So Doctor Who landed. Fans like me had hoped that with Russell T Davies coming back as head writer and show runner and David Tennant coming back as the 14th Doctor with his companion Catherine Tate, we hoped that the show would return to its former glory, bring something new and be an exciting as well as a respectful homage to the much loved, iconic British TV show.
As anyone who has read this blog knows, I have been a big Russell T Davies fan. His show Years and Years was amazing, his version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was colourful, amusing and gay, Queer As Folk (the original UK show) was daring in how it explored LGBT issues – making the point that straight people don’t behave in these ways, and the children’s TV shows I watched 30 years ago that were written by Russell T Davies were memorable and imaginative.
It is sad to say that RTD has gone off the boil. He has sacrificed his awesome writing, his knowledge of literature, science fiction and history and his sense of fun for what The Critical Drinker calls The Message. Look back to Martha’s first ride in the Tardis with David Tennant’s 10th Doctor to meet Shakespeare. Watch how fun and funny that episode was, with the Doctor, Martha and Shakespeare running around, quoting Shakespeare and Shakespeare saying, “Oh, I like that,” and the Doctor said, “You can have it,” or when the Doctor quoted another writer and Shakespeare said, “Oh I like that”, the Doctor replied that Shakespeare couldn’t have that line because it was someone else’s.
The whole episode was full of humour, history (the trip to Bedlam hospital), knowledge about Shakespeare’s life (he had become mentally ill after the death of his son Hamlet), and there was lots of witches cackling and flying around on brooms. It was funny and fun and we learned something.
Fast forward 16 years to The Star Beast. As a title goes, it’s not the best. I was doing Doctor Who episode titles hangman the other day at work. The Empty Child. The Idiot’s Lantern. The Satan Pit. These were episodes with bite, that creeped us out, that disturbed us and had memorable titles. The Star Beast is a memorable title, but for all the wrong reasons. Was it to bait viewers into referring to New Rose, played by Yasmine Finney, as “The Star Beast”?
Remember David Tennant’s previous run when we all phoned our friends and texted when The Face of Boe told the Doctor, “You are not alone.” Do you remember the excitement of that within your Who friendship group? As Christian Whovians, we were like, “You are not alone!” God is with us.
Remember when Martha typed into the computer Y. A. N. A. as Professor Yana realised who he really was as his true memories reawakened? Derek Jacobs did a fantastic job as an elderly man who thought his life’s work summed up to nought, and then he remembered who he really was. The Doctor realised and ran to save Martha and all the humans on the ship. Do you remember this? Do you remember how excited you were?
Fast forward to The Star Beast, a cute cuddly little animal, doing an ET hiding out in a child’s toy area and turned out to not be so cute or cuddly which I figured within the first few seconds of seeing the little cute, cuddly, white, fluffy thing speaking in a frail little voice. I could have written the story myself, but I would have made a much better job of it.
The episode featured a conversation on pronouns, deadnaming, a conversation behind New Rose’s back about what to say to New Rose… All exciting stuff.
The whole episode was a children level story, as per in Jodi Whittaker’s run of playing the Doctor, where the entire purpose of the episode was to make points.
New Rose is definitely a girl, using she/her pronouns, Rose doesn’t like being deadnamed, Rose is a victim, Rose is described as “Beautiful” almost as many times as Madame Vastra and Jenny kept reminding each other they were married in their first episode in Matt Smith’s run as The Doctor.
Mrs Wheelchair as Connor Tomlinson called her is supposed to be a science officer but offers up no scientific pronouncements. She makes absolutely no references to science at all. She calls the Doctor “Jammy” and she has guns in her wheelchair. “We all have” she says. WTF? I’ve worked in many a hospital and played wheelchair basketball a few times when I was 17 and no, no wheelchairs I’ve ever touched have guns in them.
I would perhaps call her Science Lady. I can’t remember her name because she isn’t memorable so I don’t remember her name, but she does no science so I don’t call her Science Lady. She seems to know nothing at all about science. So I will call her Mrs Wheelchair because her wheelchair seemed to be the only thing the show wanted us to know about her. Mrs Wheelchair can walk a little bit and she can stand up. And she can cross her legs. All of which were shown to make points. Very clearly hammering home points.
Mrs Wheelchair was actually in Years And Years as one of the lead characters and she did a fantastic job. She had a fantastic role as a wheelchair user, in a wheelchair that didn’t fire ground to air missiles. She played a mother of two boys (who she treats differently, thus leading to emotional and behavioural problems for both children), who got a boyfriend and started a business in a burger van on her housing estate. As the years went on, her burgers went from meat to vegetarian to vegan to kale to algae to lab grown meat… RTD wrote this brilliantly.
