The Thirteenth Doctor -- Fluke or Long Game?

[sometimesraven]

So earlier in the month I made the following post on Tumblr:

Thirteen is kind of… sinister?

Like everyone’s talking about how positive and lovely and wholesome she is and yeah that’s true to a point.

But there’s times when it feels so painfully forced, like she’s trying desperately to stay that way, and other times where you can see the cracks

Like… until someone yells at her she’s willing to jeopardize an entire ship full of hospital patients just to get her TARDIS back.

She not only sends Tim Shaw away with his body completely fucked up by those bombs, but she barely bats an eyelid when she finds out he didn’t end up where she wanted him to and she’d doomed him to torment; essentially causing him to become more of an ass. She’s almost pleased to find out how fucked up she left him.

The moment Graham sounds like he’s going to kill Tim she loads up on explosives and runs off to confront him alone, as if she’s willing to do what she’s done before and do everything possible to make sure Graham doesn’t do it – even if that means killing Tim Shaw herself.

Even when she finds out she could have unknowingly blown up an entire planet, she only lets it affect her for a second before she’s back to happy-go-lucky Doctor.

It’s clear at this point that her wholesome happy demeanour is at least partially a mask. There’s only so far that’s gonna go. And as someone who knows how hard it is to keep up that kind of attitude for so long, and someone who knows the consequences of it?

I’m a little terrified to see what happens if she does snap.

 

I still wholeheartedly believe this; or at least, I think I do. People have come back to me with some interesting meta to backup mine -- and some that counters it pretty well. And I'll admit, I'm starting to worry that the nuance and depth I'm seeing is a combination of my own expectations and Jodie's acting, rather than the actual writing.

Because the writing doesn't seem to be backing up the acting? While Jodie's acting is phenomenal, the writing seems to just-.. brush over any depth and darkness that might be there. It's like it's playing so safe it's ignoring its own hypocrisy? I hope I'm wrong idk.

Comments

[enigma_enemy_teacher]

I kind of feel like Chris Chibnall is deliberately trying to make a lighter, softer, and more accessible Who, to draw in people who left during Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi's seasons. (Which is the opposite of what I expected from him seeing how much he was involved in Torchwood, but okay.) The problem with this is that post-2005 Doctor Who, I'd even go so far as to say Doctor Who in general, has this entropic thing happening (I don't say "entropic" in a bad way, just as a comparison) where it naturally wants to not just be a light, fun romp through the galaxy with a cheerful and whimsical tour guide. There's always going to be something darker simmering under the surface no matter who the writer is and what their intentions are, because of the nature of the show and the universe they're creating in.

[enigma_enemy_teacher]

Even SJA wasn't light and soft 100% of the time. It was light and soft enough to be marketed at kids, sure, but it was also dark and sinister enough to raise some serious eyebrows at the fact that it was marketed at kids.

[sometimesraven]

yesyes EXACTLY. I want to believe that darkness is there in Chib's writing, but?? It just doesn't seem to be. It's like the actors and directors know more than the writers about what the show is and it's really bugging me. When even the show literally aimed at children manages to have more depth and darkness than the main show, I'm seriously concerned for where it's going to go -- or rather, where it isn't going to go.