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Doctor Who Series 11 Discussion

Started by Andy Lambert, 07 October, 2018, 08:13:12 PM

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ABCwarBOT

People might not be surprised to hear I thought it er... wasn't very good.   Pretty much as I expected.  Gender politics masquerading as Dr Who full of naff dialogue "ooh I was a white old Scotsman only half an hour ago" and she says "sore instead of saw which seems very popular these days.   Whitaker also sounded as if she'd inhaled helium or something with her squeaky voice.

Really crappy monster who looked like he'd had ice thrown over him and some poor attempts at emotion.  Oh and just about all the men were shown as a bit cowardly and the women as clever and brave.  Utter forgettable tosh.

GordonR

That was very entertaining.

Especially if you imagined ABCwarBOT's peeved little face as he sat there watching it with his pre-prepared checklist of things to complain about, desperately sucking on his weak lemon drink every time a woman or POC appeared on screen.

IndigoPrime

Quote from: Andy B on 07 October, 2018, 11:32:06 PMMy only criticism is, I was expecting something more different from what has gone before; a really new style.
It wasn't a full overhaul, no, but there were some big changes from Moffat-era Who: the new characters were actually people, and not cyphers designed to become puzzles; it was about a group rather than an all-domineering figure who can basically be a god; and the dramatic build-up was smartly done, in a manner Who had become very poor at. For me, it was solid rather than amazing, but, importantly, I felt it was promising for what would happen next.

Quote from: ABCwarBOT on 08 October, 2018, 07:53:19 AM[stuff]
Your prejudices are showing. Frankly, if you thought that was "gender politics", you have problems. There were scant few references to gender in that – more throwaway lines that the production itself used to essentially say: "This isn't actually that important". As for the lines bout being Scotsman, that's basically identical to what the Doctor has done after a bunch of previous regenerations. And, yes, women have higher-pitched voices than men, although most people's favourite new-Who Doctor did the squeaky gurning thing for a ton of time and that never seemed to bother anyone else. Then again, he had a penis.

I guess people will see what they want to see, as ever. Mind you, anyone saying they didn't find that monster horrific when he took off his mask needs a healthy dose of objectivity.

TordelBack

Quote from: Fungus on 08 October, 2018, 03:43:59 AMSome alien pulsing blue thing was a threat but was dispatched somehow.

It was [spoiler]electrocuted,  twice.  They built some cabling kit to do it in Fox Mulder's garage,  used Step-Grandad's bus driver underground to locate it the first time and incapacitate it so the Dr could implant the DNA bombs, and then Nana died zapping it on the crane [/spoiler]the second time. 

It was a whole big thing,  not really "dispatched somehow", which implies an off-screen hand-wave, rather than about half the plot. Dislike it all you want,  but be fair!

TordelBack

#34
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 08 October, 2018, 08:39:46 AMAnd, yes, women have higher-pitched voices than men, although most people's favourite new-Who Doctor did the squeaky gurning thing for a ton of time and that never seemed to bother anyone else. Then again, he had a penis.

Did he,  though?  Do any Timelords have penises?  I don't recall seeing one,  so it's unlikely genital configurations were that important to the series thus far. Hmmm.

I can't quite believe I'm reading the "women are shrill" trope in 2018, but that's this shitty timeline for you. If I've seen one shibboleth that defines male prejudice in the workplace, it's this fixation on higher-pitched voices: it's used to shut women's contributions down in meetings,  it's used to imply women are "becoming emotional", it's used to imply immaturity and weakness. And it's balls. If you don't enjoy women's (vastly diverse) voices,  then I reckon you just don't like women.

IndigoPrime

Quote from: TordelBack on 08 October, 2018, 09:08:48 AMDid he,  though?
I'm reasonably sure that the actor did, yes. I don't know about the actual Time Lord. For all we know, 'male' Time Lords don't have a cock and 'female' ones have three. Man, I really want to be true now, just to fuck with the haters.

QuoteIf I've seen one shibboleth that defines male prejudice in the workplace, it's this fixation on higher-pitched voices: it's used to shut women's contributions down in meetings,  it's used to imply women are "becoming emotional", it's used to imply immaturity and weakness. And it's balls. If you don't enjoy women's (vastly diverse) voices,  then I reckon you just don't like women.
Quite. I recall recently reading about a university study into meetings and estimations about time. Everyone overestimated the amount of time women spoke, often significantly, and that included the feminist creator of the study, who seemingly felt like shit because of this. In short, if women speak for over about 25 per cent of the time, men think they've dominated. See also things like appearances in movies/crowd scenes/etc.

dweezil2

#36
Quote from: Funt Solo on 08 October, 2018, 01:27:56 AM
I just don't see how recognizable actors can be either a measure of inherent quality or a measure of how much the production company cares about the production.  I would say the quality of the actors would be the measure in both cases.  Example: Attack the Block.

