The BBC and Russell T Davis confirm that the DR Who Christmas special has been cancelled, as yet no script had been produced and no actor found to play the doctor. Also Russell T Davis will be be leaving and the BBC will be putting production out to tender in accordance with its charter.

To me it looks as if no money was forthcoming or could be found so the plugged was pulled.

I only really know the Doctor Who series from the many card sets that were made and even then I'm only interested in the autographs. Topps did a good job when it had the license, but RA did even better with the quality of signers. I know Doctor Who plays on some channels in the US, but none that I subscribe to. I also know that there are US fans because they dress up at ComicCon, but I really never hear anyone talk about it.

From what I understand reading both card backs and other sources, Doctor Who show runners have taken a very progressive stance in the last few series. That's fine, unless it gets out ahead of the audience's ideas and/or the storyline gets consumed by the message. In movies and TV shows, there is a balance that has to be maintained between making something socially relevant and entertaining to the average person.

I think the BBC has lost the balance with Who and others. Certainly old viewers were complaining, some of them here occasionally, but I guess the BBC only noticed when the money stopped flowing in.

I was hoping for more cards, but I don't know how well they were doing for RA. Surely they are still holding more Who Doctor and Companion autograph cards in the vault.

My brother and I watched some "Doctor Who" in the 70's when it was paired with "Space 1999" on Saturday evenings. We couldn't get into it. I haven't watched it since but once you start losing the core audience, you have to know you're doing something wrong to the show. That doesn't mean you can't get creative with who plays the doctor. The show is Doctor Who, not Mr. Who.

You have to have good stories and maybe do some stunt casting to bring in new viewers. Let some time go by. Find some writer/director who has a feeling for the old show and more recent shows - somebody who understands what the fans like. Get somebody to play Dr. Who who looks like an old school Dr. Who, but then when that season is over, get somebody no one would expect. What about Elizabeth Hurley as Dr. Who? I would check out that show.

From what I have read, between the 1963-1989 original show, the 1996 film, and the 2005-2025 revival, there have been over 890 episodes.

Maybe after 890 plus episodes, the show has run its course ?

Maybe they could try "Dr. What" or "Dr. Why".
No, even better would be "Dr. When".
I'd watch that!

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
From what I have read, between the 1963-1989 original show, the 1996 film, and the 2005-2025 revival, there have been over 890 episodes.

Maybe after 890 plus episodes, the show has run its course ?

At an average of 14 episodes a year, it's not exactly flooding the market. The problem with the later series - Capaldi onwards - was that the episodes were made with the showrunners "vision" rather than the Doctor Who vision. The actors were done a great disservice with poor stories.

quote:

Originally posted by Graham:

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
From what I have read, between the 1963-1989 original show, the 1996 film, and the 2005-2025 revival, there have been over 890 episodes.

Maybe after 890 plus episodes, the show has run its course ?

At an average of 14 episodes a year, it's not exactly flooding the market. The problem with the later series - Capaldi onwards - was that the episodes were made with the showrunners "vision" rather than the Doctor Who vision. The actors were done a great disservice with poor stories.

Agreed

Not cancelled. The Christmas special isn't happening but the show is out to tender - that's not cancellation. Just means Bad Wolf won't produce any more....

They may not be making a new "Doctor Who" right now, but David Tennant and Jodie Whittaker are working. Season 6 of "Only Murders in the Building" is filming in London and both former Doctors are onboard as guest stars, among a bunch of other British actors.

Appearing on this show has become the trendy thing to do for your bigger name high profile celebrities, some of whom generally not known to slum outside of films. The likes of Streep, Zellweger, Waltz, Rudd, Broderick, Delevingne, Schumer, Wiest, Sting and others have shown up in big and small roles over the years. With a different location, I guess the local talent wants to have a go, as they say.

I think either you like "Murders in the Building's" formula, or you don't. It's not so much about the season's murder story as it is about the banter between Steve Martin and Martin Short, with Selena Gomez thrown in for the viewers under 70. Either you find it amusing or annoying.

After multiple years it tends to run its course to annoying. I think the London change is supposed to freshen it up, but the formula will remain the same. The guest stars will have accents though.

The Media is saying Dr. Who and Star Trek Academy was cancelled because of "BAD WRITING"
not because they went "WOKE"
Hand up for anyone who believes that...

quote:

Originally posted by Daleks:
The Media is saying Dr. Who and Star Trek Academy was cancelled because of "BAD WRITING"
not because they went "WOKE"

Not being a Doctor Who viewer, I can't comment specifically about the show, although I am aware of what critics have said recently.

As a general comment, my opinion is that bad writing and the desire to include so-called "wokeness" are not necessarily two different things. One can lead to the other, or both things can be true at the same time.

You have existing characters in a long standing series and you have fans that like the show as it is. You have canon to the material. Yes, it's fine to introduce new ideas, but if you have to twist the storylines or the characters to fit those new ideas, the writers are going to have a problem.

I don't think it's so much a matter of labeling something as woke or not. I like it to be logical; within whatever was the logic of the story. When characters start doing things that is against their perceived nature just to advance the storyline, or just to hammer home someone's message, this is when you have bad writing. This is when you lose fans.

