#so if it's just like ryan whos like no this new doctor is great i think it'd be good for yaz

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

i bet it takes yaz like 6 months to go back to the support group after the first time and then only after the entire groupchat has been bugging her about it for weeks

[laniidae-passerine]

catch me laughing in the club awkwardly because this season has a 19 year old blonde female companion from London, a space travelling left of law brunette queer boy who flirts heavily with the doctor, absolutely zero writers of colour and no mention of sensitivity readers…….and next season the new companion is a woman of colour. uh oh!

[khruschevshoe]

My Hot-Take/Controversial Ranking of Doctor Who Seasons (excluding specials bc my special order is really unhinged)

3 > 1 > 10 > 4 > 5 > 8 > 11 > 12 > 9 > 7b > 2 > 6 > 13 = 7a

Disclaimer: I have favorite episodes that come from every single season on this list, including 7a. For example, even though Season 6 is low on the list, the God Complex, Almost People/Rebel Flesh, and Impossible Astronaut are some of my favorite of the show. I do really love the Power of Three. These are based on season arc/average feeling per episode/rewatchability on a subjective level.

[anundyingfidelity]

I'M A RUIN — Soldier Boy/Ben (Part IX)

Summary: After the events of the Seven Tower, you present Grace Mallory a new secret project you're working on already to develop a cure to Compound V. The only problem? You need Soldier Boy for that.

Pairing: Soldier Boy/Ben x female reader

Word count: 2.3k.

Warnings for series: set after S3 (spoilers), some OOC!Ben, some depressed!Ben, angst, hurt/comfort, eventual smut, slow-burn, language, PTSD, reader has Compound V (she's no Vought supe tho), Soldier Boy being an usual asshole, reader is a fucking liar.

Warnings for this chapter: some spoilers and references to S4 and Gen V, mentions of sex, mentions of kindaping, so much lying from these fuckers!!

Notes: idk who's still interested on this crap because my original drafts went to hell once S4 dropped (but also my fault i was waiting for that lol), anyway I'll try to be consistent with this is giving me nightmares i swear. thank you if you're still here 😭

<<< Previous Part

get yourself in the taglist!

GEN MASTERLIST! — SERIES MASTERLIST

☕ if you like my writing, support me with a ko-fi !

And if it wasn’t much worse, there he was still, lying down on the other side of the mattress, sleeping and snoring like a stray dog you just took in to protect him from the dangers of the night. Who would have thought? But you wanted this. You fell for it eventually. And you didn’t give a single shit about it, not yet. It was great, you had to admit that. In the end, Ben was right, he could fuck pretty good and could bark about that with good reasons.

Part IX: Nobody’s Business

Rolling on your side of the bed, your eyes fluttered open. There was a warmth coming from the mattress, one that you were not used to every time you woke up. That side always came up empty, but then your mind replayed the memories of last night's events. The small and soft light emanating from the window forced you to sit up abruptly, covering your breasts with the bed sheets. The clock told you it was almost 9 a.m.

But duties are duties, you told yourself, sitting down and reaching your phone on the nightstand. There were six missed calls from an unknown number; you were pretty sure who that was. With a scoff, you got on your feet and full in your naked glory, stepped out of the room, just taking your dress from the floor to put it on as best as you could while you heard the line from the other side.

“Oi, I’ve been calling you, answer the damn phone,” the British voice on the other side spit.

You grimaced, pulling the phone away as he yelled at you before speaking. “I had important things last night. Sorry for having a life,” you lied gracefully, making your way to the kitchen to boil some water for a tea. “Besides, since do you care? I barely fucking know you, so tell me what is it before I hung up.”

Butcher sighed from the other side of the line. “I need the kid back.”

“Ryan?”

“Yeah, and I need something for it. I don’t wanna force him, but tough times require even tougher methods…”

There was a silence coming from you, trying to process his words. Soldier Boy wanted the kid, Butcher wanted the kid, and Homelander of course wanted his fucking kid. You didn’t know who was the best for Ryan. Homelander was out of the league immediately, but maybe Butcher was the only sane motherfucker between them to take care of him. After all, he was his dead wife’s son.

“What do you want me to do? You’re not gonna kidnap him, right?” you asked, unsure of what would happen if you agreed to help Butcher on it.

“No, but don’t play innocent. Can imagine you have plenty of analgesics to take down an army, doctor.”

You pictured that fucked up smirk on his face at his words, and followed his game to see if you could get somewhere.

“And what do I get in exchange? I’m not giving anything for free.”

“Novichok. Put him to deep slumber and can test the strongest drug you have on Soldier Boy without getting killed,” he whispered over the phone, as if someone was hearing his words.

“Alright, deal,” you accepted, taking off a cup to pour your tea. “Send me the address and we can meet today. Just don’t mess with me, I don’t have enough arguments to trust you right now.”

“And I can respect that. Should be receiving it soon, darling.”

With those final words, Butcher hung up the call.

Your head felt spinning, as if something had crushed you so bad. Your body hurted, and you were sore. Probably you regretted it. Not because it wasn’t good, it was something else. What had happened between Ben and you wasn’t supposed to be. It just simply couldn’t. He was a killing machine you were just reaping, eventually discarding him when you took what you needed. However, the right time to test the Anti V prototype had yet to come. Sipping from your hot tea, you heard hard steps from the stairs, and for some reason, you were not prepared to face him the morning after.

“Ah, preparing my breakfast already, doll,” Ben said cheerfully, much to your liking, and approaching you as you faced your back to him.

His arms wrapped around your waist, and as much as you wanted to enjoy his touch, you pushed him away and turned on your feet to see his confused grin.

“First of all, good morning. And second, no. You can make yourself a sandwich,” you replied.

A smile appeared on your lips as his own slowly faded away.

“So, nothing for me, even if I made you feel so good with my cock?”

“God, you’re so gross…”

Ben snorted, leaning to give soft kisses on the skin of your neck as he whispered. “I don’t remember you complaining about it last night.”

As an impulse, you shut your eyes. His touch and lips over your sensitive skin were too intoxicated for you to react quickly and stop him. Ben took the cup of tea from your hand, putting it on the countertop; the place he fucked you so good the night before. He would kill to go again, with you beneath him, yearning and crying for his dick. Or maybe he’d fuck you in the couch before taking you to your bed, exactly like he did after you did it in the kitchen…

“Stop,” you said, pushing him away softly.

He did as you asked rapidly, licking his lips, and watching your lustful gaze intently. You wanted it as much as he did, but it wasn’t the right time.

“I’m still sore,” you continued. “And I have some stuff to do right now. I have to go.”

He nodded. “Right.”

To your surprise, Ben gave you some space and you stepped up, not before taking the cup and your phone between your hands again. You stopped, standing by his side for a moment.

“Maybe later?” you said, watching his face attentively.

That sleazy smirk curved on his lips. “Later.”

You walked away then, feeling his eyes over your figure. God, you were so fucking regretting offering yourself to him already for some reason.

You sat down on the dining table as he settled down a saucer and two cups of tea with a bowl of biscuits.

“It’s not necessary–”

“Nonsense, take it,” Butcher said, taking a seat in front of you.

He served you and him the tea with an elegance only a British man could ever have, not that you expected him to have that inside. Butcher was a soldier once, now an undercover agent whom you had no idea what to expect, besides the few things Grace had told you about him, but she wasn’t there. This meeting was hidden from everyone. Butcher crossed his arms on his chest, looking at you with an expression you could not decode. You were barely knowing him after all.

“I’m not trying to poison you,” he joked, taking his own cup to taste the tea.

“Well, thanks for your kindness,” you took the cup and sipped the warm drink. It was surprisingly good. “So, weren’t you after Victoria?” you asked, following the previous conversation you had with him before sitting down.

“Yeah, cunt’s indestructible,” he remarks. “Can’t do anything now, planning on just retiring and just leaving it all...”

“There’s a fucking outburst right now between Homelander’s cult and Starlight fanatics, Victoria is almost there along with Robert Singer at the White House. Why you wanna give up on that?”

“I’m not part of the team anymore,” Butcher confessed, taking you aback.

“Is that the reason you want Ryan back?”

He nodded and you sensed vulnerability coming from him. The tough facade, the immoral plans, the thirst for revenge for the fucker who screw up his life and made his wife’s a living hell… Even your own thirst for payback and burning Vought to the ground wasn’t as big as his own grief. After all, you were just another piece on the chessboard. Butcher saw you as one, and you did the same with him and Ben. You were just taking in things that would help you to reach your own, selfish goals. One can’t compete with that.

He coughed in the middle of the silence you shared, and you noticed there was a black liquid coming off one of his ears you have never seen.

“Are you okay?” you worriedly asked.

Butcher looked like he noticed your eyes staring at the side of his face and wiped up the substance with his finger, cleaning it up with a napkin.

“You stopped taking the temp V?” you insisted on his silence.

“Yeah, I fucking did, and then had it again. The true V this time, didn’t help. Just accelerated my own death,” Butcher seemed like he didn’t give a shit as he told you.

“Fuck, are you crazy?!” you exclaimed.

“Thought it’d save me, alright?!” he ranted. “Thought it could. So I could say I had more time with Ryan, but I don’t. That’s why you’re here. Do you have what I asked or not?”

Grumbling, with your jaw tight, you took from your jacket a small packet of white powder and tossed it on top of the table.

“A sedative. Will keep him asleep for days if you’re not careful,” you announced. “Give me the gas now.”

Butcher stood up abruptly, and searched for something in one of the kitchen cabinets. He took out a grey cylindrical vessel, similar to a fire extinguisher, and left it on the floor by your feet.

“There you have it,” he said, before taking his seat back.

You didn’t say ‘thank you’, neither did he, but Butcher dared to speak out again.

