The Doctor Who thread

WezV

darthed1981 said:

WezV said:

Although I am sure the thread will carry on with half of posts saying it's just a kids show not to be taken seriously  

Give kids some credit, just because a show is aimed at families doesn't mean it needs be dumb or lack heft.

I do.  I watch a fair few things aimed at kids. Sometimes with my daughters, but not always    

Thankfully I skipped paw patrol

dazzajl

Paw Patrol is either brilliant or unbearable. Depends if you’re listening to the US or U.K. cast versions. 

WezV

anyway, if anyone still doubts the intention of this episode you can watch Doctor Who unleashed, about 3 minutes in.  The exact quote from RTD is:

"It'll be interesting to see the response to this episode.  I think the main response to this episode is going to be about the ending.

What we can't tell is how many people will have worked out that before the ending, because they've seen white person, after white person, after white person and television these days is very diverse.

I wonder, will you be 10 minutes into it?  will you be 15? Will you be 20? before you start to think " Everyone on this community is white".

And if you don't think that, why didn't you?

So that's going to be interesting.  I hope it's going to be be one of those pieces of television you'll see and always remember"

So it seems he achieved exactly what he wanted for most of that, probably not the very last bit  

Philly_Q

darthed1981 said:

Have you seen "Century Falls" @Philly_Q ??  Would be right up your alley.  Very hard to get hold of these days I used to have a DVD I foolishly sold.

Arghh - even the credits are scary - 

No, I confess I've never even heard of it.  I shall investigate.

english_bob said:

Philly_Q said:

Have you seen the Famous Five films produced for the BBC by Nicolas Winding Refn?  They're really good.  They do "lack heft" but they're very entertaining.

I haven't sat down and watched a whole one, but my 7yo daughter who really enjoys the books has watched the first one. When Jack Gleeson turned up as a baddie I knew there'd be some top scenery chewing and moustache twirling villainy if nothing else. 

I didn't know who he was, but it was certainly a gonzo performance.  So much so that I thought they'd bring him back as the villain in the next story, which would've been a bit boring... but they didn't.

HerbieTheRadDorklift

I noticed the all white cast about 15 mins in. Very unusual for Who and BBC to have no diversity. There was also the moment the Doctor popped back onto the lead's "screen" and she said something along the lines of "I didn't know if it was you or just someone who looks the same".

FWIW, long before I twigged on this I actually said I thought all the white people looked the same

EricTheWeary

Not here for two months and out of 169 notifications 167 of them are for Dr Who! So, my apologies that I’m not reading all that has gone before. 

I am, however, quite enjoying the series even if it’s probably not peak The Doctor. My criticism, and this may be twaddle really, is that the last couple of episodes were more stories placed in the world of Dr Who than stories that emerged out of the world of Dr Who. Wouldn’t take a lot of script editing to reimagine them in Black Mirror or Inside Number 9 or something similar. 

But overall there is energy and (apart from the space babies episode probably) they seem to have got back to proper pacing; you can follow the story line rather than just having to sit back and watch a series of frantic scenes which become almost impossible to follow. 

english_bob

HerbieTheRadDorklift said:

I noticed the all white cast about 15 mins in. Very unusual for Who and BBC to have no diversity. There was also the moment the Doctor popped back onto the lead's "screen" and she said something along the lines of "I didn't know if it was you or just someone who looks the same".

FWIW, long before I twigged on this I actually said I thought all the white people looked the same

I spotted the "same-ness" of the people, but didn't register that they were all white.

Hadn't spotted the "all black people look alike" thing either. 

The ending didn't come completely out of leftfield for me though because even if Lindy wasn't a racist she was still part of an insular, entitled society that looked down on anyone who wasn't like them. Just hadn't clocked that they were so concerned about *that* kind of difference.

english_bob

Philly_Q said:

english_bob said:

Philly_Q said:

Have you seen the Famous Five films produced for the BBC by Nicolas Winding Refn?  They're really good.  They do "lack heft" but they're very entertaining.

