Doctor Who 10x05, "Oxygen"

[kindkit]

This was the first episode since I started watching again (at the beginning of S10) that I thought was genuinely good. My feeling about earlier episodes was more, "this is okay, and I like Bill and the Bill-and-the-Doctor chemistry, so since nothing has happened to make me actively not want to watch, I'll stick with it."

Certainly it could have been more subtle, and I long for the (often) complex and nuanced storytelling of classic Who, but the main story and the main moral actually meshed properly together for once. And I liked that the villain of this episode was essentially systemic; it wasn't one evil exploiter, as in "Thin Ice," but a whole impersonal structure. (Though I think it might have been even better if the people on the ship had known all along that this might happen, just as we in our version of capitalism know all the bad things that can happen to us if we're "not productive." That would have taken away the mystery element, but I don't think there always needs to be a mystery element. The story could have created tension in other ways.)

Speaking of exploitation, have I mentioned how uncomfortable I am that the Doctor has a servant? I especially don't like the way the Doctor teases and really sort of bullies him in front of Bill; it reminds me of the way Ten and Rose behaved sometimes, showing off for each other by making fun of other people. Nardole is a killjoy, yeah, but that's because he's got the thankless job of trying to make the Doctor stay put and behave responsibly over a longer term. And as the Doctor's at least nominal servant, he can't fight back on an equal basis. Anyway, I was glad to see Nardole get some character development here and get to be more than an obstacle and a nag.

I could've lived without the "Bill is accidentally racist," scene, first of all because of what other people have pointed out about the white-writer-smugness of making the black character be the racist, and second because she isn't really racist--she has literally never encountered a blue person before. Her startlement is just startlement, it's not conscious or unconscious prejudice from growing up within a culture that's racist against blue people. (Nardole, who from the sounds of it has known blue people before, behaves in a more genuinely racist way with his "some of my best friends" thing.) Accidentally-racist Bill implies that racist microaggressions in the real world are innocent and don't mean anything, when in fact they emerge out of a completely different context and aren't really accidental, are really meaningful.

Finally, I think the Doctor becoming blind is, potentially, an interesting choice with a lot of great storytelling and character possibilities. Everything depends on how it's handled, of course. Having his blindness be miraculously cured in the next episode would be bad, although not as bad as if he chooses regeneration at the end of this series because he's blind. Actually, the regeneration issue in this context exposes the faultline between Who as science fiction and Who as allegory. From a science fiction perspective (which is also a Watsonian perspective, treating the Whoniverse as though it's real) it could make perfect sense for the Doctor to regenerate in order to cure his blindness--he's got a lot of lives left (I think?), and I can see why he might choose to move on to a body without a problem that will make his adventuring much more difficult. But as allegory, if the Doctor chooses "death" rather than disability, that's a pretty ugly and tedious bit of ableism. New Who has created its own problem, I think, by encouraging us to read the show so very allegorically; the literal science fiction level and the allegorical level do not map well onto each other much of the time. The Doctor is not like us. Old Who could be allegorical too, of course, but allegory wasn't its primary mode that way it is in New Who.

Okay, it turns out that bit wasn't final. Finally finally, I hope John Simm shows up soon. I want lots of Simm!Master, not just one episode like I'm afraid it's going to be.

(I also want Simm!Master to be redeemed somehow. He and the Doctor--who is still blind--could go off together to have adventures. And bickering. And kisses, because this is 20fucking17 and the Doctor does not have to be heterosexual!

I want to win the lottery, too, but it ain't gonna happen.)

Comments

[vilakins]

It hadn't occurred to me that the Doctor might choose regeneration because of blindness. Because yes, that would be offensively ableist.

I don't blame Dakhren (sp?) for his reaction to Bill's, but I hope he expressed his opinion of Nardole's comment. Or was Nardole being satirical and trying to wind Dakhren up? He is sometimes funny (to me anyway). I do find his and the Doctor's relationship odd as he calls the Doctor "sir" yet almost seems to be in charge (in a whiny naggy way). I like him though. All three make for great banter.

I don't know where they're going with the Master/Missy/both of 'em. Does he have two locked up in there? It's possible given they're time travellers, and that seemed a fair bit of takeout.