STEVEN: All women? MAAGA: Women? DOCTOR: Yes, feminine. Ah, female. MAAGA: Oh, we have a small number of men, as many as we need. The rest we kill. They consume valuable food and fulfill no particular function.
(Maaga indicates the two Drahvins)
MAAGA: And these are not what you would call human. They are cultivated in test tubes. We have very good scientists. I am a living being. They are products, and inferior products. Grown for a purpose and capable of nothing more. STEVEN: Grown for what purpose? MAAGA: To fight. To kill.
It’s such a interesting topic in the context of Doctor Who. I think I have a bit of a controversial opinion?
I do think there is room to write romantic and sexual relationships with the Doctor. Some regenerations more than others. It’s not something I would be particularly interested with One, Four or Seven, but it can work for me with Eight and Twelve. Even Six or Five. I usually don’t want to see that within a companion dynamic, though. I do, however, like how Big Finish did it with one of their companions, Charley, because of how it develops. I also like Grace second appearence in The Fallen, the DWM comic, that doesn’t shy away from that aspect of their relationship. And I do tend to vibe with the EDAs’ approach.
There is nothing explicity sexual in the classic series, of course, but it surprised me when I first watched it how the series showed Barbara in “casual” relationships (it was usually just a kiss, but still) throughout her travels. Maybe it’s unfair of me, but I didn’t expect so from a 60’s tv show, and combined with how great Barbara was in other aspects too, it built a main female character that is so unusual for the time, I think (not the best comparison, but comics were terrible with female characters in the 60s, overall).
I don’t particularly like the approach the new series have with Ten and Eleven, tho. Plus because the series rarely touches on it, it’s a topic the spin-offs (and the expanded media too, specially in the 90’s) sometimes exacerbates. I understand why, but it can be a bit too much. There are Torchwood episodes that try to be “adult TM” and just end up… yeah.
Plus someone commented on the sex polen trope. Death to it, please. I never finished reading Syntax, a Eight and Izzy short trip, because of that. GET THAT TROPE FAR, FAR AWAY FROM IZZY.
Maybe we should rename them Awe! They’re arguably the best of the new Torchwood characters; certainly the most “Torchwood” of them.
I also love how this adapts later in the boxsets with people’s desires becoming much more than purely sexual. I really felt for them when the impact was explored. This concept was m’orr’e interesting than some of the stories!
The idea that each doctor has their own independent sexuality is more interesting to me than retconning 1-13 as bi/pansexual to accommodate the Doctors relationship with women in the new series and Rogue in S14.
An idea I think could lead to a really unique story is the Doctor (or really any time lord) regenerating into a body that makes them feel gender dysphoria.
Think this would need a careful hand to write though and probably a trans writer.
Honestly they rly missed an opportunity with 13 there like while I absolutely appreciate that they didn’t draw much attention to the fact that the doctor has what looks like a more female body and still referred to themselves using masculine pronouns at first, I feel like they rly could’ve done more with it
