Doctor Who Season 11 [** Spoilers **]

pixelburp

Starts next week, Sunday October 7

Thought I'd start a new thread for it, given the previous one was mostly about the speculation / discussion on the casting of Jodie Whittaker. Divorcing the chatter around her casting, from what I've seen in clips so far, I think Whittaker is going to win over a lot of people with her performance...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6QRnULIjv4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCt6f1Ttmy4

CastorTroy

6:45 on BBC 1.

Looking forward to it.

So this season brings us up to December with just a couple weeks then to the Christmas special.

Necronomicon

Doctor Who meets Predator, I like it

Quite liked that. The chemistry among the group is good, promising for the series ahead. Jodie Whittaker slipped pretty seamlessly into the role IMO, she has a bit of Eleven about her which I like. Another positive was that it was very, very pretty to look at - I wonder if Chibnall brought some of the Broadchurch production crew with him, I always loved how that show looked too.

I also loved that ending. Looking forward to next week.

jrkb

Well one episode in and she is already better than Capaldi.

ednwireland

meh

hope it gets better

8mv

It was OK. I'm predisposed to liking JW anyway - I've liked her in everything else I've seen that she's in. Bradley Walsh wasn't the disaster I expected and the young companions might grow on me.

corkie

Strong Cast lined up for future episodes based on the ending roll call of characters.

Virtanen

It was fine. Nothing special, nothing really to complain about either

Was pleasingly dark as well, given how early it aired

I guess the fact that it felt like a bog-standard New Doctor story is somewhat of a good thing, in that the Doctor being a woman wasn't really relevant, and wasn't focused on for longer than necessary

soups05

I liked it, she had the energy and enthusiasm of matt smith and david tennant. Liked the story, no stand out am a woman so there type moments. the upcoming actors seem to be heavily indian/pakistani origin so I hope that's not some lame attempt to be more diverse or PC.
Overall looking forward to next week.

it did take me far too long to realise she was still wearing cap's outfit lol.

CastorTroy

I would've liked more than "Does it suit me?" If I recall, the others all made digs at themselves.
Wonder when she bought women's clothes before.

I'm guessing for that ending that

the TARDIS will materialise around them?

As for the upcoming cast, maybe it shows how little British tv I watch, but I recognised very few of the actors.

flazio

I thought Jodie was excellent and has just that right amount of mad (wo)man with(out for the moment) a box for The Doctor.
The story itself however wasn't what I call the strongest, it felt like something from the spin offs rather than the main show.
In my eyes "The Eleventh Hour" is the benchmark and this didn’t quite reach that high.
The ending however took my breath away.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Really enjoyed it, great intro to all the characters. Jodie Whittaker did a great job, one of the stronger post-regeneration debuts - up there with The Eleventh Hour for me, which has been my favourite introductory episode to date.

Was a big fan of Mandip Gill from when she was in Hollyoaks, so glad she's getting more mainstream exposure now as Yas. Tosin Cole was the only one of the new cast I wasn't very familiar with, but think he made a great impression. Great to have several companions back in the TARDIS again.

Doctor DooM

Well, that was pretty Doctor Who. One of the better regen stories. Looking forward to seeing what's happened with the Tardis.

I'm loving the new, spacier alien sounding incidental music too. Definitely gives the show an old school flavour.

She definitely has that manic energy and the "I'm the doctor" bit was spot on. Must rewatch that bit.

What happened to the whole shadow proclamation bit. I know it would have killed off the episode but 11/12s regen definitely brought that up.could it not have been like i order you to stop.
Or maybe 1 human trophy was too small scale

CastorTroy

He said he was given permission by Ryan, so some sort of loophole granting him access to hunt on his grounds. At least that was my understanding.

Fair enough!

Was the text backwards for anyone else?

Doctor DooM

bluewolf wrote: »

Fair enough!

I meant to add, i appreciated the touch where all the writing was backwards. I assume because your man has dyspraxia. Even a car reg plate in one of the shots was backwards. And the file name on the pc

Speaking of, I thought we were going to have an uncomfortable moment where her regeneration energy healed him of it, instead we get that awful sad scene at the end of him on his bike. Good tv!

Doctor DooM

Sorry for the double post, but holy crap:

https://twitter.com/DrWhoSpace/status/1049217851993808896



No way it can keep that up, but what a strong opening.

TheValeyard

Reminded me of the 11th Hour. Bit of a meh story. But I like her energy.

Das Kitty

I liked the characters and the Doctor. All great

The bad guy was terrible, and more than a bit gross.
The dialogue wasn't fantastic either. And I felt that Grace's death was tacked on and pointless. She would have been a great companion.

The story itself wasn't bad. And I liked the length of the episode.


All that said, I loved it and I want more right now.

iguana

I haven't watched the last couple of series. Was there a reason that nobody initially believed in aliens? Has there been some sort of planet-wide reset/mindwipe? I mean this is the planet that in the last decade or so has been inundated with alien events that everyone on earth would have been aware of. The Christmas invasion, the time the whole planet was moved to another part of space and the Daleks invaded. Ryan and Yas are both young enough to have been taken over by the 456 along with every other child on the planet. There was that period of a few months where death was suspended. The time aeroplanes hovered in the sky, etc.

