#with the thought of cybermen

[being-of-rain]

I've always thought of Spare Parts as 'the overrated one', because I always saw it called 'the best Doctor Who story', and then I listened to it and like, it's okay. It's good. If you like that sort of thing, then yeah it's great. But that's a heck of a leap. I never got the hype.

But after watching through all of Classic Who I think I understand it more, because Classic Who really just doesn't care about all the things that, in my mind, make the Cybermen stand out. The fact that they used to be people, that they convert others, even that they get rid of their emotions isn't really touched on more than one introductory line per story, certainly not with any depth. Some of The Tenth Planet, some of Tomb of the Cybermen, and that one scene in Earthshock are about the only times any of those ideas get stressed, and the rest of the time they really may as well be an army of evil alien robots.

So at the time it came out, Spare Parts must have been by far the most in-depth exploration of the villains. I think I took that for granted, having grown up with The Age of Steel (which itself was heavily influenced by Spare Parts) and all the stories after it that took their cue from it.

#my posts #tonight is just my night for posting random thoughts #cybermen #big finish

[s0ot]

I'm a few episodes in and my GOD Six is an absolute icon

#sixth doctor #classic who #six #attack of the cybermen #colin baker #doctor who #many thoughts head full so they're going here

[turquoisewave]

It's wild how often in Classic Doctor Who people decide to align themselves with the equivalent of the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party and are shocked when they are not, in fact, saved from having their own faces eaten.

#The fact that #'the cybermen are heartless and lacking in morals' #and #'the cybermen will spare us if we help them' #coexist in their thoughts at the same time is fucking insane #doctor who #classic who #tomb of the cybermen #and in just the last arc some guy was gonna sell out humans across all of history #cause he wanted to learn how to turn iron into gold #who tf you gonna sell that to dumbass

[seaweedstarshine]

Eleventh Doctor Chronicles: Sins of the Flesh is really good. Really really good. Experience with certain attitudes can be so isolating, surrounded by people who won’t bother to understand the impact of growing up in that environment (because the world's so progressive now, right), and so — I'm so glad it exists. I also liked the discussion in the interview commentary about how being a monster and doing monstrous things are not mutually exclusive. Like most things, homophobia is pervasive because it is structural. Religious fervor is not inherently bad — “your god is love,” Valarie says to Lily — but as soon as hellfire is brandished around, it's used routinely to empower monstrous things, in a way that becomes unsafe to debate. Especially for young & dependent people who can't escape it.

Conditional love. Moral panics. Purity culture. Self-hate. Mob mentality. This audio. It's timely.

I appreciated what they said in the interviews about not only about the research, but the four rounds of sensitivity readings. I wish the TV show had that level of care sometimes…

#actually the whole Everywhere and Anywhere boxset is excellent #tw homophobia #valarie lockwood #eleventh doctor #so I listened to the second audio in a muggy headspace when it came out and comprenhended none of it and thought what. #then I listened again today and understood it perfectly and cried the whole way thru. I love Valarie's husband ngl #they SHOULD have a poly marriage with Roanna on Medrüth to add to the timey wimeyness. totally normal to the Doctor #the Doctor emotionally saying Rivers death breaks his hearts in the same episode where he says- #'she looks drained. I guess marriage does that to you'. honestly all of the yowzah refs in eleventh doctor chronicles are kind of gold. #and the first story!!!!!! Valerie's dead mother!!!!!! the Clara mention in the summary was fully clickbait tho #oh and the Doctor telling Valerie about the Ponds at the end? SCREAMING- he didnt tell Clara about the Ponds! #in other audio news im slowly gettin thru eighth doctor audios while working. Neverland/Zagreus/Scherzo were as great as ppl say! #the anti time arc made me finally love charley (and find her interesting) #words by seaweed #this post just lowkey a subtweet at rtd. no offense to rtd for always thinking hes right without consulting the groups he talks about #in ADDITION to the story being cathartic. Cybermen running gay conversion therapy is a *chefs kiss* concept. I'm so glad it exists #I might delete this post later its making me feel low key vulnerable *ramble ramble* #by the way I don't think religion is mostly or uniquely responsible for homophobia. #I think it's like any bigotry or hatred. plus religion is an easy way to claim that god is on their side for ANY hatred they have #which means religious homophobia is a form of homophobic abuse that's not only mental and emotional but spiritual as well #it hits different when they invoke god. the entity who made you the way you are #finally watched Barbie and cried because even tho the message was simple my parents will never understand it #my dad who thinks patriarchy is exaggerated and my mom who thinks god made women to serve men #I’m in my mid 20s now it’s fine. I feel so alone its fine #im fine :D or I wouldn't be subtweeting RTD :D :D :D #I should sleep I have work in the morning ~time to listen to some eighth doctor and charley in the divergent universe~ #why is 2024 busier than 2023 #anyway sins of the flesh was kinda surface level ngl but I don't think anything deeper would've worked as well #it got the emotional beats (and it doesn't need to be a complex argument to point out the hypocrisy long as the listener aint brainwashed) #the doctor telling the homophobe his hatred killed his daughter and he'll never be forgiven

