#doctor who social commentary

[esonetwork]

Woke Who: How Doctor Who has always been woke!! | Earth Station Who

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Woke Who: How Doctor Who has always been woke!! | Earth Station Who

In this live episode of the Earth Station Who Podcast, hosts Mike Faber and Mike Gordon welcome guests Mike Falkner, Dave Chapman, and Melanie Dean as they dive into the evolution of Doctor Who. They explore the show’s approach to diversity and representation, discussing the societal impact and the importance of inclusivity. The panel addresses the challenges of change within the fandom, emphasizing the Doctor’s message of acceptance. They reflect on personal experiences with the series, its cultural shifts, and the role of social media in the fandom.

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[vizzyturlough]

“Thank you, Darling”.

GAGGED ISTG THIS MAN IS NOT STRAIGHT

Commentary from Planet Of Fire

[seaweedstarshine]

Late to the game as I’ve kinda been kinda non-here for a minute but I scrolled through the Dot and Bubble tag, and thought I wanted to write this post into existence.

There's this part in Doctor Who Unleashed where RTD says this:

“What we can’t tell is how many people will have worked that out before the ending. Because they’ve seen white person after white person after white person, and television these days is very diverse. I wonder, will you be ten minutes into it, will you be fifteen, will you be twenty, before you start to think, everyone in this community is white. And if you don’t think that — why didn’t you? So, that’s gonna be interesting. I hope it’s one of those pieces of television you see, and always remember.”

And I'm like. Yeah. But the reason this works even as well as it does is largely thanks to the work of the previous showrunner with the previous creative team, which was notably the first era to have any writers of color (amongst other firsts in terms of inclusivity in directors, composer, actors). While Chibnall fumbled whenever he tried to write about race himself, he did have the self-awareness to have Black and South Asian writers writing the episodes where race is the focus (and a female writer for the episode where sexism is a focus; my point is, he seemed to know his shortcomings).

I wonder what the current creative team looks like? (not really, but I wasn't 100% sure for all of them)

To quote RTD:

“...before you start to think, everyone in this community is white.”

This is pretty non-self-aware, right? It's pretty “It is said, and I understand this, there was a history of racism with the original Toymaker, the Celestial Toymaker, who had ‘celestial,’ and I did not know this, but ‘celestial’ can mean of Chinese origin, but in a derogatory way,” right? (from The Giggle Unleashed) It's pretty “and I had problems with that, and a lot of us on the production team had problems with that: associating disability with evil,” right? (from Destination Skaro Unleashed)

—none of which are issues that should be overlooked, but think how much exponentially better they might’ve been addressed if he’d consulted with Chinese writers and wheelchair-using writers before going straight to giving the Toymaker weird fake accents and making Davros walk?

How many Black or non-white people do we think saw the Dot and Bubble script before it landed in Ncuti’s hands?

And this just keeps happening.

And like, from some of the shocked responses I've seen from white viewers to the ending of Dot and Bubble, maybe the episode's unsubtlety was needed? From the way RTD talks about it in Unleashed, the episode was written with a white audience in mind, Baby's First Microaggressions (where of course the microaggressions come from people who are pretty self-admittedly white supremacists). Ricky September, a more seemingly normal depiction of someone in the racist bubble of Finetime, seemed like an interesting element, up until the way he died.

The ending worked for me, because I do think the Doctor's reaction is true to how the Doctor would react. I just keep thinking of how much better the core themes could've been handled by someone with actual lived experience on the subject matter.

[prismartist]

*watching planet of giants* huh, a lot of dead insects. i wonder if this serial is commentary on the ultimately destructive nature of insecticides and the like with a touch of anti-capitalism?

*serial turns out to be commentary on the ultimately destructive nature of insecticides and the like with a touch of anti-capitalism*

ID: a GIF of oprah turning towards the camera with a knowing smug smile and shrugging. End ID.

[haventacluewhatimdoing]

God the Brigadier saying 'back in the Cold War days' in 1975 is SUCH interesting social commentary now we're 50 years hence

[oldbookshop]

turn left is always there. over your shoulder .

[nat-20s]

Very very very fucking excited for season 15 of Doccy Whomst. That being said I live in fear every day that Ruby Sunday is gonna have a tiktok account.

[gen-is-gone]

I mean I don't wanna just be like 'finally, episode I actually liked' about the moffat episode but. like.

finally, an episode I actually liked!

