Day 151: The Moonbase Episode 3

Once again we're going to talk about Polly this episode. This time, it's because of her role in the plot. While the Doctor does clever things, and Ben and Jamie do action things, Polly is left to do screaming things. But, halfway through this episode, she gets the idea to use a solvent to dissolve the plastic on the Cybermen's chest units, and in doing so, cause them to be destroyed. This is wonderful, because it is showing us that a character who is assumed to be frivolous, and only exists to scream and look pretty, is actually rather intelligent, and can do things by herself. But, all of this is quickly destroyed when she indicates that she would like to help destroy the Cybemen, only to be told that it is "men's work". This is blatantly awful, and it's quite annoying to think that elements of this blatant sexism can exist in Doctor Who. Watching it reminded me of The Secret Seven books, by Enid Blyton, which would frequently feature a scene akin to one of the boys telling the girls that they couldn't take part in the adventure, because it was for the men only. It's uncomfortable to view, because it serves as a reminder of the poor treatment of female characters in fiction, and also tells the young girls who are watching this story that they might not be able to fully partake in the adventure, due to their gender. And, come to think of it, there are no female scientists on the base either. This is thoroughly giving the impression that all women are good for is screaming and occasionally being useful, which is quite poor writing, despite any attempts to defend it as 'of its time'. What makes it a real shame is that this has been quite a nice little story, but it is hampered with the sexism of the time that makes it uncomfortable vieweing for an audience of today.

Day 149: The Moonbase Episode 1

This story is set on Earth's Moon. It's odd that Doctor Who hasn't visited the Moon before, given that it forms one of the key focuses of 1960's science fiction is the Moon. After Kennedy stated that we were going to reach the Moon by the end of the decade (even if he won't) the Moon became the mystical place whereby all problems would be solved and we would have colonies set up there by the year 2000. And so, when we visit the Moon for the first time, it feels ridiculously familiar due to all of the associated tropes with the Moon. There's a base which is populated by members of various nationalities, all allied together to help humanity. There are also ridiculous spacesuits, low gravity and all seems to be exactly as we think it should be. And that's the problem with setting things on the Moon, because by doing so, the programme becomes slightly dated as a result. While the Moon still exists, and there are the odd missions to it every once in a while, it is generally accepted by the wider populace that we will not be sending colonies to there any time soon, and so the overwhelmingly optimistic days of the past are now being seen as just that, dreams of the future that can't exist today. Does that mean that these Moon adventures are worthless? No, because sometimes we need blind optimism to give us something to look forward to. And I'd take The Moonbase's ridiculous spacesuits over depressing dystopias any day of the week.