#and now christopher eccleston too i mean come on

[grinchwrapsupreme]

Absolutely bonkers to me that the torchwood and doctor who casts are seemingly endlessly willing to take part in making content

#just thinking about Big Finish rn #like john barrowman i get he literally wrote bookes #books* #he's IN IT in it #but eve? gareth? naoko? BURN??? #DUDE DOES PACIFIC RIM AND HE'S STILL?? HERE???? #and now christopher eccleston too i mean come on #i'm so happy about it but what the hell is in the water at bbc studios

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Is It Really That Bad?

Come. Gather round and listen to the legend of the Funny Vampire Director, AKA the Funny Nazi Director, AKA Taika Waititi.

Raised in the way of the director, Waititi was taught to make good movies, delivering the sort of funny and heartfelt films most can only dream of making. He directed, and he wrote, and he acted. He was sensitive, like a smile. And his love of filmmaking did not discriminate in what he could make. He once made a hilarious vampire mockumenatry that got a spin-off TV series. Another time, he proved that you could make Blazing Saddles in the modern day, except with Nazis!

But Waititi's greatest achievement was cameoing in The Suicide Sqaud. Oh, wait. No. It was making a good Thor movie, of all things. But sadly, in making a good Thor movie, he set himself up for failure with the sequel. In fact, he set himself up for spectacular failure. Mediocre reviews. Audience backlash. Criticism from the actors and directors. And bad reviews from all sorts of internet guys, again and again and again. And again.

Poor Waititi had to watch the internet’s respect for him explode. And then he said, 'What have I done?' It seemed that everything he’d worked for with Thor, he lost. And so he maybe got fired by Marvel and went back to making real movies for a change. But just because he was done with Marvel, didn't mean he was done with superheroes. He teamed up with James Gunn and set off to deliver the most powerful and thematic line in The Suicide Squad. He got in shape, putting in the hard yards to become a respected filmmaker again. Taking pains into gains and never skipping the chance to direct a movie based on Tower of Terror. He put in the work to go from the butt of jokes to a guy who would hopefully deserve an Oscar win.

But with all that being said, there was still a confused reviewer just trying to figure out if maybe the backlash to Thor: Love and Thunder was a bit overblown. Because really, this movie couldn’t possibly be as shitty as The Dark World, which committed the sin of wasting Christopher Eccleston. So he sat down and gave the movie a rewatch, accepting he was only good for one thing... Determining that age old question, 'Is Thor: Love and Thunder really that bad?'

THE GOOD

So maybe this is a hot take, but I really did enjoy Jane’s return and her romance with Thor and find it to be one of the film’s best aspects.

Now, don’t get me wrong, a lot of the writing here is clunky and poor Natalie Portman is saddled with a lot of really stupid dialogue now that she’s the Mighty Thor. But seeing her and Chris Hemsworth act off each other again in a less dull and restrictive fashion is so nice, and seeing Portman kick ass is a lot of fun too. She even wields Mjolnir in some pretty creative ways here! And her death is actually a genuinely powerful and touching scene that they don’t immediately fuck up with a lame joke.

The soundtrack, while not even close to touching the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtracks, is filled with Guns N’ Roses banger after banger. I grew up listening to these guys, so honestly I’m predisposed to like any scene where they play one of my favorite tracks by them.”Sweet Child O’ Mine,” “November Rain,” “Paradise City,” and “Welcome to the Jungle” are all whipped out at just the right time to keep my attention from flagging completely, so I’ll give them props for that. They aren’t the most inspired choices, but I’m a sucker for classic Axl.

The Axl above? Decidedly less so. Still, despite this film’s reputation for really bad effects and really bad costumes and just in general looking embarrassingly cheap because Disney abuses the animators, there are some extremely cool visuals here and there. The shot of Falligar the Behemoth in particular is so good they slapped it into every trailer, and a climactic battle on a monochrome planet looks way too good to be in this movie. But by far the most fantastic thing is the comic-accurate depiction of Eternity.

And of course, I would be remiss to not praise Christian Bale’s performance as Gorr the God Butcher. The man immediately has you hooked with the opening scene, which details his backstory and shows how he began his vendetta against all the deities of the Marvel universe. Then we have his fantastic climactic confrontation with Thor on the black-and-white planet, and then there is his final scene before Eternity. Each and every time he shows up, it’s completely clear that Bale is giving it his all and acting his pussy off, giving a performance that is honestly kind of astounding considering what’s going on around him.

THE BAD

Unfortunately, while Gorr is a fantastic performance, he suffers from the fact his character has absolutely no cohesion and is barely in the film. He shows up for maybe one big fight in the first hour, then completely disappears from the film until the third act, during which time he just sits around with a bunch of children and terrifies them. And despite being “The God Butcher,” we see him butcher precisely one single god in the whole film, and that’s in the film’s opening. Groot has as many onscreen god kills as Gorr. That’s fucking pathetic. Bale’s magnificent performance is strong when it counts, but so much of the dramatic moments feel unearned because he hardly does anything outside those moments. The fact they cut out so much material including him meeting with Peter Dinklage’s King Eitri and Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster, really stings. Would it have been a crime to cut out those annoying fucking goats and instead give Gorr more to do like, oh, butchering gods?

It doesn’t help that the story never actually refutes any of Gorr’s points. Every other god we see in the film is egotistical, hedonistic, a coward, or all three at once, with even Thor reverting into a corny blowhard for much of the movie. Zeus is pretty much emblematic of this problem; while I actually did enjoy Russell Crowe’s performance (even if it is, ultimately, a half-baked attempt at recapturing the magic of Grandmaster from Ragnarok), the fact that Zeus is nothing more than a blowhard more concerned with orgies and showing off to all the other gathered deities just kind of proves Gorr right. The gods don’t care, they are refusing to help their followers, and frankly the universe would probably be a lot better if it was littered with Knowheres instead of having these horny clowns prancing about.

Then we have the Guardians. The glorified cameo from the Guardians of the Galaxy that was hyped up in all the marketing. Despite being in the movie for maybe ten minutes and despite Star-Lord having 95% of all the lines between them, nearly every single one of them feels completely out of character. Star-Lord, on the other hand, actually feels like he was rerailed in time for Gunn to take the reigns back, but it doesn’t make up for how awkward and pointless it all feels. Although it is incredibly hilarious that after all of them spent Infinity War fawning over him they all now seem to barely tolerate him, with it being confirmed none of them kept in contact with him after the events of this film. I honestly don’t blame them.

A lot of returning characters really suffer. King Valkyrie gets it pretty bad since her subplot where she searches for love was dropped, leading to her feeling really superfluous in the plot. Lady Sif gets it even worse, with her barely even being in this movie; one has to wonder why they even bothered keeping her alive. Thor gets hit especially bad here, because he seems to have reverted from his post-Ragnarok characterization all the way to pre-Thor characterization, with all his hedonism, goofing, gallavanting, insecurity, and egotistical traits ramped up to maximum levels.

But the most divisive returning character of all is Korg. Korg became a fan-favorite due to his appearances in Ragnarok and Endgame, where he was genuinely a funny comic relief character who juxtaposed his intimidating rock golem design with a friendly demeanor and the chipper voice of director Taika Waititi. The thing is, both of those films used him sparingly, so that when he got a lame joke it wasn’t so bad because it’s one up against dozens of good ones. Here though he gets to be a main character and even the narrator, and boy does he get old pretty quickly. The thing is, though, that even if he’s not particularly funny here… I still like Korg. He’s just too damn charming, As lame as his jokes are, as lame as his fake out death is, as pointless as he ends up feeling to the plot, I just can’t hate the guy. I guess it helps that he gets to be Disney’s 52nd First Gay Character, but actually for real this time because in the end he gets to make a baby with a rock guy named Dwayne. I also really like the theory that the reason the whole film is corny is because Korg is narrating it, and he’s an unreliable narrator peppering the story with lame jokes and underplaying elements that should matter. Does it save the whole movie? No. Does it make Korg any funnier? Also no. Does it add an interesting layer that at least keeps me from wanting Korg dead? Yes, yes it does.

And really, every single problem here is something that was there in Thor: Ragnarok. Zany comedy? A terrifying, threatening villain with a murderous vendetta who gets weirdly underplayed and barely interacts with the heroes? A villainous character played entirely for jokes? Jokes that completely and utterly destroy the tension of any given scene? The big difference is that in Ragnarok, at least some of the jokes were funny, and Thor had more interesting characters to bounce off of. And maybe most importantly, that film knew when to dial back the comedy to let cool or emotional moments breathe. And maybe even more importantly than that, it knew to keep Korg to a minimum. This film doesn’t do that at all, with nonstop gags undercutting nearly every dramatic moment. It’s ultimately hard to give a shit about anything going on when the characters give so little of a shit about it that they’re cracking jokes.

And let me tell you, if you couldn’t already tell, the jokes are fucking bad. This is basically what would happen if you asked Seltzer & Friedberg to make Marvel Movie. This is the epitome of all those jokes about Marvel dialogue having the characters go “Well that just happened!” to the point where I’m shocked it’s not actual dialogue. The horrendously unfunny screaming goat meme is a pivotal plot point in this movie; that’s the quality of jokes we’re dealing with here. And while there are a few decent jokes here and there, there’s just too many fucking jokes to pay them any mind.

IS IT REALLY THAT BAD?

Somehow this is one of the most overhated and yet rightfully disliked films ever made.

Like, Schafrillas was right to call this the Shrek the Third of Thor films. It’s not funny, it derails beloved characters, it’s incredibly annoying, it wastes a good villain, and the writing is just so hackneyed and ridiculous. This is absolutely not a good film at all. But the way you hear some people talk about it you’d think this film killed their grandma.

Like I know bad comedies are some of the worst kinds of films out there, and this film is definitely horrendously unfunny at every opportunity, but it has just enough good ideas and just enough strategic deployment of Guns N’ Roses songs that it just barely manages to be passable in my eyes. I definitely think this is a mediocre movie, and it is emblematic of everything a bad Marvel movie can be. But at the same time, it manages to be unfunny in ways I didn’t think were possible from a director and cast this talented. I’ll be honest, on my second watch through of the movie I was more bored than infuriated with this film. It has its moments, but it’s absolutely one of the weakest efforts Marvel has ever put out.

This film is pretty much what critics once accused Batman & Robin of being: An overindulgent, campy, unfunny smear on a cool hero. As you well know by now, I don’t agree with them on that, but it’s a somewhat fitting descriptor for Love & Thunder. I don’t think it’s a smear on Thor, who has been way too inconsistent for me to get mad about him being taken in some wild direction, but overindulgent, campy, and unfunny are pretty apt. Still, I don’t think this is nearly as bad as a lot of people say. It’s not bad in a “crime against humanity” way, at worst it’s bad in a “I know the people making this are capable of better and I kinda feel like this is the fault of studio executives at Disney” kind of way. If you like it, sure, that’s valid! I don’t think there is no value in this film at all, especially compared to some stuff I’ve reviewed for Is It Really That Bad. But if I never have to see this movie again, I won’t exactly lose sleep over it, and I’m sure many people feel the same.

