The Doctor – David Tennant
Martha Jones – Freema Agyeman
Joan Redfern – Jessica Hynes

Script by Paul Cornell
Director: Charles Palmer

TEHANI:
Before we wriggle on to some of the best eps yet, a quick look at those we’ve skipped…

“Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks” – over the top, quite offensively horrible in some places, and really not at all engaging. Oh, and another “last Daleks eva” storyline, with the Cult of Skaro back again. I pretty much skimmed this on the rewatch and didn’t feel I’d missed anything at all. In fact, I wish I hadn’t bothered at all and never reminded myself of the horrible pig-men. And I REALLY wish this hadn’t been dragged out to two episodes – perhaps in one it would have been a bit better. I think I know what it was aiming to say, but for me, it was definitely a low of New Who.

DAVID:
Wow, you really didn’t like it! I actually quite enjoyed it, and my inner romantic was very happy that Laszlo and Tallulah ended up together at the end. My only real issue, and I am afraid that it really did bug me, was the way that the human hybrid version of Dalek Sec talked, it was atrocious.

TANSY:
I think this is one of my long-term least favourite, and nothing much has changed! The concept of the Daleks in 1930s New York is brilliant, and I liked the idea that they are the only reason the Empire State Building got built, but there isn’t much for me to love here.

TEHANI:
“The Lazarus Experiment” – oh, much better than the last two, although I found the actor playing the scientist (Mark Gatiss) odd. Almost like he didn’t know what to do with the role and over-hammed it. Maybe not quite the right person for the part there. It was good to see some more of Martha’s family, with some heavy foreshadowing for later episodes sneaking in!

DAVID:
I thought this was a pretty strong episode, with all the right ingredients – a mad scientist, scientific hubris, a monster, lots of near death moments. It was good to see more of the dynamics of Martha’s family, though the Doctor seems to rub mothers up the wrong way, doesn’t he? But, did anyone else find it weird how Tish went from being completely creeped out by Lazarus to flirtatious? Talk about bad judgment when it comes to men!

Good to see them carrying on the sci fi tradition of names that are conveniently a summation of a character’s traits or personality.

TANSY:
I didn’t like this one much either I’m afraid – this is the DVD disc I tend to skip! I am glad we went back to Martha’s family, of which Tish is certainly the most likeable despite her appalling judgement, and I appreciate the strong contrast to Rose’s family. But the only bit I really like in this episode is the very beginning, where the Doctor fulfils his promise to bring Martha home, and she’s so put out about it.

TEHANI:
“42” – just me who wanted this to be cosmic slapstick ala Douglas Adams? Okaaaay then… Actually I quite liked this one – lots of action and tension. And of course, MORE FORESHADOWING!

DAVID:
Yes, 42 has a lot of baggage in sci fi! I really enjoyed this one, it was go go go all the way through. Sort of a slicker, leaner version of Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit – without the Devil!

TANSY:
A good science fiction action story, in a show where we never get enough actual spacey stuff – and yet oddly unmemorable compared to the weirder and more experimental episodes of this season. Speaking of which…

TEHANI:
Onto the main (double) event!

HUMAN NATURE/THE FAMILY OF BLOOD

DAVID:
Well, it’s hard to think of a better episode in New Who so far. Big call, but there are only a few episodes I would put at the same level as this two parter. All I can say is “Blink” better be good!

TEHANI:
It’s apples and oranges!

DAVID:
The central idea was brilliant, and it gave us a chance to see a side of the Doctor we don’t often get to. Take away the burden of saving the Universe every other day and the trauma of the loss of his people and what do we get? A Doctor who is, dare I say, happy or at least content. David Tennant can take a lot of credit for this, with something we don’t normally associate with him, a very understated performance. I have often wondered how much of Ten is simply Tennant being Tennant, whether the manic energy and mannerisms are just him, but in this one he shows once again what a great actor he is. He is surrounded by other strong performances as well, but I am sure we will get to them.

TEHANI:
Agree completely – I think that it’s great we got to see him exhibit range here. John Smith and the Doctor are such different creatures, and you totally believe that.

DAVID:
But, it also helps that he is given such a strong script. It’s amazing how a character who is essentially just a construct is made to matter to us, that we care, that his motivations are convincing and that John Smith isn’t just the Doctor playing a role. It reminds me of Total Recall in a way, actually (the Arnie movie). John Smith is so real that he leaves a hole and people grieving for him. Thinking about it, it is actually a pretty terrible thing the Doctor does here!

TEHANI:
But possibly not as terrible because it’s an unexpected and genuinely unintentional thing?

TANSY:
Unexpected, yes, but unintentional, no – he has the option to go back to being John Smith and doesn’t take it.

It is fascinating to see Tennant playing a Doctor who doesn’t know he is the Doctor and thus … is basically not the Doctor any more. I wrote an essay on this very story recently for Doctor Her, because the issue of the Doctor’s relationship with domesticity (mostly: running away from it) fascinates me, and this story is a perfect example of that. As soon as the Doctor stops running, he’s not the Doctor any more.

John Smith is very human, but not necessarily nicer or better than the Doctor (or vice versa). I liked the little touches that showed he was very much of his time – agreeing to an older boy taking a younger boy away to be beaten, for example, something the Doctor would never let happen on his watch. But he has greater kindnesses and understanding as well.

The Doctor does not … come off overly well in this one! He’s so very starkly realised when he takes over the body again, and dooms John Smith.

DAVID:
The Family were wonderful villains, in fact I am going to commit here and say that I think they are the best villains that have been created for New Who. They could have been another Slitheen, with an over the top performance that seems played for laughs, but instead we get something truly unsettling. The way that they took on some of the characteristics of their “hosts” added another dimension to them, there is always something horrifying about the familiar taken and made alien. The scene with Son of Mine and the Headmaster of the school is as good as gets.

TEHANI:
And I like that some of those characters, particularly Mother of Mine (the maid), get to show range in their acting too – Son of Mine is so creepily over the top that it works marvellously!

TANSY:
I think it’s good that we start in the middle of the story for once, and miss the messing around part of actually knowing how the battle between the Doctor and the Family got started – it doesn’t matter, of course! The important thing is that the Doctor and Martha are running away.

I agree the Family are gorgeously, horribly realised – the idea of a mayfly style villain with a short time frame to conquer the world is a very good one, and adds to the sense of dread and a constant countdown. And the actors portraying each of them are very fine indeed. Son of Mine is a spectacular performance but I particularly love Martha realising her friend is possessed while taking tea and checking out her alienness by saying the wrong thing casually. The little girl joins a pantheon of evil little girls in Doctor Who’s history, one of the best.

DAVID:
I know this will shock you all, but I do think there some things New Who has done better than Classic Who, and a big one is that it hasn’t shied away from tackling issues like gender, sexuality and race. It was fascinating watching not just the treatment of Martha, but just the unconscious attitudes of the society she found herself in. Like watching Mad Men, it’s always both confronting and interesting seeing things that were once considered acceptable or normal and reflecting on how things have changed – or we would like to think so, anyway. Makes you wonder what things people will be watching on TV (or Google Glasses or direct neural feed) in fifty years and saying, “Wow, how could those people in 2012 do/say/think that?!”.

