RTD era's worst scripts (Fear Her, Love and Monsters, etc) are on par with Chibber's best, so I'm really not worried about that.

No real thoughts about the new Doctor beyond me sorely hoping that this is not his costume. Never seen in him in anything, and I have zero desire to go watch Sex Education. He won a SBAFTA though and has some comedic chops (unlike Jodie), so hopefully he'll be a good fit.

 

LMAO

Ok, that was an extremely out of left field choice.

I am genuinely shocked that the BBC greenlit him

Or does the BBC not care about ratings?

Matt Smith was also an odd choice.

So I am 1000% behind this.
Hope he delivers.

Not gonna lie. I am excited to see a black doctor.

I just hope the actor can embody the doctor and not the blackness.

 

They don't have a say anymore really. They gave away full creative control to Bad Wolf Productions in order to get RTD back as showrunner. BBC is basically just a production partner / distributor now.

 

Some interview clips with RTD and Ncuti.

Cautiously optimistic.

 

His biggest credit so far I think is playing one of the main characters in Netflix's Sex Education, and he's one of my favorite characters there.

The Doctor is a pretty big step up though. Glad for him, and I hope he does an excellent job.

 

Further casting news. Firstly, David Tennant and Catherine Tate are filming scenes for the 60th anniversary; Tennant isn't much of a surprise, Tate kind of is. Secondly, Yasmin Finney, a black trans actress, has been cast as Rose - place your bets now on whether there's a connection to Rose Tyler or it's Davies trolling (to quote him: "Life on Doctor Who gets brighter and wilder - how can there be another Rose?")

 

Bernard Cribbins coming back for 60th to play Wilfred a final time too.

 

Not sure what's their plan with timeline, but what if these rumors of Tennant playing the 14th Doctor weren't completely untrue and he's the 13.5 Doctor? An unstable regeneration returning to an old body that didn't want to go and with one unfinished business.

 

As long as that timeline includes the complete and utter retconning of chibnail's star child nonsense, I am ok with anything.

Also, if this is a doctor's reunion. I want to see Capaldi, Smith, Tennant and Eccleston on the same screen.
Ecclestons seems to have gotten over his hate for Who, so he might come back.
I would pay good money for that.

 

He absolutely won't with RTD at the helm. The volatile breakdown of their working relationship is the main reason he left / was asked to leave. Eccles is horrible to work with by all accounts, and RTD wanted him to do stuff way outside his comfort zone.

 

I would love this. I recently went to rewatch Dr. Who, and I realised that I might like Tennant as Who more than than I like Dr Who itself.

Eccleston and Smith were pretty good too, but I keep stopping around the start of Capaldi. And reading the reviews in this thread made me think I wasn’t missing much.

It’s a good question actually, how much between the end of Smith and now is actually worth watching? I gather that there’s some good episodes, but most of it is questionable at best.

 

Capaldi got a lot of very good writing in his second season. Some of the best writing in the series tbh. Apart from 'Sleep No More', that whole season is just consistently good. 'Heaven Sent / Hell Bent' usually ranks among the best all time DW eps for most people. Apart from 'Listen' and the Missy arc, his first season however is a bit meh. He got some of the absolute worst writing Moffat&Co ever produced there. 'Kill the Moon' and 'Robot of Sherwood' are just travesties. His third season is okay; the creepy monk arc, the carnivorous house episode, and his arc with Missy being the high points.

Jodie got maybe half a dozen better than average episodes across 3 seasons. Only 2 I would classify as genuinely good and that's 'Rosa' from her first run, and 'The Haunting of Villa Diodati' from the second run. The rest were below average or hot trash.

 

Agreed with Khan. Capaldi got some *really good* episodes, even on a rewatch. Robot of Sherwood is actually one of my liked episodes. It had the right amount of smarm and camp that I like from my who.

I recently rewatched most of new Who. I skipped a few episodes, but surprisingly didn't skip *all* of Jodie's episodes. Just ... most. That said, "It Takes You Away" is better than Rosa to me. Complete agreement on Haunting. Spyfall was a really fun parody of Bond films, and I suggest everyone watch Fugutive of the Judoon, going blind if they can.

 

Personally, I'd say Capaldi's third and final series is his best run - lots of very good episodes, a much better arc plot, which I'd recommend going in blind for if possible, and the new companions Bill and Nardole are really engaging too.

That said, there's a lot of good stuff in his second series too. The Zygon two parter, Under the Lake and Before the Flood are the standouts that could be watched on their own; for the last three episodes, Face the Raven and Heaven Sent are excellent, but Hell Bent kinda drops the ball a bit for me. It does wrap the three parter up though, so worth watching.

Whittaker...Rosa was good, from her first series. It Takes You Away was pretty interesting, but that's probably it from her first series. In the second, Spyfall - both parts - Fugitive of the Judoon and Haunting are all worth a watch. The final two episodes will depend on how you feel about the Timeless Child arc, tbh.

Flux as a whole I wouldn't recommend, but the Angel episode is really good - possibly incomprehensible without watching the rest of Flux though.

Finally, her last New Year special, Eve of the Daleks, was actually a lot of fun. Possibly one of the best Dalek stories in years, tbh.

 

https://www.doctorwho.tv/news-and-features/neil-patrick-harris-joins-doctor-who

Well, this is exciting!

 

Please oh please oh please be any other Time Lord apart from the Master.

 

Spoiler

There's a *lot* of set reports that he's playing the Celestial Toymaker.

Technically not a time lord, but also not the master./spoiler]

 

Welp. That happened.

Spoiler

I'm hoping that there's some genuinely good idea behind Tennant being back as the 14th Doctor for three specials, but I have a nasty feeling that it's just going to be to bring the ratings back up...and fairs fair, judging by what I'm seeing online, it might well pay off.

As for the episode itself...busy, but overall a mostly average episode lifted by a few good moments and ideas. Still can't quite decide whether Whittaker was a bad Doctor, or someone who could have been good under a better writer/showrunner

 

A meh finale. Fitting, I'd say, given how pure meh even the best of Jodie's episodes are. Truly unfortunate she had such a lackluster group of writers behind her.

I liked all the Doctor cameos, and I enjoyed Ace (lol Tegan still sucks). Liked the regen scene itself too, and chucked with the callback to 10's old lines, but aside from these things, I was supremely unentertained.

Bring on RTD2.