Doctor Who Regeneration 03: Reversing the Polarity

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Quick News: Ezra, Creator, Girls, Bond, Who - Dark Horizons
The first episode Ncuti will star in as the Fifteenth Doctor, the fourth 2023 special to air at Xmas, has been confirmed to air on Christmas Day and will be called The Church on Ruby Road

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https://nypost.com/2023/11/11/news/sleuths-refuse-to-give-lost-doctor-who-episodes-to-the-bbc/amp/

Two lost First Doctor episodes are reportedly found but those with them won't hand them to the BBC

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The Children in Need special - According to RTD this representation of Davros is the one that will be used moving forward with no more use of the traditional disabled and deformed well known version. The reference by the Doctor to a rupture in the Timeline of the Canon might be our first hint at an explaination of the specials events.

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Unsurprisingly, already seen the usual papers trying to stir up the extent of public outrage over the Davros change.

Does raise one interesting angle of consideration though. By the case made of avoiding the evil + disabled trope you basically establish a rule that no villain can ever have a disability. I'm not sure how solely able bodied villains lands compared to having an established balanced portrayal of disabled characters both good and bad which would surely be the best response?

As far as Davros is concerned, the idea of exploring an earlier incarnation of him is interesting though the idea that he doesn't end up ultimately in the casing doesn't make the most sense given the ideology of the character.

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By the case made of avoiding the evil + disabled trope you basically establish a rule that no villain can ever have a disability.

Rule? Really? That seems like a massive stretch. This is about one person’s take on one particular character.

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Potentially though it seems like it will be in place for a long time as RTD's Bad Wolf is now in full production control of the show so even when he steps away from being hands on he will retain an element of involvement and the sentiment seems to be that this is an effectively 'permanent' stance so I'd assume it would be most likely to be flexible again a long time from now.

I'm starting to increasingly wonder back on that 'rupture in the timeline of the canon' line being a nod to the specials covering an event that sees the shows canon completely revamped. It would basically allow them to enshrine the existing 60 years of content whilst freeing them up to start semi-fresh as well and not contradict themselves in what they re-invent. Essentially pulling off a Kelvin Timeline moment.

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Does raise one interesting angle of consideration though. By the case made of avoiding the evil + disabled trope you basically establish a rule that no villain can ever have a disability. I'm not sure how solely able bodied villains lands compared to having an established balanced portrayal of disabled characters both good and bad which would surely be the best response?

Davros was a deformed person on wheels with a distorted voice. Hats off to RTD for realising that's not a great example of representation for disabled kids!

Nobody is saying disabled actors can't play villains.

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It's not really about the casting of disabled actors though, just that when coming up with villains, by making a point about Davros (even though his arc to a more Dalek like state makes sense for him) for these reasons, it's the same as saying they will only use non-disabled villains to avoid the same issue in future. I'm not sure they need to go full tilt with him though, him gaining a more electronic voice and alien look in time closer to his traditional appearance is part of the point of the character. It's more that the show needs to do a better job in having positive character representation.

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Today is the official 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who
The recolourised, redited version of the Daleks First Doctor introduction story launches on iPlayer today

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We watched The Daleks on iPlayer, the new recolourised version and impressively it held the kids attention for its whole 75m run time.


Also:

The Star Beast
Despite the way in which this is something of an event for the show there's not too much that can be said. Not for any real negative reason but more because it would be a retread of past thoughts because you could pick this up and drop it in 2010's run very easily. It's so incredibly close to Series 4 that barring a handful of tiny references it's like Doctors 11-13 never happened. The budget is higher but it's a stretch to say it's by the scale that the BBCesque budget corners are gone. The new Tardis is big, looks okay and I suspect will develop and look better in time. The return of Tennant and Donna is gold and there's no ounce of rust to either. Most importantly, it was just so much better than it's been in years out of the gate so hopefully, as the show gets settled back into its production groove, we're set for some real peaks in the coming years.

Series 01 - 4 Strong Episodes (Total 4 for Eccleston)
Series 02 - 2 Strong Episodes
Series 03 - 3 Strong Episodes
Series 04 - 8 Strong Episodes (Total 15 for Tennant)
Series 05 - 3 Strong Episodes
Series 06 - 5 Strong Episodes
Series 07 - 4 Strong Episodes (Total 12 for Smith)
Series 08 - 2 Strong Episodes
Series 09 - 3 Strong Episodes
Series 10 - 3 Strong Episodes (Total 8 for Capaldi)
Series 11 - 2 Strong Episodes
Series 12 - 1 Strong Episode
Series 13 - 1 Strong Episode (Total 4 for Whittaker)
Series 14 - 0 Strong Episodes (Total 0 for Tennant)

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Wild Blue Yonder
It's had rave responses but I think some of that is people just getting caught up the hysteria that the show is interesting again. This is a solid episode but I didn't get any of the creepy horror vibe that people have cited. The opening 15 minutes kind of meandered about quite a bit and there's plenty of recycled ideas as well but once it picked up pace it was at least fun and a quite typical episode. No idea why they were so secretive about it however, nothing major happened with the most notable moment being the last ever scene recorded by Bernard Cribbins

Series 01 - 4 Strong Episodes (Total 4 for Eccleston)
Series 02 - 2 Strong Episodes
Series 03 - 3 Strong Episodes
Series 04 - 8 Strong Episodes (Total 15 for Tennant)
Series 05 - 3 Strong Episodes
Series 06 - 5 Strong Episodes
Series 07 - 4 Strong Episodes (Total 12 for Smith)
Series 08 - 2 Strong Episodes
Series 09 - 3 Strong Episodes
Series 10 - 3 Strong Episodes (Total 8 for Capaldi)
Series 11 - 2 Strong Episodes
Series 12 - 1 Strong Episode
Series 13 - 1 Strong Episode (Total 4 for Whittaker)
Series 14 - 0 Strong Episodes (Total 0 for Tennant II)​