Doctor Who Casting Spoilers/Discussion

[nobleplatypus]

My thoughts, in no particular order:

- I like Peter Capaldi. I like that he's older, and I like the fact that he has a bit of inherent creepiness/menace going on.

- The reason I like the creep/menace factor is because I'm really hoping it will result in less romanticization of the Doctor and companion's relationship. Also, given Moffat's pledge to not really write the character any differently (which, given how his female characters have turned out, I'm not so sure he could even if he wanted to), I can't help but take a perverse interest in whether or not Twelve espouses some of the gross, sexist shit that Eleven has let fly with on occasion. Eleven was able to get away with a lot of troubling stuff, in large part (I suspect) because he's young-looking and goofy and affable, so it was only a certain portion of the fandom that squirmed uncomfortably when he, say, forcibly kissed Jenny without her consent, or mused about the relative tightness of Clara's skirt. If Capaldi!Doc did either of those things, I'm pretty sure the entire audience would be intensely uncomfortable, so it'll be interesting to see whether they necessarily cut back on that stuff, or whether they just embrace the ick factor. I'm hoping for the former.

- Speaking of gross, sexist shit, I'm not all that thrilled that Moffat is still the head writer. My enthusiasm for the show has really waned over the past couple of seasons, so even the casting of a new Doctor can only interest me so much. I don't really want the same crap via a different mouthpiece.

- Also, can we talk about a) how ludicrously blasé he was about Capaldi's name being bandied about before the ~big reveal~ compared to how downright tyrannical he was about any potential leaks of the trailer they showed at ComiCon; and b) how much he deserves to be kicked in the shins over that asinine comment about the Queen being played by a man?

Comments

[ember-firedrake.livejournal.com]

I'm of a couple minds about the casting. On the one hand, lots of respect for Capaldi, and like you I'm happy he's older (though a small part of that is schadenfreude over all the fans going "OMG HE'S OLLLLD" "WHY ISN'T HE HOT NOOOOO").

But I really do wish they'd shaken the mold a little bit with someone not-white or not-male (but I'd only take a female doctor if Moffat wasn't writing her).

Regardless, I'm waiting for the day when Moffat announces his departure. He can take his gross comments and gtfo.

[nobleplatypus]

Mmmmhm. I'm also rather annoyed that they apparently weren't even really considering anyone else. It's hard to argue that you picked the best actor for the job if you didn't allow any other actors to even get their foot in the door.

It struck me the other day that I've basically been watching Doctor Who as if there is an ongoing body-snatcher subplot in which the Doctor's been hijacked by some evil alien that occasionally does a decent Doctor impression but just as often lets its true nature shine through. And I like the Doctor enough that I'm willing to wait for this dumb subplot to be over if it means we get him back, but I am also just so sick of this subplot and so uninvested in anything that happens while the jerkface alien is controlling his brain.

[artekka.livejournal.com]

...that sounds like a fic plotbunny to me...

[barsukthom.livejournal.com]

I like your "Doctor-Hosting-a-Symbiote" theory...
He's been in Dr Who before, too; he played Caecilius in the Pompeii episode w Donna. (Which I'm particularily fond of, because his family was central in my 7th grade Latin text)

[nobleplatypus]

It makes enough sense to me that I could almost believe it was intended, but let's face it, if the Doctor HAD been brain-snatched, Moffat would not have been able to resist being all "WOOOO WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE DOCTOR? IT'S A MYSTERYYYYY WOOOOO WHAT COULD IT BEEEEEEEE?"

Yes! And he played Islington in "Neverwhere"!

[ember-firedrake.livejournal.com]

The angel has the phonebox ;)

[nobleplatypus]

OH MY GOD.

[barsukthom.livejournal.com]

Unless...
Unless-MOFFATT IS BEING MINDCONTROLLED BY AN ALIEN BRAIN PARASITE!!!

:D

[nobleplatypus]

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that's just him. :P

[barsukthom.livejournal.com]

Bleh. And he got off to such a good start, too.

[philosophercat.livejournal.com]

I didn't get to see/hear Moff's comment re: the Queen but I'd heard he made some (expectedly) dumb, trolling comments. It's fair to say that I feel the same, plus I *am* enjoying the wailing about the Doctor being old. I read an article from the Daily Fail (uuuhhhh) which reposted dumb comments from fans about how "the Doctor is supposed to be young." Not paying attention, these young 'uns! Still, their grief amuses me. :P Back at the eleventh Doctor com on LJ, people are showing almost no interest really. Mostly optimism, with a little sad desperation that there be some hot River/12 action because they can't get enough of bad writing, I guess. ;)

[barsukthom.livejournal.com]

My BiL declared, "Finally! The Doctor is younger than ME again!"

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

The thing about Moffat, I suppose, is he's under economic demands like any other producer. No, he could choose not to say stupid shit out loud and in public (and frontier justice forced his Twitter shutdown thanks to his conduct), but the fact is that youth sells and it's been under the last two young actors (and their interactions with female companions, for good or ill) that "Doctor Who" has gone from a known-but-still-obscure show to a worldwide earner in merchandise, DVD sales, and syndication. He sort of can't help that this is what a LOT of new, younger, spending fans seem to want ... any more than T&T could largely help that a lot of the POTC fans were rabid over J/E above all else.

/shrug

[nobleplatypus]

I can't say I blame Moffat for the fanpoodles or their relentless shipping; it was RTD who took the show in that direction with Ten and Rose, and both RTD and Moffat have since had to deal with the messy repercussions of that choice. It was definitely lucrative, but it's also fundamentally unsustainable: you can't have every single female companion be the Doctor's One True Love.

