#or does the tardis absorb it? after all he started regenerating in the tardis! and it was apparently an ''aborted'' regen or whatever

[doverstar]

A handful of people have requested I expand on my epiphany that the Tenth Doctor is the Doctor lineup’s equivalent of Enamored Smurf, so here I go if you care to waste some time-

Lots of Doctor/Rose fans like to say Ten was born out of love, specifically for Rose. He is tailor-made for her; we saw that. Even in the novelized version of The Christmas Invasion, Rose suspects that the Doctor’s new face has picked up a few of her mannerisms. I want to say, firstly, that I’m not sure that it’s technically canon that Ten was made for Rose, or that if you asked the writers, they’d say that his tenth regeneration was born out of love for her. I actually can’t find anything in my limited research where that’s canon – it’s fan speculation, but it seems to be true and that’s the short version of why I think Ten is the Enamored Smurf of the Doctors. But of course I’m me so this will take longer than that.

I’ll start with this factoid – Ten has kissed every one of his official companions. That says something. Bupbupbup wait, I know, that was Cassandra on New Earth, it was just a genetic transfer on the moon, he needed a shock to eradicate the poison in 1926, etc. Okay, I know he has good reasons behind each kiss, but it says something that David Tennant’s Doctor is the Doctor that the show felt most comfortable - how do I say this kindly - auctioning off romantically. Jon Pertwee’s Doctor, Tom Baker’s, even Peter Davison’s before him – there was a much different sort of conduct with them, just in my opinion. I don’t know if the audience at the time or the writers at the time would have been quite so free with the Doctor’s romantic potential. With Tennant’s Doctor, it’s just. Everyone. All the time. Astrid, Christina, Madame de Pompadour, Joan Redfern, Queen Elizabeth. Look, Ten is not the first Doctor to be kissing companions or even almost-companions, but he’s the one that seems to do it most often, especially in the 2005 revival (and here we exclude Matt Smith’s Doctor because he came afterward and Moffat was at the helm and Moffat cannot write a male protagonist who doesn’t kiss or get kissed by every young woman breathing near him). What I’m communicating here is that there is something about the Tenth Doctor that is, by nature, very romantic. He is romance-inclined. And most fans take that to be a direct result of the way he was brought into existence. The Doctor’s ninth incarnation was killed by absorbing the Time Vortex, and the only way he could survive that process was to regenerate. How did he absorb it? He pulled it out of Rose Tyler to save her life, after she absorbed it to save his. How did he pull it out of her? He kissed her! Could he have done it in a different way? *noise in my throat for I-don’t-know* Probably. Maybe he could’ve hooked her up to something in the Tardis, or used the sickbay or even tried the Zero Room. But he didn’t; he kissed her, and it’s canon in both RTD’s words and the words of the cast and other writers that Nine kissed Rose because he wanted to kiss Rose, and because he wanted to save Rose, and he was happy to give his life for hers – and that these actions were done out of love. Romantic love explicitly, as well as the self-sacrificial type of real, true, lasting love. That was agape stuff right there. Be still my heart hooooo boy-

So Nine is dying because he sacrificed that incarnation of himself to save Rose, because he loved her. And when he changed, when he regenerated, he changed into this younger-looking, Londony puppy dog man with hair Rose obviously likes and with a clear inclination toward romance. From the first, he’s a dashing hero with ego and brains.

Suddenly the Doctor is not the war-torn, forty-something-looking Northerner that takes a tiny bit to warm up to people and doesn’t seem to think much of himself. Suddenly, the Doctor likes to wink and click his tongue, give crooked smiles and really-tight hugs, and boy does he love physical touch. The tenth is obnoxiously flirtatious, and, appearance-wise, he’s just as grin-heavy and charismatic as the men we’ve seen Rose prefer in past episodes. If we go with the long-running theory that regeneration, while definitely 80% uncontrollable, can be at least a little influenced by cause of death and the emotional inclination of the Gallifreyan who is regenerating, then the most logical explanation is what?

He is ‘born out of love’. The Tenth Doctor is almost literally fizzing with passion. Look at him. Go look at him. Is he not hand-stitched to be roguish and attractive and fun and amiable and watch out, ladies-

(Mr. Tennant you are a fabulous actor and you do the show credit and you are this generation’s Tom Baker and you are more than your eyebrows, sir, please forgive me, we love you-) Even when he is being weird, he is being charming. Even when Martha does not know why he’s throwing away his shoes, even when she has concrete proof that he is another species and not human, she still swoons when he kisses her or smiles at her or looks in her direction. (Mad Martha, charity Martha, you deserve much better!) When River calls him ‘pretty boy’, even Donna’s affirmation comes out a bit quick, and there is no chance of that relationship ever being romantic. Astrid only has to meet his eyes one time and she’s a goner. Do not get me started on Madame de Pompadour-

The Tenth Doctor is a total Casanova. He exists in a state of romantic potential, because when the Doctor changed his face into that face, it was after saving – and finally embracing – this human girl that he is objectively, canonically in love with. He is Enamored Smurf. Now, that’s actually a huge problem. Because an alien man engineered to love one person is a lovely thing -  as long as he can love that person. But the issue is that he’s a Time Lord. He can’t love the Earth girl practically the way he would like to, the way that’s best. He can’t settle down with her, he can’t even marry her. He knows that. He will outlive her. So he can’t ever say I-love-you because that’s commitment, and he can’t commit to Rose because it would be dangerous and unfair, especially to her. It wouldn’t (in his opinion) lead to a happy ending for both of them, but I already beat this horse to the deadest death, he’s buried over there, shhh-

Okay. So what does he do with all that love? While he’s with Rose, it’s mostly fine. He can show her all the time that he’s absolutely gone for her without ever saying it. “Oh, she knows.” “Does it need saying?” I mean. If the constant hand-holding and hugging and disarming smiles (ah, The Stone Rose, how are you today my beloved-) didn’t say it, the REALLY INTENSE BROWN EYES BURNING HOLES IN HER FACE will say it just fine.

Only this incarnation of the Doctor isn’t just romantically-inclined. He’s also got the biggest freaking ego I have ever seen on that man, don’t look at me Six, avoid eye contact Three- He’s full of passion, as aforementioned. Everything is – wait for it – at a ten. Where are you going, come back here-

So if he’s full of passion, that means everything he feels is at its peak. When he’s angry, he’s furious. When he’s sad, he’s miserable. When he’s confused, it’s a thousand whats before we get to a proper line of dialogue. When he’s happy it’s the best smile in the universe. And when he’s in love? Do not get in the line of fire (and by that I mean the big-brown-eye-contact) or you will be struck down in your prime. The issue with being the Doctor and being born out of love, full of passion, but unable to settle down with the object of that love? The issue is that it all goes other places, too. It’s not just for Rose. The Doctor as a character has forever been, in a sense, in love with the universe. In love with the human race in particular (not romantically, yikes, but you get it). If ever there were a species he’d be most inclined to fall for romantically, it’s going to be a human being. We saw it before Rose, we’ll probably see it after Rose, though not at the same level because – well, different relationships are different relationships.

And this Doctor has a huge ego. He loves attention. He loves praise. He even loves being adored. He knows darn well Martha fancied him the whole time and he still kept her close to him, and then bragged about it to Donna later. He finds the fact that he enchanted and snogged Madame de Pompadour delightful, and funny, even though he met her first as a child and hi, he has two very-mortal human beings already traveling with him on that clockwork spaceship who he should probably not leave to be disassembled for five and a half hours. One of which is supposedly the person he is in love with and who loves him back. But I digress; that episode in particular is another horse to beat at another time. Not Arthur. A different horse. He seems to pass out attraction and affection easily, and really take pride in that, which, if I were Rose, would be incredibly unnerving when he’s so affectionate toward you but he is also flirty and loose with basically every other woman he meets as well. Hear me, Rose is not entitled to reciprocation – neither is the Doctor, actually – but it does demonstrate surprising carelessness on his part after Nine’s clear, unwavering preference and devotion toward Rose. It’s obvious they care so much about each other, it’s obviously love, but of course she wanted him to say it out loud. He gives her reason to doubt that she’s in any way special to him. But because she’s Rose, of course she decided to stay with him because he needs someone, because she loves him, regardless of how thoughtless he can sometimes be about how he may be affecting her.

(I don’t like that about Ten, personally. I don’t like the ego, or the rampant flirting, but I really dislike that carelessness. And I understand the difficulties and the complications and the layers to that romantic relationship, to Doctor/Rose, and I get that it makes for good television drama, but also – sometimes you just wanna shake him. Either say you love her, or say very clearly that it will never work out and you are refusing to commit. You can have all the best intentions in the world because you love her, but if you’re not clear with her, it’s just making things harder for her on days when you are winking at and holding hands with someone else. I can make a separate post about how I have a very bittersweet opinion on Ten and would not like to travel with him, but…eh.)

Anyway. This post is longer than I wanted. The point I am trying to make is that he is the Doctor who is, yes, the most inclined toward romance, Enamored Smurf, but also that that is not always a good thing. Being born out of love and being full of passion can be a very dangerous thing. He is not just the most inclined toward romance – he is also the Doctor who is the most inclined toward villainy. Get behind me, Moffat, no Eleven is not-

As the Doctor with the most passion, born out of love, when I say that when he’s angry he’s furious, I am talking Time Lord Victorious furious. He is at times the most imposing version of the Doctor. In fact, there’s an entire alternate multimedia canon dedicated to the idea that the Tenth Doctor specifically could one day be a villain, after making a thousand small decisions that surface-wise don’t seem so bad, but that eventually snowball into one big, bad decision. And suddenly he thinks he’s a god and we have to root against him. And that’s just one drawback. The other drawback is plainly seen after Doomsday and Journey’s End – the Tenth Doctor cannot handle losing Rose. He’s completely ruined without her. He changed every single cell in his body with an eye toward loving her, and when she is gone, it probably feels like an enormous chunk of himself is missing. It probably feels like everything is tilting sideways, just a little bit, all the time. And the fact that he lost her and never explicitly told her how he felt? He has no idea what to do with himself. He goes from bad to worse. First of all, it’s made very clear that he is okay with dying when Rose is gone. We saw that in Turn Left. He was never trying to survive anything he ever did. He was saving other people, but he would have died several times over and had zero desire for self-preservation. The man practically begged the Daleks to kill him in Manhattan, and he would have drowned (in misery and river water) if Donna hadn’t been there to tell him “You can stop now!”

He has Martha and that helps, but she leaves. He has Donna and that helps, but she has to go too. He had Rose again, just for a second, but he can’t keep her this time, and that’s the last straw. He just snaps. Then it’s all bitterness, it’s all anger, it’s all ego. And it’s all at a ten, because what is he when he’s born out of love and the woman he loves is gone? What does he do with all that passion and pain? I’ll tell you what he does. He becomes the worst, most dejected maniac in the universe. He goes from wishing he could die to stubbornly refusing to die. And when it is time to die, he tries to be sure the last human face he sees is Rose’s face.

Actually the more I’m talking about it, the more I’m thinking Ten is the saddest Doctor. At least his other incarnations tried to die as heroes. At least they didn’t get to the point where they could look at Wilfred Mott, a global treasure, and say “not remotely important”. He’s Enamored Smurf, but he can’t do what he was sort of made to do. He can’t be with Rose. He can love her by giving her the chance for a happy ending, and he can love her by showing her the universe, and he can love her by giving his life for her, but he can’t keep her. He has to be without her. He can’t settle down (why do you think John Smith was so quick to fall in love and want a future with Nurse Redfern while being unable to stop dreaming of Rose, unable to stop dreaming she kept walking away?). If there was any version of the Doctor that wanted to be human in order to be with someone he loved, it would be Ten. Because he’s born out of love. And he just can’t escape that. Like this really beautiful, wonderful plant that gets moved out of the sun and is unable to reach water, so all its fruit goes sour. He’s miserable. Oh look I made myself sad-

[createherself]

donnanxble replied to your post: can’t stop thinking how wild it’d be for rose in...

ten gets no rights. that dalek shoots him and the bitch flops like a fish. end scene.

saving us from post journey’s end ten who is, for whatever reason, an insufferable jackass

[worldserasingandcreatinginmymind]

Home | Part Two

Pairing: 13!Doctor x Daughter!Reader, Graham x Reader (platonic)

Summary: while the fam are away, you and the Doctor have a mother/daughter bonding day

Word Count: 

Warning: none?

A/N: as always spelling and grammar is not my strongest skill so please be kind :)

Part One | Masterlist

- - - - -

The control room was unusually quiet. 

Living on the TARDIS for the past month with The Doctor and her three human companions, you’d gotten used to the sound of constant conversation. That’s why you liked going for your morning swim in the TARDIS pool room, it gave you a chance to get away on your own for a while. It’s not that you didn’t like being around them, its just after travelling alone for so long it was a shock to the system to now be travelling and living with four other people. 

Walking closer to the central control panel, towel in hand catching the water droplets falling from your post-swim wet hair, you spot The Doctor down in the hatch under the floor messing with various glowing wires. 

“What are you doing?” You ask, making her jump and she hits her head. “Sorry” you apologise, stifling a giggle as she rubs her hand against the point of impact on her scalp. 

“Just some basic maintenance on the old girl, making sure she’s ready for our Doctor Daughter bonding day” she says with a massive grin as she climbs back up on the main deck and closes the hatch. You look at her slightly confused.

“But, what about the others? Where are they?”

“Dropped them back on Earth while you were swimming. I do that every so often, give them a day to check in with friends and family and do whatever it is humans do. Usually get bored and travel 24hours ahead to pick them back up again but not this time. Me and you are going to have fun. So what do you want to do?” 

She stares at you expectantly like an excited puppy and you just look back at her, bewildered. 

“um…” you look around the TARDIS as you try to think of something to say and something catches your eye. A small tank full of liquid bubbling away and floating in the liquid… a severed hand. “What the…? Why do you have a hand in a jar?” You ask, making your way over to study it closer. 

“Oh that? I got into a sword fight with the leader of the Sycorax on Christmas Day and he cut off my hand. It grew back though. Anyway-”

“No hang on. That is not enough information. I want details. Who are the Sycorax? Why were you fighting them on Christmas Day? Do you even celebrate Christmas? How did your hand grow back? Why did you keep the old one?”

“It’s a long story”

“That’s fine, we’ve got a whole day. This is what I want to do today, I want to stay in the TARDIS and listen to your stories”

“Really? All the planets and galaxies we could be exploring and you want to sit here listening to me?”

“Absolutely! You’ve had such fascinating lives, I want to hear about them. All the planets you’ve saved, bad guys you’ve fought, people you’ve befriended. Everything… Please?”

She studies you for a moment then smiles, taking a seat on the steps.

“Fine. Make yourself comfortable, we’re going to be here for a while”

— — — — 

Almost three hours passed in the blink of an eye. You weren’t just listening to the Doctor talk, you were imagining it all. In your mind you were right there with her, fighting Daleks and Centurians and all sorts. But it wasn’t all fighting. She also told you about the fun times she’d had with past companions. She was just finishing telling you about a woman named River Song. 

“Wait… so, you're married?!” You exclaim

“Technically yes, but it’s complicated”

“You married the daughter of one of your companions…?”

“Like I said, complicated. Anyway-” she changes the subject “did I tell you about the time a woman in a wedding dress appeared in my TARDIS? One minute she’s walking down the aisle, the next minute she’s here. She actually ended up travelling with me for a bit, great woman Donna”

“Donna? The same Donna who was with you when I was created? That Donna?” 

“Yeah thats her. I forgot you two met”

“I loved Donna! She was so kind to me, I thought about her a lot actually while I was travelling. Can we visit her?”

The Doctor’s eyes suddenly fill with sadness and for a moment you think…

“Oh, did she-? Is she…?” You ask awkward, not quite able to bring yourself to finish the question. The Doctor looks at you confused before realising what you're asking.

“Oh! No! No no, she’s alive, she’s fine. She’s back on Earth with her family, married now too. She’s happy”

“That’s great” you breathe a sigh of relief “then why did you look so sad? You scared me!”

“She doesn’t remember me. She can’t ever remember me, or she will die.” 

“I, I’m so sorry” you whisper sadly

“She saved the universe and she has no idea.”

“What happened?” You ask but when The Doctor looks at you you realise she might not want to talk about it “I’m sorry you don't have tell me-”

“No it’s okay. She touched that” she gestures to the hand in the jar “and absorbed Time Lord DNA. She was human, but had the mind of a Time Lord. All that knowledge, it’s too much for any human. It was overwhelming her, killing her. So I went into her mind and erased it all. The knowledge, the adventures, me.”

“I don't understand. You went into her mind? How?” 

“Time Lord trick”

“Can I do it?” You ask and she studies you for a moment, thinking. 

“I’m not sure. Maybe. Try it” 

“What?”

“Try it now. With me.” She turns her body to face you and takes your hand, bringing your fingers up towards her face. “Focus. Empty your mind, and focus on trying to see mine.”

She gently pushes your hand till your index and middle finger are pressed against her temple and instantly your eyes close as you feel a strange sensation wash over you.

“I see a long corridor, lined with open doors” you describe

“That’s it. Choose one and look inside” she instructs quietly

You do as she says, and go to a door. You peek inside and see The Doctor with the fam, dressed in old fashioned clothes dancing with people you’ve never seen before.

“That’s the time we met Mary Shelley and Lord Byron. Strange night” 

You laugh and she tells you to try another door. You do and this time you see a man wearing a bow tie and a fez waving a mop around. 

“Ah that was when I exploded the TARDIS, creating a big bang to reset the universe.”

“Wait, that’s you? What are you wearing?!” You laugh and she gets defensive.

“Hey, bow ties are cool!” she protests

“I was talking about the fez”

“Also cool- just shut up and go to a different door”

You walk further down the corridor and stop at a door when you spot a man you recognise. Your father. He’s sitting on the floor cradling another wounded man. You hear him shouting at the man to regenerate, but he dies. You step away from the door as the Doctor sobs, clutching the dead mans corpse. It’s hard to see him like that.

“I’m sorry you saw that, I should have shut that door” the present Doctor says and you remove your hand from her face, opening your eyes to look into hers.

“Who was that?” 

“The Master, another Time Lord.”

“Another Time Lord? There are more? Can we visit them? Ooh, can we go to your planet-”

“No”

“Why not?! I want to see where you grew up, meet your family-”

“I said no” She says more firmly, startling you as she abruptly stands up and walks away “end of conversation”

“This isn’t fair! I’m one of them I have a right to meet my relatives!” You protest.

She spins around to look at you with such anger in her eyes you barely recognise her.

“No you don’t! You are nothing like them and I will never take you there so just leave it!”

She goes to the TARDIS control and starts fiddling with buttons before reopening the hatch she was working in this morning and climbing back down. She restarts working on wires and you silently watch her for a few moments before getting up and walking off down the TARDIS corridor to your room. You curl up in your bed and try to block out the Doctor’s harsh words. Instead you imagine what the other Time Lords and their planet would be like. It’s not long before you drift off into a light sleep. 

— — — — 

You're awoken not long later by the sound of the TARDIS engines, signalling that you were travelling. You rush out of your room back to the control room in time to see the fam coming back on board. The Doctor greets them in her usually cheery way but you cant help but feel hurt that she jumped forward to pick them up early. So much for Doctor Daughter bonding day. You quickly turn on your heels and go back to your room before anyone spots you. But someone does. 

A few moments later there’s a knock at your door and Graham pokes his head in.

“Alright cockle?” After the mix up during your first meeting Graham had actually become like a father figure to you and you found yourself confiding in him a lot. “What are you doing?” He asks when he spots you packing your few belongings into a backpack.

“Leaving. She clearly doesn’t want me around so-”

“Wait! What are you talking about?! Y/N stop!” He grabs your hands, stopping you from packing anymore and forcing you to look at him “What happened?”

“I asked her to take me to her planet, introduce me to the Time Lords. She got angry and shouted at me and then she skipped forward to pick you guys up early because she doesn’t want to spend time with me.” Your voice cracks slightly and you look away. 

“She does want to spend time with you Y/N, she’s just… awkward. Listen, we’ve all asked her multiple times about her home and every time she either shuts us down or changes the subject. She’s very private about all that stuff”

“But I’m her daughter! I’m the one person she should want to share that stuff with. Instead she told me that she’ll never take me there because I’m not a Time Lord.” You take a deep breath “What if she’s right? What if I’m not a real Time Lord? What am I?”

Graham sighs and shakes his head. 

“I don't know love, only you can answer that. And you know what, who cares if you're not some fancy shmancy Time Lord? I don’t. Ryan and Yaz don’t. We love you just the same, because you're amazing.” He places his hands on your shoulders and looks right into your eyes “You're Y/N! And that’s more than enough” he smiles at you.

“Thanks Graham” you give him a small smile “sometimes I wish you were my real dad” 

“A boring old man like me? Nah you don’t” he laughs “you unpack that bag and join us when you're ready okay?” 

You nod and he leaves the room. You replay his words in your head and sigh, unpacking your stuff again. When you're finished you head out into the control room and spend the rest of the evening chatting to Yaz about what she got up to with her family. 

— — — — 

The next morning you get out of bed early and get ready for your daily swim. You walk down the quiet corridors towards the pool room. The fam are still asleep at this time of morning so the TARDIS is nice and quiet. When you reach the pool you're surprised to see The Doctor stood waiting for you. She looks at you with an awkward apologetic smile as you walk over to her. 

“Never seen you in here before” you state emotionless.

“I want to show you something” 

“In the pool?” 

“No. I knew you always come here every morning and I needed to see you before the fam wake up”

“Okay?” You shrug

“Come with me” 

You follow her back out of the pool room and to the control room. She walks to the TARDIS door and steps out. You stop when you reach the door, cautiously looking out at where you were. 

Before you was a planet unlike any you’d seen. But it was on fire. The sky burnt orange as dark smoke rose from what was left of the buildings. You looked at The Doctor with confusion. 

“Welcome to Gallifrey. Home of the Time Lords” she holds her hand out to you and you take it, stepping out onto the dusty burnt ground. 

“This is your home?” 

“What’s left of it. It was destroyed.”

“By who?” You shake your head, unable to believe what your eyes are seeing.

“The Master.”

“Why? Why would anyone do this?” You feel your heart sinking the more you take it all in. Even though you’ve never been here before, it hurts to see it like this. 

“I don't know” she replies honestly, as she notices the tears filling your eyes “This is why I didn’t want to bring you here. I didn’t want you to see this. Not because I don't think you're a ‘real time lord’ or because I don't want to spend time with you”

You turn to her shocked, how did she know-

“Graham” you whisper to yourself

“He told me how upset you were. And then he told me off for causing it. I’m sorry Y/N. I shouldn’t have snapped at you, I shouldn’t have taken this out on you. It’s not your fault. And you're right, you do have a right to know who you are, and where you come from. I will try to be more open with you.”

You look into her eyes and smile at her as you pull her into a hug. After a moment she pulls away and smiles back at you.

“Take as long as you need here then come back inside, okay?”

You nod and she walks back into the TARDIS, closing the door behind her. You turn back to look at the planet before you, taking a few steps closer. You take a seat on a small mound of burnt grass, bringing your knees up to your chest. You fold your arms over your knees and rest your chin on them, staring out at the planet imagining what it would have once looked like. 

