TO ANYONE CONVINCED THAT DOCTOR WHO IS AT THE BRINK OF CANCELLATION DUE TO "RECORD LOW VIEWING NUMBERS": you're so wrong it's unreal ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KzV76DdEM78.html
"...they are marketing in search of art whose funders don't seem to care whether or not they find it. " The exact words I've been looking for for a while
I had a very strange feeling coming out of Wonka. Because I was positively shocked that it was a movie, based on a previously existing property, that... actually felt like the people making it cared about what they were making. How bizarre it was to realize that so much of what we watch isn't made because people want to make it, but because they're told to. I think that's what's leading to all of the boring movies we're seeing now.
@@tentavision13I haven't seen it but from the marketing material it looked like a completely sanitised and watered down version of something much better
The state of media is NOT because, as I keep hearing, “audiences have shorter attention spans”, it’s all budget cuts and profit margins and efficiency over art. The problems are top down, not whims of the watchers. That cannot be stressed enough
I regard him as the best incarnation and interpretation of the character. His own character evolution within the same incarnation and the way he influenced other characters to change as well is extremely significant. Brilliant acting, brilliant character. Some of the stories - not so brilliant. But there were impressively high peaks I tell you.
29:28 - That might be good television, but this moment is peak video easy. I threw my head back and laughed out loud alone in my house. Paused the video, threw my phone across the room and fist pumped. Sarah, it's so fucking good to see you again ❤️
I very rarely see takes on Doctor Who that I don't feel at least some degree of "this has completely missed the point of why this show is so important to me" around that always makes me hesitant to click on a video about this show. This essay was a positively delightful exception to that rule in a way that does not surprise me at all given the consistent brilliance of your work. Thank you for not only capturing and putting into words but also structuring your analysis around the things that (I happen to think) make this show special and interesting. Thank you also for quelling some of the residual cynicism I still hold around Doctor Who being sortakinda a Disney property now. I feel more optimistic walking into today's episodes after this. That said, I do think the Whittaker/Chibnal era will deserve a re-evaluation one day. I don't think the world is ready for it just yet, but I have already started finding a new appreciation for some of those episodes that I very much did not have when they first aired, and I hope I will not be the last to feel this way.
The summary was too succinct, and it really sounded like just another version of the narrative of "If you had a problem with TLJ, it must be because you are a bigot" which is incredibly frustrating because there were so many reasons why that movie was such an incredible dumpster fire without even the need to dip into the "woke barrel". The backlash was well deserved, even though some people just weren't able to identify the problems correctly or articulate their grievances with it, and quite frankly, I'm glad that Rian Johnson got the soft boot and thrown under the bus by not letting him have his trilogy. It's just too bad that this didn't really save Star Wars from the horrible state of slop that followed TLJ anyway. Andor was the first thing after Rogue One that was made with any sort of competency, and I fear it's going to be the only one given how bad every other series has turned out to be thus far.
My favourite part of this new season has been as you put it "the respect for the albatross" How the 14th doctor works in the grief of the flux And how the 15th doctor processes the revelation that he was adopted by the gallifrians instead of being born there (and by that same token the grief of gallifrey being DESTROYED AGAIN) I think RTD has made a really good through line with the doctor having a new perspective about being a foundling
Finally, a fellow Moffat defender that gets how gendery 12 is. So much of Capaldi's Doctor's characterisation can be read as gender dysphoria. The passive suicidality, constantly surrounding himself with fascinating powerul women, desiring to not be himself... And then he finally gets to be a woman as a reward for choosing to live. I know it's all unintentional, but it mattered a lot to me as I worked out my own trans identity
I appreciate that you added that it was unintentional, because I wouldn't like to give Moff undeserved credit lol. But it is a very nice read of his character, I wish it was incorporated into the actual show somehow.
@@waywardh9528 timelords are pretty much genderless and asexual and the doctor even more so. Remembering the famous line by Tom Baker "You're a beautiful woman! Probably!"
@@ennayanne It most likely wasn't his intention - but I bet he supports that reading. After all, the queerness of the show didn't vanish from it when he took over! Far from it!