“Can you come when Ryan is here?”

“Excuse me? I don’t know the kid, I don’t see why I should be here.”

“Another secret is good enough for ya,” he insisted. His face was just as plain as yours.

You didn’t know what else to expect from him at this point, but you followed him up.

“And?”

“There’s something down Godolkin. A virus, created to exterminate supes,” he explained, leaning forward and whispering as if someone else could hear outside the walls. “If your cure ain’t working, maybe you could use some help from there.”

Ben emptied the last drawer in your room. There was fucking nothing. The only pleasure he took in from sniffing into your stuff was checking your underwear, from the most comfy cotton panties to the lingerie he’d love to see on you while he fucked your brains out. And then, nothing. Emptiness. No secrets, no files. Nothing.

Not caring of putting your stuff in place, he just tossed them into the drawer. If you were to indulge back there, you would certainly notice the mess. But he didn’t care if you did. He fucked you good, but that didn’t mean he trusted you. That’s why he spent the last hours of the day checking the whole place after you left him all alone and by himself. The past few days, he had spent checking everywhere to find a clue or something that could give you away easily.

Tired, Ben went down to the living room and checked between the bookshelves, only to find dust and old books he didn’t give a shit about. He scoffed to himself, and walked to the back of the room, where the aisle ended. The carpet felt different, as if another floor was down there. He knocked on the floor with his fist. He was right; there was another floor down the living room.

“What are you fucking hiding in here?” he mumbled to himself, his mind pulling the tricks of any stuff you could probably have down there.

He pulled the carpet away and found a small metal knob, unlocked. He opened it just to reveal stairs and he went down carefully. A heavy metal door stood in front of him, an electronic panel with numbers by the side. The walls were also made of the same material, and he tensed. It wasn’t a good sign. Before, he noticed you would sneak out of your room some nights. There was no other place you should be visiting but here.

He thought of breaking the door, but it wasn’t that subtle. There was a code to get inside, probably he could get it. It had to be something important for you, right? Shouldn’t be so difficult.

But he knew better than to continue playing this fucking game of hiding the thruth from him. Anger seized him in a second, thinking of endless possibilities this could be a hidden lab. You were a doctor after all, he knew what those cocksuckers were capable of. You were no exception.

He clenched his fists tightly, and heard in the distance the sound of your car. Ben quickly climbed the stairs and covered the door to the basement. The click of the door announced you were home and he made his way to the kitchen to take out a bottle of whiskey and two glasses.

Once you stepped up, he poured the liquor. You left a couple of bags full with groceries on the kitchen counter as Ben gave you a dirty smile and offered the whiskey to you. It was his way of disguising what he really felt.

A quick fuck should do, he thought.

“So, later, right?” he said, taking a sip from his glass.

Immediately, you knew what those words meant.

“You’ve been waiting so long I see,” you smirked.

He pulled you closer with a single hand before claiming your lips in a harsh kiss. He smiled when you moaned against his tongue and he pulled away, this time his lips claiming the sensitive spot on your neck.

“And can’t wait any longer, sugar.”

this fic tags:

@k-slla @syrma-sensei @mostlymarvelgirl @cheynovak @drasticemotions @thesilmarillionblog @deans-spinster-witch @girlsforpjm @delaynew

[folklore-barnes]

Grotesquerie 1x08 | 1x09

Thoughts

We need to discuss how Redd used the word “ritual” twice in her scene with Marshall, and then later used it again when talking to Lois. Like????

I needed Megan to murder that nasty man so bad. I was so ready to ride at dawn for her, but thankfully Lois took care of it, and it was so satisfying.

Marshall is so diabolical, pls😭. Whisphering in Lois' ear that he wanted her to “fucking die” was insane. And then calling her a c***???? Like ik we're using that word a little more lightly these days (I still can't bring myself to say it or even write it), but the way he said it was crazy. Like he really meant every bit of what he said. I'm giving all the flowers of the world to Courtney B. Vance.

I wanted to be suspicious of the psychiatrist, but he looked so nice, like I could not see an ounce of evil in his eyes. And that's precisely why a part of me still believes there's something wrong with him.

I loved the confirmation that Megan was possessed in Lois' dream because I love being right.

Lois and Megan's chemistry still intact. You love to see it.

Doctor Charlie looking a little worried when Lois said that she heard everything, like... sir what are you hiding? A part of me thinks that he's obviously very evil, and another part of me thinks he said freaky things to Lois while she was asleep and maybe that's why she pictured him as freaky in her dream. Which would explain why he seemed to look at her with desire when he approached her the second time.

Maisie started off creepy, but when just got really endearing and funny, but with some creepiness still lingering.

I could feel Merritt's disdain towards Lois through the screen. Oh, Raven Godwin, the queen that you are.

Guys... wdym Merritt was in a cult?🧍🏽‍♀️

I'm sorry but Lois being in a coma 'cause of COVID out of all things was so stupid to me. Like I genuinely thought it would've been something bigger that could've been possibly related to the story, so it was a little disappointing to know that it was because of that.

Redd wanting to go to the same place that Lois suggested she'd move away too pissed me off so bad. Like okay, so now you want everything Lois wants or has??? That aside, I love Redd idc. She's so wholesome.

That last scene of Ep 9 was so weird and satisfying at the same time. Like a part of me is questioning that reality as well, especially 'cause Ryan mentioned there'd be more than one “reset” in the last episodes. But another part of me thought that Megan and that asshole were saying it wasn't real to use her former state against her and confuse her, so she wouldn't do anything. And ALSO???? That Justin guy was repeating the same thing that the old man said in the conference the psychiatrist had attended to. What the hell was that about???

The cross in the knife that Megan cut Lois has me wondering a lot 'cause wth was that about as well.

In conclusion, I'd lie to you if I said I wasn't expecting something else. I was expecting them to wrap it up a little bit quicker and for us to see more than one of the crimes. But looking back at it, I'm glad they didn't because now it makes even more sense for them to have a second season like Ryan mentioned because there'd still so many things to wonder about. I know some folks have been saying that it was boring after the twist and I understand where they're coming from, but I'm glad that they took some time to show us Lois coming to terms with her new reality, trying to make sense of it and dealing with the people in her life that were affected by her bad decisions. That led to some great acting performances from all of the main cast members, especially Niecy, Courtney, Raven and Micaela, who we got to see the most on the screen. I also think there's a lot more going on than we think, so I'm very intrigued to see what that's about.

Teaser

At first I just thought the three men are guilty. But there's no way they're telling us that in the teaser, so my guess is Ed and Marshall will be framed or are doing some sus activity that's being misunderstood or is not as bad as what the actual brains of the operation is doing. I have no idea.

Creepy dude in the shadow looks a lot like Charlie and the shot that is shown after hints at it. It's making him look hella sus, but a part of me thinks there's no way they're making it that obvious. So we'll see...

[picnokinesis]

plottier / character focused thirteenth doctor fic recs

Ipseity by WalkerLister (43k, 10 chapters, gen) summary: Eight months since the Doctor sacrificed herself on Gallifrey, and Yasmin Khan is still struggling to move on. However, when she comes across a familiar face who is not acting like herself, Yaz may finally get the answers she has been looking for surrounding the Doctor. However, those answers will be revealed in a way a bit more dangerous than she had been anticipating. //Okay, so no one is surprised that I like the amnesiac!divisioned!13 fic, but in my defence, it's absolutely fabulous. This one was written waaaaay back in mid-2020, so we all knew that 13 was in prison and everyone was pretty sure that Jack was coming back due to some bts detective work, but that was about it - so, for obvious reasons, it doesn't align with ROTD, but it's such a fun one, guys, I love it a lot. Also, y'know, thirteen in a leather jacket and snarling at people? What more could you want?

don't have to make it to the moon by Ymae (28k, 7 chapters, gen/thoschei) summary: After New Year's, Ryan decides to stay traveling in the TARDIS for another little while. Only, the Doctor's rarely alright, and between experiencing the wonders of the universe, Ryan wants to figure out what's happening to his friend, too. //I love Ryan so much. He's such a wonderful character and I always love it when fics focus on him, or have him as the pov character. Unfortunately, fics like that are a bit few and far between, but this is one of them, and it's absolutely fantastic. It really delves into his character, but also his dynamic with the Doctor (especially after he talks to her in ROTD and she admits that she's scared and angry), and it's just auuuuuuugh so good!! And, it's also go some great whump and psychic content, with the Master showing up to cause trouble, alongside some gorgeous world-building, so I enjoy it very very much.

Ghost War by riptheh (25k, 1 chapter, gen) summary: All the Doctor wants to do is pass the time, and help a friendly face. So when a young man with a strange tattoo and a psychic wound shows up, she dives right into the mystery - and finds herself flung far into the future, mindwiped and alone, fighting a war that by all rights, shouldn't exist at all. A war she could help end, if only she could figure out who she is. //Oof, this one. It's absolutely stunning. This author really has a way of taking some absolutely fascinating and mind-bending concepts and just running with it, and just nails it each time. I feel like the less I say about the plot of this one, the better, because it sort of unfolds as you go, but please just trust me when I say that it's absolutely fantastic.

Lifelines by Sue_Denham (40k, 11 chapters, gen, wip) summary: Lifeline: a thing on which someone or something depends, or which provides a means of escape from a difficult situation. Set just after the events of Spyfall, the Doctor has a few things to work through. //Okay this fic is one of my favourites that's been posting over the last year or so - it's a brilliant exploration of Graham and Thirteen, and how different races deal with loss, guilt and death. I honestly think the best kind of sci fi takes concepts that we sort of take for granted, and then shows them in a completely new light. That's what this fic does. Also, Graham is just wonderful for the entire thing - though, as a note, Yaz and Ryan do end up somewhat side-lined, so bear that in mind if you're particularly looking for fics about those two, but I forgive it because it's such a great look at Graham and the Doctor. It feels like a character focused tie-in novel, y'know? Also it's pretty angsty in places, naturally, but that's what I'm here for haha.