“Beautiful isn’t it” an unknown male voice beside you. 

You look startled at the man who is now sat next to you. 

“Who are you?”

“Me? Im the one who created this masterpiece. You can call me… Master”

Then suddenly everything is dark. 

Part Three

[omegangrins]

Chibnall, Children, Choice and Consequence

Allow me to introduce a companion piece to A Treatise on the Doctor:

It's pretty simple:

Chibnall knows what he's doing and is playing a long game to show how the Doctor needs to take more responsibility.

Let me start off with my favorite examples. That's right, plural.

Every single villain 13 faces is never defeated, merely pushed away from causing them any immediate problems. Tim Shaw being the prime example.

1&10. Seriously, Tim Shaw. Her plan was to use his own bombs on him and then teleport him off the planet. Even without Ranskoor Av Kolos, the Doctor should have thought to check in on him. Especially after The Ghost Monument showed the Stenza were a greater threat than she knew. She still hasn't even checked up on WHAT THE HELL THE STENZA ARE! They sound worse than Daleks but naw, let's go rain-bathing in the upper tropics of Canstano instead.

2. Ghost Monument. We saw the END of an interuniversal race. What the fuck is the beginning that got them there? Who is Illyn and how and why did he orchestrate a super race?

3. Krasko. Sent back in time. Really, Doc? Not gonna take a look at the device and see where Ryan sent the prick so you can double check that he's not gonna cause anymore damage?

4. President Trump analog. Ooooo, you looked at him menacingly, Doc, that'll show him!! Not like he's gonna KEEP DOING ILLEGAL SHIT LIKE THIS.

5. The Pting. She literally shunted it off ship to be dealt with by someone else BUT DOESN'T GO BACK TO BE THAT SOMEONE ELSE ONCE SHE HAS HER TARDIS. That's like leaving a living nuke floating around after sweeping it under the rug while you fly off to Paris.

6. The Pakistani-Indian conflict still happens and millions still die. Not her fault but still....

7. Kerblam. Sure, Charlie's terrorism was solved but not the underlying problem that led to it. Humans still can't work because corporations like profits over people.

8. Similar to the Punjab, how you gonna solve sexism, classism and all the -isms?

9. WHY WAS THE SOLITRACT THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE??!! It's been around since before the universe. Why'd it decide to come back now? It's a whole universe trying to hug our universe to death. Maaaaaaybe we should check out why.

11. She's gets a pass on the Dalek. Fucking impossible to eradicate them.

12. The Master!!! Finally she checks up on something after the adventures... and it's horrible. With everything gone to shit in her absence. Seeing a pattern yet?

And Barton? And the Cassaven? They didn't disappear into smoke.

13. Multiple Earths being multiply fucked. Remember when I said the Doctor couldn't solve racism, classism, sexism, or any of the other -isms? Starting to look like she needs to TRY.

14. The Skithra FLY OFF after getting hit by a laser beam. That kind of thing tends to piss people off. Even if they're idiots using other's technology.

15. Jack. The Judoon. The Ruth Doctor. All things I'd start checking out if I had a time machine BUT

16. WE CAN'T cause the TARDIS emergency alert is going off and we need to hurry up and run and solve this problem before we run out of time in our TIME AND SPACE MACHINE. Leading to another problem the Doctor could help solve but won't. Plastic and over-consumption.

17. Oh yeah, let's trap two Eternals from another universe in the same place. There's NO WAY that could ever turn out bad.

18,19,20. And again. Cyberium. Pushed off Shelley onto herself and onto Ashad and onto The Master.

That's almost 20 "enemies" the Doctor still needs to deal with.

Oh, not to mention that they let UNIT go defunct because they didn't have the forethought to ask if they needed any money in their alien fighting budget. After asking for an office, a desk, and a job. Kinda funny that way, aren't they?

I hope by now you've gotten the idea that this is VERY deliberate. This is Chibnall laying down some very heavy pipe to smack the Doctor like a clothesline. There isn't a one of these situations that can't come around to bite her in the ass.

Barton, Roberts, Skithra. These are all very loose strands for a time traveller like the Doctor to get tripped up on. Chibnall's past episodes prove it. They're all about the Doctor learning how to take responsibility.

42: The Doctor almost gets Martha killed and almost gets himself killed trying to fix it.

The Hungry Earth: The Doctor (a thousand year old "adult") tells Elliot (a 10 year old kid) that "Sure it's totally fine to go get your headphones while we prepare for an approaching unknown alien force." And 11 rightfully gets his ass chewed for it by the child's mother when the kid goes missing because OF COURSE THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS, JACKASS!

Cold Blood: I could write an entire essay about the Doctor's guilt over the Silurian/Human conflicts they've witnessed, but I don't need to. Because every single Silurian centered episode written in the new era is from Chris Chibnall. And you can feel the sad knowledge of Classic Who spill through. He KNOWS how many times the Doctor has fucked up with the Silurians (about 8 times in television format. And it's rough everytime. Rough.) and he writes those episodes like an apology on behalf of the whole human race. And the Doctor. You know why people are put off by Warriors of the Deep? 5 releases a gas that melts the Silurians. And though it's cheesy, the idea and execution is still horrible.

Add to that if the Doctor hadn't stopped to check the crack, then Rory wouldn't have waited and been around to be shot then absorbed by the time crack.

Power of Three: An entire episode about how the Doctor has a problem slowing down and really taking account of the lives of their companions.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship: The Doctor actually tries to be responsible and pick the right people for a job. For once. But gets angry when they realize it's too late and there's another bunch of Silurians they failed to save. Classic!

Like I said, if you can't see the pattern, you're not paying enough attention to your responsibilites.

Which leads me to the why.

When you fly around time and space for thousands of years, you develop a few duties of care along the way. In every situation, you're the oldest. Technically the only adult in terms of experience. You have a responsibility to act a little less rude and be a bit more aware than needing cue cards to tell you that you should be sad about things around you. And that's the purpose of 13. She's unlucky but learning. Like 12 telling himself something with his face he couldn't say out loud, 13's instincts are leading her to a new place for the Doctor: being a caring, responsible person. Not so much laughing hard or running fast, but being kind. It's the one thing they recognized as a problem in themselves when seeing 1. Being a Doctor is about being kinder than that. Just because you HAVE to saw someone's leg off, that doesn't mean you can't wait a little and comfort them before you do it.

You wanna know what gave me every faith in Chibnall showrunning Doctor Who? 13 staying for Grace's funeral.

Do you understand how unprecedented that is? This is the same person who never said Goodbye to Jo Grant as she got married and fucked off into the night. The same Doctor who said, "I don't do domestic.", did it with Rose a regeneration later, and then closed himself off to everyone but a married couple he felt guilty about who ended up birthing his wife. Have you any idea the number of funerals the Doctor should have the common decency to sit through? This many.

So for 13 to stay around for the death of a woman she has only just met and not only that, BUT call out Ryan's father for not doing the same, it shows tremendous character growth. It's taken millennia but they're still changing.

Something similar happens with Rosa and The Witchfinders. Realizing that there a lot of companions who have been in situations that are sometimes worse than aliens, but they still manage to make it through. So she needs to buck it up and persevere for everyone else.

That's where her anger comes from, and really it's one of my favorite traits on her. It reminds me of 7. Someone impossibly old and impossibly kind saying to hell with it and at least having some fun with the evils who drag us through the universe. And just like Cartmel planned for 7, 13's past will come to haunt her.

That's where children come in. Most of us are crying babies to the Doctor.

There's this thing you notice most in British shows about answering the question directly as asked. Someone says "Are you sure?", you answer "Sure". That's a direct acknowledgement that you heard the question, understood it, and processed it enough to respond in a manner directly correlating to the question asked. Yas and Graham got it and said "Sure" but Ryan missed it and said "Deffo". This is like Elliot with the headphones. The Doctor should have immediately been like, "Okay, Ryan, it's obvious that you're still dealing with the trauma of your grandmother's death and probably not processing things on a logical level. I said "Are you sure?" Not "Are you deffo?" Because we are most definitely not deffo, Ryan. Graham, you wanna help here?"

I'm being sarcastic for points sake but you understand the idea. The Doctor knows better and has a responsibility as such. She should've really sat down with Ryan and Graham and seen if there was a better way to process their grief.

Because I'm fairly certain that "Deffo" is gonna lead to Ryan's death and Graham's cancer resurging as time cancer (I don't know what time cancer is. I just know it's bad.)

And that is gonna piss Yas off. Which will give you all that character you think she's missing (she isn't. Her character is in her subtleties and silences.). That's WHY her character is a police officer (like how does no else see that the man who wrote Broadchurch wrote an inspector character companion?) Imagine you're Yaz and you see the Doctor flying around in a big, magic box that says POLICE. As a fellow officer, you're gonna expect some basic safety protocols.

Like do a background check on everyone flying in the TARDIS to know whether they're stable enough (mentally, physically, emotionally) for time and space travel. It's no picnic. These people are going to go through hell. A little vetting and planning like Time Heist or Dinosaurs on a Spaceship goes a long way.

Secondly, full fucking disclosure.

"Oh. I can't die because I change my body. Oh. I have arch enemies that will try to kill and torture us any chance they get. Oh. My home planet is full of the biggest assholes in the universe and I'm including my arch enemies."

Third, police like to do this thing called "check-ups" where they go back to the scene of the crime in order to see if there is any more information that can be gleaned which you might not notice when you are busy running around trying not to be killed... Like, the Doctor has the perfect machine to do this with, but nope. Adventure done, run to the next place!!

These are all things you'd expect any reasonable person to do and say when taking others flying off into time and space and "helping". Even if they are an idiot passing through and learning. Especially when you consider the Doctor is vastly older and more experienced than everyone they encounter. They SHOULD know better. And they've got the lifespan to slow down. It's not like they need to be in a hurry because they're going to die at any moment like humans. The Doctor could easily stay for tea and it would be less than a drop in their lifespan.

Now, as usually is the case when I make these theories, I have a parts 1,2,3,4 and 6. There's allways this 5th piece I miss but I manage to get at the end.

But the 6th piece is the Timeless Child. The Doctor isn't a Time Lord anymore. They're not beholden to those people and ideas anymore. Even moreso, those people basically raped her childhood for their own gain so it's not like you'd really listen to them and their "policy of non-intervention".

I'm sensing a coming Trial of a Time Lord season (even believing these two seasons are the opening statement and preliminary evidence of the trial itself) wherein the Doctor finally gets the turnaround 6 deserved. A Trial of the Time Lords, if you will.

"In all my travels through time and space I have battled against evil, against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed here! The oldest civilization: decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core! Power mad conspirators? Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen — they're still in the nursery compared to us! Ten million years of absolute power: that's what it takes to be really corrupt!"

This is what it's all coming down to. Chibnall's takedown of the Time Lords. And The Master is going to play the most crucial role of all.

They're going to be revealed as an Ux alongside the Doctor and show how the only constants they have in this universe are each other and it's about damn time they work together and tell these high collars to eat Schitt while they explore every star and planet they can find.

Come on, the episode is called The Timeless "Children". If it was just the Doctor it'd be called "The Timeless Child". The Master says as much with the misdirect line, "built on the lie of the Timeless Child." since we see two kids playing in that flashback.

"Since always. Since the Cloister Wars, since the night he stole the moon and the president's wife, since he was a little girl. One of those was a lie, can you guess which one?"

Now we know which one was a lie, we know the Master HAS known the Doctor since they were a little girl. THAT little girl...

But this is all just speculation. It's not like Chris Chibnall could have been thinking about this for the past 40 years and was given a blank slate to do whatever he wanted for five years on his favorite TV show. If y'all want to think he took those reigns and is choosing to make things worse...

Well then you don't know much about responsibility.

I'll let the man himself tell you about it.

"Very early in my career,” says Chibnall, “someone told me that you learn more from a failure than you do from a success. And then I lived out that phrase for a year in Los Angeles. I learned that I would not work that way again or be put in that situation again.” The essential lesson was: “You either have to be in total control of a show or working with people who share your vision and will work with you to achieve it. Also, never work with 13 executive producers.

“Camelot was the classic case of too many cooks. It wasn’t a harmonious set-up and I think that does manifest itself on screen.

“I had a fantastic cast but you have to be free to tell the story you want to tell in the way that you want to tell it. What ended up on screen was not what I wanted and so it is a blemish on my CV.”

Credit to @thirteenthdoc

“You immortals - so entitled, so spoiled. You never clear up after yourselves and you always leave stuff lying around.” - Thirteenth Doctor in Can You Hear Me?

[upslapmeal]

Spyfall Pt. 1

BANGER OF AN OPENER ok let’s get into them reactions

cold open!

I missed cold opens in s11

why have the fam been missing for periods of time back at home when they literally time travel

the Doctor still having bad memories of trying to get Rose back to the exact moment she left?

is this the first time we’ve seen the doctor fiddling with the internal bits of the TARDIS from the outside like this?

water slides! rainforest floor!

‘in 5 seconds: die’ I mean that’s just another day with a satnav

‘I’d be a great spy, I’d just blend in’ ah but Graham what about the other key spy components: running away from explosions and smoothly ordering cocktails

Stephen Fry!

'you actually do exist’ cue Graham starting to doubt the possibility of his own existence

'they’re not toys Graham’ 'no they’re not and if you say other wise I will shoot you with my laser shoe’ ACTUAL CHILDREN lmao

so uh. VOR is Google right? or Amazon?

is this ep trying to seek forgiveness for Kerblam

(which I did enjoy but is a bit yikes when you start to think about it)

‘UNIT! even Torchwood!’ 

the emphasis on even since somehow that welsh disaster gang managed to get stuff done occasionally

also RIP UNIT and Torchwood I mean after London’s many alien invasions you’d have thought they’d have at least kept someone keeping an eye on the whole alien thing

does Thirteen have 2 phones? or was she just borrowing Yaz’s iphone?

well RIP Stephen Fry

the entire time the Aussie agents were searching outside the house all I could think was why did the Doctor land the TARDIS so far from the house!! it’s just out there! how will they get away if they have to!

'I’d be a great brother in law' 

Yaz!! she’s been light alien absorbed!

love how genuinely tense this ep is

and I love the design of that weird forest-y place Yaz was sent

alien and terrifyingly isolated

'I thought I was dead’ 'I’m never gonna let that happen to you’ uh. this will be their second series as companions so let’s hope that’s not some nice early foreshadowing :)))

'we’ve tried to ask but she just changes the subject’ ok glad it’s looking as though the Doctor’s purposely been hiding her past

ooh that tantalising shelf of info

O seems very familiar and I can’t remember if the time he met the Doctor was in the show

WAIT no he was Waris Hussein in An Adventure In Space And Time that’s where I know him from

'there’s no match’ Doc why are you using a laptop to do this surely the TARDIS will get jealous

love the bond-esque score, nice work Akinola

'blend in’ your time has come Graham bc that’s something the Doctor has never been good at

Thirteen being threatening yess

imagine Thirteen getting shot and full on regenerating mid chase

I mean it would be useful in terms of being undercover and not being recognised

…

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT!! WHATT!!!!!!!! W H A T

it’s the Master?????? 

did we have any idea this was coming???? I feel as though they’ve kept this very well hidden since I’ve not seen anyone mention the Master may be back this series

BETRAYED BY WARIS HUSSEIN

shrunken O in the matchbox is very The Faceless Ones

especially combined with them being on a plane

now I just want to know how long the Master just had to pretend to be an agent

I mean they’ve done the long term thing back when they were Harold Saxon but still

and yeah ok people are saying this ruins Missy’s arc but guys

it’s the Master

this character is 90% pure evil schemes did we really expect that arc to stick?

my one complaint about the ep? A SEVERE LACK OF SCRONCH

glad we don’t have to wait a full week for Spyfall 2 Electric Boogaloo, are we thinking those 4 morse code beeps in the trailer = the Master’s drum beats?

[rowanthestrange]

Doctor Who Meta: Cyberium AI Meta Masterpost

@grassangel​ said: A thought for you because of your meta: the Cyberium as the fluid in the opening credits.

It definitely does have a resemblance, doesn’t it. And that fits in with the Chibs style of ‘if you think it’s odd/wrong it probably serves a bigger purpose’.

The Cyberium AI is weird as hell. It’s clearly really important, not just as a plot device, but as itself. It’s got characterisation. It’s got a mirror important enough to be in the first episode - Tzim-Sha’s Gathering Coil, the first thing this Doctor ever faces.

And it mirrors the Doctor and Timeless Child’s ‘Power’. I mean it really mirrors them. To the point where, like with the Lone Cyberman and Rassilon, I’m not sure if it’s mirroring the character ridiculously heavily, or if it just straight up is the character. Just like working out Clara was going to be the Doctor with a TARDIS - I knew the result but I didn’t know what form it would take, literally the character or not, until the end. Cus that’s Doctor Who and its shapeshifting for you.

You know how my preferred method is to just point out all the metas as I see them, so you can draw your own conclusions if they’re different to mine, but I will actually put my thoughts as to what this all means at the end.

So click below for every bit of Cyberium AI meta from not just Series 12, not even just Series 11...but all the way back to Season 25)

(Under a cut because there was so much more than I thought there was)

In episode order then:

The Woman Who Fell To Earth

(The Gathering Coil as double-layer, mirroring the Cyberium AI’s role itself; but also therefore as its Doctor character mirror, and Timeless Child ‘Power’ mirror)

-See the title of the episode. The title with at least three references now.

-It crashes into a train when we meet it. A few moments before the Doctor does.

-“What are you? Okay, you don't like questions. More the private type, I get that.”

-Its data is absorbed into the Rassilon-mirror Tzim-Sha.

-In doing so also implants into him - and I quote the Doctor - “Micro-implants which code to your DNA. On detonation, they disrupt the foundation of your genetic code, melting your DNA.” Sound familiar?

-It’s being used - against the laws of the user’s species - in order to attain leadership. (Like Rassilon/Tecteun)

-Looks like one creature but is actually a huge number in the appearance of one. (The Doctor).

-The Gathering Coil might look like an Eldritch horror, but it never actually kills anyone on purpose. When it first shows up, the woman driving the train dies from shock, (“Shock” get it? Like...) Grace dies in an attempt to stop it by electrocuting it. The most damage it itself deliberately does, is short-circuit a crane.

----

The Haunting Of Villa Diodatti:

(Heavily as Timeless Child ‘Power’ mirror(?))

-The Lone Cyberman confirms the Cyberium AI to be both a lifeform and ‘weapon of some kind’. Like the Ux.

-We meet it already inside Doctor-mirror Percy Shelley - suicidal, social activist, and a great believer in the importance of society having Hope even if not so good at it himself. He is not trying to use its powers, but as Guardian of them doesn’t want others to take and abuse them. The word ‘Guard’ is also used by Mary in regards to the child. (And we could leave this episode and say how Irish Metaphor Doctor was a ‘Garda’ but you get the point).

-It hides in a house that appears to warp and change and shield and use a perception filter - theorised to be the Cyberium AI warping the perceptions of people in the building, even though none of them are remotely Cyber in any way. Shelley says directly only some of the changing is his doing. On a practical level, it must have strong telepathic abilities - like the Doctor. On a meta level, it hides itself in a place that mirrors a TARDIS.

-The Doctor can’t find it at first because it’s “hidden away, cloaked, too big to register.” Like the Timeless Child memories.

-The Doctor seemingly genuinely didn’t know what it was a minute ago, when she was asking Ashad what it was. But now suddenly she does know: “Cyber technology. The knowledge of the whole cyber race and AI from the future, containing the knowledge and future history of all Cybermen”. Almost as if she’s remembered.

-This next bit’s important and connected so we’ll just do the whole lot and break it up afterwards:

Percy: “They scorched and split the sky. Built the army of all armies. Left behind only pain, rage, fear and death.” Mary: “How is he seeing all this?” The Doctor: “The Cyberium is burning through his mind. It'll destroy him if it stays in him much longer. An epic battle. The Cyberium at the heart of it, controlling data, strategy, decision-making. Clever! Very clever. Someone took it from the Cybermen, sent it back through time here in an attempt to change the future.” *The Lone Cyberman tries to break in* The Doctor: “In an attempt to protect you from that.”

-Like Donna with the Doctor’s memories, this is burning Percy up. -An epic Battle, like with the Ux - a great battle referenced and not explained. The Cyberium AI instead of the Ux at the heart of it, used to fight it. (If anyone’s still assuming the Timeless Child(ren) thing was simply about regeneration power, there should be more focus on the Division and the Child as weapon). -The Doctor again coming in with extra information. -Possible Future Meta: Someone attempted to change the future by taking the source of power from the Rassilon (see the mirror).

-Thirteen tells the Doctor-mirror to just let the Rassilon-mirror have the power. (Reminds me of how the Timeless Child ‘would not yield any secrets’). But the Cyberium AI has been sending Shelley (Doctor-mirror) symbols and numbers. So Possible Future Meta: It wasn’t just the regeneration power Rassilon got from the Timeless Child, it was also information. (Of course - the Doctor, especially this one meant to mirror all this, is the Builder And Destroyer, after all)

-We confirm the Cyberium AI’s own sentience, separate from its host, (and its reluctance to leave). It changes the mental map of the house specifically to avoid the Lone Cyberman.

-The Lone Cyberman believes the host must be killed in order to get the power out. Mary Shelley immediately talks to the Lone Cyberman about fatherhood, and how he doesn’t want to do this. (Rassilon/Tecteun)

-The Doctor convinces the Cyberium AI to leave by showing it Percy’s future. (The mercury-like substance exits Percy quite like the poison with Ten. Given the amount of Ten-era-mirroring, this one’s cute).  (Possible Future Meta: The Doctor meeting Timeless Child self, like with Martin!Doctor).

-The Cyberium AI goes to the Doctor, who calls herself its “true Guardian”. Says it feels “Very at home”. Going with how she seemed to remember what it was without ever being told earlier...

-The Doctor, when her friends and the planet is at risk, decides to give it over the the Lone Cyberman, and the Cyberium works with her in a way it refused to with Shelley, meaning she didn’t need to die, even though she says it had already started fusing.

-Next after the Doctor-mirror/Doctor, the power enters the Rassilon-mirror.

-(Yaz restarts the Doctor-mirror’s heart. That’s not important to this meta, but it sure is important to other ones).

-We talk about ghosts just as we enter the Ghost Monument.

----

Ascension Of The Cybermen:

(Both as Doctor mirror and Timeless Child Power mirror)

-Cyberium!Ashad says “The Cyberium does know you. Both you and humanity will be destroyed, and I shall bring the Cyber race to its greatest ever glory.” - the Cyberium AI has already seen the Doctor’s death before. Or it’s lying.

-The Doctor’s blatantly obvious talking-to-herself therapy speech is to Cyberium!Ashad.

“The Cyberium has given me understanding. It has distilled my purpose. I am the perfect vessel.” - A container, a ship for the Cyberium AI.

“Everything is in me for the ascension of the Cybermen, and beyond. ... All your deaths. The death of everything is within me.” - First, mirrors the ‘life’ within the Timeless Child. Second, considering before this was previously an AI trying to avoid conflict and entering Ashad, the fact that Ashad and his death particle gets convinced to go to the Master and Gallifrey, makes me wonder how much the Cyberium AI was forced to go along because that’s its nature and it has to follow instructions, or whether it was planning and pulling the strings. Or both - TARDIS-style.

