#Daleks: the early years

[gen-is-gone]

I can't go five minutes in DW fandom without people being just atrociously mean about things that I love with the blissful unawareness of majority mainstream opinion holders that the people they're being mean about are like. In the space with them. And this in a space full of ardent fans of arguably some of the most esoteric obscure side stuff that everyone else disdains or doesn't even know. And I'm having fun for the most part but also like. It's just exhausting, constantly goddamn exhausting.

[penny-anna]

genuinely if you fell off at some point early in Moffat or Chibnall's run and don't want to slog through a bunch of stuff you don't think you'll enjoy here are some recommendations:

if you dropped off during the Matt Smith years then I'd recommend giving Peter Capaldi a shot. The writing is not always 100% but Capaldi is outstanding in the role. A couple of standalone ep highlights are Flatline, Listen & Mummy on the Orient Express. Heaven Sent is also excellent but a bit more arc heavy.

If you've seen some Capaldi before but didn't finish, I'd recommend picking up again with season 10. Moffat's final season, Twelfth Doctor + Bill Potts + Michelle Gomez as the Master. It's a run of very solid standalone eps w minimal story arc. Also Bill is a lesbian and she's great. Some good standalone eps are Smile, Thin Ice and Oxygen.

If you never watched any Chibnall who, you can jump straight in with Jodie Whittaker's first episode. completely new TARDIS team and very different vibes from Moffat who. A couple of highlights would be Rose, Demons of the Punjab, The Witchfinders, & Fugitive of the Judoon.

if you found Chibnall's early seasons boring, you might find Flux a lot more vibrant & dynamic. it's a six-part story arc featuring Yasmin Khan and new companion Dan Lewis. it's got sontarans, weeping angels, a whole species of furry dog people, AND bunch of really neat new supporting characters.

& also if you liked Flux I'd also warmly recommend the Near Year's special that came immediately after it, Eve of the Daleks, which is a GENUINE blast.

hope this is of use to someone!! it's like 10 years of TV to slog through at this point and some of it is uhhh u know but there's a lot of really good stuff in there that's worth checking out.

[eightdoctor]

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

[cronch-rat]

A guide to the missing episodes - 2nd doctor

A small guide on how to experience the missing episodes so you don't have to skip them - continued.

A reminder: All stories have loose cannon recons on the internet archive. Features only visual releases (animation, recon etc...) in region code 2.

The Power of the Daleks

a recon was released onto CD-ROM in 2005

it was animated in black/white only in 2016 with a special edition version being released in 2020

original animated release featured the CD-ROM recon while 2020 release had a newer recon made for it

The Highlanders

(nothing official)

The Underwater Menace

episode 3 included with the VHS release of the missing years documentary

same episode featured on the lost in time DVD

released on DVD in 2015 with episodes 1 + 4 reconstructed

special edition released in 2023 with missing episodes animated in both colour and black/white

The Moonbase

episodes 2 + 4 featured on VHS in Cybermen-the early years

same episodes featured on the lost in time DVD

released on DVD in 2014 with episodes 1 + 3 animated in black/white only

The Macra Terror

animation released in both colour and black/white in 2019

recon made to accompany this

The Faceless Ones

episodes 1 + 3 included in the reign of terror VHS set

same episodes featured on the lost in time DVD

animation released in both colour and black/white in 2020

recon made to accompany this

Evil of the Daleks

episode 2 featured on VHS in Daleks-the early years

same episode featured on the lost in time DVD

animation released in both colour and black/white in 2021

recon made to accompany this

The Abominable Snowmen

episode 2 featured on VHS in the Troughton years

same episode featured on the lost in time DVD

animation released in both colour and black/white in 2022

recon made to accompany this

The Ice Warriors

episodes 1,4,5 + 6 released on VHS in 1998 with a CD of the audio of episodes 2 + 3. Also came with the missing years documentary

released on DVD in 2013 with missing episodes animated

The Web of Fear

episode 1 included in the reign of terror VHS set

same episode featured on the lost in time DVD

released on DVD in 2014 with a recon of episode 3

special edition released in 2021 featuring episode 3 animated in colour and black/white

Fury from the Deep

animation released in both colour and black/white in 2020

recon made to accompany this

The Wheel in Space

episodes 3 + 6 featured on VHS in cybermen-the early years

same episode featured on the lost in time DVD

recons made of episodes 1,2,4 + 5 in 2017 as exclusives to Britbox. Currently available on BBC iPlayer

The Invasion

released on VHS in 1993 with episodes 1 + 4 summarised by Nicholas Courtney

released on DVD in 2006 with missing episodes animated

The Space Pirates

episode 2 featured on VHS in the Troughton years

same episode featured in the lost in time DVD

Clips from the highlanders feature in lost in time but no episodes.

Again, if there are any errors please let me know.

[gallifreyanhotfive]

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)

First 1 Prev 66 Next 68

[a-random-whovian7]

*LONG POST WARNING*

What your favourite New Who Companion says about you (absolutely no offence meant towards anyone, this is just for fun):

Rose: Either the most vanilla person alive, or an RTD era purist. Has spent years fighting for the honor of the RTD era. Ships Ten and Rose to the degree that they shudder at the thought of the Doctor having a relationship with someone else. Is constantly at war with Amy stans. Part of the reason for the RTD enjoyer vs Moffat fan civil war. Usually nice in real life, and quite nostalgic for the Tennant era, so usually OK to be friends with. Unless they say Mickey was treated fairly, at which point, you should run.

Mickey: One of the most kind-hearted, empathetic people, who saw how Mickey was mistreated by Rose in S2 and immediately just wanted to check if he was OK. Is able to hold decent relations with Rose stans due to Mickey's character development after the relationship, and has a surprisingly strong alliance with Rory fans. Was gutted when they heard about Noel Clarke's horrible behaviour and actions.

Adam: Let's be real, we all forgot this guy existed and for good reason.

Captain Jack: Every night, they lie in bed, haunted by the ghost of Torchwood. Loved seeing Jack again in S12, but felt disappointed after his lack of presence in Revolution of the Daleks. Has modelled several aspects of their personality on the Captain, and has the dating life (or lack thereof) to prove it. Cried at the deaths of Ianto and John Barrowman's career.

Martha: Basically Rose fans, except with slightly more indie music taste. Either that, or a person who knows how integral Martha is to 10's character arc. Has attempted to defend the "Space Jesus" scene a couple of times, and cried with happiness when Harbo Wholmes said that it worked in his review. Has a bit of a patchy relationship with Rose stans due to the Doctor's rebound arc, gets along better with Donna stans due to the fact that S4 acknowledged that 10 mistreated Martha. Generally has good taste and is nice to be around, just don't mention how undeveloped her relationship with Tom was.

Donna: Either a child of the late 90s/early 2000s who had the joy of watching New Who at it's peak in 2008, a person who really appreciates great character writing and an excellent series, or someone who just wanted a break from the companion having a romantic subplot. Often gets into heated arguments with Amy stans by (correctly) saying that Series 4 was better than Series 5. Uses Donna's funny dialogue and quips to hide the fact they are still recovering from one of the cruellest companion exits in the show. Generally nice, but very defensive of The Doctor's Daughter.

Wilf: I love these guys. Knows that a) Wilf is the single best character in the entirety of New Who and b) he counts as a companion. Has the best possible taste, and is an absolute joy to be around as a result of it. An emotional wreck after every single rewatch of The End of Time, especially now that the legendary Bernard Cribbins has left us. Has excellent relations with Donna stans, and was similarly overjoyed when they heard about the 60th. Refuses to admit that The End of Time would have possibly worked better as a 90 minute special.

