Series 12 News & Spoilers
- Thread starter Lonemagpie
- Start date
I'll admit, Sunday night wasn't really a good night for the show to be on for me. I say that mainly because Sunday nights last fall were far too crowded for me, what with Doctor Who, The Last Ship, Walking Dead, and Star Wars Resistance all on. Though Doctor Who was the only one that didn't overlap with the others.
Admittedly, this won't necessarily be a problem when the new season starts next season, but I'd still appreciate a move back to Saturdays anyway if for no other reason than it'll give me something to do on Saturday nights.
Admittedly, this won't necessarily be a problem when the new season starts next season, but I'd still appreciate a move back to Saturdays anyway if for no other reason than it'll give me something to do on Saturday nights.
So there'll be a whole year off after Series 12 as well. Great. Juuusssttt great.
Presumably this'll be the last year for Graham and Ryan, as their story arcs have been mostly dealt with (and Bradley Walsh is just too busy). Which finally frees up Yaz to be explored further, though no doubt we'll be back to two companions (another male) by season's end.
Is Chris Chibnall going to keep his hands off the word processor this time, or insist on writing/co-writing most of the scripts again? (Under NO circumstances let him anywhere near the Cybermen again!)
If Hydra consuming SHIELD didn't stop Nick Fury and Maria Hill, I don't see 'Brexit killed UNIT' stopping Kate Stewart/Osgood either. And what about Torchwood?
I think we're stuck with the Fortress of Solitude TARDIS for the rest of Jodie's run, budgets being what they are. But can they at least try to make it look a little more livable? Maybe a chair, a coat rack, a food machine? Or at least some safety rails?
Aren't the breaks due to all the CGI being rendered? Even on big server farms, the detail involved takes a ton of time. Been there done that, gave up after seeing the monthly electric bill go up by the value I'd estimated. And modern day shows rely on big pointless effects more than ever, even if the episodes containing them weren't very good with plot or character levels. Which is sad, nobody is going to go "ooh" looking at sound stones being floated up by ersatzLuke as directed by ersatzYoda (e.g. series 11 episode 10's dazzling spectacle) and if I wanted a show with more effective influences from "Star Wars" I'd watch either "Blake's 7" (remove light sabers and big budget, but add depth to characters and nuanced storylines for adults and it's approaching the TV version of Star Wars) or for something that takes less work to approximate a comparison there's "Lost Girl", a show that gives reason for its Earthbound setting and has enough of a balance with various tropes without feeling like soap opera cheese because there's good scripting involved as well as interesting characters on both the Dark and Light sides... (which isn't to say the show didn't get excessive or ignored certain issues involving all that shipping going on, it was also doing plenty of other things that were of genuine creative interest and the shipping wasn't treated as "LOOK AT US, WE'RE SHIPPING, THAT MAKES US BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE BECAUSE WE'RE DOING IT AND TELLING YOU WE ARE BECAUSE YOU WANT IT BECAUSE YOU NEVER GET IT HA HA AND ARE DESPERATE FOR IT!!!!!!!!" the way other substandard shows think they're being clever in doing. LG pretty much got it right.)
But that's not a bad idea, making it look like people live in there instead of it being what looks like a big closed-off room inside a tiny box. The 60s did it, the 70s did it, the 80s did it. At least 2006 did it as a long shot camera angle.
Or just have the food plop out of the sonic screwdriver magic wand cuz it'll save on cost, why not. Or materialize in front of it, the show's been excessively addled the last few years in some ways, some far worse in 11 (chiefly that dumb sonic, complete with pose that - case in point - is just as laughable every time I see 90s Bond films have Bond walk out in the gunbarrel sequence to aim the gun at the camera and being too lazy to crouch the way every other Bond in every other decade properly did when it shouldn't have been that way. The word "amateurish" is the absolute least of a response to all that.
