#they also mentioned watching the chibnall era???

[hubrishazard]

I'm overhearing some middle aged person in a coffee shop talking about the latest doctor who episode, and saying exactly the same thing we've all been saying 😭 they brought it up and I was like "oh here we go" and then they were like "I wish they hadn't said that stuff about the doctor not being able to understand due to being male presenting, that just reinforces the binary theyre trying to break out of" and "I wish Rose hadn't called out the doctor for assuming the meep's pronouns, the doctor should've just asked for the meep's pronouns without needing to be prompted to" and "I really agree with what they're trying to do, I just wish they'd handled it better" and then after complaining about it all they were like "idk... maybe some people do need to be hit upside the head with it". Like. I know this is just one stranger but it feels so heartening. They didn't see One (1) heavy handed episode and decide to be mad about the trans representation. Like maybe things really will be alright

[akajustmerry]

I haven't seen chibnall but I have a hard time imagining being worse than moffat. I'm sure it's possible but that man... he was bad. also out of curiosity what's the problem with eccleston? or did you just use his name as a reference for which era was rtd. feel free to ignore this if you like, I hope you have a good day!

hellooo!

look, you won't hear me arguing moffat wasn't bad but believe me Chibnall was worse. He wrote an entire sequence where the Doctor tricks the Master (then played by British-Indian actor Sacha Dhawan) into being caught by the Nazis, knowing what the Nazis would do to him. Like, the Doctor, presenting as a white woman, handed over the Master, her best friend presenting as a Brown man to the most notorious white supremacist regimes in history. And that moment was framed as a successful ploy!! As a "win" for the Doctor.

I'm sorry but, to me, Moffats fucking decrepit cringe Gen X Misogyny did nowhere near as much damage as thoughtlessly portraying the Doctor as someone who will literally use Nazism against a poc and framing it as clever girlboss behaviour. Like, it's not fun that these are the people we have to choose from but one of these things is not like the other.

As for the Eccleston stuff, I was referring to Christopher Eccleston's conflict with the BBC and by extension implied conflict with RTD. The full details of the conflict have never been fully made public but Eccleston has always maintained he quit the show due to the culture created by the show runners and producers. He's said he'd never work with RTD again. Eccleston implied that one of the reasons the relationship between himself and RTD broke down was Eccleston's desire for the Doctor to be a role model whose intellect wasn't inherently tied to being upper class English and had to really fight to use his natural accent. It's worth noting that the we wouldn't have a Doctor without an RP (received pronunciation) accent again until Capaldi. David even mentioned Russell's "enthusiasm" for DT to speak in RP not his natural accent in his interview with Jodie in 2020.

I want to believe that RTD has grown since the mid 00s, and perhaps this time around things will be different. But I think a lot of people point to Moffat as the worst because his bigotry is the most visible and easiest to critique. It's more popular and acceptable to critique sexism against white women than it is to critique racism and classism. But in reality all of these showrunners are white British men who have pulled white British bullshit and I won't stand for Chibnall and Davies shortcomings being scapegoated via Moffat.

Also, this is not a defense necessarily but a lot of people who hate moffat era who did NOT watch Capaldi's seasons and did not watch season 10 with Bill Potts. So their critique often lacks the perspective of Moffat's best season that proves he's capable of writing something genuinely compelling that's not gross and sexiest. Like it genuinely infuriates me when people talk about "moffat who" but they're only really talking about Matt Smiths seasons. Again none of that is a defence but it's just to say that most people who say Moffat is the worst are people who a) are really talking about Sherlock, which, fair enough that was shit b) people who just think 10th Doctor best Doctor and don't actually care about anything after that era in any meaningful way. Or c) people who have a pretty incomplete view of the series was and where it currently is.

omg this is long sorry I hope I don't sound rude I'm not trying to be I just have so many thoughts about this. I hope this answers your question, please let me know if I need to clarify anything <3

[leikeliscomet]

Let's Talk About Thasmin

Intro Chapter 1 - Not Something I Usually Do [TW: SA Mentions] Chapter 2 - I Haven't Even Told Anyone, Not Even Myself Chapter 3 & Conclusion - I Wish This Would Go On Forever

Intro

I didn’t know how to write about Thasmin because I didn’t understand what Thasmin was. 

I’m in a weird position with it. I watched the Chibnall era and barely thought about it. I knew about it in series 11, not minding if it became canon or if Ryasmin would instead. I thought Yaz’s attachment to Thirteen seemed stronger than Ryan and Graham’s in series 12 and it was interesting but not that exciting enough for me to go full thassie. I liked the Thasmin bits in series 13 like in Eve of the Daleks and Legend of the Sea Devils (even though I didn’t like the rest of it). But after my rewatch, several things started coming together. I started to see Thirteen and Yaz differently, even seeing parts of them in myself and essentially started looking at the Chibnall era a bit differently as a whole. It’s still not my fave era, but there’s things from it I can appreciate that I didn’t see before.

What interests me about Thasmin isn’t just the ship itself but how the fandom talks about it. Both praise and critiques. Thasmin is the first sapphic ship involving the Doctor, with one sapphic only realising her attraction to women recently, and the other essentially being one of the very few asexual sapphic characters in mainstream TV at the time. Thasmin was fresh with potential but as the essay goes on and from the fandom’s reaction, the potential didn’t fully blossom in the way a lot of fans wanted it to. Whilst I’ve stayed indifferent to it, this ship is somehow so controversial it’s torn the fandom in half, caused many YouTube videos, debates and articles (like this lol) and caused some of the wildest discourse I’ve ever seen throughout my time in the fandom. So this essay is basically an attempt at an asexual, lesbian and possibly bi interpretation of what Thasmin tried to be, how lesbophobia and compulsory sexuality shape the fandom’s ideas about queerness using Thasmin as an example and what Thasmin could've been if handled differently.

I need to make it clear this essay isn’t about proving whether or not Thasmin is queerbait. The discourse since 2022, to me, is unproductive, repetitive and only reinforces misinformation and ignorance towards other queer labels. Regardless of writing quality, Yasmin Khan and the Thirteenth Doctor have confirmed feelings for each other so in my personal opinion, I don’t consider the ship queerbait. I’m aware queerbait has expanded definitions like how the queer character’s storylines and how the queer relationship is carried out but to me, that isn’t proof either. Queerness is a large umbrella term of various identities that are outside of the norm, so not all forms of queerness depend on or can be ‘proven’ solely with a romantic/sexual relationship. These definitions to me exclude queer people whose queerness isn’t dependent on those things or doesn’t involve them at all. Lastly, I don’t believe the conclusion of bad queer representation is that it isn’t queer. It is. It just flopped. 