Amy: Definitely has followed the eons-old teaching of "gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss" at some point. Refuses to admit A Good Man Goes to War was mid and that Amy really badly mistreated our sweet prince Rory in a large chunk of S5. Is really happy that Karen Gillan made it big in Hollywood. Friendly unless you say you prefer Rose to Amy. Could not be comforted after that cameo in Time of the Doctor.

Rory: Their favourite episode is usually The Girl Who Waited. Loyal, friendly, introverted and lovable, they of course identify with Rory's slightly long-suffering but accepting and funny character. Understandably annoyed at how Amy mistreated Rory in S5, but happy that S6 & 7A fixed that marriage. Thanks to Rory waiting for 2000 years, their bar for any personal relationship has been set insanely high. Celebrated when the BBC actually allowed Arthur Darvill to style his hair in S7A. Had to check Rory was definitely dead at the end of Angels Take Manhattan due to Moffat killing him whenever more tension was needed in a story.

River Song: Divided into two groups. Those who like River Song's more nuanced appearances in Silence in the Library, A Good Man Goes to War and The Husbands of River Song are awesome. Those who prefer the episodes that Moffat wrote with one hand, less so. Was overjpyed to see the Moffat Era reappraisal of 2020, only to be slightly disappointed when people said S6 was his weakest series. Wierdly enough, gets along nicely with all other companion stans. Has definitely said "Hello sweetie" to their partner/partners/friends/pets. If they prefer 12 and River to 11 and River, pass them the aux on a long journey (trust me on this one).

Clara: From my personal experience, there is a 60% chance that they are a closeted bisexual. Doesn't get why Clara was so overhated, especially in S9. Is wierdly OK with admitting that Victorian Clara was slightly more interesting to begin with, but knows that the character worked so well in 12's era. If they ship 11 and Clara, keep an eye on them. They haven't fully earned your trust yet.

Bill: Heterosexuality was never an option. Gets along well with Clara stans, as they both know how much the 12th Doctor's era s l a p p e d. Had their emotions mangled during the S10 finale, but fortunately came out intact thanks to that puddle and a happy-ish ending. Loved that Bill called 12 out on his bullshit and asked all the trivial questions we were all thinking. Singlehandedly drove the Moffat Era reappraisal over quarantine. Has the best fashion sense out of all the stans.

Nardole: A terrifying enigma. Looked at all the companions with complex stories, interesting arcs and major development, but instead went with the comic relief. Yes, Nardole is funny and a great support character, but... er... how? They can be nice. They can also be fans of Little Britain, which is a red flag. It's a roll of the dice.

Graham: Bradley Walsh was the highlight of the slightly undervalued S11, and they know it. Definitely has the vibe of being 10+ years older than they actually are in terms of attitude, but in the best way. Has definitely owned a pair of cords in their life. Goes into Doctor Who just looking for a fun hour of entertainment rather than lore. Great to hang out with. They always bring snacks.

Ryan: Tries to ignore the fact that Ryan has the most fucking insulting depiction of dyspraxia in any form of media (sorry, I have dyspraxia, and the way it was treated in S11 & 12 just really rubbed me the wrong way), but is also helpful and really in favour of spreading awareness. We're cool for now.

Yaz: One of the nicest, most well-intentioned people you will ever meet, always defending the underdog, supporting others and just being sweeter than a tea with six sugars, but also a master of illusion. Has read so many fan fictions, seen so much fan art and shipped Thasmin so much that they have tricked themselves into thinking Yaz is a three-dimensional, well-written character whose story was not completely made up on the go by Chibnall. Little more than a defeated husk after Power of the Doctor, being rewarded for all those years of fanfics, shipping and defending the era with a couple of longing stares and some hastily written "will they/won't they" scenes before 13 unceremoniously booted Yaz out of the TARDIS. Thinks Demons of the Punjab is the best 13 episode when it is really The Haunting of Villa Diodati.

Dan: Is more of a fan of John Bishop and his charisma than they are a fan of Dan, or is a terminally online person who thinks quoting "Evil Dan" videos makes them the funniest human alive (it really doesn't).

Want more of this for some reason? Try your Favourite Doctor or Favourite Master

[river13245]

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"

[doctornolonger]

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!

[willfrominternet]

Been a while since I posted here but I got a ping about this post where I talked about what I expected from Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor and their adventures with Ruby Sunday. After watching the season, I think I was right in saying the Doctor should be fun and their adventures should be fun.

This was, by all measures, a season which hearkened back to the first years of the Modern Era. It felt like watching Chris Eccleston and Billie Piper all over again. Both Chris and Ncuti played Doctors coming from great trauma and wanting to escape it, even if they did it in different ways (with Nine having to learn to rediscover love and Fifteen openly embracing it.) Both of them also had to face trauma at the end of their first season (in Chris's case, his only season): Nine dealt with the return of the Daleks, nearly losing Rose, and having to sacrifice himself just as he was starting to recover, while Fifteen had to cope with how death followed them everywhere, regardless of their longing for peace, positivity, and fun.

Ruby was very much just a normal girl like Rose, and I think her unexplained magic abilities don't take away from that. Rose also underwent a transformation in her second (and final) season, where she got locked in an alternate timeline and (sort of) became the Bad Wolf. I believe we'll therefore learn more about Ruby's abilities and see her character transform in her second season, as well as learn about Mrs. Flood and how she plays into the Doctor's timeline. (Early thoughts: River, another child of Amy and Rory, the Rani, another pre-Hartnell Doctor, a future Doctor, etc. etc. etc.)

Anyway: This season was definitely fun, but brought back the philosophical and historical bits which originally made Doctor Who at least somewhat educational and thought-provoking. I think this was what was missing from Moffatt's and Chibnall's runs on the show: It became more centered around the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey lore and less around tying the history/sci-fi to current issues. (The Capaldi era actually did this somewhat well, but I'm biased because I love Capaldi.) Here's the ranking of episodes from best to okay:

Rogue

Dot and Bubble

73 Yards

Boom

The Devil's Chord

Space Babies

The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death

This first season did, in my opinion, feel too much like a taste of Doctor Who, or a "Season 1A." Series 7 was like this too, where we had so much left unresolved and underdeveloped after those first five episodes. (Not that the rest of Series 7 was much better, IMHO.) At least this first season for Ncuti felt a little more full, but now I'm even more excited to see what happens to the Doctor, Ruby, and whoever Varada Sethu will play in the next season. Perhaps that was the twist all along. Damn you, Russell! Damn you, Disney Plus!

Was this the finest season of the new incarnation of the show? No, but I would certainly give it a solid B. The writing was quite good, the acting was phenomenal, and the general vibe of the show definitely gave the impression that Doctor Who was back, baby. But the development did feel a bit rushed, and there were certain parts of the Doctor's character left over from previous incarnations which I thought they would have processed differently. Plus, I view other seasons of the show (Series 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 10) more favorably. Call it bias, call it favoritism, call it nostalgia.

Whatever. Point is that Ncuti and Millie had a lot to prove in this semi-reboot of the show, and RTD had to show he still had his stuff, and by golly, they did it. I - as well as plenty of other long-time fans - haven't been this excited about the show in a while, despite how the season ended. And you're telling us we've gotta wait now for Christmas and then some time in the middle of 2025 for more? It's like I'm a high school fanatic raving mad in the middle of my bedroom again. What a wild feeling.

[throwaninkpot]

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.

