#is doctor who really doctor who when no companion disappears

[gallifreywhere]

(In the TARDIS)

Flip: Doctor? Doctor! I...I feel weird.

Six: What? No... Flip! You're... You're fading out!

Flip: What's happening to me? Doctor I'm sorry...

Six: She's gone. One morning and then she's vanished already. That's a record, even for me.

(The Fourth Wall, by John Dorney)

[ontargetmadders]

something about doctor who that never ever gets old no matter how many times you see it is all the different reactions over the years from side characters in the show seeing the tardis dematerializing at the end of the episode. it just makes me smile everytime 💙

[stoat-party]

Fallout 4: Where is the Lone Wanderer?*

*a vague conspiracy theory which doesn’t actually answer the question at hand. We all have our own ideas of how the lore should go, and I’m sure yours is very canon-compliant and valid, but this is mine and I have support for it. Looooongpost.

First off: What do we know about the canon Wanderer?

We know they activated Project Purity (or had a companion do it) without the FEV and were inducted into the Brotherhood. We know they’ve met with MacCready (you can’t finish the game if you don’t), and he has dialogue indicating they had further contact. They also took the Brotherhood’s side at Adams Air Force Base.

We don’t know what happened with The Replicated Man, but since the canon Wanderer appears to have good karma, and info from 4 implies Zimmer’s disappearance was more recent than ten years ago, it seems likely they took the boring ending, which secures their membership in the Railroad.

Why aren’t they in Fallout 4?

The Doylist answer is that they’re highly customizable, and so they have no canon appearance, personality, gender, etc. But in-universe? Something happened.

“Accepting outsiders like yourself has proven disastrous in the past.” - Kells

“I've seen other soldiers come and go. Some were brave, some were honest... hell, some were even downright heroic.” - Danse

“Every doctor I've talked to was worthless. [] I don't need them... I need someone like you.” - MacCready

When Duncan first got sick, “someone like you” would have meant the Wanderer. This suggests (to me) that they’re not in the Capital Wasteland anymore. But they’re certainly not in the Commonwealth either.

The weird thing is that the Lone Wanderer is all over this game - they’re the namesake for a male hairstyle, a perk, a DCR song, a motorcycle brand… and the codename of Deacon’s mission to save the Railroad from certain destruction by recruiting the Sole Survivor.

Someday We’ll Find It, the Deacon Connection

Oh yeah, I’m going here. Desdemona’s terminal entries confirm it was always Deacon’s plan to get you onboard and use you to destroy the Institute. There are Railroad lookout posts near 111/Sanctuary and Red Rocket, and of course he followed you in Goodneighbor, Diamond City, and Bunker Hill (at least). His court jester vibe hides it a bit, but he’s manipulating you more than he’s manipulating Desdemona in the intro scene. And do you notice he rarely gives you a firm verbal disapproval unless you’re hurting the Railroad?

What could have caused Deacon’s interest in you, unless he’s made the connection between you and the Lone Wanderer? He’ll vouch for you if you haven’t accomplished anything yet, or even if you’re a Brotherhood member. A Pip-Boyed stranger emerges from a vault in the middle of a crisis, gaining friends, skills, items, and special abilities at a suspicious rate? Probably with the same gender and playstyle as the previous one? Heck, when he first heard the rumors, he probably thought you WERE the Lone Wanderer.

There are other indications the Railroad has been in contact with them — Desdemona mentions the Capital Wasteland as their primary destination for synths, and Deacon references Harkness’s recall code. If you refuse to pick a codename, Desdemona even assigns you “Wanderer.”

So what happened, then?

I think the answer lies with the Brotherhood, specifically in Deacon’s hatred of them. Sure, ideology is enough to hate them for, but Deacon sure seems suspiciously happy if you nuke their base of operations. (Some of) his comments on that:

“The Brotherhood... well, I met them on an op in Capital Wasteland a few years back. But now with Elder Maxson... Let's just say, not a fan.”

“That bastard Maxson really screwed them up. The Brotherhood used to be the good guys. Well, goodish.”

[Who’s Elder Maxson?] “He’s a piece of work, is what he is.”

And on his time in the Capital:

“Did I ever tell you about the time I was in Capital Wasteland? Now there's a tale.”

“Capital Wasteland. Exports: purified water, some decent tech, oh, and an insane suicidal cult that worships radiation. Thanks, guys.”

“I miss Capital Wasteland. You can actually drink the water there.”

And a few lines I’ve decided (with no evidence) directly refer to LW:

“Last partner I had wound up going... well, a little insane. I think it was all my show tune medleys.”

[After Maxson orders you to hunt Danse down] “See? This is what the Brotherhood's really about.”

And my favorite: “I’ve been looking forward to kicking the Brotherhood’s teeth in. I owe them.” This line comes before Glory is killed, so he’s not referring to that. The Brotherhood only recently arrived in force in the Commonwealth. He’s talking about something that happened in the Capital Wasteland.

So Here’s What Might Have Happened:

In early 2286, Deacon moves to the Capitol Wasteland for awhile, probably to get a face change and lay low for a bit. He contacts the Lone Wanderer, who has barely heard from the Railroad in nine years. They begin to work together.

(In context, this journal entry looks like he’s somehow gathering intel to predict when Vault 111 will open, but I can’t think of a way for him to get that information or know why it’s important, so I’m not going to believe it just yet.)

The Wanderer is still a knight, maybe a paladin. Maxson has been elder for 2-3 years and is monitoring the Institute. Meanwhile, the Lone Wanderer and Deacon are setting up infrastructure to receive escaped synths.

And then the Brotherhood finds out about one of the safehouses. With their limited understanding, they believe that the Institute is holed up there and attack. The Wanderer intentionally throws the mission — maybe disobeys orders, maybe downs a vertibird or collapses a subway tunnel, or maybe even attacks their brothers to protect the synths.

And, well-

Either they were killed, or they escaped court martial and execution by a hair’s breadth and fled the Capital, leaving Deacon to believe Maxson had them killed.

There you have it. That’s why they aren’t in Brotherhood dialogue or records. Their accomplishments couldn’t be recognized because they’re a traitor. And that’s why it’s personal for Deacon.

[kinglivv]

Nicknames

Kate Lethbridge-Stewart x g!n Reader

Summary: The minute you meet Kate Stewart, you christen her “Katie” with a smirk and a shake of her hand. She thinks she hates you for it, until she doesn’t.

Warnings: Implied sex, implied risk of violence

You call her Katie. No one is allowed to call her Katie.

At first, it pisses her off. Every once in a while, you flounce off the TARDIS, trailing after the Doctor, and smile at her a “hi Katie!” because you know it winds her up. You cause whatever necessary destruction to the UNIT office, narrowly avoid an alien invasion and disappear with a “bye Katie!”, leaving her with a migraine and stacks of incident reports.

Her staff think it’s funny, in a sort of distant way because anyone seen mimicking that behaviour would get their head bitten off. Mel finds it bemusing. Kate didn’t even know where you’d gotten it from. The Doctor had introduced you two with a grandiose “this is Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Commander of UNIT and daughter of one of the greatest men I ever knew.” Instead of looking in-awed, you’d smirked, shook her hand and winked “nice to meet you, Katie.”

She tries to ignore it. She won’t be swayed by the Doctor’s companion mocking her, someone half her age and probably half her experience and intellect. She gets on with the job, runs the most clandestine government office excellently and puts up with your visits every once in a while.

It doesn’t strike her just how interesting you might be until she bumps into you at Donna’s birthday doo.

It really wasn’t her scene, parties and late nights. She’d prefer a glass of wine, a book and a bubblebath. But she finds herself at Donna’s house one Saturday evening, celebrating the former companion’s 40th and sat on the sofa chatting with the great and good of the Doctor’s friends. You muscle in through the crowd of bodies, gift bag in hand.

“Hi love!” You cry over the the music and chatter to Mel who’s curled up on the other end of the sofa from Kate, “Where’s the main woman?”

“Oh, out in the garden I think,” Mel waves vaguely, bringing you in for a hug, “chatting with Rose.”

“Ah,” you hold up the bag, “present from the Doctor.”

“The Doctor does presents now?” Kate raises an eyebrow.

“When I remind him to, Katie,” you smile, “you know what he’s like.”

“That’s very caring of you,” her tone is guarded. She doesn’t exactly like you, and she’s prodding.

“He leaves people behind,” you shrug, “they deserve to know they’re remembered.”

Kate watches in confusion as you melt away back into the party.

It doesn’t strike her as flirting until… well.

UNIT picks you up in the middle of the night, sometime late in the autumn. There was an alien incursion imminent and Kate was panicking. They couldn’t find the Doctor anywhere and whilst she resented running to him for help, the dozens of red dots on the radar were blinking closer and closer to Earth. Colonel Ibrahim suggests the next best thing - you of all people would know where the Doctor was.

They track your location, Kate sends out a team and not fifteen minutes later, you stumble into the control room.

When she says stumble, she means it. You’re in a little dress, heels and… tipsy.

“Seriously,” she says to Ibrahim, “Kraxon invasion on the horizon and this is the solution you’ve brought me?”

He merely shrugs. “You asked for them,”

“Katie!” You swagger over to her where she’s sat at her desk with a pout. “You interrupted my night out.”

“Yes, well, sorry about that,”

You lean on her desk grinning down at her. She notices that your eyes are a much lighter E/C than she thought.

“You asked for me?” you stage-whisper. You cross your legs, skirt riding up to show more thigh.

“There’s a bit of a situation-“

“You know if you wanted to see me you could just call,”

“Do you need a coffee or something to sober you up, because -“

“Did you say Kraxon?” You interrupt. She sees something click in you and you look up at the screen looming over the room.

“Yes,” she stands up, suddenly feeling a little too hot and a desperate need to put some space between you two. “They’re coming from the east - we think Mars. We’ve been tracking them for days and so far all defences have failed. We’re reaching the eleventh hour with this and we were hoping you might know where to find the Doctor.”

You don’t look like you’re listening. You’re staring at the screen intently.

“Y/N, we really don’t have -“

“Radiation,” you say.

“Radiation?” She repeats.

“They’re extremely susceptible to it. Can you defences field them towards… say Chernobyl? That will finish them right off.” You swing your legs a little.

Kate looks at you. At the screen. At Colonel Ibrahim. She swears under her breath - of course.

“Get to it,” she nods to him, and the command deck springs into action. In the middle of it all, you sit smiling at her. The colour of the dress really does brings out your eyes. She wants to hate you, tottering into her office, wearing something incredibly distracting and solving the headache that’s been keeping her awake for days.

“Thank you,” she offers, squeezing your arm.

You smirk at her, and she’s fairly certain you’re too intoxicated to fully comprehend what you’ve just done.

“Anything for you Katie,”

After that, you play on her mind constantly.

Kate tries not to think about it, but you’re everywhere. In her dreams, her case reports. She can’t stop thinking about you in that dress, that cheeky smile. “Katie,” echoes in her head and suddenly she doesn’t hate it as much as she once thought she did. It’s a teenage infatuation - she’s never felt it before. Not for her son’s father, not for her ex-wife. It’s borderline embarrassing, and she does her best to ignore it, giving you cold stares when you flirt and deflecting Mel’s pointed questions. She was the Commander in Chief of the Unified Intelligence Task Force. She was not lusting after one of the Doctor’s companions just because they had some brains and showed a bit of skin.