Still, I’d have to have a heart of stone to not find the ending, which features Thor and his adopted daughter (played by Hemsworth’s own daughter) becoming a cute little superhero team and getting a corny title drop right before the credits, really sweet. Yeah, it’s not a good movie, but at least it’s better than the first two Thor movies or the unseasoned oatmeal that is Eternals.

#Is it really that bad #IIRTB #Thor #Thor: Love and Thunder #Taika Waititi #Chris Hemsworth #Natalie Portman #Christian Bale #Marvel #Disney #MCU

[booksandabeer]

TV Round-Up | Jan-Feb 2024

One of my "goals" this year is to keep better track of things I read/watch/listen to (well, other than fanfic) because I'm getting old and forgetful and there's just so much stuff. And isn't this what ✨blogs✨ are for? Due to The Worst Flu in the History of the World, I've been watching a lot of TV recently, so let's start with that:

Barry | Started watching this on a whim about a week ago, am now already on season four and completely losing my mind over it. Why the fuck did no one tell me how good this show is? I mean, I know a lot of people love it and it has received a fair amount of critical praise and awards attention, but that in no way prepared me for just *how* good it is. It's unlike anything else I've ever watched; I wouldn't even know what to compare it to. Maybe Breaking Bad /Better Call Saul, but not because it's thematically or even tonally similar, but because, just like with the Gilligan shows, you never know what the fuck is going to happen next. It takes some WILD swings but until now every single one has landed for me. Season one was very entertaining, season two really hooked me, and season three was mind-blowingly good: It's the showrunners—and the show itself—slowly turning towards the audience until they're looking them right in the eye, and going 'See? This is what we’ve been doing all along. You felt safe in the assumption that this is a comedy, but really, none of this was ever truly funny to begin with; you simply chose to laugh about it. And what does that say about you?' MASTERFUL.

Masters of the Air | Given that I'm a Band of Brothers superfan, I'm the primary target audience for this...and yet, 4 episodes in, I cannot muster up more of a reaction than 'eh, it's fine?' The first warning that this would be a bit of a disappointment came in the form of the overlong opening credits sequence, which is dripping with patriotic kitsch (and yeah, if you already thought that was one of BoB's flaws, believe me, you are not prepared for this). Everything is too clean, too glossy, there's an artificial sheen and a flatness to it that prevents any real immersion into the story. It doesn't help that I do not for a single second buy baby-faced Austin Butler (still doing the Elvis voice!) as a tough USAF major, leading his men into aerial battle. Callum Turner and Barry Keoghan are slightly more convincing in their roles, but it's all giving 'Boyband Goes to War.'

The Curse | I've watched four (?) episodes of this now and I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with it. It's not a bad show at all, but essentially, it's the Succession problem for me all over again. Just like Succession, The Curse is very well acted, produced and directed; it's sharp and funny in that relentless 'secondhand embarrassment' way that you either love or hate (and I don't love it), but in the end, it's a show about terrible people doing terrible things to themselves, each other, and—because they have so much money and power—to the world at large. And I just don't know that I have the energy or the desire to watch them do it for 10 hours—especially when it's often presented in such an irritatingly smug way.

True Detective: Night Country | This is a bit of a weird one. There are a lot of things that I like about this season. The two female leads radiate with impressive presence individually and have great chemistry together; the set design feels both authentic and telegenic; there are brilliantly staged atmospheric and/or body horror sequences (I love The Corpsicle!). And yet there are also a lot of things that don't really come together for me; subplots or characters where I'm left to wonder why they were included at all? Like, Christopher Eccleston, good to see you sir, but why are you even on this show? Everything hinges on the final episode which will (hopefully) reveal that a lot of the elements that are not quite working for me now were in fact not evidence of bad writing, but instead either clever misdirections or hints towards an explanation that is both surprising and satisfying. I sure hope for the latter.

The Fall of the House of Usher | Look, there's no nice way to say this, so I'll just say it: I hated this. It's silly, trashy tv masquerading as a prestige drama. It certainly looks expensive and it has some good or at least beloved actors in it, and...yeah, no that's all I got on the positive side. Not to bring up Succession again, but it really felt like the brief here was 'Succession but dumber and with more gore and sex and mystery!' I made it through 2.5 episodes before admitting to myself that I didn't care about any of the characters and was almost spectacularly uninterested in the central mystery. This was the second TV show that I've started watching based solely on one (1) tumblr gif-set. Unfortunately, it was not nearly the delightful surprise that IWTV turned out to be.

_____________________

Back in early January, I also finished the fifth season of Fargo (excellent performances by Juno Temple and Jon Hamm; overall very good season even if some of the narrative threads felt unresolved; the puppet theater sequence remains an absolute highlight) as well as the third season of Slow Horses (just highly entertaining spy tv; Unlike its protagonists, everything about this show exudes competence and yet no one seems to take themselves too seriously. Kristin Scott Thomas as "Darth Tavener" is magnificent—as is her character's wardrobe. I love this show and I hope they'll renew it forever.)

#tv ramblings #tv round-up

[jvstheworld]

The Buffy Re-watch: S2E13 (part 1)

Surprise

A new nightmare for Buffy. This is the only time we see Joyce at the Bronze during the show's run.

Buffy's birthday episode. Where typically trouble happens on or around the day, until season 7 where she takes Spike's advice not to celebrate it.

Angel, my guy, your girlfriend is sharing serious concerns about you. You don't shut her up with a kiss, you listen and take her seriously. You never actually saw Spike and Dru turn to dust so they could have survived. (They did).

Oh he will definitely surprise you Buffy. Just not how either of you might think.

We all know where all this kissing is going to lead to and it won't have a happy ending.

Willow is wowing of the possibility of Buffy and Angel having sex for the first time. Okay, way to support your friend.

Willow and Oz are better than Willow and Xander. All ways will be.

I like how open Oz is with Willow when he asks her out. He admits that he is nervous but still plays it cool, in true Oz fashion, he doesn't hide much from people.

Thank you Jenny for shutting Xander up about the birthday spankings. That was gross.

So, Spike is now the one unable to take care of himself and Dru is the strong and capable one. Though Spike was supposed to dead by this point but we liked James too much so he stayed. Good.

Signs of Buffy's dream coming true. Shit will go down.

Strange person visiting Jenny who knows who she is and about Angel's curse? It's just Jenny's uncle who has come to warn her that Angel might be getting a tad too happy around a certain person.

This is the first time we hear about the other part of Angel's curse. If he gets a moment of true happiness then he reverts back to his evil, soulless persona, Angelus. Jenny moved to Sunnydale to make sure that didn't happen, as she is part of the tribe that originally ensouled him, and honestly she has been doing a lax job of it.

Giles tells Buffy that dreams aren't prophecies, yet the prophecies she sees comes in the form of dreams. So it's a case of not all dreams are prophecies but all prophecies are dreams. But Buffy is right about this, as much as Giles wants to think it's nothing it is turning into something. And The Master did technically rise for a short time to open the Hellmouth and let out a tentacle demon, and Buffy did die, as she did in her dream. Just because Buffy ended up killing The Master before he fully opened the Hellmouth doesn't mean the he didn't rise. Both Angel and Giles really need to take her concerns more seriously because she will be right, again. I mean, yay party time, but maybe be more worried.

Jenny being a bit sus to try and get Buffy to the party. But we are still aware that she is planning something to split her and Angel up. Then a vampire appears stealing stuff, as always, and ruins the surprise.

Oz is strangely calm about the vampire thing, though if you live in Sunnydale long enough, it really shouldn't be surprising. A lot of weird shit happens in this town.

Getting 'Rose' flashbacks from the arm of The Judge attacking Buffy. A reference to the first episode of Doctor Who with Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper, when the Auton arm attacks them in Rose's flat. I know this episode of Buffy came first but I watched that episode of Doctor Who before I watched this episode of Buffy, and it just had similar vibes.

The Judge, the newest big bad- Kills all good people and can not be killed by any weapons forged. We'll see about that.

#buffy the vampire slayer #buffy summers #rupert giles #willow rosenberg #xander harris #angel #btvs s2 #buffy rewatch #tv show thoughts

[nostalgia-tblr]

Thor: The Dark World

Hello I have now seen THOR (COLON) THE DARK WORLD. This film was not as bad as I was expecting it to be, though it also wasn't great so maybe I had just set my bar too low based on how nobody seems to like it that much. I watched this with a visiting friend who had not seen Thor 1 or The Avengers so I did her a Dramatic Presentation beforehand where I explained what had happened in those, except I couldn't really remember what happened in The Avengers so that recap was mostly "then something exploded, I think." So anyway she was a useful non-MCU-person barometer for this one.

Christopher Eccleston is in this yet also he is not, in that we kept forgetting his character existed. He didn't seem to be enjoying himself much either. Which reminds me, this film seemed a bit desaturated in an off-putting way, it was like if you were watching Thor 1 while feeling depressed and the depression had manifested visually instead of just as a metaphor. Because it was a Dark World.

The ending was very confusing, people were jumping in and out of invisible portals (maybe?) and the magic hammer was flying around for a bit like when a plane circles the airport while waiting for a spot to open to use the runway. Stuff was lining up in space except not because we'd have noticed by now if the realms of the gods were that close and it would indeed have a gravitationl effect though not the weirdo ones in this film.

The pacing in this film was pretty poor generally though we felt it did perk up a bit towards the end.

Friend's favourite characters were Erik Selvig and Loki, in that order because Erik is a bit mad in this film (I belatedly explained the mind stone stuff from Avengers 1, having forgotten about that until Erik was in his pants) and goes to Stonehenge (which may be magic or alien or who the fuck knows) to run about naked (and not even at a solstice!!) and then he was in one of those Creepy American Movie Psychiatric Hospitals (or possibly it was a police station in London???) with medication in plastic pill bottles like they don't really do in this country and as mentioned he was in his pants for no real reason and that's all very relatable. So hooray for Erik!

More tumblr-esque-ly, friend was like "i can see why people liked this Loki, he's popped in from a better film of his own to bitch about this one" and indeed things do get more interesting when we finally let him out of jail where he is sat being a goth because Angsty because Frigga got fridged. (It feels like there should be a great Frigga/fridged pun but neither of us could think of anything, which was very saddening. Though we did realise that Anthony Hopkins = Welsh Odin = Woden, which is the best we could do for a pun and fuck it it'll do after struggling for at least an entire minute with the fridged-Frigga thing.)

Natalie Portman was in this film.

