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timeagainreviews · 24 days ago

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Lux Makes My Heartbells Sing!

Growing up in the ‘90s, we were often shown depictions of cartoonish characters manifesting in real life. There was the cartoon “Freakazoid!” where a young child transforms into a crime-fighting cartoon man. In comics, we had “The Mask,” which was turned into a blockbuster film starring Jim Carrey. We also had Marvel Comics’ Slapstick, a superhero with the powers of a cartoon character. And, of course, in film, we had “Space Jam.” While there was an animation renaissance in the early 1990s, one contributing factor of this sudden interest in animation coming to life was the recent release of 1988’s “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” which had infused animated characters into live action in a way never seen before. The concept of incorporating animation with live action was in no way new. It was seen as early as 1900 in the short film “The Enchanted Drawing.” Later, we saw the stop motion sequences of masters like Ray Harryhausen, where real actors fought swathes of animated skeletons, titans, and chimaeras.

But Roger Rabbit was different in that its cameras weren’t locked into place. Gone were the almost stagelike compositions we saw in “Mary Poppins,” where Dick Van Dyke dances in a bowtie and strawhat alongside four animated penguins. There are real cinematic compositions mixed with puppeteering and animatronics that married together seamlessly. It was enough to have damn near created its own genre, and I was at the perfect age to eat it up! So when I discovered Doctor Who had a story where the Doctor meets a real-life cartoon character and even becomes part of the cartoon world himself, I very excitedly bought my own copy of the Eighth Doctor novel “The Crooked World,” from eBay. Because even as an adult, I still love that concept. Then, several years later, they made “Lux.”

I don’t bring up “The Crooked World,” as a slight on Lux, quite the opposite. It’s clear that Steve Lyons saw something in Doctor Who that Russell T Davies also agreed with. Doctor Who is a show begging to do an episode like “Lux.” I harp on and on about how Doctor Who is a metatextual story wherein the mythology is often dictated by its own real-world limitations. Because of this, it’s developed a kind of maleability which allows it to take on genres like the Fifteenth Doctor trying on clothes. Experimentation and parody are part of the brand. It’s part of why Doctor Who is so appealing while simultaneously daunting to new fans. But it’s also why people like me side with “rad” in the “rad vs trad” debate. Doctor Who is meant to be radical because it’s not bogged down like other properties. What is Star Wars without the Sith? Where is The Dark Crystal without the Skeksis? Doctor Who can do away with Daleks and Cybermen invasions forever because it’s also a show where glowing skulls manifest golden goddesses, sailing barges drift through space, and cartoon men attain universal consciousness.

If you read Doctor Who Magazine, which I do (mostly for the comics), you’ll likely have been treated to the first appearance of Mr Ring-a-Ding and Sunshine Sally in the one-page comic eponymously titled “Mr Ring-a-Ding.” In it, Mr Ring-a-Ding helps the Easter Bunny deliver eggs in his cartoonish jalopy. It’s very festive and timely, with it having just been Easter. But the part that stuck out to me the most was Mr Ring-a-Ding’s first utterance of “Don’t make me laugh.” Not because it reminded me of “The Giggle,” but rather how Eddie Valiant gains the upper hand in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” by making the nefarious cartoon weasels laugh themselves to death. Whether or not this was a direct reference to Roger Rabbit, I don’t know, but it was enough to give me hopes that the story would do right by its own premise.

The second RTD era has introduced us to some new tech. First with intelligent gloves and rope, and now the “vortex indicator,” or “vindicator,” as the Doctor calls it. As Doctor Who gadgets go, I love the vindicator. The notion of using a beacon to latch onto points in time like a grappling hook is so tactile and chonky. It feels like the same Doctor who flew the TARDIS onto a busy motorway with a piece of twine. It’s brilliant, but practical. The Doctor has been forced to use this mode of travel because the TARDIS keeps bouncing off of the 24th of May like a game of pickleball. Belinda, while still wary of the Doctor, seems to trust that he’s not just yanking her chain about getting her back home. However, she doesn’t want to go home so fast that she would pass up the chance to see Miami in 1952.

The usual crybaby wankers were up in arms about the Doctor and Belinda talking about the real life practice of racial segregation in public places in America. Evidently, it’s woke to mention the existence of real-world racism as it applies to the Doctor and Belinda’s safety. Yet you never hear anyone complain when Martha or Bill spoke on the subject. I guess that’s where we are in the world. And like the Doctor, I wait for people to topple that world. “Until then, I live in it and I shine,” - words I needed to hear after a week where the UK Supreme Court declared I’m no longer a woman but a secret third thing. You may ask how someone like me can keep talking about Doctor Who when the world is like it is, but Doctor Who is part of why I am here. Art and expression sustain us. The Doctor’s words helped me forget the real-life super villain smoking cigars on her yacht. That feeling lasted until watching “Doctor Who Unleashed,” and hearing Ncuti Gatwa platform Harry Potter. It’s easy to see why the Doctor Who Instagram account chose to highlight his comments about Pokémon instead.

The conversation of race felt less like a morality tale and more of a history lesson for kids who may not know about racial segregation. It doesn’t really become the plot like it does in “Rosa,” and ironically, I feel it’s more effective. That said, it doesn’t say much on the subject other than “this happened.” The only time racial tensions truly come up in the story is when Lux is trying to fool the Doctor with another illusion. For the most part, the people of Miami seem almost eager to bend the rules. I like this depiction because it’s one often over-looked in these situations. The world would like me to see cis people as suspicious, but I see acts of kindness and acceptance from them every day. It’s important that we see the “Dot and Bubble,” side of racism as much as the “Lux,” side as well. There are people out there who want to share space with people different from them because the world is better when we do.

“Lux” plays out much like an episode of “Sapphire & Steel.” Two time travellers show up, one flamboyant and one stern. They spend their time in a single location trying to save fifteen lost souls from a mysterious “haunted” movie theatre. It’s as though P.J. Hammond was in the writers’ room. Previously, I had compared the reluctant companion role of Belinda to Doctor Who’s first human companions, Ian and Barbara. However, due to this dynamic, we see aspects of the First Doctor in the Fifteenth Doctor’s desire to explore obvious danger despite the protests of his human friend. It restores in the Doctor a bit of his mercurial wiliness that we’ve lost with gung-ho companions. It’s nice that Rose is ride-or-die, but Belinda’s sober attitude has a grounding effect when the stories start to introduce giant robot incels and blue talking cartoon pig bugs.

The Pantheon is back with another God of Chaos in the form of Lux Imperator, the God of Light, as voiced by the the brilliant Alan Cumming. After surfing a moonbeam through the Palazzo Theatre’s skylight, the glint off of a tack shines his essence into the projection beam of a Mr Ring-a-Ding cartoon. Lux has been given life in the form of this capering cartoon icon. His perspective towers over the audience as he reaches out of the screen into the dark. I was reminded in more ways than one of the friendly Stay Puft Marshmallow Man chosen as the means of mankind's destruction. After witnessing Lux vanish the audience onto celluloid, the theatre owner, Reginald Pye, keeps Lux at bay by screening reels throughout the night. Or perhaps Lux keeps Mr Pye at bay by manifesting a film reel of Mr Pye’s late wife, Helen, back from the dead. Both of them are stuck in a loop of fear. Mr Pye afraid to let go of the past. And Lux afraid to step out of the darkness into the light. My only question is what the hell was Mr Pye eating for three months? Popcorn?

After 37 years of technological advancement, how does Lux compare to Roger Rabbit? The choice to continue using hand-drawn animation was obvious. You can’t have Mr Ring-a-Ding looking like an animated reconstruction. He needed to look the part of a classic cartoon and he does. They even hired an animator who worked on Roger Rabbit, who I am sure was a font of knowledge. The static cameras we saw in “Marry Poppins,” compose many of the shots with Mr Ring-a-Ding. However, this feels like more of a directorial choice than a limitation. Many of the shots in the theatre are framed like a stage play. They’re calling attention to the artifice of theatre to call attention to how we, the audience, consume media. More on that later. The only time I was ever actually disappointed by the animation was when the Doctor and Belinda are turned into cartoons. I loved their Scooby-Doo aesthetics, but the sequence was little more than a trailer moment. Had I known this was about as far as they were planning to take this concept, I would have preferred they not put it in the trailer. I’m reminded of the time they announced the return of the John Simm Master instead of letting us be surprised by it. Hell, even the thumbnail is them as cartoons on iPlayer.

Had it not been for the stellar animation of Mr Ring-a-Ding, I would have felt stronger about the cartoon Doctor and Belinda being cut so short. It would have felt like they wasted a good concept on poor execution. As it stands, this may be some of the best animation in Doctor Who history. And I do still feel like they wasted a bit of the potential for some animated Doctor hijinks, but RTD had other plans. Hijinks would have gotten in the way of possibly Doctor Who’s most meta storyline to date- the Whovians. After breaking out of the 2-D space by gaining a bit of depth through vulnerability, the Doctor and Belinda find themselves in a white void, the visual of a film lens flooded with light. Our heroes try to break out of the film by forcing the frames of the film to advance. Davies even sneaks in a line about needing to stop scrolling and go outside. Which is really the theme of this episode. How we take in media extends into how we live our lives.

The Doctor and Belinda find themselves in the living room of three avid Doctor Who fans- Lizzie, Hassan, and Robyn. This is Davies calling us, and by extension, himself out. It’s also a love letter to the fans. Sure, they’re opinionated and annoying, but they also made friends through their love for Doctor Who. One of my favourite moments in this scene was the jump cut to the Doctor lounging on the couch while the Whovians geeked out around him. The Doctor once claimed to be a Sagittarius, but this is total Leo behaviour. I found myself thinking of the Fourth Doctor, whom I imagine would also relish in a bit of fan worship. He even had a cup of tea! It was such a cute attention to detail and I’d be hard pressed to think of a single Doctor I couldn’t see allowing themselves a moment of ego stroking. The living room set is full of fun Easter eggs for nerds like myself to scour freeze frames like a Doctor Who edition of an I Spy book. Davies pulls back on the meta by positioning the Whovians as the fictional characters and the Doctor and Belinda as real. It’s another illusion created by Lux. The fans get to save the Doctor by helping him break from the illusion. The Doctor and Belinda burn their way out of the screen.

Having the Doctor repair his hand with some excess bi-generation energy was a bit silly. It’s really only there to reveal regeneration energy to Lux. What’s funny is this is now part of regeneration lore. So have fun with that, wiki editors. It’s also interesting to note that the Doctor has firmly continued to refer to himself as a Time Lord. He reveals these things to Belinda throughout the episode. I love Belinda’s early days reactions to the Doctor. She gasps when she sees him use the sonic screwdriver for the first time. And she sighs at the ridiculousness of introducing the Doctor as “the Doctor.” I find myself all the more endeared toward her. I hope she and the Doctor continue referring to one another as Fred and Velma, respectively.

Lux sees the Doctor’s regeneration energy as the ultimate light for a God such as Himself. With it, he can grow a real body. Parts of this story felt like a rehash of “The Devil’s Chord.” Only instead of it being Ruby tied up by snakelike lines of music so a God can steal her essence, it’s the Doctor tied up by snakelike rolls of film so a God can steal his essence. They could have avoided this by having Lux manifest a couple of Sunshine Sallies to hold the Doctor within the beam. When he says “Go get ‘em, girls!” it’s what I actually expected to happen. The snakey film reels were still cool and had I never seen “The Devil’s Chord,” I wouldn’t have thought twice. I really enjoyed the attention to detail by giving Lux a cartoon heart in the x-ray shot of his chest soaking in the regeneration energy. It’s the details that make this episode work so well. There is a loving hand at the helm.

It’s up to Belinda to save the Doctor now. Remembering that celluloid is highly combustible, she heads to the projection booth to blow a hole in the roof. But Mr Pye with his nicotine stained fingers won’t give up his matches, especially not to let Belinda blow herself up. He’s spent to long pining for the image of his dead wife. His best chance to see her again is by searching the undiscovered country. The ghostly apparition of Helen is giving Lady in the Radiator vibes as she assures Reggie that in Heaven, everything is fine. In fact, a lot of this episode reminded me of the works of David Lynch. The theatre gave “Part 8,” of the Twin Peaks revival where Helen also made a fine stand in for Seniorita Dido. And the image of Lux fading into the universe evokes the ending of “The Elephant Man.” Joseph Merrick’s consciousness floating into the stars as his mother’s face welcomes him, saying “Never. Oh, never. Nothing will die. The stream flows, the wind blows, the cloud fleets, the heart beats. Nothing will die"

The “death,” of Lux was like something out of eastern philosophy. The idea of losing all identity by becoming everything in totality was both tragic and beautiful. What is complete ego death to a God? Is it odd that this felt less like Lux dying or even being defeated, and more like the natural cycle of his life playing out? It’s curious that as he’s absorbing regeneration energy, Lux becomes more complex, and very possibly, more deranged. But as he begins to soak up the light of the sun, he returns to his 2-D state. The Doctor mentioned that being 2-D gave you two dimensional thought. On a less complex and fundamental level, Lux yearns for the light. Perhaps this is why he lost dimension. His nature is simply to shine.

Other than the late Reginald Pye, this is one of those “Everybody lives!” moments. The patrons of the theatre have returned to their families with little memory of being captured to film. Even our Whovian friends become more than characters that don’t merrit last names. The credits see to it that we know their names are Lizzie Abel, Hassan Chowdry, and Robyn Gossage. The implications of this on the greater Whoniverse are yet unknown. It wouldn’t be the first time Doctor Who has broken the fourth wall or even met fans. They’ve done this storyline multiple times in the comics. However, having characters who know the world of Doctor Who exist within Doctor Who could get interesting. Just look at Marvel’s Gwenpool, a superhero from our universe. Her knowledge as a comic book fan gives her an edge in their world. Lizzie, Hassan, and Robyn are living in what is basically a Doctor Who isekai.

All of this meta fourth wall-breaking points directly at Mrs Flood. I’ve seen fan theories that the three Whovians are secretly the Gods of Ragnarok and that Mrs Flood is some sort God of Fiction. Perhaps she has the ability to cancel Doctor Who. It would make sense when you consider she says the show ends on the 24th of May. But if you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that while the 24th is a Saturday, it’s only episode seven. The show goes on beyond. This gives further credence to theory that Doctor Who cancellation rumours are actually a clever tie-in with this Mrs Flood storyline. In the same manner that regeneration addressed the real world change of a lead actor, Mrs Flood addresses the real world threat of Doctor Who’s cancellation. Mrs Flood is like a sort of all-powerful Mary Whitehouse, hellbent on putting an end to the Doctor’s story.

