All New Who

Or Catherine the Great.  Quite likely Hypatia.  Cleopatra.  Of course they already had rank and a couterie.

Actually I think a woman could sweep in and take charge in historical periods by sheer guts and surprise, so long as she doesn't stumble.  Then she'd be crushed.

Maybe she doesn't want to sweep into a room and take control, maybe its going to be more subtle.- Figg

{{Or maybe it will be less like the Doctor- and there is the catch- to change the gender only not the character. The Doctor still has to be the Doctor we know and love. }}}

{{{New companions announced- there will be 3 main ones and a fourth reappearing one- Walsh is one of them too so def an older male companion in the mix. The promo picture looks like an advert for diversity in modern Britain! }}}




{{Also more worryingly- 'the series will have a 10-week run of 50-minute episodes in autumn 2018, starting with a feature-length hour show for the launch.' The word was that we were getting hour long episodes to make up for less episodes- but it seems not the case instead the BBC have just chopped down the amount of episodes in a series whilst keeping the run time the same- thats a bad sign before it even starts filming.}}}

Good guess on multiple companions. Solves a lot of the angst.

where's the fat Chinese one-legged lesbian dwarf? very disappointed.

{{{ Got similar thoughts when I saw it Figg- I'm all for the female Doctor aspect, but the casting for companions seems a little agenda driven and on the nose for my liking.
It occurred to me that it actually looked more like a cast picture for the Sarah Jane Adventures than for Who, or even Class. But Who?
Guess we will have to see where Chibnal goes with this- but bit of a disappointing day Whowise for me- casting raises strong suspicions of it being used to drive an agenda rather than stories, and very annoyed we are losing yet another episode from the series run and not getting hour long episodes in trade off.
Why the BBC keep chopping Who's budget when its their biggest money spinner is one of the great mysteries of our time! }}}

If the Asian one wears a burkah, I'm out.

tfw the mere presence of people of color in a traditionally white-dominated space is construed as a political statement

{{{Its not that Eldo- Bill was black no one mentioned it on here, it wasn't relevant- its the sense that Chibnal Who is starting out with a very particular agenda to push at all costs- and this casting would seem to point in the direction of those suspicions being true.
For me I dont care if the Doctor is male/female, or what colour the companions are so long as the stories and characters are the main reason for doing everything- when its not disaster tends to happen. }}}

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Its not that Eldo ... its the sense that Chibnal Who is starting out with  a very particular agenda to push at all costs- and this casting would seem to point in the direction of those suspicions being true.

I'm not really sure what you think I'm mistaken about. My earlier post was specifically referring to the fact that casting actors of color in traditionally white roles (and, in the case of the Doctor, a woman in a traditionally male role) provokes suspicions of a political or social agenda being afoot while the casting of white and/or male actors in such roles is assumed to not have an agenda behind it.

Edit: if Chibnall has made any comments suggesting that he intends for the show to promote a particular political or social message then by all means please link me to them, but it's not like Moffat was immune to such insinuations either, including with regards to Bill even if that didn't spread here (though we've seen other similar controversies extend to this forum before).

{{{My point was that the suspicions existed already, prior to the casting announcements- it is not therefore the casting which is causing the suspicions, the casting is merely adding support to them- but it is not the cause of the suspicions}}}

Eldorion wrote:tfw the mere presence of people of color in a traditionally white-dominated space is construed as a political statement

Yeah. I cannot believe the shit that's being said in here now. Two whitey whites and two shades of brown and it's "boohoo, too much diversity".

I for one - the only one, it seems - am very excited about it all! I look at the cast and my mouth water at the possibilities. And we might get consistent writing and story arches - which apparently we don't want for some reason. And character development!

we might get consistent writing and story arches - which apparently we don't want for some reason. And character development!- Amarie

