Doctor Who Series 12 starts 1st Janurary 2020

[Paul.Uni]

Quote

The Thirteenth Doctor is in her TARDIS on her way back to BBC One for a thrilling ten-part series which will land on New Year’s Day 2020, with subsequent episodes airing on Sundays.

Starting with a blockbuster action packed two-part episode entitled Spyfall, the Thirteenth Doctor is well and truly back with a bang. As Jodie Whittaker takes charge of the TARDIS once again, the Doctor will be joined by her friends Tosin Cole (Ryan), Mandip Gill (Yaz) and Bradley Walsh (Graham). The twelfth series will also welcome a host of famous faces including Stephen Fry, Sir Lenny Henry CBE, Robert Glenister and Goran Višnjić to name just a few.

Add to that some familiar faces including the Judoon and the Cybermen, series twelve is set to be an epic action packed rollercoaster for everyone, just don’t stray too far from behind the sofa…

Spyfall has been written by Chris Chibnall, Showrunner.

Quote from https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2019/dw-spyfall

[NorthBrit]

Never seen one episode, ever!

[pete_mcfarlane]

For the first time ever, I'm not particularly fussed about the new series of Doctor Who. The last one was very underwhelming, mainly due to the poor writing. 

 

(If you want to feel old, Friday marks 30 years since part 3 of 'Survival' - the last episode of the original Doctor Who). 

[Karhedron]

The last season was a little underwhelming after a positive start due to some lacklustre writing and lack of any returning villains. Seeing at least 2 old faces back helps on the second score. I just hope that the longer break between seasons has brought in some fresh inspiration to the writing team.

 

I hope that Jodie Whittaker doesn't suffer the same curse as Peter Capaldi. A great actor who really only got into stride in the 3rd season when the quality of the writing picked up.

[BoD]

I'd have thought there would have been a lot more than 11 series.

Edited December 5, 2019 by BoD

[Moxy]

17 minutes ago, BoD said:

I'd have thought there would have been a lot more than 11 series.

 

There is more, it's series 11 of the 'new' series of Dr Who that started with Christopher Eccleston in 2005.  The original series ran from 1963 to c. 1990.

[pete_mcfarlane]

The new post 2005 version is about to start series 12. 

The original 1963 - 89 version ran from season 1 to to 26. 

 

 

 

 

[Tony Davis]

2 hours ago, Karhedron said:

I hope that Jodie Whittaker doesn't suffer the same curse as Peter Capaldi. A great actor who really only got into stride in the 3rd season when the quality of the writing picked up.

 

Yes, I gave up watching when Peter Capaldi assumed the mantel, not because he isn't a good actor but because I found the scripts uninteresting. Someone else on RMWeb made the comment "it's a children's show", so I assumed that I had finally grown up! (my wife assures me that I am still as infantile as ever, so it must be the script-writing - phew!)

[didcot]

1 hour ago, AlexHolt said:

Kind of lost interest after the mess that last series was. Wasn't very entertaining and seemed more like a lecture about current issues in the world rather than a sci fi show.  Don't think I'll bother with it this year. 

I thought that too. It's trying to tick to many diversity boxes and doesn't work. Whilst some of the issues the last series tackled are important, I don't think Dr Who is the right platform for it. There are more appropriate shows that can tackle the subjects at the right level.

It ìs essentially a family show with monsters and should be entertaining without preaching. 

 

[BobM]

Afraid, after viewing for many years....lost interest with the departure of Matt Smith....series full of effects, less on substance....?

Must be getting old!

Bob

[pete_mcfarlane]

3 hours ago, didcot said:

I thought that too. It's trying to tick to many diversity boxes and doesn't work. Whilst some of the issues the last series tackled are important, I don't think Dr Who is the right platform for it. There are more appropriate shows that can tackle the subjects at the right level.

It ìs essentially a family show with monsters and should be entertaining without preaching. 

 

And yet 'Survival', the story that finished the original run 30 years ago, was written by a woman, has strong female and ethnic minority characters, and tackles social themes without feeling like its preaching to you. The show can tackle serious themes, if they get scriptwriters who can actually write.

[phil-b259]

1 hour ago, pete_mcfarlane said:

And yet 'Survival', the story that finished the original run 30 years ago, was written by a woman, has strong female and ethnic minority characters, and tackles social themes without feeling like its preaching to you. The show can tackle serious themes, if they get scriptwriters who can actually write.

