Chris Chibnall vs The British Empire (a Doctor Who video essay)

I have other songs available to purchase too at the following links:

+++

+++

Also, this is a bit random but in case you are watching this and seek Dan (aka my half English half Indian 100% awesome actor brother) for something, here are his links:

Dan's social media:

+++

If you are wondering about the art, yes, it is indeed mine. I got ill last week and, behold, this is the fruit of my suffering.

Love you loads!
xxx

[BTNight]

Initially, this analogy seemed like a bit of a stretch, but you argued your point extremely well... Great video!

[geezenation]

very interesting and well researched, keep up the good work :)

[StetsonDoctor]

This is incredible – great job! I'm an English Lit/Creative Writing undergraduate and have recently written an essay about 'The Timeless Children' in relation to Gender/Race as one of my end of year assignments. There's a lot of overlap with your thinking here (wish I'd found your video essay sooner tbh!) –though I focused more on gender than race, with Héléne Cixous' 'Sorties' as my main theoretical influence, essentially arguing that the Time Lords repressed all of the Timeless Child's femininity/otherness in order to fashion her into the Doctor – and into the mould of a white middle-aged male. It's nice to find someone else on the same wavelength, but also to consider the colonisation/race angle a bit more. I think common to both our arguments is that idea of appropriation – the parallels between the Time Lords and patriarchal society/the British Empire are undeniable. As you suggest, to view 'The Timeless Children' in this light affirms just how important a story it is in terms of breaking new ground for the show – it celebrates the Doctor as a being who has been and can be absolutely anything. Such an important, relevant message. So yeah – as I say, nice job! 🙌

[Raven-Woods]

I was absolutely blown away by this essay! I had been generally neutral to positive to the Timeless Child narrative (as a fairly new Whovian, and not someone invested in past canon stories - for whatever that's worth for Doctor Who), and your essay has entirely persuaded me to be 100% in support of it. I had previously identified a few parallels in the story between the treatment of immigrants and refugees, but your essay goes so much deeper into the context (some of which I didn't get, as an American) and meaning for folks who have been, and continue to be, directly affected by the colonialism of the British Empire. Thank you so much for making and sharing this. I will be sharing it around on my social media accounts, too.

[CailleanDevorian]

This was just so interesting and informative and some of the things you mentioned I had just floating in my mind without the right words, and then some others were just so interesting.

I honestly loved these two seasons (and yes, Mark Gatiss does have a fixation with the British everything, sometimes I think he's Mycroft in disguise O.o) because of their themes, as a friend of mine says: we're the target audience, for some reason ^^. Thank you for taking your time to put all of this up!

[MGthief]

Amazing! You picked up on the themes and argued the point so well. You should be so proud of this essay, it's fab xx

[ftumschk]

Great essay, but... 16:52 Jo Martin's Doctor is non-violent? She ripped the horn off a rhino, which was one of the most horrific things I've ever seen a Doctor do.

[princekrazie]

You brought up some very interesting videos about the Timeless Child and being abused and exploited. The Doctor could try, in the future, to set things right, which is very badass. Good Video! Although personally I don’t like the Timeless Child concept. I feel like it would have been better to let the Doctor be just a Timelord.

[alexrose]

I loved this essay so much!! I must admit that the timeless children episode didn't really land with me - I didn't understand the Brendan flashbacks at all and just found the whole plot a bit flimsy and kind of a frustrating extension of all the shoehorned, retconned story changes that Moffat made re: the Time War. But this in depth exploration has given me so much to think about, taught me things and suggested new lenses through which to view the episode that make the whole thing a lot more rich and nuanced! Not to mention, the art and detail you put into this is absolutely stunning. Sent you a couple of pounds just as something small I can do to show my appreciation for this video and your work in general <3

[catchyviddy]

Discovered this quite a bit late, but this is such an interesting take on Series 12. Definitely feel like there could be a follow up now that Series 13 has aired!