----

The Timeless Children:

(Heavily as Doctor mirror, minorly Timeless Child Power mirror)

-“Oh. Oop. Excuse me. Check my notifications. Oh, goodie! The Cybermen are here, at the Boundary. Better extend the hand of friendship. Breaker 1-2 calling all Cybes.” So the Master knew that the Cybermen would come. How? They haven’t interacted from our perspective at all.

-The Master says to Cyberium!Ashad “I want you to think of me as your new best friend.”

-Master to the Doctor: “Don't heckle, dear. I can always decide to cut you short.” -Master to Cyberium!Ashad: “Oh, shoot. I should've said, somebody needs to cut you down to size, then zapped you. I was just trigger-happy. I'll use it next time.” (Plus, a ‘next time’ - we haven’t seen the last of him).

-The Cyberium AI is revealed to have been the one to create the Death Particle. Which again makes me question who’s pulling whose strings. As the Master points out Ashad is more organic than most, and Ashad simply says that he’ll mechanise when the process is over - ignoring the point that this didn’t work before. And Ashad seems to think it will wipe out everything, ignoring the reality that its coverage is only a single planet.

-The Master is clearly talking to the Cyberium more than Ashad at points.

Ashad: “The Cyberium will process and dictate the strategy.” The Master: “The Cyberium. I've heard a lot about that over the millennia. The heart of all your power. The centre of all Cyber knowledge.” -Sounds very like the other Timeless Child(ren) mirror - the Ux.

-The Master actively flirts with it. “Oh, come on, Cyberium, show us some leg. What do you actually look like, hmm?” And after shrinking Ashad without so much as a close-up, like he’s been nothing to the plot, “Well, aren't you pretty? And fast. You made your exit very swiftly there. Worried, were you?”

-The Master hoped the Death Particle would activate and laments to the Cyberium AI that his “nice little gamble” didn’t pay off - as in it didn’t kill him. (Assuming Timeless Children plural, that may be the only thing that would work, and that he is telling this to the Cyberium AI again could fit nicely with the narrative idea that it knows what it’s doing).

-“Oh, sorry, were you close? Candidly, I think you can do better.” ... “Wow, that was quick. Wa-ha-ha! Whoa! Woohoo! At least buy me... dinner!” - (And considering we all had a giggle at the clearly intentionally funny ‘a piece of you is in me’ line that’s going to happen either in about a minute, or in the world of the episode and making adjustments for simultaneous storytelling, right now...)

-“I ransacked the Matrix of the Time Lords, distilled all the knowledge, all the experiences, all the discoveries, into these brains up here. All the Cyber knowledge, all the Time Lord knowledge. Put it together, what do you get? Absolute supremacy in the universe. Choose me.” - (The Master pointing out we’ve now got two sets of incredible knowledge. Rule of three has me wondering about the Timeless Child’s ��Knowledge’.)

-After the power was originally in the Doctor-mirror/Doctor, it then went to the Rassilon-mirror(?) and then to the Master. If you’re a fan of Timeless Children Plural theory.

-The Master: “No, Doctor. As of now, I wish my enemies a long and healthy life, so they may witness my many triumphs, because they will be legion.” - (So, in case you’re not familiar with the Legion thing, two points: A Legion was a division in the Roman army of about 3000-6000 men. We will be coming back to Rome - oh God will we - but just slot that information away for later. Point two - For another use of Legion, we need to head to the Bible, Mark 5:1-9. ‘Who cares, Rowan?’ Well, this is the story in which there is a man living among tombs, who no-one can bind, not even with chains. He cries out and attacks himself, and on seeing Jesus in the distance rushes over and kneels before him, screaming that he’d put him under oath not to torment him. Jesus doesn’t talk to him, but to what is possessing him, ordering it to come out, and asking its name. And it, not the man replies: “I am Legion, for we are many.” (Fun fact, we eventually get rid of the demons by exorcising them into animals who then run off...a...cliff. *sighs* Ok.)

The Doctor: “You're looking peaky.” The Master: “Oh, yeah. The Cyberium lives in me now, Doctor. Yeah. Yes. See, I've been looking forward to seeing your face about that. I can feel it flowing around in me. The information, the strategy, the... the... the consciousness. It's a beautiful thing. And look at us. I have broken you and created a new race. And now? Now I shall conquer... everything. Oh.”

-“See, I've been looking forward to seeing your face about that.” - This is a quiet point that exemplifies a major one. The Master’s story is different to ours. He knows things that we do not. The Doctor in theory (though I doubt in practice) had never come across the Cyberium AI before, she hasn’t mentioned its name or anything about it to the Master. In theory (again press x) the Lone Cyberman carrying the Cyberium AI just turned up when the Master dragged the Doctor through to Gallifrey as pure happenstance, he should know nothing about that incident with the AI and Shelley (and yet he quotes him). Why has he been looking forward to seeing her face in regards to that? What does he know about it that he expects her to remember? Just like with the Timeless Child infodump, we are fools if we take all this at face value, because the Master planned for all of this. And it seems like the Cyberium AI _itself_ is planning too.

Ko Sharmus: “You didn't start this. I did. I was part of a resistance unit that sent the Cyberium back through time and space. Though obviously we didn't send it back far enough. So this is my penance. Mine to finish. My journey ends here. But the universe still needs you, so I suggest you run.” (Ko Sharmus is treated way too important. We’ve got to see him again.)

----

Done? Done.

Well no, no actually we’re not. Because there is one final episode.

But we have to go back, just a little bit, to the Seventh Doctor. Stick with me. I promise you’ll be glad you did.

Silver Nemesis:

-A story revolving around a thing called Validium.

-To quote the TARDIS Wiki: “It was living metal that could think for itself and was capable of speech as well. When destroyed, it could reform itself.”

The Doctor: “Validium was created as the ultimate defence for Gallifrey, back in early times.” Ace: “Created by Omega?” The Doctor: “Yes.” Ace: “And?” The Doctor: “Rassilon.” Ace: “And?” The Doctor: “And none of it should have left Gallifrey. But, as always with these things, some of it did.”

-Catch that hint of the Cartmel Masterplan where it’s clearly meant to lead you to ‘And? The Other One’. It’s ok, you’re not reading too far into it, I promise.

-“It should never have left Gallifrey, but some of it did. A piece of validium fell to Earth and was found by the Lady Peinforte.” Can you guess what she did with it? Why, she moulded it into a statue of herself.

-A silver lady statue.

-(You remember how we just seemed to abandon Barton? Who is somewhat not human? Was involved with creatures from another dimension? And that statue? Seemed set-up for a cyber plan? Saw nothing wrong with a bit of familial murder? Ooh hoo. Welp.)

-Nazis are involved. Ill-timed notifications. The Doctor forgetting. A cellar. (A fez). A meteorite containing the validium crashes by a barn. On November the 23rd. Happy Birthday. We blow things up. A lot of things.

-The villains of the piece? Besides the nazis and the Time(travelling) Lady? Well it could only be the Cybermen. A bit of the Validium is held by each of them

-The Cybermen take their bit of the Validium to the tomb of the Lady, with an inscription “Death Is But A Door”. The Lady is not buried there, and it doubles as a pun, with a hidden door.

-One of the lead nazis betrays his fellow to be turned into a Cyberman. “Supermen are all very well, but the giants are the master race.”

-The Seventh Doctor is mirrored with the Lady, who describes herself as evil. They even have mirrored scenes with their equivalent companions.

-The Lady: “All power, all power past, present and future, shall be mine. Why, I shall be mistress of all of that is, all that shall be, all that ever was. Yes, all! All!” - Oh, doesn’t she sound familiar now...

-Point Of Interest: Like many of the concepts Chibs has been playing with from Classic Who - the Morbius Doctors, almost certainly the Valeyard - this was apparently a fairly controversial episode among the old guard. Why? Because well...

The Validium: “I am beautiful, am I not?” Ace: “Yes. You're very beautiful.” The Validium: “It is only my present form. I have had others which would horrify you. I shall have those again. You are surprised I speak?” Ace: “I know you're living metal.” The Validium: “I am whatever I am made to be. This time Lady Peinforte called me Nemesis, so I am retribution.”

-I mean this is all cute but it doesn’t explain why it’s here and-

The Validium: “And I'm to destroy the entire Cyberfleet?” The Doctor: “Forever.” The Validium: “And then?” The Doctor: “Reform.” The Validium: “You might need me in the future, then?” The Doctor: “I hope not.” The Validium: “That is what you said before.” The Doctor: “Enough.” The Validium: “And after this, will I have my freedom?” The Doctor: “Not yet.” The Validium: “When?” The Doctor: “I told you when.” The Doctor: “Things are still imperfect.”

-Oh well that’s...Hmm.

Lady Peinforte: “You are nothing. Only the Doctor matters, and he is but a pawn in the game of my making.” ... Ace: “The Doctor's not just going to give you the bow. Tell her, Doctor. Tell her.” Lady Peinforte: “Doctor who? Have you never wondered where he came from, who he is?” Ace: “Nobody knows who the Doctor is.” Lady Peinforte: “Except me.” Ace: “How?” Lady Peinforte: “The statue told me.” Ace: “All right, so what does it matter? He's a Time Lord, I know that.” Lady Peinforte: “Well, Doctor?” The Doctor: “If I give you the bow,” Lady Peinforte: “Your power becomes mine, but your secrets remain your own.” ... Lady Peinforte: “I shall tell them of Gallifrey, tell them of the old time, the time of chaos.” ... The Doctor: “You had the right game, but the wrong pawn. Check.”

-What used to be the Cartmell Master plan is now the Timeless Child Master...plan- Is this why it’s involving the Master? For a pun? Whatever, either way the Seventh Doctor is now a treasure trove of useful ideas - I did wonder why Chibs chose Ace in particular as the companion who should get a ‘Thirteen meeting them again’ book - trying to lure people in for a second look, clearly.

-So what happens in the story? In the Timeless Child, the Master ends up absorbing the Cyberium. In Silver Nemesis, the Validium absorbs our Lady Mistress Of All. How neat.

-The Doctor ‘wins’ by giving the Validium the Cyberleader’s instructions, confirming it understood them, and then the Cybermen let it fly off to their fleet. Which then blows up. Because it chose to disobey them. (As he knew it would).

-The Validium is left floating in space, until the Doctor calls on it again. I’m not saying this relates to opening titles full of goop, but I’m not saying it doesn’t either.

So. That’s a lot. While I would usually doubt the Validium would literally be the Cyberium, and that it would be for fans to join together as they wished or not... Honestly, given the use of lore in Chibs Who, I don’t actually feel certain of that anymore.

But either way, there’s your meta masterpost, you can commence your theorising now.

****

I know no-one comes to these things for my stupid conclusions, but in case you did, here’s a couple of my very disparate fever-brained thoughts, that I’m too ill to put together more...smartly, and might have to come back to if you’re ever going to actually see this post:

-The Doctor/The Other/The Timeless Child had a hand in the weaponisation of the Cyberium AI (forced/cajoled/whatever).

-The Time Lord empire, in at least one version of reality, is inextricably linked to the Cybermen empire, with the Cybermen showing similar levels of technology to Time Lords (a cyber carrier ‘more advanced’ than very far future humans have ever seen - “Coming out of vortex now”, implies it has time vortex travel. And “That’s my home planet - that's Gallifrey”. Immediately the image cuts to Cyberman, then straight back.)

-The Timeless Child was chosen as a vessel to save some form of living knowledge, rather than just being a mystical alien.

-((My nuttiest guess that is only 30% meta and 70% gut feel is it’s a TARDIS-kind, probably our own, which stayed with them because they carried her, and now she carries them. That concept, the little links we’re seeing with TARDISes and their sentience, the implied planetary genocide of all but a saved pair, cyberised humans and cyberised Time Lords - a TARDIS is a cyberised something, the question of living technology, the gloop of the vortex, the Ghost Monument, the Doctor’s agonised loss of her for her first episode that she then only finds at the end of the second on a dead planet ruined by space-fascists...))

-Are those two the same story? You could go in either direction. The stories are all about cycles and loops, so a strong case for mirroring, but at the same time we have a Lone Cyberman who can’t be converted properly and no-one knows why, which makes me think that is still Rassilon with either the ghost of a memory of an old plan, or - thanks to time travel - the old plan itself. That perhaps the Timeless Child’s Power would end up somewhat fused with the Doctor when they turned it into the weaponised Cyberium “AI”, explains why we see it in meta go from benign to weapon creator.

-The Cyberium AI created the Death Particle which would destroy all life and stop the Cyber-Time Lords from taking over. This feels like the exact thing the Doctor was trying to stop with the Time Lords in The End Of Time, and Day Of The Doctor, as their absolute last-ditch plan.

-Certainly the Battle that the Alliance are gearing up for, I would assume is the same battle that we keep seeing in mirrors, and is directly related to Gallifrey. It keeps coming up linked together, like with Ko Sharmus, and we first find out about the Alliance from the inside of a stolen Battle TARDIS.

-So perhaps that’s a point that history is hinging on, and someone - read: the Master - has chosen to interfere. Things all seemed to go wrong after he discovered the Timeless Child information - impossible Time Lords and TARDISes appearing, an Alliance, a Cyber Empire etc. Maybe originally the Doctor/Timeless Child (title, not necessarily youth) was used to control the Cyberium AI and win the battle. But the Master took them away from Rassilon so that couldn’t happen, so everything’s a catastrofuck of paradoxes.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We got a long time to think about it at least.

[guardianreadersofthegalaxy]

Ok, I couldn’t sleep the other night so I took my first tongue-in-cheek stab at fan-fiction. Here’s how I want the Thirteenth Doctor’s regeneration to go down, and yes it is a rip-off of Avengers – Endgame:

She’s in Park Hill Flats with Graeme, Ryan & Yas but the Master has found a way to control Sheffield’s mutant spiders to burrow into the foundations of the building, causing it to collapse. 13 climbs out of the rubble but her companions are nowhere to be seen. The Master rides up to her on the back of a giant spider, dismounts and tells her that he’s going to force open the heart of her TARDIS and use the power of the time vortex to destroy the universe, and that she’s got no way of stopping him. Loads of villains’ ships appear in the sky like in ‘The Pandorica Opens’.

But then they hear the sound of TARDIS engines and a different TARDIS materialises a few meters away. The doors open, revealing three silhouettes at first obscured by the light of the console room. As they approach 13 sees that it’s 12, Nardole and a Cyber-converted Bill. At this point (I don’t even care) Portals by Alan Silvestri starts playing. Another TARDIS materialises, in a darker shade of blue. The doors open and Rose Tyler steps out, followed by Mickey, Martha, Donna, Jackie & Wilf. They part down the centre, revealing 10 striding forward.

Silurians start teleporting in, as well as Judoon from the Shadow Proclamation, basically anyone from ‘A Good Man Goes To War’. The Paternoster gang show and maybe Strax says something funny. Another TARDIS appears and out steps 11, Amy, Rory and River circa-‘Day Of The Moon’. An American diner lands awkwardly amid the rubble and Clara and Ashildr climb out. Kate Stewart and the Oswins show up with a bunch of UNIT troops and at the same time as Gwen Cooper arrives with whatever’s left of Torchwood. A final TARDIS appears, it’s 9’s! Out comes the ninth Doctor with another Rose and another Captain Jack.

“Wow that’s a lot of people” says Ryan gormlessly. “I reckon that should do it, don’t you Doc?” says Graeme. At the sound of a screech, everyone looks up to see the 8th Doctor flying in on the back of Ramsey the Vortisaur. 13 turns to Yas and explains to her what Vortisaurs are for ten minutes while everyone awkwardly waits for her to finish. When she’s done, the six Doctors that I, as millennial, actually care about line up facing the Master’s army, screwdrivers in hand. Twelve somehow produces his electric guitar and starts shredding the Doctor Who theme and then they all charge.

It’s brilliant! River’s zapping Silents, Graeme’s using his laser shoes to zap Kasaavin and Amy’s duel wielding a hand mirror and a sledge hammer to smash up Weeping Angels. Clara and 12 have a memory-loss themed reunion just like Star Lord & Gamora’s one in Endgame, only he doesn’t knee her in the crotch. 9s headbutts the Master because of course he does and both Cpt. Jacks keep making dirty jokes about there being two Roses, only no one’s actually listening.

When the battle takes a turn for the worse, they fall back to their TARDISs to protect the time vortex. They all start piloting around the battlefield, evading attack. Lady Christina (who’s also there) gets immediately arrested by UNIT so Graeme takes her flying bus and starts flying it round the battlefield along with Ryan & Yas. 11 ends up in 10’s TARDIS and starts flying it but Sontarans keep jetpacking on board. He uses his sonic to jam their guns while Donna, who’s still on board, whacks them in the back of the neck. A jolt makes her fall and nearly touch the Doctor’s severed hand from ‘The Christmas Invasion’. 11, knowing what happens if she touches it, snatches it away from her but that forces the metacrisis to happen anyway, this time with his own DNA. Another Sontaran jetpacks onboard and is about to shoot Donna but suddenly falls over with a clunk, revealing the metacrisis Doctor who just hit it on the back of the neck. Only this time, he’s half 10, half 11 – 10.5, if you will. 11 chucks him a prototype screwdriver that looks like 12’s one from series 10 and tells him to get to work. He dives out of the door, still naked, yelling “Geronimo!”

Series 4 Rose, who followed 10 into 11s TARDIS, goes on the intercom and tells them that the only way to defeat that many enemies is to do what she did in ‘The Parting Of The Ways’ – open the heart of the TARDIS before the Master can and use it to stop him. But no ordinary human is strong enough! “I can do it” says Bill, who’s much stronger since her Cyber-conversion. Still, she’s on 12’s TARDIS and the weakest console is onboard 9’s. “You’re not gonna like this, Bill” says 12, piloting his ship high into the air. “Big ears, you’ve got incoming!”, he shouts, then unceremoniously boots Cyber-Bill out of the door, sending her plummeting toward 9’s TARDIS. She nearly makes it but a Crillitane catches her first and they start tussling in the air. It drops her and she nearly plummets to her death but 8 catches her on the back of Ramsey and gives her a lift back up to 9s TARDIS.

The Master and Ashad (who’s alive again now) jet onboard 8’s TARDIS (which is there for some reason, I dunno, maybe he parked nearby). It’s manned by 10.5. The Master villainously shoots Ashad, activating the death particle, before jumping out of the front door. This kills 10.5 before he can regenerate (presumably, after all this 10 cuts his hand off and puts it back in the jar) and cripples the TARDIS’s flight systems which, as it’s the oldest iteration of the TARDIS in the battle, does the same to all of them. The six Doctors manage to land their ships in a hexagon, with the doors all pointing inwards, meaning enemies can only get in from above. Series 4 Captain Jack gets a big gun and mans the bottle neck, fighting off wave upon wave of enemies, getting killed sometimes but then resurrecting, each time letting in a few monsters who end up in the various TARDISs.

The Master gets through and ends up in 11’s TARDIS. 13 and her companions follow him but he runs deep inside the internal corridors, losing them. He finds a part of the TARDIS where time passes in reverse so that when he comes back into the console room he’s on board 8’s ship again which he then materialises inside 9’s. Bill tries to stop him but he threatens 9 with his shrink ray and forces her to use her strength to tear open the console and expose the time vortex. She does and he’s about to absorb its power but all of a sudden, the floor panel gives way and he falls down below. Camera pans down revealing Wilfred Mott, holding a regular screwdriver that he just used to loosen the floor panel. He gives everyone a little salute.

13 steps forward and absorbs the power of the Time Vortex. It’s even cooler than when Rose did it because she’s a Timelord. She rises up in the air like Captain Marvel and tells all the villains they have a chance to leave (earning an approving look from 10). Most of them do except the Daleks, obviously, so she melts their asses. Then she floats back down and returns the energy to the heart of the TARDIS, restoring its flight systems at the same time (except for 8’s, sorry). The 6 Doctors look down condescendingly at the Master like in that shot from the end of the first Avengers film. Only the Master hit his head falling down so he’s died (and pooped himself). He regenerates into… Missy! Which makes so much more sense for her character arc. “I’ll take her off your hands” says 12. Then they all go and get chips like in ‘The End Of The World’ and eat them outside Sheffield train station before the various Doctors and companions go their separate ways.

13 feels the regeneration coming, just like the last time she absorbed the time vortex. She and her friends go to Graeme’s house. She normally does this in the TARDIS but she’d rather be with the people she cares about. There’s no big speech, I reckon she just says “Laterzzz” and actually clarifies that it’s spelt with a z. She regenerates, leaving big scorch marks on the walls, setting fire to all Graeme’s furniture. The companions are freaking out. When it’s over the new Doctor slumps to the floor before getting to their knees to reveal… a handsome young Indian guy with floppy hair and a moustache!

INTRODUCING DEV PATEL AS THE DOCTOR

[hermionefae]

Hidden- Dhawan!Master xOC Part 1

“Well hello Doctor”  

The Doctor twisted round, her coat fanning out around her to face her oldest enemy and friend.  

“Admiring the view?” Enquired the Master, his hands gripping hold of his lapels as he walked towards her.  

“What is this place?” The Doctor asked  

“I’d like to say that you’re inside my mind but it’s too floral, this is a psychic plane I created in order to pass through to another universe and you Doctor, are trespassing on my plans. Again”  

“Why does it look like Alice in Wonderland in here?” She asked, gesturing to the table set for tea and the overgrown roses with faces in the petals. There was even a croquet game ready.  

“It’s the little touches, always important to impress on a first date”  

“What?” Spat out the Doctor, her brow furrowed. The Master let out a loud laugh.  

“Oh, come on Doctor, keep up”

“Wait, there’s only one universe that can only be accessed psychically”  

“Oh, she’s getting it finally!” Exclaimed the Master until he was shoved by the Doctor as she rounded on him.  

“How did you find her!” The Doctor shouted.  

“Did you really think that your little trick of locking her in that parallel universe would work on me Doctor. You’ve had your time, now it’s my turn.”  

“No, you can’t”  

“Why not hmmm? Because you still have feelings for her, sorry Doc but I watched you two in the past and I’m not sure you’ll be her type anymore. The Princess will be mine”

“I will stop you Master, I always do”  

“Oh, I don’t doubt it. This time, you won’t succeed”  

With that the Master vanished leaving the Doctor alone in the mock Wonderland shouting his name. Then she started to hear Graham’s voice in the back of her head.  

“Doc, Doc are you alright?”

The Doctor’s eyes flew open and she was back in her TARDIS, on the chair she had sat down on for a brief moment when the Master had dragged her into the void and her fam were standing around her with worried looks on their faces.  

“What happened to you?” Asked Yaz

“Yeah, it was like you were having a nightmare or somefing” added Ryan.

“The Master, he made contact” said the Doctor quietly.

“He’s still alive then, after Gallifrey?” Asked Graham.  

“Yep, and he’s after something, someone who’s quite special to me. I need to stop him, get to her before he does.” The Doctor leapt up, swayed a bit as the blood rushed to her head too quickly, Yaz rushed forward to catch her but the Doctor kept her balance and then moved to the console.  

“There’s another way into the universe I put her in of course there is. I created it. I just need to remember how to get there. It’s been so long and she made it very clear that she didn’t want to see me again after the last time but needs must” rambled the Doctor as she ran around the console.  

