tardis_stowaway (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tardis_stowaway) wrote2008-06-06 06:27 pm
tardis_stowaway) wrote2008-06-06 06:27 pm
Entry tags:
Food love and Who-related ranting
First a happy thing and then a rant. Summer's arrival has made the local farmers' markets really, really exciting. Today I bought blackberries (1/3 eaten by the end of my walk home, staining my fingers purple), cherries, peaches, and tomatoes, and I still have salad greens, snap peas, pattypan squash, cucumber, and green beans left over from last week. I've just finished off a couple of cherimoyas, this tropical fruit (locally grown because I live in California, bitches) that looks like a green armadillo and tastes like heaven. Before I started regularly patronizing farmers' markets, I never really believed that there could be that big a difference in the tastes of tomatoes from a supermarket and tomatoes grown locally in small batches, but the ones I get from the farmers are so much more flavorful. I love fresh produce, and I love California.
Now for a rant.
Out of all of The Poison Sky's dreadful extremely dodgy science and irrational character actions (pointless!suicide!Doctor was supposed to be gone this season!), the thing that bothered me the most is probably different from what bothered others. First, a little background. I like that Doctor Who deals with real world issues. It takes guts. However, frequently their issue episodes are way too obvious and clunky. The "spending all your time in cars is BAD" message in Gridlock was beaten into us with a hammer with a nonsensical scenario. The "television eats your brain" message in The Idiot's Lantern was designed to be absorbed by, well, idiots. And did anybody really need Bad Wolf to tell them that reality TV can be a somewhat sick form of entertainment? In The Poison Sky the Big Important Issue was air pollution. (RTD once again loses the subtle title contest.) We got the following dialog:
DONNA'S MUM: All those things they said about pollution and ozone and carbon, they’re really happening aren’t they?
DONNA: There’s people working on it, Mum. They’re gonna fix it, I promise.
TARDIS_stowaway: * growls at the screen*
Why did I growl, you ask?
Problem 1: The poisonous air currently afflicting the Earth was the result of a Sontaran plot, nothing to do with the "pollution and ozone and carbon" that have previously been in the news.
Problem 2 (this is bigger for me): Let's say for a second we accept the comparison between normal human-produced air pollution and the deadly fumes in this episode. After all, if people didn't have so many cars, the whole scheme wouldn't have worked. If Doctor Who is trying to teach us a Very Important Lesson about how Pollution is Wrong, then Donna's reassurance to her mother is COMPLETELY the wrong thing to say. Who are these "people," and how is it okay to ignore the problem and assume that "they" will fix it?
People can't expect to get a solution to global warming and other serious environmental problems by sitting around waiting for the powers that be to come up with the miracle solution. Every last individual who drives, uses electricity from the grid, eats meat from animals like cows that fart out a lot of methane, or buys things in a store is part of the problem, and we all have to be part of the solution. Technological fixes from the experts are very important, but we need changes in individual lifestyles and values to tide us over while the solutions are developed and probably thereafter too, since nothing on the horizon looks likely to be as cheap or convenient as fossil fuels. The end of Poison Sky, where Donna's mum talks about how many fewer people are driving, is a better message.
In conclusion, Doctor Who, if you are going to beat viewers over the head with heavy-handed treatment of issues, at least give us good advice. Also, I like excuses to use my angry Captain Planet icon.
Now, off to eat some of that lovely food.
Now for a rant.
Out of all of The Poison Sky's dreadful extremely dodgy science and irrational character actions (pointless!suicide!Doctor was supposed to be gone this season!), the thing that bothered me the most is probably different from what bothered others. First, a little background. I like that Doctor Who deals with real world issues. It takes guts. However, frequently their issue episodes are way too obvious and clunky. The "spending all your time in cars is BAD" message in Gridlock was beaten into us with a hammer with a nonsensical scenario. The "television eats your brain" message in The Idiot's Lantern was designed to be absorbed by, well, idiots. And did anybody really need Bad Wolf to tell them that reality TV can be a somewhat sick form of entertainment? In The Poison Sky the Big Important Issue was air pollution. (RTD once again loses the subtle title contest.) We got the following dialog:
DONNA'S MUM: All those things they said about pollution and ozone and carbon, they’re really happening aren’t they?
DONNA: There’s people working on it, Mum. They’re gonna fix it, I promise.
TARDIS_stowaway: * growls at the screen*
Why did I growl, you ask?
Problem 1: The poisonous air currently afflicting the Earth was the result of a Sontaran plot, nothing to do with the "pollution and ozone and carbon" that have previously been in the news.
Problem 2 (this is bigger for me): Let's say for a second we accept the comparison between normal human-produced air pollution and the deadly fumes in this episode. After all, if people didn't have so many cars, the whole scheme wouldn't have worked. If Doctor Who is trying to teach us a Very Important Lesson about how Pollution is Wrong, then Donna's reassurance to her mother is COMPLETELY the wrong thing to say. Who are these "people," and how is it okay to ignore the problem and assume that "they" will fix it?
People can't expect to get a solution to global warming and other serious environmental problems by sitting around waiting for the powers that be to come up with the miracle solution. Every last individual who drives, uses electricity from the grid, eats meat from animals like cows that fart out a lot of methane, or buys things in a store is part of the problem, and we all have to be part of the solution. Technological fixes from the experts are very important, but we need changes in individual lifestyles and values to tide us over while the solutions are developed and probably thereafter too, since nothing on the horizon looks likely to be as cheap or convenient as fossil fuels. The end of Poison Sky, where Donna's mum talks about how many fewer people are driving, is a better message.
In conclusion, Doctor Who, if you are going to beat viewers over the head with heavy-handed treatment of issues, at least give us good advice. Also, I like excuses to use my angry Captain Planet icon.
Now, off to eat some of that lovely food.