#they just really like setting david tennant on fire

[ineffably-poetic]

bro

they’re gonna strike david tennant with lightning

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

pt V good omens S1E1 summarised but i understood nothing but the queer

this is me back to summarising because if i think too hard about crowley and aziraphale watching each other i'll break down and i've only watched three episodes what does this say about me

without further ado, good omens episode one:

It opens with narration by God who is morally grey and tells us Earth is a libra. I see tarot cards. It could be a hallucination.

Cut to the garden of Eden. Crowley is a snake. I assume Adam and Eve ate the apples, but I am too busy looking at David Tennant.

They talk and say important things, but I am too busy looking at Michael Sheen. Aziraphale gives fire to the humans and adopts the gaslight gatekeep girlboss method of explaining it to Crowley and the folks at heaven.

Heaven consists of uncomfortable close-ups. I hear nothing they say any time a scene is set in heaven because I am counting skin cells on the angels. They like Sound of Music. I am growing to hate Sound of Music. Thanks, heaven.

Cut to modern day but not the present, 11 years ago. Zombies emerge from the ground, but they are not zombies, not yet. One of them looks like a dead blobfish. His face decomposes later.

Not-yet-zombies hand the Antichrist baby to Crowley, who catwalks through the graveyard with the basket swinging on his hand.

God starts talking about the ol' switcheroo, intercut with an American politician who loves the Y chromosome, as one does.

There are Satanic nuns, and they are bad at their job, but they really like toes. Not in a sexual way. We think. We hope.

There is a lot of baby switching and inaccurate wink interpretations. I understand nothing. It is fine. The plot is unimportant.

The Antichrist does not raise tropical fish. An easy mistake to make.

Crowley and Aziraphale try to balance the Satanic tendencies of their adoptive son Warlock, who is not the Antichrist. Crowley serves us more gender as she becomes the nanny. Aziraphale is the gardener. I hope it is not him. I hope it is someone else.

I hope in vain. It is him. It is always him.

They raise not-Antichrist for eleven years.

A scheduled dog delivery from hell does not arrive on time, which makes Crowley and Aziraphale realise they did not raise the Antichrist. Contrary to sensible interpretation, this is not good. They abandon their adoptive son, which is normal.

Cut to the Antichrist, whom I immediately want to adopt. There are friends, and I am told they are important, but all I know is Brian is just Brian and the others are foils for the horsemen of the apocalypse.

There is an apocalypse upcoming. I do not realise it until this point.

The Satanic dog delivery arrives as scheduled to the Antichrist, and becomes a puppy. The Antichrist, with boundless creativity, names the Satanic dog delivery Dog. I continue to love him.

Contrary to sensible interpretation, this is not good. The Antichrist naming the Satanic dog delivery Dog is such a tragic blow to the world of scientific nomenclature that the apocalypse is now set into motion.

The end.

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday Scottish actor Richard Madden born June 18th 1986 in Elderslie.

Richard was raised by his mother, Pat, a classroom assistant and his father, Richard, who worked for the fire service. He also has two sisters, Cara and Lauren.

His parents were “hippies”, he says, and their house was pretty open, with friends always piling in for big vegetarian meals. Madden spent a lot of time outside, in the woods behind their house. He has several injuries: he shows me where he shot his dad’s old air pistol and blew off part of his finger, then managed to wreck the same finger when he nailed a wooden plank to his skateboard, then crashed it, so apart from the Hippie parents it was much like most of our own days as bairns.

Despite growing up wanting to be an actor, Richard was very shy during his childhood. To overcome this, at age 11, he joined Paisley Arts Centre’s youth theatre program. In 1999 he was given the lead role as Sebastian Simpkins in BBC1’s children’s TV comedy series Barmy Aunt Boomerang, that’s him aged 12 in the first pic with co-star Toyah Wilcox.. By 2000, he’d made his feature film debut in the Iain Banks adaptation, Complicity.

After high school he was accepted to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, Scotland and in 2007, he graduated.

Less than two years later, Richard had a recurring role as Dean McKenzie on the 2009 BBC series Hope Springs. Soon after, he landed the role of Ripley in the 2010 movie Chatroom, a film about a group of teenagers who encourage each other’s bad behaviours after meeting online. In the same year, Richard played punk band Theatre of Hate singer Kirk Brandon in Worried About the Boy, a TV film about the life of British singer-songwriter Boy George.

In 2011 Richard landed his breakthrough role as Robb Stark in the HBO fantasy-drama series Game of Thrones. Also in 2011, he played gay paramedic Ashley Greenwick on the short-lived British comedy-drama Sirens. During hiatus from filming Game of Thrones in 2013, Richard was cast to star as Prince Charming in the 2015 Disney film Cinderella.

Richard won his first Screen Actors Guild award in 2014 for the Discovery Channel mini-series, Klondike. He played Bill Haskell, one of two adventurers who travel to Yukon, Canada during the Klondike Gold Rush in the 1890s. He further enhanced his reputation as a good actor when he appeared in the BBC drama Bodyguard in 2018, the following year he played Lieutenant Joseph Blake in the film 2017 and was Elton John’s manager/lover in the biop of the star Rocketman.

In January 2019 Madden won a prestigious Golden Globe for his role as war veteran David Budd in the BBC show Bodyguard. He also appeared in the 2019 war movie 1917.

We last saw Richard in the movie, Eternals, which was okay, but nothing great, he is one of several actors being touted as the next James Bond,

Last year Richard starred in the Amazon Prime series Citadel, I've watcheit and was not really impressed with it,I think he does pull of the American accent well, but I noticed there have been people saying he doesnt, Madden revealed he spoke in the accent for two years straight to prepare for the series. The show has been earmarked for a second series. Richard is set to appear in the feature film Killer Heat next, it is in post production.

In July 2019, Madden received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. When asked about his personal life during a New York Times interview following speculation about his relationships and sexuality, Madden stated: “I just keep my personal life personal.”

Madden was recently named one of ‘Scotland’s Sexiest Men' following a new study that identifies the most attractive features for men, he has competition though, also in the running are Bathgate’s David Tennant and Glasgow’s James McAvoy,

Richard, quizzed on what he would like to do next he sad “I’d like to do something in comedy. It’s nice to not… I mean we go to work every day and we’re like, ‘You’re gonna die today,’” he said, adding that he wanted to “do something fun for a minute.”

[milehighmegs]

'Rivals': A Real-Time Reaction

So, if you've been living in David Tennant purgatory (like so many of us have), you'll be happy to know that his latest show, 'Rivals,' has just had an entire season dropped on Hulu (in the US) and Disney+ (everywhere else). Since I've only really seen David in 'Good Omens' and bits of 'Staged,' I decided to switch from my Michael Sheen binge for just a bit and give our soft Scottish hipster gigolo a little love.

Having been inspired by Danny Motta, I'll be live-reacting to the first episode of 'Rivals,' though instead of on YouTube, I'll be doing it here in the Tumblrverse amongst all these wonderful DT fans. I hope it's at the very least entertaining. Enjoy 😁

OMG only 4 SECONDS in and there's already nekkid bum!!! I was told this would be racy, but GAWT DAYUM

ooooooooh spicy David Tennant... your Crowley is showing

AIDAN. TURNER. yummmmmm

I am loving everything about Caitlin's style. I want that sweater, like, yesterday

AIDAN TURNER SHIRTLESS AIDAN TURNER SHIRTLESS AIDAN TURNER SHIRTLESS OMGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Maud is soooo awesomely cringe, I love the total lack of filter on her

I've already decided that the soundtrack is loaded with bangers

Ooh, an American character! And she's a total BADASS!!!

Just that momentary flash in Tony's eyes... DEMON FIRE

The setting really is almost irritatingly beautiful and I'm here for it

Attention shoppers, we have full frontal peen on aisle 3, repeat, we have FULL FRONTAL PEEN on aisle 3

Oof, damn, that's a helluva strutting entrance...

Oh shit, his name is ANTHONY??! I'm diggin the parallels...

