#wtf-scientific-papers

[deathisabeatboxer]

last line took me out.

“1. Needed, a new system”

- System for categorizing soil redox status by chemical field testing, Barrtlet and James 1995

Submitter comment: “Why does this subheading sound like something Yoda would say”

[you-need-not-apply]

The 4 types of papers for this very niche thing I’m trying to do a paper about

1- fluff pieces no info just bullshit for 10k they look good at first but eventually it reveals itself

2- older then time papers that can’t be used (1912?????)

3- people complaining about how not aesthetic this issue is to tourists (I hope it makes them cry)

4- two guys fighting over a fence in alternate papers over 3 years, neither of them are winning, there should not be this many words about a fence

[dravidious]

I really do appreciate the idea behind DeArrow but I really wish it had a block button because some of these people should not be writing titles. Like,

Is it really that bad to phrase a title as a question?

Putting more details in the title doesn't actually improve it

Jesus fucking christ your hyper-descriptive title doesn't even FIT!!

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[fixomnia-scribble]

Scientists are very serious.

This is a post about science. And soup.

Dr. Elinne Becket, a microbiologist from Cal State University, is in the middle of one of those Fridge Experiments that happens to us all - except in this case, she is uniquely placed to unravel the science down to the microbial level.

While cleaning out her fridge, Dr. Becket found that a tub of family-recipe beef vegetable soup had turned bright blue. “Ok I'm outing myself here,” she tweeted, “but there was forgotten beef soup in our fridge we just cleaned it out and it was BLUE?!?!? Wtf contam would make it blue??? Like BRIGHT blue!!  Even w/ all my years in micro I'm not handling this well.“

Read on for a breathless and ongoing saga of Soup and Science, and the wonderful international community that is Academic Twitter.

Academic Twitter quickly reminded her of her Responsibilities to Scientific Inquiry. (Cue the chanting from around the world of “CLONE THE SOUP! CLONE THE SOUP!”)

“I can’t believe y’all talked me into going back into the trash.” she tweeted in response, over a photo of a puddle of beautiful Mediterranean-sea blue soup in the trash bin, with bits of veg and noodles arising from the depths.

Scientists being scientists, Dr. Becket agreed to take a sample and send it to colleagues for cloning and microbial analysis.This involved getting arms-deep into the trash bin of Old Soup. “I’m never forviging @ATinyGreenCell (genomic biologist Sebastian Cocioba) for this.” Dr. Becket tweeted, with a photo of a properly dipped and snipped and VERY blue q-tip in a small clear plastic tub.

Diving into decomposing soup was not the only hazard. She writes: “My mom (who made the soup for my birthday) came across this thread and now 1) I have to answer for letting her soup spoil and 2) she's worried @ATinyGreenCell will figure out her secret recipe.“

Dr. Becket and Sebastian were able to culture the Blue Goo!

Becket posted a photo of three petri plates of streaked beef bouillon agar at 72 hours incubation, at 37C, room temp and 4C. She writes: “Left the plates where they were for another 2 days, except the 37°C one was brought to RT, which then grew white stuff over the yellow stuff and stinks to high heaven. RT looked the same. 4°C had impressive growth. Restreaked them all onto TECH agar, awaiting results!”

Sebastian, from his lab, tweeted a photo of three more covered petri dishes, with early results: “Great progress on isolating the glowy microbe from our #BlueSoup! It's so fluorescent the streak is GREEN. Still needs another restreak as it seems there is a straggler but should clear up in the next plate. Exciting!”

Then yesterday, Sebastian tweeted out an updated photo of his plates under daylight and blacklight. “Whatever grew on the #BlueSoup colony plates overnight glows under UV, but only on King's Agar B! That particular media is used to tease out fluorescein expression in pseudomonads. What are the chances that the same cell line expresses fluorescent AND blue pigments?“

“Looking closer, there definitely is a handful of different microbes showing distinct phenotypes. Could be that the blue producer and the fluorescent microbes are totally different microbes!”

