Dr. Who - Series 11 (2018)

[Paul.Uni]

Are TV viewing figures still based on monitoring a sample of a few thousand volunteers and then extrapolating the data? That method certainly captured people recording and watching later.

Depends on the type of viewing figures. I suspect that the viewing figures quoted are the overnights, which I don't think include recordings (or if it does only those that watch the recording on Sunday evening).

 

Final Figures so far:

The Woman Who Fell To Earth 10.90 million (10.50 on TV) http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2018/10/the-woman-who-fell-to-earth-tops-charts.html

The Ghost Monument 9.00 million (8.67 million on TV) http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2018/10/the-ghost-monument-official-ratings.html

 

This chart shows the final ratings for episodes of series 1 - 10 (excludes specials) https://i1.wp.com/blogtorwho.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/DW-Series-1-to-10-Ratings.jpg

 

A drop of 2 million viewers between episodes 1 and 3 doesn't worry me as Doctor Who has done that before. Plus The Woman Who Fell To Earth had similar final ratings to Series One episode Rose.

[rovex]

Doctor Who was originally envisaged as a programme that was aimed at children introducing them to science concepts and history.

 

Quite a few of the first and second Doctor stories (William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton - not the other lot for our younger readers) were purely history based without any actual monsters or aliens (I'm thinking "the Reign of Terror", "the Romans", "the Gunfighters" and "the Highlanders").

 

This most recent story could have be seen in that light - were it not for the need to introduce a probably redundant "time Nazi", and the story might well have played better without him.

 

Of course the whole informative agenda was fatally undermined in the second story when the Daleks made their first appearance and the purely history stories ended in Patrick Troughton's era, after which monsters were "de rigeur".

[The Stationmaster]

Actually, Mike, it wasn't that bad. There were a few things that were a bit "preachy" (such as the comment from Yasmin about coming back from the Mosque), but generally I found that it was a fairly interesting story. However (and this is a BIG however), two things really let it down: the first was the poor reaction of Graham (Bradley Walshe's character) to seeing his grandson slapped. Someone who had spent his working life as a bus driver frequently dealing with often alcoholic and unstable passengers, would have probably clocked the guy who slapped the kid. The second, and more importantly, was the villain's motives. That far in the future white vs non-white is hardly going to be an issue (more like humans vs tentacled, scaly things). What if, say, the villain was an alien who travelled back in time to prevent Rosa Parks from boarding the bus did so as he (nah, IT) realised that by preventing the civil rights movement from really getting going (owing to no Rosa Parks "trigger" moment) Earth would still be riven by internecine warfare and easy pickings for its' particular mob of tentacled monstrosities when they turned up X centuries later.

 

However, it does show the weakness of the writers. SciFi doesn't have to be realistic, nor apolitical (much SciFi is a mirror of humanity and able to make salient points about that) but there has to be a logic to what characters do. What the bad guy in the first episode was/did had a certain amount of logic to it (flimsy as it might have been). But the villain on Sunday's episode really had no logic behind the decision to try and do what he tried and didn't.

 

A little bit of "moral nudging" is OK (Dr Who has always had a moral streak in it), but please, can it be with at least some lip service to logic and consistency?

 

The Russell T Davies era included quite a lot of 'moral nudging' but it was done with a very deft touch and without losing the originality of the Dr Who idea.

 

However at least R4 provided a real treat yesterday with a reworking for radio of Nigel Kneale's original tv play 'The Road'.  Still had more than enough resonance of the original for me to recognise what it was fairly early on in the broadcast although the ending was a bit more difficult to portray on radio.  But it must have really impressed me sufficiently back in 1963 to recognise it as basically the same thing over 50 years later.  Definitely recommended if you can get it on BBC iPlayer and like a very original story (from the man who created Quatermass) but didn't like his work being referred to as sci-fi. 

[John Isherwood]

So - (as they say) - landfill and evil capitalist would-be Presidents of the USA this week !!

