It’s Trans Day of Visibility so I just wanted to make a thread to celebrate Rose. I truly cannot overstate how meaningful it was to me to see an explicitly trans major character, played by a trans actress, in a story that highlights and celebrates her being trans. I have some various criticisms of certain moments around her in The Star Beast, but overall just thinking about her role in it makes me tear up, and hearing the Doctor call her beautiful meant so much to me, as did so many other small moments through the episode. Her return is truly the thing that I am most excited to see in Season 1.
I’m GenderQueer and absolutely loved the part about being Non-Binary saved the day.
That’s one of these bits where I felt the execution was a bit off, because the nonbinary bit came out of the blue. I kind of wish in the scene about pronouns that they’d added Rose giving their pronouns to tell you she was non-binary earlier. because it’ve worked better.
The Owl House had some great non-binary representation with Raine Whispers, who was also played both by a non-binary actor, and a different non-binary actor for a young version of them. And they added a minor character who was non-binary as well in the last season.
Oh, and Star Trek:Strange New Worlds had a great trans non-binary villain in an episode, also played by a trans non-binary actor, IIRC.
I think Rose Noble was a great addition to the Whoniverse. And I love the way they didn’t shy away from dealing with the nuances and intricacies of societal perceptions of trans people. And I would love to read a short story of Rose and the 14th Doctor on that trip to Mars that they had
The non-binary bit did confuse me a tad, it was never actually stated that Rose is non-binary other than in that little montage was it? I liked that they used that fact in the resolution of the DoctorDonna, but it would probably carry more weight if it had been stated earlier in the episode. It could be that something was cut in editing.
And Donna going “I will descend” to make it clear she has got her daughter’s back is just one of the best descriptions of parental love I’ve seen anywhere.
Happy Trans Day of Visibility to any and all who might join in with the festivities
I love Rose, she is a wonderful character and I’m so happy that the show can be more diverse and spread joy and love, especially to those “Not My Doctor” types.
There were a few bits in the writing that came across clunky or nonsensical, and I wish RTD had fixed those, but I think it was still a great thing to include.
There are also several more trans actors coming this Season which I’m excited about.
Happy TDoV!! Regardless of what I think of the specials, I’m so glad they introduced us to Rose who is a wonderful character and I hope we get to see more of her!
A very happy Trans Day of Visibility to all of you at home! I do love Rose. I wish there was some some slightly better choices regarding some aspects of her (what is RTD’s obsession with telling us trans character’s deadnames?) but she is a delight and I am very happy to see Yasmin Finney absolutely thriving and showing her talent to us.
The reason for this its been confirmed is she isn’t non-binary but Russell didn’t realise non-binary was a seperate thing that isn’t all trans people which is why it comes out of nowhere because he just throught that was another term for trans
I don’t get why he didn’t ask someone? And why no-one on the production team mentioned it!
But oh well!
Yeah I think he just thinks he knows about all queer stuff but he’s also old cis and terms change, I hope he gets a sensitivity reader or something in future
Big silly critical post redacted for not really being in tone with the thread
GREATEST APOLOGIES,
CELESTIAL POSTFIXING AGENCY
Just want to say Bethany Black was the first (out) trans actor on Doctor Who, she appeared in Sleep No More, though they did lower her voice in post to sound more like a mans without her knowledge or permission so its pretty bad
Isn’t she also basically a mute brick shit-house bred for combat whose attraction to one of the other space crew is considered incredibly gross? Not exactly the biggest win
I’m not exactly au fait with it but even I know they’re not the same and it surprises me that someone as media-savvy as RTD didn’t!
In the Official Doctor Who Podcast, RTD asks Juno Dawson, a trans woman and regular eu writer, how well the scenes with Rose worked. The thing is, he asks her indirectly, via video message, long after the episode had been been completed, on an official piece of brand marketing. Not only does it feel like the first time he spoke to a trans person about these scenes is well after anything can be done to change them, it’s also not exactly a forum where she can give honest, or even direct, feedback
Y’all I agree with several of the criticisms people have mentioned and I think they’re good to talk about, but I really wanted this thread for TDOV to be focused on celebrating the positive elements of the representation and things we love about Rose
in hindsight I did feel that and I want to make it v clear that I do not dislike the character at all, my criticisms were very much about the approach to the writing of the show currently in general. I have redacted my post though to retain positivity in the thread - I am v sorry <3
No worries. I kinda think it’s a bit of an issue in the fandom (that I’m guilty of too sometimes) that we often default to criticism as our way of engaging with things and forget to focus on the positives
Yeah, no hates Doctor Who more than the fans do!
This is a huge problem in fandom and something I hope we can avoid here. That isn’t to say that criticism isn’t allowed because it most definitely is but hopefully we can be about accentuating the positive.
As the parent of a non-binary child, I really appreciated the scene with Sylvia and Donna worrying about getting the language right.