Introducing the new Doctor

[votemarvel]

To me, it's a pointless act from the start. But it can still be unobtrusive.

To me they should establish how different each Doctor is.

They started doing it at the start of Capaldi's tenure, he was far harsher than Matt Smith and didn't sugarcoat things for Clara.

Something changed though and his personality essentially became a copy of Matt Smith's Doctor, even down to the obsession with Ms. Oswald. It was like they'd given up writing for Peter Capaldi and just pulled a load of unused Matt Smith scripts out of a drawer.

That's when I stopped caring for Peter Capaldi's Doctor and made me wish even more that he hadn't left the Musketeers to take on the role.

Doctor Who fell back into the rut that really started with Tennant's ear on the show, the wacky Doctor who was maybe in love with his companion.

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.

 

[Jei-chan]

That's when I stopped caring for Peter Capaldi's Doctor and made me wish even more that he hadn't left the Musketeers to take on the role.

I still can't believe Cardinal Richelieu died for the Capaldi-era Doctor Who...

 

[madwarper]

I can't really bring myself to care one way or the other over the pick of the new Doctor.

I'm just glad to see Capaldi/Moffat go. Here's hoping the next season will have better writing.

 

[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.