#thought I'd do a nuwho example this time

[dailyclassicwho]

ACTORS SHARED ACROSS THE WHONIVERSE ⇢ CHIPO CHUNG as...

Chantho in "Utopia" (DOCTOR WHO・3.11・2007) Fortune Teller in "Turn Left" (DOCTOR WHO・4.11・2008)

[decepti-thots]

☕ MTOs & specifically what do you think they were going for with that?

MTOs are an interesting narrative thing to me in the sense that they really are so localised to only one part of the canon; they're very clearly Roberts' idea and only really matter, inasmuch as they do matter, in MTMTE. It's pretty clear to me that's the case for one specific reason: they'd actually fit SUPER well into the narrative arc of exRiD, especially early-to-mid RiD, but they basically never come up! You'd think 'neutrals and soldiers stuggling to cohabit socially and politically' would be prime fodder (lmao) for taking advantage of a narrative about mechs born of and into war coming back to a civilian life on a planet they really don't know. And yet.

What they're doing in that comic, in MTMTE, is a little headscratching to me at times. It feels, to be honest, somewhat like worldbuilding put in to make the texture of the backstory of the war feel grander than IDW had really managed up to that point in actual on-panel stuff, without a lot of thought when doing so in the moment as to the knock on implications going forward. MTMTE does this a few times, tries to use vague gestures at important sounding stuff to bring a greater sense of history and depth to the war in the face of the actual stuff we saw in phase one being. Mmmm. Basically just twenty dudes we already know shooting at each other across parking lots. LMAO.

(Sidenote: I know for a fact Roberts watched original flavour nuWho, and this is PEAK Russell T Davies doing worldbuilding when he was on Doctor Who, and I fully believe he was cribbing from that playbook. Every damn episode RTD would make them just sort of say stuff about the Time War that made it sound incredibly vast and textured and complex but which, crucially, never made any actual fucking sense. Good examples of stuff like this would be the Crucible, the Simanzi massacre, etc. This is, to be clear, a neutral observation, not praise or criticism per se.)

I say this because MTOs should probably be a bigger deal in terms of the impact on our cast, and their outlook on life and reasons for joining the quest, than they wind up being. An MTO is a character with no experience of living in peacetime at all, likely no experience of Cybertron, no sense of kinship or home necessarily to the planet they came "back" to. All of this provides a really clear motivation, given the implication most surviving non-neutral Cybertronians are now MTOs due to huge numbers of deaths, to join a quest like the Lost Light's! But it tends not to come up much, and I think it's because it wasn't really part of the plan. Later on, there's room to slot in some details here and there- Riptide talking about his experiences with being infodumped at by the 'training' comes to mind- but it takes a while for the comic to come back round to that.

The two big exceptions, of course, are Getaway and Brainstorm. The idea is definitely interacting with their characters more, though again, it... tends to come up later. Especially for Getaway, who I'm not convinced was originally conceived as an MTO, but had it slotted in a bit later as 'well that works' stuff tbh. (And it does, so that's fine!) Which leaves Brainstorm, who lies about being forged to throw off suspicion, who it's implied never got the time of day from Quark in a way I wouldn't be surprised we're supposed to assume is some kind of remaining bias, perhaps. Who didn't see a future for himself 'back on Cybertron' and so concocted a very weird plan to avoid having to. Who never got a choice about his 'side' in the war, and wound up with no real loyalty for anyone.

I think if there's any avenue I'd have liked to see more about MTOs via, it's Brainstorm. I wish there'd been more room to focus on that instead of (I'm so sorry shippers) his thing with Perceptor as the way to talk about his sense of inadequacy, tbh. What did it feel like, lying to Chromedome about remembering a pre-war life he never got a chance to experience? Being made to shoot people and be shot and escaping the fate of having that be the only thing he ever knew by the skin of his teeth? Not being able to imagine an end to the war, so all he wants to do is save one guy and run off with him as a pipe dream? That seems like the character where a lot of this stuff should naturally lie, to me. And I think it's a shame I've seen very little talk in fandom about it!

