#david tennant has my soul

[thefrogking0-0]

dalek spotting

[nipuni]

🤭 I would have liked to see this in between

[almalvo]

Entering: GOOD OMENS | CROWLEY

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A neighbourhood I am all too familiar with a lifetime ago... Hi Gomens. I am new. It's good to meet you.

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Livestreamed on the official almalvo discord server.

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Thank you.

[ingravinoveritas]

"This closeness feels entirely genuine..."

It’s the way they finish each other’s sentences. The way their back-and-forth chemistry feels like watching an old movie. The way they gently tease one another. It's as if you’re seeing two halves of the same whole...

This interview that goes back to the premiere of season 1 just details how even reporters feel the chemistry of Michael and David in the room.

This receptiveness is clear when we meet. Sounds of approval from one punctuate answers given by the other, and appreciative laughter meets every quip. Occasionally they bypass me altogether, directing their responses to each other. They re terrific actors, so you never know, but this closeness feels entirely genuine.

[wednesdaywarriorswc]

so 13s final episode my flatmates all went to the cinema to watch a horror film and i stayed behind to watch the episode by myself so as the tears were forming pools in the last few minutes and i was excited to see ncuti gatwa and there was a surprise david tennant in my face i just slowly closed my laptop and sat in complete and utter silence for 45 minutes until they came home and found me in a state of shock

[davidtennantgenderenvy]

On David Tennant and Aging

So, I’ve seen a lot of posts in response to Tumblr users’ habit of affectionately calling their favorite middle aged dudes “old men”, David Tennant in particular, saying things like “clearly you’ve never met an actual old person”, “omg you talk about these guys like they’re 80”, “please be normal about people aging”, etc. And on one hand, all of these statements are objectively right and true! But as someone who’s always been really fascinated by and found a lot of beauty in getting older (which I’ve explored in some of my writing on A03 because nobody else is going to do it for me), I’d like to provide a bit more nuance on how I think this label applies to David in particular.

David, obviously, in literal terms, is not “old”, at least not to me- I don’t personally consider people old until they get past 60. 52 is middle aged, simple as that. And yet, when I see David stuck with the “old man” label, it still somehow feels weirdly right, for a number of reasons.

It annoys me so much when people say David “hasn’t aged a day since Doctor Who”, because, well…

He clearly has. A lot. He’s got forehead creases, deep crows’ feet and eyebags, and I think that post-Fourteen we’re gonna see him rocking the grey temples a LOT more. He also has the voice of an older man now, his upper range is still there but the default is much more deep and rich, with a gravelly, rumbling quality that just goes straight through you. I personally think Broadchurch was when David finally started to embrace looking his age- Alec Hardy just wouldn’t have been served by Ten’s fresh-faced boyishness.

Obviously, these are the kinds of changes you’d expect any 52-year-old man to have, but something about David just makes it all seem a bit more… intense? The expressiveness of his face combined with his almost gaunt frame makes his wrinkles very prominent, and when he works his voice to its emotional extremes, his lower register can sound positively ancient, to devastating effect.

David, I think, is someone with an old soul- I don’t think he could be as good as he is at playing ancient characters like Crowley and The Doctor if he weren’t. He has lived so many lives, given so much of himself to so many characters, often incredibly tragic ones, and I think it wears on him. David also has five kids. FIVE. Do you know how exhausting it is to be one of the hardest working actors alive and be a present, loving father to even ONE child? But David somehow does it anyway! Nowadays I see him and my heart breaks because he looks so tired, so weary and fragile. But he’s all the more beautiful for it to me because I know that that is because he is kind. He’s a deeply empathetic person who feels and lives to the absolute fullest, and that story is written so clearly on his face, along with every other story he has ever been a part of.

There’s other things about David that make the label endearingly fitting- his utter hopelessness when it comes to technology, for instance. And he’s just got that warm, wise, grandpa energy too sometimes- look at that above Fourteen picture and tell me I’m wrong!

I once showed my friend who’d only seen David in Doctor Who and Harry Potter a picture of David from Around The World in 80 Days. It was a particularly emotional scene, and his face had just the most beautiful expression of compassion and sadness, every wrinkle on full display. And she said, in a less than complimentary fashion, “he looks so old!” Which, of course, offended me quite a bit at first. But to me, referring to David as old almost feels like a badge of honor, something he’s earned by living fully and selflessly, working hard and being wise and compassionate beyond his years. I think David himself is secretly more than a little insecure about the fact that he’s getting older. There’s sadness behind every jovially self-depreciating remark he’s made about his age in the past year, particularly in comparing himself to Ncuti Gatwa. I know how much David struggles with his impostor syndrome and how people perceive him, and I can clearly see in his eyes the fear of being discarded, the anxiety he feels about if he’ll still be as loved as he was back in 2007 now that he’s closer in age to King Lear than he is to Romeo. So I hope David knows it’s a privilege to watch him grow older, to watch his soul and talents deepen with the crinkles around his eyes. If I, in my silly goofy tumblr girl-ness, call David Tennant an old man, it’s because it’s a label that suits him beautifully- even if it isn’t TECHNICALLY an accurate one yet.

[mizgnomer]

Behind the Scenes of The Giggle - Part Fourteen

Excerpt from Benjamin Cook’s article in DWM 599:

In the back garden of a lovely detached house in the Cardiff suburbs – “Not a mansion, but enough to make you go ‘Ooh’,” Russell’s script specifies – David Tennant is giving Bonnie Langford a bear hug. “Welcome back!” he’s saying. “How long’s it been? Thirty-four years?” What a touching moment. “Yeah! And then she sort of blew it,” David tells me later, laughing, “and said, ‘Oh, no, I was here last year!’”

