#Terileptils

[thegoodwhovian]

-The Carnival of Monsters-

A commission.

A companion set to an earlier collection of the first seven incarnations of Doctor Who, this time a collection of complementary monsters and villains.

A Dalek, Cyberman, lce Warrior, Zygon, Terileptil, Sontaran, the Kandyman. And the Master as portrayed by Roger Delgado with his TARDIS, in the shape of the Melkur from ‘The Keeper of Traken’.

Some *very* forbidden biscuits.

Great fun to put together, interpreting such colourful and characterful designs.

I hope you’re not hiding behind the sofa.

Made in a range of polymer clay.

For more, check out my Instagram!

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Random Doctor Who Facts You Might Not Know, Part 30

The Second Doctor and Jamie once landed on the nucleus of a uranium atom. An entire civilization lived there and told them stories of their sister planets being destroyed by humans splitting atoms for nuclear power.

Irving Braxiatel once claimed he had a phobia of foreign objects being put in his mouth.

Moments after leaving the Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane encountered the Monk.

The Monk is also aware of the existence of Jenny, the Doctor’s daughter.

The Eighth Doctor once befriended and traveled with an Ice Warrior named Ssard as a companion. Upon leaving the TARDIS, Ssard married Stacy, one of the Doctor’s other companions.

Removing a Time Lord’s second heart eliminates their respiratory bypass.

It is incredibly difficult to give Braxiatel presents because his future self will often ship him whatever he wants the second he decides he wants it.

The Eighth Doctor gave Braxiatel socks for Christmas.

Similar to the Greek letter nicknames Omega and Theta Sigma, there was a Time Lord called Epsilon Delta. Epsilon Delta grew to hate the Time Lords and ran away from Gallifrey, eventually adopting the title the President as he had made himself President of St. Matthew's College on Earth.

There are beings that live in the time vortex. If you traverse the vortex unprotected, they might eat you.

The Eighth Doctor once referred to Braxiatel as a "colleague and occasional collaborator in adventures of the mind, the body and the soul." This is a really complex and convoluted way of describing your older brother.

While attempting to seduce the Seventh Doctor, Queen Angvia shoved his face in her breasts. She thought there was "boiling masculine virility under the flimsy of [his] beauty." By shoving his face in her chest, she gave him a dose of her pheromones. He and Mel only realized something was Very Wrong when he almost broke the notorious no-kissing rule.

While fetching a cake for K-9's birthday, Romana II single-handedly foiled an alliance between the Master, the Daleks, and the Cybermen, but when she returned with the cake, it came to life and asked not to be eaten.

After arriving in 1666, the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane were almost run over by a heavily loaded cart being driven by someone in odd clothing. The Doctor didn't know this at the time, but this was the Terileptil leader that his Fifth incarnation was chasing.

Braxiatel's office in the Braxiatel Collection is part of his TARDIS.

Miss Hannigan introduced herself to Irving Braxiatel as a missionary. He responded by saying that missionary was an interesting position.

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[spif-lol]

So my friends and I are in the middle of watching the 5th doctor's era, and after watching POTD the other day and then watching Enlightenment (the episode after Nyssa leaves) today, I'm just struck by the tragedy of it all, of the sheer suffering Tegan went through - which, while not as cosmically awful as having your memory erased or getting trapped in a parallel universe etc, was nonetheless far too real and relentless.

So Tegan has possibly one of the most traumatic intro episodes. Unlike the overwhelming majority of companions, she doesn't choose to join the doctor. She enters the TARDIS while looking for help when her aunt's car broke down on the side of the road on the way to her new job, and since the TARDIS was parked around the Master's TARDIS due to the latter's trickery. The Master uses his tissue compression eliminator to kill Tegan's aunt, and Tegan gets lost in the seemingly endless labyrinth within the TARDIS, and when the Fourth Doctor and Adric return to the ship they take off with her still inside it.

She didn't want to leave Earth, and she spends the next few episodes begging the Doctor to take her back. In these episodes, she witnesses the Master destroy a quarter of the universe, watches the Doctor die and regenerate and is forced to look after him with Nyssa while Adric is kidnapped by the Master and the TARDIS travels back to the Big Bang and is almost destroyed. She carries the Doctor's recovering form through the jungle of a planet meant to be a sanctuary, only for it to be another of the Master's trap which they barely escape. She has to deal with Adric, and spends her first trip to a space ship trying to get back to the TARDIS so that she can get away from it all, and has to be rescued by the Doctor when this backfires. On the world of the Kinda she is possessed by the manipulative Mara and trapped inside her mind, an experience which would stick with her even after the Doctor saved her. She finally catches a bit of a break when they visit Earth in the past and have a relatively breezy adventure stopping Terileptils from trying to take over the planet (though they do inadvertently end up burning down London), and in the next episode she's decided that she doesn't want the Doctor to take her home anymore.

