#still loving and trusting tecteun

[rowanthestrange]

Genuinely though, who could Mrs Flood actually be? “Always hiding myself away” is definitely a relevant line.

What do we know: She can see the cameras. While hiding she still has her memories and can recognise a TARDIS. She is keeping around the Sundays. Is first seen after Ruby gets off a bus. Asks “Isn’t it your birthday, love?” to Ruby but doesn’t wish her a happy one. She is trusted enough to keep an eye on Cherry. She has arguments with the neighbour even when she knows the problem isn’t his fault. Fit - runs. Sat outside her house with blanket on lap, watching the TARDIS - not waiting for the Doctor to come out but Ruby to go in and leaves as soon as she does. Is secretly holding something in her hand and this is the best glimpse:

Looks like a notebook with those metal-edge things perhaps? It’s hidden in the blanket the rest of the time, this is the only shot of it I can see. She puts it down along with the blanket. (Trainspotter?)

She is given an absolutely banger theme.

However she is not particularly nice and sweet to Cherry, who when saying she wants a cup of tea is told “well we don’t always get what we want”. Didn’t say please admittedly. Cherry is supposed to take tablets which just the mention thereof seems concerning. She is aware what is going on with Sutekh and status as The One Who Waits. Refers to them as a storm ala the Doctor. But isn’t interfering just watching.

Instinctively with all that fourth wall breaking, you do kind of have to jump to Iris Wildthyme. Who has been sketchy before admittedly, though the vibes seem a little riskier here, and she’s not much of a planner - like the Doctor just bimbling around in her smaller on the inside bus, usually off her tits. We have seen the bus around and they’re still using one for their promos and at the release events.

But what alternatives are there? The Master is very accounted for (and can’t imagine her even claiming to do fun runs) but Missy energy is ok. The Rani is opposite vibes (if you’ve not seen Classic Who, Tecteun but the Doctor’s schoolmate instead of mother). Romana is definitely more on the regal end and Mrs Flood feels scrappy. River isn’t being a dick to an old woman. Nor Susan. None of the classic/audio Time Lords feel fitting. None of the Higher Powers like Omega or Rassilon. Clara can’t regenerate and while bitch (affectionate) feel like an old woman who’s relying on her is at worst getting ignored, though is closest vibe wise and with the collar, but crucially is technically-dead-but-moving and wasn’t given regenerations.

Genuinely who else even feels vaguely like they fit the bill? I feel like I can’t even differential diagnose her.

If she’s unknown Pantheon, why would she even need to hide?

[ohmerricat]

ykwhat i still kind of hate the timeless child plot for the way that it ruins the master/doctor dynamic as being two sides of the same coin that grew up in identical conditions, but i’ve grown to enjoy what they’re doing with it in flux. and same with the division: it could have just been the cia (especially with the discovery that they removed their centre of operations from the boundaries of the universe. just call it the celestis you cowards. convinced ‘division’ is nothing but an alternate name) but apart from that i don’t dislike the idea that the pre hartnell doctor was a division agent who went rogue because of their moral compass. seeing them meet tecteun is really interesting to watch and in general i’ve been having a lot of fun with series 13. go figure. i also LOVE everything that yaz has been doing and the central strain on her relationship with the doctor (who clearly doesn’t trust her enough to tell her everything despite making yaz believe she’s her closest friend and confidante. who knows. maybe tecteun is right when she accuses the doctor of treating their companions as experiments)

tldr i like the flux serial sorry for awful taste

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

once again thinking about a version of the story where 13 lands in sheffield three years earlier when ryan and yaz are still sixteen and a whole lot angrier

13 turning out a bit more immature bc she spends her first twenty-four hours after regenerating with these reactive and kinda fucked up kids. ryan dealing with grace and graham recently getting married or getting ready to get married. probably feeling abandoned by his grandmother after his mother and father. feeling alone with his grief. maybe kinda just has tibo to confide in. yaz meanwhile is in hell getting bullied and either recently got driven home from a running away attempt and is now dealing with the familial aftermath of that, or is planning the running away. maybe kiiiiiiinda just has sonya to confide in but probably not really. probably doesnt confide in anyone

13, still malleable and fluid, running into these messed up teenagers who reflect all her own lonely angry betrayed abandoned feelings back to her, shaping herself in response to them. they dont trust her at all to start with, but i think she'd win yaz over in a similar way she does in canon, presenting herself as an authority who listens and understands. perhaps slightly more the understanding than authority part at this point in yaz's life. maybe she lands in front of yaz actually in the hills before anita can get there. yaz is like "where the fuck did you come from" and shes like "um the troposphere i think" and yaz is like "how are you not dead" and shes like "oh i was! but then i decided maybe i shouldnt be. so. now im here :) with you!" and that kinda strikes a chord with yaz. and then the doctor's like "do you happen to have a sandwich in that backpack im starving"

then aliens happen and once they run into ryan, yaz is already won over and she and ryan recognise each other and she convinces him that, like, no shes not nuts, theres definitely aliens shes seen them

11x1 would go entirely differently obviously. maybe grace wouldnt die and graham wouldnt travel. ryan maybe decides to travel a little bit out of spite and home doesnt really feel like home, and yaz isnt having fun at home or at school either and she was running away anyway so this is not a hard decision

the emotional instability and bad decision counter of a team tardis thats just 16-year-old yaz and ryan and 13 is kind of amazing to imagine. it'd be so volatile but they'd love each other so much i think they'd be the best friends bc instead of starting off closing herself off from grief, 13 would start off having her justified and irrational anger sort of validated and coaxed out i think by yaz's and ryan's. in the tardis between the three of them there would be a place to express "nobody cares about me" whether thats true isnt the point, i think theyre all feeling it a little bit. "everyone just moved on like mum didnt matter/'tell an adult' like what are they gonna do?/okay it wasnt all their faults but all my friends are dead" you know? i think they'd be heard with each other and i think there'd be space for the injustice of it all and especially as the doctor is like a children's advocate most of all, she would take ryan and yaz seriously in a way i think they wouldnt have been by any other adult in their lives at that point. and in return they, just by being there as they are, would make room for the hurt child that 13 is and will turn out to be

