Who is watching Doctor Who tonight

[Firefly2009]

And if you've now seen it, what are your thoughts?

I'm predicting I will love it no matter what. But look forward to discussing it.

I have to say I definitely prefer the episodes that are more about running around with the sonic screwdriver and less about complicated plots throwing in Easter eggs for the hardcore fans.

I loved it

Some observations:

Somehow went over my head that Rose was trans

Scientist in wheelchair crossed her legs; personally never seen a wheelchair user do that before

Rose was 15; Donna said it. So this must be set in 2025, I guess 🤷‍♀️

edit: Also

Why did the tardis give the doctor a coffee machine if spilling it causes an explosion. Lol

I wished the meep had stayed cute. It reminded me of something; just realised it was Dobby

Good writing should be 'show, dont tell'.

We could have seen the boys shouting at her and her ignoring it and perhaps, her chat about being 'different' with the meep. That would have been enough for us to sympathise with the Rose character. And is as relevant as her being trans needed to be. Instead they made us roll our eyes. Not good writing.

@CaveMum

I think they’ve ticked every diversity box going in the first 20 mins.

Yup. Mention this on Twitter though and you get slated and called names I am not going to repeat on here.

@Tomrrowandtomorrowandtommorrow

I was enjoying it until the Dr apologised for assuming an alien life form's pronouns. Bore off.

Yeah this. My eyes rolled into the back of my head when this happened. Me and DH almost switched off. Will probably watch the other few episodes with Tennant and Tate in, but then they can stuff it, I won't be watching any more.

Also agree that the acting is meh... And I agree with other posters, that the person playing Rose is terrible at acting. In addition is 20 years old, but was playing a 15 year old. How stupid. Looks more like early 20s, not 15. Who the F did the casting for this shitshow? I don't give a shit if someone of 30-35 played a 18 y.o. in Grease, I still think this was laughable casting! An obvious grown adult in their 20s playing a child!

@Chipsatsunset · Today 21:32

I’ve watched Dr Who since it first started. I can’t cope with it having a sodding agenda. Just please give me loads of time travelly running/Tardising around the galaxy, aliens etc. I don’t want non binary, lesbian, green lizard aliens. Just the green lizard alien is fine without needing to remind everyone about it’s preferred pronouns, sexual proclivity and how it is discriminated against for being green etc.

If they are going to keep making a big deal about this I’m not watching. Have a female doctor, have a female Master/Mistress, have a gay green alien but just stop whanging on about it every two seconds. Right, rant over.

💯 ^ Amen to that!

I have heard a few people saying this... but Doctor Who has always been 'woke.'

Errr, no it hasn't!

@whenwhenwhen · Today 19:10

I was looking forward to this, but irritated within 5 minutes - it's almost predictable that the first new character would have to be a "trans school girl" played by a 20 year old biological male.

I get that Russell is gay and I get that representation and diversity is important but I think the constant front-and-centering of everything trans is going to backfire horribly on trans people, on gay people, and on progressive left-wing people.

Oh, and also on Doctor Who.

100% agree.

I have recently been watching Doctor Who on bbc iplayer, from the noughties and very early 2010s - with Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, and Matt Smith. They are far superior to anything post 2014. The episode BLINK was a masterpiece. And there were many other excellent ones from that time.

The ones from the past decade have been breathtakingly shite compared to them. Indeed they have got worse and worse as time has gone on. (Since 2015-ish.) Most of the Peter Capaldi ones were below average, as were the Jodie Whittaker ones.

As a number of posters have said, the constant box ticking and insistence on much diversity - rather than decent actors - has wrecked the show. The one with Jodie Whittaker had an actor called Tosin Cole who ticked a diversity box. His acting was abysmal. So wooden and bland. I cringed every time I saw him on the screen.

I have been a fan of Doctor Who since Jon Pertwee. I am done now. It's shit. Utter shit. Even the presence of David Tennant cannot save it now. The wokerati has got its teeth into it, and frankly it makes me want to weep. 😢

Doctor Who is losing fans in droves, yet the BBC seem oblivious to this - or they don't care!

They mentioned pronouns in the Christopher Eccleston series. The modern Dr Who era has been like this, but just a background sort of way.

Well if they were mentioned then, I don't remember. Which just proves a point really. The odd thing may have been mentioned, but nothing was pushed as an agenda, and pre 2010, Doctor Who was most certainly never 'woke.'

Nah doctor who has always been progressive and a bit preachy but “woke” is a different kettle of fish. Fake progressive, often rooted in sexism.

The trans stuff was basically nonsensical, a joke about pronouns that made no sense and then the resolution to the metacrisis in the form of some bizarre sexism (is "men can't let go" even a thing people think?!). Party no doubt because Russell T Davies is a 60-year-old "cis" bloke who doesn't really get trans issues and showed very little interest in them before they became trendy, but also I think just highlighting the general philosophical lameness of trans ideology - can you be pro-trans without also being sexist? Nobody has yet convinced me otherwise.

RTD on Unleashed talking about normalising trans stuff amongst children, and maybe that'll work out for him, but equally the more this stuff gets airtime the more the general public are going to start to notice the cracks in the logic.

Convenient that they picked a trans woman who passes so well, people might have found it a bit harder to accept a TW character who was more obviously male (as nearly all of them are).

