[Marsh.]

Originally Posted by Ashley.

Yeah, I agree. It's a shame because his writing in past episodes was never this wooden or bland. I think he's just trying to shove every cliché he can into the series and it's slowly morphing into a parody show. Also I'm pretty sure we've had the obligatory "get off this planet, or you'll have me to deal with" scene in every episode so far. It's boring.

Yeah, that's my problem.

Someone on DS described it like Chibnall had 4 different Doctor scenes for Jodie and was repeating them for her in every episode in a different order.

The woman is not being served by the writing as she's being forced to perform the same things every week.

Simple is fine. But not this simple. I think people are confused, RTD's episodes weren't simple they just weren't as convoluted as Moffat's where he liked to play with the structure of the episode which would be confusing. Even if he had just a regular plot in a self contained episode, the writing would rise it up to give it depth or humour or pathos or just plain old entertainment. This is just bland. Chibnall's dialogue especially is so flat.

[Oliver_W]

The worrying thing is, if a product seems crap or performs badly, the bigwigs never seem to blame the writing or the product itself, they're more likely to look at surrounding factors.

For example - Mars Needs Moms flopped; the lesson Hollywood learned was that having Mars in a title puts off audiences, not that a)the title makes it sound like bollocks or b)it sucked and word of mouth killed it. As a consequence, John Carter of Mars had its title changed, making it sound like a generic biopic unless you know of the books or have seen the trailer.

This may seem tangential, but my point is if the rot sets in and viewers turn away and/or bad reviews start to trickle in, the finger of blame would most likely aim at Jodie.

ETA: I'm not crazy about Jodie's version of the Doctor, and while I don't actively want her to leave, I wouldn't hate it if she did. But if there's gonna be anything changing, I'd rather it be the writing.

[Marsh.]

Oh definitely. It's a shame the blame would most likely fall to "failure of female Doctor" when actually it's proven the gender of the Doctor makes no difference.

[Rob!]

The thing is Chibnall is delivering the same sort of Doctor Who episodes he always has. The problem is most of Chibnall’s episodes like 42, The Hungry Earth, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, were always quite bland and that’s not a million miles from what we’re getting here. I’m waiting for that big episode where the main plot point of the series arc takes a twist but there doesn’t really seem to be one at this point.
I don’t actually like the idea of each episode being so standalone because with no two parters, nothing is being given time to really breath. Season 7 was the same and that’s my least favourite.

[Rob!]

Also I do think it was a bad idea to not have any old monsters whatsoever. I’m all for giving the Daleks and the Cybermen a break but they should at least have had at least one episode with a returning villain just so there was a hint of familiarity for the fans that have been there since the start (of the 2005 series anyway.)

[Marsh.]

I did think before last week's episode that the problem lay in Chibnall just not being very good at sci-fi so we weren't going to get interesting concepts or any originality.

But after last week's I've noticed his dialogue is ****ing terrible too.

At least with Moffat and RTD, even if the episode itself was rather bad, their writing always elevated it.

With Chibnall you can practically see the Screenwriting 101 rules at play as he fits his story into a template/structure.

When Ryan took a break from the episode to tell Yaz about his mum I cringed. It wasn't natural, didn't fit, didn't flow and was terribly acted.

[Oliver_W]

I can't remember where I read this but someone pointed out a lot of his dialogue is things one might say sarcastically/ironically, but they're being written and performed to be sincere. That might be part of why it's so crap.

[Scarlett.]

The Doctor's character hasnt been fleshed out at all, she's not really gotten any depth to her since her first episode. She doesn't feel like the main character.

[BBUK-Fan]

This series is boring. The writing is crap.

[Rob!]

We should also remember that Chris Chibnall was the one who brought us “Cyberwoman” in Torchwood

[Oliver_W]

Jodie's best scene so far was her first - she crashed through the roof of the train, and immediately took charge and assessed the situation.

Since then, she's been a damp squib. How many other Doctors would need a room full of "best friends" to vouch for her that she knows what she's doing - were they trying to convince her or Mr Big? How many other Doctors would give up IN FRONT OF HUMAN COMPANIONS ON THEIR FIRST JOURNEY when the Tardis didn't immediately appear when they arrived early?

[Scarlett.]

I don't think the fault lies with Jodie, more with the writing.

[Marsh.]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

Jodie's best scene so far was her first - she crashed through the roof of the train, and immediately took charge and assessed the situation.

Since then, she's been a damp squib. How many other Doctors would need a room full of "best friends" to vouch for her that she knows what she's doing - were they trying to convince her or Mr Big? How many other Doctors would give up IN FRONT OF HUMAN COMPANIONS ON THEIR FIRST JOURNEY when the Tardis didn't immediately appear when they arrived early?

