Facial disfigurement on screen

Unless you have been living under a rock lately you will probably have heard about the movie The Theory of Everything which is about the life of Steven Hawking. Eddie Redmayne has received a lot of praise and award nominations for his portrayal of Steven Hawking and his decline due to his condition. The movie has prompted some debate about whether it is ok for a able-bodied actor to portray a disabled person. In my opinion yes it is, because as long as it isn't done in a bad or mocking way also it is just acting. Obviously it would be impossible for a non-abled bodied actor to have shown that decline that Hawking experienced. The same can be said for those who portray people with an mental illness for example a young Leonardo Dicaprio played a boy with a developmental disorder in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. The same role wouldn't have been able to been portrayed by a child with that condition as they wouldn't be able to follow orders, remember lines etc.

So what about people with facial disfigurements? It is a common theme in movies that the bad guy has some characteristic which makes them look scary. Whether this is an eye patch, a facial scar or something else. In many cases the villains actions alone should be enough to show us that they are in fact bad or evil. This has resulted in Changing Faces creating a campaign to challenge this assumption. They made a short film featuring Michelle Dockery of Downtown Abbey fame which was shown in certain cinemas. You can see it below.



I think as with everything things should be done in moderation and with proper thought. A villain shouldn't just have scars etc. for the sake of it or as a lazy way to show how they are evil. On the other hand I don't think they should make all bad guys look perfect. In some cases it is a core part of their character take Two-Face from Batman for example. I was interested to read about the movie Under the Skin a while back as a positive example of a movie using someone who looks different. I haven't seen it but it features Adam Pearson who has quite an obvious facial disfigurement coming into contact with Scarlet Johansson's alien character. You can read more about that here, otherwise I would just be repeating the same stuff that is in the article.

Scene from the movie

To be honest I think it is not so much a case of giving people with facial disfigurement or disfigurement leading roles in movies/tv shows, although if possible and if somebody wrote something with that, it would be awesome if done right. Instead I think it would be good to slowly get people used to the idea that there are people with these conditions and they are perfectly normal, perhaps by using them as minor characters or extras. Its hard not to think about these big budget movies/tv shows and how awesome it would be if they gave screen time to people who look a bit different. Take Star Wars for example obviously its hard to know what will happen in the new trilogy but imagine if they had a jedi with a facial disfigurement who was shown kicking-ass and how memorable (in a good way) that would be. They don't need to be a main character but it would get people talking. Obviously Peter Dinklage is now very well known for Game of Thrones and his height is a main part of his character in it. But it was only after I read a comment online after seeing him in X-men Days of Future Past that I realised that his height wasn't in fact referred to at any point during the movie. My point is that this should be the case for people with facial disfigurements on screen, unless it is a major part of their character then it shouldn't be referred to. They don't need to make a big deal about it.

Thanks for reading.

*Just want to clarify that I originally used the word deformity when I wrote this blog and you can probably still see it on the links I posted. I didn't realise that some people may not like that word and obviously I don't want to offend anyone. So apologies for that.

Doctor Who 50th anniversary and beyond

Well I think the last time I talked about Doctor Who I talked about Season 7, since then we've had the 50th Anniversary special, Matt Smith's final episode and series 8 featuring Peter Capaldi as the newly regenerated Doctor. Starting with the 50th which had three special shows. The first I will talk about is An Adventure in Space and Time. This was a TV movie about how Doctor Who first started and about William Hartnell who played the first Doctor. Now I must admit I've only seen a few clips of classic Doctor Who never mind of the first Doctor but that said it was very interesting to see how it all started. David Bradley does a good job portraying William Hartnell, although his voice is obviously different.

Next up, the main event the Day of the Doctor., the 50th anniversary special. There was a lot of hype built up for this, a lot of expectation, there was also controversy when the first trailer was exclusively shown at San Diego comic con and not put online after. We did eventually get a proper trailer which raised hype levels even more. There was also the great surprise of a mini-prequel episode called Night of the Doctor, unfortunately the surprise twist in it was probably spoilt for most people like it was for me but it was still great. The day of the doctor itself ended up being a major event being shown world wide at the same time both on tv and in cinemas. I personally stayed at home and watched it on tv with my parents. If I had to review it one word I would say brilliant!  I won't spoil anything but I will say it manages to be both epic but with a surprisingly simple story, it has lots of great individual moments, many references, for the fans of classic Doctor Who certain tropes of modern Doctors are poked fun at and there are some great surprises as well. Its hard not to wonder though since Steven Moffat (showrunner/head writer) claims they did the 3D on a 2D budget, whether or not it could have been longer and or/even more epic if they had just scrapped the 3D in the first place which in my opinion is a bit of a gimmick anyway. Also I cannot express how disappointed I am that Christopher Eccleston did not make even a cameo appearance, no matter how he feels about his time on the show he should have done it for the fans.

