#climbing up david tennant

[mizgnomer]

Climbing up David Tennant - Part Five (alternate title:  Scaling a tall, skinny Scot)

Other parts of this set:  [ one ] [ two ] [ three ] [ four ]

[ingravinoveritas]

climb-dtennant-like-a-tree replied to your post "Hello there! I hope you are doing well (as well as...”

The happiness in Michael's eyes… ❤️❤️

Right? SO much happiness, honestly, that it's plainly visible...

You can see it the moment they link arms and start walking, but the further onto the stage they get, the more Michael's face just completely lights up. It's the crinkles around his eyes that do it for me the most--the way he's already nearly bursting from being arm-in-arm with David, and then breaks into a full-on smile as they walk onto the set, as if he just can't contain himself any longer. I love that Michael looks so ready to take on the entire world, with David right beside him.

(Also this hits very differently now that we know about the kiss in season 2, as it wasn't out yet at the time. It's like you can see in Michael's face that he wants to brag to anyone willing to listen about getting to kiss David, but he can't, so he has to settle for looking like the world's proudest husband instead...)

[xinglexangle]

the genuine dread i feel whenever theres knocking in season 4 is awful omg idc that i know the doctor doesnt die at that point but it still makes my heart stop for a second and then im reminded i need to watch the end of time again and hear him say "i dont want to go" then start sobbing and banging on the walls

[stelly38]

“I can’t remember how much bonking I did”  —Aidan Turner

With Ross Poldark behind him, the star of Di5ney’s adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals talks ’80s excess, intimacy coaches and beef brisket.

Here I am, avidly watching the first few episodes of Rivals, the sizzling new Disney+ treatment of Dame Jilly Cooper’s raunchy blockbuster, before my interview with dreamboat-y Aidan Turner, when my 22-year-old daughter walks into the room. “What the actual?” she cries, open-mouthed in horror. “Oh my God! What are they doing?”

I chide her prudishness. “Well, if you must know, Rupert Campbell-Black and a woman he probably just met have reached a shuddering climax on Concorde,” I explain. “Your generation didn’t invent sex, you know, darling – the Mile High Club has been around for…” but it turns out that’s not what’s triggered her.

“These people are SMOKING! On. A. Plane. Who even does that?” Everybody, that’s who. Welcome to the sassy, sexy 1980s, Missy. Double-breasted suits and taffeta skirts, booze, bonking, endless ciggies and hairstyles so fugly (the mullet, for pity’s sake?) as to have recently crept back into fashion. It’s all there: rampant sexism, social climbing and conspicuous consumption, to a banging soundtrack of Eurythmics, Hall & Oates, Haircut 100 and the rest – no idea how The Birdie Song got in there though. Did people really...? Yes, we did. Now run along. From the moment the opening credits roll on Rivals, it’s fair to say we are immersed in a very different, instantly recognisable universe.

I lapped up every transgressive minute. Why, dear readers, the last time I enjoyed a pleasure quite so guilty was when Aidan Turner took off his shirt in…  “I’m not here to talk about Poldark,” says Turner very politely, with a fabulously winning white smile, when we meet. So we don’t. At least for a bit. We are here, after all, to discuss his new role in this very different literary classic – and no, ladies, he’s not been cast as the libidinous blaggard Campbell-Black. As if. County Dublin-born Turner, 41, was a shoo-in for dashing Declan O’Hara, the saturnine Irish journalist turned reluctant chat-show host who finds himself at the epicentre of a battle royale in the cut-throat world of independent television. David Tennant plays Corinium TV boss Lord Baddingham, and Alex Hassell’s Rupert Campbell-Black has ascended to the lofty heights of Tory Minister for Sport.

I could try to explain, but that’s about all the primer you need – rest assured that with this high-budget adaptation, even the most loyal of Cooper’s fans will find themselves safe in its (wandering) hands. “Rivals is about the three things that fascinate all of us: sex, power and money,” says Turner. “That trifecta is especially potent when there’s a clash of status and class. Class informs all sorts of things, including the sex, which is sometimes completely transactional on both sides. From the very top to the very bottom of the ladder, everyone’s slightly on the make.”

Speaking of the top and indeed the bottom, the eight-part series employed not one but two intimacy coaches. “They had a lot of intimacy to coach,” confirms Turner breezily. “I think they really improve sex scenes because they encourage creativity and it all looks so much more authentic. There’s a lot of bonking. I want to say I did a lot of bonking – I can’t quite remember how much.”

Declan is very much the dark-eyed, watchful outsider, his integrity as deep-rooted as his humongous moustache – “artist’s own”, remarks Turner. (He speaks in mellifluous Irish tones and uses his own accent to play Declan.) Amid the jostling for supremacy in the first few episodes, Declan’s only crime appears to be wearing mustard socks on air and having sensuous congress with his own wife (played with exquisite brittleness by Victoria Smurfit).

Such uxoriousness appears borderline scandalous in Dame Jilly’s masterfully constructed world of egos, oneupmanship and serial adultery, which signals that despite being a workaholic, Declan is clearly a good ’un – although, to be fair, I have only seen the first three episodes.

“I hadn’t read Rivals before. It seemed very British so it wasn’t really on my radar, but it’s really fun – although later on it descends into something much murkier. I just read the scripts initially and then was really struck by how faithful they were to the book,” says Turner, who is married to the American Succession actor Caitlin FitzGerald, 41. “You get a real sense of the characters in the first 15 or 20 pages and it’s a mark of excellent writing that you feel you already know these people.”

Whether or not you like them is up to you, but it’s absolutely gripping and Turner’s character is right at the heart of the story. “Rivals is a really truthful depiction of an era that in a great many ways was hugely problematic,” says Turner. “It’s not being refracted through a modern lens and some of it is quite shocking, particularly the way women are treated. There’s also endless back-stabbing; Declan is detached, the one who sees what’s going on, and because he’s not from this class-bound world [he] struggles to understand the playbook – but he’s married to a woman who does and that causes tension.”

To research the role of a broadcasting homme sérieux, Turner trawled YouTube to watch hours of Firing Line, the US current-affairs talk show presented by conservative pundit William F Buckley Jr for 33 years. From 1966 to 1999, he verbally sparred with leading figures of the age.

“I felt it was important to look to older shows, the way they were presented and the communication style,” says Turner. “The interviewee would be given time and space to answer questions in full. These days it’s very different; the nearest we have to that now would be podcasts.”

“Once filming started, to be honest I was channelling my dad the whole time. He’s an electrician, not a journalist, but Declan is very like him – the way he carries himself, the tone of his voice, his passion. He feels very Irish and so does Declan.”

For Alexander Lamb, an executive producer on Rivals, finding the right fit for the pivotal character of Declan was crucial. “The very first person we thought about – the very first person we cast – for Rivals was Aidan. He was the lynchpin because he just felt so right; he’s got depth but also such charm and that was exactly what we wanted. A lot of the cast was built around him.” That cast also includes EastEnder Danny Dyer, Katherine Parkinson, best known for The IT Crowd, Emily Atack of Inbetweeners fame, and Claire Rushbrook, who was in the first series of Sherwood. When it came to Turner, Lamb had been impressed by his previous standout roles as a vampire in the supernatural series Being Human and a clinical psychologist in police procedural The Suspect.

“Aidan hadn’t played sexy-dad-with-teenagers or an intellectual journalist before, so that gave the whole thing a freshness. I think there’s a lot to be gained from getting actors out of their comfort zones,” observes Lamb. “I’ve never really worked with an actor before who was so conscious of his performance. He would come back behind the camera to see if he could improve on what he’d done.” Dame Jilly, adds Lamb, needed no persuasion in casting Turner. “It did not escape her just how good-looking Mr. Aidan Turner was. Let’s just say she became quite the fan.” Turner responds in kind, with unalloyed admiration. “Jilly is so sharp, perceptive and really funny – she’s very kind, but as she was seeing the daily and the weekly rushes I am quite certain that if she hadn’t liked what any of us were doing, she would have told us very swiftly.”

