#wilf's character was literally established to not like killing

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Oh...oh they...they actually planned for Wilf to shoot Moles the entire time, even before Bernard's death... ...So there goes that excuse for the shooting moles thing being to avoid showing Wilf... Also they somehow planned for it to be worser basically- because already the idea of a character who doesn't like killing and never wants to do it being off shooting moles is just, gross and a clear mis-understanding of his character, but the fact that they planned to show him doing it in a such a jolly manner, even when his great-granddaughter tells him to leave the moles alone...

[the--highlanders]

thoughts on the star beast!! under a cut bc spoilers

first of all just. as someone who really did not vibe with the chibnall era at all. dear god it feels good to be excited about doctor who again

it was FUN. it was great bouncy silly charming fun and that is exactly what the show needed at this point I think. I can really imagine kids tomorrow running around pretending to be the meep

also the meep was great and I'm SO glad it was practical effects, it looked so good

setting aside the doctor-donna plotline, the callbacks to the rtd era were fairly low-key (resonating concrete!) and fitted in with the episode but they were fun if they meant something to you

on the other hand the glass divider between the doctor and donna and him raging at having to kill her really felt like a kind of. reverse of ten and wilf and the radiation chamber. which HURT. ten raging over having to save wilf vs not-ten raging over not being able to save donna.

rose was lovely!! I really hope we get some more substantial stuff with her, I think she'd be a great companion

seeing unit again was fun, and I really liked shirley actually!! I hope she's a recurring character, I thought she worked well with the doctor and her gadget-y wheelchair was fun

also kate sorting out a place for wilf to live 😭😭😭😭😭😭

I did think the solution to donna being able to keep her memories was pretty creative, and the acknowledgement of the doctor being outside the gender binary made me yell

that being said I really didn't like the line about a 'male-presenting time lord never thinking of [letting go of power]. I feel like that was rtd trying to be too hip-with-the-kids progressive, which like. obviously I want the show to be progressive!!! but it's the sort of thing I hate

like, first of all, we've just established that the doctor is more or less nonbinary - and the show has been very obviously referencing time lord society as genderless since like, twelve's era. time lords feel that they are /genetically/ superior - it's a species thing, not a gender thing. a 'male' /or/ 'female' time lord is going to have a tough time giving up power. and this felt especially incongruous when we've just had thirteen, a doctor who used her white privilege to hand the master over to the nazis. doesn't seem like she was very interested in giving up her power there.

imo one of the doctor's whole character tensions across the whole show is them trying to break away from time lord superiority, and again that's species-based, not gender based. and it was literally established in journey's end that the doctordonna could think of things the doctor couldn't because of her human part! there was already a solid logical grounding for donna and rose to give up their time lord powers /because they were still part human/

there were a few thematic things I would have liked the episode to dwell on a bit more, like the whole cute-appearing vs frightening-appearing thing with the meep and the wrarth warriors, and how appearances are sometimes deceiving; or the stuff with the doctor and gender; or even just rose's character as a whole

that being said, this was an episode with an awful lot to do, and also an episode which was there to be a fun romp. it HAD to be a romp. so from a sort of metatextual point of view I can understand and forgive

overall I really liked it!! it really recaptured the magic of doctor who for me after so long not feeling it and I think it's going to do a good job of its most important task, which is getting the show afloat again in terms of casual viewers.

also SO glad they've gone back to a confidential-style program, unleashed was so fun

[saelterlude]

I really want Doctor Who to bring back companions’ title/aliases. Especially since Doctor Who is a long running show with a rolling cast. They just make the companions and their story arcs a lot more memorable and distinguishable. 

For example,

When someone says Rose Tyler, I think oh “Bad Wolf” the ordinary girl who loves the Doctor so much that she stared into the TARDIS and spread her warning across time. The name showed her stubbornness to be with the Doctor, even when he has send her away and she’s stuck in an alternate dimension.

Jack Harkness technically doesn’t have a title but something feels wrong when you just say his name because he’s “Captain Jack Harkness”. Which really exemplifies his charisma and self confidence. Emphasizing his name using ‘Captain’ also shows how he’s more knowledgeable on time travel and aliens than most companions the Doctor have.

