Trigger warning

I think some of us are in mourning.  The Doctor as an asexual character is officially dead.  In “The Crimson Horror”, the Doctor first flirted with (/at) Jenny, then grabbed her, dipped her, and forced her into a kiss.  When slapped by her afterwards, he made a joke about it, didn’t apologize, then proceeded to sexually objectify her as she defended herself in a fight.  It was all played for comedic effect.

This is not my Doctor.  This is not the Doctor of the last 50 years.

Though this isn’t the first time a non-consensual kiss has appeared in modern Doctor Who, it is the most aggressive and only instance of predatory behavior on the part of the Doctor.

Its made me realize how lucky we’ve been all these years.  One of the best parts of the Doctor has always been that he isn’t predatory.  He has many friends, but he never has ulterior sexual motives.  Steven Moffat’s production team have decided that that’s OK now.  Its goofy, its wacky; its the Doctor.

(I’ve vlogged about the episode here.)

I could relate to the early days of Doctor/River, but not the marriage.

I love River, and I really adored her early relationship with the Doctor (from his side). I could relate to that feeling of anticipation, excitement and sometimes dread he felt at the idea of falling hopelessly in love.

But I can’t relate to the marriage. I’ve never been married. Having two married couples in the TARDIS was a bit alienating to me, and was undoubtedly alienating to many of the children watching the show. It sometimes feels like a contradiction of one of my favourite Russell T Davies quotes from Series 2:

When you’re a kid, they tell you it’s all … “Grow up. Get a job. Get married. Get a house. Have a kid,” and that’s it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It’s so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better.

And is the new tension in the Doctor and River’s relationship really going to be her body image issues?  In The Angels Take Manhattan, River expresses her distress in regards to his youthful appearance:

When one’s in love with an ageless god who insists on the face of a 12-year-old, one does one’s best to hide the damage.

After all this time of having this awesome age defying relationship between two larger than life time travelling superheroes, I hope this doesn’t continue to be a source of tension between them. I don’t want Doctor Who to add to all the media out there teaching little girls that looking older will be something they should feel insecure about.

Their apparent (and meaningless) age gap was one of my favourite things about them as a couple.  River hasn’t turned out to be one of the better developed characters in the show, and this doesn’t feel like a natural development to me.

Frankly, I’m hoping River’s story isn’t going to last any longer than the Eleventh Doctor’s life.  I don’t want this show to remove the delightful sense of relatability the Doctor had for so many of us queer or uncommon folks over the years.  Moffat’s Who is brimming with heteronormativity, in a show which can transcend those ideas with such indiscriminate ease.  Here’s to change.

SPOILER WARNING

I’ve been a long time defender of Moffat.  Not in that I think he’s a feminist writer by any means, just that I didn’t think he was too awful.  I was convinced he’d redeem himself given time.  But Asylum of the Daleks proved me wrong.

In Asylum of the Daleks, Rory and Amy are getting a divorce.  Why?  Because Amy can’t get pregnant.

Here’s my initial response, immediately after the episode ended:

Transcript:

Come off it…Moffat.

Just finished Asylum of the Daleks and I have to say, I”m kind of disappointed.  I loved the Daleks, and I thought all that was really cool.  And you know cosplayers are going to have a fucking field day with this episode.

But…really…Amy?

This is 2012, and Amy still defines her worth by her ability to reproduce.  (What bothers me most here isn’t that a 21st Century woman might feel this way, but that Amy would never have been written ANY OTHER way, even in 2012.)  And I want to be able to argue that, “Oh the point is that she finds out her worth isn’t based on her ability to reproduce.”

Well, its only resolved by Amy finding out that Rory just loves her so much!  So she does have worth, because her husband really really loves her!

Its not like with Donna Noble, who finds her self worth based on her ability to help people and problem solve.  I think in a story like this Amy needs to find her self worth based on something else.  Its bullshit.  Its such a cop out.

Steven Moffat is just not a very good character writer, its as simple as that.  Of all the trauma Amy and Rory have been through – and there have been a lot – the one thing that breaks them up is that Amy can’t have kids….really?

It kind of pushed it over the edge for me.  Moffat has been accused of misogyny and sexism, and I’ve often been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.  But this is just so fucking cartoonish.  Its so childish.

