Thoughts on the Fury animation: excited but cautious - 2020, really? This thing's gonna be missing forever and is 3 hours long - they need all the time in the world to work on this
Stubagful I was at MCM Comic Con and filmed the entire panel where they talked about the animation. They showed some behind the scenes clips from Fury from the Deep. ruclips.net/video/2drCOXex0d0/видео.html I have the same fears as you as at 1 point I would have thought that Fury wouldn’t ever work as an animation. While I think now it might work, I still think that it’ll probably not be as creepy as watching the actual thing or even telesnaps and narrated audio. The extra clips at Comic Con look OK and I am aware that these clips are just tests but looking at the way the characters look and move, I am worried. Even in the teaser the way the seaweed and the foam moved looked wrong as if it they just were manipulating and stretching one frame of animation. But I was very surprised with the quality of The Macra Terror animation so who knows. As for The Faceless Ones animation, while I think it’s going to be better then the Power animation, I don’t think it’s going to be as good as the Macra animation. The characters look once again a bit too much like cardboard cutouts. We can only wait.
its a different compony as well doing it i think its big finish doing it which is good we dont know how long they have been working onit befor the annoncement so im thinking november 2020 will be the time it comes out but we all need faith in big finish
I think different fans want different things from these animations. To me, they serve the purpose of plugging the gaps in the TV series. I’m not interested in the animations of the existing episodes of The Faceless Ones, personally- they purely exist as the next best thing to actually finding the episodes, in my opinion. But I’m aware that some people want to completely embrace it as animated Doctor Who, and that’s fine too.
Hey, if anyone's interested, I'm reviewing all the Doctor Who stories on my channel, with me just having uploaded Part 3 if my review of: 'The Time-Monster!' No pressure, of course, just if you're interested! :) P.S. Totally agree with Series 12; I'm wondering If I should even Watch Series 12, As-Well.
I think that's true 'glorious train wrecks' - just as example mentioned above Fear Her - winds me up, but it's an interesting concept "ahh the Doctor encounters an alien and defeats it - boring" but it's not an 'evil alien doing evil things, it's a perfectly good alien wanting to go 'home' - Super 8 similar premise. I'm not defending it as 'good' as I say it winds me up, (mostly the irritating portrayal of Chloe) also theres a sub-plot of the 'we have noting to fear but fear itself' with the dead dad that comes back' thing. Compare that with say 'Spiders in Sheffield' There's nasty spiders, they've been made big by chemicals, Doctor traps them, end of episode. The only 'sophistication' is that there's the spin they're not 'evil' just big - except the Doctor traps them to die of starvation slowly, and Trump who shoots the massive one actually did a kinder thing than the Doctor's solution of letting it suffocate to death slowly, alone and in terror. B Movie plot with no more elements, really.
@@leflemmy It's not an original concept. It's not done in an interesting way. It doesn't have a great guest star, impressive effects, a whiz-bang score, or a lot of energy. It's not a "glorious train wreck" it's more like watching a car slowly sink in a bog. Over the course of several days. It's a snooze. Now...Daleks Take Manhattan is a glorious train wreck. Misses the mark in every conceivable way and is unwatchable garbage, but it's at least done with gusto!
I am being nitpicky, Fear Her is a pet hate of mine, but I think it's the exception that proves the rule in this case: every other bad episode can reasonably be described as a glorious train wreck.
People always label series 11 as "awful and unwatchable", but really it's more of "that was okay, time to go to bed now" and I'd talk about it to my friend for 5 minutes the next day. That was it. We used to have half an hour, sometimes hour long conversations about the latest episodes pre series 11. There's no doubt I'll be watching series 12, but I just don't think I'll be excited.
In the past I've pre-paid for a season on Amazon in order to watch it, but I don't think I'll be doing that this time, unless I heard otherwise about it.
@@DextroDNAOfficial True, though 42 is actually the only episode of his I can rewatch without yawning. Its not great, but as a standard race against time plot its passable. The Hungry earth was a less interesting redo of the Silurians, which he ripped off wholesale. His arachnids in the Uk seemed to be just a ripped off Green death, with added trump derangement sprinkled in. There seems to be a pattern of this hack fraud stealing classic episodes and presenting them as his own work, which the BBC and media never call him out on.
@@lesigh1749 42 is also just a rip off of the pit episodes in season 2 with Piper and Tennant. Set on a human ship/base that is rusted and kind of thrown together, they are facing a sentient creature that nobody even knows is real who has minions that corrupt members of the base and killing them 1 by 1, the tardis is out of reach leaving doctor and companion stranded only for the doctor to figure out the mystery at the last moment and with help from his companion resolve the crisis. Add in characters that probably have names that are just used to show this monster is dangerous cause it killed character 1 and 2. Finally never mention the adventure in canon ever again "remember when I killed the actual devil that has been plaquing literally every species since before time?" "No, remember when I became a host for a living sun and gave it back it's balls?"
Totally agree, whilst i've always watched and enjoyed nu Who (until now, haven't see s11 yet) Big Finish is my go to Doctor Who fix, listen to it on my commute, and it gives me everything i need from Who, like the old Virgin/BBC books did in the nineties and the target books did for me in the eighties
"It's not that he's a bad writer" Bad? No. Poor? Yes. I could write essays on the dramatic and dramaturgical failures he makes in Season 11. Obvious errors that nobody in his position should be making, chief among which being his constant substitution of exposition in place of dialogue. He isn't a solid writer. He's barely a workmanlike writer. He's a poor writer who got lucky a couple of times and has clung to the coat tails of those successes.
Not to mention, even halfway decent writers are capable of adapting to the material. Like writing an article with the exact same voice as is standard for that website. Or knowing how to make a crazy and insane story like you'll find in Doctor Who. Everyone has their own style, and it will still come across, but being totally unable to adapt to the style of a show is a trademark signature of a bad writer.
It’s scary how well this video articulates my feelings towards Doctor Who right now. The best thing I can compare this season to is a British version of the CW superhero show. At its core it has good ideas and potential but it’s been so watered down to appeal to a general audience it becomes nothing more than a formulaic place holder.
But it doesn't appeal to a general audience. Viewing drops of 40+ percent are a pretty good indication that its only appealing to the far far left. After all, thats who it's now made for, those people who think anyone to the right of Ghandi is an evil nazi. General audiences DON'T think, believe or behave like that, and they've deserted the show in their millions.
This i find funny, as DW was once my favourite show, but now I love the Arrowverse shows, and specifically Legends of Tomorrow, that gave me more DW vibes than DW itself has done for years.
@Stefano Pavone Some of the episodes under Moffat and Davies have been the best in the entire series. A visionary showrunner *could* turn this around post-Chibnall.
The only episode in series 11 I felt strongly about was kerblam And that's just because the anti-capitalist subtext of the entire episode did a 180 about 5 minutes from the end and revealed that no actually space Amazon is good and workers rights are bad Which in itself feels like a cop out to ensure the show isn't strongly depicting anything
Anti-capitalist subtext? It was a bit too on-the-nose for subtext, don't you think? That's why so many people have complained about S11's political messaging --rather than dress it up with imaginative characters & settings, Chibnall just copied the real-world entities and changed their names. Stubagful references the Daleks for comparison, which is the most annoying thing I hear from people who defend S11's messaging. Yes, the Daleks are meant to be stand-ins for Nazis, but they aren't Nazis; they aren't even human. They don't wear brown coats, they don't don swastikas, and their leader Davros doesn't do a salute from a motorcade yelling, "Heil, Davros!" There is enough differentiation between Nazis and Daleks that I don't feel like Daleks are just renamed Nazis. In contrast, there was no effort to dress up the "Trump" character in Arachnids in the UK; it was as brazen and over-the-top as possible, just like Kerblam!.
It said Amazon good, workers bad because all that virtue signalling is really about the middle class white saviour paradigm which posits that the establishment is good. It is the poor who cause the problems who must be managed and contained.
otherwise not only do you end up excluding audiences and making them feel unwanted or demonized. You also slow down the actual plot of whats going on like in that rosa parks episode the plot was so damn slow because of the scene where they sit down and have a discussion about racism like what the fuck.
You raise a really interesting point about Chibnall's nature as a showrunner, and I think it explains why the episodes people found interesting were the ones Chibnall didn't write. To be honest, if he was a script editor who didn't really write the stories and was just there to helm it and get talented, visionary writers to write for it, maybe Doctor Who under Chibnall might work better?
Personally I think he just isn't a talented writer. He *doesn't know* how to write a good story. He only knows how to apply a formula to a script. His style of writing simply takes less talent, less skill and less overall understanding of good storytelling. The political stuff just further shows his ineptitude as a writer. He doesn't know how to write it in with subtlety and it ended up overshadowing plot and feeling very forced and just overall cringy. He can't build a good character which is why the current Doctor has no real identity other than being the female doctor. I understand that his type of writing fills a void in daily television but I also don't think we should grant it anywhere near as much respect as genuinely good writing.
Except Chibnall failed even in that regard. It's the job of the head writer not just to write scripts, but polish up everyone else's for consistency. In Series 11, Chris was constantly behind. "Tsuranga" he had to write from scratch at the last minute. The finale was a first draft 'cause he ran out of time. How did he not know what he was getting into??
We need new writers! Series 11: all new writers We still need new writers! Why cant they drag in a few big finish writers. Would love to see what Guerrier could do. And Shearman pleeeeeeeeeaaaaasssseeeee
"Why cant they drag in a few big finish writers" Genuinely no sarcasm on my part but one suspects that they're far too white and male for Chibbers' Who. Indeed, prior to last season Chibnall and Whittaker were _bragging_ how (superficially) _diverse_ the new cadre of writers were. When one is at least partly hiring on trite box-ticking credentials rather than actual talent/merit, well, you get Season 11....
@@makara80 Every season 11 writer bar one was a 'political playwright' according to their lightweight IMBD pages. And all but One had no TV experience, let alone genre TV. They were chosen for their so-left-it-hurts politics and the colour of their skin. Thats all!
The best that I can realistically hope for with Series 12 is that they'll fix the things that were seriously wrong with Series 1, like the monsters feeling pointless in the historical episodes, and Yaz being a total waste of space, and Chibnall writing a full 50% of the episodes and deciding he could get away with just remaking The Green Death with spiders. It Takes You Away is a demonstration that he is willing to greenlight oddball and adventurous work, but I'm not altogether confident that he's willing to allow that to happen more than once a series. The fact that we're getting both Daleks and Cybermen next series also gives the impression that Chibnall's basically looking at Doctor Who like a checklist of elements that need to be ticked off.
If he was actually simply using a checklist then that would be far better than anything he's done so far. Doctor? Inept and irrelevant. Companions? No actual relationships with the non-Doctor. Villains? Weak and worthless. Actual threat and peril? None. Lots of talk of danger but not actually happening.
Yeah I think you've pretty much hit the nail on the head with that. We need more "It Takes Us Away". I mean sentient universes taking the form of a talking frog? That's a weird idea that I'm surprised Doctor Who hasn't done yet. It was great. I need more of that, less of the Moraxx.
Can't understand where this disrespect for Voyage of the Damned is coming from, unless it's just from your disregard for Xmas specials, in which case can't understand where that comes from!
I don't really get it either. Voyage of the Damned was pretty good for a Xmas special (at least it wasn't The Doctor, the Witch and the Wardrobe ie. that Narnia episode - still a boring dreary episode to this day) so I don't get the hate about it.
@@ms94 I've always loved Voyage of the Damned and it still holds up for me simple as... But with Doctor the Widow and the Wardrobe it is a boring one perhaps yes, but I usually find that as long as they were harmless and not insulting to characters or canon - bad episodes can never really disappoint you again the same way, now when I see TDTWATW I only really notice the adorable and cool 11 stuff, the comedy with the miners, the subtler jokes and the real heartbreak and wonderful resolution Madge goes through and the children temporarily go through as well, and I rather like it now. I don't give it too high a rating though but not too low either.
What I remember of season 11: - The big spider one - That teeth guy - Oh, Rosa Parks was there a bit - The frog god in the mirror episode Uhhhhhh - Were they paper or ribbon monsters? - And that stupid blue thing that Ate a bomb. A ting? Thatang? P'ting? - Ooo India was one of them! Umm. I've already spent like ten minutes thinking and imo that's about 9 and a half minutes too long.
This has made everything so clear to me. I've been wondering why I've not found anything from s11 particularly memorable and this video helped me get it
Please write a episode of Doctor who and narrate it. We would love that. It WOULD be cannon. Also this is what I’d do with an episode. Recently iv started to write a doctor who comic called “am I pretty?” it’s basically Frankenstein meets the cybermen meets sweeny Tod. An insane barber surgeon from Victorian London ,who is already thinking about killing, gets possessed by a single cyber mat. This mat fell to earth along with the remains of a conversion unit hundreds of yers ago. It bites onto the back of his neck and convince him to start converting people into cybermen. From the barbers perspective he’s making lady’s more “pretty” but in reality he’s cutting up there faces and welding mettle to the wound. Because there’s very little components left and the actual unit is broken he has to improvise using his own surgical equipment following the logical whispers that are burrowing into his brain. Obviously a proper cybermen is never created because the programming is incomplete. But the mat doesn’t care it’s just following its basic needs. Instead a army of mutilated and confused corpses with crude metal cutouts for faces wander around his cellar asking through broken voices “am I pretty?”
