Doctor Who

Speaking of the specials do we have any clue when they're going to start airing? The 60th is in a little over 4 months but I'm not sure if they'll start dropping before with the final one airing on the 60th anniversary date or what. Do we know either way?

November, apparently.

14's screwdriver

That MIGHT be my favourite sonic screwdriver yet. Beating out Eleven's and Twelve's.

Also was that a bit of the new total sequence at the end? If so that looked gooood.

Oh I love that one.

Edited by Bullman on Jul 19th 2023 at 1:28:33 PM

Having a dedicated reveal trailer for the sonic screwdriver feels a bit overblown if you ask me, but the design's pretty neat; I like how it finds a middle ground between the RTD and Moffat-era designs.

Having an announcement video for the sonic screwdriver is such a RTD move though, I love it.

You can pick up the Screwdriver over at San Diego Comic Con

It does feel a little strange that you can buy the screwdriver before it's even appeared in the show.

Edited by techno156 on Jul 21st 2023 at 10:00:15 PM

It's also available to pre-order online from Character Options website, the initial wave has since sold out but they're working on replenishing.

So, how good do you guys feel Whittaker's era was as a whole upon reflection?

Not great. Although I think the cast were generally excellent. I'd like to see Thirteen, Yaz and the rest again, with other writers.

But plots always seemed one twist too short and sometimes just clunky. Some reasonably good episode ideas hiding in there, and Flux actually had a decent pace even if the core plot was chaotic. But....

As for the grand finale, far too much of it wasn't focused on Jodie's Doctor.

(I do think the Fugitive Doctor was a great twist and well delivered - I'm less sure about the wider Timeless Child arc).

Looking back... pretty much every Doctor's had a defining moment and a powerful speech. And for Jodie's the speech she did at home, in character, during the Covid lockdown, is probably more memorable than anything written for her in the show.

Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 25th 2023 at 7:28:02 PM

Interesting. I had only seen Jodie's first series, so I can only speak on that and see what others had to say about how the felt about later episodes. But based on what I saw from that first series, it seemed as if it was never fully sure of what it wanted to be.

What I think bothered me the most is how uninteresting the Doctor seemed. I don't know how to fully explain it, and it has nothing to do with Whittaker's acting ability, but I dunno, I was just never really invested or excited to see more of this incarnation.

The character just always seemed, well, sterile.

Edited by SoaringStarman on Jul 25th 2023 at 2:51:56 PM

Ditto on only have seen the first season and it seriously overused the "Humans Are the Real Monsters" button. At least half of the episodes, probably more, especially in the middle of the series.

Dr Who has used that trope before but rarely with such frequency and intensity to my memory. It really dragged things down and sucked any sense of joy out of the series. And while "It Takes You Away" didn't use it I still found it to be a fairly... dull episode over all which meant the back half of the season was overall a big downer.

I've gone back and rewatched Jodie, I'd say series 12 is her most consistent series, with all the really fun episodes, Fugitive of the Judoon is a classic story and should be an important one but they kept holding Jo Martin's Doctor back, she easily out-performs Jodie on screen and has more of that mystery of the Doctor about her.

eh

Martin is okay, but she's not too great as the Doctor. Jodie's the one who outperforms her, easily. Maybe Martin is more fun (and I don't think she is), but Jodie is the better actress.

Edited by kkhohoho on Jul 26th 2023 at 7:37:37 AM

I did like Whittaker as the Doctor (and Martin too for that matter), and the companions were pretty fun, but it felt like a weak era. Not many memorable stories, and some memorable for the wrong reasons.

I did like "Demons of the Punjab", not least because historical stories tend to either be in the UK itself or in times and places distanced from the British Empire.

A British show using the end of 'the Raj' (or, as Ms. Marvel put it, "British Occupied India") as a setting is an interesting change. Good to see that part of Britain's past acknowledged.

"Rosa" felt well-intentioned but a little less successful.

Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 26th 2023 at 2:36:36 PM

I like Jodie's era but it has issues definitely.

I think the Flux season works a lot better when you binge it. It has serious issues with alternating between really good episode concepts and clear transitional episodes and constantly throwing out new ideas and very obviously needing more room to breathe (because the conclusion has to do things like write the Lupari off very quickly because there’s not enough time to do anything else and it forgets about the universal compression thing) but if you binge it, the good episodes buoy up the wonkier ones and it actually flows surprisingly well.

I Feel like flux would have been better if they didn't pile in so many plot lines.

Like imo they should have picked either Tecteun or Swarm as main villain and only then. It didn't help they could have done so much more with both of them. I'm surprised for example with how Swarm is introduced murdering his sister's husband to reindocterine her. We didn't get the doctor help convince her to turn on him. That wound have been classic who. Or in Tecteun's case we didn't get a proper show down or even explore more of their relationship.

Leave the return of sonatarians could have been another special.

And the grand serpant thing should have a season long plotline in another season.

I know so many people who thought the Grand Serpent was the Master.

If he comes back as another recurring villain, I'm good with that... but his behind-the-scenes role on Earth is a bit of a retcon.

(Also, a Timeless Child storyline, a separated alien couple and a pregnant lady... I recall lots of "are they the Doctor's parents?" going on).

Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 26th 2023 at 3:28:05 PM

Oh yeah. I saw people say he felt like a more sinister take on Delgado's calm and usually affable master. His actor like literally ever bad guy actor in the thing did a good job. It's Just them all being here at the Same time doomed them all to not getting enough focus to really be memorable villains.

Yeah I uh saw that theory. I'm so thankful they didn't do that. Sure it makes it pointless. But I really don't think we need to know every thing abit the doctors backstory

Edited by miraculous on Jul 26th 2023 at 7:31:57 AM

It's like the "One dalek is always scarier than a million daleks" thing. You reach a point where you know there's going to be a magic button or deus ex machina.

That's a good point I hadn't considered. That Series 11 tended to focus more on relatively normal humans as the villain, at the possible risk of making any non-human threat seem more irrelevant.