#and twelve. obviously. does this to clara. clara also does it right back. this is why they are made for each other alsjjfgjakdj.

[quietwingsinthesky]

the doctor is emotionally manipulative. he’s very good at it, and even better at justifying it both to himself and the people he’s doing it to. he can see when his approval, his affection, is valuable enough to someone that withholding it will be an effective way of getting them to do what he wants. this is one of his best flaws, that he’ll do this to people and do it to them for his own definition of what’s good for them.

(gestures vaguely) twissy.

[2ofswords]

Alexander Block ^^

Our dear Commander! This is going to be interesting, because I think he is pretty ambivalent in his role. Also I have to disclaim: I have not yet played the Changeling Route, so there probably is some information lacking. I will try my best though!

their biggest strength

All in all I wouldn’t say that we really see the General at his best here. Well… depending what kind of best we are talking about but the military at that point of the outbreak is pretty much useless unless for the ending itself and Block has no real way to handle the situation and it is really hard to pick a direct strength, because… well… he is not showing as many in a situation that really confines him. He looses control pretty quickly and almost becomes a bystander relying on other peoples judgement calls in both games. So I kind of cannot really judge him by his speciality (which would be how he handles the military but… you know… we don’t really see that) and also not by what his character strengths in general are, because he is just so out of his element that he has a very small time to react on his own and show strength. For example, I have no real idea about his skills as a tactician even if they could probably be real^ly good just by the merits of being a successful general. So direct skills like these kind of fall apart here) What I can do though is judge the way he holds himself up in the narrative and where he has the greatest and most positive impact. And I think his sense of justice is his biggest strength here and perhaps still stands strong disregarding the fact that my perception of his strength feels a bit limited. But while creating a mess at the last days of the game his flat out refusal to destroy everything is his biggest and most impactful choice in the game and the way he actually archives some form of agency, even if it puts him in a passive position for the rest of the game because he has no own reason to spare or don’t spare different things. This also kind of works in both games and also explains why Aglaya states fearing him specifically. Her words “hero of the people” elude to him being kind of popular but also having some sort of heroism. And even her naming him a “genius” kind of plays into what I am calling his sense of justice when she denies herself being a genius by calling herself a “machine”. While Aglaya acts according to her set parameters and goals even while actively fighting her fate, Blocks first move is actively denying set parameters and I think this is his biggest strength and what upsets the whole status quo in the first place. (It is also why he bonds with the Changeling who is all about finding a different miraculous outcome that straight up denies the dilemma.) And I would say this happens by him actively saying “No. This way isn’t right, and I will not act according to it.” Of course, he makes kind of bad judgement calls as well. The whole bone stake lot disaster happens by his orders after all and the way he handles the mutiny seems pretty messy. This is more about the concept of morality and less about judgement calls in specific situations. But his fame and the way he seems to be actively dangerous to the powers that be seems to come out of a strong sense of justice and the willingness and bravery to follow through with it, which is definitely something few people would archive.

their greatest weakness

I was thinking about writing his dependence on other peoples opinions here, but I am still not quite sure about that one. First there are instances in the first game where he does act pretty immediately and second we already discussed how this is kind of a good thing and while his “I don’t know, just tell me what to do” kind o frustrates me, we should know that authorities listening to medical experts may not really be the worst one can do… So I do not feel got to choose that one, even if I think he stays really passive while he stays but on the other hand I have no real idea, what he could and should do in the first place. As I said his own options are pretty limited. Maybe not burning people alive would be a good start… Hm… To me he feels absolutely clueless. He is even more out of it than Daniil who at least arrives before the disaster starts and gets a small town crash course. He just arrives in the midst of disaster, in Patho1 there is an elaborate murder scheme… thing planed behind his back that he just kind of shrugs away and he still orders the bull being burned because of the Bachelor’s words (and that guy in general talks a lot of bullshit that Block just kind of accepts. Which… as I said listening to experts is kind of good but mayyybe get like a second opinion? The changeling is standing right next to you, it’s fine you can talk to her! She knows better anyways, believe me…). He just doesn’t know what the hell is going on and I think this is his main problem and the actual reason he stays this passive and kind of just does what he is being told is logical at this very moment. Or you know… just gets locked up (maybe?) and then released again to just fuck of because he has no idea what the fuck he should be doing about this situation. He kind of tries to talk to the different healers and in Patho 2 he seems a bit more adamant about it but we have yet to see because the Haruspex has almost no interaction with him. And again I think most about it happens because he arrives at a time, where everything already escalated and the mess is so convoluted that I have no idea how he should even see through it. But in the situation this lack of knowledge kind of leads to him being used by kind of everyone to manipulate the outcome of the outbreak and him having no say in it aside from not wanting to murder everyone.

a headcanon about their childhood

I cannot imagine Block as a child for some reason. He just gets… smaller. It’s said that he is very young for his position and that leads me to believe that he is part of a military family… He seems like a person who doesn’t really know anything besides the front and his duties in the military and he seems to be a bit awkward about handling something that isn’t that… Or he might be the second or third child of a family where the parents were like “just go to the military can’t have our business” and he always kind of prepared for that. That would also make him being this sudden shooting star who climbed the ranks a bit more spectacular. Anyways no cute headcanons for Block. He just was always a military man, I am afraid… But I think it fits his angst of desperately wanting something good and human to happen in his life.  

a headcanon about their future (if they have one)

Firstly out of all the people sent by the powers that be I think Block is the most likely to survive the whole disaster and escape relatively unscathed. Even with going against his initial orders he kind of washes his hands off of it pretty effectively and with a war going on he still seems needed enough (and I guess pretty easy to dispose) after the plague happened. How his future turns out depends on the question, if Clara will leave town with him or stay and I actually do simply not know about the outcome there. I think he will just stay at the front and be on his way again, if she stays in town but I do not think, he would be irresponsibly enough to carry a child to the front, even if she is a miraculous saint. So he will probably go back to the capital and strategize and hold up appearances there and basically do exactly what the powers that be feared in the first place. Also I want to imagine that at one point he meets up with some fellow generals that he really hates and Clara advises him with a really elaborate, clever and very childish prank that involves great things like tying shoelaces together. It’s a good evening.

a small detail/scene that leaves a great impact

Hm… I wish I had his appearance in Patho 1 more in mind but I was really stressed out while playing the last days and without using any guide I also missed quite a few side quests (for example I never visited all participants of the whole Block murder thing on day 9)… So there are a lot of details that escape me right now. The scene that for me leaves the greatest impact and was also my first impression was the very first cathedral scene at the beginning of Patho 2. I think that interaction is pretty neat. Of course refusing to spare the town is a pretty horrible thing to do and say and after seeing what the army did the impression of their leader cannot possibly be a very positive one but on the other hand it feels like he genuinely wanted to give you a shot at convincing him and he rather mourns not having the means to stop the plague which… you know, they do not have at this timelime and even while I agree with Artemy that there obviously wasn’t enough time in the first place… after the twelve days there aren’t that many people to save, time IS running out (there are around 15000 people in town (the 5000 in the Termitary make up a third of the population according to Young Vlad) and in Patho 2 after ten days there are over 13000 total deaths. So… not that many people left on day 12… I don’t know the numbers in Patho 1 though…), so not having a solution right now becomes a big problem in the general’s eyes. It is still a cruel decision and one I would definitely disagree with, but… with being responsible to your own troupes, letting your own people die when you see something as a lost course… It’s still a hard decision and he seems mournful about the outcome… So he stands for and does very problematic things but is introduced in his humanity and suffering over his own obligation. I think this early and pretty short conversation establishes him exceptionally well as well as some very important themes that will haunt us through the entire game.

their philosophy/worldview (or part of it) described in one neat little sentence

Luckily there is an entire theatre play dedicated to explaining his worldview and stance in this whole play. So how about “Protecting something means to attack the right thing at the right time.” Pretty much summarizes his entire dilemma in the game and shows a destructive stance and course of action, while also wondering about what really is the right course of action and showing his desire, to actually help and protect.

[girl-in-the-library]

Rambling about Doctor Who? In this economy?

I’m in the process of catching up with Doctor Who. I had stopped a while ago most of the way through Capaldi’s second season, after having stopped for a long time before watching his first season and a half.

Well, I just watched Capaldi regenerate into Jodi Whittaker and I have some things to say. This is primarily focusing on the end of Clara’s run as a companion and Bill’s story, because it’s been a while since I watched that first part of Capaldi and Clara, and even longer since I watched anything before that. I came back to catch up because I’d been seeing gifsets of Nine and Ten, and I miss them so, so much. But I decided I wanted to catch up before going back and doing an entire rewatch of New Who (I have no idea anything about Classic Who, honestly...and there’s so much that’s missing and I have no idea where to get the rest of it anyway).

Point is. I have feelings. Some good. Some bad. And they’re going under the cut.

First things First: I hate Steven Moffat.

All his episodes are the worst! Whenever his name would come up as the main writer credit, the episode was trash! Of course, some were more trash than others, and some were good ideas, but they all got the Doctor so, so wrong.

Two egregious examples that I hated, both from Moffat written episodes:

In “The Husbands of River Song,” River gives this whole big speech about how she’s the woman who loves the Doctor, but he will never love her, because that’s like looking at a sunset and asking it to love you back...or something like that. The Doctor would never come for her, because she wasn’t important enough.

That’s wrong on two big levels. 1! The Doctor is the Doctor because he loves. Nine was broken because he was so hurt, and he had forgotten how to love. Rose taught him to love again, and brought him back from the brink of self-destruction. I dislike the idea of the Doctor and River being a couple because I think Steven Moffat wrote it very, very badly (just like...a random woman comes out of nowhere and claims to be the Doctor’s wife! And then she is...because she is?) However, she is, in fact, the Doctor’s wife, as written, and he /does/ love her. She /is/ important to him. And the fact that she doesn’t think so just proves a misunderstanding in character and out of character. The second point? That she’s not important enough? She’s obviously important enough for the Doctor...but the other point is that that shouldn’t matter.

Nine once said that he had never met anybody who wasn’t important. But later on in the episode about the Monks that had taken over, Bill asks why the Doctor puts up with humans if he finds them so ridiculous. And the Doctor says something about “every so often I meet one like you [Bill]” and that makes up for putting up with the rest. No! The Doctor loves humanity! AND EVERYONE IS IMPORTANT TO HIM.

The thing about the Doctors that Moffat has written...both Eleven and Twelve (and the War Doctor, I guess too) is that specific people are important to those Doctors, and the Doctor would do anything for them. Anything for Amy, for Rory, for River. For Clara. For Bill. And they fail, but they fail doing things to save these specific people, not necessarily for their sakes, but for his own. And then they would die, and he would be sad, but there would be no consequences for his actions. 

Nine and Ten loved Rose, but Ten left her behind /twice/ because he needed to. Martha got herself out. And Ten erased Donna’s memories to save her life. He lost them, in the end. And it hurt him. And he continued on, learning because of it. He died and regenerated twice because of his love for people. But there were still consequences for everyone around him, as well as himself. Sad things happened.

But Amy, Rory, River, Clara, and Bill? He hung on to them until they were burned away, but they were all fine in the end. Amy and Rory were there for a long time, but then the weeping angels sent them back, and the Doctor couldn’t see them anymore, but they were totally fine and grew old together. River died the first time the Doctor met her, but he clung to her for centuries (without proper character development, I tell you!) until she eventually died, but her whole life was centered around the Doctor. Clara he did everything he could to save, including break the laws of time. And he still lost her but also she was totally fine at the same time, traveling across time and space with Asheildr/Me in their Diner TARDIS. And Bill? Bill literally was turned into a Cyberman because of the Doctor’s hubris. He couldn’t save her. But she ended up okay anyway.Why? Because after she died as a human, then died as a Cyberman, she lived as something else, along with Heather, and got some sort of happily ever after (until she ultimately died again, but that’s off screen, we see her memories.) And then the Doctor got HIS memories of Clara back! So there were no consequences!

The Doctor as Moffat wrote them had no regard for life. They loved specific people, and specific conditions, except when Humanity was in Danger, and then he was The Big Damn Action Hero. But he also turned all of humanity into murderers when he basically brainwashed them into killing the Silence on sight, because otherwise they wouldn’t remember seeing them (this happened in Amy and Rory’s time, but it’s relevant).