"I'm not paid to have opinions." 😆😆😆

The Gong!!! yaaaaassss

Lounge versions of New Wave pop

I don't get this thing everyone seems to have for Rupert. He's arrogant, vile, & obvious, and (I'll probably get skewered for this) not all that attractive. How in the world Maud's practically on her knees for him already when she's got Declan right there is beyond me

"Birdie Song?" I always thought it was called "The Chicken Dance..." is that just in the US then?

Hahahaha, you DESERVED THAT, ya bastard!!!

Oh no. nonononoNONONONONONO

Ah, well, that makes a few things make sense...

Yup, that's pretty accurate... sadly...

Well. THAT was awesome. And insane. And I'm loving Every. Single. Second of this. The question now is: to binge, or not to binge? I'm gonna go take a very cold shower and make up my mind afterwards.

[purplewillowchicken]

Had a bit of a strange day. Michael Sheen sets the Internet on fire calling Crowley his Thin Dark Duke. Reference to David Bowie's Thin, White Duke persona I presumed.

Then listening to Sandman audiobook in the car and by coincidence got to the bit where Lucifer and Morphius walk through and empty Hell, voiced by Michael and James McAvoy and I'm trying to place the accent Michael is doing so Google it and there's a YouTube of him explaining its David Bowie because that's how Lucifer was drawn in the comic.

The next scene is Asgard, Bill Nighey as Odin and David Tennant as a very Scottish Loki. I already posted that I think Crowely is doing a Bill Nighey accent in Season 2 Ep2.

Then the thing that made me think strange forces are at work youtube next video that just came on was an old interview with David saying he didn't believe he really was the Doctor until Sarah Jane called him Doctor. He kept expecting Michael Sheen or James McAvoy to pop up and replace him.

Update. Then new Dr Who trailer lands with David doing an angsty Crowley face.

Day 3 of this madness. Listening to the radio a live version of Bowie's Hero's came on and it's like he is singing about Aziraphale and Crowley. I won't post the whole but there's dolphins in there as well.

I, I will be king

And you, you will be queen

Though nothing will drive them away

We can be Heroes, just for one day

We can be us, just for one day

I think I might be going insane.

[secret-diary-of-an-fa]

Doctor Who: The Giggle Review- A Whole Glorious Hour of Literally Perfect Television

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

In my previous two Who reviews, I argued that- regardless of the increasing quality of the show- cancellation would still, ultimately, be a kindness. I said this as a fan, because I was aware that the world Doctor Who was built for and the world we presently have are so wildly different that, ultimately, the off-kilter, quintessentially British spirit of the show would have to be traded away to maintain long-term viability. In the wake of The Giggle, I find myself forced to reevaluate this opinion. You see, The Giggle isn’t just a really, really good piece of television- it’s also a blueprint for the series going forward. In this story, showrunner and script-writer Russel T. Davies seems to have hit on a new-but-familiar identity for Doctor Who that can continue to work in the modern world without sacrificing the elements that made it good to begin with.

It would be hard to overstate how fucking great this episode is. Let me see if I can put it into words. I was fourteen years old when Doctor Who came back from its decades-long hiatus and reappeared on the BBC, fronted by the inimitable Christopher Ecclestone. I used to watch those early episodes perched, very literally, on the edge of my seat, my legs trembling involuntarily, ready to run- as though if I sprinted fast enough, I could catch up to the Doctor and enter that world of wild, uncontrolled imagination; that infinity of time and space. That feeling continued throughout David Tennant’s first run as the Doctor, but eventually began to decay. I chalked this down to getting older. After all, nobody watches anything at 20 or 30 the way they watched it when they were 14. I just had to accept that the ageing process had robbed me of my ability to uncritically enjoy something that had meant so much to me in my formative years. And then The Giggle happened, and suddenly I’m 14 again, glued to my chair and grinning like an idiot.

It’s not that The Giggle turned off my critical and analytical faculties by appealing to the nostalgia centres of my brain. It’s too fresh and inventive to pull that cheap trick. Rather, it’s that it’s so joyous and energising that it taps directly into the same part of my psyche that the early episodes did in 2005 while also being so well thought-through and meticulously realised that my capacity for analysis and critique enhanced rather than marred my enjoyment. In my review for Wild Blue Yonder, I commented that it’s harder for TV episodes with a lot of superfluous ideas, characters and concepts to juggle them all successfully- almost like there’s only so much quality to go around and it gets spread too thin. This makes The Giggle particularly impressive. There’s a ton of stuff going on here, but it’s all handled with equal panache and genuine verve. The Giggle makes the juggling of elements feel completely effortless. Spoilers ahead, but I think it’s important to list, out of context, some of the things that happen in The Giggle that left me bewildered, gobsmacked and delighted all at once. And yes, I laughed out loud at many of these, braying like a complete fucking cretin from the sheer, infectious joie de vive of it.

Rhyming murder puppets.

A shop folds itself into a toy-box just to mess with the Doctor and Donna.

The Celestial Toymaker interrupts the plot to deliver a full-on, showstopping musical number.

“It’s alright. I’ve given the moles a force-field.”

A sexy black alien with no trousers whacks a time machine with a croquet mallet so hard that gives birth to another time machine in a slightly different shade of blue.

Grandma’s Footsteps with a motherfucking death-laser.

The fate of the world is resolved with a game of catch.

“I love you. Get out.”

Two chill dudes set fire to a dummy in order to invent television. All the more hilarious because this isn’t a ‘Doctor Who Thing’- this actually happened.

Neil Patrick Harris’ cardistry is on fleek, and- as a magician- I appreciate that.

Oh Sweet Baby Cthulhu the accents! The accents!

Donna Noble has the balls.

You know, I could probably go on, but I won’t. I think that’s honestly enough to be getting on with, and this review does kinda need to end eventually. The point I’m trying to make is that there’s a tremendous amount of silliness and cleverness and inventiveness on display here and it all feels very Doctor Who-y.

Now, if I were a proper reviewer, I’d deal with the meat and potatoes of making a TV show. But honestly, what can I say that isn’t blindingly obvious? Of course David Tennant and Catherine Tate’s acting is spectacular- they’re good actors. Of course the rest of their cast pull their weight- most of them are old hands. Of course the script is well-crafted- I’ve already praised it. Of course the special effects are excellent- this isn’t the bloody Star Beast (hey! I think I just worked out where all that Disney money went!). Basically, everything is well-assembled and you could have figured that out for yourself because I wouldn’t be praising the episode at all otherwise. I will say that Neil Patrick Harris’ Celestial Toymaker is one of the most amazing performances I’ve ever seen. The dude’s having so much fun it’s infectious. I don’t mean to suggest he’s the best actor in the world or anything quite so grand- I just mean that he’s ideally fitted for the role and it’s a treat to see. Other than that, I think we can forgo the painfully obvious gushing over the acting.

It’s probably more relevant to discuss whether The Giggle does the job it sets out to do. And, frankly, it sets out to do a lot of jobs. Its a send-off for David Tennant’s take on the Doctor, an introduction to Ncuti Gatwa’s take, a long-overdue attempt to mend the bridges fucking Chibnall burned during his time as showrunner, a showcase for everything that’s good about Doctor Who, an attempt to expand the Whoniverse in lasting, meaningful ways and an attempt to establish a new identity for the programme that cleaves to the original without depending on it. I mean, that’s a fuck-load of stuff, so it would kind of be unfair to demand that it pulls it all off. Well, the good news is that I don’t have to demand shit, because it just does. Like, completely fucking unprompted. I didn’t have to yell or whack its knuckles with a ruler or anything.

As a send-off for Tenant, it works by… well, by not being a send-off. Russel T. Davies is a gay man whose formative years were the eighties, with the AIDs crisis running rampant and disproportionately effecting his community and demographic. In the early 2000s, when he had to write and manage Tenant’s first run, he still hadn’t entirely come to terms with that (or so the speculation goes), which is why the Doctor’s regeneration from Tenant to Matt Smith was so traumatic- to paraphrase a fellow fan on the issue, Russ just didn’t believe in happy endings. Tenant’s 10th Doctor ‘dies’ (for want of a better term) sad and desperate, clinging to an identity that’s about to be washed away. This time around, we get something called ‘Bi-Generation’, which allows the Doctor to split himself in two, so that his current and next identity can co-exist simultaneously. He gets to hand over the mantle and task of being the Doctor, without giving up who he is. In fact, he gets to go and live with Donna and her family and basically become everyone’s favourite uncle while Gatwa’s Doctor flies off to continue being the main character. And it’s perfect. It’s not a painful, wrenching goodbye, but a fond farewell- a reward for services rendered that doesn’t just keep a fan-favourite on hand for future shenanigans but allows the show to evolve without symbolically erasing a beloved part of its history. It’s made all the more lovely by the fact that it clearly signifies Russel T. Davies going through some kind of internal resolution and coming to terms with something we humble viewers can only guess at. He’s made room in his life for the possibility of happiness- or so it seems- and it’s reflected in his work. It’s nice when real people have arcs.