And I don't buy your Eastenders argument either.  Unless you can point me to the Easties episode where weird murderous aliens crack out of space-eggs and a flying electric spaghetti monster plants a DNA bomb in Dot Cotton's neck.

Anyway: loads of great British sci-fi is set on Earth.  This makes it easy to relate to and easier to produce.  I'm not sure which is the major factor, but it doesn't make them either inherently rubbish or like a contemporary soap opera.  Look, a list:

Humans
Black Mirror
Misfits
The Prisoner
The Quatermass Experiment
Day of the Triffids
The Tripods
War of the Worlds
Sapphire & Steel

Also, setting things off-planet doesn't make them good.  (See Survivors or Hyperdrive.  Or don't.)



I quite liked the odd episode of Hyperdrive!

Still back to Who.

The plot reminded me of my recent disappointment with The Predator.

Still, the new theme tune is good, assuming they'll be using the same one for the titles as they did on the end credits.

I'll need to see more before I can make my mind up, but the writing wasn't great on this one.
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Quote from: ABCwarBOT on 08 October, 2018, 07:53:19 AM
People might not be surprised to hear I thought it er... wasn't very good.   Pretty much as I expected.  Gender politics masquerading as Dr Who

Sorry, but this is just patent nonsense. As I said in my first post on this thread, one of the things I really liked about this episode was how few mentions were made of the fact that the Doctor had changed genders, making for a clear signifier that this wasn't a big deal.

If I remember rightly, the only mentions of the Doctor's  change of gender amounted to her initial surprise at being referred to as madam whilst on the train, and admitting that she hadn't shopped for women's clothes in a long time when in the charity shop.

'I used to be a white haired Scotsman' is a line anyone playing the part would likely have been given, whether they were male, female, or otherwise.



JamesC

I can honestly say the only bit that annoyed me was when The Doctor said 'would of' (one of my mum's pet hates so it's always really noticeable to me).
Other than that it was a quality production - the plot was solid and easy to follow, the characers were engaging, the performances were all very good, lovely music and a very cool cliffhanger.
And a genuine 'lol' at 'eat my salad'.

Oh, and she didn't say 'I was a white old Scotsman', she said 'I was a white haired old Scotsman'. What's wrong with that? it's just a way of acknowledging the transformation/regeneration.

Funt Solo

Quote from: ABCwarBOT on 08 October, 2018, 07:53:19 AM
Gender politics masquerading as Dr Who ... Whitaker also sounded as if she'd inhaled helium or something with her squeaky voice.

Misogynism: check.

Quote from: ABCwarBOT on 08 October, 2018, 07:53:19 AM
just about all the men were shown as a bit cowardly and the women as clever and brave

Playing the victim: check.

Congratulations!  You've just been naturally selected for a free scholarship to the Jordan Peterson Institute for Male Domination of the Species.  Prior to your initiation day, please binge watch Strike Back.  (Scholarship dependent on demonstration of deep, commanding voice and ability to do one-handed Rocky push-ups.)

---

Her voice was normal.  I thought the bloke in the basement was pretty brave when he faced off against the thing from the egg.  I would have wet my pants and (if my legs would have played along) you wouldn't have seen me for dust.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Andy Lambert

Also, Ryan has dyspraxia - a developmental co-ordination disorder, yet he still managed to scale up a very high crane.
Seems pretty brave to me.

TordelBack

Quote from: JamesC on 08 October, 2018, 12:50:55 PM
I can honestly say the only bit that annoyed me was when The Doctor said 'would of' ...

Hah, forgot that bit!  Nearly had me hiding behind the couch.

M.I.K.

Quote from: TordelBack on 08 October, 2018, 01:49:27 PM
Quote from: JamesC on 08 October, 2018, 12:50:55 PM
I can honestly say the only bit that annoyed me was when The Doctor said 'would of' ...

Hah, forgot that bit!  Nearly had me hiding behind the couch.

Thirded.

IndigoPrime

Dammit. Now as a grammar pedant, writer and editor I'm duty bound to hate the new series. AND IT WAS GOING SO WELL.

TordelBack

And to think this started out as an educational programme!