Did anyone watch Doctor Who?

I feel like a complete fool - I didn’t clock the Rose actor was a bloke. I’ll hand in my GC credentials and badge at the door. 😢

I rolled my eyes at the gender woo nonsense too - the BBC is fully captured, isn’t it.

Imthought th episode was, on the whole, an improvement on the previous doctor - who had irritated me so much I had pretty much sworn I’d not be watching any more, until she regenerated as David Tennant. But as the SDTG in my nickname stands for Staying David Tennant’s Girl, I had to watch it.

Yes I thought the whole message was delivered with a sledgehammer. I'm a fan the 'show don't tell' strorytelling technique that doesn't preach morality through the tv with a megaphone

That was the point though. To save Donna's life The Doctor had to surpress all her memories (which was The Doctor's entire history) or it would kill her.

She then went on to have a child and, unbeknownst to all, transferred half of those memories down to her son. This is why she didn't die when he gave her memories back. It was enough information for 2 people, but not one.

The trans story comes in to it, therefore, as Donna's son, being transgender then gets to choose his/her own new name and due to some subconscious thought, chose Rose - The Doctor's greatest companion/love. Yes, Donna could have had a daughter and called her Rose, but the fact that he is trans and chose the name was a clue to the fact that the memories had passed down.

The link to binary/non-binary also goes back to a computing binary/non-binary 0/1 thing, so there was a bit of play on words going on.

I loved Donna’s speech about how you have a child and you expect one thing and then you end up with this different but wonderful child

I never did like books or plays that spell out the moral you are supposed to take away from the story, either because the author is too lazy to illustrate it or they think we are all too stupid to get it.

Wasn't one of the writers for Dr. Who fired a couple of years for being gender critical?

The storyline was shockingly weak and that Meep character was laughably bad. The whole thing felt like a pantomime

I so agree with this

I've not watched it, just seen a snippet of an interview with the trans actor. I can't understand what supposedly makes this person a woman - there is nothing womanly about him?! I see that the BBC are promoting trans age as well with this, as that person is not a teenager or a girl!

DH was eye-rolling so much while watching that he looked like he was having a seizure One of my DDs is keen on the stripey-flag rainbow-glitter stuff, and said it was great. Other DD said it was "meh and didn't make sense" and consequently upset her sister.

I agree with @MummBRaaarrrTheEverLeaking and @flapjackfairy. It was a reasonably enjoyable episode and nice to see Tennant's Doctor with Donna again, but really quite "woke" - a bit too much for me. I was left disappointed by it overall. I liked the new UNIT Scientific Advisor and the twist with The Meep and the Wrarth Warriors. A shame, because the last regular season with the Doctor and Donna (the rebooted season four, I think, plus The End of Time) and a few of Matt Smith's stories were the last time I really, fully enjoyed the stories.

I've been a fan of Dr. Who since the early 1980s. My overriding thought was - I wonder what William Hartnell or Jon Pertwee would have made of having to pause the narrative in order to ask the alien of the story what its preferred pronouns were...? Not a production meeting that would have gone well, I suspect.

I haven’t watched it in years but wasn’t Rose already a companion? Billie Piper?

Isn't it a bit… weird.. that the trans character child would have chosen to take the name Rose given the history and significance of Rose?

Although the taking of names seems to be loaded with meaning if you look at Izzard etc so…

I’m not up on the intricacies of the stories so maybe I’m missing something but of all the names to choose. What is RTD trying to say?

As my name may suggest, I’m a Dr Who fan - despite the original version being cancelled when I was very wee. I gave up on “new Who” partway through Capaldi & nothing I’ve heard since has made me want to start watching again.

RTD has taken it upon himself to rewrite a lot of the rules of the Whoniverse (it’s been referred to as such since before new Who - though not in-programme, please tell me that didn’t happen 😵‍💫😱) & to (in the Queer Theory sense, not the homophobic slur sense) trot about Queering everything.

Wonder what the sexuality-proclaiming child’s grandad (also Dr Who) makes of it all. (Can’t imagine the one who was Moderator of the Church of Scotland embracing GenderWoo, but I might be wrong.)

It was really badly acted, even DT wasn't great and he's normally a good actor. Long gone are the days of Bad Wolf and the Pandorica and storylines that really made you think. Sigh.

apart from anything else it was shockingly badly written and the acting was dire ! It came across as a spoof rather than a real episode. I was cringing all the way through expecting it to get better but sadly not ! Shame as I used to love the programme. Won't be watching again.