It doesn’t strike her as anything serious until the Toymaker incident.

It was only meant to be a demonstration so you and the Doctor could fully comprehend the severity of the situation. However, she hadn’t quite considered in that moment what she might say once under the influence of the Toymaker’s waveform.

She takes off the Zeedex.

“Hi,” says the Doctor.

“Hi…” she frowns.

“How was your day?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Just curious,” you pipe up.

“You’re nosy,” she snaps. “All you do is talk.”

“What if I like talking to you, Katie?”

“Don’t call me that!” Kate snaps. She begins to move towards you and thats when the guards grab her and snap it back on.

She comes back to herself. She looks at you and sees the tears in your eyes, and you see the moment she registers how she’s made you feel. She opens her mouth to say something, but someone else gets there first and she’s left listening to them like white noise, still staring at you.

Once it’s all over, she catches you in the corridor between the control room and the her office. She can’t bear the thought of you upset, and she grabs your arm before you can disappear and before she can think to hard.

“Sorry,” she stammers, “about earlier.”

“It’s okay,” you reply.

“No,” she shakes her head, “I’m really sorry.”

“It’s alright,”

“I could see you were upset.”

“You didn’t mean it.”

“I’m not sure you know that,” her hand is still on your arm, rubbing circles.

You look away, up the corridor, shifting slightly beneath her grip.

“Do you really hate the nickname Katie?” You whisper.

She frowns. “That’s it? That’s what’s bothering you?”

“It’s nothing,” your guard slams shut and you move to pull away, but her hand tightens.

“I don’t mind it,” she confesses. “I mean, I hated it. Initially. But now… now not so much,”

She’s close. She’s close and she shouldn’t be, because she’s meant to be the serious, in-control boss. She has a reputation, priorities…

You lean up and kiss her. It’s light and cautious, a mere few seconds as your hand cradles her face and all thoughts leave her brain. When you pull back, she doesn’t move, breath ghosting your lips.

And then she surges back in and effectively pins you to the wall. She kisses you like she’s dreamed about, like she’s wanted to for months, even if she hadn’t admitted it to herself. Your arms wrap around her and you kiss her like she’s oxygen, like you’d die in this moment without her to anchor you. You probably really would have died that day if it weren’t for her and you whimper against her lips, feeling her warm and alive beneath your hands. You want her clothes gone, you want to drag her into her office, you want -

There’s a cough. You break apart and the Doctor smirks from the end of the corridor. “You wanting dropped home or what?”

After that, the nickname “Katie” strikes her as a prayer.

It’s a whisper in the dark, it’s a moan against her neck as she does whatever sinful things she wants to you. It’s a murmur in crisp sheets, it’s a laugh at the dinner table. It’s her name in your phone and it’s written at the top of Christmas cards. Katie is synonymous with you. She can go out there, be Commander Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, and come home to you and be your Katie. Without you, Katie doesn’t exist and she isn’t anyone.

You spend a lot of time around her lately. The Doctor’s moving on - some girl called Ruby, Kate thinks - but you don’t seem to mind or notice. You’ve got a job at UNIT now, and Kate’s rather glad you’re posted a few floors below her because she’s not sure she could manage with the distraction at work as well as at home. You wake her up with cups of tea and kisses in the morning, and greet her in evenings with dinner and - if she’s lucky - matching underwear beneath your clothes. Her obsession with you shifts from lust to something more serious without Kate quite realising. More and more of your stuff has gravitated into her flat. Her grown-up kids have started asking questions.

She comes home one evening and finds you stood at the stove, stirring a pan and humming along to something on the radio. She dumps her handbag on the table, wraps an arm around your waist and presses her chin into the crook of your neck.

“Hello darling,”

“How was work?” You twist your head and press a kiss into blonde hair.

“The usual. What’s cooking?”

“Spaghetti bolognese,”

“Delicious,”

You snort. “It’s the third time I’ve made it this week, babe,”

“I’ve not had time to food shop,” she groans, “a task for Saturday.”

“We’ve gone all domestic,” you tease. It was true. What had started as a rather physical infatuation with Kate Stewart had at some point melted into easy co-habitation. She was a different women these days to the one you’d met on that control deck. Warmer. Free.

“Yeah well,” Kate’s thumb rubs circles in it’s all too familiar habit, “for that to be true you’d have to move in with me.”

“Oh?”

“What do you think?” She squeezes your side.

“A million times yes, Katie.”

[raz-writes-the-thing]

Merry Christmas, Doctor (Doctor Who Drabble)

Tenth Doctor x GN!Reader / requests are open

Summary: The Doctor plans a Christmas holiday

Fic type: mild hurt/comfort

DW: @nyxiethesimp @quickslvxrr @midnight--raine @blueberry-sunshines @stevekempscocktails @go-bonkers-go-foolish @peytonpenguin37 @yeethaw13 @complimentary-breadbasket @thekirbishow @stilestotherescue @madspads @catlynharper@merrilark @jaziona92 (send an ask to be added to a tag list!)

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

You’d heard tales whispered from one end of the universe to the other, of course- the Doctor. He was a myth, relatively, but more and more tales emerged over time, and you’d heard gossip in the markets or in town halls. 

But who was he? Did he exist? Was he real and did he really save all those people? 

People over and over again from any and all corners of the universe whispered stories of heroics, damnations- a hero. The Doctor was a hero in almost all the tales. 

You’d never even entertained the thought for a moment that you’d meet him. Which, in hindsight, would have been a good thing. Just like in the tales, he saved your town from a maniacal alien race hellbent on enslaving your planet. 

He was everything in those stories and songs and more, too. But- to you, he seemed sad. He’d travelled here alone, and there had been whisperings of a human- or was it a flower? That had travelled with him for a time. 

But this companion was nowhere to be seen. 

When you’d approached him about it, there’d been a very real and very fresh flash of pain that wove through his features and disappeared under the seams again. He just smiled softly and replied- 

“Oh yes, my Rose. My brilliant Rose. She’d be absolutely chuffed to know she made it into the songs, you know.” 

He did his best to cover the hurt and the pain there, but you saw it anyway. You were well-attuned to that sort of thing, after all.

“I’m sure she would,” you answered truthfully. You knew better than to ask why his Rose wasn’t with him, but you couldn’t help but wonder. 

“Think I might go back and see her for Christmas,” he added, seemingly mostly to himself. “She’d love that.”

Something about his expression told you he wasn’t telling you the whole truth. It wasn’t that he just hadn’t seen her in a while, it was that he couldn’t. Another thing you could see was something that you shouldn’t bring up. Someway, somehow, she was out of his reach. 

“Yes, you should go see her,” you smiled comfortingly, knowing the truth behind that wishful lie. The Doctor had grinned back, promised to deliver your love, and flown away in his little blue box. 

And as he’d turned his back and closed the door to his ship, your fingers twitched- an essence of the Old Ones flowing through you and into the Doctor. Just a fraction of magic to ensure that they saw each other at least one last time. 

“Merry Christmas, Doctor.”

[qiutls]

TNGDH 021

After doing it a few times during the festival, it was now easy to avoid Kyle's eyes and turn into a person. In the first place, except for that day when I met with Sen, I've been spending hours together with him, so I had no time to worry about getting caught.

"You're a magician?"

"Yes, but I'm not that talented, I just do this and that..."

"I see."

I drank the tea and ate the scones he prepared while I lied nonchalantly.

I'm sorry for lying but it's better this way, just in case I need a cover-up in the future.

If Kyle goes on an expedition, there would be a good excuse to accompany him. If he goes on to subjugate demonic beasts as written in the novel, as a magician, I can go with him.

"Rather than that, can you really spend time with me like this? Don't you have any work to do?"

"Do you want me to leave?"

"No....."

I'm not making you leave ah. I'm just wondering if you're really this free. It seems like the grand duke has a suspicion disease after I disappeared unexpectedly twice.

I turned my head, slightly guilty at the situation. Then his hand reached out and turned my face back to look at him.

"It's polite to look at each other's face while talking."

"I'm sorry I'm a man who isn't well versed in aristocratic manners."

"You should learn from now on."

"Why should I?"

He came closer and whispered.

"Aren't you my companion?"

A sin committed once lasts a lifetime. I looked at him miserably.

'How many times has it been now?'

Even beef bones won't be used as much as Kyle uses this companion comment. He has been using it to blackmail me whenever I tried to avoid answering his questions or to leave early.

You're someone who died without a companion in the original novel. Is that why you're obsessed with companions? To be honest, it's not that you didn't want to date anyone, it's that you couldn't right?

My mouth was itching to shoot back the comment at him but I forced myself to hold it in. Kyle who has been staring at me suddenly let out an airless laugh. He had a strange yet comforting smile plastered on his face. His bright expression pulled me in and before I knew it I had been staring at him as well.

"I feel comfortable with you."

"....."

"I know it probably sounds strange, don't think too much about it."

I have nothing to say if you tell me those words with such a soft smile.

Are you doing this on purpose?

I couldn't do anything except stare at him, I only came to my senses when he offered another scone to me.

"Since you're a magician, can you take a look at my magical beast? You can take a look at it whenever you're free."

I was about to bite into the scone then stopped after hearing Kyle's unexpected words.....That's strange. Did you just ask me, to take a look after.....ME?

I put down the scone and asked him again, this time listening with full attention.

"...What?"

"I asked if you could take a look at the magical beast I'm raising in the study."

I guess I didn't hear it wrong.

Looking alternately at the scone in my hand and at Kyle, my appetite dropped. Even though the desert looked delicious, I felt like I would get an upset stomach if I ate it now.

But Kyle didn't seem to mind my actions and continued pensively.

"I'm worried because he doesn't seem to have any appetite recently. And he's been lazy as well. He used to be a very active guy..."

Don't edit your memories ah! When have I been active? Apart from running on the wheel in order to get the skill, I was always lying down! You don't even know your own hamster.

"I think it's because, it's already in the growing stage, yet there's no signs of a mana stone forming inside him. I decided to periodically inject magic power (mana) as advised by the doctor but..."

".....Magic power?"

What's this? Who told you to do that?

"Since it's inevitable that it will suffer from the mana injected, I thought it would be a good idea to let you meet it and see if you can help."

"What...."

What? What's this situation?!

I can't even say no to his requests..... I closed my mouth and urgently called the system.

Hey! HEY! Hurry up and come here!

[ ……(*￣０￣)ノ ]

Why do you look like you've just woken up? I clenched my fist and looked at the blue system window in front of me.

'Hurry up and navigate to the Fruit Store or whatever it's called!'

[ ……. ] [ ……. ] [ ☆*: .｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆ ] [ The Nut Store! ]

After a bit of loading, the shiny emoji came into my vision. I clicked my tongue upon seeing the decorated sign below it. Don't you get tired doing all of this?

I ignored the small letters that said renewal open and quickly scanned the store.

