Ncuti Gatwa is the Doctor

[iank]

On reflection, now the news has had time to settle in... yeah I don't think I'm coming back. I'll continue to point and laugh at this trainwreck from afar.
I see many in fandom are now celebrating solely because he has a penis, apparently still oblivious to the fact that he doesn't exactly suit the archetype of the Victorian gentleman that the character was supposed to be. But that's modern fandom for you, I guess...

[UncleDeadly]

"NCUTI DOGTHING IS THE DOCTOR!"

[ClockworkOcean]

I've been watching a few interviews with Gatwa about his casting, and the pseudo-leftist identitarian posturing is already here in full force.

Referring to the Doctor as "they"... "Representation"... "Diversity"... "Marginalised communities"... "Feeling seen"... "The message"... "Opening up conversations"... Note also the pronouns in his Instagram bio.

If you're getting your hopes up that this new era will mark the end of Doctor Who being whored out as a culture war propaganda tool, I think you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

Will it be better written than Chibnall's dreck? Of course, simply because Chibnall is the most uniquely incompetent excuse for a writer the industry has ever seen and absolutely anyone would be a significant step up. Likewise, how could anyone replacing someone as utterly unwatchable as Jodie not seem significantly better in the role?

I have no doubt that 2023 will see the show return to a degree of baseline competence and watchability that's been absent since 2017, but the prospect of a "basically competent, just about watchable" propaganda vehicle masquerading as my favourite show while going out of its way to disrespect and subvert the legacy it piggybacks on isn't one that excites me very much, and I'll be astonished if that isn't what this turns out to be.

[burrunjor]

May 10, 2022 12:55:54 GMT ClockworkOcean said:

I've been watching a few interviews with Gatwa about his casting, and the pseudo-leftist identitarian posturing is already here in full force.

Referring to the Doctor as "they"... "Representation"... "Diversity"... "Marginalised communities"... "The message"... "Opening up conversations"... Note also the pronouns in his Instagram bio.

If you're getting your hopes up that this new era will mark the end of Doctor Who being whored out as a culture war propaganda tool, I think you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

Will it be better written than Chibnall's dreck? Of course, simply because Chibnall is the most uniquely incompetent excuse for a writer the industry has ever seen and absolutely anyone would be a significant step up. Likewise, how could anyone replacing someone as utterly unwatchable as Jodie not seem significantly better in the role?

I have no doubt that 2023 will see the show return to a degree of baseline competence and watchability that's been absent since 2017, but the prospect of a "basically competent, just about watchable" propaganda vehicle masquerading as my favourite show while going out of its way to disrespect and subvert the legacy it piggybacks on isn't one that excites me very much, and I'll be astonished if that isn't what this turns out to be.

Pretty much my feelings too. 

I think RTD may draw back on the culture war stuff as he is a bit more savvy than Chibbers (though again how could he not be.) That said Chibnall may have pissed people off so much with his culture wars crap that even the tiniest amount of it in DW now might be enough to drive people off. Before people would put up with maybe the odd bit of preachiness like Jon Pertwee or David Teninch giving the odd speech, but now that could just make people think. "Oh f*ck not this again!"

We'll have to see. I will say though the reaction to this has been a lot better than Jodie. No hysteria which admittedly came from both sides. Just positive stuff from the Claudia Boleyn's, and neutral stuff from RTD fans like our good man Henshin, and I can't be bothered from old grouches like us LOL. At the very least that's a better atmosphere to be in. 

Only thing I do disagree with you on is I wouldn't judge this guy too much for spouting the usual SJW crap on his insta page, only because all actors have to these days. Freema Agyeman even had to give an interview a few months back about the racism she got from fans during the making of DW series 3. Isn't it funny? It passed without comment when she was actually cast, that she was black and she never mentioned any negative experiences at all, but now after 15 years, suddenly she remembers that everybody hated her for being black?

Again though I don't let that put me off Agyeman (who is such a ducky in real life) as I can imagine she will have had to say that. Imagine if she had said. "Actually no there was never any racism, I don't think my skin colour has ever held me back." She'd have been denounced as a traitor and Gina Carano'd from existence. 

I'm sure it's probably just the same with this guy. He may genuinely think it, but who knows. 

[UncleDeadly]

May 10, 2022 14:01:26 GMT burrunjor said:

 I wouldn't judge this guy too much for spouting the usual SJW crap on his insta page

Fine, i'll judge him on his photos, then. On which basis, they may as well have hired Kim Kardashian. f*ck me...

