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Confession #150: I’m Too Burnt Out to Care

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Over this past weekend, the news dropped that Series 13 will begin on 31 Oct 2021. Its six episodes, a story arc titled “Flux,” is reportedly the first single-story season since The Trial of a Time Lord (as opposed to, say, Bad Wolf or the Crack, which—while overarching themes—did not dominate every episode of those series). The series will run through the first weekend of December, leaving only three specials, set to air some time in 2022, to round out Whittaker’s—and Chibnall’s—run on Doctor Who.

This should be an exciting time. In the last month, we’ve had not only this confirmation of air dates, but also the announcement that Russell T. Davies will be back at the helm for Series 14. With that information out in the open, it seems likely that the announcement of the casting for the Fourteenth Doctor may also be in the not-too-distant future.

But I just don’t care.

Sure, when the RTD news broke, I was as agog as any seasoned fan. Whether it’s the best thing to happen to Doctor Who since the last time RTD took over, or a harbinger of the end times depends on who you talk to, I suppose, but there’s no doubt that the news sparked a lot of new discussion. The fan base was, at least for a brief moment, energized by an unexpected turn of events.

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Confession #149: I’m Dubious About a February Convention

My kids go back to school this week. Like the vast majority of their classmates, they were ready to be back in the classroom alongside their friends, so they will be in their school building for classes again for the first time in eighteen months (to the day, now that I think of it). In July, I felt pretty good about that decision. They’re old enough to be vaccinated (and have been), and although distance learning worked well for them, reconnecting with their friends over the summer reminded us all how very much they need those social interactions at this age, too.

Now, of course, with the more virulent delta variant raging across the country (with who knows what kind of new variant in its wake), our calculated risk to send our kids back into the school building seems like a greater risk (with fewer available calculations). I think that, with the exception of the students who are as yet too young to qualify for the vaccine, this particular school should have a fairly high vaccination rate. There is also a mask mandate in effect, but students still need to eat at some point, and if this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that no precautions are perfect. (Which is not to say they should not be taken! I am extremely grateful for the thoughtful planning our school and the district as a whole have put into the new school year, and you can be sure if there were less stringent measures in place, we would not be sending our kids back.)

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Confession #148: I Jumped the Gun

We know now that both Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall are leaving Doctor Who in 2022. Thanks to my posting schedule, the news is nearly two weeks old by now, and I’m sure it’s already been discussed to death in various corners of the internet like Twitter that I no longer inhabit regularly. But I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t address it here at all.

So let me start by saying I seem to have jumped the gun just a bit last month when I posted about not feeling anything in particular about this inevitable change. I was vaguely gratified to discover that I don’t seem to be alone in that. I haven’t really dipped my toe back in the social media waters to find out what others are saying, but in the few places I’ve engaged, I’ve noticed others having a similar lack of reaction.

I’m sure much of it is the fact that we’re all completely burnt out thanks to the various stresses the pandemic has put on us all. A lot of it probably also has to do with the fact that it’s been so long since we last had regular episodes appearing every week. Whatever the case, with that particular ending still well over a year ahead of us, it seems far too soon to be thinking about it too deeply.

Usually this is the point in a regeneration cycle when I’d start thinking about what qualities I’d like the next incarnation of the Doctor to have. This time around, though, I can barely even be bothered to think about it. I suppose the usual things still apply. I’d love a woman of color, but I’d settle for anyone who wasn’t a cisgender white dude. I’m not feeling particularly optimistic that we’ll get something else, but time will tell.

And that’s pretty much the size of it. “Time will tell.” I can’t be bothered to think on it any more than that. Will I have Opinions about whoever is tapped to become the new showrunner, and whoever that person casts as their first Doctor? Undoubtedly. Will I experience that familiar combination of anticipation and dread as the the next Doctor’s first episodes approach? Almost certainly. But can I be arsed to worry about it now? Not hardly.

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Confession #147: I Feel No Anticipation

There comes a time in every Doctor’s tenure when it begins to sink in that another ending is nigh. Thanks to showrunner Chris Chibnall’s scheduling and the pandemic, Jodie Whittaker’s time in the role has already been as thoroughly prolonged as Capaldi’s, which also extended across a year with nothing but a holiday special to tide us over. But will she leave soon?

While Capaldi reigned for four years from regeneration to regeneration (Christmas 2013 to Christmas 2017, with eight months between regeneration and first episode), Whittaker’s two shorter series plus two holiday specials have already spanned three and a half years (Christmas 2017 to now, with about nine and a half months between first appearance and first outing). Even if we believe reports that her third series will air later this year, that puts her tenure at no less than a full four years, like Capaldi’s.

But here’s where we get into sheer speculation. As always, the Doctor Who production team and the BBC are being incredibly tight-lipped about everything they possibly can. We know that Series 13 will be reduced even further to a mere eight episodes, but little else (aside from the identity of an incoming Companion).

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Confession #146: I May Be Nearing Blog Retirement

It’s not unusual these days for Doctor Who to have long gaps between series. There was a year between the 2015 (The Husbands of River Song) & 2016 (The Return of Doctor Mysterio) Christmas specials, making 16 months between Series 9 and Series 10; nearly a year from the 2017 Christmas special Twice Upon a Time (in which the Doctor regenerated) until the beginning of Series 11 (October 2018); a year between Resolution (New Year’s 2019) and Spyfall (New Year’s 2020); and another nearly-a-year between the end of Series 12 (March 2020) and the New Year’s 2021 special Revolution of the Daleks.

