Dear Russell T Davies: The Giggle

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#DrWho #DoctorWho #DoctorWho60 #Review #TheGiggle
Was the Giggle a triumphant celebration of 60 years of Doctor Who, or a gentle invitation for older fans to stay behind and talk about old memories in their gardens? Ed explores these questions and others you didn’t know need asking in this all-singing, all-dancing review.
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8 дек 2023

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Комментарии : 26

@tobylerone4285 6 месяцев назад

I’ve been reading your Wordpress essays and watching your videos for… far too long now and I’ve got to say, I’m glad your videos never get more than a hundred views. It’s just me and you, Ed. Just the way it should be.

@RedimusStudios 6 месяцев назад

Doctor Who, famously a show that has never dabbled in politics... Dear god man, next you'll tell me Star Trek was never political either!

@hattaandromeda 6 месяцев назад

while I thought bigeneration was a bit silly, it did lead to my friends and i cackling about how tennat wasn't wearing any underwear and gatwa was running around without any pants on. and if that show can make me shout "MR GATWA PLEASE PUT SOME PANTS ON" with my full chest, then i say that's funny enough for me to forgive it lol

@lukehollingworth6163 6 месяцев назад

Fought it was great 👍 amazing to see David Tennant back. Can't wait for Christmas day 15th Doctor 😊

@DragonSpinner61 6 месяцев назад

Is this performance art? Nothing's funnier than a man complaining that nobody's listening to him, over and over, for 6 minutes, and then proclaiming it's other peoples' problem. Edit: The Curse of Fenric was very direct about the Cold War, during the actual Cold War, so given your ONLY meaningful argument is that "Doctor Who shouldn't hit be about how the people of the time feel." I can see why people turn off, you spend a long time saying very little of value.

@drmacclevoid 6 месяцев назад

"Is this performance art?" Yes. Thanks for watching.

@mrelddir 6 месяцев назад

Ed, you’re a national treasure.

@MrSavigma 6 месяцев назад

I turned off after 30 seconds. But the war imagery and hardcore porn brought me back.

@iainMaguire 6 месяцев назад

Eh, it’s fine. Bigeneration serves a couple of functions here- it means they can cameo older actors whenever they want with a canonized excuse as to why they’re aging. RTD has said that’s the idea with Tales of the Tardis- implying that the thing traveled back into the past and “branched off timelines”. Which is a nice idea- it means that each past doctor survived, each believing they were the first to do so. Plus it paves the way for a heavily rumored Paul McGann spin-off. They can bring past doctors back at any time now. I mean, they shouldn’t, but it’s fine. Fans like what they like. I’ll trade the logic for the niceness of it. It also gave the new doctor an opportunity to claim he was baggage free. That said: real unclear how this worked though. It smacks of "look at the shiny thing over here". Half of the commentary I've read believes that Tennant will regenerate into Ncuti in the future, after “healing”, who will go back in time to bigenrate into Ncuti at the same time Tennant regenerated into Ncuti. RTD is a pretty good writer, and I’d say he’s hedging his bets here (notice Tennant reminding Ncuti how the Tardis worked? Ncuti yelling “would somebody tell me what the hell is going on here?”. I suspect RTD left the specifics of this vague so as to gauge a reaction. Schrödinger's regeneration- claim your intention after the fact with an easy retcon if needs-be. Honestly, I think this’ll probably just be forgotten about, and it’ll be business as usual. RTD did this with Torchwood already, aside for a couple of references here and there. I’d criticize it for being the second time this story beat has happened to Tennant’s doctor. If anything RTD doubled down on the repetition with the scene in which the Toymaker’s tooth was taken by the hand possessing the red fingernails. But again, it does tie off old tropes if RTD is serious about rebooting the show thematically. The Spice Girls thing was 100 percent an excuse to have some ready made memetic TikTok clips. Nothing more. I’m undecided on the heavy handed sermonizing. RTD has to sing to the existing choir and and justify the Disney money. Disney are notoriously uncomfortable with queer characters, so he has to make that palatable while still signaling the "correct" virtues). I’d have been fine with this had Tennant not turned to the camera and lectured the audience on how awful everyone is- that smacked of Chibnall type cynicism. At the same time, I live in the US, where this target audience has started to become clued into how how an electorate can be gaslit into voting against their own interests, so the themes will resonate. Bluntly.

