#rtd2

I mentioned it before but this phenomenon is what I'd like to refer to as a cocktail of childhood/teenhood media viewed through nostalgia goggles. Especially those that have been long running franchises and even cultural touchstones on either side of the pond.

As kids or teens, politics only exist as that boring junk you learn in Social Studies, History or see your folks view on the news. You're more in the fictional characters and stories that grab your imagination by the reigns.

Sure, some of them may be by adults who base this off of their direct life experience and/or aspects of life that often pertain to politics. However, you're only interested in how they tie into your favorite blorbos or your favorite movie/episode of your favorite media. Any good storyteller knows how to weave it all together into a lovely yarn.

And despite what sooooooooo many who trot out or bleat on about, that has not changed at all. Yes, sometimes it doesn't all come together due to a skill issue on the part of the writer ooooor a producer sticking their hands in where they shouldn't.

However, many of today's most acclaimed (or at least polarizing since that at least entails a side who stans it) stories have generally talked about politics be it directly like with explicit leftist talking-points or implicitly such as with... protagonists who aren't the wonderbread variety we've had to endure.

They weave in the journeys we see our characters on with topics such as battling prejudice or concepts such as, well, protagonisting while not white, straight, male or cisgendered. It isn't a flaw but a feature. A feature they've inherited from the generation of writers before them and the generation of writers before that lot.

Bringing us back to the subject of childhood, the reason why Doctor Who seems more politically charged to the usual suspects than ever before comes down to one thing: they grew up. The adult world of news reports that bored them to tears has become their world and it's a world they wish they could opt out of.

So what's a good refuge for such? Whatever made you happen as a kid, of course. Simpler times. Nothing political there. Nothing that really challenged your sensibilities then. However, the newer episodes hit differently than the old ones because their stories revolve around what seems to be relevant then or at least what has stayed relevant in the news cycle at time of production.

RTD's New Who run was political with the Slitheen's scheme to sell a destroyed Earth as molten slag due to a recession in space. Van Staton appropriated alien tech as trophies and pays for it in the form of a Dalek he dared to torture. Game Station Five manipulated Earth's media in an age when humanity should've been soaring through the stars.

Oh, and also CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS!

Hell, Steven Moffat's run was often maligned because of elements that felt less woke or regressive based on the social justice climate way back in the 2010s. Even more bizarre was when Series 9 and 10 became more conscious of his potential flaws.

Everything the Chibnall era was raked over the coals for? You better believe that Moffat laid the foundation for. Clara Oswald has stories where she often stole the show and had many accuse the show of being "Clara Who" now. Bill Potts... well, Council of Geeks put it best on Bill being the proverbial smoking gun.

Additionally, RTD's run also had wokeness for its time which meant that a lot of things like the Slitheen's elements of bodyshaming and the whole slap-happy mother gag slipped through. As such, there was a... dampening effect when it came to Doctor Who being more progressive in certain areas but problematic in others.

Whatever, I really hope RTD leaving and delaying the christmas special will give the show a chance to return to quality.

2023 specials

the star beast. 7/10. in fact, it was going a solid 9/10 with old friends motifs and haunting memories and genderless doctor until they slammed the brakes on that and had donna noble do gender essentialist "Feminism" and just let gooooo of the metacrisis and call the doctor "a male presenting timelord".

wild blue yonder. 12/10. the last time russell t davies wrote a good episode. truly a favourite.

the giggle. 5/10. death by big laser. horrible introduction to a new doctor. oh and bi-generation. (peter davison voice) i don't know why they did that. (also, donna noble would NOT say do u come in a range of colours. she would not fucking say that.) it's criminal that we didn't get to see ncuti do regeneration amnesia.

series 14

the church on ruby road. 7/10. okay, great introduction to ruby, solid introduction to the doctor. i love the not-timeywimeyness of the episode villains but c'mon. be honest. did it have to be goblins. in the year of our lord 2023. did it HAVE to be antisemitic caricature goblins. in a scifi show. why couldn't u invent a new type of alien.

space babies. 6/10 and it's ALL points for captain poppy, okay. a character whose arc would have been SO good if it was good.

the devil's chord. 7/10. i don't remember much of this except Maestro who fucked severely. wait i remember there was nuclear winter because music went away. can i say something? this is narrative overstatement. i don't doubt that music profoundly changes us in big and small ways BUT. if you have to say that with nuclear winter, it sounds so weak. like remember in eaters of light, bill still hears the music of the guardians of the gate and says it can't be real, they're in another time and the twelfth doctor is like. music's funny like that. and it's so so moving.

boom. 8/10, but then again, it's written by moffat actually. good political commentary for the most part. employs my favourite doctor who trope, which is one little bit of humanity short circuits the villain's evil tech.

73 yards. 7.3/10. was this supposed to go anywhere?

dot and bubble. 4/10. racist. i genuinely can't believe they called ncuti in to shoot his first scene and it was getting hatecrimed by that white girl.

rogue. 8/10. you know what this was silly and fun.

the legend of ruby sunday / empire of death. 7/10. stowaway puppy problems. and why did it snow around ruby all the time again? i despise UNIT and adore the memory TARDIS.

christmas special

joy to the world. 6/10. moffat again but very mixed messaging. don't like it. setting had so much potential.

series 15

the robot revolution. 7/10. begins a season riddled with the neoliberal idea of singular strawmen who are the cause of all evil. belinda was amazing for a minute there.

lux. 8/10. innovative. alan cumming.

the well. 7/10. the midnight reveal was powerful but why did they change how the midnight creature works. the episode seemed to be written so belinda could be shot. idk.

lucky day. 1/10. atrocious. fascist. brought to you by the kerblam guy. extended commentary here.

the story and the engine. 10000/10. inua ellams. please come back, inua ellams. the doctor as a creature of stories, the doctor as the never ending tale, ah my heart.

the interstellar song contest. -15/10. zionist propaganda.

wish world. -12/10. fitting conclusion to the singular fictional strawman fantasy. everything is racist. archie panjabi was spectacular tho.