Doctor Who ? 07
May. 25th, 2025 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakBefore I get to this week's episode: is an interview with Juno Dawson, who wrote last week's episode. In it, she makes a comment about the Doctor and the Spoiler which I found interesting in term's of this week's episode:
Q: "What makes this Rani and the Fifteenth Doctor’s dynamic different to the past?
A: Without giving too much away for the finale, this is a Doctor and a Rani of a different time. The annihilation of the Time Lords has affected both these characters in different ways – some of which you can see in my episode. The way the Doctor is affected by the attack on the Arena comes from a place of trauma; and I think that’s something we should expect of the Rani as well.
Now, on to The Wish World. Basically, classic pre finale set up episode, making things as desperate as possible, though this time the horror is of a very different type compared to other RTD pre finale episodes.
I mean, gone are the days of prison camps and slave labour (aka the Master in the pre s3 finale episode) or of Daleks and Cybermen shooting everyone on sight. Instead, the world as dreamed up by Conrad is essentially Thatcherite heaven with some incel ideas mixed in: disabled and/or poor people are literary unseen and shoved out of sight and blamed for their own existence, women only work until they marry, male superiority is taken as a given, all marriages are het in nature, gay people don't exist either or if they announce themselves are regarded with horror and immediately denounced to the state.
(BTW: I spent the first half of the episode wondering why the Rani(s) would need Conrad at all, given he's not the source powering this Alt World - that's the baby/the God of Wishes -, just the person giving it shape with his values, but then we got the scene with Flood!Rani where he's clearly exhausted, so basically, they need him to use up because someone has to do the channelling and it can't be them, and the point of the Alt World was not to maintain it but to create a reality the Doctor would doubt anyway.)
This struck me as the difference between playing at dystopias (who inevitably tend to resemble the Third Reich) and being massively angry and horrified at the present and its current trends. And a mini manifesto of: No, we don't want to go back, here's what your glorified past that never was actually would be like.
Of course, the on screen character who actually first sense the massive wrongness and resolves to do something about it aren't the Doctor or current Companion Belinda, it's Ruby. Which on the one hand makes complete sense on a Watsonian level - Ruby already lived through an entire alternate reality, she's been there, done that (including being denounced/rejected by her mother), yes, she'd be among the first to notice. (While the Doctor as John Smith has precedence of not noticing, see also: s3, the Paul Cornell two parter.) On the other hand, the fact that Bel doesn't notice, is as far gone as joining into the denouncing and only starts to resist near the end of the episode is unfortunatel in the context of the overall season, which after a strong start/introduction to me feels like it did fall into the Voyager trap after all, smoothing over differences far too quickly. If Bel's relationship with the Doctor had remained more prickly and her (understandable) distrust of his promises not been removed, her distrusting this reality coming first would have been a logical progression, and I can't help feeling her being sidelined. (A bit like the first time I watched the Library episodes of s4, it felt like Donna was getting sidelined in favour of then new character River Song. I emphasize "the first time" because coming back to those episodes with more knowledge of River feels somewhat differently, but back in the day, aware Catherine Tate had only signed up for one season and the clock was ticking, I resented it.) I do hope she'll get more to do in the finale.
The Rani(s): with the exception of one element (her claiming people thought the Doctor and her had been lovers - because NO, that was the Doctor and the Master, the Rani never was obsessed with him or vice versa), I thought the final revelation (that she was engineering all this not for the Evilz or to have a dig at the Doctor but to unearth Omega made the characterisation work. Together with the Dawson interview quote - that the annihilation of the Time Lords did affect the Rani - gives fodder to my ongoing speculation of her wanting to recreate Gallifrey (and/or the Time Lords), hence Omega. (Presumably just wishing it into existence via the divine kid is out for technobabble reasons?) My new speculaton, which alas would also repeat something that's been done (well) before, is that the Watsonian reason why Flood!Rani is still around is that one of them will turn against the other in the finale. Again: we've seen this done very well with Missy and Simm!Master, so I hope I'm wrong here and it'll be something more original.