Disordered by Echo (44k, 7 chapters, jack/13) summary: Messing with memories is always a risky business. Messing with your own memories, now that's just asking for trouble. The Doctor is very good at asking for trouble. And Jack is very good at finding it. //Ohhhhh okay so. This has been one of my absolute favourite Doctor Who fics for a long while. Definitely the shippiest of this list, but it's so lovely and such an excellent look at the Doctor facing the consequences of trying to get back her Division memories in the aftermath of s12, as well as the relationship between the Doctor and Jack across multiple regenerations. It's just so so good, flowing smoothly from very angsty to very soft, and the Doctor and Jack's voices are just spot on (especially considering that we see different versions of the Doctor, this is a particularly impressive note). Highly recommend!

The Trial of the Doctor by wreckageofstars (20k, 5 chapters, gen/thasmin, wip) summary: Haven is a planet at the edge of time, on the brink of destruction. Ravaged by the Time Lords and a war that time forgot, its people are desperate for justice before it’s too late, and the Doctor might be the only being left in the universe who can provide it — because she was the one who started it. So why can't she remember doing it? //Okay okay so, this one has only recently started posting but I've known about it since about 2020 and ohhhhhhhhhhh my goodness, GUYS. If you're not following this one, you need to be. It's a mix between Doctor Who at it's finest, Kafka at it's most unsettling, and Douglas Adams at it's most absurd, and it's delightful. There's so much in this one, and as always this author is just spot on with all the characterisation - especially Thirteen, who suddenly finds herself being prosecuted for a crime that she can't remember, and is forced into a situation where she's physically incapable of telling a lie. It. Is. Marvellous. Also there's a cockroach lawyer, whom I adore HAHA

lighthouse keeper by BlueLillyBlue (57k, 12 chapters, gen) summary: The Doctor is missing, and the fam is concerned. Featuring Yaz being a badass, Ryan being a cutie, Graham being a granddad, Jack being Jack, and the Doctor's complicated moral code. Also: space prisons, galactic war, the Doctor's time war trauma, the Doctor caring about people in her own weird and repressive way, and, most importantly, Thirteen wearing Jack's coat. //Oh, this one is such a favourite of mine. It's very angsty, so if that's not your schtick then - well, then you're kinda scuppered for all of my recs, to be honest, but this one is a bit on the dark side. Oh, but it's fantastic. Again, this one feels like a tie-in novel, and this author (as I think I've said before) is just incredible at crafting these very vivid worlds and really hard-hitting stories. The situation is pretty dire and desperate, and the Doctor is often faced with the fact that not every plan works out, and sometimes the only choices are bad ones. It's just really excellent guys (also! Thirteen in Jack's coat!!)

angel ellipsis by SleepyMaddy (36k, 8 chapters, gen/thoschei) summary: When the Doctor and Yaz find a planet in ruins, they’re only half surprised to discover the Master is responsible. But when his plan backfires, suddenly they have no choice but to work with him to stop his former allies from tearing the universe apart. It goes about as well as one might expect. //OKAY SO. This one is SO much fun and SO great - in particular, if you like the Master being a tricky bastard, but also getting screwed over by his own plans? You'll love this one. Everything about it is so vibrant and brilliant, and aaaaaahh man it all comes together in such a satisfying way. As with many of the authors on this list, this author just really gets these characters and how they tick, with some absolutely beautiful prose, and it's just such a joy to read.

nothing in the dark that isn't there in the light by river_of_words (6k, 1 chapter, thasmin) summary: Two weeks since Yaz got the most confusing rejection she ever hopes to get and the Doctor seems to have decided to blame Yaz for every single one of her furiously conflicting emotions. At this point she’s sort of asking to get hit. And at this point Yaz is sort of curious to find out what the Doctor is going to say that’s going to make her meet that request. //These next two fics are a lot shorter compared to the others, but I really wanted to include both of them because they're great and SO interesting to me. With this one, it digs into the Doctor and Yaz's relationship in the aftermath of LOTSD, and the ways that the Doctor does not actually talk about anything but does also tell Yaz more than anyone else. It's about the frustration that builds between them and the way that they're still finding more comfort in each other than anyone else. It's also a little feral, which as a thoschei shipper, definitely had a lot to do with why I liked this one haha. Anyway, it's really fantastic - really quick paced and emotional, and packing a LOT of punches with mostly dialogue in a very effective way. Go read it!

we'll do it right by daring_elm (3k, 1 chapter, gen) summary: She's never really noticed Yaz's perfume before. Shoulders relaxing, nausea subsiding, the Doctor inhales again, filling her lungs with jasmine and sandalwood, steel and glowing crystals and her box out of time. She can be back with Yaz within minutes of her leaving. She can save the child, change the foundation of Gallifrey and still return to have a picnic on Soria T4.  //Okay so I loooove love love this one because I just adore it any time someone explores the Doctor's reaction to the Timeless Child stuff after the fact, and this one is just so wonderful. The characterisation is just fantastic, and then just the progressive spiral of the plot as we follow the Doctor on a mission that is doomed to fail by the nature of her own timeline. It's about how by trying to change the past, all you do is mess up your present and your future, and I love that a lot. Augh, it's a gut punch and a half - highly recommended!

[mrmeowziii]

Rodney- The big-hearted giant who loves a little too easy.

(I realized I forgot to post him. Oops, sorry buddy!)

Rodney Parker was born the third child of his parents, Daryl and Charlotte Parker. After initially deciding to settle with two kids, his mother changed her mind after deciding she wanted a girl- she wouldn’t get her wish though, giving birth to a not so little Rodney. He was so large in fact, the doctors didn’t believe he wasn’t a set of twins- despite the ultrasound- until the day of birth. As a baby he was rather mild mannered, but he was always hungry.

Rodney was very attached to his mother growing up. He’d definitely been more of a momma’s boy- until he couldn’t be anymore. Rodney’s emotional stability was thrown out of whack by his mother’s passing, and after a while of intense grief, Rodney coped by seeking that affection he missed from other sources. He grew very close to his brother Ryan, who was filling their mother’s role. When Richard pulled away, Ryan and Rodney teamed up to take care of everyone else. Rodney took the farm side of things, which had always been a strong suit for him. He took charge of his five little brothers (not an easy task) and lead them around the everyday farm chores quite well. His kind and patient personality was certainly helpful, as his family sure liked to fight… Though they all listened to him whenever he asked them to do something. If they needed time for themselves, he wouldn’t hesitate to allow them, especially Roy, who often spaced out at the site of their mom’s accident.

Rodney was a bit slow in school, and found it difficult to make friends- especially with girls. He was a little too puppy dog for most. He found a surprise interest in writing- specifically poetry, as he got older. His intense love swings would often fuel writings, though he could never work up the courage to give his loves said poems. For a long time his intense feelings were only directed towards women, but as an older teen this spread to men as well- and anyone else, really. Robbie blamed him for causing the younger punk to develop a similarly distorted sense of attraction.

At sixteen Rodney auditioned for Total Drama, something his family had varying reactions to. It wasn’t expected he’d actually get accepted, but… Well. His time on the island was short, but Rodney came to have a close bond with Ella and Topher during their time together at the new Playa Des Losers location. (Topher was the one who made him realize he liked men too.) Overall, it was a great experience for him, even if he might’ve come out a bit fried. Robbie and Rowan were embarrassed by his placement, while most of his family was just glad he was okay.

Rodney’s closest with his brother Ryan- who at least tried to give him some of the motherly love he’d always missed. Besides him, his younger brothers Ralphie and Ryder have always gotten along with him. He has no truly negative relationships with his family, though Rowan is most embarrassed by his ‘bumbling antics’.

In the future Rodney marries Ella and Topher and they have a few kids together. Rodney comes back to help on the farm every harvest, but he writes romance novels for a living besides that. He, Ella, and Topher are working on writing a musical and trying to pitch it to Broadway.

(Sorry for forgetting about the only character from the actual show, lol. Rodney’s a sweetheart. I honestly have no idea why I like him as much as I do, lol. Himbos for life.)

[doctorwhonerdadi3]

Ranking New Who Companions

What classes as a companion in Doctor Who is a difficult one for me to answer. On one hand I would say it's someone who travels with the Doctor, but then we'd be here all day listing out everyone that has been in the Tardis. So I have decided to limit it only to the characters who are the named companions for each Doctor. Simple right? Choosing who I liked more over each companion was a difficult one. As always this is just opinion based and honestly, my opinions for each of these companions changes regularly. That being said, I have made an attempt at ranking them.

Number 12: Ryan Sinclair

Ryan is, for me, probably the most forgettable of Whittaker's companions. It doesn't mean he is bad, I just don't enjoy him as much as the others. I've seen Whittaker's run a couple of times and I barely remember anything about Ryan other than he had Dyspraxia and sucked his thumb.

Number 11: Rose Tyler

Okay, I think Rose being so low down is controversial, but honestly... I don't like her. She is 19 when we meet her and very clearly a product of the 90s/2000s. She spends most of her time as a love struck teenager, who is constantly jealous of any woman who gets near the Doctor. It's strange because series 1 and Eccleston are my favourite of New who. Her 'lovestruck' phase really shines in Tennants first series. Either way, she is my number 11.

Number 10: Clara Oswald

I enjoyed Clara when she showed up as a Dalek in Asylum of the Daleks. I enjoyed Clara when she was in The Snowmen. But then it kind of stopped. Her run with Smith just didn't do it for me. She did better with Capaldi but I think that is mostly down to him actually letting her have a life as a teacher, go on dates, etc. It gave her chance to really shine.

