#anti jodie whittaker

[periprose]

Do u watch doctor who?

Hmm I used to a long time ago. Like back in 2011 - 2017. I didn't really care for them turning the doctor into a woman (speaking as a feminist, give us our own original characters and stop gender bending popular male characters, it just proves you don't believe in women being relevant without brand recognition) and I found the storyline got a lot more childish/not for me. Felt like they dumbed down the doctor a lot and it pissed me off that they did this when the doctor became a woman.

I also didn't like Jodie's take on the character. I think she was a terrible choice- just doing a sad mimicking of Ten's best moments here and there and then she never had that authentic feeling of being a very old alien fed up with the world.

I know they brought back David Tennant and Catherine tate but I don't really care about that either. I love Ten's era with Donna but it is so nostalgia baity in a way that just makes me cringe, even if it is the 60th anniversary. If it's really such a good story why didn't they have Ncuti just do it? They don't have faith anyone will watch without the nostalgia bait and honestly, it makes me sad this is the state of movies and TV shows.

It's the same thing as Disney making prequels, sequels, reboots, things full of Easter eggs, nothing that doesn't have a prior IP attached to it. It's just sad.

[paulrobinsonshotel]

I love RTD's writing, and it was his era that made me fall in love with the show as a kid. When it was announced he was coming back, my reaction was nothing short of ecstasy.

When the rumours began to swirl that we'd be getting a Tennant-centric special with the Doctor regenerating BACK into him, I was very much "please no", but also thinking "surely, RTD wouldn't actually do this. There's NO WAY he'd actually do this".

Then Ncuti Gatwa was announced, amazing, wonderful. He'll be fantastic, no doubt about it.

Then we got the Tennant and Tate 60th announcement. At that point, the cracks began to show. Yes, my favourite companion and one of my favourite Doctors. I was excited, but I was waiting for more. We've already seen David Tennant's Doctor and Donna Noble written by Russell T Davies, and it was great. But for an anniversary special, the things that bring different eras of the show together in celebration of its history... pretty underwhelming.

Then the thing I was dreading most, the Doctor regenerating back into Tennant - something that had been the refuge of obsessives making badly edited fan videos from 2010 onwards - actually happened. And not only that, but he regenerated straight out of Whittaker's outfit into a Tennant-esque one. Ostensibly because RTD didn't want the image of Tennant in Whittaker's outfit to be used to whip up anti-drag or transphobic hate. Despite the fact that 1) Whittaker went out of her way to make her outfit gender neutral, so that all fans would be able to dress up as her Doctor and feel included and 2) surely it's more important to broadcast the message that anyone of any gender can wear any clothes they want, and there's nothing wrong with it?

The initial Tennant/Tate announcement was in May 2022. My initial dissatisfaction was met with responses like "The episodes are ages away, just wait and see". We're fifteen months on, and no further returning characters have been announced. As far as we know, these specials will still be primarily focused on Tennant, Tate and Donna's supporting cast (that said, the one thing in all this I'm happy about is seeing Bernard Cribbins again).

Of course, that doesn't mean there's been no announcements about the episodes at all. Segun Akinola's decided to leave, so we're getting a new composer. That's exciting, I wonder who it'll be? Oh, brilliant, it's Murray Gold. Again. In RTD's own words, "is anyone surprised?". Surprised? No. But fair to say my enthusiasm went from very low to absolute zero.

Gold is great as what he does, but we just had Akinola, an incredibly skilled composer who poured his heart and soul into the show, but was never given a chance by a chunk of the fandom because he tried something different to Gold or just because they didn't like the Chibnall era as a whole. So RTD could've brought in some new talent, with a completely fresh take, but instead chose to bring back yet another person from his era, who did 10 seasons on the show, and the one person the fandom needs to move the fuck on from the most.

So that's a special meant to celebrate 60 years of the show, but specifically focused on one era of it? Coincidentally, the era of the guy writing it?

And for those who dismiss any criticism of this being RTD centric with "But Beep the Meep/The Toymaker!!!", ask yourselves this: If Chibnall stayed on and did the 60th as nothing but a Thirteen and Yaz story, but with Beep/Toymaker, or if Moffat come back and done the same with his characters, would there be anything other than across the board outrage? Classic villains do not an anniversary special make, since we've had them in every season since the revival.

I'm sure the episodes will be genuinely good, and I'll certainly be watching. Any DW is better than no DW, but of all the things they could've done for an anniversary special, this is practically an insult to the show's history.

I'll be patiently waiting for Ncuti Gatwa's era, which looks genuinely new and exciting.

Rant over.

