quizmasterfred

[quizmasterfred]

[quizmasterfred]

[Tweet from @/fozmeadows: "human gender and sexuality are very much like animal taxonomy, in that both look structured and simple on the surface, but once you start investigating, it turns out there's actually no such thing as a fish despite the fact that we all know what a fish is, and that's okay"]

[quizmasterfred]

What is Doctor Who Even Trying to Say Anymore?

Doctor Who has rarely been subtle about politics (“So the planet down below refused to stop the babies being born, but once they're born, they don't look after them?”- Ruby Sunday, Space Babies). But the underlying politics of season 2 of this new era of Doctor Who are about as confused as they’ve ever been. I think that Russell T Davies has good intentions, but the execution is often not well thought out. More often than not, the message that the show presents is not the message that was probably intended. In Lux, the Doctor makes multiple references to segregation and Jim Crow era laws. However, the rest of the (white) cast barely react to the Doctor and Belinda’s presence, and are friendly when they do, which serves to make the Doctor seem paranoid and overreactive. Given that he’s a black man in 1950’s Miami, his concerns are entirely justified, but the narrative doesn’t validate this at all. In Lucky Day, Conrad is presented as a right wing grifter and male manipulator whose entire raison d'être is to bring down UNIT. He is a violent denialist, killing his own allies and refusing to acknowledge that aliens exist, even when he meets them face to face. The trouble with all of this is that UNIT is a government funded military organisation. Framing Conrad’s beliefs as extremist and delusional implies that organisations like UNIT (i.e. the police, the military) are above reproach. Anyone who criticises these organisations, their use of public funds and their secretive operations, is aligned with murderous incels. The entire episode reads as copaganda. How dare you want to defund UNIT? Don’t you know that they’re trying to protect you?

And so we arrive at Interstellar Song Contest. Two Hellions – refugees from the destroyed planet Hellia – hijack the singing competition and try to murder the entire audience of three trillion people. Why? Well, the Corporation that funds the song contest invaded their planet, stole their resources, and then burned the planet to the ground when they were done. The Hellions are scattered and disenfranchised, with many people believing that they are witches and cannibals who destroyed their own planet and, as such, they suffer discrimination wherever they go. Nina Maxwell, who is running the song contest backstage, beseeches Wynn to stop, because she put her faith in her. “No one employees Hellions, but I did.” Wynn is unmoved, immediately proving that Nina should never have hired her by taking advantage of her position to orchestrate a devastating terrorist attack. When Nina calls Kid and Wynn monsters for murdering 100,000 people, Kid says “I’m only doing the things you expect of me.” The entire scene leaves a sour taste in my mouth, for reasons that I’m struggling to articulate. The story evidently wants the audience to sympathise with the Hellions while condemning their actions, but the narrative that Hellions are inherently dangerous isn’t particularly challenged. It sets up a dichotomy of good vs bad Hellions. Cora is a Hellion who has been mutilated to the point that she is passes as a non-Hellion. She is the “good” Hellion who has been divested of all of the parts of her that others would be threatened by: her horns, her language, her culture. Kid and Wynn are “bad” Hellions, unapologetic about their backgrounds, and are attempting to murder trillions. It is a classic case of taking a character with a legitimate grievance and making them do senseless acts of violence, in order to delegitimise their position.

The threat of this terror attack is supposed to be especially galling, because the three trillion people watching the Interstellar Song Contest are you. They represent the audience of Doctor Who far more so than the audience stand-ins in Lux did. This terrorist attack is a direct threat to you and your loved ones, for the crime of watching television. After all, why should you be held responsible for some faceless corporation doing terrible things many, many miles away from you? But the problem is, Kid and Wynn are right. This passive audience is complicit in the crimes of the Corporation. They watch the song contest and they buy the honey and they believe the propaganda being fed to them about the Hellions destroying their own world. They, like many people in the Western world, benefit passively from the subjugation and destruction of other cultures, whether they know it or not.