[nuwho20zine]

NuWho Zine: Character Tracker 👀👯

Hi everyone!

I decided to put my nerd cap on today and, as I was putting together some things for the zine, decided to look into what kind of works we have so far. I thought I'd share with you all, so I hope you enjoy!!

1. General Stats

We so far have 29 works lined up: 15 fan arts (52%), 10 fanfictions (34%) and 4 works of written non-fiction (this may be analysis, essays, etc) (14%). This feels like a nice balance for me, and I'd be pretty happy if this is the balance of different types of works ae have for the final zine.

Pretty much all of these are character-focused, so here are some pretty graphs for you all:

(2) Character Breakdown

So, as you can see, Nine, Ten and Twelve are the ones who are coming in the strongest. However, in terms of companions, the Ponds are winning by far! This may be because, after the initial submissions, there weren't any Ponds pieces and some people who didn't have a concrete idea yet decided to feature them; they mostly feature them together, though - we don't have many/any pieces of Amy or Rory (or River) solo.

Most pieces feature two or more chracters. So far, the only character centric pieces I have jotted down are for Clara, Twelve, Fifteen (maybe), and the Master.

(3) What This Means

Like promised, in July I will open a form for submissions. I strongly encourage people who want to participate to start thinking about what they'd like to do, because you'll have to provide that when signing up. I'm counting on accepting about 15-20 people/pieces and, since this isn't a submissions-based zine, these will be first come, first serve.

I really want all works to be artist-led, ie, you get to draw/write/whatever whatever it is you desire. However, I would also like the zine to be somewhat balanced in terms of character representations, so in the name of compromise, please keep that in mind!! Here are some ideas for pieces:

Pieces focusing on a single character, especially those that have less submissions;

Episodes/seasons/story arc analysis or commentaries;

Analysis of specific aspects of NuWho;

Personal essays (for example, focusing on an aspect of Doctor Who you love, how you got into it, etc);

Fanarts that are episode-focused (in particular, I'd really love a piece about the 50th and/or the 60th anniversaries, since they were such big fandom events);

Non-character-centric pieces: pieces focusing on the TARDIS, or DW monsters, or planets, or the Time War, or regeneration - other aspects of the DW universe in general beyond the characters.

I'll also be open to one or two pieces that focus on NuWho spin-offs rather than NuWho itself, since I do consider them part of the over-arching NuWho Universe (looking at you, Torchwood girlies!!!).

In terms of characters, we're really missing Thirteen-era pieces and I know the 13 fans are out there, so this is your chance!! We're also with low numbers of Jack, specific Masters (most Master pieces are about the character in general, not focused on a specific Master), Bill, River, and 11-Era Clara.

I also really encourage people to submit pieces about minor characters: give me the Tylers/Joneses/Nobles/Sundays family portraits! Give me Mickey, or Ten's one-offs, or Jenny, or Alonso! Give me Jenny, Vastra and Strax! Give me the Moment, War Doctor, Fugitive Doctor! Give me Nardole, Rogue, Wilfred, Rose Noble, Lady Me, or whoever else I am missing here that you love and want to feature!

Finally, I also have two artists who would like to establish a colab: in particular, I'm looking for a writer that feels comfortable writing various characters of NuWho (but 13 and Yaz in particular), and an artist who loves Rose and Tentoo. If that is you, feel free to reach out whenever so that we can talk (no need go wait for July!!)

That is all! Hope you've enjoyed this longer post. Ahhh, I'm so excited to this come together 💛💛

[littledreamlost]

*sigh* reading articles about Doctor Who makes me sad, because they don't seem to understand so much about what makes it great. A great villain can be fun, but you know what's even better? When there *isn't* a villain. When Doctor Who is really firing on all cylinders it's about being curious and being kind. Just because something is doing something you don't like or understand doesn't mean it's evil. The Doctor *knows* this, but they sometimes are forced to forget it to serve writers and showrunners. But truly: the best episodes of Doctor Who don't have a villain, or the villain isn't who you initially thought, because it isn't the being just trying to exist, it's people trying to control/exterminate what they don't understand. I wish we could have more of those stories, but they require more thought and care-- you can't be a lazy writer with them. But the world doesn't have to be in jeopardy for us to care about an episode: make us curious, show some kindness, and we will be there, I guarantee it. I just wish the people in charge would see it that way as well.

