#moffat critical

[khruschevshoe]

Do you ever think about the fact that Karen Gillan is currently at the age that Moffat considered "old" in the Angels Take Manhattan and want to take a bat to a car because this is the woman that Steven Moffat said "shouldn't show her wrinkles" to the Doctor?

[leikeliscomet]

My hottest take on Moffat will be that he enabled a lot of aspec exclusionism & compulsory sexuality in the fandom. It's not a coincidence that a lot of the 'The Doctor needs sex + romance to be human & "really queer"' rhetoric is defended by examples & fans of that era 🤷🏾‍♀️

And it's only ever ace and/or aro dw fans that ever talk about this. Hate to do the 'if it was [insert label here]' game (cus it does happen to other labels) but a cishet writer publicly shitting on queer identity in a queer fandom & getting called an 'ally' is WILD

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

This might be the smallest of nitpicks i had with Moffat's era, but my mom is a nurse and I was constantly irritated by the implications that being a nurse was less than being a doctor. Nurses do twice the physical work for half the money/praise. They have to have a good bedside manner and should have a certain kindness to them that a Doctor doesn't necessarily have to have.

There was an angle that could have been played in the actual show if the writers were interested in Rory as a character rather than a prop. We got it occasionally like in the doctor's wife with Rory asking how the doctor just moves on from death/closes Idris' eyes, but most of the time it was just played as him being a lesser version of the doctor which irritates me because there is something gendered about the concept of nursing being lesser even though nursing is not a women only field (my uncle is also a nurse).

And I know that Moffat/the writers thought exactly on those lines, like nursing somehow emasculated Rory instead of being a strength, and it would have been SO EASY to make his skill useful (which I think is why I liked the handling of Rory being a nurse the most in 7a which is ironic because I mostly hate 7a but he got to help heal both when it came to his father and in the hospital). There could have been something INTERESTING in the concept of Rory as a caretaker, Rory as the one who heals hands-on, Rory finding a purpose. This TARDIS team could have been equals, but because Rory was only ever a stand-in for the “right sort of man” for the writers, he was never going to be fully-fleshed out & never a true equal to 11amy.

[ofutopia]

Moffat is such a christian™ atheist writer.

And I live in France, the nation of christian atheists, and as much as I'll deny it you can still find the catholic flavour of my agnosticism/atheism so I really thought I'd seen it all but ...

[parasite-core]

Just finished The Magician’s Apprentice in my Doctor Who rewatch. We’re finally past where I quit watching, so it’s all uncharted waters from here.

This episode feels so excessive for a season opener. It has Missy and Davros/the Daleks, claims the Doctor is going to die (again), is a two parter, and has retconned Davros into being a villain because of the Doctor. This feels more like a season finale. You made the stakes stupid high in the very first episode, where do you even go from here for the rest of the of the season?

Also I realized something this episode. A few seasons ago The Daleks created a ‘new superior’ race of Daleks, which were those brightly colored Daleks I dubbed ‘iPod Daleks’. What ever happened to them? It seems like they were created to be a big deal in one episode and then never actually…did anything? We were right back to the original Daleks’ design by Asylum of the Daleks, and are still rolling primarily with regular non gay-pride-Daleks as of this episode.

[witchofthemidlands]

Thanks to a ✨depression haze✨ taking its sweet time to vamoosh from my mind i am only now able to form words about the Doctor Who trailer.

Fifteen has been in the grand total of the last quarter of The Giggle, The Church On Ruby Road & (2) trailers & he’s my second favourite Doctor of all time. I. Love. This. Version. Abolish UNIT's flooring king & leave the bill for your younger self <3 Every time I think of Fifteen, I think back to 2021 where me & my housemate were standing in the kitchen saying based on our mutual love for Eric Effiong that Ncuti Gatwa would be a good Doctor Who.

THE MUSIC 🎵 CHANGES🎵 honestly I went feral as soon as it started playing. For YEARS I have associated different Bowie songs with Twelve, Bill Potts & Danny Pink so I was screeching like a person deranged.

Will say though considering The Goblin Song, the musical notes around Ruby & the trip to The Beatles I wonder if music will play a core theme in this season? Little things like words on posters & names said aloud throughout the first RTD era turned out to be vital elements so I’m wondering if we’ll get something similar like that again.

