#rtd can fuck off with that

[secretagentsagainstwhatever]

Minor Doctor who spoilers i guess but not really

did Space babies give anyone else The beast below vibes??

[donttouchtheneednoggle]

this just in: uplifting people just by virtue of their assigned gender at birth in the name of feminism found to be transphobic so now we're just gonna shit on those who CHOOSE to be male presenting bc it's a CHOICE right so we can tell them they're inherently inferior right guys??!!

bioessentialism found to be transphobic so we're jumping straight into gender essentialism which is totally cool as long as it's pretending to be feminism!!!!

[laniidae-passerine]

I’m finding that the laziest moments of Doctor Who’s writing are the ‘retroactive twists’ - when the show runner reveals something happened way back over there, in the past, before they were even running the show. And we swear it happened, way over there, far back, and you didn’t see it because of reasons but it’s definitely been happening! And it totally makes sense and I absolutely didn’t just pull it out my ass to justify my paper thin plotline! All this kind of writing does is make me miss self contained season length plots. We’ve had people complaining that Moffat was guilty of the “this thing is big and scary and it’s going to happen, oh god it’s showing up, we’re going to discover what it truly is….. next season!!!!!!” plotline (and yes. he was. twelve is my fav doctor but yeah Moffat loved a mysterious horse and a big stick) but now suddenly when RTD gets out his own mysterious horse and a big stick, it’s got to be genius! everything is eventually going to make sense! and we’re absolutely not being had by a man who used to be able to write this show and is now a hack!

[velichorus-k]

JOURNEY'S END WHAT. WHAT. WHAT WAS THAT. FUCK OFF

[phyrexian-lesbian]

day whothefuckknows of wanting the doctorverse being scrapped as a headcanon.

[mwagneto]

finished rewatching rtd era. literally took me uhm. two and a half months. in fucking shambles rn

[buildoblivion]

listen ik we’re all entitled to have opinions about classic who but if one more modern production member talks shit about the 80s run I’m gonna have to chew glass

[wild-at-mind]

I liked that post about people neglecting the Doctor Who part of Superwholock when it comes to gay representation, but then tumblr kept showing me a tonne of additions of people going on about fucking Moffat era gay relationships and like.......look I hate to break it to you but Moffat fucking sucks. This is opinion obviously and I’m not very good at articulating why I don’t like his work, and I’m hardly the first person to point out that he sucks, but everything* from DW from the (mind numbingly long) era when he was showrunner makes me full body cringe. I react exactly the same way to Sherlock, and also my brain turns off during both, I just can’t follow the intricately bullshit plotting he tries to do, and why would I bother because he never resolves his plotlines.

This is all to say that yes there were canonical gay relationships in the show during the Moffat era but that doesn’t make them good or well written, you know? You don’t have to argue that people are ignoring them because they aren’t m/m or whatever, it’s highly likely to be they are just poorly written characters and poorly written relationships. Moffat is somehow even worse at writing relationships that feel real and genuine than JK Rowling and that is saying something.

For example, I thought Bill Potts had real potential as a great companion and from what I saw the performance was great, but oh my god the horrendous dialogue they had her say, in just the one episode I watched. One of the first things she says in the show is telling an anecdote about how she fancied one of her customers when she was working at the canteen, so would keep giving her extra chips, and then one day this woman comes in and she’s (gasp) gained weight and Bill doesn’t find her hot any more. And Bill says something along the lines of ‘I’d done this, I’d fatted her’. Like, wow. FUCK YOU Moffat. Was that meant to be a cute relatable anecdote? Can you write anything without making it weird?

RTD era Who was genuinely foundational to me as a young teenager for queer representation and I’m hardly the only one who has said this. But I really doubt if Moffat era Who was what I grew up with, I would have said the same for it. I’m not sure anyone would.

*except Vincent and the Doctor because I’m not made of stone. Moffat didn’t write it and I guess the script was good enough that him being the showrunner didn’t ruin it.