No seriously, holy shit my man pulled exactly zero punches that was fucking excellent

[bruceawaynefrfr]

WE ARE SO BACK

[emotinalsupportturtle]

having to physically restrain myself from giving a 2 hour abridged but detailed speech on why doctor who is probably the best show ever and if you think it's too stupid you are incapable of both joy and critical thought, every time someone asks me the innocuous question "do you watch any shows"

[thedreadvampy]

so me and Sam FINALLY watched the last season of Capaldi's Who

and tell me how, after literally over a decade and for perhaps the first time in his fucking career, Steven Moffat wrote a not just tolerable but really actually good two-parter and fully stuck the landing. like the editing and pacing were still a bit off but the storyline was original, fun, interesting and emotionally invested, and most importantly, rather than ending on a damp fart or the most furious autofellatio in history, the final part didn't fumble it and ended in a way that felt emotionally satisfying and like it made sense for the characters. like the last time he successfully wrapped up a multiparter in a way that didn't feel cheap and hollowly disappointing to me was literally The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, and a) that was in 2005 and b) tbh The Doctor Dances is about a tenth as compelling and memorable as The Empty Child.

so after 12 years of either hackery or great ideas that fall apart in the second act, Steven Moffat writes what I would genuinely consider to be a memorable Good Doctor Who serial. it ends with bittersweet pathos, a solid closer for all the main characters, and sends Moffat's showrunning career out on a genuine high despite failing ratings and budget cuts (and the fact Doctor Who hasn't been consistently good since about 2009). good job Steve. with grudging respect I admit you pulled it out of the bag on this one.

wait what's this there's one more episode left? and it stars Mark Gatiss? and you literally spend the whole episode inexplicably just shitting all over the legacy of Doctor Who by inventing a version of the First Doctor that bears literally no resemblance to the character that William Hartnell actually played, just so you can spend the whole episode saying misogynistic things to run yourself off to how much more Totally Feminist your version was than the version you made up in your head of what Doctor Who was like in the 60s? and it added literally nothing to the season except to take all the wind out of the sails of the actually good finale you already wrote?

even when he writes a good episode this fucker still finds ways to disappoint me.

[mizarchivist]

The bit in dot and bubble where the woman looks at the monster then scrolls her media instead of doing something to save herself is so real right now. My monster is not a monster but US politics and work politics smashing together in my head.

[iphnh]

me when I first heard of Barbie: that sounds like a 2 hour commercial for Barbie

me when I saw the online reaction to the movie: hmm it might be worth watching

me after I watched Barbie: that was a 2 hour commercial for Barbie.

[themathomhouse]

hot take, Ricky is knowledge without wisdom; but also there to show who Lindy is even when she's not being racist.

Ricky was only just stepping up when we meet him. We know one of the earliest people to die was over a week ago, and Ricky was trying to warn people - but his videos about it kept being deleted. Fair enough, it makes sense to try videos so you can warn everyone at once.

But what has he been doing since then? Lindy seems to be the first person he's helped - possibly because people had the bubble up, but he doesn't indicate he's tried anything other than the videos.

He knew about the conduits, how to contact the homeworld, pulse codes, the history of the planet (so possibly even information about the slugs) - but he didn't apply any of it. What good did knowing things do him when the facts just sat there? Everyone knows who he is, so he could have messaged pretty much anyone to try and tell them directly - which is what the Doctor did - but he didn't.

He might be less terrible than Lindy as he doesn't spend all day in the bubble, but he's still a product of the society that raised him.

Lindy trusts him immediately because he's One Of Them and he's also got clout and status - she's more co-operative with Ruby, sure; but she's incredibly rude to her at first and doesn't trust her. As soon as she sees Ricky, she's excited and nice to him - but she said to him that this was the best day of her life. He pointed out that thousands of people are still dying, and she brushes it off because that's just not important to her.

She expresses worry for her friends - or so it seems. I'd argue that actually, she only cares about them as it would mean she doesn't have anyone to talk to. We're shown exactly who she is when the dot comes after her, and she throws Ricky to the wolves to save herself. She loves him, he's famous and handsome and everything he's meant to be - he saved her and helped her, he is One Of Them. And she kills him.

She is completely convinced of her own superiority, and she's utterly self-centred. They all seem to be. They meet a new guy at the end and his first concern is who should be their leader (and he immediately suggests himself). They scoff at the doctor trying to help them; and after working two hours per day and complaining about being required to do literally anything, they think they can fend for themselves in the wilderness?

These people will Lord of the Flies each other inside of a week, and they won't even blink. She's just killed a huge celebrity (the only thing she responds to in any way) and lies to everyone about it without any feelings. She's not guilty. She's not sad.

They're all on the boat and going to die, sure. But it's not going to be the wilderness that does it.

It's gonna be a looong time before we stop noticing more details here

Yeah, it felt really weird in the moment how Doctor-like Ricky wound up being, and while of course he already has that reputation as a celeb, at the same time we can see first-hand that Lindy is a lot more cooperative with Ruby anyway

[haventacluewhatimdoing]

I'm enjoying the blatant anti-colonial serial from the 1970s

[toweringclam]

The different genres of Doctor Who episode:

The dumbest bullshit you've ever seen. Just absolute baby brain nonsense.

Man, aliens are weird, huh?

Genuine high-concept science fiction serving as biting if heavy-handed social commentary on present issues

*Lisa Simpson voice* Look, Mom! It's Ea-Nasir!

Nightmare fuel that will traumatize a generation of children while adults roll their eyes.

The villain is determined to out-camp every other camp villain combined. There will probably be a needle drop.

The harrowing story of one character's personal hell

Tbe Doctor is sorely tempted to break one of the laws of time and/or one of his firmly held moral boundaries, never mind all the times he's done this without comment.

The Daleks are back, and they're purple now