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GonSmithe posted:It's okay. It's terrible.
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Sep 2, 2014 21:49
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Big Mean Jerk posted:It's terrible. I agree.
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Sep 2, 2014 21:59
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DoctorWhat posted:I expect "okay". Well, that's okay.
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Sep 2, 2014 22:07
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Burkion posted:To be fair that's not the only dumb element added to the novels. Well, how else are you to show that the books are grown up, SERIOUS fiction and totally not meant for lame-o children?
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Sep 2, 2014 22:09
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I have been watching Doctor Who for a while now, binged the 2005 series all the way up to the then current stuff while ETSing from the Army in 2009. Started watching the classic series shortly after that and am currently in the middle of Kinda. I have sometime back resolved myself to the fact that Doctor Who is a show that I will watch and enjoy with no reservations during the run time of an episode, and then proceed to happily tear it apart as I think back on it. Doctor Who is almost like pro wrestling, I love it unashamedly, but even when it is great, it can be embarrassingly dumb.
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Sep 2, 2014 22:19
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CobiWann posted:As an aside, I’m currently having an argument with my good friend, who has declared Into the Dalek the worst sci-fi episode of ANY series since Threshold from Star Trek: Voyager. Please remind him that both Demon and Course: Oblivion aired after Threshold.
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Sep 2, 2014 22:40
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DoctorWhat posted:I'd take a thick Queens (NY) voice coming from a black or hispanic or asian or [culture/ethnicity I'm sure I'm forgetting] Doctor, but I'd burn my coat if the gave the role to a white dude with a Hollywood accent. I think I've seen this movie  But seriously, what is a Hollywood accent? Do you mean General American, our kinda sorta version of RP?
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Sep 2, 2014 22:43
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DoctorWhat posted:I'd take a thick Queens (NY) voice coming from a black or hispanic or asian or [culture/ethnicity I'm sure I'm forgetting] Doctor, but I'd burn my coat if the gave the role to a white dude with a Hollywood accent. Let's be serious here, you're not going to burn that coat.
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Sep 2, 2014 22:45
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wins.
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Trin Tragula posted:Course: Oblivion I actually kind of love Course: Oblivion.
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Sep 2, 2014 22:53
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Trin Tragula posted:Please remind him that both Demon and Course: Oblivion aired after Threshold. Course: Oblivion is pretty good, I don't know what you're on about. Alternate version of the Voyager crew doomed to die? Rules pretty hard. DoctorWhat posted:I'd accept an American accent as long as it wasn't Yet Another White Dude. America is such a wonderful melting pot that it would be abominable to not reflect that. The diversity of Doctor cosplayers (although, unfortunately, not the diversity of Doctors) at the World Tour stop was fantastic! And introducing as The Doctor ... Jerry O'Connell!
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Sep 2, 2014 22:55
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Asylum of Daleks had one really terrible part (besides the inserted roryamy angst): The robot-like pathweb thing they made up to erase the daleks memory of the doctor that they didn't do anything with. I kind of like that this episode redeems that part by explaining that daleks have memory repression hardware to preserve their closed-minded worldview. It makes sense that they aren't naturally unable to turn from the dalek ideal and voluntarily have hardware to prevent this, organic life forms have a pesky tendency for independent thought and imagination. And with this hardware it makes it possible to erase their memories of the doctor universally.
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Sep 2, 2014 22:58
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Astroman posted:Jack was definitely a "Time Agent" before he was a con man, as Jsor said. Found it! Astroman on January 3, 2009 posted:Ugh. Also, the thing with archives if you don't have them is that users current avatars are on their old posts. There are at least two posters who were vocally against Matt Smith's casting with Matt Smith avatars.
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Sep 2, 2014 23:05
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Burkion posted:To be fair that's not the only dumb element added to the novels. i'd rather you hadn't
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Sep 2, 2014 23:15
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armoredgorilla posted:And introducing as The Doctor ... Jerry O'Connell! Sliders was roughly what I imagine an American take on Doctor Who in the 1990s might have looked like.
