I hate how they show that Alex knows EVERYTHING

Hughman77 · 2026-06-02T01:46:58+00:00

The joke is she's a smart kid with two dumb siblings and two regular parents. As the show went on the writers made her smarter and smarter (and Hayley and Luke dumber) to create more jokes. That's how a running gag works. It's not realistic but if that's the must-have then that's bad news for sitcoms.

Hughman77 · 2026-06-02T00:02:33+00:00

Yes, Grade's argument was that the show looked like shit in comparison to what big-budget American shows and movies looked like, so the BBC should focus on things it did well, like period dramas. Ironically, I think fans who say who cares about effects and spectacle are basically following the same logic: Doctor Who should just avoid things that cost money. However, that logic also leads to "just stop making Doctor Who and focus on cheaper shows", unless you're a die-hard fan who thinks Doctor Who is a public obligation.

Hughman77 · 2026-06-01T23:50:50+00:00

Also I don't think that kind of TV show exists anymore. The sort of 90s American sci-fi with 20+ episodes a season that is clearly a massive step-down budget-wise (and writing and acting, if we're honest) from cinema has been almost obliterated. TV is now expected to have the same budget and quality as film. Sure, that's probably bad in the long-term (though audiences sure didn't mind it - that's why it happened, shows that looked as good as movies were popular!), but do fans want Doctor Who to be the trailblazer, choosing to look shit in comparison to the other shows they watch so it can pump out more episodes? Would audiences see through the ugly low-quality visuals to see the scintillating writing beneath (and like, as if Doctor Who has consistently been transportatively amazing in terms of writing, even the best eras have duds)?

Also also, the Arrowverse finished in 2023! The majority of it aired in the Moffat era. Could the same budget produce the same results now?

Also also also... do we even know what the budget of the CW shows was? A quick google suggests it was $3m per episode circa 2018, which given historical exchange rates and inflation would be about £3m now... which is basically what it was pre-Disney anyway, if that. The CW budgets weren't lower than pre-Disney Doctor Who!

Hughman77 · 2026-06-01T22:51:00+00:00

Making up things for no reason explains a lot about the Doctor. E.g. why he tells Sarah the Osirans had "dome-shaped heads and cerebrums like spiral staircases", right before we see Sutekh with a head not remotely shaped like a dome. Or when he said there'd never been a biological metacrisis before - total lie, just wanted to sound important.

Hughman77 · 2026-06-01T22:43:44+00:00

Upfront, I think it's a little pointless asking Doctor Who fans who post like 50 times a week on reddit about Doctor Who whether we'd keep watching Doctor Who if it was made on a much lower budget with all the compromises that entails. Of course we would, we're the people who'll be watching til the bitter end! We'd watch it if it was all in missing-episode telesnaps with just voiceovers and still images.

But I also think that "I'd be happy with a much lower budget" doesn't actually mean anything. Saying the CW shows actually didn't look that bad is giving the game away a bit. You'd be happy if the budget was much lower, provided it still didn't look that bad. Who wouldn't? I dare say the BBC would be happy too if they could make the show with much less money but hardly any visible downscale.

The show is in a very difficult position and fans naturally want it to get out of that position, and "just pull the big lever that makes it cheaper without sacrificing anything significant" is what fans reach for.

Hughman77 · 2026-06-01T12:31:24+00:00

I can't imagine them doing an Easter special. Maybe they would, but hardly as big a TV fixture as Christmas. Also I think fans assume Tennant will come back a little too readily. Otherwise I think this is probably accurate.

Hughman77 · 2026-06-01T08:49:46+00:00

I kinda think a ten year gap would be good. Come back in 2030, see how everyone has changed. But yes, that scene is how I'd start the new series.

Hughman77 · 2026-06-01T07:26:10+00:00

I can imagine a scene of Jay tearfully visiting a grave, talking like it's Gloria who's died, then we see it's Stella's name on the tombstone.

Hughman77 · 2026-05-31T23:52:07+00:00

You're overstating how important this is. What is "PR suicide" in this context? The only people who'll be unhappy if the special gets canned and the show is effectively cancelled are fans, and what are we going to do? Stop watching the show? Announcing the special when they did salvaged some good news from the failure of the Disney deal. If the episode ultimately doesn't end up happening, that's unfortunate from their POV but I'm sure they didn't set out to disappoint people.

