#speaking on s11-s12. and it's not always like this. in fact the way the timeless child background is delivered is maybe the only time this

[quietwingsinthesky]

okay. i think i've put my finger on what i don't like about thirteen's era. not that i don't like thirteen's era as a whole, mind, i still greatly enjoy it. but the problem is, i think, that there sure is a lot happening! it's all extremely surface level, though!

[handdrawnfantasma]

thoughts abt space hobo show s12 under the readmore (eps 12x3-12x7 because i already know im going to need a separate post for my thoughts for villa of diodati thru the timeless children and then another one for my s12 thoughts as a whole LMAO)

orphan 55, nikola tesla’s night of terror, fugitive of the judoon, praxeus, can you hear me

first off i have heard that some people didn’t like orphan 55 or praxeus very much because of how anvilicious the climate change message was........ my argument is that Some Anvils Need To Be Dropped and tbh i don’t think either episode was less fun or enjoyable to watch regardless?? i would say that orphan 55 probably carried the concept of it off BETTER, Praxeus featured a LOT of science-speak for a 50-minute episode that kind of threw me out of the story a little bit at times, but there was still a lot to like about both episodes. (if i’m being honest, Praxeus was mostly saved by the one-shot characters. the storyline between Jake and his astronaut boyfriend Got Me and also?? Gabriella?? what a GOOD single-episode character. more of this please)

the writing in 13′s era sure does remain Committed to its themes and to using those themes to foreshadow and support where its overall arc is heading too, huh. like, orphan 55 WORKED because it was the episode that came immediately after spyfall pt 2, where 13 discovers that the Master razed Gallifrey and you get that shot of the destroyed citadel. you then have an episode dealing with a potential future of Earth where it’s a wasteland populated by the mutated remnants of humanity, you have that moment where 13 sees the russian sign in the tunnels and realises what planet this is and then tries to hide that painful truth from the fam (and they of course are having none of it)............ i can’t put into words how and why that Works so well but like, something something the Doctor won’t let herself deal with having lost Gallifrey again and doesn’t want her fam to have to deal with even a POTENTIAL future where they see the truth of Orphan 55 for what it is something something........ OH even the theme of family!! the Fam declaring themselves as 13′s family in spite of how she’s been keeping herself at arms’ length from them, the contrast between THIS found family (and like. the Doctor is always picking up found family, it’s kind of their thing, but if we’re just focusing on THIS particular series), and their original very bad no good quote unquote found family that we are only going to find out about in the series finale, like................... s12 is feeding me all parallels all the time and i’m a sucker for that, i eat it up

what was i talking about. OH YEAH THEMES, the themes of identity and outcasts and people contributing to the progress of society but going unrecognised and unrewarded for it present in Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror............ (the whole. part where he insists he’s an American citizen despite how much vitriol he’s getting, the anecdote Edison tells about him promising a rich reward to the person who fixed that machine and then when Tesla did it only offering him a $10 raise, the fact that the Doctor IMMEDIATELY sees Tesla as a kindred spirit like........ knowing what i know about where the series is going This Was All Very Deliberate)........ the way the identity and the “how much of what we do or don’t know about our own history affects ourselves and our identity and our own perception of that?” themes raised for Yaz in Demons of the Punjab in s11 come back in a very personal way for Thirteen in Fugitive of the Judoon.............. the lies our loved ones tell to us now becoming a very personal and sore point that’s opening up a chasm between 13 and the fam but also affecting the companions’ relationships with their own lives on Earth.......... you really can’t engage with 13′s era unless you are fully on board with the themes it’s been putting down huh. i enjoy this

i also enjoy how the Timeless Child arc has been unfolding??? it’s felt like something very natural and organic and i honestly love how little it’s relied on Arc Words in the way that past doctor who Series Arcs(tm) have. like Spyfall sets it up and then it continues to thread its way throughout s12, sometimes in ways that are more subtle (13′s mood in Orphan 55, Suki and the development of the praxeus cure in Praxeus acting as a thematic callback/call-forward to stuff that will be picked up later), sometimes in ways that are more blatant (the entirety of Fugitive of the Judoon, 13′s nightmare in Can You Hear Me?). like. sometimes you don’t HAVE to hit your audience over the head with your plot arc and wave it around while making big speeches about it, sometimes it can just be a thing that’s more subtly pervasive, and it’s okay if that’s not your bag when it comes to storytelling but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad storytelling lmao. Chibs told you literally in the SECOND EPISODE of s11 that the Timeless Child was gonna be a thing and that it is connected to the Doctor (the ribbon thingies peering into 13′s head and announcing “we see further back! the timeless child [...] we see what’s hidden even from yourself, the outcast, abandoned and unknown”) LIKE. IT’S NOT HIS FAULT IF YOU’RE NOT PICKING UP WHAT HE’S PUTTING DOWN, HE WAS PRETTY BLATANT ABOUT IT LMAOOOOO this is part of the reason why 13′s series definitely work better when viewed as a whole, Chibs is playing SUCH a long game here

i also want to talk about the character development because it’s still so good. Graham and Ryan got the bulk of their character development done already in s11 + Resolution and this means you get to see them really shining with that in s12, but also continuing it?? the difference and development in Ryan especially is so lovely, i love how he’s kind of taken on a sort of role in the adventures that Rose would often take back in 9 and 10′s day, connecting with the people the Fam run into on their adventures, being the most human element and the most in tune with their emotions and the way in which the adventures affect everyone on the TARDIS....... he’s matured so much, i love how positive his character development has been and how much growth is there. i also think it’s really telling how as of 12x7, RYAN is the one worrying the most about how his absence affects his loved ones on Earth. like you can tell he gets so much out of travelling with the Doctor but the fact that he SEES the effect it’s having on his best friend and that this worries him, enough that it shows up in his nightmares?? the fact that the Dregs from Orphan 55 also showed up in his nightmares, showcasing how his travels have affected him but also showing with that simple fact how much he cares about what happens to his own planet now??? GOD i love Ryan Sinclair sooooo much

