The Doctor Who thread

[GoktimusPrime]

*spoilers ahead*






Things I liked about tonight's episode:
* Lots of plot twists and turns! Pretty cool seeing Davros and the Doctor playing their own psychological chess game with each other.
* The concept of the Dalek Sewer was also pretty interesting too.
* Missy explaining that the Dalek word for 'sewer' and 'graveyard' are synonymous. This continues to remind the audience that the Daleks are an alien race, and that they're actually speaking their own language which we hear as English via the Tardis' translation matrix.
* Seeing how a Dalek Travel Machine is operated.
* This happened last ep too, but I think this is the first time we've seen a Special Weapons Dalek speak, showing the entire dome circumference light up instead of just the tip of the eye stalk (which Special Weapons Daleks don't have). Made it look like a walking heater though. :p
* The Doctor refusing to kill or save Missy.
* The conclusion, for two reasons. Firstly, it meant that the Doctor stayed in character as the compassionate altruist. Secondly, it does continue to affirm that the Doctor cannot change significant moments in history, as previously demonstrated when Rose Tyler tried to prevent her father's death (causing Reapers to appear in order to sterilise the time paradox) and when the Tenth Doctor attempted to save Dr Adelaide Brooke (only to have events reassert themselves when Dr. Brooke committed suicide shortly after being saved by the Doctor). There may be other eps which also demonstrate this, but those are all I can think of for now. :o

Things that I wasn't so fond of...
* The Doctor's mysteriously appearing cup of tea. It felt like Moffat really rubbing in the fact that he can just make random crap happen for no rhyme or reason and that we should just shut up and accept it. Just replace the word "Doctor" with "Batman." :p
* Deus ex solis perspicillum (http://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/310961465707-0-1/s-l1000.jpg). :rolleyes:

[PROVOST]

Yeah,enjoyed these first two episodes more than any of Capaldi's cept maybe the Robin Hood one last season.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I thought it was a very good kick off to the new season - sets a very full-on tone :)

[Handsprime]

I'm just gonna say this:

https://i.imgur.com/XeLHoKd.png

The Doctor, playing guitar while on a tank and rocking the sunglasses is the most epic thing I have ever witnessed in Doctor Who.

[jazzcomp]

Can't say I'm a fan of the glasses replacing the screwdriver.

[Handsprime]

Can't say I'm a fan of the glasses replacing the screwdriver.

Let's wait and see what happens.

[Seraphim Prime]

I'm just gonna say this:

https://i.imgur.com/XeLHoKd.png

The Doctor, playing guitar while on a tank and rocking the sunglasses is the most epic thing I have ever witnessed in Doctor Who.

And that was actually Capaldi playing!

[Burn]

This weeks episode was one of the best I've seen in a while. Mystery, suspense, and a cliff-hanger! (Though next weeks trailer kinda ruins the cliff-hanger)

[SMHFConvoy]

This weeks episode was one of the best I've seen in a while. Mystery, suspense, and a cliff-hanger! (Though next weeks trailer kinda ruins the cliff-hanger)

+1 Moffat needs to not write Who episodes anymore

[Handsprime]

This weeks episode was one of the best I've seen in a while. Mystery, suspense, and a cliff-hanger! (Though next weeks trailer kinda ruins the cliff-hanger)

I didn't see next weeks trailer so I'm glad I didn't get next weeks episode spoiled for me

[griffin]

The trailer was after the credits, which they sometimes do when it gives away something from the cliffhanger. (or they are doing it with every episode this season, as it used to be before the credits)
I didn't see anything in the trailer to spoil how it happened. (I might have missed it though... but I'm not going to rewatch the trailer to find out. :p )

[Handsprime]

The trailer was after the credits, which they sometimes do when it gives away something from the cliffhanger. (or they are doing it with every episode this season, as it used to be before the credits)
I didn't see anything in the trailer to spoil how it happened. (I might have missed it though... but I'm not going to rewatch the trailer to find out. :p )

Nah last weeks episode had the trailer before the credits. They might only put it after the credits if the episode ends in a cliffhanger

[SMHFConvoy]

Latest episode was so boring. Why am I still watching this show

[Handsprime]

And now for my thoughts of the latest episode (be warned, spoilers)

In contrast to the previous episodes of the season, this is one of the 2 episodes not to be a 2-parter (with next weeks episode also not being a 2-parter), but despite this, the episode still ends with a bit of a cliffhanger. What were those sandmen? Will we ever see them again? What is up with the twist ending and what do you mean this wasn't real?
I am a little bit confused as to what the monsters are, but hopefully we'll learn latter in the series.

[GoktimusPrime]

I found this week's episode to be rather daft. The basic premise was just too much for me to suspend disbelief. I actually quite liked the recent two-parter about the Zygons, even if the allegory was rather forced. The Goodwin box ending was pretty awesome IMHO. But yeah, this week's episode felt like a massive let down after that.

I think the only logical way to explain the plot would be...
Pulvis ex oculī! "Dust in the eyes" :p
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/meme_wizard_zpsquqhafwu.jpg

[Golden Phoenix]

You know what I feel is missing from this season? I major sub-plot connecting the episodes.

Like there isn't a big bad of the season pulling the strings. They are just a bunch of individual stories that just happen for some reason.

[Paulbot]

According to a theory there is a subplot but it's pretty spoilery so I'm just waiting to see how it plays out.

This weeks ep was weird though and breaking the pattern of two parters was an odd choice I do wonder if it will turn out, somehow, to be a part one after next week's episode after all.

[GoktimusPrime]

I do not miss the over arcing sub plot thing. Nope, don't miss it. At least, not an overt arcing sub plot.

[griffin]

Considering most of the stories this season has loose ends, there is certainly material to fall back on in the climax at the end of the season.
We have the immortal girl, the sandmen, the Zygons, Missy, and the ghosts in the Faraday cage.... all still floating around in the background somewhere, and all feeling unresolved.

Only three episodes left of the season, and the last two are supposed to be a 2-parter... so whatever they do it had better make sense.

[Burn]

We have the immortal girl, the sandmen, the Zygons, Missy, and the ghosts in the Faraday cage.... all still floating around in the background somewhere, and all feeling unresolved.

Ashildr is back for the next two weeks, this will also be time to say goodbye to Jenna! :D
(Although she's been a LOT less annoying this season)

There's also something from the first two episodes which, if I read the synopses correctly, should tie into the final two episodes.

[griffin]

Ashildr is back for the next two weeks, this will also be time to say goodbye to Jenna! :D


I saw that on the wiki page, and I don't know if it is common knowledge, but I didn't want to mention it in case it was a spoiler.

[GoktimusPrime]

I didn't know! Didn't want to know! :(

[jazzcomp]

Clara dying just like that was pffft... :confused:

[Handsprime]

Good Clara is dead, never really liked her. I prefer Amy Pond she was way way better.

[griffin]

That was probably the most boring episode ever... I actually fast-forwarded some bits. 45 minutes of pretty much just him walking around talking to himself, which didn't need all that time for the payoff in the last 2 minutes. It made the latter 6th doctor stories masterpieces in comparison.

The 30 second preview for next week was more exciting... and some of that story should have been part of this episode - like after 25 minutes of monotonous rambling.


When Capaldi does voice over talking, he sounds just like Tom Baker (to me).

[snaketales]

YAYYY Underwater Menace was released this week in Australia!

[CBratron]

...pretty much just him walking around talking to himself,

Walking and talking describes most of the current season. The occasional speech punctuates the climax of each episode and I appreciate how an older Capaldi adds much needed gravitas to the character but I miss the action. I miss the mania of Eccleston and alien chases.

[GoktimusPrime]

Tedious. That's pretty much the word I'd use to sum up this rather lacklustre season of Doctor Who. :rolleyes: I find myself watching each new ep out of obligation rather than anticipation now.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/ultramagnus_bored_zps6g15ld3x.gif

[Paulbot]

The finale was great. Watched it twice today, iview when I got up and on TV tonight. Few more things noticed on a second viewing. Happy with the conclusion although its a bit sad, like how it played with expectations a lot. Weekest part was not naming a certain character earlier on but that was something else not too bad on second viewing. Also backed up my thought a few weeks ago about not taking everything you see as conclusive when theres more eps to go! The rumour I most liked seemed not to be true after all but I can see how the season was building up to a certain conclusion. Wouldn't mind more stand alone eps next season.

Fast forwarding parts of last week's episode? Thought it was great to see the shjow do something different. Although it reminded me a bit of the game ICO in parts.

[CBratron]

The finale was excellent. That gravitas I mentioned earlier was here in full force.
Was there a preview of the Christmas Special afterwards? I think I missed it.

[griffin]

Yes, after the credits. But there should be 2 repeats this week for u to just record the end.

[CBratron]

I've been watching it on ABC's iView.

[CHILENO20]

New Sonic!!!! Looks cool!

[griffin]

The featured guest in the Christmas Special should bring some fun back to the show, as this Doctor is a little too depressive/serious/mopey.

[CBratron]

And possible spin-off/sideplot with two immortal humans and their time travelling diner.

[griffin]

SPOILERS
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/spoilers.gif



So does that mean Clara is like a Clone?

A "second" of her life was removed and put on a timeloop "between heartbeats", which allows the rest of her to die as normal without causing a contradiction (if she was completely removed, she wouldn't be killed in the trap street, and the Doctor wouldn't be on a quest for vengeance, or demand to have her removed before she dies).

The inclusion of Rassilon was short and almost unnecessary, and suddenly he was gone from the story. He's like the Primus of Transformers (without the insanity element), as he created the Timelords, and then he just walks off because he is told to by the Doctor. Whatever.

[jazzcomp]

They just made Clara immortal and I don't know how the previews with River tie in. You're right, whatever. :)

[jazzcomp]

New Sonic!!!! Looks cool!
Nope, I don't think it's cool. Touching the new sonic has to make a sound so that people think it does something. For me, it's more of a throwback of the original sonic screwdriver. Just pretending something has more technology in it.

At least the screwdriver was a tool and it extends and lights up with the sound. This does what? :)

[CBratron]

Clara is a paradox waiting to happen hence the fears of fracturing time and probably why the protocols for the extraction room are so strict.

[Paulbot]

SPOILERS
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/spoilers.gif



So does that mean Clara is like a Clone?

A "second" of her life was removed and put on a timeloop "between heartbeats", which allows the rest of her to die as normal without causing a contradiction (if she was completely removed, she wouldn't be killed in the trap street, and the Doctor wouldn't be on a quest for vengeance, or demand to have her removed before she dies).

The inclusion of Rassilon was short and almost unnecessary, and suddenly he was gone from the story. He's like the Primus of Transformers (without the insanity element), as he created the Timelords, and then he just walks off because he is told to by the Doctor. Whatever.

No, not like a clone. As they explained in the episode it is her taken out of her time stream at the last possible moment. She still has to go back because her death is a fixed point in time but she's in no hurry. There's at least another example of this in fiction that's nagging at my memory but I can't quite place an exact example.

She's finished her story arc of becoming more and more like the doctor by stealing a Tardis and running off through space and time with a companion. It's a nice way to go out. I wondered if her new status quo provided a more straight forward way for her to become the Impossible Girl. She can travel through space and time and cross paths with the Doctor many times over. Oswin Oswald and Clara Oswin Oswald though both seem to be their own people so maybe not.

I'm also curious about the end of the universe. We've got Me hanging out in the ruins of Gallifrey. We've got Professor Yana helping to build a rocket to take surviving humans to Utopia. We've got some... thing... outside knocking on Orson Pink's door. Was that Me? I've always assumed the Doctor took the Master's body back to Prof Yana's planet to bury him at the end of season three, at the end of time, so the woman taking the ring? Who's never been explicitly identified? Was that Clara and/or Me? The Master had to come back in order for him to connect Clara and the Doctor. Were they maybe doing some predestination time loop stuff?

Rassilon didn't quite "just walk off". There was a military coup. A bloodless one, but for sure the military turned on their leadership. I just thought it a shame that since he had regenerated since his last appearance in Ten's last story, I didn't recognise it was meant to be Rassilon until he left.

[jazzcomp]

What's the difference between Capn Jack and Clara? They're both fixed points in time. One is allowed to be immortal, the other results in the destruction of the universe :)

[Handsprime]

What's the difference between Capn Jack and Clara? They're both fixed points in time. One is allowed to be immortal, the other results in the destruction of the universe :)

SPOILERS
Clara has to return back to gallerfray (I know I mispelled it I never payed attention to how you spell it), but she is in a state where she won't age so as long as she doesn't accidentally kill herself, she'll eventually have to return to face her doom, which would be her death. Captain Jack? Not too certain he's immortal and that's all I know

[GoktimusPrime]

Don't forget the Face of Bo. ;)

Also, it's "Gallifrey."