VERY happy to see Cherry & Carla back. I always thought they would be seeing as RTD clearly loves his companions to have families & love that he’s returned to writing about & showing the importance of found/adoptive families like he did for The Sarah Jane Adventures 😊 did not get great vibes from the “I’m still her mum, I need to know she’ll be ok.” Line & the promise but again it’s RTD’s writing, he made it seem like Rose & Donna would be dead within their respective seasons & both of them are thriving with their respective versions of the Doctor.

THE SHOT OF HOLOGRAM!TEN/METATEN/FOURTEEN/FOURTENTH?!? love them, love him LOVE THEM but I hope it's just an image or someone flickering through & showing Fifteen pictures of his past selves like they’ve done in The Eleventh Hour, Nightmare In Silver, Twice Upon A Time, The Timeless Children etc & not a “Fifteen & Fourteen work on a UNIT mission together via holograms.” To me at least, it seems a little too soon to do another multi Doctor story especially when it’s only Fifteen’s first season.

THE CALLBACK TO MARTHA JONES & BILL POTTS WORRYING ABOUT STEPPING ON THE BUTTERFLY 😂🤩😂 me & my mum laughed so hard at this but at the same time, it’s adding to my theory that “doing the salt” at the edge of the universe IS responsible for myths/legends/theories actually happening in the Whoniverse now like the salt, the bi-regeneration, The Goblin King because in the song there’s a line that gave me this theory the “he’s not a myth, he’s an actual thing.” This will definitely be me reading too much into it but that’s just the conclusion I’ve come to.

I saw Indira Varma in (1) frame 😳 I had IMMEDIATE ✨gay thoughts✨ she is so beautiful 😍 BUT she started turning into a creature & I am not & never shall be a monsterfucker (even though admittedly the carrionites had me questioning things) but it will be a TEST OF STRENGTH.

There was what looked to be a flesh bowl & I immediately thought of The Gangers & seeing as Moffat’s emerging perhaps they’re making their return. After what happened with Bill Potts, Danny Pink & certain favourite characters of mine from my second favourite book in the entire world back in 2020 I am on the ✨fence✨ about The Return Of Moffat but he is ultimately incredible at writing a good horror story so if he does another one episode horror that’ll traumatise me for life & after, fair enough.

The alienvenom being in the corridor near made me yeet behind my sofa so I’m looking forward to seeing that story.

I’ve seen horror films I’ve gone through an ACTUAL HAUNTING & still nothing prepared me from how i nearly expired when i realised that THERE'S SOMETHING STANDING IN THE BACKGROUND IN TWO RUBY SCENES 😨

I’m gonna talk about ✨the scream✨ @ the Ruby of it all in another couple of posts.

Saw the Tardis console sparking: immediately wondered if there was any left over coffee in there 😅

I AM GOING TO LOSE IT WHEN I SEE ROSE NOBLE AGAIN 🥹 MY BEST GIRL IS COMING BACK 🥹 Lovely to see Mel! Hope this means more Classic Who companions will return at some stage (for the sake of how funny it would be unleash a NewNewWho Doctor on Jamie McCrimmon whilst the actor is still alive & willing to be part of the Whoniverse)

Fifteen saluting in his regency outfit (In the realm of fanfic in my head I am imagining Captain Jack Harkness being on the receiving end of that salute) but maybe it’ll be Jonathan Groffs new character? Whoever they are I hope him & The Doctor have enough gay activity between them that’ll make my family members who don’t like Fifteen when they “come across as gay” uncomfortable <3

The weathered Tardis near the sea reminds me of The Ghost Monument. I hope they make a figure/pop of the weathered Tardis, I need it for my collection 😅 I hope we get a The Ghost Monument mention just to annoy my family who still actively talk about how much they disliked 13’s era.

I am going to go a new level of feral in May, Fifteen ily so much 🥹

[dandelionjack]

not to be “that one friend who’s too woke” but the racial angle of having the (black) doctor work as a waiter/hotel porter/bellboy-whatever for a year while he’s stuck on earth when he’s the smartest person on the planet who could just go and lecture at a university again if he wanted to is a bit of a strange choice even if it does fit with the overall hotel theme

[sparrowlucero]

man, sorry people are so weird in your asks. Love your creature designs, which are you the most proud of?

the one I probably like the most right now is currently under NDA, hopefully I can share it soon. It's a horse. Of stuff I can share, I really like how the scriveners from my hourly comic turned out. I think I ended up with a nice balance of my typical "cool bird thing" and something that feels abstract and like it doesn't belong in the real world.