I've started thinking up whole new seasons with new companions & story arcs. I had a whole story arc idea with H.P Lovecraft monsters & another with an interdimensional parasite that merges universes into its body. I've mostly tried to limit the number of recurring who villains to focus on new baddies.
Also, I'd bring back Christmas specials. I think they can be fun and there is plenty of material to work with. I thought up three already. One with Krampus fighting an alien dressed like a nutcracker, another with Autons making plastic toys to invade earth so the doctor has to steal Christmas to stop them. They are silly ideas but that is what I think doctor who Christmas should be.
I'm still clinging to the hope Chibnall will be more ambitious with the second series, and was playing it safe with series 11 while establishing the new characters and format
She acts decently. No problem on her part. Fucking scripts are the problem. Boring and uninspired. Though i believe the 2 only work together, so you get your wish.
@@ender7278 I"m not blaming Jodie Whittaker I'm just saying that I may tune in to an other Chibnall series if he brings on a new doctor. You know just give him another chance, conversely I will watch another series with Jodie in it if they get a new head writer.
@@Jon_M_Carro I think 13 just needs a more concrete personality, other writers may do her character more justice in audios , comics or any other medium, but she just fell flat for me in s11. But I'd love to see 13 have a 'big speech' or emotional moment at some point.
7:56 Oh, the bitter, bitter irony. Who could've guessed back in 1986 that this enthusiastic, bespectacled little nerd would grow up to be the DW equivalent of the Antichrist?
Interesting how you mentioned not being enthused with the EU either, since imo Big Finish works exactly the way you described Chibnall - churning out respectable but bland 'good enough' releases like a factory for people to consume, not be challenged by at all and then forget 30 minutes later. It's starting to feel like the days of experimental, meaningful stories like from the Wilderness Years have passed us by.
Sawbones Quad FACTS! The moment they began parading River Song and the War Doctor (aka the 50th anniversary insult), that was where I checked out from the audios altogether. From what I've seen of their current input (i.e. sledgehammering Moffat's mockery of the 8th Doctor with his version of the Time War*, Missy and having River cross paths w/ the Classic Docs), I see I haven't missed much. Not even the Bernice Summerfield box sets with David Warner reprising his Unbound version of 3rd isn't enough to get me back... and I love Benny and I enjoy Warner. *thanks for helping twist the knife further, Nick (Briggs) and Jason (Haigh-Ellery). He didn't need you guys' help the first time around...smh
While there are stories like that because Big Finish's output is so massive, there's also a lot of fun stories, particularly with the Comic Strip Adaptations and Legacy of Time. Also the first tenth Doctor Adventure story is really grand
@@SuperWolsey -Whereas I agree their New Series stuff is getting excessive. I really enjoyed the War Master box sets with Derek Jacobi who I wished had been the Master for more than 5 minutes on the TV series.
Imagine how us fans who’ve been watching it for 40+ years feel. At least the political messaging in Who used to be well written and analogous or metaphorical, it always fit within the realms of subtlety or entrenched in alien worlds enough to become a universal message rather than one of one particular entrenched view; and certainly showed more than one side of a political argument. Chibnall IS a hack. A clear example of someone promoted upwards to clear him out; perhaps a Common Purpose here. I have it on good authority that he didn’t even write at least one of his stories but allegedly plagiarised it from an unknown writer who’d sent a script in for a non-Doctor Who sci-fi story about dinosaurs on a spaceship, never heard anything back and then witnessed his very idea - verbatim - appear as a Doctor Who story. It’s hard for me knowing what I was privy to knowing to take Chibnall as anything other than a fraud.
Has political messaging in Who ever really been subtle? Or showed more than one side. We've had Pertwee Doctor do monologues about pollution, an evil oil company run by a computer called boss, Remembrance had a sign saying "no coloureds" and had Mike talking about "keeping outsiders out." The only Doctor Who story to have a right-wing point of view was actually in S11, The problem is Chibnall's stories are mechanical, so the political messages stand out because they don't arise organically or interact with other components of the story. Pertwee's era was so one-sided and unsubtle about its politics but it also gave us iconic stories, some of the best villains in sci-fi, likable characters we got to know, and a Doctor whose morality I could follow. This era has yet to give us that.
Ben Warburton but it made the antagonists human (if they were indeed human); not just cardboard cutouts. Yes, there were some ham-fisted politics through a lot of classic era Who through the 70s and 80s, but they were not preceded or proceeded continuously story after story. Ace fell for the racist before he unveiled himself as a racist, and the viewers saw him as a human being first before that hammer dropped. It made it all the more emotive for the character of Ace and for the viewer. Also, it was not a central theme and it was also made late in the era when Cartmel had his influence on the show. As for the Pertwee era it was at a time when nuclear war was an imminent threat and green ideas were new and not as yet a political reality. As for capitalism, again, Doctor Who has always been a renegade and anti-authoritarian and comes from a culture full of authoritarianism but which holds no need for commerce and so is alien to him. Human greed and fear of corruption is a universal one. What Chibnall is trying to do is to pass all of these previous ideas through a single and rather one dimensional lens. Preachiness and lecturing are better suited to the whims of the Doctor's own character rather than creating a universe deciding it for the Doctor. We don't live in that world. These things must come out through the story with nuance and wit in 3 dimensions and with humanity, not through words cobbled together to week after week push a utopian universe that already exists and that anything outside of it is alien and must be destroyed because that is not a realistic universe.
@@Problembeing Again, I see what you're saying and I do agree to an extent. The oil company people in Green Death felt much more human and believable than the Trump parody. And Mike was likable before we found out what he was (although the "No coloureds" sign came way before he was outed as a traitor) But that's characterization. Even if that guy wasn't parodying Trump I would still call him a bad character and a weak villain. The simple presence of politics isn't the problem, its the writing itself.
You’re not wrong in my eyes buddy. You’ve summed up what I feel about a show I’ve followed for 40 years or so and had passionately, obsessively, delightfully, voraciously eaten up. It informed the man I became and sustained me through some terrible moments in my life. A comfort blanket if you will. But now I’m lost, told that this show is not aimed at me and my opinions have no worth. I let my doctor who magazine subscription lapse for the first time in over 20 years and my adoration for the show and the expanded universe has waned alarmingly. Everything feels tainted by the mistakes and neglect the show is experiencing. Doctor Who is my life but right now there is a gaping hole that wasn’t even there through the ‘lean’ years (89 - 2015) I will watch out of duty but until this creative team have gone and doctor who reboots again I fear nothing will change (what I’ve learned about series 12 does not fill me with much hope) and even then I question if my fan gene will be tickled the same way again. Having bought every story/ season multiple times (Spearhead from space I bough 4 times over - 5 if include the Pertwee blu ray I just got) but I still haven’t bought series 11 and won’t until it practically being given away - I can’t support the new product, a product that has seemingly sought to disenfranchise my demographic in favour of a show so full of nothing as to be staid) I want stories that excite my imagination that goes places I can’t imagine and provides point of view in a way I hadn’t considered subtly and not, as in series 11 being hit repeatedly over the head with a sledgehammer and almost told what to think) I mean no offence to anyone and this is only in my opinion.
Wouldn't call saying Nazis are bad in 1975 "progressive", Stu, but I agree with you that political messaging has always been there. Also, there's a lot of factors regarding political messaging, with the way it could be presented. Like, we tend to not like political messaging that is very blatant and lacks subtlety, and for good reason, it feels unnatural, in a way that for example The Room dialogue feels unnatural.
Chibnall is the JJ Abrams of Doctor Who in the sense of it was ok the first time but I've forgotten about it afterwards. I bought series 11 on DVD in May heavily discounted and it's still wrapped in plastic.
To be fair, when it comes to new doctors, their first season generally tends to be the least ambitious, the most ambitious episode in Series 2 was Impossible Planet/Satan Pit, the most ambitious episode in Series 5 was Vincent and the Doctor, the most ambitious episode in Series 8 was Flatline, none of these three/four episodes were written by the head writers, most Doctors usually start getting memorable, whether for good or bad reasons, during their second series and onwards, I think there’s a good chance that will happen with Jodie and Chibnall
Series 11 was bad, but it's made worse by the people who constantly defend it. I will totally respect someone of a different opinion to me, because that creates conversation. But I have no respect for someone who cannot comprehend a differing opinion. I personally dislike Jodie's Doctor a lot, and I shouldn't be made to suffer for that. Resolution is my least favourite episode of all time, and that's okay. If you liked Series 11, then I am so, so glad that you enjoyed it, that it was enough for you. But as someone who has read EDAs, PDAs, VMAs and VNAs, listened to Big Finish, BBC Audio and Audio Visuals, Series 11 was not of a good enough standard. Look in the comments of this video. Someone posts a respectful comment saying they didn't like Series 11. Someone responds by calling their opinion wrong, getting mad, trying to make them see sense by bashing them, even just responding with smart-alec comments. If you love Jodie and Series 11, then that's okay. If you didn't like Jodie and Series 11, then that's okay.
Okay Stu...I'm gonna try and change your mind :) So, Series 11 in my opinion...was fine. Some low points, some average points and a few real hights (I adore 'Demons of the Punjab' and 'It Takes You Away'). However, I don't associate those highs with Chibnall. I think his best episode in S11 was 'The Ghost Monument' but it wasn't the writing, it was mainly Mark Tonderai's direction and the production values and the whole tone/vibe of the episode. It was the first episode in YEARS where I felt like the show felt alive again. Much of the fresh energy from S11 however was mainly from the guest writers like Malorie Blackman, Viney Patel and Ed Hime. But I still respect Chibnall, as showrunner, for basically saying to those writers "Yeah, throw in a talking frog at the end of the story!" or "Yeah, do a historical story not even set in the UK. Like the Hartnell years!" etc. Much of S11's highs did not come from Chibnall. I completely understand why you may feel apathetic towards Chibnall's approach to Doctor Who, but I disagree that he's a workmanlike writer. Having really enjoyed his previous 'Doctor Who' work and much of his 'Torchwood' stuff, as well as some of his theatre plays like 'Kiss Me Like You Mean It', we have a writer who may not be as bonkers as RTD but still has the same optimistism for the inherent good of people whilst also having some Moffat-style cynicism ('Broadchurch' Series 1). His attention to detail for character beats and terrific one-liners has (once again, in my opinion) been showcased in stories like 'Resolution' and I think people were so quick to tear him down that so much of the genuinely fascinating character studies have been glossed over. But, here's my defence, of Chibnall...it's only been one season. I've seen people try and start debates online by asking "Is Moffat a better showrunner than Chibnall?" and we just don't have a pattern yet. After one season, Moffat seemed to be doing an amazing job. But mid-way through S6, it was clear that the wheels were starting to come off the wagon. For Series 1 with RTD, they went into that thinking that was their SINGLE series, so all cards were on the table. Chibnall went into S11 knowing he was playing a longer game. For Chibnall, we only have one season and no sense of a pattern yet. Maybe a workmanlike approach (or at least a more formulaic one) for S11 was needed. S8 to S10 really alienated a lot of viewers and this is indicated through the viewing figures. I think S11 just needed to put the show back on the map and draw in those who lost favour with it. Whether or not this succeeded or not has yet to be determined, but maybe that's what Chibnall and the BBC wanted. That's not to say I disagree or think you're unjustified in your feelings and opinions towards Chibnall's Series 11 writing. But I'd say wait until S12 to see if he takes on board any criticism (ACTUAL criticism, not the "Too many Muslims and Womz" dogma online), takes a few more risks and gives us something special. By all means, if S12 comes along and he gives us more of the same, you'd be justified in your apathy. But I think let's see how S12 pans out before declaring him unsuitable for the show. From what I've heard from the rumour-mill, Chibnall was not given much creative freedom with S11. But with the show being such a huge ratings success and such a regular trender on social media (which, depressingly, does influence behind-the-scenes goings-on nowadays), Chibnall is going to be more hands-on with S12. Apparently, Chibnall was furious with the higher-ups who basically took half of his script for 'The Tsuranga Conundrum' and said "Nah, we're not doing that", so he had to write half the episode last minute which is why it turned out as malformed as it did. (Allegedly). So my fingers are crossed. And even if Chibnall under-delivers with S12, I hope he continues the trend of letting other, extremely promising writers continue to play in the vast playground of 'Doctor Who'. It's something I really wish Moffat let his guest-writers do. TL;DR - I liked S11, but Chibnall was rarely the bright-spark. But let's wait another season before writing him off. But I understand your apathy and can't really disagree with it.
@A Mad Man With a Box, I think there's a difference between Moffat making several messy series in a row and hoping "the next one might be better" and "We for one workmanlike series during a time of creative stifling and hopefully that will change with time".
@A Mad Man With a Box, I'm not saying it's unfair to have low expectations. I literally said numerous times that it's understandable. I'm saying to not write off Chibnall or seem him unfit for Doctor Who until an actual pattern has developed. I.e. until he has done more than 1 season.
