Triskaidekaphobia Of The Daleks

[Paul McDermott]

Ice Warriors or no, very soon we get to see Doctor Who back on the box. Or phone, or tablet, or console, or however people tune in these days. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm2PXshWC_0

New Doctor, new supporting cast, new show runner, new writers, new composer, new directors, new cameras, new lenses, pretty much new everything. Even a new time slot! 

It's hopefully also going to coincide with new viewers, who stick around to gain from the wealth of enjoyment the entirety of the canon offers, and even from us still mostly sprightly fans who've seen ranks grow over the years since RTD did what seemed both obvious and inevitable but at the same time, somewhere between unlikely and impossible. I'd guess most of us have some stuff in the 55 year run that we prefer over others, and that range and diversity (some call it unevenness) keeps it able to grow and adapt. To the extent that new viewers see the series with fresh eyes for the first time, regardless of age, and go "Aha, that's why you like it - now show me more!", I think this is natural and familiar, and all to the good. And a darn sight easier nowadays to make that happen - we needn't rely on Target books to substitute for the non-missing but infrequently repeated episodes. If you told kids today that Making Of Doctor Who was as good as it got for yonks, they'd be dumbfounded! 

I can't recall a show runner that held DW was easy to write for. It has specific challenges and interests, and particular constraints and balances. So a whole bunch of new writers is an interesting decision, clearly Chibnall is very confident that (a) they are very solid performers, and (b) they will give a suitably fresh tone and feel to the new era that begins with Jodie.

www.radiotimes.com/news/2018-07-22/doctor-who-to-feature-its-first-ever-writers-of-colour/

Jobbing actors see DW as a show they want in on, and that's just as true for writers. (Whatever happened to Andrew Smith? Mark Gatiss? RTD? Steven Moffat? Chris Chibnall?!) If they're a good fit, welcome aboard! Creatively, I think it makes perfect sense and it's another aspect of the realities of TV production we see over the decades of DW... Even the most familiar old hands don't always satisfy me, and my guess is that there'll be a similar range of personal taste matching ahead with Series 11. It's worked up until now, so whether that ratio is at the upper or lower bound of delightful surprise, I'm happy 2018 has new episodes to watch. 

Speaking of Series 11, here's another look at it:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCt6f1Ttmy4

A few more thoughts strike me. True enough, we've been told there's a focus on new monsters, and that's fine with me. Hartnell's Doctor was the only one who started off completely fresh, and if that's really what we get, there's no reason it can't work perfectly well. (Pertwee had UNIT from the previous years back to reassure fans - but maybe Jodie won't even have them. If they do return, let's mix things up and have a more fractious dynamic. Kate can be reassigned, or MIA, or something.)

And like Hartnell, Whittaker's Doctor has a tripartite team. I'm disappointed they're all present day humans from the UK, but on reflection I think I can now see a way things might work that don't overlap. Consider a tabletop RPG, wherein there are player character classes diversified into wizard, fighter, rogue, healer. Although the Doctor is easily a multi-class, if we nominally assigned her a wizard class that'd leave the other three to sort out. I'd make Yasmin a fighter, with perhaps Graham for the rogue and Ryan for the healer? Additional to that, the brief authorised hint of the first two episodes here:

www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/entries/4e15fdc7-f279-4954-99a6-2a4fcf8b4003 

suggest the Doctor is temporarily unsure of her identity. Maybe these three humans get a different sliver of her mind, which opens up a variety of Rashomon-like diversity of ways they engage with and view her, not unlike the audience? I seem to recall during Series 2, there was an indication that the TARDIS was meant to have several pilots. Perhaps when they reunite with it, it will. That would be a change from old one-switch Capaldi! The continuing absence of the TARDIS in both trailers now is surely significant. I wonder if it'll be a hybrid spin on Season 7 and 16 this year, where the Doctor and chums have to take to tracking it down, through time and space, before it gets into the wrong hands or it causes problems? 

On the matter of titles, this is interesting news:

www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2018-09-20/the-new-doctor-who-title-theme-wont-appear-in-jodie-whittakers-first-episode/

Even with an extended run time for the opener, the decision was taken to focus on story, cast, mood. Clearly, the intent is to shake up expectations and to capture hearts, minds and imaginations. 