They were in London for some reason, cannot remember why. Elves, probably. Oh wait was it so they were in the right country to have the Stonehenge bit? Stonehenge is pre-Celtic which means it's also pre-Norse but it was somehow relevant to the elves stuff, as was Snowdon, which isn't that just a mountain? But it was somehow put there by people in The Olden Days or... okay I admit we were lost by that point, but there are stone circles all over Britain, they were very fashionable for a while but nobody really knows why but if you start drawing lines between old rock things here you're bound to come up with proof that a layline runs though the Prime Minister's bathroom or some nonsense like that. I suppose Stonehenge is our Giza Pyramids in that films make up complete shite about it all the time, and so inspired by that popular tumblr post I have just checked where the nearest Pizza Hut is to Stonehenge and it's at "Solstice Park" about 3 kilometres away just off the A303, hope this information is helpful to someone.

Erm. Yeah it turns out I can remember less about this movie than I thought, so this review is lacking and no doubt as disappointing as the fact that you can't see Stonehenge from Pizza Hut :(

#journey into the mcu #mcu tag i guess #thor the dark world #also thor had a very unattractive poncho on in the middle of this film we didn't like the poncho #also once you've noticed that thor's armour has six nipple-guards on it you can never unsee that fact #i think he took his shirt off at some point but that's a given really isn't it? #thor movies

[denimbex1986]

'The Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials brought back David Tennant and Catherine Tate, but they also gave us a dangerous new precedent that has fans divided.

“The Giggle” provided Doctor Who with a new idea: bi-generation. The concept is simple in that the Doctor, when provided with the means necessary, could regenerate and separate into two wholes. It is how we now have Ncuti Gatwa and David Tennant as the Doctor. This comes with a myriad of problems when you think about it for too long, but frankly, I don’t mind the idea of letting Tennant’s Doctor have this happiness. Let me explain.

Doctor Who, as many of us know it, came to be because of the era of the show when Tennant took over as the tenth Doctor after Christopher Eccleston regenerated at the end of season one of the series. He helped bring the show worldwide recognition and, for many of us, the regeneration of David Tennant into Matt Smith, as both Tennant and show runner Russell T. Davies left the series, ruined that era of the show. Giving him a second chance at both happiness and his run at the Doctor helped provide closure for fans.

What I loved about this bi-generation is that it gave us a fresh start with the Doctor. We are in a new era, a fresh one, and all the old ways of the Doctor are still there, but he’s new and fun. It still comes with a pain for the past though that is going to be hard to unpack when we think about it for too long, especially with characters that we know suffered.

I feel bad for Rose Tyler even though she’s fine now

Tennant’s Doctor getting his happy ending with Donna Noble and her family is beautiful to me but it also hurts that Rose Tyler—thought she does actually have her own version of the Doctor with the Meta-Crisis clone—isn’t even a thought in his mind in this instance. Or at least not one that we’re seeing now that he gets to just live forever as the Doctor with his own little TARDIS in his own little world.

When you think about all the people who would have loved to spend time and space with the Doctor, Rose Tyler is one of the first people to come to mind. Maybe the idea that she went on to live with the Meta-Crisis clone was enough for Davies to think she was happy, but it does make me wonder how the Doctor feels about being romantically alone, in a sense.

Fixing a botched regeneration

Part of me thinks that this is the way of giving us a second chance at loving the Doctor’s regeneration, because for someone like me who loved Tennant’s run at the Doctor, his regeneration ruined him for me. I was devastated at the time when it was announced that Tennant was leaving the show with Davies. I wanted him to stay for as long as possible and I was determined to not like Matt Smith.

Yet, my favorite Doctor remains Matt Smith. Why? Because I hate what happened during David Tennant’s regeneration. The “I don’t want to go” of it all just tarnished the legacy that this Doctor had.

This new life he was given in the 60th specials? It made me appreciate that love again. It reminded me of how much this era of Doctor Who meant to me without that anger of the regeneration. Seeing the new regeneration come to life, even if it meant the future of the show and what a “regeneration” means could be thrown to the wind, held a special kind of weight for me.

It didn’t change who is my favorite because the Matt Smith era means a lot to me, and who I am as a person, but it did change the anger I held for that “I don’t want to go” line.

A happy ending is good sometimes

If anyone deserves to have a happy ending, it is Ten. After everything he has been through and the time that he spent as the Doctor, it makes sense to give Tennant this moment. More than that, I think this was Russell T. Davies saying sorry to us all for that first regeneration. Yes, it sets a dangerous precedent for the future. Sure, I would have loved for this to happen with my favorite Doctor (Matt Smith), but that doesn’t mean that Tennant’s run as the Doctor doesn’t deserve this.

Look at it this way: Without this new era of Doctor Who and, more specifically, Tennant’s seasons as the Doctor, the show wouldn’t necessarily have gotten as big as it ended up getting. Or maybe it would have some other way, but we can quantifiably attribute the show’s success to what Tennant did as the Doctor. Letting him have a happy ending where he has his TARDIS, can relax, and hang out with his best friend at the end of the day is fine by me.

As a fan of the show, sure, I don’t love what the bi-generation means for future justification of saying goodbye to Doctors that we know and love, but for now, I think this is a fine farewell to someone who helped make this show what it currently is. Plus, it gives us a chance to return to the Doctor and Donna whenever we want. Right? Right?'

#David Tennant #Doctor Who #Matt Smith #Bi-generation #Catherine Tate #Donna Noble #60th Anniversary #Ncuti Gatwa #Christopher Eccleston #Russell T. Davies #Rose Tyler #Billie Piper

[ant1m0ny]

Doctor who theory incoming!

Ok so this isn't like a theory theory but more my own opinion and perception about the Master and where his motives were coming from when he force regenerated himself into the Doctor

So from the new Doctor's (Christopher Eccleston-Jodie Whittaker) there have been three main Masters

Master A

Missy

And Master B (lettered based on appearance)

If my memory serves me well Master A never did anything to try and be a good person, he has usually been either just doing bad things like with the Toclafane, when he was resurrected and ate a bunch of people and then changed everyone in the world into himself. Or when he did seemingly good things like when he disguised himself and helped Bill, he had some other more evil motive

Missy, however, did try to be good in Season 10 Episode 11, World Enough and Time. I believe that in this episode when the Doctor was ‘testing’ her (she pretended she was the doctor and had to try and help people as the doctor would)

 And I think the reason why she was trying to be a good person was in most part because we saw a bit of how the Doctor viewed his relationship with the Master when we had Master A, an old friend that the doctor still cared about even when he was doing evil things, a connection to his home that is now gone:

 and with Missy we got to see bit more of how she viewed her relationship with the Doctor, one that is complex and close to her heart, a friendship that she relied on and needed even though she didn’t always realise it:

And soI think she was actually trying her best to do the right things in World Enough and Time, and she only failed because she bumped into her old self, Master A and almost like a relapse she fell back into siding against the Doctor.

And in the end of The Doctor Falls episode she does in fact end up making things right and killing the Master despite her still having respect for him, she knew that it was the right thing to do

"Master: Missy, seriously, why?

Missy: Oh. Because he’s right. Because it’s time to stand with him. It’s where we’ve always been going. And it’s happening now, today. It’s time to stand with the Doctor.”

So I think, by the time we get to Master B they have started to seriously regret what they have done and want to get again attempt to be a good person. However, thanks to all the mistakes they have made in the past Master B might think that it is too late to make it up to the Doctor in the way that Missy did, and he has good reason to, Missy seemed to betray him so why, if Master B went to the Doctor and told her he was ready to be good, would the Doctor believe him?

And so, he came up with the brilliant idea, ‘if I’m the Doctor, then that means I’m a good person!’,and I suppose he is also angry at the Doctor for well, ig spoiling all his plans over the years so he thinks ‘Great! two birds with one stone!’ obviously this isn’t sound logic but the Master isn’t a very sound person at this point.

“I am the Doctor. And I caused this. See? No-one to stop me now”

The reason I think that this was his logic is because after he had taken over the Doctor’s body he was suddenly jumping in her Tardis, ready to go on adventures and save planets with Yaz as if taking over the Doctor’s body suddenly made him as good a person as her, as if that one change made him an entirely different person, he eve puts on all of the Doctor’s clothes as if dressing like them helps to make him a different person

“I still need a companion to ask and... bask in my brilliance. Come on, Yaz. Let's go on an adventure! Don't make me ask twice. I'd hate to have to bring you down to size.”

“Come on, Yaz! Let's save a civilisation! Let's correct history! Rescue a sick animal!”

However, he does also say “I know you're worried about what I'm going to do. It's simple. The Earth will become a foundry for Daleks and Cyber production, hence the work in the volcano, while I tarnish the name of the Doctor. I'm going to make the Doctor a byword for fear, pain and destruction, so when people hear that name in future, they quake in fear.” Which suggests more that he wants to just destroy the world and use the Doctor’s name to do it so maybe I’m wrong? idk

But then I think that the most important and in my view heartbreaking evidence around the master comes from nearer the end of the episode when he is being put back in his own body and he says:

This suggests that he doesn’t like being himself and wishes he could be someone else and that perhaps the reason he put himself inside the Doctor is because he was excited to be a different person, a better person, he would finally have the fresh start he’s been wishing for. 

#doctor who #doctor who spoilers #the master #the power of the doctor

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #632

Top Ten MCU Actors Who Deserved a Bigger Role

So, after last week’s jaunt to the old DCEU (RIP), this week I’m tackling something I’ve talked about a lot more and, frankly, like a whole lot more too: the MCU.

One of the things the MCU has largely done very well (and, to be fair, so did the DCEU) is casting. That’s right, I’m still on an actors-playing-superheroes jaunt. But think about the core Avengers; arguably one of the problems the MCU is having right now is that they got it so right from 2008-2012 that it’s totally overshadowing everything that’s come along afterwards. The original Avengers lineup is a murderer’s row of super-cool charisma machines, and this extends to the supporting characters, from Fury to Happy to Peggy. Even when the new films and shows are great and equally well-cast – Shang-Chi, Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight – it’s a very, very tough act to follow.

Which is why it sticks out when they get it wrong.

Now, I do not mean they cast the wrong actor, or a bad actor; yes, of course, there have been very famous (and infamous) course corrections when it comes to casting, running the gamut from creative differences to, er, death. But every once in a while they cast an actor in a film or show, and you’re left sighing and scratching your head, thinking, why did they sign on for this? Basically, it boils down to: sometimes they cast a great actor, but for whatever reason the character or the film is just a bit pants; or they cast someone with a view to establishing or embiggening the role in future films, but it just doesn’t seem to happen; or they cast someone who then blows up and you’ve shackled this huge star to a piddly character.

So that’s what we have here: ten actors who you sort of end up wishing hadn’t been cast in these roles, because maybe then they could have been given other, bigger, better roles in the MCU. Proper leading roles, as befits their talents; or juicy, well-written villain parts – a Loki or a Thanos – that could have allowed them some ample opportunity to chew the scenery. Not all of these are done-in-one parts; certainly, terrific actors have been cast in relatively small roles but done it so well you can’t really argue (Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer, Stanley Tucci as Abraham Erskine). But sometimes, you do wish for more.

