pendell

Current Hyperfixation: Wizard of Oz

  • He/Him

I use outdated technology just for fun, listen to crappy music, and watch a lot of horror movies. Expect posts about These Things. I talk a lot.

Check tags like Star Trek Archive and Media Piracy to find things I share for others.



pendell
@pendell

and yeah man when did Doctor Who get so woke can't we go back to the un-woke era of the show like in 2007 when it was telling non-political stories about eugenicist fascists exploiting the poor and working class to lift themselves up and the Doctor was rallying those poor, exploited, and forgotten members of society together to stand up and fight back against their oppressors. You know, back before the show got all political with its stories.


pendell
@pendell

I've made this joke a couple times now but in all honesty I think there is a difference between a story that works on its own and also has very clear political subtext, and a story that deliberately bends and twists itself in unnatural ways to cram political subtext where it doesn't fit.

Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks works overall not because of the subtext, as clear as it is, but because it works on a technical, character, and logical level (logical by the show's universe and rules) and has all those other good things like proletariat revolution subtext slotted so neatly into the story, you can't even tell where the line between them is.

And then you get a Chibby episode like Arachnids in the UK where the story tries so intensely to fit it's bizarre Trump parody into the narrative as a central antagonist that it shoots itself in the foot so hard the Trump parody comes out looking more sensible than the Doctor. A lot of this is also down to the writing of that episode in general, but that's just the thing - good writing and your story and themes mix together smoothly into a perfectly balanced blend, bad writing and your story and themes blend about as well as oil and water.


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