I said at the beginning of season two that I found it odd that they would film season two of Doctor Who before season one had even aired. However, I am now wondering if it’s not so they could leave themselves enough room to plan for season three to start filming at the end of season two. After all, we still have “The War Between the Land and the Sea,” coming. It would be weird to cancel a show they’ve put so much time and effort into. Can you imagine the sad state of airing a spin-off to a show that just got cancelled? Furthermore, Disney+ recently revealed that Doctor Who was it’s number five most watched series last year, which is pretty good for our beloved show. The BBC also stated that Doctor Who is among one of its top earners across their entire media empire. Is RTD so bold that he would use cancellation as a marketing ploy? It’s a risky one for sure. On one hand you could get more people watching, on the other hand, it could scare off would-be viewers who see it as a testament to the show’s overall quality. Are we living through a second Cartmel era where the show is facing cacellation just as it’s starting to get good again? I certainly hope not.

The real question about all of this metatextual storytelling is why now? When Russell T Davies returned to the program, the fandom was scattered. While the Chibnall era brought in new blood, it hemorraged old viewers. Going by this week’s ratings, that trend continues, which is odd considering everyone I have spoken to loved “Lux.” RTD seems interested in opening up a dialogue with the fandom about some of our more toxic traits. Sexism, racism, homophobia, ableism, all and more have been explored these last two seasons. Maybe he hopes to change some minds, or maybe he’s saying “We don’t need those types of fans.” You can sit alone in front of your keyboard banging out screeds against “Doctor Woke,” or you can come out of the darkness into the light. Like our meta Whovian counterparts, Doctor Who has the power to bring us together. Does it give me hope? Yes it does, sir.

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eightdoctor · 10 months ago

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my eda recs :) for anyone interested in getting into this series

i am prefacing this post with the note that i am an avid completionist and generally dislike telling people to skip certain books unless it's a john peel novel or placebo effect. however i understand telling people to read 74 novels is not at all accessible and i need you all to read. these books. please. please

this post is going to be long as shit i know it so i'm putting it ↓ here. books that can be skipped because theyre a bit shit will be colored red, ones that you Can Skip but are good/have some important character or plot bits in will be orange, and ones that are sooo good and necessary and the best books ever will be green. unfortunately i think a lot of the ones colored orange should be colored green but i know restraint. i can stay my hand. kind of

also i should say that i primarily read these for the characters - the plots themselves come second. so lots of my opinions come from the standpoint of which books have good characterizations. basically some of the ones that i color green would probably be skippable if any normal person were reading them but i'm insane!! and this is my list so fuck you!!!

The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks: ah my color trichotomy has bitten me in the ass on the first book. because truth be told i still haven't finished this one (nor have i really felt the need to yet), yet it introduces the first companion in the series, sam jones, and contains some other entertaining parts like the doctor getting caught with cocaine. as far as introductory books go it's meh

Vampire Science by Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum: this book. i truly can't sing my praises any louder than i already have. orman & blum took the character of the eighth doctor as portrayed by paul mcgann in a few measly minutes of screen time into a fully fleshed out, compelling and complex character. if you're a fan of the eighth doctor but aren't interested in reading all of the EDAs you have to read this one at the Very Least. it begins, as all good stories do, in a gay bar. it features vampire squirrels, the doctor with kittens, and the doctor infodumping on the beauty of science in a speech? conversation? that still touches me to this day, four years after i first read it.

The Bodysnatchers by Mark Morris: this book is Gross, and i mean that positively. mark morris held nothing back when describing how disgusting and putrid london was in the 1800s (he's primarily a horror writer, and that comes through rather clearly in this book). i genuinely enjoyed this novel a lot, but i know it's not for everyone because again, it's quite gory and disgusting

Genocide by Paul Leonard: don't you just want to see the doctor in a sun hat? being tortured for weeks on end? don't you want to examine his morality in termsof what species he thinks needs to be saved or doomed? jo grant is there

War of the Daleks by John Peel: fuck john peel all my homies hate john peel. for some reason all his books in this range contain daleks and it’s like…why. get some creativity. everyone else did. bitch

Alien Bodies by Lawrence Miles: this novel is So Good. it introduces faction paradox, the war in heaven plotline, humanoid tardises, and a couple of the most interesting & fun side characters in the whole range (homunculette and marieeee <3 cousin justineeee… aaaaaaahh). I shan’t spoil the entire conceit of the story but just know it’s. insane and fucked up and so so funny

Kursaal by Peter Anghelides: this is just a solid doctor who story, really. i wouldn’t call it imperative to the overarching plot of the novels (as tenuous as it is early on), but it’s an enjoyable enough read. it’s about an ancient race of alien werewolves underneath a theme park. what more can i say

Option Lock by Justin Richards: i recall enjoying the doctor and sam’s characterization in this one, and the story is like doctor strangelove meets, well, doctor who. it’s skippable, but i had fun reading it, and that’s really all you can ask for

Longest Day by Michael Collier: this is the start of the arc where sam gets separated from the doctor. actually the most tense and stressed i’ve been reading the edas was reading this and the next three books. it’s so dire, but it’s so so good, with incredible character moments from sam and the doctor. plus you have anstaar, nashaad with his metal legs, and some really fucked up body horror involving Time messing with people’s existences and driving ppl mad and stuff. people tend to either love this one or hate it from what i’ve seen, and i’m solidly in the former category. would definitely recommend

Legacy of the Daleks by John Peel: ughhhhhhhh… ughhhhjhhhhhh i guess you have to read this one. i guess you have to. it’s definitely an improvement on his last book but still. daleks again john? really? whateverrrrr.. some important stuff happens to susan is in this one though. and the master as well. so if you care about either of those characters you should read this i suppose

Dreamstone Moon by Paul Leonard: a general rule of the edas is paul leonard always writes excellent books (in my opinion, anyway), and this is not the exception. sam and the doctor are still separated, but they’re in the same place and keep missing each other and its like UGGHHHH!!! UGHHH!!! but you have interesting commentary on capitalism’s exploitation and effective revolutionary action and all that stuff. also aloisse is an incredible character and i love her

Seeing I by Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum: HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOOD LIRD!!!!!!!!!!! kate and jon do it again, those crazy bastards. you know how every author loves torturing the shit out of eight? these guys take that and run with it in the opposite direction, asking the question what if the worst thing the doctor could go through isn’t agonizing torture, but rather just a lack of enrichment in his enclosure? what if he had to stay locked up in one building for three years and couldn’t escape for the life of him? meanwhile sam, now a refugee with no social support (as she technically shouldn’t exist in this time and location), has to deal with homelessness, and has to decide whether it’s better to have a stable, yet soulless corporate job - or do something that’s meaningful and benefits society. she’s at her best in this book for sure

Placebo Effect by Gary Russell: throws up. don’t read this because it is actually rhe worst book in the whole range and i’m not joking. sorry gary you’re a nice guy but i thought the arguments against evolution that went on for like 3 pages were extremely egregious and also plain wrong. you may look at this book and think “oh cool! Stacy and ssard from the comics are in this one!” well they’re there for like a paragraph and don’t do shit. so

Vanderdeken's Children by Christopher Bulis: really fun novel that’s pretty much the epitome of the classic doctor who question “wouldn’t that be really fucked up and crazy?” it also established the fact that the doctor told sam his real name which is really fun and awesome

The Scarlet Empress by Paul Magrs: much like paul leonard, paul magrs Never disappoints. this book is just so fucking fun. in essence, it’s a road trip story. they drive across a planet listening to abba and visiting lots of kooky places and picking up lots of wacky characters. it also deconstructs gender and self-identity and what it means to be an individual. a cyborg and a giant spider get lesbian married. aewsome 👍

The Janus Conjunction by Trevor Baxendale: i really debated on making this one skippable, i did. because while it doesn’t continue any of the established plots or themes or whatever, it does show the doctor breaking the laws of time to save his companion’s life, and that’s really cool we love that. there’s a lot of fun body horror too if you go for that sort of thing. and more giant spiders but these ones are different

Beltempest by Jim Mortimore: ok honestly? i didn’t vibe with this one. i know some people really liked it but i felt as if the characterization was Off. some wacky wild stuff happens to sam though

The Face-Eater by Simon Messingham: <-doesn’t remember much of this one cuz i was high while reading it. i think it was a solid story though?

The Taint by Michael Collier: yayyyyyyyy fitz is hereeeee my babyboy… lots of people don’t vibe with this one but i do. because i love fitz and everything he’s in and him and the doctor are such bastards to each other in the beginning it’s great. their repartee is genuinely so entertaining and really elevates the book for me, even if the plot itself is a bit mediocre. either way even if you don’t like it you have to read it because it introduces fitz. so there

Demontage by Justin Richards: telling you to skip this one would be a disservice. because technically it Is skippable, but it has some absolutely hilarious moments that really drive home the fact that fitz is Cringe. they’re on a space casino called vega in the far future and fitz dresses in a (from everyone else's perspective) old-fashioned tuxedo. he smokes indoors and everyone gives him nasty looks because he’s in the future and no one smokes inside. he asks for his cocktails shaken not stirred and the bartender fucking hates him. and he also accidentally gets involved in an assassination plot. but i suppose if you must skip it then go ahead…

Revolution Man by Paul Leonard: mr leonard does it again. this is an excellent novel for both companions that begins with sam and the doctor engaging in leftist discourse with an anarchist and ends with the world almost ending. it happens.

Dominion by Nick Walters: you have to read this one just for the doctor’s first gay kiss. sorry i don’t make the rules. also it just features a neat concept imo and has a great moment where the doctor punches a pillow in frustration and then sadly apologizes to it

Unnatural History by Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum: this book is one that i think every doctor who fan who’s ever gotten mad about canon not making sense should be forced at gunpoint to read. it’s a novel that’s essentially one big metacommentary on doctor who canon & why it Doesn’t Matter At All, Actually; the doctor was birthed and he was loomed and both are equally true and untrue. also features the iconic paragraph calling the doctor a (verbatim) “backrub slut”, as well as wrapping up the ongoing arc with sam jones hinted at in alien bodies and a few other books in a way that’ll have you side eyeing moffat very suspiciously

Autumn Mist by David A. McIntee: this one’s pretty good and has a couple great moments (fitz calling himself james bond, for one), but is, i think, ultimately skippable unless youre a world war 2 buff

Interference Books 1 & 2 by Lawrence Miles: nothing i can say will adequately put into words what these two novels made me feel, you hear me? absolutely nothing. good fucking god. jesus christ. holy fuck.. if i sat here listsing all the important and iconic moments in these books we’d be here all shitting day and this post is already obscenely long. read these 2 books. then read them again.

The Blue Angel by Paul Magrs: ok i know i just said this but HOOOOOO..WHOA NELLY! the blue angel is easily in my top 5 edas. it literally heavily features a canon domestic au wherein the doctor is a “middle-aged gay man”. fitz says he wants to get laid by the doctor. the doctor’s mother is a mermaid. there’s off-brand spirk. someone turns into a giant squid. literally this book is so good they wrote a screenplay adaptation of it and a spinoff short story that you should also read

The Taking of Planet 5 by Simon Bucher-Jones and Mark Clapham: you’re going to be hearing this a lot from me but we Are entering the part of the series where it really takes off and gets sooo fucking good. anyway this novel is sooo fucking good and quite important to the plot and establishes stuff about the war in heaven and gallifrey so. read it. also there's ELDRITCH BEASTS!

Frontier Worlds by Peter Anghelides: i can’t tell you to skip this one because it’s so good. fitz goes by the alias frank sinatra & also talks like him for a solid portion of the book. we get excellent compassion moments. great doctor moments (including that Hot and Sexy dream he has about the tardis!) and all in all it’s a wonderful story

Parallel 59 by Stephen Cole and Natalie Dallaire: lots of stuff happens in this one, especially to fitz. by that i mean it gets referenced quite a bit later so i would recommend if you want to catch all the references. also a woman worked on this one so you already know eight is going to be written phenomenally and very sensually.

The Shadows of Avalon by Paul Cornell: rather important development happens to compassion in this book (understatement). but it’s also a really good story in general with lots of memorable bits - paul cornell wrote one EDA and did a great job and then vanished from the range. it also has the BRIGADIER and his ROMANCE with MAB the BIG BOSOMED CELTIC QUEEN so like.. read it??

The Fall of Yquatine by Nick Walters: a pretty important thing happens to compassion in this one too (another understatement). also withnail & i references galore, fitz has a bad time (has he had a Good time for the past few books? questionable!), and the doctor spends time with a gay baker/contraband parts dealer

Coldheart by Trevor Baxendale: you could skip this one but why would you even want to? it’s literally one of compassion’s best stories and has plenty of excellent doctor and companion moments. it’s just fun and engaging and an outstanding doctor who story. and, as always, fitz is effortlessly cringe as ever <3

The Space Age by Steve Lyons: this one’s just boring and kinda stupid. nothing big or important happens and you can tell steve lyons didn’t care for writing compassion at all. skip it

The Banquo Legacy by Andy Lane and Justin Richards: Big Plot Developments in this one - mostly in the beginning and end. also the only (?) mention of irving braxiatel in the whole run! it’s written from the POV of two Normal people not on the tardis so it’s interesting to see how they perceive the doctor and fitz, and how this contradicts the way they define themselves in other books where we’re privy to their internal monologue

The Ancestor Cell by Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHH AAAAGHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU HFHOA8U8OIA AOUIY4P98 YT39 7UGHYIB3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this one drives me insane and there are parts of it i reread nearly every day. because i’m CRAZY. it’s a controversial novel in the doctor who fandom because of how it handles gallifrey and faction paradox lore but WHO FUCKING CARES? FATHER KREINER IS BACK BABY

The Burning by Justin Richards: this is the start of the Earth Arc, so it’s the first portrayal of the doctor stuck on earth without any of his memories. it’s a bit slow at the beginning, and as a normal doctor who story i would consider it subpar, but the characterization of the doctor really carries it i think. you see how losing his memory impacted his restraint with things such as hypnosis and Other Stuff I Shan’t Spoil

Casualties of War by Steve Emmerson: this has the first appearance of the Note, so it’s especially important for that reason. but it’s also just a neat story that has way more elements of a fantasy than a sci fi and again, seeing how the doctor acts now, stuck on earth without his memories, and juxtaposing that with how he acted before, super fun and neat

The Turing Test by Paul Leonard: if i could graft this book onto my DNA i would. i already KNEW the circumstances surrounding alan turing’s death and yet i still cried about it while reading this!! paul leonard’s portrayal of turing as both a gay and autistic man (though the latter is never explicitly stated) is INCREDIBLE and i really can’t recommend it enough just based on that. but the story itself is amazing and really delves into the doctor’s Differences and his desperation to leave earth after being stuck there for decades.

