A quick warning: This video will contain
some discussion regarding the actions of
problematic figures in the literary and
entertainment industries and just a
general spoiler alert for pretty much
all of Capaldi's run on Doctor Who and
As always I just want to remind
everybody that I am just expressing my opinions here
And not stating hard facts
about the quality of stuff. You can agree
or disagree to your heart's delight. Also
I am by no means a Doctor Who expert
I can't tell you about every alien William
Hartnell ever faced,
I've not dug into the 30-plus years
worth of Doctor Who that predates Christopher Eccleston run.
I've seen a few episodes but yeah, I am NOT carrying over 50 years of Canon knowledge of my noggin.
And sidebar I wonder if every video now
Is gonna start with these
disclaimers like, some people open their
videos with a nice logo while I remind
you all that I don't know hot diggety shit
So the internet doesn't unhinge
it's snake jaws and eat me alive.
Who am I kidding it's the internet
you'll do that anyway so let's get a move on.
[Doctor Who theme plays]
Doctor Who is a television series
that's been around for over 50 years. It
has its highs.
[9th Doctor] "I'm the doctor by the way, what's your name?"
[Rose] "Rose."
[9th Doctor] "Nice to meet you Rose. Run for your life!"
And its lows
[Elton] "It's a relationship...of sorts"
Everybody has a favorite doctor from Tom Baker to Paul McGann to David Tennant.
And I have some
particular favorites but the one that's
at the top of my list is the twelfth
doctor as played by Peter Capaldi
And I'm kind of mad about it. Not because of
anything to do with Capaldi himself
But more to do with...well
[12th Doctor] "And this...is my spoon."
[sword fighting and dramatic music]
And also:
[Steven Moffat] "It's just a shame that she's so wee and dumpy."
So uh...strap in kids it's gonna be a bumpy ride.
So for the uninitiated what is Doctor Who?
[Jackie Tyler] "What do you mean that's the Doctor? Doctor Who?"
[Dalek] "Doctor Who?"
[Clara] "Doctor Who?"
[Clara, again] "Doctor Who?"
[Dorium] "Doctor...Who?"
[Bill] "I can't just call you Doctor....Doctor what?"
Well the television series began in 1963 and over the
ensuing 50 or so years there have been
851 episodes over 37 seasons and one
movie. The initial premise was that a
funny old man would travel around space
and time with a couple of companions in
his ship that looks like a police box
[11th Doctor] Yes its a spaceship. Yes its bigger on the inside."
[Martha] "Its bigger on the inside."
[12th Doctor] "GOD. It's bigger"
[River Song] "Yes."
[12th Doctor] "On the inside."
The show was mainly meant to be
educational in the beginning. A way to
get kids in a history with the Soctor
traveling back in time to teach children
about the Aztecs or what have you. But
the show would grow beyond that to
encompass aliens and evil robots and at
the heart of it all is this figure who
doesn't die, instead they regenerate into
an entirely new person every few seasons.
This allowed the BBC to bring in a new
actor when the old one wanted to move on
to other projects. And that simple
premise is one that allows the show to
be constantly shedding its skin and
becoming something new. It's a show in a
near constant state of flux always on
the verge of the next evolution.
The cast rarely stays the same for more than a
few seasons. The Fourth Doctor played by
Tom Baker is the one who stuck around
the longest from 1974 to 1981.
*And yikes this regeneration tho
Then in 1989 the show had a hiatus with the end
of Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor.
There was a brief attempt to revive the
series in 1996 with Paul McGann as the
Eighth Doctor in a single made-for-tv
movie. Then in 2005 the series was
successfully resurrected with Russell T
Davies at the helm as showrunner and
then in 2010 he handed off the reins to
Steven Moffat.
[11th Doctor] "Legs! I've still got legs!"
The new series of Doctor Who alone now
spans five doctors and eleven seasons
the latest iteration is played by Jodie
Whittaker and I'll just say that while I
loved her performance and that of her
fellow actors, I had some issues with the
writing and I'll leave it at that. Over
the years we've had all sorts of doctors
funny doctors, proud doctors, playful
doctors. We had this:
[9th Doctor] "Hello!"
[10th Doctor] "Wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey"
And we had this
[11th Doctor] "Yeah its cool. bow ties are cool."
And then we got this
[General] "All twelve of them."
[Androgar] "No sir, all thirteen!"
So before Moffat took over a showrunner,
Russell T. Davies gave us two doctors and
about five years worth of solid to
excellent television. Some of it was
Some of it was pretty ridiculous.
[William Shakespeare] "I say to thee..."
[10th Doctor] "Uuuh"
[10th Doctor] "Expelliarmus!"
(Like the Harry Potter Spell)
Or cheesy
[Robot Host] "You are the weakest link."
But some of it was so excellent,
so achingly good, all you need to do is
say 'I don't want to go,' and inevitably
somebody will start weeping. Both
Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant
are beloved as doctors because even if
they're runs weren't always perfect, they
were brilliant in all the right places,
and we could debate the pros and cons of
the Davies era but that's not what we're
here for. So in 2010 Davies and Tennant
finish off their run with the two
parter 'The End of Time.' In the final scene
the Tenth Doctor regenerated and
we got our first taste of Moffat at the wheel.
[11th Doctor] "Legs! I've still got legs!"
And now we need to talk about
Steven Moffat
I'm gonna do my best to not retread ground that Harris Bomberguy already covered in his very good
'Sherlock is garbage and here's why'
video. But let's start here:
Moffat made his start with a well-received sitcom called Coupling then he made a, by all accounts,
not very good show that reimagined Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde called Jekyll, and he
wrote a few one-off episodes of Doctor
Who including some fan favorites like
Blink, The Empty Child and The Doctor
Dances
[9th Doctor] "Just this once Rose, everybody lives!"
And then in 2008 when Russell T. Davies announced he was stepping down a showrunner
Steven Moffat was brought on board. And around the same time it was announced that Moffat
and co-writer Mark Gatiss were going to be developing a modern reimagining of Sherlock Holmes
and uuuh...we have to talk about Sherlock
because over four seasons
and thirteen episodes there is a trajectory that is uh....
Not very good you guys.
Or more accurately the show was extremely enjoyable if occasionally flawed for two seasons, pretty bad for a
third season, and then a travesty and
it's fourth.
And in many ways it's an exhibit for a lot of Steven Moffat flaws as a writer
[Magnussen] "I could phone them and tear your whole life down."
"And I will...unless you let me flick your face."
In season two they did their own version
of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous short
story the final problem where Sherlock
Holmes and Professor James Moriarty fall
to their death from the Reichenbach
Falls. In Sherlock that episode was
called the Reichenbach Fall and in it
Sherlock is forced to commit suicide off
the roof of a hospital building
otherwise his friends will get shot.
