#but why in the world would rtd do that?

[variousqueerthings]

I mean, yes, there's a lot of nostalgia to the 60th anniversary, but I think people will conflate that with "automatically a bit shit" because a lot of nostalgia Stuff isn't that great after a glut of lazy nostalgia-based media over the last x amount of time, but that assumes that it was bad because of it being nostalgic, and not because it was irony-poisoned, self-conscious, and unwilling to interact with the changing times and therefore a poor copy of the said thing it was being nostalgic about, rather than continuing a story. the familiar phrase by now of "all nostalgia, no sincerity"

when I'm not a fan of what one might call "nostalgia"-stories, it's not because referring to the past is automatically bad writing, it's because the writing is stale and really often it's because it reveals that whoever made the new thing definitely didn't get the same out of the classic thing that I did, and at the same time is patting themself on the back for idk. something. doing the same thing again, only this time around worse (often it's that surface level interaction with tropes, rather than themes that outs them -- and yeah, that's in the trailer, but specifically the trailer is giving very little away, so knowing they're hooking people in with a bit of allons-y or the slap or donna being sassy, while keeping the things I'm really excited about a bit more mysterious, I mean... that just makes sense?? Yeah, I recognise the callbacks, but the really important things aren't being revealed yet, like the inverse of terrible movies that show all their biggest set-pieces in the trailer, because that's all they have to offer)

and I don't see people pre-judging the potential 60th on those criteria, just on the word "nostalgia." I mean, obviously we can say this might be bad, but it's sort of a nothing-statement, and it seems kind of unfair to say that rtd would do this, when he's not done that before, specifically on a show that is super nostalgic to begin with (that is, the longest-running scifi show of all time), of which rtd was a massive fucking nerd

I assume because it's three specials with dtennant and catherine tate, but also yeah, why the hell not be nostalgic both about classic!who and the series that you created that rebooted the show (the answer is "because ten isn't the only doctor that matters," and personally, again, rtd being a massive fucking nerd, feels a bit like putting words in the man's mouth that he's never said, specifically about a show that he's super nerdy about)

feels like people are putting the stance out there that they're ready to hate it and then they can always go, "oh it was surprisingly good, actually," in case it is good, rather than be just excited going in and risk disappointment, but it's a bit boring to be honest

tempering excitement is all well and good, until it makes you the irony-poisoned one, where all nostalgia is kind of stupid really, you don't even care that much, and you know this is going to be shit, and actually looking back rtd was never good if you think about it, and ten is overrated, and david tennant isn't even a good actor actually, and catherine tate was just a shitty comedian, and you've preemptively decided to refuse to enjoy yourself

it's an anniversary, that's when the nostalgia comes out, and has done since the 10th anniversary in (checks notes) 1972!

#rtd #doctor who #dw #russell t davies #i mean there's things id be unhappy with too #i may not be a fan of moffat or chibnall as showrunners but i dont want those stories erased #because that's a kind of cruel + ego-fueled thing to do and those stories matter to a lot of people #and for me personally that's the timeline and i wouldn't want it fucked with esp capaldi and whittaker #who are very very underrated in each their way #but why in the world would rtd do that? #also i was upset when moffat did Exactly that with rtd's run to begin with i wouldn't want it done again #and i wouldnt want the stories to be meaningless or boring (which.. again why would they be?) #and i wouldnt want it to become too marvel-ised (i take heart in rtd absolutely slamming loki for poor rep) #(and that in the past he's talked about the love of Creating for screen for amateurs AND he's brought back confidential/unleashed) #(AND that he's still heavily inspired by classic!who while also casting a boatload of queer actors) #and i dont want ncuti gatwa to be overshadowed but again again again again... why in the world would rtd do that? #actually fuckit im making a post about things im excited for for the 60th

[tanoraqui]

obviously the Historical Figure Episode(TM) of Doctor Who that I’d write would of the Noted Author subset endemic to the RTD Era; it’d be called “Spiders in the Trenches” and be set in the middle of World War One ft. one Lt. John Tolkien.

idk if the main aliens are spiders or if they're just using giant robotic spiders as soldier-minions. Either way, Tolkien is a little too defensive when he says he's not afraid of spiders.

The alien invaders want some sort of shiny mcguffin, maybe as a power source for their ship? Or for a mega-weapon? We do not want them to get it, at any rate. Race to find the Shiny Power Jewel-Thing which has been lost somewhere in this like 20-mile radius of the Western Front.

When our heroes narrowly beat the spiders to the SPJT, Tolkien realizes that the spiders only ever attack at night because light hurts them somehow, so he holds the SPJT up as it flares and shouts, "Get back, foul creatures! Back into the shadows from whence you came!"

(They're from the dark side of a tidally locked planet, and made for extremely low-light conditions? The SPJT flares because it's controlled telepathically and it connected to Tolkien's mind when he touched it?)

Ideally Tolkien's first encounter with the Doctor is that he wakes up in the trench one day (after losing some men to a mysterious monster in the darkness a couple nights ago?), and there's 2 random strangers in weird clothes idly singing and playing an instrument which they stole from someone a couple bedrolls down. (This works well with Fifteen & Ruby's established inclination to music!)

We do need an Eowyn Moment, because that's iconic, but I'd split it: for dialogue, at one point the head boss evil alien boasts, "No human can defeat the Tenebrarachnid Empire!" and the Doctor replies, "Good thing they've got me, then."...

[I don't know if this is a Fifteen line yet. I know it's a very Eleven line]

...and there's a soldier in Tolkien's unit who is revealed to be secretly a woman! Who disguised herself as a man in order to enlist for ??? reasons, and who dramatically pulls off her hat to reveal her long hair.

The third notable local character is the sort who inspired Sam Gamgee, "...the English soldier, [like] the privates and batmen I knew in the 1914 war, and recognized as so far superior to myself.”

^those two can have a romantic subplot if it fits (comrades-in-arms is also extremely good). Tolkien, however, at some point shows Ruby the picture of his wife Edith which he carries at all times, she of the black hair and bright grey eyes, and is obviously ready to monologue about how wonderful she is.

In the same scene(?), Tolkien looks up at the stars and says their brightness shining afar, clear of all the horrors on the ground, is always a source of hope and strength to him.

Maybe also in the same scene? Tolkien is shown to make up stories for fun, or to read them in his little spare time - fairy tales and mythological epics. Maybe he tells them to the men around the fire, maybe he keeps a little notebook, maybe he just admits to daydreaming... When asked why, he paraphrases his quote from later life, " Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?"

At some point (Star-watching scene? when the Doctor inevitably has to explain that aliens exist? when they're all saying goodbye in the end?) there's a line drawing attention to the Doctor's parallels with Eärendil - eternally wandering figure of hope, sailing the stars in a ship with a light on top, not quite mortal...

Tolkien DEFINITELY tries to figure out the alien language, in writing or speech.

Something the aliens are doing is making people sick. Maybe the attacking robo-spiders are venomous, maybe there's a toxic byproduct of the alien ship, maybe it's a deliberate first assault of the planned invasion... By the end of the episode, Tolkien is very ill. The Doctor has figured out an antidote and given it, but Tolkien says goodbye to him and Ruby only to stumble to a medical outpost - from where, the Doctor explains to Ruby, he'll be sent home with this bad case of what's assumed to be trench fever. Between the fever and the brief psychic entanglement, and unentanglement, with the SPJT, he won't even remember most of this, and what he does remember, he'll put down to fever dreams amidst the horrors of war.

But he'll remember some things! He'll remember an eternal wanderer of the stars, unaging and undying and ever-hopeful, heralded by light (and a vworrrp vrorrrp noise).

#doctor who #JRR Tolkien #ficlet #my fic

[13thdoctorposts]

Sometimes it’s important to know when to let a show go. 

When 13 regenerated into 14 and had her clothes burnt off like a witch on a stake, sending a horrible message about women and gender RTD came out and said he did it to protect David from right wing media. Then the fans defended David coming back and that RTD would address why he had that face and why the clothes also regenerated, although I was upset with 13s regeneration I thought ok I’ll wait and see how this get handles. Because even though I don’t like the real world messaging maybe the in world messaging will be enough to make it ok.

But then what happens? We get a trans story for the very first story with very positive messaging for trans issues which is great but undermined by the fact RTD wanted to protect David from gender critiques by the right wing but didn’t seem to want to protect Yasmin Finney. So first David can’t wear Jodies costume for protection but then RTD has Yasmin live through being deadnamed in the show which she herself has said made her uncomfortable and then also gave her character the line of telling the Doctor to not assume pronouns… which any of the characters could have done but RTD chose Rose and then what happen? What always happens with the right wing, the pronoun line and the male presenting line are the ones that the right wing all go on about in every video, in every article… they deadname the character and then misgender and say horrible things about Yasmin… so RTD protects the 50+ year old white man who’s worn way more feminine things then 13 outfit in his career the media could use if they wanted to go after him but don’t protect the 20 year old Trans Woman? How people aren’t talking about how fucked up that is I don’t know.

Then we get no reason why the Doctor has that face and why the clothes regenerated on them. Then in their own regeneration… they don’t! They bi-regenerates and this time Ncuti does get the Doctor clothes, well half of them… why didn’t 15 regenerate with their own clothes? No instead we have the new Doctor walking around with no pants on… and why is it that 15 has to go pantless and not David? are we protecting David again? Perfectly fine to have a bunch of pics of 15 in his tighty whities and no pants but again David could not be seen in 13s full gender neutral outfit. 

Then to top all this off theres no mention in the loves lost of Yaz… even though the Doctor chose to drop her off in a park 3 days ago after telling her if they could Date anyone it would be Yaz… is that not love lost? Was saying good bye to Yaz not an emotional trigger? Now people are saying thats because only the dead were brought up… Rose is not dead unlike Yaz Rose is not only alive in another Dimension but also got herself a Doctor… Yaz currently is mourning the Doctor while they cant even seem to remember she existed despite dropping her off 3 days a go… so they weren’t all dead… however Rose was over 1000 years ago and Yaz 3 days ago… what hurts more the lost of someone you loved but who is still alive from 50 years ago or the one you lost last week? What makes logical sense is the love you lost most recently hurts the most… and people dont need to die for you to hurt losing them from your life if you love them.