Give me a break.  This is Amelia Pond.  She’s saved hundreds of lives all across time and space.  She’s married to an ancient Roman.  Her best friend and son in law is the coolest super hero ever.  She’s like…a super model.   But…she can’t have kids, so she just can’t be with Rory anymore!

I know a lot of you are going to horribly disagree with me on this, and I’m going to get a lot of hatorade about this.

I think the first 4 or 5 years of New Doctor Who, had some really wonderful role models for young women.  But Amelia not only hasn’t been as good of an example as Rose, Martha, and Donna, but she’s turning into a fucking cartoon.

Its about time she left, or maybe its just about time Steven Moffat left.  (I’m going to get so much hate because of this video.)

I’m just going to put this out there now, while I’m on the subject: The nerd community, if there is such a thing, is incredibly sexist.  And you may think you’re enlightened, because you really love sexy busty women wearing barely anything, holding a great big sword, showing how strong they are, but that’s not really how it works.

Moffat just doesn’t understand people as well as Russell T Davies, especially women.  His understanding of women is just nil; it doesn’t exist.

We need women writers on this show so bad.

OK, now bring the hate, guys, I’m ready.

Edit:
In hindsight, I’m not pleased with everything I said in the video . I don’t mean to undermine the experiences of real women who have been through this themselves.

It isn’t the infertility itself that bothers me. Its how its used, and how its conveyed. Amy’s experience with it is drastically oversimplified, in a way that is misleading and not at all empowering to younger viewers.

Also in the context of Amy’s previous season, it bothered me. I miss the Amy of season 5, and I was hoping to get her back for season 7. Alas, it was all about her uterus again.

I posted this primarily to invite discussion, since it had yet to be mentioned on Doctor Her. I value all the opinions of the commenters below!  Please post your own!

A very serious response to Courtney’s article, “Are the Daleks Scary?”

Transcript:

Doctor Who is about an alien man with various British accents, who travels around all of time and space in a wooden box which is bigger on the inside than the outside.  When he dies, he resurrects by changing his body into another white male one, but can turn into almost anything.  He helped William Shakespeare write Hamlet, and he’s on Virginia Woolf’s bowling team.  

This is a show where suspension of disbelief is mandatory.

Ok, fine, I find the Daleks a bit scary sometimes, please don’t make fun of me.  I love this show, probably more than most people watching this video, which allows me to permit total suspension of disbelief when watching it.  I feel like a kid; I can just imagine that it’s all real, and excuse even the most unrealistic of monsters in 25-45 minute increments.

Once you’ve come to terms with the fact that the Doctor is definitely real (he is, shut up), then you can see the Daleks for the genuine threat that they are.  Daleks, as we know them, are tanks.  They’re 5’-6’ tanks with almost nothing but a death ray attached to their bodies.  You can’t see the monstrous creature within, but you know that even if you could, there would be no sense of emotion in its face; no expression of compassion or fear.  Just hate.

When you look into the eyestalk of a Dalek, you see no understanding, no appreciation for the amazing act of nature that life is.  You see a stillness and twitching I only recognize in cockroaches and other insects.  Insects don’t care about you, they’re driven only by their own basic needs.  And Davros programmed the Daleks with only one basic need: to kill you.

How could a real Dalek not be frightening?

But the Daleks aren’t real, so that doesn’t matter.  Unfortunately they don’t look like a creature from Alien vs Predator.  We all recognize that they unintentionally look like they belong in your toilet or kitchen cabinet.  So they can’t be scary, because that would be ridiculous, wouldn’t it?  Embarrassing!  It’s more acceptable to be afraid of clowns than it is plungers, so naturally we can’t allow ourselves to see them as threatening, for the sake of our dignity!

Taken out of context, the Daleks aren’t scary.  Not in the least.  There’s something inherently wonderful about their shape and design, but it’s certainly not scary.  But the more passionate you are about the narrative of Doctor Who, the stronger personal feelings you have for the Doctor and his friends, the more scary the Daleks become.  

So basically, the bigger nerd you are, the scarier the Daleks are.  But luckily this is the age of Transformer and Star Trek remakes, and of shows like Big Bang Theory.  This is the Age of the Nerd.  We must embrace our nerdiness, and band together against the threat of the Dalek invasion!  There are only 152 years until the Dalek Invasion of Earth!   We know this to be true!  Band together, Whovians!  We must prepare for the impending plunging invasion force!