and i dont have details for this but i think it would be really nice if the way 13 listens and takes seriously yaz and ryan in the first season (not like consciously or deliberately or anything, shes not trying to Do anything, this is just who the doctor is) would be mirrored in the second and/or the third when they have calmed down a bit, dealt with some of their issues at home, talked to some family members, become a little less depressed and angry etc, and they return the way she treated them when she finds out abt the timeless child and tecteun. she took their anger seriously and she took them seriously when they said "this isnt fair" and in return they can take her anger seriously, probably are angry on her behalf, and they can stop her from overcorrecting from like being 10 by pointing out to her that this isnt fair and shes allowed to be angry abt it

and when yaz inevitably gets a crush i think it shows up as a kind of out of character/seemingly regressive prickliness and snappiness toward the doctor getting more intense over the course of s12 that ryan and the doctor first are puzzled by bc like sure in the first half of s11 maybe they were all a bit snappish with each other but theyve been friends for like a year now whats this about all of a sudden? and yaz is like Nothing!!!! it's nothing!!! piss of!!! bc shes having feelings she doesnt know what to do with or how to interpret so theyre just manifesting as Angery. that same need to prove herself + probably worry abt the doctor as in canon except a lot more combative and a lot less inhibited. shes probably picking fights abt everything the doctor tells her to do. trying to provoke the doctor into actually getting mad and yelling at her or, god forbid, grabbing her, shoving her, using her hands bc yaz wont listen to words. sometimes youre 17 and horny and you dont understand you want one of your two friends in the world to kiss you bc it hasnt occurred to you that girls kissing girls is a thing that can happen. ryan figures it out first

in this version ryan probably stays until the end too - or the same as in revolution happens and yaz feels betrayed that he'd give up on the doctor so easily and feels alone in the entire world again - graham and dan wouldnt come into the picture. ryan's and yaz's family would come into the picture a little more actively. theres a lot of plot to figure out that i cant and it would be a very different era in many ways but i think it would be nice

[master-missysversion]

Ascension of the cybermen time!!

I'm dedicated to getting series 12 finished tonight, I want to start flux so bad

My liveblogs under the cut

The story of brendan is so much cuter than the actual timeless child story man. Maybe there's an alternate universe where the timeless child was found by someone as loving as that Irish couple

I looove scenes where companions find out the doctor knows about horrifying events in humanity's future. I wonder what the fam would think of the toclafane

Mmhm even though the doctor doesn't like weapons, she's still used to having plenty on hand when it comes to the cybermen. Even that abandoned theme park had a doomsday bomb on hand

I looove the cyberdrones, theyre so funky. Best thing since the cybermats 😄

Wooahh stunts.

God I love the doctor in this. I think she's so scarred from Bill, she desperately wants them to just leave and go far away from the cybermen. In that last mission with Bill, she thought everything would be fine, then she thought she could save Bill, then thought she could fix her. She knows better now. But I think she need to believe in herself more, because we all know what happens when the doctor assumes she'll lose...

Oohh it's Ashad

This is such a serious scene but the doctor runs so silly I love her

"I used to do this a lot and people got mad" story of your life i think 😆

Now what do you have ginger humbugs for girl 🤭

Sorry Ashad I can say with certainty that you will not be bringing about the end of humanity fhdjkddls

"Have to bill you for therapy at this rate" 😭😭

The brendan story as an allegory for the timeless child is so fascinating to me purely because there's parts of it that just....aren't quite right. Like the loving parents and the cliff fall being more malicious instead of accidental. Iirc the story was created by Tecteun so some of the changes make sense (the loving parents- tecteun sees herself as a saviour) but why the other changes? Just to make it make more sense? To seem more unremarkable?

A fully functional abandoned ship.....if its sounds too good to be true, it probably is

Graham is lowkey so doctory. "Are you gonna keep going on about that" "every hour, on the hour", "level 139, always been my favourite level." Over explaining his weird little phrases. And that reaction to being flirted with lol. It's all very doctor.

I feel bad that this Ko Sharmus guy ends up dying for nothing basically

Aw Yaz is very Doctory too. She has the doctors optimism.

I love that the brendan story is like. Everything is perfectly normal. Until you look a little too closely. Or watch a little too long. But even if someone had watched the whole thing, if theyre not familiar with earth customs, they might just assume everyone who retires from the garda gets their memory wiped. But even so, if they're paying attention then theyll probably find it a bit odd that brendan had aged but his loving father and supportive superior officer (who are now both torturing him and wiping his memory) haven't aged at all somehow. It's such a good allegory for the story of tecteun and the other higher ups exploiting the timeless child for endless life (thus lack of ageing) then betraying them after initially posing as someone to be trusted

GALLIFREY

Kicking my legs and clapping rn LOOK WHOS HERE

OH. I forgot it just ends right after he appears aahhh dbjsksmd what a cliffhanger

[capybaraonabicycle]

When Flux's Tecteun was first shown, she reminded me of this woman. Which pretty much meant I guessed she might be Tecteun and now means I am convinced this woman is her, too. Which is interesting, because I hate Tecteun more than anybody else in the Whoniverse - with possible exception of Kovarian - and this woman is framed in a very positive light.

But it would make sense for her to be Tecteun; if the Time Lords tried to flee the war I bet she would be important and cunning enough to be there with them. She would also have possible reasons for trying to prevent Rassilon from succeeding and hence helping the Doctor. Maybe just because she has other plans for the time war, maybe because she has a fixed idea of which events can be influenced and which can't, just like the Doctor.

If she is indeed Tecteun (and like, I know RTD did not intend that, obviously) her portrayal here is very interesting. Her interaction with the Doctor is so tender and subtle and she seems genuinly worried and hurt. And I think, maybe it's because somewhere deep down Tecteun cares for the Doctor. She is definitely convinced she cares for them but maybe some of it is genuine.

And maybe it shines through here, because she knows they will never know it is her. She knows they don't remember her and maybe they don't know this face anyway and it is unlikely they will link it to her if they ever remember her again. So in this precious moment, Tecteun allows herself to be vulnerable and for a brief moment she allows herself to fully love the person she considers her child.

Or maybe it is all a dream, wishful thinking. Tecteun wants to love the Doctor, she wants to be a mother to them, but there is too much history, too much pain for that to ever happen again. But here is this Doctor, who looks at her with trust because they don't know her and they know and hate Rassilon. And Tecteun just lives the dream, can pretend, for a brief moment, to them and to us and to herself that she cares for them, that she loves them. And the tears aren't real but no one will ever know if she just denies it firmly enough to herself.

