Well, I’ve got to say, this season/series of Doctor Who was as satisfying as eating a Nero’s Maritozzo while watching an Ann Summers DVD. It was that good.
For me, the best part of this season’s Doctor Who was finding new reviewers who are fabulous. I highly recommend them.
Disparu – an English guy who has made a fantastic montage of Ncuti’s fake Jamaican accent as Ncuti butchers the English language with his fake accent. No, it’s not a Rwandan accent and it’s not a Scottish accent. It’s a fake Jamaican accent, which is so 1982. “Spooyur”. Spore.
Overlord DVD – An American space overlord who is joined on his ship by a green space octopus and a skull in formaldehyde.
Bowlestrek – an American whose current presentation I love. He goes between simply explaining the plot points to shouting “GOOD GOD! IT’s TIDDLYWINKS!”
Bowlestrek deserves an award for getting around the censors with this old English term for a homosexual who is also an intersex person. It was a nickname my dad had for both me and my sister when we were aged around 7-10. “Come on Tiddlywinks, we are going to the zoo.” How prescient. And then my dad turned into a shouty phobic type who hid the David Bowie CDs lest they be a bad influence.
So for anyone who has not endured – sorry, enjoyed – this season of Doctor Who, let me break it down for you. The season was full of fun, adventures and true British wit – a true gem of a family show shown at meal times on a Saturday when the kids are home and bathed after football practice.
Ep 1 Space Babies: an adventure in space where we learn about abortion and refugees.
Ep 2 The Devil’s Chord: we learn all about how an evil drag queen was abused by their father.
Ep 3 Boom: We learn that women manipulate men with promises to see their rude bits, promises that are then broken, and white guys die.
Ep 4 73 Yard: We learn that Deepest Darkest Wales is the most exciting place in the universe and we have a well deserved break from Ncuti.
Ep 5 Dot and Bubble: Well…This takes some explaining.
Ep 6 Rogue: We learn that the “interestingly shaped” sonic screwdriver (insert your own jokes) can detect gay/bi/omnisexual male presenting bounty hunters.
Ep 7 The Legend of Ruby Sunday: Actually got exciting towards the end.
Ep 8 Empire of Death: It all means nothing. There is no meaning to it all. Life has no meaning.
So a rollicking great series for all the family.
There was just so little to like in this series. So little to like. So thank goodness for Disparu, Overlord DVD and Bowlestrek. Thank you guys for making this series of Doctor What The Hell Was That?! so enjoyable, fun and poignant.
What did I enjoy from an LGBT commentary point of view?
I think “enjoy” is not quite the right word. I’m reaching for a word… I’m reaching into The Void for the right word.
Overlord DVD asked if Nuti Gatwa’s performance as The Doctor is what Ncuti and RTD think gay men are. Overlord DVD made the point that most gay men are every day guys, going to work, doing the food shopping, watching TV. They don’t jazz hands their way through life, and not everything is FABULOUUUUUUUSSSSS! I think this season’s Doctor Who is a poor representation of gay men. Really poor representation of gay men.
The English rugby player Gareth Thomas said he found it difficult to reconcile being gay with who he was because all of the representation of gay men in the media is that of the camp clown. He was not that, so he thought he couldn’t be gay, but he was, and that was something he struggled with for many years. There will be boys watching Doctor Who who may be same sex attracted and may go on to being gay adults. How on Earth are they supposed to respond to The First Female Doctor Played by Cuti Gatwa? (Thank you Disparu.) People bang on about representation all the time, including Ncuti, and this show clearly does not represent the majority of gay men. It gives a very narrow view of what being gay is.
As I have said many times, RTD was my favourite writer. “Was” being the pivotal word there. RTD has said how nothing he writes feels to him “particularly queer” and he is just writing his life and putting his life on screen.
Queer – that repulsive homophobic slur that was often used with violence and sexual violence against gay people in the 80s and 90s in the UK.
Queer – the theory of breaking down social norms, including the social norms between adults and children. Queer theorists from Gayle Rubin to the paper called The Pedagogy of Drag written by Harper Keenan and Little Miss Hot Mess was all about how drag is used to take children away from their real parents and induct them into a “glitter family”. Oh and major founder of the queer theory movement Foucault was a serious sexual sadist who raped young boys. Queer.
