All the Doctor Who Lockdown episodes have been good, and many of them have been important to the overall fabric of the show, but this is the most important one.
It fills in the gaps in Bill’s story! And confirms that she ended up living as a human rather than a god. I admit I don’t love how Bill/Heather is presented here, having fallen hard for that ship a while back. Bill’s memories of the relationship don’t seem terribly healthy. But the important thing is, she’s happy.
“I think I love everyone I know,” is such a wonderful Bill line. It may be my favorite of hers, now.
Here’s the links this minisode was released with (picked out by Pearl Mackie:)
2) THE BLACK CURRICULUM, which aims to get accurate Black history on the curriculum in the UK as soon as next year. Support this initative by donating here: https://www.theblackcurriculum.com/do…
3) CAMPAIGN ZERO in the US, which has a brilliant, clear strategy called ‘8cantwait’ consisting of 8 policies which will, if passed, decrease police violence by 72%. Donate via their homepage here: https://www.joincampaignzero.org/
4) BLACK VISIONS COLLECTIVE, a black, LGBTQ+ led organisation that is committed to dismantling systems of oppression and violence and shifting the public narrative to create long-term change. Donate via their homepage here: https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/
out of the blue i just started worrying about pearl mackie? is she okay? she better be getting offered lots of roles and good ones because she’s fucking talented and deserves all of them
^^^^
I was sure I’d immediately hear about her being given a starring role in some new TV series after S10 ended. Hopefully the only reason that hasn’t happened yet is because they’re waiting for Christmas to air before announcing it.
According to her Twitter she’ll next be appearing in the play The Birthday Party at the Harold Pinter theatre? But I really hope the reason she seems to be sticking with stage work is because she likes it and not because of anything else
Something I’ve noticed with the cinematography of Series 10 that I have not seen in any previous series of Doctor Who is that we almost never see Bill from behind, or at an angle where her face is obscured.
I like doing ‘faceless’ imagesets, and let me tell you that it’s been an absolute bloody nightmare to get decent shots of her at an appropriate angle for that.
But that’s brilliant, isn’t it?
Across every director in Series 10, they have all gone out of their way to focus on Pearl Mackie’s face – her expressions, her emotions, her reactions. It’s all about her story, which is reinforced by the cinematography at every turn.
And that further accentuates what her becoming a Cyberman robs her of – her face. It’s a brilliant confluence of the cinematography and the writing that The Doctor Falls focuses more on showing us Bill as she sees herself, only occasionally showing her Cyberman form during specific moments to visually show us the emotions she’s feeling that are not on-display.
Take her exchange with The Master, for instance, where he gloats about how he tricked and manipulated her for ten years, with Bill (as a Cyberman) responding “I am not upset” to deny him the pleasure of his cruel jibe, only for the transition to show Bill’s actual expression where she’s clearly distraught.
It makes the catharsis of her story’s resolution all the more satisfying where she becomes a being that can literally reshape atoms and states of matter.
HEATHER: “I can make you human again. It’s all just atoms. You can rearrange them any way you like. I can put you back home, you can make chips, and live your life, or you can come with me. It’s up to you, Bill.”
The ultimate outcome is that she gets to decide who and what she wants to be, in totality.
It’s just really good to see that there was clearly conscious though put into Bill’s expression as a fundamental aspect of her character, which is why the Doctor notices her in the first place – when she doesn’t understand something, she doesn’t from like most people… she smiles.
She’s enamoured with a new mystery, not in the way that Clara was where she’d throw herself into it with reckless abandon (like the Doctor), she is driven by a passion to understand.
And Pearl Mackie plays that mixture of awe and excitement and raw emotion so damn well, it’s wholly understandable why none of Series 10′s directors wanted to have her face obscured or do any big landscape reveal shots from behind – they all understood that these things were present in-service to her character, for Pearl to play off of in her own brilliant and unique way.
If you didn’t know, I love Doctor Who. A lot. So when I saw season 10, I was not impressed. I’m not going to hold back here, it was the worst season of Doctor Who I had ever seen. The storylines were ridiculous, the character development was.. Null. It was nothing. I cannot think, in my head of one way a character developed. Not to mention, Bill Potts. AKA I pander to SJWs.
I have never seen a character pander more to SJWs than Bill Potts. Bill Potts is everything Tumblr likes: an unattractive (call me harsh but she is universally unattractive), black lesbian. And that would be fine… If the show stopped reminding me every episode.
In the first episode, Bill has a almost partner and I didn’t mind that. But almost every episode felt to mention that she was black or a lesbian.
We had to have a racist Victorian guy, some guy crushing on Bill so Bill can tell him she’s a lesbian (this also had nothing to do with anything and added nothing to the episode), a blue guy accusing Bill of racism so she can explain racism, Bill telling the doctor randomly that she likes girl when he already knows and finally, Bill traveling the universe with her girlfriend.
I might have been able to deal with that if Bill was a good character. She wasn’t. She just asked questions and made “funny” statements. She didn’t develop at all. And don’t try to tell me her lack of development is because she only had one season. The most developed Doctor Who character, Donna Noble, had one season.
Of course though, Bill will get defended to death because she’s an unattractive, black lesbian.
All righty, this post (which was thoughtfully placed in the Bill Potts tag where all her fans go) is desperately and deliberately racist, but the OP obviously knows and is proud of that. So arguing wouldn’t do much good. So I’m taking it over instead to post many beautiful photos and gifs of the beautiful Bill and Pearl Mackie! Do join me?
