Dr. Who

[BroccoliBrain]

Yeah, that's the end of The Hand of Fear: The Doctor gets summoned to Gallifrey and Sarah Jane can't come because the Time Lords are racist cunts or something, so he drops her off in 'South Croydon'. Only after the Tardis dematerialises does Sarah realise he fucked the coordinates as usual, but she has a laugh to herself about it.

That's... pretty shit. Oh well, she's Sarah Jane, she can get home on her own just fine. That's probably what he thought.

Also I can't believe she was in her sixties by the 2000's, she looked really good for her age. Her haircut is honestly pretty timeless.

 

[TheImportantFart]

I take it this scene does not compare well with Peri's bikini scene in Planet of Fire?

To say the least.

(Saying that, Langford looked pretty.well put together in Dancing on Ice, which she did at age fifty.)

I actually think Bonnie Langford looks better now than she did when she was younger. She's aged ridiculously well.

I remember hearing a story that Noel Coward went to see a play she was in when she was a child actor which featured a live horse. The horse did a shit on the stage and Noel Coward later remarked "If they had shoved the child's head up the horse's arse, they would have solved two problems at once."

 

[TheImportantFart]

Apologies for the double post, but The Brain of Morbius is done.

We have another authorship controversy, the third one is as many stories I've looked at. The episode's credited to "Robin Bland", but Terrance Dicks wrote the original script. The overall story was very similar, but rather than the scientist Solon, a faulty robot was putting Morbius back together. Robert Holmes rewrote the script to remove the robot and Dicks threw a hissy fit because he thought it didn't make any sense that Solon would know how to build a better body for Morbius (he does kind of have a point here, but at the same time it feels like splitting hairs or being difficult for the sake being difficult). Dicks asked Holmes to devise a "bland pseudonym for the story", hence where the name Robin Bland came from. It's an excellent piece of trolling on Holmes's part.

Grave of the kitbashes:



This episode’s grisly as fuck. Not even five minutes in and we’ve already had a beheading where we see the decapitated head and body. Get fucked Mary Whitehouse.

The Doctor gets out an umbrella but doesn’t offer it to Sarah? Git.

Oh yuck, now we see the decapitated head being experimented on. This is some serious body horror for a family show.

Solon’s manservant is called Condo?

“The silent gas dirigibles of the Hoothi.”
That one line spawned most of the plot for the novel Love and War. In fact, as will be discussed later, the Virgin New Adventures owes most of its backstory to this episode.

2 Girls 1 Cup:



I’m going to try and get all the bad head jokes out of the way now:
Solon wants to get a head.
Solon wants the Doctor to give him head.
The Doctor’s got a good head on his shoulders.
The Doctor’s going to head off Solon’s plans.
Alright, I’ll stop.

The planet they’re on is called:

Solon’s an absinthe drinker. Figures:



I like how the Doctor looks like an absolute chad at the moment when Maren remarks how he thinks he’s safe in Solon’s castle:



Solon: “I always knew one day I’d have a guest with a head for such a fine vintage.”
Dammit Solon, I was trying to get all the head jokes out of the way earlier.

Oh dear, the special effects for the door swinging open, the chandelier falling down and the sheet being blown off the clay head are hilariously hokey.

Remember when I was talking about The Mind of Evil and I commented on the bad blocking in one scene where I said an actor’s face was obscured by a bunch of wires? Something similar happens here where Solon’s hidden behind the absinthe bottle, but he randomly reaches out and moves it out of the way for no reason in the context of the episode. If you look at Philip Madoc’s face while he does it, you can see him glance at the camera as if to say: “You done fucked up props department. Don’t get in the way of my performance.”

The Doctor’s a lightweight. One glass of absinthe and he’s out. I know it’s potent stuff, but still.

Clever girl Sarah. Pretending to be knocked out by the absinthe so she can run around freely when no-one’s there.

“Condo clogged the toilet, and all I have to clear it is the world’s smallest plunger.”:



Solon may be the greatest neurosurgeon in the galaxy, but he just missed Sarah’s obvious hiding place. It’s even more egregious because he looked behind him and still didn’t see her:



Solon: “I can see that you chicken brain biological disaster.”
Adding that to my list of insults.

Solon: “That drug. Did you put it all into the wine?”
I like the implication that Condo’s been trying the merchandise.

Solon’s just described the Sisterhood of Karn as a “squalid brood of harpies” and Maren as an “accursed hag” and a “palsied harridan”. I’d love to see him in a rap battle.

The Sisterhood’s weapons of choice are foam Bionicle swords from Legoland. How threatening:



The Doctor: “How did you get her here by the way?”
Ohica: “The power of the Sisterhood”
TESTIFY SISTAH!

Kiss the ring:



Sarah’s doing a great job this episode. First she fooled Solon into thinking she was drugged and now she’s snuck into the Sisterhood’s sanctum in disguise to free the Doctor.

Solon’s face upon seeing the Doctor sitting at his dining table again is pure “Well this is awkward”:



Another “What are you doing here?” That montage was right. It does crop up a lot.

Huh. Was Morbius a prototype for Lady Cassandra?:



How did Condo beat the Doctor to the Sisterhood with the letter? He must be the greatest postman in the galaxy.

Solon just got his ass kicked by a blind girl who managed to lock him in his own lab. I say again, he may be the greatest neurosurgeon in the galaxy, but he’s a fucking moron.

Karn just isn’t as spooky in the daytime:



The Doctor just told everyone to stand back. Is he going to light one of his farts to get the flame started up again?