[dandelionjack]

i think one of the main reasons why i’m not connecting to thirteen’s companions is that they don’t get put through the wringer by themselves, they aren’t given the chance to prove themselves outside of the doctor’s immediate influence. amy was constantly being turned into a doll or a vampire or a flesh copy of her body or staying in an alien health facility for 30 years or falling pregnant or being possessed by a weeping angel or having her memories extracted to build a mythical prison for her best friend or falling pregnant or being cloned by a tesselecta or. you get it. clara was always being locked inside a dalek or uploaded to the cloud or travelling through the doctor’s timestream or being left to fend for herself against dimension-shifting creatures or being locked inside a zygon pod. you get the gist. they were vital to the plot both in one-off episodic stories and overarching arcs in a way that reached beyond giving the doctor pep talks to cheer them up and following them around asking questions.

what exactly has ryan done by himself apart from following the instructions on the plane which had been left by the doctor anyway? what exactly has graham done apart from grieving for his dead wife? what exactly has yaz accomplished on her own apart from that one 2-minute sequence in spyfall where she got transmatted to the kasaavin realm?

they hardly serve any purpose to further the story. they just hang around. space tourists, not companions. even in danger they just seem to rely on the doctor’s intelligence to clever them out of it and save their lives, not once so far (i’m halfway through s12) have any of them shown proper initiative or any distinguishing traits beyond a corny sense of humour tbh

[thewhovianstan]

I'm sorry, but when the Master said he was human intolerant, I laughed so hard because it was such a huge mood, especially as I, too, am human intolerant 😂

[peacefulemoyearnings]

thinking about the time where i went to a dr who cosplay meetup as 13 and the person taking the picture said she didn't get a lot of awesome moments and i just... felt so small. maybe it was my social anxiety, maybe it was my rsd but i felt wrong in that moment for liking 13. i don't see a lot of people expressing their love for 13 and i usually see complaints about how she ruined the lore of dr who and i just. don't know how to feel. am i wrong for liking 13?

[paulrobinsonshotel]

OK so I've been thinking, if RTD absolutely didn't want to go down the root of having a multi-Doctor/multi-companion extravaganza for the 60th, and wanted to go down a more subtle route using old villains and obscure comics to celebrate the show's history, imagine if instead of making the only real "anniversary" elements of the story be his Doctor and his companion, RTD had done the unthinkable, and asked Jodie and Mandip to stay on.

Obviously, there are multiple reasons why that didn't happen. Ultimately Thirteen and Yaz are Chris Chibnall's characters, and RTD may not have wanted to add to Chibnall's story. I'm also aware that Jodie and Mandip thought Chibnall's departure was the right time for them to go, so this ultimately wasn't down to RTD. But I do think (with Chibnall's blessing) he could've convinced them to come back with a good story.

I'm also aware that Jodie had a baby after filming POTD, and needed time away. However, since returning to acting, she has filmed other shows, including Time, which aired before the 60th specials. So there's no reason filming couldn't have been delayed to accommodate Jodie while still having the episodes ready for November/December 2023.

Imagine the end of Power of the Doctor, the Thirteenth Doctor has her farewell with Yaz, goes to the clifftop and starts regenerating... only to end up with the same face by the end of it? Might not have the same impact on the general public as the Tennant return, but certainly enough to keep fans speculating for a year.

Then at the start of The Star Beast, the TARDIS brings her straight to 2023, where she just happens to bump into Yaz as soon as she steps out, who is still hurting after a year without the Doctor, and shocked she doesn't have a different face.

And imagine hearing Akinola's themes for Thirteen and Yaz in Murray Gold's style when they are reunited!

While I do think Donna's exit was more heartbreaking than Yaz's, I'd argue she got closure of a sort, marrying someone who genuinely loves her for who she is, and getting a winning lottery ticket. It certainly didn't need a fanfiction fix-it of being sorted by "just letting go" ("something a male-presenting Time Lord wouldn't understand" way to shit on your own progressivism Russell)

While the ending Chibnall gave Yaz was an appropriate and bittersweet one for her character, it was written in a way that permitted closure or another writer picking up the character in the future.

I criticise RTD frequently on here, but one thing he absolutely excels at is realistic family drama (the scene where Sylvia isn't sure she's saying the right thing to Rose was probably the best writing in those specials), and integrating that family drama with the magic and silliness of Doctor Who. Not saying Chibnall was bad at this, but it was never really the story he wanted to tell. RTD could've done some great stuff with the Khan family in the 60th specials, with her parents and Sonya supporting her in adjusting to life without the Doctor, and probably delivering some uncomfortable truths to Thirteen(.5) about all the time she froze Yaz out or pushed her away.

I'm not sure how the specials could've played out, but imagine if instead of Fourteen regenerating into Ten's face because he "needed to come home" to Donna (and not every other found family the Doctor had ever had?), we linked it back to Power of the Doctor, and revealed that Thirteen wanting more time (with Yaz), and Yaz not wanting her time with the Doctor to end triggered the Toymaker's interference. Her made her regenerate into the same face, and brought her straight back to Yaz, and to defeat him they have to let the change complete itself.

If they're going hard on marketing Ncuti's era as "Series 1" as if it's a brand new show, then I think having Thirteen and Yaz (the final Doctor and companion of the 2005-2023 Who) both accept that it's time to move on would be the perfect coda for the "NuWho" as a whole. No "bigeneration" fanfiction fuckery, but maybe Thirteen offering Yaz to stay with her for the change this time, and Yaz this time being the one to say no, not because the Doctor is regenerating, but because she's accepted that time with the Doctor has to end sometime.