[frogmascquerade]

Doctor who spoilers in the tags ! Empire of death

[lucky-clover-gazette]

i don’t think dot and bubble was trying to do both “phone bad” commentary and race commentary. i don’t think it was trying to do “phone bad” commentary at all. the episode wore the veneer of a mediocre black mirror clone to lull the viewer into expecting something predictable and bland—haha they can’t walk without their phones! mid-tier episode but good enough—and then it hits you with the fucking gut punch of that ending, and the Why of the episode falls into place.

i almost wonder if the real “phone bad” commentary has to do with the experiences of people of color in fandom, where they’re having fun with the story and feel a sense of belonging and then boom. they realize that there are racist people and ideas in a situation that previously felt predictable and safe. i’ve heard princess weekes discuss that experience before, and she even made a video essay about martha jones in doctor who. and of course that experience goes far beyond fandom, in much more serious ways, but it’s the technology stuff that made me think of it specifically. and now that i think of it, there are hints dropped about those much more serious ways in the episode—something about a very modern-day-esque police institution existing in this far-off future utopia, and the way lindy called for them, had already rubbed me the wrong way.

maybe this episode was rtd’s attempt to grapple with the ways he failed martha jones and mickey smith in his original run. acknowledging that an adventure can be destroyed in a second, with the realization that everyone else on the adventure sees you as less worthy than your white counterparts. ncuti performs the doctor’s realization and reaction extremely well. i’m glad that this episode exists.

i’m going to rewatch this immediately, i think. please feel free to add your thoughts.

[iceinherheart-kissonherlips]

RTD: yo, Steven, my friend, I am back as DW showrunner, would you like to come back Moffat: nah, I am done RTD: but it will be sponsored by Mickey Mouse Moffat: ... Moffat: okay, so The Doctor will step on a FUCKING LANDMINE, won't be able to move for the entire episode, because if he does, the whole planet will FUCKING BLOW UP. I will need a hole in a ground, five people. The whole theme? How war is evil and pointless, and how big corporations and some even bigger countries profit from war and how they don't care about people; and how capitalism is the driving force of war and suffering, and how faith can be awful and evil if it stops you from thinking for yourself; I will beat the shit out of the fact that when it comes to money, people's lives do not matter and only the money counts, and how the organised religions Are Not That Great and that they often are the cause for suffering and violence and it's been like that for AGES; everything will give off a slight whiff of the US; and there will be an opportunity for a love story, BUT one person will be KILLED by the evil machine that was supposed to heal - just to drive the point home that WAR IS POINTLESS AND EVIL AND STUPID. I will also kill a FATHER OF A SMALL GIRL, BUT in the end the hope and love of a parent will save everyone RTD: I don't- Moffat: oh and I will fucking KILL the companion. It keeps them humble

[the-desolated-quill]

Okay, listen guys. We are NOT going to pull a Sherlock Series 4 and start coming up with bullshit conspiracy theories to convince ourselves that Empire Of Death was secretly good all along. It was shit. End of. The Ruby mystery was a giant nothingburger, Series 14 as a whole was shallow and performative, and RTD would rather disappear up his own arsehole than actually listen to constructive feedback. And even if there were a future episode that would somehow make all of this bullshit make sense, it still would not justify RTD wasting our fucking time.

Oh and as for Mrs Flood, she can fuck off back to Albert Square. Giving us yet another doomsday prophecy this early in the new Doctor’s run is absolutely taking the piss, and I for one could not care less who she is.

We need a new showrunner. And I mean a new showrunner. Not an old showrunner or one of the old showrunner’s mates. A new showrunner with new ideas and a new perspective. Unless something changes behind the scenes, nothing is going to get better. Doctor Who is clearly not working anymore, and if RTD and the BBC refuse to see that, then frankly the show deserves cancellation.

