Academic Doctor Who Poll

[neadods]

So, there's someone in Australia who's working on a Chicks Dig Timelords-style book, only it's about race and Doctor Who. And I have been known to have opinions on the subject. (In fact, one of the links on the website under "This is the kind of thing I want" is to Mickey, Martha, and the Message that Doesn't Belong on Who.) About a week ago I was directly approached to either expand the essay into something longer or give permission to reprint the original blog post.

Given those two options, I'll take Door A: there's more to be said after Martha's first season, and certainly I never mind giving my opinion, especially in print.

On the other hand, as I started to rough draft the essay and realized how much ground I have to go back over and episodes I'd have to rewatch even for just 5000 words, my overwhelming reaction was "BLAAARGH!"

So:

[Poll #1787327]

Comments

[lagilman]

I answered A but what I really meant was C. :-D

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I've accepted an invite from an invite-only zine to do a Sherlock fic for Media*West. So I have to find a plot get cracking on that too. It, however, does not need to be mailed in hardcopy to Australia by mid-December.

And should I even mention Probe fic? :D

[lagilman]

And should I even mention Probe fic? :D

At this point, if it's not paying, it's not even in the queue. Sorry.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

I would love to see an intelligent treatment of the subject that took into account post-season 3 stuff, so I voted A. But, you know, if your "BLAAAARGH!" reaction is really too much, just let them reprint the original.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

BLARGHH is more about fast forwarding/rewatching so many episodes to get specific instances of the kind of thing I'm trying to cite, such as Rose or Donna getting praise (hugs, "you're the best" etc.) where Martha got only statements of fact. ("You saved my life" no matter how proudly said, is not the same as praise.)

On the other hand, I wasn't going to go much past The End of Time aside from an aside; Moffat made a great stride forward in showing a race-change regeneration (making it quite clear that the Doctor does not have to be white) but on the whole, seems to have ducked the issue by avoiding casting characters of color much at all, which is Not The Point.

[tempestsarekind.livejournal.com]

This may explain more about my writing than it ought to, but my usual technique in that case is to say a lot about a few representative instances, rather than trying to be comprehensive.

I picked A (although of course you should do whatever seems best to you!), because I suspect that a lot of people still don't Get It. And because I *still* get angry about the way Ten lapses into that beautiful "goodbye" speech for Donna in the S4 Sontaran episodes, easy as breathing, and the whole thing is played for a big joke, because the Doctor, he's always making sappy speeches like that...except, you know, for the woman who walked a destroyed earth for a year, and put up with his racist doppelganger for three months in 1913, and had to work in a shop to support him in 1969. Whatever, no big deal.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Y'know, if I keep talking about this, people will bring up all the points that I need to mention in the comments and I won't have to rewatch the episodes at all. :) I'd forgotten that Martha was the only one to have had to physically/psychically support the Doctor, repeatedly and for relatively long periods of time.

[tempestsarekind.livejournal.com]

Heh, that is an excellent side effect!

Yeah, that's so Martha's thing--she's a doctor and a caretaker; she gets his hearts started again and holds him up when he's broken ("42" is one of those episodes I love as meta for their relationship, because he can say he's scared with her, which is why I can't just hate them like I want to). But then it goes all wobbly, because she never gets the credit or concern she ought to have after doing all that.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

She's the only one to have left the TARDIS not because she was scared to keep traveling or because she never wanted to travel in the first place, or even because she felt she'd traveled enough and wanted to move on on her own. She *specifically said* the first time she left that she was doing it because she felt unappreciated. This the season right after we'd gotten through with "Rickey the Idiot" who was willing to leave his own dimension to essentially make sure he could never run back to a disinterested Rose. Two companions of color leaving because they felt unappreciated two years in a row. Dude!

(This thing really is starting to write itself.)

[tempestsarekind.livejournal.com]

I know--"He never looked at her twice." Argh. She says to his face that he basically made her feel like second-best all the time, and he just stands there, like, "oh well."

And it's so frustrating that Mickey basically went from "It's always gonna be the Doctor, and never me" to "It's always gonna be Rose, and never me." By the end, he wants the Doctor to choose him every once in a while, too, and he can't even get that. (I don't know if you remember that bit in the second S2 Cyberman episode--I'm failing at titles, clearly--where the Doctor finally acknowledges Mickey, and Mickey's so happy...and then the Doctor gives Rose this huge goodbye hug, and Mickey's face falls. That still makes me so mad.)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

and then the Doctor gives Rose this huge goodbye hug, and Mickey's face falls. That still makes me so mad.)

That's one of the eps I have to rewatch, because I want to compare Mickey's goodbye scene here and later (after the All Companion TARDIS Team) to the kind of farewells the other companions get.

