That Doctor Who finale.
So, Doctor Who, S12 finale. It was a thing. That happened. Should probably finally say something about it.
Massive spoilers ahead, obviously.
So. It's a divisive episode for the fandom.
Where I stand: I didn't like it. Heavily didn't like it.
Okay, there were individual things I did like about it. It was quite well made as such; the pacing was good and I was a lot more engaged and interested in the events than I was in the previous episode (or last season's finale, but to be honest, the majority of Doctor Who episodes have interested me more than last season's finale did). Then again, in retrospect I wish I hadn't been, because then I wouldn't have cared as much.
Everyone's performances were great. Whittaker was amazing as the Doctor, I loved her interactions with everyone. Especially her scenes with Sacha Dhawan's Master were wonderfully intense. I loved seeing Jo Martin's Doctor again, and her interaction with Thirteen was so enjoyable, one of the high points of the episode. I was so relieved all the companions survived, because I was seriously worried they were building up to one of them dying, maybe Yaz or Graham, and I didn't want a companion death. That scene between Yaz and Graham was wonderful and moving.
The episode looked great. I really enjoyed the score.
But, well. The things I didn't like were far too big a part of the episode that they wouldn't have ruined it for me.
Let's start with the biggest one. I really, really hate the whole thing about the Doctor being the Timeless Child. We're talking "I can't accept this as part of my canon if I am to enjoy the show anymore" level of not like. I don't want the Doctor to be a Special One in that way. I want the Doctor to be special because of his/her own personality, choices and actions, not because of who they're born to be. I definitely don't want the Doctor to be some foundational genetic base of the Time Lords.
As such, I wouldn't have minded the origin story for the Time Lords actually being that some of their core abilities have been stolen from another species. That would have been an interesting choice. I wouldn't have minded some less heavy change to take away the 12 regenerations limit on the Doctor so they don't always have to come up with some complicate way to overcome that.
But this is just... this is not my Doctor Who. I want the Doctor to be a rebel among the Time Lords, who is one of them but still can't stand their way of life and wants to do something different. I don't want the Doctor to not be of them, like that has to explain why the Doctor could never be satisfied with life on Gallifrey. I really hate the implication that if someone doesn't fit in with their people, it's because they're secretly born to be something else entirely. People can be at odds with their own society when they are born into it. I hate the idea of taking away the Doctor as a rebel of their society and I'm not going to let Chibnall do that.
I also don't like what it does to the Doctor-Master relationship. It's so much more compelling if they're two equals who chose differently, if they're each other's mirrors, showing what could have been if they'd have taken a different road. If it's now the Doctor being extra super duper special and the Master trying to show that he's important too, that's not an interesting relationship.
Speaking of the Master, I hate it that now there's effectively no continuity between Missy and this Master, though we're probably supposed to take him as being a later regeneration - it's like Missy's character development just didn't exist. Sacha Dhawan did a wonderful job with what he had - it's not his fault what the script says. But I didn't feel the whole Timeless Child thing really explained why he decided to just destroy Gallifrey and all the Time Lords - that seems excessive even for him. It feels like none of the growth Missy experienced actually stuck, like he was just restored to some previous version, and that feels like cheating without showing us properly why that could have happened.
And just generally, could we please stop destroying Gallifrey? It's getting ridiculous the way New Who showrunners keep changing whether it's destroyed or not. But it's also fucking depressing. Most Time Lords may be pompous asses, but I still don't want them to be all killed by one of their own (and how would the Master really have managed to just kill all of them, anyhow? I'm sure they are able to fight back somewhat.). Let's just agree Romana wasn't in Gallifrey when this happened or it gets even more depressing, okay?
On that topic, this may be a more personal one for me because of the things I react strongly to, but... Look, I've mentioned many times in this journal how I'm not good at dealing with stories that have lots of violence, wars and such. This episode contained too much Time Lord genocide plus the body horror-esque Cyber Time Lord thing and deciding whether to destroy all organic matter on the planet with the Death Particle. So I had a very strong visceral reaction against it even before the Timeless Child stuff came up. Literally visceral as I felt sick to my stomach. It made me nauseous and triggered and made me feel horrible and made it hard to sleep that night, and Doctor Who isn't supposed to make me feel that way. It's sometimes too scary but it's never done this to me before and it's not okay.
I'm not sure why it didn't bother me as much in Spyfall as it did now, but it's probably because it was dealt with so much more extensively in this story.
Okay, I'm too tired to write more. Those are my main issues, and they're too big to just ignore. At the moment I'm not sure how to continue engaging with the show. Wait for the next showrunner to retcon this, maybe? I expect I'll take a while to get over my immediate reactions, and then watch some older stuff to get my Doctor Who back. Probably not anything involving Gallifrey, though. (Well, Two's era should be safe, at least - Time Lords aren't even named before his last serial.)
It's complicated because this changes very core things about the show in a way that I'm not okay with. I'm just... probably going to refuse to consider this canon.
Other people can have different opinions, of course. If you liked it, you liked it, that's fair. Just please don't belittle those of us who didn't, okay?
