#i honestly wouldn't reccomend watching it if you like... good shows

[nitr09-productions]

I know I’m shouting into the void with my obscure 90′s sitcom bullshit, but I’ve been watching Mike and Angelo again, and I just found myself imagining what a modern-day incarnation of Angelo would be like. Like... they’d be a lot different from both incarnations we actually saw on the show, but with the same general vibe? And then a whole ass guy just sort of appeared in my head. People make Doctorsonas for Doctor Who, so why not an Angelosona?

 In my head, modern Angelo is a Twitch streamer who exclusively plays really bright and flashy indie rythym games, and at a dizzyingly fast pace. Their stream layout is so filled with flashing widgets and windows that the actual game itself is indiscernible, and all you can see in the little facecam in the corner is the top half of their head and their huge unblinking eyes. They just can’t shut up for the life of them, and their audience just think all the talk about being an alien is just them really committing to the bit until it starts to get eerily specific. For a while they are harangued by those awful cringe-culture drama-monger YouTubers saying things like ��creepy streamer comes out as alienkin”, but they are too busy downing monster energy drinks to even notice, and the whole drama just passes them by with their audience eventually accepting that what they say is probably true. They are only ever photographed irl at pride parades, but every photo they appear in comes out blurry.

 Also Rita and Katy are married in this hypothetical modern AU. I don’t know why, as they never interracted in canon, but I just think they need each other. 

[yourlocalsimpsonsandsanriofan]

💫A goofy AHHH review💫

hey guys it's ya boi Rusty here again!! and I'm here to review:

Yes yes, I can hear y'all now saying "but it's made for kids" "bro why are u watching this" 🤓☝

Stop right there, bud. ✋

This show is pretty good so far, all things considered! I decided to watch it for the nostalgia (and for mah boi Smee ofc!)!! I watched this show a little bit when I was younger, so I remember it fairly well. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it isn't cringe! (Well, some parts are a little iffy but we'll get to that in a minute.) It's actually tolerable and even made me laugh at some parts!

💫The songs💫

The songs aren't that good, in fact their kinda cringe. (But ofc I gotta go easy on this show cuz yes, it is intended for little kids with no brain cells.) At the end of every episode (wich usually consists of two episodes ranging from 15 minutes long each, making up the 30 minute mark.) There's these two ideots called Sharky and Bones who sing a song, and it's cringe. The lyrics arent funny, and their singing isn't even that good. I get that the humer is supposed to have zero brain cells, but come on guys. U gotta try a bit harder than that. The background music for the episodes is ok, nothing I would casually listen to though.

💫The characters💫

We have a few new characters to add to the Peter Pan universe by the names of Jake, Cubby (WHY ARE THEIR TWO CUBBYS?!), Izzy, Skully, Sharky and Bones. (And Captain Hook and Mr. Smee of course!!) The character designs are good, they work well for everyone, except Hook. Hook just looks weird in this art style honestly. And at first I didn't like Smee's design in this, but it grew on me. (The og is still better though!) In fact, he might even look kinda cute! :D

The voice acting for them is great too!! Its very expressive and something you wouldn't normally get from a kids show. The new voice actors for Smee and Hook almost sound IDENTICAL to the og's! There are some minor differences, but nothing to really make me get annoyed at. The animation is smooth and fluid too! I can tell that they used computer Riggs, but it's barely even noticeable! Which from what I heard, computer Riggs are pretty hard to do. So thats honestly impressive!

💫The insecurities of Jake and The Neverland Pirates💫

First off, I wanna talk about how Smee is portrayed. In the og movie, he's supposed to be a bumbling ideot (but a lovable ideot imo!). In this series, he seems to have a few brain cells, which I dislike. They didn't stay true to his character! Neither did they with Hook. He isn't that goofy anymore, neither is he evil, but he's in between. I can't really describe it, but something is off with his personality.

Like I said before, the music isn't very good, and neither is the pacing of each episode. It's inconsistent and feels too slow at times. The plot points for each episode are predictable too. The kids find something to play with, and Hook wants whatever it is and steals it and they take it back etc etc. The dabloons make no sense either! They collect dabloons each episode for their chest, but why?! What does it accomplish?! Maybe Im not smart enough to understand but that makes no sense to me. It's repetitive too, but not to the point where u want to shove a gun into the side of your head and call it quits. Like I said, it's tollerable! It does feel like Micky Mouse Clubhouse though (I HATE MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE.), but with Peter pan 💀

💫Conclusion💫

I like this show, and I think it's cute! It has potential!! Maybe just get rid of the repetitiveness and the cringe songs and it could be good! I reccomend this is you want the nostalgia from your chilhood (well technically I'm still a kid but whatever LOL)!!

That's my thoughts on this show! I haven't finished the first season yet, but maybe my views will change, but well see. But when they do, I'll keep u posted!! Thanks for reading this and I hope you have a spectacular day/night!!! I love you :D❤❤

(Oh yeah one last thing I gotta note is that Smee actually referred to Hook as "your greatness" 🤨 idk man..)

[wearethekingdom]

okay so I know we’ve caught up a bit but honestly, I feel like I don’t know much about how things have been with you lately and I feel bad low key :( because I’d really like to know about your life! so, what’s new with you? Doesn’t have to be anything big, but just, how’s life been lately? Are you on summer break? (I don’t know how things work outside of America </3) Have you seen any new movies or read any books or played any video games lately? This is an invitation to info dump about literally anything that interested you lately too btw :3

Omg hey bro so how you fix the problem is by messaging me /lh like if you just wanna talk about your and my life then you can message me asking and stuff, I have a friend on here and we literally just chat about our lives for like 4 hours at a time

ummmm so I went to sleep away camp or whatever ygs call it in the US for 3 weeks, its an Irish spoken one so you know I ate that up, volunteered for the youth club camp and lost a child at a theme park while doing so (we found him, he was fine) and got some horse riding back in cuz I missed out on like 5 weeks of training lol

With movies I haven't watched a whole lot cuz I've literally had like. No time. I'm seeing the Kneecap movie tomorrow with my bf which I'm very excited about and I'm gonna see I Saw The TV Glow on Monday with some friends even though it's showing kind of late at the cinema (7:45pm), tbh I'm going in completely blind with but people say it's good so I'm simply just going to watch it. I've also rewatched alot of matt damon movies because why wouldn't I? I'm still his number one fan, currently watching The Martian as we speak which I've never actually watched before, kind of disturbing but it's okay because again, it's matt damon!