Later, he quietly relates a telling conversation with Cooper at a garden party held at her Gloucestershire gaff (to call it a pile would be too excessive, to call it a house too modest), one summer evening last year, after filming. “I remember a surreal moment when she took me by the arm and led me around the garden, pointing out the place where she would write and how she would look over the valley,” he says. “And then she pointed out the houses where her nearest neighbours and friends lived and said, ‘This is Declan O’Hara’s house, and that one’s Tony’s house,’ and explained how she would visualise the world of Rivals. It was a very special moment.” How magical, I say. He nods very slowly, the corners of his mouth twitching, eyes crinkling at the preciousness of the memory. He’s so unabashedly soulful, I almost have to look away. And so, to business: is Turner really as handsome as they say? Hmm. Maybe that’s what strikes you first but, in truth, it’s the least interesting thing about him.

Born in Clondalkin, a town outside Dublin, before the family moved to a suburb of the city, Turner admits he was never academically inclined. With a low boredom threshold, he struggled to concentrate at school, but when his accountant mother took him along to dance classes, he excelled; he went on to compete in ballroom dancing at national level, but lost momentum.

There was a stint working as an electrician with his father, but it was a job at the local cinema that sparked his interest in acting, entering the Gaiety School of Acting, Ireland’s national theatre school, where he graduated in 2004. After appearing in several theatre productions, including Seán O’Casey’s Easter Rising play The Plough and the Stars, he got his first major television gig in 2008 in the Irish hospital drama The Clinic.

“I was a lowly receptionist and Victoria Smurfit, who is my wife in Rivals, was a consultant,” he smiles. “Let’s just say we didn’t have a huge number of scenes together back then, so it’s great to catch up now.” Soon the BBC beckoned and he was cast as Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood drama Desperate Romantics. The six-parter failed to make a mark, but led to a critically acclaimed role in the comedy-drama Being Human, where he caught the eye of director Sir Peter Jackson, who cast Turner as the dwarf Kili in The Hobbit trilogy between 2012 and 2014.

Various other parts followed, culminating in his award-winning portrayal of Captain Ross Poldark in the 2015 revival of the BBC classic, which ran for five series and made him both a household name and a pin-up among ladies (and interviewers) d’un certain age.

After he was shown scything a field shirtless, a sheen of sweat on his ripped – sorry – torso, the Sunday-night concupiscence became so pronounced that media commentators called out the reverse sexism and denounced the reductive way in which Turner was being treated as a piece of prime meat. A decade on, he still seems mildly baffled, but not ungrateful, for the attention, if loath to dwell on it. “There are worse things to be known for than having a nice physique,” he says, philosophically. “But that was a long time ago and I’ve done a lot of fully clothed work since.” Hilariously, in Rivals, Declan finds himself sharing a schedule with a series called Four Men Went To Mow, featuring a quartet of topless hunks – with scythes. Turner almost leaps off the sofa when I bring it up. “I know! I was reading the script and when I saw the Four Men Went To Mow reference, I assumed someone was deliberately winding me up. Then I realised it was actually in the original book, so I took a deep breath and let it go.”

I can confirm he’s fully dressed for our interview, wearing a mustard top by British menswear brand Oliver Spencer, which he dryly describes as ‘drab chic’, Levi’s 501s, and a pair of trainers. He points out they are classic white Reeboks with a natural gum sole. I admit I didn’t know that was A Thing. “To be honest, neither did I,” he shrugs in good-natured agreement. “They were a present from a mate of mine – he’s a musician so far cooler than me, obviously – and he was very emphatic that the soles were a big deal.”

On his wrist is a 1969 Omega Seamaster. “It cost less than £2,000, it was an anniversary gift and the only watch I own,’”he offers, pre-emptively. “Oh, and I’m not sponsored by Omega, none of that.” Would he like to be? I ask mischievously. “Ah well, I’d certainly take the phone call. You always like to have options.” This is all the more interesting because later I ask if there’s any truth in tabloid rumours that he has variously been earmarked as the new Bergerac and the next James Bond. He denies both charges. “But you’d take the calls presumably?” I suggest. A pregnant pause follows. “You know, I don’t think I would. I have to say I think I’d pass on those.” Bergerac I can understand – but intimations of 007 are, like talk of knighthoods, not to be trifled with, much less dismissed out of hand, however cat’s-chance unlikely.

Turner just pulls a slightly apologetic face (possibly for the benefit of his aghast agent reading this). But really it should come as no surprise; Turner has built up a reputation as a protean performer, moving seamlessly between television, film and the stage in a variety of markedly different roles. Last year he appeared opposite Jenna Coleman in a minimalist two-hander, the West End revival of Sam Steiner’s 2015 fringe hit Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, about love and language. Director Josie Rourke says she cast Turner not just because he is ‘brilliant’, but because he has an ability to connect with his character and with the audience.

“Aidan is a very technical and focused actor who really works hard to prepare – in that respect he’s not dissimilar to David Tennant. That might make him sound dour or serious, but he’s very personable and funny,” says Rourke, a former artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse in London. “He’s acutely aware, in a lovely way, of every single person in the room. There’s something fundamentally unselfish about his performances.”

Off stage, Turner leads a quiet life with his family in an 18th-century house in east London, which he famously furnished with the table and chairs from the Poldark set in Cornwall. He looks amused when I wonder aloud if he hangs out – virtually or actually – with the slew of young Irish actors, like Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan, who have made a name for themselves. “It sounds boring but I work, and then when a project is finished I start reading scripts again,” he says. “I’m not on social media, I don’t get wrapped [up] comparing myself to anyone else. Frankly, it’s hard enough keeping track of my own career. Since the birth of our son, my wife and I have agreed that only one of us will take a job away from home at any given time; we’ve not [had] a clash yet but we’ll have to see what happens when the time comes.”

They did, however, both have plays on in the West End at one point last year; he was appearing in Lemons while she was in The Crucible. “It worked out really well, we headed out in different directions during the day, catching up with friends and getting stuff done, far too busy to see each other,” he recalls. “Each of us did our show then we would meet up afterwards and share a cab home. It was really fun, but that sort of synchronicity is quite rare.” Like a lot of actors, Turner is guarded when it comes to discussing his personal life. Although frenzied interest from the paparazzi has calmed down post-Poldark, every so often pictures do appear in the tabloids – and Rivals will no doubt increase his bankability. It is something he accepts with equanimity.

“If I do get snapped, I don’t make a fuss or get angry, but I try to stay out of the way.” I remind him of a very striking photo of him putting the rubbish out in a frankly extraordinary receptacle. “Ah yes, maybe I should get rid of the fluorescent pink wheelie bin, a bit of an own goal,” he sighs.

I bet he doesn’t. Far too much of a compromise. I do manage to winkle a few details out of him by playing my fellow Irishwoman card and discover that he’s a ‘serious’ pool player – just this week he settled down in front of a recording of Steve Davis and his teammates taking the 2002 Mosconi Cup in Bethnal Green. He plays golf, enjoys music, and is an avowed Nick Cave fan.

“I’d have to say my favourite downtime is having friends round for good banter and food in the garden, weather allowing. I’m trying to perfect the manly art of beef brisket in my [Big] Green Egg barbecue. I think one of the reasons Rivals was such a happy show to work on was because so many of the scenes were us all together at parties. Then at the end of the day we’d kick back and half of us would still be in character.”

