#I’ll have whatever RTD’s having

[feralportalmaster]

I present: a word-barf of notes I took while watching The Legend of Ruby Sunday.

CONTAINS SPOILERS!!

Not sure that’s how the tardis works but whatever

Hey the whole gang is here

Oh FINALLY we’re talking about the old woman

SUSAN??? AS IN SUSAN FOREMAN??? Did not see that one coming

Oh cmon not the evil tech giant trope that’s like the most overdone trope in the book

FUCK OFF WITH THE ANAGRAMS I hate anagrams

Sharpen the image?? Bruh

FUCK YEAH ROSE NOBLE JOINS THE PARTY!!

Mel is a slay honestly

“Hiding myself away” goddamnit

FUCK OFF WITH THE FOURTH WALL BREAKING

Oh yeah wait does that mean River is Susan’s grandma? Or would it be someone else?

“A Phoenix is just a bird until it burns” goes way harder than it should

Isn’t that just the Animus from Assassin’s Creed?

I just realised that Ruby would’ve been born a week before 10 went back in time to see Rose before he regenerated

Don’t remind me of the goblins

Jeez the waterworks feel excessive

He’s gonna die

Actually forget what I said about the waterworks Ruby needs a hug

Big ol’ cloud of death my old friend

Alexa, play Curses by The Crane Wives

Doctor he was waving so many death flags he may as well have been communicating in semaphore, you have far worse to punch a hole in a wall for

“Doctor who?” UGHHHH

So she’s astral projecting???

Hehe the tardis farted

*scanning sounds* says here you’re gay

Hell yeah Susan says eat the rich

ENOUGH WITH THE ANAGRAMS

glitching text what is this a late 2010s indy game?

…should I know who Sutekh is?? Is he from Stargate??

AWOOP jumpscare

Vecna looking ass

COME ON THATS THE MOST INFURIATING CLIFFHANGER EVER ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

[leikeliscomet]

We Failed the First Black Doctor (Part 1)

We failed the first Black doctor.

I know you’re thinking ‘What the hell, I didn't do anything to Ncuti!’. That right there is part of what I mean. When tabloids and fans say ‘the first Black doctor’, our minds go straight to Ncuti Gatwa and rightfully so. Some fans might say Lenny Henry. Some fans might even say Peter Davison. When I say ‘First Black Doctor’, I mean Jo Martin. I think about the Fugitive Doctor. I think about how in only one episode she appealed to so many fans. I think about how she carried a gun and ripped off a Judoon captain’s horn. I think about how a great character was fumbled so badly by the show. I think about how fans barely think about her now. I think about how the first Black doctor was done so dirty. Your next thought is probably ‘Well isn’t that Chibnall’s fault?’. In a way, yes. But also no. What exactly went wrong varies from writing processes to behind-the-scenes structure to fandom politics. To unpack why Fugitive was done dirty, we need to start from the beginning. 

Series 12 would be a complete 180 of series 11; returning monsters, a more energetic soundtrack and heavier reliance on Doctor Who lore (or whatever was left of it). Apart from a vague Timeless Child namedrop in The Ghost Monument, Thirteen’s run was smoother than her predecessors in terms of less overwhelming narrative arcs. No Hybrids or a Time Lord Victorious, just a girl and her fam. Until one day in Gloucester, a tour guide named Ruth would transform in a lighthouse and essentially change Thirteen’s life for the rest of her run. What seemed like an RTD-esque Judoon episode turned into the debut episode for a brand-new incarnation of the Doctor. And we never saw it coming. And neither did Chris Chibnall apparently. In an interview, he revealed that the script for Fugitive of the Judoon was already underway and the Fugitive was a last-minute addition. This was red flag no 1. A last-minute character wasn’t inherently a bad thing, as it was assumed Fugitive would return again in the second half of series 12 and likely in series 13. These appearances were lacklustre, but I’ll go into more detail later. Fugitive’s casting made a lot of noise; bad and good. Right-wing sides of the fandom were outraged at a Black woman playing a role they thought was exclusively for white men (no surprise there) and plenty of comments fuelled with misogynoir, antiblackness and colourism were thrown her way too (no surprises there either). What made this outrage worse was Fugitive’s ambiguous role in the timeline. Many were angry about Fugitive being before One and thought it disrespected William Hartnell’s legacy of being the first incarnation of the show. Contrary to popular fandom belief, Chibnall didn’t actually confirm if Fugitive is pre-Hartnell or not, he left her placement vague on purpose. We as fans have reason to believe so because she didn’t have a sonic and we saw One to Two’s regeneration on screen along with One’s companions, so we know she couldn’t be between those two. Pre-Hartnell is a ‘fanon’ theory, but this doesn’t take into account how Fugitive's TARDIS is a police box already. Another popular idea in the fandom is the season 6B theory. We know Two regenerates into Three, but the physical regeneration is never actually shown on screen, so a sneaky incarnation between them is possible. But again, the missing sonic does poke a small hole in that theory. Fugitive did however state she was smart enough not to need one rather than saying she didn’t know what it was, so maybe the 6B truthers were onto something. The Timeless Children promised to answer these burning questions and didn’t. So, we were back on square one, assuming we ever left it in the first place. With Chibnall also confirming Fugitive is not from a parallel universe, so she had to fit into the main lineup but not after Thirteen, figuring out the origin of the Fugitive became a painful and lengthy debate for answers we never got and probably never will.