That all said, I still very much dislike her. But I can't help liking this woman and that makes it very intruiging to imagine they are one and the same.

[brokenhardies]

some future luna moments that are going to be a joy to write

-her first regeneration experience is time of the doctor, which means we get - and i actually have to verbalise it - loud confused screaming over "how the fuck does the doctor know what colour his internal organs are"

-she gets told about waters of mars before it happens - probably by eleven, twelve or fifteen, bc thirteen's not going to open up to anybody - but, because she loves chaos, her way of saying "don't do this" is more like

-the doctor: *grows a god complex due to luna's incredibly terrible attempt at telling him to stop* luna: *surprised pikachu face*

-luna's intro to the twin dilemma is her walking in right as six strangles peri. "hey guys im back--oh." its less funny than it sounds trust me

-"LUNA! PLEASE! SAVE ME! HE'S GONNA THINK YOU'RE AN ALIEN SPY!" "...uh... i'm not an alien spy?"

-another fun post regen story is luna, seething, watching five rip up fours scarf and having to just stand there

-my favourite genre of luna is her walking in as soon as plot happens - so like for the runaway bride she walks in as soon as donna enters the picture, or for voyage of the damned, she walks in and sees the titanic crashed into the tardis

-and because titanic came out 2 years after she died she does not get the countless references that are being made

-brigadier: why is it when something happens its always you three? jo, three and luna: *look guilty*

-tbh when luna finds out missy is the master she immediately has to be held back from biting her ears off because when you've had to deal with this fucker for so long you start to get sick of the doctor forgiving them because "we're childhood friends 🥺 he doesnt know any better"

-luna and clara have a bit of a rivalry bc they both have similar backstories - i.e. being intertwined with the doctor across his lives. tbh whenever they meet up its just;

-multi doctor stories sometimes also become multi-luna stories, like day of the doctor, twice upon a time etc. for the two doctors, both lunas literally have no idea where two & jamie are from

-luna, finding out the timeless child stuff: see! i always knew you were special and that the master was just jealous of you thirteen, going through multiple different traumas at once: 0_0

-luna still bitch slaps tecteun, hard. "sorry doctor, im slapping your mum, she's a bitch"

-i wanna write a story where luna meets a post regen nine bc one tears and two luna completely not getting when nine says "i need to be alone". "well... let's be alone together." "that isnt how this works"

-luna finds out there's two doctors existing at the same time when fifteen shows her his psychic paper and she sees fourteen's thoughts. and she just looks at him like "what did you do"

-luna sometimes gets piggybacked by the doctors - four being the big one who does it to her, although nine sometimes does it and luna finds that strange

[ssaalexblake]

i’m having It Takes You Away feelings about 13 openly stating that she’s pretty sure Hanne’s dad is dead, but that they’re gonna go do something exceptionally dangerous to go Check and make sure for Hanne instead of just writing him off, in context with 13 asking of Tecteun if she ever tried to take her back to whomever had lost her as a child. Did you Ever think of Me and not yourself? Is the underlying statement. Of course, the answer is a massive no, Tecteun never once thought of that child’s best interests, not once! 

(also, incidentally, i think it’s kind of implied that the child came from another one of those universes, and ITYA was based upon travel between universes and Hanne’s dad being in another.)

Tecteun might not have been actively abusive to the kid before they realised they had something to gain from them, but it is noted that they used the kid as a hobby science experiment to examine casually even before the regeneration reveal. The child in these sequences is obviously not scared, truly looks like they love and trust her, but even then they were just a hobbyist experiment for her to pay attention to and blithely ignore when not interested (which, incidentally, is what let to the kid having a tussle at a cliff top and falling and dying. Negligence). 

The thing that seems to kill 13 the most is not what was done to her, but how Tecteun never bothered to even Try to get her home. 

But like, it’s nice people are still believing Tecteun’s Gotcha!!! moment about them being similar. That was not a gotcha, that was a blatantly absurd statement that is refuted over and over again. 

That they escaped Gallifrey and Tecteun and then built themself into the type of person who puts their own life in danger on the off chance this scared and isolated disabled child still has a living parent out there somewhere says everything you need to know about the cause of their bad behaviour in the past. The doctor is not thinking of herself, she is only thinking of Hanne, and that right there is why they are not the same. Tecteun has only Ever thought of themself. 

[picnokinesis]

No matter how many friends she has, the Doctor has always stood alone. She doesn't know why. She was an outcast in her people, and whilst she searches so desperately from friendships, especially from creatures so kind as humans, it's like us with dogs. They will love us but they will never truly understand us and what we experience.

The Doctor is alone in the world, always has been, always will be. It's why her kindness is a radical act. Loneliness can make monsters of us all, and that's why she chooses peace, hope and love.

But the most painful part of it is that there truly is nothing and no one like her in the universe. To some degree, that’s always been the case - the Doctor has never been like the other Time Lords. The only person who has ever been remotely like her is the Master, and even he went a very different way to her. But she’s never felt like she belonged anywhere, has she? An outcast amongst her own, just as you said - and then even on Earth, the planet that she’s said feels more like home than Gallifrey...she doesn’t belong there, either, not really. She will never be truly human, because she isn’t. She can’t be. 

And then, after the Time War, when she thought her people gone by her own hand - she was alone. There was no one left who knew what the night sky on Gallifreyan looked like - who knew what it felt like to run through the streets of the Citadel, or through fields upon fields of rolling red grass beneath a burning orange sky. She was the only one left to remember the songs they used to sing, the stories they used to tell - and if she died, or if she forgot, then they were lost for eternity. She was the last of the Time Lords, and there was no one else in the universe who could understand that. 

And then, of course, they all came back, and then were taken away again, but now that isn’t even the point, because even when she thought she’d saved them, when she thought she wasn’t the last anymore...she still felt alone, didn’t she? She can’t escape it - can’t hide from the fact that even when her people are still alive, even when she forges a family for herself on Earth...no one understands her. No one ever will. No one ever can.

She is not of this universe.

There is, quite literally, nothing else like her.