And what characters they are, all dressed up in their ’80s finery, jockeying for position, angling for seduction as Tears for Fears belt out ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World.’ Gen Z won’t understand, much less approve (lock up your 22-year-olds), but as a snapshot of a bygone age, Rivals promises to be TV gold, and at its glittering epicentre, Declan O’Hara, legendary brooding broadcaster with the biggest ’tache in town.

All episodes of Rivals are available on Di5ney+ from 18 October

Interview by Judith Woods from The Telegraph; Photos by John Balsom.

[am-i-obsessed---maybe]

New Face (11th Doctor x Timelord!Reader)

watch me make a series out of a oneshot that was very much not meant to be a series— anyway, one david tennant hyperfixation led to another and now I'm rewatching Matt Smith's run as The Doctor and you know what that means!

Also requests are open!

Wordcount: 1.4k

Series masterpost

Summery: a new face a new doctor and the start of a new adventure with a lovely little girl who just wants a ride in a time machine.

Things change quickly with the Doctor. You knew that well.

One moment you're comforting the face that rescued you the next you're putting out fires around the Tardis as it wildly flies over the skies of London.

"A little help over here!" The Doctor cried, he's barely holding onto the edge of the Tardis, his body hanging out through the front doors. His new voice is higher than the one you knew.

"In a minute love!" You yell back, there was no other option than yelling over the explosions of the console and the many alarms going off.

Another explosion rocked the Tardis and the Doctor manages to pull himself up as you adjust the angle at which the Tardis is basically crashing towards the ground. There's no other option but to crash so you tried to crash in the least horrific way you could.

The thing is, you crash sideways, tipping you and the Doctor deep into the Tardis.

"Oh for fucksake—" You said as you landed against one of the couches in the library. "Oi! Language!" The doctor chided. He had the luck of landing with a big splash in the swimming pool that for some reason was in the library.

"Since when do you care about about language?" You asked him, helping him out of the pool.

"Since now evidently" He said and started looking around for ways to get out.

You handed him a grappling line.

"Care to do the honors?" You asked and he smiled, launching it as far as he could and when he felt it was stable he began to climb up.

When he finally made it to the Tardis doors you heard him talking to someone. You hadn't the faintest clue as to who.

"Love, make some room!" You called from below him and he climbed onto the Tardis, looking down.

"Woah, look at that" He said in awe as he looked at the Tardis. It was quite a view though you would have appreciated a hand as you climbed up to join him.

That's when you saw the little girl standing beside the Tardis in her nightie and bright bright red boots that matched her bright red hair. Well not really red. Human red, which was more of a copper.

"Hello there" You said, wiping the sweat from your brow.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Just had a fall, all the way down there right to the library. Hell of a climb back up" The Doctor told her.

"You're soaking wet" The little girl said.

"He landed in the swimming pool" You added.

She turned to look at the Doctor, "You said you were in the library".

"So was the swimming pool" He answered.

She looked a bit confused but quickly kept the questions coming.

"Are you a policeman?" She asked.

"Why? Did you call a policeman?" The Doctor asked, meanwhile you climbed down from the Tardis and onto the ground, inspecting the crash site.

"Did you come about the crack in my wall?" The little girl asked.

"What crack—" The Doctor started but he fell, clutching his chest as he groaned in pain.

You weren't worried. He was still coming off of his regeneration meaning he was practically invincible.

"Are you okay mister?" The little girl asked.

"I'm fine, it's okay, this is all perfectly normal" He said, some fleck of regeneration energy floating out of his mouth.

You turned back to the Doctor and the little girl, content with you assessments of the crash site.

"I'm sorry, we seem to have crashed into your shed" You said to the little girl and she looked between you and the Doctor.

"Who are you?" She asked and you smiled, leaning down to be at her eye level.

"My name is Y/N and he" You said, pointing at your lover who was currently watching the regeneration energy still filling his hands "-is The Doctor."

The Doctor got his bearings, or at least tried to, coming up beside you. "Does it scare you?" He asked.

"Does what scare me?" She asked.

"The crack in your wall, does it scare you?" He repeated.

"Yes" She answered, almost shyly.

This excited him. "Well then, no time to lose. Like he said I'm The Doctor, do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions and don't wander off" He said confidently and started walking.

"Love" You said and he turned his head back to face you, causing him to walk straight into the tree you wanted to warn him about.

The little girl walked over to him where he was just lying on the ground.

"You alright?" She asked.

"Early days" He said, "Steering's a bit off plus he distacted me" he said, pointing at you.

With a roll of your eyes you went over to help him up.

"You really should sit down and eat something love, you're running on fumes" You told him and shrugged.

"I'll be fine" He said and you sighed, turning to the little girl.

"Can you do me a favor and get him something to eat? Maybe then the two of you can have a look at that scary crack in your wall" You suggested and she nodded, you gave her The Doctor's hand and told her to be careful with him cause he's very iratible right now and he complained as the little girl walked with him into the house and you stayed outside with the Tardis.

You had a feeling this would be a regular thing with this new Doctor. You cleaning up after him.

You could already see so many differences between his old self and this new one.

Besides the obvious physical difference this new body was much more wild. He was already all over the place much more than your old Doctor. But he was also charming. You were sure you'd love him just as much once he figured himself out a bit more, after all he did the same for you.

All that time ago when you promised you would never leave him, when you told you loved him, when you stayed by his side even as the power of a sun was burning through his body. You stayed with him and regenerated and he helped you. He carefully picked you up and placed you back in the medbay of the ship you were on and when you woke up he helped you get accustomed to your new body and he kept loving you just like he did before. So you would do the same.

You checked the grappling line and when you were sure it would hold you went back into the Tardis.

nothing in the console room was on fire anymore which was good. You went one by one checking the systems and resetting what needed it. That is until the ringing started.

you hadn't actually gotten to checking the engines yet. The ringing was coming from the engines.

"No, no, no, no, no— Come on!" You cried as you tried to settle them.

"Just calm down a bit will you?" You tried to ask the Tardis but she wasn't having it.

"Y/N! What's going on in there?" The Doctor hollered as he ran out of the house.

"She's throwing a tantrum!" You yelled through the open Tardis doors.

"It's just a box, how can a box be throwing a tantrum?" The little girl said. You still didn't know her name.

"Not a box, it's a time machine" The Doctor said.

"What, a real one?" she asked, you popped your head out of the Tardis just enough to look at them.

"Doctor come on!" You said, popping back into the console room.

"Five minute hop into the future should do it" The Doctor said, climbing onto the Tardis.

"Can I come?" The girl asked.

"Not safe in here, five minutes, give me five minutes, I'll be right back" He said.

"People always say that" She said and the Doctor stopped, he climbed back down to the ground and kneeled in front of the little girl.

"Am I people?" He asked, "Do I even look like people? Trust me, I'm the Doctor" He said.

He climbed back onto the Tardis, gave the girl one last look and jumped in, "Geronimo!"

With him inside the ringing finally stopped.

"There you go, you just don't like it when Y/N drives" The Doctor cooed at the console.

You rolled your eyes.

"Doctor" You asked, "What did you tell that little girl?"

"I told her we'd be back in five minutes" He said, running around the console, hitting buttons and turning switches.

"Did you get her name?" You asked and he smiled.

"Yes! Amelia Pond! Brilliant name isn't it? Amelia Pond"

[meatballlady]

Good Omens Season 2: What We Know So Far Dottie and Sadie Edition

All of the info about GOS2, especially Dottie and Sadie, in one place. (Note, this is satirical and there are no actual spoilers in this post afaik)

For the most up to date details, check out the tag #special spoilers on Neil Gaiman's tumblr.