In a timey-wimey twist, today – Friday, 17 June 2022, another scorcher – is Bonnie first time back on Doctor Who since 1987… bar a fleeting cameo in 2022’s The Power of the Doctor. She’s carrying an apple crumble through some patio doors.

And there are the Nobles – Donna, Rose, Sylvia and Shaun – gathered around the garden table, beneath the pergola, about to tuck into pots of curry and cauliflower cheese. (Anything but tuna madras, please.) Sat with them, joining the familial fray at Donna’s new gaff, is the Nobles’ lodger: the Doctor, like we’ve never seen him before. So relaxed. So happy. “He’s not really save-the-world Doctor right now,” Chanya tells David. “This is an off-duty Doctor.” He’s regaling his adopted family with The Eyebrows Story that he’s probably spun a hundred times before. He’s almost at the bit with the Warrior Queen of the Felooth when –

“Am I late?” Enter: Mel, wearing a Reiss dress covered in pink and white flowers. It’s a floral riff of her Time and the Rani ensemble (“They put me in white trousers in a quarry,” winces Bonnie, when I ask her about that ’87 gear. “What the hell was that about??”). “Sorry, the door was open, you don’t mind?”

“Mad Aunty Mel!! I was so happy when I thought of that,” says Russell. “At last she’s got a home, a story, a history. I suppose this house is Donna and Shaun’s, living with mum and grandad, and the Doctor as the strange lodger in the attic. They were promised compensation by UNIT at the end of The Star Beast [after their home was ravaged by Wrarth Warriors].

“Or maybe Bonnie Langford should move into Bannerman Road?” adds Russell, tantalisingly. “I wouldn’t object. MAD AUNTY MEL.”

For Catherine, working with Bonnie must be the equivalent of David partnering with Ncuti? Is there a sense that they’re kindred souls? “Oh I mean,” she says, “I’m just not as deep as that.” She explodes with laughter. “We didn’t even discuss it. I didn’t know she was a companion! I was literally going to David, ‘Bonnie Langford was in Doctor Who?!’”

“Bonnie’s quite unusual, certainly from the old show, in that she was probably better known for other things,” David reasons. “That’s quite rare. This show tends to cling to you.”

“That’s the thing about Doctor Who. You can run, but you can’t hide,” says Catherine. “It’ll get you. It’ll bring you back in the end – happily.”

Catherine has no regrets, then, about returning for these 60th Anniversary Specials? No, not one, she insists. Best of all, Donna finally gets the happy ending she deserves – the delightful fate of Donna Noble. “I think it’s just amazing that Russell has found a way to do that,” says Catherine. “I was convinced he was going to have the Doctor and Donna die in some terrible, spectacular way and everyone would be sobbing. But no. We sit in a garden and eat apple crumble with Bonnie Langford. Ha! Which is so perfect.”

When Catherine read the script for The Giggle, she was “a little bit taken aback, actually, at what happens,” she told us two issues back. Now she explains: “That was when it fell into place for me. I realised, the need to want the monumental was the actor in me. That’s not what Donna wants. Donna doesn’t want the drama. What she wants is to bring the Doctor home and to ground him the way she needed to ground herself. That’s how she saves him. For me that’s Russell’s brilliance, that he sees beyond the showiness.”

Catherine texted Russell after reading the script. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, we sit in a garden having a barbecue,’ and he goes, ‘Yeah, Donna gets the ending she always wanted.’ I thought, of course, that’s what she wants. She wants her best friend. And obviously,” says Catherine, smiling cheerily, “they get the best of both worlds, because there’s a TARDIS in the garden as well.”

“I really like that this is part of the garden,” says David, pointing across the lawn to where his TARDIS is stood. The Doctor’s TARDIS, by the patio windows. For now. (He took Mel to New York last week. And Rose Noble to Mars.)

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For other posts in this set, please see the #whoBtsGiggle tag. The full episode list is [ here ]

[aq2003]

ok spoilers for macbeth i guess . incoherent ramblings and immediate thoughts abt it bc i'm crazy

- the opening scene made me gasp and cover my mouth the entire way through. the way it opens w a BANG and macbeth washing his hands of the blood while praises of his prowess on the battlefield ring around him but he just looks so haunted and miserable the whole time sets the tone of the play SO well

- macbeth is Losing his fucking mind. from the START. and this is such genius characterization. he is so unwell. he is so on the edge of something terrible from the very beginning of the play and the pushing from the witches and lady macbeth is the catalyst that tips him over the edge. there are remnants of his consciousness and guilt ringing around in there and when they bubble to the surface it is so heartbreaking bc you know they will be snuffed out as the play goes on

- lady macbeth's humanity. i think this is the most human lady macbeth i've ever seen she is so in the throes of loneliness and grief and she misses her husband and thinks the murder will bring them together but instead it sends macbeth into this awful downwards spiral and the guilt eats her alive. when she says macbeth is "too full of the milk of human kindness" it's a mischaracterization. she doesn't know how much her husband has changed while he's been away fighting the war

- THE DAGGER SOLILOQUY the way it's lit and staged and acted like he's talking to his own shadow and convincing himself to do the murder. this scene was fucking amazing from the balcony the way he crawled around on the ground UGHHHHH IT WAS SO SO GOOD

- david looked right up at me when the crown was put on his head and my heart fully stopped right there

- the "full of scorpions is my mind" line reading deserves every single theater award ever on its OWN i DO NOT CARE GIVE DAVID TENNANT EVERY AWARD EVER

- macbeth taking off the crown to talk to the murderers because his killing spree is driven by macbeth the sharp edged violent soldier and not macbeth the king. like Oh my god

- BANQUET SCENE IM CRAZYYYYYY OH MY GODDDDDD FJCKKKKKKK THE WAYYYYYYYY THEY LIT THIS SCENE TO SWITCH FROM MACBETH'S TERROR AT BANQUO'S GHOST TO THE PERSOECTIVE OF THE THANES !!!! I KNEW DAVID WOULD EAT THIS SCENE UP BUT GOD. MY GODDDDD.

