Yes, yes and yes. I hope Capaldi is pushing Moffat to get him on board.
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Doctor Who Series 9 |OT| Let Zygons Be Zygons
- Thread starter Quick
- Start date
Yes, yes and yes. I hope Capaldi is pushing Moffat to get him on board.
Random guesses for the two writers:
- Edgar Wright (he's a fan, and after Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Jessica Hynes he should complete the Spaced quartet Yes, I know he's more famous for being a director than a writer, but let me dream)
- Charlie Brooker. It's no secret that he's a big fan of the show, and he hinted in the past that he might try to write an episode for Capaldi's Doctor. Would be my absolute favorite, the man is a genius and would fit the show extremely well.
- Edgar Wright (he's a fan, and after Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Jessica Hynes he should complete the Spaced quartet Yes, I know he's more famous for being a director than a writer, but let me dream)
- Charlie Brooker. It's no secret that he's a big fan of the show, and he hinted in the past that he might try to write an episode for Capaldi's Doctor. Would be my absolute favorite, the man is a genius and would fit the show extremely well.
Right, I forgot they said that. Maybe someday he'll return...
tonysidaway
Member
I'll make a case that Series 6 is where Steven Moffat's run really got interesting, and Series 7 built on the momentum to produce great climax of the Fiftieth Anniversary episode.
The theme of Series 6 is Who is River Song? The question is set up in The Time of Angels, the fourth episode in Series 5.
In a recent post I have already alluded to the key episodes as a form of magic trick. The mid-series reboot, Let's Kill Hitler, introduces a shape-changing box and puts Doctor Who's blue box inside it. At this point we have all the elements of the trick, but it's still a mystery until the reveal in The Wedding of River Song when we find that, at Lake Silencio, Doctor Who is in his box inside the box, which happens to be shaped like Doctor Who.
River Song's mystery is deftly resolved in an episode that introduces new series regulars.
Meanwhile we get solid two-parters (The Rebel Flesh), Light comedy (The Curse of the Black Spot), and a fan favourite, The Doctor's Wife.
I have long thought of this series, alongside Series 7, as a golden age for Moffat.
The theme of Series 6 is Who is River Song? The question is set up in The Time of Angels, the fourth episode in Series 5.
In a recent post I have already alluded to the key episodes as a form of magic trick. The mid-series reboot, Let's Kill Hitler, introduces a shape-changing box and puts Doctor Who's blue box inside it. At this point we have all the elements of the trick, but it's still a mystery until the reveal in The Wedding of River Song when we find that, at Lake Silencio, Doctor Who is in his box inside the box, which happens to be shaped like Doctor Who.
River Song's mystery is deftly resolved in an episode that introduces new series regulars.
Meanwhile we get solid two-parters (The Rebel Flesh), Light comedy (The Curse of the Black Spot), and a fan favourite, The Doctor's Wife.
I have long thought of this series, alongside Series 7, as a golden age for Moffat.
peanutbutterlatte
Member
I would be fucking over the moon with these two. Like best episodes of Who ever.
Exterminieren
Banned
I'd adore Charlie Brooker writing an episode, but he's knee-deep in his extended Black Mirror Netflix series. I'm not holding my breath.
Don't crush my dreams!
Tbh my main takeaway from new writers is
A) does that mean 13 episodes again? I hope it does
B) who's leaving?
oh, and season 6's problems are all Moffat, tony, sorry. No surprise that the best episodes in that season are the ones which are largely self-contained. Moffat for me doesn't pull himself out of his post-Eleventh Hour slump until Name of the Doctor. MAYBE Asylum of the Daleks if you can overlook the Moffatisms.
A) does that mean 13 episodes again? I hope it does
B) who's leaving?
oh, and season 6's problems are all Moffat, tony, sorry. No surprise that the best episodes in that season are the ones which are largely self-contained. Moffat for me doesn't pull himself out of his post-Eleventh Hour slump until Name of the Doctor. MAYBE Asylum of the Daleks if you can overlook the Moffatisms.
tonysidaway
Member
I've never understood where this quite baffling vehemence comes from. I can only imagine you have no idea how ridiculous it sounds.
"There is Only Time Wars"
Because the storyline of season 6 is garbage?
Look it's got to be Grant Morrison if we're getting any comicbook writer besides Gaiman.
Yeah, Morrison too, he would be a massive get for the show. Really, I don't know why the production team don't look at comic book writers more.
Hot Coldman
Banned
George Lucas and Terry Goodkind
Exterminieren
Banned
I'm not seeing any vehemence in that (very mild) criticism, I must say.