As an introduction to Gatwa’s 15th Doctor, The Giggle doesn’t do a bad job either. Instead of a few pitiful seconds of screen-time at the end of the episode (which is traditional for hot new Regenerations), Gatwa gets to act properly alongside his predecessor for a little bit and feel out the role. His delivery of the lines is mostly solid, barring a few moments of awkwardness, but- in fairness- he’s being asked to act against a fuckload of green-screen FX in no trousers for one of the most iconic programmes and roles on British telly. The fact he does as well as he does first time out is impressive. You can tell he has the talent to carry off the role (this isn’t another Whitaker situation, thank fuck)- it’s just going to take him a full episode or two to hit his stride, which is fine. But that’s the actor. The character of the 15th Doctor… well, let’s just say I feel like the TARDIS is in safe hands. Fifteen is over the top, bombastic, a tiny bit queer-coded (in a fun way, not a virtue-signalling way), refreshingly silly and absolutely full of heart. Yeah. I could get used to this guy. The fact that he’s the first black Doctor is also handled way, way better than Whitaker being the first female Doctor. With Whitaker, we got a fucking awful, unearned straight-to-camera speech about how change can be scary but how it’s also inevitable and important (or something- after a certain point, I couldn’t hear it over the sound of my own groaning). With Gatwa we get “Do you come in a range of colours?” “Yes.” and that’s it. The show doesn’t want to start a blasted controversy over it or have it be a big deal… so it accomplishes that by not making it a big deal. This kind of light touch, trust-the-audience-to-keep-up approach is refreshing to say the least. And yeah- it does help mend some of those Chibfail/Pisstaker-burned bridges I alluded to earlier.

Speaking of mending burned bridges, I think one of the most important things The Giggle does is low-key kick the shit out of Chibnall’s idiotic changes to canon. It’s accomplished with exactly one line of dialogue, and it’s open to interpretation, but it’s still an olive branch to fans who were flabbergasted by the flagrant disrespect of The Timeless Children and the whole ‘Division’ plot arc in Flux. See, aside from pushing against established canon in a way that insulted those invested therein, those storylines symbolically overrode William Hartnell’s definitive performance as the First Doctor from way back in the 60s, turning his character into just another link in the chain and erasing the in-universe legacy of much-cherished figure (a real person whose importance to the show cannot be overstated), just because he didn’t fit Chibfail’s personal, self-serving vision of who and what the Doctor should be. But, in The Giggle, we learn that the Toymaker “made a jigsaw puzzle” out of the Doctor’s history, low-key implying that, actually, none of this bullshit is canon- it was just a mad bastard with reality-bending powers messing with the Doc for shits and, er, giggles. No pun intended. Fine by me. I also quite liked the way The Giggle used the Toymaker to take aim at the Culture War and cancel culture- on both sides of the divide- because it seemed like a bit of an acknowledgement that the fans hadn’t really come first where creative decision on Who were concerned lately; that it was more about seeming to be on the right ‘side’. The implication here, of course, is that if the bloody Toymaker knows this is bullshit, so does the show and we’ll get episodes that appeal to all the fanbase as a whole rather than episodes that seek to draw battle-lines and divide them. I mean, the bridges Chibnall and Whitaker burned were big, huge, fucking massive bridges and they burned them very, very thoroughly. Doctor Who has a lot of work to do if it wants to bring them back up to code and win fan trust back, but it’s made enormous strides just with The Giggle.

As for serving as a showcase for everything good about Who- yeah: fucking nails it. We’ve got cosmic stakes, quintessentially British snark, loveable daftness, a great fucking bad guy, problems being solved with smarts and charisma rather than guns and violence, high concept sci-fi nonsense by the bucket load and even some creepy as fuck monsters to play with. Plus, with the single line “My legions are coming,” we know that we’re going to get more mileage out of the plot-line. What’s not to love?

So yes: The Giggle is worth every tiny scrap of hype that surrounds it. It really is the episode to revitalise Doctor Who. Yes, RTD and friends still have to stick the landing- they still have to keep up a consistent quality with upcoming episodes and not backslide to fucking Star Beast level- but, if they can do all that, the show should be good for awhile. Yes, it will still have to stop eventually, but that moment is no longer imminent. With the right management and succession of showrunners, we could get another decade out of this. Doctor Who could actually outlast the Culture Wars that make it so hard to do good sci-fi, regardless of which side of the political spectrum your story falls on. Wouldn’t that be nice? To know that, in the end, the winner of that tawdry fucking bum-fight wasn’t one side or the other, but a genuinely lovely and well-meaning little British sci-fi show. And all that, because one episode- one fucking episode- was able to undo years of crap. Not bad for a single hour of Saturday evening telly.

[denimbex1986]

'If last week was frantic, fast, and offering a wide open welcome mat to Doctor Who fans new and old, Wild Blue Yonder felt like a demonstration of what the show can do and has done. First half hour? Good. Second half hour? Great.

We left the Doctor and Donna – David Tennant and Catherine Tate – in a TARDIS out of control at the end of last week’s The Star Beast. Wild Blue Yonder, the middle part of the 60th anniversary trilogy of Doctor Who, initially took things from there just via, er, 1666. Bonus points if you were instantly trying to work out if we were in the territory of the bubonic plague or the Great Fire Of London when that date popped up on screen.

Turns out, neither. In a tip of the hat to how much more money the show has its disposal, it was all a set up for a gag about gravity. Respect. Russell T Davies has just told the year’s most expensive dad joke.

But, post credits, this was at its best top tier Russell T Davies Doctor Who.

It was bold early.

Wild Blue Yonder robbed the Doctor very early in the story of two of his most potent pieces of equipment: his trusty sonic screwdriver, and his TARDIS. Both gone, minutes after the majestic blue box had been belching out massive flames. I was expecting, at that stage, more fast and furious stuff. Turns out I got quite the opposite.

he first effect of taking the TARDIS away was to give some time to settle and actually spend some time with the Doctor and Donna. The pair were running around so much in the fast-paced The Star Beast last week, that stopping for a proper chat was out of the question.

Here, that was happily remedied.

In fact, the episode itself was slower, calmer and really crept up the longer it went. Like a slow moving robot going along a corridor. Doctor Who the show may have new clothes and new resources, but I like Davies established that for all that, it’s still a show where the brakes matter. When you go slower, the impact can double.

The basics: we got an apparently abandoned spaceship that itself presents mysteries, and a posh remote camera to help explore it. But for the Doctor, something unfamiliar: a lack of stars, the edge of creation, a hundred trlllion years from Earth. Where even the Time Lord hadn’t been before, and seemingly didn’t know what to expect.

A bit of licking (yep) and joshing later, and out came a dash of Everything Everywhere All At Once. Extended arms that I thought were going to be played for comedy (and there were chuckles in the episode). But Davies wrongfooted me again, continually shifting the foundations of tone: turns out that if you’re looking to come up with a really creepy foe for David Tennant to face off against, you can do a lot worse than recruit David Tennant and Catherine Tate. It took a while, but I started to get Midnight vibes from it all, and that’s a very high Who bar.

It did take me a little time to settle though, and I’m about to pen a couple of churlish paragraphs for which the internet should hate me. Deep breath, here goes.

It does seem odd to note some of the effects work on Doctor Who, given what many of us grew up with. But the future craft on which the Doctor and Donna landed looked like it was made with a computer, and it didn’t look like they were there. It’s an odd side effect of the budget of the show, and being able to consistently afford nice things: the nice things are in turn held to a higher standard.