[natequarter]

most of what is wrong with romana ii can be traced directly back to destiny of the daleks, in which she commits suicide for fun, imprints on the fourth doctor after committing suicide for fun, gets captured by daleks, fakes her death directly after committing suicide for fun, and generally has the early hours of her life shaped by things which will come back to haunt her later in life (twenty years of dalek captivity, committing suicide for fun)

[pers-books]

The Observer Peter Capaldi

‘The government has been too terrible to make fun of’: Peter Capaldi on satire, politics and privilege

📷 ‘I’ve had to pretend to be more amenable’: Peter Capaldi wears blazer by oliverspencer.co.uk; shirt by toa.st. Photograph: Simon Emmett/The Observer

Tom Lamont Sun 14 Jan 2024 08.00 GMT

One winter morning, a Doctor Who comes calling. The Glaswegian actor Peter Capaldi lives about an hour’s walk from me and instead of us meeting in some midway café, the 65-year-old wanders over (leather booted, woolly jumpered, cloaked in a dark winter coat that sets off his pale-grey hair) to have coffee at my kitchen table. My son is off school with flu, medicating on Marvel movies and barely able to believe his luck as the actorly embodiment of an alien superhero wanders through our flat. While we’re waiting for the kettle to boil, I ask Capaldi whether he ran into any other Doctor Whos on his walk through the actorland that is suburban north London.

He grins an unguarded grin you don’t often see on screen. Capaldi became famous as the permanently angry spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in the BBC comedy The Thick of It, which ran from 2005 to 2012 and, after that, between 2013 and 2017, he played the sternest, least imp-ish Doctor Who in decades. In his new Apple TV show, a police procedural called Criminal Record, which Capaldi co-produced with his wife, Elaine Collins, he stars as an ageing detective: another scowler. Now, coffee in hand, he smiles affectionately. So, did he bump into any other Doctor Whos this morning? “David [Tennant, 10th Doctor] used to live in Crouch End, near me. Matt [Smith, 11th Doctor] lives around here. Jodie [Whittaker, 13th Doctor] is nearby, Christopher [Eccleston, 9th Doctor] too, I think.” But no, no encounters with his fellow alumni this morning, Capaldi says.

📷 ‘You can’t be the cynical melancholic I naturally am’: Peter Capaldi wears coat by Mr P (mrporter.com); jumper by uniqlo.com; trousers by reiss.com; and shoes by johnlobb.com. Photograph: Simon Emmett/The Observer

“You do run into each other. You have a laugh, a gossip, you share. There aren’t a lot of people who have been in that role in the centre of that storm. Most people think the job is being on the Tardis and running around with Daleks. Which it is. That’s the fun part. But there’s a lot of other stuff you have to do, too. You’re kind of the face of the brand and the brand is very big. You can’t be the cynical melancholic I naturally am. You have to pretend to be a version of yourself that’s far more amenable.”

Is it a bit like being the Queen?

“Kind of,” he says. “You embody for a time this folk hero, this icon. I was able to comfort people in a way that would be beyond the powers of Peter. You could walk into a room and people gasped with delight. It doesn’t happen any more.”

Capaldi grew up in 1960s and 1970s Glasgow. His Italian-Scottish family lived in a tenement block. “We had nothing. We had zilch.” From a young age he exhibited signs of artistic talent, though he characterises himself, then and now, as a seven- or eight-out-of-10 at various crafts. “When I was young, I was good at drawing. My grandmother used to say that came from Italy. She felt that I was an absolute throwback to Leonardo da Vinci – her direct line to Michelangelo! It confused me because I wanted to do these other things, play music, act – which one was I supposed to do?”

📷 Great Scot: Peter Capaldi wears blazer by ralphlauren.co.uk. Photograph: Simon Emmett/The Observer

After graduating school at 18, this confused cross-artistic trajectory continued. “I tried to be an actor, but I didn’t get into drama school, so I went to art school. When I was at art school, I joined a band.” In his early 20s, Capaldi released a single as part of a group called Dreamboys; then he quit music and spent most of his 20s acting, getting small jobs in theatre and TV as well as a walk-on part opposite John Malkovich in 1988’s Dangerous Liaisons. In his 30s, he decided to concentrate on directing.

In 1993, a short film he directed, Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life, won him an Oscar, industry recognition that launched Capaldi off on a heady but doomed sojourn in America. Well caffeinated and gripping the edge of my kitchen table to tell the story, he recalls what happened when he was courted as a hot prospect by the Weinstein brothers, Bob and Harvey, then the co-presidents of Miramax and at the height of their power and influence. Capaldi spent a year working on a screenplay for them, at the end of which Bob flew him out to Manhattan to discuss casting and production. As far as Capaldi was concerned it was a formality; bottles of champagne were cooling at home.“I thought I was off and away.”

📷 Feel the heat: in The Thick of it. Photograph: Everett Collection/Alamy

Miramax sent a limo to pick him up from the airport. “I fell into conversation with the driver, lovely man, Ralph. When I got out of the car I gave him a big tip. Because I was a big shot now, you see. Then Ralph said: ‘I’ve been told to wait for you here.’” Uh oh. “Inside, all the people in the office were avoiding my eye. Bob said, ‘I’ll come straight to it, we’re not gonna do the movie, my brother Harvey says he doesn’t know how to sell it.’ He said, ‘But we love you! You’re one of the family! You’ll always have a place here!’ Needless to say, I never heard from him again. Obviously, while I was in the air they’d had a discussion and changed their minds. I was so dumbfounded as I climbed back into the limo I just laughed. I had no money, because we’d bought a little house in Crouch End, and I had no career, because I’d turned my back on acting.”

In a gesture that Capaldi has never forgotten, Ralph the limo driver tried to give him back his big tip.

As we chat, the postman rings the bell, delivering packages. Council tree surgeons are working on the road outside. My son needs water, words of comfort, possibly he just wants another good long look at Capaldi. I’ve never interviewed anyone in my own home before and the limitations of the format are becoming apparent. But Capaldi seems to respond well to the setting and its lack of frills. His adult daughter and her family have been visiting, brand new baby in tow. When I apologise for all the noise and interruptions, Capaldi says it’s nothing compared to a newborn.

📷 Fun fact: in Paddington 2. Photograph: Supplied by LMK

He and Collins were young parents themselves when his directing career fell apart. Arriving back in London from the disastrous Manhattan trip, “The initial feeling was shock. Then a pragmatic survival instinct kicked in.” Capaldi rejoined the auditioning circuit. “I was a psychiatrist in Midsomer Murders. I was a beekeeper in Poirot – AN Other Actor. Someone else would have turned down these parts first.” Collins, until that point an actor, too, decided to pivot into development and production, a career move that has worked well for her.

Artists often do their best work while they’re at their lowest, perhaps because they feel they haven’t much to lose, little to be afraid of. Sloping into a Soho audition room in the mid-2000s to meet Armando Iannucci about a new political comedy, Capaldi remembers being in a foul mood. He’d just come from an unsuccessful audition for another BBC show, “being taped like I was Vivien Leigh reading for Scarlett O’Hara”. He remained grumpy when Iannucci admitted there wasn’t yet a script for The Thick of It, they were going to try improvising instead. “I knew Armando was supposed to be a comedy genius, but at that moment I was, like, ‘Yeah? Let’s see some of your comedy genius then. Fucking show me what you’ve got, you Oxbridge twat.’ My whole attitude that day was essentially Malcolm Tucker’s, and it informed the improvisation we did.”