Basically, that the Doctor devalues Mickey is *right there on screen* and the fact that so many other people fall all over Martha doesn't really make up for the Doctor... not. He's the frikkin' hero!

[tempestsarekind.livejournal.com]

I like the fact that Mickey is most concerned to say goodbye to Jackie. :) But that's about all I do like, there.

Oh, I know. I mean, not that I blame anyone for falling all over Martha, but...it's actually kind of a weird move to make. Like RTD thought he had to short-circuit the idea that Martha wasn't "worth" the Doctor's affection by showing that other people liked her--but that doesn't make up for Ten being a jerk to her, which is the actual problem.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Mickey was amazingly kind and generous to Jackie, considering how she treated him when Rose disappeared.

but that doesn't make up for Ten being a jerk to her, which is the actual problem.

Exactly! And right on the heels of Ten and Rose making it so clear that Mickey wasn't part of their mutual admiration society.

[mtgat]

I am biased towards answer A, naturally.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I might not be so BLARG-ish if I had snapped to the minute you told me about it, rather than faffing around going "yeah... maybe."

OTOH, turns out that I have more than two weeks to put it together and still get it to Oz. (That whole mailed hardcopy thing keeps throwing me.)

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

I would be very interested in seeing an expanded version of that post. And the topic is one which needs to be addressed until people start Getting It.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

In a way, it feels like revisiting the BatB war. And rewatching the episodes feels EXACTLY like rewatching BatB after the war.

[songfire3.livejournal.com]

I went with A, but C would work as well! ;)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Oh, C is in the works! Sort of. As in "I'd love to do it if I could think of a plot."

[zinelady.livejournal.com]

I voted C. Not that I'm not interested in Who, (I know it's a double negative) but I've become very enamored of Sherlock. What kind of zine is it? Gen or slash? I was hoping for some Sherlock this year at MWC. I had Janice looking out, but she couldn't find any.

If you get stuck on time, you could always email your file to me, I could print it out and drop it in the post here in New Zealand. It just takes a few days to get across the pond. Did they say why they want a hard copy? Surely a file would be less work unless they are phobic about computer viruses.

As for plots, personally, I enjoy original stories rather than ones based on the 3 cases of the series or even the other Sherlock Holmes stories. I've read enough 'missing scenes' to last me a long time. When you just have 3 stories in a TV series, missing scenes can lose their appeal after a while.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

OMG I love you and will totally take you up on that mailing offer. It gives me more time to write to not worry about mail service.

And yeah, viruses appear to be the issue.

It's a gen zine, but we're to focus on bromance.

[zinelady.livejournal.com]

Sounds fun. Bromance works well for Sherlock, better than slash, I think. I can see Sherlock jealous of Sarah, but not because she may be romantically involved with John, but because she takes John's time and focus away from Sherlock. Very similar to House, Wilson and Wilson's wives.

We'll be in the US for November to visit family over Thanksgiving (and to take advantage of Black Friday) but we will be flying back to New Zealand on the 26th of November, so I can mail it anytime in December.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It has to reach its destination by December 15, so if I get it to you Dec 1, it should be good.

I want to do a bromancy case fic, but am having a failure of the imagination.

[zinelady.livejournal.com]

One of the things I really enjoyed in the stories was when Sherlock went under disguise. Maybe he could go undercover? Or what about someone reenacting Jack the Ripper's crimes? Or some other less famous serial killer. Or someone is killing homeless people, but the Yard isn't that concerned about it to call Sherlock in because TPTB don't care, but Sherlock does because they are 'his network'. Maybe someone kidnaps Mycroft for some reason and his assistant comes to Sherlock to get help to find out where they are hiding him. You could have someone kidnap Sherlock and John has to come to his rescue...or vice versa. If you want angst in it, it could be something that is beyond Sherlock's abilities to fix and John's in danger. Sherlock could be going crazy knowing he can't help. Depending on what you want, you could have Sherlock collapse on a case because he hasn't eaten (I really think this would have happened sometime) and John putting his foot down as a doctor and making him eat.

[jeff-morris.livejournal.com]

Are they paying you for it? A

Is this gratis? B and C.


I'm practical that way.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

All I get is fame and my name in lights.

OTOH, saying "I have an essay in a publication on race and media" has a certain cachet outside the fandom. (Inside the fandom I rather expect that the people who already agree will continue to agree and the people who already disagree will continue to disagree.)

[jeff-morris.livejournal.com]

See, my thought on that is "if you want it enough to ask me and it's going to be published, then pay me something for it."