 

The point is more that apart from the Jodie Whittaker (who I thought nailed being 'the Doctor') all the other 3 companions in series 12 felt as though they were there to tick various ethnicity boxes imposed by BBC management - the on screen chemistry between them was generally lousy and an ability for all cast members to make you believe they all genuinely liked each other to go round with the Doctor just wasn't there in my opinion (and thats coming from someone who had seen all the previous episodes going back to 2005).

 

Now this may of course be because of the scripts letting the actors down, but it also could be because getting a cast that felt natural together was much less important than trying to show just how multicultural the BBC is.

 

Similarly the settings for several episodes and the stories within came across very much as a BBC lecture in political correctness rather than something there for entertainment. in other words having a entertaining story was playing second fiddle to some heavy handed moralising about what we should and shouldn't think.

 

If Dr who is to survive it needs to remember that it is a entertainment show biased towards Si-fi themes - not an educational video designed to show 'best practice' in the political correctness stakes.

 

 

[DavidB-AU]

The thing is characters like Mickey Smith, Martha Jones, Danny Pink, Toshiko Sato (if you include Torchwood) and (going waaaaay back) Brigadier Bambera didn't seem at all like box ticking. They were a natural fit for the story. DW didn't need to get with the times because in many ways it was always ahead of its time (no pun intended). The last season was just pushing "look how diverse and progressive we are" by shoehorning as much box ticking as possible into mostly uninteresting plots. The premise of the stories in India and Alabama were sound enough and could have been written in the same way as (at the risk of invoking Godwin's Law) the Hitler episode, i.e. make the alien the story and the historical event is just background with the conclusion that some points in history are fixed.

 

You can make subtle references to unfortunate parts of our history without being in your face about it. One example that stands out for me was in Remembrance of the Daleks where Ace is shocked by the "NO COLOUREDS" sign in the window of the guest house and interaction between the Dalek factions was intentionally written as an allegory to racism. That was brilliant writing.

 

Cheers

David

[didcot]

Some interesting points being made. I too think there is a distinct lack of chemistry between the Doctor & companions. If you had never seen DW before the last series I think you would struggle to recognise the Doctor through the melee of characters.

Also a lack of empathy and emotion previously seen with the likes of David Tennent. It draws you in and makes you connect with the characters. I remember my eldest son watching an episode with me, he chatted away all through the episode until the Doctor had finally restored the Earth and returned all the companions home, at which point he went quiet, looking down at him the tears were streaming down his face, "He's got no one to love" he said. But as a 5 year old he had tapped into the emotion of the piece. That's what makes good tv.

[pete_mcfarlane]

9 hours ago, phil-b259 said:

 

The point is more that apart from the Jodie Whittaker (who I thought nailed being 'the Doctor') all the other 3 companions in series 12 felt as though they were there to tick various ethnicity boxes imposed by BBC management - the on screen chemistry between them was generally lousy and an ability for all cast members to make you believe they all genuinely liked each other to go round with the Doctor just wasn't there in my opinion (and thats coming from someone who had seen all the previous episodes going back to 2005).

That's very true. I especially liked the way that Yaz, the companion who was a Policewoman (before her backstory got forgotten by the writers) lived with the rest of her middle class family in a council flat in Parkhill (the big blocks of flats by Sheffield station). That just showed that the writers didn't understand the World outside London. 

[woodenhead]

The danger with box ticking is that you end up with over emphasis which is out of proportion.

 

The BBC though is stuck probably by it's charter to tick boxes now - the other channels don't have to and when the look at ethnic and lifestyle choices they do it much better because they can make a program about a particular topic rather than having to shoehorn everything into every non factual programme.

 

I think one of the reasons they did War of the Worlds recently was not because it was big science fiction but because they could make the point about it's reference to imperialism / colonialism and it's impact on indigenous peoples.

[Harlequin]

Doctor Who seems to be very specifically targetted at pre-teens these day: Lots of action, nothing too challenging or scary, get everything wrapped up in 45mins.

 

It "jumped the shark" for me some time back when the Doctor resolved a seemingly unsolvable story by turning the entire universe off and on again... If xe's got that ability in reserve then there's simply no jeopardy any more.

 

Edited December 6, 2019 by Harlequin

[Karhedron]

10 hours ago, DavidB-AU said:

You can make subtle references to unfortunate parts of our history without being in your face about it. One example that stands out for me was in Remembrance of the Daleks where Ace is shocked by the "NO COLOUREDS" sign in the window of the guest house and interaction between the Dalek factions was intentionally written as an allegory to racism. That was brilliant writing.

