All New Who

Here's Emma with a nice Q&A. Worth a watch.
(Not Who related, but maybe useful anyway I think.)

It is quite long but worth a watch for an explanation of the brutal truth for trans kids.

Alright, I haven't even seen that, but I know myself enough to see that this will only escalate. I'll do a rare case of pulling rank and say we stop this now. We've had our say and noone is in any doubt where we stand.

No debate? fair enough, its probably too toxic a subject for Forumshire anyway.

{{ Probably just about toxic enough for the BBST though All that is relevant on this thread is if the radio play under question Doctor Who:redacted, is any good or not?
And I say, yes its not bad at all. Worth a listen. }}

{ 14th Doctor has been announced!

The role has gone to Ncuti Gatwa.



So our first black Doctor- that should please someone somewhere I'm sure.
I know nothing about the guy, never seen him in anything and so I cant really comment on his suitableness to the role- hard to imagine he could be any less suitable than Jodie. Plus he's Scottish (born in Rwanda) so thats a bonus.
I suspect the only way they could get a male Doctor after the disastrous female run without making it look like an admission of failure was to pick an ethic group male.
I really hope he is good and up for the job and not just a box-ticking exercise, we've just seen the atrocious level of Who that produces with 13 we don't want a repeat. So fingers crossed they really were the best person for the job and not just the best person for the job with the word 'black' next to their name. }}

'The 29-year-old will become the 14th Time Lord on the popular science fiction show, and the first non-white actor to play the lead role.
Scottish actor Gatwa, who was born in Rwanda, is best known for starring in Netflix's sitcom Sex Education.
He said he was "deeply honoured, beyond excited and of course a little bit scared".
He added: "This role and show means so much to so many around the world, including myself, and each one of my incredibly talented predecessors has handled that unique responsibility and privilege with the utmost care.
"I will endeavour my upmost to do the same."
Showrunner Russell T Davies said Gatwa "dazzled us" in his audition.
"Sometimes talent walks through the door and it's so bright and bold and brilliant, I just stand back in awe and thank my lucky stars," Davies said.- BBC

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{ 14th Doctor has been announced!

The role has gone to Ncuti Gatwa.



So our first black Doctor- that should please someone somewhere I'm sure.
I know nothing about the guy, never seen him in anything and so I cant really comment on his suitableness to the role- hard to imagine he could be any less suitable than Jodie. Plus he's Scottish (born in Rwanda) so thats a bonus.
I suspect the only way they could get a male Doctor after the disastrous female run without making it look like an admission of failure was to pick an ethic group male.
I really hope he is good and up for the job and not just a box-ticking exercise, we've just seen the atrocious level of Who that produces with 13 we don't want a repeat. So fingers crossed they really were the best person for the job and not just the best person for the job with the word 'black' next to their name. }}

'The 29-year-old will become the 14th Time Lord on the popular science fiction show, and the first non-white actor to play the lead role.
Scottish actor Gatwa, who was born in Rwanda, is best known for starring in Netflix's sitcom Sex Education.
He said he was "deeply honoured, beyond excited and of course a little bit scared".
He added: "This role and show means so much to so many around the world, including myself, and each one of my incredibly talented predecessors has handled that unique responsibility and privilege with the utmost care.
"I will endeavour my upmost to do the same."
Showrunner Russell T Davies said Gatwa "dazzled us" in his audition.
"Sometimes talent walks through the door and it's so bright and bold and brilliant, I just stand back in awe and thank my lucky stars," Davies said.- BBC

I think you've posted this in the wrong thread bro 

I think we've seen in the past that British living African born actors exhibit great power and depth.  Idris Elba.  Chiwetel Ejiofor. Djimon Hounsou.  The auguries are good.

An interview with him probably gives a better sense than the rather out-there character he plays in Sex Education.

