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By David Futrelle
A tragic day for whiny baby-men — the BBC just announced that the next Doctor Who will be a lady. Naturally, these sensitive souls took at once to Twitter to make their displeasure known. And to make jokes about Doctor Who turning into Nurse Who amirite fellas high five!
Here are some of the best of the worst Tweets I’ve seen so far. I can’t decide which are my favorites — the ones lamenting the loss of a crucial male “role model” or those suggesting that a female Doctor Who makes as much sense as a male Mary Poppins (which would be perfectly fine to me, by the way).
https://twitter.com/thomasdeeacon/status/886723202168344576
I'm actually quite shocked at the decision to cast a woman the should call it Nurse who now lol 😂😂
— Rhys (@rhysjordanstew1) July 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/Gapehorner/status/886609824242438144
https://twitter.com/DelDiablo007/status/886613308639514624
https://twitter.com/DelDiablo007/status/886629727745826816
"Doctor Who" what's the deal? Pushing the "gender fluidity" narrative now? Remember when entertainment wasn't social engineering propaganda
— Dan (@NotoriousDano) July 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/Amen1924/status/886681803167236099
https://twitter.com/spcwriter/status/886664276877991936
https://twitter.com/Erin_Danielle77/status/886639647387942912
The BBC have literally just ruined all the heritage and history of Doctor Who making the new Doctor a woman
— Aydin Osman (@Aydin_Osman96) July 16, 2017
Doctor Who officially ruined. Time Lords being women not an issue, 50 years of tradition out the window is. What next 007 being Janette Bond pic.twitter.com/Hj3buVMx8s
— Ewan McColl (@TheMcColl) July 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/hucksworld/status/886682969833865217
https://twitter.com/williamparslow/status/886700469648842752
https://twitter.com/GreavesyX/status/886613123666513920
#DoctorWho So patronising to women to be chosen due to political correctness. No room for merit and talent if PC comes first.
— Holomatrix (@Holomatrices) July 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/BasedKielbasa/status/886647001885978625
https://twitter.com/MJDebio93/status/886691678647705600
https://twitter.com/racerdog45/status/886677551770476545
Women have their own heroes like RIpley, Buffy and Wonder Woman, there is no need to take away role models for men #notmydoctor
— P. J. Lowry (@PJ_Lowry) July 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/thomasoldham/status/886712069021683712
https://twitter.com/Keef44002574/status/886700034934362112
https://twitter.com/Electromoth/status/886674967106125824
I remember when Ripley, Leia, Buffy, Xena et al. trailblazed great women characters. But now, feminism seems pleased with mere pandering.
— Bradley Yellop (@bazz83) July 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/winklewilly89/status/886689221418856448
https://twitter.com/revjackashcraft/status/886693656647913473
https://twitter.com/__AlexN_/status/886631666915172352
https://twitter.com/Blackbirds1632/status/886655183224229890
#doctorwho The regressive left are going crazy over the choice, next they will want a transgender to take the role as the Doctor.
— Rust (@Rust_NoMask) July 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/amusedphysicist/status/886655148235161600
No, I don’t understand what that last one means either.
Big Finish is a bit of an odd duck of a publisher. They only do audio, and only of previously existing fictional universes. The closest they have to a total original series is probably “Unit” stories.
But given that, they are quite creative in what they make. One of my favorites is a Doctor Who about a warehouse that’s being infected by an odd mold, and the planet below has priests whose previous job was to take orders from the population and request items from the warehouse. The warehouse stopped responding to requests, so the order takers became more like priests, and of course, everything had gone horribly wrong before the Doctor showed up.
I wish they were a bit less expensive though. Could get 3 months of BritBox for the price of one 2-CD story.
I’ve only heard some of the ones they’ve broadcast on Radio 4 Extra (or whatever it’s called this particular week); but I did enjoy them. Especially Lucie Bleedin’ Miller!!!
I just love how the no-budget indie Attack the Block has turned into this total career-launching machine.