In one episode, he tells the executioners to look up the Doctor under cause of death, and they flee out of fear for just how many people wound up dead because of him. In the next, he berates Missy for just how many people has she killed? It’s inconsistent.

The Doctor is a Perfect Hero, when he needs to be, and a Perfect Killer, also when he needs to be. “The Doctor of War” - as the glass memory people call him (I can’t even remember what they were called even though I just watched the episode) - isn’t who the Doctor is...but it’s who Moffat made him. 

And of course, almost every major plotline ends up with Moffat’s favorite trope: The Big Friendly Reset Button. Because what does it matter if things happen? There’s time travel and everything will be okay for Earth in general and the people we care about, even if it’s not actually okay.

I hate Steven Moffat. I do think he has some good ideas! The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances were some of my favorite episodes! I just think he can’t be allowed to be in charge.

I also hate Clara’s Magic Tears that make the Doctor do something he wasn’t going to do (that it would have made sense for him to do) just because she cried. Like...in the 50th. When she cried and told the Doctor that pushing the button wouldn’t be like him. That he couldn’t do that to his entire civilization. But the thing is...he already did. His character development was based on that. And it changed him. But then, Clara cried, and he didn’t. And it was like the Time War never happened. (What I think would have been great would have been if the three Doctors decided to push the button together. They had made the decision in the past as Eight/the War Doctor. Now, together, as the War Doctor, Ten, and Eleven...knowing everything they had been through and everything the universe had been through...they pushed the button to make the decision they knew needed to be made. But they didn’t do that. Clara cried and they didn’t do that. And then it wasn’t like the War even mattered anyway, because literally nothing changed). But I digress. There was another time or two that Clara cried and the Doctor did something stupid, but I forget the specifics right now.

Now, from the bad to the questions.

Why are the Time Lords? Where are the Time Lords? If they’re back, how come they’re not interfering more, especially as they were looking for the Doctor? If they’re not back, then why are they there?

What was with the orphanage thing on Gallifrey? Is that where the Doctor grew up? Is this a question that was answered in Classic Who, or earlier New Who that I just don’t remember, or did Moffat just shove in a confusing backstory then not answer questions about it?

Why was Missy being executed? And speaking of Missy, why couldn’t she still call herself the Master, just because she was female? 

Who was that child in the picture on the Doctor’s desk in the office at the university? The one in the frame next to River’s frame? I feel like this is something I just don’t know...not something that wasn’t explained.

How old is the Doctor? That’s been all over the place for a long time now. 

How did Bill survive the mind-thing with the monks?

I had more questions but I forgot them.

And from the questions to the good.

I liked Bill! I liked Bill a lot! I feel like I never got the sense that she developed any sort of relationship with the Doctor, that it was just like...she was a student and then suddenly they were super important to each other, but I guess that’s how it goes sometimes.

I actually really loved Capaldi! I thought he could be a great Doctor if he wasn’t hindered by the writing. But I definitely enjoyed this run and will miss him, which is honestly more than I can say for Matt Smith. Not that I don’t think Smith did a good job. I like Smith well enough, but not enough to miss him as the Doctor when he left.

The episode Hell Bent was really, really good.

And overall, I just enjoyed it.

I know I listed a lot of problems up there, and not a lot of good stuff down here...but I was having fun watching Doctor Who again! I was just taken out of it sometimes by the Moffat garbage fire.

But I cried when Bill died. I cried when the Doctor died. I cried when he said, “What about me? Don’t I get to rest?” I cried when he regenerated, though his speech to himself was stupid.

I liked Bill better than Clara, but Clara still had a lot of good moments!

I am /happy/ that I got back into Doctor Who. And I can’t wait to see what comes next.

[myfandomrambles]

Donna's understanding of The Doctor

Donna has one of the most unique understandings of The Doctor throughout the whole show. I also think she actually one of the deepest understanding of The Doctor of the companions. Jack Harkness, The Master and other Immortals or one of the flirty companions like Rose or River are generally pointed to as having the deepest understanding, but I do think Donna has some more layers than them and is also stand out for being as close as she is without being an alien-like Romana or a love interest.

First off she is unique especially within New Who as not being infatuated or enchanted by The Doctor right off the bat. Rose, Jack, Martha, River, and Clara are all flirty with The Doctor to start off with. Donna is not meaning their relationship doesn’t have a romantic or dashing man leading lady dynamics that have become common. This was a distinct breath of fresh air after romantic subtext and unrequited love were the dynamics being used. Along with this is she also doesn’t have the same kind of starry-eyed dynamic between Amy and The Doctor or even Yas. She is not under as many illusions and she is absolutely not romantically attracted.

But I think the key to why Donna feels like a standout is she doesn’t need a disillusionment moment. A common beat in new who is when the companion sees how dark The Doctor really is, how much they are broken and hurting. Rose in Dalek, Martha in Gridlock, Amy in Victory of the Daleks/The God Complex, Clara in Hide/Journey to The Center of The TARDIS, Bill in Thin Ice. But Donna starts there.

Donna first meets 10 in one of his most bitter mindstates, he's showing how hated he is on the sleeve and it ends with him effectively committing genocide. She never sees him as a paragon, she does want the adventure and thinks he could be a good friend but he isn’t perfect in her eyes. Donna is choosing to travel with someone who is clearly dealing with some level of mental health issues and grief, yeah she thinks he’s special and can be a hero but not a paragon of any kind. This is in tandem with a lack of any crush makes her apart from much of the female companions.

It also varies from Romana or Jack who's understanding comes from having similarly long lives. But like River and Amy, they are a lot less likely to understand the ground floor reasons The Doctor is like this. And the confrontational stance Rory and Mickey come from, she knows he’s dangerous but doesn’t have a reason to see him as a personal threat or becoming the third wheel.

Missy and The Doctor are generally too similar I think to have the same ability to show compassion and understanding the same way. Their both these whirlwind forces influencing the whole world. They are also both broken and warped from the involvement in war and trauma up to an including being used as a tool by their own people. Neither is really as self-reflective as they ought to be and can choose to not face any of it. The understanding between them varies, but while it is one of the other most unique dynamics of the world but is not the same as Donna's.

But we really get to see how Donna did get a better understanding of him when they are in stressful situations later. She does make comments that are common like “don’t travel alone” that’s common for companions to tell him, but it does so much deeper than that. She handles his anxiety better than a lot of the others, In Partners In Crime she is the one who should be way more out of her depth but is calm and keeps 10 from freaking out when trying to fix the station. Another standout example is in Fires Of Pompeii, the way she talks him through and helps when he has to repay his own trauma by setting off mount Vesuvius. She is understanding and helps him with it. She does push him to be better and save a few of the other people but it shows a consistent understanding.

I’m not saying the other companions don’t try and be supportive and do push back but her ability to connected is stronger. We tend to see either a companion ditching and fixing whatever is wrong themselves or kind of shout The Doctor Down. they don't usually try to understand and use the traumatic events as almost a gotcha over a specific understanding.  While they can be intuitive and true it's usually used as almost manipulative or trying the shock them into action over talking it calmly. Martha telling him he deserves something to live for, Like Clara yelling about twelve "blood survivors guilt" or River telling 10 to not get emotional after losing Donna. It is coming from a place of compassion and love but lacks a deeper understanding or another way of working with him to keep meltdowns at bay. Even after clearly seeing how it is born from a specific event like Victor of the Daleks or Daleks in Manhattan, it doesn't seem to be part of why they know The Doctor can act out.

One of my favourite moments between them in any part is when The Doctor and Donna are trying to save the earth in the season four finales. She is able to push him along to ward off disappearing emotions. And then actually takes his hand when they see Davros. She doesn’t jump right to fighting but actually reminds 10 that (to her understanding) they are safe in the TARDIS and that Davros isn’t with them. Donna sees the kind of impending breakdown 10 is on, his body language, face and voice all telegraph the pain and she goes straight to calming it down. Even jumping over the “who is this dude” question most other companions do in places like this.

Donna doesn’t build up the ego of The Doctor to say nothing is wrong or just berate Him. Obviously, I do think people Like Rory have a point that The Doctor does hurt people, and he’s a good ego check but it doesn’t show as much internal insight to The Doctor. She is equal and does call his shit when necessary.

Honestly, Donna has one of the most beautiful and honest relationships The Doctor has. And it's is always beautiful to see them together.

[rumata-est]

Impossible Girl

Part one

Well, to summarize: when the Doctor met Clara Oswald, she was about 24, she was curious, brave, eager for adventures, very smart and fast. In "Deep Breath" she is 27, so she spent about 3 years with the Doctor and learnt a lot. She is very forthright but she also understands people's feelings very well that's why she knows when to stop and when to make the Doctor stop. She cares.

However, we rarely see Clara being really kind to somebody in particular. Is she kind? She obviously knows it’s necessary to be kind and sympathetic (never mind to whose advantage), and this knowledge defines most of her actions. It sounds very Machiavellian though pretty realistic, and such character type fits adventures and life in general very well.

What happens when the Doctor changes?

The thing is throughout the series 8 the Doctor is in the middle of his own “am I a good man” crisis, he shows off deliberately, he wants Clara’s attention, he parks the TARDIS in her flat, and they are actual roommates. From now on every day it's a roller coaster and a personal matter cause his argument to pull her into adventures is "I need you no matter how I treat you and other people" at any time. That’s annoying. But she says "fine". The Doctor is not the only one who changed: the veil lifted, she is not a young woman anymore, she has to accept bad choices exist, and sometimes (most of the time since you’re a Doctor) it’s you who make them, and it’s not an easy burden. 

Why does Clara want Danny Pink? Firstly, she hates to mess things up and she did so with Danny at first sight. She was trying to be funny but instead she said something unacceptable, and she needs to fix it immediately. Secondly, she is a carer, and Danny needs somebody to deal with his trauma. Thirdly, she’s eager to make her existence well balanced: job, domestic life, traveling, adventures. Her life’d better be amazing.

“Listen” is an extremely important episode cause Clara basically plays the Doctor’s part, and not the one shining with joy and glory. The way Clara treats Danny during their date is at least weird, but honestly, she is horrible to him. She brings the killing subject again though she doesn’t know the details and they both know it hurts him. She doesn’t apologize, makes an exit, and he doesn’t deserve it. When she got distracted, Clara and the Doctor end up in Danny’s childhood, and soon the Doctor gives a little boy a dream which will have a tremendous impact on his whole life. They don’t even know whether the monster under the bed is real. And it’s Clara’s fault. She feels guilty, and she cares so she tries to fix her ruined date (breaking the time travel rules), and she doesn’t succeed cause she is actually always “in a rush, in a state, and in space helmet”. Danny will spell it out quite neatly later: she is so busy saving the universe she can hardly see people right in front of her. Then she gets distracted again...

It's a perfect description of one of the Doctor's bad days in a nutshell: interfere, act weird, be charming, don't respect people's opinions, get distracted, mess things up, try to fix them, mess them up again...

...then have an insight, actually fix things, be charming, everyone's in awe, run away.

When Clara sees her friend and her hero as a crying little boy, she has to be a Doctor even for the Doctor, she tries to fix him. And then she wants her 2000 year old Doctor to feel that she really cares in every way. When he refuses (to hug her or whatever else), guess where she goes... underneath the strong facade she is vulnerable too. Both the Doctor and Clara are very good at hiding feelings and messing things up with people, but when you supress something it only becomes stronger. The Doctor never explains what is going on in his hearts, Danny will never know how scared, or vulnerable, or happy Clara really is. 

The great discovery is nobody’s perfect and everybody’s vulnerable. And even worse: the Doctor is vulnerable too. “Silly old universe, the more I save it, the more it needs saving”. True. Also, the truth is sometimes the universe works just fine until you interfere and screw up. 

So, Clara and the audience face the problem: to care about people you need to be kind, to care about the universe you need to be practical. It wasn’t so obvious before, but with Twelve it is. The thing is you’re a good man only if you manage to do both. Clara has to develop the concept of kindness. It’s not enough to be kind naturally, it has to be your moral choice. You have to explain how exactly you’re going to be kind to not mess things up. Unfortunately, this explanation usually includes tons of lying.

