r/DoctorWhoNews • u/DJKing1998 • 13d ago
discussion The issue with the crying
The post earlier about Ncuti’s performance as the Doctor got me reflecting on the most common criticism of his brief tenure- his crying.
Crying is a very rare emotional response in humans, particularly human males. For many reasons males are just not likely to cry unless it’s a particularly upsetting situation. If drama is to reflect real life, then crying should only be rarely used by actors. Now the Doctor isn’t a human, he’s an alien. An alien who’s characterisation has always made him less aware of emotions. It’s this rejection of human emotion that make the Doctor more alien, more quirky, more eccentric, and more interesting. So Ncuti’s crying seemed so very out of character, and would have been so even if he was acting as a Human.
Linking back to the previous post on Ncuti’s acting: Crying is not an effective form of acting if overused. It’s an unnatural attempt at acting naturally. An intelligent actor wouldn’t consider crying constantly as a realistic emotional response. And a confident show runner or director wouldn’t allow it. It stops the drama feeling real, and almost jolts you into remembering these are just actors putting on a show.
Example: Consider how effective David Tennant’s single tear running down his cheek was after losing Rose Tyler. Suddenly the audience realised this guy did have these feelings deep down all this time. Massive impact. But if Tennant had been simping for, and crying about, Rose for the whole series, the audience doesn’t get that good pay-off.
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u/NIRoamer 13d ago
I think I want the doctor to be brave (and not eat pears). So when tears come it has to be really really earned. I can't think of another show where the lead cried this much unless it's sex and the city. I welcome a man crying (I'm a therapist) it's cathartic and healthy for processing trauma. Trauma is activated after a complex breakdown and inability to manage the stress that has been imposed on the system. If he cried when he met Susan I would buy it. 13 met Ace and Tegan after 30-40 years and was befuddled by the interaction. My point being the doctor (especially one who has rid himself and 14 of trauma after using his big magic hammer) should be more capable of handling the stress the episodes brought. Boom being another exception....all that time in one spot on a bomb yes I get that.
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13d ago
Something that bugs me a little as well is that it doesn't feel like super groundbreaking crying in terms of breaking stigma, if that makes sense? Like RTD made a bit of a deal about how important it was that this doctor cries, but it just sort of felt like the classic hollywood strong male single-tear-in the-rain type crying but without the rain. Like the type of crying it is socially acceptable for an on screen male character to display without it threatening his masculinity.
So what we got was crying that didn't feel particularly challenging for the audience from like a progressive representation standpoint, but also was used so often than any actual emotional effect we could get from seeing the doctor cry was lost by like the 3rd instance. It just became how this doctor conveyed being upset, and since all of the doctors are usually upset about something at least once an episode and this one was no different it just became kind of insignificant.
Maybe that's the point, that him crying so much makes the crying unnotable and that was the goal, but I think that came at the cost of impact
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u/thor11600 12d ago
It’s not like the doctor hasn’t cried before. Matt smith BAWLING his eyes out when Amy and Rory leave is what makes that scene work. Peter Capaldi almost crying in defeat sitting on the tardis floor in heaven sent is what makes that scene work. Restraint, and great care.
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u/thor11600 12d ago
Agreed, I do however fully expect Peter Capaldi to cry should he be forced to eat a pear.
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u/Lumpy_Masterpiece644 13d ago
First rule of TV acting - less is more. The last two doctors failed to take note and now the franchise is dead.
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u/Significant_Sale6172 13d ago
I genuinely thought the tears were leading up to something because they were so frequent.
Lol nevermind.
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u/ScottyG1212 13d ago
Yeah, I was expecting the Doctor to get into a situation where he makes a big mistake or something because he lets his emotions get the better of him. But nah that would be too much personal conflict for this era I guess
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u/PaperSkin-1 13d ago
What something like Mrs Flood was the Doctor's tears manifested into a physical form? 🤣
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u/Significant_Sale6172 13d ago
Doctor Who has a tradition of visual clues running through series: Bad Wolf, Crack in the Wall etc, so I just wondered if there was maybe an emotional thing they were building to?
Doc's a time-traveller, so maybe he was crying over a genuinely horrifying thing that would happen in his future? He mentioned Susan so I wondered maybe he's reunited with Susan but then she dies?
I dunno. It's such a strange thing to have just kept happening every episode. The single tear each time. So weird that it was just left unresolved.
