#like... the daleks and the cybermen and now sutekh

[mbat]

i think ive said it before, but i truly dont understand the goals of villains whos entire goal is to kill every living thing in one way or another, especially when the ones that are whole societies are anti-individuality, and therefore entirely monotonous. like... if they succeed, what do they do after? what do you do when everything is dead? what do you do when theres only one group left, and you all dont do anything BUT the thing you can no longer do?

like i feel like its meant to be commentary or a metaphor somehow but it falls flat to me. like yeah we had something similar in real life but at least they had a vague idea of what would happen after

[hansoeii]

I can excuse a lot when it comes to Doctor Who. But jesus christ, what was that?!? You have the incredible Ncuti Gatwa right there, and you just waste it???? I'm genuinely just so incredibly sad over this. I absolutely ADORE Ncuti Gatwa in this role, but my god, this writing is just...so bad. He didn't even get to face a dalek, cybermen, or the master!!! What is this!! All the incredible stories you could've written, but instead, you do this. You have your first black and very openly queer doctor right there, and you do nothing with it. The stories we could've gotten!!! The potential!!! I'm so SAD.

This show really needs to step away from Disney and start completely fresh. RTD needs to step down and give room for someone else. Someone with new, fun ideas that don't involve any kind of nostalgia bait. We need another fresh face as the Doctor, new writers, and a whole new team in general. I didn't mind the whole bigeneration and loved the specials with David Tennant, but having Ncuti Gatwa sandwiched between both David Tennant and now Billie Piper just feels incredibly rude to me. He's completely overshadowed when he's literally such an incredible Doctor.

I know that most of this mess is likely due to issues behind the scenes. The ratings were incredibly low, and disney didn't want to renew, so Ncuti Gatwa didn't want to be stuck in a limbo and potentially say no to bigger opportunities simply because he had to be the Doctor. And I totally understand him, I would've done the same. But all this could've been avoided if they simply just wrote better episodes from the beginning. They promised these seasons would be a fresh start, something easy to get into as a new fan, and that simply just wasn't the case at all. RTD is way too stuck in the past and way too focused on all these grand, big reveals that no one actually cared about, and that didn't even get resolved in the end. All we wanted were some fun, silly adventures with the Doctor and his companions. We didn't need the Disney budget and all these big villains. All we need is some fun characters with great chemistry. Throw some Daleks and some more silly aliens in there, and we're good. Why give us Sutekh, the Rani, and Omega in there all at once when you don't even have a solid script to justify it?? Just go with the classics and actually make it easier for new viewers like you promised! It's just all incredibly sad to me. So much wasted potential. I was so hopeful when Ncuti Gatwa was announced, and I'm so disappointed that this is how his run ends. He deserved so much more. I hope he knows how beloved he is in this role and I do hope we see him again in some way once this mess is resolved.

[purpleender29]

This may just be a me thing, but with both the recent doctor who season finales, both of my reactions to the main villans/villains have just been “meh” to their reveals, and the main reason is cause most people have no clue who these guys are and only will know if they have watched classic who, Which a majority of people are either new-who or newer who fans or who have just gotten into the show.

The reason that most villain reveals worked in prior seasons is cause THE AUDIENCE KNOWS WHO THE VILLAIN IS BEFORE THE FINALE.

for example, for each season of new who:

season 1: as well as the fact that the daleks are one of the most well known villains, the episode dalek still introduced people to what they are and how deadly they can be when its just one dalek they are dealing with, so obviously having about 10,000 is a huge deal

season 2: the cybermen were introduced 7 episodes before the finale so people could actually know what they were, + the cult of skaro which sets up for a later season

season 3: this one doesnt really count as knowing who they are before hand, but the clues are there such as the face of boe’s final words + the pocket watch introduction in family of blood, so we know that yana was a timelord almost as soon they showed the watch, but no mention of the master however

season 4: once again, we know who the daleks are, but not necesserily davros but the build up to his reveal through sarah janes terror was enough

