It’s Been a Good Week to Be a Disnerd

Usually I don’t do news roundup posts, this is just not the type of blog. But there’s been some rather exciting Disney news over the past week that I wanted to do a post sharing my reaction.

© Disney

Tuesday – Disneyland Paris is Getting Bigger

After I’d had breakfast on Tuesday morning I checked my Twitter and saw an announcement from Disney. Disneyland Paris (my Disney theme park) is getting a major new expansion for the Disney Studios Park. The new stuff looks so amazing: there’s a new Toy Story ride, and then a Star Wars land, a Marvel land and a Frozen land! There’s not really been much in the way of specific details announced just yet but the concept art looks stunning. I honestly was not expecting Disneyland Paris to be getting anything like this or anything on this scale in the near future. The thought that the world of Frozen is coming to Disneyland Paris is just super exciting to me.

Wednesday – Wreck it Ralph 2 and Happy Meals

The trailer for Wreck It Ralph 2 dropped on Wednesday. I think it looks promising and there were definitely some moments in the trailer that made me laugh. Disney and Pixar are masters at showing just enough in a trailer and not giving away too much of the plot and this continues that pattern. (Although I was slightly disappointed we didn’t get a glimpse at any of the cameoing characters but I wasn’t really expecting that just yet.)

For a Disney collector there was also an interesting announcement, Disney have renewed their licencing deal with McDonalds, which previously ended back in 2006. The old Happy Meal toys were really nice (such as Pocahontas and Meeko pictured above), I’m interested to see what is coming next. Hopefully they can do a Disney Princess collection to release Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, Elsa and Anna!

Thursday – Elsa

Nothing has been 100% confirmed but it has been hinted that Elsa might be getting a girlfriend in Frozen 2! #GiveElsaAGirlfriend has been a pretty popular hashtag but honestly I never thought it would actually get listened to. Viewers have already got to know Elsa from the first movie and the short films so if it turned out that she was a lesbian then Disney would have a character who was not defined by their sexuality. I really hope Disney actually have the guts to make such a popular character gay because that would be absolutely incredible LGBT representation. If this does turn out to be true I think I just got even more obsessed with Frozen!

Friday – Black Panther

I’m going to see Black Panther – the latest Marvel movie – this evening. I was a little unsure at first but I have decided that I want to see it. There will probably be a review on my blog at somepoint.

“You do know I’m gay?”

One of the strangest things I’ve found about being a gay student is the question of when should I come out to a new group of people. I have no problems anymore being open and honest about my sexuality, it’s just a bit weird to figure out when is the right moment to tell people.

In first year I remember that for the first few days I was panicking a little about how was the right way to come out to my flatmates. In the end I decided that the best option was to just leave a note on the fridge announcing that “Oh and by the way I’m gay.” I think that is probably still my favourite way that I have ever come out so far!

In classes I will often end up coming out if the module has an LGBT week, looks at themes of representation or talks about prejudice. Usually I end up sharing part of my own story and then in the process of sharing inadvertently end up coming out to the group.

Some people guess before I say anything that I might be gay, usually they won’t say anything about it until I actually say that I am gay. I wouldn’t say it’s the most obvious thing to guess about me but I think there probably are signs and things which indicate that I’m gay. Plus if someone has heard me speaking about Grant Gustin then it’s probably pretty obvious that I have an enormous crush on him!

One of the most recent occasions when I’ve come out was just saying “You do know I’m gay?” the other week whilst having a wide ranging conversation with a group of friends from my floor. It doesn’t always come up casually in conversation but when it does I often find it kinda funny.

Overall I don’t really mind having to come out. Being gay is just as much a part of me as having brown hair. I just find it interesting the way that coming out changes for me each time based on who I’m talking to and what the situation is.

Doctor Who - World Enough and Time Review

I really hope that Bill survives.

This post will have some spoilers, if you wanted to watch this episode completely fresh then read the review after you’ve seen it.

I think Bill Potts has probably been the most universally popular companion since Rose Tyler, surely they can’t kill her off. Pearl Mackie once again shone in this episode and Bill has been an incredibly likeable character. After they’ve done pretty well on showing her sexuality and yet still making Bill feel like a well-rounded character it would be massively frustrating and problematic if Doctor Who fell into the tired trope of killing off the lesbian.

