#doctor Whom

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

would love your opinion of the newest episode of DW, if you get the chance.

HAHAHAHA YES I HAVE MANY THOUGHTS

Alright okay so

I only have one complaint, which is that that wasn't a faerie ring. You could still have the shamble, no problem, but it should have been over the top of an actual faerie ring, which should be a mushroom (or, at a push, stone) circle. Not some cotton that would blow clean off the cliff edge in three minutes.

HOWEVER

This is the first time I've seen Doctor Who do a time travel story using, not Doctor Who time travel lore and rules, but Welsh faerie rules. (First time I've seen anything do it, in fact.) In Welsh myth, people who enter faerie rings or get entranced by the music become suspended in time, out of sync with the real world. They think they danced for a night, but when they return it's been 100 years, and they crumble to dust as soon as they eat/drink/step on land/etc.

In this case, this is what I think happened to Ruby. She spent that time in Annwfn, seeing what would happen if the binding on the ring was broken. When she 'dies', she returns to the spot and lasts long enough to give her younger self the warning, then crumbles to dust.

But, a time travelling Ruby is not the woman who follows her throughout the episode. That, in fact, is a gwyll.

The gwyllion were hag faeries, usually of mountain tops (though Pembrokeshire's liminal cliffs are 100% from Welsh mythology - it was said that if you found a faerie ring on one but only put one foot in, you could see the faerie islands in the sea. And that faeries used to visit the human markets in Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion. So while gwyllion are unusual there, it's not an impossible relocation.) They were malicious and sometimes vicious faeries who delighted in making people lose their way, could strike an uncontrollable and ungodly terror into travellers, and who feature in more that one myth as an old woman that someone tried to approach, but they always appeared at the same distance away, impossible to catch up.

CAN YOU SEE THE PARALLELS

And the best part!! Is that this is why she defeats UNIT!!!

Kate tells Ruby that her agents have necklaces of silver and salt to keep out the supernatural, but that's just generic fairytale shit. That doesn't work on gwyllion. Salt drawn in a line would provide a barrier, but the UNIT soldiers aren't trying to trap or block the gwyll; they're trying to capture her. What works, very specifically, is a knife. Iron or steel for preference of course, but it needs to be a knife.

But UNIT has no Welsh employees and the soldiers have guns, not knives. And so they all become entranced.

(This is also what I think the gwyll 'says' to everyone to turn them against Ruby. She doesn't say anything - she sings.)

This is also the first time I've ever encountered any mainstream media doing Welsh faeries and understanding the tone to strike, which is 'unknowable, unstoppable and fucking terrifying'. I think I've only ever read it in Catharine Fisher books, and she's a Welsh author so... yeah, obviously. But I basically vibrated with delight and excitement for the entire episode.

Oh my god, hang on, Roger ap Gwilliam! Okay, I have two theories about him.

My weaker theory and the one I don't like is the kind of boring and obvious one, which is that he is himself not human. A lot of Welsh folklore features the devil, and I get that vibe from his role in the story. But, I'm not keen, because I can't see the link to the gwyll.

But my strongest theory, and the one I have chosen to believe, is that he's a human who made a deal with the Fae for power, and then reneged. There's a Metric Fuckton of stories about humans fucking up Fae gifts in some way, and the punishment is usually something ironic but always results in the loss of the gift. It could be a faerie harp that makes everyone dance, and the Fae tell the giftee not to abuse it, but they cruelly force everyone to dance so long and so hard that the faerie returns, takes back the harp, and then takes the human's ability to ever make music again, so example (by taking fingers or eyes or tongues as well, often.)

So I think Mad Jack strikes a bargain for power - but, then tries to abuse that power (nuclear war). But part of the bargain is that the Fae cannot approach him directly ever again. In the real world, they therefore tempt him into the faerie ring and bind his soul there, problem solved - until the Doctor accidentally lets him out, and gets his own soul stuck. Ruby, therefore, becomes the instrument through which they manage to take that power away once again - and then, her final Fae gift for her service is that they use the temporal anomaly of the faerie ring to send her back, at the end of her life, and give her a second chance. This time, with Mad Jack's soul left bound in Annwfn.

The fun part is, RTD is a writer who understands the power of not explaining everything and leaving some things up to the viewer's imagination, so none of this is ever going to be explained lol. But yeah, that is a gwyll. The moment she appeared, I said out loud "Oh holy fuck, gwyllion." That was a gwyll.

As a final observation, I loved seeing Siân Phillips, and I choose to believe they filmed those scenes in a pub because they could only get Siân if they agreed to just come to her local. The woman is a queen.

[soup-salts]

I like this "twelfth doctor" fellow

[brasskingfisher]

So 2 episodes into this new Doctor Who and we've had a transfem supporting character, a they/them GNC villain played by a drag queen and mention of a heartbroken lesbian.....

It's almost as if RTD has googled 'ways to piss off the right' and is working his way through the list like it's a bucket list and he's terminally ill.

