TV Well there we go. Not much you can say about this.
Actually no. There's plenty to say about this. But let's take it a step at a time.
(1) That the next series of Doctor Who would be delayed until 2017 was obvious. No sign of writers being in place and the Doctor Who Experience running tours about the set until at least June indicated that the series would start broadcasting either late this year or next. Given the Winter series have been a ratings disaster because of dealing with Strictly on a Saturday night, delaying broadcast of the next one until Spring 2017 starting in the old Easter slot seemed the next best choice. No new main series Doctor Who until next Christmas then. That should make rewatching the show an interesting experience in the future with two Christmas specials next to each other. PLUS we know the show's going to be on television until 2018. Even if ...
(2) Fucks sake.
The headlines are already beginning the revision. "Broadchurch creator" they say as though the first decent season Broadchurch nullifies the litany of simply bad television Chris Chibnall's been involved in over the years.
The man who wrote Cyberwoman, Countrycide and End of Days is now in charge of Doctor Who. Amazing.
There was a stink of inevitability though wasn't there? With the obvious heir apparent Mark Gatiss clearly not interested, the list wasn't otherwise huge.
My preference would have been for someone who hasn't worked on the show before, for the whole thing to have an entirely fresh new direction. But the BBC's bottled it.
Last time it felt like it was in safe hands because it was being passed on to the man who wrote Blink and Silence in the Library. It's been a problematic run, but it's impossible to deny that there hasn't been a fair amount of entertaining and classic episodes.
Now the writer of 42, The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and The Power of Three is in charge.
This dude on the far end in the yellow tie:
Even his episodes of Life on Mars were thin.
He did also write the webisodes Pond Life which were fun and manage to transcribe Law & Order for ITV efficiently. Oh and I did enjoy The Great Train Robbery.
(3) Now I've got that out of my system, it is just possible with full creative control and a couple of years to think about it, Chibnall might turn out something spectacular. All of his previous Doctor Who work has been under other showrunners and faced numerous production problems and by the time he takes over Torchwood will mostly have been ten years ago for him. There are lots of people on the social media who seem to think this is a great idea. Perhaps he'll cast Romola as the next Doctor and give her something interesting to say. Perhaps. But I can't lie about my initial reaction which was to mimic Heston at the end of Planet of the Apes.
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