I feel weird typing that paragraph about Doctor Who. But for a moment, and this doesn’t usually happen, it took me out of things. I was back in for the most bizarre chase sequence I’ve seen all year, mind. And I happily watched the show without murmur of complaint throughout the 1980s. I’m clearly a spoilt whingebag.

Nice tip of the hat to Thunderbirds at one point. Let me get out of this hole by recognising that.

I bring all that up because in the first half of Wild Blue Yonder I was noticing stuff like that. In the second, I was absolutely gripped. When the Doctor and Donna properly went head-to-head with the Doctor and Donna? Well, with huge applause to the two actors at the heart of it, I became more and more unnerved. In a good way.

It’s like the shoot-out in something like the classic movie For A Few Dollars More, with two people working the other out, taking turns to take shots. Metaphorical ones here, as each explains whether the other was real or not.

Loved that.

As the episode went on, just where the floor of reality sat became less and less clear. Related: the more ambiguous Wild Blue Yonder became, it all became richer. Even when David Tennant’s head basically poked out of his own arse (it didn’t, but it looked like that), I was engrossed by what was going on..

Coming up with a Doctor Who monster to really get under our skin is a challenge in itself, especially now. Having Tennant and Tate just staring, with a half grin? Well, they’ve outgunned The Meep to my eyes.

Let’s take a moment too to consider the whole Gallifrey got “complicated” aside.

It’s a brief line from the Doctor that he utters, and he ain’t bloody kidding. Like it or not, the Chris Chibnall era of Doctor Who made a lot of Gallifrey (far more than Davies was ever inclined to do in his first run at Who), and anyone picking up those threads was always going to facing, well, let’s go with ‘a challenge’.

However, thrown into the mix here – although whether to believe it is a question in itself – is that the Doctor perhaps isn’t as sure of his roots as we’ve been led to believe. Might he not be from Gallifrey? Is it really possible that Davies has found something else in the character’s origin, six decades on? This is also picking up the mantle of The Timeless Child, introduced during the 13th Doctor’s era.

Will Davies choose to run with it? As the Time Lord himself once said, “time will tell. It always does”.

As much as Russell T Davies is a whizz at delivering a one-hour blockbuster episode of the show, he’s also proven he’s capable of offbeat, weird and unpredictable stories. I’m going to namecheck Midnight again, because – unexpectedly – it feels to me like an ideal companion piece for Wild Blue Yonder. Midnight-ish, on a bigger canvas, with the slowest ticking bomb Who has probably ever seen.

I thought it was terrific.

Credit too to director Tom Kingsley, and enormous applause for just how strong the work of Catherine Tate and David Tennant was here.

But the final word goes to one man: Bernard Cribbins. The last scenes that he shot for Doctor Who, just before we lost him in 2022, ended the episode. I thought that was a lovely, lovely touch. Sure, there was a massive plane above his head, but the ultimate focus was, rightly, on a much-missed actor. How fitting that the episode was dedicated to him. I can’t have been the only one with dust in my eye.

Next week, this trio of specials comes to an end with The Giggle. The trailer promises much. I’d suggest Wild Blue Yonder has set an early high bar for this latest era of Doctor Who.

Now, if you don’t mind, I’m off to watch it again. And to tip my hat to Bernard one more time…'

[s-insomnia]

i need to preface this by saying: i really reallly like good omens. i think it's a hilarious, sweet, well produced, and well acted show.

now that i've gotten that out of the way, i have to say that i (and i mean this in a good way) have always found something so viscerally 2015-2016 tumblr about it but i just couldn't put my finger on it. now i think i've got it (spoiler warning for season 2):

it's british

it's gay

... david tennant (ARGUE WITH THE WALL)

you know the "i'm not nice" scene? would fit in sherlock perfectly.

GROW BETTER

hillywood

crowley and aziraphel's affectionate bickering

"ineffable husbands" as a term

the break up kiss scene. i just know it would've set 2016 tumblr on fire. ('we could've been us' ARE YOU KIDDING ME)

[litcityblues]

Doctor Whoquest Part Thirteen: The Whoquest Ends

I can see why they’re bringing back Catherine Tate and David Tennant because the two of them have excellent chemistry. They quickly dispense with any romantic notions between the two and Donna flies off with him and they hit the ground running. Honestly, the ‘One Episode To Consider’ category was probably the toughest to decide for this series, because there are so many strong candidates. You could make an argument for ‘Planet of the Ood’, which fleshes out the squid like, friendly (and sometimes not so friendly) aliens that have shown up over the course of the past couple of seasons. You could make an argument for ‘The Fires of Pompeii’ just because they tie it back to it from Capaldi’s debut episode ‘Deep Breath’ where he realizes he’s seen the face before and wonders why he picked it. (Also, they sort of glide over the face that that sort of implies a Doctor can manifest their regenerations to a degree, which doesn’t explain why they haven’t been ginger yet.)

Rose Tyler is sort of lurking in the background of many episodes- so right away, you pick up on the Russell T. Davis formula of building up to something big– but they also brought back Martha Jones for a three-episode arc, which I liked- even if ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’ was probably the weakest of the three episodes to me. You could argue that maybe that didn’t really give Donna Noble the chance in the spotlight that she deserved, but I also think it worked really well- especially in the end with the three-episode arc of ‘Turn Left’, ‘The Stolen Earth’ and ‘Journey’s End’ really tying up the mythology as they get set for the handoff to the next showrunner- Stephen Moffat.

Three Episodes I Liked

'The Waters of Mars': Rarely, do you see The Doctor go rogue. They come close now and again, but never actually go over the line- until, 'The Waters of Mars.' Lindsey Duncan is great in this episode and the Doctor changes a fixed point in history- or thinks he does, by saving who he can from the first Mars colony that in regular history is destroyed under mysterious circumstances and paves the way for more exploration, including the first faster than light ship to Proxima Centauri. He doesn't want to act, but in the end, he realizes that if he is the last of the Time Lords, then the laws of time are his to command. Lindsey Duncan (well, her character Adelaide Brooke) calls him on his bullshit, and even though he saves three from the Mars base and returns them home anyway, having been told that her death secures her family's legacy of exploration, she goes back in her house and kills herself. It's a bit bleak in tone, but I think it's an interesting take on the character. There's so much the Doctor could do and exploring the idea of 'just because you can, doesn't mean you should' is usually something reserved for Companions and not for the Doctor themselves.

'Silence In The Library/Forest of The Dead': Viewed in the context of River Song's full arc, these episodes are even better than they were when viewed for the first time. The end where he snaps his fingers and opens the doors of the TARDIS-- it's perfect. No notes.

'Turn Left'/'The Stolen Earth'/'Journey's End': 'Turn Left' is a perfect dystopian 'Sliding Doors' that leads into 'The Stolen Earth' and 'Journey's End' which should have been how Tennant went out, in my opinion. It was perfect. Tied up all the mythology and Companions and spin-offs from the first era of the show. It was a big, epic story and even though it, as usual, inevitably involved The Daleks, I didn't mind that. It worked. It worked so, so well.

Two Episodes I Didn't Like

This is going to sound weird, but 'The End of Time': I think 'Journey's End' should have been Tennant's last episode and not this one. It's not that I don't like John Simm as The Master-- his next appearance, which comes in Capaldi's last few episodes is probably his best, but this one was... just okay and more than a little cartoonish for my tastes. 'Journey's End' was the perfect way to send Tennant out. The specials weren't bad, but this feels like a Coda and perhaps an unnecessary one. He went out well, but 'Journey's End' just feels like a more complete finale than this one does to me.

'The Doctor's Daughter': Honestly, I was all about Martha Jones coming back for a few episodes, but this episode was largely 'meh' and Jenny's sacrifice was largely erased by the fact she regenerated and then took off the explore the stars. (On the plus side, this doesn't preclude her from coming back in the future, which would be cool and I didn't know she was the daughter of Fifth Doctor Peter Davison and The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy actress Sandra Dickinson- so that's kind of cool too.) But other than that...

One Episode To Consider

'The Unicorn and The Wasp': 'The Fires of Pompeii' is another good history episode this season, but I like the touch of reality to this one, as Agatha Christie did actually disappear for two weeks back in the 20s and there's still not a good explanation for it and while it probably doesn't involve a Giant Wasp, but I love that Who went after something that actually happened that doesn't have a good explanation even now.

