You know the one.
Honestly, whatever you think of the episode… WHAT A SCENE. Over five decades of Doctor Who history (Whostory?) packed into a few seconds. With the theme tune! I loved it to pieces.
So being me I’ve gone through it frame by frame to pick out everything that appeared. (This gets pretty long, as you may have expected, sorry)
(more…)My GOD, that finale. I confess I didn’t understand or get all the callbacks to Classic Who (I’m a bad fan) but wow what a ride!
Man, I wish I could bring my teenage self forward through time and show this episode to her.
We’ve all got plenty of questions after watching Fugitive of the Judoon, but surely topmost is the conundrum of just who is Jo Martin’s character. This is going to have to be pretty spoiler packed I’m afraid, so make sure you’ve watched the episode! I’m going to look at the evidence, the ‘facts’ and try […]
So, Just Who is the Ruth Doctor? — Red Rocket Rising
At the moment my money’s on “She’s inbetween the second and third Doctors” too. There’s so much potential there! I absolutely cannot wait to see what happens next.
So, uh… I was right on one count? But then. But THEN! The appearance of Captain Jack frickin’ Harkness turned out to be merely a red herring for the REAL plot of the episode. My god! There was a past Doctor our Doctor doesn’t even know about. And she was a black woman. This episode is arguably the most important episode Doctor Who has ever produced, and I’m so glad I got to see it live. I’d never even heard of Jo Martin before this episode, but seeing “Jo Martin as The Doctor” in the end credits blew my mind. How’d they keep all this under wraps?! Wow.
Jack’s appearance amounted to little more than a cameo in the end, but I was so thrilled to see him. I think lots of people were. And it was heavily implied that he would be back! Looks like a lot of pieces are moving into place for ONE HELL OF A season finale.
It’s a whole new era for Doctor Who now. A more experimental, more progressive, more diverse (SPACE FOR ALL!!!) era. I haven’t been this excited about the show in ages.
[Also, it’s strange – the first ever episode of Doctor Who was marred by the assassination of JFK. This mini-reboot of sorts is right now marred by the unexpected death of Kobe Bryant. History repeats itself.]
Dammit this post started off as a reply to at least three people, but it got out of hand a bit…
I wish I liked the Doctor more. Any Doctor. Of all the modern ones I’ve seen, the only one I think I really like as a person is Eleven and I have huge issues with some of his actions, too. Of the Classic Doctors, I quite like some of them (especially since I’m so fond of most of the actors) and I strongly suspect I’d adore Eight if I could just! get! round! to! watching! his! film! – but I’ve always, always identified with the companions more. And the companion’s companions. How does nigh-on unlimited access to the entire universe affect a person? Would you ever be satisfied on Earth again? Would – like Rose and Clara, arguably – you end up a entirely different person once your adventures had finished, and not necessarily for the better? Rose says that being with the Doctor showed her a better way of living her life, but –
– the Doctor’s way of life isn’t that better than anyone else’s? I know what Rose meant – she outright says it: ‘you make a stand, you say no, you have the guts to do what’s right…’ but what’s the Doctor making a stand against, what’s he saying to no to? He’s killed children, killed whole species, he has more than once been cowardly or cruel. (And, on a metafictional level, almost always gets away with it because he’s the main character.) The modern-day show is so inconsistent about the Doctor – he’s got to be simultaniously an ANCIENT GOD DRENCHED IN THE BLOOD OF MILLIONS and a shining beacon of all that’s good and brave in the world. I dunno, sometimes it works, but not always.
I do love him as a symbol, I think – admittedly in the real world more than in the show. I cheered out loud when all the Doctors appeared to save the day in Day of the Doctor. And as an icon of British pop culture I think he’s one of the best we’ve got, in that he and the show are or try to be about creativity and imagination and humanity. It’s just that within the context of the show I don’t always get that – I don’t always even see him as a hero; that’s more the companion’s job.
God this is getting really metatextual now, but Doctor Who the show – I, we, know it’s flawed because all shows are flawed. It could be better, it could always be better, but it’s done so many amazing things. The sense of community that so often springs up around it (and not even just in fandom) – I wouldn’t change that for the world. Doctor Who’s a big part of my life – I’ve been in this fandom for nearly a decade now – but I think when it really comes down to it I like the show more for what it does than what it is. And I’m not sure that’s necessarily a bad thing.
Anyway. Doctor. Often bad and inconsistent. Often does good things. Inspires others to do good. Is sort of like show in that respect. Yes that is the sort of idea I’m trying to badly get at here.