- the second scene w the witches was staged SO good and SO creatively like macbeth hallucinating his peers and friends and family and his son being killed and brought back in some twisted possessed form to tell him the prophecies OUGH

- fleance walking up and down the side of the stage. both macbeth and lady macbeth repeating this motion like they're remembering their son and they're haunted by his ghost . FUCK

- the death scene of lady macduff and her son was so violent i gasped out loud again

- malcolm is so fucking good in this like i REALLY like the idea of him being a teenager and the friction between him and macduff comes out of a difference in amount of life lived. also the "face it like a man"/"feel it like a man" lines become so Interesting with transmasc malcolm i need to process my thoughts on this further

- tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow was SOOOOOO. IT WAS SOOOOOOOOO. LIKEEEEEEE even though she pushed him towards duncan's murder lady macbeth was the last tether macbeth had to his humanity at the end and it's so so fucking tragic and sad. like i felt that "signifying /nothing/" within the DEEPEST pits of my soul.

- THE YOUNG SIWARD SCENE. I THOUGHT I KNEW WHAT WAS COMING AND I DIDNT AND I NEED TO BE FUCKING SHOT I NEED TO BE SHOT I JEED TO BE SHOT I NEED TO BE SHOT JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

- macbeth's death was played so perfectly like i don't even have the words for it the whole final fight scene and his death was so fucking good i need to be shaken like ragdoll

- i'm insane

[ingravinoveritas]

Hiya! In case you haven't seen: https://metro.co.uk/2025/02/03/david-tennant-confirms-six-toes-right-foot-its-like-a-nubbin-22466225/

Nice little article. Ignore the toe, haha.

Hi there! Yes, I saw this article this morning, which seems to have come as part of a flurry of PR ahead of David hosting the BAFTAs again this month (the most bizarre of which is the Daily Fail, which starts off talking about the toes and then talks about the BAFTAs and then David and Georgia's marriage, for some reason). But I'll link to the Metro article for those who haven't read it...

I think my reaction to this was twofold. The first reaction I had is to wonder how this seemingly never came up before or was never noticed by anyone, because God knows we've seen David in plenty of roles where he is barefoot. Fortunately, some intrepid souls have spent the better part of the day searching for photographic evidence, and it seems that we do now have a picture of this "nubbin," as David put it. The photo used is from Richard II, so it looks like he may have had it then, but subsequently got it removed. Maybe.

(...Did I mention how weird this is as an anecdote for PR articles promoting the BAFTAs? Because it really is...)

The second reaction that I had to this was a feeling of gentle validation. I know that sounds strange, but I will explain: On both of my feet, my smallest toe (a baby toe that didn't grow in all the way) is second from the end, rather than on the end. It's a genetic/hereditary thing--my Grandma had the same thing--and completely harmless and painless, but I got bullied for it very badly all through school. I remember dreading going to Pool in elementary school because we had to change in the locker room, and the girls were merciless about it. I became so self-conscious that I stopped wearing flip-flops and didn't start again until I was much older.

In hindsight of course, it's a very little thing, but at the time it nearly consumed me, and was a part of why I began to feel suicidal at 10 years old. So hearing about David's "condition" was just sort of lovely, and gave me that nice feeling of "Oh cool, I'm not the only one with weird feet." Haha.

In any case, this is certainly an interesting (if unusual) start to BAFTAs promotion. Glad at least to see David is excited to host again and that he seems to have a good perspective on the whole thing...

[humbledragon669]

S2E2 - The Clue Write Up P4 - Land of Uz: Crowley speaks to Job to a little alone time in the cellar

I’m going to start with an incredibly quick note, just in case there’s anyone out there reading this who doesn’t know/hasn’t realised that the actor playing Job is Peter Davison, who is not only linked to David Tennant by way of having played the fifth Doctor, but is also his father-in-law (in real life). I think I’m probably preaching to the converted with that little nugget, but it pays to be cautious with these things.

Alright, let’s get going proper, shall we? And I want to give a little nod of acknowledgement for the camera work we see going “through” the book page into the scene beyond. Not the first time we’ve seen this technique used to transition the audience from one place (in time, mood, or location) to another, but it’s pretty smooth nonetheless, and achieves its desired effect effortlessly. There’s something utterly ridiculous about some of the script for this initial scene too - some random dude shows up in your newly destroyed barn asking for your children and you don’t stop to ask who he is and what he wants? In fact, why not direct him to your wife to be as helpful as possible? Don’t stop there though, why not start pouring your soul out to him in a keenly ironic speech about being delivered to demons. Sure. Very convincing. Still, I don’t suppose there’s much in the way of official records of this conversation to base the scene on, is there…

Miracle noise alert! This one definitely originates from Crawley and definitely differs from the one we most recently associated with Aziraphale.

