#The Devil’s Chord

[deadrobinsclub-est1988]

[dandelionjack]

if i had one nickel for every time the word “lesbian” was spoken aloud on doctor who, i’d have two consecutive nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s incredible that it happened twice in a row and neither example was during that whole series with an openly lesbian companion

[koschgay]

sooooo Ruby is totally one of the Toymaker’s pantheon, right? or something even Older and More Dangerous? even Maestro didn’t know what she was. girl can summon snow on command whenever she feels sad, she’s got carol of the bells stuck in her soul, and the entire universe has started playing along with her rules of what stories are supposed to look like, purely for her entertainment. just. y’know. I don’t think she KNOWS she’s an eldritch god. but she sooooo is and I can’t wait for her to get even weirder <3

[idkaguyorsomething]

having a new villain show up and pull out the “you killed my father” card only to go “thanks, i always hated the bitch” has to be lowkey one of the funniest things in the devil’s chord though

[yourlocalspacelesbian]

Hands down my favorite Beatles-lore mistake from The Devil’s Chord is the fact that not a single member of the Beatles can read sheet music. Besties were looking at notes in the sky like it meant a goddamn thing to them. Incredible.

[paintdoktahwho]

to be honest, which soundtrack isn’t? if series 15 doesn’t have me sobbing by the end ill be shocked

[tinkerbitch69]

Can we take a second to appreciate that from John and Paul’s point of view they wondered off through their recording studio, found a piano with some funny looking notes floating above it, played a little tune a whim, gave each other a gay little side glance before the piano flew away into the next room followed by intense screaming and then their entire reality turned into a musical and they received no explanation for any of it?

Tho to be fair it was the 60s, they were probably high as a kite and were used to this kind of thing by now

[galahadwilder]

A Theory About the Doctor’s Species of Origin

So usually in NuWho, whenever anyone asks if they have a name other than “The Doctor” or “Doctor,” the Doctor replies something along the lines of “nope, just the Doctor.” However, Fifteen has broken that pattern: when Ruby asked him about that, he responded that “the species that took me in uses titles like [rattles off a bunch]. Use ‘The Doctor’ for a thousand years and that becomes your name.”

The thing about RTD’s writing is that you can sometimes tell when something has extra emphasis, like the thing about the Bees in Donna’s season. And the Doctor repeats this bit of information twice, once completely devoid of context, making absolutely certain that you understand that “Time Lords use titles.”

Who else uses titles? Specifically, who in this season is big on titles?

Well, the Pantheon.

The Toymaker. The Maestro.

Hell, in Classic Who, the Toymaker was originally supposed to be part of the Doctor’s as-yet-unnamed species before Michael Gough died and became unable to reprise the role. The Maestro even gives the Doctor another title! “The Lord Temporal.”

The Toymaker uses doors to step from one end of history to another. The Maestro uses pianos. In both cases, they’re bigger on the inside—doors to extradimensional spaces. What if it wasn’t just Regeneration the Time Lords engineered from the Timeless Child—what if it was all of their tech? What if that’s why nobody can reproduce TARDISes properly—it’s not science, it’s play?

Last bit of evidence: the Maestro is aware of the background music and the fourth wall. They open the episode by playing the Doctor Who theme, intentionally triggering the opening credits. The Doctor is the only other character so far who’s proven to be aware of the fourth wall (the Beethoven’s Fifth rant in Before the Flood, for example), to the point that he even mentions during The Devil’s Chord that he thought the background music was non-diegetic—as in, he can hear the background music. He knows he’s in a show.

The Doctor, the Lord Temporal, might very well be one of the Pantheon.

[itslifetreesworld]

🎵There’s always a twist at the end🎶

[stitchthelilo]

doctor: oh yeah my granddaughter susan? probably dead by now. long gone just like my people ^_^

ruby: oh! what the fuck!

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

Doctor Who | The Devil’s Chord Jinkx Monsoon as Maestro

[dandelionjack]

inspired by fifteen trying to say shit and getting censored by the nanny filter, here’s a complete table of every doctors who and whether or not they use strong language

1 - no

2 - yeah

3 - rarely, but accurately and directly, in a dignified and sarcastic fashion

4 - ABSOLUTELY all the time. the tardis filter barely copes. we’ve all seen the K-9 clip, that’s what the character sounds like without the kids show censorship

5 - no. does he look like a man who swears to you? maybe some esoteric combination of words like fuckadoodle shitnozzles

6 - yes. duh

7 - he doesn’t enjoy it, but occasionally, sparingly, when the situation calls for it

8 - definitely . not too frequently, though. for emphasis, or for a laugh

9 - that man is a working class northerner from the 2000s and a jaded war veteran. draw your own conclusions. he knows elaborate insults you’ve never heard of

10 - cheeky little ‘fuck’ here and there with rose & martha, ALL THE TIME with donna, and swearing like hell when he starts going off the rails in the s4 specials

11 - lol no. well… he’s got an example to set to the companions that he treats like children. he’s a storybook character and he wants to be perceived as an imaginary friend, a kind almost victorian whimsical gentleman in a bowtie, and a person like that wouldn’t use crude language. with river song though? now THAT’S a whole other story

12 - the scene in dark water with the psychic paper tells us everything we need to know. twelve in series 8 was straight up pg13ified malcolm tucker. shuttity-up-up-up without the tardis filter sounds like fuckity-bye. he swears liberally, frequently, unsparingly and unceremoniously, at everyone without distinction, including clara’s students at coal hill. personally i think that’s one hell! of a fucking! bird!

13 - no. she’s all famalam hipster mum cringy kindergarten teacher. it doesn’t fit her ~vibe~. the master makes fun of this trait in the timeless children when he’s goading her about her superiority complex. says it’s such a step down from her previous self, at least that one was honest about his emotions

fugitive - she gives no fucks and takes no shit

14 - yes from time to time, like a normal human being would, nothing excessive. donna does bring it out in him though. his mouthy side

15 - this guy says cunt and serves it

[doccywhomst]

i do love that the silencing trick fifteen used in the devil’s chord made his device the factual opposite of a sonic screwdriver,,,,, whatever. what even is a sonic screwdriver wrong answers only. ​drinking vodka cocktails at the sonic drive in

[franklyimissparis]

rtd i am in your walls this is so fucking gay

[seph-on-an-irrational-planet]

The “I thought that was non-diegetic” line has everyone thinking the Doctor can hear through the fourth wall, but what we’re actually hearing is his internal soundtrack he’s got going all the time. You better believe the Doctor wrote several full orchestra playlists he either sings to himself constantly or the tardis beams into his head nonstop.

[lupescx]

my Beatles-obsessed partner instantly noticed multiple things wrong with them and I’m wondering how the production team failed to recognize any of it. I’ll go into it if anyone likes.