#Steven Moffat short story

[anotherpapercut]

I know several people who like LOVE seasons 5-7 (11th doctors run) and think the storylines and moffats writing are brilliant and I don't get it!!! what am I missing??? why does literally every single episode have the exact same stakes: Rory/Amy/the doctor is dead. forever. so dead. but wait!!! what if they aren't!!! why do so many of the explanations for why they're not actually dead feel so rushed like they were added at the last minute!! why does every single queer character act kind of weird and awkward about being queer!! why does the doctor casually say that women are inferior when no one's around!!! what the fuck!! hello!!!

[missyblr]

10 YEARS OF MISSY!!

Missy was first seen on screen on the 23rd of August, 2014, in Season 8 episode 1, Deep Breath.

Since her fan-theory provoking debut as 'Guardian of the Nethersphere' in 2014, Missy has has 12 on screen appearances, her most recent being in 2017.

However, her 'reign of mischief and terror' didn't end there. Missy found herself in 2 novels and 16 short stories, including 6 which were compiled in her very own book, The Missy Chronicles (2018). She has also made appearances in 6 comics between 2015 and 2021 and 20 audio adventures, including her series, Missy, of 4 box-set collections released between 2019 and 2024.

in 10 years, Missy has certainly made a huge impact on Doctor Who and the fandom, and will continue to do so in the teased Dark Gallifrey audio adventures from Big Finish which may be released within the next few years.

big thanks to Steven Moffat and Michelle Gomez for bringing this amazing and unique character to our screens!

💜☂️

[fangirlinglikeabus]

‘i thought that was non-diegetic’ does the DOCTOR know he’s in a tv show??

the maestro being in-universe aware of the doctor who theme has fascinating implications. do they know they’re in a tv show?

[nileqt87]

Jamie McCrimmon in Tales of the TARDIS

The most special thing that's come out of Doctor Who in years. But the most important return for me will always be Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon. I want him back in a full episode. His story is so rich for a return that could only involve the Doctor (and/or the TARDIS), as well as not only having clear parallels to Donna Noble's mind wipe, but also being the Classic companion who most meant it that he'd never have left the Doctor willingly and would've followed him until the end.

For the record, this Jamie was the inspiration for Jamie Fraser (note the actor's first name being Frazer) in Outlander, as The War Games (my favorite Classic serial) was what Diana Gabaldon was watching when she came up with her idea, which is arguably Doctor Who fanfiction that 'ships time-traveling highlander Jamie McCrimmon with that serial's WWI nurse, Lady Jennifer. Frazer Hines is well aware of being the inspiration and even cameo'd.

Jamie was not only the longest-serving companion in Doctor Who history (yes, even more episodes than the Brigadier, though Sarah Jane beats him with her spinoff) with his 116 episodes (1966-1969, 1983 and 1985) and this short (2023), but he's also one of the greatest examples of the Doctor's closest and most-beloved companions not necessarily being chosen for being the most "equal" (the idea that companions from humble or easily-belittled beginnings like Jamie, Jo, Leela, Rose, Donna, etc…, who all struggled with insecurity over their worth due to their backgrounds, are his intellectual inferiors and thus not as worthy or appropriate as non-human companions like Romana or River, or even human genius Zoe here, for the Doctor to love--which is an insult to the Doctor and what he fell in love with humanity for), but for being the most human, genuine, loyal and loving as well as brave. This is one thing that Russell T Davies understood so well and Steven Moffat didn't quite get.

Jamie was hardly afraid to call the Doctor out when he disagreed or thought the Doctor had callously gone too far, by the way. Just watch/listen to The Evil of the Daleks for that, which is where the Doctor manipulates Jamie's very humanity to get him to rescue Victoria from the Daleks along with him being the source of the "human factor" used to create human-Dalek hybrids. Jamie's desperate, heartbroken, unrequited reaction (sadly, reduced to just audio, which captures the sound of a kiss) to Victoria's departure likewise puts to bed the idea that sentimental emotionalism and the Doctor dealing with companion reactions at their most human began in the Russell T Davies era.

Jamie certainly was more of a skirt chaser, albeit quite innocent, than you'd assume would be depicted in Classic Who! As much as Ian and Barbara, and then Ben and Polly, were depicted as couples in the TARDIS, they never got such an explicit declaration of feelings as Jamie's in Fury from the Deep.

Jo is the Classic companion who arguably admitted to having feelings for the Doctor himself, describing Cliff Jones as a younger version of the Doctor for why she's choosing him. These shorts allude to this moment as well, though frame it in retrospect as Jo having chosen Cliff over the Doctor, despite her arguably having more of a basis for feelings towards the Doctor than Sarah Jane in School Reunion and her inability to move on (highlighted beautifully when she walked down the aisle alone after her wedding day betrayal, only to be comforted by the Doctor, not to mention her adopting all the children she never had), which made her a mirror to Rose's future. Jo is thus a mirror to Sarah Jane as the companion arguably in love with the Doctor in a not-so-platonic way who moved on and found real love vs. one who didn't move on until it was too late, and who was likewise a mirror to Rose, who is famous for being the companion most explicitly in love with the Doctor to the extent that her moving on involved ending up with the Doctor's Metacrisis (but ultimately choosing him, their daughter Mia and a human life over the Eighth and Eleventh Doctors in Empire of the Wolf).

The Second Doctor's favoritism of Jamie extended so far as to go back for him (quite rare for the Doctor) when he was forced to work for the Time Lord Celestial Intervention Agency (season 6b, which isn't so much a theory anymore) and the reaction towards Jamie was probably the most cuddly and warm the Sixth Doctor (to the extent that the turbulent relationship with Peri got a little better for that one serial because of Jamie's presence) sadly ever got on screen before Big Finish salvaged the era. Jamie always brings out of the best in the Doctor and what the Doctor loves humanity the most for.

That Frazer Hines was so genuinely close to Patrick Troughton in real life (they were quite the mischievous pair, often sneaking gags in past the censors in addition to their pranks!) comes across so beautifully in every voice impression of his old friend and through his portrayal of Jamie whose love for and wish to have never left the Doctor is unquestionable.

Obviously, there was that fear of what he had left to return to, but also his belief that he needed to be there to protect the Doctor, which he always took it upon himself to do. Jamie would no doubt get along very well with the Brigadier (whose first story was with Jamie), Leela and Ace in their willingness towards protective violence, not to mention Ian and Rory often facing having to fill that role a little more reluctantly. And most of all, one of the deepest, most-loving friendships among Doctor and companion. Yes, there is exactly one iteration of the Doctor whose closest, most-favorite companion (that tendency towards favoritism was already there) was unambiguously not any of the female ones and was an even firmer break from the Doctor's old model of replacing his granddaughter with a relationship that felt far more like friends/partners in crime with a hint of fatherliness or mad uncle. And of course, this twin mop-topped Odd Couple fit in nowhere. Jamie was as out-of-place and "alien" as the Doctor wherever the TARDIS landed.

