DanaK

Is the New Year's special supposed to be longer than the usual episode length? It's set for an hour timeslot for BBC's transmission, but it appears BBC America is setting it for a 90 minute timeslot, similar to the Season 11 premiere, which suggests it will be longer than usual (with a bunch of added commercials of course)

@Rainsodden Becka’s husband had indeed died as I recall, so she was now a rare female landowner. Unfortunately, she let things get out of hand with the witch killin’ What was really interesting was how quickly she deferred to the Doctor, seeing her as a Witchfinder General when presented with the Psychic Paper id. The Doctor only implied she was someone in authority, not specifically what she was when she presented the id. It suggests strongly that Becka felt in desperate need of help, and perhaps as well, was easily willing to see another woman as someone in authority

From what I've read elsewhere, posters feel it's likely that since he's set out the tone of the show in the first season, he'll now being able to step back from writing for the most part and let more people do it. Apparently Davies and Moffet wrote less and less in subsequent seasons once they set the direction

Talking about the complexity of making the show https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv-radio/2018/12/taking-year-not-unusual-british-tv-series-it-s-still-bad-doctor-who

In regards to the Ux and what they did with Tim Shaw, it seems pretty evident that the younger one felt they were doing wrong (or had a growing feeling that it was wrong) and the older one pushed him into it Is it me or did Jodie actually start skipping as the Doctor tried to figure out how to solve the big crisis? It also seemed like she did a few shoulder shrugs after that. I know Jodie said in at least one interview that she liked to show 13's energy in scenes, but those seemed like strange acting choices

More pics from New Year’s special http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/doctor-who/extras/sneak-peek-doctorwho-new-years-day-special

Well, this Doctor and previous ones claim to be a pacifist and against killing, but I’m sure Tim Shaw and Kerblam’s Charlie would dispute that, along with a whole host of others who have ended up dead or nearly so going up against the Doctor

Do you mean the Fox TV movie that the fans don’t really want to claim?

From what I’ve been reading, the show is the most complex show the British produce and the BBC has limited resources, including no overtime. I’ll try to find the article that explains it. I suppose one option is to sell it to an American company that has a way bigger budget and better resources and would probably give it a more regular schedule, but I feel sure in saying that likely wouldn’t go over well with the British public

Actually, the crane operator pushed Timmy off

The Doctor’s final words to the Ux: “None of us know for sure what’s out there. That’s why we keep looking. Keep your faith. Travel hopefully. The universe will surprise you. Constantly” I wouldn’t mind seeing more of the Ux again. Given how overstuffed the episode was, it would have been nice to spend more time on the Ux, the Doctor and Graham’s conflict and the planet’s psycho waves Even though Tim Shaw got dispatched, the rest of the Stenza are still out there causing trouble. I wonder if they’ll be revisited down the road?

The Doctor summoned the Tardis using Stenza tech. Is that a newish thing? She also must have installed the Clapper to turn something on in the ship with the clap of her hands

Yeah, you are probably right. It may end up being a 5 year span if they keep taking more than a year between seasons

Doctor on seeing Tim Shaw again: ”You look in a bad way. Whereas I’ve got a new coat. What do you think?”

I really enjoyed this. Good emotional stakes, new species, lots of explosions and we got closure on Tim Shaw (and he got his comeuppance, for now at least) and Ryan and Graham’s relationship. I liked that the Doctor didn’t crap on the Ux’s religion but encouraged them to explore the Universe. It had a lot of good humor and the Doctor was front and center The Sniperbots still can’t hit anything though As for the season, as a new viewer, I really enjoyed it and Jodie as the new Doctor. I can understand some of the complaints - not enough of the Tardis, not enough of the Doctor front and center or known enemies, etc - but I like what I saw. Even if some episodes were a little weak, like Arachnids, I enjoyed every episode in one way or another I wish we didn’t have to wait more than a year for the next season but I guess British TV just doesn’t have the resources to easily make this show on a regular basis

Geeze, this show. I can’t believe they aren’t even going to try for split seasons in order to have at least some episodes in late 2019 Guess I’m going to have to spend next year catching up on all the previous seasons of new Who

Trailer for the New Year’s special http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/first-trailer-for-the-new-years-special-resolution-89995.htm

I think I read somewhere recently that the lead actor for DW generally has a 3 year contract, but I can’t remember where I read it. That’s less than the standard American contract of 5-7 years Capaldi was asked to stay another year beyond his initial 3 but he declined I’m sure there’s a burnout factor as well given how long it takes to shoot each episode and how much action the star has to do these days

Just to note, it appears the BBC did not send out screeners of the finale to critics so they may be hiding some spoilers

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2018-12-08/doctor-who-new-years-day-special-episode-title-confirmed/ Title for the New Year's special: "Resolution"

I also appreciate that Jodie was brave enough to step up to be the first female Doctor in the show’s history. The first one was always going to take slings and arrows from certain segments of the fandom and she seems to be strong enough to take it

Yes, everything I’ve read confirms the BBC viewership is up

I do think Capaldi was perhaps too old for the role, given all the running around the Doctor does in the new Who era. It didn't help that various characters kept calling him old and old man. I haven't seen much of Matt Smith's era, but I'm sure Capaldi's age following the much younger Smith really stood out. Given the action nature of the series in the new era, it's probably best that future actors taking the role are in their 30s to 40s, high 20s on the outside.

So far, I am loving Jodie's take on the Doctor. I managed to binge-watch Capaldi's 3 seasons during the middle of this season and 13 is certainly the complete opposite of Mr. Cranky-Pants, but I think that's the way the showrunner wanted to go to bring in new viewers (and bring back old viewers). I also binge-watched the first 2 seasons of Broadchurch and the first season of Jodie's Trust Me series and Jodie certainly has incredible range. I'm not sure anyone expected her to be able to play the Who humor given all the waterworks on Broadchurch and many of her past roles, but she seems to be holding her own on DW in both comedy and drama I have noticed that though #13 is whimsical and eccentric (and a real motor mouth at times), she can get pretty serious with foes, especially out of earshot of her companions. For example, she stomped all over the Rosa villain and sent Tim Shaw packing in the first episode. She asks a heck of a lot of questions and is intensely curious about things. I've also noticed how brave she is, always getting in front of her companions and other people to protect them from danger. In contrast to Capaldi's Doctor, she seems to really like humans and has a lot of empathy for people in trouble, though she was kind of nasty to Graham and Erik in the 9th episode to get them to wake up to the danger. Like Capaldi and probably many or all of the Doctors, she doesn't particularly like authority and definitely not idiots in charge

There are rumors that the foe in the New Year's special will be Daleks