📷 Folk Hero: in his new series Criminal Record. Photograph: Ben Meadows/Apple

When The Thick of It debuted, Capaldi entered the sitcom pantheon overnight. Revisiting episode one, what’s glaring is how fully formed, how exquisite a character Tucker is. Alan Partridge, Samantha Jones, Frasier Crane, David Brent … these creations had to be discovered over time by their actors and writers. With Tucker it’s all there from word one, the controlled fury, the foul-mouthed eloquence, that constant convenient deployment of hypocrisy. Capaldi played the part for seven years, winning a Bafta mid-run. It led to other memorable gigs, as a news producer in 2012’s The Hour and as Count Richelieu in a 2014 adaptation of the Musketeers story. He was Mister Micawber in Iannucci’s 2019 reimagining of David Copperfield, a fun role that was bookended by two equally fun Paddington movies, released in 2014 and 2017.

Promoting these projects, Capaldi would be asked to give a view on political events of the day, as seen through the eyes of the character who made his career. What would Malcolm Tucker think of Brexit, or the pandemic response, or the premierships of Johnson or Truss? Capaldi long ago stopped answering these questions. “For one thing, I need about 10 writers, Tony Roach and Jesse Armstrong among them, to supply Malcolm’s bon mots. But more than that, I think these [recent Conservative] governments have been too terrible to make fun of. I think they’ve been incompetent and corrupt and I’m not going to make jokes to give them time off.”

📷 ‘You’re the face of the brand and the brand is very big’: playing Doctor Who. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

We talk about how weird it is that political satire should have fallen into abeyance in the 2020s – perhaps because, as Capaldi says, “things have been too bad to make fun of. Making fun normalises situations I don’t think should be normalised. The planet is burning. They’re pumping shit into the rivers. I’m not gonna be part of making jokes about that… All this highfalutin life I’ve had,” he says, of the awards parties, the film roles, the immortal runs as a sweary spin doctor and an inscrutable Doctor Who, “is because I went to art school. My parents couldn’t afford to send me. I went because the government of the day paid for me to go and I didn’t have to pay them back. There was a thrusting society then, a society that tried to improve itself. Yes, of course, it cost money. But so what? It allowed people from any kind of background to learn about Shakespeare, or Vermeer, or whatever they wanted to learn about. Why did we lose this, this belief in ourselves?”

For Capaldi, the world of acting feels narrower now, meaner in a way that seems to mirror British society at large. He thinks of his industry as one in which subtle discriminations hold sway and “gatekeepers and Aztecs still decree who shall be admitted… I think there’s a real problem. There isn’t the funding or support for young people from poorer backgrounds to get into the theatre. And indeed there aren’t the theatres.” He wonders about the teenage Anthony Hopkinses out there, talented, without the obvious means or encouragement to train in the arts. And the inverse, actors who Capaldi, in his frank and acid way, characterises as privileged duds.

📷 Shared vision: with his wife and co-producer Elaine. Photograph: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy

“This business is full of people who are not the real thing,” he says, “people I perceived to be artists ’cos they had posh accents, but who didn’t have it, they just sounded like they did.” He goes on to tell a tantalising but intentionally vague story about a major star he worked with, someone who revealed themselves through the course of an acting collaboration to be a dud hiding in plain sight. He won’t provide details (“Too easy to figure out. When everyone’s dead I’ll tell you”), but he says the experience changed him professionally, leaving him more aware of his own limitations, but grateful to have a little vinegar and grit in the mix. “There’s a kind of smoothness, a kind of confidence that comes from a good [paid-for] school. That’s what you’re struck by: they seem to know how to move through the world recognising which battle to fight, where to press their attentions. But it can make the acting smooth, which to me is tedious. I like more neurosis. More fear. More trouble, you know?”

I think this part of his skillset expressed itself well during the three-season run on Doctor Who, when Capaldi was prepared to come across as remote, a little unreachable. “I don’t set out to make the audience like me,” he says. “Because my characters don’t know an audience is there.” For me, his high point as the Doctor was an episode called Heaven’s Gate, a chronology-stretching tale written by Steven Moffatt in which the Doctor is set a sisyphean task of endurance that lasts about 50 minutes or so in screen time and several millennia in narrative terms. Capaldi didn’t play it as a hero. He wasn’t charming or boyish. In this episode especially, he was grim and patient and knackered. It was a rare occasion when the character, apparently alive for hundreds of years, seemed old.

📷 Burning bright: with John Malkovich in Dangerous Liaisons. Photograph: Everett Collection/Alamy

In the new TV show, Criminal Record, he explores a more mortal kind of ageing, life’s third act, its inevitable professional humblings. Capaldi plays a London DCI in his 60s, coming to the end of a career, already moonlighting as a private security contractor, intimidated by the thrust and purpose of a younger colleague at the Met played by Cush Jumbo. As Jumbo’s character grows in confidence, Capaldi’s shrinks. It is a paradox of experience he can relate to. “I find the older I get, the closer I am to who I was,” he says.

I ask him to explain.

“Like I’m returning to… ‘roots’ is the wrong word. I feel more and more like my mother and father, more and more keenly aware of the values they had.” He provides an interesting example, how he has become all thumbs around the act of tipping in restaurants: “I can be in a complete sweat about that.” He can imagine his parents, both dead now, in a similar muddle. “From the background we come from, you can have a bit of anxiety about coming across as grand. So you have to allay that by making sure you are communicating with everybody, all the time.”

Capaldi shakes his head, chuckling softly. He has finished his coffee. He’s about to put on his big coat, say goodbye to my son, and walk back through Whoville to his home and his family. Before he leaves we return to the subject of actors from privileged backgrounds. He says he feels mean, like he took unfair advantage of them in their absence. “It’s not their fault,” he says. “It’s just that there’s less and less of my lot in the arts.” And this concerns him, he continues, because “people of all backgrounds are sophisticated, are interesting, are equally prone to tragedy and joy. Any art that articulates that is a comfort. Art is the ultimate expression of you are not alone, wherever you are, whatever situation you are in. Art is about reaching out. So I think it’s wrong to allow one strata of society to have the most access.”

He nods, feeling he’s expressed himself better. I agree.

Criminal Record is streaming now on Apple TV+, with new episodes every Wednesday

Fashion editor Helen Seamons; Grooming by Kenneth Soh at The Wall Group using Eighth Day; fashion assistant Sam Deaman; photography assistants Tom Frimley and Tilly Pearson; shot at Loft Studio.

[hinerdsitscat]

Coming Soon: "The Day of the Mistress" (Doctor Who Fanfic)

I finally managed to finish something I started back in 2021: an AU version of the 50th Anniversary Special starring Missy as a very unwilling substitute Doctor. It clocked in at 40,000 words and 8 chapters and it's finally done!

I'm still finishing up the editing process but I plan to start posting it in another week or so, with one chapter per week after that (timing it so that the final chapter will post on this year's anniversary).

Update: it's posted!

In the meantime, here's a (lengthy) preview: in which the Eleventh Doctor dies and wakes up in the "afterlife":

--------------------

The Doctor woke up.

That was a surprise. 

He sat up and took stock: same clothes, although the bowtie was a bit askew (and quickly adjusted). After running his hands over his face and through his hair, he knew that he hadn’t regenerated—not that he could have, since he didn’t have any regenerations left.

He wasn’t injured, which was both a relief and a bit troubling. He’d been very certain that he was dying only moments before, which meant that something must have happened to his body. He couldn’t remember what had happened, though—his memory of the very end felt like a frayed piece of cloth: unraveled and full of loose threads. 

So that was one very big mystery. The next mystery: where was he now?

He looked around and saw that he was sprawled beside a fountain in the center of a very ornate courtyard garden, which was peculiar enough that it took him a moment to notice the woman in the dark dress heading in his direction with an expression of absolute fury on her face.

And because he was still seated on the neatly-trimmed lawn, he didn’t have an opportunity to dodge the folded-up umbrella that she swung at his head.

