Omg my Leelaaaaa <333 You’d NEVER know this was ColdstrAIm 
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Not sure where to put this, but some interesting insights to RTD2’s thought process and some details about the Christmas special he had rough plans for:
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Also, I thought quietly to myself: I’ll spend a year working on this, but it’ll all be leaked before it gets on air.
Bear with me for a little tangent here. When it comes to science fiction, the problem of leaking online is now so vast and so pernicious it threatens to ruin everything. And it’s more ferocious than ever with Doctor Who. Every decision we ever made, every single plot twist, every single moment, all the way up to the appearance of Billie in the very last seconds of the last series finale, was leaked. It’s absolutely extraordinary, and I swear it did a lot to destroy the profile of the show. It introduces a cynicism among fans, because they’re not surprised by anything any more. Their response to a leak is weariness, an instant assumption that whatever has been leaked won’t work. They instantly imagine the worst version of it, and then, when they eventually see it, it inevitably confirms their bias. So we had to work for two years knowing that leaks were happening, and yet we were powerless.
Sad to hear how the leakers wore him down so much.
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Yes, that leaves us with a Billie puzzle, but c’mon, that’s easy. Doctor Who problems are simple to solve (remember, in 1996, it was proclaimed that the Doctor is half-human – that was fixed by everyone discreetly never mentioning it again). A new production team can either seize hold of that appearance happily, or – and this is more likely – they can explain the event away with exactly seven words. Painless. That’s not a problem, that’s a piece of piss.
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To be fair, the leaks were worse than ever during RTD2. I’m still a bit mad at myself for seeking them out and ruining the big secrets for myself. But I remember not believing the rumours about Mrs Flood being the Rani (it just didn’t make sense and still doesn’t), and then slowly lost faith as one rumour and supposed leak after the other turned out to be true. In the end, every single supposed leak was true.
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This definitely goes a fair way to explain what went on. It seems like it was just the perfect storm of general behind-the-scenes changes inadvertently affecting things.
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Btw the savages animation is on iPlayer now!!! So that’s every missing episode animation available :D
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Moffat’s era had lots of leaks, but then it was very leak-free for Chibnall’s era. There were a few, but RTD2 especially S2 had the most leaks ever.
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In fairness, it’s pretty easy to assume that nonsense like David Tennant splitting into two for no good reason, the Midnight entity returning for no good reason, and Ncuti Gatwa turning into Billie Piper for no good reason won’t work. I’m not sure it’s preemptive fan cynicism to blame for RTD2 being widely disliked
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I still think that whatever happened BTS here is so weird, because RTD says here that he and Bad Wolf were never doing a third series and yet in DWM didn’t he say he had plans for like 4 or 5 and had written s3 scripts?
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Yeah, I really didn’t like the introduction of bigeneration because it came out of nowhere and it didn’t really make any sense when we’ve had the same types of regenerations for years.
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Definitely interesting hearing a little of the plans he did have…
But I did have a story. I pitched it to the BBC, and they loved it. An olde-worlde English village intercut with a huge, mysterious spaceship, an outer-space festival called Winternox, and lots and lots of Daleks, with something very unexpected hidden away … Oh, yes, I liked it!
We even wondered if it could become an Easter Special for 2027. For a while, I became obsessed with the notion of a Christmas story transmitting at Easter, because, as part of the plot, time was out of joint. The Doctor running around shouting: “It’s not really Christmas!” A bit meta, but fun.
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It might not be entirely to blame but it’s definitely in the mix. Too many fans go in to a new series/era/story with expectations the story is never going to meet because those fans want the show to meet them where they are in their head rather than the fans meeting the show on its own terms.
Not liking a narrative choice like bigeneration or the return of the Midnight entity is not the same as saying it’s there for ‘no good reason’. Neither of those things spoiled mine, or many other people’s enjoyment of the show. I can easily see a ‘reason’ for both of those things - and they come from what is on screen. I don’t need them spelt out for me as a viewer. I accept plenty of stuff in Who - and story in general - if I’m enjoying it. Most issues only arise when someone is wanting reasons to justify why they didn’t connect with a particular era of the show. It was the same with the Chibnall era.
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Hello all. My Mum, completely and genuinely out of the blue, was admitted to hospital yesterday with blood on the brain due to a sudden aneurysm, and later suffered a ruptured aneurysm. Her emergency surgery went okay and she’s already been able to smile and say a few words - I think she recognised me.
This has blindsided me; we thought we were being called in to say goodbye at one point. So so so exhausted and frightened. Would appreciate if you could keep Mum (henceforth CarlaLangerRules, lol) in your thoughts.
P.S. So ■■■■■■■ grateful for the NHS right now, oh my god
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I can’t imagine how scary that must have been, I know I’d be distraught if something like that happened to my parents. I’m glad your mum’s surgery went okay, I hope she continues to recover and is well again soon.
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That’s terrible but glad things seem to have gone right at the hospital. Thinking of you and your mum.
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That must have been a very scary time. Glad to hear that the healthcare works as it should, though. Please take care of yourself and your family. We’re all rooting for CarlaLangerRules!
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