A breezy enough slice of Christmas entertainment with a solid emotional wallop at the end, but nothing amazing. I did like the regeneration scene though, that was very well done.

 

Yeah, I enjoyed it.

Spoiler

The ring falling off at the end was an interesting touch. Looks like the next head writer (don't remember if it was announced) is getting a completely clean slate.

 

Next showrunner is Chris Chibnall - lots of Torchwood, Broadchurch, and various middling to good episodes of Doctor Who (42, The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood two parter, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and The Power of Three).

 

I enjoyed it well enough. As much as I dislike recastings of any sort, David Bradley is without a doubt an excellent Hartnell impersonator. He was just absolutely brilliant.

The rest of the ep was average.

Spoiler

I could see the bit of Lethbridge-Stewart fanservice with the Captain coming from miles away and Bill/Clara/Nardole's return felt fairly hollow given that none of them were actually there.

Capaldi's regen scene was basically a truncated copy paste of Tennant's, which was very Safey McSafe-Choice.

 

"Middling to good"?

Anyway. I watched this dreck.

You can see when the writers' heads disappear up their own asses. It's like watching someone vomit on a vulture picking at a road accident.

I think the characterization was the most horrendous part. The 1st Doctor is from the '60s, not a product of it. Instead they shit on his character, making him out to be Tumblr Enemy No. 1. And of course, CURRENT YEAR Doctor has to bang on about how that's simply not acceptable. You tell those bastards from the '60s! Also subtle was Bill ensuring that everyone knew she was into women. Wow, that's super progressive you guys... with all the subtlety of a megaphone hitting you in the face. The lesbians I know chew more carpet than scenery.

Another Lethbridge-Stewart, again. Nicholas Courtney is dead, you had your chance; stop name-dropping for fuck's sake. Is every god damn person in the military related to him?

I hate how everyone shows up at the end. They're fucking dead, get over it and move on. Paul McGann didn't have anyone show up, he drank his little toast to them. Nobody sauntered onto the screen, Daphne Ashbrook didn't get a cameo, I never expected her to and that was demonstrably fine. Instead it's a reunion show from a late '80s sitcom. Fuck right off.

Chibnall has one chance, and I have this sneaking suspicion that it'll be painfully heavyhanded and preachy.

 

Yep.

/filler

 

Thank fucking christ Moffat is gone. No idea how Chibnall will do, but if he manages to somehow out-shit Moffat he should probably be given some sort of prize.

I feel like Moffat has never understood that brevity can lend to an emotional punch. Dragging out this goodbye for so long really steals momentum from it. At some point I'm left just wishing Capaldi will hurry up and die already so the terrible monologue ends. Also am desperately hopeful that Chibnall's vision of the Doctor is less angsty -- "Oh, I outlive everyone, and oh, it's just too much to bear, and I'm so torn and conflicted and I just want to die" -- fuck off with that already. Once again, a case where using this emotional punch only occasionally would make it feel powerful, but using it constantly makes it ridiculous.

Also totally agree on the characterization of the first Doctor being complete shit and making no in-universe sense. Sad because that actor actually out-Doctored Capaldi when they were both onscreen in my opinion -- up until they had him say something super sexist for no reason.

Final thought: seems kind of dumb to start the career of 13 this way. It's clear enough that the TARDIS was damaged by the regeneration and that's why she fell, but it seems like this leaves some really low-hanging fruit for people looking for reasons to hate her.

 

New Teaser for S11 and the 13th Doctor which premiered during the World Cup broadcast.

As bland as this is, I am really excited to be getting a legitimate ensemble of companions again.

 

I thought the teaser was entirely forgettable.

 

While overall I'm looking forward to the new series (I always do, but there's extra interest this time round with all the new elements), that teaser did nothing for me tbh. The official twitter account said something about more to come on Thursday, though, so I imagine that'll be a proper trailer.

 

And as if by magic, a proper (if brief) trailer:

Honestly not that much to go on, but at least it's proper footage. I'm torn between concern at the lack of content - it's widely assumed, although I'm not sure it's been confirmed, that the series will broadcast around September, and basically all we know at this point is that there's a new Doctor, there's a group of companions, and a new sonic screwdriver - and impressed at the levels of secrecy; it's certainly a big leap from the leaky ship of Moffat's run.