And given where he was sent back to by the Time Lords, his future without his memories looked pretty dire. His immediate return involved being being shot at, hanged, put on a slave ship by the Redcoats or fleeing to France--which was the context of his situation when the Doctor saved his life and he walked into the TARDIS when he was a piper from the Battle of Culloden in 1746 who could neither swim or read, and who was as likely to call an airplane a "flying beastie" as calling a Cyberman "the Phantom Piper", and then was returned to that sans all memories but for his first adventure before entering the TARDIS.

Obviously, Russell T Davies has given Jamie quite a happier ending than his tragic comic fate in The World Shapers in which old Jamie has finally gotten his memories back, but his family (he married Kirsty McLaren, daughter of the laird whom he was a humble, orphaned piper for, from The Highlanders) has abandoned him over it and he rapidly ages to death in sacrifice. The Tenth Doctor also had a comic companion named Heather McCrimmon (descended from those five daughters, but still retains the surname!) who still carried her ancestor's Artron radiation energy from the TARDIS. I would love to see Jamie meet Heather, who would be awesome to see realized on screen.

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Do you have any recommendations on Dr. Who books/audio format things? I haven't watched the show in a bit because Moffat wasn't my thing and I can't seem to find the old stuff. (If you have any advice on where to find that too I would be very grateful) Following your blog has been a nice reminder of why I liked the show so much. Hope you have a good day!

Aw thank you! Depending on your location, you can find classic who episodes either on BBC iPlayer or Tubi (with ads).

As for books/audios, I'll try to keep this brief as I could write an essay on this.

For books, my favorite author is Kate Orman. Orman writes wonderfully, and my personal favorite is The Year of the Intelligent Tigers. I also really liked Goth Opera, Camera Obscure, History 101, Autumn Mist, Lungbarrow, Divided Loyalties, Somewhere Never etc etc etc etc (so many more but I'm forcing myself to stop here). You can often find free versions of basically every novel (at least all I've looked for) on the internet either as pdfs or epubs or whatever. The Internet Archive is particularly useful. Some examples:

And now for the audios! I personally have sold my soul to Big Finish. I have literally hundreds of recommendations. They do have some audios for free, such as those that came from the Paul Spragg Memorial Competition. You can also find a lot of them (up until Zagreus I think) for free on Spotify. There is also almost always a killer sale going on on the website on top of that too.

As for my recommendations, it's pretty dependent on what Doctor or companion you want to listen to. They even have series centered on UNIT, Romana's Gallifrey, Benny Summerfield, and a ton of other things (including a Masterful special that just had a bunch of Masters fucking around and finding out). I'll put in some of my favorites, one for each Doctor, from what I own (which is far from everything, but I do my best).

One: The Sontarans. It was the first time the Doctor had ever encountered the Sontarans, so he was unfamiliar with them. It takes place during Dalek Master Plan, so Steven and Sara are there.

Two: Lords of the Red Planet! It's a good Ice Warrior origin story and has Jamie and Zoe in it. :)

Three: Terror of the Master. I had pre-ordered it as soon as I heard about it. Three....Delgado Master....what more do you want from an audio? It's narrated by Jon Culshaw.

Four: The Wrath of the Iceni. It was a brilliant historical with Four and Leela and Boudica. Leela gets quite a lesson in this one, first being mad at Four for not helping Boudica and then at Boudica for being cruel.

Okay now we are getting into my favorite Doctors (5-8), so these decisions are going to get difficult.

Five: The Kingmaker! Shakespeare spikes Five's drink to get him absolutely wasted to sneak on the TARDIS, the TARDIS gets hiccups as a result, leading to Peri and Erimem being separated from the Doctor. Shenanigans ensue.

Six: Doctor Who and the Pirates. Six and Evelyn have a really meaningful discussion with one of her depressed students. The third part is a musical!

Seven: The Shadow of the Scourge. Benny Ace and Seven against 8th dimensional eldritch abominations. Seven gets turned into one of these insectoids, and body horror ensues.

Eight: Oh dear I can't choose. At the moment, probably the Great War from Dark Eyes 1. Eight meets Molly and is still grieving here. He is very much doomed by the narrative.

War: The Neverwhen. Lots of the War Doctor is good if you like Time War horror, but this one has a lot of time-as-a-weapon and is well written.

Nine: Battle Scars. A nice short story about that one family Nine saved from the Titanic mentioned in the episode Rose. Has a really fantastic girl in it and a Nine dripping in PTSD.

Ten: The Time Reaver. Ten and Donna! There's this gun that basically slows down time for a single person, so that a few minutes for everyone else is centuries for them. Ten is a self sacrificing dope.

Eleven: The Geronimo boxset is the best in my opinion, but I haven't been able to listen to many of these yet.

Twelve: Another one I haven't managed to buy a lot of yet, but Dead Media is amazing. It's written to sound like a podcast with adverts and everything and is set during his time at St. Luke's. And I cried at the end.

Anyway, I'll shut up now. This was so much fun! Thank you!

[timeagainreviews]

In Space, Nobody Can Hear You Scream for Your Nappy Change

Few shows have had as many pilot episodes as Doctor Who. From “An Unearthly Child,” to the 1996 TV movie, to 2005’s “Rose,” and now “Space Babies.” However, one could argue that every new Doctor is essentially a pilot episode. There are notable shifts in the show’s dynamic to such a degree that it’s practically a reset. Any major personnel shift is a renewal. The transition from William Hartnell to Patrick Troughton, the transfer of power from Russell T Davies to Steven Moffat, and again, from Moffat to Chris Chibnall, for example. Even series ten began with the cheeky title “The Pilot,” where we find the Doctor earthbound as a college professor with his student, Bill, and his wife, Nardole. But “Space Babies,” is an odd one, for so many reasons. Mostly because it’s introducing us to characters we’ve been getting to know for a couple of episodes now. Then, of course, there’s everything else.

For some, an episode called “Space Babies” was always going to be a hard sale. Back in March when they revealed the new episode titles as a series of vignettes, Space Babies looked and sounded a lot like what we got. Sometimes a very literal title can be a bit of fun. “Snakes on a Plane,” tells you everything you need to know going in. While it may have benefitted from a bit of virality, you could argue that it does more with its premise than something like “Cocaine Bear,” which was little more than its title. I’ve complained in the past that my issue with the concept of the Timeless Child was that you could figure out the story by hearing the words. If I can watch a story in my head from its title, then in the words of Amy Pond- what is the point of you? My reaction to the title “Space Babies,” was very similar. Except in this case, I would say it was closer to a “Snakes On a Plane,” than a “Cocaine Bear.”

We’re off to a great start. I got to mention cocaine and babies in the same sentence. Speaking of awkward starts, why did Russell T Davies decide to open the show with the twee episode for the kiddies? Those types of stories are usually relegated to the mid-season point, after a really good one. I guess they needed a palette cleanser to put some space between “The Giggle,” and “The Devil’s Chord,” as they’re essentially the same story twice. But that’s for the next review. Though “Rose,” has its own brand of wacky weirdness with man-eating rubbish bins and plastic boyfriend doppelgangers with pizza peels for hands. Even still, it’s an odd choice for the “pilot.”

