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auroracloudOkay, I've now watched both parts of Spyfall, ie. the first S12 Doctor Who story. I'm going to post some first thoughts soon, but I'm now going to rant about the fact that the official PR of the show managed to spoil me for a major twist though fandom and such didn't. So this isn't actually about the episode, but will contain a major spoiler.
It also, uh, contains a lot of ranting. And swears.
So here's abrief long rant as to the previous thing I posted about with regards to Doctor Who. Not actually about the episode, but.
THE FUCKING BBC SPOILED THE TWIST OF THE FIRST PART FOR ME. I wouldn't even have gotten it from anywhere else! But they did it themselves about 24 hours after part 1 had aired in the UK! On the evening of January 2nd, I unsuspectingly went to the YouTube front page, because I like using some yoga and ballet workout videos there. I habitually use the front page because it's easier than going straight to particular channels. And right at the top of the front page, there was a video of the official Doctor Who channel which mentioned the Master in the title and had the face of Sacha Dhawan's Master on it as the preview image, so that you didn't have to click on it to see it. I didn't know the actor or anything but from that very brief glance - I immediately closed the window so I wouldn't see anything else spoilery - I could tell that the Master would be back and I'd seen what he looked like - and sure enough, in the episode it was easy enough to recognize him as soon as he got on the screen. So, as much as I wanted to pretend I didn't know anything and just take the episode as it happened, I knew all the time, of course, and kept looking for clues and waiting for the reveal.
I would have so much loved that reveal, had it been a surprise for me! I could tell it was excellently constructed, he did such a convincing job being this wholly different character, and suspicions were thrown on other people. But because I'd seen that one damn video preview with that title, which I didn't want to see and didn't seek out, I knew it already. And because I knew it already, I had trouble focusing on the story as it was because I kept looking for hints even as I wanted not to. I was so, so pissed off at them.
Like, fuck, way to go. I managed to avoid any other spoilery content, fandom didn't spoil me a thing (I did avoid sites like Twitter) but they put it on my screen themselves just because I don't happen to be a Brit (or an American, I guess) and therefore didn't get the episode immediately. I mean, I guess I should have just done the illegal thing, but I'm a stupidly law-abiding Finn who doesn't do stuff like that when I can have the episode pretty soon legally. Like, fuck, since Brexit hasn't damaged everything badly enough already, thanks BBC for joining the ranks to remind us lowly non-native English speakers that we aren't worth shit to most English-speakers. They MUST HAVE known that countries without their own regional BBC would NOT have had that episode by that time. Honestly the only reason I can think why they did this is that they don't give a shit about anyone who isn't an English-speaker. They could so easily just not have made it so spoilery at a first glance. Either not have his picture show, or construct the title more ambiguously, like "the history of our newest guest character" or something - people who've seen it would know, the rest wouldn't be spoiled.
Guess I'm going to have to figure out ways to not give the BBC my filthy euros that they clearly don't want. I mean, I do want DVDs, but I can buy them second-hand from now on, I guess.
I mean, I didn't go looking for anything! I didn't click on a single thing! I was just wanting to browse through my favourite yoga channels. And OF COURSE I wasn't going to click on any videos from the official Doctor Who account. Yeah, I didn't think to unsubscribe from the official channel, but come on, you know how algorithms work - given that I've watched any Doctor Who stuff on YT at all, and how big the official channel is, it would have shown up on my front page anyway. Stuff I'm less into than Doctor Who have done the same. Did they have to make it so spoilery you can see the spoiler without clicking on the video?
I guess I'm going to have to not only unsubscribe but block the official channel from now on. Although we are going to get the rest of the stories with less delay, so I guess for the rest of them I may be watch the episode before I go on any internet media at all. But I wasn't going to stay off all international websites for over a week, sorry but that's unreasonable.
I now went to look at the comments to that video to see if anyone else had complained about this, and well, some people had - but then there were others going like "oh that's not spoilery" because apparently if they can't put two and two together and get the spoiler (it wasn't any kind of crafty misdirection where you'd end up suspecting the wrong person) then none of us can? Granted, YouTube comments tend to be where the dumb people congregate. And then someone was like "well, the official Twitter account said they were going to give a 24 hour grace period for fans and then spoilers would come" - uh, how does a goddamn Twitter message that make it okay? Not all of us fucking live on Twitter! Or Facebook, if they posted the same warning there. Also, again, do you know how algorithms work these days? You don't get all the messages on your feed anyway. You can't expect that just because someone may use the YouTube front page and YouTube may remember they like Doctor Who, they're also following the official Twitter and Facebook pages religiously and will know they've only got 24 hours before spoiler hell breaks loose.
Whew, okay, done with that. I actually freaking loved the actor in the role so I want to get to my squeeing, but I had to let this out first. I'm not super spoiler-phobic about everything, but this really was a reveal I'd have wanted to first enjoy as it came in the episode. It would have been so much fun. I'm mad they stole that. (For the record I do realize this is very small in the scale of world problems. But there was still no need to ruin my fun just because I'm not from the UK or the US.)
