#clara wanting to become like the doctor in some capacity

[tardxsblues]

[papermoonloveslucy]

DINNER AT EIGHT

February 18, 1940

The Campbell Playhouse (1938–1940) was a live CBS radio drama series directed by and starring Orson Welles. Produced by Welles and John Houseman, it was a sponsored continuation of The Mercury Theatre on the Air. As a direct result of the front-page headlines Orson Welles generated with his 1938 Halloween production "The War of the Worlds", Campbell's Soup signed on as sponsor. The Mercury Theatre on the Air made its last broadcast December 4, 1938, and The Campbell Playhouse began December 9, 1938.

The series offered hour-long adaptations of classic plays and novels, as well as adaptations of popular motion pictures. When Campbell’s exerted more creative control over the selection of material, Welles left the show. 

Bernard Herrmann was the series’ composer and conductor. The opening theme was “Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor” by Tchaikovsky.

DINNER AT EIGHT was originally written by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber as a play which opened October 22, 1932, at Broadway’s Music Box Theatre, and closed May 6, 1933 after 232 performances.  

In 1933, (the same year Lucille Ball arrived in Hollywood), the play was turned into an MGM film by George Cukor. The role of Kitty (played by Lucille Ball on radio) was played by Jean Harlowe. 

The play was also revived on Broadway several times and was made for television. 

Synopsis ~ The Jordan family are planning a society dinner. The story concerns what they, as well as various friends and acquaintances - all of whom have their own problems and ambitions - do as they prepare for the event.

CAST

Lucille Ball (Kitty Packard)

Orson Welles (Host / Dan Packard / Larry Renault) was three months away from embarking on his masterwork, Citizen Kane, when this radio play was aired. Before Lucille Ball dated Ed Hall and Desi Arnaz, Welles was often seen on her arm at public events. Lucy and Desi later allowed him to reside in their guest house and starred him in an episode of “I Love Lucy”. 

Hedda Hopper (Millicent Jordan) was then broadcasting her own radio show “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood” as well as writing a syndicated column.  She appeared on “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” As an actress, she did two with Lucille Ball: Bunker Bean (1936) and That’s Right – You’re Wrong (1939). Hopper was best known for her flamboyant hats.

Charles Trowbridge (Oliver Jordan) originated the role of Oliver Jordan in the Broadway production of Dinner at Eight although the role was played by Lionel Barrymore on screen. He did two films with Lucille Ball: Her Husband’s Affairs (1947) and A Woman of Distinction (1950). 

Marjorie Rambeau (Carlotta Vance) was only a month away from the premiere of her film Primrose Path, which would earn her an Oscar nomination in 1941. 

Benny Rubin (Max Kane) was heard on “My Favorite Husband” as well as doing an episode of “I Love Lucy” and several appearances on “The Lucy Show.” 

Clara Blandick (Hattie Loomis) had just created the role of Aunt Em in The Wizard of Oz, which is what she is best known for despite her many other credits. including four films with Lucille Ball, three of those in 1934 alone. 

Mary Taylor (Paula Jordan) had previously worked with Welles on Mercury Theatre of the Air. 

Edgar Barrier (Dr. Talbot) was previously directed by Welles in the 1938 film Too Much Johnson. 

Ernest Chappell (Announcer) served in the same capacity for TV’s “The Big Story” (1951-57)/  

THE EPISODE

Orson Welles introduces the show, Kaufman and Ferber’s play Dinner at Eight.  He tells the audience that we never see (or hear) the actual dinner in Dinner at Eight. He talks about his three leading ladies: 

Hedda Hopper “who was a distinguished actress before she branched out into her present career of acting and ‘columning’.” 

Miss Lucille Ball “is the beautiful and talented young lady who’s position in Hollywood is becoming increasingly more important.” 

Marjorie Rambeau “one of the first talents of the theatre who is carving out a new career in motion pictures.”  

Welles introduces Ernest Chappell, who does a pitch for Campbell’s Vegetable Soup. 

“Whether you’re having dinner at eight or supper at six.”

As the story begins, Millicent Jordan (Hedda Hopper) is on the telephone inviting people to her dinner party. Her husband, Oliver (Charles Trowbridge), comes in. She tells him how the guest list is shaping up. He suggests she invite Dan and Millicent Packard, although she thinks she’s a horrible woman. Paula (Mary Taylor), her daughter, comes in. She’s engaged to be married to Ernest but is still maintaining an active social life. She’s been seen nightly at 21.

MILLICENT: “Some day I’m going to find out what goes on at 20 -- and at 22, too!”    

Paula runs out. Hattie (Clara Blandick) comes in and she and Millicent gossip about that “Packard Woman”.  As Hattie leaves for her shopping trip, Millicent reluctantly phones Mrs. Packard to invite her to her dinner party. 

The scene cross fades to Mrs. Packard (Lucille Ball) hanging up with Mrs. Jordan.  She is in bed awaiting the doctor with her maid Tina. Mrs. Packard is eating chocolates, guessing what is inside each one. 

Meanwhile, Carlotta Vance (Marjorie Rambeau) barges in while Oliver Jordan is in his office on the telephone. She demands to know why the Customs Office says she cannot own six fur coats. They discuss Mr. Vance’s assets, including a theatre she is longing to sell - calling it a fleabag.  She is a stockholder in Mr. Jordan’s company.  He urges her not to sell.  They reminisce about their younger days, when they were courting.  He once proposed marriage. 

Dan Packard (Orson Welles) enters the office. He recognizes her from her days on the stage.  Before she departs, Jordan confirms that she is coming to dinner next Friday.  Jordan and Packard talk business. The Jordan Line Shipping is in financial straights and he wants a loan from Packard, who promises to consider it. 

Back at the Packards, Dan arrives to find Kitty still in bed. He complains that Jordan cannot handle his business and he aims to buy them out. Dan says he won’t go to dinner there and Kitty is not happy about it. She tries wheedling him and she mentions the dinner is for Lord and Lady Ferncliff.  He says he is going to buy out Jordan using dummy stock holders.  

Doctor Talbot (Edgar Barrier) arrives to examine Kitty. We learn that they are having an affair. The music swells and the scene transitions to...

Mrs. Jordan, still planning her dinner party, looking for one more man to balance her table. Hattie and Mrs. Jordan, suddenly get a brilliant idea for their final guest - movie star Larry Renault.

Meanwhile, Paula visits her paramour, Larry Renault (also Orson Welles). They are in love. She warns him not to drink so much. His agent Max Kane (Benny Rubin) has gotten him a part in a play. He tells her she should just marry Ernest. Renault has been married three times and is almost 40!  His second wife drove off a cliff and his third is now the biggest star in Hollywood.  Paula impulsively says she is going to tell everyone about their love - including her parents! 

Kane arrives and Paula leaves to find urges him to stop drinking and get in shape. Kane breaks the news that the play is off!  The new producer doesn’t want him. He’s been replaced by an English actor. Kane suggests he take a smaller role in the play. Kane suggest he humble himself to the new producer, but Renault is indignant. 

“I’m Larry Renault!  I don’t go to managers with my hat in my hand!” 

At the Jordan home, Carlotta and Millicent talk about the party, including the invitation of Lord Ferncliff, who everyone calls “Stinky”.  When Mr. Jordan comes home, she confides to Oliver that she has sold her Jordan stock.  It seems she isn’t the only one who has sold Jordan stock that day. 

A phone call informs Millicent that the Ferncliffs are going to Florida and can’t come to dinner after all!  Just then, Paula comes home to tell her mother urgent news about her engagement to Ernest. Oliver says he is feeling unwell, and wants to go to bed instead of having dinner. Millicent is at wits end with the party cancellations and her family’s drama!

END OF ACT ONE

Ernest Chappell returns to urge mothers to get their child’s recommended serving of milk by adding it to Campbell’s Tomato, Celery, and Asparagus soups. 

ACT TWO

That night, Renault is drunk. Kane brings up Mr. Stingle, the new producer of the play. Renault bullies Mr. Stingle calling him a hack. Stingle abruptly leaves.  Renault blames Kane, who tells him he’s washed up in show business. 

KANE: “You’re a corpse and you don’t know it! Go get yourself buried.” 

Kane leaves and Renault pours himself another drink - the last one in the bottle. He’s visited by a hotel manager who tells him he’s being evicted from his suite.  He calls the operator and tells him not to put any calls through. Larry turns on the gas.  

At dinner, introductions are made. Seems as if Mrs. Packard already knows Dr. Talbot. Mrs. Jordan says that Lord Ferncliff’s absence is due to ill health. Carlotta brings her little dog, which she wants fed lobster.  She inadvertently announces that Lord and Lady Ferncliff are vacationing, not ill at all.  Everyone wonders where Larry Renault is.  Paula enters and Mrs. Jordan decides they shouldn’t wait for Renault.  

Paula is distracted.  She phones the hotel to speak with Renault and they refuse to connect her. They mention the police and then Paula goes silent.  The police would like to speak with her.  

END OF PLAY

Ernest Chappell, having addressed the women at the intermission, addresses the men in the audience, touting the hearty comforts of Campbell’s Soups. 

Orson Welles returns for an interview with the female guest stars.  Welles insists that her participation tonight will lead to something vile in her column tomorrow!  He points out that her character spent a lot of time on the telephone in the story. Welles attributes the modern gossip column to the invention of the telephone, who he jokingly credits to Don Ameche!  

The Story of Alexander Graham Bell is a somewhat fictionalized 1939 biographical film of the famous inventor that starred Don Ameche as Bell and Loretta Young as his wife Mabel. Coincidentally, the film also featured Charles Trowbridge (Oliver Jordan in tonight’s radio play).

In scripted banter, Miss Rambeau recalls happier days when there were no columns, which gets Hopper hopping mad!  Welles begs Miss Ball to intervene.

LUCY: “On behalf of Kitty Packard, I think Mrs. Jordan and Mrs. Vance ought to call it a day - both of them. Just because a girl likes to have a bit of fun and not sit around like a piece of furniture or something you’d think butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths---”. 

Welles interrupts the cat fight to bid everyone goodnight, but not without a reminder that next Sunday, Only Angels Have Wings, starring Joan Blondell. 

‘DINNER’ TRIVIA

This is one of four characters named Kitty that Lucille Ball has played.  Others were in Follow The Fleet (1936), Without Love (1945), and The Facts of Life (1960).

In the 1933 film version, Elizabeth Patterson plays Miss Copeland, secretary to Oliver Jordan (Lionel Barrymore). Patterson went on to play Mrs. Trumbull on “I Love Lucy.” 

A clip from the 1933 film was included in “Toast of the Town’s 30th Anniversary Tribute to MGM”, a program that also featured its star Lionel Barrymore (Oliver Jordan), Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

Paul Harvey, who played the New York Times Art Critic in “Lucy the Sculptress” (ILL S2;E15) had his greatest success on Broadway as Dan Packard in the original cast of Dinner at Eight. His role was taken in the film by Wallace Beery. 

A 1955 CBS television version of Dinner at Eight featured “Lucy” cast members Eleanor Audley (as Carlotta Vance), Pierre Watkin, and Tristram Coffin.  She is seen above on “I Love Lucy” with Peter Bucco. 

In the 1989 TV movie of Dinner at Eight, Kitty Packard (the character played by Lucille Ball on radio) was played by Ellen Greene, famous for playing Audrey on stage and screen in Little Shop of Horrors. In that musical she sings about “Lucy”!

The 1966 Broadway revival of Dinner at Eight was at the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon), the same theatre where Lucille Ball did Wildcat five years earlier. 

Season 4 episodes of “Here’s Lucy” were sponsored by Campbell’s Soup. The DVD includes a commercial that features Dodie Goodman and Eddie Bracken. Coincidentally, Bracken is credited with introducing Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz when they were starring in the film version of Too Many Girls in 1940, the same year as this radio broadcast. 

Campbell’s Soup was immortalized in paint by artist Andy Warhol in 1962. Twenty years later he used Lucille Ball as his muse. 

The 2002 Broadway revival of Dinner at Eight at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre starred Emily Skinner as Kitty (the role played by Lucille Ball on radio). Skinner played Lucille Ball on Broadway in The Cher Show which played at....yes...the Alvin Theatre!

[2ofswords]

daniil learning more about town-on-gorkhon and how to live in it? trying to find a sense of home...

I got a bit carried away, so it is under a cut! Also I sure hope the story still fits the prompt... Thank you for it either way, I had a fun time writing this! ^^ 

The bartering in the town had always struck Dankovsky as a bare necessity. Sure, there seemed to be a tradition woven around it, but those were usually created to elevate a purpose. In a town torn from the rest of the country and dependant on regular trains, one had to rely on community in times of delay and the method of trading established such a network for basic needs quite smoothly. The days of plague showed as much albeit with a morbid connotation. One simply couldn't call children trading you morphine for needles the height of community values. Still he always imagined the tradition not to disappear but to… subdue. Yet, as always, his hypothesis was proven wrong and people cheerily bartered their sugar for meat the moment the trains continued their delivery. At first, continuing was more of a habit than anything else. There were still some raisins left in his pockets and Dankovsky himself never really had that much love for the small treats. The children were less enthusiastic about them as well, but he didn’t really need the soap they gave him, anyway. Then he remembered the beetles he had kept in his cabinet at Stillwater. An emergency stash he told himself, yet many such emergencies appeared and not a single insect left the house, unless as small tokens he uselessly carried around. A small sentimentality, reminding him that something beside the plague-ridden hell scape exists. Not that it actually mattered in the long run and now… Now he needed to move and the beetles… they would be hard to explain. So they had to go.

Finding a kid that would take them wasn’t very difficult. One of the small children wondered in awe at the collection, starstruck eyes staring at the delicate creatures while her fingers carefully danced over them and Daniil couldn’t help but notice the pull in his gut guiding his memory to times that had died long before his arrival in town. A happy and childish pounding, that broke his concentration long enough to not notice the kid question at first. “I asked, what you want for it.” “Oh… Um…” Maybe he should have thought about that. “You can just keep them. If you like them, they might be in good hands after all. Maybe add some to the collection. Or categorize them, that should probably be done…” The frown that graced her face signalled that his answer wasn’t quite adequate. Yes. This was still about tradition where trust in an equal trade was valued. One cannot disturb the children’s beetle and nut economy without repercussions, after all. “I have to give something back. I have to give you a part of my endurance after all. People say I have so much of it and I can hold my breath longest. Shall I show you?” “I believe you, it is fine. You do not need to… you are competing about holding your breath?” “U-huh. And I still have plenty of it until I reach second place. You seem like you could need some of it.” “… getting out of breath less often sound’s tempting.” He is getting too old for this and he still has a meeting with Burakh and Rubin in the afternoon. Now that the worst is over, he had proposed to take stock of the more harmless illnesses in town to order medicine, that hadn’t expired decades ago. “So you still have to say what you want. Aren’t you too young to always forget what I’m saying? Did the plague get to you?” “Watch your tongue, or you might really need that breath of yours.” “No need to get so defensive, old man. Geez. Don’t they teach you any manners?” Do they teach anyone manners? If someone ever bothered it didn’t have anything to do with the children in town. “So what do you have to give, little brat.” “Hm…” The child crossed her legs while contemplating the business deal. “I have a loaf of bread, I guess. These are a lot of beetles after all…”

A loaf of bread is acceptable. Or so it seemed, until he opens his mouth and noticed, how small exactly the arm was, that held the box of beetles protectively in her lap. How loosely the little dress hung from her body. A loaf of bread would sound fantastic, while he was starving or when there wasn't enough time to reach any of the stores. But this isn’t the case and he isn’t exactly in need of bread. “So do we have a deal or not?” He should close his mouth. Or better yet answer the question. “How about… you give me something else.” He couldn’t possibly take anything from a starving child. Shouldn’t. Ever, yet he had done so too many times. This has to stop, he shouldn’t be even considering it. He is a scientist and as far as he is concerned exploiting children wasn’t in the job description. “How about… a story.” Children like stories, right? They must be valuable in some way. “I mean”, he adds quickly, “the needs of our mind are as important as the basic needs of our body. So I demand you to accommodate my craving for… more intellectual affairs.” “I mean… sure. If you want to… grandpa.” At this point this kid was just testing his endurance. Motivating breathing exercises might also be a way to increase its capacity. “I do.” Her eyes wandered to the box and then back to Dankovsky. “I mean. Sure. Then let me tell you a story…”

He thought nothing of the trade at first. His beetles did after long last find their rightful heir. One objective cleared. Time to indulge in more important affairs. That belief lasted until evening, when he found one of the kids lurking at his doorstep. “Are you the doctor that trades in stories?” “I am the doctor. Are you hurt, is everything alright?” “Look, my friend has gotten himself a splinter in the foot! Walked on some wood, when we were trying to… ah never mind. Anyway, we –“ “Lead the way.” “- we only need some tweezers, but our shop didn’t have any to sell!” “I can remove the splinter. It’s a simple enough procedure and even a small wound needs to be properly disinfected.” “I don’t have anything on me. Maybe one of the buttons, but I only have three of them left. So I thought…” “It’s fine.” But it probably isn’t because everyone seems hell-bent on losing every small trinket in their possession. Does anyone even wear the charms that are made, they seem to change hands on a daily basis. “You can tell me the story while we are on our way. If it is a good one, I might not even tell your parents about it.” The child’s face lit up. “Then buckle up, because I do have a good one.”

The next day turned out to be a complete and utter mess. A mess made of excited whispers whirling hands frantically signing what words cannot convey and a lot of sugar filled food leaving his hands. “So. There once was this boy, who had a small wolf cub as his half …” “And then I saw this monster in the steppe! Not the Shabnak but an even bigger one!” “The bull talked! I swear it did!” “My granddad used to sew, you know, so I had a few needles at hand. And the guy really deserved it, so we –“ “Then a giant wave pulled us out of the facet and we all sat at the stairs, we were so surprised!” At some point in the afternoon he had to stock up on cookies and apples just to gain something to trade away. Utter nonsense. He should’ve demanded this madness to stop. The children were barely giving him enough space to move from place to place and their constant chatter did become… grating. Yet there he was, more sweets in hand, while his next unusual costumers were already waiting right before the shop. Do these brats even know, that he isn’t a walking garbage dispenser? Still. The thought about turning them away seemed just as wrong at this point. He was knee deep in this mess already. Might as well swim. And some of these stories were charming really. Somehow everyone seemed to have swallowed a poet whole and considering the local medicine that might not be that much off from the truth… Still. The constant talking was annoying. Distracting, really, a major inconvenience at best. Yet it was oddly charming to observe their desperate tries to up one another as if they expected Dankovsky to pull a secret cake out of his coat that only the best storyteller could get. They were trying. Inspiring one another, forming a chain of developing fantasies that were quite unreal – and quite frankly useless – but cheerful and… lively.

“There you are. I was looking for you.” “Aren’t you all?”, he answered before turning and noticing Clara leaning against a nearby building. Her smile was as knowing as ever. She couldn’t possibly look into other peoples minds, right? Of course not, utter rubbish. These story’s must have gotten to him after all. “What do you want?” “They say, you are giving out free candy.” “It’s not free. And if that is all, you might want to be on your way.” Of course she is following when he turns on his heels and tries to be on his way. “So, I have a story for you.” “I guessed as much.” He doesn’t even have to look at her to know she is pouting. When he finally does, she seems as happy as ever though. “There once was a prince who was locked outside of his house. When he wandered through the garden, he spotted a flower more gorgeous and beautiful then all of the rest. But the flower grew too large and everything that fell under his shadow withered and died away.” “That must have been quite the flower.” “Shh. I’m talking. So they send for a gardener, even if the prince had loved his flower very dearly. So he gave the flower his heart in order to protect it, when the time had come.” Ah. So that is where this was going. Charming. “And did he manage to save it?” “Of course not! What could a prince have done against the gardener’s shears? So the flower was destroyed and when it shattered the princes heart broke with it.” “… that isn’t a nice story. It doesn’t even have a satisfying conclusion.” “That is because the story isn’t over and you keep interrupting! Anyway, when the prince was left alone in the garden, he tore out the pieces of his heart and buried them into the ground for no one to see. He thought he had hidden it for good, but then it started raining and the pieces of his heart grew tine little stems and, slowly but surely, began to grow out of the ground.” By now they arrived at his doorstep. For a minute Dankovsky contemplated to invite the girl in. But that seemed a bit too forward. So he grabbed a small bag of sweets and some of the dried meat he had bought for himself. Who even knew how long Clara had lurked around town and when she really ate the last time. “So…”, this was getting uncomfortable. And quite frankly, ridiculous. “What did sprout out of the ground after all.” Her grin widened. “How about you tell me? I would trade to hear the end of that story.” “Hm… very well.” When he opened the door and looked back, Clara was already gone. Sighing he entered his own house and close the noise behind him. The town was still recovering, yet at this very day at least around the Bachelor it seemed to be filled with laughter, dreams and a future, where anything could be overcome with the right anecdote in mind. A piece of meat for a smile wasn’t such a bad trade after all. Still not a bare necessity… but something different. There was not really anything new to be heard. Not a real discussion no real bond to every single child who tried to steal his precious time. Still, there was meaning in a word spoken at the right space and time. There was meaning in the act of building sky castles together. Maybe he had once again underestimated the local custom.

