Tag Archive for cybermen

Crafty Doctor Who: Subversion through Patchwork

3 June 2012 Tansy Rayner Roberts Doctor Who, Fandom Analysis, Old Who

One of the great joys I have taken from modern Doctor Who fandom (post 2005) is the crafty goodness that has exploded across the internet. This was still around in the old days, of course – my mother used to take me along to her Doctor Who fan club in the 80′s and I remember a beautiful oil painting one of the women in the group had made based on a still image of The Abominable Snowman, with Jamie and the Doctor (in his fuzzy coat) in the foreground and the TARDIS resting on a Tibetan mountain.

The same fan club used to distribute homemade badges, and my Mum still wears some of the: a silver K9, or a flock of Daleks on the lapel of her tweed jacket. I wonder if she’s still got the TARDIS badge that changes colours like a mood ring…

Then there was the Doctor Who Pattern Book, released in the flush of early Fifth Doctor merch, which included patterns to make your own cybermat (my mum did this!), TARDIS console cushion, Tegan’s boob tube, the Doctor’s celery brooch, and the piece de resistance, Classic Doctor Who costumes to fit a Ken doll collection.

It’s enough to make you want to collect Ken dolls, isn’t it?

These days, however, Doctor Who craft is a booming industry. You can see marvels and wonders displayed across Etsy, Spoonflower and Pinterest. All manner of Doctor Who fans are expressing their creativity by knitting Adipose, screen printing t-shirts, moulding jewellery and of course (one of my favourites) decorating the most extraordinary cakes.

Meanwhile, the BBC and their merchandise don’t seem to be able to keep up. They briefly flirted with the idea early on, but you’ve only recently been able to buy Doctor Who cookie cutters – I’ve been serving gingerbread daleks to my family for years because my honey made me a cutter by reshaping one that used to be a teddy bear, not because I bought the cutter in a shop. But surely they’re missing out on a trick here. Where is our TARDIS yarn, our make-your-own-pyjamas Dalek flannel, and our TARDIS console cake tins?

Look at the number of Doctor Who non-fiction or tie-in books that concentrate on the monsters, the machines, the aliens and, okay, the characters. Look at how many books there are about the show. Now look at how many books have been released which look at, say, the costumes of the show? The crafts you can make that tie into the show?

WHERE IS OUR DOCTOR WHO PATTERN BOOK FOR THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY?

I’m more than happy with the creativity shown by the fans who love the show, and it’s particularly exciting to me because so much of this craft is in areas that are traditionally seen as female or feminine. Knitting, dollmaking, cake decorating, jewellery making and quilting (my own craft of choice) are firmly coded female regardless of who practises them, and much though I’d like to claim otherwise, there is something deeply subversive about combining those underrated “feminine” artistic skills with the kind of hardcore science fiction geekery that many fans still think is (or should be, grrr) largely a male domain.

Quilting has always been a subversive act. Sure, the story is that women of pioneer America and pre-industrial England had to piece together patchwork to save every scrap, but COME ON. Patchwork isn’t remotely efficient, and it tends to create almost as many scraps as it uses. What patchwork and quilting have always provided is an excuse for women to gather together and make art, to appear industrious and frugal because their lives weren’t supposed to be about anything else. The beauty of the quilts found through history are there because women wanted to take time to make something beautiful, and yet the same practical function that allowed them guilt-free time to play with colours and fabrics has meant that their work has not traditionally been considered an ‘art’ akin to the expensive oil paintings and marble statues traditionally made by male artists.

As a quilter, I’m well aware that there are few men who have any interest in that particular craft. All my quilting friends are female, the quilt shows we go to are maybe 90% attended by women, and many guys who will happily listen to me talking about Doctor Who or urban fantasy or pdocasting or even feminism may glaze over with boredom if I start talking about patchwork templates or seam allowances. Including my own partner – whose lack of interest in my sewing activities meant I was able to work on his birthday present completely under his nose. As it turns out, he thinks quilts are AWESOME when they are finished, especially robot quilts.

Quilts don’t have to be about floral patterns and applique bows – not that there’s anything wrong with that, if it’s your cup of tea. But I’ve never been the kind of quilter who, well, follows rules. I’m far more excited with taking the boundaries of the craft in question, and then seeing how far I can push them. I’m pretty excited that I can get hold of, say, TARDIS fabric now, thanks to the creativity of fandom. Or, using the print-your-own-fabric technology, I can even design my own… and that’s what I’m planning to do!