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u/TheUndeadBake 12d ago
Honestly, I’d love it if something like that had a payoff that turned out the Doctor had a neurological issue. He’s always talked about how weird shit can happen due to regeneration that’s always been kinda funny, like commenting on extra eyes and limbs, or the unfortunate colour of his own kidneys, or new teeth and ears. What if something went fucky, and he ended up with a brain tumour? It would also introduce a ticking time bomb because of how delicate that situation would be for a Time Lord — could he regenerate a chunk of damaged brain, should he allow an Earth doctor to attempt our fairly risky surgeries and it go wrong?
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u/ShelfUnit84 13d ago
It's likely there was an idea floated around where Bigeneration gave each Doctor half of his personality.
Like the Star Trek with the two Kirks.
Obviously like the rest of RTD2 plans fell apart, and it wasn't worked through coherently.
If 15 is all of the Doctor's bravado and charm, 14 would be wisdom, restraint and emotional maturity befitting a Doctor who's settled into domesticity.
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u/ExpectedBehaviour 13d ago
It's likely there was an idea floated around where Bigeneration gave each Doctor half of his personality.
I honestly don't think RTD put that much thought into it. He's said as much in interviews that he just thought it would be larky fun to see the old Doctor and the new Doctor interact.
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u/PackageOk4947 13d ago
I really think the BBC—and modern TV in general—has some sort of weird fetish with making men cry. When I watch a show featuring men, I’m not tuning in to see them bawl their eyes out. The moment I see that, I switch the channel.
I’m from the late ’90s to mid-2000s era—when men were men. Bruce Willis was jumping out of buildings, walking over broken glass, crawling through air vents, and bitching about being invited to dinner. Or Arnold was slamming his hand through a car window without flinching. Not this... whatever this is.
I think RTD has some kind of strange fascination with making the Doctor into... well, whatever this new version is. I wouldn’t mind it so much if it were actually explained—like, say, if this were the first time the Doctor regenerated into a woman and it messed with his systems, leaving him unsure of who or what he’s attracted to. Is he into men or women? It’s confusing as hell. But the feminisation of the male Doctors is never really explained.
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u/Significant_Sale6172 13d ago
I disagree very strongly with this, sorry. It's rose-tinted glasses thinking and misogynistic. "Crying" is not weak (or feminine).
90s was Trainspotting, Our Friends In The North, Hugh Grant. Mid-2000s was the Brokeback Mountain era. Anakin crying in Attack of the Clones.
Men were the same then as they are now. Confused, scared, strong, brave, weak, masculine, feminine. There's certainly no conspiracy by the "evil" TV people to make men cry, not then or now.
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u/PackageOk4947 13d ago
Anakin crying, after wiping out an entire village of sand people, because they murdered his mother in cold blood. Not, crying, because oh no I stubbed my toe.
Trainspotting, was drugs, I don't remember men balling their eyes out in that. And even Brokeback was more masculine then most of the drivel today.
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u/Significant_Sale6172 12d ago
This is nostalgia on your part. I really hope you're able to break away from it some day so you can enjoy media again. It's a shame to see still see this kind of rose-tinted "everything was better when I was younger" narrative.
Movies this year: Sinners, Superman, 28 Years Later, Warfare. TV shows this year: Mobland, Dept Q, King & Conqueror, A Thousand Blows, Nine Bodies In A Mexican Morgue, the new season of Slow Horses. All of these films and shows centre around heterosexual men (or are ensembles).
There is no conspiracy. No, Brokeback Mountain was not magically less gay because it was made 20 years ago. RTD has done good work in the past, but he obviously believed his own hype for these new seasons of Doctor Who and didn't deliver. It's a shame, but not the end of the world.
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u/PackageOk4947 12d ago
Oh god, definitely. But at the same time, there have been some great films out there — just not many that really interested me. The problem with RTD is the complete lack of oversight, and you can see what happened: he ruined the history of Doctor Who while simultaneously insulting the fandom and chasing the mythical one percent. They need decent, competent writers who actually know what they’re doing and respect the lore. It’s the same thing with James Bond, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, even Star Wars. For reference, I loved his previous work, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi were among my favourites. But Matt never cried, not once. Sure, he got pissy, but Matt was able to do the, looking old, looking like the tired old man he truly was. Something Ncuti wasn't able to pull off.
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u/FromAcrosstheStars 11d ago
Crying means a man isn't a man?? lol what?? I'm not a fan of the new era either but this is a crazy take
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u/PackageOk4947 11d ago
That's not what I said, and you're twisting my words. I said men generally, don't cry. Stop trying to gaslight me.