[hopevalley]

What are your favorite and least stories from each Season and why?

Oh man, this is a really thought-provoking question! I’ll try to come up with good answers (even though sometimes the seasons blur together a little bit):

I’ll give some basic thoughts on each season and what worked/didn’t work for me.

Season 1

While I appreciate that they made the effort to have Elizabeth stick out (vs. blending in with all the Poors), she was downright unbearable at times in the early seasons. Her wanting to help and coming up with ideas is pretty decent in terms of story structure and even characterization/character motivation, but holy cow was it intrusive and nosy/patronizing of her sometimes! I think the point might have been to give Elizabeth flaws, which is great, but people just seemed to accept it, and her, too quickly, at least for my liking. A shame because I felt like her struggling to fit in would 1) be good for her character/force her to understand that to be accepted here she has to concede to giving up her former lifestyle, and 2) be a great, GREAT way for her and Abigail to bond and become friends, since this is something Abigail also struggled with!

So basically, the ‘story’ of Elizabeth coming to fit in in Coal Valley? Vaguely rubbish.

So much DID work, though, and could have been expanded upon for even better storytelling!!! This is especially true of the widows/related stories.

Loss of faith/faltering faith

Loss of personal identity

Moving on/past grief

Processing guilt 

Protecting the memory of a deceased loved one

We also had some great smaller personal stories.

Genius child has to work in the mine because there’s no one else ot take care of his family

Young man can’t read and has to work in the mine (and even after he does start learning how to read, probably doesn’t get to leave). Elizabeth still taking the time to try and help him still means something!

Season 2

I will never forgive the series for its convoluted attempt at a love triangle, here. Charles wasn’t unlikable, but he was OBVIOUSLY interested in Elizabeth romantically, and I don’t feel she’d be so stupid as to be blind to that, old chum or not.

Basically, it was one of the worst plots to ever exist on the show, because it just wasn’t believable in any capacity and felt like drama that existed to be a roadblock more than anything.

Also, not to whine, but Bill’s whole ‘counterfeit money’ plotline wasn’t very well-written.

The plot itself makes sense, but the way it bounced around seems to have just confused enough people that no one even remembers this was a thing.

That said, I think it was a good plot for the character... It was just not executed as well as it needed to have been to make a difference/really shine.

There are a lot of small things from S2 that were pretty nice, though.

Abigail’s fight to help Clara was meaningful, but I’m not sure how I feel about the addition of Clara from a writing standpoint. I feel like Abigail should have felt something was off about Peter’s trips from the start... The issue is that Hamilton is VERY far away and it’s VERY doubtful Peter would have ever gone there. Union City makes more sense if we’re talking about picking up shipments.

Tom and Julie were entertaining if nothing else.

I couldn’t tell you a single thing that happened in Hope Valley in S2, but I’m sure there were Events.

Season 3

Honestly I don’t think S3 had anything horrible in it. It just wasn’t very inspiring at times? It was like they had all these really good ideas but didn’t want to fully commit to any of them.

Henry Gowen was a star.

Frank was excellent in this season.

The biggest issue I have with this plot is simply that they didn’t take it all the way. Either he’s a dangerous man to allow to stay in town or he’s not. Saying he is doesn’t make it so. A rock through a window? Okay, sure...that’s threatening I guess. But it didn’t feel like enough to turn the whole town.

And again, having him barely doing anything even though he’d definitely be worried for Abigail and Cody’s safety is just inane.

Still, overall the whole thing was pretty good/well-done. Especially that unexpected turn at the end where Henry helped turn the tide. (I still wish that had gone somewhere and wonder even now if they had an idea they wanted to use and didn’t get the chance to.)

Abigail adopting children was nice. I wish Becky hadn’t been a part of it at all though. Like the IDEA is nice, but I can’t imagine she’d believe in it all as fast/readily as she does? This plotline just seemed great for Cody and meaningless to Becky, IMO.

But hey, the thing with Cody is meaningful enough. My issue is just that he’s like, 8 or 9 and remembers his parents very clearly, so I don’t think he’d be that willing to replace them. I guess it could just be his personality, but it might make more sense for him to be like 5-6 years old instead (less attached with fuzzier memories by this point if they’ve been on the run awhile).

Despite my qualms I think this was a pretty good story for Abigail. Just wish they hadn’t dropped her role as a mom as quickly as it felt they did.

Hattie was a good character and I enjoyed her introduction story. It was sad, but it felt good/satisfying.

Bill buying Henry’s share in the café was a great little thing. Maybe too convenient and itching for a story of its own (instead of it just happening), but overall a good idea.

Jack’s mom coming to town was entertaining. She had some really good lines. Lard in coffee. I mean...this was gold.

Season 4

The peddler was a cute addition but I didn’t much care for the overt magical element.

If it felt a little more real/grounded/down to earth I think I might have been more intrigued. 

Frank getting his original Bible back was a GREAT story but when they tried tying it into his vaguely stalker-like behavior? It just ruined the entire thing.

For what it’s worth, Frank’s character goes downhill pretty sharply in this season.

There were a lot of cute kid storylines in this one. But they weren’t all...great...

Robert telling the lie about the bear? Nice.

The kid with the knee brace? Ugh.

The storyline itself wasn’t bad!

But after Becky miraculously recovered the previous season it just felt like a slap in the face. I live with chronic pain and it’s just one of those things where I’d like a little representation somewhere.

I still think Becky should have stayed wheelchairbound.

I can’t get over how insulting it was that she just MIND OVER MATTER FIXED HERSELF. The writer who put that in there should be slapped, and the writer who wrote the saME GODFORSAKEN STORY AGAIN with this child should also be slapped.

I really feel that if they were gonna let Becky recover like that, this kid should be living with a permanent disability and this episode could deal with kids helping him play/doing activities he could participate and enjoy.

Maybe it’s too on-the-nose but the hardest part about a chronic illness/disability of any kind is the part where you lose things you loved to do that you considered a part of your identity. That’s an awfully deep storyline for WCtH, but they should have gone for it here.

Phillip was in between.

Phillip and his father were great, but Elizabeth was just SO incredibly awful. This is where she and Abigail started always being right about everything and I felt her involvement was unbearable.

They should have just let Faith take over Elizabeth’s role in that plot and it would have been way better. They could have had the eyesight issue earlier and done something great with it.

Frank and Abigail’s relationship at the beginning of this season was pretty interesting. Even though the whole “danger” thing was a little goofy, it was nice to see them communicating and adjusting. 

It felt like a natural issue people would actually have. And it wasn’t smoothly worked out, which is fine.

Also, Rosemary’s interference was hilarious.

RIP to the following:

Frank’s character after his earlier scene, because he doesn’t get anything else that’s actually in character.

Good writing because Carson is now the town hero he’s gonna save Cody from appendicitis because other doctors are just completely stupid!

Also Carson is a surgeon so TAKE THAT, regular doctors!

Doug. You were a real bro, my guy.

I DID like Doug’s role in the story, though. His death made some sense, but it was ill-timed. (How convenient that we only even hear of him moments before his death lol.)

AJ Foster is a highlight of S4 for me. I love her, and for the most part I love her introduction.

She’s such a pain in the neck, but she also talks a lot of sense.

The writing isn’t great for her, or for Bill in these scenes, but at least there was An Attempt™.

I appreciate that they introduced the idea of her much earlier in the season and built up to her actual appearance, which I couldn’t have guessed would be relevant early on.

Considering how the officers at my company hate our IRS auditor, I find the fact that AJ has enemies beyond believable.

Railroad shenanigans were pretty entertaining in this season, too.

Season 5

The last episode at least tried to be kind to the characters, so I appreciate it.

Elizabeth’s conversation with her father before her wedding was a highlight of the entire season.

AJ’s return plot was abysmal.

I’d be terribly embarrassed to have been the one to write this, especially considering how completely whack it feels next to the other plots.

I’ve ranted about this so many times I should have run out of steam but BOY is it cringey. This is the height of Bill-is-a-grumpy-old-man as a Thing in this series and this is probably when it is its worst.

The rattlesnake plotline was contrived as heck, but the only thing to make it worse was how weird everyone acted.

Rhonda was a good character and the plotline, if it wasn’t so rushed, would have actually been really great. I still liked it overall, though.

Frank’s send-off was dumb, but at least he got one on-screen.

I still can’t believe they killed their main romantic male lead off-screen.

What the heck...

Abigail was really, really annoying in this season, and so was Elizabeth. Unbearable.

Also, I still hate the pregnancy oooops~~ ♥♥ plot at the end of the grieving episode. Really? COME ON. I know they wanted to give the fans hope but it was jarring.

Season 6

I still HATE the nativity == baby Jack’s birth parallels. 

Why did they feel the need to do that. Why couldn’t we have just gotten pregnant Elizabeth shenanigans?

They put Jack’s DEATH ON THE TOMBSTONE like how is she popping out a baby less than two months later when she didn’t even know she wa---?F?DJSAFLJDSAFHLDSAL?

Abigail?

DELETED.

Thank goodness.

Bill?

Assassinated. Or at least, his character was.

This is bad. :(

On the plus side he gets promoted to the position of JUDGE...and barely does anything worthwhile with it...yet.

GODFATHER BILL. The best thing in this season.

Fiona?

A goddess. I love her.

Lucas?

Slimy.

But handsome.

The 4th Property Brother. He even tries his hand at renovating.

Nathan?

Honest and good.

Pretty cute.

Works together with Bill once in one of Bill’s only good scenes.

The oil plotline is actually pretty good/fun. Jesse and Clara get more scenes finally. 

Elizabeth isn’t the focus of everything.

Lee and Rosemary got like, no mention in any of these posts but mostly because it felt like they were never really doing anything before, but I did feel like they were given a little more meaningful lines/places in this season.

--

How’s this for an attempt? :P I’m probably missing A LOT but I can’t recall everything too easily!

[timeagainreviews]

A Case for Older Companions

Back in 2013, before Doctor Who aired its 50th Anniversary special, there was a lot of speculation as to which Doctors would return. Would Christopher Eccleston make an appearance? Would any of the classic era Doctors return? Aside from a suitably strange appearance by Tom Baker as "The Curator," the answer would be "None… sort of." While Peter Davison’s age was explained away in "Time Crash," it would appear this explanation could not withstand the feature length of the episode. We most likely would not see the likes of the Fifth, Sixth, or Seventh Doctors. Enter John Hurt, the War Doctor and cypher for the classic era of Doctor Who. An old man to balance out the young faces of Matt Smith and David Tennant.

Perhaps it harkens back to the First Doctor, but it seems an important aspect of the War Doctor was to be a bit of an old curmudgeon. In many ways, the blueprint of Doctor Who has always lent itself to having a mature presence in the TARDIS. Usually, this role was reserved for the Doctor himself. Up until the Fifth Doctor, the Doctor had been portrayed by men in their 40’s and 50’s. However, it’s not always the Doctor who is the mature figure onboard. Sometimes, it’s the companions themselves.

While not old by any means, both Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright are perfect examples of older companions. Compare their ages to someone like Vicky, Zoey, or even Rose Tyler, and the difference is clear. These adults bring a different sort of energy to the role of companion than say a young woman working in a shop. I’ve touched on this before with Graham O’Brien. The ways in which an older companion can be a more realised person, have a capacity to change the dynamic of the Doctor/companion relationship. And with this, we get a different perspective on this relationship.

One of the things I hear constantly is how Edward Cullen-esqe it is for the Doctors to fall in love with their companions. People call it creepy that a 2000-year-old Time Lord would date such a young person. While I think this argument is often an excuse not to want to see romance in the TARDIS, it does bring up an interesting point about impressionability. Rory Williams said it himself- "It's not that you make people take risks, it's that you make them want to impress you... You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around." If you're going to make the point of a companion being too young to kiss the Doctor, you could also make the same argument about travelling with the Doctor.

This is where older companions have the upper hand. While many young companions join the Doctor in a whirlwind of confused emotions and self-discovery, an older companion such as Graham, or Evelyn Smythe bring a sort of self-realisation. The concept of choice is less muddled, as their lives are not threatened by peaking in their early twenties. They've seen the world, had their hearts broken, and become stronger people because of it.

Mind you, this is not always entirely the case. Donna Noble entered the TARDIS in a whirlwind of her own unhappiness, but even her problems were grown-ass woman problems. Stuck in a dead-end job, looking to do something of importance, and to see more of the universe, her bags were packed. Her choices were not made due to an infatuation with an older, dashing man. This isn't "An Education," this is a friendship. This is a choice. Compare this to Amy Pond, whose bags were also packed, by no choice at all. The Eleventh Doctor comments on the imprint young Amelia left on him as the first face his face had met. But in truth it was the other way around. The raggedy man left such an indelible mark on her, that it almost ruined her life.

Please don't construe this as me condemning the show. I think in many ways, Doctor Who is a bit of light entertainment that doesn't need to answer such heavy issues. And as with Amy Pond, it has explored this concept in depth. What I'm mostly getting at is that an older companion's maturity can bring a more active quality to the story. There's a sort of forward progression inherent in a character knowing why they choose to travel with the Doctor. And in many ways, this strength of choice bolsters their relationship to something more reasonable. Something responsible.

It's not just the rationality of the companion that is bolstered either. Older companions have a way of balancing the Doctor as well. After being followed around by two young women like puppy dogs, the Tenth Doctor's arrogance was put in check by Donna Noble's "take no shit from anyone," attitude. The result was her having a balancing effect on his more reckless tendencies. The same could be said about the relationship between the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn Smythe. With Peri, he was often over-bearing, selfish, and difficult. But with Evelyn, he seemed to be on better behaviour. His tantrums afforded him less capital with her patience. He strived to impress her with his scientific knowledge, over say, his own bravado. Because of this, she's my favourite companion of the Sixth Doctor era.

While maybe not full-on companions, both Jackie Tyler and Brian Williams had similar effects on the Doctor. In many ways, I like Jackie Tyler even more than Rose. As parents to companions, both characters act as a sort of reminder to the Doctor that his friends aren't just fodder. Their presence demands a responsibility on the Doctor's part that can be both sobering and grounding for the Doctor. They understand the importance of the Doctor's work, so much that they even join the fight on occasion. But they do so with little room for the Doctor's ego.

Thankfully, babysitting a petulant Time Lord isn't the only quality an older companion can bring to the table. Their perspectives often have a way of helping the Doctors understand themselves, or even the situation at hand. Wilfred Mott and the Tenth Doctor spoke like two old soldiers, allowing the Tenth Doctor a rare moment of nostalgia. It's easy not to look back when you have a young person with you. Everything is in the future (even when they're in the past). An old man like Wilfred gave us a surprising glimpse into the Doctor's sensitivity and vulnerability. Their adventure together in "The End of Time," remains one of my favourite Doctor/companion dynamics to this day.

Not only can an older companion bring perspective to the Doctor, they also possess the capacity to shed new light on the role of companion. Not only can their maturity aid their approach, but it can also add new levels of tension. A man like Graham, or even ersatz companions such as Jago & Litefoot, don't possess the same vitality of companions like Leela or Jamie McCrimmon. Instead, they have to rely on solutions that require less physical exertion and more planning. Think of women's roller derby or even the WNBA, where fundamentals of the game are given focus over the more aggressive approach of their male counterparts. These are companions with practicality by necessity. The wrong decisions could be even more disastrous when the outcome could mean relying on weak knees and stunted mobility.

It's easy to see why a young companion is an obvious choice for the show. They're often gorgeous people through which the audience can experience the Doctor. We watch them grow over time, to varying degrees of success on the writers' behalves. Martha Jones becomes a stronger, more independent person by choosing to leave the Doctor. Ace confronts some of her deepest fears. It's rare that an older companion brings the same vigour to the role. Bar maybe River Song or the Brigadier, few of them are action heroes. But almost without fail, these seasoned heroes exude charm and character that only age can bring. Even one-time companions (such as Amelia Rumford from "Stones of Blood,") remain popular within the fandom, due to their unique personalities. So much, that one may make the argument for their status as honorary companions.

Series eleven has been polarising on many different levels, but one of the most common bits of praise I hear was the choice to bring Graham onboard the TARDIS. In classic Doctor Who, we got companions out of time, companions from other planets, and even some robots. But in modern Doctor Who, not so much. Even futuristic Oswin became modern day Clara Oswald, for better or worse. The show was suffering from a line of predictable companions, from relatively similar backgrounds. You'll understand then, the pure excitement I had at the prospect of a granddad running around the TARDIS. It's sometimes easy to forget that the Doctor started out as "Grandfather." It's an important energy that was present at the genesis of the show.

Having companions always portrayed as young and attractive is about as believable as every superhero being a beautiful person. The truth of the matter is that you'd get the occasional old codger or school matron. This isn't American television where everyone has perfect teeth and washboard abs. It’s important to remember the value of the aged and elderly. Having aged companions is true to life. It is, essentially, rather British.

[colorofmymindposts]

Could We Start Again, Please?

Fandom: Doctor Who 

Pairings: Twelfth Doctor/Missy (implied), Bill Potts/Heather 

Warnings: Major Character Death, Alternate Ending to series 10, Major Canon Divergence 

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences 

Status: Complete but part two of my The Doctor Falls series (You don’t have to read part one to understand what’s going on) 

Word Count: 2800 

Summary: When the Doctor falls, Missy rises. 

Tags: Heavy Angst, With cute lesbians, While Missy is sad 

I don’t know if the tagging system is still messed up, but you can read this work on ao3 under my username colorofmymind! Kudos and comments will be much appreciated!

With a gasp, all the air rushes into her lungs. Everything at once feels completely at rights and out of control, her hearts beating at a pace she knows goes against their natural rhythm, but they should not be beating at all. A calculation taking the span of a nanosecond tells her she needs her hearts going at least eighty beats per minute if she is going to survive, so she simultaneously counts her breaths and adjusts their volume to achieve this rate. Simply put, it’s a manual override of her basic biological functions. Her eyelids had fluttered open with the sudden rush of air, but she’s only managed to blink stupidly, frustratingly, as her eyes operating at full capacity— unlike her hearts, lungs, and other vital organs—are not necessary for her to stay alive.

Staying alive, surviving, carrying on. With all her experience, so innately a part of her core, Missy has a more complex and nuanced knowledge than any other creature in the universe on the most universal want: the perpetual avoidance of death, of end. At one time, that came at any price. In this case, however, there is a discrepancy even her beautiful, brilliant brain can’t account for. Perhaps it’s because her brain is functioning at the level of a 21st century backup generator, but that is really besides the point right now.

She should not be alive right now.

There had been no contingency plan in place because in no scenario had she considered her past self’s somewhat deserved retaliation. There are no Time Lords who could have saved her this time; she is the last Time Lady they would ever spend their resources on now. Yet, unmistakably, she lay on the same ground where she flirted with death once more and had somehow been revived, like a debtor of a long overdue payment miraculously having escaped the clutches of his dreaded collector.