At which point, Professor Cynthia Whitchurch of Norwich, England, responded: “Consistent with P. fluorescens being at least part of the #BlueSoup community. The fluorescence is due to production of the siderophore pyoverdine which is up-regulated when iron availability is limited. P. aeruginosa produced this too but my guess is you have blue Pf.”

And Australian agricultural researcher @WAJWebster helpfully tweeted a petri dish of ALL KINDS of colourful bacterial colonies from white to yellow to orange to stark black, with a cheerful: “You need bact-o--colours? I got you, fam.”

The best part is that as of today, March 9, 2023, THE BLUE SOUP MYSTERY CONTINUES. WE ARE WATCHING SCIENCE HAPPENING!

A paper is being written. And Dr. Becket’s mum is getting an author credit as the proprietary owner of the #BlueSoup recipe.

Dr. Becket’s Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/bielleogy

Sebastian Cocioba’s Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/ATinyGreenCell

Fun IFLS story is here: https://www.iflscience.com/microbiologist-investigates-after-her-beef-soup-turned-blue-in-the-freezer-67894?fbclid=IwAR0H27KqVZhzzrosnjzzKkxuKASZ-0L0Lt6hGwCRDJK8xvFbbSlyS4JvwlM

[perpetualsarcasmmachine]

Are men for real?

Source: Santora, L., & Skolbekken, J.-A. (2011). From Brittle Bones to Standard Deviations: The Historical Development of Osteoporosis in the Late Twentieth Century. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 36(4), 497–521. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23064872

[gimmick-blog-bracket]

@accidental-homestuck

“you cant fight the homestuck !!”

@wtf-scientific-papers

“Literature review but fun”

[transgenderer]

I don't like blogs like wtf scientific papers because they fail to understand a scientific paper is just an edited and anthologized blog post. Many of the people writing these papers are on this very site. Of course they are silly sometimes. Their silliness is no more remarkable than a silly blog post

[jazzically]

magp 8

ugggh even though im listening for it i dont always notice norris slipping into human voice till ex post facto it's completely seamless which is just AGAIN ITS SO SO COOL I ADORE THIS IDEA

OOH MY GOSH ABANDONED SPACE NEEDLE?!?!?!?!?

brilliant. fabulous lovely fantastic. i havent written much bc ive been concentrating too hard on understanding the academic paper lol but it's sooo goood i love this

hell yeah metaphorical hunger and spooky parking lots

UGH OK SORRY (im only apologizing to myself bc i keep pausing per every 10 seconds audio) but like another reason this episode is gorgeous is that even throughout the description of the experience, the author maintains a mostly academic tone and references the original purpose of telling the story when appropriate. in short, this new format — and every such new medium of storytelling brought to the series through each episode — is not some flimsy shell covering up a spooky statement, some excuse to tell the tale that needs to be conveyed. this case actually sounds like a scholar's genuine description of the events that led him to begin a scientific study and OOOGH THATS!!!! MARVELOUS

k back to listeni Oh another thing — alex does really well with controlling the amount of subtle pauses and inflections in speech (decreasing their frequency when robotic, increasing their frequency when speaking as a human)

OOOOH IS THIS ONE A CALLBACK TO MAG 48: LOST IN THE CROWD MAYHAPS..... (i love that episode did you know i love that episode)

with the matching clothes and eVERYthing god

ykw i see it now. valid. the stranger. as far as im concerned theres still a case for the lonely so these two are giving more of like a mashup of both i think

AUGH im doing it again. stop trying to categorize!!!!!

