Series 11 News & Spoilers

[11Alive]

Where do you get two year gap from? There will be a season in 2020, so that's only a one year gap.

Depends on when it's airing. If it starts in January, then it's slightly more than a year. If it's the traditional spring premiere of most nuWho seasons, it's almost a year and a half. If the shift to the fall was permanent, then it's closer to two years.

 

[Mr Awe]

The wait could be a good thing. Get better stories and fine tune the show and come back better than ever. I'm not sure rushing to just get something made has ever made for the greatest tv or movie.

Jason

Well, I'm not going to moan on about it, but the theory you describe for the next season was used to explain the longer wait from the previous season to the one that just finished. And, for some of us, it just wasn't better. I love the casting from the Doctor to the companions. But the stories were in general lacking strong villains, the Doctor was often an observer, etc. For me, it was the weakest season of nuWho. Easily. And, I enjoyed some of the episodes to be sure.

So, I'm not convinced that a longer gap will fix things. Although, on the other hand, I don't think huge changes are necessary. Less Chibnall scripts, stronger villains.

We'll see. The wait isn't that much longer so I'm not really that concerned myself.

 

[Hey Missy]

I for one can't wait for the Series 12 episode featuring the return of Krasko the Space Racist, where he decides he's gonna be MLK's assassin. But it's different, this time he does even more menacing toothpick-chewing.

 

[Mr Awe]

I for one can't wait for the Series 12 episode featuring the return of Krasko the Space Racist, where he decides he's gonna be MLK's assassin. But it's different, this time he does even more menacing toothpick-chewing.

Crap, I'm not sure if television is ready for that level of depravity!

 

[Samurai8472]

*On a very special episode of Doctor Who the doctor is touched inappropriately while visiting Hollywood movie studios.

Episode teasers

-She wears a pink hat.


"Next week. Due to last weeks tremendous backlash this will be the final episode of Jodie Whitakers era"

 

[Jayson1]

Well, I'm not going to moan on about it, but the theory you describe for the next season was used to explain the longer wait from the previous season to the one that just finished. And, for some of us, it just wasn't better. I love the casting from the Doctor to the companions. But the stories were in general lacking strong villains, the Doctor was often an observer, etc. For me, it was the weakest season of nuWho. Easily. And, I enjoyed some of the episodes to be sure.

So, I'm not convinced that a longer gap will fix things. Although, on the other hand, I don't think huge changes are necessary. Less Chibnall scripts, stronger villains.

We'll see. The wait isn't that much longer so I'm not really that concerned myself.

But between the last gap you were also dealing with a new showrunner and a new cast. Big difference when your basically starting from scratch as opposed to following up your own work. You know have several episodes to look back at and see what you liked and didn't like and build off that. They didn't have that going into the season. In fact I noticed the show improved as it went along. I would say 3 of it's best episodes starting with the Amazon ep, were in the last 4 episodes of the season and the one that was just okay which was the witch episode had it's moments. It felt like they were pulling away from that, educate the kids stuff from early on and telling stories that felt more like Who.

Jason

 

[Mr Awe]

^ I hope you're right.

 

[Hey Missy]

Maybe we're all spoiled by NuWho's "high stakes" style of storytelling, but Series 11 was the most bored and uninterested I've been in the show since Series 7B (which we know was due to Moff being more invested in the 50th than he had time to polish the scripts, and the BBC screwing with production). Heck even the finale was like "What? That's it?" - Tim Shaw just sitting there on his Darth Vader Mustafar Castle throne for 45 minutes. Only It Takes You Away left any kind of impression on me, and me and my family like to joke around and refer to Amazon as "Kerblam!".

 

[Jayson1]

Maybe we're all spoiled by NuWho's "high stakes" style of storytelling, but Series 11 was the most bored and uninterested I've been in the show since Series 7B (which we know was due to Moff being more invested in the 50th than he had time to polish the scripts, and the BBC screwing with production). Heck even the finale was like "What? That's it?" - Tim Shaw just sitting there on his Darth Vader Mustafar Castle throne for 45 minutes. Only It Takes You Away left any kind of impression on me, and me and my family like to joke around and refer to Amazon as "Kerblam!".

