I was hoping that the Doctor and Toymaker would play Scrabble and the Doctor wins by recognizing that Mavity isn't a word, I'm so mad they didn't do that
Would have taken too long, all the strange names of species is something that the rules of Scrabble did not forsee - human, animal, bird or fish is all ok, but Raxicofallapadorius?
@@MyDestinyDear Having an alien companion could also potentially freshen up any adventures on Earth sice Earth would be an exotic, new planet for the companion
I don’t know why, but I love the concept of the doctor a) having two companions from different eras in time and b) the two of them getting stuck in the tardis while the doctor mucks about and the two of them opening up about themselves. It just sounds like a really good episode in my head.
I think myself and the other people you have labelled as realists, (at least the ones I know) agree with your ultimate conclusions about why the things we care about actually matter. Plot consistency and realism with in context aren't themselves the point of telling stories, but are usually critical building blocks that are needed to effectively explore themes and characters.
I didn't expect to run into you here! You are sorely missed in the EFAP sphere, but do whatever it is you need to in order to take care of yourself! "Kick Jay!"
Man, now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m upset we haven’t had more interesting companions. What’s about one who actually has already met a future version of the doctor (a la river song) but holds a grudge over being left (we haven’t had a traitorous companion in ages) and even is upset the doctor doesn’t recognize them until they realize it’s an earlier doctor and slowly they come to understand things their doctor did to avoid creating paradox’s while setting them up to become a full, complete person with their pervious incarnation
Thank you for calling out how performative Russels progressivism is. It seems so forced and lacking understanding of the real issues. It’s hard to criticise because people think you’re just being anti woke, but even from a left wing perspective, he’s just wrong about most of what he says
He comes off as that thoroughly out of touch but well-meaning uncle, who, when the very rudiments of a new idea enter his awareness, makes it into an entire _thing_ with all of his clumsy, naïve, thickly privileged enthusiasm.
@@peccantis Maybe it's only me, but I feel the "well-meaning uncle" archetype has overcome hatred and tolerates all, even if that's achieved through general apathy. By constrast, RTD and friends (but more exaggeratedly their supporters in the media) call people they disagree with names, say they're not real fans, and tell them to "f*ck off". They revel in tribalism
I feel like taking a historical white person and making them a poc is so much more damaging because it just ignores actual historical people of color just to focus on a white person. It's just kinda pointless because if anyone finds that character interesting, they'll just learn about the actual person
There’s also a more uncharitable interpretation you can put on the situation without a large amount of mental gymnastics. The action of replacing historically white people with a more diverse cast implies that for people of color to be valuable historically, they have to take the place of white people. That there was little to no genuine contribution by them to be shown, so a white person had to be used instead. It’s very sad to see this kind of representation be used (and justified!) on these far reaching sources. There is a level of care that must be put into representation, and just going “oh, I’ll make Newton diverse. That’ll do it” and then calling a day is just not it. It’s, dare I say, kind of lazy.
@@friendlyotaku9525 my comment is not in regards to the actor. They did what they were asked to do and they did a very good job at it. My comment is directed at the directors and the producers (eg Russel). I never belittled the actor themselves in my original comment. It was all directed at the direction of the writing. Although I am aware I sometimes come off a bit strong in online platforms so I’d apologize if that’s how I presented myself.
1:03:32 The reason the accent is bad is 10000% on purpose since the Doctor won their last game by copying the Toymaker's voice So now he does the accents and flips flops between them randomly And also I fucking LOVE your version of the Giggle ending WAY more than the let down of the real one
I think it's also because the Toymaker is meant to be a weird racist like he was in the 60s. He does French, German, and American caricatures all in the same special.
“A benevolent eldritch alien, plus bewildered sidekick, defeating evil using a combination of intelligence and whimsy” is how I like my Doctor Who thanks.
The Fitzroy club was the most interesting part of this video. I know the showrunners were all fans from the 90s, but I didn't quite realise how, well, official the clique of the writers actually was. Great video.
I love that I read this comment before I got to the point in the video. I was only an hour and three minutes in. Now I'm excited for the foreshadowing.
In regards to the Fugitive Doctor I would have made her the fourth incarnation Romana who took on the name of the Doctor as a mark of respect whom she believed to have perished in the Time War.
Damn, that would’ve been good. If Missy’s ever brought back, that would be a really cool character progression for her. Almost cool enough to justify ruining her perfect ending
@@jacobunderwood5206technically speaking her perfect ending was double ruined because after Missy she became basically the doctor and then I guess learned that, the time lords suck again? And killed them all again
Honestly the new season has sometimes felt like a George Lucas type situation where one person is given control or everything, and is very famous and well-known for running the show, and so sees mostly yes-men around them, and the studio giving them carte-blanche because Russel delivered them their biggest ratings back in the 2000s. But there seems to be just a very self-centred attitude to the show, where Russel just focuses on what he wants exclusively and thinking less about you know mainstream audiences or non-fans who are unfamiliar with the show. Like I understand wanting to have your vision, but this is Doctor Who, its a landmark age-old show, it shouldn’t be treated as this ego sandbox for this endless string of old nerds.
The show has always been “left wing” or “woke”. Right from its inspection, the daleks were based off the nazis (a race of pure breed, hatred filled creatures with a goal to destroy anything that looked different to them. Also the whole “exterminate” brings another level of context when you think of it from this perspective). When Russell bought the show back in 2005, it was still maintained that left wing, socially conscious themes, but they were entwined deep within the plot. Aliens that fart in Downing Street using fear to create war? A teenager mother’s fear of acknowledgement of her child during the 1940’s. Cassandra is a take on this need to preserve tradition no matter the cost, for the state of being considered “pure”. Also, the casting back in 2005 was so socially progressive. The main character was a working class girl with a single mother and a black boyfriend. All were fleshed out, real people with their own stories. The issue with the new era, is the need to be incredibly on the nose with their themes. It feels like Russell is screaming “look, it’s left wing. Look how progressive we are”. I miss the subtlety and how grounded them first few seasons from 2005 were.
Whatever the issue is it's sh*t now. Feels to forced and too dumbed down. Has been since Jodie. And from what I can gather no one is watching it anymore.
There's a difference between a show having a left leaning writing style with stories that give moral questions for things in an interesting story and a show with performative politics and with bad writing because the focus and intent is to prioritise diversity even in situations that take away from the story like the doctor mentioning he knows how to escape hand cuffs because he had fiery sex with Harry Houdini. The new show relies on media stirring to stay relevant and attacking it's audience for not agreeing with the show's direction by instantly labelling them as racist, transphobes and homophobes. You don't gain a fanbase by ridiculing them
@@samthorne5884 clearly you're not an adult if you're purposely being in denial of the show ratings and views being at its lowest with Jodie. And somehow being half of that with Ncuti. The show is ass and the creators dug their hole by verbally assaulting their audience
@@samthorne5884the show has been diverse since its revival. Mickey as a character had great development throughout the first and second season. Captain Jack being open with his sexuality as a pansexual man. Martha taking the rein and being more assertive than the doctor himself by basically being U.N.I.T; Donna sticking to the phrase "once you go black" by having two black husbands. The entire storyline of the family of blood is so well written for Martha and how she is treated in the past. At it's peak doctor who was making 9 million views whilst being verse diverse, progressive and still having good stories and not verbally assaulting its audience. From 9 million views to 2 million views and the show has been diverse since 2005 you have to question. Is the fanbase actually racist homophobes or is the writing just shit
@@t.m.carter4171Doctor who fans are manifestations of ign reviews: Cgi sucked, the climax was cringe, children cant act, the whole thing dosen't make any sense. Solid 8/10 best episode for years😊
I’ve seen comments basically saying the same thing and I agree that this video is so refreshing. The fandom often feels like it’s caught between 2 extremes in terms of politics, where some use the show’s poor execution of messaging to attack the groups it’s portraying, whereas others prioritise this messaging over the plot itself. It’s so nice to finally find a video that allows for discussion, without alienating those who respectfully agree/disagree with the order of messaging and plot. It makes me proud to be part of the fandom, and I wish there were more people in the community who treated the show with the same respect and criticism that you do. The show isn’t perfect, but it’s also not “doomed” - yes there are consistent mistakes perpetuated, but there is also like you say a boundless potential for the show. I really like your idea of the show being a celebration of its medium, and being ever changing. I know I’ve more or less paraphrased the points you’ve made in the video, but honestly it’s fantastic
Here are the time cards. 00:00:00. Intro 6:56 chapter 1 how to criticize doctor who 27:09 chapter 2: the star Beast 50:50 chapter 3: Wild blue Yonder 1:03:08 chapter 4: The Giggle 1:25:00 chapter 5: Church on ruby road 1:41:54 chapter 6: politics and Who 2:02:57 chapter 7: the backlash 2:13:50 chapter 8 stuck in time loop 2:25:06 chapter 9 Fitzroy club 2:46:20 chapter 10 Doctor what? 2:54:53 bonus chapter space babies and devils chord
Donna and Rose just "letting go" of the metacrisis was the DUMBEST part of the specials. There's absolutely zero prerequisite for it. To be honest, Rose's entire purpose was to be a walking story problem with no outside character traits. What is Rose's personality? Realistically, there is none.
Honestly, this video is so refreshing. All of the criticism you’ve made is delivered in such an inoffensive yet direct and confident way, and it’s extremely clear and well thought out without blindly bashing on the show, especially regarding how you handle the more political elements which is a very tough balance to make. And of course you don’t just talk about where you want an improvement, you make an effort to not ignore the positives which worked perfectly. This also proved to me I don’t have to agree with everything in a video to enjoy it, such as the amount of music which I find quite charming in Doctor Who (although that could just be the musician in me speaking). But more importantly it reminded me of what I’d also like to see in the show, which you’d think I’d know already but is actually harder than I realised, while opening up my mind to new ideas I hadn’t thought of. Oh yeah, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously and only when it needs to? For a while I thought I was just getting tired of all the criticism towards this show across the internet (and other franchises too) because so much of it was off-putting, overly negative to the point of being downright hateful, and often pushed itself into one corner, as much sense as that makes. But this video reminded me of how beneficial and helpful good criticism can be, and actually spins it into a positive light which is very impressive. Good research and a good mindset goes a long way! I really hope you get the attention you deserve on this platform because this was fantastic, really great work 😄
I don’t make long TH-cam comments like that very often so apologies if it reads like an essay submission. But then again I felt like I couldn’t leave this video without stating how much I enjoyed and engaged with it, and again how refreshing and well-made it was. Will definitely send it around for more to see!
@@MysteriousStranger42 Do I need to restate the points made in this video? Plenty of people want to see that, it makes no sense that his cloths would regenerate, and the cloths are intentionally gender neutral.
@@Scroteydada It's not about if he knew, just generally when you've been so closely associated with "Cancelled" people like that it's a bad look to put in this surface level commentary at it as it makes it seem like he doesn't give a shit about the terrible things that happened on his set. That said if we want to go down that route sure he gets a pass on Adam's actor as nothing he did was on set but John Barrowman's antics and reportedly some of Clarke's did happen on the Doctor who set, it is a failing of the showrunner if their set is unsafe. And Barrowman's antics were well known enough to have been referenced in the song the cast sung about RTD. Even if you want to defend RTD on account of his unsafe set he absolutely knew about the Barrowman stuff at the very least
@@ScroteydadaJohn Barrowman was openly flashing people on set, and is one of the reasons Christopher Eccleston never wants to work with RTD again. RTD and the other producers just ignored it
@@Scroteydada "Is there a quote where RTD confesses to actively ignoring sexual harassment on set?" Of course not; because why would he ever admit to that? There's plenty of interviews where Eccleston talks about his issues with Russell and the other producers. A stunt that almost killed an extra, Barrowman's flashing, "There were a lot of things going on behind the scenes that the producers were just ignoring" (Paraphrasing, but he said something to that effect.) Just look up why Eccleston left DW, he's been more vocal about it in recent years.
I agree much more with the way Capaldi frames the show as about death, rather than about change. But it's a similar point either way. Ultimately, imo, the real problem with New Who as a show starting all the way back in 2005, is that clique, the fitzroy club. This is one group of people who are explicitly fans (the way they write the show is very much a fan perspective, see the Doctor immediately becoming a legendary war hero, the last of the time lords, as soon as the revival begins). One group of people who whilst differing from each other do have huge overlap in their personal ideas of what a show they never worked on (in it's original run) should be. One group regurgitating the same basic formula and ideas for almost 2 decades. It needed new blood a decade ago. It needs it now more than ever. You mention that Doctor Who was for the first several decades of it's life, famous for being scary. Now that's only one part of a larger whole, but there was a general idea of what Doctor Who is back then. Being scary was part of that. But whilst people can all point out creative shifts and say "it's about change", the reality is that that generalised idea of what Doctor Who is, changed because the show was rebooted by people with a very fan perspective direction, who based their reboot on totally different things first and foremost (buffy especially) in the hopes of making a dead niche show mainstream. And then the show regurgitated itself for 2 decades gradually placing less emphasis on what Who used to be known for and placing more emphasis on what was being done successfully in 2005. We gradually got a stale show, that managed to be stale whilst also moving further and further away from what Doctor Who was as a show/idea in it's original run, without making any real progress into new creative direction despite this. You call the fitzroy club a clique and it absolutely is, which has it's own totally separate list of issues, but in terms of why the show is where it is today, this is the biggest reason imo. It doesn't need RTD and Moffat back, it desperately needs new blood. (I know some fans like to create huge conspiracy theories around the whole fitzroy club idea and others like to laugh off the mere suggestion that the people running this show since 2005 do form something of a closed circle even if only by considerable overlap. Whatever your opinions are though, it is true that the show has had a lot of the same faces bts since 2005 and that it's been redoing the same basic formula since 2005 with very rare exceptions)
Holy heck is it refreshing to see a video like this that isn’t just clickbait misinformation calling the show woke 😭😂 Loved this video essay. Hit the nail right on the head. It’s clear the show is being produced to keep it going, not because there’s really any distinct passion being put in to do something fresh with it. Honestly I think the show would benefit from losing its “significant” budget increase and invest in new talent. But the industry’s so rigged that legit probably won’t happen. Omg someone who points out that awful scene of 12 laughing on the boat. My night has been made 😂
Holy, some of the editing in this video essay is incredibly hilarious and random without even drawing that much attention to itself, its really cool seeing literally all of Who’s weird little moments being compiled
I mean... I agree he was probably intending to be offensive, which is bad. But doesn't it also blow your mind that a factual description of someone can be used offensively in our current society?