And then in the closing seconds, we get to see Ncuti's Doctor, taking up the baton (and clothes) from Jodie Whittaker, just as it should be, his Doctor on his own terms, not a side character in the last guy's story.

As I said, I understand why this didn't happen, but honestly, this would've been so much better than what we got.

[dandelionjack]

resolution was… watchable. fine. okay. reasonably tolerable tv. chibnall has a real talent for turning even the most exciting potential concepts (an escaped dalek attaching itself to a human and reassembling itself from scratch) into wishy-washy stand-around-a-room-and-talk half-arsed dullness. you couldn’t get me to care for a second about ryan’s deadbeat dad or their out-of-nowhere “reconciliation”. at least if he’d been forced to sacrifice himself at the end and throw himself into the gravity well to get rid of the dalek that would have been satisfying from a narrative standpoint and would have been a point of conflict to drive a wedge between ryan and the doctor, with ryan blaming the doctor for his father’s death and potentially even storming out of the TARDIS in anger only to begrudgingly return much later in the next series out of necessity when disaster strikes, similarly to how martha came back in the middle of s4. i was so sure that he’d end up dying, and if moffat had been writing this he 100% would have, but instead we get chris neoliberal chibnall’s ‘you always have to forgive your parents because they’re family’ bullshit (for what?? what has he ever done for ryan but mistreat him and fuck off when he was at his most vulnerable?)

i liked some of it. the scene where thirteen was taunting the dalek was good ol’ who and reminded me of s1’s dalek, especially with the way it showed just how much death, mass panic, devastation and havoc one singular dalek can wreak. really portrayed it as a formidable enemy again and that was effective. imo thirteen could have been more imposing and commanding in her confrontation (this is always a criticism i have of her and why i’m still adamant that twelve should have regenerated into michelle gomez), maybe jodie’s just incapable of going oncoming storm mode. which is a bit sad, and don’t accuse me of misogyny please, it has nothing to do with her gender

all in all, i miss christmas specials. cultural christianity sucks but if you’re gonna feature the new year actually do something with it other than “ooh the time vortex looks like fireworks”. the tv movie did more with the new year than your new year’s special, chris.

[jane-asmo]

I saw an anti-Caitlyn post in the CaitVi tags, and I skimmed through it. I'm torn between responding and taking the time to share my opinion, and at the same time, I know it wouldn’t be very useful because I genuinely think that people don’t experience or see the same things. It’s very difficult to explain why they might be wrong because they’re not actually wrong. So, I encourage everyone to do the same if you have even a hint of doubt before responding to a hateful comment about a character you love.

We shouldn’t forget: 'We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.'

Each person has their own world, their own universe, their own version, their own reality, their own truth. Some shows, I think, are written for us, and others are not. I’m lucky because Arcane feels like it was written just for me. It’s a real privilege.

I could find criticisms to make, sure, but I can find criticisms about my wife, my favorite dish, or probably even Jodie Whittaker.

It’s just that it wouldn’t matter, because there are things we love whether they’re perfect or not, things that touch us deeply, and Arcane is one of those things.

As we say around here in France : "Laissez pisser, on s'en cogne des rageux, nous on kiff Caitlyn Kiramman !

[sephsekla]

Honestly the amount of hate that the 13th Doctor and her era get from alleged fans of the show is really upsetting.

Was it perfect? Of course not. But it was enjoyable Doctor Who, and the main cast were consistently exceptional. I absolutely adore the chemistry and dynamic that Jodie Whittaker and Mandip Gill pulled off throughout their time on the show.

So much misogyny and right wing "anti-woke" reactionism infects any good faith discussion of the show and its merits, and I'm tired of it.

[alatabouleau]

Yesterday night I dreamed that I watched a very different version of the Star Trek reboot of 2009. Well, actually it was the sequel, I guess, but anyway: In this timeline, the death of George Kirk somehow led to James Tiberius Kirk now being Jane Tiberia Kirk who was played by Jodie Whittaker, actress of the 13th doctor. And she kinda was the 13th doctor, characterwise...?

So in this universe, Kirk grew up on another planet for a while on which the Enterprise and her crew take shore leave in the beginning of the movie. Spock is still together with Uhura at this point, however, you realise that Kirk is unhappy with it. ( I remember thinking something like "Oh, of course, now that Kirk is a woman, K/S becomes canon!" )What the folks on the Enterprise didn't realise, however, is two Aliens having infiltrated the ship who want to destroy the planet below to take revenge on Kirk for something she did in the last movie.

Forgotten some plot here, but somehow, Bones and Scotty figure out the Aliens's plan and do some sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo to let the bomb explode on space, however, they don't get it high enough before the timer ends and somehow, Uhura dies during the explosion, or she sacrifies herself for the people on the planet, I don't remember. This leads to Spock absolutely loosing his sh*t and Kirk runs after him, but Spock tells her off because she could never understand his pain, for she never let herself be bound to anyone. After that, Jane lets him go and goes to her quarters where she looks at a picture that shows her, but younger, in a romantic embrace with another woman, in the background the scenery of the planet below. Kirk sheds a tear while looking at it.

