Change of plans (thoughts about this series of Doctor Who, and Unconventional Courtship plans)

[merryghoul]

Locked because I don’t want it to appear on Who Daily, as it’s a proclamation of plans. To be safe, if I bork the friends-lock, please don't put this on today's edition, Who Daily Editor of the Day. And, um, yay, writing hiatus over? Until maybe Femslash Exchange and Yuletide?

Now unlocked! But if you're not a fan of discussing race and/or queerness in science fiction, give this post a pass.


Okay, so I don’t like what happened to Bill in “World Enough and Time.” Even if Moffat revives Bill from Cyber-conversion, the idea of a black, queer woman being shot to advance a plot still doesn’t sit right with me. Especially because part of it skirts the “Bury Your Gays” trope. And contrary to what defenders of Doctor Who are saying, “Bury Your Gays” is an old trope. That’s why The Price of Salt (later made into Carol the movie) was shocking for its time; prior to that book, it was the norm to write lesbian characters into a doomed romance. (See: most lesbian pulp fiction, The Fox by D.H. Lawrence.) And, in the wake of anti-violence movements like Black Lives Matter, shooting a black character out of nowhere makes me cringe.

I decided to re-read the only decently-written (meaning it’s not just a collection of captions for an episode, e.g. at Springfield! Springfield!) transcript for “The Pilot” online. Some of Bill’s dialogue bothers me. And not only the “fatten her with chips” part (what the hell?), but it felt like Moffat assumed his dialogue for Bill at times would be what women who love women would say about their attraction at times. As a queer woman, I wouldn't be saying a lot of what Bill says in that episode.

I’m also bothered that Bill’s love interest for the episode, Heather, was turned into an oil blob that eventually had a role in the Dalek-Movellan War. Maybe Heather’ll come back and maybe she won’t. (Unless there’s some sort of asspull, it sounds like Heather may not be back, ever. Which leans heavily towards Bury Your Gays. [Update: there was an asspull. And at the end, both characters aren't really alive, and that's disappointing.]) I know Moffat likes to hearken back to older Who episodes, but...really?

tl;dr, I’ve decided to write my Unconventional Courtship fic around Bill and Heather, where it’s a partial fix-it for “The Pilot” and partially something in the style of a Harlequin Heartwarming novel, something without a lot of sex or violence (per the convention of that line of Harlequin novels). And it’s probably going to be OOC from their dialogue in “The Pilot,” if only because I want them talking to each other without sounding like, well, how Moffat thinks queer women talk to each other. I’m still deciding who saves Heather from turning into an oil blob, Clara and Me or Ace. They’re all perfect for the fix-it.

ETA: Nevermind, a Harlequin Intrigue style-summary, given the events in "The Pilot." And why didn't I think about River Song before "The Husbands of River Song," while she's taking Twelve's TARDIS for occasional spins?