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
I marathoned the whole of NuWHo through the 50th without much exposure to fandom, so any vehemence I have comes as an honest reaction to what I saw on the screen.
Moffat's made great strides, but Season 6 was mostly a mess.
Moffat's made great strides, but Season 6 was mostly a mess.
I would love it if we went a whole season without treating the Doctor as the space messiah. No prophecies, no fan clubs, none of it.
I think it was the third episode this season where the Doctor and Clara show up in that underwater station and one of the characters starts listing off her favorite episodes? Please no more.
I think it was the third episode this season where the Doctor and Clara show up in that underwater station and one of the characters starts listing off her favorite episodes? Please no more.
Both the Silence and River Song suffer from Retcon fatigue.
The Silence is an unknown evil that blew up the TARDIS.
BUT ACTUALLY they're an alien race that's been on earth for centuries because everyone forgets them
BUT ACTUALLY they're a religion that was founded in opposition to the Doctor.
BUT ACTUALLY the ones fighting the Doctor are a splinter order from the main religion. The true religion is kind of good.
It all works and fits together on a technical level, but every time you make a change like that you are stretching the credulity of the audience a little bit more. Not everyone has the same breaking point, but eventually everyone throws up their hands and says, "Alright, come off it! How wrong could we have really gotten it in the first place?!"
The Silence and River Song being essential to Season Six is a large part of why it's not remembered so fondly, I feel.
I really liked what The Silence were when introduced, but the more things changed the less I cared about them.
And I actively dislike River Song being Amy Pond's daughter. River is larger than life, this magnificent, legendary creature. A time traveling adventurer meant to be the Doctor's peer. Capable, mysterious, frustrating. Tying the origins of that to a companion, even one as cool as Amy, felt like a misstep to me. It grounded River in a way that did her no favors. The whole "human time lord formed by being conceived in a TARDIS in the time vortex" thing was just...it wasn't good.
To me, River was at her best in Season 5. She was her own plot thread running through the show. I wanted to know the answers to the mysteries surrounding her and any time she showed up it felt like a genuine upping the ante on whatever was happening in the episode.
tonysidaway
Member
It's essentially writing off three series of Doctor Who (with some minor exceptions). And then there's this invented word of no fixed meaning that seems to translate to "things written by Moffat that I personally dislike."
It's one aspect of fandom that is truly raw and hateful. There's no reasoning with it. It's just "he's crap because I don't like what he does." Pure, irrational hatred.
tonysidaway
Member
Sort of. It's a heavily overlaid word. Moffat's view of time travel is a little more fully fledged than most. The more you tinker with time, the more it squirms to resist your efforts. There were always stories like this. Now there are entire series arcs about it.
That's great. You have an opinion. This means you are alive.
APZonerunner
Member
On Series 6 and 7, the thing I'd say is that... while modern Doctor Who has tended to average as mostly good episodes, a few great, a few bad a year (and in very good years, only one stinker), the thing about Series 6 is it somehow manages to delete that middle ground: everything in Series 6 is either a complete mess and/or shit tier, or it's godlike. There's nothing in the middle.
Series 7 then swings the opposite way; there's nothing offensively shit in Series 7, but there's nothing particularly stand-out good either. When we did that 'best episodes of each series' list a few pages ago, I had the stark realization as I rattled off my favourites from every series then got to Series 7 and went... "er... well... hmm." Series 7 just sort of exists, it's inoffensive, fun entertainment, but there's no Fathers Day or Blink or Midnight or The Impossible Planet or Vincent and the Doctor or The Girl Who Waited in Series 7; it's just a whole lot of run-of-the-mill adventures that are actually by and large pretty forgettable. I think in time, for these reasons Smith will be looked back on as an excellent Doctor who was under served by his scripts. Series 5 is certainly his best, and I think that's simply because Moffat had an extra year to prep and tweak and get everything bang on script-wise.
I feel it was with the 50th that Moffat regained his mojo, and generally speaking I think Series 8 and 9 were a return to the sort of quality levels Series 1-5 boasted.
Series 7 then swings the opposite way; there's nothing offensively shit in Series 7, but there's nothing particularly stand-out good either. When we did that 'best episodes of each series' list a few pages ago, I had the stark realization as I rattled off my favourites from every series then got to Series 7 and went... "er... well... hmm." Series 7 just sort of exists, it's inoffensive, fun entertainment, but there's no Fathers Day or Blink or Midnight or The Impossible Planet or Vincent and the Doctor or The Girl Who Waited in Series 7; it's just a whole lot of run-of-the-mill adventures that are actually by and large pretty forgettable. I think in time, for these reasons Smith will be looked back on as an excellent Doctor who was under served by his scripts. Series 5 is certainly his best, and I think that's simply because Moffat had an extra year to prep and tweak and get everything bang on script-wise.