Anway, Spock starts to wreak havoc on the planet but hasn't hit anyone yet. (?) Jane beams down the moment he draws his phaser and throws herself in front of a child to save it from the shot. This leads to Spock getting sort of "anti-blood-lust" so that he becomes normal again and he takes the injured Kirk to sickbay where Bones heals her. Spock and Kirk confess their feelings for each other and Kirk is like " what, but I thought you went crazy because of Nyota" and Spock is like "Not out of love but out of guilt, for my Katra had long since belonged to another one" and they kiss. I think. I remember my last line of thoughts before waking up were something like "Yeah, this feels like a movie from the early 2010s...."

Anyway, after this I do not feel that giving up fanfictions for lent had the desired effect...

[denimbex1986]

'...Doctor Who has been notable for its inclusionary storylines over the past few years.

After decades of white men playing the titular Time Lord, Jodie Whittaker became the first woman to take the helm of the TARDIS in 2017. Her time on Doctor Who also saw the first LGBTQ+ relationship that the Doctor had with a companion.

With the show’s latest Christmas episode, fans finally got acquainted with the newest Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa – the 15th Doctor and the first Black, openly queer to take on the leading role in the series history...'

[whoreviewswho]

Wokeness, Responsibility and if RTD is problematic - The Regeneration Question and Davros with Legs

Is Russell T. Davies a problematic figure? Is he too woke or not aware enough? Is he doing something wrong to illicit negative responses from the progressives as well as the conservatives? Is it something in the programme, something in the marketing or is he doing nothing particularly bad at all? Well, perhaps you and I, faithful reader, can come to some sort of conclusion. Let's find out together as we take a dive into the controversial choices behind RTD2 and the mind of the man behind them.

At the end of 2022's The Power of the Doctor, Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor regenerates into her fourteenth body, the same as her tenth incarnation as played by David Tennant. Taken on face value, the scene is innocuous enough. Just a standard regeneration with the surprise appearance of the most popular (sorry Tom) Doctor Who ever for our next story instead of the expected Ncuti Gatwa.

Except, there was something else unusual - the Doctor's clothes regenerated with her. With the sole exception of the very first regeneration (which can be excused as a relic from before the 'rules' were decided upon), this is without precedent* and was clearly supposed to mean something. After all, Russell thinks. He is a clever man and he would never do something as bold as this without there being a reason.

Well, yes. There was a reason but a lot of fans were dismayed to learn that the reason was not built into the narrative but a consequence of real life. In DWM 584, these comments from Davies were published;

“I was certain that I didn’t want David to appear in Jodie’s costume. I think the notion of men dressing in ‘women’s clothes’, the notion of drag, is very delicate. I’m a huge fan of that culture and the dignity of that, it’s truly a valuable thing. But it has to be done with immense thought and respect. With respect to Jodie and her Doctor, I think it can look like mockery when a straight man wears her clothes. To put a great big six-foot Scotsman into them looks like we’re taking the mickey. Also, I guarantee you it’s the only photograph some of the papers would print for the rest of time. If they can play with gender in a sarcastic or critical way, they will.”

Unsurprisingly, this choice became a not insignificant talking point in the fandom in the weeks following. A particularly articulate thread was posted by tess owen’s #1 fan || (i still love you yaz dw), @_mag_lex, on November 10, 2022 summarised the discussion well when she said;

"I don’t understand how DT wearing 13’s outfit is a mockery of drag, given that it’s deliberately and definitively gender-neutral. Anyone who watches and cares about the show understands that. I also don’t understand the logic of pandering to bigots rather than catering to fans [....] You’re telling me that Doctor Who is now scared to push boundaries. That’s what this says to me. But sci fi is all about pushing boundaries. Opening minds. Why are we limited by things like this? I’m so sad."

The stance from RTD does not seem in and of itself confused. He made the decision to avoid showing a man in clothes designed for a woman based on a potential, and what he saw as a likely, media reaction. The mention of tabloids and newspapers is revealing, of course. He is a boomer. Terminology aside, though, I would agree that depicting a man in women's clothes opens the door to ridicule from the anti-woke crowd in a way that not showing it wouldn't. And, yes, they are women's clothes. With all due respect to everybody who claims otherwise, I don't think the refute that Jodie's costume is designed to be genderless really holds any water. The costume designed by Ray Holman and inspired by Jodie Whittaker's suggestion is not inherently feminine but the shape and cut and final choices were made with her, a cis woman, in mind as the wearer.

Now, what does hold some amount of water is the context of the rest of the episode. Approximately 44 minutes before David Tennant appears in his all new costume, Sacha Dhawan's Master can be seen wearing Whittaker's complete costume and he continues to for several minutes following. It is at this juncture where our second comment from Hagan feels appropriate;

"[In reference to David Tennant wearing Jodie Whittaker's costume] Dude's heart's in the right place but his head's in the fucking clouds half the time." - November 10, 2022

What many have noted, Hagan included, is that RTD inadvertently suggests here that the Master, the villain, being seen in clothes intended for someone other than of his assigned gender is perfectly acceptable but to see our leading hero in this way is something to avoid. Without the full context of the quote, we appear to have RTD shying away from doing something opposed to UK's cultural and societal norms regarding gender rather than being openly proud of the juxtaposition; we have just witnessed a gender transition which is another day in the office for our hero.

