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

[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*