Logic rules that there can only be one other alternative, an impossible one but so is he (irritatingly and incredibly so). The thought of Doctor flashes to the front her mind, and she sits up faster than she had fallen. She cries out immediately upon doing so, her hands arresting the spot where she’d been shot with the Laser Screwdriver, which flares as if in a hot rage. Gritting her teeth, she casts about for her umbrella and finds it quickly enough. Her body and voice cry out once again in resistance as she uses her umbrella to leverage herself to a standing position, the pain from the shot still as intense as it was before.

That answers one question. She hasn’t been healed, something has merely enabled her hearts to restart, so it is likely that she has very well lost the ability to regenerate. Whatever she does now, she’ll have to do with trepidation and care. Still, it’s certainly not the worst body she’s been stuck in, and at that she laughs to herself. She’s done this entirely to herself, a thought that has often crossed her mind over the last 70 years. While her past self has probably long since reached his TARDIS and regenerated into her current incarnation, there is some irony in his actions. His plan having failed at ending her life, she’ll be stuck in this state for the foreseeable future, a Time Lady who has realized the errors of her past and wants to do what’s right, everything he despised and feared becoming.

With that she sets off through the forest to find the Doctor. The trees thin as she traces her path back to the settlement, and the distinctive scents of fire and burning metal begin to assault her senses. Missy quickens her pace, trepidation and care forgotten as she spots the Cybermen bodies by the dozens littering the ground around her, the smell of ash and smoke and death clinging to the air like petrichor after a storm, one she knows the Doctor has brought down on this land.

“Doctah!” Her shriek echoes in the barren wasteland. She’s running now without abandon, eyes scanning the area for any sign of him when she notices the girl, Bill her memory supplies, standing besides her curiously wet companion, but that can’t be possible, she looks undoubtedly human again—

The next thing Missy knows her face is in the dirt and the ash, and every part of her body aches with acute degree. She drags her feet over the Cyberman body she must have tripped over in her distracted state. Her umbrella probably had been flung some distance away from her fall, so she sticks her right hand out, latching onto an arm, that should be enough to support her into a sitting position at least, when a sickening realization hits her. The arm isn’t metal. She snaps her head upward to look, to prove it isn’t true, it can’t be.

It is him. Undeniably. The Doctor lays in ash and debris like a forgotten soldier, the red inner lining of his coat splayed out by his sides as though he lay in his own pool of blood. She stares in silence, gathering herself to sit besides him and take one of his hands in her own to feel for anything, a pulse, regeneration energy, even a device to feign the appearance of death.

Nothing.

She stops breathing for several seconds herself; it’s an uncontrollable response, out of respect for her fallen friend who long since took his last breath. His sonic screwdriver is gripped in his other hand, which she lifts out of his grasp, inspecting it for an answer, something, that might restore him. The last action performed by the device had been a sonic pulse, causing a mass explosion of the Mondasian Cybermen but also must have rippled across the entirety of Level 507. This was the catalyst for her hearts restarting. He had saved her one last time, without even knowing it.

“Missy!” A voice she faintly recognizes as the human girl’s shouts at her. “What the hell are you doing here? Where have you been?! We thought you’d run off!”  

She lets out a shaky breath before replying, never tearing her gaze away from the Doctor. “Is that what he told you?”

“I,” Bill starts and falters. After a moment or so she answers, “He didn’t say anything about what happened with you. Either version of you.”

Missy blinks away the tears forming in her eyes and finally looks up and away from the Doctor. Here and now is not the place for her grief, at least not in front of his companion and...whoever this other girl is. Missy actually has no idea where she came from.

“You’re...human again,” she comments lamely.

“Oh! Well, sort of, not really,” Bill denies bizarrely and incomprehensibly. “I’m in a body that looks like the one I was in when I was a human, but I’m still technically dead. That’s actually me over there.”

She points over to a fallen Cyberman a few meters away. “Heather saved me,” she finishes with a beaming smile with eyes only for the wet blonde girl Missy presumes to be Heather standing to Bill’s right.

“How romantic,” Missy says, trying not to sound sardonic. These humans and their happy endings. The universe has none to spare for her. That’s probably right.

“The Doctor would have been glad to see you’ve found happiness, as am I.” Bill looks at Missy curiously, the disbelief transparent on her features. “I was the one who caused you to become a Cyberman in the first place, no matter which incarnation caused it. Perhaps it was both of our faults. In any case, it should have never happened. I’m glad to see that this is one of my mistakes that has reversed itself,” she explains.  

Bill looks back to Heather, seeming to wordlessly reaffirm that she had in fact heard those words come from Missy. In all fairness, Missy had been introduced to this companion of his as a “monster” and she even self-admitted to throwing a little girl down a volcano. A little skepticism of her goodness is to be expected, healthy even.

“I can’t believe it. I thought you were a monster, and the last ten years only made me more sure of that,” Bill confesses, the weight of those ten years visible in the set of her shoulders, the intensity of her gaze and the pain behind it. “But, even after all that, and everything you did to me, which was awful and cruel, I’ve realized maybe he wasn’t wrong. The Doctor, I mean. You have turned good. At least enough of you has.”

Missy opens her mouth to speak but nothing comes out. Just a short time ago, she would have laughed and scoffed at a human attempting to give her wisdom and judge her character, in fact she had done so in the past.“No, I’ve not turned good,” Missy had said to Clara after her accusation of the contrary, killing two men in the square to prove it. One of them had been a married man with a child, she recalls. She had held onto that for so long, the belief she was bad, irredeemable and revelled in it. Her time in the Vault has taken care of that last problem at least, but she could never be sure of the former two. But if a woman who has been tortured by her for ten years can see a glimpse of morality in her, then perhaps...perhaps that is something.  

“Bill, I think it’s time to go,” Heather says.

Ah, that does bring up a good point. She is alive but still requires transport. So does the Doctor. They had left each other to die on battlefields before, this is true, but it was different then. It was their battleground, the center stage, one or none of them left as the curtain drew to a close on that adventure, always the promise of rage, the game, of return. This is and is not her battleground. Yes, her former self in a way created and enabled it, but he’d abandoned it, no final climactic fight with the Doctor. The Master and Missy reserved that honor for each other. She was not here, either version, to battle the Doctor or protect him, and for that very reason alone, he must certainly be dead.

She thinks briefly back to two weeks ago, when she flippantly vowed “If somebody kills you and it's not me, we'll both be disappointed.” That was the planned end, always, scripted from the day they’d broken their pact to travel the universe together and faced each other as best enemies. But it was theoretical at best, they always survived one way or another, and it all started again. She wonders what he must have thought, possibly what he said, before he died. Missy cards her fingers through the Doctor’s mess of grey curls, only for smoky ash to lodge under her nails. She instead opts for holding his hand, once warm in her own just hours ago, turned cold.  

Bill protests, “But the Doctor—and Missy—we can’t just leave them.”

Missy looks up once again, surprised. While Bill has obviously somewhat reevaluated Missy’s character, she was not expecting an offer for help, at least not for herself.

“Of course we can’t. And we’re not going to,” Heather grins back.

Before Missy can properly register it, she’s travelling with incredible speed through time and space, until she’s greeted with the warm psychic presence of the Doctor’s TARDIS. Simple as that, she’s back within these walls. So is the Doctor, still beside her, his hand held by hers. Bill and Heather stand to the side.

“I suppose this is the only place he’d rest in peace. If there’s any place he’d do that,” Bill remarks.

Missy notices the blonde one starting to move for the controls, and with that she’s up and blocking the girl’s path, although with much more difficulty than she’d like. (She really must look into what the TARDIS has in terms of pain medication.)

“Oi! What do you think you’re doing? This is a very complicated sentient space time capsule that requires a careful and knowledgeable hand to guide her. She may just seem like a second-hand gas stove at first, but she’s really like a sweet, unreliable old dog, and only a few people know how to take care of her,” she explains with a silly if strained simile. Humans seem to respond better to that than just her shouting she’s superior, even if it’s true.

“I want to pilot us away from the spaceship, and I know how to fly her,” Heather insists, pulling the lever to start dematerialization. “I’m the Pilot. I can fly anything.”

“Really!” Bill exclaims.

“Yeah,” Heather replies with a wink. “You’re not an exception either.”    

Rolling her eyes, Missy takes this opportunity to continue piloting them away while the lovebirds chatter away with their innuendoes and desires and promises. At least, she thinks that’s what they’re doing at any rate.

“So I’m like you now. I’m not human anymore.”  

“I can make you human again. It's all just atoms. You can rearrange them any way you like. I can put you back home, you can make chips, and live your life, or you can come with me. It's up to you, Bill, but, before you make up your mind—” Heather rushes to the doors, opening them before Missy has any time to stop her. Luckily for all of them, they are in Quadrant 3 of this galaxy and not the time vortex. A single blue supergiant illuminates the blackness of space. Any protests she had formed quickly fail her, instead captured by the beauty of the star. She cannot remember a time before now where she could admire something like this; a star burning, something she could always appreciate, but of its own accord, a master to none like her. And that’s okay now.

Missy realizes that she has long tuned out the ongoing conversation until Bill is suddenly in her line of sight. Bill has her lips pursued, clearly about to say something she’s conflicted about but has deemed important enough to share.

“Missy, I’m leaving—with Heather. A lot of things have obviously changed since we got on that spaceship together: you, me, Nardole, and the Doctor,” Bill declares, casting a glance at the Doctor lying still on the console floor. “I think somehow I still want to travel the universe after all this, but that’s going to happen with Heather from now on. I’m also okay with leaving because I really believe you can take care of yourself now and the TARDIS. You have before anyways. Just really try not to be like that bloke that came before you, alright?”

Missy has no idea how to respond. Of course, it’s not like she wanted Bill and her gal pal crowding up the TARDIS, but she also has no clue as to where to go next with the Doctor’s TARDIS and his lifeless body on her own.

“Oh and another thing, yeah? Whether the Doctor’s dead or not, I don’t want anything bad to happen to him. You have to take care of him. Promise me,” Bill’s voice shook.

It doesn’t take her a second to respond. “Of course.” In any scenario, she would always be there for the Doctor. A memory she’d not been trying to recall, of  “Love is a promise” in his voice spoken in a graveyard, reverberates in her brain suddenly. She forces down it, down below the endless layers of freshly surfaced regrets, where she hopes to never recover it.

Bill nods and then turns away, walking in a semicircle until she reaches the Doctor’s side and kneels beside him.

“You know what, old man? I'm never going to believe you're really dead. Because one day everyone's just going to need you too much. Until then,” Bill bends down to kiss his cheek. “It's a big universe, but I hope I see you again.Where there's tears, there's hope.” Her voice cracks at the last sentence, and Missy cannot find it within herself to chide the human’s sentimentality even in her own head. Bill stands finally, going to join her star-eyed lover.

“Just one thing. I've been through a lot since the last time we met, so I'll show you around.”

They clasp hands, and jump out of the TARDIS, flying on an unknown path, sure to include a variety of attractions and dangers with it. Plenty of love and kindness as well. As the TARDIS doors slam shut, Missy knows they will be more than fine.

She is left alone with the Doctor and his TARDIS.

[fxrtescue]

have you been re-introduced to ALICE FORTESCUE? last we heard, the PUREBLOOD was most familiar with TIMELINE THREE. I don’t recall if they were always a SLYTHERIN, but I’ve heard the SEVENTH YEAR is still OPEN-MINDED, AMBITIOUS, EMPATHETIC  and CONTROLLING, ESCAPIST, COMPARTMENTALIZING so that’s familiar. at least SHE/THEY remember their way around the castle.

PINTEREST | PLAYLIST | STATS | BIOGRAPHY

CHARACTER INSPIRATIONS: allison argent ( teen wolf ), parker (leverage ), trish walker (jessica jones ), clara oswald ( doctor who ), clarke griffin ( the 100, s1&2 of the 100 not any further thx ), margaery tyrell ( asoiaf & got ), sutton braddy ( the bold type ), gaby teller (tmfu ), carol danvers ( captain marvel )

plant mum to mr. jenkins. droobles blowing gum champion. lover of popcorn, jewelry, strawberry bubblegum ice cream, divination, collector of sunglasses & happy memories.

AESTHETIC: gym mats, sweat, the smell of grass in the early hours of the morning, sunshine that lights but also burns, flowers put in doc martens, a legacy to protect, changing your hair when shit gets weird, idealism that haunts you, smiling more than you feel happy, smoke & mirrors, records, badly sewn flower patches on jeans, wand & dagger thigh holsters,  craving power, a different pair of sunglasses for every day, stacked rings, long pendants, glitter eyeshadow, being the sword and the shield, music being an escape that you didn’t realize you needed, a lion’s heart but chameleon’s adaptability, using people’s perceptions of you against them.

HISTORY:

childhood started off as a dream. being close with both of her parents, gervais& lucille, spending most of her time learning trades from them, she felt like she floating on cloud nine. growing up in galway, ireland, with all the life around her, the world was hers to explore, hospitality was in no short supply in her neighborhood. alice was so effervescent, that people were drawn to her light, to her kindness, to her free-spirited nature. alice had always been particularly close with her dad who brought back souvenirs from his missions as an auror, the unknown was something she wanted to discover as each trinket from every which corner of the world was collected. When her was dad away on missions, her mom would instill these ideals in her on how to be a kid, lifeskills, just fun things about magic, playing in her expansive garden, things for the soul – stories about home. when her dad came back her mom stepped back while he taught alice how to do savate, self defense, how to hold a wand properly, wand formations, about history, everything she could & very well should know. thanks to gervais’ influence, alice started asking question after question until she was absolutely convinced that being an auror was now her calling as well – all at the age of five. alice was a naturally kind child,  drawn to the profession of being an Auror is because it was driving some sort of darkness away. she wasn’t alone in her goal as she knew other people wanted to be aurors as well. her heart swelled at the idea of being part of something bigger than herself, being part of a group of people who were as passionate about saving the world & helping people as much she was.

after lucille’s stillborn child was when alice had to learn to have the emotional & mental capacity to learn to take care of herself, to deal with her emotions, feeling obliged to take care of her mother. alice was their only surviving child, who was spoiled rotten, and never had to go through anything relatively traumatic until the one thing that felt like it broke her family. she had a choice, to soothe herself or fall apart. alice would not fall apart, so she internalized it all, the ugly, the grief, the despair, the anger feeling like she had to shoulder all of the burden of balancing out the household.  while she had always been close with her uncle florean, aunt ophelia and cousin atlas it wasn’t until after the trauma that she was left more so with them when her dad was on missions and her mom retreated into herself. alice was able to escape from her home quite often into the shop, spending time with atlas in particular helped Alice to move on from the loss her family had endured. fortescue’s was the respite she needed from navigating her parents, florean being a role model and an especially influential figure in alice’s life during a time that she felt like she was suffocating. without him & atlas, alice would’ve collapsed into herself, would’ve surely lost sight of who she was going to be & what she wanted due to the pressure. florean reminded her that she was allowed to be a kid, she was allowed to let loose, those days were spent thinking of whimsical ice cream flavors and helping fix his various motorcycles & bikes while listened to pink floyd, the beatles, the supremes. florean & ophelia picked up on the spiritual education that she’d been lacking in since her mother had pulled away, something that was sorely needed after what felt like losing her mother entirely.

getting to hogwarts, there was a part of her that was surprised that she was sorted into slytherin even if alice did fit into the house like a glove. now in her last year at hogwarts, alice is prepared to face the outside world, prepared to graduate and become the auror she’s always meant to be. she feels a pull, a connection and feels as if she has to carry bloodlines in being an auror. alice needs power, she craves it, especially as the years pass & her mother has further retreated into herself. she was sorted into slytherin for many reasons – one of them being  because of her subconscious and burning need for the power over people’s feelings like her mother’s she wished she had, and the power over her own she she wishes she could master. the more power she can have as an auror, the more good she can do with her influence by having access to the training & information she needs to take down dark wizards. not only that, but the more she can learn how their minds operate so she can get the better of the death eater movement. alice is singleminded in her pursuit, willing to do whatever it takes & push herself as far as she needs to get to her goals &to help make this world a better place.

REACTION:

there’s a new legacy that alice wants to plant for her family, one that her father started, one she intends to finish as the years go by. despite a war having been brewing, alice knows she can be a soldier, she knows she is going to be part of the order when the time does come while also having high hopes to be an auror as she has since she was child can be conflicting, but it’s her path, she knows it. war is always a necessary evil, alice knowing her whole life fighting was never something she could avoid. so, she excelled in it. with how she was raised, with how her father &uncle left nazi occupied france, alice sees the death eaters as very similar to nazis. both groups advocate for genocide, using violence, brainwashing, manipulation, indoctrinating kids from the time they could use the silver spoon in their mouths to feed themselves. alice is aware she has privilege as well, as a white womxn, as very well off, as a pureblood, she’s aware that if she doesn’t stand up & fight as hard and as smart as she possibly can, she’ll just be part of the complicit. while she is a queer womxn, a known blood traitor with a pretty big target on her back related to her father, her privileges have enabled her to have a life that wouldn’t be possible for many other people. it’s her duty to fight, to stand up, to do something, to put her ass on the line. With several universes coming together – her objective, her goals do not change. in a way, this change has brought out the side of alice usually reserved for when she’s smoking a joint or indulging in the occasional psychedelic, the dreamer, the person who’s so curious that she could spend all her time just exploring the world if she could. new universes, alternate realities means more information, more opportunity to learn about the world around her and use that information to make the world a better place.

DIFFERENT TIMELINES: 

TIMELINE ONE: Some mornings, she misses her runs. Alice lets go in this verse, she lets herself fully indulge in the side of her that’s always been there and lets loose. The most fun at parties, the best person to take you on an adventure, in this verse Alice loves traveling and travels as often as possible. Becoming an Auror gets put on hold, Alice has so much more life to live before she dedicates herself and her time to the academy and the Ministry. Gervais Fortescue is alive and well, as is Alice’s mother who was able to cope and move on from the grief of losing her second child. Alice is extremely close to both of her parents and loves her extended family just the same. Teamed up with Frank Longbottom, they throw some of Hogwarts most memorable & exciting parties, a duo and now recent couple for the ages. 

TIMELINE TWO: When Gervais Fortescue is murdered just after Florean & Ophelia, Alice feels devastated. Alice and Atlas only have each other and though they are the same age, Alice feels protective over Atlas in the way someone would a older sister does over their younger brother. She’s not crumbled after tragedy before, she won’t do so now, Alice joins the underground Order the summer before her seventh year hoping to pick up where her father left off or do his legacy proud in some way even though they barely trust her to do patrols. As long as she’s doing something, she’s fine, as long as she’s protecting Atlas and keeping busy, pushing herself past exhaustion, she’s great. Because the Order won’t take her as seriously as they did her father ( she’s just a kid after all ), she decides it’s time that the students at Hogwarts have a chance to fight back, to do something, to let the world know there is still hope -- no matter how mangled it may be. 

[paigenotblank]

The Age of the Wolf (7/9)

Rating: Mature overall, this chapter is teen

Pairing: Eighth Doctor x Rose Tyler; Eleventh x Rose; Ten x Rose

Written for @doctorroseprompts and Eight x Rose August. Prompt: Dimension hopping!Rose meets Eight / What if Rose was with Eight or met Eight during the Time War? 50th Anniversary Re-Write/Fix-It

Read it on Tumblr: Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9

AO3  TSP

The Doctor set aside his copy of Advanced Quantum Mechanics, removed his glasses, and rubbed at his temples. He was having trouble concentrating, a feeling of unease had been plaguing him for hours.

For a moment he was surprised and disoriented by the silence around him. It was eerie, like the calm before a storm. Dread sat like lead in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t want to think of the last time he felt a storm sitting on the horizon, back when he’d lost…

He jumped to his feet and paced in front of the time rotor. I’m forgetting something important. What is it? He tugged on his hair in a move more reminiscent of his tenth self and stopped abruptly. Maybe he should jump ahead so he didn’t have to wait any longer. But it had been too long since he’d last seen Clara. He needed a distraction right now and an adventure with a dear friend sounded like just the thing to do it.

He looked at his watch and was startled to realize school was almost out. But...I...I never lose track of time.

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and leaned up against the door with his arms crossed. He watched as students at the Coal Hill Secondary School began pouring out of the doors, eager to meet up with friends or to get to jobs or just go home and watch telly.