And that’s the big takeaway here: all of these are great actors, and all of them I just wanted to see more of. And whilst there is some precedent for actors double-dipping in the MCU, it’s unlikely that as prominent a supporting player as Heimdall could realistically reappear as the lead in his own franchise. Anyway; let’s get into character…

Mads Mikkelsen (Kaecilius, Doctor Strange, 2016): the very inspiration for this whole list, because I thought he’d have been good as Doctor Doom, except he was already spoken for. Here, he really tries to give depth and character to a pretty one-note spurned hero who breaks bad. He has unfortunate eye shadow, a forgettable name, and is a bit of a sad squib unfortunately. Mikkelsen really could have delivered a terrific, memorable, all-time-great character; this, tragically, ain’t it.

Christopher Eccleston (Malekith, Thor: The Dark World, 2013): arguably the poster child for “great actor shackled in shit role”, Eccleston is a terrific performer who tackles weighty, complex, often controversial characters. Absolutely none of his charm, talent, or eloquence is visible underneath his heavy makeup and accent. He’s just a snarling evil-doer, a Saturday morning cartoon villain. Now, I’m not sure old Chris would have fancied signing a ten-film contract to play, I dunno, Professor X or something, but he should have had something better than this.

Rebecca Hall (Maya Hansen, Iron Man 3, 2013): apparently Hall’s character was supposed to be revealed as the Big Bad of Iron Man 3, the brains behind the whole operation, Guy Pearce’s boss. That would make more sense as to why an actor of Hall’s power ended up in such a slight role, a sad figure who’s written off quite early on. Iron Man 3 is arguably the best MCU film, and Maya’s tragic arc is interesting, but Hall could have given us so much more.

Kinglsey Ben-Adir (Gravik, Secret Invasion, 2023): Ben-Adir is on a roll at the moment, his star skyrocketing. Marvel were onto a good thing, casting him as a baddie in a 2023 project. Unfortunately, that project was Secret Invasion, probably the worst thing they’ve ever produced. He spent six episodes being the alien equivalent of a petulant teenager, shouting at grown-ups in an inexplicable Welsh accent, wandering slowly between the show’s two sets, and ultimately having an unfortunate CG-addled fight with the equally-wasted Emilia Clarke. The only upside is you could feasibly cast him in another role and just say the Skrull Gravik had copied Ben-Adir’s face.

Chewetel Ejiofor (Mordo, Doctor Strange, 2016): we get to the first character who might end up going somewhere and justifying their actor. Mordo is a pretty big Doctor Strange villain, and his supporting turn in the first Strange film did seem to set up a potential arc. Ejiofor is a leading man who could have anchored his own franchise; ending up a second-rate Strange baddie who, in Multiverse of Madness, is reduced to an alternate-universe cameo. There’s no suggestion his arc will go anywhere; he doesn’t feel like he’ll be the focus of a third Doctor Strange, let alone anything else in the MCU. And that’s such a shame.

Idris Elba (Heimdall, Thor, 2011): this one might be a bit controversial, as Heimdall crops up in no less than five MCU films, given a bit of a minor hero arc in Ragnarok. But let’s face it: there’s no way you’d give the role to Elba nowadays. Christ, you’d give him Thor before you gave him Heimdall. Elba could have ended up as Captain Britain or Blade (British in the comics!) or, let’s be honest, any Marvel hero or villain he wanted.

Sterling K. Brown (N’Jobu, Black Panther, 2018): another possibly controversial one, because Brown is terrific as N’Jobu, a really tragic figure whose actions set in motion the film’s plot. It’s a very small but powerful role, and arguably you need an actor of Brown’s stature to deliver it. All the same, it’s a pity that he’s been and gone in the MCU now. I’d have loved for him to have a meaty, recurring role across multiple films.

Elizabeth Debicki (Ayesha, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, 2017): again, Debicki’s Ayesha is in two films and although a very small role is pivotal to the plots of both. She does a terrific job, lathered in gold paint, of portraying the supposedly perfect Ayesha’s fraying edges and encroaching mania as her plans unravel. But it’s Elizabeth Debicki. She could have been Sue Storm, or Jean Grey, or a dozen other characters. Arguably she’s another movie star who was cast a bit too early in their career, but it’s still a pity that we’ve seen all she has to give in the MCU. Hopefully James Gunn will grab her for the DCU.

Anson Mount (Black Bolt, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, 2022): is this fair? I’m not sure; Mount’s cameo in Multiverse of Madness is essentially a comedy hat-tip to the much-maligned Inhumans series (confession: I only watched the first episode but it was crap). But as anyone who’s seen Star Trek knows, Mount is terrific, a multilayered heroic leader; there are a dozen big MCU characters he could play (including, er, Black Bolt). I guess in the infinite multiverse we may not have seen the last of him.

Gemma Chan (Minn-Erva, Captain Marvel, 2019 and Sersi, Eternals, 2021): Chan gets a special mention here due to sheer bad luck. One of the rare MCU double-dippers, she was a supporting baddie with blue skin in Captain Marvel, but was brought back sans makeup to play the lead in Eternals. And, as the lead, coming back after a one-and-done bad guy, she’s not been “underused” really. Except! Sadly Eternals was a misfire, a weird (and, in my opinion, fascinating and interesting) flop. The general consensus is it was a bad film (it isn’t) and didn’t do very well (it didn’t), and everything seems to suggest that the Eternals story is effectively done in the MCU. Seeing as the powers-that-be are quite fond of tapping back into the franchise’s ugly ducklings (both Incredible Hulk and The Dark World have spawned incredibly important plot points or characters and have been revisited extensively), I wouldn’t be surprised if elements of Eternals do pop up again in the future. But I can’t really see them bringing back the main cast, which unfortunately means the very talented Gemma Chan is probably done with the MCU. Sob.

Sadly no room for Chris O’Dowd’s character from The Dark World. I did nearly have a special compilation entry for The First Avenger, though, which features tiny roles for future stars Natalie Dormer, Richard Armitage, and Jenna Coleman. That’s three Avengers-level leading actors, right there!

#top ten #movies #comics #marvel #mcu #marvel characters #cast #actors

[mrleopard25]

Doctor Who Regeneration Series Revisited: The Eighth Regeneration

Ohila: “She would beg your help, as we beg your help now. The universe stands on the brink. Will you let it fall? Fast or strong, wise or angry. What do you need now?” The Eighth Doctor: “Warrior.” Ohila: “Warrior?” The Eighth Doctor: “I don't suppose there's a need for a doctor any more. Make me a warrior now.” Ohila: “I took the liberty of preparing this one myself.” The Eighth Doctor: “Get out. Get out! All of you. Will it hurt?” Ohila: “Yes.” The Eighth Doctor: “Good. Charley, C'rizz, Lucie, Tamsin, Molly, friends, companions I've known, I salute you. And Cass, I apologize. Physician, heal thyself.”

Story (from “Night Of The Doctor):

A gunship is heavily damaged and on a collision course with a planet. The lone occupant, Cass, had seen to the evacuation of the rest of the crew but was left behind. Trying to balance sending out a distress call, debating the ship’s computer, and fighting the controls for some form of navigation, she is surprised by the Eighth Doctor’s appearance behind her.

The Doctor tries to help regain control of the ship, but soon finds that it is hopeless. Cass explains the situation and he resolves to have the two escape in his TARDIS. Upon seeing the TARDIS, Cass quickly deduces what it is and who he is. She refuses his aid and he is shocked.

Cass is suffering trauma from the ongoing Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks, and will not accept any help from the Doctor. He pleads with her to let him rescue her, but she seals him in the hold with the TARDIS. While he tries to convince her to open the door the ship crashes on the planet below, killing both the Doctor and Cass.

Fortunately the planet is Karn, and the Sisterhood of Karn are expecting the Doctor’s arrival. Using their Elixir of Life, they revive the Doctor but only for four minutes. Unfortunately Cass is too far gone to be saved. Ohila of the Sisterhood pleads with the Doctor to join the Time War and end it, knowing that if anyone can do so it would be him. But the Doctor refuses. He explains that he helps where he can, but will not engage in warfare.

Ohila counters that the Time War is so destructive that there won’t be much left of the universe by the time it finishes. The Doctor finally reconsiders, resolving the end the Time War by whatever means he can. Ohila brings another elixir to trigger his regeneration, but by design it will allow him to become a warrior. Taking the elixir he regenerates painfully. Putting on Cass’s baldric, he denounces his name of the Doctor and chooses to be the Warrior, setting off to go join Gallifrey and defeat the Daleks.

Production:

Since the relaunch of the series in 2005 there was a good deal of fan speculation as to what happened to the Eighth Doctor. The general consensus, though unconfirmed until the Tenth Doctor’s run, was that he had regenerated at some point into the Ninth Doctor, and fairly recently before the series premier of “Rose”. Once we began to learn more during the Ninth Doctor’s run about the Time War, it seemed to be fairly obvious that it was the Eighth Doctor who had fought in the war and that he had regenerated into the Ninth right at the end.

This assumption began to inform the writing of the series. In episodes like “Human Nature” and “The Next Doctor”, even up to “The Eleventh Hour”, any flashbacks or references would show the Eighth Doctor and the Ninth with nothing in between. Coming up to the 50th anniversary of the show in 2013 during the Eleventh Doctor’s run, showrunner Steven Moffat began conceiving a story that would honor the legacy of the show and finally fill in the history of the Time War.

There was a problem though. During the writing of the script, the producers were able to secure Matt Smith (as the Eleventh Doctor), David Tennant (as the Tenth Doctor), but not Christopher Eccleston (as the Ninth Doctor). Eccleston gave it serious consideration when approached and at one point I heard that he had requested that one of the directors from his tenure be brought back to direct as a condition.... but I can’t find any reference to that (which is why I’m not sure which director it was he wanted - Joe Ahearne maybe?). From all that I can see in various articles, Eccleston was still feeling slighted with how he was treated during and after his stint on the show by the production team. He even felt that his own feelings were being mischaracterized.

So ultimately he declined. This meant massive rewrites were needed with less than a few months to pull it all together. For the May 2013 broadcast of the last episode of Series 7, “The Name Of The Doctor”, the last shot of the episode features an appearance of an incarnation of the Doctor never seen before buried deep in the Eleventh Doctor’s mind: The War Doctor. Fan speculation went nuts.

To lead into “The Day Of The Doctor”, the 50th anniversary story, Moffat and the rest of the production company decided to also release two mini-episodes to whet the appetite of the fans: “The Last Day”, which takes place on Gallifrey and does not feature the Doctor, and “The Night Of The Doctor”. Paul McGann was secretly recruited to reprise his role as the Eighth Doctor to explain the Doctor’s involvement in the Time War and who the War Doctor was.