I see where you're coming from, i'm still unenthused but I do see why we differ cause I guess I didn't really approach season 11 from the perspective of "new showrunner" so much because so many of the stories felt like bare bones dr who - it didn't really feel refreshed to me and I was kinda watching it as a continuous flow from season 7, to 8, to 9, to 10, now to 11 and kinda just saw 11 as the next mediocre season but minus the standout out of the ball park episodes like heaven sent. Idk, I'll probably watch it, just the idea of reviewing it feels a bit like pissing in the wind given how chibnall appears to work
@@Stubagful, and like I said, I completely understand that lack of enthusiasm. However, I think that it's worth waiting one more season before declaring that he's completely unsuited to DW, because he past scripts under other Showrunners (while obviously not on the level of Moffat's pre-showrunner work) such as '42', 'Dinosaurs on a Spaceship' and Torchwood episodes like 'Adrift' show that he does get the format. And a showrunner who is able to bring in mainstream audience members after the Moffat era drove many of them away whilst also helping and guiding a great set of new writers indicates that as a showrunner he is a positive influence.
Series 11 came across like a parody some kids had made rather than an actual series of doctor who. I like the RTD era and loved the Moffat era, they both had issues but also had some outstanding episodes each series with brilliant characters. S11 was just lifeless to me.
Cracking video, that sums up perfectly how I feel about current Doctor Who. And that’s exactly the problem- I don’t *feel* anything. I absolutely hated Hell Bent but at least I had a passion of some sort toward it. This series has just been... there. But I implore you to remember how amazing the series is when it hits the mark. Take a break from the 13th Doctor; listen to some Big Finish audios or indulge in some classic series stuff. I’d miss your Doctor Who videos if there weren’t to be any more.
I feel exactly the same mate. Season 11 felt empty and really made me think of not watching the new series anymore. But I'll give series 12 a chance cause I thought resolution even though not perfect was a step in the right direction from what we got in series 11. I'll give it 4 episodes and if I'm not convinced by then I'll throw the towel in. And big fan of your videos!.
Chris Chibnall IS a visionary, he just is in the most litteral term: he has a single image vision, like dinosaurs on a spaceship, huge spiders in sheffield, etc, but he can't expand on that. It's just a portrait that can't move, so when he forces it to do it, it's in the most unimaginative way. "Did broadchurch really needed 3 series?!" THANK YOU! My friends are all like "it's a masterpiece, it's so good" but after the case is solved, what's the point? It's quite dull and uninsteresting!
It’s difficult. On one hand you have Moffat’s episode, which while ambitions were often overly complex and the casual viewer found difficult to engage with. Now with Chibnall we have a show runner who as you say, creates episodes that are simplistic and in some cases quite cookie cutter and dare I say it, bland? However he has managed to re-engage casual viewers, which Moffat struggled with (even after series 10’s soft reboot), and as much as the neck-beards hate it the viewership does need to be there for the BBC to justify making the show. The showrunner for Doctor Who needs to be a visionary with creative ideas, who can communicate those themes in a simple, but not a simplistic way. It’s a hard balance to get right.
I'm never sure. Nowadays I couch my criticism of Moffat on accusing him of being shy of his own ideas, and relying too much on his sitcom background as a consequence. The only reason the head writer post is necessary really is I guess increasingly somebody on the artistic side needs to stand up to the BBC.
I'm not sure he really did re-engage the casuals. The first ep got a huge boost from the curiosity factor, but the episodes then went down in ratings week after week, and the festive special was the lowest ever. The curiosity boost is really the only claim to success they have.
Frankly, the endless mis-information about the success/failure of last season has sucked all the energy out of me. There were problems . It talked down to the audience , couldn't handle all the things each story wanted to achieve and I got bored. I mean, how can you mess up a trek across a dangerous planet (Ghost Monument). It's a standard Sixties trope.Terry Nation could have written a compelling narrative in an afternoon, he probably had one ready on his shelf for emergencies, but somehow we get a trip across a deadly, flesh eating lake and no one falls in or even nearly falls in, even if one of the characters has dyspraxia!
It is my sad and regretful duty to inform you Stubagful that you unequivocally and absolutely nailed the problem with series 11 12 and Chibnall in one fell swoop, it's the saddest thing I have listened to in a long long time. But having said that, thank you for summing up and bringing together all my own disparate thoughts on Chibnutts and Dr Womb in one concise and coherent eleven minutes and twenty eight seconds.
The modern era of Doctor Who kind of reflects Star Wars. RTD era is the original trilogy, great with only a few slip ups. Moffat era is the prequels, lower quality but with some really great parts that sometimes surpassed previous era. Then we have the Chibnal era, which is the sequel trilogy. It manages to be so bad it makes even the bad bits of the Moffat era look good.
Yeah, I definitely went through the same thing after Series 11 came out. I really think it was the worst season in the show's history, and it really put me off the show for a good while. Lately however, I've been rewatching the Capaldi era (it's so, SO underrated), been dipping back into Classic Who, and have been listening to Big Finish. I may or may not give Series 12 a go.
I'm looking forward to the moment a real life version of the Doctor transports himself live into an episode and just mocks everyone past and present in the whole sordid mess and devolves the prop budget right back into 1963.
This video was great!! Since you asked us to change your mind, I will try. I *used* to feel the exact same way as you do. Straight after series 11 I didn't feel the buzz that I usually do (I nearly gave up tbh) but making RUclips videos about the show has been good fun (despite not having much to work with). I feel Series 12 has a lot of opportunity for theory (e.g. "The Timeless Child" line in The Ghost Monument) even if they feel like throw-away lines, there's a chance they could be hinting to something. A few video suggestions, "How I Would Run Doctor Who" [we did this one and pretty much said we would reset to the RTD format and we've even tried making an episode ourselves], "My Doctor Who Episode" [how you would write a DW episode and what it would be about]. I think the overall point I'm trying to make is Doctor Who is continuous and I don't consider Doctor Who as Chris Chibnall's at the moment. I just see him as a footnote in Doctor Who's history. The show, for me, has been more than what it is in its current state. It feels exciting to know the show has potential. Truth be told, after seeing a few Ace Creeper reactions to Torchwood, I think he has an ability to show us a gripping episode that will leave a mark. I do wonder if his writing is trying to appeal to children so much that the action scenes are falling flat and not much is really happening in the hour timeslot apart from a message. I think at times like this, if reviewing the future episodes will be difficult, perhaps instead of explaining what went wrong, explain how you could do it a better (it's a different approach but it might be more exciting for you). Sorry for the long comment (I'm pretty bad at getting to the point). Hope this is somewhat helpful :)
I still really like the Amazing Race episode of S11. Really great feel, despite the cookie cutter supporting cast. Not perfect, and not "best ever" candidate in any category, but I keep going back to it. "Moomin' Beenz" indeed. And the mirror universe ep with the daft frog did indeed try to be something *different*, even if it didn't entirely succeed. So I disagree that Chibs was entirely formulaic. Perhaps he just wasn't quite as good at the experimental stuff as we hoped he would be? (Unfortunately, IMO the formulaic episodes were mostly bad. At least I enjoyed most of the formulaic ones even when RTD and Moffat were doing them. They, at least, understood (1) how to script a punchline (or other key moment) and the actors knew (2) how to deliver them. The Trump stand-in was neither scripted nor directed to either of those standards.
Agreed. Even the best episodes got lumbered with ballast, like that seemingly endless café scene between Ryan and his dad (a scene more East Enders than Doctor Who), or the dull expository dialogue that seemed to crop up all too frequently. You'd rarely, if ever, see such banalities creeping into the scripts during the entirety of the Davies and Moffat eras.
My main problem with the race episode (and to a lesser extent s11) was that it was a really cool build up that got me really engaged and interested and then went... nowhere. There was no real resolution to all the questions or ideas brought up, but not even in a satisfying, I guess we'll never know way, but rather in a "oh, is it just ending now then?" He creates these worlds/scenarios and then does nothing with them, or just chucks extra pointless stuff
Yup, I'm definitely going through a Doctor Who estrangement period right now. For similar reasons. That last series drained me, it was so utterly formulaic.
I think you hit the nail on the head. And it's one of the things that bothers me about the fact that Chibnal took over at the same time that they switched genders. _The show changed completely._ It became very flat and lifeless. Actually your description was perfect. He's not a _visionary._ They we're _serviceable_ episodes for the most part. But they lacked any kind of enthusiasm. Even as I watch some react channels of previous Seasons, it just becomes glaring the apparent that it's not that the Doctor is a woman now, but that Chibnal isn't a good showrunner.
The problem with the modern culture is that being risky is a bad thing. People get offended over almost everything these days. Companies cares more about profit, instead of the final product. Doctor Who cannot be generic, and I learned that from you Stuart. Instead we got a generic safe product. But it’s also a huge risk to fail. Trying to please everybody, people risking to please no one. And trying to please only one group of people, is a risk to not get appreciation at all. “Joker” is an amazing movie. I liked it, but some people find it offensive. But because creators didn’t tried to please everybody, but instead tried to say something of it's own and the result is a 8,8 at IMDB and 750 million at the box office.
Kerblam!, Demons of the Punjab, and Rosa are the only episodes I remember. Three of the five episodes not written solely by Chibnell (Chibnall was co-writer for Rosa.)
It's kind of sad that the best and most memorable Dr. Who script Chibnall ever done was that extra animatic epilogue for Angels Take Manhattan that was released on DVD. And now Stu is going to get negative comments from Season 11 defenders because he didn't care for it and from detractors because he didn't trash or hate on it enough.
Hitting the nail on the head. Also thankfully you're not too hung up on the whole political agenda thing, which would really be too easy to point to for the problems of this season.
Assuming we take your first bit “the show shot itself the foot with the Moffat era” as accepted because we could end up on a very long tangent discussing that, I just want to pick up on “what this issue is” as “we all knew this” The issue is the show is boring. The issue is there is nothing exciting to look forward to or pushing you to catch up on an episode you missed. The issue is when your head writer is pumping out "good for 45 minutes but you will have forgotten it in a few days" content for their best episodes, it doesn’t make people want to rewatch the show or recommend it to friends. Of course the BBC want consistent ratings and someone who can churn out the show. But it doesn’t have to be this dull, even with Chibnall still being in charge. For example, he could pick interesting guest writers to mix between the more standard episodes. Heck, some of the more traditional story structures can still be hits with long time fans if executed well. There can be some calculated level of imagination.
@@ender7278 Sadly casting Capaldi turned off the fangirls, and they then compounded the issue by giving him inconsistent characterisation and dull stories.
To be honest this was me during Season 9/the 2016 hiatus. The Clara years just bored the hell out of me and fortunately Classic Who, Big Finish and pre-Capaldi revival Who kept my love of the show fresh. As a result I really don't blame you for feeling this way even if I'm not right now as I quite liked Series 11 (bits of it- it definitely wasn't perfect). I think the reason WHY he's been quite workmanlike so far is because he needed to get the general audience back after Moffat destroyed the show's reputation in the public's eyes and that's why Series 11 occasionally felt a bit stiff and box ticking because it had to for the show's sake. The best episodes were in the back half like It Takes You Away and Demons of the Punjab because they were written by guest writers who had a singular vision for a singular episode and we got great content out of it. Hopefully Series 12 is a lot better on the whole for everyone's sake and again I say this as someone who liked Series 11.
@@NoverMaC Yeah it was. The Monk stuff didn't work and I loathe Twice Upon a Time with the fury of a thousand suns (I highly doubt Chibnall will ever write anything that bad) but it was a solid season of the show overall. Moffat finally nailed Capaldi's Doctor, Bill and Nardole were very fun and the standout episodes were fantastic. Very strong stuff.
The thing is, Chibnall is quite a great writer. His work on Broadchurch was great, but as a detective/crime story there's basically no necessity for imagination, Doctor Who, on the other hand, needs basically nothing but.
I am optimistic about the future. The Season 11 box set stayed in the TV Programme Chart for a record breaking six months. HBO have just picked up the series. The Daleks are back. But what gladdens my heart as a very old bloke is the kind of conversation that I heard between a little boy and a young girl. The boy was boosting 'Star Wars' and dissing Dr Who. The little girl said angrily "That's not fair, you know I am ALL ABOUT DR Who!" Without looking at her, I just announced "And so am I!" I caught their Mother's I and we both chuckled. After answering police enquiries the next day, I was freed to go my way. THAT LAST BIT DIDN'T HAPPEN BTW! Keep up the good work! You're funny and bright. (The foam in the animated Fury From the Deep makes it look like the Doctor is menaced by little fluffy clouds!)
You've vocalised all my feelings on who at the mo. It's shame as Whittaker is extremely likeable in the role but is being wasted on lacklustre scripts. Can't they just get Big Finish to make the TV show as well yet??
Stu, I've been watching your stuff for years, always a fan of your work. I've got to say: you absolutely nailed my feelings on current DW with this video. Really on-point, it's incredible how you managed to put words on my boredom and made me feel less like an "old bored fan" and more like... like an "old bored fan with reasons for being so", I guess. Chibnall's handling of the formula is so methodic and procedural that it made me think I don't like these formulas anymore. But that's just wrong! I will be praying for you to be in charge of DW New New Series when it relaunches in the far distant future. And people will dig out this old videos on this "RUclips" website of old, and point out how you sold yourself short and lost all your inspiration and ideals when you got pro. Cheers!
I couldn't get past the first episode. You are correct, it's like being given a painting by numbers to look at when what we want is a Dali or Picasso. I enjoy diversity, I just can't deal with weak writing.
The sad thing is, you are completely right. I watched Moffat's era, I hated it, But I watched it... I didn't watch the second half of series 11 because I was so bored with it.
