#gallifrey time war 4

[trailmixtime]

the chicken reviews

after time war 3 i began rating gallifrey episodes based on how many chickens appeared in them. last night i found the reviews again, so i figured i'd post them here so i can continue the tradition when war room 2 comes out :D

(quick disclaimer: these are just fun reviews, not to be taken too seriously)

enjoy :)

time war 4

time war 4.1: deception

no actual chickens, but there is a reference to a Large Beast when leela's trying to get back to the tardis. no description is given, so it is entirely possible it was a Very Large Chicken. but, given the lack of description, we can't know for sure. 1/10.

time war 4.2: dissolution

once again, no chickens, despite them being on a luscious green planet. no chickens are mentioned. if you listen carefully, you can hear some birds chirping in the background, but none of them are chickens. disappointing. 0/10.

time war 4.3: beyond

no physical chickens yet. however, it's made clear the ravenous can possess characteristics of that which they eat, so it's possible a ravenous that ate a chicken has characteristics of a chicken, but we don't know for sure. 0.5/10

time war 4.4: homecoming

no chickens appear. no chickens are mentioned. there aren't even any animals i could try to headcanon as chickens. rassilon probably killed all the chickens. -100/10.

war room 1

the last days of freme: -100/10

no chickens, and whatever chickens may have been there previously, died. very disappointing.

the passenger: 0/10

no chickens. no places there could plausibly have been chickens :( once again left disappointed.

collateral victim: 0.01/10

once again, no chickens :( however, there was the POTENTIAL for chickens, and i will give it .01 points for that.

the first days of phaidon: 0.01/10

same as the previous story: no chickens, but there is potential for chickens, and therefore it gets the .01 points.

[thebraxiatelcollection]

So I've finished relistening to Time War 4 since. I've not relistened to this since it was first released, so there were things I have missed. It has been an interesting listening experience?

I enjoyed it- but it has left me with mixed feelings. The content was good but this felt like the penultimate boxset- After nearly 20 years, I was hoping for a big cathartic ending, when it feels like actually, they've left it open for more - Brax and Narvin could easily be rescued from their respective 'deaths', Romana could be freed from the pocket dimension, Leela is explicitly alive and well - which is fine if they do (Gallifrey, after all, is known for its hiatuses), but so so disappointing.

Some random thoughts:

I really like that this series tied in, even if it was only briefly, lots of different Time War media: Romana and Brax's conversation about the Doctor, plus the frequent name-dropping of Cardinal Ollistra, tied this set in really nicely with the War Doctor series; the sabotaging of the Emperor Dalek's ship makes me wonder if this is what leads to the events of Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways; and the use of the 'Gallifrey Stands' was a nice link to The Day of the Doctor.

I love, love, LOVED hearing more Narvin backstory and all that lore on how the different chapters work.

I wish we could have heard more of the Apothecary and Danna. They had such interesting ties to our main cast, it was a shame they were only used once each. I like to imagine both the Apothecary and Danna knew each other and met up once every few centuries over cups of tea, and complained about their students together.

Honestly, it was super cathartic to hear Romana have a proper cry. Nearly 20 years of Gallifrey and up til now all we've heard is a sniffle or angsty speech. Sometimes, Romana hon, u just gotta cry it out.

The ending with Romana being forced to the archive by Rassilon was...hmm. It's not the ending I've wanted but i'll live with it for now.

Brax deserves better and I wish big finish would stop referencing him as a coward when he's not. He's many things and he has done so much for the gallifrey gang, he is not a coward. Give us actual writers who understand his arc!

Things I wished had happened:

Romana actually uses the chameleon arch. Really wanted something like Human Nature/Family of blood for Romana. can you imagine how powerful doing a similar story for Romana would have been?

Brax and Romana go through the Beyond together, and Romana for once saves Brax in all the times he has saved her. Beyond just leaves me so frustrated in terms of how Brax was written.

That they didn't kill off Livia and had her work as part of the resistance with Eris. I'd also like to have seen Mantus work with them; if reluctantly. I think that would have been so fun to see.

Leela getting to say a proper goodbye to Rayo

[i-am-become-a-name]

"Narvin, by picking up the sextant you risked your life. Your only life."

"Of course, and I'd do it all over again. Leela, I- I-"

"I know. I also know you want to ask me a question, and you know my answer - I cannot."

"I think I've known all along."

"If it was not this way, I would come with you. But Romana only lives while I serve. While we are apart... you are no longer alone, Narvin. "

"No. No, I'm not. None of us are. "

[notthetraveler]

At this point I am speedrunning through Gallifrey let's be honest

[doctor-who-binge]

Davros speaking to 10: The Doctor, the man who keeps running never looking back, because he dare not, out of shame, this is my final victory Doctor

..... This face coming back, is it perhaps The Doctor finally looking back? Mature enough to handle pride and shame equally.

[thelittlecoughsomewhere]

Whenever I think about how the Doctor and Donna causing the eruption in "Fires of Pompeii" narratively functions as a parallel/microcosm to the Doctor destroying Gallifrey in the Time War I go insane and have to lie down.

Because this time he isn't alone, Donna is with him and he says the words out loud "Push this lever and it's over. Twenty thousand people." and he is waiting for her reaction and she puts her hands on his and they pull the lever together. And this time he doesn't have to make the choice alone, so he subsequently doesn't have to carry the burden of guilt alone.

