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variousqueerthings · 5 months

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SO WE'VE SEEN EPISODE ONE THE ELEVENTH HOUR (gosh I love the doctor-related silly puns -- Eighth Wonder, Northern Star, You're A Ten, etcetc, good stuff...)

and I remember when I was watching this. I remember being quite excited. I remember being really into the season trailer (which is pretty good, still), and I remember being like "oh what the doctor is holding a gun!!!??!!!" (which is still a pay-off I remember thinking worked overall)

It's a good introduction episode. Murray Gold kills it with the music especially, Matt Smith is not bad, Olivia Coleman is there (pls can she be in DW again as a bigger role??? it's Olivia Coleman and she has nearly nothing to do in this??????) and we get what feels like the central ongoing conceit between the doctor and the new companion: that the doctor left her and so her entire self was formed around her child-self's belief of him -- it's pretty fucked up stuff, great for future work

new Tardis is beautiful. more like a laboratory now, more clean lines than Nine's and Ten's which was put together by scraps (scrap!Tardis my bby). It's shiny now, like a toy

notes the Doctor calling the Tardis "dear" is charming! and "I am definitely a mad man with a box."

Now obviously I know where a lot of things are going, but I will try to be reeelatively episode-minded, as if this were the first time. so on The Measurement of m*ffat's era, here's the rating, and then below some more in-depth explanation as to why. I added two to the initial lot I drew up and clarified a couple of the others

EDIT: retroactively added "politics" to the scoreboard

a criteria will be rated 0-10, with 10 being best score:

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 3/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored): 7/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 7/10

(if tying into wider narrative) furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 6/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 5/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 6/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 7/10

isn't trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 6/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 7/10

politics (how conservative is it): 7/10

FULL RATING: 61/100 (if I can count....)

OBJECTIFICATION: so I had this on 4 and put it down to a 3. Upon rewatch it's pretty egregious, the kissogram joke extends for a fair amount of runtime, from the initial long-shot up her legs to the doctor having kind of a patronising line later on:

little old lady: "I thought you were a nurse... or maybe a nun?"

the doctor: "what sort of a job is a kissogram?" amy: "I go to parties and I kiss people. It's a laugh." the doctor: "you were a little girl five minutes ago." yikes. also worth mentioning that this hinders her ability to. do things. like run. you see her stepping gingerly over a little chain fence and puling her skirt back into place, while the doctor is running to do stuff

PLOT-POINT: she does much better here, with little-girl Amelia clearly being very lonely and adult-Amy never having gotten over the Doctor seemingly abandoning her. I took points off, because for a lot of the episode after Amy is an adult, she's no longer the POV character. The Doctor is. she does get to be re-centred nearer the end again though, with her warring feelings of the thrill of the adventure vs the abandonment coming to the fore several times

she doesn't do much to solve the mystery overall, but we'll get to that in a bit

the bit where the tardis leaves amy again and she has an emotional trigger to waiting up all night for him! and then the doctor leaves again! for another two years! that's interesting stuff! And while she treats Rory poorly, that kind of makes sense, she's not super well-adjusted

COMPLEXITY: the plot is nice and actually relatively restrained, with the exception of the whole "and now we coordinate with the world to make every number a Zero," but that's more like DW silliness than trying to be too big for its britches on narrative level. I knocked off a few points, because it occasionally did some annoying visual m*ffatisms, like the bit where the Doctor is remembering Rory taking pictures of Prisoner Zero, and when Amy was remembering seeing Prisoner Zero. I see you Sherlock...

FURTHERS CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: technically not fair, as this is an opening episode, but I note that the Doctor spends time readjusting to a new body, there's references to the past (including classic!who), and while there's nothing referencing to what happened in The End Of Time, and how the Doctor got to where they were, well... that's forgiveable, it's meant to start a new audience, don't get too bogged down in right before. this may be highly subjective, but I do think there's emotional throughline between Ten's characterisation and Eleven's (I ascribe to the "the Doctor is born out of how the previous Doctor's arc ended" HC which is partially confirmed in some cases at least!) -- Ten ended things badly and Eleven is reckless, forgetful, childish, kind of impetuous, and even casually mean in a sort of "eleven-year-old just says shit" kind of way. Perfect way to keep people at bay, emotionally.

whether that's intentional or just how M*ffat writes his favourite characters, hard to say ofc, but it works in this episode!