I feel like I have to push back on the companion puppet show being a critique of Moffat writing character endings. while they do have some solace in them they're each fully portrayed as a tragedy, 11 is broken up by Amy's death that he tries to retire, 12 tortures himself for 4 and a half billion years due to Clara's death as well as being regretful and mournful for Bill. just because the doctor is the one giving excuses doesn't mean those weren't meant to be tragic and hurtful to him at the time. I see it more of RTD defending those Moffat endings from critics that said that Moffat can't stick to death by saying those deaths still happened and were hurtful to the Doctor. (plus I always feel like Moffat's endings are specifically to give the companions more agency in their departures especially Clara's). I dunno as someone who liked Moffat's era throughout it felt a lot better to see those eras respected in that scene after there was virtually no reference to them during the Chibnall era. I am glad to see someone become a Moffat defender tho and understand that the tumblr fans can be wrong about some things.
thank you for watching! if you liked this video, please share and talk about it wherever appropriate. youtube's algorithm isn't particularly kind to my videos, so any scrap of word-of-mouth goes a very long way.
@51:00 after pondering and listening to your video, I had the after tought : Jodie said TAG you're it! The Toymaker thus retook power from being tricked by Hartnell after ALL this time !!! When he says messing with your timeline, we haven't even seen the end of it yet |
Excellent video, thank you so much for making it. I do disagree that the Toymaker's marionette show is as critical of Moffatt as you're making out, though! I don't think it was ever meant to be 'all right then' in the original episodes - none of those companion exits feel good. It felt very in step with Moffatt's work, to me. And I wouldn't described any of them as extraneous! Amy dying of old age after an arc that revolved around her inability/reluctance to fully grow up, Clara completing her transformation into the Doctor (thus transcending the fundamental power imbalance of having a relationship with a time traveller that Moffatt has been writing about since The Girl in the Fireplace), Bill - like every protagonist in s10 - getting a good ending with no knowledge that anyone else made it out alive (plus stepping out of her grave and becoming an unburiable gay!). All of this is thematically vital! Anyway, this was literally my only gripe. Loved it. And the UK audience very much did sour on Moffatt's run right before it got really good, in my experience - I had a very similar experience to yours, and only gave the Capaldi era a second chance at the urging of my partner and a dear friend who both love it. (Also I loved how both RTD's writing and Tennant's performance of 14 was visibly drawing on 11, 12, and 13's characterisation and mannerisms!)
Yeah, this reflects how I felt when I saw the new episodes were just a normal string of episodes that were fun and sincere even if they had some awkward dialogue here and there I couldn’t really talk about them on Reddit because they’d all been playing a big game of telephone and convinced each other that Smith and Capaldi were intentionally being teased, and infuriated that this was just Doctor Who being itself rather than Spider-Man far from home
I am currently watching through the Capaldi seasons with a very good friend and I am constantly shocked at how good the episodes are. As you said, there are a few annoying "Moffitt-isms" but compared to how many there were in Smith's run, it's a massive step in the right direction
I just really wanted to commend your camera work, set, and lighting. I'm no expert by any stretch but I'm just delighted by the care given to this setup
Your analysis is insightful, thoughtful, and blessed with a light touch. It’s the best kind of critique - coming from a fan, who clearly looks at Who with the same excitement as they first had with this delight of a show. Excellent critique. More please, Sarah.
0:42 “When the doctor dies, his body regenerates into the form of the new actor playing him.” I just rewatched the entire series to verify that this is actually the case, and it is! Every time. It kind of seems like a coincidence, but it's still cool.
One of the things I like about "The Pronouns Scene" is that it's a direct quotation of the introduction of Tom Baker's Doctor with the term 'the definite article'; knowing the history of the franchise and recontextualizing it in a modern setting while also being its own thing that stands on its own even without that prior knowledge.
There is this t-shirt with 4 boxes of preferred pronouns: he/him - she/her - they/them and (ticked) the Doctor! What would really diverse people like to be called ? - I guess it is their choosen name too😂
gonna go into a mental spiral about "consistent inconsistency" being one of dr who's greatest strengths. Because so many good shows are too good and then at the first sign of weakness the fans turn on it. Or a show is "too good to finish/cancel" and they milk it for too long and it loses its magic. The creative chaos of dr who means it isn't held back by expectations and can constantly reinvent itself when it gets stale. Like it's baked into the concept of the show with the regens and new companions, of course it's lasted so long but i guess i never thought about it that way before
Love this. You so get how Doctor Who canon works, at its best. And so glad you cut through all the rigamarole of the bi-generation, and just said what the show says happens. Thank you. (Also very cool application of your formula to the SW revival trilogy. Thank you again!)
