So far the book is really good. I love the Ark in Space. It’s one of my favourite episodes so I’m excited to read it in book form (especially since its written by the man who plays my favourite character.)
I do think Moffat is a sub, tbh. The way he writes relationships reminds me so much of what male subs want. Like, he wants Amy Pond to tell him he has a small dick, you can tell.
I’ve had this on my mind and since my brain is like a messy desktop of a computer, I’ve gotta say this so I can clear up some space in my head.
Titled: Not so concise hot take about the 13th Doctor’s Era
I wanted to like it, I really really wanted to. I was *so*excited about 13 being Jodie and I really did do my best to go into it with positivity. But there is a huge problem that doctor who should’ve thought about. changing writers, while also making history by having the first female doctor - that was a mistake.
having the first female doctor was a very huge deal to a lot of fans. it’s the first time fans who are girls could see themselves as the main character and not just the friend. HOWEVER, given how many misogynistic people are in the fandom, it was a very delicate transition. If BBC had thought it through, they wouldn’t have changed the writers as well. This is because if (and it did) go wrong, everyone’s blame would instantly be placed on the fact that the doctor’s a woman. Not even bothering to think about whether or not it’s the writer’s fault or the characters fault. So all of that blame fell on 13. When, in reality, if Moffat or RTD was writing the 13th doctor, viewers would still feel some sense of normalcy. This would’ve keep a lot more fans because they would’ve realized that doctor who hadn’t changed entirely.
But then they added a different writer at the same time. Now you have two massive changes. People have a hard time telling what it actually is about the new seasons they don’t like. But, Jodie and the Doctor being a woman, they didn’t stand a chance of being given the benefit of the doubt. So now no fan will ever trust another female doctor even if the writing is amazing because they hold a grudge against chibnall and Jodie. If they had brought Chibnall in while 12 was still the Doctor - everyone would’ve been able to see the shift in writing and not associate it with the most delicate change that girls and women have been waiting to see for generations!!!
Chibnall can be BRILLIANT but Doctor Who is not his strong suit. He does so much better with dark drama and that’s what he turned Doctor Who into. But that’s not what Doctor Who has been about for years and years before. In past episodes, they always did their best to reiterate hope into viewers. But I realized after watching Orphan 55 (which I’ll never forgive him for) that he wasn’t interested in keeping up that same momentum. But that’s what made Doctor who so amazing!! The hope! The liberation! The feeling of being bigger than yourself and being special!!! Orphan 55 was fear mongering in the worst way because there was no hope at the end. The Doctor basically told 3 humans that if the world didn’t fix climate change, we’d all turn into monsters. What the FUCK are they supposed to do with that??
Not to mention how absolutely bone-chillingly evil it was to hear Benni’s last words and what Kane had to say after that (still gives me nightmares)
I understand that once you’re in a position of power to make change, you should do so. But Chibnall went so hard with the wokeness that it wasn’t even subtle like it was with Moffat which does more damage than help. And ending it on a hopeless note doesn’t motivate anyone to make a difference, it makes us sit there and shrug like why the fuck should we even bother if there’s no hope?
Moffat had a talent for implementing wokeness and awareness into his scripts without making it blatantly obvious. Just enough to put some motivation in your heart and to make you feel able to cause change. The show was stripped of that. It became so obvious. Are you telling me Jack Robertson wasn’t inspired by Trump? And “Can You Hear Me” had so much potential to talk about mental health but it was just a lot of talking and not a lot of making sense. There was no nuances, no subtlety, just too much.
There were a few episodes I loved. I loved Kerblam. I loved Tsuranga. Rosa was beautiful. But maybe it’s because those episodes *felt* like Doctor who. Well, Rosa didn’t but I still loved how that went because it was about damn time they put some emphasis on how incredible Rosa Parks was.
Onto the timeless child: phew. okay. I’ll admit I liked it at first. Or maybe I just liked the cinematography but this goes to my point about having a new writer and a ground breaking character. On top of all of that, chibnall changed the very bones of the entire show with this storyline. And as soon as I started to really think about it, I realized how god damn disrespectful it was of him to do this storyline.
You may be asking: why was it disrespectful Abigail? Well, you think back to 1963. The very first classic Who episode. The person who created that story, created this entire franchise, did that person have this planned? Probably not. They planned for the doctor to be a timelord from gallifrey with 12 regenerations and lives to save. but for the love of god, I can’t imagine how horrible I would feel if someone hijacked a story I came up with, every detail, and changed it without a second thought. If someone flushed all of my hard work and deep thinking down the toilet? holy disrespectful. beyond disrespectful to the original creators. because just like that, the doctor is not gallifreyan. the doctor is not the last of their kind, they are the ONLY one of their species now. In fact, we don’t even fucking know what that species is!!!
If I sat my jolly ass down in 1963 to write out this incredible plot for a show and someone just changed it?? All of my hard work and brilliant ideas? Completely retconned and thrown away as if it wasn’t good enough? I would be devastated. Wouldn’t you? That’s why it was disrespectful. Because Chibnall, who worked on the series for five fucking minutes, came in and used all of his power to wash away everything without even considering the possibility that it was wrong. That storyline would’ve been brilliant for someone other than the Doctor.