Endgame by Terrance Dicks: people really like this one and i guess i had fun with it but i just can’t really get into terrence dicks’ writing style. that being said it features the doctor listless and just so sad and depressed so you kind of have to read it. if that’s not reason enough there’s a fat gay alcoholic spy who absolutely rocks

Father Time by Lance Parkin: i hate that this is green. i hate it. i hate this fucking book. i hate lance parkin also. but this is where miranda (the doctor’s adopted daughter) is introduced so alas, you must read it and imagine a version of this book thats infinitely better in your head. sorry!

Escape Velocity by Colin Brake: this one’s mid but it’s the end of the earth arc and fitz and the doctor reunite and ANJI KAPOOR IS HERE!!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!! so if you read this and get a lil bored just know it’s about to get so fucking good you guys

EarthWorld by Jacqueline Rayner: genuinely can’t say enough good things about this one. it’s funny. it’s angsty. it’s all in all just a really fun book. and it’s the shortest one i think so like you have no excuse to not read it

Fear Itself by Nick Wallace: this is technically a PDA because it was written after nine was announced, thereby making 8 technically a “past doctor”, but who give a shit. read this one are yoyu kidding me. read it read it read it read it READ IT. there’s a twist in it that rendered me absolutely catatonic for about a week

Vanishing Point by Stephen Cole: don’t skip this one even though it’s orange. are you listening to me? don’t fucking skip it ok!!! steve cole is the #1 fitz/eight shipper and this really shines through here. also maybe i’m just easily entertained by reasonably accurate science in my doctor who books but i liked all the genetics references

Eater of Wasps by Trevor Baxendale: trevor you sly dog you did it again. you mad bastard. not only is the storyline in this one soo gripping and also Quite horrifying but the characterization?? hoooooo boy. this is the book where “you really love him, don’t you?” “well, i like to think we’re just good friends.” comes from and so even if it was dogshit you’d have to read it just for that like cmon

The Year of Intelligent Tigers by Kate Orman: holy. fucking. shit. good grief. the doctor has a boyfriend and they go on picnics and drink chocolate martinis together. the doctor becomes a catboy for a few months. this story takes place on a colony world whose culture is predominantly centered around music, so you have the doctor playing his violin (hot). you have scientifically accurate zoology/xenobiology. you have a Mysterious lost civilization. most importantly you have fitz’s song he wrote for the doctor

The Slow Empire by Dave Stone: this one’s just FUNNY okay. dave stone has such a characteristic way of writing prose it’s just kind of a joy to read. if you get the hard copy all of the bits from a side character’s pov is written in comic sans. while some of the characterization is a bit meh and anji didn’t Really live up to her full potential in a couple scenes i’d still recommend it. there’s footnotes

Dark Progeny by Steve Emmerson: this is another one i colored orange even though i whole-heartedly recommend it.. it’s a commentary on corporate apathy and greed and how it destroys entire planets and just a really engaging story besides. not to mention we get a “fitz fitz fitz fitz fitz!” bit from 8 <3

The City of the Dead by Lloyd Rose: i can’t even talk about this oine lest i lose my mind… not joking when i say lloyd rose writes some of the best and juiciest angst in the whole series like some of the scenes in there made me feel like i was being helplessly entrapped in flowing grain for a month

Grimm Reality by Simon Bucher-Jones and Kelly Hale: i really do sound like a broken record at this point but this is another one of those books i could never say enough positive things about. there are two novels in this series that genre-hop and this is one of them. the tardis lands on a world where everything runs on logic straight out of the brother’s grimm (hence the title). there’s magic cloaks and evil stepsisters and giants, and the doctor, fitz, and anji all have their own separate adventures so it’s super interesting to see how each character deals with being in a fairytale. not only that but there are parts of the book written in the style of those old fairytales and i really do get a good kick out of gimmicky stuff like that

The Adventuress of Henrietta Street by Lawrence Miles: buckle the fuck up everyone and get out your highlighters and sticky notes because this one is so fucking dense you’ll have no choice but to annotate and take notes, sorry! it’s written in the style of a historical nonfiction which occasionally falls flat (where’s the fucking works cited, lawrence???), but the story is fucking crazy. you got arcane rituals, prostitutes doing sex magic that summon great apes, sabbath is here, the doctor is weak and sickly (always awesome), sabbath is here, the doctor gets married so he can save the earth, sabbath is here,

Mad Dogs and Englishmen by Paul Leonard: this is the petplay book featuring multicolored poodles that have human hands. need i say more?

Hope by Mark Clapham: not the best book but it’s got some pretty crucial anji moments in, and we all love love love anji so much so we’ll read mediocre novels just for her!! (but we also see the doctor struggle with only having one heart so that’s fun too)

Anachrophobia by Jonathan Morris: literally my top 3 book in the series EASY. it takes place on a planet ravaged by a time war (as in a war that fights with weapons that fuck with time. not like That time war), yet despite that particular futuristic conceit the entire atmosphere of the book feels like something out of the 40s or 50s - almost like the aesthetics of fallout, but instead of nuclear radiation it’s Time. most of the story takes place in this sealed off bunker that’s doing experiments to try and develop time travel, and while they’re successful in going back in time the guinea pigs who volunteered for the trial develop an illness that fucks up their personal timelines so bad they literally turn into clock zombies. and it’s contagious. but no one can leave because theres fucked up time outside uh oh!!! if you liked the themes of war profiteering from boom in the new season you’ll LOVE this book

Trading Futures by Lance Parkin: fuck you lance parkin i can’t stand your ass! you can’t fucking write for shit!!! i’d recommend this book if you want to see anji referred to as ‘the asian woman’ more than her actual name :) and a southeast asian character with a name that might as well have been taken right out of a book written by jk rowling. really the only good part of this book is when anji almost calls the doctor an otter-fucker

The Book of the Still by Paul Ebbs: this book is a WILD fucking ride. this book is fucking insane in the most positive of ways. paul ebbs writes an absolutely top tier eight that manages to encapsulate all the development he went through in the series as well as evoking the characterization from the 1996 movie

The Crooked World by Steve Lyons: this is the second book that does a genre-swap, but instead of fairytales this time the tardis lands on a planet dominated by saturday morning cartoon physics and logic. but the doctor & co being there begins to introduce Real Life concepts such as death and sex and swearing, so all these wacky cartoon characters who’ve spent their whole lives doing wacky cartoon things like blowing each other up with sticks of dynamite or hitting each other with big hammers suddenly find that these actions actually have very very serious consequences, which really kicks off when this story’s equivalent of tom rips off this story’s equivalent of jerry’s head, killing him instantly. idk i just watched a lot of saturday morning cartoons as a kid so seeing the parodies of wacky races and scooby doo was very enjoyable. to me

History 101 by Mags L Halliday: to put it simply this book is about leftist infighting. to put it more complexly this book is about the spanish civil war and how differing opinions and principles can alter one’s perception of history - and what happens when history actually starts being changed in accordance to these differing principles. there’s also the subplot featuring fitz’s homoerotic, yet very traumatizing, travels with a guy named sasha as they journey to guernica so they can watch it be bombed

Camera Obscura by Lloyd Rose: this is where sabbath and the doctor’s relationship really reaches it’s peak. this is The Esteemed Toxic Old Man Yaoi Novel. but also remember when i said lloyd rose writes the best angst? this holds especially true here. i won’t spoil it for you but Something Crazy Happens to the Doctor! haha. haha

Time Zero by Justine Richards: this is just quantum physics: the novel. while fitz goes on his doomed siberia expedition with the geologist boytoy george in the 19th century, the doctor investigates some strange readings in siberia like a hundred years later, and some crazy confusing hijinks ensue! the events in this book kick off the arc that’ll continue for the next few books until sometime never where the multiverse is collapsing and the doctor has to fix it. even though he doesn’t know how. ALSO TRIX INTRODUCTIONNNNNN!!!!!!!!

The Infinity Race by Simon Messingham: this one’s whatever. the sabbath characterization is wack but there are a few good moments. you think it’s going to be mostly about a cool boat race but sadly that comes secondary -_-

The Domino Effect by David Bishop: this book is ASS, both plot-wise and characterization-wise. it also just seems like the author was trying to be needlessly edgy when he developed the setting, and there are just some baffling moments where characters say and do things i frankly think they would never say

Reckless Engineering by Nick Walters: the events in this one center around a tragedy that is fucking batshit insane. the universe this takes place in features a post-apocalyptic earth. i shan’t say what this apocalypse was because finding out what happened is all apart of the fun guys. i can’t spoil everything for you

The Last Resort by Paul Leonard: what if a corporation discovered TIME TRAVEL and set up RESORTS all across human history? what if there was a mcdonalds in ancient egypt and advertisements for microsoft in the original version of the bible? also what if something just soooo fucked up happens so many times <3

Timeless by Stephen Cole: anji’s last book. sobs.

Emotional Chemistry by Simon A. Forward: idk what it was but i just didn’t really vibe with this one. it’s not awful by any means and there’s a bit of plot carried in from the last novel that continues into the next but the actions that surround it don’t really matter i think. honestly i’d just read a summary of this one and continue on

Sometime Never... by Justin Richards: the culmination of the multiverse stuff. i liked it - miranda makes a reappearance, and the fact she’s written by someone other than lance parkin is already a plus. my only qualm is i don’t really like how it handled sabbath but that’s sort of how i felt about all the books post camera obscura… sigh

Halflife by Mark Michalowski: ANOTHER EASY TOP 3. i’m simply obsessed with all of the concepts and tropes in this book, not to mention it’s where fitz’s infamous Ass Dream can be found. there’s commentary on racism, colonialism, and religion, and it also features cannibalism as a metaphor for love :D

The Tomorrow Windows by Jonathan Morris: another case of me coloring a book orange even though i think you should read it anyway. it’s positively saturated with so many interesting alien planets and creatures and societies you’d be missing out if you didn’t read this one tbh. it’s also the first novel ever to feature the ninth doctor!

The Sleep of Reason by Martin Day: this one ok. it’s another book written from the pov of an outsider and her insights into the doctor, fitz, and trix are interesting (and their characterization when they show up is outstanding!) but it feels like they’re rarely in it & this close to the end of the series i just want to see more of my guys you know...

The Deadstone Memorial by Trevor Baxendale: i loved the atmosphere in this one. it’s more of a ghost story with sci fi elements, and the stakes involved aren’t Bigger Than Ever like they tend to be nowadays, but instead surround the wellbeing of a family of a single mom and her two kids which i appreciate - the doctor isn’t saving the Whole Universe and World; just a family from a small town; it’s effective in getting the point across that the doctor thinks everyone’s important and worth saving

To the Slaughter by Stephen Cole: this one’s fun and goofy and steve cole wrote it solely so he could fix an error from a fourth doctor serial in which the doctor got the number of jupiter’s moons wrong. that being said the reason it’s not colored orange is because the last book of the series is written by lance parkin and i want to help you procrastinate reading his godawful prose for as long as possible. your welcome

The Gallifrey Chronicles by Lance Parkin: fuck you lance parkin

#I FINISHED IT GUYS BE PROUD OF ME #i didnt say much about gallifrey chronicles cuz i hvent read it yet but i know some of what happens in it so i can confidently say:#fuck you lance parkin #i might add onto this list with recs for various short stories also featuring the 8th doctor and his eda companions #doctor who #edas #eighth doctor #fitz kreiner #sam jones #anji kapoor #compassion #trix macmillan

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petercapaldi-press · 2 months ago

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INTERVIEW

Doctor Who Magazine

October 2014

"The Doctor sees himself as a cosmic, timeless philosopher, an explorer, adventurer, righter of wrongs, and hopeless piece of flotsam and jetsam. I think he has to be all of those things..."

Simple, stark, and back to basics. No frills, no scarf, no messing. Just 100% rebel Time Lord. The Twelfth Doctor is in the building...

Interview by Benjamin Cook

[transcript under the cut]

Peter Capaldi is cool. This time last year, bow ties were cool, and fezzes, or Stetsons, possibly bunk beds. But now it’s the Doctor himself. Cool and composed, still never cruel or cowardly, and just the right amount of scary. If you’re anxious about this new, unfamiliar Doctor bursting onto our screens this month in his first, feature-length adventure, don’t be. Firstly, he’s brilliant. Secondly, you’re not alone. Because beneath his cool, unflappable exterior, 56-year old Peter is anxious too.

“I’m terrified,” he admits. “I have been since the very first day. At the first readthrough, there were so many people, the room was packed, you’re being filmed from the moment you step through the door. You think, ‘Oh God, I’ve got to do something good with the part now.’ When I got to film it, I was very frightened. I still am. It’s actually getting a bit more frightening now, because the show is coming on shortly. You’re in a bubble when you’re making it, because it’s so all-consuming. You sort of forget that it’s going out into the world, people are going to have opinions about it, and it’s going to work or it’s not. Once all that enters your head, you get scared all over again. You know? It’s a big challenge, because it’s sort of not about acting chops; it’s about whether or not the people like you, and there’s no guarantee of that. But you can’t spend every day terrified or you’d never get anything done - it’s not much use to you, if you’re on edge – so you sort of have to just not look down. You have to try to get on with that scene, with those words, coming through that door, running after that monster. Concentrate on those elements, and not on the bigger picture. The Doctor is rarely that frightened.” A pause. “I think it’s good to be frightened.” He mulls this over, before adding: “But also it’s delightful.”

It's well documented that Peter is a fan of Doctor Who. You’ll have read the letter he wrote, as a teenager, to Radio Times, lamenting the death of original Master actor Roger Delgado and applauding a recent article on how to build a Dalek. (‘Who knows, the country could be invaded by an army of school Daleks,’ wrote 15-year-old Peter. ‘Ah, but we’d be safe, as we’d have Dr Who to protect us!’) You’ll know that he collected the Doctors’ autographs, wrote fan fiction, drew fan art, and once interviewed Bernard Lodge, the designer of the show’s original title sequence, for a Doctor Who fanzine. You might even know that Peter was involved in the early days of organized fandom, and penned numerous letters to the Doctor Who production office inquiring about how the show was made. One time, producer Barry Letts wrote back, sending Peter two shooting scripts for 1972 Pertwee serial The Mutants, “a trigger to my ambition to work somehow – I didn’t know how – in TV,” Peter has said.

