#san diego film critics society

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

The Illusionist (2006, Neil Burger)

19/11/2024

[awardswatcherik]

San Diego Film Critics Society (SDFCS) Nominations

[thejewofkansas]

Awards Season 2024-25: Awards Round-Up 12/9 + Independent Spirit Nominations

We’re really in the swing of things. I’ll be doing this every Monday for the next few weeks, breaking for a couple of weeks (since there isn’t much awards news over the holiday), then resuming in January until the smaller groups taper off. This week, I’m covering nine groups: Atlanta Film Critics Circle (AFCC) Boston Society of Film Critics (BSFC) British Independent Film Awards…

[notearsnora]

San Diego Film Critics Society 2024 Nominations:

Best Actress: Cynthia Erivo

Best Supporting Actress: Ariana Grande-Butera

Best Costume Design: Wicked (Paul Tazewell)

Best Cinematography: Wicked (Alice Brooks)

Best Production Design: Wicked (Nathan Crowley)

Best Sound Design: Wicked

Best Use of Music: Wicked

Best Ensemble: Wicked

[sheetmusiclibrarypdf]

Happy birthday, Tom Waits (born in December 1949)

Happy birthday, Tom Waits (born in December 1949)Best Sheet Music download from our Library.Please, subscribe to our Library.Tom Waits' DiscographyFilmography (on Wikipedia)Tom Waits - "This One's From The Heart"Browse in the Library:

Happy birthday, Tom Waits (born in December 1949)

Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on society's underworld and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He began in the folk scene during the 1970s, but his music since the 1980s has reflected the influence of such diverse genres as rock, Delta blues, opera, vaudeville, cabaret, funk, hip hop and experimental techniques verging on industrial music. As per The Wall Street Journal, Waits “has composed a body of work that’s at least comparable to any songwriter’s in pop today. A keen, sensitive and sympathetic chronicler of the adrift and downtrodden, Mr. Waits creates three-dimensional characters who, even in their confusion and despair, are capable of insight and startling points of view. Their stories are accompanied by music that’s unlike any other in pop history.” Tom Waits was born and raised in a middle-class family in Pomona, California. Inspired by the work of Bob Dylan and the Beat Generation, he began singing on the San Diego folk circuit. He relocated to Los Angeles in 1972, where he worked as a songwriter before signing a recording contract with Asylum Records. His first albums were the jazzy Closing Time (1973), The Heart of Saturday Night (1974) and Nighthawks at the Diner (1975), which reflected his lyrical interest in poverty, criminality and nightlife. He repeatedly toured the United States, Europe and Japan, and found greater critical and commercial success with Small Change (1976), Blue Valentine (1978) and Heartattack and Vine (1980). During this period, Waits entered the world of film, acting in Paradise Alley (1978), where he met a young story editor named Kathleen Brennan. He composed the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola's One from the Heart (1982) and made cameos in several subsequent Coppola films.

In 1980, Waits married Brennan, split from his manager and record label, and moved to New York City. With Brennan's encouragement and frequent collaboration, he pursued a more eclectic and experimental sound influenced by Harry Partch and Captain Beefheart, as heard on the loose trilogy Swordfishtrombones (1983), Rain Dogs (1985) and Franks Wild Years (1987). Waits starred in Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law (1986), lent his voice to his Mystery Train (1989), composed the soundtrack for his Night on Earth (1991) and appeared in his Coffee and Cigarettes (2003). He collaborated with Robert Wilson and William S. Burroughs on the "cowboy opera" The Black Rider (1990), the songs for which were released on the album The Black Rider. Waits and Wilson collaborated again on Alice (2002) and Woyzeck (2000). Bone Machine (1992) and Mule Variations (1999) won Grammys for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Contemporary Folk Album, respectively. In 2002, the songs from Alice and Wozzeck were recorded and released on the albums Alice and Blood Money. Waits went on to release Real Gone (2004), the compilation Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (2006), the live album Glitter and Doom Live (2009) and Bad as Me (2011).

