Doctor Who

[Silver Nemesis]

BBC Radio 4 Extra is currently repeating Tom Baker's reading of Terrance Dicks' novelisation of Pyramids of Mars.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018jk6s

It's on each Sunday evening at 18:00 GMT. Episode 1 was on last Sunday, which means it's only available for a few more hours. If you want to listen to it, you'll have to be quick. But episode 2 will be available until next Sunday. Sorry I didn't post about this earlier.

[The Dark Knight]

I haven't commented on Smith's last episode yet. I will get around to it.

In the meantime, 12's costume has been revealed. To be completely honest, I find it dull. It's more or less a modified 11th Doctor getup, sans bowtie with a bit of red added. Wouldn't be surprised if they couldn't settle on something and found it all a bit too hard, with Capaldi giving the near cop-out "no frills" answer.

It would look alright if the jacket was undone and flowing, but that's not going to happen all the time.

Looking forward to his performance, though.

[BatmAngelus]

I'm inclined to agree that it's underwhelming, since it's so similar to what he regenerated in.

I do like that the red lining calls back to Pertwee a little bit.

And, if the coat were unbuttoned, it'd be a similar getup to 8's costume in the DWM comics.

But it does feel like some neckwear would make it look more complete.

[Cobblepot4Mayor]

Everyone keeps saying how great that it reminds them of Pertwee. I don't think that's good at all in this case. I want a new Doctor's costume to be something we've never seen before most of the time. That is certainly what Eccleston's was and especially Tom Baker's (the imagination ran riot there). If you want to reflect the costumes of past Doctor's don't do a "Matt Smith" and mirror Troughton almost to a "t", do a "David Tennant"! His pinstripe attire with sneakers and tie was a smart and stylish new direction for the Tenth Doctor. The big long coat (my favourite) reminded me so much of coats worn by Baker, Davison, and McGann and yet was strikingly new and exciting from any coat the Doctor had donned before. Begining of course with just it's colour. Following which, it's length. Brand new and just a slight familar. Perfection.

I never liked Matt Smith's at all. I found it far too similar to Pat Troughton's. A bit of a safe cop out in fact. We've all read I'm sure his original outfit (which we remain to not glimpse) was more "piratey". Who knows how good or bad it may have been. At least it would be original and uniquely Eleventh Doctor. Now this time they've gone and done it again only oppostie with a design harkening to Pertwee!

The real crime of this new suit is because it's so appalingly similar to Matt's last outfit, it boggles the mind of logic why the good Doctor even bothers to triumphantly change his outfit in the first darn place!

Capaldi never got a great start in Smith's last episode (the single worst regeneration scene/effect since "Time and the Rani") and now this suit is begining to kill my enthusiasm for this big new start for Doctor Who. It looks at the moment it'll be more of the same old same old.

[Silver Nemesis]

Did anyone get around to watching 'The Web of Fear'? I suppose it was inevitable that after so many decades of hype, it wouldn't quite live up its mythical status. It was very good, but not quite the 10/10 masterpiece some of the older fans had led us to believe.

My main gripe is the pacing. Like a lot of six part stories, there are too many obvious filler moments with people running around corridors. I think it would have worked better as a four parter. Episode 1 was damn near perfect. It does exactly what an opening episode should do: setting the atmosphere, introducing all the characters, establishing the central mystery, etc. I thought episode 4 was excellent too. But I felt episodes 2 and 3 should have been condensed into a single episode, and the same for episodes 5 and 6.

But overall it was a very good story. And it mostly did live up to my expectations, lofty though they were. As far as ranking it against Troughton's other stories go, I'd place it below Tomb of the Cybermen and The Mind Robber. A solid 4/5.

[BatmAngelus]

With the news that Steven Moffat is stepping down from being showrunner, I've seen many reactions. Some disappointed, some rejoicing. As both a writer and  afan, I thought I'd gather my thoughts to write my own send-off to the man:

Without Steven Moffat, I would never have gotten into Doctor Who.