What I said all those months ago about my partner will need to fight for me when it comes to matt damon? I still hold to it. Guess who my bf looks like 😐 you will never guess its totally unpredictable 😐

I have readdd The Twelfth Day of July by Joan Lingard, it's a book about this guy and girl and the guy is a cath and the girl is a protestant and how they hate eachother and its really good, I love it a lot. I also read all of Diane Olivers short stories while at irish camp, they're really good and I totally reccomend her stuff, I think you would like some of her more scary short stories, a lot of her stuff is unpublished though cuz she was died at age 22 and she really needs more recognition, like when I looked up her most famous story I couldn't even find her other stuff at all.

Games I played Alan Wake about this guy (who is an author) who goes on holiday to this island and his wife goes missing so Alan has to investigate it while this story that he doesn't even remember writing becomes a reality, there's a second one I just haven't played it yet. I played The Quarry about a group of young adult camp counsellors who have to stay one day extra before they get to go home but there's creepy stuff on the property that wants to kill them and it's so good my fave character is my profile picture, we love Dylan Lenivy.

THENNN I played A Way Out with my brother set in the same prison as Shawshank Redemption, these 2 criminals set a plan to escape prison and get their revenge on the guy who murdered one of the mens brothers and well the other one kind of gives away the whole story so I won't go into detail on that one but it's depressing, it's a little disturbing and you get attached to Leo and Vincent the main guys.

Ive just been chilling this last month before school starts again and hanging out with my friends, I was going to go to NI for a while but there's protests and people setting streets on fire so I'm not going anywhere near there for now.

But yeah that's my life, you should totally reblog this with your telling of your life I would love to hear about it!!!

[distant--shadow]

get to know meme

lil thing where I'll give a bit too much detail so it fills its purpose, honoured honestly to be tagged by three of my favourite writers in this space @sharkodactyl, @unicyclehippo , and @astoriacolumnstaircase - anyone reading this should be reading their works instead.

favourite colour: brown(s), like a mid to a dark tone, i like them to have a bit of red involved. like our old-boy chet, I love the wood. my dream home would be all wood-panelled with built in inlayed and set back shelves and nooks a plenty and yeah just full of brik-a-brak. otherwise my favourite colours are navy blue and greens that are more mixed with blue than yellow, teals and emeralds and once again generally around the mid tones. green makes me very happy. moss and outdoors and all that.

currently reading: fic. haha. (suss my recommend reading tag) I did venture out to my (very) local queer bookshop and asked them for something that won't send me on a spiral if I'm already on one/provide some escapism and they reccomended river of teeth by Sarah gailey. anyone I've said about it to seems real enthusiastic about it, I am not well read at all when it comes to published things, tend to just get really into a few fandom authors works and picking them apart (rereading a lot) . still haven't started it but maybe I'll try take it out to the park in the next week or so. I'm dabbling in reading (and unfortunately writing) poetry thanks to @picturesofthegoneworlds and @blorbotomy 's influence, those mini books are fun to keep on you when out and about, poem or two on a tree stump or boulder with a grand vista and a brain that wants eyes on a phone screen.

last song: last song I consciously (not background music) listened to was:

I went on an early lord snow stint the other night because the air smelt crisp and there was a nice chill. they have remained my favourite heavy (as a broad term) band for a decade now.

I used to have music on all of the time, whether that be cd's at home or in my mp3 player (that I still take out with me) but these days I find listening more of an intentional activity and I prefer to have people just nattering when I'm at home and want background noise. think it's where my heads at and I've just got more sensitive to being overstimulated I guess. I was also pretty good at going to a live gig at least once a week before I did my back in, looking forward to getting into that habit again.

last series: I don't watch much stuff outside of critical role, least other than YouTube videos I'll put on whislt I'm drawing. oh wait yeah I ordered 3 seasons of xena on ebay because it's like a couple of quid a season and it is a real good comfort show and fucking amazing. I hadn't seen it since I was pre teen and it was on day time TV and I'd catch it on sick days. the amount of people I've brought it up to these past few months who've been so stoked to be reminded of it/eager to watch it with me is actually hilarious.

last movie: uhhhh God movies I watch even less. I haven't been to a cinema in over 12 years now, just not my thing, and it's funny caus my mum used to work in the film and TV industry and we had shelves and shelves full of VHS growing up (mostly bootlegged) and she can just ramble about pretty much any early era film up to the stuff from the 80s (when she was working on em) for days. never could sit through em, never felt satisfied with how the story went. guess that's why actual play appeals to me. but saying all this I did rewatch Bound for the first time since I was like 15 last month or so, enjoyed it a lot more than I did back then.

sweet/savory/spicy: savory all day. I am a salt fiend. I used to think I'd be fortunate enough to die from my salt intake. I'll put it on anything. cereal, toast, fruit. I think the other day I noted the one thing I wouldn't put it on, but I can't recall that right now honestly. it's gotta be decent salt too, sea salt or rock salt that has some texture and delicious flavour, I'm not fucking with that table salt shit. I carry salt with me in a mini mason jar everywhere I go, saves when you only have access to bland cold supermarket food. one of my earliest memories is when I was like 6 I had had my daily 1 glass allowance of squash/fruit cordial in my white Tom and Jerry printed beaker with the accordion bendy straw and so when I was pouring myself a glass of water from the tap I put salt in it caus I wanted flavour that would not show through the white translucent container. it's all been downhill from there, although I also, luckily I guess caus otherwise I would be really fucked, do drink a lot of water.

currently working on: myself and healing. hah. I never realised how much paperwork and phone calls came with this maintenance shit. I'm still out of work, and my mental health has taken a huge hit from not being able to do the things I usually would. so right now I'm just trying to keep everything together. I can draw again though, so sorry about that.

I never know who to tag in these things caus I don't think everyone wants to do them. so I'll go with this being open invite as always. hope anyone who read this far is having a good week, and sentiment is still there even if you didn't read this (unless you don't deserve my well wishes, then fuck you.)

[cluepoke-archive]

Any detective shows you consider an essential watching experience? and also taking this chance to project emerson cod in your mind. hes enjoying pie a la mode

OH OH.. hmm I quite liked elementary though I never finished! (it got a bit gorey at some point, and at the time it put me off finishing it alltogether) I wouldn't call it essential but... it gave the characters a certain level of respect I hadn't seen in awhile!

Psyche is PHENOMINAL!!! great in the comedy department but has some serious moments that hit pretty hard too.. its focus on characters (AND DETAILS!!) and their silly antics really speaks to me and I love the doffrent cases they go on.. usually very unique!!