Except somehow he survives the fall
And I should just mention here I was very
into Sherlock back in 2012 when this
aired. I along with hundreds of other
fans were absolutely broken up by this
episode. Of course we knew Sherlock
wasn't dead but his best friend Watson
didn't and therein lay the tragedy that
we all sat with for two years waiting
for season 3. Also there were hundreds of
theories about how Sherlock survived
that fall. Tumblr was practically overrun
with lengthy detailed essays on how he
used the tennis ball to stop his pulse,
and there was a rope we didn't see
breaking his fall, and a fake body, and so on.
And then in season 3, what did Moffat
decide to do? Well first off all your
theories were stupid and it doesn't
matter how we survived.
There is literally an in-fiction group of Sherlock fans theorizing how he didn't die.
And it is made very clear that these people
are objects of scorn. We aren't supposed
to identify with them, we're supposed to
find them funny and stupid. Because how
dare you want an answer to a mystery on
a mystery show about solving mysteries?
And then the show would ignore what was
arguably its greatest strength.
The growing relationship between Sherlock
and John and their growth as individuals for...
A bunch of dumb jokes. Like yeah, John
thought his best friend was dead for two years,
Let's all roll out the red carpet
and slip on some banana peels.
I'm not even going to get into the queerbaiting right now? but yeah they did that too.
[Sherlock] "Gay."
And that was all pretty cringy, and the show
felt like it had gotten mostly dumber,
[Face flicking sounds]
but the real travesty came in season
four, when the show flew right off the rails
And into the stupidest plot twist
in history, where Sherlock had a secret sister
He'd forgotten about and a dead
childhood friend who he remembered as a dog
And the secret sister was evil and
also maybe gay because, thanks Steve,
And at one point Sherlock tearfully karate
chops a coffin
and that's just Steven Moffat's writing.
You see I don't personally know Steven Moffat
And I think it's probably harmful
to make grand statements about a person
I only know through his writing and his
interviews, but I am going to do that.
Feel free to take all of this with a
grain of salt if you want but....
Basically I don't think I like Steven Moffat very much. By all accounts he seems overly
smug about his own abilities, which are
quite frankly spotty
[Moffat] " wasn't it great when Paul McGann, who had previously you told he was definitely not involved"
"In any way popped up in your screen wasn't that fun?"
"Yeah! Thats why we do more of that, let's just..."
[Thank god we have Steven Moffat to explain the concept of being surprised to us]
"That's why....That's why we wind you up a bit sometimes...In a nice and loving..."
"Lovely way, so that you'll hopefully be a
little bit more entertained."
[No idea whats making that ringing sound by the way]
The man can write well when he isn't trying to be clever.
But he kind of sucks at writing women. They're generally either plucky sidekicks or evil matronly types
And every woman in the world is entirely
obsessed with the main male characters
[Missy] "Consider the doctor." 
[Madam Vastra] "He has walked this universe for centuries untold,"
'He has seen stars fall to dust."
[River Song] "You don't expect a Sun set to admire you back!"
On Sherlock when Mary, John's wife,
dies for dumb reasons, she had the
foresight to record a message for John.
That message is not really about their
relationship and how much she loves him
and whatever? It's about John and Sherlock
You would think a wife might
just want to talk to her husband about
their loving marriage and their child
that John will have to raise alone now.
But instead her death is all about John
and Sherlock. Right down to her final message.
On Doctor Who it's not much
better. In 'The Magician's Apprentice'
the season 9 opener, we finally get to spend
some quality time with a lady version of the Master,
Missy, played delightfully by
Michelle Gomez in a piece of perfect casting.
Missy and Clara sit and have a
talk, while Missy is threatening the
world with a lot of stopped planes and
stuff? Don't worry about it.
So when they sat down to talk, I expected
it to be a tense negotiation for the
safety of earth. But it mostly devolves
into an argument over who the doctor likes more.
[Missy] "What have you got to do with it? I'm his friend. You're just..."
[Clara]  "Just what"
And sidebar I kinda wanna ban Stephen
Moffat from using the word 'sexy'
[Idris] "I think you call me...sexy?"
[Irene] "Definitely the new sexy."
[River] "It's a little bit sexy."
[12th Doctor] "Why is everything sexy now?"
Then there's how Moffitt's run would handle LGBT characters. Jenny and Vastra do okay, As do Bill and Heather.
Clara and River Song are canonically bisexual
considering they both have male boyfriends and make multiple references
to romantic incidents with other women
[Clara] "Jane Austen and I prank each other. I love her."
"Take that how you like."
[River] "You know who you remind me of?"
[12th Doctor] Probably a chap with a big..."
[River] "My second wife!"
But two men being in love is only a joke
or something to be scorned
The queerbaiting on Sherlock really was next level.
[John] "I'm not his date!"
And on Doctor Who....
[Jack Harkness] "But you got an excellent bottom too."
[Audible smack]
Jack Harkness was introduced in a Steven
Moffat pen two-parter, where he makes
flirtatious references to liking both
men and women, and it's mostly played as a joke.
Jack wouldn't get to do stuff
like this, or this
Until he was written by somebody else.
Then the only other gay
man I could think of on Moffat's run was....
Canton Everett Delaware played by Mark Sheppard
from the opening two-parter of series 7
In his final moments on screen was
President Nixon,
Yes President Nixon DID. I. STUTTER.
He says he wants to marry a man and it's played as a fun joke when Nixon says no because
Hahaha being gay was considered a mental illness back then and Nixon with homophobic
hahaha so funny!
By the time we get this scene
[12th Doctor] "She was my man crush"
[Bill] "Sorry?"
[12th Doctor] "I think she was a math back then. I'm fairly sure that I was too"
It's genuinely hard to tell if this is an earnest attempt
Or just Moffat trying to be cute. 
Like I honestly can't tell if
he's learned anything because he since
said a nice thing about representation being important
But like...He also wrote four seasons of the gay supervillain who says shit like this:
[Moriarty] "But the flirting's over Sherlock. daddy's had enough noooow"
And if you're not quite understanding the fuss I'm making over this, it's mainly that...
A lot of men find the idea of women
getting down with other women to be a turn-on
[Two Claras] "We've got to share a bed."
[He's done this joke twice]
But only letting women be queer
for the sake of male entertainment while
gay men are either evil, a joke, or both
is BAD.
But that's still mostly just his writing
I wouldn't make assumptions about the person if it weren't for
quotes like this from an interview he
gave in the scotsman magazine.