[canonicallyginger]

Been watching doctor who with a friend. 12th doctor is quickly becoming my favorite despite there having been an episode we skipped bc it was specifically about the doctor being annoying and weird about clara's boyfriend

#also i think danny pink would have been a fantastic character if he wasn't a doctor who character #but his presence in doctor who is completely antithetical to what makes the show interesting #it's like they went 'what if i Rory refused to be interesting? what if Rory chose to be boring?' #plus there's the whole heteronormative aspect of his presence being specifically for relationship drama #it's kind of annoying? #loved Missy tho. she was a fun villain #getting sick of the cybermen returning. They're not even thqt big a threat anymore bc theyre not indestructible #should have just been regular zombies imo #doctor who unlive blog (compiling my thoughts a few days later)

[umbrellasareforever]

Power of the Doctor is such an interesting episode because there’s honestly a lot I enjoyed about it but I’ve seen a lot of very good critiques that I can’t help but agree with as well. It’s honestly been a minute since I’ve felt so divided on an episode. 

Let’s start with the things I really dug. 

First off, I don’t care if it doesn’t make sense in terms of regeneration science, I really enjoyed the idea of the Master having the plan to literally steal the Doctor’s body and go around the universe ruining the Doctor’s reputation. I think that’s a really fun plan and it feels different from a lot of other Master plans and yet a good evolution from other plans the Master has had. 

Somewhat connected to the plan, I really REALLY loved seeing the visual manifestation of what regeneration is like. The idea of the previous self essentially having to let go to let the next incarnation take over? 10/10. The Guardians being various faces of previous incarnations giving us a chance to have multiple past-Doctor cameos? 100000/10 that scene made me so insanely happy and it also made me dislike Day of the Doctor even more because my god it’s such a genius idea. Not to mention it was just so beautiful to see Sylv and Colin and Paul again and the addition of using David Bradley once again as the 1st Doctor is just pure chef’s kiss. 

Another aspect I really, really dug (again, somewhat connected) is the absolutely lovely moments of closure with Teagan/5 and Ace/7. I honest to god got teary-eyed during both and I would watch those scenes over and over again. I know it’s incredibly fan-service but 1) I love it 2) it’s the centenary special as well as Jodie’s finale so I think we deserve the fan-service.

Now, a couple negative things. 

While I really loved the Master’s plan, I do think it gets very buried under a lot of other things. It’s tough for me to say this was a problem because I also feel like the focus of the companions (and primarily Yaz) doing everything they can to save the day was also good. The “power” of the Doctor as it were is her friends and the people who would do anything to help her, so of course the primary focus of the episode is going to be her friends doing everything they can to stop the evil while the Doctor is rather indisposed. 

Somewhat similar to that negative; the idea of a Dalek betraying the Dalek race because it thinks the Dalek’s have lost the right to survive is SO GOOD and SO LOST in this story and that kills me because genuinely what a fascinating idea!!! SO INTERESTING!!! But just completely buried within all the other stuff. 

Okay, okay now this one is an honest negative that doesn’t have a positive blended with it; why the hell was Ashad there? I don’t mean that in a, “how did he survive?” way, we got a BS explanation for that. I mean, what was the point of him being there? He didn’t add anything to the story, he didn’t do anything that screams Ashad™️ to me. Just felt a bit pointless. 