@@ian-flanagan no it doesn’t I just finding it jarring to see someone be so brash and racist out of nowhere. It obviously doesn’t actually blow my mind
@@SebTheNoob314 Agreed. The character has a name, the video wasn't live so any youtuber worth their salt would at least do research before commenting on that before the video was edited/uploaded
@@ian-flanagan It's the fact that describing someone just by the way they look is kind of rude. It's the equivalent of if someone called you over by saying 'oi, you' and pointing at you, it's just basic manners to treat someone like an actual individual human rather than a robot or inanimate object. It's been the same throughout most of human history, it's why historically speaking it would be offensive not to refer to someone by their full title if they were a lord or something because their status mattered so much in those societies. It's not exactly the same thing just using a person/their characters name but it goes to a similar end of being respectful y'know (except more for appreciating them as a human being).
@@CiggyMan I live in China and get called "that white guy" (or equivalents that don't translate well to English) all the time. It's quick and efficient communication. I totally agree that the YTer is attempting to be offensive, so that's wrong, but making race, weight, sex into "protected" characteristics, instead of neutral (like handedness, hair colour, height etc.), you're actually creating stronger ammunition for the people who want to be offensive.
I agree with your point about the show starting to slip into pantomime, but I am confident that like the McCoy years, Russell will notice fan reaction and tint the show much darker. Also, we do know that Russell starts most of his seasons quite light and goes to darkness quickly. I think we will be put at ease with Boom and 73 Yards. We also know at least 4 new writers are working on episodes for next season, so there is hope there. The difference is that Doctor Who is in a much different place culturally than it was in 1987, and I believe the show will survive to become something new, mainly because disney plus can't afford to let go of hosting a property like Doctor Who. There will always be growing pains, but I am sure the show will find it's way.
The issue is that they've already started filming series 2 of Ncuti's run. So Russel won't be reacting to the fan reaction until at least the 2026 series...
Call me a pessimist, but when have we ever seen people change for the better and learn from these mistakes? We see once brilliant creatives become brain-damaged buffoons, but that process seems to go in the opposite direction rarely if at all. Russel is off his rocker IMO, but if he turned around overnight and said "we fixed everything with Dr Who" and showed evidence that such actions actually had taken place, I would be pleasantly surprised and willing to give it a chance.
@@Coconut-219 What supports your view is that Russel was this back then too, but his need to actually prove his worth by delivering brilliant performances suppressed his inner ego and arrogance that often accompanies these progressive types. Now he’s in full pride and prejudice fueled high… he always had the brain damage but poverty (in fame and money) kept it in control, not anymore.
A few things I want to clear up: I wasn't trying to imply that the "realist" TH-camrs I discussed at the beginning don't value themes, merely that they view logical consistency as a necessary building block in order to achieve said themes. I've been made aware that the 1st Doctor's clothes actually did regenerate with him. Never noticed that before! That being said, I still prefer the precedent that the show has established since: AKA the Doctor's clothes staying the same when they change. Just a preference though, I suppose. Episode 3 of the new season was a BANGER (no pun intended) and everything I’ve been looking for in Doctor Who minus a different directing style. I didn't EQ the voiceover audio meaning it's more bassy and plosive-y than usual. Retroactively I think this was a mistake and if I were to post the video again, I'd fix the audio.
@Verdana Just regarding your segment in 'The Fitzrory Club', RTD most definitely did know about Barrowman's "shenanigans." I've recently read RTD's book 'Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter' and in it RTD comment on Barrowman's behaviour, even comment on John maybe finding it difficult to do that nude scene in Episode 2 of Children of Earth, which in hindsight hasn't not aged too well. Another bit of information that proves RTD knew about it was the goodbye music video Tenant, Tate and Barrowman made for him. Tittled 'The Ballad of Russell & Julie' as a tongue and cheek play on comedic song by Victoria Wood 'The Ballad of Barry and Freda'. In it, at the time code 2:01, Tenant playing RTD states "Images of Johnny B getting his cock out" before Barrowman winks at the camera. All of which I think supplies enough evidence that RTD knew about Barrowman. Regarding Langley no evidence if he knew about his misconduct. With Noel Clarke he certainly doesnt give off any impression in 'The Writer's Tale' that he was trying to distance the show from Clarke and in fact tried to bring Clarke back for Children of Earth, but due to scheduling conflicts this never happened. Hope this was useful. Great video and brilliant research from yourself. Rewatching the whole video all over again straight after my first viewing!
I see things like traditional villain depictions of them being disabled or disfigured as less of a “They’re evil because they’re disabled” and more of a “Their evil lead to their own disfigurement”
Verdana, you are amazing. I am a writer and I love this show too damn much to thoroughly look at it objectively. I guess I'm kind of blinded by it's concept of infinite potential for all kinds of storytelling to really give it a good look critically. And while I've found all kinds of people who are willing to critique it, the internet has just been flooded with people complaining about the show for political clickbait. You have been one of the first people I've found to genuinely care about the show and try to argue your objections in good faith. And I absolutely appreciate you calling out the others who've been doing this. I do not agree with a lot of your opinions but they are amazing opinions regardless of how they differ from mine. That kind of openness to share your perspective is vital to a writer and your objectivity is so much more trustworthy than previous people who tend to look at it either through shiny goggles of nostalgia or the nasty clickbait-y side of things. I am thoroughly impressed by the efforts made in this video and, today, you gained yet another subscriber. I think you're one of the most amazing TH-camrs I've seen in years. The Internet, no the world, needs more people like you. I'm now rooting for you and think if you don't hit a million subscribers inside a year from this video; the algorithm has forsaken us. Well, more so than it usually does. I can't wait to see what you put out next. I wish you nothing but success.
THE KING RETURNS WITH ANOTHER BANGER Loved both your previous Who videos, super excited to see this one! Edit: Just finished watching. it's like you opened up my brain and read out all of my thoughts on this show for 3 hours.
For The Giggle, I would have loved to see the Doctor win by choosing a cooperative game, since it would present a solid contrast to the issue of the episode - everyone thinking they're right driving massive division and strife defeated by the Doctor and the Celestial Toymaker working together to win the chosen game. In my imagined version of this, the climax would be the Doctor sacrificing his character in the game to put the Toymaker in a position to win on his turn - but the Toymaker realizing that he could tank the game with that move instead, leading to the Doctor losing - but that would lead to the Toymaker losing as well. The final taunt would be the Doctor asking the Toymaker, "Well, which is more important to you? Me losing, or you winning?" leading to the Toymaker instead choosing the move that wins the game for both the Doctor and the Toymaker - leading to the Toymaker being banished by his own hand. I didn't DISLIKE the climax for The Giggle - but when you compare it to what it COULD have been? That was a MASSIVE missed opportunity.
24:03 All that they needed to do was make the lighthouse be the exterior of the Fugitive Doctor’s TARDIS. You wouldn’t have the ridiculous police box conundrum and logically it would make sense as an object blending into its surroundings.
This is the most comprehensive exploration of basically everything going on with Doctor Who right now and I'm really impressed. I've had most of these thoughts buzzing about in the back of my mind over the past year and it's nice to have someone lay it all out in a concise form. I would have just added the daily mail article where RTD shits on young writers and the bit in the giggle commentary where he says every doctor lived on after regenerating. Maybe my most unhinged take, but I get the feeling RTD has been unwilling to let anyone he writes die since he lost his partner.
24:53 - "...the Doctor stole a broken TARDIS from Galifrey, landed it in a London junkyard in the 1960s, it assumed the form of a police box to blend in, the Chameleon Circuit broke, and when he took off it retained that shape forever more... this of course begs the question; if the Fugitive Doctor comes before the First Doctor in the timeline, why does her Tardis look like this?" Hello! Off-the-cuff fanwank incoming! I can think of at least three answers to this off the top of my head. The first one is the most boring and straightforward, so I'll get it out of the way; at some point, some incarnation of the Doctor meets with the Fugitive Doctor, and gives/lends them the TARDIS to go off on their adventures; maybe they go and rescue them in the first place, starting the whole thing off. Heck, as of The Giggle, there's canonically a second TARDIS out there (and I doubt this is the first story where multiple TARDIS's have been about), for all we know Tennant's 14 genuinely retires and gives it to them. Basically: it's time travel, so just because they're an older Doctor, doesn't mean they have to have an older TARDIS. It would be far from the first time we've seen one of the Doctors interfering with or aiding a past, future, or wholy alternate version of themself. We just haven't seen this particular instance happen in the show, yet. The second is even more dull; because of timey-wimeyness, the Fugitive Doctor quickly realised that The Doctor is already known throughout time (due to the adventures they and their later forms will have), and is known to have a TARDIS that's a blue police box, so eventually decided to go with it, and set it to always use that form. Man, I'm having trouble staying awake just typing that, I'm so sorry. The third and final ties more into modern Who's habit of making things that happen to the Doctor "now" tie in to their timeline as a whole. Why does 12 have that face? Because it's a reminder of the family in Pompeii that they broke the rules to help. Why does Bad Wolf keep showing up to 9? Because it's Rose in the future scattering the message through time to link herself to the Doctor. Coincidence and mystery show up time after time, and often part of the twist is that cause and effect were not what you thought. This could apply here; it isn't, in fact, that the First Doctor happened to crash in the 60's, and the TARDIS happened to get it's appearance stuck. It's that _earlier_ versions of the Doctor did, and had their own adventures through time in a Police Box-shaped TARDIS. So then, "later", when the First Doctor goes and steals that TARDIS, either 1) They on some level remembered that time and form as familiar, and subconsciously guided themselves to crash in the '60s and stick the TARDIS in that shape, or 2) The TARDIS they stole was their earlier TARDIS that either was able to temporarily disguise itself or had straight-up been fixed by that point, and placed itself where it would be "stolen" by the First Doctor, and it's "stuck" in that form now because that's what was familar to it through it's time with the earlier Doctor/s. Again, hardly the first time the Doctor has been led by their subconscious, or that the TARDIS has acted on it's own intelligence out of its devotion to the Doctor. So, no; this isn't inherently illogical, and if you resist the urge to turn off your brain and _actually think about it,_ you can see the creative possibilities that this seeming inconsistency can provide. Imagine if someone who actually knew about writing gave a go at answering this, instead of some rando in a TH-cam comment typing the first things that come to mind? Do I believe, for a single second, that the team behind the episode had any of this in mind when they showed their classic police-box TARDIS? Absolutely not, completely ridiculous, they just knew viewers know the TARDIS looks like that and didn't want to spend precious minutes (and prop-dept time and money) explaining that, yeah, that random thing behind them is what their TARDIS looks like right now. The crime here isn't that they gave us that unanswered question. That's absolutely fine; Doctor Who, and indeed TV shows as a whole, would be much more boring if every question the viewer might have while watching an episode was wrapped up that same episode. Mystery is good, actually, even if it's created without knowing what the answer is, even if it's created _by mistake_. The crime is that they never answered (or even acknowledged) this aspect, and presumably never will. Aren't you interested in what the actual canonical reason for how the Fugitive Doctor has a Police-box-style TARDIS before the First Doctor got it? I know I am.
@@Go_to_Caffi_YT Like the other Doctors, Hartnell didn't remember being the Fugitive Doctor, so wouldn't remember the TARDIS being a police box before him either. With that, he'd be confused for the same reason we are: because it doesn't immediately seem to make sense. For why the TARDIS looked like that on Galifrey, I did cover a couple of options in my post (somehow able to work temporarily, or completely fixed then and now and choosing to keep the police box shape since; either way, looking that way then to blend in, same as the chameleon circuit is always meant to). If neither sound good to you, that's fine, but that not a sign that no explanation exists, just that someone who's a better writer than me needs to have a go: I'm not claiming this is canon or even fanon, just noting that possible explanations do exist ;)
Wow thats a lot of words. Too bad I'm not reading them. (No but seriously i think what you say has value but thats toooooooooooooooooooooooo many words.)
With Gaiman's second episode Moffat had no choice but to rewrite it, not because it was bad but because of the BBC's forced changes to Clara. Moffat had originally planned Victorian Clara and her two wards as being the main Clara and her duel Victorian life her main background, but at the last minute BBC execs got cold feet and insisted the companion be contemporary to be more relatable. Unfortunately, this change was so late in the day some scripts, including Gaiman's, were already written for Victorian Clara. This is why the hasty barely there new background for Clara exists in her first proper series as companion, and why the hastily shoved in children are there- rewriting Gaiman's episode without the children was too big a task, altering them to be from modern times less so. If you notice in that episode Clara's dialogue is more like the clipped precise manner of Victorian Clara too. Regards series 6 and points in Time, you have to realise the Web of Time is a construct made by the Time Lords to create the universe in the shape and form as we know it, they made it, and the fixed points are what keep it in place. It's a double edged sword- it solved the issue they had of our universe being chaotic and unstable and unbelievably violent, but at the cost once established it has to exist forever or the whole universe comes crashing down. The Silence we are told turn a Still Point in Time into a Fixed Point- the manner by which they do is through the power of story - as we see throughout the series with legends about River and the Doctor, the Doctors death by an Impossible Astronaut (that's why it's an impossible astronaut, the story has to be both mythic and mysterious to catch on) and we get even nursery rhymes about it, doing all this creates enough belief that it forms a fixed point, but all the Silence did was create a fixed point that the Doctor would appear to be killed there and everyone would believe it. The get out for the Doctor was that all time required of him was to appear to die to fulfil the fixed point. He wasn't saved because he was in the tesselector as such, he was saved because everyone thought the tesselector was him and he was dead, the tesselector let him meet the criteria, he was both present for real on the beach and he appears to everyone else to have died - that was the fixed point.
42:45 Honestly you explaining how impactful the original departure of Donna was got me more emotional than the actual fake-out death scene of Star Beast, which just felt so obviously shock-value bs, why can’t ANY showrunner for gods sake just leave their companion alone to either die or be trapped back on Earth. I’m glad they did this with Amy & Rory, it felt satisfyingly tragic. But Bill, Clara felt like SUCH a cheat, I love Clara as a character, and her end felt fitting for her going too far into trying to be a Doctor, and then screwing up, the whole ‘lets go travel in a diner-tardis as two immortals’ felt irritating as hell. Its really amazing when the show explores the idea of a companion seeing all the wonders of the Earth and then being forced to adjust back to real life like Sarah Jane; or being forced to sacrifice something the way Rose did.
