"We sat there going, 'Does that work?' – but it was too late."

NARRATOR: It did work.

One of the all-time great episodes for my money, though I can absolutely see why that script would make them nervous.

  • @[email protected]English
    4•5 months ago

    It ranks pretty high on my list as well, although unfortunately most of my Who watching friends don’t like it. I really like tense and/or dialog heavy episodes, so it makes for very interesting television for me! The intensity even holds up well on rewatches, which doesn’t always happen for me.

  • @CrackhappyEnglish
    0•5 months ago

    I have been excoriated for years for not liking Doctor Who, Firefly, etc and I still don’t get the rabid fan base. I have watched at minimum 10 seasons of Doctor Who and of course all of Firefly. What do you think you can say to change my thinking?

    • @Wandering_UncertaintyEnglish
      6•5 months ago

      It’s not a thing to change, though? I guess there’s one aspect that might be addressable.

      I don’t enjoy sports, but I appreciate the skill and training that goes into it. No one could say anything that would make me enjoy watching any sports, but they could help me to appreciate it by better understanding the skills and stuff.

      So if you don’t like Doctor Who - same deal. It’s a matter of taste, that’s fine. If you don’t understand what there is to like about it, that’s all anyone could help you with.

      Me, I only really like the first few sessions of the reboot, with the 9th and 10th Doctor, because I appreciate a little more depth in my stories.

      Doctor Who appeals to so many people and a major reason for it is that it appeals on a number of different levels.

      There’s the escapism, of course. How many Whovians secretly (or not so secretly) wish they could hear the whine of the TARDIS’s engines, see the Doctor, and be whisked away? To adventure, to incredible sights and experiences, to feeling like they matter. That brings me to the next point, but just here for a moment - that escapism is uniquely profound in Doctor Who. A huge number of fans would accept being the Doctor’s companions, even knowing how badly it ends for so many of them. If I didn’t have a kid to take care of, I’d be on that list myself - I’d take a short, full, meaningful life over this bullshit any day. Even if I’m dead in 6 months, for those six months I’d live more than a hundred years the way I am now.

      There’s also the simple, pure joy of following the adventure of someone who’s just straight up a good guy. You can feel safe rooting for him, in your heart - he’s going to try to do what’s right, there’s no mixed feelings about that. It’s like a child’s story that way. And yet, he’s not just fighting cartoonish, childish enemies. Sometimes, yeah, but there’s often nuance, moral complexity, hard choices.

      Like the Pompeii episode where he had to decide whether to actively kill everyone in the town in order to save the world. And they didn’t blow it off, it was a painful choice, he wasn’t saved by a Deus ex machina at the end, he had to do it. He hurt for it - him and his companion Donna, they both strove to do what’s right and made this terrible choice.

      And yet, for all that heaviness that underlies so much of the show (and I swear, the writers love traumatizing the doctor), it still manages to be light-hearted and fun most of the time. Suitable to watch with your family.

      It’s real, and alive, and cheerful, and rich in a way so many shows aren’t. It’s fun and thought provoking.

      Yes, it’s incredibly stupid at times, no joke, and I’m not at all happy with some directions it took after the 10th. I finished Matt Smith’s run and then stopped watching.

      But there’s something beautiful and deeply compelling about it for a great many people. Ah, to be whisked away to adventure and purpose! Wouldn’t that just be brilliant?

      Edit: I can’t seem to figure out how to do spoilers on here…