“Never underestimate the power of a crush”
bill potts
I’ve been through a lot since the last time we met. So I’ll show you around. | for @notquiteilliterate
Things I love about this:
- Bill not being dead
- Lesbians
- Consent
- A woman taking on the role of the Doctor for a moment, with the scene framing her exactly the way it would frame him, without her actually having to be anyone but herself
- Equal agency
- Their beautiful stupid faces
- Consent
- Did I mention consent
The Doctor Falls has had the exact same impact on me that Hell Bent did back in 2015.
There’s something about that bittersweet triumph has had me on a week long high, it’s got so much thematic and narrative substance in it (as
the culmination of three years worth of television) that I’ve been digesting.
Most importantly, it really feels like a piece of media that I, as a fan, can feel proud of. It has something to say. Something really worthwhile saying about the value of kindness and compassion that, at the end, makes me feel like I have an example worth living up to.
It’s what media does at its best, and it certainly helps that it’s told through the lens of Bill and her character arc – her strength and resilience, her grasp on her identity, and getting the happy ‘ending’ that she deserves.
As it was with Clara, it’s not really an ending – it’s an origin story.
A superhero origin story with an immortal LGBT+ heroine that gives a thoroughly satisfying middle finger at the Bury Your Gays trope in favour of a future with infinite cosmic possibilities.
Maybe I’m just a sucker for ‘love conquers all’ stories (I absolutely am), but Moffat’s fundamental approach to Doctor Who (“I’ll be damned if Doctor Who is going to join in with the general chorus of despair”) has made for stories that are going to stick with me to my grave.
I honestly never believed they would follow the trope but they did.
#BuryYourGays
😧 and Moffat continues to make me never want to watch a show I once loved again. of course they killed her. Of course.
They didn’t. Bill’s crush, Heather, who is now a quasi-water-goddess type thing (long story) showed up and saved her by turning her into a quasi-water-goddess type thing too. Heather tells Bill she can put her back to being human any time she wants, but Bill decides to “show [Heather] round” for at least a while and leaves with her (thinking the Doctor is dead) to have adventures in the stars.
Pearl Mackie will almost certainly be in the Christmas Special, although beyond that nobody knows. (The showrunner switch is next year) But she’s not dead. Hell, she wasn’t even technically dead (just Cyber-converted) when that post was made. Double hell, even the gunshot seen up there inexplicably…. didn’t actually kill her. Somehow. Despite it taking half her torso out.
Doctor Who: Bending the Laws of Science to Save Gay, Bi and Lesbian People (Jack! Jenny! Clara! Heather! Bill!) Since 2005-ish
Hiya – have you got a source to hand for Pearl filming the Christmas special? That’s wonderful news! -such-heights
Someone on Gallifrey Base posted a couple of (far-away and blurry and actually snapped off a monitor, but still) pictures of her on the set, in her blue jacket from The Doctor Falls with Peter Capaldi around too! Here they are please don’t sue me, BBC
