Russell Two Davies

[Nick R]

Apparently, today there was some news about a change to Doctor Who’s production staff, in some obscure behind-the-scenes role. I don’t know if anyone else heard about it?

Topic

[Dave]

Probably doesn’t mean much coming from me, a TLJ-liker, but I hope you do eventually give Andor a shot, Ben. Prior investment in the character or in Rogue One isn’t at all necessary, and despite the title it’s an ensemble show, so it isn’t even much of a problem if you’re lukewarm on Andor himself. (Plus he’s better in the show than in the movie anyway.)
Best Star Wars thing since TESB, possibly even better than it.

I also found when rewatching Rogue One afterwards that the series significantly improves the film, and everything dovetails pretty perfectly. 

[Flap Jack]

it seems the real intention of the original script was that Han was
simply bluffing and didn’t know what he was talking about. Obi-Wan even
rolls his eyes.

My interpretation is that Han was just boasting, but his unit of measurement was intended to be correct. George Lucas just didn’t realise that a parsec was a unit of distance when he wrote it. Obi-Wan’s eye-roll is just a reaction to the obvious exaggeration.

Interstellar travel is extremely common in the Star Wars universe, and Han genuinely is a pilot. So him not knowing what a parsec is would be like a taxi driver not knowing what a mile is (“Is it a fast car?” / “Fast? This is the car that got from London to Edinburgh in under 12 miles!”). If the intention was that Han was incompetent, that’s not a level of incompetence that warrants an eye-roll, moreso an out loud exclamation of “Holy shit Luke, this guy clearly has never touched or even seen a starship before. Let’s get away from him and find an actual pilot.”.

[Dave]

Yeah, like a lot of this stuff it’s a small easily-forgiven detail that has taken on added significance through endless fan discussion of it in the years since, so basing a whole plot around it in Solo felt a little bit much. It would be like an entire Red Dwarf episode being written to explain the origins of Lister’s double appendix.

[Ben Saunders]

It would be like an entire Red Dwarf episode being written to explain the origins of Lister’s double appendix.

What a splendid idea.

[Ben Saunders]

I’ll get to Andor eventually, but being asked to watch another Star Wars show after the pathetic Obi-Wan disaster is like getting punched in the face and being asked if you’d like to be punched in the face again.

Edit: This also applies to any hypothetical Series 3 of RTD2

[Flap Jack]

Maybe slightly harsh, considering the lack of creator overlap between the 2 series.

… so I take it you won’t be joining us for spirited and cheery discussion of The War Between the Land and the Sea. 

[Ben Saunders]

I doubt I’ll watch it, no matter how sexy they make the fish lady

[Dave]

[Warbodog]

The BBC’s zoophile agenda.

[Ben Saunders]

That would be their “scalie” agenda, actually.

[Technopeasant]

As for good Disney Star Wars stuff, Andor has been excellent but very much for adults.

I admit the hype is putting me off from watching it, especially since “Star Wars for adults” is a bit of an eye roll. Lucas knew who his audience was.

Mind you, I felt Obi-Wan was alright, just overstretched, so my opinion probably does not count for much.

[Dave]

I also didn’t think Obi-Wan was as bad as most people seemed to. Along with Mando it’s the show that feels closest to the movies, for me.

[Ridley]

It seems like people didn’t like the Ashoka show either, but I did, you bastards. And I never even watched Rebels.

I find this interesting as it came across to me as impenetrable for those that hadn’t kept up with the Filoni animated shows and embodies the homework era of Star Wars echoing the worst impulses of the MCU for its Mandoverse. Those two episodes of Mandalorian with a Boba Fett title felt like active contempt for an audience’s time.

Andor is good and I don’t like Rogue One. Haven’t gone back to the movie since but Rogue One, Solo and Rise of Skywalker were an effort to get through. Twice, IIRC.  As garbled as the Doctor Who finale was, at least I wasn’t bored.