Waits has influenced many artists and gained an international cult following. His songs have been covered by Bruce Springsteen, Tori Amos, Rod Stewart and the Eagles and he has written songs for Johnny Cash and Norah Jones, among others. In 2011, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Introducing him, Neil Young said: "This next man is indescribable, and I'm here to describe him. He's sort of a performer, singer, actor, magician, spirit guide, changeling… I think it's great that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has recognized this immense talent. Could have been the Motion Picture Hall of Fame, could have been the Blues Hall of Fame, could have been the Performance Artist Hall of Fame, but it was the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that recognized the great Tom Waits." In accepting the award, Waits mused, "They say that I have no hits and that I'm difficult to work with. And they say that like it's a bad thing!" Musical style Per Bowman, Tom Waits: has never been of his time, ahead of his time, or, for that matter, locked into any particular time. An outsider artist before the term was in common use, Waits has been enamored, at various points in his career, with the cool of 1940s and 1950s jazz; the 1950s and 1960s word-jazz and poetry of such Beat and Beat-influenced writers as Jack Kerouac, Lord Buckley, and Charles Bukowski; the primal rock & roll crunch of the Rolling Stones; the German cabaret stylings of Kurt Weill; the postwar, alternate world of invented instruments and rugged individualism of avant-garde composer Harry Partch; the proto-metal blues of 1950s and 1960s Howlin' Wolf and their extension into the world of Captain Beefheart's late-1960s avant-rock; the archaic formalism of 19th-century parlor ballads; Dylan's early- and mid-sixties transformation of the possibilities of language in the worlds of both folk and rock; the elegance of pre-war Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Hoagy Carmichael; the sophistication of postwar Frank Sinatra; and, more recently, the bone-crushing grooves of 1980s and 1990s funk and hip-hop. Indeed, the art of Tom Waits has altogether transcended time and, to some degree, place. Asked about the distinction between words and music, he says: "I'm still a word guy. I'm drawn to people who use a certain vernacular and communicate with words. Words are music, really. I mean, people ask me, 'Do you write music or do you write words?' But you don't really, it's all one thing at its best." His work was influenced by his voracious reading and by conversations that he overheard in diners. In addition to Kerouac and Bukowski, literary influences include Nelson Algren, John Rechy and Hubert Selby Jr. Bowman notes the influence of crime writers like Dashiell Hammett and John D. Macdonald. Tom Waits says that "for a songwriter, Dylan is as essential as a hammer and nails and saw are to a carpenter." Musical influences include Randy Newman and Dr. John. He has praised Merle Haggard: "Want to learn how to write songs? Listen to Merle Haggard." He is an opera lover, and recalls hearing Puccini's "Nessun dorma" "in the kitchen at Coppola's with Raul Julia one night, and it changed my life, that particular Aria… It was like giving a cigar to a five-year old." A jazz influence is Thelonious Monk: "He almost sounded like a kid taking piano lessons. I could relate to that when I first started playing the piano, because he was decomposing the music while he was playing it." Regarding his eclectic influences, he says: "I draw from all kinds of sources and I listen to a lot of things … I would recommend that when you are starting out that you stay with your own stuff and find out who you are. And stay with you mining your own unique qualities rather than trying to sound like somebody else. I mean you do start out like somebody else, and slowly you become yourself, so it's kinda like life, you know?" Waits described his voice as being "the sand in the sandwich." By 1982, Waits's musical style shifted; Hoskyns noted that this new style "was fashioned out of diverse and disparate ingredients." This new style was influenced by Beefheart and Partch. Noting that he had a "gravelly timbre", Humphries characterized Waits's voice as one that "sounds like it was hauled through Hades in a dredger." His voice was described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding as though "it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car." Rolling Stone also noted his "rusted plow-blade voice." One of Waits's own favorite descriptions of his vocal style was "Louis Armstrong and Ethel Merman meeting in Hell." Humphries cited him, alongside Newman, Kris Kristofferson and John Prine, as a number of U.S. singers who followed Dylan in breaking away from conventional styles of popular music and singing with their "distinctive" voices. Tom Waits can sing in falsetto, as heard on "Shore Leave", "Temptation" and "All Stripped Down". Waits said he couldn't sing in falsetto until after he quit smoking, adding "Nobody does it like Mick Jagger; nobody does it like Prince." He is known for his eclectic use of instruments, some of his own devising. On Swordfishtrombones, his orchestration included talking drums, bagpipes, banjo, bass marimba and glass harmonica; on Rain Dogs, accordion and harmonium; on Franks Wild Years, glockenspiel, Mellotron, Farfisa and Optigan; on Bone Machine and Mule Variations, the Chamberlin; on The Black Rider, the singing saw; on Alice, the Stroh violin; on Blood Money, a 57-whistle pneumatic calliope and an Indonesian seedpod. He explains "I use things we hear around us all the time, built and found instruments. Things that aren't normally considered instruments: dragging a chair across the floor or hitting the side of a locker real hard with a two-by-four, a freedom bell, a brake drum with a major imperfection, a police bullhorn. It's more interesting. I don't like straight lines. The problem is that most instruments are square and music is always round." As he later put it, "A lot of things are instruments and they don't even know it." Tom Waits' Discography Closing Time (1973) The Heart of Saturday Night (1974) Nighthawks at the Diner (1975) Small Change (1976) Foreign Affairs (1977) Blue Valentine (1978) Heartattack and Vine (1980) Swordfishtrombones (1983) Rain Dogs (1985) Franks Wild Years (1987) Bone Machine (1992) The Black Rider (1993) Mule Variations (1999) Alice (2002) Blood Money (2002) Real Gone (2004) Bad as Me (2011) Filmography (on Wikipedia)