Fortunately, details about the Fugitive would end up in her design process. Costume designer Ray Holman added elements of previous doctors in her design. The tweed in her jacket comes from Eleven, whilst her black trousers and boots reference Twelve. Her boots are also for combat purposes, drawing parallels to Three in terms of martial arts ability. Additionally, the colourful shirt she wears is Kente cloth, a colourful Ghanaian fabric, giving a small African cultural nod to our first Black doctor. Jo Martin has spoken about the importance of representation in interviews, stating she didn’t see a lot of Black characters growing up and how Fugitive allowed Black kids watching the show to have someone to look up to. She also noticed the Black and mixed race cosplayers and has shouted them out on her Instagram page. Many pictures and stories on her page showcased fans of colour in blue jackets and yellow glasses, giving the Fugitive her well-deserved flowers. For the first time, we had a doctor that looked like us and this was what made the Fugitive groundbreaking. A dark-skinned Black woman with locs playing the Doctor is something I didn’t see coming. A wish and a hope maybe, but seeing it come into reality definitely touched me. Not only was I seeing a Black woman of my complexion as a main character in Doctor Who, but she was the main character. Not only that, but her backstory was engaging. Why did she run away? Who is she running from? Where does she fit in the timeline? Within one episode, Jo Martin had already captured the ‘Doctor essence’ needed for the role, with some even saying it challenged Whittaker’s performance.

Enter Ruth. We see her get ready and head to work on her birthday. We don’t know a lot about her but she seems friendly. Her partner Lee on the other hand seems a bit sketchy. Fast forward, Judoon are on the hunt for the fugitive who they assume is Lee. Thirteen and the fam swoop in to help the two out. Thirteen knows something is wrong and she can’t place her finger on it. But as time goes on the situation spins out of her control. The alleged tour guide has ripped the horn off a Judoon’s head, an act of dishonour and humiliation. Thirteen’s doubts grow as the two reach the lighthouse because the holes in Ruth’s story are starting to show. Why live in a lighthouse? Why have a blank gravestone? Enter the Fugitive Doctor, previously Ruth. The lighthouse was her fob watch, hiding her memories and true identity. Lee was her companion playing a role similar to that of Martha Jones in Human Nature/Family of Blood and gave his life to save her. Taking that story, we now see how it plays out from the other side; from the POV of Martha Jones as protector to the POV of the Fugitive as the protected. In this 50-minute slot, we already have a backstory for this new doctor that still leaves room for the imagination. On board the Judoon ship, Gat is defeated by Fugitive with a gun she didn’t even have to fire. As she timed this according to the ship’s acceleration, Gat’s shooting takes place in interstellar space with no laws so Fugitive gets away with murder. Almost literally. She’s confident with a powerful presence and takes control of the room, contrasting Thirteen’s more chaotic and vulnerable approach. Thirteen and us as the audience are stunned as this complete stranger has saved the day and made it look so effortless. From there, the groundwork had been done for a new main character in the Chibnall era cast. But this wasn’t delivered.

Part 2 ->

[cipher-fresh]

Ranking how much I believe series 14 theories I’ve seen floating around:

Ruby Sunday is doomed by the narrative: 9/10

No way she isn’t dying or suffering a fate worse than death. “I’ll protect her Carla” you already know he is going to fail 🫡🫡

Ruby isn’t human/Ruby is the same species as the Doctor: 6/10

I think it would make a lot of sense to parallel the Doctor’s story, explain why she has no biological family, and it could even be foreshadowed with her turning into a different species when she stepped on a butterfly

Ruby is the daughter of any previous female character on the show: 4/10

I’m not feeling this one but I wouldn’t rule it out entirely. Would be really fun to see whatever previous character they decide is her mother if this is true.

Jonathan Groff’s character is Jack Harkness in an actor recast: 1/10

I really don’t think he is. Considering I can’t read RTD’s mind, I can’t say no for certain, but it’s very narrow-minded to think the Doctor can only have homoerotic tension with like 4 guys ever. Expand your minds

[picnokinesis]

DOCTOR WHO POSITIVITY DRIVE

Hello everyone! 

Alright, so I recently got the chance to go to Gallifrey One, which was absolutely incredible, but what struck me the most was just how positive the atmosphere was. I went there worrying that there would be a big, obvious divide between people who liked one era and people who liked another - but there wasn’t at all. Everyone was so friendly and nice, and it was such a celebration of the entire show, old and new. And it’s only really hit me now that I’ve come back to the online fandom after that experience that the reason I felt that way was because recently a lot of people seem to be either focusing on the parts of the show that they hate, or hating on other parts of the show to say why the part they like it good. And I’m tired of it - this is a show that tells us to see wonder in the universe and be kind to one another! - and after talking to a few people, I think a lot of folks are. And so I came up with this idea - a positivity drive! 

Here’s how it works: if you want to, make a post about any part of Doctor Who that you like! Maybe it’s a specific era, or a specific character, or maybe multiple different things or just the show as a whole. Whatever you like - and then encourage other people to do the same! It can be as short or as long as you like. There are just a couple of rules:

Rule 1: Don’t be negative about any part of the show in order to say something positive about another part. This is about celebration, remember. 

