#things out from nothing. they might as well be psychic anyway. very will graham of her. also i really liked the main character.

[eileennatural]

here's my longlegs review. i liked it, my sister did not. very aestheticically cool, plot that ummm is fine. i guess. really good sound design. spoiler-y thoughts in the tags

[michelles-garden-of-evil]

Episode 12 Review: Jacques’ Cape Appreciation Post

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{ Synopses: Debby Graham | Bryan Gruszka }

{ Screencaps }

This is one of my favorite episodes, one that I’ve re-watched more times than any other--not because of the plot, nor because of an abundance of analysis material or any particular turns of phrase, but for a completely different reason. In this episode, Jacques is, in my opinion, at his most dashing and is wearing what I consider his best outfit: a black suit topped with a long matching cape that is the epitome of elegance.

Do you remember two episodes ago, when Jacques told Jean Paul he did not want any more guests on Maljardin? Well, the handsome devil changes his mind and, while possessing Jean Paul, decides to bring Elizabeth Marshall to the island--where, as you may remember, her daughter Holly is hiding. Jacques does not have to dress up for the occasion any more than usual, but he does so anyway, giving Jean Paul an evil makeover:

Sweet dreams are made of this.

Quito knows that something is up, but says nothing because, as a zombie, he can’t. While they prepare to sail to the mainland, Raxl is in the basement communicating with psychic and voodoo priestess Vangie Abbott via makeup mirror, pleading with her to help her fight Jacques. Vangie suggests that she contact her father, the Conjure Man, which Raxl does by...having Quito beat the drum in the Not-So-Hidden Voodoo Temple? I’m not sure.

The priestess and the Conjure Man’s daughter communicating through the latter’s mirror.

Quito beating the drum during the ritual in the temple.

All Jacques knows, however, is that Raxl is in the basement, because he still hasn’t noticed the incredibly obvious "hidden” door. Probably thinking that she is just checking on the cryonics capsule or dusting the coffins of his descendants, he expresses his disbelief at her fondness of “the dark morbidity of that crypt.” Then he says this line, with which I wholeheartedly agree:

Once again, a man after my own heart.

Quito watches Jacques as he heads to the boathouse. I think that, despite being a zombie, he can still think for himself and he knows that Jacques is controlling Jean Paul.

So he and Quito sail to the mainland to get supplies, including “a few little goodies” that Jacques adds, which I assume refers to Elizabeth Marshall, the widowed, greedy mother of his guest Holly. They go to the French Leave Café so that Jacquet can meet with her. He arrives shortly after a heated argument between her and Matt that leads Vangie to comment, “No wonder Holly’s running.” Between her money-hungry, jealous mother and Reverend Stalker stalking her, I have to agree.

The red lining is lovely, even more so than the gold lining on his other one.

As he walks in, he cuts quite a lovely figure, his cape swishing as he turns. He stares at a young woman in a minidress who, surprisingly, doesn’t seem to notice him, when you would think that he would turn the head of everyone in the room. You would think that even people who aren’t sexually attracted to him would think, “OMG IT’S JEAN PAUL DESMOND THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD AND OWNER OF MALJARDIN” and stare. Maybe I’m alone in thinking that his outfit is one of the sexiest ever, but even if you don’t agree, you still have to admit that it’s one that would stand out almost anywhere, especially in the tropics where wearing all black with additional layers is highly impractical. So, logically, it should attract a lot more attention than it does. But maybe this isn’t the first time anyone in Jean Paul’s body has worn a cape to the mainland. Who knows? Before Erica’s death, Jean Paul might have shown up regularly at the Café in full Liberace regalia, for all we know.

I wonder what that string is near the top of the screen? It appears in other episodes, too, so it has to be part of some piece of equipment.

Filler scene with Holly commenting on Jacques’ resemblance to Jean Paul, with the portrait visible. They never should have established the rule of his likeness disappearing whenever he leaves the painting if they didn’t plan on showing that consistently.*

“A tonic water, please,” the handsome devil orders once he arrives at the bar. “Very cold.” Then, looking at the camera, he adds, “I don’t know what it is, but after all this time, I still can’t stand the heat.” I don’t believe you, Jacques. If you truly can’t stand the heat, then what are you doing dressed like that in the Caribbean? You must be very hot, in the literal as well as metaphorical sense. According to the first Paperback Library novel, the French Leave Café is air-conditioned**, and I’ve speculated before that the Château de Maljardin might be as well. But Jacques, surely you would have gotten hot on the boat or while walking from the dock to the Café, so don’t go around complaining about the heat when you’re walking around wearing a heavy, lined cape made of some suiting material. Besides, I’m sure Hell was much hotter.

Very practical clothing for a tropical climate. Not. But devilishly dashing!

He pulls out Alison’s letter to Dan and tries burning it in the ashtray (remember those?). Vangie, suspicious, deliberately bumps into him and spills his tonic water on the flames, then pretends it was an accident. “I’m charmed by your concern,” says Jacques, grinning.

“It goes back a long way,” she replies.

“Purely out of curiosity,” he asks, still grinning, “how long?”