THIS IS ACTUALLY SO SCARY WTF

i dunno i just really like that at the beginning alice assigns these names to the computer's various voices and we just start calling them that. it feels so natural, like another office shtick, that you forget we don't actually know their names

oh wait he actually did lose his finger!!!? whoa

god i just love alice

alice's and gwen's personalities are very interesting

aw man i miss teddy dude. he seemed like a great guy. i didn't quite register fully that bro was leaving (although now that i can sort of see the larger structure of the story unfolding, i understand the setting up of plot in ep 1 better. it feels cool to think about)

geez this is a long one

FOLY HUCK

GIGI???????

HOLY CHRISTHUBIJOGSIEIHS ITS ACTUALLY GERRY I MISSED YOU GERRY I LOVE YOU SO MUCH

ok so is this an actual alternate universe??? or did this just happen before gerry died ???????? huh???????? then how do they have jonny's and martin's voices on some random old computers????? OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO screams and fixates and yells

GERTRUDE YAAAAASSSSSSSSS i hope she gets to cackle i really really do

ok wait this can't possibly be in the past because the ep about the voyeur blog post movie thing had entries from like 2022 iirc

HUH

oh yea i nearly forgot gerry paints!!!

This is so fricking funny i bet gerry keeps calling gertrude "gigi" just to annoy her

WAIT is he actually her grandson?? was that mentioned in the original series ???

gertrude answer the question

AWW GERRYS HAPPY he sounds so joyful and it makes me wanna cry he was so cool and awesome and deserved better in tma

TELEPORTATION??? HELLO?

OMG CELIA WAS ON WTG THE WORLDBUILDING GOES CRAZY

wHEW ok that was a long (and amazing) one. lot of HMMMs goin on in my head rn. EEEEE

[thedisablednaturalist]

I'm currently researching freshwater mussels and I came upon this book by David Strayer and..let me just show you the table of contents:

?????

@wtf-scientific-papers technically its a book but still

[yesthatsatumbler]

They typo-ed one of the acceptance dates as 2105, as well. I wonder if they had to issue a meta-correction to that one.

[Addendum: Corrections to accepted dates for articles in Journal of Paleontology, vol. 89, no. 5]

Link to original

It’s not every day you see a correction to article acceptance dates.

Submitted by @bossarmadimon.

[zinjanthropusboisei]

They had a vision and they committed to it.

@wtf-scientific-papers

[theropoda]

are there seriously 0 studies on the emotional/psychological effect water has on humans or am i just not looking hard enough????? i was wondering if there's a scientific reason why bodies of water are so calming to be around (the ocean or a lake, or river or a pool) but I can't really find any papers about it at all. wtf!!!!!

[forabeatofadrum]

The Winner Takes It All

Summary: Kurt and Blaine are researchers at the theatre department of NYU. After finishing a paper, they need to decide the order of authorship. Since they contributed to the research equally, Blaine suggests a Broadway sing-off contest to determine it with the winner becoming the first author.

Kurt loves Blaine’s idea. But he also has an agenda on his own.

Notes: This is a little, somewhat cracky fic inspired by this post on WTF, Scientific Papers? and I knew I wanted to Klaine-ify it. Thank you Beth @quizasvivamos and Gwen @cerriddwenluna with brainstorming for the title.

Enjoy!

AO3 | S&C

–

“Finally!”

Kurt holds up his hand for a high-five. Blaine enthusiastically gives one. After months of hard labour, their academic paper is done and it’s ready to be submitted to a journal for the review process. They’ve spent hours and hours researching queer representation in Broadway by overanalysing Broadway scripts and it has paid off.

Well, it’s almost done. They need to decide the order of the authorship. In academics, the author who has contributes the most gets credited first, but this was a collaborative process. They had a fair share in their work.

But luckily, Blaine had thought ahead.

“When we’re finished, we need to do a Broadway sing-off. Whoever wins is named first.”

Kurt immediately was on board. It reminded him of the diva-offs from high school. They both already picked a song and they even found volunteers to judge. Luckily, the people in the NYU theatre department know how to judge a performance.

“So, I guess it is time then?” Blaine says once they’ve calmed down their celebration.

Kurt nods.

“Let’s text the others for a time and date.”