And maybe, just maybe, this can be seen as his first step into his healing journey regarding his Time War guilt. Donna Noble - a woman who he grows to love and admire and regard as his guiding light - made the same choice (yes on a much smaller scale, but functionally the same choice) he did when he destroyed Gallifrey. He will never ever forgive himself (at least during his time as Ten), but maybe when he realizes that he doesn't blame her and doesn't want her to feel guilty for what she did in Pompeii he starts to be a little kinder to himself. For Donna's sake.

I really believe that during season 4 both Donna and the Doctor are on a healing journey. They make each other better, they begin to heal the wounds of the other person. Donna's self-esteem grows and the Doctor's guilt complex gets a little less heavy. Just a little. Baby steps. But they are walking them together.

And then Journey's End happens, and their healing process gets interrupted and without Donna nothing makes sense and he almost turns into Time Lord Victorious (this arc is so insane)

Because why should he stick to the rules of a universe that took Donna from him?

But he gets stopped. Adelaide stops him and later he himself recognizes that he's lived too long.

And he turns from the man who regrets into the man who forgets.

And then day of the doctor happens. And Gallifrey falls no more. And yet, he still has to live with the memories of 4 incarnations (war, nine, ten, eleven) and hundreds of years during which he believed he killed his own people. But now he has an excuse not to face that.

Anyway, thesis statement: Donna helped the Doctor confront his Time War guilt complex in a way no companion before or after her did. (shoutout to Martha though for making him open up about Gallifrey!!!)

And neither the character of the Doctor in the show or the show itself narratively ever continued to truly confront the trauma of the Time War guilt or continued the healing process Donna started.

Until now.

[intuitive-revelations]

Random headcanon I came up with early this morning, because I’ve been thinking about Gallifreyan language recently:

The reason why so many Time Lord things are decorated with circular Gallifreyan, often too impractically to actually be read (eg. on the Moment), is because it’s a cultural touchstone that remains from pre-/early-Pythian Gallifrey’s use of magical runes and sigils.

Presumably it was more typically Old High Gallifreyan used in that time (though The Timeless Children does seemingly confirm circular Gallifreyan existed at least as far back as Rassilon's time, if not earlier), however. Twelve describes it as ‘the language of the Pythia’ in The Lost Magic, and as Eleven says in The Time of Angels:

ELEVEN: There were days, there were many days, these words could burn stars and raise up empires, and topple gods.

This is obviously very reminescent of the Carrionites' (themselves from the Dark Times too) "word-based science" from The Shakespeare Code:

MARTHA: What did you do? TEN: I named her. The power of a name. That's old magic. MARTHA: But there's no such thing as magic. TEN: Well, it's just a different sort of science. You lot, you chose mathematics. Given the right string of numbers, the right equation, you can split the atom. Carrionites use words instead.

In other words, while they probably weren't actually intended as such and may have their own specific meaning, whether they be poetry, namesakes, histories, instructions, whatever... these are basically protective wards:

[ID: Five screenshots of Circular Gallifreyan in New Who.

1. Rassilon's Inner High Council meeting in The End of Time Part 2. The table and headrests are inscribed with circular Gallifreyan.

2. The Moment in Day of the Doctor. Gallifreyan writing bends round the edges of the wooden frame.

3. The 'whirligig' rotar in Eleven's second TARDIS, inscribed with individual Gallifreyan symbols.

4. Set photo of the glowing Gallifreyan writing on the steps of Thirteen's TARDIS.

5. Tecteun's laboratory in The Timeless Children. Circular Gallifreyan lines the light above her, and a door in the background.]

As a side note - if they actually are kind-of intended as a form of protection, perhaps this is why we were only introduced to Circular Gallifreyan in New Who, despite it seemingly existing through Gallifreyan history. Because it was retroactively inserted into Gallifreyan culture as a form of defense during the War in Heaven / Last Great Time War?

Regardless, this also opens up questions how many other Time Lord traditions are holdovers from the Dark Times.

For example, who's to say that the renegade naming tradition didn't begin as a form of protection from hexes - either from hostile forces in the pre-anchoring universe, or from oppressive magic-users back on the homeworld? This may also be connected to the change in Gallifreyan name format before and after the Intuitive Revelation (eg. ancestral -sti and -sor names), though shifting power structures, gender roles etc. presumably played a role too.

Heck, is this one reason why Gallifrey's own name has changed over its history? From Jewel to Gallifrey in Rassilon's time to try and protect it from vengeful Pythian curses. From Gallifrey to just 'the Homeworld' in the War to protect it from new rituals of alternative histories and paradox?

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Random Doctor Who Facts You Might Not Know, Part 3

The Master's father, Marnal, wrote an episode for Star Trek but took his name off it after they changed it too much.

The Fifth Doctor took Tegan back and time to kill that same would-be-dictator as a baby but was also unable to go through with it.

Nyssa once turned the Fifth Doctor into a vampire.

The Time Lords created the Were Lords, a species of lycanthropic soldiers who could regenerate, to fight for them in the Vampire Wars.

The Tenth and Fourteenth Doctors have different enough blood that the Fourteenth Doctor was able to resist blood control that used the Tenth Doctor's blood.

The Garvond is a monstrous entity in the APC Net of the Matrix composed of all the demented, evil sides of the Time Lords.

The First Great Time War was between the Time Lords and the Order of the Black Sun.

