#60threwatch

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you know that thing when you hang around your friends long enough you start to pick up their speech patterns?

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Whatever you do on Doctor Who, whatever technology or futurism you're putting on on screen, it's always going to look like it was made now. And it should, you know. Science fiction in the sixties looks like it was made in the sixties - seventies, eighties. The worst and most stupid thing you can do is got into a meeting and say "Let's make it timeless!".

For a start, why? I think these programs are a record of the era in which they were made. And they should be. You should show that off. Plus, you can't fight it. That will creep it in aywhere. There's not such thing as a timeless design, ever.

I think we have to celebrate that.

RTD - DW Confidential - s03e07

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capaldi coded?!

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wondering how many years martha would been strung along if the year that never was hadn't happened

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obsessed with the only 5 seconds of face-to-face interaction ten and jacobi!master have

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one thing that's a bit ambiguous in human nature / family of blood + utopia is that it's not clear how much the "randomly generated life" that the fobwatch/TARDIS creates is up to the user. John Smith and Professor Yana seem like they almost hand-picked how they could be the most mirror-y to their OG selves, at the same time the writing wants us to think of them (Specially John Smith) as their own people...

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quick appreciation for martha's theme - god i love it so much. it's so brassy, and echo-y and it *sounds* so much like martha (serene and beautifully tranquil, but also deeply longing for emotional release underneath. a slow cascade progressing to rapture).

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dw rewatch - takes from "rose"

companion watch:

Rose kinda plays the role of Ian in this episode. Action man. Etc

When Nine exits the frame in the Famous Walking Single Shot and Rose is left befuddled, after a second, she runs back- but it’s too late. The TARDIS is gone. It’s OK though because she’ll get a second chance. This moment is then repeated again at the end, giving us an expectation for Rose’s choices and specially, their timing. And... Rose takes a while to take the plunge… but gets there in the end. This is the emotional arc of the episode. If there’s an "appeal" to this story, beyond aliens, comedy, and its weight.. on its own, the pull of "Rose" is inspiring bravery. As Rose will say later, it’s not about the adventures or the aliens or the wonder... “it’s about taking a stance and doing what’s right, when everyone else just runs away”.

And it’s true: no one wants to solve the issues at hand: Jackie is more concerned with compensation, Mickey says “leave him!” when Nine is about to be slurped in physchic plastic lava, and no one on earth seems to know what is going on. But Rose is there to show that we all have a part to play in history, we all have a call at some point to do what’s right and to act. Even if we’re afraid or widely out of our depths. This is what makes the first adventure click, it's a universal story.

- “I got the bronze” even at "most condecorated" stage, Rose's archivement are very mundane and down-to-earth.

- Jimmy Stone / The Doctor parallels? Perhaps...? She definitely swore off pursuing her A-levels after this adventure.

- With just a few pointed lines, we learn that Rose’s relationship with her mom has some friction. It’s not a day after she almost died and Jackie is already pushing Rose to look for another job. She won’t coddle her and will make that loud and clear. There’s also a bit of… resentment? envy? In how she says it’s good Rose lost her job at the shop because it was giving her “airs and graces” (!!). It seems she wants her succeed but not in a way that makes her leaver her (oh hello, Jackie’s arc, nice to meet you). Also this line: “ Honestly, it's aged her. Skin like an old bible. Walking in now you'd think I was her daughter.”

- At the same time, we get from this episode’s climax (with Rose’s moment being intercut with Jackie’s almost dying, almost as if the editing is suggesting she can feel her mom’s in danger) that... at this moment, she’s the most important person for Rose. Which is sweet, it's a complicated, real relationship.

Themes: - Bodies used and discarded, separation of physical bodies and consciousness. The Doctor inspiring people to do brave actions. Mundanity and the extraordinary. Internet Culture and Fandom. Environmental crisis (blink and you'll miss it). London as a cosmo-politan city. Diplomacy vs violence. - vigilante justice and underground wars. conspiracies. "Well, who else is there? I mean, you lot, all you do is eat chips, go to bed, and watch telly, while all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on." A clear tension between the (relatively) comfy lives the Tylers live and the "world out there" that's burning in flames.

- Nine rumages over Rose’s living room, and this is how he finds her last name. Is this awkwardness? Or is this trying to “figure her out” in advance like Auton mystery? How much of this adventure was The Doctor inadvertly trying to impress her?. The Doctor as the maligned “shoot the messenger” trope.

