Doctor Who (1 Viewer)

[PayOrPlay]

Anybody know what the ratings are like right now? I know that the first season of Capaldi got great ratings, but I'm wondering if they are holding up? I just hope they can get to the next show runner and next Doctor with some decent audience size so they show doesn't end up getting cancelled.

UK ratings are collected here: Doctor Who Series 10 (2017) UK Ratings Accumulator | Doctor Who TV

No likelihood of cancellation soon, as the franchise is still a major financial engine for the BBC:

BBC - Doctor Who Gets Brand Boost in China - Media Centre | BBC | 25 May 2017

BBC Worldwide today announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with leading Chinese media company, Shanghai Media Group Pictures (SMG Pictures) that will see expansion of the Doctor Who brand in China. . . . The agreement will see BBC Worldwide working with SMG Pictures to increase the Doctor Who fan base in China, exploring future opportunities as well as exchanging expertise between the two teams. The MOU comes on the back of a content deal that BBC Worldwide also signed with SMG Pictures yesterday evening. The deal will see the entire catalogue of Doctor Who including spin-offs, Torchwood and Class available on popular TV channels and on-demand platforms all over China.

The deal not only covers Showrunners Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat’s Series 1- 10, but also incoming Showrunner Chris Chibnall’s yet-to-film Series 11, as well as a first look for Series 12-15.

 

[Sun Wukong]

I do know that ratings in the U.S. are down significantly. The premiere for this series was down to like 500k viewers from a peak of over 2 million.

UK live viewership is down (it regularly comes in second in its timeslot now), but apparently once DVR views and streaming are taken into account it still does pretty well. It is certainly off it's peak, though.

And just anecdotally, I can tell you from going to cons and other events that the overall Doctor Who presence (cosplay, memorabilia, merchandise, etc.) is down significantly. The Tenant and Smith eras had a lot of female fans that seem to have jumped ship with Capaldi. Wouldn't be shocked if that informs the casting of the next doctor, although some of the rumored choices don't really fit that bill, either.

 

[Sandman]

I do know that ratings in the U.S. are down significantly. The premiere for this series was down to like 500k viewers from a peak of over 2 million.

UK live viewership is down (it regularly comes in second in its timeslot now), but apparently once DVR views and streaming are taken into account it still does pretty well. It is certainly off it's peak, though.

And just anecdotally, I can tell you from going to cons and other events that the overall Doctor Who presence (cosplay, memorabilia, merchandise, etc.) is down significantly. The Tenant and Smith eras had a lot of female fans that seem to have jumped ship with Capaldi. Wouldn't be shocked if that informs the casting of the next doctor, although some of the rumored choices don't really fit that bill, either.

It is sad, because I think Capaldi makes a great Doctor. Matt Smith had all the girls loving him (my daughter included--went to a Comicon for the specific reason of getting a picture with him). I expect them to go back to a younger doctor.

I will say the episodes are still much better with Clara out of the picture. I like Bill a lot.

 

[Sun Wukong]

After Smith I was genuinely believing we would never see another old Doctor again, then they cast Capaldi which I was pleasantly surprised with. That said, I just don't see them doing it again. That female fanbase was something a lot of sci-fi properties struggle to attract and it was a huge boost for Who internationally, but a lot of them bailed after Smith left and it may be hard to recapture that lightening in a bottle.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

After Smith I was genuinely believing we would never see another old Doctor again, then they cast Capaldi which I was pleasantly surprised with. That said, I just don't see them doing it again. That female fanbase was something a lot of sci-fi properties struggle to attract and it was a huge boost for Who internationally, but a lot of them bailed after Smith left and it may be hard to recapture that lightening in a bottle.

This is me as well. I admit when Capaldi was first announced, I was like "huh?", but I've been impressed with him as the Doctor. His problem, unfortunately, have been the people around him, mainly Moffat as showrunner and Jenna Coleman. You know he is good when you look as the "Husbands of River Song" or his interactions with Michelle Gomez. Hell, he does well with Pearl Mackie.

It's truly a shame we won't be able to see him work with the new showrunner.

 

[Sun Wukong]

Yeah, there was definitely a part of me hoping that he'd stay when Chibnall took over just to see how good he could be without the albatross of Moffat around his neck, but I get wanting to make a clean break, too. It just sucks because I genuinely believe he had the chance to be one of the best Doctors ever but he was just hamstrung by bad writing and a bad companion for the first two series he did. It's a testament to his talent that he's still as good as he is despite having to deal with that.