I don't think it's the lack of high stakes. It was the lack of weirdness and eccentricity that is missing. I mean look at "Blink" a all-time great. Nothing is major at stakes in this episode from a cosmic scale. It's about humans being sent back in time to bascially live out their life in the past and die. Even the victims sort of have it easy because all the ones we saw ended up having happy lives in the past. Still the concept is out there and it's told in a non-traditional way.

The best episode of this year ended up being something kind of weird. A kind of mirror universe were you meet dead loved ones and then it ends with the Doctor making friend with said universe now in the shape of a frog.

Jason

 

[Hey Missy]

But apparently being quirky and weird isn't friendly towards the general audience.
I also balk at the idea that having no, zero, appearances from classic monsters, or references to past canon and lore, or even saying the name of the Doctor's species are "audience friendly" because both Series 1 and Series 5, two successful "reboots" designed to bring in new viewers, were packed with tons of Who history. "Oh, having a Dalek episode would be confusing to a newcomer. They'd feel like the show's 55-year canon was crashing down on them!" even though a few quick lines describing what Daleks are and that they're the Doctor's most feared enemies were good enough in 2005 and 2010.

You know what? I see this come up all the time in many fandoms, such as Star Trek.
"New viewers shouldn't feel like they're being bogged down in geeky canon. It needs to be ignored or rewritten from the ground up so they don't feel lost!"
Series 1 of the new Doctor Who immediately throws at you that the Doctor is a Time Lord, and that his species fought against a race called the Daleks in a Time War, where they all died except for him, and that the TARDIS is a space traveling time machine that's bigger on the inside, and that he has other recurring enemies, all without being overly condescending or ignoring all of these facts completely.

 

[Gavin70]

I also balk at the idea that having no, zero, appearances from classic monsters, or references to past canon and lore, or even saying the name of the Doctor's species are "audience friendly"

I don't think its anything to do with being "audience friendly". It's more about not relying on the same monsters over and over. There were plenty of periods during the classic series when we had long periods with no recurring monsters. No daleks between 1967 and 1972. No cybermen between 1968 and 1975. Some of the best periods of Doctor Who were when they weren't relying on the past but coming up with new ideas.

 

[Nightowl1701]

I for one can't wait for the Series 12 episode featuring the return of Krasko the Space Racist, where he decides he's gonna be MLK's assassin. But it's different, this time he does even more menacing toothpick-chewing.

You watch - they're gonna end up putting him in 1619 Jamestown and saying he's the guy who got slavery/racism rolling in the USA in the first place. And it's all Ryan's fault for zapping him there.

 

[BritishSeaPower]

This assertion there were no references to the past in this season is absurd. There were quite a number and more explicit than I would have imagined.

 

[Hey Missy]

Fans have this idea that non-fans or new fans need to be coddled or have their hands held so they can "get into" the show.

 

[EnderAKH]

Ok, statistics time. This is not the first gap year, nor even the second.

• Season 4 ended in July of 2008 and season 5 premiered April 2010. Almost 2 years with only the 4 specials to bide the time.
• There were almost 3 months between the first 7 episodes of season 6 and the last 6, and a 5 month break between episodes 5 and 6 of season 7 with just the Christmas special between.
• Then a 15 month gap between the end of season 7 and the beginning of 8, with just the Christmas and 50th between.
• A gap of roughly 16 months between the end of season 9 and the beginning of season 10.
• Then another 15 months between the end of season 10 and the beginning of 11.

I don't like it, but gaps are already normal in the scheduling and airing of Doctor Who, going back to the end of season 4. It appears RTD was an anomaly.

 

[Hey Missy]

Someone had claimed that Alpha Centauri's cameo appearance in Empress of Mars was the point where NuWho was no longer reaching a mass audience.
That's ridiculous. Yeah, I'm sure a casual viewer saw it and said, "What is that? Am I supposed to know what that is? I'm feeling alienated by this series!" Give me a break.
No, all a casual viewer has to know is that it's a funny little one-eyed alien, and long-time fans know it's a major character from two classic serials.

 

[Awesome Possum]

*On a very special episode of Doctor Who the doctor is touched inappropriately while visiting Hollywood movie studios.

Episode teasers

-She wears a pink hat.


