Doctor WhoandMadame WebAgree: Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ Is an Action Scene Icon

Nineteen year ago today , alien denizens of the cosmos gathered in theDoctor Whorevival ’s soph instalment , “ The End of the World , ” to conjure parting to the planet Earth by mourning her with call : the traditional lay “ Toxic”by Britney Spears , played on vinyl . It took nearly two decades , butfinally someone elsesaw the vision the show had set out .

The utilization of “ Toxic ” in “ The End of the World ” is perhaps the purest distillment ofRussell T. Davies ’ approach to bringing back Doctor Who in 2005 . Two days on from the pop smasher ’s loss in our own time , using Britney as an example of ancient human art and culture in a far - succeeding sci - fi mount — depict by a be adrift strip of hide , the villainous Lady Cassandra , in the room we would refer to a renaissance painting or classical euphony — is adequate component part funny and abrasive to the form of people who take this kind of affair a little too seriously , like the momentsStar Trek ’s plan of attack to referential historymostly limits itself to public domain fiction rather than our own time .

It ’s incredibly camp , and yet also bitingly disconsolate , as Britney ’s verse becomes the soundtrack to the Ninth Doctor discover a grisly slaying : “ There ’s no escape , I ca n’t waitress / I need a hitting , baby , give me it / You’re dangerous , I ’m loving it , ” we get word , as we get word that a space post steward has been rib alive by the dying sun , his function ’s protective Dominicus filter disabled until he was nothing but smoke and a burning smell . A compelling comparison to life-time with the Doctor , perhaps , as we soon learn that another filter has been disable elsewhere on the post , and “ Toxic ” fades into composer Murray Gold ’s score to reveal that Rose Tyler could be the next victim . Silly - yet - serious , camp and compelling : in just under a minute and in one licensed strain exercise , Doctor Who made it very clear what kind of show it wanted to be , as it prepared to shoot itself intothe pop culture stratosphereall over again .

Screenshot: BBC/Sony Pictures

Nineteen years on we swap one Cassandra for another — a Cassie , this metre — in the similarly summer camp , perhapsnot quite so successfulMadame Web . The good madame ’s usage of “ Toxic ” itself has parallels to Doctor Who ’s , but with one fascinating dispute . In Doctor Who “ Toxic ” was recent story present as a far - flung past tense , to show the style culture is do by across eons of clock time . In Madame Web and itsearly - aughts period of time set , “ Toxic ” is explicitly of the now . When it ’s deployed in the dining compartment where Cassie ’s wayward grouping of teens — take flight the murderous intent of a scoundrel who ’s seentheir time to come rolein his own demise — go to seek purdah and sustenance , we are repeatedly remind when it comes over the radio that it ’s Britney ’s latest , a young and modern song for the current moment . It ’s rooting us to the past in the same way Doctor Who ’s use was , but a much more late one , to evoke the setting of the superhero genre at the metre Madame Web was countersink , as a analog to the fashion Doctor Who used “ Toxic ” to show us how one Clarence Shepard Day Jr. our late acculturation would become a part of ancient history .

It ’s also just a good birdcall , dammit . It ’s catchy and plug and work fabulously for an natural process prospect — whether it ’s doc Who running down corridor or Madame Web ’s race against fourth dimension to stop a creepy faux Spider - Man from killing a bunch of teenager . Few texts will perhaps be as able as either Doctor Who or Madame Web ’s respective deployments of an all - time Britney classic as insightful mediations on the construct of time and civilisation , but that should n’t stop them from trying . “ Toxic ” on the next delegation : Impossible soundtrack , anyone ?

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Screenshot: Sony Pictures