Rule 2: If someone else posts something for the positivity drive that you disagree with or that you actually really hate about the show - leave them be. Of course, if you want to make your own critical post, I’m not going to stop you, but the last thing I want is for people to start arguments on posts that are meant to be about celebrating the show. We’re all a community of people with different opinions and tastes, and so we like different things! And that’s okay! 

Rule 3: Tag your post with #dw positivity drive so people can find posts and share the love. It’ll also help me because I would like to reblog as many posts as I can! And if you feel like encouraging other folks to join in too, that would be really awesome! I want this to span across as many eras and aspects of the show as possible 

I’ll start everyone off by saying what I like about the show, but I’m going to put it under the cut because otherwise this will get too long. But if people are happy to reblog this and/or share it with folks in other ways, that would be really helpful! I just think it would be amazing if we could recreate that sense of love and joy that I felt at Gallifrey One - because isn’t this what fandom is all about? Sharing joy for the things that we love? I think it should be! 

Since I’ve been watching the show since 2005, I thought I’d say what I liked about each showrunner era, because I love the RTD, Moffat and Chibnall era for a bunch of different reasons. And to be clear, if I say something I like about one era, that doesn’t mean I think it’s bad or not done well in another era - it’s just a particular thing I like about that era! 

RTD ERA

I really love RTD’s characters - they’re always so vibrant and real, and he’s really good at establishing the characters quickly and giving us a really clear and consistent sense of who they are and what matters to them! It’s also really satisfying to watch the story arcs of these characters - I think of Donna in particularly, because I really love how she grows from a character with so little confidence in herself to someone who manages to save everything that she knows. And yes, I know she loses her memory too, but I lowkey love that - especially in the context of the recent series, with the Doctor suddenly discovering that their own memories have been erased - because the pain of it is so brutal and real, and it somehow feels even worse than if she’d died. I love angst and tragedy when it’s done well, and that’s another thing that RTD is excellent at! (Like the whole thing with the TIME WAR, guh, it’s such a good way to bring back a show that had been off the air for so long)

On that note!! He brought back the show!! And he did it with a wheelie bin burping what an ICON

RTD tends to put his themes and his message at the heart of the story he’s telling, and I really love that because it just resonates through the whole thing

Ok this is a silly thing but as a kid I always loved it when RTD would like...have a word or phrase that kept cropping up and you’d spot it in lots of episodes and it would suddenly become relevant in the climax? Like in s1 it was ‘bad wolf’, and then in s2 it was ‘torchwood’, and then less of a word/phrase but how in s4 they kept bringing up about the missing planets? It was just really cool and excellent storytelling to set up for what is coming for the end of the series 

There are so many stories that I love in this era - it’s one I’m very fond of because I grew up with it, and honestly I think it inspired me so much to like sci-fi as much as I do now

MOFFAT ERA

The episodes in this era are always so bombastic and spectacular! There’s such a cool sense of scale for the universe, and so many cool new monsters and worlds are brought in that I really enjoy (like the christmas episode with the flying sharks? HELLO? I’m absolutely obsessed with that). And yet we also get this really cool dichotomy with the home life of the characters too, and seeing how their relationship with the Doctor and how their lives at home don’t always work well together, and it’s such a cool theme to really dive into. 

Early Moffat era - especially s5 - has this really wonderful like...fairytale vibe, I guess? Just the themes of s5 are really nice, and I particularly love how we see them woven throughout the narrative and also just the style of the show and how the stories are told. It’s awesome

Moffat era has some absolutely CRACKING two-parters! I think one of my favourites are probably the crash of the Byzantium two-parter, but then the s10 finale is just absolutely BRUTAL but so, so well done. On that note, I absolutely ADORE s10 on the whole, like just Twelve, Bill and Nardole as a TARDIS team? And then everything between Twelve and Missy? I’m obsessed with it, it’s so so good. 

The Doctor speeches!! So many iconic lines!! 

Moffat has some REALLY awesome concepts that he delves into in his era - like the idea of a crack in time! The Pandorica! The confession dial! Aliens that make you forget you even saw them! Aliens from a two-dimension universe trying to invade ours! And then, of COURSE, the way he uses the black hole and time dilation in the s10 finale? Absolutely INCREDIBLE, it’s just SO cool! 

CHIBNALL ERA

I know I keep going on about themes but I absolutely LOVE the themes of Chibnall’s era, especially in s12-13 and the way it digs so much into identity. It’s something that I myself really love to write about, as well as being something that really resonates with me personally, and so it’s just been an absolute TREAT to see it get dived into in a show I love so much, and done so well! I also really love how it explore memory and trauma and how that ties to identity, which is another topic I find really fascinating. 

