cassandra_elise, posts by tag: wtfomg - LiveJournal (original) (raw)

I don't usually post anything about Moffat's Doctor Who, because I know some people on my f-list like his work, and I wouldn't want them to think my dislike of Moffat translated to a dislike of them and their personal tastes. BUT I have so much RAGE for this promo picture:

It's not just the fact that once again we've given into the sexist idea of the big, strapping man carrying the weaker woman who's just fainted/died. After all RTD did that in Season 3 episode 1 with Ten carrying Martha, and I had an issue with it then as well, especially since Martha was being a complete MORON in not unplugging the machine BEFORE doing CPR on the Doctor. *facepalm* (But I digress). This is offensive in its own right, but I probably wouldn't have such an issue with it if this wasn't Doctor Who we're talking about.

But this image does not in any way represent the Doctor Who I know and love. This is a picture straight out of Hollywood with its glamorized and melodramatic shots of the Hero, barely a scratch on him, carrying the swooning woman as big explosions go off around them. That image has nothing to do with the 1960s Doctor who was a curmudgeonly old man living in a junkyard while his granddaughter attended British school just for the fun of it. It also has nothing to do with a crazy, bug-eyed man with wild hair and a ten foot scarf, or even a solemn, big-eared Doctor in a leather coat getting over some serious PTSD. What this image DOES remind me of is the Tenth Doctor walking through fire in slow motion as the cruise ship he's on crashes around him. Yes, remember Voyage of the Damned? Remember how panned it was?!? And I'm pretty damned sure RTD meant that whole episode to be a wild spoof of the Hollywood disaster movies of the 1970s and wasn't meant to be taking seriously. Yet it was still cheesy and out of place in the world of Doctor Who. So why are returning to this mediocrity?

The thing that really pisses me off is how many people are eating this promo picture up like it's the best thing EVER, especially the Americans, because give us a hot girl in skin tight clothes and explosions and we're happy. *snarks* This is the Doctor Who that is popular in the States. This is the Doctor Who that gets recognition in Entertainment Weekly, the biggest entertainment magazine in the US. This is the Doctor Who that gets praised by all the US critics. Not the 1960s version with its god-awful special effects and sets (even by 1960's standards) but its incredible warmth and emphasis on character development, not the 1970s version with its oh so retro costumes and music but ingenious mythology, and not RTD's homage in the mid 2000s which combined the best (and some of the worst) of all eras. No, we only praise this version, the one that least resembles anything good about show, the one with the least emphasis on characters and relationships, and least concerned with actually explaining a damn plot-line. This is what we glorify. Well America, if this is what you want, you can have it. I'll stick to REAL British programming.