I’m not writing to prove Thirteen really loved Yaz because as far as I’m concerned, her feelings for Yaz are canon. I’m not writing to prove Thasmin is toxic or morally good because as far as I’m concerned, all ships involving the Doctor, a morally grey character, are all morally grey in their own ways and that would mean also critiquing the ethics of Thoschei, Tenrose, TwelveClara and DoctorRiver. I have no interest in doing this or singling out Thasmin as some unique evil because to me that’s performative. I’m not writing to prove that Yaz is ‘really gay’ or ‘gay enough’ because as far as I’m concerned she is a canon sapphic companion and I don’t believe in gold-star, lesbophobic or biphobic rhetoric to erase any sapphic character’s attraction to women. I’m not writing to prove Thirteen/The Doctor is ‘actually asexual’ because as far as I’m concerned they are, as confirmed by Tennant, Smith, Pertwee, other actors and the official account and I don't care for the validity or close-minded opinions of anti-asexual and ace exclusionist fans, the same way I don’t care for the approval or permission from homophobes, lesbophobes, biphobes, transphobes or any group of queerphobic people to exist.

If you’ve come to this essay for me to critique Thasmin specifically on the basis that the Thirteenth Doctor, Yasmin Khan and/or Thasmin the ship have failed to live up to some arbitrary measure of queerness and that they are un-queer, less queer, fake queer, queerbait or ‘cishet’ then basically… you’re in the wrong place.

With that out of the way, let’s talk Thasmin!

Chapter 1 ->

[dalesramblingsblog]

In honour of an episode that seems consciously about the construction of narratives around fundamentally meaningless aspects of the universe, a Twitter conversation with one of my last remaining mutuals to survive the Muskening, lightly repurposed to serve as a singular, narrativised Tumblr post in a way it was never designed for.

Who says art is dead?

73 Yards was strange and haunting and not entirely comprehensible in a way that Doctor Who seldom manages.

I suspect it's one where personal tolerance for that sort of thing will make or break the episode, but I certainly think that, knowing this was Gibson's first filmed episode, she did a phenomenal job.

It was also, for me at least, a more generally successful invocation of the kind of eldritch horror implied by the Toymaker or the Maestro, largely by virtue of it giving itself room to be ambiguous.

I've seen the complaints about stuff like the PM being a blank slate, but I do rather feel like that might be the point. It's an episode all about perception and projection and narrativisation of a universe that can be cold and hostile and incomprehensible.

(And frankly, I'm starting to suspect that the whole of RTD2 might be about that on some level. "We see something incomprehensible and invent the rules to make it work" and all that. It's audacious and bold in a way that Doctor Who hasn't been in half a decade.)

And as someone for whom those themes really hit home a lot of the time, yeah, I loved it. I know I probably sound like a broken record but I am genuinely just having a blast with this latest series.

The worst thing Doctor Who can ever feel like for me is an obligation that I only keep up with out of a need to stay relatively current in writing about it, and that was what the Chibnall Era often boiled down to for me.

Part of the reason, in hindsight, I poured so much of myself into my book reviews was that the show itself was simply failing to excite me with the level of regularity necessary to keep me engaged.

Knowing that I can put on Doctor Who on a Saturday night and be reasonably well-entertained and intrigued is, frankly, enough for me, but I do think there are enough aspects of genuine quality that I'm not just blindly worshipping at the altar of a false idol or w/e.

I dunno, I think at the end of the day I'm just a big sucker for TV that makes sense to me on an emotional rather than logical level. It's why I'm a big fan of Twin Peaks, or the second season of Millennium, or hell even Masks over on TNG.

The episode had the general feel of one that will be quite important to the overall themes of the season, so I can't imagine it will linger in *complete* ambiguity forever (though honestly if it did I would kind of love that).

Like I wouldn't be surprised if we're building up to a similar time loop reveal wrt Ruby's general existence. The fact that we've now got at least three instances of her timeline being haunted by mysterious old women cannot possibly be coincidence.

(Well, it can be, but that way lies goblins, as we know.)

IDK, there's a strangeness to Davies' acknowledgments of mediality here that goes even beyond Moffat's usual tricks. Casting a recurring actress by the name of Susan Twist while conspicuously mentioning Susan for the first time in forever feels so on the nose that while I initially suspected we might be building to the return of Susan, I now feel like we're instead headed for something much weirder.

There is so much going on and so much to unpack and frankly I don't have any idea how it could possibly tie together but I'm fascinated.

And again, the fact that this episode was almost explicitly about the process of fans theorising as to what the hell is going on with the season makes me further suspect a rebuttal of theory-focused cult fandom is in the offing.

When I first watched Once, Upon Time in 2021, I commented that it felt like Chris Chibnall's attempt to do a big, bold, incomprehensible piece of television, something almost in the vein of Twin Peaks: The Return, Part 8 but for Doctor Who.

But it's revealing that the only thing he could really think to do was dump a bunch of Doctor Who lore and simply edit things out. He's a mystery writer in the most tediously literal sense of the phrase, creating gaps that feel like they were made with a hacksaw rather than feeling like any sort of deliberate lacuna.

And I'm sorry Chibnall fans, there are some Thirteen episodes that I do like, but when I look at an episode like 73 Yards... whatever its faults may be, and I'm pretty confident I don't actually believe it to be perfect, it is bolder and weirder than anything Chibnall ever wrote. This is the kind of television I want to watch, and I make no apologies for that.

It's a rare piece of Doctor Who which comes close to capturing that sheer, terrible splendour I felt watching a slow zoom into an atom bomb explosion while being serenaded by the Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima. And sure, it's still very far out from being quite that strange, but it retains a curious power nevertheless.

What a show.

[doctormastertardis]

"Timelords turn into Gods" (the Doctor was originally a God from BEYOND the edge of the universe; he was part of the Pantheon, adopted by the Shobogans who then created the Gallifreyan society)

THEORY DOMINO:

THE MASTER IS/WAS THE TOY MAKER.

THE DOCTOR IS/WAS, WHO? (the central theme of the show)

BOTH OF THEM WERE MEMBERS OF PANTHEON OF DISCORD!

Ok, ready? Hear me out. This is LONG, so buckle up.

My instincts told me to go re-watch Martha Jones' season, and now I'm down a rabbit hole...

The Tenth Doctor mentions in Utopia what happened to Rose Tyler. He said something about how "very human" she is (as in, she is an empathetic person), and that was why she insticntively brought Jack back from the dead when she absorbed the Time Vortex. TEN ALSO MENTIONS that had it been a Time Lord who absorbed the time vortex, the Time Lord would become a God. But because Rose Tyler is human, she couldn't, and so yada yada....

In the last 2 episodes of Martha Jones' run, we learn that the Master (being the hypnotist that he is historically in Classic Who) creates a massive "hypnotic" device called the Archangel Network -- HINT HINT Toymaker in The Giggle, anyone? The similarities are there. Both the Toymaker and The Master created and dispersed a subliminal sound that plays all throughout human history as a way to hypnotize humans. Again, the similarities are there in plain sight.

CLASSIC WHO:

We all know that the Master first officially appeared in the television series during Third Doctor's run. He was initially a friend of the Doctor's, who became his arch nemesis, but we don't really know much else about the Master apart from that he went to the same academy as the Doctor to train to be a Time Lord.

