SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for Fnord666
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) 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?"