Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Now it's been out for a few days and people have had a chance to
watch (and rewatch) the latest episode of the 2024 season, "73
Yards", we're digging into discussing it in more detail in the
members-only <whovians.> forum. It feels a bit too spoilery for
Inkwell but you're welcome to join us in the members lounge if you'd
like.

I still love it, despite the lack of details and clear answers in
the script. In fact, precisely BECAUSE there are no easy answers
dumped in our laps. Others feel that the lack of clarity is a cheat
by the writer (Russell T Davies) and too cheap and easy. I
profoundly disagree, but each to their own. (Even though the others
are clearly entirely wrong!)

Either way, it's a fascinating discussion and thought experiment.
For that reason alone I believe "73 Yards" is perhaps one of the
greatest Doctor Who stories in years and I'm genuinely excited about
it. I could be talking about this one for a very long time.
  

    
There were loads of things I meant to get into during our Inkwell
chat - more in-depth stuff about the incidental music of the show
for example, or the history of title sequences - but never got
around to.

One such was a small anecdote the impact of the pandemic on the
direction of the show. During lockdown, a junior reporter on Doctor
Who Magazine (Emily Cook) suggested a Twitter watchalong/viewing
party where a few friends would chose an episode of NuWho and press
play on their DVD or streaming service at the same time. They would
then tweet their reactions and discuss what was happening on screen
using hashtags.

Great idea, and it soon spread beyond just her friends and became
something of a global phenomenon (no exaggeration). I certainly
followed along and contributed. But given her industry connections,
Emily was able to get some of the behind-the-scenes people like
directors and technicians and the odd actor from the episode to join
in too.

Naturally not people like Russell T Davies or Catherine Tate or
Karen Gillan or Steven Moffat or David Tennant though, that would be
silly given most of them had an understandable long standing
aversion to social media. Except that's just what happened, and they
took part, and it was glorious, a real beacon of light during those
miserable months.

Anyway, Catherine Tate was so happy watching back some of her 2008
episodes that she apparently messaged RTD and said something along
the lines of how it had all been so lovely, why couldn't they get
the band back together and do it all over again with a flashback
reunion special or something. To which RTD's sensible response was
that David Tennant was far too busy and would never do it. Tate
naturally shot off a message to DT and he immediately said he would
go it in a heartbeat. Bluff called!

So there is was, a Tennant/Tate special was on the table. But of
course, by this time RTD was no longer involved in the show. But he
took it to the BBC anyway, and found that they were not only
interested but wondered how would he feel about taking over as
showrunner again now Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker were
leaving. And by the way what did he think about a co-production deal
with Disney?

I'm paraphrasing the events and making a few assumptions about what
happened behind the scenes, but the basic fact remains that from an
enthusiastic reporter (and fan)'s little lockdown idea came the show
we have in 2024 with Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson. At least one
good thing came out of the depths of COVID.
  

    
There’s always a twist and this one was most welcome during dark
times!
  

    
what a great story. I had no idea about any of that.
  

    
I agree, I think it's really lovely too. Here's a piece about the
original lockdown tweetalongs:

<https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/how-the-woman-behind-doctor-who-lockdown-created-
a-lifeline-for-thousands-of-fans/>

As a PS, she used to play saxophone in a school orchestra, and last
November for the 60th anniversary specials she was invited to join
the BBC National Orchestra Of Wales playing "Donna's Theme" in
Cardiff, which was broadcast on BBC Four and BBC Radio 2. It's
probably still available on BBC iPlayer and/or BBC Sounds. As part
of the show there were interviews with Russell T Davies, Steven
Moffat, Chris Chibnall, Murray Gold, Segun Akinola - and Emily Cook,
since the specials were sort of her "fault".
  

    
There might be a brand new Inkwell conversation starting today (see
<inkwell.vue.546> but John and I and the other marauding band of
<whovians.> continue to mutter away about new episodes of the show
which are still dropping throughout June on Disney+ and BBC iPlayer.

Last week it was the weird 73 Yards which was all about folk lore
and mystic horror which garnered a lot of controversy for being
"militantly ambiguous" as one description put it, steadfastly
refusing to answer any of the mysteries it put up.

