It’s been quite a week for British television. Peter Capaldi has just been announced as the next Doctor on Doctor Who, which is a British show that is broadcast exclusively on Tumblr:
The 55-year-old Glasgow-born star will be the 12th actor to play the Doctor, replacing outgoing lead Matt Smith.
Capaldi is best known for his role as foul-mouthed spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker in the BBC series The Thick of It.
“It’s so wonderful not to keep this secret any longer, but it’s been so fantastic,” he said after the news was revealed on a live BBC One show.
I do not watch Doctor Who, although I have a deeply Doctor Whovian temperament, inasmuch as I have an unpleasant habit of correcting others in conversation and think I look good in scarves. Also, I watched the entire series run of Torchwood, one of the worst shows ever made, just for Jack and Ianto. As an American, of course, I am forbidden from having an opinion on the BBC’s casting choices and am only allowed to reblog sexual Doctor Who fan art. I have, however, repeatedly enjoyed watching this video of Capaldi swearing magnificently as Malcolm Tucker on The Thick Of It.
Whether or not you watch the show, it’s nice to sort of follow along, seeing as how the Doctor is a secular Pope for the English-speaking world. I sleep more soundly at night knowing that at least one British actor is employed for the coming year fighting outer space and experiencing homoerotic tension with Roman centurions. Do you have Doctor Who opinions? You may speak freely here. We are not being watched.
A rebuttal from Nicole, who watches Doctor Who all the time: Wait, let me talk! I watch ALL the Doctor Who, and lost, like, a week of my life to The Thick of It, which is why I had to go in and remove your faulty usage of In [The Thick of It]. BADLY DONE, MALLORY. I was talking about this casting and Doctor Who in general last night with my dad and his girlfriend, because having friends your own age is so middle school, and we are all profoundly on the fence about Doctor Who. The percentage of nights I turn off BBC America and look at my husband and say “well, that one was a real dog” has been increasing, even though the overacting, scenery-chewing, eye-popping torture of the David Tennant years are behind us.
Capaldi will be great. In time, we will wonder how we did without him. He is not a woman, nor is he Idris Elba in a dress, which is probably what most of us really want. Perhaps that day will come, but no one knows, because Steven Moffatt has a Woman Problem, and we all know it, and he cannot disguise it by writing eighty different episodes in which the love of a mother kills Daleks or some shit like that.
A partial but by no means exhaustive list of Dr. Whos we would have also accepted:
André 3000
Charlotte Rampling
Eamonn Walker
Sophie Okonedo
Janelle Monáe
Richard Ayoade
Courtney Love before she got sober
Chiwetel Ejiofor again
A very flustered hat
A picture of the ship Firefly from Firefly
A bowl of strawberries and cream watching Wimbledon
The boxed set of The Chronicles of Narnia
A Keep Calm and Carry On poster wearing a greatcoat
That scene from Love Actually where Bill Nighy finally hugs his manager
Also, here is the new trailer for the upcoming third season of Sherlock. I think John’s mustache suits him, actually, but if you’re going to make a joke about it, make it a good one.
Nicole does not have normal human reactions to Sherlock, she feels about Sherlock in the manner one would if one had been brainwashed in a fake day spa to love Sherlock, so there’s been a lot of excited hand-flapping and squee-ing around these parts. It’s helped build some Toast-excitement for September 2nd, a day which is both Nicole’s birthday and The Toast’s first-ever-and-probably-last “All Benedict Cumberbatch Day,” for which we are taking submissions at the current time. All questions will be answered, including “why is the show so good, but the second episode of the first season so horrible?”
Tags: bbc, benedict cumberbatch, british television, dr. who, english things, sherlock
I’d rather we just talk about the sexiness of Khal Drogo.
(pulls up chair, takes much-thumbed list out of pocket)
Let’s imagine what a threesome with Khal and Benedict would be like. So many apologies from Benedict for accidentally jostling you, so much chest space from Khal.
It would also be weird that one of them is a real person and the other a fictional character played by Jason Momoa, but there we are.
Details whatever.
Have you seen Jason Momoa in Stargate: Atlantis? Not a great show, but my goodness is he fine in it.
Yes! I mean the first time I saw Jason Momoa on screen in GoT, I literally gasped. And when he smiles.. oh my. ::melts::
Can’t we do both?
Who wants to join me in a thread where we talk about how Peter Capaldi as Twelve feels like the final nail in the coffin of The Hour? I mean, I know it got cancelled months ago, but I’m still upset.
Yes, but: better to have loved and lost, etc. (Ben Whishaw and his floppy hair! Oh, my heart)
Also, the second season was Not Very Good.
BUT THAT ENDING. That’s just CRUEL.
And I thought season 2 was uneven, but I love it for Marnie’s storyline so hard. And Lix and Randall!!!!!! aaaaaaaah it’s too early for these emotions.
Marnie was sooo amazing that I feel terrible telling people “The Hour is so great, but I can’t really recommend season 2”, because everyone needs to see Oona Chaplin totally killing it — but I can’t help but feel like 90% of the main plot arc was there to provide an excuse to show scantily clad women every episode??
Ohhhh, Lix and Randall. I spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon looking for Randall’s breakdown scene on Youtube… which was significantly complicated by the fact that I actually can never remember the character’s name and tend instead to sort of mix it up in various ways with Capaldi’s name.
