Spoilers Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner
- Thread starter Allyn Gibson
- Start date
So, is Whosplaining a thing?
I'm sadly old enough to remember the pre-internet days when people did it through fanzines and the DWAS.
Oh I am deliberately avoiding the idea of ‘true fans’ or any kind of gate keeping in that regard. That’s why I don’t use anything *like* that kind of distinction, and just used ‘fans’.
Funnily enough, one of the Bond channels uploaded a video today talking in part about the sort of different layers of fandom.
I don’t make any kind of quality distinction, etc, but there is a difference between the fan who tunes in week after week, and natters about the show, and the ones who are there for every bit of merch or books etc. Or those who have been doing it for ten twenty thirty years what have you. Heck, I am not even anywhere near the super fans or fanatic levels (certainly not since the nineties at any rate) who are there on the Big Finish releases and what have you.
But those different kinds of fans are going to have different opinions, coming from different places, and different levels or quantities of knowledge and experience informing them.
You will notice that *at no point* have I said my opinion is superior to any other fans opinions (apart from perhaps RTD and Chibnall, but that’s called criticising the manager, and a perfectly normal part of fandom) but I have talked about where it comes from — both my ancient Who fandom, and the fact I am so interested in stories and story telling and fiction in general, that *that* is literally my degree area subject.
I certainly haven’t made it personal in anyway.
I can happily sit and talk about the Buddhist influences brought to Who around the time of Pertwee, and how that affects his regeneration (and Toms). And how both the TC and Bigeneration to an extent take away from that. And other things.
That’s not because of any fan strata, it’s just cos I have more of that junk in my head informing my opinion.
And I try to explain my opinions with fact and observation.
No point being all ‘Showrunner Bad’ without being able to say why — not least as some people are far too happy to ascribe it to some unpleasant -ism somewhere along the line, which is just… unpleasant.
But the attitudes also lead that kind of ‘ignore the experts’ stuff that gave us Brexit and Trump.
Some people just know more. Some people know *even more than that* and when it comes to Who I am probably in the middle somewhere. (Especially since I know naff all about Big Finish, and didn’t watch or experience a chunk of Jodie’s first season in particular. So… I don’t much talk about that bit, except to say why I haven’t bothered, or common knowledge stuff that is sometimes part of *why* I didn’t bother.)
Lots of people, who have a long view of things like regeneration (and the show in general) don’t like what has been done to it in recent years for a good reason. Some do. But by and large, the longer in the tooth fans *don’t* — and it’s not about fear of change. Quite the opposite. It’s about welcoming organic change, and rejecting the sort of approach that shows the hand holding the strings too much.
Funnily enough, one of the Bond channels uploaded a video today talking in part about the sort of different layers of fandom.
I don’t make any kind of quality distinction, etc, but there is a difference between the fan who tunes in week after week, and natters about the show, and the ones who are there for every bit of merch or books etc. Or those who have been doing it for ten twenty thirty years what have you. Heck, I am not even anywhere near the super fans or fanatic levels (certainly not since the nineties at any rate) who are there on the Big Finish releases and what have you.
But those different kinds of fans are going to have different opinions, coming from different places, and different levels or quantities of knowledge and experience informing them.
You will notice that *at no point* have I said my opinion is superior to any other fans opinions (apart from perhaps RTD and Chibnall, but that’s called criticising the manager, and a perfectly normal part of fandom) but I have talked about where it comes from — both my ancient Who fandom, and the fact I am so interested in stories and story telling and fiction in general, that *that* is literally my degree area subject.
I certainly haven’t made it personal in anyway.
I can happily sit and talk about the Buddhist influences brought to Who around the time of Pertwee, and how that affects his regeneration (and Toms). And how both the TC and Bigeneration to an extent take away from that. And other things.
That’s not because of any fan strata, it’s just cos I have more of that junk in my head informing my opinion.
And I try to explain my opinions with fact and observation.
No point being all ‘Showrunner Bad’ without being able to say why — not least as some people are far too happy to ascribe it to some unpleasant -ism somewhere along the line, which is just… unpleasant.
But the attitudes also lead that kind of ‘ignore the experts’ stuff that gave us Brexit and Trump.
Some people just know more. Some people know *even more than that* and when it comes to Who I am probably in the middle somewhere. (Especially since I know naff all about Big Finish, and didn’t watch or experience a chunk of Jodie’s first season in particular. So… I don’t much talk about that bit, except to say why I haven’t bothered, or common knowledge stuff that is sometimes part of *why* I didn’t bother.)
Lots of people, who have a long view of things like regeneration (and the show in general) don’t like what has been done to it in recent years for a good reason. Some do. But by and large, the longer in the tooth fans *don’t* — and it’s not about fear of change. Quite the opposite. It’s about welcoming organic change, and rejecting the sort of approach that shows the hand holding the strings too much.
"You just don't get the nuance" is about as pretty fucking clear a declaration that you consider your opinion superior as it gets without putting on an Ian Levine mask.
Not really. It’s not like I think no-one gets it. I’m not some special person with great all-knowing insight that no other person could hope to equal. It’s not like I am against various things just because it’s a change, or because of who is making it, starring in it etc. It’s not like I think no-one else’s opinion counts. In fact, most of my waffle here is a response to other people dismissing mine — usually without reference to the actual points or examples I raise.
Levine in some respects almost claims a sort of ownership of Who — I do no such thing.
Bigeneration is a flawed concept, for the reasons I have stated. Bigeneration retroactively applied is even worse.
*pokes head in*
Dear gods, this "discussion" is still going on?
Let me know when we have some actual news to talk about.
*swift retreat*
Dear gods, this "discussion" is still going on?
Let me know when we have some actual news to talk about.
*swift retreat*
Are they superimposing her into Underworld, Sun Makers, etc?
Officially, the upcoming seasons are officially "Season one" and "season two", not "Series 14" and "Series 15" (or season 40 or 41, which is wrong not just because the 2005 revival started as "Series 1" but because the 1996 movie would otherwise be as canonical, so "Series 14" is then "Series 15" and so on, never mind "Season 42", and so on, which is just making an already complex mess even worse, which might be why it was decided to officially reset the naming convention for the new show back to "Season one"?Well, well, well.
https://www.independenttalent.com/producers/alison-sterling/
And since it will almost certainly be scrubbed here's a screenshot.
https://ibb.co/NC0r1Vb
https://www.independenttalent.com/producers/alison-sterling/
And since it will almost certainly be scrubbed here's a screenshot.
https://ibb.co/NC0r1Vb
Well, shit me, horsey.
He's our Robert Holmes. Of course he'll be back.
Just look at the number of times he replied to the question, "Are you coming back to write an episode?" with "I'd never come back as showrunner", an answer to a question he wasn't being asked.
Or ‘I’d have to be mad!’
I always said I didn't love any of the Christmas specials until "A Christmas Carol." Almost all of Moffat's were at least good with the exception of "The Return of Doctor Mysterio."
So yeah, great news if true.
I’m not that big on a few, including that one, but Moffat tended towards stories that fit in well with Christmas and a sort of Christmas Canon, whereas RTD tended towards ‘here’s a bit of Christmas iconography, possibly vague, and it’s trying to kill people’ — one of these things works better than the other.
Also I like the idea that Moffat is just writing a single episode (or maybe 2), For me one of the issues with the Christmas specials is that it was another episode written by the showrunner and sometimes they struggled for ideas because they had to write 4 or 5 other episodes as well. Hopefully this is something Moffat can really focus on and we'll get a classic.
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