Bonnie Langford – Simon’s Incoherent Blog

Doctor Who: Season 2/15/41, Episode 7 – Wish World

“Doubt is such a beautiful thing. If you question hard enough, then doubt can crack open the world!”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

“Is any of this making sense?”

Well… if I’m honest, not much, no. To be fair to Russell T Davies, this is the first half of a two-part story, so perhaps everything will click into place next week. For now, though, what we had here seemed like a bit of a jumble; there were some brilliant ideas, and some striking images, but it didn’t seem to cohere into any kind of logical story. Not yet, anyway.

Doctor Who: Season 14, Episode 7 – The Legend of Ruby Sunday

“You’ve seen my life. I bring disaster, Kate, disaster.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

It seems like the new season of Doctor Who has barely started, but we’re already into the endgame with this jaw-dropping penultimate episode, the first of a big two-parter. A run of eight episodes is, sadly, pretty short to flesh out a new Doctor, particularly when he’s been virtually absent for two of those eight episodes – but Ncuti Gatwa has been as superb as I always knew he would be. This episode showed us more of that irrepressible joie de vivre, but coupled with the melancholy we’ve seen in the past, drawn from centuries of bad experiences which, rightly or wrongly, the Doctor considers himself responsible for.

Doctor Who: 2023 Special #3 – The Giggle

“You’ll be someone else. It doesn’t matter who. Cause every single one of you is fantastic.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

These specials have been an interesting side trip into the world of Doctor Who, giving us the second shortest-lived (onscreen) incarnation of the Doctor, reinvigorating the show while acknowledging everything that went before. It’s easy to imagine, after these, that we’ll still be watching Doctor Who in several years’ time. But the new question is – just how many?

How sexist is Doctor Who?–Part Seven

The Sylvester McCoy years

Welcome to Part Seven of my attempt to analyse the sexism in every Doctor Who story ever, using the Bechdel Test – and my wits. For a reminder of the rules, check the Intro here. Then, going by Doctor:

A quick reminder of the Test:

It has to have two named female characters
Who talk to each other
About something besides a man.

Last week, we saw that despite the production chaos around him, Colin Baker’s run was the least sexist of any Doctor so far, only failing the Test 18.8% of the time – the most sexist era so far being Jon Pertwee’s which failed the Test 54.2% of the time. With John Nathan-Turner still producing, and shifting the show ever closer to light entertainment courtesy of some dubious stunt casting, callow newcomer Andrew Cartmel comes in at this point to shepherd in a new Doctor. With his own light entertainment background, Sylvester McCoy might have seemed an odd choice, but was soon to prove otherwise. But how well would this new era treat women? Let’s find out…

Continue reading “How sexist is Doctor Who?–Part Seven”

How sexist is Doctor Who?–Part Six

The Colin Baker years

Welcome to Part Six of my attempt to analyse the sexism in every Doctor Who story ever, using the Bechdel Test – and my wits. For a reminder of the rules, check the Intro here. Then, going by Doctor:

A quick reminder of the Test:

It has to have two named female characters
Who talk to each other
About something besides a man.

Last week, we discovered that Peter Davison had shown a marked improvement in Bechdel terms from his predecessors, scoring the least sexist rating yet. But with trouble on the horizon for incoming Doctor Colin Baker, can he continue the trend of improvement? Let’s see…

Continue reading “How sexist is Doctor Who?–Part Six”