On that note of pointless characters, as much as I know that Vinder was there because “friends of the Doctor are the Doctor’s greatest power” he also felt just so insanely pointless beyond “we need someone to shoot a gun” like?? ok?? Get Ace or Tegan or KATE to do it???

The biggest bit I’m conflicted on, of course, is the regeneration. 

The effect was gorgeous, her last words were genuinely wonderful, and I really enjoy a regeneration episode regenerating on a high note rather than a grim and sad note... buuuuuuuut regenerating into Tennant. Let’s talk about that. 

Do I like the idea of a regeneration that’s being tampered with and leaving us on a rather unique cliffhanger? Yes. Do I think this cliffhanger would’ve been better utilized if we didn’t have to wait over a year to get answers to it? YES 1000%.  I think that is where my biggest problem comes in is that, unlike the Stolen Earth cliffhanger of 10 regenerating after being shot by a Dalek, we aren’t going to get a resolution to it in a timely manner. Meaning that it’ll have time just to sit and stir and for people who didn’t like it, that’s just going to make them like it even less, and for those who did like it, they may change their minds or come up with theories to it that will inevitably be better than what we actually get.  I also think that, while I enjoy the idea of really playing with a regeneration moment and trying to give it a unique shock factor, there is something really disappointing about Jodie regenerating into Tennant. I think it’s the fact that Tennant is still considered by many to be the best/most popular New Who Doctor so to go from a Doctor that got an insanely unfair amount of criticism to an actor that gets nothing but praise in the role does feel a little crappy. Had 13 regenerated into Paul McGann? That would’ve been wild and the idea of Paul McGann and Donna running around together is very interesting. 

I think another problem with it is the fact that Russel is treating it very much as Tennant is now 14 and Gatwa is going to be 15. While I think there’s something amusing and interesting about an incarnation only being around for 3 episodes, I also just think it leaves a weird taste in the mouth saying that Tennant has played 2 separate incarnations of the Doctor  in the span of a decade or two. Again, a big part of that just comes from the fact that he is surrounded with so much praise I think. 

Of course, I also wouldn’t be surprised if Russel was totally messing with us and it’s going to be revealed that this version of Tennant isn’t an incarnation and is the Celestial Toymaker (or whatever Neil Patrick Harris is playing) totally messing with the Doctor and having a bit of fun. I think the fact that the clothes changed along with the Doctor is a big giveaway to that because let’s be honest, a proper regeneration hasn’t changed the clothes since the first regeneration back in 1966. 

However, my biggest issue with the regenerating into Tennant is that it is the thing I think most people are thinking about and talking about, whether positive or negative, and that means it took away focus from what was most important; this was Jodie’s last episode. 

Yeah, the regeneration and the new Doctor is always a big talking point when it comes to a final episode, but this is just so different. It’s an actor who’s already played the Doctor, it’s setting up some big story that’s gonna span 3 anniversary episodes, and it’s David Tennant. It’s a hell of a lot different than the chatter that normally occurs when a new Doctor graces our screens. 

Okay. That’s the extent of my thoughts for now. I’m sure I could talk about a hell of a lot more, but these are the immediate thoughts that are racing through my brain a little more than 12 hours after viewing it for the first time. If you’ve read this far, thank you very much! 

#Power of the Doctor #Doctor Who Spoilers #Jodie Whittaker #13th Doctor #Sacha Dhawan #The Master #Chris Chibnall #David Tennant #Ace McShane #Sophie Aldred #Tegan #Regeneration #my thoughts #Daleks #Cybermen

[ayosdesignz-blog]

I don't think I'll ever get over the absolute sass and snark 2 primarily robotic alien species had against each other in Doctor Who.

You know the scene...season 2 episode 13...

Honestly they should have given us more of that.

Why didn't they give us more of that???

#random thought #doctorwho #tenth doctor #daleks vs cybermen #dalek sass #cybermen be throwing shade #dalek really said: this is no war - its pest control #cybermen declared: its obvious they have no concept of ✨️elegance✨️ #INFERIOR #robitic aliens #they don't get along at ALL #i love this 🤣🤣🤣 #wish this kind of interaction between the two had happened a few more times #the enemy of my enemy is ignored - lowkey mentality #cuz neither saw humans as a threat

[hobgoblinns]

i know almost every s3 and 4 dw episode off by heart but i don’t watch s2 anywhere near as often so when i do it’s always like “oh my god a shot of ten that hasn’t been permanently ingrained into my memory yet!!!!”