Because sure, Tecteun experimented on her, stole the secret of regeneration and used it to create the Time Lords as we know it. And sure, maybe every Time Lord is made up of a piece of the Doctor. But they are not like her. She is different - and that difference has just caused her hurt and suffering and death, over and over and over, by the hand of those who should have protected her, who were supposed to love her. Tecteun showed her kindness, only to take it away from her the moment she saw what she could gain. And...the Doctor could have come out of that so differently. She could have become like the Master, she could have take that pain and that betrayal of trust and let it turn her into something twisted and burn everything she came across. But instead...instead, she runs, she explores, she looks for beauty in the universe and she shows kindess. And she stops and makes things better. She doesn’t turn away when children cry.

Because she, once, was that crying child.

And she knows how it is to be alone in a strange world, lost and so, so alone.

And she won’t let anyone else face that on their own. Not on her watch.

[famdommcfanface]

Doctor who thoughts again... This is a long one.

I know the snake guy (can't remember his name, y'know, evil sexy snake guy) was going to be in this episode but I'm still thrilled every time they remind us of that fact

Oh yeah that fucking angel thing. Bullshit. Sorry

Erm they're are angels there that aren't covering their eyes which is very bad. Like... either they're in some kind of dimension where it doesn't matter so why are most of them covering their eyes or big proportions of them are just unable to move. Possibly forever if enough of them have their eyes uncovered.

I love Yaz's period clothing. Obsessed.

They're Indiana Jones-ing I guess. I'd like to think without the colonialism but I'm not sure how

Is that Jericho? Jericho!!!! I love this dude.

Yaz this is theft and destruction of ancient artefacts I'm an archaeologist and Yaz just don't please.

OOD!!!

Ood has a new voice. Hmm. Ah well.

Oh. Her. Forgot about her. Do I want to know?

Exposition time. Thanks.

DYING for Yaz's clothes this episode I mean damn.

Where are these guys getting money from

What is even happening rn I haven't known for weeks now I guess.

YES YAZ I GET IT

It's Spectre! No.

Obsessed with Yaz just murdering people. She didn't even murder him but...

Sexy gay snake guy!! Not sure what he's doing here but I love the period clothing on him.

UNIT!!!!!

If this dude turns out to be a Lethbridge-Stewart... just to say only so many people can be Lethbridge-Stewarts.

Aww!!! Yaz watching the doctor hologram this is adorable they're so in love

I think if Yaz kisses the doctor next episode I'll forgive Chris of everything

That might be an exaggeration but Chris wouldn't you like to find out???

Oh also another exposition time. See, Chris? I nearly got distracted by the gayness! Had there been more gayness I might not have noticed the exposition at all!

I want Dan to be more horrified by the whole dead body thing. Jericho's doing alright but c'mon Dan.

GAY GAY HOMOSEXUAL GAY

She can't be a good guy she's got an ood. The relationship seems like it might be a kind of slavery one.

Oh you're defending the time lord directives now are you doctor?

N-space? I don't even really know what that means but oh wait they're in the void aren't they

KARVINISTA! You gay little bitch

Okay but the void was meant to be like... hell. It wasn't just nothing it was basically hell. I know that's weird but it did happen.

Hey Bel! I still don't trust Tigmi!

Karvinista if you hurt Bel I stg...

Ooh. Creepy.

Chris you love people talking exposition out loud to themselves don't you.

Swarm and Azura! I would die for these bitches.

'you are space how we are time' stfu swarm. stfu Chris.

Stfu weird mystery woman who probably isn't the doctor's mother

Okay I'm lost. No idea what's happening. Can we go back to Yaz being gay in period clothing please?

I'm going to have to read the explanation for this afterwards.

Oh she's so cartoonishly evil what is even the point of this. The division is ripe for moral complexity.

Wait what's her name? Yeah her! Fuck what's her name?

Tecteun! Right! Oh god that means I really don't know what's going on.

Sexy snake guy! You don't understand I'm really excited every time this guy is on screen because I thought he was only going to be in one episode

Oh the brigadier is going to show up isn't he. I think the time period could work. Private Lethbridge-Stewart or whatever.

It's like 'huh. TARDIS. Oh well'

Feel like Jennings (or anyone who turns up in the background) is going to be a classic who reference

Sexy snake guy just lived on earth for like ten years and gave away his cover so fucking quickly... Wait what the fuck I swear that's from men in black.

Huh. That was weird.

Grand serpent! That's it! Knew it was something about snakes!

Oh fuck I really don't know what's happening.

Tecteun honey that's so fucking dumb and you now it. Put the doctor next to the machinery you're using to do it so she doesn't stop it what are you doing

I'm not even sure what this argument is but I know it fills me with rage.

Yeah I don't like this. Something about the doctor complaining about the live she lives... she loves her life? There are other complaints to make? That's not the bad thing she did doctor?

Kind of sick of like six plots happening at once. Where is Yaz being gay in period clothing

Okay I never thought Vinder was dead but for a moment I thought we were meant to think Vinder was dead and that was really funny for some reason

Diane! Wish she'd been in the plot or something but hey.

Dan isn't wearing interesting enough clothes. He deserves more interesting clothes

How can this dude speak English. He's like a Tibetan hermit.

I actually don't mind the comedy character but it would be far less jarring if Chris put some comedy in the rest of the series.

Haha map montage! So ridiculously cliché. Kind of love it.

YASMIN KHAN IF YOU ARE DEFACING THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA I STG...

Okay I guess. That's alright.

Karvinista you gay bitch.

Doctor free the ood!!!

Yeah the universe is really full of ood. It's because the ood masks are reusable unlike things like silurians.

Jesus Christ the flux destroyed like 99.999999999% of all galaxies it looks like

Oh god please don't do the thing I predicted.

Ood you're psychic your whole thing is hearing whispering

That doesn't quite look like proper Gallifreyan, idk.

I love sexy snake guy I'll tell you that much.

*my brain* Prentis... Prentice... wasn't he a mole guy? I feel a very bad conspiracy theory brewing...

Want that spike worm to actually look like a snake.

Oh him. I don't even want to know what his deal is at this point.

Yaz stfu this could be important.

Yes it's a fob watch... wait the doctor could get her memories back? I kind of don't like that.

Yeah I don't understand the whole next universe thing. Not sure what's happening. Could Rose come back? If Rose can't come back I don't care about your whole next universe thing.

Also where the fuck is Kate? I was promised Kate!

Oh wait that was good timing.

Osgood? She's dating Richard Osman now y'know. Just a bit of gossip.

Imagine if he just murdered Kate Stewart... how funny would that be idk.