A lot of the episode’s enjoyment is predicated on how cute you think babies are. In my case, it’s not very much. If they had called the episode “Space Kittens,” it would have hooked me. But babies come with baggage. People are weird about babies. Babies are often politicised, which this episode definitely does, but more on that later. Another reason why babies were a hard sell for me is they’re not actors. Child actors are rarely good, so filtering their performances through the vacant faces of babies is like making a bad thing worse. Sure, they animated their mouths with cutting-edge technology straight from 1995’s “Babe,” but their faces gave us no range of emotion unless you count Eric, whose facial expression was that of one constantly bricking it in his diaper. I was reminded of the Gelflings in “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance,” in that it takes some getting used to the look of their faces. Except in the case of the Gelflings, the Jim Henson Creature Workshop knew their limitations and used CGI where the puppets fell short. A furrowed brow would have gone a long way to sell the babies.

However, I’m not made of stone. I’m not so joyless that I can’t send my critical brain on a little vacay for 46 minutes. I also appreciate that Doctor Who still takes the time to do stories for children. It’s a family show, after all. I was even impressed that the episode was able to sell me on the concept of a booger man (or Bogeyman to be precise) when “Sleep No More,” had so utterly failed to sell me on the concept of eye booger men previously. Even more, I had never expected to feel an emotional connection to said Bogeyman. While a lot of it had to do with Ncuti Gatwa’s performance, I’ll admit I actually got a little choked up at the end of the episode. Even a snotty little freak of nature deserves a place in the world, and I identified with that. It’s nice when a Doctor Who episode ends and it was actually about something.

As mentioned before, Russell T Davies uses the baggage that comes along with babies to stoke the fire of his own story. Through the eyes of Jocylen, the ship’s reluctant nanny, we see the babies in another light- as a constant source of worry. Having never wanted the job in the first place, Jocylen’s part is one of necessity rather than vocation. No one working in the field of charity or crisis aid wants to be doing the work. Sure, it’s fulfilling, but the nature of its necessity is telling of the world at large, or in this case- star system. In a perfect star system, no child would go unhugged, unattended, or forgotten. Yet here she is, forced by circumstance and emboldened by compassion to rise to the occasion. She may not be nailing it, but seriously, who the hell else was taking care of the children they forced to exist? If “Kill the Moon,” was Doctor Who’s pro-life story, this episode stands in stark contrast as the pro-choice story.

An episode with a butt-shaped space station that farts its way to the shores of freedom seems like an odd choice to talk about refugees, but it’s also the episode that gave a booger a soul. While a lot of the tone aligns more with “Aliens of London/World War Three,” or “Love and Monsters,” the message aligns more with something like “Turn Left.” Russell T Davies is giving us a spoonful of sugar with our medicine, which seems the correct approach in a show where Christmas trees are capable of murder. Suffice it to say, seeing a Rwandan refugee playing a British icon on the BBC commenting on the conservative government’s Rwandan bill is better than anything the show could do on its own. You almost have to do it, and more than I’m glad RTD rose to the occasion, I’m glad it was Ncuti who got to do it.

Speaking of things only Ncuti Gatwa could do, I appreciate that his Doctor is emotionally available enough to offer a hug to a child while still being alien enough to scare the bejeezus out of them. I can’t really picture Tom Baker hugging anyone, though I can imagine him scaring the bejeezus out of someone. Maybe Matt Smith would do it. Jodie as well. But Gatwa’s Doctor is an interesting mixture of compassionate and completely aloof. It’s a mixture that is sometimes at odds with itself, but it works. You see it in brief moments like when Ruby’s caretaker instincts take over and she runs head-on into danger, while the Doctor takes a moment to pop around the corner and catch up to her. It’s the classic dynamic of the Doctor being reminded of human nature by his companion.

I really like this selfless defender of the people streak in Ruby’s personality. It reminds me a lot of an ‘80s companion. She’s like a mixture of Nyssa and Ace. She puts herself in harm's way to protect others. She writes songs to cheer up lovesick lesbians. She’s got a very full personality that is palpable very early on. We got this level of character development with RTD’s earlier companions, and it’s nice to see it continue. What’s less nice is how he seems to have also taken a page from Steven Moffat’s book where the companion must also be needlessly complicated. What’s more is it feels less enticing and more like retreading familiar territory. It’s giving “The Impossible Girl,” vibes with an Amy Pond pregnancy body scan to bring it full circle. This is one of my biggest issues with the RTD2 era so far- it feels like a remix of past Doctor Who. That isn’t to say he’s added nothing new to the show, but it does feel a bit Clara 2.0. I’m just saying, it doesn’t always have to be some star-crossed destiny. If you do it every time, it loses its power.  Sometimes people just meet each other. Say what you will about Yaz’s characterisation, but at least she was allowed to be a person.

The story at the heart of “Space Babies,” is ultimately a bit thin. You could argue that there was never any real threat, but that happens sometimes on Doctor Who (take “Listen,” for example). I’ve seen some people online complaining that the Bogeyman doesn’t die, but what does it really do other than scare people? Sure, you see Eric’s pram toppled and find him characteristically bricking it in his diaper, but he’s not got a scratch on him. What if Eric went missing because the Bogeyman “ate” him. They could reveal that he actually was protecting Eric from the dangers of the malfunctioning bowels of the ship. Imagine the bogey bits tearing away out of the airlock, slowly revealing Eric inside. Not only would Jocylen have almost taken an innocent life, but two innocent lives. Pair that with the Doctor's brave rescue and blammo! It could have upped the tension and implied more danger, is all I’m saying.

I was a bit confused by the ship’s computer creating the Bogeyman in the first place. That entire aspect of the plot was skimmed over and very flimsy. I thought they were doing something with the show’s new magical premise, a “superstition of the Bogeyman made him exist,” sort of angle. But no, it was just something the ship did, for reasons. I also expected that to be the reason for Ruby's transformation into the weird scaly lizard woman. I expected it to suddenly be possible through superstition that stepping on a butterfly could change the course of history. But instead, the Doctor forgot to push the butterfly compensator on the TARDIS console. Kinda weird that RTD had two moments to further his own mythology but sided on technobabble. Not bad, just odd.

One aspect that bothered me was how long it took them to reveal the Bogeyman was made of snot. When they took the time to do this whole to do with the babies blowing their noses, I immediately looked over at my wife and said “The Bogeyman is made of baby boogers,’ to which she responded “I hate that you’re right.” They telegraphed it so hard that it made the Doctor seem slow on the uptake. If you recall from my review of "The Husbands of River Song," I felt like they did the same thing to River with how long it took her to recognise the Doctor. However, I imagine it's a bit of a balancing act to know when to reveal something. The Doctor doesn't necessarily have all of the information we have as an audience.

As pilots go, “Space Babies,” could have done better at introducing a new audience to Doctor Who. Much of the expository dialogue about who the Doctor is or where he came from felt rushed and unnatural. My friend Taryn said she enjoyed this aspect of the Doctor being less cryptic and more forthcoming with information. While I agree, I feel like the execution was clumsy, a word we’re starting to see more often in my reviews of the RTD2 era. For comparison, take Fallout, a show that came out only a month earlier. Both are technically first seasons of tv shows based on pre-existing properties with dense lore. Both have eight episodes to tell their stories. And yet with Fallout, we get a trickle of information as things happen. With Doctor Who we have the Doctor stopping his companion mid-sentence to say “Oh yeah, by the way, I have two hearts.” Look, I get it, I’m neurodivergent. I appreciate a good infodump. But there’s a big reason people are calling Fallout a triumph- it respects its audience enough to reveal things over time.

