Introducing the new Doctor

[09philj]

Someone explain to me who Moffat is and why everyone hates him. I think I remember hearing good things about him from friends who like Dr. Who.

When Moffat just writes a small, self contained episode or two of something, it's generally very good. Examples include The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, The Girl in the Fireplace, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, Heaven Sent, Extremis, and World Enough and Time. Things tend to go to shit, however, whenever he's writing in aid of a larger story or is given too much freedom and money. This leads to dangerous levels of stupid fanwank and "mystery box" writing. The series reached it's nadir with Hell Bent, a story that was not only bad on it's own, but also took a massive shit on all of the amazing storytelling he'd done in the previous episode, Heaven Sent.

Moffat's incoming replacement is Chris Chibnall, a man with an extremely patchy record. His 2008 episode 42 was excellent. After that, it all went downhill. The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood went all to pot in it's second part, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was forgettable filler, and Power of Three quickly went from fine to shit within it's own 45 minute runtime. His work on Doctor Who spin off Torchwood produced work that was excellent at best and drunkenly awful at worst. His crime series Broadchurch had a really good first series, and then went off the rails in series two.

 

[lionsprey]

didn't think they were actually going to go through with it, but it wont be enough to get me to watch after the god awful shit show last season was.

 

[the December King]

Aaah, well. The idea of a female Doctor... I'm not really interested. I can't help it, and if it makes some people happy, fine, or whatever

But it's no big deal, either way. I've been out of Who since Matt Smith, and even during the new stuff, I was largely enjoying cameos and surprise appearances by old enemies and characters, and left pining for the Tom Baker days.

 

[gigastar]

Aaaand of course for some people its not enough~

 

[Hawki]

Aaaand of course for some people its not enough~

"Doctor Who is an overwhelmingly white show." Gee, I wonder if it's because it's a UK show, and most of the UK's citizens are Anglo-Celtic in ethnicity? I mean, isn't the whole purpose of equality that people should be judged entirely on their merits, regardless of skin colour? Like, I'd like to think that the actresses for Martha Jones and Bill were chosen because they were the best choice, not because of the colour of their skin.

 

[gigastar]

Aaaand of course for some people its not enough~

"Doctor Who is an overwhelmingly white show." Gee, I wonder if it's because it's a UK show, and most of the UK's citizens are Anglo-Celtic in ethnicity? I mean, isn't the whole purpose of equality that people should be judged entirely on their merits, regardless of skin colour? Like, I'd like to think that the actresses for Martha Jones and Bill were chosen because they were the best choice, not because of the colour of their skin.

But thats racist and homophobic you misogynistic shitlord.

 

[shrekfan246]

Wow, some of you people really just can't get over Sarkeesian, can you? As someone who's still kinda hung up on a relationship I had half a year ago, bruhs, it's been four years, move on.

 

[Schadrach]

Let's hope it's good.

Of course, predicting it now: If the writing this season is poor, pointing it out will be deemed misogyny.

 

[ArcaneGamer]

I have no stakes in this, so imma just sit back, eat some popcorn, and watch the inevitable shit show.

I've never seen Doctor Who. I was about to watch a season on Hulu, but... I have no idea what happened, I just didn't end up watching it.

Tea, good sir? =D Shall we enjoy the show together?

 

[gigastar]

Wow, some of you people really just can't get over Sarkeesian, can you? As someone who's still kinda hung up on a relationship I had half a year ago, bruhs, it's been four years, move on.

Why are you suddenly against robust feminist opinions being shared in a public forum?

Are you a misogynist?

 

[shrekfan246]

@gigastar: She's moved on. You should too. It didn't work out, it's okay, accept it.

EDIT: Though, for a serious response to a lul-worthy post, I'm not against feminist opinions being shared in a public forum. In fact, I'm quite for it, as I think discussing things from a pro-feminist angle is very healthy to moving culture forward! When we can intellectually examine the sexism and racism underlying things like pop culture and work together to try bettering it, why, then we won't have to have circular discussions about what is or isn't [X] anymore. Neat!

But, screencapping a bunch of Tweets from Sarkeesian so you can slap them down in an internet forum and go "lul look at this feminists be cray cray they'll never be satisfied with anything" isn't productive for discussion, so there's no reason to seriously entertain anyone who does something like that.

 

[Sassafrass]

Wow, some of you people really just can't get over Sarkeesian, can you? As someone who's still kinda hung up on a relationship I had half a year ago, bruhs, it's been four years, move on.

Why are you suddenly against robust feminist opinions being shared in a public forum?

Are you a misogynist?

OT: Female Doctor. Sweet.
...I mean, that's all I got. Hope she knocks the role out of the park.

 

[Parasondox]

I'm going to take a guess. Some of those who are fuming with anger that the Doctor will be female, and making unfunny 1960's sexist comments, are those who have never seen or just gave up on Doctor Who years ago. Now all of a sudden they are Doctor fans again and now "angry" that a female will be The Doctor and of course add on the buzzwords and memes and there we have it.