“Bring it on,” Blaine holds out his hand as a sign of sportsmanship and Kurt shakes it. When he touches Blaine, he feels warm in his chest, but he pushes that down. That’s what he’s been doing during the entire process of working together, since he can’t afford to swoon on the job.

But my God, Kurt wants to swoon. How can one not swoon over Blaine Anderson?

Blaine doesn’t make it easy, especially when he gives Kurt a wink. He’s so good-mannered and playful. Blaine came with this whole idea in the first place and it perfectly fits Blaine.

Kurt quickly lets go of Blaine’s hand so that he can text his colleagues.

--

A few days later, Kurt, Blaine and some colleagues are gathered in the lounge. Kurt has picked a specific song weeks ago, but he’s a bit nervous to perform it. Not because he thinks he’s going to fail. Kurt knows he can sing. He’s confident about his performance. It’s the song he’s nervous about.

He’s making a risky move, he knows it.

“Welcome everyone!” Rachel says into the mic. Of course she volunteered to lead this sing-off the moment Kurt and Blaine told her of their plan.

Kurt is standing on her left on the small make-shift stage. Blaine’s on her right. Artie has dimmed the light and he’s shining a desk lamp in their faces as an impromptu stage light.

“Artie, can you please tone it down!” Rachel says harshly, which is rude, but she isn’t wrong.

“Sorry,” Artie mutters and Kurt blinks. Now he can actually see his small audience. All of the theatre department are gathered in the staff room.

Rachel clears her throat.

“Dear guests, welcome to the sing-off between Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson,” Rachel says and people in the room cheer and applaud. Kurt and Blaine share a smile behind Rachel’s back. Man, their colleagues are great.

“Go Kurt!” Mercedes yells.

“Go Blaine!” Tina yells back.

Rachel shushes the crowd.

“Guys, guys, they haven’t even sung yet. Oh my God. Ahem, as I was saying, welcome. As you all may know, Kurt and Blaine have worked tremendously hard on their latest article, named We are who we are: Queering Broadway and beyond-”

The audience erupts into another round of applause. Rachel has to do more crowd control, but Kurt and Blaine don’t mind. They indeed worked hard, so they appreciate the feedback.

“Anyway, since these lovely gentlemen have contributed an equal amount, they decided to-”

“Can they sing already?” Santana hollers from the back, “We all read the invitation. We want to see the action!”

Rachel turns red, but the audience seems to agree. Kurt has to stifle a laugh. Rachel does love unnecessary dramatics and speeches.

“Ahem,” Rachel says again. She actually says the word ‘ahem’. “Very well. Kurt, Blaine, please step forward.”

They do.

Rachel takes a coin out of her bedazzled purse.

“Head or tails?” she asks.

“Head!” Blaine yells.

“Tails!” Kurt exclaims at the same time.

It’s not a discussion. Kurt and Blaine have worked for long enough to know each other’s preferred coin side.

Rachel flips the coin and shows that head has won. Blaine fist bumps the air and he looks adorable. Normally, Kurt would be enthralled by it, but now his mind is reeling. Blaine is going first. Kurt knew that there was a 50% chance that it would happen, but he still doesn’t know if this benefits him, or if this is detrimental to his plan.

If he were to go first, it would be like ripping off the Band-Aid. No time to overthink it. But now he goes last, which means he has to sit with his decision a bit longer. Fuck, why did he agree to this? They should’ve just done a coin flip, like now.

“Alright, give it up for our very own Blaine Anderson!” Rachel cheers and the audience follows suit. Kurt and Rachel take a seat so that the focus is on Blaine and oh boy, Kurt is focusing. Kurt is focusing hard.

Although he almost loses focus when Blaine walks off stage to grab a guitar. What is he planning?

“Alright everyone,” Blaine says to the crowd as he strums his guitar, “I won’t keep you waiting.”

Then he looks right at Kurt.