Tom Waits - "This One's From The Heart"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P40vLY45nQQ "This One's From The Heart" by Tom Waits from the 'One From The Heart' soundtrack Read the full article

[back-and-totheleft]

World War III may be inevitable

Iconic director Oliver Stone is not optimistic.

Fifty years after the end of the Vietnam War, and nearly 35 years since his film "Platoon" debuted, America is still hopelessly enamored with violence, and Washington, encouraged by the tandem power centers of Wall Street and the media, is still engineered for war.

“Our country is sabotaging itself. Why do we keep going back” in search of a necessary enemy? He asked. “We track a pattern of intervention, there is a repetition” that will eventually lead us to another world war.

Grim thoughts, given in a conversation moderated by (Ret.) Col. Greg Daddis, Iraq War veteran and director of the Center for War and Society at San Diego State University. Daddis is also USS Midway Chair in Modern U.S. Military History (Thursday’s event was held on the USS Midway museum) and a board member at the Quincy Institute, which partnered in the event.

Stone’s own experiences as a 20-year-old Army infantryman during the most tumultuous years in Vietnam (and politically, socially, back home in the U.S.) — 1967-1968 — formed the basis for Platoon, which won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director in 1987 and is considered one of the most important and viscerally impactful Vietnam War films in Hollywood history. It is the first in his Vietnam War trilogy, which includes "Born on the Fourth of July" (1989), and "Heaven and Earth" (1993).

As a young man inspired by the tales of mythological Odysseus and a father who had served in World War II, he was driven to war by wanderlust and the frenetic unfocused energy youth. His time in combat there, in his words, took the scales from his eyes and upon returning to an “country he no longer knew” set him on a course of discovery, his mind and creativity coalescing around a burning skepticism of the government, social convention, and conformity.

This is all detailed in his excellent 2020 autobiography, “Chasing the Light” which charts Stone’s youth, his time in Vietnam, and his screenwriting/directing career though “Platoon.”

He didn’t directly mention the recent elections or the current conflict in Ukraine on Thursday night, but insisted that the “strong compulsion” to use war not only as a driver of industry but as the first tool in the box for resolving foreign disputes, still fueled Washington policy. Despite all of the failures of the last 50 years, “it’s impossible to break that lock” that war has on the collective psyche, he said. Even “Platoon” which is a searing indictment of the what he calls the Three Lies of the military and war, has failed to turn the society against interventionism.

“No film is going to change people if you don’t want to be changed,” he said, charging that military recruitment had actually gone up after the film was released.

In recent years, Stone has courted controversy with his series of interviews with Vladimir Putin and his questioning of the Washington/Western narrative of that war. The only mention he made to that was that “I have been passionately driven and for that I’ve paid a price,” and criticized censorship (his 2016 documentary "Ukraine on Fire" had been initially banned on You Tube and then reinstated).

