Series 11 News & Spoilers

[marillion]

I don't see why a woman couldn't be called "a time lord". It is common and correct to refer to a group of nobles as "my lords" even if some of the group are female, and besides, there is no reason once you set aside human patriarchal norms that a woman couldn't have the title "lord".

I think this series has deliberately steered away from detailed backstory of any description (time war, Gallifrey, River Song, reappearing allies and villains etc) to be more accessible to new viewers. I guess we'll see if the term comes up in the NY special.

I think you might be right. It's a sticky wicket in this day and age of gender equality and political correctness. Now, it is proper to consider any one (male or female or trangender) who acts in a play/TV show/movie to be an "actor" and not distinguish between actors and actresses. But then again, since "actor" is most associated with a male performer, why do we now lump every gender into that category?

When it comes to titles such as Lord and Lady, they have historically been equivalent in all respects:

Definitions:

Lord literally means, "a Ruler, a Sovereign or a Master. One possessing supreme power, a Feudal Superior and the holder of a Manor."

Lady is the female equivalent. It can be used by an unmarried woman in her own right, or by the wife of a man with the title: Lord, Baron or Sir.

The same can be said of other titles... Duke/Duchess, Sir/Dame...

So by definition of the vernacular of our times, Jodie's Doctor would be considered a Timelord, rather than a Timelady...

 

[jaime]

Let’s be honest...the show rebooted with Autons and the Nestene consciousness. The callbacks and history have been there from day one. This year. Not so much. Though episode one felt like a callback to Last of the Summer Wine. So there’s that.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

What's your point? Chibnall was upfront from the beginning that it was a deliberate choice to do this season with no direct callbacks. And no, before you say it, that doesn't mean he hates Doctor Who or any other inane theory, it just means he wanted to do something different with a fresh new start.

 

[Awesome Possum]

When the show tries an old monster people complain that they aren't making new monsters. When the show tries new monsters people complain they aren't focusing enough on the old monsters. Doctor Who can never make some fans happy, complaining is how they enjoy the show.

 

[Jayson1]

Well that's a straw man. Nobody is saying casual viewers are 'stupid' or 'offended' but when you are asking new people to tune into a show, having the plot focus on increasingly convoluted and self referential lore makes that more difficult. Including a Dalek is not the same thing.

But is a reference or a story about old aliens really count as convoluted? The show I know has had several references to the older shows that I never got but it never really effected me to a point where I couldn't enjoy a story. I can see how some shows might be confusing but it's never been about the aliens of references. It is because the stories are built like a puzzle where your trying to put the pieces together to see what it's all about. I'm not so sure why this wouldn't appeal to new viewers it it's what was done to win over new viewers in the past.

To me the issue is less about old aliens and references but how you want to a tell a story. Do you want to aim for higher art and do something more complex where it takes time for people to figure it and maybe you always do have some confusion but of the good variety because the stories keeps throwing new curves at you. Or does one want more straightforward stories that might be well told but doesn't really push the envelope or challenge the audience. I watched the movie "Adaption" the other other day. Would you rather have the more complex Andy Kaufman type of stories or the Donald Kaufman style of stories which they sort of point out is good his script was good at, structure. The show has been the more complex variety but now you get the feelings they want to sort of lower the bar. Which doesn't mean the show can't still be good or well written but I don't think you get special tv with that style. Most of the better shows are better because their is something about them that is different than the rest of the stuff on tv. RIght now "Legends of Tommorow" is the more unique of the two shows and it's basically doing stuff that you would expect on Doctor Who.

Jason

 

[cultcross]

The show has been the more complex variety but now you get the feelings they want to sort of lower the bar.

Has the show been more complex? Cramming in a lot of backstory does not make stories more complex. Doctor Who is a fairly procedural show most of the time. Get to setting, something's wrong, discover problem, run around, fix problem, leave setting. It can do it incredibly well, which is why I love the show, but I don't think it can really be described as complex science fiction storytelling. Doctor Who does have a huge canon of backstory and a tendency in the Moffatt era to wrap itself up in self referential knots, but the stories they tell have rarely been as complex as even an average episode of Game of Thrones. That's fine, because that's not what Doctor Who is, but it seems a tad unfair to now criticise it for being what it has always been, but with a bit less self-referential stuff.

 

[Jayson1]

It always felt complex to me. Granted that might be because the character is so complex and such a mystery. The Doctor doesn't think or act like anyone else. Of course it always helps that since I don't know the older seasons those references are kind of a mystery as well.. What the show also had going for it was it was witty. The previous showrunners really knew how to make dialogue sound great. I'm always partial to those kind of writers like Joss Whedon,Wes Anderson,Aaron Sorkin etc whose style and voice are so distinct you can know they wrote something without even needing to look it up. Chibnall feels like he could be any random writer on any random show.