[UltraMarginal]

I've quite enjoyed this season, I think one of the strengths of Dr Who is that you can have one episode that is a slower pace and full of mystery, the next is fast paced and explosive and the next is something else again, probably scary.

I have found Capaldi to be a refreshing change for the Doctor as well.

it's interesting that they have finally given Me a peer to travel through time with. I expect we'll be seeing more of them.

I'm always excited for the Christmas special but I really can't stand that British comedian that they seem to have picked to feature in this next one.

[griffin]

No, not like a clone. As they explained in the episode it is her taken out of her time stream at the last possible moment. She still has to go back because her death is a fixed point in time but she's in no hurry. There's at least another example of this in fiction that's nagging at my memory but I can't quite place an exact example.

Would you be thinking of the Angels of New York, which was a bit of a confusing story about the mess of temporal contradictions. Or one of the many times the Doctor has pre-planted something, or himself (like in the underwater ghosts episode this season), to be in the right place when him or other people need it during the "present" time of the episode's plot.


I just think that for Clara, if she was completely removed from Trap Street, and the actress has left the series, it's a big loose end to just hope gets resolved some time down the track. (considering past companions return for guest spots, it's more than likely she will return in some future episodes... unless she's like Eccleston and refuses to ever go back to DW)
We'll see I guess.

[Paulbot]

She's only removed from Trap Street for a moment, the time between heartbeats. No matter what adventures Clara has, she goes back to Gallifrey and gets sent back to Trap Street to fall down dead, because we've seen that as a fixed point in time. It's a nice way to allow limitless comic stories and audio-dramas with Clara and Me adventures (where it doesn't matter how old the actresses playing the immortal unageing characters look).

As an aside, there's new 'missing' Ten and Donna adventures coming out in the audio-drama series with both David Tennant and Catherine Tate returning, that I'm very interested in checking out.

[GoktimusPrime]

Looks like Capaldi's going to be calling it quits.
http://screenrant.com/doctor-who-season-10-capaldi-final-year/

[SMHFConvoy]

Looks like Capaldi's going to be calling it quits.
http://screenrant.com/doctor-who-season-10-capaldi-final-year/

Which is a shame, Capaldi was wasted by Moffatt

[CBratron]

Christmas Special on boxing day. So exciting:)

[CBratron]

The 'Finally' moment was good.

edit the rest was pretty good the kind of stuff you'd expect from Moffat when he was a writer.

[CBratron]

http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/report-moffat-leaving-doctor-who-chris-chibnall-new-showrunner-79586.htm

Moffat quits and there won't be any new episodes until 2017:(

[Paulbot]

So it turns out classic TF artist Andrew Wildman has worked on the Doctor Who TV series, including doing storyboards for Day Of The Doctor (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01nhdbj/p01nhcvy) that have recently been making the news rounds because they depict Christopher Eccleston's Doctor taking part in the story (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/02/02/how-doctor-whos-50th-anniversary-looked-when-christopher-eccleston-was-still-in-it-and-billie-piper-wasnt/).

[griffin]

For a bit of "new classic" Doctor Who, ABC2 (channel 22) is playing the Eccleston Doctor episodes from tonight at 7.30pm, and looks to be weeknights from then on.
I wonder if they'll go through the entire new series run, as that should take a few months to do now, with nine seasons of episodes to screen.

[jazzcomp]

Yeah, saw it tonight. :) He's the first doctor I watched.

[GoktimusPrime]

Huh... just realised that the High Gallifreyan language lacks the "soft ch" (tʃ) consonant (e.g. chin, church, witch etc.). They only have the "hard ch," which is more like /k/ (e.g. stomachache, choir, chemistry etc.). It'd be interesting to hear how a Time Lord's accent would sound like without the Tardis' Translation Matrix around. We know that Gallifreyans have different accents, as the Ninth Doctor implied that he speaks with a Northern Gallifreyan accent, which the Translation Matrix renders as a Northern English accent to English speakers like Rose Tyler etc. And presumably all the other accents that we hear in the Doctor's other incarnations must be approximations made by the Tardis to whatever their equivalent Gallifreyan accents would be. I guess the Twelfth Doctor must speak with something equivalent to a Scottish accent. :o <shrugs>

[Paulbot]

The new spin off Class premiered this week on ABC2.

I'd seen some reviewers say it "is aimed at a younger audience" but it seems to be a comment made by people who don't know what they are talking about and think Doctor Who is aimed at an older audience than they think.

Because based on those commentsI had assumed it would be somewhere closer to Sarah Jane Adventures a show that I quite enjoyed (although the introduction of Sky in the last season was a worry) but no it's no SJA!

Mild Spoilers follow It was actually surprisingly violent. Rated M on ABC2 there is much more blood than the average Doctor Who episode. I think - it's possible I just noticed it more as I expected this to be a "kids show", but in the two episodes they've shown so far one character has been splattered in the face with human blood several times, there's been limbs cut off of school kids, and humans skinned with gory remains to be seen. Pretty sure this sort of stuff is more implied in Doctor Who.

The first two episodes were alright and I'm going to stick with it. They knowingly reference that the premise is familiar (they are literally at a high school on a hellmouth by another name) but at least seem to be doing something different with it. Their Giles is the anti-Giles and so far the most entertaining character.

[griffin]

The new spin off Class premiered this week on ABC2.

I'd seen some reviewers say it "is aimed at a younger audience" but it seems to be a comment made by people who don't know what they are talking about and think Doctor Who is aimed at an older audience than they think.

Because based on those commentsI had assumed it would be somewhere closer to Sarah Jane Adventures a show that I quite enjoyed (although the introduction of Sky in the last season was a worry) but no it's no SJA!

Mild Spoilers follow It was actually surprisingly violent. Rated M on ABC2 there is much more blood than the average Doctor Who episode. I think - it's possible I just noticed it more as I expected this to be a "kids show", but in the two episodes they've shown so far one character has been splattered in the face with human blood several times, there's been limbs cut off of school kids, and humans skinned with gory remains to be seen. Pretty sure this sort of stuff is more implied in Doctor Who.

The first two episodes were alright and I'm going to stick with it. They knowingly reference that the premise is familiar (they are literally at a high school on a hellmouth by another name) but at least seem to be doing something different with it. Their Giles is the anti-Giles and so far the most entertaining character.

I came across the last few minutes of the second episode the other night while channel surfing, and I had no idea it was part of the Dr Who universe, but the film styling and special effects actually gave me a feel of a Dr Who episode... and the name of the school sounded really familiar (Coal Hill... which was the school featured a few times on Dr Who).

I might have to catch it in future, and I see that the Doctor makes a guest appearance (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_(2016_TV_series)).... and the cast of this show is likely to show up on Dr Who eventually like all the other spin-off shows.

[Paulbot]

Yep it's the same school although it's been "refurbished" since Clara taught there and become an "Academy" (which is apparently something happening to high schools in Britain).

It doesn't take too long in the first episode for the TARDIS to appear, it's key to the origin of some characters.

[SMHFConvoy]

Just watched the 1st three episodes on iview.

It's okay, very YA feel to it

[GoktimusPrime]

John Hurt, who among other roles also played the War Doctor, has passed away. :( Vale.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-28/john-hurt-dies-aged-77/8219862

[CHILENO20]

Don't say I didn't warn you:

http://www.superherohype.com/news/389811-peter-capaldi-doctor-who#/slide/1

Looks like we'll be getting a new Doctor soon

[GoktimusPrime]

Considering that he got no work from this show for a year, I can't say I blame him.

[GoktimusPrime]

I'm just gonna leave this here... ;)
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/doctorwho_tildaswinton_zpstj1dhkvj.jpg (http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/tilda-swinton-is-favourite-to-become-the-next-doctor-who-20170217-guf82k.html)

[GoktimusPrime]

Never noticed this before... David TENnant.

[Paulbot]

Never noticed this before... David TENnant.

And Matt SmiELEVENth

Rumour is going around that Class has been cancelled after the first season, which would be a shame. I'd like to see more.

[GoktimusPrime]

Just to be silly here...

William Hartonell
Patrick Twoughton
Jon Perthree
Tom Quarter
Peter Fiveson
Colin Sixer
Sevenster McCoy
Paul McEight
War Hurt
Christopher Ecclesnine
David Tennant
Matt Smeleventh
Peter Twelvaldi

[griffin]

Mark the date - Sunday April 16th is the start of the new season of Doctor Who, and should be the last season with Peter Capaldi.
There also appears to be a discussion show after each episode on the ABC that night, with Rove McManus... according to a commercial I saw the other night, but I'm not too sure about the details.

[M-bot]

It's probably been posted before - or people have already seen it - but I found this interesting - Dr Who recast if it was an American show rather than a British one... https://www.buzzfeed.com/newu456/what-if-doctor-who-was-american-5pxx?utm_term=.xxvEQ2pMP#.owVN609yP

[GoktimusPrime]

New Doctor Who series started airing while I was in Japan, so I'm now playing catch up. Just finished watching Episode 1 ("Pilot") on ABC iView.

[liegeprime]

Yup, saw it , good thing I was day off that day. Interesting new companions.

[GoktimusPrime]

Who do you think is in the vault?

My current suspicion is on Missy/the Master.

[Polursine]

Who do you think is in the vault?

My current suspicion is on Missy/the Master.

My theory is the Master is in there, to prevent him from interacting with Missy. Lord knows we've seen many Doctors together, but never more than one Master.

[GoktimusPrime]

Well, now we know who's in the vault. :o

Question: How come the Tardis' translation matrix was unable to translate Italian? Even if the Tardis was a simulacrum I'm assuming that it still would've had all of its regular functions including translation. And if not, why wouldn't that tip Nadole and the Doctor off that there was something wrong? :confused:

Mind you, this wouldn't be the first time that the Doctor has encountered a foreign language where he needed interpreting. There was one episode where the 5th Doctor encountered a robot who spoke Indigenous Australian and he needed Tegan to translate for him.

[Polursine]

Wasnt super happy with the vault reveal.
If she remained "dead" i would be curious as to how she was alive inside it but..

As for the translation; noticed it too. Perhaps the tardis doesnt if there's a translator already around?

[Seraphim Prime]

I haven't been through too much Who-story (sorry, couldn't resist) but perhaps it doesn't translate ceremonial language.

[griffin]

Once again, The Master/Missy just shows up alive, without any (plausible) explanation... yet (but I doubt they will, or even explain how she was captured... which rarely happens).

Only episode 6... and he's blind. I really hope they don't keep that going for the rest of the season, unless we are already at the end of the season, as they appear to have now revealed the major elements and characters of this season's story arc.

[GoktimusPrime]

Ecclesiastical Latin isn't hard to translate. It's basically simplified Vulgar Latin with Italianised phonology. But he was speaking Italian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjYxwo0GcpM

Translation: "What's happening? Who are you two girls? How did I arrive in this house? I thought I was back in Vatican! This is madness! Doctor, why did you bring me here?"

[GoktimusPrime]

I don't know what it is about this current Doctor Who series but I'm just not feeling it. :/

[snaketales]

That's not the first Doctor..... :p

[griffin]

According to the BBC (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ff-6Sn1Od8), we get to find out who the "13th" Doctor is, after the Wimbledon Mens Final later today.
We won't get to see their first episode until Christmas, but this gets ahead of any leaks once filming of their scenes begins.

[griffin]

Well... it's a girl.
I guess once the Master changed genders it was inevitable... I was just never a fan of that new era concept of changing genders with a regeneration.
It should be interesting though as it will give a whole new dynamic to the character, it's relationships with others, and how situations are dealt with.

[SMHFConvoy]

Well... it's a girl.

Come on mate, she's a woman.

[jazzcomp]

I wonder if she'll be like Tennant and have love interests with the opposite gender. :D Or she'll be like Katie Perry :D (too much for TV).

[Handsprime]

If she's another Clara I would complain

[griffin]

The youtube video announcement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-_bSdWEYK8).


Come on mate, she's a woman.

I was trying to do it like announcing a new born... congratulations, it's a girl... but it didn't really work. :o


I wonder if she'll be like Tennant and have love interests with the opposite gender. :D Or she'll be like Katie Perry :D (too much for TV).