{{ I have high hopes for him. He won a BAFTA for his role in Netflix's Sex Education but Ive never seen it so no idea, or if its the sort of role that might give any insight into how he might approach as big and iconic a role as the Doctor. Just got to trust in RTD here- he has a good track record in fact both he and Moffat had very good track records- Eccleston was fantastic, Tennant was barely known when he got cast and was good and massively popular, Smith was excellent and likewise off stage little known, and Capaldi is simply the best actor to ever have inhabited the role. Wasnt till Jodie we got a massive miscasting.
So the track record for Russel is good, and for NuWho in general, Chibnall era not withstanding. }}

{{ Disappointed he doesnt  have a Scottish accent- was hoping for our third Scottish Doctor, but I hear his Rwandan accent more than his Scots Though in itself thats interesting- I dont know if like Tennant he will affect an English accent (or a Scottish one) but if he goes with his own accent he will be the first incarnation of the Doctor to sound non-British. Which is a bit of a gamble as a large part of the appeal of the show for overseas viewers is its quirky British eccentricity. Who is a very British sort of an idea and show. }}

yeah I am trusting RTD on this. I have never heard of him but the fact he grew up in Scotland is really encouraging for his accent. I can hear his Scottish roots when he talks, I absolutely dislike the usual inner city ethnic London accent, its nasty. He doesn't sound like he says 'innit, you feelin me bro' every two seconds. We will have to wait and see, but at least he is a bloke and that is progress.

{{ I'm holding out hope he goes with Scottish. Gives the Doctor a certain rolling R'd gravitas. And its a good accent for comedy too. }}

He also claims to be a fan of the show. Jodie couldn't have been. He did have a stint in the Globe theatre, so has some classical training at the highest level.

{{ Jodie deliberately didn't watch any of her predecessors in the role and hadn't seen the show, which I think was a huge mistake and one of the reasons she never really felt consistent or like she understood the character.

Thing about the Doctor is you have to do all these moments when its light, funny and silly and quirky and eccentric...



...and at the next turn serious, dark, dangerous, mysterious and unknowable, full of hidden anger and with enough fury to burn a universe if he ever stopped being the Doctor...



...and enough pain to drown a universe in tears-



And often the actor will have to go from comedy to dark on the turn of a sixpence in the same scene. Takes a good actor to play the Doctor with a good handle on the character and role and a strong idea of how to play them.

As the other thing which makes the Doctor unique is that there is a core Doctor personality, but every actor who plays the Doctor mixes that up by adding their own spin from their own (often exaggerated for the role) personality and putting that into the role.
That was a major problem with Jodies Doctor.

Often the first scripts for a series will be written before an actor is cast, Moffat stated that what you do there is you write generic Doctor, that base personality and then you let the actor bring themselves to it and flesh the role out into their version, then you tailor the writing accordingly as the new Doctors personality forms out of the two.  Two well know examples from the 11th Doctor is Matt's habit when they were called to set of saying to Karen and Arthur, "Come along, Ponds" which Moffat added to the Doctor and the fact Matt was quite clumsy and often broke bits of the TARDIS set and props, likewise the 11th Doctor was awkward and often a bit clumsy and broke things. Matt proved adept at somehow conveying the sense of being a very old being in a young body, Moffat noted this and wrote 11 accordingly to take advantage of Smiths acting ability in that regard-



Jodies Doctor never felt like it left the generic Doctor writing stage, she never brought enough to the role and the writers never used what she did have in a good way, or at all (her natural personality often seems more suitable for the Doctor in interviews than it is actually in the role).

To get a good Doctor you need someone who can do many different acting styles, is willing to put a lot of themselves into the character and onscreen, and who understands the depths layered into the character.

It's probably one of the hardest and broadest acting roles in British television. Not to mention carrying the weight of the shows history and cultural legacy on your back. And he becomes the 14th in its 60th Anniversary year, so the weight of it will be very prominent. I wish him all the best in tackling it. }}

Strange how often actors are big fans of the high-profile, high-paying series they land a role in.  

I started watching the first episode of Sex Education, to get an idea of his acting. He's certainly bubbly and up-beat, and will follow Jodie Whittaker well.

The show Sex Education by the way is just the latest in a loooooooooooong series of productions pushing the sex agenda. The first ten minutes includes: a teen couple banging robotically and without passion upstairs from the parents of one of them, a boy leaving fake masturbation litter around his room, the boy's mom being a cougar with her temporary over-night young male sexual partner, discussion about the boy's lack of desire for masturbation, lots of gay talk about handjobs and hunky wet treats, two students making out as other kids walk by them on their way to class, and two students performing actual penetrative sex as students walk by them.

Retarded, but whatever.