Now we have 2 Doctors and people are already saying they can’t wait for David Tennant episodes, so if you think the 10th Doctor overshadowed the other Doctors when he was no longer the Doctor how overshadowed do you think the first main Doctor of colour is going to be when lots of peoples favourite white Doctor ever is also a legitimate Doctor in universe existing at the exact same time with a TARDIS? Ncuti doesn’t event get to be the only Doctor during his tenure he has to share it with David.  

The lastly no mentions of Yaz at all… seems shes completely forgotten and at the very end the Doctor says they are finally with their family the happiest he’s ever been… what a diss of every TARDIS team ever that the Doctor has found family with… your last crew you literally called your ‘Fam’, the Ponds you actually married into… Susan was your flesh and blood… but no this family you haven’t seen in 1000 years, of which only one of who was part of your TARDIS team are the ones you finally found family with and make you the happiest you’ve ever be? Literally at the exact same time the Doctor is sitting at that table saying all of that, Yaz is mourning the Doctor and not wanting to have left the TARDIS, but she doesn’t get a mention because for some reason if it’s a wlw relationship it means nothing and can be ignored completely. 

Honestly by the end the Doctor just seems like a complete prick, and not in a 13 I’m dealing with internal trauma and I accidentally snapped way but just in a I’m a shit person way. Talk about compromised morals, people wouldn’t shut up about it with 13 but the Doctor just left a young woman to mourn them while being the “happiest they have ever been” grabbing themselves a new family and pretending Yaz doesn’t exist. Talk about shit morals. People say Chibs didn’t know anything from 12s era, which wasn’t true it directly affected the way 13 kept the fam at arms length but after watching this clearly RTD didn’t even know what happened in the episode 14 regenerated from 13 in and the previous episode Legend of the Sea Devils, because surely if you did, you wouldn’t not mention Yaz at all and give a reason why the Doctor wouldn’t go see her while she’s mourning them and just grabbing a new family and claiming to be the happiest you’ve ever been in the 2000 years of life you remember. Because that would make the character look like a prick, not a hero, which is exactly what happened. If RTD is the amazing writer people claim, he could have come up with a Yaz mention and a reason why the Doctor wasn’t going to see her.

I know not everyone was happy with the wlw representation with Thasmin but you know what’s way worse? Not even mentioning it or even acknowledging Yaz’s existence.

And to top it off I am so very very over the double standard of the fandom… this episode, had plot holes, had important things that weren’t explained… like why that face and why did the clothes regenerate… things that weren’t explained that weren’t so important like where did the sonic screw driver come from, why can it do all the things it now does… it had racism from both the Toymaker and Donna… what on earth was that line about ‘do you come in every colour’, was paced poorly, it clearly should have been longer and decided to mess with lore by creating bi-rengeration out of thin air and not explaining how it would effect things going forward or why it even happen, like a true WTF… if Chibs had done even one of these things, or wrote this episode the exact same way the fandom would be coming for him instead they are praising the genius of RTD not caring about any of those things, all the sins they claimed Chibs did and some of them on a bigger scale in this episode but the treatment of RTD is the polar opposite. 

It’s unbelievably hypocritical, and makes the fandom look even worse for being so hard on the first female Doctor because none of this was acceptable for her but its not only fine but great with a male Doctor.

So I think it’s time for me to let this show go, and know it’s time to bow out. Because unlike the people who have been horrible about 13 for the last 6 years I understand sometimes you have to step away from something you love when its no longer for you and leave it for other people to love.

Im out with 13.

#13th doctor #thirteenth doctor #thirteen #13 #yasmin khan #thasmin #yaz #yaz khan #13 era #dw

[insomniac-101]

So something that I often don't see people discuss is the manner in which the 9th and the 10th doctor's seasons are so intrinsically connected that it is almost impossible to understand a lot of key character arcs if you choose to skip it upon rewatch. The reason why I say this is because the moment you reach season 2, 10 is essentially the product of the development 9 achieves at the end of his season. To skip him, would mean that you also miss context as to the reason why Rose is so important and in turn, not understand the reason why their bond in particular is such a big part of the plot during the 10th's era.

Now bare with me, because I'm about to go off a bit lmao.

The first season of nuwho not only serves as an introduction to many of the key characters we see later on, such as: the Doctor, Rose, Jackie, Jack, Mickey, Harriet jones, etc. but it also serves as an introduction for the concept of the series as a whole. Prior to this, doctor who as a franchise had a reputation of being a geeky sci-fi show with no real wide spread appeal. Remaining as a niche interest to many, up until the reboot returned and reintroduced the show to a newer audience.

This is important to note because this is one of the main reasons why we see such a huge emphasis placed on the companions' lives in the reboot. Because RTD meant to expand the world of Doctor who and its audience, and by doing so, he strived to try a multitude of new plots that were otherwise never explored previously. This is why the romantic plotline of his season is so crucial to the story itself because he means to explore a facet of humanity not previously seen with the Doctor as a character. RTD essentially built this plot line from scratch, as the only other attempt at exploring such an angle was received negatively (The 8th Doctor's movie). So there's a degree of leniency that I give his writing In particular because like I said prior, he had no prior reference for exploring humanity to the degree in which the new series does.

The ninth doctor, when we meet him, is essentially a recluse. He is in a state of stagnation, implied to have been alone for some time after the war and it gives off the impression that he's no longer accustomed to being around people. He's often direct, rudely so and very standoffish to anyone that isn't immediately measuring up to his standards. This isn't to say that he isn't charming in his own way. He's sarcastic and when he tries, he can actually be very good with people. But the war still weighs heavily on his conscious and so, he views the world through the eyes of a soldier. Prioritizing the act of surviving rather than slowing down and actually taking the time to live life.

I mean, the man essentially meets Rose while blowing up her workplace and if that isn't concerning on its own merit than I don't know what is lmao.

A scene that sticks out to me the most about him in particular is when he looks at himself in the mirror for the first time. He notes that he has big ears, and from the manner in which he says it the implication that he perhaps has not seen himself in a long time is not lost to us. This coupled with the knowledge that he had indeed been seen traveling prior to meeting Rose, gives the phrase a more dark connotation that makes sense for his character.

I like to think that this indicates that the guilt of what he did to stop the war weighs so heavily on him that he could never bring himself to face his reflection. Because truly, to have gone so long without seeing yourself, not even in the reflection of a window or other surface is not something that is easy to do. Rather, it is something you have to go out of your way to do. Also it's important to note that his appearance is in fact a reflection of that weariness he feels. With his body, being older outwardly (appearing 40ish ) and his features being very sharp and serious. Even his hair is pretty short, much like how a soldier would keep it as a means of not wasting any time on worrying on something so inconvenient. His preference for darker colors and his constant outfit is also very noticably practical, not at all decorative like his prior bodies. This is purposeful, because it is what sets him apart from prior versions of the character and an easy way to visually see his most prominent traits.

Now with that out of the way, now I can discuss how 9 changes and what his relationship to Rose is like, so that one can better understand why Rose is such an important part of the Doctor's character.

From the moment the two meet, you can see he harbors an immediate curiosity towards her. Here they are, trapped in an elevator being attacked by a group of living mannequins and yet, Rose is almost unaffected.

That isn't to say she isn't afraid, she is, but her fear doesn't stop her from asking questions and demanding explanations. She doesn't shy away from him, rather she confronts him head on and even shows a level of concern for other people while she is actively the one in danger. It is enough to prompt him to ask her name, but not enough to involve her. Preferring to instead keep his distance.

It is not until another chance meeting that he gradually lets her in, allowing her to humor him with her curiosity and we see once more that he is in fact very good at socializing, but only with certain people. The reason why I stress this is because he often outwardly puts this front of coldness towards those that don't interest him. Rose was able to look past this front, and seems to look past his rather cold attitude towards other humans. He often stresses how inept they are, going on tangents about how they're nothing more than apes but she ignores it and tries to get at the core of the issue. That's why they mesh so well, because she is able to separate the fluff he inserts into his answers and take it for what it is. That isn't to say she's a doormat, she just knows when to pick her battles.

"do you know like we were saying? About the world revolving. It's like you're a kid, the first time they tell you that the world is turning and you just can't quite believe it cause everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning 1,000 miles an hour and the entire planet is hurtling round the sun at 67,00 miles an hour. And I can feel it, we're falling through space you and me. Clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go.. that's who I am. Now forget me, Rose Tyler"

He is describing the manner in which he views the world. Unlike how a kid is unable to comprehend the vast truths of how the world functions and remains naive of it for a period of time, he is a man that was never given that chance to be unaware of how it functions to an infuriating degree. He sees the world for how it is, dark, unforgiving and so direct. Everything is calculated so precisely and he can't even begin to comprehend why anyone would see the good in it as it's just that, a planet.

But that's why he finds humans so interesting. There's a part of him that holds onto that hope that it is something more, that perhaps he is missing out on a purpose behind all the darkness. That's why he is running amongst them, to find a reason behind their way of thinking. To experience the world through the eyes of the hypothetical child, rather than the adult who breaks the illusion.

Not only that, but this conversation also let's us in on how touch-deprived he is.

For it is in a moment of vulnerability that he allows himself to reach out and touch Rose physically. Grabbing her hand for emphasis on how heavy this revelation burdens him. It's a cry for help in a sense, because he has reached the point where he has metaphorically "let go". Dropping her hand, to show that he is losing that last part of him that clings to that hope of finding something that will allow him to question his view of the world. He is miserable and lonely, because when you view the world through such a cynical lens it becomes all the more apparent that life is so lonely. If everything is doomed, then why go out of your way to care?

You see this in the way he remains unaffected by the reveal of Mickey's "death." Having grown so used to it, that he finds it off-putting to see that Rose is freaking out as a result. It happens everyday to people far more important so why give it any real weight if it's inevitable? Why ascribe a meaning to something that just is?