“Ow!” the Doctor exclaimed, rubbing at the sore spot just above his right ear. “What was that for—”

“What in blazes are you doing here?” his mysterious attacker bellowed. “Of all the people to turn up—what did you even do that you—” She made a wordless scream of aggravation. “You’re not supposed to be here!”

Her Scottish accent was very well-suited for furious ranting, the Doctor thought to himself. Despite the shouting and the head trauma, it brought back pleasant memories of Amy Pond.

“Some sort of pointless self-sacrifice, I expect,” the woman continued, giving the edge of the fountain a good thwack! with her umbrella. “Some doe-eyed human with three-to-five distinguishing characteristics pouted and then you threw yourself into an inferno or slapped a Dalek or did something equally foolish! And even worse—” She pulled out a pocketwatch and glared at it before redirecting the glare back in his direction. “—it’s too early! I had at least another year to go before reaching a decent population threshold, and now it’s thrown into chaos because you keep blundering into things!”

The Doctor squinted up at her. “Have we met?” She really did seem to be taking this all rather personally—

“Ow!” This time, she raised the umbrella over her head before bringing it crashing down onto the top of his skull. “Why do you keep hitting me!?” he sputtered.

The woman stabbed the umbrella tip-first into the ground, which held it in place and sent a tiny divot of sod flying through the air. “Why didn’t you regenerate?” she demanded.

“I… what?” The Doctor tried to get a closer look at her face, but the woman had begun angrily pacing around the fountain.

“Was it another anaesthetic problem?” she asked. “That kept you out for at least a couple of hours the last time it happened.”

He blinked in surprise. That had happened lifetimes ago—back before the Time War. He racked his brains trying to figure out how he knew her, because there was something oddly familiar about her the more she ranted.

“But you still ended up here somehow,” she muttered, tucking the pocketwatch back into her jacket and pulling out a device that did not look like something normally found in their current environment. Of course, the Doctor wasn’t entirely sure what environment he was even in.

He scrambled to his feet and took another look at his surroundings. Just a pleasant garden, but something about the whole place was odd. Was it the smell of the flowers? The angle of the sunlight? 

He picked up the umbrella, partly out of curiosity and partly because he would rather not get hit with it again. 

Even the umbrella was strange, and just like everything else he didn’t know why.

“I wonder if I can just boot you out,” the woman muttered, still examining the device in her hand. “Maybe kickstart the regeneration somehow?”

“How do you know about regeneration?” the Doctor asked. She gave him a withering glare and went back to grumbling at the device in her hand. “How do you know me?”

She made a snort of derision. “You spend all this time going around proclaiming your ‘name’ to everyone—” The Doctor could hear the implied quotation marks around that particular word, “—and you’re actually surprised when people recognise you? The brilliant, all-powerful, sanctimonious saviour of all of space and time, adored by every little fly you deign to acknowledge with your holier-than-thou false modesty? Drop what you’re doing, everyone, because look who it is: the Doctor!”

Her icy blue eyes were full of a bitterness that seemed very familiar… but the Doctor didn’t have the opportunity to even try to identify it because there was something else that he did recognise when she said his name.

He had gotten used to the TARDIS translating everything in his head with near-perfect clarity, but after so many years away from home he had forgotten the almost-imperceptible lag compared to hearing the language of his birth.

There wasn’t a lag this time.

She called him ‘the Doctor’ in Gallifreyan.

So he repeated his earlier question, this time in that same tongue: “How do you know me?”

The woman froze ever-so-slightly, and a certain kind of wariness overtook her body language. Then she exhaled impatiently and began to recite while counting on her fingers: “Original, Pocket-Sized, Motorist Fop, Teeth and Curls, Dumb Blond with the Celery, Hideous Coat, Terrible Hat, the Pretty One, the Granddad No One Invites to Christmas Dinner, Leather Jacket, Specs and Sandshoes, and then you. You’ve still got one regeneration left. Why are you here?”

The Doctor wanted to point out that it would be a lot easier to explain why he was here if he had any idea where ‘here’ even was, but that was far from the most important thing on his mind at the moment, because if the person he was talking to knew how to speak Gallifreyan, knew about regeneration, and knew about all of his former regenerations—including the one from the Time War—she had to be another Time Lord. 

Someone else had survived. Someone he knew.

She was obviously furious with him, but seeing as the Doctor was the one who used the Moment and destroyed every other Time Lord and (almost) every Dalek, the rage was certainly justified. 

However, she had also spoken to him in a way that indicated that she definitely knew him personally and not just by reputation.

And seeing as she was apparently hard at work on a project that he had ruined just by showing up, he could make a pretty good guess as to who she was: “Rani?”

Even though he was holding the umbrella as a sort of defensive weapon, she was still faster—the woman slapped him across the face hard enough to nearly knock him over. 

“Are you serious?” she shouted furiously as she yanked the umbrella out of his hand. “You think I’m the Rani?!”

The Doctor rubbed his cheek and hastened to get out of range. “Just a guess,” he muttered. He was going to have to be very sure on his next attempt, because she was holding that umbrella like a cricket bat and looking absolutely murderous—

Oh no.

He could have slapped himself, really—how did he miss such an obvious clue?

‘Was it another anaesthetic problem?’

That was San Francisco, back before the War. There was only one other Time Lord who would have known what happened there.

At least the sensation of horrified recognition in the pit of his stomach was familiar.

“Nice, er… hat?” the Doctor ventured. “Really suits you. A lot better than the usual beard thing.”

The Master rolled her eyes in annoyance.

“How did you escape Gallifrey?” he asked.

“My question first: why haven’t you regenerated?” she demanded yet again.

“Why is that important?”

“Because you’re not supposed to be here!”

“Where is here? Is this some sort of afterlife?” 

“Yes!” she snapped. “It’s a long story, a very cunning plan, and none of your business right now! You’ve got one regeneration left—use it and scoot!”

“I don’t have any regenerations left!”

“Yes, you do!” she insisted. “I counted them off—so unless you’ve been very sneaky for the first time in your life, this isn’t your final one!”

“Yes, it is!” He had no idea why the Master was so hellbent on arguing with him about this, so he might as well tell her the truth. “There was a metacrisis thingy—I used up one of my regenerations in the process.”

She looked dumbfounded. “When did that happen?”

“Before this one,” he explained wearily. “You were busy being dead at the time. But the main point is this: I’m out of regenerations and I’ve apparently died—though I didn’t expect there would be anything after that.” He gave the garden another once-over. “Topiary, for example. Now it’s your turn to answer some questions.”

But the Master’s expression had morphed into one of complete horror—no, not just horror: panic. “No…” she breathed. “No no no… you’re not supposed to be dead. That’s not supposed to happen: you need to be alive, you can’t die!”

He blinked in surprise. “Why are you upset?”

“If you’re not alive, then you can’t do your little ‘saving the day’ shtick!” she protested. “You’ve got a lot of work ahead of you, you can’t just up and die on me!”

“I assumed you’d be happy about that!” the Doctor sputtered. “Isn’t that the thing you’re always complaining about? Isn’t that the reason why you’re always trying to kill me? Well, good news: I’m dead, so I can’t stop whatever plan you’ve concocted! What’s the downside for you?”

“Because you’re supposed to save me!” she shouted. “Remember our last encounter? When I jumped through that portal Rassilon had opened with the White Point Star—you’re welcome for that, by the way!”

“Oh…” He shifted uncomfortably. “Yes, er, thanks for the assist and all that.”