Which makes it all the more satisfying that forty-something years later, on a blisteringly hot Saturday afternoon in July 2014, Peter is stood on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral – the real one in London, not, as showrunner Steven Moffat teases, "an exact replica that we’ve built in Cardiff” – shooting the two-part finale of his first series as the Doctor. He still can’t quite believe it. “I’m amazed,” he tells DWM, “to find myself close to the end now. It’s all gone very quickly.”

Stood next to Peter, fellow Glaswegian Michelle Gomez is all Edwardian and chic – and probably up to no good – as the intriguingly-titled Gatekeeper of the Nethersphere. A passing London cabbie rolls down his window and yells, “It’s Doctor Who and Mary Poppins!”

Peter starts to sing. “Feed the birds, tuppence a bag…”

Off camera, five Cybermen lurk. They’re not joining in. (Cybermen can’t sing.) They were last spotted stomping around St Palu’s in the 1968 serial The Invasion, which Peter watched on its original airing. Of course he did. “It’s great to recreate it today,” he says. “Although, I think they had more Cybermen back then.”

“But we can CGI in extra ones,” points out Steven. “And will! Come on, it’s pretty impressive.” He’s right, it is. As the Cybermen march down the cathedral steps, Peter takes photos on his mobile phone. “It’s terrifying when they come straight at you,” marvels Steven. “They look quite funny on the stairs, but then - uh oh!”

For the past six months, Peter has divided his time between his home in London, and Cardiff, the spiritual home of twenty-first century Doctor Who. He saves the universe Mondays to Fridays, then returns to London at weekends to spend time with his wife and daughter. Peter and his wife have been married for 23 years. Remarkably, he has been reading DWM for even longer. “For as long as I can remember,” he says. See, he’s a proper fan. Right now, a few feet away from us, there are several hundred fellow fans, watching the filming from behind police cordons. “It’s nice for them to have something to see,” Peter says. “The best days are always those where we’re blowing up monsters in broad daylight.” He heads over to meet the fans between virtually every take – signing autographs, posing for photos. His dedication is relentless. This man cares.

What was it that first attracted Peter to Doctor Who? Growing up in the 1960s in Glasgow, BBC TV Centre must have seemed a world away…

“Well, yes, regional accents were few and far between on television,” he remembers. “That’s how shows were. That’s how drama and entertainment was presented. But it absolutely didn’t feel a world away. It’s odd now when you think about it, as most drama then was London-centric, but we didn’t think about that. It was full of monsters, and creatures, and mystery, and darkness, and fun, and magic. Anybody who enjoyed the show had a very intimate relationship with it, so it never occurred to me for a second where it was made. It didn’t feel as though we were watching different people, other than when they were supposed to be not human. People have often asked me, since I took up the role, what the attraction is, and I find almost any answer is wanting. You can break it down into constituent events or psychoanalytical nuggets, but in the end it’s a sort of myth to me; a curious mix of sci-fi, and the fairytale, and the mysterious. It’s quite a darkly magical thing, I think. I like to keep it a mystery.

Does it feel like the same show he’s working on now?

“To me it does, but I know that it isn’t. The show is clearly, on lots of levels, very different. It’s a very huge, commercial concern. It’s international in a way that it wasn’t before. That’s the show that we’re making. But at its heart it’s the same, because it’s made by people with a very deep and respectful affection for the show through all its incarnations. Also, it’s not about standing still. It’s constantly moving and looking forward. It must bring the past with it, without being slavish to it. Of course, sometimes we make a very specific reference to the past. Sometimes the past does assert itself very powerfully…”

Let me tell you about my first meeting with Peter. It’s 1 May 2014, and I’m in a Nottingham Castle vault. In Cardiff. This is perfectly normal. They’re shooting Episode 3, Mark Gatiss’ Robot of Sherwood. I first glimpse Peter standing beneath a Medieval tapestry, practicing the yo-yo. Ben Miller is here too, playing the Sheriff of Nottingham, but looking spookily like Anthony Ainley’s Master circa 1983. During a break in filming, I slink out of the castle, and onto the empty, darkened TARDIS set next door. Because I’m nosy, and I want to see what they’ve done with the place since the new Doctor arrived. He has left his mark. The console room now boasts bookshelves, a chalkboard, a small workshop… but it’s dark and I can’t really see, so I venture in a little further. It no longer feels like I’m in a Cardiff TV studio or that Robin Hood is next door, or that this isn’t actually the TARDIS. And that’s when I hear a voice. “Hello, you must be new.” It’s him! Not Peter Capaldi, but the Doctor. Looking a lot like Peter Capaldi. He’s sitting on a fold-up chair, in the shadows, where he was rehearsing his lines before DWM broke in. But he smiles warmly, and says he loves the magazine. “It relaxes me after a long day,” he explains. “I’m enjoying Doctor Who Magazine very much at the moment, and I’m glad that someone is documenting all of this stuff.”

Then the Doctor shows me around his TARDIS. “Essentially, it’s Matt [Smith]’s TARDIS, with a few additions,” he says. “You can’t see today, but it’s usually lit quite differently. Lots of orange. I think we might stick with this next year, too.” He’s talking about next year already! This man loves his job. “How could I not? It’s Doctor Who.” He talks enthusiastically of the fans he’s met since taking on the role (“They see the Doctor, not Peter Capaldi. That’s better, I think. The Doctor is much more interesting than I am”), and of how thrilled he is with this year’s crop of scripts, even those that are delivered at the eleventh hour (“I’d much prefer that than them arriving a week earlier and not being as brilliant”), and of how important it is with a show as huge as this that everyone who works on it cares as much as they do. His only regret about taking on the role, he confesses, is that he’s aware that one day he must give it up. “So I’m determined to enjoy every day as much as I can.”

Then he shows me his binder. This is the binder in which Peter keeps his scripts. It’s covered in photos from old episodes of Doctor Who. “It’s kind of like a school thing, really,” he explains. “I was looking for some stuff to decorate it. There’s a certain childlike thing… You surround yourself with images, and try to conjure a creative environment, even within the little plastic folder that I’ve bought from the stationary shop, that’s going to constantly remind you of things, put ideas in your head. I found these pictures on the internet.” There’s a photo of an out-of-costume Jon Pertwee and Liz Shaw actress Caroline John rehearsing a scene from 1970 serial Inferno (“He looks very dashing,” comments Peter, “and I like that, because I sort of don’t imagine any of the Doctors in their own clothes. It’s unusual to see him like that on the TARDIS set, and a reminder of how elegant he was in real life”); another of Pertwee and Delgado sharing a smile during the filming of 1971’s The Claws of Axos; one of a beaming Tom Baker in the mid-70s, at the height of his powers, surrounded by a sea of adoring children and curious old ladies; a photo of Baker during a visit to the Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Sick Children, enjoying a light-hearted moment with the nurses (“It looks like it was taken in the 30s,” says Peter, “which it can’t have been but it’s a picture of great warmth”); another of William Hartnell, in full Who regalia, signing a girl’s plaster cast during a visit to a children’s ward in the 60s…

“It’s a reminder,” says Peter, “that whatever people might think about William Hartnell, this was somebody who was going out to children’s hospitals on his days off, making sick kids feel a little bit better. It reminded me of that element of the show, that connection that kids and young people make to it.” It’s clear that Peter isn’t taking the responsibilities that come with playing the Doctor lightly. The photos adorning his binder are, he says, “fun little signals of the show’s past, for me, and a connection with childhood, I guess. I realise now, as I’m saying it to you, it’s an underlining of where Doctor Who was born for me. It was my childhood.”

When I next meet Peter, he’s shooting Episode 8, Mummy on the Orient Express. It’s the second week of June. Peter, Clara actress Jenna Coleman, and guest star Frank Skinner – another diehard Doctor Who fan – are on the fully-lit TARDIS. Frank is transfixed by the orange glow of the central console. “Stunning, isn’t it?”

“It’s like Alien under there,” nods director Paul Wilmshurst.

Frank isn’t even in this scene. He just wanted to be on the TARDIS set to watch Peter. “It’s like I’m watching Doctor Who live,” grins Frank, “but from a really, really good seat.”

Peter is worried that the Doctor is too solemn in this scene. “That’s a very serious face,” he says, watching himself back on the camera monitor. “There’s tension there. The Saturday night audience, they want it to be, ‘Yeah, hooray, now whoosh, let’s go,’ but that ain’t happening.”

“The Saturday night audience is a mixture of people,” Paul reminds him. “No, I like it.”

This weekend, Peter read the scripts for his first season finale. “It’s a stormer,” he tells me, then fixes me dead in the eyes and asks: “The Caves of Androzani. Why’s it so popular?”

Um. It looks amazing… The whole serial oozes class… It’s probably Peter Davison’s finest performance as the Doctor… It’s everything you could want from a Doctor’s swansong.

Peter looks satisfied, for now. “Interesting. Thank you.” He bounds off to film a scene. (Later, on board the Orient Express, I overhear a conversation between Peter and Frank. “Sharaz Jek,” Peter is saying. “Don’t you think he’s brilliant?” “Yes!” Frank replies. “Oh, I love Sharaz Jek!” I leave them to it.) Ten minutes later, Peter is back. “Ben, how long can Time Lords live for? Also, what’s the best Colin Baker story?”

Okay. Weill. Thousands of years. And I nominate The Trial of a Time Lord, controversially. (So sue me. Or send your letters of complaint to the editorial address.) But Trial aired in 1986, I point out, at a time when the BBC wasn’t all that supportive of Doctor Who.

“That must have been hard,” says Peter, “for the people who worked on it back then. Fortunately for us, that’s no longer the case. This show couldn’t be more supported.”

A few weeks later, back in London, I ask Peter about this day, and his questions about former Doctors. “It’s two things,” he explains. “This is an extraordinary part, with an extraordinary history to it, so I’m very conscious of arriving in this historical context. But also it’s very, very personal, because your own experience of the show informs it, so I was keen to make myself more familiar with Peter and Colin, because that’s when I sort of left the show behind. I was about 17, 18 years old midway through Tom Baker, and I started to drift away a bit. I don’t mean I didn’t watch it, but… I’m not as familiar with it. I wasn’t there as religiously on Saturday afternoons as I had been previously, and in those days there were no VCRs, no DVDs. If you missed it, you missed it. I wanted to learn about my ‘lost years’. I think it’s important to know and to understand what was going on in the show back then. Actually, Doctor Who Magazine has been a great help to me with that, so thank you. The great challenge of the show and this part is to keep it personal, while being respectful to its past.”

So how do you go about making the part of the Doctor your own? Where do you even begin?

“Well,” says Peter, “you begin with yourself. You begin with those elements of yourself that you feel would be at home in that role. There’s an old actors’ adage that you don’t become the role, the role becomes you. It’s trying to find those parts of you that will fit with the Doctor, and understand those bits that don’t come so naturally to you, that you have to fabricate. I kept looking for people in real life who I thought had elements of the Doctor about them and were inspirational in some ways. I composed a list of those.” He won’t reveal who’s on the list. All he’ll say is, “I was trying to stick in ideas about people who would be Doctor-ish and if I could expound on that or deploy any of their tics… I tried to generate a microclimate of Doctor Who creativity. Also, it’s recognising what’s been written. My Doctor is written slightly differently from some of the other Doctors, and the Doctor changes quite dramatically from episode to episode. Some demand more of your comedy chops, graver or more serious episodes demand a more sombre creature. All these variations have to live in the same body, in the same face. Putting all that together is tricky.” He shrugs. “I’m saying all this, it hasn’t gone out yet. I don’t know if it’s worked. It remains to be seen whether or not I’ve been successful.”

Which bits of his Doctor are most like Peter, I ask?

This stumps him at first. He thinks hard for a good 30 seconds, before saying: “Um. Well, I suppose there’s a sort of, uh… there’s a kind of division that happens in the eighteenth century between science and art. Previously science and art had belonged in the same box. Leonardo da Vinci could be a fabulous artist and a fabulous scientist. To me, the Doctor is an artist-slash-scientist. He’s incredibly bright. I don’t think my Doctor would welcome any of those definitions. He’d think they’re quite primitive, from his point of view.”

So how does this new Doctor see himself?

“Good question. I think as a cosmic, timeless philosopher, explorer, adventurer, righter of wrongs, and hopeless piece of flotsam and jetsam. I think he has to be all of those things. I didn’t want him to be in charge as much as perhaps we’ve seen him before. He’s someone who sees great beauty in things, but that can be in stars being born in the outer reaches of the galaxy, or in litter blowing across a supermarket car park at dawn. He finds all of these things beautiful, and I think he should constantly stop and see them. He wants to pursue beautiful things, but he gets shocked into adventures. I think he just wants to range around up there, back there, in the future, looking at it all, enjoying it all, and seeing it all, but he’s constantly drawn into areas of conflict.”

I point out that Peter’s Doctor has a bit of an edge to him – he can seem quite severe at times – but Peter insists, “It’s less him being hard on people; it’s more that he doesn’t understand quite how you talk to human beings. It’s less ‘I don’t suffer fools gladly’; more ‘Oh, they’re quite complex, these human beings. They need to be comforted from time to time.’ He becomes impatient with them. Some of the previous Doctors have been more sensitive to what their companions and other human beings need from him. My Doctor needs them to get up to speed with him. He can’t really be bothered hanging around and making life lovely for them, making them welcome. It doesn’t mean they’re not welcome. A lot of this is in the writing: Steven’s concept of how far you can take the Doctor. I never think my Doctor is unpleasant; he just isn’t great at dealing with humans. He doesn’t mean to be short with them. He just doesn’t quite get it sometimes.”

You’ll know this, but Peter has appeared in Doctor Who before. In 2008, he played Caecilius opposite David Tennant’s Doctor in The Fires of Pompeii. “When I was offered it, I was so excited, I couldn’t actually read the script,” he told DWM earlier this year. “I just wanted to phone my agent and say, ‘Yes!’ But I was persuaded that the professional thing to do would be to read it first. So I did, loved it, and off I went.”

Will we get an explanation for why the new Doctor has Caecilius’ face?

“It’s addressed,” smiles Peter. “Is it Caecilius’ face? Was that man really Caecilius?”

The tease! What else can he tell us about the Doctor’s journey this series. Did Steven tell Peter everything from the start?

“He gave me a very entertaining evening,” chuckles Peter, “when he went through the entire 12 episodes, basically acting them out for me. I said to him he should get a job as a performance artist. He did them all. All the characters. He’s like a chameleon. He told me what was going to happen in the show.”

Was there anything where you thought, ‘That sounds too bonkers’?