Martha Jones, “The Woman Who Walked The Earth” literally describes what she did. She walked the Earth and spread word of the Doctor to save the world. When you hear that title you know that she’s brave and she’s strong, THIS is what she’s capable of doing.

Donna Noble can be “The Most Important Woman in The Whole of Creation” or “Best Temp in Chiswick” but she’s also, as the fandom seems to agree, “The Doctor’s Best Friend”. Personally I always remember the last one because the Doctor and Donna duo are so iconic and fun, but that’s more in relation to the Doctor instead of on her own. I’m not a big fan of the first one because it’s a bit too mouthy. The second one describes Donna best as an individual as it’s both put emphasis on how great she is with best ‘best’ followed by how she see’s herself as nothing special as a “temp in Chiswick”.

Special mention to Wilfred Mott who doesn’t actually have a title but we all know he’s “The Doctor’s Dad”. He’s caring and he took care of the Doctor when he’s vulnerable. I love Wilf. We all love Wilf.

Amy Pond is “The Girl Who Waited”. It tells us of her faith to the Doctor, that she would wait for him for 12 years, followed by another 2 years. It tells us the damage those 12 years of waiting did to her, unlike Donna and Martha she’s “The Girl” who has yet to grow up. It also tells us how the Doctor sees her as a girl, someone he’s responsible for, and her future character arc of eventually growing out of this adventure with the Doctor.

Rory Williams, “The Last/Lone Centurion” is someone who spend 2000 years guarding a box out of love and dedication. Literally the reason my brother told me he isn’t worried about whoever I date since watching Rory means I have high standards of men. Rory is also known as “The Boy Who Waited”, a title which I really like since it ties in nicely with Amy’s.

Amy and Rory is also known as “The Ponds”, which other than being “the girl/boy who waited” really establish that these two are a unit. That they are meant to be together and that their story arc is about that. Yes, Amy can’t resist the adventure and Rory will always follow Amy, but Amy will also always choose Rory time and time again until the very end, even if it means the end of the adventure.

River Song is both “The Woman Who Killed The Doctor” and “The Woman Who Marries The Doctor”, both of them together sums up her (linear) story arc. Being someone raised out of fear of the Doctor to loving him and sacrificing her life for the Doctor. The two titles defies one another but are both her, which kind of shows how unpredictable she is, to us viewers and the Doctor.

And last we have Clara Oswin Oswald’s “The Impossible Girl”. Clara’s first story arc is literally “she keeps showing up and dying and she’s the same person but she’s not immortal or a time traveler (yet) so how is she here?”. The title drives home the mystery of Clara Oswald before its resolved and, like Bad Wolf, reminds us of what she’s willing to do for the Doctor, setting up her next arc.

Believe it or not, I know of “Bad Wolf” before I watched series 1 and 2 and I also know “The Ponds” before I watched series 5. (Series 4 being the first one I watched, followed by 3, 1, 2, 5, and mostly linearly since). I already knew that Rose was going to do something extreme for the Doctor since the first episode and I knew Rory and Amy’s relationship is going to be important before I even knew their names. And those things stick with me. It leaves a lasting impression that makes me want to rewatch those series because they’re them. 

I simply cant say the same for Bill Potts, Nardole, and The Fam. Bill is a student, but I don’t remember how that plays in the overall story. Nardole is a funny alien servant, cool. The Fam is well friends of the Doctor I guess, but I don’t remember what makes them special or different from every other companion the Doctor ever have.

Hell even the “Paternoster Gang” is more memorable than “The Fam”. The lizard warrior lady, her human maid/wife, and a baked potato nurse solve crime, inspire Sherlock Holmes, and kick ass in Victorian London. And they didn’t show up much.

See this is why Doctor Who needs to bring back the companion titles. I know some hated how it make it seem like every companion have to be someone important to the world and/or the Doctor’s life but it adds so much to each character that they should do it anyway. Besides, Captain Jack Harkness, The Ponds, and The Paternoster Gang have titles that aren’t important to the world so clearly they can do it.

