sea_thoughts: Silhouette of the 13th Doctor against the sky looking at the TARDIS (Thirteen)

[personal profile] sea_thoughts 2023-09-24 06:21 pm (UTC)(link)
I have a feeling Donna might have something to say. "Cost of living crisis?! Bloody hell, no wonder the rest of us can't afford to put the heating on, look at this place!" (<-ignoring that she won the lottery of course)

Doesn't mean she can't care about the cost of living! In fact, I'd love Donna to be an activist working on behalf of the people who don't have the money (and the mouth) she does. 🥰

Also there was the whole thing about the Doctor always being morally right (I had sort of forgotten that aspect of RTD's writing), but hm. I hope that has changed. (It made sense for Ten, being the ball of angsty man!pain that he was, but he's come a long way since.)

Yeah, he definitely had issues with Protagonist-Centred Morality. There were often people pointing out that the Doctor was wrong, but RTD had an awful tendency to make them either villainous or angry harridans.

I have seen Tennant do some amazing acting since he left DW and I sincerely hope RTD gives him space to do that instead of the gurning and shouting he was prone to do as Ten, although the trailer hasn't given me much hope in that regard.
promethia_tenk: (ten is a moral arbiter)

[personal profile] promethia_tenk 2023-09-24 06:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Also there was the whole thing about the Doctor always being morally right (I had sort of forgotten that aspect of RTD's writing)



You forgot the defining issue of Rusty's entire run?!!? FORGOT!?!??!

I've learned something today, and it's that I don't complain enough.

"Cost of living crisis?! Bloody hell, no wonder the rest of us can't afford to put the heating on, look at this place!"
I can hear her exact tone <3
promethia_tenk: (ten is a moral arbiter)

[personal profile] promethia_tenk 2023-09-24 08:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Not FORGOT forgot, but... I've mostly been watching reactions, and that's never the focus. It like the background hum, I've not been paying attention.
I suppose if you spend RTD's run constructing arguments to yourself about the failings of its morality system, you stop watching. Or take your annoyance out on your long-suffering internet friend in private. Not make episode-by-episode reaction videos on YouTube.

(Love the gif. <3)
Tim Gunn is here for us in our hour of need.

LOL. Look, you don't need to hammer the point home, it's just that when I think about RTD I think about Big and Ridiculous and Lonely God.
There are certainly other issues, but pinpointing that exact problem is what even allowed me to watch without my head imploding. I don't care that Ten is a bit mopey, I care that he set himself up as a moral arbiter and everybody who called him on his bullshit got deposed. While the show went 'wow . . . isn't he great?'

"Don't you think she looks tired" is so long ago"
Never forget. JUSTICE FOR HARRIET JONES. Also 'the man who never would' a;skdjf;lksjl;f

since WoM the Doctor has been TWELVE and we ran through everything again
This. This really is precisely why we need not!Ten. Because Twelve felt like such a response to Ten. Yes, Eleven was the entirely necessary course correction, but Twelve went back into the source code to make sure it would never happen again. A post-Twelve not!Ten handled correctly might genuinely water my crops and cure my sheep, or whatever it is we say these days.

I guess it just didn't occur to me that the Doctor could backslide so badly as to go back to Ten's moral black&white outlook.
Ok, that's fair. I recall seeing on Tumblr that Crowley's snake tattoo kept moving around because DT needed to have his Doctor Who sideburns. Can you imagine the whiplash if he really was going back? "Ok, so on Tuesday I'm playing the character whose entire existence has been defined by resistance to holier-than-thou power structures. And on Wednesday, I'm playing the holier-than-thou power structure."

(I know I know, we just had Thirteen, but then I am perfectly ready to just overlook that blank space.)
Oh yes, we're all in agreement that it never happened unless Rusty manages to surprise us and make something worthwhile out of it.

(PS your html is borked here)
Doh! Thank you.
maia: (Default)

[personal profile] maia 2023-09-25 12:22 am (UTC)(link)
There are certainly other issues, but pinpointing that exact problem is what even allowed me to watch without my head imploding.

I pinpointed that exact problem and my head still imploded. (Admittedly, it all got wrapped up in other issues I had at the time, but still...)


I don't care that Ten is a bit mopey, I care that he set himself up as a moral arbiter and everybody who called him on his bullshit got deposed. While the show went 'wow . . . isn't he great?'

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, a thousand times YES!
promethia_tenk: (ten is a moral arbiter)

[personal profile] promethia_tenk 2023-09-25 11:41 am (UTC)(link)
I pinpointed that exact problem and my head still imploded. (Admittedly, it all got wrapped up in other issues I had at the time, but still...)
Don't worry. I still got plenty of imploding in before I reached any kind of equilibrium about it. Think I've still got a convex bit in my skull.

River's 'dear god, you're hard work young!' was also crucial. I cannot overstate how much work that one line did to allow me to recontextualize the whole era for myself.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, a thousand times YES!
It's really the 'wow . . . isn't he great?' that ruins everything. Pro tip to writers: if you're setting out to explore the problematic depths of your favorite character, you're gonna need to set aside the hero worship for a hot minute. The concluding specials are the best part of Rusty's first run because he finally committed to doing the character arc he'd been avoiding actually writing for three seasons.