Chibnall wrote Broadchurch. I keep reminding myself of that. Broadchurch was good.
But he was never the right person to run Dr Who. Did no-one ever notice that the episodes he wrote for the show in the olden days were consistently dull? Did no-one notice that Torchwood- which he ran- was pretty disappointing? What sort of power does he wield at or over the BBC that they keep employing him?
I can see their line of thinking--they figured the surest bet was someone who'd worked on the show before and who also had a hit series outside of Doctor Who. It's a combination of anxiety, laziness, and lack of insight on the part of the studio. Broadchurch was initially good because Chibnall had the good idea to do the first episode of Twin Peaks in the U.K.--the first episode of Twin Peaks is so good because of how effectively the death of one person affecting her family and community comes across, which feels very fresh because of how quickly deaths are normally dealt with on TV. So he just did that, it was like a good performance from a cover band. But to see this, people at the BBC would have to have some understanding of television history and of Chibnall's own career. They should've looked for an interesting sci-fi writer. If anything, I think they ought to have looked to the stand out writers of the audio plays which tend to get adapted for the TV series anyway. I think Robert Shearman would've been the best choice.
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But he was never the right person to run Dr Who. Did no-one ever notice that the episodes he wrote for the show in the olden days were consistently dull? Did no-one notice that Torchwood- which he ran- was pretty disappointing? What sort of power does he wield at or over the BBC that they keep employing him?
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