Wow Steve
*I understand that interview is 15 years old but he was 43 at the time and old enough to not be a douchebag
I'm so glad you've graced us with your knowledge and wisdom. Also this:
*I understand that interview is 15 years old but he was 43 at the time and old enough to not be a douchebag
[Moffat] "And well I thought she's really good. it's just a shame that she's so wee and dumpy."
He's talking about Karen Gillan here
Have you seen Karen Gillan??? Weee and dumpy...Your FACE is wee and dumpy Steven.
I mean I could go on. That time he defended
his decision to not cast a woman as the Doctor,
Even though he's been making
references to the fact that the Doctor
can regenerate as anybody or anything
since the start of his run.
How has the Doctor managed to regenerate into a white guy twelve times in a row?
Why does casting a woman have to be this
huge political risk? Women also exist in
the universe. It's not political for
women to exist.
Also Doctor Who has a pretty massive viewer base both in the UK and internationally
So I think you don't actually need to cater to assholes when making casting decisions on a TV show
And when they did cast a woman they still cast a white lady so it's not like they took that big a risk
I could go on about the man, his tendency to buy into his own hype
which leads to things like him reusing his own joke so many times they're past dead
[11th Doctor] "Its a fez. I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool."
"Stetsons are cool."
"Glasses are cool."
"Bow ties are cool."
But this isn't an essay about Steven Moffat. This is an essay about how I love the 12th Doctor,
In spite of the man who wrote him. So let's
talk about the 12th Doctor
So in June 2013, Matt Smith announces
he's leaving Doctor Who with the 50th
Anniversary Special set to air in a few
months, and his final Christmas Special
premiering in December. In August Peter
Capaldi was announced as the next man
to step into the TARDIS. Capaldi was an
interesting choice for many reasons.
The Doctor had been skewing younger over the last few iterations. Matt Smith was 26
when he was cast, making him the youngest doctor to date, and now they cast this
55 year-old character actor with years of
toiling in the industry.
He'd even played a minor character in season 4 of Doctor Who already.
And WHOO BOY they made a thing out of that don't you worry.
[12th Doctor] "Who frowned me this face?"
Also there's the little detail that before Doctor Who his most well known role was...
[Malcolm Tucker] "You breathe a word of this to anyone, you mincing fucking CUNT!"
"And I will tear your fucking skin off and I will wear it to your mother's birthday
party,"
"And I will rub your nuts up and down her leg was whistling Bohemian fucking Rhapsody right?"
Malcolm Tucker from 'In The Thick Of It' was foul-mouthed, cruel, and abrasive
Not necessarily the first person one
might consider for the lead on a family-friendly TV show.
I mean he's a great actor and by all accounts a good egg,
Who might occasionally have wandered
off set for snacks at inopportune moments.
[Jenna Coleman] "Anyway he comes back and he's soaking wet like...eating a pasty."
"And I look at him and I said, 'What happened?' and he said he went for a walk and he found a red button,"
"And he pressed it, and it was an emergency shower."
[Audience laughter]
also he's been a fan of Doctor Who since he was younger
And was at one point head of a Doctor Who fan club so like...
This casting really was delightful on many levels.
Personally I knew he was going to be good because,
I remembered his excellent
turn on the short-lived series 'The Hour,'
where he had me in tears over a scene
where he rearranges his desk.
So Capaldi was announced that we got our first glimpse of the 12th doctor during the
50th Anniversary Special in a scene
where all the doctors from throughout time,
appear at Gallifrey to do an
impossible task.
[General] "All twelve of them."
[Androgar] "No sir, all thirteen!"
And every fan collectively lost their minds.
Also don't worry why there are 13 doctors but 12's the latest one just...don't worry about it okay?
[EXTREMELY DRAMATIC MUSIC]
uuuuuugh
So Matt Smith would have his final send-off in The Time of The Doctor and like...it kind of sucks
I really am sad that Matt Smith didn't
get better material but oh well.
Finally after what feels like a year he
regenerates and...
[12th Doctor] "I've got new kidneys! I don't like the color"
Capaldi's first proper episode, 'Deep Breath' premiered in August of 2014, and...it's kind of a mixed bag.
There are scenes like this which go
on for way too long.
[Vastra] "He has seen stars fall to dust!." 
And also really nail-biting moments like this one:
[Clara] "If the doctor is still the doctor...He will have my back."
Also the doctor steals a coat from a
homeless man which...is not good.
But at the same time 'Deep Breath' gives us one of my all-time favorite post regeneration scenes.
[12th Doctor] "I'm not on the phone. I'm right here. Please just...Just see me."
The vulnerability and sweetness these
two actors bring is so good and
wonderful and the writing is damn near
perfect.
[Doctor Who Theme]
[Sigh]
Now the rest of series 8 is by and large is not very good. There are funny moments here and there.
Other parts are fairly interesting
[12th Doctor] "Am I a good man?"
[Clara] "I...don't know."
But series eight also gave us this:
[12th Doctor] "And this, is my spoon!"
And this:
[Ahmed] "Not the president of America sir, the president of Earth."
[12th Doctor] "There isn't one."
[Kate] "If you say so Mr. President."
Probably the best episode of the season is called 'Flatline.'
It's funny and has an
interestingly creepy monster for the Doctor
to face off against. But more
importantly 'Flatline' is the first
episode since Clara was introduced as
the souffle girl in series 7 that
actually utilizes her characters
potential. See, this show never really
knew what to do with Clara Oswald. It
only sort of knew what to do with Amy Pond.
But even she felt a little lost by the time she left a series.
I said Moffat had a women problem and nowhere is that more obvious
than the character of Clara
Oswald, The Impossible Girl.
First she's introduced to us as a Dalek, and then an 18th century nanny,
and then as a modern-day nanny. There's a reason for that but it kind of sucked and the
concept of The Impossible Girl was
abandoned by series 8.
Also Clara becomes a teacher out of nowhere, with no previous mention of studying to become a teacher,
Or anything that might indicate
she's going through the massive amount
of training that it takes to become a
teacher. She just suddenly is one in the
50th anniversary special and then...that's
that now.
Also one time she knew jiu-jitsu
[So I'm about to get this next bit wrong and I'm too lazy to re-record one line]
But don't worry she'll never know jiu-jitsu again.
[Its Tae Kwon Do not Jiu-Jitsu
It's a useful skill that could come in handy quite often when facing dangerous aliens but no...
she'll never know jiu-jitsu again.
[She'll never know TAE KWON DO again]
So it's safe to say that for most of Clara's run on the show it seems that Moffat and Co. sort of made her....
whatever the episode needed her to be.
One second she's apparently a needy egomaniac.
[Clara] "Nothing is more important than my egomania."
