#GOD and like. as much as simm!master is my least favourite master

[mysticarcanum]

actually utopia losing that poll was good actually because it gave me an excuse to rewatch it and have a Category 10 Brain Event

[countessrivers]

"Don't get me started on" sanitising Villains

God knows I love sympathetic villains. I love anti-heroes. I love villains that you almost kind of root for just as much as I love villains who are just straight up The Worst. This isn’t about that. This isn’t about what people get up to in fic and other transformative works. This is about the sanitisation and whitewashing of villains and their canonical actions as a way to idk, make them more acceptable to like or stan or something.

This trend of basically pretending that villains haven’t done horrible, awful things in canon, or else insisting that they shouldn’t, and acting surprised and outraged when a villain does just that. And that’s kind of two separate things but they both happen in fandoms at basically the same time and I get the feeling that the same kind of mentality is driving it.

(Drawing on examples from my two main current fandoms:)

The sanitising of villains is rife in the Gotham fandom, and I know the villains of the show have such a strong presence, and people latch onto them (I’m one of them) but it’s gotten to a point where large portions of the fandom have made up entirely new characters that they insist are they ones on screen. Just widespread “they’ve never done anything wrong, never hurt anyone”.

I mean the whole point of the show is the complexity of the characters and the world they are in. There’s good and bad in everyone, and each character struggles with that. But the villains are still villains. They’re still doing terrible things. Oz killed and cooked (and very likely tried) his step-siblings and fed them to their mother. Ed was a stalker who pulled some some frankly terrifying shit with Kristen. Barbara was manipulative and abusive to multiple partners. Tabitha was an assassin who, among other things, was involved in the manipulation and attempted murder of a 13/14 year old boy. They have all killed people. A lot of people. But so many pretend otherwise, either completely excusing said horrific acts, or just ignoring them. 

Heck it extends to some of the fandom’s biggest ships as well. People love N*gmobblepot and B*bitha but so many of them actively ignore just about everything about the characters and the relationships. Neither couple are, canonically, what you would call healthy. Both relationships involve manipulation and abuse and torture and attempted (and successful) murder. But again and again they are held up as canonically pure and healthy and fluffy and it sometimes makes me want to scream because it is literally just pretending that the relationships and the characters are something they’re not. And it’s not that people can’t or shouldn’t ship these or any other ships - certain dynamics aren’t to everyone’s taste, you do you, YKINMK. The question is why? Why ship something when you have to change everything about them in order for you to do so? It’s one thing to say “yeah, it’s a fucked up dynamic, but that’s interesting, that’s why I want to explore it” or “yeah, it’s a fucked up dynamic, but I’m going to do something new with them in this fic”, and something entirely else to go “yeah it’s fucked up in canon, but I’m going to literally ignore all of that, make up a new version, and insist that version was canon all along”.

And with Doctor Who, there is this odd trend of pitting the Masters against each other. The Master is a villain. New Who, old Who, the Master is a villain. A complex and engaging one, sure, and their relationship with the Doctor is filled with an onion’s worth of layers. The Master is complex, but the Master is also a villain, basically THE villain, so the fandom’s weird insistence that, for example Simm!Master is the worst ever, while Missy and Dhawan!Master are good and better and not actually that bad is both confusing and annoying. Because they’re all terrible. They all do horrific things, things that are on par with one another. They all do villainous things, BECAUSE THEY’RE VILLAINS.

And there’s certainly elements of fandom just making stuff up or ignoring others to justify the pitting of Masters against each other, beyond just having a personal favourite incarnation - again that thing of pretending that their villain of choice never actually did anything wrong. But more than that is the idea that they shouldn’t do anything wrong, that they shouldn’t act villainously. People are almost affronted by it. Not in a “I don’t like this character because they did bad things” way, more in a “I like this character so they shouldn’t do bad things”.

And I feel like purity and preformative woke culture is what’s behind this, at least partially. Like, the idea that you can’t like or enjoy bad and Problematic things, because that would make you an apologist, and so to get around that pressure, that mindset, whether it’s coming internally or externally, people sanitise the characters or the relationships until they are acceptable enough to enjoy. And if this means pretending that they’re something they’re not, if it means pretending they haven’t canonically done the things they have, so be it. And when it comes to shipping there’s also likely an acceptability aspect to it - a ship that is deemed “healthy” and acceptable enough for the fandom to push to get made canon, even though, in the actual show, they’re way messier than that.

And the biggest thing for me is that I really just don’t understand this impulse. If you’re ignoring 95% of a character’s actions and characterisation, if you’re pretending none of that exists, do you actually like the character? Literally, do you like the character, or the relationship at all if you have to change almost everything that makes them what they are? What’s the point then? Because expanding on potential is one thing, but essentially rewritting a character, and then presenting this made-up version of the character as canon is something else entirely.

And you know what, this wouldn’t annoy/piss me off so much if people just stayed in their lane, wrote their fic, tagged their posts accordingly. But they don’t. They push their sanitised versions into discussion on canon, acting like their versions are the ones that are on screen. They drag the actors and the writers into it and attack them for not being or writing the versions they’ve made up in their own heads. They pit characters against each other and make things up purely to make their fave villain look better.

Good and enjoyable villains are wasted on so many fans in so many fandoms. I mean, just let villains be villains. Let them be terrible. Understand or sympathise with them, sure, but also let them be villains and let yourself enjoy it.

[timeagainreviews]

My Series 10 Rewatch: A Preamble

The year 2017 was a major year in the fandom. People all over the world were lighting up the internet with fan theories, speculation, and expectations. The short bit of video we were given did little to elucidate what fate awaits our favourite characters. The latest tie-in book did little more than whet our appetite for more. Some of us had waited more than 25 years for this event. I, myself, had been waiting around 15 years. That fandom is, of course, Twin Peaks. And for most of 2017, it completely enveloped my thoughts.

I know, I know, you thought I was going to talk about Doctor Who. I did you a bamboozle. But the fact is, I tell no lies. From the 21st of May to the 3rd of September, all I could think about is Twin Peaks. To make matters worse, it aired here in the UK at 3 am. Which means I was staying up to watch it live. And then when Game of Thrones began, I was suddenly staying up to watch it at 4 am. Not only had it taken over my brain, it completely screwed my sleep schedule.