A small smile pulled at his lips as he remembered another young girl who had gone to this very school so, so long ago. He could remember her clutching a stack of books to her chest and dancing to the pop music of the era as she made her way back to TARDIS. She’d chatter to him about her day and the silly ideas that were prevalent among the humans of that time. She’d say, ‘Grandfather, can you believe that they treat the fourth dimension as if it’s a joke and they’ve never even heard of the fifth dimension! Why it’s just so primitive. Oh, but I do love it here!’

Thoughts of Susan were not as painful as they once were, now only causing a small twinge in the regions of his hearts. He wasn’t sure if that was better or not.

He let out a sigh and felt a tap on his shoulder. “Hello, Doctor.”

Shaking aside his maudlin thoughts, he grinned brightly. “Clara!” The Doctor opened the door for her to proceed him inside. “Fancy a trip to ancient Mesopotamia followed by future Mars?”

“Will there be cocktails?”

“On the Moon.”

Clara pretended to think it over. “The Moon'll do.”

Both of them burst out laughing. Clara removed her coat and tossed it over the railing before turning back to the Doctor.

He gave her a big hug. “How's the new job? Teach anything good?”

Laughly, she pulled away from their embrace. “No. Learn anything?”

He shook his head. “Not a thing.”

The TARDIS jerked and alarms began to ring.

Clara grabbed hold of the console. “What's happening?”

“What? We're taking off, but...the engines aren't going.”

The Doctor ran down the ramp and pulled open the front door. He swayed and leaned back inside when he saw that the TARDIS was being flown over East London toward the city center. With a grimace, he reached out the door and pulled open the phone cubby. Shaking his head, he dialed his U.N.I.T. contact.

“Hello? Kate Stewart’s phone.”

“I want to talk to Kate, right now.”

“Erm, hold on.”

The Doctor stood tapping his foot to the sound of wind, running, and gasping breaths.

“Excuse me, Ma’am. Ma’am!”

There was a murmured conversation, before a familiar voice came through. “Doctor, hello. We found the TARDIS near a junkyard. I’m having it brought in.”

“No kidding.”

“Where are you?”

The Doctor held up the phone so that the sound of the helicopter was unmistakable.

“Oh, my god! Oh, Doctor! I’m so sorry. We had no idea you were still in there.”

“Next time, will it kill you to knock?”

The helicopter changed direction and the Doctor tumbled out the door dropping the phone. He managed to grab hold of the threshold just in time.

“Doctor!” Clara ran over to help him.

The Doctor dangled from the TARDIS at it flew over the cityscape toward the Tower of London. When the TARDIS was close enough to the ground, he hopped down and approached Kate Stewart.

“Doctor, as Chief Scientific Officer, may I extend the official apologies of U.N.I.T.”

“Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, a word to the wise, as I'm sure your father would have told you, I don't like being picked up.”

Clara walked up behind him. “That probably sounded better in his head. And besides, I know for a fact-”

The Doctor glared at Clara and she left that thought unfinished.

“I'm acting on instructions direct from the throne. Sealed orders from her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the First. Her credentials are inside.” The Doctor was about to break the seal on the missive, when Kate stopped him. “No.” She pointed to the National Gallery. “Inside.”

The Doctor nodded and as he passed Kate’s assistant did a double take. The young woman was dressed in a lab coat, but it was her striped scarf that caught his attention. It was reminiscent of the one he’d fancied in his fourth body. “Are you the one who answered the phone earlier?”

The young woman flushed and looked as if she’d forgotten how to breathe. After the moment stretched to become almost uncomfortable, she nodded.

“Nice to meet you...do you have a name?”

Her eyes widened and she peeped, “Yes.”

“Good, I’ve always wanted to meet someone called ‘Yes.’”

“No.”

“No?”

She looked bemused. “Name’s Osgood, sir.”

“Oh...Brilliant! Nice scarf.”

Osgood took a wheezing breath. As Kate passed she reminded her, “Inhaler.”

--

The Doctor and Clara walked into the National Gallery followed by Kate and Osgood. “So Elizabeth the First? You knew her?”

“Hmmm? May have met her a time or two.”

“A time or two? And she’s sending you love letters? Does-”

The Doctor’s ears turned red. “Oi, ’s not a love letter!”

They arrived at a covered painting, and Kate nodded for it to be revealed. “Elizabeth's credentials, Doctor.“

When the sheet fell away, Clara gasped. “But, how is it doing that? How is that possible?”

The Doctor’s face fell and he whispered, “No More.”

“That's the title.”

The Doctor sighed. “I know the title.”

“Also known as, ‘Gallifrey Falls.’”

The Doctor spun to confront Kate. “This painting doesn't belong here, not in this time or place.”

Clara moved closer to the painting. “Obviously.” She reached out as if to touch it. “An oil painting in 3D?”

“It’s Time Lord art. Bigger on the inside. A slice of real time, frozen...It's the fall of Arcadia, Gallifrey's second city.”

Clara spun toward the Doctor. “What? Seriously?”

The Doctor was lost to his memories for a moment. Clara approached him and touched his arm. “You okay?”

“He was there.”

“Who was?”

“Me. The other me. The one I don't talk about.”

Clara tilted her head. “I don't understand.”

“I've had many faces, many lives. You know that. But there's one life I've tried very hard to not think about. The Doctor who fought in the Time War. Only, now I can’t quite... I think...it all feels hazy.” The Doctor walked closer to the painting and sighed. “The last day of the Time War. The war to end all wars between my people and the Daleks. That was the day he did it. The day I did it. The day he killed them all and silenced the universe.” The Doctor turned angrily to Kate. “Why today? I’ve had this...this...feeling all day. And some of my memories are fuzzy. I remember or I’m almost remembering. Why bring me that message today?”

“It came with written instructions in which Elizabeth told us when to deliver it and where to find the painting and its significance. I believe it’s better explained in the letter.”

The Doctor had done his best to lock away the memories of the War, if only to be able to sleep on occasion. But now he couldn’t shake that persistent feeling of forgetting something important. Something about today, something about his past. What is it? What does it have to do with Queen Elizabeth I and why this painting?

Clara brought him back to himself with her question to Kate. “But the Time War's over. Why bring us here to look at a painting?”

“The painting only serves as Elizabeth's credentials, proof that the letter is from her. It's not why you're here.”

The Doctor turned the letter over a few times before breaking the seal and unfolding the message. Dearest Doctor, I hope the painting known as “Gallifrey Falls” will serve as proof that it is your queen, Elizabeth, who writes to you now. You will recall that you pledged yourself to the safety of my kingdom. In this capacity, I have appointed you as curator of the Under Gallery, where deadly danger to England is locked away. Should any disturbance occur within its walls, it is my wish that you be summoned. Godspeed.

The Doctor folded the note and slipped it into his pocket. “What happened?”

“Easier to show you.”

Kate and Osgood led the Doctor and Clara to the entrance of the Under Gallery. Clara looked up to see a painting of Queen Elizabeth the First and a stoic Doctor in his Tenth form. She smirked and was about to comment on the ruffled collar when she noticed his face. The words died on her tongue at the tension on his face. He caught her looking and forced a big smile.

--

The Doctor, resplendent in pinstripes, was laid out next to a young Queen Elizabeth on a pile of cushions with a feast spread around them. He popped a grape in his mouth and then fed one to her.

“Tell me, Doctor, why I'm wasting my time on you. I have wars to plan.”

“You have a picnic to eat.”

“You could help me.”

“I am helping.” The Doctor waggled his eyebrows before biting into a crisp apple.

“Not the picnic. You have a stomach for war.” She caressed his cheek. “These eyes have seen conflict, it's as clear as day.”

The Doctor sighed. “Oh, you’ve no idea.” He then jumped up in a swirl of excitement. “Up on your feet. Up, up.”

The Queen was taken aback. “How dare you? I’m the Queen of England.”

“I'm not English.” The Doctor fell to one knee. “Elizabeth, will you marry me?”

“Oh, my dear sweet love. Of course I will.”

“Ah, gotcha!”

“My love?”

“The real Elizabeth would never have accepted my marriage proposal. But then the real Elizabeth isn't a shape-shifting alien from outer space. And…” The Doctor holds up a cobbled together machine that made a chiming noise. “...ding.”

“What's that?”

The Doctor looked at her as if she’d dribbled on her bodice. “It's a machine that goes ‘ding.’ Made it myself. Lights up in the presence of shape-shifter DNA. Oooh. Also it can microwave frozen dinners from up to twenty feet and download comics from the future. I never know when to stop.”

“My love, I do not understand.”

“I'm not your love, and yes you do. You're a Zygon.”

“A Zygon?”

“Oh, stop it. It's over. A Zygon, yes. Big red rubbery thing covered in suckers. Think the real Queen of England would just decide to share her throne with any old handsome bloke in a tight suit, just ‘cos he's got amazing hair and a nice horse?” The Doctor looked over his shoulder at the horse. “Oh.”

Standing where the horse had been just moments ago was a Zygon.

He held out his hand to the Queen. “It was the horse. I'm going to be King. Run!”

“What's happening?”

“We're being attacked by a shape-shifting alien from outer space, formerly disguised as my horse.”

The Doctor led her into an old ruin.

“What does that mean?”

“I’m gonna need a new horse. Quick, I'll hold it off. You run. Your people need you.”

“And I need you alive for our wedding day.” Elizabeth kissed him before running off.

The Doctor ruffled his hair. “Oh, good work, Doctor. Nice one. The Virgin Queen? So much for history. You’ve really stepped in it this time.”

The Doctor took off in another direction following the dinging of his Zygon finder. At the sound of a feminine scream, the Doctor turned and ran into a small clearing.

“Elizabeth!”

The Queen was laying on the ground and the Doctor helped her stand. Another Elizabeth walked into the clearing.

“Step away from her, Doctor. That's not me. That's the creature.”

“How is that possible? She's me. Doctor, she's me!”

The Doctor pointed his machine at both women as they bickered. He slapped the side of it, before shaking it.

“It's not working.”

“One might surmise that the creature would learn quickly to protect itself from any simple means of detection.”

“Clearly you understand the creature better than I. But then, you have the advantage.”

Just when the Doctor was ready to throttle both women, history be damned, a swirling portal appeared above him.

“Back, both of you. Now! That's a time fissure. A tear in the fabric of reality.”

--

Kate walked through the hidden doorway behind the painting of Elizabeth and the Doctor into an antechamber. “Welcome to the Under Gallery. This is where the Royal Family keeps all art deemed too dangerous for public consumption.”

The Doctor paused and scooped up a handful of sand from the floor. “Stone dust.”

Kate tilted her head. “Is it important?”

“In twelve hundred years I've never stepped in anything that wasn't.” The Doctor spun to face Osgood. “ Oi! Are you sciency?”

“Oh, erm, well, erm, yes.”

“Good. I want this stone dust analyzed. And I want a report in triplicate, with lots of graphs and diagrams and complicated sums on my desk, tomorrow morning, ASAP, pronto…” He turned to Kate. “Do I have a desk?”

Kate shook her head. “No.”

The Doctor turned back to Osgood. “And I want a desk.”

“Get a team. Analyze the stone dust,” Kate instructed before she continued on toward the larger gallery.

The Doctor and Clara followed behind, and the Doctor noticed a fez in a display case. He looked around and slid the fez out, popping it on his head.

Clara rolled her eyes. “Someday, you could just walk past a fez.”

“Never gonna happen.”

They entered a long, open room lined with Gallifreyan 3D art along the wall. Glass covered much of the floor.

Kate gestured to the debris. “This is why we called you in.”

“Interesting.”

Clara leaned down to inspect the floor. “The broken glass?”

“No, where it's broken from. Look at the shatter pattern. The glass on all these paintings has been broken from the inside.”

“As you can see, all the paintings are landscapes. No figures of any kind.”

Clara walked back over to the others. “So?”

“There used to be.” Kate handed them a tablet with photos of the original paintings on it.

Clara looked up in surprise. “Something's got out the paintings?”

“Lots of somethings. Dangerous somethings.”

“This whole place has been searched. There's nothing here that shouldn't be, and nothing's got out.”

A swirling of air began to coalesce above them.

“Oh, no, not now.”

“Doctor, what is it?”

“Not now. I'm busy.”

“Is it to do with the paintings?”

“No, no. This is different. I remember this. Almost remember.” He removed the fez from his head and looked from it to the time fissure. “Oh! Of course. This is where I come in.”

He threw the fez into the vortex before running and leaping into it himself. “Geronimo!”

“Doctor!” Clara moved to follow the Doctor.

Kate held her back. “Wait.”

--

The Doctor in pinstripes stood between the two versions of Elizabeth and the time fissure, his arms wide in a protective gesture. “Anything could happen.”

All three watched as a fez fell from the swirling vortex.

He tugged his ear. “For instance...a fez.” The Doctor picked up the fez and placed it on his head, just as the other Doctor came crashing down.

“Oof.”

“Who is this man?” One of the Elizabeths asked the Doctor.

He watched the other man curiously. “That's just what I was wondering.”

The older Doctor inspected his younger self. “Oh, that is skinny. That is proper skinny. I've never seen it from the outside. It's like a special effect. Oi!” He knocked the fez from his counterpart’s head. “Ha! Matchstick man.”

The younger Doctor looked like he’d been forced to eat a pear, realization coloring his features. “Oh, you're not…”

Both men took out their respective sonic screwdrivers and compared them. The older Doctor’s was bigger with add-ons missing from the previous model.

The younger Doctor asked with a lift of his eyebrow, “Compensating?”

“For what?”

“Regeneration. It's a lottery.”

The older Doctor narrowed his eyes and huffed. “Oh, he's cool. Isn't he cool? I'm the Doctor and I'm all cool. Oops, I'm wearing sandshoes.”

The younger Doctor hissed at his older self, “What are you doing here? I'm busy.”

“Oh, busy? I see. Is that what we're calling it, eh? Eh?” The older Doctor leaned down, picked up the fez, and put it on his head. With a flourish, he spun around and bowed to the two Elizabeths. “Hello, ladies.”

“Don't start.”

“You should talk.”

“One of them is a Zygon.”

“Eww…” The older Doctor put up his hands. “I'm not judging you. Who am I kidding? Yes, I am.”

Another time fissure appeared. Both Doctors reached into their pockets and put on their respective glasses.

The older Doctor glanced over his shoulder. “Your Majesties. Probably a good time to run.”

Both women asked simultaneously, “But what about the creature?”

The younger Doctor instructed, “Elizabeth, whichever one of you is the real one, turn and run in the opposite direction to the other one.”

“Of course, my love.”

The other Elizabeth said, “Stay alive, my love. I am not done with you yet,” before kissing him and running off.

“Thanks. Lovely.”

“I understand. Live for me, my darling. We shall be together again.” Then the remaining Elizabeth kissed him and ran off in the other direction.

The Doctor wiped his mouth and nervously met his counterpart’s eyes. “Well, won't that be nice?”

“One of those was a Zygon.”

“Yeah.”

“Big red rubbery thing covered in suckers.”

“Yeah. And a surprisingly good kisser.”

“Venom sacs in the tongue.”

“Yeah, I'm getting the point, thank you.”

“Nice.”

From the time fissure, the Doctors heard Clara calling out, “Doctor, is that you?”

“Ah, hello, Clara. Can you hear me?”

“Yeah, it's me. We can hear you. Where are you?”

The older Doctor looked to his younger self. “Where are we?”

“England, 1562.”

“Who are you talking to?”

“Myself.”

“Can you come back through?”

“Physical passage may not be possible in both directions. It’s...Ah! Hang on.” The Doctor removed the fez from his head and threw it into the whirling eddy. “Fez incoming!”

After a pause, Clara asked, “Was something supposed to happen?”

The younger Doctor scratched the back of his neck. “If not there, where did it go?”

--

The Doctor and Rose entered an empty barn that had been a part of his childhood homestead. He put the sack down and gingerly removed a box with exposed gears and brass inlay. He turned it over in his hands a few times. “How...how do you work? Hmmm. Why is there never a big, red button?”

Rose rolled her eyes. “You and your big, red buttons.”

Both froze when they heard a rustling at the door. The Doctor made his way over and peeked outside. “Hello? Is somebody there?” Shaking his head, he closed the door. “It was nothing.”

A wolf’s howl could be heard in the distance. “Did you hear that? It sounded like a wolf.”

“Couldn’t have been. There are no wolves on Gallifrey.”

“But did you hear that?”

He whooshed out a breath and nodded. “Yeah.”

Rose walked over to the innocuous looking box, and crouched down in front of it. She reached out to examine it.

“Don't touch it!”

She pulled her hand back. “Why not?”

“Because it's the most dangerous weapon in the universe, and we don’t know how it works.”

“You touched it an’ it was fine.” Rose reached for it once again and the moment she placed her hand on it, the box began to emit a noise, like gears shifting into place, and her eyes began to glow gold.

“It's activating. Watch out.”

He knelt and tried to take the box from her hands, but when he touched it, it burned him.

“Ow!” He shook his hand.

“What's wrong?” Rose asked with a tilt of her head.

“The interface is hot.”

“Well, I do my best. Still after a century of marriage it’s nice to hear.”

The Doctor was only half paying attention while he continued to inspect the device. “There's definitely a power source inside…” He suddenly turned to Rose. “Wait, did you just say you're the interface?”

Her eyes faded back to amber. “Bad Wolf. When I touched it, it got inside my head. I can hear it talking to me. I...I know how to use it.”

The Doctor ran one hand over his face and he sat back on his heels.

Rose laid a hand on his thigh. “What’s wrong?”

“It...it just hit me that this is happening...not in the future or as a theoretical option, but right now.”

Rose took his hand and was hit with a telepathic onslaught of the Doctor’s emotions. His shields only failed like that when he was close to his breaking point. She did her best to send back waves of calm and love.

He pulled back from her touch. “How can you love me? Knowing that I’d kill them all, Daleks and Time Lords alike?” He looked at his hands as if they were already covered in blood.

“I’ve seen what you’ve seen. The suffering. Every moment in time and space is burning. It must end, and there’s only one way.”

“But when you first met me, you were innocent to all that.”

“I’ve always seen you. Not what you were forced to do, but who you are...the brave man who had to make the impossible choice. The man who saved the universe at the biggest personal cost to himself.”

“I don’t know how I’m expected to survive this.”

Rose opened her mouth to answer, but then tilted her head as if listening. Tears pooled in her eyes. “I...oh, god. It’s your punishment.” Her eyes glowed and her voice took on an ethereal quality, “Nothing is without consequence, Time Lord. If you do this, if you kill them all, then that is the consequence. You live. You carry the burden of being the last of your kind, of carrying on, of remembering…” Rose dropped the box and sagged as she returned to herself. She crawled over to where the Doctor sat staring at the ground and embraced him. “I’m sorry, love. I’m so sorry.”

“I’m a monster for even considering this.”

Rose picked up the box and closed her eyes. A time fissure rippled open above them.

“Rose! What are you doing?”

“I’m opening a window on your future, to the man today will make of you. The choice is still yours.”

A fez dropped out of the portal and rolled to a stop at Rose’s feet.

“Er, okay, I wasn’t expecting that.”

The Doctor looked at the swirling gateway. “Ready?”

She slipped the box into her pocket and nodded.

--

Rassilon walked past two Time Lords, both of whom had their hands covering their faces, to address the rest of the Council. “The vote is taken. Only two went against, and as a monument to their shame, the dissenters will stand like the Weeping Angels of old. The vanguard stands prepared, as the children of Gallifrey return to the universe. To Earth.”

Rassilon raised his staff and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

--

As the Doctor and Rose jump through the time fissure into the Doctor’s future, Gallifrey was pulled across the universe.

--

The pinstriped Doctor gestured between himself and his older self. “Okay, you used to be me, you've done all this before. What happens next?”

“I don't remember.”

“How can you forget this?”

“Hey, hang on. It's not my fault. You're obviously not paying enough attention...Oh! Try reversing the polarity!”

Both Doctors pulled out their sonics and pointed them at the time fissure.

The older Doctor scratched his head. “It's not working.”

“We're both reversing the polarity.”

“Yes, I know that.”

