Doctor Who (2018 onwards)

The sounds seems out of sync. And are the promos going to keep getting wider and wider until there's just a single strip of pixels?

I already don't see the point of 2:1 (16:8 ), which is what this series will be. It seems to be all the rage to show how "cinematic" you are (Doctor Foster, Bodyguard), but if it wasn't for the fact that parts of your telly were black it's not like most people would notice the difference...

Will the series be that aspect ratio? Or is it just the trailer? I suspect the latter.

As a filmmaker, I can honestly say it’s not just to be ‘trendy’. A different aspect ratio results in different composition choices, a different tone. You wouldn’t just bung black bars on at the end (if you do it properly) - you’d plan your shots right from the start to be that way. And I’d do similar for still photos, by the way - choose different proportions for different images to get a nicer or more suitable composed image.

I do agree it’s an increasing practice, perhaps. It’s interesting, then, that we are going wider and wider on TV, but taller and taller on social media…

There has been talk about them shooting using Cooke Anamorphic lenses - so it may be wider than 16:9.

So apparently the first episode will be 65 minutes long, with the remaining episodes 50 minutes long. I wonder how they will schedule this on a Sunday? Will they come before or after the Strictly Results show?

It's going to be 2:1, which is barely different from 16:9. Like I said, if someone swapped a 16:9 display for a 2:1 one, I don't think most people would notice. The only reason most people notice at all is that it leaves 1/9th of their 16:9 screens black (or even less if their TV is set for possible overscan, as most do by default), and makes them go "ooh, wide(r)screen!"

Unless you're going to go the whole hog and do something like 2.35:1 I don't really see the point (but even then it only looks "cinematic" because it's what we're used to seeing at the cinema. It isn't intrinsically any more immersive). I think I might watch with it zoomed to fill my screen just to spite them

Isn't 18:9 / 2:1 now the standard format for Amazon and Netflix? Perhaps that's one reason for the change.

A lot of devices such as smartphones like the iPhone X or Samsung Galaxy S/Note series are 2:1 as well.

In some cases the music is being used as a stick to beat it by those that are still miffed that The Doctor is being played by a woman, but are reluctant to say so anymore after the overwhelmingly positive reception Jodie's had so far.

The irony that a certain section of Doctor Who fans hate change, when that's one of the series' most famous assets.

Actually I think it really is just people who don't think the music fits. It feels like it's trying too hard to be hip and with it (which, as you can tell by my use of the phrases "hip" and "with it", I am not) when it doesn't need to. As the Eleventh Doctor said: "Don't be cool, guys. Cool is not cool."

It's a pretty generic trailer, still more of a teaser actually, but it does a good job of stripping the show back to basics with the lines "I'm just a traveler...if I see something is wrong I try and fix it".

They have admitted to a deliberate strategy of not giving away any significant details (plotlines, TARDIS interior etc) in advance of the series starting.

It just doesn't fit with their perception of what Doctor Who has become. But the style of show is clearly evolving, so none of us can really say it doesn't fit with it until we see the first episode.

They're being shady about the incidental music as well as everything else, so using a completely different track is a clever diversion.