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1969, the year it ALL happened [A "Doctor Who" Post]
Warning: This post will contain mass amounts of spoilers for the first two episodes of the 6th series of Doctor who "The Impossible Astronaut" and "The Day of the Moon". It will also contain mass amounts of squeeage, incoherence and ambivalence.
When you see the same actor, over and over again, in many things and not in one role which he inhabits over time, you tend to have kinda-sorta recollections of him. This is the case with Mark Sheppard, he who played Canton Delaware, in these two episodes.
I call him Charisma Man.
I'll get back to him.
The significance of 1969 (the year, the moment in history) cannot be over looked. Considered a year, perhaps THE year, of great upheaval in the USA, at the very least. Not just the Lunar landing, given in these two episodes great interpretation as to what motivated humanity upwards and onwards.
As I watched the first two episodes I saw what a great separation this was to be from the Doctor Who I fell in love with in 2006 (which was when I saw the first series with Christopher Eccleston), the show may never again take place in the USA, but it established which side the show is on and in whose hands Empire lies.
The Silence (or Silents? I'm going with the former) are found in greater number and scope in the USA than any other country we are told.
When I first laid eyes on the Silence I screamed. Really. I gave a very loud and piercing yelp and buried my face in my BFF's shoulder, she held me tightly and we were both WTF! Despite being modeled on the "classic" alien - huge head, big eyes, weird arms - the only thing I could think of when I saw and the one opened their maw, was this!
I hypothesise, that like Vincent Can Gogh, who could "see" differently from other people, then so could Edvard Munch, but that's really not the point.
They were fucking scary. Scarier though, was the idea of them. Giving Moffat where credit is due, he is brilliant at deconstructing that which we fear. What we fear, is what we cannot know. Like the Weeping Angels, when they are in their true from (the idiotic ret-con of the notion aside, god those episodes were crap) they are unknowable and beyond that... they are everywhere.
The same principle works with the Silence, they are everywhere and they are nowhere. They are the power that made humanity great, while at the same time enslaving humanity to their whims. The scope of the horror is beyond perception. Luckily, we are unable to perceive them.
The elements of surreality were also present, opening up far more questions than answering the ones that were presented in "The Impossible Astronaut". Who was that woman in the door? Is Amy pregnant or not? (well, both at the same time of course, she's the centre of a time fluctuation, which is this little girl) and who is this little girl? And more importantly, will we be seeing the return on Jenny and other Time people?!
It's important to mention that the Doctor's death did not move me. I was surprised, but not really, considering Moffat and Co. clued us in on the "egdy" action. I was not moved, because it happened in the first episode. I was more annoyed that Moffat felt it necessary to call River Song "Mrs. Robinson". Seriously? The Doctor is over 900 years old, who is the older partner in this relationship. Not to mention it being utterly bat-shit crazy with it going in opposite directions for the two of them.
I really hope that isn't River's last kiss from the Doctor.
Rewinding. The beginning of the episode was epic. EPIC. It totally made up for the crappiness of the first one.
I also couldn't help but think of the world events that happened in the three months that accumulated until Neil Armstrong put his foot down. It's interesting to see how the revelation of the Silence basically put a stop to manned space expeditions. Oh sure, a few more men stepped foot on the Moon and we have an international space station, but beyond that? We are still very much Earth bound, though I have no doubt I will see a human on Mars during my lifetime.
Moving on.
The Tardis, oh you gorgeous machine, Canton Delaware's face when he stepped inside you... *squishes it*
Canton Delaware and the question of Historical veracity in a show like "Doctor Who". In "The Impossible Astronaut" I was irritated by the way the Nixon was presented in the Oval Office, mainly, by having a black secret service agents. It's 1969. It's Tricky-Dick Nixon. You better believe there weren't black agents near him.
Of course, I then kicked myself, because honestly, there were black agents since the early 60's and some of them may have even guarded Nixon (I suspect neither party was too exited about this) but it also made me unpack my own assumptions as to what constituted, or should be constituted "historical accuracy".
Not to mention that it is a really good commentary and metaphor as to who is inhabiting and making all the executive decisions as this episode was aired and this little post is written.
So much of what I know about USA history is white-washed and homogenised, that my impression is very much biased. Moffat, with all his faults when it comes to writing the way people feel (all in all, Moffat is a far less emotional writer than RTD and I'm not yet convinced that it's better that way) and how he writes women (he's a sexist asshole, really now) he does challenge that which is considered taboo - Liz X (a black Queen, hells yes!), fluid and flexible sexuality (Jack and River, god I love the 51st century) and of course Canton Delaware.
Canton Delaware, who was fired because he "wanted to get married" (which is a lovely euphemism for being fired because his superiors discovered he was gay), is a lovely addition to the characters who have been inside the Tardis and are now counted as allies to the Doctor.
The Doctor sure knows how to pick them!
The reality is, 1969 was the year Gay Liberation was created, during the Stonewall Riots in New York City. It's the reason the Pride Parades are all done in June.
Canton is not a part of Gay Liberation, he is a metaphor of current face of mainstream gay politics in the United States. Despite his accent being all over the place (the actor is English and I don't think he bothered too much with keeping his accent coherent in any which way) he is the politics of the HRC embodied.
Marriage equality, job equality, the exoticism of the interracial couple which are often seen in the campaign ads.
It's actually, quite ingenious.
In 1969, you could not come out like that to President Nixon. On the other hand, being able to say to Nixon's face that he's a racist homophobe is certainly something.
As for the heterosexual relationships in the show. I really hope we see River again. Amy and Rory are strange to me. They're not acting like a married couple and they're certainly not acting like a couple who have been together for years (more than 2000 of them) and so I don't know what to make of them.
Next time, Mermaids!