[ Mini mini Brazil Nut Madeleine, consumes 2% miracle value, in turn your body gets smaller for 30 minutes. It's even smaller than a hamster! ]

[ Hurried Almond Financier, consumes 3% miracle value, in turn you're able to run faster than usual. ]

Give me something useful please, what's the point of these items ah? If I wanted to be small, I'll just turn back into a hamster.

I finished reading page 1 and was about to turn into page 2 when I heard Kyle sigh.

"A magician, you say..."

"What are you thinking about, Your Highness?"

"I just thought, it's quite a relief."

"Why?"

"There has always been a shortage of magicians in the Blake estate. It hasn't been long since I became the leader, and I've had a lot of accidents at the Wyvern nest survey last year."

He looked at me expectantly.

No, I can't think of an excuse. Stop looking at me with such a face. How am I supposed to hold my ground, my expression turned to guilt. 

I moved my hand to cover his eyes, but of course my feeble efforts were rendered useless in just three seconds as Kyle held my wrist in place.

"The work at the estate is hard. I'm really so busy these days."

I made a vague excuse first, just in case he asks for another favor.

Even though the "Summon" skill was upgraded, it was only up to two hours. I can't do much with the time I'm given, and it's not like I can lie everyday that I need to go to the bathroom before I disappear again.

"....Is that so?"

Kyle's face was tinted with disappointment. I felt apologetic seeing this unfamiliar expression on him.

Why are you so disappointed ah? I'm a fake magician who can't even do basic spells. The only spell I know is how to turn into your hamster, Cashew Nut.

'Can you even consider that as a magic spell?'

The system just transforms me back and forth.

In any case, it's better to find a magician who's actually knowledgeable, rather than choosing me. But still... If you're this disappointed.

I added gently, as if teeming with good intentions.

"There's still enough time to look for magicians before the demonic beasts' subjugation expedition happens."

There was something that came to mind after I said that sentence.

The Northern festival was held during the coldest and darkest days of winter. After this tumultuous atmosphere, the Blake estate started preparing for a massive reconnaissance.

There are many reasons for this reconnaissance, the main purpose was to bring back the vigilance that was loosened during the festival. It was a reminder that no matter how good the life in the North is, it is still a dangerous place full of demonic beasts.

Another reason is probably the training of the newly inaugurated knights. At this time of the year, knights who were apprentices in the past will get to experience combat since their inauguration.

"The ceremony for the new knights....."

Kyle replied slowly,

"We did it during the festival, I remember it was pretty big this year since there was a lot of new recruits."

"Haha... I think I was pretty busy back then."

Kyle glanced at me suspiciously. I know I didn't have anything to be busy about, but just forget about it, let's move on! I ignored his piercing gaze as I recounted the events.

A knight's inauguration that was larger than usual.

The chandelier dropping in the middle of the banquet.

And then, a large scale reconnaissance.

I'm pretty sure at this time, Kyle...

[ The Duke of Blake is attacked during the reconnaissance and suffers a heavy injury on his right arm. ]

The system narrated the content from the original novel.

I asked a question quietly. 

'Will this injury, affect how he dies?'

After a moment of silence, the system answered succinctly.

[ That's right. ]

The sentence shone brightly in blue and it gave me chills. His fated death struck me with renewed vividness.

'Right...'

Kyle's death is now just 15 days away.

According to the original story, he started to confront Belial through the chandelier incident, and was attacked at the reconnaissance. Then he was stabbed to death by a strong man at his own castle.

Just because I changed a small part of the plot, doesn't mean I changed his fate entirely. Miracles don't happen that easily.

What now... What should I do?

"Hey."

"....."

"Shu."

"....."

"Shu!"

Kyle put his palms around my cheeks and I came to my senses when his cold hands touched my skin.

"Ah."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

I took a quick breath and tried to move my stiff fingertips.

"I'm alright."

He didn't seem to believe my words, but he didn't pressure me into confessing.

"I was just thinking about something for a moment."

Kyle frowned at my words.

"What were you thinking about that made you so pale?"

I couldn't answer honestly so I just shut my mouth.

Come to think of it, I always avoided his questions this way. Either I start talking fast, saying random excuses or I just shut up entirely. It must look suspicious.

But it can't be helped. Anyways, I changed the subject as naturally as I could and leaked the plan I had in mind in advance.

"Your Highness, may I follow you on this large-scaled reconnaissance?"

He answered straight away, as if it was not a difficult decision.

"Sure, but have you ever been outside the territory?"

"No."

"The north is much more dangerous than you think. At the snowfield, humans are the first learn how weak they are."

"....."

The outside, is entirely different from the Blake estate, as the grand duke described.

I gulped down and looked him in the eye.

"It will all be alright if Your Highness is there to protect me."

Protect me, Kyle, and I'll protect you. You might not know, but our fates are linked. Our survival depends on each other.

Kyle whispered back.

"Do you trust me?"

"Isn't it natural that the people of this land trusts you?"

"I know."

He said with a mischievous smile on his face.

"But I was asking you."

Acting like a hooligan. You already know the answer.

I squinted at him, pretending to look hateful.

"Of course."

"All right, I'll be responsible in protecting you, but, how are your horseback riding skills?"

"Ah."

Well how should I explain this... During our school trip, they went to Jeju Island and everyone rode a pony, but I was left behind doing homework at school.

Before I could answer anything, he added.

"Actually, it would be difficult to ride alone with your injury."

Fortunately, he didn't seem to think of leaving me behind.

But wait, what? Don't tell me? You're thinking of giving me a ride?! In front of all the new recruits??? Wait, no!

'.....Should I not have told him that I wanted to join?'

I bit my lips in order to calm down the goosebumps on my arms.

"....Thank you for being considerate, Your Highness."

When he leaves, I must learn horseback riding immediately!

t/n : longest chapter yet! thank u for all the ko-fis~ also posting twice today since I might not be able to do so tomorrow!

[anotherwatchedninja]

I feel like people forget Time Lords are the same person across every incarnation.

like, ‘14’ even says that it’s not dying. Same memories, same thoughts about people, sometimes expressing something they can’t, not being able to say something they used to.

Think back to you 10 years ago.

You're probably a very different person now compared to then, but you're also not at the same time.

You probably talk differently now, you see the world differently, you might believe different things.

When The Doctor regenerates, that's the level of change that is done but in a few seconds instead of a decade.

Fundamentally you’re still the same person, and you’ve probably retained most of your core beliefs and interests, but you’ve also grown and learnt more about the world; altering many of your less integral values, and even possibly some of you more integral ones.

you could attribute it to a line from one of the novelisations, where the doctor attributes his lack of control over regeneration (and as we can imply, how bad of a post-regen situation he has) is because he didn’t pay enough attention in regeneration lessons.

I think for the Doctor it's like if you woke up and were suddenly 8 again, with all your 8-year-old impulses and personality and likes/dislikes, but your current memories.

The Doctor is always the Doctor. There's no "2nd Doctor" or "10th Doctor" or "14th Doctor." they're all the same person. Just because someone gets clobbered on the head and wakes up from the resulting brain damage knowing fluent German doesn't mean they disappeared and a new person took their place. His brain gets a shake-up, and his appearance changes, but it's still the same person all together.

I think all the media hype about the actors playing the role, and this weird regeneration for the 60th, kind of make it hard to remember that. For the Doctor, it's one continuous line of consciousness. 10 didn't die and wake up again with 13's memories, because there is no 10, there is no 13, there is only The Doctor. We number their faces but they're one person.

And it's confirmed by what he said immediately after the regeneration. He didn't say, "I'm alive!" or "How did I get here?" or something along those lines. He said, "I know these teeth." He realises that he's reverted to an earlier form, but he hasn't forgotten the intervening forms.

It seems to change not just from writer to writer, but Doctor to Doctor. 9 didn't seem to think of his 'death' as the end by any stretch. 10 considered them different people that shared memories, while 11 seemed to see more continuity and connection from incarnation to incarnation. 12 similarly was refusing to regenerate because he wanted to end it, a pointless position unless he saw 'the next Doctor' as still being him. 13 seemed to lean more towards the individual incarnation view, as she felt in necessary to say goodbye to Yaz.

And this is just the Doctor, a single Time Lord. We've seen extremes from literal dissociation from incarnation to incarnation with the One through Union (aka the collective, but that’s due to their condition), to Romana trying on new faces line a human would a new outfit, or how the monk tries to act like their past selves are different people to shift the blame and get away free from the consequences, or how six was post-regen

I just really don't like the idea of them being separate people, which unfortunately does seem to be RTD's interpretation from 10's line of regeneration feeling like dying, and a new man sauntering away. To me that devalues the idea of the Doctor being the same person from 1963 until today. They're the same person, who have been through the events of every single episode, and remember them and all the companions there travelled with.

If they were different people, them meeting former companions just doesn't have the same weight either. 10 for example becomes someone who just knows of Sarah Jane instead of being the same person who travelled with her.

But that doesn't mean it can't still be confusing when an old face returns. It's something that's never happened to the Doctor before, and perhaps it's something that he's never heard of happening to other Timelords either. So when it does happen he's very confused because he immediately knows who this new version of himself is, instead of having to go through the usual self discovery at the start of each incarnation.

I remember from an audio story (I think Sirens of Time), one of the Doctors (i say DOCTORS because time travel) said something along the lines of this: Take every trait of their personality is like a bar graph. Kindness, courage, alienness, anger threshold, etc. each have their own bar on the graph. Each regeneration is essentially the same personality but the bars could be altered with some traits more emphasized in a new face than the previous one.

Some examples of what I mean.

10 and 11 are examples of the alienness trait being skewed in opposite directions, where I feel Smith is more alien-like in his physical behavior than Tennant is. 12 and 13 still have this trait but it’s viewed more subtly through social interactions.

6 and 12 were less on the kindness scale but increased over time. 10, 11, and 13 seemed to have that kindness trait more emphasized.

Anger threshold /emotional control can get thrown multiple ways if a respective Doctor is impulsive and expressive vs bottling it up and letting it simmer. I feel like there are many examples to pull from off this alone.

There could be more obvious ones I’m missing but these spring to mind. I do like this interpretation since it lets you know it’s the same person but just aspects can be more emphasized than others across their different incarnations.

I like to think it’s just the same person at different points in their life - hell, we aren’t the same person at 18 that we are in our 30’s, or even the same person we are in our 40’s that we were at 30.

Life changes you, sometimes you’re goofy, sometimes you’re callow, and sometimes you’re stern. In DW terminology: you’re a quirky thief, then a person who has to kill everything they know, and then you become a person capable of finding some solace in life… then to a whole new person.

From the doctor’s point of view I believe they think they are the same person, they don’t differentiate between selves. Think of 12 near his start when 11 phoned Clara, he says he didn’t need to eavesdrop because it was him talking and that she looks at him but can’t see him.