Huh. I'd expect Kate to have a nicer house than that. Either a big town house thing or maybe something in the country.

Osgood!!!!!!!!

Does Karvinista have Gallifreyan on his leg?

Look. I understand that it's 1904. You don't have to tell me every time.

Ooh go on what is it. Oh is it snake guy. I don't even know what this dude wants. I like his office though.

K. Sontarans. Cool.

The doctor spent this whole episode having a conversation.

And swarm and Azura did fuck all! They've kind of been replaced by a different sexy queercoded villain.

Oh god I really don't know what's happening.

Oh well she's dead I guess huh.

Kate had better actually do something next episode.

Daleks. Yeah I guess.

Oh and the house yeah.

[jojonesneegrant]

So now I find myself bound to point out that the Master has done pretty much everything Tecteun did. The kids he turned into Toclafane trusted him, and he betrayed them. I think the reason we still love him ia because the actors and actress who played him are so charismatic and wonderful. Then there's his rapport with the Doctor. He's the villain we love to hate and hate to love.

[hinerdsitscat]

Timeless Children AU

Okay, but what if the Doctor had found out the Big Reveal on her own, instead of also having to figure out how to stop a Cyber invasion and dealing with the Master being Predictably Petty and Extra all at the same time?

And what if she had been given a few minutes to actually cope with that information?

Well, I wrote A Thing as part of the Where We Belong AU fic:

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

The Doctor went back to Gallifrey over and over, her curiosity finally overwhelming her fear of what that knowledge might do to her.

But there wasn’t an obvious path forward. Not without involving someone else—and while she was verging on desperate, she wasn’t yet desperate enough that she would stoop to tampering with the memories of someone who trusted her.

Wait.

Something else that the Master said: It’s buried deep in all our memories.

Every single Time Lord, walking around with a tiny shard of the answer inside of them.

Every Time Lord.

Even the ones who were long gone.

She started keying in the coordinates, silently praying that there was a location inside the Citadel that still had enough space for her TARDIS to land.

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

This place held almost as many memories for her as the Matrix itself.

Few of them were pleasant memories.

She couldn’t stop herself from approaching the Matrix: the repository of all Time Lord knowledge and memory.

She hooked it up to the TARDIS’s telepathic circuits—no need to risk losing herself inside the Matrix—and, taking a deep breath, closed her eyes and connected.

Brace yourself, Doctor… this is going to hurt.

Billions of Time Lords, millions of years, and an almost infinite number of memories… how could one possibly navigate this?

Come on, old girl, she whispered to the TARDIS, take me where I need to be.

The TARDIS complied, using its navigation circuits to guide her mind through the chaos… back and back and back… to the very beginning.

To an explorer finding an abandoned child at the boundary to another dimension.

To a happy childhood, one where the child played and learned and never had a single thought about the dimension she left behind. A childhood where she never thought she might be anything but ordinary.

But tragedy struck (as it would strike over and over again, inescapable for her, like a stormcloud following always behind) and then everything changed.

She was dying… and then she was reborn. A new face and a new voice and a new chapter in her life.

It was not a pleasant chapter.

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

Perhaps it was easier to tell the story like this:

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who was lost in the woods alone. She was found by a friendly traveller, who took her home and raised the girl as her own child.

The girl and her new mother were happy. The mother loved the little girl, and the little girl loved her in return.

But one day, the girl was careless and cut herself on a sharp rock. Her mother ran to her when she heard her daughter’s cries and discovered a most peculiar thing: instead of blood, the little girl bled pieces of gold.

Perhaps someone else, a different mother, would have bandaged the girl’s wound and eased her pain. But that would be a different story: a much shorter one… and a much happier one.

The mother’s greed was a vicious thing, and the possibility of gaining such riches was too tantalising to pass up.

She began to prick the girl’s finger with a pin, every so often, and gathering the gold dust that she bled. For a time, the mother was happy, and so the girl was happy as well and did not mind the little pains.

But then the mother’s greed returned and she began to cut the girl’s arm with a tiny knife and gathering the gold nuggets that tumbled out. And, for a time, the mother was happy, and so the girl was happy and did not mind the slightly larger pains.

But then the mother’s greed returned, and she stopped calling the little girl her daughter.

The knives grew larger and the cuts grew deeper and the girl bled torrents of gold constantly and the pain was more than she could bear.

She thought it would go on forever.

But forever is a tricky thing. Something might last forever, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t change.

One day, the woman who had once been her mother discovered a way to create gold without her.

Perhaps it was finally over, the little girl wondered. Maybe this was the day that things would go back to the way they used to be, when she was safe and warm and happy.

Instead, the woman cut out the girl’s tongue so that she could never tell anyone else her secret, and threw her outside into the cold.

And the secret remained a secret, but the little girl never stopped hurting and she never stopped running.

She is still running now, in fact.

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

The Doctor watched and remembered.

She remembered being lost and then being found.

She remembered being safe and then being in pain.

She watched the person she trusted change into someone unrecognizable. She watched the way that the bright spark of interest on Tecteun’s face morphed over time into cold clinical cruelty as she forced her to regenerate over and over again, trying to claw the secret to eternity out of her genetic code. At first, Tecteun tried to minimise whatever pain she could and apologise for the pain that she couldn’t. She would sing her to sleep and hold her when the fear was too much… but that tenderness faded, replaced by silence and frustration until Tecteun stopped talking to her entirely.

Regeneration was not easy and it was not painless. It was the opposite of painless, in fact: the body’s desperate act when the alternative was even more painful. It averted death by being as close to death as possible: that final moment of terror and pain right before the silence ensued.

Only with regeneration, there was no silence. No peace. Just pain and fear and survival.

Tecteun would perform her experiments and then would switch her off like a light.

She was just a specimen, after all. Not a real person. A mystery to be solved and then resealed, over and over again.

And, finally, when she thought it would be over because Tecteun had gotten what she wanted, they still had more uses for her.

They did this to me.

Nothing of herself belonged to her: her body, her memories, her choices—

They did this to me.

If it had just been the experiments, she might have been able to let it go as just one person’s cruelty. Except that it wasn’t: even after Tecteun had gotten what she wanted, the Doctor had been a tool for the Time Lords to use. She endured more lifetimes than she could count at the hands of the Division and the constant memory wipes and shattering of her identity and thoughts to the point where she forgot her own name because no one had ever spoken it.