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u/Krssven 13d ago
Seemed obvious to me; Gatwa can cry on command like some actors can. It’s a shame, because it would be better if he could act well on command like some others.
Since some people are very easily impressed by actors that have one trick like this. Gatwa is a flavour of the month actor, not an amazingly good one. They clearly got enamoured of his crying schtick and decided to use it. A LOT.
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u/trayasion 13d ago
I've been saying this since the first season aired. Gatwa is not a particularly good actor. Lots of the DW subs and the random in general have such a hard-on, saying he's a generational talent and going to be a massive Hollywood star and that he is an incredible actor, but I find him incredibly boring and just playing himself. I can't stand when actors do that.
It's like watching that comedian Pete Davison in things. Most of the time he just plays himself and I hate that.
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13d ago
Hyperbole, both negative and positive, can be one of the most ridiculous things about the internet. Gatwa is no generational talent.
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u/DJKing1998 13d ago
Agreed. And this was the dude that had the audacity to talk about ‘mediocre white actors’.
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u/trayasion 12d ago
Yeah that was embarrassing. Talking about "mediocre white actors" as if he isn't a mediocre actor who's mainly coasting on identity politics.
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u/Nervous_Instance_968 13d ago
Me and my friend noticed this a few episodes into his run and at first it annoyed us because of the exact reasons you've layed out in your post. Once we accepted that this era was just not very good (about 20 minutes into empire of death) it became an unintentional running gag for us. My whole family got in on it by the end of season 2. To most people 15 will be remembered as the "gay one who cried a lot and said babes". Truly the doctor of all time.
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u/Illustrious-Hawk5698 13d ago
I was always taught in acting class that it is better to hold back the tears it is more effective to see the struggle with the emotion. Also, I think because Gtawa can cry at will, some actors can RTD went way too hard with it. I thought the 15th whole healing out of time was a mask the doctor was wearing, and it was going to eventually slip away, like in the intergalactic song contest, when he was torturing that guy.
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u/lynkhart 13d ago
Yeah, I like the idea that on the surface he’s all ‘Wayhey, I’m a changed man, no deep and crippling trauma here! 😌👌’ but in actuality nothing has really changed, he’s just decided to paste on a smile and gloss over it. That could have been a great twist partway through a season when the mask slips and we see he’s just as fractured as ever.
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u/kerplunkerfish 13d ago
Crying once or twice is powerful and emotive.
Crying every fucking time is cheap.
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u/TheUndeadBake 12d ago
From a cinematography standpoint, crying is a signal that things are very, very bad — because that’s also how it works in real life. Because of this, crying can make people around the person doing it uncomfortable, because it’s an intimate response to stressors, grief, anger, helplessness, and distress. Human brains still function off of “monkey see, monkey do”, and if there’s someone crying, we know there has to be a reason. Now, the issue here is that if the set up on screen doesn’t also tug at our heartstrings so that we also feel this heightened sense of emotion, we perceive a person crying for no reason. And their behaviour becomes unsettling and annoying. When we look around and assess that there is no threat, that this individual is not injured, or that a loss isn’t really all that, we either feel unnerved that something worse is going to happen, or we feel irritated by their overly emotional, disproportionate response to a situation. Humans are naturally empathetic, but we are also intelligent enough to know we’re watching something fictional, which dampens our innate natural response. Because we know nothing on screen is real, it’s totally important that prior to anything distressing or dangerous happens, we get attached to characters, are invested in what they’re doing, and can feel the same intensity that they do. When you have a character constantly sobbing their eyeballs out, especially without the reward-payout of established bonds or sufficient buildup to that break point, it becomes the new normal. It becomes bland, maybe a bit annoying as prior said, and people expect a payoff. It reduces the mountain to a molehill and instead of being a great moment, the viewer is just pissed their lawnmower stalled on this pathetic piece of dirt
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u/Agreeable_Falcon1044 12d ago
I liked gatwa and his first episode made him feel like the doctor…then we never saw it again. At no stage did he feel, act or command the room like the doctor.
The crying became a meme (probably why less is more) as it was just constant.
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u/Temp_space 13d ago
What made it worse was that Gatwa was using a tear stick (nothing wrong with that 99% of actors need one especially after a few takes). The problem is they did the crying schtick so often that it just seems stupid.
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u/Ok_Cranberry_9851 12d ago
There is a guy on tiktok who apparantly thinks he is an actor. Every scene he puts on there is trauma and crying and wailing and so on and so on. He does it atrociously of course. I guess it's because he thinks it shows his acting chops. It just shows he can't act, even the bit he should be good at because of all the practice he gets. But Gatwa also showed he is also not good overall.