Overall and The Final Rankings: Tennant's final run was excellent. There are not a lot of weak episodes here and while I don't know if Moffat is as committed to the idea of Doctor Who starting out as a children's show as RTD is-- it seems the show--- I don't want to say matures, but maybe grows with it's audience as Moffat takes over? So I have my issues with RTD's run and I'm hoping if he doesn't break out of his formula, he at least shakes it up a bit heading into the new series. I also would dearly, dearly love for them to start digging into six decades of the franchise and start bringing back villains we haven't seen in a while. The Celestial Toymaker hasn't been back for 57 years, so I'm hoping that sets a trend for the new series. Not everything has to end with Daleks and Cyberman.

Tennant and Tate are probably the most dynamic duo of Companions in RTD's run of Nu-Who. They've got great chemistry and they work well together. I love that the Ood gets a bit more character development in the season. I love the trips back to Pompeii and even the Specials aren't that bad. Michelle Ryan is another person I hope shows back up again because she too had good chemistry with the Doctor. Tennant's run helped solidify the show's return, so full credit to him for that and he takes one hell of a final bow at the end of it all- even if the episode wasn't my favorite, his regeneration- "I don't want to go." is probably the best, I think.

In terms of the final rankings, I think it’s hard and I think it’s very subjective. If you grew up watching a certain Doctor they’re probably going to be your favorite and I will always be a Martha Jones Stan, because she was kind of awesome and I liked her as a Companion, but the re-watch and more importantly, the weird, snakelike way I rewatched Nu-Who I think gave me an opportunity to assess each Doctor a bit more fairly as they were spread out somewhat in my watching order. So here’s where I’m leaving it for now:

Capaldi: If Smith brought the fast-paced action and the big epic moments, Capaldi exposed the soul of The Doctor in beautiful ways. From 'Heaven Sent' to 'The World Enough and Time' he may not have the biggest moments in Nu-Who, but he's got some of the best and transcended the franchise and became great moments and great writing in science fiction full stop. He wasn't in my top spot going into this, but he is now.

Smith: It’s the big, epic moments, man. It’s the high energy and the way he can get shouty at people. It’s River Song. It’s Amy and Rory and then Clara Oswald and the build-up to the 50th Anniversary special and Trenzalore.

Tennant: Man, he lands here by a whisker. You could honestly switch him out with Smith if you wanted to, but I think RTD’s overreliance on the Daleks (because if there’s a big baddie in a Tennant season, it’s either going to be the Daleks or maybe the Cybermen or maybe both) annoys me and his formula needs to be shaken up a bit. By the Martha Jones season, episode one, I knew Harold Saxon was going to be doing something dastardly by the end of the season and it’s similar all across the seasons. I think RTD also was very rooted in the idea of Doctor Who being a kid’s show- which works well sometimes but doesn’t other times because you want the stakes to be higher and the danger to be real and sometimes it gets a bit… cartoonish for my liking. But Tennant’s companions are top-notch. He picked up the baton from Eccleston and really firmly established that the show was back for good and you have to give him full credit for that.

Whittaker & Eccleston: I’m putting these two together because Whittaker’s run was not that bad and I appreciate the show taking some big swings, even if they wound up being a bit of a hot mess in the end (���The Flux”)- the writing didn’t land all the time, but she made it work and I think she’ll get a more generous reassessment as time goes on. Eccleston lands here because, well, he only did one Season. If he had done more, maybe we could reassess, but like of quantity makes it really hard to assess his true quality compared to the others.

My Grade: 9/10

[pitbullwithaship]

DOCTOR WHO LIVEBLOG S3 EP14 (2007 CHRISTMAS SPECIAL)

Yay more Christmas Shenanigans!! (I can't spell Shenanigans I'm trusting my autocorrect here)

OH YA THE GIANT BOAT HONK I FORGOT

THERES A BOAT

I love how he's says WOT it's hilarious

Pats his Tardis he's so cute

Those are sus angels

I knew they seemed suspicious that ones a robot

TITANIC SHIP LOL HOLY SHIT

They are indeed damned, Titanic is not a good name (I could go on a rant about this)

Anthropology tour

DONT GO AGAINST REGULATIONS

He seems mildly suspicious

That tv dude has very blue eyes

She's pretty

Primitive

They did not tell them why it was famous (the worst events always get the most famous (hindenburg, holocaust, titanic, etc.))

Aw poor girl

She's very pretty

Not sir lol

He's adorable

Uh oh he's got a tuxedo on

Lol I love him sets of the champagne in the rich snobs faces

Those people seem friendly

Old man captain seems mildly suspicious

INCORRECT INFORMATION BASED ON CULTURAL RELICS LOL

Ooh it's deserted that's not good

New Zealand is quite beautiful

WILF HELLO

They've learned, good for them

YOU JUST JINXED IT VERY BADLY

Those don't look like normal asteroids

I KNEW HE WAS SUSPICIOUS

She's a good singer that's a nice song

Oh no is young crewman going to die

Information: you are all going to die (lol)

WHO OFFERED HIM SO MUCH MONEY

Oh shit EXPLOSION

Ooh I bet the robots are evil

He's adorable (I genuinely just have to say that every so often)

Oh shit he's dead now

I like the name Astrid

Awwww he's so comforting (I think I'm firmly in the 'I want david tennant to be my dad' subtype of tennant fan)

THE HALO

He's so comforting and gentle I love him

Oh dear

Recites his name and address

I love him

ALLONS-Y

Ooh working class people, always helpful

What message? SHUT UP

Lol that's cute

Oh dear the door is opening

Oh dearie me

DUDE STOP BEING A SELFSIH FUCKING DICK AND HELP

Oh yay they got out

Lol she has game

Doctor.exe has stopped working

Aw poor Anthropology dude (I can never remember names)

Oh shit he's dead no he was so nice

Aww you're allowed to have emotions, but don't make the Doctor's guilt worse

I wish dickhead would die

Aww hugs

Oh shit they can fly

Baseball to the death

Aww he saved them all

Oh no he's dying no

Aww that's so sad nooo

He should have tried 1 first

Oh shit is she

Nooooo what nooooo that's horrible no she's dead nooo

He trusts dickwad with his screwdriver?

Okay what's gonna prevent her from going with him, is she gonna die too she better not she's really pretty

Well it's not fireworks bit it is sparks

Doctor.exe has once again stopped working

Okay he's off again

Oh fantasy trope of wasting questions

Take me to your leader (dude you already said it once but maybe that time didn't count)

Oh fuck is she gonna die

Oh shit that's creepy as hell he's a head

Ooh I mean he's evil but I do feel sorry for him with that prejudice

Retirement Home from Hell

No Astrid don't die!!

That's a shiny tooth

Ethereal music plays, true zen has been reached

Oh Astrid

Oh shit it's crashing please don't crash cmon

Dramatic slo-mo shot through fire

Okay what's he doing what's going on

SUPERMAN DUH DUH DUH!!

ALONSO HE HAS ALONSO

ALLONS-Y ALONSO lol

Calls Buckingham Palace lol

Aww the corgis

YAY SUCCESS

Thank yu doctor thank yu lol

That's so cute

What happened to the fact that dude got shot

Oh dear cmon work

She made her choice Doctor

We are made of stardust after all

Awwww that's so sweetcutesadpoeticamazingheartbreacking

Aww hug but he didn't hug back he likes hugs oh yes right he's a dickwad

Very wise old man

It's never real snow ugh

Bats his eyelashes lol

He's Rich!!

He can have a house!!! Aww I love him

*skips away*

Aww that was a cute episode

[hell0mega]

let alone the fact that they definitely could've redressed the set with fake prop replicas of everything they used, made of cheaper materials, and not have to rebuy and rebuild literally everything again, but the sink specifically is in another room that is not in any shot of the fire lmao. like they couldve completely gutted any back rooms that were behind doors or shelves and no one wouldve noticed.

but the funniest part is that they really did just set an entire room on fire and threw david tennant in there to then blast him with water. this entire situation is so unnecessary it's the funniest thing in the world. good on the set decs but oh my god

Whoa! 👀Amazing! ❤ (tweet thread)

plus :D

Edit:

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday Scottish actor Richard Madden born June 18th 1986 in Elderslie.

