#I'M BEING BURNED AS WE SPEAK i really was hoping my grouchiness about all this

[sunshinedaysforever]

oh man this is also such a good point tbh esp considering the way the black origins of a lot of popular music (especially in the 50s/60s like. GOD.) get obscured constantly and like YESSS. SHIRLEY BASSEY. WE COULD HAVE HAD IT ALLLL

it felt v like. idk. like the show was sort of slingshot violently back into the sort of who that uncritically included churchill as a recurring side character tbh which is strange considering everything else it was trying to do at the same time (nonbinary drag queen guest star! black doctor! like, this is not the same show anymore....so why that choice rip KJHDFGLKJDFG) (well. besides the appeal of a beatles episode)(but yeah the vibes are very like. the heyday of not only british empire but british cultural hegemony)

obvs I think we're all sick of constantly slinging comparisons back and forth and it definitely didn't always nail the landing, but I do really appreciate the 13-era tendency to hone in on at least slightly less obvious histories/historical figures - noor khan, mary seacole, yaz's family - still v much wrapped up in the workings of british empire, but telling a different story, and often from the margins - always felt to me like a natural next step for the show that wasn't gonna like. completely alienate the white british audience (nvm the scandalous thought that there's a decent portion of the british population who aren't white and have just as much right to see their histories portrayed onscreen), just sort of work through those themes from a perspective that doesn't always get bbc primetime. lots of room to grow from there, so it's sort of a shame to see some slippage back to like. the status quo, I guess?

feels also like maybe a natural consequence of this focus on aesthetics - like, they wanted the look of the beatles and the look of the 60s (and tbf it was a great look!) but weren't interested in interrogating what any of that actually meant and the context it was occurring in. like, it's fine, but it's just pretty surface level. and tbf doctor who often uses history as set dressing but like. it can do better. i've SEEN IT!

tldr they need to hire vinay patel again and i will shut my little mouth forever amen

@sunshinedaysforever #and I think the historical setting was important (dot and bubble felt a bit like a cop out tbh esp considering they were just in the 1960s) i dont know if i'd call it a cope out (i think making it a futuristic ep makes that ep stronger / more relevant) but this is a good point to think about that like... the devil's cord was so white sdfshkjhjkl and in such a way that for an episode about music of the 60s, feels kinda........... tone-deaf (eyyy) (shot) like just using the beatles was always going to feel a bit like... like i saw it described in a podcast it's like very "we used to be an empire" type of british-posturing thing dlkfjdf "we were so great ya'll, britain is still relevant, we're still relevant!!!! we're awesome!!! we've always been aweosme and colonialism was Good Actually!!!" so on that angles it is kinda ehhh. but also on the angle that the beatles along with elvis are like... THE symbols of white pop. and then the other only singer in the episode is celina instead of like, idk shirley bassey or smth. . that's when u see this is sadly a very white show and rtd and co need to try harder (or let someone else try).