Doctor Who: 1x09 "The Empty Child" & 1x10 "The Doctor Dances"

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE NINE: “THE EMPTY CHILD”

The creepiest monster of the week in New Who to date – and surprise, surprise it’s a child.  Plus the introduction of everyone’s favorite über-suave time-traveler Captain Jack Harkness.

Doctor Who: 1x09: “The Empty Child” Written by Steven Moffat

The Summary:

The Doctor and Rose follow an alien object with a mauve alert (the universal version of the red alert) to London in 1941.  They quickly become separated, without realizing they’re in the middle of the Blitz because apparently the Doctor forgot to check that they weren’t landing in the middle of a war before getting off the TARDIS.  Rose goes to follow a small child calling for his mother from a rooftop, where she climbs the cable to a barrage balloon and accidentally sets it loose, while she still hanging onto it.  Meanwhile, the Doctor gets mistaken for a comedian when asking an underground cabaret whether anyone had noticed something large falling from the sky into the middle of London.  While Rose is flying above London, wearing a Union Jack t-shirt, in the middle of an air-raid, the Doctor receives a phone call on a phone in the TARDIS that is not actually a phone.  A young woman tells him not to answer, but the Doctor does anyway.  The little boy on the other line asks for his mother.  The woman has disappeared, but the Doctor decides to find her and ask for more information.  Rose is still hanging off a barrage balloon, but is spotted by an (apparently) American officer called Jack looking at her through binoculars.  After making it clear he’s involved with another male officer, he runs off “to meet a girl.”  Said girl turns out to be Rose, who he saves with his invisible spaceship that he had parked next to Big Ben.  Rose is reduced to her hormones upon setting eyes on Jack.  The Doctor crashes a dinner stolen from a family in a bomb shelter and being hosted by the mysterious young woman, Nancy, for a bunch of orphans.  The Doctor says he approves of her tactics, then asks the children for information on the cylinder.  Before he can get any information, the little boy shows up (and is clearly wearing a gas mask), and all the other children run away.  Nancy claims the boy is empty and that the Doctor should not touch him.  She leaves, and the Doctor opens the door for the little boy, but he’s already gone.  Jack introduces himself as Captain Jack Harkness, and he and Rose flirt.  Jack is a time-traveler and knows Rose is too, though he mistakes her for a professional Time Agent.  The Doctor tracks Nancy down again, and she explains that the bomb “that was not a bomb” crashed near Limehouse Green Station, and that he should talk to “the doctor.”  Jack and Rose flirt some more and dance and Jack uses the obviously compromised Rose to get her to purchase the cylinder (a Chula warship); she has him find the Doctor first.  The Doctor goes to Albion Hospital to talk to Dr. Constantine, who tells him that the child was the first of many and the entire hospital is full of gas-mask people and the little boy is in fact Nancy’s little brother.  Dr. Constantine then grows a gas mask out of his face.  Rose and Jack meet up with the Doctor and they’re attacked by the gas mask people.  The episode ends on a cliff-hanger.

The Women:

Rose Tyler, Nancy

The Conversations:

Nope

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

L’sigh

The Tally:

Episode 1x09 Total: 0

Series 1 Total: 13.5

9^th Doctor Total: 13.5

Rose as Companion Total: 13.5

Russell T Davis Era Total: 13.5

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE TEN: “THE DOCTOR DANCES”

In which everyone is reduced to their sex organs.

Doctor Who: 1x10: “The Doctor Dances” Written by Steven Moffat

The Summary:

