So even though the household has more or less bailed on giving a damn about watching Doctor Who, I have nonetheless been keeping an eye on the progression of the show via the recap posts that get posted to The Mary Sue and to Tor.com. (Notably, this recap post and this one.
Accordingly, I am now aware of the major spoiler that got dropped in part 1 of the season finale this past Saturday! Discussion of same behind the fold. And this IS a major spoiler, so DO NOT LOOK if you don’t want to be spoiled.
To wit: Missy is the Master.
I’m torn between being a little surprised that Moffat actually went there, and all the implications it has about the future of the show in general. I.e., this confirms on camera that Time Lords can in fact change gender. It lays down the precedent for the Doctor being female in a future incarnation. That? That’s… pretty awesome, actually.
On the other hand, I know Moffat’s history with writing female characters. And I’ve been looking at the comments on the recap posts, and seeing some disgruntlement about how it’s apparently now okay for the Doctor and the Master to snog now that she’s actually female. AND some disgruntlement about how this pretty much plays right into Moffat’s stereotypes about villainous females. AND some disgruntlement about this continuation of the show’s pattern of uninvited snogging, and how it wasn’t cool when the Doctor was the initiator, and it’s not cool here either.
On the third hand, the archetype Moffat pretty much almost always deploys for villainous females does pretty much play right into what’s established about the Master, soooooo…
From what I’ve seen in the recaps the show’s definitely taken a turn for the dark, which was as promised when the season started. I’m dubious about whether I want to catch up. It doesn’t sound like the character arc for Clara being told here is something I’d enjoy watching.
Yet I’m very intrigued by the Master pulling a gender swap. Intrigued enough that I will continue to keep an eye on things.
Who’s still watching? If you’re still tuning in, how are the episodes playing for you?
Comments
9 responses to “Doctor Who reaction post: End-of-season Dark Water spoilers”
I thought you’d given up on the new season?
Dara outright gave up–me, I was more along the lines of “still interested just enough to read the recaps to see if I am ALSO done”.
Which is why I am aware of the Big Spoiler.
And so far, from what I’m seeing in the recaps, I don’t regret not actually watching the episodes just because the character arc they’re portraying does not sound like something I would enjoy watching. But the Spoiler intrigues me enough that I will continue to keep half an eye on how the series progresses.
Been a fan of Doctor Who for decades, Baker was my first Doctor. That said, this season has been the most difficult to watch. I feel like they are trying to make over Clara as Amelia Pond. The writing has made Capaldi not look good, despite him being a good actor. They really need to pull this together next season or this may be the last for some time. The spoiler was disappointing to me. I was hoping for something completely different.
Yeah, I have nothing against Capaldi, as I’ve said in reaction to previous posts–the man is _clearly_ a gifted actor and I have found some aspects of his performance very compelling. I have a lot of beefs with the material he’s been given to work with though. 😐
Both he and Coleman have been severely hamstrung by the writing.
Missy and the Doctor didn’t snog. That would have been amazing although it would have also been hard to build up sufficiently plausible motivation in the time available.
What happened was Missy sexually assaulted the Doctor (in the form of a sudden, forceful, and lengthy kiss) while the Doctor flailed as one often does when sexually assaulted and Clara smirked as if this were consensual. Missy then pretended that she was doing it as a greeting and “Oh, should I adjust my intimacy settings?” (She was pretending at the time to be a robot.)
Now, one might argue that it’s not out of character for the Master to be a douche. However:
a) he has never sexually assaulted the Doctor while in a male body, so one can only presume that he’s also a homophobic douche and if Time Lords change gender – I mean, I know that the two things aren’t intrinsically related but still.
b) Clara’s reaction (alongside the rest of how it played) projected what the audience’s reaction was intended to be: amusement at this sexual assault. Ick.
c) This is not the only female-bodied person who Moffat has portrayed giving the Doctor a surprise kiss while he flails for the amusement of the audience. Reinette; River; Amy. I think I’m forgetting some. This is a pattern, and the pattern is that the Doctor (in his role as Moffat’s Marty-Stu wish fulfillment character) is so amazingly sexy that all the Strong Female Characters just naturally can’t keep themselves from jumping his bones. It’s a wank fantasy. And that’s fine, I’m not judging anyone’s wank fantasies. But not on my TV screen.
So in thirty seconds we got implicit homophobia, sexual assault as humour, and the usual Moffat misogyny.
If one can ignore that… hmm, no, really the Doctor/Clara relationship in this episode was too paternalistic. There’s some interesting things in the story but no, hard for me to be enthusiastic about this one.
Thanks for the clarifications–I was going by what I was seeing in the comments over on the Mary Sue post, so I’m working with secondhand data.
But yeah, I’m seeing a lot of commentary over there expressing a lot of the same discomfort you do, and the whole overall pattern of forced kissing that has been exhibited in the show through Moffat’s tenure. (And Girl in the Fireplace still counts as his tenure in a sense, since he wrote that one.)
Though I’m REALLY not amused either by what I was seeing in the Mary Sue post about the Doctor harshing on Clara about being mopey making her look old, either. Dara had clicked over to the Mary Sue post and told me that that would have made her start throwing things.
So all in all I’m really not regretting having skipped the last several episodes, from the standpoint of character and overall writing.
But from the standpoint of laying down a clear on camera precedent that Time Lords can change gender, that’s JUST enough to keep me paying at least enough attention to read recaps. That, at least, I can do at work or something. 😉