Rule One: the Doctor lies. Why? Vital survival skill, mainly for everybody around the Doctor. Clara lies too. Why? The same reason. For example, what can she possibly answer to Danny's question about the Doctor? Erm, lets see: the man who usually saves people and worlds saved my life once cause he was looking for me cause he had met kinda me twice and that kinda me had saved his life and died cause it turned out later I sacrificed myself for him and was divided into million echoes each of which was born to save him. But he saved me again, and then I helped him save his own planet which was very good cause he had been immensely traumatized by thinking he had destroyed it for the rest of the universe had survived. So, we travelled together, and saved the universe, and saw wonders, and then he changed, and now I have to get the bloody permission to hug him when he's upset. 

What the ........

It's too complicated to be explained. So Clara goes with the easiest part: he's an alien, and she sees wonders.

Saving the world isn't that easy cause there's never just black and white, you can't jump high enough, or call the Army, or name somebody "an officer". Basically, be kind. But it's quite difficult to apply these beautiful simple words to real life. Why? 

We can see it in “Kill the Moon”. We usually concentrate on things like Clara’s “clear off“ manifesto or the Doctor’s “ that was me respecting you”. But what about humanity? Why did everybody turn the lights off? Of course, that's an exagerration, of course, there would be some light on Earth. But the dark planet is a metaphor: even in the darkest of times, remember to turn on the light. Even if you’re alone never fail to be kind. And it’s a damn difficult job when all you want to turn your back on all these predictable silly little humans.

“I nearly got it wrong. I nearly didn't press that button”, Clara blurts. Ring any bells? Of course, it’s Gallifrey and the barn all over again. When there were three Doctors it was easy for Clara: she just had to tilt her head, cry a little bit and remind the Doctor to be a Doctor. But it’s not so easy when you’re in charge and your home's at stake. 

A little reminder: Clara is still about 27-28, has a regular job and a lot of cool outfits, tries to be a girlfriend and has to deal with very difficult philosophical problems and the Doctor who is a tidal wave and a walking philosophical problem himself. Don’t forget Clara is a control freak so avoiding any problems is not an option. Of course, it's too much for her.

“Mummy on the Orient Express” is all about who is in control. At first the Doctor and Clara talk about two different subjects: Clara wants to talk about her feelings and the Doctor wants to talk about his planets. Actually, each of them wants to persuade the other, it’s not just about feelings and planets. But they really have to talk about what is happening. The next scene in the corridor is a little bit better cause they are trying to talk (without bringing the real subject, of course). And the real subject is: I don’t want you to go but since I am a control freak I will stick to my “last hurrah” line. It’s more like juggling questions than a proper conversation. Clara is freaking out for fear of losing him. For fear of getting it all wrong.  

Clara hasn’t looked at the mechanism of being a Doctor like that before. We always assume the Doctor is so clever, he can push his luck and fix everything, even when it's absolutely impossible. But what if sometimes he really really can’t? What if sometimes people die on his watch, real people, no matter how hard he tries? And even worse: what if sometimes he really has grey areas? And you happen to be smart enough to notice all this? 

So, he isn’t a Deus ex Machina anymore, he is pretty real. All of this is revealed in their brilliant conversation on the beach. And then Clara asks the Doctor the same question Danny asked her: why are you doing this?

What can he possibly answer? It's his life and his hobby. It's the right thing to do and an addicition as well. And it's so beautiful Clara can't help but say "I love you" stay.  

I personally adore the way the Doctor answers Clara's question "Have you ever been sure?". He says "no", and there's a visible trembling happiness in his voice cause she really understands and accepts this part of his life now. 

A big change of heart happened. But it's a story for another day.

[dreameater1988]

Clara’s and Danny’s realtionship

I’ve been talking about the character of Danny Pink with several people lately and when S8 began, I have to admit that I didn’t like him very much. It took me years to understand what really bugged me but now think that it was the missed potential and the portrayal of the character on the show that made me dislike him. While working on several fanfictions, I started asking myself the question why Clara would be in a relationship with Danny and I think that eventually, I realised that we were shown the wrong sides of Danny on the show from the very beginning and even in S9, a lot of interesting details were omitted from the scripts that show us how important Danny Pink really was.

First of all, let’s start with the beginning of S8. The Doctor regenerated in front of Clara, throwing her into uncertainty. Her best friend, the man she has been in love with, changed his face and, by the looks of it, his character in a matter of seconds and Clara finds it hard to deal with that change. Why? Because the Doctor slipped out of her control. Even though Eleven was still unpredictable in a way, Clara knew where she stood with him, but she doesn’t know where she stands with Twelve because he doesn’t even know himself yet. For a control freak like Clara (and we’ll be coming back to that later), that’s a terrible situation to be in because she likes to know exactly what she’s getting into.

And along comes Danny Pink. He’s a maths teacher, he’s cute, he seems sweet and Clara is a young, gorgeous woman who has her life together. You can’t blame her for going after a nice guy who is single and seems to like her back. Danny is the complete opposite of the Doctor at that point because he’s stable and Clara knows exactly where she stands with him. Those are the qualities that drive her straight into Danny’s arms because the Doctor is certainly not nice to her and he certainly doesn’t give her a sense of security - both things Clara craves. Clara is not a person who is immune to a guy’s charms because she holds herself very high (the Doctor described her as an egomaniac) and she likes the confirmation, something the Doctor doesn’t exactly give her in early S8. Neither does Danny, at least not all the time, because their very first date ends in a complete failure. But how was Clara to know that?

Now, as I watched that date scene for the very first time, I knew that I would never have gone back to him after the disaster at the restaurant. But why did Clara? In Listen, the Doctor takes her to see small Rupert Pink and Clara obviously makes the connection to connection to Danny very early on. What is even worse, the Doctor takes her to the future where she meets one of Danny’s descendants who clearly seems to think that Clara is family. I could go on about how this was never really resolved, but let’s leave that aside because it’s not actually important. Clara gets what she craves: confirmation, security, control. She now “knows” that she and Danny are destined to be together and have children and that’s what makes her go back. When she is faced with Orson Pink, she suddenly “knows” what the future will hold for her, again giving her a sense of security and control, so Clara is determined to give Danny another chance.

I have to admit, even when I’m rewatching the scenes with Danny, I still don’t like him as much as I like the idea of what he could have been, of what he was to Clara in moments we just didn’t see. I often get the feeling that the show kept showing us the “worst" sides of Danny when really all he was was a lovely, normal boyfriend. Yet, he was set out as the Doctor’s rival quite from the beginning when he should have been more than that when it was obvious that the Doctor, the hero of the show, is not someone Danny could ever compete with.

Upon learning of the Doctor’s existence, Danny is anything but amused and I think that’s quite a natural reaction. Danny isn’t stupid, but when he follows the strange caretaker and discovers that he’s actually an alien who owns a time machine that sometimes steals his girlfriend, you can’t really blame him for holding a slight grudge. After all, his girlfriend lied to him about a very significant part of her life. And, having experienced danger, Danny is worried about her and rightly so. He is also worried that Clara might be in love with the Doctor, also rightly so, but he never stands between Clara and the Doctor. All he asks her is to be careful and to stop travelling with the Doctor when she feels it’s too much.

When the time finally comes in Kill The Moon and Clara is determined to leave the Doctor, Danny is actually the one to make her second-guess her decision. He encourages her to think about it and he encourages her during the phone call he and Clara have while she is on the Orient Express. Clara told him that she would leave the Doctor, but Danny never specifically asked it of her. I feel like a lot of people in the fandom are trying to view Danny as the person who tried to come between the Doctor and Clara when that’s something he never was. Danny isn’t the bad guy. Danny is the good guy and it was Clara who treated him badly even though she loved him.

Clara lies to him as well as the Doctor after the events on the Orient Express. Why? On the show, we never find out, but The Complete History books shed a little light on what Clara’s motives might have been. “In this version, when Clara looked at the Post-It Notes, she launched into speeches triggered by the notes, explaining to Danny over the phone how having secrets made her feel in control and show she fetishised hero figures.” Clara is a control freak and she always will be.

When Danny eventually finds out in ITFOTN that Clara has been lying to him, he is angry, but he isn’t angry about the fact that she is still travelling with the Doctor but because she lied to him. Danny doesn’t want to compete with the Doctor because he knows that it’s a competition he would lose, he only wants Clara to be honest with him. Danny was a normal, loving boyfriend and we only ever saw glimpses of his relationship with Clara on the show and in my opinion, they’re not always the right ones. Steven Moffat used Danny at the Doctor’s rival in the viewer’s eyes, but that’s not how Danny saw himself. He might not have been happy about Clara travelling with the Doctor through all of time and space, but he was willing to accept it rather than not be with Clara at all. Danny knew exactly that if he made her choose, he would be on the losing side, so he never did. Instead, he allowed his girlfriend to travel with a man he didn’t like (but respected) because he realised how much it meant to Clara. After the adventure in ITFOTN, Danny is no longer angry. He just wants Clara to be honest with him.

Danny’s death is a tragic event and just when Clara decides to come clean, he is torn from her life and even though she had a chance of getting him back, Danny still died and that was probably the most fundamental event in Clara’s life. It changed her as a person.

Those of you who have lost a loved one might understand her a little better than those of you who haven’t, but Danny’s death affected Clara a great deal and I’m very sad that very important pieces were cut from the S9 scripts and episodes. Danny was a young man, he was Clara’s boyfriend, she loved him, she thought they would get married and have children together - and he was torn out of life without a warning and without a chance to make it right. In addition to the natural loss, Clara’s control freak nature is very important in understanding why it changed it because that was something she had no control over whatsoever. Clara is not the type of person to blame herself for his death or to feel prolonged guilt over the way she treated him, but his death still had a huge impact on her character.

Because we never really saw the relationship of Clara and Danny unfold on screen, we can’t know what it was like and how much Clara really loved him (and she did, as is apparent from the omitted details in the S9 script), but with Danny, she didn’t just lose a boyfriend, Clara lost her ties to earth. When she thought she had lost not only Danny but the Doctor as well, she was even ready to commit suicide by staying in the dream world where both of them were still in her life. Luckily for Clara, the Doctor came to save her.

When S9 started, I was a little taken aback by Clara’s character, but it started to make sense to me. During S7 and S8, she already shows a tendency for risk-taking because she’s a brave woman when she gets scared, she gets all the more determined, but thanks to Danny, she always had one foot left on earth. With her ties severed, all she has left is her job and when she runs off at the beginning of The Magician’s Apprentice, it’s quite clear that UNIT and the Doctor are much more important to her.

Especially the first four episodes seem like someone cut Clara loose. She’s out of control. She’s reckless. She seems to be in good spirits, but underneath that, it’s still apparent that Danny’s loss cuts deep, something Clara would never admit to because she’s “trying to be perfect all the time” (The Complete History, Vol 77). Instead, she appears to have it all under control when the opposite is true. This is a very common expression of grief and Clara is still grieving. When in S8 it was the secrets that have made her feel in control, it is now the fact that she keeps on escaping death. She puts all of her faith in the fact that the Doctor is able to fix it all until they stumble upon a point when they can’t. Taking risks makes her feel alive up until the point it costs her life. In Face the Raven, when she finally mentions Danny, it seems to be out of the blue as if she had only suddenly remembered his existence. But that’s not really the case.

Danny was always with her and every time she mentions him, she does so very fondly and full of love. She has accepted his death, but she hasn’t healed yet. In Before the Flood, she tells Bennet: “After I lost someone, I thought my life was over. Because I knew… I know I can’t love again, and surely loving someone is what defines us. But it isn’t. The songs are wrong.” In an earlier draft of The Girl Who Died, she also bonds with a Viking woman (later Ashildr) over the loss of her husband by telling her about Danny. One remark even made it into the final script but was later cut and added in the deleted scenes.

Clara loved Danny even though she didn’t exactly treat him well in S8 and I feel like the show could have done a lot better to portray it. Danny was certainly not a bad guy and he was a loving boyfriend to Clara, but his meaning on the show was never so the viewers would want to see them together. Instead, he played the role of the Doctor’s rival and as such, he could only lose.