Then again, if one never came across RTD's comments in the first place, would there be as much reason to be bothered by the decision at all? Certainly, there is the valid feeling of disappointment that would have come from many fans about never seeing Whittaker's male successor in her clothes but, prior to the statement, I saw less of that online than I did excitement. Most viewers seemed to reasonably assume from the way the scene plays out that the choice to regenerate the clothes would have some bearing on the plot in future events. It stands to reason that the Doctor regenerating their clothes and regaining an old face are related. Well, we know now that they were not, at least not on-screen.

They are related in the real world but, alas, in a very perfunctory way. As I am sure RTD was well aware, the clip of Jodie turning back into David was a very popular moment and even named TV Moment of the Year at the Edinburgh TV Awards. Most significantly, the costume from the previous era was not the one seen all over the media. 

So, knowing that the costume change would not be addressed in his scripts, RTD addressed it himself in what some might call a flagrant display of moral hubris. Again, the sentiment of 'let's not give queerphobes ammunition' is in no way a problematic one but the optics of forever binding that decision to an episode that makes no display at all of the villain dressed in women's clothes are not so great and a little baffling. It is almost as if RTD had no idea what even went on in the story he was picking up from. As others such as Hagan have pointed out, there is also the notable matter of the Master as written by RTD who was last seen wearing women's clothes in multiple instances during The End of Time. While it his unfair to say his choices in 2009 and choices in 2022 directly reflect each other, it still contributes to an awkward feeling and some bad optics. 

RTD refused to give ammunition to queerphobes so he handed the fans a loaded gun and asked them to point it at him. It sounds almost noble but was it truly necessary? He could have said nothing for a much lesser reaction. In that case, nobody would have questioned his equating the art of drag performance with just men in women's clothes. This is the first of several examples in what I am attesting to be 'pre-emptive damage control'; cases of RTD identifying where audiences might have a problem and then going well out of his way to ensure that they don't at the very real risk of drawing attention to problems that may not have even been there in the first place. Or, at least, not in the way that he is envisioning. I am not refuting the suggestion that media outlets would have made jokes out of Tennant in a woman's clothes. That seems like a very real possibility. For RTD, it seems that the potential harm from that outweighed any potential strength that could be gained from depicting it in the first place. Is the best outcome for queer Doctor Who fans the one where the show seems to take no pride in depicting aspects of queer culture or make any attempt to own that choice at all? 

A similar situation occurred a little over twelve months later with the premiere of, of all things, a Children in Need sketch. On November 17 2024, Destination: Skaro was broadcast in the UK and, eight days out from RTD2 kicking off proper, it was audience's first glimpse into what might be in store with David Tennant's Fourteenth Doctor and perhaps the general flavour of the era. At time of writing, the latter seems a little too soon to say though the nature of the short obviously lends it to being more comedic than a typic Who episode. Something that did become clear though was that the outspoken, socially-conscious thinking that informed the previous year's regeneration scene showed no signs of disappearing. 

Destination: Skaro surprised fans with the unexpected return of Julian Bleach in the role of Davros. The scene took place on the titular planet during the early stages of Dalek development and saw the Doctor accidentally influence the Daleks' design. The short was immediately notable for depicting Davros as fully-abled, not wheelchair bound or in any way disfigured. Prior to any statement from RTD regarding the choice, fans like myself appeared to conclude that this scene must be intended to take place prior to all of Davros' other appearances. Hs debut, Genesis of the Daleks, makes it clear that his chair is a life-support system and the Daleks seen there are all fully designed. So this is a prequel to the 1975 story. Easy enough to accept. But, then, RTD said this in an episode of Doctor Who Unleashed:

"We had long conversations about bringing Davros back, because he's a fantastic character, [but] time and society and culture and taste has moved on. And there's a problem with the Davros of old in that he's a wheelchair user, who is evil. And I had problems with that. And a lot of us on the production team had problems with that, of associating disability with evil. And trust me, there's a very long tradition of this... I say, this is how we see Davros now, this is what he looks like. This is 2023. This is our lens. This is our eye. Things used to be black and white, they're not in black and white anymore, and Davros used to look like that and he looks like this now, and that we are absolutely standing by."

In my opinion, there is little to object to here. Associating disability with villainy is a longstanding, harmful trope of genre fiction and something that Doctor Who has indulged in innumerable times throughout its history. Given that this short was airing within a charity event for disadvantaged youth, the optics of the decision make a lot of sense. It was a good call for RTD to contribute to the conversation about disability in a positive way. For the most part, this alls seemed to go down quite well. What some fans objected to was what was said toward the end of his comments, specifically the suggestion that this is how Davros will be portrayed moving forward.