I think the writers won't be able to resist looking at some old relationships under the new gender dynamic, as there have been quite a few openly gay and lesbian characters in Dr Who, Torchwood and Class (which had an actual gay sex scene), and this would technically be the first transgender character as well.
Alex Kingston seems to be happy with the news (https://youtu.be/JZTSEKPumEY?t=1m9s), so even though last year's Christmas Story was supposed to be their last time together, I think the writers would love to see how River would treat her husband, errr, wife.

[Burn]

I'm not happy they've chosen to do this.

What's the point of it? Because they can?

My biggest reason for not liking this is simple. I'm tired of gender and/or race swapping. It's pure laziness.

I've read so many comments online today, how great it is, how it's another step for women.

You know what was a big step for female actors? When they created Romana. She was The Doctors equal. The writers created a whole new character. And she was great.

And when they wanted to change The Master up, they didn't swap his gender, they created a new character, The Rani.

Imagine the outcry if they brought Romana back, not as Romana, but a male called Roman.

Somewhere along the way DW lost it's originality and pioneering. It's become less sci-fi and more social statement. The declining ratings demonstrate that many people aren't impressed.

I won't stop watching, I'll gladly give the next season a watch, and I have faith that they've cast well, what I REALLY hope though is they give her great stories. Less social statement, more sci-fi.

[SMHFConvoy]

So Burn, you're basically this guy:

Grown man outraged at lack of continuity in children’s show about phone-booth driving space detective (http://www.chaser.com.au/entertainment/grown-man-outraged-at-lack-of-continuity-in-childrens-show-about-phone-booth-driving-space-detective/#CEeQd9O8IpqIpWy3.99)

[griffin]

As a classic DW fan, I'm not crazy about the gender change either, but expected it as the calls for it were growing louder and louder in the last few years. (especially after the Master changed gender)
And the new era DW has been breaking so many bounderies and bringing in a lot of radical new concepts that the classic era would never have done (like allowing for wholesale deaths of innocents, just to be more "realistic"... but this is science FICTION - it was great because it wasn't real with including excessive killing, or torment and pain of named/known characters being killed off every episode).

Dr Who was something kids like me (and the generation before) would watch and be inspired to solve problems and use imagination, particularly if you lacked the physical aptitudes of your peers who treated you differently because of your intellect... it was an escape to feel like you related to a hero that was also intellectual. With the new era of DW dealing with gay (and now transgender) issues, it could give those people a hero to relate to as well.

This is something new, that I think fits in with the new era philosophy of DW, and as such, I'm willing to see how it will turn out.
If it doesn't appeal or work out, there is still 54 years of DW for those fans who don't like it, to fall back on.

And if they didn't do it eventually, the vocal elements of the fandom and clickbait media will keep badgering the writers and BBC until they do.

[yoshi594]

So Burn, you're basically this guy:

Grown man outraged at lack of continuity in children’s show about phone-booth driving space detective (http://www.chaser.com.au/entertainment/grown-man-outraged-at-lack-of-continuity-in-childrens-show-about-phone-booth-driving-space-detective/#CEeQd9O8IpqIpWy3.99)

doesn't that also sum up all the haters of the bayverse movies :)?

either way doctor who isn't just for kids...just like this forum isn't just for kids (look at the subject matter haha).

I dont' watch doctor who...but doing stuff like this hurts the product. Look at marvel and how well their social pandering is doing for their sales.

https://thefederalist.com/2017/04/25/yes-marvel-comics-going-full-identity-politics-hurting-sales/

You can watch the guy below go thru the comics, give his view about it and he'll rip them up at the end if they deserve it ;).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBJON9uZ_Kg





And if they didn't do it eventually, the vocal elements of the fandom and clickbait media will keep badgering the writers and BBC until they do.

diversity works if it's done right, but these days it's just shoehorned without much care.

Jodie Whitaker is a pretty class act thou, so i'm hoping the script is good, if it is, i may even dabble in some doctor who, then watch the 10th doctor for Karen Gillan :D.

[Trent]

I'm not happy they've chosen to do this.

What's the point of it? Because they can?

My biggest reason for not liking this is simple. I'm tired of gender and/or race swapping. It's pure laziness.

I've read so many comments online today, how great it is, how it's another step for women.

You know what was a big step for female actors? When they created Romana. She was The Doctors equal. The writers created a whole new character. And she was great.

And when they wanted to change The Master up, they didn't swap his gender, they created a new character, The Rani.

Imagine the outcry if they brought Romana back, not as Romana, but a male called Roman.

Somewhere along the way DW lost it's originality and pioneering. It's become less sci-fi and more social statement. The declining ratings demonstrate that many people aren't impressed.

I won't stop watching, I'll gladly give the next season a watch, and I have faith that they've cast well, what I REALLY hope though is they give her great stories. Less social statement, more sci-fi.

So they made a good choice, but you're not happy with it?

[Lord_Zed]

I don't see what the issue is, or why people would think this is shoehorned in. I like Peter Capaldi and most of the previous doctors enough, but after over a decade of the modern Dr Who a lot of episodes are starting to get repetitive and dull. Recasting the Master was the best part of the last two seasons for me. The Doctor's been a collection of English white dudes from young to old time for something a bit different.

I recall talking to a female Dr Who fan about the time Matt Smith was cast, and the subject of the Doctor ever being a Woman or black came up, she didn't think it was possible that a woman would ever play the Doctor, but there you go.

Personally I wanted Richard Ayoade to be Dr Who.

[SMHFConvoy]

doesn't that also sum up all the haters of the bayverse movies :)?

either way doctor who isn't just for kids...just like this forum isn't just for kids (look at the subject matter haha).

Agreed, just because it's a kids show doesn't mean it can't be appreciated by older people, it doesn't stop me, a 40yo watching it. The idea of a female Doctor isn't new, the idea was floated when Tom Baker was leaving.

Doctor Who isn't a flipping religion it's a flipping intellectual property and if the BBC wants to change something that it owns then so be it. I'll still watch it, Broadchurch is f*cking brilliant, Doctor Who is in safe hands.

[jazzcomp]

I think some fans (many/few) have dropped a bit with Capaldi (older doctor and running) :D. Let's see how they can keep the fans with the gender change.

I admit I'm new to Dr Who and started watching with the 9th Doctor so I'm not the targetted audience for this issue.

[Megatran]

An ABC tv newsreader/presenter pulled out all stops to give the:
Knock, knock
Who's there?
Doctor

Well you know how it ends.

[MV75]

An ABC tv newsreader/presenter pulled out all stops to give the:
Knock, knock
Who's there?
Doctor

Well you know how it ends.

Oh Doctor Allistair, good timing, and thank you for coming at such short notice!

That was it wasn't it?

As for this whole thing, just like everything else these days, it would be better if they didn't make such a big deal about the gender. The next doctor is a woman! Really? The doctor is the doctor, grow up. Damn progressive society has progressed back to segregation days. It's such a social middle finger outrage to see a woman! Oh noes! take that imaginary foes! It's a statement, that no one would really care about if it wasn't being used as some sort of weapon.

Noone gave a flying frig that Ripley is a woman. The strongest female example that no one knew about, but they watched many times.

[Burn]

So Burn, you're basically this guy:

Grown man outraged at lack of continuity in children’s show about phone-booth driving space detective (http://www.chaser.com.au/entertainment/grown-man-outraged-at-lack-of-continuity-in-childrens-show-about-phone-booth-driving-space-detective/#CEeQd9O8IpqIpWy3.99)

Not at all. I didn't react with anger. I reacted with disappointment. In fact, I find the insinuation quite insulting.

It's been a few days since the announcement and I've read many, MANY comments across various websites.

That link you shared? That's been the common reaction to ANYONE who doesn't like the decision. All those comments I read, many people who disagreed with the decision stated their reasons in a diplomatic manner, both men and women, and the response 9 times out of 10 from those who support the decision was to insult and ridicule them.

I've come to terms with the casting, and yeah, I am interested to see how she turns out, there's a very good chance I'll enjoy it. But reading the comments, the insults, the slander, the general vitriol that's come from it, that's been the worst thing about this casting.

It's not BBC's fault, it's not Whittaker's fault, it's the fault of the fans who can't accept differing opinions.

And honestly, not even those who dislike Michael Bay have resorted to attacking their fellow fans like that!

[GoktimusPrime]

I'm totally cool with this. Kudos to the BBC for trying something different with the franchise, as opposed to Michael Bay who fails to give us anything new with the TF film franchise after 10 years. :rolleyes: Nothing ventured nothing gained.


doesn't that also sum up all the haters of the bayverse movies :)?
In the beginning perhaps. And in those early days I did defend the movie saying that just because it's different doesn't mean it's bad and that we should give the movie a chance before we judge it. And even to this day, none of my criticisms of Bayformers is due to, "Because it's different." I dislike Bayformers just because it's crap story-telling. I don't mind drastically different if it's good, e.g. Beast Wars. :D

I'm cool with the idea of the Doctor becoming female and I'm excited to see what it brings, but as with any new Doctor I'll reserve my final judgement until after I watched at least the first season. :)

[jazzcomp]

Let's wait for the ratings. :)

[GoktimusPrime]

From in universe POV when a Time Lord regenerates the body is basically rolling a bunch of dice in a genetic lottery for their next appearance. Hair colour, skin colour, gender, height, eye colour and even age (as they don't regenerate as newborns). As far as gender is concerned, it's as if their bodies are flipping a coin each time they regenerate. Imagine that it's head for male and tails for female. The Doctor has flipped "heads" fourteen times so far. Those are already incredibly amazing odds. The fact that s/he's scored "tails" on the fifteenth flip is hardly surprising. The coin toss was seriously looked rigged.

But the ethnic appearance one is even weirder. With gender you've got 1:2 odds, so as unlikely as it is, it's also more likely that you might get fourteen "heads." Of course, 'race' is more of a social construct and it's highly subjective as to how many 'races' exist, but just for the sake of this discussion, let's say there's 10 types:
01 White (e.g. Anglo-Celtic appearance)
02 Yellow (East Asian appearance)
03 Olive (Mediterranean appearance)
04 Brown (South Asian appearance)
05 Middle Eastern appearance
06 Black (African appearance)
07 Pacific Islander appearance
08 Indigenous Australian appearance
09 Native American appearance
10 Latin American appearance
This means that each time a Time Lord regenerates, s/he's rolling a 10 sided die. We've seen other characters like River Song and the General roll 1s and 2s. The Doctor has thus far only rolled all 1s. Take 1D10, roll it 15 times and see if you can get fifteen 1s in a row. Heck, try it with a 6-sided die if you don't have 1D10. Imagine playing Monopoly and rolling nothing but snake eyes! :D

I welcome more diversity for Time Lords simply because it mathematically makes more sense. :o

[Gouki]

The sexism is hilarious. It's sad, too. But, luckily, mostly hilarious. I thought a bunch of adults, that collect childrens toys would react more reasonably and for the most part, I was really impressed with this place and some others.

I'm super excited for Whittaker and can't wait to see what she does. The show and the role are in safe hands, I believe. Also had more people ask me about Doctor Who than I can ever remember being interested.

[Burn]

From in universe POV when a Time Lord regenerates the body is basically rolling a bunch of dice in a genetic lottery for their next appearance.
Gotta disagree.

Sixth Doctor stated that he chose his looks based on something he'd seen before (Colin Bakers previous appearance in the series) and if memory recalls, Capaldi's Doctor said something similar.

Plus The Curator (Tom Baker) said to 11 that he may find himself revisiting some old faces in the future.

So to me, that seems to indicate that they have SOME control. Just not when it comes to the ginger gene apparently. :p

[snaketales]

Today was the day I finished watching the classic series in chronological order (using recons with existing soundtracks where needed).
Some thoughts:
I still don't like the Second Doctor's stories. I'd go so far as to say season 6 was the worst to watch (although I blasted through the War Games). Season 22 was aesthetically bad but was entertaining to watch (like a car crash...)
Sixth Doctor wasn't as bad as I remembered him.
I think the show started losing it in season 19. Became more theatrical in set up eg lighting, acting. I think at this stage the program believed it was just enough to show up and wasn't trying as hard.
The Third Doctor's run started off well but at about his fourth season it seemed to start running out of puff.
The Doctor I want to go back ad rewatch is third season First Doctor. To my surprise I think he's edged out the Fourth Doctor as favourite.

I've already done Blakes 7 so the next series I'm planning to get through is the original Outer Limits.