Remember when I mentioned it is implied that he was traveling on his own for a while? What places did he visit? The Titanic, the Kennedy assassination, the explosion of Karakota. These are all fixed points of time that are associated with absolute tragedies. But all the same, they're key points in life where the world remained cruel without reason. Thus fueling his very uncharitable view of the world and how it functions.

That's where Rose becomes key to his overall development. As a human, she inevitably views the world through the lens of that child. She doesn't know the ins and outs of the universe's processes, yet she continues living without ever really seeking to understand it better. It doesn't matter to her that the people around her aren't necessarily important in the grand scheme of things, they matter because they just do. She is capable of loving others and affording care to others simply because she wants to, not because she has to. She is confronted with alien threats the moment he walks into her life, and yet her view of the world and her existence doesn't really change. She does not harden rather, she curiously grows from it. Growing wiser and more aware rather than crippling under the discovery of another threat in the universe.

She is clinging to the understanding of the tiny little world she lives in, yet her hold doesn't relent. For she is not falling, to imply so would mean that he was right in his assertion that our existence is doomed. No, instead in the place of any real meaningful explanation about the world's existence is something so innately human: hope. An illogical thing to always maintain, yet she always seems to have it.

After all, it is such a confusing notion when you think about it. We have no reason to believe that things will improve, and that we'll be met with good outcomes. It's so metaphorical, not at all tethered to something practical like numbers and data and yet, even when the odds are against us, somehow we hope things will improve.

It's that aspect that he wishes he understood.

(i would love to dedicate a whole analysis on Rose in a separate post so for now, I will only focus on the Doctor and her role in his life)

This is why he takes her to the ends of the universe on their first trip. He's testing her, seeing if this will be enough to prompt a reaction out of her that fits his narrative. He also seeks companionship, to have someone understand what it's like to see your planet burn and to have yourself remain as the sole survivor. In a way, to justify the validity of his misery and guilt. She's affected of course. It's in that moment that she realizes, the scope of the universe and is faced with the undeniable truth that everything does end. It shakes her and you can see her sort of doubt her view of the world. No longer able to remain blissfully unaware of the big picture when it is quite literally in your face.

But something she has, and he lacks is a foundation. Rose still has her mother, someone to return to at the end of the day. She can be comforted by the people in her life while his inability to let anyone in, essentially stunts him.

When given the choice to spare Cassandra, he refuses. He lacks the capability of seeing past the evil, and assumes that there is no good in her. No second chances. An act that catches Rose off guard, who in spite of personally recieving the brunt of Cassandra's cruelty, she asks the Doctor to save her.

Eventually he takes her back to her time. He entrusts her with more information regarding the war and the death of his people. People pass them by, oblivious to his presence as he is wallowing in the sorrow of remembering. It's a metaphor, of sorts. While our two protagonists are brutally aware of the doom that awaits them in the future and they remain stuck in place reminiscing, the world around them continues moving on.

He is giving her every reason to run, to leave him behind and save the very last shreds of naivety she has.

But when he asks her if she wants to leave, to no longer accompany him on his adventures, she refuses. Because his confession puts it all into perspective.

He is hurting.

He desperately craves company: to have a hand to hold onto and keep him grounded as the world falls apart. Yet more than ever is she aware of her limitations; that she cannot undo what has been done to him.

And so, she does what she knows she can do to help ease the pain even if it is very miniscule. Tells him that he has her, and that his pain is one she can now share and understand. She offers him chips, not because it will magically make it all disappear but because it will distract him from the pain of remembering. It's also her favorite food, so no doubt she is trying to share that sense of comfort it brings her with him.

Such a human thing to not focus on fixing the bigger problem and instead focus on what can be changed in the current moment. They still have time until the end of the earth, so why spend more time dwelling on it?

That is her response to his question.

I believe the episode the unquiet dead is where he realizes the extent of his feelings for her. There they are about to be pulled apart by a horde of zombies yet Rose doesn't regret coming along. She tells him so and in the end all she asks of him is that they fight for their lives. Still clinging on to that bit of hope that they could get out of this, even if it is misplaced. To stay together in spite of their inevitable deaths is all she asks for, and he in turn tells her how glad he is to have met her. Assuring her that he is glad it's her that is there by his side as he clings to her hand like a life line. Somehow, having someone there to hold made the inevitable more bearable.

For a single moment, he remembers what it is like to not regret something.

But no, they live! Again and again, even if logically it makes no sense given how the world works. All the while, he meets more and more extraordinary people. With Rose, always reaching out to others as they embark on every new adventure. Thus indirectly providing him insight on the manner in which normal people are capable of doing brave and incredible acts even if it is at the cost of their own life. Their hope in a future for the people they hold dear, motivating them to put everything on the line if it meant that there was even a slight chance everything would be alright.

There's good in people, even those that outwardly appear to not be worth the trouble. And it's that potential he latches on to, and why he tries so hard to lend a hand when he can.

This is actually where the trend of the importance of knowing people's names starts, because the companions often serve as his connection to the humans around them. They ground his perspective, reminding him to not focus so much on the grand scheme of things that he forgets to look at the smaller details. This is why in the episode Midnight it is so tragic that no one asked for the stewardes' name. For up until that point, he knew better than to not at the very least humanize her (by asking for something as basic as her name, her story, etc.) rather than see her as pawn in the midst of the problem. That is the principal that Rose instilled in him and yet when left alone, he finds himself forgetting to do so. Thus, why he takes the revelation to heart.

But I'm getting ahead of myself lol

It is when he is confronting the last of the daleks that he has to reconsider his beliefs of how the world had up till now functioned. He has been proven time and time again that the world is not always such a negative place, and that there is at times tranquility that could be found in the midst of the chaos. That the universe and it's inhabitants are capable of doing both good and evil.

So why is he so quick to want to kill the last of the daleks and cling to that cynicism he was beginning to reconsider? Here he is faced with a being who understands his pain, but in the form of his biggest enemy. It is not innocent, having been at one time capable of monstrous acts that caused mass suffering but...neither is he. There it stands defenseless and unarmed and yet he is the one threatening it with a weapon, just like Rose reasons. She is alive and unharmed, standing next to a dalek yet the active threat is not the dalek, it's him. He is tempted to kill it because his first instinct is to resort back to that hatred that gave him purpose for so long. The same poison the daleks used to eradicate the rest of his people. But is it truly incapable of being good, if not, then why is he any different? To give into the temptation would mean to validate that goodness could not be found everywhere. That if he followed the same mindset that once drove him to pull the trigger on everyone involved in the whole war, than he was doomed to become one of them. To repeat the endless cycle of violence and prove once and for all that he is a monster that cannot change.

Again the answer to the question is up to us to decide. But for him, there's only one clear answer.

No one else has to die. By choosing to not do anything he can live another day, without carrying the guilt of another being dying at his hands. Not because it has to be done, but because he has the option to refuse.

He can no longer assert that its existence as the final survivor of his race isn't important. That just because he hates it, doesn't mean it doesn't deserve a second chance like he got.

Really who is he to pass judgement, when there was a point in his life where he too was blinded by rage and the very narrow view he held of the world?

There is always a choice, and sometimes, the choice is to not take part in that decision.

And so that's what he does.

Rose takes on the burden for him, reaching out to the dalek in the same compassionate way he once did for him. Ordering the dalek to die not out of spite, but out of mercy because that is what the dalek wanted. A being born with the ultimate goal of surviving at all costs with hatred running through its blood, yet it's last moments are spent anguishing over all the death it caused. But unlike the Doctor, who strived to change as a result, he used up his second chance to end the pain. All it asked in return, was comfort or in other words...a hand to hold.

Or..so we think.

It's this ability to look past his biases that allows him to see the good in individuals like Mickey, Jack, and even Rose, when she inevitably screws up. He is able to grant them a second chance to prove themselves and keep them grounded, just like they did for him. His bonds to said people strengthen as a result and now he travels with a group of individuals he can trust with his life. People that can ease the burden and see the good in him.

Now the final episodes of his run is where the final test to his resolve to change is put into question. In a cruel twist of faith, history repeats itself.

Once again, he is given a choice: to let humanity die at the hand of the daleks, or end it all himself.

But alas he chooses not to give in. To not let himself become like the very thing he despises, because the alternative would mean witnessing the mass death of humanity at his hands. A group of beings he personally saw was capable of so much good, and was directly responsible for his change of heart. They reminded him that he was not above changing and that he could find meaning in simply continuing to find the good in others. He refuses, and so he seals his fate.

Yes he would die as a result, but at least he'll die knowing that he did all that he could. That he did not repeat the same cycle of violence that drove him to make the decision to eradicate all that he knew in an act of desperation.

He was free at last of the hatred that poisoned him for so long and it's due in part to the emotion that now stood in its place. Something he slowly cultivated throughout the span of his episodes: Love.

Love for humanity.

Love for Rose.

Love for himself. Because he finally did something he would not live to regret

" Before I go, i just want to tell you that you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And you know what? So was I!"

When he finally regenerates, it is done with the intention that his final act is not one of destruction, but love. This man, with the blood of so many on his hands, was able to forgive himself through the compassion extended to him when he was at his lowest. Rose a mere human, through sheer kindness, was able to motivate the doctor to keep going. To not hang up on the inevitabilities of life, and to find beauty in what was fleeting.

To have faith in the good of the people around him, even when it wasn't easy.

Most importantly, she reminded him that his journey was not one that had to be solitary. He could share the burden with others, and in turn, build genuine friendships that would help ease that loneliness he felt.

What makes Rose special to the doctor is not that she is inherently special. She is not someone of high status nor this faultless god that is capable of doing no wrong. No what makes her important to him is the fact that she was perceptive enough to realize that he needed help, and selflessly gave it at a time where he was at his lowest. She extended the best of humanity towards him during a time where he desperately needed a reminder that life was more than just pain. She never gave up on him, always assuring him that he was capable of doing good even when he himself didn't believe it.

This was not a bond forged on shallow appearances or attraction, no, it was a deep friendship in which both people involved grew to become better versions of themselves by the end. They just so happened to fall in love in the process.