With Chibnall’s stories, I’ve really found that the more you dig into them and engage with them, and try and figure out how they tick, the more and more satisfying and enjoyable they become. It’s makes writing for and being in the fandom for this era in particular so wonderful, because even now, years after some episodes aired, I keep finding more connections and more things that I hadn’t realised about, and it’s AWESOME! I also really love how it’s all such a love letter to the show as a whole - the last episode in particular is a great example of that, but I really think the whole of this era is as well! There are so many references and connections back to both RTD and Moffatt’s era, but then also Classic Who as well! Like, for example, take the Timeless Child arc - the way it weaves threads that had been left hanging from previous seasons, taking inconsistencies that are natural for a show that has been airing for sixty years (!!) and make them fit in so beautifully into the tapestry of canon? It’s SO COOL!! And so satisfying! I think people sometimes say that Chibnall tore canon apart, but I actually think that’s the opposite of what he’s done - he took things like the Cartmel Masterplan and The Brains of Morbius and that one random scene in the Matrix from the Deadly Assassin...and he made them all FIT together! It’s amazing! And then in Flux too - I saw someone talk about how the Flux being created by Tecteun because of the Doctor actually makes the end of s5 make even more sense - because in the future, the universe is being destroyed because of the Doctor, and so all of Eleven’s enemies put him in the Pandorica! It’s brilliant. AND THEN bringing back Ace and Tegan for the centenary of the BBC!!! He finished off their story arcs DECADES after their last appearances, and it just the coolest thing 

On that note! So many ties back to Classic Who!! We love to see it!! I also really appreciate the fact that Flux enabled so much Lungbarrow clowning, which I think had to be intentional because why would it have been there otherwise, plus we KNOW that Chibnall knows about Lungbarrow - so yknow. It’s silly but I love it yknow

This era is just so GORGEOUS, it’s absolutely stunning? Not just the CGI but also just the lighting and the amount of detail and love that goes into the set design and the costumes! There are so many details to enjoy and I love that

I love all the characters so much, they’re absolutely wonderful! Again, a lot of the characterisation feels quite under the surface, but the more you let the episode sit with you and look at the details, the more you see, and it’s wonderful. I’m also particularly attached to Thirteen for a lot of personal reasons, because it’s the first time I’ve ever been able to see so much of myself in a character - and yet she’s still open to interpretation, so other people can see themselves in her as well. And especially when at Gally One someone asked Chibnall about Thirteen’s autistic traits, and he confirmed that they were intentional - that was just SO wonderful, because as someone who is autistic, I’ve always found a lot of the way I see the world mirrored in the Doctor’s character, but this was especially true with Thirteen (it’s one of the reasons why I really love how she was portrayed alongside Telsa in s12 ep4). So to hear it confirmed as intentional was just awesome

I also really love how there has clearly been an intent to include more diversity and be more inclusive, both in front of the camera and behind it! Whilst there have definitely been slip ups, I think the right intentions have definitely been there, and I’ve seen the tangible impact that it’s had on real people around me. For example, with Demons of the Punjab, there were so many people (myself included) who knew nothing about the Partition of India, because it’s just not taught about in schools here (which is absolutely shameful!). I actually worked on a creative project about the partition after this episode aired, and the amount of people who said they only found out about it because of Doctor Who was significant. And I think it’s really great and really important, because it’s leading Doctor Who to explore parts of history that we don’t normally see portrayed or talked about. And Chibnall has also clearly worked really hard to focus the historical episodes on important women in history, especially ones who many people might not have heard about, such as Noor Inayat Khan and Mary Seacole! (I remember my Indian friend being so cross that she’d never been taught about Noor at school after watching Spyfall Part 2 - someone just like her, and she was only finding out about it in 2020!). I also hugely appreciate the fact that he baked into the lore that the Doctor being a woman wasn’t a one-off by introducing Jo Martin’s Doctor, who was also absolutely wonderful, as well as all the Timeless Child regenerations that we see. And then at the same time! Establishing that the Doctor hasn’t always been white! Chibnall gave us our first Black Doctor, and then gave us even more with the Timeless Child - and that’s awesome. 

One of the things that has always struck me, but especially after going to Gally One, was how much love and joy there was for the show from Chibnall, Jodie, and everyone else involved in making it. They all talked about each other so positively, always praising and crediting other people for all the work that they did, and seemed to actively work towards making sure everyone on set felt welcome and included (even though Jodie claims that she was just nosy and wanted to talk to everyone haha - but regardless! The positive impact was so profound that every time people ask about how it was filming, every person mentions how wonderful Jodie is, unprompted). And Chibnall himself clearly cares so much about the show, and has so much of a passion for it - but is also just a really decent guy who just wants to encourage and enable other people, based on the interactions I had with him in person at Gally One. And I think that shows so much in his whole era 

RTD2

We haven’t had much yet but NCUTI GATWA!!! AHHHH I am SO excited! He looks amazing already and I cannot wait

DONNA NOBLE COMING BACK?? IN 2023?? I’m not ready at ALL I’m going to cry

YASMIN FINNEY!!! 

BEEP THE MEEP!! (but on that note!! How he’s bringing in obscure extended canon characters? Absolutely obsessed, I want more of it!)

The trailer just looks like so much fun and I’m hype

[readysetjo]

I hate being a huge fan of a show and not have any clue what # season we’re on. RTD why is this season 1? I’ll never understand. I still don’t know how to differentiate this show. NuNu Who??? Seeing episodes labeled s1e4 (or whatever) is good that’s what it was called but it makes me want to chomp down on something, foaming. Where are we? When are we? What are we?

[skinnyscottishbloke]

Hello, I'd like to ask you about Doctor Who, for the send me a series asks, if I may?