[the-desolated-quill]

The Magician’s Apprentice - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

I’ve had a few people sending me conflicting messages about Series 9. And I’m not talking the usual Moffat lovers vs Moffat haters type thing. A couple of people I know who don’t like Moffat actually like this series, and others who do like Moffat apparently don’t like this series at all. It’s weird.

Well, once more into the breach, dear friends. What have we got this time? A grey wasteland, a bi-plane that shoots lasers, and a soldier with both a sci-fi scanner and a bow and arrow. Yep, this can only be Skaro. Specifically the thousand year war between the Kaleds and the Thals. That made me sit bolt upright in my seat. I never thought we’d ever be coming back here. And it’s a pretty strong opening for the most part. The hand mines are pretty creepy and the reveal that the boy is actually a young Davros caused my jaw to drop.

From there however, The Magician’s Apprentice slides very rapidly downhill, headfirst, into a heap of compost. Why can’t Moffat ever just stick to one story and one location? Why does he have to constantly hopscotch to random times and locations in an effort to wrong foot us? It’s not clever or intriguing. it’s just annoying. On a second viewing it soon becomes apparent that the reason we’re jumping around all over the place is to pad the episode out for 45 minutes. Because if you stop and think about it, not a lot actually happens in this episode. It’s just all pointless and mindless prologue. Snake Guy is a prime example. It’s a great visual, but what’s actually the point of him? Couldn’t Davros have sent an email or something? We certainly didn’t need to see Snake Guy roller-skating along three separate planets performing the same scene over and over again.

From there we cut to what feels like a completely different story. All the planes in the sky have frozen in time, and this could have been an interesting premise to an episode in its own right, but it’s all pretty much chucked in the bin. Turns out there was nothing to worry about. It was just the Master sending a message to Clara. Again, utterly pointless.

Notice my total lack of surprise to see the Master alive and kicking after TOTALLY getting killed off last time around (in Moffat’s defence, it’s only painfully obvious if you’re not colourblind and were vaguely paying attention). I was however surprised to see the Master alive and kicking so soon, and now I’m worried that she’s going to become a recurring character like in the Third Doctor era. I really hope not. It was the classic series’ overuse of the Master that caused me to hate the character in the first place. But credit where it’s due, at least they’re showing some restraint this time around. While there’s still some sexist Moffat-y dialogue and mannerisms that ticked me off (like the Master fondling a Dalek’s balls), Michelle Gomez seems to have toned down the crazy this time around, so at least now we have a version of the Master that’s vaguely tolerable. What I’m less keen on is the way Clara interacts with her. While Michelle Gomez and Jenna Coleman do a great job playing off each other, I would have enjoyed it more if it had even a shred of believability. Considering that the Master was ultimately responsible for the death of her boyfriend, would Clara really be willing to trade quips with her?

From there we go back to Olde Worlde times for quite possibly the most cringeworthy part of the episode. The Doctor on a tank playing a guitar. Yes I know Peter Capaldi used to be in a punk rock band, but I’m not supposed to be watching Peter Capaldi. I’m supposed to be watching the Doctor. When are Moffat and co going to realise that this type of humour simply doesn’t work for this kind of Doctor? Matt Smith might get away with something like that, but when it comes to Peter Capaldi’s Doctor, it just feels so utterly wrong. Yes even the darkest Doctors have a light side and the best Doctors are the ones that can switch between dark and light effortlessly, but with Twelve it feels like Moffat is struggling to make anything that isn’t rudeness or brooding seem natural. It’s like watching your dad at a wedding trying to be all hip and cool for da kidz. It’s just painful to sit through. And what’s the reason behind the Doctor’s embarrassing display? Well apparently he thinks he’s going to die? But... why does he think that? He’s got no reason to think that as far as I can see. I mean, no offence, but it’s only Davros. Also, really Moffat? We’re doing the Doctor’s impending death AGAIN?!

And then it’s off to a space station to meet Davros, Except it’s not a space station. It’s Skaro. I legitimately don’t understand the relevance of this twist. Why trick the characters into thinking they’re in space? What’s the point? And why is everyone so shocked that they’re on Skaro. Where the fuck else would Davros be? Nando's? It just feels like a twist for twist’s sake. As does the Master, Clara and the TARDIS getting obliterated. Yeah, obviously the TARDIS can’t be destroyed and Moffat has done the death fake outs so many times now that this cliffhanger has no impact whatsoever. Wrong foot the audience too many times and we won’t trust a single thing you tell us ever again. If Clara and the Master are really dead, I’ll eat my Cuban heels.

Finally we venture back to what the episode should really have been about in the first place. The Doctor and boy Davros. I do like the idea of the Doctor’s refusal to save him maybe contributing to Davros’ poisonous worldview (and possibly even his medical condition) and it would help to fill in some of the blanks in Davros’ back story as well as take the Doctor down an interesting new avenue of character exploration. Unfortunately this all goes out the window when the Doctor suddenly points a gun at Davros Jr and seemingly tries to kill him. Now I do have issues with this, but I’m going to save it for my next review because I want to see where Moffat is going with this. But for the record, I’m very concerned about this (and considering the fucking disrespectful way Moffat treated the Brigadier in Death In Heaven, I think my concern is very much justified).

The Magician’s Apprentice is largely just a gigantic waste of time. There are whole segments of this you could just cut out and it wouldn’t make the slightest bit of difference, and the numerous twists and tangents are completely ineffectual because they’re either pointless or have been done to death. Not exactly a promising start to a two part series opener, is it?

[upslapmeal]

Twice Upon a Time

Right so I’m going to start off with a lot of Doctor-y stuff before I get to my usual yelling about the episode. Also surprise surprise it got a lil bit long so the yelling will be under a cut

Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d say: I’m glad Moffat was given one extra last episode to do. Why? Bombastic Moffat really isn’t my thing. At all. And so The Doctor Falls was....fine? But I’m glad it wasn’t Twelve’s swansong. Moffat does held-back a lot better, at least to me. And so I’m glad we got this quieter ep, Twelve dealing with his future while being presented with his past, and then dealing with the Captain and Testimony. There wasn’t much to it but I much preferred it that way. I also really liked that it wasn’t an Evil Villain™, I think Twelve was disappointed that he couldn’t keep the distraction up, putting off dealing with his future (#relatable) and I love how we see at the end Twelve makes a change to help save one extra person. It’s what I would expect from the Doctor but it does show how far he’s come since s8. He’s openly kinder and softer and he’d not keeping up a facade any more. This change was pretty much established by s9 but it was still nice to see, especially with the direct connection to Into the Dalek we got this episode.

Now since we’re talking about the Doctor, I have to talk about One, one of my favourite Doctors who I truly adore. And I’m going to try not to make this about...........The Problem. I’ve talked about the ~casual chauvinism~ and why it wasn’t One already (here and here and here and here) and @thefirstintimeandspace​ has said a lot more that is much better written so I don’t want everything I say about One here to be about that but just know I’m Mightily Annoyed And Unhappy and think the decision was really lazy writing. THAT BEING SAID, David Bradley did a wonderful job with what he was given. In terms of being a note-for-note imitation it wasn’t perfect, definitely could have done with a few twinkly Hartnell chuckles in my book, but the vast majority of the time the heart(s) in the acting was right. I liked how we saw the First Doctor scared of this first change. I mean the whole idea of it must have been terrifying! I felt devastated when he saw what Testimony showed about his future and then his final conversation with Twelve almost made me tear up. And his talk with Bill about looking for the truth in the stars, trying to find how goodness prevails, was absolutely wonderful. That’s not to say it made up for the character disservice and it makes me sad there may be people put off watching his era because of that, but there was a lot of good.

And now Peter. Oh Peter. The first episode I ever watched live was The Time of the Doctor. I thought it was an awful episode and so in my heart the first live episode I saw was Deep Breath but Twelve has been the only Doctor I’ve followed from week to week. So not only will I miss the character I love and Peter’s consistently superb acting but it’s the end of an era for me. I’m so excited for Thirteen (she’s keeping her accent we’re getting another Northern Doctor!!) but there there is definitely a Twelve-shaped hole in my heart. “Doctor, I let you go”. What perfect final lines. After he said this I had to pause the ep just to give myself a couple of minutes to let go too. In fact, the whole final speech (though Moff dude why are you so obsessed with the Doctor’s name) was wonderful. I’m just really going to miss him. A lot. Thanks Peter.

Ok general yelling below the cut:

actual clips from The Tenth Planet!!

LOVE! HATE! HAVE YOU NO EMOTIONS?

lol though surely they could have found someone shorter than Polly to play Ben? 

and got a wig for Polly that didn’t look like it was from poundland?

oh well it was only brief

‘your face it’s all over the place’

the this is my nurse joke would have worked so much better if the hadn’t continued

'obviously polly isn’t around any more’ 'in dire need of a good spring clean’ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

(ok that’s it just assume my angry screaming applied to every sexist First Doctor moment)

One: *mentions the french*    me: nice reign of terror reference!!!!

THE DOCTOR’S THEME!!

also I’ve been listening to the unreleased soundtrack for this ep while writing this (thank you magic music people) and there’s All The Strange Strange Creatures! Doomsday! Eleven’s Theme!

a farewell tour of sorts for Murray Gold I suppose :(

BILL MY LOVE!!!!!!

I’m so happy we get to see her one last time!! 

(even if it’s not QUITE her)

Bill and Pearl were so wonderful and deserved to be in the show for longer but alas

I’ll really miss Bill she and Twelve made such a fantastic team

yes One! notice that asymmetry!

why didn’t Testimony just tell the Doctors that they collect memories? 

I mean that would have just got rid of the plot and Twelve probably wouldn’t have believed them I suppose

MARY BERRY!

ONE’S TARDIS!! complete with assorted furniture and ornaments :’)

I like how one wall was still different but not just a flat wall with roundels printed on lol

(shoutout to one of my posts I linked to earlier)

CORPORAL JONES! 

glad to know Twelve has watched Dad’s Army

lol well I can’t say I had expected Rusty to be back for Twelve’s final ep but I’m not complaining

'you’re the first Dalek to ever get naked for me’ was NOT something I needed to hear

so if Bill is part of Testimony then there are two Bills? 

and actual non-memory Bill doesn’t know that Twelve’s alive?

also does this mean that Testimony can just.....reconstruct literally anyone who has died?

also speaking of extraction at the moment of death I wonder how this worked for Clara?

was her Testimony extraction before or after Twelve extracted her?

we can just add this to Metacrisis Ten and the gangers in the whole ‘this is the real me! I remember everything!’ theme

Lethbridge-Stewart!!

the moustache should have been a giveaway

also this is extra nice since I’ve now finally met the Brig in my Classic Who watch

I love stories about the Christmas truce it’s one of my favourite historical things

‘impeccable dress sense’

(I actually have a post somewhere in my drafts where I was attempting to humourously document Twelve’s range of outfits lol I should find that)

CLARA!!!!

I WAS ALREADY EMOTIONAL FROM TWELVE AND ONE’S CONVERSATION THIS TIPPED ME OVER THE EDGE

AND THEN NARDOLE ROCKS UP AND TWELVE COMPLAINS ABOUT IT BEING WORSE THAN DYING WHATTA MOOD I’M LAUGHING

(I was actually surprised that I was happy to see Nardole again and then he had to ruin it by talking about nipples thanks I really didn’t need that)

'invisible hair’ was that from the fan show or had it been something in s10??? I can’t remember

just one more life won’t hurt, Twelve, and it’ll do the universe a world of good

the score during Twelve’s final speech is Breaking the Wall which is one of my absolute favourites and jUST MAKING IT MORE EMOTIONAL

THIRTEEN IS HERE AND THE TARDIS IS ON FIRE AND CRASHING AND IT’S BRILLIANT

Doctor, I let you go. And I can’t wait to see what your next self brings.

[andersonsallpurpose]

ok that was the christmas special

i don’t have anything smart or analytical to say about it, but that won’t stop me from talking of course! under the cut.

I don’t like it when Moffat tries to Demonstrate Feminist Awareness because I never quite believe him. Some blurbs about the story had me believe there would be a lot more of Twelve Teaching One To Be Less Sexist, and I’m glad there wasn’t.