“Woah, Doc, just stop for a second. Can’t you fill us in on what the hell is going on?” pleaded Graham.  

The Doctor looked at the three of them all standing around looking clueless as always, maybe for once she should explain herself.  

“Okay Fam, story time.”  

And the Doctor began.  

“Once upon a time there was a planet called Gallifrey, my home planet. On this planet there was a high council that made the majority of the decisions and there was also what you would consider a royal family because the Time Lords liked to be all high and mighty. The King and Queen, after years of delaying finally had a baby, a girl. She was a beautiful baby, hair like a burning sun. I was fresh out of the academy; a young and rebellious boy how didn’t agree with the oppressions and rules of the Timelords and neither did the Master. One day, we decided to sneak in to the Royal palace, we got as far as the palace gardens when we were caught.  

We were brought to the throne room and reprimanded by the High council leader and on our way out I caught sight of the Princess, she was a young child at the time and yelling at her minder because she wasn’t allowed to go outside. Her fiery spirit matched her hair and I admired her.  

Fast forward a few hundred years and I was called home to fight in the Time War, I was old and grumpy by this time I had been through seven regenerations by this point and the last thing I wanted to do was fight. But fight I did until we knew that we were losing. I was called to the palace once again and given a mission. The King and Queen were terrified of losing their little princess and would do anything to protect her”  

“So, what did they do?” Asked Yaz  

“They wiped her memory, concealed everything Gallifreyan in a silver locket and placed it around her neck and told me to hide her in the best place I could. The Princess had no idea what was going on. It was like she was an empty shell. She had gone through her first regeneration by this time and now looked like a baby with pitch black hair but she still had those deep blue eyes. They gave the Princess to me and I fled from the palace.  

I took her to a parallel Earth and placed her with her adopted parents. They had no idea who she was either, I also hid the locket so the child wouldn’t find it and open it until it was time. I then went back to Gallifrey and found that soon after I had left, the Daleks had blown up the Royal Palace and killed the King and Queen who had both chosen to not regenerate. I fought and people died. Enough of that story, this isn’t about the Time War”  

The Doctor took a breath and looked around; the group were on tenterhooks waiting for the next part of the story. “Still keeping up?” She asked.  

“Go on, we’re listening.” Ryan encouraged.  

“I went back a few times, checking on the Princess, she grew up well, but and had no idea what or who she was. Until she got older that is, we had been getting close, I was on my Tenth life at this point. I was killing me not telling her so I found the locket and opened it. She absorbed all the Gallifreyan back into her and I had my Princess back. But it wasn’t the same.  

Yes, I could tell that she loved me but she was also growing angry and power-hungry. She declared herself as the queen of her Earth and it was then I knew I had to do something. We argued and I forced her back into the Chameleon Arch stripping her of herself once more. I hid the locket again in a different place and left her. Sealing the universe so no one could get to her. Or so I thought”  

“The Master has found her” said Graham sighing. He watched as the Doctor nodded “so we gonna stop him Doc?”

“We’re gonna try Graham”  

The Doctor got up and patted them all on the shoulders, she went back to her console and began to fly it to the parallel universe. “We haven’t got much time, the Master has found his way through, psychically so it’s only a matter of time until he gets through. We just need to get there first. “  

A/N: This is a multi chapter fic, sorry there wasn’t much Master in this one but don’t worry he will be coming up in the next one! Hope you enjoyed it. Let me know your thoughts.

[captainbrieontoast]

Telepathy

Summary:

'Maybe he loves you and will always forgive you' Rose jumped when that thought crossed her brain. That was impossible. Rose's thoughts hit the Doctor like a bag of bricks. Did she really think that? Just a really bad snippet. :-/

-

It was just after the Doctor and Rose had left Earth, right after he had regenerated, and they were just hanging out in the Tardis. Which was in the Time Vortex. Rose was really happy to find that the Doctor was in fact her Doctor, and that he wasn't mad at her at all.

Rose was situated in the library, sitting on a couch reading a book about the peaceful Monks of Moncura. She was currently reading about how some of the monks had been mediating without speaking for hundreds of years. Some have even been meditating since they were born, taught somehow through a telepathic field what to do while still in their mother's womb.

Rose sighed, looking at the monks on the cover picture with a sigh. She idly wondered what it was like to meditate. Rose looked around the empty library. No one was there but her. 

The Doctor was probably just in the console room, tinkering so it's not like he would bother walking in on her, and wondering why she was meditating. Rose looked down, where there was now a pink plush rug, for her to meditate on.

"Thank you," Rose said, with a small smile. She clambered off the sofa and down onto the rug. Slowly, Rose sat cross-legged and placed her bended elbows just below her bended knees. Then she put her thumb and middle finger together, in the way that the monks on the cover were doing. Then she carefully closed her eyes. 

In the book, it said that these monks didn't hum at all, so that they could easily find their own piece of mind. Rose sat there quietly, beginning to meditate silently.

The Doctor was in the console room, sitting in the pilot's chair, trying to get used to his new body. It is something that takes a little bit to get used to. He wriggled his fingers experimentally. He idly wondered momentarily how he had gotten to look like this. It was obviously because of Rose. 

She had always liked her pretty boys, and that apparently had affected his regeneration. That was a first. He never had regenerated for someone. It could have had to do with the fact that he was completely smitten for Rose Tyler. He didn't really have a choice either. He had been constantly trying to ignore the connection for their entire year together. 

It might also have to do with the fact that right before regeneration he had kissed her and technically she was the reason he regenerated. He didn't blame her for that, but she could have been killed when she observed the time vortex. 

How could she take a risk like that for him? She should have let him die. He had already killed all those people and she saved him, knowing what he had done. Why him? Why save him? He's a terrible person, she knows that. She's been around him for a year why does she keep insist on saving him? She could have died, this last time. 

Of course, she could have died a long time ago too in the midst of other rescues, but he had been so close to losing her this time. He had absorbed the Vortex for only a few minutes and he had been forced to regenerate. Who knows how long Rose had the Time Vortex in her, she should be resting. 

She could have died… 

The Doctor suddenly felt a flame start in his stomach. A flame of anger. She had almost died because of him. The Doctor jumped to his feet and stormed through the Tardis. 

After an adventure Rose liked to go to the library and read, which always seemed odd to the Doctor since she never used to read before she met him and he informed her of how much he loved to read. 

The Doctor finally found himself standing in front of the door. He opened the door slowly and saw Rose meditating on the floor in the library over in her little nook. 

She looked so peaceful. With a small smile, the Doctor forgot his anger, walking over towards her. He sat down near her so that he could look right into her face.

Rose looked completely at peace. 

Next to her was a book about the monks of Moncura. He smiled when he realized with a start why she was meditating. He smiled, and looked back up at her. She looked so peaceful, just sitting there. Her blonde hair, falling delicately just above her shoulders. 

Her chest steadily moved up and down as she breathed. He looked back up at her face to see if he could find any trace of difference on her face. He looked up at her face. He knew that when in the right stage of meditation, the meditator wouldn't notice anything about the world around her. 

The Doctor, looked intently at Rose's eyelids. If they didn't flicker then that means that she was in that stage of meditation. He watched her intently. Her eyelids didn't flicker. With a tiny smile, the Doctor carefully took his hand and brushed back a piece of her hair so that he could see her face better. On the side of her face he saw a little gold smudge. 

He didn't know what it was from but he took his thumb and gently rubbed it off her face. He leaned back then, just looking at Rose intently. Thinking about how he had been so lucky to get a companion like her. 

The Tardis liked her, she was brilliant even though she never got her A-levels. Not to mention the fact that she never gave up, she was so terribly loyal too. She believed that everyone was good, even the Daleks. She did always seem to find some reason to trust the worst of people. 

For most people that would be a weakness, but not Rose. Rose was even beautiful. He didn't think she knew that either. Whenever they went anywhere Rose would attract so much attention. 

When Rose did notice all the people staring she would always pass it off as she was acting stupid, or they were wondering what she was doing with such an 'old man.' 

The Doctor knew that she didn't realize how beautiful she was, and thinking back he realized that maybe his stupid ape comments hadn't helped. Rose however always acted like one of the highest beacons of confidence. It was rare for her to break. He knew why she felt that way too. 

Rose didn't know but he had heard that comment about Jimmy Stones, and before coming back to her he made a pit stop to see just who this guy was. Rose had been treated terribly by the guy. He criticized everything that she did, he hit her and he didn't allow her to leave the house. 

Even when she broke up with him, he sought her out. He beat her something bad and she nearly died, only saved by one of Jimmy's friends, who walked in on him beating her. He called the police because he secretly loved Rose, and didn't want to see her hurt. 

The Doctor knew he hadn't made it and it had nearly killed Rose that the guy had died trying to save her. Maybe that was part of the reason why she had saved him. The Doctor continued to watch her intently. Lost in thoughts of Jimmy and Rose and the fact that he was inevitably in love with Rose Marion Tyler.

Rose wasn't sure exactly how long she had been meditating, she felt very relaxed though. Rose sighed, and slowly opened one eye to look around. She yelped and jumped to her feet when she saw a certain Doctor staring at her intently. He watched her jump up and Rose looked down at him eyes wide, as he looked up at her.

"Why did you save me?" He asked, completely shattering the silence. Rose looked down at him confused.

"Why wouldn't I save you?" She asked, a frown covering her features.

"Because. I killed everyone Rose. Everyone is dead all because of me," the Doctor said silently, wanting to look away from her but he couldn't.

"You had to Doctor. Everyone would have died anyways. You saved the universe. You also save people every day, so many people are alive because of you," Rose said a smile replacing the frown. The Doctor was silent. He didn't know what to say.

"You could have died," the Doctor said, finally. Anger began to fill his voice a little bit, and he looked up at her.

"There is always that chance," Rose replied, noticing the anger seeping into his voice. She didn't want to make him angry. She was pretty sure that she had been thinking of him, but had she? Had she been thinking of herself when she saved? 

Rose shook her head vigorously. Maybe she had just been thinking of yourself. But she didn't want to think that. She would die for the Doctor. She honestly hoped he would forgive her, if he was mad at her.

The Doctor watched Rose as she stood there thinking. He slowly got to his feet and tried to throw Rose's thoughts out of his head. 

Lately, the Doctor had noticed that Rose had become extremely telepathic since looking into the Tardis, and he hadn't told her yet so her thoughts were being sent straight into his brain. He knew what she was thinking, and he felt bad for making her think that way. The Doctor decided to send a telepathic message to her, knowing that she wouldn't know it was from him.

'Maybe he loves you and will always forgive you' Rose jumped when that thought crossed her brain. Where did that even come from? That was, seriously impossible. He's a Time Lord, and hundreds of years older than her. Why would he love her? And she knew that the Doctor wouldn't always forgive her. One wrong move and he would leave her instantly. Anyways she was just a simple little primitive ape.

Rose's thoughts hit the Doctor like a bag of bricks. Did she really think that? How could she think that? 

The Doctor felt terrible. 

What had he ever done to lead her to believe any of this? The Doctor looked down at Rose, and realized with a start how close they had become. The Doctor was looking down into Rose's eyes and she was looking up into his eyes. Rose didn't seem to notice, she was too lost in their thoughts. The two were so close. He watched as a tear ran down her cheek, and he whipped it away with his thumb.

His Rose.

Rose's thoughts tried to beat his boundaries, hitting with force. It hurt him to know that Rose thought these things. They were so close. If the Doctor moved just an inch forward and tilted his head just a little bit… The next thing he knew, his lips were pressing against Rose's soft lips.

Rose was lost in her thoughts when suddenly the Doctor was kissing her. Rose froze, not sure what to do. Was she dreaming? Well, if I am dreaming I might as well make the most of it, Rose thought. She kissed back and the Doctor's two hearts soared. The Doctor pulled away for just a moment. It was like one of those moments where you'll do anything and he wasn't going to let it pass.

"Rose Tyler, I love you," he rushed, to get out of his mouth before he could take it back. Rose looked genuinely surprised at him. She pulled away from him a little just so that she could pinch herself. It wasn't a dream. Rose looked up at him surprised, and then a smile grew on her face.

"I love you too, Doctor," she replied softly. He pulled her into a tight hug and they both new that they would be together for a long time. "My Doctor," Rose added.

"My Rose," the Doctor said. If only right then he had paid more attention to Rose's heartbeat against his chest. If he had he would have noticed that Rose didn't only have one heartbeat. She had two.

[raywritesthings]

Lost in Translation 11/11

My Writing Fandom: Doctor Who Characters: Donna Noble, Tenth Doctor Pairing: Doctor/Donna Summary: In a universe where people are born with the name of the person destined for them displayed on their skin, intergalactic soulmates can be rather difficult to navigate. AO3 link

“I mean, I get Donna not being able to read Circular Gallifreyan, I really do,” Jack was saying as the Doctor kept his eyes on the controls, hoping that by pointedly ignoring the other man he’d simply run out of steam. “But you didn’t think it’d maybe be worth a mention that you had her name?”

He didn’t really have the patience to explain the complicated mess they’d made of things for themselves, and he knew Donna wasn’t much inclined to go into it for the others’ benefit either — but she ought to have said something by now.

The Doctor looked up to find they were short a person, and the back of Donna’s brown jacket was just disappearing down a corridor. Something was very wrong.

He got them safely into the Vortex and charged up the ramp after her. “Donna!”

She’d not made it very far, and so he skidded to a stop. Donna didn’t even really look at him as she leaned against a wall and pressed the heel of her hand to a temple. “Yeah, Spaceman.”

“Everything alright?” He couldn’t help worrying as he watched her. They’d assumed she’d been able to safely absorb the regeneration energy, but what if that had been wrong? “Any kind of pain? Headaches? Memories that aren’t your own?”

“No. Is that what should’ve happened?”

“It’s the theory. Truth is, there’s never actually been a human-Time Lord metacrisis before.”

“Just like there’s never been human-Time Lord soulmates before,” she guessed wryly.

“No.” The Doctor looked down. She wasn’t happy. “Donna, I’m sorry—”

“Oh, don’t start,” she said. “There’s so much going on right now, and if you start—” She stopped herself. Her breath was becoming a bit patchy, how it got when she was desperately trying not to cry.

“What can I do?”

“You can give me a minute. I just need a minute.”

He nodded. “Okay.”

Donna looked at him.

“Sorry, was that a minute alone, or do you want to come back with me?”

She let out a shaky sigh. “Of course I’m coming back with you.” When he passed her a handkerchief, she nodded to him once and dabbed at her eyes.

“Donna, if you need more than a minute, that’s okay.”

“No, there’s too much. There are twenty-seven planets out there that we’ve got to put back, and you’re not gonna tell all of them out there to wait for me.” She waved his handkerchief in the direction of the console room before shoving it back into his hands. “I am used to being an afterthought.”

“Donna—”

She was already marching back down the ramp with her head held high, and he had little choice but to follow her.

The others looked up at their entrance. Jack was grinning, probably with another remark on the tip of his tongue.

“Leave it,” the Doctor warned.

The captain sobered rather quickly. “Doctor, Donna, I was just—”

“Never mind, there’s still a lot to do,” Donna dismissed. “We’ve got twenty-seven planets that need moved out of the Medusa Cascade, including ours.”

“We?” Asked Sarah.

“Yes, we. I do let other people fly my ship when the need arises,” the Doctor said with a pointed look. “And this is going to be complicated enough to need all hands on deck. Six of us, that’s a proper number for once.”

“You mean there’s really meant to be a crew?” Asked Martha. She’d been chatting away with Mickey before now. Getting to know each other, reveling in that special moment. He envied that.

“That’s what TARDIS’ were built for. Now, I’m assigning each of you very specific tasks, so pay attention.”

The Doctor soon had each of his remaining friends stationed around the console ready for his signal as he got them back into the Medusa Cascade.

“Alright, we’ll give it a go with Clom first, and if we mess up — well, it’s Clom, no one’ll miss it.”

He’d been hoping that’d pull a smile at least from Donna, but all she did was shake her head. The Doctor actually locked the TARDIS onto the uninhabited No-Longer-Lost Moon of Poosh with a sigh and pointed to Mickey to begin.

The ship was rattling more heavily than usual, but for once none of his companions were complaining. They all were too busy trying out flying for the first time. There were some scattered whoops and cheers, and the mood lifted somewhat. He tried catching Donna’s eye once or twice, and while she seemed happier than before she never held his gaze for very long.

She was right that there was simply too much going on. If he could just have a moment to talk to her, to try and gauge how she was taking the news, he’d feel much better. For once he wanted to be able to tell the whole universe to just stop spinning a minute. Donna had only just saved all of it, after all, weren’t they owed that much?

With each trip they made, they were able to go just a little faster as everyone got accustomed to their roles in piloting the ship. It was still a very long process, though, and by the sixth planet most of their excited grins had faded.

“So, what’s everyone doing after this?” Jack asked four planets later, clearly an attempt to break the somewhat awkward silence that had settled over the group. It garnered a couple chuckles here and there.

“How come it had to be twenty-seven planets?” Mickey wondered aloud as they left Adipose 3 in its rightful place. “Five would’ve been enough.”

“Alright, last but not least, the Earth!” The Doctor announced, and again there were smiles. He’d had a feeling that would be a morale booster. When they finally shuddered to a stop hanging above his friends’ home back in the proper galaxy, everyone stepped back from the controls and clapped. Hugs were exchanged, and his hearts sped up a little when Donna turned to him on his right — only she froze, then reached out and patted him on the arm.

“Not bad, Spaceman.”

“Right.”

She wasn’t meeting his eyes, which was good since he wasn’t sure he could hide the hurt in his own.

He made quick work of landing the TARDIS on Earth now, picking a spot in Central London. Normally he might have felt bad dumping them all off in one go, but he thought they understood the delicate nature of things at the moment.

“Here we are, back home. You’ll be alright Mickey?”

“I’ll make sure he’s settled,” said Martha as she pulled out of a hug with Donna.

“Yeah, you will,” said Jack with a smirk.

“Stay out of it, Cheesecake.”

The Doctor followed the bickering trio down the ramp and to the doors. They all turned back just outside to face him.

“You’ll be alright, Boss?”

“Oh, sure. You know me.”

“That’s an ‘us’ now, remember?” Jack pointed at him. “Just get back in there and sweep her off her feet.”

“Yeah, Donna’s good for you, so try not to mess that up,” Martha advised him.

“Maybe lay off the whole ‘Curse of the Time Lords’ bit,” was Mickey’s suggestion.

“Yes, thank you,” he said with some impatience.

Jack snapped off a salute and gave him a grin. “You’re gonna do great.”

“And let us know how it goes!” Martha added.

“Alright, go on.” He waved them off, then turned and nearly ran into Sarah Jane. “Oh! Sorry.”

“That’s alright. I’m in a bit of a hurry myself. Got to get back to Luke — I’ll have to tell you about that someday,” she said with a smile. “Doctor, if there’s anything we can do—”

“Oh, Sarah, I think that’s part of the problem.” He’d always relied on his friends before, but this was something that should have been between him and Donna alone.

She grimaced, then folded him into a hug. “I’m sure it’ll all work out.”

He wished he could have all their confidence, but when Donna had yet to even smile at him since she’d found out it was hard to maintain a positive outlook. Even setting aside just how wrong it all had gone, there was Mickey’s remark to consider. Curse of the Time Lords was perhaps a touch melodramatic, but there’d been a reason all those years ago he’d decided the idea of having a human soulmate was ridiculous. A reason he’d tried very hard to forget about once Donna had entered his life. Though he supposed if she had no interest in being his soulmate, the question of her lifespan in relation to his hardly mattered, about the dimmest silver lining he’d ever encountered.

“Thank you,” he managed anyway.

Sarah Jane began walking away and gave a last wave over her shoulder which he returned. Then he drew in a breath and reentered the ship.

It felt even quieter inside the TARDIS than usual. Donna was leaning back against the railing, her eyes on the floor. She’d been so brilliant and unstoppable before on the Crucible; why did she seem to believe something had already defeated her now? Had he misread her feelings before? Was the idea of her and him really so terrible?

He came up the ramp slowly. “Donna, please tell me what you’re thinking.”

She shrugged, and there was something so hopeless in the gesture that it tore at his hearts. “I just don’t know what I’m feeling about this.”

“What is ‘this’?” He asked her. “Is it how you found out, or is it that it’s me?”

She looked up at him at last, and she seemed more shocked at his words than anything. “Of course it’s not—”

Her phone began ringing. Again. The Doctor was about a breath away from hurling it into space.

“My folks. They probably want to know what just happened with the Earth moving. This should be short,” she assured him. “I didn’t exactly leave on good terms.”

He wanted to ask about that, but then Donna had the phone to her ear.

“Yeah, Gramps. It’s all fine.” A short pause, and a furtive glance in his direction. “Yes, I got him back.” Another pause, longer this time, and he watched as Donna’s eyes widened. “She does? I’m not sure if — alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Alright, see you.” When she hung up, she was back to massaging her temples. “We have to stop by my mum’s.”

“I thought we were going to talk,” he pointed out.

Donna walked around the console away from him. “We will, but this is my family.”

“Just because it’s your family doesn’t mean they can’t wait.” How was he supposed to put her first if she kept adding things to what they had to do first?

“Well, I already agreed. Anyway, mum and I already had one fight today, and if she’s really planning to apologize it’s best not to keep her waiting.”

She started entering in the coordinates he’d shown her matched up with a spot just across the road from her house and stood aside to let him finish off the set with proper time coordinates.

“What did you fight about?”

Donna kept her eyes on the controls. “You, a bit.”

“Me?”

The tips of her ears were turning red. “It was stupid. Just let me get this over with.”

They landed, and the Doctor quietly followed Donna up the front path and into her mother’s house. They found both Wilfred and Sylvia sitting in the front room.

“Er, hello,” said the Doctor.

Wilf stood. “Good to see you’re alright, sir. Was that you and Donna bringing the Earth back? They’re saying the sky looks right again, with all the right stars and everything.”

“Yes, it’s all fine now.” There was a sudden clap of thunder and the sound of rain. “Well, there might be some basic atmospheric disturbance, but it’ll pass.”

“You’ve stopped glowing, sweetheart,” Donna’s grandfather observed.

“Yeah, that should be fine, too,” he said. Well, he’d yet to have a chance to do an extensive study, but there was no point in worrying her family if Donna was seemingly unharmed.

Donna and her mother had remained silent through all of this, alternately sneaking looks at each other before pointedly turning away.

“Why don’t we leave you two to chat?” Wilf suggested, valiantly persevering in the face of his daughter and granddaughter’s reticence. “Did you want tea, Doctor?”

He didn’t, but he knew the answer he was supposed to give. “That’d be lovely, thanks.”

Wilf took him back through to the kitchen. A final glance back before he shut the door let him glimpse Donna watching him leave, a pinched expression in her features.

Had she wanted him to stay? He couldn’t seem to do anything right by Donna anymore. Who knew that learning the identity of a soulmate could make such a mess of a person?

“You can have a seat, Doctor. I’ll put the kettle on.”

He sat and watched the rain fall past the windows. Soon enough, Wilfred was seated across the table from him and two cups of steaming tea sat between them. It was so quintessentially British of him that he very nearly wanted to laugh.

Instead he asked, “Why were Donna and Sylvia fighting about me?”

“Donna didn’t tell you?”

He shook his head.