Finally the third and smallest part of the 50th anniversary specials was a bit of a nice surprise. It is called the five(ish) doctors reboot and was written by Peter Davison aka the fifth doctor. It is a comedy about the classic era Doctor Who actors attempting to be a part of the 50th anniversary episode. It focuses on Peter himself, Colin Baker who played the sixth doctor and Slyvestor McCoy who played the seventh Doctor. It also features appearances from a whole load of people involved in Doctor Who currently or in the past as well as some other special cameos. Overall it is very funny so kudos for the BBC for making it part of the 50th anniversary when originally it was just a fan project by Peter Davison.

Now onto Matt Smith's final episode, The Time of the Doctor which aired on Christmas day 2014. Unlike David Tennant who got a double episode send-off, this was just a 60 minute special. It's been a while since I've watched but I can remember feeling a bit disappointed by it. It had a lot of great ideas, some of which could have been the plot of episodes themselves (for example a town where nobody can lie) as well as some great acting especially from Matt Smith but it felt too rushed. It had the main plot of the episode, the introduction of Clara's family (which didn't add anything to the episode and we never saw them again apart from the gran in the season 8 finale) as well as the wrapping up of plot lines from way back when Matt first started as the Doctor. My family ended up watching it with me and it was rather awkward because despite the fact that it was a Christmas special which generally attracts more viewers than who would normally watch it, it relied on you being up to speed on the whole of Matt's time as the Doctor. It was also confusing for established fans with the introduction of this new important character who the Doctor knew very well and who seemed awfully like another main character in the show but apparently wasn't, we've still not gotten an explanation who she really was. It was disappointing to see so many plot lines answered quickly after so much build-up though in fairness you wonder if Matt was expected to do another season before he ended up getting movie offers and deciding to leave the show.At least Matt's final scene as the Doctor was great, much better than David Tennant's whining.

As for season 8...well I have to say that I'm envious of the people's who's comments I read saying that its the best season of modern Doctor Who yet and that Capaldi is an amazing Doctor because that's certainly not how I felt. I should clarify that I'm not bashing Doctor Who for the fun of it, I'm a big fan of Doctor Who, I've been watching it since 2005, I watch a lot of different tv shows and it has been one of my favourites over all these years. I should start with the positives, they've made some positive changes this season, its less rushed, they've toned down the music and there has been less use of the sonic screwdriver to save the day. Now for the negatives, firstly this season they have seemingly forgotten how to show us things, instead we are just told things HE IS THE DOCTOR, Clara is a CONTROL FREAK, Vastra and Jenny are MARRIED, two characters ARE IN LOVE etc. We get Daleks again after having only one episode between the 50th anniversary and Time of the Doctor which both featured them..Endings of episodes which ended up just being stupid or rushed. Major plot holes. A nasty unlikeable Doctor. Way too much focus on Clara. It tried to be too sentimental at times which just didn't work. And finally I feel I should highlight Kill the Moon, a promising episode which turned into the most annoyingly stupid episode of Doctor Who. I simply cannot understand why the writers made some of the decisions they did and its the one episode I did not go back and watch again because it annoyed me so much. I feel I should say that whilst I have been very negative I did watch every episode. The christmas special was fine not bad but not amazing either.

I'd also like to add, after all the praise the new costume got, he rarely wore the flipping thing!

In conclusion I think there needs to be change, Steven Moffat is great at writing individual episodes which is evidenced in the fact that he has written the majority of the best modern Dr. Who episodes whenever Russel T. Davies was in charge. The problem is that whilst the quality of the production, the effects etc. has increased season after season the writing hasn't. I think I didn't mind the not so great season 6 and the decent but not amazing season 7 because it all seemed to be leading up to something but then The Time of the Doctor happened and it was a bit of a waste. The problem is that Moffat seems to want to have his cake and eat it, he has so many ideas but instead of focusing on one or two of them he uses all of them and it doesn't make great results.Filming has already started on season 9 so its too late to change now but I really hope after this season they bring in someone who is respectful and a fan of the show but who brings new ideas and takes the show in an exciting new direction.

Let's face it no matter what happens I will probably keep watching anyway.