Department of ... Uh ... Wow

RTD, BBC?
(Plus Timeless Child Brilliance from masakochan )

So, yes, Russell T. Davies is coming back as Who's showrunner. My f'list immediately blew up, which, as eve11 mentioned meant folks were having Who-related discussions for the first time "in a jillion years", and I am happy with that as well. 

I love RTD for bringing Who back, for Rose (yes, folks I like don't like her. That's how these things often go.) But I personally found most of his run beyond the first season kind of gormless - it's hard to explain what I mean, so I'm going with that. And what he did to Donna? Do. Not. Get. Me. Started.

Ultimately, The Moff was my jam. I fell for him hard, and even harder for his Doctors, for River, for oh, so much. 

Still, beyond the "wut" reaction I'm still processing, I'm truly interested in what Rusty might have in the works for us. Could part of what he's planning include Jo Martin as the next Doctor, and a return of both Sacha Dhawan and Michelle Gomez, kthxbai?

And here's where I slightly switch topics; still Doctor Who, but concerning the "Timeless Child" turn of events that I found to be one of the only interesting things in Chibnall's short-but-still-too-long run.

I know that a metric ton of fans really hate it, and I understand that part of that is because they feel as if this means that the Doctor isn't a Timelord/Gallifreyan, and thereby invalidates everything we knew about the Doctor from the Doylist perspective, and what the Doctor knew about herself, from the Watsonian.

When I mentioned this in a comment over on elisi 's journal, I said I didn't mind it because I didn't see why we should trust what the Master said, and also because, if the Timelords worked that hard to make the Doctor believe she was a Timelord, they obviously wanted her to be one. I also said that Timelords could designate anyone they wanted as a colleague. All the preceding is Watsonian, obviously. 

I wasn't prepared for the lightbulb that the perspicacious masakochan  turned on above my head. I am absolutely gobsmacked by her brilliant take on this: 

 

"It adds a lot of serious layers when the main character is revealed to essentially be an immigrant that an entire society built itself off the back of, after stealing said immigrant's special ability."

In our current world, that resonates so damned hard for me. 

Thanks, my dear, for pointing this out!

ETA: Here are three links that masakochan sent me that look at what the Timeless Child disclosure suggests on both Watsonian and Doylist levels. I like the suggestion that the Doctor's tendency towards mind-wipes might hark back to what was done to her, but all of the commentary is invaluable and brilliant. 

As she put it:  

ichi
ni
san