“Well, you just go, ‘Uh huh. Yeah. Okay. That sounds…. good luck with that.’ But then it comes to fruition, when you actually see it, it’s amazing. I have great faith in Steven and this amazing crew. I’m always amazed at how they pull it off. Of course, a lot of actors love to know what’s going to happen to their characters well in advance, because they think that allows them to pace their performances. I’ve never really been convinced of that. I operate on a need-to-know basis. If something dramatic’s going to happen, I’d rather that I discovered it when it was happening, not six months beforehand. The actual scripts don’t arrive till maybe a week before the readthrough, which will be a couple of days before we start shooting, and the surprises I like are the smaller ones; the little moments, the asides, the remarks, the experiences, the things that go on in the by-streets of the episodes. Those are the things that delight me.

“What I think sometimes happens with long-running shows,” he continues, “is that you get into a groove. You learn how to do the part in a certain way, and you just keep doing it. But you’ve got to constantly niggle it, probe it, find out those little moments, push it, see how far you can take it. At the same time, the audience switches on to see a certain thing. You’d be disappointed if Tom Baker didn’t at some point produce a jelly baby, or if Jon Pertwee didn’t give a politician or a soldier a withering look. I used to find this with The Thick of It [BBC Four/Two, 2005-2012]. I’d always say ‘Do we have to have Malcolm [Tucker, the aggressive and profane spin doctor that Peter played] come in doing a great, sweary tirade?' And they’d say, ‘Well, yeah, because that’s why people switch on.’ A director the other day told me that another director had suggested, ‘Let’s have a shot of the TARDIS materialising, but let’s not see it materialise,’ and everyone had looked at him in horror. What’s the point of having a show where it happens out of shot? Part of the fun is seeing the TARDIS materialise, the Doctor and Clara step out, and – where are they this time?”

How will he be watching the series when it airs on BBC One this August to November?

“The problem for me is, I’m a Doctor Who fan,” he laughs, “so I can’t not watch Doctor Who. Even if it weren’t me, I’d be watching it. I’d miss not watching it. But yes, that’s an interesting point – I don’t know what I’ll do, to be honest. It is quite difficult to watch yourself. The episodes that I’ve seen, I find that the sticking point of them all is me. That’s what I find the most troublesome, is watching me. But there are wonderful things that happen when suddenly it all comes together, and it becomes Doctor Who, and then you have to remind yourself… you know, when I forget that it’s me, that’s when I enjoy it. One of the key things I’m finding out about it now is that it’s created by all of the efforts of the people working on it, so watching these episodes with me playing the Doctor in them, has been extremely illuminating. They’ve shown me more about who my Doctor is than me sitting in a quiet study trying to figure it all out. So it’s a kind of self-feeding thing, if we’re going in the right direction – and I hope that we are.

“The funny thing is, we’re starting to have these conversations about next year and I’m like ‘There are some amazing things coming along there!’ Steven is telling me, and I’m like, ‘Wow! Yeah!’ So we’re already ahead of the curve on all this. We’ve some great ideas coming for 2015.”

So Peter will be back next year?

“Well, I’d like to be. It’s not up to me. I’ve had a wonderful time doing the show, anybody would, but having a wonderful time is no guarantee that they’re going to keep you there. I’ve loved it, so I’d be very, very happy to carry on, but we’ll have to see. We’re doing a Christmas one. As I say, we’ve discussed 2015. But there’ s no guarantee it’s certainly me. But I hope it is.”

Last summer, when it was announced that Peter had been cast as the Doctor, there was much excitement, some trepidation, and plenty of speculation about how he’d play the part. In March this year, a couple of months into shooting, something wonderful happened: a shaky mobile-phone recording of a touching encounter between Peter and a young fan appeared on YouTube, and went viral – over 180,000 views to date – and reminded us, as if we ever doubted it, that as well as being an excellent actor, Peter was as compassionate as the Doctor himself – without doubt the right man to take on the role.

“This little girl, her parents were concerned that she loved Matt so much and she would genuinely worry that he was gone,” recalls Peter, when I ask him about the video, “and what was going to happen, and how was that going to affect her?”

In the video, we see Peter get down on one knee and gently tell five-year-old Roxann: “Matt was really nice to me, and Jenna was too. They were both very welcoming to me when I came into the TARDIS. Matt said to me to look after Doctor Who, and he gave me his watch that he wears, and he said that in his own way he was happy that it was me who was coming in. So I will do my very best to be as much fun and as friendly as he is. So they say it’s okay for me to be the Doctor. I hope you think it’ll be okay for me to be the Doctor, too.”

‘Even though Roxann wouldn’t look at them or talk, which is due to her autism,’ explained Roxann’s mum in a blog post, ‘she took everything in that was being said to her by Peter. I cannot express how overjoyed and thankful I am.’

“All I could do was to try to show her that both Matt and Jenna had approved of me, and hopefully if they did – and Matt particularly – then she would feel that it might be okay,” Peter tells DWM.

“But you just sort of busk it, really, because you don’t know what people are going to ask you, and you don’t know what people are going to bring to a meeting with you. Certainly when they’re youngsters, they’re so enthusiastic about the show, you’d have to have a very cold heart not to try to make them feel good about it.

“It’s a fairly new experience for me,” he concludes. “it’s difficult, when you’re offered the role, to anticipate what’s going to happen to you. Matt and David have both been very helpful to me in trying to prepare me and talking to me about it, Russel T Davies [former showrunner] has been very supportive too, but I remember from being a fan myself how important the show was to me, so I simply try to be respectful of that, of their affection. I’ve read lots of interviews with all the Doctors, and they often refer to this sort syndrome: people project the Doctor onto you when they meet you, so they’re already smiling. They’re really pleased to see you. That’s a privilege that is rare among human beings, that you get this warm welcome, and you haven’t done anything to deserve that. I am simply playing this part for the time that I have it, and to look after the character of Doctor Who while I’ve got him. Part of that is to be kind, I guess. It’s a fairly privileged position to be in. You get the best of people. That’s wonderful. That’s what this show does you see. I think it’s what it’s always done. It brings out the best in people.

#peter capaldi #interview #doctor who #doctor who magazine #2014

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heresmyfiddlestick · 3 months ago

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here i am again thinking about how different tranches of the Dr. Who fandom rate each Doctor's different stories relative to each other. last year (or so) i did a big post analysing @adventure-showdown 's poll of the Tumblr fandom as it compared to the DWM reader's poll. there i examined the overlap of those two groups of fans' top- and bottom-rated stories for each Doctor. it was enlightening!

here i'm gonna further that analysis, with data from tardis.guide. i'm taking this data as of February 1, 2025 - clearly not exactly contemporary with the earlier data sets, but i suspect there will be some interesting trends. i made Venn diagrams. let's dive in.

First Doctor's top/bottom three

All agree: The Time Meddler (top) Tumblr/Tardis Guide: The Romans (top), The Smugglers (bottom) Tardis Guide/DWM: The Dalek Invasion of Earth (top), The Web Planet (bottom) Just Tumblr: The Edge of Destruction (top), The Crusade, The Savages (bottom) Just Tardis Guide: Galaxy 4 (bottom) Just DWM: The Daleks' Masterplan (top), The Sensorites, The Space Museum (bottom)

In 1's top and bottom three, there's only one story that all three sources agree should be at one of these extremes: The Time Meddler is in the top three. I'm disappointed to see Galaxy 4 in Tardis Guide's bottom three, the novelisation was an early and important piece of Doctor Who for me. But it's tough with a mostly-missing serial.

Second Doctor's top/bottom three

All agree: The War Games (top), The Dominators, The Space Pirates (bottom) Tumblr/Tardis Guide: The Mind Robber, The Enemy of the World (top), The Krotons (bottom) Just DWM: The Power of the Daleks, Tomb of the Cybermen (top) The Underwater Menace (bottom)

There is a bit more broad consensus on 2 than on 1. All three sources agree that The War Games is in the top tier, and The Dominators and The Space Pirates are at the bottom. Then, the Tardis Guide user base seems to follow Tumblr's inclinations, ranking The Mind Robber and The Enemy of the World at the top and The Krotons at the bottom (another important novelisation for a younger version of this writer, but alas).

Third Doctor

All agree: The Green Death (top), The Mutants (bottom) Tumblr/Tardis Guide: Death to the Daleks (bottom) Tardis Guide/DWM: Spearhead from Space, Inferno (top), The Monster of Peladon (bottom) Just Tumblr: The Dæmons, The Three Doctors (top), Planet of the Daleks (bottom) Just DWM: The Time Monster (bottom)

Every Doctor has at least one story that all three sources agree is either at the top or the bottom, and I think that's great! It gives me a sense of a broader view of the fandom's tastes. For 3, it's no surprise that The Green Death is unanimously top-three material and The Mutants bottom-three (though, again, I'm realising I have some anti-mainstream opinions about some of these earlier "bad" serials" - I really liked The Mutants!). Tardis Guide's userbase breaks m ore in the DWM readership's favour regarding most of the rest of the rankings, with Spearhead and Inferno at the top and The Monster of Peladon at the bottom from both of those sources.

Fourth Doctor's top/bottom four

All agree: City of Death, Genesis of the Daleks (top), Underworld, The Power of Kroll (bottom) Tumblr/Tardis Guide: Revenge of the Cybermen (bottom) Tardis Guide/DWM: Meglos (bottom) DWM/Tumblr: Robots of Death (top) Just Tumblr: The Horror of Fang Rock (top), Nightmare of Eden (bottom) Just Tardis Guide: The Seeds of Doom, Shada (top) Just DWM: Pyramids of Mars (top), The Horns of Nimon (bottom)

It's our first full Venn diagram! There's at least one item populating each section! And it's no surprise with the number of stories this guy has. I don't know what to make of the fact that Tardis Guide lists Shada alongside all of 4's regular TV stories - different methodologies for different folks, i guess. (Psst, there's only one other full Venn in this post - can you guess which Doctor it is?)

Fifth Doctor's top/bottom three

All agree: The Caves of Androzani (top), Time-Flight (bottom) Tumblr/Tardis Guide: Enlightenment (top) Tardis Guide/DWM: Earthshock (top), The King's Demons, Warriors of the Deep (bottom) DWM/Tumblr: The Five Doctors (top) Just Tumblr: Four to Doomsday, The Awakening (bottom)

There is fairly broad agreement with 5's best and worst. It seems Tumblr is the fly in the ointment here, with our particular dislike of Four to Doomsday and The Awakening. However, all can agree that The Caves of Androzani is great and Time-Flight is less great.

Sixth Doctor

All agree: Vengeance on Varos (top), Timelash, The Twin Dilemma (bottom) Tardis Guide/DWM: Revelation of the Daleks (top) Just Tumblr: Mark of the Rani, Trial of a Time Lord (top), The Ultimate Evil (bottom) Just Tardis Guide: The Mysterious Planet (top), Mindwarp (bottom) Just DWM: The Two Doctors (top), Attack of the Cybermen (bottom)

6 is probably the most problematic to do this sort of analysis for, because each of the three sources' methodologies differ such that each treats Trial differently: adventure-showdown's Tumblr poll listed Trial as a unit and each individual part separately, Tardis Guide just lists the individual parts, and DWM just listed the full season as one story. A mess. But a delightful mess, just like Sixie himself.

Seventh Doctor

All agree: Survival, Remembrance of the Daleks (top), Delta and the Bannermen, Time and the Rani (bottom) Tumblr/Tardis Guide: Silver Nemesis (bottom) Tardis Guide/DWM: The Curse of Fenric (top) Just Tumblr: The Happiness Patrol (top) Just DWM: Paradise Towers (bottom)

7's run shows the most cohesion yet, with all three sources agreeing on 2/3 of each of the top and bottom stories in his run. Then it's just a matter of whether you prefer pink TARDISes or wet vampires.

Eighth Doctor

I won't attempt to make a Venn for 8, but I will sum up how his top 10 audio dramas overlap.

Both Agree: The Chimes of Midnight, Scherzo, Solitaire, To the Death, The Red Lady Just Tumblr: Caerdroia, The Natural History of Fear, Zagreus, Storm Warning, The Silver Turk Just Tardis Guide: Albie's Angels, Absent Friends, Lucie Miller, Palindrome - Part 1, Day of the Master - Part 2

A very neat 5/5/5 split here! I can see a definite bias towards 8/Charlie and the Divergent arc in Tumblr's top, whereas the Tardis Guide userbase seems to prefer 8/Liv/Helen and 8/Lucie, and I'm surprised and delighted to see a story from the Eighth Doctor's Time War series!

I may as well do the novels too, one second... Okay, here's how each source ranked their top 5 8DAs.

Both Agree: Alien Bodies, Unnatural History Just Tumblr: Interference, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, The Adventuress of Henrietta Street Just Tardis Guide: The Year of Intelligent Tigers, Vampire Science, Seeing I

Okay back to the TV show.

Ninth Doctor

All agree: Dalek, The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, Bad Wolf/The Parting of Ways (top), Aliens of London/World War Three, The Long Game (bottom) DWM/Tumblr: Boom Town (bottom) Just Tardis Guide: The Unquiet Dead (bottom)

I had to make the Venn diagram squishier, that's how much cohesion there is in these three sources' opinions on 9's run! You'll recall that DWM and the Tumblr poll completely agreed on his top and bottom three. The Tardis Guide userbase throws a bit of a wrench in, declaring their dislike of The Unquiet Dead over Boom Town, though I'll note that the latter is fourth from the bottom in the Tardis Guide rankings. I'm really interested in the broad consensus that seems to have formed around 9's stories - they practically don't move in the DWM reader rankings over the past decade plus. I'm curious to see if anything will be re-evaluated in the future.

Tenth Doctor's top/bottom four

All agree: Blink, Midnight, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (top), The Idiot's Lantern, The Lazarus Experiment (bottom) Tardis Guide/DWM: Meglos (bottom) DWM/Tumblr: Love & Monsters, Fear Her (bottom) Just Tumblr: The Fires of Pompeii (top), The Next Doctor, The Shakespeare Code (bottom) Just Tardis Guide: Turn Left (top) Just DWM: Human Nature/The Family of Blood (top)

While I find the broad agreement around 9 fascinating, I'm equally fascinated by the divergence around 10. This analysis shows that people are inclined to believe that no more than one of the following stories belongs in his top 4: The Fires of Pompeii, Turn Left, and Human Nature/The Family of Blood. Not to say that they're interchangeable, but I think which one you pick can say a lot!