Wheeee thanks! Disclaimer - I’ll be talking about NuWho here cause I haven’t watched that much Classic Who.

Favorite character: Tenth Doctor!!! Sexy specs and Converse, great hair, a great coat, and wonderful grins. God I love him so much. He’s so silly. And he cares soooo much.

Second favorite character: Ninth Doctor. He’s fantastic 💗

Least favorite character: Clara Oswald. Sorry not sorry but I genuinely hate how she’s written.

Character I’m most like: with such a rich cast it’s hard to pick but maybe a mix of Donna and Rory? With some Wilf thrown in for good measure.

Favorite pairing: Ten x Rose. The ultimate power couple. Doomsday still makes me sob okay. Close second is Nine/Jack/Rose cause their TARDIS vibe was just everything to me.

Least favorite pairing: River x Doctor. She’s just too Moffatty. Too much Irene Adler “women have to be dominatrixes to be strong/worthwhile” vibes. Idk.

Favorite moment: argh there’s just too many!! for nine, the “everybody lives Rose! just this once, everybody lives!!” god the impact that had, especially given his time war ptsd storyline 😭😭 for ten, that scene with him and Donna after he drinks cyanide lives rent free in my head 😂

Rating out of 10: 7.2. Listen this one is hard because it’s such a long running show and there have been sooo many show-runners and doctors and companions. for me the problem is I loved loved LOVED RTD’s era. Yes near the end the “lonely doctor” theme got a bit annoying but whatever. I was excited for Moffat but he slowly ran the show into the ground by solving plot holes with time paradoxes and universe reboots. Laazzyyy writing imo. I got excited again with 13’s announcement and Chibnall taking over but…yeah, while Jodie was AMAZING, the show kinda ran into the same kind of issues as Moffat for me. So while I enjoyed individual characters/episodes…as a show it’s hard to give it a higher rating because of how certain eras have made me lose interest entirely. Allll that being said, seasons 1-4 have some of my all time favorite moments and characters in them of any show, ever, so I cannot TELL YOU how fucking excited I am for RTD (and David and Catherine) to be coming back and for Ncuti to make his mark!!

Send me a series!

[greyhoundone]

I will end up defaulting to whatever the official promotion/merch/etc. is for clarity and consistency, but I am annoyed that per RTD, we seem to be going with calling the new Tennant incarnation Fourteen and Gatwa Fifteen (despite the transition from Whittaker to Tennant not looking like a proper regeneration—the clothes changing, the different special effect coming in mid-regeneration—no way he’s a normal incarnation in the line here). Mostly I am annoyed because I’ll have to go back through all the posts I’ve reblogged since they announced Gatwa and change the tags.

[clueless1995]

i havent even started actually collecting clips bc it’s a nightmare jumping around episodes on the pirating sites i use bc the narcs at the legal streaming sites block screen recording so i’ve just been zooming through doctor who episodes on my ipad marking down timestamps/scenes to record later and i’m only up to partners in crime and i already have. So Many so i might actually have this be just an rtd first run edit but i’ll seeeeee sometimes i think a scene will be good until i actually try and put it in the edit and realise it doesn’t work for whatever reason

[hobgoblinns]

time crash lyrics that go hard

inhuman, INHUMAN, YOU’VE CHOSEN YOUR OWN DOOM AND—

the ginger supertemp is here to stay

we are the found ones

“GOODBYE LEADWORTH!” she is so out of here!

dying’s never easy, not the first or tenth time

goddamnit RTD

it’s true, there are some who despise me / someday they’ll all moisturise me

i who am about to die salute you

i awake to silver walls and single digit centigrade / a sheet over my body and a tag upon my toe

a new man will take my place, now he’s waiting in the sidelines, but i dont want to go

why did you TRUST ME / im SORRY / i should have known i couldn’t ask you to TRUST ME / im JUST ME

seven hundred trips under the knife / such is the cost of eternal life

oh john, if your romantic sensibilities distract you, that’s alright, that’s only human nature

you just might see a planet growing warm and friendly green :)

i’ll believe whatever you say cause i was literally born yesterday

welcome traveller! meet our home, his name is house

[crimsonchaos]

So to put my own thoughts out there on the matter, for whatever it’s worth, I’ll first of all preface that by saying while overall I did enjoy RTD’s original run, there was much that was both good and bad about the era. That said, while I’m sure RTD still has some ideas that might be good (while others may fall short), when it comes down to it I kind of wish they could have tried their hand with some new talent. I especially feel like we’re well overdue for a woman to be a showrunner, and I know there’s not a shortage of women who have done good writing for the show in the past. Going back to a previous showrunner almost feels like they’re, idk, trying to play it safe? It just doesn’t feel like they want to push the boundaries too much, but then isn’t pushing the boundaries and trying new things part of the spirit of Doctor Who? But anyway, that’s my opinion anyway.

[quotes-of-dreamland]

Mod Lor, *please* take this as an excuse to ramble, what you've written is *awesome* so far

Mod Lor: OH BOY ok in that case I'll explain sorta what happened after RtD and Lor's relationship with Magolor because it's what I've thought about the most... I mean I did write what was technically 2 ficlets about it, but they're the same event from Lor and Magolor's perspectives. However I'm nervous so I haven't posted them anywhere outside Discord...