With the inclusion of the Interstellar Song Contest (a futuristic version of Eurovision) it’s hard not to make comparisons with Israel and Palestine. Obviously this is not a 1:1 allegory – the situation in Palestine is more complex than simple corporate greed – and there are probably other invasions that fit the bill more closely (the USA’s repeated salvoes into the Middle East for oil spring to mind). But the fact that in 2025, Israel is still allowed to perform at Eurovision, while Russia has been banned since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, means that the conflict is salient to the conversation. Eurovision whitewashes Israel’s atrocities just as the ISC whitewashes the Corporation’s. The ending of this episode is supposed to be uplifting. Cora sings a beautiful song in her native language, spreading awareness of the Corporation’s violent destruction of her home. Or maybe not. This is, after all, a broadcast sponsored by the Corporation. So instead of that, this is an aria for the dead, mourning the loss of her people and her culture. The audience of the song contest, if they even know that Cora is a Hellion, have no reason to come away from this performance feeling anything other than “isn’t it sad that all those people died” and “gee, maybe not all Hellions are evil”. This is a proclamation against direct action. The message is clear. Sing a pretty song for the dead; don’t fight for justice for the living.

But ultimately, in spite of the messy, misguided politics of the rest of the episode, the biggest problem in this episode is the Doctor himself. He is uncharacteristically cruel and violent, which wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, but his lack of remorse is. He claims that Kid’s attempts to murder the three trillion people watching the ISC triggered him, because it made him think of his home planet. Why, then, does the destruction of Hellia not provoke a similar anger? He doesn’t acknowledge that he has been in Kid’s position, murdering the people he holds responsible, erroneously, for the destruction of his home planet. The Doctor tortures Kid, because he is Kid. The (almost) deaths of three trillion hit home for the Doctor and he loses himself in trying to punish his own dark reflection. After all, isn’t he also an orphan who uses a title rather than a name? A person who doesn’t remember ever having had parents? A lonely scion of a destroyed planet? With this justification, I could perhaps stomach the Doctor’s treatment of Kid, if the Doctor ever acknowledged what happened to Hellia in this episode. But he doesn’t. He lets himself succumb to anger and hurts Kid for attempting to kill three trillion people, but doesn’t spare a thought for the dead of Hellia. You’d think that a person who had witnessed his own planet destroyed (twice) would have some empathy for the Hellions who have lost their homes, their families, their culture, and are now being persecuted across the galaxy. But the Doctor doesn’t acknowledge their plight. Nor does he acknowledge the Corporation and the Interstellar Song Contest’s role in Hellia’s destruction. Kid and Wynn are sent off to the appropriately dystopian-sounding ‘Justice Monolith’, but there’s no mention of justice for the planet full of people who were exploited and murdered. The Corporation ends this episode the way it started: unchallenged, with Hellions as its scapegoats.

[quizmasterfred]

All the respect to Yaz for bringing up her nani on the beach though. Like the doctor says something about how they always run out of time and it never ends well and yaz, gently like only she can, is like:

Do you remember when we went to that wedding. When we knew the groom was gonna die in the morning and that the bride was going to live on in pain and regret. When we knew it was hopeless and their days were numbered and the only respect we could show was to bear witness to it. And you not only stayed to see it. You Officiated it. And you said. Love is my religion. My belief. That love, like hope, abides. Do you remember?

[quizmasterfred]

I know people are gonna be like “but this episode was so deep” meanwhile the message of “you can only fight colonialism peacefully” is a narrative so overdone that Star Trek was debunking it in the 90s

If your making an episode saying “you can only fight colonialism peacefully” you are not being deep you’re pushing propaganda

[quizmasterfred]

Loving this “unholy trinity” thing they’ve got. A rogue time lord scientist, old enemy of the Doctor who is finally returned after decades off the air! Shes bigenerated, something previously thought impossible, and it makes her all the more dangerous now that there’s two of them!

Oh the third part of the trinity? Why he’s the most deadly one of all! That’s uh… he’s Conrad - a white boy with a podcast!

[quizmasterfred]

“Dark Doctor” moments used to have him face consequences — after 12 messed up by manipulating her like an experiment in Kill the Moon, Clara told him she didn’t want to travel with him anymore. Donna refused running away with 10 in the Runaway Bride because he frightened her by drowning the Racnoss and told him he needed someone to stop him.

here, Belinda just mildly chastises 15 for “scaring her”, he says he “scared himself”, and it’s “fine”? after he went on a mad power trip and started physically torturing a traumatised kid who lost his family in a genocide?? it’s so… out of character, not even the sudden cruelty that happens sometimes when he lets himself go, but the lack of narrative repercussions.

genuinely disturbing in a new way that Doctor Who has never been. it made me feel like this show wasn’t my friend. he’s edged close to it at times, but he’s never been an outright *villain* before.

