Enjoy your all-white fandom, special snowflake.
Okay, let me give you a list of things that bother me about Bill and, guess what, her skin colour is not on it.
Actually, let me go back and give you a quick summary of why I didnāt like S10 in general: In my personal opinion, it just didnāt match up to S8 and S9 AT ALL. The episodes felt like pieces of a puzzle that didnāt fit together as if every writer just didĀ ātheir thingā and never bothered to check for consistency. It felt loveless and as a result of that, Billās character suffered.
Just a few hours ago, I said that the idea of Bill was a great one and there is every chance I wouldāve loved her if the writing had been just a tad better. Sadly, it wasnāt. I never developed any kind of emotional bond to Bill and itās not because she was only there for one season. Martha was there for only one, Donna was there for only one and I freaking love the two of them. Not Bill.
The companion is supposed to represent the viewer, which is why I think it was awesome they picked someone who was not white and not straight. Representation is important. And it sucks if the writers fail to do that character justice, which they did in my opinion.
The first impression I had of Bill in that little clip we were shown was not a good one. Her questions in the presence of a killer alien made me assume she was plain dumb - sadly, that impression didnāt change much later. She asked a lot of questions, especially during her first adventures with the Doctor, and I guess thatās a natural thing, but the questions she did ask made me question her intelligence even further. When I started to re-watch the season with my dad, he looked at me during one of the episodes and asked: āIām sorry, but doesnāt the Doctor usually pick, uhm, intelligent companions?ā
Up until Bill showed up, I thought that Rose was bad, but Bill actually beat her in this area. She questioned the TARDIS initials, but never the fact that the Doctor was in some of her motherās photos (which she received before she learned that time travel exists). The worst part is something I mentioned in a recent post about the Monk story and that is the fact that Bill didnāt know what CERN was. At that point, she had been tutored by the Doctor for a year and she had been to his lectures. Even if CERN had never come up in a lecture or an essay or the research for one, at least she would have read about it in the news somewhere. Bill is interested in science - otherwise, she wouldnāt attend the Doctorās lectures - but somehow she managed to avoid reading/hearing about CERN? Thatās quite sad because apparently, Bill is a young woman who never reads or watches the news.
Another part of Billās story that has never made sense to me was that she kept working in the university kitchen instead of enrolling properly. The Doctor was tutoring her and judging from the mentioned grades, she wasnāt all that bad (which is an achievement for someone who doesnāt even know what CERN is). If she was a proper student, she couldāve done something with the education she was receiving from the Doctor and Iām sure he could have pulled some strings to get her enrolled. But she never did, so she kept servings chips only with more knowledge in her head. When I think about that she is supposed to represent the viewers, I feel insulted more than anything else.
Iām really not a fan of the way Bill treated the Doctor in Knock Knock. He helped her with the move and right after, she told him to basically fuck off and leave her alone while the Doctor was merely concerned for her safety. I donāt think she thanked him afterĀ he saved them from the house either.
While weāre on the subject of Bill and Time Lords, Iām also not a big fan of how quick she was to judge Missy. The first time they met in LOTL, the Doctor merely told her that Missy was trying to learn to be good. I donāt think the Doctor properly told her about Missy and their shared history until WEAT, but nevertheless, Bill was hostile towards her to the point of not even talking to her directly but talking to the Doctor about her in Missyās presence. If youāre trying to argue that in LOTL, Missy told them to sacrifice Bill, I would like to point out that Bill was very much on board with this idea. This is the character inconsistency I was talking about.
Another point is that, as the Doctor pointed out in Thin Ice,Ā āBill has a temperā. Where exactly does Bill have a temper apart from that one moment in LOTL where she shoots the Doctor? Her temper, however, vanished a moment later even though the Doctor had played a really foul trick on her. Honestly, I canāt see where that temper is supposed to be.
Overall, I find Bill as bland as a bag of unseasoned chips. HerĀ ācharacterā is more like play-doh than anything else. I canāt find a single consistent quality about her that I like. She isnāt even especially empathetic. In Thin Ice, she helps the street kids find a home, but in TEOM when she pleads with Iraxxa to spare the humans, it feels like sheās only repeating the Doctor like a parrot. The only consistent thing about her is her sexuality.
Would I like to erase Bill from S10? No. I would like to erase the bad writing that ruined her character which I just cannot like. DW needs representation, but if itās botched like, in my opinion, Billās character is, I would very much like to ignore that character that is just unlikable to me. The post that kicked it off was meant as a joke (donāt you think I know heās not actually thinking about Clara?) and after being attacked forĀ āruining everythingā, I made a manip that was sure to piss that person off. I realized that it was in bad taste and I apologize to those who feel offended by it. But the next time you accuse me of racism, read this post and ask yourself why so many people prefer to cling to previous seasons and companions instead of accepting Bill who should have been a wonderful addition to the show.
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