RTD has never been subtle but he did used to be good. World War 3 was the most obvious 9/11 analogy, Long Game is about Rupert Murdoch. There's plenty of place in Doctor Who for devastatingly unsubtle political messaging.
100%. I'm completely supportive of the messaging but holy hell is it hamfisted. "Binary binary non-binary" and "male-presenting time lord" made both myself and my wife shout as if they were jumpscares, despite my BP at our wedding just last year being non-binary. Hearing the Doctor get berated by a new character for assuming an alien's gender to be binary-conforming was also pretty jarring - it felt more like a right-wing caricature of a "triggered SJW" than a young trans person just trying to exist in a transphobic society.
@Scroteydada because any idiot can bash you over the head but it takes intelligence and skill to slip an idea in without a ripple. Of course, modern audiences pride themselves on being stupid.
Regarding the Davros situation, I think it's extra confounding after watching The Devil's Chord. If Russell didn't want to perpetuate the trope of disabled characters being villains, why did he then decide it was fine to perpetuate the trope of flamboyantly queer characters being villains with the Maestro? To be clear I don't think there's any problems with Davros or the Maestro, I just think once you start laying down arbitrary rules like Russell did, you'll eventually do something that comes across as very hypocritical.
@@Nyzackon Has 15 made any "real" indication that he's queer though? Bc otherwise it's just that we know Ncuti is queer and very comfortable in his own skin and that doesn't really equate to his character in my opinion
This is gold. I have loved Doctor Who forever. As a kid in the 80s I liked the show because it was weird and scary and kind of dark. (Adric’s death was quite impactful). As an adult I like the show for the same reasons, but over the past few years it has become unwatchable for me. I came back to see what the new Doctor was like (he’s great), but holy shit, the stories are terrible. That’s what it always comes down to; a well told story. I’m getting pretty sick of people blaming politics or race or gender or sexuality or anything else they can think of on why Doctor Who sucks, when the ONLY reason it sucks is because the stories are shit. A good writer can incorporate any message into a story and people will hardly even notice it’s there, but they will absorb the message. That’s the point of using stories to get a point across, you can be subtle. This new series is terrible so far, RTD is just awful. Strange that the cash-strapped shonky production values of the classic series were tolerated largely because of the storytelling of the show, while now they have proper Disney money the writing has gone bung. Also I completely agree about the music in the modern series, it has ruined a lot of great scenes. Finally, even though I was six years old when it happened, I really liked it when Adric died, he was fucking annoying.
I’m starting to think that excessive fan arguing means the IP has been “mined” for too long. You’ve got extremely varied people emotionally invested across decades, and you’d satisfy them better by launching new story concepts for them to love or ignore. We all face the explore/exploit tradeoff in every industry, but entertainment is leaning 95% into “exploit”, while fans get blamed for the predictably poor results.
It desperately needs a break, preferably a lengthy one (10 years or so) and then bring in a new generation of people to bring new ideas. As this video states it’s been retreading the same ideas which worked well for 4-5 seasons because an entitled clique wants to keep running it ad nauseum
See, I would be inclined to agree, but then I think of Bethesda. The fallout/elder scrolls series have gone on forever, and the community discourse is absolutely cancerous. And then they launched Starfield, and instead of being loved or ignored, it's been shit on for the entirety of its existence. (Maybe rightfully so) Because it's bad. Because the writers are unable to start something completely new and fresh without dragging out the old corpse of better creations past. And I think that would be the same case here. So instead, I fear Dr. Who will go on to emulate The Age of Fire in the Dark Souls series. Just go on and on, neverending. Even if you dont fuel the flame, somebody after you will. It's gone on so long, and it's got so long to go. The flame is dying. And it's tired. The world is tired. Edit: thank you anyone who actually read my thoughts and agree/understand where I'm coming from.
@@strisselstudios3932 Yes you're right. It's not limited to stories, but also authors, studios, maybe even genres. I guess it's simply expectation vs reality when you're emotionally invested. And yes, never-ending stories is analogous to so many industries trying to switch to "subscription" models
Then a few days off this video we got boom and 73 yards both being departures form the show’s formula especially 73 yards! One of the best episodes in years
I feel like 73 yards was rushed. So ruby can time travel her own timeline ? Or only in that pocket universe? Then why? What is the point if she can’t remember? Felt rushed. Need the season finale to give more context to ruby
@@paigelogan7600 I assume the mechanics of the magic that produced the pocket universe/timeline etc. explain many of those things, at least enough that we can handwave it into "it's the curse of breaking the fairy circle"
thank god. Was enjoying this critique but I’m so used to TH-cam feeding me insufferable anti-wokers i have to go back and click “Not interested in this channel”, i was waiting for the anti-woke rant that never came. Subscribed.
First, binging all if New Who when I first found out about it in 2020. Then, a five hour video about Doctor Who. Now, watching a three hour long video in one sitting. Life is good (thank you so much for the EXTREMELY thoughtful and informative video 😊)
2:29:45 Russell did know to an extent. In the book The Writer's Tale, emails sent by Russell to Benjamin Cook at the time when The Stolen Earth/Journey's End was being filmed reference John Barrowman exposing himself with Russell hoping that Elisabeth Sladen was spared the sight of it.
1:18:40 Until I heard RTD explain bigeneration, I thought it was something to do with The Toymaker breaking the rules of his game by killing his challenger before they could beat the game, hence the bigeneration both enforcing the rule that he versus a new doctor but also doesn't kill his challenger. Honestly, I think Ill stick with my headcannon
another thing i'd like to comment on now that i've finished the video is, in my opinion, the time the show _did_ successfully reinvent itself, which is between 1969 and 1970. This period very much mirrors 1986 and 2023 in several ways, the show was declining in ratings, consistently being regarded as cheap while struggling to pull off the types of scripts that it needed to on such a limited budget. So the decision was made to reinvent the formula by stranding the Doctor on earth without the use of his Tardis, ousting the old production team in favor of some fresh blood, and guess what? The following two seasons are some of the best material Classic Who has to offer. They're far from perfect but Season 7 in particular is just so good overall that the weakest story in it, Ambassadors of Death (in my opinion anyway), is still around a 7/10. And this worked out great for the show, with it reaching popularity it hadn't had since Season 2, which was able to be maintained well into Tom Baker's tenure. I don't think a shakeup to the formula as radical as that in 1970 is needed necessarily, but taking cues from how that reinvention was handled would go a long way.
Actually, Trial of a Timelord was lightyears better than these new episodes. Also because Colin's era is actually PEAK. And yes, this is a hill I'm willing to die on.
Tbh the idea about the Doctor revisting places besides Earth does sort of happen, though often in the form of revisiting time periods. Examples would be The Long Game / Parting of the Ways where it visits the same place and directly shows his affect on the timeline, the New Earth trilogy all being set in the year 5 billion and having recurring elements between them (Cassandra, the Face of Boe, the New Earth planet), the Ood time period (Satan Pit and Planet of the Ood plus End of Time shows how PotO Ood are getting on), the recurring use of the 51st Century and the Church in Moffat's era and beyond, etc.
I largely agree about the music in funny scenes, but teh dramatic cymbal i9n "stormageddon dark lord of all" made me chuckle, and me noticing it made it a lot more funny
I got into Big Finish on a holiday recently, downloaded a couple dozen episodes before going off-grid, and while I *enjoyed* the 60th and have liked most of the new episodes quite a lot (Rogue just dropped today and I really enjoyed it, wow it sure would be sweet if those writers got to write more huh), I'm wishing now that new who had the bravery to pull off the kinds of inventive, wonderful, exiting stories, formulas and arcs Big Finish was doing in their golden age. There are so many fun, new, tonally inventive concepts just on display. A timeloop murder mystery, an entire audio framed as a radio transmission, an ACTUAL MUSICAL EPISODE (it's called the Pirates, it's on spotify) a gothic horror story where the Master looses his memory Human Nature style and the Doctor shows up on a dark and stormy night like the horseman of death to kill him. Rob Shearman for showrunner.
Personally, the pronoun question for the Meep didn't feel woke or anything. This was the Doctor being thorough from a scientific point of view, since it's a new species for him, and one you can't easily assume the gender of. I'd ask that too out of blind curiosity cus I wouldn't be able to tell.
2:31:00 the second you started saying "manifested itself in one of Russell's scripts..." I knew where you were going instantly. I hadn't connected those dots before but MAN did that hit me harder than I wanted it to.
Before I watch the video: I watched this show religiously as a kid. I still remember my first episode, 'Daleks in Manhatten' to this day (yes I high-rolled). I watched the show religiously for years, then lost interest around the Capaldi era. I still watch and rewatch old episodes of the show. I have not changed. The show has, for the worse. I hope they save it someday.
This is one of the greatest Doctor Who video essays I've ever watched. It finally brings out so many aspects of the show which has been bothering me for years, yet nobody ever talks about them, but there is also so much new outlook which I have been missing in the community lately, since all the Whodom just became a lot of complaining. It just felt tailor-made for me, and I laughed out loud multiple times because of the accuracy of some statements. Thank you!
Brian Cranston on hotwings said that a character absolutely cannot think what they're doing is funny, or it ruins the joke. I think that extends to the music point you were making.
I would say the goal of Doctor who is. Saying anyone can be the doctor, anyone can be a hero. You just need to be clever and clever doesn't come from being smart. It comes from. thinking of a unique and creative plan.
Thank you for addressing the cringe cultural war with nuance and a balanced mind, and actually reviewing the episodes on their actual objective qualities. Plus, as of "73 Yards", the new era seems to be finding its feet with a great range of tones and themes. Keep up the great work
Honestly what annoys me about RTD is that he seems to completely ignore easy explanations of his wacky nonsense. He could have easily just changed a little bit of dialogue with 14 and 15 at the Bigeneration to have them both go ‘OOOOOH!’ and realise that casting salt had brought forth myths and made them into reality (which could also explain the goblins next episode). It would have worked even better if the Doctors both realised that meant all sorts of horrifying monsters could have also came through (which would add actual consequences to Bigeneration) but instead Russell’s attitude genuinely seems to be ‘Who cares about explaining it? It’s a kid’s show!’ as if that just wipes away any need to be logically consistent inside his own narrative frameworks he makes.
Thank you for covering Chibnall’s first series on paper works. In 2017 I was ready for something new from Doctor Who and what I had been told on the lead up the series 11 was that. I, from the get go really enjoyed Segun Akinola’s score, I like the look of the show, it was just the writing that let it down ultimately. Series 13 Flux is a bit a special to me as having a serialised story in modern who was a nice change of pace, have a different look and feel in energy to usual single episodes and two parters, it’s just a shame it took a global pandemic to make that occur. And as you said it’s a great shame the show ran back to what it knows rather than pushing out further and trying more new things.
This video is brilliant, an actual in depth look at the new episodes for what they are rather than moaning about 1 or 2 scenes that people are getting upset about. It’s a fantastic look into the culture that this show has seemingly created. Unbiased in the correct way, well done for this 👏🏻
I very much agree with your final point that the Whittaker series was a better creative direction for the show to focus on. Harkening back to the past is only a recipe for stagnation. In general, I've always been very disappointed with how... amateurish the writing on doctor who feels. As much as I liked both Smith and Capaldi as doctors, the writing and editing made the show feel very cheap and lifeless, for me. Knowing all the behind the scenes drama only makes sense tbh. Amazing video as always verdana
If nothing else I hope this season is sucessful because the amount of potential that Gatwa has as the doctor is so exciting and I really want to see him become one of the bests
13:27 a personal favourite of mine is from War of the Sontarans, where Jodie described the Sontarans needing rest as being… “like horses, replenishing their nosebags”. So many whys on so many levels, it’s like Chris bought the early learning bumper book of vocabulary, and every episode he’s trying to get more use out of it.
What an amazing video! Love your content. I was listening to it while at work and kept laughing out loud at the editing and stuff you said. I've been a Doctor Who fan since I was a kid and the thing that's sadly put me off it in recent years is the fact that the lore has become such a mess that I can't feel invested in it anymore. This has been a problem for a long time but the Timeless Child retcon is really what tipped it over the edge for me with a huge amount of preestablished lore now making no sense and the Doctor not being from Gallifrey really invalidates some of those amazing story elements from RTD's first run in my opinion about him being the last of his species because technically he isn't the same species. Anyway, please make more vids like this one they are so well made and hilarious.
38:23 the entire scene is a callback to Journey's End. Donna becomes the Doctor Donna and saves the day, just like the old times. The whole "Binary. Binary. Binary" spell, the high stakes in which the Doctor is trapped. Entirely fan service.
Russel t Davies, who’s the show runner. Great writer. Steven Moffat who’s coming back for some episodes. Great writer. The problem is we need new great writers or the show isn’t gonna last too long, and only one episode this season has a new writer.
Absolutely. Much though I love a lot of the wilderness years kids, we have been dealing with them for _decades._ This is mainly a problem of Big Finish and the books, but it is also very true for the show.
we need a new and younger showrunner who loves the show, as much as moffat and rtd are great i think rtd particularly has lost the touch as to what made it so good. he is too overly concerned with aesthetics and social messaging and marketing himself and ncuti as new and exciting and the product is ultimately flashy but soulless ): new who has always been deeply socially and politically aware but when its all tell dont show its just dissapointingly obtuse.
@@RealCoolstriker64 I think some of those writers were good but every episode is overseen and basically rewritten by the show runner which is why the whole era of the show is an absolute mess
There's quite a few things I want to say in agreement with the points you made but I'll stick with just this one. I 100% agree that Devil's Chord should have fully committed to being a musical. I easily forgave Wild Blue Yonder not being the big 60th anniversary cameo-central extravaganza because what we got instead was a great episode. But I'm having a hard time being as forgiving of Devil's Chord for not being what I expected/wanted because what we got was a half-assed average episode with some good moments scattered throughout. When you brought up the idea that Doctor Who should change up the genre as often as possible, it made me think on just how badly I was looking forward to the "musical episode of Doctor Who" and just how let down I felt. Then again, I hate both The Goblin Song and There's Always A Twist, so it's very possible I wouldn't have been happy with the outcome anyway. No-one hates Doctor Who quite like the fans, right. I do genuinely want to enjoy the show. It's just hard at times. Especially with these recent episodes, I just have an easier time finding the problems, they stick out and keep me from enjoying the better aspects fully. I'm sure Space Babies must have had redeeming qualities. But the problems I had with it are so numerous that I couldn't look past them. I can only hope that when Russell says 73 Yards is the best thing he's ever written, that it is not hyperbole. I can only hope that he hasn't interfered too much with Rogue. I can only hope that if Boom is also largely free of his oversight, that it is the good side of the coin flip that is a Moffat penned episode. Sorry for the venting in the latter half there. Great video!
