Doctor Who Was Always Queer

[@OpinionsNoOneCaresAbout]

That's why Donna was my favorite companion...the first one in the new era that didn't seem like she'd jump straight into bed with the Doctor if given the chance.

[@renrants]

Yeah, they're best friend dynamic was so wholesome, love Donna 🥺 It's nice that Ruby has a similar vibe

[@Avatarbee]

"Well you're not maiting with me sunshine!"

[@renrants]

That bit was so funny 🤣

[@DittoGTI]

​@@renrantsDon't forget the miming bit

[@OpinionsNoOneCaresAbout]

"I'm a lizard woman from the dawn of time and she's my wife." GREAT line.

[@renrants]

It's SO good 🤣 I love them sm

[@pitui1987]

I’ve never seen the show, but watching this basically-season-review did bring me joy; so thanks for that.

[@renrants]

Thank you ❤️ that means a lot to me!

[@windgraceproject]

💯 rogue is coming back sooner rather than later. I'm also excited to see the new companion, I'm hoping she's the same character as in Boom, but who knows

[@renrants]

I'm excited too! Also omg did we already get confirmation on Rogue? I wonder if there'll do a River Song thing and they'll meet again earlier in Rogue's timeline 🤔

[@windgraceproject]

@renrants I'm not sure Rogue was confirmed to return officially. I seem to recall RTD pretty much saying we haven't seen the last of him either in an interview or the post show special. Would be interesting if the doctor tries to pop earlier into his timeline to "gather clues" before meeting up with him proper... maybe changed or altered in some manner.

[@renrants]

Yeah, I am very very excited to see more of them together, haha

[@badfairy9554]

So want Rogue to come back.

[@windgraceproject]

Whelp, looks like SDCC confirms she is NOT playing the same person.

[@TheDreadedScotsman]

Trying to avoid too many spoilers I felt Church on Ruby Road was a fine silly Xmas special, Space Babies was solid enough but as always talking babies CGI is terrible and distracting. The Devils Chord was good, especially Jynx Monsoon who was brilliantly unhinged, but the song at the end was terrible I'd have been OK with a musical number but that was awful 😂 Boom was solid although the daughter's dialogue felt like it was written for a much younger actress. 73 yards was great but I felt the hand signals from the old woman was making should have been something significant. Dot and Bubble was a great Black Mirror for kids episode and that twist was 😘👌 Rogue was a good Doctor character exploration episode and Indira Varma having a great time chewing the scenery as the alien duchess was a high point for me. The two part finale was fine but I never felt like it had any real stakes none of the major things happening felt like they would stick. Overall a solid season with ups and downs like any series before. I did think it was a bit weird they were very specific to name Ruby's dad as William. P.S in an obviously entirely unrelated little factoid the bigot politician was called Roger ap Gwilliam and in Welsh that translates to Roger son of gWilliam but I'm sure that's just a coincidence 🤔 😜

[@renrants]

Oh wow that Welsch bit is a great catch, haha. Yeah, overall definitely a mixed bag, but I think a lot of people are looking at previous series through rose colored (hah!) glasses and ignoring the bad and forgettable episodes in each run, they do the same with Star Trek

[@johnhirose9608]

That was a long video! My favorite episode I hadn't thought about probably the last episode with the happy ending for Ruby Sunday. Ncuti turned out to be a great Doctor. I had doubts before it started but he really did a great job acting. I've liked Doctor Who since the 80's. watching on PBS for years. I intend to break down and get Brit Box in January for my birthday and see if I missed many episodes of classic Doctor who. I plan to start with some of the third Doctor then skip the 4th and 5th 'til later and go for the 6th and 7th. I hope I don't get bored rewatching them. :) IN modern who I like Ncuti probably second after David Tennant. It's going to be a great ride with the 15 Doctor I think. This show gives me great joy. It's too bad that some people didn't even give the last 2 incarnations a chance.