[Deleted]

I'm sick of seeing both Fathead and this guy all over my news feed on Facebook. The thing is, I don't actually follow ANY of these pages yet I'm being bombarded with posts about it. It is my fault that I read the comments though. There may not be any hysteria like last time, but the usual labels are being thrown around. I just don't like this fandom very much or the people in it. I'm sick of the people that run the show too. He can call me a "ming mong" all he likes, but I'm just not buying the fact that RTD is going to make the show anymore watchable. I nearly left the show for good during the 2009 specials because I was bored of the shit I was watching. Sadly Smith and Karen aren't on the horizon this time.

[Deleted]

Whenever a new Doctor is cast I start to lose interest in the series again, even in the classic who. It's a worrying trend.

[burrunjor]

May 10, 2022 15:12:51 GMT UncleDeadly said:

May 10, 2022 14:01:26 GMT burrunjor said:

 I wouldn't judge this guy too much for spouting the usual SJW crap on his insta page

Fine, i'll judge him on his photos, then. On which basis, they may as well have hired Kim Kardashian. f*ck me...

Now, now he is far from the only posey Who actor. 

[burrunjor]

May 10, 2022 15:42:06 GMT @gusgorman83 said:

I'm sick of seeing both Fathead and this guy all over my news feed on Facebook. The thing is, I don't actually follow ANY of these pages yet I'm being bombarded with posts about it. It is my fault that I read the comments though. There may not be any hysteria like last time, but the usual labels are being thrown around. I just don't like this fandom very much or the people in it. I'm sick of the people that run the show too. He can call me a "ming mong" all he likes, but I'm just not buying the fact that RTD is going to make the show anymore watchable. I nearly left the show for good during the 2009 specials because I was bored of the shit I was watching. Sadly Smith and Karen aren't on the horizon this time.

The ones I'm mad at more at the classic era fans. Let the SJWs go nuts over something meaningless as a black man being cast in a fading show. I've got so many classic era fans still trumpeting the bullshit of if we went back the way to classic era then it would be dead in the water, DW needs to move on, this generation are all idiots and couldn't possibly follow a show that was a sci fi series. FFS talk about me being stuck in the past? These people are stuck in the f*cking 1990s. 

I don't get why the new who style is seen as being more successful than the original to these people anyway? Yes Tennant probably was it's most popular heyday since Dalekmania. (Though again bare in mind he had the advantage of being along with Eccelston, the first after a hiatus and therefore the first for many, and so it makes sense he would be the most popular that way after Hartnell, the actual first, when the show was brand new and fresh to audiences.) 

Still that's it! New Who was a mainstream popular show for 7 years. Even then one could argue its viewers were crashing in Matt's second season and it was the 50th that gave his last a little boost. 

Still since at least 2015 New Who has been a flop! In every way, critically, (apart from agenda driven critics) viewers, merchandise, fan appeal. It's reached new lows for the show several times.  Old Who meanwhile had its ups and downs in terms of popularity like the end of Troughton, but it always remained largely stable up until the 1986 cancellation. That's 22 years. Why is that not seen as the golden age for popularity that could be emulated for mainstream success, but literally 2005-08 is? 

Oh I know the argument "but tv has changed since 1980s" yeah well it's also changed since 2005 as well! Also haven't any of these guys ever heard of a little bit of retro? My fave Amy got by on that, then there is the 80s nostalgia everyone is going nuts over. Who is to say that if someone actually tried a more old school Who couldn't work? 

[zarius]

RTD confirms that Ncuti's casting was not a box-ticking exercise, but because the best actor was selected, he also assures viewers they'll be in for escapism with his new run. He will have a lot to say, but that is what is to be expected in drama, it will still all about The Doctor fighting monsters.

"Simply the best actor walked into the room," he told RadioTimes.com and other press. "I'm aware that all this comes with it. I think if you're six, you don't care. And that's genuinely the fundamental reason for me.

"Because I watched it when I was six, I'm here making it. So six-year-olds watching it now will be making it in 50 years' time."

He added: "Having said that, I think once cast, those things are very important. I think diversity and representation are very important.

"I do want to reassure anyone you can just sit down and watch a fantastic 45-minute episode of Doctor Who with Doctor Who fighting the monsters as ever. I've always had things to say in my dramas, and I always will and that's why it's a good drama, but it's all new territory.