[Demonac]

How long did it take you to go through? It took me a few years, as I didn't want to watch more than 1 or 2 episodes a day. The Outer Limits isn't very good unfortunately. If you haven't seen it already, might I suggest 'Twilight Zone' instead?

[UltraMarginal]

I've been enjoying Dr Who ever since it was re-started with Eccleson. when I was a kid I was never allowed to watch it as my mum thought it was too grown up.

I have to say, calling it a children's show is a bit much. It's damn terrifying at times and certainly broaches some dark concepts, most of the long term villains come to mind.

young teens perhaps.

I have quite enjoyed all the doctors, there was a while there where the need of every episode to be saving the galaxy/universe/reality as we know it was getting a bit stale. I prefer the self contained episodes where the doctor and co are saving a few people in isolation that would have otherwise died if not for his/her intervention. that those episodes then gradually crescendo into a larger scope finale with unseen tie ins I really like. some seasons have don e this better than other.

I noticed a tweet the other day, they've announced a whole bunch of companions and people are wondering if the BBC are worried about the new Doctors ability to carry the show. I imagine the BBC worry about all of their shows, that's their job. hopefully they haven't interfered too much with the show runners plans. I am really looking forward to the Christmas special and honestly can't wait to see where they take the doctor from there.

[snaketales]

How long did it take you to go through? It took me a few years, as I didn't want to watch more than 1 or 2 episodes a day. The Outer Limits isn't very good unfortunately. If you haven't seen it already, might I suggest 'Twilight Zone' instead?

About a year I think. I averaged about one and a half stories a week I think. Second doctors run was a slog though.
Thanks for the suggestion. I've got a guide to the classic twilight zone so know most of the stories but I'm not that familiar with outer limits as much (apart from architects of fear)

[snaketales]

Now that I think about it it must have been longer.... time is relative

[griffin]

The ABC are gearing up for the new Dr Who in December by showing the Eccleston episodes starting today - daily on channel 2/20/21 at 3.30pm and repeated on channel 23 at 8pm. Over 10 years old now.

[Autocon]

Whos watching 2am tonight?

[Autocon]

Hmm i was disappionted with the episode. It was nice when they involved the christmas truce during the war. So this means he knows from the very start of his life when he will be in conflict to regenerate, and he will survive everything up to that date.

[Paulbot]

Hmm i was disappionted with the episode. It was nice when they involved the christmas truce during the war. So this means he knows from the very start of his life when he will be in conflict to regenerate, and he will survive everything up to that date.

My understanding (and this might be fan theories) is that when different versions of the Doctor meet each other a temporal paradox prevents the younger Doctor from keeping the memories of the encounter (and the older Doctor only regains the memories as events happens in his/her timeline).

Edit: thinking more about Doctors meeting each other, with the teaser for this ep months ago I thought it might touch on a) The first Doctor starting the calculations to freeze Gallifrey in a single moment of time and b) the twelfth Doctor heading to Gallifrey to help save it at the end of the Time War.

But I'm not disappointed it didn't. Those are just two events we know happened because we saw them. We don't actually need them shown to us (like we didn't see when 9 of the other Doctors made the trip to do it)

I have been wondering today since the cliffhanger if the next series might take a page out of the third Doctor's book and ground her on Earth with no TARDIS but that might annoy the people who already annoyed by what they think the new series will be like.

[GoktimusPrime]

Yeah, in the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special, the War Doctor did say that he won't remember "any of this" as he farewelled the 10th and the 11th.

I watched the new ep with my daughter next to me. I've told her nothing about the new Doctor because I wanted her to watch it with a totally fresh and uninfluenced opinion. When she saw the regeneration she started immediately smiling from ear to ear and was then jumping up and down with excitement and also ran over to the TV to get a closer look.

[snaketales]

I really don't like how overblown regenerations are now. They're really milked, with all the soaring music and speeches by the Doctor... in my opinion regenerations should be more abrupt and unprepared for.

[GoktimusPrime]

Eh... the regeneration itself isn't that long. There's just a long lead-up to the regeneration, and we had that too with the 11th's regeneration. I think they do it to "soften the blow" for fans, but I agree that we could do without it. :o

Two really long regenerations, IMO, were the 3rd and 5th Doctors' regenerations. The Third Doctor's long regeneration was understandable though, because it was a forced regeneration and the Doctor was fighting it. The 5th one... guh... prolonged by visions of the Doctor's companions telling him to live on with the Master telling him to die and laughing maniacally. Lame. But yeah, I suppose every regeneration either has a long lead up or the regeneration itself is drawn out. I think it's a way for the outgoing Doctor to "say goodbye" to the audience before being replaced by the new one.

What I find funny is the same repeating cycle that always happens whenever there's a new Doctor.
Beginning of the Doctor's run: "I don't like this new Doctor, the last one was far better."
End of the Doctor's run: "How dare they replace the best Doctor evah!!!"
:p :p :p

Seriously. Every single time. Well, maybe except for the Sixth Doctor (apparently Colin Baker wasn't entirely enthused about the way that his Doctor was portrayed and we know that he refused to film the regeneration sequence, leaving Sylvester McCoy to stand in as the regenerating 6th Doctor by wearing a wig (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/tardis/images/3/39/Sylvester_as_Colin.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130308220943=).

[Lord_Zed]

Poor Colin Baker wanted to be a darker serious Doctor like the 2nd Doctor, but the BBC made him a clown (and that's the nicest thing I'll ever say about his Doctor).


I really don't like how overblown regenerations are now. They're really milked, with all the soaring music and speeches by the Doctor... in my opinion regenerations should be more abrupt and unprepared for.

Everything is overblown and milked in modern times it seems, subtlety is a lost art now.

[jazzcomp]

Expectation is set to low from here onwards. Or at least lower than the last Doctor. Everything will be new.

[UltraMarginal]

I've found all the new doctors to be an acquired taste initially, but they have all had a different quirk to their personality and I'm always sad to see them go.

Just like all the others, I'm going to give the new series a crack and I'll probably really enjoy it.

[Burn]

Expectation is set to low from here onwards.
Same, but I am keeping an open mind. I may be pleasantly surprised, I may find ways to blame the new show runner, all I know is I'll miss Capaldi. I did enjoy his portrayal, especially when teamed with Bill, but Moffett let him down.

[snaketales]

I've literally watched only five minutes of the new version of Shada and it's already better than the 90s version - mainly because it doesn't have that godawful synth soundtrack and has replicated the 70s sound of Dudley Simpson.

[valkyrie_76]

I've literally watched only five minutes of the new version of Shada and it's already better than the 90s version - mainly because it doesn't have that godawful synth soundtrack and has replicated the 70s sound of Dudley Simpson.

Yeah I watched that too and enjoyed the latest version.

[snaketales]

Yeah I watched that too and enjoyed the latest version.

....bit bummed there are no episode breaks though. The other night I was planning to go to bed at the end of the first episode, and I'm waiting, waiting....

[GoktimusPrime]

With the new series about to start, the internet is flooding with so many negative comments about how Jodie Whittaker will ruin the series forever. So I decided to trawl through comments about the previous Doctors, and lo and behold I was able to find negative criticisms on each Doctor. At the end of the day, people thought that each actor would ruin the series forever, but this was clearly not the case. Anyway, good to see that Transformers isn't the only fandom that experiences "RUINED FOREVER." :rolleyes:
https://image.ibb.co/h0XyTe/temp.jpg

[snaketales]

Andrew Cartmel, the script editor for Sylvester McCoy’s three seasons as the Doctor, thought Sylvester McCoy “ruined Doctor Who forever”?

That’s the first I’ve heard of that.

The only reference I could find using the quote attributed to him was in reference to the writers of McCoy’s debut story, not the actor.

[GoktimusPrime]

Yeah, it was really a quote about the story rather than the actor (as explicitly stated in the quote itself). Anyway, the point I wanted to make was that with each new Doctor Who actor there have been people saying that the franchise is ruined forever. Whether because they feel that the actor themselves will ruin it or because the writing or other production issues related to that actor's run will ruin it (this is what I get for making memes and posting at such ungodly hours :p).

Anyway my basic point is that all the negative comments that has already surfaced about Jodie Whittaker's Doctor, despite the fact that Episode 1 hasn't even aired yet, seems to be more like the "RUINED FOREVER" mentality that we see with Transformers and other fandoms. i.e. new things will ruin the franchise forever.

With each Doctor there have been people who cast doubt, but ultimately those doubts were disproven. Except for Paul McGann. And again, not a criticism of the actor but the writing (again, as shown in the actual quote attributed about him). I say this because it's a fact that the Doctor Who series died after McGann's short run in the Doctor Who movie, and it would be 9 years before Doctor Who returned to the screen. So it's obviously not impossible for the franchise to die after the introduction of new Doctor - it's happened once before. But I think it's a tad immature to make this judgement when the show hasn't even started yet.

I mean, as much as I dislike Cyberverse, I'm not going to start claiming that it's going to spell the death of the Transformers franchise. :p I don't think it's terribly helpful, but we'll be fine. :)

[GoktimusPrime]

spoilers ahead

So what did people think about the first episode of the Thirteenth Doctor?

I like how the Doctor was more of a mystery-solving sleuth, something that was endearing with Classic Who that some might say was not as strong in the New Who series (which have been more action based). Also interesting to see the Doctor attempting to crack this mystery and save the world all while dealing with post-regeneration stress/trauma. I like how the new companions are just random people who, through circumstance, are now with the Doctor. Hopefully it won't be revealed that they don't turn out to be some form of universal fate spanning Gary Stus/Mary Sues, which is something that we had with some of the more recent companions. And I hope that none of them will fall in love with the Doctor, cos that's also gotten old. But so far so good.

It was also cool seeing the Doctor attempt to solve the plot complications without immediate access to Time Lord technology (e.g. Tardis, sonic screwdriver). She had to rely on her wits, which was compounded by her post regenerative trauma. I also liked how the show hit a balance of not making the Doctor's gender change a big deal but at the same time also not completely ignoring it. The advantage of having all new companions is that they've only ever known her as a woman. They mostly cannot imagine the Doctor as a man. But at the same time, the Doctor realises that she's had a gender change - but of course, this is a natural thing for Time Lords to do (as we've seen happen with other Time Lords like the Corsair, the Master/Missy and that Time Lord General etc.). And there are minor things that the Doctor needs to contend with such as having shorter limbs, getting used to wearing women's clothes etc. The gender change is acknowledged but it's not a huge deal.

And importantly, we can still see elements of the Doctor's core personality being retained. Especially when she admonishes Karl for attempting to kill Tzim Sha (or as the Doctor kept on calling him, "Tim Shaw" :D) - "You had no right to do that."←possibly one of the most emotionally powerful moments in the episode, said in a short, simple sentence.

[SMHFConvoy]

I like the fact 13/14 (don't @ me remember, war doctor) was more creative and resourceful than RTD and Moffat's iterations of the doctor, making her own sonic! I'm hoping she gets the tardis back later than sooner because I'd like to see what else she'd make.

I also like the fact that Whitaker underplays 13's grandstanding, her shouting voice softer than 11 and 12

[GoktimusPrime]

I like the fact 13/14 (don't @ me remember, war doctor)
Well, 13/15. Remember that there were 2 10th Doctors. ;) Thirteenth is really a Regeneration Title rather than a Regeneration Count.

[Autocon]

I enjoyed the show. Should get better after the "intro" shows. Curious where they take the characters and show.

[UltraMarginal]

I enjoyed it, I thought the speech she made at Tim Shaw was a bit on the nose about change, dealing with things being different etc. blah blah. It felt like a written apology to the fans who've been up in arms since the announcement of a female doctor. I feel that if it were made 5 episodes in, or by a previous doctor it would have had a very different tone.

I always take a few episodes to get accustomed to a new doctor, I felt fairly comfortable with her by the end of this first one. I really liked how this wasn't a save the world/universe' episode but actually a 'save one person' episode. I find more merit in episodes that are more personal like this. There have been entire seasons dedicated to saving the universe in the 'new who' and it does get tiresome when everything is always on the line.

I'm hoping we see a male Master rock up and be all confused by her, before becoming Missy.

I look forward to next weeks episode, and the one after that. etc.

[Paulbot]

Spoilers but

My only complaint is that the promo materials should have featured Grace as much as the other new companions. I spent the whole episode waiting for the moment she'd be taken out of the picture, and would have preferred that to been a shock twist.