The Veil was fond of the Twelfth Doctor and considered them to be companions. The Veil hoped that the Twelfth Doctor would take them with him when he escaped from the confession dial.

Jack Harkness described the Midnight entity as someone who could eat its way into a person's brain and steal their voice. Given that it is unknown where he got this information, this suggests that Jack might have had an encounter at some point.

Both the Doctor and the Master have used the name "Merlin" before.

The final incarnation of the Master was a highly destructive entropy wave in one timeline.

The Eleventh Doctor once returned to the Library with Amy Pond, but he never mentioned River Song. They encountered Book Monsters.

The Doctor's first TARDIS was a Type 50, but they were left behind when the Doctor ran away from Gallifrey. This left them angry and hurt that the Doctor had replaced them, so they ran off from Gallifrey to find him.

According to the Seventh Doctor, the Rani and her giant rodent came to his graduation party.

There exists a canned drink called Sontaran Up that a Sontaran was seen drinking.

The Sixth Doctor's method for fighting the Weeping Angels included winking one eye at a time, so the Angels were always being observed. Given that he was almost immediately sent back in time where he encountered the Tenth Doctor, this isn't a very good method.

Due to similarities between the life stories of the Doctor and the Devil, there are many races who believe they are the same being.

The Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, and Dan once watched a production of Cinderella. While trying to make it more exciting, the Doctor accidentally replaced all the characters and props with the real versions, who began to attack each other and the audience.

The Doctor had thirteen children before running away on Gallifrey who were all killed (or perhaps a better word would be 'culled') by the Watch after Susan's birth.

The Doctor has had other children over the years (although they did not recognize all of them as such) including but not limited to Miranda Dawkins, Edward Grove, the Sound Creature, Daqar Keep, Jenny, and the Sapling.

Gostak was one of the First Doctor's tutors who he admired very much, but similar to Borusa, he went mad and had to be stopped by several incarnations of the Doctor.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28

[sadcoms]

AU where Rose stayed with the Time Lord Doctor after Journey’s End and they start to argue more like they did in S1 because the Doctor is doing his “I never would” thing and Rose is now saying “but sometimes you HAVE to” which causes him to start down another Davros-inspired spiral about how he’s “turned her into a weapon” and she’s like...actually travelling across dimensions trying to fight eternal darkness brought about by a ton of genocidal aliens will do that to you regardless!

Because Rose was never for pacifism-above-all-else. The episode before Dalek Harriet Jones straight up says she’s a very violent young woman because Rose (not unreasonably) wants the Slitheen to be blown up after they murdered countless people. Same with the Nestene Consciousness - but the Doctor says he has to give it a chance, and that is what she mirrors back at him in Dalek. This is usually why the pair works, because if one doesn’t have mercy on or compassion for someone the other one usually will (eg Cassandra). That’s why Ten is even willing to give Davros a chance, though it’s exacerbated by a lot of guilt around the Time War, especially when it kicked off in-part because of what he did, and failed to do, in Genesis of the Daleks.

And that is what Davros never got - that Rose had already seen the Doctor’s soul and loved him anyway; that part of their souls are the same because they helped each other grow. And it’s the same for all of the companions this era, whether it’s Jack saying he never doubted the Doctor would kill him, or Donna seeing him murder the Racnoss and still regretting not travelling with him, or Martha (somehow) forgiving the Doctor for the year that never was and for everything he burdened her with.

Because I think what Davros and the Doctor came to see as him turning people into weapons was actually just people willingly taking on the burden he carried. Again, a lot of people sort of write Tentoo and Rose off as the dalek genocide couple, but what exactly was the alternative? Let them destroy the universe? The Doctor is a coward, any day, and that makes complete sense as a reaction to already bearing two genocides on his shoulders, but it’s also that cowardice that makes other people step up and be brave, which usually means sacrificing themselves, and the Doctor carries that too. That is why Martha gets the direct parallel to the Doctor with the Osterhagen key - both are willing to burn their planets to save the rest of the universe, and Martha already spent S3 being more like the Doctor than he was because he was so broken by grief. By Season 4, the Doctor is already so self-destructive and so self-loathing that only he, the "true" Time Lord, can be the arbiter of genocides and who can’t be. Even when it comes to Martha, or to another exact replica of himself.

(Never mind that he makes essentially the same decision the Metacrisis Doctor and Martha did again in End of Time when he sends Gallifrey back into hell, but hey, he got there in the end.)

And it’s one of the reasons why the Doctor’s so reliant on the Master. I’m not sure he would have gone to get his ‘reward’ had some of that weight of destroying Gallifrey again not been shared with another Time Lord. Ten does, ultimately, put humans on a pedestal and does his best to protect them even when they are willing to share his burden (note that Tentoo destroying the Daleks means Donna doesn't have to take on any of the burdens Rose or Martha did, so she stays the least militarised companion). He simultaneously wants that other Time Lord judgement while needing humans as another perspective.

All of this to say that, I think most people understand that Ten being with someone but especially with Rose would have stopped him going Time Lord Victorious, but they don't necessarily understand why. TLV comes from his desire to save everyone, because all the loss he's seen and has caused is too much. Not only does having Rose help soothe that, but she also specifically could have helped ground the Doctor back to where he was morally in the first two series, which is quite different from where he is by S4.