This one is… “flatter” is the word that springs to mind when I hear it. I think it’s intended to sound closer to a snake hiss; of textural note we are missing the little choir vocalisation that we heard in earlier miracle noises. Swinging back around to the theory about miracle noises relating to intent rather than caster, this particular noise would prove both theories. I guess what I really want to hear at this point is the noise from a miracle definitely cast only by Crowley with good or neutral intent. That might put this theory to bed for me, but I think we’ll have to wait a while for that (off the top of my head I can’t think if we get one of those in these season, but I’ll be on the look-out).

I find the choice of words used in the opening arguments between Aziraphale and Crawley interesting:

Aside from the opportunity to revel in Aziraphale admitting he was wrong about something, I think the different uses of don’t have to/couldn’t/can/will in this wordplay are worth noting. To avoid this getting too wordy, I’m going to break this down into a table to demonstrate:

And all of this hammered home with a final plea from Aziraphale, returning to his original point, and making an explicit statement that he believes that being a demon involves the ability to exercise free will (let’s face it, it kinda doesn’t - Crawley has little official choice than to follow orders, just like the angel). This point of view will become interesting as the season progresses and we see Aziraphale’s beliefs about free will and how it ties in with humanity morphing - after all, it wasn’t all that long ago that he was trying to convince a bunch of archangels on the street that the whole point of being human (not a demon) is to exercise free will (at least in our chronology - this conversation with Crawley and the one with the angels on the street are actually separated by some 4500 years…). What’s interesting to me about his beliefs at this particular point in time, is that they suggest at least part of his understanding of the differences between the agents of Heaven and Hell isn’t to do with morality or intent, it’s the presence/absence of free will. Ergo, the opposite of “Good” isn’t “Evil”, but “Choice”. Oof, that one hits pretty deep, doesn’t it? I could get into a big discussion about how this does or doesn’t resemble major religions even today but I feel like that goes a bit beyond my qualifications, so instead I’ll just make one more point about this handful of lines between our hero couple, this one on another more word choice for Aziraphale:

AZIRAPHALE: Crawley… You don’t have to destroy Job’s children.

Notice the word ��destroy” and not “kill”. I’m not sure why this distinction has been made, not least because Crawley has already told Aziraphale 500 years previously that killing kids is not something he can get onboard with.

Maybe the word choice has been swayed somewhat by Crawley’s supposed disposal of the goats, where they simply disappeared in a puff of smoke. Perhaps “destroy” was thought to be a stronger word than “kill”, though that’s not a stance I would agree with, and I actually feel like it offers the opportunity to distance the “destroyer” from their actions somewhat.

Before we get too deep into the weeds with the next mini-section of Aziraphale pleading, there’s something I want to lay on the table. The last time this pair saw each other was 500 years ago. We saw that meeting, and earlier in this episode they even went so far as to confirm that was the last time they saw each other. That meeting, filled with shocking revelations about Heaven’s actions as it was, was very friendly. VERY friendly. We’ve gone from Crawley looking at Aziraphale like this:

to this:

I mean… What happened? No, seriously, what the actual fuck happened? The tension between this pair is palpable in both scenes, but they are very different types of tension. I’ve always thought that there’s something off about the way their conversation starts at the beginning of the minisode: it feels like that awkward conversation you have with someone when you bump into them after having had a blazing row and neither of you has apologised and despite time passing, you’re both still sore about it. Almost like… unexpectedly bumping into your ex? I realise that was all really wordy, when all I’m really trying to say is that I’m not clear on why the relationship feels so strained at the beginning of the minisode, just like I’m not clear on why Crowley is so grumpy when we see him in Rome. It occurs to me that we don’t see the end of their encounters in Mesopotamia and Golgotha (the previous meetings to Uz and Rome, respectively), and once again I say: what the actual fuck happened?

If we consider the possibility that the meeting in Mesopotamia potentially did not end as amicably as it began, Aziraphale’s desperate pleading with Crawley to do the right thing in this Land of Uz scene feels perhaps a bit more understandable. And let’s just be clear about Aziraphale’s plan of attack at this point - he’s no longer asking a demon not to the “bad” thing, he’s appealing to Crawley to be the being that he has fallen in love with come to know in the years before - one that is incapable of doing the unspeakable things he’s been tasked with.

Wait, wait, did I say understandable? Because this is truly unbearable for me - I can’t watch this without choking back a sob, for real. The little gulp as Crawley’s words hit home, the slumping shoulders, the slight wobble in his bottom lip, the rasping breath he takes (OH BUT THAT INTAKE OF BREATH WILL KILL ME). He is absolutely, and completely, devastated. And who can be surprised, because that speech from Crawley (complete with background hiss noise as he removes his glasses) is pure venom (no snake pun intended). Everything the demon says at this point is said with the sole purpose of hurting Aziraphale (and I say again: WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!), prompting Aziraphale to use his ultimate weapon - it’s the forgiveness line. There is something particular about this usage though - on this occasion he doesn’t forgive Crawley personally, he asks for forgiveness on his behalf, which we’ve seen once before: on the bandstand. That encounter was very definitely a break-up and for a second it looks like this one might have been going the same way, and I think I speak on behalf of the entire fandom when I thank those goats for not being able to keep their mouths shut here.

As much as I am fully onboard with Aziraphale’s smugness in his response to finding out that Crawley was indeed the being he thought he was, I can’t help but feel like it’s slightly misplaced, and here’s why:

CRAWLEY: Doesn’t mean we’re on the same side. AZIRAPHALE: No, no!