Anyways, so. I already mentioned that Lor woke up after/during the collapse of Another Dimension. I say that because it's the first time Lor is seen acting on her own without any influence from Magolor, because he fucking died and dead people can't tell a strong and independent boat what to do. That isn't to say living people can, because Lor still does whatever she wants, and it just so happens that maybe sometimes what she wants is what she's being told to do.

So, this leads to one of the more interesting times in Lor's life, which lasted maybe a couple weeks to a few months. I'll get to that later.

She's been woken up in an unfamiliar place, and also in a completely new era by this point. See, Lor was initially put in the Haldera volcano somewhere around 100 years of age, probably a bit younger. By this point she's closer to 30,000 years old. To get an idea of that sort of time frame, Nova is closer to 70,000 years, while Galacta Knight is only a few centuries older than Lor.

So, as someone's Dark Meta Knight very eloquently put it in an rp, she's old as balls.

However, she's barely spent any of that time conscious. She wasn't aware of how much time had passed until attempting to go back to Halcandra with Landia, and the first thing she noticed besides "wait what the fuck, Landia has visibly aged" was the fact that Egg Engines was visibly degraded and rusting over. Now, that wouldn't have meant much to most; exposed metal rusts when exposed to rain over time. Simple oxidation. Here's the thing, though:

Lor was put in the volcano before that island of Halcandra had a proper water cycle. She'd been unconscious long enough for the place to develop weather patterns.

So, that was a pretty big shock. Then Landia basically explains "yeah so, uhhh, funny story, you can't live here anymore, times have changed and not for the better" before they go back to their roost. So, y'know, that's just great, and Lor goes back to Popstar to try and figure out what to do with her life. She's alone, everyone she ever knew is dead except Landia (but they don't count because they've now had a whopping single one-sided conversation), and she doesn't even know where she is beyond the name of the galaxy and planet.

That's where she finds herself for a bit of time following RtD. But then, a very interesting thing happens. Lor's chilling, still coming to terms with Everything, and then suddenly an unconscious egg she's never seen in her life just. Manifests in her equivalent of the living room. You know, because that's just a normal Tuesday occurrence apparently!

She initially doesn't really grasp the severity of the situation, because she doesn't know this is Magolor and that he's been dead for as long as she's been awake post-volcano. After sorting out the mutual feelings of "what the fuck?", Magolor passes out again, and Lor realizes "oh wait this kid ain't doing too great" and gives him medical attention. Which is good, because if she hadn't, he probably would've met Morpho again and maybe not been yeeted back into the world of the living for a second time.

So, initially, their dynamic is pretty different from what it is now.

Lor looks at Magolor as suspicious, but she has standards and isn't just gonna abandon him while he's still recovering from some event he can't even talk about without panicking. Basically a reluctant "ok fine you can live here and I'll look after you until you get better and we can figure things out after that". There was some confusion about the fact that apparently everyone seems to hate him for no apparent reason, but she took it as him being in a similar situation to her where he just didn't fit in with what society wanted from him.

Magolor doesn't really know how to feel about Lor at first. She wasn't exactly the most polite when he woke up, but wasn't really mean to him either. Interestingly, she also didn't seem to remember him at all or know about what he did. He knew things that she didn't, and he wasn't really able or willing to tell the whole story.

He wouldn't be until years later, and even then it was because he was put in a situation where he didn't have much of a choice. Thanks Meta Knight! Needless to say, that was a rough time for them both.

Still, it didn't take super long for Lor to go from reluctant caretaker to "I've decided this egg is now my son because he accidentally called me mom once when he was really tired and on pain medication" and Magolor subsequently deciding maybe the real source of limitless power is the found family he got along the way.

Also if you asked Magolor about any of that he would deny it. His mom is NOT a boat, no sir, this relationship is purely for mutual benefits, and not because he doesn't have any way to go back to his "real" family but still requires love and care from someone he can trust and be open with. Pay no mind to the affectionate nicknames Lor gives him like "my little peach boy" or "resident hazelnut" because they mean NOTHING to him and do not help to fill any type of emotional void. This is all extremely true, he is not lying, he has never told a lie in his life, he doesn't even know what that word means.

Needless to say, it doesn't take much to see through that. Even if your vision is as bad as Lor's.

Lor cares he and there's nothing he can do about it. Not that he would do anything about it in the first place. Again he wouldn't admit that.

However, all of this does lead to shenanigans. Despite the age and life experience difference, Magolor gets to take on the role of being the voice of reason, while Lor, being a research ship, likes to test things, like Meta Knight's patience, or Magolor's sanity, or the law... you get the idea. She might be a parental figure now, but that doesn't mean Lor's become wholly mature or stopped being impulsive.

[cicadabooks]

who wants to hear my “RTD (and also Julie Gardner and other producers) returning to Doctor Who” opinions.

alright so I was a nerd enough to read the DW production emails published by RTD as book(s), and remembering that, it’s a surprise to me that RTD would be returning. He seemed pretty satiated and happy to move on, basically. A lot of emotions, ofc, but basically wrapped it up. I’m curious to read the interviews/notes on RTD deciding to return to DW. How many seasons is he going to show-run? Did the BBC ask him to return? (probably? They were begging him to run series 5, from what I remember in the book.)