season 5: the timecrack has been there since the first episode and most of the villains were seen prior to the finale

season 6: once again, silence were in episode one, and madame kovarian was sneak peaked in almost every episode

season 7 part 1: weaping angels are known from blink

season 7 part 2: edited and fixed thanks to @dw-opinions-you-wont-like , the great intelligence were introduced in the snowman and the bells of saint john

season 8: we know who the master is

season 9: everyone knows who the timelords are and what gallifrey is, but this season doesnt have a massive villain finale so doesnt really count towards my point

season 10: not only is the saxon master known, but since fans will already know who the cybermen are, no one is that confused about the classic mondesian cybermen

season 11: tzim-sha was in the first episode

season 12: the new master was in the first 2 parter and gallifrey and the timelords are well known by now

season 13: this season may as well be separate from the rest of the show cause its only new monsters/characters

now for newer who:

14th doctor special: the toymaker has only been in an episode with the FIRST DOCTOR, around 60 years ago

season 1: the only mention of sutekh was from 1975 when the episodes were released, and people were assuming that the “mystery pantheon member” would be forshadowed in some way other than a homophone

season 2: no one knows who the fuck Omega is and people only know the rani cause its a gag that every mysterious female is the rani, but then again, no one knew who she actually was or what she did do, they just know she existed

My point is if u want the audience of the “fresh start reboot” to have a fun time, maybe INTRODUCE THE CHARACTERS PRIOR TO THE FINALE.

[calvin-reads-problem-sleuth]

Doctor Who Season 2 Theory: The Davies Masterplan

This post contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Doctor Who "Season 2" / Series 15 / Season 41. If you haven't seen it yet, go do it, because A) it's really damn good and B) this post will make literally zero sense if you haven't seen it.

So I haven't used my blog in a long time, but I feel like I need to in order to share this deranged theory, partly so I can point and scream at it if I get it right and partly to get this madness out of my head. I came up with this idea a few days ago while spitballing theories with one of my friends, and while part of it was originally floated as a joke, the more I listened the more I realized how much actual evidence there actually was for at least parts of it.

Right now, as far as I've observed, there are two big mysteries going on in the season: the identity and plans of Mrs. Flood; and the nature of the weirdness going on with Belinda. Well, in this theory, I'm going to do my best to lay out my IMO fairly plausible guesses as to both of those things, as well as my absolutely unhinged speculation as to how these two might dovetail together into possibly the wildest plot twist this series has ever seen.

PART 1: The Case of Mrs. Flood

Right off the bad, Mrs. Flood is the most obvious mystery of the new RTD era as a whole. She's been present since "The Church on Ruby Road", reoccurred occasionally in Season 1, and now is an every-episode occurrence in Season 2. She also feels... weird in a way that most of the other antagonists in the era- even the more surreal ones like the Pantheon members- don't. She's REPEATEDLY addressed the audience directly, and while the first couple of those could be interpreted as happening in dubiously-canon stingers, the most recent one happens mid-episode, implying her ability to break the fourth wall is in some way a canon ability for her.

So what the hell do we make of her?

I think the most obvious thing we can say is that she almost has to be someone we know. The show isn't going to spend two seasons plus change building up the identity of this mystery character if it's ultimately someone or something we've never heard of. We also know for a fact that RTD loves to bring back antagonists from the Classic Series as big reveals. The Daleks, the Cybermen, the Master, Davros, the Toymaker, and most recently Sutekh... while many of them had their return spoiled by marketing, all of them have been used by RTD as a major plot twist, mostly in a season finale. I would bet actual money this is a returning foe.

We also know that she's almost certainly a time traveler. Her moving next door to Belinda could maybe have been shrugged off with mundane means, but her presence in "Lux" and "The Well" basically rules that out. I guess technically speaking this could be another Clara or Susan Triad situation where there are a bunch of different Mrs. Floods scattered wherever the Doctor goes, but I don't think that's going to be the case; whatever your thoughts on RTD, he's not dumb enough to use the EXACT same plot twist two seasons in a row. She has to be following them- or at least traveling widely within the same range as them- meaning she has a TARDIS or similar method of space-time travel stashed away somewhere.