(Also The Next Doctor would have been an absolutely wild story for Rose and the Doctor to have gone on next. They arrive thinking they might have a fun Christmas and then they have to confront the fact that the Battle of Canary Wharf is still following them and how when they lost each other they lost everything. And how the villain in that is defeated by the Doctor showing her herself, which is what Davros tried to do the Doctor.)

[waffowo]

While Donna Noble will always be my favourite companion in NuWho, Clara will always be the most multi-faceted and complex (as of now). I think that a lot of divisiveness surrounding Clara stems from 5 common criticisms:

1. Clara’s characterisation in 7B and how Moffat treats her mostly as a mystery box first and character second.

2. The length of Clara’s tenure and how some may have been fatigued due to the many times “she should have left.”

3. The emphasis on Clara’s flaws in Series 8 and how it kind of paints her as unlikable over her Series 7B depiction as at least kind.

4. Clara’s departure in Hell Bent as something that ruins her ending in Face The Raven.

5. The belief of Clara as the most important character in the Doctors life inherently devaluing other companions.

I think while I can understand the reasons leading up to these criticisms, I also think that it does help to look back throughout the Moffat and RTD era as it does help explain a lot of these points imo.

Actually, the character Clara most prominently echoes is Rose. Rose, like Clara, helped the Doctor through a time of extreme emotional vulnerability (for 9th, Time War trauma) and developed a relationship of co-dependency with him (as 10th) which never really went away even after Doomsday. Clara had the luxury of time however, and has undergone more events with the Doctor (Impossible Girl, Trenzalore, 50th Anniversary etc) but also how 12th was undergoing an extreme identity crisis of figuring out whether he’s a good man post-Trenzalore and saving Gallifrey. Clara was the one who facilitated his character growth through the turbulence of the arc in instances like Dark Water, Death In Heaven, Mummy on The Orient Express, Kill The Moon, Last Christmas etc and would naturally result in the Doctor developing an extremely unhealthy reliance on Clara as being his “carer,” his anchor to being The Doctor (refer to her whole “Be A Doctor” spiel in the 50th Anniversary). Series 9 already heavily implied the Doctor’s willingness to engage with destructive measures by choosing to separate Clara and The Doctor almost every episode (Magicians Apprentice/Witch’s Familiar) as the stakes rose and cumulated in Face The Raven.

RTD has also once said when paying tribute to Moffat:

“And nestling at the heart of the show is Doctor Who's very own problem category, the Companion, a title inherently subordinate to the Man. Until Clara comes along!”

Imo, while poorly phrased, I think does also hit another nail on the head to explain how Clara can be so compelling to someone like me but also extremely polarising. RTD is talking less about the companion being “weaker” or “submissive” but how Clara is the NuWho companion that wishes to obliterate the boundaries between the power dynamic of companion/doctor. Series 8 for instances plays on the recurring motif of, “Do as you are told” which the Doctor firstly uses to threaten Clara to keep her safe. However, Clara actively retaliates by parroting the phrase back in an attempt to attain parity. This escalates to the events of Dark Water where she attempts to maintain control of her circumstances by forcing the Doctor to be on equal ground with her. What is so fascinating is that Clara while changing and emulating more of the Doctor’s heroism, she equally begins to absorb his flaws which intensify throughout Series 8-9. Clara becomes more deceitful, egotistical, reckless and cunning as she begins to become more and more like him. The means she lies to Danny, her ability to think more and more like him.

However, what people (fans and haters) also ignore is how nuanced the circumstances are. While Clara’s flaws become more heightened, it is also a fact that she wants to be like the Doctor because of his kindness and heroism. Episodes like Robots of Sherwood, Last Christmas or even Rings of Akhten reveal a lot about how Clara reveres the Doctor as a mythic and heroic figure. Clara’s attitudes towards the children in Forest Of The Night, Name Of The Doctor and Into The Dalek reveal that in spite of her ego and selfishness, she is someone who desires to help people. Thus, her desire to become the Doctor becomes more explainable. What a lot of people can’t really accept is that she can be both egotistical, reckless and kind at once. Her actions in Face The Raven were driven out of the fact that it came from a place of ignorance and impulsiveness (not stupidity, the Doctor would do something similar, it’s just that Clara did not have all the clues) in what she believed would be what the Doctor would do and that she was confident she could match the trickery of the Doctor, and yet it was also driven by her compassion towards Rigsby and her while impulsive, sincere desire to save her friend.

Clara is punished because of this, she forgets that she’s far too human. The Doctor is less breakable. She pays for it and as Ashildr says in Hell Bent:

“She died for who she was and who she loved. She fell where she stood. It was sad. And it was beautiful.”

She died due to her physical fragility, her ego, her ignorance, her impulsiveness/recklessness and yet she also died because she was too brave, she died like the Doctor, who she loved (literally look at how her arms were outstretched as though she was mid-regeneration and how the black smoke parallels the orange glow of regeneration). However, this leads to the fourth main criticism I prior stated, so how does one answer that in relation to her character?

The answer is what Clara does and what the Doctor says towards the end of Hell Bent. Clara after being extracted and is with the Doctor in the TARDIS, spies on him because she is instantly suspicious of his erratic behaviour. Again, Clara shows how much she has become like him, she immediately picks up that he is hiding something because she has begun to think like him. Of course, the Doctor was planning on wiping Clara’s memories similar to what he did to Donna. But what does Clara do? She immediately reverse the polarity of the device that the Doctor was going to use on her and challenges the Doctors actions. Clara states:

“Tomorrow’s promised to no one, Doctor. But I insist upon my past. I am entitled to that. It’s mine.”