No wonder she rarely remembered who she was after regenerating.

They did this to me.

She felt herself trembling. She felt like she was going to burst into flames.

She wanted to smash something. She wanted to destroy something. She wanted to watch it burn.

She tried desperately to get some measure of control over herself.

Take a deep breath, Doctor—

She cried out as a memory cut across her mind like a knife made of fire:

“You are the only one who believes that these efforts have any merit,” the older man said, looking around the laboratory in obvious disgust. Not because of the acts performed, not because of the silent child strapped to the examination table like something on display, but because of the wasted resources. “Our willingness to support your project is growing thin, Doctor.”

It might have been comforting if Tecteun’s expression had shown any vulnerability, or a trace of something other than that cold intensity. But even to those that she presumably considered “people,” there was no warmth in her.

“I’m close,” Tecteun insisted. “I had a new result with the samples yesterday. All I need is more time, just a little more patience… I’m so close, Lord President.”

His eyes briefly flicked over to the child. “Is the specimen in danger of damage?”

That was when Tecteun smiled. “I told you before: it can’t be killed. That’s why it’s perfect—and why it’s so important to unlock that quality in its genetic code.” Her expression was more teeth than smile. “And once I do, we’ll never have to worry about ‘patience’ again. We’ll have all the time in the world.”

The man mirrored her expression. “See that you do. Great changes are coming, but we cannot wait forever.”

“As I said,” Tecteun said, “soon we’ll have all the forever we desire.”

“Very well. I’ll leave you to your work, Doctor.”

She inhaled sharply as the memory receded.

I used it… when I chose my name I used her—

No. It’s not hers. I made it my own, I gave it its own meaning. She doesn’t get to dictate my identity anymore, it doesn’t matter what she—

But it was a lie: it mattered. Every time she thought the word “Doctor,” all it did was overwhelm her senses with unbridled rage.

There was no promise to be found in that name. No solace, no refuge.

Nothing but pain and fury.

Who am I now?

It was the question that she had spent her whole life asking and never quite answering.

But she already knew the answer. It was right there in front of her face.

The name she had been running from for so long. The promise she never thought she would make. The path she never thought she would walk.

The universe doesn’t need a Doctor anymore. It needs a prosecutor. A judge. An executioner.

It needs justice. Cold, merciless, uncompromising justice.

So, Doctor, I let you go.

It’s time for a new promise.

The Valeyard disconnected the TARDIS from the Matrix and considered her next act.

What happens next?

Oh… I know this one.

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

Want to know what happens next? Check out the rest of the story, Where We Belong: in which our two favorite renegade Time Lords go on a rampage through the Doctor’s previous regenerations, in between breaks for snacks and kissing.

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

Wait no you can’t just tag my post like that and leave, I didn’t think about this in my HDM AU headcanons.

Like the Doctor’s never had a daemon and that’s what makes her seem so alien to people and mysterious and unknowable. And we see other Time Lords and they don’t have them either. But actually that’s a Division thing, the cutting them and separating them, gone from an extreme rarely done thing to control their wayward Terminator, to now being standard practice for Tecteun’s intelligently designed Time Lords at loom.

But when we meet Martin!Doctor it’s not just that she doesn’t fit in 13’s timeline that freaks her, but maybe she has a daemon, even when she’s no longer ‘Ruth’ it’s still there and she’s acting like that’s normal.

And that’s what’s in the fobwatch, her daemon, and the Doctor knows it, but is too terrified to confront her own soul, and is trying to hide it away and be content that at least her soul is in her own hands now.

(But babyfaced!Dhawan!Master!doctor. He has a watch. Maybe the watch? Maybe opened. Does he return with a daemon? Or was it there the whole time flitting from shape to shape as he acts his different selves, hiding from the Doctor when necessary, because newsflash Doctor we were supposed to have souls the entire time, but the Master absolutely has no idea how to handle the fact that he has one.)

ohhhhh delicious. incredible. showstopping. spectacular. whatever other words lady gaga says. no but i love this!!

the division making their Specialest Little Weapon insane by erasing their memory over and over and over again and reaching for desperate measures to maybe hopefully stop it unravelling any further. and those desperate and horrific measures becoming standard practice bc why wouldnt they

the doctor with her soul locked in a little gilded cage the shape of a timepiece that keeps no time. like an ood with its brain removed to replace with a translator.

"and we both know i dont have one" the master says, soul flying frantic circles over his head while the doctor is trapped in that paralysis field entirely alone.

or how unsettling would it be to leave the master in the timeless children, also daemonless like her, and then meet him again but he has a daemon. him seeming even more out of reach and even more viscerally not the person she felt like she knew. the daemon an embodiment of him now also in some way having lived a life she wasnt part of, like he accused her of in the matrix.

or the master opening the doctor's watch and getting the doctor's daemon, making the choice to put another part of the doctor inside him after he didnt get the choice the first time. at the same time a self-annihilation for him on par with the doctor falls, as well as another violation for the doctor. something stolen from her that she didnt even know could be stolen. trying to make her hurt like he hurts.

"i offered! i gave you everything i had to give. my faith, my trust, my forgiveness, my mercy (he scoffs) my FRIENDSHIP; you didnt want it"

"i dont need your friendship anymore" the tiniest smirk as he realises and then he holds up the watch and sings "ive got you anyway"

[ssaalexblake]

the halloween apocalypse rewatch overview 

Things I think hit the chopping block in episode cuts

How Azure ended up in the arctic circle. Therefore also who the man living with her was, since he clearly had no memory/knowledge of Swarm or Azure at all. How Azure and random man were living a modern 21st century life with all the mod cons in a house in the arctic circle, in bad weather, with no greenhouses or obvious power generators to give them the fresh food they were eating. How Swarm was tied to a pole for millennia and azure and co were living a modern earth life in the arctic circle and how those two facts don’t add up if you know they were captured at the same time. Were they in a time bubble thing? had they Honestly not been there as long through time travel nonsense? was the dude Also a prisoner or a division minion forced into this? write a book christopher i want to know. 