The Doctor saves the trio of time-travelers by commanding the gas-mask people (who are all asking for their mothers) to go to their room.  Nancy is also being cornered by the little boy, her brother Jamie in the house she was previously stealing from.  All the gas-mask people, including Jamie, go back to their beds after the Doctor’s command.  But it’s too late for Nancy, as she gets caught by the owner of the house.  Meanwhile, Jack explains that he’s just a conman and that the Chula warship is just a junk ambulance.  He and the Doctor argue about whether Jack is responsible for everything.  Nancy meanwhile is being a badass, blackmailing the owner, Mr. Lloyd, with his blackmarket food (and also possibly that he’s in a sexual relationship with the butcher, which is not as cool) into giving her more food and wire cutters.  The Doctor, Rose, and Jack explore the child’s room and discover that he’s inhumanly strong; then they remember that the Doctor sent the child to his room, and Jamie is there, asking for his mother.  They get out using Jack’s sonic blaster, which disappears the wall and reconstructs it once they’re out of the room.  This doesn’t really slow the child down and the gas-mask people are back.  The Doctor and Jack then get into a family-friendly, sci-fi dick measuring contest by comparing their respective sonic instruments until Rose remembers that she’s clever and can figure shit out and disappears the floor beneath them then reconstructs it above them once they’ve fallen through. (Sorry for the run-on.)  They hide in a storeroom, and before they can figure out how to get out of the situation, Jack teleports.  Meanwhile, Nancy brings the food to her “charges” in the rail yard and explains that the child is coming for her, so as long as she’s with them, they’re in danger.  She leaves.  Back in the store room, Jack explains over the radio, because his ship can hack into anything with a speaker grille (just like the child can), that he went to his ship and is working on getting them teleported there as well.  The child’s voice comes on and Jack blocks it by playing Moonlight Serenade.  Rose explains that she and Jack danced to the song, and the Doctor becomes jealous, explaining that he too dances, an obvious metaphor for sex.  The Doctor then tries to dance with Rose, but is cock-blocked by Jack teleporting them onto his ship.  Rose and Jack comment on the sexual tension between Rose and the Doctor, and Jack gets some backstory.  Back to Nancy, who’s broken into the site where the Chula warship is being guarded, she is quickly caught by the guards and handcuffed to a table right next to a guard who is about to turn into a gas-mask person.  The Doctor, Rose, and Jack arrive on the scene and Jack goes to flirt with the guard Algy.  The Doctor reduces the wide-world of human sexuality and sexual orientation to “dancing” with as many beings as possible.  But Algy and all the other guards are turning into gas-mask people, and the Doctor, Rose, and Jack run into the site to escape them.  The Doctor finds Nancy singing a lullaby to the gas-mask guard she was caged with to keep him asleep; the Doctor sonics her handcuffs and gets her out.  Jack tries to break into the Chula ambulance to prove his innocence but ends up setting of the alarm that brings all the gas-mask people to it.  Rose and Nancy go to fix the fence where Nancy broke in, and they have an awesome moment of woman to woman bonding.  The Doctor finally figures out that the Chula ambulance is equipped with nano-genes, which heal anything but don’t know what humans are supposed to look like, so when they tried to heal Jamie they got it mixed up and started “healing” everyone they came into contact with in the same way.  Nancy is then revealed to be Jamie’s mother not his sister – and ok I love mothers but considering how reductionist this whole episode has been about sex, sexuality, and gender roles this reveal is just kinda “ugh” – then in a heartwarming moment, Nancy tells Jamie that she is indeed his mother who he has been calling for and the nano-genes recognize her biology as correct and everyone is saved.  But a bomb is about to fall on them, so Jack teleports to his ship and saves them all by taking the bomb into space, but he cannot diffuse it entirely or escape the ship so he prepares for death when the TARDIS materializes in the ship to save him.  The Doctor and Rose are dancing, and everyone flirts and dances and the episode ends.

The Women:

Rose Tyler, Nancy

The Conversations:

Rose and Nancy: Rose lets Nancy in on the secrets that not only are the Doctor,  Jack, and her time-travelers from the future but also that England and its allies win the war against Hitler.  The rating: 2

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

“Nancy, the Germans don’t come here.  They don’t win.  […]  You know what?  You win.” – Rose Tyler (to Nancy)

Yes, the Doctor and his companions regularly save the world, but it’s when they give hope to someone who has lost it completely is when I think they shine.  And the importance of this is shown just a couple minutes later when Nancy, despite having spent most of her time bonding with the Doctor, calls for Rose when the gas-mask people start breaking through the gates.

The Tally:

Episode 1x10 Total: 2

Series 1 Total: 15.5

9^th Doctor Total: 15.5

Rose as Companion Total: 15.5

Russell T Davis Era Total: 15.5

For Further Discussion: Sexuality: Sexualization and Erasure

Spoilers for DW Series 1, Torchwood, DW episodes 4x09 & 4x10, and DW Series 5-7

Doctor Who: 1x03 "The Unquiet Dead

Welcome to the third episode review for Fandom Approved, Bechdel Tested.  I’ll be starting with a rewatch of Doctor Who.  In each review, there will be spoilers for the episode reviewed and all previous (obviously); any spoilers for future episodes will be highlight-to-read or under a “Read More” bar.

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES ONE, EPISODE THREE: “THE UNQUIET DEAD”

A fun little ghost story romp into the past with Charles Dickens.  Unfortunately the twist at the end is how idiotic everyone but Rose was.

