That's rather unfair. Like many Doctor Who writers, nobody should be forever judged by a single (not least their first) script - especially on a show which changes so much from week to week.

One series you might be allowed by the showrunner to make the massive error of declaring that our moon in an egg on a Mexican Lunar Colony. The next you could be sending messages about civil wars and splinter groups in Central London.

Re your spoiler (which isn't a spoiler) you are spot on.

The problem with IFOTN is basically the same of the one for KTM - the initial concept and not really being able to get a good story from it. Both should stories should never have got past the premise stage.

As for the spoiler above... yeah I get your point.

Of course i'll judge his next episode on it's merits, but it's just the one episode he has written so far, the only thing we have to judge him on, doesn't exactly fill me with confidence to hear that he's writing another. People do the same thing with Gatiss all the time.

Regrading your spoiler box though, it's absolutely spot on.

Two is fair play, but there are only so many chances you can give a guy

(Especially if your eighth attempt successfully rivals some of the worst in the show's entire history).

Sorry if you knew this already - but just uploaded to Digital Spy.

Yay!!

Maybe we'll get to see her TARDIS this time.

They keep giving that Moffat guy chances


This was actually mentioned on the last page of this thread (post 657), but I don't think there's anything wrong with re mentioning it, since it seems to be the most significant bit of series 10 news for a while.

I just hope she gets to 'be the master' meaning actually get a good master worthy story where she is significant, and hopefully against the Doctor, rather than what we've had so far which has been showing her as nothing more than one of the Doctors quirky friends. I really enjoy her incarnation of the role, but think she has been underused so far.

Somebody needs to bring interesting ideas to the table now and then - even if the execution largely leaves much to be desired

Sincerely hope he continues to write the occasional episode from 2018. Another big voice the show will miss if it vanishes for good.

Change Yay!! to Yuch!!

Sincerely hope the opposite! I hope he never despoils Who ever again.

Here's hoping

Dare I say it? Missy has been more like the Rani, rather than the Master.

There I said it.

Missy and the Rani are entirely different, I think.

The Rani was entirely and ruthlessly focused on her work, and people died if her work required it or if they got in her way. The first time she appeared, she was simply annoyed that the Doctor and the Master were involving themselves in her project. The second time she required the Doctor's help and so sought him out.

The Master (and now Missy) murdered people for fun, or to make a point. He also had an obsession with the Doctor that regularly drew the two together.

I personally think Missy is an excellent version of the Master and I don't see any similarity between Missy and The Rani, other than the fact that both are female.

Totally agreed. Missy is nothing like the Rani but definitely the Master through and through.

What Master is that? She doesn't seem anything like the Delgado or Ainley portrayals to me. Maybe more Pratt, Beevers or the snake?

Well she looks like she might like to drezzz for the occasion....
I have to agree though, that whilst I do like Missy, I still think she'd have been better as a completely new character as I can't really see any continuity from the character of the Master from the 63-89 series, nor that of John Simm either.

If we hadn't seen the regeneration would there have been much continuity between (for example) the 5th and 6th Doctors character wise?

Yet with the Master people (and I'm guilty of this myself) always want him/her to be like previous versions.

She reminds me very much of the John Simm incarnation, which is a good thing for me, since I like them both.

Also it makes sense for her to be more like the last previous one than one from years ago, just from a 'people changing over time' perspective.

My issue is that Simm and every other master got to be the threat, whereas Missy is being used as nothing more than an eccentric friend of the Doctor. She isn't the problem, her under use is. Making her just a comedy character is diminishing the characters ability to be taken seriously in my opinion. Still enjoy seeing her, just wish she was used better.

Good point Corwin, we always want the the Doctor to be very distinct from the all the previous ones, yet we are moaning that Missy IS distinct from all the previous Masters....
Who fans eh? There's no bloody pleasing us is there?

According to DWM, it's episodes 5 and 9 that are being filmed now.

Moffat has also confirmed that Missy is back.

I only meant it as tongue in cheek. Hoping to get a laugh! Wasn't being that serious.

Speculating (educated guessing, I suppose) that classic writer Rona Munro and Jamie Mathieson are writing these episodes respectively. Nardole is involved in at least one of the two, but probably both. And Missy is involved in them both.

Wishful thinking that the stories are quite independent of eachother, but connected in some way (i.e. Missy showing up in both)... maybe the events of episode 5 end up being caused by what later happens in episode 9 or something.

Speculating that there'll be no two-parter in the middle of the series as was previously hoped, but perhaps the 'something different again' mentioned by Moffat in regards to the structure of Series 10 may involve more exploration of linked stories rather than the relatively formulaic one-part and two-part stories we're used to. Series 9's The Girl Who Died and The Woman Who Lived dabbled with this a bit, maybe Series 10 will be 'different' by expanding on that concept by structuring itself around the idea of linked but individual stories.

Totally ready to be proved wrong once again by a scrap of news released after I type this, but it's fun to guess

I'm all for giving new writers second chance.

But when they're 11 years in and still delivering turkeys, that's when I get cross!

Whilst it mainly is a matter of taste I do think there are some writers who keep coming back who consistently have bad episodes as considered by low poll ratings etc. While this is not a perfect way of determining how good a script is, it does mean something.

It is odd seeing certain writers return to be honest and going by the brief spoilers posted, I'm not too confident for Boyce's Series 10 episode.