[box-dwelling]

I have made like general joke about this but I really want to put it properly in writing. The reason RTD hits, moffat was hit or miss and Chibnal was so much a miss is because RTD's writing is emotionally coherent. He gets that the emotions are the core here. The sci fi can be whatever it need to be. It doesn't have to make sense logically. It's there to service a narrative and charcaters. And yes that's how DW SHOULD be. This isn't hard sci fi. This is one rung off space wizards. It doesn't have to make sense. It has to be a good story and make me feel shit and by god does RTD do that well. Is Bigenerataion lore consistant? Eh, probably not but who gives a shit. 14/10 got to have his happy ending. He got to have the life he longed so hard for with Rose but got it in a platonic way with his best friend. Donna got her memories back. They are actively acknowledging the emotional weight of what HAPPENED in chibanls run which was so neglected by chibnal himself.

Chibnal was terrible at this and moffat was decent at times when he took his fucking hand out of his pants long enough to write anything reasonable from his female characters. RTD is great at it. And that's all this is

[wwillywonka]

i'll say more in the morning, but as a person of color, the reason i hate the newest doctor who episode is because it deals with racism in the most one-note, surface level, bland way possible. racism is not "haha white person is stupid lol idiot," it is a thousands and thousands of years old, systematic, learned way of thinking that can (newsflash!) even infect bipoc people themselves and therefore cannot be undone by one (white!) writer saying "hey wasn't that fucked up? anyway moving on."

the episode should have centred around the doctor, the literal black character. the episode should have expanded on lindy's character, unraveled her morals as the story went on, instead of giving us an unsurprising "twist" of her selfishness. i am not asking that a racist character be made sympathetic, i am asking that she be well-rounded enough that her actions have real-world ramifications. by making her a stereotype, an exaggeration, viewers have enough room to remove themselves and avoid taking responsibility to learn from the story. "did you know that being addicted to social media makes you unable to see reality?" yes, russell, we know. now what the hell does that actually say about humanity? the only consequence of lindy's selfishness is that ricky, another white kid, is killed off. and what, i'm supposed to care just because he reads? because he's an "ally"?? we don't even see what his own relationship with race is like. we are not given anything to work with or think deeply about. i am begging on bended knee for russell t davies or whoever the fuck is in charge on the doctor who team to hire writers of color, especially and most importantly black writers to write for a doctor played by a black actor. i am seeing posts about how people are criticising the episode because they don't understand it. no. the problem is that we do understand what rtd was trying to do and it failed miserably because he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. "racism bad." we know, russell, we know. now say more.

[time-is-restored]

What Happened At The Church On Ruby Road?

AKA: Why does RTD want us to watch Ruby's first episode with a ruler and protractor?

Alright, so since I read this article excerpt yesterday night I haven't been able to stop thinking about what trick could be hidden in the sequence between the cloaked woman, the doctor, and baby ruby. While I'm not at all claiming to know the answer, I have a few details to point out that might help with further analysis.

First of all: A Continuity Error (On Purpose?)

At the very beginning of TCORR, when the doctor's giving his 'once upon a time,' speech, we see the TARDIS materialise + the doctor appear, looking in the direction of the cloaked woman, looking distraught. Disney+ is evil so I can't get an accurate screenshot, so take this scuffed photo instead, taken from 1:03. You can see a tear rolling down his cheek (little white dot on the left of his face, in line w this nose).

Later in the episode, when the doctor materialises in the scene for the first time, there is no tear. It's a marginally different shot in several ways, but that's the most noticable to me - screenshot taken from 42:59.

By itself, this is totally negligible. But I think when taken with the opening monologue (which heavily implies that the doctor finds out the cloaked woman's identity - "As for the mother, she was never seen again. No one ever knew her name, until that night a time traveller came to call. A traveller known as the Doctor."), there is possible evidence here that the doctor came to this moment twice. Once in the sequence of events as we see them, rescuing Ruby from the goblins, and once where... something else happened.

Second: The Layout of The Church

We get a few aerial shots of the church when the camera is showing the ascent of the ship, and a lovely wide shot as the doctor decides to not follow the cloaked woman (taken from 46:28 and 44:07).

The most important thing I want to point out is the way the hedge path curves to the right in the direction the doctor and the cloaked lady are facing. You can only really see it in that one shot (so I hope it's not a lens effect!). The aerial shot helps clarify that nothing is obstructing either of the character's view of the church.

