The Tragedy of The Thirteenth
Looks like Jodie Whittaker has gotten bullied out of Doc Who. That sh*t is unfortunate. I thought Whittaker had a real opportunity to do something different, to be great, but cats never gave her a chance. Of course there were your requisite man-children complaining about the fact that the Thirteenth had a polly instead of a peepee, but all you really have to do to win those assholes over is write a great character. Starbuck from Battlestar is a great example of that. That character was originally a dude in a series as beloved by it’s fans as Who, but no one gave Katee Sackhoff sh*t when she took over the role because the writers wrote a dope ass character. The people who developed this iteration of Doctor Who did not do that. The fact that Who is so bad wasn't Whittaker’s fault. There are a myriad of people to blame, from BBC, itself, to episode directors, to the props department for never really hammering down a look for Thirteen. The thing is, that’s all part of the show and, especially for BBC productions, there is singular person in charge of all that; The Showrunner.
For those of us here in the States that don’t know what a Showrunner is, think Kevin Feige and the MCU. Sure, you can bring in directors to create your films and you have writers crafting the narratives, but the buck stops with Feige. He’s the big picture man. It’s his vision, his playground. Sure, he let’s other people into his sandbox to collaborate, sometimes even letting them do their own thing, but the games they play are always structured by Feige beforehand because it’s his f*ckng playground. If you don’t want to play by his rules, you can get the f*ck out of there. This is why the DCEU is so bad. They don’t have a Feige. In fact, Warner Bros. refuses to install a proper Feige because Marvel did it and they don’t want to be seen copying the competition. But you need a Feige to build what Feige built. Star Wars is another franchise that needs a Feige. George Lucas was the Feige of that franchise for decades.. He was the Feige before the Feige. However, when he sold to Disney, the Feige they installed was a very bad Feige. Kathleen Kennedy had an ego because she was genius-adjacent for most of her career. While she was getting coffee for Lucas and Spielberg, they were creating Indiana Jones and the Star Wars trilogy. She felt some kind of way and had opinions, opinions that immediately went into destroying everything George built after lying to him about being the gatekeeper for his legacy. Kennedy is the worst kind of Feige and that’s the Feige the BBC put in charge of Who.
The direct line of responsibility for Doctor Who being so bad ends with the Showrunner, the Feige, and Whittaker’s run, unfortunately, was saddled with the worst Showrunner in Modern Who history. Chris Chibnall is a hack and has been a hack since he was just a writer on the show from way back. His episodes were some of the worst. They always seem to have a ticking clock; Artificial pathos created with the most mundane tropes in writing. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship is a perfect example of this. What the f*ck was even going on in that episode? It’s bad, man, and makes next to no sense. But that’s Chibnall. That’s who he believes Who is. He’s on record, years ago, as a fan, stating as such. Even then, there as this possessive pretentiousness, this Know-it-all assurance about what makes the character work. For him. That arrogance never left. He carried it with him into writing for the Revival’s first Showrunner, Russell T. Davies, who immediately recognized the lack of ability and never brought him back. Chibnall’s first episode for Who was 42 and guess what the whole thing centered around? A ticking f*cking clock. Chinballs didn’t write another episode of Who until Steven Moffat took over. His first episode? A two-parter, The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood. Guess what the primary conflict in those episodes was? A f*cking ticking clock. That’s who Chibnall is. That’s how he thinks Who should be. Dude’s writing is pedestrian, his creativity is fraudulent, and his passion is misplaced. He has a sense of entitlement to the character he’s carried with him since he was a child and it’s not from a sense of community but possession. And, on top of all that, he’s got ideas and options. Just like Kathleen Kennedy.
I’m not a fan of Identity Politics. The second you attach “politics” to something, it becomes divisive, controversial. I do believe that, anytime anyone creates art, you install a little bit of yourself into it, even if you don’t know it. Your experiences and beliefs always find a way to bubble up toward the surface. The key is to guide that bias in a way that it benefits the narrative. Mask it so that your perspective comes across but in an organic, subtle, manner. People don’t like to be told how to think, even if what your saying is the obvious and unassailable truth. Someone is always going to be willfully obtuse. I mean, we live in a world of racism. That’s literally someone being obtuse to your existence, because the color of your skin is different. Of course there’s going to be a very vocal portion of any fandom when you change a character they love so much, so dramatically, especially with absolutely no transitional period in between. The Doctor is a women now? Fine. Take your time and build the character. Shape her into something that not even the most egregious incel fanboy can attack without fervent rebuttal from the rest of the fandom. Chibnall did not do this. Instead, he f*cking double-downed on the identity bullsh*t and forced just SO much nondescript, ideology, into every episode of his run so far, while objectively neglecting character development, plotting, and motivation. Dude’s whole run with Whittaker has been an exercise in SJW gaslighting, defended by the BBC themselves because they’re in the business of fake Wokeness.
Thirteen found herself in the unenviable position that Rey Palatine was in before. The idea of Thirteen, juts like the idea of Rey, was exceptional. There was a ton of potential there, so much that could have been organically grown and nurtured. Jodie Whittaker is a great actress from what I've seen of her. The Doctor had never been female before. This was a brilliant opportunity for Whittaker to really carve out a position for hrself in BBC history. But just like Kathleen Kennedy, Chibnall was more concerned with tearing down everything that made Who what it was, in favor of sh*t he wanted to see, sh*t that would secure his legacy. F*ck the, what? Seventy years that came before? This is MY sandbox now and no one get s to play with any of my toys! That was made as clear as day when The Timeless Children aired. What the actual f*ck was that episode? Look, i was on board with that one Black Lady Doctor because the War Doctor is a thing, but this episode, man? This spat in the face of decades upon decades of Who lore. F*ck The Doctor having a cooter, this episode and the one following it, dismantles everything we know about who and what The Doctor character even is. Also, there’s a ticking f*cking clock.
It’s a goddamn shame that Jodie Whittaker never got a fair shot at The Doctor. I was all in the second she was announced. I loved her in Broadchurch. I can’t say the show was good, but she was, in it. Honestly, Chibnall probably should have stayed with Police serials like that. A ticking clock works in those episodes because the pathos is more intimate. Someone is going to die. That sh*t doesn’t work as the direct focus of a Doctor Who episode, especially when you have a fully realized Doctor to play with. Even worse, you can’t have The Doctor just trumping though The Civil Rights Movement for no f*cking reason other than to say something every person with a shred of humanity already knows: “Racism bad.” No sh*t, clown. What even was that episode, man? It’s so disingenuous, so goddamn disrespectful, and then you go nowhere with the villain in that sh*t. What the f*ck was the point? How did that enrich your Doctor? How did that do Jodie any favors for developing HER version of The Doctor. It was a non-episode, a showcase for Chinballs’ politics and that’s the entirety of his run so far. It’s not fair to blame Whittaker for the failure of her Doctor. She never had a chance to be great. She was set up for failure from the jump and, even after she’s gone, nothing will change. Whoever is up next for The Doctor is still going to have to deal with Chinballs and his creative bankruptcy.