“To your childhood!” she answers while staring at him and enunciating the words as though she intends to let him know that she knows.

“That’s quite a few years ago, depending on what you refer to by ‘how long.’“ He knows that she knows.

“It would be ungentlemanly to add up the years. As a woman, I would be the loser.”

“I never count a woman--any woman--a loser.”

She asks him about Holly and whether she is on Maljardin, and he replies in the affirmative. Soon after, Elizabeth arrives at their table, asking Vangie about Holly. “Vangie, who is this charming lady?” Jacques asks, so Vangie introduces them.

If such a dashing man were to kiss my hand, I would probably fall in love with him forever.

They chat about her and Jean Paul’s acquaintances for a minute, Elizabeth flirting with him all the while, before he changes the subject. “I have a confession to make,” he says, giving her Bissits Face™. “I’m harboring a fugitive on my island. A very charming one. Your daughter.”

Bissits Face™!

He notices Vangie eavesdropping and asks her if she wants anything, to which she responds, “It’s too late now.” This scene is really well-written and well-acted by Strange Paradise standards; nearly every line of dialogue is loaded with subtext, which the actors do a good job of conveying. We don’t need to be told that Vangie and Jacques recognize each other, nor that Elizabeth wants to marry Jean Paul or that Vangie is hurt because he just betrayed her trust. The subtext shines through. It’s the sort of scene that occurs in a lot of Ian Martin’s episodes once he gets the hang of writing the series. It’s also proof that Martin could be subtle when he wanted to be, which makes his choices to include over-the-top references to Jacques being THE DEVIL and obvious foreshadowing in certain episodes all the more perplexing.

Look at Elizabeth’s hair! A truly impressive bouffant.

They flirt some more and it takes little effort on Jacques’ part to persuade her to come with him to Maljardin. After all, her wealthy husband is dead and her daughter is set to inherit all of his fortune, so, in her mind, it’s the perfect opportunity to convince Jean Paul to marry her so that she can continue to live her fabulous high-society lifestyle as the new Mrs. Desmond. Also, she can capture Holly again and put her in another institution like Westley House, preferably run by someone who isn’t infatuated with her. She says that she is going to retrieve Holly, but hints that "[she] might want to stay forever.”

Two ladies, and he’s the only man.

On their way out, Vangie suggests that he invite Matt as well, but he refuses understandably. And after Jacques, Elizabeth, and Quito are on their way back to Maljardin, she retrieves the letter which Jacques has completely forgotten about (because of lust, perhaps?) and calls Dan. Meanwhile back on Maljardin, Jacques continues to flirt with Elizabeth and Holly realizes that her attempt to escape her mother has failed.

You can run, but you can’t hide!

Jacques doing that cute thing that his descendant does often in the Desmond Hall arc.

I think that I may have gotten carried away in this entry with all the screencaps of Jacques’ cape, but what can I say? He’s a gorgeous man who wears gorgeous clothes, and this is the only episode in which we see this particular outfit. It’s also a damn good episode--one of Ian Martin’s best--and I enjoyed reviewing this episode almost as much as I enjoy watching it.

Coming up next: Jacques and Elizabeth bond over some booze and Tim begins his ridiculous commission to paint Erica with Holly as his stand-in.

Notes

* One could argue that the characters do not actually see the portrait missing and that the blank canvas is only a visual cue so that the viewers know that Jacques has possessed Jean Paul. However, in the Paperback Library novels, the characters comment on the missing portrait, indicating that, at least in the books, the vanishing portrait is diegetic (in other words, that the canvas is literally blank from the characters’ perspective and not just the audience’s). I plan on eventually writing a post about diegesis in Strange Paradise, analyzing which effects are diegetic and which are not, because there are many things in this series that could go either way and I want to take the time to analyze them.

** Dorothy Daniels, Strange Paradise (New York: Paperback Library, 1969), 20. Daniels also states that the sun outside the Café is “mercilessly hot,” which should logically be true about the climate on the nearby isle of Maljardin as well.

{ <-- Previous: Episode 11  ||  Next: Episode 13 --> }

[isagrimorie]

[reactions] Doctor Who 11x08 - The Witchfinders

I’ve been looking forward to this episode, especially when I found out more about Joy Wilkinson. Her previous and most popular work to date were about historical women boxers.

That’s right, women pugilists! “The Sweet Science of Bruising.”

London, 1869. Four very different Victorian women are drawn into the dark underground world of female boxing by the eccentric Professor Sharp. Controlled by men and constrained by corsets, each finds an unexpected freedom in the boxing ring. As their lives begin to intertwine their journey takes us through grand drawing rooms, bustling theatres and rowdy Southwark pubs where the women fight inequality as well as each other. But with the final showdown approaching only one can become the Lady Boxing Champion of the World…

Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. Witchfinders and the Doctor! I’ve been looking forward to this because I suspected the Doctor will finally be confronted with the difficulties about being a woman.

And, y’know what, this episode did not disappoint!