Oh, the Doctor cleared some soot out and the flame started up again. So essentially he’s been reduced to an intergalactic chimney sweep.

Morbius: “You have the girl, use her head!”
Solon: “The female braincase is too small!”
You sexist pig Solon.

Lol, Condo looks like Vee:



Solon is now enlisting the help of a blind girl after shooting his assistant. He really isn’t too bright is he?

The cliffhangers in this story have a nice thematic link. The first one was with the body of Morbius, the second one was with the brain, and the third is with the two combined.

Morbius has just smashed a mirror. I’m sure he won’t have any bad luck in the near future.

That Sister just sat there and let Morbius grab her and strangle her to death. Run for it you idiot!

The Doctor actually expected Solon to disconnect Morbius’s brain if left to his own devices? For a story about a brain, everyone sure has caught a dose of stupid.

The Doctor just gassed Solon to death. Brutal.

They really are leaning on the Frankenstein imagery for this one:



The Doctor just commented that the reason Morbius survived his gas attack is because his lungs have a methane filter. Must. Resist. Second... fart joke.

Solon has some Tribbles in his lab:



It's impossible to discuss this episode without talking about the infamous mind bending sequence. If you don't know anything about this, the Doctor and Morbius have a mind battle where they end up visualising each other's past regenerations. We see Morbius's body before the Frankenstein one, then the Doctors all the way back to William Hartnell and then eight more faces after that. Philip Hinchcliffe (who appeared as one of the faces along with other production staff when they couldn't get any actors to do it) admitted that he was trying to imply there were Doctors before Hartnell, but later stories ignored this scene altogether and it was still taken as given that Hartnell was the first Doctor. Classic Who's final script editor Andrew Cartmell eventually decided to try and tackle the problem this sequence presented head-on with what was known as "The Cartmell Masterplan" The show was cancelled before it could be fully implemented, but it was folded into the storyline of the Virgin New Adventures. I won't go into the Cartmell Masterplan too much here. If you don't what it entailed, it's not too hard to research. All I'll say is, this story provided the jumping off point for a lot of the expanded Time Lord mythos seen in the New Adventures.

Another thing I have to say about this sequence is that people who defend "The Timeless Children" often point to it as a precedent for introducing a major change to the show's continuity. To those people I say no, this is not remotely comparable to what happened in "The Timeless Children". Setting aside that "The Timeless Children" is an appalling episode even discounting that abominable "twist", the twist itself is a vital part of the episode. It's front and centre, and integral to what can laughingly be called the story. The mind bending sequence was a tantalising little easter egg that lasted little more than a minute and was never mentioned again. You could completely ignore it if you wanted to, and the explanation for it was in sources that were ambiguously canon (and the explanation was ambiguous in and of itself) meaning you could disregard it if you so chose. You can't do that with "The Timeless Children" because as I said, the backstory mangling is central to that episode. We're stuck with it unless someone decides to do a major retcon.

Ugh, back to this story. I need to clear my palate after talking about "The Timeless Children".

Poor old Morbius. Gets his body back for all of 10 minutes before being knocked to his doom Emperor Palpatine style. His manner of death’s even funnier when you consider the guy playing him is called Stuart Fell (who was a prolific stuntman - talk about nominative determinism):



“You have chosen... wisely.”:



This is a great story, and an archetypal Hinchcliffe one at that. A classically told horror/mad scientist story that works very well as a Doctor Who riff on Frankenstein. The only thing I'm slightly sad about is I couldn't fit in a Dad's Army joke, but Philip Madoc was one of the most prolific (if not the most prolific) Classic Who guest actors ever, so I'm sure there'll be other chances. If I ever get round to reviewing The Krotons, I'll definitely be referencing one of his other comedy roles...

I've done stories for the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Doctor so far. Next time I'll try and kill two (or one depending on how you look at it) birds with one stone and tackle my favourite anniversary/multi-Doctor story. I of course mean The Five Doctors.

 

[Buster O'Keefe]

Apologies for the double post, but The Brain of Morbius is done.

We have another authorship controversy, the third one is as many stories I've looked at. The episode's credited to "Robin Bland", but Terrance Dicks wrote the original script. The overall story was very similar, but rather than the scientist Solon, a faulty robot was putting Morbius back together. Robert Holmes rewrote the script to remove the robot and Dicks threw a hissy fit because he thought it didn't make any sense that Solon would know how to build a better body for Morbius (he does kind of have a point here, but at the same time it feels like splitting hairs or being difficult for the sake being difficult). Dicks asked Holmes to devise a "bland pseudonym for the story", hence where the name Robin Bland came from. It's an excellent piece of trolling on Holmes's part.

Grave of the kitbashes:

View attachment 1653941

This episode’s grisly as fuck. Not even five minutes in and we’ve already had a beheading where we see the decapitated head and body. Get fucked Mary Whitehouse.

The Doctor gets out an umbrella but doesn’t offer it to Sarah? Git.

Oh yuck, now we see the decapitated head being experimented on. This is some serious body horror for a family show.

Solon’s manservant is called Condo?

“The silent gas dirigibles of the Hoothi.”
That one line spawned most of the plot for the novel Love and War. In fact, as will be discussed later, the Virgin New Adventures owes most of its backstory to this episode.

2 Girls 1 Cup:

View attachment 1653942View attachment 1653944

I’m going to try and get all the bad head jokes out of the way now:
Solon wants to get a head.
Solon wants the Doctor to give him head.
The Doctor’s got a good head on his shoulders.
The Doctor’s going to head off Solon’s plans.
Alright, I’ll stop.