AND WE ARENT GONNA EVEN TALK ABOUT HOW FLUX’ MAIN VILLAINS WERE CLEARLY MODELED AFTER DIA DE LOS MUERTOS BECAUSE ILL BE HERE ALL DAY YELLING ABOUT IT
I guess what I’m trying to say is that it became a huge clusterfuck for several different reasons. It was poorly executed because they made so much change so fast that nobody knew what to blame for not liking it anymore. Nobody knew if it was the female doctor they disliked or the writing or the plot changes. And with each change, they tried to manage the criticism with more change. If they kept Jodie on for one more season and did it with RTD’s return, I think it would heal a lot of viewers. I think a lot of them would fall in love with 13 the way she deserved to be loved. I will forever feel bad that Jodie had to deal with this because she was groundbreaking, but too much other ground was breaking around her for her to get proper praise. And because of Chibnall’s writing and the evidence of how hard BBC is working to reverse the problems created, it’s clear that we will likely never see another female doctor again.
Hopefully if you were feeling the same way I have been, this will map out those feelings a little better
Ps. BBC, If you’re reading this, drop the series 10 soundtrack pls I need it like I need oxygen
“Amy Pond, there’s something you better understand about me, ‘cause it’s important, and one day your life may depend on it. I am definitely a madman with a box.” The Eleventh Hour
Congratulations to Benedict Cumberbatch (Outstanding Actor in a Miniseries or Movie), Martin Freeman (Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie) and Steven Moffat (Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special). Good job to Sherlock at the Emmy’s!
“It’s this or Cluedo.” So Benedict got to go to Comic Con, so did Steven, Mark and Sue but how did they decide who else got to go? And just remember, “it’s not actually possible for the victim to have done it!”
there is no acceptable use of “gay jokes” just for the sake of a joke on your tv show in the year 2017 and you shouldn’t have to be gay to agree with that
Nor “homoerotic tension.’ I get that Moffat is a hopelessly clueless and crass arsehole, but Gatiss should know better than that.
Something rather interesting from The Day of the Doctor draft with Eccleston! While we wouldn’t learn that the Barn™ was a place from the Doctor’s childhood untilListen(and not seeing that it’s still useduntilHell Bent), this Ninth Doctor draft actually has the Moment take a moment (heh) to explain the bizarre location (the middle of a goddamn Gallifreyan desert):
Interesting to keep in mind, as the finalized The Day of the Doctor certainly shows a much different location for the Barn™ than the later Hell Bent:
Middle of the desert vs roughly at the base of a mountain.
And I’ve half-jokingly (and half-completely goddamned seriously) discussed how I like thinking that mountain is Mount Lung/Plutarch, the crater in its side representing House Lungbarrow’s former spot, and the Barn™ being one of the shelters for the few remaining Cousins not sucked into other Houses or Faction Paradox.
Now,granted (before anyone takes this too seriously or tries to be pedantic), NuWho’s Gallifrey has never been geographically consistent or maintained the same look/elements through the seasons, mostly due to ever evolving special effects and filming locations. Also, the draft with the Ninth Doctor seems to strongly imply the Doctor actually has no familiarity with the Barn™ at all, and given that it is very much a draft (with both Eccleston and a non-Billie Piper version of the Moment), literally none of this means anything serious.
But, the idea of the Moment creating Lungbarrow’s old ramshackle barn from the Doctor’s memories in a different location, the real Barn™ barning somewhere at the base of Mount Lung/Plutarch, with his perceptions either impaired by the Moment or the severity of what he was about to do, is now 100% and adamantly my new headcanon.
Made a little discovery looking back at some old DWM articles that immediately pulled my mind back to this post.
FromThe Essential Doctor Who - The Time Lords: there’s an interview with director Douglas Mackinnon talking aboutListen, where he reveals that in the first draft there wasn’t an explicit connection between the barns of Day of the DoctorandListen - in fact they were location scouting for other barns to use for filming. It was only when Michael Pickwoad mentioned that the old barn was still available in storage that Moffat, Brian Minchin, and Mackinnon made it explicitly the same one.
Obviously the one the Moment created was meant to echo the Lungbarrow barn, but originally they were going to look completely different.
To me, this really serves as a sign that the barns could STILL have been in two different locations, even with changes from the early drafts of both episodes. It certainly seems that was Moffat’s intention even after the edits to Day of the Doctor.
“It’s what your friend mistook for a ley line. (…) It’s part of the fabric of space-time itself. What DNA is to your genetic code, this stuff is to biodata. And it’s just exposed here now. Personality, history, memory, perception, all vulnerable. (…) It’s me.”
(…)
“Kyra said she’d been mapping these lines all over the city …”
(Kate Orman & Jon Blum, “Unnatural History”)
“Imagine if time all happened at once. Every moment of your life laid out around you like a city. Streets full of buildings made of days. The day you were born, the day you die. The day you fall in love, the day that love ends. A whole city built from triumph and heartbreak and boredom and laughter and cutting your toenails. It’s the best place you will ever be.”