The episode opens with an overt fairy tale like teaser scene. Fairy tales have been a theme this season, repeatedly, but I gotta say, RTD, if this was to be a homage to the Grimms (who btw were busy the during the first half of the 19th century, not the second), please go to the trouble of consulting someone who actually speaks German. "Violet", with one T or two, is not a German name, though it makes for a stunning visual*, and no one would call a baby "Liebchen". ("Liebchen" ever since being used by one of the older emigrés in Casablanca seems to have entered the English speaking world's popular consciousness as a German endearment. It used to be (as in, even during WWII it would have struck people as old fashioned, hence an OLD character using it in that movie) - from a man to a woman. Not from a woman to a man, and not from anyone to a baby of either gender. Excuse this extra rant, but I keep coming across this in fanfic and pro fic alike. There are any number of German words you can use towards a baby, but "Liebchen" isn't one of them. What's wrong with, say, Schatz? Easily pronouncable, I should think, does not have a ch which usually trips non-German speakers, and only one syllable.
Otoh: "Herr Zufall" (Mr. Coincidence) cracked me up. Subtle, this was not, but yes, that is the kind of thing that happens in Fairy Tales.
Oh, and when I saw "Bavaria, 1865" , my first thought was "....are we really going to do the Prussian-Austrian-Bavarian war? Otherwise known to my joking grandfather as "the last time we were allowed to shoot at the Prussians". But no, presumably the date was picked at random. The shown forests and mountain and the whole seventh son of a seventh son business made it overt this was yet another homage to fairy tales, this time presumably the Grimms. (Jacob Grimm: born in 1785, got old enough to die in 1863, so my guess it the fact his death happened in the 1860s might be why the episode's opener is set there. Again, though: inventing the study of German language and collecting fairy tales is what he and brother Wilhelm did decades earlier. The first edition of Kinder - und Hausmärchen was published in 1812, before the Napoleonic wars were over, so setting the scene at that date would have made more sense.
*I'm trying to think of German flower names for women, and the obvious one is Rosa or Rose - depending on the region, it could be either -, which was what one of my great grandmothers was called. There is the obvious fairy tale precedent of Dornröschen, aka Sleeping Beauty/Aurora in English. And then of course there's Salad Girl, aka Rapunzel, named after, yes, a salad herb, if we include non flowery plants.
- End of Teutonpicking -
Trivia: the Rani having her head quarters in that bony spidery yet elegant concoction does make sense, but I'm not yet sure what the point of the walking Dinosaur skeleton is.
The Doctor's final insistence that Poppy is in fact real: foreshadowing of regenerated Jenny (assuming they don't want to bring back Georgia Tennant) or indication of much angst for him and Belinda a la Wanda at the end of Wandavision as the resetting of the world would mean the non existence of Poppy? Or is Poppy in fact not the daughter but the granddaughter, i.e. a new incarnation of Susan?
Q: "What makes this Rani and the Fifteenth Doctor’s dynamic different to the past?
A: Without giving too much away for the finale, this is a Doctor and a Rani of a different time. The annihilation of the Time Lords has affected both these characters in different ways – some of which you can see in my episode. The way the Doctor is affected by the attack on the Arena comes from a place of trauma; and I think that’s something we should expect of the Rani as well.
Now, on to The Wish World. Basically, classic pre finale set up episode, making things as desperate as possible, though this time the horror is of a very different type compared to other RTD pre finale episodes.
I mean, gone are the days of prison camps and slave labour (aka the Master in the pre s3 finale episode) or of Daleks and Cybermen shooting everyone on sight. Instead, the world as dreamed up by Conrad is essentially Thatcherite heaven with some incel ideas mixed in: disabled and/or poor people are literary unseen and shoved out of sight and blamed for their own existence, women only work until they marry, male superiority is taken as a given, all marriages are het in nature, gay people don't exist either or if they announce themselves are regarded with horror and immediately denounced to the state.
(BTW: I spent the first half of the episode wondering why the Rani(s) would need Conrad at all, given he's not the source powering this Alt World - that's the baby/the God of Wishes -, just the person giving it shape with his values, but then we got the scene with Flood!Rani where he's clearly exhausted, so basically, they need him to use up because someone has to do the channelling and it can't be them, and the point of the Alt World was not to maintain it but to create a reality the Doctor would doubt anyway.)
This struck me as the difference between playing at dystopias (who inevitably tend to resemble the Third Reich) and being massively angry and horrified at the present and its current trends. And a mini manifesto of: No, we don't want to go back, here's what your glorified past that never was actually would be like.