Timeless Child Retroactive Continuity Bonus:

- Nine answers Rose by saying what he can do, not really who he is… or does he? what is the doctor but a title for someone whose entire identity is built around what they do (and not their memories, personalities or physicalities, as these are in constant flux)? Axiom 2 from this: the doctor's sense of self is only defined in the present moment. their sense of identity holds no permanence.

- The closest we get in the answer is the “I’m in despair” with a “if we let go…” what does it mean? We fall into the vacuum? We fall to existential despair, like Nine is right now after the Time War? Or perhaps that, like in Torchwood… “we’re moths clinging to the flame”, in the cosmic scale, all life is really, really small and really, really fragile.

- Could this space/time sixth-sens be a unique ability of the Doctor’s OG species? The mythology used to be that all time lords developed this sensibility to time, and that’s what allowed them to time travel. However, all other time lord characters dont seem to care very much about the universe around them. We know now that The Doctor has a special relationship to “Time”. Maybe, The Doctor’s gone so long assuming this is something every TL could do, when really is just something they could do.

Blorbos:

- Nine’s little “ok” when Rose’s turns him down TOT. Imagine taking a chance of being attached and vulnerable after being so traumatized and war-scarred and then. REJECTION. headcanon that that little eu gap is mostly him just processing this and getting the urge to ask the girl out again lol

- Nine and Rose hold hands so much here omg - Nine says he knew Mickey could survive but doesn’t confide this information to Rose. Was he trying to protect her feelings, in case it turned out Mickey was indeed dead? / - “Oh, I didn’t think about that”

Colonialism / Hegemony:

- The doctor shows a lot of prejudice to humans in this. And honestly, this gives me a lot of conflicting feelings. One thing I'm trying to do in this rewatch is keep a firm eye on the "white savior/colonialist fiction aesthetic/neoliberal power fantasy" spectrum of things and see what sort of things pop out. I think Nine's immediate "I'm so much Smarter and Intellectual THEREFORE I know what's best in Every situation" is a very good (bad) fuel to this strand of critique.

- but, it is narrative effective. it’s effective at showing us he’s quite full of himself, and humbling the viewer by telling them that hey, you don’t know everything that will happen in this show! - It also makes sense for Nine in particular to be this cynical, given what we know he's lived. But there’s also something a bit … grossly Victorian Intellectual about it. It feels like the pulpy DNA ethos, the one that comes from white “humanists” and “rationalists”, is very loud in those moments.

- In Dramatic Justice terms, The Doctor’s decision to seek a diplomatic solution comes at the cost Clive his life. Although we’re clearly meant to admire 9’s diplomacy, it is ultimately proven useless materially. But although there's an interest in reading the moment as virtuous, there's an ambiguity by Clive’s meta that in some ways The Doctor is a cause of destruction (which is a beat the series has never quite connected and I'll get to in s2... the timelords, and by extension, the doctor, were the cause of all these messes, but much like irl brittish imperialism and usa neoimperialism, the narrative is blind to their responsibility on the current mess).

- We learn the Nestene consciousness has high tech but not as high as the Time Lord’s (it gets scared by the TARDIS).

You cannot reason with an Invading force. That Nine attempts to do so without offering the Nastene any kind of deal, when he’s aware that they’re doing out of a need for Survival, for basic resources, seems almost like self-sabotage.

- Obviously, the implication is that humanity has caused this by being so damn contaminating. But The Nastene could’ve just eaten all the plastic and toxins honestly, would’ve done us a favor. Possibility for a symbiotic episode one day in the future?

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a lot of people (esp people who didn't vibe with ten's story) really hate the "i never would" moment. First for finding it hypocrital ("the doctor's done worse!") and second for it being melodramatic / sanctimonious. (And imo there's a third aspect not talked as much... which is that it just doesn't Hit As Hard to see our main character lose it over a Character Of The Day that, charming as she is, we've only spend 40 minutes with.) tbh I honestly do Get some of these complaints. I think also the moment could Hit Better if the episode it's in was a bit more coherent*. And I think the show is kind of not successful sometimes in juggling... well, the Contractual Obligation as a family show on a publicly funded-network, to not be something that celebrates violence ("only idiots use knives") with the actual Watsonian reality of doctor who, which is super violent, with a high-body, and where The Doctor (in all eras) is a very vindictive, punitive person. I think there's a tension there that sometimes like in this moment comes forth and creates a dissonance that people can be repelled by.

