Doctor Who

Whittaker is a perfectly capable actress in attack the block or Broadchurch. Chibnall a competent writer. Why then are they so god awful together. The scripts are what a story is judged by and arguably since Capaldi they've been much of a muchness. It doesn't help when the team of companions are in the main reduced to ciphers doing what the plot dictates.

Bradley Walsh is the exception though. With a background in comedy he handles drama well. Too well as his Graham outshines the Doctor. She is incredibly passive and it's as if the Doctor is the companion to the sidekicks.

It the series is to continue it needs to get back to string storytelling. Everything else flows from this cornerstone. Don't think Moffat was a great show runner but he could write as shown by The Doctor Dances/The Empty Child and my personal favourite Blink. The Weeping Angels are up there with the very best of the monsters. How many other memorable ones have there been? The Cybermen look like generic robots now and each new Dalek redesign gets progressively worse.

Hopefully the series can rediscover its mojo. But it now appears to be more about shifting merchandise than creating decent television.
 
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Stopped watching the reboot a few years ago when they introduced the flying Dalek, then, the Daleks seemed to be in nearly every show. Watched the first of each new doctor's episode, but haven't made it to the end of a couple of those first episodes.
All a bit too childish for me now. But, I am an old git.
 
The Pandorica Opened said:
Well, if you're going to actually try and formulate a point - an admirable effort for you, as I can see - then you're simply factually wrong. Doctor Who is a family show that was literally invented by the BBC to bridge the gap between children's adventure shows and adult drama. It was always meant, from conception, to be a show that painted in pure strokes bold enough to capture a child's imagination but also engage adults as well. Which is exactly what it's done for nearly sixty years.

So, look - just because you're sad enough to care about other people putting stock into things that you don't, doesn't mean anyone else has to abide by it. Doctor Who is perfectly capable of beautiful writing and drama, and frequently has over the last six decades - and by the way, so is writing for children. As anyone who's a professional writer (such as me, hello!) will tell you, writing for kids doesn't mean writing worse, it means writing better. Doctor Who is a show aimed at kids. Doctor Who contains some beautiful writing and character arcs. Ironically, it's the sign of an infantile mind not to be able to hold these two concepts simultaneously.

Now why don't you go and talk to someone about something you are passionate about, rather than banging your head against the wall about something you aren't? Life's too short, trust me.

Danke shun.
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Was a big part of our family when our boys were growing up and I was a big fan of all the doctors of the modern era up to and including Capaldi who I thought was great in the role but let down by some of the writing. Funnily enough Tennant was probably my least favourite but the rest of the family thought he was best.

Whittakers arrival was coincidental with the boys being older and less likely to join us for a TV event but I also thought it had lost something by then as well, nothing to do with her gender, probably the writing as well.

Agree with all you say on here and like your analysis. Anyway, I won’t clog up the thread, think I’ll go and slag off something I’m not interested in just for the hell of it
 
Only last year I realised the Cybermen were not real
However Iam married to a Cyberwoman!!
 
journolud said:
Was a big part of our family when our boys were growing up and I was a big fan of all the doctors of the modern era up to and including Capaldi who I thought was great in the role but let down by some of the writing. Funnily enough Tennant was probably my least favourite but the rest of the family thought he was best.

Whittakers arrival was coincidental with the boys being older and less likely to join us for a TV event but I also thought it had lost something by then as well, nothing to do with her gender, probably the writing as well.

Agree with all you say on here and like your analysis. Anyway, I won’t clog up the thread, think I’ll go and slag off something I’m not interested in just for the hell of it
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I think the thing with Capaldi is that his first series has two or three genuinely terrible episodes and that sort of stuck in people's mind because the show needed a strong run to market the new, not-as-marketable Doctor at the time. But overall, I genuinely do think the writing for Capaldi is the strongest the show has ever had. Best character arcs, best theming, most complex antagonists, etc. S9 in particular is just... chef's kiss. But in fairness, it's an era very much for people who love the show and are willing to watch drama that hangs around questions of identity like "What does it mean to be The Doctor?". It's a far cry from the rip-roaring, please-all Saturday night telly that RTD provided.

Whittaker's era just never came together for me, really. From the writing, to the music, to the acting, it felt like everything was just made to vaguely emulate the RTD era without any real voice of it's own. If I was to rank the writing quality of the modern Doctors:

1. Capaldi (Moffat)
2. Eccleston (RTD)
3. Smith (Moffat)
4. Tennant (RTD)
5. Whittaker (Chibnall)
 
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Chibnall was a terrible choice, every episode he wrote was god awful and bland prior to taking over and then decided to rewrite the cannon completely.

His more adult orientated shows like broardchurch and torchwood he was good at, I don't think he understood how crazy and judgemental sci-fi fanbases are of you mess with the traditional expectation

As for whitaker, let down with poor writing and character style, yet when they introduced Jo Martin as a female Doctor they got it spot on., also Missy worked as a female Master.
 
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