Go if they insist on doing songs please, I beg, they never let RTD write them again. While the actual composition is generic at best on both the infuriating thing is how poorly they're written. Both center on words with some of the most common suffixes but it always feels like he's reaching for rhymes "Good to meet you, you good to greet you, good to how diddly deet you" is, quite frankly, criminal. We've even had musical numbers before with Smith's era and both those were allowed to be written by Gold which is why both the Long Song and Silence is all you know are as beloved as they are. The latter is featured in one completely standalone Christmas Special, never in any way reprised or referenced after by the show itself and yet it made it's way into the sixtieth anniversary concert almost 15 years later. In a decade I doubt the these two songs will have anything close to the same impact
@@rennythespaceguy7285 Had to go look that up just to confirm. Finding out Russell himself is responsible for writing The Goblin Song, I must agree with you about keeping him well away. While I'm still not a fan of Always A Twist either, I at least found it better than The Goblin Song and now I know why. To be honest though, while the line you brought up is definitely bad, it's arguably meant to be given it's supposed to be improvised by Ruby. Still not good. But what's worse, for me, was the goblin parts. Those lyrics were atrocious. I envy anyone who had fun with that song.
@@amazingdisgrace1684 Goblin song is definitely worse. It sounds so generic and aggressively autotuned and produced while being played in universe by rinky dink trash instruments which just takes you out of the scene completely.
I think the Tesselecta (however you write it) dying worked because it wasn't about the Doctor dying, it was about the Universe and its people THINKING he died, and the consequences of that Ppl might act differently if they think the doctor is no longer in the way, etc etc
36:26 - "Near the end of the episode The Doctor is forced to give Donna back her memories in order to save the day, thinking it will kill her in the process. ...When the Doctor's in the middle of his work, a glass divider comes down separating him from the controls he needs... at this point, in my mind the next logical step would presumably be to dictate to Donna what buttons she needs to press and to be fair he does... but then he kind of just gives up and goes for the nuclear option instead. But why? It's not like he couldn't have just kept dictating to her what he needed to do. I suppose if you want to play Devil's Advocate, you could argue that since they're pressed for time dictating what to do wouldn't be fast enough, but I don't know if I buy that." Oh, hi, it's me again! I guess I'm here to play Devil's Advocate, although... I mean, I feel like framing it that way is a bit odd, and perhaps a touch unfair, like you're priming the audience to dismiss anyone who disagrees with you as just contrarian. We're in classic ticking clock territory here, there's a literal countdown ticking down the seconds until... But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, "he kind of just gives up"? I mean, they do literally say just beforehand that "We've run out of time. If there's anything else I could do...". That does seem to imply that, y'know, the Doctor's been trying things, and they know that there isn't enough time to keep going that way. And, hey, maybe someone playing Devil's Advocate to my Devil's Advocate may say "there's no way they'd be able to be sure of how much time it would take", but later on (when Donna's been activated) they're both able to predict how much time she has left to live down to the second, so, I dunno, makes sense to me that they'd know. And it makes sense to me that it would make a difference, because... Look, Verdana, you run a video analysis TH-cam channel, you're presumably a techy person. Have you ever been trying to help someone with a problem with their PC, maybe an older person who isn't tech savvy, and rather than just give you the keyboard and mouse to fix it, they demand you talk them through the process? I have. I've known the utter frustration that is saying "Now click on the 'Edit' button at the top. Right at the top. Move the mouse up. Up. Up. Keep going, all the way to the top. Up. Up. Up. Right at the top. Up. There you go, now click on it. Excellent, now... OK, why did you just hit cancel? Never mind, just go and click the picture again... The same picture from before, at the bottom... Go down... down...". So, yeah, scale that up to a Doctor-level genius trying to tell someone who is functionally a completely normal person how to disable a spaceship they're inside. "Now turn the green dial, the one on that wall, no, look over here, see where I'm pointing, that wall, it's about knee height, 3 in from the left, the... Right, that was the blue one, I said the green one, we'll need to reset that panel now..." I can totally buy that that would take too long, but taking a minute to activate the locked-away Timelord gubbins would give them enough time. Like if you could flash a torch in that tech-unsavvy person's face for a few seconds, and then they go go "ahh, I get it, so just bring up the log file, look for the error code, and... ahh, the USB connection halted, I just need to turn it off and on again! Of course!"; look me in the eyes and tell me that wouldn't be faster than an hour of "Drag it over to the left window. Just put the cursor on it, then hold the button down... no, the left button. The _left_ button. Not on the keyboard, the left mouse button. OK, you see the menu that keeps popping up? That means you're clicking the right button. The _right-hand_ button, not the _correct_ button. No, I know you're already holding the mouse in your right hand, I meant..." Plus, y'know, the moral aspect of _killing someone for the greater good_ is probably worth a minute's chat with them first. Which is almost exactly how long they take, actually. (And, while we're here: "the Doctor spends 2 full minutes moping about having to kill Donna"? Come on, it's their best mate in the universe, discussing with her that she's about to die is a pretty big stretch for the word "moping". And "2 full minutes" of moping? Nope. From saying they're out of time, until starting to read the activation phrase, is 73 seconds. I checked. It *is* 2 full minutes between them saying they're out of time and her activating, but almost half of that is actually doing the thing, so...?) Once Donna's activated, it isn't just that now she knows where the switches are... it's that *she's coming up with her own ways of subverting the launch.* So when you say "...she only has to flick, like, 3 switches to save the day", while we don't actually see how many switches she flicks, in doing so she "tripledrives the particle manifesto", "oversteps the umblical feed", "vindicates the cyberline", and "roasts the hyperfeeds", while the Doctor looks on in amazement. Then, he (free of having to shout instructions) rushes off to "maximise the stressfold links", while Donna "Channels up the booster drive", the Doctor "inculcates the plexidrones", and Donna "shatterfries the positrons". She then does some other stuff (without saying what's she's doing, but *definitely* including flicking at least 5 switches in this step alone), and then does "this", which is another ~7 switch flicks. Most of that happens with Donna off-camera, so we don't know how difficult it is... but if the Doctor thinks they couldn't talk someone through it all in the 3 mins and 50 seconds they had left when they said time was running out, I'm inclined to trust them. Of course, the real reason for this whole scene is _it's the emotional culmination of both the episode's story, and the almost decade-long story of Donna Noble._ Like, mate, come on. Stories are not just about logical people doing the most efficient thing in a given moment, you talk about that yourself. They are (and should be) about heart, and feelings, and emotions, in the characters and the viewers. That episode, and Donna's apparent death, made me give a shit about my least favourite companion. That scene isn't about if Donna will be able to flick the right switch in time, it's about the Doctor screaming "Why does it have to be this?", right before (as far as they know) sacrificing their best friend to save millions, and her going along with it to save her daughter. Maybe it didn't hit with you, and, sure, that's fine... but acting like this is some massive crime of writing against reason rather than just admit you weren't personally emotionally invested is, to be frank, some CinemaSins level bullshit. I'm sorry, I know that's harsh, but I think it's justified. (Ooh, also: as the glass partition closes the announcer voice says the "Double Dagger Drive" is installed, so presumably the Meep has to "Bisect the Manifold" because it has two engines that need to be kept seperate. That is obviously completely contrived, the VO line was probably added in post-production, and I invite the reader to think about how they would've achieved setting up this scenario where the Doctor and Donna are seperated physically and both need to do things that require Doctor-level skills and also the Doctor is close enough to reactivate Donna in a way that is less contrived and fits the episode up to that point. Bonus points if it still allows for the two to see each other full-body, so the camera can really capture their performances off each other.)
Thank you for this comment honestly. Stumbled upon this video and felt a bit insane that, as you described as "cinema sins dings" has so far just been prevalent in this video essay. Especially since it feels hyper focused on things making more logical sense at the abandonment of themes 🙄
I hope we all can agree that talking heads like Clownfish TV and Nerdrotic calling it dead for being 'woke' or whatever are disingenuous shock jocks at least in this context.
Problem is, Russel T Davies deems it to be true, the same way he’s just taking the fugitive doctor and flux as fact and referencing it as such. Honestly so much of Chibnall’s insanity could be resolved by having it be some sort of manipulation by another character, or a ruse, or disguise. It would make for a great twist, a personal backstab, and could be used to build up to another big mystery which is more in-keeping with Doctor Who lore. E.g. people saying fugitive doctor is Rani. But also that the Master could be mistaken about the timeless child, or the gallifreyans not actually dead but hiding (idk i just HATE the fact that the Master somehow singlehandedly wiped out the most powerful aliens in time and space with a few regenerating cybermen, its ridiculous, especially for this major event happening OFF SCREEN all for a lazy half-assed chibnall twist, its just taking a steaming shit on everything Davies and Moffat had been building up to storywise about the Time War and Gallifrey
@@GuineaPigEveryday nah that's fine. It's a show about time travel. Contradictions help add to that. You can have this nebulous idea that things happened and then didn't and it changes a lot. Even both happened and didn't happen at the same time. It might not make a lot of sense but that's time travel for ya.
You've summed up well the reason why Filoni's "they're all tall tales" comment is fundamentally wrong. The more often you tell your audience the continuity doesn't matter the more they're going to get the message and withdraw their investment.
Excellent video - definitely agree that the reverance around RTD's glorious return isn't quite as glamorous or as show-salvaging as everyone made it out to be. I especially love your takedown of Series 6 - The Wedding of River Song is one of my least favourite episodes of the revival
The tone of series 14 felt off to me and I’m worried that the show is going to end up in stagnation again, also space babies felt like someone thinking they had to write something stupid because it’s for kids and then the devil’s chord felt better but the villain felt like they were not a threat because they weren’t treated seriously by the tone but were by the characters, then boom was good.
To fix the tardis being a police box retcon, the way I explained it to myself was that the berried tardis copied from itself when Whitakers doctor landed in the same time period as the fugative doctor
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What’s the difference, I’m confused. And I really don’t want to spend forever going through the two versions.
I was hoping that the Doctor and Toymaker would play Scrabble and the Doctor wins by recognizing that Mavity isn't a word, I'm so mad they didn't do that
Would have taken too long, all the strange names of species is something that the rules of Scrabble did not forsee - human, animal, bird or fish is all ok, but Raxicofallapadorius?
😂
That actually would've be pretty cool ngl
I can't get over how silly beating the toymaker with a ball game is.... like I thought he's supposed to be outsmarted?
@@Kyletok Didn't they? It was a 2v1, sort of cheating.
I want a season where The Doctor just says, "I'm bored with Earth at the moment..."
I want the doctor to have an alien companion like he used too.
i want them to have planets where they work hard on the world building and culture
That would be interesting, almost an inverse of 3’s era
@@MyDestinyDearsame. Or a companion that's not from modern time
@@MyDestinyDear Having an alien companion could also potentially freshen up any adventures on Earth sice Earth would be an exotic, new planet for the companion
I know damn well Andrew Tate didn’t know Doctor who existed until he learned he could be called controversial for talking shit about it
to be fair he grew up in the UK. it'd be hard just to not hear about it, I don't agree with him tho
Dumb American here. Am I supposed to know or care who he is?
Most of these channels are like that. They are not fans and fan spaces, the ones that are genuine, are way more welcoming ñ.
I don’t know why, but I love the concept of the doctor a) having two companions from different eras in time and b) the two of them getting stuck in the tardis while the doctor mucks about and the two of them opening up about themselves. It just sounds like a really good episode in my head.
You should listen to Big Finish. Countless times of this.
Patrick Troughton has half of that with Zoe and Jamie!
I think myself and the other people you have labelled as realists, (at least the ones I know) agree with your ultimate conclusions about why the things we care about actually matter. Plot consistency and realism with in context aren't themselves the point of telling stories, but are usually critical building blocks that are needed to effectively explore themes and characters.
Another collab stream when
I didn't expect to run into you here! You are sorely missed in the EFAP sphere, but do whatever it is you need to in order to take care of yourself!
"Kick Jay!"
Have you retired or returned?
Seeing your still active made me smile, hope your doing well.
We miss you jay !
Man, now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m upset we haven’t had more interesting companions. What’s about one who actually has already met a future version of the doctor (a la river song) but holds a grudge over being left (we haven’t had a traitorous companion in ages) and even is upset the doctor doesn’t recognize them until they realize it’s an earlier doctor and slowly they come to understand things their doctor did to avoid creating paradox’s while setting them up to become a full, complete person with their pervious incarnation
That's such a good idea
Thank you for calling out how performative Russels progressivism is. It seems so forced and lacking understanding of the real issues. It’s hard to criticise because people think you’re just being anti woke, but even from a left wing perspective, he’s just wrong about most of what he says
He comes off as that thoroughly out of touch but well-meaning uncle, who, when the very rudiments of a new idea enter his awareness, makes it into an entire _thing_ with all of his clumsy, naïve, thickly privileged enthusiasm.
Agreed, its clumsy, but yk its fine i still love it
His "Cut off the T" speech, encapsulates all the problems I have with his version of representation
It’s interesting you contrast “performative progressivism” as different to “woke”, when I genuinely thought that was the definition.
@@peccantis Maybe it's only me, but I feel the "well-meaning uncle" archetype has overcome hatred and tolerates all, even if that's achieved through general apathy. By constrast, RTD and friends (but more exaggeratedly their supporters in the media) call people they disagree with names, say they're not real fans, and tell them to "f*ck off". They revel in tribalism
I feel like taking a historical white person and making them a poc is so much more damaging because it just ignores actual historical people of color just to focus on a white person. It's just kinda pointless because if anyone finds that character interesting, they'll just learn about the actual person
they didn't make Isaac Newton black. The actor playing him isn't black.
There’s also a more uncharitable interpretation you can put on the situation without a large amount of mental gymnastics.
The action of replacing historically white people with a more diverse cast implies that for people of color to be valuable historically, they have to take the place of white people. That there was little to no genuine contribution by them to be shown, so a white person had to be used instead.
