Tuesday, July 18, 2017

I'm Done With Doctor Who

Howdy folks! I wanted to post this the other day and didn't get the chance. Let me start by offering congratulations to Roger Federer for winning Wimbledon a record eight times and winning more majors than anyone else. It seems pretty clear to me that Federer is the best tennis player in the world and it's been amazing watching him.

Now for some people who are not the best.

Number One

I am done with Doctor Who. Why? The identity politics crew at the BBC has decided to cast a woman in the role. This is wrong on so many levels. For those who don't know, Doctor Who is a character from science fiction. Since 1963, the Doctor has roamed the universe fighting evil with his mind. In that time, many actors have played the role and they've made the switch by claiming that he regenerates when he gets killed, so he's still the same person even though he's different. This time, they've decided to make the character a female. That's bunk.

Here's the thing. Gender is not fluid, no matter what the left wants to claim. It is perhaps the one thing that is hardwired into us. You can substitute a black or white actor, an Asian or an alien, as there is nothing inherently "white" or British about this character. You can make him older or younger, angrier or nicer. You could probably even make him gay. But you can't make him a woman because the character is defined as male and that is how people see him. This is the thing liberal feminists simply don't understand. You can pretend to raise a kid as gender nothing, but the world is hardwired not to accept that and the kid will realize this one it starts looking to please more people than just its parents.

Moreover, this won't work. Why? It ruins the dynamics. The dynamics of the show have always been that the Doctor roams the universe with young female companions who treat him as a sort of father figure. Putting a woman into the father figure role strips so much of the dynamic, and I suspect will make it almost impossible for the companions to develop relationships with the Doctor. Essentially, they will go from father-daughter to some people on the same bus. Not to mention, the best Doctors have displayed a bumbling character that feminists don't let women play... it's sexist.

Even more stupidly, I am laughing at the message this sends. What it says is that women succeed not by writing new characters that people fall in love with. No, they don't succeed by earning the respect themselves. Apparently, women succeed by repeating what men have done. Aim high, sweeties.

I am thrilled to see that my daughter isn't buying this crap for a minute. She finds the whole thing pathetic and ruinous. I suspect the BBC is in for a little shock. Their first episode likely will have decent, but underwhelming ratings... and then the show will go into free fall as the freak show aspect of this wears off.

What a stupid idea all around.

Number Two

Speaking of stupid ideas, it looks like nothing will happen with health care. The GOP is packed with morons and insurance whores and the Democrats are holding their breath like rotten children until they turn bluer. I guess in the end I'm thankful nothing changed, seeing as how awful the proposals were. What a pathetic state our political establishment is in though when neither side has a clue what they are doing.

19 comments:

ArgentGale said...

I heard a bit about the Who mess on Facebook and it sounds familiar... A change for the sake of identity politics, a few troll droppings get dredged up from the bowels of 4chan and Twitter, and suddenly it's a crisis of isms and phobias with the studio egging the Reeee Brigade on. I'm not sure what I'm more tired of, changes for the sake of controversy like this or the controversies themselves. Although one thing I have found notable in this mess was former Doctor actor Peter Davison tweeting that the studio should reassure the fans rather than demean them with the identity politics crowd responding predictably and loudly.

As for the second part, disappointment really is an old friend for anyone expecting the political class to get something right, huh? With the promise of repealing Obamacare being a key part of the Republican message you'd think they'd be able to do that much.

- Daniel

tryanmax said...

@SuperNerdLand posted this Doctor Who timeline on Twitter:

Phase 1: The Initial Media Storm
The Doctor Who showrunners announce the female doctor & it is immediately touted as stunning & brave.

An addendum to Phase One is that there is a false pretense this is the first major female lead in a Sci-Fi show.

Phase 2: The Manufactured Backlash
The same 3 or 4 Tweets from anonymous accounts are used as evidence of a "Widespread Misogyny Problem"

Phase 3: The Virtue Signal
The shows creators & the BBC come out in support of the shows new star after "Horrible Online Harassment."