It's probably to Moffat's credit that he doesn't seem all that keen on playing up the romance angle (though his idea of romance tends to veer towards the creepy and problematic end of the spectrum, anyway), but it'll be hard to shake it entirely. Still, it's not like he's the one who set that particular ball rolling.

[nobleplatypus]

Helen Mirren said it was about time the Doctor was played by a woman. Moffat referenced that quote, and then snarkily suggested that it was also about time the Queen was played by a man. AHAHA HILARIOUS. /sarcasm

And never mind that regardless of how he looks, the dude is over 1,000 years old. They should be thankful he doesn't look like Yoda, frankly. :P

And oh, god. As if there is any salvaging the whole Doctor/River ship. Just let it die with whatever dignity it can scrape together.

[hukbillgoomba.livejournal.com]

Moffat is a colossal liar, and not a very good one. I am really, really, looking forward to the tell-all stories that come out in, say, ten years time when people look back on his time in charge. Like, a lot of people from the John Nathan Turner era later came out to say he was a bit of a cock at times, exposed a lot of the lies that went into the media etc. I'd love to see what people think of Moffat.
Because it's widely said that the first assistant producers left in a rage because they couldn't work with him. As did the most recent, too. Also, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but Matt Smith didn't look happy at all. He didn't look like a man who has done a job he enjoyed and is leaving satisfied, as Tennant did. He looked to me like a man who had had enough. But that may be me looking for things that aren't there.

The trailer thing is so ridiculously stupid! The whole point of a trailer is to publicise the program. So, you're going to let these thousand people at Comicon see it and nobody else? And of these thousand people, how many were going to watch the episode anyway? Approximately ALL OF THEM. A trailer is supposed to drum up excitement, get people who might not have watched to go, 'Hm, Maybe I'll give that a go!' All he has achieved with this insane secrecy is to annoy virtually everyone in the fandom. Cockend.

[nobleplatypus]

YES. I'm really curious to hear what people have to say when their paychecks no longer compel them to be polite.

I know what you mean about Matt Smith. I think some of it might just be that he's leaving before he really wants to leave, because of the whole 'get out before it becomes a chore' line of reasoning that Tennant seemed to be following, too. But it seemed like Matt Smith was given a much lower quality of writing to work with, overall, so I wouldn't blame him if he also just felt a bit frustrated with where the show/character was going (or deliberately refusing to go, since Moffat seemed to be all about arresting character development at every turn).

And RIGHT? It's both hilarious and infuriating to me that in showing a trailer at Comicon, he managed to completely miss the point of both trailers and Comicon. To say nothing of how douchey it is of him to try and micromanage his own fandom, like we should all answer to him. Ugh.

[hukbillgoomba.livejournal.com]

The thing that I find quite upsetting is that the Eleventh Doctor will forever be a wasted opportunity. Matt is a good actor, but so much was squandered on cheap laughs and Moffwank. I just pray that Capaldi gets to work with another head writer. :|

The worse Moffat gets, the more I realise that RTD actually needs a lot of kudos for keeping him in line from 2005 to 10. :\

[circlingfreedom.livejournal.com]

I agree with you! I cannot wait for it not to be "I'm getting married tomorrow so I'll just sleep with you right NOW!" crap.

That girls reaction I saw screaming "EWW! And he's OLD!!" that was pretty funny though.

I saw him walk out and thought WOOOHOOOO!!! Let's get our show back!

[nobleplatypus]

I do kind of understand why people wouldn't get into Classic Who, because it's a pretty expensive endeavor if you go about it legally, but I have no pity at all for people who honestly act as if everything pre-Nine just didn't happen. If you're that determined to remain ignorant, that's on you. :P

Also, to be clear, I place the blame for much of the past few seasons' troubling shit squarely on Moffat's shoulders, and I'm not convinced that casting an older Doctor means he's going to stop peppering his episodes with misogynistic one-liners or giving the Doctor sexist attitudes that don't make a lick of logical sense for the character. I expect it's just going to be a different flavor of gross. But if there's less romantic/sexual tension between the Doctor and his companions, I'll count that as a silver lining.

[circlingfreedom.livejournal.com]

I still have so much trouble getting my head around the fact that the genius who wrote 'Blink' is the idiot who has been the head writer for the past 2 seasons... or 4 seasons... or however long it's been.

Tension? There was no tension there was full on revulsion coming from my side of the set anyway.

Now, I like River. And, I came around to the idea of her with the doctor. I still cringed when it was Matt playing up against her but I liked the Um can't think of the word... rubix cubeiness of it?

I have started watching old Who but I find him as a cantankerous old bastard hard to watch in large doses. I think I'll get back to that marathon when I finish watching Voyager.

This is a year of watching tv shows I never watched when they were on air.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I think a podcaster I like to listen to summed Moffat up pretty well: "As a writer, he's the best Who has. As showrunner ... not so much."

[nobleplatypus]

Ack, I thought I'd replied to this!

I feel bad for JLC, too. It would have been nice if the show hadn't been so caught up in her ~mystery~ that it never allowed her to be the normal human being she turned out to be in the end (though hey, due credit to Moffat for being clinically unable to write any woman as a rounded human being, anyway).

I WILL COME TO YOUR MOFFAT PARTY. I WILL BE THERE WITH BELLS ON.

And WORD to that last paragraph.