James Wylder, Writer

  • Home
    • Blog
  • 10,000 Dawns
    • 10,000 Dawns
    • Read Stories! >
      • 10,000 Dawns Christmas 2018
      • Lady Aesc
    • The 10,000 Dawns Wiki
    • Art Gallery
    • Characters
  • Buy Books
    • Buy 10,000 Dawns
    • Buy Cascade!
    • Buy An Eloquence of Time and Space
    • Buy God Save the Pres.!
    • Buy Cryptos
    • Buy One-Act Septology
    • Buy The Dark and Splendid Diary of Danielle Simpson and Other Tales
    • Buy Blackalope
    • Buy That Towering Blue
  • Explore!
    • Tales by the Blue Light
    • Eloquence (Doctor Who) >
      • Example Poems
      • Eloquence Art
      • Press!
    • Cryptos
    • A Less Holy Grail
    • That Towering Blue
  • About James
    • List of Works
    • Appearances
    • The Buzz
    • Booking and Contact
    • Legal
  • WARS
    • The Lost Legacy of Dogman Gale
  • Home
    • Blog
  • 10,000 Dawns
    • 10,000 Dawns
    • Read Stories! >
      • 10,000 Dawns Christmas 2018
      • Lady Aesc
    • The 10,000 Dawns Wiki
    • Art Gallery
    • Characters
  • Buy Books
    • Buy 10,000 Dawns
    • Buy Cascade!
    • Buy An Eloquence of Time and Space
    • Buy God Save the Pres.!
    • Buy Cryptos
    • Buy One-Act Septology
    • Buy The Dark and Splendid Diary of Danielle Simpson and Other Tales
    • Buy Blackalope
    • Buy That Towering Blue
  • Explore!
    • Tales by the Blue Light
    • Eloquence (Doctor Who) >
      • Example Poems
      • Eloquence Art
      • Press!
    • Cryptos
    • A Less Holy Grail
    • That Towering Blue
  • About James
    • List of Works
    • Appearances
    • The Buzz
    • Booking and Contact
    • Legal
  • WARS
    • The Lost Legacy of Dogman Gale

Doctor Who: Arachnids in the UK (Election Day)

11/5/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Today in the USA, a lot of people are going to be voting, and a lot of people’s opinions are going to be based on what an evil, callous, selfish, entitled, petty, hotel mogul with a bad haircut has been doing recently.

That’s right, Jack Robertson.

We’ve all seen his hotels popping up everywhere, and that callous--

Okay I’ll quit playing around, we all know Jack Robertson is a Trump stand in. The choice to make him a stand in (even mentioning Trump exists as well) rather than an explicit rendition of Trump is a smart one here for a lot of reasons, but first of all it gives Chris North the opportunity to do more than an imitation or a caricature. Jack Robinson is the essence of Donald Trump, without needing to do the entire shtick, and that essence is a clearer view. It removes the inessential distractions: the taped on ties and strange hair that moves in such a strange manner that people have spent more time than is humanly necessary tracking down exactly what technique was used to put it there.

But these things are aesthetics, they’re not the character of a man.

Which we’ll get back to after the spiders.

* * *

Arachnids in the UK finally returns us to the excellent format of making a music related pun as the episode title, which I still wish had been for every episode, and also returns us to the same patterns we’ve had in every episode so far.
-Something has been put into a living being without it’s consent (the spiders).
-The villain of the story gets away at the end (Jack Robertson).

And new this this list, we’re also 4 for 4 on having an artificially created or modified life form in the episode. So the themes here are getting layered on thick here. It’s fairly clear we’re heading towards something with all this, but I’ll save that speculation for the next essay.

But noted, right?

* * *

Despite the cool title, the spiders are sort of a distraction. They aren’t the villains, they’re just the consequences of the villain’s actions. Jack Robertson has casually saved money by dumping waste below his hotel, and that toxic brew caused genetically modified spiders to mutate and grow super huge. The spiders kill people, but not maliciously. They’re just big dumb confused spiders. The real villain is the business mogul.

Chris North makes Jack Robertson have all the self-concern and self-obsession of Trump, the obsession with power that tumbles into horrific actions (like shooting the spider), and the sheer disregard for anyone else’s well being that leads to many people around him, like his niece's wife and his bodyguard dying. He also fires Yaz’s mum, which is an action that rightly should disqualify anyone from higher office.

All of this is awful, and along with Graham seeing Grace everywhere in his home, unable to escape from her memory, and Yaz’s family being simply a lot for her to deal with and manage, the entire gang decides to leave the Earth behind and go off with the Doctor. After all, things suck here right now, that’s fair. But we can’t all leave, can we? Still, one can’t blame them. They’re going to have wonderful adventures. Can’t wait to see those!

That Jack Robertson gets away with no consequences feels particularly rough right now, but also very realistic. After all, what consequences have their been for all sorts of awful things?

I mean, can you imagine if Jack Robertson was elected president? And put children in cages, removed an entire group of people as existing according to the government, bragged about how he could put millions of people into camps, admitted on tape to sexually assaulting women, made fun of a disabled journalist on camera, was credibly accused of rape by a former wife, ignored the biggest threat to the world’s ecosystems, blamed people who weren’t white for all sorts of horrible things, lumped an entire group of people together as criminals, cheated on all of his wives, called neo-nazis “Fine people”, put in policies that are destroying manufacturing jobs he claimed he’d bring back, and tons tons more extremely well documented things that only a fool could deny as it was all there right in front of their eyes.

Can you imagine if people who claimed they loved good morals just stood by and let him walk away and get away with it? Or even tried to make excuses for him because they liked his power?

If you live in the United States, just imagine there was a whole party of people who’d been claiming for years to love good morals who’d suddenly sidled up to that kind of horrible man because he had power? Wouldn’t you want to do what you could to show them you wouldn’t tolerate that hypocrisy and depravity? If there was an election, wouldn’t you vote in anyway you could to keep Jack Robertson from being able to do more evil?

Then go vote today, if you can.

Because Trump is not as nice as Jack Robertson, and real people will be hurt if he gains more power, or keeps it.

So vote. Because we can’t just let him walk away.

We can’t let our story end like Arachnids in the UK.
​

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    James Wylder

    Poet, Playwright, Game Designer, Writer, Freelancer for hire.

    Archives

    November 2021
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    December 2013
    August 2013

    Categories

    All
    10kd
    10kd Anthology
    Class
    Crossover
    Doctor Who
    Essay
    Faction Paradox
    Fiction
    Guest Post
    Halloween
    Interviews
    Magic The Gathering
    New Years
    Patreon
    Podcast
    Reviews
    Star Wars
    The Force Awakens
    The Stars Awaken
    Tour

    RSS Feed

Photo used under Creative Commons from wuestenigel