Doctor Who: The End of Time
Dec. 26th, 2009 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficYou know, there's a good stupid and a bad stupid. For instance, good stupid: GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Bad stupid: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.
To wit, good stupid: The Master turns everyone on Earth into a clone of himself, and mocks the Doctor while wearing various dumb outfits.
Bad stupid: The Master shoots lightning from his hands, jumps hundreds of feet through the air (been playing a lot of InFamous, eh Rusty?), turns into a skeleton, and all but says "OM NOM NOM!"
There could've been a lot of interesting stories told with a decrepit, broken-down Master and a Doctor who knows he's coming to the end, but instead we get a bad episode of Smallville, pardon the redundancy. Just painful.
Moreover, the Secret Books of Saxon? The Master suddenly has a cult? They resurrect him? Between this, the clones, and the lightning, when the fuck did John Simm start playing Emperor Palpatine?
Yes, that's right, Expanded Universe, mofos.
Speaking of weird bits, the last time we saw Wilf, he was mourning the grievous soul-violence done to his beloved granddaughter, and the last time we saw the Doctor, he was a little put out that his God Complex drove a woman to suicide. Now one's wearing a Santa hat and the other's got a lei. I guess any lingering tragedy can be cleared up with a wacky prop.
More random bits
*There were, like, seven cryptic masterminds in this episode, each with their own agenda, most of whom were puppets in someone else's plan or manipulating someone else's plan for their own gain or both. Made things a little hard to track.
*Oh, hey, the Time Lords are back. They survived by hiding in the Senate chamber from the Star Wars prequels.
*What was up with all the Obama mentions? You'd think they were building up to something, like he gets on the podium and suddenly regenerates into Romana, or rips off his face and shows that he's a Visitor, or wipes away some make-up and says "This has gone too far, I'm really just a white guy named Barry, it was all a prank that got out of hand!" But no, he just turns into the Master like everyone else. Which loses some of its impact since the Master already got elected as Prime Minister. What's next, is he going to reveal himself to be Queen Elizabeth? The Pope? Oprah? I guess all that was just in there to show that Russell T. Davies likes Obama. Man, that is so 2008.
And I guess in the Whoniverse, Obama had a super-special awesome plan to save the economy, but the Master deleted it? I guess he didn't tell anyone else about it or write it down. That's right, Obama treats his economic policy the same way mad scientists treat their formulas to turn people into monsters. "Don't worry, it's all right here in the ol' noggin, next to the Cheers reruns. Oh, that Cliff, he cracks me up!"
*But the thing that really stuck with me, and really bothered me, was that Wilf was the companion. It's hard to articulate why, but... let's just imagine you're a Wonder Woman fan. I know it's hard, but try. Okay, you're a Wonder Woman fan and Wondy's book was canceled. Well, you know that'll happen, but it still gets you down. Then you hear that they're giving Wonder Woman another series! Hooray! Not only that, but she'll be relaunched in a big comic event crossover! Holy shit, finally, your favorite character is getting her due!
So you go to the comic store, pick up this fifty page giant with a big, amazingly drawn picture of Wonder Woman on the cover, you open the book and...
On the first page, Wonder Woman is being held prisoner by Lex Luthor. Alright, that's okay, she's going to break free in some cool way. Only she doesn't. Suddenly the story is about Steve Trevor, one of Wondy's supporting cast members, running around, saving the day. Sure, there'll be one or two scenes of Steve worrying about Wonder Woman or the villain taunting Wondy and her snarking defiantly at him, but Steve is the Big Damn Hero. Now, you don't have anything against Steve, he's a fun character, but this is Wonder Woman's comic book.
To put it another way, it's kinda like a Shaft movie where Shaft gets killed and one of his white colleagues takes over his quest. Hey, the poster said SHAFT. We're here to see Shaft, not some honky!
Now I'm cool with 'Zeppo' episodes, they can be fun and it's a lot better than always shoehorning the male lead into every dire situation to the point where it looks like all his friends would die gruesome deaths if he went on a cruise, but this isn't Wilf going along with the Doctor while Donna has a cold. This is Wilf being elevated at Donna's expense, because what is the point of bringing back Donna if you're not going to give her closure? Just dangling her tragic fate in our faces is cruel, in fact it's sadistic.
This is Donna being downgraded from a full-fledged hero to Wilf's motivation. Not even that, she's the wacky neighbor. She's the recurring role. She's a day player.
You want to know what sexism looks like? Watch the scene where the Doctor and Wilf rush off to have an adventure, while Donna just misses seeing the TARDIS and thus dying in agony... and it's played for laughs. And it's hard to get excited for a story where that's the most important female character right there.
Plus, there's something really weird about how all the Companions get the "consolation prize" of being married to someone, though Rose gets the silver medal because she's the Best Companion Ever, and thus merits a Genuine Imitation Doctor. What's the final fate of all the strong female characters Rusty has introduced? Why, they become happy homemakers. Sure, traveling the universe and saving people and having cool adventures is nice, but in the end, there's nothing better than cooking dinner for your kids. In fact, that's what every single heroine really wants. It's like a universe where every male hero, from Batman to Kid Flash, longs to move out west and raise cattle. You're welcome to have your unpleasant flashbacks to River Song now.
To wit, good stupid: The Master turns everyone on Earth into a clone of himself, and mocks the Doctor while wearing various dumb outfits.
