Chibnall is 100% Correct About This! Breaking Down the DOCTOR WHO Showrunner's Radio Times Interview

#DoctorWho

[benw]

Another thing with Chibnall pre-showrunner was he had to get heavily involved in the reworking of Power of Three because of Berkoff's bad behaviour to the extent where I think he had to work on the script during his holidays. It really makes me respect him how he's handled something of a hundred times bigger magnitude during his own tenure.

[tokublwhovian]

Verity Lambert (the first showrunner, who is also female) is Jewish. So, how the f*ck does Chris Chibnall being Jewish = he’s “ruined” Doctor Who 🙄

[leehalford]

I'll defend chibnall's right to produce dr who as he saw fit... such a shame the end results were so mediocre... but then again, I'm probably the only person in the UK who thinks "last jedi" was the best film in the most recent star wars trilogy.. despite its flaws..!

[ministerreverenddoctor]

While I agree that no show runner shouldn’t have to adhere to what the previous one did, my issue is more in Chibnall’s execution than the actual content itself. For example, when it comes to the Master, I don’t have a problem with the recast at all and frankly expected it, and I don’t have a problem with him being evil again post-Missy. The issue I take with the Chibnall Master being evil is that I don’t think he did a very good job of explaining why the Master is fully evil again when that contradicts Missy’s character arc and development. With Moffat’s retconning of RTD era events, there was a reason why those events weren’t remembered with the crack in time, and even then they were only retconned from Earth’s memory of alien events and not from the Doctor’s personal timeline, with 11 mentioning some of the things that happened with 10 even in the second half of his last series. The things that were retconned also weren’t super major story events in my opinion, and felt more like a reset for the sake of being able to have new adventures without being tied down to other things that may clash with each other. The Master between Moffat and Chibnall’s era is a different case, because with that Chibnall isn’t retconning something like the Cyber King, he’s effectively retconning Missy’s growth as a character without presenting a very good reason why. Yeah I guess he’s upset about Timeless Children stuff, but personally I don’t feel like that’s enough and I’ve never felt like that’s enough, so unless the last special (or at least Big Finish’s boxsets they’re doing with him) sheds more light on it, it won’t feel satisfying for me to see the Master completely evil right after we saw them become good. There’s nothing wrong with the Master being evil again, but myself and many others I’ve seen and talked to feel like Chibs dropped the ball on it. If he did a good job with transitioning between Missy and his Master, there wouldn’t be fan theories about him actually being an incarnation between RTD’s Master and Missy or speculation that there might be more that we don’t know. Retconning in a series like this is fine to a degree, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of character development.

[HandofOmega]

As much as I disliked Chibs' era, I will admit I do feel a little bad for the guy: Imagine being such a mega-fan as to be on tv talking about it in your teens, probably getting into television work because of it, finally getting your dream job to showrun it...only to have it turn out the way it did. Regardless of who or what is at fault, to see it all come crashing down like this would be heart-breaking. Best of luck in whatever else he ends up doing!

[peterd]

Chibnall didn't deliberately set out to destroy the show. It's a sign of his unsuitedness to be involved with the show that he managed to do it by accident. Yes, COVID caused trouble for series 13 but that doesn't explain the awful writing in series 11 and 12. It doesn't explain the horrifying wrongness of the Timeless Children. It doesn't explain the terrible writing from others that he encouraged. It doesn't explain the directors he hired. Nothing explains Orphan 55, Praxeus or Arachnids In The UK.

[ysthafellgynghori]

Chibnall's era was way better than Moffat's. No flying Cybermen, barns on Gallifrey, women walking out of puddles, egg-moons and spoonheads. Its a shame the sexists who hated the idea of a female Doctor would not give Jodie a chance. She was fantastic in the role. I expect that RTD's comeback series will also be criticised for having a 'gay' agenda just like his earlier Who series.

[Jansenbaker]

Just wanna say, I'm glad I subbed to you. I randomly found a video of yours a couple of days ago. This was good. I didn't know people were saying this, but I appreciate your words, because I didn't realize the troubles Chibnal had.
And you're right, I didn't notice all the ignoring of the past. They referenced it so naturally, it felt like a constant continuation.
But I wish we hadn't wasted time on not developing characters only to squeeze it in at the end.
I wish we had more episodes that felt like they had a good plot with good interactions.
I wish the Timeless Child thing hadn't made The Doctor a non-timelord.
I wish I didn't have to have a bunch of complaints about this.
It feels kinda like me and my family have been treading water, waiting for something actually interesting to happen. Even Flux ended up kinda meh.