Number 9: Graham O'Brien

I just had to google Graham's last name, that is how much I don't really like him. Dealing with bereavement is difficult, and being the oldest of your group is also a challenge. I think 'Rosa' was when Graham really shined. Idolizing her and then having to be the reason that she didn't give up her seat on the bus... Graham was actually a well rounded character in a series of none rounded characters.

Number 8: Yazmin Khan

Yaz had the longest run with Whittaker, probably down to her crush. She proved herself to be a smart woman, who could handle herself. When we first met her, she was training to be a police woman, which shows that she has the strength and courage to succeed. I enjoyed her as a companion.

Number 7: Donna Nobel

Okay, time to be controversial again. I love Donna, as I am sure everyone else does, but she isn't my favourite. She was heart warming and smart, plus she had a bit of a temper and slapped the Doctor. What more do you want from a companion? She truely was a mate of the Doctor, and after the 60th anniversary specials- she got the ending she deserved.

Number 6: Dan Lewis

What? I'm putting Dan above Donna, have I gone crazy? Probably. John Bishop cannot act. However... I really liked his character. She was chill. He had a wok. He was kind of resourceful. The only thing I didn't really like was how he outed Yaz to the Doctor.

Number 5: Martha Jones

I love Martha. I think she is truely underrated as a companion. She often gets overshined by Rose, which is annoying. Take away the ending where she married Mickey, I didn't like that, and you have an amazing character. Smart, resourceful, brave. Everything you need to be the Doctor's companion. This woman walked the Earth for the Doctor. She should have married Tom though.

Number 4: Ruby Sunday

Our new new who companion. I think part of the reason that series 15/Season 1 did so well was because of Millie Gibson's performance. She started out a little rocky, but she soon grew into a companion I loved. Her performance in Boom and 73 Yards really solidified her as a great companion in my opinion.

Number 3: Amy Pond

The girl who waited. Amy's run as a companion was beautiful. She had her boys and her spaceship and she was off. She did start out a bit shakey, trying to sleep with the Doctor the night before her wedding, but if you look at it from her character arc it makes sense.

Number 2: Bill Potts

Bill's death was heart breaking and was 100% the Doctor's fault. Shot through the chest and then turned into a Cyberman. Ouch. She was a fun companion and she brought a ray of sunshine to a rather dark Doctor who had just lost his previous companion. Also I love the Cybermen design for when she got turned into one. It was very classic who.

Number 1: Rory Williams

And finally we have Rory the Roman. Well deserving of the first spot. He waited 2000 years for Amy in the Pandorica. He loved her unconditionally from childhood. He was a nurse. This man was brave and strong all at once. I was heart broken when he got erased from time and Amy forgot him. Luckily he came back... Until he died again.

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Seven of Nine

By Ames

While we definitely miss Kes, her replacement on Star Trek: Voyager definitely succeeds in filling her shoes and then some. Seven of Nine may have been introduced on the show as an obvious thirst trap to boost the show’s sex appeal, but she is so much more than that. The ex-Borg bombshell, with the acting chops of Jeri Ryan and some excellently written story arcs, grows into more than just the sum of her nanobots.

Get assimilated with your hosts from A Star to Steer Her By as we explore the many facets of Seven, whose journey to regain her humanity pairs so beautifully with the Voyager’s journey to make it back to the Alpha Quadrant. Scour through our astrometrics records below for our usual Best and Worst Moments lists and listen to our hivemind discussions over on this week’s podcast episode (jump to 1:32:36; featuring some bonus moments from guest star drone Carl!). Resistance is futile!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor abyss of space After Seven has [reluctantly] joins the crew, one of the first thing she does is start helping out in the astrometrics lab, and in “Message in a Bottle,” she discovers the relay network that our heroes use to send the EMH over to the Dauntless and pass communication to and from Starfleet. It’s an early glimmer of hope after years of tooling around in the Delta Quadrant.

All by myself. Don’t wanna be all by myself anymore. We get an absolute showcase in acting from Jeri Ryan in the stunning “One,” in which she’s left to guide the ship through some nebula or other while the rest of the organic crew members wait in stasis. Seven’s battles with her own demons of isolation, loneliness, and self doubt play out as hallucinations, but she keeps it together enough to save the whole crew from nebula gas!

A single Borg among billions of individuals When home seems to be in reach because of a starship Arturis brings them to in “Hope and Fear,” Seven initially determines that she doesn’t want to go on this roadtrip because of how daunting she finds returning to Earth. Watching her deal with those feelings until she comes out the other side feels like a win, even if Arturis’s scheme turns out to be too good to be true.

The robot has been neutralized. May I leave now? This is just one of those little moments from the show, but I like it enough to include it. In “Night,” when Tom is trying to pass the time during months of monotony, he’s playing some Captain Proton with an unimpressed Seven, who simply deactivates Satan’s Robot with one of her patented “I am Borg”s and it’s just so charming and funny that I’ve got to hand it to her.

Are you my mother? By the time we hit “Drone,” Seven’s able to help her sort-of son One learn the merits of individuality weighed against the dangers that the Borg exemplify, no matter how tempting they may seem. Her taking this new breed of Borg under her wing shows just how far Seven has come in the season since her introduction, and her heartbreak at losing him is real and lovely.

Part of me not unlike your replicator. Not unlike the Doctor. Like Kes before her, Seven develops a rapport with the EMH that is built on trust and their outsider perspectives (oh, and horniness because the Doc can be a bit of a cretin sometimes). Seven fights for his rights in “Latent Image” when she urges Janeway not to blank his malfunctioning memory again – something you couldn’t do to one of the solid crewmen.

You and I wouldn’t be able to play Kadis-kot anymore Another great friendship we see Seven develop is with Naomi Wildman. The young Ktarian starts out terrified of the ex-Borg drone, but by “Bliss,” the two are teaming up to take on the bioplasmic organism, as the only two people on the ship not affected by its hallucinatory effects. They bond over how they don’t have anyone waiting for them on Earth, but they have each other!

Time is the fire in which Braxton burns You know I’ve got to give some love to one of my favorite time-travel stories! Seven really gets to shine in “Relativity,” jumping through time to prevent some sabotage to the Voyager and brilliantly uncovering Braxton’s madcap plan. She knowingly puts herself in danger with repeated trips through time because she knows the importance of this mind-boggling mission.

No really, are you my mother? If you liked Seven’s friendship with Naomi, you’re gonna love her relationship with the dronelings we meet in “Collective.” We meet the Borg children adrift on their vessel and threatening anyone who comes by like puffed-up stray kittens, but Seven tries to save them from themselves and takes in the four survivors (and the Borg baby!), acting like their foster mother.

Definitely in contention for worst parents in Trek While the SSHB team tends to prefer Mezoti because she’s the best, Seven takes a particular liking to Icheb. Like a mother honey badger, she protects him when she smells the danger that his parents pose to him in “Child’s Play.” She figures out their scheme to sacrifice their child and saves Icheb from getting reassimilated, even if it would help his terribly flawed people.

They’re tryna build a prison for you and me to live in By season seven, Seven’s come so far in her character development that she fights for the rights of Iko, the death-row prisoner in “Repentance.” She determines that he can be rehabilitated and given the chance he deserves because he feels true remorse. If Seven got the chance to regain her humanity after everything she did as a Borg, shouldn’t this guy too?

Their isolation may limit their potential, but if that isolation ends, so will a unique way of life This one may not be a particularly good episode, but it’s always nice to watch Seven learn a life lesson. Though she doesn’t initially understand why she should prevent the Ventu culture from getting corrupted by the Ledosians in “Natural Law,” Seven befriends the primitive people and comes to understand the value of allowing them to develop on their own terms.

—

Worst moments

Scorpions are not to be trusted Speaking of things Seven does as a Borg, when we first meet her in “Scorpion,” Chakotay is reluctant to trust this scorpion in Borg’s clothing, who is certainly going to betray the agreement she made with Janeway. And whaddaya know, Seven immediately betrays the agreement she made with Janeway! Just like the scorpion in that parable that Chakotay totally lifted.

Nevertheless, I am willing to explore my humanity. Take off your clothes. Once Seven gets deborgified, it becomes clear that she’s first and foremost here for her sex appeal. And the show is going to remind you of that. A lot. No one is more aware of that at first than Harry Kim, especially in “Revulsion” when Seven just offers to sleep with him to lessen the tension, having no idea how inappropriate that is. How else are we to notice she’s hot???

Quoth the raven: We are Borg Like Data in “Brothers,” Seven feels compelled by some unnatural force to take over a ship and fly towards her homing beacon in “The Raven.” Unlike Data, she’s not just programmed by some Soong or other, but instead is hallucinating all over the place and would like to be reassimilated by the Collective. She even holds Tuvok hostage until she learns the corvid truth.

Jenny, I got your number: Species 847-2309 A big speed bump to Seven’s reintegration comes in “Prey” when the Hirogen are demanding the crew hand over an injured being from Species 8472. Janeway tries to teach her the value of compassion for a helpless creature, but Seven loses any trust that’s she has built up by deciding on her own to issue them a death sentence and beam them over to the Hirogen vessel to be murdered.

Sometimes your words just hypnotize me While we’ve already thoroughly put most of the blame for this one on the EMH’s shoulders, Seven isn’t entirely innocent when it comes to the episode “Retrospect.” She’s quick to believe his quack psychiatry and accuses Kovin of violating her just because the Doctor tells her to. If anyone was going to view the facts first, even under duress, it should have been Seven.