Eleventh Doctor's top/bottom four:

All agree: The Eleventh Hour, Vincent and the Doctor (top), The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe (bottom) Tumblr/Tardis Guide: Victory of the Daleks (bottom) Tardis Guide/DWM: The Day of the Doctor (top), Nightmare in Silver (bottom) DWM/Tumblr: The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang (top) Just Tumblr: The Doctor's Wife (top), The Crimson Horror, Night Terrors (bottom) Just Tardis Guide: The God Complex (top) Just DWM: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, The Curse of the Black Spot (bottom)

*airhorns* It's our second full Venn diagram! Much like 4, 11 has a lot to choose from and a really wide range of vibe throughout his run. He also has some stupidly long story titles, which are not very highly rated across the board (perhaps there's a correlation? make another graph!). Of note: the Eleventh Doctor is the only incarnation whose first and last stories are both ranked at the top by at least one of the sources (in this case, DWM and Tardis Guide) - except for the Second Doctor, to whom DWM also grants this distinguished position. I just think it's neat! [EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER NOISE: it's been pointed out that Day is not 11's last story FML. i always forget about Name [2nd Edit: TIME OF THE DOCTOR]. perhaps there's a reason it's not included in the above diagram.]

Twelfth Doctor's top/bottom four

All agree: Heaven Sent, World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls, Mummy on the Orient Express (top), Sleep No More, Kill the Moon, In the Forest of the Night (bottom) Tumblr/Tardis Guide: The Husbands of River Song (top) Tardis Guide/DWM: The Woman Who Lived (bottom) Just Tumblr: The Lie of the Land (bottom) Just DWM: Flatline (top)

More agreement than 10, less than 9. I like that the three unanimously agreed top stories of the top four are each from different series: Mummy, Heaven Sent, and WEAT/TDF. Also I really need to rewatch Sleep No More - could it be as bad as I remember?

Thirteenth Doctor's top/bottom three

All agree: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos, Orphan 55 (bottom) Tumblr/Tardis Guide: Demons of the Punjab (top) Tardis Guide/DWM: The Haunting of Villa Diodati (top), Legend of the Sea Devils (bottom) Just Tumblr: Eve of the Daleks, Spyfall (top), The Vanquishers (bottom) Just Tardis Guide: Village of the Angels (top) Just DWM: Fugitive of the Judoon, The Power of the Doctor (top)

And last but not least, 13. It's tough for everyone to come together and say which episodes of hers we all liked, but it's very easy to point at and judge Ranskoor Av Kolos and Orphan 55. I think when the dust has settled a bit more, Demons and Haunting will be more universally praised as the highlights of her run, but opinions are still quite spread out at the moment.

I hope you enjoyed this meta-analysis as much as i enjoyed making a bunch of silly Venn diagrams.

#doctor who #venn diagrams #tardis guide #edited a copy-paste typo in 12's section #and another in 11's as well as a factual error fml #can you tell how much i pay attention to Matt Smith's era?

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daughterofheartshaven · 2 months ago

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So it's a very common opinion that Big Finish stories are not as good/interesting as they used to be. I don't know if that is actually a dominant opinion, but I see it a lot. I had a realization a few days ago that got me to a point where I feel like I can respectfully explain why I firmly disagree with this opinion.

To be clear! If you hold the opinion that classic Big Finish is better, than I still think that is a very valid opinion! I actually really hope that this post turns into a discussion with the classic Big Finish fans.

So, to clarify, my opinion is that Big Finish has always been good, but has notably increased in quality over time. For the record, my favorite thing Big Finish has done is probably the second half of the Doom Coalition subseries (published 2016-2017). Other favorites include Dalek Universe (2021) and the Purity Trilogy (2022-23).

My understanding of the criticisms of modern Big Finish are as follows: in the early 2000s, Big Finish was incredibly creative and was able to make some really dark and off-the-wall stories and create some really new and compelling characters, whereas today a lot of Big Finish is much more restricted in the sorts of stories they can tell and lean much more heavily on characters from the tv show, leading to stagnation and less interesting stories. I really don't want to be strawmanning here, so if I am mischaracterizing the argument, please let me know!

My main counterargument to this is that Big Finish is currently doing so much more than they were doing in the early 2000s. Back in those days they made what, 20-25 stories a year? These days, it's probably over 100 a year. And so, with this change, the amount of types of stories has allowed to increase dramatically. In my opinion, the really inventive, twisted stories still exist and are still being made frequently. They just aren't the main thing Big Finish does.

I should probably give some examples.

Stranded is a sixteen-part series starring the Eighth Doctor that I've compared to classic Big Finish before for having a lot of stories that are told in unconventional ways and going to personally dark places. The finale of the Purity trillogy, Purity Unbound, is an alternate-timeline cavalcade that feels like an shorter, Earth-based reimagining of the Divergent Universe arc.

But my biggest example is Torchwood. Especially the monthly Torchwood stories (This is the revelation that I had earlier). Big Finish Torchwood has been a massive collection of really dark, imaginative, up off-the-wall stories. And yeah, there are some of classic Big Finish that isn't kid-friendly that they couldn't do on Doctor Who anymore. They didn't stop making stories like that, though! They moved those stories over to the more adult and darker sibling series.

And re-characters - this is mostly from a youtube video I saw. I respect the youtuber (Council of Geeks) a lot, but she said that Big Finish is currently leaning on preexisting characters too much and isn't creating interesting characters like they used to - specifically citing Charley Pollard and Evelyn Smythe as excellent characters Big Finish had created in its classic days.

My counter argument to that is as follows:

New Big Finish characters created for Doctor Who between 1999-2004. Companions are bolded, and arguable companions are italicized: Charley, Evelyn, Erimem, Bev Tarrant, C'rizz, Kro'ka, Hex, Nimrod, Vansell, that unnamed Gallifreyan President, Cassie Schofeild

New Big Finish characters created for Doctor Who between 2020-2025. Companions are bolded: Raven, Naomi Cross, Hebe Harrison, Patrica McBride, Elise Kaplan, Elise's Ron, Tania Bell, Ken and Robin Bright-Thomson, Tony Claire, Tony's Ron, Aisha and Zakia Akhtar, Hieronyma Friend, Case, Callen and Doyle, Valarie Lockwood, Patricia Lockwood, Roanna, Kiera Sanstrom

I define a new character as an individual who appears on audio, is used for multiple releases within that time period, and has no prior appearances. I also restricted myself to stories starring the Doctor - I would be here all day if I went into other Whoniverse stories that didn't star the Doctor.

My point, if it wasn't clear, is that saying that Big Finish is making less characters than it used to is incorrect (unless I'm misunderstanding parameters). If you want to say that the 1999-2004 characters are better or more creative, then that would be a valid opinion to have! I don't agree with that, but that's a valid opinion.

And if you want to point out that Big Finish is also spending more time retreading old ground then it used to, then yeah. It is. But again, Big Finish is just doing so much more than they used to in general. They can do that and also do new stuff.

Okay, that's it for this, I think. If you have a response to my thoughts here, I'd love to hear it!

#doctor who eu #doctor who expanded universe #dweu #dw eu #big finish #big finish doctor who #big finish doctor who audios #big finish audios #heartshaven wrote an essay

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natequarter · 28 days ago

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As swiftly and as silently as a shadow, Doctor Who’s Space and Time ship, Tardis, appeared on a succession of planets each as different as the pebbles on a beach, stayed awhile and then vanished, as mysteriously as it had come. And whatever alien world it was that received him and his fellow travellers, and however well or badly they were treated, the Doctor always set things to rights, put down injustice, encouraged dignity, fair treatment and respect.

But there had been changes inside the ship. Susan had gone, left behind in an England all but destroyed in the twenty-first century when the Daleks had attempted the conquest of Earth, an invasion only just foiled by the Doctor. No decision was more difficult for Susan or easier for her grandfather, who knew in his heart that she must share her future with David Cameron, a young man she had met and fallen in love with during that terrible struggle between the Doctor and his arch-enemies.

Only Ian and Barbara, kidnapped by the Doctor from their lives in the England of the 1960s and now his close friends, knew the real aching sadness the loss of Susan meant to the old man, and it was they who persuaded him to take a passenger a young girl named Vicki whom they on as rescued from the planet Dido. And, as the Doctor grew interested in the little, fair-haired orphan and devoted more himself to care and well-being (which Vicki repaid with a totally single-minded love and respect) his friends were secretly overjoyed to see a new and vigorous spring in the Doctor’s step, a happy gleam in his eye and a fresh interest in the unknown adventures that lay ahead.

happy birthday to david whitaker, the man who, amongst other things, wrote the edge of destruction, one of the first doctor who serials and the first to depict the tardis as sentient; acted as script editor in the early years of doctor who; wrote the rescue, the first serial to introduce a new companion to the show; wrote the power of the daleks, which introduced patrick troughton in the very first instance of the doctor being recast; introduced several other companions besides (namely victoria and zoe); overall had a formative impact on doctor who's trajectory as a show; and, unbeknownst to him, accidentally gave susan foreman's husband the same name as a future prime minister of the uk

#doctor who

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presidentdisastraofgallifrey · 1 month ago

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Neverland Liveblog

(excuse the exclusive use of emoticons, I am NOT typing all this up on my phone and can't be bothered to figure out emojis on the computer)

(also this is me listening to this for the first time, unlike most of the relisten)

So is all of Gallifreyan history since Rassilon his era? Isn't that like a hundred thousand years or something?

"So that's it, Doctor, no more daleks, ever?" next up on things no one in this universe should be allowed to say

"She has her own score to settle" ooh I bet he still thinks about this semi-regularly

Heh, Romana has no time or patience for this nonsense

Do you think Vansell is always grumpy because Romana implemented rules that made the CIA less shadowy? I bet he is

She's so stiff and formal now, it's like she's tried to revert to before the met the Doctor :'(

The flat galaxy society lmao

I am retroactively blaming Trump and our current nonsense on this anti-time situation, because they totally just said the wrong person became President of somewhere on Earth

You know, Time Lords are definitely a problem, but these stories always make a surprisingly good argument for them regulating time

Why doesn't this paradox problem apply to everyone the Doctor saves?

Ah! Sudden Imperiatrix foreshadowing!

Note from later: is the Imperiatrix foreshadowing bit even relevant to the rest of this story? Was that JUST an angsty set up for Gallifrey?

I am a little distracted because the only thing I knew about Charley prior to this was that her sister turns out to be a literal Nazi

Romana in relation to the Doctor as a representative of the Time Lords is so weird; she used to be the misfit companion that was a problem

Heh, Romana mad at him for baiting Vansell as if she doesn't mock people all throughout Gallifrey

Charley and Ace would get along, I think

Did she just slap Vansell? Oh, she totally did, and has definitely wanted to for a while!

Dear Rassilon, she's never sounded so very Time Lord

NO ONE respects this woman's Presidency

"Such devotion to his companion, oh how touching" chewing glass imagining Romana here staring tiredly after him, no longer remembering the past as light or fun

AH! The jump scare of Rassilon!

"Congratulations, Romana, you've discovered Rassilon" lol

This rhyme could be haunting, but it's not because they're just awkwardly saying it. I was sure there'd be a creepy children's chorus singing it

Every. Fucking. Legend. Is. Real.

But it's actually more interesting how Gallifrey, supposedly a bastion of science and philosophy, is built so heavily on superstition

"I will not be rushed, Vansell!" brain fog. Just saying. Can't make decisions quickly these days.

Vansell has a surprising amount in common with the Doctor for...well, for any non-renegade Time Lord, but especially one who hates him this much

Ooh, starting early with putting Romana on trial for everyone's problems

Oh whoa this is horrifying holy shit! Even worse than I thought the oubliette was!!

Aw, she has no patience for his banter anymore

But I so love them slipping easily into planning under their breath, trusting each other on those plans, and also simultaneously having a separate discussion as a distraction

"ME? But I'm the Acting President!" He's being mind controlled here! They are so, so all about the appropriate titles and positions that it takes a bonus dose of mind control to overcome this argument

The way her voice breaks when she talks about memories with the sonic screwdriver <3

Also, that goodbye sounded pretty final. I know they'll see each other again, but I'm wondering if this is the last time they'll part as friends...

She no longer has much compassion for even sympathetic villains

I choose to believe that Romana only wears her full Presidential robes for formal meetings and such and stubbornly (much to everyone else's chagrin) wears practical outfits on these sorts of expeditions, specifically because something like this will always happen

Oh no, poor Charley

"We're born into love, not anger" well, you were. I'm not so sure about the Time Lords

Oh. The Doctor reverting to Time Lord traditions and values unironically is so delicious. The way he completely unhesitatingly calls Rassilon My Lord <3<3

Oh, I have so many complicated feelings about Romana having Rassilon's blessing here

Oh, dang! I'm genuinely surprised that Zagreus really was the one myth that didn't exist, until it created itself

#dw audios #gallifrey relisten

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river13245 · 1 year ago

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so 11th doctor x gn reader??? reader is a ballerina and its never brought up xause the doctor doesnt ask, so one day readers doing their stretches and the doctors like "???? youre so flexible" and readers like "i do ballet???" and its just a silly little conversation

i just think this is a cool idea!!!! thanks for writing this if you do!!!

You were in the tardis stretching. It had been early in the day you think, it was hard to tell in the tardis. But seeing as you just woke up an hour ago its morning for you.

The doctor was currently adding some touches to the Tardis. Keeping her running smoothly and making sure she was well taken care of. So you took this time to stretch and do your morning exercises. There was soft instrumental music playing as you did so.

When you were sitting on the ground with your arms stretched out in front of you. Bending to touch your foot it was rather easy for you to do so. You had been in ballet for many years, ever since you were a kid really. So stretches had always been part of your daily routine. However you usually did them in the privacy of your own home.

That's why when the doctor came in to see you he was confused for a moment. "How are you doing that?" he asks as he wipes off his hands. This earns a laugh from you "What touching my feet? Its rather easy. You should give it a try"

The doctor was in fit shape so you didn't see why stretching would harm him any. It took him a few moments before shrugging and sitting down beside you. You guide him through the motions and when he couldn't touch his feet without scrunching up his face. A laugh escapes you. "Doctor you are so fit. I'm surprised you aren't able to"

He knew you weren't really making fun of him or anything. Just lightning up the mood. His head turns to you and rolls his eyes with a smile "not everyone can be so bendy." there's a pause before he speaks again. "why are you doing these weird stretches?" he asks.

You smile and strand up from your sitting position and straighten yourself up. "well I was in ballet my whole life. So it started at a very young age. Its just something I enjoy doing now."