I’ve been collecting a bunch of sparkly silver roundel fabric for a while now, because it reminded me of Daleks, and as it turns out I have a lot of 60′s ish black and white and grey fabric, which works out well, because THIS WEEKEND I am totally piecing together a Black and White 1960′s Doctor Who Hexagon Quilt.

The theme of this year’s Australian National Science Fiction Convention is ‘Craftonomicon’ so where better to piece my silvers and blacks and mod stripes with photographic fabric depicting Daleks, Ben and Polly, the First and Second Doctors, Jamie and Zoe, Victoria Waterfield, Cybermen, Sara Kingdom, Katarina, Steven, Dodo and of course Barbara, Ian and Susan. And Quarks. I’ve tacked down nearly a hundred pieces and I plan to start sewing the quilt together at the convention, and to see how much I get done over the course of the weekend, while having some fabulous conversations.

Wish me luck!

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Where are the Girl Daleks?

1 April 2012 Ritch Ludlow Doctor Who, NuWho, Old Who

Monsters are an important tradition of Doctor Who.  Though usually a new one crops up every week, we’ve been treated to some recurring favourites, such as the Daleks, Cybermen, and Sontarans.  The Daleks, are of course the greatest enemy of the Doctor, and although perhaps we know the most about them after almost 50 years, their frequent appearances still beg the question: Where are the girl Daleks?

The Daleks are Kaled mutations, which Davros “fooled” his people into believing were the inevitable evolutionary climax of their race.  Cybermen were once people, but now more machine, their emotions completely removed.  Sontarans are a clone species, with no families, just stocks and honour.  Though there isn’t much reason given for it, these monsters are all invariably portrayed as somewhat male in Doctor Who.

In the revival series, we’ve been introduced to new recurring monsters, primarily under Steven Moffat’s era: the Weeping Angels are a species which appear to all be female and identical, similar to the Silence (which aren’t a race, but a religious order) who all appear male and identical.

What makes these five monsters scary isn’t solely their violent nature, but also their conformity.  The Daleks want to kill anyone unlike themselves, while the Cybermen want to force everyone to become like themselves, removing all sense of individuality.  Gender fits into this idea in that this part of our identity is considered either invalid or simply waiting to be removed.  It further removes the monsters from their former, or possible, humanity.  It breaks down ideas of families within these groups, making them less relatable and more objectified in their monstrosity.

Although the original series portrayed Silurians in the typical “men only” fashion, the 2010-present Silurians have become more familiar, with both male and female silurians (and an apparently gendered society, where women are warriors, and men are healers).  Unlike the Weeping Angels, we can reason with the Silurians.  They’re like us.  Our cousins.  They have family and love, and these are their weaknesses, so very human.

Similarly the Slitheen are not a race of monsters, but a family of criminals.  In “Boom Town”, we see the importance of this, as the Blon Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen tries to reason with the Doctor, describing her childhood, and ultimately being given a second chance by the TARDIS.  This is so unlike the monsters of old.  Who could reason with a Dalek?  Who could give a Cyberman a second chance?

The Ood are an interesting example, as they appear to have a male physique and voice, but we’re reminded several times that this isn’t an accurate interpretation of them.  In “The Impossible Planet”, Rose confesses her uncertainty about the gender of an Ood.  In “Planet of the Ood”, the translator is shown to convey an arbitrary voice, which isn’t so much indicative of the Ood, than of the slave owner.  The Doctor even mentions that the Ood are born, unlike so many “classic” monsters, who are made.

Dude Aliens

The threat of enforced conformity that these monsters convey is a geniune and frightening one.  But without redemption?  The Daleks and Cybermen can never be redeemed (even Torchwood‘s “Cyberwoman” agrees to this).  Yet, “A Good Man Goes to War” actually featured an interesting variation to the Sontaran rule.  Commander Strax has been punished by the Doctor with the curse of being a nurse rather than a warrior.  He even breaks biological gender norms by “gene-splicing” himself for breast feeding.  As much of a joke as this was, it lends to the final revelation of this character that, upon his death, being a nurse may have been more important to him than being a warrior.  Strax was our first redeemed Sontaran, and this was done, in part, by breaking the gender boundaries of his people (who were revealed in “Sontaran Stratagem”/”Poison Sky” to be misogynists).

Gender diversity within a “monster” species permits a new level of humanity, which is important, because in the real world there are no monsters.  In the real world we don’t go to war with Dalek-like villains, the only solution to which is genocide.  We war with Slitheen groups, not Raxacoricofallapatorians.  We war with Silurians, whose people don’t always agree with their military.  These human-like “monsters” teach us an important lesson, one I hope a new generation of young Doctor Who fans can truly benefit from.

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