“There's two of us. I'm reversing it, you're reversing it back again. We're confusing the polarity.”

As they argued, their predecessor walked out from the the whirling portal. “Anyone lose a fez?”

“You! How can you be here? More to the point, why are you here?”

“Hello. I'm looking for the Doctor.”

The pinstriped Doctor mumbled, “Well, you've certainly come to the right place.”

“Good. Who are you boys? Oh, of course. Are you both companions?” The wartime Doctor smiled fondly. “Rose and her pretty boys...”

“Rose?” The pinstriped Doctor’s jaw dropped.

“...They seem to get younger all the time.”

“Oi!”

The oldest Doctor turned to the man at his side. “Well, he’s not wrong.” He gestured between the three of them.

“You too?” The pinstriped wearing Doctor gaped at the bowtie wearing Doctor. “How can you even joke about that?”

“Right.” The youngest Doctor interrupted the squabble before they could really get into it. “Could you point me in the general direction of the Doctor?”

Both of the older Doctors pulled out their sonic screwdrivers. The youngest Doctor looked from one to the other. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Really.”

“You’re me? Both of you?”

“Yep.”

“Even that one?” The Doctor pointed to the one in the bowtie.

The Doctor in question replied with an affronted squeak, “Yes!”

“You're my future selves?”

Both other men yelled, “Yes!”

The younger Doctor scanned the glade. “Then where’s Rose?”

“That’s the second time…How do you know Rose?”

The bowtie wearing Doctor narrowed his eyes. “You shouldn’t know Rose.”

The Doctor shifted to the side, and Rose hesitantly walked out of the time fissure. She walked up to the Doctor she’d spent the last century with and gripped his hand. She waved at the others. “Hello.”

The Doctor in pinstripes dropped his sonic and stared wide-eyed at her. The wartime Doctor glanced worriedly back and forth between his wife and his future self. “Looks like you've seen a ghost.”

Rose bit her lip until she noticed the oldest Doctor, the one she’d yet to meet, smiling warmly at her. His eyes dropped to her ring finger and she could see his curiosity was piqued, but his demeanor was that of easy affection. That more than anything had her releasing the pent up breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding.

As nonchalantly as possible, she slipped her wedding band from her finger and tucked it into a pocket. The oldest Doctor smirked, causing her to blush, but the pinstriped Doctor hadn’t seemed to notice. He was staring at her as if he wasn’t quite sure she was real, eyes wide, freckles stark on his pale face, and swaying like a stiff wind could knock him over.

She gave him a small smile and he swallowed hard. She couldn’t bear to see him hurting, and her eyes slid over to the oldest of the Doctors.

Good Lord, there’s three of ‘em! As if he knew what she was thinking, the bowtie wearing Doctor grinned widely, eyes crinkling, which sent a swoop through her belly. She squeezed her Doctor’s hand and braced herself in preparation of properly introducing herself to this unknown Doctor, when several horsemen rode into the clearing.

Bentham, a nobleman and the apparent leader of the troop of men, dismounted from his horse. “Encircle them,” he ordered his men. “Which of you is the Doctor? The Queen of England is bewitched. I would have the Doctor's head.”

The youngest Doctor blew out a breath. “Well, this has all the makings of your lucky day.”

Bentham noticed the time fissure and moved closer to the quartet. “What is that?”

The pinstriped wearing Doctor picked his sonic off the ground and moved with the other two to step between the nobleman and Rose. The oldest Doctor raised his sonic as well.

“What are you pointing them for? They're screwdrivers! What are you going to do, assemble a cabinet at them?”

Bentham raised his voice and asked again, “That thing, what witchcraft is it?”

The oldest Doctor tucked his sonic into his breast pocket and stepped forward. “Ah, yes. Now that you mention it, that is witchcraft. Yes, yes, yes. Witchy witchcraft. Hello? Hello in there. Excuse me. Hello! Am I talking to the wicked witch of the well?”

A feminine voice could be heard coming from the swirling vortex. “He means you.”

“Why am I the witch?”

“Clara? Hello? Clara, hi, hello. Hello. Would you mind telling these prattling mortals to get themselves begone?”

They could almost hear her rolling her eyes. “What he said.”

“Yes, tiny bit more color.”

“Right. Prattling mortals, off you pop, or I'll turn you all into frogs.”

“Oooh, frogs. Nice. You heard her.”

“Doctor, what's going on?”

“It's a timey-wimey thing.”

The youngest Doctor looked at Rose. “Timey what? Timey-wimey?”

The pinstriped Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. “I've no idea where he picks that stuff up.”

Rose, knew that tell, and pressed her lips together to stop the laugh that wanted to bubble forth. She fluttered her lashes at him and asked, “Oh, really?”

Before he could reply, and with a dramatic swirl of skirts, Queen Elizabeth entered the clearing sending all the soldiers to their knees. She looked at the standing foursome. “You don't seem to be kneeling. How tremendously brave of you.”

Rose’s pinstriped Doctor asked, “Which one are you? What happened to the other one?”

“Indisposed. Long live the Queen.”

The soldiers chanted, “Long live the Queen!”

“Arrest these four. Take them to the Tower.”

“That is not the Queen of England, that's an alien duplicate.”

The oldest Doctor bumped Rose’s shoulder. “And you can take it from him, ‘cos he's really checked.”

“Oh, shut up.”

“Venom sacs in the tongue.”

The pinstriped Doctor saw the hurt on Rose’s face. “Seriously, stop it. Rose, I...”

Rose shook her head and wiped at her eyes. “Don’t.”

The oldest Doctor turned to Rose. “I’m sorry, I forgot how much-”

“Stop it! Both of you. I don’t want to talk about it.” She made her way back to the youngest Doctor and rested her head on his shoulder. He glanced in surprise at the other two trying to figure out what had just happened.

The oldest Doctor ran his hands through his hair and walked over to the Queen. “Hang on. The Tower? Did you say the Tower?” She nodded. “Ah, yes, brilliant. Love the Tower. Breakfast at eight, please. Will there be Wi-Fi?”

The youngest Doctor glared. “Are you capable of speaking without flapping your hands about?”

“Yes. No. I demand to be incarcerated in the Tower immediately with my co-conspirators Sandshoes, Velvet, and....” His voice softened, “Rose.”

“Velvet? I haven’t worn velvet in ages!”

“They're not sandshoes.”

The youngest Doctor looked down at the other man’s feet. “Yes, they are.”

“Silence! The Tower is not to be taken lightly. Very few emerge again.”

--

The Master stood in a room full of men identical to himself and hit his head. “We listen. All of us, across the world, just listen.” All of them stopped what they were doing and listened. “Concentrate. Find the signal. There! The sound is tangible. Someone could only have designed this. But who?”

A Master copy turns to the original. “The sound. It's coming from above.”

“It's coming from the sky!” The Master looks out a nearby window and sees a star falling to Earth. “There! Find it. Get out there and find it!”

“Yes, sir.”

--

Kate smiled at Clara. “Dear God, that man's clever. Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“My office, otherwise known as the Tower of London.”

--

In a field, two Land Rovers pulled up to a smoldering crater. A uniformed Master copy slid to the bottom and found the diamond previously taken from Rassilon’s staff. The soldier pressed a button on him com-link and said, “It's a diamond, sir. Oh, the most impossible diamond. You won't believe this. It’s a White Point Star.”

--

The pinstriped Doctor was sitting on a silent space ship with Donna’s grandfather, Wilf, and two green spiked Vinvocci. There was a heaviness in the air around the four of them. Suddenly a radio crackled to life and the Master’s voice blared out, “A star fell from the sky. Don't you want to know where from? Because now it makes sense, Doctor. The whole of my life. My destiny. The star was a diamond. And the diamond is a White Point Star. And I have worked all night to sanctify that gift. Now the star is mine. I can increase the signal and use it as a lifeline. Do you get it now? Do you see? Keep watching, Doctor. This should be spectacular. Over and out.”

An eerie quiet fell over the room, while the Doctor sat thinking. Wilf was the first to break the silence. “What's he on about? What's he doing? Doctor, what does that mean?”

The Doctor jumped up from his seat and began examining the controls of the ship. “A White Point Star is only found on one planet. Gallifrey. Which means it's the Time Lords. The Time Lords are returning.”

“Well, I mean, that's good, isn't it? I mean, that's your people...But I thought...you said your people were dead. Past tense.”

The Doctor pulled out his sonic and began mending frayed wires. “Inside the Time War. And the whole War was Time Locked. Like, sealed inside a bubble. It's not a bubble but just think of a bubble. Nothing can get in or get out of the Time Lock. Don't you see? Nothing can get in or get out, except something that was already there.”

Wilf looked confused, but then his eyes lit with a thought. “The signal. From since he was a kid.”

The Doctor nodded and moved onto another part of the control panel. “If they can follow the signal, they can escape before they die. And who knows what will try to follow.”

“But you’ll still have your people back. I've heard you talk about them like they're wonderful.”

“That's how I choose to remember them, the Time Lords of old. But then they went to war. An endless war, and it changed them right to the core. You've seen my enemies, Wilf. The Time Lords are more dangerous than any of them.” The Doctor flipped a large switch and powered up the ship. “England. Naismith Mansion. Allons-y.”

--

The Master stood in a large atrium, arms outstretched. “We have contact. They are coming. Closer! And closer! And closer!”

A bright white light filled the space, and when it dimmed the Lord President, his Chancellery Guards, and the two dissenters, faces covered, stood before the Master.

The sound of shattering of glass was the only precursor to the Doctor falling through the glass ceiling into the space between the Master and the other Time Lords. Cut up and bleeding, he held an old revolver in his hand.

Rassilon smirking took two steps toward the struggling Doctor. “My Lord Doctor. My Lord Master. We are gathered for the end.”

The Doctor pushed to his knees. “Listen to me. You can't…”

“It is a fitting paradox that our salvation comes at the hands of our most infamous child.”

The Doctor shook his head. “Oh, he's not saving you. Don't you realise what he's doing?”

The Master glared at the Doctor. “Hey, no, hey! That's mine. Hush. Look around you. I've transplanted myself into every single human being. But who wants a mongrel little species like them, because now I can transplant myself into every single Time Lord. Oh, yes, Mister President, sir, standing there all noble and resplendent and decrepit. Think how much better you're going to look as me.”

Rassilon raised the fist wearing his metal gauntlet. It pulsed blue with energy. All the Master copies around the room began to shake their heads.

“No, no, don't. No, no, stop it! No, no, no, don't!”

When all the humans had regained their original forms, Rassilon addressed them. “On your knees, mankind.”

All of the people look confused and scared, but soon dropped to their knees.

“No, that's fine, that's good, because you said, ‘salvation.’ I still saved you. Don't forget that.”

Rassilon raised his staff. “The approach begins.”

“Approach of what?”

The Doctor looked in disgust at the Master. “Something is returning. Don't you ever listen? That was the prophecy. Not someone, something.”

“What is it?”

“They're not just bringing back the species. It's Gallifrey. Right here, right now.”

A large, orange planet pulsed into existence alongside the Earth, blocking out the sun and darkening the streets.

The Master turned to Rassilon. “But, I did this. I get the credit. I'm on your side.”

[dingdongsnogbox]

Bedtime Stories

Chapter: 2/?

Rating: M

Word Count: 1891

Description: When the Doctor shows up at Clara’s flat one Wednesday afternoon, he’s surprised to find the place empty. Deciding to wait for her to return home, he takes it upon himself to occupy his time by routing through her things. What happens when he stumbles upon a racy book stashed underneath Clara’s pillow?

Author’s Note: So apparently I wrote most of this a year ago and only just found it lying around on my computer... 20 minutes later and I’ve finished it off and now it’s here for anyone who’s still interested in reading this story. I think the award for the longest time taken to update a fanfic ever definitely goes to me...

The Doctor strides up to the TARDIS console purposefully and promptly pulls down on the leaver to send the ship into flight. He doesn’t go far; just takes her to drift in the vortex. Sort of like the equivalent of storming out of one’s own home, only to find one has nowhere to go and winding up hovering about outside uselessly. The Doctor has never been particularly good at storming off and thinks he’s done well to even dematerialise the TARDIS out of Clara’s flat.

“Well, I think I’ve certainly surpassed myself in terms of downright stupid ideas today, hey old girl?” He gazes up at the ceiling of the console room as he finally acknowledges the sheer idiocy of the situation he’s landed himself in. In response, he feels something distinctly resembling amusement tickle the edges of his mind from his ship. The Doctor rolls his eyes. “I should have known you’d be on her side. You women are always ganging up on me.” He remarks as he spins away from the console.

Now all he has to do is solve this mess he’s gotten himself into. There is of course the option of taking a quick trip into the distant future, finding an erotic novel and passing it off as something he’d written himself, but somehow the Doctor can’t quite bring himself to deceive Clara in such a way. Besides, anything written by a human is bound to be pure drivel anyway.

With a resigned sigh, he ponders his options and decides that to write a book, one must first conduct an extensive amount of research. Thankfully, research is an area he is particularly skilled in. Unthankfully, he does not fancy conducting extensive research into this particular area. No, that definitely won’t do. He’ll have to make do with researching existing books within the genre and go from there. He briefly ponders the thought of paying a visit to the library onboard the TARDIS, but dismisses the idea as quickly as it comes. Whilst there’s undoubtedly some literature with a hint of an erotic nature lying around in there, the Doctor likes to consider himself above keeping a collection of such books.

First stop: the nearest bookshop. Well… strictly speaking that could be any bookshop really what with the whole ship that travels anywhere in time and space thing and all, but some locations are easier to land accurately in than others. 21st century London is always an easy one and there’s bound to be no end of bookshops stocking inappropriate novels there. London bookshop it is.

When they land, the Doctor sticks his head out of the TARDIS doors to examine his surroundings. A dank alleyway greets him, and he promptly exits the ship to take a closer look at the street sign in order to remember where exactly he’s parked. It wouldn’t be the first time he forgot where he’d parked the TARDIS, and the idea of wandering around looking for the ship whilst carrying a collection of erotic fiction is far from an appealing one.

Once satisfied that he’s aware of where they are, he leaves the alleyway and strolls out onto a relatively busy street. Conveniently, almost directly opposite the alleyway sits a large, yet somewhat rundown bookshop. Perfect. With a smile, the Doctor makes a mental note to congratulate himself on his excellent piloting skills later.

The inside of the shop is brimming with wall-to-wall books of every genre. Each section is vaguely categorised by a faded sign above the shelves and the Doctor makes a beeline for the one which reads ‘romance’. There, he begins to scan the shelves, skimming the title of each book with a frown of concentration. Unfortunately, the titles seem to give him little clues as to the actual contents of the books. The Doctor is about to resign himself to taking out each one and reading the blurb in the hope of finding those which might be on the more er… exotic side when he catches sight of a sign which reads ‘erotica’ off towards the right. Bingo.

He doesn’t bother to read the titles of the books, simply starts to drag them off of the shelves one by one until half of the section is empty and he can no longer see where he’s walking from behind a precarious tower of inappropriate literature.

Miraculously, he manages to find his way to the checkout desk without falling over anything or bumping into anyone and promptly sets the pile of books down in front of him with a soft thud. The woman behind the counter eyes the collection with a raised eyebrow and slightly widened eyes, clearly alarmed by his choice of purchases.

“You want to buy all of these?” The young woman asks, voice laced with mild disbelief. The Doctor stares at her as though she possesses all of the brain capacity of a turnip. “Well I didn’t carry them all over here just for fun.” He answers dryly and the woman, clearly taken aback by the bluntness of his response, simply ducks her head and begins to scan and bag up the books. The Doctor frowns slightly and wonders if this has something to do with that being nice thing Clara is always babbling on about…

He’s in the middle of pondering over whether he ought to try to engage the woman in further conversation when she interrupts him to state how much his purchase totals to and he hands her over a wad of money without another word. He isn’t often in the habit of keeping money on his person, but he keeps an amount stashed away onboard the TARDIS for emergencies. Buying a bookshop’s entire collection of erotic literature is clearly one such an emergency. The woman behind the counter accepts the cash with some muttered thanks and the Doctor begins to gather up the numerous carrier bags of books that are now sat gathered on the counter in front of him. It’s a struggle but, somehow, he manages to hold all of them at once and hurries rapidly out the shop door and back towards the TARDIS.

Once inside the ship, he practically begs her to move the library as close as physically possible to the console room so that he doesn’t wind up hauling his ridiculous collection of carrier bags along miles and miles of corridors. The TARDIS, for a change, decides to be generous and he finds the door to the library off to the right, a couple of doors down from the console room.

Off to the left-hand side of the extensive room is a large wooden desk, and it’s here that the Doctor empties out the entire contents of his carrier bags in an unceremonious heap. There. Now all that’s left to do is go through the pile and try to figure out what on Earth he’s actually going to write about…

*******************************************************************************************

Two hours in and after reading the words ‘engorged member’ for what feels like the millionth time, the Doctor tosses yet another book over his shoulder into the growing pile of discarded novels behind him. “Humans. You’d think with all of the canoodling they get up to that they’d actually be capable of writing about it, but apparently, that’s too much to ask of a bunch of pudding-brains.” He remarks to himself with an exaggerated sigh.

The Doctor thinks to himself that if he has to read one more poorly written description of ham-fisted foreplay then he might actually select the largest of the novels in the pile and proceed to beat himself over the head with it. It rapidly becomes too much to bear and the Doctor swiftly pushes himself up from the desk.

“Well, you know what they say old girl. If you want something done properly, ask a Time Lord to do it for you.” He speaks to his ship with a grin and feels what seems distinctly like an eye roll in response. One of these days, somebody around here will actually appreciate his wit.

Deciding that it’s about time he starts attempting to write this dreadful book, the Doctor seeks out another desk free from pornographic clutter and seats himself at it with a stack of paper and a pen. He could have done the human thing and used a computer, but he’s a little old fashioned and finds that his superior writing speed hardly makes it an inconvenience to write the whole thing out by hand.

His pen moves to form the cursive lettering that reads ‘Chapter One’ at the top of the first sheet of paper, and then begins detailing the beginnings of his story about an enigmatic, scarily handsome Rockstar from outer space who happens upon a petite, bossy young woman who knows exactly how to put him in his place…

*******************************************************************************************

He’s been writing for some time, when the Doctor hits a mental block and freezes with pen on paper. Despite bragging to Clara about his extensive knowledge in the area, it has actually been a while since he last engaged in… relations with anyone and he finds himself stuck as to the correct response one might give to the situation his story is currently depicting. Frowning to himself, he tries to conjure up the words to describe the reaction he’s looking for and repeatedly comes up short. Blast.

Then an idea pops into his head and he’s jumping out of his seat and running out of the library before the rational part of his brain can catch up and explain to him exactly why said idea is one of the less intelligent ones he’s had.

Back in the console room, the Doctor plugs in the coordinates for Clara’s flat and sends the TARDIS into flight. Moments later, the ship has materialised back in her bedroom and the Doctor is striding out through the doors.

“Clara?” He calls out, his Scottish accent thick as he annunciates her name.

On cue, she appears from the living room with what appears to be a smug grin on her face. “Given up already, have you?” She teases with her arms folded across her chest.

“Not exactly.” He responds, eyeing her calculatingly.

“Well then, where is this master-,” her words die in her throat to be replaced with a sharp intake of air as the Doctor closes the distance between them, winding his arms around her waist and bringing his lips down to suck hard at the soft skin of her throat.

“Doctor-,” Clara manages to squeak out, the word tinged with a mixture of shock and a hint of arousal. In fact, the Doctor feels her go slightly weak in his arms and tilt her head back ever so slightly in encouragement, before she seems to catch herself and places her hands forcefully against his chest.

“What the hell are you doing?!” She exclaims, eyes wide in alarm.

Now, with his gaze on her face, the Doctor takes the time to note the pink flush that has crept over her face and neck and the way her breathing rate has substantially increased. He flashes her what can almost be described as a cheeky smirk and answers: “research, Clara.” And with that, he turns on his heel and walks straight back into the TARDIS, dematerialising and leaving a flabbergasted Clara Oswald in his wake.