“Kurt, this is for you. May the best singer win. Artie?”

Artie nods and he hits play on the YouTube video. The mood is instantly killed when they first have to sit through two 30 second long ads, and Sam chastises Artie for not having an AdBlocker installed, but Kurt uses this extra minute to compose himself.

He definitely needs it when the music starts playing and he recognises it. Blaine plays his guitar to go along.

When the earth was still flat And clouds made of fire And mountains stretched up to the sky Sometimes higher

“Holy shit,” Rachel mutters, but Kurt isn’t paying attention on her. His eyes are fixated on Blaine, and Blaine keeps staring back. Kurt sits back in his chair and he feels… well… overwhelmed. Blaine is serenading Kurt.

Or so it seems.

I mean, why else would Blaine sing a song called Origin of Love while looking at Kurt like that? Blaine loses himself in the music and Kurt can feel the emotion. He’s shook to the core. All the love and affection that he’s been bottling up are resurfacing.

When Blaine’s finished and everyone is clapping, Kurt’s in tears.

“Well?” Blaine asks Kurt.

He slings his guitar over his shoulder and he looks so earnest. Kurt stands up to face him and-

“You dickhead!” he yells out. Tears flow down his cheeks and Blaine looks flabbergasted and saddened. The room has gone dead silent and Kurt can feel Rachel’s hand on his arm.

“Kurt-”

“No, no, no!” Kurt cuts Blaine off, “Damnit, Blaine, you stole my thunder! I had it all planned out and now you come in and do the same fucking thing?”

“What…” Blaine still looks confused, but instead of saddened, he’s hopeful.

“This was going to be my big moment. I’ve spent all week going over this, trying to find the perfect song to serenade you with, and you do this!” Kurt yells through his tears, but then he starts laughing.

“You… were going to serenade me?”

“Yes! I had it all planned out. I was even going to say that my name is Kurt Hummel and that I am auditioning for the role of Blaine’s boyfriend-”

And the next thing Kurt knows, Blaine’s jumped off the stage and he plants a big kiss on Kurt’s lips. Their audience goes wild and Kurt can’t help but feel incredibly happy. They keep kissing until Rachel coughs.

Kurt and Blaine look at their bemused colleagues. No one seems super surprised and Brittany gives Mike a 10 dollar bill.

“Uhm, Kurt, as wonderful as this all is… you still need to perform. This is a competition.”

Kurt feels like he’s already won, but she’s right.

“Good luck,” Blaine says. He gives Kurt another quick kiss, which makes Puck whistle, before setting the guitar aside and sitting next to Rachel. Kurt takes his spot on the stage and he gives a thumb up to Artie.

After another round of annoying YouTube ads, the song that Kurt carefully picked out starts to play.

The moon First time I heard your voice Moonlight burst into the room

Blaine eyes light up when he realises that Kurt is singing No One Else. Kurt thought this was going to be his big confession, but now that the hard part has been done, he can unapologetically make sure that Blaine understands the message.

When Kurt’s finished, he takes a bow and everyone cheers.

Rachel gets up.

“Alright. I will give you all 5 minutes to deliberate on your choice. And Kurt and Blaine can use these 5 minutes to make out some more-”

“Wanky!” Santana hoots.

“-before we come back with the results.”

--

“What do you mean it’s a tie?” Rachel says when she sees that the same amount of hands are in the air for each candidate.

“Well… they were both outstanding,” Quinn, who has her hand raised in Kurt’s favour, says, “I mean, I am picking Kurt, but honestly, I am not sure about it either. Blaine was so good.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Finn says with a shrug. He voted for Blaine. “Kurt fucking killed it.”

Everyone in the room murmurs their agreement. Rachel looks like she’s going to lose it, so Kurt cuts in before she can say anything else.

“Uh, Rachel, if I may?”

Rachel pouts, but she steps aside.

“Everyone, thank you. And thank you for allowing us to express our feelings towards each other.”

