When I was young I thought Regeneration ability was so cool, and it is. But nuWho has made it very clear it's no fun for the incarnation regenerating. The 'death' of that self, the pain of passing on but knowing your body will walk off with someone else at the wheel. I appreciate 10s desperate attempts to avoid it more now.
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
The Twelfth Doctor flirting with death was most definitely a running theme for him.
Right from the jump he was saying shit like "this regeneration is a bit of a rounding error anyway" and put himself in deliberate danger a lot more than he used to. It's that excessive recklessness that inspires Clara to do what she does in Face The Raven...
I think it's cause he spent so many hundreds of years in Trenzalore, knowing he was on his last life and psychologically prepared to die... and then bam, a new regeneration cycle! That he didn't ask for!
As his run goes on we get stuff like donating regeneration energy to Davros or burning one on a prank on Bill. There are lines like "trust me, dying is an ability" that point to his resenting his continued life. His desperation to not regenerate didn't come outta nowhere, it was one of his core personality traits IMO.
The Yaz 'relationship' seemed so paper thin I was going to say it barely counts anyway. But then I Googled to see if The Dr had actually expressed any reciprocated feelings as I couldn't remember and found a whole bunch of queer sites celebrating a bit of representation from when it happened, so now I feel sad for them that the relationship was barely acknowledged in the follow up episode and then immediately whipped away.
It was extremely lazy the way they tacked on their relationship in the past few episodes/specials and they never gave it any room to breathe or for me to give a shit.
To the extent that it was borderline offensive to just try and check the "gay relationship" box like that. There was 100x more chemistry between Bill and Water Girl and they spoke like 5 lines to each other and were only together for like 3 minutes the whole season.
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
There coulda been a bit o' meat on how abruptly and awkwardly it came n' went if it had played more into the Thirteenth Doctor's core personality trait: that she's incapable of being alone for a fucking second. She needs to be surrounded by friends and family at all times. It's one of the few consistent things about her character through the Chibnall era, IMO.
So when Ryan and Graeme leave, all she's got is Yaz, suddenly all that energy and affection gets laser focused on her and oops we're in a relationship, didn't mean to do that...
The Thasmin relationship was as badly written as every other relationship in Chibnall's run. I don't think they were box-ticking. That was simply the best he could do.
The Thasmin relationship was as badly written as every other relationship in Chibnall's run. I don't think they were box-ticking. That was simply the best he could do.
Agreed. Both the pro and anti gay interpretations assign Chibnall intentions that he's well-proven as lacking the abilities to execute successfully.
There coulda been a bit o' meat on how abruptly and awkwardly it came n' went if it had played more into the Thirteenth Doctor's core personality trait: that she's incapable of being alone for a fucking second. She needs to be surrounded by friends and family at all times. It's one of the few consistent things about her character through the Chibnall era, IMO.
I really wish they'd explored that aspect of her more in-depth. Maybe tie it to the emptiness she feels after having lived through the deaths of both companions of her previous regeneration.
Damn I didn't think I could feel the Chibnall era was more wasted than it already was, but there we are, more wasted opportunities to have had it a great Who series.
So, I dropped out 13 early on in the hopes I could catch up once they found their feet.
Seems like that never happened.
What went wrong? I remember excitement when Chibnall got the nod.
Personally, as I don't want to speak for anyone else, I was excited to see the Broadchurch guy (I liked that show but I think Olivia Colman was the only reason it worked) try tackling Doctor Who and I was ready for someone other than Moffat. The Doctor was so victorious on his adventures that it was becoming a joke on the show and that irked me. I think a lot of folks couldn't stand Clara and how overly competent she was as a companion (in hindsight I think I actually liked Clara a lot and I miss her).
And when Jodie Whittaker got the nod I was really excited because I loved her work on Broadchurch and Black Mirror and I was excited to see what she'd do because those are two roles where she brought a massive amount of emotion to the screen.
And even with the first episode flopping I was still pretty upbeat because the shooting quality had clearly improved a lot, and she made her own sonic screwdriver which kinda implied she was going to be The Engineering Doctor which I was quite excited about.