RTD said recently that young people won’t watch black and white. I don’t know if this is true as I am a cusp gen x/millennial. I don’t know much about what kids get up to these days, but I also don’t go around saying what they will and won’t do. It sounds a lot like “Those damn kids with their hip hop video games,” or like “Kids don’t like anything that isn’t Tik Tok or Roblox.” It feels like it misunderstands the appeal of storytelling in the first place. Studio executives have never fully understood what is good about Doctor Who. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, it was “Why can’t it be like Star Wars?” In the Chibnall era, the goal was to compete with Netflix. And now it’s “We need to meet the same standards of Marvel.” But if Doctor Who is always being compared to something else, you curse it into always being behind the curve. When I fell in love with Doctor Who, it was because it wasn’t like anything I had ever seen before. If I want to watch Iron Man, I’ll watch Iron Man.

Not all of the expository dialogue was without merit. I’ve been continually impressed by RTD’s handling of the Timeless Child storyline. As longtime readers know, I was not a fan of that story. Hell, first-time readers probably picked up on it in this article. But I don’t think it’s fair to discount the people who did enjoy that story. And I think it is far more interesting for the show to develop the idea as opposed to sweeping it under the rug. We learned that the Time Lord genocide was cellular, which helps the whole concept of the Master achieving what millions of Daleks couldn’t do make more sense. It’s amazing how much a single line of dialogue can overcome a lot of shoddy writing. I liked the Doctor stating that it doesn’t matter where he comes from, as I’ve been saying that the whole damn time. It’s also nice that despite everything, the Doctor is still a Time Lord in his hearts of hearts. We as fans kinda need those moments so we can collectively move on from what has been a rather ugly time in the fandom.

That’s not to say we aren’t still in an ugly culture battle within the fandom. Racism is still a very real aspect to the conversation. As are ableism, sexism, transphobia. And despite RTD meeting these things head-on with the grace of a fish out of water, we’ve still got some great points of intrigue. Who is this woman played by Susan Twist we keep seeing in the background? Who is the one who waits? Is Mrs Flood the White Guardian to Susan Twist’s Black Guardian? I would love to say it’s the Rani because it’s been 20 fucking years of it not being the Rani, which is also the exact reason I won’t say it’s the Rani. But god I wish it was the Rani. They even name-drop her! Give us this one, please. My point being, despite its daftness and its expressionless babies, “Space Babies,” still gives us a lot to go off of. If you didn’t like it, do what I did and watch it twice. The emotional resonance works better when it feels less like you’re watching a car accident.

Look, if you didn’t like “Space Babies,” I get it. Maybe it’s not for you. There are weird little problems with the episode. The expository dialogue I mentioned, for example. The babies are a bit much. The Bogeyman howling like a werewolf was batshit weird. I guess it was because they compared him to a dog. Even then, why not make it bark? You could ask things like “Why didn’t the Doctor use the TARDIS to fly them to safety instead of setting their space station on a crash course with the planet’s surface?” or "Why didn't the Doctor get sucked out of the airlock? It's air pressure, not gravity." Is the humour still falling a bit flat? Sure. It’s easy to pick stuff apart. But come on, the episode is called “Space Babies,” you knew ahead of time if that concept was going to work for you or not.

_______________________________________________

Thanks for reading! I'm sorry these articles are taking a while. Having two episodes drop simultaneously doubles my workload! I'll have the review for "The Devil's Chord," up tomorrow! Hopefully next week will be more timely.

[danielfeketewrites]

DOCTOR WHO TOP 10 - 12th Doctor

The penguin with his arse on fire.

10. The Swords of Kali

This story has everything a good Doctor Who comic needs - jumping between past and future, flashbacks featuring the fourth Doctor, a space goddess, vampires, lesbians... Everything.

9. Face the Raven

Sarah Dollard debuts with a bang. She paints such a vivid world in this one... I really wish she wrote more episodes than just Face the Raven and Thin Ice (which almost made the cut as well, another bloody good Capaldi episode). Please, Russell, ask her to come back.

8. Under the Lake / Before the Flood

The perfect Base Under Siege, with an excellent and likeable cast, a great monster (I love the Fisher King), and a fun involvement of time-travel. I can't help but love this one. My favourite Toby Whithouse script.

7. The Husbands of River Song

And my favourite Christmas special... I love River. I've always loved her. But this episode goes beyond that. The charm, the vibe... It's such a sweet and funny story.

6. Oxygen

Ah, my beloved "anti-capitalist zombie horror in space". It hits all the right beats and I'm just amazed how well Jamie Matthieson constructs the situations in his Doctor Who episodes, where he usually gets rid of the sonic screwdriver as well as the TARDIS. He does it so efficiently. He makes great Doctor Who horror seem effortless. Back in... Oh, I dunno. 2019? This was the first ever script I printed out and read in it's entirety. So it means a lot to me. An excellent episode for sure.

5. Best-laid Plans

Another Paul Spragg Memorial winner. This might just be my favourite one. In it the Doctor visits a shop that sells ideas to villains. An excellent premise and an excellent short story. Go listen to it, it's for free on the Big Finish website.

4. Four Doctors

Paul Cornell's take on The Day of the Doctor. This was a mini-series, published for the 10th anniversary of New Who by Titan. And it's just utterly excellent. I especially enjoy the dynamic where 10 and 12 hate each other and 11 is trying to be the mediator between the two of them, as he's able to get along with both his former and future self. The story offers glimpses at sins of alternate futures, as well as a sequel to one of my favourite 1st Doctor stories. Check it out if you haven't done so yet. It's brilliant.

3. Heaven Sent

I love Heaven Sent. It's beautiful and poignant and precise and well-thought out... Personally, there are two stories with the 12th Doctor I like more than this. Obviously, that's why it's at number 3. But I have to admit - this one deserves to top all the polls. It's really that good. Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat and Rachel Talalay all operating at 100% of their capacity. It's magnificent.

2. World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls

Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat and Rachel Talalay all operating at 100% of their capacity. It's magnificent. Again. But this time, it is also the end of an era. The most gorgeous, beautiful end of an era. Bleak and dark, yet hopeful and charming. Fanservicy, with a multi-Master story a Genesis of the Cybermen, yet never losing track of the real story. I really think it's the best New Who series finale. It felt like it was made for me.

1. Mummy on the Orient Express

And yet, out of all the episodes of this era, my love burns the brightest for this one. Jamie Mathieson made a simple murder mystery in space... And then he made it perfect. This is the episode where Peter Capaldi really becomes the Doctor. I've been thinking about the "sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones" speech for nearly a decade and it has helped me in some difficult times. It's precise, it's playful, it's dark... And above all, it's Doctor Who.

[ploppythespaceship]

Doctor Who Series 14 / Season 1 Review

Man, it feels good to be enjoying Doctor Who again. I haven't been keeping up with the show in years, but I caught up to see Tennant's return leading into Ncuti's run and I am so glad I did. This season is far from perfect, but it gets a lot of little things right and is consistently fun to watch, even if a lot of the details fall apart.