Again, the writer has to be commended here, especially in not falling into the trap we see so often, of making the “good characters” unrealistically enlightened for their time and somehow free of the prejudices of everyone else around them. The characters are very much of their time, and that adds to their verisimilitude. In fact, Cornell does a great job throughout of not giving us either a rose tinted or a unfairly condemnatory viewpoint. We see both the best, and the worst, of the England just before WWI.

TANSY:
Yes! I was thinking about this recently, how the new Upstairs Downstairs actually does this better than Downton Abbey, in which the ‘nice’ posh people are unreasonably kind and friendly to their servants.

I like that John and Joan, our most sympathetic supporting characters in this story, still display period appropriate casual racism and assumptions, while meaning terribly well. Joan’s flustered response to Martha declaring she is training to be a Doctor tells us so much about this particular time and place, and the options for women.

The story had a lot to say about traditional ideas of masculinity, too, and I thought showed the uncomfortable power dynamics of an upper crust boys school with quite a deft hand.

After the scene in which the pompous boys mock Martha for the colour of her skin, there’s that beautiful quiet line of hers in response to the other maid’s assertion that these boys will end up ruling the world. “1913 – they might not.” There’s a world of knowledge and sadness in those words, and we see that Martha, who has actually only been travelling with the Doctor a short time, is starting to see the world the way he does. She knows what is coming for those boys, and it means she can shrug off their casual cruelty, not letting it touch her.

DAVID:
Freema Agyeman is exceptional throughout this, I thought. You can almost feel her simmering anger as the put upon maid, having to bite her tongue not only at the treatment she receives from her superiors but at the attitudes expressed by the other servants. She has a lot of great lines and moments, from the one Tansy mentioned to when the man on the door makes the mistake of trying to keep her out. But the bit that got to me the most is where we see the true depth of her devotion to the Doctor. Not only has she endured everything that we have seen through the episode, we see what she is willing to sacrifice to get his identity back.

TANSY:
The scene in the pub was a nice moment too – the maids can’t go into the pub to drink, not (just) because of their class or Martha’s colour but because they were women. I remember my Mum talking about how even in the 60’s in Australia, a woman didn’t go into a pub on her own! It’s these little details that make a historical really work. And while I agree heartily with you, David, that New Who has made huge inroads in bringing gender, sexuality and racial issues into the show, there’s another element that I think they don’t get enough credit for – they brought the historical back and then some! Sure, Doctor Who has had a lot of historical-set stories over the years, but there has been a really solid ‘history agenda’ with New Who, with several quality period pieces (with aliens) every season. The best ones really use the setting to say something important, and while a version of this story could have been told in other eras, the choice for this particular time and the social details used to realise that time make the story especially rich.

TEHANI:
Agree with everything you both said here – these elements are a big part of what make these two episodes so very good. The integration of the historical aspects with the story being told is smooth and clever, and works exceptionally well.

DAVID:

My understanding is that originally Doctor Who was going to have much more of a historical focus, but that the space themed episodes proved more popular. I could be wrong, of course!

TANSY:
Very much so, the first few years pretty much alternated between SF and ‘monster’ shows and historicals. The show was intended to be educational for children and the creator, Sydney Newman (a relevant name to understand one of the in jokes of this episode!) was dead set against ‘bug eyed monsters.’ He hated the Daleks. But of course they were the reason the show succeeded so highly.

Historicals were phased out in the late 60’s and with only I think one exception, when they turned up again they always had science fictional elements. Which of course the New Who historicals also have – but in the old days you could have several years go by without a story set in Earth’s past, so I love that we get several per season in the new show.

DAVID:
Yes, they really have done a great job with the historical episodes. I can’t think of too many Classic Who ones that have done it better, most of the ones I would list as favourites are space/alien stories. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that they have tried for more historical accuracy (minus the aliens, of course!), some of the Classic Who ones did play pretty fast and loose!

TANSY:
Heh well history was much younger in those days…

I love many, many of the Classic historicals, actually, with or without aliens. Stories like The Aztecs, or the Highlanders, and later historicals-with-aliens like Masque of Mandragora or Curse of Fenric. Sadly most of the best historical Doctor Whos are among the lost stories and we can only listen to them. But I suspect that our expectations of what a historical story does have dated quite drastically over the years, maybe more than science fiction (which is a big maybe considering the changing special effects) – you only have to look at the 60’s adaptation of The Forsyte Saga in comparison to the one made 40 years later to see how much TV as a whole has changed. And the writers know they have a more nitpicky audience with access to Wikipedia. But there are actually quite a few clangers in modern historical episodes too! I believe small wars were started over The Shakespeare Code…

TEHANI:
The romance between John Smith and Joan Redfern (Jessica Stevenson / Hynes – did you know she co-wrote and starred in SPACED?) is sweet, sad and so believable. The actress is utterly awesome (and I particularly liked the way she appeared to be sans makeup throughout the episodes – possibly there’s a lot of stage makeup goes into that very natural look, but it seemed realistic to me!). And of the many tear-jerker scenes in this duology, the “flash forward” of what John Smith’s life could have been is heartbreaking.

TANSY:
I adore SPACED! Can’t get used to her new name, but I think she’s an amazing actress who I don’t see on my screens nearly enough. I am very happy she was given such an iconic role in the show, and she committed so thoroughly to being ‘dowdy’ for the role but was nevertheless utterly gorgeous.

I like the flash forward except (and this is a HUGE except) that they basically used that as the ‘next episode’ preview, which is a) a colossal cheat, suggesting that this is what the second episode will be all about John and Joan getting a lifetime together, and b) spoils the moment when it does appear, because we’ve seen it already. There have been a few ‘next episode’ clangers in Doctor Who, and they learned from many of their mistakes, such as showing the preview seconds after the cliffhanger of a two parter instead of after the credits, thereby taking away all tension, but this is one of the worst I can remember.

DAVID:
Joan Redfern is amazing in this. How powerful is the moment when she rejects the Doctor’s offer to become a companion? She portrays so much strength and dignity in the midst of her grief. I have said it before, and I am sure I will say it again, we are constantly seeing brilliant performances from the supporting cast and it is a big part of what has made New Who what it is.

I think I must have got something in my eye during that flash forward sequence…

TANSY:
I think one of the things that most clearly demonstrates the success of the new version of the show is absolutely the guest cast. Sure, there are always people who will agree to be in Doctor Who because their kids love it, or nostalgia (the actress playing the new companion has been telling everyone that her grandmother is a super fan of the show which I think is adorable) but it’s clear now that the show has risen in status and you can see that from the actors who take roles.

Having said that, they had some amazing guest performances in Season One where no one knew if it was going to fail or not, so kudos to their casting director! I think it would be hard to argue against “Human Nature/Family of Blood” having the best ensemble cast of the season, maybe of the show so far. Some really hard stuff to get across, and many multiple parts. Even the kids were good!

Speaking of which, the boy from Love Actually – what’s his name? A ripper of a performance considering how young and slight he was, and that he needs to not only be all metaphysical and weedy and mysterious, but also has to act the soldier in that other flash forward scene. Chilling stuff!

TEHANI:
So overall, we think this was a pretty darn good double episode, it seems! But not, according to Hugo voters, the best viewing of the season – shall we move on?