Cast

Returning:

[Fennec foxes, various] as Crowley

Michael Sheen as Aziraphale

Jon Hamm [Chinchilla, name unconfirmed] as Gabriel

Note: there have been no official announcements regarding the casting of the following new characters:

Michael Sheen as Dottie (unconfirmed)

David Tennant as Sadie (unconfirmed)

Michael Sheen as The Master Spy (unconfirmed)

Giant Pretzel

Sadie's Brother

Aziraphale's Mother-in-Law

Sadie's Kittens

Production Note: Someone (undisclosed) was bitten in regards to the fennec foxes filming with Crowley's wife.

What do we know about the Season 2 episodes?

There will be 6 episodes.

So far, two specific episodes have been announced (although it has not been confirmed which episodes they are):

"Jam Factory" episode, which contains a magic poster covered in jam

"Girls Night Out" episode, in which we will spend a lot of time with Dottie and Sadie (Crowley and Aziraphale's wives)

The Plot

First, a detailed plot summary of Season 2:

"Crowley and Aziraphale, who in this season are both undertakers in Birmingham, and their wives, Dottie and Sadie, go on holiday together to the South of France. The boys get very drunk at a wine tasting, and their wives have to bring them home to the hotel, where Aziraphale (still drunk) puts on the gorilla costume he finds in a closet. Imagine Crowley's shock, when he sees a gorilla climbing out of the window of the hotel! Now, it just so happens that a master spy who looks exactly like Aziraphale hid the microfilm plans for a missile in Crowley's bathroom, and has returned to obtain the microfilm, which is hidden in a book of naughty seaside postcards that Dottie found earlier and threw out of the window. When the police turn up looking for the gorilla, they find the master spy but think it's actually Aziraphale. Fortunately Sadie realises that the pineapple-shaped birthmark has vanished from Aziraphale's left elbow which means that he's an imposter and she and Dottie set out to rescue him in his gorilla costume from the circus that he's been sold to by an unscrupulous animal welfare centre operative. And then there are lots of cats and horses. The end."

Additional plot details:

Crowley and Aziraphale and their wives will go on their honeymoons at the same time in the same little French town, during the annual marmalade convention.

Aziraphale will have a new Season 2 Catchphrase - "Ooh-heck, it's the wife!" (at one point, he will shout this whole clutching a toilet plunger)

Several stories will be set in the tomato sauce factories they all work in.

Dottie's phone will be broken at the outing to Blackpool.

In episode 4, it will be revealed that Dottie and Sadie and their husbands have unknowingly all been booked in the same hotel room.

There will be a pie fight scene at the inflatable gorilla factory (which will clarify a lot about Aziraphale and Crowley's interpersonal relationships).

Aziraphale will attempt to summon a magic gorilla, in order to obtain one of the four fruits of the apocalypse (e.g. the Banana of Doom).

The Giant Pretzel will give Crowley a magic peach.

There will be a very moving scene when Dottie thinks that Sadie is pregnant but actually Sadie is planning to get a kitten.

This detail about the kitten(s?): "The arrival of the kitten will also be delightful, but I'm not promising it doesn't mean that the season won't end with the patter of tiny feet. Let's just say that two sets of twins would mean double the fun for everybody."

Aziraphale will be dead by the time Crowley goes on his secret mission. Aziraphale's wife will inherit the book shop, which she runs with her brother.

This detail about Gabriel's story arc: "Gabriel came to Earth to go on holiday to Spain with Aziraphale and Crowley and their wives, Dottie and Sadie. He's working as an art critic and when he sees the picture hanging in Crowley's bed and breakfast bedroom he realizes it's an original painting by Jerry Picasso (Pablo's baby brother) and resolves to steal it on the same night that the neighborhood Dress as a Burglar and Win a Fridge competition is held. Hilarity ensues."

The flashback scenes will be of where Crowley and Aziraphale both met their wives.

Season 2 will end with a dance-off mix-up on a French Nudist Beach, with several enormous inflatable animals and Aziraphale's mother-in-law dressed in a gorilla costume.

On Goncharov's influence on Season 2:

"The whole of Season 2 of Good Omens was inspired by Goncharov. Dottie and Sadie, Aziraphale and Crowley's wives, were basically my take on Perdita and Brigitte, the two tourists who worked in the condom factory, and the whole Goncharov helium balloons and clowns sequence. For that matter, without Goncharov it would never have occurred to me to have made the comedy in episode 4 the fact that Dottie and Sadie and their husbands have unknowingly all been booked in the same hotel room, or to have had the Archangel Gabriel played by a chinchilla. "

[thealogie]

I don't go here, been following you for Hawkeye content for ages and then bam! it's all about Tennant and Sheen, what I don't understand as a (previously) not-goer-here, why is everything about Tennant is so damn wholesome all the time? seems like he just has to appear in something and there's immediately an adorable and soul lifting clip or anecdote pops up, some kind of vortex of wholesomness that guy. On another note, they've started blurring together for me lately, physically they started to look alike. Recently I had a dream about Hawkeye (not racy unfortunately) but he was also David Tennant for some reason

It’s the way both Alan Alda and David Tennant excel at climbing furniture, sitting abnormally, acting slutty and playing roles that make you go “oh no…baby girl…”

[turneradora]

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO Emma Jones for the article in the Telegraph

🌹❤️💋

The Telegrah

Judith Woods

27 September 2024 2:30pm

Here I am, avidly watching the first few episodes of Rivals, the sizzling new Disney+ treatment of Dame Jilly Cooper’s raunchy blockbuster, before my interview with dreamboat-y Aidan Turner, when my 22-year-old daughter walks into the room.

‘What the actual?’ she cries, open-mouthed in horror. ‘Oh my God! What are they doing?’

I chide her prudishness. ‘Well, if you must know, Rupert Campbell-Black and a woman he probably just met have reached a shuddering climax on Concorde,’ I explain. ‘Your generation didn’t invent sex, you know, darling – the Mile High Club has been around for…’ but it turns out that’s not what’s triggered her.

‘These people are SMOKING! On. A. Plane. Who even does that?’

Everybody, that’s who. Welcome to the sassy, sexy 1980s, Missy. Double-breasted suits and taffeta skirts, booze, bonking, endless ciggies and hairstyles so fugly (the mullet, for pity’s sake?) as to have recently crept back into fashion.

It’s all there: rampant sexism, social climbing and conspicuous consumption, to a banging soundtrack of Eurythmics, Hall & Oates, Haircut 100 and the rest – no idea how The Birdie Song got in there though. Did people really...? Yes, we did. Now run along.

From the moment the opening credits roll on Rivals, it’s fair to say we are immersed in a very different, instantly recognisable universe.

I lapped up every transgressive minute. Why, dear readers, the last time I enjoyed a pleasure quite so guilty was when Aidan Turner took off his shirt in…

‘I’m not here to talk about Poldark,’ says Turner very politely, with a fabulously winning white smile, when we meet. So we don’t. At least for a bit. We are here, after all, to discuss his new role in this very different literary classic – and no, ladies, he’s not been cast as the libidinous blaggard Campbell-Black. As if.

County Dublin-born Turner, 41, was a shoo-in for dashing Declan O’Hara, the saturnine Irish journalist turned reluctant chat-show host who finds himself at the epicentre of a battle royale in the cut-throat world of independent television.

David Tennant plays Corinium TV boss Lord Baddingham, and Alex Hassell’s Rupert Campbell-Black has ascended to the lofty heights of Tory Minister for Sport.

I could try to explain, but that’s about all the primer you need – rest assured that with this high-budget adaptation, even the most loyal of Cooper’s fans will find themselves safe in its (wandering) hands.

‘Rivals is about the three things that fascinate all of us: sex, power and money,’ says Turner. ‘That trifecta is especially potent when there’s a clash of status and class. Class informs all sorts of things, including the sex, which is sometimes completely transactional on both sides. From the very top to the very bottom of the ladder, everyone’s slightly on the make.’