It’s very sad to see this kind of representation be used (and justified!) on these far reaching sources. There is a level of care that must be put into representation, and just going “oh, I’ll make Newton diverse. That’ll do it” and then calling a day is just not it. It’s, dare I say, kind of lazy.
@bilgehan2778 The actor did a good job, it's a tiny scene.
@@friendlyotaku9525 my comment is not in regards to the actor. They did what they were asked to do and they did a very good job at it. My comment is directed at the directors and the producers (eg Russel).
I never belittled the actor themselves in my original comment. It was all directed at the direction of the writing. Although I am aware I sometimes come off a bit strong in online platforms so I’d apologize if that’s how I presented myself.
He wasn’t even black. Can’t even get the race right😆
1:03:32
The reason the accent is bad is 10000% on purpose since the Doctor won their last game by copying the Toymaker's voice
So now he does the accents and flips flops between them randomly
And also I fucking LOVE your version of the Giggle ending WAY more than the let down of the real one
I think it's also because the Toymaker is meant to be a weird racist like he was in the 60s. He does French, German, and American caricatures all in the same special.
Using the accents was in the script.
That's the reason is it?
@@PeterCamberwick most likely, yeah.
This never would have happened if Colin Baker stayed in office for 25 years
“A benevolent eldritch alien, plus bewildered sidekick, defeating evil using a combination of intelligence and whimsy” is how I like my Doctor Who thanks.
The Fitzroy club was the most interesting part of this video. I know the showrunners were all fans from the 90s, but I didn't quite realise how, well, official the clique of the writers actually was. Great video.
I love that I read this comment before I got to the point in the video. I was only an hour and three minutes in. Now I'm excited for the foreshadowing.
In regards to the Fugitive Doctor I would have made her the fourth incarnation Romana who took on the name of the Doctor as a mark of respect whom she believed to have perished in the Time War.
Damn, that would’ve been good.
If Missy’s ever brought back, that would be a really cool character progression for her. Almost cool enough to justify ruining her perfect ending
@@jacobunderwood5206technically speaking her perfect ending was double ruined because after Missy she became basically the doctor and then I guess learned that, the time lords suck again? And killed them all again
Doctor Who needs to go back to the classic system of a producer and script editor jointly running the show
I misread this as "jointly ruining the show" and had a good chuckle lol
I agree, though I also would have loved to see what five years of Doctor Who ran exclusively by Robert Holmes would look like
@@bubblegumkk8158that’s what happened during the colin baker era
@@pcb1175 Five full years.
Honestly the new season has sometimes felt like a George Lucas type situation where one person is given control or everything, and is very famous and well-known for running the show, and so sees mostly yes-men around them, and the studio giving them carte-blanche because Russel delivered them their biggest ratings back in the 2000s. But there seems to be just a very self-centred attitude to the show, where Russel just focuses on what he wants exclusively and thinking less about you know mainstream audiences or non-fans who are unfamiliar with the show. Like I understand wanting to have your vision, but this is Doctor Who, its a landmark age-old show, it shouldn’t be treated as this ego sandbox for this endless string of old nerds.
The show has always been “left wing” or “woke”. Right from its inspection, the daleks were based off the nazis (a race of pure breed, hatred filled creatures with a goal to destroy anything that looked different to them. Also the whole “exterminate” brings another level of context when you think of it from this perspective).
When Russell bought the show back in 2005, it was still maintained that left wing, socially conscious themes, but they were entwined deep within the plot. Aliens that fart in Downing Street using fear to create war? A teenager mother’s fear of acknowledgement of her child during the 1940’s. Cassandra is a take on this need to preserve tradition no matter the cost, for the state of being considered “pure”. Also, the casting back in 2005 was so socially progressive. The main character was a working class girl with a single mother and a black boyfriend. All were fleshed out, real people with their own stories.
The issue with the new era, is the need to be incredibly on the nose with their themes. It feels like Russell is screaming “look, it’s left wing. Look how progressive we are”. I miss the subtlety and how grounded them first few seasons from 2005 were.
Whatever the issue is it's sh*t now. Feels to forced and too dumbed down. Has been since Jodie. And from what I can gather no one is watching it anymore.
@@jb1426-i1d Piss off John, the adults are talking
There's a difference between a show having a left leaning writing style with stories that give moral questions for things in an interesting story and a show with performative politics and with bad writing because the focus and intent is to prioritise diversity even in situations that take away from the story like the doctor mentioning he knows how to escape hand cuffs because he had fiery sex with Harry Houdini. The new show relies on media stirring to stay relevant and attacking it's audience for not agreeing with the show's direction by instantly labelling them as racist, transphobes and homophobes. You don't gain a fanbase by ridiculing them
@@samthorne5884 clearly you're not an adult if you're purposely being in denial of the show ratings and views being at its lowest with Jodie. And somehow being half of that with Ncuti. The show is ass and the creators dug their hole by verbally assaulting their audience
@@samthorne5884the show has been diverse since its revival. Mickey as a character had great development throughout the first and second season. Captain Jack being open with his sexuality as a pansexual man. Martha taking the rein and being more assertive than the doctor himself by basically being U.N.I.T; Donna sticking to the phrase "once you go black" by having two black husbands. The entire storyline of the family of blood is so well written for Martha and how she is treated in the past.
At it's peak doctor who was making 9 million views whilst being verse diverse, progressive and still having good stories and not verbally assaulting its audience.
From 9 million views to 2 million views and the show has been diverse since 2005 you have to question. Is the fanbase actually racist homophobes or is the writing just shit
Trial of a timelord is fucking PEAK you PHILISTINE
I love it just as much as I hate it don’t worry.
@@VerdanaVideos Most Doctor Who sentence I have ever heard.
@@t.m.carter4171Doctor who fans are manifestations of ign reviews:
Cgi sucked, the climax was cringe, children cant act, the whole thing dosen't make any sense. Solid 8/10 best episode for years😊
@@VerdanaVideos me and The Giggle.
LOLz
I’ve seen comments basically saying the same thing and I agree that this video is so refreshing. The fandom often feels like it’s caught between 2 extremes in terms of politics, where some use the show’s poor execution of messaging to attack the groups it’s portraying, whereas others prioritise this messaging over the plot itself. It’s so nice to finally find a video that allows for discussion, without alienating those who respectfully agree/disagree with the order of messaging and plot. It makes me proud to be part of the fandom, and I wish there were more people in the community who treated the show with the same respect and criticism that you do. The show isn’t perfect, but it’s also not “doomed” - yes there are consistent mistakes perpetuated, but there is also like you say a boundless potential for the show. I really like your idea of the show being a celebration of its medium, and being ever changing. I know I’ve more or less paraphrased the points you’ve made in the video, but honestly it’s fantastic
Real shit
Here are the time cards.
00:00:00. Intro
6:56 chapter 1 how to criticize doctor who
27:09 chapter 2: the star Beast
50:50 chapter 3: Wild blue Yonder
1:03:08 chapter 4: The Giggle
1:25:00 chapter 5: Church on ruby road
1:41:54 chapter 6: politics and Who
2:02:57 chapter 7: the backlash
2:13:50 chapter 8 stuck in time loop
2:25:06 chapter 9 Fitzroy club
2:46:20 chapter 10 Doctor what?
2:54:53 bonus chapter space babies and devils chord
Thanks
Thanj you
Had to pause the video to leave a comment real quick applauding the Foxy Jumpscare / Saxon Master edit. Standing ovation.
That was fantastic
Donna and Rose just "letting go" of the metacrisis was the DUMBEST part of the specials. There's absolutely zero prerequisite for it. To be honest, Rose's entire purpose was to be a walking story problem with no outside character traits. What is Rose's personality? Realistically, there is none.
Honestly, this video is so refreshing. All of the criticism you’ve made is delivered in such an inoffensive yet direct and confident way, and it’s extremely clear and well thought out without blindly bashing on the show, especially regarding how you handle the more political elements which is a very tough balance to make. And of course you don’t just talk about where you want an improvement, you make an effort to not ignore the positives which worked perfectly. This also proved to me I don’t have to agree with everything in a video to enjoy it, such as the amount of music which I find quite charming in Doctor Who (although that could just be the musician in me speaking). But more importantly it reminded me of what I’d also like to see in the show, which you’d think I’d know already but is actually harder than I realised, while opening up my mind to new ideas I hadn’t thought of. Oh yeah, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously and only when it needs to?
For a while I thought I was just getting tired of all the criticism towards this show across the internet (and other franchises too) because so much of it was off-putting, overly negative to the point of being downright hateful, and often pushed itself into one corner, as much sense as that makes. But this video reminded me of how beneficial and helpful good criticism can be, and actually spins it into a positive light which is very impressive. Good research and a good mindset goes a long way! I really hope you get the attention you deserve on this platform because this was fantastic, really great work 😄
I don’t make long TH-cam comments like that very often so apologies if it reads like an essay submission. But then again I felt like I couldn’t leave this video without stating how much I enjoyed and engaged with it, and again how refreshing and well-made it was. Will definitely send it around for more to see!
Same here
Not showing us David Tenant in Jodie’s costume is a crime. I want to see that
That’s the only good decision RTD has made so far
@@MysteriousStranger42 what’s wrong with you that you think that was a good decision?
@@isthisajojoreference Nobody wants to see a man in women’s clothes. It’s Doctor Who, not a Monty Python sketch
@@MysteriousStranger42 Do I need to restate the points made in this video? Plenty of people want to see that, it makes no sense that his cloths would regenerate, and the cloths are intentionally gender neutral.
@@isthisajojoreference nah
RTD should not be able to comment on "canceling" given how many actors in his first era were Sex pests
How was he supposed to know?
@@Scroteydada It's not about if he knew, just generally when you've been so closely associated with "Cancelled" people like that it's a bad look to put in this surface level commentary at it as it makes it seem like he doesn't give a shit about the terrible things that happened on his set.
That said if we want to go down that route sure he gets a pass on Adam's actor as nothing he did was on set but John Barrowman's antics and reportedly some of Clarke's did happen on the Doctor who set, it is a failing of the showrunner if their set is unsafe. And Barrowman's antics were well known enough to have been referenced in the song the cast sung about RTD. Even if you want to defend RTD on account of his unsafe set he absolutely knew about the Barrowman stuff at the very least
@@ScroteydadaJohn Barrowman was openly flashing people on set, and is one of the reasons Christopher Eccleston never wants to work with RTD again. RTD and the other producers just ignored it
@@mrwheatthins2413 Is there a quote from Eccleston himself confirming that he knew and so did RTD?
@@Scroteydada "Is there a quote where RTD confesses to actively ignoring sexual harassment on set?" Of course not; because why would he ever admit to that? There's plenty of interviews where Eccleston talks about his issues with Russell and the other producers. A stunt that almost killed an extra, Barrowman's flashing, "There were a lot of things going on behind the scenes that the producers were just ignoring" (Paraphrasing, but he said something to that effect.) Just look up why Eccleston left DW, he's been more vocal about it in recent years.
It’s me, Wii Tank Ricochet Guy. This video is helping me get through a hard time. Thank you for your service
I agree much more with the way Capaldi frames the show as about death, rather than about change.
But it's a similar point either way. Ultimately, imo, the real problem with New Who as a show starting all the way back in 2005, is that clique, the fitzroy club. This is one group of people who are explicitly fans (the way they write the show is very much a fan perspective, see the Doctor immediately becoming a legendary war hero, the last of the time lords, as soon as the revival begins). One group of people who whilst differing from each other do have huge overlap in their personal ideas of what a show they never worked on (in it's original run) should be. One group regurgitating the same basic formula and ideas for almost 2 decades.
It needed new blood a decade ago. It needs it now more than ever. You mention that Doctor Who was for the first several decades of it's life, famous for being scary. Now that's only one part of a larger whole, but there was a general idea of what Doctor Who is back then. Being scary was part of that. But whilst people can all point out creative shifts and say "it's about change", the reality is that that generalised idea of what Doctor Who is, changed because the show was rebooted by people with a very fan perspective direction, who based their reboot on totally different things first and foremost (buffy especially) in the hopes of making a dead niche show mainstream. And then the show regurgitated itself for 2 decades gradually placing less emphasis on what Who used to be known for and placing more emphasis on what was being done successfully in 2005.
We gradually got a stale show, that managed to be stale whilst also moving further and further away from what Doctor Who was as a show/idea in it's original run, without making any real progress into new creative direction despite this. You call the fitzroy club a clique and it absolutely is, which has it's own totally separate list of issues, but in terms of why the show is where it is today, this is the biggest reason imo. It doesn't need RTD and Moffat back, it desperately needs new blood.
(I know some fans like to create huge conspiracy theories around the whole fitzroy club idea and others like to laugh off the mere suggestion that the people running this show since 2005 do form something of a closed circle even if only by considerable overlap. Whatever your opinions are though, it is true that the show has had a lot of the same faces bts since 2005 and that it's been redoing the same basic formula since 2005 with very rare exceptions)
Holy heck is it refreshing to see a video like this that isn’t just clickbait misinformation calling the show woke 😭😂
Loved this video essay. Hit the nail right on the head.
It’s clear the show is being produced to keep it going, not because there’s really any distinct passion being put in to do something fresh with it.
Honestly I think the show would benefit from losing its “significant” budget increase and invest in new talent. But the industry’s so rigged that legit probably won’t happen.
Omg someone who points out that awful scene of 12 laughing on the boat. My night has been made 😂
I never watched an episode of Dr. Who but I'll watch someone critique something they love for 3 hours anytime. Great editing and sense of humor.
literally me
literally was just in the middle of watching your doctor ranking for the seventeenth time, i am so here for this
Holy, some of the editing in this video essay is incredibly hilarious and random without even drawing that much attention to itself, its really cool seeing literally all of Who’s weird little moments being compiled
Opening TH-cam to find that Verdana has a new 3 hour Doctor Who video - Pure euphoria 🎉
2:08:11 "the fat black woman" 💀💀💀 the fact that someone unironically said that blows my mind
I mean... I agree he was probably intending to be offensive, which is bad. But doesn't it also blow your mind that a factual description of someone can be used offensively in our current society?