Murder she wrote is a must in my book.. whenever columbo starts to settle into a familiar pattern and begins to get borish I usually turn to Jessica fletcher! She's a riot... great weird little old lady rep

Dirk gently wich you know... honestly when it first came out I was so put off by the fact it seemed to have NOTHING to do with the books! But well. One day some mutuals got really into it so I gave it a chance and I was hooked! It holds up relaly well on its own!! But I do heavily reccomend the books their SOOO so fun, dirks a bit more deadpan and a little less... naive I want to say? He has a certain air of stubbornness that adds some good flavour to him in the books

Only murders in the building is??? So good?? So good!!! Their working on their third season now and I've been hooked from the get go... multigenerational sleuths come together because they love mystery podcasts, they then become found family... it seems every season holds clues into the next and the details are VERY VERY fun. Like. Thank God they give the audience some clues because I geneuinly think that's what makes mystery shows worth it!! Love getting to the conclusion with or before the characters..

House MD is... intriguing I think. If you can get past the acephobia ableism, sexism and just. Alot of no good very bad junk.. personally I couldn't keep watching past season 8(lots of cast changes and just. Man idk why they pushed it on for so many seasons it was honestly a drag) I'm a sucker for disabled rep, even if it's not .. the best. But!! He has chronic pain! And he uses a cain!! Fuckitall... watch the silly medical detective show.. I think it's important to note house isn't supposed to be.. a good person. I think alot of characters aren't meant to be very likeable, I won't go on and on about house but if you can handle some of its flaws it can be. Interesting (personally what hooked me I think is that while not very accurate or mysterious, discovering what ailed his patients always lead to alot of character insight,,, wich is almost like detective work.) I don't think it's for everyone though. It has its moments, it's alright

X files and twin peaks. Naturally... very good!! Good elements of the supernatural!!

Honestly just watch Elementary my dear Data on loop... all will be well in the world!!

[catcatb0y]

I think it REALLY depends, honestly. If you're reccomending a Historical Drama Romance... uh yeah it better be queer or I'm gonna side eye you because why.

Like I wouldn't have touched "Reincarnated As A Fantasy Knock-Out," with a thirty foot pole if not told 'It's queer!!' (and even then I was still pretty skeptical, but pleasantly surprised about how delicate the series was in regards to its queerness)

The series actually took the time and effort to go over the ways in which the gender swap affected the main character and their friend who doesn't just fall in love with them in the body of a woman, but was in love with them all along. The queerness adds to the characters and the ways in which they interact with the world add to the story and it's depth. Instead of being a generic, kind of misogynostic isekai about a man getting reincarnated as an irresistible woman; it's a story about a person who switches sexes and slowly comes to terms with their gender identity and sexuality for the first time.

But if you tried to sell, say Hazbin Hotel, to me for it's queerness... I would have been less likely to check it out, because, with the narrative as it is, having queerness being a big part of the plot is... eh... I'm just gonna say that it wouldn't fit well.

Gayness or queerness being a prominent point of their story, being in Hell and seeking Redemption to Heaven, kind of comes across as weird- yeah Angel Dust is an effeminate gay bottom, but he's in hell because he was a part of the mafia and was a drug addict in his lifetime. The series walked a pretty thin line making HuskerDust important to the characters while also being a fun romance, but the series reasonably doesn't focus on them, which gets into the next part and that's the only way Hazbin Hotel makes queerness work is by just having the characters exist and happen to also be queer. (You can fluff around 'forced representation', but given a different source it very well could be). If the focus were on the queerness, it would take away from the general plot, but, since there's no focus, the queerness of the show is honestly irrelevant.

I watched Love, Simon and Love, Victor for their queerness back when they came out, and fucking honestly? Both of them seemed like there was not a single queer person on the set ☠️ Every good moment of Love, Simon was shoved into the trailer and Love, Victor is an absolute clusterfuck when it comes to writing.

Also I'm gonna be so fucking fr, I don't trust some people enough to know what is and isn't queer. Like, yeah Voltron has a canonical gay character... but if you want a gay romance, you're better off checking out Naruto and ignoring the ending. People have hailed Hannibal and Supernatural and Wednesday as being "super queer" (one of those having more of a rep than the others), but in reality a lot of people who actually watched them were left disappointed.

The idea of 'it being queer' wasn't enough for me to check out Wednesday as it took it's temporarily popular spotlight, and I'm glad, since I saw many people talking about how it was played up heavily and didn't fully accurately reflect the charm of the old Addam's Family. I've attempted to sit through Supernatural three or four times and still never met Cas, but seeing Dean is enough to make me side-eye the ship a little. As I've also caught a few random Hannibal episodes but was left pretty baffled and rather unsatisfied.

That being said, like prev mentioned, if the ONLY thing good about it is that, "It's queer!" and there's no mention of the plot, the characters, the details, etc., then yeah no I'm not fucking watching that.

please elaborate in tags :)

[wethinkweknow-you]

these are the changes I've made in my phone addiction social media habits to better my mental health!

deleting tiktok - tiktok honestly just rots your brain. endless scrolling. out of touch influencers. a thousand ads for useless products. I mean yes there are some great creators on there, but imo the bad outweighs the good.

substitute it for YouTube - YouTube videos are longer and more informative. most YouTube comment sections are positive and thought provoking rather than mindless skull emojis. If you really want to watch short videos, you can watch tiktok compilations or (personally I wouldn't reccomend) YouTube shorts.

deleting instagram - if you're not mindlessly scrolling through tiktok, you're definitely scrolling through instagram. I think instagram reels comments are some of the most horrific things I've read in my life tbh/j. also for me personally I just got tired of seeing people who I knew irl but didn't talk to me irl. idk if that's just me lol.

substitute it with pinterest - pinterest is my pride and joy. I love pinterest. if someone wanted to know anything about me I'd just show them my pinterest boards. it's basically social media without the social. there's such cute pics on pinterest. alternatively, I think vsco is also a good social media without the social concept.

deleting Twitter - Twitter is the spawn of Satan. a fairy dies every time you open Twitter. Twitter is where someone with 45 followers will get cancelled for saying the word "queer." also elon musk is musty or somethin

substitute it with tumblr! - I just got tumbkr recently but this is the best! I love how long the posts are. it's so refreshing to read long stories and people's opinions in the form of paragraphs. also, I think this is a great safe space for my queen neurodivergent self.

some extra things I did to manage my phone time

unfriending people I don't know/ people I'm not close with on snapchat

deleting Facebook and getting my families phone numbers instead

posting pics on vsco or pinterest, where I know people irl don't know mine, and only my friends can see it

playing thought provoking games like sudoku, nyt games, tetris, etc

playing games like roblox and minecraft on game consoles and with friends rather than alone on my phone

customizing my phone to look calm and less eye-straining

I hate social media <3

[angelizs]