Most peculiar, though, is the sheer amount she knows about the Doctor. It's not just that she's researched him; she almost seems to know minute details about the activities he is doing right now. When she goes to free Conrad in "Lucky Day", she not only knows that the Doctor just had a conversation with him, but seems to imply she knows what was said. When she shows up in "Lux", she makes a nod to the same May 24th anomaly that the Doctor discovered mere hours earlier, before she could possibly have overheard him. She also ends Season 1 by making a bold declaration about the "end" of the Doctor's story, implying outright foreknowledge. But perhaps most damning, however, is the fact that she knows the device Fifteen is using to get Belinda home is called a Vindicator, a name the Doctor literally came up with on the spot. All this leaves us with a person who doesn't just know the Doctor's past, but also his present AND- to some extent- his future.

So, what does this add up to?

When I first tried to speculate about her identity, for a while I tried to pin her down as the Rani. After all, she's probably the most famous Classic Series villain who has yet to make any appearance in the New Series. And admittedly, I was kind of feeling it when she made her speech about storming the gates of heaven in the Season 1 finale. But... it just doesn't seem to fit, especially after the last couple episodes. The Rani is the prototypical mad scientist character, obsessed with logic and knowledge, ready to throw ethics to the winds in pursuit of discovery. By contrast, there's something... ethereal- almost darkly whimsical in a way- about Mrs. Flood, this kindly-looking old lady who talks directly to the audience while giving ominous warnings about the future. As much as I wanted to jump on the Rani hype train once again, I just don't see that being the answer. Plus, on a meta level, the Rani's stories aren't exactly the most well-remembered in retrospect, and it feels like it would be quite risky to bring her back when by all accounts the executives are already looking for an eject button.

Who does that leave? The Master? Well, I guess we can't rule it out; they do have a habit of turning up where we least expect them, and we did get his return teased in "The Giggle". But it just doesn't feel right; it doesn't answer most of the questions around her, mainly the fourth wall issues and her knowledge of the Doctor's near future. But I think we're on the right track suspecting a Time Lord; after all, Gallifrey may be gone again now, but there was a major gap between its return at the end of Series 9 and its newest destruction at the start of Series 12, and anyone could have snuck off it then. Notably, the subtitles for "Lucky Day" notably capitalize her line claiming to be "the Governor", so I guess it's also technically possible she's just an entirely new renegade Time Lord we've never seen before.

But that got me thinking: aside from the Rani, who is the other most famous antagonist from the Classic Series who has yet to make even a single appearance in the New Series? One who would have every reason to know about the Doctor's future in detail, and one who we know is more than willing to dedicate an inordinate amount of time and resources to hunting him down?

The Valeyard. It may seem out of nowhere, but it would neatly explain everything.

Why does she seem intent on opposing the Doctor? Self-explanatory if she's the Doctor's vengeful dark side.

Why does she know so much about the Doctor's present and future? Because she might well have already lived it; we still don't really know for sure how far in the future the Valeyard originated from. In particular, this would explain why she knows about the Doctor's speech to Conrad, because it was a moment where he engaged in his darker impulses (as much as Conrad absolutely deserved it, telling someone the age at which they're going to die alone in prison is still objectively kinda fucked up).

How is she traveling through time? Either the Doctor's own TARDIS at a different point in its timeline or another one the Valeyard used after escaping at the end of "The Ultimate Foe". (Yes, I know that Big Finish made a canon sequel that ends with him defeated for good, but this would hardly be the first time the TV show contradicted parts of Big Finish.)

It would also explain why she was wearing what looks like Romana I's coat- a coat that would presumably still be in the TARDIS- in the ending of "Empire of Death".