You know, I didn't think I'd ever sincerely want to watch Doctor Who again (I gave up during early Capaldi, and only got half a season into Chibnall's run as trying again), and yet, here we are. I've always missed it, and maybe I can feel that emotionally again
Wow she did not miss for an hour straight... Amazing criticisms on the past show and new episodes. Wasn't sure if I was going to watch them but now I'm very excited to see them!
Yaaaaaay a new Sarah Zedig video! I love how you make arguments and I too am a huge Doctor Who nerd who owns almost the entire series on Blu-ray/DVD/Audio CDs of Missing Episodes.
i am always so profoundly impressed by your work, if one day i make something even half as good as your tunic video i’d probably ride that high for weeks. your writing style is so phenomenal, i always leave your videos feeling like i’ve learned something : )
yaayyy new sarah video!! this is so good, and your love for doctor who absolutely bleeds through in every moment, i hope you share more doctor who opinions as this era unfolds
The first two episodes absolutely double down on EVERYTHING you said and it is AMAZING. Tricker diety drag queen stealing music and the day is saved by the beatles and the episode is ended with a dance sequence? YES DR WHO IS BACK AND ITS DIFFERENT AND ITS PERFECT
This was SUCH a good video. I love all the points you bring up about it actually creating a welcoming space to share people's stories and not just fill in boxes. I do just want to say that Ruth Madeley and her character Shirley are not "wheelchair bound" they use a wheelchair. It's worth pointing out that they literally get out of the chair in the Giggle episode and there's a moment where Kate Stewart accuses them of faking it because of this. In the video clip you showed, Ruth uses the term "wheelchair user" which is more accurate and does not imply that the wheelchair is in and of itself a limitation. The wheelchair allows for greater access to the world.
The whole thing about the timeless child is that it.... Doesn't really make much of a difference? We already know that gallifreyans developed into time lords, that regeneration wasn't natural, and that the doctor has a weird origin. Almost every future version of the doctor is essentially a god of time, or time itself embodied, or what have you. He was the only one other than rassilon who could use his big silly thanos glove. The timeless child doesn't erase anything, it just shuffles the doctor's importance further into their past - which is truly not something that makes any difference in a time travel show, right? But yeah, the lack of usage of it was an issue. I want to see the fugitive doctor return. The first black doctor, the first black female doctor especially, deserves her time in the spotlight. If she became something like a new River Song, that would be incredible.
Yes it feels like it purely hinges on the audience finding it shocking, but in-universe it barely matters at all The Doctor, who knows the Time lords are monstrous egomaniacs, whom once rationalised blowing up their entire planet to get rid of them, is horrified to learn they weren’t entirely honest about their history The Master, whom recently learned his lifelong insanity was deliberately inflicted on him, is so angry upon learning they also ruined his archenemy’s childhood for personal gain that he kills them all Like, the whole thing hinges on the idea that it’s surprising that the Time lords weren’t great people
Finally made it back to finish this (had to leave halfway through the premiere bc work). Excellent, excellent stuff. I think I need to start watching doctor who again.
The Rise of Skywalker really was a completely pointless own goal, a terrified conservative fleeing from the light of potential, it's good to see someone just openly say it. The haters did not matter and they lit it all on fire for nothing.
HOLY SHIT SARAH Z BUT THE OTHER ONE - YOU'RE BACK!!!! by which I mean, you're back in my feed after disappearing following your homestuck fanfic video. I think I watched everything you'd put out up until that point. madness!! oh also neat vid :)
Upcoming nitpicky comment about a detail that isn't important. The Division does the mind wiping isn't the time lord cia. that's the celestial investigation agency which is different to the division yet both do shady stuff. While I don't like the timeless child the fact rtd does more with it in a few scenes than chibnall did is so telling. Same for the flux. Chibnall doesn't really care that much about consequences to the characters. Characters are the main thing rtd is interested in more than plot.
23:23 that's actually not true. chibnall and matt strevens wanted all the senior staff who'd worked on the show for years to reapply and interview for lower junior roles, and so most of them left for other things.
