Coming in the wake of RaceFail '09, this is sort of ironic.

[lizbee]

I've taken a night to think about it, and I've come to the conclusion that I'm deeply pissed off that the Russell T Davies Racism Hour (otherwise known as "Turn Left") has been nominated for a Hugo.  With the sort of AU that's been done before and better in other series (notably Buffy; I watched "The Wish" again recently and was struck by the parallels) AND OH YEAH, THREE RACIAL AND ETHNIC STEREOTYPES FOR THE PRICE OF ONE, I'm really not sure how it's supposed to deserve an award.  Especially when there's "Midnight", which is the best script RTD ever wrote for Doctor Who, and heads and shoulders above most of season four in terms of writing.

Aside from its value as a teaching aid in a course on neo-colonialist portrayals of Asia, I'm really not sure what to do with "Turn Left".  Its major redeeming value is Catherine Tate's performance, and we got that in every other week of season four, too.

Comments

[nonelvis]

I have no idea how "Turn Left" got nominated and "Midnight" didn't, because I agree, it's a far better episode.

I may not cast my Hugo ballot for DW at all this year. SITL/FotD is a good pair of episodes, but they're up against Dr. Horrible and a really great time-travel episode of Lost.

[jigglykat.livejournal.com]

I would have preferred "Midnight" over the other two, though I really didn't mind "Turn Left". But even so, I'm rooting for Lost. "The Constant" was excellent and certainly got me re-interested in a show I thought went downhill the previous season.

I'll have to rewatch "The Wish". That's the one where Cordelia creates the AU, right?

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

Yup! It's very similar to "Turn Left" -- obviously the military trappings of the AU aren't in Buffy, and "The Wish" is a tighter and better episode (that similarly kills off the protagonist and the series lead).

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

I rather liked "Turn Left", apart from its race issues. (Which I realize is like saying, "But the bread in this shit sandwich is pretty good!") But if I'd been eligible to nominate for the Hugos this year, I'd have nominated Midnight, and I'm really surprised that it didn't even make the ballot.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Now I can't remember who was whining about supposed race issues in "Midnight," because I thought that was you. *g*

(Mind, I too think "Midnight" was far superior to "Turn Left," just in terms of the writing--but the directing and acting were great as well. I'm hoping for either Lost's "The Constant" or Dr. Horrible to take this category anyway.)

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

It was me, and I still think it was totally dodgy to end with the nameless black woman sacrificing herself for a crew of white people. On its own it's not so bad; in the context of season three, it's pretty terrible.

But that at least was due to casting, not actually written into the script. Lesser of two evils.

[kerravonsen]

But I liked "Turn Left"!

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

"I watched 'The Wish' again recently and was struck by the parallels blatant ripping-off thereof, along with the Children of Men/V for Vendetta borrowing free-for-all."

There, fixed that for ya.

[neutralalienist.livejournal.com]

The race fail was quite bad enough - it would have tainted even an excellent episode. (It did in Midnight, though it wasn't near as blatant there.)

Turn Left? Yeah, you need to do a lot to make me find a post-apocalyptic AU tedious. I was so disappointed. (Especially when the OMG BAD WOLF ending didn't actually, you know, go anywhere.)

ETA: And yes, The Wish was vastly superior. I was actually interested in that universe.

[sajee.livejournal.com]

I agree with you muchly, Lizface.

I mean, I initally liked 'Turn Left' despite the horrendous race issues (which were pretty much the first thing that stuck with me about the episode) but, as I thought about it, it was all because of Catherine Tate acting the SHIT out of that thing. And we *did* get that every single other episode and, that aside, it doesn't in anyway conteract the fucking disgraceful race issues in the episode.

Fail, RTD. Fail.

(And, yes, 'Midnight' totally pwns 'Turn Left'. Not enough CTate though. Plenty of emo-Merlin though. Mmmm, Colin Morgan. *objectifies him*)

[sajee.livejournal.com]

So, I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I totally participated in the annoying white person habit of justification for about ten minutes until I decided that I was
a) being fucked
b) being a fucking terrible ally to PoC
c) was being blinded by CTate's shiny
d) all of the above.

So, Fail me.

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

I feel sort of, indeed sincerely, ashamed now for noticing but not really minding the racial issues in Turn Left. I'd agree with the comment above, though, that "the bread in this shit sandwich tastes great!" - if nothing else, Bernard Cribbins and Catherine Tate are great in it (although, as others have said, that is true of all of their appearances in Season Four). The "labour camps - that's what they called them larst time..." line was probably laying it on a bit thick though.

Even so, Midnight was the superior episode in all respects, and the best of the season. I'll agree, the "token black character" thing was strong, but Tennant was magnificent. In fact, I was kind of annoyed at the story for proving wrong a lot of the things I'd been saying about RTD for, like, three years previously - why hasn't he done this kind of thing more often? I'm stupid, I know, but I'd never realised the lad in it was Merlin until right now...

[iko.livejournal.com]

I think that "Turn Left" is rather limp without knowing all the other episodes that it references. This is another reason for me that it probably won't win the Hugo.

I'd say that perhaps RTD would win NEXT YEAR for Who, but then I realized that Battlestar Galactica is also ending this year.

[palmetto.livejournal.com]

I...didn't like Midnight at all.

Having said that, Turn Left? No. Nono. No. Ugh.