quick Who post while I have connectivity
My reactions to "Into the Dalek," episode 2 of whatever the hell season it is. Note if you're avoiding negative reactions: this is one.
I wanted to like this! I really did. I want to like Doctor Who again. But a premise full of possibilities was undermined by writerly incompetence and New Who's usual oddly limited version of morality.
First of all, the incompetence. If we're suppose to be shocked when Rusty the Dalek turns all "exterminate the Daleks!" at the end due (we're told) to the influence of the Doctor's hatred, it might have helped not to have him saying "destroy the Daleks" and "death to the Daleks" at the start when everybody was all excited about him being good. *headdesk* At that moment I thought "hang on, whose idea of good is this exactly?" but I didn't think that what we were apparently supposed to take unproblematically at the beginning would be resurrected as The Moral Problem later on.
As for morality . . . well, it was somewhat less incoherent than is typical, I'll grant it that much. The happy ending didn't depend on a deus ex machina to avert disaster after the heroes make the "right" decision. My objection came when Journey Blue asked to go with the Doctor, and the Doctor took a long look at her (during which, I confess, I thought "they'll never make her a companion, she's not white!") and finally said, "I wish you hadn't been a soldier."
Here's a list of friends and companions of the Doctor who were or had at some point been soldiers (i.e. military, quasi-military, or warriors or fighters within the definition of their culture). This only includes telly companions, and I've probably forgotten some.
Ben Chapman
Jamie McCrimmon
the Brigadier
Benton
Mike Yates
Jo Grant (worked for UNIT)
Harry Sullivan
Leela
Turlough
Ace (if you count a fondness for homemade explosives)
Jack Harkness
Now, if the Doctor had said, "I don't think I can be around a soldier right now," I'd have accepted that, given that he's still reeling from being called a good Dalek. (Which, speaking of moral incoherence? The Doctor has plenty of faults, but he doesn't go around deliberately exterminating other species just because. He's committed near-genocide on the Daleks and the Time Lords, but only as a way to save the rest of the universe. But apparently, in morality according to Steven Moffat, hating genocidal maniacs is as bad an offense as being one.) It's true that the Doctor has nearly always, canonically, been uncomfortable with professional soldiers and with violence as anything but a very last resort. But to turn that into a categorical rejection of anyone who's ever been a soldier, regardless of the circumstances or the person concerned, is (a) moralizing rather than morality, and (b) counter to the Doctor's history.
I'll give it a couple more episodes. But I'm increasingly doubtful that I can stomach more of Moffat's Who even for the pleasure of watching Peter Capaldi.
Crossposted at Dreamwidth (
comments); you can comment here or there.
I wanted to like this! I really did. I want to like Doctor Who again. But a premise full of possibilities was undermined by writerly incompetence and New Who's usual oddly limited version of morality.
First of all, the incompetence. If we're suppose to be shocked when Rusty the Dalek turns all "exterminate the Daleks!" at the end due (we're told) to the influence of the Doctor's hatred, it might have helped not to have him saying "destroy the Daleks" and "death to the Daleks" at the start when everybody was all excited about him being good. *headdesk* At that moment I thought "hang on, whose idea of good is this exactly?" but I didn't think that what we were apparently supposed to take unproblematically at the beginning would be resurrected as The Moral Problem later on.
As for morality . . . well, it was somewhat less incoherent than is typical, I'll grant it that much. The happy ending didn't depend on a deus ex machina to avert disaster after the heroes make the "right" decision. My objection came when Journey Blue asked to go with the Doctor, and the Doctor took a long look at her (during which, I confess, I thought "they'll never make her a companion, she's not white!") and finally said, "I wish you hadn't been a soldier."
Here's a list of friends and companions of the Doctor who were or had at some point been soldiers (i.e. military, quasi-military, or warriors or fighters within the definition of their culture). This only includes telly companions, and I've probably forgotten some.
Ben Chapman
Jamie McCrimmon
the Brigadier
Benton
Mike Yates
Jo Grant (worked for UNIT)
Harry Sullivan
Leela
Turlough
Ace (if you count a fondness for homemade explosives)
Jack Harkness
Now, if the Doctor had said, "I don't think I can be around a soldier right now," I'd have accepted that, given that he's still reeling from being called a good Dalek. (Which, speaking of moral incoherence? The Doctor has plenty of faults, but he doesn't go around deliberately exterminating other species just because. He's committed near-genocide on the Daleks and the Time Lords, but only as a way to save the rest of the universe. But apparently, in morality according to Steven Moffat, hating genocidal maniacs is as bad an offense as being one.) It's true that the Doctor has nearly always, canonically, been uncomfortable with professional soldiers and with violence as anything but a very last resort. But to turn that into a categorical rejection of anyone who's ever been a soldier, regardless of the circumstances or the person concerned, is (a) moralizing rather than morality, and (b) counter to the Doctor's history.
I'll give it a couple more episodes. But I'm increasingly doubtful that I can stomach more of Moffat's Who even for the pleasure of watching Peter Capaldi.
Crossposted at Dreamwidth (
comments); you can comment here or there.