Doctor Who babbling

[frelling_tralk]

I hope that everyone had a good Christmas :)

Comments

[ragnarok_08]

Glad that you had a good Christmas :)

[frelling_tralk]

Thank you :)

[_profiterole_]

Even though I've never watched Old Who, I guessed that they were going a bit overboard with the First Doctor's sexism to tell a message through jokes. I'm not sure it was successful, but I didn't mind either.

It would be great to discover a new Doctor through the show and not through articles. At least we got the surprise with Missy way back.

[frelling_tralk]

They do seem to be better at keeping the surprise when it comes to the Master, John Simm’s appearance was kept fairly under wraps as well when he first appeared. I assume it’s the BBC that want to introduce the new Doctor with a lot of fanfare, and the executive producer has to go along with their wishes? Otherwise it would obviously be tough to keep the casting completely under wraps, but I don’t think it would be impossible either, especially in the case of Jodie where they would only have had that one scene to keep secret for a few months

[honeymink]

and it doesn’t come across that the First Doctor was casually sexist to that extent? It sounded like he had a lot of respect for Barbara for one No, I definitely don't remember the First Doctor that way. It's been a while that I watched the Classic series but the sexism as displayed in the Christmas special felt very gratuitous. From what I remember, he obviously always had respect for Susan, her being his granddaughter and a Timelady, and was equally annoyed in the beginning with Barbara and Ian - it wasn't a question of gender, it was that they were human and he viewed them as inferior to a degree from what I remember until he got to know them and respect them during their adventures. Granted, I don't really remember a lot of his interactions with Ben and Polly, mainly because most of their episodes are lost but from what I recall Polly came across as a bit posh and definitely a modern young woman (I think she worked as a secretary), so I doubt he sent her to do the dusting. I must say I was a bit disappointed that given that they

[frelling_tralk]

I thought that it was a bit of a lost opportunity, it could have at least been mentioned in some way with Bill back and all... or perhaps I missed that

Yeah...I think honestly I build my expectations up a little bit too much. The character work was all very emotional, especially in the last 15 minutes or so, and there were lots of great moments sprinkled throughout the episode really, but the plot mostly didn’t end up being a particularly exceptional one. I had been expecting something a lot more epic maybe with them bringing the First Doctor back into it at the point of his regeneration, and then in the end they didn’t really do all that much with it, although the transitions that we did get to the past adventures were very well done

[lovepollution]

it felt like they got a bit too carried away with shining a light on the sexism of the past and how embarrassed the 12th Doctor was with his past self, only it all felt very exaggerated and almost parody-like at times.

Totally agree. I think maybe one such joke/mention would've been enough, but too many left it feeling like rather cliche fan fiction. (In fact, I couldn't help but think throughout the episode how this was basically Moffat writing he fan fiction of his dreams.) Still, it was enjoyable enough as an episode, and I think it worked well since you probably had a lot of people tuning in for the regeneration and little else.

And finally it’s a bit of a shame that they always have to announce the new Doctor ahead of time, it would be cool if the show could pull off a surprise regeneration at some pointMy dream is to have it be an utter surprise, I think it would be so cool to see everyone scrabbling around trying to find info the moment it aired; but as you say, it's probably not very likely to happen at this point with it

[frelling_tralk]

Yeah I definitely agree with that, one jokey reference for the 12th Doctor to react too would have been more than enough, they didn’t need to make the sexism the first Doctor’s main character trait, especially after all the emphasis recently on how Time Lords don’t particularly care about gender and are just as fine with regenerating into a man or woman. Okay, so then the first Doctor has all of the sexist attitudes from 1960’s Earth because...?

And it’s going to be a long wait for the new series! I’m getting really excited to see where Chris Chibnall is planning on going with it, it sounds like there’s going to be some fairly big shake-ups even aside from Jodie’s casting

[lovepollution]

There is a rumour that Chibnall plans to include more episodes with historically well known events and characters, which I'm very much hoping is true. The future episodes are fun, but I always think it's more fun seeing the past. Plus, it makes sense because personally, if I were given the opportunity to time travel, there are loads of historical events I'd want to see more than future ones.

[frelling_tralk]

There is a rumour that Chibnall plans to include more episodes with historically well known events and characters, which I'm very much hoping is true

Ooh same! It would be a nice change of place to just have some straight historical stories with the Doctor exploring the past with his companions, and have the danger come from real historical figures and events, rather than the usual Sci Fi villains everytime

[ever_neutral]

Yeah, the sexism jokes were all misfires (possibly save for "you can't say that"/"says who?"/"most everyone you'll ever meet!").

THAT WAS MARK GATISS?? lol, somehow I never realised what he looks like. Anyway, I'm with you, he owned the show.

I was hoping that the Doctor would discover that she had survived being converted to a Cyberman

This. But if they could bring Clara "back" (tears of blood @ that) then maybe hopefully in future they'll resolve this about Bill??

[frelling_tralk]

It was! He does quite a bit of acting apparently, and honestly I’d say that he’s a better actor than he is writer

And hopefully there will be more resolution for Bill, but I dunno, Chris Chibnall is going to be setting up his own era and companions, so I don’t see it being a top priority sadly