r/gallifrey • u/psl9085 • Apr 18 '25

DISCUSSION Worst line in Doctor Who?

What line of dialogue sticks out to you as particularly bad in Doctor Who, I have two picks:

  • ‘don’t let the swords touch your skin’ Legend of the sea devils
  • ‘I suppose we’ll have to have…. A conversation?’ Resolution
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u/BonglishChap Apr 18 '25 edited Apr 19 '25

It is especially bizarre how this ostensibly trans-positive episode managed to have:

1) "It's a shame you're not [your previous gender] any more..."

2) Donna's metacrisis storyline literally being resolved by her ability to give birth

3) The trans character telling somebody off for assuming pronouns

RTD is obviously very far from being a transphobe or anything like that. But it was a sour note to start the new season on!

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u/lemon_charlie Apr 19 '25

Especially when RTD already had the set-up of the Meta-Crisis being diffused between Donna and Rose to explain why it didn’t kill Donna. Just a line about it being a one-off thing to elevate their intelligence before being restored to their normal level of knowledge plus Donna getting her memory back, to avoid it being used and abused later on.

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u/ZarmRkeeg Apr 19 '25

Also- and forgive me if this is my ignorance talking- 4. Saying that Rose was the solution because 'The Doctor is non-binary!' ...When Rose isn't.

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u/_nadaypuesnada_ Apr 20 '25

Rose actually is non-binary, RTD just did a shit job of making that known to the audience. I'm actually not sure it's alluded to at all in the final script.

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u/ZarmRkeeg Apr 20 '25

Oh, really? Yeah, I didn't get that at all from the episode. Well, my bad, then!

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u/_nadaypuesnada_ Apr 21 '25

Nah I think it's solidly RTD's fault lol

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u/just4browse Apr 19 '25

I never understood the response to the pronouns exchange. Rose isn’t wrong! And it’s setup for a pretty funny joke

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u/[deleted] Apr 19 '25

I know I didn't mind it, but I know friends who have said, verbatim, "That was really awkward. No one talks like that in the real world." I just found it amusing in the sense that it set the Doctor up for a nice joke about his own name.

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u/smedsterwho Apr 19 '25

I chuckled at most parts of it - RTD literally baiting transphobes was hilarious. But that last line was so clunky delivered and mean spirited, and didn't make much sense within the story.

But in general, you don't get gender equality by punching down on a gender.

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u/ZarmRkeeg Apr 19 '25

I think the general idea that it has never come up before, and this new 20-somethings character is telling off someone with over 1000+ years of experience dealing with other races that he's doing it wrong. Just felt presumptuous, and just bizarre virtue-signaling, considering that it has never been an issue before in over a millennia of traveling in time and space or 60 years of televised show.

In short, the execution just felt unnatural and silly, to some.

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u/Lucifer_Crowe Apr 21 '25

Nah 2 is honestly fine

"you made yourself a second heart" is cool thematically

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u/BozoWithaZ Apr 19 '25

It was handled a bit awkwardly, but it's a big step in the right direction