A lot of the early concepts were weird but not quite alien in the way I wanted them to be:

these were the concepts that eventually clicked:

(I also flip flopped between digital and traditional, had it been traditional i thought about cutting the shapes out of the paper so they were just holes in the comic, making them out of newspaper clippings, etc. - The Timekeepers of Eternity was a big influence on the comic in general.)

[khruschevshoe]

Me rewatching Eleven’s Era and realizing that some of my favorite one-off episodes of the show are there (Vincent and the Doctor, God Complex, Power of Three, for example) but that the entire Era is just kind of stained by early-Moffat's fingers all over it bc every single arc-developing episode (Day of the Moon, Big Bang, Good Man Goes to War, Let's Kill Hitler, Wedding of River Song) is ruined by either his need to be "clever" with the Silence (which literally never got a resolution EVER, btw) OR with River Song and the ENDLESS sexism in her plots/hee being nothing more than a "sexy badass" whose entire life, birth to death, is set up for her to be groomed into the Doctor’s killer and then immediately goes to being infatuated with him to the point where even her one interesting/seemingly "for herself" character traits she has (being an archaeologist) is retrofitted to be about finding a "good man" aka the Doctor OR just the ways that Amy's rather interesting story about the ways that the Doctor abandoning her after getting inserted into her life at such a young age/her slowly getting disillusioned/realizing she prefers a life on Earth is just YOINKED in a sexist direction with the whole "getting pulled for half a season in order to pop out a baby/not getting to search for that baby/leaving Rory bc she finds out that she is infertile and somehow that makes her unable to be a good wife" storyline that honestly hurts a lot of otherwise good episodes (such as Rebel Flesh/Almost People) and absolutely TANKS others (looking at you, Asylum of the Dalek). And that's not even getting into the act that LITERALLY EVERY FEMALE CHARACTER is attracted to Eleven, save the two canonical lesbians, one of which he kisses without her consent, which really puts a damper on the Rory/Amy romance in Season 5 until they figured out how to write it better from Amy's end in Season 6.

Like, I really think that Eleven, Amy, Rory, and River all had interesting arcs/foundations that could have led to good storylines/arcs. And in some places, they did. But even though I've gained a new appreciation for certain episodes/certain arcs (such as Amy's aforementioned growing up/past the Doctor arc), there is this undeniable stench of sexism/bad writing that hits all of the tentpole episodes of this era that makes it so hard to rewatch. While there are some episodes of RTD that I don't rewatch due to them being boring or just not my cup of tea (and I do have criticisms of how he handled race/Martha/Mickey), I don't have the same bad taste in my mouth for him that I do for Moffat.

(Oh, and one of the few episodes from RTD's run that I refuse to rewatch due to a bad taste is Girl in the Fireplace. So do with that as you will.)

[leikeliscomet]

“But We Love Martha Jones!” - The Doctor Who Fandom’s Selective Memory of Racism

Be aware that this article contains explicit examples of anti-black racism and misogynoir.

Chapter 2 - Utopia-ish

The constant nitpicking of Martha Jones for reasons white female companions could get away with was blatant anti-black racism. Let’s get that bit clear first and foremost. As a Black person in fandom, watching Black characters get torn apart while never being given the grace of their non-Black castmates is an experience that’s too common. Microaggressions are more subtle so the easiest way to shut down any mentions of racism is to accuse Black fans of making things up or telling us “Well it’s not like REAL racism”. Luckily Doctor Who Tumblr birthed the Martha Jones affirmative action and Aunt Jemima “memes” so I can cross both covert and overt racism off the list. As mentioned in extensive detail in the previous chapter, plus the various Martha Jones articles written before me, the treatment Martha experienced was racist. I don’t care if you personally didn’t like her. I don’t care that you missed Rose. I don’t care that Ten is your smol bean. Martha’s treatment was racist. Freema Agyeman’s treatment was racist. It might not have been everyone. It might not have been you personally. But it was there. The fandom can never be a safe space for POC, specifically Black people if this elephant in the room can’t be addressed over a decade after it arrived.