[GoktimusPrime]

I enjoyed it, I thought the speech she made at Tim Shaw was a bit on the nose about change, dealing with things being different etc. blah blah. It felt like a written apology to the fans who've been up in arms since the announcement of a female doctor.
I agree, but it was pretty brief so it didn't bug me too much. It's unfortunate that they felt the need to address the issue, but looking at the plethora of hateful comments that continue to spew forth online it's not surprising why. :( I think that comment speaks more about the fandom than the show.

I like how the Honest Trailer for New Doctor Who points out that the Doctor changing gender is one of the least weirdest things to have happened on this show. :D


I really liked how this wasn't a save the world/universe' episode but actually a 'save one person' episode. I find more merit in episodes that are more personal like this. There have been entire seasons dedicated to saving the universe in the 'new who' and it does get tiresome when everything is always on the line.
^This so much! I also like how the companions seem like just ordinary people. None of them have a crack on the wall that happens to lead to the destruction of the universe. None of them are impossible. Just a rookie bobby, a young man dealing with a disability, and a retired bus driver. Ordinary people embarking on an extraordinary adventure! I hope that they keep it that way and that none of them turn out to be Davros in disguise or some stupid thing like that. And having one of the companions actually die was also really intense and reminds both the characters and the audience that going on an adventure with the Doctor can be extremely hazardous.


I'm hoping we see a male Master rock up and be all confused by her, before becoming Missy.
I wouldn't mind if they just gave the Master a rest during this Doctor's run. I'm sure that some fan favourite villains will return, but I'm more looking forward to seeing what new complications the Doctor will encounter. :) And hopefully the Doctor might bump into some old friends too -- it'd be really interesting to see how some of her past companions would react.

[UltraMarginal]

And hopefully the Doctor might bump into some old friends too -- it'd be really interesting to see how some of her past companions would react.

This for sure

[GoktimusPrime]

One thing that has impressed me with the first episode of the Thirteenth Doctor, and this is something that I hope will become a recurring thing in this new series, is the apparent attempt to marry the best elements of Classic and New Era Doctor Who.
https://image.ibb.co/hFrSg9/doctorwho_13compar.jpg
Elements of Classic Who:

* Your Friendly Neighbourhood Doctor.
The New Doctor typically does things which saves worlds, galaxies or the entire universe. They're really huge epics. The Classic Doctor on the other hand more often just focused on saving individuals; either people, communities or just a world. He would sometimes end up saving the galaxy or universe but only if the localised threat happened to also be an expansive threat. There's nothing wrong with big expansive and epic stories, but it was kinda getting worn with the New Doctor and I think it was nice to go back to the old format of just dealing with more localised problems. In the first episode the Doctor's objective was to save just one person. In doing so she also saved others, but her primary objective was to save just one dude.

* Doctor Who?
The Thirteenth Doctor literally fell into this story not fully remembering who she was due to post-regenerative trauma. But this also had the benefit of removing the pomposity that we've seen in the recent New Doctors. She didn't traipse up to the threat and declare herself to be THE Doctor, the Oncoming Storm" or "Destroyer of Worlds." The New Doctor had established a reputation for being really quite terrifying - so much so that the Doctor's enemies once all formed an Alliance against him because they feared that he would destroy the universe (re: the Pandorica). And they weren't wrong! And there were plenty of times when the New Doctor would use this reputation to his advantage; to strike fear into the hearts of his enemies. The Thirteenth Doctor hasn't done this. She didn't say something like, "Instead of a Time Lord you would have a Queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn!" Yeah, nah. We just had a humble, friendly neighbourhood Doctor. Her companions had never heard of her (and initially refused to believe that she was an alien). The threat didn't know who she was. She didn't evoke any Shadow Proclamations or anything like that. She just told him to stop what he was doing or that she would have to stop him.

Elements of New Who:

* Faster story-telling format/pace.
And this is due to the new format of Doctor Who being series of weekly longer episodes vs daily shorter episodes. While it's true that the Classic format did allow for much better world-building, it also dragged the pace down. Under the old format we would've spent a lot more time getting to know the companions, the target and the alien menace before the Doctor even shows up, which would probably be towards the end of the episode and as that thing attacked them on the train it would've cut to the end credits. The old format was a much, much slower pace of story-telling, which just doesn't cut it for TV today, especially as a weekly series instead of daily. And honestly, the episode tells us all we need to know about the companions and the alien threat. And part of the reason why Classic Who took so long to build up these things was because they had a much smaller budget, and often the locations and sets looked really generic. Oh look, a random Welsh quarry. No, uh... it's an alien world... let's explain it to the audience, but really we're just filming in a Welsh quarry. :p The superior production value of New Who no longer necessitates this amount of exposition.

So yeah... that's where I think the first episode has drawn the best from both worlds. :) I hope that future eps will continue to try to do the same, but I can't wait for episode 2!

[GoktimusPrime]

Ep 2 spoilers

Episode 2 seems to continue blending elements of Classic and Neo Who. The new theme song is interesting... it's as if it takes a Neo breath before plunging into a more Classic sounding theme. But yeah, the episode certainly placed greater emphasis on the Doctor using her mind to solve the mystery - a staple of Classic Who. But it also had lots of running and immediate peril, a more common element seen in Neo Who. Having the Ghost Monument actually be the Tardis was a Neo Who thing, but I thought it was pretty cool. I'm not sure how I feel about this episode also being tied to the Stenza. I guess there's pros and cons to making them an over-arching villain or plot point of the series. The main downside is that this has become an overdone thing with Neo Who and I think that some fans might long for the simpler days of Classic Who where not everything and everyone had to be linked or related to some greater overarching story MacGuffin. The companions don't seem to be linked to any greater destiny, so does this mean that they've shifted the focus to a recurring villain/threat instead?

I don't mind if the Stenza make a return as a bigger threat... but I just don't want it to become the hanging plot point of the series. It's all fine for Doctor Who to have recurring villains - we've had plenty in the past like the Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels etc., but they usually weren't an endpoint for the story to reach. We've had enough of that... cracks in walls, impossible girls etc. I dunno... I guess when everything becomes epic then nothing is. :/

[SMHFConvoy]

I have a feeling the Stenza plot thread will be resolved sooner than later, I'm hoping the "timeless child" is just a reveal that the Doctor now has infinite regenerations

[mirrorman]

Ep 2 spoilers

Episode 2 seems to continue blending elements of Classic and Neo Who. The new theme song is interesting... it's as if it takes a Neo breath before plunging into a more Classic sounding theme. But yeah, the episode certainly placed greater emphasis on the Doctor using her mind to solve the mystery - a staple of Classic Who. But it also had lots of running and immediate peril, a more common element seen in Neo Who. Having the Ghost Monument actually be the Tardis was a Neo Who thing, but I thought it was pretty cool. I'm not sure how I feel about this episode also being tied to the Stenza. I guess there's pros and cons to making them an over-arching villain or plot point of the series. The main downside is that this has become an overdone thing with Neo Who and I think that some fans might long for the simpler days of Classic Who where not everything and everyone had to be linked or related to some greater overarching story MacGuffin. The companions don't seem to be linked to any greater destiny, so does this mean that they've shifted the focus to a recurring villain/threat instead?

I don't mind if the Stenza make a return as a bigger threat... but I just don't want it to become the hanging plot point of the series. It's all fine for Doctor Who to have recurring villains - we've had plenty in the past like the Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels etc., but they usually weren't an endpoint for the story to reach. We've had enough of that... cracks in walls, impossible girls etc. I dunno... I guess when everything becomes epic then nothing is. :/


Have watched who for a long time and concur on all points you make here GoktimusPrime.

EDIT - Forgot to mention, this is my first post here. :D

[mirrorman]

I wouldn't mind if they just gave the Master a rest during this Doctor's run. I'm sure that some fan favourite villains will return, but I'm more looking forward to seeing what new complications the Doctor will encounter. :) And hopefully the Doctor might bump into some old friends too -- it'd be really interesting to see how some of her past companions would react.

Please - yes!

The Master character was used in good measure through the 70's-80's, making the show and character the better for it.

Unfortunately Missy was a large part of why I missed a lot of Capaldi's run as the Doctor.

[SMHFConvoy]

Haven't the new showrunners said that this season will feature new villains and that daleks, cybermen and the master/mistress won't be appearing for the foreseeable future?

Tbh they were done to death in RTD and Moffat's run.

[mirrorman]

Haven't the new showrunners said that this season will feature new villains and that daleks, cybermen and the master/mistress won't be appearing for the foreseeable future?




I do hope so.

Time to get some new monsters.

[Autocon]

Yeah anything from moffats run wont be here, starting a-fresh

[GoktimusPrime]

"Rosa" -- absolutely amaaaaazing episode. Powerful and confronting in its historical accuracy.
https://image.ibb.co/iGdmwL/temp.jpg

[GoktimusPrime]

Demons of Punjab -- much like Rosa was also set among a major historical event, and like before they can do nothing but bear witness to the tragedy. Although the tragedy is ramped up quite a few notches. Again, this delves back to the old school format of the First Doctor being a historically educational programme. Although we still do get scifi adventure episodes like last week's The Tsuranga Conundrum. This series is proving to be interesting as it continues to draw on different elements from previous Doctor Who series to create a new blend.

From a historical POV this episode works better than Rosa which had a few historical inaccuracies (but was mostly accurate). In Rosa's defence, it's because the characters in Demons of Punjab are all fictitious. These are fictitious characters set in a real life historical setting. But being fictitious there's much less to nitpick compared to Rosa, so I still do really like Rosa in terms of being a daring historical episode.

[snaketales]

Wa-hoo, thread revival!

Has anyone else seen the Mission to the Unknown recreation by a UK university?
It should be up on Youtube.
It appears to be a very faithful recreation. One of the original actors said in a docu the rocket set was identical to the original.

[GoktimusPrime]

SPOILERS BELOW

https://i.ibb.co/NLL21KB/temp.gif

SPOILER

https://i.ibb.co/NLL21KB/temp.gif

SPACE

https://i.ibb.co/NLL21KB/temp.gif

So the Master's back and I believe he's the first Asian Time Lord (i.e. Time Lord of Asian appearance/played by an actor of Asian ethnicity; obviously Time Lords aren't even human, but ya know). Certainly the first non-Caucasian incarnation of the Master, although we have seen other non-Caucasian Time Lords. Interesting to see more diversity but also more interesting to see the return of the Doctor's greatest nemesis. I guess it means that Missy did regenerate despite the Master's effort to kill her completely. Can't wait to see the next ep!

[Paulbot]

If you haven't seen this week's Doctor Who yet (available on ABC Iview) go watch it now.

Don't wait until Thursday night as the spoilers will be unavoidable online.

[SMHFConvoy]

If you haven't seen this week's Doctor Who yet (available on ABC Iview) go watch it now.

Don't wait until Thursday night as the spoilers will be unavoidable online.

Hoo boy, watched it an hour ago and...

[Handsprime]

I haven't watched the show in years, but I watched it yesterday and I can understand why there will be spoilers online.
Spoilers: Jack is back and there's a new (old?) Doctor, who is black.

[SMHFConvoy]

Comic book resources flat out made the twist a headline the A-hats.

[Burn]

Comic book resources flat out made the twist a headline the A-hats.

Well it is CBR ...

Have to admit, that was probably the best Chibnall-era episode I've watched. This season, aside from Orphan 55, has hands down been a massive improvement over the last season.

[Autocon]

Some stories in the episodes get lost in a message like with Orphan 55. When they are not pushing an agenda the stories are great. Only three to go and I suspect some story threads will cross over into next season.

[GoktimusPrime]

I don't mind Doctor Who eps carrying educational messages, as it was the original intention of the show way back when it started with the First Doctor (initially to teach children history, then they included science). But yeah, some of the recent episodes have been a bit on the nose with the messages.

'Rosa' is an example of what I consider a "moralistic" episode done well. It obviously carries the message of racism and tolerance, but it's not quite as in-your-face as some of the eps that we've seen of late. The most powerful moment in 'Rosa' was the scene where Parks is removed from the bus and arrested because she refused to surrender her seat for a White man. The moment begins with no music; only sparse dialogue and diegetic sounds. Then all the sounds from the scene becomes mute as the song "I Will Rise Up" starts playing. From this point on the scene relies more predominantly on the visual narrative. Close up shots of Parks' face as she defiantly waits for the police to come and arrest her, as well as the faces of the Doctor and her companions as they can do nothing but sit back and watch in silent helplessness and sorrow. We then shift back to the Tardis (as the song pauses) to see the Doctor explain the consequences and legacy of Parks' actions - both on the world and on her own life, as well as showing her companions the asteroid that astronomers named in Parks' honour. The song resumes and continues into the end credits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUn7mU7OUqU
I thought that this was done well. They gave the audience enough information to know what's going on but relied more on visuals and music to bring home the bacon rather than going on some moralistic rant about freedom and equality. It's more factual - here's what Parks did, and here are the consequences of her action. And I did like how they commented about just how long Parks' fight was. It wasn't just that one moment on the bus, but rather she fought for her entire life.