The planet they’re on is called:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ajsNJtnUb7c
Solon’s an absinthe drinker. Figures:

View attachment 1653945

I like how the Doctor looks like an absolute chad at the moment when Maren remarks how he thinks he’s safe in Solon’s castle:

View attachment 1653946

Solon: “I always knew one day I’d have a guest with a head for such a fine vintage.”
Dammit Solon, I was trying to get all the head jokes out of the way earlier.

Oh dear, the special effects for the door swinging open, the chandelier falling down and the sheet being blown off the clay head are hilariously hokey.

Remember when I was talking about The Mind of Evil and I commented on the bad blocking in one scene where I said an actor’s face was obscured by a bunch of wires? Something similar happens here where Solon’s hidden behind the absinthe bottle, but he randomly reaches out and moves it out of the way for no reason in the context of the episode. If you look at Philip Madoc’s face while he does it, you can see him glance at the camera as if to say: “You done fucked up props department. Don’t get in the way of my performance.”

The Doctor’s a lightweight. One glass of absinthe and he’s out. I know it’s potent stuff, but still.

Clever girl Sarah. Pretending to be knocked out by the absinthe so she can run around freely when no-one’s there.

“Condo clogged the toilet, and all I have to clear it is the world’s smallest plunger.”:

View attachment 1653947

Solon may be the greatest neurosurgeon in the galaxy, but he just missed Sarah’s obvious hiding place. It’s even more egregious because he looked behind him and still didn’t see her:

View attachment 1653948

Solon: “I can see that you chicken brain biological disaster.”
Adding that to my list of insults.

Solon: “That drug. Did you put it all into the wine?”
I like the implication that Condo’s been trying the merchandise.

Solon’s just described the Sisterhood of Karn as a “squalid brood of harpies” and Maren as an “accursed hag” and a “palsied harridan”. I’d love to see him in a rap battle.

The Sisterhood’s weapons of choice are foam Bionicle swords from Legoland. How threatening:

View attachment 1653949

The Doctor: “How did you get her here by the way?”
Ohica: “The power of the Sisterhood”
TESTIFY SISTAH!

Kiss the ring:

View attachment 1653950

Sarah’s doing a great job this episode. First she fooled Solon into thinking she was drugged and now she’s snuck into the Sisterhood’s sanctum in disguise to free the Doctor.

Solon’s face upon seeing the Doctor sitting at his dining table again is pure “Well this is awkward”:

View attachment 1653951

Another “What are you doing here?” That montage was right. It does crop up a lot.

Huh. Was Morbius a prototype for Lady Cassandra?:

View attachment 1653953

How did Condo beat the Doctor to the Sisterhood with the letter? He must be the greatest postman in the galaxy.

Solon just got his ass kicked by a blind girl who managed to lock him in his own lab. I say again, he may be the greatest neurosurgeon in the galaxy, but he’s a fucking moron.

Karn just isn’t as spooky in the daytime:

View attachment 1653954

The Doctor just told everyone to stand back. Is he going to light one of his farts to get the flame started up again?

Oh, the Doctor cleared some soot out and the flame started up again. So essentially he’s been reduced to an intergalactic chimney sweep.

Morbius: “You have the girl, use her head!”
Solon: “The female braincase is too small!”
You sexist pig Solon.

Lol, Condo looks like Vee:

View attachment 1653955View attachment 1653956

Solon is now enlisting the help of a blind girl after shooting his assistant. He really isn’t too bright is he?

The cliffhangers in this story have a nice thematic link. The first one was with the body of Morbius, the second one was with the brain, and the third is with the two combined.

Morbius has just smashed a mirror. I’m sure he won’t have any bad luck in the near future.

That Sister just sat there and let Morbius grab her and strangle her to death. Run for it you idiot!

The Doctor actually expected Solon to disconnect Morbius’s brain if left to his own devices? For a story about a brain, everyone sure has caught a dose of stupid.

The Doctor just gassed Solon to death. Brutal.

They really are leaning on the Frankenstein imagery for this one:

View attachment 1653957

The Doctor just commented that the reason Morbius survived his gas attack is because his lungs have a methane filter. Must. Resist. Second... fart joke.

Solon has some Tribbles in his lab:

View attachment 1653958

It's impossible to discuss this episode without talking about the infamous mind bending sequence. If you don't know anything about this, the Doctor and Morbius have a mind battle where they end up visualising each other's past regenerations. We see Morbius's body before the Frankenstein one, then the Doctors all the way back to William Hartnell and then eight more faces after that. Philip Hinchcliffe (who appeared as one of the faces along with other production staff when they couldn't get any actors to do it) admitted that he was trying to imply there were Doctors before Hartnell, but later stories ignored this scene altogether and it was still taken as given that Hartnell was the first Doctor. Classic Who's final script editor Andrew Cartmell eventually decided to try and tackle the problem this sequence presented head-on with what was known as "The Cartmell Masterplan" The show was cancelled before it could be fully implemented, but it was folded into the storyline of the Virgin New Adventures. I won't go into the Cartmell Masterplan too much here. If you don't what it entailed, it's not too hard to research. All I'll say is, this story provided the jumping off point for a lot of the expanded Time Lord mythos seen in the New Adventures.

