Editorial: San Diego Comicon 2018 Wrap-up

Well, another San Diego Comicon has ended, and with it were several trailers that looked excellent. I’m definitely looking forward to all the movies that were announced, but you’re not here for that. You want to know what I thought of the Doctor Who panel. Obviously I did not attend the Con. I don’t have that kind of money. But I did watch the video when it was released to YouTube.

First of all, I want to commend Chris Chibnall. He’s already winning some points in my book by not even revealing one single spoiler for Series 11. Last series, way too much was revealed. We knew the Cybermen were coming, we knew we’d be getting a new companion, and we knew John Simm was coming back. We even knew the names of each episode. This series has no spoilers, and I’m happy about that.

The first thing that Chibnall told everyone was that he wanted his era to have new places, new faces, and new enemies. He emphasized that there would be no old enemies returning. He even said they only had two weeks of filming left, and no Daleks! To me, that seems to indicate that the old story that we have to have the Daleks every year may not be true, that is unless they’ll show up in the Christmas special. I don’t mind all this new stuff. There’s only so many times Doctor Who can rely on its nostalgia. That won’t get the new viewers, who will want something different.

Chibnall wants his series to start fresh. There will be no references to Capaldi’s era, nor will there be any references to other eras. He wants those new to the show to have a clean slate, and he wants those who left to have a good jumping-on point. I like this idea. Since the viewership has dropped, we need something to entice the new viewers. Let them know they won’t be lost, and you have a good start.

Does this mean it’ll be like that for the whole run? I doubt it. And this won’t ruin the show either. In Classic Who, the Daleks weren’t nearly as plentiful as they are nowadays. Sure, Hartnell saw the Daleks a lot. But Troughton only had two stories. That was a whole five years before they finally returned in the Pertwee era for 4 stories, one each season. Tom Baker had two, and after that, it was only one story per era. As for the Cybermen, Pertwee’s entire era didn’t have a single Cybermen story (because Terrence Dicks didn’t like them, but that’s irrelevant). If Classic Who could survive by not overdoing its monsters, we could learn from that. I predict Chibnall is just giving our old friends a break. I think not having familiar faces will actually be to their benefit, because that will make us welcome them even more when they do show up.

As I type this, the filming for Series 11 has wrapped up. Now all we need is a definite date besides “Fall 2018”. In the words of the Doctor herself, “Right! This is going to be fun!” From your cherished “best friend”, this is a wish for good luck, Doctor.