Of course, the on screen character who actually first sense the massive wrongness and resolves to do something about it aren't the Doctor or current Companion Belinda, it's Ruby. Which on the one hand makes complete sense on a Watsonian level - Ruby already lived through an entire alternate reality, she's been there, done that (including being denounced/rejected by her mother), yes, she'd be among the first to notice. (While the Doctor as John Smith has precedence of not noticing, see also: s3, the Paul Cornell two parter.) On the other hand, the fact that Bel doesn't notice, is as far gone as joining into the denouncing and only starts to resist near the end of the episode is unfortunatel in the context of the overall season, which after a strong start/introduction to me feels like it did fall into the Voyager trap after all, smoothing over differences far too quickly. If Bel's relationship with the Doctor had remained more prickly and her (understandable) distrust of his promises not been removed, her distrusting this reality coming first would have been a logical progression, and I can't help feeling her being sidelined. (A bit like the first time I watched the Library episodes of s4, it felt like Donna was getting sidelined in favour of then new character River Song. I emphasize "the first time" because coming back to those episodes with more knowledge of River feels somewhat differently, but back in the day, aware Catherine Tate had only signed up for one season and the clock was ticking, I resented it.) I do hope she'll get more to do in the finale.
The Rani(s): with the exception of one element (her claiming people thought the Doctor and her had been lovers - because NO, that was the Doctor and the Master, the Rani never was obsessed with him or vice versa), I thought the final revelation (that she was engineering all this not for the Evilz or to have a dig at the Doctor but to unearth Omega made the characterisation work. Together with the Dawson interview quote - that the annihilation of the Time Lords did affect the Rani - gives fodder to my ongoing speculation of her wanting to recreate Gallifrey (and/or the Time Lords), hence Omega. (Presumably just wishing it into existence via the divine kid is out for technobabble reasons?) My new speculaton, which alas would also repeat something that's been done (well) before, is that the Watsonian reason why Flood!Rani is still around is that one of them will turn against the other in the finale. Again: we've seen this done very well with Missy and Simm!Master, so I hope I'm wrong here and it'll be something more original.
The episode opens with an overt fairy tale like teaser scene. Fairy tales have been a theme this season, repeatedly, but I gotta say, RTD, if this was to be a homage to the Grimms (who btw were busy the during the first half of the 19th century, not the second), please go to the trouble of consulting someone who actually speaks German. "Violet", with one T or two, is not a German name, though it makes for a stunning visual*, and no one would call a baby "Liebchen". ("Liebchen" ever since being used by one of the older emigrés in Casablanca seems to have entered the English speaking world's popular consciousness as a German endearment. It used to be (as in, even during WWII it would have struck people as old fashioned, hence an OLD character using it in that movie) - from a man to a woman. Not from a woman to a man, and not from anyone to a baby of either gender. Excuse this extra rant, but I keep coming across this in fanfic and pro fic alike. There are any number of German words you can use towards a baby, but "Liebchen" isn't one of them. What's wrong with, say, Schatz? Easily pronouncable, I should think, does not have a ch which usually trips non-German speakers, and only one syllable.
Otoh: "Herr Zufall" (Mr. Coincidence) cracked me up. Subtle, this was not, but yes, that is the kind of thing that happens in Fairy Tales.
Oh, and when I saw "Bavaria, 1865" , my first thought was "....are we really going to do the Prussian-Austrian-Bavarian war? Otherwise known to my joking grandfather as "the last time we were allowed to shoot at the Prussians". But no, presumably the date was picked at random. The shown forests and mountain and the whole seventh son of a seventh son business made it overt this was yet another homage to fairy tales, this time presumably the Grimms. (Jacob Grimm: born in 1785, got old enough to die in 1863, so my guess it the fact his death happened in the 1860s might be why the episode's opener is set there. Again, though: inventing the study of German language and collecting fairy tales is what he and brother Wilhelm did decades earlier. The first edition of Kinder - und Hausmärchen was published in 1812, before the Napoleonic wars were over, so setting the scene at that date would have made more sense.
*I'm trying to think of German flower names for women, and the obvious one is Rosa or Rose - depending on the region, it could be either -, which was what one of my great grandmothers was called. There is the obvious fairy tale precedent of Dornröschen, aka Sleeping Beauty/Aurora in English. And then of course there's Salad Girl, aka Rapunzel, named after, yes, a salad herb, if we include non flowery plants.