@@ian-flanagan no it doesn’t I just finding it jarring to see someone be so brash and racist out of nowhere. It obviously doesn’t actually blow my mind
@@SebTheNoob314 Agreed. The character has a name, the video wasn't live so any youtuber worth their salt would at least do research before commenting on that before the video was edited/uploaded
@@ian-flanagan It's the fact that describing someone just by the way they look is kind of rude. It's the equivalent of if someone called you over by saying 'oi, you' and pointing at you, it's just basic manners to treat someone like an actual individual human rather than a robot or inanimate object. It's been the same throughout most of human history, it's why historically speaking it would be offensive not to refer to someone by their full title if they were a lord or something because their status mattered so much in those societies. It's not exactly the same thing just using a person/their characters name but it goes to a similar end of being respectful y'know (except more for appreciating them as a human being).
@@CiggyMan I live in China and get called "that white guy" (or equivalents that don't translate well to English) all the time. It's quick and efficient communication. I totally agree that the YTer is attempting to be offensive, so that's wrong, but making race, weight, sex into "protected" characteristics, instead of neutral (like handedness, hair colour, height etc.), you're actually creating stronger ammunition for the people who want to be offensive.
I agree with your point about the show starting to slip into pantomime, but I am confident that like the McCoy years, Russell will notice fan reaction and tint the show much darker. Also, we do know that Russell starts most of his seasons quite light and goes to darkness quickly. I think we will be put at ease with Boom and 73 Yards. We also know at least 4 new writers are working on episodes for next season, so there is hope there. The difference is that Doctor Who is in a much different place culturally than it was in 1987, and I believe the show will survive to become something new, mainly because disney plus can't afford to let go of hosting a property like Doctor Who. There will always be growing pains, but I am sure the show will find it's way.
The issue is that they've already started filming series 2 of Ncuti's run. So Russel won't be reacting to the fan reaction until at least the 2026 series...
Call me a pessimist, but when have we ever seen people change for the better and learn from these mistakes? We see once brilliant creatives become brain-damaged buffoons, but that process seems to go in the opposite direction rarely if at all.
Russel is off his rocker IMO, but if he turned around overnight and said "we fixed everything with Dr Who" and showed evidence that such actions actually had taken place, I would be pleasantly surprised and willing to give it a chance.
@@Coconut-219 What supports your view is that Russel was this back then too, but his need to actually prove his worth by delivering brilliant performances suppressed his inner ego and arrogance that often accompanies these progressive types.
Now he’s in full pride and prejudice fueled high… he always had the brain damage but poverty (in fame and money) kept it in control, not anymore.
Boom was already great so it's you might be right.
A few things I want to clear up:
I wasn't trying to imply that the "realist" TH-camrs I discussed at the beginning don't value themes, merely that they view logical consistency as a necessary building block in order to achieve said themes.
I've been made aware that the 1st Doctor's clothes actually did regenerate with him. Never noticed that before! That being said, I still prefer the precedent that the show has established since: AKA the Doctor's clothes staying the same when they change. Just a preference though, I suppose.
Episode 3 of the new season was a BANGER (no pun intended) and everything I’ve been looking for in Doctor Who minus a different directing style.
I didn't EQ the voiceover audio meaning it's more bassy and plosive-y than usual. Retroactively I think this was a mistake and if I were to post the video again, I'd fix the audio.
All good man, great video either way.
are u gonna talk about boom?
@Verdana Just regarding your segment in 'The Fitzrory Club', RTD most definitely did know about Barrowman's "shenanigans." I've recently read RTD's book 'Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter' and in it RTD comment on Barrowman's behaviour, even comment on John maybe finding it difficult to do that nude scene in Episode 2 of Children of Earth, which in hindsight hasn't not aged too well. Another bit of information that proves RTD knew about it was the goodbye music video Tenant, Tate and Barrowman made for him. Tittled 'The Ballad of Russell & Julie' as a tongue and cheek play on comedic song by Victoria Wood 'The Ballad of Barry and Freda'. In it, at the time code 2:01, Tenant playing RTD states "Images of Johnny B getting his cock out" before Barrowman winks at the camera. All of which I think supplies enough evidence that RTD knew about Barrowman. Regarding Langley no evidence if he knew about his misconduct. With Noel Clarke he certainly doesnt give off any impression in 'The Writer's Tale' that he was trying to distance the show from Clarke and in fact tried to bring Clarke back for Children of Earth, but due to scheduling conflicts this never happened. Hope this was useful. Great video and brilliant research from yourself. Rewatching the whole video all over again straight after my first viewing!
@@jackward5208Tbf unironically that song is a banger
@@bobbyrossy-nu5ef if that was played instead of 'Doctor in Distress' the show would never have gone on hiatus in the first place
I see things like traditional villain depictions of them being disabled or disfigured as less of a “They’re evil because they’re disabled” and more of a “Their evil lead to their own disfigurement”
Verdana, you are amazing.
I am a writer and I love this show too damn much to thoroughly look at it objectively. I guess I'm kind of blinded by it's concept of infinite potential for all kinds of storytelling to really give it a good look critically. And while I've found all kinds of people who are willing to critique it, the internet has just been flooded with people complaining about the show for political clickbait.
You have been one of the first people I've found to genuinely care about the show and try to argue your objections in good faith. And I absolutely appreciate you calling out the others who've been doing this. I do not agree with a lot of your opinions but they are amazing opinions regardless of how they differ from mine. That kind of openness to share your perspective is vital to a writer and your objectivity is so much more trustworthy than previous people who tend to look at it either through shiny goggles of nostalgia or the nasty clickbait-y side of things.
I am thoroughly impressed by the efforts made in this video and, today, you gained yet another subscriber. I think you're one of the most amazing TH-camrs I've seen in years. The Internet, no the world, needs more people like you. I'm now rooting for you and think if you don't hit a million subscribers inside a year from this video; the algorithm has forsaken us. Well, more so than it usually does.
I can't wait to see what you put out next. I wish you nothing but success.
THE KING RETURNS WITH ANOTHER BANGER
Loved both your previous Who videos, super excited to see this one!
Edit: Just finished watching. it's like you opened up my brain and read out all of my thoughts on this show for 3 hours.
For The Giggle, I would have loved to see the Doctor win by choosing a cooperative game, since it would present a solid contrast to the issue of the episode - everyone thinking they're right driving massive division and strife defeated by the Doctor and the Celestial Toymaker working together to win the chosen game. In my imagined version of this, the climax would be the Doctor sacrificing his character in the game to put the Toymaker in a position to win on his turn - but the Toymaker realizing that he could tank the game with that move instead, leading to the Doctor losing - but that would lead to the Toymaker losing as well. The final taunt would be the Doctor asking the Toymaker, "Well, which is more important to you? Me losing, or you winning?" leading to the Toymaker instead choosing the move that wins the game for both the Doctor and the Toymaker - leading to the Toymaker being banished by his own hand.
I didn't DISLIKE the climax for The Giggle - but when you compare it to what it COULD have been? That was a MASSIVE missed opportunity.
24:03 All that they needed to do was make the lighthouse be the exterior of the Fugitive Doctor’s TARDIS. You wouldn’t have the ridiculous police box conundrum and logically it would make sense as an object blending into its surroundings.
that would have been perfect
This is the most comprehensive exploration of basically everything going on with Doctor Who right now and I'm really impressed. I've had most of these thoughts buzzing about in the back of my mind over the past year and it's nice to have someone lay it all out in a concise form. I would have just added the daily mail article where RTD shits on young writers and the bit in the giggle commentary where he says every doctor lived on after regenerating. Maybe my most unhinged take, but I get the feeling RTD has been unwilling to let anyone he writes die since he lost his partner.
24:53 - "...the Doctor stole a broken TARDIS from Galifrey, landed it in a London junkyard in the 1960s, it assumed the form of a police box to blend in, the Chameleon Circuit broke, and when he took off it retained that shape forever more... this of course begs the question; if the Fugitive Doctor comes before the First Doctor in the timeline, why does her Tardis look like this?"
Hello! Off-the-cuff fanwank incoming!
I can think of at least three answers to this off the top of my head. The first one is the most boring and straightforward, so I'll get it out of the way; at some point, some incarnation of the Doctor meets with the Fugitive Doctor, and gives/lends them the TARDIS to go off on their adventures; maybe they go and rescue them in the first place, starting the whole thing off. Heck, as of The Giggle, there's canonically a second TARDIS out there (and I doubt this is the first story where multiple TARDIS's have been about), for all we know Tennant's 14 genuinely retires and gives it to them. Basically: it's time travel, so just because they're an older Doctor, doesn't mean they have to have an older TARDIS. It would be far from the first time we've seen one of the Doctors interfering with or aiding a past, future, or wholy alternate version of themself. We just haven't seen this particular instance happen in the show, yet.
The second is even more dull; because of timey-wimeyness, the Fugitive Doctor quickly realised that The Doctor is already known throughout time (due to the adventures they and their later forms will have), and is known to have a TARDIS that's a blue police box, so eventually decided to go with it, and set it to always use that form. Man, I'm having trouble staying awake just typing that, I'm so sorry.
The third and final ties more into modern Who's habit of making things that happen to the Doctor "now" tie in to their timeline as a whole. Why does 12 have that face? Because it's a reminder of the family in Pompeii that they broke the rules to help. Why does Bad Wolf keep showing up to 9? Because it's Rose in the future scattering the message through time to link herself to the Doctor. Coincidence and mystery show up time after time, and often part of the twist is that cause and effect were not what you thought. This could apply here; it isn't, in fact, that the First Doctor happened to crash in the 60's, and the TARDIS happened to get it's appearance stuck. It's that _earlier_ versions of the Doctor did, and had their own adventures through time in a Police Box-shaped TARDIS. So then, "later", when the First Doctor goes and steals that TARDIS, either 1) They on some level remembered that time and form as familiar, and subconsciously guided themselves to crash in the '60s and stick the TARDIS in that shape, or 2) The TARDIS they stole was their earlier TARDIS that either was able to temporarily disguise itself or had straight-up been fixed by that point, and placed itself where it would be "stolen" by the First Doctor, and it's "stuck" in that form now because that's what was familar to it through it's time with the earlier Doctor/s. Again, hardly the first time the Doctor has been led by their subconscious, or that the TARDIS has acted on it's own intelligence out of its devotion to the Doctor.
So, no; this isn't inherently illogical, and if you resist the urge to turn off your brain and _actually think about it,_ you can see the creative possibilities that this seeming inconsistency can provide. Imagine if someone who actually knew about writing gave a go at answering this, instead of some rando in a TH-cam comment typing the first things that come to mind?
Do I believe, for a single second, that the team behind the episode had any of this in mind when they showed their classic police-box TARDIS? Absolutely not, completely ridiculous, they just knew viewers know the TARDIS looks like that and didn't want to spend precious minutes (and prop-dept time and money) explaining that, yeah, that random thing behind them is what their TARDIS looks like right now.
The crime here isn't that they gave us that unanswered question. That's absolutely fine; Doctor Who, and indeed TV shows as a whole, would be much more boring if every question the viewer might have while watching an episode was wrapped up that same episode. Mystery is good, actually, even if it's created without knowing what the answer is, even if it's created _by mistake_. The crime is that they never answered (or even acknowledged) this aspect, and presumably never will. Aren't you interested in what the actual canonical reason for how the Fugitive Doctor has a Police-box-style TARDIS before the First Doctor got it? I know I am.
Additionally, the TARDIS has claimed to like its exterior. So what's stopping it from making it its exterior. We know the TARDIS is sentient.
Well why was Hartnell confused by the Tardis still being a police box? Surely if it got stuck as a police box, we’d see that on Gallifrey?
@@Go_to_Caffi_YT Like the other Doctors, Hartnell didn't remember being the Fugitive Doctor, so wouldn't remember the TARDIS being a police box before him either. With that, he'd be confused for the same reason we are: because it doesn't immediately seem to make sense.
For why the TARDIS looked like that on Galifrey, I did cover a couple of options in my post (somehow able to work temporarily, or completely fixed then and now and choosing to keep the police box shape since; either way, looking that way then to blend in, same as the chameleon circuit is always meant to). If neither sound good to you, that's fine, but that not a sign that no explanation exists, just that someone who's a better writer than me needs to have a go: I'm not claiming this is canon or even fanon, just noting that possible explanations do exist ;)
Yeah i get your point, definitely, using another writer’s botched idea to make an interesting albeit a bit convoluted plot idea 👍@@AdrianWoodUK
Wow thats a lot of words. Too bad I'm not reading them. (No but seriously i think what you say has value but thats toooooooooooooooooooooooo many words.)
With Gaiman's second episode Moffat had no choice but to rewrite it, not because it was bad but because of the BBC's forced changes to Clara. Moffat had originally planned Victorian Clara and her two wards as being the main Clara and her duel Victorian life her main background, but at the last minute BBC execs got cold feet and insisted the companion be contemporary to be more relatable. Unfortunately, this change was so late in the day some scripts, including Gaiman's, were already written for Victorian Clara. This is why the hasty barely there new background for Clara exists in her first proper series as companion, and why the hastily shoved in children are there- rewriting Gaiman's episode without the children was too big a task, altering them to be from modern times less so. If you notice in that episode Clara's dialogue is more like the clipped precise manner of Victorian Clara too.
Regards series 6 and points in Time, you have to realise the Web of Time is a construct made by the Time Lords to create the universe in the shape and form as we know it, they made it, and the fixed points are what keep it in place. It's a double edged sword- it solved the issue they had of our universe being chaotic and unstable and unbelievably violent, but at the cost once established it has to exist forever or the whole universe comes crashing down. The Silence we are told turn a Still Point in Time into a Fixed Point- the manner by which they do is through the power of story - as we see throughout the series with legends about River and the Doctor, the Doctors death by an Impossible Astronaut (that's why it's an impossible astronaut, the story has to be both mythic and mysterious to catch on) and we get even nursery rhymes about it, doing all this creates enough belief that it forms a fixed point, but all the Silence did was create a fixed point that the Doctor would appear to be killed there and everyone would believe it. The get out for the Doctor was that all time required of him was to appear to die to fulfil the fixed point. He wasn't saved because he was in the tesselector as such, he was saved because everyone thought the tesselector was him and he was dead, the tesselector let him meet the criteria, he was both present for real on the beach and he appears to everyone else to have died - that was the fixed point.