Something I want to point out is that the reason why he has the courage to kiss Rose is because his love for her, he feels, is unrequited. He thinks this will be the last chance to show her how much she means to him in this body, and perhaps ever. He is insecure, you see that in the way he practically sneers at any man that looks at her yet he never makes a move himself. That is why he is deeply confused as to why it takes her so long to warm up to his 10th incarnation in the Christmas invasion. Going as far as to claim that she had given up on him. A behavior that to him, makes no sense as he was essentially tailored to her tastes. A pretty boy, just like the ones she showed interest in previously.

This is why he asks her upon regenerating what she thinks of his appearance and once again when he wakes up from his coma. He wants her to fawn over him but doesn't take into account that maybe, bursting into flames isn't exactly a normal human occurrence lol

But we see that that is not true. His looks were never something that bothered her. Because whenever she is made to make a choice between the doctor and someone else, it's always him. Even at the expense of what he would consider to be the safer options.

Rose loved him since his 9th incarnation. This is made evident in the manner in which she immediately asks him to change back once he regenerates into 10 (Doctor Who Born Again, Children In Need Special 2005).

"Can you change back?"

"Do you want me to?"

"Yeah"

"Oh."

"Can you?"

"No"

(note: if you haven't seen this clip, I strongly recommend doing so as it adds so much context to the conflict explored in the Christmas special)

If she had solely loved him when he was 10, then she would have accepted him easily but she didn't. It took her the entirety of the Christmas invasion to understand that he was still the same man. This is why the episode focuses so much on 10 sort of dancing around her, trying to earn her approval by showing off how he's still the same man. Going as far as to pan on his face numerous times as he wistfully looks at her direction, all while he fights the sycorax as if to make sure that she is watching him be impressive. (it's something I realized upon rewatch, just how desperately he is trying to earn back her approval lol)

So with all of this in mind, nine essentially transforms into a new man. Figuratively and literally lol. A man that finds the joy in living again and meets each challenge with a curiosity akin to that of a child. He's fun, far less burdened (outwardly) by the death of his people and more open to meeting new people. He becomes what 9 physically believes to be the ideal image of a partner Rose would want, down to the wispy hair and handsome features. Not to mention younger, as if, physically representing the the burden being lifted from his body, thus de-aging him.

But with this new man that was born out of his love for humanity and Rose, there's a conflict that is more apparent than ever. Will he be able to overcome the implications that come with falling in love with a human?

This is where the conflict shifts, because with confronting this question he is left to actually take into consideration what it means to fall deeper in love with her. A scenario he previously only humored in fantasies because he was unaware that she returned them.

Had she simply loved him as a friend, it would have been easy to ignore it but no she had fallen for him too. So now he can no longer skirt around it. To fall for a human would mean to expose her to what a Time lord's life and perspective entails. How alien he truly is and how that especially affects the manner in which they communicate. This is explicitly said in the Christmas invasion, when her whole world shifts at the reminder that he is in fact not human.

"The thing is, I thought I knew him, Mum. I thought me and him were...and then he goes on and does this. I keep forgetting he is not human"

This is what series 2's main conflict is.

But it is far from one sided.

She in return, has to confront the inevitability of her death. Can she ask that of him, to put aside the pain and let her live out the rest of her days by his side? Once she outlives those she loves, would she become someone unlike herself?

Because now it's not a question of will they won't they, they know how they feel about one another. No, it's a matter of when.

This is why series two appears to have very little conflict between the two at first glance, but that's because the conflict is within themselves. Since ten was made with her in mind, they tend to operate very similarly and so they don't get in as many arguments as they did previously. Because again, ten exists from the changes made in nine. You cannot have one without the other,as they are the two sides of the same coin.

Another tid bit that must be mentioned is that 10's desire to be human can actually be traced back to 9's era. This is because the 9th doctor always made it a point to separate himself from Rose's family life. This is what causes him to have such a strained relationship with Jackie in the first place, because his refusal to take part in Rose's personal life directly interfered with Jackie's relationship to her daughter. Jackie does care for the Doctor. He is important to Rose and so she makes an effort to welcome him, even when he refuses.

But really from a few comments he makes off handedly in father's day, one can infer that the reason why he stays far away from their home life is more of a reflection of how he views himself. Like an outsider who cannot afford to get too close to the people around him.

After all he had this to say about the importance of living a life that is ordinary.

"i don't what this is all about, and I know we're not important -"

"who said you're not important? I've traveled to all sorts of places, done things you couldn't even imagine, but you two. Street corner, 2:00 in the morning, getting a taxi home. I've never had a life like that.."

You can't always trust the Doctor's words because he often puts on this unbothered front. But in this specific instance, he says this not as a means of diminishing it but rather being rather fond of the idea. To live the one adventure he could never have, sound familiar?

It's because of this that the 10th doctor makes an effort to be more involved in Rose's personal life. Extending his care towards her mother, and even spending the holidays with them. He even goes as far as to imply they were the closest thing to family when he tells Donna about it.

This long ass essay is all to essentially say that the idea of pitting ninerose, tenrose, and tentoorose against one another is rather pointless lol because they're all essentially the same ship but at different stages of their relationship. You cannot have the existence of one without the other because they all occupy the same man. All are equally valid according to the narrative and canon so please can we lay this useless competition to rest?

There's enough Rose to go around!

#10th doctor #doctor x rose #rtd era #tenrose #ninth doctor #nine x rose #rose x ten #ninerose #doctorrose #tentoo x rose #rambles #character analysis #retrospective #doctor who #someone should really take my phone away #cant stop thinking about them #this hyperfixation has me in a chokehold #timepetals #rose tyler

[skyler10fic]

In the Tyler Family panel, Billie recalls the 2000s fashion as a strange time in fashion history but loved Idiot's Lantern, and they agree Jackie would have shared Rose's clothes to be the Cool Mom. 🤣

Shawn says he was surprised to be asked back at first since his character died, but it made sense for him to come back in a multiverse story.

He says it was easy to come back and Camille adds it's the quality of writing makes it easy because you know who you (the character) are at that point because you can trust the writers are guiding it.

Billie says she struggles with how much she didn't understand how it was going to take over her life before s1 airs. Before social media, even though everyone hated it and the idea of her doing it, but it wasn't the constant stream of trolls the new actors have to hear about now with social media. She says with RTD, Julie, and Phil, there was so much confidence and joy, it was easy to believe it would be good.

Camille says her neighbors and friends were surprisingly fans. She didn't realize how many people she knew who loved it and knew about it.

They talk about how cold it was filming the Cybermen. Billie says her jaw locked because it was so cold!! The trick to getting through them was "youth" and she doesn't do night shoots anymore if possible because of that experience.

Camille talks about how Jackie "grew a pair" lol

Billie: "She's a boss!

Camille: "It's Russell, really."

Billie: "No, it's you!"

Love that Jackie's speech and situation in Love and Monsters got a shout-out. Especially going off on Elton for taking advantage of her: "Many people can relate to that moment, I think."

Talking about Pete not being the perfect husband:

Billie: "Why did they break up again?"

Shawn: "Because I died!"

Billie: "I forgot!!!" 🤣

They banter so well! Total family vibes between them all.

Fun moment where Shawn thought Billie was saying "old Pete" when she was saying "alt Pete!" Lol

Rose having the "rose-colored glasses" taken off: Billie says many can relate to realizing their parents are flawed people, and things are more complicated than you thought.

Camille says the Tylers spoke a language people understood, making something fantasy into a relatable story that was relevant to the audience.

Mod jokes that Rose "parent trapped them" across multiple universes!

Billie talks about how she enjoyed the overall romance and human element of their series, as opposed to the more sci fi feel in other later seasons.

Camille says Chris's intensity helped launch the reboot, but David's "Labrador" energy was different and special too to keep it going.

Billie says there was a totally different energy after they knew it was a success, allowing for more playfulness with David's Doctor and in general on set.

Billie says she always thought there was something complex about the romance with the Doctor, it's weird for a 19 year old to just take off in a box, and maybe wasn't written with Chris but it was there in spirit, and then was written in more explicitly in their relationship with David. Hard to keep that intensity of awe and adoration platonic! Camille adds the chemistry between them was a big element as well.

Billie says it was always a thrill to get the script, eager to read the script as soon as she got it to see what new world they were building with each episode. She says she didn't want to go to set when shooting Tooth and Claw because she was riveted reading the Doomsday script! Haha

Billie says the costume tricks can help body language shifts when changing character, like with Rose possessed by Cassandra, the push-up bra helped develop a unique physicality for the previously (literally) flat character!

Camille says they got in trouble for talking a lot because they got on so well!

Billie says she loves the new episodes, especially the dance numbers and theatrics now, and that's exactly where the show should go. "It's super fun again." Sitting down and watching a family show with the kids, an event for everyone to watch together.

Camille said it was good but it would be better if the Tylers were there! 😁

They love Ncuti as well. Excellent casting.

Billie praises RTD's heart and rooting for all walks of life. Everyone can feel represented. Camille says he is so good at pulling heartstrings and "that's what we want as Doctor Who fans." They also love his joy but also his power if they are being unkind. He defended the actors from stupid questions from the press and "told it like it was" when he needed to be the man in charge.