Yaz’s comment about being former police. Never explained. I am genuinely sure that it Would have been considering the back work on Yaz’s family from previous seasons, and how it was made textual that neither her family nor her work were happy she kept going off places not explaining where. The forshadowing for the plot around it is present in previous seasons but they didn’t have the time to actually do the plot. 

possibly talking about Dan’s trade? They kind of relied on the idea that everybody would have watched the little clip at the end of revolution of the daleks that introduced him to know he was some kind of builder to not have to go into it. Not sure if they just did that or were planning to go into it in depth in flux and cut it? I only know he’s a plasterer because john bishop mentioned it in an interview. The fact that the story works just fine without the info makes me believe they cut it as unnecessary information. It’s not like you Need to know, but it feels odd we don’t. 

13 & Yaz

Their rockiest episode to date the entire era, 13′s repeatedly almost getting Yaz killed on her quest to hunt down the division and not having the decency to tell her Why. Admittedly, i understand why 13′s not talking about it, non the least because she is shown to have not Truly believed it was all true when she asks Tecteun to confirm what the master told her in a few episodes time. Or she Did believe it but still couldn’t process it yet and was still in denial. Same conclusion, really. Either way, that was a lot of very horrible and traumatizing information to have dumped on her and to sit and stew with for decades in solitary confinement with beings that all hate her. Mental health level #Bad

But on the flip side... When they’ve got harmony they’ve got harmony. 13 giving Yaz loving looks from across the tardis console as they flew the ship together in a small moment of peace? That was a lot, actually. It’s the glimpse of the happiness they could have had and hurts all the more for it. That 13 taught Yaz to pilot the tardis is another of the small moments where she plays her hand in how much she cares for her. Also her setting Yaz loose on Karvanista’s ship to go grab Dan... Previously she’s left Yaz in safety to sit and wait. 13 trusted her competence and she lived up to it, talked Dan into going with her and did the tech work to break him out. Something a lot of other companions wouldn’t have managed. 

Dan as Yaz’s companion

HOnestly with hindsight i feel I should have caught on that Yaz would get her own companion(s) with how long i spent worrying over her safety for trying to mould herself into 13 in s12. But Dan really Is Yaz’s companion in a way Jericho really kind of isn’t. Yaz rescued Dan, not 13, 13 just drove. And then everything happens and Dan accompanies Yaz in the past for four years. And then Yaz shows him around the tardis. and... Yeah, you get the point. Jericho spent all this time with them both but I think his whole journey began with 13 waltzing into his house and he kind of perceived living in this world now to be something thanks to Her. His dialogue indicated it in the vanquishers anyway. 

Karvanista

Right, the first time i watched this on tv live, i was in hysterics a lot of the time with Karvanista and all the hijinks included but with the added context of the rest of the serial it... Kind of hurt? Karvanista’s a grumpy old bastard bound by honour to another person and Hates it. The first time around it was kind of funny, like haha dog man doesn’t want the responsibility of having a pet but will be like all the dads who get their kids an animal and Insist they’ll always hate the thing but end up sleeping with it on their chest and cuddling it because they love it. But... Karvanista’s like this because his loyalty to another person was betrayed. He was abandoned. He doesn’t want Dan there because of this and to add insult to injury the person who ditched him is there constantly annoying him and treating him like crap. The dog man did not have a good day. 

But, also, it’s actually Funnier now that he went to such trouble to create a situation that was sure to kill them both with about 8 failsafes and a planet of acid in the context that he Was a companion. It’s like if Martha snapped and ordered a bathtub full of acid to let ten have a swim in if he turned up again and irriated her. #justified

Swarm & co 

This is... Interesting. From later episodes where we know Tecteun was just using Swarm and Azure as chess pieces, it’s Not weird that he just Happens to escape just as the division workers are there to check on him which i wrote off as a dramatic plot contrivance when i watched the ep on TV. Every show and movie does it even if it’s weird. But no, Tecteun most likely sent them there specifically So he’d murder them which is cold as hell but it’s not like she wasn’t planning on murdering most of her workers when she destroyed the universe, anyway. 

They did a good job of establishing what he’s capable of straight off the bat imo, we know he’s telepathic, incredibly old, very awful and.... Can regenerate. Sets him up perfectly to be a 13 foil with a very short scene. It also is the first time he breaks the fourth wall, which over the course of the serial swarm and azure do multiple times. They are the only characters in era to look at the audience. It’s creepy and adds to the effect of them being Other and outside of the linear time that they so hate. 

We’re also, in this ep, set up to think there was a kind of Master/Doctor vibe between the doctor and swarm in the past, and we’re told the doctor knew him in the years she lost, which sets us up to go ‘is that the master’ pretty well but it turns out what that scene was Actually telling us is that Swarm has a massive ego. Martin!Doctor clearly was just going through the motions in the past. I feel like this also gives us more background on how the doctor and master dynamic is still sacrosanct narratively. The Master may have had a breakdown last season over his perceived irrelevance but the point is he was wrong. I uh. Suspect this will be something in the next episode or two that will be relevant. Since forces and their Master are rising against 13 apparently. 

miscellaneous 

We meet Vinder! Considering his plot revolves around individualism in an empire the small things where he has plants and includes updates on his mental health in each report are great. He is steadfastly broadcasting his individuality.  We also learn off the bat that he’s unhappy where he is, hates his bosses and while it means little at this point in the story, it sets his arc up nicely. 

Claire and her angelic hitchhiker. I’m... Not sure if the angel deliberately had her run into 13, here. I think it’s a valid read to say it may have been a coincidence. If Claire is remembering meeting them in the past because of the angel or even her own prophetic power, then the angel Knows claire must be attacked by other angels and was probably just influencing her to go the long way home so she’d fall victim. I don’t see any reason them running into the doctor then would have been beneficial. 

Hands down best part of this episode is when Dan casually downplays the size of the tardis and 13 hand him his tiny house in response. Very mature, doc. Mine’s bigger than yours!!!!

I don’t get why people were bitching about special effects usage here. Aside from the opening sequence that couldn’t escape them looking like they were on harnesses hanging off a ceiling it was all top notch! And to be fair to the begining, the only reason it looked like that is because for some reason space programs do not lend tv shows their anti gravity chambers. The Nerve. But in general as well, this show gets a long way in believability these days by creative uses of sets and careful selection of locations. Filming during the absolute height of covid awfulness And being limited to locations in england and wales was just reality. Of course they’d lean on sfx, it was the safest option. It was also much better sfx than this show normally offers. 

i am laughing at them changing one single tiny thing about 13′s outfit and saying nothing about it. It’s so Wildly random it makes me laugh. 13′s blue braces symbolise her inner depression and turmoil. 

the comment at the beginning with the two division operatives having been trained to resist telepathic break ins is hilarious if read as a dig at the doctor. 

we also see our first star wars reference here when Karvanista tries a jedi mind trick on dan. We see our second star wars reference when 13 feels the universe dying all obi wan like. 