Back to The Star Beast.
Next, we have the Sikh Unit Soldier Unit Leader not wearing a helmet but wearing a turban. OK fine, but again, he seemed to be there just to hammer home a point that Sikhs are allowed to ride motorbikes and serve as soldiers without wearing a helmet. He had no lead role nor actual purpose apart from being a Sikh in a turban.
Right, let’s look at the trans issues raised by The Star Beast.
New Rose, in case you were not aware, is a transgirl, played by a transwoman actor called Yasmine Finney. No issue with that, none. What I do have an issue is the exact same point that Gary Nerdrotic raised. He said Captain Jack was more than his sexuality.
Yes, Jack was resourceful, smart, a soldier, a fighter, a leader, he was knowledagable about time and space, history and literature. He had dated Proust and so quoted him. Whereas New Rose is only her identity. OK, she makes toys to sell to help out with the family finances and she is vegan, but beyond that, we know absolutely nothing about her other than she is trans.
New Rose is a victim. I saw so many trans folk on twitter saying how New Rose is great trans rep. I was astounded. I asked each and every one, “Do you really think this is good trans rep?” All a trans person can do is be trans. Wow, what a fantastic way to show the public that trans folk are normal every day people, just like everybody else.
New Rose is a victim. She is called names in the street, is deadnamed, she has no friends and is easily bullied. Her mother Donna consistently disables New Rose emotionally and mentally. Donna treats New Rose like a 5 year old. Instead of teaching New Rose how to stand up for herself, Donna wants to take on the 15 year old bullies herself. She corrects her mother on how to speak to New Rose. She constantly tries to defend New Rose from the world instead of teaching New Rose how to live in the world. She is a crap mother and New Rose will never learn to be a successful and independent, popular woman if Donna carries on treating her like a 5 year old.
I know what it is like to never be taught by my parents how to deal with life. I was never taught anything that was vital for me to know, from how to wash my body so that I did not smell to dealing with bullies. It is cruel and makes the neglected child a social pariah. I am so glad the school nurse stepped in and taught me what I needed to do to make sure I smell fresh and clean every day.
Donna thinks she is being kind to New Rose. She is like so many straight people who see LGBT people as being LGBT and nothing more and so they treat us like babies or like pets. No. We are real people with real futures, if we have access to our real futures. If we are constantly disabled by straight people constantly patronising us, we cannot access our real future and we will remain trapped by inadequacies and inabilities to thrive. Straight people think they are being so kind and tolerant and loving towards us. No, they are actually being cruel.
Treat us as normal people and we will thrive. Be “kind” to us – ie patronise us and treat us like children – and we won’t thrive. Like any other people.
The way by which Donna constantly treats New Rose like a 5 year old is the very same set of behaviours and thinking that Jonathan Haidt, the left wing social psychologist, has said has emotionally and mentally disabled American teenagers and young adults into being people who simply cannot cope with life. Everything has to be safe for them. They cannot cope with someone having a different opinion from them. Why? Because their parents never allowed them space to figure things out for themselves when they had an upset with another child.
The parents helicoptered themselves into their child’s live at every turn, taking away the child’s opportunities to test waters, try things out and even get into physical fights with other children. The parents thought they were being kind and good parents, but actually have disabled their children, thus making their children’s lives small and petty and marked by a rise in mental illness, especially anxiety.
New Rose doesn’t have any friends. Rose mentioned friends, she had a boyfriend Micky and she had a shop job. New Rose is a loner, bullied by her peers and unable to make friends. She has to be affirmed constantly by the adults in her family as being female and beautiful. What a loser.
Jordan Peterson talking on this can be found on Youtube. He spoke about teenagers who have no friends, who may have autism, who are maladapted, unpopular, not able to thrive in the world, and he sums them up in the word “loser”. (He was not being unkind but using a word we all know.) But, now comes along a trans identity and all of a sudden the unpopular loser is not a loser but is actually special, very special – special in a way that no one else can understand.
If people aren’t keen on Jordan Peterson’s take, have a go at RTD because he wrote Jordan Peterson’s take into The Star Beast. He undid The DoctorDonna. He made Donna burbling “Binary, binary, binary, binary” as her brain cooked on Time Lord heat into a trans alagory, with New Rose saving the planet as well as her mother’s life by saying, “Non binary”.
I shit you not.
Instead of using science to fight The Meep, New Rose glowed in magical Time Lord fairy dust as though she were a Time Lord when she isn’t, and said, “Non binary”. That was it.
Donna and The Doctor said, “The Doctor is male and female.”
