hi, do you have any plans of doing a review system similar to the measurement when you get to the chibnall era of doctor who? I think you said that you didn’t watch it, but i could be wrong
SoooOOOOOoooo first of all hi friend!
second of all: back in the day of uh... whenever the first season of jodie came out, I did watch that season and enjoy it, it was a fun first season. I then promptly forgot everything that happens in it, because my brain works that way, and then (because my brain also does this) was like "well legally I can't watch the second season of jodie unless I rewatch the first season of jodie because I can't remember what happened in it, and I can't watch the first season of jodie, because I don't remember what happened in capaldi's seasons, and I can't watch capaldi's seasons because then I'd have to rewatch matt smith's seasons and if I watch those from beginning to end again I will lose all joy in my soul"
third of all: I no longer feel that way, I have grown as a person who deals with my brain being a silly-billy, so not only could I legally watch whatever I wanted to without the brain police nee-nawing, I also um... well I have a system of how to watch matt smith's seasons so that I find them enjoyable, so actually maybe on second thoughts I didn't quite outrun the whatever-the-heck-my-brain-does laws, so much as... rewrite them a little to work for me (crucially I did in fact... watch all of matt smith's seasons and capaldi's seasons to get back here, so hopefully I can implement a more holistic watch in future, where I just engage with the episodes I noted down with commentary and rankings that I enjoyed!)
fourth of all: I'm not sure if this rating system works for chibnall's era (I mean, maybe it does, I genuinely don't know, but my gut says no). the reason I wrote it in exactly the way that I did was mainly because of very specific noticeable recurring things I dislike in m*ffat's writing across several shows -- misogyny, making all of his main guys cruel because they're "intelligent" (which absolves them of the need to be not-cruel), those men being the most important thing in the universe of the story, "sexy" dialogue, amatonormativity, and overly complex plotlines that often spring up out of nowhere and go nowhere
fifth of all: so maybe what I'll do is just note down more simply what I'm getting out of (or potentially not getting out of) jodie's run. I obviously know the reputation of that era, I've seen a couple of oof moments, but there are definitely oof moments in rtd's and m*ffat's runs, so those alone aren't dealbreakers so much as "I see you"s
sixth of all: actually my main question with regards to chibnall's era is whether he understands that diversity is about more than casting. this in particular with regards to yas being a police officer, and how that may or may not create a difficulty in discussing the limitations and cruelties of systems, such as those propped up by... police officers. (this, by the way, speaking of rtd, so many people of colour and of course shirley anne who's a wheelchair user represented in UNIT, but that is a whole other tangent -- shirley I am manifesting a liz shaw type arc for you where you get to go "hold on, this whole thing is sus")
seventh of all: I think it's much harder, probably, to discuss chibnall's era with such a simplistic system, because from the outset it's a much more complex thing than what m*ffat was doing -- that is m*ffat's was still essentially casting a couple of white guys who were travelling with white women until s10 (which noticeably is... just a better season, in my opinion). this not to say I'm not critiquing it, but I wouldn't want to make a ranking system out of "how well does chibnall do diversity," I feel like that would be crass of me, because these stories opening up like this is already such a fascinating space to play in, vs me in m*ffat's era actually being able to track the almost complete absence of diversity in s5 (vampires in venice and hungry earth have my back) just... as a whole... to where we got to in s9 and s10, and using this measurement system to go "yeah this era got noticeably better on several fronts later on" -- I note btw on this point, that bill is waaay more proactive in her first three episodes that amy or clara usually got to be. her questions also aren't just essentially "and now what are you going to do doctor," they're more her trying to figure out how she's navigating her environments and then working with the tools she's getting
eighth of all (conclusion): probably not a review "system" but yeah, I'll still review for sure and maybe find a way to structure that, I want to be consciously interacting with the story, it's the best way for me to engage and actually remember it afterwards. I won't have the benefit of foresight with these seasons either -- that is, I won't know where certain things are going and how I feel about those trajectories (for example, although I don't remember s10 I do remember liking it!) + what I do know, I'll be filtering somewhat (with the flux for example) through the three specials we just got, so I'll know there's some form of through-line of emotional arc that perhaps wasn't felt as much when it was first being aired? all suppositions
ninth of all (epilogue): I am eager I tell you, eeaaager to see sacha dhawan in action!
tenth of all (nothing in particular): I remember s11 starts in sheffield, which is wonderful to me. since the time it aired I've just been in sheffield so many times, it feels so very familiar to me. wonderful to get out of london for a bit
