DarthDementous

Terrible?

Terrible?

"You can type this shit, but you can't say it!"
 
 

That was completely and utterly bonkers. I loved it, weirdly enough the only episode to immediately 'click' with me.

 
 

He chilled on Trenzalore for centuries and centuries before dying of old age in Time of the Doctor. 
 
But it’s much more important for something to have emotional/character resonance than perfect continuity.  That’s for people who are extremely rigid - leave that shit for the Wiki editors to figure out.

Oh, and Tennant was excellent in this.

Just finished and boy was that a lot of fun. I had nothing whatsoever spoiled for me so I didn't see the split coming. I haven't seen Gatwa's other work but it looks like he's another refreshing take. NPH was really having fun with the role - very similar vein to Count Olaf.
 
I did wonder whether Tennant would have another emotional farewell and I do think this choice made the handover a bit easier without having to go through all that a second time and not 'losing' him. It strikes me that RTD has already demonstrated more inventiveness and imagination in three specials than Chibnall did in his entire tenure. I just can't see myself rewatching his series again, whereas I'm tempted to ask for the Blu-ray of these specials for Xmas.
 
I really hope there's a soundtrack release as quite a few moments were really memorable. Gold will be pissing off a lot of fans if he goes true on his thoughts that scores are to be heard in the show, and doesn't bother doing a release.

That was completely and utterly bonkers. I loved it, weirdly enough the only episode to immediately 'click' with me.

 
 

Never got around to posting a comment on last week's episode. That was nice, if a bit lukewarm, and felt a bit rushed; maybe 10 or 20 minutes more would have given it a bit of space to breathe and prevented some bits from coming out of nowhere, but then I guess RTD has always been prone to that to some extent to begin with. Miriam Margolyes was fun.
 
Now this week's episode - very good! Nice balance of mysterious, grotesque, and some outright creepy bits. Gold's scores are much more subdued so far this time around, but they do work well, and in doing so still seem much more interesting than anything I heard during Whittaker's era.
 
And while I don't really remember anything about the Flux (and found that whole series to be so all over the place and random that I probably never figured out what it was about to begin with), RTD successfully leverages it to give the Doctor back the melancholy he started out with during RTD's initial run and wouldn't begin to get over until the Moffat era. Fits Tennant's Doctor persona(s) very well.
 
PS: I don't think the "mavity" thing it a simple throwaway joke. Seems to me it points to the Doctor and Donna disturbing some timeline when they landed in that tree, triggering whatever is happening when they return to Earth to meet Wilf.

Ah yes, that very unified and homogenous group known as trans people. I've seen discussion go both ways from all kinds of people and groups, praising it, appreciating the effort but finding it clunky, or finding it a misfire entirely. Fortunately it seems the wider public is less terminally online so the insufferable political discourse isn't defining that episode for them

 
 
"Religious minority character"
I'm amazed you even noticed this and cared enough to point it out

"The Doctor being corrected by a kid over his use of personal pronouns"
Yes, the 15 year old trans kid who's grown up being identified in a way based on their outward appearance in a way that doesn't align is more conscious of The Doctor assuming the Meep's gender based on outward appearance

"An actor who has spina bifida who is confined to a wheelchair...this particular wheelchair fires bullets..."She's in a wheelchair she must be a villain"...well she's one of the good guys, so I guess it's okay to have a wheelchair that has the potential to kill and maim, if you work for U.N.I.T, but not if you just want to get around, on Skaro. So much for "wheelchair equals bad"!
This isn't what RTD was saying. It's not about the wheelchair itself being depicted as dangerous, it's that the overwhelming amount of disabled characters, i.e. in a wheelchair, play villains and that otherness tends to play a role in their villainy. This is RTD putting his money where his mouth is by including a character in a wheelchair that is explicitly not a villain, the fact it has all kinds of gadgets makes sense for a U.N.I.T officer.

"There's an antagonist that goes from cute and virginal to white supremacist cunt in 2.5 seconds"
What in the ever living fuck is 'white supremacist' about Beep the Meep? This is reaching of the highest order to read politics into something

"I am aware that I am in a minority in my opinions, and that this is only the first chapter in a three-part story"
This is a bizarre thing to say when it's followed up by "If this is how DW is to continue, if it wants to win back viewers, then it has to do much better" you can't both be in the minority on positive reception to the episode and also say that the show is in dire need of winning back viewers.