The latest episode that came out was "Dot and Bubble" which could
hardly be more different, being a bang-up-to-date science fiction
story which skewers the modern social media experience by having
everyone on a paradise planet so totally wrapped up in their
'bubble' of friends that they literally can't see beyond it even
when there are monsters waiting to eat them just inches away.

It's a fun episode that tackles social media issues dead on (they've
got so used to using the technology they can no longer walk or
remember to pee without out). Perhaps a bit too much on the nose if
I'm honest. Also, I didn't like anyone in this world of social
influencers which made it a hard story for me to get into given that
this was another "Doctor and companion lite" story in the manner of
"Blink". There was one person who was Peter Perfect, clearly good to
be true, so I trusted him even less than the ones I didn't like
because that was an obvious twist. Or was it? The actual twist
caught a lot of people out.

Talking of Twists, there's an actress called Susan Twist who has
been in several episodes as different characters. She popped up as
Isaac Newton's housekeeper Mrs Merridew in "Wild Blue Yonder" and
then in every episode starring Ncuti Gatwa since then. At first it
was subtle but now even the Doctor and Ruby are noticing that she
keeps turning up as different people. She's in the cast list for
each of the remaining episode including the season finale (there's
always a Twist at the end) so if you have any idea where there this
is going we'd love to hear your theories and ideas, either here or
over in the dedicated members-only <whovians.> conference.
  

    

I wonder if viewers weren't supposed to like anyone in this episode?
It's a sort of meta commentary on social media bubbles can affect
people's personalities for the worst. It also raises the question of
whether or not people need to be likable to be worthy of rescue.
  

    
I think that's very much the balancing point of this story. On the
one hand it's a hard satire on the corrosive effect social media
bubbles so we're not meant to like them even before the final
reveal. On the other hand, as drama, we need someone we can identify
with and like to take us through the drama, and for the darkness not
to be too obvious that it ruins the final twist.

For me, that balance was off. But I'm a sample set of one, which is
why I wanted to know whether others had the same reaction to it. I
think the reaction ultimately covered the full spectrum, so probably
the episode judged it as well as it was possible to do.
  

    

I think we were supposed to start liking the protagonist, then
confronted with her lack of a moral compass.

At the end: Are they rejecting the Doctor because he's Black, or
because he's outside their class, caste or society?
  

    
I think that's right, but for me I never liked her or her group of
friends, and since they were 80% of the episode that was a problem
dramatically for me and meant the end reveal of her lack of moral
compass was not much of a surprise. Although I thought she would
allow people to die through being passive rather than actively
homicidal, which I admit did surprise me.

I also wondered if there was a different reading of the ending. I
think the show was very careful not to explicitly raise the issue of
racism for fear of inadvertently putting a bad seed in younger
viewers' heads that wasn't there before. But if you know, you know
and can't unsee it. Lindy is wary but engages with Ruby despite her
being just as outside her circle, but is hostile to the Doctor on
sight. Even after he saves her life ("it was only your duty after
all", implying he has some obligation of servitude to her group) she
reacts against him specifically while ignoring Ruby as irrelevant.

Without coming right out and saying it, the show is as clear about
her bigotry as it can be. And a lot of people from Black and ethnic
backgrounds in the UK say that this sort of sly, indirect passive
hostility is the main sort of racism they face in daily life rather
than overt aggressive comments or acts.
  

    
Moving on, we've had the sixth episode of the season, "Rogue" -
invariably dubbed "Doctor Who does Bridgerton". There's been a lot
less talk about this episode, both in the WELL's Whovians conference
and generally around the web. I'm wondering why. Did people not
watch it yet? Too many other distractions? Is interest in the series
dropping off? Or was it specific to something about this particular
episode?

Even I'm struggle to find something to say about it it. It was fine,
a perfectly standard enjoyable romp. But as I've never seen
Bridgerton or the other shows it's inspired, that whole aspect is
lost on me. I can't say if it worked or was well done, I just see it
as a Regency pastiche with added fowl. Fun, but no deeper than Space
Babies. In fact, as the Doctor and Ruby are mostly apart, it doesn't
have the hook of their dynamic to hold it together. Instead it's all
about Jonathan Groff.

I just felt that it was taking its Bridgerton crossover appeal for
granted and beyond that had less to offer than the previous
episodes. But I'm keen to know how others - especially those who do
know and enjoy Bridgerton - felt about it.
  