[@renrants]

Yeah Ncuti is definitely already one of my favorite Doctors, he's amazing

[@DittoGTI]

5:22 I believe there was a gay couple in one of the Sylvester McCoy episodes

[@chrisnicholson2407]

Frankly ive never seen the doctor as straight, or gay in the human sense. I just get the sense that he is so old that he isn't interested in humans for the same reason most of us are uninterested in anyone with a significant age gap to ourselves. That his life experience, level of maturity, and intelligence is so different to our own that he sees all humans like most of us see children. Someone we find endearing and want to care for, but not someone who we in any way would look at as an equal partner. It makes sense why humans would be attracted to him given his charm, exciting lifestyle, and good looks (I don't see how that aspect has in any way "aged poorly". People get crushes. Its normal) , but he cannot return their emotions equally. As for him always being a male, maybe for his entire life his gender was male, and its been shown that subconsciously how a timelord views themselves has an impact on their regeneration. There's this weird theme in media these days that if someone is old, well traveled, and well experienced that they *must* have had gay experiences before, but I don't see that as any more logical than assuming a well experienced gay person *must* inevitably have straight experiences. Some people are straight, some people are bi, and some are gay. All are valid, but there is no reason why everyone will inevitably be all on a long enough timeline. As for the theme of regeneration and the doctor discovering their personality being a great metaphor for gender/sexual awakenings, it is also a great metaphor for another concept: growing up. Maturing and discovering your identity as it evolves is literally an experience every single human being can relate to. If you can relate it back to your sexuality and gender expression and it helps you with that; then great. But Doctor who is for everyone, and is filled with universal themes that literally everyone can relate to and be inspired by. This whole idea that the Doctor has *always* been queer (he objectively hasn't) and is primarily a show which is a metaphor for the queer experience seems a bit like trying to take how you relate to the show and saying that it is a universal truth for everyone. Frankly its a bit like gatekeeping. Once again if this is the themes you choose to take from it and why it inspires you then that is awesome. But its no more valid than the other people who are inspired in a different way and for different reasons.

[@renrants]

I appreciate where you're coming from, but just because I'm explaining my interpretation and why queer audiences were drawn to the character doesn't actually mean erasing any other interpretations.

[@chrisnicholson2407]

@@renrants Fair enough. And i'm glad that it was meaningful enough to you that you connected to it in a deep way, and were able to be inspired in your own life. Personally to me it is about a person who found themselves an outsider/underachiever in a very rigid society who found happiness and greatness by rejecting other people's rules and living life on his own terms and by his own morals. That's the awesome thing about this show. We all may connect to it in different ways, but we can all celebrate it together for the same reasons. We are all the Doctor.

[@mrt_7124]

Very good analysis of Doctor Who and its queer representation. My Dad's grew up on DW in the 70s and 80s and for our family through the new era in 2000s and 2010s DW was mandatory viewing. Its a show that has a very special place in my family and for me and I really think your video does a great job at showcasing this element of the show which has been under-represented for a loooong time. The thing I've been thinking about a lot recently is how people had become critical of show with Jodie Whittaker as the doctor, for my Dad and I we had a lot of issues with how the head writer of the era, Chris Chibnall, handled the show and undercut many of great performers with poor writing and show direction. It was very disappointing for us to see this used by people to say "flaws in the direction of the show is coz of woke agenda!" NO, it was because the show quality wasn't consistent, don't try to attribute the show having more queer representation as a reason or result of its writing, the writing was bad and there happened to be better representation at the same time. I think RTD and Ncuti have crafted a more queer doctor that has much better writing as well. It is very disappointing to see people claim that issues with a show as historically woke as DW has flaws because of said wokeness. A show can be woke and good and it can also be woke and bad. I feel this recent series and Ncuti's performance have both been very good, that's coming from someone who's been watching the show their whole life and on top of it my Dad, who first watched the show in 1970 aged 2, agrees. If we, two mostly straight white men who have watched the show their whole lives can think that, the issue is a lot more with those making the criticism than the show itself.

[@renrants]

Thank you so much for your kind words and insightful comment! I have very similar issues with how fans criticise newer Star Trek for many of the same reasons while ignoring the context of the original, it drives me batty!