"11 is a 900 year old has a mid life crisis where he thinks if he can convince the rest of the world he is a cool young guy it might just come to pass who then regenerates into 12 the old stern fool 11 was all along and despite not becoming a women like the fandom hoped still has a very gendered moment where he begs his companion to see him as his authentic self" That really hit hard for me watching this made me want to rewatch 12's run for like the 3rd time lmfao
Ok now that I've finished the vid: I've never seen an episode of Dr. Who but I do hope to watch parts at some point. My long running goofy sci-fi of choice has always been Star Trek, which has had its own revival issues. Thank you for sharing some of the excitement you have for the new season - I'm particularly interested in the swapping of "technobabble" out for "fabulobabble", it sounds fascinating and I think it's a cool direction to take the series (again, speaking as someone who hasn't seen Dr. Who lol)
Guess I have to go rewatch the Capaldi seasons again. Man there is some real rough stuff in there though. I will say Missy is my favorite Master in the entire run of the series.
I got so angry about "Kill the Moon", that is really NOT scifi, but he had to do some more of that and as daft as the stories were, he played them really great😊
I mean - no rougher than series 2. Series 8 was the first time under Moffat you had reviews coming in to rival Fear Her and Love and Monsters. Series 9 and 10 though were much more consistent with only Sleep No More ruining the best run of NuWho.
I'm sorry but I literally do care about spoilers. I can probably guess what you're going to say - that a good story will reward consuming it with full knowledge of what's coming - and I even agree that that's true. The thing is, you can have that experience as many times as you want, on all your subsequent returns to that story, but you only ever get one shot at experiencing a story with its mysteries intact.
RTD is conducting New New Who to a place strange and I'm all for it. Last episodes are strange, a little off, not always brilliant but he is going somewhere and I really feel it's gonna be great. Great vid!!
RE: that text at 22:52 - I originally interpreted the doctor being put in the box in the roman soldiers in England episode as kinda... like... the Doctor being written as "Vox Populi" for the British people. Surrounded by foreigners (aliens) in their native land getting locked away for their crimes. I can see it as maybe being more having a surface level motivation of the text on the screen here. And... y'know... some Matrix joke or something.
i really love how doctor who is always reaching just out of its budget range in terms of vfx. Like now they have a much higher budget but they're still trying to do things that they can't quite pull off perfectly, like having talking banks with CGI faces. I just love the constant ambition of this show to never settle
So now I believe, my hypothesis being proven one day maybe, that Jodie startedit by saying " TAG! you're it" during regeneration, the energy making the suit appear with Tennant might be rebound Toymaker's beam energy fitting the suit back in time to become the 14th Doctor...And now we are in a Russian doll universe! (the toymaker is the Father of The Maestro, who is the dad of Henry Arbinger... Russian doll entities)
The journey back is evidenced in strong episodes in the Peter Capaldi/JodieWhittaker eras imo. But I am so happy that the new Who is being made in the way it is. These specials need to be given their due as a restart of the show and ends storylines with David Tennant's era. Anyway great video - new sub.
excellent video!! i have nothing to add because you said everything already, extremely articulately, except that i think more video essays should end with the host suddenly running out of frame. caleb gamman's cybergunk-esque 👍
That was a delightfully positive essay with many good arguments! And I must say, it probably was exactly what I needed after having been underwhelmed by the first two episodes of the new season. Why be a bummer about not vibing with a string of stories? Embrace the odd failure here and there! Soon there's going to be a great one again - and then it'll all be fine. Because, after all, you're here for the great ones AND the bad ones. Sort of, kind of. ;)
I've never seen a single episode of Doctor Who, but your storytelling and structuring of content is so thoughtful that I knew it wouldn't be an issue :)
Damn good video 🙏 if I were on PC I would've highlighted the sentences I really loved There are some really good quotes on here that I could use next time I ramble about doctor who ahaha I will share it for sure in my doctor who fan group circle
this is also why I think strange new worlds works the best out of most of the Star Trek series right now too for the same reason they’re self-contained episodes even though there’s some ark that goes through it, but that tends to be personal, which is actually really much better way to do things
