Anyway, now that I’m all caught up I can say that I didn’t like this episode. I agree with everyone in this thread who was talking about the optics of UNIT pointing guns at civilians. I also still think Ruby is a nothing character and maybe we shouldn’t continuously sideline our first Black Doctor and one of the very few companions of colour we get for a white girl who’s had her time, especially considering how short seasons are now. But worst of all, this episode commits the cardinal Doctor Who sin of just being kinda boring.
Anyway, this is going right next to Dot and Bubble in my hall of fame of episodes that were bad and then somehow got so much worse. I originally rated this 5/10 but every time I think about it it makes me so ■■■■■■■ mad I lower the rating.
I think you said this at the time and I still don’t know where in the scripts she was sidelined or belittled.
Which is making a lot of assumptions about me and my life experience. My point is really that we are all going to interpret a story in different ways based on our life experiences. I know for a fact I have viewed material from a variety of sources in a very different light since becoming a parent and having to watch both deal with some quite serious trauma.
Is the Doctor not appearing much in 73 Yards, Dot and Bubble and this story a deliberate choice, or did much of it arise from the fact that Ncuti Gatwa is an extremely busy, talented actor? Would you be complaining about this if they had cast a white man as the Doctor again?
I don’t agree with your rating, but I absolutely love that you’ve said this. It’s just such a raw, honest statement with no sugar-coating and I respect you for saying it. It’s also good to see people express when they don’t like an episode with the same enthusiasm as we do when we like it, let’s us have more well-rounded discussions
I was willing to accept it last year, seeing as he was still filming other things (I do think they should have waited for him to be a little more available, but that’s besides the point). It was my understanding that he was less busy during the filming of this season.
The thing is, the only other Doctor to have Doctor-light episodes was Ten, who had more episodes overall and his light episodes were more spread out. No other Doctor has them (the Girl Who Waited is debatable). It very much is specific to Fifteen.
And no, I don’t think this is on purpose. Much like the uncritical framing of UNIT in this episode, I think it’s a case of unconscious biases leading to bad optics. That doesn’t stop me from taking issue with it and pointing it out.
I think the reason this episode was a Doctor lite, was to act a soft pilot for the show with the obnoxiously long name. I don’t think it’s particularly great to have so many Doctor lite episodes with the reduced episode count, but I think this episode being Doctor lite was a purely strategic decision, kill multiple birds with one stone and all that.
These two statements don’t correlate. It’s either specific to Fifteen or it’s been used for other Doctors (even if that is just Ten).
But the reasoning behind these two things is very different and you are conflating them. I can see how unconscious bias may affect a script and accept that many haven’t liked the framing UNIT (which I thoroughly disagree with for reasons I wrote about above but, basically, boil down to UNIT have always been framed as the good guys and is literally staffed by some of the Doctor’s best friends).
But having Doctor-lite stories is more of a production issue - or at least it definitely was before this season - so I really don’t think we can imply the production team are being racist - unconsciously or otherwise - for not making sure he is front and centre in every episode.
Also, Belinda wasn’t necessarily going to be a POC so the structure of the season, especially if this story is a sort of pilot for Land and Sea, may have been set before that happened.
My preferred perspective is always to give people the benefit of the doubt. I don’t like assigning what I think motivations are because I know my own position is as prejudiced as any other person’s and unless I actually hear them speak the words that confirm a bias or a point of view its all conjecture and opinion based on ‘what I think’ happened in the process up to something appearing on screen.
There were Doctor-lite stories back in the 60s which was to do with availability.
There were also 2 Doctor-lite episodes in the Moffat era (The Girl Who Waited and Flatline - both of those the Doctor is in the TARDIS the whole time so they could film it double-banked).
I think it’s a huge stretch to say that having an episode focusing on a past companion, something RTD has said he wanted to do for years, was done because of unconscious racism!
Not the Matt Smith erasure . You know I’ve never really considered The Girl Who Waited and Flatline to be Doctor lite episodes, but now that you’ve pointed it out, they’re just as lite as Dot and Bubble, which I do consider a Doctor lite episode.
100% agree. I think in a season of only 8 episodes it is problematic that Doctor Who isn’t in all of them, but I do not think it has anything to do with unconscious racism. I can, & will, critises RTD & his team for a lot of things but not that.
Nine didn’t get a Doctor-lite episode. Ten got three out of 47 episodes, the first being episode 11 (including the Christmas special). Fifteen got three out of 15 so far, the first being his 6th episode ever. This isn’t just “the way they run things”. Other Doctors who may or may not have Doctor-lite episodes depending on how you count have far fewer of them far later in their
runs.
As for @deltaandthebannermen and @shauny, the thing is, no matter how you personally feel about it, Fifteen is Black. No, I wouldn’t get as mad about this is he was white (though I would still probably be annoyed with just how few episodes we get with the Doctor considering the shorter seasons). But he’s not white, and you can’t disentangle that from this. Whether you like it or not, whether it’s on purpose or not, this is our first Black Doctor and this sort of storytelling is sending a message. I point this out because I notice it; I can only imagine how much more Black people who were excited to finally see themselves in the Doctor are noticing it. I know that if there was a nonbinary actor playing the Doctor who got this sort of treatment I would have half the mind to go to the UK and tell RTD off myself.
The episode of 9’s first season that would’ve been Doctor-lite was Father’s Day, btw. They discussed keeping him out of the script altogether, in case he needed time off, and had an alternate version ready in case Christopher Eccleston needed more time off. His father was in the hospital undergoing surgery at the time, and he was traveling back and forth between the set and the hospital a lot…
‘73 Yards’ and ‘Dot and Bubble’ were the first two episodes of the season to be filmed while Ncuti was still making Sex Education, and RTD has stated that if he’d been available earlier, there would’ve been no Doctor-lite episodes at all that season. Also, ‘Dot and Bubble’ was originally supposed to be an Eleventh Doctor/Amy story from what I’ve read. For ‘Lucky Day,’ it would be difficult to have a story all about what happens, or might happen, to a Companion after they leave The Doctor with The Doctor in it the whole time.
I love that we can express contrary opinions in a civil and understanding fashion here; and Eris knows I admire passionately defending one’s position; so I’m not trying to antagonize anyone. Just tossing out some info from BTS stuff I’ve seen.
It is entirely possible to disentangle it. This sort of storytelling is not sending a message. You are interpreting it a certain way. Other people will not interpret it that way.
You cannot ignore the production issues and real life situation of Ncuti’s availability to imply there is something different about how Doctor-lite stories are being used in this current era. You are deliberately choosing to discount how disparate factors have conspired to put us in this situation.
I choose not to discount them and therefore do not interpret this situation as sending any sort of message about the Doctor being black and therefore being less deserving of screen time.
I find it quite sad that, nowadays, we are beholden to expect the worst of people rather than the best. I will always choose the latter. (There enough people being quite obviously the worst for me to be angry at).
. You know I’ve never really considered The Girl Who Waited and Flatline to be Doctor lite episodes, but now that you’ve pointed it out, they’re just as lite as Dot and Bubble, which I do consider a Doctor lite episode.