The next, she's the mature peacemaker while the Doctor and her boyfriend bicker like children.
And then finally we get to 'Flatline' and the first real glimpse of who Clara would become:
[Clara] "I'm the Doctor,"
"But you can call me Clara."
*I recognize that having Clara's entire character development be totally defined by a man in her life also sucks
In 'Flatline' Clara poses as the Doctor while he's trapped in a shrinking TARDIS
*But I do think it leads to a lot of cool and interesting stuff for her so I let this slide.
She plots and makes decisions like she thinks he would. It's cold and calculating and dangerous.
In the end it turns out she's very good at being the Doctor for better and for worse.
[12th Doctor] You were an exceptional Doctor Clara.
[Clara] "Thank you."
[12th Doctor] "Goodness has nothing to do with it."
Then series 8 ends with the show killing off Clara's boyfriend, Danny Pink,
Who was a delightful character that was largely squandered.
It's not a good look when the
show predominantly filled with white actors
kills off the one black man in
the main cast, but also it was stupid.
He got hit by a car, because apparently the
former soldier doesn't look both ways
before crossing the street. Then he gets
turned into a Cyberman, because that was
the season long MacGuffin, and then he
gets fixed by LOVE, but dies anyway
because Reasons. Also Clara betrayed the
Doctor and they reconciled with this line:
[Clara] "Then why are you helping me?
[12th Doctor] "Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?"
Which is so interesting and they just sort of breeze on past it.
They introduced a
cloud network full of dead souls being
downloaded into Cybermen. And they
officially introduced Missy as the lady
version of The Master. It was a messy
finale to say the least
[Seb] "Permission to squeeeeee!"
Series 9 began on equally rocky footing
with the aforementioned scene where
Missy and Clara argue who the Doctor
likes more as they're sent off to give
the Doctor his Confession Dial, something
that must be presented to a Time Lord
before their death in order for them to
confess and find peace.
Also the Doctor has sonic sunglasses now which really adds to the midlife crisis vibe in a bad way
But just try not to think about it
too hard about it.
[Upbeat techno music]
All of series 9 was built around two-part episodes for some reason, with the exception of the forgettable
one-off 'Sleep No More' and the absolutely
unforgettable 'Face the Raven.'
Overall series 9 was an improvement on series 8. Some episodes weren't great but it
wasn't bad. In fact some of it was quite
good.
[12th Doctor] "No on else will ever have to live like this. No one else will have to feel this pain!"
"Not on my watch."
The season moved well and also we finally had a good grasp on the dynamic between
Clara and the Doctor, where he stopped making weird comments about her appearance
[12th Doctor] "You're not a young woman anymore."
[Clara] "Yes as I am."
[12th Doctor] "Well you don't look it."
[Clara] "I do look it!"
[12th Doctor] "That's right, keep your spirits up."
And just genuinely cared about her very deeply.
[12th Doctor] "I'm not a hugger..."
[The Doctor laughs and Clara squeaks]
Also we got an incredible two-parter starring Maisie Williams,
where the show interrogate the
morality of the Doctor. Because he goes
around fixing thingsand saving worlds
but what happens after he leaves?
In this case case it leaves behind the Lady Me
[12th Doctor] "I saved your life." 
[Me] "You didn't save my life Doctor, you trapped me inside it.
Yes season 9 has another MacGuffin
because Moffat can't seem to let go of
that.
[12th Doctor] "The Hybrid"
[Me] "The Hybrid"
[12th Doctor] "The Hybrid...is Me!"
But you decide right off the bat that The
Hybrid doesn't matter in spite of it
being referenced at least once per
episode, series 9 is actually quite good.
And then we get to 'Face the Raven' and it
goes from quite good to borderline excellent.
This episode is penned by
Sarah Dollard and it's the beginning of the end for Clara Oswald.
In this episode, Rigsy, a character we met in 'Flatline'
calls up Clara and the Doctor to ask for
help with a mysterious tattoo that seems to be counting down to something
[Rigsy] "The tattoo...it's a number and it's counting down to zero."
So Clara and the Doctor assist him and eventually the trio discover a 'trap street.'
[Rigsy] "We're looking for a trap street?"
[12th Doctor] "We're looking for a trap street."
The street is hidden from view and it contains aliens and monsters who seek asylum and live in harmony.
And governing over all of them and keeping
the peace is Me.
She's an immortal now, thanks to the
doctors meddling, and a somewhat amoral one at that?
She does have a code of honor though, which maintains peace on the trap street.
Any law that is broken is an automatic death sentence. A chronolock is placed on the offender
and it counts down to the time when they must face The Raven,
No matter how petty the crime. In the case of Rigsy, he's accused of killing someone.
[Rigsy] "What if I freaked?"
[12th Doctor] "You were called here at 6 AM. By a number from a mystery phone."
[Clara] "There is no way you did this."
We find out that he didn't and oh hey!
look it's Shuri from Black Panther.
But before they can completely crack the case
Clara makes a fatal mistake.
See, she found out that the tattoo and thereby the death sentence can be passed to another
If both parties are willing. She
thinks this will trick Me and the others,
to give them enough time to solve the
case and thereby save Rigsy's life
[Clara] "I'm under the mayor's personal protection...and it's absolute!"
"Look she controls The Raven so I will
never have to face it. This. Is. Clever."
They do solve the case. The whole thing
was an elaborate ruse by Me
To get to the Doctor and get a teleport bracelet on his wrist. And then Me goes to remove the chronolock tattoo but...
[Me] "No..."
[12th Doctor] "Clara you didn't!"
By changing the terms of the contract,
and passing the tattoo on
to Clara, Me is now helpless to stop The Raven.
[The Raven caws}
[Clara] "We can fix this can't we? ...We always fix it..."
It's something out of a Shakespearean tragedy really...Its hubris.
Clara was too much like the Doctor but she was still a human .
[Clara] "Why shouldn't I be so reckless...You're reckless all the bloody time!"
"Why can't I be like you?"
[12th Doctor] "Clara there's nothing special about me, I am nothing."
"But I'm less breakable than you, I should have taken care of you!"
[Clara] "I never asked you to."
And so Clara has to die.
And maybe the editing sucks a little in her final moments,
And Clara becomes yet another woman in media to die perfectly posed.
But the power of this scene:
[Clara] "I know it's gonna hurt you, but please...Be a little proud of me."
Can't be ignored.
So Clara faces The Raven...as bravely as
she can...and she dies.
[Whooshing sounds]
And The Doctor is forced to go wherever
this bracelet takes him.
[Bracelet clattering]
And so we get to what might be in my opinion the best episode of Doctor Who.
God damn it.
In the 11th episode of series 9, 'Heaven Sent,'
We find the Doctor in a death trap.
