DanaK

I continue to not understand this “PC agenda” rap given the show has always been socially liberal and progressive and took up social issues. And like, how is it wrong to condemn bigotry and hate and allow women and minorities equal chances to important roles in front of and behind the camera?

I’m not sure how you define that but I think DW is the BBC’s biggest show and money maker especially with it being so global. And I think taking a gap year is more for the producers wanting to make a quality show rather than the BBC wanting to shelve it, esp given so many British shows take gap years. I do think the show was headed down during the Capaldi era with the ratings falling to lows so the BBC was open to major changes to bring back viewers, thus ejecting the twisty storytelling and making it more accessible and making the Doctor more likable. I guess we’ll see how things go with Series 12

Continuing to cite the wide discrepancy on Rotten Tomatoes between critic and fan scores as proof that the viewers have rejected the show ignores that there are likely bigger forces at work, including hateful sites ginning up bad scores that have also hit other shows like Star Trek: Discovery, the female Ghostbusters movie and Star Wars: The Last Jedi that oh so coincidentally have female and minority leads. If it was any other show or Who season that didn’t have that particular problem, the scores would likely be a lot closer or the user scores a lot higher (which they are). The increased ratings and positive fan and critic attention indicate an obvious increased positive reception over the last 1-2 seasons even if there are things to criticize the season about At the same time, I fully expect many episodes in Series 12 to be emotional and looking at some pretty ugly issues, similar to Series 11. I don’t mind a mixture of emotion and escapism with my sci-fi

Really interesting interview with current Doctor Who composer Segun Akinola https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/fsmonline/free_article.cfm?ID=6747&issueID=169&page=1

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-01-23/david-tennant-podcast/ Doctor #10 David Tennant is doing a podcast and current Doctor Jodie Whittaker will be one of his first guests

If people prefer, we can possibly put production stuff in a Series 12 topic, though it’s early

13 may be pretty scattered but she’s still the smartest one in the room most of the time and figuring out the solution before anyone else can I think the writers wanted to go with a more friendly and big hearted Doctor above an ”I’m pretty dangerous” approach to counter #12’s darker personality. They were trying to bring people back to the show with a lighter touch after some pretty dark seasons with 12 seemingly pushed viewers away

The NTAs may be “just” a vote by the public but it’s still good that the show and star got nominated when that hasn't happened since Matt Smith. It shows the fans are excited again Jodie and Jodie Comer of Killing Eve both lost to Madden so that was pretty tough competition

According to my Twitter feed, The National Television Awards are being awarded in Britain. Jodie lost best actor to Richard Madden in "Bodyguard" and Doctor Who lost in its best drama category, I don't know to which show. And apparently it was announced that Brad Walsh was not at the show because he's currently filming in South Africa for another show (Doctor Who of course) Apparently Bradley Walsh's The Chase won at the NTAs for Best Quiz Show, but Brad didn't win for Best Presenter

Apparently the show is launching in China for the first time https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs5VKSBB8bD/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=1wmielnadk2zu

They take 9 months to film so of course, plus post-production takes a lot of time. It’s a very complex show to produce and the BBC allegedly doesn’t give them a big budget. And the show was probably delayed to 2020 to give the producers more time to get the episodes made

FYI Also, there’s a tweet of seeing Jodie and gang on a flight out of Heathrow so they are likely filming abroad. Edited to add: Sounds like they went to South Africa again. The tweet:

Something else to add about Jodie and her Doctor, I'm loving it when she smiles, like at the end of Resolution. In-show, it's nice to see the Doctor happy and having fun (relatively speaking) after several seasons of angst and confusion

In regards to the appearance of the Doctor, remember that other Time Lords seem to have better control of their regenerations (as he/she never finished his/her schooling). I think it was Romana or someone that actually tried on several forms before choosing one to regenerate into. Who knows if the Doctor’s lack of control will ever be fixed

And in the real world, now that more attention is being paid to her, Jodie is showing she's not just a dramatic and emotional actor who's great at crying up a storm a la Broadchurch. Whether in front of the camera or in BTS stuff, she's showing what a goofball she really is

Why is the Doctor always a British-sounding person and sticking around Britain so much? Cause it's a British show. Same reason there will be a non-white Doctor someday (probably Black male for 14). But in-show, the easy explanation is that there are Black Gallifrey people shown already and any other ethnicity that's not represented on Gallifrey could just be the result of influence by the humans the Doctor hangs around. After all, 12 thinks his face was influenced by a Roman he saved at Pompeii. I'm not sure the Doctor really knows how his/her next bodies are selected. They've been only white males up til now because of real societal reasons. As I've said before, if the show was only starting recently and the current rules set down, there likely would be men and women and a variety of ethnicities playing the part Truthfully, now that the logjam of only white male actors as the Doctor has been broken, there will now be a variety of talented actors playing the part (British only though!) and that's never a bad thing (as long as the show continues to tell a good story)

The ratings and higher interest from media and fans suggest this season reinvigorated the show. One could say that it was Capaldi's Doctor that hurt the franchise by being too unlikeable and the plots too complex. Heck, some posters were saying Capaldi's era was no longer Doctor Who in some of the episode topic discussions. There always seems to be some controversy about the franchise. It seems to be doing fine for now

Moreso, real world considerations and biases

The Doctor, not Eric, wrote those words for the team before they went into the AntiZone. She claimed for Hanne’s sake that she was drawing a map The words were something like “Assume her dad is dead. Keep her safe. Find someone to take care of her”

https://twitter.com/iamryanaplin/status/1083705385356324864?s=20 Per a tweet, here are the commentaries on the Series 11 DVD/Blu ray set (not sure if only one or the other or both and not sure if true outside of U.K.) S11 Commentaries: TWWFTE - Jodie and Jamie Childs (dir.) Rosa - Malorie Blackman (co-wri.), Mandip & Alex Mercer (prod.) Tsuranga - Mandip, Ben Bailey-Smith (Durkas), Susan Packer (Eve), Nikki Wilson (prod.) Demons - Mandip, Alex Mercer, Shane Zaza (Prem) & Vinay Patel (wri.)

The Doctor Who Series 11 soundtrack, released today or at midnight, is currently #7 on the Itunes US Top Albums list

Reminder: The Series 11 soundtrack is out today, including on iTunes and streaming services

The final consolidated BBC ratings for the episode was 6.95 million. That’s below the last Christmas episode that was also a regeneration episode and the previous non-regeneration Christmas episode, so I don’t know if the BBC will consider returning to Christmas specials or has reasons to stick to New Year’s Day. I also don’t know what the ratings in general were like this past Christmas compared to New Year’s a week later

The BBC writer’s room has made the script for the episode available http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/DW11-EP1-The-Woman-Who-Fell-to-Earth.pdf It’s in PDF form

But he then talked to “Bill” and “Nardole” and seemed to still be really down about continuing on