Donna Noble rewatch
Jan. 19th, 2012 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficRewatching Doctor Who to work on my Donna voice, I've noticed some odd nerd elitism. It's a bit obvious when you think about it--the Doctor, at least as interpreted by RTD, is a male fantasy figure. He's young and attractive (say what you will about Tennant and Eccleston, but in-universe they were treated as desirable), he's socially awkward (but that's part of his charm), he's rude (but to people who are assholes, so everyone loves him for it), he doesn't know how to dress himself (but still ends up wearing awesome stuff like leather jackets and trenchcoats--really, you gotta give Moffett points for making the Doctor look like an idiot again), he's smart (in fact, so brilliant that all the jocks just have to gape in awe as he shows them how to solve their problems), he has just enough to brood about without a legitimate reason to be sad (oh, my homeworld of assholes is gone! Oh, my latest moon-eyed twentysomething is gone!), and of course he has a bevy of attractive young women who want him without him ever having to engage with them or enter a real sort of relationship.
Of course, you can argue the companions and their status as female fantasy figures all night, but they are primed as fangirl identification points. The Doctor shows up, whisks you off, have fun! Martha Jones is even a Harry Potter nerd. Donna Noble is the first person who really wasn't meant for fandom to empathize with. She's like a check-list of anti-nerd. Celebrity gossip, reality TV, un-clever, pushy, etc. The scene where her evil fiance emotionally eviscerates her is shockingly dark for a family show. And only after that do you get (to the show's credit) acknowledgment that Donna's learned and grown through her encounter with the Doctor, and later her return in season four.
She's a character in a nerd show who says that even if you don't have stereotypically nerdy interests or qualities, you can still be a good person. Until she gets lobotomized, OH WELL.
Watching the season four premiere, it actually occurs to me that this elitism is pretty damn textual. As Donna becomes a protagonist, we learn about her awful home life and bitchy mother, which makes her sympathetic, if not a true-blue nerd. But we're also presented with a female reporter who is successful (invited to Adipose Industries' press conference) and skilled (able to see through their bullshit and investigate, putting her on par with the Doctor and Donna). And she ends up as a running gag about getting captured and finally as proof that some people (who are not the Doctor and Donna) "just can't take it."
Was that present in the original series? Because it seems to me that "I only take the best" came about in the RTD era, like before it was "Anyone can learn magic if they just work hard enough" and afterward it was "You have to be born with magic." Which are two very different fantasies, and one is a lot more egalitarian than the other. It kind of makes me wonder--even in the case of companions who weren't young quasi-nerds, how many were put-upon anti-authoritarian types? Playing to a kind of "you'll all be sorry one day" nerd thought process. Or is that reading too much into things?
Of course, you can argue the companions and their status as female fantasy figures all night, but they are primed as fangirl identification points. The Doctor shows up, whisks you off, have fun! Martha Jones is even a Harry Potter nerd. Donna Noble is the first person who really wasn't meant for fandom to empathize with. She's like a check-list of anti-nerd. Celebrity gossip, reality TV, un-clever, pushy, etc. The scene where her evil fiance emotionally eviscerates her is shockingly dark for a family show. And only after that do you get (to the show's credit) acknowledgment that Donna's learned and grown through her encounter with the Doctor, and later her return in season four.
She's a character in a nerd show who says that even if you don't have stereotypically nerdy interests or qualities, you can still be a good person. Until she gets lobotomized, OH WELL.
Watching the season four premiere, it actually occurs to me that this elitism is pretty damn textual. As Donna becomes a protagonist, we learn about her awful home life and bitchy mother, which makes her sympathetic, if not a true-blue nerd. But we're also presented with a female reporter who is successful (invited to Adipose Industries' press conference) and skilled (able to see through their bullshit and investigate, putting her on par with the Doctor and Donna). And she ends up as a running gag about getting captured and finally as proof that some people (who are not the Doctor and Donna) "just can't take it."
Was that present in the original series? Because it seems to me that "I only take the best" came about in the RTD era, like before it was "Anyone can learn magic if they just work hard enough" and afterward it was "You have to be born with magic." Which are two very different fantasies, and one is a lot more egalitarian than the other. It kind of makes me wonder--even in the case of companions who weren't young quasi-nerds, how many were put-upon anti-authoritarian types? Playing to a kind of "you'll all be sorry one day" nerd thought process. Or is that reading too much into things?
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no subject
Date: 2012-01-21 03:46 pm (UTC)So it's not just "nerds are better, lol". There's some other stuff in there too.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-21 05:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-21 05:35 pm (UTC)Nope, nothing at all.