A torture maze designed with him in mind.
[12th Doctor] "So who's been stealing my nightmares?"
And this episode perhaps encapsulate the 12th Doctor best.
Because this is a man
who would rather be burned alive than
give whoever trapped him here the
information they want. And spoiler alert
It's about The Hybrid which still
doesn't matter.
But what Does matter that this hour of Peter Capaldi monologing is captivating from start to finish.
[12th Doctor] "Come on! Chop, chop! The Doctor will see you now! Show me what you've got!
"I just watched my best friend die in agony. My day can't get any worse. Let's see what we can do about yours!"
The Doctor just watched his best
friend die, and now he's trapped in this maze
with no way out, and nothing to distract him from his grief, other than solving this mystery.
He even talks to Clara in the privacy of his own mind,
Where he imagines her standing at a chalkboard asking him questions, and spurring him onward.
[12th Doctor] "What would you do?"
[Chalk writing sounds]
[12th Doctor] "Yes. Yes, of course you would. Which let's be honest is what killed you."
At his lowest point she comes to him directly,
Either as another figment of his imagination or possibly
as a true spectre of his friend encouraging him
to keep going.
[Clara] "Get up...Off your ass...and win."
Eventually the Doctor discovers that his only option is to literally punch his way out.
And when that doesn't work? He resurrects a fresh copy of himself to do it all again.
[Smoking sounds]
[The Shepherd's Boy by Murray Gold plays]
[The Doctor coughing and gasping for breath]
[Flowing sand sounds]
[12th Doctor] "I'm the Doctor. I'm coming to find you, and I will never, ever stop."
And he does that for four and a half billion years.
Over one, 5 minute sequence, we watch the
Doctor put himself through hell over and over again,
And it's practically insane as we watch him realize the ever-increasing passage of time.
[12th Doctor] "If I didn't know better, I'd say I've travelled 7,000 years into the future."
[Reverberating spoon clatter that also sounds like a clock striking the hour]
"Twelve hundred thousand years into the future."
[Door creaks]
"Nearly a billion years."
But in the end...The madman actually does it.
And of course, he does it with a little story.
"How many seconds in eternity?"
"The Sherpherd's boy says..."
[Gasping sounds]
And we're left with the Doctor standing
in the desert of his home planet Gallifrey,
A tribute to determination and defiance,
Who spent four and a half Billion Years
trapped in a maze of his own people's making.
But he's finally come home...The long way round.
And sure we could poke holes in this episode
like why does everything in the castle reset
except the clues the Doctor is leaving for his future self,
Or how about the fact that Steven Moffat said the Doctor painted this picture of Clara,
But where the hell did he find art supplies and a canvas?!
And I said before The Hybrid doesn't matter but they do spend a lot of this episode talking about it anyway.
And I just have to take a minute to just talk about Mr. Peter Dougan Capaldi.
[Popping sound]
His middle name is Dougan? Alright then.
His ACTING in this episode...I mean his
acting is always phenomenal, even when
the material isn't? This guy has always
been delivering in spades, but in these 55 minutes
it's just his acting carrying
the entire show!
"Why is it always me?"
"Why is it never anybody else's turn?"
"It's not fair! Clara, it's just not fair! Why can't I just lose!?"
It's the Peter Capaldi Power Hour
And it's so good? I'm not sure there are many actors that could quite pull this off.
Basically I just love this episode so much
and everything it shows us about the Doctor.
About his raw, stubborn endurance and resilience. It's beautiful, and tragic, and sometimes it's even funny.
"I can't wait to hear what I say. I'm nothing without an audience."
It is in my opinion one of the best episodes of Doctor Who. Ever.
[The Doctor screaming]
[The wall cracking and breaking]
"Personally, I think that's a hell of a bird."
[Music crescendoes]
Then in the series finale 'Hell Bent,' we learn why he put himself through four billion years of That.
Why he didn't just give up and
tell them what The Hybrid is.
[Clara] "But what were you bargaining for?"
[12th Doctor] "What do you think?"
"You."
The episode opens with the Doctor finding a diner in the desert
And talking to a waitress who looks like
Clara, but acts like she doesn't know who he is.
Queue the titles, and the Doctor is back on Gallifrey.
We learn a lot of stuff in a short span of time, but the main takeaway is that the Doctor
brings Clara back from the dead by hoodwinking his own people, using Gallifreyan technology,
And he shoots a guy.
I mean he regenerates into this lovely lady, but still. The Doctor has definitely gone too far.
And this is why I didn't bring up
fridging when I talked about Clara's death.
Because it's Clara who puts her foot down.
Clara who says that what they're doing is wrong and they need to stop.
Even as she learns he spent four and a half billion years trapped in a confession dial,
Just to get the chance to bring her back.
[Clara] "I was dead and gone. Why? Why would you even do that to yourself?"
[12th Doctor] "I had a duty of care."
And can we just take a second to
talk about Jenna Coleman?
She didn't always get the most coherent character development but man she is so freaking talented.
I love watching her in this scene where she is so mesmerizing and utterly heartbreaking.
And so by the end of this episode, it's Clara who's taken control of an out of control sitution.
The Doctor tries to erase her memories without her consent so she can live,
Even though her remaining alive creates a dangerous and destructive paradox.
So instead, Clara turns the tables on him.
[12th Doctor] "Tell me what you did." 
[Clara] "What else? What else do you think I did?"
"I reversed the polarity! Push that button, Doctor, and it will go off in your own face!"
[12th Doctor] "You were trying to trick me?"
[Clara] "What are you trying to do to me?"
[12th Doctor] "I'm trying to keep you safe!"
[Clara] "Why?
"Nobody's ever safe. I've never asked you for that, ever."
And that is enough to finally get him to stop and think
To realize just how far he's gone wrong, although he did it for the right reasons.
[12th Doctor] "What am I doing? You're
right."
He finally understands that this can't continue and one of them has to stop. So they both activate the device,
knowing it's going to affect one of them,
erasing their memories of the other.
[Clara] "I don't think I could ever forget you
[12th Doctor] "Clara, I don't think you're ever gonna have to."
Turns out Clara did reverse the polarity,
and so the device backfires and erases
his memories of her instead.
Their goodbye is tragic and heartfelt, and
then we realize
that the woman that the Doctor's been talking to in the cafe since at the start of the episode...Really is Clara.
And it's the Doctor, who doesn't recognize Her.
She's watching over him, even now. Having reclaimed her agency and deciding to go out on her own terms.
The diner they're in is actually a second
TARDIS the Doctor stole from Gallifrey,
and with it, Clara will traverse the
cosmos with Me as her companion.
