I finally got a chance to sit down with the wife and watch the first episode of the new season of Doctor Who.
This is the first episode in which The Doctor is played by a woman, Jodie Whittaker.
I’m not going to judge Whittaker’s Doctor on a first episode, since the first episode in which The Doctor regenerates always is weak. The Doctor has to do his “I don’t know who I am any more, I have to figure out my body” shtick.
The “woe is me” routine that he goes through every time he gets a new companion is also pretty tedious. So it usually takes a few episodes before you can judge the quality of The Doctor. The Peter Capaldi Doctor didn’t really get good until Clara Oswald went away.
I’m giving Whittaker’s Doctor the benefit of the doubt until she sits down and makes her own Sonic Screwdriver (which The Doctor has never done before).
The Doctor reveals her Sonic Screwdriver with this terrible bit of dialog (verbatim – forgive that I don’t have screen grabs from my DVR).
Doctor: “Sonic Screwdriver. Well I say ‘screwdriver’ but it’s a bit more multipurpose than that – scanner, diagnostics, tin opener. More of a Sonic Swiss Army Knife, only without the knife. Only idiots carry knives.”
Yeah, The Doctor managed to turn the reveal of her Sonic Screwdriver into a shitty BBC anti-knife PSA.
What makes this even worse is that when The Doctor reveals her Sonic Screwdriver to the bad guy she says: “Swiss Army Sonic – now with added Sheffield steel.”
Sheffield steel is a direct reference to the city of Sheffield, which is the knife making capital of the UK, like Solingen in Germany or Seki City Japan.
So Sheffield steel but no knives because “only idiots carry knives.”
I know The Doctor was always anti-gun, but the show is British and his dislike of guns was written into his character as part of his resentful of having fought in the Time Lord/Dalek war.
This is just a needless anti-knife PSA hamfistedly shoved into the show.
Trust the BBC to go woke with a female Doctor and then double down by making The Doctor an anti knife mouthpiece.
I hope to God the next few episodes are going to get better because if now, Doctor Who is going to woke itself broke.
This is why we’ll never see someone like the Brigadier ever again.
“For once I’d like to face an alien menace that wasn’t immune to bullets.”
There was also a Pertwee or Baker era story where the villains were scientists intent on taking over the world and imposing a “rational, scientific world order”. I get the feeling they’d be the heroes in a modern Dr. Who, complete with explanations of why they should win.
Doctor Who has been unwatchable since Tom Baker quit in 1981.
But then, James Bond movies have been unwatchable since Roger Moore quit in 1985.
Bite your tongue! Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred were one of the all-time great Doctor and Companion pairings.
Dr. Who: Must be an acquired taste. I tried it a few times. I thought it was sort of boring. Gave up. Sorry guys, just my opinion.
It’s okay. You’re allowed to be wrong.
Leela and Jamie would like to have a pointed conversation with you, Doctor.
Bonus points for namechecking the baddest Companion of them all. Every good Doctor needs an armpiece who’ll cut a bitch.
Remember, this is the Beeb: there is no “going broke” because it’s paid for by your tax dollars and television license.
There’s been worse. There used to be a BBC series called MI-5. The first two seasons were great, hunting terrorists and pulling black ops.
The big villain of the third season wanted to… privatize the NHC.
Yup.
You’ve gone from chasing rogue state desperadoes with goals involving WMD’s to making your BBEG some dude who wants to get Her Majesty’s Government out of health care. Hell, I think they even made him Jewish.
MI-5 had a couple brilliant episodes. Unfortunately, it eventually felt like the U.S. was Britain’s #1 threat.
Latest News is that MI-6 and GCHQ thought Donald Trump was their greatest threat, and they started the whole spying on the Trump Campaign. Misfud was a British Spy, not a Russian Spy.
Almost makes sense that they thought President Trump would be their enemy. He hates Obamacare and NHS is even worse. PDT may not be Jewish, but his daughter and grandchildren are. Maybe that is enough for the British?
Mrs B and I watched “Rise of the Cybermen” and “Age of Steel” last night, working our way through.
The prior series Doctors were pretty anti-gun also, although I do seem to recall one (Tom Baker maybe) using a Cyberman’s gun at one point.
My major problem with the episode came at the end when the Doctor told the guy who was being hunted by an alien “You have no right!” when the poor fellow kicked the alien off a construction crane. This was right after the Doctor turned the alien’s DNA-destroying nanobots on back on the alien.
Not only are knives for idiots, but you have no right to self defense!
The Doctor has become a proxy for the British government. Only the Dr./the Gov are smart enough, compassionate enough, and moral enough to stop bad guys. Are you in peril stupid little human/subject? Why, just sit there and wait to be rescued by your betters!
To be fair, this had always been a theme of Doctor Who, but it has gotten worse. I like stories where people are competent.
I think this is why River Song is a favorite of fans. A competent, gun totin’, time-travelling, chick with an attitude who takes no lip, and calls the Doctor out on his BS. She’s practically an American (actually, she was born in the U.S., so…) Now that I think about it, if the Doctor represents Britain and River represents the U.S., it’s very interesting that they are married.
QOTD: “The Doctor has become a proxy for the British government. Only the Dr./the Gov are smart enough, compassionate enough, and moral enough to stop bad guys. Are you in peril stupid little human/subject? Why, just sit there and wait to be rescued by your betters!”
Well said!