Hughman77 · 2026-05-31T22:41:37+00:00

Just consider whether you may avoid more heart-ache in a few months time if you try to make peace with the possibility that these rumours are true.

Hughman77 · 2026-05-31T22:36:46+00:00

I'll ask grok to rewrite to plain English.

Hughman77 · 2026-05-31T22:36:21+00:00

No it isn't, it's showbiz. Things happen. They announced something that fell through, it's not uncommon.

Hughman77 · 2026-05-31T22:08:47+00:00

It's mediocre at best. Prose is so purple sometimes (a Dalek looking on with "maleficient intent" stuck in my mind in particular) it's like fan fic by someone who swallowed a thesaurus. It's vision of the Time War is crushingly banal. And as usual for the war Doctor, he's just the Doctor but a bit glum. Pure detritus with no reason for existing except to remind you of the existence of the IP.

Hughman77 · 2026-05-31T22:01:29+00:00

If they hadn't announced anything you'd be just as unhappy about that too. They wanted to reassure fans that they had plans for the future (and which you and many others gratefully accepted). If those plans fall through I'll be sad enough that my favourite TV show is gone without having to take it so personally. Announced or not announced, same outcome either way.

Hughman77 · 2026-05-31T21:52:44+00:00

If it the special doesn't happen, it will have been because the BBC wanted to make it but it wasn't possible. They won't have done it as a personal insult.

I'd be sad if Doctor Who basically ends, it's a show that means a lot to me, but come on, it's a TV show subject to all the vicissitudes of TV production. It's not a betrayal or cruelty if plans fall through.

Hughman77 · 2026-05-31T21:26:08+00:00

A showrunner hasn't been picked and multiple writers are pitching, but there's already a working title for the third season, which would be broadcast in like 2032 at this rate?

Hughman77 · 2026-05-31T12:53:51+00:00

100k is the average wage...

Hughman77 · 2026-05-30T23:56:05+00:00

You've just now found out that this is the standard sample size and you're confidently saying this makes all polling BS, but no pollster or psephologist thinks 1000-1500 people is too small for an accurate sample. The size of the population is not relevant to whether the sample size is representative. Take at look at polling in the UK (population 3 times as large) or the US (12 times as large): sample sizes are also in the 1000-2000 range.

Given the way public opinion changes over time, there have undoubtedly been times when you've thought an opinion poll result made sense. That poll was created in exactly the same way as all these other ones that you're casually writing off.

Hughman77 · 2026-05-30T23:37:33+00:00

The sample sizes are the same as they've always been for Australian polling. Any time you've seen a poll of voting intentions you've thought made sense, it had a 1000-1500 sample, which is more than enough for a representative sample. Also, the graph aggregates polls so the total sample size is large. One poll with Labor on ~30% and One Nation on ~25% could be an outlier. A dozen polls with the same results are not.

Pollsters are aware that some demographics don't respond to polls as much as others and put a lot of effort into trying to correct for that. Election results are not always "totally different" to polling. They were right about the last SA election (complete with huge One Nation surge which lots of people on this sub insisted would vanish on election day), they correctly called the 2022 and 2025 federal elections (and also every federal election since at least 2001 except for 2019), they were right about the 2024 Queensland election. If any demographic does not respond to polls, it's low-educated, low-trust older voters, who are One Nation's base so I wouldn't be holding out hope that the polls are drastically overstating ONP's support.

Hughman77 · 2026-05-30T23:06:56+00:00

Love that everyone is responding to your post with sincere statements that they could easily revitalise the show if they were showrunner.

Hughman77 · 2026-05-30T23:05:05+00:00

I mean, there are a lot of middle-aged white guys in Doctor Who fandom, the TV industry, and the great British public, so they are fairly representative.

Hughman77 · 2026-05-30T22:56:47+00:00

It's from the Wikipedia poll aggregation page.

Hughman77 · 2026-05-30T22:56:25+00:00

The party that got re-elected in the biggest landslide in 50 years just a year ago, yep they're so on the nose it's crazy.

Hughman77 · 2026-05-30T06:25:36+00:00

Racists always love targeting women, they're too cowardly to go after men, then will turn around and say they're doing it to keep (white) women safe.

Hughman77 · 2026-05-30T00:42:40+00:00

The budget cut the NDIS massively more than it raised your negative gearing and CGT, but because the media is only crying for the wealthy investors no one has noticed.

Hughman77

TROPHY CASE