What I Liked

Ncuti Gatwa is simply phenomenal. He settles into the role so quickly and so easily, bringing such a fresh energy to the character. I love how distinct he feels, too -- when you're playing the fifteenth iteration of a character, it can be hard to find a new spin on things, but he's done it. He's also a fantastic actor, getting to show an incredibly wide range in just a few short episodes. I truly think he'll be remembered as one of the best Doctors.

Millie Gibson is also very good as Ruby, and her dynamic with the Doctor is a lot of fun. I appreciate having another Doctor/companion relationship that isn't romantic. They're just best friends, and it's very cute.

The show looks great. It's very clear that they've had a budget increase -- the costumes, effects, etc. are noticeably improved since RTD's first run.

Murray Gold's return as the composer is extremely welcome. His stuff isn't quite as bombastic as before (or maybe the episodes just have better sound mixing), but keeps a lot of the same leitmotifs. The result is a more subtle score that perfectly suits each scene.

Mel is so cool now. She was one of my least favorite classic companions, so seeing her worked into these storylines and feel more compelling is an unexpected delight.

What I Didn't Like

Ultimately, I think the season is just too short. Council of Geeks has an excellent YouTube video on this -- because there are only eight episodes, and a lot of them are going for bigger ideas and weirder premises, it feels like we don't really settle into a status quo.

The Doctor and Ruby's relationship also isn't as developed as much as I would like. If you pay close attention to the dialogue, there's actually a six month gap between "Space Babies" and "The Devil's Chord" -- we could have used another episode or two in that time period to really flesh out the beginnings of their friendship better. Instead the show jumps straight to them being best friends, without really showing us why that is.

I don't think the mystery box format of this season really worked. The mysteries were built up to such an extent that no answer could really be satisfying, and the finale really almost entirely on the big reveals that ultimately didn't amount to much. Ruby in particular feels like an underbaked companion, and I hope she gets more time to get properly developed.

Individual Episode Thoughts

Space Babies — This is easily the weakest episode of the season. It's not bad by any means, but it does remind me of some of the sillier episodes of RTD's first run. It felt like we were speedrunning the companion introduction, when things could have been slowed down and spread across a few episodes to feel more natural. The baby VFX also do not work and fall very firmly into uncanny valley territory.

The Devil's Chord — This one makes very little sense, but is entirely saved by Jinkx Monsoon being so iconic as Maestro. If you just go along for the ride, it's a ton of fun.

Boom — This episode is proof that Steven Moffat truly is at his best when he's writing self-contained stories under someone else's guidance. I don't think it's as iconic as Moffat's previous stories, and I felt like Ncuti was getting a lot of dialogue that better suited Matt Smith, but the entire concept was interesting and the execution was solid. Also, Ncuti acted his ass off without even being able to move.

73 Yards — Honestly, I'm mixed on this one. The setup is fantastic and eerie, and I enjoy the exploration of Ruby's character, solo from the Doctor. I like her experiencing this inexplicable thing, and deciding to find purpose in it to help others. But the story does fall apart for me at the end when it doesn't explain anything. I don't need every single thing handed to me, I understand the value of leaving things to the imagination, but the fact that the episode's last impression is "wait what?" does leave a bit of a sour taste. That being said, I do respect how weird and different this episode is, and how much discussion it prompted afterward.

Dot and Bubble — The trailers looked like a Black Mirror ripoff, and I was prepared for a shallow "social media bad" episode. Instead, we got something far more nuanced about the dangers of trapping yourself in a bubble of like-minded people and refusing to ever look beyond it. And the ending reveal that it's a society of white supremacists is so, so well-handled, because all the clues were there for you. If you're like me and didn't piece it together until the very end, it really challenges you to ask yourself why you didn't notice sooner. Also, another episode where Ncuti acts his ass off. My personal favorite episode of the season.

Rogue — Another with mixed feelings. Rogue himself is tons of fun, and I enjoy his dynamic with the Doctor, even if parts of it are pretty rushed. I really hope he comes back. The episode plot itself is serviceable but nothing special. My main complaint is the severe lack of Ruby. Her relationship with the Doctor doesn't feel sufficiently established, so the emotional beats don't really land.

The Legend of Ruby Sunday — This was an underwhelming finale, unfortunately. The first part barely even qualifies as an episode. It launches right into starting to answer the season's mysteries, but does so in an uncompelling and heavy-handed way. The Sutekh reveal is pretty epic in isolation, but...

Empire of Death — The Sutekh reveal doesn't really lead to anything satisfying. He doesn't have the presence of Toymaker or Maestro, he's just a CGI dog monster. This second part finally answers some questions, some of which are vaguely interesting, but it's happening in a plot so dull and so dry that I just can't bring myself to care. The episode is also just confusing? The plot points don't seem to flow naturally together, like multiple stories were smashed together with little rhyme or reason. The resolution is some of the most nonsensical nonsense that Doctor Who has ever come up with. Then we get to the reveal of Ruby's mother, which is so forced and it becomes clear in retrospect that things were added to seem more mysterious than they really were. And capping it all off is the Doctor's farewell to Ruby, which falls flat because, as I've said, their relationship is rather undercooked. It really does end the season on a downer, which is a shame because so many of the preceding episodes were pretty good.

[fictionadventurer]

Hello

3,8,9,13,14,15,18,20,21,22,26,30,33,39,41,44,45,46,48,52,55,58,60, for the ask game !

(I recognize that i may have asked too many questions.....partly as an excuse to get more book recs!)

Okay, let's do this!

3. How many books have you read (this year) so far?

According to Goodreads, 77, but that counts a lot of short stories, novellas, and in one case, a serial story where each part counts as a single book.

8. A book you've always wanted to read but never got a chance?

Lots, but lately I've been thinking about how I've never gotten around to reading A Canticle for Leibowitz, despite being recommended it years ago.

9. A book you're never, ever gonna read?

Harry Potter.

13. A genre you aren't a fan of in particular?

Horror.

14. A genre you love?

One I've recently started to define as vintage fiction--cozy books that are old enough to be classics, but aren't high-brow enough or famous enough to be considered classic literature.

15. A reading habit you could get "canceled" for?

Leaving so many books unfinished for no good reason.

18. Recommend a book to the person who sent you this ask.

Roverandom by J.R.R. Tolkien--a very fun fairy tale fantasy he wrote for his kids.

20. A book series you can't wait to read.

Once a Queen by Sarah Arthur feels like a fantasy book that should have a minimum of four other books already available for me to read, and the sequel can't come fast enough.

21. A book series you're never going to read.

A Court of Thorns and Roses

22. A celebrity's book rec that you loved?

Jo Walton enthusiastically recommended Desire by Una Silberrad and introduced me to a new favorite obscure author.

26. Your favourite reading position?

Sitting?

30. If you could have access to anybody's bookshelf, dead or alive, which person would you pick?

I am sticking Manalive on Steven Moffat's bookshelf so he will write the adaptation (and read the rest of Chesterton and become Catholic).

33. Do you annotate as you read or prefer not to?

Absolutely not. When I read a book, I want to read it with fresh eyes, as the person I am now, without the person that I was last time chattering in the margins.