I haven't sat down and watched a whole one, but my 7yo daughter who really enjoys the books has watched the first one. When Jack Gleeson turned up as a baddie I knew there'd be some top scenery chewing and moustache twirling villainy if nothing else. 

I didn't know who he was, but it was certainly a gonzo performance.  So much so that I thought they'd bring him back as the villain in the next story, which would've been a bit boring... but they didn't.

They brought him back for the third one.

Offset

english_bob said:

HerbieTheRadDorklift said:

I noticed the all white cast about 15 mins in. Very unusual for Who and BBC to have no diversity. There was also the moment the Doctor popped back onto the lead's "screen" and she said something along the lines of "I didn't know if it was you or just someone who looks the same".

FWIW, long before I twigged on this I actually said I thought all the white people looked the same

I spotted the "same-ness" of the people, but didn't register that they were all white.

Hadn't spotted the "all black people look alike" thing either. 

The ending didn't come completely out of leftfield for me though because even if Lindy wasn't a racist she was still part of an insular, entitled society that looked down on anyone who wasn't like them. Just hadn't clocked that they were so concerned about *that* kind of difference.

The fact this debate is taking place means, for me, the Whovian plot has been well and truly lost.

Philly_Q

english_bob said:

Philly_Q said:

english_bob said:

Philly_Q said:

Have you seen the Famous Five films produced for the BBC by Nicolas Winding Refn?  They're really good.  They do "lack heft" but they're very entertaining.

I haven't sat down and watched a whole one, but my 7yo daughter who really enjoys the books has watched the first one. When Jack Gleeson turned up as a baddie I knew there'd be some top scenery chewing and moustache twirling villainy if nothing else. 

I didn't know who he was, but it was certainly a gonzo performance.  So much so that I thought they'd bring him back as the villain in the next story, which would've been a bit boring... but they didn't.

They brought him back for the third one.

I hadn't realised it had been shown, must have been on over bank holiday weekend?  I'll watch on iPlayer.

Headphones

Offset said:

english_bob said:

HerbieTheRadDorklift said:

I noticed the all white cast about 15 mins in. Very unusual for Who and BBC to have no diversity. There was also the moment the Doctor popped back onto the lead's "screen" and she said something along the lines of "I didn't know if it was you or just someone who looks the same".

FWIW, long before I twigged on this I actually said I thought all the white people looked the same

I spotted the "same-ness" of the people, but didn't register that they were all white.

Hadn't spotted the "all black people look alike" thing either. 

The ending didn't come completely out of leftfield for me though because even if Lindy wasn't a racist she was still part of an insular, entitled society that looked down on anyone who wasn't like them. Just hadn't clocked that they were so concerned about *that* kind of difference.

The fact this debate is taking place means, for me, the Whovian plot has been well and truly lost.

The show's not bad though.

mrkb

Just got to episode 3, very disappointed there wasn’t a song and dance scene at the end with them singing culture clubs “War, war is stupid” while dancing with ambulance robots. FFS.

skullfunkerry

WezV said:

anyway, if anyone still doubts the intention of this episode you can watch Doctor Who unleashed, about 3 minutes in.  The exact quote from RTD is:

"It'll be interesting to see the response to this episode.  I think the main response to this episode is going to be about the ending.

What we can't tell is how many people will have worked out that before the ending, because they've seen white person, after white person, after white person and television these days is very diverse.

I wonder, will you be 10 minutes into it?  will you be 15? Will you be 20? before you start to think " Everyone on this community is white".

And if you don't think that, why didn't you?

So that's going to be interesting.  I hope it's going to be be one of those pieces of television you'll see and always remember"

So it seems he achieved exactly what he wanted for most of that, probably not the very last bit  

I think he's achieved that with me: I didn't twig that everyone was white, and I was really shocked at the end. I've been thinking about it quite a bit since.

bloodandtears

skullfunkerry said:

WezV said:

anyway, if anyone still doubts the intention of this episode you can watch Doctor Who unleashed, about 3 minutes in.  The exact quote from RTD is:

"It'll be interesting to see the response to this episode.  I think the main response to this episode is going to be about the ending.