And hell, it would be awfully appropriate for the Valeyard's dramatic return to TV to be A) right as the show is seemingly facing the looming threat of potential cancellation again and B) against the Doctor that was born from bigeneration.

"But wait!" I hear you exclaim. "What about the fourth wall breaks??" And yes, that is definitely the weak link. But consider this: as far as I am aware, there are only two sets of characters on this show who have repeatedly broken the fourth wall in the past. One is the Pantheon (and I will revisit that idea later), but the other is the Doctor themself. It's most obvious with his "I thought that was non-diegetic!" comment back in "The Devil's Chord", but that's not the only time: "Lux" not only reveals that he apparently recognizes episode names like "Blink", but also has him shout "Cut!" and then wonder to the audience who he's talking to. And while it may be a stretch- and few people alive today have seen it in person- "The Dalek's Master Plan" famously has an episode end with the First Doctor turning to the audience and wishing them a happy Christmas. What I am saying is, there is precedent for the Doctor breaking the fourth wall... and thus, presumably, the same could potentially be true of the Valeyard.

So that's my first theory: Mrs. Flood is a new incarnation of the Valeyard, and she's involved in an elaborate revenge plan on the Doctor. And buckle up, because the theories are only going to get wilder from here.

PART 2: The Case of Belinda Chandra

Alright, here we have the part of this theory that made me decide I needed to make this post. I might very well be jumping at shadows, but on the off chance I'm right, I want the receipts to point to the fact that I called it.

So, Belinda Chandra. The big mystery surrounding her is, of course, what is preventing the Doctor from getting her back to May 24th, 2025, and why Earth and the human race appear to have ceased to exist on that day. But that's not the only weird thing about Belinda's circumstances; even though it's not as obvious as with Clara or even Ruby, there's something odd about her situation. Though the Doctor agreed to drop the subject, it's still VERY weird that Belinda's descendant 3000 years removed is so suspiciously identical to her as to be played by the same actress; if they had just shrugged it off as "Hey, you look like her" I could have assumed it didn't mean anything, but the fact that they specifically had the Doctor highlight how unusual it is makes me raise an eyebrow. And while I'm definitely not the only one to point this out, it's worth reiterating that Belinda refers to the Doctor's ship as "the TARDIS" before he ever calls it that on-screen in her earshot. Could he have told her off-screen? Yes, absolutely. But that's a weird detail to leave out, considering how much the series loves to show a new companion getting introduced to the TARDIS.

Now, there's no easy way to ramp into what I'm going to say next. So I think I'm just going to get right into the realization I had the other night that blew my mind so hard that the entire rest of this theory materialized almost fully-formed in my head.

Take a look at our new companion's name: "Belinda Chandra". Now rearrange it with the last name first, like you might see in a database or on some kind of form: "Chandra, Belinda". Do you see anything yet? If not, here's a visual aid:

The first six letters of "HARBINGER", not just all together, but in the right order. All it would take would be her middle name being "Georgina" or "Geraldine" or something else with the letters "GER" in that order- or hell, even having her name be said in a context like "Chandra, Belinda, danger"- and you have the full word.

Am I being paranoid? Almost definitely. But in my defense, I am paranoid by design. So far RTD has snuck "Harbinger" past me twice: once with Harriet (which was admittedly kind of cheating because we never knew her last name), and once with the movie sign. I'm not letting it slip by me again. I am laser-focused for anything that could be shortened to "HARBINGER". And I do not think it is a coincidence that Belinda just so happens to have those letters in her name.

To be clear, I do not think that Belinda knows she's a Harbinger. I think everything she has said to the Doctor is the complete truth, and that she has full memories of her life as a human. If anything, I think she's more like the Susan Triad copies: full individuals who have lived whole lives until the moment their deity needed them. (Yes, I know Susan Triad wasn't technically a Harbinger, but she served more or less the same role as one, so I'm counting her.) I think Belinda is a sleeper agent who will be activated as soon as the Pantheon deity who created her needs her. Maybe Mundy was another version of the same Harbinger who never got that chance, or maybe she really is just a descendant of Belinda and the weird genetic stuff is because of her being a sort of divine creation.

