Cranky Fangirl Rant: Doctor Who + sex = Crap!
Whoa whoa....before you get up in arms about the title of this opinion piece, give it a read.
We at Fangirl are not ashamed by our love of Doctor Who and we only want our fave Time Lord to rule the universe forever. But the latest incarnation is managing to stir up the fandom to a fever pitch of differing sides. Whatever side you may be on, Ren Willocks, this pieces writer has brought up a very good point of what may be part of the problem to many of the fans. What happens when you take the unattainable and the stuff of legend, and make him readily bonkable? What happens to the mystique? Take a read and while we are at it...
No Sonic Screwing Jokes!!
Doctor Who + sex = Crap!
By J. Ren Willocks
If you're anything like me, you've been watching the current season of Doctor Who with a growing sense of WTF. It's bright and fast and they run and save the Earth and crack jokes in the TARDIS and.... it sucks.
Maybe this sounds a bit harsh to you, maybe you're saying 'well it's not amazing but it doesn't suck' or 'it's still early days, it'll get better soon!' And I would say "if wishes were fishes..."
...I don't actually know how that saying ends, but you get my point.
Remember half way through season one of the DW reboot? Episodes 6 and 7 were the best that far, Dalek being quite possibly the finest episode of the whole season. By comparison, remember Vampires of Venice? Maybe it's just because the hurt is still fresh in my memory, but damn, what an absolute dog.
So what happened? And why the ridiculous title to this article? Some will theorize the culprit lies in the writing or acting or directing, but I think a stolen lyric from Robots In Disguise sums it up best, the sex has made Doctor Who stupid.
There is a very subtle but fundamental difference in this Doctor Who than the one before and that is that the Doctor has, for the first time, become sexually objectified. (oooo scary term! keep reading...) Remember all those times Russell T Davies and David Tenant, when asked cheekily in interviews about whether Doctor Who would ever have some 'hanky panky in the TARDIS' how they always smiled but firmly asserted "No." Well there's a reason, because when you cross that little line something very very important about the Doctor changes and the whole show goes off-kilter and plummets towards crapdom. Steven Moffat has made a decision that objectifying the doctor is now a green-zone where RTD had previously insisted otherwise, to the point of even describing the Doctor as asexual. Steve's Doc is definitely different.
No one denies that Steven Moffat is a tremendous storyteller. Blink is frequently cited THE favorite episode of the rebooted DW so far. Silence in the Library & Forest of the Dead are two of my very favorites, and who among us can forget the beautiful Girl in the Fireplace. But there is a fundamental difference in Steven's Doctor that didn't exist in Russell's and it's like a bad stone in a foundation, causing cracks (wow unexpected obscure pun) in the whole show. And that bad foundation stone is the sexual objectification of the Doctor.
Stay with me here, this is subtle and complex but very important. The fans have always been allowed to objectify the Doctor (and boy DO we! And well we should, you saw DT in that tight suit with that hair and the glasses and... just rawr) but that's a liberty that we get to take as observers. We get to step over that little metaphorical line because it's fun to break that rule. Its fun because we know the Doctor wouldn't approve if he knew how we talk (and what we draw) about him. But in the presence of the Doctor (and
if he existed) the utmost respect would be shown, just like the Doctor's assistant respects him.
Consider the previous assistants. Rose: there's a massive level of respect that goes along with loving the Doctor and being loved BY the Doctor. She couldn’t even say it until she thought she was trapped in another universe. And even when they were reunited and she was with 10.5, it was only whispered by him to her. Martha was in love with him too, but she respected him and herself enough not to try. Then there's Jack who absolutely idolized him, but it was never said aloud. You just knew by the way he talked about him. He never actually tried to jump him, and he's freaking Jack Harkness, whore of the universe!
And of course Donna, who became one of his best friends. Her loss was felt deeper than many because he'd come to respect her. And most importantly she had learned to respect herself and at the end she lost that and it broke the Doctor's heart.
Now compare Donna and Amy.
Or don't. It's just disappointing.
(Actually I’m sure there's a great deal of comparison going on already and I’ll admit to not having read any of it yet. But I will.)
None of us want cookie-cutter assistants who are all the same. But the one thing that WAS the same of all the assistants so far is that they were, in the words of 10, all "Brilliant"; shining examples of the best of humanity, courageous, valiant, kind, keen and good friends to the Doctor. Amy has so far exemplified herself by being the first to invite the Doctor for a quick and sloppy shag (the night before her wedding no less.)
The only people in the show that get to objectify the doctor where it still works are antagonists like Cassandra, the last human, who kissed him while in Rose's body on New Earth, and very special characters who everyone recognizes as having a privileged relationship with the Doctor, like Rennet (Girl in the Fireplace) and River Song (Silence/Forrest).
The rest of the lowly (regular) humans respect him far too much to belittle him with advances. Not because he says so or because they fear him but because they love him. Everyone does! And maybe they do fear him too, just a little. Who wouldn't have plenty of awe and a little fear of a man that is the only thing the Daleks are afraid of. Fear is exciting and attractive too. It's an extremely delicate balance of character that is very hard to build but that RTD hit pitch-perfect with his version of the Doctor.
So here's how it breaks down when that pitch is changed: When the Doctor is allowed to be openly ogled by his Assistant (first episode this season), even fumblingly and juvenily jumped (or attempted jumping), it shows that the Doctor no longer commands the same kind of respect and awe. He's just as viable a partner as Amy's next door neighbor (who I just made up) or her fiancé (just as easily beddable and attainable.)
And so it goes that if the Doctor's assistant doesn't respect him enough to refrain from trying to jump his bones then we as observers don't either (since we experience the Doctor through the perspective of the Assistant largely). And if we can't respect the Doctor then everything else stops working as well. The enemies no longer need to fear him so the peril is no longer epic (remember EPIC peril? remember the Satan Pit or Midnight?)
And this is the whole reason we're frustrated while watching is because we love the doctor and want to respect him (so that we can secretly among ourselves giggling and grinning, cross the objectification line with some tasteful (and some less tasteful) fic ;]) but we can't because no one else in the show does. Most importantly, the exciting and epic peril of the adventure is diminished because the baddies are rendered impotent by a Doctor who's lost his mojo. A direct result ironically, of Steve trying to increase the Doctor's mojo!
The Doctor deserves better and so do we.