Does EVERYTHING have to be about politics with some people?

[23skidoo]

I have to wonder if certain people simply cannot be entertained.

I was reading a blog in The Telegraph that I thought was going to be another tribute to the late Nick Courtney. And it was for the first few paragraphs until it went into a digression over how "cringe-making" those 1970s episodes with UNIT were. Not because of the special effects (though the writer chides those) but because of its "left-leaning" politics.

Here, read for yourself:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/d...ho-the-brigadier-and-the-politics-of-the-bbc/

It's not just this guy. He cites a book that spouts some hooey about Curse of Peladon being a plea for Britain to join the Common Market (apparently ignoring the fact it was a riff on Star Trek's Federation, which in turn was a riff on the UN). You'll recall the tempest in a teacup a year or so ago when a columnist realized - 23 years after the fact - that The Happiness Patrol, one of McCoy's episodes, was a spoof on Margaret Thatcher. And in politics of another sort some people spent 5 years bitching about RTD's alleged "gay agenda" when he brought Doctor Who back to TV. He also got a kick for some throwaway line in the Sarah Jane episode Death of the Doctor about the Falkland Islands. Moffat probably got some hate mail because he had Scotland go off on its own spaceship in The Beast Below. The "Scottish Agenda" is under way - we must all now become Scottish!

The fact is, this is Doctor Who. This is an entertainment program. Who gives a sh*t, really, what politics might or might not be touched upon in an episode?

I'm serious - is there ANYONE who has based their personal political beliefs on the fact the Doctor worked for the United Nations in the 1970s? That the writers of The Happiness Patrol had a bone to pick with Thatcher? Or to move to another franchise, on whatever political stripe Gene Roddenberry and his writers put on Star Trek episodes like The Omega Glory and City on the Edge of Forever?

Yes, good TV and film entertainment should be thought-provoking, and something like Doctor Who has been proven to promote things like "help other people" which I hope is never attributed to a political affiliation. Likewise, Trek's "respect other cultures" doctrine. And certainly I'm not playing blind that writers don't have political leanings in their writings, because they certainly do (just ask Philip Pullman, CS Lewis, Tolkien, etc). And of course analogies are part and parcel of Doctor Who - Daleks = Nazis, for example. But I really get annoyed when people, quite frankly, overthink shows like Doctor Who.

Doctor Who had and still has one overriding mandate. It's not to make viewers liberal or conservative or gay. It's to send as many of them diving behind the sofa as possible!

Sorry for the rant; I just found it offensive that a blogger would take the death of a beloved actor and use it as an excuse to go into a political rant against my favorite show. And anyway, the show's tweaked both sides of the political spectrum - RTD's "Obama is going to save the world" side-trip in The End of Time is about as sarcastic as you can get!

Alex

 

[Sci]

Sorry for the rant; I just found it offensive that a blogger would take the death of a beloved actor and use it as an excuse to go into a political rant against my favorite show.

I don't object to someone who recognizes and analyzes political messages in works of fiction, but that sounds like a ridiculously inappropriate context to do so.

And anyway, the show's tweaked both sides of the political spectrum - RTD's "Obama is going to save the world" side-trip in The End of Time is about as sarcastic as you can get!

I honestly could never tell if RTD's depiction of President Obama in "The End of Time, Part One" was meant to be sarcastic or was meant to be an earnest depiction of how he felt and hoped others felt about Obama.

 

[Mr Light]

Not that it's a bad thing, but NuWho gives me the impression that every person in Britain is in a multi-ethnic or gay relationship. And the straight same color relationships are empty marriages of cheating and/or violence. Is it really like that?

 

[Captaindemotion]

That's the Daily Torygraph for you.

 

[Count Zero]

Not that it's a bad thing, but NuWho gives me the impression that every person in Britain is in a multi-ethnic or gay relationship. And the straight same color relationships are empty marriages of cheating and/or violence. Is it really like that?

I know you're being facetious here, but that's not the impression I took away from the show at all. Especially the domestic violence part. Where did that show up other than in the relationship between the Master and his wife (who might have been both white, but not even the same species )?
There are quite a number of 'traditional' relationships depicted in the new series as happy.
Jackie and Pete were happy until he died and they were so again in the other universe. Donna's mother was also happy with her husband until he died (and if the actor hadn't died we would have seen him in series 4). Donna and her boyfriend seemed to be happy together. Martha's parents had their problems but they eventually got back together. There's Amy and Rory, too. And that's just from the top of my head.
What the show did was acknowledge that Britain, at least in its urban areas, is indeed a culturally and ethnically diverse country and that gay people exist. High time, I'd say.


