Doctor Who S10 and S5 things (including spoilers about S10 companion)

[auroracloud]

I just want to say that I'm super-excited about the latest news about the new Doctor Who companion.


In the case you haven't heard of, it's been revealed that the new Doctor Who Companion, Bill (played by Pearl Mackie), will be openly gay, and this will be pretty much clear from the first few lines of dialogue. I'm super-excited that a show I love will have a gay female lead. I'm also glad that this means the Doctor-Companion relationship will definitely not have sexual/romantic attraction as a small or big component, because that is getting kind of old and I haven't even seen that many seasons yet. And it doesn't hurt that the first thing I thought of when I saw the first pictures and material of Bill was "Ooh, she's hot" and I don't just mean her looks but her general demeanour, all the brightness and smartness and energy and colourful attire and all. I bet that half of the queer girls in the fandom have a crush on her already. *g* I definitely do. She already seemed like someone I'd adore as a companion, and this is just icing on the cake, so I hope that actually watching her will make me like her as much as I expect.

Some people have been upset that she's being broadcast as the first full-time gay companion since there was Jack etc. but a) I think by full-time they meant someone who's around for a full season, which Jack never was, and b) Jack isn't gay, he's bi/pan/omni/whatever the right term is, so the expression is still correct.


This definitely seals it; I'm so going to watch the new series as it airs, never mind that I'm several seasons behind. I already watched the Christmas special and I know roughly what happened in the end of the last season, so I don't think it'll be too hard to figure out what's going on. And I just checked when we're going to get it in Finland, and guess what? Like with the Christmas special, we're getting Series 10 only one day later than the UK! So brilliant! I can watch it pretty much in real time!


I've just started watching S5, by the way. I still need to finish my write-up on my many thoughts on S4 (not to mention write my Torchwood S2 post!) but I decided to just skip the specials because I just didn't like them much at all (except for the Wilfred bits, and some of the Master stuff). Also, Journey's End has the unfortunate effect of making me kind of hate Ten, and considering I do generally love him, I didn't want to add to that by all the purposeless angst-wallowing that the Specials are.

So straight onto Eleven it was, and oh, so far I'm totally liking both him and Amy. The Eleventh Hour was a bit full of things and had pacing problems, but I really enjoyed it as an introduction to the characters, and the amount of backstory Amy gets there makes it easy to relate to her and see what's going on with her. And I thought The Beast Below was magnificent. Liz 10 was a lovely character, too, and Amy totally has my heart now, if there was a part she didn't have by the end of The Eleventh Hour. I'm still getting used to how young Eleven looks, but it's interesting to observe him, and there's something deliciously explosively adventurous in his and Amy's dynamic so far. I'm pretty sure I will have watched S5 at least by the time S10 starts, so that's something.

Anyway, being so excited about this - both Bill and S5 - is fun! I've been all sorts of exhausted by RL lately, and not feeling great, so feeling excitement is delightful.

Comments

[tinny]

Bill sounds cool! t_eyla also said that she liked the last season a lot better than the ones in between (she dislikes Moffat just like I do), and she's going to watch the new season as it airs, too. It's almost making me want to get back into it.

[auroracloud.livejournal.com]

I so far have no problems with Moffat, though I know he's controversial in the fandom. I'll see what I think of his run when I've seen more episodes. I think after watching nearly all the RTD era stuff twice in less than two years I'm ready for someone else's perspective on the show *g* Because as much as I enjoy about the RTD era, he also has his flaws and some of them have been grating on me especially on the rewatch. Anyway, I enjoyed the Twelfth Doctor in the Christmas special, and having a companion to look forward to should make the show fun to watch. And if I don't enjoy it as much as I hope, well, only one year and then Chibnall takes over, so we can see what he does.

[trobadora]

I'm very happy the rumours about Bill turned out to be true!

But yeah, I'm a bit pissed off about all the "what about Jack". They even addressed it explicitly in the articles I saw, and you still get so many people who can't wrap their minds around the fact that there's a difference between gay and pan. Argh!

[auroracloud.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Canon's very explicit that Jack isn't only interested in one gender. It's not helpful AT ALL to label everyone non-straight as gay. Plenty of those of us around who are neither straight nor gay, and could use acknowledgement for existing.

[trobadora]

Yeah. It's always been a sore spot with me, and I hate that after all these years it's still ongoing. I mean, I wrote Captain Jack Harkness is not gay back in 2010 ...

[auroracloud.livejournal.com]

I remember coming across that post a few months back when I was searching for Jack-related fandom posts - and you're so right, with that post, and it's so strange that people don't get it. If you're calling him gay, there's a massive amount of canon evidence you have to ignore (heck, the very first thing we see him doing on DW ever is ogling at Rose's bottom!). Just like if someone called him straight before the relationship with Ianto became undeniable, they'd also have had to ignore tons of evidence. And using gay as a general word for all non-straight orientations is not okay because it's saying the monosexual orientation is the default and the most important, and others aren't important enough to need their own words. Enough homosexual women seem to personally prefer the word gay over lesbian that I don't mind that (e.g. in the case of calling Bill gay rather than lesbian - maybe she's someone who prefers that word). But gay definitely is commonly seen as meaning homosexual, so using that as the general word means that bisexuals once again aren't important enough to count, or bisexuality is just a phase on the way to monosexuality or somehow not real.