On paper, you’d assume Martha’s rep was good because “at least she wasn’t a Black stereotype”. Some fans praised her for having a present father, not speaking MLE and not being from the ends. This goes into respectability politics but the fandom’s weirdness about Black Brits and class is not the point of this article. The point is the revisionist history of how Martha was really treated and to do that it helps to know what Black tropes are. The Mammy trope is a Black woman whose main purpose is to serve her white counterparts and during slavery, she mainly cared for the slave owners' children. She is usually fat, dark skin and asexual, not as a representation of those things but as a statement of how if she isn’t used for sexual exploitation like the Jezebel (the promiscuous, reckless, sexualised Black woman), she has no sexual value at all. Her value is serving the needs of others only. Martha doesn’t fit this trope in theory but in practice, she fulfils the sub-categories of this trope both in show and fandom: the disposable Black (girl)friend trope. She is used as Ten’s emotional punching bag before he’s ready for Donna and then Rose again. She had to endure edgy moody S3 Ten so no one else had to. She’s the excuse people use to deflect any critical analysis of how race was handled in RTD1. She’s the fandom’s excuse to deflect from their own racial biases. Racism? No way! Everybody loves Martha Jones! What do you mean?

Some parts of the fandom have tried to mend things by suggesting Martha be paired with other doctors or romantically shipping her with other characters a bit better than Mickey Smith. But does this hold up? As much as I’m a big fan NineMartha as a concept and as someone who honestly saw one-off characters like Riley Vashtee from 42 or Tallulah from Daleks in Manhattan having way more romantic chemistry with Martha than Mickey ever did, simply re-shipping Martha isn’t enough. Doctor Who’s racism isn't exclusive to one doctor, one series or one era and new Martha pairings suggest the issue was “right person, wrong doctor�� instead of what the issue actually was: racism. Moffat and Chibnall’s eras weren’t full of golden Black representation either so I doubt the Martha issue would’ve magically disappeared under those two. From Nine’s hostility to Mickey, to Twelve’s hostility to Danny Pink to Thirteen handing a South Asian Spymaster to the Nazis and Eleven only travelling with POC in comics most fans haven’t heard of and being besties with Churchill, simply putting Martha with another Doctor isn’t the serve fans think it is. Even RoseMartha seems like putting a bandaid on a bullet hole. If it's not enough for Martha to be compared to Rose, put down in favour of Rose, told she isn’t Rose and told she's worse than Rose in fandom and in show over and over and over, she has to be shipped with Rose too. Martha’s a great character… as long as you can tie her to Rose… again. Even in my own article I have to talk about Rose because Rose is centred in what was supposed to be Martha’s story. A doctor-to-be Black girl from London with a hectic family meets a Time Lord and gets abducted by space rhino police at work in one day. Her main conflict isn’t balancing work and time traveller life, or fighting to get her family back together, or seeing what’s out there in the universe - it's that she isn’t “Rose” enough. The Mammy and her sons’ main thing in common is simple; how well they serve and centre the white characters. In attempts to mend Martha’s treatment she is still only valued in relation to white characters. She should’ve been with Eleven because he would’ve fucked a Black woman. Or maybe Dilfy Twelve. Or a sapphic romance with another female companion who she saw twice or doesn’t actually know. Or maybe Ten in an alternate universe where he supports #nubianqueens. None of this is done to explore sexuality or romance with Black women and is definitely not to centre Black lesbianism and bisexuality. It’s Mammy with a dash of Jezebel. It's adding romantic and sexual value on top of physical and emotional value like a crappy meal deal.

I’m tired of Black women being treated as extensions of white women both in media and in real life. I’m tired of our value being determined by how well we serve white people emotionally, physically, platonically and sexually. And I'm even more tired of white feminism especially in this fandom. It would be so easy to label this article as anti-Rose, anti-Ten or anti-Tenrose to invalidate my whole racial analysis because it's the easy way out. I’ll admit I like both characters individually but not the ship but this isn’t something I decided on since birth - it's my conclusion as a Black fan in a predominantly white fandom, watching a predominantly white show, watching the first companion of my race be told she isn’t good enough compared to the white characters, and that the hatred of her is justified for the greater good of its popular white ship. Black fans can never have this conversation without being told we’re “pitting women against each other” and that Martha and Rose hugged once in S4 so everything's hunky dory. Martha’s happy that Ten found Rose again so what’s the problem? It sends a clear message that Black women’s pain will never matter a much as white women’s feelings. “Rose is amazing! Martha’s amazing! Stop pitting women against women!” but who was pit against who in the first place? These faux girl power posts fail to acknowledge the overlap of race and gender which separates the treatment of Black and white women. It fails to acknowledge Martha’s hate was rooted in anti-black racism. It fails to acknowledge the anti-Rose pushback was in response to how the show and fandom convinced us Rose was the untouchable bar this Black woman failed to meet. It fails to acknowledge Freema Agyeman the actress was targeted not just her character. It fails because the female empowerment rhetoric that leaves the Black ones at the bottom of the pile only “empowers” women of a certain demographic.