Black Orchid is a defining episode for the 5th Doctor's era. It is a light hearted romp and pure historical in the midst of tense action packed sci fi stories. Tegan eagerly watches the Doctor play cricket, orients Nyssa and Adric to Earth in the 1920s, and thoroughly enjoys her time at the costume party the TARDIS team is invited to at the local estate. Then it turns out a man who stole the Doctor's costume has kidnapped one of their hosts (who happens to be a doppelganger of Nyssa), the Doctor is arrested and Tegan and the others arrested as accomplices, and then Nyssa gets taken to the roof of the building as it burns and Tegan watches as her captor almost drops Nyssa off the roof and then falls to his death. They attend the funeral, and then head off again in the TARDIS.

And then we get to Earthshock. In the time leading up to this episode, the TARDIS team have become somewhat of a dysfunctional family. Though Tegan did not choose to join them on the TARDIS, she grows close to them all, especially Nyssa, sharing a room with her and bonding over their struggles with the new Doctor. Though she finds Adric annoying, she still cares about him deeply and bickers with him like one might a sibling. And she trusts the Doctor, though barely and with little respect, to get them safely from one destination to the next. Then in Earthshock Adric wants to leave, and Tegan doesn't get in the middle of him and the Doctor fighting, but they all quickly get distracted by the Cybermen plot they arrive in the midst of, and soon are all held hostage on a space ship headed to Earth with a cargo of Cybermen. The Doctor outwits them and they all end up back on the TARDIS except Adric, who is attempting to stop the ship crashing into Earth from the control room. While the Doctor fights a Cyberman inside the TARDIS, blaster fire damages both the TARDIS console and the controls Adric is working on, and so the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa watch helplessly on the TARDIS scanner as the ship crashes into the Earth with Adric still inside. Tegan and Nyssa beg the Doctor to go back in time, to rescue him, but there's nothing any of them can do. Adric is dead - the only long term companion to die and stay dead while travelling with the Doctor.

Everything goes downhill from here. Tegan never quite recovers her trust in the Doctor after this. Immediately following Adric's death the grieving team arrives at Heathrow Airport, the work Tegan's been wearing her uniform for and trying to get to this whole time, and get dragged into yet another plot by the Master, one which involves them seeing a hallucination of Adric. And then they defeat the Master and Tegan gets to have a brief tour of Heathrow Airport before making it back to the TARDIS just in time for it to leave... without her.

Still reeling from everything she'd been through, Tegan nonetheless tries to work her air hostess job, but isn't able to cut it. After losing the job and trying to figure out her place back on Earth she decides to visit her favourite cousin who's on holiday in Amsterdam and arrives to find him having gone missing in a mysterious crypt. She tries to find him and gets kidnapped by Omega, a time lord and enemy of the Doctor, and used as a hostage against him (again). Even after that experience, once Omega is defeated Tegan is eager to rejoin the TARDIS team, to Nyssa's joy and delight.

The Mara resurfaces and Tegan relives her nightmares. A questionable new companion, the alien Turlough, joins the TARDIS and Tegan watches him warily, sure he's up to no good. On one particular day where Nyssa and Tegan are happily chatting together while Nyssa works on an experiment in their room, a portal opens up in their room and Nyssa gets drawn into it and ends up lost and sick on a leper colony ship. Tegan follows and gets lost in the ventilation system with Turlough. At the end of the adventure, after Nyssa has found a cure and the Doctor has stopped the space ship from exploding and ending the universe, Tegan is reunited with Nyssa only to receive the news that she's not coming back with them, she's staying on the ship to reform their healthcare system.

"She'll die here!" Tegan urges the Doctor to attempt to change Nyssa's mind but she will not be shaken.

"Not easily Tegan," Nyssa said, on the brink of tears. "Like you, I'm indestructable."

The two embrace and I honestly think Tegan never recovers from losing her. I believe Tegan would've stayed with her if she'd felt more confident with space and space travel, and she probably regretted not opting to stay behind many times going forward.

In the first episode after losing Nyssa the Doctor initially tries to get Tegan to remain in the TARDIS, in safety, but an Eternal takes an interest in her and she gets thrust into their games. She doesn't get a break, a moment to her herself to grieve, and instead has the Eternals violate her mind, recreating her and Nyssa's bedroom on their ship and keeping a close eye on her, using her for entertainment. The Doctor can't, or doesn't, do anything to protect her.

Now Tegan and Turlough do get along, but I don't think Tegan's heart is in it for the rest of her adventures with the Doctor. She travels with him because she has nothing else left, she's lost her aunt, her job, her closest friends. It's really quite tragic, especially considering that she's one of the longest lasting companions alongside Jamie, Clara and Yaz.

Having already suffered at the hands of the Master and the Cybermen, Tegan encounters the Daleks on Earth and sustains an injury that wipes her out for most of the adventure. She and the soldier nursing her spend most of the time hiding from daleks and trying not to get killed. Once the Daleks are defeated and Tegan rejoins the Doctor and Turlough at the TARDIS, she tells him that she's not coming with him, because she's seen too much death and travelling isn't fun anymore.