 

Anyone taking bets on next week's PC theme?

 

Global warming, the evils of eating meat, heterosexualism, fracking ...............................?????????

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

Edited October 28, 2018 by cctransuk

[caradoc]

Well, halfway through tonight's episode I gave up on Doctor Who. I could just about take the PC and political leaning stuff, the final straw for me was the Doctor insisting on humanely dealing with the giant spiders about to kill and eat them all. I'm out.

[jjb1970]

One of the things that gave the show some impact after it's re-birth was that there was a real edge to the Doctor, under the affability and general all round good fellow-ness the time war back story created a character who was capable of terrible things and throughout the various series every now and then the mask would slip to show what the Doctor was capable of. That dark underside gave the character a bit more depth and interest. If they throw that away the show will be much poorer for it.

[pete_mcfarlane]

I guess they wanted to make John Wyndham's 'Web' but couldn't afford to film it on a tropical island so had to make do with Park Hill flats instead....

[mswjr]

Well im out, After last weeks episode, Did not even try this episode, Reading above confirms it for me, Shame really as i did like Dr who,  

[jjb1970]

I half watched it tonight, by which I mean it was on the TV but I was concentrating more on reading Herbert Asbury's "The Barbary Coast" which was much more interesting and enjoyable. My two kids didn't bother even that half watching and were off doing something else. So I am not sure I'll bother tuning in again next week.

[pete_mcfarlane]

It was OK. Very derivative, but a big improvement over last week. Having a Donald Trump stand-in as the main human antagonist didn't entirely work, and whoever wrote the episode obviously failed their Science GCSEs/O-Levels. The biggest problem was that it all feels a little bit ephemeral compared to previous series. 

 

I'm now trying to work out when in the series Graham and Ryan will finally bond as Grandson and Grandfather, and which one will die 5 minutes later. 

[jjb1970]

The whole thing just feels like they've ran out of ideas and that re-inventing the Doctor as a woman is some effort to compensate for this. The whole thing feels like we've seen it and done it all before.

[John Isherwood]

The whole thing just feels like they've ran out of ideas and that re-inventing the Doctor as a woman is some effort to compensate for this. The whole thing feels like we've seen it and done it all before.

 

...... but with a sickening overdose of PC, forcibly administered to the dying programme.

 

RIP Doctor Who - you could save the Galaxy from the combined alien entities of the Universe, but when the BBC PC police were unleashed, you didn't stand a chance!!

 

.... and to think that we pay a licence fee for this rubbish.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

[jjb1970]

.... and to think that we pay a licence fee for this rubbish.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

Whether or not you watch the BBC at all is irrelevant to having to pay the TV tax. Personally I think it stinks but there we go. We have more broadcasters and channels than you can shake a stick at, the others of which have to pay for themselves via advertising and subscription or whatever other means they can dream up but if you want to watch them you still have to pay a TV tax for the BBC. I'd happily lose access to the BBC if it was made a subscription service (it's not like the technology hasn't been there for years) however I don't have that choice.

[grahame]

Putting aside the PC themes being forcefully rammed down viewers (and yes, I agree it's a big problem elephant for this series) last night's story seemed to run out of steam and simply collapsed in to a strange morrass of sorting itself out with no discernible wrap-up denouement and in a rush to get the gang back in to the TARDIS and off on another adventure.

 

G

[RedgateModels]

LOL, OK #2 son finally scared. SWMBO didn't want to watch after he went to bed either. No great loss to the evening ......

[phil-b259]

The whole thing just feels like they've ran out of ideas and that re-inventing the Doctor as a woman is some effort to compensate for this. The whole thing feels like we've seen it and done it all before.

 

I don't mind the gender change - and stand by my assertion that Jodie could be a fantastic Dr if only she is given decent scripts not smothered in Politically Correct lecturing by the do gooders at the BBC.

 

I fear that if the ratings for this series are bad the blame will unfairly fall on the gender change concept - which actually offers all sorts of interesting themes to expand on.