#i’m watching rise of the cybermen and. um #can i say something #i think that the doctor was making eyes at mickey #but i’m having very weird thoughts about ten tonight so don’t @ me #hob.txt

[in-tua-deep]

why are my nap dreams always so strange

just had a dream where a future version of Emmet Pokemon from an apocalyptic future who was mostly robot and had a voice like the dramatic announcer in a movie trailer traveled back in time to undo something? Also the setting didn’t seem to really have any pokemon in it?

and there was a scene where he kind of. awkwardly stood around because he wasn’t sure how to approach people and get the ball rolling because it wasn’t a video game where the protagonist just kind of comes up to you and you can drop the relevant information on them?

so he eventually found his past self and engaged him in conversation where he started hinting that a new technology company on a meteoric rise was... using the ashes of “smothered people” to somehow power their technology, with the implication that people were going missing - which started with the employees of the company early on or something? Also it sounded like ashes might also be a name for a byproduct that happened during the smothering process and not literal ashes maybe?

it was also implied that future!Emmet had, over the years, killed like. a lot of people in the apocalyptic future, and there was a conversation beat where past Emmet assumed he killed over 50 people and then the camera kind of. zoomed in on each of them one at a time and gave me their thoughts, which was future!Emmet thinking “oh it’s WELL over 50″ while past!Emmet was like “i assume it’s well over 50, probably more like 1,999+”

by the way, past!Emmet does NOT know this is a future version of himself (looks different bc of being mostly robot) and comes to the conclusion that this might be one of the smothered people who underwent the smothering process and it either failed or he escaped, and i still have no idea what the fuck that means but apparently all records of smothered people just fuckin. vanish as well. and this dude clearly would NOT be in any system at all

then my cat stepped walked across my stomach and woke me up before i could unpack all of that but what a bizarre fuckin nap dream

#apocalyptic emmet dream #dream journal #my dreams #i just remember the scene where it zoomed in on each one and gave me their thoughts about future!emmet's kill count so clearly #and also the scene where future!emmet just kind of. awkwardly stands in a corner for a hot second because no one is coming up to talk to him #but hey what the fuck is smothering. what the fuck technology is being powered by ashes. #i also kind of got the implication that future!emmet was alive against his will because of the robot parts keeping him alive? #i did try drift back into sleep to see if i could fade back into the dream but my brain just went on a tangent #about how sometimes characters have to have their own growth and realizations outside of interactions or conversations with other characters #i distinctly remember the phrase 'we have character growth at home' being used #i'm also trying to figure out who emmet killed. #did he kill robots? #are the robots secretly people like cybermen from doctor who???? #i am just SO PUZZLED by the implications of this conversation and what the fuck it meant for the worldbuilding #i do love a good outside POV dream where i am not even a character i do find them very funny

[taecasadilla]

I want to see Cybermen with my agile designs, like having legs like the blade prosthetics and just slimmer bodies. Like, they only seem to keep the brain anyways so why continue to make yourselves so clunky.

#doctor who #cybermen #late night thoughts

[sessa23]

Omg, the master has given the doctor a way to defeat the cybermasters. As you can see in the picture at least one is wearing a cape and we all know who does not approve of capes.

#doctor who magazine #doctor who #bbc doctor who #the master #13th doctor #doctor who spoilers #thirteenth doctor #bbc doctor who centenary special #spoilers #the power of the doctor #cybermasters #cybermen #no capes #silly little thoughts

[galacticlamps]

Ha Ha no, don’t [talk about forgetting/not remembering people who mattered hugely to you], you’re so [doomed by the narrative to be forgotten by half your other companions (& maybe forget parts of your time w/them yourself? unclear depending on which 6b theory you ascribe to)] Ha ha stop it

#60s writers were like planning character arcs out is for cowards & people with money. #we will take whatever we're given and turn it into the most heart-wrenching thing imaginable just fine tho dont you worry #tomb of the cybermen #second doctor #victoria waterfield #her face at the thought of forgetting #dont worry honey you're not the only second doctor companion at some point terrified by that idea #oh wait that's not comforting is it? maybe do worry

[being-of-rain]

Lots of random thoughts from my Classic Who watch, season 22.