"That's what's exciting. We have had Jo Martin, who was a fantastic female Doctor who's been wonderful. All respect to her, so we're not trumping over that."

www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-ncuti-gatwa-casting-diversity-newsupdate/amp/

[UncleDeadly]

May 10, 2022 18:32:09 GMT zarius said:

RTD confirms that Ncuti's casting was not a box-ticking exercise, but because the best actor was selected, he also assures viewers they'll be in for escapism with his new run. He will have a lot to say, but that is what is to be expected in drama, it will still all about The Doctor fighting monsters.

"Simply the best actor walked into the room," he told RadioTimes.com and other press. "I'm aware that all this comes with it. I think if you're six, you don't care. And that's genuinely the fundamental reason for me.

"Because I watched it when I was six, I'm here making it. So six-year-olds watching it now will be making it in 50 years' time."

He added: "Having said that, I think once cast, those things are very important. I think diversity and representation are very important.

"I do want to reassure anyone you can just sit down and watch a fantastic 45-minute episode of Doctor Who with Doctor Who fighting the monsters as ever. I've always had things to say in my dramas, and I always will and that's why it's a good drama, but it's all new territory.

"That's what's exciting. We have had Jo Martin, who was a fantastic female Doctor who's been wonderful. All respect to her, so we're not trumping over that."

www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-ncuti-gatwa-casting-diversity-newsupdate/amp/

Hold on, so is this some other Russell T. Davies that i was not previously aware of, as opposed to the notoriously mendacious bullshit artist we all know and love..?

[Deleted]

All I expect is for the show to limp on for another few years befor it gets the can.

Brining Davies back and highering Gatwa is pretty much being done for the same reason they did it with Jodie. A quick bit of artificial inflation, with diminishing returns, until the corpse puppet is finally so rotten that no amount of dress-up is going make people come near it.

If this fails who are they gonna pick next at this stage? Will RTD get the JNT/Moffat treatment and be lumbered with doing the show for years? Is Moffat going to comeback only to prove just as unchanging? Are we going to recycle nuwho Doctors in a desperate bid to keep the show afloat until all good will and nostalgia has been sucked try. Dose Doctor Who become like Family Guy and the Simpsons, a dead show that just won't f*ck off, watched by broken souls who refuse to give up, hoping for a single spark of greatness to fly every 2 or 3 season?

Because thats all I see in the current era's future, a wasteland with a broken victory sign in it's centre, with none to even piss on it.

[ClockworkOcean]

Fathead said:

"I do want to reassure anyone you can just sit down and watch a fantastic 45-minute episode of Doctor Who with Doctor Who fighting the monsters as ever."

I'll believe that when I see it... IF I see it, assuming I can even be arsed tuning in.

Also, what the f*ck does he mean by "as ever"? We haven't had that at all since 2017, and haven't had it reliably since 2013.

Just about every woke parasite to have vandalised our culture since 2014 has promised much the same. They're doing it "for the fans". It's about "honouring the incredible legacy of..." whatever it is they're about to deliberately f*ck up beyond repair. Even Chinballs himself promised a return to the "excitement" of the Tom Baker years and described the atrocious Series 11 as "ten compressed shots of everything you love about Doctor Who".

They keep pulling this shit, and people keep falling for it. Reassuring promises to the fans in order to ensure a huge debut audience. Fans quickly realise that it's a disrespectful, badly written, preachy, propagandistic parody of what they once loved - cue inevitable backlash. Creators accuse the fans who've spent decades lining their pockets of being far-right/racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic for daring to object to their malicious vandalism, whipping the legacy media and the Twitter mob into mass outrage, generating a shit-ton of free publicity and securing a guaranteed audience of gormless c*nts who'll blindly support anything that parrots their own bigoted dogma back at them. After a few years, said gormless c*nts realise they've killed whatever social influence the object of their vandalism once had and wander off to hijack something else, leaving f*ck all but bitterness and division in their wake.

Break the cycle. Don't even give the bastards the time of day.

[RobFilth]

I'll probably give the first episode a go, purely because I'm curious to see how the new guy approaches the role, I won't be expecting amazing narration from Fathead however, just his usual moronic shite.

As soon as the new Doctor starts to repeatedly gurn and go into a Tennant type twat routine though, I'm out.

[iank]

I'm afraid I don't believe RTD's BS one tiny bit (it sounds an awful lot like Chinballs on Whittaker). This guy's been cast in an inappropriate role for him for the same reasons Pisstaker was. The fact he has a penis (which once was a prequisite for casting a male character) seems to be blinding many that this isn't the same thing all over again in different clothes.
Not buying it.