As someone who loves musicals and animations for young children, I watched the Christmas special with great joy, so I was eagerly awaiting May. However... removing the nostalgia filter and speaking honestly, the first two episodes that just aired can only be described as barely satisfactory...
Of course, similar to the Christmas special, Shootie is energetic, and Ruby seems equally cheerful, but these two stories so far are really lacking in substance and emotional impact. Personally, I think one reason might be that bosses like the Toymaker are okay for occasional appearances because they are novel and crazy enough, but too many of them easily lead to aesthetic fatigue. Because they lack human emotions or humanity, there is less deep interaction or even tension with the Doctor, leaving only pure destruction and madness. Being too one-dimensional, they lose richness and fail to touch people's hearts.
Another reason might lie in the characterization of the main characters, which also faces similar issues. In the old DW world, there always seemed to be some subtle balance. For example, the famous longtime bosses like the Cybermen, Daleks, and the Master often had deep connections with the Doctor and/or humanity, leading to more complex explorations of humanity. For example, what would happen to humans without emotions and with pure instrumental rationality-the Cybermen; what happens if humans focus solely on power, conquest, and the destruction of others-the Daleks; and as for the Master, he is the Doctor's evil twin. Alongside showcasing these, companions and episode protagonists often contributed compelling stories. For instance, Rose and the Daleks, Rose's family and the Cybermen, and so on. Moreover, these stories, while interesting, often deeply delve into the emotions of the Doctor and companions or explore human complexity.
And recurring bosses like the Angels, which also appear occasionally without deep entanglements with the Doctor or humanity and seemingly without humanity, shift the narrative focus to character development or emotional revelations of companions or episode protagonists. Thus, apart from exploring the bosses, the plot generally emphasizes character interactions or individual character arcs, focusing on a related topic per episode, while others are relatively brief. This makes the emphasis clear and well-balanced. For example, "Blink" or Amy's encounter with the Angels.
Additionally, in the DW world, there are many incidental bosses, one major category being cosmic creatures or phenomena that do evil for survival. When facing cosmic creatures, the Doctor usually tries to find other survival opportunities with the villains. If not, they turn to expelling the bosses to avoid innocent human casualties. Since they are merely seeking survival, any chance for negotiation and compromise is sought for peaceful coexistence. Even if no agreement can be reached, the Doctor won't easily resort to killing or extermination. These stories best reflect the Doctor's non-anthropocentric view of life, showing equal respect for all life forms and breaking through narrow group perspectives, such as human-centered cognition. This metaphor is almost explicit, and its real-world implications are self-evident. Of course, many classic examples are born from these incidental boss stories, like the iconic big-eyed monster and Adipose (my names for them because they are so fun), and so on.
Among the cosmic phenomena bosses, the most typical might be the "cracks" or the time monster from the first season of 2005. These bosses represent de-humanized objective laws, principles humans must respect and follow. Once these objective laws are broken, humans must bear the consequences without much room for negotiation. The metaphor here is also clear: it's the same principle as human interaction with nature. Thus, the Doctor often finds it harder to solve these problems.
In summary, character development occurs within the story, emotions deepen within the story, and the story itself is interesting and often has profound flavors and aftertastes. These three parts, in the two episodes released this year so far, don't seem to be done well. This points to another reason DW has become less enjoyable: the lack of integration between the plot and value orientation.
From a personal perspective, I don't dislike political correctness at all because, in this world, many people still lack basic respect and understanding for those different from themselves. Equality and freedom remain luxuries unattainable for many. So, what's wrong with a little more of the beautiful metaphorical presentation mentioned above? After all, this is our old children's show, DW. Inclusiveness and non-anthropocentric humanism have always been its core, even before the term "political correctness" existed, right? So, why not?
Therefore, the issue isn't about conveying values through stories-stories will always convey some values more or less, which is normal. The difference lies in whether the way of conveying values can feel natural and smooth or if the plot arrangement can make the value output align with the basic emotional experiences shared by most humans, eliciting voluntary reflection.
These two episodes felt too much like those overly simplistic fables from childhood, filled with "this story tells us...". For adults, this is too much like spoon-feeding. OK, I get that you want to convey a good principle, but the story hasn't sufficiently allowed people to feel it emotionally. You just crammed it into the story, preaching it directly to the audience, which is quite uninteresting. This might also cause many people to feel rather repulsed. Because this force-feeding feeling is too familiar and helpless for those long poisoned by a certain indoctrination method. If I can't resist that experience, at least I can resist a TV show, right? So, I think many people who follow the trend of disliking political correctness might not really hate it. After all, who doesn't want to be respected and coexist with others on equal terms? Perhaps they just hate the force-feeding way of being indoctrinated, unable to express it and powerless to resist, then get misled by the anti-political correctness trend, mistakenly thinking they hate political correctness?
Moreover, it's not the same as stories aimed at young children. I enjoy watching shows for young children because, regardless of the fantasy elements, good children's shows depict children's daily lives-their little troubles and growth-that children and adults like me can feel the warmth from, making them simple yet interesting. But the issues behind these two episodes' stories are actually big social topics. They certainly deserve deep discussion, but cramming them into a children's show with overly simplistic methods sacrifices the plot and makes the viewing experience somewhat uncomfortable.
Many adults, or rather, not representing anyone, but based on feedback from myself and those around me, we prefer viewing or reading experiences where what you want to express is fully integrated into the story. I am moved by the story, and then I will personally experience and feel those so-called "principles." Because in this case, people's perception is deeper, emotional experience fuller, and the understanding of the so-called principles more profound due to their own experiences, even if it doesn't entirely align with what the author wants to express. Unfortunately, this joy has decreased in the DW world now.
Personally, I think these issues already appeared in the scripts during the Thirteenth Doctor's era. The current bottleneck seems similar to the Thirteenth Doctor's dilemmas. Marvel seems to be in a similar situation these past few years, with almost no good stories except for Loki (though I felt the second season was a bit worse than the first, with female Loki reduced to a tool). So, what's going on?
Sometimes, I can't help but wonder, if one day humans suddenly couldn't tell stories anymore, what would happen to the world? What would happen to humans? This theme is somewhat similar to the episode where music disappears, which I think is a great theme for a story. Unfortunately, this episode was still too superficial and not moving enough.
In conclusion, let's keep watching, as there are still six episodes left. We can't judge everything right away, and I hope it won't stay like this. DW remains DW by holding on to its core.
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