Eventually she'll have to return to
Gallifrey, to the time of her death,
But she says she's taking the long way
'round.
And that's the end of series 9.
I could talk about how 'Hell Bent's opening
is a little bit extra in the way where
everything revolves around the doctor to
the point of absurdity, which is a
[This many people willingly stand around to watch the Doctor eat soup]
Which is a problem throughout Moffat's run.
[Why are they applauding him? Are you okay Gallifrey??]
I could talk about how the whole Clara reclaiming her agency and erasing the Doctor's memory
might not be so much a feminist move? As it might be Moffat trying to be clever referencing
something the Doctor did in the past and
turning it on its head.
And like...they literally say they don't know who or what The Hybrid is. The Doctor thinks it's Me....
[12th Doctor] "The Hybrid...is Me!"
Because she's now a hybrid of a
human person and alien technology.
Me thinks that it's the doctor and Clara
which...okay...
[12th Doctor] " I went too far...I broke all my own rules. I became The Hybrid."
[Are you sure about that Doctor??????]
I told you that The Hybrid doesn't matter, but if you just know that at the start,
There's so much good stuff in series 9 then I'm willing to let the McGuffin be stupid and move on
After series 9 we got some specials
including a fun romp with an American superhero, and a really sweet one-off with the Doctor and River Song.
[12th Doctor] "Hello sweetie."
And from there series 10 is possibly even better
with the Doctor finding new companions
in Matt Lucas's Nardole
And Pearl Mackey's, Bill Potts. And by the way Bill is a black lesbian and possibly one of
the most delightful companions in New
Who's history. I fell in love with her instantly.
[12th Doctor] "And how does that explain why you keep coming to my lectures?"
[Bill] "Yeah it really does it? I was hoping
something would develop."
She is so wonderful I cannot stress this enough. so the Doctor, Bill, and Nardole face
Cybermen and emoji robots and some evil
brainwashing monks?
The only criticism I could really lob
it series 10 is that one or two of the
episodes are a little forgettable, and
the three-parter with the monks has one
or two crappy scenes. But by the end the
12th Doctor goes out on a high note with
a bombastic and gut wrenching series
finale.
[12th Doctor] "I'm not trying to win. I'm not doing this because I want to beat someone,"
"It's not because it's fun. It's not even because it works, because it hardly ever does."
"I do what I do, because it's right! Because it's decent! And above all, it's kind."
On the whole the Twelfth Doctor's
run is marked by incredible growth from
a bitter, lonely, angry man to a tired, but
gentle soul, who is unafraid to express
affection for those he cares about. And
he's able to face his end and a new
beginning with bravery and wit in a remarkably sweet and contemplative final Christmas Special.
Fucking hell.
So now
that we've discussed the bulk of the
Twelfth Doctor's run on Doctor Who and
why I like it in spite of the main
creative force behind it. Let's take a minute to talk about ...
Was a 1967 post-modernist essay by Roland Barthes, a French literary critic
And it argued that the only true way to critique a work of literature was to divorce it
from its author and their inherent
biases, or to liberate the text from:
In essence once the
creator makes something and puts it out
into the world then their authorial
intent no longer matters. Viewers and
readers can draw whatever
interpretations they like because the
author's intent is dead and gone.
Takes a somewhat different approach.
The word literally means author.
The theory came into being during the 1950s and 60s
With the French New Wave
movement happening in cinema and the
'Cahiers Du Cinema' magazine where directors
like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard
would write articles praising
directors like Hitchcock and Howard Hawks
For their distinct cinematic visions.
Basically Auteur Theory, which is ussially applied to film,
Says that a
director with a singular vision and
cinematic style is the one true artist
creating this work of art.
Their vision is what influences every frame and every line of dialogue.
Today one might hear the term applied to directors like Wes Anderson or Quentin Tarantino
Oddly, I've never heard it once used to describe a
female filmmaker
even though directors like Lynne Ramsay and Julie Taymor exist and are
equally distinct in their visual styles
and thematic preoccupations. Now I think
there are arguments to be made for both
theories. There are directors with
distinct styles; like Julie Taymor, like
Lynne Ramsay. Hell, if you watch my last
video on Russian Doll, I spent half of it
quoting Natasha Lyonne and Leslye Headland
Because I found their authorial
intent to be very interesting when
interpreting that show. At the same time
there are other works of media where I think Death of the Author might suit me more.
[Me doing an impression of a sad horn]
See the problem with JK Rowling as
far as I can tell is that she wrote
seven great to reasonably good books,
oversaw eight movie adaptations, and a
theme park opening, and like...still wasn't
ready to let it rest. I mean in fairness,
of the non Harry Potter books
she's written the one that she published under
her own name 'Casual Vacancy' got middling
to not good reviews while the 'Cormoran
Strike' series written under the pen-name
Robert Galbraith seems to be much better
received but...like I doubt Rowling is
doing this for the money. It's just that
she spent a lot of years with this
series and won't let it go. Of course it
would be nice if she would stop this
particular nonsense.
I love how Dumbledore is extremely gay
we promise except for every scene he's
in where he never once references it,
beyond Jude Law looking mildly wistful
once or twice. But these are all somewhat
extreme examples. And where does all this
sit when we want to talk about the Twelfth Doctor's three-season run.
[12th Doctor] "This didn't happen by the way."
Weeelll...All of this is just another way of addressing
the elephant in the room. You see there
is a pretty big conversation happening
right now around the idea that we can
separate the art from the artist, or if
we should try to, and it kind of factors
into my thoughts on Moffat. So strap in
kids we have to talk about the #MeToo Movement.
[Ellen DeGeneres] "Me Too."
[Daily Show Correspondent] "Me Too"
[Rachael Ray] "The MeToo Movement."
Actually began in 2006 when Tarana Burke
began using the phrase to raise
awareness about the pervasiveness of
sexual abuse and assault in society,
then in 2017 the movement got a lot bigger as
we began learning about the despicable
actions of well-known figures of the
film and literary world from Harvey
Weinstein to Kevin Spacey to James
Dashner. Which leads us to the question
that spawned a billion think pieces
And moreover
In a New York
Times article actor Colman Domingo spoke
on this phenomenon of boycotting works
based on their creators. He said:
Domingo
starred in the 2016 film 'The Birth of a Nation,'
which disappointed at the box
office after writer director Nate Parker
was accused of raping a woman twenty
years ago.
Parker was acquitted and the
aforementioned woman later committed suicide.
Roman Polanski director of 'The Pianist,'
and 'Rosemary's Baby' was convicted of
sexually assaulting a thirteen-year-old
and has a new movie called 'J'accuse'
starring Jean Dujardin from 'The Artist'
set to release this year. Alfred
Hitchcock was a well-known creep who
abused and assaulted Tippi Hedren during
their time working on 'The Birds' and 'Mamie.'