She seems to have said this in the moment, maybe out of desperation or in the hope that the Doctor would offer some comfort or promise of safety as opposed to the blank and broken stare of a man who had lost so much. So she leaves, but changes her mind at the last minute, running to the TARDIS just as it disappears for good. And that's the last she sees of him for almost forty years.

Until Power of the Doctor, when the Doctor walks in and barely even acknowledges her. Though I doubt she wants to travel with her again, she still never really got closure. She didn't choose to join the TARDIS and she was basically forced to leave, and then in the years after she would've heard of all the times the Doctor was back on Earth, and after she joined UNIT would've learnt of all the different incarnations and companions he'd had, yet she never came back to see her, after everything they'd shared, suffered together. She was convinced the Doctor didn't even care about her, and though she'd tried to live her life in a way that helped people, it had brought her right to this very spot, a fight with Cybermen, Daleks and the Master and a Doctor who barely looked at her and didn't ask her into the TARDIS. No wonder Tegan is so angry throughout that episode!

I don't even have a point to this I guess I just am thinking about her, and how Tegan deserved better, but I'm so glad she got her moment with the hologram doctor, an acknowledgement of everything they'd been to, and she got a place to discuss her trauma at the end with the Doctor support group. Also I don't care what Chibnall says, Tegan is NOT alone, her wife Nyssa is just busy at a space science conference and will be back soon to bitch about the Doctor.

[adventure-showdown]

What is your favourite Doctor Who story?

ROUND 1 MASTERPOST

synopses and propaganda under the cut

The Visitation

Synopsis

The Fifth Doctor tries to take Tegan back to Heathrow Airport but the TARDIS arrives in the 17th century instead of the 20th. The time travellers find a space capsule has crash-landed nearby and that its alien occupants, three Terileptil prison escapees, intend to wipe out all indigenous life on Earth by releasing rats infected with an enhanced strain of the great plague.

The creatures are also using a sophisticated android to strike terror into the local villagers. Aided by itinerant thespian Richard Mace, the Doctor tries to unravel the evil plot.

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

Black Orchid

Synopsis

The TARDIS arrives on Earth in 1925 where, due to a case of mistaken identity, the Fifth Doctor ends up playing in a local cricket match. The travellers accept an invitation to a masked fancy dress ball, but events take on a more sinister tone as murders are perpetrated at the country home of their host, Lord Charles Cranleigh.

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

Time Flight

Synopsis

The TARDIS arrives on Earth in 1925 where, due to a case of mistaken identity, the Fifth Doctor ends up playing in a local cricket match. The travellers accept an invitation to a masked fancy dress ball, but events take on a more sinister tone as murders are perpetrated at the country home of their host, Lord Charles Cranleigh.

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

Arc of Infinity

Synopsis

Omega, an ancient Time Lord made of pure anti-matter, once defeated by the Doctor, is plotting to cross over into this dimension by bonding with the Doctor. Meanwhile, the disappearance of a man in Amsterdam piques the curiosity of his cousin, Tegan, who previously left the Doctor at Heathrow Airport and now finds herself at Omega's mercy. Fearing total destruction from the collision of matter and antimatter, the Time Lords recall the Doctor to Gallifrey to undertake the only viable solution: executing him!

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

The King’s Demons

Synopsis

England, March 1215. King John is visiting the castle of Sir Ranulph Fitzwilliam. The arrival of the TARDIS disturbs a medieval joust, but the Doctor and his companions are proclaimed to be friendly demons by the King, who seems strangely interested in their "blue engine". It soon becomes clear that neither King John or his Champion, Sir Gilles Estram, are who they pretend to be. One of the Doctor's oldest and deadliest enemies threatens the future of democracy on Earth, and he must be stopped!

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

[doctorwhogirlie]

Doctor Who: The Visitation

Season Nineteen ✨ 1982 ✨

Doctor: 5th

Story Length: 4 Episodes

Companions: Adric, Nyssa, Tegan

Main Setting: London, August - September 1666

Main Enemy: Terileptil

Creatures: Terileptils

My Personal Rating: 7/10

The Fifth Doctor tries to take Tegan back to Heathrow Airport but the TARDIS arrives in the 17th century instead of the 20th. The time travellers find a space capsule has crash-landed nearby and that its alien occupants, three Terileptil prison escapees, intend to wipe out all indigenous life on Earth by releasing rats infected with an enhanced strain of the great plague.

The creatures are also using a sophisticated android to strike terror into the local villagers. Aided by itinerant thespian Richard Mace, the Doctor tries to unravel the evil plot. Source.

I visually enjoy the Fifth Doctor…

Tegan + Sarcasm is all I need in life… She's such a queen <3

I love the creatures in this one! They're so cool looking.

This was a good story! And I love that the Doctor started the Fire of London, he does like to start fires doesn't he?