Clara’s language indicates her assertiveness and also a kind of last hurrah in her game of parity. She is refusing to submit to the narrative of being reduced to merely a companion that the Doctor moves away from. But more importantly, the Doctor after pressing the device and is losing his memory, states:

“Run like hell because you always need to. Laugh at everything, because it’s always funny (…) Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends (…) Never eat pears. They’re too squishy. And they always make your chin wet. That one’s quite important. Write it down.”

I think on initial viewing when the show was airing, this wouldn’t make much sense but this really shows the crux of how Hell Bent completes Clara’s arc and the necessity of her resurrection. In Face The Raven, the Doctor tells Clara that she’s more breakable as she questions why she can’t be as reckless as him. However, now the Doctor is instead telling her what would later be repeated in Twice Upon A Time, his regeneration speech. In his eyes, Clara has succeeded in graduating from the Magicians Apprentice and into becoming the Magician herself. He’s instructing her how to properly be The Doctor. As I said, Clara was also motivated by her desire to be kind when she engaged in her reckless gambit but what is so wrong about the desire to be kind? And why should Clara be punished for it? Thus, while Clara MUST die, her final act of kindness at the end of her arc enables the Universe to allow for Clara’s final transformation into the Doctor.

Clara is still dead, it is an unchanged historical event. However, to challenge the status quo and allow for Clara’s ascension, Clara becomes a fairy tale herself. Her body is caught in a permanent form of stasis, signalling her departure from the limits of her physicality (subverting her physical fragility) but also as seen through her last words to the Doctor:

“You said memories become stories when we forget them. Maybe some of them become songs.”

Clara has successfully become what she admired, a myth, a fable. She has become a symbol in a story, a story that would go on to have an infinite number of other stories. She has become the leaf she raises to the monster in the Rings of Akhten, she sails off into narrative ambiguity but also infinity. Clara is so polarising because she challenges the definition of what it means to be The Doctor on a pure metatextual level. It’s a logical progression from the introspection of the question from the Doctor himself in Series 8. To want to resist, I argue, is natural.

I could explore further about her adrenaline addiction in Mummy On The Orient Express or these traits I raised explored in Flatline which I may do another day, but I hope I have provided a new perspective on Clara Oswald.

[raspberry-gloaming]

The thing about getting into Gallifrey and currently being on Time War 4 is that now every time I see a time war related nuwho tv episode, and the Doctor is angsting about what they did, and so on, I just want to yell WHY DIDN'T YOU JOIN THE RESISTANCE THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER WHAT WERE YOU THINKING BRO???

Like I obviously know that the Resistance was created long after NuWho and the time war came into existence, but thats meta, ooc. But IN UNIVERSE? The resistance had how many timelords? all those double agents and exiles and renegades... Even if somehow the Doctor was not contacted about that or by them pre-War Doctor, surely while working for Gallifrey in the John Hurt years between Night and Day of the Doctor someone, just someone, could have said something to them. Leela was on Gallifrey! She could have said something! A double agent still on Gallifrey could have said something!

[thebraxiatelcollection]

Braxiatel deserves a better story than Gallifrey: Beyond and I really wish they would stop calling Braxiatel a coward when in fact, he isn't one. (: (:

[theholmwoodfoundation]

THE HOLMWOOD FOUNDATION PILOT EPISODE CAST/CREW - PART THREE

GEORGIA COOK - CO-WRITER AND CO-PRODUCER

Georgia Cook is an illustrator and scribe-award nominated writer from London. She has written for publications such as Baffling, Vastarien Lit, and Flame Tree press, as well as the Doctor Who range with Big Finish. Her Doctor Who Novel, Ruby Red, is currently available from Penguin books. She frequently writes and narrates for various horror anthology podcasts such as 'Creepy', 'The Other Stories', and 'The Night's End'. She can be found on twitter at @georgiacooked and on her website at https://www.georgiacookwriter.com/

FIO TRETHEWEY - CO-WRITER AND CO-PRODUCER

Fio Trethewey is a writer and artist known for their love of Doctor Who, Arthurian Legend and 80s cult classics. Alongside working for the Lancet as a Deputy Operations Manager he has written a variety of audio dramas and short stories for Big Finish Productions for their Doctor Who box sets, most recently writing for the Gallifrey War Room Series both ‘The Last Days of Phaidon” (2022), “Transference” (2023) and The Twelfth Doctor Chronicles finale "You Only Die Twice.' Fio has also contributed their prose work to various anthologies including Overdue: Mystery, Adventure, and the World’s Lost Books, Shadows Over Avalon Volume 2 and Sockhops and Seances for 18thWall Productions. Lastly, as a writer and artist to charity anthologies and raised money on a charity drawing stream for FareShare UK back in October 2020 raising $4,762.

KATHARINE ARMITAGE - SCRIPT EDITOR

Katharine is a writer, script editor and director in drama and comedy. Most recently she directed new Radio 4 sitcom 'Tom and Lauren Are Going OOT!' and wrote scripts including 'The Beautiful Game' and 'Nowhere, Never' for Big Finish's Doctor Who audio dramas.  She also wrote and directed an adaptation of 'Dracula', back in 2017, so was delighted to return to the Count's world in working on 'The Holmwood Foundation'.

