All New Who

{{{ New costume for our new Doctor. Looks like much as 12 the 15th Doctor wont have a set outfit so much as a look.
Although admittedly, and this almost certainly exposes both my age and inherited racial stereotypes, but my first thought on seeing it was, "Are they going to the 70's for an adventure with Huggy Bear?"

I am going with 70s pimp in Blaxploitation movie.

Yes, the choice was unfortunate. If they wanted to make a real statement they should have gone with tweed.

{{ 11 did tweed- in fact it boosted sales of tweed worldwide by a third and did even more for bowties! "Since the new Doctor Who aired we have seen a dramatic rise in bow tie sales, in the last month up sales have increased by 94%" - Telegraph.

I notice our new Doctor is fond of jewellery, lot of rings and not one but two necklaces, mind you if youre going to expose half your chest all time probably going to need 2 (Im starting to suspect RTD has a direct hand in Ncuti's costumes- why can I see this era being a court case in 20 years time!). On plus side heres hoping they give Millie the same dress code!! }}

He's gonna be sweating under the lights. That get-up does not look breathable.

{{ I suspect thats how RTD likes him! }}

{{ So rumour thats been on the go for a while, but has got some credence recently as the anonymous source has a decent track record on breaking stories, but is still only a rumour.

And that rumour is that RTD has got Moffat back on board to write an episode for Ncuti's Doctor.
I think this is good news myself, especially as its only for one off episodes.

One of Moffats more telling interviews was around the episode Listen for Capaldi's Doctor. Its a classic Moffat stand alone, intriguing, full of questions and mystery, good scares. But its why he wrote it is more interesting.

He says when he used to write under RTD he could do these single more deeper episodes, but as showrunner you mainly write the big bombastic series opening two parter, a mid season blockbuster, and a two part big as you can make it spectacular finale as well as crafting the big overarching series plot.
Its all the big stuff, its all the cinematic, the bombastic, when what Moffat really loves is the smaller, introspective episodes. He described giving Listen to himself to write as a present to himself. And I think that says a lot. As does the fact he did it again in series 9 and gave us probably the best crafted episode of the modern era in Heaven Sent

So getting Moffat back to not only do what he does best, but what he loves most, is I think a good idea.

I also hope he gets a few others back and retains Jamie Matheison from Moffats era too. }}

We will be getting the best of both worlds, as we've been dreaming of. And it's very scary to get one's wish.

{{ Yup I really hope RTD doesnt fuck it up. Im already prepared for the fact it will be more soapy, RTD loves soap operas- hence his current show on ITV Nolly, a biopic of teatime ITV soap star Noel Gordon from Crossroads (remember it?!) with Helena Boham Carter. So if his Who isnt like a soap opera again Ill be surprised (pleasantly so mind you, I'm not a fan of all the soap/family stuff in Who myself). }}

There was nothing as soapy as the Amy Rory ménage à trois.

{{ It wasnt in a soap style at all. RTD stuff is proper kitchen sink soap, sitting in cafes talking over cups of tea, domestic arguments between mum and daughter, boyfriend wanting to go down the pub and watch the football, daddy issues, jealous spats- it just doesn't and has never screamed Who for me. Plus it alwaysmeant 99% of RTD's stuff was set on earth, which is a waste of all of Time and Space.

Not that you cant get some brilliant scenes out of the soap scenario - 10 and Wilf in the cafe talking about death and 10's breaking down is great writing and performance, but I prefer 10 and Wilf sitting on the spaceship while Wilf talks about Ww2 and Palestine before trying to persuade the Doctor to take his old gun and shoot the Master, its not a domestic looking scene, and it directly plays into the Who story and elements via the Master. They are essentially the same set up- 2 characters in a single location sitting talking, but one feels like a soap, the other feels like Who to me. Sometimes its partly just about the dressing.
So Im hoping RTD aims more for the latter scene than former, but it looks like he is going pretty heavy with the soap elements, including having one of Rose's neighbours as a recurring character (played by Anita Dobson who some may remember from Eastenders when it began)}}

{{ Decided to get my Who fix by rewatching fav episodes from Capaldi era, that being my favourite era of NuWho, only 4 episodes into his debut series and 3 have already made the watch again list. But Listen, the fourth, thats special.
Listen is the episode Moffat described as a present to himself, a chance to write the sort of Who he got to do under RTD, the in-between episodes to the big plot of the year, not a special, a finale or a big opener, just a small introspective episode examining both the characters of the doctor, his companion Clara, and their relationship as its forming with this new incarnation of the Doctor.

"I'm going to do a chamber piece, with no money, in the middle [of the eighth series], because I haven't done one in ages and I'd like to prove that I can actually write."

And its also a master class in creating tension and creeping horror out of thin air. Murray Gold is spot on in his score, letting the dialogue speak and underscoring the tension with ease. Expertly directed by Douglas MacKinnon the pacing and editing are likewise spot on. And the lead performances it goes almost without saying with these two, are excellent throughout.