He nods and thinks for a moment "wait is that why you can fit into really tight spaces. Like the other day when a dalek was chasing us. You fit into that really small space" You laugh as you think about the moment he is talking about and nod. "yes exactly. See being bendy comes in handy in those situations. Maybe you should start stretching then you could get out of situations faster. Than if you were just running"

#river13245 #fluff #male reader #gn reader #doctor who #11th doctor #doctor who blurb #the doctor x reader

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gallifreyanhotfive · 8 months ago

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Random Doctor Who Facts You Might Not Know, Part 67

Penelope Gate's first son died when he was less than a year old. (Novel: The Room With No Doors) This is significant because according to some accounts Penelope was the Doctor's mother, which would have made this son the Doctor's half-brother.

Susan was once seriously injured in a building collapse, getting a concussion, a fracture to the parietal bone that put pressure on her brain, major fractures to her clavicle, a few ribs, radius, ulna, tibia, damage to her spine, blood loss, shock, etc. While in a healing coma, she was replaced by an android duplicate, who helped save the day and pilot the last ship off the planet even though she wouldn't be able to be repaired by the people she was helping. (Novel: City at World's End)

One of the Doctor's Tutors at the Academy was called Professor Findle. Once while the Sixth Doctor was seeing vision meant to frighten him, he saw things like Cybermen, Daleks, Davros, and Findle. Findle had chided the young First Doctor for being a "nasty piece of work" with only a desire to meddle. (Short story: Power to the People)

Meg Carvossa was a friend of the First Doctor's. He offered to take her with him with Dodo in the TARDIS, but when she saw the interior, she ran away from fear. Becoming leader of New Houston, she falsified records to make it appear like there are more people than there are in order to send more supplies. She later encountered the Second Doctor. Her falsification of the records caused the servant robots to think like humans, and they wanted to become citizens. After the Doctor let them speak, the robots showed a video of Carvossa confessing to the falsification. She said that the Doctor ruined her. (Audio: The Yes Men)

The Seventh Doctor, after hiding his mind from Sutekh for 20 years, was intended to marry Hatshepsut. He eventually visits Hatshepsut in her dreams, tells her that he would have broken the Laws of Time for her, etc. She kissed him. (Audio: The Eye of Horus)

Ossu had been a warrior kidnapped by the War Lords, being returned afterwards with a cybernetic implant that caused violent, murderous behavior. After being returned, Ossu ate Issu-mul berries to become thinkers like the female members of the tribe. Partway through hir transition, Ossu-hir was "not male or female, not suited for war or thought, or for land or sea." Hir then died at sea. (Short story: War Crimes)

The Eleventh Doctor once told Caitlin that while he was not like Harry Potter for being able to talk to snakes, his uncle had locked him under the stares when he was younger. (Novel: Horror of the Space Snakes)

By one account, Susan's parents owned a concept shop that sold metaphysical, religious, and philosophical concepts. (Short story: Gallifrey: A Rough Guide)

Chloe was a Gallifreyan who survived the destruction of her planet in the War. She was trapped in the body of a little girl, and her second heart withered away and needed to be removed. She got a book that showed her the future, but when she tried to look at the last page, the book took both her eyes and twisted them, bending them out of shape. (Novel: Timeless)

The Tremas Master once sought out the Fleshsmiths after his Cheetah virus infected body started dying. The Fleshsmiths had the technology necessary to create any body regardless of its complexity, including Time Lords (using the Doctor of course). (Novel: Prime Time)

There are horror stories on Gallifrey about Time Lords being forced into a regeneration chain in an alien environment (like the vacuum of space). Each regeneration in the resulting chain would take them further and further away from the norm as they struggled to adapt to the environment. In the early days of travel, early Time Lords would return to Gallifrey and be either quietly killed or trapped inside their TARDISes. (Novel: The Taking of Planet 5)

The Doctor was considered to have failed his time travel proficiency test because, as the Fourth Doctor put it, he didn't take it. He didn't show up because he considered it pointless. Romana believed his behavior was the result of an inferiority complex resulting from his regret over his wasted years at the Academy. (Novel: Festival of Death)

One time while caught in a decompressing air lock, the Seventh Doctor declared, "I will not die while listening to elevator music!" He had been listening to Madame Butterfly by Puccini. (Audio: The Death Collectors) He would later regenerate a while after Grace performed surgery on him (and then got lost...) while listening to Madame Butterfly.

Before being transported to Iceworld, Ace saw Withnail and I in the cinema. She fancied Richard E. Grant. She wondered why the Doctor couldn't be more like him because Richard E. Grant wouldn't treat her like a "educationally sub-normal infant." (Novel: Independence Day) This was likely a joke in reference to Grant's role in The Curse of the Fatal Death, but Grant would go on to play the Doctor again a few years after this novel was published in Scream of the Shalka.

The Seventh Doctor once sent Ace and Hex to steal a crystal called the Veiled Leopard. After having an argument with himself, the Fifth Doctor sent Peri and Erimem to prevent it from being stolen. While Peri and Erimem prevented it from being stolen by a jewel thief, Ace and Hex worked with the thief's accomplice to swap the crystal out for forgeries. (Audio: The Veiled Leopard)

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sarcastic-sketches · 3 months ago

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Kida reads all of the EDA's (mostly)

PART 1 Books #1 - 15

I started writing down my impressions of each of the books as I finished them, including the dates of when I finished them and any screencaps I took of my favroutie bits and then just ... kept doing it. I am not a fast reader by any means but these books have me hooked right now so I wanted to keep a record of my progress. [Part 2 - #16-30]

I'm using this EDA reccommendation list as a rough guide for which books I should absolutely not bother with and to brace myself for what I'm about to get into, so let's go~

#1 The Eight Doctors

25th November 2024 I honestly don't remember much of Eights shenanigans with his former selves since I'm writing this retroactively, and I vaguely put the timey whimey bullshit down to a metaphor for learning yourself over again. But I DO remember finding the events in 1997 funny. Not even 10 minutes since he landed in Totters lane and he'd incapacitated four drug dealers and then promptly got arrested for having said drugs in his possession (literally in his hand) just as the cops turned up. He does an excellent job driving the investigators around the fucking bend, once again proving to be the most annoying mf you will ever meet on any given planet he happens to be on at the time.

#2 Vampire Science

4th December 2024 This book is hysterical for a plot that has multiple people considering offing themselves at one point or other throughout the book. It also highlights that this incarnation is silmultaneously far more 'human' with his emotional availability as well how alien he is for Not Realising what he is doing.

Also shout out to these scenes in particular:

TARDIS gf confirmed

Fred the Eternal Snail we salute you

The idea that he has pet bats that he casually just grabs out of the air tickles me

Just this entire segment honestly. Eight is three years (?) into his new regen and has no idea his Charisma stat is that high. He used to have to actually do stuff before. Now he seems to do it by accident and honestly? That might just have worse consequences.

Really enjoyed the dialogue and characterisations, also the narrative had a personality too which I always enjoy.

#3 Bodysnatchers

25th December 2024 This was a bit of a slog to get through for me (as you can probably tell from the timestamp) as everything seemed to happen in the last 50 pages, but MAN Eight cannot catch a break even when they are trying to do the right thing for the right reasons. Very gorey scenes towards the end (not a complaint) but the environment descriptions were often oddly ... overly complex? I feel like it tried to give so much detail to describe the alien settings that often times it just became a jumbled mess. I struggled to actually picture the scene in my head most of the time.

#4 Genocide

27th December 2024 Despite the name, much more enjoyable read than the last one and kept a steady pace throughout. Bit disappointed they didn't lean more into the horror shit of finding Homo Sapien bones in an era far too early for them, only to find another has appeared retroactively since the last time the site was visited. But that just wasn't the story that was intended to be told, alas. Jo Grant appearance was nice though! I love former companions meeting later versions of The Doctor.

These can't possibly have any bearing on future events, right? Foreshadowing, what's that? -chuckles nervously-

#5 War of the Daleks

29th December 2024

I, ironically, forgor that this was mentioned as one to skip, but I got through it ok. The whole plotline of the Thals becoming warrior like because of the Doctor's interferance way back when he was One and more hands on (we don't talk about the Fire of Rome) was juicy.

This is Sams first encounter with the Daleks and man she is not having a good time between battling teenage hormones or the pepper pots tbh. Though, could do with less of clearly adult men eyeing up a seventeen year old as a viable target for flirting. I also got pretty sick of the 'yet another plot twist' pretty quick after the first 3... and we weren't done by a long shot.

(I can see why this was listed as a skip orz)

#6 Alien Bodies

2nd January 2025

Oooooh it's a biggy. I didn't go into this reading list completley blind and I knew this was a big hit and I can see why. This one kicks off with the Third Doctor giving Laika a funeral and burying her and WAAAAAAA - I immediately start crying whenever thinking about Laika.

The body horror in this one is superb, also I love seeing how shit scared the rest of the universe is of the Doctor - this is where the rumblings of war start and the hints of certain Sam related plot points I know will be coming up later get seeded.

(picturing the potential future of Time Lords as giant bat people is kinda cool ngl)

(Oh, Eight, buddy I am so sorry about what's lined up for you)

('hyperactive even as a corpse' shut up, I say, as I laugh to myself)

There's also bits in here that could tie in well with the Timeless Child backstory if you wanted to retroactively put them together which I just think is neat to consider:

#7 Kursaal

5th January 2024 Man oh man I loved this one. It had a fantastic start with a scene at the beginning right out of Dog Soldiers (one of my fave horror/sci-fi films of all time), only for the Doctor and Sam to stumble upon all the carnage and near immediately decide they need to get the fuck outta there. Do not investigate, do not pass Go, just hit the bricks. And it didn't stop there, the horror elements were played so well in my opinion and was all over a fun read. Was surprised more wasn't made of the green figure we see described in the mural of the central location this book is written around, seeing as Eight wears green all the time and later Sam gets given some green scrubs. Maybe it was implied somewhere and I just missed it (would not put it passed me).

The Doctor actually showing he can BE a Doctor with a medical degree and all apparently. Despite Eight's (reasonable) fear of Hospitals.

(Eight canonically being traumatised by his experience in American Healthcare hospital is such a good take. He's holding back the flashbacks by the skin of his teeth)

Also carrying on his tradition of Grand Theft Auto only this time he stole a cop car and then masterfully dodged said cops. Phenomenal.

(I want more bitchy Eight)

Sam was excellent in this book, still written believably as a teenager but still given the space to show initiative of her own.

#8 Option Lock

9th January 2025 Have I mentioned how funny Sam is? She's hysterical.

The two seemingly completely related plot lines running in parallel at the start reminded me of The Monks episode in Twelves era, flashing between the pyramid and the growing lab incident. Then it gave me vibes similar to the Apocalypse serial from American Horror Story what with the secret society all working behind the scenes though for very different reasons.

Also someone please help this autistic man, they are not thriving

(Honestly same)

#9 Longest Day

25th January 2024 Again, from the timestamp you can probably guess how this one is gonna go. This one wins the record of introducing a character within the opening pages of the first chapter that I quite happily saw die and Sam is once again subject to the rampant sexism that pervades the entire cosmos apparently?? Sci-Fi of the 90s I guess...

This was another book that took me an age to get through because it just didn't keep my attention that well. Characters doing actions. Characters I don't really feel emotionally invested in one way or another, which is just as well. Sam and The Doctor are now separated through no agency of their own.

There were some fun passages though:

Eight is such an asshole, I laughed so hard at this exchange, I love them

Wasn't The Doctor's tutor Borusa?

As introductions go, this one's fairly efficient

#10 Legacy of the Daleks

25th January 2025 From what I'd seen it was best to skip this one (especially since Susans family situation gets retconned in the audios, which I've already listened to) so I skimmed it for Susan and Eight interactions... of which there weren't any. It doesn't progress Eight's search for Sam either. He picks up a kitten at the end thats about it as far as continuity goes.

This section got me though, I can hear the sass that Nine will weild later to lethal effect

#11 Dreamstone

26th January 2025 This was a fun one, mostly for all the different characters and how interesting they all were. I kind of predicted where they were going with the crystals and thought they could have done more with them but, ultimately, this was a story about human nature not the stones really.

Sam really developed a lot in this story realising that making decisions isn't easy but making them for herself all the same. The Doctor is just good at making it look easy so people go with it. If you look confident about a decision people argue less and waste less time

#12 Seeing I

26th January 2025 Seeing I is here!! I'd heard good things about this one. I felt Sam was really trying to bite off more than she could chew but thats 17yr old pride for you. Only to fucking smash right out of the park and break through that barrier she'd been struggling with to become her own person. The Doctor once again weaponising his ability to be the most annoying mf on any given planet to get his way. At least, until his meddling came and bit him in the ass and bit him hard. The fact that he was still suffering from those consequences even after the event had passed was very good. Japser and Stewart mention <3

#13 Placebo Effect

Skipped.

#14 Vanderdekens Children

28th January 2025 I actually really liked this one. It turned into another sci-fi tropes I love to see but mostly the Messing With Gravity thing. It did remind me a little of Event Horizon, looking for faster than light travel by simply going from Point A to Point B without actually travelling anywhere only to not realise where the Point B might end up. Ships haunted as a result naturally. Then you find out why.

I do like The Doctor very obviously using hypnotism in this book to calm someone down and being utterly guileless about it too.

You can tell Sam's time away has done her the world of good, she's looking to The Doctor for direction less and less and trusting herself more.

Glad to see some things never change though

Ah yes, a scene familiar to anyone who has ever played or seen Alien: Isolation.

#15 Scarlette Empress

1st February 2025 Scarlette Empress is so far one of my favourites simply for the insights it gives us into each of the characters from their own mouths, right next to how they are perceived by the characters they are sharing space with. Actually, this whole book is kind of about challenging your perceptions of others and yourself. Huh.

These two sections were fascinating to me on how The Doctor perceives himself through the interactions of others. He's about 7 years into his current Eighth self and still working out who he is and I don't think that ever stops.

Old Empress who lived in a jar for thousands of years like a genie gets freed and, as my friend described it, 'Comes straight out of the jar hornier than god'

This guy has The Traumatic Experience With Spiders in one of his earlier lives and now needs back up. Sam is that person who gets the cup and a piece of card while The Doctor is standing on a chair - he doesn't want to kill it he just wants it away from him... Only to then befriend said Spider in the next few scenes because of course he does. Turns out it's half the size of Iris' double decker bus and bored as all hell.

