#villa diodati cellar

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

said this before and i dont think it’s all that significant but i do think it’s a little significant that a good portion of s11 and s12 takes place in dark underground places or tunnels or cave-like things

#theyre underground for a part of ghost monument. arachnids they go under the hotel #tsuranga not really but theyre in a spaceship so i dont know if that counts #probably feels like it counts more bc the doctor wants to Leave #demons that alien spaceship is underground #kerblam they go to the dispatch which is underground #it takes you away they have to go through the antizone #battle i dont know if it's technically underground but it's in big cave like places #resolution they start in a sewer #orpahn 55 underground again #fugitive the tardis is buried #praxeus the alien plastic construct under the sea #cn you hear me spaceship that feels like a cave again #villa diodati cellar #i mean like something something uncovering secrets buried deep #it's probably just practicality or something but it feels like symbolically resonant

[esonetwork]

Timestamp #300: The Haunting of Villa Diodati

New Post has been published on http://esonetwork.com/timestamp-300-the-haunting-of-villa-diodati/

Timestamp #300: The Haunting of Villa Diodati

Doctor Who: The Haunting of Villa Diodati (1 episode, s12e08, 2020)

Enter Frankenstein’s monster.

The place and time are Lake Geneva, June 1816. As a thunderstorm crashes down upon the Swiss countryside, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (the future Mary Shelley, the mother of science fiction), Lord George Gordon Byron, Doctor John Polidori, and Claire Clairmont bemoan the abnormal summer weather and enjoy a horror story. As Lord Byron reaches the climax of his tale, the crowd jumps at a knocking on the door.

When the tense crowd opens the door, they find the Doctor, Graham, Yaz, and Ryan. Everyone screams!

The Doctor flounders with the soaked psychic paper and Graham stumbles with modern vernacular, so Ryan simply asks to come in. They are excited to see the creative minds at work, but instead, dance with them and are treated to gossip about Mary not being married despite taking the Shelley surname and Byron separating from his wife to elope with Mary’s stepsister Claire.

Graham ventures off to find a bathroom, the Doctor tries to convince Mary to write a horror story, and the maid Elise is haunted by flying vases and disembodied hands. Graham ends up walking in circles through the house as mysterious figures appear and disappear around him.

Yaz finds Claire trying to break into Byron’s room to find letters about his feelings for her. Yaz consoles her before spotting one of the mysterious figures. Meanwhile, Byron chats up “Mrs. Doctor” while deflecting questions about Shelley. They also talk about Byron’s daughter Ada and the “unrelentingly evil” vibe surrounding the house. While chatting with Ryan, Mary laments her poor writing talent.

Graham returns to the drawing room as Polidori challenges Ryan to a duel for a perceived offense. The conflict is interrupted by the disembodied hand. It chokes Ryan and is shot into dust by the butler Fletcher. The Doctor tastes the dust and places it around the fifteenth century. Byron shows the collected party his odd collection, including the remains of a fifteenth-century soldier.

The soldier is missing two hands.

Mary explains that when the weather got worse, Shelley started having visions of a figure floating over a lake. Yaz plans to visit Shelley in his chalet while Graham sees the mysterious woman and girl but dismisses them as Polidori snoozes.

Everyone finds themselves circling throughout the house. Mary attempts to find her son, but the house won’t let her. Elise finds baby William and spots lightning on the lake. Meanwhile, Polidori awakens and sleepwalks through a wall. The Doctor discounts a haunting because ghosts don’t exist, and she eventually deduces that a perception filter is at work. As everyone in the house slowly gathers together again, Mary finds a skull and a skeletal hand in William’s cot.

The group traps the animated skull and hand and then shares their findings. The Doctor finally realizes that 1816 was “the year without a summer” due to volcanic activity. She spots the glowing figure on the lake and determines it is a time traveler. The figure materializes in the hallway, and the Doctor immediately recognizes it as a lone cyberman. The Doctor warns everyone to stay put lest they be assimilated as Cybermen, then goes alone to confront it. She doesn’t want to lose anyone else to the mechanical menace.

The Cyberman kills Fletcher and tracks Elise due to William’s cries. The Cyberman seeks a “Guardian” and does not kill the baby. The Doctor finds it and questions the incomplete form, but the Cyberman cannot attack her due to depleted power cells. The Cyberman allows itself to be struck by lightning to recharge. It speaks of a Cyberium that has selected another host.

The rest of the group finds a supposedly vacant room, but it is covered in Shelley’s writing. In the cellar, Claire finds a man who mutters about keeping a Cyberman out. This man, Percy Bysshe Shelley, is the Guardian. The Doctor meets up with this group, finds baby William, and visits with Shelley. The Cyberman teleports to Shelly in search of the Cyberium, but Shelley somehow sends it away.

Through a psychic connection, the Doctor realizes that Shelley found a shimmering silver by the lake. It hid inside his body, cloaking his movements and altering everyone else’s perceptions. His mind is full of images, symbols, and numbers, and no amount of writing will remove them. The Doctor realizes that the Cyberium contains all future knowledge of the Cybermen and was sent back in time to change the future. It will burn Shelley’s mind if he keeps it.

Despite Jack’s warning, the Doctor convinces Shelley to stop fighting the Cyberman’s influence. Unfortunately, if she saves Shelley, the Cyberman will be able to raise an unstoppable army and kill billions. There is no right answer, and the Doctor is furious with the choice forced upon her.

The Cyberman arrives and demands that the Cyberium release Shelley. Mary confronts it and learns that it was a father once, a man named Ashad who was transformed in death (and killed his own children for joining the resistance against him). Using that story as inspiration, the Doctor shows Shelly a vision of his own death and forces the Cyberium from him.

Everyone is teleported back to the drawing room as the Cyberium chooses the Doctor. Ashad calls upon his ship and threatens to destroy the world, so the Doctor releases the Cyberium to Ashad’s control. The lone Cyberman vanishes and the thunderstorm disappears. The Doctor decides to travel into the future with Shelley’s scribblings to fight Ashad before he can destroy everything.

The next day, Claire berates Byron over his poor treatment of her and breaks up with him. Team TARDIS convinces Mary to keep writing and apologizes for giving Shelley a sneak peek of his death. Graham is confused by the ghosts (who weren’t ghosts) and the Doctor offers to send her companions home as she faces the Cybermen.

The companions refuse, and over a reading of Byron’s Darkness, the team sets course for destiny.

In a good suspense story featuring a possible inspiration for Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, we get a prelude for the most divisive story in modern Doctor Who history. The premise was sound with our traveling heroes on a quest to see the origins of Mary Shelley’s masterpiece, and it evolved into a fantastic mystery thriller that brought us back to basics with historical and problem-solving elements.

The centerpiece – the lone Cyberman from Jack’s warning – is itself an amalgam of modern Doctor Who history. The body is mostly from Nightmare in Silver with lower legs from Rise of the Cybermen and arms from World Enough and Time. The helmet is a new arrangement but is inspired by a design by assistant Matthew Savage. (A 2016 three-dimensional update was showcased on his Instagram profile last year.)

The drama of this episode, with a chance to permanently defeat a menacing enemy at the cost of the greater good, was tense. This is when Doctor Who‘s social messaging is on target, with subtle pokes that make the audience feel the choice rather than experiencing a bludgeon to the head.

And, as mentioned before, this is the last prologue before the Doctor Who universe changes once again. To call what’s coming divisive is an understatement.

Rating: 4/5 – “Would you care for a jelly baby?”

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: Ascension of the Cybermen and Doctor Who: The Timeless Children

The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

#Doctor Who #Thirteenth Doctor #Timestamps Project

[legends-of-time]

Thorn Bush (Doctor Who Story)

Chapter 22: The Haunting of Villa Diodati

Masterlist

It's funny, sometimes Kathy sees the Doctor quite frequently and sometimes it's centuries before she sees them again.

Kathy knows it's the former when she joins a certain group of writers during the summer of 1816.

Byron had already left England in April 1816, never to return until his death after having been forced to by the scandal of the separation from his ex wife, the rumours about Augusta (his half sister) and ever increasing debts.

It was in the summer of 1816 when Kathy met him, John William Polidori, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Godwin (future Shelley though styles herself as if she is already) and Mary's sister Claire Clairmont at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, Switzerland.

Kathy knows that the weather will keep them indoors for over three days in June, at which point the Doctor, Yaz, Graham and Ryan will appear.

Byron will challenge them to a competition to see which of them could write the best ghost story. This will produce Frankenstein and The Vampyre.

——

Thunder, lightning and torrential rain, probably thanks to the eruption of Mount Tambora the previous year which caused severe global cooling as the ash blocked out sunlight around the world.

Mary holds her young child as she looks out of the window of the villa.

"Confined again." Byron laments from his chair. "I cannot bear it. How are these guests you mentioned of Ms Davis, meant to arrive?"

"Do not worry, they have their ways." Kathy smirks as she strokes the keys of the piano in front of her. She hopes anyway. She hasn't dared go and try to find Shelley and attempt to get the Cyberium out of him as she doesn't want to cause any damage. She doesn't even know where to start as at the beginning he's all over the place before retreating to the cellar. She's happy and nervous to be in Thirteen's adventure and she knows what's going on

"Your friends sound so magical." Claire sighs wistfully.