The screen cuts to New Rose saying, “I’m neither. I’m more.”
With a smug look on her face.
New Rose is more than a Time Lord.
New Rose is more than a Time Lord?
How?
Does she feel all of space and time in every cell of her body? Does she speak 52000 languages like The Doctor does? Does she know any science? Any? Litmus paper? Bunsen burners? Anything?
No. All she can do is talk about pronouns and say “Non binary”.
So New Rose cannot actually do anything except make stuffed toys and talk gender stuff but she has just become more proficient in everything than even a Time Lord. She has just been given an ability on a plate. She has never had to work for it. She has not earned it. She has just been given it, like a tenth place ribbon for the 9 year olds’ 15 meter dash.
How utterly insulting to trans folk.
Yet so many trans folk were on twitter saying how amazing all of this was.
As someone who had gender dysphoria for 25 years and was not a lonely, skilless loser, obsessed with gender and pronouns, I find it all utterly insulting.
And RTD thinks this is good? He thought his script was good?
In my book The Underground (available on Amazon), there is a trans character who is a client of the security firm. Chloe – the new worker who is woke – is warned about Pauline being a chain smoker so Chloe was told to ask Pauline to smoke outside while Chloe is in her house. Pauline needs the security firm’s help because drug dealers keep using her garden as a place to deal drugs due to the garden’s location by a main road. This was something that happened to me two years ago.
So, in The Underground, Chloe goes with Anderton (a Nigerian Christian soldier) and Jack (a security worker who hardly ever speaks) to Pauline’s house. Chloe talks with Pauline about people breaking into Pauline’s garden. Chloe assumes that the reason people break into Pauline’s garden is because they are transphobic. This shocks Pauline and she tells Anderton that she wants Chloe to get out of her house and never come back. Pauline is absolutely offended that Chloe assumed the problems with people breaking into her garden were connected to her gender.
Pauline was based on a transwoman I knew, who was a chain smoker and had the same greasy hair and clicked tights that Pauline has. Not every transwoman is glamorous and stunning. Some are very normal – people we can all relate to. The lady I based Pauline on had a son who was in a band, she worked in IT and always had a smile, despite her smokers’ cough and keeping it from everyone that she had cancer.
If anyone had assumed anything about me based on me having what we called back then Gender Identity Disorder, if people had treated me any different because of it, I would have been outraged. I have not told my current employers I am disabled. I find walking up steps in cold weather to check the stand at football matches difficult, but I manage it. I do not want people to know I am disabled because I do not want to be treated any differently than any other security worker. I want to be treated according to the quality of my work. It is the same with being bisexual and having had GID. I want to be treated according to the quality of my work.
I did ask a number of times on Twitter why on Earth Yasmine Finney accepted such an awful script. Maybe she needed a payday? It is an awful script, badly written and so clunky with all the issues it wanted to push at the audience instead of just telling a good story. Also, her acting was not the best. Two steps up from mine. Not the best script, not the best story and not the best actor. Doctor Who used to be head and shoulders above this episode.
I also want to be liked. Last week, I was working with two young guys who were both knowledgable and intelligent. We talked about everything from Doctor Who to Rome. I asked for their opinions. I was positive. I cracked jokes. I listened to them. I showed them that I liked them. We got on. Two guys who are not bisexual or trans or disabled but I was able to get on with them because I have developed my personality and inter personal skills.
I did not demand that they liked me. I invited them to chat and they chatted.
If only Doctor Who had learned this lesson before The Star Beast went out.
The best way to get people to like you is to invite people to learn about you and decide if they like you. Have a conversation where you listen to the other person, the other side and show them respect. You don’t have to agree on anything.
Yes, I do not work my backside off 100% the time I am at work, but I work my backside off 90% the time I am at work. I do nasty jobs myself such as cleaning toilets or dealing with a disturbed person who has pissed themselves and is pretending that they spilt a can of Coke on themselves. I check in on the students and foreign workers to make sure they are all OK, have put on their layers and are warm enough. I ask senior and supervisors how I can improve and to put me in positions around the grounds where I can learn and be active. I bring in cake and chocolate to share around the minibus at the end of shifts. I work for my positions, and I earn my qualifications and titles.
Being handed titles without having done any of the hard work to achieve them and the body of work to back them up is only going to annoy people and make people dislike you.
Demanding that people see you as special and give you the adulation you demand is the behaviour of a two year old throwing a tantrum.
Telling everyone how special you are without any ability to back that claim up makes you look entitled and no one will like you. They will laugh at you behind your back.
If only Doctor Who had learned this before The Star Beast went out.
catherinehume 