I also mentioned in a tag for a gifset:

#one day though #in the future #this will be all too much #and the doctor who learned #to acknowledge endings #that endings must happen #might not be able to stand and just let events happen   

I’m not saying I feel vindicated but:

Third tiime’s the charm. In Rosa there’s absolutely nothing she could do, in The Demons of the Punjab Yaz’s fate and life is tied too much around her grandmother not staying and losing Prem.

This witch trials, which Graham tells the Doctor later, “I’ve down the old  Pendle Witch’s walking trail, nobody ever mentioned Bilehurst Cragg. Never heard of it, and she’s killed 35 people.”

There was time flux going on, and most importantly I don’t think Thirteen can stand to walkaway again. Especially since her guiding principle is helping people (and sorting out fair play).

Again, good utilization of the Companions with Thirteen trusting Yaz to do ‘family liasion’ with Willa and get the relevant information Thirteen needs, and then trusting Graham and Ryan to handle King James and Becca Savage (how appropriate!).

Leaving Thirteen alone for a long period of time, for the first time. And here’s the thing, I love the Doctor’s interactions with her team but I think it’s about time we get more of the Doctor.

Speaking of:

I was very amused at how King James was able to bypass the Psychic paper because of his sexism. The only other time I remember the Psychic paper not working was in Flatline, the man Clara used it on was so odious and to quote Twelve ‘What? It takes quite a lack of imagination to beat psychic paper.’; with King James I bet it’s his utter failure to even acknowledge that women can be anything of consequence, or his overt sexism that changed the psychic paper to suit his reality.

Even Thirteen looked appropriately flummoxed at her psychic paper. I do’t think we’ve ever seen her as betrayed as she was by it than that moment.

Thirteen spent the whole episode getting more and more annoyed at James.

But man.

This episode also delivered with a scene where Jodie Whittaker finally has a really talented scene partner, not that her companions aren’t! But I also believe that the Doctor needs to be challenged, and for a long while now she’s been looking for that challenge, and this episode gave us a taste of it.

I don’t know how many times I rewatched the scene between Thirteen and James.

James: “I am King James, Satan’s greatest foe!”

Thirteen: “Yeah, yeah. I know. It must be comforting playing that role, hiding behind a title.”

James: “Just as you hide behind ‘Doctor’, perhaps?”

Really, the look Thirteen gives Jame. It was glorious.

Then Thirteen adds on with: “Who are you, really? Behind the mask? The drama?” 

This is my favorite thing Doctors do, where they’re talking to someone but also, actually partly talking about themselves. My most favorite example is Twelve in Deep Breath, speaking to Half-Face Man, and now we have this:

Thirteen:“’Evil be to him that evil thinks’. You wear it like a hero, even though you’re killing and scapegoating, and stirring up hate! And you wonder why the darkness comes back at you!”

This is like catnip to me! We know from Twelve and even before that with Eleven, the Doctor doesn’t like to think of themselves a hero but they’ve been guilty of acting like a hero a lot of times. And then that line: ‘You wear it like hero even though you’re killing. And you wonder why the darkness comes back at you!’

The amount of disdain there that only one who knows can carry. The Doctor’s disappointed themselves so many times. Like damn, this scene shows so much how Thirteen is consciously, consciously distancing herself from her previous methods.

Hitting too close to home gets the Doctor accused of witchcraft and a ducking and, as I mentioned I like seeing Thirteen alone for once, this also goes to show why the Doctor needs Companions: either to stop them from doing something dangerous and deadly (to other people) and to keep other people from doing something dangerous to the Doctor (Midnight comes to mind).

Then we get our second truly hostile alien species, the Morax! I really like the look of the Morax queen, also Becca’s actress is really good.

Then there’s Willa Twiston whom I adored too! I love that we got an arc for her character without Willa dying! She started out afraid and then in a moment of weakness gave the Doctor up and then she joins in Thirteen’s band against the Morax. She found her strength of character and insisted she join them by saying: “There are more powerful people here than kings and queens. There’s us. Together.”

Then at the end when Yaz asks Willa what she’ll do after all this, Willa says: “Find a new home. Take all of granny’s potions and be a healer.” A beat as she looks at the Doctor. “Be a Doctor.”

And I love the ambiguity on Thirteen’s face. She’s happy Willa’s moving on but more ambigous with Willa trying to be like her. In the Doctor’s experience the last person (Clara) who tried to be the Doctor died. Sure, Clara got better, still it must still be something the Doctor’s not really reconciled themselves with especially when they just got their memory of Clara back.

Also, Clara’s last message to Twelve was: “Run you clever boy and be a Doctor.”

Other things I liked:

- The music was fabulous!

- Learning a bit more about Yaz, and the bullying makes sense why she doesn’t have much friends and why she became a cop.

- King James dynamic with the Doctor flipping around. The chillier she got with him, the more he craved for her approval, finally promising the Doctor he’ll have Bilehurst Cragg stricken from the records.

- Ryan’s reaction to James’ flirtation. I liked that he didn’t act like a typical dude.

- Thirteen’s mounting frustration and annoyance at how they’re treated because they present as a woman now. And her jaw dropping at James’ blantant sexism, reminding me of Twelve’s reactions to the First Doctor.

