The Doctor Who thread

[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.

[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