“Then I shoved about a hundred of those damned Stars down Rassilon’s throat—which was incredibly cathartic—but then realised that I had just thrown myself into the final day of the War with no way out! And then—as usual—the Doctor showed up to save the day! Not just the Doctor, in fact: every single one of you popped in out of nowhere to punt Gallifrey into a pocket universe and presumably let the Daleks blow themselves to bits. Escaping the end of the Time War? Difficult. Escaping a pocket dimension? I could do that in my sleep.” She stepped in closer and gave his nose a not-so-gentle boop. “And do you know how many Doctors there were? All thirteen. You do have another regeneration, so hop to it and go.”

“I can’t,” the Doctor insisted. “It’s too late. There’s no way for me to go back.” He decided to focus on the specific agony of that rather than the implication that he somehow found a way to undo the biggest mistake of his life. There was too much hope bound up in that—a very dangerous thing.

The Master’s upper lip twisted into a snarl. “Well, either you regenerate or we have a very bad paradox on our hands, one that will inevitably resolve by sending me back to the Worst Day Ever, and that is not how I intend to end things. So you can’t be dead.” She let out another growl of aggravation. “All right… not a disaster… this is fixable… I bet I could go back a few years, give the Cult of Saxon a few more instructions—” She frowned. “A ring would be the easiest way to forge that connection, but given your recent interpretation of the term ‘fashion,’ unless you’ve been secretly married this whole time you probably wouldn’t be wearing one—what?” Apparently his expression had changed somewhat, because she grabbed his hands and examined them. “No ring… what was that about?”

“Er… might have gotten married recently?” he said with a wince. Why did he feel so awkward about that?

Oh no… River was going to be crushed once she found out he had died. After everything she’d done to save him—including sacrificing her own life for his…

“Who?” the Master demanded. If the Doctor didn’t know better, he would have thought she was jealous.

“Doesn’t matter!” he said, hastily prying his fingers out of her grip. “Besides, if you’re going to meddle in the past anyway, I’m sure you could find a way to slip a ring into my pocket at some point. I barely keep track of what’s in there.”

She sighed. “I’ll have to get in close, which is always a risk but—” She froze. “Oh, damn it.”

“What?”

“I forgot the other part of it: I had to burn up a regeneration to resurrect, which is something that you don’t have because that’s what started this whole mess to begin with.” She started pacing around the fountain again. “If there was a way to get you to Gallifrey, we could probably get you topped up with a new cycle, but with the growing paradox we might be locked out…”

The Doctor was still a bit bewildered at the very new experience of the Master actually trying to help him for once, which is why it took him a few seconds to ask the right question: “I must have found a way back to Gallifrey somehow if I was able to save it. How did that happen?”

“I don’t know,” she snapped. “I was a bit preoccupied at the time with the possibility of dying in the cataclysm I thought you were about to unleash.”

“Maybe I’ve already done it?” he suggested. “Interactions with past regenerations can tamper with memories—my supposed-next regeneration would be the one to retain any of them.”

The Master shook her head. “It’s still the same problem: with you dead now, he won’t exist to be there on Gallifrey. Which means that…” She suddenly got a nauseous expression on her face.

“What—” But then the answer occurred to him as well. “Oh no,” the Doctor said, just as appalled as the Master seemed to be about the idea. “You’d never be able to keep it up.”

“Why not?” she demanded, sounding a bit offended. “I’ve spent far longer undercover for far pettier reasons than this. Besides,” she sniffed, “I know you better than anyone, even that mysterious new spouse of yours. I’ll pretend to be your next regeneration and play along with your little do-gooder role until that event occurs—on Gallifrey—at which point I’ll boot you back to normal and we can go our separate ways.”

“Will you really?” the Doctor asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “Once you’ve saved your own skin by saving Gallifrey, there’d be no point in bringing me back to life.”

She tapped her chin with a finger as a wicked smile appeared on her face. “That’s a very compelling point, you know…” The smile vanished. “But since the original version of events involves your next regeneration, it’s best to keep that part intact. Besides, I have a vested interest in staying on your good side since I’m going to need your help convincing everyone that I’m you.”

“And how exactly am I supposed to do that, seeing as I’m here?” the Doctor demanded impatiently. “I can’t exactly follow you around like a ghost.”

The wicked grin was back. “Ah, but you can.” She gestured at their surroundings. “This is merely a repository of consciousness—think of it as a miniature version of the Matrix on Gallifrey. I can upload your consciousness into a portable telepathic device and take you along like one of your little pets.” The Doctor felt himself bristle at her use of that word, which quickly became a spike of anxiety when the Master continued: “Speaking of which, there is the matter of Miss Oswald…”

“You’re not going anywhere near her,” the Doctor snapped. 

“Well, that’s very rude,” she replied grumpily. “Especially since I’m the one who introduced you to begin with.” She adopted a different accent: “‘Computer helpline, love. That’s the one. Best helpline in the universe.’”

His jaw dropped. “You’re the one who gave Clara my number?”

“And she’s been driving you mad ever since, hasn’t she?” the Master asked. “The control freak and the man who hates being controlled. But you can’t seem to drop her, can you? Too many secrets around her, too many mysteries, too many things you can’t figure out, driving you to distraction… You’re too busy thinking of her as a puzzle to think of her as a person.”

“That’s not true!”

“Yes, it is!” she retorted. “That’s why I put you together: she’s like methadone for your pesky human addiction. And once you’ve finally kicked it, you can move on and stop using Earth as a perpetual plot device for the Thrilling Adventures of the Doctor, Saviour of All the Little People.” Her eyes flashed. “You always acted like you were different, like you were special. Well, you’re not. You’re no different from me.” She straightened her posture and planted the tip of her umbrella back into the ground beside her. “And now, I have a chance to prove it. I’ll show you what the Doctor can really do.”

“Good luck,” he replied, trying not to shake with anger. “It’s not as easy as it looks.”

She laughed in his face. “What, to be adored? A couple of well-placed falsehoods, a few mental tricks, and then basking in the glow of your own self-importance. Being hated, on the other hand… that takes work. That’s one hell of a burden to bear. Even if you had destroyed Gallifrey at the end of the War, you got off easy: there was no one left to despise you.”

“You claim to know me better than anyone else,” the Doctor said, feeling his voice tremble. “That doesn’t mean you understand me.”

“Yes, I do,” she replied airily. “I was there for all of it, wasn’t I? Every face, before and after the War. Who else can say that?”

“Clara.” The Doctor’s eyes widened as the name escaped his mouth.

The Master frowned in confusion. “What?”

Even as a disembodied consciousness, his hearts could apparently beat like mad. “I remember how I died.”

[cronch-rat]

A guide to the missing episodes - 1st doctor

A small guide on how to experience the missing episodes so you don't have to skip them. Other versions of this list might exist but I just wanted to make my own.

Quick precursor: This covers only visual mediums (animations, recons etc...). All stories have loose cannon recons that can be viewed on the internet archive but which vary in quality.

Marco polo

A condensed 30 min recon was included with the edge of destruction DVD release (itself a part of the beginning box set)

The Reign of Terror

first released as a VHS with just episodes 1,2,3 + 6. This was a limited released with only 8,000 and was the last doctor who release on VHS (2003)

released as a DVD in 2013 with episodes 4 + 5 animated in black/white only

The Crusade

episode 3 included on the Hartnell years VHS

released on VHS in 2000 with episodes 2 + 4 reconstructed. The release was a double story one with the space museum

episodes 1 + 3 included in the lost in time DVD collection

released as part of the complete season 2 Blu-ray with newer recons

Galaxy 4

condensed recon featured in the 2013 special edition release of the Aztecs

all episodes animated in both colour and black/white in 2021

episodes 1,2 + 4 reconstructed for the same release

Mission to the Unknown

recreated in 2019 which can be viewed on YouTube

The Myth Makers

(nothing official)

The Dalek's Master Plan

episodes 5 + 10 featured on Daleks-the early years VHS

episodes 2, 5 + 10 featured on the lost in time DVD

The Massacre

(nothing official)

The Celestial Toymaker

episode 4 included in the Hartnell years VHS

same episode featured on the lost in time DVD

all episodes animated in both colour and black/white in 2024

recons of episodes 1, 2 + 3 made to accompany this

The Savages

(nothing official)

The Smugglers

(nothing official)

The Tenth Planet

released as part of the cybermen box set with attack of the cybermen of VHS in 2000. Includes a recon of episode 4

released on DVD in 2013 with episode 4 animated in black/white only

The myth makers, the Savages and the Smugglers all have clips featured on the lost in time DVD but no episodes. The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve remains the only story with nothing going for it.

