Dunno if this is controversial but it’s something I’m feeling this year (especially as we have a leaks thread which I’m not reading…)
Leaks and spoilers ruin the show for people and anyone who spreads them is damaging the storytelling - for themselves and others. Things are surprises in a story for a reason and a story’s narrative structure will be built around them.
Knowing stuff ahead of time isn’t something to be proud of.
Agreed and I wish the cast and crew would tell the set reporter guy to back off. I had the God/Harbinger reveal spoiled over a year ago for Lux against my choice, because it circulated so much.
Remember to keep recent spoilers out of general threads!
I always watch out of order because it’s more fun to me. If I did go in order I would be bored since I wouldn’t watch for while since there’s some episodes I like more than others. The only time I do is for Big Finish. Classic as far I understand every single serial is standalone and I honestly like to jump between doctors to help it not feel the same.
Not sure if this is controversial or not, but here goes. Ive been surprised recently seeing loads of people on twitter shipping 15 and Belinda and it’s kinda rubbing me the wrong way? Purely because 15’s been very openly queer and played by a queer actor and I’d rather celebrate that. Of course I’m not wanting to come across as acting as if bi people don’t exist, the Doctor has always been bi to me anyways. It’s just that when it’s the first time we’re getting proper gay Doctor representation I think it’s odd. Not sure if I’ve worded it right for my point to come across.
She even made Tyler Steele straight for her /lh
Personally, I don’t care for the most part. I’m like some of the other posters, I watch/listen to what I’m in the mood for at any given moment. If I choose to fill in the gaps later, I’ll process the disjointed parts in the same way puzzles are put together, it’s not really a big deal.
I suppose you could also interpret this method like a book that uses reverse chronology, wherein the story starts from the ending and you gradually find out how it came to that point.
About spoilers, I’ve always taken a blasé approach to them so that doesn’t bother me.
Sometimes it is, but for example when watching classic who I find it harder to watch one episode after another. Recently I’ve been watching The Reign of Terror, and there’s no way I could go straight into Planet of the Giants or indeed any other Hartnell serial after this (and I love his era!), instead I will feel like watching maybe a 3rd or 4th doctor serial, or rewatching one of my favourite 7th doctor ones. I think it may be to do with the length of the stories - they were originally designed to be watched one 25-minute episode a week, but I might watch a whole serial every few days. So I get a bit oversaturated with the style of a certain era when I watch a serial from it, and just pick whatever kind of episode I feel like from any other era. (This isn’t always the case - I watched seasons 14-18 and 24-26 approximately together, but even then I watched the individual serials in a random order. Basically I just pick a story depending on my mood, and it isn’t necessarily the next one.)
For lots of series (like most of classic who for example) there aren’t really arcs or finales, making it easy to choose episodes randomly. When a series has an arc, I sometimes complete it in order, which I did for Gallifrey and some of 8’s boxsets, but often I just get context retrospectively – so for example I started the main range with natural history of fear then seasons of fear, and when I later got round to, say, storm warning, it gave me a more full picture of the arc(s). And I don’t mind spoilers at all! I never really avoid them and so often I know what’s going to happen anyway when completing stories out of order.
I feel like any time I see someone say they don’t understand how people can ship a certain thing, it comes down to “the heart wants what the heart wants”.
The Ninth Doctor is now canonically ace but that won’t stop people from continuing to ship him with characters. Same with some of the classic Doctors who eschew sexual relations. Some people think Thirteen is a lesbian, but that won’t stop me from wanting to see her and Six get it on. If I think two characters look attractive together, I’m going to ship it.
I don’t think it’s fair that straight characters are considered fair game for sexuality-bending, but non-straight characters must maintain their canonical orientations.[1] You’re not the only person I’ve seen say this in the fandom community at large (it’s not a DW phenomenon), so I’m not just picking on you.
I’m not talking about fans who purposefully make gay characters straight to suit their personal agenda, but rather regular shippers who just like what they like. ↩︎
It always does seem like there are a certain number of people in fandoms that ship the canon gay characters in straight relationships, and it’s always annoying.
Don’t mind the reverse quite as much because there are less gay relationships in fiction then straight, though I do feel like you should treat a character as bi if you do that…
Yeah like each to their own shipping wise but his queerness means a lot to me, so it’s just idk odd? I’ve seen one other pairing going around with Belinda and a character from another era and it feels odd.
It’s better to look at it from a YKINMKATO (pronounced kink tomato) standpoint: your kink is not my kink and that’s okay.
Probably posted this somewhere already but it seems apposite here:
No shade intended.
I think shipping is really odd and don’t understand the appeal at all.
(Except Ian and Barbara - they obviously got married).
I’ve always loved that idea– especially with books which are so longform, I think it could be so fun! Very time-consuming though…
Seems a little early to ship Belinda, really.
15, at least, we have a season to consider. Obviously Rogue would be the canon ship. (Though I could do a Toymaker crack ship, and the field widens if you start considering characters he hasn’t met in this incarnation…)
I thought that last scene in Lux where Belinda kisses the Doctor’s hand could be read as a bit shippy. But it’s not something I would be interested in.
I do love that Fifteen is very obviously, loudly queer. Adore that.
I actually do kinda want 15 and Jamie running around in kilts together…
You’re missing out! 
On the topic of shipping my controversial opinion is that I hate ships with the Doctor. I believe that fans have the right to ship and headcanon however they wish, but when the official TV show does Doctor romances it really upsets me. They were a character that many writers intended to be asexual in the Classic era, and while that word wasn’t used in the sense that it is nowadays – more as a sort of scientific description of the Doctor’s nature as an alien – I still interpret them as both ace and aro representation. Take Human Nature (the novel), where the Doctor being a Time Lord is inherently linked with his complete inability to experience romantic feelings. So now when the Doctor is written as falling in love in the modern era it feels almost offensive to me – taking an aro character and making them allo is just like making a gay character straight, but perhaps even more egregious since aspec representation is so rare.
I’m really, really not.. 