This a reaction post even if you are sick of them

[neveralarch]

But in reality, it's mostly just me talking about history, and hardly anything to do with Who at all. Good priorities, me.

I stopped to google this, and the first black man in the Presidential Secret Service was in 1961. Score one for inclusive accuracy! (I read his autobiography a while ago, and I thought they had it right, but I have to look this kind of thing up or it bothers me. It's an interesting book, if you want to know about civil rights history and wrongful conviction: The Echo from Dealey Plaza, by Abraham Bolden.) I also looked up the name of the one Secret Service agent who gets a name, but I don't think he's based on a real person. Bah.

Also, can I say that this actor doesn't look much like Nixon? He does not. I say this as a person who may or may not have made large amounts of former president fanart in the last four months. He doesn't look enough like a caricature to look like Nixon. But he's a good actor otherwise, so I'm sorry to be so shallow.

This is the big one, though - if there isn't a 1776 the Musical crossover with Doctor Who within the next week, I'll want to know why not. (This would be Jefferson and Adams, since Hamilton was busy actually fighting the British and wasn't at the convention. But Adams/Hamilton is the ultimate enemies pairing, so what I really want is the one where they fight over the Doctor. If I write this, there will be a waiting period of five months until I get back to all of my Founding history books, so I'm hoping someone else will.)

In sum - Doctor Who, please never stop making historicals, even if they are terrifying. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to get my historical RPF love all over my favorite fandom.

Comments

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Yes, "politically correct casting" does irk me in things that are at least making a pretence of historical accuracy, because it's like it's trying to gloss over the unpleasant realities of some historical periods. But as you say, in some things it can be appropriate, depending on the nature of the production really.

I was a bit uncomfortable on the second viewing about how much the character Canton seemed to be disrespecting the black guy. I mean, I'm sure it wasn't intentional and that they weren't trying to paint him as racist or anything, because in all other respects he was a cool character, but, you know, Unfortunate Implications...

He did - at least the makeup here wasn't as bizarre as that foot-long rubber nose the guy playing Nixon in Watchmen seemed to be wearing... :D Yes, I was sort of expecting Nixon to be at least hostile to the Doctor and maybe even under the influence of the aliens or something, so this was unexpectedly nuanced really.

Heh - and the Doctor sort of putting Hamilton's aim off by messing around in the background or something... ;D

[neveralarch]

Yeah, Canton's treatment of ...Jackson? I think? was definitely off-putting for me. I think you're right and it's just unfortunate - maybe just part of the whole anti-authoritarian thing they were trying to show - but still. I'd like to give the writers the credit of historical characterization, but it felt way to casual for that. I'm holding out for possibly-Jackson to do something awesome in the next episode, just because he seemed the type of guy to do something awesome while protecting his president.

Oh man, I had forgotten about rubber-nosed Nixon. I think I had been reading lots of editorial cartoons or something and just accepted it as normal.

(Also, that's it, as soon as I'm out of school and back with my books, this fic is happening. ...So in about four months. Maybe I won't wait that long.)

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree it was too casual to be intentional, but you kind of wonder how the implications didn't occur to anybody on the production team... I want to see him do something awesome too.

The rubber nose was kind of mesmerising. I actually enjoyed Watchmen the movie more than a lot of people seemed to, but it did have more than its fair share of unintentionally hilarious moments. ;D

Well, I'll be looking forward to it...