“Well, Sylvia found out about all this traveling Donna’s been doing, and I think she was just a bit scared. Who wouldn’t be after those Daleks came through?”

“True.”

“Anyway, she wanted Donna to give you up.”

The Doctor felt like a lead brick had just dropped into his stomach. “What did Donna say?”

“I’d think that was obvious,” said Wilf with a smile. It slowly dimmed when the Doctor didn’t return it. “Everything alright with you two?” He asked eventually.

The Doctor’s normal inclination was to lie or otherwise misdirect, but he supposed the other man would soon find out.

“Donna and I are soulmates.”

Wilf’s cup landed back on the saucer with a clatter. “Are you really?” At the Doctor’s nod, he gave a small whoop of joy. “Well, I did say — congratulations! Soulmates, and you and her from different planets and all. You must be the luckiest people in the universe to have found each other.”

He smiled, but he knew that even to Wilfred it had to look bitter. “Well, I don’t think she’s too happy about it, actually.”

“What?” Wilf seemed astonished at the very idea. “Why wouldn’t she be?”

“She found out the worst possible way, and now she’s got it in her head that I don’t care or I didn’t want her to know. But it’s not that at all! Truth is, Wilf, I’ve felt this way about your granddaughter for far longer than I knew she had my name.” He dragged a hand through his hair with a sigh. “I should’ve told her the minute I realized. There was just so much going on, and I wanted to have the proper time, but it all went wrong.”

He took a long gulp of the tea and sniffed once.

“Maybe she’d rather I wasn’t her soulmate at all.”

“Oh, that can’t be. You’ve no idea how happy she is traveling with you.”

The logical side of him knew Wilf was probably right. After all, hadn’t he only been convinced just the night before that Donna had wanted to kiss him, that she felt the same way he did? But all that had been when he’d thought they were just two people who had happened to develop those feelings for each other, not a pair of soulmates that had taken almost two years to get their act together. No wonder Donna was so disappointed in him.

“Soulmates have always meant a lot to Donna. You’ve got to understand, for the longest time none of us could make any sense of her mark. We thought there’d never be someone out there who matched with her. So she’s sort of built it up in her mind, how it would go if she did have a soulmate. Sort of a fantasy.”

“And I got it all wrong.” If Wilfred had been trying to make him feel better, he’d not done too well. He hadn’t realized he could feel even worse about this, but learning he’d ruined Donna’s childhood dreams did the trick.

Wilf was grinning again. “Well, it was always gonna go wrong. That’s life, isn’t it? But she’ll come round. It’s the person that matters, not the how or the where. Why, to hear Donna talk about you made me think you two had to be meant for something, anyway.”

The Doctor blinked. “Really?”

“Well, you needn’t take my word for it. You young people ought to have that out with each other.”

He very nearly stopped to correct the other man about just who the young people were around here — but Donna was more important. No more making her feel like an afterthought.

The Doctor stood. “Thanks for the tea.”

Wilfred waved him off with a, “Good luck!”

Somehow he had to set things right with Donna. Already Davros and his Reality bomb seemed like a minor nuisance in comparison to how important this was to him.

—-

Donna felt stupid for coming here. Not that that was much of a change from how she normally felt.

She knew she was being a real hypocrite accusing the Doctor of not prioritizing her and then dragging them off here instead of finally talking. But she was so scared of it, of what might happen to them.

Maybe it wasn’t because he was really in love with someone else, but there was still some reason the Doctor had chosen not to tell her he had her name on his back. She remembered what he’d said on the beach, that marks only meant what people let them. Did it simply not matter to him, or was it just Donna he didn’t want to be soulmates with? But then what had made him ask if she didn’t want to be?

Since she’d chosen to avoid all that, though, she now had to confront what had happened just earlier in the day with her mother. Donna didn’t really think she had the energy, but she’d made the choice.

“Gramps said you wanted to talk. Apologize.”

“I do.”

There was another long, uncomfortable pause, but just when Donna opened her mouth, her mum broke it again.

“I’ve only wanted what’s best for you. And maybe I pushed too much to get you there. I didn’t know that’s how I’d made you feel. No, that’s not right,” her mother immediately corrected before she could even speak. “I knew. I just wanted to believe it’d be worth it, I suppose. That you’d get a proper job and a proper man, and then you could be happy.” Her gaze landed somewhere on the carpet. “I just didn’t stop to think that wasn’t how you wanted to do things.”

“No,” Donna agreed quietly.

“You’re just going to keep traveling?”

“I think so.” Donna wasn’t really certain about anything anymore. The last thing she wanted to do was leave the TARDIS, but she didn’t think she could bear it if she knew he didn’t really want her around.

“With this Doctor,” her mum said.

“Yeah. He’s my soulmate,” she said, just to say it, really. She hadn’t gotten the chance to yet. Part of her still just couldn’t believe it.

“Oh?” Her mother’s eyebrows rose high on her forehead. “So, you were right after all.”

“Yeah. Well, so were you, really.”

Her mother frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Well, think about it, mum. I’ve known him how long and never even realized we were soulmates. What’s that say about us or our relationship?” She found herself pacing in the space between the sofa and the coffee table. “I mean, I told myself I didn’t even want a soulmate once I’d got to traveling with him, and the whole time he’s just right there. I must look like the biggest idiot in the galaxy! It’s not supposed to go like that, you know? Like Martha and Mickey, all they had to do was hear each other’s names and bam. Proper soulmates.”

Donna knew her mum had no idea who Martha and Mickey were, but she couldn’t really be bothered to care. She dropped onto the sofa with a heavy sigh.

“I always mess it up.”

There was no immediate answer. Donna closed her eyes, waiting for an agreement. That this was typical Donna, and of course the Doctor hadn’t told her he had her name because the idea they were soulmates was so laughable.

“You know, I never told you how your father and I met. How we knew we were soulmates,” said her mother instead.

“Right, cause you didn’t want to get my hopes up or whatever.”

Her mother snorted. “God no. It was just too embarrassing.”

Donna looked up. “What?”

Her mum sighed. “I was working in the canteen at university. About halfway through my shift a bunch of the boys came in, rowdy as you please. They’d been playing a pickup game of rugby. And one of them comes up to the counter and asks if we’ve got anymore serviettes because he’s got a bit of a nosebleed.” Her mum shook her head. “I said it was clean broken and bleeding all over the place, and who did he think he was — and that’s when he saw my name tag.”

“No,” said Donna, her mouth hanging open.

Her mother shook her head again, though she was smiling now. “It was your father. He looked awful, and I wasn’t a very pretty sight either. Bits of food on my clothes, maybe my hair for all I knew, and he’s dripping blood on my counter and grinning like a loon.”

“You must have been so disappointed,” said Donna. It was hardly a fairytale, at any rate.

Her mum shrugged. “I suppose I was. I wanted to make something up to tell people instead of what had happened, but Geoffrey, he said it wouldn’t be us. After a while, it just didn’t seem to matter much.”

“But you still didn’t tell me,” Donna reminded.

Her mother sighed. “Well, I knew how much you cared about the whole thing. How special it seemed to you.”

Her gaze dropped to her shoes. She really had been obvious about that when she was young.

“I always wanted you to have everything right,” her mum continued. “Perfect. And despite my best efforts...you’ve managed it.”

Donna found herself even more thrown. “What?”

Her mum huffed once. “Well, you’re out there saving planets, doing more than the rest of us in just a few short years. It’s terrifying, Donna. And it’s — well, I’m prouder of you than I know how to say.” Just the smallest smile came to her face, and she added, “I can only imagine how proud your father would have been.”

“Oh, mum!” Donna was leaning across the sofa and hugging her before she knew it.

Neither of them spoke for a long time. “This Doctor,” her mother said eventually. “He...seems to make you happy. Happier than you’ve been here.”

“Yeah, he does,” Donna admitted.

“Well then it hardly matters how it happened, or how much of a fool I think he is, does it?”

She felt herself smile, then shook her head and pulled back out of the embrace. “No.” Donna leaned back in and kissed her mum on the cheek. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d done it. “Thanks.” Then she stood and left the sitting room; she had a soulmate to connect with. Properly this time.

Donna nearly went crashing right into him in the hall.

“Oh! Sorry.” The Doctor had caught her with both hands on her waist, which he hastily removed.

“Where are you running off to in a hurry?” She asked, a bit teasing, hoping if he saw she’d calmed down that things wouldn’t be so awkward between them.

“You. To find you, I mean.”

He was practically tripping over himself, rubbing at the back of his neck and eyeing her nervously, and Donna could only think how awful she’d been to him about the whole thing.

“So was I.”

“Oh, brilliant. Everything sorted with your mum?”

“Yeah. Sorry for dragging you out here.” Donna hesitated, then asked, “Can we go home?”

“Home?” He echoed, clearly confused.

Donna took his arm and pulled him out the front door, right into the rain. “Yeah.”

He let her lead them at a run into the TARDIS and up the ramp. Donna let him go, put them in the Vortex as quickly as she could, and then spun back around to face him.

“Listen, I know I haven’t been all that great to be around. And it’s silly and stupid—”

“Donna, there’s no reason to apologize for how you feel.”

Well that brought her up short.

“Things didn’t happen the way you wanted, and you probably have questions about why it went the way it did.” The Doctor held his arms slightly away from his body. “I don’t want there to be any more confusion, and I don’t think you do either. Whatever you want to know, it’s yours.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me you had my name?” She finally let herself ask.

“Would you have wanted me to?”

Was he serious? “Of course I—”

“Donna, you were getting married,” he reminded her. “How would that have seemed to you, some alien you didn’t have any reason to trust claiming to be your soulmate? And then, well...you said you didn’t have a mark on the roof, and I just thought it best to say I didn’t either.”

Her eyes squeezed shut. It was all making a horrible amount of sense now that she thought about it from that angle. God, she probably would have run screaming if he’d led with that.

“And then once you’d lied you didn’t know how to stop,” she guessed. Hadn’t she been having the same problem?

When she looked at him again his brown eyes were big and guilt ridden. “I thought if you knew you’d think I only brought you along for your name, and then you’d leave.”

She didn’t know about leaving, but he was right on the money about the first part. She could just picture herself lying awake at night worrying about the other Donna, when he’d meet her, how much smarter and prettier she’d be.

“A right mess we made of it,” she sighed. “I don’t know what would be worse — just finding out now or knowing the whole time.”

“It was driving me near mad,” he admitted. “I thought I knew it wasn’t you, but it didn’t make sense. I don’t know how many times I tried turning it over in my head.”

Donna pressed her lips together and looked down. To think all the trouble she’d put him through these last few months. Any lingering hurt or anger she’d been holding onto for the way things had gone couldn’t withstand it.

“I was going to tell you.”

She felt her lips twitch in a smile. “Yeah, I know the whole Dalek thing sort of got in the way—”

“No, Donna, I mean I was going to tell you I had your name. Before I knew you had mine,” he added.

Donna stared.

“I had the whole thing planned out, see? Shan Shen, nice peaceful bit of the universe, market and nibbles.”

Her perfect date. Somehow he’d guessed at it with total accuracy.

“And the necklace,” he added. “I wanted to get you something, so you’d, ah, know it wasn’t just a normal outing.”

Donna hummed an acknowledgment. That had been rather hard to miss.

“Actually,” he said, beginning to rifle through his pockets. Eventually he produced the very one. “There we are.”

It shimmered in the light again as he held it out to her. Donna took it, but didn’t place it on.

“How much did you end up paying for it?”

He gave a dismissive wave of the hand. “It’s for you, and the point was that I was going to give it to you and explain the whole thing. That I knew you weren’t my soulmate, but that it was you I’d — well, I wasn’t interested in some other Donna or anyone by any other name.”

“But you couldn’t have known what I was gonna say,” she reasoned. “Weren’t you nervous?”

“Terrified,” he answered plainly. Then the Doctor slowly reached back out for the necklace. Donna placed it in his palm and held her breath as he went around behind her, lifted her hair and fastened it around her neck.

“But I’d decided that being with you was worth the risk. And to be with you, I had to tell you the truth.”

Donna slowly turned on the spot to look at him, feeling all kinds of overwhelmed. He’d really been willing to risk all that for her?

“I was gonna get mine removed,” she blurted.

He blinked and stepped back. “What?”

Well, if they were doing honesty hour. “My mark. I couldn’t read it, and no one else could, and I knew if you found out about it you’d want to investigate the bloody mystery. Then you’d find him on some planet out in the middle of nowhere—”

“Find who?”

“My soulmate,” she said, then rushed on with her explanation. “And then I’d be dumped off with him, and I didn’t want to meet my soulmate if it meant losing you, so my mark had to go. I set up something with the spa on Midnight, but then everything with the bus happened.”

He stood there a moment, seeming to need the time to process. “But...if I didn’t know about your mark, why did you think I was gonna look into it and find your hypothetical soulmate?”

Donna tried not to roll her eyes, she really did. “Because if we’d gotten together you’d have probably noticed it pretty quick.”

His eyes went wide. “Oh.”

“Yeah, ‘oh’.”

They looked at each other. Then the corner of Spaceman’s mouth ticked up, a snort left her, and they were gone laughing. One of her hands reached out to grasp his arm to keep herself from falling over, and the Doctor was bent double. There were possibly tears in his eyes.

“Oh, we really are a pair, aren’t we?”

“Yeah,” she agreed, a bit breathless. “Yeah, we are.”

This was probably one of those moments they’d been having where they’d lock eyes, and they’d slowly calm down while gazing at the other, only for the phone to ring or the TARDIS to take off without warning.

Donna decided to skip all that. She grabbed the Doctor’s face between her hands and crushed her lips to his. It was less messy and chaotic than the detox kiss she’d given him — though still a bit wet from the rain — only because there were no walnuts or anchovies involved. But without those in the way she could feel his mouth start to move against hers in earnest. Her heart had already been pounding, but it only began to beat faster as his head tilted, and that somehow lined their lips up so much better.

Donna staggered a half-step forward and felt his hands land back on her waist. They remained right where they were this time, much to her pleasure. She wished she could travel back to her own past, if only to scream at herself for waiting so bloody long for this. Maybe then she would have put the pieces together, for nothing had ever felt so right as this before.

“I want to see it,” she breathed against his lips.

“See what?”

“My name. Can I?”

A shiver went through him that she could feel, and that was a whole level of excitement she hadn’t yet let herself contemplate.

Of course, he had to stop kissing her to do as she’d asked, a side effect she’d somehow forgotten about. She watched somewhat impatiently as the Doctor removed his jacket and draped it over the railing, then loosened his tie, and finally undid the top couple buttons of his shirt.

He paused there a moment. “Blimey, can’t really remember the last time I showed someone. Martha, I suppose, but that was an accident.”

“Do I even want to know what all went on when Martha traveled with you?”

“It was entirely innocent!” He protested, turning his back to her.

“Yeah, I bet if I asked Martha, I’d get a different story,” she said, then stopped, for he’d tugged aside his shirt collar and the one he wore underneath to reveal the five letters that made up her name. Right there, plain as day. She found herself stepping forward, her arm lifting slowly.

Her name on someone’s back to match the one on hers. Donna couldn’t help tracing over the letters with a couple fingers, and Spaceman’s head lolled to the side under the light touch.

“It’s really real,” she said in a hushed voice. “I mean, I know it was before, but this just — I can’t believe it’s my name. Of all the people you’ve known, and it’s me.”

“Well, you’ll just have to believe it, Donna.” He turned back around to face her. “That mark has been with me for over nine-hundred years. It’s the one constant I’ve had, and it was just waiting for you.”

Spaceman was smiling at her, his eyes just liquid pools of warm brown, and she wanted to return it. But she couldn’t keep from saying, “Waiting for me to stop being so stupid about it, I suppose. We could’ve had this whole thing figured out ages ago if I knew Circular Gallifreyan.”

“Donna,” he groaned. The Doctor took her hands again and guided her to sit with him on the jumpseat. “Gallifreyan just isn’t taught anywhere else but Gallifrey. How were you supposed to translate it on your own?”

He was right, but she still couldn’t look at him. “I know, but—”

“I didn��t always understand what my mark said either,” he told her.

Donna blinked. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I wasn’t born knowing your language. They were just some strange looking symbols to me. I didn’t know well into the Academy what it said. And then, well, I still didn’t have it quite right. A friend and I translated it as lady.”

She looked round at him at last. “Did you really?”

One of his hands left hers to rub the back of his neck again. “Well, it is the literal translation, you have to understand.”

She started laughing. “What, so you just thought it meant some woman?”

He gave a half shrug. “It wasn’t until I started traveling and came to Earth that I realized it was an actual name. Must have been at least a couple centuries old by that point.”

A couple centuries! She wasn’t going to be able to breathe if he kept on. He started chuckling as well and it was a while before she could calm herself. Yet a sobering thought occurred to her.

“But I still don’t know what it says.”

“What says?”

“My mark.” She sat back to look at him properly. “I mean I doubt it’s just Gallifreyan for Doctor. I still don’t know your name.”

He grimaced. “Donna, I can’t tell you that.”

She moved away from him to the other end of the jump seat, crossing her arms over her chest. “And just why not?”

“Because it would mean we were married, and if I couldn’t introduce myself as your soulmate properly I’m at least going to marry you properly,” was his answer. He started tugging on his ear under her wide-eyed stare. “That is, you know, if you wanted marriage at some point in the indefinite future.”

It occurred to her dimly that there was a question in there she was probably meant to answer, but she was still hung up on what he’d first said.

“How is that a marriage? You say hi to someone, and you’re hitched? Your people were bonkers.”

He gave an exasperated shake of the head. “There’s some other details, mostly to do with the families of each participant consenting and giving their children away, but the name is the foundational block, yes. My people didn’t necessarily hold much with soulmates, but names were still important. You didn’t tell just anybody — River!”

Donna jumped at the sudden outburst. “What?”

He sat straight up, eyes wide. “River Song, she knew my name. I didn’t know how because, well, she’s not you, but it must have been you she was talking about!”

“Hold on, when did any of this happen?”

But the Doctor had stood up and was clearly lost on his own little train of thought. “‘Tell her I’m sorry’. She said that. I didn’t know what it meant, but she must have been talking about you. She gets the name off your back somehow. Still doesn’t explain how she knows Circular Gallifreyan, but it does mean I don’t marry her in the future.” He threw himself back onto the jump seat next to her. “That’s a relief.”

“Yeah, it’s a relief. You just promised to marry me, and I’m not into the whole sister wives scene!”

The arm he’d slowly been extending along the backrest towards her retracted. “Course not.”

Donna let out a breath. “Does that mean I mess up? If names are that important, should I not have been showing it to other people? I don’t think anyone else who saw it could read it,” she added quickly. God, she was such a screw-up.

“Donna, it’s okay,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do. When people meddle in their own personal timestreams — or the personal timestreams of others the way things happened at the Library, it creates fixed time. Since River told me my name and implied she got it from you, that’s just the way things have to happen.”

“Right. Timelines.”

He reached for her shoulders and waited for her to face him. “Whatever’s going to happen will happen, and it’s not your fault.”

“Okay,” she accepted softly.

The Doctor moved his hands to cup her cheeks, then brought his lips to hers. It was a more gentle kiss than their previous ones, a slow exploration. Donna’s eyes fluttered shut, and she leaned in, one of her hands landing on his thigh to balance herself. To think they could have been doing this for months, maybe years...

A sigh escaped her, and the Doctor pulled back to ask, “Something wrong?”

Donna shook her head. “No.” Then because she still wanted that closeness, she shifted and leaned into his side. Her Spaceman obligingly wrapped his arms around her, and Donna smiled.

“It’s just, everyone always said,” she couldn’t help continuing. “Finding your soulmate changes your whole world. And here we are just going along like normal.”

“With more kissing,” he observed. “That’s been a nice change.”

Donna turned her face into his chest to hide her grin for a moment. “Yeah, with more kissing. We were headed that way anyway, though.”

“Well, maybe that’s just it,” he said. She tilted her head back to look at him. “I was fairly decided that soulmates were complete nonsense and nothing but trouble when I met you. And I suspect you felt the same if you were marrying Lance.”

“Yeah.”

“So we wouldn’t have liked the idea of being together just because we’re soulmates. Why should we have? That’s not how it ought to be at all. We’re soulmates because we like — well, we...love — being together.”

The indirect admission made something warm bloom in her chest, and Donna pushed herself up to kiss him on the cheek. “Oh, you daft Spaceman. I love you, too.”

She snuggled back into his arms and pretended not to notice how he’d turned all pink at her words.

“Besides,” he added eventually, “my whole world changed the minute you appeared on my TARDIS.”

Donna pressed her lips together and hugged him just a little tighter. “Yeah. Suppose that should have been a clue.”

A yawn escaped her, and she blinked in some surprise. She’d completely forgotten how tired she was.

“Do you need to sleep?” The Doctor asked.

“Maybe, but I don’t want to get up just yet.” She was far too comfy, and besides she was too busy enjoying the new closeness she was allowed with her Spaceman. “Were the Daleks really today?”

“Yes. So was moving the planets. And Shan Shen,” he reminded her, and she could hear a smile in his voice.

“Shan Shen feels like two years ago. Suppose it was, what with the whole Time Beetle thing. Do those count for me? I spent about two years there and what felt like two years in the Library, give or take. Am I technically over forty?”

He didn’t answer for a long time. “You’re whatever age you want to be.”

“Oi.” She shifted her hold in order to prod him in the side. The Doctor squirmed, but couldn’t really do much to get away. “This is important to you, too. I made a bet with Nerys years ago that I’d get married before forty.”

“Right, I’ll mark the calendar as soon as I feel like moving,” he promised. His attempts to pull her in closer forced her to throw her legs over his lap, and her feet dangled in the air over the side of the jump seat. Probably wanted to keep her close enough to make poking at him too difficult, the sneaky man.

“Listen to you! Haven’t even proposed yet and you’re setting the wedding date.”

“I sort of proposed,” he argued. “I said I wanted to marry you, and you didn’t disagree.”

“If you’re marrying me properly that comes with a proper proposal,” she insisted.

“Fine, fine,” he groaned. “High maintenance, you are. What else was it you wanted?” He rubbed her back with one hand while he pretended to think. “Oh, right, a list of everyone who knew before you did.”

She felt her face heat up. “I think I liked it better when you thought I was angry.” It’d probably be more convincing were she not currently half-asleep on top of him and idly playing with the sunflower stone necklace he’d gotten her. It was just so pretty and smooth.

“I bet you did,” he said nevertheless. “Let’s see. Well, me, obviously.”

“Your friend with the rubbish translation,” she muttered.

He snorted. “Right, him. And my, uh, my first wife.”

“I thought that’s who you had, when Martha let slip you had a mark.”

She felt his head shake. “No. Time Lords really didn’t pay attention to marks. It was just seen as a leftover quirk of evolution. I’d have hardly noticed mine if it weren’t odd.”

“Watch whose name you’re calling odd,” she warned around another yawn.

“Everything’s relative, Donna. I really was quite good at not letting people know. It only got bad once you came on board.”

She frowned. “And how’s that?”

“Well, everyone just assumed I had your name. Martha saw it before, of course. Then there was Agatha — though I suppose she’s forgotten it again.”

“Can’t get anything past Agatha,” said Donna, rather sagely in her opinion.

“No, you can’t. River obviously knows — but does that really count as knowing before you do? She’s from the future.”