Don't think I could disagree more about the comedy or the music, but that's at least down to personal preference. Although I would say that the humor was very natural in that it came from character interactions more than 'I will now tell a joke, please laugh' that Moffat's Who was prone to fall into. The music was also not mixed low, it was just more withdrawn except for key moments where it was especially prominent in the mix which worked well to accentuate scenes without overpowering them and saving the big musical moments for key scenes.

Ah yes, that very unified and homogenous group known as trans people. I've seen discussion go both ways from all kinds of people and groups, praising it, appreciating the effort but finding it clunky, or finding it a misfire entirely. Fortunately it seems the wider public is less terminally online so the insufferable political discourse isn't defining that episode for them

 
 
"Religious minority character"
I'm amazed you even noticed this and cared enough to point it out

"The Doctor being corrected by a kid over his use of personal pronouns"
Yes, the 15 year old trans kid who's grown up being identified in a way based on their outward appearance in a way that doesn't align is more conscious of The Doctor assuming the Meep's gender based on outward appearance

"An actor who has spina bifida who is confined to a wheelchair...this particular wheelchair fires bullets..."She's in a wheelchair she must be a villain"...well she's one of the good guys, so I guess it's okay to have a wheelchair that has the potential to kill and maim, if you work for U.N.I.T, but not if you just want to get around, on Skaro. So much for "wheelchair equals bad"!
This isn't what RTD was saying. It's not about the wheelchair itself being depicted as dangerous, it's that the overwhelming amount of disabled characters, i.e. in a wheelchair, play villains and that otherness tends to play a role in their villainy. This is RTD putting his money where his mouth is by including a character in a wheelchair that is explicitly not a villain, the fact it has all kinds of gadgets makes sense for a U.N.I.T officer.

"There's an antagonist that goes from cute and virginal to white supremacist cunt in 2.5 seconds"
What in the ever living fuck is 'white supremacist' about Beep the Meep? This is reaching of the highest order to read politics into something

"I am aware that I am in a minority in my opinions, and that this is only the first chapter in a three-part story"
This is a bizarre thing to say when it's followed up by "If this is how DW is to continue, if it wants to win back viewers, then it has to do much better" you can't both be in the minority on positive reception to the episode and also say that the show is in dire need of winning back viewers.

Don't think I could disagree more about the comedy or the music, but that's at least down to personal preference. Although I would say that the humor was very natural in that it came from character interactions more than 'I will now tell a joke, please laugh' that Moffat's Who was prone to fall into. The music was also not mixed low, it was just more withdrawn except for key moments where it was especially prominent in the mix which worked well to accentuate scenes without overpowering them and saving the big musical moments for key scenes.

Ah yes, that very unified and homogenous group known as trans people. I've seen discussion go both ways from all kinds of people and groups, praising it, appreciating the effort but finding it clunky, or finding it a misfire entirely. Fortunately it seems the wider public is less terminally online so the insufferable political discourse isn't defining that episode for them

 
 
"Religious minority character"
I'm amazed you even noticed this and cared enough to point it out

"The Doctor being corrected by a kid over his use of personal pronouns"
Yes, the 15 year old trans kid who's grown up being identified in a way based on their outward appearance in a way that doesn't align is more conscious of The Doctor assuming the Meep's gender based on outward appearance

"An actor who has spina bifida who is confined to a wheelchair...this particular wheelchair fires bullets..."She's in a wheelchair she must be a villain"...well she's one of the good guys, so I guess it's okay to have a wheelchair that has the potential to kill and maim, if you work for U.N.I.T, but not if you just want to get around, on Skaro. So much for "wheelchair equals bad"!
This isn't what RTD was saying. It's not about the wheelchair itself being depicted as dangerous, it's that the overwhelming amount of disabled characters, i.e. in a wheelchair, play villains and that otherness tends to play a role in their villainy. This is RTD putting his money where his mouth is by including a character in a wheelchair that is explicitly not a villain, the fact it has all kinds of gadgets makes sense for a U.N.I.T officer.

"There's an antagonist that goes from cute and virginal to white supremacist cunt in 2.5 seconds"
What in the ever living fuck is 'white supremacist' about Beep the Meep? This is reaching of the highest order to read politics into something

"I am aware that I am in a minority in my opinions, and that this is only the first chapter in a three-part story"
This is a bizarre thing to say when it's followed up by "If this is how DW is to continue, if it wants to win back viewers, then it has to do much better" you can't both be in the minority on positive reception to the episode and also say that the show is in dire need of winning back viewers.