“Free speech is a right, not a privilege” he said, to applause from the room. Of the current political dynamic, he lamented that the “neocons are here from the last administration as well as this administration, they are not going away."

“We’ve made one mistake after another on foreign affairs, there is no reason why we cannot be partners with Russia and China. We don’t need a war.”

Unfortunately, the country’s love for was is “a religion,” he said. All one can do is keep resisting it. His entire life after Vietnam seems to have sprung from that adage. “Be a rebel, and that’s the best way to be.”

-Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, "Oliver Stone: World War III may be inevitable," Responsible Statecraft, Nov 16 2024

[xabiramone]

Happy birthday to Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during the 1970s, but his music since the 1980s has reflected greater influence from blues, rock, vaudeville, and experimental genres.

Waits was born and raised in a middle-class family in California. Inspired by the work of Bob Dylan and the Beat Generation, he began singing on the San Diego folk music circuit as a young man. He relocated to Los Angeles in 1972, where he worked as a songwriter before signing a recording contract with Asylum Records. His first albums were the jazz-oriented Closing Time (1973) and The Heart of Saturday Night (1974), which reflected his lyrical interest in nightlife, poverty, and criminality. He repeatedly toured the United States, Europe, and Japan, and attracted greater critical recognition and commercial success with Small Change (1976), Blue Valentine (1978), and Heartattack and Vine (1980). He produced the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola's film One from the Heart (1981), and subsequently made cameo appearances in several Coppola films.

[brian-in-finance]

Remember when she tied for Best Actress in San Diego… and Brian jumped the gun and posted without the wee lad?

[denimbex1986]

And another... :-)

[hometvse]

The Lost City of Z Premiär 13 November, 2020 The Lost City of Z berättar den häpnadsväckande sanna historien om den brittiska utforskaren Percy Fawcett, som under hans expeditioner in i Amazonas i början av 1900-talet upptäckte bevis på en tidigare okänd, avancerad civilisation som kan ha bebott området.

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Uncle Frank (2020, Alan Ball)

22/02/2024

Uncle Frank is a 2020 film written and directed by Alan Ball.

Beth Bledsoe is a teenager who lives in South Carolina, very close to her uncle Frank, as he is more refined and caring than the rest of her family; the girl notices that her other relatives, especially her grandfather Mac, are hostile towards Frank, but she doesn't understand why.

The film was presented at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on January 25 and distributed on Prime Video starting November 26, 2020.

The dubbing was performed at the Dream&Dream studio in Milan, under the direction of Marcello Cortese.

[awardswatcherik]

2024 San Diego Film Critics Society (SDFCS) Winners: 'Sing Sing' Named Best Picture

[thejewofkansas]

Awards Season 2023-24: Awards Round-Up 1/6

This is going up a little sooner than I expected, since the awards groups are coming on thick and fast in the new year. (According to Awards Daily, my go-to source for awards news, five groups are announcing their awards on the 6th alone.) This time around, we’ve got 13 groups to cover: Alliance of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ) Black Film Critics Circle (BFCC) Critics Association of Central…

[notearsnora]

WICKED wins Best Production Design and Best Costume Design at the San Diego Film Critics Society 2024 Awards.

Ariana Grande wins the Best Supporting Actress Award.

Full winners list:

https://www.sdfcs.org/2024-award-winners/

[boiledeggacademia]

Maya Angelou

Let me tell you one of the most soulful people I've learned about, Maya Angelou. She's an absolute queen with so much perseverance and wisdom. I don't think I've learned about someone with so many quirks in numerous areas from writing to dancing, to directing, to singing; she's amazing so please give this a read.

First, who is Maya Angelou? A brief preview.