Richard was raised by his mother, Pat, a classroom assistant and his father, Richard, who worked for the fire service. He also has two sisters, Cara and Lauren.

His parents were “hippies”, he says, and their house was pretty open, with friends always piling in for big vegetarian meals. Madden spent a lot of time outside, in the woods behind their house. He has several injuries: he shows me where he shot his dad’s old air pistol and blew off part of his finger, then managed to wreck the same finger when he nailed a wooden plank to his skateboard, then crashed it, so apart from the Hippie parents it was much like most of our own days as bairns.

Despite growing up wanting to be an actor, Richard was very shy during his childhood. To overcome this, at age 11, he joined Paisley Arts Centre’s youth theatre program. In 1999 he was given the lead role as Sebastian Simpkins in BBC1’s children’s TV comedy series Barmy Aunt Boomerang, that’s him aged 12 in the first pic with co-star Toyah Wilcox.. By 2000, he’d made his feature film debut in the Iain Banks adaptation, Complicity.

After high school he was accepted to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, Scotland and in 2007, he graduated.

Less than two years later, Richard had a recurring role as Dean McKenzie on the 2009 BBC series Hope Springs. Soon after, he landed the role of Ripley in the 2010 movie Chatroom, a film about a group of teenagers who encourage each other’s bad behaviours after meeting online. In the same year, Richard played punk band Theatre of Hate singer Kirk Brandon in Worried About the Boy, a TV film about the life of British singer-songwriter Boy George.

In 2011 Richard landed his breakthrough role as Robb Stark in the HBO fantasy-drama series Game of Thrones. Also in 2011, he played gay paramedic Ashley Greenwick on the short-lived British comedy-drama Sirens. During hiatus from filming Game of Thrones in 2013, Richard was cast to star as Prince Charming in the 2015 Disney film Cinderella.

Richard won his first Screen Actors Guild award in 2014 for the Discovery Channel mini-series, Klondike. He played Bill Haskell, one of two adventurers who travel to Yukon, Canada during the Klondike Gold Rush in the 1890s. He further enhanced his reputation as a good actor when he appeared in the BBC drama Bodyguard in 2018, the following year he played Lieutenant Joseph Blake in the film 2017 and was Elton John’s manager/lover in the biop of the star Rocketman.

In January 2019 Madden won  a prestigious Golden Globe for his role as war veteran David Budd in the BBC show Bodyguard. He also appeared in the 2019 war movie 1917.

We last saw Richard in the movie,  Eternals, which was okay, but nothing great, he is one of several actors being touted as the next James Bond,

James is currently in the Amazon Prime series Citadel, I've watched the first three episodes and am not really impressed with it,I think he does pull of the American accent well, but I noticed there have been people saying he doesn't pull it off, Madden revealed he spoke in the accent for two years straight to prepare for the series. The show has been earmarked for a second series. Richard is set to appear in the feature film Killer Heat next.

In July 2019, Madden received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. When asked about his personal life during a New York Times interview following speculation about his relationships and sexuality, Madden stated: “I just keep my personal life personal.”

Madden was recently named one of ‘Scotland’s Sexiest Men'  following a new study that identifies the most attractive features for men, he has competition though,  also in the running are Bathgate’s David Tennant  and Glasgow’s James McAvoy,

[neil-gaiman]

Hello Mr Gaiman.

I love love love Good Omens, and watching it made me want to see more of David Tennant. I then watched Doctor Who and Staged and am now working my way through everything he’s ever been in ever and he’s now my favourite actor. I think he’s a phenomenal actor, and I love all of his characters, but it’s also because he just seems like such a kind, friendly and goofy person. Everyone I’ve ever seen talk about him, in interviews and such, have only had good things to say. So I’m curious if you have a favourite thing about David Tennant? (Other than his flammability and willingness to be set on fire)

My first week on the Good Omens set, four years ago, I was in line to get food from the catering truck. Back in the pre-covid days you would see everyone from the show in the food line, from the carpenters and the drivers to the production assistants and the costume people. You normally don't see the actors, because they go back to their trailers and have their food (from the catering truck) brought to them there (this is not a stuck-up thing to do - mostly they are back in their trailers desperately going over their lines, or getting themselves into the headspace they'll act with). And if you do see fancy actors at the catering truck, oftentimes they'll be whisked to the front of the line.

But there, standing in the lunch line between a make-up lady and an electrician, was David Tennant. And everyone around felt more comfortable because he was saying up front that he was one of the people making the show, and that there wasn't any difference between what he was doing and what the electrician or the make-up lady were doing. We were in this together, all contributing to Good Omens.

We barely knew each other at that point, but I was certain then that I would like David, and that he was what my yiddish-speaking ancestors would have called a mensch. And the more I've got to know him, the more I've respected him as a person and as an actor. He's lovely.

(Also, I can write weird noises like "Ngk" or "Phwooeeeer" in the scripts and know that something really interesting is going to come out of David's mouth.)

[octaviasdread]

any girls! dark academia movie recs? i really struggle to find anything not about a group of boys (as much as I love them)

SO MANY!!! This is probably a far more detailed answer than you were expecting but this is a popular question and I want to keep a list for myself and others.

Feel free to add to it/give opinions. I've tried to give a tw for anything I can remember

Girls! Dark Academia Movies/TV Shows

Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

1950s Women’s college

Art professor! Julia Roberts

She’s legit the female Mr Keating of the art & college world

Feminism vs. Tradition

Maggie Gyllenhall x Ginnifer Goodwin; their characters were more than friends. Fight me.

Does not end how you expect

Strike!/All I Wanna Do/The Hairy Bird (1998)

MY FAVOURITE!!!

Free on YouTube under one of its various names

Comedy

1960s all girls boarding school

Young Kirsten Dunst

Group of girls plot to sabotage a merger with a boys school less prestigious than their own

Secret attic clubhouse meetings of the D.A.R aka Daughters of the American Ravioli (eaten cold, ew)

girls get political & advocate for their rights using ANY elaborate and chaotic scheme

TW: eating disorder, vomiting & creepy male teacher but the girls plot against him too

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

based on a short book I read for uni by Muriel Spark

1930s girls school in Edinburgh

Scottish teacher! Maggie Smith, controversial with a focus on romantic ideals

Spoiler alert, the liberal teacher is actually a fascist

Her group of fave students has cult- vibes and it’s fascinating

Picnic at Hanging Rock

1970s movie or 2018 mini series

Never watched either but I plan to

Wild Child (2008)

00s romcom every UK teen girl loves

Emma Roberts as the spoiled rich American teenager sent to a strict English boarding school

Plots to get herself expelled but oh no she’s making friends with the girls who help her

And the headmistress has a hot son, and he’s nice??? Double oh no

ICONIC SCENES

Everything! Goes! Wrong!

omg she burns the school down

Feel good, comfort, nostalgia

St Trinians (2007)

English girls boarding school

The kids are all criminals, no joke

So are the teachers

CHAOTIC

gay awakening for british girls

Art heist pulled off by school girls

Government tries to shut them down but oh no, the education minister & the headmistress are ex-lovers

Colin Firth x Rupert Everett in drag

Superior cast: Jodie Whittaker, Gemma Arterton, Juno Temple, Stephen Fry, Colin Firth, etc...

embodies the phrase 'problematic fave'

St Trinians 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold (2009)

Mystery, pirate ancestors, hidden treasure

omg Shakespeare was a woman

girls disguised as boys to infiltrate and rob the posh boys school

Villain! David Tennant in that ICONIC boat scene

Teen girls vs. ancient misogynist brotherhood

like the first film but MORE chaotic and BETTER!???