Don't think I could disagree more about the comedy or the music, but that's at least down to personal preference. Although I would say that the humor was very natural in that it came from character interactions more than 'I will now tell a joke, please laugh' that Moffat's Who was prone to fall into. The music was also not mixed low, it was just more withdrawn except for key moments where it was especially prominent in the mix which worked well to accentuate scenes without overpowering them and saving the big musical moments for key scenes.

I've not quite settled on how I feel about this episode but here's my spoiler-free reaction

I loved everything, except for how the resolution was executed. It's a premise I can see working but it was done rather clumsily and confusingly which annoys me more than the political messaging. I suppose I was expecting for RTD to instantly shown he's grown as a Doctor Who writer but these are very much the old pitfalls. For now I'll chalk it up to regression due to working with familiar elements and hope that both with the remaining specials and especially Gatwa's era that RTD shows what he's learnt in the interim between his last stint to take things in a fresh direction.

Foundation wise though this is the most Doctor Who has felt like Doctor Who in a really long time, the pathos is there, the music is there (need the TARDIS reveal cue immediately) the banter is there, the character work is there, and I was smiling ear to ear for 95% of the episode. It's a bit of a wobbly start but the moment to moment experience of watching RTD Doctor Who is there and for me that was really important and not something I was going to take for granted. It's actually rather surreal how much it felt like watching a Series 4 episode, to go from 5 years of something so strange and alienating to something that whilst different still had those comfortable feelings of familiarity, it's a really unusual experience. Arguably more than 5 years, to be honest.

Fresh from a rewatch. First time there was a lot of anxiousness going into it and I watched the episode over a video stream with online friends at 1080p on my computer
 
This time it was in the comfort of my living room, 4k HDR
 
And it was pure joy. The parts I liked I loved this time, the emotional scenes hit way harder and I felt the weight of all the previous stories this time, and the parts I didn't like bothered me less. Seeing it in a much more pristine visual fidelity helped me appreciate the effects and directing a lot more, the show looks absolutely fantastic
 
Oh my God and the music. I am so happy to have Murray Gold back because whilst there's restraint it makes the big moments hit really effectively and it soars in a way I remember it doing, as a jaded adult feeling and believing that whimsy is a superb experience. Initially I thought there wasn't enough past music but I think it was the perfect amount for musical continuity and evoking the emotional connection without being reliant on it. Very keen for the soundtrack.
 
I also felt particular dread at the end. I've seen that "You should visit more often" from RTD before and what follows it is never good. I have a really bad feeling we are heading towards tragedy but my God it will be incredibly potent stuff if even the suggestion Donna was dead brought me to tears when I knew she couldn't be. David Tennant and Catherine Tate were beyond amazing, incredible performances.
 
After 5 years of wondering whether the show was for me anymore, holy fuck it is good to be back

Star Wars fans hearing this and looking at the state of the franchise 
 

 

A lot of these more overt "thefths" I've cited are early drafts and ideas: the finished article really isn't quite so deriviative. By far the biggest antecedent to Star Wars is EE Smith's Galactic Patrol. Its hillarious to try and read it without tripping over similarities to Star Wars and the Jedi: the back of the book alone reads like a Star Wars text crawl! AND YET, it feels much more like really soft science-fiction: doesn't quite have the fantasy touch of Lucas.
 

 
The other really major source is Edgar Rice Burroughs. Barsoom (Not Arrakis nor Mongo and certainly nothing in Isaac Asimov) is definitely the most immediate ancestor to Tatooine, Geonosis, Utapau, Jakku and Kashyyk, and much else beside. But you can't read Princess of Mars and really "see" Star Wars, as such. Certainly, anyone who thinks they can watch Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress and basically experience Star Wars without the spaceships are deluding themselves. If you care to try and watch a Flash Gordon serial, much less the Buck Rogers one, again it reminds one of Star Wars, but nothing quite precisely.
 
There's a touch of Tolkien to it all, but not much more than "a touch", other movies mostly gave Lucas handful of individual shots or setpieces, Bettelheim and Castaneda are basically grafted on the surface of the piece, at best.
 