Of course, my wife, my boyfriend, and our roommate were all interested in watching the show. However, none of them were interested in staying up into the late hours of the night like me. Which is more than fair, it’s reasonable. This means that I was watching some episodes two or even three times a week. I was in full-on detective mode. Because of that, when the 15th of April rolled around and Doctor Who series 10 started airing, it was little more than an afterthought. At best, it was a distraction from the earth-shattering horror from the minds of David Lynch and Mark Frost.

While talking to a friend of mine recently, she joked that series 10 was a complete blind spot for me. And she wasn’t wrong. It was hardly a blip on my radar. How could the skeletal Monks of “Extremis,” even hope to hold up to the skull popping woodsmen of “Part 8?” Even if I was excited for Pearl Mackie as “Bill,” and the return of John Simm as the Master, it was negated simply by seeing Dale Cooper onscreen once more.  It wasn’t even close. And it wasn’t just Doctor Who that suffered. Just about everything I watched was, perhaps unfairly compared to Twin Peaks. In fact, the only bit of media which came close to leaving a mark was “American Gods.”

Now, three years later, I’m still pondering the mysteries of Twin Peaks. But it’s no longer in the forefront of my mind. I’ve even gone outside a couple of times. Jokes aside, I’ve decided it’s time to re-watch series 10. Now that it isn’t being dwarfed by the monolith of Twin Peaks, it might actually resonate more for me. My hope is that I’ll have a better appreciation for Steven Moffat’s swan song. Perhaps I’ll actually remember Nardole was a companion. And maybe I’ll actually give a damn about Veritas. Maybe not.

You may think of this as part one in a new series of articles I have planned. Much like my weekly coverage of current Doctor Who, I plan to write a review of each episode in succession. I am still considering what episode I want to start with. Part of me is thinking “The Husbands of River Song,” as it introduces the character of Nardole. I’ve also considered starting at “The Return of Doctor Mysterio,” as it’s the first episode where Nardole is the companion. I know the “blind spot,” starts at “The Pilot,” but I feel that the context of the Chrismas specials may be important going forward. We’ll see.

On a personal note, I would like to say hello to my new followers. I’ve had a few in the past couple of weeks. This isn’t my main, so I can’t respond to your comments directly as “TimeAgainReviews,” but I read them all and appreciate every one of them. Thank you for taking the time to read my scibblings. You may expect to see my first review of series 10 within the week. I plan on being somewhat regular with the reviews. My goal is to write at least two per week. Hopefully, I can keep up the momentum. Until then, I hope you’re all staying safe and healthy. Take time once a day, every day, to do some self-care. See you all very soon!

[tenrose]

Doctor Who Tag Game

Tagged by: @sopheirion​ thank you!!!

Favourite Doctor: Ten, ten and always Ten. I just love David’s portrayal’s of the Doctor more than I can say. I love the good, and I love the bad. I love when he’s being an idiot, when he’s flirtatious as hell with Rose (omg the memories) like you two get a room, when he finally snaps, when he’s a dumb oblivious as fuck and you want to smack cause he’s being an asshole, I love when he’s heartbroken. The faces David pulls are the best thing in the world. Like his ‘I don’t want to go’ ARE YOU KIDDING ME DAVID??? And the whole Doomsday episode, his blank face against the wall omg I’m gonna cry right now. And when this bitch has the audacity to disappear before saying it aaaaahhhh. But also the way he talk quickly and absolute nonsense. His ‘er’. When he’s being silly as hell with Donna, those were the good times. When he’s angry yelling, but also when he’s cold angry in the end of The Family of Blood. When he realize things and make the ‘oh i’m so stupid thing’ but also when he’s realizing sad thing like with the end of Donna. Bitch when he cries under the rain like some edgy boy, I cry too. His smile when things are getting exciting, but also the smile going into his eyes that is just for Rose and only Rose Tyler The various face he makes with Donna, all  the non verbal communication. Also when Martha decides to leave and you can see that he’s (too late) proud of her, and after that when he sees her again he’s being honest with her..The way he pronounces certain words if that makes sense???? Also David’s whole acting in Midnight, that was insane on so many levels. And least but not last : his iconic hair. I don’t think I need to tell more. And aside from that, I love all his season’s arcs, all his companions are my top three favourites. And of course, my close second favourite is Nine, cause without Nine, Ten wouldn’t be the Doctor he was.

Favourite Master: tbh I’m not that much into the Master, but I guess it’s Simm!Master cause I love his arcs. But I also love Missy as a character (not sure about her arcs though)

Favourite Sonic: I love both Nine/Ten’s sonic and Eleven’s sonic. 

Favourite Companion: aaaaahhhh not this question lmao. So I can’t really choose between Rose and Donna. I just love them both too much. So I’m not even a hardcore shipper of anyything by tumblr’s standards at least lmao, but the Doctor and Rose (both Nine and Ten) as been the first fictional couple I deeply rooted for (like I’ve enjoyed a lot of other ships before but never as harder and deeply) and that I still root for after all these years (in fact Clexa is the only other one that goes that hard, but everything else is just phases, they come and they go but they never stay). I love the tragedy of them, bitch who am I kidding, I love it that much cause it’s a tragedy lmao. I just love how they both make each other better, but also how they flirt like dumbass teens, how they communicate, how they cry for each other. BUT, and it’s very important, I love Rose for herself. She’s not just interesting because of the Doctor. She’s so relatable for instance? Like she’s not from a wealthy family, she clearly doesn’t give two fuck about fashion (or was it 2005 who was like this?), she’s not too smart, too pretty (ok she’s definitely is for me), too much of anything, she’s average. And I love this a freaking lot you can’t imagine. She has flaws, and yes that’s exactly what we want in a character. Yes she has moments when she’s being selfish (but who doesn’t? especially when in love), and yet she has some of the most beautiful selfless moments,sacrificing herlself in Doomsday is the best cause she was literally gonna end up in the void but she didn’t hesitated for one second. Also when she’s showing empathy for other people, she’s being caring and understanding. And she doesn’t take anyone’s else bullshit, she call them out, and that include the Doctor first. Just because she loves him doesn’t mean it’s gonna stop her from telling him to stop being a punk ass bitch. Also she evolved so much between s2 and s4, and I don’t think it’s character inconsistency, it’s just that it happened off screen. BY THE WAY I WOULD VERY MUCH A SPIN OFF ABOUT ROSE TYLER HOPPING WORLDS THANK YOU VERY MUCH @BBC!!! 