“Counts,” said Donna. Her eyes kept falling closed, and it was getting harder to blink them back open again.

“Alright. Josiah and some of the Puritans—”

That got her eyes back open. “You told the people trying to burn me at the stake?”

“I told you, they guessed! The only other people I really told were Davros—”

“Davros?”

“It just sort of happened that way,” the Doctor repeated. He removed one hand to finish ticking off on his fingers, “Sarah Jane, Jack, Mickey, Jackie, and Rose.”

Donna felt his chest rise and fall with a sigh after the last name.

She let go of her necklace and laid her hand over his right heart. “She’ll be alright. There’s a whole universe out there for her, and she needed to know the truth so she’d go out there and take advantage of it. It wouldn’t have been right to leave her wondering.”

“I wish it had already happened for her. She shouldn’t have wasted ten years on me. All that time—”

“She’ll find her soulmate when it’s good for her, not to make you feel better,” she chided. “It’s not like she’s some old maid just yet. She’s young.”

“Everyone’s young compared to me.” He sounded so sad, and whatever comfort she was about to give died on her lips when he pressed his own to the top of her head.

Everyone. Including her.

She’d never tried to dwell on it much, not even when she poked fun at his age or resolved to travel with him the rest of her life. They didn’t have the same version of forever.

He’d thought that soulmates were complete nonsense and nothing but trouble. He hadn’t said it was because he’d been given a soulmate he couldn’t expect to last longer than a nice cat. What had the universe gone and done that to him for? She could’ve lived with a blank back if it meant he’d been paired up with someone better for him.

“Donna?”

She hadn’t realized she’d frozen up in his arms. For a moment, Donna floundered, having no idea what to say. Was she meant to say something about it or would that just make everything worse? There weren’t really any words that could fix it. All she had was herself, and she’d freely give that to him for as long as she could.

Donna pushed up off his chest, then kissed him before more than a surprised sound could escape his mouth. She tried to put all she felt into it, wanting to be worth the eventual pain.

He was the one to break it off, and it wasn’t until he brought his hands up to hold her face and wipe at the corners of her eyes that she realized it was because she’d started crying. “Donna? Donna, what’s wrong?”

God, she was a mess. “I should — I should turn in.” Donna got off his lap and hurried down the corridor to her room, swiping furiously at the remainder of her tears. She needed to be better than this. She had to stay strong, or what good of a soulmate was she? The last thing she wanted was to hurt him more than he would be.

Tomorrow she’d be better, Donna resolved. Her emotions were running too high and her nerves were frayed from all that had happened today. They’d nearly lost the whole bloody universe. A bit of rest, and she’d be ready to handle it.

Truthfully she didn’t know how she’d get to sleep with everything that was going through her head, but upon dropping onto her mattress Donna didn’t even register hitting the pillow before her exhaustion pulled her under.

—-

Well, now he’d done it.

The Doctor watched Donna leave and this time he couldn’t call her back or run after her because it really was his fault. Not a misunderstanding or an accident, just purely his own doing.

Why had he said it? He should have kept his own melancholy thoughts to himself. Donna shouldn’t have to be troubled with them.

He couldn’t blame her for not thinking of it before; it just wasn’t how she saw the world. Donna was always so in the moment, so ready to feel and experience whatever happened. Pain affected her more strongly than most anyone he’d known, while her happiness warmed even the coldest person.

The Doctor had had to learn how to distance himself from his pain, or he’d never be free of it. As a consequence, perhaps he didn’t know how to let himself be happy anymore either.

He leaned forward in the jump seat and placed his head in his hands.

There’d been no reason to ruin things. Yes, it was true that she was young — no matter what she said about forty — and like all humans would die so tragically young compared to him, but on some level he’d already accepted that the minute he’d decided to pursue a relationship with her. That was his burden, not hers, and he didn’t have to let it hang like a pall over their time together.

Already his arms felt empty and his body cold from the loss of her, even as the taste of her lingered on his lips from that last searing kiss. There was no question; he would rather have however long he was allowed with Donna than to not have it at all.

The Doctor knew at any rate that Donna would still be with him a while yet; he had River Song as a benchmark. They would meet her at least once again, and not only that but let her learn his name. But after that...

They would have to face it, and then simply set it aside until the time came. He refused to let this come between them, not after everything else had tried to. Donna deserved far better than a soulmate who could only think about once she’d gone.

He got up from the jump seat and left the console room, following the same route Donna had so recently taken. The TARDIS placed her room almost immediately in his path, and he touched the wall briefly in thanks. Then he reached out and knocked softly on the door. “Donna?”

There was no answer. The Doctor risked easing the door open and poking his head inside.

When his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, he found she’d collapsed on her bed fully dressed. She’d had such a hard day, and then some if he was being honest, which wasn’t even accounting for the time she’d spent in that parallel world.

He went to the foot of her bed and started undoing the laces on her shoes. Once removed, each was placed neatly on the floor. He undid the clasp on her necklace and laid that carefully on the bedside table. Her hoop earrings were next.

Donna was curled up on her side, so he slipped her left arm out of the sleeve of her jacket before gently turning her over to do the same with the right.

Only once he did so, he froze.

There was a faint glow showing through the back of her shirt, right where her mark was. Donna had said it had been glowing before, and he’d assumed it had stopped when her eyes did. With a guilty glance up at her face, he carefully peeled back her shirt from her mark.

Just a few of the arcs and curves in the circles that made up his name were glimmering now, like the last embers of a fire going out. Donna still held his regeneration energy within her. They’d determined it wasn’t fatal, but what was it doing?

Knowing he was probably heading for a good smack on the arm out of surprise if nothing else, the Doctor took out the sonic and activated it, scanning up and down the length of Donna’s body. She slept right through it, which certainly spoke to how tired she had to be.

His screwdriver had taken a reading, but he needed more sophisticated equipment to properly analyze it. The Doctor tucked the sonic away again before placing a kiss to her forehead and leaving the room.

In the medbay, he plugged the sonic screwdriver into some machinery to input the readings. It took some time to process, which he spent mostly by tapping his feet impatiently. Finally, one of the monitors beeped, and he rushed over to have a look.

Yes, it was regeneration energy she had absorbed, only it seemed to have fuzed entirely with her cell structure.

“Hold on, if that’s right...” he said aloud. The Doctor took out his specs and leaned in for a closer look.

The rates of cellular replication and regeneration were off the charts for a human. But for a Time Lord? Practically equal. Not only that, but her cell aging seemed to have slowed dramatically.

Donna wasn’t aging like a human anymore.

“Oh.” He had to catch himself on the table for he’d gone a bit weak in the knees. The Doctor heard something wrenched from his throat that sounded like a cross between a laugh and a sob. “Oh, she’s brilliant. She — Donna.”

He had to tell her. She’d hardly believe it, but he needed her to know. The Doctor went sprinting from the medbay and down the corridor — only to slide to a stop and double back as the TARDIS had again moved Donna’s room right next door.

“Donna!” He didn’t bother with knocking this time, bursting back into the room as the ship brought the lights up all the way.

Donna gave a groggy half-groan, then yelled as he leapt onto the bed and pulled her up into a hug.

“Have you totally lost it?” She demanded, loud enough that he thought his ears might start ringing. The Doctor wasn’t all that concerned.

He pulled back to look at her with a grin that threatened to split his face. “No! Maybe! If I have, I don’t care!”

Having said that, he kissed her. Was it making up for lost time when their time now seemed to stretch out before him into the unknown? He didn’t care about that either. All he knew was he wanted to kiss her until his lips were numb, until he could no longer count how many times he’d done it.

Donna was a bit sluggish in responding, which he supposed was understandable, and when he broke off to let her breath she asked, “If you’re gonna pretend to be happy, can it wait till morning?”

“I don’t have to pretend,” he told her with a shake of the head. “And it can’t wait. Donna, we were wrong about the regeneration energy — it’s not harmful, but it did affect you.”

“What do you mean? Hold on, how do you even know that? Did you bleep me?” It didn’t hold quite the usual bite considering she wasn’t quite awake yet.

“I maybe took a reading,” he admitted, then swiftly moved on. “But the energy has been assimilated by your body, and in doing so made changes on the cellular level.”

“Sorry, you’re happy about this?”

“Yes! Your rates of cellular regeneration and replication have increased and your cell aging’s gone the opposite way.”

“You know I hate it when you try to talk science first thing.” Donna was still rubbing sleep out of her eyes. “So, wait, what does that mean for you?”

“It’s not what it means for me, it’s what it means for us.” He took her hands and looked her right in the eye. “You’re not aging the way you used to. Barring any injury, your lifespan’s been extended far past the average human’s.”

He wasn’t sure if it was what he’d said or just her brain still waking back up that had her blinking at him in confusion. “So...I’m like the elves in Lord of the Rings?”

The Doctor felt one of his eyebrows raise. “When did you see Lord of the Rings?”

“Who says I saw it? Am I not allowed an interest in literature?”

The Doctor couldn’t help a dubious look.

Donna caved. “Viggo Mortensen is not bad to look at. You still haven’t answered my question.”

“Yes, a comparison could be made between you and the elves in Lord of the Rings,” the Doctor told her while making a mental note to avoid any possible run-ins with Viggo Mortensen for the foreseeable future.

“Am I gonna regenerate? That whole changing faces thing?”

He could tell the whole thing somewhat frightened her, and having a human’s sense of self he couldn’t blame her. It wasn’t as if he was overly fond of it whenever it happened to him.

“No. And I don’t think you’ll have the same immunity to weaponry or anything going forward. Time Lords usually have a grace period of about fifteen hours after regeneration where they can’t be harmed, and your fifteen is nearly up.”

“But I’m not going to get old,” she checked.

“Not for a long time,” he confirmed.

“Is it long enough, though? For me to stay with you,” she added before he could ask.

Of course that was what worried her most. He didn’t know how much more he could possibly love this woman, but he also suspected he was simply going to keep finding out.

“It should be. I only have one regeneration left. Which means...I will change. I can’t really do anything to stop that next time since the hand’s gone.”

When Donna let go of the two hands he did have, the Doctor’s eyes fell closed. But then she laid them on his chest.

“You’ve changed before,” she said quietly.

“Yes.”

“But you’re still the same person?”

“I know it’s strange, but my memories carry over between faces. Some of my preferences might be different — I might lose my taste for bananas, that sort of thing. But I’m still me,” he struggled to explain.

“And you said you’ve had my name all this time?”

He finally let himself look at her again. Donna was watching him, her eyes displaying curiosity, not fear.

“Yes. My whole life.”

She smiled then, just a small, gentle one. “Then that’s what matters to me. I won’t lie, the rest of it sounds weird — but weird’s normal with you. And if you’ve always been waiting for me, I’m not leaving you unless someone makes me, and they’ll have to put up a good fight.”

His hearts felt about ready to burst they were so full. “Donna,” was all he could manage.

She looped her arms around his neck and held him close, her cheek rubbing against his. The Doctor stroked her hair and tried to think of the right word for what he was feeling. Happy didn’t quite cover it; love was certainly a part; yet something unfamiliar to him eluded him.

He resorted to asking Donna, as he always did when he didn’t have the answer himself. “Do you know what I am right now?”

“Tired?” She guessed. “That’s about where I am.”

“Sorry. I just had to tell you.”

“No, I know, Spaceman,” she assured him, turning her face to brush her nose along his jawline and press her lips to the same spot a moment later.

“I know we have all the time in the universe now, but I could stay like this for a century,” he tried to explain.

“Can we settle for just the night?”

“Sure,” he agreed readily. Anything Donna wanted he felt bound to give her.

“Alright,” she said, then rather contradictorily let him go.

Donna pushed him without warning, and the Doctor’s back hit the mattress with an “Oof!” He hadn’t quite got his breath back when she sprawled half on top of him, her head resting on his chest.

“If you’re staying, you’re letting me sleep,” she mumbled.

The Doctor lay there a few moments staring up at the ceiling in sheer surprise as the TARDIS slowly dimmed the lights all the way to total darkness. Donna snuggled more firmly into his chest, one of her hands curling into a fist around his tie.

Then he wrapped his arms back around her. “I think I can do that.”

A quick peek showed the last of the glow to Donna’s mark was fading away, the regeneration energy fully settled. Much in the same way they were settled down for the night. There was no telling quite what awaited them tomorrow, or the next year, or even the next century; all he knew right now was that he didn’t have to face it alone. He had Donna, his best and soulmate.

Then it hit him. “Content.”

“Mm?”

“That’s what this is. More than happiness, not quite euphoria, just...enough. I’m content.”

“Good for you,” Donna said with a yawn. “Only took almost a millennia.”

He shifted to tuck her head under his chin. “It was worth the wait.”

Together and content, they drifted off to sleep.

[one-of-us-blog]

Knock Knock (Doctor Who S10E04)

Today Drew is forced to watch and recap “Knock Knock”, the fourth episode of Doctor Who’s tenth series. The time has come for Bill to leave the nest, so she and some pals are house hunting. They think they’ve struck the jackpot when they find a massive house at an amazing price, but they soon find out that this place has more problems than faulty wiring or creaky floors. Can the Doctor get to the mystery surrounding this spooky old house? Is he a match for the Landlord?

J’accuse!

Eli, I’m pretty darn loathe to shit talk any episode of The Golden Girls, but even I have to admit that “Stand By Your Man” leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It just seems like at that point the writers were so in love with the “Blanche falls for a guy who has a flaw and can’t look past it but then does when she’s too late” premise that I feel a bit burnt out on it. We’ve have Blanche hem and haw over a relationship with a a guy from a different social standing, then a guy who was blind, now a guy in a wheelchair. Things felt a little different now because Ted turned out to be a big sonuvabitch and a cheater, but the basic premise is the same. I absolutely agree that the puppy subplot was adorable, but overall I’m not a big fan of this episode. I think you did a fantastic job on your recap, though, and now it’s my turn up to bat. 

Buttocks tight!

Episode directed by Bill Anderson and written by Mike Bartlett

We start off right in the middle of some hot millennial action. Bill has decided to move out of the house of her awful foster mother, and is moving in with an absolute gaggle of young people her own age. Let’s get some names out of the way right up top, because we’ve got an ensemble cast to keep track of this time ‘round. Bill’s friend Shireen introduces her to Felicity, Harry, Pavel and Paul. Best of luck trying to keep all that straight. Despite their limited incomes, the gang has some high expectations for living quarters, and are unsatisfied with the options presented to them by a realtor. Luckily a kindly old man (played by the incomparable, utterly #iconic David Suchet), who brings them to a mansion which is dirt cheap. Bill is skeptical of the price tag and wonders why such swanky digs are so affordable, but everyone else is so excited to find a nice place that they sign a lease with the Landlord right then and there. Pavel needs new accommodations ASAP, so he actually moves in that night. Unfortunately he meets a grizzly, off-screen fate as soon as he arrives to the house alone, so it’s safe to bet the kids are going to have more problems with their new place than mold or leaky pipes. But hey, now they won’t have to worry about Pavel trying to get them to listen to his new mixtapes all the time!

After the credits, the Doctor helps Bill move by loading her few possessions into the TARDIS. We get a pretty charming little scene where Bill finds out that the Doctor’s people are known as the Time Lords, which drives home how much she still has to learn about her tutor, and she almost finds out about Gallifreyan regeneration (though the Doctor holds back on that for now). Bill is cool with just carrying in her stuff on her own, but the Doctor takes one look at her new house and his hackles instantly rise. Despite Bill wanting to handle the move on her own from here, he insists on helping her carry her stuff inside. The (surviving) housemates all think the Doctor is pretty cool, but Bill really wants to get him out of there so she can bond with her new pals. She claims he’s her grandfather, which he’s not thrilled about, and he takes his leave. By the way, nobody knows Pavel is missing yet because he left music playing in his room when he got offed and apparently he’s known for spending days alone in his room. Paul seems to have a bit of a thing for Bill, because I guess no one’s informed him that guys aren’t her thing.

Bill hangs up a picture of her late mother to make herself feel more at home, and hears some odd noises coming from the wall. She tries to assure herself that this isn’t one of her life-or-death adventures with the Doctor, and that she should just relax. That night, the kids bond, and Harry reveals that he’s heard some odd noises, too. Bill says it’s probably just mice, which Felicity isn’t thrilled about, and right on cue they hear some loud noises coming from the kitchen. Bill offers to check it out and the gang follows behind. Turns out it’s just the Doctor poking around, though, and he informs them the house doesn’t have any central heating, there’s no washing machine and the electrical sockets won’t work with any of the kids’ gadgets. There’s not even any cell service here, for pete’s sake! Bill insists the house is just old and that this isn’t some spooky mystery that the Doctor needs to stick his schnoz in, but he points out that when they arrived he could hear the trees around the house creaking. Bill says it was just due to the wind, but he reminds her that there wasn’t any wind at the time. He flat out tells the youngsters they should move, but at this price they’re willing to deal with a few inconveniences.

Turns out the Doctor wasn’t their only unexpected visitor. The Landlord is waiting for them in the living room, despite no one having heard him enter. The Landlord seems to have quite the attachment to the house, but he takes in the kids’ series of complaints in stride. He gets a bit short, though, when Harry asks about how to get into the house’s tower; that area of the house, it seems, is strictly off limits. Nothing suspicious about that! The Doctor knows something is up with this dude, who’s sending up all kinds of red flags and has the odd habit of tapping the walls of the house with a tuning fork, and trips him up by asking the simple question of who the Prime Minister is. The Landlord is unable to answer the question, not even hazarding a guess of Harriet Jones, and tells the Doctor that he should leave his ‘granddaughter’ and her friends alone to get used to their new, exceptionally creaky house. As the Landlord leaves, Shireen remembers she didn’t tell him about the house lacking a washing machine and tries to run after him, but he’s gone. Bill tries to get rid of her grandpa so she can have a normal night with her friends, but he tries to insist on staying and hanging out with the young folk. Bill says she’ll be down for more TARDIS adventures soon, but this is a part of her life that the Doctor isn’t in and he needs to respect that.

The Doctor says he understands, but he’s not intent on leaving. The Doctor points out that she might want to check on Pavel, though, given that no one’s seem him for a day. Bill, Paul and Shireen head upstairs for bed. Paul makes a pass at Bill and she lets him know she prefers the ladies, which he takes in stride. He makes a show of being spooky to freak Shireen out, but then once he’s in his room Bill and Shireen hear him cry out in pain. Knockings sound out all around the women, and doors begin to slam. Bill says they need to get the Doctor, but there are some spooky, slamming doors between them and her grandpa. Downstairs, Harry and Felicity are still down to party with the Doctor, but the Doctor notices that the doors to the outside are now completely sealed. Scrabbling noises come from the walls, and the shutters on the windows close on their own. Felicity freaks out at the thought of being trapped, and manages to make it out a window before the shutters close (despite the Doctor’s warnings). Outside, she gets eaten by a tree while Harry and the Doctor are stuck helplessly in the kitchen.

Bill and Shireen make it into Pavel’s room, where they find him partially Josie Packarded into the wall of his room. Luckily he still seems to be alive and conscious, despite his uncomfortable position. Just then the Landlord arrives, not surprised to find Pavel in his current state. The Landlord stops the music that Pavel had left on, and without the music for him to focus on, Pavel is completely absorbed into the bedroom wall. The Landlord tells them that Pavel has been preserved, and that everyone has to pay their dues. Everyone but him, that is, as he’s running the show around here. He says it’s time for Bill and Shireen to pay the price, but they run away and find a hidden door behind a bookcase and head up into the forbidden tower. Downstairs, the Doctor bounces ides off of Harry about something living in the wood, like wood nymphs or tree sprites, but to his surprise a decidedly alien-looking insect pops out of the wood. The Doctor runs after it as it scurries away, but then hundreds of the little suckers pop out of the woodwork and head their way. The Doctor and Harry run into a service elevator in the kitchen, and wind up in the basement. The Doctor dubs the bugs Dryads, and admits to Harry he’s never seen anything like them before.

In the tower, Bill and Shireen hear someone calling out for their father. In the basement, Harry and the Doctor find evidence that other groups of young people have moved into this house before, and all of them were absorbed into the house by the Dryads. Every 20 years the Landlord finds a new group of youths to bring into the house, and none of them are still here. Speak of the devil, the Landlord arrives and admits that he’s done awful things over the years. He says his daughter was dying of an incurable disease until the Dryads arrived, and now she’s part of the house. The Landlord uses his tuning fork to summon a swarm of Dryads to absorb Harry where he stands. The Doctor gets that the Dryads are using the energy they absorb from their victims to keep the Landlord’s daughter alive, but he doesn’t get how it works. He offers to try to help the man’s daughter, and upstairs Bill and Shireen come face to face with her.

Her name is Eliza, and she’s a walking, talking hunk of wood in the shape of a young woman. She’s also full of Dryads, which she doesn’t seem to mind. She’s pleased to have visitors, but Shireen is immediately absorbed by the Dryads. As the insects absorb Shireen’s energy Eliza glows and moves toward Bill, but then the Landlord arrives with the Doctor. The Doctor surmises the history of this father and daughter; Eliza was terribly sick and doctors had given up on her, and one day the Landlord happened across some odd bugs he found. He showed them to Eliza just to entertain her, and the tune from her music box inadvertently awoke them. They miraculously preserved Eliza, and for the last 70 years the Landlord has been keeping his daughter alive this way. Bill points out this story has some issues; why would he randomly bring in some bugs he found and show them to his sick daughter? Also, how could this possibly have been going on for 70 years? The Landlord is an elderly man, yes, but he’s not that old. And why haven’t the Dryads absorbed him? Cut the smack, Jack, this story just don’t work!

The Doctor realizes the mistake he’s made; he forgot that humans live such a short time, and there’s no way the Landlord would still be alive now if all this went down 70 years ago. He asks Eliza what she remembers about the past, but it turns out that the while the Dryads have preserved her appearance and voice, her memory’s not the best. It’s Me all over again! The Doctor says Eliza wasn’t the Landlord’s daughter, she was his mother. He found the bugs as a boy, and brought them in to show his ailing mama. The Landlord breaks down in tears, and asks his mother for forgiveness. The Landlord was a sharp little boy, and he figured out that if he tamed the Dryads and kept them fed, they would keep his mother alive and leave him be. Eliza is horrified by this situation; she went along with all this murdering because she thought the Landlord was her father and that he knew best, but now she sees he’s just a murderer.

The Landlord summons the Dryads to absorb Bill and the Doctor, accusing them of upsetting and confusing Eliza, and the Doctor urges Eliza to take control as a parent. She has a strong connection to the Dryads after all this time, and with some effort she takes control of the swarm. The Landlord urges her to finish Bill and the Doctor off, but the Doctor points out that her life isn’t worth living at this cost, especially if she’s cooped up away from the rest of the world. He asks her when the last time she saw outside was, prompting her to throw open some shutters in time to see some fireworks from a nearby festival going off. Eliza remembers some of the joy she used to have before her life became what it did. She begs her son to leave her side and go out and experience the world, but he refuses and tries to attack Bill and the Doctor. Eliza holds her son tight and says this has to end. She calls for a swarm of Dryads, and the insects absorb mother and son alike.

