powerbelly said:

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The Doctor is always pretty dismissive of The Church in most episodes.

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I wouldn't go so far as to say that at all. Has he had a little comment here or there about the "militarization" of the Catholic Church or radicalness (that's a word right?) of religion, sure. But not attacking faith in general. That was out of the norm and when you couple that with other comments that have been made the first few episodes and RTD's comments about trying to make "the right" as uncomfortable as possible with this season, it becomes pretty apparent what they are doing.


And regarding it being a British show so conservative vs liberal is different, that is a fair point. However, this is the first year that they are being bank rolled (for the most part) by Disney. They are pushing the marketing for Dr Who big time to an American audience and I believe the greatness of the show is being, maybe not overshadowed, but at least shadowed by the directed comments being made to the right side of the political spectrum.

So far this season they have made comments about Abortion, Trans issue, and now faith; all of which has been from the left perspective. All of these comments have been throwaway, and the episodes gained nothing with having them in there.

Again, I'm a fan of the show and went in with very low expectations due RTD's comments about what he wanted this season of the show to accomplish but I have been pleasantly surprised. The storytelling is so so so much better than anything we got with Jodie's doctor. In my opinion, if they just clean up these few comments this would be on par with some of Tennant's early seasons.

Another really good episode. And no social commentary that I could tell. Still much better writing then anything we got in Whittaker's run

So I got caught up on the 3 latest episodes.

Dot and Bubble (6/10):
So this was another classic Dr. Who monster of the week (MOTW) type episode. It made me feel sorry for Ricky September. Overall it was a social commentary on people living in their own bubble of Social Media and technology being oblivious to what's going on in the real world. One of the main takeaways was acknowledgement of the older woman who has been in every episode so far as throwaway characters.

Until weirdly they made it about race (or income disparity maybe?) in the final 3 minutes of the show. Again, just a shoehorned commentary that made no sense and was never an issue until literally the final 3 minutes as they were wrapping the episode up. Out of place and unnecessary.

Again, poor Ricky September.

Rogue (4/10):
I don't even know where to begin with this one. Reminiscent of the Family of Blood episode from Tennant's first season, yet set in 1800's England. Bridgerton era was mentioned a lot by Ruby.

Sticking just with the story itself outside of the obvious, it wasn't necessarily bad. But kinda of disjointedly told MOTW episode. The whole plot was a side show for the obvious thing Russell Davies wanted out of the episode, which was the first romantic kiss by the Doctor and another dude. It's very obvious he's making the Doctor to be gay in this new season. Despite in the past keeping away from the Doctor having any love affairs of the like. Outside of Rose, they've stayed away from directly addressing any romanticism. And, unfortunately, that was the point of the episode.

The whole episode was sexual tension between The Doctor and Rogue (a bounty hunter).

The Legend of Ruby Sunday (7/10):
Just unsure about the flow of this episode. It went from 0-to-60 real quick. What I mean by that is throughout the season there was hardly any updates on Ruby's origin or the uniqueness of her in general. They had the snow thing, but that was it. In here they dived right into it and pretty much solved it in 35 minutes. It was also super convenient that Ruby had a CCTV video of the night in question to help with the Time Window thingy.

The villain revealed of "The One Who Waits" being Sutekh was pretty cool and a nice nod back to the 4th Doctor. It's one of the few serials I've seen of Classic Who and remember liking it. So I'm curious to see the next episode and if he remains moving forward or if the Doctor can banish him again. First time he's been on the show since 1975 and it's pretty cool that they got the same voice actor to be back and voice Sutekh again.

From a woke perspective, the only thing in this one was Rose (Donna's transgender Son/Daughter) being back for no reason at all again. And that's what annoys me most about all of this, none of this woke stuff is necessary in the slightest to the plot. Really any plot of any episode has it been necessary.

Season finale is this Friday. Overall I'm just getting annoyed by all the unnecessary woke stuff in every single episode except for one I believe. 73 yards which has been the best episode by far this season.

I just feel like I have to watch it thinking they'll surely drop all of it. And it has been hit with record low viewing numbers for a NuWho Doctor's first season. It's frustrating because with Jodie's run there wasn't much woke stuff but the writing and story was so bad that there was no hope.

