Classic Doctor Who 1x03/4 "The Forest of Fear"/"The Firemaker" full reaction
Added 2021-06-13 19:35:29 +0000 UTC"Fear makes companions of all of us."
Just recently edited "Listen" for YouTube - almost identical quote!
Also, thanks for all your suggestions and recommendations! I don't know if I can get to everything this time around, but we will see as we go forward with each season. I really appreciate the guidance! ❤️
Comments
So I haven't watched Episode 4 yet but in response to your questions about the Old Woman, I don't think you need any specific motives from her. She is written to be a representation of 'the older generation', which in all societies tends to be a generation that is afraid and suspicious of technology and progress. She is just a traditionalist who does not want change. That's how I read her anyway.
Mark Ward
2021-06-20 22:02:53 +0000 UTCJust wanted to add, in light of the Chibnal era being judged partly through how politcal or social messages are handled in the narrative, this episode right at the start of Who has quite a bit to say on politics. Quite a lot of this episode is given over to competing forms of government, touching on propoganda and rule by fear versus co-operation and rule by consent and common shared needs. It works where Chibnal fails because whilst it is the focus of many of the caveman scenes and inter-fighting among them, it also serves the main narrative of our TARDIS team being in peril and how they escape - it provides character motivations for how each person acts in the main story of them escaping. Itis not there just to be there and be highlighted, nor does it actually tell you directly which form of rule is better, though by the actions of both sides it clearly favours cooperative governance. But it doesnt directly draw attention to this and tell the viewer they have to agree too. Its just part of the story, properly integrated into it and the characters, informing what they do. In Chibnal the message is highlighted and then openly favoured, to the point the Doctor even at times directly says it outloud right at the audience. And its more often than not dislocated from the characters and how they actually act within the narrative. Characters act not according to how they are motivated but by whatever the plot requires from them to sustain and promote the message. Which is why the Doctor's morals are so compromised in the Chibnal era. It has to change every week because the message being conveyed is all important, it is what Chibnal sees his era as being about, so rather than informing the narrative and characters it bends them to it. And what you get is an inconsistent Doctor we feel like we dont understand or know, not because she is alien and mysterious, but because she is inconsistant and without a settled personality, sense of purpose. moral compass or any sense of there being a direction of travel for her character development. In this early episode how the Doctor responds to each of the forms of government represented in the cavemen tells us something about his character every time, develops it. And in turn how the companions react to the Doctor's responses informs us more about them and further develops them too. And thats the difference in how the two eras are using their underlying social/political messages.
BobBob
2021-06-16 14:32:57 +0000 UTC
