Supposedly Eccleston was onboard for it, but wanted more creative input to shape his own Doctor (the lack of which made him decide to leave the show), and wanted a particular director, Joe Ahearne (b. 23 Nov 1963, directed Dalek, Father's Day, Boom Town, Bad Wolf and Parting of the Ways; admittedly not amazing episodes, but the history is there).

Moffat wanted a different director, Nick Hurran (not b. 23 Nov 1963, directed The Girl Who Waited, The God Complex, Asylum of the Daleks, The Angels Take Manhattan; ehh... also not amazing episodes) and guess who won out.

Fuck any character development that isn't the word 'fantastic'.

 

Apologies for the late bump:

So, in essence, Moffat "screwed the pooch". Again.

Seems like that is all he does.

I've just been rewatching the Doomsday story-arc on Youtube -- that "Oh, shit!" moment when the void ship opens up, and you see the Cult float down?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lNtTbrRVAec#t=217

Classic.

 

Found this on tumblr. Thought it appropriate.

 

I've watched that link three times now, and I'm still confused. How is that evidence of Moffat 'screwing the pooch'? Am I missing something really obvious, or something really obscure?

 

I've decoded it, Shiny. See, the Daleks are saying, "EXTERMINATE!" Any modern sexy genius Doctor Who fan would know that Moffat, i.e. Satan, has been making his Daleks say, "ERADICATE!", ever since he took over in Series 5, and Jorm was simply pointing out that Moffat screwed the pooch in such a monumentally huge way that we never even noticed and thus, our minds should now be blown with this new and legendarily important revelation to translate into some classic internet cynicism and sarcasm wrapped in an observation on some forum thread and then we put that observation at the bottom of a long list nobody gives one goddamn fuck to read which is filled with baseless bitching and nerdrage fuckery.

Maybe it's Jorm making a crack that the Daleks managed to get to an alternate universe somehow while in Time Of The Doctor there was just only one entrance to the universe where the Gallifreyans were hiding and so why didn't the Daleks just go make another entrance from somewhere else instead of Trenzalore? Oh the humanity.

Or maaaaaaaybe it's that the Daleks are flying with CGI effect instead of the practical floating one seen in an ep in Moffat's run. Classic Moffat, changing the way the effect is done. Shitting on children's dreams in the process. You scoundrel you.

Honestly, I can't even pick an option to go with. They're all so good and give me the same amount of masturbatory pleasure. Check in with me in an hour, boys, I'm going to get oiled up and jerk it to all three.

 

Or maybe he was responding to Inquisition's post of the rumours surrounding Eccleston's potential involvement, then posting an unrelated video immediately afterwards.

 

Yeah probably. Just snarking at the vagueness.

 

That was my assumption, but I've seen enough mad Moffat hate to think that it could have been related somehow.

 

This, pretty much.

I should have put a border between each paragraph, or something.

Also, found my Genesis of the Daleks DVD. Woot.

 

Alright so, what about Smith? Is the rumor true that he personally wanted to leave, rather than simply his doctor having run his course?

 

As far as I'm aware, it was essentially wanting to stay, but also wanting to go off and do other things, and the production and promotion schedule is insanely hectic. Not a lot of time for him to go off and do other things, although not impossible.

 

Tennant felt the same way, didn't he?

Playing the Doctor looks like it would be incredibly fun, but also be ridiculously demanding. It's not hard to believe that whoever's playing him would want to stay, but need to quit for the sake of their sanity and to further their career.

 

Couple of things of interest. Firstly, some pictures of Capaldi filming - by which I mean, riding a horse in his nightshirt, like a boss.

Also, the offical reveal of his outfit.



Edit: some commentary from the BBC about the outfit.

 

Jenny, Vastra and Strax are back? Awesome.

Cool outfit too.

 

Give him a cape and you nearly have Pertwee's costume.

Please.... Please don't be a karate chop doctor.

 

Give him a tie and a suit jacket instead of the cardigan and you've got Harold Saxon's outfit, so you probably shouldn't read too much into similarities...

 

I'mma pimpsmack you so hard you'll think it's 1972, KHAAAAAAAAAAN!!...

 

Argh! Pimpsmacks! My only weakness... How did you know?

 

Because a pimpsmack is simply a polarity-reversed karate chop. I knew there was a suspicious reason you didn't want a karate chop Doctor...

 

Anyone else really holding out hope for a studded cane?

And I'm so looking forward to this season, and it feels good. I haven't really been a fan of Who since halfway through series 6, and only went back for the 50th Anniversary (...ugh...) and the regeneration ep (better). It's mostly the writing that annoys me, but a new, older Doctor really doesn't seem like it'd allow Moffat to stay with the same dynamics. The possibilities are mind-blowing.

("F**kity-bye!")