=======

Watching New Who – in conversation with David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Tehani Wessely

David is coming to New Who for the first time, having loved Classic Who as a kid. Tehani is a recent convert, and ploughed through Seasons 1 to 6 (so far) in just a few weeks after becoming addicted thanks to Matt Smith – she’s rewatching to keep up with David! Tansy is the expert in the team, with a history in Doctor Who fandom that goes WAY back, and a passion for Doctor Who that inspires us all (plus a seven-year-old daughter who is finding her own Doctors for the first time). We’re going to work our way through New Who, using season openers and closers, and Hugo shortlisted episodes, as our blogging points. Just for fun! We have already talked about:

“Rose”, S01E01
“Dalek”, S01E06
“Father’s Day, S01E08
“The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances”, S01E09/10
“Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways”, S01E12/13
Season One Report Card – David, Tansy, Tehani

“The Christmas Invasion,” 2005 Christmas special
“New Earth”, S02E01
“School Reunion,” S02E03
“The Girl in the Fireplace”, S02E04
“Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel”, S02E05/06
Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, S02E12/13

Season Two Report Cards: David, Tehani, Tansy
“The Runaway Bride”, 2006 Christmas Special
“Smith and Jones”, S03E01
The Shakespeare Code & Gridlock, S0302-03

You can find the original text of “Domesticating the Doctor I: Cocoa, Test-tubes and the Classic Years” here at Doctor Her.

A very positive review of Beyond Binary at i09 – doesn’t mention my story at all (sniff) but it’s great to see such a positive reaction to this book, which I’m very proud to be part of.

Our Sean (yes, he’s ours!) has interviewed New Zealand fantasy author Helen Lowe for Galactic Chat.

A lovely, witty review of Love and Romanpunk – again, I’ve been so pleased at the critical reception for this book, and so very proud of it. I am always interested in the way that readers pick a favourite from the collection (there’s something about the four story suite in particular, I think, that makes people pick out one sweetie over the rest).

Over at Doctor Her, I’m back on the Domesticating the Doctor kick with a short essay about Human Nature/Family of Blood and the Doctor vs. Domesticity. Next one will tackle the Ponds, really truly, I’m not avoiding it or anything!

The Doctor – David Tennant
Martha Jones – Freema Agyeman
Shakespeare – Dean Lennox Kelly

TEHANI:
So, Martha’s first adventure and we get Shakespeare! There’s a lot to like about this episode. Ten is clearly enjoying himself on this one, and Martha does well for her first time travelling, don’t you think? Asking the important questions for us not in TV-land and getting timey-wimey explanations in return.

TANSY:
Yes I like that Martha has a very down to earth and practical approach to time travel, and while she has just as much sense of wonder as Rose, there’s a bit more of – I don’t know, is it snobbish to say she feels more intellectual in how she takes in history? Less giggling, more cynical nodding.

TEHANI:
I don’t think it’s snobbish – true, maybe, but just another way to identify the differences between the companions I guess. Martha is better educated and a little more worldly than Rose, so showing Martha reacting quite differently to how we saw Rose reacting is reasonable.

TANSY:
I also think it’s important that Martha raises the race question early, and that the Doctor answers it – it’s a little glib for him to suggest she just walk around like she own the place, because he’s speaking from white male privilege, but at the same time it is important to note that there were people of colour (if not as many as now) in British history, and it’s only a century of whitewashed movies and television that makes us think otherwise. Important that the race issue is addressed in the time travel stories, because pretending Martha isn’t black would be bizarre. I rather like her “not exactly white, in case you haven’t noticed” line because, let’s face it, the Doctor probably WOULDN’T think about that sort of thing.

DAVID:
That’s something I did wonder about, wouldn’t Martha have stood out a little more than she did, not only because of her colour but because of what she was wearing? I would have thought both would have excited more reaction than they did. I’m quite happy to admit to be speaking from a lack of knowledge here, but I would have thought that London circa Shakespeare’s time would be pretty homogeneous so I’d love to be pointed to some sources that talk about the history we don’t see usually see in movies and TV, and perhaps our readers would like to as well (this is something I also wondered when watching the one episode of Merlin I’ve managed to catch)?

TANSY: I believe that there were certainly more faces of colour around in England in historical times than we are led to expect from 100 years of very whitewashed TV. Not common perhaps – but not especially extraordinary. I assume Shakespeare had to have met at least one black person in his life because, Othello. I did think it was cute that they framed Martha as Shakespeare’s ‘dark lady,’ one of the figures he wrote so many sonnets to.

[ooh look, a source and a discussion of a book on Shakespeare & Race]

DAVID:
I am glad that in this episode they don’t ignore such issues, I’d much rather they at least acknowledged these things rather than pretending they don’t exist.

TEHANI:
I adored Shakespeare, and the idea that he could completely hold his own with the Doctor. Smart, funny, and fairly easy on the eyes as well! Not to mentioned a little tormented – what more could a girl ask for?

TANSY:
It’s a great performance, I really like the actor’s interpretation. It’s a lot more warts-and-all than, for instance, good old Joseph Fiennes. Also bonus points for use of ‘hey nonny nonny’ as a pick up line.

DAVID:
I thought that the dialogue was one of the major strengths of this episode, as you would expect with episode featuring Shakespeare! The banter between all three of the main characters (Shakespeare, The Doctor and Martha) was brilliant throughout and was a real delight. And, as a writer, I loved the emphasis on the power of words and that was explored really well.

I liked the “unromanticised” Shakespeare we see here, as you say – warts and all. Another great guest performance! The temptation would have been to give us a modern interpretation of the Bard, cleaned and made more palatable to our modern sensibilities but instead we get a man of his times. I have to admit, I thought the scene with Martha and Shakespeare was hilarious, but it was also quite brave and illustrated some of the disconnect there would be with someone from an England that far back in time.

TEHANI:
What did you think of the witches? I liked the young one – while she was pretty over the top in her evilness, it really worked for me – as in, she was genuinely invested in her crazy, so it made sense!

TANSY:
They’re very cliche witches but of course one of the central origins of that cliche is Shakespeare’s Macbeth, so it’s important we see that in them. I have to say, I normally hate the trope of the Doctor inspiring famous writers/artists to do their best work, or even doing it for them, because it takes away from their own reputation to suggest the Doctor did it better – for the most part in this story it treads the right side of the line for me because of the humour in the way it’s used and because the Doctor is at least doing it by accident. Chucking in a reference to the Sycorax is hilarious because it “explains” how an earlier alien race was named with a Shakespeare reference, and it helps that at one point the Doctor quotes a play Shakespeare actually recognises as his own.

DAVID:
One of my friends is blogging Shakespeare, doing each of his plays in turn, and he was talking about how Love’s Labours Lost is such an atypical play, and it that it does actually read as if part two is missing. I wasn’t aware of that, obviously a hole in my education, but it does make me look at this episode in a whole new light.

TEHANI:
I think Doctor Who writers are a pretty clever bunch, even when you don’t REALISE how clever they’re being until it’s pointed out to you – so many people are WAY smarter than me!

DAVID:
The way this episode provides so much banter and dialogue also fits in with the style of the play, the more I learn the more I admire the writer!

I do agree that having cliche witches in this makes sense, because they are the inspiration for the cliche itself. It’s a pretty standard Who thing as well to treat magic as something that has a scientific basis, not supernatural or occult, but just a unfamiliar way of manipulating the Universe.

