Doctor Doubt
May. 25th, 2025 12:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
setsuledThe new Doctor Who was decent, if you happen to share Russel T Davies' politics. And I do, but I can't help lament his decision to take the show further into marginalisation. I mean, does anyone think the show would be converting anyone?
I think maybe the Conrad guy is based on Tommy Robinson. I don't think the simplistic, belligerent character is going to draw away any Tommy Robsinson devotees. I really liked the Rani's ship, though. I liked how everything seemed to be made of bone and those aliens collecting doubts reminded me of the medical alien from Farscape if it were designed by Gerald Brom.
The concept behind the episode, called "Wish World", is of reality transformed by someone seeking a return to a past that didn't really exist, a pretty typical form of political cycle most recently and starkly in evidence from the "Make America Great Again" crowd. But I was also reminded of reading about Japanese history yesterday and how the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century was not really a restoration at all but a radical transformation of the country into something it had never been before, despite many participants being motivated by "kokugaku", a Japanese academic philosophy emphasising the superiority of Japanese culture in earlier eras. You could also look at the Restoration in England in 1660 which certainly didn't return things to the status quo of the 1630s. It's a nice template for the Doctor and Belinda to be trapped in a reality that inevitably has flaws. The guy in the office freaking out because the Doctor called him beautiful could only be aware of homosexuality since, in the time when awareness of homosexuality was less prevalent, it wasn't out of order for a straight man to call another beautiful at all. You can't be constructive when what you're concerned with is destruction at heart.
I was also reminded of the first story featuring the Rani, 1985's Mark of the Rani, in which she takes advantage of 19th century Luddites. I have to say Archie Panjabi falls far short of Kate O'Mara's portrayal. I even prefer Anita Dobson ("Mrs Flood") who at least avoids all the pathetic teeth gnashing.
The scenes with Ruby and the group of disabled people was really, really awkward. It wouldn't surprise me if that scene alone was the cause of many televisions being shut off or channels changed. In any case, I don't think the show's downward trajectory is going to be righted any time soon. But "Wish World" wasn't so bad.
