If you don't know what I'm taking about you must have spent the last year on another planet.
Whether you agree or not with the gender choice of the new Doctor it's certainly a hot topic for fans of the genre.
Heated debates have ensued following the announcement that Jodie Whittaker would take the star role in the new series. Some of it not very pleasant with fans firmly for the gender change angrily accusing other fans, who have simply found it difficult to accept the change of misogyny. Even former Doctor's Colin Baker and Peter Davison clashed over it, with Davison saying that it was' a loss of a role model for boys' and Baker refuting this, saying, ' they've (the fans) had 50 years of having a role model , so you're talking rubbish'.
Jodie, herself appears to have embraced the role of ambassador for the series, promoting it at various events, here and the all important American market, and generally winning over dissenters with her appealing personality.
Personally, I'm not taking sides. My favourite Doctors are Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, and I can't see that changing anytime soon. I've always considered that the rebooted series isn't really aimed at my age group anymore anyway, although I do admit to watching it, and occasionally enjoying it (The Girl in the Fireplace and Blink stand out for me). As to a female Doctor, why not, I don't think Jodie will do a bad job, and I'm sure the producers will be working on the best of scripts to ensure that no one ends up with egg on their faces.
I'm afraid I'm in the camp of not being able to accept this. I certainly don't condone people being unpleasant to each other over it (or anything else for that matter!) and I'm not mounting a crusade over it, but I just don't want to watch it (for the first time since 1970).
ReplyDeleteYou're perfectly entitled to say that,kevin, and certainly without being jumped on by others who should know better.While it would be unfair to judge things before it airs, I do believe the BBC will make it work and be successful as there's more than just revenue at stake here. I get the impression they are thinking that fans deserting it will be replaced by younger ones, in particular the American audience who have only really watched new Who.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right.
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt the BBC will make this work even if it is an unmitigated turkey! - I am also in the camp that think they have destroyed the essence of the show, and will be boycotting it until they reinstate a man.
ReplyDeleteOf course its a free country and just like those who forced this through, I am entitled to disagree.
Sadly the BBC have always had an attitude that the viewers will have what they think is good for them and like it.
I don't like Jodie Whittiker as an actress, even her voice and accent makes me cringe! - So this lifelong fan isn't going to support this and for the first time in forty years will not be watching.
Peace & Love.
To be honest Bill, I'm not sure who the BBC are trying to appeal to these days. Dramas tend to be based around the lives of middle class professionals, who are adept at dealing with modern life but generally screwed up in other ways, then there's Eastenders, Buy to let entrepreneurs,antique hunts, and cookery programmes, and don't forget their jewel in the crown, Strictly. I don't think kids watch much of their output and a recent survey reckoned that the average age of their viewers was around 60. i'm about that and I certainly don't watch much of their output.
DeleteThat's about the size of it Scoop, and the surveys are flawed as they don't sample remotely enough people for it to be even slightly accurate. I noticed that the BBC have already pronounced that its an unqualified success, now believing their own hype... Even though there is an absolute Tsunami of viewers saying that this was a bad idea.
DeleteMy wife watches the usual soaps on the BBC and the Aussie stuff on the other channels plus Strictly Come Dancing. I would say we never watch ITV at all. My complete 'Live TV' viewing runs to three programmes these days. The rest is from our home archive of old television shows and films we have on various media over the years and sampled to the computer...
Our household is now virtually a TV marketing free zone, the very thing that both the BBC and ITV want to avoid. And the these days, there are a lot of people like us, who are becoming more and more tech savvy too, so will do the same.
I've spent a long time in the media, and the one thing that is never considered is that if a station tries to force something on an audience, no matter how 'worthy', and the audience don't want it, it will fail. The audience will just go elsewhere.
Media executives are arrogant and sometimes ignore this fact at their peril. But at the moment, particularly at the BBC, they seem to be living in some sort of PC 'Bellyfeel' utopia bubble which is somewhat removed from reality. Even some of the News reporting is delivered in a way that is biased; created by self opinionated PC acolytes which is downright misleading. The Cliff Richard affair being just one.
One of my contemplates quit the BBC because it was rapidly disappearing up its own PC backside. such is the pressure to conform. They practically 'Unperson' one if it appears they are not on-side. George Orwells vision of 1984 is alive and well and residing at the BBC.
Ultimately all this achieves is that really creative and talented people are put off and go elsewhere and the network and the audience become poorer for it. And then they whine about the rise of Amazon, Netflix or the Pirate Bay etc.