That said ... I do think, honestly, it works 80%. I think this scene is Good Mostly and I'm glad it exists.

'Cause lbr, this had to happen at some point. And it is always going to be an Important scene. And from a purely arc-specific POV, I think it does work when people can put themselves in the shoes of Ten (in being Absolutely Done With This Shit (tm) lol), and.... imo that's why his arc works.

(some) People get pretty mad that he could even be tempted to not save Wilf / save his own skin on ToE, but honestly,,, that and moments like this, where the mask falls and he loses it... but pulls back? that's the good shit. It's seeing the "good guy" character do the good thing he *doesn't want to do* but doing it anyway that makes it compelling an admirable. (*)tbh i don't think it is a bad episode, it's a Could Have Been Better Episode. regardless though it's imo an important episode for the show's lore.... but yes, it is kind of over-stuffed, and Martha should've had more focus since it's her last episode as companion, so this in theory was the last moment to center on her and close some of her arcs with ten. and there is some stuff, but not enough. overall tho is one of the best Donna episodes)

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(early) torchwood and facism

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oh to be forever immortalized in doctor who confidential like livejournal user doyle_sb4

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"OUR genocide <3"

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ok so tbf from what i remember i think lucy Pulling The Trigger was a satisfying bow to the storyline. but damn. imagine if martha had offed the master. that would have been fun.

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making 2 connections re: Martha's attraction to Ten

from dw:confidential s3.11: Chipo Chung (Chantho) says re: her attraction to Yana: "I feel really sorry for her because she is this blue insect creature in the midst of all these humans she loves, but being the last of her species (….) she's like poor George, old George, the last tortoise who can't find his mate. So she's attached to this person who's very much a father figure- but also, I just don't think she has any relationship to any of the other humans."

with the last line… I think of Tish's comment in The Lazarus Experiment:

TISH: You look great. So, what do you think? Impressive, isn't it? MARTHA: Very. TISH: And two nights out in a row for you. That's dangerously close to a social life.

and for the other bit, this exchange from The Poison Sky:

DONNA: You know, that coat sort of works. MARTHA: I feel like a kid in my dad's clothes. DONNA: Oh well, if you're calling him dad, you're definitely getting over him.

And of course, Martha's dad being a guy who cheats on his wife with a much younger, blond woman whom he drives around on a shiny sports car.

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this episode really Spells it out lol

DOCTOR: I wouldn't have thought you had time for poetry, Lazarus, what with you being busy defying the laws of nature and all. LAZARUS: You're right, Doctor. One lifetime's been too short for me to do everything I'd like. How much more I'll get done in two or three or four. DOCTOR: Doesn't work like that. Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty. It's not the time that matters, it's the person. LAZARUS: But if it's the right person, what a gift that would be. DOCTOR: Or what a curse. Look at what you've done to yourself. LAZARUS: Who are you to judge me?

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dw rewatch - takes on "the end of the world"

companion watch:

"the artic desert" hits different lol

something something bella vs the witch

rose's fear attack when she finds heres lf in the alien situation. she's genuinely terrified! it's a good beat, man. more than that, it's a rare beat. I get a lot of people don't vibe with it and prefer the more "buffy-esque approach, since it's "more to the point" and gets you larger than life figures… but personally I much prefer it when scifi/fantasy scenarios are portrayed as the terrifying reality they would be. also this: "ROSE: I just hitched a ride with a man. I don't even know who he is. He's a complete stranger"

war of the world vibes with the little robot fellas. /unintentional parallel to how cassandra dies and how the aliens in that book die?