I feel a bit cheated that Bill didn’t really return, and particularly that this means we didn’t find out about anything that’s happened to her since ascending to a higher level of existence. Did things work out with liquid alien girl? After they went on like one date and then didn’t see eachother for about 15 years (Bill’s subjective timeline)? And also, when did the Testimony pick her dying memories, when she died the first time as a cyberman or at a later point? It must have been the latter, since she joked about pulling. Actually there’s probably a comic that explains all of that. Wait, sorry, I forgot - she actually says Heather came for her, so obviously she died later. So that explains that at least, and I guess for the rest you’d have to read that comic.

Clara was a bit of a cheat-out too, if that’s a word. About 5 seconds of screentime? And Twelve seemed pretty unmoved about suddenly getting his memories of her back. Well, he could have been yelling for all I know since I had the sound off as usual, but he looked pretty underwhelmed and there were no exclamation points in the subs. I was thinking how he looked more like someone pretending to like a present, and didn’t they just mention that? So maybe that was the point? “Oh thank you, fake Bill, some memories of fake Clara, how nice.” Does this mean that everything unpleasant gets undone in this show? That feels a bit unnecessary. (I also have the same questions about the extraction of her dying memories - it’s getting awfully crowded around her fixed-point moment of death, isn’t it? - but then again I bet there’s a comic that explains all of that too. 

There was some kind of plot too, idk? It all happened so fast. The Good Dalek made an appearance and then he went away again, I guess. I liked the scenery in that scene, though - it reminded me of the Cloisters in The One With The Confession Dial And The Barn, which I liked. They had this kind of great creepy children’s tv atmos to them. Maybe it’s the lighting.

Still think Capaldi did a great job of his final 5 minutes.

13 feels weird, but the new doctor always does. She could still be great, it all depends on the writing and acting and stuff. I’ve seen Broadchurch but I can’t extrapolate either from that, so I’m just crossing my fingers. As a superficial fangirl I’m kind of going to miss having a guy in the title role, but apart from that I’m googling synonyms for “very excited about this”. Finally! I’m still wondering how they’re going to pull it off though, because it’s such a male-coded role and I can see so many ways it could go wrong and not many it could go right. But that’s probably why I’m not a writer for the BBC. But I love that it they manage to make it work, Thirteen will be exactly the kind of character i would have loved to watch as a little girl. So that’s something I’m really looking forward to seeing. (Is this still a children’s program? Sort of?)

"If she survives that fall”, I was going to say, but that’s not even a joke because we know she will. (Is it just me or did they up the post-regeneration danger every time? What will they do for the next one?) And then we’ll get to see her new wardrobe for real! Personally I’m not sure about the suspenders/braces.

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Belated thoughts on The Doctor Falls

(Spoilers, obviously)

A late “review” owing to me being out of down and offline for the Canada Day long weekend. Now to make up for lost time...

I make no secret of nor do I apologize for the fact I was very disappointed with Series 10 as a whole. I stand by my opinion that it is - taken as a whole - the weakest season of 10 we’ve had since the series returned. BUT, in the 9th inning, Steven Moffat managed to score a home run, even though it was more of the “players fumbling to catch the ball” inside-the-park homer than a “knock it out of the park” blockbuster. It ranks a solid 3rd behind The Name of the Doctor and Hell Bent among Modern Era finale episodes and for the most part left me smiling (albeit a sad smile).

More thoughts after the break:

I’m going to get the negative stuff out of the way first.

I have mixed feelings about how Bill’s fate was handled (not the fate itself). I love the fact that Moffat managed to come up with a way to get Bill out of her dilemma and reunite her with Heather in such a way that promises future adventures (Big Finish and Chris Chibnall take note). It’s great that we finally got a pair of Moffat companions (including Nardole, though more on him in a moment) who basically survived their time with the Doctor. However, I wish Moffat hadn’t copied what he did with Clara and Ashildr in Hell Bent: making the companion immortal and sending her off on adventures with an immortal companion of her own (only difference being the romance direction: with Clara it was separation from her OTP; with Bill it was reunion with her OTP). I spoke to a few friends who watched it on Saturday and they were very upset by this. Not because they were Clara fans (believe me, they aren’t - in fact they pretty much hated Series 8 and 9) but because it was so similar to what happened last season. And I am annoyed at people saying that this is setting up the spinoff everyone wants, when that’s exactly the same thing they said with Clara and Ashildr in 2015! (That said, I agree with everyone who says getting the four together would kick ass. Big Finish, again take note.)

I also wish Heather had been referenced more during the season. If she was supposed to be Bill’s OTP, why was she basically forgotten for 10 episodes? As a result, while it was great to see Heather return, it still had a feeling of deus ex machina about it that was unfortunate. And any viewers who missed The Pilot and jumped on late - they were screwed figuring out what the heck that was all about with the woman made of water. 

One last negative was the fact we were left with no real resolution for Nardole. We saw him setting off with a bunch of kids and a girlfriend(!) but the impression given is they were still dead because they’d be spending their time moving up the ship and eventually the Cybermen would regroup and get ‘em. I hope Moffat plans to resolve this at Christmas because I felt the story wasn’t completed. This one I’d hate to have to leave to Big Finish to flesh out but perhaps they’ll have to.

OK - negative stuff over. Time for the positives.

Despite the fact I disliked World Enough and Time on the whole, I said I loved the opening and the closing minutes of that episode. Well, The Doctor Falls was basically all “opening and closing minutes,” (you can take that literally as virtually every scene felt like a teaser or cliffhanger and the longer running time flew by) and it was great and exactly the type of episode I was starved for this series. Had Series 10 had more of these I might have even joined the chorus of those calling Series 10 the best, even without Clara.

Despite the criticism I just stated, I loved how Bill and Heather were reunited (read my complaint again and the bottom line is I wanted there to be more of them) and Pearl Mackie gave her best performance ever as Bill. The character had a shaky start in my opinion, but Mackie was exemplary and Bill stands proud with the other iconic companions because of it. She’ll go far.

And Matt Lucas was great as always, and in some respects I’m going to miss Nardole more than Bill (ironic since I hated Nardole in the 2015 Christmas special). That’s nothing against Bill or Pearl Mackie, but even though he was shoehorned in to a good chunk of the season, Lucas just felt right once it was decided to make him a proper companion, and that was something that occurred to me way back in Return of Doctor Mysterio. I’d say Lucas would go fear but the guy’s already gone far. So I’ll just say he’ll go farther.

The Master Twins were amazing and had terrific chemistry and while I don’t believe for one second that this is the end for the Master (the Missy incarnation, perhaps), it was a unique resolution to Missy’s arc that I’m sure had many going “why hadn’t we thought of that?” I also found it fascinating to see how the Saxon Master reacted to having a female incarnation (despite the Doctor’s comments last week, Saxon seemed to suggest Missy was his first/only female version). He wasn’t that thrilled about it, really, which caught me by surprise. It added an unexpected depth to their meeting. I only wish we saw Simm regenerate into Gomez but then maybe that opens the door for another incarnation, if Missy is truly the final Master. I kind of hope she is, because it would be great to think that in the end, after teasing the concept for 46 years, the show finally made good on the promise of redeeming the Master. Plus, let’s be honest, male or female, who could follow Michelle Gomez?

And then there was Peter. What can I say? I mean, his speech about kindness is one they’re going to be quoting for years. And I hope the other Doctor actors are ready because just as with the Pandorica speech and the Zygon Inversion speech, they’re going to be asked to recite it forever. I’ve given up on awards, but Peter Capaldi is in my opinion the best actor to ever pilot the TARDIS, and I’m not just saying that because he’s the incumbent and I liked Whouffaldi. No - all the actors who have played the Doctor were amazing (yes, even him - whoever you want “him” to be). But Capaldi is the best. And I am including Sir John Hurt as I say that, with no disrespect intended to the late legend (or any of the others).

The regeneration - I mean, wow. And to see him repress it. That’s new and will make the Christmas special absolutely fascinating to watch from a performance perspective, alone.

David Bradley as the First Doctor? I don’t know about that. This isn’t 1983 when Richard Hurndall could step into William Hartnell’s shoes because no one had DVDs of any of Bill’s episodes. Apparently we’ve already had some viewers state confusion on Twitter over who this old guy is. I’ve no doubt that David Bradley will do a good job, but recasting an earlier Doctor, especially one with such a different acting style... jury is out. Much as I like Bradley I actually would have been more in favour of Sean Pertwee appearing as his dad. Ask me again on December 26.

Finally, of course, me being a Whouffaldi fan I cannot end this without mentioning the Clara flashback. I can’t begin to express how important this was. For her to have been omitted ... while it might have worked from the memory block perspective, it would have made the sequence feel incomplete. Does it mean the Doctor remembers Clara? Actually, we know that he does to a degree already - he says so to Clara herself in Hell Bent that he remembers their adventure together and has been able to piece together a lot about Clara, and at the end of the episode he sees Rigsy’s portrait of her, so he now remembers her face and, thanks to the diner, her voice. But then again - he would remember her face and voice from the diner if it was a “fresh” memory, right? Instead, he remembers her as she was in Last Christmas. So is it possible that Bill’s tears did more than give Twelve a stay of execution? That they - or the fact the Doctor is mid-regeneration - have undone it. Time will tell. I’m aware of certain tabloid reports today (also mentioned on the BBC) and I refuse to get my hopes up. But maybe it was foreshadowing. Or Moffat simply realized that to leave Clara out of a roll-call of every Modern Era companion would have made him look like a dick. Either way, we got a final direct reference to Clara to end the season on. (And River fans got one too, so everyone’s happy.)

One of these days I’ll do a proper postmortem on Series 10, going into detail as to why I didn’t care for it as a whole. But for me the finale hit all the right notes and leaves me looking forward to Christmas, even though a sad milestone awaits.

PS: Because there seems to be a lot of people harping online about Clara’s appearing in the flashback and the potential for her to appear at Christmas (of the “don’t bring her back ever” variety) let me state for the record that as far as I am concerned Bill Potts and Nardole are welcome to reappear or be referenced any time. Hopefully they’ll get a nod at Christmas.

[abossycontrolfreak]

I was tagged by @haruspis, thank you for the tag and also the lovely words <3

Doctor you started with: Technically Christopher Eccleston back in 2005, but I got into fandom proper with David Tennant when I watched Midnight for Colin Morgan.

Favourite Doctor: Peter Capaldi, easily. He’s bang on the right mix of darkness and humour and joy, and he is such an incredible actor. 

Favourite Companion: Clara, obviously!

Favourite Episode: Midnight still absolutely does it for me, although Hell Bent is now really up there.

DW OTP: I’d say Whouffaldi although idk if it’s romantic or just crazy intense but they were going to destroy the universe you gotta love that. 

Favourite line/quote: I do love the bird speech from Heaven Sent. 

Favourite character that isn’t the Doctor or a companion: At the moment, Missy. Tends to change depending on which stories are interesting at the time. 

BrOTP: Also Twelve and Clara tbh, I just love them together. 

Favourite DW fic (if you have one): I don’t read DW fic

Favorite DW fanart/blog (if you have one): One? For blog @tillthenexttimedoctor because Julia is the best in all the ways, and for art it’s gotta be @cazdraws. 

If you could pick anyone to be the next Doctor, who would it be?:  Not a white man. It’s not an area of speculation I’m super interested in tbh. 

If you could pick anyone to be the next companion who would it be? (Why?): Same as above, although special mention to Ruth Negga who I love, although come to think of it she would make an excellent Doctor too. 

Favourite fan theory: That time I predicted Clara would die and also steal a TARDIS and run away and was right? 

Other fandoms: I’ve been reading a lot of MCU fic lately, and I’m planning a Wonder Woman cosplay, but I tend to fixate on one fandom at a time for the most part. Although if football counts, Port Adelaide is my heart and also my entire weekend. 

