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Laurie Penny gets me
This explains so well why I am still — after a fucking eternity of Steven Moffat — am still watching Doctor Who. (Though I must say, the new regime gives me hope for the future and I am even able to enjoy the present to some extent. Jody Whittaker is just fine; I'm still not sold that Chibnall knows what he's doing.)
My relationship to #DoctorWho is not like other shows. It’s more like supporting a sports team.
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) January 1, 2020
I don’t watch it because it’s the best show ever. I watch it because IT’S MY SHOW.
There have been YEARS where I disagreed with the management. Did I stop watching? Don’t be silly.
Also, my baby girl learned to roll from her stomach (on which she would rather not lie) to her back last Thursday. She even deigned to do it a second time for the camera.
And no, that's not someone smoking stage-right! It's a vaporiser, spreading moisture into our bedroom's aether.
Re: Specifics?
Yeah. It took them so long to write Twelve well that it was painful. I think a lot of the problem (besides Moff being too clever) is the course overcorrection between Doctors. Twelve had to be grimdark to offset Eleven's zaniness, and they wrote Thirteen as unbearably fluffy to offset Twelve's darkness. Which...has unfortunate implications when you have a younger woman replacing an older man in the role.
My sense with Chibnall is that he is trying to write a children's show when this has always been a family show. He's also overcorrecting for Moff's twisty overarcs, but it means that the episodes last season were almost all predictable Point A to Point B. But worse, in my mind, is that he doesn't trust the audience so the Doctor's primary role is to be a passive observer who explains things to them. (Again, unfortunate implications when it's the first time a female actor is in the role.) For all that fanboys are complaining about SJW content (ugh), the overall thrust of last season was highly reactionary, because she continually failed or refused to change the status quo when faced with injustice. And I think Whittaker did amazing work considering she had to deliver a lengthy monologue on who Rosa Fucking Parks was arrgh.
Re: Specifics?
I have to say, that after that especially terrible episode (#3 in the series? #4?), that I mostly enjoyed the rest of the run. And that, despite the fact that I have never found The Master an interesting character.
I would love it if next series was a bunch of relatively low-stakes visits to other parts of the universe, but I am optimistic for the first time in a long while that whatever Chibnal serves up, there's a good chance I'll like it.