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Doctor Who Won't Return Until 2020 (bbc.co.uk)

AmiMoJo quotes the BBC: The next series of Doctor Who won't start until 2020, it's been confirmed. Series 11 ended on Sunday night, but after the festive special on New Year's Day, Jodie Whittaker won't be seen in the Tardis again next year.

Showrunner Chris Chibnall said work on the new series had already begun... The first episode of the series, the first to feature a female Doctor, drew a record audience. It saw the highest launch viewing figures for the sci-fi stalwart in a decade, with 10.9 million people tuning in. The series has been considered a ratings success, with viewing figures above those of the last two series when Peter Capaldi starred in the title role.

14 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. Stopped Watching After Capaldi by DatbeDank · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Long time Dr. Who fan, started with the reboot. Fell in love with the them. Then the rlwrotong started to get preachy with Capaldi's character which is a shame because he's a great actor.

    It went downhill really fast. What happened to Dr. Who is exactly what happened to Star Wars. Good story telling thrown to the wayside for whatever social issue pandering du joir Moffett can come up with.

    Joke's on them, I have 25ish odd years of classic Dr. Who now to catch up on where the Doctor is a man and the assistant is a cute girl instead of this shark jumping gender reversal nonsense.

    1. Re:Stopped Watching After Capaldi by rilister · · Score: 4, Informative

      Strange hills to die on, since Dr. Who has had male companions since 1969 and The Doctor is an alien species who has regenerated his identities seemingly at random: the fact that Time Lords can change gender during regeneration was established at least 7 years ago with The Corsair (as written by Neil Gaiman, not Moffett).
      But if this gender stuff really bothers you, you'll see it everywhere.

      --
      'This writing business. Pencils and what-not. Over-rated if you ask me. Silly stuff. Nothing in it' - Eeyore
    2. Re:Stopped Watching After Capaldi by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Ahhh yes, pretend its because of "wamens" and not the fact that its gotten more preachy than a Baptist church on a Sunday...uh huh.

      The word you are looking for is NOT misogynist, its Anvilicious which is what the SJW plague has sadly done to much Sci/Fi, See Star Wars and Star Trek for just 2 examples. People want to be entertained, not preached to with all the subtlety of getting hit upside the head with a brick and as we have seen with everything from CBS not being able to get a plug nickel for the rights to ST:D overseas (boy is those initials apropos) to the piles of Last Jedi Blu-ray stinking up the cheap bins in the Wally World people are sick and tired of it and are just walking away.

      The majority of the fans didn't give a crap if the Doctor switched genders, hell he's switched personalities every single time he regenerated (and if anything what annoyed me and a lot of others is that they ignored they were dealing with an ALIEN that had spent 8000+ years in one type of body so there should have been more dispassionate examination of the new form, things like lack of reach being a downside while agility being a positive, that sort of thing) but instead it just got more and more preachy and "look at how woke we are!" like the 12th Doctor in the Xmas special constantly saying to the first "You can't say that"...dude you are a fucking ALIEN TIME TRAVELER who has saved the earth countless times, quit prostrating yourself like a fucking cuck! A simple "I was a bit of an arrogant ass when I was a kid" since the first Doctor in the canon is literally an infant compared to the extreme age of the 12th would have sufficed, but...nope, gotta drop them anvils...ugh.

      But as others noted luckily we have decades of Doctor Who were they cared about good stories and fun instead of bating you upside the head with their politics so like Star Trek and Star Wars let it die, good riddance.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    3. Re:Stopped Watching After Capaldi by Tom · · Score: 3

      Second this. I also started with the reboot and loved it. Still like Eccleston a lot, he had that edge that an ancient Time Lord who saw the worst should have.

      With Capaldi, the quality of the show dramatically fell away, and it wasn't because of him or his acting. I wasn't even interested in the female Doctor, and not just because it felt like they made him a woman purely to satisfy the SJW crowd.

      I seriously lost all interest in the show. It had a bunch of high points, like the Bad Wolf part, or some of the River Song pieces, or the episode where they run around inside the TARDIS and it turns out that it's powered by a freaking SUN. That was amazing, I wish I could remember which episode it was.

      But no such high points for the last few years, and no indication that they'll be back.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  2. Worst Doctor Who in ages by Leuf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Most people complaining about this season say it's bad because of the SJW themes. That's not why it's bad. It's bad because the writing, directing, and acting are terrible. The writers have no imagination. The Doctor has no edge. When she has an important bit of dialog the camera is probably going to be at some weird angle so the focus isn't even on her. Two out of three of the companions are just there. Graham could be a good counterpoint if there was ever a point to counter.

    There's been plenty of "meh" Doctor Who episodes over the years. I watch because you never know when they are going to pull a "The Girl in the Fireplace" or "Blink" or "Heaven Sent" out of their hats. But even when it's been "meh" it's at least had personality.