Tagging: @tillthenexttimedoctor, @cazdraws, @orelseatlastsheunderstoodit, @scriptscribbles, @deathchrist2000

[actual-bill-potts]

On the Nature of Whouffaldi

Last week, I wrote a meta about companions in Moffat vs Davies Who and how Moffat companions are defined mainly by their relationships. That meta was partly inspired by Clara: I find her a very difficult character to understand, but what I realized is that she comes into much clearer focus the more we see of her relationships with others. “The Time of the Doctor,” the first time we see her interacting with her family, is a good example of this. Her controlling tendencies and desire to maintain a certain image are instantly evident in the way she presents the Doctor as her boyfriend and obsesses over the turkey, insisting that everything be perfect.

A question that follows naturally from this realization is, of course, what is the nature of Clara’s relationship with the Doctor? Most of the other Doctor-companion relationships are clearly defined: Rose and Nine/Ten were a Romantic Couple (whether you think they were an actual item or just a bundle of sexually-charges longing), Martha had unrequited love for Ten, Donna and Ten were the Best Friends, and Eleven and the Ponds were a family. What was the Doctor’s relationship with Clara, then? Eleven and Clara seem pretty flirty, but then Twelve takes a hands-off approach. They’re friends, obviously, but it’s not the easy camaraderie of Donna and Ten; they push each at other. At times their relationship seems almost abusive, as he commands her and she goes to extreme lengths to control his actions, but they also have a lot of trust in and love for each other. What, then, are they defined by? The easy answer, of course, is that they are just the Doctor and Clara, and to attempt to define them further is to create too simplistic a model. There is a lot of truth to that in some ways, but it doesn’t satisfy me. So here’s what I came up with: the Doctor and Clara—particularly Twelve and Clara—are defined most of all by hero worship.

Let’s first take a look at Eleven and Clara to see how this plays out. Eleven certainly puts her on a pedestal: “My Clara,” he muses, “always brave, always funny, always exactly what I need.” He might treat her more like a mystery than a person, might be suspicious of her true intentions, but there is no question that he adores her.

Clara likes this, and likes him because of this. Everyone likes to be adored, and there’s an extra level of attraction for her because he provides her opportunities to be a hero. She also sees him as a hero, a wonderful man who drops from the sky. “Good guys do not have zombie creatures!” she scolds the Doctor in “Journey to the Center of the Tardis.” She views him as a storybook hero, and it is this belief that allows her to stop the destruction of Gallifrey; she cannot believe that the Doctor would look at 2.47 billion children and still press the big red button.

So far, they have a mutually-reinforcing cycle of hero-worship: he treats her with respect and gives her adventure, she acquits herself well, his admiration for her grows, she is motivated by that to do more and better, he is even more impressed, and so on. How does this relationship change when Eleven regenerates?

Well, Twelve is much more hands-off and self-contained than Eleven, so on its face Whouffaldi seems much different from Whouffle. Gone are the compliments, the kisses, the spins and giggles and flirty remarks of Eleven’s era. But beneath Twelve’s Grumpy Cat persona, there’s the same idealization of Clara. Look at his impressed “and you saw right through that” in “The Caretaker,” his “I had faith that you would always make the right choice” in “Kill the Moon.” His utter faith that Clara, when put to the test, wouldn’t really throw away the Tardis keys. He trusts her, he loves her (whether that’s platonic or romantic is yours to decide), but he does also idealize her. She is always right, always perfect, indestructible. He owes her his life twice over on Trenzalore. He may not call her that anymore, but to him she is still the Impossible Girl.

Clara, meanwhile, still sees him as a storybook hero. We see this in “Robots of Sherwood” (“When did you start believing in impossible heroes?” “Don’t you know?”), in “Listen” (“if you’re very wise and very strong…”) and most notably in “Dark Water,” where she completely believes that the Doctor can bring Danny back.

Their hero-worship cycle, then, is mainly intact in series 8. It’s a little darker, a little more ruthless, a little harsher as Clara abandons her perky heroine persona in favor of her true self—someone just as devious and dangerous as the Doctor. She, like Twelve, has become a character stripped down to the essentials. But they still believe in each other, hiccups like “Kill the Moon” aside.

I mentioned “Dark Water” earlier as an example of Clara’s faith in the Doctor. But that episode, and the ones following, are the turning point of Whouffaldi. Clara still believes in the Doctor and sees him as a great hero. After all, he did bring Danny back, sort of. And now Danny’s gone, so in series 9 she has no one besides the Doctor. She becomes increasingly dependent on the Doctor’s affirmation and has more of a need to be the Doctor, as she perceives the role, as she becomes detached from Earth.

But Twelve no longer sees Clara as his impossible, indestructible hero. He still loves her, still respects her, still trusts her—but his idealized version of her has been shattered by “Dark Water,” because she doesn’t make the right choice when confronted by seven keys and a volcano. Destroyed by grief, she betrays—or thinks she betrays—the Doctor in the worst possible way. Twelve still adores her, but now that image of her leaping into his timestream has been balanced by her throwing his keys into the fire. It’s not a coincidence that she’s wearing nearly the same outfit in “Dark Water” as she wears in “The Name of the Doctor.” In one, she becomes the ultimate hero for the Doctor; in the other, she becomes a villain, in action if not in his eyes.

This blow to her image is followed in rapid order by “Last Christmas,” in which the Doctor thinks he has come back for Clara too late and believes her dying. Her human frailty has been thrust in his face too many times to ignore, and so he starts to treat her more as a typical companion—someone, though capable in their own right, who needs to be protected—and less as a fellow soldier. Thus, just as Clara becomes very dependent on his approval, he stops approving her Doctor-ish actions.

The contrast is clear between series 8 and 9. Look at Twelve leaving Clara on her own with the clockwork droids in “Deep Breath” vs his “Please, please save Clara” in “The Magician’s Apprentice”; Twelve instructing Clara to shoot his sonic screwdriver toward the Skovox Blitzer in “The Caretaker” vs his promise to save Clara in “Before the Flood”; his faith in Clara to do the right thing in “Kill the Moon” vs his desperation to get her back in “The Girl Who Died”; and again, interestingly, his willingness to take her to “hell” in “Dark Water” vs his insistence on Me’s guarantee of Clara’s safety in “Face the Raven”. He still loves her, still trusts her, is still deeply grateful for everything she’s done for him—but he’s no longer willing to thrust her into danger and trust that she’ll land on her feet, for the simple reason that realistically, eventually she won’t land on her feet. He wants to keep her safe.

Ironically, though, this new solicitousness for Clara’s safety leads to a twisted version of the hero worship cycle they have in series 7 and 8. He is worried for her safety, and so responds with disapproval to her increasing recklessness, trying to get her to stop doing what he, until recently, has been encouraging. This only drives Clara to throw herself more and more into the role of the Doctor, trying to prove that she is just as good a hero as he is, trying to show that she doesn’t care that she’s not invulnerable. The more reckless she is, the more concerned Twelve becomes, which leads Clara to keep on trying to prove herself, and so it continues, spiraling Clara downward until she finally crashes into reality in “Face the Raven”.

The interesting thing about that cycle is that they’re at complete cross-purposes; his priority has become her safety, but she still expects it to be all about the danger and the thrill. She has decided that being the Doctor is worth her life, if it has to come to that; the Doctor doesn’t believe that anything is worth as much as her life, and responds to her actions accordingly. And of course, this leads to him being driven nearly mad himself as he fights to get Clara back and fulfill his duty of care, until finally, in a beautiful reversal of “Dark Water,” she makes him see that being a hero—that being the Doctor—is worth it to her and he lets her make that choice. So Clara, with all her faith in stories, receives her fairytale ending instead of the cold, realistic one she would have had if the Doctor hadn’t returned to his initial faith in her and given her back the decisions about her safety.

(It’s important to note, by the way, that it is not in fact misogyny for the Doctor to be concerned for her safety. What he says in FtR is true; he is less breakable than her, and she takes risks that he can only take because he’s a genius with twenty-four lives.)

The Doctor and Clara, though initially difficult to define, thus have a relationship that reveals new facets when viewed through their hero-worship of each other. It is the Doctor’s loss of that complete faith in Clara that drives her to suicidal recklessness, and it is his regaining of that which allows her to travel the stars and fully become the Doctor—Clara Who. This is, of course, but one interpretation of a relationship that in some ways is beyond words, but that is, perhaps, the true charm of Whouffaldi: there are many readings of it, and every one of them is true.

[tehfabbooty]

A New Light Part Two

Apparently this mission was different from the other ones he was used to. Instead of stealing, Peter’s job was to distract. Being that he’s a twelve-year-old Terran with a baby face, Peter could see how he could distract a few people. But for how long?

“Just long ‘nough for us to get what we came for,"Yondu told him. "Now tell 'em some dumb kid story or somethin’ you Terrans do on Terra.”

As the ship neared whatever planet they were landing on, Peter felt a hard knot in his stomach. He was terrified. What if he couldn’t keep them distracted?

But it’s not like they never failed a job before. Because they have. A lot of the time because of Peter. But he can’t always help it, and Yondu sometimes knew that, but other times Peter would get harsh punishments for it. Like the time Peter failed to steal a jewel a scary animal was guarding. How was he supposed to get it with that thing guarding it? Yondu wouldn’t listen to him and instead made him scrub the walls over and over and over again.

Biting his lip, Peter prepared himself for whatever lied ahead. He could not fail this one. If they succeeded, it meant a happy Yondu. Yondu made sure to embed that into Peter’s brain.

Slowly the ship landed in a dark part of the planet to keep anyone from seeing them. The crew readied themselves while Peter took a huge long breath.

“ 'Member boy, this one’s important. Don’t screw it up,"Yondu growled at him before turning to his crew and yelling, "Alright, remember the plan. Keep quiet, don’t expose yerselves, and if anyone messes it up, ye be lucky to survive.” Some of the crew’s eyes shifted to Peter. Peter shifted uncomfortably.

Peter had to go out first before the crew to start the distraction. He breathed deeply and marched off the ship onto the soil of the strange planet. All around him were bushes and trees, like Terra.

Feeling a little more confident, Peter clutched his Walkman tighter in his pocket and stumbled on. It took about five minutes of walking and nearly tripping before Peter heard voices and seen light.

“I don’t want none a’ that. I ain’t payin’ for all that,"snarled a deep voice.

"Then you don’t get the gun. It’s a package deal,"snapped a cold, hard voice. "I can’t sell the rest of it without the gun.”

“Damn it. You didn’t mention none of that bullshit,"the first voice sneered. "All you told me was you had a good deal on the gun I wanted.”

“I do! It’s this whole thing, Snavesky. You couldn’t buy this package for this price anywhere. This price would be for the gun, and the gun only in most places!"the second voice replied.

"Fine,"he grumbled.

Silence as the men went through the exchange.

"Thanks. But next time tell me shit like this. I wasn’t prepared to buy all of this, Larka. I only needed a gun.”

Peter watched the men go their separate ways before walking through the clearing. He knew not to try to distract those guys. Yondu had told him the people he needed to find were the females. They were the rulers, while the men were the guards. As long as the women were distracted, they couldn’t order the guards to attack the Ravagers.

It was a few more minutes before Peter had found the big white tent Yondu told him about.

“Boy, you find 'em yet? Yer too slow,"Yondu hissed in his ear from the microphone they had placed to communicate.

"Yeah. Just couldn’t move for a few minutes because of two guards in my way,"Peter answered.

"Fine. You go in there and do yer thing, boy. Give us at least fifteen minutes.”

“Okay.”

Peter walked up to the entrance. Hopefully he could do this.

“Oh, Clarice, did I ever tell you the story my husband told me?"a woman’s voice rang from inside.

Now or never, thought Peter.

He pushed through the flaps into the tent to find himself stunned.

It looked like a damn castle. A huge long red carpet led up to steps where five women sat. Pews were lined up on either side of the walkway like a church, but no one sat in them. A huge chandelier hung from the ceiling of the tent, while two long tables on either side held food and what Peter could only assume alcohol.

The women were gorgeous. All five looked exactly alike. Long, blond hair in a long braid down to their laps. They had white skin like Peter, but their eyes were a bright purple and they wore the most gorgeous jewelry Peter had ever seen.

"Ooh, a guest,"one of the women piped up.

"How can we assist you?"the one second from the left said.

"I’m, uh, lost. I lost my dad,"Peter began.

