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Last week, an incomplete scene featuring Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor surreptitiously hit the web, giving fans eager for leaks and spoilers a taste of what to expect from the next season of Doctor Who. But while in the entertainment business leaks and spoilers are part and parcel of the industry, in this case, the BBC is none too pleased about it.
In fact, the corporation has filed an application in a California court this week in an effort to expose the person who put the leaked footage online—hoping California’s Federal Court would put pressure on Tapatalk, whose messaging service was used to upload and disseminate a non-final, 53-second clip of Whittaker’s Doctor in action. The BBC isn’t accusing Tapatalk of any wrongdoing; rather, it just wants details on the user that uploaded the clip, so it can attempt to isolate just where in Doctor Who’s long line of production the clip got leaked.
Source: https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-bbc-is-heading-to-court-to-hunt-down-a-doctor-who-l-1827319614
(Score: 0, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05 2018, @08:02PM (28 children)
This is 2018, unless the character now identifies as a black, non-binary slithereen the SJW's will be rallying their outrage squads!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05 2018, @08:11PM (1 child)
Slitheen. We're the Slitheen. Not slithereen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05 2018, @08:19PM
Not after a few minutes enjoying the pulsating central column of the new Tardis console.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05 2018, @08:20PM (3 children)
It has been pretty standard that Timelords can be male or female, why do you insist on the Doctor only being a man?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05 2018, @08:30PM (2 children)
I don't, I insist on the doctor being one of the 2,538,296 genders discussed on Tumbler. The probability of being male or female with so many options are quite slim.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05 2018, @10:53PM (1 child)
Got it, you're triggered by a SciFi TV show plot twist. I bet you wear women's clothing in secret. Personally I'd go with attack helicopter if I had to choose, no longer need to worry about my own species being dumb fucks!
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday July 06 2018, @06:09AM
Not translesbian's clothes?
I see, you're helisexual. :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday July 05 2018, @08:34PM (21 children)
That said, the ctrl-left does seem to have a pretty strong presence in the BBC these days, wouldn't be surprised if they have some influence on the scripts now.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday July 05 2018, @09:28PM (14 children)
[citation needed]
And no, you can't cite that non-canon charity comedy thing where the Master turned into a woman and fell through a sewer grate an infinite number of times or whatever that malarkey was.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05 2018, @10:51PM (6 children)
Obviously you didn't watch the show. Maybe it was only brought up in the newer series, but it is there. No I'm not gonna dig up a link for your skeptical requirements.
(Score: 1) by paranoid1 on Friday July 06 2018, @03:22AM (4 children)
In the original show Timelords on Gallifrey were both male and female.
At one point Tom baker had an female assistant who was a female called Romana.
During her tenure with the Doctor she regenerated (female to female) and had such control over the regeneration process that she could choose the details of the new body.
Note: It was never indicated either way if a timelord could change sex during the regeneration process.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 06 2018, @05:27AM (3 children)
Romana was shown changing her appearance during the regeneration. First she became a copy of Princess Astra. Then she became a short blue-faced alien. Then a red-haired belly dancer complete with costume. Then a very tall statuesque woman. Then finally a copy of Princess Astra again. All female, but notably blue at one point. The reason for all this was simple: it was a laugh.
The old show always had males regenerate into males, and females in females. The new show was the same, up until a mention in series 6 episode 4 "The Doctor's Wife" by Neil Gaiman, then there was a whole plot-line of Missy starting in series 8, and an actual male-to-female regeneration was shown in the final episode of series 9 and in the final episode of series 10.
Now, it's certainly the one show where this kind of sci-fi gender change can work from the point of view of the physics of the show. Looked at from the point of view of the show's internal consistency (as if it has any!), it would seem to be a rare occurrence. (Of course the real reasons are about the production team and target market and diversity and ratings.) In the real world, there are fish that change gender, but they do so normally for reproductive reasons (or sometimes because of pollution by chemicals that mimic natural hormones). It's unclear why this would occur for Time Lords, but the very question demands some logic or rationale when we know there isn't any in-universe explanation, and nor will one be given.
There's a subtext here that physical gender somehow doesn't matter or is irrelevant to one's identity, this was shown by the writer Steven Moffat's words spoken by Peter Capaldi's Doctor in his final episodes "We're billions of years ahead of your petty obsession with gender and its associated stereotypes" and "I think she was a man back then, I'm fairly sure I was too". As if you'd forget what gender you were born into (especially given the Doctor's been male for 2000 years by this stage), and as if your species would learn to totally ignore gender when it's still an expressed part of the genome. These words rang very false with me, a long time fan. It feels like a sudden change being pushed by the production team, because that's what it is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 06 2018, @02:22PM
Really it shows the ctrl-left's massive cisgender blindspot and lays bare the utterly cruel insensitivity of identity politics.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday July 06 2018, @02:50PM
Just as something to think about, it should be pointed out that the Eighth Doctor claimed to be half-human in the TV movie, which the new show has gone to great lengths to establish is still canon (they're up to like 4 or 5 different sequences showing all the Doctors, including Eight, last I saw). You can't really take everything the Doctor says at face value.
But if Star Wars can jettison over a hundred Extended Universe books as no longer canon, there's no reason DW can't suddenly say after 12 (13, counting War Doc?) men that the Doctor (and the Master apparently, because fuck it why not) can be a woman.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday July 06 2018, @06:18PM
But there is. Regeneration process involves lots of mutations, that's why they are so different from each other. Height, build, coloration, even personality traits could change. Given that how would it be at all surprising to find that X and Y chromosomes sometimes get flipped as well?