[ultramaga]

ABSOLUTE DISASTER!! Doctor Who/Whom is a Ratings and Audience FAILURE!! Dr Who: We have a thousand able bodied villains and one disabled. Leftists: That's Wacist! Dr Who: Err. Ok, A thousand and one able bodied villains. Leftists: (*squeals of piggy joy*) Dr Who: Also, the Doc is told to check his privilege all episode. Leftists: (*blood orgy results*)  

[themancorialist]

Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester.

[willowshelter]

My issue with this new doctor is i dont know him. Like these last couple episodes are all random people centric which is fine but only when we know who the doctor is at the time. We don't know the man yet! He needs to be in the limelight! What I've seen i like but I dunno I need more before this out of the picture nonsense

[msilverstar]

@becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys is doing this! Check out their blog tag and yet we are continuing

i saw this:

and thought it would be fun to actually work that out. so

^^^ every doctor who episode in chronological order

(pls let me know if theres any mistakes! i got most of the info from the tardis wiki so idk if its 100% accurate)

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Okay I literally cannot find anyone else talking about it but shout out to Donna Noble for being cornered by a creepy terrifying puppet and its creepy terrifying puppet babies and rather than succumbing to that cliché she just picked it up and smashed its head against the wall until it stopped moving and then scared the rest so badly they simply left the show there and then. Donna transcends genre, because she just nutpunches any genre she doesn't like right in the plums and then marches off.

[brasskingfisher]

Doctor Who headcanons

Ok, so in The Empty Child /The Doctor Dances (can't remember if it's part one or two) we see The Doctor talk about destroying the factory at Vilingar, and Captain Jack asks The Doctor about his sonic, referencing sonic blasters, cannons and disruptors and The Doctor justifies the sonic screwdriver with the line "Have you never had a late night? A lot of shelves to put up?" Which has left me with this headcanon:

*The Doctor at Vilingar sat in a waiting room flicking through a catalogue*

*muttering* Let's see here: Sonic blasters, sonic cannons, sonic disruptors....I'm really going to do the universe a favour by getting rid of this place...sonic screwdrivers‽.... Who could possibly want one of those?...Actually, I could do with some more shelves in the TARDIS.....OK. Blowing up this place can wait a little bit.

[supermegapauselouca]

On the Earth day of Christmas my Time Lord gave to me the most fantastic presents that I could hope to see Twelve guitars strumming Eleven fezzes dancing Ten sneakers running Nine jumpers knitting Eight watches ticking Seven brollies twirling Six brooches purring Five cricket balls and that’s not all Four festive scarves Three yellow cars Two joyful tunes And a TARDIS in a scrapyard

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Queer pop anthems performed by Doctor Who villains in real episodes that actually aired:

I Can't Decide (Scissor Sisters) - performed by John Simm

Ra Ra Rasputin (Boney M) - performed by Sacha Dhawan

Spice Up Your Life (the Spice Girls) - performed by Neil Patrick Harris

[brasskingfisher]

Life lessons from Doctor Who:

With everything going on I'm reminded of the importance/significance of the 11th Doctor episode A Town called Mercy and everything therein.

Not only do you have the doctor's whole survivor's guilt thing that permeates new who, there's a crucial element around the debate of retribution vs. forgiveness and the shortcomings of a simple good vs evil binary system of morality (plus a throwaway joke about a trans horse).

The character of Khaler Jex has obviously done terrible things (albeit with (to him) a good reason/noble intention), however does that mean his subsequent remorse and efforts to attone don't matter? And what does that say about the doctor, or other townsfolk?

When he finds out what Jex has done the doctor's all for throwing him to the wolves and letting him face the gunslinger's revenge in the name of the victims. But Amy throws a tantrum and he is forced to reconsider. Likewise, there's a confrontation later in the episode where the townsfolk are arguing about sacrificing their friend/neighbour in order to protect themselves.

Jex himself says: "It would be so much simpler if I was just one thing wouldn't it. The mad scientist who made that killing machine, or the physician who's dedicated his life to serving this town."

Good people can do bad things, sometimes for what they think are good reasons. But, equally bad people can do good things for their own reasons.

[excalisi]

being a companion's bf must be so annoying. like this is me, this is my girlfriend, and this is the alien from outer space who lives in a blue box and drags her around on fantastical, life-threatening adventures that she considers the single most important person in her life, above all others. her emotional support time lord, but also the guy who she's inexplicably & inextricably intertwined with on a level that you will never come to comprehend

[doglover82]

A comment from @dougielombax

Okay but the Welsh cryptid lady helped to oust that particular politician

Today on this new doctor who series’ villains, we have on the roster…

Sentient living boogers & Musical drag queen

capitalism

Wales and a politician

Giant slugs but it’s actually RACISTS

bird bridgerton cosplayers

And of course the god of death himself

[monstergirls-and-men]

Would you eat chocolates provided to you by the good Doctor Ludwig? 🤔

Surely, they are factory made and safe to eat... right?

Edit: I forgot the music 🎶

[youngpettyqueen]

im like 90% convinced that the Doctor is of the same species that the Toymaker and Maestro are