It’s worth noting that Kenneth spent the entire episode making the game (and the subsequent fight) as inclusive as possible for JJ and his disabled friends (all of whom were played by disabled actors/actresses).
BONUS:
Bonus #2
Of course I had to show the best part:
Transcript: screencaps from ABC’s Speechless. JJ, a teenager with cerebral palsy, is playing a movie trivia game with Kenneth, his aide. Kenneth reads the card “What was Pierce Brosnan’s first James Bond movie?” He immediately answers his own question: “GoldenEye! In your face!” JJ, using his laser pointer, more slowly spells out GoldenEye on his communication board, and then gives Kenneth a very dirty look. “Okay, perhaps this isn’t the most inclusive trivia experience,” Kenneth admits. “How to level this playing field?” Kenneth reads out another trivia card: “Michael Myers’ mask was based on the face of what famous actor?“ Now both Kenneth and JJ are using laser pointers.
Bonus: JJ’s friend Aiden, a visually impaired teenager, says “Can we play?” Cut to Aiden, holding his cane, and JJ’s other friends, all also disabled teenagers. “Huh, let’s see,” Kenneth says. “Visual impairment, hearing impairment, Down syndrome, autism, and a walker. How to make this game fair for these beautiful kids?” Once they’re all ready to play: “Well, everyone has a laser and a letter board. Aiden, your letter board is extra large so you can read it. We’ll present all questions aurally and visually so hearing won’t be an issue.”
Bonus 2, the best part: Aiden says “You want to go?” Kenneth hastily gets between Aiden and JJ. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, no, no. Okay, guys, listen. This is a game, not a brawl.“ JJ spells out “What if we want a brawl?” One of the other teenagers, a girl, says “I know I do,” flapping emphatically. “Hmm,” Kenneth says. “What accommodations can I devise to allow these gorgeous youths an equal-opportunity death-match?”
[gif 1: the 12th doctor stands with their hands on their hips, framed between castle battlements. set down between them is a skull set down to face outwards. it’s night but the scene is lit bright and warm and sepia.
gif 2: a very, very starry night sky
gif 3: a very high shot looking down on the doctor. they look straight up, investigating the sky. they take a hand off their hip, sighing and looking a little annoyed]
It’s funny, the day you lose someone isn’t the worst. At least you’ve got something to do. It’s all the days they stay dead.
[8 aesthetic doctor who gifs. the doctor kneels to inspect an octagon cut out of a stone floor, full of sand, with chalk arrows on the floor pointing towards it. an old flaking oil painting of clara oswald. the doctor in a hole dug out of dirt, wiping clean an engraved stone tablet to read it. the word ‘bird’ written in sand. the doctor kneeling, picks up a skull off the ground with electrodes stuck to the temples. the doctor drops an orchid petal and it falls slowly to the floor. skulls bobbing to the surface of a dark ocean. the doctor standing before a glowing diamond wall, with ‘Home’ engraved into the top.]
[8 aesthetic doctor who gifs. the doctor walking down a long corridor and stroking the walls as they walk past. a close up of the doctor putting on sunglasses to adjust to finding themself in a desert. Clara’s hand reaching out to touch the doctor’s cheek. the doctor in a misty garden at night digging into the dirt with a shovel. an extreme close up of the doctor’s eyes and nose, lit in cold blue light, looking very solemnly into the distance. the doctor setting down a skull to look out between a castle’s battlements. the doctor stepping out of a wormhole into a desert. a hand with bleeding knuckles resting in a pile of sand and fading away]
[Image: the Twelfth Doctor in his TARDIS setting controls. Subtitles read “The first rule of being interrogated is that you are the only irreplaceable person in the torture chamber. The room is yours, so work it. If they’re going to threaten you with death, show them who’s boss. Die faster!” End.]
“I can remember, Clara. You don’t understand, I can remember it all. Every time. And you’ll still be gone.”
[4 monochrome doctor who gifs. gif 1: a close up the 12th doctor in the tardis. they say “Whatever I do,…” as they speak they dip slightly, as if their knees are starting to buckle a little.
gif 2: the doctor stares forward with their hand in their stomach
gif 3: “…You still won’t be there.” the doctor drops down suddenly, exhausted, to sit on the tardis steps. their hands raise for a moment to cover their face
gif 4: the doctor leans forward and looks down very pensively, holding their clasped hands up to cover their mouth, almost like prayer]
[gif 1: the 12th Doctor sits at the end of a very long dining table, eating soup alone. the hall is lit in orange light coming in from huge windows to the side. the camera is zooming in slowly towards them. subtitles read “Or maybe I’m in Hell? That’s okay. I’m not scared of Hell. It’s just Heaven for bad people.”
gif 2: “But how long will I have to be here?”
gif 3: it zooms in quicker as the doctor stops eating and looks up to the camera.
gif 4: a side view, the doctor is hunched over the table, starkly silhouetted by the light from the windows. “Forever?”
gif 5: a close up mostly the doctor’s sleeve. a drop of soup drips slowly off their spoon, then the spoon drops to the table]
“I can’t keep doing this. I can’t! I can’t always do this! It’s not fair! Clara, it’s just not fair!”
[gif 1: a side view close up of the 12th doctor, sitting on the floor, resting their head back against a glowing white diamond wall and staring off to the side into nowhere.
gif 2: a front on view. the doctor’s head turns forwards very slightly, noticing something down the corridor
gif 3: a long shot down a dark corridor, the doctor sitting down in front of the diamond wall in the distance, staring straight forwards now. a dark shape steps in front of the shot, obscuring everything. a very small fly also flies past]
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