Super sorry this isn’t about Twst but I just gotta say how much I hate when people consider someone weird for liking kids shows like I absolutely love MLP and I have a ton of merch from it but if I ever talk about it I’m called immature like please just let me like my silly little colorful pony show :’] -

HI 🦭 ANON!! no problem, I like to talk regardless of the topic!!

tbh, even when I was a little kid at the age that you're still expected to like kids shows I was made fun of by some classmates because they were more "mature" and that was just a "silly cartoon for little kids", but the point is: I was a little kid!! let me enjoy those things!! even today I really like cartoons, I love animation, even if it's "for little kids".

maybe that's the neurodivergency talking as well, but there's just something about them, you know? perhaps I like the simplicity or the heartfelt messages of love and friendship, maybe even the nostalgia, or I just want to give my child self something that she can enjoy without being ashamed of it.

MLP is such a nice show, the characters are all very different and have nice designs, the story is cute and manages to pass on messages that are important, be it for children or an older audience. a few days ago I was actually rewatching the Equestria Girls movies to remember how they were, since I used to LOVE them when I was little! (the songs still slaps)

I really like shows like Gravity Falls and The Owl House, that may be considered childish simply for the fact that they are animated. even if it's intended for a younger audience, they are so well made they capture the attention of anyone watching!! I also love to watch any new animation movies that comes out, since they are usually so cool! even old ones, as this past vacation I had a disney movie marathon and enjoyed getting to see the stories with new eyes, still remembering how I watched them as a kid!

people who judge other's interests are just so rude without a reason. why does me enjoying something I like a lot bothers you so much you couldn't stay quiet? I don't care if it's "cringe" or whatever, just let people enjoy things in peace!! there's something so beautiful in being able to find happiness in little things and I love when someone starts talking about something they like, since you can feel their passion and they eyes light up and they get excited, it's very cool!

even sometimes when something is not for kids, people might make fun of you for it? for example: animes have a reputation of being for kids since they kind of are very exaggerated, be it in fights or just anything really, and they are animated. that doesn't mean it's only for kids! there are some anime that I wouldn't reccomend for a kid to watch, since there might be some heavy topics in them. honestly, people just like to find a reason to make fun of others sometimes because their lives are getting boring without it and they couldn't find anything better to do with their time. (I garantee you, as someone with a very busy life, I couldn't care less if one of my friends enjoys watching kids shows or playing with dolls or doing whatever, as long as they aren't hurting anyone then they're good in my books).

so, in conclusion, even when people might judge you for it, I don't think you should stop doing the things you enjoy! be unapologetically happy! at the end of the day, they won't get any satisfaction from making fun of you, but you'll still be happy with the things you like. especially if you find other people that share your interests! what others say doesn't really matter, your life is yours and only yours to judge, and there are already so many problems out there, there's no need to create problems that don't really exist, you know? liking something "childish" isn't a problem and it shouldn't be a problem, so just enjoy what you like without feeling ashamed for it!

[join-the-joywrite]

and I don't want to (but I love you)

@jatp-week Day 6: favourite trope

Not me doing a self-indulgent and stupidly long enemies to lovers au :>

Julie Molina didn't have enemies in her life. She had competitors, sure. Everyone did. But Sunset Curve took the whole cake. She didn't have enemies but Luke Patterson came dangerously close.

Luke Patterson, on the other hand, fully considered Julie Molina his number one enemy. He had zero qualms about saying that to her face and behind her back. He knew his band was the best but Julie had a real knack for knocking his ego down a bit and he hated her for it. Maybe he wouldn't get so riled up if she was nice about it or if not nice, she was less nasty and more stern. Honestly, it seemed like she took pleasure in criticizing Sunset Curve.

The rivalry between them extended to their bands and friend circles. Well, for the most part, anyway. Julie and Luke let Willie and Alex get away with their little forbidden lovers thing because they both thought the pair was cute together. It was pretty much the only thing they agreed on. Ever.

Willie only ever talked about Alex, not the band and Alex made sure to steer clear of mentioning Julie whenever he talked about Willie. The arrangement worked for all sides.

Julie and Luke's rivalry extended far beyond their music. It crept into their classes and had them fighting for the top spot. The teachers were thrilled. It meant Luke put in as much effort as he possibly could into every assignment or test. Even if it was out of pure spite, it was working.

And then, oh dear, and then there was a group project. Obviously, they split to opposite ends of the room with their friends to choose pairs (except Willie and Alex, who were shoved together and assured it was perfect) but apparently, it was important to learn how to work with people you dislike because in the workplace you might be forced to work with people you dislike -- or something like that.

Julie and Luke had never let their rivalry coerce them into doing stupid things -- except the one time where Carrie was convinced Luke could hold his breath longer and Julie almost drowned in the school pool to prove Carrie wrong -- but the moment they were paired up, Julie and Luke both wanted nothing more than to break several school rules, vandalism being the top one and starting violent fights being the second. It was unclear if they wanted to fight each other or their teacher.

Matters were made worse when their friends got to pair off together on their own terms while they were stuck with each other. The only thing keeping them from completely refusing to do any work was that they both were still competing for the highest scores.

Their friends had never been more entertained and the two opposing groups bonded over watching the two most stubborn people they knew suffer out a school project together. The clear awkwardness between them was hilarious and it was a pleasant thing to see them sitting at the same table and not trying to verbally murder each other. Bobby turned out to be the funniest person in the whole group. He had a meme-y caption for every moment they caught of Julie and Luke sitting near enough to have a normal conversation and the others loved it. He also seemed to be able to relate all the memes to the pair and was strangely good at photoshop, which earned him the Groupchat King title. (Julie and Luke were completely unaware of this groupchat excluding only them -- which, for the others' safety, was for the best.) Flynn's favourite was a photo of Julie with a feral look on her face, miming strangling a smug Luke. Me & 2020 was Bobby's winning caption. She wasn't sure which was which and that made it even better, in her opinion.

As the weeks passed, Julie and Luke's rivalry mellowed. As far as they said, it was still going strong but their actions told another story. There were playful nudges in the hallway, now. Teasing death glares across a classroom. Locked gazes and stifled giggles at inside jokes -- the fact that they even had those was surprising enough. They willingly shared a lunch table for the sole purpose of interrupting a mini date between Willie and Alex but most of it was spent in their own world anyway. Their mockery of each other had become gentler and more harmless teasing than anything.

