True, if could have been much worse

What an absurdly overly dramatic post.
You can obviously see the future though, seeing as how you know that Chris Chibnall is incapable of writing stories that you might like and that Doctor Who will revert to pedestrian and mediocre (when was it ever so?) and move to BBC2?
What silly, dopey nonsense.
And as for your choices for showrunner - none of those people have the sort of experience required for producing and running a major show such as Doctor Who. The BBC requires someone with both the writing chops and the showrunning experience. Chibnall is established in both those areas. You childishly dismiss Chibnall's experience with the hugely successful Broadchurch as 'irrelevant' purely because you've not bothered to watch it! I would suggest that Broadchurch is one of the main reasons the BBC have considered in appointing him as showrunner.

I agree, but if they want to go darker as a tone they definitely need to integrate humour well into the scripts, and not force stuff (like the Doctor driving a tank)

Completely irrelevant... Ludicrous statement. He is the showrunner of a show which has been very successful? He has experience how to run the show if that is irrelevant then you are having a laugh, And is probably a better writer than he was a few years ago.

And i'll take it you have never watched Torchwood because he has written some of the best episodes as well. And 42 and Dinosaurs on a Spaceship aren't bad stories at all.

Yes, and those will really attract the average 7yo who's never seen the show before. Darker belongs to fan fic - the 2005 revival worked because it catered for all audiences, not just one.

So the best episodes in the shows history aren't good enough for the show, even though the target audience is the same then as it is now.

This is great news. It could have been much worse. Imagine if the Russian guy had got it.

You must be aware, of course, that a large chunk of those episodes I named came from the Hinchcliffe era, an era of the show notorious for its darker and more horror-orientated tone, which garnered some of the show's highest ratings yet and was absolutely adored by children? In fact, most of the episodes I named are ones many people remember fondly from their childhood... give children credit where its due, they don't all need lighter and sillier tones to keep them entertained and that's where many feel the Graham Williams era went wrong. As long as there's the Doctor running around stopping monsters, then they'll find more than enough to enjoy.

Russian guy?

did they ask Russian guy before CC?

Марк Gatissovich

Probably does take a lot of gin and tonic indeed to decide to become one of the most hated men in British television.

Personally, I'm absolutely gutted; CC was the one person I prayed would never get it. I would've preferred any other name that's ever been (seriously) mentioned for the job.

I'm not going to go into a rant, but at the moment, I genuinely can't see how I can bring myself to watch the show when he takes over.

So someone who has experience as a showrunner of a successful show, is no good then?

I'm not disputing he can put a popular show together. But I very much dislike his writing. And presumably he's going to be responsible for the tone of the show, and any arc(s).

What do you dislike about it? I'd also say he has improved massively as a writer since he was last on Doctor Who as well.

From speculation it seemed to be down to Gatiss, Whitchurch, Chibnall or a complete outsider.
All of them (except the outsider) have written episodes some people love and some don't, but Chibnall Is a life long fan and also written for Torchwood.
RTD and Moffat both have distinct styles which get wearing after a few years. I've never been more pleased to see a Doctor finally regenerate as I have 10! I also loathed Children of Earth and Miracle day. And I didn't like the obsession with and overuse of Clara as the most important companion ever or Missy showing up.
.However most of what they both did was superb and made the show more widely known and popular and surely that's more important overall.
I can see Chibnall doing the same; we'll find out eventually.

Gatiss would've been worse...just.

Apart from really enjoying (most of ) Children of Earth I agree with pretty much every single word here. And well said whoever posted about Moffatt plying Chibnall with G&Ts to become the most hated man in Britain!

PS Am I the only person who liked the second Broadchurch?

I am a fan of Dr Who but I don't like a lot of it since it came back. So there is a difference.

Maybe the logic of the high-ups at the BBC is as simple as this - Gardner/RTD produced a popular show with many spin-offs, BBC3 repeats and magazine sales. The opposite is true of Moffat. Ergo, since Chibnall was appointed as the virtual boss of Torchwood by Gardner/RTD, he should be hired as the new boss of Doctor Who?

By this logic, the next boss of Doctor Who may be the guy who produces the forthcoming teenage "Grange Hill Vs Doctor Who Vs 90210" show for BBC3 later this year, as a filler for an absolute once-in-a-year absence of Doctor Who, the like of which we haven't seen since beginning somewhere into the last century.

I know you are only jesting here CD93.

But I cant believe how negative some posters have been on this thread. Its honestly not the end of the world. Lets give the guy a chance to impress us.

Reading amongst the online papers and online sites there seems to be a lot of positivity around Chris Chibnall being the new showrunner. Looking at his credits he has so much experience I'm looking forward to a different tone and new stories in 2018 .

There should be a Transformation scene between Moffat and Chibnall

Ikr it seems to be this forum in particular but I'm happy to see Chris Chibnall maybe because I loved all his episodes even his bad filler ones, the same way I loved Series 5 before series 7 part 2 I started to well become an anti moffatist if thats a word.

Chibnall wrote the woeful "Cyberwoman", "Dinosaurs on A Spaceship", "The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood", and most of the dreadful "Camelot"...while he may have a talent for plays and crime drama, he has none for science fiction or fantasy.

Most of the harshest critics of RTD and Moffat would still acknowledge they have written one great Doctor Who story ("Midnight" and "Blink" would be the most common choices). But what great Doctor Who story has Chibnall written?


There's a rumour going around the internet that Toby Whithouse was offered the DW job and refused; if this is true, I find it even more disappointing, because Whithouse wrote two standout episodes for the show ("School Reunion", and "The God Complex") and did a good job producing "Being Human".