You see, I don’t think Aziraphale has realised that his actions have actually gone against Heaven’s wishes at this point. So as far as he’s concerned, Crawley and him being on the same side (which is clearly what he thinks, given the vocal delivery) means that Crawley is also on Heaven’s side. Which he most certainly isn’t, and even though the demon has a much clearer idea of how things are progressing, it’s obvious that Aziraphale thinks that Crawley’s point of view is just a cover story for him actually being on Heaven’s side. I think this is the first time that the idea of third “side” (i.e. not for Heaven or Hell) is introduced, chronologically speaking, even if it was thought to be a temporary arrangement and not specifically termed as “their side”. I find myself wondering if Crawley’s acknowledgement that they are “temporarily not on different sides” is the reason he doesn’t protest being called an angel by Job’s eldest daughter (Keziah), but perhaps that’s just because he wants to lull them into a false sense of security for the grand finale coming up.

I will be preaching to the converted for the second time in this write-up now I know, but as I said, it pays to be cautious. The young man playing Ennon is David’s in-real-life son. This episode is quite the family affair! Having that little bit of knowledge makes Crawley’s reaction to this self-important, arrogant little shit all the more funny too.

And whilst we’re on the subject of Crawley’s reactions, I love this facial expression we see in reaction to Aziraphale deciding to throw his weight around:

I slowed it down a bit, but you can see his face twitch ever so slightly just after Aziraphale starts bellowing, like it actually took him by surprise. Pranked or not, I think it’s pretty obvious to see that he does not think this new strategy from the angel is a good one. The background acting doesn’t stop here either, with an adorable little squeak from him in response to Jemimah’s charming nature. It makes me feel a bit sorry for the kids in the scene really, who are (I hope) acting their little socks off being the most repulsive versions of children they can be whilst David just stands there pulling a few faces/making some noises and manages to steal the scene.

There’s no reason for that gif other than to watch a loop of David winking (extremely careful typing required with that sentence).

Alright, maybe there was a little reason, other than pure aesthetics. I know I’m not the only one to say I find the interaction between Crawley and Jemimah adorable, but outside of just being really cute, this relationship does serve a narrative purpose in the context of the storyline. This playful banter he establishes with the young child is what lays the road for some mischief. I’ve talked about it in earlier write-ups, but we don’t see an awful lot of the mischievous demon in this season. Well, all that’s about to change, and I’m pretty relieved because up to now everything Crawley has done in this minisode has felt very serious. I love seeing him getting joy in causing harmless mayhem.

I also find it interesting that this side of the demon has only been allowed out now that he and Aziraphale have found some common ground - the dislike of the two older children - which suggests that their relationship is getting back on track. On that note, it occurs to me that he hasn’t been wearing his sunglasses for any of this scene, which had been firmly glued to his face right from the beginning of the minisode, even when he was alone of the top of a mountain. Whatever happened to cause the angry tension between our hero couple (if anything happened), I think the lack of eyewear would suggest that Crawley is already well on the way to forgetting about it by this point.

I find this blustering from Aziraphale interesting. He refuses to name Crawley as what he physically is, choosing to believe that because the demon’s intentions aren’t malign, his demon nature is simply a technicality. By that same logic, that would mean Aziraphale himself is only “technically” an angel, yet you never hear him refer to himself as such. Ultimately, his motives behind this are honourable, desperate as he is to believe that Crawley is still one of the Good guys, and I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that there’s a double standard being applied here - that’s one of the motifs we see being applied to Heaven throughout the show (“one rule for us, another rule for everyone else”). He’s right in the end of course (at least as far as Crawley’s intentions anyway).

He knows Crawley has absolutely no desire to kill children, despite the fact that the house is blazing around them. The demon told him he couldn’t kill kids, remember?

There’s something about this exchange that niggles at me. On the surface it seems like we’ve gone back to an angry Crawley, challenging Aziraphale on his character judgement. I think there’s maybe a bit more to it though. There is a vague suggestion of Crawley asking Aziraphale if he really trusts him here, even though it’s not explicitly stated. And that trust theme is something we see developing, chronologically, throughout the minisodes of this season. The Agreement is a long way off into the future (about 3500 years in the future in fact), but I find myself wondering if this challenge from Crawley is its first iteration, because I think this is actually him asking Aziraphale if he’s sure he wants to be part of the plot to save the children. If that’s the case, and the angel understands the subtext, it would explain why he makes his declaration of surety so assuredly. And look at him making way for Crawley to deliver his coup de grace, united with the demon, and sure of his decision:

Side note: I love the fact that everything in that room falls through the ceiling to the floor below completely intact, including the table which is already laden with a whole ox carcass. The only sign of anything being disturbed is the noise of a metal pot settling.

Aziraphale’s response to this latest turn of events reminds me of what we see from him when he embarks on his journey to Edinburgh.

He’s so contented - he’s turned the whole thing into a game. One with a trail of clues he had to work out to solve the mystery of how the evil demon could still be an angel underneath it all. And he’s figured it all out, even though he knew it all along anyway, which Crawley is clearly not thrilled about. There’s another layer going on here though I think, because (if I’ve got my chronology right), this is the first time the demon has “rescued” the angel from a perilous situation. Never mind that the perilous situation was created by the demon in the first place. Besides, that might have been part of the game for all we know because it’s only now that Aziraphale starts to give Crawley a bit of slack for him to actually use the cover he’s trying to create for himself. And hold on, what’s this?