Unfortunately the show already put the food machine into the console. Worse, all it does is deliver sugar and cholesterol-laden garbage so everyone will be clutching their chests and saying "Here I come, here comes the big one!" Unless she whips out the magic wand or blinks her eyes like Jeannie and their glucose and LDL levels return to normal. *rolleyes*
Along with some consistency and a personality more akin to an actual police officer, Yaz needs some actual depth. Chibs was right in the setup of his companions but their handling in the scripts by his writers' room group has been mostly underwhelming, not making use of any character traits - for most of them. They did focus too much on Graham and probably ran out of time to edit episodes. It's not the 80s anymore, though, I never once expected that we'd see a repeat of character archetypes created but then not delved into - JNT had the same problem, great ideas for, but not letting any depth or fulfillment of character dynamics come in. Tegan had a couple attempts with family, but it never felt quite real (scripting, combined with such tropes being in their infancy.) Even more amusing, right now the tabloid clickbate press is raking it in over all this "shipping" stuff for cheap sales (which is also counter to Chibnall's own claim of "no romance", which he's been true to so far - even the one scene where some people could interpret it as such is equally suggestive they are reading into things waaaaaaay too much.) But if those fans they want shipping since they didn't get enough of their tawdry little fix in every other show that they'll quickly ditch when the next fickle fix comes along (and don't enough exist that focus on sex lives already?), make them a complete foursome and be done with it. Do all modern day viewers care about is the sub-soap opera sex? The word "lame" is the absolute least of a response to all that.
The Brexit line - which may have been a failed attempt at a joke over topical events - made any dating "controversy" from the 1980s minuscule by comparison and NuWHO has a fetish for modern day Earth because viewers can't handle anywhere else. The 1960s did so much more despite having so much less a budget, the word "embarrassing" is the absolute least of a response to all that.
DW became that way, but never started that way. It's something we can adapt to.
Per known statement, won't shel go when Chibs does? Unless she's enamored with the next showrunner. 2022 makes sense, given these new series are shown after lengthy breaks despite being filmed relatively fast (per above, CGI rendering takes more time than what casual viewers might appreciate. Especially for photorealistic quality. It's a shame technology has improved but the storylines utilizing it don't come anywhere near as breathtaking.
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Where did the "year off after series 12 bit come from?
Yeah, if we're looking at early 2020 for series 11, on the same schedule I'd expect series 12 no later than summer/autumn 2021.
Frankly I'd be expecting New Year 2021 - Easter at latest. (You could cheat the production time by premiering a new season a year after the previous season ended)
Series 11 was last year. You’re talking about series 12 and 13, right?
Ah, yes. Dammit, Jim, I'm a writer, not a mathematician. 
Not sure if this really counts as season 12 per se, but I'll post it here regardless. There's a rumour there might be a Christmas special this year.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/07/doct...pecial-year-ahead-2020-series-return-9434484/
https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/07/doct...pecial-year-ahead-2020-series-return-9434484/
That'll be nice if proven true.
Of course, we won't know for certain until late November. At the earliest.
Of course, we won't know for certain until late November. At the earliest.
I don't know. I think it's possible they might say something at Comic Con.
Wouldn't surprise me - the official word was Series 12 would be in 2020, and specials aren't counted as part of the season (nor included in the season DVD/BR sets any more, so...
Either way I'm expecting a New Year's Day series premiere.
Either way I'm expecting a New Year's Day series premiere.
That'll be nice if proven true.
Of course, we won't know for certain until late November. At the earliest.
I would expect to hear about Dec. 20th.
You forget about it, and don't care anymore and don't anxiously await it's return. That's what happens.
ESPECIALLY if the last season (series, for you UK'ers) was pretty forgettable to begin with.
Really, I'm not a fan of the Chibnall Who so far. I don't have a problem with a female Doctor, so it's got to be the writing/direction the show is going.
Why is that a problem?
And do you really think you’re gonna forget about Doctor Who?
Also: that’s what advertising is for. To build excitement.
Well. Then it’s a good thing you’re gonna forget about it, right?