[lomorock]

The end of time doctor who

#The end of time doctor who series#

The pain of being strapped to a chair and struggling to move your entire body – quite an awkward journey to experience, even for poor David Tennant who had a spinal injury around the time of Hamlet. cacti), which kills me every time I rewatch this moment. And I do also want to highlight the “racist” name calling (i.e. At the beginning of Part 2, the comical “cactuses” successfully help the Doctor and Wilf escape from the Harold Saxon Master, then teleport to their ship in outer space. I know it appears to be bonkers to end Part 1 with such a sequence of literal laughingstock, but this whole concept is still hilarious. Yes, that was completely unexpected for us all. Duplicates of a blonde-haired John Simm taking over the world with exaggerated self-boasting, and declaring every single one of himself to collectively be “The Master Race”, comically un-PC. Same body, same agenda, same mind (but not like a collective hive). The Master turns (almost) the entire human population, including President Barack Obama, into… himself. “Breaking news! I’m everyone! And everyone in the world is me!!” A new boyfriend and a successful marriage, it all brings an emotional but positive sense of closure to her character arc. It’s so horrific to even recall the adventures she had in the TARDIS, but thanks to the Doctor’s telepathic intervention, she was saved once again.Įven though she is no longer travelling in the TARDIS, I loved how they brought back Donna for one last time. That was the case for the “DoctorDonna” the Ood can still influence her subconscious without attempting to revive her real memories.Īnd let’s, of course, not forget what the Master had tried but failed to do: burn her mind completely until she dies. Unforeseen and regrettable consequences always happen: in real life and in fiction. It’s bittersweet in a way, since the Doctor can no longer interact with Donna Noble after the heartbreaking events of Journey’s End. 9: Donna “But they’ve changed… Grandad, that’s like… Like the sort of thing that happened… before…” Same with the ability to communicate with the Doctor, via telepathy, I couldn’t be touched enough by their relationship.Īlthough I feel tempted to bring up their final song right now, I think it’s best to leave it until the very end. The impact the Ood have on the story is how they establish the Master’s (forthcoming) resurrection, and also the bond between him and Wilf – the only human on Earth to retain those bad dreams. But when they summon the Doctor in a prolonged emergency, events become crucial not only to them but, as the title says, “the end of time itself.”

#The end of time doctor who series#

It was very early on in Series 4 when the Ood were finally freed from slavery, proclaiming freedom from the shackles of human imperialism on their home planet. 10: The Ood “You will join, you will join, you will join, you will join…” There are so, so many highlights I wish to explore, but I’ve decided that I’m going to primarily focus on the Top 10, which stand out the most from my point of view. Oh, and if you haven’t seen it yet, beware the SPOILERS! Isn’t that a funny coincidence? The first half of the Series 12 opener, airing exactly 10 years after the second half of the Tenth Doctor’s swansong – right at the beginning of a new decade? That surely is a (coincidental) 10th anniversary present! On that note, Spyfall is the first multi-part story since The End of Time to use numbering (à la Classic serials). Well, speaking of two-parters, we’ve just had one on New Year’s Day and four days later: Spyfall. On a side note, production-wise, both parts comprise of the 17th and 18th episodes of Series 4 (which also happen to be denoted in the shooting scripts). For me, I tend to stick with the former because I personally view it as a single linear narrative, with dramatic plot twists developing along the way. With only a few acknowledgements of both festive occasions, I couldn’t be more fascinated by how Russell T Davies, whose story was also his last as showrunner, gave everything a good sense of closure to the Tenth Doctor era.Įven though The End of Time is technically a two-parter, which uses the Classic era practice of naming serials with just one title, you could treat it as either a single feature-length blockbuster or just two individual episodes. An unconventional move to end one incarnation’s era with an epic, extended finale 60 minutes for Part 1, 75 minutes for Part 2. It’s been 10 years since David Tennant’s tearjerking farewell in The End of Time, a two-part special which originally aired on Christmas Day 2009 and New Year’s Day 2010.