Am I rewatching the new Doctor Who ep for the third time today? PERHAPS.
But one of the things that stands out to me so much about this episode is that it washes away a lot of the things that made me frustrated about the Moffat era.
The plot MAKES SENSE. I feel like I could use this ep to introduce anyone to Doctor Who and it would make sense. It’s not concerned with being THE MOST “CLEVER” THING ON TV. It’s not concerned with twists and turns and surprises that aren’t earned just to prove how clever the writers are.
It’s fun. It’s legitimately fun.
The new companions? There doesn’t seem to be a big mystery about them (*cough*Clara*cough*River*cough*) They seem like normal people who were just in the right/wrong place at the right/wrong time. GIVE ME MORE OF ANYONE CAN BE HEROIC INSTEAD OF ONLY THE *SPECIAL* TRAVEL WITH THE DOCTOR. Let me see myself in them cause I’m not special, but I bet I could be if I got to travel with her.
Showing that the Doctor is brilliant and clever and quick instead of just telling and telling and telling me.
All the companions get to use their knowledge to help the Doctor. And it’s not magic knowledge, it’s things like bus drivers and police work and social media.
The Doctor never pulls a ‘no I have to go alone’ bullshit – everyone’s like ‘how do we help?’ and she’s all ‘C’MON FAM WE’RE GOING TO FIX THIS TOGETHER’.
What I mean is, the episode wasn’t overly melodramatic, they didn’t play violins and sad music, they didn’t try to show racism is wrong – because anyone with a functional brain already knows racism is immensely stupid, people already know it’s wrong.
They didn’t focus on the negativity of racism.
They focused on the sheer positivity of that wonderful and amazing woman.
The end wasn’t, “what happened to this woman was horribly wrong”.
The end was, “that woman kicks arses and she was badass enough to make a stand and fight for her rights, and she changed the whole bloody future”.
I loved it. This was the message I wanted to see in this episode. This was the kind of message I want to see in Doctor Who. It was amazing.