[techcrunchappcom]

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/the-latest-cdc-estimates-only-1-8th-of-infections-caught-world-news/

The Latest: CDC estimates only 1/8th of infections caught | World News

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — NEW YORK — A new government report says the U.S. is still missing nearly eight coronavirus infections for every one counted.

By the end of September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculates that as many as 53 million Americans had been infected. That is just under eight times the confirmed cases reported at the time.

Previously, the CDC estimated that one of every 10 infections were being missed.

The latest CDC calculation is meant to give a more accurate picture of how many people actually have caught the virus since the pandemic began. Of the 53 million estimated infections, the CDC says about 45 million were sick at some point and about 2.4 million were hospitalized.

———

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— EXPLAINER: China’s claims of coronavirus on frozen foods

— Restaurant employees out of work again as coronavirus surges anew

— A migrant’s odyssey from boat to COVID-19 nursing job in Spain

— Christmas traditions axed as pandemic sweeps rural Kansas

— Germany set to extend partial shutdown well into December

———

Follow AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

———

HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

Oregon’s governors says bars and restaurants can reopen for limited outdoor service next week but many restrictions will remain in place until a vaccine against the coronavirus is widely available.

In making the announcement Wednesday, Gov. Kate Brown urged Oregonians to stay safe during the Thanksgiving holiday and protect others by not ignoring safety protocols, like wearing masks and limiting personal contacts.

The revamped pandemic restrictions take effect when the current two-week “freeze” expires Dec. 3. Currently, only take-out restaurant service is allowed. The restaurant industry pushed hard against the restrictions as several eateries closed for good and others were at risk of doing so.

———

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon says he has tested positive for the coronavirus, but has only minor symptoms.

Gordon said Wednesday that he plans to continue working remotely.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people who test positive for the virus isolate themselves for 10 days.

Gordon said on Nov. 13 that Wyoming residents need to be more responsible about preventing the spread of the coronavirus. In his words, “We’ve relied on people to be responsible, and they’re being irresponsible,” Gordon joins nearly 26,700 Wyoming residents who have tested positive.

———

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma State Department of Health announced Wednesday that public schools will be allowed to offer in-school quarantines for students exposed to the virus.

Schools in Mustang became the first in the state to adopt the policy, the department said.

Effective from Nov. 30 through Dec. 23, the policy would allow students to quarantine in school.

Interim State Epidemiologist Dr. Jared Taylor said students who tested positive for COVID-19 and students who had interactions with the infected student would have previously moved to distance learning for 14 days.

Under the new policy, students who are quarantined will be allowed to go to school to take part in virtual classes, but will be kept out of individual classrooms in buildings such as gyms or an auditorium where they would be socially distanced and must wear masks.

———

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Officials in Santa Clara County said they will ramp up enforcement of state health orders during the holiday weekend to make sure businesses follow the permitted capacity, employees and customers wear masks at all times and social distance guidelines are being followed.

With Thanksgiving week kicking off the holiday shopping season, compliance officers will fan out throughout the Silicon Valley county starting Thursday and at least through Sunday with the help of firefighters who normally enforce capacity issues for fire codes. They will be able to issue fines on the spot starting at $250.

Until now, most California counties have taken an education approach, issuing warnings instead of fines.

But the county recorded its highest individual new case count for a day and has only 68 available ICU beds, testing officer Dr. Marty Fenstersheib said Wednesday, surpassing any levels hit during the peak of the summer surge.

“We are really, really concerned,” Fenstersheib said. “All of the metrics that we have been following, that have done well in previous months, are now going up very steeply.”

———

SALT LAKE CITY — Physicians in Utah are warning that Thanksgiving could become a major super spreader event for COVID-19 transmission if people don’t follow public health guidelines.

An increased number of hospitalizations across the state has prompted doctors and public health officials to advise against attending Thanksgiving gatherings with people outside their immediate households.

On Wednesday, an infectious disease specialist said COVID-19 cases could further overwhelm a strained healthcare system if people do not follow this guidance. His pleas comes just days after Republican Gov. Gary Herbert said he would not extend his previous order requiring people to limit social gatherings to people in their home.

In Utah, 1 in 136 people were diagnosed with COVID-19 over the past week and the state is ranked tenth in the country for new cases per capita, according to data from Johns Hopkins.

There have been over 182,000 reported virus cases in Utah and more than 800 known deaths related to the virus, according to state data.

———

HELENA, Mont. — Montana schools will receive nearly $13 million in additional coronavirus relief funds before Dec. 30.

Gov. Steve Bullock announced Wednesday that more than 180 schools across the state were approved for additional funding after they submitted requests in October.

The new funding includes about $5.7 million in unspent funding from the $75 million allocated to K-12 schools in July.

Bullock called on Congress to pass additional relief for the coming calendar year. State health officials reported over 1,000 new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday. That brings the total number of Montana confirmed cases since the pandemic began to more than 58,000.

———

ANKARA, Turkey — The number of daily COVID-19 infections in Turkey has jumped to above 28,000 after, in a surprise development, the government resumed publishing all positive cases and not just the number of patients being treated for symptoms of the coronavirus.

The government was accused of hiding the full extent of the virus spread in Turkey, after it was revealed that the number of asymptomatic cases were not being included in data published since July 29. The Health Ministry was under pressure to resume publishing the total number of cases.

In a news conference Wednesday following a weekly scientific advisory council meeting, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced 28,351 new infections in the past 24 hours, emphasizing that the data represented “all people whose PCR tests are positive whether they display symptoms or not.”

Koca on Wednesday, also announced 168 COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours. Turkey had previously been reporting around 6,000 daily new patients

The total number of cases since the outbreak started now stands at 467,730, with 12,840 fatalities.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says a Turkish-developed vaccine against COVID-19 could be ready for use by April.

The vaccine, ERUCOV-VAC, is being developed by Erciyes University, in the central Turkish province of Kayseri, and is currently undergoing phase 1 of testing.

———

NEWARK, N.J. — In New Jersey’s largest city, officials are urging residents to shelter in place for the next 10 days to quell a resurgence of the new coronavirus.

The test positivity rate has soared to around 40% in Newark’s Ironbound, the epicenter of the city’s nightlife and the heart of the Spanish and Portuguese community. That has prompted Mayor Ras Baraka to impose a curfew and use police checkpoints to restrict access to residents and those conducting essential business.

Citywide, where the positivity rate is around 20 percent, double the statewide rate, non-essential businesses are being asked to close at 8 p.m.

———

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles has begun to require travelers arriving to by airplane or train to sign a form acknowledging California’s recommended two-week self-quarantine in response to surging coronavirus cases.

Anyone over the age of 16 coming from another state or country must submit the form online before or upon arriving at Los Angeles International Airport, Van Nuys Airport or Union Station.

City officials said those who don’t submit the form may face a fine of up to $500.

Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the requirement on Monday as he warned the virus was “threatening to spiral out of control” in Los Angeles.

———

PORTLAND, Ore. – A federal judge has declined to bar or alter Gov. Kate Brown’s two-week freeze that prohibits indoor and outdoor dining at restaurants and bars in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut on Tuesday denied a temporary restraining order sought by the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association and Restaurant Law Center.

Immergut issued her ruling after hearing nearly an hour of argument. It marked the latest rejection by a judge in Oregon of a challenge to the governor’s coronavirus restrictions.

———

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s prime minister has ruled out imposing another virus lockdown, despite a steady increase in fatalities from COVID-19. Imran Khan says his government doesn’t want people to die because of hunger while trying to save them from the pandemic.

Khan spoke to journalists Wednesday in the eastern city of Lahore hours after authorities reported one of the highest COVID-19 death tallies in a 24-hour period yet at 59, and over 3,000 new cases.

Pakistan is experiencing a second wave of the virus and hospitals are being flooded with patients.

Khan urged people to strictly adhere to social distancing rules and said wearing face masks is the easiest way to contain the spread of the virus.

Khan said he did not want to shut down factories, shops and shopping malls as it could affect country’s economy.

Pakistan has recorded 382,892 confirmed cases, including 7,803 deaths, since February when the country reported its first case.

Pakistan imposed a nationwide lockdown in March but eased restrictions in May.

———

ROME — Italy registered a slightly higher new daily caseload of coronavirus infections, but significantly more swab tests were conducted compared to the previous day. That’s according to Health Ministry figures released Wednesday.

With the addition of 25,853 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, Italy’s known total in the pandemic rose to 1.480,874. The number of persons hospitalized with symptoms in regular care beds declined by 264 since Tuesday, but the number of ICU beds occupied by COVID-19 patients rose by 32 on Monday.

In the same 24-hour period, 722 deaths were registered, bringing to 52,028 the number of known dead in the pandemic.

Later this week, the government must decide whether to extend nationwide restrictions, including an overnight curfew, as well as determine which regions should stay “red zones” due to worrisome factors like high rates of contagion and pressure on local hospital systems.

The “Red zone” designation means only essential shops, like food stores and pharmacies, can open, while restaurants and cafes can only do take-out or delivery service, and residents can’t leave their towns, except for reasons like work or medical care.

Businesses are pressing the government to lift or ease restrictions to salvage the upcoming holiday shopping and travel season.

———

HONOLULU — A Honolulu city councilman has called on the city’s police chief to reinstate its coronavirus enforcement unit. The unit was suspended after allegations that officers abused overtime hour submissions.

Councilman and Legal Affairs Committee chair Ron Menor proposed this week that Police Chief Susan Ballard should only ban officers currently under investigation for wrongdoing. He says that the rest of the officers should continue to enforce coronavirus restrictions around the city, especially with the upcoming holiday season fast approaching.

The job of ensuring that Honolulu’s residents and tourists are following coronavirus guidelines is now conducted by on-duty patrol officers. They take assignments based on their availability.

———

LIHUE, Hawaii — The first coronavirus death on the island of Kauai has been reported.

Mayor Derek Kawakami announced in a statement this week that an elderly resident of the island with no travel history had died from the coronavirus, which has killed 232 others in Hawaii.

The Garden Island reports that a Kauai resident died in Arizona earlier this year.

The island reported four newly confirmed virus cases Monday, including one adult resident and three adult visitors. Kauai currently has 117 confirmed virus cases since the pandemic began. The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested.

[theladyjojogrant]

Twelfth Doctor Rewatch: Mummy on the Orient Express

Where the Doctor and Clara are saying they’re not friends anymore and yet act super cute, the Doctor does a lot of flailing movements, and Clara turns into a blanket burrito.

Catch up on the rewatch!

Oh my gosh the beginning of the first track “Start the Clock” is so cool, I love it. The soundtrack for this episode is very unique and I really appreciate the direction Murray Gold went with it. 

I find it ironic that Maisie yells “Help, I need a doctor!” at the beginning while her gran is dying because oh boy, you’re gonna get a Doctor that’s way more than you bargained for ma’am. 

“Your train awaits, my lady.” <3 And the way he helps her out of the TARDIS. What a gentleman. 

THEIR OUTFITS AHHHH

I am in love with this arrangement of “Don’t Stop Me Now,” okay? I’ve really wanted to perform it ever since I first saw this episode. 

He offers her his arm and says “Shall we?” I can’t handle the cuteness omg. 

“THERE’S THAT SMILE” GUYS PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS TRACK IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL 

This whole freaking scene at the table oh my gosh. I had to pause the episode because I had so much to say about it. The “oh, shut up” and putting her arm through his and leaning her head on his shoulder, the “I don’t hate you, I could never hate you.” And okay, HIS FACE. You have to remember, this is one of the very rare moments where we can see his face but Clara can’t. This is what he’s really feeling, not what he’s putting on as a show for Clara. He looks blown away by her saying that she doesn’t hate him, like he’s awed by it. He marvels at the human capacity to forgive. And then when she says she can’t do this anymore, he looks crushed. He knows it, but hearing her say it after this semi-reconciliation...it’s awful. 

The Doctor’s little one second smile when Clara introduces him. 

Clara looks so disappointed when the Doctor says “isn’t it?” like it’s the last time they’re going to see each other. They’re both so solemn and sad and UGH just be okay again.

The Doctor talking to himself in his room. 

Also Clara is bored without danger lol XD

The way he almost knocks on her door and then just walks away...grrrr. I hate things like this where people just miss each other. 

“The Doctor. Nosy parker.” THEN THAT SMILE (Shoutout to @dr-nosy-parker because. You know. The URL.) 

THE CIGARETTE CASE FULL OF JELLY BABIES I’ll never be over it. It’s like, he looks so “mature” with the cigarette case and then jelly babies. Twelve is actually a child. 

When the guy takes the jelly baby he looks at it like “??? Can I smoke this???”

I realised this time around that I’ve seen this episode so many times that I can quote almost the entire thing. 

Clara saying she and the Doctor aren’t even friends anymore. Really? “He’s not my friend but he took me on a classy magic space train and we hang around each other and we walk together arm in arm” like honestly, Clara? Really? 

Maisie: “Are the good times all like this?” Clara: “Now that you mention it...”

I love how Clara is the only one who actually believes she’s done hanging with the Doctor. Nobody else believes her. 

“Life would be so much simpler if we liked the right people, the people we were supposed to like. But then, I guess there’d be no fairytales.” I love that line so much. It’s so true. 

THE STICK INSECT AS THE DOCTOR’S CONTACT PIC ON CLARA’S PHONE I’M DEAD LOL

I know they already did the whole Agatha Christie thing with Ten and Donna but I kinda wish this would’ve actually been more like an Agatha Christie mystery. Don’t get me wrong, I like the episode, but Agatha Christie plots are just the best. 

Just realised that this episode is basically a real life or death escape room. 

I love how there are a crap ton of scientists in the room and literally nobody else says anything ever they just act like they’re doing stuff.

Okay but for real. This is the first episode where Clara starts becoming the Doctor. She’s following his instructions by lying and everything but she’s still becoming him anyway. She says “You’ve made me your accomplice,” and she absolutely hates it. And yet, this is what she ultimately becomes. Gosh her character development is crazy. 

“Are you my mummy?” I’m so glad Jamie Mathieson couldn’t resist putting that in. 

Okay but do you see how convinced Clara is that the Doctor is going to get himself out of the whole mummy thing and not die? She wasn’t even looking at the Doctor in the last few seconds, she was turned the other way listening to Perkins. There wasn’t a single doubt in her mind about the Doctor saving himself. 

I wanna know where they filmed this last scene, it’s really pretty with all the big white rocks and the water. 

AlSO THE FACT THAT THE DOCTOR HAD TO CARRY CLARA THAT ENTIRE TIME AND WRAPPED HER IN BLANKETS AND BUILT A FIRE AND LITERALLY JUST SAT THERE WHILE SHE SLEPT. That’s commitment right there.

Love this scene with both of their backs as they’re staring out at the water with the sunset colours in the sky. So pretty. 

This conversation at the end in the TARDIS. Clara’s trying to understand how the Doctor has done this for so long because she doesn’t think she can do it anymore. But her hesitance about asking the Doctor if it’s an addiction...I think it takes her a minute to voice it because she knows she’s addicted. She’s already realised that she can’t give it up. And as time goes on, her addiction gets worse until it kills her. Literally. 

Oh Clara honey. No. You can’t lie to them both. Just stop now. 

“Now shut up and give me some planets.” :D 

THE DOCTOR’S SO FREAKING HAPPY THIS IS LIKE THE SECOND REALEST SMILE WE’VE EVER SEEN FROM TWELVE. It’s so cute. He always acts like he doesn’t care about Clara, and even in the past couple of episodes as they’ve been on rocky ground he’s seemed very stoic and unfeeling. But now we finally see, he’s so glad that she’s staying. He’s ecstatic. That smile, man, that smile. 

[bardqueenofgallifrey]

Every Breath Becomes A Prayer

commission for @whouffaldi-that-is-all, art done by @luluxa (who Tumblr won’t let me tag for some reason, sorry!), fic by me

AO3 Fic Link

The water is warm. Given how many planets the Doctor has been to in his lifetimes, there shouldn't be anything on a level as basic as this that surprises him anymore, but it does, this time.

It's probably the thunderstorm. The howling wind and the chopping waves that had raged so fiercely underneath Clara as the pirate held her over the side of the ship by her throat, and threatened to drop her if the Doctor came any closer.

The Doctor had been sure he could talk the Sarkanian down. He'd been wrong.

In his mind he can still see Clara falling, still hear the sound of her scream, feel the blood pounding in his ears as he had watched with horror as her tiny form had hit the waves with a clap and instantly disappeared.

Of course, within a second he had forgotten about the Sarkanian's existence and dove overboard after her with no preparation but a shout of her name.

And now, the warm water envelops him as he tries to see her, tries to make out her form in the darkness. It's hopeless. He digs in his pockets for a light, anything that might help, and finds a little flashlight he is able to shine through the dark, churning depths around him.

Panic seizes his hearts when he still can't see anything, but then they leap in his chest when he sees the familiar shape in the water some distance away. It's an effort to swim over to her, the churning current working against him with every push of his arms and legs, but he eventually gets to her.

She isn't conscious.

He can't let himself focus on that now, he can only hold her to his chest with one arm and use the other and his legs to push him towards the surface.

His respiratory bypass stops him from getting too oxygen-starved, but it still takes much longer than he would like, if only because he's worried about Clara.

Finally, he breaks the surface and gulps in the humid air, looking around. The TARDIS had landed on a tiny island, one he can just make out now, not too far off. The island, when they had landed, had been occupied by a band of pirates - well, mercenaries, they called themselves - who had stopped to restock on water and food.

It hadn't taken long for the Doctor and Clara to be taken as hostages, but then things had gone sour quickly, and now they were both overboard.

But he can get to the island. He can do it. Humans might have pitiful lung capacity, and pretty much laughable physiology in general, but they are also surprisingly resilient, especially when it comes to clinging to life, and there is none stronger than Clara Oswald.

All the same, worry has a tight grasp on both of his hearts. It almost chokes him as he swims for shore, but he ignores it, letting the mantra of she cannot die she cannot die she cannot die drive him on. She is still against his chest, and he shifts her to get a better grip, kissing her hair almost absently.

"Almost there, Clara, just hold on," he murmurs. There is, of course, no reply.

The waves carry them in for the final leg and the Doctor and his aching arms are relieved.

The Time Lord and human are washed up on the dark sand, the warm water lapping at their legs, and the Doctor coughs out seawater, before pulling Clara just a bit higher up the sand.

"Clara," he says, leaning over her, hands ghosting over her face. "Oh, Clara, Clara, why did you have to be so… obtuse?" He feels his lips twitch. "Yeah, I know, this coming from me."

She isn't breathing, and when he checks her pulse, it's barely there.

He opens up her airway, braces his hands against her chest, and starts compressions. Not too hard, not enough to break her, but hard enough. He counts and lets his mind focus on the numbers, because the alternative is thinking about how her pulse had felt like it was fading.

Pause in compressions.

He lowers his head and covers her mouth with his, breathing as much oxygen into her as he can.

come on come on come on come on come on

He starts the compressions again, a bit harder, fuelled by even more desperation. "What was that you said to me, Clara? You die with the next person. You do not die with me."

Another dip down, breathing into her with everything that he has. He stares, waits, and checks her pulse. He's not even sure if he can make it out, or if it's his hopeful imagination.

"No!" He shouts, slapping the sand with his palms before taking a deep breath, planting his hands back on her chest, and starting the compressions again. He will not allow this to happen. To keep Clara Oswald alive, he thinks he might just tear down the very sky above him, and that thought is terrifying, but somehow still not as terrifying as the prospect of Clara being dead.

He's shaking violently by the time he again leans over her mouth. He will not give up, not ever, but the fear is coming in fast and cold and it's threatening to break down his resolve.

And then she starts coughing up water, coughing violently and trembling in his arms as she clutches at him blindly.

"Doctor," she says weakly, water dribbling from her mouth.

He's so relieved that he can't speak, not even just to say her name. All he can do is hold her close to him, so close it probably hurts. She's okay. She's alive.

"You're shaking," Clara realises.

"So are you," he retorts, with about half of his usual energy.

"Also… you're hugging me."

"I'm not hugging you."

"Kind of are, a bit."

"This is holding. It's completely different."

"If you say so."

"I do," he says gruffly, tucking her head under his chin, closing his eyes and letting his fingers trail down her neck to feel her pulse, getting ever more steady. The thrum against his fingers helps calm his still racing hearts.