It's frustrating to me also for very personal reasons - despite having known half my life that I was bi (the first half I just didn't realize that was something that I could be), I keep struggling with a sort of internalized biphobia where I constantly try to slot myself into one end of the scale or another, depending on who I'm currently the most attracted to. And if I go on it'll get too personal for a public post, but anyway. The point is, I think it's caused by the constant devaluation of bisexuality as real everywhere in the culture, the attitude that it's somehow lesser than monosexuality, that one half of the feelings can't be real, the constant attempts to peg everyone into either gay or straight, and dismissing all the evidence that suggests not being monosexual. I so much adore having Jack as someone who doesn't slot neatly into either category, and I want him acknowledged to be that way.

[trobadora]

Yes yes YES to your first paragraph. Just, all of that. ALL of that. *tears hair*

And argh, the internalised biphobia can't be fun. I'm lucky I didn't catch that myself. And either way it's extremely frustrating when people somehow can't seem to wrap their minds around someone not being either/or. Stupid bloody binaries. *hugs*

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

I wish they all stopped spoiling LGBT characters before shows & movies are out (it's happened a bunch of times recently). It's not a big spoiler and it's perfectly okay to inform people that there are things out there that they might want to watch, but they could do it the day after for shows and a week after for movies, so that we could get a chance to discover the character and maybe get a vibe and then realise that we are right.

I love Eleven and Amy, and Rory as well. Have fun with them! <3

[auroracloud.livejournal.com]

I got the impression it's really going to be there right away in the beginning, so it doesn't make much of a difference whether you know it already or learn it the third sentence in or something. We'll see how it really turns out, I guess! I'm personally not bothered, I'm just excited to know there will be something I'll want to see, but of course I don't follow a lot of series so I don't notice if it's being done a lot. I'm just glad that there is representation.

I'm sure I'll have fun, based on what I've seen so far! I haven't seen that much of Rory yet, only what there was in the first episode, but he seems like a sweetie. :-)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

Well, if it's from the very start, it's not as bad, but I'd still like to find out while actually watching the show. Everyone who has posted about it on LJ has put it under a cut, so I don't see why news websites haven't done the same.

[elisi]

Hi!

Thought I'd wander over and say hello. :)

Also, Journey's End has the unfortunate effect of making me kind of hate Ten, and considering I do generally love him, I didn't want to add to that by all the purposeless angst-wallowing that the Specials are.
Ah. Well, you do have a point... Bless Ten, he was a walking ball of man!pain, which is not the most attractive thing in the world.

I have written a ton of meta if you want my take on things, my master post is here - scroll down for RTD (Russel T Davies) era. If you want to talk, just comment - I'll reply, trust me! No matter how old the post. :)

The Eleventh Hour was a bit full of things and had pacing problems,
It's the most delightful intro! <3333 And I say that as someone who watched from 'Rose' onwards. (Danish originally, but been living in the UK since 1997.) Hope you love the rest of the season. S5 is not perfect, but overall it's the most delightful season of any of them.

This definitely seals it; I'm so going to watch the new series as it airs, never mind that I'm several seasons behind.
It'll have been designed to be an easy hop-on point for new viewers, so definitely go for it!

[auroracloud.livejournal.com]

Hiya!

Ah. Well, you do have a point... Bless Ten, he was a walking ball of man!pain, which is not the most attractive thing in the world.

I mostly adore him, but maybe I rewatched everything a bit too soon, because I feel the series got stuck on making the same point about him again and again. So since I was mostly disappointed by the specials to begin with (and it's been less than a year since I last watched them), I figured I'd be happier with Ten if I didn't rewatch them right now. He's a fascinating, complex character, but sometimes I do want to slap him. Repeatedly. :-D

I'll definitely have to look through your meta! I read some of it earlier today, but there's still plenty to go.

Yeah, Eleventh Hour was definitely great as far as intros go. I think the pacing problems came mainly somewhere after the middle and before the end, where I was losing focus as a viewer, but it's still way stronger than the previous season openers (though I have a fondness for Smith & Jones, it's the only RTD era opener that has an interesting plot on its own). Also, my brain has been mush lately.

None of the Doctor Who seasons are perfect, but S5 is starting very well, definitely. :-) I think that some of the appeal of both Doctor Who and Torchwood for me is the imperfectness, really - so much that I love, but then so much that keeps nagging at me and make me return to things and think about them and fill in gaps and so on... Great for fanfic, too. :-D

It'll have been designed to be an easy hop-on point for new viewers, so definitely go for it!

That sounds promising! And it does seem like this would be a pretty good point to hop on. :-)

[elisi]

So since I was mostly disappointed by the specials to begin with (and it's been less than a year since I last watched them), I figured I'd be happier with Ten if I didn't rewatch them right now.
What you should do is read THIS POST on End of Time. It is the best thing ever written on those episodes and gets right to the heart of it all. (Which would be Doctor/Master and eating all the scenery.)

That's all for now, time seems to gallop away from me at an alarming rate....

[elisi]

PS. This video is possibly the best Tenth Doctor video out there...

[gutterfl0wer.livejournal.com]

I'm still finding it hard to muster enthusiasm for DW given that Steven Moffat is still writing it. I will probably get excited when the new show runner finally takes over. I hope that season 11 will restore my love for the show that kinda diminished the longer Steven was in charge.

[auroracloud.livejournal.com]

Too bad the Moffat seasons have made it hard to be enthusiastic about the show anymore. Let's hope you'll enjoy the next showrunner better! Only a bit over a year away, now. :-)