Eliza’s not done saving the day, though, and she has the Dryads restore all of Bill’s friends. Even Pavel’s back! The Doctor and all the youngsters make it outside as the house crumbles to the ground behind them. The Doctor wishes them luck on finding a new place to live and heads off into the night. He heads back to the university and relieves Nardole from his vault-watching duties. Nardole says whatever’s in the vault has been pretty active lately, and the Doctor sends him on his way. Before Nardole leaves, the sound of piano music comes from inside the vault. Nardole is surprised that the Doctor put a piano in there, but the Doctor sends him away. The Doctor offers to share some Mexican food with the vault’s occupants, and offers to share the story of his adventure with them. The occupant isn’t really interested, until they find out that the story involves a bunch of kids getting eaten by a haunted house.

The End

~~~~~

Someone tie a rope around my leg before I get carried away by this tenth series cloud I’m floating away on! I know we’re only four episodes in, but so far this series is delivering hits on hits! I’ll readily admit that I’m pretty biased here, because I have a deep, deep love for David Suchet and I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent watching and rewatching episodes of Agatha Christie’s Poirot. I think Suchet absolutely shines here, and manages to pull off the “creepy guy trying to be friendly and approachable to kids” routine perfectly, only to deliver a heartbreaking performance as the Landlord is confronted with the truth about his mother. I also love House of Leaves, so that might be why I’m a sucker for a story about a spooky house. I like that we’re getting to see Bill slowly learn more about the Doctor and his people, and I’ll be interested to see just how much she gets to find out and how quickly the Doctor fills in the gaps in her knowledge. I think the Dryads were an interesting force to reckon with, but, much like the creature from “Thin Ice”, I really wish we could have found out more about them or where they came from. This series has been pretty light on backstory for its villains so far, and I’m wondering if that theme’s going to continue.

I give “Knock Knock” QQQQ on the Five Q Scale.

We’ll see you again soon as Eli tries to navigate the choppy and fickle waters of grief with his recap of the next episode of The Golden Girls, “Ebbtide’s Revenge”, and then I’ll be back with my recap of the next episode of Doctor Who, “Oxygen”.

Until then, as always, thank you for reading, thank you for tuning and thank you for being One of Us!

[chasingthecosmos]

By Any Other Name

Fandom: Doctor Who Rating: T Pairing: The Doctor/Rose Tyler, Eleventh Doctor/Rose Tyler (The Doctor/Clara Oswald, Eleventh Doctor/Clara Oswald) Chapters: 27/32 Read on AO3 here.

“Rose Tyler was dying - or, at least, she was relatively certain that that’s what was happening …” A Season 7 AU where Rose returns to her home universe only to find that 100 years have passed and nothing is quite the way that she remembers it. She wakes up with a new body, a new life, and a new Doctor. What has the Bad Wolf gotten her into this time? The 50th Anniversary will be included in this story.

Fortunately, the Queen of England ended up not being a red alien from space covered in suckers. Unfortunately, that meant that Rose had to sit through a wedding in which the groom happened to be (strangely enough) both her late and current husband.

Rose couldn't decide if she was more angered or depressed by the odd situation that she found herself in, so she settled for staring blankly at the unusual wedding ceremony going on around her while her current Doctor fidgeted awkwardly next to her.

"Is there ... a lot of this in the future?" the youngest Doctor asked curiously.

"It does start to happen, yeah," Rose muttered sardonically.

You love it, Rose's Doctor reminded her, tugging pointedly on the mental connection that linked them together as he flashed her a playful smile out of the corner of his eye.

Alright, fine, it's not all bad, Rose admitted, immediately mirroring his flirtatious grin.

The Doctor in pinstripes pulled away from the deep, passionate kiss that the queen had trapped him in with a roll of his eyes and flashed a distinctly annoyed look in their direction before immediately darting back into the welcome safety of his TARDIS.

As Rose and the other two Doctors moved to follow him, she noticed for the first time that the old ship looked oddly battered and rough around the edges. The TARDIS greeted her with the same warm welcome as always, but there was an odd, minor chord to her usual melody that Rose wasn't used to hearing. She flashed her Doctor a questioning look as they all crossed the threshold onto the old time ship, but he simply shook his head silently in her direction, making it clear that he would explain later.

"You let this place go a bit," the Doctor in leather grumbled as they finally let the TARDIS doors close shut behind them.

"Ah, it's his grunge phase," the Doctor in the bowtie replied blithely, "he grows out of it."

"Don't listen to them," the Doctor in pinstripes cooed as he lightly patted the old, green time rotor.

"I love it," Rose piped up, smiling widely as she danced across the familiar metal grating and ran her hands adoringly across the old control set-up. "I think it's fantastic."

She fell into contemplative silence, then, as she was sharply reminded once more of the one face that was missing in this line-up of Doctors. Rose ached for the man who had first invited her to stay - the one who had opened her eyes to the stars and all of the majesty that the universe held. The one that she had originally fallen in love with.

When the moment of silence reigned for just a moment too long, Rose glanced up to see that all three men were watching her carefully. Her current Doctor's eyes were wide and sad as he silently absorbed Rose's distant longing and attempted to soothe her thoughts with promises of love and devotion that outlasted his many, changing faces. The Doctor in pinstripes was eyeing her with renewed interest, paying particular attention to the way that she ran her hands across his ship's controls with easy familiarity. The youngest Doctor in leather was still watching her as though he were attempting to work out a particularly difficult-to-solve puzzle, his brows furrowed in concentration.

Before Rose could come up with something to say in order to break the awkward tension, there was a bright flash of light as the console sparked. The old TARDIS desktop blinked around them and suddenly they were all standing in a completely different room. When it blinked a second time, Rose was able to make out the sleek, metal surfaces and the blue-green time rotor of her Doctor's current TARDIS.

"Oh, you've redecorated," the Doctor in pinstripes muttered, casting an unamused grimace at their new surroundings. "I don't like it." He met Rose's gaze from across the room and she flashed him an amused smile, which only grew when he answered her with a playful smirk of his own.

--------------------

Rose wasted no time in directing the three men back to the Black Archive, but Kate and the zygons made sure that it would be impossible to land the TARDIS there as they had planned. Instead, the youngest Doctor reminded them of the spare stasis cube that they had picked up from Queen Elizabeth, and the four of them entered into the secure, underground archives in a blaze of fire and explosions that could only ever come from having three Doctors together in the same place.

After the trio of Time Lords had managed to save the planet (with five seconds to spare) and ensured that peace talks between the zygons and the humans would go ahead as planned, the group finally had a few moments to breathe and reorganize themselves.

Rose found that she immediately felt herself gravitating towards the one Doctor who she still hadn't been properly introduced to yet. He was sitting alone, staring off into space with a gloomy expression that Rose immediately recognized from his future regenerations. She knew that it wouldn't do for him to be by himself when he was in such a state, so she decided to keep him company, just as she always did when he was in these kinds of moods.

"Hello," she greeted him quietly, pulling up a chair as close to him as she thought she could safely get away with.

"Hello," he replied, flashing her a weary smile as he propped his chin up on his free hand.

"I feel like we sort of skipped over introductions today," Rose muttered with a small, apologetic shrug. "I'm ... well, it's complicated ..." She furrowed her brow at the ground as she searched for the right words to say. She didn't want to lie to him - she had done far too much of that already - but she knew that she couldn't tell him the truth, either, and risk causing some sort of disastrous paradox.

However, the Doctor simply sighed and shook his head as he replied, "I find that these sorts of things often are."

"Sorry?" Rose asked in quiet confusion.

"Tell me, my dear," he muttered quietly, "when do we meet? It's clear that you're part of my future. Do I ... really have to wait four hundred years?"

Rose flashed him a small, sad smile as she slowly shook her head. "No, not four hundred years," she replied gently. "But it does take some time."

"You've never met me before," the Doctor sighed, nodding dejectedly as he put together the words that Rose couldn't quite bring herself to say. "Not this face, at least. Could be another century or more until ..." His words trailed off and his brow furrowed as he stared hard at a spot somewhere over Rose's shoulder.

When she turned to follow his gaze, she noticed the invisible woman who was still wearing Rose's own nineteen-year-old face and leaning casually against the wall behind them. "Who is she, then?" Rose asked curiously as she narrowed her eyes on the strange creature.

"I thought you knew her," the Doctor replied dismissively.

"I know the face that she's wearing," Rose admitted, shivering slightly despite herself as the Bad Wolf-woman flashed her a knowing smile.

"She's a weapon," the Doctor admitted quietly, his voice little more than a whisper. The odd, dark tone that entered into his voice immediately captured Rose's full attention, and she turned back to meet his eyes once more, completely ignoring the strange other woman.

"You're still in the Time War," she murmured in disbelief as she scanned over his weary expression.

The Doctor's eyes - brown, this time, though the color had never really mattered to her - were filled with a sadness and fear that she hadn't seen in a very, very long time. "You don't have to do it, you know," she reminded him quietly. "I know what you're planning, but you don't have to do it."

"You're very sure of yourself," he muttered, the hopelessness in his tone telling her that he had absolutely no faith in her words.

"We meet not long after, you know," Rose continued, hoping to stir up some small seed of hope within him. "Well, not long for you, anyway - a lifetime for me. But I remember those early days. I remember them well. I remember how sharp and painful your regret was then, and I know how it still haunts you, even now."

"How many worlds has his regret saved, do you think?" the younger Doctor asked pointedly.

Rose shook her head slightly as she replied, "Hundreds, thousands - who knows?"

"And you think I should change all of that?" the Doctor asked quietly, looking deep into her eyes as though he were begging for her to help release him from this awful, terrible burden. "You think I should put my own people above all of them?"

"No, Doctor," Rose replied, shaking her head sadly as she forced herself to meet his gaze with as much earnestness as she could manage. "But you don't have to do it alone."

"Oh, no, my dear," he sighed, leaning forward and hesitating for just a moment before he allowed himself to bridge the space between them and take her hand in his own. "I would not dare. Out of all of the people in all of the worlds, I suspect that you, most of all, must be kept safe."

He flashed her another small, sad smile, before he turned to look at the young blonde woman behind her once more. "I'm ready," he stated resolutely. And then, in the blink of an eye, they were both gone.

--------------------

Rose was on her feet immediately, wasting no time in gathering up both of the remaining Doctors and forcing them into their TARDISes in order to chase after the man who was about to make the worst decision of their collective lives.

"We can't stop him, you know," the younger Doctor reminded Rose grimly. "He has to do this - it has to happen this way."

"Doctor, I know that you have no reason to trust me right now," she replied tersely as she watched him hesitate outside of his ship's doors and quietly regard her, "I know that you don't know me, but I know you. I know that, despite what you may wish, you still remember that day that you did it. And I know that, more than anything, you wished that you hadn't had to make that decision alone."

The younger Doctor's jaw tightened as he cast another long, thoughtful look in her direction. She was pleased to note that some of the suspicion had left his brown eyes, but it was clear that he still didn't quite trust her. However, he finally seemed to accept the wisdom of her words and he nodded resolutely as they both stepped into their respective TARDISes and set their destination for Gallifrey.

"Thank you," Rose's current Doctor muttered quietly as their old ship whirled and groaned around them, adding her own heartbroken lament to the Doctor's suffering.

"For what?" Rose asked, eyeing him hesitantly from where she stood across the console from him. His head was hung down between his hunched shoulders and she couldn't quite catch his expression, but she could feel the deep ache in his thoughts through their bond.

"For being there," he replied, finally glancing up to meet her eye so that she could clearly see all of his heartfelt gratitude. "It's coming back in pieces, the memories of this day," he continued thoughtfully. "I didn't give you a single good reason to help me, but you still did - you still are."

Rose flashed the Doctor a small, sad smile as she crossed the space between them and gently pressed her lips to his cheek in a quick kiss. "Always," she vowed quietly as she stepped back and looked deep into his eyes, making sure that he understood the depth and sincerity of her commitment.

The TARDIS had come to a quite halt around them, as though she were attempting not to shatter the moment as the Doctor and Rose stared warily at the ship's doors, both of them hesitating to be the first one to open them.

Rose could feel the fear and sadness that seemed to fill the atmosphere the small, sunlit barn that they had touched down in the second that she took her first ever steps onto the one planet that she had never expected to visit. She could feel the Doctor's wild, terrified thoughts clambering through their bond, and she knew that the same sensations were echoing through two other versions of himself as well.

Rose bit the inside of her cheek in order to keep herself still and silent as she watched the Doctor with tracks of helpless tears spilling from her eyes. She listened intently as they all quietly regarded one another and her mind desperately reached for any other alternative that wouldn't have to end in this.

Help them, she thought desperately, casting her glance towards the blonde-haired woman who was sitting on a nearby crate and looking down at them all with quiet interest.

"I have," the creature responded cryptically, her eyes flashing gold in another imitation of the Bad Wolf.

Rose gritted her teeth in annoyance as she forced her gaze back to the three men in front of her. Well, if no one else was going to do anything, then she supposed that she would have to ... She forced her limbs into action as she rounded the big, flower-like red button that stood in the center of the room and placed herself firmly in front of the one remaining opening, standing directly across from the Doctor in leather, and in between the two different versions of her husband.

"What are you doing?" her current Doctor asked in concern, but Rose silenced his words as she quickly filled their bond with the overwhelming amount of love and trust that was currently filling up her chest and making it hard for her to breathe. For once, neither of the other Doctors complained about their telepathic communication as all three of them sighed and let the tense lines of their shoulders relax slightly.

However, the small moment of relief was quickly put to an end as the Bad Wolf-woman instantly turned their surroundings into a waking nightmare - showing them the cities of Gallifrey burning and the families screaming in fear as war raged through the skies around them. By the time that her vision had come to an end, all four of them could feel a grim, stubborn determination settling across the tense atmosphere of the barn.

"You're not actually suggesting that we change our own, personal history?" the Doctor in pinstripes asked in disbelief as he furrowed his brow at his future self.

"We change history all the time," the Doctor in the bowtie reminded him flippantly. "I'm suggesting far worse."

As realization slowly began to dawn on each of them one at a time, the Doctor in leather threw up his hands in excitement as he exclaimed cryptically, "She didn't show me any old future, she showed me exactly the future I needed to see!"

"Eh?" the Doctor in the bowtie asked in confusion. "Who did?"

"Oh, Bad Wolf girl, I could kiss you!" the youngest Doctor continued loudly, ignoring the way that the other two Doctors instantly paled and turned to stare at him with wide, shocked eyes.

"Yeah, that's gonna happen," the blonde girl atop the crate replied gleefully.

"Oi!" Rose hissed under her breath, flashing a glare in the other woman's direction. "Spoilers!"

But Rose had to admit that it was worth it, just to see the wide-eyed looks that the two older versions of the Doctor were currently casting at their younger self. Timelines were funny, sometimes, and Rose found that she quite enjoyed being on the right side of them for once.

[esonetwork]

Timestamp #166: Dalek

New Post has been published on https://esopodcast.com/timestamp-166-dalek/

Timestamp #166: Dalek

Doctor Who: Dalek (1 episode, s01e06, 2005)

  Spoiler: This is one of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who, and the context of the Timestamps Project has only made it better.

The TARDIS materializes in a dark room filled with displays after following a strange distress signal. As the lights come up, the Doctor recognizes the space as an alien museum. He and Rose spot moon dust, asteroid fragments, a Raxacoricofallapatorian arm, and the head of a Mondasian Cyberman, but after the Doctor touches a display case an alarm sounds and the travelers are surrounded by armed guards.

A helicopter arrives – callsign Bad Wolf One – and delivers Henry van Statten, the owner of the collection. He’s a power-hungry billionaire who flaunts his influence and easily disposes of employees who disagree with him. He looks over some new acquisitions with assistant Adam Mitchell and learns from the Doctor how to operate one of the more delicate artifacts before casually tossing it aside.

He’s a frustrating pain in the ass.

Van Statten invites the Doctor to see the one living specimen in the collection, a creature dubbed Metaltron. The billionaire has been torturing the creature in order to make it speak, but so far it has remained silent. The Doctor enters the vault and introduces himself, but is shocked when the creature repeats the name in a familiar voice.

Metaltron is a Dalek.

The Dalek tries to exterminate the Doctor, forcing the Time Lord to run for the sealed door, but the gun stalk does not work. Surprised, the Doctor turns hostile and confronts the Dalek. In turn, the Dalek asks for orders. The Doctor tells it that orders are not coming and that all of the Daleks are dead. The Doctor killed them all, along with the Time Lords, in the mutually assured destruction of the Great Time War.

As the last of their respective species, the Dalek concludes that they are the same. The Doctor hesitates for a moment but finally agrees and attempts to destroy the Dalek. He is removed from the room and escorted to an upper level by van Statten and Diana Goddard. The trip is filled with discussion of how the Dalek fell through time to Earth and was eventually retrieved by van Statten. The billionaire takes the Doctor to an examination room and forcibly scans the Time Lord, all the while gloating over his accomplishments due to alien technology. The Doctor pleads with van Statten for his release, but it does not come.

Elsewhere, Adam shows Rose his collection of artifacts. After some discussion on the nature of the universe and a little flirting, they turn on the cameras and watch as the Dalek is tortured. Rose and Adam rush to stop them, eventually interviewing the Dalek. It tells Rose that it is in pain, prompting Rose to reach out and touch the armor casing in sympathy. The Dalek absorbs part of her DNA and powers up, breaks free of its chains, and kills a tech with its sucker arm.

As the alarm sounds, van Statten releases the Doctor, but they are too late to stop the Dalek from breaking free of the vault. It recharges from the base’s power grid, downloads the internet, and regenerates its armor. It rampages through the base and slaughters the soldiers. All the while, van Statten worries about keeping the Dalek in pristine condition.

The Doctor and Goddard plan a method to stop it as Rose and Adam run up a flight of stairs to escape. Unfortunately, Daleks have learned how to navigate stairs by flying. This was impressive when I first saw this episode in 2008, but after having seen Remembrance of the Daleks, it became a fantastic callback.

Rose and Adam continue to run while the Doctor opens van Statten’s eyes to the horror they have released: The Dalek will cleanse the planet because no other being is pure enough to survive. Rose and Adam find safety behind more soldiers. The Dalek arrives, looks straight at Rose, and then exterminates the entire squad using the fire sprinklers to conduct shots like electricity from the gun stalk. The Doctor, van Statten, and Goddard watch in alarm before planning an escape route. The Dalek addresses the Doctor directly, explaining how the DNA of a time traveler regenerated it and lamenting the inability to receive commands. Without commands, it defaults to base programming: Exterminate everything. The Dalek and the Doctor go back and forth, igniting the Doctor’s fury, but the Time Lord is knocked back on his heels by the Dalek’s response: “You would make a good Dalek.”

Yes, this shell-shocked Doctor certainly would.

Adam and Rose run for safety, but van Statten is forced to seal the vault before Rose can escape. It’s just her and the Dalek alone, and the Dalek supposedly kills Rose. Fortunately for her, the Dalek cannot because it feels her fear through the DNA link, and the logical conflict is driving it insane.

Believing that Rose is dead, the Doctor directs his fury at van Statten. The Doctor promised to protect her, and now he has failed. When Adam arrives, the Dalek addresses the Doctor, reveals the deceit, and demands to be freed lest it truly kill her. The Doctor relents and raises the blast door before looking for a weapon to fight with.

The Dalek and Rose take the elevator to van Statten’s office. The Dalek confronts the billionaire over the torture sessions and nearly kills him, but Rose stops extermination in exchange for the Dalek’s freedom. She walks it toward the exit, but it unexpectedly stops and blasts a hole in the ceiling. Channeling the human DNA coursing through its body, it stands in the resulting beam of light and opens its shell exposing the organic Dalek to the sun. The Doctor arrives with a large gun, but Rose stands between the two mortal enemies as a bridge of peace.

She talks the Doctor down, forcing both of them to face their mortality. Both of them have started down a road of healing by contact with Rose, but the Dalek cannot accept what it is becoming because of the impurity. The drive of being a Dalek is just too strong, and it asks her to order its destruction. At first Rose refuses, but after the Dalek pleads with her for merciful relief she relents. The Dalek rises, generates a force field around itself, and self-destructs.

The last of the Daleks is dead.

In the aftermath, Goddard has van Statten taken away and mind-wiped. The Doctor and Rose head back to the TARDIS, and while Rose offers a bit of hope – if the Dalek survived, maybe another Time Lord did as well – Adam arrives looking for a way out. Rose asks if he can join them, and the Doctor tells her that Adam is her responsibility.

The three of them board the TARDIS and head off to the next adventure.

  This entire season so far has been centered on a damaged Doctor. We have seen clues along the way, including haunted sadness, anger, and even deflection, but this is where his actions come to roost. The beauty of this episode, and the big reason why it is one of my favorites, is because it takes our hero through the paces: The Doctor’s anger pushes him back into darkness before pulling him back to face who he has become. He has to diagnose his injuries before he can allow them to heal.

The bridge between these stalemated warriors is Rose. Her compassion is something that the Dalek doesn’t have and the Doctor has forgotten how to use. The awakening forces both warriors to effectively lay down their arms, even to the point of humbling the Time Lord with the power of the people he has traveled for most of his lives.

The parallels with veterans, post-traumatic stress disorder, and the horrors of war are powerful. The arc of redemption compounds that power, and the representation that anyone can be the catalyst of that change, even a nineteen-year old department store employee, makes it that much more special.

  Rating: 5/5 – “Fantastic!”

  UP NEXT – Doctor Who: The Long Game

  The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

[doctor-mysterio-21]

Doctor Who: Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways...

I want to start reviewing my favourite Doctor Who stories so I’m starting off with series 1, episodes 12-13...(2005)

Last night I ended my night by watching Christopher Eccleston’s last story so I’m just gonna share my thoughts on here... Bad Wolf: It started off great with a comedic introduction of futuristic television shows, my favourite being ‘the Weakest Link’ with the Anne Droid, and let’s not Captain Jack flirting with the robotic ladies, Trin-E and Zu-Zana... Jack: am I naked in front of millions of viewers? Robots: absolutely! Jack: Ladies...you’re viewing figures just went up. ...Then I love how chill the Doctor is about that woman being evicted then he’s like...what the fuck..when she’s blasted...then he’s furious and then he deliberately gets himself evicted and escapes taking Lynda with a Y with him only to realise he’s on Satellite 5 (previously seen in ‘The Long Game’  My overall favourite scene in Part 1 is when the Doctor, Jack and Lynda are locked up and sentenced without trial...then the Doctor just decides to beat the shit out of the guards...which you don’t see a lot of these days...this was done also in the classic series for example, the fourth Doctor did a lot of beating up in ‘The Seeds of Doom’ (1976)...anyways...he enters the lift armed...and the male programmer’s like... ‘He’s on his way up here!’ *other programmers do nothing* ‘...with a gun!’ *other programmers actually get off their arses*  ...The final bit I love about part 1 was of course the Dalek reveal...because I first watched this story when it was first broadcast and I was excited as heck to see the Daleks...which you don’t really feel anymore since they appear like...every year...which I understand is because of some..copyright issues to Terry Nation (the man who invented the Daleks)...I love how the Daleks threaten the Doctor with the death of his companion (who I’ll speak more about during part 2) and he’s just like...nope...and everyone looks at him like...shit man are you crazy?! then he tells the Daleks what’s what and everyone’s like..fuck shit’s heating up here... ...Part one was a brilliant build up to Eccleston’s last story, it had comedy, action, and an epic Dalek reveal at the end which showed us the Doctor’s true hatred for the creatures...Christopher Eccleston’s acting here is amazing as he portrays someone who has been tormented by these creatures who have destroyed everything for him and he lashes out, determined to rid the universe of these creatures...he portrays the character so well when it comes to hating the Daleks..(as previously seen in ‘Dalek’ 2005)...