Kathy's smirk deepens amusedly. "Indeed. It's almost as if they are other worldly."

"Such a shame your brother and sister-in-law could not join us." I.e., Carlyle and Ashildr. No need to explain how her own son and daughter-in-law are physically the same age as her or near abouts.

"Well, I could not possibly inconvenience Lord Byron any more than I have." Kathy shrugs off. "Plus, someone has to look after my wards."

"Ah yes, the mysterious new young Lord Sutcliffe and the Urchins he brings along with him." Byron remarks.

"The very world itself seems sick." Mary observes as she turns away from the window. Byron and Claire are standing and walking about at this point.

"A most ungenial summer." Polidori comments. "I've never known air as dank and frigid."

"Oh. Dank and frigid. Who does that remind me of, I wonder? Oh." Byron snaps his fingers and points at Polidori.

"Sleep well, sweet boy." Mary says to her son as she hands off the child to a servant.

"Perhaps Lord Byron or Doctor Polidori would read to us?" Claire suggests.

"What would Miss Clairmont wish to hear?" Byron asks.

"Something to awaken thrilling horror." Mary suggests.

"Yes, Mrs Shelley."

"To make us dread to look around. To curdle the blood and quicken the beatings of the heart."

Kathy sighs as if irritated but maintains her amused smirk to show she's only joking when she says, "Who wants sleep anyway?"

"Now Ms Davis..." Byron admonishes. "I have just the thing." He walks over to the bookcase. He opens a copy of Tales of the Dead - French horror stories translated by Sarah Elizabeth Utterson.

He begins to read as they gather around. "Tales of the dead." There's a crack of thunder. Kathy holds Claire's hand as she can see that the woman is unnerved. "At midnight, we took a torch to the chapel. With pallid countenance and trembling limbs we descended to the vault. Hildegarde's leaden coffin loomed before us. The Count was seized with the sensations of terror. He opened the coffin with a stifled cry of dread, and inside we saw..."

Someone knocking on the door makes them all jump. Kathy jumps as well despite expecting it but relaxes once she feels the familial mental tug when the Doctor is nearby. Claire lets out a small scream.

"I shall send whoever calls away, my lord." Fletcher, the butler, says.

"No, Fletcher."

"What if it is she? Hildegarde, the death-bride." Mary wonders dramatically.

"If something infernal is on my doorstep, I should be the one to go and greet it." Byron continues to speak.

"Infernal?" Claire questions fearfully. "Surely not."

Byron snaps the book closed. "Who is brave enough to come and see?"

They emerge slowly into the hallway towards the door as the banging continues.

"I'll wager it's Shelley, amusing himself with a trick." Polidori disdainfully remarks.

"Shelley is not one for tricks." Mary rebuffs.

No, he's currently being held hostage by the Cyberium that's in his system. Kathy is just waiting for the right time to help him.

Bang! Those next to Kathy startle while she herself rolls her eyes. Do the Doctor, Yaz, Ryan and Graham really have to be so dramatic?

Clearly sick of the hesitance to open the door, Byron walks forward casually and declares, "There is nothing to be afraid of."

He might as well eat his words because as soon as he opens the doors, everyone cries out at the sudden and ragged appearance of those at the door as they are light up by lightning. The Thirteenth Doctor and her companions, in period costume, also cry out, startled.

"Good evening." The Doctor greets. "Not quite the welcome I was hoping for, but I'll admit we've looked better. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintances. I'm..." She holds out the psychic paper but the historicals stare back at it blankly. "Nothing? Weird. Might need a blow-dry. Uh, Kathy?" The Doctor looks at her pleadingly while Kathy stares back amusedly.

"Do you know these people?" Mary questions.

Kathy shrugs. "As I said before, my guests have their ways."

Polidori scoffs. "Of course, you know these people."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ryan demands to know looking offended.

"Anyway." Yaz butts in, giving a 'shut up' look to Ryan before turning back to them. "Got a bit caught in the downpour."

"Yes, because it is a truth universally acknowledged..." Graham begins to narrate.

"Wrong writer." The Doctor hisses at him.

"...that one's driver will park one's carriage imprudently too far from whence one is going." Kathy would've definitely been able to tell who he is talking about without having watched the episode.

"Can we please just come in before we drown to death? Please." Ryan pleads. The fam smile at them awkwardly.

Byron huffs with a grin before stepping aside. The Doctor grins and darts inside with the companions following.

"Kathy!" She cries, pulling her into a hug.

Kathy grimaces. "Great to see you to, but please no hugs after being poured upon."

"Ah right." The Time Lord/Lady (there really should be a non-binary word for the species) pulls back with an apologetic smile. "How long's it been?"

"Only two. Frost fair, fish." Kathy replies vaguely.

"Ah, yes. How is the new Lord Sutcliffe?" The Doctor asks knowingly.

"Good." Kathy can see that everyone is still inside the hallway watching them. "Anyway, our guests should really go and get dry."

Byron is startled to attention. "Right, yes! Fletcher? Take them to some rooms and make sure they are looked after?"

"Yes, my Lord." The butler answers. Graham had clearly not heard him wander up behind him as he startles.

——

Kathy slips away from the game Byron and Claire had decided to start and go in looking for the Doctor, Yaz, Graham and Ryan.

The Doctor is talking as they come down the stairs, "Okay, so there was a spot of rain, and gale-force winds and a super-long walk. But I got us here, didn't I? And Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, soon to be Shelley, screamed in your face. Quality historical experience, that."

"Gold I'd say." Kathy calls to them.

"Exactly!" The Doctor grins at her as they get to the bottom of the stairs.

"What are you doing here?" Ryan asks.

Kathy shrugs. "Why not? It's one of the nights that inspires Frankenstein after all." She smirks and raises her eyebrows tauntingly.

"You haven't mentioned that have ya?" Graham questions her.

Kathy scoffs. "No, of course not! Spoilers! I know the rules, no mentioning Frankenstein, don't interfere and nobody snog Byron."

"If," Fletcher suddenly says startling everyone except Kathy, "you'd be so kind." The butler walks away to lead them to the drawing room.

"Blimey." Graham mutters.

"Witness some of the most enlightened minds of a generation at the pinnacle, the absolute zenith of their creativity..." The Doctor is saying as Fletcher opens the door to reveal Byron rolling on the floor with Claire, shrieking with laughter causing the Time Lord to cut off abruptly.

"Sure..." Kathy mutters with a smirk.

"What would you all care to drink?" Byron asks as he stands.

"We shall teach them the dance." Mary declares.

So they do the quadrille, with Fletcher playing the keyboard and looking done with the world. They all line up opposite each other and twist and twirl while carrying on multiple conversations. Since there's an odd number of them, Kathy had been paired with Ryan and Mary.

"I detest all gossip, you understand. Utterly abhor it." Byron declares to the Doctor.

"Mary goes by Mrs Shelley, except she and Percy are not married." Polidori says.

"It really is quite a scandal."

"Lord Byron is separated from his wife. The rumours are so disastrous he cannot return to England." Mary gossips next in retaliation.

"What do you think happens when you get involved with your half sister?" Kathy mutters.

"Now he keeps company with Mary's step-sister, Miss Clairmont." Polidori informs.

"We have an exceptionally strong attachment." Claire declares. Kathy winces in pity at the young girl as Byron mutters to the Doctor about how he couldn't exactly turn her away.

"Please, excuse me, fair lady. I must poppeth to the little boys' room." Graham says as he spins around with Claire. He quickly leaves the room and the Doctor takes her chance to separate from the arms of Byron.

"So... that was marvellous." She declares causing everyone to stop. Kathy pulls herself from the weird circle she, Ryan and Mary had created. "Is anyone up for, I don't know, I'm spitballing here, how about writing the most gruesome, spine-chilling ghost story of all time? You know? A bit of blood and guts? Throw in a corpse for good measure. Float anyone's boat? Mary?"

Mary stares at her oddly before declaring, "Or perhaps another quadrille. I shall choose the music."

"Hear, hear." Byron agrees.

"Excuse me, Doctor. You broke a rule. Next, you'll be snogging Byron." Yaz accuses her.

"I was trying to get them back on track. Something's wrong here." The Doctor defends. Kathy sees Claire take a knife and slip from the room. She knows Yaz is going to follow suit soon but won't be in any danger. "This night and two others, June 1816, Byron challenges Mary, Polidori and Percy Shelley to come up with a ghost story. Spot the difference."

"You and I shall be partners for the next dance." Polidori is saying to Mary.

"Not much writing going on." Yaz begins carelessly but then frowns. "And there's no Shelley."

"Bingo. They're a man down. Why?"

Kathy hesitates before speaking. "There's something you should know..."

Kathy pulls the Doctor out into the corridor, away from the others and explains things as best she can.

"There's something in this house that's affecting it?" The Doctor asks.

"Something alien that shouldn't get into the wrong hands." Kathy tries to explain.

"Any hints?"

"Find Shelley."

The Doctor nods then with a grin pulls out her sonic and Kathy does the same. Kathy knows in the end the Cyberman, Ashad, will get the Cyberium and create his army leading to the Master creating their own monstrous creations but Kathy can and will stop it.

——

The Doctor and Kathy are scanning the dining room with their sonic screwdrivers.

"She walks in beauty, like the night." Byron murmurs as he walks up behind the Doctor. Kathy rolls her eyes. Here we go.