But then I found it and I watched it and I cried. Again. Heartbreaking! I posted about it on Tumblr as part of my general ‘sharing my feelings about The Hour which is now FOR SURE not coming back’ thing yesterday and someone suggested a prequel about Lix and Randall in Spain. I am now *all about that*.
Ugh right? The Hour is so excellent, I feel physical pain when I remember it’s not coming back. Especially b/c at one point (pre-cancellation) I read an internet “headline” along the lines of “The Hour is so great American TV is going to ruin it with their version even sooner than we usually do that.” LIES.
Oh god, I feel like all of my fandom opinions right now are so unpopular that I’m going to have to bite my tongue clear off. I find Dr. Who tedious and Sherlock overrated. I’m sorry! I’ll just go smoke on the fandom porch until the next Marvel movie comes out.
(P.S. Mallory, you could have just watched all of the Jack & Ianto scenes on YouTube. As I may have done.)
Unpopular! I JUST TOLD YOU I THINK THE DOCTOR COULD BE PLAYED BY A FLUSTERED HAT. You are not alone.
I think you mean “Has historically been played by a flustered hat.”
I loved the Eccleston series and am becoming more fond of the Tennant ones in retrospect (especially when Catherine Tate was slapping him around). I really liked Amy Pond and Rory, but the last series of Matt Smith’s run was really dull. I like Capaldi though, I hope he gets made at people a lot and chain-smokes in the TARDIS.
NINE 5EVA!!!!
That is all.
…very little of that made any sense to me.
NINE IS THE GREATEST. And Donna is the greatest thing that ever happened to Ten, and her ending the worst thing that RTD ever did to anybody. Still mad.
I am one hundred percent on board with you here.
I adore Nine – he was MY Doctor for a long long time, and I only came around on Tennant near the end of his run (and now sob hysterically every time Rose is even in a frame, and especially when he starts regenerating into Eleven and says “I don’t want to go” and the Ood are singing to him… guh). Nine is still definitely my favorite though and I think Nine and Twelve are more similar than not, which is very exciting.
I loved Sherlock when I first saw it but have gone off it almost completely now. The only thing I still like about it is the way its versions of Holmes and Moriarty play off each other, but that has a lot to do with my feelings about metanarratives and deconstructionism, so…not really the normal reasons for fannishness. The fandom on tumblr did a lot to drive me away too, but my recently-flowered white-hot hatred for Stephen Moffat (the showrunner/head writer of both) hasn’t helped. (I also ragequit Doctor Who a few months ago, and I used to like it a lot.)
Yeah, I think unfortunately the online fandom’s constant declarations of the show’s transcendent awesomeness influenced my ‘meh’ reaction.
But then again, I liked the Guy Richie version of Sherlock Holmes, so clearly I’m a heathen.
I <3 Sherlock, but Jude Law is the best Watson. [/heathen]
Yes, Jude Law is a great Watson! My #1 is still Lucy Liu, but I have room in my heart for more than one Watson. (I also still think Jeremy Brett may be my favorite Holmes, tbh, but I like Cumberbatch and JLM too! Bandersnatch Coocowitz did well with the Holmes he was written.)
HOW DARE YOUUUUUU clearly there is no room for steampunk Holmes in this world. Because that would be far too ridiculous for a character who has been portrayed as literally an animated vegetable, a mental patient, a mouse, and I can’t even remember what else.
I am so into almost everything about Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, particularly Jude Law’s Watson (and I HATE Jude Law normally, it’s like the Watson hats cast a magic spell to make him likeable) and Mary Morstan holy god, but:
WHY DID YOU KILL OFF IRENE ADLER THAT MAKES NO SENSE ALSO THE GREAT THING ABOUT IRENE ADLER IS THAT SHE COULDN’T GIVE TWO SHITS ABOUT SHERLOCK HOLMES, WHY DID YOU DO THAT WHY
Yeah, I generally think Jude Law is a sleazoid creeper. But the Watson bowler is magic.
I love you guys, but I’m glad I’ll be away from my computer for pretty much the entirety of September 2nd.
(because the temptation to hate-read is strong with this one)
I just mostly think Bendersnatch Crankyboots looks like a weasel and do not understand the sex appeal.
(To be fair, I am apparently a crankyboots myself, so.)
Let’s sit on the fandom porch and polish our crankyboots.
<3
I know some people get really fed up with the myriad alternate names for BC, but I can’t help it, I laugh every time. (Also his name is a double dactyl!)
I do like that it has reached such saturation that you can basically say anything absurd and starting with a B and people will know what you mean.
I have literally stopped perceiving whatever letters come after B and C, and had to scroll back up to check whether EPWordsnatcher had written his real name or not.
I’ve actually tumblr-saviored his real name so that the only time I ever encounter him is when people are using the alternate names. They amuse me greatly, and are the only thing about him that I enjoy.
You’ve seen this, right?
I can never decide on my favorite. Today it’s Thistledick Pantywaist.
ps: FRINGEHEAD! I wish I could come to Geek Girl Con again this year but I’m going to a wedding. :B
I like Cumberbund Manmoustache and Cumberhump Balderdash, but really every time I read the list I find another one to love.
Also, bah! Who goes to weddings, anyway? I mean, you know, other than people who like their friends and want to celebrate happy occasions with them.
Maybe this year someone else will come hang out on our futon, and then next year the two of you can fight to the death over it.
There can only be one true couch-crasher.