Now Donna? Where do I start? She’s also average, and also very relatable. In fact, personnally I think she’s the most relatable for me. Using humour, snark and sass to hide 10 thousands insecurities? Yes that’s the most relatable thing ever. Donna is the funniest character but she’s also the one who has the saddest ending in my opinion. Cause she grow up, she sees the world, and she understand that she is THE shit, she matters, she is important, and then she forgets all about it. That’s so cruel, and heartbreaking and angering, cause she deserved everyfuckingthing, she deserved the world. And her departure hit me so fucking hard. She’s going back to her life, thinking she would be not enough, I can feel that so deeply. Aaaahhh I’m hurting myself writing this. But she’s so amazing, she’s smart, thinking out of the box really make her so great, and she’s the one who take the least shit about anything. She stands up, yells, makes a scene, but she get straight to the point. Also she’s not the young and conventionally attractive companion and she knows that. And she’s so funny and sassy, and close to the Doctor. I mean she’s the Doctor Donna for a reason, she’s like a human version of the Doctor, with the sass, the babbling, the clumsiness. God I love Donna so much, I wish I had so much more of her. Also she has absolutely zero romantic feelings for the Doctor and the fact that they are the bitchy bffs of the universe is the best. 

Favourite Story: I love a lot of stories, but my favourite is The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End no doubt. The story is a perfect mix of happiness, having every RTD’s characters together, all my fave working together is the absolute best, and of sadness, the departure of Donna (I won’t re talk about it ok) and Ten letting Rose go AGAIN. And the fact that there’s everyone he loves in these episode but then he ends up all on his own. God why do I love being hurt so much??? And the Daleks are also my favourite villains (it’s just such DW bullshit as a villain tbh lmfao) so I have everything I want. Generally speaking I love RTD’s arcs, cause the sign are here the whole seasons (Bad Wolf, vote Saxon, the bees disappearing and she’s coming back) but it’s not a ‘HEY LOOK THERE’S SOMETHING FISHY TO SEE HERE HEYYYY’ or ��WE ARE STARTING THE SEASON WITH ONE QUESTION, ONE PLOT POINT AND THAT’S WHAT YOU’LL WANT TO BE RESOLVED BY THE END OF THE SEASON’,  it’s subtle, it’s casual mention, and it’s when you’re in the last three episode that you’re starting to realize something is wrong...That’s one of my favourite type of writing ever (that’s probably why I love Sanderson’s books too). It’s not some mystery to solve, cause there weren’t any mystery to solve, because me, a dumbass viewer, weren’t even paying attention at first. But it’s here, it fills the plot. And when you see it you’re like ‘of course’. It’s not forced on me if I can say it like this. It allows me to see other stuffs. It’s not attention seeking I guess? But yes the end of s4 is my favourite story, all is in place. All characters do what they do best. There’s laugh and there’s tears, and I love it.

Favourite Soundtrack: everything Murray Gold has been doing for the show is pure gold and I think that’s a thing the whole fandom can agree upon. My artist of the decade according to Spotify is him, and considering I haven’t listened daily to his songs (except for some still regularly) I think that say a lot about how much I used to love both his music and the show at some point. My favourite of his are Doomsday’s Theme ofc, Love Across the Distant Stars, I am the Doctor, Rose’s Theme, Amy’s Theme, Clara’s Theme, Vale and cry. All of them. And that include the one soundtracks for episodes I don’t even like lmao.  

Dream Actor for next Doctor: I don’t know, why not John Boyega? He deserves to be the main character and be treated well, of a sci-fi show. 

Dream Composer: Murray Gold come back to me. Or I would love a glimpse of what Lorne Balfe could do.

Dream Story: Something that involves seeing Rose and Tentoo, and Martha as the Earth counselor, with Thirteen still having feelings for Rose. And Rose too.  But the plot? Idk lmao. However the end would be sad cause Thirteen would have to see Rose and Tentoo coming back to their world, and I would cry. Also Thirteen would aknowledge Martha as the smarter companion the Doctor had ever had lmao.

A Companion You’d like to see back:  Martha, but like not as a companion cause she made it clear that she would not come back, and that wouldn’t be fitting her character if she changed her mind. But she could always be accidentally stuck in the TARDIS, I mean it happened once. But really I would just love to have her coming to the rescue when shit on Earth goes too far and the Doctor needs help of a specialist. That’s Martha you need Doctor.

An Enemy/Alien/Creature you’d like to see again: I’m always here to see the daleks. 

If you could travel with one of the Doctors, which Doctor and why?: Ten? Because he’s my fave, but also Thirteen because I’m gay and I would like to take my chance lmao

[willidleaway]

Doctor Who, series 12, episodes 1 and 2

In short: I love two-parters and I’m glad Spyfall was a two-parter. The conclusion wasn’t entirely satisfying, parts of this felt like a retread of old favourite story elements (including from The Curse of Fatal Death—seriously!), and I think there was a bit of disjointness between the two parts, but this is still a very good start to series 12, and I’m 90% sure I’m not saying that just because he’s back.

In slightly less short, still without spoilers:

—Positives: good tension throughout part 1, including the cliffhanger (hangar?); loved seeing historical characters tag along and interact in part 2, in one of the better attempts of Chibnall!Who at being educational; strong performances all around from heroes and villains.

—Negatives: part 2 has me fearing for a regression from some of the positive aspects of series 11; the villains weren't really fleshed out enough, especially in their motivation.

Verdict: Go watch Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death. It’s quite funny.

Oh, you mean about this two-parter? It’s good. Could have been great, though—almost should have been with its set pieces—and it didn’t strike me as great.

In less short, with spoilers:

OK, so I don’t even have much to say about part 1 because it really is all setup. We’ve got weird higher-dimensional ghosty things, they’re attacking spies all around the world and swapping their DNA out with something else, except they either won’t or can’t attack Yas and send her instead to some weird alternate dimension. Yas and Ryan go off to find out that Google are involved [0] in some sinister fashion because their CEO is totally in league with the aliens and is himself 7% alien, but it turns out the real mastermind is ... the Master! Dun dun dun. Very much the Dark Water reveal, right down to the gender swap.