Bad stupid: The Master shoots lightning from his hands, jumps hundreds of feet through the air (been playing a lot of InFamous, eh Rusty?), turns into a skeleton, and all but says "OM NOM NOM!"
There could've been a lot of interesting stories told with a decrepit, broken-down Master and a Doctor who knows he's coming to the end, but instead we get a bad episode of Smallville, pardon the redundancy. Just painful.
Moreover, the Secret Books of Saxon? The Master suddenly has a cult? They resurrect him? Between this, the clones, and the lightning, when the fuck did John Simm start playing Emperor Palpatine?
Yes, that's right, Expanded Universe, mofos.
Speaking of weird bits, the last time we saw Wilf, he was mourning the grievous soul-violence done to his beloved granddaughter, and the last time we saw the Doctor, he was a little put out that his God Complex drove a woman to suicide. Now one's wearing a Santa hat and the other's got a lei. I guess any lingering tragedy can be cleared up with a wacky prop.
More random bits
*There were, like, seven cryptic masterminds in this episode, each with their own agenda, most of whom were puppets in someone else's plan or manipulating someone else's plan for their own gain or both. Made things a little hard to track.
*Oh, hey, the Time Lords are back. They survived by hiding in the Senate chamber from the Star Wars prequels.
*What was up with all the Obama mentions? You'd think they were building up to something, like he gets on the podium and suddenly regenerates into Romana, or rips off his face and shows that he's a Visitor, or wipes away some make-up and says "This has gone too far, I'm really just a white guy named Barry, it was all a prank that got out of hand!" But no, he just turns into the Master like everyone else. Which loses some of its impact since the Master already got elected as Prime Minister. What's next, is he going to reveal himself to be Queen Elizabeth? The Pope? Oprah? I guess all that was just in there to show that Russell T. Davies likes Obama. Man, that is so 2008.
And I guess in the Whoniverse, Obama had a super-special awesome plan to save the economy, but the Master deleted it? I guess he didn't tell anyone else about it or write it down. That's right, Obama treats his economic policy the same way mad scientists treat their formulas to turn people into monsters. "Don't worry, it's all right here in the ol' noggin, next to the Cheers reruns. Oh, that Cliff, he cracks me up!"
*But the thing that really stuck with me, and really bothered me, was that Wilf was the companion. It's hard to articulate why, but... let's just imagine you're a Wonder Woman fan. I know it's hard, but try. Okay, you're a Wonder Woman fan and Wondy's book was canceled. Well, you know that'll happen, but it still gets you down. Then you hear that they're giving Wonder Woman another series! Hooray! Not only that, but she'll be relaunched in a big comic event crossover! Holy shit, finally, your favorite character is getting her due!
So you go to the comic store, pick up this fifty page giant with a big, amazingly drawn picture of Wonder Woman on the cover, you open the book and...
On the first page, Wonder Woman is being held prisoner by Lex Luthor. Alright, that's okay, she's going to break free in some cool way. Only she doesn't. Suddenly the story is about Steve Trevor, one of Wondy's supporting cast members, running around, saving the day. Sure, there'll be one or two scenes of Steve worrying about Wonder Woman or the villain taunting Wondy and her snarking defiantly at him, but Steve is the Big Damn Hero. Now, you don't have anything against Steve, he's a fun character, but this is Wonder Woman's comic book.
To put it another way, it's kinda like a Shaft movie where Shaft gets killed and one of his white colleagues takes over his quest. Hey, the poster said SHAFT. We're here to see Shaft, not some honky!
Now I'm cool with 'Zeppo' episodes, they can be fun and it's a lot better than always shoehorning the male lead into every dire situation to the point where it looks like all his friends would die gruesome deaths if he went on a cruise, but this isn't Wilf going along with the Doctor while Donna has a cold. This is Wilf being elevated at Donna's expense, because what is the point of bringing back Donna if you're not going to give her closure? Just dangling her tragic fate in our faces is cruel, in fact it's sadistic.
This is Donna being downgraded from a full-fledged hero to Wilf's motivation. Not even that, she's the wacky neighbor. She's the recurring role. She's a day player.
You want to know what sexism looks like? Watch the scene where the Doctor and Wilf rush off to have an adventure, while Donna just misses seeing the TARDIS and thus dying in agony... and it's played for laughs. And it's hard to get excited for a story where that's the most important female character right there.
Plus, there's something really weird about how all the Companions get the "consolation prize" of being married to someone, though Rose gets the silver medal because she's the Best Companion Ever, and thus merits a Genuine Imitation Doctor. What's the final fate of all the strong female characters Rusty has introduced? Why, they become happy homemakers. Sure, traveling the universe and saving people and having cool adventures is nice, but in the end, there's nothing better than cooking dinner for your kids. In fact, that's what every single heroine really wants. It's like a universe where every male hero, from Batman to Kid Flash, longs to move out west and raise cattle. You're welcome to have your unpleasant flashbacks to River Song now.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-12-26 05:43 pm (UTC)Female characters
Date: 2009-12-26 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-26 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-26 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-27 01:25 am (UTC)That and a) WooHoo, one more episode and Rusty's no longer writing Doctor Who and b) Rusty really should leave the crack!fic to the professionals.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-27 04:28 am (UTC)