So that's the other theory I think is actually semi-plausible: Belinda is unknowingly the Harbinger of an unspecified Pantheon member.

But now that we have both of these building blocks, we can dive headfirst into the TRUE madness that's kept me up at night the last two days, the theory that will be either the most unhinged, off-base thing I've ever said or the most buckwild called shot in my years of theorizing about pop culture.

PART 3: The Case of the Doctor

The more I thought about the fourth wall issue, the more my mind drifted back to the Pantheon. Aside from the Doctor, they're the only characters in my memory to have this sort of relationship with the fourth wall, and it tends to be WAY stronger with them. With the exception of Sutekh, almost all of the Pantheon members since RTD took back over have had some kind of interaction with the fourth wall: Maestro played the theme song; Lux created mostly-accurate representations of the fandom, implying he knows the actual fandom; and while not seen in the episode itself, the novelization of "The Giggle" has the Toymaker get into a whole conversation about the BBC's rights to the Spice Girls song he sings.

Why is it only these two groups? Why only the Doctor and the Pantheon? If it was just one or the other I could almost shrug it off as a recurring gag, but what is the connective tissue there? Why does the Doctor know the names of real-life episodes? How can he hear the background music? Why does he seem to know where the cameras are to say "Cut" to? Why can he do this thing that only members of the Pantheon can do?

Unless... maybe... just maybe... the Doctor is a Pantheon member, without even realizing it.

I know, I know. This feels like an even crazier version of the Timeless Child reveal, the one that ripped the fandom asunder with furious arguments over its handling. But by the same token... that's kind of what makes this possible. Like it or not, the Timeless Child reveal is still canon; the discussion of it in "Wild Blue Yonder" and "The Church on Ruby Road" confirms that beyond doubt. And now we have a great big mystery left hanging from it: where did the Timeless Child come from? What was on the other side of that portal? Sure, Tecteun said during Flux that they came from the other universe she was trying to move the Division to, but she could easily have been lying, or else merely assuming that to be the case. We have no earthly idea where the Child came from, and the EU has already started dropping some wild ideas (like that one novel which implied that they may or may not have been a Great Vampire). If the show is really in such danger, why not go one step further?

This is where we start to get into the realm where my deranged theories are fueled less by evidence and more by pure vibes. It just feels right, like it's what the last couple seasons- hell, last SEVERAL seasons if we count Chibnall's arc- have been building up to. It would explain the fourth wall commonality. It would explain how the Doctor was able to summon the Pantheon into the universe with a simple invocation of a superstition: he's on the same level as them. It would explain how he's apparently able to set rules for the entire Pantheon. Hell, the name "The Doctor" fulfills the same pattern of "The [X]" used by every Pantheon member except Maestro and Lux (even Sutekh spent most of the season under the given name of "The One Who Waits").

And going off of the previous theory about Belinda, it would tie directly into her role in all this. She's not just a Harbinger, she's the Doctor's Harbinger, thrust into his path right as he's about to rediscover who they really are. Hell, an argument could be made that all of the Doctor's companions, on top of their previously established relationships, have unknowingly also served as pseudo-Harbingers, assigned- either subconsciously by him or by the universe as a whole- into the role of a figure who should be there but isn't. They often serve as go-betweens for humanity to interact more comfortably with this effectively all-knowing ancient being.

Of course, that raises the question, what would the Doctor be the god of? That's where we enter realms of speculation where even I don't venture. But if I had to guess, I would say the God of Time. Aside from the obvious connections, we know that the Time Lords reverse-engineered regeneration from the Timeless Child, and regeneration in general feels like a sort of mirror to history itself: the Doctor changes form and personality while remaining the same fundamental person, just like how history rarely repeats exactly but constantly returns to certain recurring patterns, recycling ideas over and over again. And for that matter, it feels a bit odd that Sutekh- a being who we know for a FACT was not originally a member of the Pantheon- is somehow considered their leader and progenitor. Almost as if he stole a seat intended for someone else...