And then we got 3 years of Jodie Whittaker being asked to be out of breath constantly while she wordlessly stared at bad guys while they monologued forever (the latest special being no exception!), and then have her tech fail miserably at every turn.
I really liked Bill. Initially I was wary but she grew on me. I wish she'd had more time. I wish they hadn't stuck with Clara so long into 12ths run. I didn't think their chemistry was particularly good. And holdover companions are always risky (hence you often get a clean slate after a regeneration or they're gently kicked out the TARDIS door shortly afterwards). And I seem to remember Jenna Coleman wanted to leave but was convinced to stay an extra season. Mistake.
13th has just been a waste. What a waste of potential. I hope 14th(? 15th??? The regen numbering is very confusing) gets good scripts and crucially a good script editor.
I really liked Bill. Initially I was wary but she grew on me. I wish she'd had more time. I wish they hadn't stuck with Clara so long into 12ths run. I didn't think their chemistry was particularly good. And holdover companions are always risky (hence you often get a clean slate after a regeneration or they're gently kicked out the TARDIS door shortly afterwards). And I seem to remember Jenna Coleman wanted to leave but was convinced to stay an extra season. Mistake.
13th has just been a waste. What a waste of potential. I hope 14th(? 15th??? The regen numbering is very confusing) gets good scripts and crucially a good script editor.
As a counterpoint, I actually liked Clara with 12. We rarely get companions who stick around regenerations. It's nice to have that dynamic where she knew much more of who and what the Doctor is and has been through, as opposed to the general companion dynamic where they just think he's "a madman in a box". Though Clara is a bit unique in that she got a flash dump of his entire life up to that point as well. She probably should have left after the first season, but she still had some great moments.
This is technically cheating, because it's during 11's run, not 12's, but the same principle applys. I was rewatching The Day of the Doctor, and her brief interaction with the War Doctor is amazing. Where she's the one to pick up on the fact that he hasn't done *it* it. Where despite having a much older face, she recognizes that his eyes are so much younger.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
I loved The Zygon Inversion episode acting as an epilogue to Day of the Doctor, tying Twelve into that event by having him reinforce the treaty.
There's (maybe?) even a cute callback to Clara recognizing War Doctor's innocence where the Doctor knows the Zygon leader Bonnie has already decided to surrender, because "you have a disadvantage Zygella: I know that face."
12 had a roller coaster of script quality (the flippin' trees and the moon egg ones...urgghh) but he has also some crackers.
Compare 13 who i don't think has a single episode of 'this is great Who'.
I don't think 13 had any amazing episodes that I'd love to go back and watch again, but they did handle some topics with an impressive amount of grace.
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
Rosa was all about how racism is just an individual hating another individual and totally not a system of oppression, and if you sort out the overt racists, everything is fine now! It's balls IMO. The Demons of the Punjab was rather good I'll give ya that. Grading on the curve that is the Chibnall era, anyway...
Rosa was all about how racism is just an individual hating another individual and totally not a system of oppression, and if you sort out the overt racists, everything is fine now! It's balls IMO. The Demons of the Punjab was rather good I'll give ya that. Grading on the curve that is the Chibnall era, anyway...
The system of oppression is right there in the episode, notably with the cop searching the Doctor's room for illegal black residents and the bus white-only sections. Also, they didn't "sort out the overt racists", they setup conditions for Rosa Parks to hold her protest against the system.
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
I've not rewatched it since it aired, clearly I don't remember any of the good bits! But IIRC the clever solution to Future Racist Guy's scheme, to wrap everything up nice and tidy was to shoot him. Which... yeah, I suppose.
I've not rewatched it since it aired, clearly I don't remember any of the good bits! But IIRC the clever solution to Future Racist Guy's scheme, to wrap everything up nice and tidy was to shoot him. Which... yeah, I suppose.
Future racist guy was indeed the weak point of the episode for me. He was so totally unnecessary, and a distraction from the Rosa Parks storyline. But I guess Chibnall's gotta Chibnall. I didn't mind his thing getting solved neatly and easily because it allowed us to end that nonsense quickly and focus back on the real story.