This was met with a polarised reaction in fans, including those who are wheelchair users. YouTuber Tharries, notable among many things for being one of RTD's inspirations to depict the TARDIS as having a ramp in The Giggle, posted his reaction on November 18, 2023;

"As a disabled Doctor who fan I've always felt somewhat conflicted on Davros as a character, much as I love him he does contribute to the longstanding disabled evil man trope so to see @russelldavies63 address that meant a lot."

Tharries remains an outspoken fan of RTD and strong advocate for disability representation in the show. On the other side, were fans such as Rob Keeley who remarked on November 19, 2023;

"I've been a wheelchair user all my life and a #DoctorWho fan since the 1993 Genesis of the Daleks repeat. I don't find #Davros offensive - he's a great character. What's offensive is treating all disabled people as the same, assuming we all automatically identify with one another."

Mind you, it is probably also worth repeating Keely's review of The Star Beast from November 26 that same year for a more complete context of the man's views;

"True there was nothing very new, I still hate casual bad language in Who and the woke resolution was rubbish, but it still felt like Doctor Who more than anything in a long time."

A common outcry of detractors was that a link was never made between Davros' evil qualities and his being disabled. Dav McKenzie writing for The Spoilist on November 2023 provides an articulate quote mounting this defence but, amusingly, fails to attribute it to anybody;

"Say goodbye to Davros, one of Doctor Who’s most enduring foes. RTD has decided Davros boils down to discrimination against the disabled. He is a war-scarred cripple who is a megalomaniacal genius. His disability does not define or even restrict him as he is one of the most dangerous Doctor Who villains ever. Thanks to RTD though Davros has no injuries and is not in a wheelchair any longer. Goodbye, Davros. We had a good 40 years."

This particular line of defence never sat well with me. It was only in 2015, after all, that we saw Davros as a fully-abled child with no signs of fascist or psychotic tendencies. That depiction leaves one with little room to refute that his path to evil is in entirely unrelated to his disability.

It remains difficult to find a consensus on fan opinion at the best of times but this particular situation seems to remain a huge unknown quantity. Perhaps it will become clearer when Davros next returns to the show, if RTD even intends to do that. What was clear was that Davies wanted to make a statement about disability representation in his Doctor Who, spearhead these values with a new take on Davros right before then debut of new supporting character, Shirley.

And, again, I feel that the same question needs to be asked; would this have been a lot better received if RTD let the work speak for itself? Did he have to make such a definitive statement in Unleashed when we could see in the work that he was making that he had a strong, intelligent disabled character and no longer leaned on disability for villainy? Yes, the statements are inviting conversation and critical thinking which is always good but is RTD just virtue signalling or actually inciting change? Or is he doing both?

To be continued in part two; Rose Noble and Trans Identities in RTD2

*Tom's boots not withstanding

[doctorjodie13]

it was so very offensive. One of the straws that broke this camel's back

how chibnall has no fear of putting sacha dhawan in 13’s clothes when she regenerated into him and rtd refused to keep her outfit when she regenerated into david tennet let’s discuss

[variousqueerthings]

Rating Jodie Whittaker first season episodes, best to worse? yeah best to worse. subjective, of course:

1- Demons Of The Punjab

Clear winner for me, beautifully written and shot, with the science fiction element really interacting with the plot. I have some things I wish for this episode -- I wish it was even more explicit how much this situation came out of British colonialism, I wish Yaz had wanted to know about the origins of the watch even though she was there, because I kind of felt like it was for her grandmother more than for her (I would looove to pick the brains of the writer and actress), I wish the science fiction element had tied just a tad more explicitly to the plot, but to be honest considering how hamfisted and sometimes fully off-base the politics has been this era, especially in the next season but in this one occasionally too (THE SYSTEM ISN'T THE PROBLEM!) I am happy to take simple witnessing. But it's a great episode, it comes together well, it's... a rare... episode... about Yaz

2- The Woman Who Fell To Earth

I think this is a great introduction to Thirteen as a mad professor type Doctor. Simple. My favourite Doctor intros are the RTD and RTD2 eras (Nine, Ten, Fifteen), but I think Thirteen is fantastic in this, and it does introduce the companions well -- my one thing I'd change, probably grows gradually as I go through the era, and it's simply that I like Grace as a character more than Graham, and I did not like how she died, and especially not how throughout her death seems to be centred more on Graham than on Ryan

3- It Takes You Away

Frog. Frog. Frog. Also Scandinavian softcore horror for the intro. I mean generally this episode is just a fascinating little ride. So many twists and turns for something that's also so contained. And FROG! -- I do think this episode faltered just a tad on exploring why the dad stayed there, I mean, grief yes, but he's only in this one episode and so you're left with this guy who abandoned his daughter and played spooky noises to keep her inside a hut, while he lived it up in his fake reality with his fake wife, and initially I thought there was a bit of alien hypno or something involved, but no. Just a mess of a father, and then we move on. And also again, Grace only interacts with Graham and not with Ryan. BUT LISTEN! FROG! UNIVERSE FROG!

