Capaldi 'hasn't decided' if he staying past Series 10 yet.

Chibnall will have no authority over Class, just as Moffat had no authority over Torchwood or SJA. Becoming the showrunner of Doctor Who does not automatically make someone the supreme overlord of the Doctor Who universe.

 

I thought RTD was showrunner for The Sarah Jane Adventures at one time as he was showrunner for Doctor Who. I was looking at it in that context.

 

RTD had authority over SJA because it was his creation, not because he was showrunner of Doctor Who. When he stepped down from running Doctor Who, he still had complete control over SJA and Moffat had no authority over that show.

Meanwhile, Moffat does have some authority over Class, but only because he is one of the show's producers, not because he runs Doctor Who. Whatever authority he has with Class will continue after he steps down from running Doctor Who and Chibnall will have no say at all as far as Class is concerned.

And technically, "showrunner" isn't an accurate term for RTD's position regarding SJA as he had no part in the day-to-day affairs of the show, that was handled by Gareth Roberts. RTD created the show and was a producer with veto authority who occasionally contributed a script. Ditto with Torchwood, except there the day-to-day affairs were handled by Chibnall.

 

I hope Chibnall gets involved one way or the other. I'm looking forward to his run on Doctor Who and the other possibilities which may come within the Who-verse.

 

Thing is Doctors worked under multiple show runners (producers or whatever the correct term is) all the time in the classic series and I imagine its the sort of thing that happens all the time. How many executive producers has The Walking Dead had? Only Darabont had a hand in casting Rick though?

Of course modern Who is different in that it comes across as more of an auteur driven show which in many respects is one of its biggest strengths. Whatever you think of RTD or Moffat Who, they were distinctive from one another and from much of what is on TV.

 

I know people don't like to hear it but Capaldi isn't as popular as Smith and Tennant were. (Not unpopular, just less popular.)

So being utterly pragmatic about it, there's no benefit to Chibbers of taking over with Capaldi's fourth series in the role, while there is in the extra publicity of relaunching the entire series again, just as Moffat was able to.

 

Maybe Chibnall took the job because he has something in mind for Capaldi's Doctor?

 

Oh yeah totally get that, and to be honest if he does leave I won't be as gutted as I was when Matt left, but the flipside is that with a complete changing of the guard there is a risk that you turn people off completely and less popular than Smith and Tennant could still be more popular than the guy/gal who replaces him.

Presumably when Chibnall agreed to take over there must have been discussions around Capaldi with the BBC where he said he'd like to keep him/would like him to go/didn't mind either way?

 

I hope Capaldi stays. While it's cool for a new showrunner to start out with a blank slate, and that worked great for Moffat and RTD, it does increase the risk. At least if Capaldi stays around for S11, there will be one element of the show that I know I'll like!

Mr Awe

 

I think Capaldi and Moffat have both implied over time that both have had ideas for series 9 that the other didn't quite like. But Moffat as a showrunner ultimately got his way. I mean, Capaldi wanted to see a return to elements from 60's DW, like Susan and the Cybermen of that time, and Moffat vetoed them, no?

Series 4's only dud, as far as I'm concerned, is The Doctor's Daughter. And from series 4B, I'd say only The Next Doctor actually sucked, while End of Time was bloated but with excellent moments for the Doctor and Wilf. So yeah, I'd say 4 was the best year of Tennant/RTD, while 4B was just above series 2, which to me is, without a doubt, RTD's weakest se

 

Indeed, Tom Baker had about four different executive producers during his run alone.

Doubtful, Chibnall would know going in there'd be no guarantees he'd work with Capaldi. So while he might like the chance to have Capaldi for a season (or more), I doubt it was a condition to pursuing the job.

I don't know about that. While Capaldi has spoken publicly about his wish for Susan to be brought back on the show, I'm not sure it was ever an official request he made. For the most part, Capaldi seems content to leave the story decisions exclusively with Moffat while only making requests in how he wants to Doctor portrayed, like in season 9 with the addition of the sunglasses, the guitar and a less aggressive personality.

 

Hmm... This doesn't sound too much like someone who's overly concerend about his ongoing employment.

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/doctor...looked-after-by-the-bbc-it-does-frustrate-me/

 

Whatever happens I'll support it, but ever since Amy and Rory left it hasn't been as good as I wanted them to be. I kind of like the infallible Clara but she became old hat and stayed too long. I didn't like the majority of last series episodes, but I did see Capaldi making improvements on inventing his own Doctor. I haven't been too interested in a female Master named Missy, but it does create an avenue the Doctor could regenerate into a woman.
I hope the new series the Doctor won't have a companion; so he can fully staple his character without sharing too much screen time for another actress or a possible male companion.

 

There will certainly be a companion, for the simple reason the Doctor needs someone to talk to. In The Writer's Tale, RTD indicated that not having a regular companion for the 2009 specials was the most challenging part of writing them, so that likely rules out each episode having a one-off guest companion. Even when Tom Baker was surly and didn't want to work with people he realized the importance of the Doctor having a companion, even if his suggestion for a companion was talking cabbage.

Really though, I think the show has a better chance of having a regular primary companion who isn't from modern-day Britain (which we know won't happen) than it does of having a completely companion-less season.

 

Capaldi is a good enough actor to carry a series on his own, and I think Moffat's team are brilliant to write a series with the Doctor being in solo adventures. I'm looking forward to Moffat's final reigns as the showrunner, and if whatever he does I hope he wraps up his tenure without any loose ends so the new showrunner can endeavor his take of the good Doctor.

 

The Doctor will always have a companion for the reasons The Wormhole states. He needs to have someone to bounce things off. Even Heaven Sent had an imaginary Clara for that purpose. Even if you go down the route of guest companions this would get repetitive. The companion serves as the audience, they ask the questions we ask, otherwise you'd either have the Doctor wandering around silently, or talking to himself like a loon.

Whether companions should be teh most important person evah! is another matter!

 

I want to see how will Moffat's era end, if Capaldi does decide to stay. With RTD, he basically used Ten as his avatar, so when he said "I don't want to go," I actually think RTD didn't want to go, but decided he had to anyways. So Ten's "death" was literally RTD's exit, thus why Eleven's first words were literally Moffat's first, as well. So barring the exit of a Doctor, I wonder how will Moffat signal his exit. If he did leave with River, it'd have been perfect, cause she, more than anything else on DW, represented his era - the good, and the bad. So what now?

I realize I strayed away from the companion talk, but to me, until we get an announcement, its just speculation. The only thing I'd say is, that I agree with Wormhole wholeheartedly - the Doctor needs a companion, and it needs to be of a different ethnicity.

 

If Chibnall's first season were coming after a gap, then yes, I could see how the series would benefit from a relaunch at that point, and a wholesale changing of the production, from producers down to actors, makes sense.

But, Chibnall's first year is supposed to follow on from Moffat's last year. The gap is the year leading up to Moffat's last year. Moffat's going to have a big marketing splash in the spring of 2017 for his relaunch.

To my ears, Capaldi sounds like he's being very political in his comments. He's right that the scheduling has been haphazard in recent years, and not to the benefit of Who as an institution. I believe there are people making decisions in the halls and offices of the BBC who think this, too, and they know who's responsible for that state of affairs.