In high school, I had watched some of Season 1 with Christopher Eccleston. Through college, I'd peek at a few clips of David Tennant's run. I even checked out a few First Doctor episodes, but the show was never something I really loved. I thought it was cool how there were regenerations to switch out actors and that there was time traveling and aliens, but I wasn't interested enough to watch it regularly.

Until I saw The Eleventh Hour.

When people ask me where they should start to get into Doctor Who, I point them out to this episode.

Some of this is by default. The classics feel dated. Showing An Unearthly Child would likely turn people off in my generation from watching more. The Ninth Doctor's debut is, in my opinion, pretty damn terrible (in fact, I consider Season 1 to be the weakest season, by far). And the Tenth Doctor's debut is unfortunately hindered by having him in a coma for 75% of the episode and spending most of the time with Rose being annoying.

Here, though, everything was new. New Doctor. New companions. New TARDIS. New sonic. New villains. New music. And new showrunner. It felt like a pilot for a new show. It was brisk, funny, frightening, and exciting. The Eleventh Doctor had the energy and enthusiasm of a young man, but the wisdom and weariness of a centuries-old Time Lord. He was an insane genius who could both be a clown and a threat. He quickly became, well, "my Doctor."

And that's when I got hooked on the show, motivating me to watch the rest of Season 5 as well as look back at the previous episodes- both the RTD era and then further, the classics. Then the Big Finish audios that further developed the underrated Doctors like Six and Eight. I became a Whovian.

When asked in an interview about TV writers I admire, I listed Steven Moffat up there with Breaking Bad's Vince Gilligan. Creatively, there were times after watching his show, where I've felt inspired or able to see where I should go with a script.

I wasn't aware, until I got further into the fandom, that the man's work was controversial.

For me, Moffat's writing flaws stem from his ambition. He perhaps tries to tackle on too much, go too crazy with his ideas, or set things up in such a big way that they're impossible to pay off without undermining the hype. Personally, I think there are far worse sins that a writer can commit.

I'd be lying if I said that his era was flawless, though:
- Turning the Daleks into the colorful versions from the Peter Cushing movies made the silly-looking villains look even less threatening.
- As much as I loved Season 5, Season 6 was definitely inferior and Season 7 was almost a letdown with how many forgettable episodes there were. 
- River's origin story in A Good Man Goes to War/Let's Kill Hitler felt anticlimactic given all the buildup since her debut in Season 4 and the development of her actual romance with The Doctor felt rushed. All the talk of this being the Doctor's "worst hour" and his impending death also felt false.
- There was little point in suddenly trying to have Amy and Rory divorce in Asylum of the Daleks only for them to get back together and back to the status quo by the end of the episode.
- The mystery behind Clara Oswald's multiple deaths got annoying and did little to make her feel like a fully formed character. (Thankfully, this was improved on when the 12th Doctor debuted.)
- Making the Daleks forget about the Doctor felt pointless when it was retconned so quickly and easily later on anyway.
- While I enjoyed Day of the Doctor, I'm in the camp that feels it would've been much better if Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor was in it instead of the War Doctor (with a meta commentary on the Eighth being the one that the Doctor "tries to forget about," considering how underrated McGann is). I also felt conflicted about the reveal that the Doctors had hidden Gallifrey rather than destroyed it, considering how much that affected Doctors Nine through Eleven. (Personally, I'd like to think that the Nine, Ten, and Eleven we followed were from an original timeline where he did blow it up and The Day of the Doctor created a new timeline where Nine, Ten, and Eleven just thought they destroyed it when they actually didn't).
- The Time of the Doctor was a disappointing final entry for 11 in how it rushed through tying up all the loose ends about the Silence prophecy, not to mention that making the 11th Doctor into the 13th incarnation contradicted previous moments where 11 seemed to believe he could regenerate or had some regenerative powers. (Again, which is why I think McGann should've been the Time War Doctor and they could've saved having the idea of getting the new regenerations with Capaldi)
- The 12th Doctor felt ill-defined through a lot of Season 8 in comparison to his predecessors. It was hard to put a finger on who he was until Season 9, where he felt much more like his own version of The Doctor.
- Hell Bent was also an extremely anticlimactic return to Gallifrey, with a weak Rassilon, and a rather muddled end to Season 9.