#Gally1 #gallifrey one #billie piper #billieeeee #rose tyler #Jackie tyler #pete tyler

[metacrisisdoctor]

it makes me sad when people say rose had no choice in the bad wolf bay ii scene because i feel like it's 'cause they get stuck on the beginning of it. people stop at "but he's not you." (by which she means that ten and tentoo have seperate bodies, not that she doesn't think tentoo is the doctor) and that's so sad because the scene is so short but so nuanced!

at first the doctor is absolutely trying to manipulate her into staying in pete's world. whether it's because he loves her or not, that is no good. and we know that; rose knows that, the doctor knows that. but he is in so much pain that he is still in his timelord body, his part-human self will be with rose and happy and all the shit davros said to him? of couse he comes at it with a "punishment" mentality for himself, because tentoo is him and he is tentoo and he hates himself- but he loves rose more than he hates himself.

after this, of course, it's donna who is able to cut through this bs and tell the meta-crisis doctor to tell rose what this is all really about ("it's better than that, though. can't you see what he's trying to give you? tell her, go on.") and from there on the entire thing is absolutely in rose's court because tentoo, in his love and his humanity and single heart - only wants her to stay with him if that's what she wants! he says IF YOU WANT. it's a major thing, that he offers her an out there even though we know how much he loves and missed her. it's just like he offered to bring her home in born again when she couldn't understand the regeneration. it's her choice to grow old with tentoo, and it's something she absolutely wants- rose wants the doctor, not the traveling (she says this in the parting of the ways)

in the end, rtd gives rose literally all of the power by having her pull both doctors aside and choose which path she is going to take.

it's so impactful because it takes the doctor trying to exile rose and his otherself to rose taking the power away from him (as she does in potw and doomsday) and reclaming her authority in her life.

this is why ten watching rose and tentoo kiss hurts so much, because it goes from him leaving them behind to him being exiled from their world and their happiness- which is the beginning of the end for him truly. and it is absolutely intentional.

this scene renders ten completely powerless in the end, until all he can do is walk back to an empty existance knowing what he could have and does have but cannot experience.

rose is special because yes, for a while, it is the universe and the traveling she loves, but it becomes much, much larger than that. it becomes her loving the doctor and pledging to not have a life we see her long for by her eagerness in tsp, to be by his side forever. whatever that would have meant. but with tentoo she chooses him because this way she gets everything she wanted and deserves, she gets to be selfish for herself, she gets to put herself before the doctors - which i think is very, very important. that's good.

it's not fair to rose to not understand that by kissing tentoo she was making an active choice to spend her life with him because by saying those words he confirmed to her that he is the man that she loves and lost and came looking for, the same way ten convinced her he was the man she became the bad wolf for by telling her the first word he said to her was "run" and taking her hand.

rose is not stupid and she is not shallow. she chose tentoo. she is still a bad bitch defending the earth and perhaps beyond with the doctor. she just also gets to keep her family and sense of self too. all the doctor ever wanted was for rose to have a good life, and somehow he got to know that she has one, because it's one spent with him and he knows how loved she will be. how loved she is, twice over in one lifetime.

#dw #doctor who #rose tyler #tentoorose #rambles #it makes me sad that ppl think they would just roll over and accept a boring life. whatever boring is. #you should immediately know they're off either travelling the entire earth of they're at torchwood chasing aliens etc #they are MAKING life good whatever that means bc they know how bleak having all of time and space is without each other

[azquine]

Do you think Rose Tyler went through a degree of parentification with her mother?

I'm not calling Jackie a bad mother. She clearly loves Rose a TON and did her very best in difficult circumstances. She was a young woman suddenly a widow having to look after a child all on her own in the midst of her grief. Grief that she clearly hasn't gotten over as she attempts to cover over it with lines of new men and a blur of personal, televised, and printed gossip

But it is Rose who was supporting the household in the first episode we see her. Rose who has to find a job once it's been literally destroyed around her. As far as I remember it's never even considered that Jackie would take on Roses load for a bit.

Jackie likely never got a reprieve after Pete died before she was thrown straight into single motherhood, no matter how overwhelming it must have been. This is likely why she has no clue how to offer Rose a rest to get over what was a likely traumatic event. she even describes it as such on the phone (the fact that Rose is not actually in fact going through symptoms of trauma is I feel pretty irrelevant to this, though it contributes to the feeling of Roses mental state being brushed off)

Jackie's dislike for Roses 'airs and graces' from working a high end shop, the negative tone towards how the doctor changed her, even for the better, I think it all stems from the fear of Rose leaving. If Rose becomes better than what she can offer and leaves, she takes Jackie's entire world. The last reflection of Pete, a potential and invaluable source of income, and most of all simply the person she loves and cares for most. She'd have nothing but a council estate flat, friends to gossip with, media to consume, and bills to pay.

My thoughts on all this were triggered by a gif set I saw where Rose on new year's tells her mother something along the lines of 'don't stay out too late' and Jackie's reply is 'you try and stop me'. In most situations this would be the other way round. It should not be the daughter half jokingly cautioning the mother about a night out. The ease and familiarity of the exchange makes me think that this would not have been the first occurrence of this. This isn't to say that mothers shouldn't have proper nights out, my own does, but the daughter should not be the one worrying if they are being safe.

And that episode with the absorbalof (I think that's how it's spelled) where Rose comes out at the end enraged on her mother's behalf. It is completely understandable, and I would probably be EXACTLY the same, but in the context of everything else I'm thinking about, it's a bit too fitting that it is Rose coming to Jackie's defence after a bad not-quite boyfriend.

The woman who sat with Pete as he died, who Jackie uses as a single piece of comfort to pass on to her daughter? That's also Rose.

And the alternate dimension is really more Jackie's happy ending than Roses, though they both get an alternative version of the man of their dreams. But Rose loses a big part of why she chose to leave home over and over. Her monologue at the chippy pre- bad wolf shows that, although the doctor is an appeal on his own, the life of going out there and seeing the universe, making a change, is something that the loss of gets under her skin like a restless itch. And she didn't get a choice, she had to learn to deal with it.

Jackie loses nothing. It's all gain for her. She has her daughter, who she cares about most in the world, her husband, who seems more devoted and successful than he ever was in her reality, and she has the money and big house that she never got previously. She never has to learn to work through her grief without covering it, it is undone for her (though I'm sure the ghost of the 'real' Pete will still linger in her mind)

Again I want to reiterate that Jackie is NOT a bad or neglectful mother. She is incredibly and realistically concerned with Roses safety (in a way that I've only really seen RTD write). But she is a woman who has her own issues to tackle and very few resources with which to do so. Rose would have had to grow up navigating around that.

Feel free to counter or correct any of my points, or to talk about something I missed, it's been lovely to see peoples thoughts on my other rambles! :)

#doctor who #rose tyler #jackie tyler #russel t davies #9th doctor #10th doctor #pete tyler #ramble

[npdclaraoswald]

Saw someone complain that people who way RTD's first era was racist just don't understand the text because Ten's "Just walk around like you own the place" was supposed to be an indictment of Ten in a "mocking colorblind liberals" kind of way, not in a "that's genuinely a fine way to treat a companion of color" way. So I'm gonna lay out why I think Russel T Davies' writing is racist. This does come with the caveat that I am white person, so you should take my analyses of racism in media with more than a few grains of salt because I do have some major blind spots.

While I'm certainly not a fan of it, my criticisms of RTD's eras are not limited to "Nine and Ten treat Mickey and Martha like shit," because yes, I do recognize that the flaws of the character do not inherently reflect the flaws of the writer. I think the narrative treats Mickey and Martha like shit.

With Mickey, it's easy to point to, especially in series 1 how he's written to be comically pathetic and undeserving of Rose's affection, particularly in comparison to the Doctor. This does get better as time goes on, especially after Pete's World, and I've heard that Mickey was cast with colorblind casting, so you could say that this was largely accidental. Especially since it does get better, it's easy to assume they let up on it once they had Noel Clarke. But RTD's black characters standing in the shadow of white characters is an ongoing theme. And that's not even mentioning the Doctor calling him an ape, because that is a Doctor character flaw and not something that I think is reinforced by the show itself. I just would be remiss not to mention it.

Similarly, Martha is held in constant comparison to Rose and we are left with no shadow of a doubt that the Doctor thinks she comes up short. Which again, you could say is a character flaw of the Doctor's, not reflective of RTD's opinions on the character. But it would have been naive at best for him to believe that doing so wouldn't make the fans hate Martha. She already set up for failure sheerly by being the follow up to the first companion of the revival- fans were always going to hate her for not being Rose. And maybe RTD was trying to criticize that impulse and make fans do some self reflection. But that's not remotely what happened and I do think it would have been stupid of him if he expected that to happen. As is, and as should have been obvious, the Doctor's attitude only reinforced fan impulses to the point that I to this day see people who hate Martha for "taking Rose's place."

But admittedly, the writer can't be held wholly responsible for the fans, he is not them. And if it were just Mickey and Martha being compared to the Doctor and Rose and being told that they're lesser by characters in universe, I might be able to let it go. But it's not just that. It's the fact that Martha has to- not just emotionally as most companions do- literally support the Doctor, having to get jobs to provide for them in both Blink and the Family of Blood two parter with no question of why she's the one that has to do that in Blink and he doesn't. That we the audience are supposed to give a single shit about Joan Redfern to the point that she gets a finale cameo a full season later. That her finale cameo tells us more about her life and wellbeing than Mickey and Martha's does. That Martha's family is enslaved by the Master with no acknowledgement of the different weight that that carries for them versus Jack. That Martha does all of the work to save the world in the year that never was and the Doctor gets all the credit.

And of course, there's Mickey and Martha together. The fact that they had barely spoken to each other previously and that Martha was engaged to a different man the last time we saw her. The fact that their relationship could easily work but there is no work put into it. That we the audience are supposed to just accept a major change in two major characters without question and just be like "of course they'd be together."

You can say other companions went through similar things, but that falls into the same liberal colorblindness that pretends that the same events don't weigh differently given the impact race has on people. Or you can make excuses for each one of these things and say that we the audience were supposed to criticize it on our own rather than being told to do so. But they add up.

And of course, there is the shitshow that is the Fourteenth Doctor. We were told Ncuti would be Fourteen. I was so excited to finally have a main black Doctor. And then out of nowhere, that title was stolen from him and given to yet another fucking white guy. A white guy who had already had a turn. Two turns if you count Tentoo! Before we could let a single black person lead the show, we had to let David Tennant know that he's the most special little boy on the planet. And then even after sucking Tennant's dick for an entire year, RTD still could not let Ncuti have the spotlight to himself. He had to redefine the way one of the basic facets of the show works specifically so he could let the world's most special white boy continue to keep playing the Doctor. Ensuring, just like he did with Martha, that fans would never let our black character just exist on their own, they would always have to contend with clamoring for their white counterpart to return and take back the mantle. And while we're at it, let's not even let Ncuti wear proper clothes in his debut. Those go to Tennant as well.

So yeah. Dot and Bubble was a good episode. I do think his textual treatment of race has improved. I however think his subtext still is, and always has been shit, whether he consciously realizes it or not. Regardless of his trying to criticize racism, he is still absolutely influenced by it.

