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Ralph Cornish/Third Doctor, a rarepair master-post (Ch7)

Well that's fitting. There are 7 episodes of Ambassadors of Death!

Ch1-3

Ch4-6

Chapter 7 - The End

In the Doctor's absence, Ralph tries everything he can to stop the General bringing annihilation down on them all.

(that's Ralph realising his phone line's been cut off)

WHY WILL NOBODY LISTEN TO RALPH 😭

Well anyway, he's done his best. All because the one thing driving his moral compass is he wants. his. astronauts. back.

All of which is to say that he is a man of substance, and more than a match for the Doctor.

The Doctor, however, is not ready to let go of the distance he is trying to cultivate around himself. He leaves Liz "much more practical than I am" Shaw to help clear up the loose ends, shakes Ralph's hand, and walks off into the sunset.

(note how Ralph's hand holds the shape of the handshake even when he lowers it)

Ralph, like me, was baffled by this abrupt end:

So you can see why I had to go write 80k fanfic and counting about The Life and Times of Professor Ralph Cornish as he navigates his friendship and crush with the Doctor, and generally lives his life.

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Ralph Cornish/Third Doctor, a rarepair master-post (Ch4-6)

C1-3

Chapter 4 - The Look

The Doctor, watching a very stressed Ralph, offers with great intensity to go up in the rocket for him.

Ralph dismisses him for a moment, but eventually realises he is serious. This leads him to give the most intense Look so far. This is the Look that built this ship for me.

My gif-making ability has clearly improved over the last several months, so just consider this one well-worn ❤️

This is followed by a secondary please-don't-get-murdered-before-you-can-pilot-my-rocket Look (I added slo-mo)

Chapter 5 - The Rocket Flight

Ralph really hikes up the space controller shtick when the Doctor's in the capsule, which the Doctor gently ribs.

The Doctor is typically impatient, but the launch is not without incident, all navigated with care by Ralph.

And when there was an issue with the fuel.

The latter two said with utter calm so as not to increase adrenaline levels in his astronaut, thus impairing his function. I'm convinced this was "It's alright, Doctor" no matter what those saubtitles say.

Unfortunately, there is a problem with the fuel. And Ralph, under as much stress as the Doctor is G-Force:

(that's Jon Pertwee holding a hair dryer in his lap by the way)

makes the difficult and risky decision to jettison the Stage 1 rocket, effectively saving the Doctor's life, as it explodes moments later.

Ralph is pissed.

(in my head Ralph says "dear Doctor" like "Elementary, Dear Watson")

After all that, when they finally get the Doctor to the capsule, the Doctor is clearly aware of how Ralph is feeling. (now should be know)

Video too big again but Jon Pertwee's voice is lovely here.

He still finds Ralph amusing, but he knows he's stressed as hell. So instead of making fun of him, he reassures him.

Chapter 6 - After

As the Doctor is returning from the alien ship, he cuts off contact because of the conspiracy. Ralph tries to get him to talk, but he won't. The Brigadier explains to poor Ralph that that's just how the Doctor operates.

There's a really really good Ralph and Brig moment in this episode, but that's for another post.

Finally in the decontamination room, the Doctor receives his orders from Ralph. He is ready to go, but Ralph says he is to wait a few minutes longer for final test results.

A far cry from:

The Doctor may still find Ralph amusing:

But he respects him, trusts him, and has remembered that as much as he wants to be aloof, he just loves his precious idiot humans too damn much. For more on this arc for the Doctor, see here where I compare Ralph to Belinda.

Ralph has also come to feel affection for the Doctor, and is visibly relieved when the contamination tests are all clear.

Unfortunately, just as with Charlie, Reegan has been busy kidnapping the Doctor. So this doesn't last long.

And now Ralph has made a connection with the Doctor AND he's missing. Great. Just great.

Ch7

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Ralph Cornish/Third Doctor, a rarepair master-post (Ch1-3)

@bisexualcreature is setting up a bracket to decide the queerest episode of Doctor Who and said we could submit propaganda for our suggestions. I've got lots and lots of Ralph/Doctor content floating around, so I figured it would be good to collect it all into one place anyway. Please enjoy the story of Ambassadors of Death from the POV of my beloved rarepair, Dolph.

Important note: as of a 1997 novel, Ralph Cornish is canonically queer. Which doesn't make a difference to shipping, but I think should help in the bracket!!

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Chapter 1 - Brigadier, who is this?

Ralph's day begins in stress. He calmly pushes it all down, as he's done many times before, in order to be an oasis of calm for his nervous astronaut, Charlie.

However, when things go terribly wrong in space and he loses all contact with Charlie, he is extremely alarmed. He resorts to repeating the request for contact message over and over, which I can't help but feel is on some level an attempt to regulate his own fear.

You'd think, therefore, that what he doesn't need is some dandy in a cape marching unannounced into his space centre to tell him how to do his job.

(bless you for trying, Brig)

For the most part, he answers the Doctor's questions. Curtly, but he seems to think it'll be faster not to argue with him and to just let the Brigadier deal with it. Essentially, he nopes out. He is a very busy space controller and he has things to do.

But when the Brigadier tells the Doctor that everyone here has a great deal to do, and the Doctor responds that there's nothing anyone can do right now, that's what finally pushes Ralph's buttons.