Another thing I have to say about this sequence is that people who defend "The Timeless Children" often point to it as a precedent for introducing a major change to the show's continuity. To those people I say no, this is not remotely comparable to what happened in "The Timeless Children". Setting aside that "The Timeless Children" is an appalling episode even discounting that abominable "twist", the twist itself is a vital part of the episode. It's front and centre, and integral to what can laughingly be called the story. The mind bending sequence was a tantalising little easter egg that lasted little more than a minute and was never mentioned again. You could completely ignore it if you wanted to, and the explanation for it was in sources that were ambiguously canon (and the explanation was ambiguous in and of itself) meaning you could disregard it if you so chose. You can't do that with "The Timeless Children" because as I said, the backstory mangling is central to that episode. We're stuck with it unless someone decides to do a major retcon.

Ugh, back to this story. I need to clear my palate after talking about "The Timeless Children".

Poor old Morbius. Gets his body back for all of 10 minutes before being knocked to his doom Emperor Palpatine style. His manner of death’s even funnier when you consider the guy playing him is called Stuart Fell (who was a prolific stuntman - talk about nominative determinism):

View attachment 1653961

“You have chosen... wisely.”:

View attachment 1653962

This is a great story, and an archetypal Hinchcliffe one at that. A classically told horror/mad scientist story that works very well as a Doctor Who riff on Frankenstein. The only thing I'm slightly sad about is I couldn't fit in a Dad's Army joke, but Philip Madoc was one of the most prolific (if not the most prolific) Classic Who guest actors ever, so I'm sure there'll be other chances. If I ever get round to reviewing The Krotons, I'll definitely be referencing one of his other comedy roles...

I've done stories for the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Doctor so far. Next time I'll try and kill two (or one depending on how you look at it) birds with one stone and tackle my favourite anniversary/multi-Doctor story. I of course mean The Five Doctors.

I watched this again very recently, and was struck by just how funny it was: everyone was having a blast, and Madoc was hamming it up like a...big ham or something. I'd love to see Simon Callow let loose on a Doctor Who set. The humour probably greased the wheels for the grimdark content to slip through.

Edit: forgot Callow played Dickens in the modern run, he was wasted in that role.

 

[Return of the Freaker]

Looks like the TARDIS being a police box is too problematic now

Doctor Who Will No Longer Use A Police Box For The TARDIS​

By DREW DIETSCH | 6 HOURS AGO

The TARDIS has been one of the most defining symbols of the Doctor Who franchise for over half a century. It has become so iconic that it has actually eclipsed its original inspiration – a 1960s London police box – and become far more associated with Doctor Who than the police. However, if a new rumor is to be believed, that police box exterior could be getting put out to pasture.

YouTuber Noel at The Tardis Zone Official YouTube Channel has detailed a number of rumors and speculations about the newest series of Doctor Who, and among those is a rumor that the TARDIS’ famous police box visage is “under threat due to how the police are perceived with the public.” Exactly how and where YouTuber Noel acquired this information is a bit unclear. Not to mention that The Tardis Zone Official YouTube Channel describes itself as “A Doctor Who fan who is against the new direction of the show.” So it is worth taking this rumor with more than a few grains of salt.


It is worth purely speculating if the TARDIS could undergo a radical change in appearance due to intensified animosity from social outlooks towards police officers and police institutions. The last few years have been fraught with major protests against the systemic issues regarding law enforcement and it is remotely possible that the creative forces behind Doctor Who have begun to consider how that might reflect upon the series’ most recognizable symbol.

However, as stated in the introduction to the article, the TARDIS is so synonymous with Doctor Who that its police imagery has actually been swallowed up by its direct association with a fictional character. Despite the fact that the police box design was created by the Metropolitan Police, the BBC has actually registered that specific police box design as a trademark for Doctor Who. It is very likely that a majority of people have seen the TARDIS without ever seeing a real police box.

This is all to say that it is questionable how many people actually equate the TARDIS as a symbol of police organizations rather than its own standalone significance for the Doctor Who intellectual property. In a way, it is kind of magical that Doctor Who has been able to take an image and completely transform its meaning into something completely different. That is the power of iconography at work.

To be fair, it is not like the TARDIS couldn’t eventually undergo a change to its outer appearance. The in-universe explanation for it looking like a police box has to do with a “chameleon circuit” that changes the appearance of the ship to adapt to whatever world it is landing on. However, the chameleon circuit on this model has malfunctioned so that it always looks like a police box. Could the writers decide to reactivate the chameleon circuit and have the TARDIS change every time we see it land in a new world? Maybe!

But, if we were putting money on this, we would go all-in with the TARDIS staying just the way it is. It has become so deeply tied to Doctor Who‘s identity – not to mention a cornerstone of merchandising – that removing it would only lead to its inevitable reestablishment down the line. Perhaps the words and symbols on the box that directly tie it to the police will be removed, but we are fairly certain that the TARDIS will remain exactly as you have always remembered it.

 

[TheImportantFart]

Looks like the TARDIS being a police box is too problematic now

Doctor Who Will No Longer Use A Police Box For The TARDIS​

By DREW DIETSCH | 6 HOURS AGO

The TARDIS has been one of the most defining symbols of the Doctor Who franchise for over half a century. It has become so iconic that it has actually eclipsed its original inspiration – a 1960s London police box – and become far more associated with Doctor Who than the police. However, if a new rumor is to be believed, that police box exterior could be getting put out to pasture.