"Next week. Due to last weeks tremendous backlash this will be the final episode of Jodie Whitakers era"

Don't quit your day job.

 

[Qonundrum]

I don't think it's the lack of high stakes. It was the lack of weirdness and eccentricity that is missing. I mean look at "Blink" a all-time great. Nothing is major at stakes in this episode from a cosmic scale. It's about humans being sent back in time to bascially live out their life in the past and die. Even the victims sort of have it easy because all the ones we saw ended up having happy lives in the past. Still the concept is out there and it's told in a non-traditional way.

The best episode of this year ended up being something kind of weird. A kind of mirror universe were you meet dead loved ones and then it ends with the Doctor making friend with said universe now in the shape of a frog.

Jason

Plenty of (attempted) eccentricity exists or else all the comparisons to Tennant and Smith would haven't held up whatsoever as even the most ardent supporter of Jodie is now using the "But teh fans enjoyed it when Smith and Tennant did the same funny things". The season stunk because there's no sense of threat or suspense or anything tangible being built up within most of the episodes, most of which were so by-the-numbers that they made the 1988 bickering of "Silver Nemesis is just a redress of 'Remembrance'" minuscule by comparison. Even the big revenge plot by TzimSha is rendered bland because nobody cared about his machinations. All that finale did was make people think of Twice Upon a Time, Stolen Earth, Pirate Planet, etc. Amazingly nobody looked at 'Rosa' and complained "Gee that reminds me of when the Doctor wanted to abandon Ian and Barbara back in prehistoric times" since Ryan manages to take the gun the Doctor had and shoot evilfonzie with it. And it's the one time the Doctor didn't gripe about how bad the guns are and sending a person back in time with a time gun is arguably more dangerous... didn't anybody in the writer's room bring up such a point at the time?

 

[Jayson1]

Plenty of (attempted) eccentricity exists or else all the comparisons to Tennant and Smith would haven't held up whatsoever as even the most ardent supporter of Jodie is now using the "But teh fans enjoyed it when Smith and Tennant did the same funny things". The season stunk because there's no sense of threat or suspense or anything tangible being built up within most of the episodes, most of which were so by-the-numbers that they made the 1988 bickering of "Silver Nemesis is just a redress of 'Remembrance'" minuscule by comparison. Even the big revenge plot by TzimSha is rendered bland because nobody cared about his machinations. All that finale did was make people think of Twice Upon a Time, Stolen Earth, Pirate Planet, etc. Amazingly nobody looked at 'Rosa' and complained "Gee that reminds me of when the Doctor wanted to abandon Ian and Barbara back in prehistoric times" since Ryan manages to take the gun the Doctor had and shoot evilfonzie with it. And it's the one time the Doctor didn't gripe about how bad the guns are and sending a person back in time with a time gun is arguably more dangerous... didn't anybody in the writer's room bring up such a point at the time?

I think they allowed her to clever but only to the point of not going over a casual fans head. There are times in the past when you have no idea what is going on because the story would be so overflowing with with weird twists and the Doctor would be on a tangent that is hard to follow. Which I know can be a pain at times but it does lend itself to better repeat viewings. This season the show basically feels like a regular show. The example I used in the past which I think is accurate is TNG. Both shows would try to do exotic and sci-fi stuff but they also never loose sight that any episode you make might be the first episode someone is watching of your show. Which I think always is going to get a mixed reaction these days. People have learn to expect more and especially when the show it is happening in was doing more before the new guy comes in and decides to water it down for ratings.


Jason

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Someone had claimed that Alpha Centauri's cameo appearance in Empress of Mars was the point where NuWho was no longer reaching a mass audience.
That's ridiculous. Yeah, I'm sure a casual viewer saw it and said, "What is that? Am I supposed to know what that is? I'm feeling alienated by this series!" Give me a break.
No, all a casual viewer has to know is that it's a funny little one-eyed alien, and long-time fans know it's a major character from two classic serials.

I'm with you. For the casual/newer viewer, it could've been any alien. Making it something us old timers would know doesn't (or shouldn't) change how that casual viewer takes it.

If anything, the casual viewer might go and Google Alpha Centauri and then might even go watch those old episodes. It can be a gateway to the classic series for some new viewers and an absolute non-factor for others.