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Sep 2, 2014 23:15
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Metal Loaf posted:Sliders was roughly what I imagine an American take on Doctor Who in the 1990s might have looked like. As posted slightly earlier, that's actually Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure/Bogus Journey
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Sep 2, 2014 23:21
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Metal Loaf posted:Sliders was roughly what I imagine an American take on Doctor Who in the 1990s might have looked like. I believe that Fox did not pick up Paul McGann's Doctor Who because they decided to go with Sliders instead, but that may just be a rumor.
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Sep 2, 2014 23:28
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So people have kindly pointed out that the fourth series of Eighth Doctor Adventures is currently running on Radio 4 Extra. I've only heard the first series so far; can I safely skip series two and three, or will I be missing out on important plot stuff? Also, Sympathy for the Devil was really good so I'll be moving on to Masters of War sharpish. It's a shame they probably won't make any more stories with that Doctor now.
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Sep 2, 2014 23:34
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MrL_JaKiri posted:In the spirit of the Oxxipation thread and J-Ru et al's reviews here, suggest an episode of Old Who and I will watch it and do an effort post on it STATE OF DE... oh, too late. But yay!
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Sep 2, 2014 23:35
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So, who wants some Target novels? I've got a box of them here in my storage unit gathering dust. I was thinking I'll throw some in envelopes for the first 10 people (US only) who email me? Doctorwhosecretsanta [at] gmail.com
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Sep 2, 2014 23:42
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The Action Man posted:I believe that Fox did not pick up Paul McGann's Doctor Who because they decided to go with Sliders instead, but that may just be a rumor. It is. Sliders was well before Eight's movie. I remember this specifically because it replaced Strange Luck with Brenden Fraiser and I have never forgiven Fox for that.  e: What the—I swear Fraiser was involved with this at some point! Who went back and changed my timestream?
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Sep 2, 2014 23:45
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The_Doctor posted:So, who wants some Target novels? I've got a box of them here in my storage unit gathering dust. I was thinking I'll throw some in envelopes for the first 10 people (US only) who email me? Emailed! I'd love some. I've only been into the show a couple years so I've never had any of these.
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Sep 2, 2014 23:48
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The_Doctor posted:So, who wants some Target novels? I've got a box of them here in my storage unit gathering dust. I was thinking I'll throw some in envelopes for the first 10 people (US only) who email me? Gimme your Six books, I need something for Colin to sign at LI WHO.
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Sep 2, 2014 23:50
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The_Doctor posted:So, who wants some Target novels? I've got a box of them here in my storage unit gathering dust. I was thinking I'll throw some in envelopes for the first 10 people (US only) who email me? I'm in, and I'm in the US.
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Sep 2, 2014 23:54
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I've been catching up on some of the earlier audios (as well as Light at the End) that I missed during my initial listen through to the end of the Divergent Arc. So far I have to say I'm glad these weren't my first exposure to the audios, as they are serviceable but mostly bland stories, and it's plain that Big Finish were still finding their footing.CobiWann posted:
I actually think the big problem with this as their first story is that it is trying far too hard to be epic in scope, more complicated than necessary, and also a bit too "grim 'n' gritty, with the execution falling far short of the intent. Each Doctor getting a single episode story is actually kind of neat as an idea, but it means that the whole ends up feeling like four INCOMPLETE stories as opposed to a single big one. Just as you're getting interested in each Doctor's individual story and hit the traditional cliffhanger, it's time to move to a new Doctor and a new cast and a new setting and start all over again. Then when all three come together, rather than feeling like it is a natural consequence of the narrative it just feels like the first part of ANOTHER story, which also means there is no time to explore THIS setting or the events going on. It wouldn't have had the same impact as a multi-Doctor story straight out of the gate and cost Big Finish far more money than they were probably willing to spend, but I almost would have preferred the first three Big Finish releases