I'm Suffering From Doctor Who Depravations . . . .

Lucky for me. I found the exact right image of the delectable and dangerous Dr. River Song.



And here is the exchange/dialogue that goes with the image:

Dalek: You will be exterminated!
River: Not yet. Your systems are still restoring which means your shield density is compromised. One alpha meson burst through your eyestalk would kill you stone dead.
Dalek: Records indicate you will show mercy. You are an associate of the Doctor's.
River: I'm River Song. Check your records again.
Dalek: Mercy.
River: Say it again.
Dalek: Mercy!
River: One more time.
Dalek: Mercy!!!


Anyway, I am eager for the next season. Given my eagerness, either I better figure out how to bypass the country code lock on the BBC website (episodes are available on line in the UK before televised on BBC America,) or I better hope that iTunes will have the epis available, and ahead of the BBC America Broadcast schedule. (Ok. I know some peeps have figured out how to befuddle and bamboozle the YouTube bots, by uploading a flip-sided vid file. But I can't depend on that remaining viable. At least that's how I got to see the 2010 Xmas Special.) But we will see how it all shakes out, eventually.

Moving back to Dr. River Song (in order to execute my eventual transition,) that character is not only one of my favorite kick ass "companions" for The Doctor (even if she is in a special category, not the traditional traveling companion,) but she has to be one of my all time favorite kick ass TV characters. And that brings us to the dopey thing that has been buzzing in the back of my mind.

Months ago, while slumming around the Internet, I encountered some alleged right wing feminist website. (I think at that time I was in a pissing contest with a couple wing nuts on a message board, who were advancing right wing feminist theory. Yecch. I think the difference between traditional feminism and right wing feminism is comparable to the difference between real cheese and processed cheese food. Just saying.) And on this website I found one of the strangest . . . not even so much an argument, but rather line of inquiry concerning (allegedly, according to the author) feminist empowerment/victim hood on Doctor Who. The author's yardstick for how pro feminist the particular season was (just the new Doctor Who,) was how many times The Doctor saved the female companion vs the female companion saving him. I think mutual saves were tallied but not part of the end score. Now among all of the seasons under evaluation -- featuring companions Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, and Amy Pond, the writer concluded this last season, featuring Amy Pond, was the most sexist.

I shit you not about this theory. And since this was some right wing (alleged) feminist, I have to wonder if she bitches and moans about the kinds of research traditional (make that liberal) feminists do. But ya know? Even with all the Sociology I have taken in my life, I do not claim to be an expert in feminist theory. But I know Dramatic and Literary Analysis and deconstruction better. That's my mind set. So trust me when I say that when I have enough time on my hands to watch that much Doctor Who, I'm doing it for entertainment purposes, not to count the times who saves whom. What a fucked up exercise, I think. And never mind the thesis is much too reductionist to be credible. To boil down and limit the data to just the saves by sex of the characters, and to try to make any conclusion past the math, is just such a silly argument.

Now for my theory -- cancel that -- make that my thoughts about the ladies of the new Doctor Who. Loved Rose Tyler. Very young, but very spunky and brave. Channeling the Time Space Vortex to lay waste to vast armada of Daleks. That's very Kick Ass. Martha Jones. Loved her too. She spent a year traveling the Earth and coordinating a unified, bio transmitter-weapon out of almost all of humanity. That's very kick ass. Then we had Donna. Loved her too. Given the comedic talents of the actress (the brilliant Catherine Tate) a lot of her 'business' was comedy. But in the end, she ends up as sort of a hybrid human/Time Lord. Oh. And she lays waste to another vast armada of Daleks. Now we get to Ms. Pond. Love her too. So young. Brave. Smart. But so young. Still, at the pivotal moment she (well both Ponds, actually. It's complicated. Temporal shifts usually are,) helps save the whole of creation, by saving The Doctor, after he saves her, which lets her save him. (Again. It's complicated. Temporal stuff.)

But I will give the author this much. Yes. Amy Pond does a wee bit less ass kicking. It's not her forte. However . . . getting back to River Song, yes, with the introduction of that character, we have a recurring Ass Kicking Fem dropping in and out of story. And boy does she kick ass.

She made the Dalek beg. She made a Dalek beg. Anyone who can make a Dalek beg is totally kick ass. Daleks usually run around raving about how they will Ex-terminate anyone. A Dalek begging for mercy? That's as rare are rare gets.