(Please don't take these too seriously, I am not a real life reviewer, just someone who likes the show)

[rassilonwatchathon]

It's the 9 year anniversary of The Watch-A-Thon of Rassilon, so this month we're sharing our older episodes!

FIFTH DOCTOR SEASON NINETEEN (April 1st, 2020-June 23rd, 2020) Episode 117- Castrovalva (Ben Paddon's Last Will & Testament) w/ @benpaddon Episode 118- Four to Doomsday (It's Flesh Time, Baby!) Episode 119- Kinda (Sorta) PATREON EXCLUSIVE Bonus Episode 6- Genesis of Evil/Power Play (Dalek Distancing) Episode 120- The Visitation (H.R. Terileptil) w/ Mike Gordon & @gonzarro Episode 121- Black Orchid (An Argument Against Plot) Episode 122- Earthshock (Sadric) w/ Nathan Laws Episode 123- Time-Flight (WHAT?!)

[being-of-rain]

Some rambling thoughts from my Doctor Who watch, the first half of season 21.

Warriors of the Deep was a bleak start to the season. Right from the start of the story they were talking about how the political situation in the future hasn’t changed much since the Cold War, and progress hadn’t made anything better. Yikes. Watching this during the Cold War, and then the ending of this story, would’ve been... a lot. Or maybe everyone was just used to the fatalism by then. The Doctor was very gung-ho in this story, there was a lot of action. Oh and I loved him deciding to set a reactor to overload in the first episode as a distraction for the gang to escape. Unhinged. He was pissed off by the end though. I love companions who don’t just effortlessly vibe with the Doctor’s morality and point of view. Turlough saying he’s going back to the Tardis rather than to attempt a suicide mission to rescue the Doctor is a decision that makes sense, and it makes for a sweet moment when he’s reunited with Tegan later after he changes his mind. Oh and at one point, Turlough forces someone to open up a bulkhead door so that the Doctor and Tegan can survive, but that decision leads directly to the deaths of some crew, and arguably the deaths of everyone. It isn’t something the story draws a lot of attention to, but I thought it was notable because you don’t see that sort of direct consequence to companions’ life and death decisions very often. I imagine because it’s too bleak- this story clearly didn’t have an issue with that. Tegan’s outfit is great this series, but for the love of god why is she going around in massive heels. For what possible reason. Gender roles are so weird. Also, I love when actors put their own spin on a straight line in the script- a probable example was Tegan wishing the Doctor luck in this one, and doing so in the most sarcastic possible voice. The Silurians might be one of my favourite ‘aliens’ in Doctor Who, though this didn’t feel like it brought anything particularly new to the table. The script seemed to be implying heavily that Icthar is from the original Silurian story, though even without checking I thought ‘that doesn’t seem like it adds up.’ It didn’t surprise me at all to learn that a novel later gave us Icthar’s first meeting with the Doctor. One of the Sea Devils gets a melty death which was gross and gave me flashbacks to the Terileptils. Finally, I know that how the Tardis doors lock is one of those things that’s inevitably is a little different in each story, but this one seemed convinced that the Tardis can’t lock at all? The Tardis team seem adamant that they need to leave before the Tardis is discovered, even though they could just not leave the ship, and sure enough later the base crew enter the Tardis with no help from the Doctor. There would be so many more problems in this series if the Tardis couldn’t even lock.

I enjoyed The Awakening more than I thought I would. It’s a wonder what only being two parts can do for a story. And actually, the mob mentality aspect was really creepy. Imagine being the only person in a small town who isn’t taking part in some war reenactments that are going too far, but when you try to convince all the people you know that they should stop, they just brush you off. And I don’t really know how much of the reenactments and brutality was the influence of the Malus, because most people aren’t acting more unhinged than I could imagine actual people acting, and I think that works really well. Almost every single Five story has a linking element with the story immediately before it, and this is a hell of a story to break that streak. I guess we’ll just forget about the Doctor’s depression from last episode. Oh I love different times and places physically merging, so you can just walk from one to the other. Idk why I like it so much, I just do. Very fairytale. In my notes which I sometimes take when watching, I’ve written here “Turlough rock murder redemption arc.” I assume that means he successfully attacked someone with a rock. Good job Turlough!