I still suffered through the Capaldi era because I still vaguely recognised the lead character. They've now removed that attachment entirely. Thanks Chinballs! ;)
I had no idea that I had been bottling this up for such a long time before I saw this video, thank you so much for making this I wholeheartedly agree with everything in this video and that makes me sad but its good sad now that I got it out thanks to you
Ok but can we talk about how Jodie’s doctor wanted a giant spider to suffocate to death in its exoskeleton over shooting it and putting it out of its very clear misery. The trump parody shot the spider for the wrong reasons, but that spider was in clear pain and 13 was wholly ready to let it just suffer and die.
I remember falling asleep during the new season and I have NEVER done that in any episode of Doctor Who ever. EDIT: My mum watched every episode of Born and Bred and I just asked her if she remembered it and she had completely forgotten it existed until I brought it up.
I sort of lost my spark for Dr Who after S11 (which i'm really sad about). I feel like I'm slowly edging away from the franchise, and moving onto other things (IE - 'Life On Mars' & 'Ashes To Ashes'). I just hope Season 12 can wow me and bring back the enthusiasm.
Your views on the Chibnall era remind me about something you mentioned in a previous video about Doctor Who needing a fresh perspective by a lesser known indie writer. I feel like the show really needs this it’ll be Polarising but the fandom is already completely torn apart anyway.
While I would love to change your mind, I really don't know if I can. The most I have to go off of is the alleged promise that Season 12 will be more "traditional" and more like the Moffat or Davies era. But the biggest fear is the fact if Chibnall's writing will be able to break out of his own "traditional" techniques, and be able to do something that will help translate over to what people want out of Doctor Who, which is the experimental and the risky. If he tries sticking too close to what he expects people to want, and what he thinks traditional Doctor Who is like, he may not be able to do the actual risks and experiments that will make Doctor Who enjoyable. Is the franchise at large dead? Of course not. We still have Big Finish chugging along at mach 10, new animated remakes of both The Faceless Ones and Fury From the Deep, and while I know next to nothing about them, the comics still seem as busy as ever. Saying the franchise at large is dead is plain ignorance. And I'd say it's too early to say that even the tv show itself is dead. I'd say it's smartest to wait and see just how this new, more "traditional" season 12 of the series is handled and if Chibnall is really capable of writing something that feels like Doctor Who at its finest. I feel it can be done, as he's shown he is capable and has a semblance of what makes a good Doctor Who story, but whether or not he can do that as the man at the helm is still worthy of skepticism.
I LOVE THIS VIDEO SO MUCH BECAUSE YOU GAVE A REAL REASON AS TO WHY SEASON 11 ISN'T GOOD AND YOU DIDN'T JUST COMPLAIN ABOUT TERRIBLE WRITING THANK YOU THIS EXPLAINS EVERYTHING PERFECTLY
Honestly, you're completely right, and I'm surprised I haven't been able to articulate why I was struggling to enjoy Season 11 so much. Like, even the episodes I DID enjoy (Rosa and Kerblam specifically), I felt zero motivation to rewatch, something that's never happened to me with New Who before. Hell, even episodes I hate I feel interested into at least dissecting why it didn't work, because as someone who is trying to write failure is still just as important. The only issue I see is, we don't have a suitable candidate for the next Head Writer. Mark Gatiss is also universally "average" in his storytelling, overall, so beyond that I guess they should just go into a full on writer's room, and maybe try having someone a little more willing to take risks at the helm. I'd say try Season 12, but if it doesn't land maybe it's best to wait until Chibnall leaves, if we're lucky enough to still have Doctor Who after that point.
I fear you're right. Compare the Trump episode to the Happiness Patrol. Which is the more inspired? Which is the more watchable? Which is the more memorable? Is the Arxhbishop of Canterberry going to refer to it in his Easter sermon of 1050? I'll remember Rosa and Demons of the Punjab and It Takes You Away, and the rest is well-acted, uninspired sludge.
Some good points in this. It's coincidental that you upload this on the one year anniversary of Arachnids in the UK - meaning it's exactly one year since I gave up on Doctor Who for the first time after three decades of fandom.
I have a slightly different view on why Series 11 was so bland. While I agree with your assessment, I think another contributing factor was that S11 marked the premiere season for "Doctor Who's first female Doctor." Let's not mince words, ok? The BBC and the media that covered DW leading up to it's premiere prefaced every mention of Jodie Whittaker with, "the first female Doctor." The bulk of S11's marketing revolved around that single selling point, and I think that's why there was nothing else memorable about it. They didn't *_want_* anything memorable that might end up outshining the "first female Doctor" factor, because that was basis for all of this in the first place -- to cater to a small group of feminists who were butt hurt that television writers dared write a lead character as a male. Even now, articles on DW still add the tagline, "DW's first female Doctor" when they mention Whittaker. It's literally the only thing they sold S11 on. No style, no substance, just a political casting stunt. When people think of Series 3, they immediately think of "Blink," not David Tennant as the Doctor. Writing a slam dunk like that for S11 would've undermined their agenda (fuss all you want people --- there WAS an agenda -- post-Series 11 articles have confirmed it.).
Not going to lie, I had to go look up what "The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos" was when you said it. This is coming from someone who's rewatched 1-10 entirely on multiple occasions. I just feel sad now.
I started to feel the way you do, but Big Finish saves me... kind of. I have watched every episode of Doctor Who (Classic and New), but I have not listened to every Big Finish audio play. I’ve listened to all of the Main Range, with the exception for the last year of releases. Once I realized there were whole other series like the Lost Stories and that there is a series of Third Doctor audios... and the Torchwood and UNIT and Bernice Summerfield. I live in the US and whilst driving to and from work I listen to the Big Finish audios. I am in the middle of a series of Second Doctor audios at the moment. They have me raptured at how the same formula (depending on which kind of Doctor Who story) can be done and redone and still be interesting to me. I like how the characterizations of all the the early companions and Doctors makes me want to hear more. There is even a series of “Short Trips” (some audios are only 15 minutes and tend be more of an audio book format) that feature the 10th and 11th Doctors. It is what’s keeping me interested... for now.
While I have not seen any of the series past 8, this is an excellent video. I'm a huge fan of the Classic series (I have almost every single DVD), I got tired of the New Series relatively early on, and it was due to the fact that writers rely on nonsensical technobabble and deus ex machinas far too often to resolve the plot. There's only so many times the Doctor can use his sonic screwdriver to save the day at the 44th minute before you become disconnected from the story. That's probably why some of the best stories are the ones that are more focused on the characters (e.g. Love and Monsters, The Lodger). I'd love for them to do big, bombastic, spectacles well, but almost every time they do we get a giant turd (e.g. Journey's End, The End of Time). There are exceptions, but ultimately, the ratio of good-to-bad stories is too low and after awhile it just wears you down and you stop caring. :(
I wish I could change your mind but you were spot on with your comparison to Eastenders. Even years alter the most popular moment of that show remains Den giving Angie divorce papers at Christmas. Easterenders is a tick along show and Doctor Who shouldn't be that.
I can't say I feel the same towards Series 11. I've rewatched episodes like Rosa and Resolution several times and still enjoy them. I'm actually excited for Series 12 myself. But I really think you bring up a ton of good points (without going into shouty nonsense thankfully) like how Doctor Who needs to be more dangerous and experimental. At this point I'm wondering what it'd be like if they let someone like Charlie from Black Mirror have a then as showrunner. Either way great video Stubagful!
For every Aliens of London there was a Dalek. For every Love and Monsters there was A Girl in the Fireplace. For every Daleks in Manhattan there was a Blink. For every - oh I forgot Series 4 was perfect. For every Planet of the Dead there's a Waters of Mars. For every Beast Below there's a Vincent and the Doctor. For every Curse of the Black Spot there's A Good Man Goes to War. For every - nah Series 7 sucked ass. For every Deep Breath there was a Dark Waters. For every Hell Bent there was a Heaven Sent. For every Lie of the Land there was a World Enough and Time. Ups and downs make a show. The peaks show the greatest and the troughs show the weakest - but everything before Chibnall has something in common - genuine risk. Fear Her was an undisputed car crash built on a new idea. The Waters of Mars is largely agreed upon as Tennant's best story because it takes the Doctor places he's never been. Chibs isn't interested in risk.
I always thought that Chris was chosen because he could do the job and, more importantly, get along with the BBC. He's a team player, a "yes" man. I imagine they battled with Moffat over everything, for his entire tenure, and they were sick of it. They should have let Neil Gaiman run Doctor Who, and hope they will in the future. But they realized they would have the same problem with him. Neil doesn't roll over either.
The last season did leave me feeling quite cold tbf, I thought that maybe this version of Doctor Who isn't my version and that it's designed for a different audience now in its current form. My only advice is that Chris seems to be a reactionary writer, working off the criticisms to improve future episodes. If this is true then season 12 does hold a lot of promise. I'll be tuning in to the series next year and hopefully you will too, it'd be a shame to come all this way as a fan and quit now.
Thoughts on the Fury animation: excited but cautious - 2020, really? This thing's gonna be missing forever and is 3 hours long - they need all the time in the world to work on this
Stubagful I was at MCM Comic Con and filmed the entire panel where they talked about the animation. They showed some behind the scenes clips from Fury from the Deep. ruclips.net/video/2drCOXex0d0/видео.html I have the same fears as you as at 1 point I would have thought that Fury wouldn’t ever work as an animation. While I think now it might work, I still think that it’ll probably not be as creepy as watching the actual thing or even telesnaps and narrated audio. The extra clips at Comic Con look OK and I am aware that these clips are just tests but looking at the way the characters look and move, I am worried. Even in the teaser the way the seaweed and the foam moved looked wrong as if it they just were manipulating and stretching one frame of animation. But I was very surprised with the quality of The Macra Terror animation so who knows. As for The Faceless Ones animation, while I think it’s going to be better then the Power animation, I don’t think it’s going to be as good as the Macra animation. The characters look once again a bit too much like cardboard cutouts. We can only wait.
its a different compony as well doing it i think its big finish doing it which is good we dont know how long they have been working onit befor the annoncement so im thinking november 2020 will be the time it comes out but we all need faith in big finish
I think different fans want different things from these animations. To me, they serve the purpose of plugging the gaps in the TV series. I’m not interested in the animations of the existing episodes of The Faceless Ones, personally- they purely exist as the next best thing to actually finding the episodes, in my opinion. But I’m aware that some people want to completely embrace it as animated Doctor Who, and that’s fine too.
Hey, if anyone's interested, I'm reviewing all the Doctor Who stories on my channel, with me just having uploaded Part 3 if my review of: 'The Time-Monster!' No pressure, of course, just if you're interested! :)
P.S. Totally agree with Series 12; I'm wondering If I should even Watch Series 12, As-Well.
Fave story
Can't wait
Russel and Steven’s worst episodes were at least glorious train wrecks.
They were absolutely unwatchable garbage that you couldn't look away from.
I don't know about Fear Her, it is a pretty boring train wreck.
I think that's true 'glorious train wrecks' - just as example mentioned above Fear Her - winds me up, but it's an interesting concept "ahh the Doctor encounters an alien and defeats it - boring" but it's not an 'evil alien doing evil things, it's a perfectly good alien wanting to go 'home' - Super 8 similar premise. I'm not defending it as 'good' as I say it winds me up, (mostly the irritating portrayal of Chloe) also theres a sub-plot of the 'we have noting to fear but fear itself' with the dead dad that comes back' thing.
Compare that with say 'Spiders in Sheffield' There's nasty spiders, they've been made big by chemicals, Doctor traps them, end of episode. The only 'sophistication' is that there's the spin they're not 'evil' just big - except the Doctor traps them to die of starvation slowly, and Trump who shoots the massive one actually did a kinder thing than the Doctor's solution of letting it suffocate to death slowly, alone and in terror. B Movie plot with no more elements, really.
@@leflemmy It's not an original concept. It's not done in an interesting way. It doesn't have a great guest star, impressive effects, a whiz-bang score, or a lot of energy.
It's not a "glorious train wreck" it's more like watching a car slowly sink in a bog. Over the course of several days. It's a snooze.
Now...Daleks Take Manhattan is a glorious train wreck. Misses the mark in every conceivable way and is unwatchable garbage, but it's at least done with gusto!
I am being nitpicky, Fear Her is a pet hate of mine, but I think it's the exception that proves the rule in this case: every other bad episode can reasonably be described as a glorious train wreck.
Doctor Who status at the moment: using Hell Bent as a positive reference
Good golly, you're right! That's not quite fantastic, is it?
Remember when we were shocked, from Hell-Bent, allowing us to use The End Of Time, as a Positive-Reference?
carealoo744 “wtf are you turning me into Moffat!!”
SERIOUSLY!!!
Hell Bent was good. Utterly bonkers and underdeveloped though.
People always label series 11 as "awful and unwatchable", but really it's more of "that was okay, time to go to bed now" and I'd talk about it to my friend for 5 minutes the next day. That was it. We used to have half an hour, sometimes hour long conversations about the latest episodes pre series 11.
There's no doubt I'll be watching series 12, but I just don't think I'll be excited.
Jessicatzen Agreed!
Awful is better than boring, afterall
It takes the most dull and unimaginative path on every turn, the 'mud witch' episode, which was where I stopped watching is a prime example of this.
In the past I've pre-paid for a season on Amazon in order to watch it, but I don't think I'll be doing that this time, unless I heard otherwise about it.
