#wilderness years

[buildoblivionthenwewilltalk]

im sorry boss i can’t come into work today my wife has returned from the war

#good morning fellow virgins how does it feel to WIN #who at the bbc do I have to snog #paul McGann #1996 tv movie #eighth doctor #8th doctor #doctor who #wilderness years

[pl9090]

Apologies but the scheduled piece needs redrafting so here's my first crappy attempt at a Faction Paradox meme. The dialogue subtitles is in a non meme font because I like the idea of subtitles utilising different fonts for different people or groups, the Faction's naturally being Tempus .I.T.C..

#faction paradox #book of the war #doctor who #bbc doctor who #whoniverse #whovian #nuwho #the tragedy of darth plagueis the wise #the war in heaven #wilderness years #meme

[unexpectederawhilesubmitting]

I'm thinking about making video essays exploring the history of Doctor Who, especially the weird lore and queer storytelling of the wilderness years.

After my post about how *60TH ANNIVERSARY SPOILERS* biregeneration ties into pre-existing lore surrounding The Watcher from the classic series got over 6,000 notes (not bad for one of my first ever posts, lol), I've realized that lots of people don't know the wacky history of Doctor Who.

For instance, this is of interest to me as a queer person: did you know that in 1997, Russell T Davies wrote an official Doctor Who novel where the Doctor's male companion gets head from another man in the back of a taxicab (and, in doing so gives the guy the cure for HIV in the process because he's from the future and he's already been cured???)? And, to top it all off, it's wrapped in a story about a drug dealer who rose from the grave and is basically giving everybody alien cocaine, so it basically rules.

The thing is, this is far from the only story like this during that era. After the original series went off the air in 1989, we went into what's informally known as "the wilderness years". During this time, there were no new episodes of Doctor Who being broadcast on TV, and so the story continued across multiple different mediums, novels, audio dramas, etc. As it also was no longer a flagship BBC title anymore, the executive oversight got extremely lax, enabling creators to start exploring themes that would normally have been rejected for being "too dark" or "too gay" for a normal BBC production. In some cases, this led to some deeply messed up edgelord fanfic being published officially, but in other cases, it led to some of the coolest and most experimental years of Doctor Who's history.

It's also the time period where we start seeing more and more queer representation, as well as several instances of

(because for real there's one audio drama where the Eighth Doctor's companion gets transformed into an insect broodmother thing and it's very, uh...the writer of that one is certainly an interesting person)

(The Creed of the Kromon if you're interested)

(don't be interested, please)

BUT all that is to say, there are so many absurdly cool moments in the show's history pre-2005 that I feel most modern fans haven't had the opportunity to explore!!! That's not in a neckbeard "uh, you're not a true fan unless..." way, that's in a "oh my god you're so lucky you get to experience this stuff for the first time!!!!" way.

Going back and looking at those things also makes the modern show have sooooo much more depth, because many of the writers and behind the scenes folks of the revival series worked on the expanded universe projects during the Wilderness Years. As a result, they pulled a lot of their ideas from their old projects into the show! For instance, Human Nature and The Family of Blood, and the whole concept of Chameleon Arches?

That entire episode is LITERALLY an adaptation of a preexisting novel from the 90's, Human Nature:

The only difference is that they changed a few details to make it fit into the continuity of the 10th Doctor's storyline.

All that is to say, there's so many cool Doctor Who things out there, and so few people going in depth with them. I think I might start producing some video essays about some of these (like Faction Paradox, my beloved <3), if anyone's interested.

#doctor who #the doctor #doctor who eu #faction paradox #eighth doctor #seventh doctor #classic who #wilderness years

[dailyclassicwho]

ACTORS SHARED ACROSS THE WHONIVERSE ⇢ RICHARD E. GRANT as... 

The Doctor in “The Curse of the Fatal Death” (1999) The Doctor in “Scream of the Shalka” (2003) Dr. Walter Simeon | The Great Intelligence in “The Snowmen (Special) / The Bells of Saint John (7.06) / The Name of the Doctor (7.13)” (Doctor Who | 2012-2013)

#doctor who #wilderness years #the curse of the fatal death #curse of the fatal death #scream of the shalka #nuwho #moffat era #eleventh doctor era #the snowmen #reg!doctor #shalka!doctor #walter simeon #the great intelligence #richard e grant #dwedit #multidoctoredit #nuwhoedit #whoniverse shared actors #gifs #mine #happy birthday king!! #i am including cotfd and sots in this series and you can't stop me

[finndiseicla]

#doctor who #unlicensed by the bbc. obviously bbv paid to license the zygons #dweu #wilderness years #eighth Doctor #the stranger #Portia da costa #bbv #Zygon: When Being You Just Isn't Enough #bill baggs #I had very bad idea for a poll #nsfw? #rambles #polls

[truebluewhocanoe]

Big Finish should get the rights to the EDAs and the wilderness years comics so that they can do a multi-Doctor story but it's Audio Eight, Comics Eight, and EDAs Eight. And then somehow resolve those three branches of canon

#doctor who #eighth doctor #EDAs #big finish #doctor who audios #eighth doctor audios #doctor who comics #wilderness years

[dalesramblingsblog]

The horror, the horror... John Peel finally returns to the world of Doctor Who after three years, and the results aren't pretty. It's War of the Daleks time, folks.