BENJI CLIFFORD - SOUND DESIGNER/ ENGINEER

Benji is a sound designer, musician, and presenter from the UK who specialises in post-production audio design. Whether creating cinematic multi-cast productions or intimate storytelling through audiobooks, Benji ensures that you get the highest quality, professional-sounding production. Throughout his time as a sound designer, Benji has worked on many famous properties such as BBC's Doctor Who and Torchwood, ITV's iconic Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Stingray, as well as cult tv revivals such as Terry Nation's Survivors, Space 1999, Adam Adamant Lives and Blake's 7, to name a few. Using the latest industry-standard equipment, software, and a fully loaded sound effects library consisting of thousands of recordings, Benji delivers a clean and contemporary sound regardless of your budgetary requirements. In addition to working in his own studio, Benji has extensive experience engineering in some of London's busiest recording studios. He has also helped many companies and productions continue working during remote working restrictions, ensuring high quality can be achieved even in less-than-ideal environments. Since 2017, Benji has co-hosted the weekly Big Finish Podcast alongside Nicholas Briggs. This podcast has a worldwide reach with thousands of listeners, and he has also performed it live across the UK and in the USA.

PART ONE: HERE

PART TWO: HERE

[pl9090]

Order of the Black Sun analysis

As always constructive feedback is welcome.

"Alan Moore's back-up strips were an obvious influence on both Marc Platt's view of ye olde Gallifrey and my view of its future (Alien Bodies shares 95% of its .D.N.A. with its closest relative, 4-D War", Lawrence Miles.

Timeline 10,000,000.B.T.W.: The Anchoring. The Order of the Black Sun hired mercenary Fenris fails in his mission to prevent the Timelords from developing physical timetravel but does unintentionally succeed in sending and stranding Omega to the antimatter universe, his timetravel belt's directional control device is taken by Rassilon to be reverse engineeered. Rassilon tricks him him to banishing himself The Zone of No Return as punishment. (.D.W.M.: Stardeath).

9,999,980.B.T.W.: The Timelords retrieve Fenris from The Zone of No Return in order to mindprobe him to learn what they can about their current enemy, discovering only that they are from 30,000 years into the future when a squad Order of the Black Sun operatives who kill Fenris and the mindprobe operator aswell as injuring several others before phasing away. The conflict's nature as a time war is acknowledged. (.D.W.M.: 4D War).

9,999,970.B.T.W.: The Timelords enter into the delicate multi day Desraulturanium trade negeogiations with the Sontarans and to their surprise The Order of the Black Sun. However the Order's representatives are not hostile and they devise a successful joint bid. However the Sontarans disrupt the declaration by mind controling one of the Special Executive into assassinating the Order Elder in front of everyone. This maybe the incident which gets the Order to declare war.

At somepoint soon after 151 .B.T.W.: After their self exile from Gallifrey 1 and reorganisation, Faction Paradox continued their lesser species interference but in the form of creating secret groups telling them, "all the nastiest secrets of the Timelords". One of these groups is the, "Cult of the Black Sun" it's native timeframe is unknown.

30000's: The Order of the Black Sun attack squad's apparent native timeframe.

Somepoint: The First Great Time War is brought to a peaceful conclusion with The Order of the Black Sun somehow realising they had caused the war due to a mistaken assumption and first revenge strike.

10639.5 Rassilon era: While the Eighth Doctor's body healed his mind resided in the Matrix meeting the High Evolutionaries which included the Order member Demoiselle Drin who describes that the conflict as, "ought never to have happened". (.D.W.M.: The Final Chapter).

Notes The Cult/Order is the first Timelord enemy to knowingly use black sun imagery. Whether it's a coincidence like some others or intentional on the Faction's behalf is unknown, (though it must of known about the conflict as it happened before House Paradox was founded). The Order is from the 30000's yet is seen and treated as a respectable Galactic power in the decades after the anchoring. The Order's first/revenge strike against Gallifrey utilising Fenris is perhaps the Faction's largest and only real success agains the Timelords as it has embedded a bootstrap paradox into the Timelord's timetravel development. While it could have been planned the lack of any overt Faction presence or signature suggests otherwise. The First Great Time War is implied to have ended peacefully with the recognition it should/would never have happed to begin with in contrast to The Third & Last Great Time War against the Daleks. An Order member's presence as a High Evolutionary suprises the Eighth Doctor suggesting it wasn't part of the public or recorded peace pomp and circumstance. From the dialogue her actual placement seems recent but the fact she was considered at all says alot. A member in waiting? A secondary tier member? The Order may have be responsible for the black sun radation that turned the Meep species violent. The lack of any Faction style regalia suggests the contact between the two was limited. The Order is a probable Timelord ally in the Third & Last Great Time War.

[thienvaldram]

Forgotten Lives 3 Lore Dump

Just a bunch of lore related observations from FL3

Framing Narration (Fourth Doctor/T Baker POV)

Mindbending was not invented by the Time Lords but by an arthropod species with ‘umpteen’ lives.

The Master was better at it than the Doctor at the Academy

George Gallaccio

The Lungs of the Birastrop is two years after Doctor Crocus and the Pages of Fear on Earth

The TARDIS is still a police box

The Birastrop are part of the Cult of Morbius, they do not believe in the Elixir of Life

The Doctor claims he used to be a friend of Morbius, but he seems to be bluffing

Varne can fly the TARDIS

The Doctor believes he made the firecrackers that caused the events of this story

Varne departs and a new companion, Agnes, joins in this story.

