Did anyone watch Doctor Who?

[ZeldaFighter]

So on an existential level, I'm confused. 11 Doctors and only 1 woman - it seemed like finally progress had been made. Now we're back to male people playing the role of the teenage daughter (who is explicitly transgender, so I suppose is really OK but now women can't even play the women).

Irl, I'm embarrassed because my husband immediately realised the actor was a transgender woman, whereas I didn't twig at all 😞

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.)

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?

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.

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'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!

I so agree with this

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

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?

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.

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

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.

Miriam Margoyles is a mad old bigot and I do not understand how she is still given airtime after some of the opinions she's expressed. I rolled my eyes a little at the storyline but I don't hate it. However I would actually turn off if MM were any more prominent.

but the fact that he is trans and chose the name was a clue to the fact that the memories had passed down

But they did that with the soft toys rose made to look like aliens which should've been enough and it would've been more believable if Donna had had an actual daughter and named her rose.

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

The 'computing thing' is just binary though. Binary means 2 choices. 0 or 1, yes or no, male or female.
Non binary has nothing to do with binary.
The child is male, therefore binary not both or neither.

This.

If you had a great uncle who behaved like she did and told the stories (lies) she does you’d ban him from your house, but somehow posh old MM is feted. Awful woman. Dr Who was bad enough this week without adding her into the mix.

I turned it on just at the end and did not like being hit over the head with male presenting, pronouns etc…but I thought for a moment that it would be ok when Donner shouted we do not want to be kind. But obviously didn’t mean what I though it did. If I had young children I would turn over

Sorry, I'm not in the UK, what is mad and bigotted about Miriam Margoyles? All I know is that she is Jewish and supports the Palestinians, so she's one of my sheroes

Gareth Roberts is the man.

This. Ds 7 is a big fan of Dr who, but am a no for this, given hes coming home from school talking about magic of clown fish and always be kind and accepting as that's most important...yay scottish education.

Was it progress?

There was no indications that Time Lords could change sex up until the show became interested in the current idea that maleness and femaleness were social constructs. Time Lord biology is invented, obviously, but what I'd suggest is that this "progress" came out of precisely the same impulse and worldview that had them push a gender ideology agenda.

I saw bits of it with the sound off, for some reason and I thought it was a retrospoof.
I find DT somewhat humourless and a bit I'm mad me.

Happened to see a doc on Micky Flanagan last night and think he'd be a sublime doc. Got the hair (or did), has got some great facial expressions, has been through several lifetimes in this one and can do the intelligent middle distance staring thing. And bring some genuine fun to the process.

As a side note, The Meep was a rip off of 80's movie Gremlins, all soft and cuddly, then all evil. Though granted no feeding after midnight and water involved on DW.

I thought the Meep story was from an old Dr Who comic or story?

It was. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beep_the_Meep

I enjoyed David Tennant, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi.

I really wanted to like Jodie Whittaker but gave up halfway through.

Sounds like I made the right choice.

Yep, that's why I started the thread - in atonement for being proudly but covertly GC for over 18 months - but didn't spot the trans actor! I want to keep my GC badge 😉