Is that a wink? Certainly looks like one to me. He also starts to use collective pronouns from this point, suggesting that he, just like Crawley, is getting comfortable with this relationship again.

We get some miracle noises in the cellar to have a quick look at here, although they are somewhat obscured by the soundtrack. Brief tangent: I’m not sure there are any miracle noises to be heard in the scene a moment ago where Crawley sets fire to the house, with the exception of the last one he does, opening up the floor to the cellar. That one, which is even more difficult to make out that the lizard-transformations, sounds more like the ones we heard from Aziraphale’s miracle in the pub, with that swelling noise that gets used so often in epic soundtracks. If that was the case, that definitely points towards the noise relating to the mindset of the caster, because that one would either have been driven by need or by the caster having good moral intent. The sounds we hear on the cellar on the other hand; they sound more like the snakelike versions we heard from Crawley earlier, although there’s something about them that sounds less ominous than previously.

In the last point of this part of the write-up, I find it notable that Aziraphale doesn’t try to interfere with Crawley’s transforming of the children, even though it’s clear he disapproves.

Perhaps it’s because he realises he’s pushed Crawley too far already to chastise him further for showing his true colours. Maybe it’s because there’s not really any harm being done in his actions. Maybe it’s because the angel was as disgusted with Ennon and Keziahs’ attitudes as Crawley is. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because he’s actually pretty happy to be able to spend some time with the demon alone. I know which one of those theories I like the most.

This seems like as good a place as any to wrap up this part of the write-up, not least because we’re about to get to a pivotal moment of Aziraphale’s personal development and a fandom favourite in the relationship development, and I’ve already written far too many words on this tiny section to be normal. For now, and as always, questions, comments, discussion: always welcome and see you for the next one 😊

[tyxaar]

SCAR CRIMES LIGHTING ROUND!!!

I've been getting a lot of asks in my inbox about this post relating to Scar's crimes lol.

Indeed they are.

@numbah-7-knd and @david-tennants-left-ear I've already talked about the cannibalism here, but the soul trading comes from Last Life! He made soul contracts in order to trade Lives with other players. Also he might've sold his soul to the Vex? I dunno the lore is weird so that's mostly my own headcanon lol.

@zev-the-traveler Possesion and patricide, the perfect pair! So possession is also in the weird hazy Convex lore zone, but for a while the Vex masks possessed Cub and Scar to do their shenanigans. With that context they they end up possessing False by giving her one when she helps with a prank. Source As for the patricide, that's simple! Etho is Scar's dad in the Life Series and he murdered him all three times in Secret Life. Same for Cleo's final death! :P

@welsknightenjoyer @mocah @neurotic-sinkhole and @fuck-edfrugs Ah yes, this. The Geneva Convention violation is the only crime on the list that was committed by real life content creator Scar! He used the Red Cross symbol in the Scarland medical office. However, that symbol is protected by the Geneva Convention and it's very much a crime to use it outside real Red Cross operations.

@weirdocritter Here we go!

Well, the war profiteering in S6 was kinda iconic lol. Concorp made SO many diamonds off the civil war that Scar and Cub were actually giving them away basically to stimulate the economy by the end of the season.

The cannibalism is also a fucked up favourite, that one part where he talks FAR to enthusiastically about eating the NHO is so on-brand lol.

Trading of souls is really spooky if you take it out of its original context!

Now, the one I'm most uncertain about is Oathbreaking. That happened in Third Life with the no-kill pass, especially with the Bdubs situation. That's a bit of a toss-up but considering how much they both care about keeping promises, yeah, I'd count it.

Ritual sacrifice!!!! Actually has happened like, four times on count lol. This man can NOT stop joining cults. There's the Convex Cathedral with blood on the offering altars, there's the constant boatem hole sacrifices, there's sacrificing Bdubs to the Moon, and most recently he's tried to sacrifice his friends to the Magic Mountain Bell!!! Or, well, told them they have to at least.

Ah yes, sale of human remains!!! He tried to sell Lizzie's spine (although it was prolly Jim or Mumbo cause she died in the void lol) to Joel. It's really wild when you look at it lmao.

Identity fraud is a littttle abstract, but he's worn so many random disguises and various characters that I'm almost certain there's some in there somewhere. Also, it seems pretty damn likely that Pirates Scar "murdered" S8 Tycoon Scar in order to get off the hook (pun intended) for all of his crimes.

That's a typo I swear!!! AJKSHDsfkjhfdkjsd. Anyways, I've replaced it with Treason on the OG post now.

[ineffable-xenanigans]

Unraveled

I hereby present you my contribution to week 6 of the Ineffable Prompt-A-Thon by @ineffablyruined: a digital painting that has consumed my soul for the past week like the bookshop fire consumed Crowley's hopes and dreams:

I tried my best with the facial expression, but I wasn't able to capture the same level of heartbrokenness as David Tennant, lol:

I spent an absolutely ungodly amount of time making this beast; I lost track at some point, but it was for sure over 100 hours. Thank you @snognes for bearing with me and cheering me on every time I shared progress pics via DM:

Also, kudos (and Eccles cakes) to @confusedtoadsworld and @ineffably-queer-book-lover who were able to identify the scene just from the angle in this earlier WIP post.