And then one Tuesday, Luke didn't show up at school.

Of course, Luke's band knew exactly what was up, but they -- with support from Julie's friends -- decided it would be fun to play dumb and send Julie to Luke's house, just to check up on him, you know, despite the fact that the group project was long over and she really had no need to meddle further into Luke's life. The mere fact that Julie forgot she still had class and was seriously ready to leave immediately said a lot.

"I can promise you that it's really not as bad as it looks," Luke said from under several pillows, a puffy duvet and maybe three stuffed animals, "but there's no band practice today and I'm not coming to school tomorrow either so can one of you flick Julie's forehead for me? It's tradition."

"Band practice, huh?" Julie said, dropping her bag on the floor with a soft thud. "And here I thought you just had nothing more interesting going on in your life than disrupting mine."

Luke sat up fast enough that his head spun, his vision swam and two pillows fell off the bed. "Who told you where I live?"

"You did, dork. Here, I brought your homework and my dad's trying something out in the kitchen. He misread balf the recipe so it's the blandest thing I've ever tasted but if you're sick, it'll be good for you."

Luke responded to the bit that made sense. "I don't want bland food," he said, scrunching up his nose as Julie set a small stack of papers on the desk in the corner and walked up to him with a covered bowl.

"As if you'd know the difference. Your mom said you can't taste anything anyway."

"You talked to my mom?" Luke asked, looking mortified.

"Yeah, duh. What, did you think I climbed through your bedroom window? I don't care that much for you."

"Aww, I knew you cared for me."

Julie didn't respond to it. "So this is supposed to be a vegetable stew," she said, tapping the plastic wrap over the bowl, "but like I said, mistakes were made."

"Well, what is it then?" Luke asked, leaning over to peer at the bowl.

"I'd call it . . . semi-flavoured water with surprise veggies."

"Joy."

"I know, right? Anyway, I'll leave you to your . . . pillow fort? Cute stuffies. I have the same penguin."

Luke glanced at the penguin that was still secured in his arm. "Don't you dare tell your friends. Especially not Flynn. She's ruthless."

"She is not. But fine, only because you're sick. I'll be back for my bowl tomorrow and it better be empty."

Luke watched Julie leave with a look of amazement. As soon as he heard his front door close, footsteps pattered through the hallway, leading up to his mother sticking her head in his room. "I like her."

"I'm going back to sleep," Luke said, diving back into the safety of all his pillows, wondering if it was the fever or Julie that set his cheeks blazing.

Probably the fever.

"Good afternoon, dork. Reggie says you said you liked the semi-flavoured water and my dad felt very appreciated by that so he's made some actual stew for you to try. It's beef stew this time so please don't get surprised. Did you do yesterday's homework? You should, because I brought today's. How do you feel?"

Luke, who had been staring at Julie with his mouth slightly open in a perfect picture of surprise, blinked when he realised she'd stopped speaking. "Don't you knock?!"

"Your mom said you were asleep and I could just leave everything here for you but you were awake so. . ." Julie trailed off, shrugging.

"You . . . you are so strange."

Julie shrugged as she set the homework down on the desk and walked up to the nightstand to put the covered bowl down in Luke's reach. "You need to come back to school. I feel bad bullying your friends."

"I'm sure they'll be glad to hear that," Luke said sarcastically. He paused for a second. "Yeah, I did the homework. Most of it. My mom said it'll help to get out of bed and do something. I tried to play the guitar but she was adamant I didn't do that something."

Julie nodded and walked back to Luke's desk. She rifled through the mess and picked up all the homework. "I'll finish this essay for you," she said almost absently, searching among the pages. "Please tell me you did your science homework. I got a lot of that wrong and no one wants to give me the answers because apparently, I should learn my work."

"Uh . . . yeah. Um, yeah, I did the science. Wh-- what do you mean 'do the essay' for me?"

Julie looked up as she gathered everything into a pile of messy and uneven papers. "It's on the African American civil rights movement. It's factual and ninety percent of the class will have the same essay anyway so--"

"No. No, I mean . . . why?"

"Oh. Uh . . . why not?"

Luke didn't have a response, so he fell silent.

"Well, that's all of yesterday's homework. Get some rest and then make sure you eat. I can't have my favourite punching bag get too weak to take a hit."

As Julie turned and left his room, Luke felt the sudden urge to scream, so instead, he slammed his burning face into his favourite penguin. Yes, she had called him a punching bag, but she'd also called him her favourite.

"Music class just isn't the same without booing you. Also, Alex said you managed to keep the beef stew down yesterday so my dad thought you could try something a little heavier. This is an experimental chicken and fried rice . . . thing. I do not reccomend eating unless you're sure you're okay enough for a full meal. That said, I brought more beef stew in case you're not up for the chicken and rice."

"You can't just walk in unannounced!" Luke cried as Julie set down the two bowls on the nightstand.

"I can, actually," Julie said, flashing a set of keys at Luke.

Luke's jaw dropped when he recognized the keychains. "Hey, those are mine!"

"Wow, so observant. Your mom gave it to me before I left yesterday because your dad is at work and she needed to go out today and with you holed up in here, there wouldn't be anyone to open for me."

Luke frowned. "Oh, yeah, she said something like that but I was half-asleep."

Julie was pleasantly surprised to find Luke's homework neatly gathered at the corner of the desk. It didn't escape her how Luke seemed to glow with pride when she commented on it. She had to fight a smile as she dropped Luke's homework into her bag.

"Get some rest, dork. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call someone from Sunset Swerve. I'll be busy."

"It's Sunset CURVE and you know it."

"Really? I never noticed."

Luke pouted. "Tuxedo Sam says you're being very mean right now. I'm sick and I deserve care."

"Well, you can tell your stupid penguin that Skipper will beat his ass."

"You named your penguin after the penguins from Madagascar?"

"You call yours Tuxedo Sam."

"Yeah, okay, that's fair."

Julie rolled her eyes and turned to leave. "Take a nap, Moody McSleeveless."

Luke glanced at the penguin laying nearby as he heard Julie lock up the house again. "Don't look at me like that, she's mean all the time."

"I BROUGHT CAKE!"

Luke scrambled up, launching Tuxedo Sam off the bed. "Who died?"

"No one died," Julie said, picking up the penguin as she walked up to Luke's bed. "It's Friday and since you're doing a little better, I thought you could do with a small treat. Tuxedo Sam agrees."

"Give me back my penguin," Luke said, reaching both arms out to Julie.

"Did you do yesterday's homework?"

"Yes."

