Doctor Who: What Is To Come

Hi there!

This weekend is a double shot of Doctor Who.

Today we look forward.

First of all, instead of a Christmas special, we have a special for New Year’ Day.

The Doctor warns, “This is the DNA of the most dangerous creature in the universe. It’s not gonna stop until it’s taken control of this planet. It’s gonna kill anyone that gets in its path.”

“Does it have a name?” asks Graham, to silence from the Doctor.   

Graham making a point of asking for a name and the Doctor’s dramatic pause suggests this great and terrible threat is known to us.

Is it’s name “Dalek”?

Chris Chibnall made a big deal about not revisiting any of Doctor Who’s classic foes in Series 11 but enough is enough. OK, we can get through 10 episodes of Doctor Who without resorting to Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, Ice Warriors, the Master and other menaces and threats that have come before. I think it was good to show Doctor Who can move forward without relying on old foes and old threats. But enough is enough. The classic monsters are as much a part of Doctor Who as the TARDIS. 

I saw one theory that the title of the New Year’s special of “Resolution” is not complete, that the actual title might be “Resolution of the Daleks”. 

The Daleks, off the table for a few years, are back with a new resolve to once more kick humanity in the ass.

The Doctor is equally resolved to kick them back and harder.

I could get behind that.

Sadly, the New Year’s Special is the only new episode of Doctor Who we will get in 2019.

The BBC confirmed that Series 12 will not debut until 2020. 

Well, at least it will be early 2020 so there’s that going for us, I guess. 

Still, a whole year without new Doctor Who?

We went down this road is 2016 but this was after 10 years of some new Doctor Who every year. 2008 was the year of the specials and Series 7 was split over two years from 2012 to 2013. And we had two years of Peter Capaldi’s Doctor before the break.

Jodie Whittaker defied the naysayers and proved to be a most excellent Doctor. She hit the ground running but now that awesome momentum is lost. With only 11 episodes to keep us warm from January 2, 2019 to whenever is “early” in 2020 is a bit of a let down.  

Why is this happening?

There’s scuttlebutt that Chris Chibnall didn’t want the pressure of delivering a new series of Doctor Who each year, that he took the gig with the understanding he would have a skip year. I know Chibnall came into Doctor Who all hot stuff from his run on Broadchurch but Doctor Who is different and the fans have certain expectations. It’s bad enough to have Series 11 reduced to only 10 episodes down from 12 to 13 but to think he would only have to do this once every other year. Who does Chris Chiball think he is?

Assuming this is Chris’s fault. Maybe other stuff was wonky behind the scenes and Chris would actually rather be making new Doctor Who sooner than later. The thing is that the formal announcement that Jodie Whittaker was coming back for Series 12 was only made last week. Is it possible that Chris and the BBC did not have their Doctor locked down yet? 

Could other factors have played into this? From the BBC announcement about Doctor Who returning in 2020, it also appears that Tosim Cole, Mandip Yip and Bradley Walsh are returning as well as Ryan, Yaz and Graham. Of the three, Graham has been a break out character from Series 11 and of the three, Bradley Walsh is very much in demand as an actor and presenter.  In addition to a down to the wire commitment to get Jodie Whittaker back, the much in demand Bradley Walsh needed time to take on another series of Doctor Who. 

Whatever the reasons, the BBC’s heart or their shoes, Doctor Who’s next season will not be happening until 2020.

How, oh how, will we ever pass the time?

Fan fictions!

Oh, saints preserve us, anything but that. 

Tomorrow, we look to the past as I rate episodes 6 through 10 of Series 11. Next week, I will do a post for the entire season.