with absout as much story substance as a Saturday Morning cartoon.
That's an interesting point, yeah I do think that, too. Jodie sometimes even clearly plays it that way, the scene where she tells the team about Rosa Parks receiving the medal of freedom.
But it's more like written for children by someone who doesn't know how to write for children at all because that stuff can have just as much depth and heart as anything else when done right. As APZonerunner said, Pixar is exactly right.

The funny thing is the flip side is I think this has been a less engaging series for kids (anecdotal evidence, admittedly - but my partner is a teacher and thus has a relatively good idea of what is being talked about and inspiring play in the playground) than I'd like Doctor Who to be. It's doing good stuff - episodes like Rosa and Demons are important - but kids love a bit of shooty-bang and exciting running around, and this hasn't got nearly enough of that.
That's interesting to read.
I do feel this series has a weird confused tone. The Doctor is bubbly and excited like 11, but quite honestly everything else is bleak as hell. The TARDIS is dark. The TARDIS Team is fairly serious most of the time. The stories never feel like adventures the same way most of Tennant and Smith's runs felt like. But the Doctor doesn't stop with the namedropping.
 

Gareth

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,433
Norn Iron
I agree with everything you said there M.Bluth - spot on!

It's a shame because I thought the introduction to each of the new companions was actually pretty good in the first episode - I was really looking forward to getting to know them better and seeing their stories unfold. Graham aside, I was left pretty disappointed.
 

Halbrand

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,612
The funny thing is the flip side is I think this has been a less engaging series for kids (anecdotal evidence, admittedly - but my partner is a teacher and thus has a relatively good idea of what is being talked about and inspiring play in the playground) than I'd like Doctor Who to be. It's doing good stuff - episodes like Rosa and Demons are important - but kids love a bit of shooty-bang and exciting running around, and this hasn't got nearly enough of that.
Yeah, 13 seems like a Doctor who should appeal to kids, but if I were a kid I think I'd be bored to death watching The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Ghost Monument, Arachnids in the UK, etc.

Regarding its appeal to kids I consider it at its best to be very comparable to Star Wars, a fairy tale that a seven year old can enjoy as much as a seventy year old.

Over the course of the season he lost more and more specificity, becoming an extension of Graham and little else. When he doesn't even get the chance to interact with his dead grandma in It Takes You Away, it became really hard to not feel that he long have fulfilled the point of his existence on the show, which is to get slapped in 1950s Alabama, and get to gawk at American Civil Rights heroes, even though he admits in that same episode that he barely paid attention to them before.
Agreed completely. This series certainly didn't give me the impression that Ryan could move on next series without Graham, he seemed to be in the finale especially just an extension of Graham, as you said.
 
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