The Time Lords have been directing this incarnations efforts from the shadows, he is already considered a renegade by this point.

The firecrackers were actually made by a group of Time Lords on their final incarnations (Led by Sorianius) who had swallowed Deathworm Morphants to merge with the gunpowder.

The Doctor believes he may have killed Morbius

Framing Narration cont.

The Morbius Monster’s lungs are that of a Birastrop

The Doctor was unaware of these lives by this point, though they didn’t seem to be “erased”, merely forgotten.

Robert Holmes

The Doctor put in a healing tank frequently

He seems unfamiliar with this incarnation, and the clothes, but he also clearly has amnesia from being pulled out of the tank. (This is due to him coming out of his infiltrator persona)

By the time he reaches the hall, he’s settled in to his persona again.

His most recent mission prevented ‘a big old civil war’ and dismantled the war machine of ‘a recently deposed President’ (Morbius).

The Morbius civil war occurred during this Doctor’s era

He infiltrated the enemy side as “Bretor Ohm”, this was a new body but not a new incarnation. (Chameleon Arch?)

His failure in his final mission is responsible for Morbius’s escape (In actuality, Sellin used a vocal command to halt him)

Morbius was of House Aurora

Sellin had also given the real Bretor Ohm the Doctor’s biodata as a backup plan, but he escaped and captured Morbius whilst the real Doctor distracted Sellin.

Ohm and the Doctor ended up escaping in a TARDIS (But he was presumably later recaptured)

Framing Narration cont.

Upon reaching Holmes, Morbius realises that the Doctor is an active enemy of his, he redoubles his efforts to push the Doctor back after this point.

Graeme Harper

This Doctor has not been home in a very long time.

Morbius’s was in power during this Doctor’s era. That is why they ran away.

This Doctor has ‘raised families’

Alexandra Justine Collins is travelling with the Doctor

This incarnation disappeared into the Portal of Transformation after contemplating returning to Gallifrey. It is unclear if this is intended to be the cause of this incarnation’s rejuvenation.

Framing Narration cont.

This incarnation was secretive enough that the echo of their persona was still deflecting secrets from Morbius’s intrusion during the mindbending battle years earlier.

The Camfield incarnation horrifically lost his family (Cold Fusion) and the Fourth Doctor is still able to feel the pain even with centuries of distance.

Douglas Camfield

Another companion, Carol Williams. Stowed away on the TARDIS.

After the Loomborn revolt, the Camfield Doctor was forced into hiding.

He has left Dattany for a little while so he could heal from his family’s deaths.

The Doctor and Tallis (Someone who worked for him back on Gallifrey) believe some of his family has escaped the massacre. They go to investigate.

Morbius’s rise to power was occurring during this Doctor’s era.

Cedric and Jilly are still alive on Earth so were not related to the children killed in the Loomborn revolt.

Phillip Hinchcliffe

This Doctor parted ways with Rue eventually and settled down on Earth (Paris 1792).

It had been either 4 or -156 years since then depending on the perspective.

The Order of the Spheres and Time Lords eventually fell out, the Doctor’s handlers and the Unity were different groups.

After settling down on Earth, the Time Lords are still trying to find him. The Sisterhood of Karn uses this to blackmail him to take Françoise to Karn.

Françoise (Swan) becomes a new companion in a stripped down timeship (The Exedra) headed for Karn.

He is being pursued by another renegade called ‘The Citizen’, he wants the Elixir of Life from Karn. The Doctor leaves him to the mercy of the locals on Durcrow

The leader of the sisterhood is O’Hercha.

The Sisterhood has seen the Doctor prior to this.

The Time Lords regain contact with him in this story and intend to bring him ‘back into the fold’.

Framing Narration cont.

Four figures out the Sisterhood owes him a favour after recalling the Hinchcliffe Doctor’s life.

Christopher Baker

Cedric and Jilly’s mother is no longer ‘here’ anymore

She was Joan Smith (Miss Weston). Joan Weston is the “Joan Redfern” that Baker fell in love with. He want by ‘John Smith’ for this time period.

They first landed in early 1938 after Banks-Stewart’s renewal.

The Advisor is working alongside the Unity to disrupt Earth history. He is currently operating as a scientific advisor for the ‘Radio Men’ (Cybermen?)

The Doctor has been ‘playing with his biology’

Jill Smith (Jilly) was born in 1939

Joan Smith eventually died

Robert Banks Stewart

Joan and The Doctor have been associated for four years, it is now 1944, this means he has been on Earth for six years (1938-1944).

The Doctor’s talking owl has no name because ‘birds don’t use names’

The Magus is working with the Nazis.

The Magus had two twins working for him but one perished at the Temple of Gog and Magog.

A sample of the Elixir of Life found its way to a safe in Ireland.

The Magus claims he wants the Elixir of Life to ensure Hitler stands trial for his actions. This is a lie, as he was wounded and is dying.

Maggie O’Hecha stole the Elixir before the Doctor or Magus could get to it, she would later become leader of the sisterhood.

The Sisterhood sent the Doctor to 1945 and he saw and crystallised the end of the War.

Joan Weston’s real name isn’t Joan Weston (Joan Redfern??). In 1944 she and the Doctor left Earth to travel.