Also like I’m low key excited about Julie Gardner returning, because she seemed like a force in the production-notes book I read. Yessss do that production, get that money and organizing managed beautifully.

What I would like: camp and found family character dynamics that I like from seasons 1-4 and from other RTD shows. Camp as in, “Earth being destroyed while Toxic by Britney Spears plays” and “a xmas tree is out to kill everyone”. Found family as in “Well now Rose’s mum and Martha and Donna and everyone are adventuring together with the Doctor because why not”. OH and more queer stuff, lots more of it. Queer campy found family.

The Doctor: A woman or non binary character/actor of color. I’m putting it on the table and making my stand. Or, if a man, just not a white guy any more, please, it’s been a half century plus of that.

Pass: I don’t need a full return to seasons 1-4. As in, I’m curious what RTD would bring, but those seasons have their place and wouldn’t fit in 2023 or whatever the eps are coming out. (That’s a ways away. I wonder if I’ll even have this blog at that point.)

Characters returning? I kind of do want to see Donna return, not going to lie. (I just really liked the charm between Donna and Ten and I chased that with the Big Finish eps, which bring back that chemistry in full force and it’s delighful.) Sure, Martha too, but written by Black women and written better. (Also I saw something about Freema Agyeman growing out her hair naturally and I’d love to see Martha with Agyeman’s current hair.) Rose?... ambivalent. Eh. I don’t think Eccleson will ever agree to do Nine again. Tennant/Ten? I guess? IDK. I think the Big Finish eps are fun, but not sure.

Ooh, Rose’s mum! I kind of want Rose’s mum back! That’s gonna be real out of context with just her -- but I’m not producing this show, I’m just writing out opinions.

I dropped out of watching Thirteen, but I think it’d be neat to see Thirteen pop in. And the cohort from those seasons, sure. (IDK what happened to the characters past the middle of the second season with Thirteen.)

[tibby]

I miss your random ramblings, can you bless the world with one in this fine day?

i’m in the middle of my doctor who rewatch right now so my brain is kind of empty besides thoughts relating to that but i’ll try. anyway i think a lot about how so much of the tenth’s doctors arc was built around grief and regret: how he killed all the other time lords, losing rose, hurting martha, not being able to save the martha, everyone who died over the course of his journey. like here was this immortal alien driven by very human emotions and that’s what really made the rtd era so full of heart. and i’ve spoken before about how moffat taking all of that away is why i could never enjoy his era in comparison but i think it’s become like. an issue all across the board in media. nobody is allowed to ever die in media and we’re not allowed to have unhappy endings and if a beloved character is killed off there’s gonna be a way to retcon it because we can’t lose viewers! and part of this mindset is definitely tied to so many big shows having such unsatisfactory endings but like. those endings weren’t poorly received because they were sad. they were poorly received because they were badly written and didn’t make narrative sense. they were half assed and rushed and killed off characters for shock value, not because it actually made sense. anyway i think i was going to make a point about how endings should always be based on what makes the most sense for the narrative and if you’re afraid to kill off characters or whatever along the way because you think it’s Too Sad even though it works for the story then you’re just a bad writer. but halfway through this i suddenly remembered the game of thrones - 1995 style video because when i think about bad endings i think about got and my mind always ends back here. anyway i think shows in the 90s had the right idea about endings like everyone complains about seinfeld but it made sense for the story! they were bad people who got what they deserved! which reminds me of why i dislike mike schur comedy shows and schitt’s creek because they’re so obsessed with being positive and making loveable characters when that is not what i’m here for. like with community i love all the characters but they’re bad people and the show acknowledges that. you can’t make arrested development but make it about the bluth family redeeming themselves because that takes the humour out of the show. and i am very far away from my original point by now but i guess what i’m saying is that if you’re afraid to explore the more difficult emotions and elements of life in a drama then you’re in the wrong genre, and if your sitcom just becomes morally good people preaching about how we should all be better or whatever then you’re not funny. 

somehow? glee understood this.

[gerrydelano]

hello i’ve returned😔 i’m the one who said “not to put myself on blast” but then immediately did. truth be told me and my friend both got tma tats, hers is “listen to the quiet” while mine is “there is nowhere here the wind does not chase me” from that one slaughter episode.....i have a whole list of quotes to pick from and that one won! but i still have room within my half sleeves and all so i’ll be continuing to get more probably.....bc i’m a hoe for tma :’)

okay listen to me those are absolutely beautiful lines who CARES what they’re from don’t shame yourself for your interests when you try to tell people the stuff that clearly means a lot to you - i respect it i think it’s fun and really poignant!!!! i bet they’re beautiful! also i LOVE your friend getting the jondaisy line i’m [screams]

me and ren have been planning matching tattoos for a while like, a nice compass with the south point in the shape of an anchor (yes i’d have Two anchors on me i don’t CARE i CLEARLY have a BIAS) and it’s literally. related to some silly made up word from my unfinished novel that we use to describe relationships like jon & daisy, rtd!tim & basira, etc. that type of shit. whatever means something to you! works!!!! 

[slippingbetweenthestars]

Some tea on RTD...

So The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End are fabulously satisfying episodes to watch, by and large. But...while the emotional notes are there, some of the plot just...isn’t.