Jodie deliberately didn't watch previous episodes? This makes sense if you are doing a play that has been done countless times before, but when you are continuing a story it's just stupid.

The first ten minutes includes: a teen couple banging robotically and without passion upstairs from the parents of one of them, a boy leaving fake masturbation litter around his room, the boy's mom being a cougar with her temporary over-night young male sexual partner, discussion about the boy's lack of desire for masturbation, lots of gay talk about handjobs and hunky wet treats, two students making out as other kids walk by them on their way to class, and two students performing actual penetrative sex as students walk by them.- Forest

{{Well in fairness it is called Sex Education, its not going to be about baking apple pie is it?

'when you are continuing a story it's just stupid.'- Halfy

Yup I thought so. Kind of worse though is Chibnall didnt appear to know what was going on in the story either. Dont worry about the details but goes like this- the Doctors home planet Gallifrey was thought destroyed, by him, to end the Time War, but actually wasnt, it just looked like it was. In reality it was saved, by him, all of him in fact in the 50th anniversary ep, into a pocket universe trapped in a moment of Time. Eventually, at the second go, the Time Lords got themselves out the bubble universe as they are very clever with Time and, so as not to immediately start another Time War as everyone wanted them dead, they placed themselves at the very end of the universe, long after everyone else was gone where they could live alone in peace interfering in Time when they saw fit and secretly running the universe like the good old days. Then the Doctor turns up very pissed off with them and overthrows the President and makes himself President.

Enter Chibnall and the Doctor now thinks Gallifrey is still trapped in the bubble universe, despite 12 having been there.

So yeah, hardly surprising his lead actor hadn't much of a clue about what was going on really. }}

Haven't seen an episode of Sex Education, but I assume it's mainly a comedy. So they've got a license to overdo it.

(For reasons I haven't been able to untangle, it seems female standup comedians mainly talk about sex. Is that true, or is it just that my youtube algorithm has pegged me based on one initial click, and once you're pegged you can never escape?)

{{ Of course given in his announcement vid -



how can I put this....he's camper than a scout jamboree, and thats a lot of flesh for a Doctor of any sort to be seen showing in public!
Do we have to consider the reason Russel came back was he was allowed to do a gay Doctor? Given what I said above about how the good writers incorporate the natural personalities of their actor into the roles. And I'd take wild stab this chap may well be gay and quite campy with it. I always maintained RTD really wanted Rose to be male and gay but couldn't get away with it at the time, is this his chance? }}

Well Davies is gay, so he's probably keen to put some of his own perspective in.

Come to think if it, this may be why women prefer his writing to Moffat's: a gay man writing women is "safer" than a straight man writing women.  Doesn't project his own sexual fantasies into female characters.

I don't care if he minces around in a rainbow mankini like a Black Borat, as long as there aren't 'I am gay' agendas hammered every 5 minutes and there isn't an obvious and unsubtle politically correct bollox stories, I dont care. If RTD can balance all this with great sci-fi stories its all good. If RTD is as successful subtle and clever as last time I am ok with a lot of things. As I said I have a certain amount of trust in RTD and his taste levels. I think he may have seen the criticism of Chibnals era and wont make the same mistakes.

I think I like him.

I trust RTD too, at least a heck of a lot more than I trust Chibnal.

halfwise wrote:Well Davies is gay, so he's probably keen to put some of his own perspective in.

Come to think if it, this may be why women prefer his writing to Moffat's: a gay man writing women is "safer" than a straight man writing women.  Doesn't project his own sexual fantasies into female characters.

You may have a point.

Gay or straight it doesn't matter, what is important is actually liking women. RTD seems to like women and writes some great female characters. Donna is a classic example, only a writer who liked women could make her seem sympathetic. Because on the face of it she could have been boring being an ordinary office worker, irritating and gobby, but she was irritating and gobby in a good way. To take such an ordinary person and make them interesting and loveable is the sign of a great writer imo.

It's the actor as well. Plenty of cases where the writer intended on thing (or intended nothing) but the actor turned it on it's head and brought everyone else along.

For my generation Joey from Friends is a classic example. The writers intended him to be an obnoxious foil the other characters could play off, but Matt LeBlanc turned him into someone lovable. And the writers could keep writing what looked obnoxious on paper but he always brought the audience along with him.