TEHANI:
The pop culture references are a nice touch – Shakespeare quoting JK Rowling, made of awesome! But my favourite line has to be:

Ten: Come on! We can all have a good flirt later!
Shakespeare: Is that a promise, Doctor?
Ten: Oh, fifty-seven academics just punched the air.

Way to break the fourth wall!!

I also really liked the underlying premise that words have power. It’s not really subtle, but it’s also only there if you think about it, if that makes sense, wrapped up as it is in a story about one of history’s finest wordsmiths.

DAVID:
This episode was very pop culture heavy, wasn’t it? But I thought they did it really well, there were no cringe worthy moments. And, besides, I love Harry Potter!

TANSY: The use of ‘expelliamus’ was awesome, and acknowledges I think how much Potter has sunk itself into our pop culture. It’s quite nice to see the Doctor chatting about J.K Rowling instead of sticking to the more ‘classic’ Dickens and Shakespeare. Hmm. Do we think it’s time the Doctor went back to check out Jane Austen and her crowd? She has to be the most popular famous writer that we haven’t seen on the show yet!

DAVID:
Was this the first actual appearance of Shakespeare on the show? I know he has been referenced before, but I can’t remember if he had made an appearance. I’d love to see Jane Austen on the show too.

TANSY:
No, he hasn’t appeared, though the Doctor name-dropped him quite a few times and the Fourth Doctor claimed to have scribed Hamlet at his dictation (which was why the original manuscript was in his handwriting).

TEHANI:
I’m all for any Doctor Who set in our past with historical figures – they’re my favourite episodes! Oh, David, just wait til we get to Leonardo!

TANSY:
Okay, I just officially put City of Death (Classic Who) on Tehani’s shopping list.

TEHANI:
That list is growing scary big!

“Gridlock”
Season three, episode three

The Doctor – David Tennant
Martha Jones – Freema Agyeman

TEHANI:
Tansy, I’m cautious of doing this one! There’s a really big important reason for this episode that only becomes clear later on! David, you won’t know, don’t worry

Ten is a bit callous and heartbreaking in this one, but really, at least Martha can never say he led her on! At the same time, we get a bit of a return to some vulnerability about his past, which Tennant does well.

TANSY:
There are a few reasons I was keen to discuss Gridlock, apart from it feeling like one of the most solid pieces of science fiction we’ve seen for a long time in the show.

The references to the Doctor’s past and his discussion of Gallifrey make for a very powerful and emotional scene – it’s interesting, actually, the idea that he has to have ‘the talk’ with each new companion, and what new information we as the audience get. Martha needs to know about Gallifrey AND Rose – good thing they didn’t keep this up or you’d have him presenting a lecture with power point each time someone new joined him. “And this was Sarah Jane…”

DAVID:
Many things to like, wasn’t there? For a start, the idea of an entire population trapped in a endless traffic jam was compelling and creepy, especially for someone who has spent some time on the Monash Freeway! I always love a story where we are presented with a society that seems ordered on the surface and we gradually get to see how the mechanisms beneath that hold it together are slowly breaking down – it reminded me a bit of Paradise Towers, actually. And, it’s always nice to see a creature or villain from the Doctor’s past.

The payoff was pretty good, actually, the idea of a last desperate ploy to save the uninfected from the plague, the surface dwellers throwing the switch to shut off the lane ways and not knowing whether they had succeeded in saving anyone. And, the sight of all those skeletons! As you say, there was some solid sci fi here, and some nice emotional resonance to go along with it. While Ten doesn’t wear the traumas of his past on his sleeve quite the way that Nine did, the scene where he talks about Gallifrey does a great job of conveying the depths of his pain and gives a real sense of exactly how much he has lost.

TEHANI:
I’m still a huge fan of the cat people, and I loved the way mixed race (species!) marriage AND same sex marriage is portrayed here. Although the kittens were perhaps just a bit much…

TANSY:
The RTD era is great at those little touches that show there are more possibilities out there than many people think is traditional. I thought the kittens were pretty cute! It’s a very clever episode, the way they used the same ‘car’ set over and over again to convey a whole society instead of showing us a planet through one family or one crew.

DAVID:
The contained nature of most of this episode was very clever, wasn’t it? And it must have helped the budget too! I liked the little slices of life we got with each of the cars, and you really could imagine the way that a community would have formed with the radios as the only means of communication, and how no one would have cared what the person on the other end looked like or who they were marrying or any of that, they would have been simply a friendly voice in the dark, their shared experience and humanity the only important thing.

TANSY:
That’s true actually, you get the feeling that Brannigan is a bit embarrassed about the lesbian old ladies (I’m an old fashioned cat) and can’t quite acknowledge them as wives (they might feel the same way about he and his wife’s relationship), but as they’re all in it together none of them let their differences stop them being allies. It’s more realistic than everyone feeling exactly the same about particular social issues.

The cleverness of the design used in the episode lifted it into something special for me, and I liked how we got to see so much of the society through the postcard glimpses of each car and crew. Great worldbuilding!

TEHANI:
This one wasn’t one of my favourites, but I agree it’s a good strong SFnal episode. The monsters were really an afterthought to the story at hand though, weren’t they – a catalyst for the danger rather than the actual plot, which was pretty cool.

I liked that we got to see Novice Hame again, and the Face of Boe – I agree David, it’s nice to see return characters!

DAVID:
They are a great pair, but the other blast from the past is the Macra! They featured all the way back in the Doctor’s Second Incarnation.

One of the things I have enjoyed about New Who is that, while they aren’t constrained by it, they haven’t ignored what has gone before and we have seen lots of little homages to Classic Who. The fact that the very first episode (Rose) featured an previously featured alien race set the tone, and was very reassuring for a Classic fan like myself, and that has continued.

TANSY:
The Macra was so gratuitous! If even I have to go look up a reference … but of course it works fine without knowing the Doctor has seen them before (right, Tehani?) and I love all the self-reference stuff, anything that makes it feel more like it’s the same universe (bar reboots & reality shifts) that he’s always been bombing around in.

TEHANI:
Ohhhhh, so they’re creatures from Classic Who, right! Yes, works fine – I kind of expect the Doctor to know everything about every creature/monster/alien/planet, so it never really occurs to me to wonder if the reason he knows about something is actually because he’s encountered it before!

DAVID:
I have to admit to be slightly surprised by the use of the hymns “Abide with Me” and “The Old Rugged Cross” in this episode (though apparently “Abide with Me” was in Kinda!). I certainly didn’t have an issue with it, and the idea of all the gridlocked travellers sharing an united moment is at once convincing and moving.

It’s simply that “The Old Rugged Cross” in particular is an exceedingly Christian specific hymn, not one that you would consider interfaith, or ecumenically neutral, which says some interesting things about the society of New Earth. I am not sure that they would have thought quite that deeply, but I do wonder whether they picked it at random or whether there was a reason. It is a very English moment, too, you can imagine the same thing happening during the Blitz or on the deck of the Titanic.

It’s a beautiful piece of music, though, and adds a great deal of poignancy to the Doctor’s reminisces as he remembers, and mourns, Gallifrey.

TANSY:
I don’t think anything about the soundscape of Doctor Who these days happens at random – they put so much time and thought into post-production. I agree it had a historical British feel about it, in a Blitz spirit kind of way. But, of course, all the futures in DW are British! (makes a change from American)

I didn’t actually know whether they were ‘real’ hymns or not because I’m pretty ignorant about that sort of thing, but I thought they might be and it is a very interesting choice for them. It certainly worked in the moment, as far as the drama is concerned.

