Agreed.
Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner
- Thread starter Allyn Gibson
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Agreed.
We have the final Live+28 ratings for the 60th Anniversary Specials now:
'The Star Beast' 9.50m
'Wild Blue Yonder' 9.44m
'The Giggle' 9.04m
Which are insane both for their size, audience share and audience retention. (The AI scores are fantastic as well.)
They also bump each episode up multiple places in the chart into the Top 3, with 'The Giggle' hitting Number 1 for the week.
The Christmas Special was already No. 2 for the week on the Live +7 but isn't likely to move higher just because the No.1 was the New Years Celebrations with a stupidly high number.
'The Star Beast' 9.50m
'Wild Blue Yonder' 9.44m
'The Giggle' 9.04m
Which are insane both for their size, audience share and audience retention. (The AI scores are fantastic as well.)
They also bump each episode up multiple places in the chart into the Top 3, with 'The Giggle' hitting Number 1 for the week.
The Christmas Special was already No. 2 for the week on the Live +7 but isn't likely to move higher just because the No.1 was the New Years Celebrations with a stupidly high number.
Nope. The official source gets to determine naming convention. "Season 41" is a misnomer.
The same argument was in 2005 when people were upset over "Series One" as opposed to "Season 27", and the former won.
"Season One" is the ultimate numerical reset and it's what the makers want. As with 2005, it is meant to differentiate and set anew. For numerous and fair reasons.
A lot more information on how the ratings are tabulated:
https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/entertainment/how-do-uk-tv-viewing-figures-and-overnight-ratings-work/
https://www.barb.co.uk/the-barb-panel-2/
https://www.barb.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/
Interesting stuff!
Yikes, that breaks my brain!
Kind of like the official documents dated ye 18th year of ye reign of King Henry the eighth of that name...
The pedantic issue with that is when they decide to retro-introduce doctors (looking at you, Mr Grumpy) or just throw in a regeneration without casting a new actor...
Then jump the Arcturan Mega-Shark with the Timeless child crap that throws all numbering technically out of the water - and destroys all those lovely quiz questions about the Doctor and where they're from... because it is no longer Gallifrey.
We live in the Highlander II era of Doctor Who. In fact… are we sure they aren’t from Zeist?
Ah, the kind of lovely quiz question no one would have been able to answer for the first ten years of the show, when Gallifrey's name hadn't been invented yet.
Yes. Because quizzes always notoriously ask questions to which there are no answer. Or, as in ‘which actor portrayed Captain Kirk?’ never adjust their wording unless they fancy a pedant taking a quizmaster to task. So whereas a quiz would once have had ‘Gallifrey, in the constellation of Kasterborous’ and may even have included the BBC phone number, now the correct answer is ‘effed if I know, god knows the writers haven’t a clue’ but *also* is still correct in its previous wording because of nothing else the Doctor has explicitly on screen identified as being such.
However, he’s also half human.
On his mother’s side.
Funny how one of these things we happily ignore and pretend didn’t happen, whilst another is “just gospel canon now, deal with it” despite both being plot points at the time. Ironically, Segal’s little contribution to the myth at least has the benefit of not contradicting *multiple* earlier stories by multiple other writers.
Mind you, in those days, people put a bit more thought into things.
Well, we now know the Disney advertising strategy for 'Doctor Who'.
At The Television Critics Association 2024 conference they did a presentation of their childrens television programming that included Bluey, The Wizards of Waverly Place, Percy Jackson and Doctor Who.
So that decades old debate is finally settled; Doctor Who is a kids show. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
At The Television Critics Association 2024 conference they did a presentation of their childrens television programming that included Bluey, The Wizards of Waverly Place, Percy Jackson and Doctor Who.
So that decades old debate is finally settled; Doctor Who is a kids show. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
Nah, it's still a family show, regardless of advertisers.
I would advise against that, but at this point I think the damage is done.
How do you market a family show anyway?
You don't.
You market a show that kids want to watch and parents think might be fun to watch with them.
Disney have that in the fucking BAG.