YouTuber Noel at The Tardis Zone Official YouTube Channel has detailed a number of rumors and speculations about the newest series of Doctor Who, and among those is a rumor that the TARDIS’ famous police box visage is “under threat due to how the police are perceived with the public.” Exactly how and where YouTuber Noel acquired this information is a bit unclear. Not to mention that The Tardis Zone Official YouTube Channel describes itself as “A Doctor Who fan who is against the new direction of the show.” So it is worth taking this rumor with more than a few grains of salt.


It is worth purely speculating if the TARDIS could undergo a radical change in appearance due to intensified animosity from social outlooks towards police officers and police institutions. The last few years have been fraught with major protests against the systemic issues regarding law enforcement and it is remotely possible that the creative forces behind Doctor Who have begun to consider how that might reflect upon the series’ most recognizable symbol.

However, as stated in the introduction to the article, the TARDIS is so synonymous with Doctor Who that its police imagery has actually been swallowed up by its direct association with a fictional character. Despite the fact that the police box design was created by the Metropolitan Police, the BBC has actually registered that specific police box design as a trademark for Doctor Who. It is very likely that a majority of people have seen the TARDIS without ever seeing a real police box.

This is all to say that it is questionable how many people actually equate the TARDIS as a symbol of police organizations rather than its own standalone significance for the Doctor Who intellectual property. In a way, it is kind of magical that Doctor Who has been able to take an image and completely transform its meaning into something completely different. That is the power of iconography at work.

To be fair, it is not like the TARDIS couldn’t eventually undergo a change to its outer appearance. The in-universe explanation for it looking like a police box has to do with a “chameleon circuit” that changes the appearance of the ship to adapt to whatever world it is landing on. However, the chameleon circuit on this model has malfunctioned so that it always looks like a police box. Could the writers decide to reactivate the chameleon circuit and have the TARDIS change every time we see it land in a new world? Maybe!

But, if we were putting money on this, we would go all-in with the TARDIS staying just the way it is. It has become so deeply tied to Doctor Who‘s identity – not to mention a cornerstone of merchandising – that removing it would only lead to its inevitable reestablishment down the line. Perhaps the words and symbols on the box that directly tie it to the police will be removed, but we are fairly certain that the TARDIS will remain exactly as you have always remembered it.

It's a rumour from a small-time YouTuber who's probably looking to generate clicks. It sounds like they've just dug up that Polygon article from 2017 about the TARDIS being problematic. It must be a very slow news day indeed. The author of this article even acknowledges they don't want the TARDIS to change.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't put it past the current production team to pull something like this, but I'll wait until we see an official statement from the BBC before I get my pitchfork out. Criticise them for what they've actually done rather than something they might, maybe, potentially do.

 

[Return of the Freaker]

We've already changed the Doctor's origins, why not the Daleks?

Doctor Who Holiday Special 2020 Is A New Origin Story For The Daleks​

Doctor Who producer Matt Strevens hints the Daleks will get a new origin story to go with their new look in the 2020 Holiday Special.

BY DANIEL GILLESPIE2 DAYS AGO

Doctor Who producer Matt Strevens hints the Daleks will get a new origin story to go with their new look in the 2020 Holiday Special. The 2020 Holiday Special, titled "Revolution of the Daleks," will reveal a new design for the Daleks, based on the look of the Reconnaissance Dalek introduced in the 2019 episode "Resolution." The episode will pick up where season 12 left off, with the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) still trapped in an eternal prison following the events of the 2019 finale.

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The Holiday Special precedes a shortened season 13, which has begun filming its eight-episode run in the UK with COVID-19 safety protocols in place. The season is Whittaker's third in the role, matching both previous actors to play the Doctor - Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi - who also spent three seasons as the iconic character. There is no confirmation of whether Whittaker will step down after season 13, but the assumption, based on season 12's poor ratings, is that both she and showrunner Chris Chibnall will depart in favor of fresh talent. For now, though, Whittaker is still the Doctor, and faces the Daleks in the Holiday Special.

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RELATED: Jodie Whittaker's Doctor Who Era Doesn't Understand Doctor Who

Now, in an interview Chibnall and Strevens conducted with British magazine RadioTimes, the pair hint the Daleks are getting a new origin story to go along with their new look. Chibnall says the new design harks back to the Reconnaissance Dalek, hinting it's a "plot point." Strevens then adds that the Reconnaissance Dalek "gives birth" to the new Daleks "in a sense." Neither Chibnall or Strevens is drawn further, but their guarded words hint at a new origin for these Daleks. You can see their full comments below:

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Chibnall: It harks back to the Reconnaissance Dalek in “Resolution.” It’s almost like that might be a plot point…
Strevens: We wanted the audience to see the origins in the Reconnaissance Dalek. Because in a sense, that Dalek gives birth to this next iteration that we see in “Revolution of the Daleks."

The revelation of the new origin for the Daleks, which makes the title of the episode seem like it has multiple meanings, could anger fans of the series who have already been disappointed by the direction it's taken under the stewardship of Chibnall. The Daleks are easily the most iconic Doctor Who villain and, while they've gone through a number of physical changes throughout the years, their origins have remained largely the same. However, Strevens makes it clear these specific Daleks get a different origin, and not necessarily all Daleks.

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Fans will have to wait and see when the Holiday Special, which brings back Captain Jack Harkness, airs this holiday season. Hopefully the new origins are more a case of an interesting new direction for Doctor Who and not a case of desperately trying to reinvent the show's most recognizable villains for attention. If it is the latter, viewership figures for the shortened season 13 are likely to be even lower than they were for season 12, putting the long-term future of the show in serious doubt.

