new doctor
Monday, 5 August 2013 11:07![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usuallyhats
I am not thrilled.
On the positive side, Peter Capaldi's a great actor, it's nice to have an older Doctor again, and he's clearly enthusiastic about the part.
On the negative side... when I heard the rumours that it might be him, my instinctive reaction was "no, he's not the Doctor". There are some actors where I have strong irrational feelings about whether or not they are the Doctor, and apparently Capaldi is one of these.
And on a less irrational note... another white man? Really? DISAPPOINTING. Especially after the (excruciating) live show kept teasing is with "it's someone really different" and "it might be a woman this time!!!!1!!!1!", which in retrospect I hated because they KNEW it wasn't. I don't have much time for the idea that hoping for someone other than a white male was naive, if only because if there's any fandom where relentless optimism should be the order of the day, it's this one. (Also, since Matt Smith was cast, the show has established that Time Lords can change gender and race when they regenerate.) I have more sympathy for the idea that we need more female and non-white people behind the camera (we absolutely do, that should go without saying) before we cast one as the Doctor, but I disagree (and not just because this opinion often (ETA though of course not always) comes packaged with "Moffat is OBJECTIVELY THE WORST", which I also disagree with; the man has his flaws FOR SURE, but he has strengths too): I think just having someone who is female (or non binary gendered!) and/or not white in the role would mean so much that it would override any dodginess in the writing, at least to a certain extent. And I am personally of the camp who would rather have badly written representation than none: bad representation can be fixed or reclaimed, after all. This is especially true of Doctor Who, which is so much bigger than whoever's currently working on it. One day, my imaginary daughter, all of this will be Big Finish's. (Or whoever the equivalent is in ten years time.) And though their track record with female Doctors is not good, their track record with rescuing Doctors most of fandom had written off is EXCELLENT.
The other thing I found troubling in the live show was Moffat saying that they basically all went with the first person they'd thought of. (Really, I often feel that Moffat shouldn't give interviews; I'm not even touching his comment about Helen Mirren. Partly because by that point I'd stopped paying attention and missed it.) That's how we end up with wall to wall white dudes, people! That's how the writing team got so white and male! And if they'd thought for just a little longer, they might have thought of someone else. Like: Meera Syal, who played experience and wonder so well in "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood". Indira Varma, who has an amazingly delicate otherworldly quality about her, and would be a great Doctor in the Paul McGann vein. (She'd also be my pick for a regenerated Susan.) Tamsin Greig, who is ace at being weird. Sophie Okenedo, because she's the bloody Queen, mate, and she has the confidence and the humour and the dignity to make a brilliant Doctor. Idris Elba, who feels like the Doctor to me in the way that Capaldi does not. Alexander Siddig, who could be kind and compassionate and brilliantly full of righteous moral outrage as needed.
Sigh. Next time, eh?
(I mean, maybe I will be eating my words about Capaldi! I want to like the Doctor, plus, relentless optimism, remember? I was very unsure about Matt Smith, and he's now one of my favourites. But right now, all I can see are the missed opportunities.)
On the positive side, Peter Capaldi's a great actor, it's nice to have an older Doctor again, and he's clearly enthusiastic about the part.
On the negative side... when I heard the rumours that it might be him, my instinctive reaction was "no, he's not the Doctor". There are some actors where I have strong irrational feelings about whether or not they are the Doctor, and apparently Capaldi is one of these.