And for those who are still shaking their heads and scoffing at my admittedly insane theory, allow me to make one last Hail Mary pass at convincing you. See, most of the Pantheon members of the last few seasons have been accompanied by a certain sound: that seven-note pattern, rising and falling, rising and falling. The Toymaker had it, Maestro had it, Lux had it... at this point it's safe to say that it's a hallmark of the Pantheon as a whole.

And the thing is, the Doctor has been accompanied by a certain sound from the very beginning. A sound that rises and falls in a rhythmic pattern, just like the Giggle.

Just imagine it. The reveal happens. The Doctor is confronted with the truth of their origins. And as Fifteen and the audience process it, we hear the sound of the TARDIS's engines... except stretched out into seven segments. A rise and a fall. An arpeggio. A song. A laugh.

"Ha-ha-HA-HA-HA-ha-ha!"

That, right there, is my big, bold swing: the Timeless Child was, and the Doctor is by extension, the God of Time. The finale will involve Fifteen being made aware of this, briefly regaining that power, and then sealing it away again because he prefers to just be who the Doctor has always believed themselves to be: a simple traveler in time and space, passing through, helping out.

I'll be honest, that was originally where I was going to end the post. This has already gotten insanely long and taken several hours to write, and quite frankly there is more than enough here to serve as my receipts for if I'm right (and evidence to have me committed if I'm wrong). But while I was working on this theory, I somehow stumbled ass-backwards into another one, and it's too goddamn good an idea for me to let go of now. So what the hell, let's move on to the ACTUAL final section...

PART 4: The Case of May 24th

Okay, so we have a theory outlined for who all the individual major players are. The Doctor is the God of Time, Belinda is his Harbinger, and Mrs. Flood is the Valeyard, which technically makes her part of the Pantheon as well (and thus neatly explains her own ability to break the fourth wall). But I can't help but feel like we've forgotten something. We've failed to address the single biggest, most obvious driving question of the season: why can't the Doctor take Belinda home? What mysterious force is preventing the TARDIS from landing on May 24th, 2025? What has wiped Earth and the human race out of the timeline in the future? What, ultimately, is Mrs. Flood planning- or, if she's not responsible, what does she know?

I'll be honest: what I am about to say is maybe the most unhinged sentence in this post, and I say that in full knowledge of the fact that I just a few paragraphs earlier suggested that the Doctor is a literal deity. Normally even I wouldn't dare suggest something this absurdly out-there, but the more I stare at the evidence, the more plausible it seems. So here goes:

I believe that the event which is preventing Belinda and the Doctor from getting back to Earth is, in-universe, the cancellation of Doctor Who.

At this point I have almost certainly (and quite frankly rightly) lost the suspension of disbelief of anyone who, by some miracle, is still reading this post. I know, it's a buckwild concept. This would be EASILY the most surreal, bizarre thing the series has ever done, maybe in any medium, and certainly in the TV show. But pretending for just a moment that someone is still with me, allow me to lay out my evidence:

The date of "Wish World" airing being the same date the Earth is seemingly destroyed seems significant. They could have picked the same date the premier aired- that way it would make sense as the day Belinda left from- but no, they chose to set the episode about two months in the future just to have the date line up with the penultimate episode. Yes, I know Moffat did that too in Series 5 and it didn't lead to any meta shenanigans, but the amount of direct fourth wall breaks makes this alignment feel... different, somehow.

On that front, this would be the perfect culmination of the fourth wall breaking shenanigans that the Pantheon have been involved in. We've gone from the Maestro playing the theme song (something Twelve also did, by the way, in case you needed any more parallels to the Pantheon) to Lux straight-up trapping the Doctor in a room with Doctor Who fans. The Pantheon are straight-up metafictional entities; the Doctor even describes them as "forces beyond this universe" that "look down" on reality, which is the perfect way to describe individuals operating on a higher layer of narrative than the Whoniverse. What better way could there be to top this off than with the Doctor fighting against the very forces of executive disapproval that are threatening to erase his universe's future?