The harassment Martha experienced was swept under the rug of “stan wars” but it was so much deeper than that. I’m not saying Martha stans are angels but there was no “Great Stan War” because the sides were never even. At the end of the day no amount of “Martha’s better than Rose” tweets will ever compare to the fact that Martha hate was rooted in misogynoir. Rose was and still is considered the greatest companion of nuwho, whilst Martha is constantly erased and undervalued. Rose’s video views and hashtags have always been bigger than Martha’s. Amy and Clara came after Martha but still surpassed her in popularity and got plenty of fan edits of “The Girl Who Waited” and “The Impossible Girl” whilst Martha was conveniently skipped in the companion lineup. The fandom’s bias still shines clearly in favour of Rose over Martha. Rose’s jealousy towards other women is justifiable and just the ups and downs of a 19-year-old whilst Martha’s is entitled bitterness. Rose’s flaws are compelling character moments and depth, Martha’s are “holding her back from being a good companion”. Hell, even Donna calling out Ten’s BS was entertaining accountability whilst Martha was just the angry Black woman. Fans will weaponise Rose’s working-class roots to imply a pro-Martha bias, failing to acknowledge the working-class to poor background of the average Black Brit, the anti-blackness middle-class Black people are not spared from, the many working-class Black characters of the show like Mickey, Bill, Rigsy and Ryan or how most fans don’t consider Martha middle class because she doesn’t fit the white British cultural stereotypes. You can't be the most loved and hated at the same time. The hard truth is Billie Piper wasn’t racially abused by Martha stans but Freema was absolutely racially abused by Rose’s and the effects of this are still around. Go into Martha Jones tags today and you’ll see snarky posts of how Ten could never love another companion like Rose. Even when Freema bravely shared her experiences of literal racism, fans were quick to yell “But I wanted Ten and Rose though” as a justification for years of misogynoir. Again, we need to address the elephant in the room instead of covering our eyes and ears to act like it’s not there. A Black character and actress was collateral damage in order for a popular white ship to rise and whilst I’m not an anti, I as a Black Doctor Who fan, I’ll never be a supporter. At the end of the day, only one of these actresses is still carrying the burden of misogynoir over 10 years since RTD1 ended. A lonely walk across the Earth yet again.

<- Chapter 1 Chapter 3 ->

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

Amy Pond, Asexuality, and a punk attitude

@ameliapondmd and I were talking and she mentioned that Amy being asexual felt punk and she's right. I feel like the reason that Amy being asexual feels like a punk idea is because Steven Moffat/the narrative over and over again demotes her to wife and mother and womb when he is not making her a kissogram or a model or something related to how "sexy" she is. (Honestly, River being asexual would be kind of punk in the same way, but that's not what I'm rambling about today.) Amy exists in the way that Steven Moffat writes her to be these archetypal women, these roles, but you can feel her character straining at the edges to be more than that. She wants more than that, yearns for more than that, believes in more than that. Even when she's making the choice in Amy's Choice she CHOOSES the TARDIS and it's framed as her choosing Rory but it's not. Amy Pond has always wanted more than what she has, has always wanted to find a place because she's always been a lonely creature adrift in Leadworth, never fitting in because she's literally cut off from her family/her tree by the crack in time erasing her parents. To be Amy Pond, fully-formed, would be to throw off the "I should be with him" expectations and grab what she wants and an asexual interpretation of her takes some of the other moffatty bits of her character (womb, sexual object, kissogram, etc.) and reframes them as either her decisions or the first step in her realizing herself and deciding to shed those in favor of a fully formed character outside of expectations.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED Talk!

[sometimesraven]

the way RTD is actively admitting he's making shit up without thinking about it "because reasons" and trying to generate content above crafting a coherent story is wild to me. like never mind "why would you do that", why would you ADMIT THAT??

[parasite-core]

Just got through The Angels Take Manhattan on our Doctor Who rewatch.

