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Doctor who Series 10; He has been away for a while but he is back! Contains spoilers.


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15 hours ago, williamjm said:

I can't remember now if we knew at the time the first season was shown that Ecclestone was going to be replaced with Tennant? I've a vague memory that it wasn't announced in advanced, but it's been a long time so I might not be remembering correctly.

According to this article Eccleston's departure was announced on March 30, 2005, just several days after the new series premiered on March 26 (I got that date from wikipedia...). And Tennant was announced to be taking over just a couple weeks later on April 14. So it looks like everything happened while that first season was still airing.

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I think it's a solid choice with a lot of potential. Like I mentioned yesterday, I haven't seen anything from her that feels "Who-ish" but she does seem a good actor and therefore suspect (much like Capaldi) she'll be good and just needs storytelling to match.

And I really hope Chibnall has something good to go along with the casting. The first female Doctor is going to bring a lot of extra attention to the show and gives him, as showrunner, a great chance to make a permanent mark on the show. Part of me hopes the show itself only draws attention to the sex change in terms of how humans throughout time now respond to the Doctor (because that will/should happen) rather than the Doctor going "ooh, different organs". Capaldi's Doctor only recently made a point of saying gender was something the Time Lords got over a long time ago (even if the stuck with "Lords") so the Doctor shouldn't really be any different. But people's response to the Doctor should.

I'm releived that Bill is no longer the companion though (even though the character grew on me a lot) as romance between Doctor and companions is something I really dislike and I suspect it would have been hard for the show to resist having a female Dr hook up with a female companion. Although it is a shame we probably won't have a (human) character to witness and comment on the change.

On a similar note I hope the next companion isn't just male eye candy for a relationship. I actually give Chibnall some credit in that I think he's good at avoiding this as he always managed to keep things platonic between Tenant and Colman's characters in Broadchurch. Fingers crossed they have the Doctor interact with the Edwardian Silurian and her human and Sontaran sidekicks. I think their reaction would be fun. But maybe Chibnall will avoid characters from Moffat's run - at least for the first season.

Is Jodie Whitaker's real accent south-west? I think it'd be fun to have a Doctor sounding like she did in Broadchurch all that time.

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Does seem to be a reasonably bland choice, but haven't given her a chance yet. I don't really think it matters either way, I thought Capaldi was a great choice but was mostly completely wasted by mediocre writing.

This at least gives them a chance to do something different.

Having a female master and a female doctor does seem like over egging the pudding however. Clearly there was a lot of social pressure on them to make it a female doctor, which is a shame, decisions should be made based on creating the best story, not pandering to pressure. I don't mind either way, I have no problem with a female doctor , the role is essentially gender neutral 

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1 minute ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

Does seem to be a reasonably bland choice, but haven't given her a chance yet. I don't really think it matters either way, I thought Capaldi was a great choice but was mostly completely wasted by mediocre writing.

This at least gives them a chance to do something different.

Having a female master and a female doctor does seem like over egging the pudding however. Clearly there was a lot of social pressure on them to make it a female doctor, which is a shame, decisions should be made based on creating the best story, not pandering to pressure. I don't mind either way, I have no problem with a female doctor , the role is essentially gender neutral 

Completely agree.

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Well, at least we can breath a sigh of relief that it's not Kris Marshall.

Accent: Wikipedia says that she comes from the most Yorkshire-sounding place on the planet - Skelmanthorpe. I assume her natural accent is also of that country county.

Haven't seen Jodie Whittaker in owt, so I don't know how capable she is of the necessary range. I'm not thrilled to have a first female Doctor - I once read an article which pointed out that the Doctor, as a hero who talks his way out of trouble rather than shooting his way out (let's ignore the recent finale for now), is rather a positive model for the young male section of the audience - and I find that a sympathetic viewpoint.

But the next series will stand or fall on the quality of the writing. Cross fingers. I don't have great hopes of Chibnall. The bit of Broadchurch series 3 I saw was pretty leaden, and he hasn't distinguished himself in his scripts for Doctor Who. 

 

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Well, Missy's almost certainly gone now, so the next Master may well be a guy. Pretty clearly they brought in Michelle Gomez to soften the ground for this potential decision, whether they'd made it now or later, and it worked well coz she was excellent.