It can't get titles like a generic space show with a quirky vehicle. It should be mysterious, even a little unsettling and ethereal. The weird watery movement and choral tones below give me some hope but fingers crossed all the same. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMGiqAYL1Mw

[Paul McDermott]

I know what it says, but what does it mean?! 

www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2018-09-22/chris-chibnall-i-dont-know-how-many-times-i-need-to-say-it-there-are-no-old-monsters-this-series/

Maybe we are going Hartnell redux, all new all the time and space. But I reckon it'll be more like Pertwee-lite, and we'll get the odd nod to the show's past though perhaps not as all-encompassing as the Season 7 integration of UNIT. 

This also is interesting, particularly the very last response Jodie gives:

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/sep/22/jodie-whittaker-q-and-a-drinking-wine-doctor-who

What is it with these Northern Doctors, everything always starts with them!  Not Season 27, not Series 11...I mean really! 

[Paul McDermott]

This is also interesting:

www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2018-09-23/chris-chibnall-doctor-who-manifesto-jodie-whittaker/

I do think Chibnall is overselling just a tad. 10 standalones? Well, I'm pretty confident that the opener and closer have a little more significance than the rest of the run.

As to the rest? Looks like my earlier guess/wish for a front of house quest in Series 11 is likely getting the nod, a search for the TARDIS. Has potential, if handled skilfully! 

Initially I was a bit hesitant about how one would gel that with a series of standalone eps. But this could work well enough, as unlike the Key To Time, the TARDIS (probably) isn't broken into segments. 

One could simply follow a trace through time and space, all the spots it has recently travelled through. If the Doctor's memory isn't fully recovered by the end of the opener, this also offers a way to slowly regain it as a narrative device, week by week. 

Then again, if the TARDIS is broken up...it'd also offer a neat new way to do a slow reveal of the new interior, in a sort of "weekly part-collect the set" kind of way, perhaps with a bit of surprise reassemble/reveal, with a bit of console thump and possibly some influence from the crew who are likely to be influencing the growth, shape, look, feel and function of the new form it takes by the end of the current series.  

I've also given a bit more thought to the titles, and have a few guesses as to what it might do differently this year. 

Remember Tom's opening narration at the start of Deadly Assassin? I'm of a mind that we'll get that this year, tacked onto the start of the titles. Probably no scrolling text, though! 

It'd give people dipping in for the first time a few weeks in all they need to know. It's not much like DW, but Quantum Leap did that for pretty much the entire five year run. 

Next year, they'll either drop it or rewrite it, as needed. In Series 7, we got a different look to the opening titles every week. So there's some slight precedent. 

I also think that unlike how Jenna was presented for laughs in the titles of Death In Heaven, I wouldn't be surprised if the supporting cast get shown in the titles every week.

As to how the new Doctor shapes up over her shakedown cruise, well I'm eager to find out. The clips we've seen are naturally of a particular range, to serve a particular purpose. Don't be afraid, come and watch!  

We've not yet seen her do some typically Doctory things like appear an unexpected goof to regular people (Capaldi's Doctor disappointed that Wally isn't hiding in all books is the sort of thing I mean) or sneaky (Troughton was good at this, but so was Matt) or old (again, Matt killed that for me) or cross (pretty much any of them!) or scared (Tennant in 42, for instance). But I'm confident they'll turn up, in due course. 

I don't know Jodie's work, but she wouldn't have been cast if she didn't have the range for all this. I am sure there's loads intentionally being held back to show us during the actual broadcast of the eps themselves. Not long now! 

I wonder if a new Northerner as the lead might entice Eccleston into a cameo at the end of this year's run? If so, it is to be hoped we don't get Jodie repeating the brevity of his stint in the role! 

Maybe the bit where we see Jodie apparently resuming her fall in space without a net as she does in the opener (brings to mind the bowl of petunias in Hitchhiker!) will be kept for the end of the run, either saved by her newly reconstituted TARDIS or perhaps she gets a lift from her old one, by a past self?  

[Paul McDermott]

Further to the matter of this year's remix of the theme tune, this raises some questions:

www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2018-09-26/the-new-doctor-who-theme-tune-includes-recordings-of-the-1963-original/

Murray Gold certainly had no qualms in sampling iconic sound effects, so Segun Akinola's treading familiar ground here. 

Of course, how it's done will determine the difference. If we're getting a bit of monaural analogue electronica morphing into the current state of the art, perhaps it's blended throughout rather than a nod at the start that shifts gears. 