to be each of these individual Doctor stories given room to breath (and more importantly, finish!) and then have the fourth release tie the hanging plot threads together and reveal the whole thing had been orchestrated by the Sirens of Time. The titular creatures are another problem, one that made it difficult for me to really enjoy this story. It's not a problem unique to Big Finish, as the television show also was guilty of this.... but basically it relies on the Time Lords being ineffectual boobs. The initial scene is a Time Lord member of the Celestial Intervention Agency (God I hate that "clever" little title so loving much) making an emergency dash to Gallifrey to warn of an imminent invasion by a technologically superior force of aliens completely unknown to the Time Lords. I guess this is supposed to be intriguing, but it just irritated me since THEY'RE LORDS OF TIME! The Time Lords are supposed to be the top dog in the universe (discounting abstract forces like the Celestial Toymaker or the Eternals who aren't strictly speaking corporeal anyway), and part of what gives them that superiority is that their control of the timestreams means that they have been able to carefully prune and select the development of the various species of the galaxies to make sure their dominance is never threatened. For a race of aliens to develop to the point of GREATER control of time than the Time Lords without ever being noticed beggars belief, especially when it is revealed that they originated as a straightforward race of warriors. Sure the Daleks developed time travel and rose up to threaten the Time Lords, but the Time Lords were fully aware of that danger and took many steps to try and prevent it, they didn't just wake up one day and find this never-before-seen race of furious pepper-pots surrounding their planet. The reasoning given for this is that the Knights are being unknowingly controlled by the Sirens of Time, who in turn have been locked in an eternal struggle with the Temperon holding back their attempts to advance their cause. But for two such powerful races (or beings, in the Temperon's case) to exist with such enormous temporal power WITHOUT the Time Lords ever having been aware of them is just silly - that's the kind of thing they should have fully documented and accounted for (and probably wiped out ages ago. Especially considering how easily a being like the Temperon is apparently able to be restrained, or the fact the Sirens can't act on their own behalf and require somebody else to act for them. The Knights themselves are a complete waste of an intriguing concept: a race of powerful warriors who were TOO successful in harnessing a great power, their own bodies wasting away and requiring ever larger consumption of energy to keep from wasting away to nothing - buying life for themselves with increasing numbers of death. But the reveal of how they're doing this on Gallifrey lacks any impact or sense of horror, and feels more like Big Finish reveling in the freedom to be a little "darker" than the television show was allowed to be (which probably also accounts for the frequent use of,"CHRIST!" as an interjection). Similarly, the downbeat ending where the Temperon allows itself to be imprisoned in eternal combat with the Sirens is I think intended to be a sign of the maturation of the show for accepting the necessity of grim sacrifice - something that really doesn't fit in with Doctor Who's frequent theme of never giving up hope and always finding a way to thumb your nose at what is deemed "necessary". Each of the Doctors acquits themselves well enough, though all of them would improve immensely as time went on. I'd actually say McCoy gives the best performance with Baker only a little behind and Davison sadly bringing up the rear (he would improve with time and better material). There simply isn't enough interaction between them though, not having them together till the last episode means we don't really get to enjoy one of the great joys of a multi-Doctor story, which is seeing the actors play off each other and bicker amongst themselves. Funnily enough, the behind the scenes special Talking About My Regeneration gave me far more of that, as we get to hear the actors cheerfully talk about the role, their hopes for Big Finish, and get in some gentle sniping at each other. This really does stand out as early days for Big Finish from a technical standpoint. The audio levels aren't consistent, the sound effects are frequently muted, they don't seem to have quite grasped when exposition is needed and when it isn't etc. It sounds somewhat amateurish, especially when compared to their most recent works, but even against some of the stories that were only a year or two down the line. It's not a bad story, it's just not well executed. It's worth a listen if only to marvel at how far they've come since they started, and it's always neat to hear more of Davison, Baker and McCoy. If I'd been aware of Big Finish back during the wilderness years I can't even begin to imagine how I'd have reacted to discovering there was NEW Doctor Who featuring the original actors, and it's wonderful to be in a position now where it's just one of many hundreds of new stories whether on audio or back on television where it belongs.
