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I've now moved in my Classic Who watching to the Fourth Doctor era for a while, more specifically the Four & Leela era. (For those less versed in Classic Who: Four is Tom Baker, ie. the one with the scarf. The one many people think of when they think of Doctor Who [assuming they think of Classic Who era]. Leela is the one with the leotard and the skins and the knife.)
I loved loved loved Leela when I watched her stuff in the marathon, but because they were all on weekdays, I didn't manage to see much. So I've since then bought some stories on DVD, and I figure I'll watch them now. Although I'm already wishing I'd just bought all of them, because I want to see them all. I'm just kind of trying not to buy too much Fourth Doctor era on DVD, since I assume they'll all be out as blu-ray box sets eventually, and those would take up less space.
Anyway, I recently watched Leela's first story, The Face of Evil.
I liked it a lot! The central idea was interesting, two warring tribes on a planet who are actually descendants of a crashed space exploration team who've forgotten their origins and make what sense they can of their surroundings, and have developed their own cultures out of the circumstances they ended up in. I remain a bit unclear as to why the Doctor had had to use his personality imprint to get the computer to work, and why he hadn't erased it, but ah well.
Leela is brilliant! I love how she already displays so much curiosity, intelligence, and willingness to learn strange new things, and how headstrong and brave and tough she is. I do find it odd that she's the only woman we ever see in the story, though! How do the Sevateem and the Tesh go on about procreation? Oh well, I'm headcanoning it as the Sevateem being a very gender-segregated society, with women normally doing their own thing in groups while men do their own, but for some reason judicial and executive power and such is formally in the hands of the male leaders, so that's why we only see men present when Leela is being tried. And since events escalate from there, we just never have the opportunity to meet the other women. As for the Tesh, we don't see that many, so the women just happen to be elsewhere.
But yeah, sci-fi being written by white dudes who think everyone else is a white dude, too, unless they need a woman, sometimes leads to very strange world-building.
Much has been discussed of Leela's costume, and I do admit that when I originally just saw pictures of her, without knowing anything else, I assumed she was just a sex object and a weak character, and it was one of the things that made me falsely assume Classic companions wouldn't be as strong and feminist as the modern ones. (Which is not true at all. Some/many Classic companions feel more feminist to me than any of the New Who companions, and most of them are pretty great.) Well, that's a lesson not to judge a book by its cover or a companion by her costume, because Leela is amazing. Anyway, in-story the outfit doesn't feel sexist, since clearly the Sevateem are all pretty light in the clothing department. It's equal-opportunity half-nudity! Although admittedly Leela looks a lot hotter in her costume than any of the guys do in theirs. But that's because Leela is Leela and she's amazing and hot. The guys are not.
I don't find any of the supporting cast terribly compelling, though they do their job. You know, this is another reason why it would be good to have more women. Since all of the other characters are men, I just get sick of seeing so many men that my eyes glaze over all of them. I did generally like the couple of guys who were more rebellious than the others, but I won't pretend there was any terribly deep writing going on with any of them. But this doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the story, just that all my attention was on Leela and the Doctor. While the Fourth Doctor isn't my all-time favourite or The Doctor like he is to many people (my favourite and my Doctor is Two), I am fond of him and his quirkiness and his manic grins and jelly babies and all, and will happily watch him.
The final scene was the best, though! I loved Leela just going to the TARDIS and the Doctor yelling at her to not touch that, and the TARDIS whooshing and vanishing! That's one of the best companion entrances ever! I laughed out loud and felt very happy.
I actually started watching The Horror of Fang Rock tonight, which is the next one that I own on DVD. I really enjoy it already after one episode, so I'll probably be posting about that one soon, too.
I loved loved loved Leela when I watched her stuff in the marathon, but because they were all on weekdays, I didn't manage to see much. So I've since then bought some stories on DVD, and I figure I'll watch them now. Although I'm already wishing I'd just bought all of them, because I want to see them all. I'm just kind of trying not to buy too much Fourth Doctor era on DVD, since I assume they'll all be out as blu-ray box sets eventually, and those would take up less space.
Anyway, I recently watched Leela's first story, The Face of Evil.
I liked it a lot! The central idea was interesting, two warring tribes on a planet who are actually descendants of a crashed space exploration team who've forgotten their origins and make what sense they can of their surroundings, and have developed their own cultures out of the circumstances they ended up in. I remain a bit unclear as to why the Doctor had had to use his personality imprint to get the computer to work, and why he hadn't erased it, but ah well.