Bill, your saying that if a station tries to force something on it's audience it will fail is true for the press. Back in the 60's I think the editor was Hugh Cudlipp at the Daily Mirror. The Mirror introduced SHOCK ISSUES which highlighted the plight of people in Africa. These very graphic photos raised peoples consciousness but was too much to take reading the paper at breakfast. The result was Rupert Murdoch changing the format of The Sun into a direct copy of the Daily Mirror. No SHOCK ISSUES just topless women on Page 3. The Mirror sales slumped and news pretty much vanished from it's pages.
DeleteThe secret is to identify your audience and give them what they want, not what they need.
BBC America has advertising unlike in the UK and a younger demographic.
George Orwell worked at the BBC and wouldn't be surprised at how things are now. He did try to warn us!
I think the series has been on the decline since Peter Capaldi( he's a fine actor but I was never convinced that he was life long fan and it was a dream come true), the writing had become so formulated that you could time when there was an emotional scene coming, to give the following action more pathos!! Social Justice Warriors also seem to have a lot of sway at the moment when it comes to any genre based TV show/film,making beloved characters a shadow of their former selves!- Mark J Southcoast Base
ReplyDeleteI certainly think there is a perception that social justice warriors have some sort of anonymous power behind their keyboards. whether they actually have, I just don't know. I think viewing figures have a part to play, which is why the powers that be are changing how they are calculated to include downloads . The BBC are facing a bit of a crisis really in that it's getting to a point were they can't compete with the likes of Net Flicks and Amazon Prime, so I suppose giving Doctor Who a complete make over is a gamble they must reckon is worth doing.
DeleteI've watched the latest episode now and I have to be honest, it wasn't a barnstormer for me .
I was a fan of William Hartnell from his days as Sgt Major Bullimore on The Army Game and was delighted with the anti-hero Doctor when it appeared.
DeleteIt was somewhat jarring when he was replaced by Patrick Troughton and it just went downhill from then on. Pertwee was earthbound but in colour and luckily I left for the US in 1974 and only saw the arrival of Baker. His shows caught up with me in the US and it was obvious the show was nothing but an in joke for the production staff. The only hint Baker was actually the Doctor was the story where he could have stopped the creation of the Daleks but declined, couldn't take life, even from the Dalek's.
The next three Doctors were just clowns and the best outing by McCoy was the Canadian filmed Paul McGann story which opened with McCoy being machine gunned to death, not a moment too soon.
When the relaunch finally happened Christopher Ecclestone stories had high technical values not just idiots running down corridors and good stories but the rot had started again in that the charactor was becoming a Marvel Style superhero, which he isn't.
After the Doctor being played by youngsters there was finally a mature version in Capaldi but the stories were bizarre and his brogue was getting out of control. It's hard enough trying to follow the gobbledygook that is the script with his also being indecipherable. The final straw was the Master becoming Missy which would have been an interesting twist if she were not played by a Scot leaving the dialog between the two characters being indecipherable.
Gave up on the Doctor then. Don't miss him, and the trailers for Whittaker sound like 'Vera'.
As I live in the US now I see the promotion of BBC America and the continuous reruns leading up to the new series, nothing here for me to watch. Sadly the overdue return of the actress Michele Ryan as Lady Christina de Souza is limited to new Audio releases.
It's a show for kids that need over the top special effects rather than interesting stories and characters.
Well, considering you didn't take to Pat Troughton taking over the role following Bill Hartnell, you do seem to have stuck with the series on and off over the years, right up to Capaldi, even though you plainly weren't that keen, Terranova. I'd give Jodie Whittaker a watch, you never know...;D
DeleteB.T.W. BBC America are apparently showing an extended version to what we got over here.
I gave up on Who a long time ago, pretty much after Tom Baker morphed into Peter Davidson. Then having Sylvester McCoy pratting about with Bonnie Langford put the top hat on it. The reboot with Paul McGann looked interesting and the further reboot with Chris Eccleston worked for a while, but David Tennant really turned things around. Unfortunately, it was then that we started to get the celebrity cameos in the show and ultimately, the Csptsin Jack and his metrosexual aspirations creeping in. Whilst im not against homosexuality, bisexuality, or any other orientation, I just don't feel it has any bearing whatsover on what was originally a childrens programme. The inferation that there was a connection between Jack and the Doctor was pointless and tasteless in my opinion. The change to Matt Smith killed off any chance that I could be bothered watching the series further, as the boy has all the screen presence of an ironing board. Peter Capaldi was very promising,but the lesbian saurian queen in the first episode made it very clear that Who was trying to be contemporary and 'modern' and sure enough, the inclusion of a female Doctor is the ultimate expression of this attitude. Again, I have no problem with the actress or the idea of a woman Doctor - quite the opposite, but it is just the current snowflake generations insistence on making everything 'inclusive' for fear of upsetting someone. The latest ridiculous manifestation of this being to ban physical applause and replace it with silent 'jazz hands' in order that the deaf or the autistic members of society not be upset or excluded. I just think it is becoming silly now, the lengths that we must go to jump through to ensure that everyone gets a fair shout,seems to lead to even more divided opinions.As far as Dr Who is concerned, Ill just stick to my favourite episodes on dvd and let the Beeb take the series wherever it feels necessary and good luck to them. The same thing happened with the new Star Trek movies, Spock in love with Uhura? Why?
