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.)