[Dave]

I find this interesting as it came across to me as impenetrable for those that hadn’t kept up with the Filoni animated shows and embodies the homework era of Star Wars echoing the worst impulses of the MCU for its Mandoverse. Those two episodes of Mandalorian with a Boba Fett title felt like active contempt for an audience’s time.

Yeah I agree with this. And I suspect the upcoming Mando movie will be similar, a lot of tying up of loose ends that will make it feel like a TV show inexplicably deciding to release its fifth-season finale as a movie instead. And no show would ever do that.

[Ben Saunders]

All you really need to know is that these people went on adventures at some point and Ahsoka was Anakin’s apprentice, the rest is fairly self-explanatory. I don’t really know who the fuck Ezra Bridger is so didn’t really care about his rescue, but anyone with their ear even slightly towards extended universe stuff will know about Thrawn (not a Filoni creation). I just liked the tone and the sideways expansion of the universe and yes, the fanservice. And on a surface level there are some very attractive people on that show.

I think it’s fine to have a show like Andor that requires absolutely no foreknowledge AND a show like Ahsoka which benefits from it, one does not detract from the other, and both can be really cool. The Mandalorian becoming something it never was is a different problem than two different shows existing side by side, they shouldn’t have done that.

[Warbodog]

a TV show inexplicably deciding to release its fifth-season finale as a movie instead. And no show would ever do that.

The X-Files movie was started after season 3 (I think) and mostly wrapped up after season 4, so it picks up, like, one pre-determined thread from the end of season 5 (I’m closing the X-Files. For an hour) while ignoring other developments they’d thought up since to keep the mytharc from being completely static for two years.

Whoops, sorry to derail the Star Wars thread.

[Dave]

Yeah but it’s less about capping off season 5 and more about how it leads into season 6. Either way it’s an integral part of the series and you can’t really watch the show through without it, it would feel like there’s a whole chunk of story missing.

[Rushy]

but anyone with their ear even slightly towards extended universe stuff will know about Thrawn (not a Filoni creation). 

Thrawn is rubbish. He was always rubbish. 
His entire shtick is that his war strategies are based on the art of the cultures he encounters. And there goes my suspension of disbelief, because how the smeg do you come up with a siege plan using a Jackson Pollock, some nice Mozart and a banana duct-taped to the wall?

[Renegade Rob]

Okay, so Thrawn is actually really cool in the books. They capture him well enough in Rebels and Ahsoka, but the books have more time to get into how cool he is. He’s basically an Andor character with that level of finesse and forethought facing off against the original trilogy heroes, who have only gone up against broad stroke pulp villains like Vader and Palpasheev. 

He’s a genuinely good leader who encourages and listens to good feedback and learns from his mistakes, and to the astonishment of the Imperials working under him, if they fail him, he doesn’t normally summarily execute them and will even promote them if their failure was out of their control and they otherwise did a good job. He’s like Gus Fring in the way he puts efficacy before evil every time, and the sheer novelty of that is something to behold  

Plus his strategies were legitimately clever, like trying to trick the heroes by bringing in a YT-model ship identical to the Falcon, or cloaking a ship and having it sneak under a city’s forcefield and timing its attack with an orgital strike to make it look like his orbital attacks could pierce the forcefield and using that to convince them to surrender. 

Thrawn rules. The TV depictions are respectable but there’s never enough time to really get at just how much he rules. 

[Ben Kirkham]

a TV show inexplicably deciding to release its fifth-season finale as a movie instead. And no show would ever do that.

The X-Files movie was started after season 3 (I think) and mostly wrapped up after season 4, so it picks up, like, one pre-determined thread from the end of season 5 (I’m closing the X-Files. For an hour) while ignoring other developments they’d thought up since to keep the mytharc from being completely static for two years.
Whoops, sorry to derail the Star Wars thread.

The X-Files movie (Fight the Future) was filmed after season 4 but took place after season 5.

[Technopeasant]

Whoops, sorry to derail the Star Wars thread.