I know they eventually started to say aliens don't come to Sheffield, rather than don't exist. But there were lots of planet wide events that would have effected Sheffield enough for that to be nonsense. And Britain has been central to most of the events, so I just don't see it as having fit with the overall acceptance of aliens that was fairly widespread last time I watched.

connemara man

Previous doctors all gave said that people kinda purposefully ignore them

Penn

I enjoyed the episode. Wasn't particularly great or wonderful, but there was enough there to keep me interested in the rest of the series. I thought JW did well, but we didn't get to see enough of what sort of Doctor she is, which in fairness is how most Doctors' first episodes go (except Capaldi, who completely nailed his character from the first episode).

The companions were okay, bit hard to judge them again due to first episode and there being three of them.

A solid start, if fairly unremarkable. But if it carried on like that, I'd still be happy enough.

Doctor DooM

My memory has gone to hell lately, but wasn't there something in the Smith era where humanity was made to forget basically the entire Davies era of alien invasions?

I seem to recall giant Cybermen in specific being brought up.

EDIT:

Ahah, thank you Tardis Wiki:

It was later revealed that this event was not remembered by the people that witnessed it due to the cracks in time, which had erased events such as this from history. (TV: Flesh and Stone)

Virtanen

Yeah supposedly the Cracks In Time erased memory of the giant Cyberking in Victorian London, and implied it erased other things

Basically a retcon device to conveniently forget some things but remember others

Or humans are idiots and forget things, as has been another excuse to ignore previous events

WomanSkirtFan8

Loved the episode. Jodie really nails it as the doctor so far. At times you could hear little elements of both david tennant and matt smith so that was excellent.

Would like to have seen her find the tardis a little bit earlier (probably going to happen in the next episode) but how or never.

Thought that alien was an Ice Warrior at first.

Overall, great episode and well done to all.

Now for the rest of the season.:)

Mr E

That was brilliant. Haven't watched DW for three years because Capaldi annoyed the hell out of me.

I'm back in now, I thought that was fantastic.

Goodshape

Really enjoyed it!

Thought Whittaker was great – fit into the role perfectly. Love the new style, tone, and pace so far.

Top marks. Looking forward to more.

FunLover18

Maybe it's just me but we've had three Regen stories in a row now where The Doctor is readjusting and acting all goofy, forgetting words, etc and the first of those three (Eleventh Hour) was by far the best. I know they do it to fill new viewers in but surely there are other ways or they don't have to go so over the top. It's a minor quibble, I really liked Jodie and the rest of the cast. The episode was fairly meh but first episode usually are.

Funny how nobody outside the main characters cared about a train being attacked by an alien.

Doctor DooM

FunLover18 wrote: »

Maybe it's just me but we've had three Regen stories in a row now where The Doctor is readjusting and acting all goofy, forgetting words, etc and the first of those three (Eleventh Hour) was by far the best. I know they do it to fill new viewers in but surely there are other ways or they don't have to go so over the top. It's a minor quibble, I really liked Jodie and the rest of the cast. The episode was fairly meh but first episode usually are.

Funny how nobody outside the main characters cared about a train being attacked by an alien.

Been going on a little longer than that

pixelburp

Boilerplate "regeneration" story. Good but always feel like box ticking; they could really do with mixing the formula up a little, though it also functioned as a nice jumping on point for anyone looking to start on the show.

Whittaker was great, particularly once she started manifesting the character beyond the initial scatterbrain confusion.

The direction and cinematography was also great; ditto the new, grungy synth score. No confusing this with Murray Gold, that's for sure. Was great to hear the titles finally harking back to the original Delia Derbyshire arrangement.

The ending was a real gut punch though; Moffat could go dark, but more like a grimm fairytale - wasn't expecting Chibnell to finish with a downbeat kitchen sink moment. Kudos to Bradley Walsh for selling the scene.

Lady Spangles

I thought it was a great opening episode and I instantly fell in love with Jodie as the Doctor. She nailed it. Before the show began airing, I was more worried about the Bradley Walsh casting. I was only aware of him being a game show host and not as an actual actor (I was wrong, I know). But yeah, even he was pretty good. Really looking forward to the rest of the season.

In the meantime, I'm re-watching the Capaldi era (it's all up on BBC iPlayer). Maybe time will be kinder to this era.

jaysis lads. did ye see the tardis

Franz Von Peppercorn

The tardis was like something from Alien, with some buttons and levers.

Jodie’s good but not great yet. I’d like to see a bit more confidence although that’s maybe how it is written.

i was a bit disappointed at the 'i've failed you all'. i must rack my brains and see did that come up before

SimonTemplar

Someone over at the Digital Spy forum made a comment that it feels more like a children's show than ever before. Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing while I was watching the episode and not in a good way. It is a pity because last weeks episode was grittier and more realistic than usual.

I'm still not entirely sold on Jodie but to be fair it is only her second episode and with a brand new showrunner too, so things are bound to have a few teething problems.

