Austin
@antedilapsarian.bsky.social
Hyper mega bummer boy.
(He/they)
(He/they)
Tell me Doctor Who people: is any of this anything at all?
October 15, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Tell me Doctor Who people: is any of this anything at all?
And if that's the case, then there seems to be potential for a (really gross) counter-reading about queer voices and "passing" that I really don't like.
October 15, 2025 at 7:01 PM
And if that's the case, then there seems to be potential for a (really gross) counter-reading about queer voices and "passing" that I really don't like.
...because while the Doctor does have his usual "take pity on the aliens" approach to the entity, he also wants to try to protect Sky and explicitly says so. So at least the Doctor sees Sky as still the same vulnerable queer woman.
October 15, 2025 at 7:00 PM
...because while the Doctor does have his usual "take pity on the aliens" approach to the entity, he also wants to try to protect Sky and explicitly says so. So at least the Doctor sees Sky as still the same vulnerable queer woman.
We could say that the moment Sky is possessed, she isn't Sky anymore (a problem because the entity later refers to itself as "the Midnight Sky"). If that's the case, then the point is that the entity silences the vulnerable queer woman first. But this doesn't sit quite right with me...
October 15, 2025 at 6:58 PM
We could say that the moment Sky is possessed, she isn't Sky anymore (a problem because the entity later refers to itself as "the Midnight Sky"). If that's the case, then the point is that the entity silences the vulnerable queer woman first. But this doesn't sit quite right with me...
A bigger problem is the role that poor Sky plays in the whole thing. First off, it's such a flagrant "bury your gays" trope. But it's also made much worse by the fact that her voice is the first to be supplanted.
October 15, 2025 at 6:56 PM
A bigger problem is the role that poor Sky plays in the whole thing. First off, it's such a flagrant "bury your gays" trope. But it's also made much worse by the fact that her voice is the first to be supplanted.
Obviously there's some room for nuance and some troubling implications of some of this. Second from the top of my list is the fact that the Doctor explicitly opposes a "vote" over Sky's life. Perhaps we might see this echoed in the US Dems' tendency to silence dissent in their ranks?
October 15, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Obviously there's some room for nuance and some troubling implications of some of this. Second from the top of my list is the fact that the Doctor explicitly opposes a "vote" over Sky's life. Perhaps we might see this echoed in the US Dems' tendency to silence dissent in their ranks?
In the end, it's the hostess—a working class woman of color—who has to save them all from the entity at the cost of her own life, a life that might have been spared had the Doctor simply listened to her in the first place.
October 15, 2025 at 6:49 PM
In the end, it's the hostess—a working class woman of color—who has to save them all from the entity at the cost of her own life, a life that might have been spared had the Doctor simply listened to her in the first place.
NB: the mob's hands also exclusively (with the possible exception of Jethro, the teenager) straight. Jethro's parents are a middle-class hetero couple, and the professor is implied to have romantic designs for Dee Dee, a college student he has brought with him on vacation.
October 15, 2025 at 6:48 PM
NB: the mob's hands also exclusively (with the possible exception of Jethro, the teenager) straight. Jethro's parents are a middle-class hetero couple, and the professor is implied to have romantic designs for Dee Dee, a college student he has brought with him on vacation.
Things devolve from here: the passengers on the ship turn not only against the Doctor but also the hostess and Dee Dee, the latter of whom is explicitly told that she's "next" after the Doctor is murdered at their collective (and exclusively white) hands.
October 15, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Things devolve from here: the passengers on the ship turn not only against the Doctor but also the hostess and Dee Dee, the latter of whom is explicitly told that she's "next" after the Doctor is murdered at their collective (and exclusively white) hands.
Consider current fascism's use of terms like DEI, empathy, and freedom of speech. The former two of these have been hollowed out of their meaning and turned into empty catchphrases, like "Allons-y" and "molto bene." The latter has been redefined to mean mostly just "Freedom to be openly racist."
October 15, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Consider current fascism's use of terms like DEI, empathy, and freedom of speech. The former two of these have been hollowed out of their meaning and turned into empty catchphrases, like "Allons-y" and "molto bene." The latter has been redefined to mean mostly just "Freedom to be openly racist."
This is when things get thrown into chaos. The voice of reason, of inclusion, has become a weapon of the entity to be used against that very voice itself.
October 15, 2025 at 6:40 PM
This is when things get thrown into chaos. The voice of reason, of inclusion, has become a weapon of the entity to be used against that very voice itself.
But then the entity supplants the Doctor's speech. Now, it talks first and he follows. The entity is a cuckoo: it passes the Doctor off as an impostor while pretending to be the restored "Sky."
October 15, 2025 at 6:38 PM
But then the entity supplants the Doctor's speech. Now, it talks first and he follows. The entity is a cuckoo: it passes the Doctor off as an impostor while pretending to be the restored "Sky."