Looking forward to seeing what ideas RTD has.
Sorry for the wall of text.

[mahfuzurchowdhury]

Whittaker needs an "Andrew Garfield Spider-Man" type redemption. Maybe, in a future special I'd love to see her be written under a far better writer.

[ReversedPolarity]

It's so disheartening how Chibnall was treated during his time on the show. Most of us know how he treated the show in his youth days (or rather how he was pulled by the BBC into doing that cringe event in the 80s), most of us know his stories suffered from imperfections and timing issues (even when he worked with RTD and Moffat) but he was the guy who carried the torch of a legacy show that is beyond tough to make and he did it to best of his abilities at a time when it was logistically difficult to make.

Honestly, I know Chris said he expects RTD to disregard his changes (because that's what the show usually did for almost 60 years), but the impact of his changes is still there, it's still relevant and showrunners are known to pass the challenges and plotholes to new showrunners. We know the show's timeline is always in flux (no pun intended), but I think some things did genuinely work with series 13 (even with the convoluted stuff).

[andrescarnederes]

Also, steven moffat was always being accused of hating rtd's era, he was accused of many ridiculous things. It's just now chris chibnall is the new punching bag. Reminds me of when steven announced he was leaving and chris was announced, chris was being hailed as a messiah.

[firedneavada]

I don't like who under chibnall, but i really admire what he was able to do and some of the chances he took. He did anything but play it safe in my book and for that i commend him

[MalevolentStudios]

If I'm honest, aside from his tampering with the doctor's past, the thing that irks me the most about Chibnall's era is the writing. More specifically, a lot of episodes tend to focus on too many plots simultaneously, rather than focusing on just a couple. The biggest example for me is Fugitive of the Judoon, where it seems like 2 or 3 episodes jammed packed and squeezed down into 1. (Like if episode 1 dealt with just the Judoon and ended on a cliffhanger with jo martin, then having a 2nd episode focusing entirely on the division/Jo Martin.)

[stevenbello]

I honestly don't get the negative flack Chib & 13 get, I really liked the seasons and wish they had more. I've watched all Who (Classic & new) and love all versions, none are perfect. But I guess there are some fans that feel the way I do about the new JJ Abrams Star Wars or Star Trek. I loath them.

[montyhedstrom]

Chibnall got stuck with a bad situation vis-a-vis covid. I feel bad for him on that front. He is still responsible for all the crappy writing and showrunning failures during his tenure. Poor writing and the like plagued his entire run not just the last bit.

[csam]

I kind of wish Chibnall had just been able to do serials from the start and he could have made ideas like the timeless child feel more thought out.

[mhollis]

Now, Jodie, whose underwhelming performance i also at least partially place on Chibs, I can forgive; we'd getting 14 soon enough.
My biggest problem is that 13 often felt just as lost and behind the curve, if not more so than her companions. Then at the 11th hour, she revealed that the techno babbled a solution offscreen.

Honestly, I'd still give Jodie a second shot. Just under better writing, and direction.

[HOTD_]

12:04 Yes, but then at the end of season 5 it's all restored when the Doctor reboots the universe. It's not like Moffat permeantly erased the RTD era.

[NealKlein]

It's not that I want to pile on Chibnall and ignore the effect of the pandemic on the last series. I like that you're electing to be fair to him. That's good analytical objectivity.

But Wil, he still is the showrunner. He's the guy who allowed "Orphan 55" and clearly didn't make Jodie's Doctor come into real focus. He has a huge responsibility to make the show worth one's time. He had to keep the audience's interest. In that, he failed.

Considering his criticisms he made on camera of the classic Who, it amazes me that he was guilty of making the show execrable and foreign. It's like he just gave up on making Doctor Who brilliant and varied. I love some of his touches, and especially the casting, but it takes a special disconnect to find a way to make this show so flat and disjointed.

I've watched the show since Tom Baker, and met many of the cast of that era. I loved the show most of my life. Chibnall did something even John Nathan-Turner failed to do: he made the show dull, even though he had more to work with.

[Natelu-Sama]

saying "moffat retconed the time war" is technically true, but nothing in the shows history has technically changed, we were just pervieving it wrong. to me thats fine, its using the shows history to tell stories, as well as leaning into time travel, which is a main theme of the show. i dont know that you can pull something like that off with the timeless child