RSS Posted January 10, 2014 Report Share Posted January 10, 2014 To prevent a planet of insane Daleks from escaping their prison, less-insane Daleks force The Doctor and The Ponds to infiltrate their asylum ("Asylum of the Daleks"). Then there are dinosaurs on a spaceship ("Dinosaurs on a Spaceship"). Also, the guys cover the five-part series Pond Life, and Dan takes a moment to ponder his Wilfred Mott / Brian Williams fan fiction. [ 1:09:59 || 33.8 MB ]To listen, click here: http://www.earth-2.net/podcasts/biggerontheinside/episodes/bigger_133.mp3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donomark Posted January 13, 2014 Report Share Posted January 13, 2014 I think it's funny that when the Moffatt era in the podcast started you guys sort of scoffed at the notion of him being sexist, yet in practically every episode since you've noted how it's become more and more understandable to think that he is. Not denegrating you guys or anything, but it's interesting to consider both the terms and evidence for or against. I myself hesitate to label him a "sexist" or "mysogynist" as I think there's enough evidence to the contrary to stave off those accusations...BUT so many people have cited reasons why he might be according to certain interpretations of the terms that I'm close to changing my mind. Just today, this article was written which is basically a laundry list for his quotes about certain things pertaining to women in both DW and Sherlock. http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/steven-moffat-sexism-sherlock-doctor-who/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slothian Posted January 14, 2014 Report Share Posted January 14, 2014 I think it's funny that when the Moffatt era in the podcast started you guys sort of scoffed at the notion of him being sexist, yet in practically every episode since you've noted how it's become more and more understandable to think that he is. Not denegrating you guys or anything, but it's interesting to consider both the terms and evidence for or against. I myself hesitate to label him a "sexist" or "mysogynist" as I think there's enough evidence to the contrary to stave off those accusations...BUT so many people have cited reasons why he might be according to certain interpretations of the terms that I'm close to changing my mind. Just today, this article was written which is basically a laundry list for his quotes about certain things pertaining to women in both DW and Sherlock. http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/steven-moffat-sexism-sherlock-doctor-who/ That was posted on the Better in the Dark Facebook thread today. I left the following response: The internet really seems to have its knives out for Moffat at the moment. That particular article was one part rant, another cherrypicking as many anti-Moffat articles as it could find - many of which are far from balanced. If you have a large enough body of work, I suppose it's straightforward enough for someone to weave some kind interpretation about you as a person. But until you come out and confirm or deny said beliefs - "yes, I really do hate all women!"-style - surely it can only be projection on the blogger's part?For my part, I don't think Moffat's been on his A game lately as a solo writer/showrunner, but I have been treated to some stellar Who/Sherlock episodes in the last 3-4 years on his watch. And as long as he's not actively, openly, outright trying to offend someone, then I hardly thinks he deserves attacks on his character. It's the internet, so in some way it comes with the territory of Who showrunner, but it'd require a more thoroughly researched, even-handed article to change my mind about the guy. On Shake & Blake, Dave & I covered three episodes of Blake's 7 written by a guy called Ben Steed. His first episode featured an alpha male (Jarvik) who is able to sexually subdue Servalan (female arch-villain, supremely ruthless, knows how to destroy men etc) and manhandle her, which wins her over. His second episode featured a convict group of men who offer up Servalan, who they've captured, to Vila for the purpose of raping (in so many words). His third episode featured a sex war on the planet that the main cast inhabit, in which the female race fight against men turning them into "women" and their former sisters berating them for not serving men. Now I haven't researched Ben Steed any further, nor read any interviews he may have given, so I don't have his side of the story with regard to his writing process, but those three episodes smack to me of blatant, worrying sexism when considered as a whole. By contrast, that article states/cites other articles of female characters in Moffat's stories being flawed to the point of sexism. As stated in my facebook post, if a writer has a large enough body of work and you look for a chain of weaknesses in the writing of their female characters, I'm sure you could join certain dots. But to what extent is the exercise of dot-joining projection about the writer's character? For me, you have to weigh up the negatives of the female character as they are written with the positives. In the Ben Steed example, there are NO counter-arguments. With the writing of Amy Pond, River Sond or Clara Oswald (and her ancestors), I'm sure I could come up with a positive trait for any negative one offered up if I really had the energy. I don't want to waste time being an apologist for the work of someone I don't know, especially as I am currently on exam leave. I'd rather people consider the various counter points to points made by a blogger by way of balance, as a healthy means of dissecting arguments. I'm not going to stand here and suggest Moffat has actively tried to advance the feminist cause through Doctor Who/Sherlock. That would be absurd. But neither do I think he's actively tried to denigrate women through his writing either. I'm open to arguments to the contrary, but not in the form of that bullshit article. On topic - Brian Williams is awesome! Have other members of The Fast Show been on New Who, aside from Arabella Weir? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted January 14, 2014 Report Share Posted January 14, 2014 (edited) I've tried to be really careful not to say "Moffat is sexist or misogynistic", because I don't know him and I have no idea what attitudes he holds. I do think he's written problematic things, but I think that has more to do with a lack of interest in nuanced characterization, and "women be shopping" is a quick and easy way to get a point across. The real issue, I think, is that Moffat has a limited number of arrows in his quiver, and when he started firing them we were blown away with how awesome they were, but he's shot them all at this point, and we've seen it. Edited January 14, 2014 by Dan Punctuation is fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenelou Posted January 15, 2014 Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 Nothing Moffatt's written has ever offended me as a female, although to be honest, I'm more likely to be looking for flagrant violations of Doctor Who cannon than potential sexism! I have to agree with Dan, I think any lack in Moffatt's female characters is probably due to his limitations as a writer rather than any raging misogyny in his psyche Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankymole Posted January 23, 2014 Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 I don't think anyone can really comment on sexism in Moffat's work until they have at least watched "Coupling"... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slothian Posted January 23, 2014 Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 But isn't it a case of comparing apples and oranges if we're talking comparing a sitcom with a family-minded sci-fi drama? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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