From Alpha to Omega The Borg strives for perfection, so Seven gets super into the Omega particle in “The Omega Directive” so much so that it becomes an infatuation. She stops considering reason and the danger of the situation that this highly unstable particle poses, which seems entirely unlike Seven most of the time. Like, it’s a cool particle, but don’t get everyone killed just to look at it, lady.

This is a starship, not a nature preserve After living among the crew for close to two seasons, you’d think Seven would have a slightly better handle on tact by the time we get to “Someone to Watch Over Me,” but apparently she’s just as inappropriate as ever just so the writers can make a joke. Frankly, watching her study Tom and B’Elanna’s mating habits makes me roll my eyes at the inanity.

We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own Oh, and we can’t forget all the assimilating that Seven did as a Borg, even if it’s hard to blame her as a person for it. But she sure does, so we’ll take that pass and run with it. We have a perfect example of it in the flashback story in “Survival Instinct” when she forces the little mini collective who’ve been showing signs of individuality to assimilate, ruining their very lives.

It’ll be like a simple night's sleep I can’t help but harp on this moment in “Dragon’s Teeth” when Seven opens up all the crypods and releases the Vaad’waur from stasis… for absolutely no reason. Scratch that: the reason was to move the plot forward. But really. Seven of all people should know better than to release swarms of randos without investigating the circumstances first. They could be assholes!

The caretaker array is turning the frogs gay! Okay, while I’d admit that this one might inadvertently (or maybe advertently?) be the funniest episode of Voyager, you’ve got to admit that Seven downloading all the logs into her Borg brain in “The Voyager Conspiracy” is hare-brained. Like when the Doc turns himself into Mr. Hyde in “Darkling,” Seven tampers with her mind and ends up turning into a conspiracy nutjob.

Fun will now commence On the flipside, some of the moments that are meant to be comedic fall flat in “Ashes to Ashes” when Seven teaches the dronelings a basic educational curriculum. She has no idea what she’s doing in providing the basic education of the kiddos… and it’s not her job! It’s clear the writers have only stuffed her in these circumstances for some chuckles, but I see through it!

We aren’t far from the boner of your people While I’ll be the first to stand up for the Chakotay-Seven relationship (rushed though it was), any time there’s weird romantic and/or sexual bullshit in the holodeck, I admit the red flags go up. So when Seven makes herself a holo-Chakotay in “Human Error,” that’s a no no. We’ve chewed out La Forge and Janeway for this before, and just wait until our surprise spotlight next week!

—

Turns out resistance wasn’t futile! We’ve just got one more bonus Voyager character spotlight before our Enterprise series wrap ��� and it’s a doozy! So make sure you’ve got this holoprogram running, follow the page for future spotlights and blogtivities, celebrate with us as we get through the rest of Enterprise on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast, chat with our hivemind over on Facebook and Twitter, and we are Borg!

[hauntingcryptids]

Wait, This Is Good!

Whittaker!Doctor x Reader

Summary - The Doctor is known for experimenting with Human food and beverages. Her most recent food trial is over hot chocolate. 

Prompt(s) Used - Hot Chocolate - A fic involving a hot beverage

Warnings - None That I Know Of. If I missed something, then message me and I will add it here.

Word Count - 1242

A/n - Gender Neutral Reader. Not Requested. Proofread but not beta read. Just a fun little fic that I thought was cute. I hope that you enjoy! :)

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Many would call Sunday mornings quiet and relaxing. You would even describe many of your past Sundays on Earth in that manner. You wouldn’t do so anymore, though. Sunday mornings were now Doctor Food Experiment Time. 

In retrospect, it was funny that Doctor Food Experiment Time became a part of your and The Fam’s routine. The Doctor would have sudden interests that lasted a couple of weeks and then she would move on to something new but for some reason, the culinary arts stuck.

The Doctor must have been bored one Saturday night/Sunday morning and just started cooking and baking and brewing. When you and the fam woke up, the TARDIS kitchen was filled to the brim with her creations. None of them were what you would call successful, but some had potential. Ever since that one Sunday, The Doctor has made something for her Fam to try.

This morning, The Doctor’s experimental treat was hot chocolate. It sounds easy enough to make, but The Doctor was somehow able to ruin bread and butter. So, you were still wary about the marshmallow-topped mug before you.

“So, who’s game?” Graham asked when The Doctor stepped out of the kitchen to deal with something in the console room. 

You and your friends had gotten into the habit of having one person try The Doctor’s Sunday experiment first and the rest of the group would gauge their friend’s reactions before joining in or excusing themselves. Surprisingly, The Doctor hadn’t caught on or she was just happy that her Fam were still entertaining her Sunday surprises.

“If I remember correctly, it’s Y/n’s turn to go first.”

“Thanks, Ryan.”

“It doesn’t look that bad.” Dan said optimistically as he inspected the beverage.

“How many times do I have to tell you never to trust The Doctor’s culinary skills, Dan?” Yaz retorted. 

“It’s just hot chocolate.” Dan, the newest member of Team TARDIS, naively said.

“Rookie mindset.” Yaz said in a sing-songy voice, causing a couple of chuckles to echo around the table.

“You clearly weren’t here for the great Pop Rocks debacle, mate.” Graham joked. Some of the group laughed, but others groaned in pain at the mention of that memory. You saw Ryan absentmindedly scratch at the scar on his neck from The Doctor’s literal interpretation of Pop Rocks.

“But this time it might be good.” Yaz still hadn’t broken Dan’s persistent optimism.

“Are we forgetting that it’s Y/n’s turn?” Ryan spoke up again.

“Fine. Fine. I’ll bite the bullet.” You relented but sent Ryan a quick glare.

You lifted the cooling cup up from the table for a moment, but when you inspected the marshmallowy top you placed the mug back down. You sighed heavily. Then you quickly took a sip, after hyping yourself up, then swallowed the drink as fast as you could without tasting it. You leaned back in your chair, shocked, because the aftertaste was good. It was a mix of dark and milk chocolate with sweet marshmallow, and there were hints of nutmeg. Curiously and cautiously, you took another sip, to the astonished looks of all your friends. This time you savoured the flavour. It was even better than your first impressions of the drink.

“Wait, this is good.”

“Are you trying to trick us?” Graham couldn’t help but ask. 

“No. This is amazing!” 

Dan was the first to try the drink, he was always the optimist and had no reason to completely distrust The Doctor’s creation like the rest of The Fam did. When Dan didn’t react negatively, Graham tried the beverage. He gave a surprised hum of approval before going into a second sip. Ryan was the penultimate taster after hyping himself up first. 

Yaz was the last to try the hot chocolate. She was the one who had the worst experiences with The Doctor’s previous creations, so it was understandable to The Fam that she would be apprehensive. No one aboard The TARDIS were big pranksters, and no one would devise a prank involving something that could poison another, even if the type of poisoning was food poisoning. Yaz stared back at every one of her friends staring at her, waiting. Finally, she chugged a good portion of the drink. She expected it to be horrible, but to her genuine surprise, the drink was good.

“You weren’t lying.”

“No!” You and your friends shouted at Yaz before all of you burst out laughing. This was such a rare, unusual occurrence in a sea of rare and unusual moments, but at least this moment didn’t result in an injury or a fallout between allies. It was just a fun day between friends and a surprisingly delicious mug of hot chocolate.

“Why do you all look like you just saw a paagnee in a honeywell?” The Doctor asked, returning to the kitchen. You and the rest of The Fam were instantly confused by the alien’s comparison.

“A what?” Ryan asked.

“Never mind, it’s nothing.” The Doctor brushed off her comment. She could explain it better in the presence of a paagnee in a honeywell.

“Doctor, this drink is so good!” You complimented the beverage when The Doctor rounded the kitchen table to stand by where you were sat.

“Thank you, Y/n. I was inspired to make some hot chocolate after you said that you wanted some now that it was autumn on Earth.”

“That’s really sweet of you,  Doc. You didn’t need to do this for me, though.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! I did. It needed to be brilliant for you.”

“How long did this take you?” You questioned. 

“I’ll never tell.” The Doctor held a finger to her lips to emphasise her statement.

“Because I will feel guilty?” You provided an answer for the alien.

“Yes, but it’s more -” The Doctor was cut off by Dan, whose chair skidded across the floor of the kitchen as he got up from his seat to refill his mug. The Doctor was annoyed but it might have been for the best, as she was going to say that ‘it was more romantic’ having her effort be a mystery if she wasn’t interrupted.

“How is this good?” Ryan questioned, curiously savouring his drink.

“It’s because it’s sugary.” Yaz retorted.

“No, there have been bad sugary things.” Graham corrected.

“How can you mess up something sugary?” Dan asked.

“You’d be surprised.” Yaz huffed.

“Are you sure you made this? It wasn’t The TARDIS?” Graham finally questioned The Doctor, interrupting the rest of The Fam’s bickering.

“The TARDIS did not make anything. She didn’t even help.”

“At all?” Graham continued.

“I can make good things!”

“Of course you can, Doctor.” You rubbed The Doctor’s back in an attempt to comfort her. The Doctor leaned into your seated frame but held up a finger to you in protest.

“Okay, now I feel like you are patronising me.” 

“Well, you can make a brilliant hot chocolate.” You brought your mug back to your lips as The Fam chuckled. The Doctor pouted at her friends' reactions. This was not how she expected the morning would play out. She was hoping to woo you with her efforts. She didn’t know if she was successful in that matter, but at least you enjoyed her creation. That was a plus, at least. She would just have to find some other way to confess her feelings to you. For now, though, The Doctor relished in your presence and compliments.