First of all, this is a Turlough stan account!! I was interested in watching Frontios because I know it gets some continuity nods in audios, and because I know the Tardis merges with a cave for some reason, and I’m a sucker for the Tardis merging with somewhere. Dimensions leaking out everywhere. What I did not know is that this story had a really strong subplot and character development for Turlough, and I adored watching that. First we got Turlough threatening people with the hatstand, which was hilarious, and even accidentally almost killing someone with it when he gives them a heart attack I think?? Amazing. Then we get Turlough going a bit crazy from recognising the Tractators, which gave his species a tiny bit of backstory which is nice. It reminded me a lot of humans’ reactions to Silurians in their first story, so it wasn’t as wildly out of left-wing as it could have been. (The people getting sucked into the ground also seriously reminded me of The Hungry Earth.) But THEN Turlough gets a scene where he’s left behind by the others when they go back underground, and has some worried deliberation about if he should face his fears. His new friend tries to comfort him “no one expects you to go back down there,” and he responds “of course they don’t, I’m Turlough,” which HURT my HEART. Then he says its decision time and holds out his fists for his friend to pick one. He opens the hand she picked to reveal a coin, and says that means he’s going, and “you can’t argue with fate.” Then he reveals that he had another coin in his other hand! Sorry I’m just describing this scene but it was my favourite bit. Turlough sort of can’t help but be defined by his selfishness and cowardice by comparison to other companions, and to see him this far into his travels, facing the thing that has visibly left him scared and shaken, and making a deliberate decision to face it head on! Anyway, anything else? The setting was sort of a bleak one, with (purportedly) some of the last surviving humans barely living on a rocky hostile planet. I quickly noticed that ‘bleak’ is something you could say about most of the stories this season, to one extent or another. Poor Five. The characters in this one were interesting though- they basically all act as allies and antagonists at different points in the story, they aren’t just good guys and bad guys. The Doctor acting like Tegan is an android was so funny. And the plot point that this far in the future was outside Gallifrey’s “normal sphere of influence” is telling. The Time Lords sure like to act like their dominion is all of time and all of space, but I don’t think either is particularly true.

I think I enjoyed Resurrection of the Daleks a lot more than I remembered I did last time. The Daleks themselves actually felt a little fresh in this, the way they were bleak killing machines kind of reminded me of how scary they were in series 1 of New Who. That said, I don’t think I’d ever seen them so easily destroyed as in this story. A lot of Daleks get blown up in this one. My brother and I also agreed that Lytton deserved a raise, the Daleks treated him awfully and constantly threatened him even though he seemed to be the most efficient planner on their team. Poor Tegan, I could understand her leaving during this bleak season. Professor Laird, the prisoner Tegan had been held captive with, getting killed really felt like the straw that broke the camel’s back. Though just before she left, it was nice to see how she and Turlough actually seemed to quite like each other. The Doctor saying that he should mend his ways after Tegan left was interesting, I wonder what changes he had in mind. He’s definitely had to make some heavy moral decisions in this season, like hesitating killing Davros in this story. And seeing him pick up a handgun and fire at a Dalek mutant so casually was so weird Oh hey, I forgot until Davros start ranting that this was Terry Molloy’s first time in the role. I’m so glad that he’s stuck around as the definitive Davros actor, he’s so fantastic. Anything else? Oh yeah, we don’t get many women of colour as heroes in Classic Who, so I took a shine to Osborn the soldier who tried to kill Davros when the Daleks first attacked. I was sad to see her get killed herself. And the Daleks truly had too many things going on this story, didn’t they. If they just focused on one damn thing at a time, they would’ve done much better for themselves. Currently I can’t even remember why they had a time corridor to 20th century Earth, was it seriously only to invade it? So yeah, a mess of a plot in this one, but the fresh (or maybe just more effective) aesthetic for the Daleks made up for it a little.

[rassilon-imprimatur]

I feel like 14's sonic would shoot the Terileptils back.

[alonyssima]

Me naming all the side characters from Nyssa's episodes.

The Denis Carey Keeper (which I call Keeper Hellas), Consul\Keeper-Nominate Tremas of Traken, Consul\Keeper Kassia of Traken, Consul Seron of Traken, Consul Katura of Traken, Consul\Keeper Luvic of Traken, and Proctor Neman of Traken.

Vanessa Verney, two human policemen, the Monitor of Logopolis, and two human men working at the Pharos Project. And the Watcher on a technicality.

Shardovan of Castrovalva, Mergrave of Castrovalva, and the little "mini-Liz" girl.

Urbankan Monarch, Urbankan ministers of Persuasion and Enlightenment, Kurkutji, Lin Futu, Princess Villagra of the Mayans, and Bigon.

(There's also Prof. Saunders, Prof. Hindle, Prof. Todd, Elder Panna of the Kinda, Elder Karuna of the Kinda, Aris of the Kinda, the Kinda Trickster, and the Jerry Judge Kinda. Oh and Dukkha and the other two visions. But Nyssa was'nt there to meet them.)

Richard Mace, Terileptil Leader, and other two Terileptils. Oh and a father with son and daughter at the very beginning.

Ann Talbot, Charles Cranleigh, George Cranleigh, Lady Madge Cranleigh, and Latoni.

That redhead bouffant elder lady, and a boy and a girl working for her.

A professor, two radio station workers, and two plane passengers.

Omega, Colin Frazer, Robin Stuart, a new Borusa incarnation, Chancellor Damonwhatever of Gallifrey, Chancellery Guard Maxilsomething of Gallifrey, and four other Time Lords.

Chela of Manussa, Ambril of Manussa, Dojien of Manussa, Queen Tanha of Manussa, Dugdale of Manussa, Prince Lon of Manussa.

