General Ongoing Doctor Discussion

CastorTroy

So seems the favourite to replace Jodie is

Michael Sheen

. He seems high profile for the role

fritzelly

CastorTroy wrote: »

So seems the favourite to replace Jodie is

Michael Sheen

. He seems high profile for the role

Would be perfect for the role

pixelburp

Yeah too high profile, guess the silly season of replacement speculation will begin.

Busi_Girl08

Would thrilled if some kind of timey wimey/retcon retcon would happen to make Jo Martin the new Doctor. She out-Doctored Jodie in any scene she was in.

its_steve116

CastorTroy wrote: »

So seems the favourite to replace Jodie is

Michael Sheen

. He seems high profile for the role

He'd be the first

Welsh

Doctor and ironically

the show is produced in Wales

.

FunLover18

They're also someone who has already been in the show as they were

the voice of House in The Doctor's Wife

flazio

Yeah but so were Peter Capaldi, Colin Baker, Anthony Ainley and Lalla Ward before they got their Time Lord roles.

Doctor DooM

I would bet money he's in the tabloids specifically because

he and David Tennant have a discussion about Sheen becoming the Doctor in a recent episode of Staged.

Silly season, as people said!

pixelburp

Sounds about right Doctor Doom, and par for the course with tabloid rumours. Paper never refused ink and as always when this comes around, would remind that fadó fadó in ancient 2005 when the relaunch was coming, the tabloids "reported" everyone from Eddie Izzard to David Hasselhoff as lined up for the role.

Also, unless people object, I'm going to say that spoiler-texting names seem unnecessary; the new Dr. Who tends to end up being the worst kept secret in British TV so kinda wanna just say "have at it"?

ebbsy

Problem was, Jolie wasn't a strong enough actor to carry Chibnall's crap scripts.

FunLover18

ebbsy wrote: »

Problem was, Jolie wasn't a strong enough actor to carry Chibnall's crap scripts.

I don't think you can blame her for that, most of the time it wasn't even the scripts but the stories themselves were crap and no amount of good dialogue could have saved them. I doubt any of her predecessors could have elevated them.

Stark

I dunno, a lot of the stuff written for David Tennant was really bad. "I'm so so sorry. Humans are fantastic, brilliant, amazing, best species in the universe". Surprisingly so given RTD has shown he can write amazing stuff on other shows (and occasionally on Doctor Who: "Midnight", "Turn Left") but I think on Doctor Who he let his giddy child side get the better of him. Tennant made it work enough for him to be considered many people's favourite Doctor though.

pixelburp

On reflection I think the problem with Whittaker's doctor is that if pushed, I couldn't give you a postage stamp summary of who she is as a Doctor. The others in the revival had some pretty clear arcs that linked with their personalities but Whitaker is a bit of a blank slate. Literally in fact as IIRC, some of her first season amounted to a "who am I?" question that culminated in that controversial twist last year.

And even when the RTD era sunk into some truly asinine, brain-dead storytelling (I love Davies but his sci-fi was often pretty awful), the foundation of a strong personality in its lead elevated the sometimes crappy plots. Same with the Moffat era. Maybe even moreso give he preferred those puzzle box arcs that were all mystery.

I wonder was this a consequence of it being the first female doctor? That there was a nervousness, that a female Doc with an excessively outsized personality might have stirred the pot more than the casting already managed. So then the safest approach was this White Label Doctor; all the ticks and mannerisms you'd expect but absolutely none of the flavour we would see with a Baker or Smith iteration.

I suppose that does come back to Chibnall holding the bag but it's not an especially hard equation to solve either. At least Jo Martin seemed to have more of a defined quality in her brief appearance.

ebbsy

pixelburp wrote: »

On reflection I think the problem with Whittaker's doctor is that if pushed, I couldn't give you a postage stamp summary of who she is as a Doctor. The others in the revival had some pretty clear arcs that linked with their personalities but Whitaker is a bit of a blank slate. Literally in fact as IIRC, some of her first season amounted to a "who am I?" question that culminated in that controversial twist last year.

And even when the RTD era sunk into some truly asinine, brain-dead storytelling (I love Davies but his sci-fi was often pretty awful), the foundation of a strong personality in its lead elevated the sometimes crappy plots. Same with the Moffat era. Maybe even moreso give he preferred those puzzle box arcs that were all mystery.

I wonder was this a consequence of it being the first female doctor? That there was a nervousness, that a female Doc with an excessively outsized personality might have stirred the pot more than the casting already managed. So then the safest approach was this White Label Doctor; all the ticks and mannerisms you'd expect but absolutely none of the flavour we would see with a Baker or Smith iteration.

I suppose that does come back to Chibnall holding the bag but it's not an especially hard equation to solve either. At least Jo Martin seemed to have more of a defined quality in her brief appearance.

Bit in bold hits the nail on the head.

TheValeyard

Wonder would we have gotten more out of her as The Doctor if Moffat was still the showrunner. But previous poster was right when he said RTD had some absolute stinkers of episodes.