“Yeah,” Blaine says and he takes Kurt’s hand in his, which leads to another round of cheers.

Kurt tries not to blush.

“Anyway, I think this is not going to result in anything, so how about we do it the old fashioned way after all?”

Blaine raises an eyebrow, but he catches on quickly.

“Head!” he yells.

“Tail!” Kurt shouts at the same time.

“Rachel, will you do the honour?”

Rachel beams. Yes, she will. She takes out the coin and flips it.

--

Bibliography

Anderson, B. & Hummel, K. (2023). We are who we are: Queering Broadway and beyond. Journal of theatre studies, 2(4), 206 – 216.

Anderson, B. & Hummel, K. (2024). Who’s afraid of queer Virginia Woolf?: Reparative readings and reinterpretations from a queer perspective. Journal of theatre studies, 6(2), 414 - 421.

Anderson, B. & Hummel, K. (2025). Just be who you wanna be: Coming out narratives in theatre. Journal of theatre studies, 3(2), 51 – 68.

Hummel, K. & Anderson, B. (2026). “I support gay rights, but I also support gay wrongs!”: Reactions towards queer(coded) villains on the stage. Journal of theatre studies, 1(4), 301 – 317.

Hummel, K. & Anderson, B. (2027). Gay or European?: Cultural diversity in queer representation in musicals. Journal of theatre studies, 1(5), 514 - 530.

Hummel-Anderson, K. & Hummel-Anderson, B. (2028). A place where we belong: Happy endings and queer joy on the Great White Way. Journal of theatre studies, 2(4), 12 - 21.

--

Acknowledgments

Both authors, as usual, contributed to this paper equally. A Broadway sing-off was used to determine the order of the authors’ names. After a tie, a classic heads or tails was used. This happens every time the authors publish a paper together. They do not mind.

–   

End notes: Fun fact, I did an actual coin flip to decide who would get to be the first author on their paper. Then I switched it up for their later papers only to remember that bibliography is ordered alphabetically so I changed it to Blaine for the first couple of papers. I had a lot of fun coming up with their wacky paper names. There are also some smaller easter eggs in the APA. Hehehehehe.

[the-bunny-burrow-archives]

Ok, it is time I actually get to this, so uh um here's the first book review for "The Bunny Burrow Archives"!!!! Mlem mlem mlem mlem mlem.

I will warn it's been a bit since I've done a book review, so if you have any critiques like ever over how I do my book reviews, please do not hesitate. I can take criticism. Unless like said criticism is like "fuck you that made no sense and it's just bad"

Anyway, here is the cover of the book that I very much enjoyed!

Please note that I am going to be using the words science and medicine interchangeably because I am unsure which is the more appropriate term.

Personally, Dr. John S. Tregoning, in my opinion, has written one of the best books over medicine and pathogens I've ever read. Mostly because it is the first book I've ever read over those topics, unless you count science textbooks from like school, but meh. Honestly, the material taught in this book is worth so much more than my schooling ever gave me. Not only because Tregoning had incredibly crystal clear explanations for stuff I have next to no understanding for. But also how well it structured and laid out.

Before getting into the main topic of the book "Pathogens and How We Fight Them," Tregoning ensures the reader has enough of an understanding of the topics before getting into them. Thankfully, he has a sense of humor and doesn't write it out to sound like some boring math lesson or a book review >_< He goes over so much that I am surprised he is able to fit it all in 340 pages. Given how much information there was, I honestly should read it a second time to ensure I have a clear understanding of everything buuuut meh.

Infectious mentions all forms of pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, fungie, and parasites. Whilst giving the science lesson of a life (better than like crash course science on YouTube), he also gives a detailed history of how far medicine and science have come. Including mentioning the stupidity of some doctors from the dark ages. I feel it's kinda of a more well-known fun fact that doctors used to not wash their hands cause they couldn't explain why it helped, so they didn't bother with such a basic task. But did you know that apparently some doctors used to wear blood stains on their aprons kinda of like a show of pride, thinking that having a bunch of blood splashes on it meant you were a good doctor. Honestly, hearing that was like wtf how could they think something so barbaric, but then again, this was before many of the advancements in the field of medicine, and also in the dark ages of medicine.