It ultimately has its own sensibility.

The Christmas specials have always aired on Boxing Day in Australia. I'm fine with it, it was a big part of my family tradition to sit down and watch on Boxing Day night and I'm thrilled that it's finally returning.
 
As for the storm in a teacup that is Davros... Others have articulated my thoughts already; RTD made a decision that was entirely appropriate given the context of the short. In case people haven't noticed he has a strong working relationship with Ruth Madely (who is appearing in these specials); he's already putting his money where his mouth is when it comes to platforming differently abled actors.
 
Not too long ago mainstream films, television, and books frequently coded villains as gay or sexually "deviant" in some way, and that would likely still be the case if it wasn't for storytellers like RTD being vocal about it and -crucially - actually doing something about it by presenting queer stories and platforming queer actors. It's not virtue signalling if there's tangible action to go along with the awareness. I'm old enough to remember how much people complained about the queerness in RTD's first run, this is pretty much the same "controversy".

It is a very common trope for the disabled and disfigured to be villains and have part of the intimidation come from the otherness, I don't know why people are pretending like this was never a thing

...That's exactly what he's saying. What was fine then he doesn't see as fine now

People are jumping to a lot of bizarre conclusions. RTD can say what he likes, but let's wait to see how this manifests if at all
 
So far we have a depiction of Davros that is believably pre-accident in a minisode, if we see him again who knows what form that'll take?
 
Reasoning aside, I would be interested in seeing a different take on Davros as he's starting to become quite old hat by now, like The Master sans regeneration

Well put. I don't know if "chained to the wheelchair" is a common expression in English, but it is in German, and I've often seen complaints by wheelchair users about the phrase, because it evokes an image of some other person forcefully restricting them, when in fact the wheelchair increases their freedom. Which is to say that there are lots of issues that "we" "normal" people (without disabilities) are blissfully unaware of, but which to the people affected are so pervasive that they do affect their lives.
 
In this specific case I've never before thought about it, and I personally wouldn't have an issue with the Davros in the wheelchair - but I also don't have a big issue with Davros *not* in a wheelchair. In short, if RTD's reasoning is perhaps a bit out of proportion (maybe it is, maybe it isn't - see above), the outcry about it also seems to be so just as much, if not more.

'Did you hear about Peter Dinklage really laying into Disney about how could they possibly be planning a remake of Snow White And The Seven Dwarves in this day and age? He wasn't Happy'. 

Gag from Ricky Gervais' most recent stand-up show Armageddon. Fuck, I lolled. 

Imagine you're British, you have East Enders, Sherlock, and sometimes, yes, sometimes, you're the baddie in a movie. It's funny, you laugh.
Imagine you're in a wheelchair, you are not in anything, ever, all the time… until you are an evil creature.
 
That's basically the thing. Visiblity is so low for minorities, whatever the minority, that you cannot be just picked as "the villain" or "the guy who dies first all the time".

I don’t have a stake in this thing at all since I don’t care at all about the idea of canon in anything and I don’t have this particular disability, but it’s a bit of a complex issue - the representation question for people with this particular disability.  Is there a stereotype of people in wheelchairs being evil?  It’s not one I’ve picked up on, but it’s also not an issue I’m keyed into.  

Do you run the risk of saying “people in wheelchairs can’t play villains” and then all of a sudden the only characters in wheelchairs are perfect angel geniuses (a counterpart to the 1990s brand of Joss Whedon Feminism where media was full of Strong Female Characters trope messiahs and not complex, interesting characters (who are sometimes flawed or villainous!).
 
Do you overcorrect, just  start taking roles from actors in wheelchairs?  Peter Dinklage talked shit on Disney on some podcast for continuing to cast little people as magical wood nymphs, and Disney seemingly altered course on their Snow White remake as a direct result to make the dwarfs CGI - which pissed off a ton of little people actors who had auditioned for the roles.
 
The answer is probably the general representation fix - cast people who actually have the disability in the roles instead of having some rando Brit squat down in a wheelchair for a week, and include that representation meaningfully (not just as a token)  behind the scenes (particularly in writing and directing roles) so that the stories you tell are more authentic.
 
This particular issue seems like a lot of ado over nothing, and if they hadn’t done it for a charity that benefits children with disabilities, you would never have heard the spiel from RTD or maybe even have seen Davros at all.