Story: The Witchfinders
Written By: Joy Wilkinson
Length: 50 Minutes
Year: 2018
One of the issues I always thought would be problematic for a female Doctor was adventures in history. Not that a female Doctor couldn't own a room, but that in many pockets of Earth's history, it is not any advantage to be a female. Like it or not, the Doctor being a white male that adventure's in Earth's past is quite the convenience. I often wondered if the show ever did switch it up and create a female Doctor, or even if he stayed male but switched ethnicity, how would adventures in our planet's past work? Now if the Doctor is adventuring outside the white European and American sections of the planet, maybe not as much as a hindrance...but being a female is definitely going to cause some issues anywhere on this awful planet. If I were the Doctor and I was suddenly a female...I'd just keep the TARDIS flying to other planets. Just avoid Earth for a while.
Of course, that is what is so great about this episode. It takes place during England's Witch Trials, a time when any ordinary woman could be a accused of being a Witch and killed just to prove she wasn't...and the Doctor is no ordinary woman. She is a woman who talks a lot, is knowledgeable of otherworldly things and knows the future history of Earth, and waves around a magic wand. So of course...she is going to get tried as a witch. At one point when the accusations begin to fly at her she even makes note that if she were still "a bloke" she would be able to just carry on with her investigations and take control of the situation. But as a female, that isn't going to happen.
Beyond that really great central element to the episode, everything surrounding it is pretty great as well. The Witch Trials are a great setting for Doctor Who, and they continue the trend of using the historical episodes to explore really dark and disturbing period's in our Earth's history. They've used them to show just how grimy our history is, and to make very potent points about humanity, about how grim we can be, and how we have to strive to be better. And sadly the messages resonate with or current world all too well. Also Alan Cummings is terrific as King James.
Oddly, I'm often less interested in the historical episodes. Not that they are usually bad, but more that my interests tend to skew more towards future settings. I like to see alien worlds and spaceships and explore weird fantasy alien cultures. But this Series has bucked that trend. I'm probably ranking all of the Historical episodes up rather high, while the future and contemporary stuff has been decent but not truly outstanding. I think the main reason is that instead of a historical where we go back in time and meet a historical figure and gush over history...this year they have really driven home how dark our history is. From Segregation in the American South, to Personal and Border Conflicts in India, to the awful history of killing woman because things were crummy that week. They have been knocking it out of the park with all of these episodes these year.
NEXT TIME: The Anti-Zone
Written By: Joy Wilkinson
Length: 50 Minutes
Year: 2018
One of the issues I always thought would be problematic for a female Doctor was adventures in history. Not that a female Doctor couldn't own a room, but that in many pockets of Earth's history, it is not any advantage to be a female. Like it or not, the Doctor being a white male that adventure's in Earth's past is quite the convenience. I often wondered if the show ever did switch it up and create a female Doctor, or even if he stayed male but switched ethnicity, how would adventures in our planet's past work? Now if the Doctor is adventuring outside the white European and American sections of the planet, maybe not as much as a hindrance...but being a female is definitely going to cause some issues anywhere on this awful planet. If I were the Doctor and I was suddenly a female...I'd just keep the TARDIS flying to other planets. Just avoid Earth for a while.
Beyond that really great central element to the episode, everything surrounding it is pretty great as well. The Witch Trials are a great setting for Doctor Who, and they continue the trend of using the historical episodes to explore really dark and disturbing period's in our Earth's history. They've used them to show just how grimy our history is, and to make very potent points about humanity, about how grim we can be, and how we have to strive to be better. And sadly the messages resonate with or current world all too well. Also Alan Cummings is terrific as King James.
Oddly, I'm often less interested in the historical episodes. Not that they are usually bad, but more that my interests tend to skew more towards future settings. I like to see alien worlds and spaceships and explore weird fantasy alien cultures. But this Series has bucked that trend. I'm probably ranking all of the Historical episodes up rather high, while the future and contemporary stuff has been decent but not truly outstanding. I think the main reason is that instead of a historical where we go back in time and meet a historical figure and gush over history...this year they have really driven home how dark our history is. From Segregation in the American South, to Personal and Border Conflicts in India, to the awful history of killing woman because things were crummy that week. They have been knocking it out of the park with all of these episodes these year.
NEXT TIME: The Anti-Zone
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