[hayfield]

Whether or not you watch the BBC at all is irrelevant to having to pay the TV tax. Personally I think it stinks but there we go. We have more broadcasters and channels than you can shake a stick at, the others of which have to pay for themselves via advertising and subscription or whatever other means they can dream up but if you want to watch them you still have to pay a TV tax for the BBC. I'd happily lose access to the BBC if it was made a subscription service (it's not like the technology hasn't been there for years) however I don't have that choice.

 

 

In the past I would have agreed with you about paying for the BBC, however recently I have been listening to both radio more and watching more BBC programs. After the Bodyguard it looks like a new top class serial is following. As for Dr Who I am enjoying the new series and if the Beeb went commercial many would be cursing the adverts

 

For years we have had to put up with some in the entertainment business thinking they should be our moral guardians and feeding us with left wing and liberal ideas, whilst others making the headlines for some very unpleasant activities. The old saying you can please some of the people some of the time is quite true. As far as Dr Who, its is light entertainment and is to be taken that way.

 

I have enjoyed the series so far and have found the migration to a new character much easier that the past 2 regenerations (all of which in the end I got used to). Peter Capaldi whilst being a superb Dr was a bit dark, Jodie's character has gone the other way. 

[OFFTHE RAILS]

I'm irritated by the actors talking over the continuous music and sound effects. The latter are quite entertaining but ruined by the mumbling of the cast......

[kevinlms]

I don't mind the gender change - and stand by my assertion that Jodie could be a fantastic Dr if only she is given decent scripts not smothered in Politically Correct lecturing by the do gooders at the BBC.

 

I fear that if the ratings for this series are bad the blame will unfairly fall on the gender change concept - which actually offers all sorts of interesting themes to expand on.

I couldn't careless about the so called 'PC nonsense'. It is trivial at worst and can easily be ignored. What I want is a good story line.

 

Recent stories with fat blobs, dressed in a zip up suit, to impersonate Prime Ministers & other MPs, of other recent series, does not impress me, one little bit.

 

Although I do wonder if the likes of Donald Trump, Tony Abbott & Boris Johnson have been avidly following Dr Who!

[pete_mcfarlane]

Recent stories with fat blobs, dressed in a zip up suit, to impersonate Prime Ministers & other MPs, of other recent series, does not impress me, one little bit.

Wasn't that episode in 2005?

[kevinlms]

Wasn't that episode in 2005?

No idea, but I thought it was more recent than that. 

[Torper]

I have to confess that the gender change, done purely to placate the feminist lobby, was always going to be difficult for me to accept.  However, the poor story lines and characterisation, as well as the seemingly obligatory PC stuff haven't helped and I have regrettably now given up on this series.

 

DT

Edited October 29, 2018 by Torper

[MJI]

What happened to the hotel meglomaniac?

 

I think he should have been eaten by giant spiders.

[hayfield]

I have to confess that the gender change, done purely to placate the feminist lobby, was always going to be difficult for me to accept.  However, the poor story lines and characterisation, as well as the seemingly obligatory PC stuff haven't helped and I have regrettably now given up on this series.

 

DT

 

 

DT

 

That surprises me, after our previous exchange of ideas I would have though I would have been the more conservative in my views.

 

For me its not just being female but also having a slight northern accent and quotes which I like,

[Steamport Southport]

The whole thing just feels like they've ran out of ideas and that re-inventing the Doctor as a woman is some effort to compensate for this. The whole thing feels like we've seen it and done it all before.

 

The problem is there are some fantastic Doctor Who audio plays being produced. Some by companies such as Big Finish using the original actors and others done by fans. Just like Doctor Who was and how it should be IMO.

 

 

https://www.bigfinish.com/hubs/v/doctor-who

 

 

The writers and ideas are there, just that the BBC isn't using them. Even though the BBC broadcasts some of them on Radio Four Extra.

 

 

 

Jason