As for the blog entry, well, there certainly is a political undercurrent to many Who stories and indeed, I'd say that all in all, Doctor Who is somewhat left-leaning. Which shouldn't be too surprising, considering its main character is a sort of happy anarchist with little regard to property rights (a lot of third Doctor stories actually make a point of that characteristic) and social conventions and little to no respect for authority in itself (though people of authority can earn his trust and friendship, e.g. the Brigadier).
Some of the stories were written as allusions to more or less current political issues and I think that's fine. By the way, on the leaflet in my The Curse of Peladon DVD a connection between the story and the Common Market referendum is made, too, so apparently, that's been officially recognised. Writers have opinions and those opinions will be reflected in their work, at least to a degree. I don't think that's anything sinister at all. Does it influence the audience? Hard to tell. Did I become an anarcho-communist because of Star Trek? Some of it might make you think, or at least I hope so, but that's probably the most any writer can hope for.
As for UNIT, I must say that I had the opposite reaction than the guy who wrote the article. The fact that in those years, the British Army shot at unarmed protesters in Northern Ireland while in the series, the military were the good guys (and yes, theoretically they were under the UN's control but they were dressed and behaved just like the British military) did make me a little uneasy. However, the series does acknowledge the dark sides of the military. The Doctor is rather reserved and sometimes even outright hostile towards them and we get to see their dark side in the second story already when the Brig orders the Silurians to be murdered.

Was it appropriate to write this article now? Maybe not, although I can't get too worked up about it. It's a follow-up article, a musing inspired by thinking or reviewing that era of the programme due to Nick Courtney's death. It's not the official orbituary. And it's only a post on one of the paper's blogs, not even an article in the real paper itself.

 

[Thestral]

There are quite a number of 'traditional' relationships depicted in the new series as happy.
Jackie and Pete were happy until he died and they were so again in the other universe.

Err... whether or not Pete was actually cheating on her, Jackie and Pete of our universe were definitely not happy. That was one of the points of "Father's Day" - Rose had this image of a great, brilliant planner that Jackie built up in her grief. And in Pete's World, they also weren't happy - even though Pete was successful, Jackie was a materialistic, unpleasant witch. It was only when Our Jackie and Pete's World Pete got together that they were happy.

Martha's parents had their problems but they eventually got back together.

I'm not sure, but wasn't it pretty clearly stated that Martha's Dad was cheating on her mom? Or was it that they were separated? There was a girlfriend in "Smith and Jones" as I recall.

Donna's mother was also happy with her husband until he died (and if the actor hadn't died we would have seen him in series 4). Donna and her boyfriend seemed to be happy together. There's Amy and Rory, too. And that's just from the top of my head.

Also, Martha and Mickey.

 

[Count Zero]

Well, Pete wasn't a great businesman but they did love each other. No relationship is without tensions. The original Pete and Jackie from Pete's world weren't that happy, I meant when our Jackie got together with Pete's World Pete. Ok, now I'm confused myself.
Yes, I acknowledged that Martha's parents had problems, they had split up, but at the end of the third season they had decided to get back together again.
I just wanted to point out that relationships aren't depicted as mainly dysfunctional and loveless when they're heterosexual and between people of the same skin colour in the new series as Mr Light facetiously suggested. It was a lot more nuanced than that.

 

[Mr Light]

Again I'm not complaining I just thought it was a series of funny coincidences

Jackie and Pete= Pete was cheating on her in "Fathers Day"
Donna's mother was also happy with her husband until he died= weren't they yelling and shouting at each all the time in "Runaway Bride"?
Donna and her boyfriend seemed to be happy together=you mean the one who tried to sacrifice her to the giant spider?
Martha's parents had their problems but they eventually got back together= they were divorced, weren't they? didn't he bring a girlfriend or something?

 

[Count Zero]

Donna's mother was also happy with her husband until he died= weren't they yelling and shouting at each all the time in "Runaway Bride"?

Did they? I don't remember. My parents also yell at each other sometimes and yet I'd say they're happy together, after all.

Donna and her boyfriend seemed to be happy together=you mean the one who tried to sacrifice her to the giant spider?

No, I meant the one she eventually married in The End of Time.

Martha's parents had their problems but they eventually got back together= they were divorced, weren't they? didn't he bring a girlfriend or something?

I'm not sure whether they were divorced already, but yes, he did have a girlfriend, but they did get back together at the end of series 3.

 

[captcalhoun]

they were seperated, not divorced, IIRC.