@drmacclevoid 6 месяцев назад

I’m not a fan of showrunners on long running franchises changing the mythos to facilitate gimmicky spin-offs. Rouselle’s a very literal guy. If the point was to set up a multiverse in which the Doctors are all out there but looking older, then it might have shocked him to learn there was a show called Doctor Who which had already allowed for this. We’ve always known we can catch up with any Doctor, because they exist in their respective timestreams, and if they look older it’s because of some one line conceptual bullshit that Steven invented to cover it in those Children in Need skits. Bi-generation undermines the concept of regeneration. There’s no stakes for the existing Doctor if he’s effectively immortal, and will just split into an alternative reality when badly injured. Death has to mean something. It doesn’t make sense conceptually either. If the body’s damaged beyond repair, why would it clone itself? Regeneration made sense because…well, the clue’s in the name. As for Ncuti being the unburdened Doctor, who’s now free to cut loose, go clubbing and dress like a character in Nathan Barley - is RTD really telling us that the Doctor was so burdened by his adventures that he secretly craved domesticity with Donna and family? That’s his reading of the character? Regeneration refreshes the Doctor - it literally makes him a new man, and as a time traveller he’s always had the means to take as much time out as he needs, anywhere, to get his head together. This is RTD’s device to reinvent the character, strip him of gravitas and world weariness and turn him into someone Rouselle would like to meet in a Cardiff bar. I suppose what annoys me, the more I think about it, is the retconning of existing canon to meet the requirements for those Disney dollars. Every showrunner has the right to add new elements, define their era, but overwriting what’s come before is obnoxious and arguably unethical. That’s why people hate “The Timeless Child” and it’s why these changes will start to look problematic as the consequences play out.

@snakeeaterstbk 6 месяцев назад

Was searching for a nerd rage, am not disappointed

@EmoBearRights 6 месяцев назад

About divisiveness - my late dad used to have a saying - you can please some of the people all of the time (not you apparently), all of the people some of the time (I'm not sure I believe that) but you can't please all of the people all of the time. Sorry man but you strike me as old man yelling at clouds and the world does move on.

@drmacclevoid 6 месяцев назад

Less of the old, you cheeky bastard. Look, this is easy to say - so easy in fact that some would say it’s a thought terminating cliche. But for people who make this charge, the onus is on you to say how RTD’s approach improves on the storytelling values of old. Please don’t just say “representation matters” or some nonsense, because the point is that shows like Dr Who used to be (note the implication it was better in the old days) hermetically sealed universes that invited the audience to identity with it, rather than being concerned with validating and identifying with the audience. The former has integrity as a piece of fiction, the latter is a zeitgeist receptacle. Storytelling values change, attitudes change, but let’s not assume it’s for the better because sometimes thinking goes backwards. Sorry if that’s too middle-aged for you, but eventually you’ll find those extra years give you perspective.

@EmoBearRights 6 месяцев назад

@@drmacclevoid I AM middle aged so it's not but I never got on with classic Who because of the long drawn out stories....also representation does effing matter and sometimes you DO need to spell it out for the trogs in the back ya know. Also the TNG clip - saying people took drugs because their lives were shit was worth saying because just coming out of the Reagan era a lot of guys didn't get that and just looked down on addicts so yup the Crusher speech was needed.

@drmacclevoid 6 месяцев назад

@@EmoBearRights Representation is irrelevant in a show like Doctor Who. William Hartnell wasn’t chosen because the kids would identify with him - he was cast because he projected wisdom and authority, as well as otherworldliness. Doctor Who isn’t a gritty drama set on a south London council estate - it’s not representing anything but itself. Those old shows that you dismiss as too long, understood this and were better for it. I suppose you cheered when you saw the disabled access ramp in the new TARDIS. But why would an alien Time Machine, with a broken camouflaged shell, be minded to introduce such a feature? What’s next, a fuckin’ condom machine affixed to a roundel, just in case anyone comes aboard who needs a reminder on safe sex? I would also expect a three thousand year-old ship from an advanced civilisation to be smoke free and have gender neutral toilets. As for patronising the audience, I suppose I believe in talking up to them, which is why I’m not keen on life lessons aimed at simpletons. If you remember childhood (I do) - kids would instinctively take the piss out of anything like that scene in Symbiosis because it’s the equivalent of a finger wagging parent talking in a soft voice. Good writing that advances an argument using memorable storytelling is far more effective. By the same token, if you’re determined to use DW to teach gender studies, or highlight intersectional disadvantage, though fuck knows why you’d want to, when there are weird and wonderful sci-fi stories you could be telling instead, be subtle so the drama doesn’t stop like that deadening TNG scene, so the show can have a side-bar with the audience. Anyway, my old body needs a rest after typing all that.

@rob-890 Месяц назад

@@drmacclevoidi bloody love you after reading

@DarioDarrow 6 месяцев назад

19:00 My exact thoughts while watching 🤣 Even Tegan is higher on my list of people to spend time with.

@iananderson2777 6 месяцев назад

Okay. This one won me over! You got a new subscriber. 🎉

@cgdimension 6 месяцев назад

wonder how current Who will be received in the US midwest ;p

@joeyhelpish 6 месяцев назад

I literally fell asleep watching this 😂😂😂

@drmacclevoid 6 месяцев назад

😔

@primsearthtrek3066 6 месяцев назад

I'm enjoying these Who vids immensely. Ignore the ADHD crowd. Keep it up!

@actualbennett2245 6 месяцев назад

It was boring, and finger wagging, and insular, and smug, and bigoted, and misandrist and boring. Nice to see Mel though, but her hair is different to how it was in the '80s.

@rob-890 6 месяцев назад

Brechtian Alienation 😂😂😂

@rob-890 6 месяцев назад

Are you influenced by Stewart Lee?? These are so good

@drmacclevoid 6 месяцев назад

He taught me everything I've forgotten about Doctor Who.