[kendrixtermina]

Giving Doctor Who a New Chance, Part 1: The Star Beast

I like how in the opener the Doctor ends up running into Donna due to plain old Chronic Hero syndrome, rushing towards someone who looks like they needed help

I appreciate that we got a realtime example of Donna just missing a spaceship

her concern with stacking properly is a good establishing moment for viewers who maybe don't know her yet

It's interesting how Donna ended up giving away the money - not doing what he thought she would do

Making Donna's kid trans was a great move now that the UK is known as a rather trans-hostile place

sylvia is interesting - she seems like someone who feels guilty but is sort of going overboard with overcompensating for it rather than truly helping

badass protective - which is probably how Donna would be as a mom, some of the character development stuck despite the memory wipe, small-minded

Another Unit Scientific Advisor!

You can tell the Doctor is having a tough time with how he spills his problems to the Unit lady. Though you can also see 14 isn't quite like 10, not quite as emotionally constipated. 12 had this whole arc about spitting out the words though then chibnall didn't do anything with cause he couldn't write characters to save his life. I guess 13 was supposed to look like his (franky offensive, carricaturish) idea of a private person? At least this keeps the tendency of each incarnation being a contrast to their predecessor. Insofar as 13 had enough personality to be contrasted. Chibnalls characters are all emotionless planks of wood - and I'll better stop ranting now

i like the unit lady

It's a charming detail how Rose sells things on etsy. I betcha anything she has a tumblr

// war flashback to Ryan's increbliy generic youtube channel that was never used to characterize him in any way & then forgotten about //, & the detail is added in a kind of loving, relatable way whereas Chibnall kinda mocked the guy for listening to affirmations, for example

Ah it's so nice to have actual CHARACTERIZATION again

Like this just told us that Rose Noble is creative, but also feels responsibility to help her parents.

And her making little plush aliens is immediately lied to her feeling lonely & alienated because of how she's bullied

CONSISTENCY beyond just what is currently needed for the plot yes please. This should be the bare minimum but Chibnall went 8 episodes without giving Yasmin ANY defining traits or moments

So nice to have CHARACTERS with EMOTIONs and TRAITS

I just KNEW the Doctor was getting another Mom slap the moment the moment he showed up

the definite article XD I got that reference, esp in what looks like an Unit episode

oh noes theyre shooting up Donnas house

i love how he just naturally hands the sonic to Donna without thinking

It's extremly Donna-like to worry about her house during the alien attack

I like the resonating the wall trick coming on again - if you saw this straight after EoT, you'd still get the sense that the Doctor got more experienced.

Donna's neighbor missing everything cause he's listening to music is a mood

I love the impromptu judge wig XD

Been a while since I heard "shadow proclamtion". That was common the first time RTD was running the show

I LOVE how the twist & how the Doctor deduced it from the Unit soldier not being dead. The idea that you can know someone by their method

Also love the doctor trying to outfox the Meep but getting a tad too confident there

Also like how Donna absolutely picks up that Sylvia knows the Doctor & demands the truth, but also having a moment of vulnerability

the story's a bit over the top & cliche, though. I mean I can partially forgive it because the ep is really much more about Donna, but not a fan of the over the top cliched villain. though, this RTD is the guy who made the fart episode. he was good at concepts a lot of the time, but yeah...

The wheelchair stun darts are cliche, too, but I DO like the general twist of the unit lady realizing the guards have been mind-controlled & saving the team. She seemed competent earlier. Makes me miss Osgood a bit. One hopes wheelchair lady will keep showing up in UNIT episodes.

I love Donna taking the initiative here to run off. (characters NOT being planks of wood & making self-motivated decisions! Oh im so glad we're rid of Chibnal's trash writing)

Do like the moment. Donna still having her unimportance complex, the Doctor's response that she isn't not just because he doesn't think anyone's unimportant but because she is so important to him, "why does it have to be you" Yeah David Tennant is still good at pulling ppl's heartstrings, his resigned tone when he begins reciting the 'password'

The password being similar to that time Amy had to unlock it!

Donna's first concern upon "waking up" being that she gave away the money is soo her.

Catherine Tate really shines here how she instantly retrieves the... the fast talking thing from Journey's end??

She gets so excited at getting to blow up the alien tech XD

Again praise be to Catherine cause you can tell how the hole of self-doubt that was there (though not as much pre series 4) is just FILLED with confidence.

He just doesn't give a fuck if they shoot him when he thought Donna was dead

The thing where it's less lethal now because some of the energy passed down to her kid is neat, but I don't like the idea that the personality traits of Donna's kid are attributed to the metacrisis thing. Although I suppose it could be seen as more of a nudge or inspiration

I really like the touch that the Doctor remembered the names of the alien soldiers & spoke of them to their superiors, and that he neutralized the meep non-lethally. He's an actual pacifist again with lika a worldview, not just regurgitating lines about "not liking guns" out of context

I HATE the women's intuition thing. I get that they were trying to like affirm Rose's gender as real here but I hate it. It's essentialist and I hate it. I'm gonna treat it as just a joke Donna & Rose did cause they would.

Though I DO like, & find it very appropriate that Donna & Rose themselves are the ones to think up the solution & having it sort of come from Donna's grounded, down to earthsy nature. As a counterpoint to how the Doctor kind of over-ruled Donna's will to sort of unilaterally save her against her will & taking the burden onto himself. (Not that one can blame him too much for what he did while panicking, trying to save his besties' life. )

I love the Doctor fanboying over the new "desktop theme" & praising the TARDIS for the design choices

Such a nice touch that both the Doctor & the TARDIS remember Donna's coffee preferences. It's all about the little things.

David still got it with the "it killed me" line

I do notice that his delivery, while similar, in some aspects, is still markedly different. 14 is more emotionally honest than 10, but also less hyper, he carries himself a bit 'heavier'.

Like I feel some of that subtle distinction in nuance comes down to that when the Dr. turned into 10 it was "for" Rose (so the charme & energy etc were dialed to max), but 14 is "for" Donna, in a way, though he didn't know it at the start.

AAAAnd Donna immediately returns to being a supplier of grounding common-sense advice. Cause she is right about the big goodbye thing

that's a lot of pyrotechnics for just one coffee. Donna must've spilled it into the worst possible spot. That would be the sort of luck they'd have.

Soo. it was an episode without Chibnal's terrible, flavorless writing. I liked some of the story beats though not over the top wowed but I feel like this is the first act of a longer play & the emotional penny is probably still to drop.

[leikeliscomet]

No, Ncuti Gatwa's Casting Isn't Regressive

Chapter 2 - Strong (White) Female Character

There are many women in Who loved by fans of all genders. In Classic Who, the female leads were the companion to the Doctor and played the role of audience surrogate. They asked questions, got in trouble and got rescued. But over time, this role would develop and gain more significance. Classic Who female representation is usually brushed off as one-dimensional compared to the girl-bosses of Nuwho, but still some representations shined through. Characters such as Sarah Jane Smith and Ace McShane are considered great female representation for the time they were created and archetypes for modern female leads in Who we see today. When the show was revived in 2005, this would be the beginning of a new type of female lead in the companion role. Women would save the day and even the Doctor. They’d gain supernatural abilities, defend galaxies, fly TARDISes, fight Time Wars and save the universe. Doctor Who makes the message (or at least tries to) that us girlies are not just the sidekicks but key parts of the journey too. Most fans agree the show has plenty of strong female leads, even if there are still critiques to be made about agency and sexualisation.

But all that glitters isn’t gold. Whilst it can be agreed women shouldn’t be limited to the role of companion, there are many demographics of women yet to be included in the companion role even if it is the bare minimum, Using intersectionality as a framework for Doctor Who’s female representation, there’s still a long way to go. There are only three women of colour who are companions in the main show. There are only two female companions of colour from them that are canonically queer. Only two are Black. Only one is South Asian. There is only one doctor who is a Black woman and she is not in the main lineup. There are no East Asian, Latina or Indigenous main female companions. There are no trans or disabled women as companions. There are no female companions that are dark-skinned women (close to Ryan or Fugitive Doctor’s complexion). When fans ask for more female representation I’ve questioned many times what or who they imagine. Even when we look at the female lead progress of the show a pattern merges; the first companion of Classic Who, the first companion of Nuwho, the first female master, the first Time Ladies and the first female leader of UNIT are all white women. Most companions of the show both classic and new are white women. So when Jodie Whittaker was cast as Thirteen I wasn’t quite sure how to feel. It was a huge moment as the Doctor themselves had never been played by a woman before. Girls across the fandom shared their excitement and joy, sharing group photos of blonde cosplayers excited for Thirteen’s era. And yet, I felt like something was missing. Whittaker got tribute videos from fans who looked up to her and was continuously asked about the importance of representation on screen, whilst Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole sat quietly beside her. I thought the first South Asian Muslim companion and first full-time Black male companion were just as big achievements as casting Whittaker for Thirteen and still do. But the show and fandom didn’t seem to think so. Some women of colour tried to express this disappointment back in 2017, but were met with ‘wait your turn’ or ‘at least you have Bill and Martha’. Don’t worry! You’ll get your POC Doctor one day!

7 years on, this progressive irony has yet to be addressed by the greater fandom. I’m not asking for Doctor Who to treat every marginalised group as a list to tick off and I don’t expect it to perfectly represent my experiences to the letter, but I do expect an allegedly progressive show and fandom to practice what they preach at the absolute bare minimum. If white marginalised genders can recognise how the companion role, despite growing to become more fulfilling and meaningful, is still the side character to a role historically played by a cishet white man, and that playing the lead themselves is, essentially, the greatest form of representation to have in the show… it begs three questions:

1. Why are Black fans then expected to settle for that ‘lesser’ companion role? 

2. Why do we not deserve to have the ‘greatest form’ of representation as the lead? 

3. Why is casting a Black man as the lead in a show that has only had three Black male leads, two Black male companions and only one that travelled full-time a step back, but a white woman in a show where most female leads are white women already a step forward?