COMPANION MATTERS: Tbh I don't think Amy... does much... in this episode. She's kind of running around after the Doctor and getting abandoned, which is fine for a first episode, because she has no clue what's going on yet! happy for it to be way more about her emotional journey (although I note that Rose, Martha, and Donna all saved the Doctor in their first episodes)

however, I think there were opportunities to give her -- and Rory -- more! Geoff is some random guy I'm fairly certain we never see again, and yet he seems to be coordinating the main line of defense for some reason? give that to Rory, he's dead weight after the camera bit

I think one Moment that really didn't need to happen was her calling the Doctor to figure out how to get into the hospital and he has to tell her to use her sexy policewoman outfit to pretend to be an actual cop, when that is like. the one thing this stupid gag could have offered her

GODLIKE DOCTOR: ok, I've seen stuff about the Doctor's final bit opposite Big Eye, and I'm torn about it. On the one hand, the Doctor as earth's defender is well-established at this point, including for that matter, Ten in the Christmas Invasion. Howeeever, Ten actually... did something there, rather than just said "look me up, I'm so impressive," which made the monster run away, and there was a whole thing related to that in that Torchwood then blew up the aliens!

because the Doctor, pointedly, isn't always there to defend earth (Harriet Jones, beloved 4-episode character arc!)

It's a good way to show some highlight's from Doctor Who, including previous faces, but I think more could have been done + I know that's kind of the plot of M*ffat's run... the whole "Pandorica" being about the Doctor, the "Silence Will Fall" is about the Doctor, "Doctor Who" is the question that will be asked- urghhhh, okok this doesn't count here! it's hard to discount when you know!

also tellingly M*ffat did this back in Forest Of The Dead as well, and it felt kind of like a cop-out then. Sure hope it isn't a recurring theme haha...

beyond that, we have the Doctor doing a very "I am smart everyone shut up" thing here, however I think in this episode it can be relatively forgiven, because this is immediately post-Ten and the Doctor is messed up and the Tardis basically was on fire and they're still in the middle of regenerating, and so there's... yeah, there's precedent for that kind of dismissive behaviour and the Doctor does like people in this + there's the aforementioned post-Ten personality, which is like an inverse of Nine's, which was also prickly, but in a different way

"look at your screens, whoever I am, I'm a genius..." -- does a lot of "why am I doing this, because I'm a genius, you'll find out when you need to know" but is tempered by buoying other characters, especially... Geoff, for some reason. who is there. and never will be again

PREV DOCTOR WHO: Yeah pretty good here. Nothing to report. Loved the first 15mins of trying to figure themself out and enjoyed the acknowledgement of previous Doctors and there's no "I'm the new and improved" type nonsense, or writing out the past

HAMFISTED SEXINESS: I mean. Amy. Of course. And also the bit where The Doctor is changing and Amy watches, it's just kind of unnecessary and clearly just there to be like "we dare go where no one has gone before: thinking the Doctor is hot!"

WORLD: Feels like a world. It's called Leadworth I believe? We have a host of characters from the village + a mention of Amy's aunt + Rory and his co-workers. There's a place, there's people, let's see where that all goes.....

POLITICS: Nothing terribly egregious -- its main issues are the aforementioned sexism. And maybe a bit of this. Doctor-as-central kind of makes earth seem comparatively free of responsibility for choices (although I note this is different later on in Hungry Earth/Cold Blood)

Overall I have no sense of whether this is a high or a low rating for M*ffat, we shall see how others fare!

It's biggest failings were: objectification of its main female character and companions not having much to do, while its strongest points were Amy feeling like a real character with real emotional depth, the world in which she lives (which is where it takes place) feeling like a real place, being fair to the narratives that came before it, and the plot not going all over the place in the name of Complexity

#the measurement #im watching doctor who #im watching eleven who #will i do things as long as this again? probably not consistently but occasionally #onwards to the beast below!#this is unedited -- do expect mistakes #the eleventh hour

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squishosaur · 10 months

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i hear youre a treyjade enjoyer, do you have any headcanons with them or how they got together? :0

yeah ummm.... a few :lookingaway:

♡ - i'd like to think that jade has always looked up to and respected trey, but when he realized "oh, this guy is not as normal as he says he is" he is just infatuated and needs to study him. like a freak.

☆ - i think trey is someone who sees the best in people. like, he could be seeing the scary parts of jade, he just finds him silly and interesting though. riddle is distressed like, "you DO NOT want that guy." but trey is like "i could fix him" when jade is Actively trying to make him worse.

♡ - jade definitely fell first, but that doesn't mean trey didn't Also fall fast. trey was sort of interested in him, and jade instantly picked up on this and started toying with him. anything from offhanded comments about how nice he looks or how polite he is to just straight up "i heard you were interested in dentistry. can you look at my teeth" and then he does Not wait for an answer. trey is conflicted about this!!! floyd and azul are so disturbed at jade just opening his mouth like that in public.

☆ - trey has a horrible sense of humor. jade also has a horrible sense of humor and will laugh at any of his godawful jokes or puns. (have you seen the shrimp flied rice comic)

♡ - as for how they got together, trey would probably confide in cater about his crush (and he is Absolutely eating this up btw it's so funny to him) and he's like "oh dw trey-kun, i'll be your wingman kk??" and trey is like "oh my god no.." but it's too late.