RTD, would it have killed you to tighten up the dimension cannon plot line in The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End? Seriously? I’m grasping at dropped stitches  like nobody’s business as I try to write this fic.

Like, Rose disappears without any visible warping in Partners in Crime, but everyone has the same warp-y appearance when they jump in Journey’s End. Fine, minor thing. But then Rose calls to control to “shift” her. Okay, this is a “dimension cannon” that tracks timelines and the TARDIS. 

Then Mickey and Jackie show up with dimension hoppers. Why does Rose use the cannon while Mickey and Jackie do not? The devices now have a time limit between uses for an unexplained reason. Fine, it heightens tension. Mickey’s beeps when they’re recharged. Jackie’s doesn’t. Why? Again with the tension. We experience the dread of No Way Out, then get to realize with Mickey that there’s a back door we’ve forgotten. Then we with Mickey get to tell Jackie that she has an escape, and she can react the way we want her to. But still, why does Mickey’s beep and Jackie’s doesn’t? I’ll forgive it because it works really great narratively speaking, but it’s still a minor hole. On that note, how is Jackie able to teleport a few feet away and not just dimension hop? She doesn’t mess with settings or anything. Just jumps. Fine. Whatever. 

Just...these add up to a whole tangled mess. Is someone in control, or not? Is the Dimension Cannon separate from the hoppers used? If so, why? For that matter, why do only Jackie and Mickey come? Previously, we saw at least 4 hoppers in use, and now we only see two. And why specifically did Jackie and Mickey come? For writer reasons, it makes sense because hey, we just want to see the OG team together, but there’s not a clear in-universe explanation given. It appears Rose doesn’t have a hopper, yet the same special effect is used for all of their travel, and it’s a different one than in Turn Left, where there’s bright light when Rose crosses. 

Just...as a fiction writer, this is really hard to fix! 

[mophobia]

I’ve been rewatching Doctor Who lately (so far just the RTD era, not sure if I’ll keep going on) cuz quarantine so why not. But I had a realization of why I can’t get into Moffat era. It all comes down to one thing: the characters. Now I know this is far from the first post or article or anything talking about how Moffat’s characters aren’t as fleshed out and consistent. But it’s just, like I said, the personal realization I had about it based on my own perceptions.

I’ve always written fanfic about Doctor Who, just cuz I’m that kind of nerd. Even after all these years, I love coming up with new stories. Mostly, Tentoo and Rose and how Ten copes after Rose because the day I die will be the day I stop thinking they are the best tv couple (that never was😥). But I’ve written other stories about characters from RTD era, too. For the life of me, though, I cannot write about Eleven and his companions, and certainly not anything past that since I’ve barely watched it. I’ve written a couple pieces about Eleven thinking about his days as Nine and Ten, but that’s only cuz it’s focusing on RTD cannon really. And I realized I know the RTD characters. I can look at their face in an episode and read them. I can understand their drives, their arcs (even if not shown on screen). Throughout my rewatch, I’ve come up with entire stories based on just a single look a character gives. I can connect with them. It’s crazy, but I feel like I know those characters better than some people I know in real life. I can’t read a Moffat character that way. I’ve never connected with a Moffat character in really any way. I can’t write a Moffat character.

And I realized it’s because Moffat fits the characters to the stories, not the other way around. Whatever the story needs, he makes sure to fit the characters to those demands. Sometimes it’s not as noticeable (like the short exchange we see between Martha and Ten in Dont Blink where she says she has to get a job to support him. Really?) Other times it’s just complete nonsense (girl in the fireplace anyone?) In the one off episodes he wrote during RTD era I suppose it was whatever, albeit aggravating. Anything he did was pretty much undone by the next episode. But once he was given control of the series, character development and continuity pretty much went out of the door really making it impossible (or at least much harder) to connect with and understand characters. They weren’t people anymore, but rather more like props. And because of that, we get not only entire seasons of one offs, but whole retcons of past events and characters that just dissolve the story like acid. I mean, look at the 50th anniversary compared to The End of Time. Ten wouldn’t have gone from “yes I’m gonna save the time lords and bring back Gallifrey and it’s going to be great!” to “I’m willing to go against my own beliefs and shoot Rassilion to stop the Timelords from coming back” like that (when looking at it chronologically). Like jeez, what a slap in the face to Ten (and Nine for that fact) and RTD.

All Moffat seemed to care about was creating flash and trash. Something that looked prettier and maybe seemed better if you didn’t think too long or hard about it, but had no depth or substance. RTD invested in the characters to create stronger and more compelling stories. Moffat only cared about creating some sort of legacy of great episodes for himself, RTD cared about the meaning behind the show. Not to say RTD was always perfect about it. I’m currently rewriting The Christmas Invasion with some minor changes because I felt Rose wasn’t her full badass self in the episode. But I guess that’s the point. At the end of the day, when I see an RTD episode I don’t fully connect with, I just think of a few simple rewrites and small line changes to make the characters that much more like themselves as I percieve them. With Moffat, I don’t even know where to begin.

And obviously to each their own. I know there are people who love Eleven and Twelve and can probably understand and connect with them in ways I can’t. But that’s just the realization i had recently. I never understood why I could write and think of so many RTD era stories, and never a single Moffat one. But now knowing why has helped me further acknowledge why I can’t get behind Moffat.