promethia_tenk (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
promethia_tenk) wrote2018-11-18 05:02 pm
promethia_tenk) wrote2018-11-18 05:02 pm
Entry tags:
Kerblam!
I think this might be my favorite plot of the whole season so far?
In that it gave a nuanced sci-fi look into a very real looming social crisis. I was expecting a scathing take-down of Amazon's warehouse practices, which I would have been totally fine with and would have been in keeping with the themes of the season, but instead it went deeper to the issue of what happens when the robots take all of our jobs. Because Amazon and the like are just a prequel, a warm-up to what's going to happen.
If you've been on the internet in the last five years and somehow have never seen 'Humans Need Not Apply,' now would be an excellent time to do that:
Actually, I think the most chilling idea of the whole episode is that the human response to robots taking over the jobs that they are better suited to doing (read: most if not all of them) would be some kind of human affirmative action program for employment. Because fighting for the rights of humans to continue serving as inferiorly-performing and badly treated cogs in the system is exactly the kind of unimaginative, reactionary response that we would come up with as a society. I suppose we're meant to take it as read that the power and class structure of this world was so crippling that a society in which nobody actually needs to work was still bent to serve the few and neglect the many. Ok, admittedly that an extremely real possibility. But I'd have liked a line or two about how fifty years ago everybody thought universal basic income would be the solution and then it all went even more wrong. Or something the like. Tell me there are other people out there coming up with better solutions here, even if they can't get them enacted. I do know that Human Resource Lady's line at the end that they are going to make the company 50% human-powered came over more than a little tone deaf. Was she watching the rest of the episode? Am I meant to be left with this crushing sense that nothing has been solved? (Actually, the answer to that is probably yes, isn't it?)
I did like the Doctor's assertion that systems aren't good or evil, only our responses to them. Because, look, humans not having to do menial jobs (or any jobs) should be a good thing, if we approach it correctly. But we're currently doing absolutely nothing to try to make that the case.
It's rare for Doctor Who to really engage me on this level, but I liked it. I'll admit this issue is a bit of a personal fascination of mine.
Otherwise, then, the character stuff continues to be lacking, but weaponized bubble wrap is probably the most ingenious Doctor Who menace of all time.
In that it gave a nuanced sci-fi look into a very real looming social crisis. I was expecting a scathing take-down of Amazon's warehouse practices, which I would have been totally fine with and would have been in keeping with the themes of the season, but instead it went deeper to the issue of what happens when the robots take all of our jobs. Because Amazon and the like are just a prequel, a warm-up to what's going to happen.
If you've been on the internet in the last five years and somehow have never seen 'Humans Need Not Apply,' now would be an excellent time to do that:
Actually, I think the most chilling idea of the whole episode is that the human response to robots taking over the jobs that they are better suited to doing (read: most if not all of them) would be some kind of human affirmative action program for employment. Because fighting for the rights of humans to continue serving as inferiorly-performing and badly treated cogs in the system is exactly the kind of unimaginative, reactionary response that we would come up with as a society. I suppose we're meant to take it as read that the power and class structure of this world was so crippling that a society in which nobody actually needs to work was still bent to serve the few and neglect the many. Ok, admittedly that an extremely real possibility. But I'd have liked a line or two about how fifty years ago everybody thought universal basic income would be the solution and then it all went even more wrong. Or something the like. Tell me there are other people out there coming up with better solutions here, even if they can't get them enacted. I do know that Human Resource Lady's line at the end that they are going to make the company 50% human-powered came over more than a little tone deaf. Was she watching the rest of the episode? Am I meant to be left with this crushing sense that nothing has been solved? (Actually, the answer to that is probably yes, isn't it?)
I did like the Doctor's assertion that systems aren't good or evil, only our responses to them. Because, look, humans not having to do menial jobs (or any jobs) should be a good thing, if we approach it correctly. But we're currently doing absolutely nothing to try to make that the case.
It's rare for Doctor Who to really engage me on this level, but I liked it. I'll admit this issue is a bit of a personal fascination of mine.
Otherwise, then, the character stuff continues to be lacking, but weaponized bubble wrap is probably the most ingenious Doctor Who menace of all time.
no subject
'Intellect and Romance Triumph over Brute Force and Cynicism'
This episode was the opposite, ergo, Bad Doctor Who.
no subject
I mean, this was basically my feeling for huge swathes of Ten's run. I didn't have the fullness of Doctor Who background to express it in the same way, but it was 'this show and this character are absolutely not being what this show and this character constantly declare themselves to be.' Eventually I felt like the show came around to admitting that this had been going on and going on intentionally, but I was incredibly uncomfortable with how long Rusty strung things along asking us to love and believe in the Doctor anyway.
Something went wrong with this episode, and I have a feeling no matter what happens with the rest of the season a lot of people are still going to loathe this one with a fiery passion and I'm gonna feel like it was one of the more interesting ones of the season. But I've gotta say that this is the first episode that's made me feel like perhaps this season and this Doctor are actually going somewhere?
no subject
Well I very much liked it at the time (give me a tortured hero with a god complex and I'll be interested!), but I still remember watching Eleven and it being like a huge missing piece of jigsaw had been added and suddenly I realised that THIS was what the show was meant to be. (I have told you this before, but yeah. Going from Eleven and back to Ten must have been jarring) But then Nine was upfront about him being a walking shell of a man who had to kill his own people and Ten was a ruthless bastard from the word go ('No second chances, I'm that kind of a man'), so it never pulled its punches.
Something went wrong with this episode, and I have a feeling no matter what happens with the rest of the season a lot of people are still going to loathe this one with a fiery passion and I'm gonna feel like it was one of the more interesting ones of the season. But I've gotta say that this is the first episode that's made me feel like perhaps this season and this Doctor are actually going somewhere?
Well if being 'Too nice' is the overarching problem, then yes, it's definitely being consistent, and this episode is where this became impossible to ignore.
If it's going somewhere - I will mark it down as interesting. If not - I shall just keep hating it!