Thanks to COVID, of course, production is not exactly what one would call “snappy” these days. Various reports around the internet indicate there was some filming on Series 13 done in April 2021. If that was the beginning of the filming block, then given how these things usually run, we probably won’t see the next series until spring of 2022 at the earliest (though I’d be surprised if they didn’t manage to throw another “festive / holiday” special in there again).

That’s a reaaaaaally long dry spell. If all we have is one—possibly two—New Year’s specials (and some scandals) to tide us over during a two year span between Series 12 and 13, I suppose there’s little wonder that my enthusiasm for writing regularly about the show is waning.

And yet I don’t want to give up entirely. I still enjoy talking about Doctor Who with other fans, analyzing stories and thinking about details I hadn’t considered before. Every time a new episode does come out, I love sharing my own take on what’s good, bad, or ugly about it. So what’s a no-longer-so-Neo-Whovian to do?

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Confession #145: I Can Still Find New Perspectives

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Regular readers have undoubtedly noticed that the rate (and enthusiasm) at which I post here has dropped off in recent years compared to when I started out. Everything was so fresh and new when I launched the blog. I had so much to share!

Going into my eleventh year of blogging, though, and with only myself to draw upon (unlike most podcasts, for example, where multiple hosts can bounce off each other for new ideas and deeper conversations), I’ve begun to feel like I don’t have a lot left to say. That’s especially true when there aren’t new episodes on the air to delve into.

But recently I was challenged to dig into a favorite Classic story and find a new way of looking at it. What else could I possibly say? I wondered, after my first attempts turned out to be well-trodden ground. It took some effort—and yes, engaging with someone else to test my ideas—but in the end, I found a new perspective that is not yet a dead horse.

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Confession #144: I Need an Escape

There is no getting around the fact that this last year-plus has been rough on everyone. Some folks have lost loved ones and/or livelihoods, others have seen entire ways of life shift and change, and all of us have just been under constant mental stress even if we can count ourselves among the “lucky ones” these days.

That’s why I have opted out of watching certain things that I might have previously chosen to watch to challenge myself. It’s not that I don’t want an intellectual challenge; I’ve done more language learning in the past year than almost any other time of my life. But right now I need an escape, not something that’s going to force me to take a hard look at myself.

None of that is to say that there is not work that needs to be done (I know that as a white American, for example, I have internalized plenty of racist ideology that needs confronting), or that I will never return to it. However, every person has to decide for themself when and how to do that work, and for me—for now—that is not while watching visual media. Instead, much like the folks on the Verity! podcast this year, I’ve decided lately that if I’m going to watch something, it should be just plain enjoyable, for pity’s sake.

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Confession #143: I Have No Tolerance for Intolerance

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After ten years of blogging, I don’t feel like I have a whole lot left to say—at least not in a broad, general sense—to the fandom community at large. For the most part, I’ve said my piece. When new episodes come out or there’s a new kerfuffle somewhere, I’ll be happy to add my 2¢, but overall, I don’t have a lot of rants left in me.

Unless we start talking about the quality of a given story, especially in absolute terms. Then I’m going to have An Opinion™.

All of this came to mind recently when I saw a screenshot of a piece of some sort of interview with perennial self-important bellyacher Ian Levine. In the context of TV he hates, he ranted again about “the woman Doctor Who. Chris Chibnall has ruined it.”

Recently I scrolled past a similar social media conversation talking about Steven Moffat. Several people said they’d started out liking some of Moffat’s work (like Sherlock), but as things continued, they found they couldn’t stand it anymore. I’m almost certain more than one person said something very similar to Levine, along the lines of “Moffat ruined Doctor Who for me.”

Yet I came out of that conversation with a completely different feeling than I get any time Levine spouts off. Even though some of the points made were completely valid, and I harbor many of the same opinions those friends expressed, that isn’t the point. The difference is Levine’s absolutism. (And his sexism. But I’m not even getting into that.)

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Confession #142: I Miss Gally

It’s February! Usually right about now I’d be spamming my readers with all the thoughts about how I’m looking forward to my annual visit to Los Angeles for Gallifrey One and letting you all know when to expect my upcoming daily recaps. However, thanks to the US’s dismal response to the COVID pandemic so far, Gallifrey One has long since made the responsible decision to cancel this year’s con, postponing Thirty-Second to Midnight until 2022.

So instead of being on a plane (or at least at an airport) when this posts, I’ll be at home—like all of my Gally friends—thinking about all the things I love about going to that con, and keeping my fingers crossed that things will go to plan next year. Since I won’t have that Gally content to share this year, I’ll just share a short list of the things that make Gally so special to me. Maybe some of you will see familiar themes, too. (Feel free to share some of your favorite parts of attending your favorite con in the comments.)

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Confession #141: I’m Psyched for the New Year’s Special

No matter what part of the world one lives in, 2020 has been rough. Many of us are simply fighting for survival, whether our struggles are medical, financial, psychological, of some combination thereof. It’s easy to push things like art (however one defines that) to the background—it’s not important now; how could I waste my time on that; I’ve got to save my energy…

At the same time, though, art is what keeps us alive. Streaming services have been doing booming business as lockdowns and quarantines continue to stretch into an unknown future. People turn to various forms of art to help keep us sane—to films and television, tabletop and video games, books and comics and fanfics.

That’s why I’ve made room in my heart to get psyched for the upcoming Doctor Who holiday special. Perhaps you are, like me, well and truly sick of Daleks already (thanks so much to Terry Nation’s estate for making them a “use them at least once a year or lose the license” entity), but they’re not the only returning characters. When the official trailer for Revolution of the Daleks was released about a week and a half ago, we all learned that Captain Jack Harkness would be returning to our screens, and for more than a single scene.

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