I spent a good ten minutes ripping it apart afterwards. Time did not make it better. If anything I have a better understanding of story structure a decade after it aired and that makes is worse. I hate that episode. Amy and Rory deserved a better final episode than that plot hole riddled MESS.

[cabaretbabe]

the thing that most frustrates me about thirteen (aside from her obvious suffering from poor pacing/writing) is the potential for a sapphic doctor was RIGHT THERE and instead we got some of the worst queerbait like... ever. like supernatural levels of queerbait.

and it would be one thing if censorship was an issue but its not!! doctor who is and always has been a historically queer show (it was created by a gay man) and has continued to raise the bar for representation in network television over the years. why could the doctor have a relationship with rose, river, missy etc, but as soon as its a queer ship she can't handle it anymore?? it doesnt even make sense in the canon of the show.

no fault to the actors, but yaz and 13 were incredibly bland characters that seemed to be smashed together as a last minute thought for queer rep brownie points. hell, steven moffat even depicted the majority of his main characters as bisexual or gay. if moffat is writing better queer/ female rep than you, youve got a problem.

and of course one could argue that every new who doctor has been fruity so whats the big deal?? captain jack, ten and the master, etc. but jodi being the first female doctor opened up so many new possibilities for sapphic rep that were squashed by overcomplicated, hollow plotlines and unlikeable characters. which is just such a damn shame.

i know nothing im saying here is a particularly hot take, the majority of the fandom feels this way. but having rtd back as showrunner (also a gay man!) and a fantastic m/m doctor in ncuti just really highlights how much we've been missing.

anyway, go watch torchwood and cry if you want proper queer rep in abundance. til then, jenny and vastra and bill and stargirl are about all we get.

[the-patrex]

I have seen a LOT of discourse about the finale so here is my final opinion on it: I Liked it I thought it was Very Bad

[ironyscleverer]

Doctor Who as a Post-Colonial Metaphor

Recently I've been thinking a lot about how beautifully Doctor Who reflects the state of post-colonial British identity, and tumblr seems like the appropriate place to share my ramblings. So let’s see if I can explain in a way that makes sense.

I must start by putting on my obnoxious little film degree hat and reminding everyone that sci-fi is one of those genres that is highly political (as most things are, but scifi even moreso). It turns out it's pretty easy to get a sense of people's fears and anxieties by asking them to envision the future, and that's what sci-fi media does; it uses contemporary cultural standards and ideas to create a vision of what futuristic/advanced science and technology might look like, and how people might respond to it. In doing so, it ends up taking the social and political temperature of the time and place in which it's created.

As such, it's very, very common for scholars to analyze sci-fi media through this lens; even Frankenstein, arguably the first science fiction novel ever written, is often interpreted as reflecting cultural fears regarding swiftly advancing science and technology during the early stages of the industrial revolution. The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) is another great, very blatant example of how sci-fi and politics can interact. In this movie, a Jesus-like alien ascends to Earth during the Cold War to warn the human race about their imminent nuclear annihilation. It seems corny to us now, but it's actually a great movie and I would highly reccomend it. It's rumored that the US Department of Defense read the script and Did Not Like It because the themes were too anti-war.

In other words, despite often being viewed as too “pop,” too goofy, and too unserious to have any deep meaning, pretty much any scifi story can be analyzed within an inch of its life using a meta social/political lens. It's not the only way to interpret sci-fi, but it's by far the most common. One must simply ask, “what does this vision of science, technology, and/or the future say about us as we are now?”

But anyway. Doctor Who. Disclaimer: I haven't watched the classic series so I'll focus on 2005 onward (still post-colonial so it still holds up, lol). If you've seen Classic and you'd like to chip in, please do.

Genre-wise, Doctor Who is more-or-less a space-western, a subgenre of sci-fi that incorporates Western elements—exploring new frontiers, engaging with unfamiliar civilizations, rogue figures, etc. Star Trek is the peak example of this, but there are many, many others.

Of course, the Western genre is dripping with colonialism due to its historical setting of the American West, and the racist depictions of Indigenous peoples. Space-westerns, consequently, also tend to address colonial topics. Sometimes space westerns are just as racist as normal westerns, but sometimes they use the genre reflexively, to question colonial ideals. A more progressive space-western might be more willing to “humanize” the alien cultures they meet, asking questions like, "how does one ethically engage with foreign societies?" or "When is it appropriate to intervene in a conflict?" etc.