"Did you really eat both bowls of food yesterday?"

"Yes."

"And keep it down?"

"Yes, ma'am, now can I please have my penguin back?"

Julie passed Luke the stuffed animal. "You're adorable," she blurted, turning away immediately to hide her own stunned look. She cleared her throat as she headed to the desk to grab Luke's homework. "So, that group project? We got a ninety-five."

That distracted Luke easily enough. "What happened to the other five?!"

"We're very bad at teamwork," Julie said, glancing back at Luke over her shoulder to see him relax against the pillows.

"Ah. That . . . makes sense."

Julie nodded. "Mhm."

The silence that blanketed the room wasn't as awkward as it should have been.

"I have to go. Most of the teachers said it would be okay to get your homework on Monday, but Mr Hughes is on my tail about your chemistry paper. My dad is making cupcakes tonight for some reason and I told Willie he could have some, so I'll send extra with him to give to Alex to give to you, but enjoy that crappy store cake for now. I left proper lunch with your mom for when you feel like it."

It didn't register that the only reason Mr Hughes would be harassing Julie about Luke's homework was if Julie herself had taken responsibility for Luke. Well, it did register, but by then, Julie was long gone and the only response Luke could muster was a muffled scream into poor Tuxedo Sam.

"Oh, ew, gross. Luke, it smells like the middle school locker room in here. What were you doing?"

Luke had never looked more sheepish in his life as he pointed to the canister on his nightstand -- right next to his alarm clock. "My phone went off about an hour ago and I thought it was the alarm so I did the smart thing and slammed it down but I missed. Obviously."

Holding her nose, Julie dropped everything she was carrying on Luke's table and tore the curtains open, pushing the windows as far as they could go. She stood there for a moment, relishing in the fresh air. "I'll come back inside when I can breathe," Julie said, halfway out the window.

Luke wanted to melt into his pillows. A week later and he was only feeling slightly better. The pros of it was that Julie visited every day with something tasty and a level of snark that only amused him. The cons of it was that Julie visited every day and left him flustered and red in the face.

He firmly believed that Julie only came by every day because she had homework to drop off, but today was Saturday. There was no more homework to drop off.

And she could have just backtracked right out the door again but instead, she headed for the windows on the other side of his room. Why?

Because she's taking care of you, dork.

Luke couldn't help but think that the logical voice in his head sounded suspiciously like Julie.

"Hey, my parents have some stupid couple's yoga thing on Saturdays. Did you break in?"

Julie pulled the windows halfway closed and stepped back into the room. "No, I still have your keys. Your dad tried to give me the spare key to the front door but your mom said it'll be fine if I kept yours until you're back on your feet."

"Wow. She really trusts you, huh?"

Julie shrugged. "I'm a very trustworthy person."

"No, you're not. I saw you lose a pen that you stuck behind your ear and then you proceeded to lose three more by tucking them behind your other ear and in your pockets. You then tried to steal mine."

"I was fourteen," Julie said defensively.

"It happened last week!"

"I felt fourteen."

Luke gave Julie a deadpan look.

"Cute pyjamas."

"I know, right? Bobby got us matching ones when we were like fifteen for band bonding. I mean, I grew out of the pants but the shirt still fits."

Julie scoffed as she stared at the dark haired cartoon smiling at her from the pink shirt. "Looks really good on you, Skip."

"Hey, I like being Skipper. She's Barbie's most intelligent sister."

"Oh, yeah?" Luke didn't even notice that Julie had made herself comfortable at the foot of his bed. "And if you're Skipper, who are the others?"

"Bobby is Chelsea, 'cause he's the youngest of us, Alex is Barbie, 'cause his summer jobs have been everywhere, and Reg is Stacie, 'cause she's Bobby's favourite and Bobby's favourite bandmate is Reg."

Julie's head tilted slightly. "You sound drunk."

"The bottle said one teaspoon of cough syrup but I didn't read and I took two tablespoons. It's okay, though. Mom panicked and called the doctor and he says the cough syrup he gave me is for kids and I'm just really, really, really intolerant. Which you should remember for me because I plan to be super famous with the band and there are gonna be a lot of after parties and I don't wanna get drunk five minutes in. I think the cough syrup is kicking in."

"Luke Patterson, you are unbelievable."

"I know, right?" He attempted a winning smile, but it came off as plain childlike.

Julie chastised herself for finding him adorable. They were mortal enemies and she had to remember that. Then what are you doing in his room on a Saturday, after explicitly telling the rest of his band to stay away?

Julie found it unnerving how much the voice in her head sounded like a teasing Luke.

"You're like, really annoying."

Julie frowned. "I -- I'm sorry?"

"You should be." Luke was sitting cross-legged now, fiddling with the ears of a stuffed bunny. "It's really messing with my head."

Julie decided she liked tipsy Luke -- even if it was just cough syrup. "How so?"

"No, it's nothing."

"You can tell me, Luke. I promised not to tell anyone about your stuffed animals and I kept it, right?"

"Yeah, but this time the secret about you. You're not allowed to know."

Curiosity more than anything made Julie lean forward slightly. "It'll be our secret."

"Okay, but you have to promise not to talk about it."

Julie nodded quickly. Luke tugged at the bunny's ears for a moment.

"You're like . . . really pretty."

Julie couldn't help the soft laugh that bubbled out of her. Adorable, she thought.

"Like, a lot of pretty. You're pretty on the inside, too."

"On the inside?"

"Yeah. On the inside. You know, your heart."

"M-my heart?"

Luke nodded at his stuffed rabbit. "Yeah. You have a really pretty heart. It beats like a drum. Making music. Like you."

Julie's mouth hung open, surprise silencing her.

"You have the prettiest music in you. I can hear it like -- like a song that gets stuck in my head all day. It's really annoying but it's so pretty. It smells like flowers and it looks like butterflies."

At this point, Julie didn't think she'd be able to speak, even if she knew what to say. Luke was talking to the stuffed animal, frowning as he struggled to voice his thoughts understandably.

"Sometimes it's just so loud and I wanna cover my ears and run away but it just gets louder and louder and then you come over and you're saying something mean but the music is there and it's not so loud anymore but I still can't hear anything else. Your heart sounds like a ballad."

Julie was frozen to her seat at the edge of the bed. Part of her wondered if it was Luke talking or the fever. Part of her desperately hoped it was Luke.

"Julie, you are music."

It was a simple sentence. Anyone could have said it. It could mean a lot or it could mean nothing at all. If anyone else had said it to her, she would have taken it as the highest form of a compliment. But that wasn't what Luke was saying.