I feel it was with the 50th that Moffat regained his mojo, and generally speaking I think Series 8 and 9 were a return to the sort of quality levels Series 1-5 boasted.
Exterminieren
Banned
Don't be so absurd. We've spent years in this thread arguing about what precisely it is that we do and do not like about Moffat's very distinctive style, and for you to say that people with criticism are just being hateful is frankly crass.
Hell, I overwhelmingly like Moffat's writing, but noticing and pointing out recurring themes is simply observation, not hate.
The irony again.
Please Tony, I can't take it.
Someone edit that to another Doctor Who fan is wrong on the Internet.
I've never seen someone so invested in something as to be outright dismissive and personally affronted by any criticism or difference of opinion.
It's bizarre.
I vote Charlie Brooker (Black Mirror) and Shane Carruth (Primer)
edit: Shane Carruth is not british .... neither is Charlie Kauffman ...
J K Rowling ? xD
tonysidaway
Member
And yet the term "moffatism" is what we get. Even if you ignore it, the raw, unreasoning hatred which is so characteristic of fandom is there.
Call me crass if you like, but I won't let this disgusting behaviour just slide by without comment.
tonysidaway
Member
I think Charlie Brooker is likely to be rather busy for the foreseeable future, for reasons that others have mentioned. Black Mirror is the kind of train set every writer dreams of.
I have been quite impressed with Dominic Mitchell's zombie aftermath series In the Flesh. With the police procedural No Offence, Paul Abbott continues to turn out sparklingly original work. If like to see the Doctor Who team soliciting new scripts from those writers.
You're insane, with an attitude more akin to a 12yo girl talking about One Direction. It's ok Tony for someone to not like Harry's hair!
You're the very example of what you claim to hate, except it's being directed away from the show towards other people instead. Which makes it worse. Blinded by your love of the show not only to its faults, but also to your own behaviour and ridiculous use of language.
The sooner you finish branding every single person who posts here disgusting and retreat to your mock TARDIS the better.
Grow up.
bengraven
Member
That's really not funny for guys who have been strangled by curly haired women, like myself.
aHebrewMenagerie
Member
#triggered
The constantly shifting explanations about the Silence aren't the results of tinkering with time travel, though, they really are just retcons: it's one thing, then it's another thing on top of that first thing, then it's a third thing on top of those first two things, etc.
Now, as a Metal Gear Solid fan, I'm quite at home with unnecessarily convoluted stories and retconning. But retconning the Silence three times over three years was a bit much.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
I coulda sworn we'd heard a hint in this direction before, haven't we?
I'm all caught up on the season and . . .
I kind of hated it? It had a half-decent start with The Doctor and Davros but I just can't stand Missy. The Master is a pretty decent villain but like, now The Master's just another Moffat girl moon eyed for The Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver. All those speeches about how she was his best friend and knew him better than Clara ever could and yada yada yada. Seriously grating distraction from an otherwise powerful opener.
Clara's exit was better than the hilariously terrible Angels Take Manhattan, but like, it was still rushed, contrived and forced. Seasons of "Oh this is the Impossible Girl and she is everywhere in his life and they're best pals" and one weird ass fuck up that Arya Stark gets excused from and now "We're bad for each other and this has to stop."
Not going to comment on the rank Zygon ISIS two parter because that's Kill the Moon tier tripe.
Sorta hoping Arya Stark gets hers before the end of next season because good God the world really needed YET ANOTHER immortal girl to be obsessed with The Doctor.
I kind of hated it? It had a half-decent start with The Doctor and Davros but I just can't stand Missy. The Master is a pretty decent villain but like, now The Master's just another Moffat girl moon eyed for The Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver. All those speeches about how she was his best friend and knew him better than Clara ever could and yada yada yada. Seriously grating distraction from an otherwise powerful opener.
Clara's exit was better than the hilariously terrible Angels Take Manhattan, but like, it was still rushed, contrived and forced. Seasons of "Oh this is the Impossible Girl and she is everywhere in his life and they're best pals" and one weird ass fuck up that Arya Stark gets excused from and now "We're bad for each other and this has to stop."
Not going to comment on the rank Zygon ISIS two parter because that's Kill the Moon tier tripe.