Why is the second episode of BOTH the first and second season so terrible, is what I want to know.
In a way I kind of appreciate that Capaldi seems like a throwback old school Who choice for the role. But I still think it’s weird that he played a major role in the third season of Torchwood (the only non-terrible season) and an entirely different major role in one episode of Tennant’s run as the doctor.
Yes! I was thinking the same thing. How exactly can we write that one off? Although, I love Torchwood anyway, Mallory!
Ahaha, my people. So many bits of this I just want to copy and paste and laugh again. Doctor Who is fine, I don’t love it, I’ve watched some episodes but I’m just not invested in it.
I do think Helen Mirren would make a good Doctor but they couldn’t have got her if they tried, probably.
I am SUPER excited about Sherlock though, I love it unreasonably and excuse all its faults even though I see them. Like a terrible but adorable boyfriend. Also I do not like the idea of Johnlock and I do not want them to get it on romantically [repeat Khal Drogo gif]
also isn’t the Doctor supposed to get younger every time or is that just a coincidence?
No, the young doctor thing is only a recent trend.
I agree with you about Sherlock (liking it despite it’s many faults, esp re. women) but you don’t like the idea of Johnlock?!?! But they’re just so, so… wooby.
Wooby?
Yeah, I just made up a word, and fortunately it has an urban dictionary definition that fits with what I was trying to convey. Just imagine someone saying while trying to wave their hands around slowly, jazz-hand like.
“wooby”
I enjoy their friendship too much. I think there are so few male/male friendships portrayed in tv and movies that are so deeply felt and so obviously expressed, it would be disappointing if it ended up that they were only such good friends because they also wanted to bone.
I feel that I should clarify and say that I like the idea of Johnlock, but I don’t ever expect that it’d be confirmed in canon.. ever. It’s really weird, but sometimes these kinds of things add to my enjoyment of something. Like quietly shipping Frodo and Sam while watching the movies, after reading Cassie Claire’s Very Secret Diaries. (disclaimer: I think they’re funny, and yes, I know she did some plagiarizing in her Draco trilogy..)
But they are FRIEND wooby, not SEX wooby!
<<insert insane, multi-paragraphed rant about how the trend towards making romantic affection the be-all and end-all of human interactions is the SO ANNOYING and NEEDS TO STOP>>
PREACH
This is generally fair but they can have both! Both!
Yes, this. It’s as though people can’t have strong emotions about each other without it being romantic/sexual. It’s untrue AND boring. Although I do understand why people want Johnlock, in general, because I’ve had similar feelings (Scully/Mulder cough cough)
Yeahbut the Mulder-Scully thing was so much better when it was unspoken potential subtext under their deep bonds of friendship and work-partnering.
When they actually boned and procreated, ALL WAS DESTROYED.
Ahh, but I had already stopped watching it by then 😉 It’s a dilemma pretty much every time it happens though, because resolving the Unresolved Sexual Tension is usually the kiss of death for a show – New Girl is the only one I think that is doing it right (so far), and that’s because they didn’t let it go on and on and on, and they’re doing the aftermath in a really great way
Ahh, but I had already stopped watching it by then 😉
Clever girl.
YES THIS. Stop making everything about romatic relationships, pop culture! There are other interesting things about life! ::shakes fist at Moffat::
Oh Nicole I know exactly what you mean by English strawberries and cream.(FRY AND LAURIE CLIP YOU ALL KNOW YOU WANT IT)
I don’t watch Doctor Who but I look forward to the 20000% increase of Peter Capaldi’s beautiful skeletor face on my tumblr dash until the end of time.
FATHER’S HANDS ON THE STEERING WHEEL
I’m just going to be in my bunk daydreaming about Idris Elba in a dress now. Thankyou for that image!
Idris! I need to watch the second season of Luther…
I’ve had to watch it on iplayer while at work the day after it’s on, because it’s too scary to watch in the dark.
Season 2 of Luther definitely scared the crap out of me. But it’s absolutely brilliant!
I just want it made clear that Mallory came up with the “Doctor Who, which is a British show that is broadcast exclusively on Tumblr” line, because she deserves all the credit.
So I can send the bill for my desktop screen and keyboard cleaning to her, then?
I am kind of charmed and confused by which parts of British culture Americans latch onto, and how one of the most recognisable and mainstream parts of pop culture (after Eastenders, obvs) is perceived as this niche thing in the US.
Haha, you should see how rugby union is treated in the US. I’m also waiting for Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books to become a Thing in the US, but apparently I can go on waiting. They’ve made the NYT Bestseller list and yet most of my friends have never heard of them unless they pay attention to my bookcase.
You need different friends. I kid, I kid! I’d say all my sci-fi/fan friends have probably heard of Discworld, and possibly some that don’t care for the genre.
Maybe I do. 🙁
Same! I’ve always thought they were a mainstay of the “quirky fantasy” shelf, and generally feel a bit guilty for not having read more Discworld because it seems like everyone else has. (And like they love them more than I do? Maybe I was too young for them.)
I waited in line for three hours to meet Sir Terry at NY Comic Con, so I’d say he definitely has at least a large niche following in the U.S.!
I’m thinking on the level of Harry Potter or Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire. That being said, I seem to be failing at explaning myself today so..
throws self away
I wish I could begin and end a coherent thought about Benedict Cumberbatch so I could submit for BC day. 🙁
maybe I’ll just write a fanfic about the secret league of handsome British men.
please do this.