Now this doesn’t mean the doctor doesn’t remember the traits each regeneration has, and this can manifest in their subconscious as talking to their different regenerations; but that’s no different than you talking to yourself in your head.

like, it’s even implied 14 will eventually become 15

[genshin-hsr-rambles]

I see you have a Genshin Impact modern/school au on ao3… But do you have a Honkai: Star Rail modern au? If you do, I’d love to hear about it. I’m a sucker for modern aus that are so fluffy and fun it makes me forget about canon angst :’)

I do have something of a Modern AU, though it isn’t really a school au. Some characters do attend school and college, but most don’t. I haven’t really fleshed out all of the characters enough to have written anything fics for it yet, but I definitely want to once I have. The whole au is very found family-esque. I can tell you about the Astral Express crew!

Stelle and Caelus are the latest employees at the Astral Espresso, an old cafe that switched owners and was renovated a few years ago. They have complicated relationships with their family (the Stellaron Hunters) and have moved out together to start their own lives together, away from their family’s influence. Luckily, they were both able to land full-time positions at the Astral Espresso to support themselves. Stelle and Caelus have been considering starting college, though want to attend the same course and can’t seem to agree on a major.

Dan Heng is a part-time employee at the Astral Espresso, and part-time History major in college. Originally Dan Feng, he unfortunately got into a severe workplace accident and suffers from memory loss. As time passes, his memories gradually come back in fragments. Regardless, he has gone by Dan Heng ever since and sees himself as a different person altogether, determined to live his own life regardless of who he used to be. He is the somewhat reluctant legal guardian (and biological parent, though he’s in denial) of Bailu and took up work at the Astral Espresso to provide for them both in his college years.

March 7th is yet another employee of the Astral Espresso. She works full-time at the cafe, though dreams of becoming a professional photographer. In the mean time, has become something of a social media influencer in her free time, even collaborating with the likes of Guinaifen and Sushang. Much like Dan Heng, she too suffers from memory loss and seeks to make the most of her life. However unlike him, her memories have not returned at all. She has no clue why she lost her memories or who she was before she did, neither do her doctors.

Himeko is the new owner of the Astral Espresso. She is an ambitious woman who renovated the entire store to return it to its former glory, whilst also modernising it to appeal to all varieties of customers. Himeko was good friends with the cafe’s previous owner, Akavili, though admittedly knew very little about them. When they suddenly disappeared, the cafe was left in Himeko’s name. Himeko is determined to continue her friend’s legacy and also forge a legacy of her own.

Welt is a part-time animator, and part-time worker at the Astral Espresso. A close friend of Himeko’s, he was one of the first employees to be hired alongside a certain blonde companion after she took over the cafe. Coincidentally, Welt came to adopt a young child affectionately known as Pom-Pom around the time of Akavili’s disappearance. He frequently brings Pom-Pom with him when working at the Astral Espresso, though the child is too young to work themself.

That’s pretty much the basics on the Astral Express Crew. If you’re curious about any other characters or want to know more about these characters, feel free to send in an ask. I have lots of ideas and not much to do with them yet.

[lanawinterscigarettes]

The Masters + finding rocks that match the color of each other's eyes

Characters included: Simm, Missy/Gomez, and Dhawan

Warnings: some cute and romantic fluff, brief mentions of light hearted threats/violence (it's The Masters, what do you expect), brief swearing

A/N: for anyone who doesn't understand the context here basically there was a trend on tiktok where you and your partner or friend look for rocks that match the colors of each other's eyes and I thought that would be a cute thing to write with the masters (if y'all want me to do a version with the doctors or the companions then just lemme know)

Simm! Master

Absolutely does not want to do it with you at first I'm sorry

He needs to be either tricked or bribed, or you need to catch him at a moment when he's already feeling vulnerable

Honestly it'll most likely end up being the former of the two

Bribe him with extra kisses and cuddles. It'll work, even if he does still complain

Doesn't actually look for the right rock color at first, he just wants to throw rocks at other people instead

Gets mad when you tell him to stop and (lovingly) threatens to stone you

As soon as he finds the one he's looking for he wants to leave immediately, even if you're still searching. He does not care

Acts like he doesn't know what happened to the rock he found that matches the color of your eyes when you ask him about it later on (he snuck it in his pocket and stares at it every night before he falls asleep)

Missy/Gomez! Master

She'd be the most excited out of all of them honestly, even if she doesn't show it on the outside

I'm a firm believer that Missy is a true romantic at heart and actually really loves cliche couple activities okay

Ends up taking you to a stony beach or rock covered planet with her TARDIS, wanting to make a day of it

She doesn't rush you when searching, mostly because she also doesn't want to be rushed

Spends her time finding a rock that matches the color of your eyes perfectly, and if you can't find one that matches hers then she'll help you look

She wants to sit with you on a blanket and hold hands while watching the sunset <3

Later she finds something that'll turn the rock she found that matches your eyes into a piece of jewelry that way she can always have a part of you with her

Dhawan! Master

He doesn't need to be bribed like Simm! Master does, but it will definitely take some persuading

Refuses to let you choose where you're going to search. It's his TARDIS, and he'll take you wherever he wants lmao

Says he doesn't want to spend all day looking, but then does just that because he's a perfectionist who refuses to settle for anything that's not the best, especially when it comes to you

Grumbles under his breath the entire time he's searching because he gets upset when he doesn't find the 'right' rock as soon as possible

If you help him look not only will his frustration disappear he'll also get calmer and maybe even give you a kiss as a thank you

He ends up leaving with an entire bag full of rocks because he couldn't decide on just one, so now he has a whole collection of them that's literally just your eye color

Likes < reblogs | comments are greatly appreciated <3

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🏷 taglist: @theonetruepotato87

[leonawriter]

I was just reminded of my brief P5/Doctor Who crossover I did during my first shuake week, and ever since I've thought I could have done better on it.

Just now, I thought - what if not long after we last see Akechi, he and the people who were guarding(?) him got caught up in something. The others end up dead (killed by aliens!) and Akechi survives because he gets caught up in the (Fifteenth) Doctor's shenanigans and somehow ends up helping to save the world (again).

Hence he is disappeared and goes "missing" for about a year or two, with everyone else assuming he died either in the Metaverse back when, or in the Tokyo disaster with the aliens, while he's actually off exploring new planets, saving worlds, and yeah sure a few people DO know he's alive, but it's like... UNIT, and Donna, and the other companions, and... not anyone who's really in Japan.

They land back in Japan at just the right time and place for them to bump into Akira again and at first the Doctor thinks he's going to get punched again, but then, nope- it's Akechi who gets punched, admits maybe he deserved it, and all while the Doctor is going "Oh, ooooh.... maybe I should have asked if someone was waiting. I really should have."

[what-gs-watching]

“Breathe it in baby, because I am EXUDING and I am one of a kind.”

Okay so, I fell behind in Doctor Who because I’ve been job searching for like seven fucking months and a few weeks ago one came up that could be a good fit so I was trying to super focus on doing well through the interview loop even though I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to amount to anything because I’d gone through a ton of interview loops by that point but 

Y’ALL, I GOT THAT JOB! My horrible, soul-sucking ordeal is finally over, the paperwork is signed and I have a start date and everything has settled. Which means, I can finally catch up on 15 and my girl Ruby. 

Let’s gooooo!

73 Yards

Alright, I know there was upset around this episode because everyone is like ‘what the eff does it mean?’ but ooooh, I really enjoyed it. It was creepy as HELL and it just never stopped.

Wherein, Ruby and the Doctor pop over to Wales (this mofo really spends much too much time in Wales) and while on a cliffside, he steps on something AGAIN!!!!! and everything goes wrong.

Baby boy, did you not learn anything from the mine? Do you not take a scan around when you land somewhere, or are you just too excited about being adorable in your little yellow jacket and the hat and the stripes? You look fantastic, I get it, but peep down at those cute ass boots once in a while. 

I have to say, I’m impressed by Millie Gibson in this episode. It’s a lot of pressure to put on her to carry the entire thing, and she did it really well. How devastating is it to have your best friend disappear, realize you’re being followed by some crazy apparition that literally scares anyone and everyone away from you? 

Without any explanation. That’s the part that gets me. She becomes a piranha with this horrific THING attached to her and everyone she begs for help leaves her. Eve her MOTHER! It’s a mind fuck.

And I really wasn't sure where the episode was going, so I was excited for Kate Lethbridge-Stewart to show up, I was like ‘yeah let’s get UNIT into this mess’ and then she’s affected too and oh hell, that’s like, the last line of defense. 

Ruby, completely and utterly alone. And they just make her live out her entire life like that. And she tries to fix it, of course, the whole thing with the Welsh politician was a really good attempt babe, I would have done the same thing but then that doesn’t even work?!

And so everyone is all ruffled because, what was the point of it, really? What was the message, what was the meaning??!

Was she actually the apparition? If not, who was she? And then, it just ends and none of it ever really happened at all and there’s absolutely no resolution. 

Why do we love making companions live these horrible alternate timelines? How many times did we make Amy live different lives? I feel like she at least remembered most of them. But with Ruby in this one, there’s no lesson. She learns nothing, neither of them do.

But still, I loved the creeping sense of unease, so I guess I don’t really need all the details.

Dot and Bubble

I’m simultaneously annoyed and intrigued by shows that keep telling me allegories about the dangers of technology and how dependent we are on it. So far, it’s mostly been annoyed, but oh my god y’all really hit the nail on the head with this one.

Wherein, a bunch of privileged youths are existing in a perfect society that enables them to basically LIVE social media, literally surrounded by a bubble that feeds them other people’s inanity all day long. 

One thing I have to say about this episode is that the angles are something else. Lindy, the girl we’re seeing everything through is alternately absolutely beautiful, and kind of weird looking? She’s got perfect social media face. Is that a weird thing to say? I stand by it. It’s like she’s covered in the perfect ring light. It was distracting. And probably part of the point. 

Basically, this girl has no idea that there are monsters in her fake ass society that are eating her friends, and she is very not into the Doctor and Ruby trying to help her. Like, they’re trying to get her out of danger, only to find out that she doesn’t have any idea how to walk without wearing her ‘bubble’ is so deeply disturbing. Watching this girl say “forward” to convince herself to move is amazing and upsetting on a lot of different levels. 

And then out of nowhere, media star Ricky September shows up and he literally starts giving her directions like the bubble would do and I’m like ‘okay that’s interesting’, we’re subverting the idea that this incredibly popular personality is a vapid idiot because it turns out he READS and he’s taking pity on this girl that is literally a shell of a person without the aid of technology. And it was so sweet. 

Basically, this episode is infuriating because at one point Lindy hugs Ricky and tells him she’s never been hugged before (even though we know she at least has a mother) but THEN later, when the Doctor tells her everyone is being killed in alphabetical order and Ricky is trying to fight off the dot that is literally trying to murder her, she RATS HIM OUT. His real last name starts with C, he should be dead already. 

Confusingly innocent and absolutely cut throat at the same time? I guess if you live your entire life exclusively online you don’t go through things that would actually cultivate compassion? Which honestly, is not an unfounded idea. That should make y’all feel queasy. 

And to make it all exponentially worse, they flat out tell the Doctor they can’t accept his help because he’s not “one of us”. Just straight up, really gross, really overt racism. 

15, honey, I get it, but please  don’t beg racists to let them save you. You’re too good for this world, babes. That gut wrenching shout though? Absolute perfection. And the tears. You marvelous thing. 