However, the next two times the weird sound goes off, the sound that signalled the start of their problems, Ralph realises that actually perhaps the Doctor is onto something.

Recovering quickly on the second noise, Ralph knows his priorities. Who cares if the man's rude and doesn't respect my authority - he might be able to save Charlie and the others!

It helps that the Doctor has done some damage limitation at the behest of the Brigadier (who I guess for the purposes of this post is the Doctor's wingman?)

This video was too big to save but Allen and Pertwee are so so so good in this bit please go watch it especially if you have iPlayer ❤️

Chapter 2 - Quiet Sass

Now, just because he's going to get the Doctor the computer time he needs doesn't mean he's turned into some sort of sycophant. He still finds great joy in sassing the Doctor.

Ralph turns around here but I like to think he smiled. "No 😊"

He also has no time for the Doctor trying to remonstrate with him about computer time. He simply speaks to his computer science, reminds him that he is to help the Doctor.

With no more shouting to do, the Doctor can only meekly answer in the affirmative.

Chapter 3 - Teamwork

Ralph face dies a death when he realises the message they're hearing isn't really from Charlie.

The Doctor, realising this, quietly takes control.

Again, the video was too big for the post, but please go comfort yourself with Jon Pertwee's quiet tones <3

Next, they share a grimace when Ralph tells the Doctor he'll need Quinlan's approval for the launch to get the real astronauts back from space. They are, after all, the only two sensible ones here.

To round out the team bonding, they have a go bullying Dr. Taltalian. He had it coming! He pulled a gun on Liz and the Doctor! (for a fuller post on this see here).

I just think they should consider kissing! I'm not saying it would solve the fuel problem but like, couldn't hurt.

Ch4-6

Ch7

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This is the Doctor.

The Doctor loves her personal space.

This is the Master.

The Master also loves the Doctor's personal space.

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any of you ever stand with your hands kinda touching together sorta like this

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oh crumbs

there’s probably a textpost somewhere that’s exactly this

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Thinking about The Daleks’ Master Plan and how Katarina and Sara were really the first companions of the Doctor who died, right there before his eyes, and he saw what killed them: the very things that define his lifestyle, because Katarina was lost to space and Sara was lost to time

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Who Would Wish for That?

John Smith wanted to reach through the warm fuzz of the television screen, and know what it was like to touch the man behind it. 

His hair was curly, what would it feel like under his fingers? Belinda's hair was curly, didn't he like Belinda's hair? But this was different. His hair was short, but not like his, more like Ibrahim's. 

He wanted to hold his hand, and it would feel different to Belinda's, who was smaller than him. Her hands were soft and hair nails small and pointed, but they were never marred by her cleaning and cooking and mothering, because the world was good like that. What was it like to hold a hand the size of his own, blunt and worn, and run with him?

He wanted to know what it was like to make that man's mouth smile, and laugh, and to press it to his own. He knew what it was like to kiss him, didn't he? Just for a moment, like a memory of a dream, a stranger's thumb catching tears on his cheek, and it made him feel sick. 

But when he thought of the easy teasing of the man on the screen, he couldn't help but smile to himself. 

I miss you. Well, more than that, I love you.

John Smith's heart hammered so hard it was like he had more than one. But it had felt right. It had felt like something he already knew. Was it really possible, out there, to love a man like a wife?

He wanted to see the stars reflected back in his eyes. He wanted to feel him by his side. He wanted to run with him and never stop.

But he must have been wrong. Because the thought of this life with him, every happy-morning good-bye happy-day good-night kiss, spare chaste touches without meeting eyes, nights facing the wall with warmth bleeding through the distance in the sheets, felt unbearable.

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!!!!!!! Ralph Cornish mentioned!!! ❤️❤️❤️

And yes those poor aliens. I found a piece of m art once that made me think of them, will post later if I can find

EDIT: @laughhardrunfastbekindsblog I found the picture! I had a bit of a double-take when I first saw it (it was randomly on the wall of an Airbnb) and thought it might be AI, but I took a look at the artist's website and I think it's legit. Anyway, it's called You're My Universe and to me it looks like a post-credits scene of the astronauts getting home 🥺

Ralph Cornish (the head of the space center in "The Ambassadors of Death") is one of my favorite one-off characters from the classic Doctor Who stories. Anyone who stands up to officials making irrational demands as firmly as he does for the sake of getting his astronauts back is a great man in my book!

Also, I feel so bad for the alien ambassadors. Imagine being assigned as an ambassador to a heretofore little known planet, only to be kidnapped, held prisoner under toxic conditions, your health and wellbeing used as leverage to force you to kill aliens all while you have no idea what's going on because you can barely communicate... Gotta hand it to the aliens for just quietly leaving and going back to their own people.

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I’ve been staring at this clip for three days so you must too. Like the way they’re both matching each other’s movements & the way the doctor watches Jamie’s hand when he swats at him & the way the doctor’s face falls and goes into a deep frown after & anyway.

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i love when they

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Frazer Hines, Elisabeth Sladen, And Carole Anne Ford Visited "BBC TV Studios" In White City

Photo: John Stillwell

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help. I can’t stop making everything I see about twojamie

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Deep sympathy for the barbershop folks who have been set free from being terrified and unable to leave a small dwelling... in 2019. It's about to be 2020.

At least they have practice?

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gonna be posting evil stuff as I rewatch <3