Phase 4: The Finger Wagging
Online media will shame people pointing out the backlash was manufactured, they'll double down on the narrative

Phase 5: Mission Accomplished
New Doctor Who series will premier with slightly improved ratings & be hailed as an unrivaled success.

Phase 6: The Slide
Doctor Who will continue being as badly written & produced as the last last series & people's curiosity will fade.

Phase 7: The Denial
The BBC & online media will continue to hail the series as the best ever & smear anyone who criticises it openly.

Phase 8: The Cringe
The series will make a painful reference to the supposed online harassment & paint its critics as cartoon villains.

Phase 9: Woker Than Thou
The failure will be blamed on The Doctor being white, straight etc. or the series not being political enough.

tryanmax said...

For my part, I already have my headstone engraved with the epitaph "Never Watched Doctor Who." Now I'm just waiting to die.

AndrewPrice said...

Daniel, Our political class is downright stupid.

I'm sick of it too. They do this stuff to shock to try to raise ratings and all the do it put an ugly death on the end of a slowly failing series. I'm sick too of the asinine response: if you don't accept this, then you're evil. Wrong. F-you... wrong.

AndrewPrice said...

tryanmax, That's a pretty accurate timeline. Let me add at the end... the BBC insists the show is a stunning success right up to the moment they cancel it because viewership has crashed.

The never learn that you can't create an audience like this. The gender-weirdos don't watch the show and won't tune in to more than the first episode, if at all. The majority of fans hate this crap and leave. What's left is a tiny fraction of the audience.

And then they will wonder how this could have happened. They will blame white males, as you note, and lack of courage and inexplicable circumstances. "Everyone in the shop loved it, we don't understand why the audience didn't?!"

Idiots.

Nice headstone!

AndrewPrice said...

I want my headstone to read: "But you have to admit... it was funny."

ArgentGale said...

Excellent timeline, tryanmax! Feels familiar, too, and I'm sure it'll see more use in the future with different products and identity groups. You and Andrew also mentioned something I've often seen mentioned about situations like this: they're trying to reach people who wouldn't be interested anyway through very cynical, politicized means. Alienating your core fans for the sake of pandering to a perpetually offended mob is a bad move no matter what.

BevfromNYC said...

Seriously, this is just so obviously and transparently a marketing strategy. Create a controversy surrounding a loooooong running show that has loyal followers by going all feminist/political.

Interestingly, when the powers that be decided to make Dr. Watson a woman in "Elementary", they found a way to make it legitimately work in a story. Putting into 21st C. New York, and playing up literary references to Holme's drug habit made it easier to logically work Lucy Liu's drug rehab keeper in and it really works.

This is just thrusting an interloper into the story line for no other logical reason but publicity. Same with "Ghostbusters"...

Anthony said...

A declining series pulling stunts to stay relevant doesn't shock or horrify me. When a series passes my point of I just stop watching it, stop paying attention to it and pretend it's dead (haven't watched a Simpsons episode in over a decade).

It would be nice if series went out on high points but people in general and corporations in particular believe in squeezing every last dollar out of an IP. Can't blame them for stretching out a meal ticket.

All that being said I've never watched Dr. Who and never will. I like my stories finite.

Thomas Anderson said...

Long-time lurker, first-time commenter here. I’m a staunch Doctor Who fan, so I figure it’s time to chime in! I, and nearly everyone I know who watches the show, is pretty annoyed at the casting decision. What really gets my goat is that, if they honestly just wanted to have a role model for girls or something, they could’ve brought back Romana. That would’ve made everyone happy…except the crazy SJWs. But instead they decided to appeal specifically to the SJWs and alienate everyone else. Gaaaahhh.

On a related note, I noticed the most recent season upped the political correctness factor considerably and suffered for it. The new companion had little development apart from being lesbian, there was a weird fascination with making little jabs at Trump (when has Doctor Who ever cared who the American president was, apart from a nod to Obama in one episode years ago?), and one episode ended with the Doctor proclaiming capitalism to be a mistake we need to move on from. I’ve generally enjoyed Moffat’s work in the past (I even like the female Master), but he went off the deep end this season. Though given the recent news, part of me wonders if this all wasn't part of some ploy mandated by the BBC to appeal to the far left.