TL;DR Humanity is disgusting and technology will continue to feed our uglier tendencies. I felt that one deep in my damn bones.

Rogue

Okay hear me out. This episode is EVERYTHING. 

Y’all know I have a thing for boys in love. And I also have a thing for the Doctor flirting with basically anyone. I don’t particularly have a thing for the regency era necessarily, but I AM about incredible costumes and ridiculous plots. 

I was honest to god squealing this entire episode.

Wherein, 15 and Ruby show up to a ball in 1813 so they can pretend they’re in Bridgerton, meet a handsome young bounty hunting rake, talk a LOT about cosplaying, and deal with bird???! aliens???

There are a million details I loved in this one. The orchestra playing an instrumental version of “Bad Guy” and then later “Pokerface”. The absolutely incredible suit they put on 15. 

Not to mention: JONATHAN GROFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Loved him in Mindhunter, loved him in Glee (before it got absolutely ridiculous and when I didn’t know any better) but holy shiiiiiit I would watch him as Rogue every. damn. day. 

River Song will always and forever be my number one love for the Doctor, but I was absolutely immediately charmed by Rogue. I’m not sure why, and it doesn’t really matter. 

How absolutely adorable was the psychic paper displaying “you’re hot”? Or the bit where the Doctor figures out Rogue’s ship is wired for sound and the system blares “Can’t Get Your Outta My Head” and he lip syncs along while Rogue dies of embarrassment? 

The entire episode was just two dorks flirting and my heart was so happy. I don’t know why, but when 15 started singing “Pure Imagination” while showing Rogue around the Tardis, I thought I was going to die. 

I love that he can be so carefree and fun and adorable, but also extremely emotional and unafraid to show it. We’ve seen so many different facets of 15 already, and his obvious and silly flirty self is definitely my favorite part so far. 

Also, the fact that the Chuldur (again, bird aliens I guess? Sure) were basically just a race that went around cosplaying other people was so camp. I’ve seen a lot of posts about how the newest theory is that 15 and Ruby are somehow in some weird sort of tv show universe this season, and this episode definitely fuels that a little bit. 

And maybe y’all are onto something with that, but I honestly don’t care to figure out what’s going on, I just want to be along for the ride.

Of course though, we can’t have an episode that’s all fun and games. The Doctor went all in on shooting his shot with Rogue and it distracted him and it put Ruby in trouble, because of course. Maybe we should stop promising random mothers that their kids are gonna be safe? Doctor, baby, you know that they aren’t always going to be safe. 

But if you weren’t charmed by Rogue before that point, you had to jump on his bandwagon when he pushes Ruby out of the transport trap and just says “Find me” before he’s blasted away with the stupid birds to some far off dimension. 

BALLER MOVE, baby boy. Baller ass move. Because ya know what? 15 is not going to be able to resist that. And you know how I know? Because that boy put your ring on his finger and I will ship the fuck out of you two forever and ever because of that. 

The doctor has definitely been known to  kiss people he’s only just met, but this time might be in the top 3. I thought Madame de Pompadour was good? Nah girl, ya bumped down. This kiss was better. Just me sat on the couch with heart eyes for days.

So yeah, I think I’ve decided I like letting a few stack up so I can watch them in a row. Watching them boomerang between crazy scenarios and thinking about all of that at the same time is more fun. 

I’m loving this season. It’s ridiculous, it’s different, it’s a bunch of things I didn’t even realize I wanted. Gimme more pleaaaaase.

[billpottsismygf]

73 Yards

I have slightly mixed feelings on this one, but what it did well it did brilliantly. The episode was beautifully shot with a fantastically creepy atmosphere throughout. The Welsh landscape, the close shots, the out of focus semper distans, the mystery of what was being said. Millie Gibson's performance throughout was stellar and this is the most invested I've felt in her character so far. I did miss Ncuti's presence somewhat, but it says a lot that she was able to carry the episode on her own and I do love when the format gets shaken up occasionally and we get a Doctor-lite episode.

I loved Kate's brief appearance and the way it sold the fact that this was a very serious situation. You think UNIT might be able to help here, but Ruby is once again left alone. The themes of abandonment in this one were incredibly potent and really tie into the themes of the series. Unsurprisingly, one of the most effective and upsetting parts of the episode was Ruby's mum also being affected by the mysterious woman. Her anguished screams for her mum were really quite harrowing, as was that awful comment about her birth mother not wanting her.

It also got far darker than I would expect in a Doctor Who episode. The far-right politician and the threat of nuclear war was plenty, but what was done to Marti was absolutely chilling, as was Ruby's apology for not doing anything. It gets away with it because it's all through implication, but that almost makes it more hard hitting. You don't always need to see the monster in action to know what it's doing. It also reminds me of my much younger self not picking up on the Master beating Lucy Saxon until I was a teenager.

The way time began to speed along was actually quite shocking to begin with - I actually gasped when we saw the 25th birthday cards - and it kept bringing to mind various other episodes where companions have been abandoned either in the real world or another timeline/reality, especially things like The Girl Who Waited, Turn Left, Forest of the Dead, The Lie of the Land, World Enough and Time etc. That things get undone at the end was again a little reminiscent of a few of them, but this is also where we come to my criticisms of the episode, because - while I loved the experience of watching it - the ending feels tacked on in a way that is very unsatisfying.

There were a number of things that just never get explained. For a minor example, why did the Doctor disappear? Disturbing the fairy circle released Mad Jack (I'll come onto him) and also made the Doctor disappear? And also made the TARDIS lock in a way that couldn't be opened with Ruby's key? I'm not as bothered by this as the below, but it feels messy and like an attempt to do a Turn Left without an actual reason for the Doctor to be gone.

A bigger gripe is Ruby being the following lady. That on its own would have been fine, but that combined with other elements just frustrates me. Mainly, if the following lady was Ruby, what is it she says to get people to run away? I don't mind things being left to the imagination - for instance, I quite like that we don't get an explanation for why she has to be 73 yards away; I can infer that that's got something to do with the fairy circle - but it appears that whatever she says specifically makes people think there's something horrifying about Ruby.

What could Old Ruby possibly say to that end and why would she? And why would the same thing make a Prime Minister resign? If we had never found out who she was, I would have been perfectly happy to infer that she was a force of some kind that drives people mad, but it's Ruby! Knowing who she is but not what she does or how or why she does it is the worst way round. I want to know neither or both, or possibly the latter but not the former, but this way round just frustrates me.

On that note, the friend I was watching with pointed out that, as she was dying, elderly Ruby had very short hair and suddenly has long hair when she becomes the semper distans lady. A small detail, perhaps, but one that further muddles the conclusion. Why did her hair change? Where did the coat come from? It's a different actress as well and, even at that distance, you can kind of tell. Did Old Ruby just end up embodying an existing spirit to do with the fairy circle? If so, I would have liked that to be a lot clearer. If not, why does she look so different?

Okay, so, Mad Jack. Who or what is Mad Jack? Is he a spirit of some kind that possesses Roger ap Gwilliam? Was he always Roger ap Gwilliam? Does Roger ap Gwilliam exist without him? If Roger ap Gwilliam does not exist without Mad Jack, how come the Doctor still mentions him? If Roger ap Gwilliam does exist without Mad Jack, what is changed by the Doctor stepping on the fairy circle?

In the version of the timeline we end up on (where the Doctor doesn't step in the fairy circle but Roger ap Gwilliam is still mentioned by him as a dangerous Prime Minister), here are a few possibilities and why they don't work for me:

Does he still become Prime Minister and get taken down another way? Perhaps, but it's not like Turn Left where we know the problems would have been stopped by the Doctor (who's not here). Without Ruby's infiltration and semper distans lady, what stops him? And why was that not able to stop him in the timeline we witnessed?

Is he less dangerous? The second time around of the opening conversation we don't get the line about the brink of nuclear war, though only because Ruby interrupts him to point out the woman, but maybe we can infer that this time he's a dangerous Prime Minister but not that dangerous? That seems quite weak and unclear, though, and seems to disregard the horror of the Marti stuff.

Does the timeline only change after the Doctor's comments about him being a dangerous Prime Minister? He does say that before stepping (or not stepping) in the fairy circle both times. I might be happy to assume that Roger ap Gwilliam never comes to power after that diverging moment has passed, except that things have already changed before the Doctor mentions him because Ruby says she's been to Wales three times. Maybe they've changed a bit but not enough until the moment she stops him from stepping on it, but that is not at all clear.

If it's any of these (or none of them), that's really confusing! It's just so messy and unclear. It would have been a simple fix, too! Keep everything the same and just add in a line as they're walking away at the end along the lines of "thank goodness he never got into power; people never found him that convincing". That would have clarified a) things have changed since a few seconds ago b) that Mad Jack is what allowed him to get to power and c) in this timeline, that won't happen and Ruby won't need to stop him.

Despite all my complaints, I did really love watching this episode. It's just so carelessly wrapped up, as if they didn't think about the implications of the otherwise very well told story. I'll be interested to rewatch it and see if my complaints bother me more or less on second viewing. I really want to love this episode because there were so many fantastic elements, but it just makes all the inconsistencies and loose threads and muddled logic particularly frustrating because they were only another draft or two away from being solved.

Misc small things

No theme tune! I feel robbed! Maybe it was meant to be part of the vibe that we're not in the usual timeline, but come on. It could easily have been slotted in when she left the TARDIS the first time or before she got to the pub!

Other episodes I thought of: Extremis with warning other versions of yourself; The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood with waving at future versions of yourself that disappear when things change; Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS with weird timelines and future selves and things being undone; Last Christmas with the companion becoming elderly; Turn Left for the vibes of "there's something on your back"; Under the Lake/Before the Flood with a silent message, since it looked like the woman was trying to sign things to Ruby; and The Sound of Drums/Last of the Timelords with the triple whammy of the companion having to 1) set off on their own to 2) take down a prime minister and 3) have time reverse.

It's also got a good old bootsrap paradox in it, which doesn't bother me in the way of the above complaints, but for the sake of completionism: How was Ruby warned about the future when that future hasn't happened? Would have loved Twelve to briefly pop his head in and explain it for us.

It's interesting that the snow stopped throughout this version of her life. It also seemed to snow while she was on her way to the pub.

Kate's comment about how "this timeline might be suspended along your event" was interesting and I wonder if it connects with the snow stopping.

For the first time I actually recognised Susan Twist when she appeared, but I'm not sure I would have done without Ruby realising she recognised her. I liked that! It felt very Boom Town and recognising Bad Wolf coming up again.

There was a little cameo from Mrs Flood.

