Latest Doctor Who news is that new companion is 18 year old blonde stunner, Millie Gibson.
Now only if RTD can stick to telling good stories, rather than being all preachy and lecturing us, the show might get back on track. Doctor Who is very good at social commentary if done right, but done poorly (the Chibnall way of smashing you over the head with it) it turns viewers off.
So much for that!
Yes, I watched The Star Beast, when it was good it was very good. When it was bad it was cringeworthy!
RTD is determined it seems (like Chibnall before him) to inject his political ideology into the show. Steven Moffatt once said in an interview that Doctor Who is not just for progressive liberals, it is for everyone, so you really want to concentrate on telling a good story. Well that is out of the window now!
Having a trans actress in the show was not the issue, it was how it was handled. It become more a story about THAT, rather than the actual Star Beast itself. The dialogue was too on the nose and cringey. It really brings you out of a show when every few minutes it seems that they are pushing a trans agenda. It would have helped if the actor in question could actually ACT, the TARDIS exterior was less wooden. As usual the woke press is raving about the Rose character and how great she was, in reality it was just another way of pushing a message, I think they mentioned she was trans on average about every 8 minutes...
They handled the trans character much better in the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, it never felt forced, here it feels crow barred in!
I agree that it felt rushed, it would have served better as a two-parter. Yes, I rolled my eyes when the engines of the ship stopped, and all the damage healed itself. I seemed to roll my eyes a lot during the episode, not least the ending with Donna and the plank of wood berating Tennant's Doctor for being a male-presenting Time Lord, not a woman. The pronoun line was cringeworthy too. Fine if you ask a person how are they able to tell the sex of an alien, but to drone on about 'using the wrong pronoun' was just plain ridiculous and showed that the Rose character was making it all about her. Still RTD was able to tick off his woke agenda checklist to make sure 'The Message' was delivered loud and clear:
'Deadnaming' (obviously calling it the 'birth name' does not sound evil enough, so they call it this instead) - check!
Two characters talking about the trans person and how amazing they are as though it is the first time they have ever spoken about it (even though they would have had this conversation many times before) - check!
Complaining about a misgendering or assumed gender - check!
Trans person feeling like they are from another planet - check!
Use of the phrase 'non-binary' - check!
White male berated for not being as good as a woman - check!
Hopefully episode 2 will be less ideologically saturated, but I am not hopeful!
Loving the new TARDIS interior, I could genuinely believe that Tennant's reaction was real in the scene when he first walks in and sees it!
Despite all the attempts by RTD to make it a platform for his politics, I did rather enjoy it. Probably the wokest episode of the show to date though, so yes a 3 out of 5 sounds about right.
I know I moan a lot, and will probably be accused of being a 'right-wing' bigot, despite being pretty much in the centre of politics, but believe it or not I really think science-fiction is a very good genre for examining social issues of the day, when it is done right. I do feel that Doctor Who has lost the ability to be allegorical and has to shove the message in your face, a fact that has turned so many people off. I love a good sci-fi romp where I can analyse it and try and work out what the story was about and if it was a metaphor for something else. The writers have either lost that ability or they don't think the audience is smart enough.
Reading X (formerly Twitter) comments on the show, the fans are again divided. The ones who really liked it seemed to be from the coloured hair clapping seal brigade, whereas the people who did not like it were wanting more of a story and less overt social commentary.
I can go back and watch most of season's 1-8 and see very little obvious messaging, its mostly below the surface stuff, you can really see the difference from series 9 onwards though. It gets more pronounced each season.
In the later seasons it has corresponded with a severe drop in ratings.
The saddest thing is that when it was the 50th, there was a huge buzz around and the 50th Anniversary special was a real nostalgia-fest. I even went to see it at the cinema! Something for every fan, the 60th by comparison was a damp squib which felt like it was pandering to a certain group only. The 'Whoniverse' reveal on BBC iplayer and all the Doctor Who related stuff being in one place (in the UK at least) was great, but even that did not seem to generate much excitement.