Doctor Who 7x03, "A Town Called Mercy"

[kindkit]

"Twaddle" is the word that comes to mind. I wish New Who would stop pretending it's going to be critical of the Doctor's moral choices, because it never really is. There's always an out. The bad or baddish guy will always conveniently commit an honorable suicide, or some other miracle will happen, and the Doctor will never have to make hard choices with hard consequences. He'll never really have to decide whether justice means letting a war criminal be summarily executed or letting him live the rest of his life in freedom doing good work among the natives humans, whether destroying the Daleks would be genocide or an act of pre-emptive justice for the lives they would otherwise take. Some deus ex machina will always save him from real ethical dilemmas, and thus save the show from being unable to simultaneously have its cake (its righteous heroic Doctor and persistent, though not consistent, anti-violence message) and eat it too (its pretense of exploring difficult ethical issues).

Also, there was sweeping Murray Gold schmaltz music with angelic choirs, and a little moppet so cute that the Gunslinger couldn't kill her. *scowl* What if the Gunslinger had been perfectly willing, as many humans for many reasons have been, to kill a cute litte moppet? Or twenty? Or millions? What if Jex hadn't self-destructed and the Doctor had had to decide between them? What if everything hadn't handily arranged itself to ensure that the Doctor would be exempted from any moral responsibility?

I'm not saying Who should be grimdark, or even "gritty and realistic." I just want it to stop pretending it is when it's not, and to stop pushing the bullshit faux-morality of "oppression, injustice, and cruelty can be easily corrected without the opposing forces dirtying their hands, so long as they're nice."

Oh, and by the way, has Steven Moffat forgotten that the Doctor blew up his own planet to end the Time War? The Doctor does, in fact, know about hard choices, although you'd never guess from the last couple of series.

Comments

[ide_cyan]

Hear, hear.