"Of cloudless climes and starry skies." The Doctor finishes without looking at him.

Byron moves so he's in front of her. "I'm intensely flattered you're familiar with my work, Mrs Doctor."

"And so is every GCSE kid." Kathy remarks. She receives a confused look from Byron while the Doctor looks irritated.

"Just Doctor is fine." She corrects. "I'm quite into Shelley's stuff too. He about?"

"Indisposed, I'm afraid. He won't be joining us. May I be candid?"

"Go for it."

"I sent my man out to fetch your carriage, but it seems to have disappeared."

The Doctor stays quiet before speedily moving on.

"I'm fully aware of what you want and you have enacted Ms Davis into your plan." Byron says.

"Please, reveal all." The Doctor mutters.

"My third canto. Of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, my work in progress."

Kathy snorts. "Why? It does half go on a bit. No offence."

"A lot actually." Byron remarks dejectedly.

"Nice mention of Ada, though. Big fan of hers." The Doctor adds.

"You know of my daughter?" Byron looks at her in shock, sounding more affected than he likely ought to have liked.

"Will do. Both of us." The Doctor gestures to herself and Kathy. Kathy looks up at that. She's going to meet Ada Lovelace? Cool. Though less cool when thinking about what the Master is up to then. "Gorgeous brain."

"Why are you here?" Byron questions.

"For a quick visit, supposedly, but I've been told of the danger in this house backed up by the this really weird vibe I'm getting off your house."

"Vibe?"

"Yeah. I don't want to worry you, but I'm sensing that it's sort of... unrelentingly evil."

——

"Doc! Kathy!" They hear Graham yell and rush back to the drawing room to find a skeleton hand gripping Ryan's throat with Mary and Graham trying to pull it off him and Fletcher and Polidori watching in shock.

Mary gets it off Ryan and throws it, the Doctor bats it away and Fletcher clobbers it with the silver salver he is holding. It turns to dust on the carpet.

"Great shot." The Doctor compliments him and he smiles for the first time Kathy has ever seen him do so. Ryan is gasping but seems fine. At this moment Yaz and Claire rush in.

The Doctor samples the remains. "Hmm. 14th. No... 15th century. Touch more umami."

"She licked it!" Mary mutters in disgust.

"She is the most baffling creature I've ever been acquainted with." Byron murmurs. Claire glances at him with a hurt look.

Kathy scans the remains. "Human. Protein, collagen and... nothing abnormal. Just as I thought."

"What kind of implement is that?" Polidori questions.

"One that zaps people's heads off who threaten people with guns." Ryan threatens, causing Kathy to chuckle slightly.

"I don't think they're really from the colonies." Mary realises.

"No. She is from somewhere much, much stranger." Byron says as he gazes at the Doctor.

"So's Ms Davis." Mary murmurs, staring at Kathy in amazement. Kathy realises how strange it must be for them to see how Kathy has changed since the Doctor and her companions arrived.

"The north." Polidori whispers.

"How'd it come to life, then? Was it haunted or something?" Yaz questions.

"No, Kathy said there's something in this house affecting it." The Doctor replies.

"Well, you did say the house was evil." Byron comments.

Graham looks alarmed. "Well, that's a development."

"I've been getting a vibe." The Doctor defends.

"And she's not entirely wrong." Kathy says.

"If there is evil here, I know who brought it in." Polidori says accusingly. Mary and Claire follow his lead to stare at Byron.

Byron sighs. "Very well. I may have a skeleton in my chamber."

"Right. You keep an eye on Trigger Happy." The Doctor tells Graham then she turns to Byron. "Me and you need to take a squiz at your skeleton." The man looks all too pleased and follows her.

——

The rest of them follow the Doctor and Byron to the latter's chamber.

"It's a collection," Byron explains as they all walk inside and fill the room.

"Of what? Dead stuff?" Ryan remarks.

"And in your bedroom?" Kathy grimaces. She gives the room a brief scan with her sonic.

"Relics of war." Byron corrects. The Doctor waves her sonic all over the place. "From my travels. Reminders that we tread on the dust of empires. Crops now grow where blood was split. An innocent fascination, I assure you."

"Waterloo." The Doctor gasps. She puts on a helmet. "Oh, I love a good plume. What do you think?"

Yaz gives her a small nod.

"Nice." Kathy grins. The Doctor beams back.

Ryan helps Byron lift a chest onto the table. "A 15th-century soldier from the Battle of Morat. His final remains." Byron explains as he opens it. There's a flash of lightning and Yaz, Ryan, Mary and Claire startle.

"One hand gone." Yaz observes.

"Both hands gone." Byron realises, he spins around as lightning cracks as if expecting it to be crawling behind him.

"Great. There's another on the loose." The Doctor comments sarcastically. "Keep your eyes peeled."

"Anything else strange happen since you've been here?" Yaz asks the historicals and Kathy.

"When the weather turned, Shelley began having visions." Mary says.

"He's prone to them." Claire elaborates.

"What did he see?" Ryan questions.

"An apparition of a figure floating above the lake." Mary replies.

"When you said he was indisposed, what did you mean?" The Doctor asks Byron.

"Er, well, when he didn't join us, my mind naturally wandered to the idea of some torrid assignation in town." Byron says in a gossipy tone and a pointed look at Mary, who quickly takes offence.

"Shelley often retires to our chalet to write. Maison Chapuis. On the shore." Mary corrects strongly and with sharp looks in Byron's direction.

"You should probably pop down and have a chat." Yaz suggests.

"No, he's neither in town nor is he at the chalet." Kathy corrects.

"Then where is he?" Mary asks.

"That's what we've got to find out, but I believe he's somewhere in this house."

Mary, Yaz and Ryan leave to begin the search for Shelley.

"What reanimates bones and leaves no trace? Why just the hands? Why only parts?" The Doctor questions. Kathy is listening but she's also being greatly entertained by the massive helmet on the Doctor's head. It completely contrasts with her expression.

"However, my collection's not demonic?" Byron asks.

"Correct." The Doctor takes the helmet off. "But I'll probably come back for this, though. Strictly for, er, safety purposes. Not because it really suits me or anything."

"This vibe you mentioned. Is it still there?" Claire asks.

"Yeah. I can't... It's like it won't let me think. I need to get out of this house." The Doctor says, moving to do so.

"We can't." Kathy says stopping her. Though come to think of it, she herself is finding it difficult to think.

"What do you mean?"

"Look." She walks out of the doors only to find herself walking back inside.

"Easier said than done, apparently." The Doctor realises. "You were right Kathy, whatever it is, it's affecting the house."

This doesn't stop the Doctor from having a go herself. Multiple times.

"The same chamber, over and over. How is it possible?" Claire questions.

"It's not. It's..."

Byron cuts the Doctor off, "Like a dream."

"A nightmare." Kathy corrects.

"Is anyone else trapped?" The Doctor calls.

"Yeah!" Comes Graham's distant reply. "And I think I'm seeing dead people."

The wind blows through, extinguishing fires and candles startling everyone.

"We're the same!" Ryan yells distantly. "I totally saw a ghost."

"We're stuck on the stairs." Yaz adds.

"Please! How do we move upwards? I need to check my son is well." Mary begs.

"Working on it!" The Doctor replies, crouching down by the fireplace. "Head's a bit fuzzy. Normal service will resume shortly. And ghosts don't exist."

"Of course not." Graham retorts. "You two just need a spray tan and a kip, eh?"

"Graham, what sort of dead people, exactly?"

"Oh. How can I hear your voice, Doc?" Graham questions.

Kathy crouches next to the Doctor. "She's using the fireplace chimney."

"Doc? Kathy?" His is louder and echoes.

"Graham? Graham?" Kathy calls.

"They've gone now. And... so's Polidori. I've lost him."

"You had one job!" The Doctor whines.

"Yeah, made more challenging by his ability to walk through walls." Graham defends.

"Through?"

"Well, he just turned sort of zombie and went into one."

Byron crouches down next to them. "What do you speak of? What is a zombie?" He questions.

"Mrs Doctor?" Claire calls.

"Kind of a dead person walking, but it won't be that." The Doctor explains.

"Mrs Doctor? Ms Davis?"

Kathy looks up to see a shimmering light on one of the walls, she stands quickly and comes to stand by Claire.

"How do you know?" Byron asks.

"Because Polidori isn't dead, for a kick-off."

Polidori walks in through the wall. Claire grips Kathy's in fright.

"Uh, Doctor!" Kathy yells.

"What?!" The Doctor exclaims. She spins around and sees Polidori gliding into the room. Lightning strikes, lightning up the room.

"Polidori!" Byron hides behind Claire and Kathy.

"He emerged from the wall like a phantom." Claire gasps.

"Begone, demon!" Byron cries.

The Doctor walks over to observe Polidori. "Pulse? Check. Breathing. Check."

"May I just say, you are quite lovely in a crisis." Byron flirtatiously remarks, stepping around Claire and Kathy. Kathy glares at him irritably.

"No, you may not." The Doctor gives him her own annoyed look before turning back to Polidori. "The lights are on, but he's gone on a mini-break."

"Possessed?" Byron suggests.

"Or asleep? He walks in his sleep." Claire suggests then.