So at the end of part 1, the situation is that the Doctor is in the same realm that Yas had ended up in, and her companions are in a crashing plane. So how is this all resolved?

Well, the second one is easy. It’s a time travel show. Do the Blink gambit! [1] Just go back in time after everything’s done, plant some signs and a recording on the plane, and they can land completely unscathed! In Essex! (I’d say ‘unscathed/Essex: pick one’, but obviously Graham feels differently.)

This is fine, but ultimately the companions don’t ... do much from there? It’s the series 3 finale thing again where they’ve got to go off-grid, except in series 3 where Martha is planting the seeds for, well, that conclusion. But she’s at least got some kind of agency in the story. Here, Graham and Yas and Ryan are ... chased? I mean, it did give us Graham laser-tap-dancing his way out of those situations, and I will be forever happy that that was a thing that happened, but overall they had so little to do other than have villainous speeches and antics spouted at them. Frankly, from a purely logistical point of view, it would have made very little difference if the Doctor had just picked them up on the plane before it crashed, because of course the Doctor had sorted everything out about the Silver Lady and the Kasaavins and all.

So I found that fairly unfortunate, especially given Yas and Ryan’s crucial actions (and their rather excellent performances) in part 1.

Resolving the Doctor’s cliffhanger seems a little trickier, and it leads to some of the disjointness I was talking about at the start between parts 1 and 2. In part 1 we’re led to believe that these pointy-hat white ghosts [2] are alien spies spying on Earth’s spies today. Here it turns out that, no, actually, they’re also spying on the Who’s Who of Earth computing and telecommunications.

This includes Ada Lovelace [3]—why she was also known as Ada Gordon is baffling to me given she was Lord Byron’s legitimate daughter and it’s not like Gordon was Byron’s surname (not blaming the show, just baffled at the apparent historical fact)—and later Noor Inayat Khan, the pacifist SOE hero with expertise in wireless telegraphy. It was really good to learn about them and their contributions, however briefly (although I have mixed feelings about the episode avoiding discussing Noor’s ultimate fate).

Thankfully they also get more to do than the companions—Ada hijacks a gun and fights off the Master while he’s distracted, while Noor hides Ada and the Doctor from Nazis and later feeds information to the Nazis to trap the Master. They then both go out and track down the Master’s TARDIS (although given his hubris it turns out to be not so difficult). That’s way more than laser-tap-dancing and being rather ineffectual otherwise!

My main gripe is how the Doctor wipes both their memories at the end—it’s not like the Doctor’s wiped the memories of Dickens or Shakespeare or even Queen Elizabeth! Anti-STEM discrimination, this is.

But overall I very much liked the Doctor in this power trio of women, although I think Ada got the short end of the stick out of the three of them. I suppose it may have been difficult because her abilities are relatively abstract—computer science is a bit more difficult to get across on screen compared to telegraphy and disinformation, so she has to make do with a gun instead.

So: strong companions in part 1 (although not so much in part 2), strong Doctor and historical figures in part 2. All fine and dandy. But let’s talk about the villains, because of course that’s the meat of the story.

OK, first off: that’s Lenny Henry?! God he’s unrecognisable. Goatee suits him, though. He looks sharp.

Daniel Barton, though, seems not so sharp, and not terribly interesting either. First off, he has all the information in the world yet can’t seem to be bothered to run a face recognition routine on Yas and Ryan when they’re undercover in his office as journalists. (Maybe he’s wilfully ignoring it. Maybe he just wants attention.) Then it turns out he’s 7% non-human, which is intriguing at the start but gets rather casually dismissed towards the end of part 2 as just him test-driving the DNA replacement idea.

But the real trouble was that I never found it terribly clear why Barton would have been interested in joining forces with the aliens to wipe out humanity. Did he just find the idea of using seven billion humans as data centres really appealing? Maybe, but what’s the use of all that data? Barton is most powerful as the head of basically Google, and all his data becomes utterly useless without the civilisation that actually needs it, surely.

Oh, then there are the Kasaavins themselves.

At first, their basic plan seems like it’s to wipe out Earth’s intelligence network, which makes sense as a step in an invasion. But then it turns out the ultimate point of their invasion is all about ... computers? And disk space, basically???

Why did they attach themselves to people like Ada Lovelace and Alan Turing and Steve Jobs? Was it to influence the evolution of computing in ways that made today’s computer architectures more vulnerable to ... whatever it is the Kasaavins later do through the Silver Lady and all of our modern devices? Sure, Ada Lovelace’s notes on computing engines were prescient and unquestionably influenced her spiritual successors like Turing, but I would personally have said more in the abstract. You'd definitely want to go after people like Woz, doing design on microcomputers much closer to our modern laptops and phones. I guess they figured it couldn’t hurt, anyway.

What exactly were they going to do with all that disk space? Why don’t they have their own massive storage devices? Why do they need to overwrite human DNA? Can’t they just build more DNA?

I dunno, maybe I’m overthinking it. I thought they were building towards a Matrix-style thing where all of human civilisation was going to just be someone’s cloud computing instance—but no, it’s hard drive space. It seemed a bit weak.

I think the Kasaavins suffered mostly for being in the same story as the newest incarnation of the Master.

The good thing about the Master, at least, is that he needs little motivation. He’s just mad. If he wants to wipe out all of humanity and the Kasaavins needing storage space happens to mean there may be a common interest there, the Master can just do that. That’s how the Master works.

He cuts an imposing figure at the start, I suppose—maniacal slick sort of fellow, shades of Simm’s incarnation in series 3 but still his own thing. But the way he works in this episode is just ... goofy. I mean, really? He just keeps tracking the Doctor through time? Can’t be bothered to keep tabs on whether someone’s trying to sabotage his master plan?

And then there’s the way the whole situation with the Nazis gets resolved.

I really thought he was going to go ‘seventy-seven years ... in a sodding twentieth century ...’, à la Jonathan Pryce’s excellent Master from Steven Moffat’s Comic Relief special. You know, the one from all the way back in 1999 where for the first half-ish, the Doctor and Master basically try to outwit each other through increasingly ridiculous time-travel hijinks, ending up with the Master having to crawl out a sewer for over nine hundred years.

Totally unlike this story, where the second half-ish involves the Doctor and Master trying to outwit each other through time-travel hijinks, and the Master ends up having to crawl out of his predicament for almost eight decades.

