Occasionally you'll see a planet with 2 different cultures, but usually the background story is that they're at war with each other. In those cases the heroes are there to broker peace between the factions.
(I thought Messaline was unpopulated, and the humans and Hath were there to settle it?)
An entire planet with only two different cultures acting out the cliche of being at war with each other.
I thought Ten was a bit too God-dy in that episode anyway. "And on the seventh day he made the Messaline?" Whenever he does shit like that, with some big pronouncement (e.g., "Now the Ood can sing!"), I always think of John Lennon in A Hard Day's Night taking the scissors and snipping the tailor's measuring tape and saying in a high voice, "I now declare this bridge open!"
Omg, the Doctor is God and it bugs me so much. I'm all, I have a hard enough time staying focused on the message in church without being reminded of how the Doctor behaves, and then I'm just thinking about Matt Smith or David Tennant. Can they stop with the parallels now please? K thx.
In all fairness, I think it's probs hard for them to not do that, considering the corner they've written themselves into with the Doctor. But when it comes to emotional, sacrificial lamb types, man! The Doctor fits the bill to a T. (Not that I'm complaining too much, mind. It's just annoying some of the time.)
green-maia's essays are very interesting in that she makes the point that the Doctor is not god . He's a human. You could make the argument that humans themselves often behave as if they are God(s).
Of course. And it's a marker of what Sci Fi shows really demonstrate: an innate fascination with the other... and so their othering has to be managed and controllable. And in a funny way, even though I spend my working life devoted to making people aware that othering is a dysfunctional, exclusive existence, in sci-fi, I find it kind of comforting - it's manageable somehow. But it does assume a single, axiological frame and it's kind of dodgy as well, for all of the reasons that you suggest, not just because we don't see that wealth of experience, but because we also aren't able to handle that multifarious space of massive difference within a single othered culture (like Gallifrey). I think for the all of the reasons you mention here, Gallifrey has never seemed particularly real. There is no everyday, just a utopian or antiutopian memory of how it was, that is all about a single path or set of opportunities, and that's kind of hard to imagine, cos one of the reasons why we all love Sci Fi is that we *can* imagine a million
( ... )
I love both of these entries, and yes, Mental_Murmurs, I agree about the escalating decrease in diversity - I always assumed we are seeing alien planets that are further along in 'development' in that they have internet and better travel options and so the multifaceted societies merge into one more homogenous lump over time. I think it is crazily fascinating that the Bible states the tower of Babel existed to slow this process way down - similar to the recent version of Battlestar Galactica's take home message in the end. That even when the Bible was written they had an awareness of this process and also that it should be stopped or slowed.
Yeah - what you said! That was brilliant. I don't even know what to add to that except to admit I had to look up 'axiological' in the online dictionary.
Hmm, yes, Star Trek did the two different cultures/war thing a few times. But hey, at least they tried! I think actually that once or twice they may have landed amongst a culture where it was implied that there were other peoples elsewhere on the planet but budget restraints probably kept them from appearing. Ah well.
You know what one of the problems with the TARDIS is? Even if they appear in a different culture, they'll all still speak the same language because of her translating. Bless the clever writer who came up with that! Anyhow, this is an interesting and very smart thought! We should break this sci-fi trope and write something that challenges it ourselves. :)
OK, so now tht you mention it, here's my issue with the TARDIS translation circuits. This is all tongue in cheek too, because it is a TV show.
I find it amazing that as the TARDIS translates, the lips of the 'aliens' who are speaking match the translation exactly. One would think if they're speaking another language, the mouths would look like a badly dubbed martial arts films from the 70s.
Does the TARDIS translate everything back to him in Gallifreyan, including English he hears? And can someone please tell me why the TARDIS can translate everything but all we heard from the Hath was that weird bubbling sound?
look! look at this! People having free discussion and it inspiring writers to challenge themselves and write more creatively! SEE WORLD this is why nonwriters are just as important to a comm as writers are, and it is why writing in a vacuum without a community of readers to give input and challenge is so empty. I'm gonna quote this in my LJ, if you girls don't mind, Canter or LeNozze?
I've been thinking about this for days, and maybe it's because i just saw Valkyrie again like a week ago, but i've always assumed that it's because Rassilon was like Hitler and united the entire planet whether they liked it or not. The more i find out about Time Lord society/history, the scarier it is. :/
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But you're totally right - SF isn't about the aliens and the spaceships. In SF, we are the aliens and we are us.
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(I thought Messaline was unpopulated, and the humans and Hath were there to settle it?)
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I thought Ten was a bit too God-dy in that episode anyway. "And on the seventh day he made the Messaline?" Whenever he does shit like that, with some big pronouncement (e.g., "Now the Ood can sing!"), I always think of John Lennon in A Hard Day's Night taking the scissors and snipping the tailor's measuring tape and saying in a high voice, "I now declare this bridge open!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrTv2Y0cblo&feature=related
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In all fairness, I think it's probs hard for them to not do that, considering the corner they've written themselves into with the Doctor. But when it comes to emotional, sacrificial lamb types, man! The Doctor fits the bill to a T. (Not that I'm complaining too much, mind. It's just annoying some of the time.)
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Thanks for adding to the conversation!
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You know what one of the problems with the TARDIS is? Even if they appear in a different culture, they'll all still speak the same language because of her translating. Bless the clever writer who came up with that! Anyhow, this is an interesting and very smart thought! We should break this sci-fi trope and write something that challenges it ourselves. :)
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I find it amazing that as the TARDIS translates, the lips of the 'aliens' who are speaking match the translation exactly. One would think if they're speaking another language, the mouths would look like a badly dubbed martial arts films from the 70s.
Does the TARDIS translate everything back to him in Gallifreyan, including English he hears? And can someone please tell me why the TARDIS can translate everything but all we heard from the Hath was that weird bubbling sound?
Yeah, I have too much time on my hands...;-)
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look! look at this! People having free discussion and it inspiring writers to challenge themselves and write more creatively! SEE WORLD this is why nonwriters are just as important to a comm as writers are, and it is why writing in a vacuum without a community of readers to give input and challenge is so empty. I'm gonna quote this in my LJ, if you girls don't mind, Canter or LeNozze?
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