#dw #doctor Who #eighth doctor #8th doctor #eighth doctor adventures #dweu #edas #Kida's EDA experience

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the-worms-in-your-bones · 1 month ago

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The ages and regenerations of all my time lord ocs

Foxilquinn:

900-1000, 3rd regeneration (though the version of him i write the most for is 300-500 and first regeneration). He regenerates for the first time during the time war, for the most part he’s been working with the resistance and at one point ends up on gallifrey for some mission and gets caught. He has a good amount of experience fighting daleks so they don’t Kill kill him, but in the struggle to capture him the guards/soldiers ‘accidentally’ trigger a regeneration. Fox’s second incarnation has a short and pretty horrible life, most of it is spent forced to work for gallifrey/rassilon in the war (i haven’t actually come up with how he survives the war, but he does). His second regeneration happens on earth, he finds some guy collecting alien artifacts and actual live aliens, and in an attempt to rescue the people that had been captured gets shot and regenerates. Fox 3 is definitely the calmest of the three, he spends a lot of time hanging out on earth (and by extension, getting caught up in various adventures of the doctor/unit/torchwood/sarah jane) (also not really relevant here, but he always keeps his tardis in the shape of a gallifreyan tree, so even after the war he has a part of his home with him)

Morgan:

She’s 6, she’s not even at the academy yet, she has absolutely not regenerated

The academy students:

So i’m grouping them all together because I don’t actually have set ages for any of them. They’re all around 20 when they meet and under 200 by the time the war starts. All of them are on their first regeneration (it’s possible that three of them could have more, but i haven’t come up with any yet). Ensil dies very early time war while on a mission. Azdran goes missing and is presumed dead, but actually fell through a rift and managed to avoid the worst of the war. Maxin and Jerex are really the only two who fight in the war, and i’m too attached to the two of them to kill either off (i may or may not give them a regeneration or two during the war though), so they end up getting put in that little pocket universe with the rest of the time lords at the end of the war

Leridan:

~4500, on his 5th body. He’s a pretty normal time lord, so most of his regenerations were planned, one however was an incident involving an angry pigbear he prefers not to think about. His bodied aren’t exactly all that similar, but they all have a very ‘just some guy’ look to them

Veran:

3500-4000, either 3rd or 4th body (can’t decide which one). At least one of her regenerations was planned and one was due to falling off a cliff while trying to get a better look at a bird nest (she doesn’t regret it, she got some important data for a study she was conducting before she fell). Pretty much all of her bodies have the energy of your weird bio professor crossed with a mad scientist, except for her second one, which was weirdly quiet and calm (it took leridan like a year to stop being unnerved by it)

#tag for my ocs #doctor who #j rambles #time lord oc

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throwaninkpot · 1 year ago

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the Doctor travels to 2005, London, and blows up a building. he meets Rose Tyler.

they hit it off, and she travels with him for a time.

she is trapped in a parallel universe.

two-ish years later, they reunite, but uh-oh! Dalek shoots the Doctor! he manages not to regenerate by channeling the energy into a severed hand.

Donna touches the severed hand. triggers a metacrisis whatsit that grows a human!Doctor and gives Donna the brain software of a time lord.

Donna's brain cannot handle that. the og!Doctor erases her memories of all things re: him, and sends Donna back home.

some years later, Donna has a child. the lingering metacrisis transfers to child, somehow.

child grows up with vague memories of Donna's time with the Doctor and various stories the Doctor told her, thinks of them as make-believe and imaginary friends.

child Transes Gender, needs a new femme name.

draws on their childhood memories. hmmm, Rose is a nice name.....

Doctor visits Donna again after a recent regeneration. stuff happens. Donna remembers the Doctor but brain does not explode, the Doctor and Donna are still besties, he hits it off with Donna's family including her child, Rose Noble.

somehow, there's a yet another extra David Tennant Doctor distinct from the og!Doctor now??

this new surplus Doctor settles in as platonic life partners with Donna. he functions as essentially a funky uncle/third parent to Rose Noble.

sometime later, adult Rose Noble has a child of her own. she has continued to grow with stories of time, space, and Gallifrey, now directly from the Doctor. when she needs to name her daughter, she chooses a name linking all of that history, and names her daughter the Gallifreyan word for a plant so similar to the Earthen rose.

Arkytior Noble grows up in a fantastic, weird family.

one day, in her early teens, she commandeers a time machine--vortex, TARDIS, whatever--and travels. Farther than Arkytior means to.

she winds up on Gallifrey. where she meets a restless time lord, young despite his head of white hair, as curious and hungry for adventure as herself. with a newly chosen name much like Arkytior's mother has her own chosen name.

when he introduces himself as "the Doctor", Arkytior laughs.

"oh, you're my grandfather!"

"I'm what?? since when did--"

"from the future. timey-wimy stuff. don't worry about it."

and with time travel at her disposal, Arkytior doesn't really need to return home quite yet. there's so much to explore! how convenient she ran into someone who will become one of the people she trusts most in the world, who was just planning to set off on his own explorations.......

they travel for a time.

centuries and lifetimes and faces later, the Doctor travels to 2005, London, and blows up a building. he meets Rose Tyler.

#TO BE CLEAR: I have not seen the special with the bigeneration whatever #everything I know is from dashboard osmosis #but I am a simp for cyclical stories and also rose marion tyler so #I thought of a concept that has eaten my brain and couldn't wait to post until I watch the specials #doctor who #susan foreman #rose tyler #rose noble

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dalesramblingsblog · 4 months ago

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OK, I think it's time to actually commit words to writing and actually stick to them. I have tried several times to write this post, and on several occasions have even managed to do so, but I've never managed to follow through on my stated commitments. For the most part this is because, well, I simply didn't want to, because I knew it would be difficult, but I think I've reached a point where it would be far more difficult not to.

Let me cut to the chase: Dale's Ramblings, on WordPress at least, will be going on indefinite hiatus. There are several factors at play here, from the fact that I simply don't find the average quality of the books at this time to be good enough to make the project as much fun as it has been in the past, to my ongoing university studies, but the main reason is... well, I'm sick.

I have, of course, known this intellectually for a while now. It's been about a year since I actually started to figure things out and realise how profoundly affected I had been by my long COVID. Frankly, the fact that I was able to write as much as I did in 2024 - 252,000 words, let's recall - even in spite of being ill is something of a minor miracle.

And more to the point, I did all that because... well, it was fun. Like, I say it's become less fun, and in an objective sense yeah it probably has; I'd rather be still reading books like The Also People than Kursaal or War of the Daleks. But, like, it was still fun. Tremendous fun. I can't stand books like Kursaal or War, but I look back on those reviews with quite a lot of fondness, and I think I've done some of my absolute best writing over this past year.

But there comes a point where you have to weigh the fun in one hand against the realities of your body in the other, and the fact is that I'm sick. I have, in all likelihood, been pushing myself a mite too hard at times, but I wouldn't have done it if I didn't sincerely get enjoyment out of every syllable. If it stopped being fun, I would have stopped, and I'm lucky enough that Dale's Ramblings has never stopped being fun.

Yet I also realise that I can't keep up this gruelling production schedule forever, chasing arbitrary deadlines for no greater reason than my own neurotic desire for neatness and symmetry.

So, then, a hiatus. We've done them before, but this one still feels harder because I desperately *want* to continue. And I will, some day; I've already committed too much energy to the idea of this project as my weird, sprawling autobiographical magnum opus. As much as it's about charting the Wilderness Years, Dale's Ramblings is just as much about charting the evolution of some scrawny suicidal fourteen-year-old into... well, we still haven't quite figured out an ending just yet.

Consider this a weird blip in our chronology then, a literary caesura, to be followed up on at a later date.

Which leaves us with the Ko-fi, as eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that I've already put up two of the three book reviews for April 1998, thinking as I did that I'd release them in March to coincide with the next anni-VARsary. I won't, obviously, but I will keep them up on the Ko-fi for those who are just dying to get a sneak preview, and you should be getting an additional 9,000 word review of The Hollow Men in the next couple days once I give it the final readthrough. Oh, and I'll probably cover Andrew Cartmel's Swine Fever for free on here as well.

There might be further Ko-fi exclusive early access reviews published in the coming months, but they will not be coming with anything like the current rate of regularity or reliability. I don't know exactly when they'll be going public, I suspect I'll want to hold the entire volume until I finish it so I can write without deadlines looming over me.

Is that greedy of me? Perhaps. But again, I'm sick and, for the foreseeable future at least, unemployed. This is, for now, the only way I pull in any sort of income that I can really call my own. If you can support the Ko-fi at all, even if it's just for one month or it's just a one-time payment, it would be greatly appreciated, but if not, I mean, I'll still be here. Just, y'know, rambling with a little less frequency or structure.

But I think any sense of structure went the way of the dodo when I ditched the dedicated "Positives" and "Negatives" sections of my reviews, really, so I think this was always just going to be my cosmic fate.

#dale's ramblings #health nonsense #writing nonsense #update nonsense

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doctornolonger · 2 years ago

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Did you know the BBC wanted a young Doctor spin-off, but the Doctor Who production office shut it down, so all the ideas for it became the CBBC show Leonardo?

or,

You want a Deca spinoff? We’ve had one all along!!

It’s well-known that CBBC had planned a young Doctor spin-off before they commissioned The Sarah Jane Adventures. As RTD put it in The Inside Story (2006), “Children’s BBC approached us. They wanted to do a drama based around the idea of a young Doctor Who, but I said no to that. Somehow the idea of a fourteen-year-old Doctor, on Gallifrey inventing sonic screwdrivers, takes away from the mystery and intrigue of who he is and where he came from. So instead I suggested doing a series with Sarah Jane Smith, because she'd been so popular in School Reunion.”

But is it possible that CBBC didn’t throw out the idea, and “a fourteen-year-old Doctor on Gallifrey inventing sonic screwdrivers” became “a fourteen-year-old Leondardo da Vinci in 15th century Florence inventing new futuristic technologies”? Many thanks to my friend Poseidome for pointing me to this connection, which came from the same rumorhound who told me about the Dalek rights situation and abortive BritBox reshoot plans:

Leonardo is what the young Doctor spin off was going to be. “Fantastico!” as his catchphrase. The series would follow the Doctor, Master, Rani, and friends uncovering a conspiracy within the Academy and Time Lord society. The Doctor and the eventual renegades at the heart of it all. The Doctor’s ideas being stolen, his future has been foreseen, Time Lords trying to stop it, etc. All that kind of stuff. There’s even a Borusa stand-in played by Alistair McGowan!

(More under the cut…)

The cast I believe would have been the same, along with the budget, filming locations and costumes. Just adapted to be more sci-fi. CGI shots of Gallifrey, actual futuristic technology, classic monster cameos, that kind of thing.

Most if not all the ideas for the young Doctor series are in the Leonardo trailer still, as they kept 99% of the concept. The independent company tasked with adapting it had already done all the development before the idea got canned. Storylines, scripts, characters, costume ideas, locations, sets. If you watch the first series, the story arc and scripts should still be clear what they originally were, so it sort of still is, in a weird way, a bit of Doctor Who media.

I think it would have been really popular. I believe it would have broadcast in a gap year, or between split seasons. Similar to what they later did with Class, but instead of late teens, it was for the Sarah Jane Adventures demographic.

I’ve not seen the second series, but my understanding is its a lot more it’s own thing, as by then they’d had time to redevelop it outside of being a reworked young Doctor show. Hence why series 1 is the way it is, and series 2 tonally different.

I’ve done some digging to try to verify this rumour, including reaching out to one of the series 1 writers, but I haven’t found anything definitive yet. I rather doubt that development had gone as far as costumes, sets, etc., given how early in the process RTD seems to have shot it down, but it’s certainly true that the cast list matches perfectly. Plagiarising freely from the Leonardo Wiki:

Jonathan Bailey (Psi from “Time Heist”!) as Leonardo da Vinci, a young apprentice who loves painting, inventing, and creating new things. As the BBC Press Office put it, “He’s not just a genius; he’s an unstoppable, free-thinking creative force who’s always ten steps ahead of the rest.” Obviously the Doctor.

Flora Spencer-Longhurst as Tomaso/Lisa (of “Mona” fame), a girl who lives disguised as a male apprentice at Verrocchio’s workshop in Florence. According to the rumorhound, this would have been the Rani – although she also sounds a bit like Alanir …

Akemnji Ndifornyen as Niccolò Machiavelli or “Mac”, the number one man when it come to fraud or theft. He has a network of urchin spies and cut-purses throughout the city, and he likes money-making schemes and mingling with the rich and famous. Leo sometimes has to get him out of trouble. Obviously the Master.

Colin Ryan as Lorenzo de’ Medici, a wealthy boy largely bored of his life of luxury who enjoys sneaking away to join his friends. He is anxious to please his father, whom he greatly admires. The Monk, perhaps?

Alistair McGowan as Piero de’ Medici, an ambitious man and cousin to the Duke of Florence. He keeps a close eye on all happenings in Florence, and he heads a mysterious secret society. Borusa.

James Cunningham as Andrea del Verrocchio, Leo and Tom’s strict maestro. Leonardo is very loyal to him. The Doctor’s mentor Azmael, or an original character?

In light of this, I could totally believe that the blueprint of the young Doctor series was reused for Leonardo. If true, the transposition of the characters from Gallifrey to late 15th century Florence was frankly inspired. TIL Machiavelli and da Vinci were actually contemporaries!

(Incidentally, one of the script editors of Leonardo, Nina Métivier, also played a role in some of my favorite stories from the Chibnall era: she edited “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” and “It Takes You Away” in Doctor Who series 11, and of course she wrote “Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror” in series 12.)

This wouldn’t be the first time that planned Doctor Who stories have been repurposed for other series: Wizards vs. Aliens (2012–2014) was made by the same creative team and played in the same timeslot as The Sarah Jane Adventures, and at least one episode was based on a SJA script that had gone unproduced after Elisabeth Sladen’s untimely death; some Dirk Gently and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy stories had their roots in Douglas Adams’ rejected or unproduced Fourth Doctor pitches; and quite a few rejected Wilderness Era book and audio proposals eventually found homes outside Who, such as the Sixth Doctor pitch Smoking Mirror, which ultimately became into the Faction Paradox novel Against Nature.

But unlike those cases, where we know the character dynamics of the Doctor and their companion or Sarah Jane’s friends so we can spot their analogues in the new contexts, this young Doctor series is an attempt to do something new. Maybe we can spot the young Doctor and Master [edit: or can we?!], but we’ve never seen their friendship anything like this before – and as for the Monk being an impressionable kid trying to impress his father? It’s completely new.

We don’t have anything to compare Leonardo against: its existence is literally the only surviving hint of CBBC’s vision for the young Doctor and friends. And what a compelling hint it is!

#WhoCU #doctor who #young doctor #leonardo #the deca #gallifrey #deca #time lords #koschei #cbbc #bbc #first doctor #the doctor #the master #the rani #the monk #borusa #azmael #effortpost

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