Having said that... that episode was about a past/historical event, whereas the environmental message is more on current and future events. Still, I think that it could've been handled better without it being too in-your-face. And in all fairness, this isn't a new thing to Whittaker's Doctor either; there have been past episodes with past Doctors that were also a bit too in-your-face such as...
* The Tenth Doctor raving on about how Shakespeare was the "best writer evah." Which isn't even true as Shakespeare copied much of his works from other writers.
* The Eleventh Doctor going on about how Vincent Van Gogh was the "best artist evah." Get a zero room.
Yeah, the Thirteenth Doctor did fangirl over Nikola Tesla, but she wasn't like, "best inventor evah!" ;) And to be fair, Tesla was pretty impressive (I'd like to see the Doctor meet Alan Turing, John Snow or Mary Anning). :)

Maybe the environmental messages are a bit heavy because (https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/68e4897778decfb1ae026d2aef9873d1?width=650) a (https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcTywOu6pAXW6OZAui0ACYH2yC0bsYf TNpVJ3lEVRBn4wnfbsDbp) lot (https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/M8KGrediVikQYZqsQGkgs8/6f22a86c-3670-4bb5-a01d-6f37fb67a8f7.jpg/r0_0_640_360_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg) of (https://nasaspxa.com/2020/01/04/satellite-images-show-australias-devastating-wildfires-from-space/) people (https://www.crikey.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Scomocoal-784x495.jpg) just (https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KA86VALFx0wICuo_2AL1CvInQdo=/0x0:616x328/1400x788/filters:focal(7x0:105x98):format(png)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/55052535/Screenshot_2017_06_01_16.34.32.0.png) aren't (https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/e356e81cf56cee88561f240ecd06de68?width=650) listening! (https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/01/31/world/10australialetter139-1/31ozf-fires-kangaroo-mobileMasterAt3x-v2.jpg) :rolleyes:

https://i.ibb.co/YT5GMM4/temp.jpg
When War Machine got hold of the Infinity Stones

[griffin]

I'm just waiting for the episode that has them visit a flooded Earth (or similar planet) due to global warming, as they've ticked off just about every other left-wing and environmental issue in the current series.
And the short 2 minute tease of Captain Jack, who is apparently not to returning this season (according to Whovians)... so why have him at all? The message he gave them could have come been from any other source along the way, which would have felt more natural, as that scene felt really disjointed and out of place. I was really looking forward to seeing more of him in that episode and upcoming episodes, but he just seems to have been thrown in to bump up the percentage of minority demographics in this series, which if forced into the flow of a story, will only hurt the reason for including it for making it too obvious.

[Burn]

Chibnall's first season - There will be no season long arc!
Fans - BOOOOOOO! This season was terrible!
Chibnall's second season - Oh you want a season long arc? How about I bring back Captain Jack and introduce a brand new Doctor, none of which I'll explain until a season or two from now!
Fans - ERMAGHERD CAPTAIN JACK!

:p

[SMHFConvoy]

Chibnall's first season - There will be no season long arc!
Fans - BOOOOOOO! This season was terrible!
Chibnall's second season - Oh you want a season long arc? How about I bring back Captain Jack and introduce a brand new Doctor, none of which I'll explain until a season or two from now!
Fans - ERMAGHERD CAPTAIN JACK!

:p

That one lone voice: I actually didn't mind season 1

The Timeless Child was mentioned in the 2nd episode of last season though, so they must have had some sort of arc planned.

[Autocon]

Hopefully it will be explained in the last episode. I think it could be a carry over ibto next season

[Autocon]

Well what do we think of the last episode? Blows the mythos out of the water.

[Paulbot]

Well what do we think of the last episode? Blows the mythos out of the water.

Didn’t think it really did that much. I expected more, this is all a concept that can be explored or ignored.

There’s other things that bothered me more about the episode but issues that have been recurring since Bad Wolf.

[snaketales]

I was only half-listening to the news this morning and thought Australia's chef de mission was called Ian Chesterton.

It's Ian Chesterman. :(

[griffin]

The Seasonal special is on tomorrow night (Saturday JAN 2nd) on the ABC, at 7pm Brisbane time - The Revolution of the Daleks.

After a short season at the beginning of the year, this has certainly snuck up on me without any fanfare or advertising (at least for me, and I watch a fair bit of ABC programming).

I kinda wish that they had re-played the last few episodes to refresh the memory on what happened at the end of the last season... which to me was rather controversial, almost like a reboot, as we again have the doctor faced with a completely lost Gallifrey, but this time it is actually shown to be destroyed, rather than just missing and assumed destroyed.

Apparently two of the TARDIS crew are leaving next season, so could leave in this episode, or in one of the first episodes of Series 13.
If history has anything to say about the new era, Series 13 could be the last for the current Doctor... as none of the new Doctors have survived more than 3 series. Which is a shame, because I think one of the reasons the 3rd and 4th Doctors were so popular was because they were in the role for 5 or 7 seasons.

[griffin]

That felt like a 30 minute episode padded out to 80 minutes... it was soooo boring in parts. So much talking.
And the thing that really frustrated me, was how much emphasis was made on the 3 humans feeling "abandoned" for 10 months, but they were too selfish to even find out what happened to the Doctor all that time. They were wanting the Doctor to show up within an hour of disappearing, and had no interest in hearing about what she had to endure, or for how long (I'm under the impression that it was for decades, based on the scratches on her prison walls and what Captain Jack said when he was rescuing the Doctor (he was in there for 19 years, so she could have been in there years before that)... and they used the TARDIS to travel back in time, but missed it by 10 months). Not a single question or sympathy about her being locked away without any friends or real company for a very very long time... while the 3 humans had each other, and the rest of their friends and family to live with during that 10 months.
So, every time one of her crew confronted her about it, it really annoyed me that the writer(s) were making them appear so selfish and oblivious of what the Doctor had to endure for many months or years.

Saying that (which spoiled a fair bit of the episode for me), the idea of "pure Daleks" hunting down and eradicating impure Daleks was interesting... but as the Doctor pointed out, it seemed it a bit ironic, since they are all mutated creatures. But for me, it is the decades of having the Daleks returning from unusual sources that have resulted in different "races" of Daleks, making it difficult to know what a "pure" Dalek really is... and where did this ship of "SAS" Daleks come from? Or more importantly, have they existed throughout all of those times that the Daleks were said to be totally eradicated?

Meanwhile, this incarnation of the Doctor is definitely more willing to kill than any previous version. I always hated the more recent Doctors being written into situations that required an adversary to be killed off, with the writer knowing that the Doctor can't do it, and has to create a situation that has the Doctor doing something really complicated or bizarre... or resulting in a companion doing the dirty work, making the Doctor seem rather impotent. In the original series, deaths were not a solution. If they occurred to remove the antagonist, it would be an accident, or by their own hand.
I guess it wasn't very realistic to have world-destroying races or individuals being defeated without the Doctor getting his hand's dirty.

Two of the human crew did end up leaving at the end of the episode, and I'm glad one of them was the old guy, as the roles should be by actors who aren't already well known, as it is very distracting, expecting them to behave like their pre-existing character (this old guy is a well known gameshow host, while David Tennant had a year with a red-headed lady (Donna) who is a fairly well known comedian in the UK). In my opinion, if you are already famous, and want to be on Dr Who, it should be a guest role.

[Paulbot]

Sounds like you won’t like their replacement on the Tardis then, also a well known UK comedian.

But companions shouldn’t be already famous? Forgetting that all of the reboot Doctors were already famous or well respected actors. Let alone Billie Piper being a very famous pop star

Catherine Tate’s Donna was my favourite of all of 9-10’s companions and Bradley Walsh as Graham was the only member of the fam I’ve been interested in (and I liked the idea of the Doctor being a woman and their companion being an older man in contrast to most Who and leading to Jack’s mistaken assumption).

The one thing that bugged me in this episode was that it took the Tardis five mins (at least) to travel to Japan for no reason except to allow for the deep and meaningful?

[griffin]

That trip to Japan was unusually long.

The Doctor being an existing well known actor is more forgivable to me, as that's the character who has to carry the show... so it is best to have someone who is known can act or attract ratings. I guess I just feel that the stories in Dr Who should be good enough to not need famous people in it, and if they have more than a quick cameo it is distracting (like the Christmas episode that had Kylie Minogue in a major role).

Billie Piper is a pop star? Must be just in the UK, as I've never heard of her from anything else.
I just had a look... she did quite well for what she released (even getting a few songs into the top ten in Australia), but then suddenly stopped in 2000 after just 3 years. I guess at the time of her role starting on Dr Who in 2005 she might have been best known for her singing, as her acting resume only really started in 2005.

As disappointed as I was in this episode, it was still better than the 2017 Power Rangers movie that was on last night as well. I'm glad I didn't pay money to watch that in a cinema....

[Burn]

It was a rather boring episode, but still better than a lot of Chibs-era stuff.

Jack's return reminded me that I didn't really miss Jack. This sudden infatuation and apparent long history with The Doctor? Not sure where that came from. Yeah it was there in the past but not to this extreme degree.

Yas continues to be useless and poorly written, but she's the one who sticks around. I always enjoyed the character of Graham, his other work aside (I'd never heard of him before DW), he seemed to get the most development of all three companions, genuinely liked him. Ryan had potential ... this episode had potential for Ryan to turn on The Doctor, he could see through her bullcrap, he pushed her to talk and open up, and he could see the dangers of being with her, that's why he got off the boat. A good twist would see something happen to Graham (much to my dismay) which in turn would lead to Ryan turning on The Doctor, but instead they took the happy end and attempted to ride off into the sunset armed with psychic paper.

I honestly don't think Jodie's been given a fair go at the role, she's been saddled with dodgy writing, and even without the hardcore "The Doctor can't be a woman!" fans, there's still far too many out there that don't approve of her, but BBC continues to turn a blind eye. This episode had the lowest overnight rating in the UK for a annual special. They can't keep ignoring the declining ratings.

[GoktimusPrime]

I liked this episode. :) Not mind-blowing awesome, but I didn't think it was terrible.

I loved the Doctor's line about hypocrisy of the Dalek's obsession for racial purity given that they are a race born from mutation. It's a good analogy about how the misconception of "racial purity" works in real life (i.e. it's rubbish). :) Trimming down the number of companions seems like a good move, although it was cool to see the Doctor running around with a group of companions which s/he hasn't done in a while. It will be interesting to see the Doctor and Yaz interacting in future stories.

[griffin]

Ryan had potential ... this episode had potential for Ryan to turn on The Doctor, he could see through her bullcrap, he pushed her to talk and open up, and he could see the dangers of being with her, that's why he got off the boat.

That was the other thing that annoyed me with the writing of this episode - there was this emphasis on the Doctor leaving his/her companions, as if he/her chooses to abandon them. It goes back to their characters being poorly written as suddenly being very self-centred in this episode, to not care about what the Doctor had just been enduring for months or years all on her own while her companions lived their lives with friends and family... to the extent of being angry about the possibility of her intentionally abandoning them one day, without a reason (like protecting them).
That being the excuse for Ryan and Yas turning on her, and Ryan and Graham leaving her, did not make sense, after they had just spent about a year or so travelling around as a family, and the Doctor risking her life to keep them safe a number of times. To suddenly turn on her, and not even care about her much worse situation, seemed really wrong.

[SMHFConvoy]

She'd been gone for 10 months at the time of the NY special, that's enough time for someone to move on, not "turn on" the Doctor. Ryan had moved on and Graham's decision to stay was in support of his grandson's decision.