I will say I do really like chapter 14 because it offers a doctors very detailed explanation as to why anti vaxxers exist. Like 20 pages worth of an explanation better than any 3 page article on some news or whatever site. And I especially appreciated the new insult for people who can't wear a mask properly <i>Maskentrottel</i> or, in other words, a mask idiot in German.

Since this book was being written during covid, it does mention it a fair bit. Along with an explanation to the question, "How did covid get a vaccine so fast when it took longer for every other vaccine in history?" (Imagine me saying this in a mimimimi voice). Other than the obvious of hello, the whole world was working on it in a collective effort, and the fact that science and medicine constantly get more advanced. It also mentions the breakthrough that lead to a vaccine.

I honestly don't know how to structure this review mainly because there is so much to talk about. Whether it be mentioning how poop influences our microbiomes at birth which goes to determine how our immune systems are formed all the way. Up to how to know whether or not a scientific study or science paper is trustworthy. There was so much.

I will say I kinda wished I would've seen a mention of the unreliability for the studies done during the AIDs scare/pandemic saying ONLY gay men get it. Mainly because straight people wouldn't bother with STD testing or anything of the sort at the time in fear of being called gay, and maybe also due to them having a less care about sexual health at the time. But then again, he did do an amazing job covering it, and that's kinda just me being picky about that. Please do not mistake me for being like mad or disappointed it wasn't mentioned I'm just using this as a way to say, "Did you know?"

The biggest critique I have is that with the amount of information within this book, I felt it to be a little cramped and sometimes hard to keep up with everything. Maybe it would've been best to have it like a two part book or just make it bigger, cause I like my books thick anyway. But regardless, I still very much enjoy this and highly recommend it because it's a great read.

[marley-manson]

New Doctor Who episode reaction post in a pros and cons list. Overall I really liked it.

Pros:

-- That's my show!!! That's my faves!!!!!! They're right there on the screen!!!

-- Donna Donna Donna Donna Donna Donna Donna Donna <3333333333333333

-- Gorgeous TARDIS interior, I cannot believe it's an actual 100% physical set god damn, I'm in love. I think it's actually better than the old coral

-- Rose was a great character, love her. I think Davies did really well writing her as trans, the scene with her shitty classmates and Donna being protective was a great moment imo that was just the right amount of transphobia to feel grounded without feeling gratuitous, and Sylvia second guessing herself about calling Rose gorgeous was also a nice moment. Felt real but also warm and loving.

-- I liked that Rose feeling like she's from an alien planet isn't a trans thing, it's a secretly has timelord genetics thing lol

-- oh god the Doctor saying he's a friend of Nerys was incredible, amazing writing, so fucking funny, love that continuity

-- Shaun was great too, love his amiability

-- I liked the Meep being the twist villain, you could see it coming a mile away but I'm always a fan of these kinds of twists

-- I also loved that one of the hints was that Shaun's car wasn't affected by the energy weapons because during that scene I was like 'lol wtf why are their weapons so weak come on' and then 2 minutes later I got an explanation. Love when that happens

-- I liked that Sylvia chilled out a lot and is much better but still isn't a perfect parent (taking a moment before reassuring Donna that she does know how Donna feels about Rose eg), and Donna partially overcompensates with Rose because she didn't get enough praise from Sylvia, and Sylvia seemingly trying to make up for her unsupportiveness of Donna by being very supportive of Rose. Man I love how Davies writes people, yk?

-- I got teary when Donna got her memories back <333

-- RTD always showing the big dangerous effects of the aliens through the pov of innocent bystanders <3 Mainly the neighbour kid in this case.