Speaking of the top and indeed the bottom, the eight-part series employed not one but two intimacy coaches. ‘They had a lot of intimacy to coach,’ confirms Turner breezily. ‘I think they really improve sex scenes because they encourage creativity and it all looks so much more authentic. There’s a lot of bonking. I want to say I did a lot of bonking – I can’t quite remember how much.’

Declan is very much the dark-eyed, watchful outsider, his integrity as deep-rooted as his humongous moustache – ‘artist’s own’, remarks Turner. (He speaks in mellifluous Irish tones and uses his own accent to play Declan.) Amid the jostling for supremacy in the first few episodes, Declan’s only crime appears to be wearing mustard socks on air and having sensuous congress with his own wife (played with exquisite brittleness by Victoria Smurfit).

Such uxoriousness appears borderline scandalous in Dame Jilly’s masterfully constructed world of egos, oneupmanship and serial adultery, which signals that despite being a workaholic, Declan is clearly a good ’un – although, to be fair, I have only seen the first three episodes.

‘I hadn’t read Rivals before. It seemed very British so it wasn’t really on my radar, but it’s really fun – although later on it descends into something much murkier. I just read the scripts initially and then was really struck by how faithful they were to the book,’ says Turner, who is married to the American Succession actor Caitlin FitzGerald, 41. ‘You get a real sense of the characters in the first 15 or 20 pages and it’s a mark of excellent writing that you feel you already know these people.’

Whether or not you like them is up to you, but it’s absolutely gripping and Turner’s character is right at the heart of the story.

‘Rivals is a really truthful depiction of an era that in a great many ways was hugely problematic,’ says Turner. ‘It’s not being refracted through a modern lens and some of it is quite shocking, particularly the way women are treated. There’s also endless back-stabbing; Declan is detached, the one who sees what’s going on, and because he’s not from this class-bound world [he] struggles to understand the playbook – but he’s married to a woman who does and that causes tension.’

To research the role of a broadcasting homme sérieux, Turner trawled YouTube to watch hours of Firing Line, the US current-affairs talk show presented by conservative pundit William F Buckley Jr for 33 years. From 1966 to 1999, he verbally sparred with leading figures of the age.

‘I felt it was important to look to older shows, the way they were presented and the communication style,’ says Turner. ‘The interviewee would be given time and space to answer questions in full. These days it’s very different; the nearest we have to that now would be podcasts.

“Once filming started, to be honest I was channelling my dad the whole time. He’s an electrician not a journalist, but Declan is very like him – the way he carries himself, the tone of his voice, his passion. He feels very Irish and so does Declan.’

For Alexander Lamb, an executive producer on Rivals, finding the right fit for the pivotal character of Declan was crucial. ‘The very first person we thought about – the very first person we cast – for Rivals was Aidan. He was the lynchpin because he just felt so right; he’s got depth but also such charm and that was exactly what we wanted. A lot of the cast was built around him.’

That cast also includes EastEnder Danny Dyer, Katherine Parkinson, best known for The IT Crowd, Emily Atack of Inbetweeners fame, and Claire Rushbrook, who was in the first series of Sherwood. When it came to Turner, Lamb had been impressed by his previous standout roles as a vampire in the supernatural series Being Human and a clinical psychologist in police procedural The Suspect.

‘Aidan hadn’t played sexy-dad-with-teenagers or an intellectual journalist before, so that gave the whole thing a freshness. I think there’s a lot to be gained from getting actors out of their comfort zones,’ observes Lamb. ‘I’ve never really worked with an actor before who was so conscious of his performance. He would come back behind the camera to see if he could improve on what he’d done.’

Dame Jilly, adds Lamb, needed no persuasion in casting Turner. ‘It did not escape her just how good-looking Mr Aidan Turner was. Let’s just say she became quite the fan.’ Turner responds in kind, with unalloyed admiration. ‘Jilly is so sharp, perceptive and really funny – she’s very kind, but as she was seeing the daily and the weekly rushes I am quite certain that if she hadn’t liked what any of us were doing, she would have told us very swiftly.’

Later, he quietly relates a telling conversation with Cooper at a garden party held at her Gloucestershire gaff (to call it a pile would be too excessive, to call it a house too modest), one summer evening last year, after filming.

‘I remember a surreal moment when she took me by the arm and led me around the garden, pointing out the place where she would write and how she would look over the valley,’ he says. ‘And then she pointed out the houses where her nearest neighbours and friends lived and said, “This is Declan O’Hara’s house, and that one’s Tony’s house,” and explained how she would visualise the world of Rivals. It was a very special moment.’

How magical, I say. He nods very slowly, the corners of his mouth twitching, eyes crinkling at the preciousness of the memory. He’s so unabashedly soulful, I almost have to look away. And so to business: is Turner really as handsome as they say? Hmm. Maybe that’s what strikes you first but, in truth, it’s the least interesting thing about him.

Born in Clondalkin, a town outside Dublin, before the family moved to a suburb of the city, Turner admits he was never academically inclined. With a low boredom threshold, he struggled to concentrate at school, but when his accountant mother took him along to dance classes, he excelled; he went on to compete in ballroom dancing at national level, but lost momentum.

There was a stint working as an electrician with his father, but it was a job at the local cinema that sparked his interest in acting, entering the Gaiety School of Acting, Ireland’s national theatre school, where he graduated in 2004. After appearing in several theatre productions, including Seán O’Casey’s Easter Rising play The Plough and the Stars, he got his first major television gig in 2008 in the Irish hospital drama The Clinic.

‘I was a lowly receptionist and Victoria Smurfit, who is my wife in Rivals, was a consultant,’ he smiles. ‘Let’s just say we didn’t have a huge number of scenes together back then, so it’s great to catch up now.’ Soon the BBC beckoned and he was cast as Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood drama Desperate Romantics.

The six-parter failed to make a mark, but led to a critically acclaimed role in the comedy-drama Being Human, where he caught the eye of director Sir Peter Jackson, who cast Turner as the dwarf Kili in The Hobbit trilogy between 2012 and 2014.

Various other parts followed, culminating in his award-winning portrayal of Captain Ross Poldark in the 2015 revival of the BBC classic, which ran for five series and made him both a household name and a pin-up among ladies (and interviewers) d’un certain age.

After he was shown scything a field shirtless, a sheen of sweat on his ripped – sorry – torso, the Sunday-night concupiscence became so pronounced that media commentators called out the reverse sexism and denounced the reductive way in which Turner was being treated as a piece of prime meat. A decade on, he still seems mildly baffled, but not ungrateful, for the attention, if loathe to dwell on it. ‘There are worse things to be known for than having a nice physique,’ he says, philosophically. ‘But that was a long time ago and I’ve done a lot of fully clothed work since.’

Hilariously, in Rivals, Declan finds himself sharing a schedule with a series called Four Men Went To Mow, featuring a quartet of topless hunks – with scythes. Turner almost leaps off the sofa when I bring it up. ‘I know! I was reading the script and when I saw the Four Men Went To Mow reference, I assumed someone was deliberately winding me up. Then I realised it was actually in the original book, so I took a deep breath and let it go.’

I can confirm he’s fully dressed for our interview, wearing a mustard top by British menswear brand Oliver Spencer, which he dryly describes as ‘drab chic’, Levi’s 501s, and a pair of trainers. He points out they are classic white Reeboks with a natural gum sole. I admit I didn’t know that was A Thing. ‘To be honest, neither did I,�� he shrugs in good-natured agreement. ‘They were a present from a mate of mine – he’s a musician so far cooler than me, obviously – and he was very emphatic that the soles were a big deal.’

On his wrist is a 1969 Omega Seamaster. ‘It cost less than £2,000, it was an anniversary gift and the only watch I own,’ he offers, pre-emptively. ‘Oh and I’m not sponsored by Omega, none of that.’ Would he like to be? I ask mischievously. ‘Ah well, I’d certainly take the phone call. You always like to have options.’ This is all the more interesting because later I ask if there’s any truth in tabloid rumours that he has variously been earmarked as the new Bergerac and the next James Bond. He denies both charges.