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Sep 3, 2014 00:38
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And now... Jason Alexander as the Doctor! "Clara! How the hell do I drive this thing? Who makes a Time Machine this complicated? I can barely figure out my car radio, now I gotta work a Type 40? No more levers, I'm telling you, I am done with levers!"
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Sep 3, 2014 00:41
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DoctorWhat posted:Man, I'd be waaay more hype for Robot of Sherwood if it was Shearman writing it you have no loving idea. I'd say a pretty massive chunk of DW is wasted story potential, honestly. In a perfect world a story where the Doctor meets a semi-fictional character like Robin Hood would be as weird/meta as The Mind Robber but that would never happen. edit: The_Doctor posted:So, who wants some Target novels? I've got a box of them here in my storage unit gathering dust. I was thinking I'll throw some in envelopes for the first 10 people (US only) who email me? Emailed! Tim Burns Effect fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Sep 3, 2014 |
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Sep 3, 2014 00:50
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ApathyGifted posted:Fun coincidence that the answer to his question was a character with the same name as one of Capaldi's other characters in the Dr. Who universe. I've started rewatching from "Rose" and now I'm wondering if they're going to work the Torchwood crew's first appearances as bit-part-with-the-same-name-but-not-the-same-person (specifically, Gwen and Tosh, though I suppose Dr. Sato may have been retconned to actually Tosh working undercover) into this whole thing. Or has that already come up in the non-TV media? MattD1zzl3 posted:He was introduced as a soldier (which he was posing as) in a very soldier-y time and place (hanging out with other soldiers during ww2), wore soldier clothes all the way from "The empty child" to "Miracle day" and does very soldiery things like take command of a militarized group, shoot guns and salute. MrL_JaKiri posted:Idris Elba isn't a huge Doctor Who nerd though, as far as we know
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Sep 3, 2014 01:02
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Bad Angus! Bad!
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The_Doctor posted:So, who wants some Target novels? I've got a box of them here in my storage unit gathering dust. I was thinking I'll throw some in envelopes for the first 10 people (US only) who email me? Emailed! Never read one before, this should be neat!
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Sep 3, 2014 01:05
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Delivery McGee posted:
I think this is less likely than other people seem to, but I'm going to keep hoping. With a good writer and director, he'd easily be the best they've ever had.
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Sep 3, 2014 01:07
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Gaz-L posted:gently caress that, has his friend ever actually seen Threshold, or The Outrageous Okona or Miri or The Twin Dilemma or Profit & Lace or... You shall not talk ill of profit and lace. 
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Sep 3, 2014 01:22
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Delivery McGee posted:I've started rewatching from "Rose" and now I'm wondering if they're going to work the Torchwood crew's first appearances as bit-part-with-the-same-name-but-not-the-same-person (specifically, Gwen and Tosh, though I suppose Dr. Sato may have been retconned to actually Tosh working undercover) into this whole thing. Or has that already come up in the non-TV media? I was never really able to get into Torchwood but I'm fairly sure a retcon revealed that Dr Sato from "Aliens of London" / "World War Three" and Tosh were one in the same. In the same way, an off-hand comment from Martha early in season three identifies Freema Agyeman's character (a Torchwood agent killed by the Cybermen in "Army of Ghosts") as her cousin, Adeola, and a similar remark by the Doctor in "Journey's End" identifies Gwen as a descendent of Gwyneth from "The Unquiet Dead" (though Davies had already suggested that this was the case after Eve Myles was cast in Torchwood).
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Sep 3, 2014 01:23
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You know, watching The Three Doctors, I realize something. Modern Who has had almost zero stories featuring a nigh all powerful being that the Doctor couldn't face on ANY kind of even terms. It wasn't TOO common in the old days either, but it happened in some lovely cases. Even Satan doesn't count, since for the most part he was just a dweeb. I think the best we've gotten is Midnight? And even that's kind of suspect.