Now, the Toymaker appeared during First Doctor's run waaaaay before The Master was ever conceived... he was "defeated" by the First Doctor... But even then, it seemed like the Toymaker was already familiar with the Doctor (I have to watch that episode, actually, some other Whovian may be able to assist me here).... NOW, the premise of the show has always been Doctor, who? Who is he? Where did he come from? But I believe the series is now delving in The Master's history first before we learn more about the Doctor's origin... because it's necessary. Because they're interconnected.

So far, we know that after the events at Traken, the Time Lord society brought the Master back from his death (post-Eight Doctor's movie)... he then became the War Master. An equivalent to the War Doctor. In TSOD (The Sound of Drums), Simms!Master mentioned that he ran away from the Time War and camouflaged himself in his chameleon circuit as a child who grew up to be Professor Yana, who then, became Prime Minister Saxon... blah blah. We all know what happens. He ends up on a Mondasian Cyberman ship and meets his future, Missy...

*AUDIO BOOK SERIES ONLY* The gap between Missy and Dhawan!Master is a bit more complicated, because it involves her transformation into "The Lumiat" (the good essence of the Master) who was eventually killed by Missy herself, who then regenerated into Dhawan!Master supposedly.

CHIBNALL ERA:

We finally learn that the Doctor was adopted by Tacteun, a Shobogan, who extracted the Doctor's DNA as a way to create "Time Lords"... we learn this through none other than Dhawan!Master, who clearly became a little bit more insane than all his prior incarnations.

Honestly, my mind is a little bit blurry in regards to Thirteen's run because her last series was SO RUSHED that I can barely remember the small details so please correct me if I am wrong. But from instinct, I know that we didn't really learn much about how Dhawan!Master came to find out about the Doctor's origins. We can, however, deduce that he was PISSED about it. Why though? Maybe he loves the Doctor? I mean, that's a given. But wouldn't it make more sense if Dhawan!Master was completely mad because he wasn't yet aware that he and the Doctor were both adopted from the Pantheon?

During The Flux series, we the audience would be under the impression that Dhawan!Master became bitter because the Doctor is "essentially better" than him due to the fact that his Time Lord DNA originated from the Doctor as a child (The Timeless Child Arc).

RTD'S RETURN:

BUT, considering how we are now DELVING into the depths of God/Goddess mythologies and "fairytales" (in connection to The Beast, Sutekh, and other DW stories involving mythological dieties), it is not farfetched at all to consider both the Doctor and the Master originally as part of the Pantheon of Discord.

Ever since the events of The Flux and The Giggle, we get to take a look at the edge of the universe where all sorts of (im)possibilities exist.

And I think that's where my brain stops... FEEL FREE TO ADD TO THIS IF YOU KNOW MORE ABOUT DOCTOR WHO LORE.

[justletmeramble1701]

Has anyone talked about how each of the three specials represents the three eras if NuWho (as in the three showrunners)?

The Star Beast felt like a classic Russel T Davis era introduction. The doctor disrupts the companion's boring domestic life, introducing them to a new, exciting, and very dangerous life. While, yes, this is the story of most NuWho companions, but Russell's version focused on how boring mundanity is (his companions are thrill seekers, especially Rose and Donna) and the companion's familiar life, which this episode does with the reintroduction of the Noble's.

It also has a "Davis-ex-machina", but all three episodes have that, so I'm not gonna mention it.

Wild Blue Yonder felt like a Moffat idea box (a dark fairy tale/cosmic horror). High concept scares or ideas that force the Doctor to drop his mask and confront truths about himself. I'm specifically thinking of series 6, where The Doctor relearns responsibility by the strange and usually terrifying situations he falls into, dragging his companions along for the ride. In this story, the Doctor is reminded how beaten down they are, setting us up for the conclusion in the finally. It's basically this Doctor's "The God Complex"! While this is how the franchise does character development, it feels uniquely Moffat because of its horror influence (its "Alien" and "The Thing") and the level at which it explains itself (it explains as much as it needs to have a monster with a gimmick, but not too much that they stop being scary - and also in a way that confuses most people).

It also has seemingly innocuous lines that are actually horrifying in context. "My arms are too long..." feels so much like "Are you my mummy," "Don't blink," and "Who turned out the lights," but it lacks the ability to be repeated more than once, so it can't become the quote for the creature. Instead of a singular quote, the episode goes for a series of chilling one-liners ("Oh, we get hungry, don't we..." being a great example).

The Giggle had that late Chibnall charm. Bringing back past elements in highly action-packed finales or specials to attempt to excite or "wow" the audience. While it pulls things out of nowhere to keep the plot going, you don't care because of how much fun you are having! I was specifically thinking about "The Power of the Doctor" while watching it. Half a "Flux" worth of ideas crammed into an episode, but with just enough fun, character, and heart that you allow it to do whatever. Let the episode drive you in whichever direction it needs to go to reach the destination, trusting that it won't get lost or crash. While this is, basically, the concept of the show (remember, we are watching a walking deus ex machina in their magic plot generating box, waiving their magic wand around until it is time for them to solve the problem), it feels like Chibnall because of how compact it is. Like I said, this has enough ideas that it could have been all three specials.

The thing that sets these three specials apart from the last three eras is the power dynamic between the Doctor and their companion. 14 and Donna are equals. While Donna is being reintroduced to the extraordinary, 14 is being reintroduced to the mundane. While Donna is trying to escape from the lovecraftian creature they've encountered, the Doctor is right beside her, scared of what they shouldn't comprehend (the episode even punishing them for their comprehension). While Donna is being toyed with by a dark god, the laws of reality failing her, the Doctor is facing the same, at the wim of an entity that operates by a different set of rules. The Doctor and their companion, their friend, is finally operating on the same playing field as them, which means that, by extension, so are we.

Donna, like all companions, represents the audience, but, in these stories, she specifically represents the fans of the last 20 of Doctor Who. The ones that grew up watching NuWho. We are older now, still as loud and snarky as ever, but we are adults now. Just like Donna, we have lives, responsibilities. We can't experience the world (or the program) the way we once did. Even though the adventures never truly end, it is our turn to join the previous generation (reprented by Mel) watch the next batch of whovians discover this exciting universe for the first time, our Doctor by our side.

This was the best conclusion to NuWho that we could've hoped for!