I’m not sure that’s a complaint, myself, frankly. For one thing, of course, when a show has gone on for over half a century, it’s difficult to avoid new stories running into old ones. But for another thing, saying something feels right out of a Comic Relief special isn’t necessarily a, erm, fatal flaw for Doctor Who. I prefer it when Doctor Who isn’t taking itself too seriously, just seriously enough.

Still, when you look at the big picture and look at all the retreads, I can’t help but think we’re heading back into the worst excesses of past new!Who.

For all its faults, I really enjoyed series 11 for how the narrative focus returned to the companions after much of the Moffat era’s obsession with ridiculously overpowered characters—Clara as the impossible girl, the Doctor as the Hybrid, the Doctor as literally where we get the word ‘doctor’, and so forth.

Well, now we’ve got the Master back and he’s gone and destroyed Gallifrey (negating the big winning moment of the 50th anniversary special, to boot) and it’s all because of some mysterious lie and it involves the Timeless Child that was mentioned for a hot five seconds last series??? It smacks of past new!Who arcs, especially under Moffat—and at least in my eyes those arcs have never gone terribly well. Those arcs have come at the expense of good companion characterisation as well, so overall it has me a bit concerned about series 12.

Sure, all these aspects of pre-series 11 Who returning to the show—the Daleks last year, and now the Master—maybe makes the show feel more like itself, much like how having a functional rebel force that’s not just confined to a single light freighter makes a Star Wars film feel more like Star Wars. I just worry that it’s a instinctive reaction against some of the mixed reactions to series 11, and that ultimately it’ll be an overreaction.

Good start, though, this two-parter. I just hope it doesn’t turn out to be the best story that series 12 gets.

Footnotes:

[0: Sure, they’re called Vor in the episodes, but first off they’re clearly meant to be Google, and second off it’s very awkward talking about ‘Vor’ being everywhere on the Internet and on everyone’s devices ... so for the purposes of this write-up I’m going to call them Google.]

[1: I know that in Blink, the Doctor and Martha are trapped in the past and have to plant the message in DVDs to get someone to get them out of trouble. But you know what I mean. Timey-wimey out-of-order rescue plan.

Maybe I ought to call it the Arrival gambit, after the excellent film from a few years back.]

[2: Makes them sound like alien Klansmen, doesn’t it?]

[3: What’s the opposite of née for the purposes of distinguishing maiden and married names in time travel stories? I guess mariée is as good as any ...]

[dreameater1988]

My Top 10 Twelfth Doctor Stories

I’ve seen other people do this, so I decided to make my own Top 10 of Twelfth Doctor stories.

10. Flatline

I have a soft spot for stories in which the Doctor gets in a bit of a situation and putting him in a shrinking TARDIS was a hilarious plan. I have to admit, I wasn’t that fond of the episode when I first watched it, but to be quite honest, I love it a bit more with every rewatch. I think this really is one of those episodes that you have to watch a couple of times to really appreciate it. I’m also glad that the Boneless were picked up again in one of the comics because who doesn’t love a recurring monster? They were creepy, they were threatening and quite difficult to defeat - which the Doctor eventually did while giving an amazing speech. I think it was the first Twelfth Doctor speech that really struck me because of how fierce and powerful it was. And a cute bonus: Doctor Oswald. All of these things definitely put Flatline in my Top 10.

9. The Zygon Invasion / The Zygon Inversion

Another thing I love about Doctor Who? Kate Stewart! So it would be a shame not to include one of her stories in my Top 10. I have always preferred two-parters over single episodes because of that little heart attack causing “to be continued” thrill and these episodes do it quite brilliantly. The Zygons as monsters aren’t exactly my favourites, but they were really well used in this case. I really enjoyed the storyline and the many jokes that were put in the episodes (Why do you have a Union Jack parachute? - Camouflage. - Camouflage? - Yes, we’re in Britain.) There really are so many things I love about this two-parter: the Doctor’s emotional speech, Jenna marvellously playing two different characters, Kate tricking the Zygons, . . . The final product is a thrilling episode and wonderful entertainment.

8. Dark Water / Death in Heaven

The finale of S8 has to be on this list for one reason alone: Missy. Michelle Gomez really, really rocked that part and I will love her forever for it. I never really liked the Simm!Master because of various reasons (mainly cause his version of the Master collided with the version in a book I’ve read and loved). Yet the Twelfth Doctor and Missy really brought that “true friendship gone horribly wrong” part across. There was also the storyline of Clara losing Danny and later losing the Doctor by letting him go which I think shaped her S9 character to a large degree that I really, really love. The Cybermen were less creepy in this episode than in others (the S2 two-parter has scarred me forever), but this story wasn’t about the Cybermen or an invasion at all, at least it’s not how I see it. This two-parter is about loss and friendship. And it contains yet another Twelfth Doctor speech that I will love until the day I die. He’s my idiot with a box and a screwdriver. 

7. Oxygen

I feel obligated to put at least one episode from S10 on my list and since this was the only one that really stirred something in me, here we go. I loved the space station setting (because I’m a sad sci-fi nerd), I loved the dystopian “oxygen on sale” bit, but you know what I loved the most? The Doctor going blind. Oh my God, how I loved the big reveal in the end when he said he still couldn’t see. The Doctor is a Time Lord surrounded by humans, he is always superior to them simply because of the fact that he’s (like he said to Clara in FtR) “less breakable”, but finally, we get to see that he is breakable after all, that he’s vulnerable, that he’s no longer the superior hero. I love that bit. Sadly, the episodes that followed didn’t really put this plot twist to use in my opinion.

6. Mummy on the Orient Express

Who wouldn’t want to go on a trip on the space Orient Express with the Twelfth Doctor? This episode was beautiful from start to finish: the setting, the costumes, the dialogues, the storyline, the tension between the Doctor and Clara. Every moment of this episode was wonderful and a pure joy to watch. It was also a big turning point in the relationship between the (new) Doctor and Clara because, for the first time, she saw him for who he really was. Now, a couple of weeks ago I bought Doctor Who - The Complete History and I read about the making of this episode and I have to admit that I probably would have loved the original script (in which the Mummy is a life-extending body suit that won’t let people die and Clara briefly gets turned into one) a little bit more because it contains more sci-fi elements than the version they ended up using. But hey, I’m not complaining. The episode is awesome.