We can also see that in this iteration of their encounter, the cloaked woman is standing a little bit to the right of the doctor (thanks to the curved path).

Third: The Timing

The only real indication of how much real time is passing in each scene is the clock striking midnight. So, when does that happen?

In the opening sequence, the clock strikes midnight after the man from the church has found Ruby and picked her up. We then see the woman relatively far down the road that we can see in that above screenshot, and THEN we see the TARDIS apparate and the Doctor appear.

In the goblin sequence, the woman is already far down the road well before it hits midnight, as the doctor sees her walking away before he runs to save baby ruby. Obviously time moves slower than usual in TV actions scenes, but that's not all - we see the clock strike midnight before the man from the church picks Ruby up.

Furthermore, the woman has... barely moved at all in those few minutes. Screenshots from 43:00 and then 46:45.

Okay, that should be all the relevant information from TCORR. Now to get to that point!

Fourth: The Point

This is where things go off the fucking rails. Here's our orienting shots for the Point.

Just to compare the positions of the doctor's shot here, here's the last shot we have of him looking at the lady in TCORR:

While this could just be a fancy camera angle, I think the Doctor is standing more to (his) left of the TARDIS than in this above shot. AKA: he's standing more to the left than she is. That emphasises that, if the woman was to be pointing at him when she turns around, she should be pointing to her right.

But I don't think she is -- especially in that wide shot, her arm looks like it's going wide. It's going more to the left than it should be. If RTD hadn't explicitly said the 'who's pointing at who' was significant, I would be fine with accepting that she's pointing at the doctor -- especially since that's how the doctor reads it.

And if we go back to the layout of the church, the things she could be pointing at are, in order of exactly how far to the left she'd have to point:

something just behind the doctor (would explain how close the point is to him)

the path up to the church

the clock tower

ruby/the baby

Regardless of where she's pointing, I think the implication is that there's someone else at the scene, doing something that the doctor didn't notice (perhaps due to his own bias with mother figures).

Wild Speculation:

Now, what do I think this means? Honestly, no idea LOL. It's still all just vague enough it could go in fifty different directions. But we know for sure that the moment where Ruby Sunday was left at the church is a moment in flux, thanks to the the Doctor's memory changing + the song in the background being different in Devil's Chord.

Part of me wonders if there's something (someone?) hiding inside that memory/moment in time? Like how Thirteen hid her companions inside their own time stream to try and buy time away from the swarm guys? It would explain the Maestro's reaction -- 'he couldn't have been there[...] on the night of her birth' -- in the devil's chord, the young boy is a harbinger. Maybe ruby is the harbinger of something too? That could also explain why it started snowing in the TARDIS after 15 scanned her -- the same thing happened when Maestro started trying to pull out her song.

Then if you go with the changeling angle, it's entirely possible we're about to get a shell game with babies 2: electric boogaloo (thanks russel for saying we should rewatch a good man goes to war, i'll never sleep again 👍). Maybe while the doctor's too busy watching the cloaked woman, someone else is intervening, switching her baby for ruby? Or doing something To her baby that explains why ruby is so... wrong, for lack of a better word?

Also, looking between the opening sequence vs the goblin sequence timing, we have several minutes where the cloaked woman is totally unaccounted for in the latter, as well as an entire interaction between her and the doctor that... didn't happen? Or did happen, but was forgotten? Unwritten? Rewritten? Etc.?

If I had to make a bet (and let's be honest, what else are we doing while theorising LOL), I'd say that something about that night has been memory-holed out of existence. Possibly a doomed timeline that righted itself, ala 73 yards, but left just enough trace that the people involved know something happened (ruby knows she's been to wales three times before, the doctor knows he was pointed at).

I think it was triggered when the lady and the doctor got too close to each other (did she hear that the goblin ship was taking her baby? did she turn around and see something she otherwise would have missed?), and realised something about each other (or ruby?) that needed to stay dormant. the cold opening implies the doctor learns her name, and since there don't appear to be any time of the angels sneaky outfit change moments, i can only assume it happened here, somewhere in this memory.

