#at least she wasn't a DOCTOR

[yun-jin-noona]

If you really think about it for like a second, Lawrence didn't need to lose a whole foot. If he'd just cut off a sizeable chunk of his heel, he could have slipped his foot through the chain AND the blood would have been a great lubricant to help.

[collophora]

More minibatch adventure I need a full show maybe too XD

[sergle]

Worth mentioning that I'm partially switching doctors bc when I was running all over the place trying to get my surgery shit set up in time, and I went to the bloodwork lab for the second time, I vented just a little bit to the woman who's been working there a long time. being like. I've had to do this and that and my doctor said this and that he can't find this... and she was like Hmm. You have Dr. (name of my doctor), don't you?

[cosmic-chelonian]

The fact that there are so many lore inconsistencies in Dr Who is sometimes a good thing actually because it means I feel justified in having headcanons that vastly and grossly contradict show canon. If the writers can ignore things they don't like why can't I.

[variousqueerthings]

VERY RAMBLY BUT I think rose and martha are like the inverse of one another in terms of narrative, in that they both meet a doctor who is deeply deeply hurt, but the doctor interacts with them about it so differently, because of where they're at with that hurt, and the doctor is like "hey, I'm suave and vulnerable beneath the surface, which is quite attractive, want to travel in space and time in my whimsical timeship?" and they both go "oh heck yes!" and then it's like splintered glass from that point on, like martha lives in a funhouse mirror of rose's story -- up until she makes it her own of course and she does call the doctor out on it relatively early on, although rose continues to have that haunting effect

so rose has this bubble created around her that is perfect and unchangeable almost, in which nothing bad can ever happen (except for all the times it does but huuush, we'll be together forever forrealsies don't look at that big ol hurricane hurtling our way), which then inevitably bursts, but is always there-as-memory, because rose becomes something of an impossible ideal to some extent

and martha isn't protected at all, and has all the badness spilling out on her because the doctor is unable to contain any of it (and maybe is relieved to finally give up on being strong), and subsequently all of the promise of wonder has an air of sourness to it, and the doctor will always feel incredibly guilty about how it all ended

but crucially there's a lot they have in common, that is quite different to, say, donna (who is woven in in her own, interesting, way) -- they both become attracted to this powerful, interesting, and suuuper traumatised being, they're both taken along on a journey of promised wonders, they're both incredibly reliable to the point that the narrative is retroactively fitted around how much the doctor's belief-systems revolve around belief in their companions, with many others from the past given their dues (starting with sarah-jane), and they both do see wonders beyond their comprehension (and so does donna, but again, there's something a bit different there to poke at in another post...),

except where for rose this wonder helps her break out of the path that was set down for her and become who she always had the potential to be in a way that is mostly framed as a positive (although with some -- I think -- under-analysed caveats...) and she will be forever thankful for the doctor arriving in her life, martha's is more like an awe that the universe is so hostile and so lonely and so heartbreaking, and so she needs to become more resilient and more ready to make choices that are terrible (from travelling the broken world for a year to the osterhagen key....), and so there's another story about someone who becomes strong and tough (just like rose) but it's because the doctor wasn't really able to be there for her, and while I don't think the show (from memory) ever has her totally regretting the doctor dropping into her life, there for sure is some solemnity to how her story ends, a bit of a dampener in comparison (even tbh in comparison to donna, who yeah, gets her memory taken, but is suggested -- now confirmed perhaps? -- to get more of her life in order/feel more self-confident, also partially because of that subliminal influence of her time with the doctor)

and this isn't to say that it's all-bad for martha! her working for UNIT and Torchwood has a lot of very interesting facets to it, and she is fulfilling her potential to be this impressive, capable person, but the ways all of this was built up to is so heartrending

rose coming in and "saving" the doctor, except it was a bit of a lie, because the second she wasn't there they crashed even harder than before, and martha coming in with the idea that she could save the doctor and walking away when realising what it was doing to her life, and both rose and martha irrevocably changed to the point that the person pre-doctor is barely recognisable in them anymore, both take on the doctor's self-sacrificial traits...

and also the idea that rose gets the fantasy, but it's the fantasy a-bit-to-the-left (funhouse again) because there's always something a bit disconcerting about the lengths the doctor goes to to maintain the bubble, to the point of offering up the alternate-him/tentoo so that she can still have it, even though the actual physical doctor that shared it with her isn't actually there! and martha gets the glimpse of the fantasy, and then has to come to terms with the fact that she's not the person it's "for" and reassess her relationship to the idea of a fantasy in the first place (it helps that martha is an incredibly practical, pragmatic person, but it's still so... ouch)

I don't think it was intentional, but this also fascinating from the perspective of rose as a white woman and martha as a black woman -- who is the fantasy for, to the extent that strange and universe-breaking events go into maintaining it, and who has to be practical and pragmatic and self-reliant?