    1. Re:Worst Doctor Who in ages by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Interesting

      No, this is what happens with pretty much all long-running TV shows - they eventually run out of clever ideas.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re:Worst Doctor Who in ages by LainTouko · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Doctor Who hasn't suddenly finished exploring the ideas available to it after 55 years. It's just got a crap lead writer now. Chibnall's scripts were bad when he was writing under RTD and Moffat, and they're bad now. He's only got the job because of Broadchurch, which is a completely different sort of show which says nothing for your ability to write weird sci-fi.

  3. Found it hard to watch by Tomahawk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In previous seasons I wanted to watch every episode when it was broadcast. This season, meh. I watch it at some point during the week when I've nothing what to watch.
    I found most is the season very preachy. I found myself watching it almost because I felt I had to, and not enjoying it.
    The was very little by way of SciFi in it, and what was there felt very much shoehorned into the story.
    Over all, personally, I think this was the worst series ever. The writers made a point of dropping the Daleks and the Cybermen, and internally did what they did. They need to be fired and the writers from the David and Matt era brought in to get the show back on track.

    Very disappointed. I don't think I'll miss watching it in 2019 if it was just too be more of that crap.

  4. Re:What ratings? by ArhcAngel · · Score: 3, Insightful

    After the increasing proselytizing of SJW BS of the last few seasons I couldn't finish the last season. I mean how sad is it I welcomed the demise of Bill? She was an insufferable arrogant ass. Abrasive characters can add to a shows entertainment but when the character insults your intelligence at every opportunity it just isn't fun to watch. I had no problem with a female Doctor. In fact the previews I have seen she is an excellent Doctor. But I knew the overwhelming overtones of the series would be SJW slanted so I haven't watched a single episode this season.

    --
    "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
  5. Fake ratings by 110010001000 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "The consolidated figures from ratings body Barb includes the number of people watching on devices as well as TV. Barb only began counting ratings for phones, PCs and tablets last month. The previous highest series launch episode for the drama was in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston, which attracted 10.8 million. That number obviously didn't include device figures."

    Er, yeah. 10.9 million worldwide, on TV and devices? That is terrible. Idiots on youtube pull those numbers. No wonder it isn't coming back.

  6. Current Doctor hasn't developed a personality. by jfdavis668 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The writers have been doing a lot of character development for the companions, but very little for the Doctor herself. It's like she doesn't have a personality. She is almost a cartoon rendition of previous Doctors. I mean, the stories haven't even really explained who she is to the new companions. And maybe they are trying to avoid the issue, but have done little with the Doctor coming to grips with being female now. The need a few episodes focusing on the Doc.

  7. Typical Brits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "The series has been considered a ratings success..." We better hold off a year, then.

  8. Re:Soo by Mister+Transistor · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well you should. Legion was a pretty good show, after all.

    --
    -- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
  9. It's the scripts! by Voyager529 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Moffatt had his issues. He tended to lean pretty heavily on the Daleks / Cybermen / Weeping Angels a lot, and 'continuity' was almost laughable during his tenure, but he also knew how to do a story arc. The last three episodes of last season were easily the best of the season. I genuinely felt something when Bill said "I waited for you". I'd submit that the season-long arc in season 6 was probably the most well done of such arcs, and it was still possible to see the one-off episodes during the season without feeling like you walked in halfway through the story.

    I don't think the issue the past two seasons had to do with the SJW content, though it certainly didn't help. The issue, I feel, had to do with three things. First, the pacing was terrible. The first act generally took way too long; it commonly felt like the episode was half over before they actually got started telling a story. Then, they raced through the climax, with the Doctor revealing something in that moment to solve the problem, which couldn't have been known otherwise, and then in 90 seconds the whole issue is resolved. After a while, there was no point in following the story, so we didn't get invested.
    Second, (admittedly more so last season), lots of those stories felt more like 'live action Scooby Doo' - land on a planet, meet someone who's scared of a thing, find the thing, find out the thing is really the nice one and is just misunderstood, realize the person who's scared of the thing is really the bad one, have the Doctor say "play nice, you two", and then leave.
    Finally, there were the villains. It's understandable that Daleks and Cybermen got old...but every week, a new villain, who's "just evil, okay?" with no motivation and no development, 'generic maniacal antagonist #493' stops being any better just because it can handle stairs. Why was the alien who was out to disrupt Rosa Parks getting on the fateful bus at all concerned about it? Why were those aliens who mourned everybody absent at Gallifrey? There was a golden opportunity to establish a recurring villain, but it was squandered on big spiders and a hungry thing.

    So, I won't miss it in 2019...perhaps a year's sabbatical will involve the writers binge watching a few of the past seasons and taking some of the positive things from them.