Secret? It’s a secret? I’m pretty sure it’s public. See: Game of Thrones, Rome.
The ship in Firefly was actually named Serenity!
runs off
You wound me by acting as if that were not a DELIBERATE CHOICE on my point.
I had an inkling, but I am physically incapable of not pointing it out.
I mourn for all of the opportunities to connect with another human soul you have lost and will lose in your life.
*sobs quietly in the corner of the fandom porch*
It’s not just you, friends have already emailed me in outrage. “Mallory’s ways are dark and mysterious,” I have responded. “It is not for us to question.”
This is why I love The Toast.
Sophie Okonedo and/or Chiwetel Ejiofor and/or Idris Elba (dress or no dress) would all be amazing and definitely should be the Doctor. BUT I don’t trust Stephen Moffat to write things that are suitably un-sexist, un-racist, and frankly, smart enough for them. So maybe first Moffat retires from Who, then Okonedo takes over as Doctor? One can hope.
As might be apparent from my avatar, I don’t even care about Tennant’s scenery-chewing I luvvvvvvvv himmmmmmm. Call me, David!
Yes: Moffat has slowly beaten down my expectations to the point where a positive reaction to an episode is “Well, that wasn’t blindingly offensive and cringeworthy!” , so at least Capaldi gives him fewer opportunities to ruin things. Maybe once we get rid of Moffat we can have actively good ideas/actors/etc back again.
Yeah. the first doctor who is not a white man definitely needs a non-Moffat showrunner.
Why Chiwetel Ejiofor and Idris Elba aren’t playing every major role, everywhere, forever, is beyond me. I don’t even care about how the rules of time and space stand in the way of it, it just needs to happen.
Seconded. Make it happen, universe.
Edit: Have you seen Kinky Boots? If not, go watch it immediately. If so, can we please dedicate an entire thread to how amazing Ejiofor is IN A RED SEQUINED MINIDRESS?! I die.
WAT
SINGING. IN A MINIDRESS. AND ALSO HEELS.
BRB DOWNLOADING
So we’re just not even going to talk about Eamonn Walker then? EAMONN WALKER
Did you see his modern-day version of Othello with Keeley Hawes as Desdemona and Eccleston as Iago? SO GOOD
Whaaaaat? Why was I not alerted to the existence of this?
Kinky Boots is amazing for many reasons up to and including that one which is indeed REALLY GREAT.
Agreeeeeeee! So many reasons to love Chiwetel and also Kinky Boots.
Boyfriend and I like to play “I need Idris Elba to stop being in X franchise so he can play X.” So far the list includes Dr. Who and Batman. BATMAN.
You know, I started writing a list of roles that either men should be in, but I couldn’t make it past “Ejiofor as the Red Viper in GoT; Idris Elba as Batman.” So I agree with you: Idris Elba as Batman.
Yes and yes and James Bond.
The fact that I had not previously thought of Idris Elba as Batman will stay with me to the end of my days, and be a sadness with me forever.
The fact that I can *now* think of Idris Elba as Batman is a joy so great that I will keep it with me until I shuffle off this mortal coil, and shall override the above stated forever-with-me sadness.
Our best dreamcast at the moment involves Idris Elba as Batman with Hugh Laurie as Alfred.
Wait wait wait wait wait. Does the new Sherlock come out September 2nd? If so, I now have to narrow my hotel searching to hotels that are both pet-friendly AND have BBC America. There are going to be issues.
There hasn’t been a release date announced, and they’re still filming the third episode. So you’re safe in that regard but we all still have to keep waiting.
I have heard that Halloween is the release date! So you’re okay, probably, packedsuitcase.
The first two seasons aired in the UK first, and then the US a few months later. I wonder if they’ll it the same way this time or if they’ll just give up and air it in both countries like they started doing with Doctor Who.
I am really fucking sick of Steven Moffat Shows Starring Thin White Guys Who Talk Fast And Condescend To Everyone. I also look forward to Capaldi not being allowed to use his Scottish accent for the Doctor because heaven forbid the smartest guy in the universe doesn’t sound like an Oxbridge grad.
Hey, your comment came through without moderation this time! I’m doing something right, finally!
Haha, I eventually gave up and created a profile here, I still have no idea what’s going on with the other kind of comment sadly!
Hello! I think I’m back on moderation (or it might have been just the last comment) – I don’t really know what’s going on! Sorry!
Christopher Eccleston used his not-posh Manchester accent in his season! And supposedly the reason they made Tennant drop his accent was because they didn’t want two Doctors in a row with “regional” accents. Thought it would be too gimicky or something. (Which…it’s Doctor Who. That ship sailed a looooong time ago.)
But I’m with you on “I am really fucking sick of Steven Moffat”. I’ve been rewatching 9 and 10’s seasons and they were (for the most part) so SO good compared to the shit Moffat’s given us.
Same. I put on some of season 9 in the background this weekend and was like “Oh yeeeah! These episodes are awesome!!” I had such high hopes for Moffat, too. (Blink!)
Eccleston was so endearing and gentle. Matt Smith is like a caffeinated bumble bee. He kinda grew on me but…like, tone it down, bro. And give your companion something to DO.
Moffat’s episodes with RTD at the reins were great. Letting him loose in the candy shop seems to be an issue.