Stanley Kubrick traumatized Shelley Duvall
During the making of 'The Shining'
and Quentin Tarantino physically choked
Uma Thurman and Diane Kruger in 'Kill
Bill' and 'Inglorious Bastards'
respectively for the sake of
'authenticity.' His newest movie 'Once Upon
a Time in Hollywood' is set to release
this year. There is no shortage of gross
and horrific actions taken by powerful
men in the name of genius. By comparison
Moffat slightly veiled misogyny might
seem trifling, but I feel it's part of a
larger conversation as we decide how to
take in media created by problematic
figures. How do we ethically consume new
media if buying tickets, or tuning into a
new episode of a TV show, might benefit
powerful and terrible people. Well the
simplest answer is don't buy tickets.
Don't watch the shows. It's easy to
abstain from something you haven't
already seen. I don't feel a lot of loss
over the fact that I didn't see the last
Woody Allen movie. although even that is
maybe an oversimplification. You see a
lot of people saw and liked 'Bohemian
Rhapsody in spite of the allegations
made tow'ards director Bryan Singer of
sexually assaulting four underage boys
in the late 90s. A fair amount of people
saw the most recent 'Predator' in spite of
the registered sex offender in the cast.
*His scenes were cut after Olivia Munn kicked up a justifiable fuss
And now this is going to be entirely my
own personal opinion and not some
that I think everybody
needs to follow because these are not
easy questions to answer. Especially when
there are so many victims of assault in
the world who might not want to watch a
movie made by a rapist or abuser. I'm not out
to force anybody to think like me, but
for myself: I tend to take the attitude
that where it's possible I won't buy a
ticket, and I won't sit at my TV to watch
something when it first airs. Because as
far as I can tell viewer numbers and box
office returns are the only things that
higher-ups in the entertainment industry
take seriously and so if a movie made by
a bad person bombs because I and others
abstained from buying a ticket? Cool!
If a TV show made by terrible people gets canceled due to a lack of viewers? Awesome.
*Technically I think they just cancelled this one after the allegations about Louis C.K.
I say when possible because with
a production as big as say, 'The
Incredibles 2' I still saw that movie in
spite of John Lasseter's involvement as
the head of Pixar. And if you didn't know,
he screwed over director Brenda Chapman
on 'Brave' and regularly harassed his
female employees to the point that they
had a move called 'The Lasseter' to avoid
being groped. He's since been fired from
Pixar and hired at Skydance because
Hollywood never learns.
And in spite of all that I still saw 'The
Incredibles 2,' because it was a sequel
to a beloved movie from my childhood and
I too am sometimes a slave to trends. But
when it comes to the older stuff?
To stuff that I've already seen and loved?
and how much some might want to remove
certain works from history due to their
creators?
I still like movies such as 'L.A.
Confidential' in spite of Kevin Spacey's
role I still like the first two 'X-Men'
movies in spite of Bryan Singer
directing them I still liked 'Good Will
Hunting' in spite of Harvey Weinstein and
well. I don't know if Weinstein got some
residuals when I last watched
'Shakespeare in Love' on Netflix and I
don't know if Kevin Spacey got something
when I rented 'L.A. Confidential' from the
library/ I know Alfred Hitchcock can't
benefit from my buying a used copy of
'Notorious' on DVD because he's dead.
Basically it's my own personal feeling
that these works of art, films, shows, and
books that I love? They're mine now. They
belong to me either as a physical copy,
or a fond memory to quote Josephine
Livingston of the New Republic when she
discussed her personal affection for the
works of Woody Allen and Roman Polanski
There's been
a move lately to argue either that we
must separate art from the artist or
only consume media created by nice
people ever. Both angles are looking at
the situation as black and white, when I
think an individualistic approach is
probably the best. Each person deciding
where they draw the line \. Overall I do
feel that erasing the art from history
could be a detriment to future
generations. feminist scholar Camille
Paglia said in a New York Times article
So when it
comes to separating the art from the
artist? Choosing whether to apply Auteur
Theory or Death of the Author I tend to
go for both, and neither. I acknowledge
the bad that these artists have done
because it would be irresponsible to
ignore it and context matters. But I
choose to consume the art anyway.
So where does that leave us with Doctor
Who and Steven Moffat? Well from the
previous section you might have already
guessed Steven Moffat might be a
misogynist with spotty writing abilities,
but he also just happened to write some
shit that's practically perfect. I don't
like him as a person but the thing that
Auteur Theory and Death of the
Author tend to forget is that movies, TV
shows, music, and books are not made by a
single entity. R.Kelly works with sound
mixers and engineers and people who
assist in the instrumentation of his
music. Brian Singer works with
screenwriters and cinematographers. Even
authors like Junot Diaz worked with some
kind of literary editor before their
work is published. In the case of Steven
Moffat, he worked with many directors
like the excellent Rachel Tallalay who
directed some of my favorite episodes
including 'Heaven Sent.'
he worked with other writers like Sarah
Dollard and Catherine Tregenna, and he
worked with the actors. Capaldi, Coleman,
Mackey, and Lucas made choices as actors
which often elevated the material and
they might have even had some input on
the story - Capaldi said in an interview
with Digital Spy magazine that he
sometimes disagreed with Moffat on the
direction of the series. He added:
And we'll probably never know when and
where Capaldi felt the need to make such
sentiments known and to what degree
stories changed because of his input, but
a showrunner is not an island, and
perhaps some of the improvements to the
show came through collaboration. I know
some moments could only happen as they did due to the stellar performances of the actors onscreen.
[12th Doctor] "Hello sweetie."
So it's not hard to
imagine that collaboration made him
better and that brings us to series ten
and Bill Potts.
[Bill] "We're trapped in here!"
[12th Doctor] "Nothing gets through these doors."
[Bill] "But they're made of wood. They've got windows!"
Following Clara's absence, the Doctor begins
working as a professor at a university.
it's not completely explained why
because that's another MacGuffin. But
he's there and he's teaching and he
seems resolved to no longer travel in
the TARDIS. Then he meets Bill Potts and pretty quickly throws away that resolve in favor of more adventures.
[12th Doctor] "Time And Relative Dimension In Space." and bill
[Snaps fingers & door creaks open]
[12th Doctor] "It means...what the hell?"
And Bill Potts as played by Pearl Mackey is a revelation with none of the waffling in
writing that plagued Clara Oswald.
[Clara] "Nothing is more important than my egomania."
Bill gets to be a fun and interesting character from page one.
[12th Doctor] "Humanity is doomed to never learn from it's mistakes."