 

[tenordas]

...and Moffatt strikes again. Who gave him this position, much less let him write episodes at all? He blatantly ignores scientific theory about time displacement near black holes, making it graded by distance, and massively more deviant than anything theory I've seen - and apparently entirely ignoring the theory that says time wouldn't slow to a crawl unless one was on the event horizon.

The other problem with the episode I lay at the feet of the PR people. If the Master showing up is the big "AHA" moment near the end of the episode, then why on earth would you spoil that by putting his face on the promo pic for the episode? That's just stupid; it spoils the reveal completely.

Also, I may be blaming Moffatt for trying to be clever based on past behaviour, but if you can't see the other thing coming more than halfway through the episode, you aren't paying attention at all. Yet from the last few minutes, it seems like Moffatt thinks he's surprising everyone watching (M. Night Shyamalan syndrome). Again, maybe he doesn't, and I'm being hard on him due to past performance, but it read that way to me.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

...and Moffatt strikes again. Who gave him this position, much less let him write episodes at all? He blatantly ignores scientific theory about time displacement near black holes, making it graded by distance, and massively more deviant than anything theory I've seen - and apparently entirely ignoring the theory that says time wouldn't slow to a crawl unless one was on the event horizon.

The other problem with the episode I lay at the feet of the PR people. If the Master showing up is the big "AHA" moment near the end of the episode, then why on earth would you spoil that by putting his face on the promo pic for the episode? That's just stupid; it spoils the reveal completely.

Also, I may be blaming Moffatt for trying to be clever based on past behaviour, but if you can't see the other thing coming more than halfway through the episode, you aren't paying attention at all. Yet from the last few minutes, it seems like Moffatt thinks he's surprising everyone watching (M. Night Shyamalan syndrome). Again, maybe he doesn't, and I'm being hard on him due to past performance, but it read that way to me.

I thought the episode was pretty dumb for the very same reasons you stated. I mean, I knew that was the Master in disguise as soon as he showed up on the screen with the nurse. The disguise was good, but because you knew what was going to happen, you just put 2 & 2 together. I'm just ready for this to be over with and for Moffat to ride of into the sunset.

So as a side note, I guess we won't see regeneration until the Christmas special, which is what happened the last two Doctors IIRC. I haven't seen anything about a final decision on Capaldi's replacement.

 

[St. Widge]

In addition to The Master reveal being spoiled, at least on BBC America, they spoiled the Cybermen reveal. They ran one of those 15 second bumpers before they actually revealed that it was the genesis of the Cybermen. I kind of thought it might be them a little earlier, and I was sure something was going on, but they totally spoiled it by doing a bumper showing the old style Cybermen look about 5 minutes before the actual reveal. They have actually been doing this with small reveals all season. I'm not sure what the point of those bumpers is. Maybe to keep people watching? But they really have spoiled some of the mystery and drama this year.

 

[Jeff Miller]

What i liked about the episode...

The basic plot is old school, I could make the case its a rip off of Genesis of the Daleks, that in and off itself isn't a negative. I've wanted the return of the Mondas Cybermen for years and for the basic plot, i thought it was good enough to be entertaining.

I though the Cybermen themselves were very well portrayed. I never liked the emotionless earth cybermen. Cybermen should be a bit terrifying and seeing their pain shows why they have such a ruthless streak.

Issues...

I stayed away from as many spoilers this season as possible, and even then the BBC found a way to spoil the episode regarding the return of the Cybermen and the Master. This isn't new to the show, half the movies in theaters spoil the entire movie with the trailers. Apparently the entertainment industry as a whole doesn't' have faith that anyone will watch something unless they assured before hand it is worth watching.

Razor was a complete and utter rip off of Zathros from Babylon 5. Moffet owes JMS royalties for that bit of plagiarism.

Finally...

I don't have problem bringing back the Master, Missy, will never be the Master to me, just a newer version of the Rani. But I've never liked the John Simm version of the Master. I think Derek Jacobi (Professor Yana) should have been retained. His five minutes as the master in Utopia was far more menacing then anything Simm or Gomez have done.

So this episode is not a swing and a miss, but a foul ball. I like the elements to the Doctors history, but the execution though not horrible, could have been so much better has the show producers stuck to what made the show a success for decades instead of pandering the media of today...yes, that whole time lord could be woman, a man, and back again was pandering.