I actually think that’s one reason that, while I still have a lot of issues with Sherlock, the plotting doesn’t tend to go off the rails as badly as it does with Doctor Who. When you give him his head he gets way out of control. He’s good at coming up with a single compelling idea and exploring it (flesh-eating shadows, moving statues that send you back in time, etc.), but give him a season arc and oh my god man slow the fuck down
Exactly. Blink was terrifying, The Angels Take Manhattan was oh my god dude just stop
I’m still a little amazed that Matt Smith’s Doctor went MORE manic and spastic in comparison to Ten. I thought he got over the top often enough, but nope. Then came Eleven…
Here’s hoping Twelve is a whole new thing, not just an escalation of the caffeinated mile-a-minute Doctor we’ve been seeing since Tennant’s run.
I LOVE Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor.
because they didn’t want two Doctors in a row with “regional” accents.
See that’s really terrible, though, is the thing? Because posh people with RP voices are the ones in charge of the British government and media, and going “oh that’s cute that you had your little Northern thing for a year, but we’re going back to what proper British people sound like now, enjoy your postindustrial decay and dead mining towns while property prices in London go up, lolz!” is awful?
supposedly the reason they made Tennant drop his accent was because they didn’t want two Doctors in a row with “regional” accents
Well it’s been two doctors since the last regional accent so I’m crossing my fingers they’ll let Capaldi stay Scottish.
(hah. hahh. like that’ll happen. pigs will fly.)
Yup. He fetishizes his thin white male protagonist and as a result makes sure all the characters around him exist to make him look smart and/or better than them. It makes it impossible for any of the supporting characters to turn out decently.
Especially last season, I basically started reading it as Moffat’s self-insert fanfic. The Doctor, with his beautiful women who are willing to literally give up their entire lives for him and his smartness and his near-infallibility and his flying motorcycle, is who Moffat wishes he was. Which is fine, I guess, but doesn’t make for compelling watching.
Does anyone else feel like Sherlock is a bit of a roller coaster, the highs being all bliss and addiction and the lows being just straight-up tedium? The episodes are so few, and so long, and vary so much in quality, that while I ended the second series literally dreaming about Sherlock and its plot points, and dying for the third season premiere, I certainly didn’t feel that way throughout my entire watching of it. The series 1 premiere was a revelation…I thought this was going to be MY SHOW. The episode following it bored me to tears, and I didn’t come back to the show for a few weeks. Then the last two episodes of the second series made me a devotee.
I’ve never watched a show that has left me feeling so fervently obsessed, yet also totally skeptical that the next episode will hold my attention. Am I a fan? I can’t even tell if I’m a fan.
“and the lows being really egregious racism and misogyny” more like (and also boring, yes)
It’s further proof that “good”, “enjoyable”, and “make sense” are absolutely not the same thing, nor need they go together.
Let’s talk about how much we hate Gwen on Torchwood. She contributes NOTHING to the team. This is that bullshit thing where shows like to say “but it is ultimately human love which overcomes machines/people who can actually do math/alien races about to destroy the planet” so that people who have literally nothing going for them can say “this show recognizes what I have to offer.”
She may not contribute anything to the team, but at least she’s not a greasy, frog-faced creepy rage-monkey like Owen.
This plus her delightful Welsh accent are why I can’t hate her.
Literally GO TO CARDIFF all the women sound like that but they don’t all suck.
never watched any of Torchwood but my husband and I saw the first ad and STILL occasionally say to each other “So, you cutch eeeeliens?”
There’s an idea!
I hate Owen so much I had to stop watching halfway through the first season. Like, they kept leaning on him to provide conflict and at a certain point I was like “HE SUCKS, WE KNOW, HE SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS, JUST KILL HIM ALREADY” and I couldn’t take it anymore.
Which I guess is a testament to the actor, because I’ve seen and enjoyed him in other things. ETA: Also, the fact that they had Gwen start sleeping with him for no apparent reason was not something I was pleased about. At all.
In all fairness, Owen became exponentially more tolerable after he died.
(P.S. I love Torchwood so much even though it is objectively terrible by every possible metric. I don’t even understand.)
You’re not alone! I also love it and didn’t actually realize how terrible it is until I made a friend start watching it.
It’s (debatably, I guess) pretty people with pretty accents running around and making out with each other! That keeps me from having to think about how terrible the rest of it is.
I’m willing to put up with a lot to a) hear Welsh accents and b) see Captain Jack being charming/flirtatious.
Poor Burn Gorman. He can’t help that his face is like that! And yet he keeps getting cast as a creepy goon. (I was DELIGHTED to see him as Not Another Evil Goon in Pacific Rim.)
He’s in Pacific Rim? Another reason to go see it! I hated hated hated Owen (until he died, and then I started to feel really bad for him) but I LOVE the actor – I thought he was brilliant as Owen, being a slimy jerk.
Nooooooooooooooo I love Owen. His weird slash of a mouth is so sexy to me and I about had an aneurysm when he showed up in one of those Batman movies.
So I’ve never seen Torchwood but I loved this blazing rant on the topic by (all round good thinker and writer) legionseagle: http://legionseagle.dreamwidth.org/23409.html
According to TPTB Gwen was always intended to be “the heart of the team”.
I mean, what? As in, “What sort of job description is that, and would you ever apply such a job description to any character who was not a) female; and b) being set up to fail, badly, at it?”