[Bill] "Why d'you put up with us then?"
[12th Doctor] "In amongst seven billion, there's someone like you."
I honestly wonder if Stephen Moffat
wrote a woman well by accident. I sort of
doubt he's truly aware of what makes her
character great. I mean she's a gay Woman
of Color who gets to be the kindest, most
good-hearted person in practically every
room she's in. The Doctor aspires to
being a good person, but he doesn't
always manage it. And so by the end of
the series, he's often looking to her for
guidance.
[12th Doctor] "Because it can't be up to me.
Your people, your planet."
"I serve at the pleasure of the human race right now that's you. Give me an order."
[Bill] "Save her."
Bill is strong and funny and has the capacity to
withstand the mental onslaught of living
under the brainwashing monks for months
without losing her grasp on the truth.
[Bill] "You saved them." 
[12th Doctor] "You did. You gave the order, boss."
And then in the penultimate
episode of series 10, 'World Enough and Time'
she's turned into a Cyberman but
she's a Cyberman who still retains her
sense of self, something Cyberman never
do. Which leads to heartbreaking moments like this
[Cyberman Bill] "I am not upset."
In the series finale 'The Doctor Falls,' Bill and the Doctor, and Nardole
are trapped on this ship that is
so big, that as it nears a black hole,
time passes differently on the different
levels, and the Cybermen are coming.
So the Doctor makes one final stand with
Bill. they win but at the cost of their
[12th Doctor] "You sure?"
[Bill] "You know I am."
They win but at the cost of their lives.
Well almost. Bill's spirit is plucked from
the Cyberman by Heather. You see Bill met
Heather in her first episode 'Pilot' and
instantly fell into a bit of a crush.
Heather was then taken by a race of
aliens and turned into this watery
specter who followed Bill through eons
of space and time because...
[Bill] "Promise you won't go?"
[Heather] "Promise."
[12th Doctor] "Never underestimate a crush."
Heather leaves when Bill asks her to,
but in her absence there's a tear on
Bill's cheek.
[Bill] "I don't think they're mine."
And so in the present, Heather returns to Bill in her final moments and provides her a sort of resurrection.
Now Bill and Heather can
travel all of space and time together on
this new plane of existence. It's kind of
an out of nowhere twist, but compared to
the alternative? Killing off another
character of color and this time a black
lesbian? Yeah I'm totally okay with this.
And as for the Doctor? Well Bill and
Heather bring him back to the TARDIS where Bill says her goodbyes and the Doctor begins to regenerate.
[12th Doctor] "I...will not change!"
But instead of letting it happen, he tries to hold back the inevitable,
leading to his final episode 'Twice Upon a Time,' where he comes
across a previous version of himself. The
First Doctor, originally played by
William Hartnell, here played by David
Bradley. See the First Doctor's
regeneration back in 1966 just sort of
happened? The writers of Doctor Who had
not fully fleshed out the regeneration
process yet, So Moffat decided to do a
little retconning to allow the Twelfth
Doctor to get a little perspective by looking back.
[1st Doctor] "I think I'm ready now. Are you?"
[12th Doctor] "You'll find out."
He also gets to spend time
with a version of Nardole and Bill.
Not the real ones, they're long gone. But a
version of them made from memories and
glass by Testimony, the entity the Doctor
faces in this episode.
It's touching to see just in this one thing how much this Doctor has grown over the last three seasons
To go from this.
[12th Doctor] "I don't think that I'm a hugging person now."
To this
"Thank you both, for everything that you were to me."
And then he goes into his TARDIS and
gives one final speech to his future self.
He's decided to accept the change
to come, but he wants to get the last word in.
"I've got a few things to say to you. Never be cruel, never be cowardly, and never ever eat pears!"
 
One actor said that art suffers when we
only consume the art that was created
ethically and erase the rest and while
I don't think that's true,
I do think it's true that we can choose what art we wish to consume and we can choose how we consume it.
I think classes could focus film history on more worthy figures
[Look up Alice Guy-Blaché guys]
and only introduced the DW Griffith's and Alfred Hitchcock's
of history with the appropriate context.
Sometimes shitty people can make beautiful art that innovates the form and sometimes a
misogynist can write some of the best
lines of Doctor Who ever.
[12th Doctor] "Personally, I think that's a hell of a bird."
People who know me in real life might know that I don't handle change well,
Despite the fact that my life along with that of most humans is rife with it.
It gives me anxiety sometimes to move to a new place,
or start a new job, and sometimes I find
even the smallest change is hard to handle.
At least for a little while.
Doctor Who is a show that embraces change.
It will hold the hand of the
viewer and walk them through loss, and
grief, and joy, and wonder, and discovery,
over, and over again. Every time we get a
new Doctor, the old one has to die, and
along the way they will lose friends to
time, or fate, or circumstance. But then
they'll make new friends, or get a new face. And well...
[12th Doctor] "Everything ends, and it's always sad. But everything begins again too and that's always happy. Be happy."
There's a line in the Broadway musical Hadestown,
A reimagining of the Orpheus myth by way
of the Depression era and New Orleans jazz,
That I think sums up what draws
people to this story.
The narrator Hermes says:
'It's an old song, and a sad song, and
they're going to sing it anyway. Again and again.'
Fiction is a powerful tool
that allows us to understand and reckon
with the world and sometimes it helps us
cope. You might be aware that in the real
world right now there is a never-ending
stream of bad news coming from every
corner of the world. And it's hard to
take sometimes. It can be stressful and
depressing. And in the face of that, I
find Doctor Who and this Doctor in
particular, with his tale of resilience,
and defiance, and friendship, in the face
of terror, and uncertainty to be powerful
in the way that only fiction can be.
So the fact that this show and this
particular arc of the Doctor spearheaded
by a very good actor in a smug asshole
decided to hold my hand through some
joys and some tragedies? Well, I can only
be grateful to them for giving me this gift.
It's mine now and I carry it with
me. I may like parts of this show against
my better judgment, and I may dislike the
man who wrote it, but nevertheless I find
it to be inspiring and I think of it
often
[12th Doctor] "Laugh hard,"
"Run fast,"
"Be kind."
'Doctor..."
"I let you go."
Also Class was actually
really good and the BBC shouldn't have
canceled that K thanks byeeeeee
Alright friends here we are at the credits.
This one took a while. As far as announcements go I got
distracted during the making of this by
'Fleabag' and I've already started writing
a script about that so expect a 'Fleabag'
video in the future. Other than that I
know I handled some sensitive subjects
in this video and I tried my best to
handle them tactfully, so I hope I threaded
that needle and yeah...thanks everybody
for watching, see you on the next one.