At that moment, I bet the Doctor’s offering apologies to all women Companions they treated with condenscencion.

- Can we please, please have Thirteen’s hair less coiffed next season? I miss the sort of wild hair of Twelve and the last episodes show how much it’d fit Thirteen to have a less put together look.

Tiny nitpick: The last confrontation was a bit cheesy and I think its down to how it was shot. I wish there’s at least one hero shot there for Thirteen? The moment she drops the ‘lock’ on the tree trunk.

But the Doctor’s glare at James? Cutting. I loved it.

[aion-rsa]

Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks Review

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This Doctor Who review contains spoilers. Our spoiler-free preview is here.

It may be the start of a brand new year, but ‘Revolution of the Daleks’, an episode of Doctor Who that’ll need to tide us over for a while, is more focused on looking back and taking stock than teasing what’s ahead. As the pre-title sequence informs us, courtesy of some Big Chunky Captions that the show currently favours, not only is this episode a follow-up to the events of ‘The Timeless Child’, it’s also a sequel of sorts to the 2019 New Year’s Special, ‘Resolution’.

Things pick up a few short hours after that adventure, which saw a buried Dalek mutant hijacking a human host and eventually constructing a scrapyard casing. It’s the abandoned husk of that same travel machine that now gets carted away by an unwitting driver, a man who’s so obviously doomed from the second he signs the paperwork that you can’t help but feel sorry for him. (But then, who can’t sympathise with someone who gets through their day one cuppa at a time?)

The Dalek shell soon finds its way into a pair of grasping, familiar hands, and this is where a selection of festive snacks are likely to be flung at the screen by some of the fandom. The mastermind behind the theft turns out to be Jack Robertson – the Trump-envying, Scooby-Doo villain last seen burying toxic waste during the divisive ‘Arachnids in the UK’. Robertson, played once again by Chris Noth, hasn’t managed to realise his presidential ambitions, but his character is unapologetically the same.

This time around, Robertson is accompanied by a ruthless Defence Secretary with her eyes on Number 10. Given that this episode was almost certainly conceived back when Theresa May was still Prime Minister, it’s not hard to see the inspiration for this particular pairing. Together, their intention is to reverse-engineer the Dalek technology – which as far as they know is nothing but a very advanced robot – and mass-produce them to roam the streets.

The idea of these caricatures conspiring to build an army of alien neo-Nazis in the name of “national security” is the kind of brute-force political allegory that has proven extremely hit-or-miss in recent years. If the dastardly duo had stayed in control of the Daleks for any length of time and we’d seen Britain slowly fall into the depths of fascism while the companions looked on helplessly, the episode could have come across as both derivative and ham-fisted, particularly when compared to ‘Genesis of the Daleks’. Thankfully, the Daleks themselves are having none of it, but more on them later.

Shortly before the titular revolution, we find the companions kicking their heels back on Earth with no word from the Doctor, and no clue as to whether or not she’s even alive. Yaz is spending most of her time in the new-build TARDIS that brought them home, having gone a bit Zoom-and-Enhance as she tries desperately to concoct a rescue plan. Graham and Ryan, meanwhile, have all-but accepted the Doctor’s fate and are doing their best to look after the planet in her stead.  

Alongside the exterminations and screaming that are a given whenever the Daleks are involved, this episode asks itself two questions, the first being: how do Doctor Who companions save the world without the Doctor? Ahead of transmission, the idea that Team TARDIS would need to tackle the Daleks by themselves was played up as being the meat of this story, leading to speculation that Captain Jack would step in as a sort of surrogate Doctor – he’s certainly got Dalek experience.

For better or worse, though, life without the Doctor isn’t really a question the show cares to dwell on for very long once it’s been posed, despite what the trailers might have led us to believe. It seems that what Graham, Ryan and Yaz have learned from travelling through time and space is that when someone’s threatening to take over the world, you should march right up to them, issue a few vague threats before being unceremoniously arrested, then go home again and sulk. Graham grumbles that without a sonic screwdriver or some psychic paper they can’t follow in the Doctor’s footsteps, but given how often the show teaches us that the Doctor isn’t defined by her gadgets, their half-hearted attempt to confront Robertson and save the day still comes across as a bit of a damp squib.

Luckily for the human race, it doesn’t take too long before the Doctor’s broken out of space-prison. Not from our perspective, anyway – as far as Thirteen’s concerned, she spends a good few decades in the company of some returning alien races, all of whom have supposedly gone through the judicial process. (A Weeping Angel on trial is a Big Finish production just waiting to be written…) There’s even an imprisoned P’Ting, which seems a bit harsh, though it might just be locked up to keep it safe from Yaz.

When Captain Jack finally springs the Doctor from her cell, the two characters get their first proper interaction since ‘Journey’s End’ (not to mention a callback to Jack’s favourite smuggling technique). It’s a sweet, slow moment, as is the Doctor’s reunion with her TARDIS, even if it’s all a bit too straightforward to be a genuinely thrilling escape. The Doctor was obviously going to bust out of prison sooner or later, of course, but given all the hype surrounding her absence, it’s hard not to feel her reunion with the companions happens a bit too easily and without complication.