I have an article in my mailbox today that reads "BBC announces 550 job cuts" and it will "close programmes as part of the first wave of savings under its new director-general", with 2,000 job losses to come over the next three years". Who gets the axe is not reported yet, but it will "have a direct impact on programming and output, and audiences will also notice the effects".

So this is bigger than Doctor Who alone and shows that whatever the BBC mindset was doing resulted in lost revenue. As I understand it, while the BBC is not a total monopoly, it is publicly funded and has certain advantages in licensing over other channels operating in the country. So, they have been losing public tax money.

On a much smaller level we have the PBS network in the US that was getting substantial funding from the government, as well as private donations. Recently the government funding was pulled because of the political clash with the current administration. PBS has also started to slash programming, while asking for more donations. And if you are not in the US, it was quite true that the PBS news reporting went overwhelming in one direction only. So like the increasing BBC complaints, these money problems have been coming for a long time without any plans of what to do about it.

The not so funny part for me is that PBS is the only public station carrying quite a few of the British mystery TV shows that I like to watch, along with "Masterpiece" that has dramas like "Downton Abbey". I might have to get BritBox or something. Of course, if the BBC cancels my favorites because that island filming costs too much, there will be no point.

I didn't know "Only Murders in the Building" has already done five seasons. I've seen only the first season when it was repeated on the ABC network a couple of years ago. I thought it was funny. My brother has seen at least parts of other seasons and it got old for him.

Martin is brilliant and Short is great though I wonder if he is sometimes slipping into becoming the ham he had parodied before.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
They may not be making a new "Doctor Who" right now, but David Tennant and Jodie Whittaker are working. Season 6 of "Only Murders in the Building" is filming in London and both former Doctors are onboard as guest stars, among a bunch of other British actors.

Appearing on this show has become the trendy thing to do for your bigger name high profile celebrities, some of whom generally not known to slum outside of films. The likes of Streep, Zellweger, Waltz, Rudd, Broderick, Delevingne, Schumer, Wiest, Sting and others have shown up in big and small roles over the years. With a different location, I guess the local talent wants to have a go, as they say.

I think either you like "Murders in the Building's" formula, or you don't. It's not so much about the season's murder story as it is about the banter between Steve Martin and Martin Short, with Selena Gomez thrown in for the viewers under 70. Either you find it amusing or annoying.

After multiple years it tends to run its course to annoying. I think the London change is supposed to freshen it up, but the formula will remain the same. The guest stars will have accents though.

Raven -- my wife loves the British mystery shows. We just finished binging "Patience". Look into torrents to get them.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:
Raven -- my wife loves the British mystery shows. We just finished binging "Patience". Look into torrents to get them.

Your wife may know this already. "Patience" is the English version of a French TV show called "Astrid". I saw "Astrid" first and really liked it. The drawback is that you have to read subtitles or speak French. I think there have been 4 seasons, but I've only been able to see 3 so far. The actresses who play the main characters have great chemistry together.

Last year "Patience" came on PBS and surprisingly the episodes are exactly the same plots, in the exact same order as "Astrid", no subtitles necessary here. I didn't really care for the dynamic of the British cast and actually preferred "Astrid".

Now the 2nd season of "Patience" has come on, and the detective role has been switched to another character and a different actress. Again, the first episode was from "Astrid", but it looks like they are trying to change the relationship of the characters a bit. Maybe I wasn't the only one who didn't think they were meshing well.

Not sure how to look into torrents. I stream most of the British shows and still pick up DVDs when available. If she hasn't seen them, try "Death in Paradise", "Beyond Paradise", "Brokenwood Mysteries", "Queens of Mystery", "Professor T", "The Mallorca Files", both "Magpie Murders & Moonflower Murders", My Life Is Murder", "Shakespeare and Hathaway", "Above Suspicion", the first "Broadchurch" and a one off she may not know called "Chasing Shadows" that never got a 2nd year, but should have. I could think of some more to recommend if she is running low.

I also am proud to own the complete DVD series of Miss Marple movies with the great Dame Margaret Rutherford. So you can see what you are dealing with here.

The Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple films are a poor comparison to the Joan Hickson Miss Marple BBC series which was/is available on Blu Ray in the US and I would not bother with the ITV versions. The Hickson versions compare far better to the book story lines than to both the Rutherford and ITV versions. In fact the ITV versions have many changes to the story line which include different killers and Miss Marple inserted into stories she was never in. We have all the books bar one (Poirot's final case Curtain).

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:


Your wife may know this already. "Patience" is the English version of a French TV show called "Astrid". I saw "Astrid" first and really liked it. The drawback is that you have to read subtitles or speak French. I think there have been 4 seasons, but I've only been able to see 3 so far. The actresses who play the main characters have great chemistry together.