Given we've only just got Series 9's soundtrack, one hopes that a release won't be too far distant! 

[Paul McDermott]

As per the usual form, here's a bit of material from the opener of this year's Series, courtesy of the Beeb:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6QRnULIjv4

Probably this will be it until launch next week? Doubt we'll get the extended look that accompanied Matt's arrival back in 2010, we're on reduced rations in this new "new money" era! 

I don't know if this year involves a search for/reconstruction of the TARDIS, but have a look at this:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05tyrjy/p06lh6pp

The series launch publicity shots frequently showcase hexagons all over, attached to nothing, perhaps suggestive of TARDIS bits and pieces all over the place that need collecting. 

It's got me wondering about this:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn%27s_hexagon

I think it'd be awfully cute if they tied this mystery into the show, in passing, Easter egg style.

Changed colour over the years from mostly blue to a golden look? Not unlike the sonic and possibly the titles since the changeover! TARDIS parts can do what they like! 

It'd chuck in a real science mystery, and in a far more satisfying way than the partial explanation of CCD being down to alien bees running off to escape Daleky planet shifting at the end of Series 4! 

[Paul McDermott]

Right, so what did we think of the Series 11 opener? 

Chances are, a lot more people have a lot more ideas about it than we've seen for quite a while now:

www.doctorwhonews.net/2018/10/the-woman-who-fell-to-earth-overnight.html

Hard to call that anything other than a very positive sign for the show and a pretty encouraging start for the new team. 

So what if there was a train wreck to kick off the new Doctor? It was seen by more viewers than anything in the last decade! 

The differences and similarities in style and intent seem pretty clear. From what I can discern, I get the sense Jodie will be playing a more accessible Doctor more in the 10th/11th mould.

This is perfectly sensible. New viewers and a new era should get a Doctor that's a bit more accessible! 

Like the 9th, she turns up unannounced and in the proverbial nick of time. And like the 11th, she seems to still like sirens and lights on in any emergency vehicle she's travelling in! 

The rather grisly body horror of this week's nasty brought to mind the events of Deep Breath, and the luckless though well intentioned Rahul recalled Clive from 2005's Rose. 

The Stenza might be disposable villains but I rather think we'll meet up with them again. The Doctor knows they've victims that can be saved, and she needs to get to the bottom of how and by whom they received permission to hunt on Earth. 

Superficially they offer some similarity to the Kazon of Star Trek: Voyager, but I think Chibs will be disinclined to make them as tedious. 

I'm pleased with the look and sound of the episode, and the new cast strike me as appealing and full of potential. 

The humans are more like regular people, and it’s nice to see that it’s not the Doctor’s presence making them decent ordinary folks. They already are, and this makes more sense of the fondness she has for Earth. They rise above their own pretty meaningful but commonplace challenges regardless of the Doctor being there, they simply get an opportunity to use their inherent potential in a new way when she turns up, and this inspires them to be more than they were the day before. All to the good! 

That Sheffield folks are unaware of the numerous planetary incursions in recent years alone is a curious thing. At least in the characters of Donna and Amy, there were comedic or dramatic reasons for taking that position with new supporting cast. Since last year, when Bill didn’t know what a Dalek was, it seems we’ve gone full circle. Are the new team meant to reflect non-viewers? 

Unlike the last few crew members, Yaz not turning up for work every day could be very serious. Soon enough, I expect we’ll see that addressed.

The Doctor didn’t revive Grace with a jolt of regeneration energy. That’s cool and interesting. Was it a result of learning from the consequences of Ashildr? Or did the fall from space take a heavy toll on her ability to regenerate? 

Once the new folks really get a handle on what being a Time Lady means, I wonder if we’ll get some friction. Fine, you can’t go back in time and save my wife/grandmother. But why didn’t you give her some of your regeneration ability? Perhaps we’re seeing a hint at the maturation of the Doctor’s perspective, or a reconnect with what was once apparently understood, that people you like die all the time. Jodie talking about her lost family brought to mind Victoria talking to the Doctor in Tomb. Yet fast forward a bit and things have changed a bit! Matt’s Doctor found it very difficult to even put up with River getting a broken wrist, and Capaldi’s took denial to a whole new level when Clara took a black bird to the chest. Perhaps issues of mortality will take on a new perspective now, and if that's so, I'd say that's a positive. 