If you have a spare 45 mins its highly recommended. Less in fact as this upload zooms it up to avoid copyright, set playback to 0.75 speed.}}

{{ Who casting news. Jinkx Monsoon has been cast in a 'major role'. If you haven't heard of Jinkx, I hadn't, turns out they won Ru Pauls Drag Show and went on to play parts in a few musicals, most notable Rent, Hairspray and most recently on Broadway in Chicago. No idea if the role is to be played in drag or not, as far as I can tell all the parts Jinkx has played so far have been in drag, but given we have a trans character already its certainly not off the table we will also get a drag character.
I do wonder what the Daily Mail will make of this!}}

It's beginning to spiral out of control.

{{ RTD has said some interesting things of late.
For example-

'I do a lot of mentoring, and there are voices wanting to be heard – of any gender or ethnicity – who consider themselves invisible. They hate the media that ignores them, and they’re trapped into wanting a job in that medium purely to increase representation. I read their scripts and they’re rubbish. They don’t actually love television, so they don’t know how to write for it.’

He also claims the fourth episode is the best thing he has ever written. Which considering his cupboard of BAFTA winning dramas is quite a claim.

I'm not sure if he doesn't see this as a sort of writing challenge, to write woke, but write it well as an example to all those voices he's been mentoring of how you do it; with good characters, stories and love of the medium. But that's a tricky balance to have against a large section of your audience that is hostile to the idea of woke in any form and are keenly looking out for it to complain about. }}

Woke done well isn't easy. Looking forward to seeing what he does.

I just want old fashioned timey-wimey sci-fi stories. Anything else turns me off immediately because I know its part of pushing an agenda and an ideology. I hate ideologies and in particular those which require you to agree and acquiesce without question or debate. Ideologies which are at heart misogynist cleverly disguised in a 'be kind' rainbow flag.

{{ Well wouldn't be the first time Who's had an agenda or pushed a viewpoint, all the way from the 1st Doctors second every story, daleks being space nazi's all the way to the 7th right before cancellation in the Happiness Patrol satirizing Thatchers Britain, or in-between 3 fighting giant green maggots in a 70's pro-environmental story, or Silurians in an anti-war tale.

I've always preferred it when it covers satire and social commentary through allegory, using its sci-fi trappings- I prefer daleks in Who to point out that racial superiority and its accompanying attitudes suck than just having actual nazis do it.
I prefer my Doctor not to be falling in love with their companions all the time, but sadly I doubt that is going to change under RTD given he is largely responsible for it in the modern era.

Up until Chibnal era those were the main complaints for me, the agenda stuff never really bothered me as its always been there dependent on times and main writers. But once Chibnal took over and everything else; characters, story, development, structure, all went out the window in favour of just the message, that's when the agenda part started to be an issue, as it was actively damaging everything else by being all consuming and the most, indeed only, point to any episode.

Thats what RTD needs to avoid for me, he had an agenda first time he wrote Who, the infamous 'gay agenda' when he introduced a lot of characters who were gay, bi, or pan sexual, and whilst there was always a small but vocal 'daily mail' bracket of fandom that rallied against that agenda, it was for the most part just accepted by most folk because the characters and stories were what they were watching for, and it was one of the most successful periods of the show in terms of audiences in the UK. So it can be done.
But I think the environment he is trying to do it in this time is a much harder, and harsher and more judgemental one than when he wrote for 9 and 10 the first time. That 'daily mail' brackett has got much worse and much larger, fuelled by the genuine grievances Chibnall era offered them to run with. But the real problem was never Chibnall having an agenda, the shows always had those, it was in how badly it was realised. }}

{{ Drag in Who. They'll be putting the Doctor in drag next! Think of the children!}}

If its done subtlety its all fine by me. As you said, RTD made it seem natural and cool. Chibnal bashed you over the head with it. It was as subtle as a Glasgow Kiss with a brick. But I am worried that RTD is throwing in every single diverse and inclusion cliche, what next, morbid obesity, furries, men in nappies?

{{ Another great fan vid from Margarita Life, on the darkness in the Doctor. But what struck me about this is she could have taken the few Jodie clips she put in out and it wouldn't make a difference, and secondly how poorly Jodies Doctor looks compared like this side by side to the previous in terms of the writing and performance (so flat and dull, like she is reading her script off an autocue), she just didn't have the darkness, or the drama or the moral questions to get her acting chops into. Her era has no meat on the bones. }}

{{ No idea if this is just for some pr thing, or if our new Doctor is really just going to like dressing up for the period he is in, but- }}

Thats quite cool.

{{ From what I can tell it is indeed for an episode (even talk of there being a musical episode!), but if this is for an ep then thats 60's and a very 70's look weve seen him in so far. The Doctor does occasionally, and for no particular reason, decide to dress in period costume. Last time I remember it happening was 12 and Bill at the The Last Great Ice Fair-



9 made Rose wear period costume for visitng Victorian England, with the wonderful line "Hoi, where do you think your going dressed like that? You'll start a riot Barbarella." But 9 himself didnt bother changing his own appearence. I cant recall off top of my head 10 or 11 doing period costume. }}