…Given as a description it is almost spectacularly unhelpful, I’m not even sure how she could prove she’s achieved it, if called upon to do so, say at her half-yearly assessment. And, no, I’m not being flippant when I put it in terms of half-yearly assessments and job descriptions; the more soft, nebulous and damn-well useless the standards of performance to which women are held, the harder it is for them to prove they have met them and are therefore entitled to pay-rises and promotions and such-like.
Just yesterday someone was telling me about how their major problem with Torchwood is that the show wants you to believe that the team dynamic is just so important and everyone has such a special role to play and yet they basically never do anything to establish that any of that is true. And I couldn’t disagree, but there are just so, so many problems with Torchwood that I don’t think that one had ever really occurred to me.
THESE ARE FIGHTING WORDS, NICOLE.
Gwen was a policewoman before she joined torchwood. She is literally the only one of them who has any actual experience in, you know, solving crimes/mysteries. Dismissing her knowledge as bullshit love/emotion stuff is totally shortchanging her, and the sort of soft knowledge she has that can’t be quantified as “doctor” or “computer tech” but is still incredibly useful in, you know, figuring shit out, which is the entire point of Torchwood. She’s also the eyes through which you’re introduced to everyone and everything, and she seems to not contribute as much because she’s brand-new to a job that involves catching aliens and operating outside the law. Don’t make me do an episodic breakdown of how much more shit she gets done than anyone else.
… Torchwood had it’s faults, and I refuse to acknowledge whatever that was that aired on Showtime, but Gwen Cooper is NOT the Torchwood problem.
Gwen Cooper is fucking fantastic.
NOPE. What they do to artificially inflate our perceptions of her soft knowledge is to make the other characters into weird automatons, thereby scoring her points for saying things like “maybe we should tell her dad we found out what happened to her?” Not to mention, it’s not like they were all sitting around playing Tetris before she arrived! They were SOLVING CRIMES AND OR MYSTERIES, ones involving aliens and supernatural things, which I think is a much bigger value-add than has-been-policing-humans.
I will never, ever concede on this matter.
I mean, they had Suzie before her. Who knows what Suzie’s job was, but it had to have been some of the stuff that Gwen’s good at, otherwise Gwen wouldn’t’ve gotten the position. I didn’t find it hard to believe at all that after working at Torchwood for awhile, you stop seeing people as people, especially if you’re an asshole doctor or an otherworldly-ex-con-turned-immortal-sexpot. Or if there’s so much computer shit that needs doing that you literally don’t have time for anything else, except the occasional lesbian alien romp.
I hope September 2nd will include listening to at least 1 episode of Cabin Pressure. It makes such a nice contrast to Mr. Cumberbatch as the all seeing Sherlock. Any other comment I have about Sherlock just involves squeeeing quite a bit.
While I really wanted Colin Salmon for the role of the Doctor, I’m glad it isn’t Billie Piper – not just glad joyful even. And I’m looking forward to seeing gifs of Peter Capaldi and Craig Ferguson being cute with each other over this on Tumblr. Not to mention I’m really happy for Mr. Capaldi b/c I loved him in The Hour and was very sad to see it not renewed. I’m not really bothered with another white dude being the Doctor. It would just be nice to see more diversity in the companions and even those encountered in adventures. I always felt Micky and Martha got the shaft.
If Billie Piper had been given the role, I would have set the entire world on fire.
Martha is incredible and Micky is aggravating. Martha is the least-useless of the modern companions by a factor of a billion.
I love all Marthas, but Donna is at least equally not useless!
Okay, I do have a lot of love for Donna.
I am constantly vacillating between whether I like Martha or Donna better.
The first time I watched Donna’s season, I didn’t really like her, but on rewatching she has totally grown on me and I love her and would defend her to any hater.
I also find her ending the most tragic thing that has ever happened on the reboot, tbh. And I loved that she and Martha were able to interact positively!
I loved Martha but her being in love the 10 was just a sad way to make her be. And Micky got a nice ending but I still felt bad for him but not bad enough to wish Rose would just stay with him and let the Doctor find someone else so I wouldn’t have to watch her anymore.
Colin Salmon should play everything ever.
Idris Elba is too famous to play the Doctor. Also, the correct time for a regeneration into a non-white, possible non-man is not while Moffat is running the show.
That Sherlock trailer is the biggest cock-tease I have ever seen and it shows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I have watched approximately 87 times over the weekend.
the correct time for a regeneration into a non-white, possible non-man is not while Moffat is running the show
Agreed. As much as I would LOVE to see a woman or a POC take the role, I think having it happen while Moffat is at the helm would be a colossal misstep. Here’s hoping he steps down and someone less horrible at writing non-white non-male characters takes the reins sometime soon.
And it’s so frustrating because I genuinely like so much of his work, but he really is so set in his very limited view of what women are like. And from what I can tell he doesn’t even see it.
I hope you are wrong and Idris Elba is not too famous to play the Doctor because I would literally pay *actual* money to see that show. And I’m poor! -ish, anyway.
After The Doctor’s Wife I kind of want Neil Gaiman to be in charge of writing all the scripts. First episode where the ladies straight-up ran the show, and the whole script was just so weird and terrifying and beautiful and excellent. I want a woman doctor, Neil Gaiman as head writer, and . . . I don’t know from directors, guys, but someone who can direct that kind of excellent.
Benedict Cumberbatch looks really weird and I find his face and nose-slits unpleasant.