5. Into The Dalek

“I see into your soul, Doctor. I see beauty. I see divinity. I see hated.” Just hearing these words in my head gives me goosebumps and I think that is a very good sign that this episode definitely belongs in my Top 10. A lot of things have been done with Daleks over the past 50+ years, but miniaturizing the Doctor and putting him inside one is definitely one of the more brilliant ideas. I also really love the early version of the Twelfth Doctor, I love my grumpy, old alien and he’s at his peak in this one. But he’s also still struggling to find out if he is a good man or not and I really enjoyed that conflict that we saw in Peter’s first season. Rusty the Dalek plays a big part in that conflict and their dialogue makes me shiver even after watching it about 30 times.

4. The Magician’s Apprentice / The Witch’s Familiar 

The Doctor riding a tank into a medieval castle while playing the electric guitar! Do I need to say more? Yes, I’m definitely going to say more, but, oh my God, that was probably one of my favourite moments of the entire show. I sat in front of my telly, gawking at the screen. There will never be a season opened better than this. You won’t believe how much I enjoyed watching it the first time and how much I am still enjoying it every time I watch this episode. The rest of the two-parter is anything but a let-down. I loved the Twelfth Doctor/Missy interactions in this one because up until the end of the episodes you can really see the former friendship, you can see just how long they have known each other, how much they meant to each other back then (I live for this kind of thing). Also, bringing back Davros is always a nice touch. Bringing back Skaro was amazing (and seeing the fear in Missy’s eyes when she realized where she was). The Clara/Missy duo was amazing. The Doctor pleading for Clara’s life on his knees when he thinks he’s about to lose her. Honestly, there isn’t anything that I don’t love about this two-parter. Add “The Doctor’s Meditation” to this and you’ll get 10 minutes of pure, silly fun as well.

3. Listen

This episode was the one where I decided that Twelve was my Doctor. In fact, it was the pre-intro scenes with him that showed him sitting on the TARDIS roof and talking to himself by candlelight that got me. But that’s not why I loved the episode. It was properly creepy. I love the creepy episodes the most and sadly, there has been a bit of a lack in those in recent years, but Listen was definitely one of the best. I first watched the leaked black and white version and even then it gave me chills. This episode also showed how much of an impact Clara really had on the Doctor (apart from getting him to save Gallifrey and asking the Time Lords to help him). She saw him as a young, frightened boy and she put those thoughts in his head that would accompany him for the rest of his life. It was a wonderful, little twist. I also really enjoyed the fact that we never got to know what the monster actually was. I love that some people believe it’s a kid under a bedspread and some (like me, cause I’ve paused and seen a screenshot of what looked like Voldemort) think it was an actual monster. Whatever it was, I’m glad we never got the solution handed to us. That makes it even more interesting to me.

2. Under the Lake / Before the Flood

I don’t think I’ve said it enough, but this two-parter is actually perfect. Everything about it is perfect. The Doctor and Clara are at their peak, they’re having their “glory years”. It’s very likely that there was a large time span between TMA/TWF and this two-parter because we see them in full action, we see them incredibly bonded, we see them trust each other completely. This is the first time we see how intense their relationship actually is (“If you love me in any way, you’ll come back”, “I’m changing history to save Clara.”). They are the perfect TARDIS duo in this one, but we also get a sense of foreshadowing as to what is going to happen to Clara in the future. The minor characters in this story are all perfect as well, I can’t say a single bad word about them. I normally don’t care about minor characters because I’ve learned that many of them end up dead anyway, but in this one, I can’t help but feel for them as well. As for the storyline and plot twist, it was a two-parter full of exciting moments and surprises with a lot of laughs and emotions thrown in as well. And the Fisher King was a great monster. Perfect television entertainment for a Saturday night that almost ended up being Nr 1 on my list.

1. Heaven Sent / Hell Bent

Heaven Sent is, in my opinion, Steven Moffat’s masterpiece and always will be. It felt like he was working his way up from The Eleventh Hour to culminate in the S9 finale with two episodes that actually managed to blow my mind. I am very critical when I’m watching TV and I’m not so easily impressed, but Heaven Sent actually blew my mind. Heaven Sent, an episode that is longer than usual, that features only one actor in only a handful of rooms and it’s the best damn thing I have ever seen on TV. During S10 I often complained about seeing the “plot twist” coming, but this one took me completely by surprise and broke my heart in the process. Oh, the tears I’ve shed over Heaven Sent! It’s that moment the Doctor realizes what he’s doing, what he’s been doing and for how long that always breaks me and it’s underlined by the most perfect Murray Gold score I’ve ever heard. And of course the big reveal that Gallifrey was waiting on the other end. 

I think Heaven Sent / Hell Bent are the perfect depiction of the stages of grief in the Doctor’s 4.5 billion years quest to save Clara. And oh, how he did it! It’s not a secret that Clara has been my favourite companion from the moment she appeared on screen and after watching her become more and more like the Doctor over the course of the seasons, it was such a satisfaction to see her get her own TARDIS and run away. There is something so bitter-sweet, so emotional about this series finale and at the same time, it’s so full of twists and turns and surprises. It’s devastating and uplifting at once. In one word: perfect!

[upslapmeal]

Yooooooo, all of Nu!Who is on iPlayer for unemployed folks like me lol. However, I can't stand Rose or Drose any more; any idea how to rewatch it?

Also, Moffat. Stopped caring about his work and the show halfway through S6. Ugh.

Hey! Firstly thanks for letting me know New Who is on iplayer, I gotta go and rewatch stuff now!! 

Ok right well I’m someone that loves Rose but doesn’t ship her and the Doctor so maybe you could try from the start of s1 but approaching it from a non-shipping perspective? I mean I feel like I can’t really help you w Rose bc I love her but I feel like a lot of people prefer her in s1 to s2 so maybe you could just start there and see how you go? I would suggest going straight to s3 but if you really don’t like Rose or Drose it might not be great jumping back in to the Doctor really missing Rose so I feel like the best idea might be to just try and start fresh with the two of them…which is probably easier said than done especially considering the fandom presence of the character and ship but I’d say it’s worth a shot! If you can’t get through s1/2 then maybe watch Smith and Jones to get into the Martha mood then skip to a few eps into s3 to when the Doctor is a bit less missing-Rose-heavy. And then for the last few eps of s4 you could always skip them? Though that’s a shame bc I feel like you’d be missing out on rewatching some good stuff, especially with Turn Left… I guess it’s just a case of seeing how much you can take them and how much you can convince your brain to think of the Doctor and Rose as starting with blank slates.

