All New Who

Wow, it's been some time. I remember when your kids were little munchkin things that needed their shoes tied and such.

15 is a very confident age, but I know as a former teacher they don't start calling you out to your face until 16, then disallusionment is already setting in around age 17/18 and teachers aren't worth setting straight any more. The stages cycle fast right before they are pushed from the nest.

{{ In the Capaldi spirit of fans ending up in the show heres 'John Smith' who was a fan who made effects stuff- most famously the Wholock crossover probably and the rain trailer from about 8 years ago-





Moffat loved these and managed to persuade the BBC to hire him for the shows effects, and heres his showreel from the last few years of making Who.



And the effects have been the best thing about the Chibnall era! }}

{{ Rumour is with the new production deals in place with Bad Wolf and Disney the budget for episodes is to rather dramatically increase from about 1-3 million up to 10 million per episode!
Weird to think of Who all fancy and not made by stretching a too small budget. I hope however it doesnt lead to a lack of the sort of creativity thats had to be employed in the past. And I really hope that 'oh pretty' doesnt replace 'ooh thats clever'.}}

Art needs hurdles. I think your fears are well founded.

{{ Who has cetrainly always had financial hurdles, its never had the sort of budget that comparable US shows have had. In general this has often been a good thing, with a necessity to rely on dialogue and characters instead, but on the otherhand there have been some stories which have primarily failed due to their vision far outstripping the BBC's ability to realise them on screen, less often but it has happened (looking at you Web Planet!) }}

{{ Plenty Who news.

We have our directors for the 3 60th Anniversary specials with Tennant and Tate.

First up the best director in modern Who Rachel Talalay is back after being absent for the Chibnall era, she is the genius gave us Heaven Sent among many other quality eps.



Next up we have Tom Kingsley for ep 2, he is best known for the BAFTA winning Black Pond, but has a long list of directing credits.




And the third ep is directed by Chanya Button, who has fewer directing credits than the other two but cut her teeth as a theatre director and has some quality shows under her belt including The Spanish Princess.



So quality all round right from the off is a good sign as the drop in quality of directors in the Chibnall era was very notable despite the shows effects being a higher budget.

We also have the director for the first filming block of the new series when Ncuti takes over as the Doctor, Dylan Holmes Williams, he is a writer/director and seems to have done a lot of music videos, in terms of tv directing he is probably best known for directing four episodes of M. Knight Shamalyan's Servant.



Also auditions are underway for the new companion(s?) with Ncuti in attendance. }}

Haven't heard of Servant before. Has Shamalyan finally returned to his old heights?

{{ He had heights! Only film of his Ive ever liked is the one most people dont like, Lady in the Water. Signs I thought was particularly awful, I spotted the 'twist' in Sixth Sense really early on and so the bulk of the film was meaningless for me, I havent seen the Village so cant say on that, thought Unbreakable was ok but nothing special and the less said about The Happening the better! }}

Actually Signs was my favorite due to the artful build of suspense; Lady in the Water my least favorite because so obviously from the stated source - one of those desperate twisted stories you tell your kids because they won't stop asking you to continue a made up story. That script was too silly to see the light of day.

{{ Signs was way too obvious, I had the end sussed halfway through and so wasnt much point to half the film for me. The fact Lady in the Water was silly was kind of what I liked about it, plus it had a good atmosphere none of the rest of his stuff has, but Ive never overall seen the appeal of him as a writer or film maker or why he got to be so popular or famous in the first place. }}

there was a shot in Signs near the beginning where Mel Gibson is looking around the dark cornfield, and all you see is heel of an alien foot quietly disappearing into the corn stocks. There were actually several screams from the audience. That's when he proved how good a craftsman he was: 3 seconds of extremely low tech, low key SX and he gets screams from the audience. It's all about the build up, and he's a master at it.