The Falling (2014)

1960s all girls school

best friends! but its unrequited love

Agoraphobic + distant mother aka mommy issues

Sudden death and the school suppresses/ignores the students grief, sparking mass hysteria & a fainting epidemic in the girls

Cast: Maisie Williams (GoT) & Florence Pugh (Little Women) & Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders)

TW: teen pregnancy, death, vomiting, underage s*x, sibling inc*st, past s*xual assault

READ THE PLOT SUMMARY FIRST

The Book Thief (2013)

Based on an amazing book by Markus Zusak

set in 1940s Nazi Germany

Daughter of a communist whose family were taken by the Nazis/died is fostered by an older couple who teach her to read & she paints a dictionary on the basement walls

Coming of age story about a compulsive book thief. No joke, this kid steals books from banned book burnings and breaks into the mayor's library through the window

Family hides the Jewish son of an old friend in their basement and he helps her to start writing about her experiences in the war

TW: death, bombings, WW2 anti-semitism

Mary Shelley (2017)

Overall good & roughly biographical

Pretty costumes and aesthetic

Modern feminist take on Mary Shelly in her own time period

So many INACCURACIES for the drama so don’t take it as truth

Percy Shelley slander and not all of it is justified

Cast: Elle Fanning, Douglas Booth, and Maisie Williams

The Secret Garden (1993)

Based on a fave childhood book

1901 colonial India & Yorkshire, England

Orphaned, spoilt & neglected girl sent to live with her reclusive Uncle in the English countryside

Gothic elements, mysteries, secret doors/passages/locked gardens

local boy with a flock of animals, magic, kids chanting around a fire and all around immaculate vibes

Happy ending!!!

Hidden Figures (2016)

African-American women as mathematicians for NASA

1960s space project

Women balancing a career and family obligations

Deals with racial & gender discrimination

Loosely based on the lives of Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan who worked for NASA as engineers & mathematicians

Anne of Green Gables (1985) & sequel (1987)

Adaptation L.M. Montgomery’s ‘Anne of Green Gables’ books

Canada (late 1890s/early 1900s)

Highly imaginative & bookworm orphan is adopted by a reclusive elderly brother and sister duo

Small town & school years comedic drama

Unrequited Enemies -> Friends -> lovers

Inspiring new woman teacher

Girls re-enact Tennyson’s poem and nearly drown for the aesthetic™

Dramatic poetry reading with INTENSE 👀eye contact👀

Writer! Anne & English teacher! Anne dealing with unruly girls school antics

Collette (2018)

biographical drama on french writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Collette

Victorian & Edwardian era France

More talented than her husband so she ghostwrites for him

Fight for creative ownership of her wildly successful novels

Affairs with a woman called Georgie and also with Missy, born female but masculine presenting

Cast: Keira Knightly, Dominic West, Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark)

Enola Holmes (2020)

Netflix book adaptation

Younger sister of Sherlock Holmes

Victorian era! feminism/suffragettes

Mother-daughter focus

Mystery, adventure, secret codes, teens running away & escaping from (and eventually fighting) assassins

Cast: Helena Bonham Carter, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Fiona Shaw, Millie Bobby Brown

Ginger & Rosa (2012)

1960s England

best friends since literal birth navigating troubled teen years

poet & anti-nuclear activist! Ginger

off the rails but also catholic! Rosa

Shout out to Mark & Mark the gay godfathers we all want

family troubles 

TW: older man has an affair with a 17 yr old

Testament of Youth (2014)

based on WW1 memoir by Vera Brittain

young woman (writer & poetry lover) escapes traditional family & goes to study at Oxford University

abandons to become a war nurse

romance, tragedy and war trauma

Cast: Alicia Vikander, Kit Harrington (GoT), Taron Edgerton (Rocketman), Colin Morgan (Merlin)

Little Women (2019)

Writer! Jo & Artist! Amy

Mother/daughter focus and sister dynamics

the March sisters’ theatre club is *chefs kiss*

champagne problems edits of Jo x Laurie are a mood

Ambivalent ending perfectly captures Louisa May Alcott’s dilemma with the book the movie is based on

set in 1860s America

ALL STAR CAST and a Greta Gerwig masterpeice

Lady Bird (2017)

coming of age in early 2002/2003 Sacramento, California

all girls catholic school

writer! Christine aka Lady Bird wants to get outta town and start her life again at college 'in a city with culture'

Mother/daughter dynamics - so realistic!

I live for that Jesus car stunt & the nun's reaction

school theatre program

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Timothee Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein

Another Greta Gerwig gem

Beguiled (2017)

Virginia, civil war era

Girls school with only five students and two teachers left

Find an injured Union army soldier & bring him inside

Women & teenagers want his attention (v. problematic) before uniting against him

(tbh you'll either love it, hate it, or watch once & forget it)

Sofia Coppola film so its very feminine gaze

TW: violence, death, underage

Legally Blonde (2001)

No questions will be taken

Elle Woods was the blue print

TV series:

House of Anubis (2011-2013)

I know it’s a kids/young teen show but I still unironically love it

ANCIENT EGYPT!!!!

Modern day with Victorian era links to treasure hunters & Egyptian research expeditions (stealing from tombs)

Chosen one plot lines, curses, kidnapping, mysteries, secret tunnels under the school, elixir of life

Teens have investigate & protect themselves cus oh no the TEACHERS are involved in some shady stuff

new American kid at British boarding school is the actual premise not just a fanfic au

Nostalgic, light-hearted, funny, and kinda cheesy but I will accept no criticism

The Alienist (2018 -now)

Mid 1890s, New York

Woman’s private detective agency (Season 2)

Serial killer mystery

Woman secretary turns detective and teams up with a criminal psychiatrist and a newspaper editor to solve crime

TW: violence, child pr*stit*tion

Cast: Dakota Fanning, Luke Evans, Daniel Bruhl

The Queen’s Gambit (2020)

Woman chess prodigy

1950s & 1960s

TW: drug & alcohol abuse

Gentleman Jack (2019 - now)

Based on the diaries of Anne Lister

Victorian Yorkshire, England

Upper-class lesbians

Confident, suit wearing! Anne Lister x shy! Ann Walker

Business woman! Anne running the family mines

Cast: Suranne Jones (Doctor Foster) & Sophie Rundle (Peaky Blinders)

TW: violence

Gilmore Girls (2000-2007)

bubbly/ambitious single mom + intelligent daughter

bookworm! Rory Gilmore gets into a prestigious private school and then an Ivy League college

Small town drama is comedic gold

Fast dialogue packed with pop culture and literary references

Comforting & nostalgic

TEAM JESS

Anne with an E (2017-2019)

Loose adaptation of L.M. Montgomery’s ‘Anne of Green Gables’ books

they completely change the plot lines but it’s still very good content!

Orphan girl with trauma and a love of books/poetry is adopted by an elderly brother & sister duo, bringing light and fresh ideas to a rural community

Feminism, girls writing club, lgbtq safe spaces, girls eduction, black/indigenous representation

Miss Stacy as THAT inspiring teacher

Aunt Josephine’s lavish gay parties have my heart

TW: creepy male teacher tries to marry a student, racial discrimination, indigenous assimilation school

Victoria (2016-2019)

Adaption of Queen Victoria’s life

Victoria navigating her political, royal, and personal life

Albert’s involvement with The Great Exhibition, 1851 (on cultural + industrial innovations)

Alfred Paget x Edward Drummond is exquisite

Gorgeous costumes and aesthetics

TW: bury your gays trope

Derry Girls (2018-now)

1990s Northern Ireland during the troubles

Comedy, episodes 20-25 mins long

English boy sent to an all girls Catholic school with his cousin

✨Dead Poets Society parody episode ✨with a free-spirited female teacher

Sister Michael, the sarcastic nun who hates her job & reads the exorcist for giggles

Wee anxious lesbian! Clare Devlin (plus her friends wearing rainbow pins)

Badass with bad ideas! Michelle Mallon

Main Character! Erin Quinn

Lovable weirdo who would fight a polar bear! Orla McCool

Wee English fella & honorary Derry girl! James Maguire

Dickinson (2019-now)

Loose adaption of the poet Emily Dickinson’s life

Set in 19th century Massachusetts, US

Historical drama with modern dialogue & music that works SEAMLESSLY

gives a great understanding of Emily Dickinson’s poems

💕Vintage gays! Emily x Sue💕

Theatre club, writing, poetry, dressing as men to sneak into lectures, love letters, teen drama, feminism, and an underground abolitionist journal as a brief side plot in season 2

Wiz Khalifa plays death in a horse drawn carriage

TW: opium use

A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017-2019)

Based on great childhood books

Bookworm! brother, Inventor! sister, and baby sister with sharp teeth

Mystery, secret organisations, orphaned siblings figuring things out & fending for themselves against the villain after their fortune

Adults either cartoon evil, comedically incompetent, or SPIES

Boarding school, library owner, scientific researcher, and theatre episodes

Ambiguous time period which is really fun to try and pin point

Killing Eve (2018-now)

Classic detective who has homoerotic tension with the assassin she is tracking down

British Detective! Eve Polastri figures out the notorious assassin MI5 are investigating is a woman, is fired & then put on a secret MI6 case with a small team

Assassin! Villanelle, a psychopath with a tragic past and a mastery of both accents & fashion

Woman MI6 boss! Carolyn Martens, head of Russian section

Travel Europe following Villanelle’s killings and escaping the assassins sent by Villanelle’s organisation

‘You’re supposed to be my enemy and moral opposite but omg you’re the only one smart enough to get me and why am I obsessed with you????'

