Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner

[Captaindemotion]

I'd forgotten that Moffat wrote this, because the clip they showed felt like Moffat-y nonsense.

I have to say, my wife and I binged Douglas is Cancelled on Thursday and Friday night and utterly loved it. I was afraid it would be a middle aged writer ranting about cancel culture, but it was so much more nuanced and thoughtful. The cast, including Karen Gillan and Alex Kingston, were superb. Anyway, as we were.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Varada Sethu's character name will be Belinda Chandra

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I'm still a little bummed she's not reprising Mundy Flynn but I'll get over it.

However, I'm already bracing my disappointment that she's yet another contemporary human. At least Flynn already has a built-in interesting background in stark contrast to every single Davies companion template.

I have to say, my wife and I binged Douglas is Cancelled on Thursday and Friday night and utterly loved it. I was afraid it would be a middle aged writer ranting about cancel culture, but it was so much more nuanced and thoughtful. The cast, including Karen Gillan and Alex Kingston, were superb. Anyway, as we were.

That's actually really encouraging to read. Despite my deep love for both Gillan and Kingston, I was probably going to give it a pass precisely because I thought it was going to be such a rant. Now I'll give it a shot when I have a chance.

 

[Samurai8472]

For the next series there is an episode that will be packed with music. There is also a guest star that hasn't been announced that will please people

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[Rich Watson]

I saw somebody make a comment that Russel had said in reply to something that "Big Finish will deal with it" but annoyingly they didn't say what it was in regards to. I imagine it was a jokey comment about some continuity point but I'd still like to know what it was, if anyone knows.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

This is me renewing my annual annoyance that Comic Con refuses to allow full video releases of panels for the general public to watch, for those of us who have zero means of being there in person for financial reasons or otherwise. I'm fine with exclusive trailers, clips, and various other video content remaining with convention attendees, but it sucks that we can't watch the panels themselves. During COVID when the convention had to be remote two years in a row, we had full access and it was glorious, and it didn't ruin it for anyone.

Anyways, I'll get off my soapbox now.

 

[Turtletrekker]

This is me renewing my annual annoyance that Comic Con refuses to allow full video releases of panels for the general public to watch, for those of us who have zero means of being there in person for financial reasons or otherwise. I'm fine with exclusive trailers, clips, and various other video content remaining with convention attendees, but it sucks that we can't watch the panels themselves. During COVID when the convention had to be remote two years in a row, we had full access and it was glorious, and it didn't ruin it for anyone.

Anyways, I'll get off my soapbox now.

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[Samurai8472]

^Ah you beat me to it. I was going to say eventually it will be made public.

 

[Rich Watson]

September should be an interesting month.

"The War Between..." starts shooting, so we'll probably get some more casting news and photos but it's also, according to Russell, when they need to start per-production on S3/16 in order to start shooting as soon as Ncuti is free, so we could get an announcement about the future as well.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

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Much obliged! I'll be watching that as soon as I have the time.

 

[Rich Watson]

Looks like there IS a Doctor Who / Star Trek crossover coming....

... to the 'Lower Decks' mobile game. That's nice, I suppose.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTcS23UW4AAhWVJ?format=jpg

 

[The Wormhole]

However, I'm already bracing my disappointment that she's yet another contemporary human. At least Flynn already has a built-in interesting background in stark contrast to every single Davies companion template.

Thing is, even when we do get companions who aren't from modern day, they end up getting converted into contemporary characters anyway. Jack ended up getting stuck on Earth in the 19th century and lived through to modern times. River regenerated into a child and grew up with Amy and Rory. And if they stuck with the original plan of Victorian era Clara from The Snowmen becoming the companion, her experiences with the Spoonhead robots would have left her with knowledge of modern ways. So I suspect even if they had gone with Mundy Flynn becoming the companion, they would have contrived some way for her to become familiar with modern Earth anyway.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Looks like there IS a Doctor Who / Star Trek crossover coming....

... to the 'Lower Decks' mobile game. That's nice, I suppose.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTcS23UW4AAhWVJ?format=jpg

Sounds pretty cool to me!

Thing is, even when we do get companions who aren't from modern day, they end up getting converted into contemporary characters anyway. Jack ended up getting stuck on Earth in the 19th century and lived through to modern times. River regenerated into a child and grew up with Amy and Rory. And if they stuck with the original plan of Victorian era Clara from The Snowmen becoming the companion, her experiences with the Spoonhead robots would have left her with knowledge of modern ways. So I suspect even if they had gone with Mundy Flynn becoming the companion, they would have contrived some way for her to become familiar with modern Earth anyway.

Yeah, you're probably right, which just makes it all the more frustrating for me.

 

[JD]

I can understand making so many of the companions contemporary humans. I've always seen the companions as more or less an audience surrogate, and it's going to be the easiest for them to relate to some from present day Earth. Now, when we have multiple companions, it would be cool to have at least one who isn't a contemporary human.
And besides, weren't the majority of the Classic Who companions contemporary humans?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Susan, Romana I & II, K-9, Adric, Nyssa, Turlough, and Kamelion aren't human.

Steven, Vicki, Katarina, Sara, Jamie, Victoria, Zoe, and Leela aren't contemporary humans.

And yes, while I get the point of them being contemporary humans as an entry point for new viewers, that point does become boring and repetitive after 20 years.

 

[Turtletrekker]

First Doctor --
Susan was Gallifreyan
Vicki is from 25th century Earth
Steven was from the 23rd century
Sarah Kingdom was from the 40th century

Second Doctor--
Jamie was from the 18th century
Victoria was from the 19th century
Zoe was from late 21st century

Fourth Doctor
Leela was from an undisclosed far future
K9 was a tin dog
Romana was Gallifreyan
Adric was from E-Space
Nyssa was from the planet Traken

Fifth Doctor
Kamelion was a shape-shifting robot

All the companions from this point on were contemporary humans*, so it seems that this is a trend that didn't begin with the new series.

*Although he met Ace in the far future on another planet, and we still don't know how exactly he met Mel.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Dodo was a contemporary human that The Doctor and Steven accidentally pick up when they make a pitstop and she wanders in thinking it's a real police box.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Dodo was a contemporary human that The Doctor and Steven accidentally pick up when they make a pitstop and she wanders in thinking it's a real police box.

Oops. Will fix.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

You also left out Vislor Turlough as an alien from Trion, but met The Fifth Doctor in contemporary Earth posing as a human.

 

[Sketcher]

It's not like New Who hasn't not had companions from other time periods. Sure they're maybe not the main, main companion, but still, there's been Jack, Nardole, River...

 

[The Nth Doctor]

True and I've been grateful for each of them. But the ratio between dropped like a rock.