13′s denial reaches peak this episode. Yeah a creepy guy just broke into her head, yeah the tardis is bleeding black goo, yeah earth may about to be destroyed but IT’S FINE. 

13 feeling all those planets be absorbed by the flux and and the people die leaves her distressed enough to not register that Dan is physically holding her upright with his hands. Yaz is one thing, though 13 has before casually shooed Yaz off her as well, but Dan who she’s only just met? That says something about what that felt like for her. 

13 ignoring the tardis bleeding everywhere and sprouting extra doors like there was a sale on at doors’r’us leading to the tardis ringing the cloister bell as if she’s saying ‘LISTEN TO ME YOU MORON’. Just wife things. 

Poor Diane is left at night in a strange place with swarm and azure mocking her and trying to make her suffer. We’ve not really talked much about just how horrific this was all for Diane. She had nothing to do with any of this, they just Decided to torture her for their own sick kicks and she’s going to have to live with that. 

not sure there’s much to discuss here. I vaguely remember tecteun mad at 13 for throwing vortex energy at the flux but i don’t remember Why tbh. But it put me off when it aired that it came to nothing in the next episode, so i’m gald i know it Does come up again. 

I also liked the little detail that the tardis had trouble landing on karvanista’s ship and we later find out it’s got special armour that helps shield it. Didn’t get that the first time. 

is it cute or creepy 13 kept her son’s first hopper virus??? who knows. 

i... try Not to think about sontarans most of the time if i’m honest. 

anyway that’s all i’ve got for now. Thought i’d shove it in a post instead of 87 small ones. 

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

editor’s commentary 4: repeated clips part 1: stake & snake

so like i think i said somewhere before, this video works by assigning a meaning to certain clips, like the one of spyfall in the plane is shame. heres all the other repeated ones that i havent talked about yet (i think. im writing all these commentaries sorta all at the same time. let’s not get bogged down in the order of things etc)

missy and her stake represents danger

0:27 – i think in the first instance it’s the danger of trusting the master?

you trust her, danger, this is where you end up, 13 doesnt trust anymore, 12 lets go, this is where you end up

1:15:

talked about this one here

2:56

here i think it represents the risk in the watch. in finding out whats in it, or not finding out whats in it, in how vulnerable it is to have this part of you that you cant see be a physical object that anyone can just get their hands on. but mostly i think the risk of knowing, the decision of knowing or not knowing

i like how this sequence is bookended by 13 looking at tecteun (that first shot is 13 asking tecteun “hundreds? thousands?”), then the first half is the static part. being still, stagnant, being kept, in a watch, in a display case, in a grave (similar shapes to those too, that helps), and the second half is everything falling, 13, azure dropping the watch, 13 dropping the watch. falling is finding out about your past and losing your identity on the way.

it’s like the staticness of not knowing vs the turmoil you will unleash if you decide to know. you know? and it being bookended by 13 means it’s her decision. and the middle one being missys stake means it’s risky. am i making sense

i can not overstate how little of this was conscious on my part. it was ALL vibes. i have no plan i have no like, meanings written down before hand it was ALL vibes, it was all just me walking around with the song on spotify imagining which moments might fit where. absolutely no forethought at all

the dead snake represents breaking free of the control of another person

mentioned this briefly in the last paragraph. i think it comes back twice? once there around 2:56 and once here at 2:48:

the monopoly represents the doctor’s controlling behaviour with regard to the people she loves. missy killing the snake is missy pushing back against that.

the difference between s10 vault arc and this fic’s vault arc is that in this fic theres yaz. and adding that third person into the mix actually like, really destabilises the doctor’s position of power in the whole situation? because the third person is both yaz and missy. yaz destabilises the dynamic between the doctor and the master – specifically missy bc shes pretty much defined by how she shapes herself to the doctor’s approval – by offering missy attention. thats really kind of all she does. she sees the way the doctor reacts to missy and this makes her curious. she wants to know more about whats going on. and because the doctor wont provide any info, either about herself or about her relationship with the master, yaz turns to missy. and while missy wont just like, tell her life story to someone she doesnt know that long yet and who’s still human, shes way more willing to share than the doctor is (anyone would look willing to share if you put them next to 13). and because yaz is so eager to just listen, and listen fairly open-mindedly and from a place of trying to at least understand and, if she can, empathise, missy gets more willing to share as time goes on.

so yaz destabilises the doctor-master vault power dynamic simply because she offers missy relatively non-judgemental attention and interest in her worldview (yaz has the same ‘i can fix her’ impulse as the doctor when it comes to missy but because of her background shes coming at it like ‘we need to understand the cause of the problem before we can fix it’ and because the doctor has like 0.5 coping mechanism, they probably havent yet realised there are reasons behind missys behaviour, or her own)

and the way that missy destabilises the power dynamic between yaz and the doctor is that shes a source of information and guidance in addition to the doctor. where the doctor stops answering questions, missy will happily step in, if only because it’s an easy way to get under the doctor’s skin. where the doctor tries to obstruct the ways in which yaz is becoming more like her, missy will actively tutor. if this is mostly just for her own benefit and enjoyment, doesnt matter, it is what yaz wants and needs (although probably not in this specific way by this specific person but beggars cant be choosers) and it breaks the doctor’s monopoly haaaaa we got there we got there ahfkjhdgk

missy killing the snake is her pushing back against that control the doctor has over her (also like emotionally? yaz is giving her attention, yaz is meeting some of her emotional needs, yaz can never hope to replace the doctor’s role in missys life obviously and she knows that but missy is becoming slightly less emotionally dependent on the doctor). yaz taking away the cobwebs is her exercising her agency by being applying what shes learnt both watching the doctor and watching missy. also, like, unveiling stuff? search for the truth.

and then theres 13 with the watch. bookending with the first of these four shots bc the middle two are responses to 13 but also thats 13 breaking free from tecteun/division obviously

and the snake comes back around 2:55 but i already talked about that in the stake bit. snake+stake surrounded by the static watch and then the falling watch = breaking free from tecteun is risky and scary