And hell, in for a penny in for a pound, maybe it all got undone (retconned, in universe, in real time), because the Doctor shouldn't learn about the cloaked woman until the finale? Spoilers? In TV meta, did the director tell all the other actors (the church man + the cloaked lady) to hold in place until the doctor was back in position?

[Final note, regarding the continuity error I noted first up, in TV shows with ad breaks factored in -- brief fades to black at dramatic moments, then the last ten seconds play again to remind the audience what's happening -- sometimes directors would use different takes for before and after the ad break. Maybe that's the explanation for the tear -- in universe, that cold open stopped in its tracks the moment the opening was cued to play. It then started again with a doctor who had last cried several minutes ago, and the scene played out as intended.]

Anyway fellow 'the mistakes are in there on purpose' believers how are we FEELING!!!!!

[txttletale]

(Other than the really weird bit about "Male presenting Doctor") what were your thoughts about the specials?

pretty mixed bag, pretty messy, but good overall. i think they were very obviously a nostalgia trip for people around my age lol and it worked! i loved seeing tennant and tate back onscreen together, their chemistry hasn't aged a bit, and honestly just watching doctor who that wasn't written by chris chibnall was a breath of fresh air. they weren't boring, like seasons 11 and 12 were, and they didn't go too far off the other end into nonsense like flux did. characters want things again! the show can let itself just be silly! i was literally cheering out loud when donna and the doctor were just saying random scifi gobbledegook at each other for like a solid several minutes during the star beast.

the structure of the specials kind of baffles me. i love wild blue yonder--i think it's definitively the best of the specials as a standalone, it's absolutely fantastic, creepy and atmospheric and bringing things around to RTD's strength, which is well-written characters interacting with each other and letting good actors just act. but at the same time i dont understand why it exists? it feels like...idk. imagine if you watched the star wars original trilogy but instead of the empire strikes back the middle film was just a feature length film about luke and han surviving on an ice planet with no reference to anything that happens in the last film except the two characters' relationship. and then the next film was still return of the jedi, unchanged. it felt like that

i liked all the weird campy silliness of the star beast and the giggle, and they were both very fun! neil patrick harris gave a fantastic performance, there are a lot of very memorable sequences from the giggle, but it's very very all over the place. so many threads get kind of picked up and go nowhere. the toymaker's haunted house dimension goes nowhere. RTD's eyerolling social media commetnary goes nowhere (thank god tbh but yknow im illustrating something here). even the toymaker kind of goes nowhere, after ncuti gatwa shows up he's bascially an afterthought who loses by dropping a ball. obvious parallels to david tennant's first episode with that ball scene could be made, but just... aren't. it feels like load-bearing sectikons of the plot and themes were cut out to make room for a backdoor pilot for the stupid fucking UNIT spinoff

oh and it goes without saying i fucking hate all the UNIT wank in the star beast and the giggle. i hope space nine eleven 2 happens to their stupid fucking avengers tower i cannot stand kate stewart who is constantly a murderous bonehead (in the giggle alone she gets two pepole killed by not listening to the doctor and assuming that this teleporting godlike entity could be restrainted by Two Guys) who is both in and out of universe just a boring nepo baby with no merit of her own

um. i still dont know what happened with the regeneration. i think the implication is that when david tennant dies hell time travel back to become ncuti gatwa inside himself--at least the rehab dialogue seems to make that implication. but it's not really explained or explored? baffling. i do think that fourteen getting to settle down and live a peaceful life with his friends is cute.

oh yeah and the ask said other than that but goddd there was some good stuff in the star beast and honestly with the state of the UK media i will take any perspective on trans people that includes baseline human erespect but some of those lines made me cringe so bad. anyway overall i am cautiously optimistic for the future of the show--oh ncuti was fucking great did i mention that i instantly bnought him as the doctor he owned the scene, the moment he was there it was clear he was the protagonist, and i liked the church on ruby road well enough too--i am cautiously optimistic but i worry that a big UNIT-shaped tumor will devour huge chunks of it and it'll be annoying. also russel t davies is like 60 and i just dont want to hear what he has to say about twitter so im not looking forward to dot and bubble