I do not think for a second that RTD is stupid. He clearly isn’t, based on his previous works; the original Queer As Folk, Cucumber, Years And Years. He is clearly not stupid, but he is very clearly infected by The Mind Virus.
RTD wrote Queer As Folk as things he had seen himself as a gay man back in 1996, the life he as a gay man knew. It was a life where men were sex addicts, their sex addiction led to serious depression and they took drugs and chased after more men to try to heal the damage inside that comes from a meaningless existence. RTD also wrote a script that was so clever that it compassionately questioned whether being gay was the same as being straight, or was there something different and even wrong about living the sort of life the characters in that story did.
In the original QAF, Nathan was 15 and he had his first sexual experience with Stewart, and this was the basis for the first episode and most of the series. So adult and child, front and centre in the original QAF.
How did Ncuti Gatwa, a young man who has appeared as a Ken dancer in the Barbie movie, and also as a gay Nigerian teenager in Sex Education, so an actor with such little acting experience, how did Ncuti get the role of The Doctor? Who was he in competition with? Well, Ncuti was the only person who auditioned for the role. Some rumours say that Ncuti and RTD knew each other before Ncuti auditioned. Ncuti was the only person who auditioned for the role of The Doctor. Bit strange.
OK, where’s the lesbian representation? We have Harriet Arbinger – yes, really – in the last two episodes in UNIT. And Harriet turns out to be evil, a harbinger if you may, and is taken over by the god of death Sutekh who now looks like a dog. So, lesbian is evil and dies. This is yet another Kill Your Lesbians trope that I would not expect from a gay writer… But RTD has form. In 42, the lesbian presenting character died within the first few minutes. Lesbians always die in RTD’s Doctor Who. Great lesbian representation there RTD.
One of Overlord DVD’s companions calls The Doctor “Doctor Slutty” in one review. This is possibly the review of Rogue. I have reported a couple of reviewers for homophobia, don’t you worry, but I just love Overlord DVD’s bass tones as he said, “This episode is…. gaaaaaaaay.” It certainly was, but not my version of gay. The episode is a hook up culture version of gay. The Doctor’s companion Ruby Sunday is at a ball, Bridgerton style with people of all different racial backgrounds in an 1800s mansion, and she is determined to meet a handsome stranger. Ruby is not the brightest bulb in the box, but she is easy on the eye, and is wearing a low cut dress typical of the time, so silver linings. While Ruby is trying to get laid and spies on other people trying to get laid, The Doctor’s sonic screwdriver (insert your own jokes) that looks suspiciously like something obtainable from the electronics department of Ann Summers detects a handsome roguish chap called, um, Rogue. This episode is pure fan fiction written by two middle aged women who write, well, you can look up their previous “achievements”, their oeuvres. It shows. Not exactly Sofia Coppola.
Doctor Phrooti and Rogue – a pound shop Captain Jack played by Tucker Carlson according to Overlord DVD – go to each other’s respective ships and, well. Doctor Nuti uses his, erm, device to make Rogue’s CD player play Kylie’s “I Just Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”. Yes, really. With a look of pure ecstasy, Doctor Fruity is thrusting his bits in time to the music. Any responsible parent should have clicked this episode off long before this point. The Doctor shows Rogue to the TARDIS and locks Rogue in while singing “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonker and The Chocolate Factory – a children’s film about a man being like a kid in a sweet shop.
Flash back to RTD saying he doesn’t think there’s anything particularly queer about what he has written. Queer – tearing down the norms between children and adults.
Throughout the series, there are a few times when Ncuti’s face is more than a bit creepy. Locking a man in your home when expecting special treats while singing a song from a children’s film about sweeties… SAFEGUARDING!
So, Rogue the episode is about two men who meet, who kiss, who want to Get It On, are disturbed, who propose on bended knee and a ring is given
Please, get your mind out of RTD’s gutter.
It is a celebration of hook up culture. Hook up culture that leads many a gay man to sex addiction, depression and suicide. I’ve known a few. What a wonderful message to give the children at home.
Oh, just for a laugh, let’s have a look at Ruby’s fighting style in the episode Rogue.
Calm down Michelle Yeoh, you still have a career.