‘But you’d take the calls presumably?’ I suggest. A pregnant pause follows. ‘You know, I don’t think I would. I have to say I think I’d pass on those.’ Bergerac I can understand – but intimations of 007 are, like talk of knighthoods, not to be trifled with, much less dismissed out of hand, however cat’s-chance unlikely.

Turner just pulls a slightly apologetic face (possibly for the benefit of his aghast agent reading this). But really it should come as no surprise; Turner has built up a reputation as a protean performer, moving seamlessly between television, film and the stage in a variety of markedly different roles.

Last year he appeared opposite Jenna Coleman in a minimalist two-hander, the West End revival of Sam Steiner’s 2015 fringe hit Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, about love and language. Director Josie Rourke says she cast Turner not just because he is ‘brilliant’, but because he has an ability to connect with his character and with the audience.

‘Aidan is a very technical and focused actor who really works hard to prepare – in that respect he’s not dissimilar to David Tennant. That might make him sound dour or serious, but he’s very personable and funny,’ says Rourke, a former artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse in London. ‘He’s acutely aware, in a lovely way, of every single person in the room. There’s something fundamentally unselfish about his performances.’

Off stage, Turner leads a quiet life with his family in an 18th-century house in east London, which he famously furnished with the table and chairs from the Poldark set in Cornwall. He looks amused when I wonder aloud if he hangs out – virtually or actually – with the slew of young Irish actors, like Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan, who have made a name for themselves.

‘It sounds boring but I work, and then when a project is finished I start reading scripts again,’ he says. ‘I’m not on social media, I don’t get wrapped [up] comparing myself to anyone else. Frankly, it’s hard enough keeping track of my own career. Since the birth of our son, my wife and I have agreed that only one of us will take a job away from home at any given time; we’ve not [had] a clash yet but we’ll have to see what happens when the time comes.’

They did, however, both have plays on in the West End at one point last year; he was appearing in Lemons while she was in The Crucible.‘It worked out really well, we headed out in different directions during the day, catching up with friends and getting stuff done, far too busy to see each other,’ he recalls. ‘Each of us did our show then we would meet up afterwards and share a cab home. It was really fun, but that sort of synchronicity is quite rare.’

Like a lot of actors, Turner is guarded when it comes to discussing his personal life. Although frenzied interest from the paparazzi has calmed down post-Poldark, every so often pictures do appear in the tabloids – and Rivals will no doubt increase his bankability. It is something he accepts with equanimity.

‘If I do get snapped, I don’t make a fuss or get angry, but I try to stay out of the way.’ I remind him of a very striking photo of him putting the rubbish out in a frankly extraordinary receptacle. ‘Ah yes, maybe I should get rid of the fluorescent pink wheelie bin, a bit of an own goal,’ he sighs.

I bet he doesn’t. Far too much of a compromise. I do manage to winkle a few details out of him by playing my fellow Irishwoman card and discover that he’s a ‘serious’ pool player – just this week he settled down in front of a recording of Steve Davis and his teammates taking the 2002 Mosconi Cup in Bethnal Green.

He plays golf, enjoys music, and is an avowed Nick Cave fan.

‘I’d have to say my favourite downtime is having friends round for good banter and food in the garden, weather allowing. I’m trying to perfect the manly art of beef brisket in my [Big] Green Egg barbecue. I think one of the reasons Rivals was such a happy show to work on was because so many of the scenes were us all together at parties. Then at the end of the day we’d kick back and half of us would still be in character.’

And what characters they are, all dressed up in their ’80s finery, jockeying for position, angling for seduction as Tears for Fears belt out Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Gen Z won’t understand, much less approve (lock up your 22-year-olds), but as a snapshot of a bygone age, Rivals promises to be TV gold, and at its glittering epicentre, Declan O’Hara, legendary brooding broadcaster with the biggest ’tache in town.

All episodes of Rivals are available on Disney+ from 18 October

[babylon-crashing]

Q: Can a Tarot card reading be accurate if the reader does not know anything about the person being read for (such as their birth date)?

I think birthdates are only important in Astrology. When I am giving a reading I don’t need any personal information other than having a question. I say this because for me Tarot is not about divination but rather problem solving.

When folks whine about Tarot (and they do whine) 99.1% of the time it is about how divination is a tool of devil and/or fortune reading is a scam. So I thought to myself, “self, what would a reading look like if I removed the mysticism?” If I called this a, “psychological experiment,” instead a journey through Spirit? How would that change things?

The answer, simply put, is that it changes nothing at all. I still gave the exact same reading and came to the same conclusions with or without the bells and whistles. So I decided to sidestep all the haters and describe Tarot as a, “most excellent form of brainstorming” … and if the answer turns out to be exactly the same if I’d made a declarative statement about working with my Higher Self then so much the better. Let the haters hate. Or, to put it slightly differently, I’ll shamelessly rip a page out of the Good Book of David Tennant. “We'll be fine, Daleks, TERFS and Tarot Haters can't climb stairs.”

With that in mind, let me share with you a new suit of swords that I’ve been working on. I’ve ended up calling the squid-headed girl Oom’tala because everyone needs a name. I’ve been trying to stick with the symbolism found in the Rider-Waite deck, because going on random flights of fancy is lovely if you’re playing jazz, not so if you want other people to be able to use your deck.

][][

Notes.

They say art is never finished until the artist walks away from it. I like that since there are still some cards that just don't look right to me.

The Page of Swords has Oom'tala staring at two boys kissing, the joke being that it wasn't the kissing that startled her, she just had never seen boys before. The same with the Seven of Swords. Why is Zoidberg (from Futurama) in drag? Because it struck me as funny at the time. Why is Gohan (of Dragonball fame) on the Three of Swords? Whimsy, I suppose.

][][

Update.

This morning I reworked the cards in question to give off a slightly less bit of, "by all that is holy why won't he stop?" vibe.

[charliespringverse]

iwbft — tuesday: a brief summary of my annotations

all highlighted quotes: 136

· ouch/ow/owie: 12

· real/felt/relatable/so true: 5

· aroace: 2

· ☹/☹☹/☹☹☹: 9

Rowan is on his front, one arm slung over Jimmy's chest. Jimmy's head is tilted ever so slightly towards Rowan. — i've woken up like this with at least half my friends

The shipping itself isn't a major inconvenience to any of us. If anything, it keeps the fans interested. They think Judgement Day will eventually come and there'll be a big reveal that Rowan and I are secretly in love. There won't. We're not. — @larry shippers in the year of our lord 2023

It's always sort of been Rowan and Jimmy, plus Lister. We still love him of course. But that's just the way it is. — PAIN (note: this is all caps, huge, and triple underlined)

'I talk about The Ark all the time. I don't know why this was a surprise.' 'Fereshteh, it was a little bit of a surprise to me too.' 'Why?' 'I suppose... I suppose I never thought you actually cared about this band that much.' — parents vs actually listening to and validating their interests (failed, always)

Juliet chuckles weakly and looks away. I know she's had some bust-ups with her parents in the past. — understatement of the millennium

I'm an optimist. I like to believe that love exists. — it Does it just isn't always romantic/sexual. but it exists So Much

'I feel bad... feeling so happy when they're probably upset,' — ur so close to getting it queen

'Can't we just go home?' Lister mumbles. 'No,' she says. — foreshadowing innit

Rowan and I follow him immediately, like there's a string attaching us — ... invisible string addition to the folklore trilogy?