The short mini-episode aired on November 14, 2013, online and just over a week away from the 50th anniversary special. All told, it is about six and a half minutes, and in that time it accomplishes everything the production team hoped. Fan reaction was overwhelmingly positive, with many praising McGann’s return to the role after 17 years (televised anyway; he had been doing the audio dramas for quite a few years). McGann enjoyed the short as well and even noted that the version of the costume he wore in it was by far his favorite.

As far as the regeneration goes, it is completely in line with the way regenerations are shown since the relaunch of the series with a yellow glow radiating outwards during a video mix. Except that since John Hurt was already quite elderly and the appearance of the War Doctor is to him as a younger man, we cut away from seeing him directly. Instead we get his face reflected in a surface, de-aged through CGI. Although I’ll mention this in future articles, I should note that when the show relaunched in 2005 there was a deliberate choice to have the regenerations be consistent in terms of effects. So we’ll see some variation of this effect each time going forward.

Analysis:

I remember when this special aired quite distinctly (and I’m also not ready to talk about how that was almost 10 years ago). I was at my Mom’s apartment just surfing the web when I saw several people sharing the video on Facebook. I called my brother over to show him and we began watching it. Within a minute or so, my stepfather couldn’t believe his ears at the voice of Paul McGann reprising the role of the Doctor and came rushing over. So we restarted the video and away we went.

There was no indication this was coming, really. I had been keeping close tabs on the news of the series and the releases, and I was completely blindsided. And that was by design, so I have to give hearty props to Moffat and his team. It would also have been so tempting to indulge and make a full length episode, but they showed remarkable restraint by ensuring that this was just supplementary material. You didn’t need to see it to watch the upcoming special, but it was a treat for Whovians to enjoy (and fill in some plot points).

The story itself is fairly bare bones, which it should be, and the focus is all on continuity. So let’s look at that. The first and most tangible link to the classic series is the setting of Karn. It has only been seen once before, and that was with the Fourth Doctor story “The Brain of Morbius”. Morbius was a Time Lord criminal who was basically vivisected by the Time Lords as punishment. A mad scientist and one of his disciples decided to try to revive Morbius by building him a new body and the Sisterhood of Karn have command over life and death (mostly anyway). It’s a very rich story on its own with continuity jampacked into it.

More on Karn. The planet was said to be “only a few billion miles from Gallifrey” in “The Brain of Morbius” which has led many to believe that it’s in the same system as Gallifrey. This would make sense, as the Time Lords would often seek out the Sisterhood’s aid for regeneration difficulties. The Sisterhood is very well-versed in time as well and would be the most logical choice to serve as observers to the Time War. The Sisterhood also owe the Doctor a tremendous debt of gratitude for not only helping them against the machinations of Morbius, but also in reigniting their Sacred Flame (although it was a silly solution).

Now what had the Eighth Doctor been up to this entire time? Well look no further than the Big Finish audio dramas! Because before the Doctor drinks the regeneration potion, he salutes his companions from the audio dramas by name. So this seems to canonize those dramas. Since the air date of this episode, further audio dramas from this time have been produced.

Now hold up.... I can already hear some of you getting riled up and cracking your knuckles for a keyboard war. “Canon doesn’t matter in Doctor Who!” you may be ready to say. And this is SUPER complicated, so I’ll say both yes and no. The short answer is that no single timeline will definitively exist, BUT the effects from those timelines AFFECT and INFORM the actions of the Doctor - so they are STILL relevant. The best example off-hand is from “The Curse Of Fenric”. Fenric recruits the Ancient Onem a haemovore from an alternate Earth where pollution and destruction have reduced the planet to a wasteland. This never came to pass but the Doctor had visited (and perhaps prevented) the time line and Fenric was able to access it. Anyway I think I’ll write an article about Doctor Who canon after this regeneration series. You may think it’s a waste of time but fans get really heated about it, and a little unnecessarily defensive.

On that note I do think it’s worth mentioning the story from the novels, because not only does it inform some aspects of the Time War but it also dodges some of the canon arguments. All through out the Eight Doctor’s travels, he was noticing the sudden appearance of paradoxes and traps laid out for him, in such a devious manner that it was undoubtedly from an enemy he had never before faced. Soon the enemy is revealed as the Faction Paradox; a segment of Time Lord society who had decided on anarchy and felt the Time Lord order must be eradicated.  A brutal civil war ensued, and the Doctor came face-to-face with their leader, Grandfather Paradox, who was the embodiment of a paradox (and may be an alternate version of himself).  It was revealed that he had travelled back in time and murdered his grandfather, and the resulting paradox had corrupted him entirely.

It is revealed in the last novel of the Eighth Doctor series, “The Gallifrey Chronicles” that during the civil war between the Time Lords and the Faction Paradox, the Doctor spearheaded the defense.  In a moment of desperation, when it seemed all of creation was on the point of destruction, the Doctor destroyed the Faction entirely but at the expense of annihilating Gallifrey as well. The Doctor, as the lone survivor, had uploaded the Matrix into his mind to save what was left of Time Lord society.  However the process gave him selective amnesia, which burdened him through the rest of the novels.  Another Time Lord in exile, Marnal, builds a visualiser to witness the past and future events surrounding the Doctor and Gallifrey, and decides he must kill the Doctor as punishment.  While watching through the future events, he notices several time streams stemming from the Eighth Doctor, with several alternate Ninth forms.

Now if the Faction Paradox have masterminded paradoxes and meddled directly in the Eighth Doctor’s life, we can easily say that the original time line was the audio drama line and that the novel line is an alternate time stream.  If Marnal saw the Time Lords restored, it’s possible that the Faction Paradox were erased from existence in the future and the original time line was restored. This also helps explain the official BBC drama “Scream of the Shalka” released in 2003 - it was (up to that point) an official continuation of the series with a new Ninth Doctor played by Richard E. Grant. Now with this Faction Paradox meddling that story would be from a timeline where the Time War never happened, as the Doctor is on a (begrudging) assignment from the Time Lords.

It’s a lot to take in, I know, so suffice to say if you want to ignore the novels that might reduce some of the headache. And then you can ignore “Scream Of The Shalka” too. And there is some question as to how the Faction Paradox war would then lead into the Time War... maybe one of the sides invoked the Daleks as a weapon? Who knows. With the Faction Paradox, the Time Lords, AND the Daleks all constantly rewriting history, anything could have happened.

And Another Thing...

It seems strange to me that the Daleks never destroyed Karn.

Ohila: “Is it done?” The War Doctor: “Doctor no more.”

#doctor who #Eighth Doctor #war doctor #john hurt #TARDIS #Regeneration #review #the night of the doctor #Paul McGann

[ins0mnia-an0nym0us-au]

i just really need Jodie Whittaker to know that most of us know that it wasn’t her that made her seasons of Doctor Who tank - it was the absolute shit writing from Chibnall

idc if you liked the new seasons or not - the metrics speak for themselves. 

a large majority of viewers did not like it. a very small amount of them were the sexist ones. but most doctor who fans are actually very forward thinking about the whole gender of the doctor. what they didn’t like was the writing

the fact that Chibnall came in with Jodie’s first season & said that there would be nothing from the previous seasons/iterations of Doctor Who (villains/companions/etc) was dooming it from the beginning because New Who has been nothing but based on Old Who & banking on the old fans to come back & bring new fans with them

so much so that Chibnall had to reverse it so fucking fast they brought Daleks back in the Christmas special 

Jodie’s second season got better but only a few episodes. i also noticed this. it was incredibly strange. it felt like they filmed the episodes that were essential to the seasons plot & then read the fans feedback that they wanted more random adventures & scrambled to film more episodes to address some of the feedback & then shoved them in every other episode. it made those episodes feel completely out of place against the other ones

some of the episodes never even showed the TARDIS or them arriving with it - which made it feel incredibly weird. i’m sure that some other (new) Doctor Who seasons had episodes like that but never so many all jammed together that i can remember

not to mention the very controversial episode Fugitive of the Judoon which now rewrites Old Who lore/canon. which a lot of old fans aren’t okay with. personally i don’t mind it. what i didn’t like was the fact that they technically took the mantle of being the first female doctor from Jodie??? like??? was that really necessary??? don’t get me wrong. the actress - Jo Martin was great & the chemistry between the two was phenomenal but like??? really???

the most current season has been much better in my opinion but it’s too little too late. Jodie has said she’s leaving. Chibnall is going as well (thank god) but we didn’t get from this season what i was hoping for -

a scene with the level of Matt Smith’s rage, sorrow & happiness during A Good Man Goes to War or something like Peter Capaldi’s epic performance during Heaven Sent or maybe a two-parter as tense & heartbreaking as David Tennant’s - Human Nature & The Family of Blood. i’d even have taken a moment similar to the Christopher Eccleston episode The Doctor Dances where “Just this once - everybody lives”

but there hasn’t been a single moment during these seasons where i’ve been brought to tears or moved emotionally like the past doctors have done. Thirteen has made me smile & yes i have laughed. but a good story can do both & it can tell you the difference between right & wrong without pointing at the bad & going “see. see that right there. bad. we bad humans need to stop. so bad.” which is exactly what Chibnall did during most of his run

most people watch sci-fi or fantasy as a form of escapism from daily life. this doesn’t mean it can’t have some form of message in it. but that does mean you have to be more careful with how you deliver it. because otherwise people won’t digest it well - hell they won’t even swallow it. they’ll just spit it right out & call it propaganda. that’s the difference between good writing & bad writing. getting people to empathize with your point of view without them even realizing it.

but anyway. i’ve ranted long enough! TLDR -

REBLOG THIS if you NEED Jodie to know that WE KNOW it wasn’t her

also that we would love for her to stay on for another season if she’s up for it now that they have a new head writer planned. because i’ve watched Broadchurch - she has the range. they just never gave her the chance

#jodie whittaker #doctor who #chris chibnall #writing #rant #tv shows #good writing vs bad writing #david tennant #matt smith #peter capaldi #bbc #thirteenth doctor #twelfth doctor #eleventh doctor #tenth doctor #ninth doctor #christopher eccleston #the tardis #tardis #scifi #science fiction #actresses #actors #we as fans deserve to see jodie written by someone else #my opinion

[milarvela]

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Barrowman? + A Response to Nerdrotic

I like this video. A few thoughts:

What stopped two grown women from telling Clarke that it’s quite enough of that demonstration, end it now? They weren’t new to show business, young, inexperienced etc. Seems to me they were getting uncomfortable with Noel’s inability to stop before it got embarrassing, rather than being affected by bad memories or whatever.

If you talk about alleged harassment from 2004 in 2021, shouldn’t you at least have an excuse for why it took so long to come forward? Were you in coma all that time? Aren’t you ashamed of letting this man continue to harass others because you waited so long before speaking about it? What sort of person unashamedly talks about something like that as if nobody else matters? Shouldn’t you instead be quiet and grateful that nobody found out that you were harassed but didn’t say anything? I don’t understand how these people think.