Everyone knew that Luke spoke best through lyrics and chords. His books and desks were covered in etched notes and scribbled words. Luke lived and breathed music. It was everything to him. Without it, Luke didn't know who he was.

And he compared it to Julie.

Julie stared at the text on her phone. She bit her lower lip, unsure of what to say in response.

Mom said you visited yesterday. I was dazed for most of it. I didn't say anything stupid or incriminating, right? Not that anything could be more incriminating than the three stuffed animals on my bed.

Ten minutes after that, another had come through. Jules, are you ignoring me? Did I do something?

Then another five minutes later. This is still Julie Molina's number, right?

Julie quickly typed out something before she chickened out again and tossed her phone to the foot of her bed once it was sent.

Hey. Got busy in the kitchen with dad. No, you're good. See you at school tomorrow?

Julie scrambled for her phone to send one last word.

A few streets away, Luke stared at the word 'dork'. He was sure he had said something. He vaguely remembered yapping on about music to Julie -- duh, what else did they share? -- and then suddenly, she wasn't there anymore. He wondered if he'd fallen asleep talking and Julie had left then or if he really had said something to make her leave.

Yeah, he wrote back, see you at school.

Luke cornered Julie as soon as he caught sight of her in the school hallway. "You've been ignoring me and I don't like that."

Julie squeaked. "I most definitely am not ignoring you."

"Julie, you're pretty much the only person in this school that doesn't keep their phone on mute or vibrate. I know you heard my texts yesterday."

"So what if I am?" Julie asked, folding her arms. "We're not friends, so why should you care if I reply to your texts or not? In fact, why were you even messaging me in the first place?"

While Luke fumbled for a response, Julie slipped past him and continued on her way to class.

"Oh, that is just rude!" Luke yelled after Julie.

She ignored him all through any classes they shared and when lunch rolled around, she made sure to sit with Carrie and Flynn at a small table. Luke had never looked more offended in his life as he joined Reggie in sitting with Alex and Willie.

"What did you do on Saturday?" Alex asked, leaning forward to whisper. "Julie was fine when she told us we don't need to come by at all."

"Julie told you not to come over?" Luke asked, ripping his gaze from Julie to Alex and then Reggie, who shook his head.

"Bro, she actually called Alex and told him that we don't need to come see you because she was going to."

"Yeah, I remember her being there but I was drugged up on cough syrup."

"Weak," Alex whispered loudly, grinning when he made Willie laugh.

"Maybe you said something?" Willie suggested.

"Yeah, probably! But she's not talking to me. She's not even insulting me, which I would very much prefer over this apathy."

"You know where she lives," Reggie said dismissively. "Maybe you should pay her a visit."

Luke glanced across the cafeteria to see Julie quickly whip her head down to stare at her fold. "Yeah. Maybe."

Julie was tired and wanted nothing more than to go to sleep. Her plans were thrown way off the rails when she walked into her room and found Luke petering around the shelves beside her bed.

"What are you doing here?"

Luke drew his hand back sharply. "Cute box. What's in it?"

"None of your business," Julie snapped, hurriedly closing her bedroom door. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you but you were ignoring me and--"

"You could've just yelled at me from outside," Julie hissed. "I would have come down to shut you up! You can't be in here. Get out of my room."

"No. Not until you tell me why you've been avoiding me since Saturday. Jules, what--"

"Fine! Go and wait for me in the garage. I'll come talk to you in there."

Luke hesitated, unsure if Julie was serious.

When she heard footsteps getting closer, Julie grabbed Luke by the neckline of his shirt and dragged him to the window. "Get out," she whispered hurriedly, "I'll come down to the garage, I promise."

Thankfully, by the time her father arrived, Luke was gone.

"Who were you talking to, mija?"

"Luke," Julie said with a smile. She pointed at the phone. "He liked the cupcakes I sent with Willie."

"Oh, that's great. You didn't take something yesterday and today? Is he feeling better?"

"Much," Julie said, nodding, "in fact, we have some talking to do, so I'm gonna meet him in the garage in a few minutes."

"So late?"

Julie absolutely could not lie to her dad. But she could do half truths. "It's a long overdue discussion."

"School work?"

Julie shrugged. "Music."

"Ah. The garage makes sense. Well, do you wanna take some food down? Midnight snack?"

"Thanks, dad," Julie said with a smile, "you're the best."

"Oh, your dad is the best!" Luke cried as soon as he saw Julie walk in with a plate of cookies.

"These are experimental, too. They're some kind of oatmeal and choc mint blend. They taste good, in my opinion."

"Everything your dad makes tastes good," Luke said, grabbing three cookies. "My mom's starting to get jealous of how much I love your dad's cooking."

Juli smiled and set the plate down on the coffee table. Was there any point beating around the bush? Sugarcoating things?

"You told me I was music."

Luke paused, one and a half cookies gone. "What?"

Julie kept her gaze trained on the tassels of the carpet. "You told me I'm annoying . . . because I'm pretty. Because I have a pretty heart. You said it beats like a drum and I have the prettiest music in me that gets stuck in your head. It --"

"Smells like spring and looks like butterflies. . ." Luke looked positively mortified.

Julie, refusing to look up, did not notice. "You said . . . you said my heart sounds like a ballad and then -- and then you told me I am music."

Had he really said all that aloud? Well, no wonder Julie was avoiding him like the plague.

Julie tensed up when she could see Luke's feet step in front of her. Almost every part of her screamed that this was wrong. They shouldn't be so close without bickering and fighting. But deeper within, beyond the confines of logic and sense, Luke's voice told her that this was the furthest thing from wrong.

"I said all that? Aloud?"

Julie nodded.

"You know what music is to me."

Julie nodded again.

"Jules," Luke said gently. "Julie, look at me."

Julie refused to, so Luke gingerly tucked his finger under her chin and lifted her head, waiting until her gaze fell on him before speaking.

"You know what music is to me," he said again, prompting another nod from Julie. "Then you know what you mean to me."

Julie blinked a few times and shook her head. "No. No, that's just the fever talking. You -- you didn't really mean all of that."

"If you really believe that, why are you avoiding me?"

"I . . . I don't know."

Luke dropped his hand to take hold of Julie's. He glanced at her, waiting for her to pull away. When she didn't, he interlocked his fingers with hers. "I meant every word. Okay, maybe not literally, but you know what I mean."

Julie shook her head. "We're not even friends, Luke."

"Hm, well, who said I wanted to be your friend?"

Julie wanted to hate Luke. She wanted to loathe the sight of him. She didn't want to like him, let alone love him.

And yet, she did.