"Oh, poor boy!"the middle one squeaked. "You must be terrified. What does your daddy look like?”

Peter decided to lie. “White skin, like me. Brown hair, brown eyes. He has muscles and a dark navy shirt on,"he whispered.

Whatever race they were they must have excellent hearing.

"Are you from Terra, sweetie?"the second from the right asked.

He nodded, trembling for effect.

"Is he here?”

He shook his head. “I got here by myself in a ship. It was my first time flying and I got lost and I found this planet.”

“How old are you, Terran?"the fifth one finally spoke up.

"Twelve,"he said.

"Oh, Clara, he’s still a child. We can’t just ignore this,"one said. She turned to Peter. "What’s your name, dear?”

“Peter Jason Quill.”

“Hello, Peter Jason Quill. My sisters and I are very kind; you are very fortunate to have found us. Do you know your father’s coordinates?”

He shook his head again.

“Okay, dear. It’s too late to contact our authorities. We hardly get any emergency, so they close early. We will let you stay tonight and then we can find your father tomorrow. Okay?"she asked.

Peter nodded.

"And our names are Clara, Clarice, Victoria, Serenity, and Maude. We are the queens of Ethyiopia,"she added. "If you need any help, we can assist you at any time. Now, shall I send a guard to show you our guest rooms?”

Internally Peter panicked. “Uh, yes. But I’m not really tired. I’m a bit hungry, actually.”

The one named Clarice, the first from the right, smiled kindly. “You may fill yourself with whatever you wish, Mr. Quill. The food that lies upon these tables are for visitors. Since you are, unintentionally, a visitor, you may help yourself.”

Feeling guilty for robbing these sweet women, Peter smiled back. “T-thank you, ma'am.”

As Peter searched the food table, he heard a communication device near the women start to buzz to alert them about intruders. Panicked, Peter abandoned the table.

“Uh, I also have allergies. Is there any food here with peanuts or gluten?"he asked nervously and a bit loudly to drown out the radio.

Fortunately, they did not seem to hear the radio. "Oh yes, dear. The food on the right -”

As they explained the food contents on the table, the radio buzzed again. The one closest to it looked at it, eyebrow raised. Feeling the overwhelming need to puke, Peter did the only thing he could do at that moment.

“Oh no. I ate one of the cookies. I can’t have peanuts!"Peter exclaimed. He grabbed his throat dramatically, pretending to choke. He made himself tremble and fall to the ground, convulsing.

The queens screeched. "Oh no! We have an emergency!"Clara squealed. "Poor thing! Call a medic!”

The queens rushed to his side while a medic was called on the radio. Peter, trying his best to look like he was dying, closed his eyes and kept choking himself. His face was red, and his hair was sticking up everywhere from the static.

Static? Peter thought. Then he realized. The electricity in his hands were shocking him. Very little amounts of electricity, but he could now feel it running through his veins and his face, making his hair stand on end.

A medic rushed in just then to cower over Peter. Knowing the medic would find him faking, he gasped, took his hands off his throat, and clenched his fists.

Screams echoed the tent as all lighting went out. The electricity in his fists must have caused that to happen. How, Peter did not know.

“Shit!"the medic cried. "I can’t see the boy -”

A guard ran in suddenly, panting, holding a torch. “Your Majesties, we have intruders trying to steal the precious stone!"he shouted.

Peter frowned. Why would Yondu want a stone? Oh yeah, because he’s Yondu.

Maude swelled in anger. "This can’t be! Stop them, Finnigan!”

Peter knew he could no longer stay here. He jumped to his feet, jumped around the medic and ran straight for the tent’s exit.

“He’s with them! He was faking it as a distraction!"shouted Victoria as Peter ran for his life.

He ran so hard everything hurt but he could not stop. He didn’t hear footsteps following him, but he did not care. Panting, Peter continued to run hard until he found the ship.

He leapt through the bushes and onto the ship’s ramp, not stopping until he got to the kitchen.

He dropped to the floor, breathing and sweating and shaking. Did he fail?

Obviously not, because a few seconds later, heavier, multiple feet were heard boarding the ship along with yells of victory.

Peter sighed a breath of relief. He was not getting punished tonight.

"Hurry, get on the ship. Move!"came Yondu’s voice. He was grinning as he walked into view before disappearing to pilot the ship with his first mate, Kraglin.

When they were far enough away from Ethiyopia, Yondu reemerged and clapped Peter on the back.

"Good job, boy. You helped us steal the stone!"he told him.

"What does it do?"he asked, staring at it with distaste. It was grey, like every other stone.

"Oh, don’t you worry 'bout that, Quill.” Yondu grinned down at him. “Now get to bed. You get tomorrow off for this.”

Peter happily obeyed the captain. A day off! He no longer cared about the stone. Putting it to the back of his mind, Peter rushed to his room and collapsed into bed.

A day off. Yes, Peter thought happily. He finally pleased Yondu for once.

Smiling, Peter put his headphones on and pushed play, falling asleep to “Southern Nights.”

Continued —

[dreameater1988]

The Doctor’s & Clara’s romance

I’ve made a little compilation of all the notable Whouffle and Whouffaldi moments over the seasons, along with my thoughts and theories:

Their relationship was set up as romance right from the very beginning with these words, because it becomes obvious right away that Clara might be romantically interested in the Doctor by hinting at future snogging. I don’t believe that she immediately jumped him, but she let him know from the beginning that she wasn’t uninterested. 

Let’s jump to “The Crimson Horror” where Eleven and Clara pose as husband and wife and they both convinced Mrs Gilliflower, a woman who is anything but stupid. In fact, they both seem to enjoy it, too.

I always like to believe that the end of “Nightmare in Silver” is the moment Eleven realizes that he fancies Clara because he notices her on a physical level. Besides, the conversation Mr Clever had with Clara in which “the Doctor” confesses his love to Clara is probably based on the Doctor’s own thoughts to which Mr Clever had access at that moment, but Clara saw through it and knew that the Doctor would never admit it.

When Clara suggests that she needs a boyfriend for Christmas dinner Eleven was excited. He actually believed that she was serious for a moment and he was more than happy to be her boyfriend, yet at the same time he was a bit worried that he might disappoint Clara. It was Eleven who was disappointed when he realized that Clara wasn’t actually serious.

Unfortunately they never really got to explore that part of their relationship because he got stranded on Trenzalore and later regenerated.

Matt Smith has confirmed that Clara was sort of his girlfriend while Jenna said in an interview or during a panel that Clara realized she was in love with him during the regeneration.

The rest is under a cut because it’s long:

After his regeneration the Doctor picks up where they left of, with the boyfriend argument. He assumes Clara never actually wanted him to be her boyfriend and admits that it was his mistake for assuming so for a brief moment. 

I never actually paid a lot of attention to this dialogue before watching the German dub for the first time and afterwards I realized that it could be read in various ways. In the German dub “Am I home?” was translated to “Do you want me to live here?” and the Doctor reply is “If that is what you want” and I now realize that the English original can be read as exactly that. The Doctor was more than happy to let Clara live with him.

The Doctor is heartbroken when he realizes that Clara doesn’t understand that he and Eleven are the same person and that his feelings for her haven’t changed and he begs her to give him a chance, which she does.

We all know that Clara started dating Danny in S8 because for her a romance with the Doctor was off the table now that he had made it clear he wasn’t her boyfriend, yet the Doctor is anything but fine with the competition. One of my favourite scenes and clear indication that the Doctor was jealous and actively trying to sabotage Clara’s relationship was the moment he hid in her bedroom during her date. He didn’t want her to be with anyone else.

Nevertheless, he is curious and wants to know just how serious Clara is about the other man and when he realizes that she is in fact serious, he can’t just let it happen.

He is jealous, but he can’t openly show it, so he decides to just do better than the competition.

The brief moment during “The Caretaker” when Twelve assumes she is dating Adrian breaks my heart every time I watch it. He thinks that Clara has chosen the young, dorky looking man with a bowtie who reminds him so much of his former self and he feels reassured that Clara is only using Adrian as substitute because Eleven is gone and that she still loves him. In his head the Doctor thinks that if she still loves Eleven, she can love the current him as well.

The Doctor is devastated when he realizes that Clara isn’t dating Adrian, but Danny, a soldier who couldn’t be more unlike the Doctor.

Again he is competitive and starts showing off while Danny is in the room, trying to prove that he is better for Clara, that he can take her to places Danny couldn’t even imagine, trying to show him that Clara is his by proving she wouldn’t hesitate to run away with him even in the middle of her date with Danny. 

MOTOE is meant as their break-up, their “last hurrah”, because Clara thinks she has chosen Danny and can no longer travel with the Doctor because he has changed. However, she is shocked to learn that their goodbye might be a bit more final than she had in mind and tries to cling to him despite her decision of not wanting to continue wit their travels. She is nervous and frightened. She doesn’t actually want to stop seeing him.

I think the “last hurrah” ist more like a “first hurrah” to them because I genuinely believe that they slept together on the Orient Express, probably for the very first time. That is based on a theory by @anotheruserwithnoname (if you would be so kind to reblog this with a link to your theory added, I couldn’t find it on your blog). The entire corridor scene is sizzling with sexual tension, as several articles have pointed out. Also the fact that both the Doctor and Clara were utterly nervous suggests that they knew what they were about to do (for the first time).

Clara specifically uses the word “dump” and unlike Danny she knows that the Doctor is sort of like a boyfriend or at least has the potential to be because S8 is basically a love triangle story.

After their adventure on the Orient Express Clara understands the Doctor a little better and she knows that she can’t leave him, so she decides to lie to Danny, her boyfriend, about running away with another man. If the Doctor had been just a friend Clara could have told him, she could have told Danny that she had decided to keep travelling with him and their previous phone call tells me that Danny would have understood and Clara knows this. Yet she still decided to keep the Doctor a secret - because he is more than a friend.

This is one of the strongest lines the Doctor has ever said to Clara and Steven Moffat himself confirms that it was meant as an “I love you”, but in this case “I love you” wasn’t enough. The Doctor’s feelings for her are so strong that they cannot be expressed simply by those three words.

This is a very interesting bit of dialogue because it raises the question why the Doctor is angry. Because he is travelling to the afterlife to get Clara’s boyfriend back, the boyfriend of the woman he loves. He doesn’t actually want to do it, but he has to because he loves her so much and he would tear the world apart to make her happy, even if it means that she is going to be with another man.

Towards the end of the episode Clara says something to Danny that makes him realize he never stood a chance against the Doctor. She tells him “He is the closest person to me in this whole world. He’s the man I will always forgive, always trust, the one man I would never, ever lie to.” It hits Danny that he can never compete with that, that even though Clara may have loved him, she will never love Danny as much as she loves the Doctor.

Yet Clara does lie to the Doctor at the end of “Death in Heaven”, just like the Doctor lies to Clara because they want the best for the other (and because they’re idiots). It is only later that they realize just how miserable the other has been and decide to elope together at the end of “Last Christmas”.

Playing “Pretty Woman” is an undeniably romantic gesture, one even Missy recognizes because she gives Clara a look. After telling her all about how Time Lords are above love and romance the Doctor goes and proves her wrong and you can read from Missy’s face that she thinks “oh what an idiot”. 

When the Doctor tells Clara that she needs another relationship, what he actually tells her is that she needs a relationship with a human, someone mortal, someone to keep her grounded. He wasn’t okay sharing Clara with Danny, but I think Clara’s relationship with Jane Austen is proof enough that he isn’t generally against sharing her with a person who would be good for her. He repeats that later in TGWD. However, Clara reassures him that he is enough for her both times.

Funnily enough the bit of dialogue in between where he tells her that humans are always writing songs about relationships or go to war is exactly what the Doctor will do for Clara at a later point.

I’m still in shock over the fact that this line was actually on the show. Obviously, they never say “I love you” to each other. Clara doesn’t because she promised Danny that she wouldn’t say it to someone else. The Doctor doesn’t because his feelings for her are a lot deeper than a simple “I love you”. Yet here is the confirmation that they loved each other. Clara assumes it and the Doctor proves it by coming back for her.