Who was the assistant director complained to? What’s their name? Why is it okay to name Noel Clarke but not the higher-ups who failed at doing their duty properly?

Same goes for that supervisor type.  

That David and his impeccable behaviour helped rein things in to a certain extent makes it sound like it was Christopher Eccleston who caused most of the trouble during s1. Or were there other changes too except his leaving? Weird, because I had the impression that Christopher wasn’t happy with the goings-on on the set, while David laughed along and even sang about John’s willy-waving later.

That neither of them has as far as I know said a word in defense of Noel/John is quite something. Nor have they spoken against them. Silence from the companions too. Basically the only conclusion from this is that they’re all fearing for their own careers. And nobody’s apparently even asking them to comment on this? How nice and considerate of the media to leave them be. The Guardian tried to get comments from Coduri and Badland, as if that fan event was the main thing in this saga and those two the biggest enablers or something.

Eve Myles? I don’t remember even hearing her name before last week but apparently she is famous for not realising that John Barrowman was assaulting her that one time with his penis. Lol, I guess she’s remarkably stupid or there’s some major patronising happening. Could be both.

Nobody’s hopefully saying that touching random co-workers with a penis is an okay thing to do. But if she didn’t complain, why is it now a big deal? I don’t know if she’s made a statement about it but I imagine it’d be pretty difficult. Either she’s going to sound like she thinks what John did was cool and that’ll get her hate or she’s going to say it wasn’t cool and she’s that coward who failed to report the incident.

BTW, whatever happened to Russell T Davies? He said he never saw John’s penis and that’s all there is to it? Why, everybody’s so accommodating and kind and understanding of his pain due to this terrible neglect. Apparently it would’ve been quite a sight. So very inconsiderate of Barrowman to leave the showrunner out of the fun.

Seriously though, I think it gets hopelessly hilarious, this detailed, belated  outrage for what Barrowman did. Yes, it’s terribly pathetic and attention-seeking and juvenile (which he wasn’t), and the joke or whatever must have gotten old fast. But they all knew about it at the time. Now it’s all pretense and hypocrisy or silence from those who were there. Except this Julie Gardner who, if not lying, acted exactly how one should after receiving a complaint.

That it didn’t end there wasn’t her fault unless she got more complaints and did nothing about those. She’s not responsible for John’s behaviour elsewhere later. Honestly, there must be some fancy name for this willy-waving compulsion. Can’t Barrowman get some shrink tell everybody about it or possibly just claim mental health issues? That should get him sympathy these days and it might not even be that far fetched. Lol, he could even come out as nonbinary to confirm that.

Can’t help thinking though that he must have gotten more than the pleasure of making people laugh out of it. If not sexual then some other kind of satisfaction. Like maybe seeing the alarm in the eyes of some young woman. Mean streak.

Eh, that celebrity show (I always thought those were for has-beens and wannabes) article could just be promotion.

David Tennant isn’t saying anything even as they refuse to release a thing with him in it. Why? All he has to do is to make a “it was all in good fun but maybe a bit foolish and thoughtless” statement and add something about how fans needn’t be punished because of whatever else is happening. But no. What a coward. Well, I guess he got paid and the rest doesn’t matter. Which is fine. Maybe he should donate the money to a fitting cause now that his colleague has been exposed. Nevermind that he had nothing against working with said colleague until what must have been quite recently. All the time knowing what he did/does.

Generally speaking, I think it’s a remarkably bad idea to remove or not show finished stuff regardless what the people involved may have done. Way too complicated to ever be fair or consistent about these things. Utter idiocy. And some fans get carried away with their defending of and excuses for their favourites.

Couldn’t it be okay to admit that if somebody fucked up, it really was a fuckup but still be a fan?

I suspect the BBC may just be looking for reasons to cancel Doctor Who. I mean reasons other than waning popularity. And these kind of scandals don’t really make the franchise stronger. I guess Mr Tardis is a dedicated fan and needs to be positive about it. So fair enough. That teaser trailer certainly would be welcome, I agree. Although not everybody interested in the Clarke/Barrowman situation cares about the show.

I’d love to know the number of people who’ve been driven out of showbusiness because of unsafety. That all these allegations come, like in some big cases before, years after harassment/whatever started suggests very few are concerned about their safety as long as they are promised rewards for tolerating all sorts.

Safeguarding seems to be a fashionable word. Just give everybody bodycams. Brains could be useful too. At least teach everybody what to do/say when someone is harassing them. And stop with the victim-playing years after something allegedly happened. Or have a good excuse for the delay. Not getting what you expected and feeling disappointed afterwards isn’t enough.

People will want to defend their favourites. It’s kind of fun seeing how far they will go with it. There are nuances sometimes but it’s best to be an honest fan or move on.

As for Nerdrotic and his fellow whiners, eh, if they and their audience shouldn’t be allowed in a workplace (okay, I’m not sure if Tardis really meant it what with that voice he did) for not condemning the likes of Noel/John, surely the same goes for the people who worked with those two and allowed them to do what they did?  

Don’t know why he’s still demanding apologies from Barrowman. He’s done that and even acknowledged this current outrage caused by his “tomfoolery”. Poor fucker has had nobody accusing him of anything, so I guess he needs to apologise to those who were never there and had no opportunity to witness his willy-waving. So funny. Maybe he should make a video where he demonstrates how it happened. Might prove more profitable than some audio thingy with David the coward.

#Doctor Who #John Barrowman #Noel Clarke #David Tennant #Christopher Eccleston #Russell T Davies

[whocanbelieveit]

Ninth Doctor Favourite Scenes

So I’m on to the 11th Doctor now and I’m feeling really nostalgic for the 9th Doctor so much. So I thought I’d include some of my favourite moments of the 9th Doctor that I don’t see talked about nearly enough. So without further ado (and in no specific order) here it goes:

1) The End of The World, the scene between him and Jabe in the corridor

That scene when Jabe tells him how sorry she is and his response... it was so masterful. First of all, you can hear the remorse and sincerity and mourning in her voice so clearly, she really is sorry about what happened to Gallifrey and the Time Lords. Even though she’s clearly in awe of him that he still exists, she’s also so dreadfully sad too. And his response is amazing because he’s silent but his actions emote so much. The way he holds her hand in thanks for her apology is so well done and that one tear that falls off his face. I always think it’s so impressive when actors can make a single tear fall and Christopher Eccleston did it so well. Also I kind of love the way the Doctor lets himself feel the pain for a few seconds, lets himself mourn his planet for a few seconds and then immediately turns to save the day. Because he doesn’t have time to mourn and grieve and look back on those he’s lost, he has the whole universe to save. It was such a Doctor-like thing to do 

Shout out to Christopher Eccleston and Yasmin Bannerman for their excellent performances.

2) Father’s Day, the initial conversation between him and Rose about saving her dad

I can’t find any gifs to show the scene so I’ll just show you the transcript 

“ROSE: That's what Mum always says. So I was thinking, could we, could we go and see my dad when he was still alive?

DOCTOR: Where's this come from, all of a sudden?

ROSE: All right then, if we can't, if it goes against the laws of times or something, then never mind, just leave it.

DOCTOR: No, I can do anything. I'm just more worried about you. ”

It’s such a small moment but I love it. The fact that at that moment he isn’t worried about time or space or anything, he’s just worried about Rose Tyler. Because he’d promised that he’d take care of her and that means her mental state too. He’s asking because he loves her and wants her to be happy and he doesn’t want to ever do anything that will risk that happiness. And I also love it because yet again, he’s showing off to her with the whole “I can do anything”, he’s still so keen to impress her.

3) The Doctor Dances, Everybody Lives Scene

This scene is in no way underrated and there’s a reason for it. I feel like it encompasses all that joy and compassion that Nine has that everyone seems to conveniently forget about. Yes, he was in a lot of pain so he had a lot of rage inside of him but he was also capable of such happiness and at this moment I was so happy for him. For the Doctor that killed his world and millions of people, I was happy that for once there were no casualties, that he truly could save everyone.

4) Boom Town, Rose and Nine hug

It’s just fucking adorable. They are both genuinely so excited that she finally got it right and it’s just such a precious little thing but sometimes it’s the little moments that have the most impact. Also, he lifted her off the ground- that’s how happy he is. It’s so adorable.

I could probably go on but best I leave it there ‘lest I end up listing every single scene of his because goddamn I love him so much and miss him so much. He was such a fantastic doctor.

#not my gifs #christopher eccleston #yasmin bannerman #ninth doctor #appreciation post #rose tyler #nine x rose #boom town #the doctor dances #father's day #the end of the world #fantastic episodes fantastic scenes fantastic doctor

[mariephillipswriter]

