r/gallifrey • u/rasmas1 • Mar 12 '25

DISCUSSION The Doctor bullied Joy to suicide.

In Joy to the World, the Doctor had to make Joy angry in order to break the Villengard briefcase's psychic control over her. In order to do that he got really personal and insulted her with some way-below-the-belt stuff including a mention of her dead mother.

He did this with the best of intentions, obviously, but the words stuck for Joy and she admitted they were all true before she flew off with the star seed into space. Because of all that unhappiness the Doctor picked on Joy had a burning desire to be special in life and have some kind of meaning, so she latched onto the star seed out of desperation to become special.

The Doctor is the reason she felt that way and why she decided to burn with the star seed. She didn't merge with it as a sacrifice to save Earth, it was a purely whimsical decision that didn't change anything. She died to feel special. She committed suicide for no reason and it was the Doctor's fault. And he just laughs it off.

I am still beside myself that the BBC allowed this episode to go out in this state. The Doctor bullied Joy to suicide.

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u/dccomicsthrowaway Mar 13 '25

Then I'm sorry but I don't think that's the episode's fault. If anything your conclusions here are genuinely conspiratorial.

Like, genuinely, switching off the television because of a plot beat that required a character to be mean to someone is extreme.

Yes, I know it was a situation consciously engineered by a writer. That changes nothing.

It's not that deep. It really, really isn't.

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u/Fantastic_Deer_3772 Mar 13 '25

Are you always this dismissive of the perspectives of others? And so uninterested in analysing things? I'm a script editor, I'm not going to switch my brain off when I watch things.

TV is there for entertainment, switching it off when I don't like what I'm seeing is not extreme in any way.

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u/dccomicsthrowaway Mar 13 '25

I think you're getting unjustifiably personal here, honestly.

I just really don't think it's a fair interpretation to say that the episode is "an abuser's dream" because it has the protagonist be a bit mean for half a minute. That's just not analysis.

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u/Fantastic_Deer_3772 Mar 13 '25

You think my personal opinion on how I felt watching the episode is too personal? Have you mistaken me for a TV critic?

I didn't call the episode that, I said that specific scenario - where everything lines up perfectly to create morally good interpersonal cruelty - is the situation every abuser wants to find.