 

Agreed, that was one of the show's best stories. Not really surprising as it was written by Ben Aaronovitch who has gone on to top best seller lists with his "Rivers of London" series. Sad to say I can't imagine any of the current writing crew be remembered much in years to come.

[AndrewC]

i think I'll be giving this series a miss. Last season was painful to watch at times. The potentially best companion was killed off in the first episode. The rest are just diversity box tick fillers. 

 

In other news BritBox the new streaming service is releasing all of the classic Dr Who episodes over the coming months. I'll take Colin Baker's arrogance over Jodie Whittaker's constant whiny waffling any day. 

[woodenhead]

8 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

Doctor Who seems to be very specifically targetted at pre-teens these day: Lots of action, nothing too challenging or scary, get everything wrapped up in 45mins.

 

It "jumped the shark" for me some time back when the Doctor resolved a seemingly unsolvable story by turning the entire universe off and on again... If xe's got that ability in reserve then there's simply no jeopardy any more.

 

Wrapped up in 5 minutes - 40 minutes of non jeopardy and five minutes of sonic screwdriving to fix it.

 

I think they've used variations on the reboot strategy a number of times to get out of jail.

 

If the stories were less in your face political correctness I would still watch, but the story is now second to the correctness and the science bit doesn't matter because as you intimate, there is always the off/on option to fall back on which resets everything. 

 

Sadly political correctness does not fix inequality, it simply plays lip service to say 'look at us being all correct' - it doesn't stop racism or maltreatment of LGBT people.

[chuffinghell]

 

22 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

Wrapped up in 5 minutes - 40 minutes of non jeopardy and five minutes of sonic screwdriving to fix it.

 

I think they've used variations on the reboot strategy a number of times to get out of jail.

 

Don't forget that all Jon Pertwee had to do was to reverse the polarity 

 

Of the 'reboot' David Tennant was the best, followed in second by Christopher Eccleston

 

I never warmed to Matt Smith and I thought Capaldi was awful.

 

I'm 44 so it was Tom Baker/Peter Davison I remember. Especially Tom Baker regenerating into Peter Davison (a bit scary for a 6 year old)

 

I have to say having watched old episodes my favorite was Tom Baker

 

Oh and yes apparently I was one of those kids who hid behind the sofa when the theme tune came on.................I still do it now to be honest but that's because Jodie Whittaker's doctor is terrible

 

Edited December 6, 2019 by chuffinghell

[didcot]

The other elephant in the room for me is the gender change. Why not create a strong female Timelord that challenges the Doctor. We have seen the Rani and Romana in the past, why not reinvent them like John Simms wickedly devilish Master. Michelle Gomez was fantastic as Missy, but knowing she was the Master seems to take something away from it. 

Let not forget that there have been spin offs such as The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood (anagram of Doctor Who) that have been successful in there own right! Well maybe not the last series of Torchwood. But it would compliment Doctor Who and bring in extra funding streams for the BBC. I guess the point I'm making is why would you have Mister Marple when you could have Hercule Poirot!

[MJI]

The last series was terrible, really rubbish writing.

 

I think I will probably give it a miss until Chibnal has moved on.

 

As to previous episodes of new Who.

 

Best Showrunner was Russell T Davies, not the best writer but good at running it. Stephen Moffatt was good but it took the edge off his writing.

 

Best writer was Stephen Moffatt, especially when not show running.

 

Best Doctor, no issues with any if the 5 except that Ecclestone left too quick, The War Doctor was under used. No issues with Smith, Tennant, nor Capaldi.

 

Worst bits, Rose love story, shriveled up DW, the annoying companion post Amy Pond.

Best companions Amy & Rory. Also River Song usage was clever.

 

Best episodes

Blink, Heaven Sent, Empty Child/Doctor Dances, Family of blood pair, clockwork robot one.

[woodenhead]

As companions go I thought Donna was going to be awful but she turned out one of the best as the character developed with a bit of Bernard Cribbins as well.

 

Amy was also a good character and allowed space for Karen Gillan to round her acting skills though the storylines got more convoluted over time.

 

I've also noted that Donna appears to be the last companion who went back to a normal life (albeit bereft of her memory) whereas the rest now seem to go into some sort of immortality of one sort or another - aren't people allowed to die anymore in Dr Who?

[Tony Davis]

Best Doctor; William Hartnell, best writer; Terry Nation.