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like Missy. In my review from last week I talked about how I was a bit unconvinced by the Missy redemption arc from this series. She wasn’t as irritating as she has been previously this week and some of her one-liners actually got a little chuckle from me. I’m still not sure if she’s actually going to get her redemption – I possibly suspect that she might sacrifice herself during next week’s epic battle.  

The Cybermen are back. In my opinion the Cybermen can be some of the scariest Doctor Who monsters around, however so often they’re not very well written which has led to lots of mediocre Cybermen stories over the years. This episode certainly gave us some very sinister, eerie and tense moments. It also showed just enough but left enough to the imagination which is always a good tactic for making things scary.

Bringing back the original Mondasian Cybermen as they first appeared back in 1966’s The Tenth Planet was an interesting idea however it could have been little more than fan service. I think it remains to be seen with next week’s episode if it was more than just fan service. However I am not really sure if we needed to see another origin story for the Cybermen. 2006’s Age of Steel did a good job at modernising the origin of the Cybermen in what is in my opinion one of the best stories from that series. The Big Finish audio drama Spare Parts already told an emotionally moving origin story for the Mondasian Cybermen. Also that line about the ‘genesis of the Cybermen’ just felt far too self-indulgent.

The Master is also back this week. I am not a fan of John Simm as the Master, in my opinion 2007’s The Sound of Drums and 2009’s The End Of Time are two of the very worse stories from the entire 10^th Doctor era. So as you might imagine I was very disappointed when I found out that the Master was back. Despite most of the promotion for this week making it seem like the Master was going to be a very significant part of this week’s episode he actually wasn’t in it very much. However that reveal at the end of the episode felt exactly like something out of the 3^rd Doctor era.

Overall I feel that this episode was mainly focused on setting up part two next week. There were definitely some moments during the middle which felt like the plot was sagging slightly. I suppose it would have been too much to cram into a single episode however I think this week parts of the story were stretched a little bit too thin.

I both eagerly await next week’s episode to find out what happens next but at the same time I don’t want to see what has overall been a good series of Doctor Who come to an end!

Please don’t kill off Bill!

Doctor Who – Knock Knock Review

I don’t think this week’s episode was the best, especially given how good the past few weeks have been, but it was good to see a story that gave us more of a glimpse into who Bill is. Also, warning you now but there’s some spoilers in this review.

From 1989’s Ghostlight, to 2007’s Blink, to 2013’s Hide, the haunted house that is actually being inhabited by aliens is a reoccurring story throughout Doctor Who. I think the choice to do this story trope with Bill’s search for student housing was an interesting one. I was expecting that to play out in a comedic way like 2010’s The Lodger but I think this episode actually had far more in common with Hide. The first part is a spooky story about a house where something weird is happening and then in the final part we find out that it’s actually not what we first thought and it is something more emotional.

Knock Knock had some very unnerving monsters. Not in the way that the Silence or the Weeping Angels are unnerving. Just it really made my skin crawl when we saw the space lice things swarming and crawling around. However, I’m still wanting a really big bad monster. But going by the next time trailer I might finally get the big bad monster as next week’s thing looks very similar to the Vashta Nerada.

Once again Bill was the star of the episode, Pearl Mackie once again delivered a great performance. I have a feeling that Bill Potts is going to end up right up there with Sarah Jane Smith and Rose Tyler in the all-time best companion rankings. Bill keeps asking questions and seeing things in new and interesting ways. In this episode we also got to see how being with the Doctor has started to change her, much like when Rose Tyler returned home for the first time in Aliens of London. One of the problems with Amy Pond, Rory Williams and Clara Oswald was that we never really got too much of a glimpse into their lives away from the Tardis, and when we did it never felt that developed. Knock Knock gave Bill friends and showed her dealing with something instantly recognisable, student housing! And also it made me laugh when Black Magic by Little Mix was the song that came up on her phone, particularly as I’d been listening to it earlier!

I was wondering during the past week if Bill’s sexuality was going to ever be addressed again. So often in Sci-Fi/Fantasy when LGBT characters actually appear the writers will have a brief moment  then never mention their sexuality again – like Sulu in the most recent Star Trek film for example. However we had another reference to the fact that Bill is a lesbian in tonight’s episode.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I love that this series is partially set in and around a university. Having a companion who is a student is an obvious but great idea. Having the Doctor at a university is also an obvious but great idea. It’s just so entertaining to watch! Though maybe I’m biased as I am currently a student.