Square Eyes

Do they still say that if you watch too much television you'll get square eyes? Or is that an expression that went out of fashion when kids started spending all their time in front of the internet? Putting aside the obvious riposte (televisions aren't square, they're rectangular) I can report that I have been doing extensive research in this area and have come to the scientific conclusion: no, you won't. I have been watching so much television. SO MUCH TELEVISION. I never believed that I could watch such an immense quantity of television. On the whole I don't watch it during the day except for sometimes when I am having my breakfast and also when having my lunch, but in the evenings, when I have finished pretending to work, I might start watching television at about 6pm, or 5pm, or 4pm on a bad day, and keep going until, say, 11pm or midnight. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE. HOW CAN A PERSON LIVE THIS WAY. Well it's easy enough, it turns out, if you're under lockdown in London in December and it's dark from 4pm and raining most of the time and you have the emotional resources of a gnat and reading is too demanding and talking on the phone is too exhausting and the light in the living room is not good enough for doing a puzzle in evening hours and you quit social media a month or so ago because it was driving you out of your mind with anxiety. I don't watch six or seven or eight hours of television every night. Don't be ridiculous. Some nights I only watch about three hours of television because I have a Zoom call or I'm cooking dinner or I've got stuck into a good cryptic crossword, maybe the Saturday Times Jumbo one because the Guardian ones are too gimmicky, or at last I've found a book gripping yet easy enough that I can't put it down (thank you Robert Galbraith, thank you Marian Keyes), but I would say that three hours is the minimum and my god that is a LOT. EVERY DAY. THREE HOURS. MINIMUM. But you don't need to me to explain that to you because you are all watching three four five six seven hours of television every day and when you are not watching television you are phoning your friends and first of all talking about the specific way that your own personal lockdown is terrible but then eventually saying 'what are you watching on television' because what else is there even to talk about? At the start of lockdown there was quite a small pool of television that everyone was watching (that thing about the Tiger King, which I didn't watch because by the time I got back from my early lockdown in Costa Rica you'd all seen it, and Normal People which I didn't watch because I was too embarassed to sit through all the sex scenes with my flatmates, and I May Destroy You, which I didn't watch because about five minutes of it was enough to send me into a massive panic spiral, but I hear was very good), but once we had all (other than me) got through that and Covid dragged on for months, our conversations began taking on the tenor of Vikings crowding around one another as a boat returns from a foray, WHAT IS OUT THERE, WHAT DID YOU FIND OUT THERE, IS THERE SOMETHING OUT THERE THAT I MIGHT DESIRE? And the Viking says yes, there is this thing called Schitts Creek but you really have to push on through the first season because I promise you it gets better and better and you will start to love that obnoxious family. And then we all watched Schitts Creek. (Including me, it's wonderful, you have to push on through the first series you will start to love that obnoxious family, Dan Levy is a divinity in human form and if you want more of him you could do worse than checking out the lesbian Christmas-themed romcom Happiest Season, which you can rent from Amazon Prime.) And now we are beyond even that and all our lives resonate with the screeching sound of a televisual barrel being scraped and now this is when things get really interesting (or put another way, VERY VERY BORING) because everyone has fractured and we are all watching different kinds of random stuff found in the dusty corners and unloved algorithms of our streaming services. There's the friend who has got into watching obscure French crime series on Netflix (The Chalet! La Mante!) and the friend who is watching every episode of Poirot on Britbox (thirteen series, 70 episodes) (though that pales in comparison with the friend who did a total rewatch of Friends from beginning to end (236 episodes) and finished it ages ago and is starving for more) and the friend who calls me up seemingly every week with a new old show nobody else has ever heard of (such as the early 1990s Nigel Havers and Warren Clarke comedy spy drama Sleepers, which he is watching old-school-style on DVD, and which apparently is like The Americans only with Nigel Havers and funny, and also, you should watch The Americans.) When I look back on the amount of television I have watched this year it defies comprehension. There were the things I would have watched anyway like the whole of Strictly Come Dancing and His Dark Materials, and the things that took me by surprise, like the stealthily hilarious Danny Dyer gameshow The Wall that was on straight after Strictly and drove me into a total obsession with the way that Danny Dyer says "Drop 'Em" (he's talking about the balls that are dropped down the wall, it's hard to explain, you can find it on iPlayer, but meanwhile if you only click on one link in this whole newsletter PLEASE click on that one), there were the things that were created especially to get me through lockdown (the wonderful David Tennant and Michael Sheen Zoom comedy Staged, which is not only extremely funny but allows you to see inside David Tennant's house which I'm not sure I am technically allowed to watch because of the restraining order? Anyway, new series coming on Monday, fellow DT fans) and the familiar things I watched to soothe me when it all got too much (Doctor Who, starting before Tennant even gets in on the action, right at the begining of the New Who seasons with Christopher Eccleston, because armchair space travel is the only kind of travel we are going to be getting for a while) and the exciting things I watched when I could no longer bear the tedious repetition of every identical day (Line of Duty, in which the famous-for-the-far-inferior Bodyguard writer Jed Mercurio delivers ludicrously compelling twisty-turny stories about police corruption that cannot be predicted for even a nanosecond) and the things that I watched just because I loved them (Fosse/Verdon, the Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon bio-series starring the breathtakingly charismatic Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams, which is one of the best-made pieces of television I've ever seen, Love Life, the Anna Kendrick romantic comedy series which was surprisingly touching and truthful about the relationships that make up a life and which didn't make me want to open a vein as a single person the way that many looking-for-love shows do, and Better Things, a sort-of-comedy sort-of-drama written, directed by and starring Pamela Adlon, which began as a collaboration with Louis CK and initially reflected the sensibility of his show Louie, but became far more experimental and interesting once, after CK's disgrace, Adlon took over completely - the fourth series is maybe the closest thing I've seen on TV to a representation of the rhythms of real life, with long scenes of Adlon just cooking a meal on her own, or contemplating the rain, of having arguments with her children that explode from nowhere and end just as suddenly with tears or laughter or nothing at all.) And this entire paragraph is just things that I have watched on the BBC. Not even everything that I have watched on the BBC. The BBC is INCREDIBLE and my license fee has been serious value for money, before you even count all that time spent watching the news [Munch Scream emoji]. But overall, it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of television that I have watched this year. Though while we're here, have you noticed that sometimes it's more relaxing to watch something bad than something good? Have you noticed that a vapid, cliched show like Virgin River (heartbroken city nurse with a secret moves to small town and falls in love with battle-wounded bartender with a secret), a show that makes This Is Us look like Succession, has the same effect on your brain that taking off your work shoes and putting on your slippers has for your feet? You can rest now, it says, there is nothing more for you to do. Have you noticed how easy it is to chug down, say, four episodes in a row of Designated Survivor - a show designed by a committee charged with taking elements of The West Wing, Homeland and 24, and making something similar but, crucially, much more ridiculous - without your mind even noticing that anything has happened at all? And if you're really ready for something utterly idiotic, might I suggest The Bold Type, in which three twentysomething girls in bonkers designer outfits "work" at an aspirationally "feminist" glossy magazine, and by "work" I mean constantly leave the office in the middle of the day to take care of personal business, and by "feminist" I mean "empowering women by for example having them post selfies of themselves looking perfect but without makeup on social media", a feminism so very feminist that they called the magazine's parent company Steinem in the first series and then had to change it to Safford, I can only presume because Gloria Steinem threatened to sue them. A couple of episodes of that is the televisual equivalent of having a nice relaxing full frontal lobotomy. Don't get me wrong: I love these shows. I owe them more gratitude than I can say. I would be unable to survive without them. I've managed to watch five hours of television just since starting this post24 hours ago (three episodes of Doctor Who, half a really cheap and very bad Sky Arts documentary about the musical Hamilton, and a travelogue in which Torvill and Dean go in search of a frozen lake in Alaska on which to dance Bolero but can't find one for almost the entire show because of global warming, which made me simultaneously and conflictingly want to give up air travel, fly to Alaska immediately, become obsessed with Torvill and Dean AND wonder how they managed to skate together all these decades without killing each other especially Torvill but also especially Dean). Five hours of TV, sounds like a lot, but with eight hours of sleep, that still left me eleven hours to fill in this boring boring boring boring BORING BORING BORING boring boring BORING boring BORING BORING lockdown. I think I am being incredibly restrained, all things considered. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some time to kill, having finished writing this post, and with at least five hours to fill before bed. I wonder what's on TV?

***

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[forineffablereasons]

You are watching Nine!!! Can I say how important that scarred traumatised Doctor is for me? Particularly now, when I realise in what a fucked up world I am. But also Rose! She was so important to me when I was her age. The message of earlier season is You are important as you are, and I love it, I needed it when I was in my late teens, and it has carried me through years. It such a great message too little media is now showing, even later who.

just finished nine last night and GOD i love him……god how many times did i cry? cry at my television screen? crying out of my eyeballs? nine is so like…aware of his trauma but he’s not really healed at all from it, and he’s angry and hurt and rose balances him so much, and he is finding his equilibrium and trying to come to terms with “everything has its time and everything dies” and what that means for him in his past…..how rose challenges him and how he takes her so seriously and cares for her so much, and he wants her to live and to have a fantastic life, and rose saying “You don’t just give up. You don’t just let things happen. You make a stand. You say “no.” You have the guts to do what’s right when everyone else just runs away, and I just can’t!” and that’s something rose is teaching the doctor just as much as it’s something the doctor has taught rose…….it’s so…..beautiful…….and christopher eccleston really gave into it even though it didn’t work out for him and john barrowman as captain jack gave more to them and it’s so good and he really was absolutely fantastic. 

#sansael #darcy answers #doctor who

[kazashiniwielder]

Rewatching Gone in 60 Seconds (2000, remake) for the first time in a decade and a half and...

I FREAKING KNEW this is why I associate ‘Bring Sally Up’ with mustangs

“I gotta get my tool” pulls out a brick

I forgot about the Dukes of Hazzard references

Christopher Eccleston I have never been so terrified by you before and I absolutely love it. Casually shows everyone a coffin that he made to put the main characters brother in.

“I’ve got everything under control” “kitchens on fire” younger brother frantically tries to put it out, big brother calmly succeeds - story of my life

Eleanor!!!! I love her in ever sense of the word. Saw a model of her a few years ago and I screamed in the store. The unicorn!

Was the second detective really this much of an idiot? I don’t remember that.

The STUDENT DRIVER?!?!?! I forgot about her!!!!

“You sound busy right now. You sound very very busy right now”

Sphinx... just Sphinx in general. I love him. Sway too. She’s a badass.

“This is why I do not do buisness with family.”

“I have a problem... Saturday night is the loneliest night of the week for me” and “self indulgent weiners”

“I got three words for all of y’all. Get a life.”

“Beast?” Small puppy comes out.

Watches a car get destoyed. “Want some of this?” Holds out coffee cup. Little brother “... yeah”

Looking at a stolen car full of drugs, hear’s knocking . “who is it?” “Detective Castleback.” Looks at every else “oh, christ.” Scrambles to hide everything.

“For the next 24 hours all you’re decision making privileges have been removed!”

Low Rider scene!!!

“I’m Robin Hood man. I rob from the rich and give to the needy.” “You mean the poor.” “I said the needy, and we need this car.”

“I’m a professional.” “Boy you need a role model” scene

“I GOT EM!”

“Shes a brick, nah nah nah nah, house nah nah na nah

“Remember the 70’s?” “Too young, thank god”

“Snake will have to slither his ass all the way to the bus stop in the morning”

“Don’t start... no no start, start”

“Are you alright? Are you sure? Because you just went through a wall.”

The BBQ! The grill! Tobey! “Hey man I thoght you were from Long Beach” and “keys are good.”

#gone in 60 seconds #christopher eccleston #nicolas cage #angelina jolie

[aetherschreiber]

The Cycle of Fandom

I am an early Millennial.  As a 1982 baby, I literally came of age in the year 2000.  A lot of hay has been made about how my generation does things differently from our parents.  And by now, plenty of it has been made about why, as well.  I won’t rehash the talking points, but it comes down to how much things changed in our formative years.  Our parents went from vinyl to 8-tracks.  We went from cassette tapes to CDs to MP3 players to streaming over our phones.  That’s a lot to have to adapt to and as a result adapting is just what we do.

But when it comes to fandom, the human condition really hasn’t changed that much.  People like things and when they like things they obsess, collect, analyze, and sadly they eventually eventually gate-keep.

Now, let me preface all of this by saying that I don’t really have any citations for any of this.  But, as someone who was thoroughly raised in fandom, I also have a tendency to get hooked on things a lot of my generation would scoff at for being old.  I love the original Lost in Space and Man from UNCLE, the very first Mobile Suit Gundam is my favorite, I’m fascinated by the puppetry in Thunderbirds, and I’m a complete sucker for just about anything with Cary Grant.  I will binge-watch classic Doctor Who as much as I will the new stuff and love every moment of each for what it is.