So yeah, chinballs and co insist it's only a certain set of daleks? But I don't trust them. Also I guess Jack Harkness is back?

 

[TheImportantFart]

New trailer dropped as well:

Looks like the Doc may be out of it for most of this story and it'll be the humans and Jack having to fend for themselves. I'm... okay with this.

Mr Big from "Arachnids in the UK" is back for some reason. I can't even remember what his fate was after that episode, because the only thing I can remember from it is the spiders dancing to rap music. It also looks like they have a Theresa May stand-in which has aged horribly and the plot comes across as a rip-off (albeit probably unintentionally) of "Blood of the Daleks".

I still haven't watched the last Special, "Resolution" and I still can't really be arsed to. If I watch this when it comes out, it will almost certainly get TheImportantFart treatment. Still need to do The Five Doctors in fact. Sorry folks, the last month or so's been manic.

 

[Mr. 0]

I still haven't watched the last Special, "Resolution" and I still can't really be arsed to. If I watch this when it comes out, it will almost certainly get TheImportantFart treatment. Still need to do The Five Doctors in fact. Sorry folks, the last month or so's been manic.

take your time, we need you alive and sane

 

[Buster O'Keefe]

Strevens then adds that the Reconnaissance Dalek "gives birth" to the new Daleks "in a sense."

Daleks confirmed as space-terfs.

 

[starborn427614]

I'll probably give the special a watch if for no other reason than morbid curiosity. It's really funny that the fallout isn't about the Doctor's revelation about being THE ORIGIN OF ALL TIME LORDS though and instead has her completely submissive and needing three men (plus Yaz) to save her. Chibs, are you trying to tell the audience something here?

 

[TheImportantFart]

It's really funny that the fallout isn't about the Doctor's revelation about being THE ORIGIN OF ALL TIME LORDS though and instead has her completely submissive and needing three men (plus Yaz) to save her. Chibs, are you trying to tell the audience something here?

I'm calling it now - being the Timeless Child will have no impact on the Doctor's character whatsoever. They'll just reference it as a thing that happened every now and then to twist the knife and maybe have a few other Timeless Child Doctors show up periodically despite the fact that for the past thousand years, no other Doctor's ever run into one (I shouldn't have said that. Incoming retcon in 3, 2, 1...).

I said when it first happened that Chibnall was trying to have his cake and eat it. He instituted the biggest lore shakeup the show's ever seen, but either can't or won't create anything dramatically interesting from it (I'm not saying I'd like it any better if he did, but some effort would maybe lessen the blow). It's sheer arrogance and/or a fuck you to think you can introduce a massive change to the mythos and just have the Doctor Mary Sue off into the sunset like nothing happened.

 

[Juan's Sombrero]

Fan made.

 

[Maurice Caine]

We've already changed the Doctor's origins, why not the Daleks?

Doctor Who Holiday Special 2020 Is A New Origin Story For The Daleks​

Doctor Who producer Matt Strevens hints the Daleks will get a new origin story to go with their new look in the 2020 Holiday Special.

BY DANIEL GILLESPIE2 DAYS AGO

View attachment 1756194View attachment 1756195

Doctor Who producer Matt Strevens hints the Daleks will get a new origin story to go with their new look in the 2020 Holiday Special. The 2020 Holiday Special, titled "Revolution of the Daleks," will reveal a new design for the Daleks, based on the look of the Reconnaissance Dalek introduced in the 2019 episode "Resolution." The episode will pick up where season 12 left off, with the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) still trapped in an eternal prison following the events of the 2019 finale.

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The Holiday Special precedes a shortened season 13, which has begun filming its eight-episode run in the UK with COVID-19 safety protocols in place. The season is Whittaker's third in the role, matching both previous actors to play the Doctor - Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi - who also spent three seasons as the iconic character. There is no confirmation of whether Whittaker will step down after season 13, but the assumption, based on season 12's poor ratings, is that both she and showrunner Chris Chibnall will depart in favor of fresh talent. For now, though, Whittaker is still the Doctor, and faces the Daleks in the Holiday Special.

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RELATED: Jodie Whittaker's Doctor Who Era Doesn't Understand Doctor Who

Now, in an interview Chibnall and Strevens conducted with British magazine RadioTimes, the pair hint the Daleks are getting a new origin story to go along with their new look. Chibnall says the new design harks back to the Reconnaissance Dalek, hinting it's a "plot point." Strevens then adds that the Reconnaissance Dalek "gives birth" to the new Daleks "in a sense." Neither Chibnall or Strevens is drawn further, but their guarded words hint at a new origin for these Daleks. You can see their full comments below:

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The revelation of the new origin for the Daleks, which makes the title of the episode seem like it has multiple meanings, could anger fans of the series who have already been disappointed by the direction it's taken under the stewardship of Chibnall. The Daleks are easily the most iconic Doctor Who villain and, while they've gone through a number of physical changes throughout the years, their origins have remained largely the same. However, Strevens makes it clear these specific Daleks get a different origin, and not necessarily all Daleks.

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Fans will have to wait and see when the Holiday Special, which brings back Captain Jack Harkness, airs this holiday season. Hopefully the new origins are more a case of an interesting new direction for Doctor Who and not a case of desperately trying to reinvent the show's most recognizable villains for attention. If it is the latter, viewership figures for the shortened season 13 are likely to be even lower than they were for season 12, putting the long-term future of the show in serious doubt.

