Doctor Who meets Tesla, comments
Jan. 21st, 2020 11:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
auroracloudSome comments on the latest Doctor Who episode, Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror.
I had fun watching this! Thank goodness after last week's letdown we got a good episode again. It wasn't super-mindblowing-amazing, but I enjoyed it. I'm a history geek, so I do love it when they run around with parts of history that I'm interested in, and while I'm not terribly into U.S. history, I am very much into history of science. My knowledge of Tesla is superficial, based on reading a few articles rather than inhaling books like I sometimes do about interesting people, but he is a fun one to build an episode around. Though frankly I would have expected him to be more quirky and showy than he was in this story. Feels like they tamed him down to make him more heroic. I do like that Edison was basically a business-obsessed asshole, but still decent enough to want to protect his workers and help save the world from destruction. I haven't read extensively on Edison either, but what I remember seems to fit.
I loved that the companions each got a good bit to do in this one, and got to run around and connect with the people from the time, and I especially love that in this season they're finally giving Yaz lots to do! I was also extremely happy that the companions were finally wearing period clothing. I tell you, it's been paining me so much to see them traipsing in the 21st century clothes regardless of the century they're in. Yaz even had a hat and Ryan had his adorable cap! So many film and TV makers depict old-timey people without headgear and it drives me crazy. People wore hats dammit!
Although the Doctor, of course, wears what she always wears, and for some reason nobody ever finds that odd. I feel like slightly more people should have questioned the crazy woman running around with her head bare and her ankles bare oh the indecency plus trousers and all, if I was to really believe this was the 19th century. On the other hand, they never question male Doctors' clothing either so it's at least fair that she has the same immunity from period appropriateness when she's a she.
I also don't know enough about the real Tesla to know if in reality he'd have been okay with the said crazy bare-headed and bare-ankled woman bossing around and being an inventor rather than a proper 19th century lady, and if he was anything like about 99,9 % of 19th century upper-class men he probably wouldn't have been. But on the other hand it's nice that characters can get a break from real-world structural oppression. I wouldn't have wanted anyone to start questioning why they should listen to people of colour, either.
But regardless of that, I had so much fun with the Doctor adoring science and inventing. She got to be clever and resourceful and her own brand of heroic and I liked that so much. I wish Series 11 had had this much good stuff with her! This is what I kept wanting to see more of, this energy, sharpness, activity. I hope this keeps up.
The Doctor is being a hypocrite, isn't she? First she's very loud about "no guns" and then she doesn't hesitate to fry the Skithra (sp?) queen and her spaceship with the electricity tower. I mean it's fair that she did it, but it's funny how she's only a pacifist when it suits her. But also that's how the Doctor generally is. It's just that I kind of feel like the earlier pacifist bits were probably inserted by Chibnall after the script had been written, because they rather stood out.
Looks like Tesla and Edison didn't need to get a mind wipe, only women need that apparently? I mean, I'm glad we don't start mind-wiping historical characters on a regular basis, and Tesla and Edison clearly were doing a lot of inventing already before the Doctor showed up, but I'm just still bitter about Ada and Noor.
Between Spyfall and this, it seems like there's a lot of emphasis on technology and stuff that leads to our modern digital age. I wonder if it's building up to something or if it's a coincidence.
I had fun watching this! Thank goodness after last week's letdown we got a good episode again. It wasn't super-mindblowing-amazing, but I enjoyed it. I'm a history geek, so I do love it when they run around with parts of history that I'm interested in, and while I'm not terribly into U.S. history, I am very much into history of science. My knowledge of Tesla is superficial, based on reading a few articles rather than inhaling books like I sometimes do about interesting people, but he is a fun one to build an episode around. Though frankly I would have expected him to be more quirky and showy than he was in this story. Feels like they tamed him down to make him more heroic. I do like that Edison was basically a business-obsessed asshole, but still decent enough to want to protect his workers and help save the world from destruction. I haven't read extensively on Edison either, but what I remember seems to fit.
I loved that the companions each got a good bit to do in this one, and got to run around and connect with the people from the time, and I especially love that in this season they're finally giving Yaz lots to do! I was also extremely happy that the companions were finally wearing period clothing. I tell you, it's been paining me so much to see them traipsing in the 21st century clothes regardless of the century they're in. Yaz even had a hat and Ryan had his adorable cap! So many film and TV makers depict old-timey people without headgear and it drives me crazy. People wore hats dammit!
Although the Doctor, of course, wears what she always wears, and for some reason nobody ever finds that odd. I feel like slightly more people should have questioned the crazy woman running around with her head bare and her ankles bare oh the indecency plus trousers and all, if I was to really believe this was the 19th century. On the other hand, they never question male Doctors' clothing either so it's at least fair that she has the same immunity from period appropriateness when she's a she.
I also don't know enough about the real Tesla to know if in reality he'd have been okay with the said crazy bare-headed and bare-ankled woman bossing around and being an inventor rather than a proper 19th century lady, and if he was anything like about 99,9 % of 19th century upper-class men he probably wouldn't have been. But on the other hand it's nice that characters can get a break from real-world structural oppression. I wouldn't have wanted anyone to start questioning why they should listen to people of colour, either.
But regardless of that, I had so much fun with the Doctor adoring science and inventing. She got to be clever and resourceful and her own brand of heroic and I liked that so much. I wish Series 11 had had this much good stuff with her! This is what I kept wanting to see more of, this energy, sharpness, activity. I hope this keeps up.
The Doctor is being a hypocrite, isn't she? First she's very loud about "no guns" and then she doesn't hesitate to fry the Skithra (sp?) queen and her spaceship with the electricity tower. I mean it's fair that she did it, but it's funny how she's only a pacifist when it suits her. But also that's how the Doctor generally is. It's just that I kind of feel like the earlier pacifist bits were probably inserted by Chibnall after the script had been written, because they rather stood out.
Looks like Tesla and Edison didn't need to get a mind wipe, only women need that apparently? I mean, I'm glad we don't start mind-wiping historical characters on a regular basis, and Tesla and Edison clearly were doing a lot of inventing already before the Doctor showed up, but I'm just still bitter about Ada and Noor.
Between Spyfall and this, it seems like there's a lot of emphasis on technology and stuff that leads to our modern digital age. I wonder if it's building up to something or if it's a coincidence.