[oceanwithinsblog]

every day that passes we're getting closer and closer to the final episodes of doctor who s14 (or s1, whatever) (i'm also in denial WTH does it mean that this season is almost over ????)

so before i forget (and before the last two episodes drop) i NEED to vent a bit about this season. the following are just my personal opinions (which might change after watching the season finale), please bear with me ^^

first of all - i am so glad doctor who is back !!! i must admit that my doctor who drought lasted for around 5 months as i got introduced to the show back in late summer 2023 and did a speed run of all nuwho seasons between september and november 2023. i got super excited for the december specials !! and i was even more surprised and thrilled when i found out a new season of dw was premiering in may 2024 !! i know i've been lucky to wait for so little to get immersed in a new dw season but i truly, truly missed it and i enjoyed every episode of s14 <3 now i'm sad to think that this is about to end, but it felt so good to finally see the doctor back in action and to get through each week thinking that one of my favorite characters/storylines/universes was gonna be there for me on the weekend <3 i love dw so much <3

#2 idk about you but i fell so easily for ncuti as the doctor and millie as ruby/the companion TT they're both so good, i really appreciated their acting this season and i would also say that it's probably one the (few) things that positively shocked me this time around. i guess it was a bit unfair for me to think that ruby wasn't my cup of tea after watching just 'the church on ruby road' ep because she totally surprised me this season. she's so great! millie's acting is on point, so captivating and funny to watch throughout the show. i can't wait to find out more about her character fr! well, what's to say about ncuti as the doctor .. ohmy oh my .. i don't think i've ever seen a doctor so confident, so flirtatious, so proud in themselves .. ncuti's doctor exudes charisma and i'm so here for it. that's absolutely not to say that the doctor's worries, traums etc. magically disappear (they're still very present and influence their every move), but what i loved the most about his acting is that he goes all the way into it. fifteen may become one of my favorite doctors ngl (say hi to eleven and ten) and i am so looking forward to where they're gonna take us next <3

#3 as for writing, i feel that something's missing ... don't get me wrong, i love rtd's cool nice funny episodes and seeing the doctor face a range of diverse situations (even the most unthinkable ones, e.g. space babies) is just priceless.. but there's some kind of void in it, too. now that i think about it, maybe it's not the writing itself but the length of the season - having less than 10 episodes doesn't really give us much time and space to properly explore the dynamics between characters, strengthen their relationships and make them grow both individually and as a whole. besides, i admit that i'm a bit biased, but i loved (most of) moffat's writing for the seasons he was a showrunner of and i personally would love to see ncuti bringing to life more stories written by moffat (yes..i know he wrote 'boom' for s14). basically, i miss 'old' nuwho seasons of 18+ episodes where we could get even more affectionate to the characters and the adventures that defined their journey through the multiverse T___T

before i move on to my last point, may i also add (storyline-wise) that i wished the episodes were more interconnected with each other? not necessarily with the narration, even just with easter eggs ^^" idk maybe moffat got me used to have high expectations lol (i'm still eager to find out who the lady appearing in all episodes is !!!! may this dw finale give us all the answers we need)

#4 i would have never thought i would write this (mainly because i would have never thought there could come a time when these gadget weren't going to be used as much) BUT I DEARLY MISS THE TARDIS AND THE SCREWDRIVER WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM ?!?!?! i loved previous doctors goofing around with their sonic screwdrivers and running in the tardis allowing us (the audience) to find out more and more about the endless number of rooms in it ... why does it seem like fourteen doesn't love their tools ?? why don't they show them more throughout the season ?? this is like classic items that can't miss in the episodes so WERE IS THAT SILLY GOOFY STUFF ?? also, as much as i enjoy fourteen and ruby going on adventures in different time periods etc. why aren't they EVER showed inside the TARDIS travelling and waiting to get to their destination ?? i'm just very nostalgic (i took this very personally, i'm sorry i'm just angry at rtd)

well - i guess that's it! if you've read this far, thank you for reading me <3 let me know what you think about it and what you're expecting for the next couple episodes of s14 <3

ps. i'm very hopeful that rogue will be a recurring character <3

pps. ncuti gave the queers the most fruity doctor ever (no shade to all previous doctors, you've served and delivered and we love u immensiely) <33

[askdiscordwhooves]

A much needed summary of the Discord Whooves story.

Voiced by @voiceofthecity

Transcript below:

Doctor: Right, so. A lot has happened since I woke up in this universe, eh? I guess this is a sort of… diary entry. 

I first opened my eyes in this universe without any memories. Derpy standing over me. She took care of me until I could remember who I was. I reunited with the TARDIS and took Derpy on as my companion. It became obvious quickly that she had… Deeper feelings for me. But I ignored it in favor of our friendship.

I fell in love with a bush because of a love potion she got hold of, thank goodness it wasn’t with her. At one point we ended up on a planet of machines where we fought an AI that wanted to experiment on us. He called himself NeoSurgeon, after copying me. Copying me made him very much alive, and I almost destroyed him before realizing this… We taught him to value life, and I installed him into my sonic screwdriver to let him explore the universe. [annoyed] And of course he goes and mucks things up by experimenting, resulting in Dinky and Sparkler being created from Derpy and possibly me.

Derpy and I had a few encounters with changelings, which led to us finding a changeling who copied me and thought he was me. Everyone just loves copying me, don’t they… When he found us he realized he wasn’t The Doctor, and asked us to save the corrupted hive. I let the queen feed on all my love of the universe, turning her and her hive back to their true selves. But I lost my love from it. 

I was investigating disappearances of races and planets in the timeline. This led me to the Caves of Truth, where Discord dwelled. Showing me a terrible truth about myself that shattered my entire being. I still can’t bring myself to go into detail about it because I’m terrified. This truth made me want to give up adventures and helping others, and Derpy didn’t agree with me. I lashed out at her, and she lashed back by abandoning me.

That’s where many of you found me, after that point where I was alone and saying ‘to hell with the universe’. I dove headfirst into sex and drinking to fill the emptiness I felt. At some point, the questions I got began provoking my rage towards Derpy. I took it out on her by hurting her to teach the… audience, I suppose… a lesson to not bother me about her. I let her go after that. But anger got the best of me again from prying questions. Once more I took it out on Derpy, more violently this time before I ditched her. 

Had an unpleasant encounter with Octavia where I crashed into her place. Even though I met Twilight Sparkle and bonded with her, like an idiot I tried to woo Octavia to much humiliation and failure. So I focused more on Twilight and I grew to really care about her. She was a light in the darkness for me.

Let’s see… Fooled around, yelled at Dinky and Sparkler, ran into poison joke which let’s not even talk about. After recovering from that I encountered… Patience, my ex wife, for the first time here, and I ran from her. 

Oh. The wings. Didn’t always have those either, my regenerative hormones were acting up and caused them to appear. After sticking to myself for a while I decided it was time to learn how to fly, as it seemed like my wings had grown to fit my body. I learned how to fly from an alternate Rainbow Dash.

I was going to celebrate with Twilight, but when I found her she had cut herself deeply in a suicide attempt which had been prompted by The Master. She survived, thank the stars… 

The Master had teamed up with Inkie Pie and further antagonized me, trying to goad me into fighting. But when I wouldn’t give, he beat me down and kicked me out. My hearts were getting louder and louder in my head. I tried to drown them out with more drinking and in my drunken state forced open the heart of the TARDIS. She possessed an hourglass to create a pony avatar for herself and cared for me like a nanny. I decided to call her Ananta. 

It finally hit me that all of the sex felt pointless and I decided I’d give it up as it wasn’t doing me any favors. No matter how many times I tried, I could never find relief, not even with Twilight.

The Master wormed his way into the mind of a mare I had let get close, which was the final straw. I went after The Master with a gun but I missed the bastard. He was also with Octavia for some reason which threw off my aim.

Spending more quality time with Twilight in Ponyville was when it came to my attention that things were wrong in this timeline. I was informed of Sugarcube Corner’s bloody history as Slaughtercube Corner, where Pinkie went insane and murdered multiple ponies. I learned all of Twilight’s friends were corrupted, dead, or missing. I would have investigated more but Patience found me and demanded I leave.

I visited a corrupted Rarity’s universe to let of some steam and discovered that her universe was layered and bleeding into mine, causing events of her timeline to happen here. It seemed to be like that for multiple corrupted universes, taking aspects of them and applying them to Twilight’s friends.

After that, I tried to avoid getting involved because it was getting far too complex. I drunkenly opened a temporary dimensional rift which caused the one and only Jack Harkness to fall through. I was elated, finally someone good from the humanoid universe that I could spend time with!

We reconnected, and I wound up in the wrong dimension when trying to show off to him. There we found a bleeding filly, Scootaloo, who had tried to run away with her newborn. The baby needed a caretaker that could be trusted and I suggested Twilight, who was more than happy to take him in while things got sorted. 

I think for a while I was more myself. I felt more clear headed. I even got it in my head that I should check in on Sparkler and Dinky. Foolish. Utterly asinine. Dinky was rightfully angry with me, and I couldn’t explain myself. Then… She showed up. Derpy. I went at her, but… I was suddenly pummeled with rocks and bricks by Dinky. Her magic was even powerful enough to throw me HARD. I think… I think she was just about ready to kill me before her mother stopped her. I promptly left after that, just hoping we’d never have another encounter. I hate… what she makes me do.

While letting Jack help me process things, the TARDIS had an intense interference that triggered the cloister bell. I fought something that was pulling her, and I was hit hard with the resurfacing memories of losing Amy and Rory horrifically and violently in the journey to this dimension. Distractions. Right. I gave myself distractions.

Landed in the dimension that was home to an obnoxious punster, got upset with Jack for wandering too far away. I was scared of losing him but in doing that I made him feel trapped, and we started having arguments. Jack wanted to go back home but he wanted to take me with him and that just… couldn’t happen.

To make up for the arguments, I took us to the Nimbus Resort and Casino. That’s where everything went wrong. That rift I opened before also let in a group of daleks which invaded and started slaughtering everyone there. I was scared, I tried to run, Jack tried to stop me and I pushed him right into a dalek’s laser, and I just left him there. I did go back for him, I did! We witnessed the Master decimating the daleks and I took Jack and ran from that too.

Jack was… different after that. He threatened me with a gun and demanded I take us back to the human dimension, but when he was distracted I pulled out my own gun and shot him. I threw him out while shooting him again and I suppose it’s after that when the Master recruited him to Torchwood. Tch… since then he’s been having me tracked.

Fell off the deep end, binge drinking and neglecting my hygiene, doing nothing. Ananta cleaned me up, got rid of the alcohol, made sure I got the right supportive questions and comments to keep me going. [more serious] I tried to study what was going on with me, which revealed another entity inside of me calling himself Hyde, a corruption of myself. 

Less important stuff happened, came to the conclusion that the askers were essentially my companions. Which was nice enough to convince me to investigate further into the altered timeline. Equestria was at war with the Diamond Dogs, and Twilight was expected to help as a princess but couldn’t because of what happened to her friends. Ponyville was in ruins while Twilight clung to it for her few remaining friends. 

I realized then… The Twilight I became close to wasn’t meant to exist. She was part of the altered timeline, and if I fixed it, she’d be gone. And we’d never have that connection again, because her giving up the throne was what let us have something in common…

I was searching for the trigger for the timeline corruption, so I traveled into the past to observe Pinkie. Octavia found me, she was interested in me after I had… insulted her I think? Strange woman. Pinkie kidnapped us both to torture us, showing she was already corrupted. We were rescued by the guard before she could do any real harm but she had drugged me out of my mind and in my disoriented state I took Octavia with me onto the TARDIS.