[Seraphim Prime]

That was the other thing that annoyed me with the writing of this episode - there was this emphasis on the Doctor leaving his/her companions, as if he/her chooses to abandon them. It goes back to their characters being poorly written as suddenly being very self-centred in this episode, to not care about what the Doctor had just been enduring for months or years all on her own while her companions lived their lives with friends and family... to the extent of being angry about the possibility of her intentionally abandoning them one day, without a reason (like protecting them).
That being the excuse for Ryan and Yas turning on her, and Ryan and Graham leaving her, did not make sense, after they had just spent about a year or so travelling around as a family, and the Doctor risking her life to keep them safe a number of times. To suddenly turn on her, and not even care about her much worse situation, seemed really wrong.

When you're a 10,000 year old being 10 months seems like nothing. When you're a 20-something it can feel like forever. Particularly when you have nothing to compare against. The previous two seasons have had some gaps, but usually only a couple of weeks. I think Amy & Rory were probably the best written companions in this sense - they had a life outside the Doctor, knew he would pop in on their lives once in a while and enjoyed going on their adventures with him, but also knew that he wasn't always around.

I know from my own personal internal thoughts that you can get pretty resentful towards someone when their connection with you changes suddenly - even when you can create and understand reasons for their absence - that it's not impossible to still have underlying feelings of hurt and betrayal, even when you know that they've been through some pretty rubbish circumstances themselves.

[GoktimusPrime]

When you're a 10,000 year old being 10 months seems like nothing.
Which does make the Doctor quite unusual in forming close bonds with humans. Cos yeah, for someone like the Doctor to get super attached to a human being is kinda like a person getting attached a mayfly and becoming upset if the fly is lost or killed. A lot of other long-lived aliens in scifi, including Doctor Who, are generally shown as not being terribly attached to relatively short-lived species like humans, but objectively speaking it makes sense.

[griffin]

Saw a short teaser commercial for the final 6-episode season of Jodie Whittaker's run as the Doctor, coming November 1st.

[griffin]

I forgot all about this... and just saw it on the program guide for tonight, at 7.30pm on channel 22 (ABC Kids).

Ironically, it is on at the same time a different episode of Dr Who screening on channel 23 (currently playing Capaldi episodes)... and with a completely different episode on later in the evening on channel 22 (from the Matt Smith era), it's three different episodes from 3 different seasons on the one night.

[Autocon]

Not sure how I am liking this, fourth one tonight and feel a lil lost in the story

[griffin]

Being a 6 part story it might be best to record them and watch them all at once (or over a weekend) so that you don't forget anything important that gets resolved in a later episode. I did that with the first three and the first episode made a lot more sense to me so far without having to wait 3 weeks.
I was wanting to do all six at once but couldn't wait any longer. :p

[griffin]

Jodie is on the Last Leg on abc this week, talking about her final day of filming.

No word on the new doctor though?... Jodie claims to not know, but surely it would be in the final scene of the episode, which would have also have been filmed by now (doesn't need Jodie to be there for filming, but should be one to know), as the final episode is supposed to be at Christmas or new years, which isn't far away for post production.

[Paulbot]

Her final episode isn’t the last ep of this “flux” series, there’s a special next year as part of BBC anniversary celebrations. One of the previous Doctors is rumoured to also be in it.

And she probably knows but can’t say.

[Autocon]

Would be interesting if they jumped universes. Missed 20ish minutes of the 5th ep. This Flux thing hasnt really grabbed me.

[Seraphim Prime]

I'm actually thinking the opposite - the whole discussion of life between two universes and making the jump to another bored me.

I'd like to see the current universe restored somehow. Will be interesting to see how it all gets resolved in only one more episode.

Given they're already highlighting the lost memories and the choice the Doctor might have to make, I kinda see a resolution where The Doctor chooses to forgo her own memories to save the universe - who she being less important than who she is.

Chibnall gets his Timeless Child story and impact to the grand narrative of the Time Lords and we can go on knowing that for all intents and purposes there have only been 13 Doctors.

[Paulbot]

I wish they didn't keep going for "the universe is ending" levels of drama. It's too big and clearly going to get undone: wasn't that long ago the Universe was destroyed when the TARDIS blew up and Amy magically brought the Doctor back! Or when the Daleks are gone forever, except for a few spares...

I've got a couple of guesses for the wrap up of the story - one the seems more likely so I wont say it in case it is spoilers and one very, very unlikely: the Human Doctor and Rose turn up to help from that alternate universe that Division is trying to cross over in to (turns out it's that Age of Steel universe). Of course maybe there's also Daleks in that void between the universes?

[griffin]

I am not a fan of retconning... and yet, the Doctor did point out that she may not have come through the portal from another Universe... however, it does still reinforce the earlier claim that the Doctor is not from Gallifrey, because he/she was the first to be able to regenerate.
If I was story editor, I would find a way to retcon back to the 50th Anniversary episode (Day of the Doctor), during that brief period of 4 weeks when we had just 13 Doctors (quoted by the War Council as "all 13 of him" with Capaldi shown), to just 12 Doctors in the next episode (the Christmas special) when the Timelords made Capaldi the first of a next set of 12 regenerations.... which in just a couple years was itself retconned during the Whittiker era to possibly have an infinite amount of regenerations that has spanned multiple universes (which makes it confusing that the Smith Doctor was dying and needed to be gifted a new set of regenerations).

As for the Universe-ending plot device, I guess after 50+ years, they have to keep outdoing themselves on the drama scale... but it does indeed make previous "epic" story elements less impressive, like the season-long plot relating to the Tardis destroying the universe. Then again, there were several episodes after that which had the Tardis being destroyed in some way (or about to) that didn't destroy the universe...
Nor is it very believable that a single Tardis could destroy the entire universe from any point in time, considering there would be thousands of Tardis' out there travelling throughout the billions of years of the universe and its dangers... are yet we to believe that no other Tardis has ever blown up, destroying the universe (and the flaw of that is, if all of space and time is destroyed, how did anything exist in the first place to create a device that destroys the universe).

And during Capaldi's run, we saw him fly to the end of the universe, which was billions of years in the future, with just one planet (and Asildiar) left... the Flux occurring during the time of Earth and Modern Day Humans, doesn't that prevent every far-future story we've seen over the last 50 years from existing now?


What I would like to see them do is take a break from big dramatic seasons for a while and do something similar to the 3rd Doctor, by having the Doctor stuck on modern day Earth for a while, dealing with "small town" mysteries (not planet-at-risk plots every week) and going to places around the world that we are familiar with, making it easier to relate to the settings and follow the story. The time during the late 70s to early 80s with the 3rd and 4th Doctors spending a fair bit of time on Earth with UNIT, were some of the most popular seasons in the old series, because as interesting as it is to see creative settings of alien worlds and concepts, the Brand needs familiarity (like a setting in Modern Day Earth) to draw in more of the general audience to make it profitable enough to survive and expand. You go too crazy and creative for the hardcore fans who want alien adventures, and you lose the regular viewers... a bit like Transformers toys - the hardcore fans mostly want niche cult characters (like the Convention toys and GEN Selects), but Hasbro knows that they need to sell hundreds of Bumblebees and Optimus Prime toys with horrible gimmicks that we hate, in order to fund the Brand enough to risk doing those niche collector toys that the general public mostly won't recognise to want.

[Seraphim Prime]

What I would like to see them do is take a break from big dramatic seasons for a while and do something similar to the 3rd Doctor, by having the Doctor stuck on modern day Earth for a while, dealing with "small town" mysteries (not planet-at-risk plots every week) and going to places around the world that we are familiar with, making it easier to relate to the settings and follow the story.

The only issue is that the first season of Chibnall / Whittaker's run did pretty much that - historic times and places on earth, with one or two present day monster stories tossed in - and all the loud voices said it was the worst season of Doctor Who and wanted their space cowboy back.


The time during the late 70s to early 80s with the 3rd and 4th Doctors spending a fair bit of time on Earth with UNIT, were some of the most popular seasons in the old series, because as interesting as it is to see creative settings of alien worlds and concepts, the Brand needs familiarity (like a setting in Modern Day Earth) to draw in more of the general audience to make it profitable enough to survive and expand.

Only a lot of the 4th Doctor stories I'm aware of are the galactic odysseys - Key to Time, etc - rather than the earth bound stories.

Everyone has their own idea of who "The Doctor" is and what "Doctor Who" should be about - even Peter Capaldi wanted to explore The Doctor's alienness and distance from humanity more like the First Doctor, but had to bring himself back to a more sympathetic character by the end of his first season and into his second.

I personally think part of the enjoyment is seeing the stories somebody wants to tell with this tapestry - I won't always like them - but the tapestry and ever changing nature of The Doctor allow for different stories to be told.

[Autocon]

Best thing about Dr Who, it can go any where in time and space, so anything is possible! I like a mix of familiar and alien space stories.

I recon all of the Drs enemies will fight with the Dr to save their universe and themselves. I dont understand the Division? Who are they? They seem to cross all species.

[Autocon]

Ok so the Division caused the flux or those two crystal aliens? So does this mean no more dals cybers and tars in the universe?

Does it also mean most of the Universe is still destroyed? Hmm

[Paulbot]

Ok so the Division caused the flux or those two crystal aliens? So does this mean no more dals cybers and tars in the universe?

Does it also mean most of the Universe is still destroyed? Hmm

Division created the Flux to destroy the "main" universe while they popped off to another. Swarm and Azure just like the idea of everything being destroyed and want to keep things being destroyed on loop.

The most perplexing thing about the end of the Flux is that it seems the universe, apart from Earth and it's dog shield, is either destroyed or in complete ruins. It's a weird status quo to end on - but there's a New Years and 2022 special to maybe explain/reset that before the new era begins.

(Or the Doctor just keeps travelling around in the years up to 2020 AD where there's no flux-destroyed universe to worry about or the far future where everything 'got better'.)

As for the Daleks.... The Doctor destroyed all the Daleks at the end of the Time War. Except the one in the weird guys museum. Oh wait there's more hiding in the future. No, the Bad Wolf destroyed them all. Oh wait some are hiding in the void. No wait, they all got sucked back in and are gone for good. No some travelled back in time to New York but just a small cult, no wait a whole army of them is stealing planets... and so on and so on.

Sometimes having the villains fly away with a "I'll get you next time" is the better choice.

[griffin]

The final episode for Jodie is on this Sunday.

[Paulbot]

The final episode for Jodie is on this Sunday.

Not her last episode. There's three 2022 specials. The New Years one, then another one, and then the BBC anniversary one.


Having been in charge of the TARDIS since filming for the Thirteenth Doctor began in 2017, Showrunner Chris Chibnall and the Thirteenth Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, have confirmed they will be moving on from the most famous police box on Earth - and the universe.

With a six-part Event Serial announced for the autumn, and two Specials already planned for 2022, BBC One has now asked for an additional final feature length adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor, to form a trio of Specials for 2022, before the Doctor regenerates once more.

https://www.doctorwho.tv/news/?article=jodie-whittaker-chris-chibnall-leave-doctor-who#_

[griffin]

Okay then... 3 more and another year to wait to see who the new face will be.

[Burn]

Okay then... 3 more and another year to wait to see who the new face will be.
Davies has scripts already, he'll be looking to cast sooner rather than later. I would expect an announcement before June.

[Autocon]

The NYE special was ok as a tv show series but not special enough as a special. I did like the Drs actions catching up with her. Interesting development with leading characters. Think they did a time loop in a hotel with matt smith so the idea isnt new. Shows Daleks did survive.

[Autocon]

The count down to nye as the time loop was cool

[griffin]

How bad shots are the Daleks?
As cool as it looks to have a gattling gun on the Dalek, it made it more obvious that they were bad shots when firing at the humans when they were on the move. These are supposed to be the most dangerous creatures in the universe, and they seem to have "stormtrooper syndrome". :p

I must have missed it, but when did they say that the time loop would end at midnight? It just felt like they were just assuming that it would end at midnight if they lived past that time, but I'm drawing a blank on when it was noted or discovered, as the timeloop seemed to reset whenever the humans were all killed, but how would they know that surviving midnight would break the timeloop?
According to what I remember, the Dalek told us that the TARDIS created the timeloop from the "Reset", so wouldn't the timeloop end if they survived long enough until the reset ended... which was supposed to take more than just 6 minutes (from their first timeloop starting at 11.54pm).

The next episode has the Sea Devils, which could be interesting, as I think they've only been featured in a Dr Who story twice, with the 3rd Doctor and 5th Doctor almost 40 years ago! They are related to the Silurians, who have been used a few times in the new era, so they could do a fair bit of new back story on the Sea Devils if they wanted to.

[griffin]

The new episode, The Legend of the Sea Devils, was on tonight.