This is what I'm not understanding she still seems to be having episode 1 scenes of figuring herself out "I think I might be socially awkward" or "I normally do this type of thing well... I think" and it's not helped.

Other Doctors had one adjustment episode and then they were away.

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Dia.

I don't think the fault lies with Jodie, more with the writing.

Sure but I was using Jodie as a shorthand. While she doesn't have much of a commanding presence or charisma most of my problems with her Doctor are in the writing. Peter Davison is the kind of Doctor she could be if better written.

Originally Posted by Marsh.

This is what I'm not understanding she still seems to be having episode 1 scenes of figuring herself out "I think I might be socially awkward" or "I normally do this type of thing well... I think" and it's not helped.

Other Doctors had one adjustment episode and then they were away.

To be fair Capaldi had nearly a season of "am I a good man or bad man", but that was almost an arc itself - it was leading up to "I'm not good or bad, I'm just an idiot with a box, I don't need an army!"

[Scarlett.]

Something I forgot...

I wonder what the doctor and nurse were discussing before the Doctor woke up? Also why the Doctor was in pain throughout the episode?

[Marsh.]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

To be fair Capaldi had nearly a season of "am I a good man or bad man", but that was almost an arc itself - it was leading up to "I'm not good or bad, I'm just an idiot with a box, I don't need an army!"

Not quite the same thing, that was an actual character arc/character development.

This is just the Doctor being shocked by her own quirks and not quite sure who the feck she is. She should be into that by now. She still looks shellshocked whenever anyone calls her Doctor.

[Tom4784]

I'm enjoying the series so far but Chris Chibnall does need to be replaced, his writing is weak.

I like Jodie's Doctor but she hasn't been given much chance to shine so far and that's because they've spent too long focusing on the companions when it's only really Graham who is likeable atm. Ryan's actor CAN'T act and they keep forgetting to give Yaz any meaningful development. I hope we get an episode where it's Jodie on her own so that we don't have to spend scenes dealing with Ryan's dull backstory.

[Scarlett.]

Originally Posted by Marsh.

Not quite the same thing, that was an actual character arc/character development.

This is just the Doctor being shocked by her own quirks and not quite sure who the feck she is. She should be into that by now. She still looks shellshocked whenever anyone calls her Doctor.

Capaldi's Doctor changed so much from Deep Breath to Twice Upon a Time.

He went from a super serious, angry, "no hugging" Doctor, to a kind rockstar grandad. The transformation made sense too.

[Braden]

Moffat's conclusions always dragged. Chibnall may not be the best, but it's refreshing to be able to follow an episode from start to finish and not feel like you still have to wait for everything to make sense. It probably doesn't help that I would miss a lot of Moffat's episodes, but that had a lot to do with his uninspiring storytelling. Matt Smith's first series was quite similar to the RTD era, but there was still something off about the transition. When S6 aired, I'd completely given up because splitting the series was a terrible decision and the first episode was so, so bad. It was just a cluster**** of trying to make sense of a load of tosh.

It's strange because I really, really love Sherlock, and I think that show is thought-provoking done right. But I think Moffatt went above and beyond the realms of sense in the "Whoniverse" so to speak, more to do with storytelling than his ideas. I could never get into it. There were many things about Moffatt's era I should've loved, like Missy for example, but even that wasn't enough to reignite my interest.

[Marsh.]

Tbf, the first episode of season 6 isn't difficult to understand.

[Braden]

Utter rubbish, regardless of whether I understood it or not, tbh. It was an episode that set up a ****-ton of questions, which I then ended up not giving a damn about the answers. In fact, none of the S6 episodes I watched were good, imho, but I'm sure people will disagree. The only one I remember that came close to being somewhat watchable was The God Complex.

[Marsh.]

The only questions were who and what shot the Doctor and why. Everything else was answered within that two-parter.

I'm not a Moffatt lover at all and thought he overdid the "complexity" to a stupid degree. But The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon weren't really one of them.

[Scarlett.]

The S6 openers were quite good, the rest of the season is where it fell apart.

[Braden]

Originally Posted by Marsh.

The only questions were who and what shot the Doctor and why. Everything else was answered within that two-parter.

I'm not a Moffatt lover at all and thought he overdid the "complexity" to a stupid degree. But The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon weren't really one of them.

I never really attributed the complexity to that particular episode, I just mentioned that it was really, really bad. I don't even remember it being a two-parter, lmao.

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Dia.

Capaldi's Doctor changed so much from Deep Breath to Twice Upon a Time.

He went from a super serious, angry, "no hugging" Doctor, to a kind rockstar grandad. The transformation made sense too.

urgh I miss Capaldi so much, he's a brilliant performer and would be able to make something of the crap writing..

Originally Posted by Dia.

The S6 openers were quite good, the rest of the season is where it fell apart.

Yeah S6 was a bit of a drag. I liked some of the episodes, especially the Flesh ones though.