Because they’re licensing out the shows to Netflix, Netflix pays them a distributers fee. And it is possible that Disney was pushing for an increased fee with the exact expectation that Netflix would rather cancel the shows than pay what Disney was asking. (All so Disney could have the rights for themselves.)

They…

The biggest reason would’ve honestly been the same reason RTD wrote 8 episodes of his first season, and Moffat wrote 6 in his first season: they need to set the tone and give the other writers a reference point to go off. Which is also why I think Chibnall’s scripts were also so front-loaded this season.

There’s a radio interview with Jack Kirby from the late 80's where Stan rings in and they chat, that was linked on the Stan Lee obit article, and in that Stan point blank challenges Jack on the issue of the dialogue.

Depends how you define ‘writing’- like I think it’s more or less agreed upon that all the actual dialogue in the comics was Lee.

If you’d been following the talk about Ghostbusters 3 though it was clear it was never going to happen. It was mainly just Dan Aykroyd saying that they’re currently working on a new script and it is dynamite then they’ll pitch it to the studio...then Bill Murray stating that he has no interest in making a Ghostbusters…

I agree with you about the first one. I really loved it as a kid, but rewatching it recently it definetly does feel abit flat at times. I think in some ways what elevates for people, besides nostalgia, is that it is just a really good concept...and it has an iconic theme song.

Honestly I feel the reason it wasn’t a Ghostbusters 3 was cause of Bill Murray. He made it very clear he didn’t want to do a Ghostbusters 3/ wasn’t interested in returning as Venkman.

He didn’t just attack New York in the film though- he attacked major cities throughout the world (including Moscow.)

To ad to this- in the film, Snyder made it so the attacks were on cities around the world (not just America.)
If Russia got attacked by what they thought was the American super-weapon, they’re not going to turn around and want to be friends with the US. They would strike right back and unleash the nuclear war that…

The thing is- Dr. Manhattan was seen by the world at large as an American weapon. If the attacks around the world were percieved to be done by Dr. Manhattan, the Soviets first thought would be that this was an American attack and they would respond. (Leading to the Nuclear War Veit is trying to avoid.)

And even if they…

Source for this? Cause the only statement I saw of his relating to the change in date was him talking about it being exciting to ring in the New Year with the Doctor and an alien adventure. (No mention of Christmas.)

...How do you know it was Chibnall’s call to move the episode? Like for all we know it was a BBC choice, cause the fact that is they’re still doing a ‘series + a seasonal special’ so they haven’t dropped the special just moved it back a few days.

...Except that’s not how Van Gogh’s name is pronounced. It rhymes with ‘cough’, not ‘go.’

I would argue that it is decisively better than Capaldi’s first season- the only rating in the season that is even comparable outside of the premiere is the finale (which was still 160,000 lower than this episode.)

Other than the finale episodes range from having 450,000 less viewers than this episode, to having just…

If that was a rating in Smith’s final season it would’ve been one of the higher ratings of the season- as he was regularly getting viewers between 6-7 million in his final season.

This doesn’t apply to all of them- but part of it is that Spider-Man as a character lends himself to animal based villains.

The drop off from the premiere was expected though- and even with the drop it’s still been consistantly in the top 5 highest rated programs in the UK for the week. And the ratings where they’re at now are what I was referring to when I said it was comparable to Tennant’s.

‘Nothing to do about ratings’- and yet despite having a big drop-off in ratings over the last couple of years, the ratings in the UK are now comparable to those the show was getting at Tennant’s peak.

...I mean it’s not like Chibnall invented the Doctor’s anti-gun tone. At times it was very present in the Tennant era, so it is a trait of the Doctor’s that different writers will emphasise to different degrees.

He hosts The Chase, but is also an actor (worked on Law & Order UK with Chibnall before and appeared in the Sarah Jane Adventures) and has recorded an album of Jazz Standards! (So Graham suggesting singing some songs at the wedding wasn’t too far-fetched.)