If there are any errors, please let me know.

[apples-r-rubbish]

Small Town (11th Doctor x Reader) - Part 2

Summary: It snows in October, an Amberpoint tradition. On this peculiar snow day you find things aren't just cold outside. Count: 2.3k Warnings: unreality, self gaslighting, mentions of death, long gaps between updates A/N: I didn't mean for this to take literally 8 months, but I have a degree now! it is what it is, sorry, I can't promise I will ever update consistently because that's not my style. However, Thank you for all the support of my fics even though I went M.I.A -L <3

MASTERLIST | PART ONE | PART TWO (you are here !)

You were wandering around the TARDIS arm outstretched out gently touching the walls with your fingertips. The ship hummed gently appreciating your company. It had been an overwhelming 36 hours. 

The asylum was cold, wet and frightening. You prided yourself on generally being quite brave, but that place, that cold, dark, wet, place, sucked the energy right out of your soul. A dalek with a heart was not an easy sight, and as the doctor explained it you felt instantly floored.  The horrors you’d seen remained in your mind. At some point you slipped your way down the wall and allowed a few silent tears to slip from your eyes, and a figure came and sat next you and you slowly began to-

No. This wasn’t right. They don’t exist. You made them up. This isn’t real. That didn’t happen. The dream stopped almost as quickly as it had come to you. It was replaced by an intense feeling of loss you couldn’t quite place.

You stirred from your sleep in waves. Slowly, slowly, you rose from your bed. The world was cold. You read the clock. It was 9 am, 27th October. You searched for warmth through the covers and it was ultimately unsuccessful. John must’ve gotten up early. You curled yourself up in bed for a moment longer, bracing yourself for the chill of air that would eventually come. 

You wandered down the stairs now fully dressed. You frowned at your pyjamas, you couldn’t remember getting them. They were a gift, probably. John stood by the landline mumbling something into the phone. There didn’t seem to be a response coming through, but the conversation continued. He seemed to unstiffen when he saw you and mumbled ‘Work’ while scribbling a barely legible chicken scratch-esque note on paper before waving it at you. 

‘Breakfast - in the Kitchen.’ It was something of an Amberpoint oddity, snow days in October. For as long as you’d lived there had always been at least one. It was something of a ritual at this point, John’s work would call, tell him they’d cancel his appointments and you guys would have a day inside with not much else to do. So you took solace and started camping. Kettle on, brain off. 

You looked out the window halfheartedly, snow braced the horizon, usually it was worse - maybe it was the fact that last time - no year - had left you frozen in for two days with nothing but John’s rambling and intermittent radio signals. At first it was awful snow in October was never right in your mind especially in wherever you’re from again. But now however many years you had lived here, it had become somewhat embraced by you and your husband. 

You heard the phone gently placed back on the receiver as John entered the room, a content sigh fell from him. 

“So Amberpoint tradition, checklist. No work, tick.  Haven’t bothered to check the radio yet, so 50/50 and judging by the snow. No people for give or take but roughly 24 hours,” he wrapped his arms around you and placed a quiet but appreciative kiss on your forehead. And almost as soon as he had said it a knock disrupted the quiet day you had built for yourself. Laughter. 

Bee and Gus stood in the entryway shivering in a way akin to leaves, or something else that shivers. You welcomed them in, seemingly producing mugs of tea from nowhere. They graciously accepted taking up space on your sofa, heat clearly being appreciated. 

“Sorry we had nowhere else to turn, we aren’t used to the weather you see.” Bee rambled between sips “I thought, ah yes, number 11 will know what to do and Gus said we shouldn’t bother you, but I knew you’d be able to help.” Smile sitting there. Saccharine. You agreed seemingly involuntarily, like you felt the force through your body move your head before you’d even registered the question. Unequivocally, you would’ve said yes always. Helping people is what you do. Maybe it showed on your face. Something wasn’t right. 

“Y/N are you quite alright?” Gus asked seemingly as if he’d caught you out on a joke you had no idea of.

The words came to you suddenly, like divine intervention or a script cue you’d suddenly remembered. “Ah yes of course. Doors are always open for you, well at least I’d hope not or all the snow would get in,” your own laughter punctuated the sentence. That wasn’t your laughter. You’d heard it thousands of times. Even John frowned at the noise. No, this was it, what are you talking about? The look melted away, but the snow wouldn’t.

At some point through the snow day you’d resorted to games as the snow piled higher and higher. Charades was the game you’d decided would work. Simple, easy, no hosting, no fuss. Bee stood up, hands wildly gesturing, John and Gus throwing their answers in by the handful, which only caused Bee to keep forming the shapes with her hands but somehow more manically, a joking frustration forming on her face. A film title slipped from your mouth, the words tumbled out your felt your mouth form the sound almost involuntarily. It was garbled to your eardrums, it was like the sound was there and then it seemingly wasn’t. Static on the radio. Scratch on a record. A glitch on the screen.The world seemed to freeze in a way. You’d dragged the Doctor, John, to see that film, virtually begging him. He begrudgingly came along sort of, he sat in the cinema mumbling about how this character was an alien- no that one definitely was, the space travel was inaccurate or that historical thing actually didn’t happen like that and I would know because- the memory was cut short, the cold glare of Gus replacing it staring deep within your soul- something was wrong. He mumbled something, you couldn’t quite make out from the weird static that filled your ears.

The room swung back into you, head lightly slamming forward against the force of something, eyes shooting open. Laughter ensued, everything is fine, isn’t it? Another answer fell from your mouth - The correct one - with a smile, the same one Bee always seemed to give, it was met with a roar of a cheer from Bee excited she finally got to sit down, rather than manically gesturing in hopes that someone would guess something it was clear no-one was going to understand anyway. 

It was well into the evening by now, a small hearty dinner simmering away on the stove, you and Bee sat on the kitchen floor, backs against the kitchen cabinets, discussing old memories.

“I literally bumped into John, that's how I met him,” You giggled between sips of wine, like a child on a sugar rush “He was running to somewhere off doing something stupid, and he ran into me, he literally knocked me off my feet and  he pulled me up, said the thing he was doing was so important, so I’d have to come with him so he could ask me out later. I didn’t believe him, obviously, who would- But no he was right, had to save someone’s life, he is a Doctor after all, it’s what he does. But God, he dragged me around for a whole day, my feet were aching by the end of it, just so much running,”

Bee responded with a small, twinkling smile. It was different from the staged one, it felt like a brave act, giggling like a schoolgirl sitting on the kitchen floor in a snowstorm. But for once it felt real, as though there was no question of whether you should be here or not, it just was and that was right,

“Ah well, mine’s nowhere near that fun. We met in the office, worked together for years, he wouldn’t look at me twice, and then one day he just did and something just clicked in him. And he marched up to me and the rest is history,” Fiddling with her ring as she spoke, “It seems like centuries sometimes, and like days others,” At some point she’d stopped laughing and just drifted. Drifted through the sentence. Like silence on the other end of a telephone. It was then you took her in, nothing poised or staged or performed, just her. She was young, younger than you by the looks of things, but the stories she recounted should have made her older, or at least more well travelled. You gently nudged her, light returned almost as quickly as it had gone. 