This is the scene where Clara understands for the first time just how their relationship is going to end, I believe. He said it to her before during that episode, he said that one day the memory of her will hurt so much that he won’t be able to breathe, but I don’t think Clara understood it at that point because they were still in the middle of trying to save Ashildr. Here she realizes that she is the person the Doctor truly can’t bear to lose.

Again, they never said those three words to each other for reasons I’ve already mentions and right before her death Clara is afraid that he is going to say them at last because it would rob her of her courage to go through with it. She knows that he loves her, but if she hears those words she knows she will want to stay. For his and for her own sake.

The parallel with the old couple was wonderful and subtle, but that is exactly what the Doctor and Clara are at this point. They are in a romantic relationship, if not married. And there is a wonderful theory out there that I’ve seen her here, but I don’t remember who posted it that said the sudden shift in their S9 relationship makes much more sense if you assume they got married after “Last Christmas”.

In his quiet moments during his 4.5 billion years in the confession dial that is what the Doctor does. He imagines that Clara is by his side. Steven Moffat also said in an interview that the Doctor painted the portrait of Clara from memory.

Again I’d like to point out that the Doctor spent 4.5 billion years trapped in his own person torture chamber and there are moments he thinks about giving up, he thinks about confessing everything, but he doesn’t because that is his last chance of saving Clara. It’s a small chance, but he clings to it because he is determined to get her back.

Even Clara is surprised when she learns just how far he would go for her, what he would go through just to have a tiny chance of saving her and she is shocked that he would do that.

Finally, in the cloisters, Clara decides to come clean and I believe she told him a lot of things during the scene we never saw, including that she loves him, even though she might not have used those exact words. 

Ashildr is older than the Doctor in this scene and she has seen everything there is to see. She knows the Doctor and Clara are more than just friends, she tells him her theory that together they are the hybrid. That is how strong their love is - it can destroy the universe.

In the end they both realize that they have to part ways because if they don’t do it now, they will never have the courage to, but even this last scene shows how bonded they truly are. “Let’s do it like we’ve done everything else. Together.” And by everything I believe they truly mean everything.

[the-desolated-quill]

Into The Dalek - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Deep Breath couldn’t have been a more disappointing start if you tried. Into The Dalek on the other hand is pretty damn good for the most part. There are some problems, sure, but the quality is night and day compared to the previous episode. Maybe Phil Ford’s input had something to do with this improvement. I don’t know.

On the spaceship Aristotle (subtle), the Doctor discovers a Dalek that seems to have turned good. So he, Clara and some soldiers from the future get shrunk down and go for a little trek inside the Dalek to see what caused this. Now yes, this premise is similar to The Invisible Enemy just like the plot of Deep Breath was similar to The Talons Of Weng-Chiang, but unlike Deep Breath, Into The Daleks is actually entertaining and does just enough to make the premise its own. I mean come on. It’s the inside of a Dalek! How cool is that?! We finally get to see how it actually works, and there’s a lot of imaginative concepts here. I like the Dalek antibodies, the whole idea of a memory cortex that edits and suppresses memories to keep a Dalek ‘pure’ is intriguing, and we finally get an explanation for the sink plunger at last. So it’s used to absorb protein from victims? How positively revolting.

But let’s talk about the thing I love the most about Into The Dalek. The Doctor. Now we’ve gotten past all the post regeneration nonsense, we can finally see what kind of Doctor this one is going to be, and it’s very dark indeed. Warm and cuddly he most certainly ain’t. He’s very cold and methodical. The scene where he lets one of the soldiers die in order to use him to track the antibodies was a bit of a jaw dropper, but i liked it. It’s still very much in character and it’s a side of him we don’t often get to see in New Who. I’m also pleased to see that the humour has improved since Deep Breath. It’s no longer goofy whimsey. This Doctor’s humour is much more acerbic and dry, and he delivers a lot of darkly comedic lines.

Journey Blue: (referring to the protein vat) “Is Ross here?”

The Doctor: “Yeah. He’s the top layer if you want to say a few words.”

This kind of humour fits Peter Capaldi like a glove and he does a great job portraying that cold logic mixed with callousness. but what I especially love is how this episode explores this Doctor’s priorities. One of the many things that’s been bugging me about New Who, and about the Eleventh Doctor especially, is how the Doctor has been sliding closer and closer to being an all powerful saint who can do no wrong. Not only is that incredibly boring, it’s also not who the Doctor is at all. Sure the Doctor is a decent person who will always try to help those in need, but he’s not a god or a superhero. He’s just a guy. He can make mistakes, he’s capable of doing morally questionable things and sometimes he can let his own scientific curiosity and self interests get the better of him. Into The Dalek really seeks to highlight that. Throughout the episode, the Doctor is utterly convinced that there is no such thing as a good Dalek, and when he fixed the radiation leak, he knew full well there was a chance that the Dalek would revert back to its murderous self, but he did it anyway. The Doctor knew that fixing the radiation leak could make the Dalek evil again, and he didn’t care. All he cared about was being proven right. I love that because it adds a whole other layer to the character and makes him all the more interesting.

But as much as I enjoyed Twelve in this, there are some aspects of his character I don’t like. For example, the whole self doubt thing and his constant need to seek Clara’s approval. Considering he just retconned the whole Time War in order to save his own race and defended Trenzalore for centuries, I don’t see why the Doctor is furrowing his brow over whether he’s a good man or not. Especially when the answer is so painfully obviously yes. He may occasionally be selfish and self absorbed, and can sometimes make mistakes, but he always tries to do the right thing. And can I just take this opportunity to debunk the idea yet again of the Doctor being completely ineffectual without a companion. It seems as though the Doctor can’t do anything without needing Clara to hold his hand and guide him through everything, which just feels totally wrong.

But by far the thing I hate most about Twelve is his soldier prejudice. I’ve spoken at length in the past about how idiotic the whole pacifist thing is considering the Doctor has often resorted to using violence and guns in extreme circumstances during the classic series. Yes I suppose you could argue that Nine and Ten’s PTSD might have exacerbated the whole ‘no guns’ thing, but Twelve takes it to a whole new level. He hates soldiers to the point where he rejects Journey Blue’s request to travel with him at the end, but he doesn’t actually seem to have a good reason for his hatred. Journey doesn’t do anything wrong as far as I can see. He just hates soldiers because the script said so. You’d think, considering he recently met the War Doctor, that he would be slightly more sympathetic to soldiers, but nope. It just doesn’t make sense and the whole idea of all soldiers being bad is just too narrow minded.

It’s such a shame as well because I actually really liked Journey Blue. Zawe Ashton did a really good job in the role and I loved how she interacted with the Doctor. She clearly has a begrudging respect for him, but at the same time she’s not prepared to put up with any of his bullshit. I would much rather she was travelling with the Doctor than Clara because I feel Twelve really needs someone to pin him against a wall sometimes and challenge him. Clara seems to have more of a teacher/pupil role with him (with Clara playing the teacher role, which is wrong in and of itself), which just feels incredibly patronising. Journey’s relationship with the Doctor is more believable and thus more engaging in my opinion and I would kill to have her in the TARDIS with Peter Capaldi. I know some people didn’t like how aggressive and stroppy she was, but to be fair, she did just lose her brother. I think she’s got a right to be a little bit cranky. And the scenes with her uncle, played by Michael Smiley, do more than enough to humanise her in my eyes so she’s not just an angry, shouty woman. They have this really professional relationship, but you can detect a familial warmth underneath.

I really enjoyed Into The Dalek for the most part, but it’s when we get towards the end where the wheels start to wobble. The Doctor realising that all the Daleks could potentially be turned good isn’t a bad idea in and of itself. The problem is what this plotline focuses on. In the end, it’s the Doctor’s own hatred of the Daleks that turns Rusty into a Dalek killer rather than the reformed good guy the Doctor wanted, and we’re clearly supposed to be thinking about how much hate and prejudice the Doctor has towards the Daleks, but it doesn’t work. Not only have we basically explored this already in 2005′s Dalek (and done it better), I can’t help but feel Phil Ford and Steven Moffat have missed the point of their own story entirely. Honestly I think this tells us more about the Daleks than the Doctor. My main takeaway from this isn’t how hateful the Doctor is, but rather how utterly beyond help the Daleks are. Rusty was banging on about destroying the Daleks long before the Doctor mind melded with it. The way I see it, what turns Rusty isn’t the Doctor’s hatred, but rather its own desire for hatred. The Daleks don’t just want to hate. They need to hate. Whether it’s hating against humans, Time Lords or their own fellow Daleks, it seems that is a Dalek’s sole purpose of existence. Even in an attempt to expand its consciousness, Rusty ends up going for the one thing it recognises within the Doctor. Hatred. Why? Because that’s the only thing it knows how to do. It’s kind of tragic when you think about it and could have been used to great effect. This could have been an opportunity to shine a whole new light on the Daleks and present them in a way that’s never been done before, but instead Ford and Moffat sidestep what could have been a very interesting issue to explore in favour of retreading old ground. They’re focusing on entirely the wrong thing here, which is frustrating.

And then there’s the whole situation with Danny Pink. Samuel Anderson does the best he can with what he’s been given, but I’m not impressed with this character. Not only are we doing the whole cliched romcom shit again like we did in The Lodger, it’s also yet another stupid mystery for Moffat to drag out over the course of the series. What did Danny do while he was a soldier? And just to make sure all subtlety is thrown out of the window, we even get a prolonged shot of a single poetic tear trickling down Danny’s cheek. It’s really pathetic. Moffat is so bad at getting us to care about his characters that he has to resort to melodramatic bollocks like this to try and drag some kind of emotion out of us. Also, fuck you Clara. I don’t know what sort of emotional trauma Danny went through (and I don’t really care neither), but he’s clearly suffering from some form of PTSD, so to make dismissive jokes about it really is just beyond insulting. (And while I’m complaining about Clara, can we drop all the companion slapping Doctor jokes now please? Like I said in the past, it’s not cute and sexy. it’s assault and battery).

While there are a few flaws here and there, I still had a lot of fun watching this episode. I’d say this is definitely one of the better Dalek stories to come out of New Who.

[nehswritesstuffs]

thx for the 12xclara fic recs - got any malcolmxclara recs? (besides yr own?)

Why yes, yes I do. Hopefully they were satisfactory, just as I hope this list is. The recs are, as with the previous fic rec post, under the cut and with various links, tags, etc.

So like I said in the Whouffaldi recs, @antennapedia​ has some pretty good Malcolm/Clara fics, though she has periods where she doesn’t do the writing thing due to various reasons. Her story Okay is pretty nice and fluffy, with additional sexytimes and whatnot. If you’re looking for something more hardcore/explicit, I’d go with the Owned series, which does the dom/sub thing without going Fifty Shades levels of gross on you. I kinda wanted to mention Second Life in the last set of recs too, but never did since it’s Twelve/Clara/Malcolm in a legit threesome (instead of the straight-line-with-Clara-in-the-middle I wrote once). This is also explicit because, well, threesome. Antenna does genuinely have our backs in a lot of ways… oh, and also: a good one-shot that looks like it can go further but might not idk that’s up to her is Travelling Hopefully.

Do you want 76k+ words of well-written story with promise of more? As long as you don’t mind Clara inexplicably becoming half-French, then Azertyrobaz’s Clarity and Gravity are for you. The first one is definitely setup for the other, and it goes from being mostly-sweary to there being sex. There’s also a scandal, a piece o’ shite car, a dog, and Jamie playing matchmaker. None of these things are related. Kinda. Be warned though: it takes ages to update, but it’s worth it.

A story where Jamie doesn’t play matchmaker? Bad Education [FFN] by kronoskingofthemonkeypeople. In a lot of stories, somehow Clara ends up becoming involved in government on a paid basis; this one has her being perfectly Clara from her natural environment of Coal Hill and Malcolm is sort of smacked into smitten by her wit, guts, and dedication. This also takes a while to update on occasion, has some sexytiems, and features most of the TTOI cast.

Again, this is obviously not a complete list, as I purposely don’t read everything due to time restrictions, wanting to write my own stuff, blah, blah, blah-blah. I also sometimes wait until something is finished to read it, hence why more-widely-read denizens of the ships are probably thinking “why not ____” right now.