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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.
@Alan
There’s a tradition of using “sir” to address a woman in the Navy who has a higher rank than you.
http://i.imgur.com/CVtEQQ1.jpg
(Not my work, appeared on Facebook)
@ Falconer
The same story that introduced the 12 regenerations limit (“The Deadly Assassin”) also explicitly stated that Gallifreyan technology allowed a way of granting a new cycle. Getting an extra 12 regenerations was the whole point of the Master’s plan. So it’s hardly regeneration ex machina.
(Well, technically it’s exactly that, but you get my drift)
@DES
Her side? That article seems very skewed in its portrayal of the conversation. It chooses to ommit Cho’s words and focuses on the more positive aspects of Swinton’s replies.
Even the whole going to Cho to ask why Asians were upset by her casting as The Ancient One seems awfully akin to Donald Trump telling April Ryan to set up a meeting with the Black congressional caucus (because Black people all know each other, and pressumably so do Asians right? And it’s apparently the job of an Asian person to educate her as if she couldn’t google a controversy that has been going on for years).
@Pretty much everyone else
How did people get started on Dr. Who? I confess I’ve been aware of the fandom for a long time but, just as with Star Trek, I find that the series has run for such a long time that the prospect of binging it seems very tedious. Will I still understand what’s going on if I skip on every previous season?
I know Trump supporters who like the knew Star Wars movies, so I’m guessing the people complaining about them are the really consciously ideologically committed white supremacists.
@Diego Duarte:
Watching it from the 2005 revival is a decent middle ground if you feel intimidated by binging literally decades’ worth of episodes but don’t want to miss out on recent plot points. (That’s ten seasons, with about thirteen episodes each on average, so it’s not unmanageable.)
Be warned that the show has its ups and downs. There are a few infamously terrible episodes (such as “Love & Monsters”), but also a good amount of solid, enjoyable ones and some true, memorable gems.
@Diego Duarte, this next season is a whole new start. New showrunner, new Doctor, new Companion. 54 years of history, but it’s not Deep Space 9. Lately I’ve been thinking about it as a sort of anthology series. Most of the modern episodes stand on their own, or are part of a two-parter. You don’t need to know exactly what went down on Telos, or the Wheel in Space, or the Moonbase, or on the freighter, to “get” an episode with the Cybermen, for instance. In fact, the show is downright allergic to the notion of canon.
In the 70s there were like four television programmes and no other forms of indoor entertainment, so it was pretty much all there was to do if it was raining.
Doctor Who has a proud and longstanding tradition of ensuring you won’t understand what’s going on even if you have seen every previous season.
(I’m looking at you, “Warrior’s Gate”)
@Diego Duarte
Of course it omitted (or rather, paraphrased) Cho’s side of the conversation. That’s basic netiquette. Unless you have explicit permission, you do not publicly quote a private conversation. But my point is that Cho grossly misrepresented Swinton’s emails.
Doctor Who is much lighter on continuity than other SF series, starting with the new series will probably be fine. All you need to know is that the Doctor is an alien who travels through time and space with one or more companions, usually at least one of them is a human woman.
During those travels The Doctor encounters a number of recurring foes – The Daleks, a race of mutants who’ve ensconsed themselves inside tank-like machines and hate all other life; The Cybermen, cybrorgs who forcibly ‘upgrade’ other life to be like them (they were a big influence on Star Trek’s Borg) and The Master, a rogue member of the Doctor’s own race (The Master’s most recent incarnation was female, calling herself Missy) are the three main ones.
If you want to go back a bit further, the first series of the new run, with Russell T. Davies as the head writer, Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor and Billie Piper as his companion Rose is a good start. The other best option is series 5, when Stephen Moffat takes over as head writer, Matt Smith starts as The Doctor, and Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill play his companions, Amy and Rory. The upcoming Christmas episode (there’s been an episode on Christmas Day every year since the show came back) is Moffat’s last one as head writer, and Peter Capaldi’s last as The Doctor.
@ gipsz
I really liked L&M. I can see why people don’t; but I loved everything about it from the ‘lower decks’ vibe to the unreliable narrator aspect. I think it’s a nice illustration as to how flexible the show’s format is and it’s fun to see a bit of experimentation.
(I am a bit of a Who-positivist though. To me even ‘Fear Her’ is “that episode with the brilliant door joke” so I’m perhaps a bit under critical. It’s the only show I watch though so I have to get the most out of it.)
So, to recap, reactions were one of the following:
1: WAAAAH BEEBEESEE JUST RUINED MY CHILDHOOD/TOOK AWAY MY PERSONAL HERO
2: What next, a trans Doctor Who/Female James Bond/[insert other slippery slope here]?
3: GURLZ ALREADY HAVE ROLE MODELZ DEY DONT NEED 2 STEEL OURS!
4: I’m not sexist, but feminism ruined everything!