@JS
I wasn’t really aware of them until I was trying to order some DVDs off Play.com (Does that even still exist?) in 2008. By happy coincidence, the CD they flagged up was ‘The Horror of Glam Rock’ by Paul Magrs, which was not only the best Who pun I’d ever read, but also starred Stephen Gateley of Boyzone (weird family connection; long story) and Bernard Cribbins pre-‘End of Time’. This was the beginning of a beautiful friendship…
The highlight of the 50th anniversary, for me, was in ‘The Night of the Doctor’, when, just before regenerating, the 8th Doctor acknowledges his companions – and they’re the ones from the audio. ‘Charley, C’rizz, Lucie, Tamsin, Molly…’ Somewhere, my squee is still echoing!
@Alan
In the TV show I would love just one, just ONE, flashback to the 8th Doctor’s era in which we get to see Sheridan Smith kick ass.
@Katz
Looking forward to the Probs and Mayhem spin-off show!
It was a nice meta touch for the Doctor to go undercover by pretending to be a nurse. Talk about trolling the whingers.
I liked that Lucie got an acknowledgement in Night of the Doctor.
It’s a pity Christopher Eccleston has expressed a reluctance to do the audios. Imagine the possibilities of Doc 9 with Lucie.
“If you’re an alien how come you sound like you’re from the north?”
“Eh? I’m not an alien. Oh, you mean him.”
I had to look up whether you were joking or not. But if it ever happens, I’m there for it.
(Best line from Attack the Block: “What’s Ron’s weed room?” “It’s a big room. Full of weed. And it’s Ron’s.”)
Big Finish is cool too, because I believe they grew out of fan works into an actual company. That works on the very property they were making fan works of. How cool is that???
Re: Gatekeeping – I know that’s something I need to be aware of. I used to be really bad about it, but I realised that having seen all of these obscure things didn’t make me a better fan than someone who hadn’t. As an example, a Who fan is a Who fan even if they’ve never watched any of the old series.
If they want to try some of the old series, I will sometimes recommend good stories (Robots of Death is a favourite for that, because it is really well done.) Or share AMAZING SEQUENCES like this one where the Third Doctor and the Master (my favourite version of him) have a sword fight and argue like an old married couple.
But if they fan replies that they don’t like the slower pace or the music or whatever… That doesn’t make me a better fan for enjoying that stuff? Which took me too long to learn.
I also know I can talk a lot, and have to give other people space to do that. It’s hard when I’m excited about something, but other people are also excited but quieter than I am and… *frets* I try to be aware of it.
I think I need to see this “Attack the Block”. 😀
@Alan
OOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
But, at the risk of spoilers, dude, ‘To The Death’?
Lucie is the reason 8 won’t fight in the Time War…
(Reads the above posts more carefully)
Oh, I’m doing it again, aren’t I…?
That doesn’t even make sense. Cooked human is “most similar in taste, texture, color, and smell*” to veal, not pork. (Source: William Seabrook, American journalist in the early 1900s.)
*Slightly paraphrased
Attack the Block quotes
I’m quite fond of:
“What kind of alien invades a shitty south London council estate?
“One that’s looking for a fight.”
And
“We’ve got to catch them all!”
“Calm down bruv; this ain’t Pokemon”
@Gussie
Pokemon was my doorway into weebery, so mayhaps I can help
OK, first thing you hafta realize is that the games are really good. Pokemon made it, Digimon didn’t, and one of the bigger reasons for that is the games being so well made
Another key thing for understanding Pokefans is that other than DBZ and a few imports, Pokemon was the first real break out of anime into the west. Especially considering the broader context. Subbed Akira VHSs were never gonna have the cultural cache of a Saturday morning cartoon. The quintessential Murican experience of plopping the kids in front of the TV with their SugarOs. Pokemon literally helped raise my generation
Combine the 2 and you have an enjoyable show that you can play after you’re done watching it. A great game that encouraged interaction with friends. 151 Pokemon, so everybody could have their own favorite. The journey of a 10 year old boy (girls were added in 2nd gen) and his pets where the bad guys wanted to take your pets away. A wide world with as many different kinds of person as poke. Where everybody played fair, even the game’s difficulty curve. And the show is great in its own right
That what you were looking for?
@Rhuu + every other human who hasn’t seen AtB
Dooo iiit! At your earliest convenience, ofc…
@Axecalibur
That’s exactly what I was looking for, thanks! 🙂 I played the first game on a Game Boy emulator and thought it was a solid game, but not the greatest thing since sliced bread, which seemed to be the hype around 1997. The show was also… eh, okay (I might have been a little old for it). I was just astonished by how much it caught on and never seemed to wane in 20 years. It’s had staying power, that’s for sure.