I already mentioned in my last watchthrough post how I think they messed up with Six’s characterisation (or lack thereof), but to reiterate; it seemed like a mistake to me to introduce Six by giving him a whole range of unlikable moments, from being generally rude to actively murderous, then at the end of the episode have the Doctor say he’s “stabilised” now, but not make it more clear which elements of the character are staying and which aren’t, and then leave the audience for a year’s break between seasons. So Attack of the Cybermen starts in maybe the worst possible way, a way that later stories in season 22 insist on repeating; with Peri contradicting the end of The Twin Dilemma and saying that the Doctor hasn’t actually stabilised since his regeneration. It’s easy to feel like this was set up to be an interesting and carefully created new take on the Doctor, and instead we got a bunch of writers copying The Twin Dilemma’s mistakes over and over and giving us a lead character built on being rude and cruel purely for shock value. Listen, I’ve listened to uncountable hours of Six’s Big Finish audios. I love Six. I love Colin Baker. But I’m sorry, it’s easy for me to see why both the character and his time on the show had such a bad reputation. Anyway, I still found it interesting to watch through Six’s first season, which I hadn’t explored much before. ...although Attack of the Cybermen specifically didn’t grab me in particular. A bit like the Daleks in their latest story, Resurrection, the Cybermen seemed very easy to kill. But honestly almost every 80s Cybermen death is so camp that I’m happy to watch it. Lytton was... a strange character to bring back? His betrayal of his criminal crew to join the Cybermen followed by the later reveal that he’s actually working for the Cryons and maybe ready to die for their cause made his loyalty a rollercoaster ride to keep track of. His whole character didn’t feel like it had a lot of moral weight to it (I don’t know how much the show expected us to forgive or forget that he worked for the Daleks last season but the amount I did either was Not Really Much At All), but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t entertaining to watch. My brother watched this one and Resurrection of the Daleks together, and hilariously(?) we both had assumed that Lytton would stay as a policeman after the Dalek story because it seemed like a good fit. Anything else in my notes for this one? It’s another story with bizarre music, and I think it was Lytton’s theme in particularly that felt jarringly out of place and chirpy in the bleak survival setting. The number plate on Lytton’s car reads ‘FTM’, Lytton is trans icon confirmed. The black-painted Cybermen were cool as heck. And I kinda loved the bright blues of the Cybermen’s control room (or wherever it was at the end), especially when the reds of the Doctor’s outfit stood out against it so clearly.

Vengeance on Varos kind of reminded me of The Caves of Androzani- technically it’s probably the best in the season. But there’s just... not much for me to enjoy in it. Entirely bleak stories just aren’t my jam. I can appreciate all of the meta jokes and commentary Varos does, but I just don’t take much joy from it. Is this an ironic take, since the story is sort of about audiences demanding more and more from their TV shows? Idk. Oh maybe the biggest exception is the cliffhanger where the Governor tells the camera how long to stay on the Doctor’s collapsed body before cutting, I get a kick out of that. Anything else to say... there’s a lot of killing in this one at the good guys’ hands in this one. Makes me think about how the Doctor shot down a whole bunch of Cybermen at the end of the previous story. Damnit, again it feels like I’m just making complaints that Vengeance on Varos is already being meta about. But parodying opinions doesn’t make them wrong! If doing a little meta joke is your only response to critique that doesn’t make my thoughts less valid! Fuck capitalism though, the story got that right. ...Sort of. It kind of fights capitalism with more capitalism. When the Doctor said that running out of fuel is “the one problem the Tardis cannot overcome,” I said “sure Jan” out loud. Do people still make that meme? I feel like I haven’t seen it in ages. Also, some stories around this era really like the Doctor and companion not arriving for ages. It takes them 25 minutes in this one.