This is the most complex piece I've ever attempted, and what blows my mind the most is that this is a 100% vector illustration. No brushes were used. It's all a bunch of shapes and blobs with colors and gradients and the occasional Gaussian blur. Don't believe me? I'll add a slightly cursed image as proof below the cut:

Speaking of curses, I might have uttered one or two during the 20 hours it took me to figure out the bookshop perspective alone...

Reference image

Source: quiteunlikely.net/screencaps/displayimage.php?album=656&pid=417412

[almalvo]

Deposit | Good Omens

Rubbish.

———

Livestreamed on the official almalvo discord server.

Please consider pledging to my Patreon or donating to my Ko-fi for my relief-effort (full info pinned to my tumblr).

Thank you.

[nat-20s]

God GOD okay okay okay okay okay I'm having thoughts I'm having FEELINGS im having a Moment SO

I waanna talk about Ten and Donna (shocker I know) but SPECIFCALLY I wanna talk about like. Them and being besties and soulmatism and red string of fates and what not. Also this post is long as rambly as hell so I'm putting it under a readmore for my non-tendonna girlies <3

So like. The Runaway Bride really does establish them as future besties so so well and some of it is the writing but I do think that some of it is that Catherine Tate and David Tennant, by all available accounts, ALSO immediately got on like a house on fire. Like genuinely i know Acting TM is a thing but I think them getting on is part of why their on screen chemistry is SO electric and dazzling to the point where Donna went from a one off one episode character to *checks notes* a character that came back TWICE and also fundamentally changed the structure and DNA of Doctor Who as a whole so. You know. Pretty impressive. Plus Donna gets to have her first adventure with The Doctor as their absolute worst: Ten is grieving from a FRESH wound of losing Rose, he's incredibly cruel and incredibly cold and straight up murders the Racknoss without a flinch or hint of remorse, and even before that he accidentally kidnaps her and then insults her as someone to dismiss. That's not to say that she doesn't also see The Doctor at their brightest: he ends up treating her with incredible kindness, and he's dazzling and brilliant and cares so much and shows her the creation of the earth itself to provide comfort. However it IS to say that because of the nature of his first interaction with Donna he CAN'T put up a facade she already knows the truth!! She is walking into their dynamic with completely open eyes and at first it fucking scares her! She doesn't dislike him in fact they already are friends after less than a day but

Then partners in crime happens. And she's realized okay no actually I CAN take the bad with the good and I WANT to participate in all of it and I DO want this friendship. The Red Strings of Fate (or maybe the TARDIS being like lmaoo you need this girlie <3) bring them back together and they are Officially Tethered from that point on which is so so so delicious. It's also so so so delicious that Ten's still at an incredibly low point and she's still going into this friendship without any ruses in place. Like oh shit yeah they are Bound together even if they did separate now they would almost certainly find each other again.

AND THEN AND THEN!!! We've already established The Doctor and Donna as fast best friends but holllllyyyy shit I think Fires of Pompeii is what establishes them as forever Soulmates. I meant canonically the ending of Fires of Pompeii where she has him save the family fundamentally changed The Doctor for the rest of their lives and gave them a guiding moral compass long after she wasn't there so yeah that's pretty fuckin soulmates of them. But I actually think them as a concept of two people sharing one soul (for the better!!) happens earlier in the episode. The exact moment in fact is THIS ONE:

The Doctor has to make a choice. There are no good options: both are mass destruction and death. And it's SUCH a Doctor choice to have to make: actively destroy Pompeii and everyone in it, or allow the entire world to be destroyed. Not only that but it will likely kill both him and Donna as well. It's a mix of self sacrifice and other sacrifice to save the world and it's a horrific situation to be in.

It is a narrative that parallels the choice he made in the Time War. It is an archetypical Burden of the Doctor.

And then she looks into his eyes, sees his fear and hesitation and remorse and guilt, and wordlessly puts her hands on his. They push the lever to destroy Pompeii together. And it becomes the burden of the DoctorDonna.

[thetisming]

dash simulator

mutual 1: YES!! I love him so much!!!!

mutual 2: i have this au where blorbo 1 dies and blorbo 2 has to live without them but blorbo 1 is a ghost. this is how his ghost works *500 words of pure insanity over his own au*

mutual 3 that i only just became mutuals with: having a crush is so absolutely soul crushing and soul destroying and i'm going to die if this happens any longer

mutual 3: look at this hot guy i love him so much i need to have sex with him but in an asexual way like where the vibes are the same but it's not actual sex (not about the aforementioned crush)

mutual 4: i NEED to fuck this old white man

mutual 4 (reblog of old man post): please stop tagging this with David Tennant THAT IS A MIDDLE AGED MAN!!!! if you saw the old men i want to fuck you'd hurl

mutual 5: I LOVE WOMEN SO MUCH

mutual 6: hehe i am an olive do you get tje joke

mutual 1: I love my boyfriend so much :3

mutual 5: (10 million reblogs of my post about a musical he likes)

mutual 7: i kind of rushed this edit so it's not great but i hope you like it!! (the most beautiful edit you've ever seen in your life)

mutual 4: please dont forget about the comedian harmonists please

mutual 6: (8 reblogs of mutual 4's comedian harmonists post)

mutual 4: hot take but (says something about a sitcom from the 90s nobody on here has heard of)

mutual 5: please don't forget about Tamara de Lempicka please pleasenpleade

mutual 4: (60 reblogs of art of an obscure 90s sitcom)

mutual 4: (81 reblogs of a textpost that literally just says 'i love the main character of (obscure 90s sitcom) so much'. it's his own post)

[mutual 4 asked: i hit the post limit :(]

my own roleplay blog: I love my beautiful fiance so much 💙

mutual 8: has anyone here seen supernatural

mutual 8: (destialposting)

mutual 9: I LOVE MY GIRLFRIEND

mutual 9: my girlfriend is so lamenim better than her :/

mutual 3: having a crush is okay actually :)

mutual 3: AHHHHHH AGONYYYYY IM DYING I HATE HAVING A CRUSH

mutual 3: (silly post about obscure 90s sitcom)

mutual 10: (dead boy detectives)

mutual 10: (dead boy detectives)

mutual 10: (dead boy detectives)

mutual 10 is not seen again for 3 days

[consanguinitatum]

And Now For Something Completely Different: I look for an early 1993 Michael Sheen project!