"She's right." Kathy agrees. What Shelley is doing to the house is scrabbling her mind but she's pushing through. "There's an illusion that's allowing him to walk as normal because he's not experiencing it like we are. He's just asleep and can't see it. That's why er he was able to walk through the wall and up as well. I-it's a, um, perception filter."

The Doctor moves to a wall as Kathy speaks and is able to put her hand through the wall. "We're surrounded. Immersed." She realises. She turns to yell to everyone else. "Close your eyes. Clear your mind. We're only experiencing what it wants us to."

After a few moments, there's a sudden scream. Mary must've been able to get to her son's room only to find a cot containing a skull and hand.

The scream startles Polidori awake. He looks at them unperturbed. "I suspect I must have missed something."

"Yes," the Doctor replies, "but you've shown us how to get out of this room."

They step through the wall and make their way along a corridor, which is one Kathy recognises as being from the ground floor despite them having just been upstairs.

"This can't be the hallway. We've not descended the stairs." Byron utters, but then emerges into the entranceway to be confronted with a wall that should really have a door leading outside. "It is."

"And there really should be a door there." Kathy points out.

"Please can we get out of here?" Claire begs.

"In theory, yes. We just have to tell ourselves that we can walk through the door we know is right there..." The door appears as the Doctor opens it.

Kathy realises something. "Wait, Doctor—"

It's too late, the Doctor steps through but hits something solid. "Oh!"

They all wince and hiss.

——

Everyone is back together in the drawing room. The skull and hand are under glass and not at all pleased about it. Kathy grimaces at the way they wiggle about.

"My bones have never caused such mischief before, I swear." Byron declares.

"The things we know. We can move inside, but not out." The Doctor says.

"Dead things don't act dead." Yaz adds.

"People vanish. Elise? My poor William." Mary laments, clinging to Claire.

"There's no sign of Fletcher either." Ryan points out.

"I've never believed in such things, but could this be Hell? Could we be deceased?" Byron questions.

"Nice blue-sky thinking, but no." The Doctor disagrees.

"This place keeps on folding in on itself as well." Kathy says. She knows this is Ryan's line but she needs to make sure it's mentioned.

It dawns on the Doctor. "Exactly. It's like you said, something is in the house. To protect it, we're caught in a security system. It's... it's turned the house into a sort of giant panic room."

"In 1816?" Graham questions in disbelief.

The Doctor turns to the window. "The Year Without a Summer. They blamed it on volcanic ash covering the sunlight. Weather went haywire." She turns to them all. "What if something came here that wasn't supposed to and caused a major disturbance?"

"Like what?" Yaz asks.

"That?" Mary points out of the window.

"That could be a solid option, Mary, yes." The Doctor murmurs as they all walk over to the window to see a silver figure in the distance.

"What is it?"

"I don't know."

"It's sort of just floating around." Ryan observes.

"Like a death god rising from Hades." Yaz says.

"Shelley's vision." Mary realises what Yaz is saying. "But we're all having it."

"No. It's pushing through." Kathy points out. "That is what Shelley saw. It's not a vision. It never was. It's a traveller moving through Time. A lone Cyberman."

"What? Like you and Jack talked about?" Yaz questions.

Before Kathy can answer, a flash of lightning illuminates the figure in the hallway. Kathy turns around to watch it.

"Apparently. And he's trying to get in." Kathy says. Everyone turns around as it succeeds, fully appearing in the corridor. Kathy is already running to the door with the Doctor behind her.

"Are you the Guardian?" He asks. They quickly shut the door on it and the Doctor sonics it locked.

"Beware of the lone Cyberman! Don't let it have what it wants." Yaz reminds them. Thanks, Yaz, kind of already knew that. Though she's not sure how she's going to stop this.

"At all costs!" Graham adds.

Mary, Byron, Polidori and Ryan are already barricading the door with furniture from the room.

"Yes, thank you!" The Doctor retorts.

"May I ask, what is a Cyberman?" Mary asks once they are all grouped up, backing away from the door, and looking at it worriedly.

"Someone altered. Organs, flesh surgically replaced with mechanical parts without consent. It drives them insane, so they alter the brain too, switch off all emotion." The Doctor explains.

And Mary's inspiration for Frankenstein apparently.

"Are you the Guardian?" The Cyberman can be heard saying.

"Never seen one like him before. He's different. Unfinished."

"But still just as deadly when at full power," Kathy warns them. She looks at the door with a level of fear and interest. The last time she'd interacted with Cybermen was at the Pandorica, where she didn't get much interaction with. Even now, this still isn't a full Cyberman experience. She wonders when she'll meet one.

"Are you the Guardian?"

"Whatever he come for is hidden here. It explains the security." The Doctor explains.

"What's hidden?" Ryan asks. Kathy doesn't dare answer in case the Cyberman can hear them.

"I've no idea, but we need to beat him to it, quick." The Doctor replies. She reaches for the door handle.

"Doctor, what are you doing? Where are you going?" Yaz questions.

The Doctor opens the door to reveal the Cyberman is no longer there. Kathy is filled with dread when she thinks of where he's gone.

"You're not leaving us?" Mary asks desperately.

"I have to find what he's looking for. Alone." The Doctor declares.

"You need backup. All of us against one." Yaz argues.

"One Cyberman, but then thousands. Humans like all of you changed into empty, soulless shells. No feeling, no control, no way back. I will not lose anyone else to that." The Doctor declares. Kathy winces when she thinks of Bill. She'd only seen the companion recently and to think of her initial fate. The only consolation is Bill then sees Heather again and will become a Sentient Oil Creature like her. "Do not follow me."

"Well, that means I'm safe, doesn't it?" Kathy persists.

"I need to do this alone. Stay with the others." The Doctor leaves without another word. Kathy glares after her, frustrated and annoyed.

"What if it finds William?" Mary asks worriedly.

"We need to find the child." Polidori agrees.

"And a way out." Byron adds.

"We are not safe here. He could pass through a wall at any moment." Claire argues.

"You're right, we can't just sit here." Kathy declares. Plus, they need to leave because this is when they're able to find Shelley.

"The Doctor told us to wait," Ryan argues. Kathy raises an eyebrow. Honestly, what kind of companion is he? Staying when the Doctor tells them to is not the companions' motto.

"Technically, she only told us not to follow her." Yaz gets it. "Let's split up." Or maybe not.

"When is that ever a good idea!" Kathy remarks sarcastically.

——

Yaz, Ryan, Mary and Byron head one way while Kathy goes with Graham, Claire and Polidori. Better to stick with the group that finds Shelley.

They open a door to find it leads to the cellar.

"The cellar. We'll give it a miss, eh?" Graham remarks nervously.

"Oh, come on, Graham! Where's your sense of adventure?" Kathy asks with a grin.

"Left behind and over taken with my need to survive." The companion retorts unhappily.

"Could the coal hatch be a means of escape? We should try everywhere." Claire argues.

"Is it too late to choose another group?" Asks a frightened Polidori.

"Come on, we won't get anywhere standing here." Kathy says, leading the way down the steps.

Kathy and Polidori reach where the coal hatch should be, only to find it not there as Kathy had expected.

Polidori hurries to where Graham and Claire are looking about. "The coal hatch has gone. Oh, there's no way out." He tells them fearfully.

Suddenly, Claire's candle goes out and she vanishes from their sight.

"Claire, you okay?" Graham calls somewhat calmly but you can hear the tremor underlining his voice.

"Miss Clairmont?" Polidori's fear is more apparent.

"There's something down here with us." Claire whimpers. Well, that's not terrifying at all.

"Claire?" Kathy calls. "It's alright. Just walk back towards our voices and the candle light."

Claire slowly does as she says and Kathy lights her candle with her own.

"Something crept in front of me. I heard its vile breath." Claire tells them. "Listen..."

They all hear something then and turn in that direction. Graham moves forward into another section of the cellars with the rest of them walking slowly behind. Kathy doesn't want to rush as she doesn't want to cause Shelley any panic. They turn a corner; their candles illuminate a familiar figure. Shelley.

He's huddled in the corner looking shaken and unwell. "I'm sorry, but I tried to hide it. I have to keep him out."

"It's alright." Kathy tries to reassure him, crouching down in front of him along with Graham. "We know you're doing your best."

"Who are you?" Graham asks him.

"I'm the Guardian." Shelley replies. "I am Percy Bysshe Shelley."

——

Polidori and Claire leave to retrieve the Doctor and soon she arrives with Yaz in tow. Kathy knows that Polidori, Claire and Byron are hiding elsewhere while Mary will arrive shortly.

The Doctor scans Shelley. "Shelley in a cellar, hidden away, cloaked, too big to register. That's why the readings have been off. It's something called a Cyberium."

"I'm trying to protect it." Shelley tells her. The Cyberman suddenly zaps in, blinding them with the light. Shelley isn't having any of it. "Be gone, invader!" The Cyberman is relocated in the house, they faintly hear him roar in rage. Shelley breathes heavily from the effort it took.

"Who moved him? Is it you changing the house?" The Doctor questions.

"Some, but not all. It has its own room." Shelley replies. It's clear that talking is taking a lot of effort for him. Suddenly Mary appears nearby.

"Mary!" The Doctor gasps in surprise and frustration.

"I cannot hide. Not while he suffers." Mary crouches down beside her beloved.

"Show me." The Doctor makes telepathic contact with Shelley. "What happened to you?"