#dw

[mulderscully]

i've been think thoughts this week about why we will likely never see tentoo and rose on screen again. because despite billie disliking the idea, she has said multiple times she is open and happy to doing a spin off of the doctor and rose in pete's world. that ending wasn't ideal for her, but she doesn't hate it so much that she wouldn't do more of it, and everyone knows that david tennant has been very, very supportive of tentoo/tentoorose since day one.

if david and billie would do it, if rtd has said that rose and tentoo are happy, then why have we never seen it? the 60th would've been the ideal time for it and honestly felt like the last chance.

and i think i figured it out.

it's how fifteen says he loved rose.

i loved sarah jane [dead...] and rose.

loved past tense. loved like she's dead.

and of course she isn't dead in canon, or physically either! but from a storytelling perspective and for the timelord doctor rose died in doomsday.

what tentoorose represent within the main narrative of the show is like what an "ending" for the tenth doctor would have been. when you aren't a tentoo girlie you might not think abt this a lot but tentoo is the tenth doctor forever until his death. he dies. his gift isn't that he gets to settle down, it's that he gets to die. because the doctor takes breaks. like on trenzalore. like this river for 24 years, and like fourteen with donna.

but he's still immortal.

tentoo and rose represent death and the doctor's idea of heaven at THAT specific point in his life. we are not allowed to see that because our doctor is not allowed to die. he is not allowed to be happy. not for good.

we're never gonna see the only happy ending the doctor ever got because he doesn't get endings. happy or sad.

#doctor who #tentoo #tentoorose #rose tyler

[leikeliscomet]

We Failed the First Black Doctor (Part 2)

After the high of Fugitive of the Judoon ended, the fandom waited for her next appearance. In The Timeless Children, Fugitive appears to help Thirteen. The version we see is of her however actually isn’t her in the flesh, it’s a projection in the Matrix or a hallucination in Thirteen’s mind. Either way, she gives our main character her ‘you can do it’ speech before Thirteen makes her great escape. And that's it. The big showdown was between Thirteen, Dhawan!Master and surprisingly Ko Sharmus who’d give his life to save our main cast making him MVP of the episode. Having Fugitive save the day could’ve given her character a greater role but killing off our First Black Doctor without any explanation of who she was yet definitely would’ve been a terrible idea, so maybe saving her for the Matrix would've been okay. But her backstory was still in a vague place. Whilst the Brendan flashbacks gave us this context and pulled us into the mystery further, wouldn't it have made sense to show us Fugitive in those scenes? We knew she was the Doctor so we could’ve easily put two and two together. Even the Timeless Child reveal itself came across as disappointing to most of the fandom. Technical things aside, making Fugitive the Timeless Child also could've been a way to fully flesh her out and give her more to do in the finale. Running away from Division after they’d kidnapped and experimented on her, taking the form of the Doctor to blend in and help others also exploited like her and being highly skilled in combat for her own protection could've made for some great storytelling and yet…. nothing. Normally in RTD stories the mid-season informs the finale. Dalek showed us a dalek and in the finale… we got Daleks. The Cybermen from Pete’s World returned for Army of Ghosts/Doomsday. The Family of Blood/Human Nature fob returned for Utopia and gave us a three-part finale. The missing planets throughout series 4 would lead us to another major Dalek return in The Stolen earth/Journey’s End. So to copy RTD Who’s format to introduce Fugitive, but not follow through in the finale was very strange and disappointing. With that in mind, I waited for her hopeful return in series 13.

The next time we saw The Fugitive was in Once, Upon Time. The new fam have found themselves trapped in their own timestreams and Thirteen gets a flashback of her past. In there, she sees her reflection and that reflection belongs to the Fugitive. The entire sequence is essentially a Fugitive-era episode. Swarm and Azure were her villains. Karvanista represented by Dan, Lee likely represented by Vinder and likely Gat represented by Yaz were her TARDIS team. Fugitive has a more militaristic approach due to her control by Division but also delivers a decent speech before capturing the Ravagers. She has a calm and controlled presence same as before giving her an interesting dynamic with them. Chaos defeated by order. Once, Upon Time gives us a glimpse of what a Fugitive Doctor episode is or at least could be… and still couldn't commit to it. Thirteen and Fugitive constantly flick back and forth between each other and impressive VFX aside, this was completely unnecessary. We know Fugitive and Thirteen are the same person and that they're both the doctor and yet the episode doesn’t trust the audience enough to let us see the scene carry on without her. The filming of Flux was affected by the pandemic and this is given as the main reason for the flickering but it’s a poor excuse that doesn't hold up. If Jo Martin filmed a fully completed socially distanced take of the Doctor’s lines why did we need Whittaker’s layered over it? Just show us the Martin cut! Again, once Fugitive’s purpose of helping Thirteen was fulfilled, she was gone and the fam moved on. The main Flux storyline continued without her presence. Similarly to Timeless Children, we were teased with a Fugitive appearance that still sidelined her to a cameo role.

In her final appearance, the Fugitive comes back for Power of the Doctor. She’s a hologram… again. Her main role is to save Thirteen… again. She tricks the Cybermen into shooting each other and helps Yaz, giving her one last iconic moment but again, she exists to serve Thirteen's narrative and not her own. A smaller but still interesting part of the scene was her remark about the Master being a ‘rubbish schoolboy’, breadcrumbing us about Fugitive's backstory and her relationships with other characters but this is another question that remains unanswered. Some fans hoped this left a door open for an RTD2 appearance but as Fugitive is a Chibnall character, RTD has no obligation to bring her back so yet again, her fate is still in limbo. There’s some hope as RTD has shown interest in the storyline and has picked it up in a way for the new era but until Jo Martin is on screen again nothing has been confirmed as of yet. The Fugitive Doctor will return instead in a Big Finish audio announced in April 2022. The audio isn’t coming out until 2025.

--

Every doctor, especially in nuwho, goes on a journey; an arc designed and crafted for them which ends with their character changed by the time we reach their regeneration. War accepted the consequences of his actions but realised he didn’t have to fight alone. Despite having a single appearance, Day of the Doctor gave his character a purpose, a conflict and resolution perfectly wrapping his incarnation up within 1 hour. The future was something to embrace, not fear. Nine was the oncoming storm, haunted by the destruction of Gallifrey who eventually opened up to companionship again and finally forgave himself. Ten was the self-destructive hero, whose brilliance and intellect would fuel his ego to great heights eventually causing his downfall. Eleven was the imaginary best friend, an old soul in a young body, with darker tendencies who brought a sadness to the character. Twelve was the lecturer, having very philosophical and internal struggles eventually giving his life not out of grand gesture but simply out of kindness. Thirteen, regardless of what you thought of her writing, had her own narrative journey. The lonely woman who fell to earth not knowing her origin but letting it go because she gained a found family instead. But for the Fugitive, who cares? Why should Chibnall bother to give a Black woman’s incarnation a purpose? Wants and needs? Conflicts? A drive? Motivation? Why even bother giving her a placement in the main lineup? Why bother giving your Black characters depth when it's just easier for fans to just say ‘No way there’s racism here, look a Black doctor!’ with no regard, care of concern for how she was treated? Even when you look at how Black characters are written and perceived, it's clear fandoms aren’t willing or ready to take on board nuanced representations of Black characters. Both Thirteen and the fandom were shocked by Fugitive’s gun use, some claiming it reinforced stereotypes of the angry, violent Black woman but actually she subverts it. The Fugitive’s gun was a red herring to trick the Judoon and Gat. She wasn’t going to use it, she just needed them to think she would. This was no different to Eleven threatening to blow up the Dalek’s ship with a jammy dodger. The violence Fugitive used was in self-defence, not out of malice. Her telling Thirteen to shut up was because she threatened the plan by revealing they were both doctors, not just because she was angry for no reason. It’s ironic and also worrying that after portrayal, after portrayal, after portrayal of morally grey nuwho doctors each using violence as the last resort, each angry at rightful injustices, each holding a darkness within, that the incarnation that didn’t claim any lives is the most violent because they exist in a dark skin Black woman’s body. The ‘lack’ in the representation of marginalised people is an issue that's prominent in Chibnall Who. The Fugitive Doctor is a Black woman. The gender-blind approach to Thirteen’s writing already raised a few concerns but for the experiences of Black women specifically, our Blackness isn’t something that can be ignored or represented ‘subtly’. From the long history and list of tropes used to represent us, from the outrage and anger in fandoms towards Black characters and castings, this lived experience has to be acknowledged. Even in the Doctor Who fandom, Martha Jones was the first Black woman to be a companion and she was hated. RTD and co. acknowledging Martha’s Blackness could've helped protect Freema Agyeman from the rampant racism in the fandom. So why would casting a Black woman as the lead this time, specifically a dark skin woman, be approached any differently? In a diverse and ‘progressive’ show why is race ignored? 

When Jodie Whittaker was announced as the first female Doctor she got tribute videos from young girls that congratulated her, went on Children in Need, spoke about representation in interviews and went on the runway. When Michelle Gomez was cast as the first female master, the uniqueness of casting a woman as the Master for the first time was spoken about on Doctor Who’s YouTube channel. When Jo Martin was cast as the first Black woman to play the doctor, the BBC did nothing. The Black cosplayers shouted out were done by Jo Martin alone on her Instagram. The events where those cosplay group photos took place were organised by Black fans and other fans of colour just like they had always been (shoutouts to Black TARDIS and Team #TARBIS at Gally1). This issue goes beyond Chibnall and is about representation in TV/Film itself. If creative teams can’t be bothered to support Black characters, creators or our stories then I won’t accept the breadcrumbs. I’m becoming less impressed with simply having a Black companion or doctor there but how. If they want credit for representing Black characters then simply, they need to do the damn work. I am tired of the Doctor Who fandom giving Chris Chibnall, Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies credit for Black representation they didn’t create and for work they haven't done. Give me a Black character in Who whose arc doesn’t revolve around a white one, who doesn’t go through extreme trauma with no catharsis and isn’t just ‘there’ and then I’ll give full credit where it's due. Only then will I start handing out gold stars for lanes of Black representation being paved. Only then will I start singing praises of anti-racism and allyship. Until then, I’m no longer accepting breadcrumbs as a full meal.

