On this, I agree. I'm a bit of a purist. If a character is white and male to start, I expect him to stay white and male. If you have the balls to suggest that it is somehow "important" that a character is female or black or gay, then I'm going to tell you that it is equally important for that character to have been what he originated as.
I don't care what skin colour he is. I only care if it's suddenly used to do lots of polemic episodes about race. He's an alien so there should be no cultural baggage associated with it. (Though of course the writers don't understand that and introduce it). Swapping sex though is a bit more of a step. I didn't want it but primarily because I knew what would come with it - both in terms of politics and in terms of writing. The classic Doctor was pretty much asexual. I still remember a friend and I exclaiming "The Doctor doesn't kiss people!" when we watched the TV movie with Paul McGann. So it was dabbled with on occasion but broadly not. However you cannot have a female doctor without bringing in a level of sexual tension to the dynamic she has with her companions. Short of casting a more elderly school ma'am type or someone
very physically atypical.
Of course you might tell me that ship (ha ha) has sailed with RTD from the start, and I'd be forced to agree.
Interestingly, he was at a con with Piper a couple of years back (which is where the famous 'sack Russel, sack Julie!' quote comes from) so I wonder when exactly she agreed to be a part of the show again. The pair are meant to reunite at another con July 19th if I remember correctly, so I'm sure there'll be some very interesting clips from that Q&A.
I remember that. However, she refrained from saying anything too self-implicating herself. I suspect she knew exactly where she was coming from and she didn't say anything to disagree but she was careful not to burn her bridges. What I enjoyed most from that talk was the big cheer of support he got from the crowd when he talked about sacking RTD. That surprised me.
and it could have just been a last desperate publicity stunt to try to get the show renewed.
I'm sorry but I think this has to be "is" not "could". They're addicted to "surprise" and "big reveals". It's all they have and they have to continually up the dosage like a junkie. None of it makes sense - it's just press whatever button they can find.
But the sheer level of work she's got done just makes me think it's some kind of mental issue, like body dysmorphia or something.
It could be a case of throwing good money after bad and repeated attempts to fix things. Some botox or filler that made things look worse, so go in for more to fix that, now it's worse so go for another round. Just botched attempt after botched attempt. I feel sorry for her. She was pretty and it hasn't made her look young, it's bumped right off the A->Z of aging to some side parallel track that you'd never have reached through the course of nature. Acting is a cruel profession on aging, but she is talented. I realised that when I saw the Cassandra episode and saw her bopping back and forth between Cassandra's voice and mannerisms and Rose's. And interview she was very different from her character.
Andor in particular really seems to be a part of that, these manchildren are gleeful that their favorite toy-show is talking about political stuff like immigration and rape so they can feel like a big boy when they reference Star Wars the next time their shitlib friends bring up the issues.
My experience here is different. I was never really a Star Wars fan but I thought Andor was very good. So I made the mistake of dropping into the Star Wars thread to discuss it and the man-children there were
so angry about the show. For not being "Star Wars".
But I guess there are all sorts of cultural pockets.
I don't share the same view, while as I've gotten older my tastes have changed, I still enjoy things like Star Wars and Doctor Who, I just recognize that they're generally meant for a younger audience, but I can find things that I like about them as an adult as well.
Again, I respectfully disagree. Classic Who wasn't originally meant for kids exactly. It was family entertainment. From an era where homes had one television and the whole family would decide what to watch. That may be why you always had what they called "something for the dads".
And the storylines weren't patronising. Some of them were really quite adult. I feel with its increasingly frenetic pacing and cheap stunts, it became a lot more focused towards kids. The two big Who fans I knew in real life were women in their forties. They both fancied David Tenant (I bet they don't now) and I doubt were particularly pleased to see a female Doctor appear.
She really was sabotaged by Chibnall who insisted she not watch any of the show before taking on the role which just fucking kneecapped her
I never realised that wasn't her decision. I read her saying that she'd never watched Who even before her audition and I thought that was terrible. But she has my forgiveness if it was Chinballs who actually instructed her not to. What a terrible idea. Matt Smith is my favourite Doctor and he deliberately took inspiration from my other favourite Doctor which is the second one (Patrick Trouhton).
This is all rumors and whatnot but my understanding is that Russel and his cohorts at the BBC basically went out of their way to destroy his career after he left. He quit over the working conditions and how the crew were being overworked and in unsafe conditions but no one on the production staff or at the BBC cared. They announced that he was leaving because he was "very tired", basically implying that he was lazy or unable to handle the workload. (This is also where the line 10 has about Harriet Jones comes from, "She looks tired, doesn't she?" Basically Russel twisting the knife.) So he had to go to the states to work because he was totally blacklisted from British television.
Ecclestone gets treated badly a lot. He apparently went quite full on with his role in Thor: The Dark World only to have his part cut down to almost a cameo when he's the main villain! The guy really applies himself to his roles and I respect that. But producers don't seem to.
In case anyone wasn't watching the finale live, after it ended we got a teaser for a spin-off called The War Between the Land and the Sea about UNIT and the Sea Devils. Written by RTD and starring one of his favourites, Russell Tovey, who had a brief role in a Tennant episode.
Nuh-uh. They lured me into watching the pirate Christmas special with Jodie Whitaker by baiting me with Sea Devils. I turned it off half-way through. I'm not falling for that again!