"I was out walking alone. There was a glimmer in the lake. Exquisite. Alive. Like quicksilver. I fished it out to study it more closely. But then it took root within me." Shelley lets out a sudden gasp causing the Doctor to break contact. "I returned. I was changed. No one could see me. It hid itself in me, and hid me within the villa."

"And when it thought it might be discovered, it manipulated all of our perceptions." The Doctor realises.

"Since the quicksilver has taken hold of me, I see symbols. Symbols and numbers. They will not leave my head, no matter how much I transcribe them." Shelley explains. Coordinates for the future.

"The symbols were all over his room. All over the walls." Yaz tells them.

"The house was like shifting sands. I sought solitude here, in the dark."

"What happened to him?" Ryan wonders.

"I'm going with... alien parasite." Graham suggests.

Kathy slightly smiles at his remark but shakes her head. "It's Cyber technology. It's given him information on their entire past and future."

"They scorched and split the sky. Built the army of all armies. Left behind only pain, rage, fear and death." Shelley further explains.

"How is he seeing all this?" Mary questions.

"The Cyberium is burning through his mind. It'll destroy him if it stays in him much longer. An epic battle." The Doctor explains. "The Cyberium at the heart of it, controlling data, strategy, decision-making. Clever! Very clever. Someone took it from the Cybermen, sent it back through time here in an attempt to change the future."

There's a flash of light as the Cyberman tries to get back into the cellar but fails.

"In an attempt to protect you from that."

"I can't keep him away much longer." Shelley heaves.

"Then don't."

Kathy, Ryan, Yaz and Graham look at her in alarm and surprise though Kathy doesn't do the latter.

"Doc." Graham mutters.

"Stop fighting. It's okay." The Doctor reassures Shelley.

"But Doctor, I have seen what happens. It can't get into the wrong hands!" Kathy argues pleadingly.

"I know, because armies will rise and billions will die."

"Shelley's going to die if that stuff stays inside him." Graham points out. Kathy sighs, what is she to do?

"Shelley's only one life against all those others." Ryan argues.

Mary is shocked and in disbelief. "What are you saying? How can you condemn him to death like that?"

"But is he, Ryan?" The Doctor asks. "His thoughts, his words inspire and influence thousands for centuries. If he dies now, who knows what damage that will have on future history? Words matter! One death, one ripple, and history will change in a blink. The future will not be the world you know. The world you came from, the world you were created in won't exist, so neither will you. It's not just his life at stake. It's yours. You want to sacrifice yourself for this? You want me to sacrifice you? You want to call it? Do it now. All of you."

There's silence before Kathy opens her mouth, "But it's one possible ripple against billions certainly dying if you let the Cyberman have it."

"Shut up!" The Doctor suddenly snaps.

Kathy looks at the Doctor in wide eyed shock. They had never spoken to her like that before.

"You're not my equal, Kathy!" The Doctor snaps before turning to her companions who are either staring at her or at the floor despondently. "Sometimes all the decisions are for me to decide. Sometimes this team structure isn't flat. It's mountainous, with me at the summit in the stratosphere, alone, left to choose. Save the poet, save the universe. Watch people burn now or tomorrow. Sometimes, even I can't win."

"Please, help me." Shelley begs.

This time the Cyberman is able to push through and marches over and demands, "Release what you hold."

"How?"

"Release it!"

"He doesn't know what that means! You've got to tell him what he's got to do!" Graham yells at him.

"I am addressing the Cyberium." The Cyberman corrects him. "It must execute the host to be extracted."

"It's not obeying you." The Doctor leans into his face as she smugly retorts.

"Hmm. Then I shall execute the host." He prepares his gun but Mary steps forward, stopping him in his tracks.

"What is your name, sir?" She asks.

"Mary, this is not a good time to talk." Kathy tries to tell her quietly. She still feels shaken from having the Doctor's anger directed at her.

"Or names. Are you several men? A composite of parts." Mary murmurs to herself as she analyses the Cyberman in front of her.

"I am better than men." The Cyberman angrily corrects.

"Yet I still see a soul in there."

The Cyberman laughs. "What do you think you see, child?"

"I see the man who spared my son." Mary tells him. "Were you a father, before?"

"I was." It's strange how Kathy can see some emotion there but knows how quickly it'll turn in a few moments.

"You didn't want to be this way. They hurt you, this modern Prometheus. You loved once. And were loved in return. You do not wish to kill." Mary declares. She holds out her hand, and he touches it.

"My name was Ashad. I did spare your son..." the Cyberman then grabs her arm, "because he's a useless runt, sickly and weak. And I did have children. I slit their throats when they joined the resistance." It switches to holding the back of her neck. "In death we are transformed, improved, updated, as you will learn."

"Transformed in death. I'm sorry, Percy Shelley. So very sorry." The Doctor apologises to the poet.

"Doctor!" Kathy yells. She knows it's too late and they need to save Mary plus Shelley survives but this means the Doctor will give the Cyberman what he wants.

The Doctor touches Shelley's head and Kathy knows he's being shown himself drowning in the Mediterranean in 1822.

"Mrs Doctor, what are you doing to him?" Mary questions desperately.

Silver flows out from Shelley's mouth and the Doctor jerks back.

"The Cyberium, it's leaving his body." Yaz observes.

——

They then all appear in the drawing room where Byron, Claire and Polidori hide. They all stagger at the force of the change. Shelley still lies on the floor but is now unconscious.

"What just happened?" Graham questions.

"How are we back here?" Yaz wonders.

"He's reset the house." The Doctor explains. "Shelley needs help. I think I've freed him from the Cyberium."

"At what cost?" Mary asks her as Yaz and Kathy kneel next to Shelley. Kathy knows they need to help him get through the trauma of what the Doctor had just done to him.

The Cyberium is in mid-air. The Doctor and the Cyberman both reach for it. It moves towards the former.

"No!" The latter cries in frustration and anger.

"And it chooses me. Interesting. Time Lord magnetism. Looks like I'm the true Guardian." The Cyberium passes into the Doctor.

"Surrender it or I will execute you." The Cyberman threatens.

"I'd be very careful with those execution threats. I can feel it already, fusing to me. It feels very at home. Recognising great host material. Not to big myself up, but I don't think it'll vacate me without a fight." The Doctor remarks smugly.

The Cyberman simply turns his arm towards the window. The thunderstorm shakes the villa. Kathy looks up from Shelley as she's jolted to see a hole open in the sky.

"What are you doing?!"

"Transmitting. My ship will lock onto my signal. It will tear this reality, and this planet will remain only in shreds." The Cyberman declares.

"This world doesn't end in 1816. It can't." The Doctor murmurs in disbelief.

"It will."

Kathy is taking it in turns doing chest compressions with Yaz. Yaz suddenly stops in the middle of hers to say to the Doctor, "He's bluffing. Don't listen to him. Kathy, tell her!"

Kathy looks unsurely at the Doctor, her hurtful words ringing through her mind. "I-I don't know. I can't be sure Yaz." She genuinely doesn't know as they never got to find out but could they risk it? She wordlessly returns to the chest compressions.

"She's right, we can't be sure. I can't risk this planet. I can't win!" The Doctor agrees mournfully. Kathy catches the quick apologetic look in her direction from the Doctor, which she'll take for now but knows the Doctor needs to expand on her apology.

"We are inevitable." The Cyberman declares.

"Yes. You are." The Cyberium leaves the Doctor.

"What are you doing?" Yaz asks.

"She's giving it what it wants." Kathy replies.

The Cyberium enters the Cyberman. He vanishes, the hole in the sky closes and the clouds clear away, sunlight streams in. Shelley sits up, gasping. Kathy leaps back from him, almost getting knocked in the face.

Mary cradles him. "What did you do to Shelley?"

"Old Time Lord trick. Not a nice one. Pushed his mind to his future death, tricked the Cyberium into letting go, hoped his body would survive the trauma. I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me." The Doctor apologises.

"You saved Shelley, but what does that mean for the future?" Graham correctly wonders. Kathy's mind wonders to the destruction and trauma of the future, particularly a certain Time Lord reappearing and revealing the Doctor's past.

"It means I've put it in the gravest danger." The Doctor replies.

"Please, tell me that was part of the plan." Ryan says.

"Yes. A last-minute, imperfect, all-I've-got plan. Saving Shelley was step one." The Doctor explains.

"What's step two?" Yaz asks.

"Fix the mess I created in step one. Go to the future, find him and stop him from rebuilding the Cyber Army. Shelley, can you give Yaz those symbols and numbers? We're going to need them."

——

Kathy walks the Doctor, Yaz, Graham and Ryan to the TARDIS through the woods.

"So, if all the weirdness was the Cyberium, you know, the bones and Shelley floating about and all that, why would it reanimate a couple of stiffs just to bring me a sarnie?" Graham gets a few confused looks at his words. "You know, the maid and the creepy little kid?"

"Er... no. We thought you saw Shelley like we did." Yaz replies. They all come to a stop by the TARDIS.

Graham looks at them in disbelief. "Oh, come on. Beady eyes. Made the room go all arctic. Where do them two fit in?"

"I'm not sure they did." Ryan says.

"No, no, come on, Doc." The older companion turns to the Time Lord for an explanation. "This is where you jump in with a rational explanation. I mean, ghosts don't exist, right?"