[butchtwelfthdoctor]

more doctor who niches i have noticed

people who think that season one was the best / ninerose enjoyers / Don't Skip Nine !! people (honestly so real)

people who started watching in the early 2010s as a kid/teenager & got Attached to eleven

(related to above) people who make aesthetic gif edits of amy pond

people who think clara is an awful manipulative liar who sucks & is bad (she's their favourite character) (often twelveclara people also)

TWISSY ENJOYERS (me)

second doctor / jamie mccrimmon fans primarily

eighth doctor adventure enjoyers (often adults)

(related to the first one) people who got bored partway through eleven & had no prior attachment to david tennant often seem to like nine the most

people who have a deep emotional connection to at least three characters played by david tennant

people who will die on any hill defending thirteen's era (often thasmin truthers also) (though a lot of thasmin people see the Problems with the era theres a subset of people who think chibnall did Nothing Wrong)

people who will die on any hill defending steven moffats writing and every day this pains them (usually have really good analysis) (they can see the problems but can also see the really good parts & how the two are inextricable)

people who think fourteen shouldn't have happened

people who like the tenth doctor in a really intellectual way (usually not tenrose people)

TENSIMM PEOPLE.

people who really like turlough

people who got really really excited whenever susan is mentioned

[brilliantfantasticgeronimo]

13 fans that complain that 14/15 getting to be more stable / connected to people is a "slap in the face" of 13 era are like... being so deliberately doylist-oblivious dkflsjd and like tbh? self-victimizing at that point. i don't even know. like these people will say "wow did you all even watch the show!!" all the time and then like. forget that the doctor rarely ever mentions companions after they regenerate (does it happen? yes, but i can count it in the palm of my hand). specially when they change writers, 3 doesn't go around talking about ian and barabara or jamie at all. like. it's not a specific thing. it's not about rtd and co hating 13 it's just. how the show has worked. for 60 years dsklfjkjkj (insert 14: "donna if i were to mention everyone that has tragically "died" in front of me every episode, we would be here forever")

and also some thasmin fans being kind of... I'm gonna say it honestly, kind of jealous that 14/donna get queerplatonic married, are kind of showing their hand bc it's admitting that actually yeah, yaz's ending was kind of dissatisfying to them (according to this complaint. which like. sdklfjs as i said in that other post... the 13/yaz ending can be rlly poetic/satisfying depending on How U Look At It (from many angles: closes circle on grace/graham 'im thankful for the time we did have' from ep 1 / noir vibes of 13's era: alec hardy and ellie miller *can't* be together bc it would go against the tone / "running out of time" is narrative justice on 13 for being so selfishl-y cage-y and oblivious for So Long / aromatic reading where 13 never reciprocated) , but when ppl complain about this they are very clearly not even interested in those readings (not genuinely). but like, if u didn't like yaz's ending... mate, that's on chibnall. that's the ending chibnall wanted to tell. like if u didn't like it and would have preferred what 14 got like,,,, take it up to him, damn sdlkfjds it would be like complaining about moffat not bringing back donna and giving her her memories back and making her immortal during 11's first season. it's just absurd.

[quantumshade]

🔥favorite and least favorite doctor who episodes (if you can choose at all lol)

OUGH this is hard... can i do top five and bottom five maybe

bottom five:

let's kill h*tler. do i need to explain this one? i don't think i need to explain this one

spyfall part 2. i don't think i need to explain this one either.

girl in the fireplace. i know that's the one my pfp is from. rose is just so pretty in it. anyway. it's a poorly written episode that gets way too much praise, not to mention just how painfully ooc everyone is. you can really feel how much moffat hates rose in that one. and also it feels so gross when you think about how the real madame de pompadour was groomed from age 6 to be a king's consort and basically allowed no agency in her life whatsoever, coupled with moffat's weird obsession with "someone meets the doctor as a little kid and grows up to be obsessed with him" is so painfully... icky.

kill the moon. outside of being an awful episode with a weirdly anti abortion message, it's the episode that made SO MANY PEOPLE give up on my baby girl twelve. if you stopped watching twelve because of that episode i'm begging you on my knees to give him another shot his era is so so good other than a couple stinkers.

legend of the sea devils. i cannot even begin to express my sheer hatred for this episode. everything about it sucks so so bad and i'm beating it with hammers in my mind 24/7. it's just everything i hate about the chibnall era coalesced into one steaming pile of dogshit.

top five:

heaven sent. sorry to be basic but. heaven sent. i love it so much it's so perfect. and reading it through a classics lens makes it even better. i'm planning on doing the capstone for my degree (partly) on this episode as a modern representation of katabasis. the acting, the music, rachel talalay's directing, g-d. it's so good.

dalek. honestly every single one of nine's episodes fuck so hard and i don't dislike a single one of them. but eccleston really acted his ass off in this one and it's such a wonderful exploration of the doctor's time war trauma. it's the only episode that manages to make daleks scary. rose is amazing in it. "it's not the one pointing a gun at me" and "and what about you, doctor? what the hell are you changing into?" "oh rose. they're all dead" OUGHHHH. the ending hits so fucking hard.

mummy on the orient express. i think i'm legally obligated to put this one on my top five because i have watched it nearly a dozen times this year alone. it's such a good episode. great monster. clara and the doctor both get to be incredibly bisexual. it's the one episode of doctor who in which the phrase "sex machine" exists. what more could you possibly ask for.

the christmas invasion. it's sooooo good it's so good. it's tied with the husbands of river song as my favorite christmas special, but it's higher on my list of Overall Episodes. if that makes sense. again rose is incredible in it. david tennant makes the entrance of all time. they're so in love and so fucking stupid about it. song for ten... well i woke up today... and the world was a restless plaaaace.... it could have been that way for me........

the pilot. bill is gorgeous and perfect and wonderful. twelve being a wacky professor was the best choice anyone has ever made. it's like a crash course in doctor who but also a fun and well made episode with absolutely gorgeous music. i love it i love it i love it. murray gold put the s10 soundtrack on spotify right now.

it's so hard limiting myself to just five... i'm sure i'll think of an episode tomorrow and be like DAMN that should have been on the list... but that's okay <3

[timeagainreviews]

The Eve-ish of Season One-ish

During the early ‘90s, the comic book industry went through a bit of a boom. Speculators were buying up stacks of comics that might one day put their kids through college. Eager to meet the frothing demand of buyers, the comics industry responded with bagged, foiled, embossed, holographic, and even glow-in-the-dark covers guaranteed to be collector’s items. Many long-running titles were reset to issue one, giving new readers a less intimidating jumping-on point. While the comic book bubble eventually popped, the practice of rebranding runs back to issue one continues to this day. With Doctor Who rebranding this new series as “season one,” it’s safe to say that, once again, the show is taking another page from the Marvel playbook.

If you wanted to be cynical, you could say the re-branding comes more from necessity than accessibility. HBO Max had the streaming rights to Doctor Who (2005). But this is Doctor Who (2023) of which Disney+ has exclusive rights. This goes hand in hand with Russell T Davies’ courting of the House of Mouse, along with the very controversial new release schedule which many have complained seems to favour an American audience. While Americans will be able to watch “tonight’s” premiere in a primetime time slot, British audiences will be forced to either stay up well past midnight or wait until tomorrow. Usually, when I write these articles ahead of premieres, it is the evening before but this new scheduling throws that all out of wack.

