Doctor Who Series 11

Anyone else ready for Series 11 to start? I can't wait to see Jodie Whitaker as The Doctor! Her costume is so cool! All the homages to past Doctors blended into it!

I'm looking forward to it with quiet optimism.
Not long to wait now.

Cold dread is my first and strongest reaction. I haven't enjoyed Chris Chibnall's other shows, and he seems to feel that he now has carte blanche to do whatever he wants with Doctor Who. I don't want an "all-new, all-different" Doctor. I want excellent stories with the Doctor archetype I already know and love. I guess time will tell.

mindspike wrote: I don't want an "all-new, all-different" Doctor. I want excellent stories with the Doctor archetype I already know and love. I guess time will tell.

What are you seeing in the previews for this new Doctor that make you suspect it won't fit the archetype you have in mind? How much do you think Gender will effect the end result?

Paeter wrote:What are you seeing in the previews for this new Doctor that make you suspect it won't fit the archetype you have in mind? How much do you think Gender will effect the end result?

Doctor Who trailer wrote:All of this is new to me. New faces, new worlds, new times. If I asked really, really nicely, will you be my new best friends?

1) Note the emphasis on "new" as a motif.

2) "If I ask really nicely, will you be my new best friends?"
W T F
Since when has the Doctor gone around begging companions to go on adventures with him? Since when has the Doctor sought out companions because he wants a new best friend? The Doctor has historically been a loner who takes companions reluctantly, not incidentally because of their similarity to his granddaughter Susan and the ability to construct a dynamic between youth and age. Davies and Moffat both worked very hard to undermine this dynamic, introducing a love interest and peer first in Rose and then in River. I disapproved of both dynamics as I felt they reduced the Doctor from an authority figure to simply the first among equals.

3) The Doctor has historically been a parental authority figure, right up until Davies and Moffat started regularly downplaying that role. With the advent of Whitaker as the Doctor, the parental role shifts from paternal to maternal. Scripture proscribes the same instructions with regards to children for both parents, with one exception: mothers are primarily to love their children, fathers are primarily to not frustrate them. When the Doctor steps in because a companion is over their head - when your parent steps in because you are in over your head - if it's your father then you are being corrected so you can learn, if it's your mother you are being protected because you are weak. I don't expect secular entertainment to reflect Biblical teaching but I do expect secular creatives to actively rebel against the way God has designed and intended human dynamics to function. The result will be a Doctor who increasingly departs from the original design of the character both in attitude and relationships.

4) Whitaker's Doctor appears to have "time powers", playing pranks on each of her companions in the trailer. This is consistent with Chibnall's other work on Torchwood and Doctor Who. The villain gets overpowered instead of out smarted. I find this type of writing to be lazy, clumsy, and utterly out of character with the Doctor. I hope to be proven wrong here.

5) Chibnall appears to be obsessed with sexuality as a motif, as evidenced in previous Doctor series, Torchwood and Broadchurch. I am so utterly sick of this. I understand that sci-fi in particular has always been a platform for social commentary, but his other work is just heavy handed proselytizing. Also, his stated intent is to have Doctor stories "driven by a team of minorities". WTF difference does the identity of the invisible writer make to the consumer, unless the story is also part of a social agenda. Bad. Sign.

6) Chibnall has stated that he will never work with Daleks. I suppose they are too morally straightforward.

There you are. This is why Doctor Who series 11 fills me with cold dread. The worst part is.....

I'll probably watch it anyway.

Also, this......



is arguably the worst wardrobe choice since....

I see that Mr. Wilkerson and I wound up on opposite sides of the wardrobe. Glad you see an homage to previous Doctors, cause I can't get past the suspenders, not-quite-a-rainbow shirt, and the pants that end halfway down the calf. It's hard to be objectively critical of the outfit when I consider a question-mark tie, umbrella and panama hat to be suitably eccentric for the Doctor.