The Mark of the Rani was so much fun, one of my favourites of the series. I think I knew what the Doctor/Master/Rani dynamic was, but I didn’t fully appreciate it until now. The Rani truly just didn’t want any part of anything to do with the Master and the Doctor. I thought she and the Master did of a willing evil team up, but no the Master literally blackmailed her into it. And they’re just all so ridiculous. The whole thing read so much like the Rani running into a dickhead from high school who she had hoped to never see again, and just wanting him to fuck off, and then getting exasperated that his old ex-bff also turns up and they still have the messiest drama, and she just wanted to do her science experiments in peace damnit. I feel like everything I have to say about this serial is funny moments. One of my favourite moments of sass was the Rani and Master’s meeting, where he says “no welcome?” and she immediately responds “you’re not.” Another great line is the Rani saying that she assumes the Master is up to “something devious and overcomplicated. He'd get dizzy if he tried to walk in a straight line,” which is SO true. Personally I also got a great laugh out of the Master looking down at a corpse and dramatically saying “The Mark Of The Rani” for the second time. It’s like no one heard it and thought it was cool the first time so he had to do it again to make sure people noticed. Other random things? The Rani’s Tardis interior looks so good. Since the Master’s Tardis is just the Doctor’s painted black, this feels like the first new Tardis design in the show and it’s fantastic. I love a larger Tardis interior, which I appreciate is an ironic thing to say. The Master standing in a field as a scarecrow truly was as random as everyone said it was. And him casually walking into frame while brushing straw off his outfit felt like such an underwhelming reveal, especially after his dramatic death last season that at some point was supposed to be the character’s final appearance. Also, at one point the Master mentions his hearts, but does he actually have two hearts at this point, since he’s possessed the body of Tremas? I guess it depends how much he’s used energy he’s stolen over the years to impose Time Lord biology on this body. The Doctor trying to disguise himself as a peasant in dull clothing but with his bright yellow pants still on display was funny. And finally, for some reason the posh guy who helps out the Doctor kind of sounded like Seán Carlsen to me at some points. I kept automatically thinking “oh Seán’s in this audio” before correcting myself.

The Two Doctors feels like it had the ingredients to become my favourite multi-Doctor story in Classic Who, but instead became... something else. Not 100% bad, but certainly with one massive glaring inescapable flaw. Firstly, the aspects I liked. I don’t think it’s unfair to say that The Two Doctors definitely has the most interesting plot of the Classic Who multi-Doctor stories- the other two are the type of multi-Doctor stories that revel in spectacle and celebration and novelty but with a thin plot. I liked how Two Doctors starts off from Two and Jamie’s point of view and has a fair bit of them at the start, they’re a great iconic duo to bring back to the show. And I like that Jamie gets given a key part of the story, I always think that multi-Doctor stories that more or less ignore companions are missing out on a lot of potential. Slight tangent here, but surely season 6b was deliberate? I know back in the ‘80s they couldn’t easily just put in a DVD of The War Games to remind themselves of Doctor Who history, but how could they possibly have accidentally written Two as working for the Time Lords when him being captured, exiled, and ‘executed’ (leading into the UNIT era) was such a massive part of the show’s story? I keep thinking Two Doctors was written by Terrance Dicks, but actually now that I check it was Robert Holmes. So could this be an attempt of Holmes to add context to Dicks’ mistake (if it was one) in The Five Doctors where Two knows about Jamie’s mind-wipe? Anyway, although the plot moves pretty slowly, when Six and Peri show up to investigate there’s some really fun ideas that personally I think the story brushes past a little too quickly. Firstly the idea that the Time Lords assassinated someone, which the Doctor was somehow a part of. And secondly that the Doctor himself had been killed in the past and Six has arrived late at the site of his own murder (I wonder if that was an inspiration for the Interference novels). Both of those things are greatly troubling and could’ve supported a whole episode by themselves tbh, although I do appreciate how the story only showed Two alive after the others had figured out that he wasn’t actually killed, it’s uncharacteristic of Classic Who not to spoil it’s own twists like that tbh. Some good timey-wimey plotting that I also wouldn’t expect from Classic Who. SO, now for the glaring inescapable flaw in the story... it’s really, excessively racist. Not to like a specific human race (though it probably is in some way. Come to think of it, doesn’t Jamie slip into scots at one point and Two snap at him not to talk in “that appalling mongrel dialect.” It’s for a joke, but just feels so out of character coming from the Doctor). But it’s racist to the new species the Androgums, in a way that gets more and more uncomfortable as it goes on. You can make broad sweeping claims of evil about the Daleks, Cybermen, and Sontarans because those species are totally artificially made and programmed, but you barely ever hear the Doctor go on and on about a natural species like that, and boy does he ever do so here. The Androgums are used as servants and cooks by other species (hmmmm) and the Doctor tells scientist Dastari that giving them higher intelligence and technology like time travel is dangerously idiotic, likening to Androgums to animals many times (HMMMM). The script backs him up on this, and it’s treated like a redemption when Dastari announces at the end of the story that he’s made a mistake and should never have considered the Androgum he experimented on anything other than “a lowly, unthinking creature of instinct.” Yikes! Hey Robert Holmes? What the fuck! The treatment of the Androgums honestly feels so different (the opposite, in fact) of anything else in Doctor Who, so by-the-numbers bigoted and wrong, that watching it was just a bizarre and unexpected experience. Earlier in the story it’s suggested briefly that the Time Lords may not be as pure and selflessly motivated as they like to claim (an idea which Two also argues against), so that’s always nice to hear in early Doctor Who. And at one point Six describes the Sontarans as “rabidly xenophobic,” which is fucking rich coming from him in this story. Anything else? Did Six say that he made up the Rassilon Imprimatur? Put that on the list of ‘things from the Classic series that EU writers reference while forgetting what happened next’ under that time Four hesitated to kill all the baby Daleks (and then decided to later). Also, I don’t like the stattenheim remote control. I’ll die on the hill that the TARDIS should never have an easy remote control, the possibility of that just erases the conflict in.. SO many Dr Who episodes. The filming in Seville was pretty. Unlike City of Death and Arc of Infinity, it feels like they did a lot more with their location filming than just run around the city’s streets for as much screentime as possible. I mean they did run around the streets, but for less of the story, and they talked and did other things as they ran. Finally, this story provided one of my clearest moments from watching the Classic Who reruns on ABC as a child. And that’s the scene when Stike the Sontaran is covered in acid then stumbles to his spaceship which explodes. Except we aren’t shown the spaceship, and it’s only stated to be the spaceship which explodes in dialogue. So the visuals were a wounded Sontaran stumbling around with laboured breathing and dramatic music, and then a long shot of the villa’s garden walls with a massive explosion behind it. When I was young my brother and I thought that was the Sontaran exploding, and we also thought it was the funniest thing in the world.

