Doctor Who: The Witchfinders
Nov. 26th, 2018 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethDoctor Who this week was quite good
except I haven't watched it with the sound on yet because, basically, Too Scary
because real actual people really actually acted rather like that and I didn't want to hear it.
It is quite a difficult balancing act because in DW there are some pretty dark forces, some of which you could pretty much call witchcraft. I mean I just listened to an audio where they sacrifice people to make their ships go. There are vampires. There's that one episode with the big horns dude, and that other episode with the big ish horns dude, and, you know, a whole general Bad Things Are Real theme. So how do you end up with the message being Witch Hunts Are Bad?
This episode managed it. Make the one doing the hunting be just trying to throw enough other people to the wolves to escape what they alone have done.
One objection though: “If only I was still a bloke, I could just get on with the job without having to constantly defend myself.”
I mean, yeah, but no, but, it isn't exactly new that the Doctor gets accused of doing the bad things.
It is new that even the psychic paper can't persuade the truly closed mind that this particular model of person can be the expert they claim to be.
I thought before the season started that the old white guy would be mistaken for The Doctor, but this way round is much better.
I just liked the layers of her being the Doctor and helping and inspiring this week.
The Nubian Prince bit is sort of awkward given that the King is, kind of, on balance, a Bad Guy.
Yaz actually got some characterisation here, and it was in a fill in the blanks way. Like, she could understand the kind of dread that makes you feel sick, because she felt it for a year of being bullied and isolated. She didn't say why, race, religion, whatever else it might have been. And when asked what she did about it, she didn't say she grew up to be a police. I mean, we know she did that, but her answer in the episode is that she just lived through it. So we can fill in that she's trying to do something about bullies, and it can make an interesting comparison with Becka in this episode who sets herself up as the law to be Biggest Bully. But she doesn't say it.
... sometimes I think that's because the last time the show remembered she was a police was the first episode, but, *sigh*
The mud zombies looked pretty good, very Doctor Who, and everyone playing one seemed to be having fun, which is always a good bit. Reminded me very much of Fenric.
Hmmm, come to think, that makes an interesting comparison, because there was none of that faith magic here, faith didn't do anything here, just... alien tree wood? Bio tech solution that ties into the herbalism of the dead granny. Belief just made a mess, trees are where to put your trust apparently.
The Guardian's recap does a paragraph mentioning earlier episodes and goes him/her throughout and then "I still don’t have a handle on these gender pronouns." I don't get what's so confusing. He was a him at the time and is a her now, and them is a perfectly reasonable word if you don't like shifting.
ANYway
This was a pretty good episode that did not make me angry the bad ways and I shall watch it again with the sound on at some point to get the full effect now I know where it does and doesn't go with the whole hate bit.
except I haven't watched it with the sound on yet because, basically, Too Scary
because real actual people really actually acted rather like that and I didn't want to hear it.
It is quite a difficult balancing act because in DW there are some pretty dark forces, some of which you could pretty much call witchcraft. I mean I just listened to an audio where they sacrifice people to make their ships go. There are vampires. There's that one episode with the big horns dude, and that other episode with the big ish horns dude, and, you know, a whole general Bad Things Are Real theme. So how do you end up with the message being Witch Hunts Are Bad?
This episode managed it. Make the one doing the hunting be just trying to throw enough other people to the wolves to escape what they alone have done.
One objection though: “If only I was still a bloke, I could just get on with the job without having to constantly defend myself.”
I mean, yeah, but no, but, it isn't exactly new that the Doctor gets accused of doing the bad things.
It is new that even the psychic paper can't persuade the truly closed mind that this particular model of person can be the expert they claim to be.
I thought before the season started that the old white guy would be mistaken for The Doctor, but this way round is much better.
I just liked the layers of her being the Doctor and helping and inspiring this week.
The Nubian Prince bit is sort of awkward given that the King is, kind of, on balance, a Bad Guy.
Yaz actually got some characterisation here, and it was in a fill in the blanks way. Like, she could understand the kind of dread that makes you feel sick, because she felt it for a year of being bullied and isolated. She didn't say why, race, religion, whatever else it might have been. And when asked what she did about it, she didn't say she grew up to be a police. I mean, we know she did that, but her answer in the episode is that she just lived through it. So we can fill in that she's trying to do something about bullies, and it can make an interesting comparison with Becka in this episode who sets herself up as the law to be Biggest Bully. But she doesn't say it.
... sometimes I think that's because the last time the show remembered she was a police was the first episode, but, *sigh*
The mud zombies looked pretty good, very Doctor Who, and everyone playing one seemed to be having fun, which is always a good bit. Reminded me very much of Fenric.
Hmmm, come to think, that makes an interesting comparison, because there was none of that faith magic here, faith didn't do anything here, just... alien tree wood? Bio tech solution that ties into the herbalism of the dead granny. Belief just made a mess, trees are where to put your trust apparently.
The Guardian's recap does a paragraph mentioning earlier episodes and goes him/her throughout and then "I still don’t have a handle on these gender pronouns." I don't get what's so confusing. He was a him at the time and is a her now, and them is a perfectly reasonable word if you don't like shifting.
ANYway
This was a pretty good episode that did not make me angry the bad ways and I shall watch it again with the sound on at some point to get the full effect now I know where it does and doesn't go with the whole hate bit.