i'm not sure! i don't want to become Someone Who Makes Videos About Doctor Who, but i'm considering making something when the season wraps up. as far as the venomous hatred though, i honestly find it kind of amusing because on a ratings level the show right now is simply uncancellable. the haters, as usual, are living in a fantasy world and like i said in the video nothing they say or do can affect the text or its ongoing existence
Love this! This is the good stuff. I will say though, the whole thing about 14 being newly emotionally demonstrative isn't really true; Matt Smith's doctor was pretty frequently vocal about who he liked and what he cared about, and I think there have been a bunch of situations where the doctor gave someone a congratulatory hug or forehead kiss (usually for comedic effect)
@51:00 after pondering and listening to your video, I had the after tought : Jodie said TAG you're it! The Toymaker thus retook power from being tricked by Hartnell after ALL this time !!! When he says messing with your timeline, we haven't even seen the end of it yet |
Sarah you seem like someone who would want to know, so just as a heads up “wheelchair bound” is a term wheelchair users typically dislike. It’s not /quite/ as far as being offensive, but it’s like, out of touch/mildly ableist in the implication that mobility aids are limiting to us/a kind of trap, rather than giving us more freedom than we would have without them. It has a sort of negative vibe about the use of mobility aids. We prefer wheelchair user! (If you watch it again you’ll see the actress in your clip also uses this term!). Anyways I enjoyed the video! ❤ I don’t actually watch Dr. Who myself but I have friends that do so anytime an essay comes up in my feed I give it a watch. I always enjoy hearing your media opinions!
I think the only issue I have with RTD right now is that he’s leaning a little too much on the ‘child’ side of ‘family show.’ Now I know what Russell would say, as he’s previously said it too, which is that Doctor Who has always had toilet humour and weird as hell premises (like Space Babies), but I’d honestly argue that I don’t know anybody who was a kid (and who’s now an adult) who would say ‘Yeah, loved the Slitheen farting when I was a kid’. I don’t even think most kids thought it was all that funny back then 😂 That’s why I actually really liked how your first point about a reboot was to capture how the show ‘felt’ to an audience in the past, because Doctor Who from 2005 and Doctor Who in 2024 might be vastly different, but if you can get across the same emotions that the ‘rose tinted glasses’ versions of the show people has in people’s memories, then I’d say that’s a massive success. I do also 100% agree though that I’m glad Russell will sometimes break canon. While I felt Bigeneration could have been framed a little better by explaining it off with ‘Oh well casting salt at the edge of the universe brought a lot of myths to reality, like the goblins, like the Toymaker, like Bigeneration, etc’ overall I’d say the fact he doesn’t let it hold him back from a crazy idea is a good thing.
When I was a stupid kid who didn’t know anything about politics, I just thought they were funny. But when you see it as an incredibly unsubtle commentary on the 9/11 aftermath, it kinda works Do I think the Slitheen are juvenile, silly villains who probably shouldn’t appear again? Yeah. Do I think RTD deserves credit for making an episode about a for-profit illegal war based on fear mongering, where everyone in Parlament is a giggling child getting off to their own farts? Maybe
Holy shit, I just love listening to you speak. This is my first video of yours that I've seen, and I'm so excited to go through your whole backlog :) god I LOVE queer, leftist, well researched and well thought out analyses of my favorite media. Thank you!
"Woah cool robot" meme but instead of a gundam it's a goat shooting all kinds of very well articulated ideas about writing and showrunning and the culture surrounding television over my head while I go "I should watch Doctor Who". I have no better thoughts to comment, so this is what you get. I'm sorry.
probably for the best. it's not that people called them "bad" necessarily so much as that a lot of people stopped talking about the show altogether, which i assumed to mean that they were bad
As someone who loves and adores practical effects, I appreciate you calling out the "purists" lol. Dark Crystal is one of my all time favorite movies, when I was a child I watched it so many times on VHS that the tape nearly busted the reel! When I first watched Age of Resistance on Netflix (RIP you were done dirty by that shit company) I was so glad that our visual effects tech has evolved to be able to boost and supplement practical props and puppetry to make it look so good! As well as a certain "anime" I enjoy, Thunderbolt Fantasy, that plays with the same thing of combining the two to provide great works. Folks should learn that we can't always be stuck in the ideas that "The Old Way Is Superior" vs "The New Stuff Is The Future" but like blend it up where we can start improving and creating new things by combining both methods. We gotta appreciate art not just for what it was or will be, but what it can evolve into in-between. Like a beautifully fucked up cinematic chimaera.