Octavia demanded compensation for all the trouble I’d caused her, so I tried to take her somewhere nice but ended up landing in the future city of Vannice. A future wrecked by Discord, where only 10% of the pony population remained and all the Princesses were long dead, Twilight included… I tried to ditch Octavia but she ended up shmoozing with a rich scientist who was luring her into his experiments. Meanwhile I was trying to sneak around because his drones were after me. 

NeoSurgeon made himself known again, and was useful in finding and stopping the secret alicorn magic-tech versions of cybermen. My worst self convinced a worker to sacrifice himself to do it, using Neo to super charge him… then bloody Jack shows up with one of his lackeys so of course I had to grab Octavia and run again.

She still wasn’t satisfied. She seduced me with kinky sex, had me take her on thrill after thrill. She stole something from an important historical figure. Kept pushing me for more and more until I snapped and lashed out at her. But she actually got EXCITED by that, and it snapped me out of it enough to have the sense to force her out of the TARDIS and out of my life.

More investigations, bringing me to the mirror pool. Revealed the real pinkie and a clone swapped places so it was a clone that went on a murder spree. Poor Twilight, I had to tell her, and then ask her if she wanted to remain in this timeline or return to the old timeline without her memories.

As I was leaving Twilight to think about it, Patience- Or Minuette, found me and insisted on joining me to keep me from causing trouble, and to help me. She was fittingly patient with me but never let me step out of line. 

Twilight decided she wanted the timeline fixed, but not until she could help me. She and Minuette worked together to cure me of the curse using a memory spell, and I finally felt like myself for a long time. There was still some of the curse remaining inside me, but I could finally function more like myself. 

In recovery, I tried a few times to write letters to those I had hurt, but it was difficult for me to write anything. I might try again, honestly. What have I got to lose besides paper?

Anyways… Minuette and I went to NeoSurgeon’s planet so that they could combine their memories of me, which seemed to help fight the curse further. I wasn’t fully cured yet, so I continued to focus on recovery before investigating again.

Minuette and I went back to when the Mirror Pool was first formed to see when Discord influenced it but this… was a mistake, as it lead Discord right to the pool to infect it. Must have wormed into my head too, because once I learned Minuette had been seeing the Master romantically, I succumbed to the curse in a full blown relapse and… And murdered… her… Do I really deserve to be saved any more…?

I couldn’t cope. I broke Ananta’s hourglass. I was ready to kill myself. But that’s when The Master burst in and beat me down, tore off my wings, and threw them out with the hourglass. Then he took me onto his TARDIS where I was kept in his Zero room for a long time before he and his TARDIS finally made contact with me.

I think… it was going pretty well for a time… Until he revealed he had influenced many things in my life, from Minuette, to Jack, to Discord, to Derpy, the changelings, and who knows what else. I attacked him and that left me on my TARDIS with Di, his TARDIS’ avatar, to look after me. Meanwhile the Master was going to try to figure out how to solve all of this.

Twilight was in danger and I made a deal with Di that I wouldn’t ask for any more favors after going to help Twilight. And then there was… The Valeyard, likely a metacrisis from my wings and Octavia which means he’s just as, if not more insane than she was. He killed her but showed that he at least seems to care what happens to Twilight, because he let me take her away to safety. 

Now I’m just here, waiting, doing what I can to pass the time and hoping that everything will be okay. It’s hard putting everything in someone else’s hands, but at the same time… it’s what I want most right now, I think. I just… want to be left alone while someone else takes care of things for once. Am I scared? Completely. But I need to accept that I’ve done all I can do at this point. Anyway. I guess I’d best get to writing those letters… Maybe I’ll have better luck this time. I don’t know if this journal log really helped much, but it was something to do so… Yeah.

[timeagainreviews]

Bursting Your Bubble

Liam Lynch once said- “The internet is a glimpse into how rude people will be in the future.” At the time it felt like just another funny little line from his song “Internet Killed the Video Star,” (not to be confused with the Limousines’ song of the same name) but nowadays it feels prophetic. Just this morning I made the mistake of reading the comments section and it’s thrown my day off considerably. From the comforts of our keyboards, we can write horrendous things. Treat strangers with contempt. It’s sometimes easy to forget there are actual people on the other end of our glowing screens. Insularity breeds contempt for the different. We live in our little bubbles.

It would be easy to blame the posters, the content creators, the influencers. A few bad apples spoil the bunch. But as psychologist Philip Zimbardo would say- don’t blame the apples, don’t blame the barrel, blame the barrel makers. The people who put the apples into the barrel in the first place. Despite everything Russell T Davies’ “Dot and Bubble,” is trying to say, one question hangs over it and the rest of this season- who is the barrel maker? Things in Finetime are anything but fine, but by whose design? One might assume it’s Susan Twist’s character, but who is she? This is the overarching question of season one, but is the question beginning to feel a bit drawn out?

From the outset, “Dot and Bubble,” acts as a sort of Black Mirror version of “Blink.” We’re given a young blonde woman who finds herself in a dangerous situation that requires her to look at something she would usually ignore. All the while, the Doctor and his companion are forced to talk to the young woman through a screen. The difference here is that while Sally Sparrow had gumption, Lindy Pepper-Bean is about as useful as a wicker toilet. She lives in “Finetime,” an actual bubbled world. Her “Dot,” device then creates yet another bubble around her head. It’s bubble inception. The bubble tells her when to wake up, how to walk, and even when to pee. (Shout out to my boy Dr Pee!) Because of this, Lindy lives an unobserved life where hard questions need not bother her.

Everything about Finetime is a hyper-realistic nightmare of overstimulation. It’s like “A Clockwork Orange,” meets “The Stepford Wives.” Lindy can ignore her problems when there’s always a new Ricky September video on the horizon. As Frank from Brad Neely’s “The Professor Brothers” said- “We danced like those people in the hyper-tight light of fried chicken commercials.” Lindy and her “friends,” can completely ignore the fact that their friends have slowly begun disappearing. They don’t even seem to notice when they’re the only ones in the room, how would they notice gigantic slugs eating each other?

With Ncuti Gatwa away filming season four of “Sex Education,” the show had to do a couple Doctor-lite episodes. These are usually hit-or-miss among fans, but as “Blink,” proved back in 2007, they can become fan favourites. The Doctor and Ruby’s roles are reduced, but this episode does a good job of making them feel like a recurring part of the story. Even though they spend the bulk of the episode in what looks like the intro to “The Brady Bunch,” it never feels like we’re being underserved.

Lindy’s friends float around her like talking heads in her holographic bubble. But she keeps getting interrupted by the Doctor and his bad vibes. Even though Ruby is also invading her privacy despite not being on her friend list, Lindy is willing to hear her out. We’re not told why up front, but there is a reason Lindy can believe Ruby might feasibly be tech support, but the Doctor could not. Due to Lindy’s impatience, Ruby is forced to talk to Lindy as if she were a child, but not so much that she catches on. Anyone who stops Lindy from either working or playing is a massive drag to her. She really just wants Ruby and the Doctor to go away. How do they not know how society works? Why are they asking such stupid questions when the answers have been drilled into everyone since they were children?

We learn that Lindy’s mother is Penny Pepper-Bean, but she’s actually another Susan Twist cameo, so she could be anyone. Thankfully, both the Doctor and Ruby recognise her this time, and it’s not in an aborted timeline. I saw someone mention on Facebook today that they felt the Doctor recognising her felt rushed, and I couldn’t disagree more. It was high time we got something from this storyline. While it has been nice to genuinely be curious about Doctor Who’s mysteries again, this one has felt like a lot of the same. With the Doctor and Ruby now clued in, we have somewhere else to go in the future. Maybe now Susan Twist will come out from behind the mask and we can learn something more about her. Maybe now the Doctor will start looking into her involvement.

I’m usually not interested in fan theories as they’re often filler content when YouTubers and bloggers don’t have anything else to talk about. But here I believe we’ve been given quite a lot to work with to formulate a theory or two. I know I said “It’s probably not the Rani because it’s never the Rani,” but at this point, if she’s not the Rani, they’ve wasted their biggest opportunity to reintroduce audiences to her that the show has ever had. At this point, it would be weird if she wasn’t the Rani. The things she’s been involved with have all of her usual hallmarks. We have genetic manipulation in “Space Babies,” humans are being treated like lab rats in “Dot and Bubble,” and then there’s the whole disguising yourself in plain sight aspect. At this point, the bigger question isn’t whether or not she’s the Rani. The bigger question is why wouldn’t she be? Why would the show come so close to revealing her and then pull back?

Ruby finally convinces Lindy to look beyond her bubble where she witnesses her co-worker being eaten by one of the Man-Traps. Usually Lindy could just ask her Dot to guide her to safety, but for some reason, it feels more than ready to direct her right into the open mouth of a Man-Trap. Lindy must walk without the aid of her Dot, and man does she suck at it. She quite literally cannot walk talk and chew bubblegum at the same time. Part of me was worried the episode was going to spend all of its time making fun of young people and their phones. It’s cliched and honestly, I’m tired of it. But within the context of the episode, Davies isn’t attempting a technophobic condescension toward the youth of today. Instead, the episode endeavours to highlight the danger of relinquishing your thoughts and actions to outside entities. If we let others tell us what to like, who to like, or how to live, you may as well become worm food.

Having narrowly escaped death by slug, Lindy is forced to bumble about outside while the Doctor and Ruby direct her like the most exasperated form of Google Maps ever. An interesting aspect of this scene that I’ve not heard anyone talk about is the greenish-blue blood seen from a body being dragged away. You may not know what I’m talking about, but I’ll post a picture below. You may look at that and say “That’s not blood, that’s slug goo.” But where else in the episode do we actually see the Man-Traps leave behind any kind of snail trail? I’m going to go out on a limb and say I think the people of Finetime are blue-blooded, and considering what we learn about them, it makes sense. Blue blood is often a symbol for aristocracy, but it can also be used as a way to imply an inbred nature. In this case, we could infer that the citizens have blue blood because they don’t “dilute,” it with the blood of non-white people. Oh did I not mention the Finetimers are racists? More on that in a bit.

Throughout most of this episode, only one of Lindy’s friends seems to be concerned with the fact that people are going missing, and that’s Gothic Paul. Gothic Paul was a nice little addition to the episode because a trans man plays him and they didn’t make a big deal about it. He wasn’t even killed for being trans. He was killed for being delicious and too dumb to notice. A diversity win! Compare this to Chibnall’s gay representation where a character says “By the way, I’m gay,” and then spiders eat her face. LGBTQ+ people are allowed to exist in such a manner that it doesn’t feel like “kill your gays,” when they kill our gays. Representation has been so good that it’s not even problematic that a drag queen made a child disappear. You know, the thing all of those conservatives are worried about with drag story hour? That’s just the Maestro’s schtick. 