See how they close it out next week.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

So tonight's finale... not sure what I feel about that ending.

Yes I do... it was bad; really bad.

 

[St. Widge]

So tonight's finale... not sure what I feel about that ending.

Yes I do... it was bad; really bad.

Really a fitting ending to the Moffatt era. Just a blah ending that wouldn't end and the addition of the the traditional the companion is dead, oh wait, no she isn't ending for Bill.

The truth is that the entire three year story line of The Doctor questioning of if is a good man was so much bunk. I mean, how many billions has he saved? Yes, he does allow some to die and yes there was the end of the time war, but he actually fixed that later. The only really evil self-motivated thing he ever did was kill another Time Lord with a gun to save Clara. (Which again, I will always despise Moffatt for this totally out of character act.)

And now he suddenly doesn't want to regenerate and just wants to die? What is that all about?

 

[Sun Wukong]

I did think David Bradley did a good job as William Hartnell in the 50th Anniversary TV movie they did several years back, and it is cool to bring him in as The First Doctor. For my misgivings about the overall story and The Doctor's direction, that was a cool reveal.

That said, this episode just underscores how directionless Capaldi's Doctor has been from the word go, completely due to Moffat's garbage writing. It's been three series of just "Am I a good man? What am I doing? Is this the right thing?" That isn't compelling to watch. Just isn't.

And I'm tired of self-pitying Doctors. Although it wasn't nearly as prevalent, you got big doses of this with Tenant and Smith on occasion as well (Eccelston was a bit more anger than self pity when it came to the Time War/Last Time Lord stuff, which made sense). Whoever the next one is, I want a bit of craziness and self-assuredness. Not complete a complete jerk *** like the Sixth Doctor, but a guy that is perhaps a bit manic, knows he's the smartest guy in the room, and has a sense of direction and drive with no morose navel gazing going on. I'm hoping that's what this whole First Doctor thing is about. A pep talk of sorts to get The Doctor back on track for a new regeneration.

 

[St. Widge]

I did think David Bradley did a good job as William Hartnell in the 50th Anniversary TV movie they did several years back, and it is cool to bring him in as The First Doctor. For my misgivings about the overall story and The Doctor's direction, that was a cool reveal.

That said, this episode just underscores how directionless Capaldi's Doctor has been from the word go, completely due to Moffat's garbage writing. It's been three series of just "Am I a good man? What am I doing? Is this the right thing?" That isn't compelling to watch. Just isn't.

And I'm tired of self-pitying Doctors. Although it wasn't nearly as prevalent, you got big doses of this with Tenant and Smith on occasion as well (Eccelston was a bit more anger than self pity when it came to the Time War/Last Time Lord stuff, which made sense). Whoever the next one is, I want a bit of craziness and self-assuredness. Not complete a complete jerk *** like the Sixth Doctor, but a guy that is perhaps a bit manic, knows he's the smartest guy in the room, and has a sense of direction and drive with no morose navel gazing going on. I'm hoping that's what this whole First Doctor thing is about. A pep talk of sorts to get The Doctor back on track for a new regeneration.

I totally agree. This emo Doctor stuff has to stop. I want a return to the more self-assured, smartest guy in the room Doctor with occasional bursts of mania. Brooding just doesn't fit well with The Doctor.

Tom Baker was always my favorite Doctor because there was that slight sense of weirdness about him and he was always sure he was the smartest and morally superior. I also was a big fan of Tenant and he came close to number one for me. I really disliked Smith at first but he really grew on me over time with his occasional child like innocence and mania. Amy Pond and Rory were also a very good companion combination that really helped Smith own the role. Then came Clara. She made hard for him but by the time she came around, he was comfortable in the role a managed to carry her for awhile. But, you needed his mania to offset her boring character. Something that Capaldi could not do. He is a great actor, but he is quiet and serious. It make the paring with Clara very difficult.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

And now he suddenly doesn't want to regenerate and just wants to die? What is that all about?

No ****. As soon as I saw him place his hand into snow I was like "what the hell!!!"

I started watching Who in the Eccelson year (wish there was more) so my knowledge of the brand is definitely not on the same level as you guys. But I did watch a few episodes of the Tom Baker Doctor after the 50th Anniversary special. He and Eccelson are the too I would most like to see in the next Doctor.