The next few minutes are more interesting. While Whittaker’s Doctor has always claimed to be fiercely devoted to her ‘fam’, she usually can’t wait to get out of the room as soon as she’s required to interact with her companions on an emotional level, meaning they normally have to lean on one another for support. This time, the dynamic is reversed – the Doctor, still stewing over being the Timeless Child, is being particularly clingy while the companions are keeping her at arm’s length, with neither group really able to conceive of what the other has gone through.

These scenes culminate in a line of dialogue from the Doctor that would be wildly out of character in most other situations: “New can be very scary”. The Doctor normally claims to adore ‘new and exciting’, citing it as the reason they travel – so long as it’s new and exciting on their terms. Failing to escape on her own, encountering resentful companions and a loss of her cultural identity have left this Doctor feeling very much out of control.

And then, like a roller-coaster lurching into motion, the episode kicks into high gear and we’re off to see the Daleks.

Read more

TV

Doctor Who: A History of Dalek Redesigns and Fan Reactions

By Andrew Blair

TV

Doctor Who: revisiting each Doctor’s first encounter with the Daleks

By Mark Harrison

Having been cloned back into existence by Robertson’s scientist-slash-flunky Leo, the mutant from ‘Resolution’ has been practicing its two favourite tricks – puppeteering a human host, and online shopping. With an army of freshly-farmed mutants just waiting to slither inside empty Dalek casings, it doesn’t take too long before the cries of “Exterminate” ring through Downing Street, putting an end to the new Prime Minister before she’s even had time to feed Larry the cat. Team TARDIS, along with Robertson for seemingly no other reason than so he can betray them later, now need to sort out humanity’s DIY alien invasion. The Doctor’s solution: call the Daleks!

Skaro-variety Daleks, that is, further adding to the cast of aliens we haven’t seen in a while, and they’re not too happy that their racial purity is being threatened by human-fed knock-offs. Dalek civil wars were quite common in the show’s classic era, and there’s definitely mileage to be had watching the pepperpots squabbling among themselves. With so much to wrap up in one episode, though, what we actually get isn’t a war. It is, to borrow a phrase, pest control. The 3D-printed Daleks are so much cannon fodder for the bronze originals, who – thanks to Robertson – decide that taking over the Earth sounds like a bit of a lark so long as they’re in the neighbourhood.

This leads to some running around on a Dalek saucer that accomplishes little. Despite repeatedly reminding everyone just how immortal he is, Jack gets spared a horrific series of deaths this time around, and before long the Doctor arrives to taunt every last one of the infuriated mutants into her TARDIS. Except it’s not really hers – it’s the new-build TARDIS in disguise, and its destruction takes out the Dalek forces and ties up that loose end in a neat bit of storytelling.

With the threat eliminated and Robertson once again weaselling his way out of punishment, there’s one last issue that needs to be tied up. We’d all been made aware that Tosin Cole and Bradley Walsh were going to be departing Doctor Who this week, so when we saw them demand to board a Dalek saucer alongside the immortal Captain Jack… Well, there was precedent for things to go badly wrong.

Companions old and new have died in Dalek stories. A heroic grandfather/grandson sacrifice to save the human race wasn’t too likely, but it wasn’t completely out of the question, either. Here are Ryan and Graham alive and well, and this is where the show has to confront its second question. What does it take for a companion to leave the Doctor?

It was quite common for assistants to jump ship in the classic serials. Sometimes they were travelling with the Doctor only reluctantly and would leave the TARDIS whenever they happened back to their rightful home, especially when the Doctor could barely control their next destination. Others fell in love, elected to remain somewhere they could make a difference or, sometimes, sacrificed their lives. Whatever their fate, there was always a sense they knew that their relationship with the Doctor was a transitory one; a journey into the unknown, but one that definitely had a final destination.

Then came the Time War, and the Doctor was suddenly the most amazing, brilliant, astounding and important figure in the universe. Last of the Time Lords, destroyer of Gallifrey, spoken of in myth and legend. He could take his companions anywhere in time and space and show them the delights of the universe. Showrunner Russell T. Davies made it abundantly clear that if you could handle the challenge, there was absolutely no drug more addictive than setting foot inside that TARDIS.

A few companions still chose to leave, or else got left behind. Mickey Smith lingered in a parallel universe where he was needed and loved. Martha Jones departed to care for her traumatised family. On the whole, though, increasingly convoluted ways have been concocted to forcibly separate the Doctor from his companions without actually killing them. Parallel universes, mind-wipes, temporal paradoxes… For many years now, the Doctor’s friends haven’t walked away – they’ve been ripped away.

Here, Chris Chibnall chooses to confront the scar that ten months has left upon the companions’ relationship with the Doctor. It’s something of a tell-don’t-show moment – Ryan makes reference to having reconnected with friends and family, but we don’t see any of that. It’s clear, however, that the past year has given Ryan enough time to realise how much home and a stable foundation still means to him. His decision to say goodbye doesn’t stem from any close call or tragic loss, but a new-found self-confidence and a desire to grow up. The Doctor may be a Timeless Child, but Ryan is not.