And on a less irrational note... another white man? Really? DISAPPOINTING. Especially after the (excruciating) live show kept teasing is with "it's someone really different" and "it might be a woman this time!!!!1!!!1!", which in retrospect I hated because they KNEW it wasn't. I don't have much time for the idea that hoping for someone other than a white male was naive, if only because if there's any fandom where relentless optimism should be the order of the day, it's this one. (Also, since Matt Smith was cast, the show has established that Time Lords can change gender and race when they regenerate.) I have more sympathy for the idea that we need more female and non-white people behind the camera (we absolutely do, that should go without saying) before we cast one as the Doctor, but I disagree (and not just because this opinion often (ETA though of course not always) comes packaged with "Moffat is OBJECTIVELY THE WORST", which I also disagree with; the man has his flaws FOR SURE, but he has strengths too): I think just having someone who is female (or non binary gendered!) and/or not white in the role would mean so much that it would override any dodginess in the writing, at least to a certain extent. And I am personally of the camp who would rather have badly written representation than none: bad representation can be fixed or reclaimed, after all. This is especially true of Doctor Who, which is so much bigger than whoever's currently working on it. One day, my imaginary daughter, all of this will be Big Finish's. (Or whoever the equivalent is in ten years time.) And though their track record with female Doctors is not good, their track record with rescuing Doctors most of fandom had written off is EXCELLENT.
The other thing I found troubling in the live show was Moffat saying that they basically all went with the first person they'd thought of. (Really, I often feel that Moffat shouldn't give interviews; I'm not even touching his comment about Helen Mirren. Partly because by that point I'd stopped paying attention and missed it.) That's how we end up with wall to wall white dudes, people! That's how the writing team got so white and male! And if they'd thought for just a little longer, they might have thought of someone else. Like: Meera Syal, who played experience and wonder so well in "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood". Indira Varma, who has an amazingly delicate otherworldly quality about her, and would be a great Doctor in the Paul McGann vein. (She'd also be my pick for a regenerated Susan.) Tamsin Greig, who is ace at being weird. Sophie Okenedo, because she's the bloody Queen, mate, and she has the confidence and the humour and the dignity to make a brilliant Doctor. Idris Elba, who feels like the Doctor to me in the way that Capaldi does not. Alexander Siddig, who could be kind and compassionate and brilliantly full of righteous moral outrage as needed.
Sigh. Next time, eh?
(I mean, maybe I will be eating my words about Capaldi! I want to like the Doctor, plus, relentless optimism, remember? I was very unsure about Matt Smith, and he's now one of my favourites. But right now, all I can see are the missed opportunities.)
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no subject
Date: 6 Aug 2013 12:27 (UTC)Except if we had to have another white male doctor, he actually kind of works for me. Like, he can do gravitas and I'm glad they skewed older. I think he'll do fine but I'm disappointed at the lack of imagination they've shown by basically not bothering to even look at anyone else. (I love all your suggestions! I also think Helen McCrory could do it.) (Also speaking of BF have you listened to 1001 Nights? Vaguely relevant...)
no subject
Date: 6 Aug 2013 13:40 (UTC)but I'm disappointed at the lack of imagination they've shown by basically not bothering to even look at anyone else
Yes! I was just saying in the LJ crosspost comments: how often do you get to cast such a big, important character with so few restrictions on who you choose?
Ooh, yes, Helen McCrory would be a good choice too.
I haven't! I've really fallen behind with Big Finish, haven't listened to any of the main range* since my subscription lapsed after "Black and White". Is that one worth catching up for? (I am leaning towards yes due to the presence of Alexander Siddig. ;D)
*not strictly true, I've caught up with some older stuff, currently stuck halfway through "Medicinal Purposes". STOP FANBOYING BURKE, DOCTOR.
no subject
Date: 8 Aug 2013 19:12 (UTC)1001 Nights is pretty good, not like a masterpiece but really fun and clever, and Alexander Siddig's performance in it is... not un-relevant to this conversation.
no subject
Date: 13 Aug 2013 10:24 (UTC)Cool! I shall move it up my mental "what to buy next from Big Finish" list. :D
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Date: 20 Aug 2013 13:55 (UTC)no subject
Date: 24 Aug 2013 14:08 (UTC)no subject
Date: 26 Aug 2013 11:39 (UTC)I know I listened to a bit of Eight and Charley way back - enough to start really liking Charley - but now I don't really remember which ones? I think I started off with the ones that crossed over with other companions, and then I listened to her first couple of stories?
no subject
Date: 2 Sep 2013 10:32 (UTC)I recommend "Seasons of Fear" if you haven't heard that one - that's where I started really liking Charley!
no subject
Date: 5 Aug 2013 16:30 (UTC)This doesn't address your other point,though, because what will until we get a female/poc Doctor? I love your choices of female Doctor, btw - they're all awesome! I don't know which is my favourite, but they definitely have all the right qualities. You should send the list into the BBC for next time, together with the rest of your points here.