4- Rosa

Rosa is suuuuch a tricky episode to pull off and I think it being made at all is such major props. It's one of the (if not the) episodes where I genuinely have felt so much real-life fear for one of the companions, and it not shying away from that while attempting to balance it for kids, and having it educate people on Rosa Parks and that history, and Rosa is a fantastically written character as well. it's something I think really is indicative of consciously thinking about who matters in history/for the history episodes than dead white British guys. I rate it further down (although not far down) because I don't know if it was able to nail the ending properly. there was a fatalistic element to the idea of them having to stay seated so that Rosa could protest, and structurally I have questions about the villain, who is very thinly written, and the build throughout the episode being kind of anti-climactic to me. It's kind of pivoting around Rosa as the really interesting part of the episode and I'm glad that she is what works for me, but I don't think it works as an episode of science fiction, nor am I sure about what the ending in the bus is meant to tell us. it also features the first of the "feels like it's spoken directly to the camera" type speeches at the end, which we see more of in the next season.

5- The Ghost Monument

I mean, the ending where the Doctor speaks to the Tardis is it for me. I've heard some people don't like this episode, I think it's solid. it does suffer from Chibnall era sl-o-o-o-o-w pacing at times, which is a thing I've been finding more and more throughout and having checked which episodes feel like major offenders to me, they are ones that tend to be written by him. did just look back at previous seasons episodes by him, and actually he didn't do that many, but some of them are similar in structure, but perhaps not so noticeable when couched in other writers/showrunners. there was some mistake made in the ending of this episode when the companions finally see the Tardis and either the writing or directing decided that they needed to react to this with an understated "wow." Be big! this show is Big!

actually I wonder if that's at the core of some of the things I don't vibe with with Chibs (that and the trying to appease everyone appeases no one and the centre politics with some serious missteps), but structurally I don't think he quite accepts the Doctor Who-ness of it and sometimes tries too hard to turn it into Serious Scifi. sometimes I like that, and often DW is serious, but it's also silly and Camp. it's soul is Camp and Chibnall in his era is not (this the man who wrote Power Of Three, sir!)

but I'm ok with this episode not being so camp. it's serviceable, it gives us back the Tardis and she is Be-a-utiful and gives me one of my favourite little moments between the Doctor and the Tardis

(oh the other thing is Chibnall in his own era has Important Backstory come in oddly artificially and off to the side of the plot/doesn't smoosh the two together well enough. does that in a fair few of these, not just this one)

6- The Witchfinders

I enjoy this one. Alan Cumming plays James I as suitably gay and unhinged with an evil bent to it, there's some wild tree alien zombie witch action, the Doctor namedrops Houdini, I just quite enjoy it -- also it goes more off the rails than I feel like this era allows itself. This is "bad" but it's of the enjoyable kind in my opinion. I may actually in my soul put it one higher/switch it with Ghost Monument, but I'm too lazy to

7- The Tsuranga Conundrum

I like the lil alien in this. I think it suffers froooom... Pacing issues again! And it's another Chibnall written episode! I think I do enjoy the male pregnancy, I mean, I know several men and nbs who've been pregnant so I'm coming at it differently than I'm sure a large swathe of the UK audience, but it (from memory) didn't do any weird "now a man can know what this feels like" type commentary, it's just a planet where men give birth to men, and women give birth to women (sidenote on that, I read this as a Tardis mistranslation or a "close enough" type translation -- so it's just that one part of the species gives birth to one part of the species, and another to another, and Ryan and Graham and Yaz read that as Man and Woman so that's how the translation does it, cos they're not up on the queer lingo... makesya wonder about how dimorphism and potential intersex and trans ideas look on that planet too)

but yeah, a lot of this episode drags for me. I don't not enjoy it, but I think it comes at a point in the season where you wanted something a bit more adrenaline-filled. After the first episode we had the quiet Rosa, then the somewhat messy and also downstated Arachnids of the UK and then I felt kind of owed a big space to-do, which it did seem to start as, but then tapered out a bit. that being said I like a lot of the space ideas (neurological spaceship piloting!!!) and yeah. I don't dislike it

8- Arachnids Of The UK

ARACHNIDS IN THE UK THEY JUST LOCKED YOU IN A ROOM AND WAITED FOR YOU TO DIE I GUESS!!!!??? I think this is the... not the first episode, I think Rosa was the first for me, where it felt like the Doctor sometimes just doesn't act. As if the resolution is "things happen the way they happen and all we can do is hang about I guess"

which is a bit of a Chibs Politics issue and of course most obvious in our bottom rung, but yeah. Not so much of a fan of centrist Doctor, I need me some of that anarchic energy of the past!

we do meet Yaz's mum (hi Yaz's mum!) who asks if Yaz and the Doctor are dating and the Doctor is like... "is that what this is? if you say so" which is kind of hilarious, and Ryan's grime playlist. but overall a bit of a miss

9- Resolution

this was the first episode I hadn't seen before, and it featured one of my faves in the single episode lead and she was great. Unfortunately it felt to me like a rehashed Dalek plot that we've seen done better several times before

we did get Ryan's dad, which I appreciated, because I was under the impression we'd never get to see any of that. I like that he saw the Tardis and decided not to come, but is happy to see his son is cared for, and also that it's a complicated relationship that's being fixed. and I just grab at all the Ryan plot I possibly can!