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Sep 3, 2014 01:34
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Darth Freddy posted:You shall not talk ill of profit and lace. Sorry if I'm derailing, but Profit and Lace pisses me off because it was such a wasted opportunity. They could have gone all out and made it balls-to-the-wall funny, DS9 meets Tootsie or Ms. Doubtfire. Instead they took a safe spot between humor and a standard Trek episode, and wound up with a pile of mush that wasn't insightful or funny.
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Sep 3, 2014 01:35
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Metal Loaf posted:I was never really able to get into Torchwood but I'm fairly sure a retcon revealed that Dr Sato from "Aliens of London" / "World War Three" and Tosh were one in the same. In the same way, an off-hand comment from Martha early in season three identifies Freema Agyeman's character (a Torchwood agent killed by the Cybermen in "Army of Ghosts") as her cousin, Adeola, and a similar remark by the Doctor in "Journey's End" identifies Gwen as a descendent of Gwyneth from "The Unquiet Dead" (though Davies had already suggested that this was the case after Eve Myles was cast in Torchwood). Sure, but when Clara does it she's the specialist most impossible girl ever.
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Sep 3, 2014 01:35
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Burkion posted:Modern Who has had almost zero stories featuring a nigh all powerful being that the Doctor couldn't face on ANY kind of even terms. It wasn't TOO common in the old days either, but it happened in some lovely cases. There really weren't a lot in the old series. The only one I can think of is the Black Guardian. An adversary that you can't possibly defeat doesn't lend itself to good storytelling.
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Sep 3, 2014 01:43
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Burkion posted:You know, watching The Three Doctors, I realize something. I think this was a rather deliberate choice on RTD's part. I'm pretty sure I recall him writing something (it didn't feature in the show) about "higher" forms of life like the Eternals exiting the universe in disgust at the Time War or something. The references to stuff like the Could-Have-Been King or the Nightmare Child or Rassilon's claim that the Time Lords would "ascend" to a higher form of life indicates an awareness of these all powerful entities but very much paints them as being a thing of the past. I guess it's because even when the stakes are hugely over the top (the ultimate destruction of ALL realities for instance), the foes in question needed to be somewhat approachable/understandable to the audience. Davros, The Master, Rassilon etc are all very "human" in their motivations and desires, while a character like the Celestial Toymaker or the Black Guardian is so over-the-top in terms of their control over reality that it makes them "unbelievable" in a way that those other characters somehow aren't.
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Sep 3, 2014 01:46
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Gynovore posted:There really weren't a lot in the old series. The only one I can think of is the Black Guardian. How is that the only one you can think of? I mean it's not a bad one I guess, but come one-I mention the Three Doctors by name. Omega definately counts. So does Sutek for that matter. And I wouldn't want one to show up all the time- it just makes for a VERY interesting dynamic when the Doctor has to tread VERY lightly. Let's us see him at his absolute best.
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Sep 3, 2014 01:53
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Wait what about journey to the center of the tardis was racist? I must've glossed right over it
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Sep 3, 2014 01:54
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Glenn_Beckett posted:Wait what about journey to the center of the tardis was racist? I must've glossed right over it The role of space salvage men was cast with actors of african heritage, and people felt like this meant they were shown sealing the doctors space-stereo or something. There was also something about the brother being converted to a cyborg to save his life being treated badly by his brothers something something slavery. While i respect a concern for how minorities are represented in public media, i also feel very uncomfortable with the idea of "If you cast underrepresented people in a negative role, you're sending the wrong message". MattD1zzl3 fucked around with this message at 02:05 on Sep 3, 2014 |
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Sep 3, 2014 02:02
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Glenn_Beckett posted:Wait what about journey to the center of the tardis was racist? I must've glossed right over it They cast the working-class, uncooperative, carjacker characters all as black, which has a lot of connotations especially in America.
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Sep 3, 2014 02:03
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