So yeah, chinballs and co insist it's only a certain set of daleks? But I don't trust them. Also I guess Jack Harkness is back?

Why? Are they gonna remake Genesis of the Daleks?

 

[keyboredsm4shthe2nd]

Looks like the TARDIS being a police box is too problematic now

Doctor Who Will No Longer Use A Police Box For The TARDIS​

By DREW DIETSCH | 6 HOURS AGO

The TARDIS has been one of the most defining symbols of the Doctor Who franchise for over half a century. It has become so iconic that it has actually eclipsed its original inspiration – a 1960s London police box – and become far more associated with Doctor Who than the police. However, if a new rumor is to be believed, that police box exterior could be getting put out to pasture.

YouTuber Noel at The Tardis Zone Official YouTube Channel has detailed a number of rumors and speculations about the newest series of Doctor Who, and among those is a rumor that the TARDIS’ famous police box visage is “under threat due to how the police are perceived with the public.” Exactly how and where YouTuber Noel acquired this information is a bit unclear. Not to mention that The Tardis Zone Official YouTube Channel describes itself as “A Doctor Who fan who is against the new direction of the show.” So it is worth taking this rumor with more than a few grains of salt.


It is worth purely speculating if the TARDIS could undergo a radical change in appearance due to intensified animosity from social outlooks towards police officers and police institutions. The last few years have been fraught with major protests against the systemic issues regarding law enforcement and it is remotely possible that the creative forces behind Doctor Who have begun to consider how that might reflect upon the series’ most recognizable symbol.

However, as stated in the introduction to the article, the TARDIS is so synonymous with Doctor Who that its police imagery has actually been swallowed up by its direct association with a fictional character. Despite the fact that the police box design was created by the Metropolitan Police, the BBC has actually registered that specific police box design as a trademark for Doctor Who. It is very likely that a majority of people have seen the TARDIS without ever seeing a real police box.

This is all to say that it is questionable how many people actually equate the TARDIS as a symbol of police organizations rather than its own standalone significance for the Doctor Who intellectual property. In a way, it is kind of magical that Doctor Who has been able to take an image and completely transform its meaning into something completely different. That is the power of iconography at work.

To be fair, it is not like the TARDIS couldn’t eventually undergo a change to its outer appearance. The in-universe explanation for it looking like a police box has to do with a “chameleon circuit” that changes the appearance of the ship to adapt to whatever world it is landing on. However, the chameleon circuit on this model has malfunctioned so that it always looks like a police box. Could the writers decide to reactivate the chameleon circuit and have the TARDIS change every time we see it land in a new world? Maybe!

But, if we were putting money on this, we would go all-in with the TARDIS staying just the way it is. It has become so deeply tied to Doctor Who‘s identity – not to mention a cornerstone of merchandising – that removing it would only lead to its inevitable reestablishment down the line. Perhaps the words and symbols on the box that directly tie it to the police will be removed, but we are fairly certain that the TARDIS will remain exactly as you have always remembered it.

"How to Absolutely Murder Your Franchise in One Easy Step"

 

[Puddleduck]

I guess there could be plenty of "origin stories" for the Daleks, whenever there's a new batch made.

 

[TheImportantFart]

I guess there could be plenty of "origin stories" for the Daleks, whenever there's a new batch made.

Genesis of the Daleks wasn't even the first Dalek origin story. In the comics, they were built by a guy called Yarvelling, and it was subsequently hinted in the novel War of the Daleks that Davros nicked the design of the Daleks from other scientists.

 

[Buster O'Keefe]

Genesis of the Daleks wasn't even the first Dalek origin story. In the comics, they were built by a guy called Yarvelling, and it was subsequently hinted in the novel War of the Daleks that Davros nicked the design of the Daleks from other scientists.

The first Dalek story (and second ever Doctor Who story) had an origin for those retards. I'm convinced Davros was Terry Nation's Mary Sue.

 

[TheImportantFart]

Sorry folks, I know I've been promising The Five Doctors for ages (and believe me, I'd much rather have watched that than this), but you may be pleased to hear that I watched "Revolution of the Daleks" so you don't have to.

@UnKillFill asked me to do a NuWho review, well how's this for a NuWho review? Here we go, into the nightmare. No spoiler warning, because no-one gives a shit:

I should say before I start that I went back and finally watched "Resolution" for the first time in preparation for this. I wrote up a review of that too, so this is actually a special double edition. Here is my review of "Resolution":

Spoiler

Sorry for the fake out - that was a bit of a dick move.

Now onto the main event:

Oh shit, I forgot specials are longer than average episodes. This is gonna be a long 71 minutes.

This is an actual screenshot of how the episode starts. Ha bloody ha:



10 seconds in and we’ve already had a rip-off“homage” to both Star Wars and the MCU. I can practically smell the desperation:



Oh wait, this is a recap. Stop fucking reminding me “Resolution” was a thing. I just finished washing the stink off my memory.

The fact this roadside café worker just drugged someone and stole his van is doing nothing to assuage the perception that roadside cafes are always, without fail, a front for something illicit.

A Trump stand-in and a Theresa May stand-in. With everything that’s happened in the last few months, this episode’s already horribly out of date with its lame political references.

It’s good this show has a modicum of self-awareness. Even the rioters think the new Dalek looks stupid.

I do like the Dalek spraying gas. Fart jokes aside, it reminds me of the deodorant spray of death from the Peter Cushing films.

Any sane Doctor Who fan’s reaction to “The Timeless Children”:



The death machine is carbon neutral. Neoliberalism in a nutshell.