The trans storyline was irrelevant imo - they could simply have had a female playing the female part and having Rose as her name. As the character is male he didn’t choose her name.

As soon as Rose came on the screen, I knew instantly that the actor was transgender. My husband, interesting, did not. I had to google it to prove it, but I knew in a heartbeat. It would have been ok except all the preachy language around it, Donna banging on about how her daughter was stunning blah blah. Anyway i can't watch it with my son because i am trying to keep him from the gender woo at the moment, as much as one can.

For their nonsense to work, surely Donna should've also came out as trans too, ya know, due to having all that male doctor energy and manly memories in her subconscious?

It was all so forced.

They could've thrown in a trans character anywhere. Just a normal person. Rose's mate, one of the UNIT staff, etc.

By making out that rose was only trans because of alien energy, once it was 'let go of' wouldn't rose of simply been Jason again. A teenage boy no longer in a mental health crisis? Dysphoria cured hurrah!

I couldn't be bothered with it tbh 😕 I find it too preachy and irritating nowadays. Seems like it hasn't improved from these comments.

I just want a ridiculous entertaining sci fi.romp.

Watched it last night although I'd seen stuff on X so I knew what was coming. Which is good because there would have been a fair few involuntary eye rolls.

They want to include a trans character? Fine, but they should have been looking at an adult character and not make being trans the be all and end all about them.

But when that character is (supposed to be but the actor clearly wasn't!) a young teen at a show predominantly for that age of audience? When gender clinic referrals for kids are what they are?

And delivered as one big morality lesson with all the sensitivity of a sledgehammer cracking a walnut. The whole did you assume their pronouns!! Donna not being able to mention Rose without having to say beautiful, gorgeous every other word. And referring to the doctor as "male presenting", no one bloody talks like that do they? It was like they went to Tik Tok for the script in parts. The smug 'you know nothing, you're male presenting, us women know what to do' (some extra affirmation thrown in there) was just so bloody cringe. And that whole non binary male female both neither was cringe too. The Meep wasn't just a baddie, oh no, it had to throw in a transphobic line too. And Rose saved the day of course. Stonewall presents a very special episode of Doctor Who.

The Meep plot was ok, nothing groundbreaking, and the action sequences were good.

And I hope they don't continue to call it The Whoniverse, because that's just shit.

My DC said the episode was fun but the attempts at trans inclusion were cringey. Will need to give it a watch so we can have a conversation about it.

Yes, I thought the whole binary/non-binary storyline was odd - Rose believes himself to be a very binary girl - so completely inconsistent even with GI lore. Even DD (knows nobody can change sex, but somewhat more sympathetic to GI than I am) disliked it - apart from the wheelchair!

BBC trying to indoctrinate the children was a new low for me - but it’s been a while since I saw CBeebies, so it’s probably all over that already 🙄

I didn't twig until near the end when they were literally saying the "binary" "non-binary" stuff!

I'm actually pretty sure my DH still doesn't know...!

I don't think the storyline was irrelevant though as it showed the connection between Rose and Donna and the Doctor in that the hidden history and background had been shared between mother and daughter, because "Rose" will have presumably chosen her own name and obviously Rose was DT's doctor's previous companion.

My lifelong doctor who fan of a daughter, rainbow flag on her ceiling, announced “It was massively cringey, don’t think I’ll be watching the next series if they keep Rose in it.”

No problem with having a trans character/actor but would prefer one who was less annoying and better at acting. The only character trait I got from Rose was “sickeningly saccharine”, which is not what I want from anyone in the inner doctor who circle. Yaz and the fam were terrible and had no depth or edge to them, i want flawed sidekicks, not nauseatingly perfect ones. I’m hoping that the new doctor and companion have a lot more sizzle than the new Noble family.

I really resented them trying to piggy back off my emotional attachment to Donna and try to transfer it to new characters. Screw that, they have to earn it themselves.

How does the meta crisis transfer to children? Don’t think this fits with past WHO lore. If Donna could just “let it go” because she was female presenting, why didn’t she realise this ten years ago? And what the fuck was the whole non-binary shit about?

I don’t expect who plots to make perfect sense, but they need to be a lot better than this one to win me back after the last crappy doctor.

They could've just had the regeneration energy shared between mother and child without the trans nonsense added and a female child called rose, because of Donna's subconscious memories and rose making the toy monster's from her passed down doctor energy memories.

The doctor is an alien. He isn't male and female in one body. Each body is unique and either male or female.

Yeah, it was hugely irritating. It was very obvious that Rose was a bloke (because he is) and the storyline was irrelevant.