Longtime readers will remember me saying at one point that Doctor Who should go to Disney. While I plan to write a follow-up article rectifying and even arguing against some of my own points, the fact is, it still came true. I even suggested a musical episode, which has already come true and possibly again with “The Devil’s Chord.” I even called the plot of the Timeless Children as far back as my review of “The Ghost Monument.” It’s almost like I’ve got a TARDIS of my own, or my finger is so on the pulse of Doctor Who that I can feel the four beats of its rhythm as I type these prophetic words. Or maybe I just pay attention. Either way, you should definitely stick around to read my thoughts ahead of Doctor Who season one as they're bound to come true. (Joking, of course.)

Russell T Davies

What can be said about RTD that hasn’t been said already? The man has left his mark on the history of the show, what more could he possibly do? Well if you’re Chibnall stan, that’s exactly the question on which a lot of their arguments have hinged. Many people seem to think of his reinstatement as showrunner as a step back for the show. Some believe he was appointed as a filler after the contentious Chibnall era. Some say he’s too woke now. Others say he’s problematic. While I do agree that his handling of trans issues was clumsy, I also believe his heart is in the right place. However, I have a couple of concerns with RTD in his present form.

Firstly, I have to ask, was there no one else for the job? After Moffat left, the BBC have had difficulty finding someone willing and able to take over the show. Chris Chibnall always felt like he took the job almost as a favour to the BBC. I find it hard to believe that Russell T Davies was the only showrunner they could find. He feels like a safe bet, and in more ways than Chibnall ever did, a stopgap. It feels like the BBC doesn’t really understand what Doctor Who needs, and therefore has a hard time finding the people capable of delivering those things, outside of proven entities like RTD and Steven Moffat, both of whom are returning this year in some capacity. The BBC is pushing for diversity, but couldn’t think of a single woman or person of colour to showrun Doctor Who? 

Secondly, I wish he would chill the fuck out. I mentioned diversity, and while I do appreciate Doctor Who’s first official trans companion and what is looking like the queerest TARDIS crew yet, I wish the show would get back to basics- good writing. They keep going on about how controversial the new season is going to be, and I’m so damn tired. I’m tired of defending the show to conservative chuds who think a woman Doctor is going to make their dick fall off. I’m tired of watching showrunners pull a muscle from patting themselves on the backs for their progressive stance. I don’t want you to scare away those conservative chuds, I want you to prove them wrong. I want them to see these things can work when they’re written well. We just went through five years of people thinking bad writing was confirmation that a woman can’t be the Doctor. I’m glad you want to represent people like me on screen, now please do something with it.

Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor

It’s hard not to be excited for Ncuti Gatwa. He’s got a magnetism that draws your attention the moment he’s onscreen. It’s still far too early in his run to have a definite impression as to what kind of Doctor he’ll be. So far, his portrayal of the Doctor has a warmth and cheekiness about him. He’s mirthful if not a bit mercurial. Gatwa has even referred to his Doctor as “slutty,” which I definitely see and appreciate. I also love that he sees this as a trait he shares with the Third Doctor, which is both a strange and astute observation. Furthermore, he and Pertwee’s Doctors share a commonality by wearing less of a costume and more of a wardrobe. My only qualm in Gatwa’s case is that his wardrobe could use a little more consistency. However, you could argue that the Doctors only ever need to dress like themselves, as opposed to in a certain style. 

We’re in a good place with Nctui Gatwa moving forward. He’s had a stellar introduction and received quite a positive response from fans. Judging from his performance in Sex Education, we know he’s capable of a wide range of emotions. What little we’ve seen of his Doctor has shown us that he’s capable of being a bizarre yet dashing alien hero. He’s also managed to find a fresh approach to a character played by over a dozen people before him, which is impressive, to say the least. Whether he’ll become my new fave or not is yet to be seen, but that hardly matters. What matters most is that he’s the Doctor here and now. 

Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday

This is a weird one to write about. Had you caught me right after “The Church on Ruby Road,” I’d have told you how excited I was for Ruby’s character. Millie Gibson plays her with an adorable charm and she’s clearly a great partner for Gatwa’s brand of crazy sexy cool. But now we’ve seen rumours that she’ll be replaced by Varada Sethu halfway through season two. The BBC and RTD both responded (a bit late) to rumours that she’s being replaced and that they’ll both be companions at the same time, but it feels as though Ruby Sunday is coming to an end just as we’re getting to know her.

I would also like to circle back to how poorly the BBC handled the rumours surrounding Gibson’s departure. She’s a very young actress who may or may not have been fired from a high-profile role early in her career. Even if this is not true, the rumour mill was running amok and the BBC was mum on the subject for weeks. That kind of stigma could follow an up-and-coming actor’s career for years, labelling them as difficult. It’s like they learned nothing from their experiences with Christopher Eccleston.

While the Andor fan in me is very excited by the prospect of Varada Sethu’s tenure in the TARDIS, I’m still trying to remain enthusiastic for Ruby Sunday. Already they’ve shown her character to be compassionate and a bit adorkable. I’m not incredibly interested in the mystery surrounding her character’s birth mother as it feels very Moffaty. I’ve always felt like Davies’ strongest work with companions was his ability to ground them emotionally, and not in making their past a mystery to be solved by some man. I’m more interested in her relationship with her family than some hooded woman doing her best impression of the Jodie Whittaker reveal trailer. Like I said, a return to basics would be greatly appreciated.

Magic Maestros and Monsters

The introduction of mysticism and mystery has been a welcome addition to Doctor Who. When you watch classic stories such as “The Daemons,”  “Image of the Fendhal,” or “Pyramids of Mars,” it’s hard not to imagine there’s not some sort of mystical force at work. Even the stygian witches of “The Shakespeare Code,” seemed to tap into words with a degree of magic. Magic feels oddly at home for Doctor Who. However, you could also argue that the introduction of mysticism to Doctor Who oddly demystifies some of its greater mysteries. When the Doctor couldn’t explain something with science or alien interference, we were left to speculate. But now- a wizard did it.

As I said in my review of “The Church on Ruby Road,” the introduction of magic and superstition places the Doctor in a unique position where he’s a bit out of his depth. One qualm I’ve had with the Whittaker era was how her Doctor was rarely confused. It’s nice then that we’re entering a new era where the Doctor must learn to adapt. It’s now possible for an evil drag queen to force people into an all-singing, all-dancing, chorus line of death. Awesome. Maybe we’ll also see some monsters from the past revealed to be actual magic beings. Perhaps the Fendahl are more than creepy worms, but something far more mystical. Maybe Sutekh the Destroyer really is a god. The introduction of magic doesn’t just have to affect the future of the show, but the past as well. Just wait until the Daleks start pulling rabbits out of hats.