When Clara speaks again, some thirty seven seconds later, her voice has changed slightly. It's stronger, but also less certain. "Well. This is different."

He figures she probably means that he hasn't let go of her yet. He knows he should, that he's not meant to like the touching. (It does tend to make him uncomfortable, but it's different with Clara. Clara is his friend, his everything; touches from Clara are good, touches from Clara are safe, mostly.)

"I'm sorry," he mumbles. "It was just a lot closer than I would have liked."

"Don't have to be sorry," Clara says. "It's… nice."

"It is?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

"… I'm sorry for getting thrown overboard."

He finds himself chuckling. "Well, trust you to offend the captain within four minutes of hoisting anchor."

"It was an accident!" Clara says defensively. "And you're one to talk! Eight and a half times out of ten, when we go somewhere and offend a local, that's on you. You and your Scottishness."

"Eight and a half times out of ten?"

"Yep."

"Is that an official, technical statistic, that one?" he asks, lips twitching. He glances down to see that her cheeks have started flushing, and he's relieved to finally see some colour in them.

"Shut up," she mumbles. He just grins at her. "Put me back in the ocean, if you're going to be a dick."

"I can if you like, the water's nice and warm, lovely this time of year around the equator-"

"I take it back, don't even joke about that," Clara says. "It's bad enough that you, what, probably had to dive in after me like a dramatic hero after his damsel in distress? That's embarrassing for both of us."

"Don't worry, Clara, I'm fairly sure half the time I'm the damsel," he jokes, before frowning and adding, "though don't ever tell anyone I said that. I've only admitted that to one person before, and I'm still waiting for her to give me crap for it, somewhere down the line."

Clara laughs a little. "Okay, well I can deal with the taking turns thing, I think. I quite like being the dramatic hero."

"And what a fine job of it you do," he tells her.

She smiles. "You're not too bad yourself."

The Doctor hadn't realised until now just how close their faces were, as they sit on the beach with her torso cradled against his. He's not sure he's been this close to Clara for so long at any point in either of the lives he has known her.

She seems to have noticed too, and a strange quiet falls between them. Her eyes – so big and brown and beautiful, so endless – stare at him. Her fingers trace the line of his lips.

"Thank you for saving me," she whispers.

"Thank you for not dying. It really improved my day."

A funny little laugh escapes her. "If the universe wants to take me away from you, it's going to need to try a lot harder than that."

He rolls his eyes. "There's still no need to give it an invitation."

"Shhh," she says softly, and sits up a bit in his arms.

Their faces are even closer together now. The Doctor thinks his brain might be short-circuiting, because surely he should have something clever to say right about now, but there's nothing. There's just Clara's face, wide and round and so expressive and so intent on him.

Her hand brushes his cheek and he leans into the touch a little, surprising the both of them.

Clara leans in closer, eyes darting up from his lips to his eyes, giving him time to pull away, seemingly checking if he isn't okay with what he's fairly sure she's about to do.

Frankly, he doesn't really know how he feels about it, or about her - except that he needs her, needs her in some innate way, and that he wants the closeness in any way it will come.

Clara's lips meet his, soft and sweet and tasting of the warm seawater. It's been a while since he kissed anyone – had it been her, or Tasha, in his last body? – but luckily he's found over the centuries that it's not the sort of thing one tends to forget. Admittedly a few of his past selves, the last one included, are simply too awkward to react well to this sort of thing, but it seems this body is not among that number.

It takes him a moment, but then he's pulling Clara against him and kissing her back deeply. She lets out a little sigh against his mouth, and it's soothing and wonderful and everything is just Clara.

When they stop for breath, Clara offers him a little smile.

"Not bad, old man," she says.

He chuckles. "Still got a few tricks left, me."

"Yeah?"

"If you keep up this not dying thing, you might even get to see them."

Clara's eyes sparkle as they regard him. "Is that a promise?"

"Might be," he replies, smirking. "Now, come on, TARDIS. I'd like to check you over in the infirmary, make sure you're definitely okay."

He gets up, lifting her in his arms easily - she's so small, and that's normally funny, but today it's a relief more than anything else - and carrying her up the beach and towards the blue box he can just about make out in the distance.

"I can probably walk, you know, you don't have to carry me," Clara says, but she doesn't sound annoyed, more amused than anything else.

"It's fine, you barely weigh anything to me. It's like carrying a doll or a particularly round cabbage."

"I'm going to pretend you didn't just call me a cabbage."

"Don't take it personally. I like cabbage. It's an underappreciated vegetable."

Clara is silent. He glances down at her, and she's chewing on the inside of her mouth, her lips trying to curl upwards into a smile anyway.

"What?"

"You're ridiculous," she says, but it's definitely fond, and he feels his chest warm a little in a ridiculous, besotted sort of way he would absolutely deny if anyone knew to ask about it.

"Proudly."

They make it to the TARDIS, and inside. A quick check from the infirmary lets him know that Clara should be absolutely fine after a bit of rest, and they automatically head back to the console room.

"Right, well, I'm probably going to do some tinkering, or… something," the Doctor says, his hands sliding into his pockets as he looks back at her. She's sitting on the jumpseat with a blanket draped around her shoulders to make up for the fact that they'd taken her soaked jumper off in the infirmary and her thin shirt is clinging to her and a bit translucent. "You should sleep. Sleep is the greatest healer of them all. You know, except for some of the really clever stuff from this one hospital that-"

"I get the point, Doctor, don't worry, I'm going," Clara says, smiling. "I'm exhausted."

"Good, good," he says, nodding as she gets up and moves to kiss his cheek in farewell. She doesn't get far, however, before she turns back and looks at him.

"Maybe you could… stay with me tonight," she suggests, biting her lip, eyes warm if a little shy. "And, you know. Check there aren't going to be any side effects from the whole almost drowning thing."

The Doctor blinks at her, taking a moment to catch her meaning. "Yeah. Yeah, possibly a good idea. I could do that."

Clara smiles at him, brightly, and holds out her hand to him. He reaches for it, takes it, and even allows her to slide her fingers between his, as she gently leads him out of the console room.

[tardisgirlepic]

Ch. 2: “World Enough and Time” Analysis Doctor Who S10.11: Fish Metaphor Foreshadows Doctor’s Fall & Hope for Future

<- Read previous chapter

Fish Have Many Meanings

I’m sorry about not getting this chapter finished before Season 10 started because, as you’ll see, fish foreshadow so much of what the 12th Doctor is about.   In fact, they show up in surprising places, like the Library, because all roads and Fish lead to the metaphors of the Library, Rome, and Vikings.  For the 12th Doctor, they also lead to prison, Library metaphors, Hospital metaphors and more.

I started putting Religious symbology related to fish in this chapter, like the Christian fish a.k.a. ichthys here before Season 10, along with the symbolism of water, which is mostly what I didn’t finish.  For the most part, I’m going to skip the symbology for lack of time.

I didn’t get a chance to talk about the Fish in “The Eaters of Light,” so we’ll examine it below.

Since Fish hold a lot of meaning, it’s no wonder that fish, fishing, eating fish, representations of fish, or mentions of fish and shoals are common throughout DW.  In fact, live goldfish show up in at least one episode of each of the nuWho Doctors.  Also, fish people are either mentioned or show up multiple times in 11th and 12th Doctor episodes, along with some Classic Who episodes. 

Here is an image showing an example of a live goldfish with Dr. Moon and CAL’s dad from “Silence in the Library.”   This is in CAL’s virtual reality.  

In fact, fish are so important that they show up 3 times in the Library in 3 different ways. We’ll look at this more in depth in a bit.

Fish As a Metaphor

Fish and other sea and river creatures (which I’ll collectively refer to as “Fish”) are one of the most important metaphors of the 12th Doctor.  They can symbolize, among many other things, mystery, transformation, and the unconscious, which we’ve looked at in depth in the pre-airing chapters of TRODM, starting at Chapter 9 of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who.

However, Fish represent so much more.  Because they hold great significance across many cultures, groups, mythologies, and religions, DW is tapping into a rich set of metaphors for these normally watery creatures.  For example, they can represent the following: knowledge, wisdom, eternity, creativity, femininity (we’ve also looked at how the Doctor, through integration, is both male and female), and fertility (we’ve looked at the plague associated with the 12th Doctor in Chapter 17).  We’ll revisit this. 

Note that some representations may seem contradictory, such as good luck, happiness, and freedom.  Fish are contextual, depending on how they are used.  I see Fish as good luck and happiness symbols for the Doctor once he is freed.   Right now, they are promises for the future.  Bill represents a face of the Doctor, so I am also referring to her.

In the meantime, they represent the undoing of the 12th Doctor: prisons, hospitals, universities, and libraries, important themes for him.

Because Fish are so important, we had to see more than the Harmony Shoal scar-faced people in Season 10. I’m betting, because they are so significant, that we should see more in either the finale or Christmas Special.

The 12-step Great Work: Transformation, Projection & Pisces

We’ve examined how the Doctor’s transformation follows the original 4-step process of the Great Work. However, the Great Work can involve additional steps.  Since we are dealing with the 12th Doctor, the 12-step process, describing 12 chemical operations of the Great Work, becomes ever more important. 

Tip: Matching up numbers, like the 12-step process, 12 chemical operations, and the 12th Doctor, is an important part of making connections and reading subtext.

Projection & the 12-step Great Work

The 12th step is projection – the ultimate goal of Western alchemy.  Once the Philosopher's stone or powder of projection has been created, the process of projection can transmute a lesser substance into a higher form, which tends to be lead into gold.  In fact, this is why the Doctor could be called Living Metal.  This was a term used in “Silver Nemesis” a 7th Doctor story, although “Living Metal” was never defined.

And we know from our look at the 4-step process, the Doctor is a being of pure consciousness and is returning to be what he was born to be.  The question is what does that mean?  That’s where the 12 steps begin to help us tie a lot of things together to answer.

Great examples of projections are the Cloister Wraiths in “Hell Bent.”  The Time Lords are quite scared of them, so the ghostly Wraiths have real power.  I see the Raven, the Quantum Shade, in “Face the Raven” as the same thing.

Watch Marvel’s Dr. Strange for an understanding of fighting on a ghostly level.  We most likely won’t see it that way, but that’s the way I envision it because this is what projection means.  It’s pure consciousness – ghostly beings.  Also, it refers to CAL in the Library metaphor and Morbius.  She uses tools in her dream.  However, she has great power and can move things with her mind in the projection.

12 Steps & Pisces

The 12 steps not only have a chemical operation, but also they have a Zodiac designation.  And Pisces, the fish, which is the 12th Zodiac sign, represents it.  This is why the symbol for projection, shown below, is the symbol for Pisces, which represents 2 fish.  In fact, there is a symbol of Pisces in the Doctor’s office in “The Pilot.”  I know I mentioned it, but it might be in a later analysis

In fact, Pisces also represents self-undoing: being one’s own worst enemy.  That certainly describes the 12th Doctor. But that’s not all.  According to Wikipedia, Pisces represents the House of Undoing, which includes

·      Places of seclusion such as hospitals, prisons and institutions, including self-imposed imprisonments

·      Mysticism and mystery

·      Things which are not apparent to self, yet clearly seen by others

·      Elusive, clandestine, secretive or unbeknownst matters

·      Privacy, retreat, reflection, and self-sacrifice

·      Unconscious/subconscious

·      Unknown enemies

This all sounds like what has been happening with the Doctor.

Pisces = Prison & the Library Metaphor

Pisces, among several things, is associated with prison.  After all, fish have to live in water, or they will die, unless they have developed special survival skills and have become amphibious fish, like mudskippers.  

12th Doctor & Prison

Here’s an image of half of one of 12th Doctor’s faces.  Below we see that he is looking into Clara’s fishbowl in “Time Heist” that contains a castle, a goldfish, and some water plants.  Because the setting of “Heaven Sent” was a castle within the Doctor’s confession dial, and the Doctor spent 4.5 billion years imprisoned, tortured, and dying there, the castle and prison are metaphors for him.  The fishbowl, itself, is a metaphor for prison.  

So the Doctor being imprisoned in a castle was foreshadowed before the mid-point of Season 8.  That also goes along with the island castle factory issues we saw in the “The Eaters of Light” analysis. 

But he’s also looking into the bowl in the image, so one of his faces is watching himself.

But that’s not all. Check this out.  In this image below, the Doctor is looking into Clara’s dryer. Because his face is spinning around in the reflection at the beginning, he represents all Doctors.  However, check out the 2 different Eye symbols (red and yellow arrows) that represent beings watching him.  Who is watching the Watcher?  That’s the subject of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. Anyway, there is also an open door (white arrow), representing the Door metaphor, and foreshadowing the future of being a Door.

Most Fish Need Water The problem with being a Fish is that most of them need water to survive.  River, Amy Pond, and even Clara, since she is associated with a lake, provide the Water metaphor that Fish need. 

This is why the 12th Doctor has been having such problems.  He hasn’t wanted to live without the women he cares about and loves, in whatever capacity that is.  We’ve seen how this has been driving, in part, his self-destructive behaviors.  In “Heaven Sent,” he sacrifices himself over and over, dying over and over.  He almost let himself drown after he jumped from the castle into the sea.  It was only thoughts of Clara who kept him going.  

The Mudskipper I’m fascinated by mudskippers, amphibious fish, so I was really happy but surprised to see one at the beginning of “The Lie of the Land” with a Monk’s foot next to it.  This image, shown below, is making a statement that the Monks no longer need the Water metaphor to live.  This foreshadows that the 12th Doctor will be able to live without the Water metaphor, at least for long periods of time. Mudskippers can spend a lot of time out of water.  This is a sign of healing.

Prison & River

Prison is also associated with River, who, as we looked at early on, is a mirror of the Doctor.  She spent a lot of time locked up in Stormcage for killing him. 

The first time we saw River in an 11th Doctor episode was “The Time of Angels.”  She was associated with the 12th Doctor, as shown by the timer in the image below.  She is from the 12th Doctor’s timeline and is a face of the 12th Doctor.  Please keep in mind that people, including Doctors, can take on numbers of other Doctors temporarily.  We’ll look at this quite a bit in “World Enough and Time.”

Fish, Pisces & the Library Metaphor

Religious symbology shows up a lot in DW, especially with the Doctor because he was born to save the universe.  

Christian Fish & Projection (Pisces) Symbols in the Library One of the symbols associated with the Doctor is the Christian fish or ichthys, colloquially known as the “sign of the fish” or the “Jesus fish.”  It has 2 intersecting arcs with extended arcs at one end for the tail.

Check out this image below from “Silence in the Library.”  Not only is there a Pisces symbol on the 2 doors, but also there are the additional arcs to create an ichthys on each of the 2 Library doors.  In fact, the Dr. Strange movie uses almost the same projection symbol that is on the doors.

The Doctor, alone, doesn’t equal 2 fish, though.  It takes at least 2 people to pilot the Boat.  An integration.  It’s why the puddle in “The Pilot” was looking for a pilot and got Heather.  Here’s where Clara came in and Bill, too.  We examined Clara with the Boat metaphor at the beginning of “Deep Breath.”

The 3rd fish reference in the Library is in Donna’s dream.  Donna and her dream husband go fishing, shown below.

Prison & the Library Metaphor Mean Djinn Traps

While I’ve mentioned the Library being a prison, I never showed you the 2 djinn traps.  The first, shown below, is very close to the beginning of “Silence in the Library” before we see the 10th Doctor and Donna enter the Pisces doors above.  As you can see by the patterns on the floor with patterns in circles inside other patterns and circles, it’s a complicated symbol.  There are 2 concentric circles.  However, if we count the inside and outside borders of circles of the outermost circle because it has a multiple of an 8-pointed star, the extra circle gives us 3 generations and 3 Doctors.

Looking back to the prison ship in “World Enough and Time,” we can see in the image below that is much less complicated.  This means the Doctor is close to breaking free from all of this.

In case, the Library didn’t catch enough djinn, it has a second trap, shown below.  CAL is represented by the floating security ball, which has shut itself down, and dropped to the center of the smallest circle. She is deeply trapped.  We get confirmation of that when we realize she is really a child cyborg, the control node of the Library computer.

Fish, a River Metaphor, “Human Nature” & “The Family of Blood”

Episodes with lots of wall hangings and items in scenes scream subtext objects.  So it’s no surprise that “Human Nature” and “The Family of Blood” have so many connections to other episodes and are outline episodes for the larger story.

Here’s the 10th Doctor, who is playing the 24th Doctor (a multiple of 12).  Behind the Doctor are 2-framed fish on the wall.  I think they are probably paintings or prints/copies, rather than dead, preserved fish, which could change the meaning of the subtext.  The Doctor, Martha, and Joan are all associated with the fish at points in the episode as they stand near or cross the path of the fish.

Being human is a form of prison for the Time Lord part imprisoned in the watch.

We also see Joan with a pocket watch, shown below.  Like the Doctor, she has hidden her identity and is living as a human, so we know she represents an imprisoned Time Lord.  

And “The Family of Blood” shows us who Joan represents.  Below, she is outside the little Library area, but inside is a picture of a river. The painting of the river is best viewed not in this image below but from the next one, which doesn’t have Joan. The odd thing about this scene with Joan was that Joan had her eyes closed for several seconds, even though she was talking to Martha.  That most likely is significant, given we’ve seen that the Doctor has had vision issues and that River is a mirror.

Below is a better view of the river painting.  Joan, in the above painting, is being associated with this river painting.  Therefore, Joan is a mirror of River.

BTW, River didn’t realize why she needed separate bathrooms from Hydroflax in THORS, so I’ve been wondering, given the mirrors, if River is visually impaired, too.

Fish, Romans & Slavery

Fish, Romans, and slavery come up in 3 different episodes that I can think of off the top of my head in addition to Rory’s imprisonment in an android body.

“The Eaters of Light” In “The Eaters of Light,” there is a carved fish in a rock, shown below, although it’s hard to see. Simon tells Bill the Romans are close to the rock with the fish.  The Romans, then, are associated with the Fish, and so is Bill.  Since the Fish represents imprisonment, the Romans, themselves, are imprisoned.  

“The Fires of Pompeii” We saw previously that Peter Capaldi’s character, Caecilius, in “The Fires of Pompeii” has a chain around his neck, so he’s a happy slave.

The first words of the episode take on new meaning, knowing that fish equate to the Doctor.

VENDOR (OC): Fish! Get your fresh fish!

Pompeii is not what it appears to be even beyond the surprises in the episode.  The fish vendor is selling bodies and body parts, which is consistent with the half-faced man and the butcher/pig metaphor.  It’s consistent with all the brains in the big “C” room that are enslaved in TRODM.

The fish vendor isn’t the only one involved in the slave trade.  Another vendor sold Caecilius the TARDIS, which is the Doctor’s wife metaphor.

When we first see him, he is admiring the TARDIS in his home. 

CAECILIUS: Modern art! Out of the way, that's it. Oh, Rombus, I'm a little bit peckish. Get me some ants in honey, there's a good lad. Ooo, maybe a dormouse?

Caecilius is admiring the TARDIS as art in a similar way that Vastra admires her wife, Jenny, in “Deep Breath,” when she has Jenny pose as a living statue while Vastra works.

Caecilius is peckish, which is interesting, especially since we see him eating snacks in TRODM and now even more in Season 10.  That mirrors the Master.  The only time I’ve seen the Doctor eat a lot is in “The Two Doctors,” when the 2nd Doctor was mutating temporarily.

Rombus is an interesting name.  Besides being an equilateral quadrilateral, it also means flatfish, magician’s circle, or spinning top, all of which have been in the text and subtext in various episodes.

The dormouse was considered a delicacy in ancient Rome.  The most interesting thing about it is that Elizabethans believed Dormouse fat could induce sleep since the animal put on fat before hibernating.  Since unconsciousness is a huge factor with the Doctor, the dormouse seems to suggest he wants to sleep or continue sleeping maybe because he doesn’t want to give up his human family in the dream or because he is being controlled.