Pray for me.

Like what I write? Consider supporting me on Ko-fi!

#doctor who #bbc eighth doctor adventures #wilderness years #bbc books #john peel #daleks #eighth doctor #sam jones #davros

[someonecalledyes]

In the latest trailer and promo they're talking about Destiny quite a lot. Crossing fingers for a Destiny of the Doctors re-release on Switch by the end of the year 🤞🤞🤞🤞

#do you think i'm getting my hopes up ? #one can dream #doctor who #doctor who 60th anniversary #dw 60th #dr who #new who #nuwho #destiny of the doctors #fourteenth doctor #david tennant #donna noble #catherine tate #wilderness years

[random-human-being2311]

just had the equivalent to a "Neil Gaiman??!! What are you doing in my falafel???!!!" moment when I was reading my wilderness years doctor who book and the seventh doctor stopped, during a very tense and important scene, to make an I Am The Walrus reference

#like excuse me??? other thing i'm currently obsessed with??? what are you doing here??? #the beatles #doctor who #classic who #doctor who eu #wilderness years

[doccywhomst]

kate and jon blum, my favorite writers, who are married irl. they bonded over their love of doctor who 💕

#im sure you all know about them by now #as if i havent professed my adoration for their writing enough lol #icons now and forever #doctor who #wilderness years #kate orman

[castleseer]

Day 1: Wilderness

(From the Jane and the Dragon Discord Server Prompt List)

Sir Theodore and King Cedric plan a surprise attack to take back the castle from enemy invaders by means of utilizing the underground tunnel system in the castle's foundations.

I think this qualifies as part of the Wilderness Years? I used information from the History of the Castle timeline to make this.

#jane and the dragon #fanart #inktober #jatd #wilderness #wilderness years #Sir Theodore #King Cedric #inktober 2023

[buildoblivionthenwewilltalk]

heal thyself

#listening to some eight audios and feeling the full spectrum of human emotion #Doctor who #eighth doctor #8th doctor #night of the doctor #Paul mcgann #wilderness years #classic who #minsart #my art #fanart

[familyparadox]

Sometimes I miss the wilderness years.

Having the show back as good but it killed of a lot of ideas. The inventiveness of the EDA’s and VNA’s was gone. instead of seeing the Doctor go up against foes as unique as the Faction Paradox and the Emperor instead we got the Daleks once more, instead of the Doctor Visiting their own home and encountering the mysteries of their past we had the Doctor spend almost all his time on present day earth, instead of meeting new walk in characters such as iris’s Wildthyme who bent not just the laws of physics but the laws of narrative itself we had Micky Smith.

Don’t get me wrong all these thing are good in their own place but I feel when the show came back in 2005 we lost something very special and very different. We had the show back but we had lost so much.

Not to mention all the novelists who never wrote again. The world changed and something special died.

So here’s to the Wilderness years. Thank you and we will miss you.

#doctor who #faction paradox #dweu #eighth doctor #doctor who eu #wilderness years #iris wildthyme

[mentallyunstableturnip]

I made these early 8 big finish covers a while back, thought I'd share em with yall

#paul mcgann #eighth doctor #wilderness years #doccy who #doctor who #doctor who 60th anniversary #audio drama #gay #please #art #digital art #big finish #made this today

[dailyclassicwho]

By ToonOutArt [Instagram | Twitter | Facebook]

#doctor who #wilderness years #classic who #eighth doctor era #doctor who the movie #the master #roberts!master #ice warriors #daleks #zygons #weeping angels #cybermen #fanart #dw fanart #reposted with permission

[thesnackist]

okay so... can someone who is well versed in Doctor Who EU explain what's with the Pythian and Imperialix 'eras' of Gallifrey history? and why I keep seeing references to Gallifrey II and Gallifrey III? does Gallifrey have a cyclical thing happening where it keeps retconing itself?

I think its a case of fandom canon welding of references from Virgin New Doctor Adventures / Wilderness Years material with the Gallifrey audio series by Big Finish but I'm honestly grasping at straws

it might have been popularized by one of several DW actual plays??

or DW fic circles on AO3??

okay somebody explain please 🫡

#doctor who #doctor who eu #doctor who big finish #doctor who audios #new doctor adventures #wilderness years #lungbarrow #thieves and tardises #the game of rassilon #I think that's all the niche DW fandom tags I know of #oh wait #faction paradox #the war in heaven #doctor who novels #doctor who expanded universe #dwaitas #dwrpg #doctor who rpg