#those last few lines are teaser for the first episodeeee

[variousqueerthings]

Got my DW magazines (including the latest where all those brainmelting quotes are coming from) and there really is so much loveliness in them, including a letter from RTD:

"The First Great Seismic Shift in Doctor Who was in 1966 when the lead character slumped to the floor and... what? He did what?! He changed into a different actor? For good?! Can you imagine that happening unannounced now? in 1966, there seems to be comparatively little record of the reaction. Did we question less, then? Did we just... watch?

I've got clearer memories of Seismic Shift 2, 1970, the move into colour. Though that didn't mean much; we didn't buy colour TVs overnight, I was still watching in black and white until, ooh, Planet of the Daleks...?"

[...]

Things happened, and we simply kept on watching. We might complain about today's online world, but aren't we wiser now? Less passive, more engaged?

[...]

You probably know the later Seismic Shifts. The return, in 2005. Steven Moffat's astonishing, brilliant, glittering Doctors from 2010 onwards, with the Master becoming Missy. And with a slinky Seismic Shuffle, the Eighth Doctor, who'd disappeared off screen in 1996, finally got to regenerate in 2013 but only on the BBC Red Button! And then Jodie Whittaker fell through the roof of a Sheffield-bound train with an impact so great, it bumped the entire show on to Sunday night, and then she stood up in the wreckage and smiled a smile so bright, it changed the Time Lord and television drama and the whole bloody culture for good and for better.

It really is the most fascinating show because it changes, changes, changes... and yet, it stays the same. 'Doctor Who is all about to change!' say the fans, but I sit here planning the next story in which a police box lands and the Doctor steps out and foils an invasion of Earth thinking to myself, well, is it? But I know what you mean. The feel of the show changes, the essence. Jo and the Doctor and that silver car are a different world, a different style, almost a different genre to Clara facing a Raven on Trap Street.

And now, in 2023, that high-wire-tension of approaching change is in the air. The Doctor mysteriously has a face he's had before. And by the time December rolls around, he'll have yet another new face, in a show that now drops worldwide on a vast streaming platform -- new and old at the same time, as it still stays cradled in its Saturday night home of the good old BBC.

But as I said. Voices are louder this year. Shouting and rage and horror sometimes circle around Doctor Who. And often, that's not about Doctor Who itself, it's expressing anger and fear about life, about love, about self. And I get that! These discussions are us, growing up. In the old days we'd sit in our bedroom and work out the world all on our own. We could only sing along to pop songs to express our lovely,lonely hearts. Now, we type it out, and that's always going to be clumsy. Because expressing yourself isn't easy. Even birthday cards are hard work! So trying to say what you think about life and love and sex and telly in the form of words typed on a page and read by strangers, oh, nightmare! No wonder it goes wrong. But now...

I think there's only one way to meet the changes to come.

With joy.

I'm not asking for good reviews (I've got myself for that, I think these episodes are FABULOUS!) But if you don't like the something, don't exhaust yourself. Just smile and be glad that some people are happy and wait for the next Seismic Shift to come.

Because this programme has trained us well! We have embraced flying cars and the Red Button and the Watcher and the Garm and hey, maybe 'granddaughter' is Gallifreyan for 'friend' (though I don't think so) which means we can delight in anything. And right now, the TARDIS is heading for Skaro, and a wounded spaceship is heading for London, and Shaun is taking an extra shift in his taxi cos he's short of money, and Sylvia is delivering a curry and Donna Noble's daughter needs to go shopping for eyes -- for eyes?! -- and as all these things converge, hold on tight, clutch those tins of beans, cos the next earthquake is rumbling away on the horizon.

Here we go again!