This entry was originally posted at https://auroracloud.dreamwidth.org/142670.html. Feel free to comment on either site.
Massive spoilers ahead, obviously.
So. It's a divisive episode for the fandom.
Where I stand: I didn't like it. Heavily didn't like it.
Okay, there were individual things I did like about it. It was quite well made as such; the pacing was good and I was a lot more engaged and interested in the events than I was in the previous episode (or last season's finale, but to be honest, the majority of Doctor Who episodes have interested me more than last season's finale did). Then again, in retrospect I wish I hadn't been, because then I wouldn't have cared as much.
Everyone's performances were great. Whittaker was amazing as the Doctor, I loved her interactions with everyone. Especially her scenes with Sacha Dhawan's Master were wonderfully intense. I loved seeing Jo Martin's Doctor again, and her interaction with Thirteen was so enjoyable, one of the high points of the episode. I was so relieved all the companions survived, because I was seriously worried they were building up to one of them dying, maybe Yaz or Graham, and I didn't want a companion death. That scene between Yaz and Graham was wonderful and moving.
The episode looked great. I really enjoyed the score.
But, well. The things I didn't like were far too big a part of the episode that they wouldn't have ruined it for me.
Let's start with the biggest one. I really, really hate the whole thing about the Doctor being the Timeless Child. We're talking "I can't accept this as part of my canon if I am to enjoy the show anymore" level of not like. I don't want the Doctor to be a Special One in that way. I want the Doctor to be special because of his/her own personality, choices and actions, not because of who they're born to be. I definitely don't want the Doctor to be some foundational genetic base of the Time Lords.
As such, I wouldn't have minded the origin story for the Time Lords actually being that some of their core abilities have been stolen from another species. That would have been an interesting choice. I wouldn't have minded some less heavy change to take away the 12 regenerations limit on the Doctor so they don't always have to come up with some complicate way to overcome that.
But this is just... this is not my Doctor Who. I want the Doctor to be a rebel among the Time Lords, who is one of them but still can't stand their way of life and wants to do something different. I don't want the Doctor to not be of them, like that has to explain why the Doctor could never be satisfied with life on Gallifrey. I really hate the implication that if someone doesn't fit in with their people, it's because they're secretly born to be something else entirely. People can be at odds with their own society when they are born into it. I hate the idea of taking away the Doctor as a rebel of their society and I'm not going to let Chibnall do that.
I also don't like what it does to the Doctor-Master relationship. It's so much more compelling if they're two equals who chose differently, if they're each other's mirrors, showing what could have been if they'd have taken a different road. If it's now the Doctor being extra super duper special and the Master trying to show that he's important too, that's not an interesting relationship.
Speaking of the Master, I hate it that now there's effectively no continuity between Missy and this Master, though we're probably supposed to take him as being a later regeneration - it's like Missy's character development just didn't exist. Sacha Dhawan did a wonderful job with what he had - it's not his fault what the script says. But I didn't feel the whole Timeless Child thing really explained why he decided to just destroy Gallifrey and all the Time Lords - that seems excessive even for him. It feels like none of the growth Missy experienced actually stuck, like he was just restored to some previous version, and that feels like cheating without showing us properly why that could have happened.
And just generally, could we please stop destroying Gallifrey? It's getting ridiculous the way New Who showrunners keep changing whether it's destroyed or not. But it's also fucking depressing. Most Time Lords may be pompous asses, but I still don't want them to be all killed by one of their own (and how would the Master really have managed to just kill all of them, anyhow? I'm sure they are able to fight back somewhat.). Let's just agree Romana wasn't in Gallifrey when this happened or it gets even more depressing, okay?
On that topic, this may be a more personal one for me because of the things I react strongly to, but... Look, I've mentioned many times in this journal how I'm not good at dealing with stories that have lots of violence, wars and such. This episode contained too much Time Lord genocide plus the body horror-esque Cyber Time Lord thing and deciding whether to destroy all organic matter on the planet with the Death Particle. So I had a very strong visceral reaction against it even before the Timeless Child stuff came up. Literally visceral as I felt sick to my stomach. It made me nauseous and triggered and made me feel horrible and made it hard to sleep that night, and Doctor Who isn't supposed to make me feel that way. It's sometimes too scary but it's never done this to me before and it's not okay.
I'm not sure why it didn't bother me as much in Spyfall as it did now, but it's probably because it was dealt with so much more extensively in this story.
Okay, I'm too tired to write more. Those are my main issues, and they're too big to just ignore. At the moment I'm not sure how to continue engaging with the show. Wait for the next showrunner to retcon this, maybe? I expect I'll take a while to get over my immediate reactions, and then watch some older stuff to get my Doctor Who back. Probably not anything involving Gallifrey, though. (Well, Two's era should be safe, at least - Time Lords aren't even named before his last serial.)
It's complicated because this changes very core things about the show in a way that I'm not okay with. I'm just... probably going to refuse to consider this canon.
Other people can have different opinions, of course. If you liked it, you liked it, that's fair. Just please don't belittle those of us who didn't, okay?
This entry was originally posted at https://auroracloud.dreamwidth.org/142670.html. Feel free to comment on either site.