General Ongoing Doctor Discussion

Right, so they went and did it. Someone was always bound to, and try to fill in the backstory for the sake of a new direction. A bit of a mess, too much exposition but it was obviously trying to set the plate. Honestly I'm kinda impressed how the production has basically side stepped the pressure of casting by saying the Doc has been any range you can imagine (except ginger though, or did I miss an incarnation?). I wonder will we start seeing more "pre Hartnell" Docs. Technically there are now 2 current, live incarnations.

What we got is no less bonkers, and far less fanwànky than that whole "The Other" arc from the 90s book range, and the idea of an entire different existence pre Hartnell opens up some new avenues all right. I'm guessing The Division are going to be Who's Section 31; the secret covert ops types who went around the universe shaping worlds, with the Doc getting scrubbed when their role was complete. Which tracks with the more aggressive, combative doctor we met during the season, she seemed more War Doctor than a normal one.

And yeah. That Master grew on me. Utterly unhinged with a bit of a death wish, that's a neat take in the end. Still bummed it removes the effect of Missy's arc, but what we got worked in the end.

I'm curious to see where this goes. A bit messy but the show couldn't keep skirting around the Docs past and Gallifreys constant death and resurrection. They've picked a path at least.

ixoy wrote: »

I liked that arc. Admittedly, I was a teenager so it seemed cool but a part of me hoped that they'd go with the Looms part too.

Same here, think that range had its ups and down; an author whose work I currently enjoy - Ben Aaronovitch - wrote one of its worse novels, "Transit ", which was the range at its most adolescent or puerile. I recall the subsequent range from the BBC went even further into labyrinthine Time Lord plots, with "Faction Paradox" and its leader, a corrupted version of the 8th Doctor, infected when the 3rd Doctor died too early in his timeline (it's complicated lol).

It's a ballsy move to try and split the difference here: keeping the Doctor's inherent mystery (assuming she doesn't attempt to find that artefact by which she was found), while bringing back the character's mythic quality, albeit in a more specific manner. No wonder the Doc was always such a key figure in Time Lord society - he/she was the literal foundation of it.

It also can retroactively explain why the Doctor always wanted to leave; they were never truly part of that society, never even from Gallifrey at all. At first I wasn't sure what to make of this Big Change, but the more I'm thinking about it, the more it kinda fits into what we already know.

Also also, props to the cameo of Brain of Morbius, where Chibnall has now brought that infamous "future faces of the Doctor" moment into canon. They weren't future faces, they were past ones

ixoy wrote: »

I quite liked her. I'd be happy to see more of her - she's got strong screen presence.

It's weird: I wasn't blown away by her appearances, but then her total screentime was probably less than that of most Doctor's pilot stories, so it's not that fair to judge her on less time than others usually get. Now, if we could get a multi-doctor story with both women, and maybe Smith, Capaldi or Tenant? That'd be fun..

ixoy wrote: »

I actually thought this season was a pretty big step up from an admittedly low bar. Yes, it preached a bit too heavily at times to a degree that might make a DC CW writer roll their eyes but it had an arc, it gave the Doctor a bit more depth and allowed JW to flex her muscles more. They didn't need to spend time on some rather bland companion sub stories like they did last year and instead they just worked together. There's still too many of them mind you - just keep Graham and dump the rest.
I'm more hopeful than I was at the end of Season 37 anyway.

I agree, think this year was much more enjoyable than last years, with some legitimately strong stories. I don't share the lament of others over "preachiness", Orphan 55 was the only truly clumsy moment of near 4th-wall breaking, but that episode was hot garbage anyway, so slight "wood for trees" stuff really. Praxeus' use of plastics actually made story sense and felt a lot more earned (aside from being a more demonstrable, bloody obvious environmental f*ck up).

Can You Heard Me, and Orphan 55 were the poorest episodes for me by far, with the rest straddling somewhere between middling, to good, to excellent. As much as it might try, I think perhaps it's time for Doctor Who to try and embrace serialisation a bit more - cos without a thread or arc, the flaws in the season mostly orbited the lack of things for its cast to do, or be involved in.

This is a nice gesture, fair play to Whittaker & whoever's idea it was. Always love it when the actors go that extra mile for the younger fans.

https://twitter.com/bbcdoctorwho/status/1242783288571211776

Wouldn't generally put much stock into the Christmas specials at the best of times, but a little disappointed given what the title's pointing towards.

Am more interested how much of the big change to "canon" will be carried into the new series. And if we see much of this new-old Doctor.

Doctor DooM wrote: »

With infinite regenerations, we have infinite potential Doctors too. They could keep pulling that trick out.

Hopefully not too much mind you; feels like the kind of trick best used sparingly. Like, I'm going to just presume at least one Big Twist will be the Big Bad turning out to be a fallen version of the Doctor. When to bring back Jo Martin will be an interesting conundrum too, given it'd be weird if a supporting character - who's also technically the main character - upstaged the nominated version of the main character...

I still smirk at how Chibnall effectively shut the door on the whole "the Doctor should be X" soapbox by declaring the character just had countless regens before we ever met him first. The finale itself was so-so, but that decision remains crazy-genius.

Not just Irish, but ginger. Which was funny given the brief running gag of each new doctor lamenting he still wasn't ginger