On the Doctor? I don't care XD I think they should have gone all out and made a gay Jewish ginger black girl or something, that would have offended absolutely everyone and been side achingly funny to watch the screaming tantrums. I'm glad for something different and hoping to see what interesting new storylines they could develop with this. Like the Doctor having to deal with being treated differently after being the "privileged white male" forever.
It's probably done for budgetary or having to pander to people who don't have imagination but I find it terribly amusing that aliens need to be human-looking or at least possess the familiar pentadactyl structure. I did like these ones for being a bit different XD
(the actual being is the glowy bunch of tendrils, the rest of it is a biological exosuit that it's acting kind of like a nerve system for)
On gender swapping in general? Well when it's being used for entertainment or education no real issues. Especially on the subject of superhero costumes. On making something PC? Well actually I'd probably feel the same way about as I do about "whitewashing" (casting an Anglo actor as a very much non-Anglo character), which is to say exasperated on a good day and ranging very briefly through rage to "you know what I don't care I'm not going to watch your crappy movie anyway" on a bad one.
As to why people don't just come up with new characters well. Cynical fyn reckons it's because the people doing these "reimaginings" grew up loving and idolising these characters and are now in a position where they can make their fanworks canon and broadside an audience XP
That's why I don't prefer describing exact physical features in my work. Not that I feel it would be adapted to live-action some day (though I surely hope so!), it's because I want everyone to identify with my characters based on the traits and the personalities.
I like your idea here, not something I've ever thought to do but it could be to do with how characters and stories happen to me :)
Ooohhh I can always trust you to make lots of great points, my friend!
You know, with the recent wave of PC stalwarts, I wouldn't be surprised if there would be a strong campaign to support this haha! Then they would push for a white anglo-saxon male to become a companion for a change! Have you watched the latest seasons? Making the Master Missy opened up a lot of great new angles, so I guess that really set the tone for this decision. A way to keep things fresh.
I guess making aliens look more human is done for budgetary reasons haha! Heck, even the Marvel Cinematic Universe made a living planet into Kurt Russell. I think alien-looking aliens work best in animation anyway.
Ahh shoot, I didn't even think to mention whitewashing. But yeah, as a Filipino, it's not uncommon to see characters being portrayed by Americans. It was pretty hard to take at first, and even though I've gotten used to it, it still leaves a bitter taste. Especially when the actor is marketed as being, I don't know, 2% Filipino. I'm like "WTF, that guy doesn't even know how to speak three words of Tagalog!" With the world being more global and all, you would think they could get people that fit the exact ethnicity of the character they want to portray. When you think about it, any non-American actor would be a much cheaper hire too!
I LOLd at the fanfic notion. Personally, I'm sticking with studios not wanting to risk with unproven characters. They want a surefire hit, that's why they're relying on established characters and brands. Ironically, they're over-saturating them, that's why the adoption is declining with every iteration.
It won't work for your stories because you have the drawing aspect haha! Even though you won't describe your characters in the story, your readers would still be able to see them when you depict them in art :D
Thanks for stopping by, my friend! I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on the matter :D
Nope. I don't fully watch anything these days unless something really catches my attention. There have been a couple of episodes that had interesting stuff going on that I would go snuggle up with JJ to watch if I saw something interesting going on but I wouldn't be able to tell you the title or even what happened in them now XD
This:
is explained by this :)
except replace "characters and brands" with "actors/names". But yes, you're right, that is most definitely a thing XD
It's not that I won't, I just don't need to for the things I drop here XD I don't really write novels anymore, but major characters tended to eventually have fairly comprehensive descriptions (once you picked them out from throughout the story, could never stand doing a massive paragraph devoted to their looks XD).
I used to be like that (watching just anything that catches my attention, not the part where I would go snuggle up with JJ) but my OCD forces me to digest every information I can. Sadly, my productivity has taken quite a hit.
As much as possible, I try to not give physical descriptions even to the main characters. I guess you could see that from what you've read. Although, I do see your point which really helps in telling characters apart. One of these days I'm going to have to rely on that as well haha!
By the way this was an intended reply to your comment by @dreemit :D
BAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA XD I read this to JJ and he responded "Nice cover" XD
Oh my goodness. You poor soul. I am sorry that you, too, experience this.
And this is why I usually don't watch stuff and get snarky when things are being watched in the room where I'm working XD
Though for whatever reason I can ignore games, but not when the players are doing a running commentary (which happens often enough they're usually banned too XD)
Yeah, well ... I try :/
Games I can ignore without any problem. I'm stuck when it comes to movies or TV series, wherein there is aplenty >.<