And hooo boy yeah s6 is……..a gotdang MESS. Honestly? From s6 I’d rewatch just like…The Doctor’s Wife, The Girl Who Waited and The God Complex and just leave the rest. Like just forget anything that’s actually relevant to that series arc unless there’s anything you particularly remember enjoying. For s7 I suppose it depends how much you care about Amy and Rory but I found it was better than s6 but just…kinda boring for the most part (I think Hide was probably my favourite even though retrospectively Clara didn’t actually feel like Clara though that can be applied to s7 in general a lot of the time). I’m assuming you want to rewatch all the way through? Did you stop watching partway through Moffat’s era? S8 is definitely messy but I enjoyed a fair few stories and the bits of Twelve’s personality that I loved through all his rude dickishness were the bits that they really followed through with in s9 and s10 which I was delighted about. I know that I really loved s9 (honestly I was surprised by just how much I loved it, easily my favourite Moff series right up there with the RTD stuff) but I don’t know if you watched it/liked it so I’m not sure how to recommend rewatching it? A friend of mine gave up watching towards the end of Eleven’s era and asked for recommendations of ~essential viewing~ to watch if she decided to catch up for s11 so this is what I said:

Deep Breath (8x01) - Capaldi’s first ep

Flatline (8x09)

we meet Gomez’s master in the s8 finale two parter so you could watch that if you wanted

The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar (9x01/02) - not the first story for Gomez’s master but the best one I think

The Girl Who Died/The Woman Who Lived (9x05/06)

Face the Raven (9x10)

Heaven Sent/Hell Bent (9x11/12) - Heaven Sent is almost entirely a one-hander by Capaldi and he’s incredible

(I know that’s a lot of s9 but almost all the stories were two-parters)

The Pilot (10x01) - meet Bill!

Smile (10x02) - Bill’s first proper adventure

Thin Ice (10x03)

(all of the first five eps are great tbh) 

if you like David Suchet then you might want to watch Knock Knock (10x04)

The Eaters of Light (10x10)

the finale two-parter wasn’t the best they’ve ever had but you could watch that if you wanted just since it’s where we left off, 10x11 was better than 10x12 but Simm’s master is in 10x12

Then there’s the Christmas special which hadn’t aired at the time and is a fine story but I will forever be annoyed about how Moff wrote One. 

Basically it all just depends of how thorough you want your rewatch to be. If you really want to rewatch it all but are wondering how to get through stuff you don’t like you could just have it on in the background while you do something else? Lol this ended up being way longer than I planned, hopefully it’s at least some help!

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

Moffat Era Rewatch: World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls

Without hope, without witness, without reward...

Warning: Spoilers Sweetie 

Last one before ‘Twice Upon a Time’. Here we go.  

“No. No. NOOOOO!” That’s a dramatic to get things started. 

“Hello. I'm Doctor Who.” 

Here is an tantalising glimpse of what the show might be like if Michelle Gomez played the Doctor.  

“And these are my plucky assistants, Thing One and the Other One.” 

Missy is getting her groove on. 

“You're probably handsome, aren't you? Well, congratulations on your relative symmetry.”

“Well, I am that mysterious adventurer in all of time and space, known only as Doctor Who. And these are my disposables, Exposition and Comic Relief.” 

And then she dabs. 

 “Are you human?” "Oh, don't be a bitch.” Best line the Master has ever had or will have. 

“My name is Doctor Who.” "It's not, is it?” “I like it.” Next time someone tells you "he’s called the Doctor, not Doctor Who” remind them that the character himself says he likes being called Doctor Who. 

The Doctor is giving one of his tried and tested “I’m the Doctor and I’ll save you” speeches. Which usually work. Usually. 

RIP Bill’s Prince shirt.    

I know that Bill gets a happy ending at the end of this story, I just wish she didn’t have to go through utter hell to get there. 

“She's the only person that I've ever met who's even remotely like me.” Come now, Doctor, surely you’re forgetting about Cla- Oh, never mind. 

He wants someone around who will get his Time Lord in-jokes. 

This scene on the uni roof is probably my favourite Doctor/Bill scene. 

“She was my first friend, always so brilliant, from the first day at the Academy. So fast, so funny. She was my man crush.” It’s official! The Doctor had a crush on the Master.

“Yeah, I think she was a man back then. I'm fairly sure that I was, too. It was a long time ago, though.”  

"But you still call yourselves Time Lords?” Bill Potts utterly destroying Time Lord hypocrisy. 

The irony of all this is that it was not Missy that got her shot. 

And here we have Rachel Talalay making Cybermen creepier than they have ever been before. 

The sonic doubles as a pen. 

Knowing that Moffat wrote these two episodes while he was also caring for his dying mother in hospital sure does explain a lot. 

The Master's excuse for this disguise is so Bill wouldn’t recognise him as Harold Saxon, but let’s be real here, even if Bill was 18th century New Yorker and had no idea who Harold Saxon was he still would’ve slipped on the disguise because he is that fucking extra.   

“Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain.”

And it just get more and more unsettling. 

Volume. *shudder*

Razor? God, what is wrong with the Master, why isn’t he being incredibly obvious with his aliases?

“They are at top of ship. Top of ship very slow. We are at bottom. Bottom much faster. Very fast bottom.”

Time dilation. Some actual real world science in Doctor Who. 

“A black hole isn't just any old gravity. It's Superman gravity.” 

I am amazed that the Master managed to maintain this charade for so long. I would’ve thought after a month he wouldn’t have been able to resist his urge to show off in front of the Doctor and dragged Bill back to the bridge just so he could go “Surprise, it’s me!” 

Wish we’d seen more of Twelve unleashing the Venusian Akido. 

“This won't stop you feeling pain, but it will stop you caring about it.”  

And thus the goofiest looking Cybermen suddenly became the scariest. 

“It's a Cyberman. A Mondasian Cyberman!” You can kinda tell that Peter is resisting the urge to grin like a loon. 

“He'll never forgive you, you know, he'll never set you free. Not when he discovers what you did to his little friend.” He learned that his future self was turning good so what did he do? He thought of the most unforgivable thing he could do to turned the Doctor against them forever; he turned Bill into a Cyberman.  

