Still not Ginger!

Monday 17 July 2017

So the new Doctor is going  to be Jodie Whittaker, with whom the incoming showrunner has worked extensively on Broadchurch.  She is white, thirty-something and not ginger.  I may have been just a tiny bit wrong about the gender*, but apart from being female the casting seems completely in the usual pattern and therefore unremarkable.

So, leaving aside the competing and equally blinkered views of 'finally, a woman!' and 'it's ruined and I'm never watching again', what are we to make of the casting?

Firstly, Jodie Whittaker is an excellent actor. Her role in Broadchurch mainly involved a lot of emotional angst as a grieving mother, so it will be interesting to see how she deals with the more quirky aspects of the Doctor's personality.

Secondly, the publicity photos remind me quite a lot of Romana 2. (I mentioned this to my German colleague at work, but he had never heard of the Time Lady in question.  I am disappointed in him.) Will the Thirteenth Doctor actually turn out to be rather like Romana?   And if so, can we have a K9 substitute?  An electric parrot or a talking cabbage would be good.

Thirdly, will we now get a new male companion?  The last two series have ended with a female companion of the Doctor flying off to explore the universe along with another female character (Clara and Ashildr/Me last year and Bill and Heather this year), so two women flying around the space time continuum has been done. Perhaps Chris Chibnall could find a way of reintroducing Rory? It is important to have some sort of gender balance in the TARDIS.  If all else fails, Captain Jack will do nicely.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to Christmas.

*I'm open-minded about this.  I don't see any need for the Doctor to change gender, but don't mind as  long as it has been done in order to take the series in new directions and explore new stories, rather than as a gimmick or to appease the feminist lobby. 

At last ....

Saturday 15 July 2017

There is a popular conception that ladies of a certain age are glued to their TV sets at this time of year, guzzling strawberries and champagne.  Well, I'm sorry, but whilst I don't mind strawberries(though raspberries are much nicer), I HATE TENNIS IN GENERAL, and WIMBLEDON IN PARTICULAR. It's even worse than netball.

This leaves me in something of a difficulty given that the casting of the new Doctor is supposed to be announced after the Men's Final.  How can I be poised and ready for that, without having to watch the beastly tennis?

I may just have to hide until it's all over.  Meanwhile, here are my thoughts on the casting:

People I would quite like to see as the Thirteenth Doctor:

• David Tennant (still hoping for that waking up in the TARDIS shower moment)
• Richard Coyle
• Kris Marshall
• Alex Hassell
• Edward Bennett

People I would not like to see as the Thirteenth Doctor:

• Wee Jimmie Krankie
• Olivia Colman
• James Corden
• Noel Fielding
• Mary Berry

I still think it will be a 30-40ish male actor who is just beginning to get known on TV (so none of the above, really.)

All will be revealed tomorrow.

Pink for the Stegosaurus

9 July 2017

The Dinosaur Invasion is the first story I can remember seeing.  Or at least I don't remember seeing it as much as discussing having seen it, whilst watching Death to the Daleks (or 'the one with the hearthrugs, as my mother called it - sadly ahead of her time.  She could have had a great career writing episode titles for Friends.) When I married into fandom, I saw it again on a somewhat grainy off-air VHS tape. 

Memory plays strange tricks, though. I could have sworn that on the map of the dinosaur materialisations stegosaurus were colour coded pink. But watching the DVD whilst ironing yesterday morning, I realised that it was actually 'pink for the pterodactyls.' I have been living a lie all these years!

If you make allowances for the primitive (or prehistoric) special effects, this story stands up quite well.  True, Sarah does behave with annoying stupidity at times, when she once again picks completely the wrong person to ask for help, but then this is as far as I am aware, the only story until Mawdryn Undead where one of the series regulars is actively working against the Doctor.

Today we watched The Stones of Blood.  This I found genuinely creepy on first viewing, and it remains my favourite from the Key to Time Season. Earlier this year we visited the Rollright Stones, which were used for location filming (with a few polystyrene additions.)

WHO cares?

5 July 2017

There is still an incredible amount of speculation in the press about the identity of the next Doctor. The media seem convinced that she should be a woman, and keep suggesting names of various female actors (or comedians) who then have to issue a denial.

It seems to me that this is an impossible situation.  If a woman is cast, then the media will immediately seize on any decline in viewing figures (which are declining anyway, along with those for every other TV programme as viewing habits change) as the fault of the 'Woman Doctor.'  If  they don't cast a woman, and I still think it will be a thirty-something male who is not yet quite a household name, then Chris Chibnall will be blamed for lack of gender equality.  Which is ridiculous. Why should there be any need to change the Doctor's gender in order to prove some sort of political point.

I'm beginning to wonder if the only answer is Eddie Izzard.

Little House on the Solar Farm

Saturday 1 July 2017

After a very nice celebration lunch we were home in plenty of time for the Doctor Who finale, hoping that it wouldn't turn out to be a disappointment that spoiled the day. I've  found that with two-parters the set-up is often better than the conclusion. So was that the case here? 

There was a lot to enjoy, particularly the situation with Missy and the Master.  Missy is in two minds about whose side she is on "fortunately one of them is unconscious."

But the scene soon shifts from the creepy hospital to floor 507, where settlers are protecting the children in a homestead straight out of The Waltons. Bill is having identity issues (though I wonder why she has more problems with the 'Cyber' than the 'Man'). Meanwhile Nardole is proving useful, though he is something of a Marmite character.  I have warmed to him, but my other half described him as 'like K-9 only without the charm.'

All in all, it becomes apparent that the situation is without hope, but the Doctor has to try, because that is what he does, and Peter Capaldi gets to deliver another moving speech.  The Master and Missy manage to cancel each other out in a glorious moment of self-destruction.

Ultimately, though, the ending with a deus ex machine,  or more literally dea ex lacrimis, was a little disappointing, and rather too similar to the last series, with a companion who is sort-of dead surviving to fly off round the universe with a female companion.

The final moments bode well for Christmas, though.  Roll on December!