TEHANI:
The music is one thing that is something I’m noticing more and more during rewatch – I’m finding it frequently overpowers the action and dialogue onscreen, and I wonder why they make some choices. In this case it wasn’t an issue, but I’ll flag it for further discussion in other episodes!

So, onwards?

=======

Watching New Who – in conversation with David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Tehani Wessely

David is coming to New Who for the first time, having loved Classic Who as a kid. Tehani is a recent convert, and ploughed through Seasons 1 to 6 (so far) in just a few weeks after becoming addicted thanks to Matt Smith – she’s rewatching to keep up with David! Tansy is the expert in the team, with a history in Doctor Who fandom that goes WAY back, and a passion for Doctor Who that inspires us all (plus a seven-year-old daughter who is finding her own Doctors for the first time). We’re going to work our way through New Who, using season openers and closers, and Hugo shortlisted episodes, as our blogging points. Just for fun! We have already talked about:

“Rose”, S01E01
“Dalek”, S01E06
“Father’s Day, S01E08
“The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances”, S01E09/10
“Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways”, S01E12/13
Season One Report Card – David, Tansy, Tehani

“The Christmas Invasion,” 2005 Christmas special
“New Earth”, S02E01
“School Reunion,” S02E03
“The Girl in the Fireplace”, S02E04
“Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel”, S02E05/06
Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, S02E12/13
Season Two Report Cards: David, Tehani, Tansy
“The Runaway Bride”, 2006 Christmas Special
“Smith and Jones”, S03E01

As part of the ongoing excellent advocacy work coming out of the #AWW challenge, here’s a list of Australian women writers of Asian heritage to help you include some diversity in your choices.

The Australian government is running an online survey about our opinions on gay marriage. So far the interim response is pretty depressing (running at only a bit over 30% saying YES GAY MARRIAGE) but it’s not based on very many people’s opinions. So if you’re Australian, go, take five minutes and register your own thoughts on the issue.

Alisa Krasnostein, Cheryl Morgan, Lynne M Thomas and many other smart people share their opinions on awards in the latest SF Mind Meld.

One of my favourite Tor.com posts this week – Redskirts looks at some of the portrayals of women among the traditional ‘redshirt’ junior-Starfleet-person-of-the-week tradition in the original Star Trek.

The new Doctor Who companion has been announced and we still know very little about her – Ritch Ludlow asks some questions about fan response to Amy Pond and considers what kind of standards might be applied to this new character.

Oooh, another great one from Tor.com! Comic artist Faith Erin Hicks whose work I really enjoyed on ‘Friends With Boys’ has drawn a personal response to The Hunger Games as a popular story, drawing upon her family experience (as the daughter of a Vietnam veteran). I love to see the comics form used to tell powerful memoir and this brief piece is very compelling.

Peter Ball flagged this interesting article about how Iceland as a country has been using social media to aid in economic recovery. I particularly love their Tumblr “Iceland wants to be your friend.”

Another brilliant & funny parody-read-along post by Sarah Rees Brennan on gothic novels, this time Greygallows by Barbara Michaels.

One that got accidentally left off last week’s link post: Seanan McGuire on Fanfic

Ben Peek muses on worldbuilding, and a critical approach to fantasy traditions, especially when it comes to race.

Also on my iPod I have really enjoyed a couple of great podcasts lately: Shaun Tan guests on (the horribly named) Shooting the Poo, and is fascinating to listen to, especially talking frankly about the experience of being an animator at the Oscars last year. The latest Writer and the Critic also has a guest, and if you’ve never had the opportunity to see Mondy and Rob Shearman giving each other hell as the mates they are then this is the podcast for you.

I’ve been meaning to write a post about the importance of women’s history and why history is actually supremely important and relevant to people’s lives, inspired by this kickass women’s suffrage vid first brought to my attention by Sean the Blogonaut, but I’m obviously not going to get it done, so have the vid. It is most excellent.

This week it’s all about Doctor Her, my new shiny thing, though you can also expect a post all about my Pinterest experience Quite Soon I think.

My Doctor Who watching has been all about Ace and the Seventh Doctor recently because Raeli has fallen in love with that era (but mostly with Ace) and actually asks to watch classic Who with me. Shock!

So I wrote a review about the interesting depiction of Female Power in the Curse of Fenric, then followed it up with a coda about The Many Futures of Ace McShane. I also wrote a sequel to my Classic Who Domesticating the Doctor post from the other week: Domesticating the Doctor II: The Missus, The Ex and the Mothers-in-Law. I’m not sure why it is that reading so much about feminism & Doctor Who is making me think so much about the companions’ Mums, maybe it’s that I am actually realising how much closer I am to Jackie Tyler’s age than Rose’s?

Mostly I’ve been loving the vibe over on the Doctor Her blog – we don’t always agree, especially when it comes to controversies like ‘is River Song a feminist character’ but we have some amazing conversations in the comments, and it’s feeling like a really nice community.

This is one I meant to bring to the table at our recent recording of Galactic Suburbia (should be up tonight) but forgot: craft is at the top of the cultural activities performed by Australians, but our peak funding body for cultural activities has just defunded Craft Australia. (I didn’t even know there was a Craft Australia!) There’s plenty of gender & class privilege to unpack here, as there usually is when the line between craft and art is drawn.

Speaking of stuff I probably should have included in this week’s GS – Nicola Griffith talks about How To Fix Gender Bias in book journalism.

I have written a few posts in places other than here on the internet this week: I talk about fantasy words and names on the Voyager blog, in response to this lovely post by Natalie Costa Bir who talks about the vocab I use in the Creature Court books.

pic thanks to the Mary Sue

Speaking of all Doctor Who all the time, here’s a lovely standalone interlude to Girl on the Moon’s ongoing Tenth Doctor comic strip, in which the Doctor decides to wait until he’s Eleven (and has the Ponds along) to go visit guerilla Mickey and Martha at the end of The End of Time Part II. It’s lovely!

Jo Walton linked to this great Pinterest board of book covers from her heroine’s reading material in Among Others. If you liked the book, this should resonate with you – it feels like walking into a second hand bookshop! (also I’m starting to get a feel for what Pinterest is useful for. Don’t suppose someone wants to do a board of all the books Galactic Suburbia has recommended to people??)

On Tiger Beatdown, an angry and rather inspiring post about feeling discomfort with International Women’s Day, and the limited view of what a woman is, as shown in the international media.

Check out this extraordinary collaboration between singer/songwriter and Triple j Unearthed winner Yunyu, Aussie manga artist Queenie Chan, with animation by the Commonist: Twisted Tales Episode 1 – Dorothy. Has anyone else ever put Dorothy of Oz in space before? This is such a gorgeous piece of work, I can’t wait to see what they do next.

“Planet of the Spiders” (1974)
Season 11: Production Code ZZZ

Written by: Robert Sloman & (uncredited) Barry Letts
Directed by: Barry Letts
Script Editor: Terrance Dicks

Starring:
THE DOCTOR: Jon Pertwee & (uncredited) Tom Baker
SARAH JANE SMITH: Elisabeth Sladen
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Nicholas Courtney
SGT. BENTON: John Levene
MIKE YATES: Richard Franklin
LUPTON: John Dearth

I once tried to convince Raeli to cosplay this outfit for a party - she had the stripy top but refused to add the spider!