Timelash is a story. Not a story I think I have any strong feelings about. A lot of its elements feel kind of unnecessary to the plot, but if I cut them all out then suddenly there’s no story, so idk what exactly were the core ideas behind it lol. The Doctor and Peri take a while to arrive in the plot again. I don’t know if Herbert or the 19th century as a whole needed to be in the story, but I’m a sucker for 19th century witchcraft and superstition being connected to deep-time physics or whatever, and also Herbert trying to banish the Doctor like he’s a demon was funny. And I have some issues with the ending. Do the Doctor and the Tardis seriously die dramatically in an explosion in the climax of the story, then he’s revealed to survive, and when Peri asks how he says “ I'll explain one day. It's a neat trick.” ???? How is that like.. a proofread script. Then it’s suggested that the villainous Borad has been sent back in time to be the Loch Ness Monster. But like, why does the Doctor say he’ll be around for a thousand years? Isn’t he just... a dude? And he can’t he just... leave the area? Why would he be swimming in the Loch? That one made no sense to me. Peri has a nice outfit! The Doctor admitting that he was being rude to her to keep her safe near the end was sweet. And omg Peri knows of Jo and can recognise her photograph! I’m taking this as proof that the Tardis has rooms with pictures of all the Doctor’s travelling companions <3 The evil Tekker has a great voice, which I only now thanks to Tardis Wiki realise is because he was played by Paul Darrow, nice! And the Borad’s laser that turns you into a skeleton is absolutely hilarious, 10/10 weapon. Six’s ‘catchphrase’ basically is just repeating things twice with increasing exasperation, huh? He does it more times than I realised. Makes more sense that his final on-screen words are him repeating “carrot juice” like that, but he does it in a different tone. Also I feel like it shows how season 22 writers were copying too much from The Twin Dilemma. Speaking of catchphrases I’m not crazy about, “all these corridors look the same” has certainly appeared a few times now, mostly from Peri I think but I can’t remember where it started. I know that’s a line that gets copied and parodied a lot in Dr Who stuff, but for some reason I’ve just never really liked it. Feels like it’s poking fun at Classic Who’s budget and stuff, which I know can be fun, but I feel like if its done to death as much as this line is, it starts to feel mean-spirited and missing the point of a lot of stuff. Oh well, it’s whatever.