Ryan’s departure means that a clearly torn Graham must also say his goodbyes, although his reasoning is far more straightforward – if he leaves to travel with the Doctor, he’ll miss his grandson taking those first steps into adulthood. And so Yaz is left in a TARDIS control room that suddenly seems a lot bigger, her trust in the Doctor tarnished but intact thanks to a surprisingly earnest heart-to-heart with Jack earlier in the episode. And then, as is fitting for an episode that has spent so much time in its own recent past, we return to the same Sheffield hillside where the companions began their journey – and to Ryan Sinclair, cheered on by his hopeful Grandad, learning how to ride a bike.

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This is unlikely to be anyone’s all-time favourite Doctor Who episode. It won’t sit proudly in the number one spot when YouTubers rank the Christmas specials. It’s a little too reliant on navel-gazing for that – but what the episode does is try and tackle questions raised by the Doctor always being the centre of the series’ universe, and what it takes to overcome her gravitational pull. Even if you don’t care to chew over those metatextual issues on New Year’s Day, however, ‘Revolution of the Daleks’is still an enjoyable hour-and-change of telly, and one that ultimately chooses to (mostly) wipe the slate clean ready for adventures yet to come.

The post Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks Review appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[diddykongfan]

well in that case: Librarian + 77 d; if that's good for you

“I might even be able to tell you when there’s a ghost around before you know it yourself.” - Demons Are a Ghoul’s Best Friend, Victoria Laurie

So, I do not recall exactly when you asked for this, @amaryllisblackthorn, but I found your ask and the quote I was supposed to use as inspiration waiting around in my drafts and I am so sorry that it’s probably been three years? Just. Judging by when most of my Librarian + fics were written. For the delay, I sincerely apologize.

Anyway, this fic became a monster of a multi-chapter, if I’m honest with you, because of how I finally got my inspiration on what it could be - and as such, this particular post is only the prologue. Though, with all the pieces that are in play, I don’t know when other chapters are actually going to come, because I just have so much to work with.

Gremma, obviously. Though the prompt comes from Victoria Laurie’s Ghost Hunter Mystery series, the AU is based more around Heather Graham’s Krewe of Hunters series. Basically the formula I derived from the Krewe of Hunters and applied to Gremma goes as such: “psychic investigator + skeptic who probably actually has a bit ofpsychic ability themselves + gruesome murder + ghosts most likely, probably ahaunted house too = sparks flying!” and in that vein, since we all know who the skeptic in the relationship is (*looks pointedly at Emma*), Graham is gaining ghost-sensing related psychic abilities!

Despite the paranormal goings-on, this is absolutely a No Curse Modern AU, with a bit of role reversal in that Graham is the one to come from out of town while Emma is established as Storybrooke’s Sheriff.

There is a murder right here in this first part, just as a warning to the reader, and there will most likely be other dark moments later on, so read at your own discretion.

Things Half in Shadow, 1/?

The Storybrooke graveyardisn’t known for being haunted; it is, very much so in the opinionsof those in the know, but it’s a fact that the folks trying to drum up tourismrefuse to acknowledge, despite the draw New England hauntings tend to have.

Maybe it’s not being thesite of a great tragedy that saves it from such a cheap fate, the MotherSuperior muses as she walks among the tombstones. She’s never liked the idea ofghosts, of souls denied their final rest, but she has believed since the day ofher own biggest failure - the day Bae Gold went missing. Even now, no one knowswhat happened, not fully, but she would have sworn before a judge that theteenager had come to her that day, terrified of his father, looking for advice.

But he couldn’t have,because at the time that she would swear she saw him, he was also seen gettingon board his stepfather’s boat, though Captain Jones himself had been down atthe Rabbit Hole.

She’d had a soft spot forBae - so sweet, and willing to believe in a way that she foundwas getting rarer as years passed, to believe not just in a higher power but inthe goodness of man. It wasn’t the first time he’d come to her because hisfather’s abuse of power unsettled him, just the most openly frantic.

Except he could not havebeen two places at once, and he has come to her since - though it’s been nearlytwenty years, and he hasn’t aged in that time, he does appear in her officeevery year like clockwork, the anniversary of that last day. He doesn’t speak,anymore, just stands silent in the corner, and she mourns his bright spark and regretsnot doing more to help before he was lost to them all.

(Others might write offher visions of Bae as her own guilty conscience. But she knows the clock on thewall read 8:15 that night, when he arrived, and multiple witnesses at the docksconfirmed the same time for their sighting. She knows that something happened,something not just in her mind.)

Since then, she’s quietlyaccepted the souls between the headstones, makes a point to keep them companyweekly, as she’s doing now. Even if she has not seen them, she can feel in herheart it’s the right course of action.

But Bae only visits oncea year, the end of June, and on this chilly October evening, she is as far fromexpecting to see him as is humanly possible.

Yet there he stands, overthe grave his mother has occupied since her heart attack. He looks almostalive, the darling boy.