there were so many other ways to resolve this that would have been more Doctorish — going back in time and dismantling the corporation before it got the chance to raid the planet Hellia, or rescuing Kid’s family when he was a child so he never becomes a terrorist hell(ion)bent on revenge, literally anything.

physical, lethal threat like this is never the Doctor’s MO. even when he chains the Family of Blood forever, it’s an exceptional case, and they’re objectively 100% evil hunters, not morally complex freedom fighters from a planet that was decimated by capitalism. here, the Doctor doesn’t condemn the genocide — he is written to condemn the victims. the THREE TRILLION number is comically large to make sure that the audience doesn’t feel too many moral qualms.

this episode literally feels like Zionist propaganda. i am disappointed in Juno Dawson beyond measure, beyond words. i loved her audio dramas. this is such a shame. episodes like these make me embarrassed to call myself a Doctor Who fan. and on a day when the genocide is escalating, as well! Palestinian journalists tweeting that this is the bloodiest day since it began! disgusting. fucking atrocious.

[quizmasterfred]

While I was selling my art at a convention last weekend, I suddenly had a vision in my mind that I just had to paint.

In these horrible times of trans rights being stripped away in several countries, I wanted to celebrate lgbtqia+ in all forms, as well as Doctor Who for its firm support of the community 🙏

Hopefully, I'll have stickers and prints ready for my final market before summer 🤞

Painted with acrylic and gouache colours 🎨

[quizmasterfred]

two things can be true: this is a satisfying take down of disinformation profiteers who destroy society on purpose, and also casting UNIT as the victimized governmental agency is a bit weird

[quizmasterfred]

you know even if a homeless person or a starving person is in that position because of their own "bad decisions" i don't care. it doesn't matter. no supposed financial misstep is enough to condemn someone to homelessness or poverty.

[quizmasterfred]

I do love the phrase executive dysfunction bc the image it conjures is of a bunch of people wearing business suits around a long oval conference table  arguing with each other to the point where they’re getting into physical fights, but in the background there’s just a big empty whiteboard with a To Do list with one item on it and that item is “take shower”

[quizmasterfred]

So within two days of each other, Fox News writes an article comparing aromanticism and asexuality to pedophilia, and then Matt Walsh releases a video saying asexuality is a mental illness and asexuals are tricking teenagers into having depression.

Not sure what’s going on right now over in Conservative World, but it’s a hell of wild U-turn for them to suddenly switch from “Oh no! The left is sexualizing our children!” to “Oh no! The left is asexualizing our children!”

[quizmasterfred]

And all the information they had came from Aliss, who we only *know* was there for the very last altercation (when she killed her friend), and clearly isn’t in a good state of mind. Any of the “”rules”” she gave could’ve been nonsense. Two layers of obfuscation that made it harder to actually KNOW anything about the creature

Like, maybe it just jumps to the *nearest* person, and that’s *usually* the killer but wasn’t the case for Bel/Mo/Shaya.

you know, I think the doctor forgot that he wasn't playing against the pantheon. he assumed the entity's rules - he assumed it had rules. he just went up against lux - the pantheon was on the brain. he had just beaten lux. the toymaker has his games, the trickster his deals. the gods have self imposed confines, games they play - zellin and rakaya weaved their nightmares, maestro composed their music.

he assumed the entity had rules because he's used to going against the gods - he assumed the entity was like a clock face, killing whatever was behind it. but it was never said. he just assumed.

and maybe the doctor's assumption has set it free.

[quizmasterfred]

In Unleashed, Russel said they had Aliss’ actor go through the script to help make those sort of things more realistic (both keeping Aliss in *and* out of the conversation), and it really paid off. Very deliberate showcase of what deaf people have to put up with

when the doctor and allis had a conversation in sign language and the squad leader immediately demanded that they keep the conversation audible but when the rest of the squad (even the doctor a few times!) were talking they often did it in a way that would make it difficult/impossible for allis to understand them. yeah.

[quizmasterfred]

First time Bel freaked out, I didn’t even see the creature, so I just assumed “oh we’re not supposed to see it, the characters are hallucinating or something”, and then the next one in close up BLOODY GOT ME

[quizmasterfred]

why do we even have legal genders anyway. maybe we should not have those

[quizmasterfred]

let's all just take a moment to appreciate how for the first time in 62 years, there's not a single white person in the tardis.