So before the overthinker in her could stop her, Julie leaned up on tiptoes and brushed her lips against his. Luke beamed at her like a kid on Christmas morning.

"Not the response I was expecting, but definitely one I'm enjoying."

"Don't make me regret it."

"Yes, ma'am. Now, what are my chances of getting two more? And one for the road? Within the next five seconds becaus my mom doesn't know I snuck out and she think I'm still sick."

"Dork," Julie said fondly, shaking her head.

"I'm serious!"

"You can have two."

"Three."

"Two."

"Four."

"One."

"Two will do," Luke said, letting go of Julie's hands to wrap his arms around her. He gave her a small squeeze. "Plus a hug."

"Dork," Julie said again. But he was her dork and he was her favourite.

Before anyone comes for me about the cough syrup thing, I'm drawing from experience. I mean I never confessed my undying love for anyone but I did blurt out some weird shit. Also, THAT WAS LONG AND IF YOU SURVIVED THE ENTIRE THING, CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU

Mara's masterlist

[i-watched-an-anime-once]

Classic Who Watching Guide: Part One

I've Divided the groups of episodes into arcs that don't match the actual season placement of the old show, instead the arcs closely match with changing staff and each arc has an appropriate final episode as a finale

Key

Essential: This episode has very important plot stuff/character stuff happening.

Must Watch: these are episodes that aren't essential but are considered classics by the wide fandom. They probably have important character moments too.

Reccomended: fleshes out the characters and/or is pretty good! You might be able to get by without them but I wouldn't recommend that.

Optional: doesn't have any super important plot/character stuff and you can get by without them. Watch if they sound interesting to you

Skippable: episodes that are bad. If they shed light on characters I'll say that in the notes.

Avoid: episodes that are really bad/boring

"An Unearthly Child" (Verity Lambert/David Whittaker)

Unearthly Child (ESSENTIAL)

Daleks (ESSENTIAL)

Edge Of Destruction (ESSENTIAL)

Marco Polo (MUST WATCH)

Keys Of Marinus (RECCOMENDED)

The Aztecs (MUST WATCH)

Sensorities (RECCOMENDED)

Reign Of Terror (SKIPPABLE)

Planet Of Giants (OPTIONAL)

Dalek Invasion Of Earth (ESSENTIAL)

Notes:

Marco Polo is missing but is generally considered a classic. I'd reccomend trying to watch the reconstruction to see how you handle Missing episodes in general.

Sensorities is probably one of the weakest of the season but it does give Susan much needed focus despite being all around boring.

Reign of Terror is also missing but its not as good as marco polo.

A few people like reading novelisations of missing episodes instead of watching reconstructions, I haven't read them but I have heard good things about the novelisations for marco polo and reign of Terror.

Reign of Terror has an animation and surviving episodes so I'd Reccomend that way of watching.

"The Rescue" (Verity Lambert/Dennis Spooner)

The Rescue (ESSENTIAL)

Romans (MUST WATCH)

The Web Planet (AVOID)

The Crusade (OPTIONAL)

The Space Museum (ESSENTIAL)

The Chase (ESSENTIAL)

Notes:

The Web Planet is not good imo. The only thing that might make it worth watching is that it's Peter Capaldi's favourite episode of the old show.

The Crusade is partly missing and I have heard that the novelisation is significantly better.

Before Watching a note on Missing episodes: the vast majority of episodes these two next "Seasons" are missing. The missing episodes for the past two seasons were pretty skippable as they don't have any plot important things happening. This does not apply to these seasons.

If you are watching a no missing episodes run here are the episodes you can watch.

The Time Meddler

War Machines

The Tenth Planet (The Final episode is missing but it has a animation and is really essential.)

If you are fine with watching missing episodes then here is the rest of the guide.

"The Masterplan" (Verity Lambert/Donald Tosh AND John Wiles/Donald Tosh)

Note on staff: The time meddler-mission unknown is done by verity/Donald the rest is done by john/Donald

The Time Meddler (ESSENTIAL)

Galaxy 4 (AVOID)

Mission Unknown (ESSENTIAL)

Myth Makers (ESSENTIAL)

The Dalek Masterplan (ESSENTIAL)

Notes:

The only non missing episode this season is the time Meddler.

Mission Unknown has a live action remake and an animation. Both are pretty good ways of watching it but I'd recommend the live action adaptation

Galaxy 4 is getting an upcoming animation. I don't like the story so I'd honestly just Reccomend to skip it.

I've Reccomended the novelisations for people who dont like reconstructions but I would not Reccomend those for mission Unknown/dalek Masterplan

Myth Makers has Shaky audio but I would recommend considering the reconstruction because it has the actors performances and its best to see those performances for this episode. If you do end up reading the novelisation I've heard good things about it.

For Dalek Masterplan you have to watch the reconstruction. It's just very important to hear the original actors performances for this one

Racism warning in dalek Masterplan.

In between season episode

Massacre at St. Barthows Eve (ESSENTIAL)

Notes:

This is done by John Wiles/Donald Tosh but doesn't feel like a finale so I just put it here

It's also missing, I'd recommend the reconstruction over the novelisation.

If you do read the novelisation I have heard good things about it.

"The Tenth Planet" (Early Innes Lloyd/Gerry Davis)

Notes On Staff: The first episode is still done by John wiles/Donald Tosh but it worked as a season opener.

The Ark (SKIPPABLE)

The Celestial Toymaker (OPTIONAL)

Gunfighters (RECCOMENDED)

The Savages (ESSENTIAL)

War Machines (ESSENTIAL)

Smugglers (SKIPPABLE)

The Tenth Planet (ESSENTIAL)

Notes:

The Ark, Gunfighters, War Machines and most of the Tenth Planet are not missing!

Okay maybe the Ark isn't that bad but it's not that good either. If you really want more screentime for the new companion then watch it

I'm torn on Celestial Toymaker. It's really hurt by its missing episode status and is #problematic. I don't even enjoy it, its quite boring. I like how it tries something experimental but other than that 🤷‍♀️. It does introduce a character that does a lot of interesting stuff in the EU but mostly it's just ehhh.

If you're going to watch Celestial Toymaker I'd recommend the reconstruction, not all the episodes are missing after all

Gunfighters is not missing and brings some variety with how it's presented and that makes it worth Reccomending to me

Another watch the reconstruction for the savages

Smugglers is missing and pretty boring. Watch if you're interested about the new companions. If you are going to watch, watch the reconstruction.

The Tenth Planet is essential. The final episode is missing but it has an animation so watch that.

Hope this helps 🥰