I think much of my reaction boils down to one thing - I don't like change. Whittaker's wardrobe is a dramatic change from the four previous Doctors, whose dress was neither eccentric nor outlandish. I liked the more conservative look of 9 through 12 - now that's changed again.

A very similar crisis of fandom is what drove me away from mainstream comics in 2009. DC and Marvel both engineered dramatic changes to their characters. I stopped enjoying them. The books and stories moved on without me. I think I'm afraid of the same thing happening with Doctor Who. I don't want the fandom to move on without me. I want to continue to enjoy Doctor Who.

I've heard a lot of arguments in favor of change for its own sake. I find few of them convincing. Change is not always good, not always healthy. Change does not always signify growth. Rot is change. Decay is change. Regression is change. And all of this is made more complicated because we're talking about cultural and societal change. But the bottom line is this: for good or ill, change is inevitable. This change is happening right now.

Londyn Jackson hosts a podcast/Instagram called History of the Batman. It's an art history of a character who has had more than a hundred different interpretations over the years. Predictably, I dislike many of them. Heath Corson is a producer on the DC animated films. When tasked with creating Batman Unlimited for small children, he had a great many problems with the over-the-top, friendly, extremely simple version of the character. Then something clicked for him. "Every generation deserves its own version of Batman," he said. I think there must be a principle there that's key to the longevity of characters like Batman and the Doctor.

Chris Chibnall is getting his own personal version of the Doctor. I haven't liked his other work, for a lot of different reasons. I may or may not like this version of the Doctor. But whether I do or don't, one thing is certain - in three or four years, the Doctor is going to change again. And I'll be grumpy about it.

mindspike wrote:I may or may not like this version of the Doctor. But whether I do or don't, one thing is certain - in three or four years, the Doctor is going to change again. And I'll be grumpy about it.

Kinda reminds me of this. (Illogically reads counter-clockwise)

The change part doesn't really both me personally. "New" is a common keyword in any post-regeneration story. New face. New kidneys etc. Each new Doctor has a new unique personality, but the same character and values.

I think I'm half way between you guys on the costume. Looks kinda weird, but I'm not particularly bothered. I'm more interested to see what the interior of the TARDIS will be like.
Not to mention the new arrangement of the theme. Doctor Who without Murray Gold's music is gonna be weird. (Almost as weird as it originally was to have Doctor Who without the Radiophonic Workshop)

I really like Broadchurch, so that's a big plus for Chinball in my mind. I didn't notice anything preachy in that series. There were two characters in series 2 who ended up being ex lesbian lovers, but it was done more subley than the blunt sledgehammer that Moffat tended to use with those kinds of topics.


Anyway, by now it will have aired in the UK (and presumably America). My wife and I will be watching it tonight.

LOL

I'll tell you one thing I like about that costume. It's not sexy.

Never had a female Doctor before, so I can see the temptation being strong to objectify her somehow. That could still happen, of course. But I'm glad to see they aren't jumping to it in this design.

I enjoyed the episode. Got a lot of 'classic Doctor Who' vibes from this. The story took its time to establish the characters and introduce the situation. We didn't even see The Doctor appear until about 10 minutes in. The Doctor herself maintains all the quirkiness commonly associated with the role, but the other characters around her seem much more grounded that you would normally expect in the show. In fact, within the first ten seconds, I turned to my wife and said: "Already, this guy has more character depth than most Doctor Who companions".

I'm expecting some long-form story-telling, and an interesting and enjoyable dynamic between The Doctor and her three companions.

There was no opening title sequence at all, but the ending music was extremely reminiscent of Tom Baker's theme from the 70s.

The story was never heavy-handed with "Look, the Doctor is a WOMAN!!". She just .... was.

All in all, my reaction to the episode was very positive and I'm very much looking forward to next week.

I also liked how The Doctor was not trying to save the entire world, but one person. A good reminder of the extreme value of a single human life.

Dude, Adam. You're making me more curious about Doctor Who than I've ever been in my life!