I think it was less social pressure than the pressure they/Moffatt put on themselves with all the hints in the last few seasons, but I also think that she's a better choice than any of the men being strongly linked this time around, barring maybe Patterson Joseph, so...


 

1 minute ago, dog-days said:

is rather a positive model for the young male section of the audience - and I find that a sympathetic viewpoint.



And now they have a role model who shows that it doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl.

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Yeah Capaldi was someone I was really excited to see on screen, I thought they could really capture the traditional doctor character, but clearly they had no idea what to do with him. Total waste. They just kept the formula the same, with all it's problems. I didn't finish the last season so I don't really know if missy is around or not now.

Either way every time there is a new doctor there is some outrage somewhere about it being a white male. 

 

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8 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

And now they have a role model who shows that it doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl.

But there are plenty of female role model type characters out there now. We've had Rey, Katniss from the Hunger Games, masses of leads in detective dramas, the BBC are doing a new version of HDM...

There don't seem to be that many clever, compassionate male leads in stuff that might appeal to boys in the 7 - 12 age range. 

I also don't think the female casting of DW will be showing that it doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl if Thirteen ends up being written as a wet blanket. Or if it's written with the skeevy undertones that half-spoiled  a lot of Moffat's writing for female characters until the last two series, when he seemed to get it under control.

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5 minutes ago, dog-days said:

But there are plenty of female role model type characters out there now. We've had Rey, Katniss from the Hunger Games, masses of leads in detective dramas, the BBC are doing a new version of HDM...

 


My point isn't that she's now a role model for girls; the point is that we could now have a woman character who is a role model for boys as well. I mean, no reason why others couldn't be as well but the nature of Doctor Who makes it particularly suitable for carrying messages like that.

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Just now, polishgenius said:

 


My point isn't that she's now a role model for girls; the point is that we could now have a woman character who is a role model for boys as well. I mean, no reason why others couldn't be as well but the nature of Doctor Who makes it particularly suitable for carrying messages like that.

Would be nice, but realistically I think it's more likely to put boys off watching unless a male companion is cast with whom they can identify. :(

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That seems like a defeatist attitude tbh... you never know until you try, and these things will never change until people change them. This is a good opportunity. I understand the concern, but I think there's way more positive to take than any negative- if they play it right.

A lot relies on her Doctor being well written, but that's not down to her being a man or woman.

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Interesting that Broadchurch season 1 now features three Doctors - 10, 1.3 and 13.

and Rory.

I'm open minded about the choice.  I think Eva Green would have een excellent, but pretty sure Dr Who is below her pay grade.

 

i don't buy the whinging about a female choice; saying "oh theyre being forced into it by sjw, so best stick to white guys" is a cop out.  

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32 minutes ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

Interesting that Broadchurch season 1 now features three Doctors - 10, 1.3 and 13.

and Rory.

I'm open minded about the choice.  I think Eva Green would have een excellent, but pretty sure Dr Who is below her pay grade.



Also: she's not British. It's gonna be a long while before we get a non-British Doctor.

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Quote

 

Having a female master and a female doctor does seem like over egging the pudding however. Clearly there was a lot of social pressure on them to make it a female doctor, which is a shame, decisions should be made based on creating the best story, not pandering to pressure. I don't mind either way, I have no problem with a female doctor , the role is essentially gender neutral 

 

I think there was a strong reason for doing it aside from trendiness or whatever (although it's actually overdue: Doctor Who's creator argued for a female Doctor in 1986). Chibnall appears to have mandated a major change in how Doctor Who is written, directed and shot, which the BBC has backed because they want the show on air every year (finally accepting that 18 months or whatever between seasons has not helped the ratings). Chibnall wants a proper writer's room with a lot of different input, a faster production turn-around (which should be achievable; the new Doctor Who's production model and schedule has been hideously inefficient ever since 2005, taking more time to shoot a season than Game of Thrones despite far more modest requirements) and more time for writing and rewrites, all of which I think people can agree would benefit the show.

From that POV, a complete reboot of the show, cast, directing style and production methodology is the perfect time to bring in a female Doctor and make a statement that this is not the same show it was in 2010 or 2005. I think it's a good time to do it.

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