K Tempest Tumbles

ktempest:

karnythia:

sourcedumal:

omolara-oolong:

nerdyhbic:

OMG YOU GUYS!!! ISN’T THE DOCTOR SUCH A GOOD FRIEND? HE TOOK MARTHA TO A TIME IN HISTORY WHERE SHE WAS TREATED AS SUB-HUMAN BECAUSE HE JUST LOVED HER AS HIS FRIEND SO FUCKING MUCH.

THIS WAS GOOD FOR HER BECAUSE WE JUS LOVES US SOME SERVITUDE. THERE WERE LIKE, RAINBOWS AND UNICORNS AND SHIT TOO.

Because taking Martha to places where she’s treated as less than for the color of her skin is how the Doctor shows his love, y’all…

And Lawd KNOWS us darkies luv massa so much! Especially when missus tells us how us darkies can’t be nothin…

Every time I see these scenes the history major in me starts twitching. Black women had been training to be doctors in the UK & the US for almost 40 years at this point. Were there a lot of them? No. But there was a lot of coverage of the ones who did succeed. If she knew women were training to be doctors, then she knew some of them were women of color.

One more ticky mark of fail to add to Paul Cornell’s ticky mark of fail for this episode. (sidenote: sadly for me, I actually like this two-parter quite a lot. there are many good and great things about it. But the issues are sooooo issue-y. And I know that Cornell probably meant well but, you know, intentions and a nickel will get you a piece of candy at the corner shops.)

What pisses me off is that whenever I bring the point up about how the Doctor was irresponsible for bringing Martha to this era, certain people go: But it was the TARDIS! The TARDIS chose, not him!

Well then, that makes it ALL BETTER, right?? First: that was a handwavy thing Cornell or whoever on the creation team did to take away the Doctor’s responsibility, which is a dick move, and just goes to prove that they lack balls. Second, that would make the TARDIS a fucking asshole. Someone should have slapped her in the face when they had the chance in The Doctor’s Wife. Third, WTH is with the Doctor letting the TARDIS decide? Isn’t it his job to keep Martha safe? jebus.

Arg, promised I would reblog this and never did! Sorry about that.

So, after I posted the above Paul Cornell pinged me on twitter and was all: Hello, real person here, not vague Internet pixels! Also: I have differing opinions, let’s talk.

So over on my blog we did have a long and interesting discussion about this episode and my feelings about Martha and series 3 and it was NON FAILY. I know, shocking.

And as I have mentioned in other places, I constantly have to remind myself that people who haven’t had my experiences have very different ways of seeing things and that it sometimes takes a person explaining how the world looks through their eyes before a person begins to get it.

It’s not my job to do that all the time, I know. But I was happy for the opportunity to do so with the actual person who wrote this episode.

I was reminded of this when reading about the person who left fandom (DA fandom, maybe?) because of some really nasty comments and such hurled at hir by other people in the fandom. I can understand why that would be upsetting. I’ve experienced what it’s like to be seen by people as just a collection of pixels and not a real person with real feelings and sensibilities.

And while I don’t apologize for my anger about the race stuff around Martha at all, I should also take a moment to remember that real people are involved in the making of TV, too. Doesn’t change how I feel, might change how I express myself. It will at least encourage me to stop, think, and then post.