Haha.
Well, this is the ideal time to jump aboard. Brand new doctor, new companions. and Chris Chinball has said he won't be bringing back any returning monsters this season, which means no great need to know about what has come before.

I would suggest you watch the first three episodes of this season and then see what you think. It gives a broad taste of the kinds of stories the show does. The show has a suprising ability to incorporate both the silly and the serious, the humourous and the deadly serious, the dark and the light. Somehow, it all melts together in a way that works.

Is anyone interested in recording something about season 11 and the new Doctor? I'd be interested in sharing thoughts on the podcast from a real Whovian!

When would you want it, Paeter? Are you looking for a timely response to the first few episodes, a look back at the entire season once it is finished....or whatever comes?

I'm interested, but I have a very busy November coming up, with NaNoWriMo (which doesn't preclude doing something soon but requires a little more examination of time)

I'm interested in whatever most interests you as a real Doctor Who fan. So if you'd be more interested in talking about the whole season/series instead of expressing immediate burning impressions, I'm all for it!

And if someone else wants to do some more immediate first impressions in the meantime, we can do both!

The Doctor is sorely neglected on the CGC podcast, so Who content would be welcome almost any time.

Obviously I missed the entire pre-series anticipation discussion... so where do we all stand now, after the event? And more importantly, has Paeter finally given in and checked it out?

For me, there were a few really good episodes, a couple of duds, I wish Ryan didn't sound so utterly gormless most of the time, and I never quite got to the point of realising 'Yes! Now she's the Doctor!'. I think at least in part the absence of any traditional Doctor Who bad guys (or even newer ones like the Silence) made it feel more like a tangentially related series.

I had hoped that when she eventually faced off against the Daleks it would convince me... but (admittedly it took my wife to notice this) when the moment came, the Doctor had to rely on some nearby men to defeat a single Dalek.

Still, as I keep reminding myself, I struggled through the Colin Baker years...

I'm in the process of recording my thoughts on the season for a segment.

UKSteve wrote: has Paeter finally given in and checked it out?

I don't have cable, so trying the current show isn't an option for me. But awhile back, after chatting with Who fans here, I tried out Doctor Who starting with the reboot that aired on the sci-fi channel.

I made it past the mannequins, but just kinda lost interest after the ep with the future where the last human was nothing but skin stretched out. Might have seen one where they went back to victorian england for a whodunit, too. Met Dickens or some famous author, I think?

Anyway, I just don't think the tone of the show is ever going to be my thing. Sorry. :-(

But I'd still be THRILLED to have more Who fandom represented on the podcast and elsewhere at CGC! So please reach out to me, Who fans!

Paeter wrote:I'd still be THRILLED to have more Who fandom represented on the podcast and elsewhere at CGC! So please reach out to me, Who fans!

I guess once the dust settles here and I finally unpack my DVDs I could get back to the classic Who reviews that I started on the CGC blog a couple of regenerations ago...

UKSteve wrote:

I guess once the dust settles here and I finally unpack my DVDs I could get back to the classic Who reviews that I started on the CGC blog a couple of regenerations ago...

Anytime!

Paeter wrote:I made it past the mannequins, but just kinda lost interest after the ep with the future where the last human was nothing but skin stretched out. Might have seen one where they went back to victorian england for a whodunit, too. Met Dickens or some famous author, I think?

Sounds like you stopped just before you met the Slitheen, which may actually be a mercy. They would have really soured you lol. (The Slitheen were the silliest thing that modern Doctor Who has done, and they were quickly relegated to the kids spin-off Sarah Jane Adventures)

AdamCollings wrote:

mindspike wrote:I may or may not like this version of the Doctor. But whether I do or don't, one thing is certain - in three or four years, the Doctor is going to change again. And I'll be grumpy about it.

Kinda reminds me of this. (Illogically reads counter-clockwise)

That was pretty much how my grandma was with Family Feud hosts