Doctor Who

Slightly off topic but on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, lead actress Sarah Michelle Gellar apparently went out of her way to make sure that cast and crew are treated right, making sure they are treated fair, even such things as getting extras a coat so they don't freeze and making sure they get something to eat and drink. As a result she got labeled difficult to work with.

Ever since I learned about that story, I have a new perspective. So tabloids calling Millie Gibson "disruptive" or a "diva" means nothing to me. Unless there is some solid evidence to the contrary, I will assume that she didn't leave because of some internal strife.

Edited by ZheToralf on Jan 23rd 2024 at 1:59:36 PM

Which brings us back to Eccleston, who apparently had concerns about on-set safety.

Edited by Mrph1 on Jan 23rd 2024 at 10:24:12 AM

I was thinking, it could be the case where the production of the show is happening super fast and they're just trying to plow through it. Like we're hearing about series 15 shooting before series 14 even begins airing. I don't know anything about the production of TV shows, but that seems fast - and a fast production of any media property tends to be conducive to crunch culture for everyone, including the actors.

The worst part about this is that we're not gonna hear about what happened until years down the line, where everyone's moved on and nothing can be done if there was a significant issue at play.

Remember when Sylvester saved Sophie from electrocution?

Nope,do tell

Happened during the filming of "Battlefield", the tank she was submerged in was buckling under pressure and the glass was breaking, if she'd spilled out, the water would have short-circuited the equipment and electrocuted her. Sylvester noticed the tank wasn't sturdy just in time and urged the crew to pull her out of there.

...you made me do a Google search about this. >.>

Russel's new letter to readers from Doctor Who Magazine this month confirms they were hoping to air series 14 almost immediately after the Christmas special.

...Hmm, wonder what happened?

I’d assume scheduling issues or that RTD is getting back into the groove of a regular show after half a decade with miniseries, but given Gibson’s alleged firing, it might be behind-the-scenes issues.

Executive Meddling I bet

I've been concerned about that ever since the Disney+ announcement and with Sony owning a majority of the Bad Wolf production company.

We have the BBC making Bad Wolf a co-producer on the show, then Bad Wolf getting bought out by one of the biggest entertainment conglomerates on the planet, followed by an exclusivity deal with another one of the biggest entertainment conglomerates on the planet. The fact that the BBC shunted off some of the production to a third party is worrying; I'm concerned about the IP rights at the end of this partnership.

Like maybe the IP still belongs wholly to the BBC and the co-production was a deal that Davies jumped at to save Doctor Who after the BBC outright CANCELLED THE SHOW for about an hour when the pandemic hit. But right after that deal was struck - hello Mr. Sony, bello Mr. Disney. That was a concerning string of news stories, one after another. And now with Millie Gibson allegedly being shunted off the show and airing delays... it is, once again, a fraught time to be a Doctor Who fan.

Personally, I'm just gonna cling to my delusional fan theory that this is a feint, and that Ruby Sunday is unknowingly the next regeneration of the Master, left at the church by the Rani as a machination to bring her into the Doctor's life with a later plan to "erase" the Ruby personality and make her a full-time villain. In reality, I don't think that's where things are going. But I wanna believe :/

The BBC maintains full ownership over the show. Bad Wolf is majority owned by Sony, but Bad Wolf never got anything but the license to make the show. Once the contract runs out (and isn't renewed), Bad Wolf loses the license. This is normal and it's actually well within Sony's wheelhouse. (Sony has no streaming service so they make a ton of stuff for everyone else). Disney bought international broadcast rights and is helping pay for the production of the show. This is also normal. Companies make shows for rival companies all the time. Fox and Sony being the most obvious examples, but it's not rare.

Disney and Sony do not own Doctor Who in any way. At the absolute most, Disney will maintain broadcast rights for everything they coproduced, but they do not have ownership of the actual property in any way. That has always stayed squarely with the BBC.

And the airing delays could be something as simple as Disney going "we want to hold it for the emptiest spot in our release schedule", because the production of Doctor Who wasn't impacted by any of the strikes (because it's not an American production). None of these things really point at anything big beyond maybe the Millie Gibson thing.

A lot of people are just jumping to "it's going terribly!" without much actual evidence for it. Like, people are blaming RTD for the new season being Season 1 again. Except that was a Disney decision because they really don't want to be like "hey, watch our new show, starting at Season 14!" because that's an amazing way to get people to go "...where's the rest of it then? I'm not going to touch it if most of it isn't even here."

Edited by Zendervai on Jan 29th 2024 at 4:21:41 AM

It could just be post-production taking longer than RTD planned. How CGI-heavy will the next series be and how long will it take to render it all?

I don't think render time is all that big of a problem for studios nowadays (certainly not to the extent that it would contribute meaningfully to delays), though it could well be post-production generally speaking. Effects in the recent specials have been a few notches above par for Doctor Who.

Edited by Chortleous on Jan 30th 2024 at 8:22:28 AM

RIP Michael Jayston

While it's a shame the Valeyard never made it to the new series, I'm glad Jayston got the chance to further explore the character with Big Finish and even got an interesting story in the context of the Time War.

Yeah I loved the War Valeyward story.

I don't doubt Big Finish will find a fairly convincing sound-alike for any future Valeyard stories, but Jayston always did a great job embodying the character.

Thread hop.

So what's been going on with the Doctor lately? I'm still very behind, having not seriously watched the series since the second season of Jodie Whitaker's series, and I have zero clue what's going on.

I've heard a few things here and there, and I understand Tennant came back to basically be the 14th Doctor, but that's about it.

Edited by HandsomeRob on Feb 5th 2024 at 5:57:53 AM

Umm...

uhhhhh

I'll simply say that this is not a recap page. We have recap pages if you want to know what happened recently in a series.

Fair enough.

Like I've said, I've been gone a long time. If I can find a way to catch up I will.

I've seen bits and pieces but in the long run, I'm not sure what's been going on. I just haven't found the time (or the way) to pick things back up.

I'm sure when I do, I'm either gonna feel proud of being back in the game or really stupid.

N/A

Edited by FOFD on Feb 5th 2024 at 9:02:11 AM

News from Big Finish, and it appears the Toymaker will be taking on both Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor and The Master in a new release, with the Toymaker played by Annette Badland

There is apparently word this will tie into The Giggle, I presume this is the adventure that sees The Master trapped in the Toymaker's gold tooth

Wonder if the Toymaker wiped the Doctor’s memories of their past encounters as Big Finish has made an audio sequel to Celestial Toymaker

He did say he made a jigsaw of The Doctor's past so possibly.

But it's not like any part of Doctor Who continuity feels very bound by any other part of the continuity. Doctor Who canon is everything except Noddy after all.