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Ncuti Gatwa Doctor Who and spin offs

CaptainWacky

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
The old thread was too long and the title was too confusing, but I refuse to use the term "Whoniverse" so this is what you get.



If I didn't know this was a Moffat episode I would have said "that looks like a Moffat episode."

There's also going to be a UNIT spin-off which, instead of just calling "UNIT" they've given a really strange title to.


Russell Tovey (“Feud,” “American Horror Story: NYC”) and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (“Surface,” “Loki”) will lead the cast of the five-part series “The War Between the Land and the Sea.” They’ll be joined by returning “Doctor Who” cast members Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Alexander Devrient as Colonel Ibrahim.
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I feel like I dislike Russell Tovey but can't remember why. At least UNIT are emplying some adults now and not just children and unconvincing robots.
 
Not bad, best not think too much about the star and it's resolution. The doctor spending a year on earth was fun. The mother dying from COVID probably hit too close to home for some people
 
Why did the time hotel have doors that opened to things that weren't hotel room? (Maybe this was explained.)

The part with him spending a year in the hotel was by far the best part and kind of hurt the rest of the episode because Anita felt like more of a character than Joy for most of it? But yeah the hospital bit was sad and the Bethlehem 0001 made me lol so well played Moffat.
 
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^ Agreed all around. The year in the hotel could have been the whole episode and I'd have been just as satisfied. The future part with Nicola was given too quick a glossover.

It's kind of amazing how today, a TV episode can be given special effects that would have made Spielberg or Lucas cry with awe in the 90s, and viewers can respond with faint praise or by ho-humming it. Maybe it's partly because the old Doctor Who got by on cheap FX, because viewers were pulled in by the story and characters. I mean, sci-fi in general needs decent FX to be done properly, but with the right story/characters viewers can be very forgiving. So maybe make sure the script is worth the trouble, instead of relying on outrageous FX to make an episode "special"...

Love Nicola as always, though. And Ncuti really commands the role of the Doctor. I like him.

Now, Moffat needs to get to work on bringing back Capaldi for an episode, before his face gets so craggy that the skin slides off for good...
 
Also just kind of realised that it's literally the same story as Moffat's last script 'Boom' where a human is uploaded into a doomsday weapon and stops it from killing anyone through the power of love. But still pretty good.
 
I binged DW over the weekend, watching random episodes in shuffle mode. Some thoughts:

I like the last Christmas episode more after a repeat viewing. The whole worked more for me this time, maybe because I already had an idea what was going on so the pace wasn't as much of an issue.

Eccelston was really good. I hadn't given his season as much attention before, but I appreciate it now. Having RTD as the showrunner probably helped a little too...

Tennant was the man, and the writing was up to the task. Matt Smith was better than he deserved to be since the writing was just as good, but I still didn't like how the show suddenly was more about Amy Pond than the Doctor for a while.

Emotionally I still think Capaldi is my favorite, but I can now see more clearly what's lacking about those seasons. Mainly the uneven scripts, and how they wouldn't let him hold on to his companions without them being killed off. But I like how he evolved the part from stuffy old Scot to guitar-wielding badass with sonic Ray-Bans.

Ncuti is a fucking fantastic doctor, period. He brings back all the passion and the ferocity of past Doctors in a bright, lively package. Can't wait to see more. THERE'S ALWAYS A TWIST AT THE END, THERE'S ALWAYS A TWIST AT THE END....

Can we just wipe Jodie's seasons off the books? I honestly can't watch them anymore. It's not that she was a woman, it's that she was the WRONG woman. She had none of the Doctor's gravitas, and I couldn't understand half of what she said because she mumbled her lines into her navel in thick Sheffield-ese. Yes it was more Chibnall's fault than hers, but she wasn't an innocent bystander either.

THERE'S ALWAYS A TWIST AT THE ENNNNNNNNND...
 
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Eggs Mayonnaise said:
^ Agreed all around. The year in the hotel could have been the whole episode and I'd have been just as satisfied. The future part with Nicola was given too quick a glossover.

It's kind of amazing how today, a TV episode can be given special effects that would have made Spielberg or Lucas cry with awe in the 90s, and viewers can respond with faint praise or by ho-humming it. Maybe it's partly because the old Doctor Who got by on cheap FX, because viewers were pulled in by the story and characters. I mean, sci-fi in general needs decent FX to be done properly, but with the right story/characters viewers can be very forgiving. So maybe make sure the script is worth the trouble, instead of relying on outrageous FX to make an episode "special"...

Love Nicola as always, though. And Ncuti really commands the role of the Doctor. I like him.

Now, Moffat needs to get to work on bringing back Capaldi for an episode, before his face gets so craggy that the skin slides off for good...
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To be fair, watching a lot of old Who on Pluto has made me realize they REAAAAALLY stretched out a lot of those episodes far beyond what they needed to be. I say that growing up watching Tom Baker as a kid on PBS too. So many of them get very soap opera like where the main story could have been told in a hour, but ended up being 2-3 hours of monologuing and running around. This becomes very evident by the time Colin Baker took over.
 
The series opener...well, it was better than 'Space Babies'. It didn't have any space babies in it. That's a plus. The set-up with the planet being named after Belind and everything was good. It felt pretty rushed and hard to follow at times though! I'm sure series openers used to get a bit more time than the standard 45 minutes. I think I'm fairly intelligent (lol) but even I got lost at the end when the two certificates touched and it made the Doctor present at Belinda's birth...for some reason? Like there were definitely good ideas in there but felt like they neeeded more time (like the whole incel thing just being introduced at the end.)

"I thought you moved to Margate."
"Stargate."

That doesn't make sense, does it? Nobody knew he moved to space so she wouldn't have misheard "Stargate" as "Margate".

The Doctor causing the power to cut in a hospital probably killed loads of people too (I know, don't take it seriously.)

Does Belinda live two doors down from Ruby or does Mrs. Flood just move in next door to all the companions?
 
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I had the same thought about the hospital. First use of the word sperm in Doctor who?

Another special girl companion, I miss the time when the doctor was the special one in the TARDIS.

Most obvious use of girl being promised a ride in the TARDIS, oh no she's dead.
 
It was fun, though I wonder if the projectionist died for nothing at the end since Mr Ring-A-Ding would have died anyway when he went outside? I guess he saved the Doctor from getting anymore energy sucked from him. Alan Cumming did a great job as I wouldn't have known it was his voice at all.

The 'Blink' joke was good because that is what everyone would have said. The fangirl's big emotional speech should have ended with her saying "...and I bet you can't even hear what I'm saying right now because Murray Gold is drowning me out!"

And the guy should have been messaging his dirty internet friends about Varada Sethu in that dress.

Next week: Mrs. Flood holds up a chart showing the falling ratings for the audience to see and says "it's YOUR FAULT he's going away again!"
 
I wouldn't have known that was Alan Cumming voicing MRAD if I hadn't read it here first. But he let his Scottish seep through in one word, when the sunlight first hit him: "Behold!!"

I also didn't recognize Linus Roache as Pie the projectionist, then I saw his name in the credits. (Bruce Wayne's father in Batman Begins, but I first saw him in the 90s indie film Priest, where he played a closeted man of the cloth who shagged Robert Carlyle.) I hate it when actors get older...

I thought the story was okay. And the arc has been okay.

IT WILL NEVER BE MAY THE 24TH, 2025?
 
We went to Granada Studios in Manchester with the school in 1996. I saw Ken Barlow's actor in the distance and shouted "KEN BARLOW" at him.
 
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