All-purpose, running Geek thread (formerly Battlestar Galactica thread)

My first thought was stunt casting, too. I'm trying to stay open minded about it. If its a good actress with a good story and a good companion, maybe it'll rise above. But it does feel like something they're doing just to "be progressive" and because "its time." We'll see.

I guess I thought the only total wipe clean was Matt Smith with the ponds....which I think was when Davies left for good, so it makes sense they'd be doing the same when Moffat goes. Bill was a disappointment for a one season companion. I've read a lot of nasty things from fans about Clara but that character developed/resonsated way more than this one.

 

If they do go with a female Doctor, casting the right actress and telling a good story will be very important, but there still may be backlash.

Marvel Comics has gone through this due to its attempts to bring more diversity to its characters. In its Ultimate line, they replaced Peter Parker with Miles Morales, whose mother is Hispanic and father is African American. Then they brought him to the mainstream Marvel Universe. They have also had a female Thor, an Asian Hulk, a young African American woman sort of taking Iron Man's place, a female Wolverine and a black Captain America. Some moves made sense, like Sam Wilson taking on the role when Steve Rogers was unable to be Captain America or Carol Danvers finally moving on from Miss Marvel to Captain Marvel. Others, like Miles Morales, were purely about diversity and that was clear from day one. To some, it didn't matter that Morales is a well-crafted character whose stories were actually pretty good from the beginning.

Now Marvel is putting out a series of one-shots putting the original characters with the legacy ones. Of course, it is a different dynamic. Marvel was replacing characters that have been around for decades while Doctor Who fans are more used to changes in the role.

 

The first one will always be accused of "doing it for the sake of doing it."

I would watch the living shit out of a season following Missy

 

I haven't watched Broadchurch so I'm not sure how good of an actress she is but Mrs. Spartan is stoked Dr. Who will be a woman.

 

Just got in from seeing Spider-Man: Homecoming. I still like Holland the best of the actors to play the role and Michael Keaton is excellent. They played well on Peter's immaturity, which makes sense if you are going to have the character only be 15 years old. They really captured the spirit of the character from the comics.

The action is good and the Easter Eggs are well-placed without being distracting. Pay close attention to the names of relatively minor characters.

There is one mid-credits scene and one at the end. The first one is important to the larger story. The second is fun.

There are parts of the typical MCU story arc and some of the choices with the supporting characters seem forced. I mean little stuff, like patterning a character after Ganke from the Miles Morales Spider-Man stories, but calling him Ned for some reason. Overall, it isn't the greatest thing ever, but it is a well-done Spider-Man movie.

 

BBC story quotes Chibnall saying this Doctor was "always going to be a woman."
I'm sure she'll do fine, but like I said earlier I hate that they're doing it for the sake of doing it.

 

Could you outline a scenario in which it wouldn't be that? I'm not sure I understand the difference

 

Yeah, there probably isn't.
Some of the fan theories out there were that Missy might be some version of the Doctor, so they could have shifted in that direction with a story-based reason for it. And they did at least lay the groundwork for it with some of the events of the past couple of seasons. Still, this feels like they decided to do it to appease a segment of the fan base that was pushing for a female Doctor and to show how progressive they can be.

 

I don't watch. Never have. Don't know the first thing about it. But the 1st anything this diverse is almost always going to be somewhat forced or contrived. Star Trek went with a female captain and that didn't feel contrived within the ST universe but as a TV show you knew it was an intentional act. It was irrelevant to me after the first episode

 

If theyd done it before people started saying "gee its never been a woman and should be" then it wouldnt come across as doing it for the sake of doing it.

The debut should pop a rating, at least, which they need since the Christmas specials been down for years and has been down 40% from peak David Tennant.

Capaldi success or nah? I havent been a huge fan of his 3 seasons and Id rank him 4th of the new Who Docs with mo hesitation.

 

Star Trek isn't the best comparison here. There's hundreds of captains in Starfleet, and there's always been enough female officers that it made sense for there to be female captains running around.
Similarly, we've seen plenty of female Time Lords in the Whoverse. Having one pop up as a friend or foe wouldn't be a big deal.
There's only one Doctor, though.
The Star Trek equivalent of this would be if the reboot series introduced Captain Joan T. Kirk as the captain of the Enterprise.

All that said, after about three episodes it won't be a big deal any more and we can channel all of our kvetching about how much it sucks to have a female Doctor, into complaining about how much Whittaker sucks in the role in general and how David Tennant will always be the best.