Even when we finally got our ‘POC Doctor’ by Jo Martin, she was another side character. Fugitive’s role was to add to the Timeless Child Mystery and once that was completed, she was a get-out-jail-free hologram in the last series of the Whittaker era. Our first form of Black representation as the lead was still a supporting role. Women of colour in the fandom, Black women especially, had to wait our turn yet again. Ncuti Gatwa is a man and I am not, so I know there are limits on the extent I’ll relate to Fifteen in the same way there were limits for Thirteen. But looking at representation statistically, Black men in Doctor Who are not outnumbering white women, so this idea of a ‘stepback’ is just disingenuous and incredibly antiblack. Many fans shared their ideal doctor castings for after Gatwa and even in place of him. Minus the occasional Lydia West and T’Nia Miller cosign, most of these castings were white women; Olivia Coleman, Gillian Anderson, Tilda Swinton, Phoebe-Waller Bridge etc. Apart from the need to replace our first Black male doctor before his era even began being wild in itself, I thought about who is the idea of female representation in Doctor Who. Gatwa is dark-skinned, but the ‘replacements’ minus T’Nia Miller were not. I want to believe the ‘but he’s a man’ backlash and ‘oh but we only meant white men!’ rebuttals came from a genuine place of hurt from certain parts of Thirteen’s stanbase. However, the continued dismissal of Black fans of all genders who rightfully critique Chibnall’s neglect of the Fugitive, the surprise that conservative white men still rejected Ncuti Gatwa ‘even though he’s a man’ when manhood has never saved Black men from antiblack racism and the treatment of the show’s first Black female companion, Martha Jones, that is still yet to be addressed by allegedly misogyny-concerned fans has me very, very pessimistic. If Ncuti Gatwa was a woman would this response be different? Only time will tell and if we get a dark-skin Black woman in the main lineup one day, we’ll see if this support comes through for real. I’m going to wait and see what Fifteen can provide for the show and wait for my ‘perfect fit’ casting to arrive just as other fans who are Black women have done since day. I hope that white marginalised genders waiting with us ask not why they have to wait, but why is this the first time that they have ever had to.

<- Chapter 1

Chapter 3 ->

[being-of-rain]

73 Yards is an episode of Doctor Who. Kinda.

They just put a little horror movie in the middle of the season! And I enjoyed it! I think a big reason I'm really enjoying this season is that it's taking some big swings, trying some unique stuff. Of course I wish we had 13 episodes, but I'd rather 8 episodes that get experimental with it than a hundred by-the-numbers stories (Sorry Nick Briggs). (Sorry for the drive-by at Nick Briggs, it's just hard to resist sometimes).

This episode certainly took advantage of the supernatural available to it, as I hoped this season would. And by playing into the rules of horror (and Doctor Who is allowed to be any genre it wants,) it left a lot up to interpretation, which was very interesting and had my girlfriend and I discussing it for a while after it ended. I thought it was drawing some connection between ancient curses and right-wing politics, which is fair. And watching Ruby weaponise her ancient Welsh curse to make the prime minister resign was very funny and satisfying. I think I saw people somewhere talk about how a common thread through a lot of the situations and horrors was isolation and ostracism, which is a thread I want to pull on next time I watch it. Which might not be soon, because (as I might expect from RTD,) this was a bit bleak for me to be a common rewatch. But I love seeing people's various theories on the episode, keep 'em coming.

As for Ruby... I hate to say it, but I don't think this episode really endeared her to me more than any other. She's still a great performance by Millie Gibson (the youngest-looking 40 year old on the planet, bless this show,) and she's still a very capable protagonist. But personally, I'm just not getting anything more interesting than that from her. I'm glad the show so far hasn't been putting a crazy amount of stress on the fact she's adopted, but it hasn't given her any issues to replace that. I've seen people read some interesting stuff into her after this episode, but I didn't get any of it from the episode itself. I didn't even really know what she was thinking while she was growing old alone; you can assume 'sad,' but the episode didn't pause to give me anything more than assumptions. I should move on instead of saying this every episode, but I was hoping this ep would change my mind. Maybe she's one of the rare companions I just won't really click with. Or maybe, like Ryan, she'll become my favourite just before she leaves. Then again, aren't we getting a second companion next season? I'd love a new dynamic.

What else? Kate! She was a pleasant surprise, being as helpful as ever (sorry Kate) and making this her 10th episode! Which feels weird to say about a character who's had like 48 episodes of her own spin-off audio show. Oh but you know what else is weird to say? Kate's line "I think this timeline might be suspended along your event." What are you talking about Kate?? How would you even know that?! I assume the line's there to future-proof the episode against later Dr Who plots interfering with this one, but since when does Dr Who care about that. The line feels so out-of-place and meta (as well as kind of spoiling the ending by immediately making me think 'oh so this whole timeline is going to get undone then,') that I think they shouldn't have bothered.

Anything else to say? It felt a little weird that the episode takes a stand against the stereotype of rural Welsh people being isolated and insular by having a bunch of rural Welsh people be cruel to a nice person just because she's an outsider. Oh and they acknowledged Susan Twist's appearance in each episode then, I'm curious what that will turn into.

Speaking of season mysteries, I keep seeing the fan-theory 'they're in a TV show' turn up everywhere online. Which is a cool idea that Dr Who could pull off, but I've yet to see a single piece of convincing evidence for it. Keep coming up with bizarre and unsupported theories Who fans, don't ever change.

Oh and here's a really niche and petty complaint! I wish the show would stop using the phrase 'perception filter'. I think when it was first used, in series 3 I think, it was about something relatively specific, technology that Time Lords use to make something not draw attention (unless attention is drawn to it). But since then the phrase has been rolled out for shape-changing, invisibility, natural abilities as well as technology by any species under the suns, it can affect your memories, and hey now magic Welsh curses use it too. Personally, I think it's lost all meaning and feels a lot more like cheap and lazy writing than worldbuilding.

Okay! Those thoughts turned into me saying I loved the episode then listed a bunch of very petty complaints. But I did love it! More magic please. Maybe slightly happier one.

I'm not sure there's anything in the second half of this season I'm really hyped for, but after enjoying the first half a lot, I'm curious what'll turn up!

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Doctor Who, but Chronologically 25

I know I know, haven't done this in a while. Check the tag for past instalments

But it's 1905! One year on from all that Flux stuff, and while Jodie Whittaker is back as the Doctor and Yaz is here again we nonetheless have Graham and Ryan back too and no Dan, so who knows when all that's getting resolved. Meanwhile we're in New York meeting Nicola Tesla, who is played by Damien Moreau.

This is a painfully average episode. On the one hand it's fun and features space scorpions. On the other the companions do pretty much nothing this episode, so it's yet another example of "Why are these people here". Yaz comes closest to being relevant by convincing Tesla not to give into a scorpion queen while they're on her ship, but honestly, you could replace all three with sexy lamps and nothing would change about the plot.

Not a lot of plot happens really, and it doesn't happen for 45 minutes. Turns out Tesla has received a signal from Mars, which of course is currently full of Ice Warriors evicting the British Empire, so maybe that's what he picked up? Except everyone thinks he's mad, which is strange, since Britain literally colonised Mars to steal gemstones like two episodes ago. Honestly, it's almost like these episodes were filmed several series apart with completely different production teams.

Anyway Tesla signalled back, but it was asshole space scorpions, and now they want to kidnap him to make him upgrade their weapons or something. They have a queen who is fully humanoid and also played by Rani from the Sarah Jane Adventures. The rest of them literally just look like scorpions. This is a very Legend of Zelda approach to character design.

The episode is mostly a philosophical treatise about dreaming engineers who want to save the world being hamstrung by capitalism, so that's great, but tbh it's thin on character-work. There's a dreary bit where the Doctor phones the scorpion queen and says they aren't handing over Tesla so the scorpions should leave or else, and the scorpion queen says they'll kill the planet in that case, and the Doctor looks flabbergasted even though that was very literally what the scorpions had already said they'd do. I honestly do not understand the shocked reactions at this point. Then Tesla says he has to sacrifice himself in that case, and we get a more toothless rehashing of the Percy Bysshe Shelley vs billions of people debate that we had like ten episodes ago, and once again, lads, once again, I must stress that this is a STUPID way to watch this show.

Eventually they blow up the scorpion ship with the queen on board. How like a Tesla.

Very little in the way of meaningful events! There's a bit where the scorpion queen asks the Doctor if she's ever seen a dead planet and the Doctor says yes and looks a bit haunted. That's about it though. No answers to any of our hanging plot threads, but also no new questions, so we're Winning

Hanging plot thread list:

“She” (an unknown person) is returning (perhaps River returned as Missy. Maybe Me? Maybe Clara???!)

There is something on Donna’s back

An entire planet, Pyrovilia, just… disappeared, somehow. (Maybe because the TARDIS is exploding??? Saturnine was also lost, and that WAS because of the TARDIS exploding. The lion man’s planet was also lost but he was a bit of a knob about it if I’m honest.)

Amy is maybe dead (she’s not)

The Doctor has been cubed (he’s out, but how?)

River is possibly blown up  (unless she’s Missy)

The TARDIS has blown up  (It’s fine now. Except it’s sort of melting now because it’s corrupted, but it’s fine again)

The universe appears to have ended  (the universe is back again)

The Doctor has employed(?) Nardole (And Nardole was “reassembled???”)

There’s a vault in the TARDIS and it contains Missy but we don’t know why (sometimes she knocks for the bants)

What has happened to all these companions and where are the new ones coming from?

There’s an immortal Viking girl now. Her name is Me and she’s now looking after the people the Doctor abandons

What’s With The Silence?

Why was Rory entirely unconcerned by the entire world suddenly going silent when that is Not Normal and should have been, at the very least, extremely disconcerting?