39. Favourite book to movie/TV show adaptation?

The 1995 Sense and Sensibility is one of my favorite movies of all time.

41. If you could read the first draft of any one book, which book would you pick and why?

I'd like to read the original version of Black as Night by Regina Doman, which apparently had an entirely different plot before major rewrites.

44. Favourite book protagonist?

I can't pick one favorite! I'll just mention that Wilkie Collins has written some of my favorite female characters in Victorian fiction--Marian Halcombe in The Woman in White is one of my favorite characters ever, and I loved The Law and the Lady mostly because of how much I loved the narrator.

45. Favourite book villain?

One of the reasons Little Town on the Prairie is my favorite Little House books is because of how well Wilder presents Nellie Oleson and Miss Wilder as villains.

46. Favourite literary quote?

How am I supposed to pick one?

Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go to Goodreads and find something that got highlighted in Kindle.

Okay, here's a quote I highlighted in Sylvia's Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell that I had completely forgotten about.

He was just the kind of man that all his neighbours found fault with, and all his neighbours liked.

48. If you could be a part of any story you've read, which book would you pick?

I'm just going to live in the cottagecore atmosphere of your average Elizabeth Goudge book.

52. Do you like audiobooks? If yes, which is your favourite audiobook?

I adore audiobooks!

Probably the coolest one I've ever listened to was the full-cast audio recording of Fairest by Gail Carson Levine, because it takes place in a world where people often sing in their day-to-day lives, and this audio version has the characters sing all the songs!

As far as ones that are readily available, my favorite is the Jim Dale version of Around the World in 80 Days. That man's range of voices is astounding!

On Librivox, Vanity Fair (Version 2) has the best Librivox narrator I've ever heard. Most of the time, I'm just happy if the narrator pronounces everything correctly, with bonus points if they have a fitting accent. This woman was doing multiple accents!

55. If you could have any book related job in the world (librarian, editor, publisher, writer, etc), what job would you pick?

Writer.

58. A book that emotionally wrecked you?

I wept through large portions of In a Far-Off Land by Stephanie Landsem.

60. Talk about books! Anything you like, maybe share some more recs<3

I've just started Codename Edelweiss by Stephanie Landsem, and I'm excited to try another book by the author, because I've heard even more good things about this one.

[duran-duran-less-official]

(Spoilers)

Steven Moffat decided to ease back into writing for Doctor Who by giving us a ton of different stuff we've seen from him before, all in the one episode.

DNA immolation mines as an upgrade on the Hand Mines from The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar.

Ambulances as instruments of destruction from The Doctor Dances.

The companion being fatally shot because violence is the only language that stupid idiot character knows, from World Enough and Time.

Anglican Marines from A Good Man Goes To War.

Actual people's souls being used as AI voice interfaces, from Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead

Invocation of complicated space-time events, from Flesh and Stone

Machines offering meaningless, emotionless platitudes, from... everywhere, take the antibodies from Let's Kill Hitler as an example

(insert any others that I missed here, to be caught on a 2nd viewing)

And of course, fish custard from The Eleventh Hour

To be clear I don't think any of this is bad, I just find it funny how Moffat clearly has a brand, made up of favourite tropes and character traits, and he's fully committed to it.

I think it's even funnier how nobody else wants to touch any of Moffat's worldbuilding because Davies in particular doesn't seem to like writing about war. Like, yeah, Anglican Marines ARE a cool (and sickeningly objectionable) enough concept to bring back for future episodes... but Davies would literally rather write about a pig wearing a suit than attempt to construct a battlefield scenario.

(not that Chibnall's any better. He seems to find war a necessary component of his stories, but only grudgingly. The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos quite infamously contains no battle, and the wars mentioned in Resolution and Survivors of the Flux are entirely expository and/or take place offscreen.)

4/5, not perfect but I enjoyed it, and it seemed weirdly short for 44 minutes, like the stress was actually making the episode go faster.

(as a criticism, I will say that for the scene where Ruby and The Doctor are negotiating how to give The Doctor a counterweight, I could fairly easily imagine 12-era Clara in Ruby's place. Having said that, Millie does need more development, there are a lot of ways in which I'm not super sure who her character is yet. So I can't entirely blame Moffat for falling back on old habits when deciding what to do with her. I mean it's almost as if he picked up on Ruby's resemblance to Clara in some ways...)

Actually, you know what, no, I am going to talk about this. Russell T. Davies stole one of Moffat's most hated character tropes, gave it to Ruby Sunday, and nobody batted an eye. How do we feel now about women whose entire lives are seemingly governed by coincidences that seem to link them to The Doctor? A walking narrative device, designed entirely to evoke an air of mystery? Anyone?

This is just The Impossible Girl arc again, but with snow themed memories.

Moffat's unappreciated genius with Clara was, having been forced by circumstance to start her story in a way that inextricably linked her with The Doctor for both present and all past incarnations, he then ended it by making her explicitly The Doctor's equal. Functionally immortal, stealing a TARDIS and running away from Gallifrey. If Davies doesn't have something equally special planned for Ruby Sunday, we the fandom should probably start writing our apology letters.

[broken-clover]

ooooh you've awakened my Steven Moffat DW pet peeve. usually he's fine but my major annoyance with his episodes, and MUCH WORSE in Sherlock where he had more creative control, is his obsession with having EVERYTHING fit into the overarching plot. Everything. Nothing is random nothing is natural its all part of the Big Plan That Will Surely Pay Off Amazingly. it's just so exhausting and takes the kick out of individual episodes because you can't focus on the actual stories there because Stevey is too busy drawing your attention to his ever growing cork board of a plot. like, jesus man WHY would Moriarty give half a wet shit about some random murdering taxi cab driver. Where does that fit in Steve. Bad Wolf worked ONCE Steve. Once.

Hoo boy. The short-form format of that post didn't let me go into detail but coming back to this series a lot of his episodes are so much worse than I remember them being.

And I'm glad you said that! Because it fits into another issue I didn't even bring up. Why is there such a weird fixation on who exactly is 'most important' to the doctor? Because it feels like that comes up so much in the Moffat era. The Ponds are important by being in-laws. River is important because of the weird timeline fuckery and them getting married once. Later Clara is treated as the most important person in his life because of more timeline fuckery. There's a point where it gets dull going 'but then *this* bond with *this* woman was even more deep and complex and unshakable than the last one, really!' multiple times. Characters can't just 'be,' they have to connect to him on a deeper level somehow. It's never just happening to bump into someone, there's always some time and space fate bullshit that pops up.