You have a point. I will go bump Star Trek Crap instead.

[Ian Symes]

[Unrumble]

[Ian Symes]

The BBC have announced 52 new episodes of Doctor Who.

[Dave]

The BBC have announced 52 new episodes of Doctor Who.

[Ridley]

“independently from the main show”

Surely they’re doing separate Doctors then?

Whittaker would have been (is?) ideal for this.

[Ian Symes]

Hey Doccee

Whoey

JoJo & Grant Grant

Love (and) Monster(s)

Sarah and Dog

Telostubbies

The Nick Briggs Popcast

Doctornauts

Malphablocks

[Dave]

In the MidNight Garden

[Dave]

[Rushy]

When people say the Fourteenth Doctor was different, they generally mean he was more mellow, emotionally open, concerned about mental health/saying the right pronouns etc.

It’s difficult to judge whether it’s a character thing or just RTD/Tennant aging.

[Ridley]

My pitch is a CGI tweenage Ben Paddon as the Nth Doctor hanging out with a blue Ewok since you were wondering.

[Ian Symes]

I want Ace’s Amazing Machines so much.

[Ridley]

[Flap Jack]

Rosie & Jim the Fish

Tot and Bubble

The Angry Weevils

Doc Tales

The Gangers

Bear in the Big Blue Box

Are You Afraid of the Dalek?

The Giggles

Tim Shaw Patrol

Bob the Chuldur

The Mighty Bagrapuss

Space Babies

The Story of Tracy-Ann Oberman

[Asclepius]

The BBC have announced 52 new episodes of Doctor Who.

Just replying to the monkeys paw gif which gave me a massive lol. Thank you!

[Unrumble]

[Renegade Rob]

A Muppet Babies or Magic School Bus-style show featuring a young Timeless Child or young Susan, getting into scrapes and getting traumatized by looking into the Untempered Schism, I’d watch the shit out of that. 

[Dave]

I think it’s Frobisher’s time to shine.

[Warbodog]

Yaaaaay! Now we need Red Dwarf preschool content churn!

[Renegade Rob]

Red Dwarf: Junior Edition (the same generation…. nearly).

[Nick R]

[Technopeasant]

Oh sure, get the thread on topic again. Bastards.

[Technopeasant]

Announcing a show before you find a production company is a bit bonkers Beeb…

Especially for something as specialized and expensive as animation.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Announcing a show before you find a production company is a bit bonkers Beeb…
Especially for something as specialized and expensive as animation.

Well, how do you put out the call for a production company for a new project without saying what it’s for?

[Ian Symes]

Announcing a show before you find a production company is a bit bonkers Beeb…

Especially for something as specialized and expensive as animation.

Perfectly standard. Happens all the time, broadcasters putting out invitations to pitch, or putting existing brands out for tender. They don’t normally get noticed or picked up outside of the trade press, but this is Doctor Who, so everyone spotted it.

[Technopeasant]

I guess not every project has the benefit of Robert leaking it for them.

[Asclepius]

I guess not every project has the benefit of Robert leaking it for them.

I suppose Robert’s silence on the matter of other projects means we can assume that Rob Grant hasn’t emptied his buttski yet.

[Technopeasant]

I dunno, take a laxative?

[Ben Saunders]

Day of the Daleks on the iPlayer is unfortunately the shite special edition with the horrendous “city shots” that look like the CG intro to an early-00s digital cartoon on CBBC. I wonder what other stories they do that for, because they don’t do it for Revenge of the Cybermen which I know has a special edition.

[Flap Jack]

iPlayer is weirdly inconsistent in that regard. Some of the black and white stories are the unrestored VHS versions instead of the DVD quality versions, for no apparent reason.

I also noticed that despite Doctor Who being filmed in 4K since the Capaldi era (as Twice Upon a Time was the first and so far only story to be released on UHD Blu-ray), no stories have had their 4K versions retrospectively added to iPlayer.

[Author]

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