What we can't tell is how many people will have worked out that before the ending, because they've seen white person, after white person, after white person and television these days is very diverse.

I wonder, will you be 10 minutes into it?  will you be 15? Will you be 20? before you start to think " Everyone on this community is white".

And if you don't think that, why didn't you?

So that's going to be interesting.  I hope it's going to be be one of those pieces of television you'll see and always remember"

So it seems he achieved exactly what he wanted for most of that, probably not the very last bit  

I think he's achieved that with me: I didn't twig that everyone was white, and I was really shocked at the end. I've been thinking about it quite a bit since.

Personally I had no idea until I read these comments...

I just saw people as people..  and that the Doctor was a person that said cold truths that they simply didn't want to hear in their happy vain bubble... and even at the end, they simply preferred their existing familiarity to anything else being offered.

Does that make me colour-blind or racist or ignorant or naive or stupid??  It has made me think, that's for sure..

skullfunkerry

bloodandtears said:

skullfunkerry said:

WezV said:

anyway, if anyone still doubts the intention of this episode you can watch Doctor Who unleashed, about 3 minutes in.  The exact quote from RTD is:

"It'll be interesting to see the response to this episode.  I think the main response to this episode is going to be about the ending.

What we can't tell is how many people will have worked out that before the ending, because they've seen white person, after white person, after white person and television these days is very diverse.

I wonder, will you be 10 minutes into it?  will you be 15? Will you be 20? before you start to think " Everyone on this community is white".

And if you don't think that, why didn't you?

So that's going to be interesting.  I hope it's going to be be one of those pieces of television you'll see and always remember"

So it seems he achieved exactly what he wanted for most of that, probably not the very last bit  

I think he's achieved that with me: I didn't twig that everyone was white, and I was really shocked at the end. I've been thinking about it quite a bit since.

Personally I had no idea until I read these comments...

I just saw people as people..  and that the Doctor was a person that said cold truths that they simply didn't want to hear in their happy vain bubble... and even at the end, they simply preferred their existing familiarity to anything else being offered.

Does that make me colour-blind or racist or ignorant or naive or stupid??  It has made me think, that's for sure..

I think I fall into the "naive" group. I always try and see the best in people, and I've been badly let down on more occasions than I care to remember because of it.

Offset

bloodandtears said:

Does that make me colour-blind or racist or ignorant or naive or stupid??

Absolutely none of the above!

darthed1981

bloodandtears said:

Personally I had no idea until I read these comments...

I just saw people as people..  and that the Doctor was a person that said cold truths that they simply didn't want to hear in their happy vain bubble... and even at the end, they simply preferred their existing familiarity to anything else being offered.

Does that make me colour-blind or racist or ignorant or naive or stupid??  It has made me think, that's for sure..

None of the above - it was a good bit of sci-fi and it has made us all think.

Offset

darthed1981 said:

None of the above - it was a good bit of sci-fi and it has made us all think.

I'll probably never find out.  I dislike RTD's proselytising and TBH I've more or less given up on it - which saddens me.

I want to be entertained, not 'made to think'  

RocknRollDave

FWIW, I am finding the current series nice and entertaining.
You can pick holes in the plots/ Science but…it’s fiction, let it go.

WezV

There is plenty of TV out there that doesn't require any thought at all. Modern Who could often be seen as one of them, but thankfully this episode wasn't like that

There is a big difference between the Doctor Who episodes that try to tell you what you should think, and this episode that actually makes you think.

darthed1981 said:

bloodandtears said:

Does that make me colour-blind or racist or ignorant or naive or stupid??  It has made me think, that's for sure..

None of the above - it was a good bit of sci-fi and it has made us all think.

This in spades.  It's what good fiction should do