{{And some of us think we already have those things in abundance and dont want to lose them to agenda writing. The show should not be written with the primary aim of meeting a series of ideological benchmarks, its not the best way to maintain the quality of story led Who we have been enjoying. The show should be driven by a desire to tell the best Who stories possible as its primary motivation.
We wont know till we see it if this is to be the case, or if like the failed Class it all feels like an artificial social and political agenda  forced onto the viewer where the stories largely existed just as excuses to have the agenda- but you could tell the agenda idea came first then it was a case of how do we write some sort of story round this? And that's the wrong way round to write quality Who (or most things). And thats my fear- nothing to do with the actors only the purpose in having those actors- if the purpose is they best suit the story ideas of Chibnal and are the best actors for that job- great- but if there purpose is primary an excuse for an overt social/political agenda then no, not good. Class is gone and it isn't getting renewed, I dont want that to happen to Who for the same reasons- audiences were turned off by it- people dont tune into Who for a lecture -unless they are watching series 10!   -





And Who has nearly always been left of centre, its nearly always championed liberal causes, and various writers have written it with a political or social message in mind- but under the hood- the primary story still has to be a good Who story- my personal fear is that that balance will be jettisoned in favour of active promoting and overt politicizing of the show.  }}}

Time will tell. I don't think it will be that bad, but one should never underestimate human ability to be unbelievably stupid.

If you want to prepare yourself and see some diversity in a time machine, there's always Timeless!
It's not the worst series in the world, if you survive the pilot. Hmmm... from the producers of 'The Blacklist'.... that does explain a lot...

{{{ On a lighter note- and as a reminder that the joy of Who is it can at one moment be an outright horror and the next complete farce- heres some fun stuff }}}

Oh, I almost forgot! With ref. to the Gold music post from earlier.
See, I had to get up early - well... 9 - on Saturday and I had slept quite poorly. I slouched around in slow-brained zombie mode trying to get ready. I noticed there was a song playing in my head and I had to stop to listen. Yes, I had to stop what I was doing in order to listen to my own thoughts. And from the murky depths of my half asleep brain, the sound of a bright child voice and a choir intensified, singing: Live, wake up, wake uuup... I'm not sure if I was mocking or comforting myself, but some part of me was feeling chipper at least.

I did get to where I had to go in time, and there was coffee.

True story.

There is nothing wrong with diversity and there is nothing negative but positive about society if its not all white people doing 'whitey' things. But knowing the current fashion for quotas and general pc pandering to a ridiculous extent, it looked like they were going we'll have one of those, and one of those, and one of those. white one, brown one and an Asian one just for shits and giggles.
It doesn't look natural and it looks like a marketing ploy to 'get down with the kids', it also reminds me of the type of pressure which moans at LOTR and GOT because there aren't enough Black people in them. Well, there aren't any Black people in them because they are set in a European fantasy world.
Doctor Who is a fantasy world which happens to be based for convenience in 21st century Britain its true, although you could argue that's forcing it because the TARDIS is not based anywhere in the Universe therefore Doctor Who should be less about being tied down to diversity on Earth and more about diversity on a universal scale.

call me a reactionary old fart if you will.

{{{I think I may be dead and in Who heaven- the better half got a fancy new kingsize bed (I take up a extra room, what with the buckie bottles and all!   ) and it has a built in TV that pops up out of the end of the bed- and I get to watch Who on it whilst having a drop of the good stuff, in bed!!! I am dead amn't I?   }}}

Dark in there. Can't get a proper look.

Ooooo! I approve! This lovely lady is really spoiling you, Petty! I bet she's even got The Thing in your fridge purring happily.

that's some man-cave you got there.

{{Tv pops up out the end bit. And obviously she has cleared away the buckie bottles. }}

'This lovely lady is really spoiling you, Petty! '- Amarie

{{{ Indeed Amarie- I have come to the conclusion that somewhere in the universe some very nice and deserving being is having an absolutely unfair miserable time of it in order to balance out some sort of galactic scale. }}

{{{Just because it exists!}}




{{Oh and in Who news Chibnal's female producer Sam Hoyle, who worked with him on Broadchurch, is moving with him to co-produce Who. She joins Mathew Stevens who produced the 50th special An Adventure in Space and Time.
Chibnal, like Moffat and RTD before him also gets a producer credit. }}.

Whoah. That's not a bed, it's a boudoir.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:

{{Obviously its a place of joy, comfort, excitement, delight and plenty of fun adventures - yeah I'm mainly watching Who in there  }}}