Fandoms

(I’ve tried to make this a spoiler free version of The Timeless Child review. Please comment below if you’ve seen the episode and think something in this article spoils it)…

 

 

 

 

It’s quite amazing how much a simple change or two can affect a fandom…

For a show that almost primarily about change a lot of fans, especially in these last few years, seem to have issues with change. This is mostly a review for The Timeless Children: the finale episode Jodie Whittakers current season (as of March 15th 2020 in case anyone reads this following next season). I will attempt to keep spoilers away because I do know that there are people out there who haven’t seen it for whatever reason. People have lives and television shows\movies can’t always be seen on release days.

I liked this episode a lot. It felt like a good Doctor Who story that kind of harkened back to Classic (as a few of Chibnell’s run has done). Having the extended runtime for a finale really helped with not having to cram everything in to a standard 40 minute episode. This is something a lot of shows do. The finale is the same length as the rest so that everything ends up getting resolved quickly. This can be good and bad, and mostly wouldn’t come from the show-runner or production team, rather it would come from the studio.

The only part I felt was a little over the top was the B storyline with the humans and Cybermen involving how they got back to the planet to meet the Doctor. It felt a little cliche to me. But I guess a little cheese in Doctor Who is what the show is about.

I enjoyed seeing what they did on Galifrey, and with the Time Lords. The Time Lords often come off as a bit of a cheat. Similar to how the TARDIS gets used. The “fix all” of everything. Which is usually why, like in this episode, you usually get the TARDIS written out until the end. It stops the writer using it as a ‘crutch’ to fix issues. It introduces a little more tension to it. Obviously not that much because of the nature of the show we know that nothing is going to hurt the Doctor unless it’s after an announcement about a Doctor replacement and then we’ll wait to see how they regenerate. But even with that, the episode maintained a degree of tension about what would happen. It makes me wonder how they will bring the Master back for future episodes, as well as where this Master fits in the timeline. His timeline is not always straight forward even back in Classic Who. Is he a pre-Missy Master? There is some evidence to suggest it. But who knows. To be honest, I hope they don’t show that much. The mystery behind it doesn’t need to be shown in my opinion. It makes the Master able to pop up anywhere without questioning it.

Speaking of regenerations. What they did with the Doctor is essentially overwrite that one off line in Classic Who that limited the number of regenerations down to 12, with only the Time Lord council able to grant more (see: Matt Smith episode: Time of the Doctor). While this was most likely a note from the BBC to find a way around it so that the Doctor could continue on without every show-runner having to overwrite it. The way this was done during The Timeless Children was brilliant (in my opinion). What this does is open up a multitude of stories, as well as making sure that the Doctor and the TARDIS can be around for future generations. It also brings back the mystery of the Doctor herself. During the almost 60 years now of Who’s run they have answered almost every question with regards to this character. They’ve filled in details, and missing pieces (more so with Big Finish). They’ve created stories between Doctors that link one Doctor to another. There wasn’t that much more. We knew who he was as a character. The essence of him.

With the additional story of The Timeless Children all that is still there, and still exists as part of his history, but we get MORE. More stories, more details, more gaps.. And we can once again ask the question, Doctor… Who?

This is why I don’t get the tiresome parade of fans screaming that it somehow betrays the history. Or that the same history is worthless. Because it isn’t. That history is still part of what makes the Doctor who he is. Nothing’s changed there. It opens it to MORE. But fan outrage is what you get around any serious nowadays. From Supernatural, to The 100, to Supergirl, to any of the other CW verse stories. Fans get angry and upset that their particular ‘want’ is not being shown enough; despite in some cases being told that it’s not a thing that they are going to do by the show-runners, and cast—multiple times. No matter that, fans still claim “endgame” on their ship.

My question is why? It’s all very well and good if you like a particular ship. But if the show-runner\cast whoever involved says that’s not where they’re going. Then why argue back? If you want a show to do something. Then write fanfic. Make art. Tell your own stories. These don’t have to be, as people say, “canon”.. Heck, when you really think about it a television show isn’t “canon”. It’s an adaptation of previous work in the case of comics and books that get made into shows. It’s that show-runners vision.

So, make your own. Be creative.

Anyway, back to Doctor Who as that side-tracked a little. Most of the fan outrage here with this episode doesn’t even make sense. I’ve had debates with people bringing up Ruth Doctor position in the timeline, regeneration changes, re-writing 60 years of show. Do you know what? I’ve counter-acted them all. Am I saying that I’m correct? Or course not. I have no idea what the show-runner (Or BBC) wants to do. I don’t know where they are going. I can offer my ideas on why it doesn’t change the timeline, as I’ve mentioned above. But also, why it helps Doctor Who especially in the event of hers\his regenerations. It’s all story potential. It’s even still possible that in the years coming another show-runner taking over could make a story that changes what happened in The Timeless Children in some way, and I’m fine with that too.

The problem is fans not having acceptance of these changes, and not being open-minded about where the show could go with them. So they yell and scream out about “bad writing”… Which is actually kind of hypocritical to me. For one example, no one yelled and screamed when Moffat wrote in that the TARDIS grows to humongous size when it “dies” which makes a previous line from (I think Eccleston’s doctor, I think) make no sense. When he says, just leave the TARDIS there. It will become a monument. No one will know. Did the fans take issue with this? Nope, they did not. Or one more, when Matt Smith’s Doctor literally destroyed the universe with a TARDIS explosion and repaired as if nothing was changed.

Did that get called “bad writing”? No it did not. So then, why does this season just because of a few changes that make Doctor Who able to continue on for ever? It’s very hypocritical if you ask me.

As for the future of Doctor Who. I for one am excited to get back into the TARDIS when it returns for the holiday special, Remembrance of the Daleks… and I look forward to more amazing stories from Chibnall and his writers.

Remember. Have discussions, and talks about your shows. But keep an open mind and don’t succumb to hate… especially against writers\cast\show-runners if you’re discussing things on twitter.