Althought these kinds of questions come up regularly in Doctor Who, especially regarding its anti-war messaging (Time War etc.). These themes become doubly interesting when you use them to inform your interpretation of The Doctor, both as a character and as a symbol.

Consider this: The Doctor is the embodiment of an ancient and immensely powerful being with a bloody history. Their kill-count is quite literally somewhere in the quadrillions. Although they are a self-proclaimed pacifist, they are still constantly a perpetrator of death and destruction throughout the series. The Doctor, despite repeatedly and loudly choosing peace, can never seem to keep their hands clean of chaos and suffering. Doctor Who is about an entity that destroys everything they touch, sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. As an allegory for grappling with the legacy of British imperialism, I'd say it's pretty on the nose.

In this sense, not only is Doctor Who a show about colonialism, it is also a show about identity in the wake of colonialism. It's even in the name: "Doctor Who?" Who is the Doctor? What is their responsibility to the universe? What does it mean to be ancient and powerful and drenched in the blood of millions? How do they move on, become better, without falling into the same traps? What does it mean to be British?

These questions come up over and over throughout the new series, from the destruction of Gallifrey, to the Timelord Victorious, to A Good Man Goes to War, the Flux (arguably), and many, many other smaller plotlines I could mention. Even in the latest series with Ncuti Gatwa, the focus on adoption and family is in a similar vein—where does the Doctor come from? What does it even mean to be “from” a place? How much do your origins truly contribute to who you are and who you become?

How the companions fall within this framework is also interesting; if the Doctor is a stand-in for the nation as an entity, then the Doctor's companion, the everyday British person, is the stand-in for the populace. The companions are ever-changing, ever-evolving, constantly renegotiating their relationship with the Doctor. The companion's ultimate challenge is to find how they fit into the narrative of the Doctor's life, and try their best to come out the other end with a happy ending (ha).

Of course, Doctor Who is owned by the BBC, meaning it is quite literally nationally subsudized TV. As a result, althought the show is actually VERY critical in some places, the Doctor is usually ultimately sympathetic; their good intentions tend to forgive a lot of the problems they've caused. The companion is usually charmed by the Doctors' seemingly endless tragedy of a life. This is a country's state-owned media company working with it's own self-image--it's inherently a work of self-reflection, and perhaps of self-obsession, too.

It would be easy to be cynical about Doctor Who as a product of the BBC, which is state-funded (but notably not owned or directly controlled by the government!). However, I tend to think that just writing it off as propaganda because of this is doing the show a disservice. Yes, there is an inherent privilege and self-centeredness to endlessly forgiving the Doctor, but that's also kind of the whole point; it's a show about coming to terms with one's horrible past. It's a show about learning to formulate a new sense of self. To demand that Doctor Who to be less self-obsessed, to not be about British identity when it is in fact a British show for Brits about Brits, is just a bit unrealistic.

Instead, I choose to believe that Doctor Who can and does use its privilege for good more often than not. The creators tend to be very progressive (as sci-fi so often is) and they can get away with a lot of very progressive messages in the guise of a silly sci-fi show for families. Most recently, I would point to s14e3: Boom, s14e5: Dot and Bubble as examples of thinly veiled rants about the evils of capitalism, war, racism, social media, etc. To ignore or dismiss Doctor Who because it has some form of institutional backing would be doing the actual stories and writers a disservice.

Finally, let me leave you with one last point; One consistancy throughout the new series that I find very charming is the positive effect the companions always have on the Doctor. Companions come and go, which is sad, but they're each special in their own little way, and they each change the Doctor, wearing them down a little at a time. The Doctor is consistently at their worst when they are alone, removed from the people that make them want to be better.

Very often the companion's parting message for the Doctor is "don't be alone.” This can be extrapolated to mean: don't forget we exist. Don't forget to be kind. Even if you can't help your legacy, even if you can't wash the blood off your hands, you can always keep striving to be better. Keep someone around to remind you to be better. And the Doctor, more often than not, does. Because ultimately it is the companions, us the people, that make the Doctor who they are.

It’s this special brand of relentless optimism, this indomitable belief in the goodness of people and the power of that goodness that always brings me back to Doctor Who, one way or another, despite all its flaws.

Edit 11/29: corrected some info about the BBC per the comments!