I did, thankfully, manage to stay without spoilers for everything in part 2.
It also, uh, contains a lot of ranting. And swears.
So here's a
THE FUCKING BBC SPOILED THE TWIST OF THE FIRST PART FOR ME. I wouldn't even have gotten it from anywhere else! But they did it themselves about 24 hours after part 1 had aired in the UK! On the evening of January 2nd, I unsuspectingly went to the YouTube front page, because I like using some yoga and ballet workout videos there. I habitually use the front page because it's easier than going straight to particular channels. And right at the top of the front page, there was a video of the official Doctor Who channel which mentioned the Master in the title and had the face of Sacha Dhawan's Master on it as the preview image, so that you didn't have to click on it to see it. I didn't know the actor or anything but from that very brief glance - I immediately closed the window so I wouldn't see anything else spoilery - I could tell that the Master would be back and I'd seen what he looked like - and sure enough, in the episode it was easy enough to recognize him as soon as he got on the screen. So, as much as I wanted to pretend I didn't know anything and just take the episode as it happened, I knew all the time, of course, and kept looking for clues and waiting for the reveal.
I would have so much loved that reveal, had it been a surprise for me! I could tell it was excellently constructed, he did such a convincing job being this wholly different character, and suspicions were thrown on other people. But because I'd seen that one damn video preview with that title, which I didn't want to see and didn't seek out, I knew it already. And because I knew it already, I had trouble focusing on the story as it was because I kept looking for hints even as I wanted not to. I was so, so pissed off at them.
Like, fuck, way to go. I managed to avoid any other spoilery content, fandom didn't spoil me a thing (I did avoid sites like Twitter) but they put it on my screen themselves just because I don't happen to be a Brit (or an American, I guess) and therefore didn't get the episode immediately. I mean, I guess I should have just done the illegal thing, but I'm a stupidly law-abiding Finn who doesn't do stuff like that when I can have the episode pretty soon legally. Like, fuck, since Brexit hasn't damaged everything badly enough already, thanks BBC for joining the ranks to remind us lowly non-native English speakers that we aren't worth shit to most English-speakers. They MUST HAVE known that countries without their own regional BBC would NOT have had that episode by that time. Honestly the only reason I can think why they did this is that they don't give a shit about anyone who isn't an English-speaker. They could so easily just not have made it so spoilery at a first glance. Either not have his picture show, or construct the title more ambiguously, like "the history of our newest guest character" or something - people who've seen it would know, the rest wouldn't be spoiled.
Guess I'm going to have to figure out ways to not give the BBC my filthy euros that they clearly don't want. I mean, I do want DVDs, but I can buy them second-hand from now on, I guess.
I mean, I didn't go looking for anything! I didn't click on a single thing! I was just wanting to browse through my favourite yoga channels. And OF COURSE I wasn't going to click on any videos from the official Doctor Who account. Yeah, I didn't think to unsubscribe from the official channel, but come on, you know how algorithms work - given that I've watched any Doctor Who stuff on YT at all, and how big the official channel is, it would have shown up on my front page anyway. Stuff I'm less into than Doctor Who have done the same. Did they have to make it so spoilery you can see the spoiler without clicking on the video?
I guess I'm going to have to not only unsubscribe but block the official channel from now on. Although we are going to get the rest of the stories with less delay, so I guess for the rest of them I may be watch the episode before I go on any internet media at all. But I wasn't going to stay off all international websites for over a week, sorry but that's unreasonable.
I now went to look at the comments to that video to see if anyone else had complained about this, and well, some people had - but then there were others going like "oh that's not spoilery" because apparently if they can't put two and two together and get the spoiler (it wasn't any kind of crafty misdirection where you'd end up suspecting the wrong person) then none of us can? Granted, YouTube comments tend to be where the dumb people congregate. And then someone was like "well, the official Twitter account said they were going to give a 24 hour grace period for fans and then spoilers would come" - uh, how does a goddamn Twitter message that make it okay? Not all of us fucking live on Twitter! Or Facebook, if they posted the same warning there. Also, again, do you know how algorithms work these days? You don't get all the messages on your feed anyway. You can't expect that just because someone may use the YouTube front page and YouTube may remember they like Doctor Who, they're also following the official Twitter and Facebook pages religiously and will know they've only got 24 hours before spoiler hell breaks loose.
Whew, okay, done with that. I actually freaking loved the actor in the role so I want to get to my squeeing, but I had to let this out first. I'm not super spoiler-phobic about everything, but this really was a reveal I'd have wanted to first enjoy as it came in the episode. It would have been so much fun. I'm mad they stole that. (For the record I do realize this is very small in the scale of world problems. But there was still no need to ruin my fun just because I'm not from the UK or the US.)
I did, thankfully, manage to stay without spoilers for everything in part 2.
