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Apr. 23rd, 2007 12:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Between The Girl and the Fireplace and The Shakespeare Code, I think the makers of Doctor Who are aware that there have been people of African descent in Europe for centuries, and that they hope to gently correct our usual lily-white idea of the past.
Black people have been present in Britain and on the Continent for hundreds of years, in every walk of life: from the brothel to the royal court, in service, in all sorts of professions. But, until the Casanova miniseries and Girl in the Fireplace, I had no clue this was the case. (Casanova really did have a Black manservant.) My former ignorance disqualifies me from judging anyone else who just didn't know, and angrily blamed "political correctness" (or, more gently, said they weren't worried about historical accuracy in a fantastical show).
While reading up on the history of Blacks in France, I encountered the remarkable Chevalier de Saint-Georges, who reminds me a lot of Casanova, and about whom I hope to learn a lot more. Reading through fannish discussions online, he's been mentioned more than once as an example of a real-life Black man present at the court of Versailles. That's him in my new icon, to be used for postings and comments about race.
Black people have been present in Britain and on the Continent for hundreds of years, in every walk of life: from the brothel to the royal court, in service, in all sorts of professions. But, until the Casanova miniseries and Girl in the Fireplace, I had no clue this was the case. (Casanova really did have a Black manservant.) My former ignorance disqualifies me from judging anyone else who just didn't know, and angrily blamed "political correctness" (or, more gently, said they weren't worried about historical accuracy in a fantastical show).
While reading up on the history of Blacks in France, I encountered the remarkable Chevalier de Saint-Georges, who reminds me a lot of Casanova, and about whom I hope to learn a lot more. Reading through fannish discussions online, he's been mentioned more than once as an example of a real-life Black man present at the court of Versailles. That's him in my new icon, to be used for postings and comments about race.
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Date: 2007-04-23 03:33 am (UTC)(God. I hope this isn't a symptom of menopause.)
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Date: 2007-04-23 03:59 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2007-04-23 06:45 am (UTC)Ethical? Is that the right word? There are all those sexuality based dialogue sight seeing moments and then those religious and spiritual punctuation marks that make their pressence known. Never really the subject matter itself.
There was some comment about Rose's Aliens of London "that's so gay" line. If I recall (and I don't have the reference source) that RTD would prefer to irk the left minded rather than makiing this a choral tune for the converted. Is it RTD wanting us to think about broader social issues in the show? Or is that he just enjoys shaking his spear?
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Date: 2007-04-23 08:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-23 12:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-23 01:21 pm (UTC)Personally, I think the show has changed quite a bit since the early episodes of season 1. Rose and Aliens of London both feel a lot closer to the style of The Second Coming, which I think shares a theme in common i.e.: what if someone who represents all our ideals really did come back into our lives, wouldn't it be wonderful, wouldn't it be terrible, and how would it shake us up? Much as I love it, since the first season Doctor Who has been a lot less about that moment of shaking and more about what happens after - not simply being awoken to your ideals, but actually living with them and for them. I do believe that a certain edge has been lost, but that's in spite of the fact that Davies *was* ambitious and wanted an adventure show about adventure, an idealistic show about ideals. I really feel the crew are trying to get away from the so-called 'soap opera' style of the first series - think how muted the colours are in many of those stories, how cold it looks - and into the richer, more full-blooded world that was hinted at, just behind those doors, if you just step through, "so much madder, so much better." I don't think audiences really liked that contrast, between the Doctor's wonderful world and the awful mundanities of our human one, and I think Our World has become a more acceptable place to live - after all, that had to be the end of Rose's arc (sort of) - to bring her ideals home. But I do think those hints of a wider world, "so much madder, so much better" are quite conscious - just as the Doctor's world is perhaps more earthly than it was in season one.
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Date: 2007-04-23 11:05 pm (UTC)no subject
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