10- The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos

IIIIIIIIII thought this episode was boring (aahhhh sorry). which feels so damning in such a terrible way, almost worse than things I've said about M*ffat but maybe I should've said more of his episodes were boring, because many of them were, but they were like. maximalist boring, because he thought if he just blasted you full of enough images you'd not pay attention to whether or not there was any plot or character development, whereas this episode to me just... drags

I like the duo alien species, I think they're very cool. I don't think Tim Shaw was compelling enough to come back as a finale villain, I feel like they banked wrongly on that and that's why this episode suffers (well, that and the pacing)

it also shows a bit to me that there's a struggle in this era to do long-form character development at times. A lot of things get brought up in one episode and immediately dealt with within that episode through just... deciding to deal with it. sometimes this isn't the case (Ryan's dad was set up in episode 1 so we could sit with that for a bit, and he featured a lot in the episode he was in, Grace's memory has appeared several times throughout the season in some form or other) but Graham going "I'm gonna shoot this guy -- no never mind I thought it through and I won't" is a bit weak

there's also not a whole lot of this finale that deals with any of the companions or the Doctor in any deep way, they don't reaaally change or grow in a way that makes you go "ah yes, I see where you've come from and potentially where we're setting you up to go next." To be honest this was also a problem with M*ffat, specifically with Clara, who was three different characters depending on season, but in this one again it's not a mad forgetfulness of his own lore that's making Chibnall do this, it's just kind of static

11- Kerblam

aaaaand Kerblam. Honestly. opening salvo of this? Great. and then. it loses the fucking plot. and calls space Amazon alright actually. and just... I mean all of it's a mess. Capitalism Propaganda, from the characters to the resolution. make you blink a few times and worry perhaps that despite episodes like Demons of the Punjab and Rosa that ol' Chibs (who to be fair didn't write this one, but would have had final say on it and potentially commissioned the idea) is not the guy to be writing Progressive Doctor Who... maybe... who knows...

[thewritermuses]

Attack The Block

Attack The Block - Joe Cornish

Unedited Thoughts - This is part of my unedited thoughts series. I'd say this film fits nicely alongside Shaun of the Dead. It's a sci-fi comedy. But like Shaun of the Dead I think that this is only for a particular audience. It's fine but not great. It does some interesting things but as a whole it isn't great. Poor setup of our heroes as villains. We are introduced to our heroes as they rob our heroine. The idea here been that they are an anti-hero - but also they are only bad until something worse turns up and it does. But this doesn't excuse our dislike for them as petty criminals - muggers. The tone for the scene is all wrong - we are scared for Sam (Jodie Whittaker). Aliens invade and the lads are here to protect the block. It's just as ridiculous as it sounds. Normal heirachy is turned on its head - the cops get turned to mince meat. The head drug dealers get what is going on but are still focused on the perceived slight by Moses (John Boyega). This just doesn't ring true. The police and military response is non-existant - which makes zero sense. Fine just don't engage with the world outside the block. But they do - the cops take the kids into custody at the end. Shaun of the Dead gets away with this because: Zombie Apocalypse. There is no excuse for this here. The aliens are super cool. They have awesome glowing blue teeth. This visual is terrifying and mesmerising. One of the kids gets stuck in a bin and it looks like it is going to be a good setup for a rescue mission - but then nope. Just comic hilarity. It sort of sums up the movie for - good setups for missed opportunities. There are some truly hilarious parts in this film. The boisterous kiddy-gansta talk takes the cake for me. The language is atrocious though. Not one to take your nan to see. The biggest let down for me is that the film-makers try to tie this ridiculous story into the real world. The kids are arrested for the deaths - and they are going away for a long time. This is a huge let down for our heroes - they achieved victory only to end up loosing everything. Read the full article

[doctorjodie13]

echoing the thoughts of many of us. I will never not be bitter about this.

would just like to drop in and say that I'm still pissed that Fourteen didn't get to run around in 13's clothes for an episode. Clothing is such a fundamentally huge part of symbology for the Doctor (not just an indication of the current incarnation, but often an indication of the current incarnation's big tonal shifts/grief/connection to companions, especially in NuWho) and the fact that Jodie took so much effort to establish a costume that was gender-neutral and could be worn by all fans and Doctors and her doctor was so much less about her being a woman and more about the gender-gremlin nature of the Time Lords and more specifically the Doctor themself and the fact that Fourteen was immediately back in clothing similar to what he wore the first time, no passing of the torch, no literal cloaking of the new Doctor in the last Doctor's clothing until Fourteen could establish themself as a Doctor in their own right just leaves SUCH a nasty taste in my mouth, especially combining with the way that the specials tend to frame the Doctor previously being a woman as if that was the one thing that made Thirteen different/special in ironically such a binary way for what is supposed to be the most trans-inclusive episode of Doctor Who.