Because this is what I do, every time, every day, every second. This.

[elisi]

DoWntime has come through again, and how:

BIT OF ADRENALINE, DASH OF OUTRAGE: Our Thoughts on “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos” and Series 11 Wrap-Up — Part 1/2

BIT OF ADRENALINE, DASH OF OUTRAGE: Our Thoughts on “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos” and Series 11 Wrap-Up — Part 2/2

(They go through EVERYTHING: the characters, the villain, Themes and Motifs, Diversity and Representation, Marketing, Politics, Ethics and Aesthetics and The Discourse Problem. If you want to know what I think, just read those posts.)

Alternatively, here is the shorter version, as propergoffick put it here (spoilers in post!):

'And you get this Doctor who you know in your soul votes Lib Dem, recycles, and gets properly annoyed about what Nigel Farage said in the paper the other day, but doesn't do anything about huge systemic problems. She fixes the very specific problem in front of her and leaves well alone. J. K. Rowling in space and time.'

ETA: I *want* Thirteen to be wonderful and amazing and her companions to have fabulous depth and for there to be story-arcs and something to sink my teeth into. But there isn't.


In other news, I have almost finished S22 and may write up some thoughts on that! Six is my darling and I luff him to pieces. ♥

Comments

[auroracloud]

Oh, and I wanted to add, I'm glad those posts you linked to addressed the lack of LGBT representation. That has seriously frustrated me.

[elisi]

See I remember S5 having no LGBT characters. Someone pointed this out to Moffat, who was very unhappy that he hadn't even realised and then promptly introduced a lot of gay characters in S6. So that's a showrunner who had a blind spot (hi unconscious privilege) and then set out to fix it. Whereas apparently they talked up the presentation ahead of S11? So they weren't unaware, they just... didn't do much. :(

[lyricwritesprose]

Strictly speaking, S5 had River Song, who is pan. But that wasn't very firmly established at the time; it was mostly hints in the library episodes and creator's opinion. It took until "The Husbands of River Song" before we had explicit onscreen confirmation of the fact.

And you could take that as a sign of creator growth, too, I guess; Moffat learned that you can't just headcanon a character to be bi or pan or whatever, you have to make sure that someone else knows.

I do wonder if Chibnall intended Yaz to be bi, but we know so little about her that it's impossible to tell.

[elisi]

And you could take that as a sign of creator growth, too, I guess; Moffat learned that you can't just headcanon a character to be bi or pan or whatever, you have to make sure that someone else knows.
This, but also the fact that he hadn't noticed - it wasn't an active thing, we are just not able to see our own blind spots. He quite simply wasn't thinking of whether he had gay characters or not. The important part of course being that he then self-corrected. Ditto with Bill - I recall him talking about deliberately wanting to cast a black companion, because he had previously presumed that if you just had normal auditions, you would automatically get an 'average' range of ppl, reflecting the population, and realised that that isn't the case, so became pro-active in casting someone not-white.

The moral of the story of course being: Put more minorities in positions of power, cause they don't need to learn these things.

I do wonder if Chibnall intended Yaz to be bi, but we know so little about her that it's impossible to tell.
There is a single line from her mother and... nothing else. :(

What I hope will happen is that Graham & Ryan leave and we get a season of Thirteen & Yaz, and then HOPEFULLY we will get something deeper. And not just because Yaz is obviously the Doctor's 'favourite' - I am thinking specifically of the scene in It Takes You Away where she is talking to Yaz and trying to work out what's going on, and it fits the Doctor's general pattern: The Doctor prefers companions who are young women. That's her type, and always has been. Which is fine, but we need a spot-light on that, and something more interesting. (Three companions is too many.)