“Sister!” she could swearshe hears him, swear there is fear in his eyes, “Sister, you have to run!Run now!”

How odd. Butshe trusts in God well enough to know if Bae is telling her to run, He sent theboy for her protection.

Unfortunately, perhaps due to the surprise of seeing him unexpectedly, shehesitates to act on it too long for the warning to be of any use, somethingcrashing into the back of her skull with a sickening crunch as the boy’sfrantic spirit fades from view.

…

A few years ago, when theteam had only just formed, Graham might have been surprised to find Aurorasitting atop her husband’s desk, journal and pen in hand, glaring at whatevershe’d written like it personally offended her.

Now, not so much. Thoughhe is unsure why he’s faced with this sight instead of… Well, Phillip hadcalled him in to meet, hadn’t he? There had been a voicemail on his phone tothat effect, and stating he should just walk in when he arrived, when he’dwoken that morning. He’d gotten in as soon as he could. And yet, the man isclearly out of the office, for the time being.

Aurora’s dreams areplagued by spirits begging for help, but they can only communicate with herthrough oftentimes gruesome images.

He knows she envieshim his form of speaking to spirits - he feels, sees, andhears them in the waking world, where they are far more eloquent, so long asthey actually know they’re dead. If not, they tend to be in a state of shock,wondering why no one can see them, hear them, and why they’re- Stuck, for lackof a better word.

“What was it this time?”he asks. It may not be what he’s here for, and if it was particularlydistressing he would probably be the worst at providing any sort of comfort,because his social skills are… Lacking, as Ruby puts it. But he knows that ithelps Aurora to have someone listen, and he can do that, at least. She looks upat him, and her anger from before falls into sadness.

“A woman,” shesays, “Her son’s been missing twenty years, but I didn’t feel him. She’slong dead, but she was terrified for a nun that used to be kind to the missingboy. I think the nun may already be gone, I saw– She was on the woman’s grave,and there was… Quite a bit of blood.”

Between the six of them,blood and gore and murder are nothing new. He was NYPD Homicide before he wason this team, Belle worked in forensics in New Orleans, Ruby had been asmall-town deputy… Phillip had been in the FBI three years before getting thisassignment. August was an expert at special effects and sleight of hand, andspecifically debunking fake video and audio, but he’d gained experience on thejob. Aurora had been a nurse before her abilities got her invited in – sheisn’t squeamish, so that she seems reluctant to say what she saw attests thather vision must have been worse than usual.

Aurora’s visions, whenthey aren’t already on a case, almost invariably precede their getting calledin. He knows that as well as he knows that Ruby believes her ability to findmissing people is somehow tied to her sense of smell, as well as he knows thatBelle relies more on her research and logic and forensics than she does on herability to see past events as though they were taking place in front of her, aswell as he knows that when they first started this team Phillip didn’t believe any of them actually had abilitiesbeyond the normal (Phillip still is, in many respects, a skeptic first andforemost – though much more open to possibilities now than when the teaminitially came together).

For the past few years,these people have been more of a family than he ever had in his life. So, givenhow things tend to work out for their little group, he knows that the visionwith the nun is very likely to become their next case, however it is thatalways works itself out. So he contemplates for a minute before choosing hisnext question.

“Did you get any namesfor Belle to start researching?”

She usually does – andthen it’s usually up to him and Ruby to get Belle researching before whateverproject she’s been working on between cases distracts her too much. And provideher with caffeine.

“Not this time,” Aurorashakes her head, “Not people. Not even the ghost that contacted me. But I didsee the sign for the cemetery. Storybrooke.”

…

The moment the call had come through, Emma had known it wasgoing to be a long day.

On the phone, Kathryn had been completely composed as shereported finding a dead body on her trip to the graveyard to leave flowers forher late fiancé, Frederick. But, then again, Kathryn Midas is a lawyer and theyoungest member of the town council; composurehas long been her trademark.

Emma had called in Marian and called in Doctor Whale – her deputyand the closest thing the town has to a Medical Examiner. Technically, there’ssupposed to be an election for M.E. whenever the election for the Sheriff’soffice comes due, but no one has actually run for it in years, and thus theposition falls to whatever Doctor is available.

Not that there have been an abundance of murders, or even suspicious deaths, inStorybrooke, to put it to any sort of actual test, but the system works well enough.

Kathryn’s statement in person hadn’t varied at all from whatshe’d said on the phone, except in that the shock was starting to cause herusual demeanor to come apart. She visits Frederick every Sunday, had been onher way to his final resting place when she’d seen the body and the blood and,dropping the flowers she was holding, immediately dialed her phone and stayedwell back to not disturb anything.

The blood alone had made it obvious that the Mother Superiorwasn’t going to be moving anytime soon.

“My initial findings are that it was blunt force trauma tothe back of the head,” Whale stands from his place surveying the scene. “I’llknow more after a more detailed examination in the morgue, of course. Judgingby the injuries and the blood, I’d say this is your crime scene – she wasn’tbrought here and posed after death.”