(And see, while 'The Doctor's Wife' was absolutely full of that as well, that's the one example where it *does* work, because it centers around the one character that's literally been at his side for the entire goddamn series)

One of the things that was fun about the RTD seasons, especially about the companions and recurring characters, was that there was nothing fundamentally special about most of them. Any specialness came from traveling and growing as as person and then doing something courageous based on that growth. Characters came and went and it was sad, but the doctor was a temporary part of their life in the same way that he was to theirs, not the main focal fixture of their existence that made it meaningful. The act of interacting with others added to the richness and sense of understand in one's own life. It feels weird to say in such silly phrasing but it felt like a lot of the first four seasons were simply about the power of friendship on a massive, cosmic scale

Yeesh and yep that's not even getting into the man's complexity addiction. Having an overarching narrative isn't inherently bad but I felt like hopping from season 4 to season 5 was like going from a show where most of the episodes could be watched as desired with a bit of seasonwide narrative to literally having to watch every episode in the designated order without fail unless you wanted to be completely lost. The plot-heavy episodes can be fun but when that's most of the season it becomes a bit harder to digest. It just feels a bit like it's taking itself too seriously

Also. Did I mention the horny? Can't remember if I mentioned the horny.

[variousqueerthings]

Got my DW magazines (including the latest where all those brainmelting quotes are coming from) and there really is so much loveliness in them, including a letter from RTD:

"The First Great Seismic Shift in Doctor Who was in 1966 when the lead character slumped to the floor and... what? He did what?! He changed into a different actor? For good?! Can you imagine that happening unannounced now? in 1966, there seems to be comparatively little record of the reaction. Did we question less, then? Did we just... watch?

I've got clearer memories of Seismic Shift 2, 1970, the move into colour. Though that didn't mean much; we didn't buy colour TVs overnight, I was still watching in black and white until, ooh, Planet of the Daleks...?"

[...]

Things happened, and we simply kept on watching. We might complain about today's online world, but aren't we wiser now? Less passive, more engaged?

[...]

You probably know the later Seismic Shifts. The return, in 2005. Steven Moffat's astonishing, brilliant, glittering Doctors from 2010 onwards, with the Master becoming Missy. And with a slinky Seismic Shuffle, the Eighth Doctor, who'd disappeared off screen in 1996, finally got to regenerate in 2013 but only on the BBC Red Button! And then Jodie Whittaker fell through the roof of a Sheffield-bound train with an impact so great, it bumped the entire show on to Sunday night, and then she stood up in the wreckage and smiled a smile so bright, it changed the Time Lord and television drama and the whole bloody culture for good and for better.

It really is the most fascinating show because it changes, changes, changes... and yet, it stays the same. 'Doctor Who is all about to change!' say the fans, but I sit here planning the next story in which a police box lands and the Doctor steps out and foils an invasion of Earth thinking to myself, well, is it? But I know what you mean. The feel of the show changes, the essence. Jo and the Doctor and that silver car are a different world, a different style, almost a different genre to Clara facing a Raven on Trap Street.

And now, in 2023, that high-wire-tension of approaching change is in the air. The Doctor mysteriously has a face he's had before. And by the time December rolls around, he'll have yet another new face, in a show that now drops worldwide on a vast streaming platform -- new and old at the same time, as it still stays cradled in its Saturday night home of the good old BBC.

But as I said. Voices are louder this year. Shouting and rage and horror sometimes circle around Doctor Who. And often, that's not about Doctor Who itself, it's expressing anger and fear about life, about love, about self. And I get that! These discussions are us, growing up. In the old days we'd sit in our bedroom and work out the world all on our own. We could only sing along to pop songs to express our lovely,lonely hearts. Now, we type it out, and that's always going to be clumsy. Because expressing yourself isn't easy. Even birthday cards are hard work! So trying to say what you think about life and love and sex and telly in the form of words typed on a page and read by strangers, oh, nightmare! No wonder it goes wrong. But now...

I think there's only one way to meet the changes to come.

With joy.

I'm not asking for good reviews (I've got myself for that, I think these episodes are FABULOUS!) But if you don't like the something, don't exhaust yourself. Just smile and be glad that some people are happy and wait for the next Seismic Shift to come.

Because this programme has trained us well! We have embraced flying cars and the Red Button and the Watcher and the Garm and hey, maybe 'granddaughter' is Gallifreyan for 'friend' (though I don't think so) which means we can delight in anything. And right now, the TARDIS is heading for Skaro, and a wounded spaceship is heading for London, and Shaun is taking an extra shift in his taxi cos he's short of money, and Sylvia is delivering a curry and Donna Noble's daughter needs to go shopping for eyes -- for eyes?! -- and as all these things converge, hold on tight, clutch those tins of beans, cos the next earthquake is rumbling away on the horizon.

Here we go again!

[denimbex1986]

'It’s been a long time since Doctor Who got to be outright goofy. Previous showrunner Chris Chibnall’s era was often an overly serious one, despite Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor’s reputation for being a cheery iteration of the time-traveling alien. But with the return of Russell T. Davies as showrunner and writer, and with the (temporary) return of David Tennant in the title role, Doctor Who is back to being a silly, goofy old time. And that’s never been more clear than in the campy, bordering on ridiculous, anniversary special “The Star Beast.”

The first of three 60th anniversary specials airing this year, “The Star Beast” is Doctor Who in full franchise mode, with writer Davies and director Rachel Talalay (returning to Who after helming the best episodes of the Steven Moffat-Peter Capaldi era, and in perfect lockstep with Davies’ particular brand of camp), scrambling to turn the show back into the bona fide blockbuster event it once was. And they mostly succeed! Reams of fan service and transparent franchise-building can be forgiven because of how wildly fun the whole thing is — even if clunky resolutions and cheesy narrative choices mean the episode doesn’t quite hold together.

Fresh off his mysterious degeneration in “The Power of the Doctor,” the 14th Doctor lands his TARDIS in 21st-century London, where holiday celebrations are starting to be underway. He immediately runs into Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), the same mouthy and brash former companion whose memories he was forced to erase to save her life. That mind-wipe was a fragile procedure dependent on Donna not remembering the Doctor, which becomes a problem since the Doctor looks like David Tennant again. Something seems to be bringing them back together — but what?

“The Star Beast,” a jam-packed hour of television that drops us into the action and rarely stops to take a break, doesn’t give us much time to ponder this mystery. The Doctor’s shock at encountering Donna is interrupted by a crashing spaceship, which sets off a series of events putting them both on on a collision course with a cute, furry alien named Beep the Meep (voiced by the inimitable Miriam Margolyes) and an army of alien warriors chasing it across the universe.

It’s all so immediately campy it’s almost jarring after so many years of Chibnall’s plodding pacing, but that camp is — even if his interpretation of the 14th Doctor is basically just a redux of his 10th Doctor performance. Tate gets to stretch some of her dramatic muscles once again, particularly in scenes with her daughter, Rose (Yasmin Finney, warm and immediately likable in her Doctor Who debut), whose transgender storyline provides one of the episode’s more elegant narratives.

It could frustrate longtime Doctor Who viewers to learn that “The Star Beast” doesn’t bring anything new to the table. The special is almost entirely fan service, down to Donna’s quips, the Doctor’s catchphrases, and the many winks and nudges to Doctor Who history. But this is an anniversary special, after all, and it’s designed to look back, not go forward — even if its gaze backward falls disappointingly short.

