Post by Ariana Grande's Armpit on Nov 28, 2023 16:46:17 GMT -6
Honestly had me at first. Came in strong. I loved seeing Donna again, and seeing that she's still Donna. The transitional Tennant doctor is awesome. I honestly find it difficult to differentiate it from Tenth, because well, Tennant IS Tenth. We can all wax lyrical about Tennant's acting prowess but screw nuance - a huge chunk of the doctor's identity is his appearance. I even loved the lady with the combat wheelchair (it does feel odd that the doctor did not disapprove of all the guns in the wheelchair).
...and then there's the Rose Noble thing. Really hate the character. Not the actress - just how they presented the whole trans thing. I've always thought that the way forward with the LGBTQ+ thing is for everything to be normal, like being just a man or a woman - nobody really talks about whether you're a man or a woman until they need to have sex with you. Because it's a non-issue. They almost achieved that with Rose Noble - I didn't even know she was trans. I just thought she's Donna's daughter and that's that. Didn't like her, but had no problems with her much in the same way I didn't like Sarah Jane Smith's son but had no problems with him. But they kept doing the nudge/nudge/wink/wink/semi-fourthwall breaking stuff until I realized that she is, in fact, a trans. My knowledge of it did not add anything to the story. If anything, the whole pronoun assuming thing ruined the immersion. Bothering about pronouns should be the last thing on the doctor's mind. This is a guy who'll refer to us as Apes when he's in a bad mood, and then he's going to suddenly worry about hurting your feelings through misgendering?
The biggest bit is the cop-out solution. Too on the nose, and feels like RTD just pulled it out of his ass - all of this time Doctor Donna could have just released the metacrisis energy and saved everybody the trouble. And the doctor didn't know it because he identifies as a man? What the shit does that even mean? The doctor has been a woman before. And besides, he's thousands of years old (billions, if we count the Capaldi shenanigans in heaven sent), always traveling, always learning, and always thinking of Donna in the back of his mind - and yet he didn't think of "just release the energy and Donna doesn't die" because he identifies as male? What a crock of shit.
I'm still watching for Tennant and Tate, but as soon as the specials are done, I'll give Ncuti Gatwa one episode to blow my mind. If it's nothing short of spectacular, I'm out again.