As everyone who reads me regularly knows, I'm a David Tennant researcher/archivist (it's what I do!) and write A Tennantcy To Act, a Substack about his career. But last night at an ungodly hour, a question from a MS fan on Twitter got me amped to find a missing Michael Sheen project...so that's what I did. My body might be pissed I stayed up til 2 am (I'm an OLD!) but my soul and spirit are cleansed. I found it! So if you're a Sheen fan, buckle up. Let's take a ride on the Sheen side (and oh yeah, I just learned Michael's mum has retweeted all my research. So there's that!) The question was about a 1993 episode of a 1991-1996 ITV series, narrated by Edward Woodward, called In Suspicious Circumstances. Michael's Wiki had the series listed, but no further info on the title of the episode Michael appeared in, nor any date but 1993. Last night this fan asked Michael himself if he could remember the name of the episode (as apparently it's a bit of a mystery for his fans). Michael couldn't recall. So I went on the hunt. Luckily a tiny clip of the episode was featured on Twitter, so I could use it as a reference. And boy did it end up to be important!

The smart researcher analyzes what they've got. We see men in mustaches, bowl hats and sack coats using wagons instead of cars, so 1890s? Early 1900s? Michael plays "William Wright" and looks like he's fixing a wagon wheel. He reads his bible, and has an accent. Keep these details in mind. They'll be important. Okay - some background on the series: In Suspicious Circumstances was an anthology series which re-enacted historical crimes. Beginning on 16 March 1993, it broadcast three one-hour episodes, each of which contained two thirty-minute stories. Okay, so that means there are nine possible mini-episodes Michael could've been in. But which one? Let's narrow them down! The series' first episode aired 16 March 1993. It was called "Laugh Baby Laugh" and was about Elvira Barney, acquitted of murdering her lover in 1932. The second mini-episode was called "Shadows of Doubt" and was about Robert Hoolhouse, a laborer hanged for murdering a farmer's wife in 1938. Here are some newspaper articles about this broadcast:

I felt pretty comfortable ruling these two out immediately - mostly because both crimes were set in the 1930s, and our clip tells us Michael's episode was way before then. Moving on! Now let's talk about the third episode, which aired 30 March 1993. (I'm deliberately skipping over the second episode because I think that's the one Michael's in. Back to that in a second.) Anyway...the two mini-episodes from the third episode were called "Falling Starr" and "Good as Gold", and were about two very different women found dead on beaches...one in 1931, the other in 1900. Here are a few newspaper articles about these episodes:

The 1931 one we could rule out. But the 1900? Hmmm, it's a possibility, sure, though the clip we have sure doesn't look like it's anywhere near a beach town with sand dunes like Great Yarmouth, right? So that also seems improbable. Now let's examine that second episode, which was broadcast 23 March 1993. The first of the two mini- episodes was entitled "Dancing With Death" and was about the 1960s Glaswegian serial killer known only as Bible John.

Um, the 1960s certainly doesn't sound like it fits the clip Michael's in, right? So what's the second mini-episode, then?

Well, it's set in Suffolk in 1902 and is about a murder of a servant girl in "a scandalous affair in a Suffolk village which may have led to murder." Sounds promising! The time period certainly seems like it would fit. But what is it called? After all, no one was sure what the episode was entitled, because if they had, they would've known which episode Michael was in.

It's called "Candle In The Window!" So now we have to switch gears here to find the final proof. There are two possibilities, time period-wise, so we have to go to the source to find out if we can determine which one is the right episode. And by that, I mean newspapers of the period. After all, In Suspicious Circumstances was a historical series about real-life crimes. So I started with the Suffolk one, which I thought the most likely.

Remember we talked about Michael's character's name, and how he was working on a wagon wheel? Well, here are a few articles printed at the time about the scandal, the murder, and the resulting trial. From the Hull Morning Telegraph and the Nottingham Evening Post, both 6 November 1902:

This is a LOT of text - and newspapers at the time loved to print drama and florid language and up the scandal (they didn't have television to satisfy that urge, I guess?) But here are the relevant parts.

Notice the name of one of the witnesses: William George Wright. And gee.....he's a wheelwright! Ya know, a maker and repairer of wagon wheels!

Bingo! The circumstances of this case, Michael's character's name and occupation, and the descriptions in newspaper blurbs about the 23 March 1993 broadcast of In Suspicious Circumstances all line up.

"Candle In The Window" is the episode Michael was in. I published this earlier today on Twitter and within an hour, industrious Sheenies collated all my work (with my blessing and permission!) and updated Michael's Wikipedia entry to include this new information. I'm just out here doing what I do - for the fandoms. I wish David-bloody-Time-Lord Tennant was this easy to find *harumph*! Anywaaaaaay...... Peace out!