Still thinking about this, and I have some time while my carpet dries-- and since some people seem to agree, I thought I'd add a bit. A great example of this in NuWho comes very early with the 2 part Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. There's no real villain here, just some nanobots that got confused and overly ambitious. They're actually trying to help!! But doing terrible damage in the process. The Doctor is able to figure out what's happening because they are both curious and kind: they don't assume the child is simply evil, they try to figure out what's driving the child. And if the Doctor hadn't been kind to Nancy, hadn't gained her trust, she wouldn't have been brave enough to show and accept Jaimie as her child, which is what allows the nanobots to correct their mistake. This is the kind of story that absolutely elevates Doctor Who and makes it so beloved. We don't need a villain. Just curiosity and kindness.

[im-the-queen-of-stardust]

Oh, you don't know what you asked for. I love talking about Doctor Who, literally spent the night thinking about this because I have so many thoughts, how do I even write them down in a comprehensive way? But okay, let me try.

Same as you Simm was the first Master I ever saw. And like for a long time the only Master I knew. So I think I'm always gonna be a bit biased about him, much like your first Doctor is always a bit special too (Nine my beloved).

There definetly is a bit of a different vibe between the classic and not just Simm but all of the nuwho Masters. Although please don't quote me on all this, because I don't know the classic Masters nearly as much as I'd like and definetly not as well as the nuwho ones.

But yeah the nuwho Masters definetly are a bit more unhinged, bit more mad hatter, a Joker kind of villain. The one thing that never changes is that they're a drama queen though.

And to be honest that doesn't bother me all that much? In the end it's the same as with the Doctor. Ever changing and every time a bit different. Three for example is a bit like a dapper scientist wizard and much more down to Delgado!Master's "Let's sit down and play chess together", as you put it so nicely. They kinda match in vibes that way and form this Holmes and Moriarty synergy.

Ten on the other hand is way more childish and silly, with a lot of manic energy. And so in turn matches with Simm!Master, because take away the evil undertones and you can definetly see Ten wheeling about a companion while gleefully singing along to some song.

So I think it fits. I don't know how far you can actually stretch my "the Doctor and Master incarnations match each other in personality" take, maybe I will think a bit more on that some time, but I still love that three parter. It's silly and stupid and makes no sense sometimes (glowing flying Doctor what were you thinking RTD?) But it's still so fun and such a great Master/Doctor dynamic.

But oh, to get a glimpse at the parallel universe where Jacobi stays the Master and doesn't regenerate. I completly agree with you, I'd murder and maim to see that. It would be so different but so interesting to see how Ten and a way more calculating Master would interact. And to see that sort of Master in nuwho. Because as I said earlier, all the nuwho Masters don't have that cold mastermind feeling that Jacobi!Master had in his short time on screen.

Which is why I'm really interested in the Big Finish take on him. Have you heard of their audio stories? I really recommend looking them up, especially the War Master box sets in this context, because I heard they're really great. And these audio stories have the advantage that they're allowed to be way more diverse genre wise than the show is. Because the show will always be a family show with silly aliens and silly villains. I don't know yet what Big Finish has actually done with the War Master, but they have the freedom to truly make him a terrifying villain in a way I don't think the show has.

This has already gotten away from me, but as a last aside I encourage you to check out the audio Master from Big Finish. It's with Seven and Geoffrey Beevers as the Master and it's fantastic. Such a great exploration about both the Master and the Doctor and their relationship. I believe it's like 3€ but you can also dm me if you're interested, I have it.

All it takes for me is to rewatch Utopia and I immediatly wanna buy every single War Master Big Finish box set.