And yet, to me, the good completely outweighs the bad here. Aside from The Eleventh Hour, we got:
- New villains that will continue to haunt people's nightmares. The Silence. The Weeping Angels, bringing The Doctor, Amy, and River together in the two-parter in Season 5 while later separating The Doctor and River from Amy and Rory in Season 7.
- A Christmas Carol- still the best Doctor Who Christmas special.
- And while The Beast Below and The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe are hardly the best of the show, the endings never cease to make my eyes water.
- The much-awaited return/regeneration of Paul McGann in The Night of the Doctor, something that fans never thought they'd ever see and sparked a much deserved resurgence of interest in the Eighth Doctor.
- The Day of the Doctor- one of the best multi-Doctor stories, which brought back The Zygons, David Tennant, Billie Piper (in a better role, in my opinion), and Tom Baker, as well as explained Ten's connection to Queen Elizabeth I.
- A solution around the 12 regeneration limitation (for better or worse).
- the risky decision of following up the young and popular Matt Smith with the older, brusque Peter Capaldi and the exploration of how people react to the Doctor's personality going darker in Deep Breath
- The ending speech of Listen that sums up how humanity should accept their fears and live with them.
- Resurrecting The Master in a risky manner
- Bringing out the human side of a dying Davros in The Witch's Apprentice in him asking The Doctor, "Was I right? I need to know before the end...am I a good man?"
- The Doctor's epiphany in The Girl Who Died on the origin of his face and how it tied into Season 4's The Fires of Pompeii in a very simple, but meaningful way
- The anti-war speech in The Zygon Inversion that not only tied into current events, but also gave us a glimpse into The Doctor's pain.
- Heaven Sent. One of the greatest Doctor Who episodes of the whole franchise, which both taught me a life lesson and inspired me to continue writing at a time where I was feeling jaded.
- The ending of The Husbands of River Song, paying off a plot point that Moffat had planted seven or eight years ago in a satisfying way and wrapping up River's storyline in a poignant way.

I hope, like many others, that Moffat gives Season 10 his all and goes out on a high note.

I wish the new showrunner, Chris Chibnall the best, though personally, I'm a bit skeptical as I haven't been extremely impressed with his work so far. 42 was forgettable. Hungry Earth/Cold Blood was pretty much a remake of the Third Doctor's Silurian story. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and The Power of Three were just okay but nothing special. Frankly, I think his best DW work was on the web, with Pond Life and the heartbreaking P.S. With the exception of those, he hasn't written anything remotely close to what Moffat had written before taking over showrunning duties (with his Blink and Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead in the RTD era also among the series' best).

Personally, out of the pool of DW writers who've been showrunners, I would've preferred Toby Whithouse. His School Reunion was the first episode that cemented that the show was in continuity with the classics. Vampires of Venice and The God Complex, while not the best episodes, had good explorations of how the companions view The Doctor and how his actions affect them. A Town Called Mercy was one of the few good non-Moffat episodes of Season 7. And he delivered a solid two-parter Under the Lake/Before the Flood for the Twelfth Doctor this past season.

Still, what's done is done and I hope Chibnall carries on the torch well.

Until then, thank you, Steven Moffat, for making me a fan, for making people scream, for making people laugh, for making people cry, and for being an inspiration.

[The Dark Knight]

Not sad he's leaving to be honest. I think he's stayed on too long already.