[kaitlynarsenault]

So well done Claudia! I love when you make video essays, and the art and visuals in this video are stunning! What program did you use?

[jonahlancaster]

Thank you for making this!!!! I loved this season and have been endlessly tired of people bashing it who either just did not get what was happening or who did get it and hated it because of what the actual message of the timeless child was. While I think the season was flawed in some ways sure, it was still a fantastic season and to me it was a return to form for the show, being comparable to me at least to some of the heights of the RTD era

[dariusrahmaan]

This is so good! This is one of my favorite videos essays! I hope to see more from you!

[cvrc]

This was honestly one of the most in-depth analyses of a piece of media I've seen in a while, there were so many angles you covered that would never have occurred to me but now seem so obvious. I still don't like the Chibnall era so far, and think the writing has been rather mediocre, but this video has given me a new-found respect for the intentions, if not the end product, and given me a way to recontextualize the season in my head in a way that makes me like it for what it could have been, if not for what it was. Thank you!

[enchantedforestprincess]

Great video, Claudia! You explained this so well!

[DEBest]

This video essay proves something important in my opinion, execution is very important and this video tells how the inspiration behind the whole thing could lead to a good and interesting story, only they managed to make it far from it. This video essay (in my opinion) was way more interesting than watching the show.

[hopetherespudding]

💙💙💙 also, cyberlords design looks fly as hell. I wonder how some people are so okay with the meddling of the 50th anniv, but then claim this season to be too interruptive of the past timeline? I mean, chibnall had to explain having more reincarnations somehow, which is a big task for any writer and as this video shows, he did it with a lot of thought! This is a very good video and I learnt a bit about Indian history, so thank you :)

[valeusagi]

Your video about this series is the best analysis/review about this season! I am really sad because even among my group of fans of the Doctor there seems to be a lot of disappointment about... EVERYTHING Chibnaill is doing: "too many companions (??), "TOO MANY RACES in the past regenerations on the Doctor would spoil every future one" (to me it sounds as hidden racism but, yeah), and other absurd things. I loved this season a lot and I agree with you about this master ☺️

[birdcar]

I still think the show under Chibnall sucks but your essay is excellently written and has given me new insight on what the writers were trying to convey. Your point about the British empire/Timelord society analogy and the Doctor’s unique position in it has made me realize that the story could in fact work in a story besides Doctor Who, or even for a character besides the Doctor within the show. However, a point of Doctor Who is that the Doctor is important not because they are a time lord or a time traveler, but because they are a kind-hearted person who does their best. Chibnall’s vision has resulted in the Doctor being special not because of what they choose to do but instead how they were born.

I do not at all think Chibnall’s message that the British Empire was racist is important enough to justify the derailment of this theme, considering people have been using sci-fi to show British Imperial racism = bad for close to a century (cough the space trilogy cough) and Chibnall doesn’t do much to bring anything new to the table in that regard either. There is not a person on earth today who could say the British Empire was actually aiding the “uncivilized” natives without being rightly laughed out of the room.

Your understanding of the Doctor and the Master’s ideologies is flawed. It is not the story of abuse because the Master and the Doctor reap all the benefits of Timelord society BEFORE they are reviled by the time lords. The time lords hate the Doctor because, again, of the Doctor’s choice to separate themselves from a society built for them as a Timelord, not because the Doctor is inherently, recognizably, and dangerously special from the get-go, and not because the Doctor suffered significantly under them, or at least not significantly as they were revealed to have been as the Timeless Child.

So: The message is neither socially important, as it is at this point trite and well-known, nor is it beneficial to the themes of Doctor Who, as its hindering revolution around the Doctor turns them into someone special by nature rather than by action.

As an aside I especially liked your insight on the Doctor’s relationship with the military. Overall an excellent essay when looking at the show in context of its current social commentary on Britain and its history.

[MrVikingsjoe]

Good dr who video keep up the good work