Also I had no idea that the David Tennant years were uniquely awful, that was the only Dr. Who I experienced when trying to find out what the show was about. Those episodes were really horrid, scarred me for life, as did prolonged exposure to Dr. Who fans.
Whoa, friend, what did Benedict Cumberbatch’s face ever do to you?
I’ve thought a lot about the things Benedict Cumberbatch’s face could do to me.
‘Boring holes in your flesh with a retractable proboscis’ is foremost among them
Hot.
I’ve said it before and I stand by it: Benedict Cumberbatch looks like Voldemort three horcruxes in, if you go by movie Voldemorts. His face is the perfect halfway point between Christian Coulson and that flat-faced thing they turned Ralph Fiennes into.
(Also I’m not a fan of him, really, but I think he would have made a great halfway-Voldemort if they’d needed such a thing in the films.)
oh my GOD that’s so true.
and this is coming from someone who finds B.C. almost excruciatingly attractive.
I kind of have grown to like Elementary more than Sherlock. (ducks thrown shoes). Lucy Liu is flawless. JLM has been my favorite forever, and the show is just weird and funny and Lucy is so sassy and flips her hair in disgust perfectly.
<3 you, Elementary.
YESSSSS ELEMENTARY 4EVA. [SPOILER ALERT] How effing awesome is it that the two most important people in Sherlock’s life are women? One a woman of color? And that he’s able to have such an amazing, unique, respectful relationship with Watson that doesn’t ignore her gender but doesn’t fall back on the lazy trope of having unresolved sexual tension between them? And I so love that Sherlock is able to be intelligent and perceptive and socially awkward while (mostly) not being a total condescending asshole about it. I love me some Sherlock (Benedict’s cheekbones! Martin Freeman’s quiet snarkiness! ahhhh) but Elementary is way more amazing in so many ways.
God I love their relationship too. I love that Holmes sees that Joan has a really interesting and special ability to look at the world, and that it complements the way he looks at the world, and that “different” doesn’t mean “less than his”. Also, the way he flat out tells her “you have a special talent at this and I feel like I have to help you explore it because it’s the right thing to do.”
SO MANY FEELINGS.
I think you may have single-handedly convinced me to give Elementary a try.
Then my work here is done. Let me know if you like it!!
(Also, Lucy Liu’s wardrobe is just the best. Well, it’s the best if you have a thing for amazing skirts and awesome boots. )
(also also, I don’t normally do tattoos, but Jonny Lee Miller has definitely gotten a special pass on his.)
Absolutely do it. Their dynamic is amazing. She basically straight-up tells him that just because he’s a genius doesn’t mean he gets to be a jerk (which is the opposite of what the Supportive Sidekick of White Male Crime-Solving Asshole is supposed to do) and he’s like, “right, sorry, I’ll work on that,” and it’s so great.
I like them both! (But I have there is a lot to be said for the Joan Watson the woman!) I like to view things in sets. I watched House of Cards, The West Wing and Scandal concurrently. White House / Capitol Hill Drama! and I look back on my Elementary / Sherlock binge with great fondness. Plus I read House of Silk and The Sherlockian in the time period and it was perfect.
Nope, you’re right. Sherlock would be middling at best if it weren’t for its leads. I mean, all they do in Sherlock is rewrite stories that have already been written, and not even that well.
Plus Elementary has an episode that was basically a giant Game of Thrones reference, so that automatically wins.
I’m pretty excited about Capaldi being the new Doctor BUT if I’m being completely honest with myself it’s less that I want the actor to play the Doctor and more that I want the Peter Capaldi plays Malcom Tucker plays the Doctor.
But it is a family show, so I guess that would never fly.
Which leads me to my question! Can the Doctor fly? Is that one of his powers?
Only if he has his magic feather, or realizes he doesn’t truly need it.
In a box, Mallory, in a box. Is it still flying if it’s inside of a box?
He can be carried by robot angels. And sometimes he kind of … floats …?
I think Capaldi!Tucker!Doctor is what we all, in our heart of hearts, truly wish for.
You know what’s really fun is every “real” Doctor Who fan’s thunderous smugness about how they immediately loved the choice of Capaldi, and Capaldi is such a great actor, and everyone who wasn’t instantly thrilled about him is just a vapid teenage girl who only cares about LOOKS, man. Well…I do care about looks. Because I need some incentive to soldier on through the occasionally very shitty plotlines, and the always amazingly horrible musical score, and the general cheesiness. And if that incentive is not going to be something interesting like a Doctor of a different race or gender, then at least give me something nice to look at.
Capaldi, though, I’d bang that like a screen door.
Co-signed. Well, Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker.
“Known as Tuckerism, the lesser-known fetish of having invective hurled at you in a Scottish accent arose in the early 21st century and continues to this day.”
I spent half an hour yesterday searching for the perfect “Malcom Tucker hurls invective” supercut on YouTube and then spent another half an hour watching the video over and over again. (Then I just gave in and watched the first 5 episodes of The Thick of It.)
I don’t think it’s wrong or immature to want a nice-to-look-at fellow playing the Doctor, but if the show is something you feel you have ‘soldier on through’ … why are you watching?
For example, I think Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles are beautiful male specimens, but Supernatural blows goats now, so I don’t watch it.
I’m not trying to be all trololol if u dont like dont watch – I just don’t get the mindset. The show is what it is, regardless of the actor, and there’s lots of lovely men to look at in TV.