Don't get me wrong, I like Moffat for the most part. And on his best day, he's better than RTD. I really don't want to get into the politics of it all, so I'll simply say I didn't like some of the narrative choices and agendas Moffat made in recent times.

As for Capaldi, I never managed to connect with him in the same way as Tennant or Smith. Those two, (especially Smith, who I consider the best Doctor of all, literally born for the role), remain my favourites and probably always wil be. I just think Capaldi lacks a certain energy and charisma that the others have, and the writing didn't help. It was all over the place with his personality hard to define.

So yes, if a new showrunner means a new Doctor I'm not terribly upset. Although if he's replaced by a gimmick that wormed its way into the show via the meddling of Moffat, I really will turn off the show. I still watch it now, but don't feel as strongly about it. I'm actually moving more towards Star Wars again.

[The Dark Knight]

Well, I knew they couldn't help themselves. How pathetically politically correct. Doctor Who is officially dead to me. 

It is forever ruined in my eyes.

I lost interest with Capaldi. But now they have chosen to appeal to the SJW crowd.....that's it.

This is where I get off completely. It will split the fan base in half.

I don't think the pro female Doctor crowd understands how these gimmicks end up. Look at Girlbusters. We got the labeling and shaming to shut down debate. We were apparently all sexist pigs for not liking the concept. But the film bombed. I think it could happen here too, and I hope it does. The more they shout how sexist we all are the worse the situation becomes. As I said, it will split the fan base in half. The BBC made their bed, now they can lie in it.

The ratings aren't good now, so hopefully they just end up pulling the show completely after this sham is over with.

I guess iconic female characters will be gender bended as well? Hah. Not a chance. That doesn't fit the agenda folks. Only straight, white males will get this treatment. I mean....this is a historic first! Next I hope they make Buffy and Wonder Woman female as well, because there's just no lead female characters about.

The biggest cop-out with pro female Doctor supporters has always been the 'he's an alien who can regenerate into anything!'. I have no problem with females getting lead roles, but not when it equals tampering with established icons. Make your own characters and leave the classics alone. After 13 male Doctors out of nowhere he becomes a woman, and the height of the SJW madness phase? C'mon. The BBC is pandering to the wrong crowd.

It's absolute nonsense, and you can thank hack Moffat for introducing this possibility during his reign. Before him, this concept was completely foreign to the canon and it should have remained so. The Doctor is a Time Lord, not a Time Lady. His genetic DNA structure is that of a man, which everything else (age, facial appearance, etc) being random. But oh no, he could actually change gender as well!

This is nothing but a cheap gimmick/political statement masquerading as TV. I don't want the show anymore and I hope it burns. It's Doctor Who because we said so, and you, the viewing public better get on board with it. Hah. Nope.

Doctor Who is dead. Bury it.

[Silver Nemesis]

I saw this coming back in 2005. I've already spoken at length about what the original Doctor Who meant to me and how the new series broke my heart, so I won't go over all that again. Instead I'll just mention that Steven Moffat wrote a female Doctor in the 1999 Red Nose Day spoof The Curse of Fatal Death. And in the 'making of' feature on the VHS release he addressed the notion of a female Doctor, saying:

"I think maybe they should have done it in the series when it was ailing towards the end. I think pushing that panic button might have been quite fun."

At the 10:01 mark.

The key phrases being: "when it was ailing towards the end" and "pushing the panic button".

Doctor Who died years ago. Let's not waste any more time talking about it when there are much happier subjects we can discuss.

[The Dark Knight]

Instead I'll just mention that Steven Moffat wrote a female Doctor in the 1999 Red Nose Day spoof The Curse of Fatal Death. And in the 'making of' feature on the VHS release he addressed the notion of a female Doctor, saying:

"I think maybe they should have done it in the series when it was ailing towards the end. I think pushing that panic button might have been quite fun."

This is gold because it's exactly what happened. Straight from the horse's mouth.

Let's not waste any more time talking about it when there are much happier subjects we can discuss.

Agreed.