With this, there's so much potential there because the acting is pretty dang good and the story-telling is night and day from Jodie's run. (And it wasn't on Jodie, it was all Chibnall's doing for how poor her run was.) So there's hope that if they'll pull their head out of their ass and just go back to good necessary story-telling it could launch another great run of Dr. Who stories.

I'm hoping that's the case.

https://deadline.com/2024/07/doctor-who-analysis-disney-deal-ncuti-gatwa-russell-t-davies-bbc-1236008287/

Wow, it ain't looking good for Doctor Who and Disney. The ratings and critical response, coupled with the "too woke" label is creating a firestorm of Disney potentially backing out entirely.

They've apparently left the finale open to Ncuti leaving at the end of year 2 already and introducing a new doctor. That would be wild since we're a year away from the next season's finale. I find it hard to believe as they usually announce the departure and have a new one lined up about a year in advance to where everyone knows what is going on.

It's a shame because the writing and story-telling is there, but the constant shoving of woke and anti-conservative quips and messages in every episode was annoying. Just give me good Doctor Who dammit!

One thing I don't see in that article is how many US paid subscribers Disney+ has compared to BBC America.

Without seeing data, it struck me as odd to move a flagship BBC property to Disney+, where it wouldn't stand out and didn't really fit in with their core subscriber motives. In other words, kind of taking a flagship property and trying to fit it into more of a niche.

And I guess this part of the Deadline article kind of hints at that:

Quote:

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Those lucky enough to attend May's Disney's upfronts at the North Javits Center were treated to clips, teases and appearances from some of the world's biggest stars.
In the spotlight from the Bob Iger-led Mouse House were hits from the Disney stable including The Acolyte, Welcome to Wrexham, Abbott Elementary and a wealth of ESPN sports shows. The combined budget must have been astronomical.
But almost completely absent from the upfront festivities was Doctor Who, the iconic British sci-fi series that Disney+ now co-produces with the BBC following what was undoubtedly one of the biggest global TV show deals of the past decade. Doctor Who was handed a minor bit of real estate at the North Javits, but its lack of front-and-center placement may spin a yarn about the series' position in the Disney priority log nearly three years on from the deal being struck.

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Some quick oogling suggests that BBC America is still available to more paid US subscribers than Disney+, and any positive news I find about Disney+ US subscriptions includes numbers from other bundles.

Christopher Ecclestone's 9th doctor iteration lasted a single season before David Tennant came on to do the tenth iteration. I think Ecclestone's reason for leaving/not wanting to returning was being type cast and/or not getting along with the show's leadership. I enjoyed the show when David Tennant and Matt Smith were the doctors. Peter Capaldi's version was good but I think I fell off watching the show when Jenna Coleman left. Never saw Jodi Whittaker's run or this new one.

jabberwalkie09 said:

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Christopher Ecclestone's 9th doctor iteration lasted a single season before David Tennant came on to do the tenth iteration. I think Ecclestone's reason for leaving/not wanting to returning was being type cast and/or not getting along with the show's leadership. I enjoyed the show when David Tennant and Matt Smith were the doctors. Peter Capaldi's version was good but I think I fell off watching the show when Jenna Coleman left. Never saw Jodi Whittaker's run or this new one.

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That's fair, I think they announced that mid-season or just before the season started so there is precedent for a late new Doctor announcement.

Like you, I really liked Tennant and Smith's run and somewhat enjoyed Capaldi. But the quality went stale and down hill like you said when Clara left. I believe they just ran out of interesting material cause of how well it had been done under RTD's first run and Moffat's run.

I kept watching though up until the Timeless Child debacle in Jodi's run but didn't watch her last season. I was excited about RTD getting back in charge of Who and heard great things about Ncuti. My hopes were high, but was let down once again.

The stories are somewhat better than even Capaldi's but the anti-conservative messages in all but 1 episode and Ncuti's version of the Doctor leaves a lot to be desired.

With Ncuti garnering a lot of attention in the industry, I could see him using that excuse to make a smooth exit as opposed to people pointing to the fact that production money is drying up and the ratings being piss poor. I did not expect worse viewing numbers than Whittaker's seasons. Especially with the excitement of a new doctor always brings to the first season.

Christmas Special was actually really good

Christmas Special was actually really good

Christmas Special was actually really good