Jessicatzen just summed up what I did every time I watched ep from s11
Who would think of the guy that wrote 'Dinosaurs on a spaceship' and 'The power of three', and go "This man must be the next Doctor who showrunner!"
he wrote 1 good torchwood episode and that's it
He also wrote "42"! Remember that one? With the sun face guy and the pub quiz in space? Definitely the right man to lead the entire show
@@DextroDNAOfficial True, though 42 is actually the only episode of his I can rewatch without yawning. Its not great, but as a standard race against time plot its passable. The Hungry earth was a less interesting redo of the Silurians, which he ripped off wholesale. His arachnids in the Uk seemed to be just a ripped off Green death, with added trump derangement sprinkled in. There seems to be a pattern of this hack fraud stealing classic episodes and presenting them as his own work, which the BBC and media never call him out on.
@@lesigh1749 42 is also just a rip off of the pit episodes in season 2 with Piper and Tennant. Set on a human ship/base that is rusted and kind of thrown together, they are facing a sentient creature that nobody even knows is real who has minions that corrupt members of the base and killing them 1 by 1, the tardis is out of reach leaving doctor and companion stranded only for the doctor to figure out the mystery at the last moment and with help from his companion resolve the crisis. Add in characters that probably have names that are just used to show this monster is dangerous cause it killed character 1 and 2. Finally never mention the adventure in canon ever again "remember when I killed the actual devil that has been plaquing literally every species since before time?" "No, remember when I became a host for a living sun and gave it back it's balls?"
NuVanDibe And the guy who wrote ‘Kill the Moon’ was the guy who got to adapt H. G. Well’s ‘The War of the Worlds’ for BBC 1.
Yay.
I really can’t remember anything from the last series other than the guy couldn’t ride a bike, his Nan died and Bradley Walsh was in it.
I remember thinking Bradley would have made a better doctor as even his character was more doctor ish than the actual doctor
The only people who even had any development was Graham and Ryan
Jamie Ralph I just remember a man giving birth and the a-hole version of King James
I kind of remember the really shit spider episode, but I only remember how shit it was
“I’m kinda apathetic to Doctor Who” - he says the day we get the announcement that Fury From The Deep is getting animated
Aint there days were one forgets theres gonna be a new Season?
@stephen noonan I'm very much looking forward to Who in 2020.... Faceless Ones and Fury, wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
I undrestand the lack of excitement for the TV show, but Big Finish are killing it this year
Big Finish have become so up their own arse with spin-offs
I agree. Big Finish has become my go-to for new stories. And they have been truly amazing this year.
Totally agree, whilst i've always watched and enjoyed nu Who (until now, haven't see s11 yet) Big Finish is my go to Doctor Who fix, listen to it on my commute, and it gives me everything i need from Who, like the old Virgin/BBC books did in the nineties and the target books did for me in the eighties
"It's not that he's a bad writer"
Bad? No. Poor? Yes.
I could write essays on the dramatic and dramaturgical failures he makes in Season 11. Obvious errors that nobody in his position should be making, chief among which being his constant substitution of exposition in place of dialogue.
He isn't a solid writer. He's barely a workmanlike writer. He's a poor writer who got lucky a couple of times and has clung to the coat tails of those successes.
I imagine the essays would be more interesting
Not to mention, even halfway decent writers are capable of adapting to the material. Like writing an article with the exact same voice as is standard for that website. Or knowing how to make a crazy and insane story like you'll find in Doctor Who. Everyone has their own style, and it will still come across, but being totally unable to adapt to the style of a show is a trademark signature of a bad writer.
It’s scary how well this video articulates my feelings towards Doctor Who right now. The best thing I can compare this season to is a British version of the CW superhero show. At its core it has good ideas and potential but it’s been so watered down to appeal to a general audience it becomes nothing more than a formulaic place holder.
But it doesn't appeal to a general audience. Viewing drops of 40+ percent are a pretty good indication that its only appealing to the far far left. After all, thats who it's now made for, those people who think anyone to the right of Ghandi is an evil nazi.
General audiences DON'T think, believe or behave like that, and they've deserted the show in their millions.
@Stefano Pavone but like why? lol
This i find funny, as DW was once my favourite show, but now I love the Arrowverse shows, and specifically Legends of Tomorrow, that gave me more DW vibes than DW itself has done for years.
@@zybch that's stupid. The show is shit but not because it's far left, that's ridiculous.
@Stefano Pavone Some of the episodes under Moffat and Davies have been the best in the entire series. A visionary showrunner *could* turn this around post-Chibnall.
Remember all the headlines like “is X show the new Broadchurch” well it’s a Murder myster on ITV so
YES
because that is what Broadchurch is "murder mystery with bleak shoegazey soundtrack"
The only episode in series 11 I felt strongly about was kerblam
And that's just because the anti-capitalist subtext of the entire episode did a 180 about 5 minutes from the end and revealed that no actually space Amazon is good and workers rights are bad
Which in itself feels like a cop out to ensure the show isn't strongly depicting anything
Josh A Only thing it’s depicting is boredom.
Anti-capitalist subtext? It was a bit too on-the-nose for subtext, don't you think? That's why so many people have complained about S11's political messaging --rather than dress it up with imaginative characters & settings, Chibnall just copied the real-world entities and changed their names. Stubagful references the Daleks for comparison, which is the most annoying thing I hear from people who defend S11's messaging. Yes, the Daleks are meant to be stand-ins for Nazis, but they aren't Nazis; they aren't even human. They don't wear brown coats, they don't don swastikas, and their leader Davros doesn't do a salute from a motorcade yelling, "Heil, Davros!" There is enough differentiation between Nazis and Daleks that I don't feel like Daleks are just renamed Nazis. In contrast, there was no effort to dress up the "Trump" character in Arachnids in the UK; it was as brazen and over-the-top as possible, just like Kerblam!.
It said Amazon good, workers bad because all that virtue signalling is really about the middle class white saviour paradigm which posits that the establishment is good. It is the poor who cause the problems who must be managed and contained.
That one was like wtf in my mind even I was like what is this a hash at Neo liberalism or just the portrayal of what Chibs thinks is Neo Liberalism.
sixstanger00 It’s like Chibnal doesn’t know the word “sub-text.” Lol
Politics in the past have pretty much been handled with Satire, metaphor, comedy and subtly. In Chibs Who you have none of that...
thank you like wtf
otherwise not only do you end up excluding audiences and making them feel unwanted or demonized. You also slow down the actual plot of whats going on like in that rosa parks episode the plot was so damn slow because of the scene where they sit down and have a discussion about racism like what the fuck.
You raise a really interesting point about Chibnall's nature as a showrunner, and I think it explains why the episodes people found interesting were the ones Chibnall didn't write. To be honest, if he was a script editor who didn't really write the stories and was just there to helm it and get talented, visionary writers to write for it, maybe Doctor Who under Chibnall might work better?
I absolutely think he should stay away from writing, just run the show. He's perfectly fine doing that.
Personally I think he just isn't a talented writer. He *doesn't know* how to write a good story. He only knows how to apply a formula to a script. His style of writing simply takes less talent, less skill and less overall understanding of good storytelling. The political stuff just further shows his ineptitude as a writer. He doesn't know how to write it in with subtlety and it ended up overshadowing plot and feeling very forced and just overall cringy. He can't build a good character which is why the current Doctor has no real identity other than being the female doctor. I understand that his type of writing fills a void in daily television but I also don't think we should grant it anywhere near as much respect as genuinely good writing.
Except Chibnall failed even in that regard. It's the job of the head writer not just to write scripts, but polish up everyone else's for consistency.
In Series 11, Chris was constantly behind. "Tsuranga" he had to write from scratch at the last minute. The finale was a first draft 'cause he ran out of time.
How did he not know what he was getting into??
We need new writers!
Series 11: all new writers
We still need new writers!
Why cant they drag in a few big finish writers. Would love to see what Guerrier could do. And Shearman pleeeeeeeeeaaaaasssseeeee
"Why cant they drag in a few big finish writers"
Genuinely no sarcasm on my part but one suspects that they're far too white and male for Chibbers' Who.
Indeed, prior to last season Chibnall and Whittaker were _bragging_ how (superficially) _diverse_ the new cadre of writers were.
When one is at least partly hiring on trite box-ticking credentials rather than actual talent/merit, well, you get Season 11....
@@makara80 Every season 11 writer bar one was a 'political playwright' according to their lightweight IMBD pages. And all but One had no TV experience, let alone genre TV. They were chosen for their so-left-it-hurts politics and the colour of their skin. Thats all!
Seems we now have more of the same calibre for Series 12.
The best that I can realistically hope for with Series 12 is that they'll fix the things that were seriously wrong with Series 1, like the monsters feeling pointless in the historical episodes, and Yaz being a total waste of space, and Chibnall writing a full 50% of the episodes and deciding he could get away with just remaking The Green Death with spiders. It Takes You Away is a demonstration that he is willing to greenlight oddball and adventurous work, but I'm not altogether confident that he's willing to allow that to happen more than once a series. The fact that we're getting both Daleks and Cybermen next series also gives the impression that Chibnall's basically looking at Doctor Who like a checklist of elements that need to be ticked off.
If he was actually simply using a checklist then that would be far better than anything he's done so far. Doctor? Inept and irrelevant. Companions? No actual relationships with the non-Doctor. Villains? Weak and worthless. Actual threat and peril? None. Lots of talk of danger but not actually happening.
Yeah I think you've pretty much hit the nail on the head with that. We need more "It Takes Us Away". I mean sentient universes taking the form of a talking frog? That's a weird idea that I'm surprised Doctor Who hasn't done yet. It was great. I need more of that, less of the Moraxx.
@videoluver7 bubble wrap isn't new to Doctor Who either. It was just a matter of time til they admitted it was bubble wrap and not Wirrn skin lol.
Can't understand where this disrespect for Voyage of the Damned is coming from, unless it's just from your disregard for Xmas specials, in which case can't understand where that comes from!
It's not exactly one of the better Christmas specials, isn't it? At best it's a popcorn flick.
I personally really like Voyage of the Damned, so I feel you there mate!
I don't really get it either. Voyage of the Damned was pretty good for a Xmas special (at least it wasn't The Doctor, the Witch and the Wardrobe ie. that Narnia episode - still a boring dreary episode to this day) so I don't get the hate about it.
@@ms94 I've always loved Voyage of the Damned and it still holds up for me simple as... But with Doctor the Widow and the Wardrobe it is a boring one perhaps yes, but I usually find that as long as they were harmless and not insulting to characters or canon - bad episodes can never really disappoint you again the same way, now when I see TDTWATW I only really notice the adorable and cool 11 stuff, the comedy with the miners, the subtler jokes and the real heartbreak and wonderful resolution Madge goes through and the children temporarily go through as well, and I rather like it now. I don't give it too high a rating though but not too low either.
voyage of the damned was cheesy and kind of crap in the way that a lot of rtd’s episodes were. it’s why I love it so damn much
What I remember of season 11:
- The big spider one
- That teeth guy
- Oh, Rosa Parks was there a bit
- The frog god in the mirror episode
Uhhhhhh
- Were they paper or ribbon monsters?
- And that stupid blue thing that Ate a bomb. A ting? Thatang? P'ting?
- Ooo India was one of them!
Umm.
I've already spent like ten minutes thinking and imo that's about 9 and a half minutes too long.
This has made everything so clear to me. I've been wondering why I've not found anything from s11 particularly memorable and this video helped me get it
Charlie Warner Same here!
I feel the same way. It's Doctor Who, so I wanted to love it, but everything about s11 just seemed so bland.
Please write a episode of Doctor who and narrate it.
We would love that.
It WOULD be cannon. Also this is what I’d do with an episode.
Recently iv started to write a doctor who comic called “am I pretty?” it’s basically Frankenstein meets the cybermen meets sweeny Tod. An insane barber surgeon from Victorian London ,who is already thinking about killing, gets possessed by a single cyber mat. This mat fell to earth along with the remains of a conversion unit hundreds of yers ago. It bites onto the back of his neck and convince him to start converting people into cybermen. From the barbers perspective he’s making lady’s more “pretty” but in reality he’s cutting up there faces and welding mettle to the wound. Because there’s very little components left and the actual unit is broken he has to improvise using his own surgical equipment following the logical whispers that are burrowing into his brain. Obviously a proper cybermen is never created because the programming is incomplete. But the mat doesn’t care it’s just following its basic needs. Instead a army of mutilated and confused corpses with crude metal cutouts for faces wander around his cellar asking through broken voices “am I pretty?”
Please send me the script. That sounds amazing. I just wonder how the Doctor and crew factor in.
I've started thinking up whole new seasons with new companions & story arcs. I had a whole story arc idea with H.P Lovecraft monsters & another with an interdimensional parasite that merges universes into its body. I've mostly tried to limit the number of recurring who villains to focus on new baddies.
Also, I'd bring back Christmas specials. I think they can be fun and there is plenty of material to work with. I thought up three already. One with Krampus fighting an alien dressed like a nutcracker, another with Autons making plastic toys to invade earth so the doctor has to steal Christmas to stop them. They are silly ideas but that is what I think doctor who Christmas should be.
If nothing else at least the mediocrity of S11 has inspired fans to come up with their own ideas.
@@MrSamMaloney That's good. I've made the only recurring baddie the Voord.