☆ - with cater on the case, he is like. coaching him on what to say and what to do. "sit with him at lunch, compliment him, get to know him better, walk him back to his dorm, Ask Him Out OMG WHAT'S TAKING SO LONG..." and trey somehow fails at all of these things but this is amusing to jade. "your eyes are like... um. leucoprinus birnbaumii and. tilled soil?" "aw, are you flirting with me?"

♡ - azul also gets wind of this information also and is like "i can tell you any amount of information on jade's interests right now if you become the dessert chef for the mostro lounge exclusively- sign here." trey said no, but azul is still pushing. so now trey has like the shoulder angel and devil thing going on with azul and cater... but they're both devils.

♡ - in the meantime, they're Not Dating, but jade keeps asking trey to spend time with him. "i was just about to check on the mushrooms i've been growing, would you like to accompany me?" "if you aren't busy this weekend, i was wondering if you could join me on my next hike. it's just so lonely on the mountains by myself... camping would be so much more fun with friends..." trey says yes because his internal monologue is like "how could i possibly say no..." (riddle is shaking his head defeatedly, like, "just come back alive").

☆ - trey is about to just Give Up at the end of his third year, since they won't be on the same campus or anything anymore, but suddenly jade is like "can we exchange contact information, i think i'll miss you the most.." and so they do that. And are Not Dating Still.

♡ - during his off-campus year, trey studies dentistry and also spends a lot of time messaging jade and when they're both free they arrange meet-ups. cater is still trying to wingman over the phone and trey is like "no, we're still just talking..." and At The Same Time floyd keeps asking jade when he's gonna break up with that guy and jade is like "oh, but we haven't even started dating yet."

☆ - after trey is done with his studies at NRC, he decides to spend a year back at home with his family. as luck would have it, jade is spending his 4th year in the queendom of roses to study mycology (and a little bit of anthropology also, but mostly the mushrooms, molds, and yeast interests him). and he reasons "what better place to study yeast than a bakery!" trey feels absolutely insane when he asks his parents to let jade stay with them for a year. but they say yes because they as just so nice ("as long as he helps in the bakery" was also a condition).

♡ - they were not expecting a merman though and are quite shocked by the very tall eel with razors for teeth politely introducing himself one day. trey's siblings like him though! they ask him all about the ocean and his studies and nrc and even just about what trey was like at school (trey keeps shutting this specific topic down). jade helps with cooking and cleaning around the house and mr. and mrs. clover both appreciate him for it.

☆ - at some point, the two stay up really late together (they're both studying) and trey just finally blurts out that he likes him. jade just goes "i know." with a smile and asks him out. trey is shocked because he had waited Forever to ask it but its too late now. he laughs it off and says yes. they kiss (followed by jade quipping that it was not customary to kiss on the first date, to which trey responds that is was Hardly their first date and jade goes "touché")

♡ - you would think i would end this here because you asked about how they got together but i can't because i havs not gotten to the part where trey 1) actually comes out to his parents and 2) tells them that he's going out with jade

☆ - but anyways, yes, he comes out to his parents and they accept him for who he is. his mom also mentions that she assumed that he and jade were Already dating and he just wasn't ready to tell them yet. trey vehemently denies this and jade is just laughing. trey also texts cater and cater replies saying "tell jade i said i'm so happy for him and his ugly fking bf i'm serious /ref <3333" he also tells riddle who Actually says something positive. jade tells floyd and azul, who reply "can you divorce him yet" and "congrats! is he willing to work for me now" respectively (they really all are happy for them btw)

♡ - they do go on dates mostly outside on walks or hikes when they have time to spare. trey talks about the history of the area and jade identifies different organisms and infodumps about them as trey listens intently. if they see the same thing again, jade will say its name and trey will recall something jade said about it before, which makes jade happy.

☆ - neither is big on pda (unless they get jealous, which is infrequent), but they will hold hands when they're alone. they both tend to go more with acts of service and just quality time with one another, so generally they will do things like cook for the other or engage in activities that the other likes.

♡ - they do visit the coral sea, but it's more of an annual trip. usually, if jade wants to see azul or floyd, it's on land because azul's franchise is on land.

☆ - unfortunately i could continue for forever but i will not yw <333

#treyjade! my one obligatory slowburn pair ajdndndn #askbox!#chatter #treyjade #twst headcanons #very ill about these two sorry #like oh my god girl go write a fic about it 🙄🙄🙄 <- talking to myself #i cpuldn't even do this for my other favs...#'how'd idikei get together in your hc' 'edaters who slowly realized that the other person went to school with them next question'#and rgrd is Complex because they are thr reason i got into twst tbh #friend was like 'lets play a game where i give you a piece of media and you write a fic about it based on vibes and character designs alone #that fic is titled the big chomp and is still buried somewhere in my google drive lolololol #and of course azjm got together out of spite or something idk #twisted wonderland #okay i did noy actually go back and check any of this for spelling and i am just aaaa

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