and also, it's got more tragedy in both cases -- rose as a spectre/haunter of the narrative is always a little bit intangible when she's looked back on (even though in the story she's in she's incredibly real and well-rounded, every time I go back to s1 I am struck by how grounded she is in reality), and I think that's something interesting in terms of her mother's warning in s2, how if she travels with the doctor "forever" she'll become something else, something not her

and martha's mother warns her as well, although she's not completely sure of what, and in contrast to rose this warning comes into very painful fruition, harming her entire family (except, maybe her brother? I wonder if there's anything written about that), but where rose is so omnipresent, martha tries several times to take herself out

(also something about both of their mothers being their anchor-points)

there's something there that's at the centre of both rose's and martha's arcs:

is the change they're going through because of the doctor... good? good for them? good for their families? good as in they're becoming better people than before? good for the world they inhabit? is it good for the person they used to be? did they become better than that person? can they ever truly deal with or even begin to comprehend how these events made them who they are? can they even connect who they are now to who they were then? was this good?

they both become these larger-than-life people, somewhat without noticing on both parts (but the narrative does notice), one of them a ghost, and the other a soldier -- one of them an increasingly intangible, ever-present idea, and the other someone who has to fight every step of the way

it's just a bunch of things I've had going through my head that I can't quite formulate in coherent essay-like sentences, but for sure it's there

opposite sides of the coin, rose tyler and martha jones

I do wish they'd had space in the story for them to talk

[flickerofembers]

Okay, my current Doctor Who theory is that Ruby is somehow related to Susan. Do I have any evidence? No, it's just completely vibes based. And that's my favourite kind of theory.

[laugtherhyena]

Akira and girlfriend/childhood friend that she bothers constantly (in a loving playful manner, of course)

[maukuja]

I'm back in the fucking building again

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

Outside of the love triangle and the two Phoenix Sagas, Jean really had fuck all to do on X-Men: The Animated Series. It honestly feels like she was only on the show to begin with because the writers wanted to do Dark Phoenix and once that story was done they no longer had an real use for her. I'm currently halfway through season 4 and she's barely appeared. Even all the love triangle silliness with Scott and Logan has been forgotten about. I hope X-Men '97 corrects this. Really can't do with another adaptation that doesn't know what the hell to do with Jean.

[vickyvicarious]

So... I'm thinking Marian is being drugged, yeah?

Her doctor insisted she was getting better and would be fine. Then Fosco got a nurse working for him to take charge of much of her care. After a couple of days in which trust in her abilities could grow, Marian suddenly gets worse. Fosco claims the fever has turned into typhus. To quote the footnote in my book: "If Marian does indeed have Typhus, she did not get it from being soaked in the rain. The disease is spread through the bites of insects — mites, chiggers, lice, fleas." She admittedly does show seem to show symptoms that match and I don't know if Collins would have known how typhus is spread.

Then the new physician arrives and backs up the Count's assessment. After some time of anxiety, it's pronounced that she will be okay after all, but needs a lot of rest and recovery time. Then Fosco and the original doctor argue about her diet during her recovery. The typhus mistake is leveraged against him and Fosco abruptly abandons all restraint to argue with him more openly now, until he ends up just leaving. Marian has no doctor, only Fosco's nurse.

Not only is this very dramatic and taking a toll on Laura's emotional and physical wellbeing too (with added stuff like letting her in to see Marian in the worst condition, and the doctor's absence in the end being hidden from her)... but it all seems suspiciously designed/timed to discredit and drive away the doctor. The Foscos have already established a willingness to drug people, after all, with Laura's maid...

[no-passaran]

It doesn't matter how much you post about transgression and being proud to be weird and queer as in fuck you and going against society's expected behaviours if you then turn around to ridicule and infantilize the people who diverge in other ways that aren't the same ones as yours or the couple more that internet discourse has made you care about.

I'm saying this because of a poll going around in my dash (won't link because it's not a matter of these people in particular, it's much more widespread) asking people if they've taken a certain drug and people commenting different variations of 'why has this poll only reached children' or not believing the results when they see that most of the voters say no. I assure you most people (specially young people) who don't like the things that are expected of them like going out on clubs and drinking alcohol and doing some of the popular drugs of their subculture are already getting enough shit for it and don't need any more people trying to shame them into following the majority or telling them they're children for doing what they choose and not what others think is the Correct and Appropriate Hobby for this age group/demographic.

I never see this term in English-speaking internet but Latin American activism often talks of the 'right to the free development of personality'. Maybe it needs to go viral before many people really take it into account and get rid of the ideas that their hobbies, their interests and their way of living are the only correct ones and everyone else has something wrong with them or hasn't grown up, because clearly you can't be a healthy adult and not be just like them. There are always going to be people who like different things on Earth, and we can only get used to it.

[thelightfantastik]

Don't mind me sobbing over Doctor Who

I'm so excited to see more Who for the first time in years

[cactiaintracist]

Martha Jones is pansexual. I accept no arguments

[youremyonlyhope]

Don't be like me, kids. Don't accidentally take your antidepressant at night when you meant to take your insomnia meds.

Let's see who wins, will I fall asleep or will I be up all night?

[billgavemeextrachips]

Doctor Who Facebook is such a wild (and aggravating) ride compared to my happy little curated Tumblr space.

[mycroftscafe]

this is the scene we deserved.