This final story of the Third Doctor’s run is one of my absolute favourites, and has been since… wow. Probably since I was about the age my daughter Raeli is now. It’s a complete love letter to Jon Pertwee and the UNIT Years, with callbacks to previous stories. We even get a letter and a parcel from Jo Grant, a year after she left the show – a very rare example of a companion getting a chance to ‘call in’ after making her farewell, even if we don’t hear Katy Manning’s actual voice. We also get some cute character moments from each of the UNIT regulars, including Benton being adorably domestic, and the Brigadier unexpectedly (against his will!) revealing a snippet of his romantic history with a young lady called Doris.

I’ve been surprised in recent years to hear quite scathing criticisms of this story, especially the indulgent but completely awesome many-vehicles chase sequence, and the not-so-great acting among the Metebelis Three colonists. None of which bothers me at all, because I was raised with an Ignoring the Bad Bits lens through which to view classic Doctor Who stories. If you don’t have one, bet you wish you did. I try never to use this power for evil.

Well, no. There’s an unquestionably legitimate criticism of this story, that the Tibetan characters are played by white actors, and it’s not one I’ve seen mentioned much, which is interesting considering that Talons of Weng Chiang has copped a lot more – perfectly appropriate – flak for the same issue. Maybe I just missed the discussion – or maybe the issue is raised more commonly with Weng-Chiang because it’s considered one of the best evah stories, while Planet of the Spiders has fewer fans who love it enough to get all cranky and defensive. I’m just going to put it out there that it’s very problematic that this happens throughout the history of Doctor Who, and probably worth looking at more deeply. I’ve been fascinated by some of the interviews with Waris Hussain (the first director to work on Doctor Who, who made Marco Polo as well as An Unearthly Child) coming out of Gallifrey One and in the recent DWM, and does discuss the issue, which was a common aspect of TV casting in the 60′s and 70′s.

So yeah, it’s important to acknowledge that when you love old TV shows or movies, there are times when they will make you wince, or feel sad, or embarrassed for the human race. They’re time capsules, and not everything they reveal to us is hilarious and adorable. But if you’re going to nitpick about the bad acting and the chase scenes, I will totally go LALALALALA DID YOU SEE SARAH JANE’S AWESOME JACKET LALALALA. Because I really, really love this story. Even Gareth Hunt’s moustache.

First time I rewatched this as an adult, the revelation that Gambit from the New Avengers was Arak and his moustache BLEW MY MIND.

From a feminist standpoint, there’s a lot to talk about in Planet of the Spiders. It’s one of my favourite Sarah Jane Smith stories, because like The Time Warrior and Robot, it shows her actually getting on with her job as a journalist, and balancing that with her role as the Doctor’s friend.

I say friend rather than companion because while she has flitted to a few alien planets with the Doctor, and engaged in a bit of UNIT action there on Earth, Sarah still very much has her feet on the ground, and a life of her own. She’s not employed by UNIT, and as we see later in Robot, is not above using her connection with them to suit her own needs, rather than always being part of the Doctor’s story. This will change, but it hasn’t yet.

Indeed, we don’t see Sarah and the Doctor interact for the whole first episode. Her adventure is with disgraced former UNIT lieutenant Mike Yates, and if you read this as her being the sidekick to his male action hero, then Sarah Jane would laugh at you. Mike has invited her along to help him investigate a mystery at a monastic retreat in the hopes that she’ll be his unofficial line to UNIT, and maybe he does see her as his sidekick, but he’d never admit that out loud. Sarah takes on the adventure as her own with great gusto, and isn’t above reporting on it for her newspaper at the same time.

Mike is lucky to be allowed to stick around as her sidekick. When he reveals his plan for them to drive away and travel back sneakily on foot, Sarah is either genuinely admiring that he’s capable of such a sophisticated plan after years working for UNIT, or is making fun of him when she shakes her head and says: “The fiendish cunning of the man.”

Possibly both.

It looks very much like a typical old school male-centric Doctor Who story at first, with Sarah as the only active female character among a sea of monks, stressed former businessmen and UNIT soldiers, not to mention the Doctor himself, but then the spiders turn up.

Passing the Bechdel Test? Only the arachnids.

But the spiders steal the show. The voice acting is very effective (I’m annoyed that I can’t find anywhere which actress played which spider, especially as one of them was Kismet Delgado, widow of the recently departed Roger Delgado, the original Master), and I’m personally invested in the props as characters, too. Sure, they mostly sit there and twitch, but they do it with style and witty banter. The entire plot revolves around a matriarchal dictatorship that doesn’t feature glamorous babes in sexy outfits, which is a pretty rare thing in science fiction on screen.

Curiosity sent the journalist to Metebelis Three.

I can’t help thinking how awesome it is that Planet of the Spiders is mostly about female characters successfully manipulate men, without any reference to sex or the female body. Because they’re spiders. This is one of those fantastic things that science fiction CAN do that almost no other genre can, but it hardly ever comes to the feminist party.

It’s rare for a six parter in Doctor Who to actually fill that length of a story without feeling like a four parter and two parter mashed together, but this one works by offering up many twists and turns, and some of the best Pertwee era cliffhangers, the most surprising of which is when Sarah ends up accidentally transported to the alien planet, and the Doctor has to go after her. This leads to one of the many fan-pleasing moments of the show, in which Yates actually calls the Doctor on how unlikely it is that, even if he reaches the planet he’s aiming for in the TARDIS, that he can find Sarah easily. Because, you know. Planets are big. It’s a rare acknowledgement of that element of the show that always seemed like it was hand wavy and lazy (that is, that the Doctor always coincidentally lands on the one spot on the planet where interesting things are happening) all the way up to Neil Gaiman’s recent story “The Doctor’s Wife,” which makes explicit something often hinted at in the show’s history.

In this case, the Doctor does admit that he leaves the landing up to the TARDIS – she knows what she’s doing.

“You speak about her almost as if she’s alive.”
“Yes, I do, don’t I?”

"What do you mean, you have the cutest outfits? My ruffled shirt matches my flying car!"

Later, on Metebelis Three, the Doctor gets to play with all his action fake Venusian karate moves too, and even start a rebellion against the spiders using nothing but a handful of pebbles. But the story isn’t just about his adventuring spirit. Indeed, the male heroic tradition is undercut at least twice when his attempts to rescue Sarah results in immediate disaster, and he spends a good chunk of the story apparently dead or comatose. This gives Sarah a chance to work through a more substantial emotional reaction to what was to happen for real, later on. It’s also kind of nice that they’re letting the Doctor have flaws, rather than building him up in this final story as some kind of paragon. After all, the culmination of the story is, in fact, that he has been pushing his luck.

"Remind me, whose turn is it to do the rescuing?"

For all the vim and vigour of his final story, I think my favourite Third Doctor scenes are the quiet ones: himself wrapped in the spider cocoon in prison, trying to remember the name of Harry Houdini so he can successfully namedrop, and especially the scene in which he talks wistfully about his old teacher and childhood home, an anecdote which seems to be yet another in-character casual reference to all that gorgeous backstory, but turns out to be hugely relevant to the plot and the final reveal.