An African-American author, a poet, a singer, an activist, a scholar, a scriptwriter, an actress, and a dancer

Best known for her unique and pioneering autobiographical style

Born on April 4th, 1928 and died on May 28th, 2014

She was born in St. Louis, Missouri

Maya's Traumatic Early Life

At an early age, Maya was sent to live at her grandmother’s place in Stamps, Arkansas because of her parents tumultuous marriage and eventual divorce

It was her older brother, Bailey, who gave her the nickname “Maya”

Living with her grandmother helped her develop pride and self-confidence

When she returned to her mother’s care briefly at the age of 7, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend

When he was jailed and released not a day later, he was killed

Traumatized by his death, she later said, “I thought my voice killed him; I killed that man because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again because my voice would kill anyone …”

She became mute for 5 years, her usual lustrous personality crushed

She returned to live with her grandma through her teens and during the times she was mute, she holed herself in libraries, memorizing all books line by line like Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, and Poe’s poetry; thought to be the beginning to her love for literature and writing

Her Literary Career/Famous Works

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (1969)

Her most critically acclaimed book, spanning her childhood as she and her brother bounced back and forth from her mother's place to her grandmother's

She wrote this during her time with the Harlem Writers Guild, a safe community that supported African writers, in NYC

It narrated her experiences with racism, molestation, rape, and her chronic displacement

“Gather Together In My Name” (1974)

follows after "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" when Angelou was 17-19 years old

the book depicts a single mother's slide down the social ladder into poverty and crime

the title was from the Bible but it also conveyed how a Black female lived in the white dominated society of the US after WWII

its themes were motherhood and family, racism and identity, education and literacy

“Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie” (1971)

Angelou's first collection of poetry

many of the poems were song lyrics, inspired at Angelou's time in her life when she was nightclub singer in her 20s

it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1972

“Mom & Me & Mom” (2013)

her final book and 7 book memoir series that focused on her relationship with her mother

it covered her budding relationship with her mother when she was young with themes of reconciliation and reunion

Interesting Trivia

She was the first Black female street car conductor when she persisted for work at San Francisco in high school; “I loved the uniforms”, she had explained.

She was a civil activist, advocating for African-American rights as the northern coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

After working as a dancer a club in San Diego, she had a short lived personal sex history but quit after she bought her first car, a 1939 pale-green Chrysler convertible

In 1972, she was the first African American to have her screenplay turned into a film, “Georgia, Georgia”; she’s also had a wide variety of singing, dancing, acting, and directing and producing shows and movies

She was besties with Martin Luther King Jr. and after his death, she sent flowers to his wife for more than 30 years until her death

She’s also very close friends with Oprah Winfrey, appearing on her show twice, and giving her life-changing advice during her hardships

Reflection

I had the chance to read Angelou's final book "Mom & Me & Mom" and I think it really showed a lot of how Angelou was the person she was today. Her mother, like her, was a very strong willed woman who had taught her how to be independent, to be courageous, and proud in such oppressive society. They were like two peas in a pod, two women who came together with their stories of experience, and teaching one another how to love themselves, to be empowered, and courageous. I related to the story with my own close relationship with my mother. Like Angelou and her mother, my mother and I were like a student and mentor and best friends all while still being parent and daughter. It made me appreciate and love my mother, and really keep the things she taught me close to my heart. This book was so monumentally relatable, I had to order my own copy to annotate it with my own experiences.

Angelou was a woman who wanted others to be strong, to be courageous, to love themselves, and see their misery and hard times as new opportunities that would being them happiness. Her personality was bright even when she was quite old, and she was so animated and influential, it's hard to be distracted if you watch her interviews. Like many female authors, Angelou's experiences have impacted the way she wrote her books; but her soulful autobiographical style makes her books unique; it doesn't seem like it's about the author, but a character who the reader can relate to and follow along her joys and miseries.

Thank you for reading this far and please give Maya Angelou's books a read. She has wisdom that society needs during these times of turmoil.

References:

A. Spring, Kelley. “Maya Angelou.” National Women’s History Museum, 2017, www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/maya-angelou.

Edmund, Aiyana. “10 Fascinating Facts About Maya Angelou.” Literary Ladies Guide, 22 Feb. 2018, www.literaryladiesguide.com/literary-musings/10-fascinating-facts-maya-angelou.

“Maya Angelou.” Biography, A&E Television Networks, www.biography.com/writer/maya-angelou.

Gibson, Megan. “A Guide to Maya Angelou’s Most Beloved Books.” Time, TIME USA, LLC, 28 May 2014, time.com/123030/maya-angelou-best-books.

“Maya Angelou Biography - Life, Children, Parents, Name, Story, Death, School, Mother, Young.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, Advameg, Inc, www.notablebiographies.com/An-Ba/Angelou-Maya.html.

