Tell that to fezzes, celery stalks, leather jackets, cat pins, and earrings. And so on.
Ncuti Gatwa is the 15th Doctor
- Thread starter StCoop
- Start date
I you squint at that pic, then you may have just found the inspiration for Whittikers console room.
Really? I think she looks better than that!
I ordinarily agree with you on many things. But I have been enjoying this positive outflow of PR from the people involved. Ncuti's post was fun, funny, and positive. Just a feel-good message that makes me look forward to seeing the show! Add in RTD's good natured hints, teases, messages, etc., and it's been nice.
Is that really necessary?
Jodie Whittaker has every right to keep her life, both private and professional, to herself and so what if she didn't post these kind of things?
Although, I do agree that people have a right to their privacy. But the dearth of PR before was excessive. So, I'll echo the sentiment it's a nice change. One that I've been enjoying.
Social media, for better or worse, is where a lot of marketing is targeted to nowadays. Actors and showrunners have a right to privacy, but promoting your work across Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, etc is basically part of the job now. Even the actors from the Chibnal/Whittaker era who have social media, like Mandip Gill or Sacha Dawan did little to promote Doctor Who. It's hard to be enthusiastic about a show when the people in it don't seem to be enthusiastic. Whether they really aren't, or just not adept to social media is a whole other debate.
That's fair.
I'm just very tired of the passive aggressive slagging against the Chibnall era on every facet.
Promoting a show social media shouldn't be a job requirement. Shouldn't the show stand on its own merits?
Yes, I know that's not the world we live in anymore, alas, but that doesn't mean we should expect that kind of reach out and/or get annoyed when we don't get it.
Probably. Would be nice. I suppose this is just the modern day equivalent of press junkets or those behind the scenes interviews you'd see on TV back in the day. I'm sure the actors hated doing those then, and a lot probably hate the social media upkeep now. But when you're the face of a show, like Ncuti, you have a better chance of getting viewers to tune in vs Russel T Davis throwing Instagram posts up as much as he can.
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Doesn't that suggest that there was a central dictat not to post stuff? For whatever reason, Chibnall ran a very tight ship and wanted all news to come out centrally.
Whether that worked or not is debatable - I thought it was crap for the profile of the show, but it did preserve some surprises. Either way, I find it very unlikely that the actors had much choice in what they posted about the show.
I agree the change since RTD took over has been plain to see. He was more prominent in a lot of the lockdown stuff than any of the (then) current team, and that's come across to the series of orchestrated announcements. But Tennant and Tate aren't exactly posting reels every day either - they're not that generation.
Ultimately you've now got the show fronted by two digital natives who are very active on Instagram, and they're doing it in a very natural way. It's great to see.
Is that really necessary?
Jodie Whittaker has every right to keep her life, both private and professional, to herself and so what if she didn't post these kind of things?
Agreed, and she's hardly the only actor with no social media presence either. The show as a whole needed better PR but I think she did her bit.
It isn't like Capald, Smith Tennant or Eccleston are all over social media. Whittaker did make a big effort to go to comiccons etc and was a good ambassador for the show. There should have been way better PR but it's a bigger issue than the star of the show being on Twitter or Instagram.
I do enjoy it when there's a lot of social media activity with a show. I'm not saying Jodie or anyone should be obligated to that but I do like it. I really enjoyed a lot of the behind the scenes stuff that would be posted when cast and crew posted during the Fuller years on American Gods or that we see now with the Netflix show Wednesday.
The show should have a social media manager deciding what to post or not. It's great the actors are on SM but i'd guess that's gonna start tapering off once they get into full swing.
I believe the show already has a social media manager. Gatwa and RTD aren’t just putting these things on Instagram on a whim; it’s as choreographed as any traditional media rollout.
It's also about how many people are seeing those posts. Just looking at Instagram, since that's primarily the social media I use nowadays, the official Doctor Who Instagram has 738K followers. Ncuti Gatwa has 2.6 million. More people are going to see Doctor Who-related posts through him, which in turn could turn into a stronger viewership for the new season.
I hear you. I just mean it in the sense that when there are positive tidbits on social media or wherever, I enjoy it. But I don't view it as a negative towards anyone else.
I think you're right. One time I was having an old poster signed by Peter Davison. It was a poster associated with a media tour in the 80s to raise awareness about DW in the US. Upon seeing it, he described a long excruciating series of conventions, lots of driving across the country, lots of autographs, interviews, etc. associated with that grueling tour. I guess JNT kind of dragged them into it. It was almost like seeing the poster triggered a flashback! Although, he happily signed it. I'm sure social media would be a bit easier!
I actually didn't mention Whitaker or anyone else at all! I'm just saying I'm enjoying these positive little things we're getting. I'm enjoying them without casting aspersions anywhere.
I do agree that it shouldn't solely (or largely) be responsible for the PR. Although, here in the States, stars will regularly go on the talk show circuit to promote their latest movie or whatnot. So, the bigger stars do make an effort.
Regarding Ncuti, I get the sense that promoting DW on social media isn't only good for the show, but probably for his personal brand as well. Hopefully, at least he's doing social media because he enjoys it, or at least sees some personal benefit for it.
He's also 10 years younger than both Whittaker and Smith. He may well be more born into social media. Sort of a generational difference going on?
At any rate, I've just been enjoying the fun, positive tidbits we've been getting!
That's actually pretty telling! The star is bigger than a show, at least by the metric. And DW is on life support to some degree right now. I'm sure this is all part of the PR plan.
Instagram is more about people than brands, so it's not too surprising.
I think a lot of the current fanbase is more Twitter focused - Doctor Who has 1.6m followers on Twitter but Ncuti doesn't have any presence there.
It's similar with RTD - he has a semi-dormant Twitter and mainly uses Instagram. It all makes a lot of sense to target a younger demographic.
I think a lot of the current fanbase is more Twitter focused - Doctor Who has 1.6m followers on Twitter but Ncuti doesn't have any presence there.
It's similar with RTD - he has a semi-dormant Twitter and mainly uses Instagram. It all makes a lot of sense to target a younger demographic.
He's the Doctor right down to his fingernails.
Finally, something other than celery and question mark motifs to "take this piss" out of and the checked patterns are right out of 1974.. Oh well; at least when they get to 16K TV sets, such "what are the round things" quips might be visible on screen, and if they do put emphasis on a big zoom on fingernails I will laugh.
Also, why just brown and orange? Was there a time warp and a redo of the "soothing seventies" is going on, is that's the trending style nowadays? At least used tetradic or something more to complement the wardrobe with...
https://www.oberlo.com/blog/color-combinations-cheat-sheet
At any rate, I've just been enjoying the fun, positive tidbits we've been getting!
I wouldn't expect anything else. Let's hope the episodes really are as good, which is still a subjective thing, but that's okay.
Unless his era becomes Jodie 2.0, since RTD2 can't be a repeat of RTD 1.0 given the more noteworthy "fails" of his era, like Love & Monsters and Voyage of the Damned. (Noting his era had quite a few strengths, it will be fun to see when the episodes get aired/released.)
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While there's no denying the publicity side of Doctor Who has been lacking in recent years, it also isn't fair to criticize the actors for not being active on social media. Not to pile on with the "Chibnall failed us" rhetoric that's so en vogue these days, but whatever presence Doctor Who did or didn't have during his era was his responsibility, not Whittaker's.
Mind you, social media wasn't really a thing during Eccleston's time as the Doctor, and was only starting to catch on at the tail end of Tennant's.
Absolutely. Smith and Whittaker were already in their mid-20s when the social media boom began. Gatwa would have been a teenager at the time.
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