I'm not too keen on the new interior of the tardis. It is a bit dark and glum.

Next week's one should be good. Episodes set in the earth's past usually are. Episodes set in the future or on an alien planet tend to be the riskiest for me.

CastorTroy

Yeah, I don't think that episode sold me on her. To be honest, her voice sounded a bit annoying at times.
And I know it was said when Clara was the companion, but it seems the Doctor was a supporting character.

What did the flying rags say to her? Something about a time child?

And we have new season long villains?

As for the TARDIS, how does she even know how to work it. Also kinda disappointed that not one of the companions pointed out it was bigger on the inside.

Franz Von Peppercorn

CastorTroy wrote: »

Yeah, I don't think that episode sold me on her. To be honest, her voice sounded a bit annoying at times.
And I know it was said when Clara was the companion, but it seems the Doctor was a supporting character.

What did the flying rags say to her? Something about a time child?

And we have new season long villains?

As for the TARDIS, how does she even know how to work it. Also kinda disappointed that not one of the companions pointed out it was bigger on the inside.

They always know how to work any redesigned tardis. It’s standard that the tardis changes for each doctor.

The only thing missing from Jodie for me , since she has a lot of doctor type qualities: quirkiness, giddiness, feeling a bit alien, being a bit of a young fogey - is that sense of threat. Even Smith - the least threatening doctor of this incarnation - had that in the 11th hour. “Is this planet protected?”

Maybe they are trying to deliberately downplay the lonely God that Moffat created with a more down to earth figure. She seemed more worried than the usual doctor.

jasonb

Preferred the first episode to the second, the second felt like it was trying to squeeze too much in (the rescue from space, the rally concept, the desolate planet, the water, the bandages, the robots, the flammable gas, the hints at a season villan and season mystery etc.

Interesting concept, but it just didn't flow as well as the first one. One thing I didn't understand, they kept talking about how dangerous the planet was, with the water and the 'toxic atmosphere', but I didn't see the atmosphere affecting them at all?

pixelburp

What does everyone think of the new titles & theme tune? Was surprised just how retro they went, and feels like a HD, upscaled version of the old 60s/70s versions. I quite like them both.

FunLover18

I was disappointed with the second episode. Having three companions may be too much especially when you have supporting one-off characters as well, I don't think we learned anything substantial about the new companions except that Ryan plays CoD. I didn't get any tension in this episode, the race seemed too easy and all that talk of the flesh eating water never led to anything. I'm still enjoying Jodie but I feel the writing is still trying to do the things that Moffat did eg the sunglasses which as I saw someone point out isn't possible given the clothes are from a charity shop and she hadn't been back to the TARDIS. Anyway it was a poor episode I thought, hopefully things will pick up next week.

8mv

Maybe it was the script but I felt the actors were not as comfortable in their roles as they were in the first episode - I wouldn't be surprised if this one was filmed before 'The Woman Who Fell To Earth'

flazio

I'm not panicking yet. Who remembers "The Beast Below"
Time has been kinder on that episode.

pixelburp

Yeah, Beast Below was pretty terrible, and those "first trip" stories are always touch and go anyway so I wasn't expecting much from this week's episode. Like the regeneration story they can feel very rote and a bit of a box ticking exercise. The trick will be making the three companions work, have enough depth but not overpowering the main character too much.

Lady Spangles

Love the new music, it's very reminiscent of classic Who. But the new TARDIS interior ..... not so much. I liked the actual console, with all the hands-on levers, hour glass and custard cream dispenser. That bit was okay. It's the walls and that big crystal thing I'm not so sold on. Plus it's quite dark. Maybe it will grow on me. The twelfth Doctor's TARDIS was fantastic.

flazio

Personally, I preferred Matt Smith's first console room. Now THAT was bigger on the inside.
I'm curious to know where the scanner screen is gone though.

FunLover18

flazio wrote: »

I'm not panicking yet. Who remembers "The Beast Below"
Time has been kinder on that episode.

I really like The Beast Below :-(

Goodshape

Enjoyed episode two. Not as strong as the first though, and I agree the actors seemed almost a little less comfortable in their roles.

Still, decent enough.


I'm still just enjoying that everything seems properly new this season. Not just the obvious – new Doctor, new Tardis, new companion or three – but it does feel more like a new show than any of the previous regenerations did (since the revival). It's a welcome update.

Was the beast below the one where they were torturing the sky whale. I don't have much memory of it but liked it

pixelburp

bluewolf wrote: »

Was the beast below the one where they were torturing the sky whale. I don't have much memory of it but liked it

Yup that's the one, set on the "UK in space" colony ship.

Virtanen

Lady Spangles wrote: »

Love the new music, it's very reminiscent of classic Who. But the new TARDIS interior ..... not so much. I liked the actual console, with all the hands-on levers, hour glass and custard cream dispenser. That bit was okay. It's the walls and that big crystal thing I'm not so sold on. Plus it's quite dark. Maybe it will grow on me. The twelfth Doctor's TARDIS was fantastic.

And what an amazing coincidence that Doc 13 made a home-brew Sonic Screwdriver and the Tardis just happens to fit in with that aesthetic...