*checks TARDIS wiki*

yeah, they were divorced.

 

[Mr Light]

>>No, I meant the one she eventually married in The End of Time.

So, someone we never actually met and only saw in the distance? (I don't remember the episode but I don't remember this person existing as a character)

 

[Count Zero]

We saw him in the episode, at least twice and not just in the distance and we got the description of their relationship by Wilf. And maybe we should return to the original topic. I think the old series doesn't get its fair share of discussion here.

 

[Count Zero]

Sorry to doublepost. I watched the Pertwee era story The Sea Devils over the last two days and after having read the blog entry about the blatant politics I couldn't help but sort of notice them. In the fourth episode another hard-headed politician/civil servant (a parliamentary undersecretary, whatever that means) makes his entry and fucks things up for everyone. Later, he orders the death of thousands while eating. He's painted in a very negative light, but it's a bit of a pattern for this era. There are only very few politicians/civil servants depicted in a good light (I can only think of Sir Keith from Inferno at the moment). In this story, the Master persuades another accomplished civil servant to help him. How did he do this? By using his patriotism. This point is made blatantly clear with a small dialogue between Captain Hart and the Doctor.
I think the military is actually portrayed in a rather favourable light. While Captain Hart is very skeptical at first, he turns out to be a reasonable man.
Now that I've read this blog entry I'll probably notice this stuff all the time. Damn. I don't mind that much but if you're on the other side politically, it might be somewhat annoying, I imagine.

 

[Cutter John]

Some people just don't know when to give it a rest.

It was the 70's. It was SUPPOSED to be liberal!

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Everything is about politics. But yeah, if people just want to be entertained, there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[Mr Light]

Isn't every politician portrayed as an antagonistic moronic obstacle to success in action TV/movies though?

 

[captcalhoun]

pretty much. look at all the asshole ambassadors and flag officers Star Trek has; Commodore Stone, Ambassador Fox, Admiral Leyton...

the only decent ones are Sarek, Admiral Forrest and Admiral Ross!

 

[Count Zero]

When did Admirals become politicians? Ambassadors aren't politicians, either. We didn't get to see too many politicians in Trek and they mostly stayed in the background.
I think the difference to Trek is also that this period of the series is meant to be contemporary (Mars missions not withstanding) and therefore the hard-headed politicians are sort of stand-ins for the real ones in power. While I believe it's important to teach children to question authority, I wish the depiction of politicians was a bit more nuanced than it is on the show.

By the way, was anyone else a bit taken aback when the Doctor said he was friends with Mao in The Mind of Evil (unless he was lying)?

 

[Starkers]

Not that it's a bad thing, but NuWho gives me the impression that every person in Britain is in a multi-ethnic or gay relationship. And the straight same color relationships are empty marriages of cheating and/or violence. Is it really like that?

I know you're being facetious here, but that's not the impression I took away from the show at all. Especially the domestic violence part. Where did that show up other than in the relationship between the Master and his wife (who might have been both white, but not even the same species )?
There are quite a number of 'traditional' relationships depicted in the new series as happy.

The father in The Idiot Lantern for one, although we never saw any actual violence (that I recall) he was completely domineering and not a nice bloke at all, and domestic abuse isn't always about physical violence, its the emotional impact as well. A few episodes later we get the off screen dad in Fear Her as well who was cleary a violent sort!

There are certain examples in Torchwood and Sarah Jane as well (let's fact it, Rani is the only character in Sarah Jane to have a normal happily married mum and dad)

Re the polititians thing, unfortauntely they're an easy target, forget for a moment the fact that many of them (left, right, green, monster raving loony) go into politics with a genuine desire to improve things it's easier to just make them all out to be lying, cheating scumbags

The one noteable exception being Harriet Jones, who frankly I always thought the Doctor treated harshly. She is a rare (not exclusive) example of RTD being subtle, and if he did originally set her up to be Thatcher and the Sycorax ship to be the Belgranano, I like to think he (RTD) mellowed a bit...although obviously all the mmbers of the govt in CoE were universally bad.

 

[Count Zero]

To me, the downfall of Harriet Jones was more an example of the Doctor's dark side than of a politician being bad. While I absolutetly disagree with the choice she made, I can understand why she did it.
The Doctor deliberately set about to change history and look what happened, instead of 'Britain's Golden Age' we got the Master nearly destroying Earth. I love the "Don't you think she looks tired?" scene because it shows what politics really is about (rumours and emotionalism, not reason). And the worst thing is that he does it out of spite because she doesn't believe him he can bring her down with a few words. Ten had a number of rather dark moments.