TWO Brigadiers (which of them is the one episode character?), Mawdryn of someplanetperhapsTrionbutpropablynot, Hippo Ibbotson, the Black Guardian, a nurse from the school, two elderly versions of Nyssa and Tegan, two child versions of Nyssa and Tegan.

Kari, Olvir, Bor, Sigurd, Aegard or some other Scandinavian name, the Garm, and Olga.

[thebraxiatelcollection]

20 for the touch ask from Romana/Narvin? :D

Touching Feeling another human’s touch. 20. bandaging/stitching up an injury

-

“Ow, that hurt.”

“It wouldn’t hurt if you stopped fidgeting so much.”

“I can’t help it. It’s itchy.”

“Look; are you going to let me help you or are you just going to lie there and complain all night, and generally be a pain in my backside?”

“A pain in the backside-another phrase from Ace?” Narvin arched an eyebrow as he looked at Romana tiredly from the makeshift bed.

They were camping out on a deserted space station. One that had been abandoned the Terileptills after they had a small skirmish with them. Unluckily for Narvin, when they thought they had won their mission and went to claim the ship, one remaining reptilian Terileptills lay in wait in the dark and threw a dagger at him.

Romana raised her own staser gun and shot the Terileptill before Narvin had time to process what exactly had transpired, square in the chest, and didn't even flinch in the process.

“No actually. But I have picked up some of her more vulgar phrases that I’m saving for a later date.” Romana picked up some more gauze pads and grimaced at his wound. “Now, please try and keep still. I need to finish cleaning it before I can stitch it up.”

Narvin hated blood. He couldn’t stand the sight or smell of it. He closed his eyes, and turned his head away so he didn’t have to look at the wound that lay on his rib cage, and gripped the bedsheets tight as Romana gently dabbed the gauze pad against his wound. He knew he shouldn’t complain really, it could have gone a lot worse with him only having one life left. It wasn’t as bad as the time Darkel tried to put a literal bomb in his shoulder, and Leela had to dig it out with her knife. But it still hurt.

It reminded him how truly vulnerable and fragile he was, because if he was a normal Time-Lord, the wound would have healed up perfectly fine. But with his limited regeneration and healing abilities, he couldn’t waste any of it, not even on a small wound like the one he had gained. It reminded him how he was nothing more than a human.

Sometimes he had to remind himself how remarkable humans could be with their one life.

He missed them.

He missed Leela.

He missed Ace.

“Do you think-ah!” He hissed, as the pad was dabbed against his wound. He swallowed his pride, and opened his eyes to see Romana bending over him. “Do you think we’ll ever find her?”

“We have to keep searching,” Romana replied, and didn't meet his eyes. “She’s our friend, Narvin. It’s what friends do.”

“I remember the days when you used to say you didn’t allow yourself to have friends.”

“I was different back then, foolish even. Friends are the most important thing one can have, no matter your position.” Romana finished wiping the wound and threw the used pads into a nearby dispenser bin. She picked up a needle and some thread and began to thread it through the needle. “I was wrong.”

“So was I. I was wrong, in the company I kept back in those days.” He let out a bitter laugh. “Would you have believed it, I honestly thought Torvald was my only friend back then. We had been graduates together, and both got into the CIA at the same time. Worked our way up the ranks until I became the Coordinator. How foolish I was to think he was my friend."

“I can believe it.”

“Is it wrong to say I missed the days the four of us went traveling alternative dimensions on the axis?” He shifted, trying to get into a comfortable position and one where Romana could easily access his wound as she stitched it back up. “Despite everything, I truly felt like we were a family. You, me, Leela, and Braxiatel. We even had a pet dog.”

“Good old K9,” Romana smiled painfully, and placed a gentle hand on top of his, before she removed it quickly and cleared her throat. “I miss those days too. But all good things come to an end.”

“And every wound must be stitched up,” Narvin nodded in agreement. “Let’s get this over with.”

“This is going to hurt.”

“This is war,” This time, it was Narvin's turn to grimace. “What doesn’t hurt, only makes us stronger.”

[reddalek02]

International Rescue & Spectrum provided the sonic screwdriver

When the Century 21 Studios finally closed for good in the early 1970s, not all of the models and props from previous productions were consigned to landfill! Many found their way to the BBC for use in other science fiction productions, including the F-116 jet from the Joe 90 episode Talkdown which appeared almost unchanged as the IMC spaceship in the Doctor Who serial Colony in Space.

Perhaps the most famous of Doctor Who props to have started life at Century 21 was Jon Pertwee’s sonic screwdriver, which combined Alan Tracy’s screwdriver seen in the Thunderbirds are Go feature film with part of a communicator prop used by Captain Blue in the Captain Scarlet episode Model Spy. In subsequent years (and for subsequent Doctors) the prop was revamped several times, but always retained the familiar shape of Alan’s screwdriver – until the sonic screwdriver was destroyed by the Terileptils in the 1982 story The Visitation. Although not the very first sonic screwdriver prop, it’s certainly among the most iconic!