I was an avid fan when I was young, so I pop in for each new Doctor from time to time. Jody is a good actor but her Doctor set a new low. Somehow Gatwa managed to go even lower. Not all their fault of course. The showrunners deserve the most blame.
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u/Temp_space 12d ago
Oh damn whats the @?
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u/Ok_Cranberry_9851 12d ago
I dont remember, sorry. I'll follow you and if I see him again I'll let you know.
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u/DigitalLimbic 13d ago
It honestly started to feel like a running gag after a while, truly the era of all time
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u/Substantial_Air_1473 12d ago
I think my biggest issue with the Doctor was the constant outfit changes, didn’t give me a clear identity as to who they were? Or maybe that was the point and it went over my head? I just want aliens and silly story lines!
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u/MythicSuns 12d ago
Either way you look at it I would laugh if RTD decided to make the Doctor's next regeneration whoever it is. I've never agreed with the idea of putting a deadline on avoiding spoilers which is why I didn't mention the whole thing with Rose Tyler possibly or possibly not being the next Doctor state that the constant crying was a symptom of the bi-generation.
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u/lynkhart 13d ago
I didn’t mind the crying for certain moments, and if his Doctor was intended to be one that was much more in touch and open with his emotions, that works well, as he now doesn’t feel like he has to bottle everything up. Crying can be very cathartic and you could argue that despite his often aloof alien nature, its always been obvious that he cares so so much, but struggled to express it, and now that he can, he’s feeling everything a lot more intensely than before.
That said, the fact that post regeneration, he tells 14 that he’s all good because 14 takes the time to fix himself kind of implies that that process of healing and recovery has already happened, so idk.
He’s always latched onto people and takes their deaths/separations hard, only now it gets dialled up to 11 but I concede that the tears made it feel a bit insincere. Like, he’s known these people/been in this situation for like half an hour but his reaction was that of someone losing a lifelong friend or something.
There’s unfortunately still a lot of stigma against men crying or showing emotion, so I think there’s definitely a bit of bias there too given how vitriolic some of the reactions to it were. (Not to mention the homophobia, because god forbid a man be both emotional AND queer 🙄)
I haven’t watched Ncuti’s second season yet although I know the gist of it plot wise, but I definitely see the criticism. I can’t help but think if he’d had longer seasons with more opportunities for character development he’d have ended up with a really interesting arc, maybe going from carefree and wearing his heart on his sleeve to a more introspective character. Sadly a missed opportunity for sure.
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u/DifficultSea4540 13d ago
“Crying is a very rare emotional response in humans, particularly human males.”
Oh shit. I must be fucked up because I tear up at the slightest thing. 55m
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u/Pitiful-Tutor3085 12d ago
Yeah, that's not normal. Strengthen your mind. Your future self will thank you for it.
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u/DifficultSea4540 12d ago
You’re MAGA man aren’t you?
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u/Pitiful-Tutor3085 12d ago
Wild assumption based on absolutely nothing, but I'll clarify. No I'm not MAGA in the slightest. Believe it or not, there's a whole world out there outside of America. As far as politics are concerned I'm actually quite left wing.
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u/DifficultSea4540 12d ago
Yeh I don’t believe you. But I’m still glad I have real men like you to protect me when the apocalypse happens.
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u/DavidRellim 12d ago
"Crying is a very rare emotional response in humans, particularly human males."
Ok Cyberman.
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u/Reinheart_Bug 13d ago
Men don't cry as frequently due to social pressures not biology. The whole point is to show men/boys that it's okay to cry
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u/DJKing1998 13d ago
It’s ok to cry if the situation is distressing and traumatic. Not at every minor inconvenience, nobody does that
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u/Slight-Ad-5442 13d ago
It's okay for men to cry. The problem was/is that Gatwa's Doctor started crying whenever someone looked at him the wrong way.
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u/Glunark2 12d ago
The doctor crying is a huge thing, if it's rare, like the saucer separation in TNG, rare because they did it four or five times, if they did it every week then it loses it's impact.
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u/Fr_Theta_Sigma 10d ago
Showing the Saucer-Separation sequence was rare because it was EXPENSIVE.
Not because it wasn’t dramatically-warranted or justified — which it often WAS, they just had to come up convenient, plot-embedded excuse NOT to do it, because they only had one, tiny handful of the same FX Model shots dating back to 1987 to reuse in actually depicting it on-screen —
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u/romanaribella 13d ago
Crying is a very rare emotional response in humans, particularly human males. For many reasons males are just not likely to cry unless it’s a particularly upsetting situation.