Thanks for the primer! 🙂
Speaking of London based alien invasion films that could be Dr Who stories, I’d recommend “Storage 24”. It’s a good film in its own right, but it’s also got Noel Clarke in it so you can imagine he’s Mickey*.
(*or even the Doctor for when he gets the role next)
Who fans may also enjoy the radio series ‘Nebulous’. That’s pretty much Dr Who (and shares a lot of cast and crew). It also offers an explanation for why so many aliens start their invasions in England.
“I think it’s mainly a tax thing”
@DanHolme:
The War Lords couldn’t time travel. They needed the War Chief for that. He took apart his TARDIS and made several time capsules with way more limited capabilities. Then he got in over his head and the War Lords were going to kill him, so he tried to get the Doctor to help him out. That’s why some people think he might have been an early incarnation of the Master.
The Time Lords were a humongous alteration to the show. Wait! The Doctor isn’t human?! There went all the theories that he was an advanced human from some future time and planet!
But we’re not done! The Time Lords have had it up to here with the Doctor. The Time Lords just Don’t Get Involved (except they have an entire bureau dedicated to Getting Involved — but that doesn’t come up until 1973). They’re going to change his face! They’re going to exile him to Earth! The show is going to stop being about time travel and instead it’s going to be James Bond crossed with Quatermass !!
And we’re going to have to say goodbye to Patrick Troughton and Frasier Hynes, our good friends for many years on the show.
And it’s all because some jerks who can’t even time travel convinced a renegade Time Lord to kidnap human soldiers from every conceivable era and make them fight so as to build an invincible army.
I don’t blame people who stopped watching after that. They missed the smoldering relationship between Jon Pertwee’s Doctor and Roger Delgado’s Master, and the fountain of sunshine that is Katy Manning, but still.
@ Falconer
I’m so hardcore the only thing I regard as canon is the original unbroadcast pilot. So as far as I’m concerned the Doctor and Susan are humans from the 51st century. 😉
@Alan Robertshaw:
Pfft. Cushing!Doctor is the only true Doctor. (You can see by how his TARDIS is the one that’s on the show right now.)
I didn’t know about the Cushing!Doctor thing until significantly after Star Wars (the original), and I don’t think I’ve ever watched the full movie with Cushing as Doctor yet. I’ve seen parts of it, I think.
Nebulous is available on the internet archive if you’d like to listen. I plan to, at some point, maybe with some “The Men from the Ministry” thrown in.
First episode of Nebulous:
Night of the Vegatarians
That’s a good sign.
I wouldn’t normally follow up my own posts, but there’s Just One More Thing about FATAL…
From the rebuttal (posted by the author of the game, and his cronies) to a review posted on an RPG-related site:
There is no racism in the game, because…
“I’ve attempted to minimize Asian, Middle-Eastern, and Egyptian influences, as well as others. Therefore, corpses are not embalmed and buried, but burned. Asian spices do not exist, nor does tobacco or zombies. Consequently, the human race is Caucasian.”
@JS
That guy has a funny definition of racism…
Wow. There is no axis on which FATAL is not terrible.
The rebuttal that Tov01 references is amazing and has to be read in full. Byron Hall comes across as bizarrely chilled out, never takes offence or rants, but also seems to latch onto entirely the wrong parts of the review to rebut.
For example:
Reviewer: Man, I could cream myself just thinking about this! I can’t WAIT to see if it has rules for hut building, grass growing, nose picking, and the spread of Christianity, since people experienced those during history, too!
Hall, rebutting: It is important to note that the spread of Christianity has been removed from FATAL.
(Sorry, the rebuttal that JS references, not Tov01. Edit window expired.)
What I think has been a positive change is the way the companions have positive story arcs and are treated as characters in their own right rather than being a bit of eye candy for the dads, I hated the way the companions used to be portrayed as helpless and stupid. I think Peri got the worst of it, having to run about in a leotard with her jugs out whilst Doctor 6 was so rude and angry all the time. Leela was a bit of stuff for the dads too. Bonnie Langford’s character was just annoying. Ace was the best one, especially as she didn’t shave her pits, I suppose she was a feminist. 😉