<- Part 1

Part 3 ->

#fugitive doctor #the fugitive doctor #chibnall era #doctor who #nuwho #new who #doctor who analysis #fandom analysis #black representation #doctor who series 12 #doctor who series 13 #chibnall critical #fandom antiblackness #once upon a time #the timeless children #power of the doctor

[mad-aims]

Just watched 73 Yards, I actually really liked this one! Very spooky episode. I’m also loving the fact that this episode had nothing to do with aliens (but it still had minor capitalism). The straight up psychological horror made me think I was watching Black Mirror for a minute and that twist! But would it still be ‘Who without the aliens? I’m supposing it did use timey wimey, so yes. It does count as DW.

Thank somebody there was no singing in this one. 🙏

Also don’t fuck with fairies, whatever you do.

I wonder what the woman said to all those people to make them run away from her in fear though? I understand the keeping her distance so that no one knows who she is, but why was she literally everywhere? Some plot holes here RTD, just saying. Also if Ruby changed the future, how come the Doctor still remembers Roger ap Gwilliam as a really evil prime minister? Also, I’m guessing the events of this episode aren’t going to be remembered by Ruby, but she remembered that she’d been to Wales 3 times, so will she have some sort of memory of the events that occurred? Or is it all forgotten about now the timeline has shifted? So many questions but I think that was the point.

Thanks for this one RTD! This is the Doctor Who I like, the one that spooks the fuck out of the kids (and some of the adults. Namely me!) 🤣🤣🤣

Glad Millie had a chance to shine on her own in this episode, I totally wasn’t buying her 40 year old look though! She still looked the same age! 🤣🤣🤣

Also don’t know if it’s me but that woman who was out hiking, is she important? I’m sure she keeps appearing in episodes as different people. Ruby seemed to recognise her.

Also can we have some episodes next without the whole “Accepting one’s mortality” moral? I watch Doctor Who for escapism, sci fi and fantasy worlds, robots killing each other. You know, kind of brainless. I wanted dark, not depressing. There is a difference. Right, that’s all from me. Till next week!

#mad-aims talks #doctor who #73 yards #fifteenth doctor #ruby sunday #ncuti gatwa #millie gibson

[bisexualamy]

ooh im intrigued 👀 go on, what would you change to fix utopia/ sod/ lottl?

I'm so glad you asked!! These changes are in order of importance. I have a few stylistic things that just make the episodes more my taste, but that's not fixing so I'm gonna stick to things structural.

#1: Martha needs the big win

People joke about "tinkerbell Jesus Doctor" but I truly think the resolution of LOTTL is the biggest thing keeping it from being truly great. The special effect really isn't the issue (this is Doctor Who after all). The issue for me is that the final scene on the Valiant, the scene that's concluding the whole plot arc of the serial, falls emotionally flat. Why does the Doctor get Martha's big win? Why was Martha's whole task to tell everyone how great the Doctor is? Every other RTD era companion gets a chance to be the hero by the end of their season. They get to save the Doctor. Rose becomes the Bad Wolf, and later becomes a badass in Pete's World. Donna saves the Doctor in Turn Left and again in Journey's End. Martha saves the Doctor by... talking up how great he is. She keeps morale up by telling stories about him.

This is so so fixable and it wouldn't change basically anything about the plot. The original plan can even stay the same! She uses the countdown to concentrate all that psychic power routing through the existing Archangel satellites. She can even still keep the people of Earth hopeful by telling them fantastic stories about the Doctor. But here's the thing. To them, the Doctor is a mythical figure. Martha is real. Martha walked the Earth, she got out of Japan alive, she has managed to walk through warzones without Toclafane detection. She is a legend of flesh and blood who sits at their dinner tables and around their campfires and tells them how to trick Toclafane and stretch their resources and she's a doctor who can treat their people and keep them alive longer.

The people's faith should be in Martha. That psychic energy should be Martha's. Instead of chanting for the Doctor they're chanting for Martha. It concludes her character arc and the episode's plot arc so well! Martha has spent the whole season feeling like she's second best. The Master kidnapped and tortured Martha's family. Who is the Doctor to forgive the Master? Martha deserves to have the win. Maybe from her time with the Doctor she chooses to spare him, only for Lucy to shoot him later, and everything stays the same. But imagine how Martha's already amazing speech would sound after a scene like this. Martha became the Doctor, only to decide that she'd rather be herself.

#2: Tweaking/nerfing the Master's drums

I used to be in camp "get rid of these completely" but I've come around on them since I saw TWEAT/TDF. The drums need to exist in some capacity to make End of Time work, and now that it's canon (as of s10) that Simm!Master no longer has his drums after they served their purpose, fine. The thing that has always bothered me about the drums is how heavily it's implied (if not explicitly stated) that much of the Master's "madness" comes from the drums. I think that's a big disservice to his character and from all the amazing groundwork previous actors did to build up the Master.

Simm!Master in TWEAT/TDF is still self-destructive, chaotic, and violent. He didn't need any drums to make him that way. I'd revise it in the Utopia arc so that the Master still has his drums, but they're treated more like a migraine disorder or tinnitus. They're painful. They bother the hell out of him. But instead of "he saw the time vortex and they made him lose his mind" it's much more akin to that feeling of losing control when your own body is working against you and there's nothing you can do to stop it. That would certainly make him meaner, more chaotic, more resentful and angry, but now it's just an amplification of what he already is.

(I also think this makes his decision for the subliminal Archangel signal to be his drums a much more telling decision. This sound is weaponized against him, and in turn he's weaponizing it against humanity.)

#3 Tweaking the Master's relationship to Gallifrey/incorporate the Time War in a smoother way

The Master has suffered a major trauma and I think the episodes try, but do not commit, to that. Instead it's more "will the drumming stop." I have always disliked that the Master's ultimate plan was to put "a new Gallifrey in the sky." Historically, the Master has not given a shit about Gallifrey unless he rules it. His rhetoric about the glory of the time lords makes no sense to me... unless it's a response to the Time War.

From the Master's perspective, he has just fled the Battle of the Cruciform to the end of the universe. He was so terrified he fobwatched himself so they'd never find him. The next memory he has as The Master is the end of Utopia, which goes straight into Sound of Drums. He has seen the Cruciform fall days ago. It makes sense he's not acting quite like himself. (I believe this is TV canon, but he was also literally taken out of the matrix to fight in the Time War, so he was quite literally dead -> Time War -> Utopia). I wish his plan, drums, and his relationship with Gallifrey was more pointed in this direction.

These are the big ones. I think this is maybe 15-20% different from what's written and I think it makes the whole arc much stronger. BBC hire me as script editor.

#hailing frequencies open #higheldertala #thank you asks like this are so fun for me #dw meta #my meta #martha jones #simm!master #tenth doctor #utopia #the sound of drums #the last of the time lords

[rapha-reads]

The Church on Ruby Road [spoilers]

First of all: Fifteen is AMAZIIIIIING. I swear I'm going to try and be normal about him, but his energy! His joy! His connection to his feelings, the emotional depth! That moment when he says "I've adopted, I've just discovered that recently", and then his tears when he realises what happened to Ruby, and then how soft and gentle he was with baby Ruby.

I keep remembering Bill's words about Twelve: "With some people you can smell the wind in their clothes." - and that's exactly it with Fifteen. You can feel not only the age, the experience, the heartbreak and trials the Doctor has gone through, but also, and maybe more importantly, the healing, the love, the joy, the endless curiosity about the universe, the limitless desire to always learn and discover new things. Fifteen is the sum of all the previous Doctors, and he's carrying that weight, but he's also something new, something exciting. The trauma is still there, but he's not letting it weigh him down anymore. Even when he has a moment of doubt, when he says "Maybe I'M the bad luck", a previous regeneration would have left - he stayed and let Ruby make her choice. There's growth there.

We definitely are in a new era of Doctor Who. New New Who? New Who 2.0? Modern Who? Do we have a name yet or is still being debated?

Anyway, secondly. Ruby! Aw, she sounds so cool and kind! The mystery around her birth mother is thrilling without taking the precedent over anything else. Either her birth parents aren't that important, though it's Doctor Who - there's always something else, and I wouldn't be surprised if she's a Time Lord kid, or even the Doctor's child themself - or maybe Jenny's child, the Doctor's granddaughter? I'm just wildly theorizing at this point, never mind all of that.

What's interesting is her relationship with her adoptive mother. That scene where Ruby disappears and her mother forgets about her, and the colours themselves literally bleed out, and the joyful, kind, generous woman we've come to know suddenly turns bitter and sad and cold... Man, that scene messed me up. Makes you think about coincidences, about how and when you meet people and you can never know how important they are in your life, because sometimes the influence they have on you are so subtle, so diffuse, it's impossible to see it. Not the first time this happens in Doctor Who, though, time travel does have that impact. Butterflies and all that. But the impact is always the same heart-wrenching feeling.

Third, the language of rope! By which I mean, I was talking with my brother (huge Whovian like me), and he was telling me that he's a bit worried about RTD's decision to go towards fantasy stories. Well, magic is just another language, after all, isn't it? It's just science that we haven't been able to decipher yet. So, fantasy and science-fiction? They go hand in hand, actually. If the TARDIS is a wooden box that's bigger on the inside and can travel through time and space, then sure, why not, goblins exist, they eat baby, they can also move around time, and their science is the science of ropes and wood. Totally plausible in this world. Wouldn't be weirder than that time Ten met Satan in a pit, or Eleven had an ongoing feud with evil snowmen, or Twelve rode on Santa's sleigh, or Thirteen talked to a frog from another universe. That's cool. Love it.

Right. Well. I'm excited for this new series. It's shiny and fresh, it's something else! Moving forward without forgetting the past. And apparently we're going to meet the Beatles? I love historic episodes! And go to some new planets, meet some new aliens, deal once again with holes in the fabric of the universe (not new, but maybe done in a new way?)... This is going to be great. Next episode in Spring, though? At least it's not another full year of wait.