We should resurrect Pip and Jane Baker to run the show
I need this in my life.
Anything to humiliate Chibnall
God noooooooooooo
I saw someone on Twitter suggest that pip should appear on tv with an urn with his wife’s ashes & say to Chibnall his DW is boring
@@BH-98 I want to cosplay with someone as Pip and Jane Baker at a convention then confront Chris Chibnall.
I'm still clinging to the hope Chibnall will be more ambitious with the second series, and was playing it safe with series 11 while establishing the new characters and format
I got that sensation too. Some ideas come in late in the day. But 12 may be more of the same.
But did he really establish the new characters? 2 quota hires, Bradley Walsh, and a cosplay Doctor?
"characters"....in the loosest possible sense of course. ;)
@@KillerBill1953 just because they're not white doesn't mean they're quota hires.
Huehuehuehehehue if only he knew
At this point I'm just going to tune in when either Chris or Jodie leaves.
She acts decently. No problem on her part. Fucking scripts are the problem. Boring and uninspired. Though i believe the 2 only work together, so you get your wish.
Don't blame this on Jodie. She did a fine job.
@@ender7278 I"m not blaming Jodie Whittaker
I'm just saying that I may tune in to an other Chibnall series if he brings on a new doctor. You know just give him another chance, conversely I will watch another series with Jodie in it if they get a new head writer.
@@Jon_M_Carro I think 13 just needs a more concrete personality, other writers may do her character more justice in audios , comics or any other medium, but she just fell flat for me in s11. But I'd love to see 13 have a 'big speech' or emotional moment at some point.
I mean I can't even name two personality traits of 13. I've never gone this long without having any clue as to who a Doctor is.
7:56 Oh, the bitter, bitter irony. Who could've guessed back in 1986 that this enthusiastic, bespectacled little nerd would grow up to be the DW equivalent of the Antichrist?
Interesting how you mentioned not being enthused with the EU either, since imo Big Finish works exactly the way you described Chibnall - churning out respectable but bland 'good enough' releases like a factory for people to consume, not be challenged by at all and then forget 30 minutes later. It's starting to feel like the days of experimental, meaningful stories like from the Wilderness Years have passed us by.
Getting the license to the New Series was kind of an accidental "Jump The Shark" moment for Big Finish imo. Output level increased, quality decreased.
Sawbones Quad FACTS!
The moment they began parading River Song and the War Doctor (aka the 50th anniversary insult), that was where I checked out from the audios altogether. From what I've seen of their current input (i.e. sledgehammering Moffat's mockery of the 8th Doctor with his version of the Time War*, Missy and having River cross paths w/ the Classic Docs), I see I haven't missed much.
Not even the Bernice Summerfield box sets with David Warner reprising his Unbound version of 3rd isn't enough to get me back... and I love Benny and I enjoy Warner.
*thanks for helping twist the knife further, Nick (Briggs) and Jason (Haigh-Ellery). He didn't need you guys' help the first time around...smh
While there are stories like that because Big Finish's output is so massive, there's also a lot of fun stories, particularly with the Comic Strip Adaptations and Legacy of Time. Also the first tenth Doctor Adventure story is really grand
@@SuperWolsey -Whereas I agree their New Series stuff is getting excessive. I really enjoyed the War Master box sets with Derek Jacobi who I wished had been the Master for more than 5 minutes on the TV series.
AubreySciFi There's still the Shalka!Master
Imagine how us fans who’ve been watching it for 40+ years feel. At least the political messaging in Who used to be well written and analogous or metaphorical, it always fit within the realms of subtlety or entrenched in alien worlds enough to become a universal message rather than one of one particular entrenched view; and certainly showed more than one side of a political argument. Chibnall IS a hack. A clear example of someone promoted upwards to clear him out; perhaps a Common Purpose here. I have it on good authority that he didn’t even write at least one of his stories but allegedly plagiarised it from an unknown writer who’d sent a script in for a non-Doctor Who sci-fi story about dinosaurs on a spaceship, never heard anything back and then witnessed his very idea - verbatim - appear as a Doctor Who story. It’s hard for me knowing what I was privy to knowing to take Chibnall as anything other than a fraud.
Has political messaging in Who ever really been subtle? Or showed more than one side. We've had Pertwee Doctor do monologues about pollution, an evil oil company run by a computer called boss, Remembrance had a sign saying "no coloureds" and had Mike talking about "keeping outsiders out." The only Doctor Who story to have a right-wing point of view was actually in S11,
The problem is Chibnall's stories are mechanical, so the political messages stand out because they don't arise organically or interact with other components of the story. Pertwee's era was so one-sided and unsubtle about its politics but it also gave us iconic stories, some of the best villains in sci-fi, likable characters we got to know, and a Doctor whose morality I could follow. This era has yet to give us that.
@@Ben-vf5gk You sound very desperate to try and justify this horseshit.
Ben Warburton but it made the antagonists human (if they were indeed human); not just cardboard cutouts. Yes, there were some ham-fisted politics through a lot of classic era Who through the 70s and 80s, but they were not preceded or proceeded continuously story after story. Ace fell for the racist before he unveiled himself as a racist, and the viewers saw him as a human being first before that hammer dropped. It made it all the more emotive for the character of Ace and for the viewer. Also, it was not a central theme and it was also made late in the era when Cartmel had his influence on the show. As for the Pertwee era it was at a time when nuclear war was an imminent threat and green ideas were new and not as yet a political reality.
As for capitalism, again, Doctor Who has always been a renegade and anti-authoritarian and comes from a culture full of authoritarianism but which holds no need for commerce and so is alien to him. Human greed and fear of corruption is a universal one. What Chibnall is trying to do is to pass all of these previous ideas through a single and rather one dimensional lens.
Preachiness and lecturing are better suited to the whims of the Doctor's own character rather than creating a universe deciding it for the Doctor. We don't live in that world.
These things must come out through the story with nuance and wit in 3 dimensions and with humanity, not through words cobbled together to week after week push a utopian universe that already exists and that anything outside of it is alien and must be destroyed because that is not a realistic universe.
@@codyw1 You did actually read what I wrote right? I was complaining about this era as well just disagreeing with the reasons it's bad.
@@Problembeing Again, I see what you're saying and I do agree to an extent. The oil company people in Green Death felt much more human and believable than the Trump parody. And Mike was likable before we found out what he was (although the "No coloureds" sign came way before he was outed as a traitor) But that's characterization. Even if that guy wasn't parodying Trump I would still call him a bad character and a weak villain. The simple presence of politics isn't the problem, its the writing itself.
Watched Pandora Opens/Big Bang last night. We’ll never have Who as good as that ever again.
bold statement seeing as doctor who will probably continue after chibnall
a cats Yeah and the BBC will continue to drag it into the ground.
@@thefonzkiss Give it 15 more years and we will see.
You’re not wrong in my eyes buddy. You’ve summed up what I feel about a show I’ve followed for 40 years or so and had passionately, obsessively, delightfully, voraciously eaten up. It informed the man I became and sustained me through some terrible moments in my life. A comfort blanket if you will. But now I’m lost, told that this show is not aimed at me and my opinions have no worth. I let my doctor who magazine subscription lapse for the first time in over 20 years and my adoration for the show and the expanded universe has waned alarmingly. Everything feels tainted by the mistakes and neglect the show is experiencing. Doctor Who is my life but right now there is a gaping hole that wasn’t even there through the ‘lean’ years (89 - 2015) I will watch out of duty but until this creative team have gone and doctor who reboots again I fear nothing will change (what I’ve learned about series 12 does not fill me with much hope) and even then I question if my fan gene will be tickled the same way again. Having bought every story/ season multiple times (Spearhead from space I bough 4 times over - 5 if include the Pertwee blu ray I just got) but I still haven’t bought series 11 and won’t until it practically being given away - I can’t support the new product, a product that has seemingly sought to disenfranchise my demographic in favour of a show so full of nothing as to be staid) I want stories that excite my imagination that goes places I can’t imagine and provides point of view in a way I hadn’t considered subtly and not, as in series 11 being hit repeatedly over the head with a sledgehammer and almost told what to think) I mean no offence to anyone and this is only in my opinion.
i disagree about voyage of the damned being bad
What you should do is just repost your review for the previous episodes with the titles replaced
that's actually a brilliant idea. might just do that
@@Stubagful While your at it, maybe remake some scenes from ye face the raven review so we can watch it again
@@Stubagful Re-Post your Doctor-Retrospectives, Please!
Wouldn't call saying Nazis are bad in 1975 "progressive", Stu, but I agree with you that political messaging has always been there.
Also, there's a lot of factors regarding political messaging, with the way it could be presented. Like, we tend to not like political messaging that is very blatant and lacks subtlety, and for good reason, it feels unnatural, in a way that for example The Room dialogue feels unnatural.
Chibnall is the JJ Abrams of Doctor Who in the sense of it was ok the first time but I've forgotten about it afterwards. I bought series 11 on DVD in May heavily discounted and it's still wrapped in plastic.
To be fair, when it comes to new doctors, their first season generally tends to be the least ambitious, the most ambitious episode in Series 2 was Impossible Planet/Satan Pit, the most ambitious episode in Series 5 was Vincent and the Doctor, the most ambitious episode in Series 8 was Flatline, none of these three/four episodes were written by the head writers, most Doctors usually start getting memorable, whether for good or bad reasons, during their second series and onwards, I think there’s a good chance that will happen with Jodie and Chibnall
AwesomeAlex500 Most ambitious in s5 is clearly Pandorica/Big Bang
So what you're saying is get someone to write for Chibnall, and maybe we'd get something good? lol
Eirei07 That’s not what I’m saying at all
Series 11 was bad, but it's made worse by the people who constantly defend it. I will totally respect someone of a different opinion to me, because that creates conversation. But I have no respect for someone who cannot comprehend a differing opinion. I personally dislike Jodie's Doctor a lot, and I shouldn't be made to suffer for that. Resolution is my least favourite episode of all time, and that's okay.
If you liked Series 11, then I am so, so glad that you enjoyed it, that it was enough for you. But as someone who has read EDAs, PDAs, VMAs and VNAs, listened to Big Finish, BBC Audio and Audio Visuals, Series 11 was not of a good enough standard.
Look in the comments of this video. Someone posts a respectful comment saying they didn't like Series 11. Someone responds by calling their opinion wrong, getting mad, trying to make them see sense by bashing them, even just responding with smart-alec comments.
If you love Jodie and Series 11, then that's okay. If you didn't like Jodie and Series 11, then that's okay.
Okay Stu...I'm gonna try and change your mind :)
So, Series 11 in my opinion...was fine. Some low points, some average points and a few real hights (I adore 'Demons of the Punjab' and 'It Takes You Away'). However, I don't associate those highs with Chibnall. I think his best episode in S11 was 'The Ghost Monument' but it wasn't the writing, it was mainly Mark Tonderai's direction and the production values and the whole tone/vibe of the episode. It was the first episode in YEARS where I felt like the show felt alive again.
Much of the fresh energy from S11 however was mainly from the guest writers like Malorie Blackman, Viney Patel and Ed Hime. But I still respect Chibnall, as showrunner, for basically saying to those writers "Yeah, throw in a talking frog at the end of the story!" or "Yeah, do a historical story not even set in the UK. Like the Hartnell years!" etc.
Much of S11's highs did not come from Chibnall.
I completely understand why you may feel apathetic towards Chibnall's approach to Doctor Who, but I disagree that he's a workmanlike writer. Having really enjoyed his previous 'Doctor Who' work and much of his 'Torchwood' stuff, as well as some of his theatre plays like 'Kiss Me Like You Mean It', we have a writer who may not be as bonkers as RTD but still has the same optimistism for the inherent good of people whilst also having some Moffat-style cynicism ('Broadchurch' Series 1). His attention to detail for character beats and terrific one-liners has (once again, in my opinion) been showcased in stories like 'Resolution' and I think people were so quick to tear him down that so much of the genuinely fascinating character studies have been glossed over.
But, here's my defence, of Chibnall...it's only been one season. I've seen people try and start debates online by asking "Is Moffat a better showrunner than Chibnall?" and we just don't have a pattern yet. After one season, Moffat seemed to be doing an amazing job. But mid-way through S6, it was clear that the wheels were starting to come off the wagon. For Series 1 with RTD, they went into that thinking that was their SINGLE series, so all cards were on the table. Chibnall went into S11 knowing he was playing a longer game. For Chibnall, we only have one season and no sense of a pattern yet. Maybe a workmanlike approach (or at least a more formulaic one) for S11 was needed. S8 to S10 really alienated a lot of viewers and this is indicated through the viewing figures. I think S11 just needed to put the show back on the map and draw in those who lost favour with it. Whether or not this succeeded or not has yet to be determined, but maybe that's what Chibnall and the BBC wanted.
That's not to say I disagree or think you're unjustified in your feelings and opinions towards Chibnall's Series 11 writing. But I'd say wait until S12 to see if he takes on board any criticism (ACTUAL criticism, not the "Too many Muslims and Womz" dogma online), takes a few more risks and gives us something special. By all means, if S12 comes along and he gives us more of the same, you'd be justified in your apathy. But I think let's see how S12 pans out before declaring him unsuitable for the show. From what I've heard from the rumour-mill, Chibnall was not given much creative freedom with S11. But with the show being such a huge ratings success and such a regular trender on social media (which, depressingly, does influence behind-the-scenes goings-on nowadays), Chibnall is going to be more hands-on with S12. Apparently, Chibnall was furious with the higher-ups who basically took half of his script for 'The Tsuranga Conundrum' and said "Nah, we're not doing that", so he had to write half the episode last minute which is why it turned out as malformed as it did. (Allegedly).
