I think there is also some history coming back to bite him in the posterior. In case you are unaware, Chibnall famously went after Pip and Jane Baker for writing poor Who on national television back in the day.
A whole flock of chickens came home to roost. I wonder if Chibbers will ever do any kind of fan interaction (con or otherwise) that would leave him open to the same sort of rebuke.
He also said in more than one interview before Jodie’s first season that he wanted to leave his mark on the show. Well, he certainly did that!
I’m not sure the next generation of writers can. Honestly. The talent to hone in on what was versus what’s popular is a dying art. Having a good understanding of what IP you’re working on no longer applies. Transforming a known name into what’s trendy is the norm. Respecting the past? Not so much.
Matt Smith’s first two seasons really click. The chemistry with the Doctor, Amy, and Rory, really works.
Capaldi is different from Tennant and Smith. He’s more Eccelston with some Hartnell thrown in for good measure. I think Clara works better as a companion for his Doctor than Smith’s.
Just save yourself the pain and skip Jodie’s seasons.
This. He had about a season and a half of ideas with some really clever twists. Then a few ideas that if he had left and come back two or three years later, he might have developed. Or maybe he could have spent a couple of seasons as showrunner but not writing any scripts. But he definitely should not have been writing nearly every episode when he was clearly out of ideas and was … I don’t know … writing the dream he had last night?
Oh I don’t think he’d ever get caught up in being clever.
Doctor Who, as I see it, is where totally bonkers ideas go. Chibnall’s scripts were mostly bog standard sci-fi, and if you were to tell me the basic plot of one I’d not be able to tell you if it came from Farscape or Babylon 5 or Earth 2 or whatever - nothing against those shows, I’m just saying that Doctor Who is a whole other class of weird, and I’d never guess it.
Doctor Who is “hey these teapots with suction cup arms want to hollow out the Earth to install an engine so they can ride around the galaxy in style,” or “this alien is scattered through time, and to finance the building of a device to undo that he’s asked Leonardo da Vinci to make several copies of the Mona Lisa,” or “yo, the moon is really an egg and a space dragon is about to hatch out of it.” Ain’t nobody gonna confuse these plots with any other show. Even when they are not well written or produced, the ideas grab you in a WTF way.
In watching the last season in batches, my friend and I were glad for the recaps at the beginnings because we had already forgotten what happened in the episode we had literally just finished. Every once in a while a Who concept would come up - a sentient frog is the entire universe, for example - and he’d just whiff it away.
In short, I have feelings about Chibnall’s era, and I’ll be happy to not revisit it. If somebody asks me, I’ll say “you watch it, I’m bitter.”
Looking forward to a return to weird ideas from someone who gets it.
Actually, the plotline of City of Death (along with Shada) was pretty much what Douglas Adams rewrote for Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. So, yeah, it’s actually a case of which alien scattered through time financing the building of a device to undo that? oh the one in which he asked Leonardo da Vinci to make several copies of the Mona Lisa. That one.
Chibnall’s era can be summed up in three words: SHOW. DON’T TELL.
So much of his “story-telling” was characters telling us what happened. Or telling us the planet was the most dangerous place in the universe. Or telling us that Yaz had feelings for the Doctor.
I was very lucky to have KERA in Dallas with Monty Python (I think they were the first to show it in the US) and other British shows. I fell completely in love with Mary Tamm in the “Key to Time” series: smart and gorgeous. It’s nice that that season was such a perfect little contained story arc.
Was it just me, or was 13’s first season exceptionally Earth-bound? It felt like it really didn’t go anywhere.
Oof, thanks for reminding me. Not very good Who, but definitely Who.
I do want to earn a ram chip, so I will say that Moffat’s scripts were some of my favorites (“Blink” #1), and I truly enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s “The Doctor’s Wife”. I’d love him to write more scripts (but without kids, which irked me about “Nightmare in Silver”).
I just watched “Dalek” from season 1 of the reboot. And I have to say that Chris Eccleston really nailed the Doctor’s guilt and anger from the Time War. And I never would have predicted that dalek would open up the pepper mill, look like a mutated octopus and then enjoy a shaft of sunlight.
It took a while for me to warm up to River’s character, but after seeing the whole thing put together, I really liked her. There aren’t may female rogue characters around, and none like River. Also, after seeing Alex at a con, it’s clear she really loved playing River.
Got hooked staying up late as a kid watching it on Sunday nights. First episode was Arc in Space (Baker’s second episode). 25ish years later I happened on it on Netfilx, and my kids joined me, so it was their first episode too.
Most seasons are worth watching, and have at least some good episodes. The only exception would be season 13 (Flux).
I liked all of Matt Smiths seasons. I wish he had more time with Clara as I thought they paired well. Capaldi’s first season was weaker, but still had some good episodes. His other two seasons were solid.
I actually liked Jodi’s first season. In part because they were introducing a woman as the Doctor, they didn’t try to do anything big with the season. The bigger Chibnall tried to make the stories the worse they got. I mostly liked her second season, but the bigger themes fell flat for me.
Something else that hasn’t been touch on with the Whittaker/Chibnal era is the change to the music. Segun Akinola replaced Murray Gold, and the whole musical dynamic changed. While Segun Akinola has talent, it was rarely shown. Most of the time the music was barely audible, and often it was some form of ‘droning’. That can add some tension to the scene, but little else. With Gold, the music was a powerful part of the show, bending your emotions to the scene.