And yet pure historicals were quite common in the early years of the show. I miss them; they can tell truly good stories and the fish-out-of-water element still adds a uniquely Doctor Who flair.
And yet pure historicals were quite common in the early years of the show. I miss them; they can tell truly good stories and the fish-out-of-water element still adds a uniquely Doctor Who flair.
And yet pure historicals were quite common in the early years of the show. I miss them; they can tell truly good stories and the fish-out-of-water element still adds a uniquely Doctor Who flair.
God forbid they go back to being educational.
They end up that way by accident sometimes. My daughter wanted to know all about Rasputin and the Russian royal family after the episode with Rasputin. She was actually less engaged by the sci-fi stuff.
I've not rewatched it since it aired, clearly I don't remember any of the good bits! But IIRC the clever solution to Future Racist Guy's scheme, to wrap everything up nice and tidy was to shoot him. Which... yeah, I suppose.
Well that you can just chalk up to as Chibnall having just horrible resolutions for everything.
I personally enjoyed Graham and Co being super fucking uncomfortable in participating.
For me, the Rosa Parks episode achieved its primary goal of Not Fucking It Up so I'm grateful for that at least.
You would have loved the original script where the buses were actually aliens in disguise, influencing people to be racist so they could feed off the bad mind energy. So racism wasn't really the people's fault.
Here is some surviving footage of the regeneration of the first Doctor into the second. It gives a glimpse at how the second Doctor reacted to it. https://youtu.be/Z9myoHgFEvw
I kind of like the ongoing bit that new Who does with having the Doctor act all punch drunk after a regeneration.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
I really liked how the Twelfth Doctor reacted to suddenly having a Scottish accent: he didn't. To his new brain, everyone else sounded English. "You've all developed a fault!"
It's cool the Doctor has this continuity of self even with the way their brain works getting totally shuffled around with each regeneration.
I'm also a sucka for Doctors suddenly evoking their past selves. If I'm being honest, I kinda like it even more than when those past Doctors actually cameo. Stuff like Mr Clever in Nightmare In Silver adopting Nine's northern accent or Twelve doing a Matt Smith-esque arm gesture when he quotes him saying "when the Doctor was me" is really well done IMO.
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Matt Smith's Doctor actually got to live more of a lifetime. He grew old.
Capaldi did live for 7 billion trillion years or whatever it is was. That's a lot of soup.
Tbf he was being tortured for most of that
Right from the jump he was saying shit like "this regeneration is a bit of a rounding error anyway" and put himself in deliberate danger a lot more than he used to. It's that excessive recklessness that inspires Clara to do what she does in Face The Raven...
I think it's cause he spent so many hundreds of years in Trenzalore, knowing he was on his last life and psychologically prepared to die... and then bam, a new regeneration cycle! That he didn't ask for!
As his run goes on we get stuff like donating regeneration energy to Davros or burning one on a prank on Bill. There are lines like "trust me, dying is an ability" that point to his resenting his continued life. His desperation to not regenerate didn't come outta nowhere, it was one of his core personality traits IMO.
Some recent Tennant.
To be fair, regenerating the gay woman into a straight man in a thing that's unlikely to ever occur again in any media.
To the extent that it was borderline offensive to just try and check the "gay relationship" box like that. There was 100x more chemistry between Bill and Water Girl and they spoke like 5 lines to each other and were only together for like 3 minutes the whole season.
So when Ryan and Graeme leave, all she's got is Yaz, suddenly all that energy and affection gets laser focused on her and oops we're in a relationship, didn't mean to do that...
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Agreed. Both the pro and anti gay interpretations assign Chibnall intentions that he's well-proven as lacking the abilities to execute successfully.
I really wish they'd explored that aspect of her more in-depth. Maybe tie it to the emptiness she feels after having lived through the deaths of both companions of her previous regeneration.
Damn I didn't think I could feel the Chibnall era was more wasted than it already was, but there we are, more wasted opportunities to have had it a great Who series.
Seems like that never happened.
What went wrong? I remember excitement when Chibnall got the nod.
It's like one of those sandwiches or candies where the packaging shows this giant thing and then you open it and there's nothing there.