Soup was distributed amongst the four of you, sitting at the table not too unlike the other day, Was it the other day? The calendar said 1963. No, they're still new to the neighbourhood. They didn’t know about the snow. And that was a common frustration among the neighbours. I’m sure it doesn’t matter. “This is good, darling thank you for making it,” John commented, he must have noticed your inattentiveness, a small look of concern, thoroughly masked under layers and layers of social etiquette. You nodded, mumbled a brief thank you, and squeezed his hand something reserved for gut feelings, it came as almost normally as breathing, this secondary language you’d formed between the two of you.

The meal had finished, plates, everything washed and away. You’d finally dared to crack open the door a fraction as they’d calmed down thoroughly enough to go home. Snow was piled waist height, unmoving. Door slammed shut, try again tomorrow. Gus seemed to freeze at this,then the anger came “This wasn’t what-” He froze again, hyper aware of his actions, he corrected himself, his stance, his demeanour, breakneck speed back to the usual, “This wasn’t what, we expected,” a meak laugh thrown on at the end for good measure. John frowned at this, he’d caught it and his eyes flicked with something unlike him. Something cold, calculating. He saw you and nodded, an indication: Keep calm, keep it together, it said wordlessly.

Sitting at the balcony over your back garden, you both had a moment alone to talk. 

“He’s weird,” You stated, sipping your drink slowly, almost to cover what you’d said.

John stared at you for a moment, almost incredulously, as if he couldn’t actually believe what you’d said, a pit of guilt forming in your stomach.

“He just makes me uneasy, like a tiger, or a bear, or- or a killer whale, or something else weird,” You said wildly gesturing, arms getting flakes of snow on them, as they stretched over the drop. He laughed at you, breaking character just for a moment, “I mean I get it, but we are getting to know them, darling. You’re married to an alien, I highly doubt we’re normal to them,” He chuckled, wrapping his arms protectively around you and placing a gentle kiss on your forehead. Married to what? 

“Huh, what did you just say? I must’ve drifted off in that last sentence,” You said, rubbing your eyes like a small child, desperate to stay up past their bedtime, as the sleep hit you like a sudden wave. He took your face in his hands, “I said to a Doctor,” He followed his statement with a loving frown. “How did I get so lucky with you? Feels like someone planned all this in the best way,” He squeezed your body in a tight hug “Get some sleep darling.” 

The dreams didn’t come that night, at least not one felt like a memory. 

You awoke somewhere unfamiliar, a cyan and purple sky flashed above you in a storm, dirt and gravel were uneven underneath your back, and didn’t help you at all when you tried to stand. Wobbling to your feet, you observed around you, John- No, the doctor ran towards you and grabbed your hand, and pulled you with force. Ash was falling as you ran, making it harder to run, burning heat filling your lungs.

“We have to leave now, it isn’t safe.” He pleaded, “Come on! Run!” The sympathies faded quickly and were replaced with rushed panic. You nodded a silent acceptance, knowing you had to leave. This memory is not yours, you know it. You can feel it in your brain it’s wrong, like the pieces of two puzzles have been mixed up together all wrong. The Doctor pulls you along, you reach something resembling a vessel, at least what of it your brain allows you to see, the rest promptly replaced by static, the same static blocking out words in your brain. Where are you? You ask your thoughts, the static response is the same constant buzzing you feel in the back of your mind, wordless, uncaring, uneventful. You stand in what looks like a control room, fighting back tears, and wretches, as the doctor spins around you readying for flight “Y/N, come on! We have to leave. They’re gone- The sentence starts again, scene resetting down to the sparks flying. She's gone, we have to go, now,” He virtually screamed at you, something he never did and always refused to do. You nodded, gulping between tears, before hurrying forwards to press buttons, and help. The last thing you felt was a bumpy take off, desperately clinging to both the railings and your memories. Where am I? . You awoke, gasping for air, a tear fresh on your cheek. 

Bee and Gus left promptly the next day, thousands of thank yous between farewells. The snow had melted mostly, some occasional flakes, falling like the ash in your dream. The static hummed low and slow in your mind. It stopped for a second, a split second, when Bee hugged you. You felt your body run cold, your question had received an answer. You shut the door after they left and made excuses to John as you retreated into your bedroom and sat quietly. The word rolling around your mind like a marble. 

Dead. 

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Random Doctor Who Facts You Might Not Know, Part 33: Gallifrey at War Part 5

Same TWs as normal for these parts - Time War shit, body horror, death, some reproductive concerns. Also, again, sorry if there are ever any repeats; I don't always remember if I've already mentioned something or not lmao

During the early Time Wars, Gallifrey went to war against the Charons, who had the ability to manipulate the very fabric of the universe. The Time Lords erased them from history.

The Last Great Time War was so devastating that the pre-Time War universe is different from the post-Time War universe (with the actual Time War itself being time locked in its own reality).

Compassion's biodata was warped until she became a Type 102 TARDIS. The Eighth Doctor took her and Fitz on the run in part because the Time Lords were hunting her down to use as sentient breeding stock for new TARDISes.

The Enemy used the anarchitects as a weapon during the War in Heaven. Anarchitects are disembodied intelligences that can live in infrastructure and manipulate it to rebuild it the way they want. They can make bridges disappear as you walk over them, straight hallways become impossible labyrinths, and make the space you are in unbearably small or large in an instant.

Tardigrades are intelligent enough that they can run mental simulations of the entire universe and solve complex equations that would allow them to manipulate reality itself. War strategists were convinced that they would eventually redefine history their own way and alter fixed points.

During the Eternal War, the forces of Gallifrey pushed the forces of the Yssgaroth back into their own universe. This took well over a thousand years, however, and in doing so billions died and entire star systems destroyed.

The Ninth Doctor and Rose became involved in this war when they arrived during the Kotturuh crisis. At this point, Gallifrey had not gained mastery over time, so Rassilon and his people were called Space Lords. During this time, Rose was turned into a vampire and attacked the Doctor a couple times before he cured her.

The Eternal War was so violent that the Time Lords rejected the use of violence forever. This is clearly true, and anyone who says otherwise is feeding you anti-Gallifreyan propaganda. I know this because our great Lord Rassilon told me himself.

Rassilon purposefully turned Gallifrey (which originally orbited a single sun) into a binary star system to kill all the vampires, even those resistant to a single sun's natural rays.

Because of the Eternal War, Rassilon's throne is made up of the bones of giant bats.

During the Last Great Time War, the Daleks tried to use nanobots on all the adults on a planet to make a mirror Gallifrey. The War Doctor defeated them by using a virus that killed every single adult. Thus, in one fell swoop, he orphaned the whole planet.

The War Doctor was the inspiration behind the Nightmare Child.

The War Council gave the Doctor tasks to complete as an assassin. One of the tasks given to him was to assassinate the Barber-Surgeon.

The password to the archway leading to the Barber-Surgeon's domain is 'Theta Sigma.'

The population of Carter Baross had been harvested by the Daleks to make cyborgs out of them. The Time Lords destroyed the entire planet, and the only survivor was named Case, who was saved by the War Doctor because he thought she would make a good weapon.

The War Doctor placed the planet of Lacuna in a time loop on the day before its destruction and spent hundreds of loops trying again and again to save it. After failing again and again, he was eventually convinced to end the loop.

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