Honestly I think that there was an element of it at play when it came time to the reboot also. I still haven’t read A Writer’s Tale, but I know that Russell historically has disliked Gallifrey and the Time Lords and much prefers Classic when things weren’t as proscribed and spelled out, so the evidence leads me to think that killing them all off was basically just the easiest, most convenient thing to do so that he wouldn’t have to deal with it.
And yes, the plotting that extended from that decision is now the foundation of Modern Who. In almost the same way as having the Time Lords warped the frame of the show, not having them has basically done the same thing because we have basically reached the summation of it with Ncuti; Russell was probably thrilled that Chibbers killed off all the Time Lords again so he could just do a bit more characterization by numbers except add “orphan and foundling” to “last of my kind” because Doccy wasn’t super duper special enough already.
Meanwhile I have the opposite view of these showrunners and want more Time Lord politics in NuWho! It’s such an easy goal for political commentary I’m surprised they’re so against it
Yes. I was younger and more naive in those days. I also can’t abide gatekeeping. We should always welcome newer fans, however they like to watch the show!
I love credits, too. I can’t stand the way TV later squashed them or hid them and I don’t like the way streaming services try to start the next episode before they’re over. But I think that omnibus versions are a nice way to experience the show and, clearly, given The Daleks in Colour and Tales of the TARDIS, I’m not alone.
Because the opening credits are awesome, short and sweet and get you (or me at least) into the right mood for the episode!
I see the point here, but I guess what they are going for is trying to make stories that would fit into imaginary TV seasons between the televised episodes. The best way to do this is to make stories that recreate the feel and flow of their respective eras. That being said, they could switch things up a bit in this new box set era and release stories styled after the modern series once in a while.
The audio Gallifrey series shows that there’s clearly an appetite for it!
I find it very silly that Gallifrey seems to wink into and out of existence like a Belisha beacon! Not enough Gallifreys for you? Don’t worry, there’ll be another one along in a minute…
My sentiments exactly. Especially with Blu-ray, it’s so simple to create multiple cuts of a title on one disc. (Which is also why it annoys me that they put the “extended” cuts of s24 on separate discs - they literally wouldn’t have taken up any additional space on the first disc!)
I phrased that poorly, then. It isn’t just a Moffat criticism, I think not having a sense of scale is bad when writing alien cultures. I don’t expect the entire place to be explored, but painting the entire planet as a monoculture is dumb. I think it was dumb in those stories. I loathe that one Skaro serial where the inhabitants of the desert are blonde, blue eyed white people. This episode shows a lack of understanding of scale and so I am critiquing the writer for having a poor sense of scale. I don’t know how many times I have to rephrase that.
The Cybermen aren’t used right at all throughout all of Who except for that one scene in Nightmare in Silver where that Cyberman grabbed the girl while power running through the soldiers. They’re supposed to be reanimated humans in a suit of armour surely they can run, parkour and adapt to threats instead of being stilted robots!
The Doctor should only have a maximum of 2 companions at any one time having 3 is over capacity to the TARDIS and the writers (see in point 5th’s and 13th’s early run) It’s no wonder they wanted to kill off Adric…
Christopher Bidmead was a bad writer some of the concepts he was trying to introduce was way too over my head.
Eric Saward was an… okay writer I liked The Visitation, Earthshock and Resurrection (Res being the height of his writing for DW imo) BUT after that there were too many plot points to follow and he got lazy started killing side characters unnecessarily.
Warriors’ Gate was an incredibly ambitious story for it’s time and it deserves so much love. It’s my favourite of season 18.
I do see where you’re coming from and it would be great if the show had the time to give a better sense of scale to the planets it visits but I do think it’s just what Doctor Who has to do because of the nature of its format. A new planet every week doesn’t lend itself to much more than presenting a monoculture just for ease of storytelling. I don’t think it’s dumb at all - it’s necessary within the show’s format.
A show like Deep Space Nine, for example, had time to develop Bajor and it’s culture and it’s many conflicting factions because it did that spread over multiple seasons.
The audio series Gallifrey might be right up your street as it has the time and space to explore the planet’s culture and politics in far more depth than the TV series is ever going to have the chance to do.
At the end of the day, The Day of the Doctor wasn’t a story about Gallifrey, it was a story about the Doctor and a terrible choice he had to make (as well as being required to ‘celebrate’ our favourite show). I can forgive it some broad brushstrokes just for those reasons, let along anything else I’ve mentioned.
Doctor Who - on TV - is always going to do broad brushstrokes and moncultures of any planet beyond Earth. it’s just what the show does and always has done from The Daleks onward.
While I like the cliffhangers and think they break up a story nicely, I’m not the most attached to the specific episode length. But I do firmly believe that 45-60 minutes is usually too short to tell a good Doctor Who story, the best stories in that format are exceptions rather than the rule (usually stories of that length are disposable and the reason why people think of Who episodes as being “filler”, when in fact the so-called “filler” is the entire point of the show—telling stories anywhere in time and space—and big arc plots more often go against that), and we need more two-parters in the modern era to actually get to be able to explore settings and characters and concepts well.
I literally just said I don’t expect them to go into detail. I am not asking for every planet to have a complicated history, I am asking for a sense of scale when depicting any alien culture.
I know it was not about Gallifrey. I still think it was bad. I think it doesn’t make sense. I think it’s out of character. I think the thrupeny bits were annoying or rushed.
Just because it is “how it always has been done” doesn’t make it a good status quo. I think critiquing the status quo is how you improve it, actually.
I am not responding to this again, I don’t like the episode. I truly don’t care if others do. One day, I will write a coherent critique of it.
I’d be fascinated to read a critique of it (and I think you have been perfectly coherent in what you’ve said so far, even if I don’t necessarily agree). We’re all allowed to dislike stories - you should read my critique of Genesis of the Daleks!
I was, hopefully, just trying to provide an alternative point of view to what you dislike about the episode. No shade intended.
I think this might count as controversial since I resisted being emphatic about it till recently and there’s a tendency to over eulogise those no longer with us because they were a decent ambassador for the show, but not knowing how most other people feel about it, I’ve no actual idea if it is, so I’ll guess we’ll find out…
Yates is crap and a big part of that is… So is Franklin.
The Wife in Space blog said it best, and I can never forget this quote, when they said he’s like James Bond but played by Frank Spencer.
May have sounded snippy, but no feelings were hurt and no shade was taken. Again, I get why people like it, I think if I liked 11 at all I would hate it less, I think if it was 8 instead of the War doctor I’d hate it less, and I think if Elizabeth the 1st wasn’t there at all I’d hate it less. People like it mostly for the fluffy, thrupeny bits, I have gathered. Not my cup of tea, but I don’t care.
You’re not wrong. I never really warmed to Yates like I did to Benton. I think his performance is wooden and rather cold. Some of which can be chalked up to the character being a soldier, but I also don’t think Fraklin was all that great as an actor. And there was no chemistry with Jo despite being a supposed love interest.
Not to put too blunt a point on it but I’m pretty sure the lack of chemistry comes from the fact that Franklin was so clearly a gay gentleman that it’s all a bit reminiscent of Elton John in the late 60s/early 70s when he was singing songs about shagging girls and fighting; trying just a bit too hard.
I don’t disagree with this. In fact I think there’s room for some more long form story telling. I’d be interested to see multiple 60 minute episodes that give us a bit more time to explore some of the settings in a bit more depth. I guess I just find that the 4x 25 mins format isn’t well suited to modern pacing. Trying to cram a full Who story into 45 mins doesn’t work brilliantly, either. And, yes, more two or three part stories in the TV show would be good to play around with, as would longer seasons!
