Inspired by the ongoing banter between me and @BillFiler, where we poke fun at each other’s favorite writers and showrunners, I want to turn the vibe positive! So, here’s a twist: what do your least favorite writer or showrunner actually do really well? Let’s give credit where it’s due!
14 Likes
Things I like about Chris Chibnalls contribution to Doctor Who:
- I love that he casted a female Doctor! It was about time!
- I like the ambition of the Flux. It is hard to shake up an established formula.
- I love almost everything about the power of three. It is such an interesting concept.
Will probably think of more things later!
15 Likes
I can’t say I dislike any showrunners because I really don’t, but RTD has gotta be my least favourite overall. I can however credit his phenomenal world building. Every character feels like a real person rather than a character in a show and, especially with each of the companions, the things that happen to them in the TARDIS have real consequences because we know they have family waiting for them on Earth. The other New Who showrunners have done this to a lesser extent, but no one has ever done world building like RTD
14 Likes
I really appreciate Chibnall trying to shake up the format in his tenure. It’s not perfect and it doesn’t suit my taste very often, but I admire his effort to bring in new writers and build something new with his era.
I of course appreciate RTD for bringing DW back, and in RTD2 I appreciate the way he isn’t pulling punches with saying things about potentially contentious social issues.
14 Likes
I like most of Chibnall’s historicals.
14 Likes
Plus on writers I don’t like very much: The Colour of Terror is a really fun story. That’s not necessarily a strenght but it’s what I can give.
7 Likes
I like all the showrunners!
In terms of writers, I can’t really think of any I don’t like.
I might return with my thoughts (if I can think of any).
9 Likes
The problem is, the writer that’s coming to mind for me, awful person, but in terms of stories it’s more of a mixed bag without anything that’s standout awful, dull and skippable, but not really so much hatable
His SJA stuff I really like for example
15 Likes
So for showrunner I’ll be going with the closest classic series equivalent, a producer/script editor duo, and that’s John Nathan-Turner and Eric Saward. I appreciate that they really wanted to get newer writers in, the only “old guard” writer they brought back was Robert Holmes, understandably so. They brought in female writers like Barbara Clegg and Jane Baker which is cool. And there were some dang good stories like Androzani, the Mara duology, and Enlightenment to name a few.
16 Likes
Yeah. If it was worst writers as people, Gareth Roberts likely tops the list. But as a writer there’s definitely worse writers.
13 Likes
Writers (not necessarily my absolute least favorite, but considering those with an actual body of work on the show):
Pip and Jane Baker could crank out at least a workable script on short notice when the show really needed it.
Mark Gatiss really does have an ability to throw classic series fans a bone with some references and stuff without laying it on too thick most of the time
Terence Dudley did give us some fun times with 5 and the gang at a party and 5 playing cricket.
Brian Hayles, Peladon was cool, glad we got a world that we could revisit, and the Toymaker was a neat concept.
Haisman and Lincoln. The Brigadier. 'Nuff said
14 Likes
I am thinking more about writing style than who they are
12 Likes
Good idea for a topic @Tian
If anyone was doubting, I tend to use a bit of sarcasm in my banter 
RTD has taken many decisions that don’t necessarily gel with what I mainly like about this show, however:
- Creating this mysterious “Time War” when bringing Doctor Who back was a stroke of genius in my opinion. The Doctor living with that guilt of having to go against every single of his moral principles by using the Moment to do a double genocide on the Daleks and Time Lords alike to end the destruction and suffering by those two races on the rest of the Universe through time - that created an incredible avenue of storytelling.
- Torchwood: Children of Earth was amazing!. It hits so, so very hard. I think RTD is a fantastic writer when it comes to that very dark storytelling - Children of Earth, Miracle Day, Midnight, The Waters of Mars (even if I don’t care for the ending which is the RTD bombast I don’t really care for - though the TLV event made me feel a lot better about it
). - He was super funny as himself at the end of the Five(ish) Doctors Reboot
“Quel dommage!”
12 Likes
12 Likes
I don’t think I truly dislike any Writer, who happens to write a few times for Who (I don’t really want to go with Writers with only credit under their belt), but here are some of my lesser liked ones overall which rank lower:
Matthew Graham: I appreciate his ambition. He is a great Idea Box and is definitely nothing you can call boring with his Ideas
Mark Gatiss: Some of his Stories can be quite excellent, I usually like his Ideas and appreciate that he often throws in some Historical Parts to his Stories, which is always fun
Neil Cross: Really fun at World building and some of his side characters are some lovely addition, when you get to spend time with those at least
Not sure who else could be added to the list, but I think for now those three will do
14 Likes
The Doctor Who Writer’s Room podcast (dwtwr.libsyn.com) is a great podcast looking primarily at the scripts (as opposed to the acting, direction or effects). They did Classic Who writer by writer, then looked at Outer Limits and Sapphire and Steel, and are now working on Modern Who (currently in the middle of the Moffat/Matt Smith era).
7 Likes
I think Chris Chibnall has a strong talent for historicals. His historicals are easily my favorite parts of the Thirteenth Doctor’s era. I wish that the writer for Demons of the Punjab would be hired to write another television story.
For John Nathan-Turner, as much as it pains me to say, I think pushing Tom Baker out was the right call. There are few things on television that work for longer than seven years, so it was time for him to go. I suppose I would also add hiring Andrew Cartmel and Sylvester McCoy to the list, even though that was the end of his tenure.
13 Likes
He did cowrite Fugitive of the Judoon…
8 Likes
Well, I guess I want to see what he would do with Gatwa and a solo byline, then.
9 Likes
Definitely wouldn’t mind a few Chibnall writers returning!
10 Likes