Christopher Barry

Morbius was friends with the Doctor according to ‘the story’.

His wife will slap him next time she sees him and hole up in a ‘Tower in Avalon’.

Framing Narration conc.

Morbius had known Christopher Barry’s Doctor, he’d attempted to harness the living story in order to fulfil his future dreams.

The living story had indeed raised Morbius to greatness only to bring him low in the end. He only learns this upon hitting Barry’s memories in the mindbending match, and this is why he goes full rage afterwards.

Four is unsure how many of these reawakened memories he’d retain, but doesn’t care as he embraces being an ever evolving story.

[hummingbirdspark]

Feel free to use these ideas if you want! You do not need to credit me, but just let me know you did so I can read it.

Details for the story ideas under the cut

Kidnapped and forced to do maths

Pretty self-explanatory, they get locked in cells equipped with digital blackboards and stuff and can’t leave until they answer enough questions right. Penalties for wrong answers is death. Perhaps opportunities for teamwork?

Kipo and the age of Wonderbeasts au

Might not make sense if you haven’t seen Kipo but Carmilla uses megamute dna to try and make humans able to live on the surface, but after getting kicked out of her burrow, she has to wander the surface, looking for humans desperate enough to accept her ‘help’. I already have a bulletfic for how each of them gets found and mutated

Steven Universe au

Mechanisms as the Off-Colors. Gems thst either rebelled against or were thrown out by the diamonds. They wander the galaxy, and sometimes assist gem rebellions. The moon war was fought over earth’s moon base, between the crystal gems and those loyal to the Diamonds.

Doctor who TMA au

Jon and Jonny were brothers on Gallifrey, and while Jon excelled in timelord school and became The Archivist, Jonny was distracted by paying off his father’s debts and failed, never to receive the title of “the Captain” or 12 regenerations. He didn’t stay mortal for long, as Carmilla found him like in cannon and mechanized both of his hearts. They stole a TARDIS called Aurora and fled to the stars. Many many years later, The Archivist finds his long lost brother when taking his companions, Martin, Tim, and Sasha to the Steamworld Intergalactic Music Festival

False domestic psychological prison

An enterprising young member of an intergalactic authority comes up with a new idea for these immortal criminals’ containment: the only prison the Mechanisms can’t escape is the one they don’t know they’re in. They capture the mechanisms and through a combination of the sedative effects of the Lotus, and some memory altering microchips, they get the Mechanisms to think they are just (mostly) normal people on a normal planet. To make them less likely to escape, they gave them something they never could have had before. Jonny gets respect as the owner of a tailor shop, with workers who call him sir, and trust and obey his judgement. Brian, as a priest is listened to in all his advice and praised for his wise moral decisions. Will they realize it’s a trick? Or stay living this lie forever?

Spaceteam fic

The Aurora gets stuck in a strange wormhole (bifrost?) and she can’t operate anything but basic piloting. Suddenly strange new controls are on the bridge, as well as whole other consoles of controls. Instructions for what to do are provided on screens, but they don’t match the control each mechanism sees on their console. Luckily they’re all within shouting distance, but they will have to learn to work together… as a spaceteam. Set Sigmaclapper to 5! Soak Ferrous Holospectrum! Baste the Emergency Whittler!

Summer Camp Councilors

Human au where the mechanisms are councilors at Camp Cosmo, with wacky hijinks, camp names, and songs. Several units of cabins inspired by the 4 story albums, a great spot on a canal with sea kayaking, regular kayaking, sailing, and canoeing. A high ropes and low ropes course, an archery range, and an arts and crafts area are also present for those who aren’t water crazy. Pack up your sense of adventure and extra flashlight batteries! Hopefully the campers won’t get into any drama…

Kofi rat from Small Saga meets Marius

This is for the KofiAssam fans out there! Our very own rat-tailed rover finds themself on a massive metal god dwelling and encounters The Metal Armed God!

Or

Marius Von Raum finds a rat wearing clothing that seems to be able to play the mandolin. Good thing he learned to speak rat when he and Toy Soldier went to that candy planet where Toy Soldier somehow became a prince…

Steam Powered Giraffe roleswap

What if Doctor Carmilla lived on earth and created nine singing automatons that could self repair?

What if Colonel P. A. Walter mechanized 6 humans with blue matter to create a force of galactic heroes, that then forgot their original names?

1920s American speakeasy

Probably heavily based on Lackadaisy. Carmilla’s Speakeasy is a great place to get illegal alcohol, and its secret entrance is inside the Cafe Aurora. The owner, Carmilla herself is illusive at best, and her seeming to only show her face at night has lead to rumors of her being a vampire or witch. Rumors that are only worsened when she gave each of her employees a strange new gift: pins, that she insists are a new part of their uniform to be worn at all times. The purpose of the pins is made clear when Jonny is shot by a rival rumrunner while on a job and comes back from the dead.

SCP contains Brian and Toy Soldier

Brian was on MJE and Toy Soldier was under direct orders from a researcher to not escape. The only question is would Doctor Bright be an expert on immortality, or would letting him know about The Mechanisms be a terrible idea?

Marius backstory oneshot based on the christmas armistice

There are many things Byron Marius expected to hear in the middle of a war. The pound of bullets, the screams of other soldiers, and crash of giant robot mechas overhead. What he didn’t expect to hear was singing.

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht

That’s all, folks

I have way too many ideas.