Dr. Who: Christmas Invasion

[AllanO]

Well, the Sycorax showed up to enslave as many people as possible. Hard to do that if you start dropping rocks on people. Even their threat to force billions to jump was a bluff in the end, presumably because they didn't want to mass murder a valuable resource.

Note I never said they should drop rocks, I said they should threaten to drop rocks. It would be easier then setting up to mind control 2 billion people and there would be no danger it be revealed as a technically impossible (it might still be a bluff since they don't want to actually kill 2 billion people and reduce their potential slave stock).

It is not that their Rube Goldberg-Heath Robinson-esque plot would not work just that it was needlessly circuitous given other obvious options for an interstellar enemy. The point is more that given the writers seem to think that is the way the tactics of interplanetary war should work it suggests that tactics and strategy (and ethics) in this thing are doomed to be unconvincing.

Sure, maybe the Sycorax are livestreaming their conquests for all we know.

However, in general, Doctor Who civilizations don't seem to keep in contact with their ships that often. At least not often enough that they would have had time to broadcast their peace deal made within the twenty minutes before they were blown up.

How would Harriet Jones know that or be sure enough to justify her action though and not make it reckless? Or if they were in communication with Galactic HQ all is lost, so this destroying the ship was a hail Mary? Things don't seem that dire.

There are two ways to interpret Jones tactic. Either she was assuming there compatriots would know nothing and so destroying the ship prevents them from telling anyone else or conversely she is assuming their compatriots already know everything and that a demonstration of strength from Earth to deter further attack. She might been thinking both and so it was win-win (either the Earth remains hidden or we show strength). Neither (much less both) strike me as justified ways of thinking for reasons discussed.

[FaxModem1]

Sure, maybe the Sycorax are livestreaming their conquests for all we know.

However, in general, Doctor Who civilizations don't seem to keep in contact with their ships that often. At least not often enough that they would have had time to broadcast their peace deal made within the twenty minutes before they were blown up.

How would Harriet Jones know that or be sure enough to justify her action though and not make it reckless? Or if they were in communication with Galactic HQ all is lost, so this destroying the ship was a hail Mary? Things don't seem that dire.

There are two ways to interpret Jones tactic. Either she was assuming there compatriots would know nothing and so destroying the ship prevents them from telling anyone else or conversely she is assuming their compatriots already know everything and that a demonstration of strength from Earth to deter further attack. She might been thinking both and so it was win-win (either the Earth remains hidden or we show strength). Neither (much less both) strike me as justified ways of thinking for reasons discussed.

Well, the aliens did need to steal her satellite to even make a phone call to Earth (in addition to the blood control trick, which makes me wonder what their plan was if humanity didn't launch blood into space), so she didn't have much proof that they were capable of being impressive at communications.

[Fianna]

As someone who's barely seen any Doctor Who, I've gotta ask: is the Doctor always such an over-hyped character who can defeat an alien invasion moments after waking up and bring down a political administration with six words?

'Cause that sort of characterization isn't something that makes me inclined to watch the show, though it is sort of amusing to see, since one of the few Doctor Who stories I have seen is a really old one where it takes him four episodes just to figure out a way through a locked door.

[J!!]

That's mainly a Russel Davies thing. His era was very fanfic-ish in that way; The Doctor presented as this larger than life, superheroic, legendary figure, who makes monsters tremble in their boots, but was secretly a wounded soul with a tragic backstory, in desperate need of love and comfort, as only an audience/author avatar-character can provide. "The Lonely God"

A lot of what Moffat did would do with the following era was built on deconstructing that sort of thing.

[SuccubusYuri]

As someone who's barely seen any Doctor Who, I've gotta ask: is the Doctor always such an over-hyped character who can defeat an alien invasion moments after waking up and bring down a political administration with six words?

'Cause that sort of characterization isn't something that makes me inclined to watch the show, though it is sort of amusing to see, since one of the few Doctor Who stories I have seen is a really old one where it takes him four episodes just to figure out a way through a locked door.

Lots of modern Who suffers from that sort of thing, just in different forms.

Davies wrote the Doctor as the God-Emperor and it really is kind of fanfic-y that way. You can see this in things like Tennant's "movie season", where instead of a season for his last year, they just did a series of specials. We have the big final one where he regenerates, and he does that thirty minute big goodbye to all his companions who are in various hook ups, but it didn't cross Davies mind to, maybe, show those companions falling in love with one of his specials. He instead has one special with a fake-future Doctor, and a planet of air sharks with a random psychic lady (the third special is actually good). He sets up a prophecy for dramatic tension, but does it come from the fake-Doctor who has vague, fading memories of the future? Nope. From the psychic on the bus who has absolutely no relevance whatsoever, because Davies wants the Doctor on an adventure serial, rather than focus on maybe developing those beloved side characters he'll never get to play with again. Instead everyone gets shipped together to wrap it up in a neat bow while he gets to focus on the character he REALLY cares about! The Jones thing here is a mild version, but there is also a tendency for Ten's enemies in particular to be the bad guys not because they are necessarily evil, but specifically because they disagree with the Doctor. Stuff like that makes Davies run feel like fanfiction in that regard.

Moffat's is more fanboyish. The Doctor leans REALLY heavily on his reputation as an ass-kicker than he actually kicks asses during Moffat's run. There's still a lot of "Why is every character begging to fondle the Doctor's balls?" but it's less overtly sexual and more, innocent and boyish as Moffat uses his position as really pricey therapy to live out his eleven year old dreams of writing for the show, which probably explains why every female side character he creates is the same coin-flip between confusing mommy-dominatrix and spunky, energetic fangirl.

Now I don't mean to come off as if I hate them both, but neither of the previous showrunners has been able to just LET the Doctor be cool and heroic, instead they both feel this need to shove our noses in it.

It's almost like the Janeway thing Chuck talks about, about her not being able to be questioned or we might lose confidence in her? With New-Who, it's like that only no character can question how badass the Doctor is or WE might not think so, too! And anyone who does is ultimately the butt of a joke. That's not to say it doesn't work sometimes, but it is a frustrating feature of the contemporary stories.