Things get scary when the entity stops repeating them and begins speaking alongside them. The entity seems to want to be a part of the group. Its speech, previously nonsense, is now abhorrent and needs to be rejected. (It's at this point that the Doctor defends her most)
October 15, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Things get scary when the entity stops repeating them and begins speaking alongside them. The entity seems to want to be a part of the group. Its speech, previously nonsense, is now abhorrent and needs to be rejected. (It's at this point that the Doctor defends her most)
Indeed, the professor on the bus insists it's nothing to worry about. Sky isn't possessed. She's merely a very sick woman who needs psychological care.
October 15, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Indeed, the professor on the bus insists it's nothing to worry about. Sky isn't possessed. She's merely a very sick woman who needs psychological care.
And notice the way the entity targets him: first via mimicry, then by taking his speech entirely away from him. The entity appears to have no original thoughts at first: it just recirculates the group's speech back to them like an empty meme. It seems silly for them to be threatened by it.
October 15, 2025 at 6:33 PM
And notice the way the entity targets him: first via mimicry, then by taking his speech entirely away from him. The entity appears to have no original thoughts at first: it just recirculates the group's speech back to them like an empty meme. It seems silly for them to be threatened by it.
And that very humanitarian position, the Doctor's pity for and desire to understand this new entity, is what very nearly gets him killed in the episode, as the entity shifts from targeting to Sky to targeting him.
October 15, 2025 at 6:31 PM
And that very humanitarian position, the Doctor's pity for and desire to understand this new entity, is what very nearly gets him killed in the episode, as the entity shifts from targeting to Sky to targeting him.
They have the luxury of doing this because they, unlike the people of color, LGBTQIA folks, and immigrant populations directly under threat by fascists, do not see themselves as existentially endangered. The Doctor thinks these fears are unfounded, the anxieties of "a little bunch of humans."
October 15, 2025 at 6:29 PM
They have the luxury of doing this because they, unlike the people of color, LGBTQIA folks, and immigrant populations directly under threat by fascists, do not see themselves as existentially endangered. The Doctor thinks these fears are unfounded, the anxieties of "a little bunch of humans."
...Liberals can be reluctant to silence (and consider how important voices are in this episode) right-wingers out of devotion to free speech or even sometimes out of a sense of sympathy, not for their views, but for the hardships that poor white folks sometimes do, in fact, face.
October 15, 2025 at 6:27 PM
...Liberals can be reluctant to silence (and consider how important voices are in this episode) right-wingers out of devotion to free speech or even sometimes out of a sense of sympathy, not for their views, but for the hardships that poor white folks sometimes do, in fact, face.
Now—here's where things break down a bit, because the Doc will later be labelled an "immigrant,"—but to me, this seems a lot like the tension I hear between minoritized peoples and mainstream liberals...
October 15, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Now—here's where things break down a bit, because the Doc will later be labelled an "immigrant,"—but to me, this seems a lot like the tension I hear between minoritized peoples and mainstream liberals...
The Doctor's initial response is to help the entity, on the condition that it leaves Sky alone, to whatever it wants, but the hostess almost immediately says they should throw her out. It's a weird moment, because even RTD has said she was right the whole time, and the Doctor is wrong.
October 15, 2025 at 6:22 PM
The Doctor's initial response is to help the entity, on the condition that it leaves Sky alone, to whatever it wants, but the hostess almost immediately says they should throw her out. It's a weird moment, because even RTD has said she was right the whole time, and the Doctor is wrong.
The entity arrives on the ship and targets the isolated queer woman, Sky, first. She's alone, heartbroken, and afraid, and other characters are aware of her vulnerability. The Doctor, at least, becomes aware of her queer identity as well, though the others don't seem to do so.
October 15, 2025 at 6:20 PM
The entity arrives on the ship and targets the isolated queer woman, Sky, first. She's alone, heartbroken, and afraid, and other characters are aware of her vulnerability. The Doctor, at least, becomes aware of her queer identity as well, though the others don't seem to do so.
Four people are in danger of being pushed out the airlock in the episode as a result of the entity's influence: the Doctor and the aforementioned queer woman, Dee Dee—a student traveling with her professor—and the bus's hostess, who remains unnamed for the whole episode. Both these women of color.
October 15, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Four people are in danger of being pushed out the airlock in the episode as a result of the entity's influence: the Doctor and the aforementioned queer woman, Dee Dee—a student traveling with her professor—and the bus's hostess, who remains unnamed for the whole episode. Both these women of color.
The Midnight entity deliberately targets two people on the bus: a queer woman (the only person besides the Doctor to be travelling alone) and the Doctor himself, whom a character in the episode directly frames as an "immigrant."
October 15, 2025 at 6:16 PM
The Midnight entity deliberately targets two people on the bus: a queer woman (the only person besides the Doctor to be travelling alone) and the Doctor himself, whom a character in the episode directly frames as an "immigrant."