*sigh*

Oh and those playing the "us versus them" narrative again, just stop it. It's getting tiring. "We won!", "Boo, they are ruining everything". You are making yourself look bad.

 

[McMarbles]

I'm sure the geeks on the Internet are having a mature, reasonable reaction to this.

*grabs popcorn*

Ooooh, just wait 'til Lenny Henry becomes the fourteenth Doctor.

 

[The Jovian]

Here's all the negative reactions in a nutshell I've seen to Doctor #13 so far.

-- "The Doctor shouldn't be a woman because I personally don't think they should be."

-- "This is the BBC being politically correct because they just want to pander to feminism and the WOMZ, I know this despite the fact that I don't work for the BBC nor do I have the ability to read people's minds so I wouldn't know WHY they cast this person as the Doctor."

-- "I just don't like change in general."

All of these are stupid arguments for why the Doctor shouldn't be a woman at best and yet more examples of sexist pricks refusing to get with the 21st century program at worst.

 

[Shadowstar38]

My big fear with this casting is that it'll just be ignored and we'll end up with that wacky Doctor again, just with a bit more jiggle. Make the regeneration into a female mean something more.

Personality traits aren't gender coded, so I don't see your point. If the character gets better, I'll chalk it up to better writing and the actor as a person knowing what they're doing. The Doctor being a woman in and of itself adds nothing of value.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

I was looking at facebook wondering who the fuck would not want a female doctor in this day and age, OK ,sure for some medical conditions you might be more comfortable with a male doctor, but really, otherwise, WTF? There have been female doctors in this country for over 150 years, how is this a thing people are talking about now?...Oh...Dr Who...

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

Wow, some of you people really just can't get over Sarkeesian, can you? As someone who's still kinda hung up on a relationship I had half a year ago, bruhs, it's been four years, move on.

Well, history's proved her haterz were always really her biggest - and most enthusiastic - fans, so yeah, some people can't and won't let go. Hell, they made her.

If they're gonna shove social justice bullshit, then I'll have a problem with that.

Does "social justice bullshit" actually translate as 'politics or social issues that I don't agree with/care about'? That's typically what it seems to mean.

As for me: I couldn't give a stuff about Who. Never have, probably never will. I tried to watch a few eps of the Smith/Gillan era, and one or two of those eps were fun and I liked the idea of the show at that time. But the execution's always been a bit shit, i.e. in keeping with most British genre TV, frankly.

I saw rumours of someone by the name of Phoebe Waller-Bridge (who I gather's been cast in the Han Solo solo flick) being tipped for the role, and based on looks alone (looks-as-a-Doctor, I mean) I'd have preferred her. But Who ain't my corner of nerddom, so whatevs. I'll probably do what a lot of people will; watch the first ep with the new Doctor, then forget the show exists until another casting.

Personality traits aren't gender coded, so I don't see your point. If the character gets better, I'll chalk it up to better writing and the actor as a person knowing what they're doing. The Doctor being a woman in and of itself adds nothing of value.

Novelty? If only that, it's something. Having a specific sex and gender of a character can either potentially mean something (dramatically and/or thematically), as well as be little more than superficial novelty. Having a female Bond, for example, could certainly be a great playground to play around with ideas and perceptions given just how gendered the character's always been (e.g. would female Bond be just as sexist? violent? sociopathic? do we assume she's as straight as bloke-Bond, or explore/deconstruct gender roles and expectations by making her gay? and so on).

I'm not familiar enough with Who lore and themes to know whether it could be a context to do something interesting. Going from reputation alone I gather it's mostly kinda rubbish, ergo whoever's writing it won't do a good job regardless.

 

[shrekfan246]

Wow, some of you people really just can't get over Sarkeesian, can you? As someone who's still kinda hung up on a relationship I had half a year ago, bruhs, it's been four years, move on.

Well, history's proved her haterz were always really her biggest - and most enthusiastic - fans, so yeah, some people can't and won't let go. Hell, they made her.

True. I should know better by now.

 

[Natemans]

Someone explain to me who Moffat is and why everyone hates him. I think I remember hearing good things about him from friends who like Dr. Who.

Anyway, if we can have Wonder Woman in a movie where it isn't all about girl power and men being the worst thing since cancer, then this could work.

Steven Moffat is a writer and was the showrunner of Doctor Who from 2010 to 2017. He was well-regarded a lot by everyone for his previous stories in Series 1-4. He made a good start with Series 5 starring Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor. However, his run started to take a nose dive around the 2nd half of series 6 and started to make stuff up as he went along. Mainly the problem with Moffat as a writer nowadays was that he tried to overbear us with how "clever" he was instead of trying to write a good story. Although I do believe he tried to reduce those issues and tried to be subtle in series 10. Heck, I even liked the finale to the season.