So my fingers are crossed. And even if Chibnall under-delivers with S12, I hope he continues the trend of letting other, extremely promising writers continue to play in the vast playground of 'Doctor Who'. It's something I really wish Moffat let his guest-writers do.
TL;DR - I liked S11, but Chibnall was rarely the bright-spark. But let's wait another season before writing him off. But I understand your apathy and can't really disagree with it.
@A Mad Man With a Box god forbid someone have an in depth opinion.
@A Mad Man With a Box, I think there's a difference between Moffat making several messy series in a row and hoping "the next one might be better" and "We for one workmanlike series during a time of creative stifling and hopefully that will change with time".
@A Mad Man With a Box, I'm not saying it's unfair to have low expectations. I literally said numerous times that it's understandable.
I'm saying to not write off Chibnall or seem him unfit for Doctor Who until an actual pattern has developed. I.e. until he has done more than 1 season.
I see where you're coming from, i'm still unenthused but I do see why we differ cause I guess I didn't really approach season 11 from the perspective of "new showrunner" so much because so many of the stories felt like bare bones dr who - it didn't really feel refreshed to me and I was kinda watching it as a continuous flow from season 7, to 8, to 9, to 10, now to 11 and kinda just saw 11 as the next mediocre season but minus the standout out of the ball park episodes like heaven sent.
Idk, I'll probably watch it, just the idea of reviewing it feels a bit like pissing in the wind given how chibnall appears to work
@@Stubagful, and like I said, I completely understand that lack of enthusiasm. However, I think that it's worth waiting one more season before declaring that he's completely unsuited to DW, because he past scripts under other Showrunners (while obviously not on the level of Moffat's pre-showrunner work) such as '42', 'Dinosaurs on a Spaceship' and Torchwood episodes like 'Adrift' show that he does get the format.
And a showrunner who is able to bring in mainstream audience members after the Moffat era drove many of them away whilst also helping and guiding a great set of new writers indicates that as a showrunner he is a positive influence.
Series 11 came across like a parody some kids had made rather than an actual series of doctor who. I like the RTD era and loved the Moffat era, they both had issues but also had some outstanding episodes each series with brilliant characters. S11 was just lifeless to me.
Cracking video, that sums up perfectly how I feel about current Doctor Who. And that’s exactly the problem- I don’t *feel* anything. I absolutely hated Hell Bent but at least I had a passion of some sort toward it. This series has just been... there.
But I implore you to remember how amazing the series is when it hits the mark. Take a break from the 13th Doctor; listen to some Big Finish audios or indulge in some classic series stuff. I’d miss your Doctor Who videos if there weren’t to be any more.
I feel exactly the same mate. Season 11 felt empty and really made me think of not watching the new series anymore. But I'll give series 12 a chance cause I thought resolution even though not perfect was a step in the right direction from what we got in series 11. I'll give it 4 episodes and if I'm not convinced by then I'll throw the towel in. And big fan of your videos!.
Fury from the Deep animated
"I really want to be wrong about this." - Unfortunately though, you weren't wrong.
Chris Chibnall IS a visionary, he just is in the most litteral term: he has a single image vision, like dinosaurs on a spaceship, huge spiders in sheffield, etc, but he can't expand on that. It's just a portrait that can't move, so when he forces it to do it, it's in the most unimaginative way.
"Did broadchurch really needed 3 series?!" THANK YOU! My friends are all like "it's a masterpiece, it's so good" but after the case is solved, what's the point? It's quite dull and uninsteresting!
You didn't like "Voyage of the Damned"? That's one of my favourite episodes.
It’s difficult.
On one hand you have Moffat’s episode, which while ambitions were often overly complex and the casual viewer found difficult to engage with. Now with Chibnall we have a show runner who as you say, creates episodes that are simplistic and in some cases quite cookie cutter and dare I say it, bland? However he has managed to re-engage casual viewers, which Moffat struggled with (even after series 10’s soft reboot), and as much as the neck-beards hate it the viewership does need to be there for the BBC to justify making the show.
The showrunner for Doctor Who needs to be a visionary with creative ideas, who can communicate those themes in a simple, but not a simplistic way.
It’s a hard balance to get right.
Sarah Parker-Shemilt they’ve got it right with RTD, hell they got it right for the majority of 60s & 70s Doctor who. So it’s not impossible
I'm never sure. Nowadays I couch my criticism of Moffat on accusing him of being shy of his own ideas, and relying too much on his sitcom background as a consequence. The only reason the head writer post is necessary really is I guess increasingly somebody on the artistic side needs to stand up to the BBC.
I'm not sure he really did re-engage the casuals. The first ep got a huge boost from the curiosity factor, but the episodes then went down in ratings week after week, and the festive special was the lowest ever. The curiosity boost is really the only claim to success they have.
Frankly, the endless mis-information about the success/failure of last season has sucked all the energy out of me. There were problems . It talked down to the audience , couldn't handle all the things each story wanted to achieve and I got bored. I mean, how can you mess up a trek across a dangerous planet (Ghost Monument). It's a standard Sixties trope.Terry Nation could have written a compelling narrative in an afternoon, he probably had one ready on his shelf for emergencies, but somehow we get a trip across a deadly, flesh eating lake and no one falls in or even nearly falls in, even if one of the characters has dyspraxia!
It is my sad and regretful duty to inform you Stubagful that you unequivocally and absolutely nailed the problem with series 11 12 and Chibnall in one fell swoop, it's the saddest thing I have listened to in a long long time.
But having said that, thank you for summing up and bringing together all my own disparate thoughts on Chibnutts and Dr Womb in one concise and coherent eleven minutes and twenty eight seconds.
The modern era of Doctor Who kind of reflects Star Wars. RTD era is the original trilogy, great with only a few slip ups. Moffat era is the prequels, lower quality but with some really great parts that sometimes surpassed previous era. Then we have the Chibnal era, which is the sequel trilogy. It manages to be so bad it makes even the bad bits of the Moffat era look good.
Yeah, I definitely went through the same thing after Series 11 came out. I really think it was the worst season in the show's history, and it really put me off the show for a good while. Lately however, I've been rewatching the Capaldi era (it's so, SO underrated), been dipping back into Classic Who, and have been listening to Big Finish. I may or may not give Series 12 a go.
Capaldi and moffat are amazing
@@micahmahaffey5919 For sure!
I'm looking forward to the moment a real life version of the Doctor transports himself live into an episode and just mocks everyone past and present in the whole sordid mess and devolves the prop budget right back into 1963.
This video was great!! Since you asked us to change your mind, I will try. I *used* to feel the exact same way as you do. Straight after series 11 I didn't feel the buzz that I usually do (I nearly gave up tbh) but making RUclips videos about the show has been good fun (despite not having much to work with). I feel Series 12 has a lot of opportunity for theory (e.g. "The Timeless Child" line in The Ghost Monument) even if they feel like throw-away lines, there's a chance they could be hinting to something. A few video suggestions, "How I Would Run Doctor Who" [we did this one and pretty much said we would reset to the RTD format and we've even tried making an episode ourselves], "My Doctor Who Episode" [how you would write a DW episode and what it would be about]. I think the overall point I'm trying to make is Doctor Who is continuous and I don't consider Doctor Who as Chris Chibnall's at the moment. I just see him as a footnote in Doctor Who's history. The show, for me, has been more than what it is in its current state. It feels exciting to know the show has potential. Truth be told, after seeing a few Ace Creeper reactions to Torchwood, I think he has an ability to show us a gripping episode that will leave a mark. I do wonder if his writing is trying to appeal to children so much that the action scenes are falling flat and not much is really happening in the hour timeslot apart from a message. I think at times like this, if reviewing the future episodes will be difficult, perhaps instead of explaining what went wrong, explain how you could do it a better (it's a different approach but it might be more exciting for you). Sorry for the long comment (I'm pretty bad at getting to the point). Hope this is somewhat helpful :)
I still really like the Amazing Race episode of S11. Really great feel, despite the cookie cutter supporting cast. Not perfect, and not "best ever" candidate in any category, but I keep going back to it. "Moomin' Beenz" indeed.
And the mirror universe ep with the daft frog did indeed try to be something *different*, even if it didn't entirely succeed.
So I disagree that Chibs was entirely formulaic. Perhaps he just wasn't quite as good at the experimental stuff as we hoped he would be? (Unfortunately, IMO the formulaic episodes were mostly bad. At least I enjoyed most of the formulaic ones even when RTD and Moffat were doing them. They, at least, understood (1) how to script a punchline (or other key moment) and the actors knew (2) how to deliver them. The Trump stand-in was neither scripted nor directed to either of those standards.
Agreed. Even the best episodes got lumbered with ballast, like that seemingly endless café scene between Ryan and his dad (a scene more East Enders than Doctor Who), or the dull expository dialogue that seemed to crop up all too frequently. You'd rarely, if ever, see such banalities creeping into the scripts during the entirety of the Davies and Moffat eras.
My main problem with the race episode (and to a lesser extent s11) was that it was a really cool build up that got me really engaged and interested and then went... nowhere. There was no real resolution to all the questions or ideas brought up, but not even in a satisfying, I guess we'll never know way, but rather in a "oh, is it just ending now then?"
He creates these worlds/scenarios and then does nothing with them, or just chucks extra pointless stuff
Key differences for me when watching: Davies/Moffatt - I felt happy, sad, mad and sometimes bored. Chibnall - I felt NOTHING
Yup, I'm definitely going through a Doctor Who estrangement period right now. For similar reasons. That last series drained me, it was so utterly formulaic.
I think you hit the nail on the head. And it's one of the things that bothers me about the fact that Chibnal took over at the same time that they switched genders. _The show changed completely._ It became very flat and lifeless.
Actually your description was perfect. He's not a _visionary._ They we're _serviceable_ episodes for the most part. But they lacked any kind of enthusiasm. Even as I watch some react channels of previous Seasons, it just becomes glaring the apparent that it's not that the Doctor is a woman now, but that Chibnal isn't a good showrunner.
The problem with the modern culture is that being risky is a bad thing. People get offended over almost everything these days. Companies cares more about profit, instead of the final product. Doctor Who cannot be generic, and I learned that from you Stuart. Instead we got a generic safe product. But it’s also a huge risk to fail. Trying to please everybody, people risking to please no one. And trying to please only one group of people, is a risk to not get appreciation at all.
“Joker” is an amazing movie. I liked it, but some people find it offensive. But because creators didn’t tried to please everybody, but instead tried to say something of it's own and the result is a 8,8 at IMDB and 750 million at the box office.
Kerblam!, Demons of the Punjab, and Rosa are the only episodes I remember. Three of the five episodes not written solely by Chibnell (Chibnall was co-writer for Rosa.)
It's kind of sad that the best and most memorable Dr. Who script Chibnall ever done was that extra animatic epilogue for Angels Take Manhattan that was released on DVD.
And now Stu is going to get negative comments from Season 11 defenders because he didn't care for it and from detractors because he didn't trash or hate on it enough.
What defenders?
@@ender7278 you'll be surprised, there are people who try so hard to defend season 11
@@Elementa2006 I can believe it, I just haven't really seen it.
Hitting the nail on the head. Also thankfully you're not too hung up on the whole political agenda thing, which would really be too easy to point to for the problems of this season.
The show shot itself in the foot with the Moffat era, so OF COURSE the bbc HAD to pick someone safe.
So I don’t see the issue when we all knew this
Iain 97 but criminally boring and pisspoor
Assuming we take your first bit “the show shot itself the foot with the Moffat era” as accepted because we could end up on a very long tangent discussing that, I just want to pick up on “what this issue is” as “we all knew this”
The issue is the show is boring. The issue is there is nothing exciting to look forward to or pushing you to catch up on an episode you missed. The issue is when your head writer is pumping out "good for 45 minutes but you will have forgotten it in a few days" content for their best episodes, it doesn’t make people want to rewatch the show or recommend it to friends.
Of course the BBC want consistent ratings and someone who can churn out the show. But it doesn’t have to be this dull, even with Chibnall still being in charge. For example, he could pick interesting guest writers to mix between the more standard episodes. Heck, some of the more traditional story structures can still be hits with long time fans if executed well. There can be some calculated level of imagination.
How specifically did the show shoot itself in the foot?
@@ender7278 Sadly casting Capaldi turned off the fangirls, and they then compounded the issue by giving him inconsistent characterisation and dull stories.
To be honest this was me during Season 9/the 2016 hiatus. The Clara years just bored the hell out of me and fortunately Classic Who, Big Finish and pre-Capaldi revival Who kept my love of the show fresh. As a result I really don't blame you for feeling this way even if I'm not right now as I quite liked Series 11 (bits of it- it definitely wasn't perfect). I think the reason WHY he's been quite workmanlike so far is because he needed to get the general audience back after Moffat destroyed the show's reputation in the public's eyes and that's why Series 11 occasionally felt a bit stiff and box ticking because it had to for the show's sake. The best episodes were in the back half like It Takes You Away and Demons of the Punjab because they were written by guest writers who had a singular vision for a singular episode and we got great content out of it. Hopefully Series 12 is a lot better on the whole for everyone's sake and again I say this as someone who liked Series 11.
i though Series 10 was amazing tho
@@NoverMaC Yeah it was. The Monk stuff didn't work and I loathe Twice Upon a Time with the fury of a thousand suns (I highly doubt Chibnall will ever write anything that bad) but it was a solid season of the show overall. Moffat finally nailed Capaldi's Doctor, Bill and Nardole were very fun and the standout episodes were fantastic. Very strong stuff.
