Christmas Day Dr Who

[rosy71]

Did anyone else think the male = weak; female = strong thing was really good? That and the fact that the children were saved by their mother, not some anonymous male stranger.

I didn't see it myself but I heard that it had a 'woman falls in love with stalker' storyline, which IMO is totally not on.

I only saw the end but agree with aubergine. Following someone home repeatedly is not romantic it is downright creepy.

However the mother did save them which was a good thing.

Ooh yes I noticed something too...there was a moment where the mum was in a situation where I expected her to take a routine passive stance. She turned and there was this look in her eye...and she trounced the baddies!

And I liked that the uniformed baddie woman (comedienne/actressfrom tv, can't remember her name) laid down her weapon in female fellowship with the lady hostage!

I watched the Dr Who episode. I didn't really like the connotation of male=weak/female=strong. Why not evil=weak/good=strong? Whether mother/father/pet dog saved the children, the message would have been the same. Love and protection, no?

I thought the 'female=strong' lines a little bit crass, though I did like the way it was the mother who saved everyone rather than some random bloke doing it. But I didn't really see the 'woman in love with stalker' thing; the way it was discussed sounded like an affectionate family joke.

I wondered what on earth the "woman in love with stalker" storyline was! I certainly didn't notice any such thing!

Whether mother/father/pet dog saved the children,

The whole point was that she was only able to save them because she was female.

Thumbs down: female -> strong, male -> weak
Putting someone else down never makes me feel great about myself.

Thumbs up: A mother as a mother ship and a star for her family
Great strong message and fantastic word play.

Yeah that stalker story was a bit bizarre but in context, isn't that how it happened in the '40s?

I thought the female/strong thing was a nice subversion of accepted norms. Especially as the woman was wearing a cardigan/skirt and not a bulletproof jacket or wielding a sword.

I loved the fact that a mother saved her children, saved the Doctor, saved her husband and saved a whole alien community. My daughter (6) thought it was fantastic, she really enjoyed it and it was lovely for her to see a mum being the hero for once, rather than just a simple caring role.

Re the stalker thing, given that the daughter looked at least 10, then the courtship of her mother and father would have taken place in the late 20's, early 30's, when single men and women mixed much less. Fraternisation was not generally allowed at work and single women generally didn't leave the house on their own after work (and there would have been household chores to do too). The walk back and forth to work would probably have been the couple's only real chance to talk and its likely he would have had to have kept his distance to preserve her reputation. It sounded like the whole 'didn't like to make a fuss' bit had been made into a family joke.

I didn't like it at all. I thought it just came across as patronizing - 'ooh, you're wonderful cos you is a woman, and the only way you could possibly understand how wonderful you are is if I, a man, tell you so'.

It was like someone bashing you over the head with a sign saying 'LOOK, WE'RE SUBVERTING NORMAL GENDER ROLES NOW'. Why not just write a storyline with strong female characters and stop banging on about it as if it's a Christmas miracle to find strong women?

LRD - you've just articulated all the things I felt about it and didn't realise I was feeling until this moment.

Thanks.

I will admit, I think Matt Smith comes across as patronizing by breathing, so I may be biased ..

I think it's a little point-stretching to use the 'he followed me home' line to infer 'stalker'. It was simply a plot device to link with the plane following them home at the end. If you wanted to really go for broke you could say that the plane following the star to be united with the mother and children - plus the forest-related 'light of the world' thing - had more than a touch of the Nativity story about it.

In the context of the story the Female=strong and Male= weak referred only to the ability to carry life and was not a sexist generalization.