-- UNIT's scientific consultant was great. I forget her name, but again I enjoy how RTD wrote her representation-wise. She does have a disability, she can't take the stairs and that's a plot point at one point, but she also has some awesome ways to help not just in spite of her disability but because of it. Again, a great balance between grounded and uplifting imo

-- Catherine Tate's performance as a half-timelord is just so fun <3

-- I really loved the revelation that Rose inherited some of the timelord stuff and so she helped save the day as well as keeping Donna alive longer, it was a great exciting moment

-- I was spoiled for the Doctor's line where he tells Donna he loves her and then goes 'oh do I say those things now?' and I was prepared to be annoyed at the gender essentialist implication that it's from ~the female doctor~ but in context it did not feel like a reference to Thirteen being more open, it just felt like the Doctor reflecting that this regeneration isn't exactly the same as Ten. I haven't seen Thirteen so I can't say what her personality is like exactly beyond some vague osmosis, but it could be read as a contrast since he just regenerated from her and that's the kind of stuff a new regeneration says in comparision to the last one. Which I dig.

-- I liked the psychic paper giving him a 'mistress' title and the Doctor saying "oh catch up." Actually in general I enjoyed the occasional Thirteen references, the Doctor was a woman, not anymore, cool. Good, light touch. I am primed to be easily annoyed at how sci-fi gender changes are handled, so I was pleasantly surprised.

-- Oh, I like that the 10 clone thing is gonna be an ongoing mystery over these three specials. I didn't like the concept when I'd heard about it (I was like c'mon can't we get Ten II up in here if we're going to bring Tennant back?) but it is the only way to have a Ten+Donna adventure at this point in the story without handwaving the aging and making it a multi-doctor story featuring 3 Doctors idgaf about, and it's def worth it, so I'm glad they're making it a mystery to be solved rather than giving an offhand easy explanation at least.

Cons:

-- This is on me, but having not watched the show aside from like 5 episodes in the last 15 years, I'm not sure which elements are RTD originals and which are from Moffat and/or Chibnall. Like the sonic screwdriver being able to draw in the air and create forcefields? I don't like that.

-- Also on that same note, UNIT's Judge Dredd swat team vibe? What's up with that? Not a fan, not sure who to blame tho.

-- But yeah this lack of knowledge of what came before left me feeling a little lost sometimes, unsure what I'm supposed to roll with and what's supposed to be new and cool. I'm hoping RTD does more of a clean new start overall because I'm not willing to watch previous DW for the sake of this series.

-- RTD's thing with... puns as (usually retrospective lol) foreshadowing? Always one of the sillier things about his writing, eg YANA, the Doctor-Donna being an actual thing rather than an idiosyncratic speech pattern, etc. Anyway he did it again with the binary/non-binary thing and I thought it was silly again.

-- Biggest con probably is that the resolution to the half-timelord thing was underwhelming and I realize this was meant to be a bit of a feminist statement but came across as gender essentialist as hell too. We're women so we understand we can just let the power go??? At LEAST make it crystal clear that this is only an option now that it's dispersed between two people and not something Donna could've done 15 years ago lol.

-- The editing felt a little off? Scenes cut off a hair too quickly, causing the pacing to feel rushed during a lot of it. There were a few good emotional and character scenes that had room to breathe ofc, but the action/plot scenes felt a little too crushed together, yk? Gimme half a second after a line of dialogue before you cut to the next scene pls.

-- Oh I was meh about the opening titles, but honestly that's just because I like how simple the old RTD credits were and these feel overdone in comparison. But that's a super minor complaint lol, I don't really care.

That's about it though honestly, I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. I mean I was vascillating hard between high and low hopes lol, but yk. I try to keep my expectations moderate, and those expectations were exceeded. Before this I wasn't sure if I was going to jump back in at all, but now I'm genuinely looking forward to the next special, and the next Doctor after this anniversary stuff!