Ive often rewatched a lot of the RTD and Moffat era episodes, but I just dont see myself rewatching anything from the new Doctor. Which is a pity, its such wasted potential. But maybe im biased as im also miffed they wrecked Gallifrey again and fcuked with the origin story.

Busi_Girl08

TheValeyard wrote: »

Wonder would we have gotten more out of her as The Doctor if Moffat was still the showrunner. But previous poster was right when he said RTD had some absolute stinkers of episodes.

Ive often rewatched a lot of the RTD and Moffat era episodes, but I just dont see myself rewatching anything from the new Doctor. Which is a pity, its such wasted potential. But maybe im biased as im also miffed they wrecked Gallifrey again and fcuked with the origin story.

Whoever takes over as showrunner will have a hell of a job to fix that retcon. At this stage are they better off taking a break a few years and coming back a-new, doctor newly regenerated and let's never speak of all of that again.

TheValeyard

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

Whoever takes over as showrunner will have a hell of a job to fix that retcon. At this stage are they better off taking a break a few years and coming back a-new, doctor newly regenerated and let's never speak of all of that again.

Or the twelfth Doctor wakes up.
*screams*

"OH dear god, I just had the horrifying nightmare"

Sorted.

LOL.

jimbob_jones

TheValeyard wrote: »

Or the twelfth Doctor wakes up.
*screams*

"OH dear god, I just had the horrifying nightmare"

Sorted.

LOL.

I have only recently caught up with the last series and I was left wondering at the end. Would the Timeless Child twist have worked if it turned out to be The Master rather than The Doctor ?

The Master repressing the memories of all the years that they were expirimented on, on the face of it did seem that the scientist was killing them over and over again to get the secret of regeneration.

Again a new show runner can hand waive it and say The Master was lying, or lied to by the Matrix or they can run with it and see where it goes.

pixelburp

Hey, we're all talking about a show with time-travel at its core, and one of the most porous and thinly sketched canon in pop culture. If the Timeless Child becomes that unpopular or unwieldy it'll be quickly rewritten out of the show's canon.

Let's not forget this immortal line, now happily ignored since 1996. And that's not even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to "canon".

"I'm half human... On my mothers side."

jimbob_jones

pixelburp wrote: »

Hey, we're all talking about a show with time-travel at its core, and one of the most porous and thinly sketched canon in pop culture. If the Timeless Child becomes that unpopular or unwieldy it'll be quickly rewritten out of the show's canon.

Let's not forget this immortal line, now happily ignored since 1996. And that's not even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to "canon".

Yep that is a very good point pixelburp.

I forgot about that line.

campo

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117211490#Comment_117211490

Unless like Loki the timeless child aka the Dr is also River Song, She is half human on her mothers side and as was conceived in the Tardis could be timeless child yes it would mean some timey wimey wibbly wobbly but not impossible.

pixelburp

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117627409#Comment_117627409

Hey, I'd never rule it out. Dr. Who being what it is, in 10 years time the "canon" will look completely different. There's a YT channel I subscribe to, and the author publishes a series of videos listing all the ludicrous, crazy things that are apparently "canon" in the show (Boris Johnson is an auton!).

Stark

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117627409#Comment_117627409

Fully human, no? Parents: Amy and Rory. Unless that whole "conceived within the timestream" thing was a cover story for the Doctor secretly banging Amy which seems the most likely explanation in the cynical normal universe but not quite Doctor Who :)

campo

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117632109#Comment_117632109

Well is she full human if she can regenerate, maybe half human and mothers and father side and the other half from time stream or something like that , but thinking back it never made sense that she could regenerate just because she was conceived in tardis.

pixelburp

I liked how the new series emphasised this idea that time travel didn't just cause a change in mentality, but physically as well; the Artron energy seeping into people. In fact IIRC, the old 8th Doctor range of books had a character who was, literally, a walking TARDIS. Was part of some large, rambling arc (as those books often had) featuring a divergent Doctor, corrupted during the 3rd regeneration by that eventual divergent 8th incarnation. Surprised the new series never played with that idea...

pixelburp

FYI: the VR game The Edge of Time is making its way to Consoles as a non-VR version title Edge of Reality. "Reality" doesn't have much of a trailer, but there's a greater sense of the game from the trailer for the VR game...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aVXB-tryYo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-AjWi6j1fE

FunLover18

https://twitter.com/bbcdoctorwho/status/1420746545616408580?s=19

...

pixelburp

Yeah was mentioned in the specific Season thread; bummed out about Whittaker leaving, her scripts never really gave her much of a chance to shine TBH.

dball

https://www.engadget.com/doctor-who-chibnall-whittaker-departure-reformat-series-113012792.html

...

pixelburp

That's all fine and dandy, but I think the BBC see Doc as too much of a cash cow to risk tampering with - or indeed, going on a hiatus. With Top Gear gone it's arguably the station's biggest global brand and while the show isn't near a viral hit as that David Tenant heyday - it's big enough that the executives wouldn't touch it too much.