Some sexy BAMFs with science
Time to remind myself that DW was supposed to be Sci-fi. And I do miss all these laboratory setting...
Mystery of Liz Shaw’s disappearance solved.
Whovian Feminism Reviews “The Talons of Weng-Chiang”
This episode review was requested by Will as a Patreon award. To support my work and request an episode review of your own, visit my Patreon page.
“The Talons of Weng-Chiang” occupies a very complicated place in Doctor Who’s history. It is both fondly remembered and widely condemned; praised as an entertaining story and justifiably criticized for being, as one famous review put it, “thunderingly racist.” In some ways, it represents the best of what Doctor Who could be at the time, with moments of very clever dialogue, higher than average production quality, and an engaging, well-paced story. It also represents Doctor Who at its very worst, with a stunning amount of racism, an actor in yellowface, and a plot drawing from an extremely racist caricature.
I didn’t come into “Talons” with any fond childhood memories that might have softened my perspective. It was always cautiously recommended to me as a serial that could be engaging and amusing, if only I could turn a blind eye to its flaws. But this isn’t a story with just one regrettable moment. It is fundamentally, massively flawed and racist. There are moments that can be plucked out and entertaining on their own, if viewed in isolation. But overall, “Talons” was jarring and intensely uncomfortable. And I think the Doctor Who fandom needs to have a honest reckoning with how we discuss “Talons” and flawed media.
There will be fairly extensive discussion of the plot of “Talons” below the jump, so beware spoilers. In addition, CW that I will be discussing some of the racist language used in “Talons.”
Can’t agree more... And it has even been voted as the best ever DW story!!!!
I’m definitely not a Whovian...
The Fifth Doctor’s reaction to having to babysit a young married couple is hilarious. Also, Weeping Angels are just as creepy on audio. 8/10 would recommend.
See my full review of “Fallen Angels.”
I laughed so hard for his reaction to the making out scene XD
Imagine 5th seeing his future incarnations shagging everyone and Missy...
“Fallen Angels” and “Harvest of the Sycorax“ and my favourite in this collection, I’d like to give them 10/10
When facing a Cyberman:
5th (pointing at 6th): Him!
6th (pointing at 5th): HIM! HIM!!
“What about the base?”
The Visitation - season 19 - 1982
The multi-Doctor story we can never have…
Big Finish has released their cover for Cold Fusion and it is beautiful and Patience is in the audio!
Have been looking forward to this one. Really nice cover!
“How can you like the JNT era?” A nearby tosser asked. This was my response.
Those of us who love Doctor Who because it becomes a new show every few years are the last people who ought to be surprised and offended when there’re people who like only one of them.
Those of us who enjoy the version of Doctor Who that lasted twenty-six seasons and/or the version that’s lasted ten so far ought to be the last to begrudge people wishing there was more of their show.
The only REALLY bad period of Doctor Who was no Doctor Who.
We really should be grateful that we have Big Finish.
The Classic Who/New Who Boxset is out today, if anyone preordered.
Finished listening to all of them, really great!
PC: It’s been a great pleasure to meet you, Doctor. PD: Thank you, Doctor. PC: I got to meet you. At last.
Peter excited about finally meeting Peter, in The Ultimate Companion.
Peter excited about finally meeting Peter... XDD
also whose bright idea was it to plaster the lead actor’s face all over the screen on the opening titles?
3rddoctor
But you end up with beautiful things like blushing Three if you pause at the right moment
i love it when people question things I grew up with as a given and never thought to examine closely
that’s hilarious
Nothing makes my day better than a blushing 3rd <3 <3 <3
whoops my finger slipped and i made this doctor who gif
from episode four of “the war machines” serial
Oh.
Oh.
I never noticed Nyssa’s face go sad and quiet as she realizes they can’t avert the crash while Tegan’s still arguing.
(Although really, Tegan’s logic was correct; they could have gone back for Adric before impact, if only we hadn’t seen he was still on the bridge until pretty much the last second. Death by Heisenberg Fourth Wall?)
Can we please don't compare classic who to the "time can be rewritten" Moff era...
Classic Who: alien companions
I just realized that for the 7-8 years that I was most into watching classic Who, the TARDIS crew was alien:
- 1976 - The Hand of Fear - Sarah Jane leaves at the beginning of Tom Baker’s third season, last Earth-born companion for 5 years.
- 1977 - The Face of Evil - Leela is the descendent of a (probably human) survey team that crashed on an alien planet.
- 1977 - The Invisible Enemy. K-9 joins. Aliens now outnumber humans.
- 1978 - Leela leaves. No more humans aboard TARDIS until Logopolis.
- 1978 - The Ribos Operation - Romana joins from Gallifrey.
- 1980 - Full Circle - Adric joins. An Alzarian from e-Space.
- 1981 - Keeper of Traken - Introduces Nyssa of Traken, although she doesn’t join TARDIS until next story.
- 1981 - Logopolis - human Tegan Jovanka blunders into TARDIS partway through the story (and she’s Australian, not English).
- 1982 - Castrovalva - The Fifth Doctor starts with one human, one Trakenite, one Alzarian. Sorry, Tegan, it’s three to one.
- 1982 - Time-Flight by this time Adric is dead, but the aliens still outnumber Tegan two to one, and then they strand her.
- Audio adventures: the Doctor and Nyssa travel for years as a nonhuman crew, although they occasionally pick up a human companion.
- 1983 - Arc of Infinity - Tegan comes back to be the odd human out again.
- 1983 - Mawdryn Undead - Turlough, a Trion, joins the crew, making it three aliens to one again.
- 1983 - Terminus - Nyssa leaves, so it’s back down to two aliens, one human.
- 1984 - Resurrection of the Daleks - Tegan leaves, making it an all-alien crew again (there’s a few Turlough & Five audios).
- 1984 - Planet of Fire - Peri joins, but Turlough leaves, so the following and LAST story of the Fifth Doctor era has one Time Lord, one human. Who is still not English.
Additionally:
- In the audios, Peri and Five travel for a bit before Caves of Androzani and pick up Erimem, but she’s Egyptian. So the most English crew member in the entire Fifth Doctor era is the Doctor.
- Of the classic Doctors, only Three first meets all his companions on Earth. (Mel’s situation is complicated, and Ace is born on Earth but living on Svartos). One, Two, Four and Five all have companions born off-Earth.
And don't forget 5th also had Kamelion.