Maybe they'll undo the work of the time war in the anniversary special and give us the Rani and Romana and many other awesome female Time Lords back, which would make up for it a little... :-/
no subject
Date: 6 Aug 2013 11:20 (UTC)Oh, cool, I will maybe catch up with The Hour then! (I saw the first series but never got around to the second.)
And when he came in on the special yesterday, he was doing a little Hartnell-esque lapel rubbing. You know someone can't be all bad when they can riff Hartnell
Ahaha, true, I missed that! I hope I do grow to like him, I don't like not liking the Doctor.
Thanks! (I'm sure I've picked at least some of them up from other people's suggestions, though :))
Maybe they'll undo the work of the time war in the anniversary special and give us the Rani and Romana and many other awesome female Time Lords back, which would make up for it a little...
YES PLEASE. Oh, I hadn't even thought that they might do that! It would be so awesome if they did.
no subject
Date: 6 Aug 2013 16:51 (UTC)YES PLEASE. Oh, I hadn't even thought that they might do that! It would be so awesome if they did.
... I hadn't thought it till I typed it and now I want it too. Whoops.
no subject
Date: 13 Aug 2013 10:22 (UTC)no subject
Date: 13 Aug 2013 10:58 (UTC)no subject
Date: 14 Aug 2013 10:24 (UTC)no subject
Date: 14 Aug 2013 15:58 (UTC)*waves you incoherently to S2 and Lix Feels (as they say on Tumblr)*
no subject
Date: 6 Aug 2013 04:48 (UTC)I am having trouble with Capaldi because he played a large role in the very tonally different Children of Earth, which is ostensibly in the same universe. I had forgotten entirely he was in Fires of Pompeii - didn't know who he was at the time anyway. But I saw World War Z recently and when he came on I was like, hey! The Torchwood guy! So for me at least, I will be thinking of CoE, and you know...CoE was pretty good, but it's not something I like to think about when I think about Doctor Who. I presume I will get over it, but for now, I just can't quite see him in the role.
"First person they thought of" is garbage. What happened to holding auditions? Finding new talent? Pushing outside your box? Bah.
no subject
Date: 6 Aug 2013 11:28 (UTC)CoE was pretty good, but it's not something I like to think about when I think about Doctor Who
Oh, no, that's not a good association. My image of him in CoE has been overridden by The Thick of It, which is at least more entertaining, if not exactly appropriate!
Right? Moffat (I think) was talking about how usually they'd go through this whole process, but this time they all independently thought of Capaldi so went straight to screen testing him. (Well, I assume it was probably a little more involved than that, but still.) And fine, if they all thought he'd be great, definitely include him, but it's such a waste not to look around and see what other possibilities there are for such a big part. I mean, how often do you get to cast an important role where there are so few limits on who could play it? :/
no subject
Date: 16 Sep 2013 01:15 (UTC)To be fair, it was exactly what I expected from Moffat (down to choosing an older, not "pretty" actor because ugh teenage girls) but it definitely annoyed me that the BBC tried to play up the hype by pretending they actually made some sort of radical casting choice.
The other thing I found troubling in the live show was Moffat saying that they basically all went with the first person they'd thought of.
This too.
no subject
Date: 16 Sep 2013 10:27 (UTC)Yes! On the one hand, I do think that having the BBC talk about the possibility of a female and/or non-white Doctor is a good sign for actually getting one down the line, but when they already know they've cast another white man, it just comes off as almost mocking fans for believing they might have made a more interesting decision. :/