After the battery in Lindy’s Dot goes dead, she’s basically a sitting duck. That is until she hears a familiar voice call out. A voice belonging to none other than the dreamy Ricky September. Maybe it’s the insular nature of being a pop star, but Ricky isn’t bogged down by his Dot. Instead, he’s learned to appreciate existing offline. Because of this, Ricky reads things about their people’s history. And even luckier for Lindy, Ricky can actually walk and move about in the world. After a bit of starstruck awe, Lindy takes his hand as he leads her away from danger. It’s almost sweet if you don’t suspect what’s coming.

Ricky leads Lindy to Plaza 55 where a door leading to the river flowing beneath the bubble can lead them out into the Wild Woods. Knowing a bit about coding, Ricky simply needs to type in two digits every five seconds and the door will come open eventually. With no Man-Traps about, Lindy needs only to sit tight and let Ricky work his magic. While she waits, Lindy is able to charge her Dot which enables the Doctor and Ruby to contact her again. The Doctor infers that the Dots can see the Man-Traps, but willfully encourage people to walk directly into their mouths. As it turns out, the Dot hates Lindy and her friends about as much as the audience does. The AI has gone rogue and it’s taking these airheads with it. Sadly, this is also when the episode starts to get bogged down by the season's overarching plot.

The Doctor deduces that the Man-Traps are eating the people in alphabetical order. This leads him to believe that the AI must have created the Man-Traps, otherwise they would eat whoever, whenever. The reason I feel this feels bogged down by the overarching plot is that I can’t imagine these golfball-sized Dots being capable of growing creatures in a laboratory. The most they can do against Ricky and Lindy is act as a projectile. They don’t even have thumbs. Because of this, it’s logical to imagine that there is a third party involved. It’s not hard to imagine who that third party is, considering Susan Twist’s cameo. But in the meantime, we as an audience are left in a state of limbo where this is either part of some greater plan, or an unsatisfying plothole. Albeit, not an incredibly episode-breaking one. After all, the Daleks manage quite a bit with only a plunger.

With Lindy’s Dot trying to bash their brains in and Lindy being next in line, alphabetically speaking, we are finally introduced to who Lindy actually is as person. Using her mega fan knowledge about Ricky September, she informs the Dot that Ricky’s name is a stage name and his real name is Coombes. Ricky can barely believe the betrayal from the woman he’s tried so very hard to save. But her gamble pays off as the Dot refocuses its attention on Ricky, giving Lindy enough time to escape to the river while the Dot strikes down poor Ricky. As face turns go, this is one of the worst in Doctor Who history. However, it’s not entirely without warning. Certain lines of dialogue have clued us in to Lindy’s true nature throughout the episode.

Before we leave him behind like Lindy so callously does, I’d like to take a moment to talk about Ricky September, as I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him. It was hard to tell what the Dot does to Ricky because the camera looks away, but he could have survived. Why I think this is because they spend a lot of time building Ricky up as a character. Both the Doctor and Ruby have shown a romantic interest in him. There have even been rumours that there would be a sort of love triangle between the Doctor, Ruby, and Ruby’s boyfriend. On top of that, we’ve got another blonde-haired blue-eyed person with RS for initials. Even further, the S in both names indicates a point in time- September and Sunday. And just because Ricky comes from a community of racists doesn’t mean he is one. Like he said, he does a lot of reading. Perhaps he’s learned better. Or I’m wrong and he has a Dot-sized hole in his head.

Finally, we get to see the Doctor and Ruby in the flesh. Even more finally, we get to see them both in the costumes they wore in their first costume reveal! Lindy gives the Doctor and Ruby some shitty excuse about Ricky turning back to save more people. She even gives a begrudging thank you to them, but ultimately can’t bring herself to let the Doctor help her or her friends. Lindy and her fellow survivors can’t bring themselves to interact with the Doctor because he’s black. It’s as heartbreaking for the Doctor as it is infuriating to Ruby who can only stand there and watch her friend experience this ugliness. But the Doctor is still the Doctor and he’s a bigger man than their small minds. He continues holding out a lifeline to some of the most undeserving group of spoiled narcissists to ever grace the screen of Doctor Who.

I’ve seen people complain that the Doctor does this. That it doesn’t mesh with the same character who once punched a man who was racist toward Bill. But that was the Doctor drawing a line and defending his friend’s honour. The Doctor’s compassion is so great that he’s willing to forego his sense of self-respect to save lives. This is the same man who tries to reason with racist genocidal aliens, he doesn’t stop just because they look human. I know I would have let them die, but the Doctor is a better person than me. That’s not to say any of this is easy for him. It very clearly cuts him to his core. Ncuti Gatwa gives an earth-shattering performance here, and when you consider this is the first scene he filmed after the Giggle, it’s fucking astounding. This is the exact type of range I was hoping they would bring to his character.

As a white member of the audience, I am left with a lot of uncomfortable realisations. Like, I barely batted an eye at the fact that Lindy’s friends were all white. I’m also left wondering how many people the Doctor has saved in the past who might have also treated a black Doctor differently. But I also feel like this ending took me by surprise for a different reason than my own ignorance. I simply never expected Doctor Who to go there. The topic of racism is not new to Doctor Who. Martha experiences quite a bit of it, especially in “Human Nature.” But even their more recent attempt with “Rosa,” fell short by implying that in 3000 years, no other black person would stand up for their rights. It was an oversimplification of the civil rights movement that left me wondering if Doctor Who was capable of tackling such heavy issues. I never felt like the show properly addressed the Doctor being a woman, so believe me when I say how much I appreciate them addressing the Doctor’s race. Even further, I loved that it ultimately isn’t the Doctor who will suffer from their racism. Their prejudice has doomed them without anyone else’s help.

It’s weird to look at this episode on the TARDIS wiki and see the Dots and Man-Traps listed as the main enemy. Because really, it’s Lindy who is the real monster. It’s Hoochy Pie and her wack-ass trumpet. Also, can we not come up with a better name than Man-Trap? What about Erascists? They erase e-racists. Just some good little sluggy bois taking out the trash. I stan a king. The Dots hate those evil trust fund dickweeds, and honestly, same. Evidently, the name Man-Trap was introduced in Doctor Who Unleashed, which for the 4th week in a row, I’ve forgotten to watch. One of the side-effects of Doctor Who’s screwy release schedule is that now I completely forget Doctor Who Unleashed even exists. One benefit, however, is that I often get to rewatch the episodes the next day with my partners who didn’t want to stay up late. The benefit is that I’ll notice things I missed the first time. It also allows me to experience the stories for what they are, as opposed to what I expected them to be.

Being able to watch “Dot and Bubble,” with hindsight has given me an even greater appreciation for this story. Over time, I feel people will eventually regard it as one of Davies’ best. Its tone and themes remind me of something you would find in the Seventh Doctor era, which is high praise coming from me. Ricky feels like the promise of a character like Pex from “Paradise Towers,” properly realised. Hopefully, like the graffiti says- “Pex lives.” Dylan Holmes Williams does a fabulous job directing as the episode wastes nothing. It’s a Doctor-lite episode that manages not to waste a moment of screen time with the Doctor. In less than five minutes, Gatwa manages to be the command performance in an episode of solid performances. But much like “The Fugitive of the Judoon,” this strong episode remains feeling unresolved due to the plotline still hanging over its head. Once we have the hindsight of knowing how it fits into the greater storyline, it could appreciate in value. One can only hope.

[finalgwen]

I'm going to go on a little ramble about representation in Doctor Who because tonight they managed to make me feel a way I haven't felt since 18 June 2005.

So let's start there, with the last time we got to see the Doctor and a male character have a romantic kiss. On family tv in 2005, with kids across the country watching. Two years before that, it was literally illegal to mention LGBTQ+ people in a positive sense in UK schools. Section 28's shadow lingered for a long time, I don't think there was any palpable change to the curriculum in those two years. But RTD gave us Captain Jack and that kiss, and he did so explicitly for the purpose of representation, saying 'It’s time you introduce bisexuals properly into mainstream television'.

Then after that kiss, Jack dies. Tale as old as time for queer characters. But then... He doesn't. He comes back to life, and refuses to die from that point on. A writer that saw too many brilliant gay and bi men disappear from his life (as It's A Sin brings into stark contrast) gave us a queer hero whose power was that he couldn't die, and I still marvel at the power of that.

(... And then sadly the elephant in the room, John Barrowman refused to learn about what's appropriate on set and kept doubling down on why his behaviour was actually just fine and dandy, and so we'll likely never see the character again, which sucks given how much he meant to bi kids growing up in that era.)

So anyway, Doctor Who moves on as it always does. We get Torchwood and a gloriously bi team there, but safely away in the adult television space. RTD era Who keeps on mentioning queer characters but we never get anyone quite as in your face or central to the plot as Jack. River Song briefly mentions flirting with everyone in the same 51st century way, but then stays mostly focused on the Doctor on screen.

Then Moffat era Who comes about and Season 5 doesn't feature a single queer character except River's reappearance. Even Moffat realised how much he'd fucked up here and course corrected. So things get slightly better with Vastra and Jenny (two prominent lesbian characters, only one of whom gets non-consensually kissed by the very male Doctor, yay) and eventually Clara, a canonically bi companion. It's only mentioned in little side snippets about kissing Jane Austen in unseen stories, but it's there? You can't deny she's bi, even if it never really informs her story. And then Bill, who's actually genuinely handled pretty well as a lesbian character, I think Moffat tried and things like getting a gay date interrupted by the pope are genuinely funny gags. Wish we got more of an actual dynamic between her and Heather though.

Then we get the Chibnall era and we do get queer characters here and there, The Witchfinders casting of Alan Cumming as James I is very good, and Praxeus has a quite sweet central gay relationship. But then there's Yaz.

See, Yaz is in love with the Doctor, apparently anyway, it's never mentioned before Revolution Of The Daleks when they became aware of the fan headcanon, and after using Jack to point to the similiarities between them in his last appearance, they kinda kept it on the backburner after that, so it's all very hastily resolved in one conversation in Legend Of The Sea Devils and they never kiss or get to display much affection.

So really we've had two eras where the main character representation has been piecemeal, there's certainly stuff there for queer fans to cling onto, in the same way that we've torn apart the classic era for hints of gayness. But Nyssa and Tegan weren't really for us, and neither is most of this. Even at its best it feels like straight writers realising it's a thing they should include but without any real passion for it.

And along comes Rogue and we get a full fledged romance, a dashing hero stepping into the Doctor's world and them instantly clicking and flirting, the chemistry palpable, all leading to a heartbreaking conclusion where they actually get to kiss before the end, and the chance of more to come in the future. No little one liner where Rogue says 'I like guys btw but anyway moving onto the important stuff'. No nods and winks and jokes about long tongues. Actual text, more development in an episode than Yaz and the Doctor managed across an entire run.

The writers of this episode are Kate Herron and Briony Redman who used to work on Loki, the one with the one side conversation about bisexuality that's a nice nod but never really builds to anything, that RTD famously called a 'craven, feeble gesture'. So they came in without the shackles of the MCU and did it right, and I love them for it. They tried to give us what representation they could, and with a producer that wants the same, we got something authentic.

Authenticity matters when it comes to representation, it can't just be to tick a box, and it really feels like this was for us. Something that might lead to the same brain explosion in a queer kid watching Doctor Who that Parting Of The Ways did in 2005 for me.