I feel really torn about a lot of things here. It definitely needs a break and to come back with a clear plan for the first few seasons after it does. But I also wish we got more time with Ncuti - I think RTD did a better job on these new seasons than most people seem to, especially considering what he had to work with. I thought he brought it back to being fun, and not every story landed but it had the right spirit. Chibnall is the one who I really feel botched it. The timeless child was a mess. The flux season was interesting but then the way it just got dropped was kind of crazy. Which I mean technically dropping it was RTD's fault, but at the same time I don't know that we really needed another season of the tortured Doctor. Feel like it's becoming increasingly likely we get a complete, 100% reboot rather than a continuation, but who knows.
I am so annoyed that Russell not having the foresight to wrap up the Susan plot thread means the last we'll ever see of that character is some bullshit tease. highly unlikely Carole Ann Ford will still be around after Wilderness Years 2 as sad as that is to say
Doctor Who has been bad before in its history, but the irreparable damage Chibnall did is really difficult to come back from without a complete reboot. Giving the first female Doctor the absolute worst chance to succeed was certainly a choice. As for RTD, I never much liked his writing outside of the more psychological stuff he did late in his first run. He can't do funny and he can't do epic. Just not his strengths as a writer.
complete reboot? i haven't watched any Nguti sadly but i don't think it's impossible to just... skip a few hundred years in universe and come back with a new Doctor? didn't Eccleston basically do just that?
i legitimately wonder if this gets TWBTLATS out abroad even quicker (with or without Disney), or if it just never sees the light of day outside of the UK. if the overwhelming sentiment is that everyone involved wants to wash their hands of DW for a while until they can get it right (Deadline is saying it might not come back until 2028 at the earliest, and 2031 at the latest and most realistic, as production a good number of partners don't want to touch it), that probably means they want to get the spinoff off of their plate even quicker. shadow drop it on D+, give the rights to AMC, throw it up on iTunes, etc. idk if it could generate any buzz overseas at this point.
Now’s the time to bring Eccleston, Smith, and Capaldi back for the first time. As if Smith isn’t way too expensive and busy now.
I love DW and had no interest in TWBTLATS, I really can’t imagine watching it unless I hear people I trust saying it’s very good. I just cannot stand this era of UNIT.
TWB was just incredibly bland reheated Children of Earth nachos, would not be surprised if no parties involved ever mentioned that thing again lmao also showed my mum The Well tonight, she enjoyed the Midnight callback as I expected but even then she instantly clocked how sterile/lifeless the big TARDIS set felt with all that budget just making a huge empty space. perfect analogy for this whole era
Yeah there were good ideas and even some very good episodes but RTD’s second era is defined by the idea that access to Disney’s capital meant the show was good and prestige-y when in reality all character development felt completely absent. It’s a bummer because Ncuti could have done so much more.
the character development was just fucking comically terrible. Mum said she liked Belinda too and I was trying to think of a way to say the actress killed it but her character's ending was the most insane gaslighty assassination bullshit I've ever seen in my life but I was too mad to explain it lol in retrospect who knew Capaldi could actually predict the future?
Just bring Jodie back (with the new writing team) immediately after Capaldi regenerates and say everything that happened since he regenerated into her was just a regeneration induced hallucination. Then she gets a do over and we don’t have to act like the Chibnall and RTD2 eras are canon.
for the record, i haven't watched DW since Capaldi season 9, so i don't really have much of a vested interest in the show at this point, or its spinoffs. i'm just ultimately curious to see what BBC will do with this other show they spent millions of dollars on but haven't touched outside of the UK.
i definitely wanna finish the Capaldi run. he's fantastic. we started rewatching Nu-Who a few years ago, but got sidetracked partway through season 3
s10 felt like a bit of a comedown after the actual perfection of 9 at the time, but it's aged very well and Extremis is a top 10 episode. certainly mugs any season since