Lister tells us to go away, but Rowan just walks up to him and starts rubbing his back as he throws up. — ♡ listerowan bestieism

There's a big window on one side of the bathroom. Big enough to climb out, probably. We're on the ground floor. We could just climb out and run. Get up and go. — FORESHADOWING INNIT

Being trans has been a pretty you can big part of my life so far, thanks, but that shouldn't be particularly relevant here, in an interview about our music. — u can Never escape other ppl's obsession w ur transness

Dave laughs and says again, 'Now that's honesty.' — FUCK YOU DAVE (note: this is all caps, huge, and quadruple underlined)

I ask God to give me a bit of extra patience. Because every time Mac speaks, I sort of want to put an entire bag of cotton wool in his mouth. — what God is for x

Being a male fan of obscure old bands is, for some reason, more acceptable than being a female fan of a twenty-first-century boy band. — (also the obscure old bands are rarely that obscure. they're one direction for old white men)

They know exactly who they are. They put it in their blog about' page, they put it in their Twitter bio. I never know what to put in my Twitter bio so I usually just put an Ark lyric in there. — and when u enter ur confident aro-ace era? what then?

I like to think God does have a plan for everyone. But I also think there's too much shit in the world for all these plans to be perfect ones. Or maybe God doesn't have time to write a plan for everyone. And some of us are just trying our best and getting it a bit wrong. — i think this is why faith doesnt work for me

Everything's still there, though. My journals, my guitar, my main laptop, my childhood teddy bear, and the knife that Grandad gave me when I was sixteen. — now i want to know what he would admit to in one of them essentials interviews

It'd be useless as an actual weapon, since it's completely blunt - you can run your finger along the edge and not even get a scratch. — hhhh foreshadowing innit ☹

Not that he particularly goes seeking it. Everyone just wants to be friends with Lister Bird. — and yet he cares most abt getting closer to the two he shouldn't have to try for ☹

David [Tennant] thought she wanted a selfie, when in fact she was just trying to find the nearest toilet. — iconic

'Now, there'd better be some fucking Capri-Suns somewhere around here.' — me @ every function

When they were together they both seemed to stop worrying about everything else in their lives - Rowan was no longer an overworked band boy and Bliss was no longer a struggling student. They were just together. — ��� justice for laimondi

Then he leans in and presses his lips against mine. Oh. Okay. Fine. This is fine. Can't say I realised this conversa- tion was going in this direction, but fine. — BAD (note: this is all caps, huge, and double underlined)

'But we're gods, Jimmy. What's better than that?' — pain. suffering. agony. heartache. torture, torment, anguish.

Holding it makes me feel real. It reminds me that I was born. That my life is something other than this birdcage I'm trapped in. Isn't it? Isn't it? — has his therapist ever discussed depersonalisation with him?

[starlightseraph]

i had a dream last night that i was in an auditorium or theatre or something but there was a wall blocking the stage (like a floor to ceiling wall, so the room was only the seats, all facing this blank wall) and in the seats were david and georgia tennant and several black and orange cats.

i walked up to them, and then georgia turned to look at me, and the second our eyes met my period cramps went away. cramps i hadn’t even realised had been there. but then they were gone. then david turned and winked at me. the cats were just mulling around during all of this. then an orange cat started climbing my leg, and i woke up.

what does this mean? help lmao it’s the strangest most vivid dream i’ve had in a while and i woke up thinking sincerely what the fuck was that

[icantspellhocky]

My thoughts about the first doctor-donna special that I'm currently freaking out about (/positive)

Okay, first of all, there will be spoilers for the recent(ish) special about the 14th doctor and Donna Noble. This only includes the first one because I got too excited about it so I had to take a break.

I was very skeptical about David Tennant coming back (he was my favorite doctor, but repeating faces is an interesting choice), but I had to watch this because DONNA NOBLE and I was not disappointed. First, the fact that the Doctor had David's face again was important and it sent a message to the Doctor about what had to be done. This was a meaningful thing that actually effected the situation, so I actually like the choice now. It's also really funny how The Doctor did like absolutely nothing to pretend like he wasn't The Doctor (other than not say his name) like seriously he looked into Donna's eyes and talked about the sonic screwdriver. Dude. Also, the Doctor's new face is because he can't move forward right now and needs to take a step back and get some closure. Like he doesn't usually get that chance, but now with his new face he can fix things and get closure both for himself and Donna (and maybe hang out with the Nobles??? also I'm so excited to see Wilfred again!!!!!). The conversation with Donna trying to convince The Doctor to hang out also highlighted key differences between some of The Doctors, because 11 would never be able to do that. 11 was antsy and could barely stay in place in the box episode. 12 and 10 could probably do it, but I don't think they'd love it that much and they'd probably get a little antsy too. But the 14th seems more interested in his people than the adventure (???) like I don't know much about him yet, but there was this one line about how 14 was more willing to express that he loved people and I think that's kinda what he's going to be all about. He's The Doctor that wants to get closure with those he loves. He gets that from 10 I think because ten had the whole scene where he was saying goodbye to Everyone even the people he shouldn't say goodbye to. Omg this is a long paragraph. Sorry!!

Also, I'm so happy to see Donna again!!! I love her so much!! She is relentless in a good way and absolutely would not stop questioning people about what the fuck was going on until she had an answer and I love her for it. She definitely Noticed that things were weird based on how people were acting pretty early on and she's so wonderful. Also, when she was talking about how she was fired because she spilled coffee on a computer my immediate thought was that there were some dangerous things in that computer and she did it on purpose. And then she immediately "spilled" coffee on Sexy's console (definitely on purpose!!!! <3333) and I love her so much!!!!! (Could you tell I love Donna Noble??)

Also, Shirley (the UNIT scientific Adviser who's name was mentioned once)!!!!! I absolutely love her line about whether there are life forms on the spaceship: "But we don't know what kind of life we're looking for." LIKE OMG!!!! Recognizing that alien life might not be classified as "life" by our current deffinitions!!!! Because we don't know everything about the universe!! and we also might not be able to detect everything OMGGGG!! Also the bit where she finds the doctor and has a conversation with him is wonderful. Absolutely love it. (ALSO HAVING SOMEONE IN A WHEELCHARE WHO ISN"T COMPLETELY PARALIZED IS COOL BECAUSE YOU LIKE NEVER GET THAT IN TV) "What for?" "I don't know" "oh" lmaooo silly exchange right there. Also it's cool that she gets a specialized wheelchair with weapons. Also, the fact that she's disabled isn't ignored. Like it actually effects the plot. Cuz if she had been able to climb those stairs she would have been mind controlled too and that would have messed things up. And the fact that the situation wasn't accessible was mentioned and not like talked around. Like she was still seen as a full human, not just despite her disability, but including it. Ya know?

Also, Sexy (the TARDIS) is gorgeous!!!! Like she's so pretty. Her circle-ey platforms and sleek look and the dots that change colors!!!!!! I love her. Lovely.

Also, it's so funny that The Doctor sneaked into the area with the space ship when he could have just walked right in because he's The Doctor.