- End of Teutonpicking -
Trivia: the Rani having her head quarters in that bony spidery yet elegant concoction does make sense, but I'm not yet sure what the point of the walking Dinosaur skeleton is.
The Doctor's final insistence that Poppy is in fact real: foreshadowing of regenerated Jenny (assuming they don't want to bring back Georgia Tennant) or indication of much angst for him and Belinda a la Wanda at the end of Wandavision as the resetting of the world would mean the non existence of Poppy? Or is Poppy in fact not the daughter but the granddaughter, i.e. a new incarnation of Susan?
no subject
Date: 2025-05-25 09:53 am (UTC)There were some nice little touches in there, not least the faux Harry Potter cover on the story of The Doctor. Way too much CGI in this episode, but I suppose they have to justify their effects budget somehow...
no subject
Date: 2025-05-25 10:29 am (UTC)Tumblr has been pointing out that she is trying to make him doubt, so that might be yet another way to make him reject the reality he is being presented with.
On the other hand, the fact that Bel doesn't notice, is as far gone as joining into the denouncing and only starts to resist near the end of the episode is unfortunatel in the context of the overall season, which after a strong start/introduction to me feels like it did fall into the Voyager trap after all, smoothing over differences far too quickly.
Not saying you're wrong in your overall judgement (she's barely had an arc at all), but I have no issues with her falling into the Wish World the way she does. Firstly, we do see her react (that run into the woods and the scream), but more importantly she has what she wanted: Her family and her home. And then she goes on to report the Doctor - it all lines up beautifully. :)
no subject
Date: 2025-05-25 03:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-05-26 08:17 am (UTC)Excuse this extra rant, but I keep coming across this in fanfic and pro fic alike. There are any number of German words you can use towards a baby, but "Liebchen" isn't one of them.
I absolutely understand the rant (Dårlig Ulv STILL annoys me TO THIS DAY, it should be 'Stygge Ulv' omfg it's a single google search away), but also - The Rani is an alien with (presumably) a rudimentary and very incomplete knowledge of German. 'Liebchen' fits because it's wrong. :)
What's wrong with, say, Schatz? Easily pronouncable, I should think, does not have a ch which usually trips non-German speakers, and only one syllable.
This, however, made me laugh. Although to answer your question, then this delightful Jodie anecdote illustrates it perfectly. (I agree that in theory the word is perfect. In reality... no *g*)
Generally it was a fabulous episode, the best Doctor Who has been in YEARS.
no subject
Date: 2025-05-26 08:19 am (UTC)Excuse this extra rant, but I keep coming across this in fanfic and pro fic alike. There are any number of German words you can use towards a baby, but "Liebchen" isn't one of them.
I absolutely understand the rant (Dårlig Ulv STILL annoys me TO THIS DAY, it should be 'Stygge Ulv' omfg it's a single google search away), but also - The Rani is an alien with (presumably) a rudimentary and very incomplete knowledge of German. 'Liebchen' fits because it's wrong. :)
What's wrong with, say, Schatz? Easily pronouncable, I should think, does not have a ch which usually trips non-German speakers, and only one syllable.
This, however, made me laugh. Although to answer your question, then this delightful Jodie anecdote illustrates it perfectly. (I agree that in theory the word is perfect. In reality... no *g*)
Trivia: the Rani having her head quarters in that bony spidery yet elegant concoction does make sense, but I'm not yet sure what the point of the walking Dinosaur skeleton is.
Maybe just a giant flashing sign to show that this world is ridiculous? And yet people can't see it.
no subject
Date: 2025-05-25 12:54 pm (UTC)Isn't Poppy a Space Baby? Though she can of course be a Space Baby and something else.
no subject
Date: 2025-05-25 03:43 pm (UTC)Ruby still being around is I think hopefully a good role model for how future Companion exits could be handled. I.e. we catch glimpses of their post Doctor lives, and if it makes sense that they participate in the storyline, they do, instead of ignoring that Companion X or Y would be perfect in this situation. (Of course, always assuming the actors are available etc.)
no subject
Date: 2025-05-25 06:38 pm (UTC)As for flowery women's names: Apart from Rose/Rosa there aren't exactly that many which would have worked within the episode's context, I guess. Maybe Iris, since Heide and Erika would probably have turned out too scratchy ;)
no subject
Date: 2025-05-30 07:04 am (UTC)ZOM you're right!