Doctor Who: Jodie Whitaker’s last episode [spoilers]

[Morrus]

Can we take the streaming services conversation to its own thread, please, folks? It’s taking over the thread like it did in the Star Trek threads. Thanks!

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

For pure spectacle, this was probably the best episode of the Chibnalll/Whitaker era. There were episodes in earlier seasons that had more depth and were better constructed, but they weren't near this fun. This isn't the sort of thing you could show to a newbie though whereas something like Eve of the Daleks from earlier this year stands pretty well on its own.

 

[Umbran]

I didn't understand the forced regeneration thing, and the more I think about it, I still don't. He kept saying he was the Doctor, but he looked like the Master and had the Master's conscousness. In what way was he not the Master?

In the sense that he'd replaced the Doctor.

Also, this incarnation of the Master is not exactly in a rational, balanced mental state. Sometimes you gotta take what he says as being rather more about what he feels than literal truth.

 

[Umbran]

Also out of curiosity, as I am about 1-2 sessions absent and might be missing a lot of context: is there any possibility the Tenant we are seeing will be the Valeyard I seem to recall them teasing the Valeyard a lot between him to Smith and Capaldi).

Any possibility? Well, we cannot categorically rule it out. But there was no further tease or sign of it either.

The only strange thing about this regeneration is that the Doctor's clothes changed in the regeneration, which has a lot of people in a tizzy because that's not how it has gone recently.

But, a couple of regenerations in the classic era also included costume changes. I don't know that we should read much into it, other than them making sure everyone got the message that it really was going to be a repeat of the previous incarnation.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I was writing a comment. It got long. Really long. So I posted it as a separate thread, since I ended up discussing the show generally.

Doctor Who: Past, Future, and Thoughts on the End of the 13th Doctor (SPOILERS!)

(Note- I originally wrote this as a comment on this thread. I ended up writing a lot about Doctor Who in general, so I am posting it as a separate thread) I watched the finale of Season 13 (and the Whittaker era) the day after it aired (recorded on BBC America) and I've been thinking about the...

www.enworld.org

 

[jdrakeh]

Well, for one thing Tennant's still my favorite of new Who, so I'm good with it.

For another, in a way, this feels like them doing something a little different, even if it is different by way of something the same. And if it is, well, that's brilliant, innit?

I know that Tennant is extremely popular (and I liked him well enough in his time), but bringing him back as a subsequent official incarnation of the Doctor seems like a cheap ratings grab. My feelings about this are similar to Tom Baker's and Christopher Eccleston's feelings about the multiple Doctor episodes. And I think that bringing Tennant back instead of handing over the reins directly to Ncuti Gatwa does both Gatwa and the 15th Doctor a disservice.

 

[Umbran]

I know that Tennant is extremely popular (and I liked him well enough in his time), but bringing him back as a subsequent official incarnation of the Doctor seems like a cheap ratings grab.

Short term ratings grabs are an artifact of advertising-driven TV's business model, in which driving up the price they can charge for ads in the short term is useful.

As part of a move to move to a subscription-based streaming service, leading with a flashy casting choice with underlying poor quality is a very bad idea. The idea is to sell people on stacking with paying a subscription fee, and leading with bad stories does the opposite.

This is a few episodes on the BBC, not a blockbuster movie. It is not going to buy Tennant a new summer home, and Tennant recently is not short on work, at all. So I don't expect he'd risk fan goodwill on crappy story.

 

[Morrus]

a cheap ratings grab.

I have no idea what a “cheap ratings grab” is. But Tennant ain’t cheap.

 

[Morrus]

Short term ratings grabs are an artifact of advertising-driven TV's business model, in which driving up the price they can charge for ads in the short term is useful.

Well there’s no ads on the BBC, so ad revenue isn’t the driver here. There are on overseas markets, but my understanding is that foreign viewership is fairly niche.

 

[jdrakeh]

I have no idea what a “cheap ratings grab” is. But Tennant ain’t cheap.

Cheap as in "deserving of contempt."