lizbee | Worldcon panels part 2

I left off at the conclusion of the Case for a Female Doctor panel, which ended with me having an aneurysm. In the hours that followed, I located

mondyboy and

calapine, and we slipped into the final half hour of a panel on fantasy elements in Shakespeare, in which

robshearman and another gentleman said many intelligent things, and Allison Croggon said equally intelligent things, but more rarely, as she was losing her voice.

What happened next was my fault. The panel was called "We Are All Fairy Tales: Doctor Who's Fifth Season". I wanted to go.

calapine was hesitant, fearing that it would be full of people being wrong. But I argued, with such a good name, how could it be anything other than a really interesting and clever panel about the themes and fairy tale elements of season 5?

Yyyyyyyyyyyyeah.

The panellists were Kathryn Sullivan, Narrelle M. Harris, George Ivanoff, Rani Graff, but I can't remember a single thing any individual person said, except that George Ivanoff (again, the only man on the panel) had an Anti-Sonic Screwdriver Agenda.

Going through my notes, same as before:

Actual Australians on this panel! Although I can't remember who was who, except that Narelle M. Harris is the author of the worst novel I have ever read. (It's a Melbourne-based urban supernatural romance about a librarian who becomes involved with vampires. I lend it to people who think I'm joking about how awful it is, and they give it back to me with wide, haunted eyes.)

"I love Torchwood." - bad sign. Introductory statement from a panellist. A sure sign that they're tastes are ~~bad~~ radically different from mine.

"I criticise Doctor Who." - "I am not like other fans." Another introductory statement, actual words and the implicit subtext.

"Season 5 was inferior to the rest of New Who." It was at this point that I realised this was not the panel of my dreams.

"I got through season 5 without being angry." I think this was Kathryn Sullivan; she talked about how, even in really good episodes, RTD-era who nearly always contained some sting in the subtext (or text) that left her feeling angry and hurt. She found that season 5 was much better in that respect.

Season 4: Donna's end was evil. As an example of the above.

I've written, "The Doctor was made to look stupider than the Doctor." What was actually said, and I think this was by George Ivanoff, as I associate it with a male voice, is that the Doctor was made to look stupider than Amy. (No examples were given; I presume he was referring to "The Beast Below", where the Doctor is too paralysed by rage and grief to perceive what Amy does.)

This led to the following:

What's with all the Amy hate? This panel is full of Tennant fans. Why is this panel dominated by season 5 haters? Questions that will echo through to the end of time.

Reaction to Matt Smith = reaction to Sylvester McCoy. As in the fandom's response to the casting. "Oh noes, a funny-looking young white guy with stupid hair!" "Oh noes, a Scottish man who put ferrets down his pants!" I'm not sure I wholly agree, but it was an interesting remark.

Since when is Moffat incapable of showrunning? Written in response to a remark about how Moffat lacks experience as a showrunner and shouldn't have been given the job. Sorry, Press Gang, Coupling, Jekyll and the series that I can't remember on account of how they weren't as ~~good~~ ~~successful~~ iconic, you don't count anymore.

Am I in a universe where RTD didn't stuff up until season 4? Responding to the comment, "Russell T Davies didn't oversee a dud episode until three and a half years into his run. With Moffat, it was three episodes." I wish I lived in a universe where "The Long Game" hadn't happened.

Season 5 is not TNG season 1! No, really, anyone who makes a comparison that stupid has unexpectedly rosy memories of Star Trek: The Next Generation's first season. And I say that as someone who thinks "The Naked Now" is very underrated.

"I am not a Rusty-basher." - followed by a long list of failings. Tired of messiah complex. I believe this was Kathryn Sullivan again, presenting a very reasonable critique of RTD's Who.

How the fuck was the Doctor dumbed down? Look, was he over-powered or dumbed down? PS. Watch the damn episode again. In the same breath, Ivanoff (I think) complained again that the Doctor was dumbed down and powerless, and then that he was over-powered and omniscient. As an example, he used the "HELLOOOOO, STONEHENGE!" bit in "The Pandorica Opens", only he totally missed the bit where even the Doctor thought that was a stupid plan, and estimated it would only hold people off for about half an hour.