Dot And Bubble. This is Episode 5. Well. What can be said? I did like the actor Callie Cooke who played Lindy, the lead character in this episode. I think she did a great rendition of Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny while brushing her teeth, with great facial expressions. I loved her self adulating facial expression when she wondered if the monsters were leaving the tastiest – her – humans til last to eat. That was good.
Disparu’s exploration of Dot And Bubble is fantastic. Seriously, this guy has gone back over the episode and weeded out all the “clues” that we all missed the first time around because the only people who would pick up on the clues are racists. “Disinfected” and “lists”. Words that just went over my head because I don’t think on that level when it comes to other human beings.
When we got to the real end of Dot And Bubble, the twist, it came out of nowhere. Because I am not racist. I mean, who today in the UK judges someone based on the colour of their skin? Who? Especially zoomers? Who? No one who is mentally stable.
Yes, many people have questions over culture. Yes. But not skin colour. When I look at Zuby, I think he looks so gorgeous. When I look at Nadia Hussein, I just think she is so beautiful. And the tones of their skin are something that I think makes them both look so wonderful. Both Zuby and Nadia Hussein both come across as really lovely people, generous spirited, decent, hard working, lovely people.
Several weeks back, I was doing a security shift on the edge of town. I was outdoors with my colleague. Suddenly, many police cars and ambulances whizzed past us both at high speed with their lights and sirens on. We knew something serious involving a lot of people had happened. My worry was a terrorist attack had taken place in the city centre and we had colleagues facilitating an event in the city centre so I worried about them. It took two hours before social media allowed reports through of around 200 African men across two different sites fighting with samurai swords and amputating whole limbs from other African men in the street, with bits hacked off other African men.
This is horrific and it is now a normal part of UK life in the cities.
When we look at the official crime stats for the UK, we see that Black people make up 4% the UK’s population but 18% convicted murderers (ONS 2021 latest data available). We see that Black men make up around 2% the UK’s population but 8% convicted rapists (ONS data). 25% sex offenders against children are Asian – Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi – (Ministry of Justice) but they make up 9% the UK’s population.
For every serious crime category, Chinese people are the people least likely to commit these offences.
So this is not about skin colour. Nobody cares about skin colour.
No one has a problem with skin colour. No one has a problem with a foreign neighbour or foreign workmate. The UK has been shown in several studies to be the most welcoming country in the world to people from other cultures and nationalities. No one has a problem with skin colour.
We do have a problem with the rise in murders and rapes and child abuse. No one is saying every African is a murderer and no one is saying every Asian is a child abuser. No one is saying that. What people do know from their own lived experience, what they see in the street with their own eyes and what we see in the crime stats is that not all cultures are the same in how they treat women, children, LGBT people, disabled people and people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds.
We also see that groups such as Chinese, Korean and Japanese are the most hard working and the least likely to commit crimes. It is not about skin colour, race or religion.
RTD thinks he has been clever, showing the white characters in Dot And Bubble to be vile racists. No. He has used words like “disinfect”. So Black and Asian folk were a part of the Fine Time world in the past. Why did the zoomers want rid of the Black and Asian folk? It wouldn’t be for the colour of their skin, their accents or different clothes. None of this would have mattered. Something must have happened in Fine Time for one group to decide to not include another group in Fine Time.
RTD thinks he has had a go at white racists… wherever they may be lurking. If you find one, please let us know. What he has done is shown that something has happened that has changed people’s view of The Other. We have not been told what that thing was. We are supposed to think that white people are bad for simply being white. We are shown Lindy betraying another Fine Timer so that he was murdered and she could get away to safety. We are supposed to conclude that all white people are evil.
When the Fine Timers reject The Doctor’s offer of assistance, they don’t call him any names. They address him as “sir”. So they are polite racists! They reject his offer of assistance because they don’t know how a Black man has technology that they don’t have and how he can help them with his technology.
Cue the thorny issue of no tech or tools that we use today were invented by a Black African nor Afro-Caribbean person. White Africans yes, some white Africans have invented things we use today in medicine and more, but no Black Africans. Yes, Ghana had a big tech business revolution for a number of years recently and that was highly successful, but that was using tech invented in Europe, America and East Asia.