The Doctor shrugs. "Unless they do."

"What?" Graham gapes as the Doctor walks past him and opens the TARDIS door.

"Inside, you three. We need to talk." The Doctor says. Her companions walk past Kathy, offering goodbyes through hugs and comments though Graham is in a daze. The Doctor turns to Kathy before she steps inside.

"You're going to Cyber war zones, aren't you?" Kathy hesitantly asks.

The Doctor nods. "Are you coming?"

Kathy smiles slightly and shakes her head. "I've got obligations here, Doctor. But perhaps a future me may join you."

"I'll see you then." The Doctor turns to step inside the TARDIS before pausing and turning to Kathy apologetically. "I'm sorry for earlier. I didn't mean it. If anyone who's not a full Time Lord is ever my equal, it's you. You're my best friend Kathy and there's no one else I trust more."

Kathy smiles tearfully. "I suppose you're alright."

The Doctor grins, rightfully taking Kathy's remark as an acceptance of her apology. "'Course I am."

They share a chuckle.

"Till the next time, Doctor."

"Till the next time, Kathy."

——

A/N: I hope Kathy's involvement makes sense. She's still fearful about changing things for the worst at times. Been doing a lot of 13 recently, returning to 10 next.

Please leave comments on how you're enjoying this story and what you think.

#doctor who

[ssaalexblake]

Okay though, but Ryan’s fear in can you hear me? is basically a mix up of his fear from the events of orphan 55 (hello that one dreg), his terror for his home because of that wake up call, his fear that something bad will happen when he’s not there and he won’t be there to help (contextually, i think this is a fear stemming from his father not showing up to Grace’s funeral, he’s afraid that him being off with the doctor could be causing him to act negligently and selfishly like Aaron had, his nightmare of his friend telling him something awful happened and he wasn’t There is Very woman who fell to the earth). 

So like, his questioning of life passing them all by, or rather, Their lives passing their friends at home by makes So much sense... And then the events of the closing 3 episodes happen and Ryan probably had a Very bad few days in ways i’ve not seen talked about much. 

I mean, Villa of Diodati starts out fun, but it quickly devolves into the horror story it always wanted to be with the presence of the lone cyberman. Ryan Wants to be responsible, Ryan grew up around a lot of uncertainty and still doesn’t have a lot of it, his mother died unexpectedly for him to find on the floor, his father abandoned him when he needed him most, Grace dies suddenly in an effort to help people. Grace, the only member of his biological family to be a sturdy and responsible force for him, the one who he respected and loved the most, is dead. 

Ryan’s respect for his gran, and his issues with his father, have culminated on irresponsibility being part of his worst nightmare. He is terrified, not only of the earth dying but of him not being there to help to save it! He feels the responsibility of that and the idea of shirking it is abhorrent to him. Which is why 13′s breakdown in the cellar in thovd must have been an absolute gut punch to him. 

If they let Shelley die, they save the world. Simple math, hard but simple. But no, it’s not, she says, because if you let Shelley die the world that lives on is not Your world. She Specifically in the course of her little breakdown in this episode asks the fam Exactly what she should do, if she should sacrifice them, even, effectively shoving this horrible responsibility, his thing, onto his shoulders in an effort to make it clear to the fam Exactly the stakes of the situation they’re in. She would have had no idea how good of a hit she just scored on Ryan there. 

He doesn’t have an answer. How could he? He is terrified of not being responsible enough, not being able to save the world, and she’s just confronted him with the knowledge of how horrible trying to bear this responsibility Actually is, how hard it is to actually try, because there she is trying to balance her responsibility to keep Them and Shelley alive with her responsibility to keeping the timelines and everybody Else safe. Either way, you fail. It’s a catch 22. 

You also cannot contextually remove this from the fact that 13 this season is Living Ryan’s worst fear. He doesn’t know it at this point, but his worst nightmare of going home to find it in flames because he wasn’t there to help is... Gallifrey. 

Across the 2 part finale, Ryan lives to see the end of the human race. He was not there to see it happen, but arguably played a part in it’s destruction (if passively) when 13 made the knowing choice to potentially destroy humanity to first and foremost, save the fam. So uh, he played a part in the death of humanity but was not there to see it, and reentered the picture in it’s final act, having not helped and missed it all. Sound familiar?  

13 Kind of just made him live out his night terror from can you hear me?, completely by accident. 

Of course, it gets Worse from then on. Ryan is the only companion to take 13′s journey to gallifrey in episode 9, Ryan is there when 13 sees through the portal to look upon the ashes of Gallifrey. The same Ryan who has been by her side the whole time, quietly and also, not quietly, wondering about her behaviour and why she’s been going off home alone. Why she’s so angry and lost and traumatized. The same Ryan whose worst nightmare is coming home to the flaming ruins of earth sees the burning ruins of her home planet at the same time she does and everything must have become so very horrifyingly clear to him in ways that wouldn’t have been as vivid in Yaz and Graham, imo, because they’d never imagine that happening to their home while they were gone, but Ryan?

Ryan has. 

Suddenly Ryan gets why 13′s been how she has since the end of Spyfall. Ryan realises that every bit of weird and traumatized behaviour he’s witnessed from his friend this season has been because she’s been quietly living through his own personal horror. 

Like, how do you live with not only being confronted with the fact that your worst nightmare Can come true suddenly, And with the fact that you know exactly what kind of psychological effect it would have on you because you’ve unknowingly been watch a loved one go through it for a long time?

All of this kind of comes together in a perfect storm for his actions at the end of the episode imo, his true understanding of the horror she has lived, his deep respect  and yearning to be a truly responsible person, him having a need to try and Help, all lead to his reaction to learning about her suicide mission to be quiet and passive. 13 tells them she would sacrifice herself for them, for the universe, do it to fix her own mistakes in a heartbeat, she is taking responsibility for doing so even if it means dying, and Ryan would Get that. 

He doesn’t want her to die, but he would Understand why she is going to. She found the way out of the catch 22 in thovd, she Can save these people, it just means not saving herself. 

I feel like on some level, he’d Respect her for owning her own mistakes and taking responsibility for them. After all, Aaron abandoned him because he couldn’t deal with his own trauma, not because he didn’t care, malevolence isn’t the root of all of peoples problems, part of the reason they were all in this mess was because 13 couldn’t deal with her trauma, wasn’t interested in taking steps to do so, but here she is choosing to be responsible and own it and Fix it. 

For a man like Ryan who longs to be like Grace and step up to bat, not like Aaron who couldn’t manage it, that would mean a lot. And no, he didn’t run to stop and save her like Yaz did, but it’s not because he doesn’t care or doesn’t love her, it’s because he recognised and related to the fact that this was something she Had to do whether he or she liked it or not. Ryan’s used to losing people in senseless and unfair ways, at least 13 here is trying to save people. She wouldn’t be a senseless death or abandonment like his parents, she would be like Grace, going out trying to save people, and he of all people understands that that Means something.

S12 showed Ryan his greatest fears, and when he gets back to earth for good, he’s gonna do something about it, that’s how He’s gonna save the world.

#dw shit #i have ryan feelings #hes my fave #and he had a rough time of it this season imo #this isnt even getting into the 13 and ryan parental angle #of which would make this Much longer #ryan sinclair #dw meta

[isagrimorie]

One of the things about the  cut to Thirteen finding Baby William always felt abrupt to me, so I’m glad in the script, it describes the moment Thirteen finds Baby William more. 

One criticism over Haunting of Villa Diodati that’s always puzzled me was this claim that Thirteen was only concerned about the lives of great people.  And that’s just not true. 

Especially, the way Thirteen reacted at finding Elise. 

In this scene Thirteen gasps in shock and stares at poor Elise and then the camera pans to Byron finding Fletcher.

 The music and how solemn the music is and lets the moment kind of linger there shows that their deaths mattered to the Doctor. (But also, that Maxine Alderton remembered to let the characters mourn which not a lot of writers remember to do. (*cough*McTighe*cough*).

Thirteen’s expression, especially when she realizes there are people here who have died. 

And the way she realizes how vulnerable history has become, it’s not a fixed point in time but it’s an important moment in Human history. And people who were supposed to live have died. 

You can see Thirteen process this and the pressure is mounting. Cyberman. A manor with 17th century technology, her friends. And now dead people. 

And so when Mary Shelley insists in joining the Doctor in the Cellar she tries to emphasize that NO. She cannot. 

“Do you want to listen or do you want to end up like them? None of this is supposed to happen. They weren’t supposed to die, neither are you. So please, let's not unravel anything else. Hide. And stay there. History is vulnerable tonight. I mean it.

The small break in Thirteen’s voice when she says “They weren’t supposed to die, neither are you” it’s just so vulnerable. It’s fleeting but it was there. 

#liveblogging rewatch #doctor who #thirteenth doctor #dw 12x08 #the haunting of villa diodati

[timeagainreviews]

The Doctor visits Villa Diodati... Again

It’s rare that an episode of Doctor Who can upset the fandom before it ever airs. Even rarer is the fandom actually having a valid reason for being so hacked off. The reason for this week’s outrage? That would be none other than the inclusion of the famous writer Mary Shelley into the story. If you’re a fan of Big Finish, you may know already that Mary Shelley acts as a bit of a companion in the Eighth Doctor audios. So when she shows up with the Doctor on the same night when she meets the Eighth Doctor, you start to wonder if anyone thought to actually check.