{{ Signs was dumb- aliens who are allergic to water on a planet thats mainly water, where the air is full of water, and the inhabitants are largely made of water- sort of War of the Worlds if it were conducted by alien idiots! }}

{{ Casting news- Miriam Margoyles has been cast in the specials though in what role is unknown. She is quite the character is Miriam, if youve ever seen her on a talk show you will know what I mean!





She also has a little previous with Who voicing Slitheen for the Sarah Jane Adventures. And in fact she has done a lot of voice work in her very long career (she is now in her 80's and ageing wonderfully disgracefully) fan rumour is she will voice Beep the Meep- which seems like perfect casting to me if so. }}

halfwise wrote:there was a shot in Signs near the beginning where Mel Gibson is looking around the dark cornfield, and all you see is heel of an alien foot quietly disappearing into the corn stocks.  There were actually several screams from the audience.  That's when he proved how good a craftsman he was: 3 seconds of extremely low tech, low key SX and he gets screams from the audience. It's all about the build up, and he's a master at it.

The shot of the alien on the roof outside fucked me up. Spooky.

{{ Tonights Children in Need charity show on the BBC will unveil the new companion according to the BBC-

'A companion for Ncuti Gatwa's new Time Lord on Doctor Who is to be announced live on this year's Children in Need show later.
Gatwa is due to become the 15th Doctor over the festive period in 2023, and will have just one companion for his adventures on the BBC One show.'

One companion is no surprise, RTD only ever had one companion in the TARDIS at a time, which is fine it mostly worked for him first time out the main issue is if you dont like the companion, as I didnt selfish Rose, its not so good having no other option there. But after Chibnall disasterous handling of multiple companions I can see why the show is wary of going there again. }}

Ah, well, pretty normal looking companion. Carry on.

{{ She seemed super nervous. But then she is very young at just 18. Think it's possibly telling of RTD that the new Doctor got announced in a tweet and the new companion gets a live TV reveal. }}

Can't get much of a read off her. Only 18? Hope she has a strong enough self image to put her own stamp on it. At that age you need someone like Mila Kunis who at age 14 lied and said she would be 18 by the time That 70's Show started. With brass balls like that she definitely made an impact.

Aww, she seems nice.

The lady patting her head clearly felt she was young too  

{{ Billie Piper was 22 and Karen Gillan was 21, both playing younger, so she is the youngest actor to take on the companion role.
Also pretty sure if Moffat had announced a blonde 18 year old with that promo pic and a lot of her middrift on show folk on here and elsewhere would be calling it out as Moffat being sexist- hell they did that just because Karen had legs!

Apparently she is in soap Coronation Street, which I dont watch so never seen her work but she did win the best newcomer/young actor award for the role so hopefully she can cope with Who's notoriously hard work schedule plus all the global promo touring that Who demands.

Not sure about the character name either- Ruby Sunday. Moffat had quite fairytale names as it fitted the fairy tale vibe he was aiming for, Amelia Pond, River Song, makes me wonder if there is a similar thematic reason for this choice.}}

{{ New Doctor interviews new companion}}

I'll not comment on Moffat. Can't say I noticed a lot of midrif
But (without having seen the interview) Millie does remind me of Jenna and that surely has to be positive?

I am not too sure about the name Rudy Sunday/Sundae either, many associations there so I have no idea.

When is the next episode?

{{ When youre my age you tend to notice things like midriff on pretty lasses, much the same way you come to appreciate good steak which in later life your teeth cant handle - they are both somethiing you can only now look at wish for and are never getting your  hands on again, and if you did you couldnt cope with either any more. Mind you she is more dressed than when RTD announced Ncuti who appeared to have lost every single button from his shirt the poor lad, just hope RTD isnt trying to sex up Who, was bad enough the Doctor started kissing people at all without them losing half their clothes every episode too }}

hope RTD isnt trying to sex up Who, was bad enough the Doctor started kissing people at all without them losing half their clothes every episode too

I might go into a depression if it's all the "wrong" sides of RTD we'll get this time around.