Doctor Who Series 11 Discussion

[Tiplodocus]

But that's how people speak.

[IndigoPrime]

This is true. Hmm. So as long as the comics don't state "could of" and the Doctor doesn't herself write it down in that form, this would be acceptable. I CAN CARRY ON WATCHING AGAIN.

[M.I.K.]

No. It's "could've". I will never, NEVER accept "could of".  Completely nicking my early '80s childhood fashion sense is one thing, but this where I draw the line, goddamnit! Soddin' Gallifreyans... coming doon here in their stolen polisboxes, telling folk what to do...

[Eamonn Clarke]

Apart from Tim Shaw there were four main male characters including Rahul, the bereaved brother.
All of them did brave things, if anything you could argue they did scary things when they were scared which seems like the definition of courage to me.

I thought everybody was great and all in different ways.

And Jodie just is the Doctor.

[Richard]

In fairness, she's from Gallifrey so English isn't her first language. Also she couldn't even remember her own name at the time, so remembering English grammar was a tall order.

[Tjm86]

I'll need to see more before I can make my mind up, but the writing wasn't great on this one.

Aye, it's always hard to judge on the first post regeneration episode.  More and more now there needs to be the hamming up to emphasise the change then things settle a bit.  I don't recall that so much back in the day.  Ecclestone managed to avoid that particular pratfall but then again the rest of his season would not have been out of place on the deli counter in Tesco's (for me, anyway).

It were nowt adventurous in terms of scripting but serviceable all the same. 

In fairness, she's from Gallifrey so English isn't her first language. Also she couldn't even remember her own name at the time, so remembering English grammar was a tall order.

Hell, I'm from England (speak it quietly) but you've pretty accurately described me on a Friday night at times!  Struggle remembering my Grandma too!

[Daveycandlish]

I liked most of it and will continue to watch it.
If you didn't, well I'm sure your telly has other channels you can change to or even an off button you can press.
If you prefer 20th century Who, pop a dvd on.

Or is that all too sensible?

[Taryn Tailz]

The viewing figures seem extremely promising based on this report from the Doctor Who News site; the best the shows done in ten years in fact:

Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell to Earth was watched by 8.2 million viewers, a share of 40.1% of the total TV audience, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The audience grew throughout the episode, peaking at 8.52 million for the final fifteen minutes.

The rating makes Doctor Who the third highest rating of the week, just behind two editions of Strictly Come Dancing.

It is the highest overnight rating for the series for a regular episode for over ten years. The debut episode of the Twelfth Doctor, Deep Breath, had an overnight rating of 6.8 million viewers, while the debut episode of The Eleventh Doctor, The Eleventh Hour, had 7.7 million, with 0.3 million also watching on BBC HD, making a total of 8.0 million. The last regular episode to top this figure was Journey's End in 2008, with an overnight figure of 9.4 million.

[Bad City Blue]

Well I liked it, said Florence, hopefully.

At no point was the fact that a (gasp) woman was playing the lead over egged, and I thought she did a sterling job, as well as being hella cute (why has no one else mentioned this?)

There were narrative holes and errors but I am happy to accept this in a family SF show that is going for entertainment over being a nitpickers wasteland.

The supporting cast were excellent, and I loved the relationship between Gran/Grandad and grandson. It made the death all the more heartbreaking. Bradley Walsh was surprisingly good, as although he provides comic lines he has an actual personality as well.

the end theme music was good, but I thought the drums were too warlike and overdone. the background was very pertwee-like, so hopefully that will be the same when it is done at the beginning.

Overall a very, very satisfying start. Happy to hear Chibnall say that each episode will be standalone and we aren't being forced to try and understand a stupid, confusing arc or mysterious characters like fucking Clara, who i got well sick of.

No gay or lesbian references yet, so will wait for the continued outrage from sexist twats when that pops up.

[Richard]

All of Daveycandlish's alternative suggestions are perfectly sensible, but my preference would be to see a new Dr Who episode that takes full advantage of the show's unique premise.

Other Earth-based SF shows like Black Mirror are perfectly good too, but that isn't really the point -- they're entirely different shows which aren't about someone who has a TARDIS that can take them anywhere and anywhen.

Anyway, maybe next week will be better.

[Tiplodocus]

I enjoyed that.

Ticked all the boxes for me but not sure why I just thought it was just good rather than brilliant. Jodie was great and very Doctorish. And great cliffhanger.

The show looked gorgeous too; and it was set in Sheffield! How much must the sfx budget have been?.

I like the fact they seem to be keeping it an unashamedly family show (albeit a scary one on the basis of this episode). Much as I liked some of the arc storytelling, I felt it got too tied up in its own continuity and put our family off watching it.

I won't pretend to know who half of the guest stars listed at the end were but the Beeb obviously think they are worth shouting about. But Alan Cumming! Yay!

[Andy Lambert]

If you don't know who the guest cast are, this may help if you're so inclined to find out...
http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/cult/feature/g25501/doctor-who-season-11-cast-guest-stars/?

[von Boom]

I absolutely hate, hate, HATE the fact that I thought Bradley Walsh was pretty damn good in this. I wanted to be able to complain about him and make bad Corrie references. No luck there.

Jodie Whitaker was great, but then I knew she would be. The story was one of the darkest in ages and the random deaths to show how twisted Tim Shaw is worked for me. What else would you expect from Chris Chibnall?

Whitaker is more upbeat than Capaldi, but not as mad as Smith. I like the direction it's taking so far.

I am worried, unnecessarily I hope, about the fact that she said she was looking for 'a doctor'. In the wrong hands this could be used to create a plotline that erases Whitaker as the Doctor. I'm sure it won't come to that. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

[Richard]

Thanks Andy, I'm rather encouraged by that article.

[Andy Lambert]

Happy to oblige 😊