Rose would have been a fun companion but I think that it was wise to not have her. Would have been to close to Donna and Forteen.
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Same. Is it bad that I’ve fleshed out an idea for a season where this actually happens? Granted, it’s a bit of a self-insert thing, but still. I always imagined going from a situation where my home life was very binary, scary, and insecure. To exploring the universe and finding attitudes like this everywhere:
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“Sometimes, I think we’re all your children.” It’s a little ruined because Murray should have known that the line itself is an 8 at least, so he should not have come in at anything more than a 7 so as not to step all over it, but you know what, there is clearly an ethos at the heart of this.
That moment feels earned (much more by the sixty years preceding sometimes, but earned nevertheless) but it has happened, unfortunately, at the expense of both the female protagonists. This script has moments of real brilliance - Ruby’s wish for Conrad actually working, Mel (who is I think one of the belweathers for what we consider a “kind” Doctor Who companion) specfically telling Ruby she did a good thing. Her moment of agency and the deployment of her compassion is completely stepped on because, what, the thing she did worked? She throws a tantrum over Poppy instead of taking time for her own success because the narrative wants us to get to the “we’re all your children, you’ll always save one person” moment. It’s all a bit too hero worshippy, and it has the back-edge of undermining what I had hoped the story was trying to tell a certain sort of fan of the show - “We see your pain, and The Doctor can be your family too, if you let us.” Instead, we get delivered a moment where it’s kind of implicitly stated that Conrad should never have been redeemed at all. And I don’t know if that’s the sort of thing you want to be saying to young men in 2025 if you want to reach them.
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Same. It all feels so half-hearted, like giving minorities a few scraps from the table in terms of representation.
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oh for god’s sake you AREN’T the last of the time lords
demonstrably
anita dobson was JUST here
she did a two ronnies joke
by that standard she’s the best time lord in the show right now, not you
Oh and look lovely Jodie is here and it was all going really well until, shock horror, she comments on how bloody beautiful Ncuti Gatwa is. Maybe the problem with this season is that Russell’s only been using one hand to write it.
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he also fully knows the master is still there. trapped inside a tooth, sure. but alive. just trapped.
it’d be like that time I got stuck up a tree for a bit and my sister then saying she’s the last of our siblings
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me when I get into an elevator alone:
I am the LAST OF THE HUMANS
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I’ll never ever forget the clip from the official podcast where he put Juno on the spot on the biased super positive podcast on whether or not he was right to include the deadnaming scene. Like… why did he not ask her when oh I don’t know… writing it? Filming it? Editing? Really odd.
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On balance, I am happy Jodie came back. On further balance, this is, in the storied history of Modern Who finales, an absolute mess. A cutlery draw dropped down stairs. A glass urn full of coffee and tea shattering at the bottom and soaking a kitchen cabinet. I laughed. I cried. I swore, often. RTD2 has been like crashing Trial of a Time Lord, The TV Movie and Flux into one another, and the twisted wreckage is so sublimely interesting that you could hang it in the gallery of the Tate, gleaming blue amongst the Brutalism, and it would not look out of place. I have no idea what to think of this. I have no idea at all what is coming.
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I personally like the deadnaming scene, because it felt very real to my experiences. But I can get why it’d be deeply uncomfortable to some trans people, and I also get that it removes Rose’s agency and puts her in the typical victimised trans girl complex stereotype thing.
I think the deadnaming scene would work a bit better if Rose was the companion. Because then, it’d sort of feel like, okay, this is how shitty life is for her, Uncle 14 is here to save her and show her kindness and self-worth. Take her around the universe and show her how tiny those people are compared to the love and magic and wonder of all of time and space. Sort of like how Rose escaped mundanity, Matha escaped a difficult family dynamic, Donna escaped both etc. This is her version, sort of. With her just staying on Earth it’s just, oh okay, so she’s still getting harassed by people at school and now she’s been recruited by Kate’s straight out of the womb scheme.
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That is why I liked it. It is just a fun mess.
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Silence. Peace. Harmony.
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I also don’t like that he gave a meaning to the dead name. All just feels a little tone deaf to me. If you’re gonna add it at all it shouldn’t have as much meaning to it as her actual name
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Was thinking the same thing, this was awful.
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Actually, if you want a name meaning healer, why not a trans guy who choose the name Jason? Seems like it would solve a lot of problem this way
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I really want to think he means well; I really really do. But it’s getting harder and harder to
If he stays in charge we NEED sensitivity readers and folks who tell him no because the politics of this are getting more and more performative progressive and less and less actually imo
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That look at the camera after he says “I don’t wanna do this alone.” Look I don’t actually care at all about the fourth wall breaks never being explained. If anything, Time Lords being capable of perceiving outside of our capacity, including meta-narratively, feels like it works pretty well to me.
This is a good regeneration sequence - not a great one. It was clearly filmed in a rush, as a lot of the ending seemed to be.
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Just on the subject of names, and maybe I’m nitpicking, but I don’t love that she’s called Rose.
The story makes sense: Donna never truly forgot, subconciously, it was still there, and Rose learned the name and loved it through memories. It’s also a beautiful name and suits her.
That being said… there’s two things I always found really uncomfortable about it:
-
It sort of felt like she was made to be trans because of the meta crisis stuff. Specifically
non binary. She wasn’t actually trans, and this was just the result of what the meta crisis sort of…made her? Because of the Doctor/Donna. She’s the embodiment of both…that feels like something she was created as, as opposed to her just being her own trans person. -
Her being called Rose removes the agency of being a trans person and choosing her own name. Her name isn’t influenced by a name she’s always loved, a flower, a character - whatever it might be. Her name was chosen because through the 10’s side of her memories and influences, that name stuck out as important and beautiful. It’s not unique or special to her, it’s the meta crisis picking one for her.
Yasmin is a beautiful, talented, versatile actress, and I’m still happy she’s in the show. But in terms of trans representation, her character feels like someone who was ‘built’ as trans as a result of the meta crisis, as opposed to telling a story of someone who actually is, always has been and always would be.
I have no idea if I’ll be torn apart for that, but it’s pride month so be nice to the dolls.
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I always thought RTD secretly had a crush on David Tennant or something😭 Most of the kiss scenes were…why they were even there? I know he is canonically supposed to be attractive but he didn’t need to kiss that much in my opinion. Cassanda Rose kissing 10 scene always bothered me too.
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I was also so thrilled to have a trans character on tv. Though it’s still not a trans guy (last time I was so excited was when Tania in 8DA was announced so I’ve been somewhat expecting a trans guy next time), I was so happy to see her. Even though RTD completely got how trans people, especially non-binary people works wrong, I was glad that he’s trying to do something good. But when I got over the 60th anniversary hype Rose’s character doesn’t really work, for the most part.
What I want to say is, I feel you when I read this, I think I do. It pains me to see someone in our community feels this way because some old showrunner didn’t get a proper consultant… This goes against everything I’ve learned from this silly old show. It really should’t be like this.
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