Dinsey+ Supremacy

I regret ever saying Doctor Who should go to Disney. At the time, I was making an argument that Disney is a good fit for Doctor Who because they would give it the budget and attention that it deserves. But Disney also introduces a troubling element into Doctor Who’s future- ownership rights. Historically, Doctor Who writers have maintained copyright over the characters they create. Because of this, any time someone at the BBC wants to use Sontarans, they have write a cheque to the Holmes estate. People like Lawrence Miles are free to develop the Faction Paradox outside of the Doctor Who novels where it began. And occasionally, we get a movie about Sil or a crappy K9 tv show nobody watched. The point is, Disney doesn’t do this. Should the mouse get his greedy mitts on the show, do you really see writers maintaining ownership over their creations? Say goodbye to fanmade charity books from Obverse Books or Mad Norwegian Press. Say hello to an even higher bar of restriction for new writers and artists to join the ranks of books and audios.

Is this the secret reason why they are pivoting toward a more magical rogues gallery of monsters? Are we being fed a new line of villains while Disney works on snatching up the rights to Sontarans and Daleks? Will they begin phasing out the characters that are holdouts from their original copyright owners? They say the BBC still owns the rights to Doctor Who. They say Disney only has streaming rights in exchange for budget funding. But RTD also said the BBC is in shambles. He also said the future of Doctor Who is in good hands. I fear that those hands are the gloved hands of Mickey Mouse. The show looks and feels better than it has in years, but its future feels dangerously close to becoming content. I want Doctor Who as written by this year’s winner of the Paul Spragg Memorial Contest, not Doctor Who as written by committee. 

[thirddoctor]

Don't know if it's an unpopular opinion but I was thinking how annoying it was that Chibnall ignored everything in the Moffat seasons. I remember the Doctor acting all surprised when she met a nice dalek and said something like it never happened before but we already had this with Rusty (and in fact he was in 12's regeneration episode!). And of course Missy never got mentioned, not even once. River got mentioned but I think it's because fans kept asking about her. I know it's not a popular Era and I wasn't expecting any character to come back but come on not everything would be poorly received. Missy was the first female Master and we are just not gonna mention her during the first female Doctor seasons? Anyway, I voted Delgado for most fashionable.

The thing is, I expect a certain amount of disconnect between eras because it's basically a soft reboot. You need to get new people onboard and not have them hopelessly confused by decades' worth of lore, so stuff like not mentioning Rusty the Dalek doesn't bother me, I think that's fine. The fact that there's just absolutely nothing even attempting to tie Missy and Dhawan together bothers me a lot more though. Obviously I care about the character and really liked Missy's arc so that's part of it, but also this was only two seasons after S10. Even casual viewers are going to be able to remember that, and it just feels weird not to address it even slightly. There are ways you could do it without alienating new fans (it certainly wouldn't be any more confusing than stuff like Jack popping up and randomly talking about Rose Tyler).

I also found it silly when the show referenced stuff and got it wrong, like Gallifrey still being in a pocket universe. You start to wonder if the writers even watched past S7.

Thank you for voting correctly, even if my boy sadly didn't win. :(

[gallifreyshawkeye]

Intro for anyone new, Hiya/Update for anyone from "yon olden days"

The tldr: my kids have brought new joy into old fandom and old hobbies and my older kiddo has asked me to finish the series PROPERLY and make Alec Hardy not sad anymore (😆) and to write Tentoo whump (child, you have NO idea what beast you have unleashed!).

So I have found myself coming back to this blog thanks to my kids after a hiatus of several years due to (partly) said kids taking up an increasing part of life, as they should, on top of everything else. BUT, they are now late elementary and early middle school age and I decided a few months ago it was time to properly introduce Doctor Who to them as a show to watch. So we started properly with Rose and Nine and they were hooked harder than I could have ever hoped. They chose to watch nothing else until they had binged ALL thirteen seasons in about only four months! It was amazing!

It was also really cool to watch it again from as fresh and unbiased a perspective as I think I'm ever going to get. 11 and 9y/o's aren't influenced by other fandom perspectives, I refused to give them any spoilers along the way, and the whole experience was overall just such an unexpectedly refreshing and renewing one I can't put it into words. It's also been fascinating to get their takes. Here are a few:

- Ten is both their favorite Doctor, but Twelve isn't far behind at all, and my 9y/o son has them at almost a tie. In fact, when I asked each of them which Doctor they would want me to write a fanfic about, my son picked Twelve.

- They both haaaaaaaated the hand waving-ness of Moffatt's grand story arc conclusions: the Doctor being brought back by Amy simply remembering him, the soppy/cheesy way Clara got the Time Lords to give Eleven more regenerations, the entirety of Amy's pregnancy, and for that matter River having regenerations simply by being conceived in the TARDIS they never bought into. You should have seen the skeptical looks on their faces when they heard that line given as an explanation! It was quite priceless! And like I said, I gave no spoilers, no personal opinion ahead of time, nothing. I deliberately let them simply watch the show for what it is.

- They both liked Bill and Nardol way more than Clara

- Both were super confused by the the absolute mess of character arc in Chibnall's era. Not so much for the Doctor, they thought she was ok, just kinda bland, but the Master. They were in complete agreement that nothing he did made any sense whatsoever.

- They were in disbelieving shock and over the moon when David Tennant showed back up as Fourteen when Thirteen regenerated, and they were FURIOUS that they were going to have to wait six whole months before the specials came out 😆

As an added bonus, my 11y/o also has become quite the David Tennant fan. They were so devastated when Ten regenerated, they immediately wanted to watch something else DT was in, so in the process of listing things off, I mentioned MAAN as something him and Catherine Tate did together that was non-angsty and even after emphasizing that it was Shakespeare, they still chose to watch it (not that I was complaining! ;) ). They were literally sliding off the couch with laughter at the absolute comedic perfection that is DT and Catherine Tate in MAAN, and it's been all things David Tennant ever since! I got lots of things thrown at me during the course of Broadchurch because of, and I quote, "His stupid sad eyes and his stupid face!" and I have been ordered to write a proper ending that makes him properly happy. So maybe I'll have to dust off the epilogue fic I'd been writing all that time ago and finish it off for good.

Meanwhile, Doctor Who has been rewatched from the beginning nearly all the way through again and is pretty much the only show my son currently chooses to watch besides his favorite Minecraft YouTuber (Grian, for anyone interested and who knows that realm of things).

So it's been in the process of both my children falling into these fandoms as much on their own as it is possible for children their age to do so, that I have found myself back here. It started because I was looking up some of the whump gifsets I made of Ten in the episode 42 to show my 11y/o, and partly as a confession of sorts to them of how deep into the fandom I used to be.

And then the specials came out and there was Fourteen's beautiful face and big sad eyes (yes my 11y/o has a phenomenal point!), and now I've also found myself relistening to all the Eighth Doctor audios, and idk, whatever the combination of reasons I've found a new joy in it all.

And it's all combined to make me feel like I can write again, like something's been freed or been unlocked. I can imagine scenes and character arcs and come up with new characters and revel in meta minutia that will never explicitly make it onto the page but is vital for plot consistency.

I feel like I found part of myself again.