Doctor Who has always sort of see-sawed for me, but when there’s more weight on the “likeable things” side I can definitely fully enjoy it, a lot. I just don’t like it permanently, I guess.
Plus, I think a lot of us who are excited about a return to an older Doctor are hopeful that this will put an end to weirdly romance-tinged plot lines. I was willing to accept the whole “Doctor and Rose are in love and really meant to be together” thing and it’s totally understandable that Martha would develop a crush on the Doctor and that Rory would be jealous and blah blah but enough is enough.
And maybe we can get a youngish fellow for a companion!
The TARDIS is always best with at least two companions. See One, Babs, Ian & Susan; Two, Zoe & Jamie; Three with the UNIT cabal; Five with Tegan, Nyssa & Turlough (although Romana is always the best companion. Always. And Ace.).
I am not-so-hopeful that Moffat won’t make some simpering young lass fall in love with the older doctor and I will be all EWW EWW EWW and at least that will finally convince me to stop watching until Moffat is gone.
Aside from the obviously PR-crafted tweets from anyone and everyone ever officially connected with DW supporting Capaldi, I haven’t seen a single actual fan (aside from Craiggy Ferg, who, you know, knows the guy) who immediately jumped on the Capaldi bandwagon. The main reaction from my corner of the internet, which to be fair, is probably not indicative of the internet as a whole, was ‘dammit, not another white guy.”
For the record, I love Capaldi and am happy about it. I also think he’s sexy, but I’m weird and really, really fangirled “The Thick of It.”
Nicole loves Sherlock *almost enough*. and there was NO BAD episode. and David Tennant was the best doctor. you ladies are so wrong about so many things. but you’re also perfect in all ways so there’s that.
i cannot wait for sept. 2
*sobs* Stop talking shit about Torchwood! Torchwood is excellent! Well, the first two seasons are excellent. I don’t even know who you people aaaaarrreeeee anymore…*flails* *sobs* *looksaroundsheepishly*
I am pretty obsessed with Sherlock, but I don’t quite understand the Benedict Cumberbatch love in general. I think he’s a brilliant actor and I find his Sherlock very compelling, but I’m kinda meh on his everything else.
Why doesn’t everyone talk about Martin Freeman, is what I want to know. He’s a terrific actor and totally adorable and I would climb him like a tree.
a really small, excruciatingly British tree. <3
I am scared of heights, so the shorter the better for climbing! 🙂
I have had a crush on Martin Freeman since the BBC’s The Office. <3
there is a moment when he gets together with that curly haired blonde girl that just kills me, where he is secretly holding her hand behind their backs unnggghhhh. I would totally have him be my office boyfriend.
He is fan-fucking-tastic and I love him. Also, he is perfect as Bilbo and I want to carry him in my pocket (as Bilbo; because as Watson I’m internally merrrrrowing at him and it all gets very confusing after a while.)
Uh. Um. Hmm. What does it say about me that I find myself merrrrrowing at him as himself, as John Watson, AND as Bilbo Baggins? I mean, if you’re going to bone a hobbit, you could do far worse, right?
#TEAMCHIWETEL
Also I made a joke on Twitter about the companion possibly being age appropriate this season. It got retweeted over 50 times. I have never seen a full episode of Dr. Who.
At some point in the future, there must be a line flubbed as “Get the fuck in the fucking TARDIS, Jenna.” I wish it so. If only there was still Confidential around.
Also: he needs to be allowed to be Scottish because Seven was proper Scots and they didn’t let Ten and it was a SHAME.
I simply cannot conceive of a realm in which a non-tall-thin-white man is a main character of Moffat’s, and honestly, as average-height, heavy-set, only partially white man, I’m getting pretty frigging tired of Dr. Who, which I suppose would be less of a problem if it were actually… i don’t know, good, anymore. I realize that this is probably a sign of my own, you know, prejudices, or whatever, but when a show is good I tend to gloss over any demographic issues in my head with “Well, but it’s so good.” And then when it isn’t anymore, those things will jump out at me.
Also I don’t know why so many people are so freaking in love with Matt Smith. I get it, he’s quirky and wears a bow tie. Just… calm down, man. It’ll be okay.
I’m not a professional pop-culture person, so I hesitate to say when something is “good” or “bad,” but I would argue that the last couple seasons were, regardless of race and gender issues, not very good. The pacing was often weird, plot points were repetitive (Rory is jealous of the Doctor! Again! Some more! Mothers’ love saves the universe! etc.). Knowing what I know now about race/gender issues in the show, I’m still able to go back and enjoy earlier episodes much more than current ones.
Is anyone else with me on the “if it had to be a white dude, why couldn’t it have been Laurence Fox?” team? Just me? Okay.
I love Doctor Who, and I love Sherlock, and honestly, I loved Torchwood too. My first reaction to the new Doctor, though, was a resounding “Another White Guy” shrug.
Maybe this guy will be great (I have no idea who he is) but my personal pick in my head for quirky Who fun was naming Richard Ayoade as the new Doctor, dammit.
Also, yes, Martin Freeman! I am reminded of a Tweet from Nathan Fillion answering a fan who said, “Would you do Sherlock or Watson if offered the role?” His reply was, “Never take a part that’s already been done to perfection.” Freeman and Cumberbatch TOGETHER make that show as brilliant as it is.
I am FINALLY home so I can post this, as I have wanted to all day:
If Janelle Monae were the next Doctor, I would definitely start watching this show.