Doctor Who: The Rings of Check Your Privilege

[lizbee]

I have to go out, so my actual episode reaction will be up in a few hours, but in the meantime, I had to react to some stuff I've seen.  Mostly on Tumblr, yeah, but what can you do?



1.  If you think that losing a mother at an early age is unrealistic and bad writing, I've got some sad news for you. 

1a.  If you think Dead Mother Angst is a bit cliche, yeah, it is, but it's not something DW has ever explored much before.

2.  I'd really like to see the cut of the episode where Clara's dad was fleshed out with lots of personality beyond Being Clara's Dad.  Because apparently that ... happened?

3.  If a five foot two woman standing beside a five foot eleven man is the most misogynist thing you've ever seen, then (a) I envy you, and (b) again, alas, it is something that happens in real life with depressing regularity.  Well, to me.  It happens to me.

3a.  If you think the only acceptable treatment of short women is to pretend they're tall, I ... I don't really know what to do with that.  But I feel bad for you, I guess.

4.  Clara reminds the Doctor of Victorian!Clara and Oswin.  Not Amy.  Certainly not Rose Tyler, who isn't even dead.  THIS ISN'T COMPLICATED, GUYS.  IT'S AIMED AT EIGHT YEAR OLDS.

I was going to say that Doctor Who fandom is the only one that complains when the show is too clever, but then I remembered Avatar fandom complaining that LoK had too much showing and not enough telling.

Comments

[danel4d]

4. Clara reminds the Doctor of Victorian!Clara and Oswin. Not Amy. Certainly not Rose Tyler, who isn't even dead. THIS ISN'T COMPLICATED, GUYS. IT'S AIMED AT EIGHT YEAR OLDS.

I'm not sure that it's not also a little nod to the Rose and Martha situation though, at least on a meta-level. Clara gets to say the things that Martha should've had a chance to say, not realising that the truth is actually weirder than she knows.

[jesuswasbatman]

Yeah, I really thought that dialogue was a meta-message about how they are not going to fuck up the Doctor's relationship with the second companion as badly as RTD did.

[kerravonsen]

Clara gets to say the things that Martha should've had a chance to say
Yes.

[fahrbotdrusilla]

Yeah that's true, but it wasn't "you remind me of Amy" it was "you remind me of... you sort of shush I know you're not her"

[frayadjacent]

Yes, in a Watsonian sense the Doctor was obviously referring to the other Claras. But in a Doylist sense I did take it as a reference to what Martha went through and perhaps as a reassurance to viewers that Clara was not going to be his Amy-rebound. And of course it also established that this Clara is not the same character as, or at least not identical to, the previous ones. But why would someone have a problem with any of that?

[ladymercury_10]

Yes, this!