*Lyrics from Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer"
When you see the same actor, over and over again, in many things and not in one role which he inhabits over time, you tend to have kinda-sorta recollections of him. This is the case with Mark Sheppard, he who played Canton Delaware, in these two episodes.
I call him Charisma Man.
I'll get back to him.
The significance of 1969 (the year, the moment in history) cannot be over looked. Considered a year, perhaps THE year, of great upheaval in the USA, at the very least. Not just the Lunar landing, given in these two episodes great interpretation as to what motivated humanity upwards and onwards.
As I watched the first two episodes I saw what a great separation this was to be from the Doctor Who I fell in love with in 2006 (which was when I saw the first series with Christopher Eccleston), the show may never again take place in the USA, but it established which side the show is on and in whose hands Empire lies.
The Silence (or Silents? I'm going with the former) are found in greater number and scope in the USA than any other country we are told.
When I first laid eyes on the Silence I screamed. Really. I gave a very loud and piercing yelp and buried my face in my BFF's shoulder, she held me tightly and we were both WTF! Despite being modeled on the "classic" alien - huge head, big eyes, weird arms - the only thing I could think of when I saw and the one opened their maw, was this!
I hypothesise, that like Vincent Can Gogh, who could "see" differently from other people, then so could Edvard Munch, but that's really not the point.
They were fucking scary. Scarier though, was the idea of them. Giving Moffat where credit is due, he is brilliant at deconstructing that which we fear. What we fear, is what we cannot know. Like the Weeping Angels, when they are in their true from (the idiotic ret-con of the notion aside, god those episodes were crap) they are unknowable and beyond that... they are everywhere.
The same principle works with the Silence, they are everywhere and they are nowhere. They are the power that made humanity great, while at the same time enslaving humanity to their whims. The scope of the horror is beyond perception. Luckily, we are unable to perceive them.
The elements of surreality were also present, opening up far more questions than answering the ones that were presented in "The Impossible Astronaut". Who was that woman in the door? Is Amy pregnant or not? (well, both at the same time of course, she's the centre of a time fluctuation, which is this little girl) and who is this little girl? And more importantly, will we be seeing the return on Jenny and other Time people?!
It's important to mention that the Doctor's death did not move me. I was surprised, but not really, considering Moffat and Co. clued us in on the "egdy" action. I was not moved, because it happened in the first episode. I was more annoyed that Moffat felt it necessary to call River Song "Mrs. Robinson". Seriously? The Doctor is over 900 years old, who is the older partner in this relationship. Not to mention it being utterly bat-shit crazy with it going in opposite directions for the two of them.
I really hope that isn't River's last kiss from the Doctor.
Rewinding. The beginning of the episode was epic. EPIC. It totally made up for the crappiness of the first one.
I also couldn't help but think of the world events that happened in the three months that accumulated until Neil Armstrong put his foot down. It's interesting to see how the revelation of the Silence basically put a stop to manned space expeditions. Oh sure, a few more men stepped foot on the Moon and we have an international space station, but beyond that? We are still very much Earth bound, though I have no doubt I will see a human on Mars during my lifetime.
Moving on.
The Tardis, oh you gorgeous machine, Canton Delaware's face when he stepped inside you... *squishes it*
Canton Delaware and the question of Historical veracity in a show like "Doctor Who". In "The Impossible Astronaut" I was irritated by the way the Nixon was presented in the Oval Office, mainly, by having a black secret service agents. It's 1969. It's Tricky-Dick Nixon. You better believe there weren't black agents near him.
Of course, I then kicked myself, because honestly, there were black agents since the early 60's and some of them may have even guarded Nixon (I suspect neither party was too exited about this) but it also made me unpack my own assumptions as to what constituted, or should be constituted "historical accuracy".
Not to mention that it is a really good commentary and metaphor as to who is inhabiting and making all the executive decisions as this episode was aired and this little post is written.
So much of what I know about USA history is white-washed and homogenised, that my impression is very much biased. Moffat, with all his faults when it comes to writing the way people feel (all in all, Moffat is a far less emotional writer than RTD and I'm not yet convinced that it's better that way) and how he writes women (he's a sexist asshole, really now) he does challenge that which is considered taboo - Liz X (a black Queen, hells yes!), fluid and flexible sexuality (Jack and River, god I love the 51st century) and of course Canton Delaware.
Canton Delaware, who was fired because he "wanted to get married" (which is a lovely euphemism for being fired because his superiors discovered he was gay), is a lovely addition to the characters who have been inside the Tardis and are now counted as allies to the Doctor.
The Doctor sure knows how to pick them!
The reality is, 1969 was the year Gay Liberation was created, during the Stonewall Riots in New York City. It's the reason the Pride Parades are all done in June.
Canton is not a part of Gay Liberation, he is a metaphor of current face of mainstream gay politics in the United States. Despite his accent being all over the place (the actor is English and I don't think he bothered too much with keeping his accent coherent in any which way) he is the politics of the HRC embodied.
Marriage equality, job equality, the exoticism of the interracial couple which are often seen in the campaign ads.
It's actually, quite ingenious.
In 1969, you could not come out like that to President Nixon. On the other hand, being able to say to Nixon's face that he's a racist homophobe is certainly something.
As for the heterosexual relationships in the show. I really hope we see River again. Amy and Rory are strange to me. They're not acting like a married couple and they're certainly not acting like a couple who have been together for years (more than 2000 of them) and so I don't know what to make of them.
Next time, Mermaids!
*Lyrics from Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer"
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The Mrs. Robinson line could have been funnier in a different context. It being 1969 and everyone knows the song and the movie ("The Graduate"), I thought it was gratuitous.
It was a great episode nonetheless.
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Thanks for the link.
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This is looking to be a really good series. Although they could really screw things up with how they handle Amy's Schrodinger pregnancy.