But the special’s greatest shortcoming, but also its sneakiest strength, is that it is very much made with fans of the Tennant-Davies era of Doctor Who in mind. Apart from the plot, which is ripped almost verbatim from the 1980 Doctor Who comic strip by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons (credited in the special as story writers), “The Star Beast” feels frustratingly limited in its celebration of Whovian history because it’s so focused on the “Tennant is back!” of it all. But this also feels like a calculated choice by Davies, who made clear his intention to turn Doctor Who back into the global mega-franchise it once was. Tennant’s Doctor was the closest the show had to a superhero, so if Doctor Who is going to reach Marvel levels of blockbuster spectacle, it needs to double down on the most dashing aspects of its hero.

The obvious franchise aspirations of “The Star Beast” might grate at those who have been feeling Marvel fatigue for a while. But its quippy humor, campy high jinks, and many ridiculous scenes of the Doctor saving the day with a flash of his sonic screwdriver all bring the show back to the baseline of what made the Tennant/Davies era of Doctor Who so successful: It’s in on the joke. Davies was, and still is, intensely aware of the inherent ridiculousness of a show where a time-traveling alien did battle with tin robots and calls attention to it in the most ludicrous ways possible.

Is there such a thing as too goofy? Doctor Who often does find that oversaturation point and some of its best episodes deftly walk that line between silly and serious. But “The Star Beast” doesn’t walk the line as much as it dances a merry jig over it. And in its silliest moments, it never forgets that this is a show about an alien with two hearts and twice as much capacity for compassion. Yes, it sometimes goes overboard, but 60 years in, the show has probably earned it. It’s TV as cotton candy — it’s never quite filling or satisfying, but darn, does it taste good.'

[cynicalclassicist]

Thoughs on Nixon in DW

I don't think that you could do The Impossible Astronaut/The Day of the Moon today. That is due to the prominence of one Richard Milhous Nixon.

This post is inspired by a discussion that I had with my friend @dalesramblingsblog (who you should follow if you aren't already) on Twitter. And I refuse to call it by the other name.

Steven Moffat did not set out wanting to write a story about Nixon. He wanted to do one set during the Moon Landing which had the White House, due to being a fan of The West Wing. I found this on Shannon Sullivan's site (https://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/2011ab.html), recommended if you like looking at the details that went into making DW stories! When he found out who it was he considered a fictional President but went with Nixon. I think that this was the right choice, you can kind of get away with fictional Presidents in a Present-day story but in a historical setting, as in decades ago, it works less well.

Nixon is still mocked for things like Watergate and Vietnam... but the story still ultimately presents him in a positive-ish light.

However... nowadays I doubt that we could do that.

This is partially down to Trump. There hasn't been a President quite like him before... and I do not mean that as a compliment. And there is a lot of re-examination of Nixon now, partially as he feels like the closest thing to some of the scandals around Trump, with impeachment and ideas of Presidential overreach.

Now when TIA/DOTM came out the US was beginning to be viewed a bit better internationally under Obama. The Bush administration was viewed pretty badly around the world, DW even had a caricature of him being killed in a 2007 story. Nixon is still given a sort of... dignity of the office?

He also seems... sort of progressive for the 1960s? In that when Canton Delaware talks of marrying someone who is black Nixon seems ok with it... then when Canton says it's a man Nixon balks a bit. Which is played for comedy in showing progressive for the 1960s attitude.

However, nowadays we are seeing more examination of the horrible things aside from Watergate. The Southern strategy for example, in short using racism to pick up votes in the South, drawing the old Democratic base to the GOP... which has become ever more the GOP platform, with them now pulling in white supremacy.

What Nixon did to Chile, with his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, one of the most notorious war criminals in American history, is horrific as well.

Now the story is aware that Nixon is a pretty despised figure. But I doubt that at a time where the US had a President who is pretty openly a Fascist and who might get in again... well, it would be harder to see this in an amusing light.

I could go on about this and about how Nixon is presented in Futurama is indicative of how he is often seen but in a comical sense as a cartoonish supervillain and whether that can deflect from the true depths of his awfulness.

But that's a topic for another time.

Btw, please vote Democrat if you can. The list of their flaws is long but the alternative is actual Fascism. That is really not an exaggeration. I do not want to look over from Britain and see the US go the way that Germany did in the 1930s and that Russia has gone under Putin.

I hope that this post doesn't become really difficult to look back on next year.

I'll probably think of new things to say later but... well, I'm just putting this down now.

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Zygon Invasion novel coming

The Radio Times is reporting that a new set of novels based on “new era” Doctor Who done in the old Target Books style is coming from BBC Books this spring. Among the selections is The Zygon Invasion by Peter Harness.

This is significant for Twelve-Clara fans as this is the first time a story from the Whouffaldi era (Series 8/9) has been adapted as a novel. Harness, of course, co-wrote the two-parter with Steven Moffat. 

I confess to a few concerns. Putting aside the fact I have general apathy for the Who franchise (the last 5 years did a real job on the show for me), so I just can’t get as excited for this as I might have been back in 2016, there have been a few cases of the new-era novelizations inserting characters that had no business being in them (one reason why the novels based on Rose and Day of the Doctor were no-sells for me and based on that I initially skipped the one based on Crimson Horror, even though I don’t believe Mark Gatiss did that to his book). Also, there’s the chance that despite Zygon Invasion/Inversion being considered a major source for Whouffaldi references ( “Once Clara gets into your head, she doesn’t leave”; “I’ll be the judge of time” etc) there’s always the chance that Harness could somehow downplay or contradict some of that. (Though we might get an answer as to why Clara is dressed to the nines at the start - I’m sorry, she was NOT dressed for teaching.) A chapter consisting of Twelve doing nothing but leaving messages on her mobile would be funny though. And seeing how Harness adapts the Doctor’s war speech will be interesting. And there may be opportunities for Harness to enhance Whouffaldi, too, so I’m not assuming it’ll go one way or the other. I’m in Canada and we won’t get the books till later in the year if not 2024 (there was quite a lag when the last set of Targets came out), so I’ll wait to hear from folks who actually read it when it comes out in a few months. The one I’m really waiting for, though, is a novel based on the Raven Trilogy.

Other books in the new set include adaptations of the Tennant story Waters of Mars and Planet of the Ood, as well as a new edition of Warriors’ Gate by the Fourth Doctor story’s original writer, Stephen Gallagher. Gallagher, under the pseudonym John Lydecker, wrote the original Target book around 1981; this appears to be an expanded version as opposed to a rewrite (some classic-era stories have been “readapted” in this new Target Books line), and interestingly is supposed to include some new short stories, which will be a first for the Target line. According to the RT article the stories explore the “consequences” of the original TV story, which famously wrote out Romana. It’s possible the new stories might hint at Romana’s adventures in E-Space with K9?

[lyrainbeleriand]

The Doctor & Rose | Walk Alone | + Time War AU

But I think our lifelines became too intertwined And now we've paid the price And you cried, "love's like watching someone die" And we should have just closed our eyes”

 Guess who is spiralling down that hole of Paul Mcgann and 8rose AGAIN yes haha it's poor old me. All the time war canon used here is from RTD's short story and Bubblygal's fanfic Battles in the Sky because fuck the 50th anniversary and steven Moffat. 

 By the way, if you like my channel please pay attention to what's happening in China right now, get informed on the #A4revolution and the poor human right situation and the horrible dictatorship that has been ruining my home for many many years. But now people are finally taking their stands, your caring for the matter could mean a lot to us.