I was disappointed by the vault scene at the end of the episode. I was really hoping that the vault was going to be something that was only kept in the background but this week I felt it was a little too much. I think that it’s going to turn out that Missy is locked up in the vault and she’s going to break free from it soon.

Overall Doctor Who finally seems to be back to the standard it should be. Not every episode is an all-time great but this series is still proving to be definitely worth watching, long may it continue.

Doctor Who – The Pilot Review

Doctor Who is back, and it’s good!

Last night the first episode of the new season of Doctor Who aired and it was good, it feels like the show is back on track where it should be. I am pleased to say that I was not disappointed by The Pilot.

Peter Capaldi is the Doctor! After two seasons of doubting him I finally feel like Capaldi has become the Doctor that he should have been from the start. I won’t go into detail this time about all my problems with the 12^th Doctor, I already talked about that in my Return of Doctor Mysterio review and my pre-Series 10 post. However I felt like in The Pilot we got to see the full range of who the Doctor can and should be instead of just some grumpy guy moping around which is what he has been for the past couple of series. This is finally the 12^th Doctor as he should be, someone who is strange but funny and also compassionate. I particularly liked the little touch of having a picture of River Song and Susan on his desk, it helped to make the Doctor feel like he was still a part of what has come before him.

Setting the episode in a university was a brilliant idea. It just makes so much sense to see the Doctor in that environment. The scene were the Doctor was lecturing at the university was great, that speech felt reminiscent of some of the epic speeches that Matt Smith used to give. I think I agree with the Doctor’s summation that being a student is about texting, snogging and vegan wraps! (Even though I’m not out snogging!)

I liked how this episode was setting up some of the later series. The Doctor was at the university because he is protecting something that is hidden in a vault, it wasn’t specified what was lurking in the vault but I bet that whatever it is will become relevant later on in this series. The brief appearance from a Dalek was good. I hope that was it for the Daleks in this series. I don’t want them to be a big bad in yet another series but it was good to see the Daleks briefly appear as a reminder that they are still lurking out there.

Let’s talk about Bill Potts now. This was the first episode for her she shone as the new companion, I’m looking forward to getting to know her more over the coming weeks. To me it feels like there is something about Bill that is reminisicent of both Rose Tyler and Donna Nobel. I think Bill is going to be a welcome addition to the TARDIS. Bill is particularly notable as the first LGBT companion, I thought her sexuality was well handled in this episode as part of the plot revolved around her having a crush on a woman. Bill is definitely a lesbian, it is part of who she is however – at this point - it’s neither being ignored or defining her. Also she got even cooler when it turned out that she’s into sci-fi!

Tonally I think The Pilot was closest to 2008’s series opener Partners In Crime. In some ways it was a fairly standard new companion episode. We had the glimpse into her life, then the weird thing happening, the meeting with the Doctor and of course the ‘it’s bigger on the inside moment’. But most importantly this episode was about the Doctor meeting his new best friend.

A New Series of Doctor Who is Coming

As you probably know a new series of Doctor Who is starting soon. This is the 10^th series since Doctor Who returned back in 2005 and the last series for Peter Capaldi’s 12^th Doctor. I became a Doctor Who fan back when I was 8 and saw the episode Rose when it originally aired. However I have been getting increasingly cold on Doctor Who since the mess that was Series 8 aired. I have been a very loyal fan for a large chunk of my life so this isn’t just me spewing out negativity. I really want this new series to be good.

This series is bringing us a brand new companion, Bill. I’m still trying to make my mind up on Bill however in terms of personality it looks like she is going to be a distinct departure from Amy Pond and Clara Oswald. Also Bill has a girlfriend! This is tremendously exciting to finally be seeing a full time LGBT companion in the TARDIS, especially an LGBT Woman of Colour. LGBT characters in sci-fi/fantasy are rare and LGBT Women of Colour are even rarer, so long as her story is well handled I think we should be applauding the BBC for this move.

From a story point of view it’s also a very promising sign that Bill already has a partner when she meets the Doctor. Part of what made the Russel T Davis era of Doctor Who so good was that Rose Tyler, Martha Jones and Donna Nobel all had people they cared about. The companions having lives outside of the TARDIS was a new development when Doctor Who came back in 2005 but it was something that helped make the new series even richer. In this way I hope that Bill will follow the mold set by Rose, Martha and Donna.