This one snuck up on me.... I guess that's the problem with no commercials during shows on the ABC, you might not know when a new show or one-off show is coming. (the complete opposite of channel 10, which has every commercial break on all of their channels for 4-6 months advertising each new prime-time show)

[Paulbot]

It felt more like a "regular" episode than a special to me. I think I would have preferred a bunch of regular episodes over the Flux.

[Autocon]

This seemed a bit ham fisted more than usual. Like the acting was a bit meh and felt slapped together. Was ok for a regular episode but not as a one off special. I like the look of the sea devils.

Looking forward to the final episode.

[Autocon]

Did they mention how the universe is now after everything?

[Paulbot]

Did they mention how the universe is now after everything?

Not a word.

Other than Dan joining as a companion, the Flux has had no other impacts... they may as well have just done a magic reset at the end of the story

[griffin]

The timing had me thinking it would be an Easter special, but I don't recall Easter being mentioned at all... unlike the christmas and new year's specials that have that day in the episode plot.

I think the (main) Sea Devil looked great, but the way the mouth barely moved made it look like a cheap puppet prop (the Sea Devil appeared to be talking through the crystal on its chest, but since the TARDIS crew and associates get everything translated in real time, the crystal plot device was not necessary... and as such, spoiled the realistic detailing of the creature costume).

The story itself seemed to go all over the place, and required a lot of concentration, and I agree that it didn't feel like a "special", but then again, apparently this episode and the previous one were originally part of the previous season to make it 8 episodes, reduced from 11 episodes because of covid (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_(series_13)#Development)... but then later the two episodes that weren't part of the Flux story were moved to 2022 so that her finale episode for the BBC's centenary wasn't on its own for the year.
So... Whittaker had 3 other stories planned for her before she left the role, and maybe that's where the "new universe" would have been referenced, so that it wasn't just a big event and suddenly never mentioned again?

[griffin]

This is something that might be interesting to others following this topic... I only recently found out, during the press tour for Marvel's Morbius film, that Karen Gillan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Gillan) (companion Amy Pond) played the character of Nebula (the blue skinned "daughter" of Thanos). It was only being mentioned because her Doctor (Matt Smith) played a major character in Morbius, which means both actors of "a Doctor and his main Companion" are now Marvel characters at the same time (just not in the same universe, so they would never meet up).

And it wasn't just the head-to-toe makeup that hid her from me recognising her, it was how serious and angry her character was that never had me thinking of the cheery, bright, animated Amy Pond.

[Paulbot]

I think most of us knew that... meanwhile Rory went to the DC universe instead. When Amy came back for her last appearance (when 11 was regenerating) she was wearing a wig because Karen has her head shaved for Nebula.

9 and 10 are both in the MCU and a little dimension hoping could bring 11 in. Just waiting to see who’s next. Eventually every actor will be in the MCU the rate they are going.

[GoktimusPrime]

I was pleasantly surprised to see Madame Ching I Sao (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_Yi_Sao) make an appearance! Although weirdly enough, we hear people speaking in Mandarin Chinese... this is early 19th Century China; specifically Lantau island, Guangdong. They should be speaking Cantonese (Lantau island is part of Hong Kong today). :/

I was hoping to see her fleet but we only got to see her flagship. :( In real life, she personally commanded a fleet of twenty-four ships with a crew of 1,433 pirates (and four hundred ships with 60,000 pirates in her confederacy).

[Seraphim Prime]

BBC have announced the new actor to take on the role of The Doctor following Jodie Whittaker & Chris Chibnall's departure.

Ncuti Gatwa: BBC names actor as next Doctor Who star - BBC News (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61371123)

It will be very interesting to see him - I haven't seen any of his other work, but I hear he has been very good and has been nominated multiple times for BAFTAs. The producers appear very impressed:


Showrunner Russell T Davies said Gatwa had impressed him in a "blazing" audition.
"It was our last audition. It was our very last one," the writer and producer said. "We thought we had someone, and then in he came and stole it.

[Paulbot]

Thought they'd go safe with an older white man again, glad to see they haven't.

(Just don't read a lot of the reactions to the news from the usual suspects)

[Autocon]

Are they going to acknolwedge anything done with wittakers era?

I dont care who it is as long as they are good at acting

[GoktimusPrime]

I've already seen people post intolerant comments online about how they're still upset that they've continued to recast the Doctor as anyone else but a White male.
I agree with Autocon; I don't care if the actor/actress is male, female, gender fluid, White, Black, Asian, purple... as long as they're good.

And quite frankly, I'm more concerned with the WRITERS. Jodie Whittaker didn't write "The Timeless Child." :/
Please please please please please have good writers!

[griffin]

I think the final Jodie Whittaker story was on tonight. I only noticed it on the tv guide this afternoon, and set the recorder for it, so haven't seen it yet... but I did hear that we now have to wait over a year to get the next new episode.
Are they out of ideas, or are they just unable to afford to make more than three episodes each year now?

I miss having seasons of 11-14 episodes like they had for first 12 seasons of the new era (even if it was only covering 3 months of the year), but after that 12th season ended on March 1st 2020 we are only getting the equivalent of one season (13 episodes) spread across almost 4 years (to Christmas 2023).
The series loses momentum and interest when it is spaced out that much.

[Paulbot]

You're not going to be happy to hear the next episodes in November next year (the 60th annniversay specials) will be on Disney+ instead of the ABC, ahead of the next full season in 2024.


I miss having seasons of 11-14 episodes like they had for first 12 seasons of the new era (even if it was only covering 3 months of the year), but after that 12th season ended on March 1st 2020 we are only getting the equivalent of one season (13 episodes) spread across almost 4 years (to Christmas 2023).

It's not that new a thing. Don't forget season 7 was split into 5 eps all airing in Sep 2012, a Xmas special in Dec, and then another 8 eps from the end of March through to June 2013

Or that after season 9's end in December 2015 Xmas special in 2015, there was no new episodes until the next Xmas in 2016 and then Season 10 started in April 2017.

Even the Tenth Doctor had a bunch of just 5 specials spread out from December 2008 through to January 2010

Season 12 finished airing in March 2020, when there was a worrying situation that even The Doctor couldn't avoid (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0ED6CGmjm4).

They did talk about making the Flux series shorter but spending more money on it.

[GoktimusPrime]

What the hell did I just watch?

[Autocon]

Yeah sad to see it go to Disney+. Will not catch any new episodes or the 60th anni episode.

Spoilers

The surprise reunion thing was nice. The ending was unexpected.

Didnt hate it. See where it takes us

[snaketales]

You reckon they'll try explain Susan away as an earlier bi-regeneration?

[GoktimusPrime]

I'm perfectly fine with bigeneration. What I'm more unhappy about is Sir Isaac Newton being played by a half Asian actor. I don't mean to be racist (I'm of Asian descent); but Sir Isaac Newton was White, and IMO he should've been played by a White actor.

I couldn't care less what ethnicity or gender etc. they cast for fictional characters; they're not real. But when it comes to people who were real, then IMO they should be played by actors and actresses who better resemble them. Changing the ethnic appearance of an actual person who lived in real life is a form of historical revisionism.

My favourite episode of the Thirteeth Doctor was Rosa, where Black actress Vinette Robinson played Rosa Parks, and Black actor Ray Sesay played Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Great. Or how about Tony Curran, the actor who played Vincent Van Gogh? His likeness to Van Gogh is so uncanny, that whenever I see him in other roles, I cannot help but see him as Vincent Van Gogh! :D But I really don't know why they cast a Brown man as Sir Isaac Newton. And don't even start me on "mavity." :rolleyes: This is why I refused to watch the Netflix Cleopatra documentary where they cast a Black woman as Cleopatra.

https://i.ibb.co/g7Jm4f2/temp.jpg

Again, when it comes to fictional characters, I couldn't care less about the ethnic appearance of whom they cast. It's funny when I tell kids that Nick Fury was originally White, because they've grown up seeing Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury that they cannot imagine him as a White man! :D But please don't change the ethnic appearances of real life people. I was completely on board with the Doctor being a woman, and I'm perfectly fine with the Doctor being a Black Scotsman. The Doctor's not a real person, heck, he's not even human. I can get on board with bigeneration, because this is the biology of a fictitious alien... writers change that stuff all the time (Superman originally couldn't fly; he leapt tall buildings in a single bound).

I'm hoping that the show will later give an explanation for Brown Sir Isaac Newton; did the Doctor slip into a different universe?
I've also seen fan theories about the Fourteenth Doctor being destined to either become the Watcher or the Valeyard, but I personally think that they should just leave him alone. Let the character enjoy his retirement like the Meta Doctor has with Rose Tyler. :)

[GoktimusPrime]

Something that doesn't sit right with me when the Thirteenth Doctor regenerated into the Fourteenth was how her clothes changed. The Doctor's never been able to generate clothing out of thin air before. Why couldn't the Fourteenth Doctor have appeared wearing the Thirteenth's clothes? After all, she first appeared wearing the Twelfth Doctor's clothes (which were too big for her, being 16cm shorter than her previous self). Almost every other Doctor (and Time Lord) regenerates wearing their predecessor's apparel.

Which begs two questions:
1/ Why has no Time Lord ever regenerated clothing before?
2/ Why didn't the Doctor generate a second set of clothes when he bigenerated into the Fifteenth Doctor?

I actually quite like how the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors split their clothes amongst themselves. It makes sense; your body has just doubled, so your clothes are now divided between the two of you. Fourteen has no shoes and Fifteen has no trousers etc. (Fifteen got a better deal than when the Tenth Doctor spawned the Meta Doctor in the buff!) I like how they paid attention to this detail. Which just irritates me even more than they completely ignored this when Thirteen regenerated into Fourteen! Gah!

https://i.ibb.co/HTngnvF/doctorwho-clothes.jpg
Most incarnations of the Doctor have made his/her first appearance wearing the clothes of his/her predecessor. Exceptions being:
* Eighth Doctor waking up naked in a morgue.
* Meta-Crisis Doctor generating naked (since he spawned from a spare hand of the Tenth Doctor).
And that's it. Either way, none of them created their own new clothes out of nothing.

[Paulbot]

A wizard did it. (The Celestial Toymaker)

Saw a theory that Mavity is going to be a recurring element like Bad Wolf, Torchwood, Saxon of RTDs earlier shows.

[DELTAprime]

Legit question. Did the first Doctor regenerate from anyone/thing?

[Paulbot]

Legit question. Did the first Doctor regenerate from anyone/thing?

According to recent stories yes - there were multiple (maybe hundreds) of incarnations before the first Doctor we saw.

[Seraphim Prime]

Something that doesn't sit right with me when the Thirteenth Doctor regenerated into the Fourteenth was how her clothes changed. The Doctor's never been able to generate clothing out of thin air before. Why couldn't the Fourteenth Doctor have appeared wearing the Thirteenth's clothes?

Out of universe answer - Russell T Davis was very aware of potential concerns around cross-dressing or anything that could be seen as the 14th Doctor cross-dressing. So he made a deliberate choice that only the 13th Doctor would wear her clothes. (although this misses the precedent set by the forced regeneration into The Master"

In universe, on the fly I would say, an abundance of energy following either the destruction of much of the universe in the Flux or following the machinations in the Flux by and The Master's manipulations in her regeneration and the consequent fix meant that the current clothes burnt up and new ones were able to be manipulated directly from the latent energy, converting energy into matter, by redirection of the regeneration energy.

They have already established that it was a subconscious regeneration into a previous face to send a message to slow down, this could have subconsciously extended to the clothing if there was enough latent energy.

[Bumblebee2000]

Second doctor's outfit simply changes, Third Doctor could have regenerated those clothes that feels somewhat implied to me, a recent Big Finish story had a thing called Degeneration and outfits changing each time
Also Doctor Who is a weird show to be complaining about continuity.

The Doctor is a human from the future wait no a Time Lord Fugitive or maybe he is the founder of Time Lord Society (The Other/Seventh Doctor), Eight fought in the Time War never mind that was John Hurt but here is a new story about Eight ending the Time War after that retcon, The Doctor has thirteen lives and the Valeyard happens but then who are the Morbius faces and they are the founder of Time Lord society again with hundreds of lives but in a contradictory way to him working with Rassilon

I also agree it is a unique regeneration, in the modern era picking out the clothes is part of establishing a new identity but 14 is someone with other things to figure out, why this Doctor is back. So the clothes come with that. One could also say he stopped letting regeneration change his clothes once he learnt he cared about his presentation as an identity forming thing as opposed to letting Regeneration handle that