There’s a really great thing called the TARDIS Data Core. It’s a wiki maintained by the type of meticulous nerds (see: me) who care about this sort of thing. And it’s absolutely free to use. So if you want to throw in someone like say, Houdini, you can read up on the many instances when the Doctor met the man. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, Doctor Who writers have a bizarre fascination with that man. I won’t fault Maxine Alderton for having not listened to the audios with Mary Shelley. I’ve only listened to one of them. But hell, check the damn wiki.

The world of Doctor Who gets its mileage out of perception filters. They play a huge part in the mythology of the show, and especially tonight’s episode. Maybe this is why the Thirteenth Doctor doesn’t remember her travels with Mary Shelley, it’s filtered out. And maybe that’s why when Lord Byron answers the door to Villa Diodati, he reacts with shock despite the massive windows with a clear view of the Doctor and her companions. Was he shocked by the fact that literally nothing changed? Pro tip- if you’re going to show someone surprised by who is on the other side of a door, wood is more effective than glass.

The Doctor and her companions have arrived at the Villa Diodati in the rain-soaked summer of 1816. The very same rain that has relegated Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori housebound, has also forced the TARDIS crew to seek shelter at the villa. The episode wastes no time reaching for cliches as the Doctor says to her companions to brace themselves for meeting some of the greatest minds of human history, only to have the door open to a room of drunken buffoons. They did the exact same joke when the Tenth Doctor met Shakespeare. It’s not egregious, but it’s played out none the less.

Rebounding from cliches, director Emma Sullivan gets some great horror movie vibes as the appearance of a skeletal hand stalks through the house like a spider looking for prey. Clips of ghostly apparitions flicker in and out of existence. I was already very excited about where this was headed. Lord Byron is quite taken by the Doctor, who pays him very little mind. But this doesn’t stop the sleepwalking Dr Polidori from getting jealous when Claire appears to be flirting with Lord Byron. Much of the information about these four is conveyed by their proclivity to gossip, which I thought was a very clever way of sneaking a history lesson into the story. Once again, they’re making better use of edutainment moments by incorporating them into the story.

However, it is Lord Byron who has Claire’s eye. Unfortunately for her, she doesn’t stand a chance against the Doctor, or whoever catches Lord Byron’s attention that week. Claire laments Lord Byron’s mixed signals in a conversation with Yaz, leading Yaz to convey her own issues with someone she fancies. She never outright says it’s Ryan, but I’m guessing it’s Ryan. I’m also guessing we’re still doing that? She also very well could have meant the Doctor. Meanwhile, Graham is lost in this labyrinthian house whilst searching for the loo. I love that Graham is the companion that thinks about eating and going to the bathroom. I’ve always wondered why there weren’t more action movies where someone needed to take a piss. You never see Ethan Hunt stop a bullet train while needing to poop. Now that’s an impossible mission.

With Dr Polidori being a sleepwalker, his demeanour is anxious and agitated causing him to take Ryan’s playground trash talk as a major slight on his character. He challenges him to a duel, but before he can put a cap in Ryan’s backside, they’re interrupted by the presence of the skeleton hand. I really have to give it up to Tosin Cole here. His comedic chops this series have been spot-on. Watching him try and fight off a flying hand was just as funny as watching him try to impress Mary Shelley with a stumbling rendition of "Chopsticks," on the piano. After a bit of hot potato, the skeletal hand is taken out of commission by the valet, Fletcher with the serving tray assist. The hand smacks into the ground in a fine powder.

The Doctor reveals that she believes the house is giving off really evil "vibes," and they set about looking for answers. It’s at this moment that the perception filters begin toying with their minds. Stairwells lead down to their tops and exits lead to their entrances. It’s a very wibbly-wobbly moment that leads you to wonder what exactly is going on. Is the house haunted? Does it have anything to do with the bones Lord Byron is keeping at the villa? Why are vases breaking against the wall? Who is this apparition that keeps blinking in and out of existence? Who are the woman and child that supply Graham with a sweet plate of sandwiches?

Stuck in what seems like a time loop, Mary begins to panic as she hears her infant son William crying from a room she is unable to reach. It is then that the sleepwalking of Polidori actually comes in handy as he is able to walk through walls as he is unaffected by perception filters while asleep. This allows everyone to navigate the house by closing their eyes. The Doctor assumes that whatever is happening has turned the villa into a sort of panic room to protect it from something horrible. Perhaps this something has to do with room they’ve discovered which is covered in mad writing scrawled in an alien language. I’ll forgive them the cliche of the madman furiously scrawling walls as at this point, I am fully invested in the story.

It takes them almost no time to discover who the house is protecting them from, as the Lone Cyberman as warned about by Captain Jack arrives looking like Frankenstein’s monster. I absolutely loved the horror movie visuals. The decision not to reveal exactly what the Cyberman was at first, really amped up the anticipation. I knew he was coming at the end of the series, but I didn’t expect him so soon. His image cut like a hunched monster in the darkness of the hallway portrayed a man or monster that has clearly travelled a very long distance to get here. We’ve never had a chance to see a Cyberman look so fatigued and battle-worn. This concept is driven home as we’re able to see the human underneath the mask. One of his hands is left exposed calling back to the Cybermen’s first appearance in "The Tenth Planet."

The Doctor kicks into Doctor mode as she commands her companions not to follow her. The Cyberman goes about looking for "the guardian," which doesn’t pan out too well for poor Fletcher or the maid watching William. However, the Cyberman spares the baby because, after all, this is a family show, and we are still pre-watershed. The Doctor confronts the Cyberman who is unable to attack. Noting his emotions are still intact, the Doctor tries to negotiate with him. This is a rare opportunity for the Doctor to do something more with a Cyberman than exploding his head. However, it would appear this lone mechano man is the cause of all of the freak weather happening, as he recharges himself with a very Mary Shelley style lightning.

Meanwhile, the companions and their new friends have discovered Percey Shelley in the cellar. The Doctor reads Percy’s mind to discover he had found something shiny in the bottom of Lake Geneva, like some sort of sexy Smeagol.  Upon picking it up, it begins seeping into his skin, connecting to his mind where it would attempt to hide from the Lone Cyberman. The object is a sort of intelligent liquid metal known as the Cyberium. Within it resides all of the knowledge and history of the Cybermen. In its attempt to hide, Percy returns home to discover nobody can see him no matter how many vases he throws against the wall. The Cyberium puts up a series of perception filters that obscure him from sight. Who sent it back in time, and why it wants to hide from the Lone Cybermen is left a mystery.

The Doctor is forced to make a decision- ignore Jack’s warning not to give the Lone Cyberman what he wants, or allow the Cyberium to destroy Percy’s mind. Ryan tries to make like this is a simple decision as one life weighed against billions is an easy choice. However, the Doctor’s curt response shows the situation to be far more impactful. I loved her speech about being the lone person at the peak of a summit. That was some "curse of the Time Lords," level pontification which I have yearned so much to hear from Jodie’s Doctor. She almost seems disgusted with Ryan here. She doesn’t hide her contempt for always having to be the strong one. This may be one of my favourite Thirteenth Doctor moments as she seems genuinely pissed about being the one to make the big decisions.

Mary Shelley has a moment that clearly sounds like she was working out the basis for what would become her book "Frankenstein," as she tries to reason with the Cyberman. She sees the monster made of disparate parts, but she also sees the man within. But it would appear that this man within has the brain of a criminal as he thrashes about wildly looking to harm. Percy passes the Cyberium to the Doctor. Once again they touch on cliche by claiming the Doctor is the perfect host for the Cyberium. I found this odd considering they have always said the Doctor is not compatible with Cyberman technology, but whatever. The Doctor makes her decision which is to give the Cyberman the Cyberium. That’s step one of the plan, step two is to fix the problems she created with step one. I’ve never heard Doctor Who so succinctly summed up. The Doctor just keeps putting out fires until the problem is solved. Brilliant.

For now, we’re left to ponder the future of this Lone Cyberman. How will it play into the Timeless Child if at all? Is this the beginning of storyline spanning three different episodes? I’m hoping the answer is yes. That would be really cool to see not just the Timeless Child and the Lone Cyberman come together, but also the Master as well. If Chris Chibnall can actually find a through-line with all three stories, I would be very impressed. There’s a lot to like in series twelve, which makes it almost sad that so many people have been tuning out. I’ll admit I understand the trepidation people may have after series eleven. There was a sort of aimlessness that series twelve definitely does not share.

I wouldn’t sit here and say the entire series has been home run after home run, but I’ve not hated a single episode. Even the weaker efforts like "Orphan 55," and “Can You Hear Me?” were completely watchable. Even if "The Haunting of Villa Diodati," does mess with the Eighth Doctor canon, it doesn’t waste its time. That Cyberman reveal was so effective that I audibly said "Woah!" as he beamed his way into the house. And it’s still too early to say what is and isn’t canon at this point, as the Timeless Child could play into it. We could be dealing with pocket realities or alternate timelines. All could very well be revealed in the end. If not, well, it just gives Big Finish a chance to do what it does best- retcon the shit out of something until it fits. It’s Doctor Who, it can take the strain.