High vis vests are the new psychic paper!  By which I mean, they look like they’re doing what they used to do, which is not need a silly gimmicky prop to deal with something simple that never used to be a problem before it was declared essential. 

Leela clearly is a figure from a different era, though her toughness, bravery, integrity and humour are timeless. Janis thorns would probably still work, despite the understandable admonition against knives.

Where's this year's run headed? Beats me, but I'm pondering a few things:

Where's UNIT, and why've they not got a freecall number? My guess is that this will be indicative of a wider issue that probably is at the root of the "permission granted" claim by Tzim-Sha, that "improbably" global cooperation has become fragmented and things that are needed simply aren't getting done so the predictable consequences of "divide and rule" is a global threat from within and without. Whether that's a politician (a sort of anti-Harriet Jones) or a corporate titan like Tobias Vaughan, somebody took the bait or perhaps has a scheme to paint the planet's protector (the Doctor) as the magnet of such menaces for their own ends, a la the old school Torchwood. 

How long before we get the TARDIS back? Will it be a few more episodes away, or in the pretitles next week? That the 13th Doctor can improvise high tech lash-ups like her predecessors yet still have the odd technical fault is as it should be. That makes me wonder whether her tracking down the TARDIS's energy signature is an unwitting road to further problems. Particularly if it looks identical to other earlier versions of her Ship, all the way back, possibly to before she originally swiped it. The TARDIS itself can remember future and past, so it won't have any problem, and the Doctor might find it just works a little better, along with (as usual) looking a bit different. Perhaps she'll only swipe a few parts for her later iteration of it when she catches up to it in Series 11, and maybe that's why it's later an abandoned old junker Hartnell runs off in, and it doesn't work right. But in the meanwhile she'd have the original owner to deal with, and a heck of a paradox to resolve! 

The crystalline nature of the new sonic brings to mind crystallography, and that makes me think it’d be nice to pop in on Rosalind Franklin. The tech partly used in the construction that the Doctor apparently doesn’t fully understand suggests the possibility of new risks inherent in the device, perhaps. 

Maybe it won’t happen, but I’d be fine with the question of how the Doctor escaped from her perilous planetary plummeting predicament at the end of last year being kept on the back burner, even like a certain decorative vegetable from the 80s, until she leaves in a few years. Pull a Master: I escaped!  Maybe the twist is she gets an assist from her immediate successor, which due to the narrative conventions of such things, she promptly forgets and thus cannot recount to us.

If the backend titles are indicative, it looks like we’re getting a sort of colourful abstract mix of the old Pertwee/Baker style. Not yet sure how much I like the theme remix, I need to hear a little more of it. But the music throughout the opener was perfectly placed and like the episode itself, an interesting beginning full of potential. 

All up, I thought it was miles ahead of similar resets. Nary a giant gastropod nor Tetrap in sight! 

For a chance to reconnect and build a new audience atop the old, I think it’s done very well. Part of that comes from not doing the obvious stuff. No labouring the point about previously being a Time Lord from Gallifrey, here’s my bigger in than out box, etc. That frees up minutes for other stuff, and keeps us guessing about what is and isn’t coming next. It might confound possible viewers, who think they know what DW looks like, and keep them tuning in. I'm pretty much a seasoned viewer, and I'm unsure where things are going. And that's okay - it's why we wrap presents with opaque paper! 

[Paul McDermott]

Something else I noticed that might be significant is Ryan's apparent use of Polaroid photography, seen in the background of his YouTube video talking about his grandmother. 

The recent BAFTA-winning teen oriented game series Life is Strange had a character equally enthused by such retro media that could also rewind time, to avoid small upsets, prevent a death and resolve a mystery. 

Might this perhaps play into Ryan later getting a choice to undo Grace's fate, somehow? As in the Series 1 episode Father's Day, such choices don't come cheaply - and would likely see the Doctor's alien authority clash with such impulses. 

[Paul McDermott]

And here's the trailer for next week's The Ghost Monument:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qipReJAYenc

Alien world looks very well realised.

Given we're now going to be two new species without a language barrier, I get the feeling the Masque explanation (Time Lord gift I allow you to share) has come back into vogue. 

[Paul McDermott]

Aussie viewers hearing Jodie's difficulty with the villain's name may recall this bloke:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiATDMHU7gc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsIWSBGqMa4

Does Demtel have a home office 5000 galaxies away? The Stenza have a lot to answer for!