What did the Doctor do to Queen Lizzie One?

Who is Captain Jack Harkness? (Is he the one who gave the companions a warning about the lone cyberman?)

Why is Amy seeing a one-eyed woman in a vanishing window?

What’s with the Doctor’s future involving getting shot by an astronaut?

Is Amy pregnant and why is it inconclusive?

Who is Sarah-Jane Smith?

How is the Doctor Bill’s teacher and why/where does he have an office?

What is going on with the Cyber War and the Cyberium???

Who did the Doctor lose to Cyber Conversion?

What happened with the Other Cyber War?

What happened with the Third War that deleted the void?

Why does Rose seem particularly important?

What’s with the Weeping Angel statues, and why can’t you blink at them?

What order do these Doctors go in? (Eccleston, Tennant, uncertain, Smith, Capaldi.)

Which companion just… forgot the Doctor, and how?

Yaz and Vinder are about to die as Mori/Mwri/Muuri

There is a Lupari shield around Earth.

What’s a Time War?

What’s the Rift?

What’s Bad Wolf?

What happened with Amy’s pregnancy?

In which war did the Doctor become a war criminal, and how?

Who is the Master?

Why has Amy forgotten Rory?

Is Rory plastic or not?

Why is the Doctor sulking on a cloud?

How exactly does the Doctor have a cloud?

What exactly happened with Strax to, uh, tame him?

Which friend killed Strax?

Which friend brought Strax back?

Where did this lesbian lizard and human couple come from?

What happened with Clara as Souffle Girl and the Daleks?

How does Clara actually join?

Why so many Claras?

Why is Missy apparently in robo-heaven?

Why is probably!Missy pushing Clara and the Doctor together?

What is Trensilor and what happened there?

Who is Handles?

The Doctor is about to be dissolved by a beautiful geode man

The universe is being crushed by the Flux

Will the Doctor open the fobwatch?

Sontarans are invading Earth again

Who is Kate?

Who is Osgood? Another name of Clara’s again?

The fuck is the deal with the Grand Serpent

[gwendolynnderolo]

why jodie whittaker was set up to fail

so i have many thoughts about jodie whittaker's run as the doctor and i would like to say that i absolutely loved her as the doctor and was so disappointed by how her arc was handled. i have thought in great detail about why her seasons were worse than the other doctors' and i believe i have cracked the code. this is going to be very long so i will put it below the cut.

so first of all, the situation that jodie whittaker was put in was very similar to the situation that matt smith was in going into season 5. new doctor, new companion, and a new showrunner who was now tasked with simultaneously revamping the show while not taking away what made it great. but while steven moffat handled this transition flawlessly, chris chibnall handled his…less so.

there were many things that made the transition into 11 great. first of all, the very first episode with him thoroughly established his character and his relationship with amy, while also establishing a strong baseline for amy’s character and showing the beginnings of her character arc. rory is introduced in the first episode, but really just in relation to amy and not as his own character yet. second of all, you get several episodes to explore 11 and amy’s dynamic before rory is brought into the mix, and even then rory’s development is largely connected to amy’s character arc. by the time rory is a more permanent character, amy is already a complex character who has undergone considerable development, which allows some more exploration and growth for rory’s character. and finally, moffat knew how to balance nostalgia with novelty. there’s a good mix of old and new villains in season 5, and all the new villains are compelling and interesting. the overarching season storyline only ever adds to the season as a whole, and the inevitable conclusion is satisfying and has a good build up.

on the other hand, chris chibnall failed on almost every possible front with the transition to 13.

jodie whittaker was already at a disadvantage going into her season, as she was replacing a beloved doctor who'd been around for three seasons and was going to be the first female doctor. 13's character is established fairly well in the first episode, with many awesome moments such as her building her own sonic screwdriver and knowing that she needs to help people even when she doesn't remember who she is. however, introducing three brand new companions, all with their own complex issues and interpersonal relationships, and trying to establish their characters, their relationships to each other, and their relationships to the doctor in the span of a single episode was an impossible task. the impact of this carried throughout the rest of the season, with many plotlines being underdeveloped or dropped entirely: yaz's experience being a WOC police officer, ryan's disability, graham and ryan trying to build a relationship after grace's death, etc. since there was simply not enough time to properly introduce any of the companions, the rest of the season was spent doing catch up while also trying to completely (and unnecessarily) reinvent the show. a companion group is always difficult to juggle, especially when the individual companions are not properly fleshed out and their individual relationships with each other and the doctor are not fully explored.

another huge issue with season 11 is something that has bothered me since the first time i watched it: the complete lack of returning villains/monsters. every prior season has had a mix of new aliens and old aliens, allowing each season to feel unique while still staying true to the spirit of the show. chris chibnall chose to break this pattern for some inexplicable reason, instead inventing a new alien every single episode, with varying levels of success. a lack of connection to previous seasons automatically gave this season a different feeling, and not in a good way. bringing back villains such as the daleks and the cybermen create a feeling of consistency between the different doctors and allow the audience to clearly see the similarities and differences between each doctor. with 13 facing all new villains in season 11, it automatically sets her apart from previous doctors, not the brightest idea when she's the first female doctor.

in conclusion, chris chibnall failed to successfully execute the transition to 13 by ignoring precedent and trying to do too much at once and then not following through. follow for more winding rants about doctor who, and let me know your thoughts in the comments/tags!

[mintedwitcher]

Putting aside the controversy of Thirteen's run, I think there's a very simple way that her tenure could've been massively improved, and that's to just cut down the number of companions.

Chibnall has a habit of overloading his casts, and it's objectively awful each time. (Staring directly at you, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, six leads what were you thinking?!)

What I would've done, personally, is split up the "fam" early on. Let that first episode be the same, introducing these characters to the Doctor. But here's where I'd change it:

When offered to travel, Graham and Ryan say no. They're grieving, they've just lost a family member, one that they both loved so much. That loss brings the two of them closer, but they don't need a big fancy adventure to cement that. They say no, and they stay home.

Yaz, however, says yes. Partly because the Doctor is a new mystery, and as (excuse me while I gag) a policewoman, Yaz is going to be drawn to that. But also because she's bored of her life. She's working a job that's sticking her with low-level calls (understandably, she's new), and she's just so bored of it, so when the Doctor promises a trip and that they can get back "in just five minutes," Yaz agrees.

First series companion: Yaz. Just her and the Doctor. This gives them more time to build a genuine friendship and bond, unlike the actual canon which was... surface level at best all around. Let them understand one another, have Yaz bring out the Doctor's sillier, feminine side (since she was most Definitely masculinised to try and appeal to the fanbase). Let them have some fun adventures, some thrilling ones, some dangerous ones, and let them become the Besties we know in our hearts they should've been. (We got bits of that in series 13 before the cast was bloated again, but like. Imagine a full series of that dynamic. The sheer badass potential. I crave it.)

Next series, something happens closer to home, and Yaz decides to become a part-time companion instead, choosing to stay on Earth more frequently than dashing off with the Doctor, staying with her family, working her normal job with the satisfaction of knowing that she's not cut off from the Doctor for good. (More akin to the 11/Ponds dynamic, rather than the Doctor's usual practice of vanishing on past companions.)

As for who would 'replace' her as a full time companion, I'd like it to be Ryan for a time, but not Graham yet. As much as I adore the granddad/grandson dynamic of Ryan and Graham, I think Graham had a tendency to overtake quite often, and Ryan was often the afterthought. I'd love to see Ryan really step up into that role, having gotten through his grief over his grandmother. (During this, I'd like to think that Graham somehow meets and befriends Dan, because he really does need a friend who is not his grandson or his grandson's old school mate, Yaz.)

Ryan and the Doctor could have a lot of really great moments, and I think that having the Doctor travel alone with Yaz first would've prepared her more for the intricacies of social interaction this time around, so she's more adept at handling Ryan's story, and more open to him on an emotional level, almost taking on a parental type role with him.

I think, then, it'd be fitting to have a split-season model (like series 7a and 7b), where Graham finally comes aboard in the later half, convinced to go on "just one trip" with his grandson. We get the family dynamic there between Graham and Ryan, on much more solid ground now that they've had time off-screen to put in the work for their own relationship and grief. We also get Graham taking on a sort of brotherly, almost paternal role towards the Doctor, too, because she looks so young despite her real age, and Graham is just as protective of her as he is of Ryan, and the Doctor is equally protective towards the both of them.

Then, give Thirteen a few episodes fully on her own. Give her the space to take what she's learned from her latest companions and internalise it, give her room to work on her own, either by choice or by necessity. Really delve into this 'new' incarnation of the Doctor, what she's capable of. Three episodes, I'd say. Then, have her go and pick up the 'fam', because she's learned how to ask for help this time around, and she knows she needs her friends by her side for whatever is to come. Along the way we can have her meet Dan, a one-off companion, and a handful of the rest of the bloated cast (seriously how were there so many main characters in a NINE EPISODE SERIES jfc I am taking your pens and keyboards away from you, CC), and etc etc etc.

Just by breaking up the companion structure, suddenly the plot and the characters have so much more room to breathe and become a cohesive unit by the end of it. I understand that Chibnall wanted to shake up the typical formula by having three simultaneous companions, but it just fell flat, and the end result was that none of those characters - even the literal lead of the goddamn show - had any space to develop. Genuinely, if you asked me to recount a single line by ANY of those companions, I couldn't give you an answer. Not a single one. Ask me to do the same for Clara, or Amy, or Rory, or Donna, Martha, Rose, hell even fucking Astrid, and I'd be able to give you a few each, probably verbatim, because those characters were developed.

Sometimes, the formula of a show needs to be shaken up. But sometimes it's been the same for a long time because it works. This is one of those cases.