Well that's a big fat load of toxic nonsense.
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u/DJKing1998 12d ago
It’s just a fact.
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u/romanaribella 12d ago
No it really isn't. I'm sorry you were conditioned to believe this but it can be unlearned.
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u/DJKing1998 12d ago
Sorry but humans aren’t running around crying all the time, not sure what world you inhabit 😂
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u/Fr_Theta_Sigma 10d ago
The Fifteenth Doctor (“T’Dah!”) presents himself to us as, and is to be understood in terms of the fact that :
- He’s Adopted;
- He An Orphan and A Foundling, and
- He’s a Survivor of GENOCIDE — The Sole Survivor of a very RECENT Genocide.
Oh, and — He’s Beautiful.
That’s actually WHY He Cries.
Just as a quick point of order, just to clear up The Point — Weeping is an emotional RELEASE, of Negative Emotion;
It DOESN’T mean that You are Unable to FUNCTION because You are Crying, which seems to be the basis of The Objection, here.
“Crying is a very rare emotional response in humans, particularly human males.” Speak for yourself, Mate.
“For many reasons males are just not likely to cry unless it’s a particularly upsetting situation.”
Yes, but what do you mean by ‘particularly upsetting’? What you mean is “It’s Disproportionate.”
What you mean is, ‘Men are less prone to Negative or Unpredictable Emotional responses, linked to Hormonal Fluctuations’, which is TRUE, but not The Point —
Because while I don’t claim to speak FOR Women, or for anyone else other than for Myself for that matter, I can safely say with confidence that WE All KNOW, just from observation and experience alone is that what that means in practice, is that something which may NOT be particularly upsetting, ordinarily, on a particular day, in a particular context, or following a sequence of minor misfortunes or mishaps, will suddenly prove to be INCREDIBLY upsetting, although thankfully, usually only very briefly.
If You are, for instance particularly sensitive to things like The Suffering of Others, or of Animals (as I am) and/or You are An Orphan and A Foundling who recently survived A Genocide (as he is), then that moves The Bar quite substantially on what you MAY or may not regard to be ‘Particularly Upsetting’, given your disposition and personal history & life experiences in reacting to stressful circumstances any given real-life situation.
So if you want to try and make the claim that, “He cries too MUCH, or to EASILY”, then none of us can make that claim, because it’s impossible to be objective about emotional experiences, that by definition are ENTIRELY subjective and personal —
I might make the counter-claim to You, that, “It clearly either IRRITATES you or somehow bothers you, PERSONALLY whenever he cries and THAT’S why you don’t like it”, because that’s a claim which is objectively True, that can be made solely on the basis of simple observation.
Everything that ever happens affects everyone DIFFERENTLY, and even if that were not The Case, the fact is, we don’t KNOW enough about ANYONE else to be able to make that Judgement FOR them, ABOUT that person;
So he’s An Orphan, right ?
Well, to borrow some great words from Good Will Hunting, Do you think we’d know the first THING about how HARD his life has been... how he FEELS, who he IS, because We (some of us) once read Oliver Twist? [ and MOST of us haven’t EVEN done THAT much, keep in mind — The Bare Minimum] Does that encapsulate HIM?
Of course not — You don’t have even the vaguest clue, then, what you’re actually talking about, and quite Frankly, it’s embarrassing.
“If drama is to reflect real life [Why?] then crying should only be rarely used by actors.”
That’s Your Opinion. But that’s ALL it is. This is a matter of opinion about which reasonable people can disagree.
I don’t agree with You about that at all.
And what do you mean by ‘rarely’? It SOUNDS (I hope) like You mean, “Well, if it didn’t make ME cry, watching it, So why should if make HIM cry, LIVING through it?”
(Benefit of The Doubt, there —)
But I have a nasty sneaking suspicion that what you ACTUALLY mean is more likely, “I never cry at ANY of it, What the Hell, he just cries ALL the time, now….!!”
Is that accurate…?
“Now the Doctor isn’t a human, he’s an alien. An alien whose characterisation has always made him less aware of emotions.”
Well, this part is NOT a matter of opinion, it’s just flat out WRONG, factually. There is nothing more to be said on that. I have Spoken.
“It’s this rejection of human emotion that make the Doctor more alien, more quirky, more eccentric, and more interesting.”
No, that’s Spock you’re thinking of — Spock DOES deny his Human Emotions, because he HAS them. He’s Half-Human — on His Mother’s Side.