Meanwhile, Elisabeth Sladen is also showcasing how great her character is, starting out with Sarah Jane’s entertaining Secret Seven Go Spying double act with Mike Yates, her impatience at the Doctor never listening to her properly, her FABULOUS outfits (seriously, cosplayers, so many beautiful clothes in this one story), and her ability to convey genuine fear one minute, snarky humour the next, and then a touch of evil just for the sake of it. She actually shoots the Doctor with her hand!

Of all Sarah Janes’s great moments in the episode, though, my favourite is when is dragged off from the prison to see the spiders. The Doctor asks if she can delay them (!) and she says with great oomph: “Don’t worry, I’ll give them all indigestion!”

"I can keep it, right? Spoils of Doctoring."

“Is that fear I see in your eyes, Doctor? You are not accustomed to feeling frightened, are you?”

The final regeneration (first time the word is used and the concept is properly explained!) scene is touching and sweet. Once again it’s Elisabeth Sladen’s Sarah Jane who is carrying the emotional weight of the scene, with the Brigadier there merely to roll his eyes and make the phone calls. The end of an era, and one that’s been sent off in style. Time for the new team to take over…

RAELI’S (Age 7) REVIEW :

I liked the bit where they sang Om Manny Padme Hum.

"Is that a tear, Sarah Jane?"

Martha Jones – Freema Agyeman

TEHANI:
I loved Martha from the moment I met her. She’s funny, smart, cool and works well under pressure. I love her dysfunctional but ultimately awesome family and her obvious and instant difference to Rose and Donna (clearly marked by her telling the Doctor about the events of the past couple of years that Donna had missed entirely). Well, in the beginning…

Is it just me or is Tennant more relaxed in the role in this episode? It’s almost like he’s taken a breath and gone, yup, I’m the Doctor and everything is ooo-kay.

TANSY:
There could certainly have been a bigger time gap there, for the Doctor, which allows him to have relaxed a bit into himself. And I think it helps for David Tennant to not be the new boy any more.

I’m also a huge Martha fan! This is a great introduction to her and her family – and it really is a game of contrasts between her and Rose. She has a life, something not as easily walked away from, and is only interested in an adventure or two before returning to her career and attachments. She’s also capable, clever and quite flexible.

Like Donna, she’s also perfectly capable of smacking the Doctor around when he gets too high handed … and does it rather less abrasively than Donna did in “The Runaway Bride”.

DAVID:
Once I got over how familiar she looked, neatly explained away of course, I was really impressed with Martha. I agree about the contrast with Rose, it is almost as if they were trying to find the complete opposite. I am in no way calling Rose stupid, but one of the things they emphasise about her is her limited education and the narrowness of her experience of life. The way her journeys with the Doctor expand these horizons is a major part of her character arc.

In Martha we are presented with someone who is well educated and has a very nimble and inquiring mind, and who immediately grasps the ramifications of what has happened to the hospital and the patients, yet can still grasp the wonder of what she is seeing (and how brilliant an image is this hospital sitting on the surface of the moon, bathed in “Earthlight” as the Doctor so elegantly puts it?). You can see how much she impresses the Doctor from the word go (and I was equally as impressed). Terrible doctor though, fancy running around with the Doctor instead of attending to her patients!

TEHANI:
And don’t they run! I really find that motif of running around with the Doctor so much fun. Tansy, did that start with Four, or is it just that I don’t know the earlier Doctors to remember it?

TANSY:
I think it started with Troughton really, but it was never emphasised in the narrative of the show so much as with Christopher Eccleston’s first episode. “Running down corridors” had become a meta comment about the show from fans and satirical sketches, but it became something more in the new show.

DAVID:
When we first meet Rose, she really is almost a child, still trying to work out who she is and what she wants to be, while Martha is an adult, much more confident in her identity and goals. It’s very much like the different between the two Mickey’s, pre and post parallel universe. Martha seems very centred, and I am looking forward to watching her interactions with the Doctor, I have high hopes that it will be on a much more equal footing. I was a bit dubious about the last five minutes though, almost portrayed the Doctor as an intergalactic predator, cruising the dimensions looking for impressionable young woman to pick up in a vulnerable moment!

TANSY:
Ha yes, there is a bit of that, particularly as he’s still on the rebound from Donna turning him down. Though I don’t think you can argue this interaction is LESS predatory than Christopher Eccleston and “by the way it also travels in time” – at least Martha is a bit older and more of a sensible decision-maker. Also this Doctor presents as younger so there’s less of a visible age gap.

TEHANI:
I don’t know about this. It was actually a bit disappointing, to see Martha presented so quickly as quite enamoured of him, after such a great episode of her being all smart and independent and awesome. Why do that? I mean, sure, we all know it’s realistic – cute, super smart, funny and apparently really quite powerful guy sweeps you away, you’re probably going to get a bit of a crush pretty quickly, but after Rose, we could have done with a break from the mooning about, don’t you think?

DAVID:
No arguments here!

TANSY:
I like the fact that the way Martha chooses to come aboard the TARDIS is as different from Rose as is her personality – he’s really (sure) offering her a simple jaunt, a holiday away from her real life, with the promise that she’ll be home again straight away. One trip… the gateway drug!

DAVID:
Is it just me, or does Ten come across as completely and utterly insane in this? Tennant looks like he is having so much fun and he drags you along with him, it’s impossible not to get caught up in his wild eyed enthusiasm. He really does remind me of Four at times., he just seems so at home in his role as the Doctor.

TEHANI:
Love the bare feet! He’s manic in this, that’s for sure. It really reflects true Doctor Who for me!

TANSY:
I do like the Tenth Doctor in this particular episode – he feels rejuvenated and enthusiastic about adventuring. Believe me, David, you’re going to get used to ‘manic energy Ten!’ There’s a lot more where this comes from. But yes you get a sense that, a year in, the actor knows exactly what he wants to do with the character, and has the confidence to put that into practice. It feels a more experimental and creative version now, with a new person to bounce off. There’s a joy in that – he gets to experience the universe anew all over again.

DAVID:
While the Judoon were adequate aliens, Finnegan was a magnificent villain. The actress who played her was perfect, and that straw was a lovely little touch. Just goes to show that in the end acting is more important than special effects in a creating an effective and appropriately evil monster, one only has to compare Ms Finnegan and the Empress from the Christmas special.

TEHANI:
Agree! Florence Finnegan (played by Anne Reid) is scary by being so ORDINARY.

TANSY:
I really like the Judoon! I think their design is one of the better ‘Earth animals as aliens’ renditions, though that particular trope is getting old now, and it would be more powerful if it wasn’t coming after the cat nuns and the pig in a space suit. I love their way of talking “BO SHO WO KO” – we always do that when we need a rhino noise when reading to our toddler. So convenient to finally have one. Thanks, Doctor Who!

Also I think the idea of them is intriguing – they’re set up as bad guys but in fact are an intergalactic police force with entirely their own agenda. Their methods are definitely questionable but I like the way that demonstrates that Earth isn’t actually the centre of the universe – and just because they represent law and order doesn’t mean they’re on the Doctor’s side! I think his tendency to get in trouble with or work outside the authorities is an important character trait.

DAVID:
I think that is a very good point. It’s refreshing to see aliens other than those bent on the Earth’s destruction because they are evil, or seeking to conquer the Universe, aliens who actually don’t care about the planet except for how it intersects with their interests. And, it is a bit of a running gag about how one insignificant planet seems to attract so much trouble, one wonders whether the Doctor’s loves the planet because so many exciting things happen, or so many exciting things happen because he loves the planet!

