Blog OriginalDoctor WhoPolemicRamblingSpecific storiesSymbolismTV WhoWho Meta202360th anniversaryassimilationismcontinuitydavid tennantdoccy whodoctor who (III)fanwankfifteenth doctorfourteenth doctorlegacymavic chenmetanarrativencuti gatwanunuwhonuwhoraceracismreformismregenerationrepresentationRTD2russell t daviesthe celestial toymakerthe giggle
“I’d like to see a butterfly fit into a chrysalis case after it’s spread its wings.” —Second Doctor, shortly after beginning to exist (1966) They’re restarting NuWho – I told you so. When Russell T. Davies was announced as returning showrunner in 2021, it only made sense that his role was to echo what he … Continue reading I love you. Get out!
Blog OriginalDoctor WhoRamblingSpecific storiesSymbolismTV WhoWho Metaace mcshaneartificial intelligencebourgeoiscapitalismclassic whoclassismcold warcursesessentialismfaithfenrichealthcareian briggsideologyimperialismmisogynynanogenesneoliberalismninth doctornuwhopoliticspredestinationpredeterminationrepressionruling classseventh doctorsexual repressionsolidaritysovietssteven moffattechbrosthe curse of fenricthe doctor dancesthe empty childworld war 2ww2wwii
War makes people into puppets. Figures whose worth is in the space they take up, the orders they follow, interchangeably. They are a resource spent as simple flesh; the damage to their unique lives and minds is just an inefficient transfer of energy in the relocation of the flesh marionettes. One of the biggest obstacles … Continue reading The Children of Fenric
Blog OriginalDoctor WhoPolemicReview ShitSpecific storiesTV WhoWho Metaace mcshanealienationautonomybbcbritishnesscapitalismcentenaryChibshowchris chibnallclassic whocompanionsfanwankfifth doctorfugitive doctorhierarchyhologramian levineincuriosityjodie whittakerlove and warmany wordsneoliberalismnormalisationnostalgianuwhopacifismpassivitypaul cornellrussell t daviesruth whoseventh doctortegan jovankathasminthe power of the doctorthirteenth doctorvindervirgin new adventuresyasmin khan
This little island we live on is an endless exercise in the elevation of emptiness. For example, the class of people who get to decide what happens to us all – and whose best mates usually decide how it should be reported, mediated, commentated, processed – are a squalid collection of vacuous failures. Animated by … Continue reading Nall Gone
Blog OriginalDoctor WhoPolemicSpecific storiesTV WhoWho Metaabortionchildrenclara oswaldforced birthinterpretationkill the moonlundviknew approach uncluttered by the old approachpeter harnesspro-abortionpro-choicereproductive futurismseries 8spacespace-dragon-chickensteven moffattwelfth doctor
October 2022 – a short sequel to 2019’s post on Kill The Moon. “Second-hand space shuttle, third-hand astronauts.” “It was in a museum. They’d cut the back off it so kids could ride in it. We’d stopped going into space. Nobody cared.” At one point the Doctor flippantly makes, by any metric, a poor argument … Continue reading Space over kids
Blog OriginalDoctor WhoSpecific storiesTV WhoWho Metaa good man goes to warclara oswalddalekdaleksdavrosfascisminterpretationlanguagelinguisticsmisinterpretationmissyseries 9steven moffattechnologythe magician's apprenticethe witch's familiartranslationtwelfth doctor
Back on my Dalek bullshit again… This discourse refuses to die, so we need to get the heart of it. During The Witch’s Familiar, Missy neutralises a Dalek patrolling the sewers, then wires Clara into its casing as the new operator. As both a demonstration and twisted experiment, she commands Clara to say some seemingly … Continue reading Did Witch’s Familiar really ruin the Daleks?
Blog OriginalDoctor WhoPolemicRamblingTV WhoWho Metachris chibnalldisappointmenteastereve of the daleksfluxincuriosityjodie whittakerlegend of the sea devilslesbianslgbtqmandip gillqueer representationqueerbaitingsandpitsshippingthasminthirteenth doctoryasmin khan
On the last-minute martyring of fandom’s favourite Chibnall Who couple. Thasmin was the soul of Chib Who. For better or worse. In the absence of rich potential directions for any of its characters, a romantic attachment between the thirteenth Doctor and Yasmin Khan (who was always at a remove from the Graham-Ryan drama of Series … Continue reading Thassion of the Chris
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On resolving the schism within the Capaldi era’s most famous duology. The bends Hell Bent offers us a new account of what happened one episode prior, in Heaven Sent. Not only do we learn that the Doctor was punching his way out of the confession dial for a couple billion years longer than we previously … Continue reading Bent Sent
Blog OriginalDoctor WhoPolemicRamblingSpecific storiesTV WhoWho Metachris chibnalldespairdoctor who fluxdustentropyfluxkarvanistameaningparticlesseries 13tecteunthe timeless childrenthe vanquishersvinder
What's the Flux? The name suggests continual change, warping into the unexpected and unpredictable. In practice, we see that what it actually does (most of the time) is reduce stuff to particles.
Blog OriginalDoctor WhoPolemicRamblingTV WhoWho Metachris chibnallculturenostalgiaputrefactionregressionrtd erarussell t daviesseries 14showrunnerssteven moffat
In which I make a damning, obsequious climb-down from all my earlier rhetoric about NuWho being dead in light of the exciting, somewhat surreal new showrunner appointment…well, not exactly. Because the possibility of someone interesting taking over the show always existed. The issue is really that whoever they are, they’d sort of need to start … Continue reading Reversion to draft?
Blog OriginalDoctor WhoPolemicSpecific storiesTV WhoWho Metacan you hear me?characterisationchris chibnallclimate changecomplacencydirect actiondregsideologyjack robertsonorphan 55passivityrevolution of the daleksryan sinclairseries 12thirteenth doctor
There are many things you could call Ryan Sinclair’s departure from the TARDIS, but “unforeshadowed” is not one of them. At the very least, one scene in Series 12’s Can You Hear Me? – the episode which took a crack at giving all three members of the Fam a bit more interiority (albeit about a … Continue reading Ryan’s exit almost meant something