"There's a subtext here that physical gender somehow doesn't matter or is irrelevant to one's identity, this was shown by the writer Steven Moffat's words spoken by Peter Capaldi's Doctor in his final episodes "We're billions of years ahead of your petty obsession with gender and its associated stereotypes" and "I think she was a man back then, I'm fairly sure I was too"."
And those are words from a relatively recent episode I don't think I ever saw, but the words would not have struck me as out of place in Tom Bakers mouth. And it makes sense from a Gallifreyan. The physical advantages and disadvantages that determined completely different roles for each in the distant past are already much less important today. With their level of technology, being able to lift a bit more or run a bit faster would seem truly insignificant. Why would they need to use their musculature to lift anything physically? Why would they ever need to run, other than for their health perhaps?
"As if you'd forget what gender you were born into (especially given the Doctor's been male for 2000 years by this stage), and as if your species would learn to totally ignore gender when it's still an expressed part of the genome.""
I'd suspect the line is ironic, and doesn't mean he's actually forgotten, just that he truly doesn't consider it important enough to make note of. And I don't think they totally ignore gender. They form couples, hetero couples, for the purpose of reproduction, so in that sense they don't ignore it at all. It's just not seen as important outside of that context.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday July 06 2018, @02:43PM
Yes, I did watch the show, all the way from Eccleston through the end of Smith, and a handful of the older serials.
Okay, then I'm going to take this as an admission that I'm right. Have a nice day.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday July 05 2018, @11:25PM (3 children)
IIRC that was actually something they came up with after shooting an episode or three, so not LITERALLY FROM THE BEGINNING.
But aside from that, no, this has been a theme of the show going way back. Source - me watching the show in the late 70s-early 80s.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday July 06 2018, @02:58PM (2 children)
Doctor Who has been about transsexuality for its entire run? Wow, the 60s must've been more liberated than I realized.
I want to say that they didn't actually come up with the idea of regeneration until late-ish in Hartnell's tenure, but that's not the point I was making. Of course regeneration has been a thing forever on the show, but until very recently nobody seriously talked about a transsexual Time Lord regeneration in other than a throwaway gag line or two. And that non-canon comedy thing [wikipedia.org] with fucking Rowan Atkinson that I have no interest in watching.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday July 06 2018, @05:56PM (1 child)
Wow. That's how you see it?
No, it's not been about transsexuality, but the possibility of Time Lords shifting sex along with their other physical (and even some mental) attributes during a regeneration has been part of the universe for a long time.
I don't get how you can swallow Tom Baker going into a cocoon and coming out Peter Davison, or Colin Baker, and so on, shifting height, coloration, accents, mannerisms... virtually everything aside from sex. That's ok but when Jodie Whittaker comes out of a cocoon suddenly it's all different?
Now maybe Jodie Whittaker isn't up to the role. Maybe the writing has gone downhill. Maybe I'll be bothered enough to find a way to watch a newer episode and judge for myself as a result of the article. But I don't get why it makes any difference at all that she's female. You get that the regeneration process involves bit-flipping dna, right?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday July 06 2018, @06:20PM
And I don't get why you think it's so *important* for me to be fine with it. It just comes off as a politically-motivated gimmick.
For what it's worth, I gave up watching the show shortly into Twelve's stint anyway. Can't stand Clara or the Victorian Dinosaur, Lesbian Servant, and Unfunny Troll.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday July 06 2018, @07:11AM (2 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Troll) by tangomargarine on Friday July 06 2018, @02:41PM (1 child)
...in the finale of the previous Doctor, the same episode that Ms. Who makes her first appearance (presumably there's a regeneration sequence; I haven't actually watched it). So yes, you've demonstrated that it's suddenly canon without actually disagreeing with me that it's unprecedented.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by FatPhil on Saturday July 07 2018, @09:32AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05 2018, @09:34PM (5 children)
Yeah diversity and equality is being pushed pretty fucking hard in a lot of new media, but I'd say that is balanced out by all the regressive/repressive shit that gets published.
Cop shows are frequently showing violence and illegal search/seizure as valid tactics, or at the very least "ends justify the means". I think I can handle the high presence of diversity topics, at the very least they aren't negative things.
Why does this stuff bother you so much? Are you offended but can't turn a video off?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Thursday July 05 2018, @09:55PM (2 children)
You're watching too many re-runs. Try something produced in the last 5 years. Especially if its British.
ALL commanding officers (and more than half the cast) on british cop serials are women.
Nobody carries a gun.
Every Police officer is deeply flawed and struggling with daemons.
People are let go promptly - catch and release.
Nobody takes a swing at anybody, certainly not the police.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday July 05 2018, @10:37PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05 2018, @10:56PM
Hmm, I'll give you the flawed demons and such but I've seen a few new shows with males and violence, with women being violent as well. Much closer to reality than your crazy preconceptions. As usual lack of knowledge and experience is the conservatives Achilles heel. Oh, Achilles heel is a reference to a mythological character's weak spot.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday July 05 2018, @10:34PM (1 child)
But they don't "balance" unfortunately, quite the opposite.
"Cop shows are frequently showing violence and illegal search/seizure as valid tactics, or at the very least "ends justify the means"."
Not just 'valid' but in many cases as exemplary, required. And that crap has been the pattern from Hollywood for decades, I know. I find it absolutely disgusting. One of the reasons I no longer watch TV.
"Why does this stuff bother you so much?"
What makes you think it bothers me much?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05 2018, @11:00PM
I meant to reply to the OP.