Predictions for the Chibnall Era

I feel the same way.

There didn't seem to be any in-story reason to do it with Missy. It felt like it was done (1) because they can, (2) to stir the pot. Well, they did it and it stirred the pot, but I still don't see any reasons other than that for having done it. It didn't serve the slightest in-story reason other than that, perhaps, the Doctor was slightly slow on the uptake that Missy=Master. But his being slightly slow on the uptake didn't accomplish anything in-story. They'd still have investigated the building with the tanks, etc.

What might have been an in-story reason? Perhaps if the Master had to regenerate into a female, perhaps using the Sisters of Karn to do it, for a purpose such as escaping from a prison....and that this also had some important function in a story or arc. But there was no reason other than "well, we're just going to say that this happens now." Ah well, what's done is done.

As for the Doctor, well, that would annoy me quite a bit more. They didn't have any in-story reason to do it with Missy and I don't see what in-story reason could possibly exist for doing it to the Doctor. Plus, I'm willing to bet that the Doctor becoming female would be used as a source of endless low-brow humor, such as that along the lines of making a joke out of Missy rubbing Dalek "balls". (I am not completely averse to low-brow humor, but it has it's time and place such as in a Beavis & Butthead episode....).



To tie my post back into the thread's theme: Moffat's insertion of sex-change regeneration into the mythology sounds like something Moffat would do because he seems to like to rile up the viewership for the sake of riling them up (perhaps he thinks it keeps the show fresh). I'm not aware of anything about Chinball that suggests he likes doing the same, and I hope that he doesn't. 

(On the other hand, recasting male characters as female seems to be in vogue at the moment. Ghostbusters, Iron Man, etc. And for better or worse - usually worse - rebooted Who follows whatever trends happen to be floating around in modern entertainment)





(I'm very much a "live and let live" type person, so this view has nothing to do with any personal bias as far as I'm aware.)

Nah!

Intelligence in a tv show can be a double edged sword. Intelligent writing could mean something The Silurians, which had a subtle message of immigration. Theres intelligent dialogue, and an intelligent tight script with no plot holes. Classic Who talked to the audience, not down. NuWho isn't subtle, more like a sledgehammer. I don't study enough NuWho to compare it.

I've felt for a very long time that British tv isn't as good as it used to be.
I didn't enjoy the last Poirot series, too slow.
The latest Miss Marples all have stellar casting. Its always the same people.on tv - David Tennant, Olivia Coleman or James Nesbitt.
The quality of writing has plummeted.

The writing in the classic series was awful compared to the writing in the new series.

Ar you for real?, the writing was way better for the classic series, nowadays it's all about the companion saving the universe & poorly conceived arcs that make no sense.

Hopefully Chibnail will steer the series back to it's roots & focus on the character of the Doctor.

Like I've said before Big Finish writers deliver far better stories than the current tv series writers, The Two Masters by John Dorney was outstanding.

I hope Chibnail gives a couple of the BF writers a chance to showcase what they could do in a tv episode.

Granted the classic series had its moments, but I find it extremely difficult to believe that twenty-six years of programming failed to produce something that outshone a show that has been on air for less than a decade at least once. That's the great strength of Doctor Who, things seem to change for the better far more often than they do for the worst. If the show's going through a rough patch at the moment, then all one has to do is wait it out for a new administration to take over and try their hand at it. Besides, without the efforts of the Verity Lambert, John Wiles, Innes Lloyd, Peter Bryant, Derrick Sherwin, Barry Letts, Philip Hinchcliffe, Graham Williams and John Nathan-Turner production offices, the new series wouldn't even exist. Hell, the show's revival under Russell T. Davies owes a great deal of thanks to the Virgin New Adventure story Human Nature, which was written for the classic series Seventh Doctor by a fan of that exact same series. Like it or not, the showrunners behind NuWho thought it great enough to try and bring back to life for the twenty-first century.



A more conservative run of stories definitely seems on the cards following the last couple years of hit-and-miss experimentation.

I'd snatch up Lance Parkin if he was still available after his adaptation of Cold Fusion. The man knows how to tell an exceptional story.

Talking about the concerns surrounding the gender transition though, I'm thinking we should start developing some kind of shorthand term for it to save time. Any takers for the Barbarella Effect?

You and Paul77777777777777 are both totally wrong... since you're being so extreme in your comments.

Somewhere inbetween lies sense.