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Spoilers Russell T. Davies Returns to Doctor Who as New Showrunner

I also think he should have been in The Story and The Engine instead of Jo Martin. XD
Strong disagree. Jo Martin was the perfect choice for that scene.

But I agree that it would've been really cool to see Peter Davison reprise the role. But that would've been to quiet and nuanced for Davies's taste, which has always leaned heavily towards the bombastic.
 
The whitest Doctor ever? :guffaw:
Strong disagree. Jo Martin was the perfect choice for that scene.

But I agree that it would've been really cool to see Peter Davison reprise the role. But that would've been to quiet and nuanced for Davies's taste, which has always leaned heavily towards the bombastic.

Davisons father was West Indian/Caribbean, from Guyana.
Plus, y’know, Cricket is the great religion of the commonwealth xD

And the very fact he is seen as the ‘whitest’ is what could have made for something quite powerful I think, especially in that story — which was like a sort of parable retelling the history of Omega and the Time Lords, whether by intent or not.

But yup, too subtle for RTD.
 
That's the problem. It becomes so much more apparent how much worse Doctor Who has gotten when you rewatch some older episodes. RTD2 is mostly bad with a few outstanding episodes.
I've gotta strongly disagree here, I really enjoyed RTD2 too, I'd say it's the difference between an 8/10 for RTD2, vs a 9.6 for Moffat.
Moffat's run is pretty good up until Clara joins. You can tell he's running out of steam, and it gets progressively worse from then on. Again, you'll have some stand out episodes, but you start to get more duds than good episodes.

Check out The Girl Who Waited.

I'll admit, I don't remember it very well past where I'm at now, but I'm pretty sure I enjoyed Moffat's the whole run pretty evenly all the way through.
 
Holy crap. The 28 day figures are in for the first two episodes of TWB and they are:

Episode 1: 6.1M - 41% increase over the 7 day figures / 217% over the overnights.
Episode 2 5.1 - 43% increase over the 7 day figures / 242% over the overnights.

Damn shame we don't have them for S2 because I think they will seriously rewrite the narrative around it's performance.
 

I don't understand why Billie Piper, like Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman, doesn't appear in major Hollywood productions filmed in the US, in addition to British productions shot in the UK and surrounding countries. She might have winked at Hollywood by appearing in season 2 of Wednesday Show, but season 2 of Wednesday Show was filmed in Ireland.
 
Turns out Peter Capaldi agrees those of us who thinks the show has gotten too big for its britches, per an interview with the Mirror:

“The show became very, very big. And it was never like that when I loved it. So it became a different thing. I think the responsibilities of playing the part became more. There were more of them.​
“There were more things that you had to do rather than just, I mean, I think in the old days, you know, if you were John Pertwee or Tom Baker or something like that, you probably, you know, you spend most of your year making it and then a bit of your year promoting it. But it wasn't this in your face kind of thing that suddenly was really important to the BBC, or suddenly really important to a brand that had to be maintained. It was just a show that some kids really loved and other kids didn't care about, but wanted to watch football or you grew out of, you know.​
“It became this sort of very important thing. I think less in a cultural way and more in an economic way.​
“I think the show is a little bit of a victim of its success. You know, the show that I loved was a tiny thing, a little small thing that survived. It just survived, but nobody knew that it was warming its way into the culture in such a deep way. And I think that's what I have an affinity with.”​
I agree with him. With each passing series and each passing showrunner, the show has felt like it "has" to constantly top itself with the stakes and the reveals and so on, and all of that felt like it was driven by the big global popularity.

The popular grand finales were always my least favorite of every modern showrunner era, with only "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End" and "The Power of the Doctor" working for me and, in both cases, that was because big companion reunions felt earned.

Whereas, I always much preferred the quieter stories, the character studies (and not necessarily of The Doctor and/or the companions), and the big sci-fi concepts, and that's where the classic series shined the most, too. I feel like that's the point Capaldi is trying to get at.

While I'm still not on board on the smaller seasons, perhaps that's the best way to make the show smaller and lead to tighter stories have a greater impact, instead of focusing on the granular.

If that also means bringing down the budget, then so be it! I'll take bubble wrap aliens over excessive CGI!
 
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Two possible explanations spring to mind.

First is that she doesn't want to film in the US, she wants to stay close to her kids.

Second is that she doesn't get offered those kind of parts.
Corollary to the second, she may not want those kinds of parts, so she may not even by auditioning/querying for them. Judging from interviews she's given in the past, I have the sense that Piper is content with where her career is as it allows her to be present for her children in ways that maybe her parents weren't for her.