To be honest, this is the first crime more complicated thanpetty theft that she’s had to deal with since becoming Sheriff; definitely herfirst truly violent crime. Storybrooke isn’t perfect, but it’s always beenalmost too peaceful. Like somethingout of the world’s most sterilized and boring fairytale. She doesn’t complain –it makes her job easy, means she can spend plenty of time with her son, and more crime is not something any saneperson would want.

Although it does mean that she’s a bit out of her depthswith this. Knows what she’s doing, intheory, worked hard to get her criminal justice degree as a single mother,and on the surface it’s just like any other crime – find who had the motive,means, and opportunity, and find evidence, make an arrest and send them tocourt, let the jury reach a verdict.

But theory and practice are not remotely the same. And,considering who the victim has been identified as, and the fact that it’s a murder, this is the highest profilecrime in Storybrooke in something like 20 years – since she was a kid and oneof the local teenagers had disappeared.

“Emma?” She turns to where Marian had been stringing up thecrime scene tape to keep out gawkers who might trample their evidence, is morethan a little surprised to see her best friend standing there. Elsa has been Mayor a little less than a year, now– shouldn’t she be in her office, working on legislation orwhatever it is her job technically entails?

Still, she heads over. The Sheriff’s department does answerto the Mayor’s office, meaning Elsa is technically her boss, and it could beimportant.

“Anything wrong, Elsa?”

Her friend rubs gloved hands together, a nervous habit thatEmma knows well. Then, she lets out a sigh before speaking.

“Ruby called.”

The words don’t seem relevant, not really. Ruby was theirfriend, was Emma’s deputy before Marian moved to town; she’d been invited tojoin some government team after finding a few missing people after thehurricanes that had plagued the coast for the past several years, and it hadbeen a great opportunity for her career, but they haven’t spoken much since.

“You know her team is… Unconventional,” Elsa continues, andEmma crosses her arms. Yeah, unconventional is one word for it. They’ve been inthe news from a few high-profile cases they’ve solved. Supposedly, they’re allpsychics, looking at supernaturalangles to their cases to find the living, breathing humans behind them.

“One of her teammates had a vision, she said. A nun. Dead.On a grave. In the Storybrooke cemetery. Anna told me you called her to look after Henry so you could come out here, so as soon as I heard what Ruby had to say I came to see you myself.”

There’s not many ways she can respond to that; she doesn’tbelieve in psychics and visions and the paranormal, but Elsa doesn’t exactly have a reason to lie abouta story like that. About Ruby calling her to say those things.

“Why did you need to come see me?” Ruby’s teammate’s “vision”has to be a coincidence or something. Anna telling her sister about babysitting Henry for her is innocent enough, something that the younger of the Arendelle sisters would have no reason to hide if Elsa invited her to lunch and she needed to explain why she couldn’t come. Neither of those things explains Elsa being here in person instead of just calling about it.

“Ruby was worried the minute she heard Storybrooke might beinvolved. She wants – well, she wants to bring a few of her teammates down hereto help you look into things. On a volunteer basis. Considering the cemetery’sreputation, it might be prudent to-”

“The cemetery’s reputation as haunted, you mean,” Emma interrupts, her stare absolutely deadpan.The reputation that has no merit in anything except people’s imaginations; it’sjust a cemetery. A burial ground. There’s no spirits haunting the place. There can’t be, because those don’t exist.

“Listen, you know I don’t want to overstep my bounds. TheSheriff’s department is your office. But these are law enforcementprofessionals. One of them was a forensics expert, one of them was NYPDhomicide. It can’t hurt, can it? You’reshort-staffed, and Storybrooke hasn’t had to deal with something like thissince…”

Since her step-grandmother had killed several people,including her grandfather, in some sort of misguided attempt at “revenge” oversomething her mother supposedly did. But that was before she was even born,which most likely says something about the town that she doesn’t dwell on to figure out. Just because herpredecessor had thought there were holes all over the story in the Bae Golddisappearance and had a very thick file on it gathering dust in the office didn’tmean it was something of this magnitude.

“I told Ruby it was up to you,” Elsa says, instead offilling in the blank of the last time Storybrooke had a case anything likethis. “She said you would be in charge of the investigation, no one isinterested in stealing your jurisdiction. They don’t have any active casesright now--”

“Elsa, stop,” she shakes her head, brings a hand up to pinchthe bridge of her nose as she thinks. Normally she would laugh the offer off,say something along the lines of not needing ghost hunters mucking up her investigation. But they are professionals in the law enforcementfield first, Ruby herself is proof of that. And it could be nice to see herfriend again, and, more importantly, more relevantly, they have actualexperience in murder investigations that she and Marian and even Doctor Whalesimply do not have.

“I’d like to meet them before I make a decision. Can I getthat at least?”

“I’ll call Ruby back, see what we can arrange, okay?” Elsasmiles, pulling her phone from her pocket. Emma turns back to her crime scene,resumes photographing the scene and gathering evidence, refuses to feel like she’s just been manipulated into agreeing to something - she didn’t agree. Not yet.

There’s really nothing else to do but work on solving thismurder.