I watched a bit with ds until I had to pop out. The meep was a bit twee. I will not watch again. Did not like the characters.

^^ what you said. So sorry you are going through that with your DD. That is the awful reality of the trans agenda, girls and young women ruining their bodies and mental health.

I also completely missed the fact that Rose was trans. It’s obvious now I look back on it. Now I know, the trans stuff is too distracting, too woke for me. Can’t a girl just be a girl anymore. Is it too boring? I liked Yasmin in the part, i just wish Rose had been a girl, not a trans girl. I like the actress in the wheelchair, she is also in Russell TD‘s Years and Years. I loved that the Meep was Miriam Margolyes. I really enjoyed seeing Catherine Tate and David Tennant again.

Yeah, this. It’s just got stupider and stupider. But I’m in my 60s so not really the target demographic.

This episode was based off of an old doctor who comic story. In the story, Rose is played by a black girl and its about appearances being deceptive. Ie the cute fluffy alien actually being evil.

In the TV adaptation they've taken an opportunity away from a black girl and given it to an adult male who by the way "passes" (I noticed straight away) because this person has been on cross sex hormones for years and possibly had feminising surgery.

No 14/15 year old kid would look or sound like that unless they'd been having treatments privately and illegally.

This is utterly irresponsible and fails kids because they will think they can "pass" and get treatments when they can't.

Also, this is the same writer that wrote queer as folk which included a very graphic scene involving a child (15) being shagged in the arse by a much older man.

I think this episode was an utterly travesty and I'm furious this was the best the BBC could come up with for the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who.

Can't see that Donna chose the name Rose at all. Would Jason have told his ma to choose Jason's girl name?

I didn't like tonight's episode. I don't mind trans but the whole trans plotline didn't add anything appealing for me, either. I've known people in wheelchairs who could use their legs a little, just not enough to stand / or lacking balance. It was the 'cool' wheelchair with weapons that annoyed me, actually, the completely calm unflappable scientist with space age weapons... meh.

I watched bits of Whitaker & Capaldi but maybe I'm just not able to enjoy Dr. Who any more. Too hectic and silly.

Disappointed that my comment was deleted... I was stating a fact - it is an adult male playing a teenage girl. And under the Equality act 2010, I am allowed to believe that sex is biological and immutable, people cannot change their sex and sex is distinct from gender-identity.

Some of the best writing came from Capaldi's era. Heaven Sent, Listen, Extremis, and many more. Capaldi was also a brilliant Doctor. A superb actor.

I think the show was at it best with Steven Moffat as show runner. So, Smith and Capaldi eras. Moffat also wrote the best episodes under RTD's era, e.g. Blink, The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances, Silence in the Library, etc.

I've always thought he was a superior writer to RTD and both are superior to Chibnall. The Whittaker era was pretty dire. Agree about Tosin Cole. There was the odd episode that was good, like The Haunting of Villa Diodati.

Tonight's special was okay. But it didn't feel much like a special. More like a mid series filler episode. I thought Donna and her family were great. Sylvia is fab. I also thought Rose was great, too.

But something about tonight's episode just didn't hit quite right. Some lines didn't feel seamless. They were out of place. Like Donna and Rose saying let it go. Didn't like how they resolved the meta crisis. Felt a bit contrived. If she could just let it go, why didn't she do that fifteen years ago?

It was a good episode. Some great moments. But overall, I wouldn't place it anywhere near my top ten.

Hoping next week's is a bit better.

Oh, and in regards to the 'woke', Doctor Who has also been relatively modern and left leaning. There's always been political under tones. But when it's interwoven seamlessly and doesn't dominate the plot then it works. (Madam Vastra, Missy, and Captain Jack are all good examples of this working well, as well as Capaldi's Doctor chatting with Bill). It stopped working under Chibnall who made it far too prominent and turned it into lectures.

RTD was always good about weaving these things in so they weren't particularly obvious. Tonight's was obviously a lot more obvious and I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. At times it was jarring but I still thought Rose was ace.

I thought she was a great character but also didn't like the wheel chair being able to shoot things. Seemed silly and unnecessary.

I rather liked the wheelchair with extra missile shooting functions. If the doctor can keep saving the day with his screwdriver, I don't see why a person in a wheelchair can't have the wheelchair souped up. Rather nice for kids watching who might be in wheelchairs.

I agree that there is a problem with having a supposed trans person under the age of 18 who appears to have had hormone treatments, and that might actually be confusing.

Some of the best writing came from Capaldi's era. Heaven Sent, Listen, Extremis, and many more. Capaldi was also a brilliant Doctor. A superb actor
Loved Listen, brilliant episode!

Well that ticked almost every woke box.... Catherine Tate still can't act but nice to see DT with his giant quiff.

@SwordToFlamethrower at 22.23 I couldn't agree more.

@henrysugar12 at 22.27 I agree with you too. And I hope your comment does not get deleted again.

Perhaps they're being very stereotypical and are assuming that male-presenting people won't have watched Frozen, and therefore can't let it go? Perhaps Disney promised RTD extra £££ for subliminally promoting Disney films.

Being serious though, it was a really contrived way out of it.

So rose was Jason?

Surely they should of used a trans actor, it didn't come across very well at all. Just shit. I miss Moffat, now he could tell a story!