Which is why 1) I think she's not a long-term solution for Doctor Who; that's time and energy she won't want to spend, and 2) I wouldn't be surprised if she retires from acting altogether at some point.

And, if she ever needs money, a weekend at a North American convention can net her six figures in autograph fees.
 
Turns out Peter Capaldi agrees those of us who thinks the show has gotten too big for its britches, per an interview with the Mirror:

“The show became very, very big. And it was never like that when I loved it. So it became a different thing. I think the responsibilities of playing the part became more. There were more of them.​
“There were more things that you had to do rather than just, I mean, I think in the old days, you know, if you were John Pertwee or Tom Baker or something like that, you probably, you know, you spend most of your year making it and then a bit of your year promoting it. But it wasn't this in your face kind of thing that suddenly was really important to the BBC, or suddenly really important to a brand that had to be maintained. It was just a show that some kids really loved and other kids didn't care about, but wanted to watch football or you grew out of, you know.​
“It became this sort of very important thing. I think less in a cultural way and more in an economic way.​
“I think the show is a little bit of a victim of its success. You know, the show that I loved was a tiny thing, a little small thing that survived. It just survived, but nobody knew that it was warming its way into the culture in such a deep way. And I think that's what I have an affinity with.”​
I agree with him. With each passing series and each passing showrunner, the show has felt like it "has" to constantly top itself with the stakes and the reveals and so on, and all of that felt like it was driven by the big global popularity.

The popular grand finales were always my least favorite of every modern showrunner era, with only "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End" and "The Power of the Doctor" working for me and, in both cases, that was because big companion reunions felt earned.
You mention this often, but time to adress it:The Power of the Doctor is one of three whole finales of Who (old or new or streaming or whatever) that I actively dislike. I can't watch it without wincing. And generally, I love the finales - The Parting of the Ways is a spectacular regeneration for Eccleston and a good resolution to a loose but effective arc, the Utopia is OTT, but largely entertaining, End of Time likewise but with Cribbins as the companion (always a major win) some of Tennant's best moments, The Pandorica two-parter is fantastic (and the arc is likewise the best timeloop arc of Moff's), The Time of the Doctor is intense, sweet, heartwarming and exciting, the Death in Heaven is underrated character piece and a fantastic showcase for Missy, Heaven Sent is one of the best episode in all of Who and Hell Bent is a fantastic thesis on why The Timeless Children or fanwank like it will never work and reminds us what DW is actually all about, and the Cybermen three-parter of series 10 is another awesome finale and just textbook goodness. The rest as either okay or meh, except Timeless Children, which is simply the worst.

So, I don't agree about the finale never working. Beyond that, though, I agree with what you said.
 
You mention this often, but time to adress it:The Power of the Doctor is one of three whole finales of Who (old or new or streaming or whatever) that I actively dislike. I can't watch it without wincing. And generally, I love the finales - The Parting of the Ways is a spectacular regeneration for Eccleston and a good resolution to a loose but effective arc, the Utopia is OTT, but largely entertaining, End of Time likewise but with Cribbins as the companion (always a major win) some of Tennant's best moments, The Pandorica two-parter is fantastic (and the arc is likewise the best timeloop arc of Moff's), The Time of the Doctor is intense, sweet, heartwarming and exciting, the Death in Heaven is underrated character piece and a fantastic showcase for Missy, Heaven Sent is one of the best episode in all of Who and Hell Bent is a fantastic thesis on why The Timeless Children or fanwank like it will never work and reminds us what DW is actually all about, and the Cybermen three-parter of series 10 is another awesome finale and just textbook goodness. The rest as either okay or meh, except Timeless Children, which is simply the worst.

So, I don't agree about the finale never working. Beyond that, though, I agree with what you said.
Almost every finale you mentioned, they started off strongly and ended horribly, especially "Utopia"/"The Sound of Drums" to "The Last of the Time Lords" and "Heaven Sent" to "Hell Bent."

The one exception I'm willing to concede one is Eccleston's finale and that's entirely because of him.
 
Power of the Doctor was absolutely terrible in many many many ways. But… it had some very very likeable elements in it.

It was certainly a better anniversary ep than the stuff pumped out for the sixtieth. At one point I genuinely theorised RTD had written bits for it.

Then I saw what RTD was writing Who like these days, and realised Power of the Doctor was the brief resurfacing of Chibnalls actual inner child fan. So I shall give him credit, of sorts, for finally letting it out of the cage.
 
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