I passed the point of freebies for things like that a long time ago. Compensation is the sincerest form of flattery.

But that's me.

[belovedwarrior.livejournal.com]

Re-watching Doctor Who episodes is def. a positive side effect. Also, very curious about the racist angle. Never thought of that and want to hear more!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Missed all the fun, did you? I'm writing it out in bullet points, which are still in the process of jelling, but they boil down like this:

1) White characters get invited along by the Doctor almost on sight. Characters of color are either invited along by proxy (Rose asking Mickey) or conditionally (the Doctor telling Martha "just one trip" repeatedly *even though* he invited an uninterested Donna along after the Bride episode. He was "over" Rose enough to want Donna, but then Martha, afterwards, becomes the rebound girl.)

2) The Doctor praises almost everything done by white companions but undervalues/denigrates the efforts of black companions. Rose gets hugs and called "you're the best" (I need to beef up on Donna, but IIRC, she also gets lots of praise.) Martha gets statements of fact (You saved my life. You saved the world.) which are proud but are not *praise.* And Mickey is constantly "Rickey the Idiot" even after he has helped save the world more than once.

3) Characters of color struggle with love.
- They chase after white people who ostensibly don't love them. (Mickey after Rose, Martha after the Doctor; in Torchwood, Tosh after Owen.)
- Women of color in love with a man of color will be abandoned by him (Martha's mother; Clyde's mother on SJA), whereas white women lose their husbands only through death (Rose's mother, Donna's mother).
- Mickey is the only black man shown to be constantly faithful (Donna's black fiancee was a villain), and it's suggested that it's not because he is a good faithful man but because he "imprinted" on Rose as a child.

4) Martha and only Martha is repeatedly put into situations where she has to be the one who takes care of the Doctor. Even when she is walking the apocalyptic world, her "job" is to sing the Doctor's praises and get people to buy into his mystique, not actively mount a resistance movement. (The one-off fake Doctor companion character from the Christmas special also gets fobbed off with the idea that she can become the non-Doctor's nanny rather than be given any sort of free agency.)

5) When the Doctor leaves Rose behind in the alternate dimension for the last time, her parents have been reunited and she has a Doctor substitute. When Donna last seen she had a winning lottery ticket and a fiancee. Martha has an entire traumatized family.

And that's not even the supporting characters.

[anon-aspasia.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I'd forgotten about the fake-Doctor's companion. Isn't there some vague insinuation about a relationship between her and the fake Doctor towards the end? Or was that just me?

Also, I realize this is all RTD-era thus far, but will Mels get brought into it? I have mixed feelings on that front; she was rather interesting, but brought on only to die and become a white chick.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Mels is going to get a single mention on the basis that she's onscreen proof the Doctor doesn't have to be a white guy but also an example of a continuing problem as her fate is solely to become not just a white chick,but a crazy one.

[anon-aspasia.livejournal.com]

Can you link me to the original? I never got a chance to read it, but I'd love to.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Dang if it isn't the first hit on Google:

Mickey, Martha, and the Message That Doesn't Belong on Who

[anon-aspasia.livejournal.com]

(facepalm) Another case of JFGI...sorry.

This is a really, really interesting start, and I'd love to see it continued in more detail. (Frankly, as a prof who will probably find a way to wiggle DW into a class eventually, I'd probably wind up using it with students.)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

JFGI? ... No, wait, I think I figured it out. De nada. The post is somewhere in my own LJ too, and it proves anthropologically interesting because my post wasn't retconned by having troll comments removed (like the person who got hung up on my own race instead of what's onscreen.)

[lizvogel.livejournal.com]

I voted A, mostly because having skimmed the comments it sounds like that's what you really wanted and were just hoping to be talked into it. ;-)

Having googled & read the original essay (I stay far, far away from issue-based DW fandom as a rule), what struck me was not so much that dark-skinned companions get treated poorly, but that competent, stable companions get treated poorly, while flaily/unstable/competent-but-making-a-huge-fuss-about-it companions get all the praise and support. Which strongly parallels real life IME, so maybe I'm just projecting my own issues, but I'd be fascinated to see an analysis from that hypothesis.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

stable companions get treated poorly, while flaily/unstable/competent-but-making-a-huge-fuss-about-it companions get all the praise and support.

Very arguably yes, considering the way Rory is treated, but it doesn't negate that most of those storylines happen not just to stable characters, but stable characters of color. Even adding in Rory, that 2/3 against "he's just that way about stable people."

[lizvogel.livejournal.com]

Well, I would argue that 2/3 is not a statistically significant data set. But I suspect we're treading close to accusations-that-can't-be-disproven, here, and that's never good territory.

Good luck on the essay!