#gareth roberts

[a-pea-sized-dan-1]

I'll never forget that, in the Shakespeare Code, when Martha says "am I going to be safe? I'm not exactly white," RTD wrote for the doctor to say "just walk around like you own the place, it works for me."

My brother in christ you are a white man. You DO own the place

*edit* the episode was actually written by Gareth Roberts who is HORRIFICALLY transphobic but I still imagine rtd jizzed when he read that line so my point still stands

[the-land-of-women]

[raspberrydee]

happy easter to all who celebrate!! 🍫🥚

[boxcarwild]

"When somebody tells you they are passionate, it’s a dead giveaway that they are a wrong ‘un. Like ‘I’m a people person’, or ‘I’m an empath’ or ‘be kind’, only rotters, cads or useless lumps say it. It is an enormous red flag and should be greeted automatically with the gravest suspicion. When consulting food packets for cooking instructions, I find that I am increasingly met with claims such as ‘we are passionate about pies’ or ‘we believe passionately in premium spaghetti’. Well, thanks for letting me know. So what? Similarly, I always want to reply to passionate politicians that I don’t care how much you care. Are you competent? Is your judgement sound? When my tap is leaking I don’t want someone who rocks up faffing operatically about how passionate they feel for plumbing, I want it fixed" - Gareth Roberts

[buckyball2003]

Chronological Doctor Who Watchthrough #7:

The Shakespeare Code (1599)

What an… unfortunate episode.

Ok, to give it its due, I love the idea of alien witches who see magic and words as their own form of science, especially as the villains of an episode about William Shakespeare, and the plot itself serves as an entertaining romp around Elizabethan London. The final scene, showing the power and magic behind words is kinda beautiful. I love the Doctor explaining time travel to Martha using Back to the Future. I love the final scene with Elizabeth I declaring the Doctor to be her sworn enemy. I like to imagine it’s because he left her immediately after their wedding in The Day of the Doctor and never returned.

Unfortunately… ah… where to begin?

Let’s begin with the Harry Potter references, shall we? “Expelliarmus” being used to finish the plot and the Doctor saying “Good old JK!” was fun a few years ago but has aged like milk. And to be fair, Gareth Roberts (who wrote the episode) couldn’t have known that, but he is a known transphobe (having mocked Rose Noble on Twitter simply for being trans) so I’m not inclined to give him a lot of leeway.

Speaking of transphobia, the line from Martha “those are men dressed as women” regarding the performers in a Shakespeare play, to which the Doctor responds “London never changes” is… unfortunate. I can’t see any way to read that line other than as a dig at trans women. It hurts to see, especially coming out of David Tennant’s mouth. I do not blame him for the line but it’s not nice to hear.

Let’s move on to the racism. Oh boy.

At the beginning of the episode, Martha expresses concern that she could be carted off as a slave. The Doctor responds that he’s not even human and that she’ll be fine if she just walks about like she owns the place. This is so incredibly dismissive of the real racism that black people faced back then and still face today. First of all, the Doctor crucially looks and presents as a white human man, so his comparison is entirely unfair. It kinda implies the racism he faces is worse than Martha’s, which is insane. Worse still is the suggestion that black people, by simply changing their behaviour and being more confident, can simply not be victim to racism. Thanks, Gareth. Solved racism right there. (I will disclaim that I am white so do take my opinions with a pinch of salt, and go listen to some black voices.)

And finally, while the Doctor treats Martha awfully throughout series 3, I think this is the worst case of it. Lying in bed with her, he compares her unfavourably to Rose and is generally very rude. Given what we see with Belinda in the recent season 2, there does seem to be a pattern of Russell T Davies shafting the characterisation of his non-white companions.

I’m on the fence about how Shakespeare is characterised. Confirming his bisexuality is nice to see and I like that he is treated by both the Doctor and Martha, and by the general plot, with a great respect. Things like him seeing through psychic paper because he’s a genius, or figuring out where they’re from. I love that. However, I also think we can hold up figures like William Shakespeare a bit too much. Yes, he absolutely was a genius, but a big part of the reason we often remember him as the best writer of all time is elitism and often an association made between liking Shakespeare and being more “refined”, an adjective generally reserved for the wealthy. So while I like how respectfully he was treated, I wish he didn’t feel so fundamentally different from everyone else. The plot suggests him to be a singular genius who nobody else can even compete with. It’s like he’s almost not human. I wish the episode had focused a little more on the power of everyone’s words, rather than just the words of the supposed elite.

[coverpanelarchive]

Doctor Who Magazine Summer Special 1995

[sandymybeloved]

If you want to hate a Doctor Who writer, you can do better than Steven Moffat, who is not as bad as everyone told you in 2012, hate gareth roberts instead, the biggest piece of shit to have ever worked on Doctor Who

[nerds-yearbook]

On December 3rd, 1926 the mystery writer Agatha Christie is staying at a country estate and confronted to solve a real murder mystery (professor peach, in the library with a lead pipe) along with a party crasher known as the Doctor (Doctor 10) and his companion Donna. Unlike the murders in her stories, this one appears to be committed by a giant wasp disguised as a man. This adventure happened on the date she historically (in real life) disappeared for a week and half. ("The Unicorn and the Wasp" Doctor Who, TV)