Dr Who

If the bbc had done this 30 years ago they might have been applauded as being innovative and bold instead they just come across as desperate, trying to be trendy and politically correct.

Its complete bollocks.

I will give it a look (a one episode chance), as my problem was how crap the writing had become, however, if the new team don't pull out all the stops and make it really work, they have basically killed the show. Also, they will have to approach this change with humour, as the character at its core is male, so I'm not sure that it'll work in the long run without being tacky. It'll be interesting if nothing else.

Lancelot is right doing it 20-30 years ago or Russel t davis doing it would have been brave now it looks like they were scared of Femi Nazi public condemnation if it had been another male

"At a later stage, Doctor Who should be metamorphosed into a woman" - Sydney Newman, co-creator of Doctor Who, 6 October 1986.

Firstly, I'll give my thoughts on latter stages of the last series, then I'll pass opinion on the new Doctor and writing team.

The three stories with the Monks - Extremis, Pyramid at the End of the World, Lie of the Land - didn't entertain me. I thought it was a very boring storyline. Characters were made to look weak in what was a really slow serial where hardly anything happened anyway.

Empress of Mars was ok (ish), a more involved storyline and good to bring back old villains the Ice Warriors. Bit too comedic though and slightly historically inaccurate. Eaters of Light was better, Bill learning more about the TARDIS' abilities was an important step. The ending seemed to tie in with both the show and history as an entertaining explanation for the disappearance of the Roman 9th Legion.

I thought the Master (both incarnations) in the two part finale were given tiring scripts. John Simm could have been given a lot more, same for Michelle Gomez. Obviously the Master has to return so that paradox was confusing for me. The Master is an important villain and is best used when he (or she) appears in a climactic final story - this would give it more effect. I grew tired of seeing the banter with Missy too often throughout the series.

Pearl Mackie as Bill was excellent though. What a good performance she gave as the terrified, heartbroken young woman, destined to never be loved again. That made the ending to the finale even more satisfying and finally, some things seen earlier on in the series, made sense.

Now my take on the new Doctor. Well all I'll say is, I hope it works. I'll still watch the show as a long-time fan and I've wanted the writers to come up with more interesting ideas for a while now. It needed a shakeup. It's just I'm actually quite terrified now of how it will be - but if the writing's good, if the stories are interesting, the drama and excitement are all still there, then I'll be happy with the radical change.

Going to be a tense wait now for the Christmas special. Fingers crossed.

It will be interesting to see if the viewing figures take a nosedive, when the Christmas special and new series are broadcast.

Depends if it becomes the feminazi's new programme of choice viewers should go up lol

^ The special and the first of the new series will get big ratings as newbies and any kind of female fan are drawn in by the loads of prolonged and freebie publicity. Thereafter of course is the key. They better get these next three or four episodes right or it could quite easily virtually kill the series (think worse than Evans' Top Gear).

It's quite a gamble but then these execs have nothing if not faith in their own abilities (warranted or not).

I agree that a woman Doctor would have been better happening earlier (and no doubt would have had the programme survived right through the nineties).

There is a distinct sense to of make or break about it all, given the circumstances the show finds itself in atm; but there is some other context to the move that adds some explanation if not justification to it... It is an attempt to ride the female sci-fi geek chic wave that has been around for a few years now. It also follows the Hollywood trend of the female Ghostbusters and the new Wonder Woman etc. Then, they are now keyed into a big renewal in merch sales (from girls obvioisly) after these have faltered in recent times. (It's a shame Cardiff's Experience is closing as that would have added to it all.)

More broadly too TV and the BBC in particular seem to think that the women largely control the remotes in modern households. (They may be right.) Virtually no drama programming is what you would call male orientated these days whereas quite a bit has a female bias or is netural.

To be honest, I'm glad we can get to see if it works or not now. The clamouring and anti- brigade would only have gotten worse otherwise. It may even be in time for the show to remain salvagable if all goes pair shaped after a season. (What for Chinball's five year plan then? I wonder if there a contingency idea? )

just hope its more Wonder woman(Awesome) and not Ghostbusters reboot (UTTER SHITE)