[yeonchi]

Doctor Who Hiatusbreaker Update 2

Although the premiere of Doctor Who Series 13 is still a while off, let alone the announcement of a premiere date, there are a few things I’d like to talk about before that time comes. Let’s get right into it.

Filler series plans to talk about Series 1-10

Some time ago, I had plans to make a ten-part series talking about Series 1-10 in detail, but because I had a lot of stuff going on, those plans were reduced to something I call Doctor Who 10 for 10 - 10 Things for 10 Series, which was to state ten things about each series with at least 4 to 6 of these things being my opinions on each series. This was intended to be a filler series to bide the time before Series 13 comes out, but that may have to come at another time. I’m also continuing with Kisekae Insights if anyone wants to check it out.

The post-Series 13 forecast

Since Series 13 would be Jodie Whittaker’s third series as the Doctor, signs are pointing to this being her final series. There are also rumours stating that there will be two specials in 2022 that would serve as her final episodes. If this is the case, then it means that Jodie Whittaker would have been the Doctor for five years; a five-year-long ordeal of pain because series seem to be released pretty much every other year as a result of the almost-year-long gaps between them, not to mention the fact that less episodes are being produced as time goes on. Whether Chris Chibnall will be remaining on is still unknown at this time. Frankly, I’ll be glad when this is all over because I (and many other fans) have been kept hanging for so long. I just hope the Timeless Child payoff will be worth it.

At this point, the only reason why I’m still watching the series is mainly because I want to know how the Timeless Child arc plays out. The initial shocks have come and gone, but now this is where we wait and see if the aftershocks are as worse.

When I started my Thirteenth Doctor Reviews, I made a pact that I would cut off all ties with the series going forward if the Fourteenth Doctor was another female. Given the Timeless Child arc and the rumours that Olly Alexander would replace Jodie Whittaker (which would make him the first gay actor to play the Doctor) that came and went because his agent stated that he was focusing on music for the time being, I’ve honestly stopped giving a shit at this point. I’ll probably continue being a casual fan of Doctor Who, watching episodes as they come out, but regardless, all that this series will be to me is like what the Koei Warriors series has degraded itself to over the past decade. I’ll still be grateful for all the inspiration and opportunities it has provided me with over the years, but I’ll probably accept that the series has gone on a downward spiral with seemingly no way of coming back up. But hey, all will be revealed in due time, so the forecast isn’t that bleak for now.

The first look into Series 13 (added 26 July 2021)

So just today, two days after I originally published this post, the teaser trailer for Doctor Who Series 13 was released following the 2021 San Diego Comic Con@Home. Aside from the Doctor, Yaz and Dan, the only other character we see is Vinder, a recurring character throughout the series who will be played by Jacob Anderson. Recurring character, you say, and that’s because Series 13 will apparently be a single serialised story. This brings callbacks to The Trial of a Time Lord or more loosely, the multiple two-parters of Series 9. We still don’t get an exact premiere date, only that it will premiere “later this year”, but given that Series 11 and 12 took about 10 months to film, we can predict that filming of Series 13 will likely be wrapping up in the next month. Whether there will be a shorter run of five or six episodes (thereby reserving two of those episodes for the 2022 specials, assuming they won’t be filmed separately to Series 13) is unknown, but regardless, I’m looking forward to watching and reviewing the series for myself.

Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall leave Doctor Who (added 30 July 2021) 

In news that will surprise no one, Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall have announced that they will be leaving the series in 2022. Technically, the news isn’t much of a surprise in terms of Whittaker than it is for Chibnall, as Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat have been showrunner for two Doctors each. But hey, with this, it means that my Thirteenth Doctor Reviews will also be a review of Chibnall’s run as showrunner.

My initial thoughts on this, which may or may not change coming up to Whittaker’s final episode - it was an okay run while it lasted, but honestly, good riddance. How’s that five year plan of yours going, Chibnall? If your plan was to divide the fanbase and leave them hanging with gaps between series, then you’ve really done it.