i don’t have much to say about Graham bc i think his arc was more or less complete in s11, but like, the results of that arc are so great. i love how Graham is more out of his shell and like Ryan does, brings that human element, and is also just. so supportive?? whether it’s talking back to Thomas Edison or offering emotional support and grandad advice to Jake, he’s just. im love him. he can join Wilf in the cool old man companions club

i also LOVE how you can now see Yaz’s character arc properly taking off, like, she got some development back in s11 with seeing her family in Arachnids in the UK, the story about her bullying and depression she shared with Willa in the Witchfinders, and of course with Demons of the Punjab, but in s12 you can really start to see how travelling with the Doctor has given Yaz the sense of purpose that she was looking for when she went into the police (but never quite got), and how she’s become more confident and is taking the lead on adventures, picking up temporary companions of her own, becoming good enough at this that 13 trusts her to handle parts of their adventures alone if Yaz says she can......................... i have meta brewing in my head comparing and contrasting Clara and Yaz because while Yaz is definitely having a bit of a “companion becomes the Doctor” arc, Yaz’s arc feels very very different to Clara’s??? if i had to summarise it as it stands now in my head i would say that Clara becomes the Doctor but in the Worst way possible, because 12 and Clara were wrapped up in each other’s flaws and pushed one another to extremes, whereas because 13 keeps her fam at arm’s length, Yaz kind of has to teach herself how to be more Doctor-like and she does it in her own way....... Yaz embodying more of the ideal of what it means to Be The Doctor whereas Clara ends up being more of the messy reality??? i have no idea what im talking about but i think i have something here

speaking of the Doctor, ALSO still loving 13′s character development this series. love how she’s still trying really REALLY hard to run from her past and to Be The Doctor (she’s REALLY trying so hard) but that is becoming increasingly difficult for her as her past keeps coming back to haunt her, including the bits of it she has literally no idea about. love how you can see the strain of it affecting her relationship with the fam. i’m losing my mind a little bit over a LOT of 13 in Can You Hear Me?, like......... leaving the Fam at home and then seriously considering just taking the TARDIS straight to the time she agreed to pick them up so that she doesn’t have to be alone with herself and her thoughts??? talking to herself when she ends up being places alone??? and yet STILL keeping the fam physically and emotionally at arm’s length and refusing to let them in even though she’s Struggling and they can See she’s Struggling (like?? she’s still keeping her scanners open looking for the Master?? when she’s not with the Fam on adventures she goes back to the ruins of Gallifrey???????? DOCTOR!!!!) this stuff is so telling like....... Doctor Please Seek Help Challenge. (also love how we’re seeing more of the Doctor’s ruthlessness, the way she dealt with the antagonists in NTNOT and CYHM was........ Wow Doctor. love to see that mask continuing to peel off. i think the entire sequence with the Fugitive Doctor tricking Gat into blowing herself up with the laser rifle (while genuinely begging her not to shoot, of course) also gets lumped in here. the Doctor really doesn’t like being confronted with their own “i got clever, started tricking people into taking their own [lives]” part of their M.O huh)

SPEAKING OF GAT, SHE WAS GREAT, i hope Big Finish does stuff with her when they’re allowed to do stuff with things from 13′s era. LOVE seeing examples of Peak Gallifrey Time Lord Bullshit. i want to know EVERYTHING about her history with the Doctor and with Division. (i also laughed when she realised that 13 and ruth!doctor were the same person and she was like EW NO TWO OF THE SAME TIME LORD CAN’T BE IN THE SAME PLACE THAT’S AN ABOMINATION like........ for starters the Doctor has broken the first law of time more times than we can count, for second, how’s that broken web of time treating you)

i think the only other thing i wanted to talk about was Can You Hear Me? and specifically the ending of it because apparently the BBC had to issue an apology about 13 and Graham’s conversation at the end and now that i’ve seen it i’m like................ Annoyed?? like, yeah, 13 didn’t handle it with oodles of emotional intelligence, but when has ANY doctor been good at that. like honestly 10, 11 (ESPECIALLY 11) and 12 have brushed off/treated their companions coming to them with stuff like that much worse than 13 did????? where was the outcry about them??????? 13 was actively listening, she let him talk without interrupting, and then when she was sure he’d said everything he wanted to say she admitted that she KNEW she should be saying something reassuring but that she didn’t know what she SHOULD say, narrating her movements and what was going through her head so that Graham knew she’d been paying attention and just couldn’t handle it well, like................... honestly i liked that a lot. it made sense for the Doctor as a character and especially THIS doctor who isn’t good with anything below surface level but also cares so deeply about her companions?? (13 tries really hard with her companions. like. she keeps them at arm’s length but she REALLY wants them to be safe and to enjoy their travels with her, and not all of that stems from her desire for them to like her) and like on a personal level, i also liked it bc it’s so rare to see a depiction of a character in fiction who Cares but isn’t good at reassuring words. there’s so much pressure to Talk about things these days and like....... some people just aren’t good at Talking, some people deal with things differently, and some people offer support in a way that isn’t Words? like one of my best friends is USELESS with words but she’s still the person i sobbed down the phone to when i was having relationship issues, bc i knew she would listen and she cared and that mattered more than having someone who would Say all the Right(tm) things........................................... i dunno i am just Annoyed at people bc that conversation and that moment really hit different for me in a way that touched me

WHY DO THESE KEEP GETTING SO LONG. chris chibnall i am sueing you for damages, ie making me care about doctor who again