#doctor who #doctor who spoilers #dw spoilers #doctor who christmas special #the church on ruby road #fifteenth doctor #ruby sunday #russell t davies #rapha talks #rapha is being a whovian #dw episode review #dw review #dw theories #whovian rambles

[atopfourthwall]

Really? Don't get me wrong, I like the Doctor Falls speech more too but I'm genuinely surprised you didn't like the ZI speech and now I'm wondering if I wildly misinterpreted what it was about. Not to presume I'm an expert on your opinion just because I watch your show, of course, but the horror and pointlessness suffering of war and swearing to never let anyone feel the same pain they have feel right in line with things you love about hero stories, let alone Doctor Who.

The Doctor is attempting to defend a "peace" that forces the world to pretend that the Zygons do not exist, that they are not allowed to be themselves, and suppress their culture and identities. It's not even a matter of unfortunate subtext - the writer episode said in an interview "If you are being harassed and targeted and oppressed, you have to reach an accommodation with them." - Doctor Who writer "wouldn’t change" divisive episode | Radio Times If you want a real life equivalent, it's basically saying "Oh, I don't mind if you're gay - just don't shove it in my face." That kind of horseshit but worse because it also involves erasing memories. It's generic "WAR IS BAAAAAD" rubbish that ignores the actual POINT OF THE ENTIRE CONFLICT. And I'm sorry, Doctor, but there are legitimate reasons why you will go to war - that you HAVE to go to war. Invoking the Time War is especially idiotic with that - as if things would have been fine if the Time Lords had just tried to give peace a chance WITH THE GENOCIDAL PEPPERPOTS. I won't even get into Moffat continually reducing the nightmarish imagery invoked by RTD's era when talking about the Time War to just "Daleks and Time Lords shooting at each other and generic war stuff," but it's especially laughable when time and again throughout his history the Doctor has encouraged oppressed people to rise up and destroy their oppressors. No, no, the solution is just "maintain the situation that isn't actually working because apparently they've done this multiple times now." Him going "Oh, I forgive you for murdering a bunch of innocent people" is really kind of disgusting, too. The Doctor's morality can certainly fluctuate depending on the situation (because often it's not about universal moral standards but attempting to set a PARTICULAR situation right or just in some fashion), but he is not really one to side with the people killing innocents. It's why I his speech to Missy and the Master is SO much better - because it's a personal declaration of who he is and what he does and why, a character-defining moment and mission statement of who the Doctor is... although amusingly with both speeches: neither convinces his opponents. The reductionist, simplistic view of what war is and why war happens is bad and his speech is bad. And sometimes the alternative to war is worse than war. To quote another science fiction series, "Because sometimes 'peace' is another word for 'surrender.'"

[dreamcaught]

So okay, I haven't seen the commentary about Fourteen returning to Fifteen once he's processed his trauma to be "reabsorbed" or whatever, but if that's how it's gonna go, then yeah. Okay, I can see why they did this.

Doctor Who has been such a fucking insane whirlwind of loss and trauma pretty much since Journey's End when the Doctor lost his lover and his best friend. Tentoo and Rose are happily married in Pete's World. That Doctor gets to actively live the happiest he's ever been every single day, but this Doctor had to keep going.

Eleven lost the Ponds. Twelve lost Clara and Bill. These characters effectively die, which is why they're mentioned directly. And exemplified by the Toymaker, these are big losses. Yaz+Co. didn't get even an inkling of a mention because, quite frankly, they weren't. They all just got to go back home like companions used to do all the time. It was kind of a big deal that so many companions had such tragic, permanent, traumatic endings. So yeah, it makes sense that the Doctor would need to take time to process this.

(That and the Flux thing, apparently, which - uh - I guess falls under the same umbrella.)

Fourteen is incredibly vulnerable. He's open and raw, and he needs to be in order to be the Doctor to process these things. It makes strategic story sense to have the Doctor break in half to allow part of him to retire and process while the other part of him keeps going, because (like with Tentoo), the show must go on -- he can't actually stop.

Having David Tennant's face as Fourteen makes a lot of strategic sense, too. Not only is DT a fan favourite, but his relationship with Donna is the most familial of relationships he's had. Some fans may wonder again why Yaz wasn't who he'd go to, but it has to be noted that they made Yaz a romantic interest and that is not what this Doctor wants or needs right now. That's why they've established Fourteen as (likely) gay. That's why he's calling Rose Noble his niece and Shaun his brother-in-law. He's effectively rehabilitating with his sister, and that's kind of cool.

I do understand the tragedy of Donna's ending was appealing to many viewers, but it's been 15 years. That's long enough for her to get a better ending to her story that doesn't just involve winning the lottery. Her family and how she cares for people who need it are Donna's greatest strengths. Having Donna get her memory back but not become an all-knowing DoctorDonna hybrid is sending a kind message of hope that I think this world needs right now, to be honest.

RTD has done this, in part, to allow for the show to return to being more lighthearted and about hope than it has for a long time. It's saying that it's okay to take a break, but also acknowledges that the Doctor - as a show and as an almost supernatural being - has to carry on as well. It's a soft reboot with acknowledgement to the past without having to view it as a burden, so I get that.

I've seen a lot of people immediately compare this ending to Tentoo/Rose, though, and I don't know if I agree. This isn't a Doctor creating a version of himself to be with a lover as a human, to live the one, singular life he couldn't otherwise have. He didn't bi-regenerate out of love or fear of losing his lover. His loss of regenerations and ability to age as Tentoo is really important to their story, and this is not true for Fourteen. He's still full Time Lord - and if the commentary is true - will eventually reunite with himself. That's not at all the same. Instead, this is the Doctor many years after a traumatic experience using a magical way to get his break and travel, too.

As well, the Doctor was in love with Rose. He had to tear his heart out and leave her in a different universe to let her go. That would not have happened with a bi-regenerated Doctor sharing the same universe. The two Doctors would have had to create a copy of Rose (much like these two had to do so with the TARDIS) in order to be happy. It's not like Donna, because Donna can be a sister to two identical brothers and it's not weird.

(That's if you don't count polyamory, but that would never happen in the show.)

I hope that they use this soft reboot to help move on from past traumas in a healthy way. I hope that Fourteen with Donna does help Fifteen become more of a positive Doctor than even Thirteen was, who was secretly dealing with so much angst all the time.

I do adore, absolutely, that the Doctor did acknowledge his favourite people. River Song and Adric were mentioned as important and lost. Sarah Jane and Rose were explicitly said to be loved. It was less than I was hoping for, but also exactly what I think should happen if they're trying to use this special as a way to finally, realistically move on and start something fresh, new and positive.

So yeah, I guess I'll keep watching to see what happens next.

#dw spoilers #rtd2 #the giggle #dw meta #doctor who

[billpottsismygf]

Right, okay, overall that episode was great. Really fun, really atmospheric. Effectively straddled the line between hilarity and terror in the spice girls scene. NPH exceeded all my expectations as the Toymaker; he was giving very Emcee in Cabaret vibes when he was doing the camp German thing, but then was able to reign it in and be in control and frightening when he switched into an English accent. He was defeated a little too easily for my liking, but that's far from the biggest problem with the episode.

Now. The bi-generation. I hate it. I don't necessarily hate that it happened - I quite like that Fourteen and Fifteen got to work together - but I hate that it wasn't resolved at the end. If this had been a two parter, the regeneration could have been a fun cliffhanger and led into a part two where there were some more games with the Toymaker - since his part could easily have been extended, as could John Logie Baird's - and where the bi-generation got resolved. As it is, however, now there are… two Doctors… Permanently? If it is going to be resolved in the future, though, why not just do it now?

My main issues:

It undermines Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor. It feels weirdly like he's a secondary Doctor, rather than being The Doctor. Especially being the first black Doctor in the main running order, that's just a bit suspect. Although the final shot was of Fifteen heading off in the TARDIS, the focus of the end of the episode was so much on Fourteen instead of this exciting new era. This should be a fresh new start with Ncuti Gatwa at the helm, but instead he feels like an after thought. (He has given one hell of a performance so far, though, so I'm still incredibly excited to see his Doctor shine.)

It undermined what felt like a lovely bit of character growth, with David Tennant's Doctor being ready to leave this time.

I just don't believe that the Doctor would settle down like this? I get it, he's traumatised and needs to heal, but I still don't believe he would act like this! I usually think RTD is fantastic at character things, but that final scene was weird and wrong (I also don't believe Wilf would ever shoot moles). Even the idea that he's taking little trips doesn't make sense. The Doctor is incapable of not accidentally getting embroiled in a war or an invasion.

RTD has already done this! Why does he have an obsession with creating an additional David Tennant Doctor and then getting him to settle down into a human family life? And it worked better last time! At least then it was a Doctor that was part human and locked off in a parallel world.

Why are there two Doctors now??? This is just weird????

There are two TARDISes as well! Our favourite ship has been split in two… That's a sentient being!

The one thing that is slightly saving it for me is that Fifteen appears to still canonically come after the end of Fourteen's time as the Doctor, rather than Fourteen having the ability to continually regenerate into other Doctors. My only evidence for this is that Ncuti's Doctor says that he's mentally healthy now because David's Doctor did the work. So… Does Fifteen have the memories of Fourteen's time with Donna and family? Are they going to have to meet up and re-merge at some point? That would be better than the alternative, which would be for David Tennant to just perpetually be around as the Doctor. I love the man, and was even saying that I was surprisingly sad at how quickly our time with Fourteen would be over, but I don't want it extended like this. Not like this!

It's such a shame that what was otherwise a pretty good episode, if a little rushed, has been completely overshadowed by this bad and pointless decision.

Anyway, we got some hints about the future. The Toymaker has called on his legions, there's the One Who Waits, the tooth with the Master has been picked up by someone with red fingernails (again!). I'm still looking forward to what's to come; it just feels like this brand new adventure has been held back somewhat by clinging onto the, admittedly wonderful, David Tennant.

#doctor who #the giggle #doctor who spoilers #the toymaker #ncuti gatwa #david tennant #mine #dw60 #fifteen #fourteen #dwmine #reactions