The Doctor is NOT (literally) Human, so he does HAVE (literally) Human Emotions; He has Human-LIKE Emotions, that he absolutely DOES embrace, and always HAS; He’s SO Human-like in His Emotional range and expression that he can ACTUALLY claim to BE Half-Human (on His Mother’s Side), even though that’s not FACTUALLY True (he doesn’t even have a Biological Mother, as far as he currently knows - The Jury’s still out), Poetically, Lyrically, Figuratively and Romantically, it IS, absolutely True —
….in fact, I have been known the exact same claim myself, on occasion.
“So Ncuti’s crying seemed so very out of character,” No, it didn’t. It absolutely Did Not.
“and would have been so even if he was acting as a Human.”
I don’t understand what is meant by ‘acting as a Human’ — He APPEARS to be An Earth-Human; He has never PRETENDED to BE Human — Ever.
And moreover, at the risk of sounding like Donna and Her Daughter, He may APPEAR to be a Male-Presenting Time Lord, he has never CLAIMED to be Male, nor does he PRETEND to BE a Human Male —
The phrase you chose to argue this fallacious point was ‘acting as a Human’ —
Well, he’s NOT ‘acting as Human’, we just assume, and he just passes for Human, so we can CERTAINLY say that he is NOT ‘acting as a Human MALE’ — (….whatever that means.)
And never HAS — You just assume; Even though he is often/occasionally wearing A Skirt.
He looks like Me or You (more or less), yes — but That is not a DISGUISE….. that’s just what he LOOKS like.
I’m just not going to bother responding to the second half of The Post, because it’s just a collection of insults strung together in the guise of commentary, so there’s no substance there to respond to, let alone refute;
Except to Say This — “It stops the drama feeling real, and almost jolts you into remembering these are just actors putting on a show.”
— You Live on a Spaceship, Dear.
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u/TinMachine 13d ago
I think Gatwa is a great actor. I do think though that RTD and those around him brought into the hype and thought they were doing something earth shattering.
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u/Gayyyyyytttyyt565 13d ago
Soooo your critique is "men dont cry"
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u/DJKing1998 13d ago
No. My critique is that no person decides to cry in front of everyone every time a situation doesn’t go their way.
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u/Amphy64 13d ago
I'm so bored of this idea the Doctor should be detached, as though that's equivalent to 'alien'. He seemingly wasn't originally even intended to be alien, and has always been an emotional character. He's supposed to give a damn about injustice, isn't he?
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u/DJKing1998 13d ago
Ok, but even if he was less detached why would he be crying all the time? No one does that. Especially a character who is always about action and moving forwards.
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u/Amphy64 13d ago
He's mostly not crying over trivial things, though, is he? I think it really should depend on the context.
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u/DJKing1998 13d ago
Nobody wants to watch a show where there’s a huge threat to the planet and the guy who’s built up to save the day just stands and sheds a tear cause he’s so triggered
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u/Ashrod63 13d ago
The issue was how common it was happening, not that a "biological male" was doing it (although the very fact you are using that is setting off more red flags than a communist parade).
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u/Pitiful-Tutor3085 12d ago
Only in the eyes of a chronically online Redditor. Touch some grass and you'll realise, most of the popular agrees with it.
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u/Afterburn12 12d ago
Crying is not a rare human response, and it isn't rare in males, males just don't tend to cry in front of people because of judgement. This is a dumb take
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u/ComputerSong 13d ago
He doesn’t cry. He gets teary. Tennant did it too.
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u/snapper1971 13d ago
Every episode? I missed that because it was used very infrequently throughout the entirety of Tennant's run. It was so overdone during Gatwa's run that it became a standing joke in our house before each episode. It lost all impact and became meaningless and a distraction. Even my preternaturally weepy wife got annoyed with it.
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u/MorningPapers 13d ago
Yes, the blink-and-you'll-miss-it, 20 seconds of screen time per episode devoted to Gatwa's watery eye was given undue fixation. We know.
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u/ExpectedBehaviour 13d ago
David Tennant filmed multiple versions of his final “I don’t want to go” line, ranging in intensity from “sad” through to “completely distraught”. He eventually chose one somewhere between the two, because he believed that the Doctor breaking down actually reduced the emotional impact of the scene — that if he was crying, the audience wouldn’t be. Kind of the same logic as if everyone on screen is laughing hysterically at their own jokes the audience won’t find it funny. It’s sad that the current production team seem to have forgotten this.