[13thdoctorposts]

chris chibnalls era was the most conservative nuwho has been. remember when he made the first non-white master dress up as a nazi, and the white protagonist purposefully reveals his race with the intent of getting him sent to a concentration camp? or when he queerbaited thasmin? or when the female protagonist knelt down to a man and called him her master? or when yaz instantly shut down ryan when he was talking about his struggles as a black person? or the concept of a pregnant man being used as a joke? please try to see through the performative activism.

Thanks for the question. I think most of the questions are rhetorical because obviously I’ve watched the show and saw these things, I think the question is just asking me to see through the performative activism. I don’t think it was performative activism but I thought we could go though each part of the question together as I’m happy to breakdown my thoughts on the situations mentioned. This might be TLDR for some people just warning you now 😅

chris chibnalls era was the most conservative nuwho has been.

I find it interesting the asker is saying the show is conservative while also saying its performative activism so essentially that it was trying to be woke.

Personally I don’t think Chibbs was trying to make a ‘Woke’ show, I also don’t think he was trying to make a ‘conservative’ show. I think he was trying to make a show with diverse stories. I think series 11 did this best. The ending of Keblam! was definitely not ‘Woke’ so all the talk about the show itself being ‘Woke’ I don’t think is correct but I also don’t think the show was trying to be actively conservative either since it was talking about issues like racism and partition of India and Pakistan, and making fun of a trump like figure, for example. It’s just a show about time and space, sometimes you see politics in it sometimes you don’t. I’ll talk about my thoughts on ‘performative activism’ during the Chibnall era at the end.

I think its important to remember Chibbs is just a dude going to work doing a really big job trying to use his position of power the best he can… it doesn’t mean every decision is going to be right… sometimes I make a bad calls at work, we all do… people are human… I can empathise that people can try their best and sometimes get it wrong but also often get it right, the world is nuanced not black and white. However this doesn’t make a whole show bad, can anyone name a show with 3 series that doesn’t have any bad decisions… can anyone name a different Doctors run that was perfect and no mistakes or mis-steps were made?

remember when he made the first non-white master dress up as a nazi, and the white protagonist purposefully reveals his race with the intent of getting him sent to a concentration camp?

I most definitely do remember this, and I think it was a bad call. However I can also acknowledge that Sacha was hired when everyone was already in South Africa a week before shooting Spyfall, which means the script was already written and pre production was well under way so they probably didn’t have the ability to change a major chunk of the script, thats just the logistics of shooting a TV show. It would have been great if Chris had unlimited money and time to change things but thats just not the case. I would think this logically means they couldn’t change the fact that they had the Master in a Nazi outfit… I also think its possible when writing the episode Chris probably wrote it with the subconscious bias that he was going to have a white male as the Doctors Master. Although Chris was very good about hiring diverse actors, subconscious bias sits in us we aren’t always aware we are doing it, hence the subconscious part. This isn’t great on Chris’s part but I don’t think he was being deliberately malice either. I think they also thought once they had Sacha that they needed to acknowledge race… and they did in the worse way possible, it was unnecessary and was a terrible look for the Doctor.

or when the female protagonist knelt down to a man and called him her master?

Yeah I do also remember this, it was uncomfortable to watch, I think the purpose of the scene was meant to make us really dislike the Master, to kill any good will the audience was having towards ‘O’. Him killing people is horrible but its the Master its expected and random characters who are extras that we as an audience aren’t attached to isn’t going to have the same effect as him doing something horrible to a character we are attached to like the Doctor. I wish what he had done wasn’t this. I don’t think it’s a good look, a female Doctor having to be submissive to a male in this way. It’s not appropriate. However I have to praise Jodies acting here because she acted this scene in the most unsubmissive way possible. This is just a decision I don’t agree with, it doesn’t make for a bad show overall.

or when he queerbaited thasmin?

Thasmin wasn’t queerbait because the characters canonically admitted having feeling for each other. You can be disappointed with the way it ended… I am… but a bad ending isn’t queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is implying their might be something queer happening only for it to be dropped and often a heteronormative ending is what is actually depicted on screen and was primarily used by shows as a rating kick. I would say it would be the opposite for Doctor Who, since people were vocal about not wanting a female Doctor, not wanting the Doctor to ever have a love interest etc. it likely wouldn’t have given the show a ratings kick in the same way other modern era TV would hope to get when queerbaiting. Thasmin isn’t queerbaiting its just a disappointing end

or when yaz instantly shut down ryan when he was talking about his struggles as a black person?

I don’t think this is what Yaz’s intention was but people can read the scene as they wish.

or the concept of a pregnant man being used as a joke?

I don’t think it was being play with as a joke. I think Ryan and Graham’s reaction in this episode was how a lot of people would act and through the episode seeing them coming to terms with the idea a male can be pregnant is a reflection of society and you see them work through being uncomfortable, not really being sure how to act or what to say but in the end they get to where they need to be, seeing the miracle that is life. This also touches on Ryans father issues so theres a lot going on in this situation and although theres some comic relief moments I don’t think it was trying to make the whole situation a joke.

please try to see through the performative activism.

I don’t think the Chibnall era was performative activism because he wasn’t all words, he was actions. There were more diverse voices in major positions, in the cast, in the writers room and with Directors.

So what do I mean by this? Well we didn’t have a white man write ‘Rosa’ and then have an all white TARDIS team take on racism in 1955 and defeat it. That would have been performative activism.

First of all and most importantly we had a woman of colour hired and paid to write a story that was in a very well known TV show giving the story a huge audience on a platform its never had before… thats not performative, that’s actively doing something, Chris hired, paid and gave a platform to a person of colour to tell their story.

Giving people real opportunities in areas they haven’t had opportunities before on a large scale like Doctor Who and trying to create an environment where that is normalised and diverse voices are a common place has to start somewhere, it doesn’t just happen fully formed and Chibbs was clearly and deliberately trying to normalises having voices of women and people of colour in front and behind the camera in senior positions like actors, writers and directors.

I think it’s important to remember Chibbs was trying to be the beginning of this change so its not a fully realised idea, there aren’t as many writers and directors who are women and people of colour, so you bring in as many as you can, which I think Chibbs did, then you try and grow it from there. If more show runners did what Chibbs did in years to come we would have more minority writers, directors and show runners. It has to start somewhere and the more opportunities that open up the more people will enter these professions and so more voices will become normalised in the industry and more representation will be found in media for all of us. The fact he was trying to build this systemic change clearly demonstrates this isn’t ‘performative’ activism.

[2112austin]

2112's Rant Time™ #4 (Special Edition): DOCTOR WHO IS BACK (Spoilers for Doctor Who: The Star Beast Inbound!)

It's that time once again where I rant and/or rave about topics I'm both passionate and/or pissed off about (sometimes both at the same time). Today I'll be talking about the first of the THREE Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials,

"The Star Beast".