Leela is brilliant! I love how she already displays so much curiosity, intelligence, and willingness to learn strange new things, and how headstrong and brave and tough she is. I do find it odd that she's the only woman we ever see in the story, though! How do the Sevateem and the Tesh go on about procreation? Oh well, I'm headcanoning it as the Sevateem being a very gender-segregated society, with women normally doing their own thing in groups while men do their own, but for some reason judicial and executive power and such is formally in the hands of the male leaders, so that's why we only see men present when Leela is being tried. And since events escalate from there, we just never have the opportunity to meet the other women. As for the Tesh, we don't see that many, so the women just happen to be elsewhere.
But yeah, sci-fi being written by white dudes who think everyone else is a white dude, too, unless they need a woman, sometimes leads to very strange world-building.
Much has been discussed of Leela's costume, and I do admit that when I originally just saw pictures of her, without knowing anything else, I assumed she was just a sex object and a weak character, and it was one of the things that made me falsely assume Classic companions wouldn't be as strong and feminist as the modern ones. (Which is not true at all. Some/many Classic companions feel more feminist to me than any of the New Who companions, and most of them are pretty great.) Well, that's a lesson not to judge a book by its cover or a companion by her costume, because Leela is amazing. Anyway, in-story the outfit doesn't feel sexist, since clearly the Sevateem are all pretty light in the clothing department. It's equal-opportunity half-nudity! Although admittedly Leela looks a lot hotter in her costume than any of the guys do in theirs. But that's because Leela is Leela and she's amazing and hot. The guys are not.
I don't find any of the supporting cast terribly compelling, though they do their job. You know, this is another reason why it would be good to have more women. Since all of the other characters are men, I just get sick of seeing so many men that my eyes glaze over all of them. I did generally like the couple of guys who were more rebellious than the others, but I won't pretend there was any terribly deep writing going on with any of them. But this doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the story, just that all my attention was on Leela and the Doctor. While the Fourth Doctor isn't my all-time favourite or The Doctor like he is to many people (my favourite and my Doctor is Two), I am fond of him and his quirkiness and his manic grins and jelly babies and all, and will happily watch him.
The final scene was the best, though! I loved Leela just going to the TARDIS and the Doctor yelling at her to not touch that, and the TARDIS whooshing and vanishing! That's one of the best companion entrances ever! I laughed out loud and felt very happy.
I actually started watching The Horror of Fang Rock tonight, which is the next one that I own on DVD. I really enjoy it already after one episode, so I'll probably be posting about that one soon, too.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-25 08:27 pm (UTC)But, yeah, Face of Evil is classic planet of One Woman. Old SF tropes we don't miss...
Anyway, enjoy Fang Rock, it's an effective one and a good Leela one - and good luck with obtaining all the Leela! She is sadly in some duff stories, but Louise Jameson is always great.
(Thinking about it, by duff stories, I mainly mean Underworld, because I enjoy all the other ones, even the ones that other people hate. I find Face of Evil hard going, and Sun Makers, too.)
no subject
Date: 2019-05-25 08:41 pm (UTC)I may not be able to refrain from buying the DVD for very long, unless they announce Season 14 box set really soon.
And yeah, Horror of Fang Rock seems pretty great so far, and Leela seems great in it, too. :-)
I read a contemporary newspaper review once that expressed complete bafflement at why the second female character had been introduced. They already had a woman, what could they possibly want a second one for?! (Journalists are even worse than most TV scriptwriters. /o\))
Whaaaaat. I just. Don't understand people. Don't understand men*, at any rate. Yeah, what might they want another woman for, goodness knows women can't possibly be interesting characters or have a story to tell. *facepalm*
*This doesn't encompass the occasional men who've got sense and appreciate women as human beings equally complex and interesting as men and want and/or tell stories about them. I do feel sorry for them, can't have been easy growing up among the rest of them.
I watched some of Sun Makers during the January marathon, and it didn't seem like the best story, but there was some great Leela stuff in there, at least. :-)
Ooh, lovely icon!
no subject
Date: 2019-05-26 07:49 am (UTC)Re. the icon - thanks! It's one of mine, so you're welcome to steal it should you want.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-25 08:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-27 12:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-25 08:48 pm (UTC)I don't tend to 'rank' companions, but Leela is something else. WHY does the Doctor not travel with warrior women more often? She's so smart and matter of fact and independent and ready to stab things, I think I'm in love.
Also Horror of Fang Rock is brilliant, enjoy! I even made an icon after watching it. <3
no subject
Date: 2019-05-28 08:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-25 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-28 08:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-25 10:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-28 08:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-26 11:19 am (UTC)And Leela is just the best ever.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-28 08:51 pm (UTC)