“You would never be so self-destructive.” Oh, never say never, mate. 

“Hello, Missy. I'm the Master, and I'm very worried about my future. Give us a kiss.” I know it generated a lot of hype for the finale, but I wish they had kept John Simm’s return a secret, because this would’ve been the most OMFG!!! moment the show has ever pulled off.  

Do love his new look, especially the return of the beard. The Master just doesn’t look right without a beard. I’m still annoyed they never gave Michelle one. I think we can all agree she would’ve pulled it off magnificently. 

I’ve wanted a multi Master story for as long as I can remember, so this is pretty much all Christmases and birthdays at once.  

“...the Genesis of the Cybermen.” Bit on the nose, Moffat. 

“I. Waited. For. You.”

They turned the still living proto-Cybermen in scarecrows. That is just twisted. Are we sure the Doctor should be saving these people? 

“I know you've fallen.” Only because you pushed. 

Prepare for trouble, and make it double.

Self high-five. 

“So, I imagine you're the next one along, then?” "Oh, I think so. I'm a bit hazy on the whole regeneration thing, I'm afraid.” Because it’s never confirmed that she is his next incarnation, this means that there could potentially been dozens of incarnations between Simm!Master and Missy. 

“Hold me.” "Kiss me.” "Make me.”

They’re dancing and flirting. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. 

“We could shoot you, but that's a bit vanilla.” 

“So they cured your little condition and kicked you out.” Which means no more of those bloody drums. I was never a fan of that annoying retcon and was so glad that Moffat got rid of it.

"But old school, nice for a change.” He says while stroking his beard.    

“...because everybody knows your stupid round face.” "Round?” 

“Like sewage and smartphones and Donald Trump, some things are just inevitable.” I hope he is not saying that Donald Trump is like a fixed point in time.

“I was secretly on your side all along, you silly sausage.” He wants to believe so badly that she’s changed, and i think she’s a little hurt that he doubts her. 

“The Doctor's dead. He told me he'd always hated you. Let's go.” “No.” "The Doctor's dead. He told me he'd always hated you.” "Yeah, I heard you the first time.”

Breaking free of her Cyber programming and saving the Doctor is one of the few times that Bill has any control over what happens to her in this story.  

It was a smart idea to have Bill still herself as human while everyone sees her as a Cyberman. 

“Jelly baby?” Always has sweets for the kids. 

“My God, you were so boring for all those years. But it was worth every day of it, for this.” This is the Master at his absolute cruelest. He has no remorse for what he did to Bill and is even gloating about it to her face. 

“Where there's tears, there's hope.” 

“Becoming a woman's one thing, but have you got empathy?” I really don’t know why so many people were shocked to discover that the guy who used to beat his wife is such a blatant misogynist. 

“Is the future going to be all girl?” "We can only hope.” 

Bit disappointing that they brought in the more recent Cybermen. They should’ve just stuck with the Mondasian ones. 

I wish we had got to see the Master’s new TARDIS.  

“By the way, is it wrong that I er...” Judging yourself for being into yourself.

The Doctor sitting on the porch with a riffle like he’s in a western.

“Hey! I'm going to be dead in a few hours, so before I go, let's have this out, you and me, once and for all. Winning? Is that what you think it's about? I'm not trying to win. I'm not doing this because I want to beat someone, or because I hate someone, or because, because I want to blame someone. It's not because it's fun and God knows it's not because it's easy. It's not even because it works, because it hardly ever does. I do what I do, because it's right! Because it's decent! And above all, it's kind. It's just that. Just kind. If I run away today, good people will die. If I stand and fight, some of them might live. Maybe not many, maybe not for long. Hey, you know, maybe there's no point in any of this at all, but it's the best I can do, so I'm going to do it. And I will stand here doing it till it kills me. You're going to die too, some day. How will that be? Have you thought about it? What would you die for? Who I am is where I stand. Where I stand, is where I fall. Stand with me. These people are terrified. Maybe we can help, a little. Why not, just at the end, just be kind?” This is one of those moments that makes you want to stand up and applause even when your sitting alone in your living room. 

Peter usually gets all the praise for this scene, and deservedly so, but I think we should also take a moment to appreciate Michelle’s brilliant silent performance.

Nardole didn’t exactly win me over this season, but he does get a nice goodbye. 

He’s not disappointed that she murdered him, he’s actually rather impressed. 

“But, hey er, you know how I'm usually all about women and, and kind of people my own age.” "Yeah?” “Glad you knew that.”

He was okay with her backstabbing him, but not with her joining the Doctor. 

Two Masters, dying on the ground, laughing after betraying and murdering each other is pretty much the best way that their story could’ve ended. I hope it isn’t the end, but if it is then at least it is a good one. 

RIP Missy? 

“Telos! Sealed you into your ice tombs! Voga! Canary Wharf! Planet 14! Every single time, you lose. Even on the Moon.”

“I'm not a doctor. I am the Doctor. The original, you might say.”

He’s so ready to die. He’s been running and fighting for so long now that part of him just want it all to be over, to finally rest.

Why was there no moment of Bill fighting off the Cybermen too? The Doctor gets all the hero moments here, which isn’t that surprising since this was originally written as Twelve’s last stand, but it is still disappointing that Bill is sidelined for much of this episode and doesn’t get to have a moment of heroism of her own in the final battle.  

He did say they might see her again. 

“Am I dead?” "Does that feel dead to you?”

“I'm the Pilot. I can fly anything. Even you.” Heather is one smooth space puddle. 

“I can make you human again. It's all just atoms. You can rearrange them any way you like. I can put you back home, you can make chips, and live your life, or you can come with me. It's up to you, Bill, but, before you make up your mind.  Let me show you around.”

And they both lived happily ever after...

Why no Rory in this companion montage?

“Where have you taken me? If you're trying to make a point, I'm not listening. I don't want to change again. Never again! I can't keep on being somebody else. Wherever it is, I'm staying.” This is the Doctor that struggled for so long to know who he was so I don’t really blame him for not wanting to regenerate into someone new.  

“The Doctor. Oh, I don't think so. No, dear me, no. You may be a doctor, but I am the Doctor. The original, you might say.”

So that’s my Moffat era rewatch finally all over and done with.