The Parting of the Ways: After a week of intensifying trailers (referring to the days of 2005)...we finally see the epic conclusion to Nine’s final story as the Daleks grow in numbers and face the programmers of Satellite 5 in epic combat scenes... ...the quick rescue of Rose Tyler was well written, having the Tardis materialise around her and of course a Dalek to create a moment of danger...then comes the epic confrontation between the Doctor and the Dalek Emperor...I love the idea of how the Daleks see the emperor as a god as he ‘reached into the dirt and made new life’...turning humans (blasted television contestants) into Dalek creatures housed in a Dalek tank machine...leading to the Daleks hating their own existence given they’re half human, making them deadlier than ever... ...We then come to one of my favourite scenes when the Doctor realises he can defeat the Daleks with a ‘Delta-wave’...Rose is about to tell the Doctor to get to it but Lynda beats her to it and has now become my favourite character...  ...eventually the Doctor realises the Delta-Wave can’t be done in time...so he considers Rose’s safety and sends her home (thank god...I’ll tell you why soon)...Then the Dalek Emperor reveals that the Delta-wave would destroy not only Daleks..but Humans also as the wave covers the entire Earth...I like that idea as it gives the Doctor a difficult choice, die as a Human or live as Dalek...

..oh before I forget...let’s just appreciate this hilarious chat between Jackie and Mickey...trying to take Rose’s mind off the Doctor... Mickey: Have you tried that new pizza place? Down by Minto Road. Jackie: What’s it selling? Mickey: Pizza. ... ... ...what else?!? ...now...the thing about Rose is...in my opinion...she’s a bitch, she’s rude and selfish...for starters in the first episode (’Rose’ 2005)...she literally makes Mickey feel like nothing and making him feel like he wasn’t good enough for her... *Extract from ‘Rose’* Rose: thanks Mickey: for what? Rose: exactly... ... what a bitch... ...anyways...this episode pretty much does the same thing to Mickey...she literally says ‘there’s nothing left for me here’ ...to which Mickey says... ‘nothing?’..to which Rose looks at him and says no...hurting him deep...and she knows it...I like to think from that moment on, all Mickey wants to do is get this rude bitch off his planet... ...oh I almost forgot...the epic scene in which the Dalek ships arrive above earth and hordes of Daleks exit their ships and fly in formations in space...I LOVE THAT SCENE SO MUCH!!! Just hundreds and hundreds of Daleks in space...oh my god!! Then they board Satellite 5 and have epic fight scenes with the programmers...and  a Dalek loses it’s vision and goes crazy...’My viSioN iS imPARED I canNOT seE!!’  ...okay back to Rose...she has now upset Jackie..her own mum...by going on about Pete (Rose’s dad, Jackie’s late husband)..so a few minutes later...Jackie’s like...fuck this shit she’s out of here...and brings Rose a truck to get the Tardis to work again...her way of saying...I don’t want you here no more... ...okay nearly done now...this is my first review so..bare with me... The Doctor has 20 seconds maximum before the Daleks reach floor 500...where he’s based his Delta-wave weapon...Jack is cornered by three Daleks and fights them off the best he can, only to be exterminated as the Daleks move on to floor 500 and surround the Doctor for a final confrontation...the Doctor is determined to activate the weapon...but he can’t kill anything that is not a Dalek...therefore he cannot use the Delta-wave..and is ready to die...BUT...Mickey and Jackie’s plan worked as they had gotten rid of Rose and returned her to the Doctor where she has absorbed the time vortex and reduces the Daleks to nothing and brings Jack back to life...the origin story to his immortality...then..finally...after one..cringy moment of the Doctor kissing Rose... ‘I think you need a doctor’... *cringes*...oh dear.. ...the Doctor is forced to regenerate cos SOMEBODY...absorbed the time vortex... ...Okay so in conclusion...this was a great story..it had a plot...it was an outer space adventure which I love in Doctor Who...it had Daleks...it had DALEKS IN SPACE!!! and it had brilliant acting from Christopher Eccleston before his unfortunate departure... ...and as you may have guessed here, I am not a big fan of Rose...and I think she gets more praise and attention than she deserves really...like..since she met the Doctor she kinda treated everyone else like shit...like they don’t matter...I just think she was selfish...that is my opinion, I don’t care if people disagree you can’t convince me otherwise...

[stargazer1682]

Who Theory - Meta-Crisis Doctor

Rose and the human Meta-Crisis Doctor live peacefully on their alternate Earth.  Rose helps calm the more volatile impulses in this version of the Doctor.  They marry, of course, and there’s almost an immediate talk about starting a family.  Jackie is ambivalent; on the one hand she wants loads of grandbabies, but on the other hand she insists on being too young to be a grandmother yet. 

Rose and the MC Doctor spend the next several years trying to have a child, but for a while it doesn’t seem to be in the cards, and there’s some mild strain on their relationship as a result, but they’re happy together.  Then, finally, Rose becomes pregnant.  Not only that, their doctor delivers wonderful news; they’re going to have twins!  

The day arrives and Rose goes into labor.  All seems well at first, but then Rose starts to become flushed; she’s running a fever and the hospital staff are also worried the babies may be in distress. The fetal heart rates are through the roof, so they rush Rose in for an emergency c-section.

As they wheel her in, her surgeon asks what her last sonogram showed, but she hadn’t had one.  The MC Doctor had kept pressing Rose to go in for her sonogram – they had gone in to hear the heart beats, but never got around to an extended follow-up.  There just always seemed to be a crisis happening at Torchwood that required Rose’s attention; and because he refused to let anything happen to Rose or the babies during those emergencies, they required his attention as well, and they just never found the time.

In the operating room, the doctors setup the machine to take a look inside, but it’s troubling; they can hear both heart beats, but they can only find one fetus.   The MC Doctor’s eyes widen. “That’s impossible….” he says.

The surgeon states that the chord is wrapped around the baby’s neck, and that they need to get it out now or it could die; they’ll sort the rest out later.  Rose begins to panic, her husband does what he can to comfort her, but he’s distracted as he also tries to explain to the medical staff that there’s something else going on with their child, something they won’t understand.  They try to assure him that both babies will be fine, to which he flatly says that there aren’t two babies, there’s only one, with two heart beats.

“I don’t understand,” Rose says, “how is that possible?”

The Meta Crisis Doctor speculates that there must be residual traces of his time lord DNA still in him; and that he passed that on to their child, but that’s a problem, because the compatibility between human DNA and Gallifreyan DNA has only ever been hypothetical at best.  It’s never been a given to occur safely, even with advanced medical technology to correct irregularities; and there’s no telling what a fragmented contribution of Gallifreyan DNA would produce.  And even as he’s trying to explain all this and work out what might be happening or what to do, that’s when he hears it, over the vital display monitor; the sound of three hearts beating – Rose, and their unborn child; and they’re get slower.

Time seems to move at a stand still, and yet there’s still not enough time for the MC Doctor to react; when the unmistakable glow of regeneration energy begins to emanate from Rose’s womb.  Hopeless fear grips the MC Doctor, as he knows that such a reaction in such a young time lord would be dangerous under the best of conditions, but under these circumstances, he can only imagine what’s coming next.  The child lacks the biological ability to control the explosive nature of the regeneration process, and rather than save its life, it’s consumed by the energy, as it expands out; engulfing its mother and the medical staff trying to save it.  The MC Doctor is swept up in the expansion of energy too; and even as he hopes to join Rose on whatever journey now lies before her and their child beyond this world, he knows he won’t be that lucky.  The same trace time lord physiology that lead to this disaster absorbs the regeneration energy, and the MC Doctor walks away unscathed – at least physically.

His mind is shattered by this loss.  There’s just one thing left for him to do now; to go home.  Not to the Gallifrey of this universe, that isn’t home, but rather back to the universe he came from; back to where he feels he belongs, and to the birthright he believes he was robbed of.  After all, why wasn’t he The Doctor?  Why couldn’t he be flying through time in *his* Tardis?  All because he only has one heart beat?  All the good having two hearts did for his child, or for Rose.  And clearly he still had the capacity to be a time lord, and he felt that even more strongly when he was awash in the regeneration energy; he just needs a stronger jolt, like a set of regenerations, and he would assuredly be equal to the man who claimed the title as the unequivocal Doctor.

He was just as much the Doctor as the other one was.  He remembers all the past versions of himself.  For that matter, he remembers how they all died, and how long each of them had lived; and that this one, this pathetic copy he saw every time he looked in the mirror, couldn’t even go a day without losing a hand to some alien menace.  Within a couple of measly Earth years, he gets hit by a Dalek disruptor pulse.  900+ years, roughly a dozen faces, and this one couldn’t see a Dalek coming around the corner?  And when he does get back to his proper universe, he finds out that “10” drops dead just a couple of years after that encounter.  Knowing full well how close he was to the end of his regeneration cycle, he acts recklessly; wasting one of his few remaining regenerations just to keep that face; creating a waste byproduct duplicate in the process.  Then he goes and squanders a second regeneration, all in the span of less than a decade, bringing him to his final regeneration, at least as far as the MC Doctor knew

But things are clear once the MC Doctor returns to his proper universe; his perspective comes into sharp focus.  He is a proper version of the Doctor, he has that claim; he is a version of the Doctor that was created between the 12th and 13th regeneration, and so he embraces the destiny he now realizes was always in front of him, and with it, a new name, an old name, a name from his past and is his undeniable future – he is the Valeyard.

[esonetwork]

Timestamp Special #11: Shada (Eighth Doctor)

New Post has been published on https://esopodcast.com/timestamp-special-11-shada-eighth-doctor/

Timestamp Special #11: Shada (Eighth Doctor)

Doctor Who: Shada (Eighth Doctor) (6 episodes, 2003)

  A new look on a once unfinished classic.

The story opens on Gallifrey with the Eighth Doctor paying a visit to Romana and K9. Romana has been elected Lord President and has not regenerated since taking her second incarnation, and the Doctor has intentionally breached the transduction barriers to steal his former companion away for an adventure from their past. He talks of their travels together four of his regenerations ago – collecting the Key to Time, defacing da Vinci’s artwork, and punting on the River Cam – and Romana mentions their bout in stasis during their trip to Cambridge. It seems that neither Romana nor K9 remember the visit to Professor Chronotis, and together they believe that they landed in Cambridge, sailed the river, were put in stasis, and then immediately set course for Brighton.

It was only because of a vision… a dream… that the Doctor even thought of this point in his history, and now he wants answers.

Across the universe, the Institute for Advanced Scientific Studies drifts through space under quarantine. The station has suffered an accident, and scientists Skagra and Caldera discuss the situation and a familiar sphere. Skagra demonstrates the sphere’s ability to consume minds, much to Caldera’s horror.

On Earth, Chris Parsons visits Professor Chronotis (who is housing the TARDIS in his office) to borrow books on carbon dating. Parsons picks up a book with mysterious writing, gathers the carbon dating references, and departs in a hurry. Chris travels to his lab to meet a woman named Claire, and when he analyzes it, he calls Claire right away to seek her advice.

Elsewhere, the Doctor and Romana wander the university’s grounds on their way to the professor’s office. Romana hears a babbling of voices as Skagra and his sphere lurk in the shadows. They also meet Mr. Wilkin, who still remembers the Doctor and the honorary degree in 1960. Wilkin remembers the Doctor’s three visits (1964, 1960, and 1955), but has no recollection of the fourth visit thanks to the events of The Five Doctors. The Time Lords arrive in Chronotis’s office, and this time it is no surprise that the professor is also a Time Lord. The Doctor tells the professor that they came at his summons, but the professor says that he didn’t send the signal. After a little prodding, the professor remembers that he summoned the Time Lords to help find the missing book.

Skagra, having spoken to Wilkin, follows his previous actions: He hitches a ride with a stranger (in a Ford Prefect in honor of Shada writer Douglas Adams), assaults the stranger with the sphere, and steals the car. The event echoes to our Time Lord trio as they hear voices.

The professor explains that the missing book is The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey, dating from the era of Rassilon. The Doctor is beside himself: The book is one of the powerful artifacts, and the professor stole it from the Panopticon Archives upon his retirement. As Time Lords past and present continue to search the professor’s library, Skagra absorbs massive amounts of data about the Doctor, continuing the same path as before.

Skagra’s ship is beautiful in this incarnation, and he’s not wearing the sun hat and flowing silver cape from 1979-80 which is a plus. Also, despite it being pompous, I did like the expanded mythology of the Time Lord Academy and their induction oath: “I swear to protect the ancient Law of Gallifrey with all my might and brain. I will to the end of my days, with justice and with honor, temper my actions and my thoughts.”

Carrying on, the Doctor and Romana briefly discuss Salyavin, a Gallifreyan criminal and one of the Doctor’s heroes. When the Doctor asks Chronotis about Salyavin, the professor scrounges up Chris Parsons’s identity from his spotty memory. The Doctor goes to find Parsons while Romana stays with the professor.

In the laboratory, Claire (who no longer resembles Sarah Jane like she did in the original Shada) and Chris are analyzing the book. As they puzzle over it, Skagra returns to Cambridge and pesters Wilkin for directions to the professor’s office. The professor runs out of milk (after brewing his tenth pot of tea), and as Romana looks in the TARDIS for some, Skagra arrives in contemporary clothes and demands the book. When Chronotis refuses to yield, Skagra’s sphere attacks.

Chris returns to the professor’s office as Romana and K9 (after a brief discussion of milk in the console room) examine Chronotis. The professor has had part of his mind extracted, resulting in severe mental trauma. Romana sends Chris into the TARDIS for a medical kit while she tends to the professor, placing him on life support with the kit Chris retrieves.

After the Doctor arrives at the lab, he and Claire analyze the book and determine that it is 20,000 years old. Meanwhile, in his ship, Skagra analyzes the professor’s mental data. After it doesn’t pan out, he pursues the Doctor. In office, K9 and Romana tend to the professor. Sadly, he is in a vegetative state, but he does send a message in Gallifreyan morse code (via his heartsbeat) warning them of the spheres, Skagra, and Shada before dying.

Skagra intercepts the Doctor and the book. The Doctor is pursued through Cambridge by the sphere, losing the book in the chase. Skagra retrieves the book, but the Doctor is captured by the sphere and it starts to drain his mind. This version of the chase loses the situational humor and impact of the original version, which is just as well given the limited visual effects of the animation.

Romana arrives in the TARDIS and rescues the Doctor. They return to the professor’s offices just after the retired Time Lord disappears – no regeneration or anything, which makes the Doctor think that Chronotis was on his last life – and the Doctor vows vengeance. K9 scans for the sphere as the Time Lords and Chris wait in the TARDIS.

Claire heads to the professor’s offices with a printout just as the TARDIS dematerializes in pursuit of the sphere. The capsule arrives in the field where Skagra’s ship is located – K9 is displeased about navigating the pasture – and Skagra welcomes the group aboard before taking them prisoner. Skagra reveals that he was only interested in the professor’s mind, not his life, and he demands that the Doctor decode the book. When the Doctor stalls and delays, the sphere attacks him. In their cell, Romana, K9, and Chris look for a way out. They can find nothing, and K9 cannot blast out. The robotic dog does detect the voices, including a new addition in the Doctor’s voice. Romana is transmatted from the cell and forced by Skagra to pilot the TARDIS.

Claire, in search of the professor, finds Wilkin and explains that the book is absorbing energy. She returns to the office while Wilkin looks for Chronotis, and as she looks about, she inadvertently sets off an explosion that results in a time vortex filling the space.

The Doctor awakens on the ship and reveals to the vessel’s computer that since he was playing dumb, the sphere only copied his mind. He convinces the ship that he is dead to secure freedom for him and his companions, and it replies by shutting off the air supply.  When Chris and K9 are transmatted into the corridor, the ship promptly restores life support. Just as it was in the original, this moment was a cheap cliffhanger.

Following the original story closely, the TARDIS travels and Skagra reveals that he is after the criminal Salyavin. Thus, he needs Time Lord technology to find him. They materialize on the Krarg carrier ship, and Romana discovers that only a Time Lord can decipher the book. Back on Earth, the Doctor pilots Skagra’s ship into space, setting the course for Think Tank, and it dematerializes just like a TARDIS as he boosts the power. There’s also a Krarg on the ship.

Claire awakens inside the professor’s office to discover Professor Chronotis. The office is a TARDIS, Claire has activated it, and the capsule restored him in the accidental temporal convergence. Oh, and the book… yeah, the book is revealed to be the key to Shada, a Time Lord prison.

Back on the carrier, Skagra plows through the Doctor’s memories but is unable to crack the code. As the Doctor’s ship arrives at the Think Tank, he and Chris board the ship while K9 holds the Krarg at bay. On the carrier, Skagra and Romana retreat to the Doctor’s TARDIS. As Skagra turns the pages and continues his study, the TARDIS operates, and he deduces that turning the last page will unlock the code.

The Doctor and Chris discover the aged members of the Think Tank, and the Doctor connects Chris to the machine. This restores the Think Tank members, and the lead scientist, Caldera, explains the group’s history with Skagra. The evil scientist intends to use his intellect to dominate humanity by merging everything into himself, but needs Salyavin to do so. The Doctor is interrupted by K9, who has no choice but to release the Krarg, and the crystalline creature attacks the group. In the process it destroys the central computer column. In the smoke, the Doctor, K9, and Chris escape to Skagra’s ship and escape just in time. Sadly, the Think Tank members die as their ship explodes. The Doctor feels guilty, but K9 assuages him by reporting that only the Doctor and Chris were still alive when the Krarg attacked.

The professor’s TARDIS is wedged between two irrational time interfaces, and Chronotis and Claire attempt to fix the capsule (with a sonic screwdriver!). The retired Time Lord telepathically focuses on Claire’s mind and transfers his knowledge into her. Meanwhile, Skagra’s ship arrives at the carrier, and in the attempt to rescue Romana, the Doctor, Chris, and K9 end up inside the professor’s newly repaired TARDIS. While everyone catches up, Skagra pilots the Doctor’s TARDIS to Shada using the book and start searching for Salyavin. The Doctor and Chronotis soon follow in the professor’s TARDIS, and when they arrive, they leave Chris and Claire in the time capsule while they search for Skagra.

Skagra starts the revival process in the prison, but Salyavin’s not there. The other two Time Lords arrive and Chronotis reveals that he is Salyavin. Chris and Claire come to the same conclusion and leave the TARDIS to confront him.

Skagra drains Salyavin’s mind, and not even K9 can slow it down. The sphere deposits fragments of all the minds it holds into the Krarg army, starting Skagra’s plan of the universal mind. The sphere attacks Chris and adds him to the collective. K9 builds a wall of ricocheting laser blasts, and the Doctor uses the distraction to escort Romana, Claire, and K9 to the professor’s TARDIS. As the Doctor attempts to find a solution, Romana reminds him that all of the captured minds are in the melting pot, including the Doctor’s.

Romana is wearing a TARDIS key around her neck like a choker. How interesting.

Skagra takes his legion to the Doctor’s TARDIS, preparing to dispatch them throughout the universe. The Doctor, Romana, and Claire use the professor’s TARDIS to generate a force field as they pursue Skagra, capturing the phone box in the time vortex. The Doctor attempts to pass across to his TARDIS, but the force field fades, threatening to toss the Doctor into the vortex. The professor’s TARDIS ends up a shambles, but the Doctor is dumped into his workshop. He formulates a plan, including a helmet with familiar markings and the Second Doctor‘s hat.

Both TARDISes arrive on the carrier ship as the Doctor struggles for control of the joint mind. The Krargs self-destruct, restoring Chris’s mind, and Romana teams with K9 to destroy the Krarg generators. Seeing that he has lost, Skagra retreats to his ship, but the computer incarcerates him after deciding to serve the Doctor. The heroes travel to Shada and restore Salyavin’s mind to his body. The Doctor tries to decide Salyavin’s fate, deducing that Salyavin covered his escape by erasing the memory of Shada from the collective Time Lord memory, including stealing the key. Romana uses her executive authority to sentence Salyavin to Earth, acting once again as Professor Chronotis.

The TARDISes return to Earth. The return of the professor’s offices stumps Wilkin, who has summoned a policeman to report the “stolen room,” as the professor entertains his guests to tea. The Doctor and Romana depart, stymieing the policeman as the TARDIS dematerializes.

  My feelings on Shada in its entirety are complicated. When I first covered the story, I gave it a solid four out of five rating, calling it an enjoyable romp. Even here, the story remains solid, and it is only amplified  by including Paul McGann, bringing back K9, and advancing the story of Romana following her last appearance in E-Space. Romana’s story is even more special as she has finally surpassed her mentor in nearly every way.

But, while it’s entirely possible to do so, I have a hard time acknowledging it as part of the continuity. I would love to, but this makes the story of Shada so much more complicated than it needs to be. I mean, look at it on the real world timeline:

1979-80 – Shada is intended to serve as the Season 17 finale, but a production strike stops the completion of the story.

1983 – The Five Doctors premieres, in which each incarnation of the Doctor is pulled from (and replaced within) their respective timelines except the Fourth Doctor because Tom Baker didn’t want to participate. Using footage from the unfinished Shada, the Fourth Doctor and Romana are removed from the story during the river punting scene.

1992 – Shada premieres, completed with narration by Tom Baker (sort of in character) over the missing segments. A reasonable viewer could conclude that the events of Shada took place regardless of The Five Doctors: The Doctor and Romana arrived in Cambridge, got abducted by President Borusa, were returned, and then completed the Skagra/Salyavin mission without a hitch.

2003 – This version of Shada premieres. It acknowledges that the Fourth Doctor and Romana arrived in Cambridge, but after their abduction by Borusa, they immediately left Cambridge for Brighton. Presumably, since Skagra couldn’t get access to the Time Lords – assuming that he didn’t have the fortitude to invade Gallifrey and none of the other traveling Time Lords in Doctor Who mythology were available to be brain-sucked by the sphere – the ability to open Shada was lost and the threat was stopped. But, the Eighth Doctor found the hole in his memories and responded to the (what seems to be a fixed constant) call from Chronotis/Salyavin to find the Shada key and stop Skagra, so that means that the threat is still serious enough.

So, why not just stick with the assumption from 1992, especially considering that Shada was finally completed with animation in 2017?

To me, that makes this version an alternate telling of events.

The highlights were having more Paul McGann and furthering the Romana/K9 story. I was a bit put off by the animation and its limits, particularly in the chase sequences and some of the narrative shortcuts that were more powerful visual sequences in the original. Overall, though, it’s still a good tale.

  With this post – excluding future revisits to Power of the Daleks, The Enemy of the World, The Web of Fear, and Shada thanks to their recovery and reconstruction – the Timestamps Project has covered the entirety of the classic era of Doctor Who. This leg of the journey has taken approximately four and a half years to complete, but the adventure is far from over.

It’s time to revisit the modern era with the understanding of the classic era in my mind.

  Rating: 4/5 – “Would you care for a jelly baby?”

    UP NEXT – Doctor Who: Rose

  The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.