42:45 Honestly you explaining how impactful the original departure of Donna was got me more emotional than the actual fake-out death scene of Star Beast, which just felt so obviously shock-value bs, why can’t ANY showrunner for gods sake just leave their companion alone to either die or be trapped back on Earth. I’m glad they did this with Amy & Rory, it felt satisfyingly tragic. But Bill, Clara felt like SUCH a cheat, I love Clara as a character, and her end felt fitting for her going too far into trying to be a Doctor, and then screwing up, the whole ‘lets go travel in a diner-tardis as two immortals’ felt irritating as hell. Its really amazing when the show explores the idea of a companion seeing all the wonders of the Earth and then being forced to adjust back to real life like Sarah Jane; or being forced to sacrifice something the way Rose did.
Boom and 73 yards seemed really tonally different, what did you think of them. I personally thought they were great
One was Doctor Lite which is normal for DW under RTD.
American here, who drives a decent amount of time to get to work. Found what I’m listening to this morning.
That’s a hell of a commute
@@jackking1900american commutes are a godamn eternity
@@jackking1900american commutes are a goddamn eternity
I just find the lack of subtlety in the themes and political messaging frustrating and cringe.
RTD has never been subtle but he did used to be good. World War 3 was the most obvious 9/11 analogy, Long Game is about Rupert Murdoch. There's plenty of place in Doctor Who for devastatingly unsubtle political messaging.
100%. I'm completely supportive of the messaging but holy hell is it hamfisted. "Binary binary non-binary" and "male-presenting time lord" made both myself and my wife shout as if they were jumpscares, despite my BP at our wedding just last year being non-binary. Hearing the Doctor get berated by a new character for assuming an alien's gender to be binary-conforming was also pretty jarring - it felt more like a right-wing caricature of a "triggered SJW" than a young trans person just trying to exist in a transphobic society.
@@NoNoNah306I’m all for unsubtle political messaging, but some really good, well written, innovatively filmed stories would be nice too
Why is subtlety the gold standard in writing? It feels weird that so many people bring it up like it's a given.
@Scroteydada because any idiot can bash you over the head but it takes intelligence and skill to slip an idea in without a ripple. Of course, modern audiences pride themselves on being stupid.
Regarding the Davros situation, I think it's extra confounding after watching The Devil's Chord. If Russell didn't want to perpetuate the trope of disabled characters being villains, why did he then decide it was fine to perpetuate the trope of flamboyantly queer characters being villains with the Maestro? To be clear I don't think there's any problems with Davros or the Maestro, I just think once you start laying down arbitrary rules like Russell did, you'll eventually do something that comes across as very hypocritical.
You nail the point, my good Sir. You are judged on the same arbitrary rules you lay down.
The protagonist is also queer and proud in his own skin, to be fair.
@@Nyzackon Has 15 made any "real" indication that he's queer though? Bc otherwise it's just that we know Ncuti is queer and very comfortable in his own skin and that doesn't really equate to his character in my opinion
This is gold. I have loved Doctor Who forever. As a kid in the 80s I liked the show because it was weird and scary and kind of dark. (Adric’s death was quite impactful). As an adult I like the show for the same reasons, but over the past few years it has become unwatchable for me.
I came back to see what the new Doctor was like (he’s great), but holy shit, the stories are terrible.
That’s what it always comes down to; a well told story.
I’m getting pretty sick of people blaming politics or race or gender or sexuality or anything else they can think of on why Doctor Who sucks, when the ONLY reason it sucks is because the stories are shit. A good writer can incorporate any message into a story and people will hardly even notice it’s there, but they will absorb the message. That’s the point of using stories to get a point across, you can be subtle.
This new series is terrible so far, RTD is just awful.
Strange that the cash-strapped shonky production values of the classic series were tolerated largely because of the storytelling of the show, while now they have proper Disney money the writing has gone bung.
Also I completely agree about the music in the modern series, it has ruined a lot of great scenes.
Finally, even though I was six years old when it happened, I really liked it when Adric died, he was fucking annoying.
Wait… so it’s bad if David wears women’s clothes for a few seconds but not when Sacha does a forced regeneration into the 13th doctors body?
I’m starting to think that excessive fan arguing means the IP has been “mined” for too long. You’ve got extremely varied people emotionally invested across decades, and you’d satisfy them better by launching new story concepts for them to love or ignore. We all face the explore/exploit tradeoff in every industry, but entertainment is leaning 95% into “exploit”, while fans get blamed for the predictably poor results.
Too real. I wonder how much better online discourse would be if nothing were allowed to run for more than a single season...
It desperately needs a break, preferably a lengthy one (10 years or so) and then bring in a new generation of people to bring new ideas. As this video states it’s been retreading the same ideas which worked well for 4-5 seasons because an entitled clique wants to keep running it ad nauseum
See, I would be inclined to agree, but then I think of Bethesda. The fallout/elder scrolls series have gone on forever, and the community discourse is absolutely cancerous.
And then they launched Starfield, and instead of being loved or ignored, it's been shit on for the entirety of its existence. (Maybe rightfully so) Because it's bad. Because the writers are unable to start something completely new and fresh without dragging out the old corpse of better creations past. And I think that would be the same case here.
So instead, I fear Dr. Who will go on to emulate The Age of Fire in the Dark Souls series. Just go on and on, neverending. Even if you dont fuel the flame, somebody after you will. It's gone on so long, and it's got so long to go. The flame is dying. And it's tired. The world is tired.
Edit: thank you anyone who actually read my thoughts and agree/understand where I'm coming from.
@@strisselstudios3932 Yes you're right. It's not limited to stories, but also authors, studios, maybe even genres. I guess it's simply expectation vs reality when you're emotionally invested.
And yes, never-ending stories is analogous to so many industries trying to switch to "subscription" models
The master’s incineroar side B into the foxy Jumpscare was AWESOME
Or is it up B?
Then a few days off this video we got boom and 73 yards both being departures form the show’s formula especially 73 yards!
One of the best episodes in years
So true
I feel like 73 yards was rushed. So ruby can time travel her own timeline ? Or only in that pocket universe? Then why? What is the point if she can’t remember? Felt rushed. Need the season finale to give more context to ruby
For me it's one of the best episodes of all time
@@paigelogan7600 I assume the mechanics of the magic that produced the pocket universe/timeline etc. explain many of those things, at least enough that we can handwave it into "it's the curse of breaking the fairy circle"
Yess
I WANT ALL OF THOSE EPISODE IDEAS!!! somebody send this to the showrunners ASAP. Well said, literally all of it.
thank god. Was enjoying this critique but I’m so used to TH-cam feeding me insufferable anti-wokers i have to go back and click “Not interested in this channel”, i was waiting for the anti-woke rant that never came. Subscribed.
Real those ppl are all over the internet and it’s so annoying
First, binging all if New Who when I first found out about it in 2020. Then, a five hour video about Doctor Who. Now, watching a three hour long video in one sitting. Life is good (thank you so much for the EXTREMELY thoughtful and informative video 😊)
2:29:45 Russell did know to an extent. In the book The Writer's Tale, emails sent by Russell to Benjamin Cook at the time when The Stolen Earth/Journey's End was being filmed reference John Barrowman exposing himself with Russell hoping that Elisabeth Sladen was spared the sight of it.
1:18:40 Until I heard RTD explain bigeneration, I thought it was something to do with The Toymaker breaking the rules of his game by killing his challenger before they could beat the game, hence the bigeneration both enforcing the rule that he versus a new doctor but also doesn't kill his challenger.
Honestly, I think Ill stick with my headcannon
Adding also onto 1:19:23, havent seen the new season but I do think this may be invoked later on as a reveal of some kind
another thing i'd like to comment on now that i've finished the video is, in my opinion, the time the show _did_ successfully reinvent itself, which is between 1969 and 1970. This period very much mirrors 1986 and 2023 in several ways, the show was declining in ratings, consistently being regarded as cheap while struggling to pull off the types of scripts that it needed to on such a limited budget. So the decision was made to reinvent the formula by stranding the Doctor on earth without the use of his Tardis, ousting the old production team in favor of some fresh blood, and guess what? The following two seasons are some of the best material Classic Who has to offer. They're far from perfect but Season 7 in particular is just so good overall that the weakest story in it, Ambassadors of Death (in my opinion anyway), is still around a 7/10. And this worked out great for the show, with it reaching popularity it hadn't had since Season 2, which was able to be maintained well into Tom Baker's tenure. I don't think a shakeup to the formula as radical as that in 1970 is needed necessarily, but taking cues from how that reinvention was handled would go a long way.
Finally, a modern who retrospective video that fairly criticises the episodes instead of - 2:08:08
Great video by the way 👍
Actually, Trial of a Timelord was lightyears better than these new episodes.
Also because Colin's era is actually PEAK. And yes, this is a hill I'm willing to die on.
I remember not liking the Trial season at all but Vengeance on Varos is very good.
The 6th Doctor audio dramas, Vengeance on Varos & Revelation of the Daleks are peak.
The rest of his era isn’t imo
@@pcb1175 I have quite a soft spot for the Two Doctors, though. =:o}
@@therealpbristow that’s fair, tbh the only 6th Doctor stories I flat out dislike are Twin Dilemma & Timelash.
@@pcb1175 As someone who has The Twin Dilemma as one of my favorite episodes, I respectfully disagree.
Tbh the idea about the Doctor revisting places besides Earth does sort of happen, though often in the form of revisiting time periods.
Examples would be The Long Game / Parting of the Ways where it visits the same place and directly shows his affect on the timeline, the New Earth trilogy all being set in the year 5 billion and having recurring elements between them (Cassandra, the Face of Boe, the New Earth planet), the Ood time period (Satan Pit and Planet of the Ood plus End of Time shows how PotO Ood are getting on), the recurring use of the 51st Century and the Church in Moffat's era and beyond, etc.
I largely agree about the music in funny scenes, but teh dramatic cymbal i9n "stormageddon dark lord of all" made me chuckle, and me noticing it made it a lot more funny
I got into Big Finish on a holiday recently, downloaded a couple dozen episodes before going off-grid, and while I *enjoyed* the 60th and have liked most of the new episodes quite a lot (Rogue just dropped today and I really enjoyed it, wow it sure would be sweet if those writers got to write more huh), I'm wishing now that new who had the bravery to pull off the kinds of inventive, wonderful, exiting stories, formulas and arcs Big Finish was doing in their golden age. There are so many fun, new, tonally inventive concepts just on display. A timeloop murder mystery, an entire audio framed as a radio transmission, an ACTUAL MUSICAL EPISODE (it's called the Pirates, it's on spotify) a gothic horror story where the Master looses his memory Human Nature style and the Doctor shows up on a dark and stormy night like the horseman of death to kill him.
Rob Shearman for showrunner.
This is such a well made video essay. Id have to agree with every god damn point you made. No regrets for how long I spent watching this video.
Personally, the pronoun question for the Meep didn't feel woke or anything.
This was the Doctor being thorough from a scientific point of view, since it's a new species for him, and one you can't easily assume the gender of.
I'd ask that too out of blind curiosity cus I wouldn't be able to tell.
And the thing is he wasn't even originally gonna ask it that
Finally someone agrees with me about the dang music
2:31:00 the second you started saying "manifested itself in one of Russell's scripts..." I knew where you were going instantly. I hadn't connected those dots before but MAN did that hit me harder than I wanted it to.
Before I watch the video: I watched this show religiously as a kid. I still remember my first episode, 'Daleks in Manhatten' to this day (yes I high-rolled). I watched the show religiously for years, then lost interest around the Capaldi era. I still watch and rewatch old episodes of the show. I have not changed. The show has, for the worse. I hope they save it someday.
This is one of the greatest Doctor Who video essays I've ever watched. It finally brings out so many aspects of the show which has been bothering me for years, yet nobody ever talks about them, but there is also so much new outlook which I have been missing in the community lately, since all the Whodom just became a lot of complaining. It just felt tailor-made for me, and I laughed out loud multiple times because of the accuracy of some statements. Thank you!
Brian Cranston on hotwings said that a character absolutely cannot think what they're doing is funny, or it ruins the joke. I think that extends to the music point you were making.
another banger from verdana. always look forward to what you post because regardless of what it is it's always high quality
I would say the goal of Doctor who is. Saying anyone can be the doctor, anyone can be a hero. You just need to be clever and clever doesn't come from being smart. It comes from. thinking of a unique and creative plan.
The Cervesta Crystal ads are severely underrated. Love ‘em getting referenced here
Thank you for addressing the cringe cultural war with nuance and a balanced mind, and actually reviewing the episodes on their actual objective qualities. Plus, as of "73 Yards", the new era seems to be finding its feet with a great range of tones and themes.
Keep up the great work
At 2:16:34 if you go frame by frame for David Tennant's credit, the first and last 'N' in Tennant are delayed an extra frame.
Honestly what annoys me about RTD is that he seems to completely ignore easy explanations of his wacky nonsense. He could have easily just changed a little bit of dialogue with 14 and 15 at the Bigeneration to have them both go ‘OOOOOH!’ and realise that casting salt had brought forth myths and made them into reality (which could also explain the goblins next episode). It would have worked even better if the Doctors both realised that meant all sorts of horrifying monsters could have also came through (which would add actual consequences to Bigeneration) but instead Russell’s attitude genuinely seems to be ‘Who cares about explaining it? It’s a kid’s show!’ as if that just wipes away any need to be logically consistent inside his own narrative frameworks he makes.
Thank you for covering Chibnall’s first series on paper works. In 2017 I was ready for something new from Doctor Who and what I had been told on the lead up the series 11 was that. I, from the get go really enjoyed Segun Akinola’s score, I like the look of the show, it was just the writing that let it down ultimately.
Series 13 Flux is a bit a special to me as having a serialised story in modern who was a nice change of pace, have a different look and feel in energy to usual single episodes and two parters, it’s just a shame it took a global pandemic to make that occur.
And as you said it’s a great shame the show ran back to what it knows rather than pushing out further and trying more new things.
This video is brilliant, an actual in depth look at the new episodes for what they are rather than moaning about 1 or 2 scenes that people are getting upset about. It’s a fantastic look into the culture that this show has seemingly created. Unbiased in the correct way, well done for this 👏🏻
I very much agree with your final point that the Whittaker series was a better creative direction for the show to focus on. Harkening back to the past is only a recipe for stagnation.
In general, I've always been very disappointed with how... amateurish the writing on doctor who feels. As much as I liked both Smith and Capaldi as doctors, the writing and editing made the show feel very cheap and lifeless, for me. Knowing all the behind the scenes drama only makes sense tbh.
Amazing video as always verdana
If nothing else I hope this season is sucessful because the amount of potential that Gatwa has as the doctor is so exciting and I really want to see him become one of the bests
He's awful.