@@benw4409 personally I pretend twice upon a time and the lie of the land never happened XD
@@NoverMaC I've been rewatching the Monks Trilogy lately, and I must say it's grown on me. Your mileage may, of course, vary :)
The thing is, Chibnall is quite a great writer. His work on Broadchurch was great, but as a detective/crime story there's basically no necessity for imagination, Doctor Who, on the other hand, needs basically nothing but.
“ Heaven Sent is a fucking masterpiece “. Never a truer a word ..,
I am optimistic about the future. The Season 11 box set stayed in the TV Programme Chart for a record breaking six months. HBO have just picked up the series. The Daleks are back. But what gladdens my heart as a very old bloke is the kind of conversation that I heard between a little boy and a young girl. The boy was boosting 'Star Wars' and dissing Dr Who. The little girl said angrily "That's not fair, you know I am ALL ABOUT DR Who!" Without looking at her, I just announced "And so am I!" I caught their Mother's I and we both chuckled. After answering police enquiries the next day, I was freed to go my way. THAT LAST BIT DIDN'T HAPPEN BTW! Keep up the good work! You're funny and bright. (The foam in the animated Fury From the Deep makes it look like the Doctor is menaced by little fluffy clouds!)
You've vocalised all my feelings on who at the mo. It's shame as Whittaker is extremely likeable in the role but is being wasted on lacklustre scripts. Can't they just get Big Finish to make the TV show as well yet??
Likeable?
@@TheZodiacz lol
Stu, I've been watching your stuff for years, always a fan of your work. I've got to say: you absolutely nailed my feelings on current DW with this video. Really on-point, it's incredible how you managed to put words on my boredom and made me feel less like an "old bored fan" and more like... like an "old bored fan with reasons for being so", I guess.
Chibnall's handling of the formula is so methodic and procedural that it made me think I don't like these formulas anymore. But that's just wrong!
I will be praying for you to be in charge of DW New New Series when it relaunches in the far distant future. And people will dig out this old videos on this "RUclips" website of old, and point out how you sold yourself short and lost all your inspiration and ideals when you got pro.
Cheers!
I couldn't get past the first episode. You are correct, it's like being given a painting by numbers to look at when what we want is a Dali or Picasso. I enjoy diversity, I just can't deal with weak writing.
Falling over is not a joke, Stubagful. Millions of people suffer every year!!
Fury From The Deep is getting animated :)
You sir are not wrong.
Zeta, his face black, his eyes red
The sad thing is, you are completely right. I watched Moffat's era, I hated it, But I watched it... I didn't watch the second half of series 11 because I was so bored with it.
I still suffered through the Capaldi era because I still vaguely recognised the lead character. They've now removed that attachment entirely. Thanks Chinballs! ;)
I had no idea that I had been bottling this up for such a long time before I saw this video, thank you so much for making this I wholeheartedly agree with everything in this video and that makes me sad but its good sad now that I got it out thanks to you
Ok but can we talk about how Jodie’s doctor wanted a giant spider to suffocate to death in its exoskeleton over shooting it and putting it out of its very clear misery. The trump parody shot the spider for the wrong reasons, but that spider was in clear pain and 13 was wholly ready to let it just suffer and die.
They did say somewhere they are planning to make series 12 more like the RTD and Moffat eras as well as bring back some regular big bads so who knows.
I remember falling asleep during the new season and I have NEVER done that in any episode of Doctor Who ever.
EDIT: My mum watched every episode of Born and Bred and I just asked her if she remembered it and she had completely forgotten it existed until I brought it up.
I fell asleep during episodes. I am ok with an episode or series being uneven because lots of sci fi is unseen.
That old clip is the ultimate irony.
I sort of lost my spark for Dr Who after S11 (which i'm really sad about). I feel like I'm slowly edging away from the franchise, and moving onto other things (IE - 'Life On Mars' & 'Ashes To Ashes'). I just hope Season 12 can wow me and bring back the enthusiasm.
oh if only we knew that "bland space filler" was the best we'd get from this era
Why are you wasting my time talking about Chris Chibnall, Stuart? I demand more rambles about the telephone box from the start!
Meanwhile i still love watching episodes of yes minister and yes prime minister.
Your views on the Chibnall era remind me about something you mentioned in a previous video about Doctor Who needing a fresh perspective by a lesser known indie writer. I feel like the show really needs this it’ll be Polarising but the fandom is already completely torn apart anyway.
I agree with everything in this video. Man, Doctor Who Series 11 was...certainly a piece of television.
While I would love to change your mind, I really don't know if I can.
The most I have to go off of is the alleged promise that Season 12 will be more "traditional" and more like the Moffat or Davies era. But the biggest fear is the fact if Chibnall's writing will be able to break out of his own "traditional" techniques, and be able to do something that will help translate over to what people want out of Doctor Who, which is the experimental and the risky. If he tries sticking too close to what he expects people to want, and what he thinks traditional Doctor Who is like, he may not be able to do the actual risks and experiments that will make Doctor Who enjoyable.
Is the franchise at large dead? Of course not. We still have Big Finish chugging along at mach 10, new animated remakes of both The Faceless Ones and Fury From the Deep, and while I know next to nothing about them, the comics still seem as busy as ever. Saying the franchise at large is dead is plain ignorance.
And I'd say it's too early to say that even the tv show itself is dead. I'd say it's smartest to wait and see just how this new, more "traditional" season 12 of the series is handled and if Chibnall is really capable of writing something that feels like Doctor Who at its finest. I feel it can be done, as he's shown he is capable and has a semblance of what makes a good Doctor Who story, but whether or not he can do that as the man at the helm is still worthy of skepticism.
On the comments for the Fury from the Deep animation one said Stubagful will be happy
I LOVE THIS VIDEO SO MUCH BECAUSE YOU GAVE A REAL REASON AS TO WHY SEASON 11 ISN'T GOOD AND YOU DIDN'T JUST COMPLAIN ABOUT TERRIBLE WRITING THANK YOU THIS EXPLAINS EVERYTHING PERFECTLY
Honestly, you're completely right, and I'm surprised I haven't been able to articulate why I was struggling to enjoy Season 11 so much. Like, even the episodes I DID enjoy (Rosa and Kerblam specifically), I felt zero motivation to rewatch, something that's never happened to me with New Who before. Hell, even episodes I hate I feel interested into at least dissecting why it didn't work, because as someone who is trying to write failure is still just as important.
The only issue I see is, we don't have a suitable candidate for the next Head Writer. Mark Gatiss is also universally "average" in his storytelling, overall, so beyond that I guess they should just go into a full on writer's room, and maybe try having someone a little more willing to take risks at the helm.
I'd say try Season 12, but if it doesn't land maybe it's best to wait until Chibnall leaves, if we're lucky enough to still have Doctor Who after that point.
Fingers crossed the writer of lIt Takes You Away' is back.
Mr L The Norway one? Yeah that was about the best one. Not that that’s saying much.
Yes, he is returning to write an episode for S12
@@sixstanger00 :D
oh goody, more Kermits?
My favourite episode of that series. It pleasantly surprised me.
I fear you're right. Compare the Trump episode to the Happiness Patrol. Which is the more inspired? Which is the more watchable? Which is the more memorable? Is the Arxhbishop of Canterberry going to refer to it in his Easter sermon of 1050? I'll remember Rosa and Demons of the Punjab and It Takes You Away, and the rest is well-acted, uninspired sludge.
Some good points in this.
It's coincidental that you upload this on the one year anniversary of Arachnids in the UK - meaning it's exactly one year since I gave up on Doctor Who for the first time after three decades of fandom.
I have a slightly different view on why Series 11 was so bland. While I agree with your assessment, I think another contributing factor was that S11 marked the premiere season for "Doctor Who's first female Doctor." Let's not mince words, ok? The BBC and the media that covered DW leading up to it's premiere prefaced every mention of Jodie Whittaker with, "the first female Doctor." The bulk of S11's marketing revolved around that single selling point, and I think that's why there was nothing else memorable about it. They didn't *_want_* anything memorable that might end up outshining the "first female Doctor" factor, because that was basis for all of this in the first place -- to cater to a small group of feminists who were butt hurt that television writers dared write a lead character as a male. Even now, articles on DW still add the tagline, "DW's first female Doctor" when they mention Whittaker. It's literally the only thing they sold S11 on. No style, no substance, just a political casting stunt.
When people think of Series 3, they immediately think of "Blink," not David Tennant as the Doctor. Writing a slam dunk like that for S11 would've undermined their agenda (fuss all you want people --- there WAS an agenda -- post-Series 11 articles have confirmed it.).
Escape to the bomb shelter that is Big Finish.
Beeb - "Big Finish could you dial down the writing and SJW it up some... You are making us look bad."
Not going to lie, I had to go look up what "The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos" was when you said it. This is coming from someone who's rewatched 1-10 entirely on multiple occasions. I just feel sad now.
I started to feel the way you do, but Big Finish saves me... kind of. I have watched every episode of Doctor Who (Classic and New), but I have not listened to every Big Finish audio play. I’ve listened to all of the Main Range, with the exception for the last year of releases. Once I realized there were whole other series like the Lost Stories and that there is a series of Third Doctor audios... and the Torchwood and UNIT and Bernice Summerfield. I live in the US and whilst driving to and from work I listen to the Big Finish audios. I am in the middle of a series of Second Doctor audios at the moment. They have me raptured at how the same formula (depending on which kind of Doctor Who story) can be done and redone and still be interesting to me. I like how the characterizations of all the the early companions and Doctors makes me want to hear more. There is even a series of “Short Trips” (some audios are only 15 minutes and tend be more of an audio book format) that feature the 10th and 11th Doctors. It is what’s keeping me interested... for now.
While I have not seen any of the series past 8, this is an excellent video.
I'm a huge fan of the Classic series (I have almost every single DVD), I got tired of the New Series relatively early on, and it was due to the fact that writers rely on nonsensical technobabble and deus ex machinas far too often to resolve the plot. There's only so many times the Doctor can use his sonic screwdriver to save the day at the 44th minute before you become disconnected from the story. That's probably why some of the best stories are the ones that are more focused on the characters (e.g. Love and Monsters, The Lodger). I'd love for them to do big, bombastic, spectacles well, but almost every time they do we get a giant turd (e.g. Journey's End, The End of Time). There are exceptions, but ultimately, the ratio of good-to-bad stories is too low and after awhile it just wears you down and you stop caring. :(
Oh I won't Even Call it Doctor Who Any more Man!😆
I wish I could change your mind but you were spot on with your comparison to Eastenders. Even years alter the most popular moment of that show remains Den giving Angie divorce papers at Christmas. Easterenders is a tick along show and Doctor Who shouldn't be that.
I can't say I feel the same towards Series 11. I've rewatched episodes like Rosa and Resolution several times and still enjoy them. I'm actually excited for Series 12 myself. But I really think you bring up a ton of good points (without going into shouty nonsense thankfully) like how Doctor Who needs to be more dangerous and experimental. At this point I'm wondering what it'd be like if they let someone like Charlie from Black Mirror have a then as showrunner. Either way great video Stubagful!
For every Aliens of London there was a Dalek.
For every Love and Monsters there was A Girl in the Fireplace.
For every Daleks in Manhattan there was a Blink.
For every - oh I forgot Series 4 was perfect.
For every Planet of the Dead there's a Waters of Mars.
For every Beast Below there's a Vincent and the Doctor.
For every Curse of the Black Spot there's A Good Man Goes to War.
For every - nah Series 7 sucked ass.
For every Deep Breath there was a Dark Waters.
For every Hell Bent there was a Heaven Sent.
For every Lie of the Land there was a World Enough and Time.
Ups and downs make a show. The peaks show the greatest and the troughs show the weakest - but everything before Chibnall has something in common - genuine risk.
Fear Her was an undisputed car crash built on a new idea. The Waters of Mars is largely agreed upon as Tennant's best story because it takes the Doctor places he's never been.
Chibs isn't interested in risk.
I always thought that Chris was chosen because he could do the job and, more importantly, get along with the BBC. He's a team player, a "yes" man. I imagine they battled with Moffat over everything, for his entire tenure, and they were sick of it. They should have let Neil Gaiman run Doctor Who, and hope they will in the future. But they realized they would have the same problem with him. Neil doesn't roll over either.
Great distillation if exactly what is wrong with Chibnall showrunning Who. Great video!
The last season did leave me feeling quite cold tbf, I thought that maybe this version of Doctor Who isn't my version and that it's designed for a different audience now in its current form. My only advice is that Chris seems to be a reactionary writer, working off the criticisms to improve future episodes. If this is true then season 12 does hold a lot of promise. I'll be tuning in to the series next year and hopefully you will too, it'd be a shame to come all this way as a fan and quit now.
"are people really going to remember 'the battle of ranskoor av kalos'?"
I've already forgotten it lol