So I haven't really mentioned it here, but I am a HUGE fan of Doctor Who... at least the 2005 series (I'll get around to watching the classic series I promise). However, my love for the franchise (like many) kinda waned during the "Chibnall" era. Now I'm not gonna sit here and trash talk Chibnall Who all day (that's for another time), but I will say that I don't really HATE his era. It's just not as polished as RTD1 or even most of Moffat era (KEYWORD, MOST). However, I can safely say that I believe Doctor Who is in good hands once again!

Let's start with the new intro. It's BLOODY GORGEOUS!

Definitely my favorite intro sequence since Capaldi's. It's just so vibrant, wicked, and full of life. And it's nice to see a new intro after 5 years. Now Jodie's intro wasn't bad, per se, it just felt a bit teeny bit bland. Though I did like how it was basically Hartnell's intro but on steroids. Which is funny because the new intro is basically Eccleston's/Tennant's intro but on steroids as well.

As for the episode itself, it was fun! Definitely a return to form for the show. Rose Noble was a damn good character. She's written pretty well. Donna is as killer as she was in Series 4. And the reveal that the metacrisis was passed down to Rose was kinda unexpected (the thought of that being a thing didn't even come to mind tbh).

Now of course, Rose Noble is indeed trans, which is not a problem at all and anyone who says that it is a problem or that "ERM DOCTOR WHO IS WOKE NOW GRRRRR" is a complete idiot (and besides, Doctor Who has always been kinda "woke", and I absolutely no problem with that being the case).

Donna is as killer as she was in Series 4. Definitely was one of the best parts of the episode. The Meep was cool and cute. Also pretty "Killer". The reveal that the metacrisis was passed down to Rose Noble was not something I had expected or even really thought about.

The new Tardis interior was, again, GORGEOUS!

I love the fact that it looks a combination of the classic era interiors, with a slight hint of the steampunk aesthetics of the Eccleston/OG Tennant interioirs, and the winding stairs and ramps and whatnot of the Matt Smith/Capaldi interiors. AND THE ROUND THINGS MAKE THEIR RETURN ONCE AGAIN!

but yea overall it was rlly gud. definitely gonna do rant times for the other 2 specials (and honestly any new episode going forward). and starting with the christmas special, i'm gonna split the regular rant times and the review rant times into 2 separate things. the review rant times will then onwards be called 2112's Review Time™.

that's all. tune in next time where i rip chibnall a new one... or i talk about the wild blue yonder.

[sometimesraven]

I'd like to mention that I don't dislike this season of Doctor Who. I disliked some of Chibnall's era and even that I have good things to say about.

It's my love and adoration for this show that makes me so passionate about the things it does wrong. Understanding what went right and wrong about my favourite media is fun to me, it's an exercise of the mind, but also sometimes things are so egrigious it makes me angry because I care.

"but you weren't like this through Moffat's era why is it only chibs and rtd-" because literally everyone and their dog shat on Moff at every given moment and also i was a teenager just trying to survive lmfao. I'm sure there are things about Moff's era I could criticise but also I don't want to, because RTD is the one being toted as some fucking "God of dr who" or something

you'll note I did very little posting about Chibnall's era. That's because I didn't need to. People knew what was wrong with it and said plenty.

Also because I was so genuinely disappointed byit that I was going through an existential crisis wondering if I was starting to dislike Dr Who and genuinely having meltdowns about it

I have a personal bone to pick with RTD and his stans after my teen years watching people get personal with Moffat fans. One thing I will never ever do is accuse anyone of being racist, sexist, etc. for liking RTD's writing. You're more than allowed to; I like some of it myself! I think Russell is particularly open to criticism right now also because we know he can do better.

[picnokinesis]

hello!! :D I asked for a spoilerless preview of 13s seasons a while back on anon, and your answer really got me excited to finish my rewatch!! took me a while because uni doesn't allow for binging the way high school used to, but I just finished season 12 the other day! I've enjoyed chibnall's era more and more the further I got (season 11 still definitely isn't anywhere near my favorite, but liked it a LOT more than I did on my first watch, knowing the foundations it was laying), and I LOVED the first episode of season 13! SO much! I haven't gotten further but I really wanted you to know haha, it's fun, it's exciting, it's got awesome new characters -- I so wish chibnall had gotten into the groove a little sooner, because this is exactly what I hoped his era to be! imagine if we could have gotten 3 full seasons on the same level... ahhhh I'm super excited to watch the rest! especially since several of the episodes you mentioned were your favorites are from season 13 -- and the first episode isn't even one of them!

Ahhhh oh my days hi hi hi!! I am SO so happy that you've enjoyed s12 so much! I think s12 honestly might be one of my favourite seasons of doctor who (although there are a lot of excellent contenders), simply because it just inspired me so much. There's so much to dig into. And yesss I think s11 works a lot better in context of the rest of it, which is super interesting. Actually, honestly, it all works SO nicely as a whole unit, which is super satisfying - to me, at least - but I suppose that hampered it when everything first aired, because we didn't have the whole picture (but also, that is how tv works sometimes ksksk - there were and are a LOT of bad faith viewings of this era, and it makes me so sad because I know that the moment you dig into it you start to realise just how rich this era has been). But yknow, what you say about s11 is interesting, because I do know a lot of people who really love it exactly as it is and always have - there are quite a number of people who got into Doctor Who because of s11, so I think, whilst there are things I don't like about it, I reckon Chibnall did approach it in a particular way with a particular intent - and it worked for some people, but less for others. And like, in a similar vein, I've actually found myself defending Moffatt of all people lately, despite the fact that I really don't enjoy like, two of his seasons, as well as a lot of things that he tends to do. But it's because I think like....hm, I guess I've lately found it really helpful to remember that all the writers are just humans who are putting stories and art out into the world that they want to create, and are sharing it with us - it's never going to be perfect, despite how much we want it to be. And there's always something of value in each era, right? Each of the main showrunners we've had since 2005 have had strengths and weaknesses, and there's something about each era that I absolutely adore. That said, there's definitely value in expecting better in certain degrees - but then you get people making hour long videos about how the show sucks now and I get so tired skskks

BUT YEAH sorry for rambling, your ask just got me thinking thoughts - much more importantly, you've got THE REST OF FLUX TO WATCH ahhhHHH have FUN!! War of the Sontarans is next and oh my daaaaays i love that episode SO much (I literally said as much earlier today and my coworker was like 'yes taka i know you love that episode' SKKSKSKSKSK SO. YKNOW) but honestly I just adore Flux. It's got such classic who vibes - I've started watching some classic lately and it's so funny seeing what inspired a lot of the structure/style of Flux (like the STUPID CLIFFHANGERS oh my days we need MORE of those). So I really hope you enjoy the rest - and the specials too!! Eve of the Daleks and The Power of the Doctor are soooooo much fun :D Please feel free to let me know what you think when you've watched it all, if you'd like to! I'd love to hear your thoughts/what your favourite episodes of thirteen's era as a whole have been! <3