labingi

Since the end of the most recent season of Doctor Who, my family has been marathoning through Who old and new, and had I but world enough and time, that might generate a lot of meta. As it is, here's one essay on the Doctor and Susan. Basically, I'll argue that the issue of Susan, teased in this latest season, should be addressed. It's time, and it has important story potential. (Content warning for dysfunctional parenting.)

In the beginning, it was:



Spoilers for TV canon through the most recent season( Read more... )

I’ve been quiet about this season because I’ve really been enjoying it, and critique inspires more words than praise. I love Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor. As inherently tired as I am of contemporary, young, London woman companions, I really like Ruby, too, and I’m enjoying the stories themselves more than any season since the Tenth Doctor. But I do have a few thinky thoughts about the handling of race in the last two episodes: lots of praise, some frustration, and some hypothetical suggestions.

Spoilers below the cut( Read more... )

Yet Another Post on Sexism in Moffat's Shows

I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that Steven Moffat is the Ben Steed of his generation. For those not up on their BBC TV writers of thirty-plus years ago, Ben Steed was a writer for Blake’s 7 (among other things), now widely remembered in Blake’s 7 fandom as that sexist pig. This is a shame for the late Steed: in many respects he was a good writer, but he allowed his bigotry to distort the virtues of his stories, leaving a sour taste in the mouth of many fans across the decades. Steven Moffat seems committed to an updated version of the same trajectory, and it’s a shame for him too because he, too, is a good writer, but that fact is increasingly being obscured by the sexism* of his shows.

( The Lessons of History )

B sent me this fun bit of Doctor Who satire. How did they anticipate Rose like that? :-)

I need to do an update, so here is some stuff.

* I finish reading Pale Fire. Pale Fire is to the Russian Revolution as Slaughterhouse 5 is to the firebombing of Dresden.

* Speaking of getting unstuck in time, I also watched The Fountain, which is a very good and interesting movie about coping with death. And very pretty and a bit historical and science fictiony. I have little to say against it except that Isabella (in the 16th century plotline) falls flat (but she's mostly symbolic anyway). And there is a certain amount of race fail, combined, however, with a genuine interest in non-Western traditions, which mitigates it, I think. The rest is lovely.

* Having seen the Blade of the Immortal anime, I am now catching up on bits of the manga. I doubt I will read the series in toto, but what I am falling in love with, I'm falling for hard. At first, I was a bit blown away that every single person in MoB fandom seems to be a fan of BotI too, but the more I see, the more it makes perfect sense. These stories--despite coming from different media, being aimed at different audiences, having different tones, and accomplishing different things--are of the same soul, which leads me to ask, has anyone (in English) crossed them over? And if not, why not?

* Speaking of MoB, I did catch up on vol. 22 (prologue-ch. 2) and have only been very quiet about it because it didn't do much for me. Part of it I'd read already (Naoe and Irobe, which is nice.) I was expecting more about Nagahide and was, thus, a bit disappointed not to get it. I find the Red Whales a bit dull (or, to take responsibility, have not invested the time in getting to know their panoply of characters), but I did enjoy Takaya bonding with the boy who reminded him of Miya.

* Rewatched some M*A*S*H. It remains one of the best TV series ever made, full stop. It also strikes me that Hawkeye is a pretty direct ancestor of Boston Legal's Alan Shore.

* I have also been watching two other shows I'm keeping mum about: Doctor Who series 5 and The House of Five Leaves. Both are interesting me, but I want to wait till they've ended to make my final assessment.

Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Title: "For the Greater Good"
Characters: Ten, Jack
Rating: PG-13 for themes, angst
Spoilers: Massive spoilers for TW: Children of the Earth, nothing really for DW, except basic New Who premise.
Disclaimer: I claim nothing, not even the stuff I've made up.
Summary: Set after CotT and shortly before The Waters of Mars: the Doctor and Jack save history and catch up on recent events.
A/N: This story has been floating in my mind for while and finally floated out.

( For the Greater Good )

From Alan Sepinwall's Interview with Russell T. Davies

AS: Was it a coincidence or by design that all of the major companions during your run were women?

RTD: It's by design, to be honest. The show has had male companions in the past, and there have been times when he's had three or four companions at the same time, but if you strip the show down to its essentials, it's one man, and one woman. I don't think I would have been happy if it was just two men in the TARDIS. In the year 2009, still, there aren't enough lead roles for women, anyway. At the same time, we introduced Captain Jack, who was a companion for a time before we put him in "Torchwood."

Points for spotting the irony in this statement. Further points for connecting it to New Who (or even Old Who) in general.