Much of the tech left by colonialists in Africa has been allowed to rust or has been deconstructed and sold for parts. Mines, railways, solar powered machinery for food preparation, taken apart and sold for parts when they could have been used by the people of those countries to mine gold, diamonds, cobalt and more and become wealthy. South Africa was the fifth richest country in the world but is now a country whose major cities do not have clean water nor electricity most of the day every day. Mr Beast was told by the Kenyan government that he was making them look bad so please stop digging wells and providing Kenyan children with clean drinking water, please.
There are a lot of really ugly issues that have been raised by RTD thinking he was being clever about how evil white people are. RTD is so blinded by The Mind Virus that he does not realise the can of worms he was opening. These are issues that we have to tread very carefully around, not because we need to shy away from any truth but so that we don’t encourage racism and hatred to thrive. We need to have grown up conversations about these issues because what we are doing right now is not benefiting people in the poorest countries in the world nor the victims of the most serious crimes in the UK, and we need to have these conversations without calling people istaphobes. I don’t think most people are ready to have these conversations yet.
Let’s get back to more cheerful matters
As I said in my review of the Christmas specials, Ncuti does not have the acting ability of David Tennant. He just doesn’t. David Tennant gave us a fun Doctor but also a Doctor with gravitas, ability, seriousness, terror, fear and careful consideration. Ncuti just does not have the acting ability. Tennant had been a Shakespeare actor. Ncuti played Ncuti in Sex Education. Many people have said Ncuti is just playing himself when he plays The Doctor.
Ncuti is just not believable as The Doctor. Part of this is he has no discernible costume. The Doctor always has a costume that makes him – or her – instantly recognisable as The Doctor. When I was wearing a fez on trains going down to the Beautiful Days festival as I was an original member of the Fez League, people were wanting photos with me because they were Doctor Who fans. Matt Smith made the fez famous again and synonymous with his Doctor. Ncuti’s constant costume changes means his Doctor is unrecognisable.
Plus Ncuti’s creepy facial expressions and his lack of ability to perform with much masculinity. The Doctor’s role is quite physical. Lots of running towards danger being one key part of The Doctor’s performance. Ncuti cannot run. He “fast minces” as Disparu said. I had said “he’s fast mincing!” just before Disparu said it. Yes! Ncuti fast minces. He doesn’t run. His clothing is effeminate, his hand gestures are effeminate, he constantly swishes about while saying how awesome he is… While letting the women do all the work and comfort him when he cries. Ncuti cries in every single episode. Yes, Tennant cried, but rarely, which made it impactful when he did cry. There’s nothing wrong with effeminate men at all, a man I see a lot and admire is effeminate, but he can run and do stuff, but also, mincy and boastful is not the character of The Doctor.
Ncuti’s Doctor is a pet to straight women. I’ve said this about The Pact Series 2 where the gay guy was emotional and treated as a pet by all the straight women around him. This is what the BBC thinks of gay men; they constantly have to be hugged and patted and affirmed by the straight women around them. They are the butt of the jokes. Ncuti is the camp clown who has to be comforted by Ruby and Kate and Mel and… whichever other straight women are around him when he cries in every single episode apart from the one he is not in.
Millie Gibson did a great job playing Ruby Sunday. She is a bit too Clara-like for me, not just in being The Mystery Girl At The Centre Of Everything, but in her dress sense, facial expressions and just her overall manner. It has to be said she is a pretty girl and her thighs have been much appreciated throughout this series by many. It could be said that Millie’s thighs have done much of the heavy lifting in this weak series. In the last episode, Ruby and The Doctor have a sudden costume change and go all military chic. As one reviewer said, “She became Booby Sunday!” I was relieved that I wasn’t the only one who had noticed.
Being serious, Millie Gibson has been the shining light of the series. She seems like a nice girl and I think she has a bright future ahead of her. She can act, she can carry a scene, she can adapt her accent and demeanour as she showed when she was momentarily a butterfly alien in Space Babies.
But let’s look one more time at Ruby’s fighting technique.
Good night everyone, and please go and check out Disparu, his reviews and one youtube entitled, Doctor Who’s Insidious Message Targets The Vulnerable. That is an excellent extra video he has done on Doctor Who and the dark side of the messaging. Also, Overlord DVD and Bowlestrek. Have a giggle, not The Giggle, and enjoy seeing how this series of Doctor Who has affected the minds of others far funnier and more insightful than me.
Good night and God bless everyone x
catherinehume 