ReplyDeleteAs I say in the post, Bill, my favourites are Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker (with a nod to Bill Hartnell, and Pat Troughton) I wasn't keen on Peter Davison as the Doctor as I always considered him too young for the role, although I tend to think that producer, John Nathan Turner was responsible for the gradual decline and pantomime look that the show developed. As Terranova says, Colin and Sylvester were literally clowns. I personally would have been quite happy if the show had ended in 1989.
DeleteI sometimes take the position that the show ended when it switched from b/w to colour. By this I mean that production values switched to how it looked rather than any mystery to the lead charactor. U.N.I.T. should have been called YOU NIT WITS.
DeleteThe first Doctor was an anti-hero who would rather have cleared off out of it rather than saving the universe. He was interested in meeting people and different cultures, not in the now constant love interest with his (and probably her) companions. The sexuality of cast members wasn't a major part of the plot, entertainment via science fiction was. For me the Matt Smith story meeting Vincent van Gogh was the right balance of science fiction and history, The Doctor didn't save the entire universe that week at all.
Since every viewer has a favourite Doctor, usually the one they first encounter, the show will probably continue for years yet with the BBC collecting world wide royalties on toys, comics etc to off set the cost of production. It's just a shame new viewers will not get a true sense of the unknown without everything being so frantic on screen. Sometimes less is more.
Valid points Terranova. I enjoyed watching Bill Hartnell first time round, but unlike yourself Doctor Who took off for me when the colour seasons started and production values increased.I suppose it's simply down to what appeals at the time.
ReplyDeleteOh, don't get me started. Never watched the show last night, no intention of ever doing so (unless, perhaps, The Daleks make an appearance). Madness reigns in the world; if one kid in a school is gender-confused, in order to reduce any discomfit for that kid, every other kid, boy and girl, suddenly gets 'gender-free' toilets foisted on them. So girls have to use the toilets when boys are hanging around and vice versa, but that's okay because that one kid doesn't feel so 'intimidated' going to the school bogs.
ReplyDeleteSome actors are seriously suggesting that James Bond should be portrayed by a woman - not Jane Bond, but James Bond. "Why shouldn't a woman play James Bond?" they say, not realising the absurdity of the proposition. Because James Bond is a man is the simple answer, but that cuts no ice with them. That's because they have an agenda to demolish distinctions between genders, so that pretty soon, you won't be able to tell the difference between males and females. It's in this PC climate that a woman Doctor has now been foisted upon us, in an attempt to influence and change society to what a few vocal minorities want. They're trying to reshape things the way they want them to be, regardless of the rest of us.
I've nothing against there being a female Doctor, as long as it's not a gender changed Doctor in line with the LGBT mafia's subversive agenda. The Doctor's daughter was cloned from his DNA, so she could have been the new female Doctor; or perhaps 'The Doctor' is a title for whoever the present incumbent of the TARDIS is, much like the President of the USA. When a new one takes over the White House, the previous living presidents are all still referred to as 'Mr. President', so the title of The Doctor could be something similar.
Trust me, the gender-changing thing in Who is simply down to the attempts of a small but vocal group of disgruntled malcontents who want to inflict their idea of the ideal society on the rest of us.
And Jodie Whittaker's outfit makes her look like a clown. They just don't get it, do they?
DeleteWell said Kid! Well said my friend!
DeleteThank you, thank you. I'm here all week.
DeleteThe gender change certainly isn't going to be a hit with everyone one, especially older fans it would seem, but the overnight viewing figures were apparently 8.2 million, better than the Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi openers. Only David Tennant got slightly higher at 8.4. Of course a lot of people will have viewed out of curiosity, by it would have to take a significant drop in viewers to be seen as a flop now.
ReplyDeleteWell, of course, something which has courted so much controversy and attention (which was the idea obviously, but not the only motivation behind the change) is bound to attract viewers out of curiosity. The question is, will the show sustain that level of interest? We shall see.
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