AndrewPrice said...

Hi Thomas! Thanks for commenting!

Exactly! If you want a female lead, bring back Romana. Even better would have been to spin off River Song into her own series. People would have loved that.

But the SJW's aren't satisfied if they don't destroy something male in the name of equality.

I agree about the last season. The companion seemed pointless and the Doctor was both overly political and hard to like.

From what I've seen, the BBC is like a fortress of far-left identity politics, and they have happily destroyed many of their hits to satisfy their own politics.

AndrewPrice said...

Bev, That's exactly what this is. They have damaged the show in the last season or so... the ratings are falling... it's time to shock the system and hope it takes. And if you're going to do that, why not go hard left to try to convince people that their views are normal.

The Ghostbuster thing is even more cynical. That was purely an attempt to generate controversy. I don't think there was even a political motive behind that one. It was purely an attempt to turn a lousy script into money.

AndrewPrice said...

Anthony, I like my stories finite.

I like that! Bravo! :)

AndrewPrice said...

Daniel, I think the thinking is: (1) shock the core fans who will watch no matter what to get a lot of publicity, (2) use the controversy to win over fence-sitting-potential fans, and (3) get a whole new fan base who like that kind of shock.

The problem is they are wrong about fans sticking around, controversy only interests people at the peek moment, and the people who like this sort of thing aren't fans of anything.

ArgentGale said...

Andrew, exactly, though I would also factor in the SJWs' ability to make noise vastly disproportionate to their actual numbers and the fact that so many entertainment bosses live in such deep liberal bubbles that they can't comprehend the idea that someone can disagree with their politics and not be some kind of monster. Even if it isn't changing an existing character's sex, race, sexuality, or what have you you see this reasoning presented a lot in other fandoms when the SJWs come knocking at the door. I've noticed that it's primarily American, Canadian, and Western European entertainment that gives into them most easily, at least in in the (primarily gaming-related) areas I've observed. Sticking to gaming Japanese developers still do pretty much whatever they please (and a few developers, like Katsuhiro Harada of Tekken, have voiced their displeasure towards SJWs) and CD Projekt Red (Polish company) won a lot of respect when they politely but firmly refused to compromise the Witcher games' story and cast for the sake of tokenism.

Also related to the switching, I can't remember what it was called or where it is, but I recall an article saying describing this as an attempt to take an existing character's social capital. They hope that the new version of the same character will retain the original's popularity. That never happens, of course, but it doesn't stop them from trying. I know I've asked this a lot but I'm still wondering what, exactly, is going to be the tipping point for this sort of garbage. It looks to me like the only reason that the current big entertainment companies are still around is because people really don't have anywhere else to go.

Oh, and I made all these posts without revealing my own Dr. Who fandom status... My mom was a huge fan of it so I watched a few episodes of it (and, by extension, some of the first few episodes of Torchwood) with her but it never held my interest. I guess gaming and books are just too hardwired into me at this point.

- Daniel

AndrewPrice said...

Daniel, Hijacking social capital is exactly what it is.

Thomas Anderson said...

Andrew, thanks for replying! I should do this more.

A River Song spinoff is a great idea! I guess it's too good to come true in a world where the BBC pulls maneuvers like this. =/

AndrewPrice said...

Thomas, you're welcome! :)

I'm really surprised they never thought of it. You have a strong female lead. A well-loved character with a large existing fan base. And it's the type of show they already know how to write. And I would bet the fans would be all over it.

But apparently, they couldn't see that because they were focused on changing the Doctor character. Sad.

Tennessee Jed said...

Never saw Dr. Who, but your sentiments make sense. GOP on healthcare is ridiculous. I say let private insurers compete for the healthy. Use taxes to pay bills of pre-existing and concentrate on negotiating costs with health providers. Amount paid could be means tested

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