Jason

 

[Starkers]

I don't have a major problem with giving the classic monsters a rest, the trouble is that coming up with new reccuring, or even halfway decent one off, new monsters has proven tricky. There's only really the Weeping Angels in modern Who, the Silence had potential but it was never really realised.

Personally I always thought the Krilitane(sp) had potential.

 

[kirk55555]

What's your point? Chibnall was upfront from the beginning that it was a deliberate choice to do this season with no direct callbacks. And no, before you say it, that doesn't mean he hates Doctor Who or any other inane theory, it just means he wanted to do something different with a fresh new start.

Well he sure as fuck doesn't like Doctor Who, since he didn't produce a single episode of it this year, deciding to make a generic YA adventure show with some bland dumbasses doing literally nothing relevant, important or remotely interesting for 12 episodes. The fact that he needs a whole year off to produce more non-Doctor Who bland bullshit is the most entertaining thing related to Doctor Who since Moffat left, since its absolutely hilarious that Chibnail's mediocrity requires so much bullshit that Chibnail can't even do two consecutive seasons, which even for British television is hilariously pathetic.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

The fact that he needs a whole year off to produce more non-Doctor Who bland bullshit is the most entertaining thing related to Doctor Who since Moffat left, since its absolutely hilarious that Chibnail's mediocrity requires so much bullshit that Chibnail can't even do two consecutive seasons, which even for British television is hilariously pathetic.

"A whole year off"? Closer to a two month break in production between the wrap of Series 11 (and New Year's Special) and the start of Series 12. Two or three months is pretty standard in the US for a production break between seasons. Chibnall, Whittaker, cast, and crew aren't taking a year off. They'll be filming throughout the bulk of 2019.

 

[Awesome Possum]

A lot of people really don't understand how shows and movies are produced, especially heavy special effects shows and movies.

 

[Kemaiku]

A lot of people really don't understand how shows and movies are produced, especially heavy special effects shows and movies.

Oh they understand, they just prefer assigning blame a whole lot more, you know for things that aren't even wrong in the first place.

 

[jaime]

Well he sure as fuck doesn't like Doctor Who, since he didn't produce a single episode of it this year, deciding to make a generic YA adventure show with some bland dumbasses doing literally nothing relevant, important or remotely interesting for 12 episodes. The fact that he needs a whole year off to produce more non-Doctor Who bland bullshit is the most entertaining thing related to Doctor Who since Moffat left, since its absolutely hilarious that Chibnail's mediocrity requires so much bullshit that Chibnail can't even do two consecutive seasons, which even for British television is hilariously pathetic.

Regardless of the fact that my opinion of this is not as strong as yours, I found this assessment amusing.

 

[jaime]

A lot of people really don't understand how shows and movies are produced, especially heavy special effects shows and movies.

Chibnall isn’t hand crafting those spaceships from Swiss chocolate.

 

[Kemaiku]

Regardless of the fact that my opinion of this is not as strong as yours, I found this assessment amusing.

We too, often laugh at his posts.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Oh they understand, they just prefer assigning blame a whole lot more, you know for things that aren't even wrong in the first place.

I don't know, a lot of people seem to think that a film director is responsible for everything in a film. A few directors like Spielberg, yes. But the majority are really just there to make sure things run smoothly. The producers have more control in most cases.

 

[Kemaiku]

I don't know, a lot of people seem to think that a film director is responsible for everything in a film. A few directors like Spielberg, yes. But the majority are really just there to make sure things run smoothly. The producers have more control in most cases.

I know, quite a large team work on Doctor Who and have done for several years. Chinball is only a small part of that, but it looks a lot less biased if they can bitch endlessly about the man involved rather than where they'd really like to direct that anger.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Chibnall isn’t hand crafting those spaceships from Swiss chocolate.

No, he's writing episodes and being the show runner. It's a bit of a process. He has to write, approve other scripts, rewrite due to last minute changes and then approve those scripts, and approve designs and casting. It takes a while, especially for a quality project. But if you think you could do it faster because you can write a few sentences on a message board that no one beyond a few dozen people will ever see, more power to you. It's delusional, but believe whatever you want.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

No, he's writing episodes and being the show runner. It's a bit of a process. He has to write, approve other scripts, rewrite due to last minute changes and then approve those scripts, and approve designs and casting. It takes a while, especially for a quality project. But if you think you could do it faster because you can write a few sentences on a message board that no one beyond a few dozen people will ever see, more power to you. It's delusional, but believe whatever you want.

Not to mention how long CGI takes to render and edit at HD/4K quality, or how many people are involved in production elements beyond writing and acting.

 

[Kemaiku]

Not to mention how long CGI takes to render and edit at HD/4K quality, or how many people are involved in production elements beyond writing and acting.

Exactly, someone still literally *does* craft all the CGI items in the show. Which means a long arduous process at the computer for a team of CGi artists to make it all work.

It's awfully dismissive to say that work can just be turned out in minutes.