[gallifreywhere]

Two kinds of people 😂

[adventure-showdown]

What is your favourite Doctor Who story?

ROUND 2 MASTERPOST

synopses and propaganda under the cut

The Visitation

Synopsis

The Fifth Doctor tries to take Tegan back to Heathrow Airport but the TARDIS arrives in the 17th century instead of the 20th. The time travellers find a space capsule has crash-landed nearby and that its alien occupants, three Terileptil prison escapees, intend to wipe out all indigenous life on Earth by releasing rats infected with an enhanced strain of the great plague.

The creatures are also using a sophisticated android to strike terror into the local villagers. Aided by itinerant thespian Richard Mace, the Doctor tries to unravel the evil plot.

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

Ghost Light

Synopsis

The Doctor brings Ace to Gabriel Chase, an old house that she once burnt down in her hometown of Perivale. However, trying to get Ace to accept her guilt is not the real reason the Doctor came here; a mysterious and highly mentally unstable being slays below them.

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

[thedoctorwhocompanion]

Magical History Tour: What Really Started the Great Fire of London in 1666?

Magical History Tour: What Really Started the Great Fire of London in 1666?

Everyone really knows that the Terileptils were responsible for the Great Fire of London in 1666, or at least the Fifth Doctor is, thanks to his sonic screwdriver going kablooey. That is, according to The Visitation. But we’ve got historians who disagree with those accounts and instead blame the fire on… well, let’s find out, shall we? The blaze lasted from 2nd to 6th September, and gutted the…

[weedle-testaburger]

i forget how absolutely and permanently done with adric the doctor was sometimes

[being-of-rain]

Some thoughts from my Classic Who watch, the second half of season 19.

I didn’t know much about The Visitation apart from the Sonic Screwdriver gets destroyed and the Doctor and co help start the Great Fire of London (which are surely two of the most referenced events in Doctor Who, if the Big Finish main range is to judge). So I was pleasantly surprised when the serial started with some solid emotional continuity and drama. The Doctor telling off Adric (”Poor Adric, always in trouble.” Not enough if you ask me), Tegan dealing with the Mara controlling her, then with preparing to leave, then with finding once again that the Tardis has failed her. Her fight with the Doctor is a great airing of grievances, and the actors are great. Oh, and there’s a decent reason given for Tegan wearing her outfit in this one too: once again she thinks that she’s going to arrive at her job. Later, Tegan and Adric work together to escape the basement (and are also hilarious when they still can’t communicate too effectively) which is nice since their relationship is the most strained and shows some great team growth. It’s just a shame Nyssa still doesn’t seem to have as interesting a connection with any of the rest of the team. In this story she spends about an episode in the Tardis working on a sonic weapon. Though when she uses it against the android, she takes a minute to feel bad about destroying the robot, showing off how she’s probably the most similar of the companions to the Doctor. I guess the Doctor’s mild-mannered repressing and introspection is a lot more interesting when he has to deal with pressing responsibilities like piloting and promises and mentorship. Adric also actually apologises for telling the baddies about the Tardis this time, which is nice. It’s hilarious that he decides to fly the Tardis into a locked house to help the Doctor, obviously just looking for a reason to take it for a spin, but it’s very impressive he pulls it off. It reminds me of how the Doctor assigned the team actual crew roles in Castrovalva, and how they’re actually a very technically competent. This Tardis team is almost the opposite to most others: extremely qualified but don’t really gel that well as people. Even after apologising at the start of this story and working together throughout, by the end they’re still snipping and irritating each other again. The Doctor seems really kind of pissed off in part 4, like repressing all his emotions is getting to him more than usual. The villains in this story have fantastic designs. The android looks cool as hell as Death (less so without his skeleton mask) and the Terileptils are neat alien designs. But special mention to the Terileptil leader! Villainising physical abnormalities sucks, but also he looks rad with his scars, plus his good voice and cape later on. HUGE rip to him at the end though, I was shocked and a bit grossed out by the effects of his face bubbling in the fire. Was that the goriest death in TV Doctor Who?? Final points: Mace was fun. I heard recently that the writer hated how he was acted, but I can’t really imagine what else he could have been picturing the character. And rip the sonic screwdriver. It’s hilarious that they destroyed it because they thought it was being overused when you compare back then to the show today. I feel like the Thirteenth Doctor used that thing instead of her eyes most of the time, though I’m sure other recent Doctors did the same. It’s a shame they couldn’t get away with destroying it again, since the Doctor has like 50 of them and the Tardis can make another one at the drop of a hat.

