The Sweet, Sweet Pie of Smugness

[miss_s_b]

Well, we can't pronounce on ALL the predictions yet, but young, white, cis-female, and conventionally attractive? I think we're there on those:

The Doctor's new companion is revealed

Who she's playing, how the Doctor meets her, and even where he finds her, are all part of one of the biggest mysteries the Time Lord ever encounters. Even by the Doctor's standards, this isn't your usual boy meets girl. - I suspect the biggest mystery the Doctor ever encounters might be overselling it a bit. And boy meets girl? REALLY? Eurgh.

I'm sure I'll be able to put up with her character, maybe even I'll like her, but it would have been nice if the opportunity had been taken to have someone a bit more different :(

Comments

[drunkwriter]

The fact that she may turn out to be an utterly extraordinary actress is completely irrelevant here then?

[miss_s_b]

For the purposes of a general commentary on the lack of variety in the stream of faces we see parading across our TV screens? Yes. This is not a comment on her as an individual, it's a comment on television as an industry.

FWIW, I would have had the same reaction if it was an actress I like (or even was familiar with) who fit the same criteria. I'm just bored of my televisual life being filled with young, pretty faces. There's no room in telly these days for (to pick an example at random) the likes of Sheila Keith, or even Michael Ripper, and that makes me very sad.

[drunkwriter]

Oh, I must have missed the part where this was a wider commentary on the television industry. That's a different conversation, though it doesn't invalidate the fact that what was needed was the best actress who turned up to the audition (and as I've never seen Coleman in anything to the best of my knowledge, I'll assume that's what she is until I'm shown otherwise).

If you look at the full range of companions we've had in Doctor Who since 2005, there have been two non-white characters, one non-het, and two aged 35+. Three if you count River as a companion. I don't even know what 'conventionally attractive' means in the context of a series which gave a lead role to the very unconventional-looking Matt Smith. And you may remember US fans being thrilled that they cast a 'fat chick' to play Rose (/eyeroll).

[almostwitty]

To be fair, Matt Smith may be unconventional-looking to you, but he's good enough to be modelling clothes for the likes of Shortlist and other magazines.

[andrewducker]

Was he doing that before he got the role?

[drunkwriter]

Certainly not for Shortlist, as I remember that piece coming out last year. I think he did the odd shoot here and there.

[almostwitty]

I seem to recall he modelled jumpers, but I can't cite a reference for that.

Or I could be confusing him for Roger Moore.

[drunkwriter]

I'm not being unfair, I'm not saying he's bad looking. But you couldn't call him either classically handsome or 'conventionally attractive'.

[innerbrat]

This entire thread is lost on me. How on Earth is Matt Smith not conventionally attractive?

[ginasketch]

He doesn't do it for me- but that's because he IS conventionally attractive. I don't tend to go for that.

[innerbrat]

That's where I'm coming from. I'm looking at him, and thinking "yep, that's what straight girls like, alright." I just don't get it.

[ginasketch]

I don't get Benedict Cumberbatch either. And he's conventionally attractive, despite almost every girl I know coming up to me going "I know you think I'm weird for liking his looks but I fancy BC."

It's not weird- He just doesn't do it for me!

[innerbrat]

Oh well, him I don't get at all. But I can't disassociate him from Sherlock, which I find frankly unwatchable.

I could BUY an argument for him as unconventionally attractive, but... no.

Then, my first male crushes included Dexter Fletcher and Craig Charles, so what do I know?

[miss_s_b]

I don't really think Matt Smith is all that unconventional. Maybe by the standards of modern telly, but if you cast him in a Hammer film he'd be the impossibly good-looking lead. I think the fact that Matt Smith is painted as being odd-looking is much more of a comment on the narrow standards of modern telly than on the man himself. YMMV.

I also think it's interesting that (for totally innocent reasons) a post about how there isn't enough variety in female form on telly has turned into a discussion of a leading male.

[magister]

He reminds me of a young Boris Karloff. Which is a good thing.

[innerbrat]

...it doesn't invalidate the fact that what was needed was the best actress who turned up to the audition

This is exactly the same line of argument that followed the casting announcements around The Last Airbender movie and it trotted out every single time that someone points out a dearth of people of colour on our screens. The arguments stack up and we end up with the general implication that only white people can act.

You do mention 'turned up for auditions', but don't forget that casting calls often specify race. Usually the decision to cast a specific ethinicity is made before the audition process starts.

It's a tired old argument. Yes, Corry lady is probably a great actress. That's hardly the point. There are many many skilled actors and actresses available, and many of them aren't young, white, conventually attractive cissexuals.

[drunkwriter]

Usually the decision to cast a specific ethinicity is made before the audition process starts.

But was that the case here? I don't know, and I'm pretty sure you don't either. So please don't start associating me with racists and The Last Airbender fans (if indeed any still exist).

[innerbrat]

Ha, yeah. I'm done here.

[miss_s_b]

Yes, but you don't know it WASN'T the case, either.

ETA: also, I'm fairly sure that Debi's comment about what generally happens in TV wasn't meant as a personal attack on you or meant to associate you personally with anything, and I'd rather you didn't take it that way to try and start a fight with her. And I'm worrying that the very act of typing this will upset you, but I figure I needed to say SOMETHING...

[drunkwriter]

I have no interest in starting a fight with anyone, but I did read her comment as a bit of a slight. Perhaps that's my mistake. I frankly doubt it.

I do want to emphasise that I don't necessarily disagree with any of your concerns. I just think it's a bit of a kneejerk reaction. I certainly don't want to fall out with anyone over a discussion of an actress who, I think it's fairly clear, none of us had ever heard of twelve hours ago.

[miss_s_b]

Fair enough then. And yeah, my knee did jerk a little. Thank you for being you.

* hug *

[drunkwriter]

*hug*

(I just got my first byline!!!!)

[andrewhickey.info]

But surely 'the best actress who turned up to the audition' will only turn up to the audition if *the character created by the production team* is a good-looking able-bodied woman in her mid-twenties. Had the script specified a fat Chinese bloke with Down's Syndrome and one leg, a different set of actors would have showed up.

So it isn't fair to attack this actor for taking the role, but it's certainly fair to see her as being symptomatic of a problem with the production.

[drunkwriter]

I think we've all had more than enough of this conversation, so I'll just quote the one-legged Tarzan sketch:

"I've nothing at all against your left leg... the problem is, neither have you."

[gwenhwyfaer]

Who was it who said that an obsession with stereotypical beauty was the hallmark of a civilisation in decline?