On top of this, Series 13 will be six episodes long, with the remaining two episodes to be broadcast as specials in 2022. The first of them will be a New Year’s Special (surprise surprise) and the second will follow in Spring 2022 (Northern Hemisphere). The Thirteenth Doctor’s final episode will premiere in Autumn 2022 (Northern Hemisphere) as part of the BBC’s Centenary celebrations. Some tentative dates I’m predicting are 18 October 2022, the 100th anniversary of the BBC, 23 November 2022, the 59th anniversary of Doctor Who, or 1 January 2023, which would make it another New Year’s Special (I’m not discounting 25 December 2022, I just think it’s less likely given how this era has been).

With this, the Fourteenth Doctor is expected to debut in 2023, the 60th anniversary year of Doctor Who. I just hope the new production team doesn’t disappoint the fans with that.

In terms of statistics, Jodie Whittaker has played the Doctor for 31 episodes, making her run the second shortest behind Christopher Eccleston. Peter Capaldi played the Doctor for 40 episodes, Matt Smith for 44 episodes and David Tennant for 47.

My hopes for Whittaker and Chibnall’s final episodes haven’t changed; I want to see what happens with the Timeless Child arc (and also Ruth). Whether the Fourteenth Doctor will be male or female (or played by a non-binary or trans actor), I have a few basic preliminary hopes for the next run; make each series 13 episodes again with a Christmas Special each year and put the series back on Saturday nights, like it was before Whittaker and Chibnall. Also, can we go back to filming in the 16:9 ratio? I can never get over how weird it looks on my screen (at full screen, it doesn’t look so weird when I have it playing on half screen, which is what I usually do when I write my reviews).

Jay Exci - The Fall of Doctor Who

Yes, it has been a while and I know I could have told everyone about this earlier, but better late than never I suppose. A couple of months ago, Jay Exci did a 5-hour long critique of the Chibnall era in his video, The Fall of Doctor Who. For some reason, there are those who see it as controversial because they’re NPCs who don’t want to hear criticism of the Chibnall era or they’re spergs who aren’t mature enough to sit through a 5-hour video they can watch in chunks, but hey, it’s pretty good. This is more in-depth than the reviews that people like Bowlestrek or Nerdrotic make, which essentially put Jay on their level in the eyes of the NPCs despite denying that they are on their level and being a sperg about how they’re better than them. Welcome to the party, Jay, you can check out anytime but you can never leave. 

Anyway, you can check out the video below. Even if you don’t feel like watching the whole video, I highly suggest that you watch section 4.2 onwards (timestamped link here) as it does resonate with my feelings on the Timeless Child arc. I swear, this is just like Dynasty Warriors 9 all over again. I know the feeling.

Cancel culture comes for Noel Clarke and John Barrowman

The thing about cancel culture is that people can be petty about things other people have done or said years ago and they can justify it with the excuse that they’re doing it to hold those people accountable. Depending on the context, it can expose the fact that that person is a major piece of shit or it can be an overreaction to something, which in the minds of today’s society is normally the latter.

Around the time that Noel Clarke was nominated for a Bafta at the end of March, allegations emerged of abuse and sexual misconduct against him. 20 women came forward with their stories and as a result, the final episode of Viewpoint was pulled from broadcast (but still released on Blu-ray and DVD) and Bulletproof was cancelled before filming on the fourth series would begin.

In May, video emerged of Clarke at Chicago TARDIS in 2014 talking about how John Barrowman would expose his genitals and slap it on people and things. This led to allegations about Barrowman surfacing, resulting in him apologising for his actions even though he had already been reprimanded for them over a decade ago and apologised in November 2008. Despite this, his contribution to the immersive theatrical event Doctor Who: Time Fracture was pulled and Big Finish have decided to shelf the release of Torchwood: Absent Friends, which would have featured David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor.

Now, I don’t care about Noel Clarke by any means, but this situation is honestly sad for John Barrowman because it shows that cancel culture spares no victims and leaves no fossil undiscovered. These PR stunts have clearly shown that the spineless people involved with those productions are so concerned with saving face that they are unable to just overlook these transgressions for the sake of fans who actually wanted to see him reprise his role as Captain Jack Harkness. But hey, what do I know? I don’t really care for anything other than the TV series, but it really shows how shameless corporations can be.

Once again, we don’t exactly know when Doctor Who Series 13 will premiere, but if you ask me, I predict that it will premiere in October or November. I’ll see you all again around that time.