[@mrt_7124]

@@renrants I haven't seen any of Strange New World yet but my Dad's been getting onto me about it, says its very good. Its sounds like a good watch.

[@AngieDeAguirre]

"The Doctor is finally out of the closet" Omg, sis! Yes he is!!!! ❤❤❤

[@renrants]

It makes me so happy 😭

[@AngieDeAguirre]

@@renrants #everyone bc haters gonna hate.

[@renrants]

It's always so wild to me when people act outraged about it 🤣

[@dalium3177]

Very welcoming way of starting a new video astounds me, good to know my opinion is wrong right off the bat -_-

[@renrants]

Sorry, it's mostly a joke, it's entirely valid to not like a thing

[@badfairy9554]

Never forget Bill. She was the best.

[@GXtera]

tbh i stopped watching years ago but this show was peak during the white male era

[@renrants]

I stopped to awhile, but having gotten back on it I really liked 13 and 15

[@greeniegames835]

So, the thing is. People complaining about the current queer representation are absolutely justified. I love our openly queer characters up until twelve with Bill Potts (I loved them so much). After that, it just feels shallow. Seeing the special with Donna Noble and 14 killed me inside. That entire episode felt like a failed attempt to appeal to younger generations. I hated it. The way Rose became the center of the story and all of a sudden The Doctor isn’t understanding toward different species and genders? Since when has that ever been the case (talking about modern Who here)? It felt so unbelievable to me. Some of the lines were just outrageous, but all of it was bad. In general, I just absolutely detest the writing for Jodie Whittaker onward. I haven’t seen all of it up to Ncuti Gatwa, but from what I have seen of clips and trailers, they have thrown away what little hope I had for the exciting new casting choices with shoddy writing. The new seasons are just unwatchable to me. Mind you, I love the performances of Jodi Whittaker, David Tennant, and Ncuti Gatwa. I just feel like the writers did them dirty. I do have some hope for Ncuti Gatwa’s seasons but I just know I’ll be ultimately disappointed. The writing has been spotty from time to time throughout each of the series but it’s just been inexcusable lately. It’s really difficult for me to be engaged in this show when the only thing holding it together is a few good scenes and an amazing performance from the lead actor. Unfortunately, I do also need high quality plots and dialogue which I’m just not seeing.

[@nigelwalker6103]

The series was always progressive but they managed to tell great stories. The latest series hadn't really had good scripts, and without that, you're off to a bad start. I would argue that this actually does a disservice to both black and gay people. Representation is great, but not if no one is watching. You have to appeal to none LGBTQ+ people. When the series came back in 2005 it managed to have gay characters and still appeal to everyone. Now the viewing figures are way down. Just over 2 million overnight and even after 28 days Space Babies was only on 5.6 million. If you don't attract a wider audience you're just preaching to the choir. It doesn't help when Russell and Ncuti tell people who've been fans for decades to not watch if they don't like it. Oh and I'm Bi and was around when Section 28 was around I helped get signatures on a petition to get rid of it but as a fan for over 40 years I still think the quality of the show has gone downhill the last few years and sadly I fear it will be cancelled after the next series. Like it or not many of the fans (let's face it most) are straight and just want good Sci fi. Many I've met and talked to about this don't mind gay characters and themes but not all the time. They just want good stories and I think Doctor Who when done well is the perfect show for bringing people together. This series has been deliberately divisive to its detriment.

[@badfairy9554]

I loved this season. I am straight ( never had to say that before). I think it ticked all the boxs. People are people no matter what colour or who they fall in love with. Doctor Who is a story about them.

[@wakaffx]

my favorite episode by far it´s rouge

[@renrants]

It's so good! Definitely made me feel all the feels

[@ddaemo_]

It was a nice season, Rogue was a PERFECT Doctor Who episode, its so sad that now everyone wants EVERY episodes to be a mindbreaking masterpiece and hate on more normal episodes like Space Babies or Rogue

[@ddaemo_]

Also this video was so good !! Ans my fav épisode was The Devil's Chord

[@renrants]

Yeah, I like the fluffy, silly doctor who episodes, the epic ones are fun, but it can't be huge and epic ALL the time 😅