5 Seasons of Astrid, I have seen all Seasons in UK

This message has been edited. Last edited by: hammer,

Raven -- funny, we liked the British version better. The lead actress, Elly Maisey Purvis, is very endearing (although she seems much more of simply an introvert than she does a person on the autism spectrum), and Mark Benton is always good. We went through both seasons in a couple of evenings, and then started on the Belgian version and just didn't take to it.

quote:

If she hasn't seen them, try "Death in Paradise", "Beyond Paradise", "Brokenwood Mysteries", "Queens of Mystery", "Professor T", "The Mallorca Files", both "Magpie Murders & Moonflower Murders", My Life Is Murder", "Shakespeare and Hathaway", "Above Suspicion", the first "Broadchurch" and a one off she may not know called "Chasing Shadows" that never got a 2nd year, but should have.

We have seen, and have stored on hard drives, all of these except your last three (and since you recommended it, I just started downloading "Above Suspicion"; we may give it a try this weekend after it comes in). I think I would probably like Broadchurch (Olivia Colman is good in everything she does), but it isn't appealing to the wife so we've never started on it. She also likes Foyle's War, Inspector Morse and Lewis, Endeavour, Unforgotten, Shetland, Signora Volpe, Midsomer Murders, Poirot, Marple, Zen, New Tricks, Bookish, Slow Horses, Professor T (UK and Belgian), A Taste for Murder, Art Detectives, Inspector Lynley (old and the remake), Chelsea Detective, Death Valley, Down Cemetery Road, Code of Silence, Father Brown, Sister Boniface, Maigret (the Rowan Atkinson version) Marlow Murder Club, McDonald and Dodds, Murder in Provence (I really like Roger Allam), Partners in Crime, Pie in the Sky, Rosemary and Thyme, Madame Blanc Mysteries, Prime Suspect 1973, Case Histories, Recipes for Love and Murder, Darby and Joan, Doctor Blake, Mr. and Mrs. Murder, and the non-mysteries Ghosts (UK version) and Detectorists (which is just about my all-time favorite series.) There are probably more, but these are what I could come up with quickly. And we have some terabyte drives with rips of nearly all of these.

She has a streaming subscription to Britbox, and recently let Acorn lapse (but will likely pick it up again before long).

Torrents are a file protocol that allows the sharing/distribution of files over the internet. Some people think it is ethically wrong; I view it as akin to friends sharing videotapes. If you want a tutorial, email me (my address is in my profile) and I'll write you a "how-to" guide.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:
We have seen, and have stored on hard drives, all of these except your last three (and since you recommended it, I just started downloading "Above Suspicion"; we may give it a try this weekend after it comes in). I think I would probably like Broadchurch (Olivia Colman is good in everything she does), but it isn't appealing to the wife so we've never started on it. And we have some terabyte drives with rips of nearly all of these.

She has a streaming subscription to Britbox, and recently let Acorn lapse (but will likely pick it up again before long).

Torrents are a file protocol that allows the sharing/distribution of files over the internet. Some people think it is ethically wrong; I view it as akin to friends sharing videotapes. If you want a tutorial, email me (my address is in my profile) and I'll write you a "how-to" guide.

Thanks Bill, sounds like you have a bigger collection than even me. My computer skills never got above barely functional, and my laptop isn't state of the art, so that's why I never got into stuff like torrents. I have seen at least some seasons of most of the titles you mentioned, a few I don't know and will look into. I've been thinking of signing up to Britbox if PBS stops broadcasting these shows. Still get many DVDs from Acorn, Amazon and even Walmart if you order online.

"Above Suspicion" is about murder, but also the workings of the police squad. It stars Kelly Reilly, pre "Yellowstone", and Ciaran Hinds. All 4 series hold together with an interesting ending. You mention "New Tricks". That was one of the first British shows I watched religiously. It totally fell apart about 2 years before it ended, when all the original cast had already left, but it was my favorite in the beginning.

About "Broadchurch", I watched it all but only really liked the first series and then it got a little too much. It's grim, so I don't think I'd recommend the series unless you like that. It's a little like "The Fall" and "Prime Suspect", which were gripping dramas, but sometimes difficult to sit through. In particular "The Fall" was a nasty piece of work.

To JOHN LEVITT, I have seen some of the BBC Agatha Christie series of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. I get why the stories are treated like gospel in the UK, but they are very dry for my taste. I saw the most recent TV remake of "Ten Little Indians" that was very true to the book. I still much prefer the old movie with Barry Fitzgerald and Walter Huston that was not, but is a classic.

The Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple series of films was done as camp, even back in the early 60's. They are not serious or reverent to the source material, and not comparable to Joan Hickson's portrayal of Marple in any way. It's like "The Runaway Bus", another excellent comedy that Rutherford did earlier.

So, you have to take them as comedies just using the name and not literally Miss Marple mysteries.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

About "Broadchurch", I watched it all but only really liked the first series and then it got a little too much. It's grim, so I don't think I'd recommend the series unless you like that. It's a little like "The Fall" and "Prime Suspect", which were gripping dramas, but sometimes difficult to sit through. In particular "The Fall" was a nasty piece of work.

I'm so sorry, but this made me laugh. What do you expect? An episode of Glee? They're supposed to be murder/drama/psychological thrillers involving dark subjects and all of those were masterpiece TV. If a drama gets you checking your own locks and windows afterwards it's good.
I guess it's personal taste. But they were universally popular in the UK and elsewhere.