    
The Bridgerton angle is pretty interesting - the reason they've gone
there is because Ruby's a Bridgerton fan, and the Chuldurs are there
for the same reason - they've monitored Netflix, apparently, liked
the show, and wanted to put themselves in that world. There's not
much of the Bridgerton dynamics, because much of the episode focuses
on the aliens, including Dr. Who and Rogue. And that feels like a
classic Dr. Who plot. 
  

    
It does indeed feel like a classic Who plot, and not as terrible
wicked and transgressive as they might have expected it to come
across as.

The last period drama which was a worldwide phenomenon was Downtown
Abbey, do you think that would have produced a similar frisson if
Doctor Who Does Downton?

I suspect not because Bridgerton has a similar over-the-top high
energy camp feel to it as Bridgerton whereas Downtown was much more
serious. In fact I wonder whether the problem with "Rogue" is that
really it was just Doctor Who Does Regency and it coincided with
Bridgerton without too much effort?
  

    
And I still haven't seen Rogue, which is ironic as Doctor Who has a
storied history with period dramas and The Girl in the Fireplace is
my favourite episode since 2005.
  

    
I caught up with the final three episodes during the just-ended heat
wave here in NYC. 

About "Rogue," I am not sure I have a lot to say, either. As a
character, Rogue seems like a successor to Captain Jack Harkness.
Jack's a great character, so on one level that's fine! On another,
RTD again creates a new character who's just a few degrees removed,
in some way, from an earlier character: Rogue is to Jack as Ruby is
to Amy and Clara. 

I keep wondering at this retreading of older ideas. Then, I remind
myself that there are people watching the show now who weren't yet
born when Jack was introduced 19 years ago. (NINETEEN YEARS GAaaaaH)


The highlight of the ep was the dance, or so it seems to me. It
certainly was beautiful. This series' centering of gay and trans
actors and characters is really uplifting. Is UK society really this
much more advanced about sexual diversity than the US?
  

    
A successor to Captain Jack is a good way of putting it. I bristled
at the online comments that he was just an 'inferior stand-in' which
i thought was uncalled for and inaccurate.

I agree with you that there does seem to have been a number of
echoes in this run - Rogue/Jack being the one that started it,
Rose/Ruby being my contribution and I know that some have felt that
Ruby is a retread of either/or/both The Girl Who Waited and the
Impossible Girl. Perhaps the ending of Ruby's backstory in the
season finale defuses some of that.

There were more 'echoes' in the finale I thought. The scene were all
the stars in the universe die one by one was a definite nod to the
end of Steven Moffat's first season with Matt Smith. As was the
reliance on the importance of memory, of stories, which was the
fulcrum of "The Big Bang" and that whole season. It felt a little
like RTD was doing a light rewrite on Moffat's initial scripts which
was odd when he was going out of his way to do the show in a new
way, with a different style every week.

Anyway, "Rogue" clearly worked and was a big hit.; I believe that in
the consolidated ratings available to this point it's the highest
rated episode of the season (final two episodes not yet available).
BBC Radio 1 is still doing heavy promotion of the show and the
episode they're pushing isn't the season finale but "Rogue" so it's
definitely reaching the younger (teen/20s) audience that the BBC is
really hoping for.

> Is UK society really this much more advanced about sexual
> diversity than the US?

It really depends on who you ask and which sector of society you
ask. The Mail, Express and Telegraph newspapers have been slating
this series for being far too woke and relentlessly pushing its
diversity agenda. Much like the same criticism that Star Trek has
been all PC and woke, that complaint misses the point that both
shows have been unapologetically doing that ever since they began in
the 60s, and long may they continue to do so
  

    
Thank god it's woke. 
  

    

Yes. Those takes make me think, "Decolonize the news." 

Even though I'm not particularly enthusiastic about academic
terminology going mainstream.
  

    
The 2024 season of Doctor Who has finished its run (there will be a
Christmas special written by Steven Moffat) so we're in the process
of wrapping things up for the time being in the Whovians conference.


If you have any views on how the season has gone, we'd still love to
hear from you, either here or in the conference. Non-members can
send questions and comments to the Inkwell email address, and
members can of course post as normal.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far!