The BBC counts how many viewers they’ve lost:



I-IIIIIIIIIIIII-I’m hooked on a feelin’:



Yay! Old(ish) monsters. It’s lazy nostalgia bait, but I’ll take what I can get.

Oh no, it’s the Galaxy Quest alien from the Tunguska something episode or whatever it was called. Go back to the old(ish) monsters please.

The Doctor’s reading Harry Potter to herself. I look forward to more reeing about how the BBC is propping up TERFs.

So the Theresa May stand-in’s going to be another cartoonishly evil Mr Burns-style villain. Yawn.

The Trump stand-in just boasted about how he increased his security, but three people who look a lot like thugs just approached him and would’ve been able to beat the crap out of him in the time it took security to get there.

The TARDIS “fam” just threatened a very powerful man (who knows they’re trouble) and were allowed to wander off Scott free?

Thank fuck, a genuinely likeable character’s showed up. Only took sixteen minutes, and he’s only likeable because he was created when people who kind of knew what they were doing were running the show.

Jack just implied that he once again managed to smuggle something in by shoving it up his arse. If I was told that and that I had to touch it to escape, I don’t think I’d respond with a gleeful smile.

So the scientist guy found genetic traces of an obviously hostile alien, and his first reaction was to clone it? The Trump stand-in, who’s being built up (very hamfistedly) as the villain, is actually the voice of reason when he asks: “What were you thinking?”

The obviously hostile alien has now attacked scientist guy. Whodda thunk it?

Yaz just shoved the Doctor. She’s gone up in my estimations.

They’re creating stuff with tentacles in Japan? Not racist at all there.

Very foolish to bring up “The Parting of the Ways” Chinballs. There are more than enough excuses to tune out and watch something else without reminding us when life wasn’t so horrid.

Corrupted Dalek DNA? Yeah, this is a rip-off of Blood of the Daleks.

Credit where it’s due, this is a good pontification from Jack on what it’s like to travel with the Doctor. Shame it’s been done before in better episodes.

Oh no, Ryan just asked what happened on Gallifrey. You don’t wanna go there Ryan. You don’t wanna go there.

Ryan is basically acting as Chinballs’s stand-in here, begging the audience to accept his stupid retcon. No. Fuck you.

Jack (referring to the TARDIS materialisation noise): “I have missed that sound.”
Yes, it’s not like you’ve already heard it three times this episode.

Was Yaz always this clever/perceptive? Her character’s so bland, I honestly can’t remember.

Wait, I thought the new Daleks were supposed to replace the police. Why are police still hanging around?

Theresa May stand-in’s gone. That was a waste of Harriet Walter. A Shakespearean actor reduced to this dross.

Thank goodness. Actual Time War Daleks - never thought I’d be so happy to see them.

I’m glad that even the other characters have realised how utterly retarded the Doctor’s plan to get rid of the new Daleks by summoning the old Daleks is.

The Doctor said the Daleks couldn’t know she was here, but just materialised the TARDIS in full view of a whole squad of them.

Now the Doctor’s allowed the Trump stand-in to wander off and give top secret information to the Daleks. All that time in jail obviously rotted her brain (more I mean).

These SAS Daleks are obviously descended from the Daleks from Resurrection of the Daleks which were incapable of looking behind them.

I’m always a bit disappointed in these modern Dalek episodes when the Dalek in charge is just a standard Dalek grunt with a deeper voice. How hard is it to paint one of them black?

Surprise, surprise the Doctor’s plan to get rid of the new Daleks by summoning the old Daleks has backfired. Who could have foreseen that?

The Doctor dumped a TARDIS on an alien planet in the last episode, and is now setting this one to effectively self-destruct to destroy the Daleks. As has been emphasised many times, TARDISes are living, sentient beings. What a bitch.

Jack literally phones in his farewell speech. It may be he’ll pop up again, but since there’s no guarantee/indication of that yet, I’m officially declaring this lame.

Ryan’s reason for leaving is a very weak premise. He says his mates need him, but there’s no real indication of that in the episode. There’s no more motivation for him leaving than there is for Yaz, and the episode actually establishes she was hit harder by the Doctor being absent for ten months.

Goodbye Ryan and Graham. I will miss you both, if only because we’re now stuck with Yaz’s undiluted blandness.

Oh yeah, Ryan had dyspraxia. That was... a thing.

So Ryan and Graham are talking about fighting aliens themselves. I smell a Big Finish spin-off. Maybe in their hands these two will come into their own.



Yay?

My expectations were low and they were met. The best thing I can say about this episode is that it didn't completely fuck up the Daleks, which is what I feared would happen. I'm starting to think that might have been Chinballs's game plan - now he's destroyed the show's backstory, every subsequent episode will look better simply by virtue of the fact viewers will say: "Well at least it didn't destroy the last 57 years." Jack's always a welcome presence, but he's completely unnecessary to the story. You could take him out of the episode and it wouldn't make a bit of difference. There's still no indication as to how he knew what would happen with the last Cyberman. In fact, that plot point gets completely handwaved away. Anyway, we're free from Chinballs's pen for the time being, at least until later this year when the show comes back. It's heavily hinted the Timeless Child plotline will be explored more in the future, which is good because they're not pretending like it had no impact, but is bad because... do I even need to explain?

Til next time. Make my day Chinballs. Make my fucking day:

 

[Smug Chuckler]

lol jodie has just quit the show, not like the show will be saved or anything.