#doctor who #Thirteenth Doctor #Eighth Doctor #mary shelley #Jodie Whittaker #tosin cole #Ryan Sinclair #Graham O'Brien #Bradley Walsh #yaz #yasmine khan #mandip gill #lord byron #lone cyberman #timeless child #cybermen #cyberium #TARDIS #bbc #big finish #Time and Time Again #the haunting of villa diodati

[being-of-rain]

My thoughts on The Haunting of Villa Diodati, and a bit about the finale.

The most surprisingly thing about this episode, for me, was that it didn’t try to follow the usual tropes of a celebrity historical episode. Instead it just went full horror, which makes sense with the title and all. And I think it worked well, despite the fact that I literally last week highlighted how much I love the show teaching some history jdklsahflks. This episode has earned it, partly because it pulled off the horror well, partly because it’s certainly a great historical setting for horror, and partly because there’s already a great Big Finish audio about the people at the Villa, and it would probably be hard to explore them without treading a lot of the same ground.

Normally horror episodes don’t really click with me, and I was worried that’s how this ep would pan out while watching it. I don’t know how individual this complaint is, but I often find it irritating how horror episodes (I say ‘episodes’ because I barely watch any actual horror movies jsdlkfhds) just toss in as many different types of spooky happenings as they can, with little explanation. But I think in the end this episode had pretty good explanations for most of the at-the-time-random stuff that happened in its first half. Another cliche for any sci-fi show at this point is having a ‘could ghosts be real?’ moment, and it’s pretty hilarious just how unnecessary it was in this episode. Ghosts Are Real, And They Made Graham A Sandwich.

But any of my minor gripes about horror (obviously a genre I’ve never really had a good handle of) are worth the scene in the cellar with Shelley and the fam. That scene was Seriously Gothic, and these historical characters deserve nothing less. Especially the Doctor using a mental ‘trick’ to push Shelley’s mind to his last moments, dang. For a few seconds, i did think “Wait, did she actually kill him?”

And! We finally got a confrontation between Thirteen and her fam! I’ve seen at least one person say that the scene was hard to watch, but to me it was the opposite. Character drama that’s well-written and well-acted is just delicious, and we haven’t had enough of it this era! The Doctor throwing the fun little ‘flat team structure’ joke back in everyone’s faces was particularly brutal, I love it. It did feel a bit weird that when Ryan said that it’s “only one life against all those others”, the Doctor’s response was “but this is Percy Shelley” and “it’s your life too” instead of “we should still save one life.” But that’s another minor gripe, one presumes she would’ve gotten round to that argument if she hadn’t shut them down dramatically.

The Lone Cyberman looked pretty good. I thought it was kinda odd that a whole human face was practically untouched under the mask, but Cybermen have never been consistent about the conversion process, and if it’s for The Aesthetic then I can’t argue. I found it a bit funny when the Doctor declared “that is a lone Cyberman” as soon as it turned up, like maybe wait a few minutes to see if any others are right behind it, Doc jsdlkfhsdf. Speaking of, did it bring no others on its ship? And I don’t think we even knew it had a ship before it used it to threaten the planet, so the decision to hand over the Cyberium felt a little quick and forced. Oh well.

So as if I’ve mentioned, only minor complaints with this one, overall another great episode. And hasn’t continuity and arcs helped this season so much? I certainly think so.

Looking forward to the start of the finale tomorrow! Quick thoughts on that: Considering the previous Cyberman story was World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls... well, that bar is probably way too high and I should try to put it out of my mind. And considering that Spyfall (the only other story this series credited entirely to Chibnall,) is probably my least favourite of this year’s episodes, my expectations aren’t stellar. I hope it proves me wrong! I also kinda hope that it wraps up the destruction of Gallifrey and Timeless Child arcs (my least favourite arcs) and leaves Ruth Doctor mostly for next series (she deserves a whole series of her own, honestly!)

#my posts #my thoughts #dw spoilers #the haunting of villa diodati #thirteam #can't wait for tomorrow!!

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

the way she almost whispers “if he dies now” as if not wanting to say an upsetting word in front of children, “if he d-i-e-s now”, but of course shes having this conversation, theyre past trying to beat around the bush or trying to cover their ears, but she still has that instinct, shes trying to protect them. thats the entire reason shes making this horrible choice. “do you want me to sacrifice you?”

imo kill the moon -> thin ice -> villa diodati is a fun little triptych that shows how the doctor views their own job as the doctor and their companions’ role in that job (wrote about it once here it’s been 2 years since ive read that post so i cant vouch for it entirely but at least it probably explains it more than im doing rn. also video based on the same idea)

tldr is that in kill the moon the doctor is trying to show clara he respects her and sees her as his equal by letting her make the big life or death decision that the doctor usually makes. of course this doesnt come across the way they meant to bc clara feels betrayed and condescended to rather than respected and the doctor learns from this bc the next time they want to do this, with bill in thin ice, they explain why theyre making bill make the decision.

DOCTOR: Sorry. Well, actually, no, I'm not sorry. It's time to take the stabilisers off your bike. It's your moon, womankind. It's your choice.

vs

BILL: Why is it up to me? DOCTOR: Because it can’t be up to me. Your people, your planet. I serve at the pleasure of the human race, and right now, that’s you.

then in villa diodati the choice is not a real choice. 13 gives the fam the choice to make a point. there is no choice. she has already made it. it isnt up to them. “you want to call it?” it’s not your place

anyway, i dont know if she holds back for shelleys sake, not wanting to debate the merits of his death in front of him bc thats rude, or if it’s for the sake of the fam bc this is not a conversation they should be in. at least not in the doctor’s mind. this is,,, out of her control. they shouldnt be here. in the cellar. where shes gonna make a decision she doesnt want to make. to protect them. they shouldnt be here. no humans on gallifrey. watching her lose. being disappointed. she doesnt want to break the illusion. but it’s not respect. it’s not like with clara or bill. theyre children and shes getting them home safely

#in her mind anyway #you also see that i think at the start of that scene where graham will just speculate about what the thing is that has shelley #or yaz going 'jack said' #theyre just acting liket he doctor has trained them to but This Is A Different Kind Of Situation

[ssaalexblake]

theoretically adding jack into villa of diodati is hilarious bc of how it’d turn out tbh, he’d be trying to get in on that doctor x byron x jack threesome, be flirting with byron constantly, 13′d be like ‘i wanna tell you to behave but if you’re talking to him he’s not coming onto Me’ but eventually he annoys her enough and gets in the way enough that she’s like ‘ok jack, i need you to do me an important favour... A) distract byron for at Least an hour and B) ... Never. Ever tell me how you did it’ and the fam are kind of horrified that she did that but jack is like’ ‘it’s fine i had a dream like this once’ and skips off merrily for his first attempt at ‘avoid the cyberman sex’ but they end up in the cellar and accidentally find Shelley and then the rest of the ep happens Except at the moment 13′s like ONE PERSON MATTERS jack starts sweating his ass off because he’s remembering that time he murdered his own scared grandkid for The Greater Good and realising she’d drop him in a nebula if she found out abt it 

#dw shit #this got progressively a lot less funny as it went on #anyway there are So many reasons jack hopping back to dw is... a bit of a mess but w/e

[ssaalexblake]

Honestly, this cellar confrontation in haunting of villa diodati is Also fairly standard genre content, the group of survivors argue if killing one of them is worth the lives of all the others and the group cohesion totally breaks down as the fight over it starts. 

And i would have sympathy for 13 for how clearly triggering she’s finding this whole situation, and to be fair i do in the sense that her truama is being rubbed in her face and that’s bad for anybody, but also, it’s having such disastrous effects because it’s mixed in with such a large dose of standard doctor ego and bitterness at things she, herself, has caused, that it’s not easy to feel totally sympathetic to her because her reaction is ‘woe is me i’m so special’ when she, herself, has upheld that social status on purpose. 

And i refuse to judge Ryan for saying that about Shelley simply because this situation is as much of a catch 22 as 13 Says it is, and her solution of rolling over and knowingly causing, in her own opinion, by the way, the worst kind of fate anybody could suffer on like... the entirety of the human race is. 

Bad. For so many reasons. 

I know it’s a catch 22 and all, but her personal feelings were just as involved in this as Ryan’s were. No, i don’t think he’d have suggested anything fatal had, say, Yaz been infected by the cyberium, and him not knowing Shelley played a part in him suggesting his death was an acceptable cost because it’s not grief for him then, it’s guilt. But, also, i don’t feel 13 has Any right to chew him out for it either because her actions that cause the whole extinct humanity thing were Solidly based upon her needing the fam. They are all she has at this moment, have been all season, she Cannot lose them. Condemning billions to the worst fate she can conceptualize is better to her than losing them. 

That said, i also think the Time Lord thing is playing a small part in her ranking ‘everybody is slaughtered’ over ‘the timelines are altered’ on the list of least troubling consequences? It is so Very classic time lord to think the preservation of a time line is more important than preventing mass slaughter (even when, in this case, there is no mention of any fixed points in time... This was strictly speaking entirely fair game.). 

#dw shit #i literally only watched 15 seconds more and i got this #wild how i can't shut the hell up

[ssaalexblake]

Missy added into the cellar scene in villa of diodati would be... Incredible really. 

#dw shit #she'd tear into 13 like she was wet tissue paper