A basic veneer of family-friendly - meaning few in-jokes, no jocular laddish football humor a la what RTD and Moffatt did (which were funny at times but the show didn't need any of that for over 99% of its run to be successful, but at least it was tried and is proven okay to an extent. Too much of any one attribute will be detrimental, whether it's seriousness or crass comedy or violence or anything else.)
I liked the idea, inconsistent between episodes or otherwise, that the Doctor was not in control of the ship anymore and saying in some episodes her trying to steer it. (The 1963 original show had the Doctor unable to pilot the craft, an issue that got lost by the mid-1970s.) The first episode was not perfect but I got the idea they were aiming at a serialized linking between episodes again, which sadly didn't last. There's also a sense of adventure - the 2nd episode was not more than the sum of the parts but the feel of epic journey and quest was definitely there.
Some quick proof the scripting was awful - she compiles her outfit from a charity shop. Not a bad scene. The problem is, she's changing shirts with a similar theme but she wasn't given an entire wardrobe IN the shop. (Let me guess, the TARDIS has a magical clothes dispenser along with the pointless and idiotic snack food dispenser in the console. Must be fun to gobble that custard sandwich and not wipe up one's hands before smearing residue all over the panels... unless there's a magic wetnap dispenser not yet revealed? Again, the 1963 original had a dedicated machine kept well away from the console because most people don't like getting hands gooey and sticky, never mind what it can do when getting stuck between control mechanisms, keyboard keys, and so on... even an Okudagram console seen in most sci-fi from 1987 to present - too sticky is icky, eww.)
Even the promotions for series 11 - colorful and bold and engaging. What's on screen? Incessant, tepid dank blue/brown hues.
No problems with acting either, if we didn't see clips of at least Jodie before the new series aired we would have looked afterward and she's more than capable and has strengths. but if people who sat through the episodes and DIDN'T notice lack of consistent character development, overuse of magical maguffins and cheap cop-outs, the new Doctor being a bizarre mixture of the 10th and 11th Doctors and Arnold J Rimmer from Red Dwarf (is that the big bold change promised during 2017-18's hiatus?!), characters badly shoehorned in (regardless of how good the idea may have been, the characters still felt shoved in needlessly - never mind never built upon!)... they are the ones being even more unfair than those who shriek the loudest about what's wrong. And some people who cry out issues love the show and aren't the "haters" as some love to make hollow, blanket claims regarding (which makes them even worse.)
Pretty much everything falls on the ensembled writing staff. The actors take what's on paper and try to make it passable if not exceptional, within production constraints given. Not an easy task to begin with. But that also means knowing the actors and working to their strengths, who did the casting and were they on the ensembled writing team? Each character had sporadic great moments (or even a moment where they did more than stand) but there were scenes I almost was ready to say "WIN!!" to buy then the dialogue takes a sharp turn and it's facepalm time.
But who's the target demographic(s)? Children as young if not younger than Tennant's audience, while leaving out other age groups? (And the show has managed to balance multiple age groups many times in its 56 year history.)
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Fans of Chibnail's Doctor are becoming like fans of Zach Snyder's DC stuff, blowing off any complaints and just telling people to not watch. Hopefully, Chibnail's run will go the way of Snyder's DC stuff: killed off because its absolute shit, but keeping the female lead he introduced because she'd be pretty good if she was working with competent people. To keep the DCEU comparison going, Doctor Who definitely needs the equivalent of a Patty Jenkins to save the 13th Doctor, because it is depressing how much Whitaker is trying to make everything work but failing because her Doctor is written to be nothing but a hypocritical, spineless pacifist with no other real personality traits.
At least Colin Baker and Peter Capaldi were able to bring something to their seasons/series even when the writing wasn't good, Whitaker is screwed because she doesn't even have a good character base to work from, and I blame that on Chibnail, not her. But, unless Whitaker gets to do a season without Chibnail she's going to end up being the second most screwed over DW actor ever (after Colin Baker).
Or... and hear me out, maybe people have a different opinion on a TV show than you and you often confuse your opinion as a fact.
Were you looking at yourself in a mirror when you typed that? I only ask because you're describing yourself perfectly.
