Department of ... Uh ... Wow

[kaffy_r]

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

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

or perhaps you've talked about it in previous posts of your own?

Not really, I didn't want to harsh people's squee by going on about it, but I'm not really interested in the Doctor's history pre-series. I understand why people are, of course, but for me, fundamentally it doesn't matter, because the other answer to the question "Doctor Who?" is the one we've seen played out before us for nearly 60 years, watching an unlikely exile grow into a hero, under the name that they chose, that was not their name before that. To me, that's the only answer to that question that really matters. I love that so much of DW, behind the scenes and in front of it is, as Three would have explained, serendipity. I think it says everything in the world you need to know about the show that it begins with ordinary people discovering all of time and space in a junkyard, hidden in a mundane object, and that they learn to become extraordinary because of their travels, as does the Doctor. I hate that CC has essentially broken that. I'm finding ways to live with it and mend it a bit in my head, because I do love this ridiculous old show - but the idea that the Doctor had been the Doctor before, the TARDIS had taken that 1960s police box before, that the Doctor is probably the most extraordinary being in the known universe, upon whose back the whole of Gallifrey is founded and that this didn't begin in a junkyard, that it just kicked hidden memories, an old personality back into action that something else would have done sooner or later is very hard to take, for me. I know that it was what broke a lot of my long-time flisters as well, some of them for good, so I've lost old friends as a result as well, or they've all but ceased posting and writing, and because of my chronic illness, this is the only real social life I have. (It is also, IMO, needlessly bleak in a way that I've bounced hard off before in some of CC's earlier work, but that's just a minor gripe in light of the rest.)

I'd resigned myself to the fact that one day New Who was bound to Go There in terms of the Doctor's origins, but I didn't think they'd mess with the on-screen ones, no matter if the Doctor turned out to be the Other, LOOOOOOMED, or just another Time Lord actually, he just likes being mysterious, he's really from Guildford, or had previous regenerations or were actually half-human on their mother side (and their mother was Leela) or whatever.

So, yeah, it's about my focus on the show, which isn't other people's, and I'll work this one out, the show will move on, it'll all be retconned six times over by the time we reach the 70th anniversary let alone the 100th, but personally, I am not okay with it yet. Being able to watch and enjoy the bits of the show I do love is huge progress on where I was this time last year, so I don't want anyone lecturing me on how great it is really. For me, it's not. It made me cry every time I thought about DW for 8 months straight, and 2020 was bad enough without that!

Here's to 2023? And I hope you enjoy the rest up till then very much anyway. ♥

[kaffy_r]

One of the things I'm grateful for in knowing you is how beautifully you write, whether it's fiction or commentary. But it's your friendship that I am most happy to have. I do not have to navigate the challenges you do, but much of my life is spent here, with friends I met online. I think watching those friends leave for any reason would make my life poorer. I am so sorry that what the show did in its last season hit those things so hard for you. I am, therefore, grateful that you have stayed around.

Thank you for taking the time to explain, and please forgive me for asking you to think about what's pretty difficult for you to think about.

And if there are any good things for you to enjoy about DW in the run up to 2023, I'd be happy to know it.

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, I have nowhere else to go! I dabble in tumblr and have met some nice people there, too, but it's never quite me. ♥

And don't worry, I wouldn't have typed that out if it had been too upsetting - I'm a year and more along and a little more resigned, but I think even if one day I find narrative ways to make it work for me, it'll be hard to ever dispel the subjective reaction enough to truly enjoy it. I know when you ask things like that, you do really mean it, which I appreciate!

And if there are any good things for you to enjoy about DW in the run up to 2023, I'd be happy to know it.

Well, Sacha Dhawan is great, and I liked "The Ghosts of the Punjab" a lot. I did like several eps of S2 until the finale rather spoiled them retrospectively. And I own a fast-forward button for watching just the highlights of CC eps. XD

[kaffy_r]

it'll be hard to ever dispel the subjective reaction enough to truly enjoy it.

I remember reading someone on my f'list talking about something that had really hurt their love of a fandom (don't think it was DW), and they said "Only in fanfic can one hope to salve those hurts". I think that can work, albeit not always.

And Sacha Dhawan is indeed great, as was "The Ghosts of the Punjab."