In theTV series, Earth is a central world in a Federation that spans a wide number of solar systems over which it has complete, authoritarian control. And yet, in Darrow's version, one of the Federation's enemies is China. The country. On Earth.
Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner
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In theTV series, Earth is a central world in a Federation that spans a wide number of solar systems over which it has complete, authoritarian control. And yet, in Darrow's version, one of the Federation's enemies is China. The country. On Earth.
Personally? I just can't wait for more speeches like "You weren't there in the final days of the War. You never saw what was born. But if the Timelock's broken, then everything's coming through. Not just the Daleks, but the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child, the Could-have-been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-weres. The War turned into hell. And that's what you've opened, right above the Earth. Hell is descending."
For all of Davies' tendencies to bombastic nature that I don't typically like, I do love speeches like that one because they inflame the imagination.
RTD's grandiose, poetic or whimsical names/descriptions were certainly one of the more fun elements of his era.
Having just fled the horrors of Twitter back to the world of Message Boards this is my first post, so Hi!
According to trade journal 'Broadcast' the next series will have a budget of £10 million per episode, which is triple what it had before. With that kind of cash coming in from Disney I can't see them not having some direct control over how the series is run.
According to trade journal 'Broadcast' the next series will have a budget of £10 million per episode, which is triple what it had before. With that kind of cash coming in from Disney I can't see them not having some direct control over how the series is run.
The article in Broadcast is full of estimates and other airy speculation from unnamed sources— they’re not even sure of the show’s previous budget (their per episode estimate is 1-3 million pounds, which is a heck of a range), let alone how much Disney has actually put in.
That can't be real, 10 million a episode, so 13 episodes a year at 130 million, for Dr Who, i can't wrap my head around that, or are we about to see Dr Who merch become a Disney store exclusive, maybe that is why they are willing to spend so much, which might mean maybe it is now a good idead to grab those B&M Who merch before Who merch requires a morgage to buy it from your local Disney store. lo!
So much speculation surrounding the Disney deal.
After thinking about it, I don't think there's any reason to worry about Disney taking creative control. RTD is not only a massive DW fan but he also wants to control a creative empire. He's not going to be doing all this only to turn control over to someone else.
There might be minimal decency standards, but not much more. Or RTD wouldn't have accepted the deal. Or accepted the role of showrunner if it was already a done deal.
I think we're good on that aspect.
After thinking about it, I don't think there's any reason to worry about Disney taking creative control. RTD is not only a massive DW fan but he also wants to control a creative empire. He's not going to be doing all this only to turn control over to someone else.
There might be minimal decency standards, but not much more. Or RTD wouldn't have accepted the deal. Or accepted the role of showrunner if it was already a done deal.
I think we're good on that aspect.
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If things don't stay in the green and ratings drop below what Disney is comfortable with I have no doubt the mouse will flex it's muscle
"Get ready for Grogu to interact with the Doctor this Christmas!"
"Get ready for Grogu to interact with the Doctor this Christmas!"
People keep fear mongering over Disney controlling Doctor Who, which I find weird considering the current situation with the BBC. Considering the fact that the BBC is literally controlled by the British Government, which is not, lets just say, a group of people you want in charge of creative stuff, I'd take my chances with Disney teaming with RTD over the BBC in general at this point. I'm not one to act like Disney is some "evil mega corp" anyway, but acting like Doctor Who would be creatively worse under one of the most successful media companies on Earth, especially when the alternative is the BBC and the hacks that they have been hiring to run the show, feels a bit ridiculous.
Plus its RTD in charge, I doubt he'd have bothered to come back without some assurances that he'd be able to make the show he wants (within reason obviously, we've seen him without restraints and that was Torchwood, which really sucked but I also doubt anyone would let him do that kind of stuff in the main show).
Plus its RTD in charge, I doubt he'd have bothered to come back without some assurances that he'd be able to make the show he wants (within reason obviously, we've seen him without restraints and that was Torchwood, which really sucked but I also doubt anyone would let him do that kind of stuff in the main show).
Off the top of my head, I'd guess DW was running $4-6 million per episode for Capaldi and Whittaker. Star Trek Picard and Discovery reportedly had a budget of $8m per episode.
British and American budgets are very different things. The BBC made a point a few years ago of noting that it produced 18 drama series totaling around 85 hours of content for the same amount Netflix spent on 20 hours of The Crown.
Well, the last show runner of Who chased me away from the show for only half the budget that it cost Picard and Disco to do the same thing, so that is something positive i suppose.
Lol
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YMMV, for me it had occasional bright spots but nothing really amazing outside of a couple of great episodes.
I do think there was a perfect storm at work in some respects. As more than one person has said the new lenses they were using gave us these sweeping vistas but it often made the screen seem empty, I think Chibnall is someone who works better at an intimate level than a grand sweeping epic scale and I don't think he's a great writer of sci-fi (you could argue RTD and Moffat aren't either, and also that Who works better as fantasy rather than sci-fi, but Russell and Steven are, I'd say, way better writers and that covers a lot of gaps.)
And there's Whittaker who seems a genuinely lovely person, she's clearly a good actor, I just don't think she was right for the part. Who needs someone who owns the screen and too often she faded into the background, even in her own finale. Some of that's down to writing, and some of it down to surrounding her with companions and guest stars, but some of it was down to her. The Haunting of Villa Diodati showed she could be a great Doctor but it was too infrequent. Eccleston, Tennant, Smith, Capaldi all had way more screen presence, and before anyone accuses me of misogyny, so did Jo Martin (and also Michelle Gomez). Each of those actors could work into a room and make you believe they were the one in charge. Too often Whittaker felt more like a newly qualified teacher asking the kids what they wanted to learn today (I appreciate many people liked that about her, this is just my opinion.)
On the contrary, I would argue it didn't. The biggest and most obvious example of that being Legend of the Sea-Devils, which is almost inarguably the worst story I've seen in recent times. Pair that with the problematic politics of Kerblam! and the nonsensical plotting of Flux and The Power of the Doctor and you have some pretty pathetic writing all around (proven by the very recently published script of the latter).
Basically, the Chibbnal era is not best known for its quality writing.
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