The scripts for the four Specials are available to read now and include some interesting extra/cut bits. (And show that some bits on screen don't appear in the scripts at all.)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/writers/scripts/whoniverse
Most interesting is confirmation that
Ncuti's audition piece is there too and it's fascinating as a tool to cover all the different things an actor playing the Doctor is expected to do in a short span.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/writers/scripts/whoniverse
Most interesting is confirmation that
Susan Twist is playing the same character in WBY and Church, even though it's 300 years later.
Ncuti's audition piece is there too and it's fascinating as a tool to cover all the different things an actor playing the Doctor is expected to do in a short span.
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It’s how it began. Aim at the audience between Grandstand and Jukebox Jury. In the old days, that meant the Doctor for the kids, a companion for the teens, and — as the cast put it — one for the dads. Ironically, the master stroke of the modern series — foreshadowed by Davison — was having the Doctor be for the mums. (Watch the figures fall once the Doctor isn’t a pretty fellow anymore by mainstream standards with Capaldi…)
So the show has always tacitly been about a very middle-of-the-road balance in terms of the target audience. Go too far away from that, you start losing some. (It’s why Captain Jack worked very well, Rose/Doctor sat in the middle, but the Thasmin queer baiting really didn’t in the end — it went both too far and not far enough, all at once) It’s the same with ‘messaging’ in shows, and Who particularly. You absolutely should do social commentary, but the point in allegory is to get that to the people that need to hear it. Which means sugaring the pill, not preaching to the choir. Because pretty soon only the choir starts turning up to Church, and then start fighting over what song should be sung, and the point is lost.
(As has happened post Timeless Child. The Doctor as person who does good because it’s the right thing to do has been replaced by one who is fighting back as a victim. There’s more to it than that, but that removal of agency sums it up neatly if imperfectly.)
I think it’s lost its balance in so many places. Part of that is because not only differences in the creators about what Doctor Who is or was, but also because I don’t think there’s a firm understanding of what it can or should be, in itself. Looking, basically, for ways to put it in the box they want it to be in, rather than seeing what shape box it actually requires.
That audition piece is great. Could hear Ncuti speaking it which is a good thing.
Interesting bit here for those still wedded to the idea that RDT will never, ever reference the Timless Child again.
Same as 2005 then. Eventually they realised that basically makes the Doctor a god, and pretty much the whole Moffat era works down from that. Though it kind of flubs the landing when The Doctor basically takes borderline control of Gallifrey through the power of grumpy. But it worked for the story.
Now we are back at God-mode plus plus, and straight into MCU territory.
Much of the fun is gone, because we are now watching Space Jesus Adventures as written by people who like and know neither Space, nor Jesus (insert deity figure of choice as applicable, but not Buddha, because that doesn’t work anymore) and possibly only have a tenuous grasp of adventure from a certain point of view.
I was never a Tom Baker era fellow, but compared to where we have ended up, I can certainly see the the appeal. All the more sad that God-Doctor has its seeds in the McCoy era, which I rather liked.
Now we are back at God-mode plus plus, and straight into MCU territory.
Much of the fun is gone, because we are now watching Space Jesus Adventures as written by people who like and know neither Space, nor Jesus (insert deity figure of choice as applicable, but not Buddha, because that doesn’t work anymore) and possibly only have a tenuous grasp of adventure from a certain point of view.
I was never a Tom Baker era fellow, but compared to where we have ended up, I can certainly see the the appeal. All the more sad that God-Doctor has its seeds in the McCoy era, which I rather liked.
You know you can just stop watching, right?
To quote an old TV show that used to be on during the summer holidays when I was a kid and which, ironically, RTD worked on in the 1980s; "Why don't you just switch off your television set and go and do something less boring instead?"
To quote an old TV show that used to be on during the summer holidays when I was a kid and which, ironically, RTD worked on in the 1980s; "Why don't you just switch off your television set and go and do something less boring instead?"
I did stop watching.
After about forty years, give or take.
Doesn’t mean I should be *pleased* about it.
There were times in my life where being a Who fan meant being bullied about it. I didn’t stop watching and reading then. (To be fair, I suspect holding any book made you a target or suspected homosexual or both to the usual idiots, but hey Ho. This is what happened.)
But now?
Could really have done with some family viewing, non controversy baiting, new who about now. Didn’t happen. Not watching.
Fine. But stop picking the scab or it'll never heal, and we'll get pissed off at you moaning about the scab and all the blood.