For most Millennials, this isn’t the case, for whatever reason.  It’s neither a good thing nor a bad thing.  It just is.  Most folks in my generation have heavy nostalgia for the 80s at the oldest and just don’t really concern themselves with very much from before that.  It’s not that they don’t have an appreciation, but they don’t have the resulting fangirl crush I have on David McCallum that I will commiserate with my mother about (Illya Kuryakin is an adorable badass and I will die on that hill).

I like to think that this has given me a bit of a unique view on fandom, in general.  I participate in some older fandoms, where things move a bit more slowly and where the average age is usually at least one generation removed from me and therefore a bit wiser in a lot of ways.  They’ve just sort of... already covered this ground, so to speak.

The difference is the pace at which they did it.  But the cycle is the same.

It’s never anything that starts maliciously.  No fan I know of has ever set out to point-blank keep someone else from liking the thing.  Rather it starts with a sense of seniority.  “You like this thing, now, too?  Great!  I was there for the beginning and let me tell you, back then...”  It’s always like a fandom big sibling who wants to show their younger counterpart the ropes; get them proper caught-up and versed in the lore so that they can better participate.

I love fandom when it’s at this stage and it’s the type of fan I strive to be at all times.  I don’t like setting conditions for fandom.  I think it’s partly because I am such a late-comer to so many.  The idea of being a fan of something that was made 30 years or more before you were born is a hell of a thing, but I’ve never let that stop me.  And for the most part, these fandoms that are much older than I am have reached the point where they are welcoming and just sort of stuck in the big sibling stage.  Sure, you have the occasional troll, the guy that scoffs that I can’t understand because I wasn’t there at the very beginning.  But they’re usually slapped to the ground pretty quickly by everyone else.

There is the occasional exception, of course.  But one of the things those such fandoms have in common is that there is still new content being made for it.  Doctor Who is a prime example, as is Star Trek, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings (yes, I do count the upcoming Amazon series and other non-book content as new content, deal with it).  There’s something about new content being made for a fandom that causes an odd anxiety that thing that the fandom loves is going to be somehow ruined.

I’m going to use Doctor Who as an example for a lot of this.  The show turned 56 years old this last November.  56 years!  And the fact that it had a couple of decade-long breaks in there, which were themselves only separated by a single two-hour movie, only serve to highlight the changes it went through.

My second-oldest memory is of Doctor Who.  I remember the regeneration from Tom Baker to Peter Davison.  Now, Whovian historians, before you freak out because that change-over happened in 1981, before I was even born, remember that back then the US got episodes around two and three years later than the BBC, in syndication on public television channels.  So for me, that change happened when I was two.  I remember there being some Big Thing (tm) that my dad was anticipating.  I remember the burgundy and red outfit that Tom Baker was wearing while laying stricken on the ground, surrounded by his companions.  And I remember him suddenly turning into a blond and sitting up, wide-eyed and mystified.  I didn’t understand any of it at the time, of course.  And so I also remember turning to my dad, who was watching with excitement, while the credits were rolling and asking why the man turned into another man.  Oddly, that’s where the memory ends.  I don’t remember the response.  In fact, it’s only having since seen that episode as an adult that I have been able to identify it for what it was.

After that, I don’t have much in the way of Doctor Who related memories until the Paul McGann movie in 1996.  I was 14 and not well-steeped in Whovian lore at the time and I thought it was great.  My dad was more luke-warm to it because it just wasn’t the same as what he grew up with.  It was a sentiment shared by many, unfortunately, which meant that Paul McGann’s wonderful take on the Doctor was relegated purely to audio adventures until the 50th anniversary in 2013.  Sadly, in the early days of the internet, those of us who liked it weren’t quite able to find each other yet.  In the days of Usenet and mailing lists, it was still only the most hardcore fans of a thing who got together to geek out.  Meaning that most of the conversation was “oh, that’s all wrong.”  Lurking in those conversations, I saw pretty much every tremulous young person who dared to say that they liked it get slapped to the ground and told they weren’t a fan of “the real thing.”

Gate-keeping.  It’s nothing new.  And in 1996 Doctor Who fandom ran smack into its pad-locked closed barrier.  Around that same time other old but still active fandoms were starting to manifest the same thing on the internet.  It was when Trekkies suddenly separated into Trekkies (who had seen the original as it aired) and Trekkers (who came long later), for reasons I have never understood.

No, that’s not true.  I understand it.  Us humans tend to get possessive about our stories.  We have a sort of emotional ownership to them, even if not a legal one.  And when you feel an ownership of something, there is an instinct to protect it, keep it pure.  And to do that, it’s natural to try to set oneself up as an authority on the subject.

It took another decade for Doctor Who to come off the shelf again, in 2005.  I was 24 by then, the age that marketers tend to target.  A friend got his hands on a digi-copy of Christopher Eccleston’s first episode, “Rose,” that had been leaked to the internet in its entirety about a week before it actually aired.  We watched it before our D&D group met and I was instantly hooked.  And the friend that was responsible for the new addiction was only too happy to have new fandom friends.

The pendulum had swung.  Gate-keeping was out and welcoming people to the fandom was the MO.  Of course, there were and still are to this day old school Whovians who deny that anything past Sylvester McCoy exists, calling the 1996 movie and the current series a different show entirely.  There will always be those people.  But for the most part, Whovians welcomed new fans with open arms throughout all of Eccleston’s and David Tennant’s runs.

Now, that one cycle, from welcoming to gate-keeping, and back to welcoming, took 42 years.  Most things don’t last anywhere close to that long.  A show might be on for five years or a movie and its sequels be around for ten and after that, for the most part, it’s done.  And in the pre-internet age of fandom, the pendulum swung slowly enough never to hit a repeat in the cycle.

The internet has sped up everything about fandom.  The airing of just about any show in any country might as well be a world-wide premiere these days because it all just travels that quickly.  It has to if it wants to maintain any sort of surprise in its story lines, otherwise internet chatter will spoil it.  These days, things move so fast that even the few hours between an episode of Doctor Who airing in the UK and in the US is enough that one can be subjected to spoilers.  And the swing of the fandom pendulum has sped up accordingly.

For Doctor Who, it started swinging back again when David Tennant left the show and Matt Smith took over.  Tennant’s Doctor had a lot of fans who desperately didn’t want “their Doctor” to leave, many of whom took to the internet, swearing off the show.  They said it would never be as good because David Tennant was just the best Doctor ever.  By then, there were a number of us Millennial Whovians who had dug into the lore and were comfortable with the concept of regeneration as a part of it.  After all, it had already happened nine times.  And there was a bit of a tendency to call those people who swore off Matt Smith’s episodes as being fans not of Doctor Who but of David Tennant.  Meanwhile, of course, old school Whovians were patting us all on the head going “aren’t you cute.  Now you understand why Tom Baker leaving was such a thing.”

And so, the pendulum started to swing back.  You started having people call other people “not really fans of Doctor Who.”  That only got worse when Peter Capaldi took over and there was a significant portion of the fandom upset that the Doctor was now an older guy instead of the 30-something Doctors we had grown accustomed to.

Gate-keeping reared its ugly head for most of Capaldi’s run and, sadly, I think that kept a lot of people from the fandom and from really appreciating the 12th Doctor.  That cycle has started to swing back with Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor, but the gate-keeping is in a stage where it is desperate to hold on to what Doctor Who was when they became fans and therefore is very toxic right now.  It’s not pretty.  But those asshats are starting to be slapped to the ground on social media thanks to a new influx of fans who are now once again more comfortable with the idea of regeneration and its possibilities.

Similar swings are happening with many other fandoms.  The Star Wars fandom is a really ugly place right now, quite frankly.  Star Trek seems to be on the welcoming end.  There are always the exceptions to every generalization, of course.  There will always be “that guy” in fandom.

This swing has always existed.  Millennials are just the first generation for whom it has swung multiple times in the life of the show.  The internet is probably the biggest contributing factor to that.  What that means is that we’re the first generation to really have the chance to see the pattern for what it is.  A few of us have even been able to extrapolate back and understand that, no, this is how it always has been, just slower.

The hopeful part of that is this; by virtue of being the first to recognize the pattern, we are the first ones with the opportunity to learn from that history.  And now we’re starting to see fandoms that actively abhor gate-keeping and just want more people to come in and play.  But those tend to be very young fandoms.

The one that comes to mind for me is Critical Role.  This is a fandom that was wholly born on the internet, as the series is streamed live on Twitch.  It’s really unlike anything that has ever had a fandom this size before.  It’s only been around for four years or so.  But the cast is on its second D&D campaign which means it’s already had the opportunity to have the elitism gate that could be closed.  But something different seems to have happened.  The very moment that people started saying “I’m a real fan because I watched the Vox Machina campaign, not just the Mighty Nein,” they were told to shut the hell up and let people like things.  A foot was stuck into the gate and wrenched it back open before it could close.  And you know what?  The fandom has absolutely exploded in the last two years.  And I have yet to run into a single instance of someone gate-keeping for it that didn’t get an overwhelming and harsh rebuttal from the folks who welcome people to the fandom.

Sadly, the Critical Role fandom is distinct from the Dungeons & Dragons fandom on this point.  But therein lies the difference.  D&D is over 45 years old, ten times and more the age of Critical Role.  And the “satanic panic” over it in the 80s made a lot of D&D players very protective of the hobby, only amplifying that.  The age of your average Critter is only mid-to-late 20s or so.  At 37, I’m a little bit of an outlier, I have found.  The Critter fandom is big on TikTok which I... don’t grock, frankly, because I’m turning into an old fart.  But I’ve never, ever, been made to feel unwelcome because of that difference.  It’s been a refreshing experience, frankly.

In contrast, I really feel like I’m only now starting to be considered a “true Whovian” by the old school Whovians.  It took me 15 years and required me getting hooked on the classic stuff (which I was all too happy to do).  People who have never seen any of the classic stuff and don’t care to are often still looked down upon.  That needs to change.

The Critical Role fandom is still young and all of this may prove to be overly-optimistic in the end.  But I think it has the opportunity to be the first big fandom not to go through the gate-keeping cycle.  I sincerely hope we can hold on to that.  The cast and crew are a big part of that, with how they always hammer on the idea of inclusivity and engage so directly with the fandom.  “Don’t forget to love each other” is Matt Mercer’s sign-off at the end of every episode and serves as a constant reminder.  And if more casts and crews of more fandoms do that sort of engaging in the future, it will help break the cycle of fandom gate-keeping all the more thoroughly.  This is a fact that production companies are starting to awaken to as Millennials, comfortable with social media, age into positions of authority.

So, welcome people in, gate-keep, almost cause the whole thing to collapse, repeat.  That’s the cycle that fandom has engaged in for three generations and more.  But I think we’re on the cusp of breaking that cycle, for the most part.  The idea that you can be a fan of something without knowing absolutely everything about it has been gaining very visible traction in the last five years or so and it is wonderful to see.

Now, please, people.  Don’t prove me wrong.

#fandom #Doctor Who #Critical Role #social observations #gatekeeping #toxic fandom