If the Doctor were a Dungeons and Dragons character he would surely be Chaotic Good rather than Lawful Good (I don’t play D&D, so any readers who do will have to forgive me if I have stuffed that up). His relationship with authority figures and law enforcement agencies has always been rather tense, that was one of the reasons why I loved his relationship with the Brigadier so much. The contrast between the anti authoritarian Doctor and the “Establishment” figure brought out the best, and worst, in them both.

TEHANI:
One has to wonder if the questionable methods are commentary on military in the “real world”? How much of Doctor Who IS that?

I think “Smith and Jones” is a really good episode overall (the last few minutes notwithstanding) – probably could be an interesting gateway episode to Doctor Who for new viewers, with the great introduction of Martha and the manic energy of the Doctor, plus aliens both weird and eerily evil, set both on Earth and off. It had me giggling and also tearing up – good sign!

TANSY:
Yes I think the show as a whole (New Who, that is) has been very clever about gateway episodes – not just the first of each season which have mostly done well at giving jumping on points, but the Christmas episodes as semi-standalones, and having several eps through the season which you could watch independently, knowing nothing about the show.

It’s fascinating to me, because Doctor Who is one of those shows so heavy with years of continuity – and yet this is what it has always done, starting again with new companions and new Doctors, each season having its own identity even though it was more episodic in the old days. Having said all that, while I liked “Rose” a lot, I think this is the best first ep of a new season of the new show so far. Clear cut and confident, which is good because losing Rose could have a had a hugely detrimental effect on the reputation of the show – she was our point of view character, after all!

Another pretendy kiss!

TANSY:
Hmm, not to spoil it for you, David, but there’s at least one episode coming in your future that I think argues against your point. I’m also a big supporter of the complete change of cast between the Second and Third eras – sometimes it’s nice to start from scratch! I agree we wouldn’t want it every time, though.

I do think it’s good for the show to regularly change up the supporting cast, and that each companion offers something completely new. I find it interesting that the most damning accusations fans tend to wield at new eras of the show is usually any hint of repetition – is there any other show that has such pressure on it to be completely different every season?

DAVID:
Well, I will just have to wait and see!

I have probably not been involved enough in fandom to have heard that sort of criticism, but I think that is a little unfair. I can’t think of any other show that has reinvented itself as consistently and sometimes as bravely as Doctor Who. To be able to span almost half a century and manage to avoid becoming dated and stale is a hell of an achievement. And, while it was born of necessity, the idea of regenerations was a stroke of genius and it means that if worse comes to worst there is a bit of a “Get out of repetition jail free” card!

We’ve seen all sorts of styles and directions, both successful and unsuccessful, from dark and brooding to fairly light hearted. There are lots of criticisms that can be levelled at Doctor Who, but I don’t think repetition is one of them. I can’t even think of a season where they weren’t trying to do something new at least every few episodes, though I’m open to correction on that.

There is no one more critical than a fan, though, is there?

TANSY:
So true. And the new version of the show has worked very hard to keep changing things up, despite that being against pretty much everything that people expect from the rest of modern television!

Something I only just noticed – the big difference between this episode and “Rose” is that the Doctor himself doesn’t interact with Martha’s family, which suggests they’re going to be a lot less personally relevant to him than Jackie and Mickey were.

But of course we can’t really discuss that point until later, can we? Time to move on?

TEHANI:
Let’s!

=======

Watching New Who – in conversation with David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Tehani Wessely

David is coming to New Who for the first time, having loved Classic Who as a kid. Tehani is a recent convert, and ploughed through Seasons 1 to 6 (so far) in just a few weeks after becoming addicted thanks to Matt Smith – she’s rewatching to keep up with David! Tansy is the expert in the team, with a history in Doctor Who fandom that goes WAY back, and a passion for Doctor Who that inspires us all (plus a seven-year-old daughter who is finding her own Doctors for the first time). We’re going to work our way through New Who, using season openers and closers, and Hugo shortlisted episodes, as our blogging points. Just for fun! We have already talked about:

“Rose”, S01E01
“Dalek”, S01E06
“Father’s Day, S01E08
“The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances”, S01E09/10
“Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways”, S01E12/13
Season One Report Card – David, Tansy, Tehani

“The Christmas Invasion,” 2005 Christmas special
“New Earth”, S02E01
“School Reunion,” S02E03
“The Girl in the Fireplace”, S02E04
“Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel”, S02E05/06
Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, S02E12/13
Season Two Report Cards: David, Tehani, Tansy
“The Runaway Bride”, 2006 Christmas Special

Possibly I’m also going to share it with my daughters. But only if they’re good.

Tehani at the Book Nut talks about the new TV series Outland, some of the more curmudgeonly criticisms of the show coming from some corners of Australian fandom, and how it has made her reassess her own fannish identity. You can be a fan without the seal of approval from fandom! People express their fannishness differently! These should not be revolutionary ideas, and yet…

The new TV series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries starts tonight on The ABC! I’m excited because I’ve been reading the Phryne Fisher books for years, and it looks like a great production. Author Kerry Greenwood talks about her relationship with the production crew, and her experience playing an extra on screen.

Tiger Beatdown on Even Housemaids Get the Blues: Compulsory Heterosexuality in Downton Abbey. (spoilers for season 2) I’ve found the Daisy/William storyline in that show surprisingly subtle and complex considering that it’s REALLY not a subtle show, and that it sums up beautifully the historical attitude to marriage, and poor Daisy’s conveyor belt route through guilt and obligation to marry someone she doesn’t love, simply because he asked, everyone else thinks it’s romantic, and she has no personal power to fight them all, being the lowest rung in the house. The exploration of this in the article and the way her experience can be coded queer is fascinating!

Remember Pottermore? The website that was going to revolutionise the marketing of ebooks and the relationship between readers and the books they love? Yeah, it’s still not ready. But apparently it’s pretty.

We mentioned this on Galactic Suburbia but it’s still awesome – Kaaron Warren nominated for a Stoker award!

Meanwhile, Deborah Biancotti writes 80K in a month (GO DEB) and tells us how to do it too. It’s at least partly tongue in cheek, guys, no one quit their job because of this post, please! (unless you really hate your job)

Famous male novelist Jonathan Franzen looks at historically famous female novelist Edith Wharton and finds her hard to relate to and also, not pretty enough. Oh, Franzen.

Even even more cranky-making news, the story of a female game producer who is still receiving appalling abuse for a (quite sensible) suggestion she made years ago, about making games more appealing to those who are more interested in the narrative than the fight sequences. Oh, gaming community.

The Doctor Her blog is well underway. Some fabulous essays so far:
My Dad, John Barrowman and Me: How Doctor Who Helped Me To Come Out, by Amy
Amy Pond and Steven Moffat’s Babies, by Ritch Ludlow
Women Who Waited (portrayal of older women on Doctor Who), by Cathannabel
If The Doctor Were a Woman: A Queerer Doctor Who, by Ritch Ludlow
(and when I asked which actress you would cast as a female Doctor, the comments absolutely delighted me – so many awesome women who could play the part!)

To close, one of the best recent explorations & explanations of the Bechdel Test, how it works, where it falls down, and how to make it better when assessing films: