#the sarah jane adventures were so good i watched it without having ever watched an episode of doctor who

[catinfroghat]

No one gets the fear these episodes generated in my psyche I still think about them all the time and to this day I still hold a grudge against Bradley Walsh for giving me nightmares for so long... When he was a companion in Doctor Who many years later I kept expecting it to be revealed that he was an evil clown in disguise so I never trusted him

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Hello! I just wanted to say I can't stop thinking about your 'watching the show' fic, it's one of my favorites dw fics and actually made me want to dive fully into the eu and classic who, little by little, but still and what got me back into the fandom. So, thank you! I adore your portrayal of the Doctor and their different bonds with the companions, River and The Master (these two being my prefered ships) and even with the Tardis. Also the most non-humany aspects of their character and the weight of how long The Doctor has lived, loved, lost and forgotten. Just love the way that you portrayed Thoschei and the complexity of their relationship.

Gotta admit I kinda squealed when you posted that you were thinking in adding classic companions, bc thinking about their reactions to the messes and adventures The Doctor got after would be great.

Would love to see them react to The Doctor's Wife, mostly bc I adore the interactions with the Tardis.

Oh my goodness, thank you so much for your kind words! 🥹

I'm glad you're back in the fandom! And very happy to hear you're interested in classic who and the EU. As always, if you have any questions about anything at all, feel free to ask me! 😃 The EU is very precious to me, but it can be a bit difficult to navigate at first.

The Doctor's inhumanity is one of the most fascinating things about their character to me. It's something I value quite a bit! The differences in morality are very interesting to dissect. Their relationships with others are also equally fascinating...They've had so many over the years, and all of them are unique. But of course there are some that last much, much longer than others (like with the Master, River, Jack, etc) that are just 🤌.

I'm happy to hear you're excited about the idea of adding classic companions! The very first draft of the fic I wrote actually had only the companion support group in it. So it had Ian, Jo, Tegan, Mel, Ace, etc but no Clara, Amy, Rory, Rose, etc. Basically, I made the choice to add new who characters to react to what happened, but ever since, I've been kind of wishing I kept a couple classic companions. I'm particularly leaning towards Tegan, Nyssa, and Ace since they're my favorites, and I can add them in without disrupting their own timeline (like it would be difficult to add a living Sarah Jane when she would have to watch them talk about her death, thus giving her inappropriate foreknowledge of the future).

And I also love the Doctor's Wife! I love all Doctor/TARDIS interactions, and that definitely has a lot of it. He also takes such a dark turn (understandably) in that episode, and then there is the Corsair! There's so much potential there lol.

Thanks so much for typing all of that out! You have no idea how much it makes my day when I see something like this in my inbox. ❤️

[incomingalbatross]

3, 18, 20, 28 (for now) for DW?

Thank you! I'm afraid most of these ended up without actual answers, but I gave plenty of thoughts, at least? :P 

3. First DW episode you ever saw?

I genuinely have no idea, I'm afraid. My parents started watching DW quite a few years before I was born, I think, and by the time I came along there were also older siblings watching it on our VHS tapes. I probably saw Doctor Who before my brain had developed enough to retain the memory. :P 

18. Best Doctor monologue? 

Ooh, very tough! I'm going to ramble. :P

In Classic Who, One's farewell to Susan is one of the ones I know best. Four's little speech about humanity in Ark in Space, made to room of humans in cryo, is lovely, and his "do I have the right?" speech in Genesis may not quite qualify as a monologue but it IS iconic. Six has some good ones too, especially in Trial of a Time Lord calling out Gallifrey.

In New Who, I adore Eleven's monologue to a sleeping Amelia in Big Bang Two. His speech in Rings of Akhaten is also lovely. And...ugh, I know Twelve has SEVERAL incredible monologues ("do you think so little of me?" to Clara, the one in the Zygon inversion, "where I fall," almost certainly definitely others), but I've only ever seen any of them once so I can't include them. ...I can't declare a best one. I suspect it would be from Moffat's era, though, IMO...his writing really shines in speeches, especially the ones that aren't made to a crowd.

20. Best Doctor/companion pairing?

If we're talking ships, I have to say Doctor/River because it's the only Doctor/companion pairing I DO ship. :P (Even that I was only really brought around to because my sister ships it, and anything she likes is worth giving a chance. But also I really love 12/River in particular, somehow.)

If we're just talking "best relationship"... Gosh, I don't know. There are so many wonderful Doctor-companion combos. I tend to gravitate towards the Doctor & the Brigadier, though, so maybe them even though the Brig isn’t really a companion? There’s so much depth of history and affection and steadfastness there and the Brigadier’s SO important to the Doctor. I love them. (But really there ISN'T a best one, there are so many that are so good in all different ways. One of my favorite things about DW is how many deep, loving relationships are packed into this one story and how they're each at the heart of it in their own period. SO good.)

28. Who should have been a companion but wasn’t?

My most important candidates for companions are any and all of the Sarah Jane Adventures kids. I’d LOVE to see them in the TARDIS. And it could still happen! If not on the show, Big Finish should definitely get on that. (My first vote is for Clyde but I’d be happy with any lineup that included at least one of them.)

[megabadbunny]

No Place Like Hohm (8/8)

“Ready?” the Doctor asked Rose.

She beamed at him. “Ready.”

***

(Aka the obligatory post-GitF fic, for anyone else who ever wondered what might have taken place between a trip to France and an adventure in a parallel universe.)

***

Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4 | Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7 | Chapter 8

This time, Rose smiled as she stepped outside into the city. The planet Hohm looked much the same as it had a few days prior—clear blue skies, three moons shining overhead, colorful pennants waving lazily in the breeze, white buildings practically glowing in the sun—but there seemed to be a little extra pep in everyone’s step, as the people and horse-people bustled about their business. Maybe Rose was just imagining it, but she didn’t think so.

“So,” she said, a grin spreading across her face as she turned to Dyana and Vareem. The two of them grinned at her in return, standing tall and proud in their elegant ceremonial Council robes; it was a look they were both well-suited-for, Rose thought. “Ready for your next adventure?” she asked.

“Yes,” replied Dyana firmly, as Vareem said, “Not even a little bit,” and they both burst out laughing.

“At least we look the part,” Vareem chuckled, plucking at her robes. “That counts for something, right?”

Rose laughed. “Absolutely. That, and confidence, and cleverness, and a good heart. Luckily, you two have got all four in spades.”

“Oh, stop,” said Vareem. “You’re making me blush!”

“And if all else fails, you can always take the Doctor’s advice and just walk about like you own the place,” Rose told them. “Cos, I guess you sort of do, now?”

“And it’s about time we left you to it,” piped up the Doctor’s voice; Rose turned to see him waltzing lazily in her direction, Mickey following close after. “Wouldn’t you say?”

Dyana frowned. “You’re not leaving already?”

“Of course we are,” the Doctor said pleasantly. “We’ve done about all the damage we can do round here, best leave it in the hands of the experts now. Besides, you’ll be far too busy to notice us being gone, what with your planet to rule and your people to help and your rotten system of oppression to dismantle.”

“And don’t forget about the Championship, while you’re at it,” added Mickey. “Might want to consider taking a sledgehammer to that thing.”

“Actually,” Vareem replied hesitantly, “we’re thinking we might keep it.”

Mickey’s eyes widened in alarm and Rose and the Doctor both stared at her, nonplussed. “Come again?” asked the Doctor, eyebrow arching sharply.

“Look, much as I hate to admit it, the Council was right about one thing,” said Dyana. “There’s a lot of money in the Championship. The Council was a bunch of greedy prigs about it all, but that money could really help our people—boost our economy, lift the town out of poverty, get everyone back on their feet.”

“And make technology available to everyone who wants it,” Vareem interjected.

“Besides, the idea of the Championship isn’t bad—it’s just the way the Council ran it,” Dyana continued.

Mickey and the Doctor didn’t look convinced, but Rose was patient. She nodded at Dyana and Vareem, urging them to continue.

“See, this time around, no one’s gonna be forced into anything. It’s all voluntary. You pay to get in, or you sponsor someone else getting in, or you pay to watch it all live,” Dyana explained. “And there’s no deadly weapons, no bride-prizes, no killing. Just people competing against other people. Just regular sports, really.”

Vareem nodded. “The groundwork’s already all laid out. A couple of easy adjustments and you’ve got something that’s, y’know, actually fun for everyone involved. We’ll just recenter the event on showcasing everyone’s athletic skills, just for the prestige of it.”

Mickey’s face lit up at that. “So it really is your planet’s version of the Olympics!” he laughed. “That’s pretty awesome!”

“It is indeed,” added the Doctor, beaming. “Well done, you two! Really well done.”

Dyana and Vareem both laughed, Vareem shaking her head, smiling shyly. But Dyana quieted down before too long, her expression growing thoughtful. “Seriously, though,” she said, her voice deep with sincerity. “Thank you all, for everything you did for us.”

“Absolutely,” Vareem chimed in. “Thank you so much!”

“Rose, you especially,” Dyana added, taking Rose’s hands in hers. “Just—thank you.”

“What are you thanking me for?” Rose laughed. “I hardly did anything!”

“Not true,” Dyana told her firmly. “See, my sister and I had been planning things for ages, yeah, but when she—after—”

She swallowed, eyes clenching shut, and Vareem grasped her shoulder, humming in sympathy.

“After my sister was killed,” Dyana started again, and her voice only shook a little, “I was just...lost. I didn’t know what to do, except go on with the plans we’d made. I felt like I owed it to her, to try. I mean, she died trying to make things better for the two of us. For everyone in the city, really. So if I couldn’t carry on for me, I could at least do it for her, you know? But I was just going through the motions. It didn’t feel like anything was possible, without her. I’d lost hope. Truly.”

She squeezed Rose’s hands, tears welling up in her eyes. “Then I met you, and I saw how hard you fought for everything, no matter how bad things seemed to be, no matter how helpless or hopeless. You kept pushing on. You never gave up. Not ever.”

She drew in a deep, shuddering breath. “You helped me have hope again, Rose.”

Feebly, Rose started to protest—she didn’t deserve such praise, really she didn’t—but her gaze flickered to the Doctor to the Doctor’s just briefly, and she was surprised to see him softer than usual, somehow, a warm grin playing across his face. Like he knew something, maybe, that Rose didn’t.

Like maybe Dyana was right.

Rose’s smile deepened, and she felt a prickle of moisture behind her own eyes. “Thank you,” she said quietly, squeezing Dyana’s hands in return.

“I just thought you were sort of neat,” Vareem interjected and the three of them laughed again.

Brushing away her unshed tears, Rose lunged for Dyana and Vareem, looping her arms about both of them in a snug embrace. “You’re both brilliant, you know that, right?” she asked, hugging them both fiercely. “You’re gonna do great things here. You’re gonna make your sister proud.”

Both women hugged her back, just as tightly. “I really hope so,” said Dyana.

“Well, I just so happen to know so,” piped up the Doctor, “because I’m fairly certain we’re about to enter Hohm’s New Enlightenment, more or less.”

“Hey, now!” protested Mickey. “Are we allowed to say things like that?”

“Oh no, not at all,” the Doctor replied. “Anyhoo! Time to hit the open road, put the pedal to the metal, we’re burnin’ daylight here. Time’s a-wastin’.” The Doctor clapped his hands in illustration. “Let’s get this show on the road. Chop chop!”

Mickey and the Doctor both turned toward the TARDIS, but before she had a chance to move away, Dyana reached out to Rose for another hug. Rose happily accepted, squeezing tightly.

“That Doctor bloke’s hopelessly in love with you,” Dyana whispered in her ear. “You know that, right?”

Rose’s mouth fell open in response. Dyana pulled back with a saucy little wink. Rose’s cheeks flushed hotly in a way that had nothing to do with the sun beaming overhead.

“Stay out of trouble, yeah?” Dyana added, grinning cheekily.

Stepping back, Rose laughed. “No promises,” she said, hands spread wide as she stepped closer to the TARDIS.

“That’s my girl!” Dyana called out, and Vareem blew her a kiss as the TARDIS doors closed.

 **

 “That’s it, then?”  Mickey asked once they’d entered the Vortex, after the central column stopped grinding and the TARDIS calmed to its usual soothing hum. “We just pop in, have a bit of an adventure, then boom, we’re done, off to the next thing?”

“That’s it,” said the Doctor happily. He bounded round the console as he pressed a button here, threw a lever there. “All round the universe, anywhere and everywhere and everywhen and everything in-between.”

“Never a dull moment, huh?”

“Not with Rose and the Doctor!” the Doctor replied.

“And Mickey,” added Rose, laughing as she climbed up the stairs to the console.

“If you insist,” said the Doctor, and Mickey rolled his eyes. “Now the only question is: what next?”

Rose made a show of pretending to consider as she rounded the console, slowly approaching Mickey. “What, or where, or when?” she asked the Doctor, her tongue peeking out between her teeth.

“Any and all of the above,” said the Doctor, grinning. “Astrion’s still on the table, you know. Or Kabos Prime. Or ancient Egypt! Ooh, ancient Egypt. Who doesn’t love a good sarcophagus every now and then?”

Laughing, Rose nudged Mickey’s shoulder with hers. “Remember your Egypt phase, when you first saw Indiana Jones? This’d be right up your alley, I reckon!”

“Well, yeah,” said Mickey thoughtfully. “But what about you, babe?”

“What about me?”

Mickey shrugged. “You said one day, remember? One day, and then you were going home. Back to the Estate.” He crossed his arms, leaning back on the railing. “You still wanna go home?”

It took a second for the words to sink in, for Rose to remember. Her grin faltering just a little bit, Rose glanced over at the Doctor, before she had a chance to think better of it. Normally he might be fussing about the console right now, making a show of being busy while he pretended not to overhear such a conversation. But now, his hands were still, his attention focused solely on her, his face carefully impassive. Neutral. Watching. Waiting.

(Some things, Sarah Jane had told her, are worth getting your heart broken for.

Rose wondered if those words had been meant for the Doctor, as well.)

She smiled.

“Nah, we can always squeeze in another trip or two, or three,” Rose told Mickey, after a moment. “I’m not in any rush,” she said casually, looking at the Doctor.

The Doctor grinned at her, that soft, quiet grin, again, same as the one she saw before. She thought she might see something loosen in him, just a little bit.

“Quite right, too,” he replied softly.

“All right, cool,” said Mickey, blissfully oblivious to the exchange that had just taken place. “So, ancient Egypt, then? I’d love to see the pyramids. Or a real-live pharaoh, even!”

“Excellent!” the Doctor laughed. He flipped a few switches and the central column lit up, starting its telltale grind and groan. “Ancient Egypt it is, then! You lot ready?”

“Ready!” called Mickey.

“Ready?” the Doctor asked Rose.

She beamed at him. “Ready.”

“Fantastic,” said the Doctor. He pulled a lever on the console and the central column glowed golden, churning; the TARDIS shook and groaned all around them, sailing on the waves of the Vortex, on and out to the next adventure.

The Doctor whooped. “Allons-y!”

***

Find me on AO3!  ❤︎

[frumfrumfroo]

What are your favorite movies and TV shows outside of SW? I’m looking for new things to watch since SW was so disappointing

My tastes are pretty eclectic, so I will stick to just things that are either similar to sw or are in the reylo-esque romance wheelhouse and have happy endings:

Chuck. It is a goofy, light-hearted action-adventure show with extremely endearing characters and a very prominent central romance (seriously, heavy romance and there is a lot of payoff for it, you will be FED- it's kind of slow burn but also shockingly NOT slow burn, they are deep into it pretty much immediately). The main couple is the classic Stoic Badass gradually softened by an innocent they have to protect who is a liability in battle but full of the Power of Heart. Chuck is The Heart btw. He is of that vanishingly rare male Beauty (of B&tB) type. He's incredibly generous and open, Sarah is prickly and closed-off. It is Quality. Very much a gender-swap of your typical cliche anime couple lol. I would recommend stopping at the mid-season finale in season 4, because it's downhill from there. The beginning of season 3 is very rough, but it's definitely worth it to stay for the back half, imo. There are several great endings to choose from before things go to shit, so we don't need to talk about the finale. Probably the most tonally similar to SW thing possible without being high/space fantasy. More humour, more silly, but definitely has a spiritual kinship. Has the best THE BEST 'secret revealed' scenes I have ever seen in anything. If you're into that and were hoping for that in ep IX, you need to watch Chuck.

The Shop Around the Corner. 1940 romance/drama film. You've Got Mail is a remake of it. Jimmy Stewart being profoundly adorable, Frank Morgan (aka the Wizard of Oz), various amusing side characters, and an absolutely deathless double blind 'secretly in love with the workplace nemesis' plot that can and probably has been a great reylo AU.

Mirromask. Fantasy/coming-of-age film. Touted as a 'spiritual successor' to Labyrinth by the filmmakers (one of whom is Neil Gaiman) and let me tell you, that is extremely apt. Beautiful, magical, laden with symbolism and Mask Discourse, and has a great ship. I quote it regularly.

Speaking of which, I'm sure you've seen Labyrinth? If you haven't seen Labyrinth, drop everything and watch Labyrinth.

Legend (the Ridley Scott director's cut, not the theatrical cut). Sumptuous fairy tale, runs on proper fairy tale logic, stunning to look at and overall captivating. Tim Curry. Tim Curry as a lonely tragic lord of darkness who tries to seduce the heroine and has drippingly overwrought monologues.

Howl's Moving Castle. Fairy tale adventure/romance film. Beautifully animated, has the ending you want.

The Silence of the Lambs. Thriller/drama film. Actual masterpiece. Use it as a gateway drug to read the books and rejoice that Clannibal is canon and it is spectacular. Just SotL and Hannibal, you don't need to read the other two. Stan Clarice Starling and revel in that ending. Most triumphant 'villain'/heroine ship of all time (he is not technically a villain but for shorthand's sake).

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Terry Gilliam 1988 fantasy/adventure film. THE TRIUMPH OF IDEALISM OVER CYNICS I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW HEALING IT WAS TO WATCH AFTER THE TROS BULLSHIT HIT. Jonathan Pryce's spiritual villain is basically Chris Terrio and it is cathartic to see imagination and sentiment conquer him.

Sabrina. 1995 romance film. Modern fairy tale with Harrison Ford. Rejecting what you thought you wanted all your life for the thing you actually need, growing up but still believing in magic, beautiful character development across all the leads. Could be (and is irrc) a fantastic reylo AU.

The Scarlet Pimpernel. 1934 adventure film. High romance, secret identities, play-acting, people who aren't at all what they appear to be, falling in love with your own spouse, Big Heroism, guile and wit and audacity. It makes me do little kicks like a happy baby. This is one of the 3-5 films constantly tied for my favourite film of all time. There is a good quality rip free on youtube. Watch it and fall in love with Leslie Howard (this is possibly my favourite acting performance of all time).

Oh, related note. Pygmalion 1938 or My Fair Lady. (The musical is based on this film and borrows from it heavily, including its much more romantic ending compared to the original play.)

The Mummy. 1999 action/adventure/romance film. Very tonally similar to sw. A fucking great time, A+ characters.

EVER AFTER. 1998 romance film. The flawless and perfect and best ever Cinderella adaptation. This is the most satisfying film in history, maybe, the ending is so good it is amazing it exists. Also, it has Richard O'Brien being slimy. Huge selling point. Grapples with identity and stewardship, is brilliant.

Fruits Basket. drama/romance anime. I haven't watched the new version yet, but it's following the manga so I know the story. The original anime didn't do the whole plot (because they caught up with the source material) but it's wonderful and I still recommend it. The central ship is (spoiler.........) a B&tB type where we eventually discover the main love interest both feels like a figurative monster and turns into a literal monster. He has an incredible speech about his relationship with people's fear, it makes me weep. I called the endgame from the first episode and always thought it was obvious, but there is a red herring love triangle dynamic. It's really not annoying, though, because it is a red herring. (I hate love triangles)

I am Dragon. Russian monster romance film. Beautiful, simple fable with a really great heroine.

Jane Eyre. 1943 Gothic Romance film. It's Jane Eyre, byronic hero x sensible heroine love story with much atmosphere and Gothic drama. I stan this version because I am an Orson Welles fangirl and I'm also not convinced it can be improved upon. Elizabeth Taylor's film debut btw.

Hellboy. 2004 action/adventure/romance film. Defying destiny, reconciling identity, monster romance. The complete package and a great time. Tonally similar to SW and probably thematically closest to it out of this whole list. Don't watch the sequel.

Beauty and the Beast 1987 tv series. Exactly what it says on the tin. Deals with the classic B&tB themes, but in a different way. He's not cursed and will never transform into an ordinary man. The first season is very episodic and 'case of the week', but the second season gets more into character drama. It's dated, but if you give it a chance you can get past some of the cheese factor and it's really a unique experience. Its concerns are SO atypical that it feels like something fandom would make rather than a mainstream network show. It was so massively, insanely popular with women at the time that a record of Vincent (the beast) reading poetry topped the album charts. Also Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton. Stop at season two. Point of interest: George RR Martin wrote for this show.

Stargate (the movie not the series) sci-fi fantasy about a nerdy guy who accidentally a hero.

Possession. 2009... mystery/supernatural/romance. Okay. This is a whole thing. Lee Pace and Sarah Michelle Gellar. It's based on a Korean film I've never been able to find for some reason, but being Hollywood they ruined the romanticism and nuance of the original in the theatrical cut to make a shitty punative ending. However. If you buy it on dvd and go to the alternate ending (which follows the original story) with around 20 minutes left (scene after Lee Pace's character wakes from a bad dream-go to deleted scenes and select the alternate ending), you will get a very, very interesting character study/thriller/redemption about sincerity within deception, compassion, and a major question about second chances with a positive answer. It's kind of dark and kind of astonishingly idealistic at the same time. The heroine makes a very powerful choice, twice over. It's fascinating. If you're into the conflicted and uncertain period in reylo, the part where he is most ambiguous, and you wanted more of that and much darker shades to it, you might be really into this. Also, it should be noted, there is a MASSIVE height difference and they show it off. The film is flawed (and the seams show on the Hollywood rewrite) but idk, it's fascinating. Shocking to me that they even got to shoot the original ending. It is pretty balls to the wall with its themes on forgiveness.

I would recommend getting into kdramas because there is a wealth of female-gaze tropey amazing content, but always check the ending before getting invested. My all-time fave is the 1st Shop of Coffee Prince, but it's not sw related at all lmao. It has a happy ending with all the elements you'd want, but it's not satisfying in execution, so that's it's major flaw and I find that pretty common with kdramas. One that is maybe more relevant is My Love from Another Star, which has a hero who is a little bit like Ben in personality. The heroine isn't my favourite, though. It does have a decent ending.

Oh yeah- brain fart. Kurosawa films and classic westerns were both very influential on SW. Or you can combine both and watch The Magnificent Seven.

[aion-rsa]

Doctor Who: Why Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor Needs an ‘Everybody Lives!’ Moment

https://ift.tt/39pw5MX

Doctor Who! The children’s own show that adults adore.

Doctor Who, as a format, requires an intrinsic joyfulness in its stories to be so adored. If adventures become too continually grim, or not sufficiently fun, then ultimately there’ll be a tipping point where it becomes implausible for the story to continue. Why, ultimately, would the character keep travelling if they weren’t enjoying it? And even if they did, would this be something that would sustain a family audience?

It’s not that you can’t have darkness in Doctor Who, it’s just that it can’t be sustained and eventually something has to give. As such, there’s an inherent optimism in a lot of Doctor Who, even in episodes where it isn’t high in the mix. For the show to make sense, there has to be some hope that wrongs can be righted.

For example: even though William Hartnell’s Doctor starts off trying break his own programme by getting rid of Ian and Barbara as quickly as possible, the show quickly settles into “a great spirit of adventure”; the Second Doctor comforting a grieving Victoria by pointing out that “nobody else in the universe can do what we’re doing” followed by the Doctor letting Victoria leave the TARDIS because it’s the best thing for her. In both cases, the gesture is one of compassion. The Fourth Doctor refers to Sarah Jane Smith as his best friend and she only leaves because he has to go somewhere she can’t (His home planet of Gallifrey, something that on original broadcast had more dramatic weight as he’d only visited it once before in the series and then been forced into regeneration and exile).

When Russell T. Davies relaunched the show in 2005, the unspoken idea became explicit. “Can I just say: travelling with you…I love it,” says Rose Tyler, who – despite portentous trailer statements – survived her travels. In episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures Russell T. Davies expanded on the Tenth Doctor’s victory lap in ‘The End of Time‘ to make it more celebratory, giving past companions happy endings (some in stark contrast to their grim fates in Nineties’ spin-off media). The departures of Rose and Donna are tragic, but the journeys to get there are framed in terms of joy and excitement.

The next showrunner, Steven Moffat, preferred happy endings. Companions had previously been married off (Susan, Vicki, Jo, Leela, Peri) as they left the show. Amy Pond got married and stayed, travelling with her husband. This was a leap forward, but unfortunately the following series’ pregnancy storyline was handled poorly and attempts to deal with its repercussions were not successful either. Clara, the next companion, dared to be like the Doctor but unlike Donna managed to both die and have a happy ending.

Moffat enjoyed Immortal LGBT+ Women Having Adventures in Space so much that he used it again for Bill Potts in Series 10. An important aspect of both characters’ storylines is that they suffer a terrible fate, but the version of Doctor Who in which companions die is rejected in favour of one where they get what they live happily ever after. Moffat, a comedy writer to his core, was unwilling to make Doctor Who a story where travelling on the TARDIS left you in a worse place. Davies also tried to give his companions happy endings of sorts to ameliorate their loss.

If we look at the populist peaks of the show, Doctor Who has never been overwhelmingly cynical. Whenever it’s been taken in a darker direction it usually rejects that approach in favour of a lighter balance. In Season 21 the show put its characters through a series of almost unrelenting grimness (‘The Awakening’, the story where a demonic entity attempts to get an entire village to slaughter each other is the light and fluffy one) culminating in the Fifth Doctor’s heroic regeneration story ‘The Caves of Androzani’– voted the best Doctor Who story in several polls – where the Doctor goes to extreme lengths to save his companion and distances himself from the violence that surrounds him.

And then in the next story ‘The Twin Dilemma’, the Sixth Doctor strangles his companion.

Read more

TV

Why Doctor Who can’t sustain dark storytelling

By Andrew Blair

TV

Doctor Who : Revolution of the Daleks to Air on New Year’s Day, Trailer is Here

By Louisa Mellor

Taking ‘Grimdark’ storytelling to mean stories in which violence and misery is perpetuated throughout the story universe in a seemingly never-ending cycle, that period in the show’s history is a perfect example of it. Why diminish one of the finest stories ever by immediately negating the heroism involved? Why would you have the main character reject the violence that he’d become a part of only to immediately embrace it again? Among the many problems it means we have a Doctor/companion relationship that seems grim at best. Why would you keep travelling with someone who strangled you, refused to apologise and then continually harangues and shouts at you? I don’t watch Doctor Who to see the companion trapped in an abusive relationship. I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that the ratings went down as the production team systematically removed as much hope from the show as possible, ridding it of that great spirit of adventure. After ‘The Twin Dilemma’,the show was put on hiatus, and ultimately cancelled.   

Which brings me to the current version of the show.

I don’t think Jodie Whittaker is miscast or that the current version of the show is woke nonsense – which is a relief because I think using the phrase ‘woke nonsense’ unironically is quite the red flag. I think that the enthusiasm Jodie Whittaker has for the part hasn’t been used well, because we currently have a Doctor who is great at showing unabashed joy travelling the universe, but whose stories lean towards grimdark and don’t give her anything approaching ‘Everybody lives!’

One of the most lauded episodes in Series 11 is ‘Rosa’, which was co-written by Malorie Blackman and showrunner Chris Chibnall. In it, the TARDIS crew see Rosa Parks in the run-up to her being arrested for violating segregation laws, and need to stop Krasko – a mass murderer from the future – interfering in this event and stopping it from happening.

The inclusion of Krasko makes an interesting and depressing point in this story, and I’d be fascinated to know the villain’s development in the writing process. For what we have here is a story about an important act of defiance that changed human history, and is celebrated for its impact, alongside an acknowledgement that there will still be racists in the future. In fact, there will be racists who murder 2,000 people in the future. Racism and its associated violence is not, the episode says, going to go away.

In isolation this might seem like optimism tempered with caution, but since Chris Chibnall became showrunner, edgy, provocative ideas have crept in and given stories a cynical edge. Small moments have a cumulative effect, such as Epzo’s story about his mother in ‘The Ghost Monument’, Robertson surviving ‘Arachnids in the UK’ without learning any moral lessons and indeed likely to cause more suffering, ‘Kerblam!’ ending with the system that blew up an innocent woman being allowed to continue (while closing the warehouse for four weeks and offering employees two weeks’ holiday pay), Daniel Barton escaping freely in ‘Spyfall’ while the Doctor wipes the memories of someone doomed to die, ‘Orphan 55’ shows us the unavoidable destruction of the human race, as does ‘Ascension of the Cybermen’. Under Moffat, we had some episodes ending with cynical quips that left a bad taste in the mouth, but under Chibnall the bad taste is there before the outro quip.

Series 11 showed us a joyful Doctor in a nasty universe, and the latter regularly overwhelms the former, but at least ended with Graham and Ryan clearly rejecting murder as a solution. Series 12 was less focussed on real-world evils, and uses them on the fringes of its storytelling (with the Doctor now seemingly embroiled in the universe’s cynicism, using Nazis to imprison a Master now played by a British Indian actor), but we’re still getting real issues reflected back at us along with the message that the Doctorcannot sort this, which is based on the false assumption that this is what Doctor Who is for.

I hope that this is building towards a reversal, that the Thirteenth Doctor gets her Androzani moment where she gets to take a stand against everything that she’s seen. However, we have now had a fully grimdark finale as the lasting impression of Doctor Who for nine months. ‘The Timeless Children’ has proven controversial for its approach to continuity; as well as the retcon of the Doctor’s history this was a ‘Twin Dilemma’(also the last story in its season) to ‘The Day of the Doctor’s Androzani. The heroism is now nullified. When we watch ‘The Day of the Doctor’and the day is saved at the end of the story, now we know all the Doctor has done is defer those deaths (those two billion children’s deaths) and the cycle of violence will continue. At the end of ‘The Timeless Children’the following is presented to us as the good guys winning:

The heroine cannot bring herself to destroy the animated corpses of her entire species, so Joe from Derry Girls has to do it for her. An entire planet now a lifeless husk. The main character’s centuries of trauma are revealed. Their best friend is now a genocidal maniac.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

This is Doctor Who in 2020: violent, cynical, cyclical. A mirror when it should be a window. If Series 13 repeats these trends then I fear history may repeat itself once more. But then, what is Doctor Who mostly about if not seeing a cycle of oppression and then breaking it?

The post Doctor Who: Why Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor Needs an ‘Everybody Lives!’ Moment appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/39z4Rn4

[melancholydreadfuldream]

Alternative Dream Part One

Fandom: Doctor Who

Summary: Doctor Who AU where the Doctor as a war Doctor use the moment and managed to defeat the Daleks without destroying Gallifrey. He is seen as a war hero and is given new regeneration as reward. He was given a place in the government. He was never able to travel again so he never met Rose Tyler or any of his companion. He remained on Gallifrey and has regenerated into a version of Thirteenth Doctor where she continue to work for glory of Gallifrey. Until she met you, a time sensitive she was assigned to capture at any cost.

 Pairing: Thirteenth Doctor x Reader, Yaz x Reader and Jack Harkness x Reader

 Warning: angst, mention of use of violence, forced relationship, ooc.

 A/N: I’m bullshitting my way with this particular fanfiction. So Pardon the mess.

 PART TWO is here

Time sensitive.

 I hated that word.

 Time sensitive is a being that is able to see both past and future timeline. Sometimes, if the Time sensitive person is of strong line, he or she would be able to see alternate timelines. Time sensitive person were deemed too fragile and dangerous to be left on their own. Most time sensitive are human and they are not meant to see time like that. Not many can cope with seeing through the fabric of time and most of the time, they went insane or burn out from the outside and inside. It will be a painful death.

 My name is (name) and I am a time sensitive. Unfortunately.

 Because of my nature, my family is hunted by a race called the Time Lord. They have a very firm law regarding a time sensitive person, they are to be taken to their home planet, Gallifrey, where the person will be chosen as a bride for some pompous Time Lord. Once they are bonded, the time sensitive person will have a stable mind and their power will be attune more to those of the past and the future of his or her bonded Time Lord.

Most of time sensitive have no choice and are forced to bond with a Time Lord, willing or not. I will not have that as my fate. So I ran, as far away as possible. I'm one of the oldest of age for someone who is a time sensitive. Most younger time sensitive are unable to hid very well and thus was taken to Gallifrey.

 Time sensitive is originally supposed to be rare and yet these past years there are lot of people born with the time sensitive potential. I heard rumor it was because something that originated from Gallifrey. They said time sensitivity is a virus that plaque the human and the forced bond is some kind a cover up by the Time Lord. No one know for sure. The Time Lord are not very forthcoming about it. They never saw the human as equal in the first place, it's beneath them to even be with human, and yet they forced a bond with time sensitive person. They never treated time sensitive well, just another pawn for their own gain.

 The Time Lord decided to take over the Earth so they can keep track and control all born time sensitive. Of course, the people of Earth refused and fought but it was useless. The Time Lord is superior compare to us, human.

 I have motivation to continue evade those pompous time jackass. The Time Lord who found me is a bastard that didn't even respect me and only saw me as a means to an end. He caused the death of my parents. I was able to trick him and trap him inside a prison he prepared for me and I escaped his rage. I never saw him again. I hope he never able to escape that cage, it would serve him right to spend the rest of his immortal life imprisoned.

 I have been joining a human resistance against the Time Lord on some corner of the Earth. With my time sensitivity, I become useful in the resistance to evade those time jackass. Though lately, I have been feeling sickly every time I peek on the fabric of time. I knew I was running out of time. I have to bond with a Time Lord (over my dead body) or really dies. I choose to die but I will use my time sensitivity as long as I can to help the resistance.

 &&&&

 On the Gallifrey, the Time Lord officials are having a meeting regarding the resistance.

 "They have a time sensitive on their side. That's the only possible way they could ever hope to evade us."

 "Have we locate this time sensitive traitor?"

 "They have hidden him or her very well. We think the time sensitive has got a bio damper to hide their signature."

 "How is that even possible? Find him or her immediately!"

 "This particular time sensitive person seemed stronger than most. He or she will be valuable."

 "If they help the human, it's unlikely they will pledge loyalty to us. Too dangerous. I voted we find them and execute them as a warning to those against us."

 "What a waste. We could force a bond and they would have no choice but to serve whoever Time Lord they are bonded to."

 "They have been out there for too long. Their mind is probably unstable. It would only be a matter of time before they dies. But considering how they have been using their power, they are too dangerous to be left alive. I voted we kill them on sight."

 The Doctor never like these meeting and despite being a celebrated war hero, no one seemed to want her opinion. She never approved of the Time Lords' decision to take over the Earth or the forcing of bond for those poor time sensitive people. But she also knew they have no choice but to bond with time sensitive or they will die. She hated that the Time Lords are forcing a bond, not because they care for the human, but because they want to exploit their power.

 The Doctor raised her hand much to annoyance of the other. "I voted we capture them alive and then we will monitor their state of mind before we do anything harsh."

 "Noted, Doctor." But it was clear to the Doctor, they didn't care. "So who will go to earth and find them?"

 "I volunteer." The Doctor said as she raised her hand again eagerly.

 &&&&

 The Doctor stroke her Tardis longingly. "It's been a while, old girl. Let's have an adventure together, eh?" she said. "We have to help the human and the poor time sensitive person on their side. Do you have any idea where they are?"

 The Tardis hummed gently inside the Doctor's mind and she grinned. "Then, shall we go?"

 &&&&

 I woke up in sweat. My eyes widened.

 Yaz rushed toward me. "Are you okay, (name)? What is it?"

 "Someone is coming...someone dangerous..."

 Yaz looked worried. "Do you know when?"

 I furrowed my eyebrows. "Don't know. I can't see it clearly."

 "It's getting worst, isn't it, for you, I mean, to see the future?" Yaz asked sadly.

 "I'm fine, Yaz. Just needed more rest and I will be good as new." I lied.

 She didn't believe me of course but she didn't argue. She knew better. Everyone knew I have an expired date.

 &&&&

 "Who the hell are you? You are trespassing here!"

 The Doctor raised both hands in surrender. "I'm human, like you, I come in peace. I'm just looking for asylum here."

 Jack stared at him in suspicion. "Scan her!" he ordered his soldiers.

 The Doctor remained calm as a soldier approached her with a scanning machine to determine her species.

 "Confirmed, human." the soldier replied.

 The Doctor hummed. She is glad that her hunch is correct that the human has got their hands on the species scanner machine. The Doctor has put an upgraded bio damper on herself. "See? My name is Jane Smith. Now, may I get some rest? Been walking around for long and I'm tired."

 Jack narrowed his eyes at the Doctor. "Fine. Let her get back to the bunker to see Martha. Tell her to keep an eyes on her."

 The Doctor sighed in relief. She is in. Now she has to figure out which one of the human is the time sensitive.

 &&&&

 The Doctor got along well with Martha. Martha is a doctor who is in charge to keep everyone in good fit. She has checked the Doctor and cleared her.

 Martha introduced her to Donna who is in charge of assigning new people to their quarter and duty.

 The Doctor stared at Donna's ginger hair longingly. "I never get to be ginger..." she murmured.

 Donna is loud and a bit intimidating, the Doctor found, but she likes her enough.

 Strange, how most of the people here in resistance are likeable to the Doctor, even though some of them, are soldier like Rose, Amy and Clara. For some reason, the Doctor felt like she knew them like they were old friends. But that's not possible as she never seen them before.

 It was dinner time and everyone, in the bunker, have dinner together. Despite their situation, they are having a good laugh with each other. The Doctor admired them. She watched Rose and Clara having a laugh together at Jack's expense. Martha is seated with her boyfriend, Mickey, whispering at each other. Amy is with a soldier called Rory whom the Doctor learned is also her husband. A woman named Bill and Heather are distributing food for everyone. Everyone is having a good time.

 The Doctor's eyes widened when she saw her former companion, Sarah Jane Smith. She was on the other side of the room, talking with Donna. She had no idea that Sarah Jane is part of the resistance. She smiled fondly. Of course, Sarah Jane will be a defender of the earth.

 The Doctor took a seat with Rose and her friends.

 "Hey, new girl, Jane, right?" Rose asked with a friendly smile.

 Clara grinned as she look her up and down in appreciation which make the Doctor blushed red. "Looking good, Jane..."

 "Down, girl." Rose said with a grin.

 They soon involved with a friendly conversation with each other.

 "So, how do you lot meet each other?" the Doctor asked curiously.

 "Well, we all have our reason to join resistance... Mine is because of our daughter..." Amy said with a sad smile. "But we are actually recruited by..."

 Rose suddenly shushed her. "No one is to mention him, remember?"

 "Ah, right, he-who-shall-not-be-named."

 "He's not Voldemort, Amy."

 Everyone laughed at the running joke between them.

 The Doctor observed everyone's interaction and realized that they must have been recruited by the time sensitive. But why? What makes them so special? Also now she knew the time sensitive is a man. She will have to look around for a male fit the description of a time sensitive.

 &&&&

 "You need to eat, (name)." Yaz tried to persuade me to have dinner.

 "Not hungry..." I said softly as I laid on my bed and stared at the ceiling.

 Jack entered the room without knocking. The former time agent always annoyed me since I always reprimanded him about his manner. "Hey, how is my Voldemort doing today?"

 I scoffed at the nickname. "Shouldn't I be the boy who lives?"

 "Nah, too heroic." Jack said with a grin.

 It was a secret within our circle that the time sensitive is actually me and that I am a female. It was Clara's idea to throw the Time Lord off my scent. That's why they spread a rumour that the time sensitive is actually male just in case there are mole within the resistance. It annoyed me that the team I put out nicknamed me Voldemort or he-who-shall-not-be-named.

 "Did you see anymore about our hostile visitor?" Jack asked. He is worried after Yaz told him about my vision.

 I shook my head. "Nope. But whoever it is coming and we have to be on alert."

 "There a few new people coming in to join us. I already scanned them and they passed all the tests." Jack said.

 I hummed. "Don't forget the Time Lord is a smarter race than us. They have plenty time to upgrade everything in their disposal. Ours are a bit outdated."

 "Haven't you see anything that could help in that regard?"

 "Think the Time Lords are on me and my tricks. I think they put precaution to put shadow around Gallifrey. Can't see them clearly."

 "Well that is a bummer."

 "Jack!" Yaz glared at him.

 "Sorry, (name), you did good work." Jack said with a sad smile.

 "I hate that I can't be much help." I said. "I have to prepare Melody for when the time come for me to die..."

 Melody is the seven years old daughter of Amy and Rory and she is a time sensitive like me. I have been training her to hide herself from the prying us of other time sensitives and the time lords. She is the whole reason I recruited the parents. She will be my replacement in the future.

 But that's not the only reason, I knew her parents are a potential defenders of earth. I saw it in my vision. most people I recruited personally are because of my vision. I knew that in another timeline they were defenders of earth alongside someone called the storm? I never find out about the storm person and I never told any of them about him. At least I think it's a him.

 Jack and Yaz winced every time I mentioned about my being dying. They hated how helpless they are regarding my situation. It is not like they could get their hand on a decent time lord to bond with me. I told them plenty of time there are not one decent time lord in existence.

 Sarah Jane disagreed though. She mentioned a man called the Doctor who always defended the earth. But she think that man has died because otherwise she believed that the Doctor would join our cause. I never believe her. I didn't recruit her but I sense she is a good person as she joined the resistance on her own free will.

 &&&&

 The Doctor has been with the resistance for a week now and hasn't gotten any closer in figuring which male is the time sensitive. The said time sensitive indeed have been using a bio damper to hide his signature. The Doctor is worried the other Time Lords will be impatient and will declare wars on earth to force the time sensitive out.

 The Doctor suspected a soft-spoken Ryan, who is not a soldier, is the time sensitive but she hasn't got any proof. Ryan is always with Graham, his grandfather, working on fixing damaged machinery within the bunker.

 She hasn't formally talk to Sarah Jane either. She is unsure whether she should revealed her identity to her former companion. She is unsure that Sarah Jane would help her in tracking down the time sensitive.

 She noticed a young woman sitting on library all by her lonesome.

 "Hello there, I'm Jane, who are you? Never seen you before and I have been in the bunker for a week." the Doctor asked.

 &&&&

 I was minding my own business, drawing a doodle on my sketch book, when a young woman approached me. I glanced at her. One of the new people Jack mentioned then. I ponder whether I should talk to her or be rude so she left me alone. I closed down my sketch book and said, "I have been ill so I haven't gotten out of my room. Doctor's order."

 Without invitation, Jane took a seat beside me. I tried to push down my annoyance. "You shouldn't sit with me. I'm still ill. Wouldn't want to get you ill too..." I said, hoping to scare her away.

 Jane didn't look bothered. "I'm not worried. I'm always healthy all my life. My mother said that germs are afraid of me." she said as she moved closer to me.

 "Look, Jane, do you mind? I would rather be alone." I said rudely.

 "You haven't tell me your name yet..."

 "Why? Do you already know the name of everyone in the bunker?!" I asked angrily.

 "Well, I meet with everyone already, I think, except those who are on mission." she said. "As for their name, sure, I do, I'm good with names, you see..." Then she started rattle on some name that I recognized and some that I didn't.

 "Alright, I get it, It's (name), okay?" I said in annoyance and a bit impressed.

 "See, that wasn't so hard, was it? Let's be friend, shall we?"

 "I don't do friend." I said immediately.

 "How can you do not do friend? That's impossible!"

 Jane's behaviour started to annoy me so much.

 At the times, Yaz entered the library. When she saw me and Jane, she schooled her expression in a firm manner. "(Name), are you ditching your duty again?" she asked. She was saving me from having to interact with Jane. She knew how much I hated interaction.

 "And who are you?" Jane asked with a tone that almost flirty which make Yaz blushed, which amused me. "Never see you either before. Hello there."

 "I'm Yaz." she introduced herself. "You are Jane, right? Everyone talk about you. You are really famous with the children."

 "I try..." Jane said with a grin.

 "Sorry, Jane, we got to go to, duty call." I said as I grabbed Yaz away from her.

 "Can I go with...?"

 Before she could finish, I pulled Yaz quickly and out of the way.

 "That was mean, (name)." Yaz said as she saw Jane has this sort of kicked puppy look on her face.

 "She is too cheerful, I hated it." I said.

 Yaz sighed.

 &&&&

 The Doctor meet Melody and she realized almost immediately that she is a time sensitive. So there are more than one time sensitive within the resistance, the Doctor concluded. She realized someone has been training little Melody to utilize her power. But Melody is still a child and she slipped out which caused the Doctor to catch on her signature.

 She remembered what Amy said about her reason to join the resistance is for her daughter's sake. The Doctor felt sadness for the whole affair. She wishes she could fix the time sensitive problem. But she is helpless. The Doctor really fond of little Melody for some reason. She had no idea why.

 She has to report to Gallifrey soon and she is unsure whether she should inform them about little Melody. Melody would be safer in Gallifrey. But the Doctor know it is not quite true. She shuddered at the thought someone might try to claim Melody too early. Also if she informed about Melody, she will be ripped away from her parents and that's something the Doctor can't accept. She loves Amy and Rory, they are now her friends. She had managed to make friends here and she knew she would have to betray them eventually.

[ouidamforeman]

Gallifrey Audios Fic Rec

Since I read a lot more fanfiction than I used to I thought it’d be a good idea to make a rec list of my personal favorites! Heads up though because as anyone who has followed me for a while knows this is mostly Narvin/Leela (But not all! I like gen stuff and friendship shenanigans a lot too) so if you hate the ship or want a larger variety my rec list will be like a minefield, apologies. List is organized by rating, lowest to highest, and includes approximate word counts. Enjoy! Under a read more because it’s kind of long:

Time Lords are Bad at Feelings by @timelordsandkittens (NR) Notes: this is a fic about hugging and it’s the first Gallifrey story I ever bookmarked, years ago)

Reflections/Refractions by a_walking_shadow (G, 2k words) (Summary: It's always interesting, seeing what's different on every world connected to the Axis. Sometimes, the Gallifrey on the other side is so similar to their own it's almost painful. Sometimes, there aren't any similarities at all. Sometimes it's a perfect reflection, sometimes everything is slightly different, refracted. And sometimes, it's just completely bizarre.” aka “Someone posted a suggestion, somewhere, for a story idea: in s4, the Gallifrey gang end up on a version of Gallifrey which is basically what people think the planet is like, when they first get into New Who.)

The Candidate by weakinteraction (G, 4k words) (Summary: Romana's presidential campaign doesn't get off to the smoothest of starts when she is ambushed by an interviewer. Braxiatel is on hand to straighten things out.) Notes: a delightful and unusual mix of Gallifrey lore and canon that makes me very happy

Life Lessons by thetransgirlwhoneverwas (G, 800 words) (Summary: Narvin is facing death, and for the first time in his long life, he is truly afraid of it.) Notes: this is the “What does Brax think about Narvin losing his lives” fic everyone wants

The Hotel of Rassilon by Floptopus (G, 5k words) (Summary: The Gallifrey Gang (Minus that oily toad, Irving Braxiatel) have escaped from the rages of war and are now running a Bed and Breakfast as a family. However, the new guests at their little hotel clearly aren't all they claim to be... Sarah Jane Smith and her young friends are staying at a Bed and Breakfast as they investigate suspected alien activity in the surrounding area. However, most suspicious are the odd family of four that run the hotel…) Notes: Remember the silly self indulgent b&b AU/SJA crossover thing? This is the fic. Listen. Sometimes you just need corny Time War fix-it fic and this is it. It’s not even finished and I don’t care because I want to live here.

day after day (the show must go on) by clockworkouroboros (G, 2k words) (Summary: A post-Time War short story that explores what happens to them. Leela has been found, but Gallifrey is lost. Romana is trying to find out what happened to it.) Notes: @clockworkouroboros writes good things and also she’s my friend and I love her. This story is trippy and cool and angsty and funny!

Half Sick of Shadows by gallifreyburning (G, 14k words) (Summary: Frontline reports said Leela had been killed in battle at the Pillars of Consequence, fighting the Daleks in the Time War. During a chance encounter on a backwater planet, Narvin discovers that this version of events isn't quite accurate.) Notes: Just read everything by @gallifreyburning actually because she’s brilliant

TimeShift by gallifreyburning (G, 9k words) (Summary: After surviving the Time War and finding a happy ending, Leela wakes up in a strange place with an old antagonist, and must figure out how to get home.)

Homesick by mageofmind (renegadeartist) (G, 1k words) (Summary: Home is a complicated subject for Leela. She hopes one day this one won't feel so lonely.)

On Her Lady President's Secret Service by neveralarch (G, 13k words) (Summary: Narvin and Leela tracking down spies in the Citadel. And also fighting with people. And fighting with each other. And having discussions about CIA training methods. But they also track down spies.)

The Ascension of a Celestis by @time-lord-historian (NR) Notes: Time War angst

Fear by SongOfTheBadWolf (G, 1k words) (Summary: Narvin is often resistant to the support he needs the most, but Leela isn't about to give up on him. (set in season 4, after Annihilation.))

Dancing by @iristigerlily (G, 400 words) (Summary: What might have been going through Narvin’s head as Leela performed her fire dance in 1.2 “Square One”.)

until the night fades by President Romana (asoldandtrueasthesky) (G, 2k words) (Summary: Written for the classicwhosecretsanta 2016. Narvin and Leela explore the Axis together, still reeling from the loss of Braxiatel and dealing with a moping President. The Gallifrey they find feels too much like home for Leela to abandon and it's up to Narvin to prevent their group from splintering any further.)

Five Times Narvin Wasn’t Scolded for Showing Emotion, and One Time He Was by JaneTurenne (G, 6k words) (Summary: Time Lords aren’t meant to display their feelings—and, despite the odds, a Time Lord is the only thing Narvin has ever wanted to be. Narvin character study, with a side of shippery.) Notes: This was my favorite Gallifrey fic for a while and it’s probably still in my top three

To Feel the Sun From Both Sides by gallifreyburning (G, 3k words) (Summary: After years of adventures and misadventures and Time Wars, Leela and Narvin are finally getting married. Unfortunately, someone objects to the union, and goes to great lengths to save Leela from making the worst mistake of her life.) Notes: this fic is hilarious please read it

Strangeness and Charm by gallifreyburning (G, 27k words) (Summary: During a delicate treaty negotiation, Leela finds herself on the receiving end of an unwanted marriage proposal. Set during a magical golden hour in the vicinity of Enemy Lines.) Notes: Narvin/Leela fake married AU, warning: wonderful but unfinished so far

this untitled fic by @colinbakerstreet (NR) Notes: it’s kind of a character study thriller but I remember thinking it was fantastic

Error by thebraxiatelcollection (G, 3k words) (Summary: Spoilers for Gallifrey; Time War. Gallifrey. The CIA and the rest of Gallifrey presume Leela is dead or missing after her mission with The Master. Narvin refuses to be alone during times of war. He decides on the next best thing. He builds a copy of her. Narvin/Leela.) Notes: I remember this having a great twist somewhere

A Minor Problem by Irving-Braxiatel (G, 1k words) (Summary: “’The room is bugged.’ The words were scrawled on the note Narvin had slipped into Romana’s hand as they walked past one another.” Narvin has to deliver some bad news to President Romana, which, as it turns out, isn't as easy as it sounds.) Notes: wonderful pre-series Narvin/Romana with telepathy!

Uncharted Territory by stcrmpilot (G, 1k words) (Summary: Narvin has a lot of thinking to do. Leela seems determined to intrude.) Notes: Good good Axis angst. Stcrmpilot (@coordinator-narvin) writes a lot of Gallifrey stuff and they’re my friend so consider this a general rec and check out their stuff

The Tramp Stamp of Rassilon by gallifreyburning (G, 900 words) (Summary: Ace has an unfortunate evening at an off-planet royal wedding.) Notes: I cried when I read this

Nonsense All Compact (The Community Theatre Remix) by neveralarch (T, 12k words) (Summary: Braxiatel directs amateur community theatre in the small village of Gallifrey. Romana is the Council Leader in Gallifrey, and uses theatre as a political distraction. Eventually they hold hands.) Notes: I’m not exaggerating when I say I think this might be my favorite Gallifrey fic ever. You can also read the original non-AU story it’s based on, The Importance of Being On Stage by aralias (G, 3k words), which is also hilarious.

Repercussions by a_walking_shadow (T, 2k words) (Summary: Going after anyone from the tight-knit group at the top of Gallifreyan society is a terrible idea. They're protective of each other. They all possess the capacity to cause absolutely terrifying levels of destruction. And they tend to have loopholes in their moral codes, for whenever anyone threatens their friends.)

A Family Affair by Bagheera (T, 19k words) (Summary: Leela and Narvin have to work together to uncover a conspiracy against President Matthias.) Notes: This is a good Narvin/Leela relationship dynamics fic with a lot of stuff about Narvin’s family, and it was written before we got much canon background on him so it has a lot of interesting headcanons!

Family Ties by Floptopus (T, 4k words) (Summary: In the night, the nightmares come. Leela and Narvin have both lost parts of themselves - parts they'd never expected to live without.) Notes: prequel to The Hotel of Rassilon

Spirit Redux by gallifreyburning (T, 13k words) (Summary: Sometimes even Gallifrey's CIA agents need a little R&R. Who wouldn't enjoy a minibreak on the paradise planet of Davidia?) Notes: Narvin has A Time Of It in this fic and it’s great. It’s also slightly on the M end of T rated towards the end so watch out if spiciness isn’t your thing.

Refinement by oxydised_moron (T, 5k words) Notes: You guys it’s literally just evil!Leela/Narvin from Disassembled, I’m so glad someone wrote this

A Friendly Face by clockworkouroboros (T, 2k words) (Summary: Narvin and Romana have been ousted from Gallifrey after Romana’s latest attempt at treason and they land...in the middle of a war zone. This is set just after that.)

Dreams of Forgotten Lives by BeesOfGallifrey (T, 54k words) (Summary: The Time War is over, and thanks to the skullduggery of Irving Braxiatel, Leela and Narvin have survived it. One small problem: also thanks to the skullduggery of Irving Braxiatel, they have no memory of who they really are, and are both stranded in London in the late 1890s, living entirely separate lives…) Notes: very good Narvin/Leela fobwatched!AU, and I think there’s a sequel in the works with Romana)

Gallifrey: Ruination by Ellimac (T, 11k words) (Summary: In the search for a new Gallifrey, Leela, Narvin, and Romana find themselves on a Gallifrey far too hostile for their liking. When Narvin gets caught in the middle of a dangerous conflict with no way out, it's up to Leela and Romana to get all three of them back to safety before it's too late.) Notes: Great Axis adventure that’s very canon-divergent with injuries, so warning/note for that and a bit more gore and violence than the typical fic

The Shape of Things to Come by gallifreyburning (T, 8k words) (Summary: During the Time War, Leela and Narvin are on a mission to save a young Ace McShane from Daleks meddling in her timeline. Romana's mission briefing didn't remotely prepare them for a night in a punk club in London, 1986.) Notes: Again, just go read everything by gallifreyburning because I’m not listing everything here, but this is the first one by her I read and it’s delightful

Thinking in the Fifth Dimension by Irving-Braxiatel (T, 3k words) Notes: a sort of choose your own adventure story with a really cool format

Orchestral by gallifreyburning (T, 2k words) (Summary: During a CIA mission debrief, Leela and Narvin make a little music.) Notes: gallifreyburning specializes in writing these two arguing and making out but this is the one I’m choosing to rec because it was written for me and also Ace is there

The High School AU of Rassilon by clockworkouroboros (T, 12k words so far) (Summary: Narvin just wants a quiet, easy junior year of high school. Unfortunately, no one else in the school seems to feel the same way.) Notes: Current WIP. AU where they all go to a terrible teen movie high school. A Masterpiece I am proud to have helped with.

Cultural Exchange by JaneTurenne (M, 4k words) (Summary: Narvin knows Leela well enough to track her down after her abrupt departure — and comes to know her a great deal better.) Notes: This is rated T on Ao3 but I’m putting it with the M-rated stuff because it’s kind of spicy for just a T and I wanted to be safe for anyone wary

Superposition by gallifreyburning (M, 3k words) (Summary: At the end of Gallifrey 2.5: Imperiatrix, Narvin is injured while saving President Romana from a bomb, and is carted away for medical treatment just before Pandora takes control of Gallifrey. The next time we see him, in Gallifrey 3.1: Fractures, he's abandoned his post as Coordinator of the CIA and is working as part of Romana's resistance against Pandora. This is a glimpse of what happened in between these two events: the moment Narvin realizes what happened in the Panopticon in his absence, and is forced to choose sides.) Notes: the questionable Pandora/Narvin content I didn’t know I wanted until I had it. It sounds shifty and it is but this fic is so good I believed every second.

Mission Parameters by gallifreyburning (M, 8k words) (Summary: Andred is on a mission to bring down the Celestial Intervention Agency, and he's only just beginning to grasp everything this job entails.) Notes: Have you ever wanted to ship Narvin/Torvald and Narvin/Andred? Have you ever desired to watch a slow motion car wreck? If yes then this is the fic for you.

A Quiet Heart and its 'verse by gallifreyburning (E, but the other fics in the series are G and T, 70k+ words) (Summary: Leela and Narvin's moments between canon, from the Axis until the Time War. This is how a human warrior and her Time Lord came to fall in love. Romana makes occasional appearances, but this is primarily an expansion of the backstory between the Lady President's companions.) Notes: This is probably The Main Narvin/Leela Fic in the fandom at this point so most Gallifrey fans who follow me have probably at least read some of it, but y’all. It’s GoodTM and the smutty parts are pretty easy to skip over if that’s not your thing, so. Highly Recommend.

this Narvin/Leela bodyswap from the sexandpolitics dreamwidth, because sometimes I read silly porn and you all have to deal with that

Also! Note that there’s a lot more in my Gallifrey fic tag, including shorter things and lots of tumblr and askbox fic! Also because the Gallifrey fandom is so little I highly recommend reading everything by any of these authors or anything in any of the Gallifrey fic tags because in general it tends to all be pretty good

[letterboxd]

How I Letterboxd #7: Cinemonster.

Hooptober’s head honcho opens up to Jack Moulton about his love for Texas-born horror director Tobe Hooper, the joys of running Letterboxd’s most beloved Hallowe’en community challenge, and the “terrifying, magical” experience of seeing Frankenstein at the age of four.

“You can’t spell October without Tobe.” —Cinemonster

Cinemonster, known to his family and friends as David Hood, is a restaurateur in Pittsburgh by day, and the head honcho of Hooptober by night. Now in its seventh year, the horror film challenge sees participants set their own 31-day viewing agenda of 31 films, curated according to a list of criteria set by its creator.

‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ (1974), directed by Tobe Hooper.

With over 5,000 films logged on Letterboxd and a growing collection of posters, DVDs, Blu-rays, laser discs and film memorabilia, Cinemonster is a literal monster of cinema. He has created more than 500 lists, including a ton of year, director, actor, actress, franchise and memoriam lists.

What brought you to Letterboxd? I found Letterboxd while I was doing a Google search for a horror film that I had forgotten the name of. I ran into a list that Hollie Horror had made and wound up starting a profile and it went from there. That would have been a little over seven years ago.

How freakin’ cool is last year’s Hallowe’en Easter egg with the dripping blood from our logo? [Pro members get this added to their pages by mentioning #horror in their bio.] I’m a fan.

Unfortunately I haven’t heard of a single one of your four profile favorites! What’s urging you to highlight these films? They are just lesser-seen and have something good or great about them. Eyeball is a great little underseen Umberto Lenzi film. Death Machines is an awkward, weird and wonderful film with kung fu and blood. Massacre at Central High is one of my favorite films and sadly lacking a disc release of any kind—anyone who has seen Heathers will recognize a couple of things if they watch it. Rituals is a criminally underseen stalked in the woods film from the ’70s.

In this this list description, you explain how the original Frankenstein (1931) hooked you into horror at four years old. Can you describe what you most remember about that life-changing experience? It was both magical and terrifying. The space, the creature, the little girl. I had trouble sleeping for weeks afterwards. No matter where I am in the world, if there is a screening of Frank, I’ll go. I watched most of the major universals by the time I was six or seven. I saw Alien and Jaws 2 with my folks and those stuck with me. Cable and a local UHF station showing Hammer films on Saturdays are what really allowed me to get sucked in.

‘Frankenstein’ (1931), directed by James Whale.

The horror films of 1980 and 1981 were the most impactful and are the ones that mean the most to me to this day; Fade to Black, Night School, Motel Hell, The Fog, Alligator, Altered States, Terror Train, Death Ship, Scanners, An American Werewolf in London, The Howling, The Funhouse, Dead & Buried, Hell Night, Wolfen, Ghost Story, The Pit and Evilspeak. I saw all of them five to ten-plus times on cable as a kid. They’re still all high on my list. I am glad that Fade to Black is on Shudder. People need to watch it. More relevant now than then.

What exactly provoked you to start Hooptober seven years ago? I moved into an old spooky house and had a backlog of Blu-rays to watch and the 4K of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was about to come out. I’d done some interactive stuff on Letterboxd previously and had a decent amount of people involved. I was also at a point in my life where 31 films in 31 days is tough, as it is for a lot of us now. So I thought ‘Why don’t I do something that starts a little early, clears some of my list out, and has some parameters that don’t feel like I am handing out an assignment?’ I grew up in Texas, Tobe [Hooper] is close to my heart, and with all the Hooper I owned and the 4K coming out, I decided to christen it with his name. You can’t spell October without Tobe.

What’s the most members that have participated in a Hooptober? The number of people who participated was a little more than I expected, but that wasn’t what I was surprised by. I never thought of it as a recurring event until I started to hear from people the following summer about ‘the next one’. I just kinda chuckled after about a dozen people had asked and I said out loud to no one, “I guess I’m doing another one of these”. We are well over 700 this year, and still climbing.

‘Fade to Black’ (1980), directed by Vernon Zimmerman.

Where do you get the ideas for the rules for films to consider watching? At this point, I look back at past years so that I don’t repeat myself. I look to the current year for inspiration. Is there a film from a sub-genre that was prominent? Was it a strong year for output from women, Mexico, Asia, Black filmmakers, something cultural, and so on? I may focus on effects creators, an actor or writer on a whim. I try to keep an eye out for blind spots I haven’t covered. Shudder, archive.org, the big streamers are all resources. Sadly, rarefilmm no longer exists.

In last year’s interview with Merry-Go-Round magazine, you mentioned plans to turn Hooptober into a film festival. How’s that going? In a post-pandemic world, how can we keep independent niche film festivals thriving? The world has not been agreeable, obviously. I’m not even sure how viable something like that will be next year. I’ve been taking a look at streaming options. Post-pandemic will require more creativity and outside-the-box thinking, and will probably continue to feed some drive-ins. Been a while since more than a handful of people wanted to put money into a drive-in, which is nice to see.

I’m going to do a tweet along to The Witch Who Came From the Sea in October, and I’ll give you an exclusive here: The George Romero Foundation and I are doing online Horror Trivia on October 11. I had been doing it live with them here in Pittsburgh until the pandemic.

Based on this year’s rules and conditions, if there was one essential you-can’t-miss film you could force all your participants to add to their challenge, which film would it be? Demons, Eve’s Bayou or The Witch Who Came From the Sea.

‘The Witch Who Came from the Sea’ (1976), directed by Matt Cimber.

What have been your own greatest film discoveries through your Hooptober adventures? A Tale of Two Sisters, I Drink Your Blood, Blood Diner, and though it is a bit of a cheat to list this one, The Amusement Park. It’s cheating because it didn’t exist as something that I or anyone else could have watched, prior to when I saw it.

Do you have any acclaimed horror movies still lingering in your list of shame? Eyes Without a Face, Upgrade, Cure and Scream 4.

Have you ever completed one of your own Hooptober challenges yet? Errrrrrrrrr, one. I’m on track this year.

What about the participants over the years—any Letterboxd friends you’ve made who would you like to give a shout-out to? Aaron, Sarah Jane and Chris Duck are people that I talk to outside of Letterboxd. There have been a few others over the years. Slappy McGee has helped me with Hooptober the last two years. They are great. Javo and David Lawrence are pretty great, too.

Before Hooptober, many of your lists invited discussion with your followers. In what ways is Letterboxd the ideal forum to foster a community of film fans? Fans exercise their fandom in so many ways. The platform is so flexible that it allows you to utilize it in a small and personal way, in a promotional way, or to dive into the community pool and see who’s out there that shares something with you or can show you something. The more people that we are exposed to and listen to, we are all the better for.

Which of your review—from any genre—are you proudest of? The Invisible Man or The Hustler, probably. I have a capsule of Hud that I like.

So, you’re the horror guy. Nobody is denying that. You are Cinemonster, after all. But when I look at your top movies list and see that Singin’ in the Rain is your all-time number one, I’ll need you to explain yourself. I go back and forth between that and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They are 1A and 1B in some order. Singin’ in the Rain is a perfect film and the studio system at its best. I will ignore your implied insult. ;)

‘Fear of a Black Hat’ (1993), directed by Rusty Cundieff.

It’s true, even a horror aficionado needs some levity in their life. What other comedies pick you up from a dark place? Fear of a Black Hat always does the trick. Same with The Awful Truth, Murder by Death, Hollywood Shuffle, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Blazing Saddles, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Black Dynamite.

Who has been keeping you company during this tough year? I have watched thirteen Spike Lee films so far this year. I’ve taken a break the last few months, but I’ll probably knock out five or six more. With the exception of 25th Hour, everything is a revisit. It’s been a joy to go back through everything. Crooklyn is much stronger than I remembered, and Bamboozled just gets better and more impactful as time passes. I have loved Spike since the day I saw School Daze. His films have always connected with things that are important to me and to those that have been around me. Lee is still grossly under-appreciated as a narrative film director and a documentarian.

We’re bowing down to your epic Blu-ray and DVD collection. Which ones are your most prized possessions? Make us jealous. I have an Anchor Bay DVD of Dawn of the Dead signed by the cast and George A. Romero, a steelbook of Battle Royale, the first Slumber Party Massacre set before they had to reprint the box, the original Star Wars trilogy on Blu. I’m sure there are things I’m not thinking of. I have a lot of out-of-print and laser-only stuff. I’ll never get rid of my Holy Grail, Ghostbusters and Akira Criterion laser discs.

A selection of Cinemonster’s signed memorabilia.

I have a copy of Painting with Light signed by John Alton, John Waters and Steven Soderbergh I’ll send you a picture of. I used to collect movie posters, and I have the original Revenge of the Jedi one-sheet and the Drew Struzan Squirm poster. I do love those.

From your top directors list, let’s put one horror director on a pedestal. Who does the genre better than anyone else and why? George. They’re always topical, intelligent, thoughtful, personal and sometimes prescient. At their best they hold up both a mirror and a crystal ball. He was writing found-footage scripts in the early 70s, for god’s sake. Tobe is grossly under-appreciated. James Whale and Mario Bava could scare you in so many ways.

So, thinking beyond Ari Aster, Robert Eggers and Jordan Peele, which up-and-coming horror directors are you most excited about? Issa López, Gigi Saúl Guerrero, Benson and Moorhead, Shinichiro Ueda, Na Hong-jin, Julia Ducournau, Nia DaCosta, Jeremy Gardner and Leigh Whannell.

The 2010s were a great decade for horror. We have more money on-screen, moving away from the low-budget films of the 2000s. Which favorite horror film of the last decade inspired you the most? Get Out. What Jordan did for generations to come is unmatched in this century.

Chucky from ‘Child’s Play’ (1988).

Which probably-too-long horror franchise gets too much flak and is top-to-bottom a great time? Child’s Play. Chucky has always been treated generally as second tier. [That franchise] has tried a lot of interesting and out-there things during its lifespan that had no business working, but did.

I know it’s been a slow year but you haven’t logged many 2020 movies yet! Which is your most anticipated horror movie of 2020 or 2021? Peninsula, for sure; I love Train to Busan. Then Candyman, The Dark and the Wicked, Grizzly II: Revenge, Bad Hair, #Alive, After Midnight, The Platform, Bulbbul, Underwater, Shirley and Swallow.

Interview by Jack Moulton. Follow Jack on Letterboxd.

[alicedoessurveys]

Doctor Who Tag

yes im a nerd...

CHILDHOOD

1. Did you like DW as a child?

I was 10 when it came back on telly with Eccleston and the first episode with the autons scared me so much my mom wouldn't let me watch it again until a couple years later, but yeah my teens I was obsessed with DW... still am at age 25

2. Your age at the time of the revival?

10

3. First DW episode you ever saw?

‘Rose’

4. Did you have any of the toys?

I still have the eleventh doctor’s screwdriver... I used to have some of the figures but there in storage now somewhere

5. Which DW character did you play on the playground?

didn't play it on the playground

6. Monster(s) that scared you most as a child?

all of them! the ones that still scare me now are the Cybermen and the Autons... genuinely cant walk past a shop mannequin without being suspicious 

7. Joke/story you didn’t get as a kid?

as a kid, any of the innuendo type jokes

8. DW opinion that has changed since you were a kid?

idk I think I still have the same opinions

9. Who introduced you to DW?

parents

10. Did you like Sarah Jane Adventures as a child?

I LOVED SJA!! I miss that show, and Elizabeth Slade :(

DOCTOR

11. Who is your Doctor?

Ten was the doctor that made me fall in love with Doctor Who 

12. Your favourite Doctor?

omg why not just ask me who my favourite child is... (I don't have kids but you know what I mean) if I had to chose my top three are ten, eleven and thirteen

13. Least favourite Doctor?

purely just because he doesn't have enough episodes... nine...

14. Best regeneration?

none of them I hate regenerations :( they make me sad, im too emotionally invested in every single one

15. Do you like “Doctor-Lite” episodes?

they're not my faves

16. Who is the most human Doctor?

I think nine maybe? or twelve?

17. Best multi-Doctor story?

the 50th anniversary special 

18. Best Doctor monologue?

“Hello Stonehenge! who takes the pandorica, takes the universe. but bad news everyone, cause guess who? HA! You lot you're all whizzing about- its really very distracting. Could you all just stay still a minute because I AM TALKING. Question of the hour is, who's got the pandorica? Answer, I do. Next question, who's coming to take it from me? Come on, look at me! No plan. No backup. No weapons worth a damn. oh and something else, I don't have anything to lose. So, if you're sitting up there in your silly little spaceship with all your silly little guns and you've got any plans on taking the pandorica tonight... just remember who's standing in your way. remember ever black day I ever stopped you and then- AND THEN- do the smart thing... let somebody else try first.”

not copied and pasted, remember that from the top of my head... its always there waiting in my mind incase I ever need an epic monologue :’)

19, What do you think TenToo/MetaCrisis Doctor is doing now?

hopefully living his best life with Rose

20. Best Doctor/companion pairing?

ten and donna 

COMPANIONS

21. Favourite companion?

Donna, Clara, Amy

22. Favourite secondary companion?

is Mickey classed as secondary? idk

23. Least favourite companion?

Ryan

24. Best TARDIS Team?

Doctor, Amy and Rory

25. Most underrated companion?

Graham, but that may just be cause I love Bradders

26. Most overrated companion?

Rose... I like her but idk, I think she gets more hype than she deserves.. don't @ me

27. Favourite companion’s family?

Rose’s mom

28. Who should have been a companion but wasn’t?

idk I cant think of anyone

29. Favourite (canon or non-canon) DW universe relationship?

Amy and Rory

30. Who did you not used to like, but really like now?

wasn't keen on Bill at first but by the end I really liked her, same with Rory

EPISODES

31. Favourite episode ever?

girl in the fireplace

32. Least favourite episode?

most of Chibnall’s episodes tbh sorry not sorry 

33. Which episodes do you skip?

the regeneration episodes

34. Best two-parter?

Human Nature - Family of Blood

35. Historical, present day or futuristic episodes?

I like them all in there own way but I think present is fave, then historical, then future

36. Episode that will always make you smile?

all of them

37. Episode that will always make you cry?

Rory and Amy’s last episode :’(

38. Best run of episodes?

ugh I cant answer this theres too many 

39. Best cliffhanger?

the end of Spyfall part one when the Master reveals who he is... I was SHOOK

40. Favourite Christmas special?

Voyage of the Damned

SERIES

41. Classic Who or New Who?

new who

42. Favourite series?

four or five

43. Least favourite series?

eleven, I just cant with the writing

44. Which series do you skip?

none

45. Favourite series opening?

eleventh hour

46. Favourite series finale?

Doomsday

47. Best series arc?

Bad Wolf

48. Thoughts on series 11/12?

I adore Jodie Whittaker and her doctor, and although I think 3 companions is too many I do love Yaz and Graham (Ryan is hit & miss). I just think theyve been massively let down by the stories/writing... they’ve tried to hard to tick certain boxes and completely missed what Doctor Who is about for a lot of people.. an escape from the real world into these outrageous unbelievable but lovable fun alien adventures 

49. How much of Classic Who have you seen?

not a lot

50. Who should have had another series?

NINE NINE NINE NINE NINE 

MONSTERS

51. Favourite monster/villain?

the master 

52. Most creative monster?

Weeping Angels, whoever came up with monsters that look like statues and only move when you're not looking at them is genius 

53. Monster(s) that scares you most?

Autons, Cybermen, the creepy dolls from Night Terrors, the ones from Waters of Mars, Weeping Angels

54. Monster you think is too easy to defeat?

idk

55. Least favourite monster/villain?

absorbaloff

56. Monster you want to return?

The Master, I really hope that isn't the last we see of Dhawan

57. In your opinion, what makes a monster good?

being genuinely scary, 

58. Daleks, Cybermen or Weeping Angels?

Weeping Angels

59. Best Dalek story?

Daleks in Manhatten

60. Best one time villain/monster?

my brain has gone blank I cant think of an answer right now 

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

61. Torchwood or Sarah Jane Adventures?

SJA

62. Favourite Torchwood Team member?

I haven't watched it all so I couldn't say 

63. Which Torchwood death made you saddest?

again, not watched it all 

64. Do you rewatch COE or MD?

huh

65. Favourite SJA Team member?

Sarah Jane

66. Mr Smith or K-9?

K-9

67. Maria or Rani?

Rani

68. Do you read the comics/novels or listen to Big Finish?

Nope

69. If you do, your favourite additional stories?

n/a

70. Do you like DW analysis (video essays, fan theories, etc)?

yes

DESIGN/PRODUCTION

71. Favourite piece of alien tech?

the sonic, I love how it is so multipurpose except for when it comes to wood 

72. Favourite piece of Murray Gold music?

I am the Doctor - gets me pumped every time 

73. Favourite TARDIS design?

Ten’s Tardis 

74. Has the 2005 era CGI aged well?

actually yeah, I was rewatching the ‘are you my mummy’ episodes the other day and my God when the gas masks emerged from the faces... ooooooof I was like omg how 

75. Favourite Doctor outfit?

eleven or thirteen

76. Monster with the best design?

not really a design more of a costume.. I live Dhawan master’s costume. that shade of purple, oof he so stylish 

77. Best show runner?

idk

78. Best writer?

Gatiss

79. Best opening titles?

eleven’s titles where the Tardis is flying and being zapped is cool but thirteens music hits different 

80. Will DW age well/stay popular in the future?

I hope so, I feel like its lasted this long surely it can last forever.. if the writers don't fuck it up... 

IF YOU WERE IN THE SHOW

81. Time period you’d want to go with the Doctor?

whatever time means Id get to wear the most beautiful costumes

82. Planet/place you’d want to go with the Doctor?

Galifrey, pre-desctruction

83. Doctor you’d most like to travel with?

any of them, please and thank you

84. Companion you’d most like to travel with?

donna, sceso a good laugh but also I feel like she’d look after me 

85. Monster you’d like to defeat/fight?

The Master 

86. If you could go back on your own history (like Father’s Day), where would you go?

back to when I was a toddler, I wanna see what I was like 

87. If you could ask the Doctor anything, what would you ask?

theres too many to ask 

88. Historical figure you’d like to meet?

Shakespeare

89. How do you think you’d meet the Doctor?

id probably be rescued from doing something stupid and then the doc would be like you know what the bitch clearly needs supervision she's coming with me 

90. Would you travel forwards or backwards in time first?

backwards

IF YOU MADE THE SHOW

91. Historical event would you like to see in DW?

Hamilton

92. Issue you’d like to see addressed in DW?

idk 

93. Who would you completely erase from the DW universe?

Ruth

94. One unanswered DW question you’d love to know the answer to?

where is Clara now?

95. Actor/actress you’d like to see play the Doctor?

Phoebe Waller Bridge (or Lin Manuel Miranda)

96. Actor/actress you’d like to see play a companion?

Andrew Scott (yes I did just basically recast fleabag and hot priest)

97. Is DW “too political”?

series 11 got a bit like that 

98. Which characters fate would you changed?

Danny Pink

99. What about DW could be improved?

I think ive made my options about Chibnall pretty clear... 

100. If you could write an episode of DW, any ideas for what you’d do

bring back Jenny, the Doctor / Daughter adventures they would have. I’m actually writing a fic about it if you wanna read.... here

[takaraphoenix]

Dr who for the ask game

Thanks for playing! This is also a big, fun one! :O (I do love that the majority of these asks hit target on my own biggest obsessions x3 We checked off like all the live action shows at this point, I think, the only things left are anime/animated xDDD)

Again with a cut due to the sheer size. ^^°°°

Top 5 favourite characters: CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, The Doctor, Yasmin Kahn

Other characters you like: Rory Williams Pond, Graham O’Brien, Mickey Smith, Bill Potts, Sarah Jane Smith, Craig Owens

Least favourite characters: Rose Tyler by a landslide

Otps: not realy any actual OTPs but ships I guess I’m fond of would be Vasta/Jenny and Rory/Amy

Notps: every ship involving the Doctor, because I just honestly find it weird and uncomfortable to look at the Doctor as a romantic or even worse yet sexual being, but most of all Doctor/Rose and Doctor/River, also Jack/Ianto

Favourite friendships: I am living for the current team dynamic, 13-Yaz-Graham-Ryan are really good but my forever favorite is the Doctor and Jack, also the best team-up was the Doctor with Donna and Martha, that was perfect

Favourite family: THE FAM! 13′s team

Favourite episodes:oooh mmh, I do have multiple favorites, so let’s do this!

Blink: it is such a good episode, there was a time I just popped that one in when I had 40 minutes to waste

Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords: for me personally, this is where Doctor Who peaked. My absolute favorite storyline and episodes and team-up - my favorite Doctor with BOTH my favorite companions in an episode with my favorite Master as the enemy. Amazing. There was a time when I would regularly rewatch this, just these three

Turn Left/The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End:Suuuch a satisfying conclusion for a four series plotline, all of the companions coming together like that? It was so good

The Lodger & Closing Time: I love Craig and I love how these two episodes switch things up!

Favourite season/book/movie: Rather obviously, series 3 - the return of Jack, the series where Martha is the companion, a series with my favorite Doctor and four of my favorite episodes in it!

Favourite quotes:THE ANGELS HAVE THE PHONE BOX! xD And the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff! I got that one on a necklace even! *laughs*

Best musical moment: uuurgh the soundtrack of this show is actually so good? I listened to it on a loop for years. Series 3 and 4 being my favorites, they make you feel things, man.

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest: Just this series when Jack returned. And let me elaborate to just convey how hard I fangirled at that, because it wasn’t just “oh a fave!”.

You see, Jack is... kind of why I’m here? I watched the first series with my mother back when it started airing in Germany. But they kind of... stopped dubbing it and it stopped airing in Germany and eh, I was okay with it because this show seemed weird like they just switched out the actor of the MAIN CHARACTER who does that what the fuck and I really liked Jack but he was gone now too so oh well.

However, then I read online about how Jack was in series 3. So... I went online and Doctor Who is genuinely the first TV show I ever watched in English, because I wanted to see Jack but there was no dub.

Then series 3 ended and both Jack and Martha left and I was very meh because I remembered that this is the show that constantly replaces its whole cast.

You can probably guess what happened next, but Jack was in the finale of series 4. So I went back into Doctor Who, rewatched what there has been so far all the way up to the series 4 finale - and that was when I was sold, because holy shit even with the switching of companions, they just bring them back! They just brought them all back! That was such a good pay-off.

Ironically, that was when I actually stuck around and started watching the show in real time instead of waiting for the next Jack appearance to bring me back from hibernation. Ironically because - well, that was the last we saw of anyone. (Aside from 10 in the 50 year special.)

That hard, hard cut from 10 to 11, no return of any companions...

Needless to say that when 12 came and went with no care for anything pre-11, I kind of... came to accept that this was it. Especially when they announced yet another hard cut - as in Moffat would finally be replaced and with the new era, both a new Doctor and new companions - I was so sure we’d never get to see anyone from the old crew again.

So when, after literally ten years, Jack Harkness returned and was so... so... Jack, I made the loudest, most unholy sound and the excitement of them actually acknowledging that he would be back for more and he would be there when the Doctor needs him? Tears of joy.

(but aso pls #LetMarthaMeet13 okay? Okay)

When it really disappointed you:YOU’RE MAKING A 50 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL. YOU HAVE SOOO MANY GOOD COMPANIONS. BUT. BUT YOU BRING NONE OF THEM BACK. ONLY ROSE TYLER’S FACE. OF ALL OF THE FACES. OF EVERYONE I COULD HAVE SEEN AGAIN IN THAT SPECIAL, IT HAD TO BE BILLIE PIPER’S MEDIOCRE ACTING. REALLY? REALLY??

Saddest moment: When 10 regenerated

Most well done character death: Surprisingly enough, this show makes me care even about the one episode characters to the degree that I find their deaths frustrating. It’s pretty good at character deaths overall

Favourite guest star: Does Craig Owens count? Because he only had two appearances in total. And the second one was genuinely a surprise to me; I was sure that The Lodger would be a stand-alone, never to be seen again kind of deal

Favourite cast member: John Barrowman! David Tennant! Freema Agyeman! I love all three of them and seeing them in other things always makes me really happy!

Character you wish was still alive: I mean, Bill. Can you imagine if the lesbian companion had gotten to meet 13?? Death :D

One thing you hope really happens: Martha. I mean, come on. Jack is back, Jack warned the Doctor, promised to be there when needed. There’s no way Jack lost contact with Martha and Mickey, even with those two off in space fighting aliens alone. I’d love for this... very, very big plotline that is currently happening to include the Doctor’s old friends coming back once more to help.

Most shocking twist: I mean... I mean it’s gotta be this series’ Surprise Origin Story. Like, I still can’t quite comprehend that one.

When did you start watching/reading?: As mentioned above, when it first started airing in Germany

Best animal/creature: Does the TARDIS count as a creature? Because then Sexy wins!

Favourite location: THE TARDIS. I wish they’d show it more often just casually. I wanna see the companions hang out in there, I wanna see their rooms, see that indoor pool and stuff

Trope you wish they would stop using: "OH NO THE DALEKS ARE STILL ALIVE AFTER THE LAST TIME I TRIED GENOCIDE ON THEM *gasp*”... Like. The very first time they brought them “back from the dead”, it was really cool because as a newbie you never met them before but you get they are important. Then they were wiped out. And then they returned again. And okay, sure. So they were wiped out again. And miraculously survied again.

Look, I get it. Doctor Who has three recurring entities in the villain gallery who are like... obligatory - the Master, the Daleks and the Cybermen. But for the love of everything, stop trying to show it as a “surprise twist” that the bad guy is a Dalek like we all knew they’re coming they’re the cockroaches of the universe, they ALWAYS surprise, stop acting like we should be shocked that they’re back again.

Every time, the Doctor goes Pikachu meme but with sad eyes and like just... have the Doctor groan, kick a Dalek and go “not you again”, instead of “how did you POSSIBLY survive THIS? :O” because after the sixth miracuous survival of a genocide, it stops being a surprise twist... -_-

One thing this show/book/film does better than others: Clearly something, because it has me come back for more like a masochist despite me being a character-driven viewer - me, abandoning the show after the first series was very in character, because I’m attached to characters and if you routinely replace all the characters, that’s... not really my thing. Somehow, this show defies the odds there

Funniest moments: JACK FLIRTING WITH PEOPLE AND THE DOCTOR GOING “NO STOP THAT!” xDDD

Couple you would like to see: NONE. NO ROMANCE. KEEP THAT SHIT OUT OF MY DW!!! Urgh. Just give me fun found family space adventures. I swear ever since the cast announcement I have had a twitchy eyebrow waiting if they’ll push for Ryan/Yaz and so far I am sooo glad they are NOT. I just... want friendship and space adventures, no fucking romance. At all. Not with the Doctor, not between companions. No drama

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast: ...to stay in character, I have to say Dominic Sherwood. Partially because I am obsessed with him, but also because I WANNA HEAR HIS BRITISH ACCENT FOR A WHOLE ASS SERIES PLEASE

I would also like to see the return of James Marsters though. Time Heist teased by showing his face and acknowledging his existence in Doctor Who (it’s not like DW has acknowledged a whole lot of Torchwood canon so far, considering the catastrophic events TW has dealt with without the Doctor...), so that had me kind of hopeful he may at least cameo for an episode...

Favourite outfit: I looove Martha’s red leather jacket and Jack’s coat

Favourite item: The chameleon device

Do you own anything related to this show/book/film?: *clears throat awkwardly* ...Yes?

a metro card holder thingy with the TARDIS on it,

an I pin I have on my pencil case,

a necklace with a miniature TARDIS,

a necklace with the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey quote in a swirl on it,

a necklace with a Weeping Angel pendant,

a mug with the 10th Doctor as a cat on it,

a lanyard with Police Call Box written all over and a miniature TARDIS dangling on it

a TARDIS dress,

a whoosh-sound making door opening TARDIS with size-fitting figures of the 10th Doctor, Jack, Martha, K9, Idris, 11, Rory and John Hart (it’s James Marsters’ pretty face, okay?),

a Funko Pop 10th Doctor,

another TARDIS but this one is smaller and can’t open,

a larger TARDIS that can open (and is the right size for my Doctor Whooves),

a Doctor Whooves (if that counts since he’s technically My Little Pony but also he’s the Doctor so like...),

a TARDIS-blue stuffed owl with Police Owl written on it,

the first four series on DVD,

a poster from the 50th Anniversary with the War Doctor walking away from an explosion and 10 and 11 on either side of him,

a pocket watch that is the chameleon device

What house/team/group/friendship group/family/race etc would you be in?: Mmmh I would like to be on the current team the most, I think? Generally speaking, their adventures were less intense than most others and I dig the family vibe

Most boring plotline: Boring, huh? There are always a couple stinkers, at least one in each series, but a really boring plotline was... Clara’s post-Impossible-Girl one. I LOVED her as the Impossible Girl, she was so interesting and I think that after she went into the Doctor’s timeline, the character should have been retired. Have her, I don’t know, dissolve there, since she is spread out through time. But that she stuck around was... not good, for her character? Her love drama with Danny was incredibly boring and not fun to watch (especially when she tried to kill the Doctor :D)

Most laughably bad moment: THAT FUCKING MOON EPISODE. THE FUCKING EPISODE WHERE THE FUCKING MOON TURNED INTO A FUCKING EGG AND AN ALIEN HATCHED TO THEN LAY A NEW MOON EGG IMMEDIATELY AFTER BEING BORN AND HUMANS JUST FUCKING SHRUGGED THAT SHIT OFF. Urgh. There are a lot of cringey things happening on this show, but this takes by far the crown. It was so stupid, so dumb, so ridiculous

Best flashback/flashfoward if any: Every time we learn more about the Doctor’s past *^*

Most layered character: I... I mean the Doctor. So many layers, so many lives, so many years

Most one dimensional character:Mh, this is harder... Among the not one-episode-off characters? I guess Nardole. Like, sure, good guy, but... not really all that deep that one

Scariest moment: Blink with the Weeping Angels. They lost A LOT of their scariness the more they were used - Moffat really overused them, in my opinion; they would have done better only appearing very rarely. But that first episode with them was just daaamn

Grossest moment: Cassandra?? Woman only made of skin?

Best looking male: CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS

Best looking female: MARTHA JONES

Who you’re crushing on (if any): Martha Jones

Favourite cast moment: John and David being cute behind the scenes is always amazing, but the bes moment is definitely the 500 Miles video!

Favourite transportation: The TARDIS, that’s not even a question!

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise): Whenever we get to see (not destroyed) Gallifrey? It’s so gorgeous??

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you:SO MANY AFTER THAT LAST SERIES. But also things like: Where did Clara fuck off to in her flying diner? What exactly is Jack doing now that there is no Torchwood anymore? How in the world did Torchwood ever even work like how was the Doctor just never around during these gigantic problems?? WHO WAS THE DOCTOR’S FIRST WIFE? And what was the Doctor’s child like? Because the only one ever even mentioned is the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan, but a granddaughter implies one more generation between. WHERE IS JENNY? Since she is also the Doctor’s daughter but also just fucked off into space and like why is she not trying to track her parent down??

Best promo: I mean, it clearly works when they show me Jack’s face so that’d be it for me :D”

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book: At the series 4 finale, as above more elaborately explained

IN DEPTH FANDOM QUESTIONS

[nowhereiswhereibelong]

73 Questions

I mas tagged by: @mrs-machinegun-norris about two centuries ago sorry

On a scale of 1-10, how excited are you about life right now?

• 5

Describe yourself in a hashtag?

• #sadbicht

• Cause I'm a bad bicht you can't kill me, only I do that

If you could do a love scene with anyone, who would it be?

• Aaron Taylor-Johnson

• Colson Backer

If your life was a musical, what would the marquee say?

• The crazy bisexual is on the loose

What’s one thing people don’t know about you?

• That I cant handle silence

What’s your wake up ritual?

• All my cats and family yells at me till I roll of take my meds and stare at the wall till I'm late

What’s your go to bed ritual?

• Make sure I cleaned the litter box and that my cats have food and water then is up to bed and reading anything and everything till I fall a sleep

What’s your favourite time of day?

• Night time (I get the zoomies), or when I'm home alone

Your go to for having a good laugh?

• I really like comedy and some that make me laugh even when I watched 1000 times: John Mulaney, Daniel Sloss, Russel Howard and Sarah Millican

Dream country to visit?

• As many as I can! I have an extensive list

What’s the biggest surprise you’ve had?

• Last semester 3 professors at university were really supportive and understanding and I didnt expect them to be so kind or belive in me that much.

Heels or flats/sneakers?

• Sneakers everywhere all the time for any given reason

Vintage or new?

• Vintage bits and pisses of different eras but late 80s early 90s give me live

• And I'm obsessed with 70s buildings dont know why

Who do you want to write your obituary?

• An creative stranger - go nuts dude freak people out

Style icon?

• dont have one I guess

What are three things you can’t live without?

• My cats

• My phone

• My guitar

What’s one ingredient you put in everything?

• I'm crazy about mustard

• My dad always says anything salivary can be better with cheese and anything sweet be better with chocolate - not that far from the truth

What 3 people living or dead would you like to make dinner for?

• Elvis Presley

• Jane Fonda

• Janis Joplin

What’s your biggest fear in life?

• Failure

• The dark

Window or aisle seat?

• Window: you can look at the view, it's better for sleeping and during the day sunlight for reading

What’s your current TV obsession?

• A have many, it's a problem, but right now mind hunter

Favourite app?

• Instagram and tumblr

Secret talent?

• I like to lie to myself and say acting but maybe just weirdly good at pretending to be good at things (ain't that the joke huh)

Most adventurous thing you’ve done in your life?

• I would say it was dumb, stupid and streamly dangerous but when I was 16 a friend and I went to some guys house in a very weird neighborhood and lied to our parents about it and only 1 other friend new (also our taxi couldn't find the house). We meet those two guys at a friends party and they said that they were throwing one and that we should go, and our dumb selfdestruting alcohol hunting minds though, why not. It was not a party. It was just a hang out with us and one other guy and to this day I dont know how we left at 7am (the only way to get out of there was the first bus because uber wasn't a thing yet and me and my friend were to scared of what kind taxi driver we would find) unharmed and not sexually harassed, given that one of the dudes that our friends new more hated me for a few months for not putting out for him, cause you know, men.

• I'm absolutely sure they wanted a sex party that didnt happen. But I did show my unasked skills of knowing every single black veil brides lyrics.

How would you define yourself in three words?

• Anxious

• Laud

• Loyal

Favourite piece of clothing you own?

• The stolen 80s tshirts from my dad

• High waisted shorts

Must have clothing item everyone should have?

• A comfortable pair of jean shorts that you feel pretty in

Superpower you would want?

• To stop time

• I get to anxious trying to time manage and it just snowballs from there. And sleeping in without being always late.

What’s inspiring you in life right now?

• Machine Gun Kelly (I stared listening to his stuff a few months ago)

• But always and forever is the passion that moves people

Best piece of advice you’ve received?

• Be/do to other people what you wanted to be done for you

Best advice you’d give your teenage self?

• It's not just on your head it's a real thing, you're lot alone, and it ok to need help.

A book that everyone should read?

• Harry Potter: that even thou I have read multiple times it still is amazing and full of symbolism that people brush through some times.

• Women who run with the wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

• My older sister made me start this book and its absolutely live changing and I belive should be obligatory to all women in this world. This book is a live long work by this psychologist and through miths, legends, folk tales and stories she puts together what she calls the wild women archetype and what is the feminine instinct is and how those tales teach us about it and how to have a healthy relationship with her.

What would you like to be remembered for?

• For being kind

How do you define beauty?

• It's an powerfull force within

What do you ~love most~ only love about your body?

• The shape of my eyes

Best way to take a rest/decompress?

• Listening to music and dancing around

Favourite place to view art?

• I dont understand sorry

If your life were a song, what would the title be?

• Static supernova

If you could master one instrument, what would it be?

• Guitar and piano cant choose only one

If you had a tattoo, where would it be?

• My planned ones:

• Orca

• Felix felicis

• Tree

• Mother earth

• Penicillin allergy (I dont trust nobody)

Dolphins or koalas?

• Dolphins

• Did you y'all know that orcas not only aren't whales but belong on the same family as dolphins?

What’s your spirit animal?

• Orca

Best gift you’ve ever received?

• My cats (even thou there are rescues they're my little special gifts from nature)

Best gift you’ve ever given?

• On my best friend wedding my friend and I gave a performance as siluetes (it was private beach and all the light were off and we had the car headlights behind us) I played the song you are in love by taylor swift while she did an beautiful performance on silks the song represented their relationship and how she shared it if us in a very sacred way and the silks was a representation of her herself and how the 3 of us saw in the last few years her transformation from a very broken person to the women she was born to be.

• Yes we were crying the hole time but was the most genuine and beautiful think I ever done so yeah

What’s your favourite board game?

• Dix it, its awesome go play it pls

What’s your favourite colour?

• Petrol blue

Least favourite colour?

• The color of lentil soup my mom makes it looks like a baby have serious digestive problems

Diamonds or pearls?

• Diamonds of the symbolic value of "the pressure that could've break us made us into diamonds insted"

Drugstore makeup or designer?

• Drugstore makeup, the one I know that are real brands hauahauahs

Blow-dry or air-dry?

• Air-dry

Pilates or yoga?

• Pilates even thou I must prefer sports mostly

Coffee or tea?

• My blood is coffee at this point

What’s the weirdest word in the English language?

• Wolrd, because English is not my first language and specially in an American accent the pronunciation of wolrd if simply the worst and is absolutely obnoxious and unsettling.

Dark chocolate or milk chocolate?

• Dark

• But my absolut favored is a 70% cacao white chocolate. It's incredible but I only got to buy it twice :(

Stairs or elevator?

• Stairs, I also love to sit on them

Summer or winter?

• Winter. I only like heat if I'm inside very cold water

You are stuck on an island, you can pick one food to eat forever without getting tired of it, what would you eat?

• If nutrition value doesn't matter, ice cream

A desert you don’t like?

• Orange cake. Bad memories and I vomit every time I try to eat it.

A skill you’re working on mastering?

• Singing and playing the guitar

Best thing to happen to you today?

• I think I made a online friend :D

Best compliment you’ve ever received?

• That I'm kind

Favourite smell?

• Buttering sugar

Hugs or kisses?

• Hugs i Iike to be permanently attached to some people at times

If you made a documentary, what would it be about?

• Domestic violence

• Parenting

Last piece of content you consumed that made you cry?

• Today I was trying to play this song called Ronan and cryed my eyes out like all the other times I tried before It's a song of child cancer in the mother's perspective

Lipstick or lip gloss?

• Lipstick

• I'm a red matte lip stan

Sweet or savoury?

• Sweet

Girl crush?

• Billie Elish

How you know you’re in love?

• The only time I think I've been in love I only realised it because they left and I didnt understand why i was severely hurt by it and changed the way I created all relationships after that. And then it hit me

• So pain and heartache.... yeah that's depressing as shit

Song you can listen to on repeat?

• When the sun goes down - Arctic Monkeys

If you could switch lives with someone for a day who would it be?

• My own self but not a anxious depressed mess just to feel what it's like

What are you most excited about at this time in your life?

• That I dont need to make decisions

[incomingalbatross]

If I can still offer suggestions for the "things I'd like to see you write" ask meme: Starfleet chaplain Father Brown. What Holmes was really up to during retirement. And I'm still curious about the "RTD doesn't understand hobbits" meta you mentioned ages ago.

Thank you!

I will say that I do not feel remotely qualified to write Starfleet chaplain Father Brown, but I love that concept so much... I do definitely want to read it.

---

I do want to develop a theory I can stand by on Holmes’ retirement!! Currently I am trying to restrict myself to things that could fit into canon without too obviously catering to my tastes specifically. :P (I have an answer that fits my Modern Holmes AU, but that incorporates fantasy/supernatural elements, and I don’t want to make those essential to any of the original Canon as it lives in my head. It’s hard to articulate the distinction, but it’s there.)

---

...So. I started to write some bullet points for that essay, and...here it is. Or at least here’s a decent first draft. I have’t watched any 10 in a while, so it’s not as well-sourced as I’d like, but it’s here!

(WARNING: Anti-RTD content ahead. If you’re a fan of his era, maybe just scroll past this post.)

So, the essence of hobbit-ness is that 

they love the mundane, prosaic and ordinary with a deep love, 

this love is not incompatible with a love for the extraordinary, the wondrous, or adventures, 

the best and strongest heroes are motivated by their love for the ordinary, 

you don’t have to be cool or special or Set Apart to be a hero, you just have to do the job in front of you and keep doing it.

RTD’s era occasionally pays lip service to these ideas, but on a deeper level consistently goes against them.

His companions often dislike their normal lives (Rose in particular), and certainly think them inferior to TARDIS life.

Ordinary people who are content with ordinary lives are often portrayed as comical, small-minded, less worth taking seriously: see Jackie, and post-memory-wipe Donna, who we’re supposed to feel is jarringly diminished by having lost memories of the TARDIS even though she is still herself. 

Our heroes are often separated from what they’re fighting for, sometimes in a tragic Frodo-ish way but also, often, because they seem to care more for the fight than the cause: see Rose and 10 treating Queen Victoria like a fun tourist attraction instead of a real actual person (I can absolutely see why she got fed up with them). The narrative is more likely to dismiss the great mass of people the Doctor just saved than to show us that, “Wow, they were so absolutely worth it.”

The human characters become Cool and Real Heroes in direct proportion to how much they are distanced from their roots and made like the Doctor. This is particularly evident in S4, with Rose appearing in a leather jacket spouting technobabble (I’ve seen multiple Rose fans highlight those echoes of the Doctor, and I think they’re right to consider it a conscious decision on RTD’s part), and with Donna. DONNA. She gets her Summit of Coolness, when “for one moment, one shining moment, she was the most important woman in the whole wide universe”... and how does she get there? What’s the best Donna’s ever been, according to the show? The DoctorDonna. The absolute best version of Donna RTD could come up with is the one where her self is half-overwritten by the Doctor’s.

A couple moments that I think illustrate these themes especially well:

ROSE: Get up, catch the bus, go to work, come back home, eat chips and go to bed? Is that it? MICKEY: It's what the rest of us do. ROSE: But I can't! MICKEY: Why, because you're better than us? ROSE: No, I didn't mean that. But it was. It was a better life. And I don't mean all the travelling and seeing aliens and spaceships and things. That don't matter. The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life. You know he showed you too. That you don't just give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no. You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away, and I just can't (Rose runs out of the cafe.)

The idea that “going to work, coming back home” is somehow a downgrade instead of the fundamental beauty and worth of human life is...characteristic, I think. And while Rose does follow that by saying that she “can’t” be normal not because it was “a better life” on account of the adventures, but because it involved making a stand and doing what’s right... that just pushes the fallacy a little deeper, because now she’s saying that you can only make a stand and do what’s right in any meaningful way away from home, as an adventure. That there are no battles to be fought, nothing to fight for, in the course of “going to work, coming back home.”

Then there’s “End of Time”:

WILF: No really, just leave me. I'm an old man, Doctor. I've had my time. DOCTOR: Well, exactly. Look at you. Not remotely important. But me? I could do so much more. So much more! But this is what I get. My reward. And it's not fair! Oh. Oh. I've lived too long.

I know the Doctor follows this by making the sacrifice. But...what kind of hero says things like that out loud? What kind of hero thinks “I ought to live instead of you”? And the thing is...I feel like we’re supposed to feel it’s tragically unjust. We’re supposed to feel the Doctor is worth more, because...what? The man he’s saving won’t live as long as the Doctor would have? The man he’s saving is human?

Those lines should never have been said, because they never should have been presented as a perspective with any validity. The Doctor should have enough love and reverence for life that he jumps to save this life for its own sake, sacrificing himself because he feels Wilf is worth it, and not because he feels the unjust universe is somehow making him do it. That’s not necessary to being a good person, but it is necessary to being the type of hero that the Doctor usually is.

And “School Reunion”:

SARAH: I waited for you. I missed you. DOCTOR: Oh, you didn't need me. You were getting on with your life. SARAH: You were my life. You know what the most difficult thing was? Coping with what happens next, or with what doesn't happen next. You took me to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, you showed me supernovas, intergalactic battles, and then you just dropped me back on Earth. How could anything compare to that? DOCTOR: All those things you saw, do you want me to apologise for that? SARAH: No, but we get a taste of that splendour and then we have to go back.

...I have SUCH conflicted feelings about this episode. On the one hand, I adore Sarah, and K-9, and seeing those reunions, and I really love how much this episode meant to David Tennant, and this basically got us the Sarah Jane Adventures which are way up there on my favorite DW content ever. On the other hand...this is such an injustice to Sarah. They took one of the strongest, most independently adventurous characters in all of Classic Who and reduced her to this...droopy, pining figure, who it’s implied spent the last thirty years moping around because Nothing On Earth Can Compare To The Doctor’s Life! :( :( :(

(And then of course SJA itself proved that wasn’t the case, by presenting her as having a life full of adventures and contacts and importance entirely without the Doctor. Which is part of why I love it--although the other part is that everyday life is presented as precious and important, because she has a kid and the problems of Kids and Family and Parenthood are given full weight. <3 )

In short: I think that, on the whole, RTD’s era expresses his own biases towards believing that Cool Adventures and Special Powers and Being Important are inherently worth more than Normal Life and Normal People and Home--which is the antithesis of everything Tolkien embodied in hobbits and the Shire. It’s also not Chestertonian, incidentally, or Narnian (see Rose’s speech above--there’s a reason the Pevensies had to go home eventually, and learn to see Aslan and His work in their own world).

(It’s not entirely like that, of course, but I feel like even the episodes that revolve around the Doctor being Tragically Unable to have a Normal Life do so by...exoticizing the idea? I dunno. We always know it’s not going to happen, and it’s not supposed to happen, so I feel like it’s always a little hollow. And it’s definitely outweighed, in terms of quantity, by the sheer number of instances where being a normie is completely dismissed.)

So there’s my essay! :P

[lirlovesfic]

The Choice

A Doctor Who fanfic

Summary: After GitF, the TARDIS brings the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey back to the estate to solve a problem involving the TARDIS herself. But when they see a familiar face, the face of someone who should not exist, they realize the problem is deeper than they thought and could endanger the Doctor’s very existence. Primary characters: Ninth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Jackie Tyler. Genres: Romance, mystery, adventure, drama, character study, HN AU, fobbed!Nine, sick TARDIS. Pairings: Nine/Rose, Ten/Rose Rating: Adult

Warning: none for this chaper

a/n: I am currently working on editing this chapter-by-chapter, with the hopes of completing a chapter a day until I catch up with myself. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m doing it to try to get back into the swing of writing and to build some momentum in order to finish this. Also, there have been some tiny things nagging at me for a while (grammar, punctuation, etc.) so I’ll be correcting as many of them as I can find as I go. The story will not change. In fact, most of the changes are going to be so minor that I doubt anyone (besides myself) will notice. But to keep myself on target, I’ll be posting it all here as I go, with links to the other websites it’s on. I hope you enjoy it.

Catch up: on AO3, on TSP, on ffnet

This chapter: on AO3, on TSP, on ffnet

Chapter Fourteen—The Time Vortex, twenty-five hours after leaving the Powell Estate, and London, 15 July, 2007

"Ha!" the Doctor cried triumphantly. He crawled out from underneath the console. "Dismantled the space-time redundancy limiter. Now all that's left is to set the coordinates for Southampton, 10 April, 1912. But before I do that, the question is, 'Where will I be?'"

"Can't we just look for you the way we did last time?" Mickey asked.

He had been sitting on the jump seat, dressed in clothes appropriate for England in the early twentieth century and watching the Doctor working on the TARDIS, for what felt like hours. After witnessing the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas, his initial excitement at traveling to key points in history was gone. At this point, he was just anxious to get the trip over with.

The Doctor shook his head. "We could, but the risk of detection is much greater. We need to figure out what he's doing there and what might have happened to both him and the TARDIS without either of my previous selves realizing that we are there."

Mickey shook his head. "I'm going with you to look for you to find out what you're up to, and at the same time we have to avoid being spotted by you. And another you. This is giving me a headache."

"If we don't solve this undetected, we'll have a lot more to worry about than a simple headache. This situation is much more delicate, for reasons that go far beyond just running into myself in triplicate. That's dangerous enough, but we're crossing my timeline in a way that has the potential to shatter the fabric of space-time."

"I don't get it. How is this different than what we did before?"

The Doctor didn't answer immediately, and for several long seconds, Mickey wondered if he even would. When he finally spoke, his voice was low, his tone more serious than Mickey had ever heard before. "Mickey, has Rose ever told you about the Time War?"

"Yeah, a little. When you sent her back that time and we opened up the TARDIS console so she could get back to you."

"What did she tell you?"

"Just that there was a war, a big war that could have destroyed the entire universe."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, that you ended it somehow," Mickey said grudgingly. A small part of him was still resistant to acknowledge anything good the Doctor had done. "And managed to save the universe from being destroyed."

"When you met me, I was fresh from the Time War, but the other me we're trying to avoid has not yet fought in the war. In fact, the war hasn't even begun. Only the first battles have been fought, and it isn't at all clear to anyone that a full-blown war is about to start. And for him, our planet is still there, our people are still there. If we have contact with him, we could unintentionally change the outcome of the war. And if we did that… well, we wouldn't have to worry about what I did on the Titanic, because the entire planet wouldn't be here.

"That's why we absolutely can't interact with him in any way. And the only sure way to do that is to try and avoid those places where he was. And since I don't remember everywhere I was, the only way to do that is to know exactly where we'll find the me you know, find him and find out what we need to know, and then get out of there as quickly as possible."

"You don't remember where you were the first time you were here?" Mickey asked incredulously.

The Doctor gave him a withering look. "It was at least a hundred years ago, possibly a lot more. By comparison, I'd ask you if you remember where you were on a specific day ten years ago, but you probably don't even remember what you had for tea last Tuesday."

"Yes, I do!" Mickey automatically replied. "I had…" His forehead wrinkled in thought. "I had… Damn, what did I have?"

"You had fish and chips," the Doctor told him.

Mickey's jaw dropped. "How do you know that?"

"I was there," he said. "It was while we were sorting that business at Deffry Vale with Sarah Jane."

"Was that only last Tuesday? Seems like longer ago than that."

"That's what time travel does. Completely screws up your sense of linear time. Anyway… to get back to the matter at hand, we need to figure out approximately where my last self is going to be so we can find him without running into, well, me."

"So how do we do that?"

"Mickey, did Rose tell you anything about that picture of me on the Titanic? Whether I was on the ship itself or on the dock? Who I was with, perhaps."

Mickey screwed up his face in concentration. Finally, he shook his head. "I don't think she told me, and if she did, I don't remember. That was a long time ago."

The Doctor let out a harrumph of frustration.

"Why don't we just call Rose?" Mickey asked. "I mean, she's the one who actually saw the picture. She should be able to tell you."

"I really, really don't want to do that," the Doctor told him. "I promised her I'd be back in ten seconds. Once we phone her, we put ourselves into her timeline. If we reach her an hour later, or a day later, we won't be able to come back when I said we would."

"So if we call her and she says we've been gone a week, then we can't go back until a week after we left. Right?"

The Doctor's eyes widened in surprise at the comment. "Yes, that's it exactly."

"Which is more important, getting back ten seconds after we left, or not running into that other you?"

The Doctor's mouth opened… and then abruptly shut. With a growl of frustration, he picked up the receiver and began to dial. After a moment listening, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"What?" he muttered. He hung up the phone and pulled his glasses out of his pocket. He peered through them at the communication control panel on the console. "Hmmm." He picked up the receiver and tried again. The look of confusion grew. "This is impossible." He disconnected and urgently dialed twice more, each time becoming more and more panicked.

"What's goin' on?" Mickey asked.

"I don't know," the Doctor said. "And when I say I don't know, I mean I really, really don't know. This shouldn't be able to happen." He pressed a button and a mechanized voice echoed through the chamber.

"Your call could not be completed. The number you have dialed is out of range.

"Your call could not be completed. The number you have dialed is out of range.

"Your call could not be completed. The number you have dialed is out of range.

"Your call could not be completed…"

The Doctor quietly pressed the button again, and the voice was silenced. He stared at the console, devoid of expression.

"What does that mean, out of range?"

He turned to face Mickey and then leaned against the console, crossing his arms and ankles in an overly casual pose. "One of three possibilities. First, that somehow Rose has moved out of the range of the TARDIS's communications systems. Since she's on Earth that would mean the entire planet was out of range as well, either moved to where even the TARDIS couldn't find her or totally destroyed. Not entirely impossible, but extremely unlikely."

The phrase totally destroyed left a sick feeling in the pit of Mickey's stomach.

"Okay," he said. He swallowed nervously. "Uh, so I guess that's out."

"Possibility number two," the Doctor continued. "Somehow we are out of range of her. That's even less likely, because we're in the Time Vortex. Within the Vortex, the TARDIS simultaneously touches every point in space and time. That's how she's able to disappear from one spot and reappear at another almost instantaneously."

"What's the third one?"

"That the TARDIS herself is having trouble sending a signal out of the Time Vortex." The Doctor didn't continue. Instead he returned to examining the console, this time without his typical exuberance.

"And?"

"And…" he said without turning, "that would mean that whatever damaged the TARDIS in the past has filtered through time to affect us." He peered into the monitor and then began to rapidly type into a keyboard that had suddenly appeared on one of the control panels. Or at least Mickey had never noticed it before. "If that's the case, that means it might be difficult for the TARDIS to navigate in and out of the Vortex. In fact, we may not be able to get out of the Vortex at all. And even if we do, we probably won't be able to get back in." He said it all in an overly casual, matter-of-fact way, as if he was discussing the weather in London or the taste of his tea. In fact, Mickey was certain the Doctor would have shown more emotion about the rain or sugar content in his tea.

"So we'd better get you back home," the Doctor continued. He moved to another control panel on the console. "Let's see, Powell Estate, Sunday, 8 July, 2007. Ten o'clock in the morning, just to be safe."

"No."

The Doctor turned back to him. "No?"

"No," Mickey repeated. "I mean, if I understand you right, the TARDIS right now has maybe one trip left, one shot to get out of the Vortex. And if we use it to go back to the Estate, we won't figure out what's wrong with her. And if that happens, the other you stays human. If that happens, what happens to you? This you?"

The Doctor didn't answer.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Mickey continued. "So I say, let's get this sorted while we still have the chance."

"I have to remind you that the next place we're going is 1912. If this doesn't work, you'll be stuck there," the Doctor warned. "I won't be able to get you back."

"Then the sooner we get started, the sooner we get this sorted, and the sooner you get me back."

The Doctor stared at him. In turn, an odd combination of amazement, shock, and gratitude flitted across his face. His mouth opened and closed several times, as if he was trying to talk but couldn't come up with words. Then he began to smile, a small, proud smile that slowly grew to a wide, delighted grin.

"Mickey Smith, you have made me speechless, something that very few in my life have ever been able to do." He whirled back to face the console. He raced around it, pressing buttons, flipping switches, and spinning dials. "Right!" he said as he pulled down a large lever. "Let's get this sorted!"

~oOo~

Rose slowly awoke, gradually and reluctantly returning to consciousness.

Warm, she thought. She sighed contentedly.

She shifted her shoulders to snuggle more deeply under the blanket and tried to fall back to sleep. She was completely comfortable despite being in an awkward position: on her stomach with her left arm and both legs twisted sideways and jammed into a narrow space, preventing movement. Something heavy lay sideways across the middle of her back while her free arm was tightly wrapped around something, like she was hugging a pillow.

A hard, warm, breathing pillow that was quietly snoring.

Her eyes flew open. John was stretched out the sofa with his head on the armrest, and she was half on top of him, tucked firmly under his arm and with her legs stuck between him and the back of the sofa. One of them at some point must have pulled the blanket up to cover them both. She scanned her memory of the past night, or actually early morning. Rita and Chuck. Tea. Acupressure to relieve her aching back and head. A hug that turned into a snuggle that must have turned into falling asleep.

That was… new. Although the Doctor had never had much concept of personal space where she was concerned, particularly after his regeneration, he had limited his contact with her to exuberant hugs, an occasional an arm around her shoulders, and a single, chaste kiss in Ancient Rome.

They had certainly never had a full body snuggle on the sofa to the point of both of them falling asleep.

She was torn. On the one hand she knew she should get up. Despite his current situation, John was the Doctor, and she was certain that had he been in full possession of his memories, the Doctor would never have allowed himself to cross over that line that he had carefully drawn between them, the one that would change them from being best friends into something more. And she was sure that a snuggle like this would be perilously close to crossing the line for him.

On the other hand, John was the Doctor, even if he didn't know it, and she'd been in love with him practically since they'd met. And he was holding her in a way she had always longed to be held by him.

She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feel of his soft T-shirt under her cheek and the comforting weight of his arm around her while she debated between getting up and staying put. She finally decided to get up, but not due to any highly principled, unselfish motives. The deciding factor was that she now desperately needed to use the toilet.

She began to squirm out from under his arm, trying not to wake him up in the process, and his grip on her tightened, holding her in place.

"Mmm." The sound reverberated deep in his chest, and she froze. When she realized he hadn't woken up, she slipped out from under his arm and carefully climbed over him. As she tried to get off the sofa, she got tangled in the blanket and landed on the floor with a loud thud. She winced at the sound, but to her relief he still didn't wake up.

She covered him up again with the blanket and then headed to the bathroom. After doing what was necessary—and discovering that toothpaste on her index finger didn't work as well as a toothbrush but would work in a pinch—she headed into the tiny kitchen. The tea and a small covered bowl of sugar were on the counter, along with a partial loaf of bread and a couple of bananas. No coffee maker, but there was an electric kettle and a toaster.

She filled the kettle and turned it on before rummaging for something to make to breakfast.

There was almost nothing in the fridge: a little milk, a little butter, some beer, a couple of half empty takeaway containers. Then she turned to the cupboards.

As she had expected, there was almost nothing in them either. A few ancient pots and pans. Some cutlery. A set of four plates, four bowls, four glasses and two mugs, most of which were chipped and none of which matched. For a moment she wondered why there were only two mugs and then remembered there were two more in the living room.

She pulled the clean mugs out and placed tea bags in them before continuing her search of the cupboards. In the last one were several tins of tuna. She cocked her head, puzzled. There was nothing else. Just tuna.

She didn't think the Doctor even liked tuna.

Well, obviously John did.

She sighed. Well, there weren't any eggs and there wasn't any jam, but there was bread and butter. So buttered toast, she thought. She put bread in the toaster and took the butter out of the fridge.

The water in the kettle began to boil, so she turned back to it to make the tea… and almost jumped out of her skin.

There was a small black cat sitting in the sink.

"Now, I know you weren't there before," she said. "Where did you even come from?"

The cat blinked at her.

She ran a hand along the cat's head and received a loud purr in a response. "Well, you certainly are a pretty boy." She tilted her head, considering. "Or girl. Whatever you are, I'll bet you're hungry."

She opened a tin of the tuna, dumped it in a bowl, and placed it on the floor along with a bowl of water. The cat immediately jumped down and began to eat, continuing to purr loudly.

"You know you're not supposed to talk with your mouth full," Rose mock-scolded as she poured the water from the kettle into the mugs. She frowned. "Although I suppose purring doesn't really count, does it? How do you do that anyway?"

"Some people think they use their vocal folds and the muscles of the larynx to make the glottis resonate back and forth while they breathe in and out."

She glanced at the door. John stood in the doorway to the kitchen holding the two missing mugs. He had a small smile on his face.

"I actually meant, 'How do cats do that and eat at the same time?'" she told him.

"Ah. Well, that I don't know."

"You have a cat," she said.

"No, I don't," he answered.

"Really? Then what's that on the floor eating your tuna?"

"A cat."

She raised her eyebrows at him.

"'S not mine," he told her as he placed the mugs in the sink. "She comes and goes."

"And eats your tuna."

"You're the one feedin' it to her."

"And you're the one who bought it. For her, yeah? She's here, and you're feedin' her. That makes her your cat," she said teasingly.

The toast popped up in the toaster. John put it on a couple of plates and began to butter it. "Just because someone's in my flat doesn't make her mine."

She stopped breathing. She stared at him, wondering if he was still talking about the cat. He didn't look at her, seemingly intent on what he was doing. Before she could stop herself, she said quietly, "Maybe in this case it does."

He froze.

Damn, he had heard her.

"Uh, so, what's her name?" she asked lightly, trying to change the subject and unable to think of anything better to say.

"Doesn't have one so far as I know."

"So what do you call her?"

"I don't call her anything."

"Well, you've got to call her something."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because you do."

"All right, what about The Cat?"

"Seriously? 'The Cat.'"

"Why not? What's wrong with calling the cat Cat?" he asked.

As smoothly as if it had been choreographed, they picked up their plates and mugs and returned to the lounge.

"What's wrong with a normal name? Like Blackie or Midnight or Fluffy or something?"

John snorted as he sat down on the sofa. Rose sat down next to him.

"'Fluffy'?" he said incredulously. "What kind of name's 'Fluffy'? Besides, the cat's a shorthair. She's not even fluffy."

"Well, maybe not, but you've got to admit it's better than 'The Cat'."

"The cat doesn't seem to mind," he said.

The unnamed cat walked past them, headed towards the front door. "Dunno about that," Rose said with a laugh. "Looks like she's leaving."

John chuckled.

As they ate, they fell into a comfortable silence. After they finished, John sat back and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"You stayed," he said.

She bit her lip nervously, clearly uncomfortable with the turn in the conversation. "Couldn't exactly help it," she said, "being asleep 'n all."

"No, I meant after you woke up," he said. "You stayed after you woke up."

"Wasn't I supposed to?" she asked hesitantly.

"Only if you wanted to," he told her.

She smiled shyly. "I wanted to."

A grin spread across his face.

"So… when I was falling asleep, why didn't you wake me up and send me home?" she asked.

His face warmed. He looked away, suddenly unable to meet her eyes. "Well, you seemed so comfortable…"

"I was," she said, just a hint of amusement coloring her tone. "Were you?"

He looked back at her. She was giving him that smile again, the one where he could see the tip of her tongue peeking out between her teeth. She was going to be the death of him, he just knew it. Her flirting was going to kill him. Possibly literally.

But two could play at that game. He met her eyes and raised an eyebrow as his mouth twisted into a smirk. "Very comfortable. Thanks for asking."

Rose opened her mouth to respond when a loud meow startled them both. She shook her head.

"Still can't believe you've got a cat."

"She's not my cat," he said automatically. "But why can't you believe it? You got something against cats?"

"No. I like cats. We used to have one. But having a pet… it's a bit domestic, yeah? You just don't seem like the type."

He was about to ask what type that was when the cat meowed again, this time louder than the first. He frowned.

"Y'know, I've never heard her meow before, and now I've heard her do it twice."

"She probably just wants out and doesn't want to use the cat flap. Our cat did that. Would sit and meow at the door until we opened it for her."

"'S probably it," he said.

Rose started to tidy up when the cat meowed a third time. She laughed. "You'd better go and let her out. If she's anything like our cat was, she'll go on for hours." She picked up their dishes and headed into the kitchen.

John walked down the short hallway to the door. As Rose had predicted, the cat sat at the door, staring at it.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked. "You've got your own flap. You don't need me to open and close the door for you." As he began to let her out, he saw that there was something jammed in the cat flap, preventing it from opening. "So, this is why you couldn't get out." He bent down and pulled it out. It was a rolled-up piece of paper.

"You gettin' your mail here now?" he asked as he smoothed it out. He raised an eyebrow when he read the brief message on it.

Mind yer own bizness, ya twat.

"Well, I know you didn't write this," he said to the cat. "Your spelling would be better."

~oOo~

Across the courtyard, Jackie walked up the stairwell in Bucknall House, her stomach churning and her head pounding. Her hair hurt. Her teeth hurt. She definitely shouldn't have had that last whiskey sour last night, she thought. Or probably the three before that.

As she approached the door of her flat, she spotted a bright yellow scrap of paper shoved between her door and the frame. She glanced at the doors of the nearby flats. None of the others had them.

Yawning, she pulled it out. It was an advert for a local pizza place. The corners were ripped as if it had been posted somewhere else first and then roughly pulled off before being stuck in her door.

She carried inside with her, but just as she was about to throw it out she noticed there was writing on the opposite side. She turned it over and read the brief message.

Bitch, you are ruining my life.

Jackie sighed wearily. "This could be from anybody."

[megabadbunny]

if we let go (prologue)

“It’s still your choice, Rose,” he says, quietly, so that only she can hear. “And no matter what you decide...”

(I.e., Rose gets a choice, even if she has to carve it out for herself.)

***

a journey’s end fixit (of sorts), dedicated to @travelingrose​, who reignited my love/hate relationship with this episode/storyline. (i believe this also fills some rose x tentoo / tentoo day prompts from @doctorroseprompts and @timepetalsprompts ?) heavy angst, but also lots of flirting, fluff, romance, some adventure, and some smut; sfw versions on tumblr & ff.net, nsfw versions on ao3 and teaspoon.

***

prologue | chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3

prologue: i was a blind fool

“So,” she says, grinning up at him; it’s fitting, she thinks, that her first word to this new him should be such a small and inconsequential thing.

He beams back down at her. “So.”

“One of us now, eh?”

The new Doctor shrugs. “Slouch around the universe for long enough, eventually a downgrade is inevitable.”

Rose elbows him in the ribs for that and he feigns outrage, but there’s no missing the glimmer of laughter in his eyes.

The two of them fall silent, watching the other passengers of the TARDIS as they chat around the console. Jackie bids Sarah Jane farewell, Donna laughs with Jack, Mickey talks with Martha—or more accurately, flirts with her, because there’s no mistaking that bashful smile of his, or the way his eyes constantly flicker down toward his feet, as if there’s something terribly interesting to look at down on the grating. An old flame flickers briefly in Rose’s chest, a ragged shadow of something she would have called jealousy once upon a time, but it soon transmutes into something else. Less of an angry-sputtering ember, more of a warm glow; she may have exchanged only a few words with Martha, but it was enough to know she likes her.

And Martha clearly likes Mickey, if her own mischievous smile is anything to go by. Rose’s grin grows tender. Already they seem to fit together perfectly. Good for them.

“Does it hurt?” she asks. When the new Doctor doesn’t immediately reply, arching an eyebrow in question, Rose turns to him to better explain. “Being human, I mean. Just having the one heart and all.”

He considers. “Not in the way you’d think,” he says softly.

Rose thinks about grabbing his hand, reaches for it, even, imagining how she’ll entwine their fingers together like they used to. But she falters, grabbing the railing behind them instead. She doesn’t know why.

“Yeah,” she replies.

 ***

 “And how was that sentence going to end?” she demands later, on the beach—that godforsaken beach, she’ll never be rid of it, not if she lives to be a hundred—and the original Doctor has the audacity, has the utter bloody gall, to just stand there, looking sad and stern and unbearably pathetic, as if she’s the one making this stupid decision—as if she’s the one leaving him.

“Does it need saying?” he asks, and Rose’s blood boils in her veins.

Years of work, months of searching, dozens of close-calls and barely-there’s and raised hopes dashed ruthless and bloody on the rocks, and this is what she gets? This infuriating half-conversation, this heartless rejection, these ice-cold tears yet again on this stupid damn beach?

Rose tears herself away to look at the other Doctor, her pulse thundering so loudly in her ears she can barely hear herself over its frantic rush. “And you, Doctor?” she asks. “What was the end of that sentence?”

She doesn’t expect him to answer, not really—same memories, same thoughts, same everything; that means the same noncommittal replies and same half-cooked endearments and same unspoken sentiments, doesn’t it?—so imagine her surprise when he starts in before she’s even finished speaking, leaning so that he can murmur in her ear. One hand presses to her arm like he can’t hold himself back from touching her, like she’s the anchor holding him to this plane.

Clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go…

“It’s still your choice, Rose,” he says, quietly, so that only she can hear. “And no matter what you decide—”

A brief pause. He swallows nervously. “—just know I love you either way.”

The words send Rose’s head spinning worse than if she’d just gone on a bender or got off a carousel gone mad.

We’re falling through space, you and me.

It doesn’t actually answer her question, but it’s the closest she’s ever gotten from him, on any important question, in any incarnation. And suddenly she can’t stand the distance between them anymore, the inches so vast they might as well be an entire universe, and her body seems to move of its own accord, blessedly working much quicker than her reeling mind. She yanks him down by the jacket-lapels for a demanding kiss, and it isn’t the way she always imagined it, not the way she would have planned—possibly she’s bruised the inside of her own mouth with the force of his lips slamming into hers, she’s bound to be sore there later—but her heart still hammers painfully in her throat and her eyes still shutter closed, overwhelmed by an onslaught of emotion and screaming sensory input.

(He looks like the Doctor and he sounds like him, too, but he smells like soap and sweat and soot, tastes like salt and skin, feels like a supernova. His arms wrap around her, his grip far more desperate than his words ever were, and Rose cinches her eyes against the welling tears, because this, this is what she wanted; why did she have to fight so hard to get it?)

Dimly, she registers the sound of the TARDIS dematerializing behind her, and before she knows it, her feet have pulled her away, parting from the stunned Doctor with a gasp.

He’s leaving. He’s leaving her without even saying goodbye.

(No, she thinks firmly; he’s not.)

Stumbling backward, Rose propels herself toward the TARDIS, straining for the doors before it’s too late—

At the latest of last possible seconds, she reaches back for the Doctor’s hand, tugging him along with her—

She doesn’t have to tell him to Run.

***

Next: Chapter One 

note: chapter titles are from metric’s excellent song blindness; i highly recommend giving it a listen

[johnnystorrm]

Thoughts on doctor who in general :)

thank you!! 😊

oh boy where to begin… doctor who is so insanely important to me, i’m not going to pretend it’s perfect or anything (i could spend ages rambling about some of the problems i have with it believe me) but it was such an important show for young me that i can’t stress how deep my love for it is. 

the world doctor who created resonated with me so much, i can quote almost every cheesy speech the doctor has given in new who line for line, my nana always recorded episodes of the sarah jane adventures for me to watch when i stayed the night at my grandparent’s house, i remember sneaking downstairs some nights to watch torchwood when i should’ve been in bed like… i was so fascinated with the franchise and the characters, it really opened my imagination.

but it’s also really important for me for other reasons too, it’s one of the things me and my dad really bond over and to this day every saturday when doctor who is airing, without fail, we sit in the living room and watch it together. the show was also my first ever exposure to lgbt+ people and jack and ianto from the main series’ spin-off torchwood were my first real otp. i also have so many sentimental memories related to it, like on the year of the 50th when the bbc released a novel for each doctor, different members of my family got one each for me so when i opened my presents on christmas morning i’d have the full collection. 

i spent a whole year of my life slowly making my way through classic who/parts of the extended doctor who universe and that year was… not a very good time for me, i was a very confused 13/14 year old and i was going through all the #drama that comes with growing up and all that stuff and as silly as it sounds classic who was a real comfort to me. i used to write notes as i watched it and i have notebooks filled to the brim with my thoughts and feelings on everything, it was a real outlet for me (i also got in trouble sometimes for reading doctor who novels under the desk in lessons).

sorry that got a little bit longer than i thought it would 😅 (i’m in a really talkative mood tonight and doctor who is one of those things i love to talk in depth about) thanks again for the ask!! 

ask me my thoughts on anything ✨