5: I’m not a Nazi, but Cultural Marxism ruined everything!
6: lol moar liek Nurse Who lol
7: DIS WUZ MAH FAYVRIT SHOW NOW I HATE IT CUZ PULITIKAL KUREKNIZ RUINED IT!!!
To quote the Cyberman, “There is… logic in what he says?”
Melt, MRAs… MELLLLTTTTTT!!!!!
I was already so happy when I heard Moffat was finally leaving as showrunner. I’ve been waiting for this. His sexism infects all of his shows, and both Doctor Who and Sherlock wore thin on me really fast. I stopped watching both and refused to come back until he left. So excited to finally have a female doctor. Would love to see a person of color as well.
The American show “Elementary” is so much better than the British Sherlock, IMHO. Lucy Liu is an awesome Watson, and the rapport she and Miller have is great. And I love finding all the little Sherlock Easter eggs they put in there.
Just on the topic of fandom, have any of the Mammotheers had a major break with any fandom of theirs? I only ask because this topic had me thinking of my Star Trek fandom and how it began to erode basically starting with Insurrection and carrying through first season of Enterprise when I basically gave up on it. Sure, I saw Nemesis and the first Abrams movie (to which I gave both a hearty “meh”), but the moment I saw them doing another Khan movie, I threw up my hands and gave up. I might given Discovery a chance, but it’d better get back to some good ol’ fashioned human condition exploring.
But that’s probably the only heavy-duty fandom I fell off of. Comics I tended to be more a casual fan of and Star Wars I weathered the bad prequels and questionable special editions… some video games devolved into bad storytelling (looking your way Blizzard) but I’m the kind of guy that once he gets really into something goes all in and it takes a lot for me to break with it.
Thanks for the replies. I guess since the show constantly goes against canon I might pick it up this time around.
@Gussie
Not quite that, but Atomic Blonde comes out next week. James Bond meets John Wick but feeemale, and I’m so hype!!!
@Chie
Up til I saw season 4 of the latter, I mighta disagreed with this point. But, nah, you got it. Moffat, I am disappoint…
I have 2 sons and they loved Dr Who (9 and 6 when it returned) – NEVER saw the Doctor as a male role model, my son just said when I asked him ‘no, he’s fictional’!
@Gussie Jives
I tend to stubbornly stick it out to the bitter end. I continue to watch The Waking Dead even though it sometimes pains me at this point. They’ll just keep throwing in these moments that are so awesome. Unfortunately those moments are getting fewer and fewer as the show goes on, but I still watch.
It was easy for me to say I was done with Doctor Who until Moffat left because the show’s had such a long history that I knew it would outlast him and I could start up again once he was gone.
@Ellesar
There are other things they’ve done with Elementary besides Lucy Liu as Watson but they are more spoilery. They clearly love the source material and everyone has great chemistry. I always felt like the British Sherlock has this adversarial attitude toward its audience but of course by that point I was already disgusted by Moffat so I totally could’ve just had my own tainted view of the whole situation.
This is good news for this female fan who has mostly been watching Who since 1979. I say mostly because I bailed on Moffat’s run after the Nixon two-parter I simply could not stand his style of writing and showrunning anymore which made me a bit sad because Peter Capaldi was like one of my ideal Who candidates. Anyway now the show has been de-Moffated, I shall be returning and this news does excite me. I was hadn’t believed a woman Doctor would ever be dared, I was hoping for a PoC instead. But, this is just as cool, so I am genuinely excited about Who again for the first time in years.
… oops, forgot to update nym on this terminal… so many computers, so little memory… O_o
In the mid 70s we used to talk about Saturday’s episode of Dr Who at school on a Monday morning. It was essential watching if you were a kid. I stopped watching in 1979, when I was 13 – it was pretty much only aimed at kids (from my perspective).
But when it came back in 2005 I was delighted because my kids were the perfect age, and I could see that it was going to be much better.
And of course this latest season of Elementary featured the late Nelsan Ellis, who I also love. Okay, that’s it for me going so far off-tangent. 🙂
@Chie:
Pearl Mackie was in this past season, and probably in the Christmas special, too, although that hasn’t been officially confirmed yet.
Can’t say more about these last few seasons without getting into major spoilers, but I do think Moffat has exhibited a tremendous amount of growth. Rachel Talalay has directed the season finale two-parters for the last three seasons. Hettie McDonald directed the two-part starter for series 9. Catherine Tregenna and Sarah Dollard wrote for series 9, and Sarah Dollard and Rona Munro returned to write for series 10.
Moffat’s said that when he started, he assumed that talented women would rise to the top, but he discovered after series 6 that he was going to have to go looking for them, because of industry forces that held them down.
Hey, just a legit alt righter here to tell you got a shoutout on the latest episode of the Daily Shoah, on TRS.
Good work!