"it gets inside and changes my mind, and you didnt even ask" "i didnt think about it like that" it's interesting that rose question this tbh

"five billion years in the future, my mum's dead" "bundle of laughs you are" /god i love this exchange. nine's constant attempt to downplay ANY surfacing of Real Emotions. rose's naivety in contemplating for the first time in her life that oh yeah, people die. the first statement of the "everything dies, everything ends" theme that will be woven throughout all the rtd era.

ngl i wish rose Did More in the plot of this episode, in terms of actually solving the crisis, feels like a stepdown after Rose giving her the most climatic moment... that said she does get a lot of great quibs in this one: "you two go pollinate and i'll go meet the family"/ "and i want you home by midnight!"/ "its better to die than to live like you, a bitchy trampoline" / "youre just lipstick and skin"

she's really similar to nine/ten in that aspect. they both have that "humor as defense mechanism" thing

blorbos:

the way nine and rose Lean in those stairs…. im Looking respectfully and im Thinking pure thoughts. (honestly ppl talk a lot about ten and rose's body language in s2 but there was A Lot going on with nine and rose as early as episode 1)

"all that counts is here and now" can't tell if zen mindfulness or a desperate defense mechanism to cope with ptsd.

first thing rose does is call her mum ): - Cassandra "I'm too young" vs Ten's "I was going to do so much more"...(ben wyatt voice) it's about the hypocrisy (oh having written this note before rewatching new earth... put a pin on that!)

timeless child retroactive continuity bonus: perhaps cassandra as "the last human" (not really a "human") paralleling "the last timelord" (not really a "timelord)? - "JABE: And what about your ancestry, Doctor? Perhaps you could tell a story or two. Perhaps a man only enjoys trouble when there's nothing else left". well post-s13 they're gonna enjoy themselves a lot more lol - there's something very anti-entropy about how the child gets to regenerate indefinitely without "losing" its essence and its dna integrity (vs cassandra's "flatness", the child gains more and more complexity as time passes).

colonialism/hegemony: - NINE: "mind you, when I say "the great and the good" what I mean is the rich." / "Five billion years and it still comes down to money" / this maybe be harsh,,, honestly i hate to say but doctor who sometimes really is just typical neolib """anti-capitalist""" fiction. - in the sense that it pretends to be anti-capitalist, but really is just capitalist realist. it's writers can imagine 203223 scenarios of the earth dying but they cannot conceive of a post-capitalist world, a classless society or simply a world without taxes. Of course you could say "this is so these stories are relatable" but even in their relatedness, there's rarely a portrayal of the anti-capitalist struggle (rather than just generic star wars-style, ideology-less "rebellions).- (that said, obligatory "I'm not a politics robot" disclaimer... "Do you think it's cheap, looking like this? Flatness costs a fortune." is an iconic retort lol) - there's also a kind of subtle Myth Of The Linear Progress Of History thing going on with cassandra being framed as someone who "stayed behind" and has not embraced this analogue to our "Color Blind Post Racial Society" which has "Obviously" outgrown prejudice and notions of racial purity. - "good thing i didn't take you to the deep south" / "you were to busy making cheap shots about the deep south" // parallels to-> "who do you think makes your clothes?" "Is that why you travel 'round with a human at your side? It's not so you can show them the wonders of the universe, it's so you can take cheap shots?" "sorry" . actually no rtd i dont think these are chepashots at all lol they are VERY relevant shots!! it's very transparent how the writers are kind of meek about making these *truly* transgressive points, but it's much easier to have the doctor argue that rose having a donor card is "a different morality"... again one is truly transgressive, the other is fun-but-no-challenging-of-the-hegemony scifi "dilemma". - the "quick word with Michael Jackson" line is doing A Lot but idek how to even begin to entangle it lol it's very 00s, for sure. - for once, a self aware one: "People have died, Cassandra. You murdered them." / "It depends on your definition of people, and that's enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries"

themes: - everything has its time and everything ends check your bingo cards. racial purity vs mixing vs 'progress'. class. life cycles. gut instinct (rose jumping the gun to empatise w/ the doc + nine going through the fans + rose reaction to the alien parade). destruction as tourism, as "artistic event" (an uncomfortable parallel to how this is what our heroes will be doing for the next 10+ seasons). - this episode does a bit of a u-turn on the previous (And the next) on its constant questioning of the intrinsic "meaning" of a physical body. in this, cassandra's continuous operations are framed as a kind of "lost of an essence". also the "surface" of her thinking as metaphor for her missing the "essence" of what it means to be human (biologically but more fundamentally, ethically).

Live Fast Die Young / YOLO / everyone deserves to be mourned. everyone deserves a dignified death. thread carefully and cherish life, because it will all be gone. our time is limited and short and it is because it is short that it means something. Life only means anything because there's Death.

ecology and environmentalism. "there are many species in that planet. mankind is only one / I'm a direct descendant of the tropical rainforest." obsessed with it. wish they brought back the rainforest.