Caecilius’s son and daughter are slaves, too.  His daughter, who is part of the Sybilline Sisterhood, is wearing gold and turning to stone like the rest of the sisterhood.  She is a mirror of the Doctor in that she can see into the past and future.  And his son is wearing, what looks like a gold pocket watch around his neck, and he has a chain pattern on his sleeves.  His tunic is purple with gold accents.  The son is a mirror of the Doctor because we learn at the end of the episode that he is studying to be a doctor.  

BTW, there is a lot of subtext that says the Doctor is trying to free himself and the other slaves. Here’s an example, and we’ll look at more in the future.  The 10th Doctor and Donna introduce themselves to Caecilius.

CAECILIUS: Who are you?

DOCTOR: I am Spartacus.

DONNA: And so am I.

CAECILIUS: Mister and Mrs Spartacus.

Spartacus, a former gladiator and an accomplished military leader, was one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major failed slave uprising against the Roman Republic.

The 1st Doctor, Slavery & Fish in “The Romans” The 1st Doctor is involved in the slave trade in the shocking subtext of the 2nd season 4-episode story called the “The Romans.”  Nero is his mirror, and Nero is the one who gives Barbara the gold bracelet that enslaves her to the Animus’s control in the next story.  Is this planned by the Doctor? Or is he also mind controlled?  I haven’t seen enough of the 1st Doctor to tell.

Near the end of “The Romans,” the Doctor sets fire to the map of Rome (says it’s by accident, but it’s not.  The 10th Doctor mentions it in “The Fires of Pompeii.”), and Nero decides that it’s a good idea to burn Rome.  Later, Vicki, a companion, tells the Doctor that he should get credit for the fire in Rome.  The Doctor likes that idea, and once Vicki leaves, the Doctor laughs maniacally. This morphs into Nero’s maniacal laughter, as Nero plays the lyre while Rome burns.

Backing up to the beginning of the first episode of “The Romans,” there is an exchange reminiscent of Caecilius’s exchange above.  However, the 1st Doctor mentions a goldfish when he, Barbara, and Ian are discussing the Roman meal.  Like “The Fires of Pompeii,” ant’s come up in the conversation, which is interesting because the next 1st Doctor story is about ant-like beings and living larval weapons, controlled by the Animus, who are fighting butterfly-like beings.

BARBARA: Ant's eggs in hibiscus honey. DOCTOR: Oh, absolutely. What did you say? IAN: Ant's eggs, Doctor. DOCTOR: Yes, that's what I thought she said. Ant's eggs. What do you think I am, a goldfish, hmm?

BTW, the insectoid war symbolizes what’s happening with the 12th Doctor.

Pisces, Season 10 & the Library Metaphor at the University

Since Pisces represents a prison and other institutions, the university represents a prison, too.  In fact, the Vault is a representation of the prison, the Library metaphor, and the Doctor’s mind, which we’ve examined, so the Vault also represents his own prison.

Season 10 has been playing out in the Library metaphor since “The Pilot.”  In fact, in the opening scene in the Doctor’s office, shown below, the clock (white arrow) says it’s 4 o’clock.  We’re in the Library.  But that’s not all the evidence…

In “World Enough and Time,” at the beginning of the episode, we see various windows go by.  This window, shown below, is from “Smile” with the hayfield and 2 sets of tracks (white arrow) in the foreground.  The strange thing about this is that there is no city in the background.  So how can the hayfield be there?  Where are the Vardy?  This is another item that says something isn’t right.  Also, it tells us that we’ve been in the Library metaphor the whole time.

There Doctor being a professor and teaching at a university has quite a few similarities to a 4th Doctor story “Shada,” written by Douglas Adams, but was never completed due to a labor situation.  There have been quite a few references in Season 10 to Adams.  According to the TARDIS Wikia:

The story revolves around the lost planet Shada, on which the Time Lords built a prison for defeated would-be conquerors of the universe. Skagra, one such inmate, needs the help of one of the prison's inmates. He finds nobody knows where Shada is anymore except one aged Time Lord who has retired to Earth, where he is a professor at St. Cedd's College, Cambridge. Luckily for the universe, Skagra's attempt to force the information out of Professor Chronotis coincides with a visit by the professor's old friend, the Fourth Doctor.

I nearly mentioned this in “The Pilot” analysis, but I forgot about this.  Thanks to Difficat for mentioning “Shada” in the comments on a past analysis.

Pisces & the Hospital Metaphor

Being that Rory is a mirror of the 12th Doctor, it’s not surprising that he is connected to prison (being imprisoned in a Roman android body) and a hospital, which we saw him first working in during “The Eleventh Hour.”

Now, Bill, a face of the Doctor, is also associated with the Hospital.

Hospitals, though, can be both negative and positive.  We saw how Bill was in a hospital nightmare.

However, in the long run, it is meant to heal.  In “The Pilot” analysis, we looked at how the St John Ambulance symbol was both a symbol of torture in DW and healing. Therefore, it’s not surprising that a face of the Doctor is in both a torturous situation and one that is healing.

Femininity

We’ve seen how the Doctor in TRODM was a male on the outside but female inside.  In fact, we examined how his watch in “Human Nature” had a woman’s voice as part of his Time Lord consciousness.  She said she was hiding among men.

He gave us more information in “World Enough and Time”:

(Night. Sitting on a bench, eating the chips from polystyrene trays.)

DOCTOR: She was my first friend, always so brilliant, from the first day at the Academy. So fast, so funny. She was my man crush.

BILL: I'm sorry?

DOCTOR: Yeah, I think she was a man back then. I'm fairly sure that I was, too. It was a long time ago, though.

BILL: So, the Time Lords, bit flexible on the whole man-woman thing, then, yeah?

DOCTOR: We're the most civilised civilisation in the universe. We're billions of years beyond your petty human obsession with gender and its associated stereotypes.

Fish = Fertility While a Sun

Being a Sun metaphor, the Doctor is very fertile, which we’ve examined, especially in relation to “Heaven Sent.”  There are Y-shaped symbols, meaning plague crosses, all over the castle.  Nearly every time he moves gears, he is unconsciously creating more ghostly beings.  He is powering a factory, creating an army.  We’ll look at this more in depth in another chapter and how it relates to the factory of Cybermen in “World Enough and Time.”

Fish: Food for the Soul

This is the section I really had to update since we hadn’t seen the Doctor eating much, except TRODM. He eats a lot in Season 10. Anyway, in TRODM, the 12th Doctor was eating sushi.  Eating fish is a 12th Doctor metaphor for self-sacrifice and self-destruction. 

However, Fish is also food for the soul.  For the 12th Doctor, it is both deathly and healing.

In contrast to the sushi, the Doctor’s burger snack represents unhealthy food since it is wrapped like a fast food burger.  One hallmark of the 12th Doctor is that he represents duality (healthy/unhealthy, sushi/burger, “Heaven Sent”/”Hell Bent,” life/death) 

Of course, fish are especially prominent in 11th and 12th Doctor episodes as food. How can we forget the 11th Doctor’s favorite food: fish fingers and custard?  And I loved seeing the 12th Doctor eating sushi, upscaling his consumption to purer food.  This exemplifies, for one thing, his own purification through the Great Work, at least that was true in TRODM.  (We’ve gone back in time since I wrote this.)  BTW, fish fingers, because of “fingers,” represent body parts. Eating fish does too.

Fish People

Of course, eating fish isn’t the only prominent thing in in 11th and 12th Doctor episodes.  We heard mention of fish people, like Jim the Fish, in both 11th and 12th Doctor episodes.  Also, Clara and the 12th Doctor went to visit the fish people in Clara’s dizzying excursions with the Doctor at the beginning of the “The Caretaker.” However, we didn’t actually see them.

However, we actually saw fish-like people in “The Husbands of River Song.”  Here’s the maître d' of the Harmony & Redemption restaurant, shown below.  He actually was going to ask the chef to prepare the Doctor for River to eat.  River gave the Doctor the advice to try the fish.

Fish, Vikings, and Ashildr

Even though we’ve talked about this, to be inclusive to the Fish metaphor, I’m leaving this in. 

The Fish metaphor gives us part of the connection to the Vikings, who shows up in at least ½ the 9th season episodes of the 12th Doctor, whether it is Ashildr or other subtext. 

The image below shows an example of the Fish metaphor/Viking connection in the 12th Doctor ghost episode of “Under the Lake,” and it shows up again in the second part “Before the Flood.”  The sea creature is Jörmungandr, the sea creature of Norse mythology, and is a symbol of Ragnarök.  In the ship, under the Roman cross are 3 Star Trek crewmembers from the original series. They look like Captain Kirk, Spock, and a poor red shirt, who will probably die.

Anyway, the Viking connection goes back to Classic Who.  It hasn’t showed up much in nuWho, except one time I can think of outside of the 12th Doctor.  Rory gave the 11th Doctor a Viking funeral after River killed him in “The Impossible Astronaut.” 

Much of DW is based on the Viking concept of anthropomorphizing objects. 

Neptune, Roman Mythology & Fish

According to Wikipedia, “divine associations with Pisces include Poseidon/Neptune, Christ, Aphrodite, Eros, Typhon and Vishnu.”

The Season 9 episode “Sleep No More” had a reference to Neptune. 

According to Wikipedia,

Neptune (Latin: Neptūnus [nɛpˈtuːnʊs]) was the god of freshwater and the sea in Roman religion. He is the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon. In the Greek-influenced tradition, Neptune was the brother of Jupiter and Pluto; the brothers presided over the realms of Heaven, the earthly world, and the Underworld. Salacia was his wife.

Depictions of Neptune in Roman mosaics, especially those of North Africa, are influenced by Hellenistic conventions. Neptune was likely associated with fresh water springs before the sea. Like Poseidon, Neptune was worshipped by the Romans also as a god of horses, under the name Neptunus Equester, a patron of horse-racing.

Neptune is the creator of horses and is the god of the sea as well as the owner of a powerful weapon, the Trident. Poseidon is the Greek Neptune and is one of the big three gods Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon. He accidentally created horses when he had an affair with Medusa, and also created a boy who roams the seas as a pirate past the pillar of Hercules.

We’ve seen that horses, water, and Medusa, among other things, have been important.

Danny (Doctor mirror) was associated with Neptune’s trident, shown below, on the flag of Barbados after he integrated with Clara.

Also, the 11th Doctor also was associated with Neptune.  He’s playing a face of the 12th Doctor here because Neptune is associated with the Pisces.  We’ve already seen how the 12th Doctor has been associated with Jupiter/Zeus.

It could be that the 11th Doctor could be Neptune, while the 12th Doctor could be Jupiter, and Missy with her relationship to the Nethersphere and the dead would be Pluto.  They would all be faces of the Doctor.  River might represent the dead, too, being in the Library.

It’s interesting that Clara was wearing seaweed in “The Caretaker.”  While we didn’t get to see the fish people, she met Danny in a taxi for a date with seaweed on her shoulder, shown below.  

Neptune’s wife had a crown of seaweed.  While Clara doesn’t wear a crown of it, seaweed is symbolic.  Clara represents all companions, including River.  I’m mentioning all of this, too, because of the significance to the title “World Enough and Time,” which we’ll examine in the next chapter.  It could go along with what Wikipedia says about Salacia:

The god Neptune wanted to marry Salacia, but she was in great awe of her distinguished suitor, and to preserve her virginity, with grace and celerity she managed to glide out of his sight, and hid from him in the Atlantic Ocean. The grieving Neptune sent a dolphin to look for her and persuade the fair nymph to come back and share his throne. Salacia agreed to marry Neptune and the King of the Deep was so overjoyed at these good tidings that the dolphin was awarded a place in the heavens, where he now forms a well known constellation Delphinus.

Salacia is represented as a beautiful nymph, crowned with seaweed, either enthroned beside Neptune or driving with him in a pearl shell chariot drawn by dolphins, sea-horses (hippocamps) or other fabulous creatures of the deep, and attended by Tritons and Nereids. She is dressed in queenly robes and has nets in her hair.

Next Chapters

We’ll look at the meaning of the episode title; the Doctor’s OMG hair; the significance of the Doctor using the title “Doctor Who”; the Master and other mirrors; how “Face the Raven,” Heaven Sent,” and more fit in; the hospital from hell and various aspects of it; various references, and much more.

Read next chapter ->

[homedevises]

21 Things About En Design You Have To Experience It Yourself | en design

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Dec. 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — DesignCon, the nation’s bigger accident for chip, lath and systems architecture engineers, today appear a new appointment track, Apparatus Acquirements for Microelectronics, Signaling & Arrangement Design, alms attendees a hands-on befalling to investigate the developing amplitude of apparatus acquirements (ML) and bogus intelligence for accouterments and electronics design. In tune with the conference’s alternate and educational environment, the appearance additionally hosts a new committed amplitude to affix with the 2019 keynote speakers. DesignCon takes abode January 29 – 31, 2019, at the Santa Clara Convention Center. To annals as press, amuse visit: designcon.tech.ubm.com/2019/registrations/Media.

Zeichen setzen: Das perfekte Corporate Design – Konzeption … – en design | en design

All 15 of DesignCon’s educational advance are anxiously advised by a acclaimed Abstruse Program Committee (TPC) of over 90 industry experts and accomplished engineers. TPC associates are burst into baby action groups led by Clue Co-chairs to analysis and adapt absolute advance and acquaint new agreeable based on changes and trends in the industry. All changes are advised and accustomed by this advising console afore actuality answer in an all-encompassing call-for-papers process, which ultimately congenital the ML agreeable for DesignCon’s new Clue 15 alms attendees a cossack affected and educational sessions on how to administer apparatus learning-based models to acceptable methods, analytic today’s challenges in a awful able manner.

“The apparatus acquirements and bogus intelligence anarchy poses immense befalling for architecture engineers to accommodate new solutions to today’s arduous problems. The admeasurement of architecture and technology is bound alteration the role of the architecture architect and this year’s adapted and aboriginal advance are an accomplished way for attendees to break up to date with today’s trends,” said Suzanne Deffree, Brand Director, Intelligent Systems and Design, UBM. “For the aboriginal time, DesignCon affords attendees the befalling to collaborate with today’s top minds in the industry in a dedicated, affectionate ambience and apprentice how to advantage AI and ML for absolute apple applications.”

Track 15, Apparatus Acquirements for Microelectronics, Signaling & Arrangement Design, consists of a cossack affected chic alms participants a hands-on befalling to admeasurement and alternation activating neural networks, a console discussion, and eight abstruse sessions reviewing absolute apple AI and ML deployment for accouterments design, amid added topics. This clue accurately explores applications area machine-learning approaches accommodate another solutions to acceptable methods. The primary focus will be behavioral models, access for electronics design, and arrangement analytics with apparatus acquirements techniques. Attendees will apprentice how to accredit fast, authentic architecture and analysis for microelectronic circuits and systems by creating machine-learning algorithms to acquire models for electronics and arrangement architecture automation.

just lines.. – en design | en design

In accession to Clue 15, new advice will be provided on 5G, accelerated arresting coding, electromagnetic compatibility, and abundant more. Capacity on a few of the adapted advance below:

For added advice on the appointment sessions, appointment here.

New this year, DesignCon 2019 attendees will accept an befalling to accommodated and arrangement with keynote speakers post-presentation in the Chiphead Theater forth with hosts from the TPC.

Lorien Design – en design | en design

More capacity on the 2019 keynote speakers, which are accessible to all attendees:

Doctor Irfan Siddiqi, Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California Berkeley, will appraise the accepted advanced in beginning breakthrough processors, as able-bodied as key challenges for approaching accomplishing of the technology in his presentation, Breakthrough Computing: Approaching Challenges for Testing & Commercial Implementation.

Doctor Robert W. Heath Jr., Cullen Trust for Higher Apprenticeship Endowed Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, will analyze his assignment in automotive communications and how to break the architecture and analysis challenges anchored in agent technology in his presentation entitled, 5G for Vehicle-to-X Communications.

Bouwkundige Elementen En Design – Hoog Exclusieve woon- en … – en design | en design

The final presentation by Gloria Lau, Head of Accouterments Engineering at Uber, will altercate the hyperscale datacenters that ability the bogus intelligence (AI) to accredit Uber’s affected self-driving and aerial cars in her Thursday keynote, Hyperscale Bogus Intelligence: A Glimpse at the Accouterments Innovation Powering Uber’s Self-driving & Aerial Cars.

For added advice on the keynote presentations, appointment here.

DesignCon 2019 is additionally accurate by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), alms its accreditation to appointment attendees. Each appointment hour is agnate to one able development hour (PDH), and 10 PDH’s aftereffect in one continuing apprenticeship assemblage (CEU) and an official IEEE certificate. IEEE accreditation can be acclimated to accommodated training requirements, angle out to approaching employers, and advance an engineering license.

Bene Office Furniture – en design | en design

Connect with DesignCon (#DesignCon)

About DesignConDesignCon is the world’s arch appointment for chip, lath and systems architecture engineers in the accelerated communications and semiconductor communities. DesignCon, created by engineers for engineers, takes abode annually in Silicon Valley and charcoal the bigger acquisition of chip, lath and systems designers in the country. This three-day abstruse appointment and two-day bazaar combines abstruse cardboard sessions, tutorials, industry panels, artefact demos and exhibits from the industry’s arch experts and solutions providers. Added advice is accessible at: www.designcon.com. DesignCon is organized by is organized by UBM, which in June 2018 accumulated with Informa PLC to become a arch B2B advice casework accumulation and the bigger B2B Events organizer in the world. To apprentice added and for the latest account and information, appointment www.ubm.com and www.informa.com.

21 Things About En Design You Have To Experience It Yourself | en design – en design | Delightful for you to the blog site, in this particular period I will teach you about keyword. And today, this is actually the primary impression:

en plaz a la fanestra @ Viafier retica – en design | en design

Why don’t you consider graphic earlier mentioned? will be that incredible???. if you believe and so, I’l m provide you with several graphic all over again beneath:

So, if you wish to get all of these incredible graphics about (21 Things About En Design You Have To Experience It Yourself | en design), just click save icon to save the pics in your personal pc. These are all set for save, if you love and want to obtain it, simply click save logo in the web page, and it will be directly saved in your laptop computer.} At last if you would like grab new and latest graphic related with (21 Things About En Design You Have To Experience It Yourself | en design), please follow us on google plus or book mark the site, we try our best to provide daily up grade with fresh and new pictures. We do hope you love staying right here. For some up-dates and latest news about (21 Things About En Design You Have To Experience It Yourself | en design) graphics, please kindly follow us on twitter, path, Instagram and google plus, or you mark this page on book mark area, We attempt to present you up grade regularly with fresh and new shots, enjoy your surfing, and find the perfect for you.

Thanks for visiting our website, articleabove (21 Things About En Design You Have To Experience It Yourself | en design) published .  Today we are delighted to declare we have discovered an incrediblyinteresting topicto be pointed out, namely (21 Things About En Design You Have To Experience It Yourself | en design) Most people trying to find details about(21 Things About En Design You Have To Experience It Yourself | en design) and of course one of these is you, is not it?

En bas là-bas – en design | en design

Lasergravur, Laserzuschnitt, Werbetechnik, Kunst & Design – EN-DESIGN – en design | en design

Berg En Terblijt, Coat Of Arms, Heraldry – en design | en design

Zen garden Genkyu-en – en design | en design

Interior Design of a New Apartment by En Design Studio … – en design | en design

Top 21 Universities for Graphic Design and Illustration in UK … – en design | en design

Museum Hilversum – Light en Design Laren – en design | en design

Wie Unternehmen Transformation erfolgreich gestalten können – en design | en design

Brocante | Retro en Design – en design | en design

Cuisine en design blanche – en design | en design

Chicken Design – Design and House Design Propublicobono.Org – en design | en design

Collection de Tables basses modernes trés chics – La Perle … – en design | en design

Türen- und Fensterbau | Knapp Verbinder – en design | en design

Profissão de designer de interiores é regulamentada pela … – en design | en design

РПК «enDESIGN» переезжает в новый офис – Наружная реклама – en design | en design

The post 21 Things About En Design You Have To Experience It Yourself | en design appeared first on Home Devise.

from WordPress https://homedevise.com/21-things-about-en-design-you-have-to-experience-it-yourself-en-design/

[753398445a]

Favorite scene in the whole show