Revelation of the Daleks is so close to something I can vibe with. I’m a sucker for a story set in a funerary house and other locations connected with death, and I appreciate the tacky aesthetic they went with that Peri comments on. The plot is a bit all over the place, but it’s made up for by some of the ridiculous and entertaining side characters. Kara and her assistant Vogel felt like they were always one line away from sliding into a disney villain song in duet, and it was doubly fun watching them interact with Orcini and Bostok who took their business of assassination with a delightful old-fashioned seriousness. I’m always happy to see Davros played by Terry Molloy even if (or maybe especially if) he’s doing something as pointless as emotionally manipulating a love-sick medical student. I couldn’t vibe with chief embalmer Jobel. He’s annoying and an asshole! I know he’s supposed to be, but I think it’s suggested he’s some sort of playboy, which doesn’t fit at all with how creepy and unsubtle he is with his advances to Peri (poor Peri). A character I couldn’t decipher was the DJ. Literally, in that I couldn’t understand half of what he said when he was using his radio voice. But also I just didn’t understand why he existed. Do funerary houses... have their own in-house radio announcers? Is there any connection between the two ideas at all that I’m missing? He also seems to do all of the security announcements in his enthusiastic DJ persona. Is he just like... a security man who got bored doing announcements in a normal way? Does he still do all his announcements like that when customers are in the complex? He’s sort of a big chunk of the story and its aesthetic, and I just feel like I’m missing something. It’s so weird and unique in a way that I love in Dr Who. But I just need one line of context justifying him, that’s all. Anyway, there’s a lot to like about Revelation, but it isn’t one of my favourites. The plot is a mess, it’s sometimes really slow and boring, it turns into just watching all the fun side characters get killed by Daleks and there isn’t really a lot which holds it all together. The Doctor and Peri must set a new record for how long it takes them to get to the actual plot. Unlike other times in the season they land pretty quickly (in pretty great outfits), but they don’t actually get inside Tranquil Repose until Part Two. They’re walking to their destination for 45 minutes. I suppose you can’t always get a good park with the Tardis. Anything else? Some thoughts on death. Davros seemingly dying only to reveal that he was a decoy and that there’s actually a second Davros was... unnecessary. Peri totally killed a guy, that must mess her up a bit. And is this the first time the Doctor morbidly dwells on his own death? I suppose that’s appropriate for what was almost the last story in the show.

#my thoughts #six #peri #cybermen #master #rani #two #jamie #davros #daleks #Hoping to write all these up before the end of the year!

[sacha-da-1]

Alternate universe where Dhawan!Master is the one who admitted that he wanted his friend back and was kept in the vault and tried to become a better person, and Missy was the one who relapses into the Master’s old ways and goes too far and destroys Gallifrey.

#basically more evil Missy and more relatively softer dhawan!master #missy saying: it’s red because it’s drenched in the blood of our people #or probably her own variation of that #dhawan!master bringing birthday cybermen to the doctor and getting kissed by the doctor in a graveyard #yeah #many thoughts #dhawan!master #missy #gomez!master #doctor who #dw #the timeless children spoilers #the timeless children #death in heaven #the master #okay just listen #but i love it how it is

[cield4mour]

hey [with the intent of talking to you about cyphmen]

#i’m sure my friends are tired of my nightly rants about them #at this point this blog is my diary #because all of my thoughts are about cyphmen #and if it’s not cyphmen then it’s cybermen #cyphmen #cypher #omen #valorant

[the-crow-binary]

Trevor: Dracula, you have declared war against humankind... Dracula: This is not a war. This is pest control.

#source: doctor who (daleks roasting cybermen. beautiful i tell you) #anyway i thought this dialogue would fit these two PERFECTLY #Dracula is sassy #nothing new here #castlevania #incorrect quotes #trevor c belmont #ralph c belmont #vlad dracula tepes