A 1920s manor mystery with added mistaken identity feels like a set-up designed to appeal to me, but Black Orchid didn’t really grab me. Probably it was partly because of the awkward foreign helper trope (although I guess it’s nice that Latoni seems to be more of a altruistic stranger than a devoted manservant?), and partly because at the time Sarah Sutton didn’t really feel talented enough to pull off the double role (sorry. It was nice to see Nyssa with a little bit of a sense of humour though). Random thoughts! Thank goodness the cricket game is a montage, those things are boring as heck. The Traken Union being called an Empire as interesting, and doesn’t do much for my opinion of Nyssa as the product of an entitled upper-class background. ‘The Unknown’ in the credits of part 1 is a very cool thing to be credited as. It’s extremely funny how the Doctor shows the police into his Tardis so he can get out of being arrested (It half feels like a cheat and half feels like something he should do all the time). Cutting between everyone dancing and having fun outside to the Doctor in a bathrobe stuck in the walls of the manor and back again is hilarious jlskdjflskj. And I hate to say this, but Adric is a big mood when he stays by the food table at the party.

I’m not really sure what my opinion is of Earthshock. In my head it’s like a sci-fi B-movie with lots of action, a plot that barely hangs together, and a melodramatic ending. Nothing too special. But I think I generally hear people in the fandom talk very highly of it. But maybe I’m being harsh, or it’s just not my thing. The drama works pretty well, with the Cybermen-related cliffhangers, and the Doctor attacking the Cyberleader so uncharacteristically aggresively. And the story felt extra tragic to me this time now that I’m watching the whole show. I’d remembered from previous watches that Adric and the Doctor had a fight about Adric wanting to go home, but I’d forgotten that they patched it up quite successfully by halfway through the story. It was some of the most open and expressive the Fifth Doctor has been so far, and the most agreeable and content that Adric has been. At the end of The Visitation I was convinced this Tardis team could never quite click together, but between Tegan saying she actually wants to stay at the start of Black Orchid and the Doctor and Adric actually communicating in Earthshock, it felt like the team were finally properly getting along. Which felt like such a tragedy when I knew what state they’d all be in by the end of the series. Tegan went full laser-blasting action hero against the Cybermen in this one. I’m glad there was echoes of that in The Power of the Doctor. And has anyone in the EU ever explained why the spaceship went back in time? It’s hilarious how that just has no reasonable explanation at all in the episode.

I went into Time-Flight thinking ‘I don’t remember much of this serial, is the Master’s disguise really as racist as people say?’ Oh god. It really, really is. And for what POSSIBLE reason does the Master even have for his whole set-up in the past? This whole story feels like a mess to me honestly, and I know I’m not the first to say that. I mean what aesthetic were they going for? Concords on a featureless prehistoric Earth, with a smothering of orientalism. It just doesn’t feel coherent, not even in a way that Dr Who often does when it throws together elements from contrasting parts of history just for fun. This one just doesn’t grab me gang. The Doctor does some hardcore repressing in this one after Adric dies. He tries so hard to move on so quickly. And he pretty much succeeds in convincing Nyssa and Tegan to do the same, because I don’t think Adric is mentioned the rest of the story except for when a psychic image of him appears for a minute. I’m so glad that Scott Handcock did an arc of audios about how Five does a lot of unhealthy repressing about Adric’s death, because he so needed some therapy about it. Narratively, I do love that the Tardis takes the team to Heathrow now. Not only because of the irony of Tegan having just given up getting there (Her line “I never thought I'd say this, but let's get out of here!” made me laugh a lot), but also because it should force the team to make a conscious decision about what they do next- does Adric’s death mark the end of their time together or do they think their bonds could grow stronger by getting through the grief together? If the story was made today it would be emotional and have some very interesting introspection for the characters, and you can see a hint of that near the end with Tegan looking at the flight times and making her decision to stay with the Doctor. But it’s rather undercut by the Doctor leaving her behind for no discernible reason. Once again, I have to ask what they were going for with that. We see the Doctor ask Nyssa where Tegan is, then in his next scene he and Nyssa duck into the Tardis and then it disappears. Did he forget about Tegan? Did he think she was onboard? Did he decide to make the decision for her to make it easier? Did he think she already had made her decision? Did he simply not want her back (he clearly isn’t happy about it at the end of the next story)? Did Nyssa get any say in this? Is it supposed to be ambiguous? I haven’t a clue. Looking it up on the Tardis wiki, apparently a Past Doctor Adventure novel is set right after Time-Flight. I really want to read that now, I’d be fascinated to see if it actually gives an answer to why the Doctor left, because as far as I know, no TV or audio story has attempted to address it.

So yeah, I’ve finally made up my mind on the s19 Tardis team, now I see them as a bit of a tragedy: a group who had the potential to become quite close, but didn’t get enough time for that. Maybe the drama of the season and the trauma of it ending made the Doctor jump at the chance to cut Tegan out, even if he could justify it to himself, because deep down he wanted a much simpler and ideal life: exploring the universe with the ward who’s most like him, scientifically curious and well-mannered. There’s potential for a good meaty story there, if the Doctor and his companions were forced to face that choice instead of ignoring it.