[lovecharged]

muses i have muse for (cannot imagine why) under the cut, like this if you'd be interested in me making a starter for you from one of them (taken from your plots)

damian riggin | david tennant fc. fifty three. cis man. he / him. bisexual. paramedic. hard-working, caring and self-sufficent. the youngest of three brothers, and the black sheep of his family. practically raised himself and his nieces and nephews, will take anyone under his wing if they look like they need it. he's soft, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a bite, or pack a punch. loves with every inch of his tall, skinny soul. has a tendency to run when things get too real, because he's used to disappointment.

stanley butler | michael sheen fc. fifty one. cis man. he / him. bisexual. former gang member / criminal lawyer. born to a family that did not hide the fact that to do well in life, you have to work harder -- or work smarter. the man can't remember the last time he didn't have a job. whether it was selling sweeties at school, to becoming an advisor to a kingpin gang leader....he's really done it all. hardly workshy, in fact lives to work. has flings galore but has yet to meet the one. or maybe he has and he's pretending otherwise. has a daughter he knows nothing about. will do everything he can to help someone in need. hates authority. hates the police. is intelligent and spiteful. very good with his hands.

robin sawyer | nicholas galitzine fc. twenty six. cis man. he / him. bisexual. youtuber / aspiring screenwriter @ silly boys studios. a dreamer who lives vicariously through the scripts (and secret novels) he writes. the quietest of the little group he works with and often works on his own. dreams of an epic love, but doubts it'll ever happen for him. shy and struggles to stand up for himself, but luckily he has his older brother looking out for him there. fact is, despite his hunger for real, true love...it honestly terrifies him. ask him on a date and he's likely to run a mile. dreams of writing a movie or a tv show one day, whether it be based on one of his novels, or something else entirely.

zayn delgado | taylor zakhar perez fc. thirty. cis man. he / him. bisexual. tiktok content creator / twitch streamer. he's a man who goes for what he wants and takes it with both hands. has dreams of being a comedian, or an actor or something, anything that'll get him out there living and not just surviving. a flirt and good at it, and will do anything he can to not be entirely alone with his own thoughts. loves with his whole heart. is better and one night stands. really wants to make something of himself and he's willing to put the work in to see it through.

quincy dupont | mike faist fc. twenty seven. cis man. he / him. bisexual. socialite + boxer. rich, clueless and suffering from middle child syndrome. loves to be physical and that's how he got into boxing. he doesn't necessarily have to do it, he doesn't necessarily have to work at all -- but he enjoys it, much to his parents and siblings chagrin. proper himbo with full on himbo energy. says silly things daily, someone should write a book about it. lives every day like it could be his last, takes risks so it's always more likely to be his last, too. the kid who was always covered in mud and climbing up trees, even if his parents always had him in gucci.

[miafi]

Lovely @caromitpunkt tagged me to list 9 of my favourite shows in no particular order.

Now, I haven't watched a show in a loooong time, so let's see if I can think of nine shows in general 😅

1. The Simpsons: ultimate comfort show. I watch reruns in TV when I'm at my parents. I think I've seen every episode (till season 20) about ten times each.

2. IT Crowd: another comfort show. It makes me laugh every. Single. Time.

FIRE, exclamation mark, FIRE, exclamation mark, HELP ME, exclamation mark. 123 Carrendon Road. Looking forward to hearing from you. All the best, Maurice Moss.

ICONIC.

3. Black Books: look, I have a lot of comfort shows that I keep watching over and over, don't judge me. And Bernard doing his tax returns lives in my head rent free.

4. Monty Python's Flying Circus: this show has shaped my sense of humour. Either you find Monty Python's humour funny or you can't be helped. I'm happy I'm in the first groups. I remember way too many quotes from the show instead of important things. But I don't care.

The. Larch.

5. Derry Girls: one of newer shows that have the comfort show potential. I haven't watched the last season yet. But hey, as a fan of Take That, I LOVED the episode when they went to the show.

6. Skam: I think this is the only show that I binge watched. I don't do binge watching because of my attention span and there's always something that has to be done and you can't spend the whole evening, night and morning watching a TV show, but Skam (and Druck) did it.

7. Gilmore Girls: the older I get, the more annoying I find both Lorelei and Rory and I wish I could forget the clusterfuck that was Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. But this show was a too big part of my life to not mention it. (And Rory jumping with Logan from that scaffolding with umbrellas? Poetic cinema.)

8. Doctor Who: I haven't watched all episodes, it is a show I keep telling myself "when you have the time, you'll catch up with the rest of the episodes" but it's hard to find the time with a full time job, a life AND multiple hours of cycling to watch every day 😅 I find some of the companions annoying (cough Amy cough), but the comedic genius duo that was David Tennant and Catherine Tate is iconic.

Don't blink.

9. Mistresses: (the UK version PLEASE) look, I'm gay. And there's Sarah Parish and Orla Brady in this show. There are few moments that make me want to climb the walls (in a good way). Too many 'we shouldn't be doing this' that I enjoy way too much. Another sort of comfort show. Did I mention Sarah Parish is in this? 😍

Now, my least favourite part, tagging 🫣 @1337wtfomgbbq @snark--maiden @catsanyesz @mwrites666 @missanathea @paris-roubaix @sunflowersofme @stylesbandshirts @emsails and anyone who wants to chime in and share their fave shows. No pressure, of course!

[denimbex1986]

'It's no secret that Doctor Who has never shied away from dark themes, but sometimes an idea comes along that's just too terrifying to show on screen.

That's exactly what happened for Keith Temple, who penned the widely-praised season 4 episode Planet of the Ood, starring David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble.

The episode shows the Doctor and Donna visiting the Ood-Sphere during one of their first adventures together, and vowing to free the Ood when they see the alterations being performed on the creatures.

As he revisits the episode for a new novelisation, Temple exclusively told RadioTimes.com: "When I first started, and this was a first draft and storylining stage, I wanted it to be quite dark – because as a kid, the most memorable stories for me were the dark ones, the scary ones.

"I wrote a whole sequence which was set in Ood conversion, where you see the Ood translator balls being kind of stitched onto the Ood and they're going through these kind of conveyor belts.

"And at that early stage, I think it was maybe [producer] Julie Gardner who said, ‘I think this is just a bit too horrific.’ So we cut it, but I’ve put it in the book."

And it wasn't the only scene that was cut from the episode.

He continued: "The other one – I don't even know that it made the first draft but it was certainly in the story synopsis, that the Ood could climb up walls, I think that may have been an expense issue, so they said no to that."

The episode provides integral moments in the relationship between the Doctor and Donna, but Temple didn't always know he was writing for Catherine Tate.

"When I was writing it, Catherine had been in the Christmas special and then she'd gone," he explained. "And when I went for initial meetings with Russell, he would say things like, 'We have this new character, she's called Penny, and she's like this, and she's a bit like that.'

"I had an idea that she was a bit...'Woah', a bit out there. He'd say after a first draft, 'You've sort of got her character right,' and then the second draft was, 'It's nearly there, not quite,' and the last time they said, 'For God's sake, it's Catherine Tate!'"

As for how he feels revisiting the episode for his new novelisation all these years later, Temple explained: "It was fascinating because I was thinking back, not that long ago, it must be 16 years since I first looked at it, created it, and I haven't watched it that many times since. So, looking back at it, I was struck by how it really was a lovely adventure."'

[thealogie]

i was curious and looked up trish to see what was so terrible about her story and got hit with a wall of text :') i'll take your word that she was done dirty because i don't even know where to start with this character (found out literally 3 seconds ago that she's jessica's sister)

Here's a slightly less wall of text explanation: they had mad chemistry in season 1. Krysten Ritter said when she first read episode one she wondered if they were exes because of the way their first scene plays out (Jessica climbs Trish's balcony, it's clear they haven't seen each other for a while and Jessica has been ghosting Trish). It's clear they're not really sisters. They were classmates. After Jessica's family dies in a car crash when she's 15, Trish's mom forcibly adopts Jessica because it's good for the family/Trish's public image (Trish is a child star). Season ends with Jessica killing evil!David Tennant while looking straight over his shoulder at Trish and saying "I love you"

Writers are kind of mad they seem like girlfriends I guess so they started hammering home how they're "sisters" in season 2 to no homo it. Mysteriously Jessica still looks devastated when Trish gets engaged and looks like she's gonna cry and leaves the engagement party by herself.

Season 3, they make Trish (who literally always wished she had Jessica's powers so she could help people and who always supported/helped Jessica in becoming more of a hero) gain powers and go on a vigilante killing spree and fully becomes the bad guy of the series despite previously being jessica's right hand arm woman and north star. in the end jessica sends her to prison.