Nah @@Woke_Invaders
He's amazing. Your name tells us you're just salty.
@@alicem2103 He's amazing at twerking and crying. And probably at giving old ReTarDavies special"moments", you know what I mean.
13:27 a personal favourite of mine is from War of the Sontarans, where Jodie described the Sontarans needing rest as being… “like horses, replenishing their nosebags”. So many whys on so many levels, it’s like Chris bought the early learning bumper book of vocabulary, and every episode he’s trying to get more use out of it.
1:41:09
"I was fondled"
*Uncomfortable closeup* "I love that!"
What an amazing video! Love your content. I was listening to it while at work and kept laughing out loud at the editing and stuff you said. I've been a Doctor Who fan since I was a kid and the thing that's sadly put me off it in recent years is the fact that the lore has become such a mess that I can't feel invested in it anymore. This has been a problem for a long time but the Timeless Child retcon is really what tipped it over the edge for me with a huge amount of preestablished lore now making no sense and the Doctor not being from Gallifrey really invalidates some of those amazing story elements from RTD's first run in my opinion about him being the last of his species because technically he isn't the same species. Anyway, please make more vids like this one they are so well made and hilarious.
Gotta admit, I'm starting to kinda have a crush on Millie Gibson. She's a really good actress.
38:23 the entire scene is a callback to Journey's End. Donna becomes the Doctor Donna and saves the day, just like the old times. The whole "Binary. Binary. Binary" spell, the high stakes in which the Doctor is trapped. Entirely fan service.
Russel t Davies, who’s the show runner. Great writer.
Steven Moffat who’s coming back for some episodes. Great writer.
The problem is we need new great writers or the show isn’t gonna last too long, and only one episode this season has a new writer.
Absolutely. Much though I love a lot of the wilderness years kids, we have been dealing with them for _decades._ This is mainly a problem of Big Finish and the books, but it is also very true for the show.
we need a new and younger showrunner who loves the show, as much as moffat and rtd are great i think rtd particularly has lost the touch as to what made it so good. he is too overly concerned with aesthetics and social messaging and marketing himself and ncuti as new and exciting and the product is ultimately flashy but soulless ): new who has always been deeply socially and politically aware but when its all tell dont show its just dissapointingly obtuse.
like it just feels so sadly derivative /: needs new blood
It’s a balance. We had a lot of new writers during Chibnal’s era. Basically none of those episodes were even halfway decent.
@@RealCoolstriker64 I think some of those writers were good but every episode is overseen and basically rewritten by the show runner which is why the whole era of the show is an absolute mess
There's quite a few things I want to say in agreement with the points you made but I'll stick with just this one. I 100% agree that Devil's Chord should have fully committed to being a musical. I easily forgave Wild Blue Yonder not being the big 60th anniversary cameo-central extravaganza because what we got instead was a great episode. But I'm having a hard time being as forgiving of Devil's Chord for not being what I expected/wanted because what we got was a half-assed average episode with some good moments scattered throughout. When you brought up the idea that Doctor Who should change up the genre as often as possible, it made me think on just how badly I was looking forward to the "musical episode of Doctor Who" and just how let down I felt.
Then again, I hate both The Goblin Song and There's Always A Twist, so it's very possible I wouldn't have been happy with the outcome anyway. No-one hates Doctor Who quite like the fans, right. I do genuinely want to enjoy the show. It's just hard at times. Especially with these recent episodes, I just have an easier time finding the problems, they stick out and keep me from enjoying the better aspects fully. I'm sure Space Babies must have had redeeming qualities. But the problems I had with it are so numerous that I couldn't look past them.
I can only hope that when Russell says 73 Yards is the best thing he's ever written, that it is not hyperbole. I can only hope that he hasn't interfered too much with Rogue. I can only hope that if Boom is also largely free of his oversight, that it is the good side of the coin flip that is a Moffat penned episode.
Sorry for the venting in the latter half there. Great video!
Go if they insist on doing songs please, I beg, they never let RTD write them again. While the actual composition is generic at best on both the infuriating thing is how poorly they're written. Both center on words with some of the most common suffixes but it always feels like he's reaching for rhymes "Good to meet you, you good to greet you, good to how diddly deet you" is, quite frankly, criminal.
We've even had musical numbers before with Smith's era and both those were allowed to be written by Gold which is why both the Long Song and Silence is all you know are as beloved as they are. The latter is featured in one completely standalone Christmas Special, never in any way reprised or referenced after by the show itself and yet it made it's way into the sixtieth anniversary concert almost 15 years later. In a decade I doubt the these two songs will have anything close to the same impact
@@rennythespaceguy7285 Had to go look that up just to confirm. Finding out Russell himself is responsible for writing The Goblin Song, I must agree with you about keeping him well away. While I'm still not a fan of Always A Twist either, I at least found it better than The Goblin Song and now I know why. To be honest though, while the line you brought up is definitely bad, it's arguably meant to be given it's supposed to be improvised by Ruby. Still not good. But what's worse, for me, was the goblin parts. Those lyrics were atrocious. I envy anyone who had fun with that song.
@@amazingdisgrace1684 Goblin song is definitely worse. It sounds so generic and aggressively autotuned and produced while being played in universe by rinky dink trash instruments which just takes you out of the scene completely.
I think the Tesselecta (however you write it) dying worked because it wasn't about the Doctor dying, it was about the Universe and its people THINKING he died, and the consequences of that
Ppl might act differently if they think the doctor is no longer in the way, etc etc
There needs to be a Bowlestrek warning on screen before his audio plays so we don't get jumpscared.
36:26 - "Near the end of the episode The Doctor is forced to give Donna back her memories in order to save the day, thinking it will kill her in the process. ...When the Doctor's in the middle of his work, a glass divider comes down separating him from the controls he needs... at this point, in my mind the next logical step would presumably be to dictate to Donna what buttons she needs to press and to be fair he does... but then he kind of just gives up and goes for the nuclear option instead. But why? It's not like he couldn't have just kept dictating to her what he needed to do. I suppose if you want to play Devil's Advocate, you could argue that since they're pressed for time dictating what to do wouldn't be fast enough, but I don't know if I buy that."
Oh, hi, it's me again!
I guess I'm here to play Devil's Advocate, although... I mean, I feel like framing it that way is a bit odd, and perhaps a touch unfair, like you're priming the audience to dismiss anyone who disagrees with you as just contrarian. We're in classic ticking clock territory here, there's a literal countdown ticking down the seconds until... But I'm getting ahead of myself.
First, "he kind of just gives up"? I mean, they do literally say just beforehand that "We've run out of time. If there's anything else I could do...". That does seem to imply that, y'know, the Doctor's been trying things, and they know that there isn't enough time to keep going that way. And, hey, maybe someone playing Devil's Advocate to my Devil's Advocate may say "there's no way they'd be able to be sure of how much time it would take", but later on (when Donna's been activated) they're both able to predict how much time she has left to live down to the second, so, I dunno, makes sense to me that they'd know.
And it makes sense to me that it would make a difference, because... Look, Verdana, you run a video analysis TH-cam channel, you're presumably a techy person. Have you ever been trying to help someone with a problem with their PC, maybe an older person who isn't tech savvy, and rather than just give you the keyboard and mouse to fix it, they demand you talk them through the process? I have. I've known the utter frustration that is saying "Now click on the 'Edit' button at the top. Right at the top. Move the mouse up. Up. Up. Keep going, all the way to the top. Up. Up. Up. Right at the top. Up. There you go, now click on it. Excellent, now... OK, why did you just hit cancel? Never mind, just go and click the picture again... The same picture from before, at the bottom... Go down... down...".
So, yeah, scale that up to a Doctor-level genius trying to tell someone who is functionally a completely normal person how to disable a spaceship they're inside. "Now turn the green dial, the one on that wall, no, look over here, see where I'm pointing, that wall, it's about knee height, 3 in from the left, the... Right, that was the blue one, I said the green one, we'll need to reset that panel now..." I can totally buy that that would take too long, but taking a minute to activate the locked-away Timelord gubbins would give them enough time. Like if you could flash a torch in that tech-unsavvy person's face for a few seconds, and then they go go "ahh, I get it, so just bring up the log file, look for the error code, and... ahh, the USB connection halted, I just need to turn it off and on again! Of course!"; look me in the eyes and tell me that wouldn't be faster than an hour of "Drag it over to the left window. Just put the cursor on it, then hold the button down... no, the left button. The _left_ button. Not on the keyboard, the left mouse button. OK, you see the menu that keeps popping up? That means you're clicking the right button. The _right-hand_ button, not the _correct_ button. No, I know you're already holding the mouse in your right hand, I meant..."
Plus, y'know, the moral aspect of _killing someone for the greater good_ is probably worth a minute's chat with them first. Which is almost exactly how long they take, actually. (And, while we're here: "the Doctor spends 2 full minutes moping about having to kill Donna"? Come on, it's their best mate in the universe, discussing with her that she's about to die is a pretty big stretch for the word "moping". And "2 full minutes" of moping? Nope. From saying they're out of time, until starting to read the activation phrase, is 73 seconds. I checked. It *is* 2 full minutes between them saying they're out of time and her activating, but almost half of that is actually doing the thing, so...?)
Once Donna's activated, it isn't just that now she knows where the switches are... it's that *she's coming up with her own ways of subverting the launch.* So when you say "...she only has to flick, like, 3 switches to save the day", while we don't actually see how many switches she flicks, in doing so she "tripledrives the particle manifesto", "oversteps the umblical feed", "vindicates the cyberline", and "roasts the hyperfeeds", while the Doctor looks on in amazement. Then, he (free of having to shout instructions) rushes off to "maximise the stressfold links", while Donna "Channels up the booster drive", the Doctor "inculcates the plexidrones", and Donna "shatterfries the positrons". She then does some other stuff (without saying what's she's doing, but *definitely* including flicking at least 5 switches in this step alone), and then does "this", which is another ~7 switch flicks. Most of that happens with Donna off-camera, so we don't know how difficult it is... but if the Doctor thinks they couldn't talk someone through it all in the 3 mins and 50 seconds they had left when they said time was running out, I'm inclined to trust them.
Of course, the real reason for this whole scene is _it's the emotional culmination of both the episode's story, and the almost decade-long story of Donna Noble._ Like, mate, come on. Stories are not just about logical people doing the most efficient thing in a given moment, you talk about that yourself. They are (and should be) about heart, and feelings, and emotions, in the characters and the viewers. That episode, and Donna's apparent death, made me give a shit about my least favourite companion. That scene isn't about if Donna will be able to flick the right switch in time, it's about the Doctor screaming "Why does it have to be this?", right before (as far as they know) sacrificing their best friend to save millions, and her going along with it to save her daughter. Maybe it didn't hit with you, and, sure, that's fine... but acting like this is some massive crime of writing against reason rather than just admit you weren't personally emotionally invested is, to be frank, some CinemaSins level bullshit. I'm sorry, I know that's harsh, but I think it's justified.
(Ooh, also: as the glass partition closes the announcer voice says the "Double Dagger Drive" is installed, so presumably the Meep has to "Bisect the Manifold" because it has two engines that need to be kept seperate. That is obviously completely contrived, the VO line was probably added in post-production, and I invite the reader to think about how they would've achieved setting up this scenario where the Doctor and Donna are seperated physically and both need to do things that require Doctor-level skills and also the Doctor is close enough to reactivate Donna in a way that is less contrived and fits the episode up to that point. Bonus points if it still allows for the two to see each other full-body, so the camera can really capture their performances off each other.)
Thank you for this comment honestly. Stumbled upon this video and felt a bit insane that, as you described as "cinema sins dings" has so far just been prevalent in this video essay.
Especially since it feels hyper focused on things making more logical sense at the abandonment of themes 🙄
The Doctor has always been for EVERYONE. Wild that it was at its most inclusive when it wasn’t performative.
He finally recovered from the fnaf smash or pass
How long did it take you to make the picture of the audience pogging at 46:13?
Too long
@@VerdanaVideos I appreciate it all the more, as I do the entire video :)
I hope we all can agree that talking heads like Clownfish TV and Nerdrotic calling it dead for being 'woke' or whatever are disingenuous shock jocks at least in this context.
No
Yes
And if what they are doing kills the series they will still blame the people that didn't like the forced direction and didn't watch it
The way I see the whole timeless child stuff is that the doctor believes it to be true but that doesn't mean it is true.
Problem is, Russel T Davies deems it to be true, the same way he’s just taking the fugitive doctor and flux as fact and referencing it as such. Honestly so much of Chibnall’s insanity could be resolved by having it be some sort of manipulation by another character, or a ruse, or disguise. It would make for a great twist, a personal backstab, and could be used to build up to another big mystery which is more in-keeping with Doctor Who lore. E.g. people saying fugitive doctor is Rani. But also that the Master could be mistaken about the timeless child, or the gallifreyans not actually dead but hiding (idk i just HATE the fact that the Master somehow singlehandedly wiped out the most powerful aliens in time and space with a few regenerating cybermen, its ridiculous, especially for this major event happening OFF SCREEN all for a lazy half-assed chibnall twist, its just taking a steaming shit on everything Davies and Moffat had been building up to storywise about the Time War and Gallifrey
@@GuineaPigEveryday nah that's fine. It's a show about time travel. Contradictions help add to that. You can have this nebulous idea that things happened and then didn't and it changes a lot. Even both happened and didn't happen at the same time. It might not make a lot of sense but that's time travel for ya.
You've summed up well the reason why Filoni's "they're all tall tales" comment is fundamentally wrong. The more often you tell your audience the continuity doesn't matter the more they're going to get the message and withdraw their investment.
Excellent video - definitely agree that the reverance around RTD's glorious return isn't quite as glamorous or as show-salvaging as everyone made it out to be. I especially love your takedown of Series 6 - The Wedding of River Song is one of my least favourite episodes of the revival
The tone of series 14 felt off to me and I’m worried that the show is going to end up in stagnation again, also space babies felt like someone thinking they had to write something stupid because it’s for kids and then the devil’s chord felt better but the villain felt like they were not a threat because they weren’t treated seriously by the tone but were by the characters, then boom was good.
To fix the tardis being a police box retcon, the way I explained it to myself was that the berried tardis copied from itself when Whitakers doctor landed in the same time period as the fugative doctor
Really can't wait to see what you thought of Boom & 73 Yards after all this!
He liked Boom