Another element that I hope is revived from the 2005 series for this new series is the way that story arcs are handled. The Bad Wolf and Torchwood arcs from Series 1 and 2 are perfect examples of how a story arc should unfold within Doctor Who. Week by week there were little hints which built towards the finale. If you missed them it didn’t matter but if you went back and viewed the whole series you could see the arc being foreshadowed. This is how a story arc should be done as opposed to the mess of unanswered questions and needlessly complex back and forth plotting that has become the norm since 2010.

The Ice Warriors are back! This has me excited as the Ice Warriors rank pretty highly amongst my favourite Doctor Who monsters. The race of warriors from Mars are arguably one of the most complex alien races in Doctor Who. They are a military race who have a strong code of honour – not unlike the Klingons in Star Trek. However what makes the Ice Warriors so interesting to me is that they are allowed to be morally ambiguous, some of them are pacifistic scientists whilst others are completely evil warmongers. The trailers for the new series also seem to be teasing that the Ice Warrior story is going to be set on Mars. This is a new take for the Ice Warriors as they have never had a TV episode set on Mars. In the Doctor Who expanded universe there have been many Ice Warrior stories that have delved into the culture of their home world I hope we get to see this on TV.

I’m disappointed that the Daleks are coming back, however I am intrigued by the return of the Cybermen. The Daleks have become overused and in my opinion they need a significant break before they next return. The Cybermen have also been overused in recent years, let’s be honest the last good Cyberman story was 2006’s Doomsday. But what I find interesting about them retuning this time is that the production team has decided to bring back the very original designs of the Cybermen from their 1966 debut. Bringing back the original Cybermen allows for a fresh start and provides a convenient excuse to drop the mess of continuity and bad storylines from the past decade of Doctor Who.

Basically at the moment I’m expecting the best but preparing for the worst. I really want this new series of Doctor Who to be good but I am worried that it might let me down again.

I didn’t get all the Gay Genes but I Got the Fashion One

I’m gay. I grew up in a small northern town. It’s pretty obvious that I encountered a lot of stereotypes and people making assumptions about me because of my sexuality.

 I am aware that there’s certain stereotypes about being a gay man I conform to. I have artistic hobbies, I like to dress well and there’s definitely some songs on my iPod that are considered ‘gay anthems’. I’m not afraid of being gay and I don’t mind who knows it but my interests and hobbies have absolutely nothing to do with my sexuality.

Even before I’d actually figured out that I was gay a lot of my class mates were convinced that they knew my sexuality better than I did. For example the fact that I was good at Textiles was 100% solid evidence that I must be attracted to men. People were telling me this about two years before I even started to figure out for myself that I was gay!

There was also a phase where I listened to songs from Glee a lot – about one/two years before I came out to my classmates. The music I listened to had absolutely nothing to do with my sexuality but apparently that was solid evidence that I must be gay. Though in reality the only relation between Glee and my sexuality was that the character Sebastian Smythe (played by the love of my life Grant Gustin!) was my role model because he was gay, unapologetic about it and yet never let it define him. Side note, representation in the media is so important it would be a lot easier to be a gay teen if there were more characters who were unapologetic about their sexuality and yet never defined by it.

That’s just a couple of examples of the assumptions people made about me but there were loads more. Even if a comment wasn’t said directly to me I still felt a sense of hurt if someone casually used a homophobic slur. I definitely feel like being gay and going through the school system in a small Northern town meant that I had to get a thick shell to let comments just roll off me and had to emotionally mature faster than most of my school mates.

When I did feel comfortable enough to start to come out to my peers the first two people I told were my (then) best friends. One of them claimed that she’d always known however I’ve always doubted that. Just the more that I think about it the way she acted around me changed after I came out as if she assumed that I’d start filling the role of the stereotypical ‘gay best friend’ but that’s just not who I am. The more I’ve thought about it the more I think that she felt betrayed that I hadn’t come out sooner as if being in the closet was a personal attack on her.

Growing up gay for me has not been a completely awful experience. My family have honestly been incredibly supportive and in the eyes of my close family I am still just Alex. So I know I have been luckier than a lot of people but still going through secondary school was really tough for me sometimes.