What is your most controversial opinion?

I appreciate the response - although I’ll admit to having a natural aversion to ‘tons of people’ because nameless majorities are easy to cite and hard to prove.

I know Rona Munro put in the subtext to Survival but I’d be interested to see comments from the other writers of her stories about their thoughts on it. Also, the New Adventures went pretty hard in the other direction with stories such as Nightshade and Love and War giving her straight love interests.

I’m also not that convinced that Chibnall was very concerned about representation beyond casting the first female Doctor. He’s on record as saying the Thasmin stuff only came about because of what fandom shipping them, so it’s not something he was actively pursuing with Yaz’s character.

Can I just clarify what WLW means - I think I can work it out but it’s not an acronym I’ve seen before.

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Women loving women.

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WLW means woman-loving-woman! i just say it so i don’t have to say “lesbians and bi women” every time.

yeah i mean i would love to hear from other writers, i’m just looking at what’s on the screen and comparing it to what i know about lgbtq+ communities and culture now and in the 80’s when it was airing. i was born at the very tail end of the 90’s so of course there’s a lot i don’t know but, like, if i as a lesbian were trying to write a lesbian doctor who companion, i would write someone a lot like ace.

i think chibnall is very visibly concerned with representation honestly. his companions feel very calculated to appeal to the widest possible range of people–i actually think the fact that he always has an older white man around demonstrates that, because it seems very calculated to not alienate the sexist/racist audiences too much. and he deliberately included episodes about racism and sexism with (co)writer credits to people from whatever marginalized group the episode was about (applies to rosa, demons of the punjab, the witchfinders, also legend of the sea devils). i don’t think it’s well-done and i think a lot of the time it feels tokenizing but he is definitely trying to “represent” various groups, issues, and historical events.

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Cool, thanks for the clarification.

Those stories you mention are some of my favourites from the Chibnall era (although Legend is a hot mess). I don’t think any of them are perfect (which Doctor Who stories are) but I think they do a good job of tellng the stories they want to tell. And you’re right - they do suggest Chibnall is interested in representation and I should have considered them in my reply above.

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what i really should’ve said in my first post is that my most controversial opinion is that ace is a lesbian. i never expect that to be met with surprise but it somehow always is.

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That take surprises me less than Tegan, mainly because of Survival.

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i’m reserving judgment on tegan until i actually watch her era but with everything i’ve heard from people i tend to agree with i am sure i will have that interpretation about her too. but i’m somewhere in three-era in classic at the moment!

She’s written with at least some attraction to men, so I think the bi camp gets to claim Ace. Leather jacket, propensity for violence? She’s one of ours.

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i’ve had this discourse and i did not enjoy it. really i’m not too bothered by what specific label applies to her, but my point is that she is pretty clearly written with gender nonconformity and WLW subculture in mind.

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I mean to be honest I will claim her a little harder than I might normally because the only other bi rep I have is Captain Jack, and the less said about the flattening of bi/pansexuality into “will shag anything with a pulse and functioning eyeballs” the better honestly.

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Hopefully you mean “the only other bi rep in Doctor Who”.

If not, go watch The Owl House. The main character is very definitely bi.

I would argue that in situations where it is not stated outright it is up in the air and open to personal interpretation of the characters’ romantic preferences - art is naturally interpreted in the eyes of the people experiencing it and thus influenced by your own experiences and opinions. Having a good natured tug-of-war about which group when it comes to sexual preferences gets to claim her is rather moot in my eyes as you can always have your own subjective opinion and interpretation. The enjoyment of art should never hinge on the perceptions of others.
I agree with @deltaandthebannermen that it is too easy to get caught up in online echo chambers and gain a perception that a single interpretation is a representative majority, and at the end of the day even the opinion of the majority should be irrelevant to one’s subjective enjoyment of art.

Onscreen Ace is a very open individual and a lot of her interactions are naturally flirty in nature - for me the first genuine romantic attraction I see Ace having is with Robin in Nightshade (much more believable than Jan if I’m honest).
I saw several posts online shipping Ace and Graham after The Power of the Doctor - I only saw a continuation of Ace’s flirty personality.
That’s not to say that I can’t see why people would read Ace as being bi-sexual - for me the sexuality of the character is just not a particularly interesting aspect of their personality, I couldn’t care either way as to the nature of their sexual/romantic preferences as long as the relationships presented are narratively interesting.

With Tegan and Nyssa I do not see what people are on about. I see them as a found family with Adric being the annoying little brother and the Doctor the exasperated uncle. But again that is my personal subjective opinion of what is presented to me.

I’ll just leave this gem from Mark Hamill here :blush:
Have a nice day people!

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Can’t forget Carrie Fisher…

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Oh General Leia Organa, she was something else.

Her autobiographies are downright amazing - heartfelt and hilarious at the same time!
“Shockaholic” has had a profound influence on me the last couple of years.

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Oooh, it’s on my endless TBR list! I’ve heard so many things about Carrie Fisher and her life after the Star Wars films so I’ve always wanted to read her biography.

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I like jack, but yeah when that sort of representation is the only rep that your group gets, it’s not great.

That said, Jack’s far from the only bi/pan rep on the show: While most people headcanon him as somewhere on the ace spectrum, you could easily read the doctor as bi as well (especially in the RTD eras), River makes multiple references to wives, clara mentions kissing Jane Austen, you could easily read most of Torchwood 3 as bi (definite for Tosh, a little more complicated for Ianto, and a maybe for Owen), potentially Charlie from Class (though he’s more gay coded)

That all said, yeah, of that list only the torchwood lot are actually shows in relationships with both men and women

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Glad I’m not the only one who thinks this. It sometimes feels like I’m in an echo chamber when I ask the question “what is the best BigFinish series?” and 90% of the replies are showering J&L with praise.

Never got the love for their series at all. Especially when there are many much stronger spin-offs.

‘Graceless’, for one.

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Ooh, Graceless is on my to-listen list, hopefully some time soon

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I’m not sure whether this is actually controversial or not, but I have an inkling that I might be in the minority on this one.

Right, Matt Smith does a big speech really well - “Pandorica” and “Love from Gallifrey boys!” being my favourites.
However I almost can’t stand watching the one in The Rings of Akhaten. It is incredibly cringeworthy, and paired with that song just makes it ten times worse, I kind of think that’s the worst acting I have seen by Smith - and I’ve seen the Morbius movie. The story itself is fine though not a favourite of mine by any measure, but that speech brings it down a whole lot for me.
So I guess I have to know now, controversial or not? :slightly_smiling_face:

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It’s tonally quite mature, especially the finale of box set three which deals with the subject of dementia in a pretty heartbreaking way.

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