🚨 GO IN FOR A KISS AND THEN STAB YOUR ENEMY 🚨

Cable Girls/Las chicas del cable (2017-2020)

Spanish drama set in 1920s Madrid

Four young women at a telecommunications company form a group of friends and help navigate the difficult situations they are all in

Secret identities, dangerous pasts, murder, crime, lgbtq couple & throuple, trans man character, feminism/suffragists

girls commit crimes for humanitarian reasons and cover! it! up!

UNDERRATED SHOW!!!!

Gorgeous costumes and set

Haven’t finished it yet and I’m catching up

TW: abuse, violence, death

Outlander (2014 - now)

haven’t watched yet but plan to

Woman time travels to Scotland, 1743

Rebel highlanders, pirates, British colonies, American revolutionary war

Time jumps between 18th & 20th century

[aq2003]

i made this post watching wedding of river song but now that i've watched all of nuwho here's my assessment of all the finales lol

rtd1 era

bad wolf/parting of ways made me go into a temporary doctor who divorce where i went and watched a whole other show bc i knew if i jumped into ten's run immediately i would have hated him forever

doomsday gave me brain damage. literally no other way to describe it other than it gave me brain damage and i realized that the show could actually genuinely wreck me

utopia/sound of drums/last of the timelords is great! obviously raisin ten/jesus fairy ten in LOTTL is goofy but on the rewatch i can appreciate what's being done there. ten can be earth's savior but he still loses in the ways that matter to him in the end bc everybody leaves him and he can't even say he doesn't deserve that. martha is the real savior, the better doctor, and she's the one that walks away in the end in a better place. it's very good

i thought stolen earth/journey's end was slightly weak bc of the banger after banger of series 4 and how many self-serving cameos it had however upon returning i can appreciate the doctordonna brain damage above all else. i love u doctordonna forever

end of time made me cry so hard multiple times both of the times i watched it. worst episode ever i hate you rtd i hate you david tennant you will pay for your crimes

moffat era

i have an irrational anger towards pandorica opens/the big bang bc pandorica builds up so much to the doctor getting trapped in the Cube. and then he doesn't fucking get trapped. in the Cube. exclusively made for HIM. WHAT is AMY doing there. the last bit of the big bang re: amy bringing eleven back and eleven dancing at her wedding is v sweet though

i hated wedding of river song so much i made the original post

angels in manhattan is okay re: the tragedy, eleven's characterization however i don't like how amy has never really had a lot of agency throughout the story and her last decision is made exclusively to be w/ rory. the fact we're back to the "she has two choose between these two men in her life!!" of s5 is so. urgh

the 50th specials are so incredibly bad it's honestly impressive how much it feels specifically crafted for me to hate it

dark water/death in heaven... i love the setup and i love missy however when the show intentionally sets up clara/danny as "clara isn't actually super devoted to him she just loves the idea of having two lives she can control and getting what she wants" i don't really feel anything about them being together

hell bent can stay :)

i'm too angry at world enough and time/the doctor falls to judge them in any way that is close to fair

i hope twice upon a time explodes in a large fire

chibnall era

truly and honestly gun to my head i could not tell you anything about the plot of battle of ranskoor av kolos. it has completely left my mind. like a duck gliding on water

ascension of the cybermen/the timeless children is bad and i can see why ppl hated the timeless child retcon so much. the episodes are not amazing but dhawan!master slays so tremendously i love you babygirl

i could also not tell you anything about the plot of the vanquishers other than the fact flux started off mildly interesting to me and lost me completely as it went on

power of the doctor is mildly entertaining and i love u jodie i love u sacha but it is really sad—and i am speaking purely about my own emotional reaction to the episode—that the most exciting part to me was fourteen showing up. i'm so sorry guys

rtd2

the giggle gave me brain damage

rtd's finales are badly stacked conflicts that are suddenly solved by deus ex machina (but that doesn't matter bc it's filled with genuinely beautiful & heartwrenching character writing that will make you forget about everything) and moffat's finales are convoluted nonsense that make you confused as to what the fuck you're even watching. technically neither of these are good but between these two poisons i will pick the former every time

[weedle-testaburger]

And now, events from Doctor Who’s production history that really sound like shitposts but aren't

the original creator actively fought for them to not make the first dalek story because he thought they were ‘bug-eyed monsters’

william hartnell came up with ideas of what every button on the tardis console did and would rant at directors if they told him to press the wrong one

two of the 60s dalek episodes only exist because they were found in the basement of a mormon church in london (i didn’t know that was a thing either)

they filmed an episode set in the tibetan mountains in north wales

they almost greenlit a story where the doctor ‘spanks the feminism out of his companion’

the eyepatch story, if you know you know

jon pertwee hated the daleks because he felt like they upstaged him, but he had more dalek stories than any doctor until david tennant

to make giant radioactive maggots for one story they inflated condoms

originally the sontarans' name was going to be pronounced 'SON-tar-an' rather than 'son-TAR-an' but the actor playing the first one said 'I'm from the fucking place, I know how to say it'

when he got the role of the doctor, tom baker was working on a building site

the 'morbius doctors' everyone lost their shit about after the ruth doctor was revealed were just eight of the behind the scenes crew dressing up as an easter egg

while they were waiting for the k9 prop to be finished, in rehearsals his voice actor used to go round on all fours in rehearsals

speaking of dogs, tom baker once pissed off another actor's dog so badly it made it take a big bite out of his lip and they had to shoot him from the other side for almost a whole story

when they brought back davros the first time, they couldn't get the same actor or make a new mask, so they just took the old mask out of storage and stuck it on the new actor

when they hired a superfan as the continuity advisor, he bottomed for the producer

they put question marks on the doctor's shirt collars on the assumption they could sell shirts like that to fans

they tried to get adric's actor to dance once, but he just couldn't so they sat him at a table eating cake (goals honestly)

colin baker got cast in a peter davison era story and they told him he was overacting a bit and that 'the show's called doctor who not the bloke who's the guard in the background', but he made everyone laugh at a wedding party and that convinced the producer to make him the doctor

there's a sequence where a dalek was supposed to catch the doctor at the end of a corridor and since someone went down the wrong one, the va just went 'EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! ...BUGGER, I'VE LOST EM!'

when the bbc tried to cancel the show they put out a protest record that was like do they know it's christmas but complaining about doctor who getting cancelled

they tried to cast david bowie as one of the villains in peter davison's last story

they actually did cast brian blessed in one of colin baker's last stories, and when he forgot his last line during an elaborate action sequence he instead said 'RIGHT, LET'S FIND THE FUCKERONS!'

the last script editor got the job by saying he wanted to use the show to bring down thatcher

since they fired colin baker and then had to do a regeneration scene, they stuck sylvester mccoy in a blonde wig and put a bad cg effect over his face

when they were doing special effects explosions for the last dalek story they caused such a big explosion the police and fire engines arrived thinking it was a terrorist attack, and then 3 daleks came out of the smoke towards them

one of the last stories was almost cancelled and they had to do filming for it inside a tent in the car park of the studio where they film eastenders

originally instead of doctor who: the movie, some of the ideas pitched for a revival of the series included the doctor and the master being brothers looking for their father 'ulysses' and the doctor having a bulldog called winston as a companion