Doctor Who: 1x03: “The Unquiet Dead” Written by Mark Gatiss

The Summary:

Meaning to land in 1860 in Naples, the Doctor takes Rose to Cardiff, 1869.  There, a funeral home director, Mr. Sneed, and his maid, Gwyneth, are dealing with the corpses rising, attacking people, and taking their bodies on joy rides.  Meanwhile, Charles Dickens is performing A Christmas Carol.  The latest zombie, Mrs. Peace, ends up in his audience, where the Doctor, Rose, Mr. Sneed, and Gwyneth all end up to fix whatever’s wrong.  When Rose confronts Gwyneth about stuffing an old woman into the hearse, Mr. Sneed kidnaps her.  The Doctor enlists Charles Dickens’s help in saving Rose.  When Rose wakes up, she is nearly killed by two zombies and narrowly escapes thanks to the Doctor.  While Charles Dickens complains the entire that what he’s seeing isn’t possible, the Doctor tries to figure out how to stop what’s happening.  After they figure out Gwyneth is psychic, he has her host a séance.  The zombies turn out to be created by an alien called the Gelth possessing them; the Gelth claim to be near extinction victims of the Time War and ask for the Doctor’s help in giving them dead bodies to possess permanently.  Despite the séance company including a genre savvy genius, the genre savvy genius, a man whose entire income is dependent on dead people staying dead, and a very religious woman who thought this was all unholy witchcraft until two seconds ago, and despite the first thing the Gelth have done once they get into a body is (attempting) to murder somebody, only Rose protests that this might not be a good plan.  The Doctor ignores Rose’s protests and has Gwyneth open the rift in time and space so that the Gelth could come through.  Surprisingly-not-surprisingly, the Gelth are actually not anywhere close to extinction and want to kill everyone in the world, starting with the Doctor and Rose, in order to take over.  Charles Dickens comes up with the idea to blow them all up at the last second and Gwyneth, who died a bit earlier, does it.  This episode is the second instance of the Bad Wolf meme and a more overt set-up for “Father’s Day.”

The Women:

Rose, Gwyneth           

The Conversations:

1. Rose and Gwyneth:  Rose confronts Gwyneth about stuffing Mrs Peace into the hearse.  Gwyneth tries to reassure Rose that everything’s fine before Mr. Sneed interrupts them to knock-out and kidnap Rose.  The conversation can barely be considered one, so the rating: 1

2. Rose and Gwyneth:  Rose and Gwyneth end up in the kitchen while the Doctor and Charles Dickens investigate the zombies.  While the essence of their conversation is comparing their lives and pushing forward the idea that Gwenyth is psychic as well as presenting the Bad Wolf meme again, the vehicles for their conversation are men – Mr. Sneed, the Doctor, Rose’s father, the butcher boy Gwyneth has a crush on.  The rating: 0.5

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

“You would say that, miss, because that’s very clear inside your head, that you think I’m stupid … It’s true though.  Things might be different where you’re from, but here and now I know my own mind, and the angels need me.” – Gwyneth (to Rose)

Feeling empowered for possibly the first time, Gwyneth delivers this awesome line to Rose who is doing the same thing she always hates when it’s done to her – talking about Gwyneth like she isn’t there and has no say.  I wish this had more of a pay-off because Rose is, of course and really rather obviously, right, and Gwyneth really does not understand at all.

The Tally:

Episode 1x03 Total: 1.5

Series 1 Total: 8

9^th Doctor Total: 8

Rose as Companion Total: 8

Russell T Davis Era Total: 8

For Further Discussion:  Facts vs. Faith

I’ve said before that I think Rose’s biggest strength is her ability to quickly analyze all the facts she’s given and come to a usually correct idea about what’s going on.  This is often brushed off as her having a “feeling” about something, an annoyingly sexist concept that men have ideas and women have feelings, and it’s definitely done so in this episode.  Rose takes all her givens about zombies and how to treat the dead and analyzes that along with the Gelth’s attempted murder of her and figures out that this is not a great plan.  Of course, the Doctor doesn’t listen.

But I think the real battle of wills in this episode is between Rose and Gwyneth.  Rose’s greatest weakness is self-righteousness, and her assuredly in her own cleverness has only grown since she’s begun traveling.  Gwyneth, on the other hand, is all compassion and selflessness and faith in the goodness of others.  And Gwyneth delivers a great blow at Rose’s self-righteousness that ultimately… doesn’t pay off at all.  The audience can’t even entertain the idea that Gwyneth could be right, the set-up for the Gelth being not just out for their own self-interest but full on evil was way too obvious.

What really bothers me about this isn’t that one character was wrong; it’s that they set up Gwyneth’s downfall as being symptomatic of a lack of education and belief in God.  It’s not just the “educated” who are right, and what could have been a wonderfully feminist discussion ends up being rather classist.