 

Understatement.

Although, just from her delivery of those few scant lines, it does seem like we could be headed back to an overall less serious, more comedic Doctor than Capaldi, which I can't really say would be a bad thing.

Off topic: Watching the lost episodes of the Tom Baker "Shada" arc that just aired in the US.

Skagra.... dat cape and pimp hat... *breathes in* boooooooiiiii.

 

First episode of the series tonight, and I rather enjoyed it. Whittaker was good, perhaps a little too much like early Tennant than her own individual take, but that'll probably smooth out now the regeneration business is done and dusted, and better to echo early Tennant than late, brooding, arrogant Tennant. The various companions seem promising, and the monster of the week was fine, nothing special but it didn't really need to be. Looking forward to more.

 

Too early to really pass judgement on Whittaker, but first look impression: she's a reflection of Peter Davison's uber-competent 'everyman' Doctor, with a teensy-tiny dash of Tennant whimsy. I would hardly call her characterization the 'fresh new direction' the producers and PR team were lauding it as, but she was at least enjoyable to watch.

As to the actual plot..... I was actually really interested in the 'mysterious tardis blue thing' for the first 20 minutes or so (I was hoping it was the seed of a Tardis or something cool), but when the alien guy stepped out and killed that bro, plot went into pretty bland territory.

I do like Ryan and Yaz so far. Grampa guy... eh. He's no Bernard Cribbins.

Also inb4 'Sponic' Screwdriver is a thing.

 

This is a good point and something I'd been struggling to articulate since watching the episode. I actually think Whittaker herself is quite good; her face has an expressive-ness that I'd associate with Tennant or Smith, and she's good at being commanding. But Sorrows is dead-on when she says that this felt 'handled'. The writing for the Doctor was probably the most generic Doctor shit ever put to paper. No risks were taken with the character and Whittaker is given no room to express any kind of unique portrayal of the Doctor. These lines could have been read by Tennant, Smith, or Capaldi with essentially no difference.

I have to imagine this is an idiotic attempt to pander to the crowd that's whining about a woman being the Doctor to begin with by essentially saying "See? You didn't have to be worried about a lady Doctor! Nothing's changed! Same show!" It should be obvious to any person with a working brain that engaging that crowd is literally always a losing proposition, but as the prerequisite for being a showrunner on Doctor Who is that your brain must no longer function, it makes perfect sense that Chibnall's chosen this course of action. It's uniquely self-defeating since making Whittaker functionally equivalent to Tennant (whose character 'voice' it seems the writers stole from the most for this episode) and not making her a unique incarnation of the Doctor in her own right is genuinely more offensive than Moffat's brand of 'something about a lady Doctor's just a bit off, mate' good-ol-boy sexism.

There's no way to tell if this will be an ongoing problem or if maybe the writers just over-wrote the first episode due to the pressure of introducing Whittaker. But I do think it's telling that in the episode that is supposed to showcase the skills of our new production team, we learned very little about the Doctor, the new companions, the plot of the season, or anything at all. This feels a lot like one of those forgettable mid-late season episodes where they're running out of budget and they've gotten through most of the good scripts already.

I'm hopeful that they allow 13 to show some more unique character and flair in upcoming episodes, but I fully expect them to play it totally safe and just write episodes as if David Tennant was in the studio instead of Jodie Whittaker.

 

@Daedros: Honestly, a return to early-Tennant era writing would be an improvement over late-era Moffatt. If they do nothing but keep that up I'll be satisfied. I feel this was a good introduction for the companions - not so much Jodie, but we'll see on that end.

Zappy-wire monster was amusing. Then again, I actually liked the Slitheen, so my opinion might not be the best there...

 

Another good episode, for my money, if not a classic. I loved the new title sequence, and the TARDIS looks pretty cool as well. Of the two possible arc plot possibilities dropped here, I'm more intrigued by the Stenza than the Timeless Child, although it's possibly worth mentioning that Chibnall has said there isn't really an arc plot this series. We'll see.