You know you shouldn't buy a sandwich from a gas/petrol station but it looks good and maybe this time it won't disappoint.
Personally, as I don't want to speak for anyone else, I was excited to see the Broadchurch guy (I liked that show but I think Olivia Colman was the only reason it worked) try tackling Doctor Who and I was ready for someone other than Moffat. The Doctor was so victorious on his adventures that it was becoming a joke on the show and that irked me. I think a lot of folks couldn't stand Clara and how overly competent she was as a companion (in hindsight I think I actually liked Clara a lot and I miss her).
And when Jodie Whittaker got the nod I was really excited because I loved her work on Broadchurch and Black Mirror and I was excited to see what she'd do because those are two roles where she brought a massive amount of emotion to the screen.
And even with the first episode flopping I was still pretty upbeat because the shooting quality had clearly improved a lot, and she made her own sonic screwdriver which kinda implied she was going to be The Engineering Doctor which I was quite excited about.
And then we got 3 years of Jodie Whittaker being asked to be out of breath constantly while she wordlessly stared at bad guys while they monologued forever (the latest special being no exception!), and then have her tech fail miserably at every turn.
13th has just been a waste. What a waste of potential. I hope 14th(? 15th??? The regen numbering is very confusing) gets good scripts and crucially a good script editor.
As a counterpoint, I actually liked Clara with 12. We rarely get companions who stick around regenerations. It's nice to have that dynamic where she knew much more of who and what the Doctor is and has been through, as opposed to the general companion dynamic where they just think he's "a madman in a box". Though Clara is a bit unique in that she got a flash dump of his entire life up to that point as well. She probably should have left after the first season, but she still had some great moments.
This is technically cheating, because it's during 11's run, not 12's, but the same principle applys. I was rewatching The Day of the Doctor, and her brief interaction with the War Doctor is amazing. Where she's the one to pick up on the fact that he hasn't done *it* it. Where despite having a much older face, she recognizes that his eyes are so much younger.
There's (maybe?) even a cute callback to Clara recognizing War Doctor's innocence where the Doctor knows the Zygon leader Bonnie has already decided to surrender, because "you have a disadvantage Zygella: I know that face."
Goddamn I love that scene so much.
(There's no full version on YouTube, booo)
(Also all the focus is on the Doctor and Bonnie, but I really like Kate in this scene too. The quiet "I'm sorry" towards the end is perfect.)
Compare 13 who i don't think has a single episode of 'this is great Who'.
Like Rosa Parks and the partitioning of India.
Speaking of balls, this isn't balls!
What a lovely trailer.
The system of oppression is right there in the episode, notably with the cop searching the Doctor's room for illegal black residents and the bus white-only sections. Also, they didn't "sort out the overt racists", they setup conditions for Rosa Parks to hold her protest against the system.
Future racist guy was indeed the weak point of the episode for me. He was so totally unnecessary, and a distraction from the Rosa Parks storyline. But I guess Chibnall's gotta Chibnall. I didn't mind his thing getting solved neatly and easily because it allowed us to end that nonsense quickly and focus back on the real story.
God forbid they go back to being educational.
They end up that way by accident sometimes. My daughter wanted to know all about Rasputin and the Russian royal family after the episode with Rasputin. She was actually less engaged by the sci-fi stuff.
Well that you can just chalk up to as Chibnall having just horrible resolutions for everything.
I personally enjoyed Graham and Co being super fucking uncomfortable in participating.
You would have loved the original script where the buses were actually aliens in disguise, influencing people to be racist so they could feed off the bad mind energy. So racism wasn't really the people's fault.
It's cool the Doctor has this continuity of self even with the way their brain works getting totally shuffled around with each regeneration.
I'm also a sucka for Doctors suddenly evoking their past selves. If I'm being honest, I kinda like it even more than when those past Doctors actually cameo. Stuff like Mr Clever in Nightmare In Silver adopting Nine's northern accent or Twelve doing a Matt Smith-esque arm gesture when he quotes him saying "when the Doctor was me" is really well done IMO.
It didn't quite feel like Doctor Who.