"Vincent and the Doctor" = popular. In fact, it was held up as the only good episode of the season. Certainly I think it was the best, but the only good one? Once again, I am glad the version of the series I watched was better than everyone else's. It was generally agreed that everything needs moar Bill Nighy.

The theme was memory. Every episode had a callback to Classic Who. I'm not sure about every episode, but I'll be more than happy to double check and be sure!

Should have put Pertwee's tattoo on Smiff. In the shower scene in "The Lodger". This is such a brilliant idea, I feel the BBC needs to go and CGI said tattoo in for the box set.

Yes, let's have a really low-key finale. That's good television! The same people who were complaining about Moff not knowing how to run a series now turned their attention to his invention of the Giant Epic Finale. I know, right? What we really need is more season enders like "The Armageddon Factor". Teach the kids what real television looks like.

"Father's Day" is a great episode - great Whovian fallacy. My thought in response to someone trotting that old myth out.

Immense attention to detail etc, eg the museum scenes. How much of the universe has changed post-Pandorica? Thoughts worth recording.

The fans have taken over! The show, they meant.

Angela Lansbury as the Doctor? Really? Yeah, I don't know either.

Yes, we're moving to a younger demographic. AND WOMEN! Women, let alone young women, have never watched DW before. They'll just mess it up and make it like Twilight or something.

Why so ageist? Hasn't DW always been a kids' show? JUST BECAUSE IT'S AIMED AT CHILDREN DOESN'T MAKE IT BAD! We went from "Oh noes, young womens!" to "Oh noes, now it's suddenly for children!"

A woman a few years younger than me put her hand up, and said that when she watched DW as a child in the '80s, she never had any doubt that it was aimed at a family audience. Here is where my blood really started to boil, because one of the (older, female) panellists interrupted her to say, "Yes, but it was censored in Australia, so you got the kiddy version."

And she tried to say, without success, that no, the McCoy era went uncensored, but she was basically talked over and dismissed. And this silencing of a young woman's opinions and experience sort of tied into the Amy stuff that followed.

Allegedly, Rory's death had no emotional impact. This was stated as fact.

calapine was like, "Speak for yourself, mate," and I started sketching her little enraged face.

Amy needs a man to make her likable. Seriously, I love Rory, but some of his fans make me want to punch things.

But Amelia gets applause. Children are asexual and non-threatening! Amy is too bossy, but Amelia being bossy would have been awesome. And the moral is that young women, especially attractive young women, should never have or express opinions.

Splitting season means 2 giant finales? Which would, remember, be bad.

ONLY "VINCENT AND THE DOCTOR" DESERVES A HUGO! Not that it doesn't, I was just growing tired of the whole "'Vincent' was the only good episode" schtick.

The "Bad Wolf" and "Torchwood" memes were subtle and carefully planned and executed. In other news, there is no war in Ba Sing Se.

Long convo about the sonic screwdriver. No, really. Most people think it's overused and should be destroyed. There was a lot of talk about how it was destroyed in the Great Fire of London.

calapine kept muttering, "No! It was shot by a Terileptil!" but by now we knew better than to interrupt our elders and betters with our silly girl ideas.

"I love River." FINALLY SOMEONE SAYS SOMETHING REASONABLE! However, this was followed by an explanation that River is only likable if she's not actually the Doctor's wife, because obviously Eleven is asexual (NO, REALLY) and female persons are only any good when they have no real sexuality (like Donna! Why can't River have a hilarious old lady sexuality like Donna?) and so on.

Then, I kid you not, someone said, "Anyway, the Doctor having any kind of emotional involvement with another character would cheapen his love for Rose."

CHEAPEN HIS LOVE FOR ROSE. REALLY! Trust me, girls, when a man dumps you in another universe, not one but three times, that's a benchmark against which all other great loves must be measured.

Anyway, I snorted rather loudly (for which I apologise to anyone sitting around us), and

calapine said, "Okay, we're leaving," and we escaped and went in search of restorative cocktails.

The only other panel I went to was about history in YA speculative fiction. It was an interesting panel by authors whose work I'm going to check out, but I felt it suffered from a lack of familiarity with current YA. I mean, I can talk about Joan Aiken until the cows come home, but the argument about historical accuracy, necessity thereof, would have been interesting if someone had raised the Great And Terrible Beauty series or others.