Doctor Who Series 11 Discussion

[Jim_Campbell]

This. The stories were awful. Example: why was the Dalek in three pieces, not one? I guess script editors aren't used any more

I have grave misgivings about Chibnall. Quite apart from his apparent inability to get eleven episodes of a TV series made within a year, when you get handed a flagship BBC show with a huge global audience and the best you can come up with for your fourth episode is "giant spiders because something something toxic waste" it strongly suggests you're not really trying.

[broodblik]

They must at least try to get  Steven Moffat back on writing duties

[IndigoPrime]

The rumour is he hates sci-fi, which makes him an odd choice for showrunner. I think the Doc is fine, although they can't figure out what really defines her. The gang is OK but not fleshed out and is frequently underused. (How many remember that one is a cop? Not many, I'd wager.)

I imagine one more series and it'll be all change, and Chibbers will have fucked the idea of a woman as the Doctor for a generation. Or possibly the series as a whole, with it going into hiatus.

That all said, as I've complained about before, and as others have said recently, the main failing in Doctor Who – which goes back to RTD's run, and is commonplace on a lot of modern telly – is the lack of a script editor with serious power. The showrunner should be about tone, overall direction, and basic plotting. The script editor should have the power to rewrite everything to make it better and coherent. That clearly isn't happening here.

[Jim_Campbell]

Or possibly the series as a whole, with it going into hiatus.

I think the lack of a reliable annual schedule is going to be a problem. It's not exactly Game of Thrones, so the idea that it's impossible to produce eleven episodes in under a year is perplexing and robs the show of momentum. If people get out of the habit of watching, you have to fight to get them back.

[IndigoPrime]

It's well known senior BBC figures used to hate the show, and did their best to kill it. Rumours are that attitude hasn't really changed. If you were trying to destroy the show, how would you be going about things any differently than they are right now? This is a show where you should be doing ten 40-minute episodes a year, like clockwork. This whole "well, fuck it – we'll do some more Who at some point" approach is nuts.

Still, at least we got a new theme tune, and someone who knows how to mix audio. So that's, er, something.

[broodblik]

If seniors at BBC do not like or do not believe in the show, why make it ? So the idea is to make a rubbish show and when it does not work you tell people I told you so. This just is so illogical

[IndigoPrime]

Given what I've heard here and there about the inner workings of the BBC, "dysfunctional" doesn't really seem to cut it. Bear in mind this was the corporation that wanted at one point to axe 6Music, on the basis of "competition", when 6Music's actual closest competitors were begging the BBC not to, because they couldn't cover even a fraction of the music the BBC's station did.

[broodblik]

Public broadcasters are mostly run by old-farts with really primitive ideas and concepts of life.

[Jim_Campbell]

Twitter awash with rumours today that Chibnall has been sacked and Whitaker has walked in protest. Some talk of a press release from the BBC later this afternoon...

[Leigh S]

I was no great fan of Chibnall - thought his stuff prior to taking over was dismal aping of the worst aspects of RTD (and I was no huge fan of RTD for the most part!).  In many regards I was impressed beyond my admittedly low expectations by series 11 - it was variable, but they all ahve been - it had one too many companions (Ryan specifically, who acting style rarely rose above comatose)

On the plus side it ditched all the mythic/epic/mystery! that Moffatt used instead of actual stories and felt more like classic Who than it ever did, for good or ill.  That's not to say it couldnt have been a lot better, but in comparison to what came before it, it felt fresh - if not the "right" direction, nothing terribly wrong

Other than the Dalek one - that sucked etheric beam locators

[IndigoPrime]

Twitter awash with rumours today that Chibnall has been sacked and Whitaker has walked in protest. Some talk of a press release from the BBC later this afternoon...

If so, not a great move by Whitaker, frankly. Another Colin Baker moment?

[IndigoPrime]

Radio Times has planted its flag: https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-08-08/doctor-who-departure-rumours-branded-nonsense-by-insiders/

[Frank]

... the new rumours originated on a popular Doctor Who message-board

Hiya, Scojo!

[Tjm86]

Twitter awash with rumours today that Chibnall has been sacked and Whitaker has walked in protest. Some talk of a press release from the BBC later this afternoon...

... and a couple of days later the number of credible sources available in support of the rumour?

This is what concerns me more than anything else at present, the fact that we are even giving credence to the prognostications and comments of anyone who summons up the 'courage' to sit in front of a web camera.  This is just some story about a fantasy television program.  What happens when some lunatic decides to make up stories about paedophile rings based from a pizza parlour (oh sh**!)?

[Hawkmumbler]

Well it's caused B*wlstr**k to appear in my algorithmic recommendations anyway.

Bollocks to that.