Sorta hoping Arya Stark gets hers before the end of next season because good God the world really needed YET ANOTHER immortal girl to be obsessed with The Doctor.
tonysidaway
Member
Here is a relatively content-free review of the 2015 Christmas Special, for the spoiler-averse.
http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/the-husbands-of-river-song-advance-review-78981.htm
My pull-quote: "On the whole, this years festive special is a decidedly mixed affair, unless you happen to love lighthearted romps, or have just drank too much Christmas booze to care."
Sounds like a rather pointless "unless." After all, it _is_ a Christmas show. A lighthearted romp is perfect for the season.
http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/the-husbands-of-river-song-advance-review-78981.htm
My pull-quote: "On the whole, this years festive special is a decidedly mixed affair, unless you happen to love lighthearted romps, or have just drank too much Christmas booze to care."
Sounds like a rather pointless "unless." After all, it _is_ a Christmas show. A lighthearted romp is perfect for the season.
tonysidaway
Member
Without a shift of emphasis there's no fun. For instance we also see at least two endings to Trensalore.
The Anglicans of A Good Man Goes to War and the Papal Mainframe of The Time of the Doctor are subtly different (the names are the clue) and both are portrayed in a whimsical way. Tinkering with time as Doctor Who does, what you call retcon as a term of disparagement seems to me to be quite in keeping with the show's tradition of cheerful contempt for limiting notions of canon.
Why are The Silence so enigmatic and changing? Because it's fun.
Quick Mustard
Member
My take on the Christmas episodes, as well as other Whovians I work with, is that its Christmas, its a one off, a light hearted romp for an hour is fine.
They will never come close to the GOAT A Christmas Carol, so let's just have some fun for an hour or so and not take it so seriously!
They will never come close to the GOAT A Christmas Carol, so let's just have some fun for an hour or so and not take it so seriously!
The review says just about what I expected it to. I'm in the mood for something along this line currently, so maybe I'll think it's decent. But mostly I think something more lighthearted is what the show needs right now, so for that alone I'm glad they're doing an episode like this one.
My take on the Christmas episodes, as well as other Whovians I work with, is that its Christmas, its a one off, a light hearted romp for an hour is fine.
They will never come close to the GOAT A Christmas Carol, so let's just have some fun for an hour or so and not take it so seriously!
While I do want something that lines up to the greatness of A Christmas Carol, I generally enjoy Doctor Who Christmas specials. It's really a great way to cap off my Christmas day.
Quick Mustard
Member
Aye, its a nice one off episode thats easy to understand and digest. I look forward to it!
paradox121
Member
There's a clip in the Christmas trailers of Capaldi laughing and it suddenly dawned on me that I dont think we've seen that in...forever.
I feel like this isn't only a much needed tonal shift after a pretty dark and morbid season, but more importantly Capaldi gets to have fun for once. I mean, I'm sure he loves doing it all, but those back three episodes must've been emotional hell.
I feel like this isn't only a much needed tonal shift after a pretty dark and morbid season, but more importantly Capaldi gets to have fun for once. I mean, I'm sure he loves doing it all, but those back three episodes must've been emotional hell.
ClivePwned
Member
I watched the Underwater Menace DVD this weekend. I had seen Ep 3 back on The Troughton Years VHS but I thought it was awful then and even with an extra ep it's still terrible- no animation for the 1st and last ep, just telesnaps (a guy used to snap stills from a TV when the show was broadcast and sell them to the people in the shows so they have something to show for their work). The extrae DVD- a making of and a doco about BBC Television Centre with Peter Davison and some companions is pretty good.
So, as it looks like I will be in the UK next year, when's a good time to travel to Cardiff to see the Doctor Who exhibition? It it better or worse to go there when filming is on?
So, as it looks like I will be in the UK next year, when's a good time to travel to Cardiff to see the Doctor Who exhibition? It it better or worse to go there when filming is on?
After Last Christmas*, I put on Facebook that I was afraid Doctor Who's attempts at serious drama were being undermined by also having to produce a light-hearted Christmas special. In hindsight that's more because they tried to blend said attempts into the Christmas special, which just led to the whole thing coming across as a bit forced. If they're going full-out light-hearted that's almost better, in a way**.
*For the first and last time, I get to use this with a double meaning!
**Then again, the last time we got a full-out light-hearted Christmas special was...The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe... so we'll see.
*For the first and last time, I get to use this with a double meaning!
**Then again, the last time we got a full-out light-hearted Christmas special was...The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe... so we'll see.
Who's to say that Clara and the Doctor
still don't have the dream alien on their faces? #DrWhoception
The tangerine is a totem.
The tangerine is a totem.