And speaking of Mrs. Flood, she practically spells this out in "Lux". When the Doctor and Belinda disappear in the TARDIS, she warns one of the onlookers that the show has a "limited run" and ends on May 24th. Yes, in context she's doing wordplay about the theatrical setting of the episode and the fact that the Earth apparently gets destroyed on that date, but Mrs. Flood is also a character who is aware of the audience; she would know the potential double meaning there. If a character like her starts saying shit like "the show's ending soon", I start looking for a meta angle.

The erasure of humanity also feels like something very, very odd for the Whoniverse. It's made clear numerous times that humans are practically ubiquitous in the far future. They're by far the most populous of the remaining sapient species by the end of time. They spread out across the cosmos and never stop. Them being erased from history without the Doctor noticing the change simply makes no sense. Sure, we've seen alternate timelines where humanity gets wiped out (Pyramids of Mars), and we've seen incidents where the Doctor arrives only after time has already been changed (The Long Game), but both at the same time?? And such a MASSIVE alteration that would no doubt prevent countless fixed points in time from ever coming to pass?? No, whatever did this is FAR beyond anything we've ever seen.

And finally, this feels like the most fitting possible conflict for the season finale's title: "The Reality War". As in, a war against "reality". A conflict not against an in-universe foe, but against forces within the real world: the forces of executive meddling and fan negativity that threaten to pull the plug on the show just like in 1989. In fact, this is the kind of story that could ONLY be told right here, right now: when the presence of the Pantheon allows the series to tell more fantastical stories than ever before, and when the rumors of cancellation are swirling faster than usual. And hey, if the show is already treading water with the executives, why not go out with the biggest bang imaginable?

And thus, we arrive at the end of my theories. I'm taking a gamble, and I'm calling my shot. If I'm wrong, I will sit with pride upon my throne of shame. But if somehow I am right- if I somehow manage to guess the biggest, most insane twist in the history of the show- then I want you all to remember that you fucking heard it here first.

The season finale will involve the Valeyard, in the form of Mrs. Flood, attempting to get Doctor Who cancelled in order to spite the Doctor, only for the day to be saved by the Doctor, God of Time, with the aid of his Harbinger, Belinda Geraldine(?) Chandra.

And with that, I can no longer justify dragging this post out any longer. Thank you all for coming to my TARDIS Talk.

[chaotic-creator]

Oooh boy, brace yourselves, folks. My take on what I would've done with Doctor Who. I'm gonna start from the origins of The Flux and go to The Reality War. This is a brief overview, imo on what I would've done and what may spiral into a full-fledged fanfiction. Here we go:

Flux isn't a lab created science experiment of Tecteun. Tecteun caused so much chaos and moments random chance with her Division work that it allowed one of The Gods of Chaos from The Underverse to slip through

The first to come through is Flux, a living wave of destructive, cosmic energy, and the God of Destruction. Flux rages and twists, laughs, and demolishes, ripping apart The Universe proper until it is stopped. Like how Toymaker is beaten through games and Maestro through music, Flux is defeated by destruction, given too much put in its path.

In a last act of defiance before, It is banished back to the outskirts of The Universe, Flux rips a small hole in the fabric of reality. And given a bit of time and power, this tear becomes a new doorway. Allowing Chronicle, The God of Stories to enter the prime Universe.

Chronicle immediately gets to work, warping reality around The Doctor to create her "perfect story" of chaos and questioning, repeating and mirroring previous "stories" of The Doctor. She starts this by forcing 13 to regenerate into "14" giving back an old face and then sends "14" on his way, changing probability with her writing to put "14" right by Donna Noble.

Everything from then on is the work of Chronicle. "14" casting salt at the edge of the Universe is Chronicle mixing chance, chaos, and superstition to unleash her son, The Toymaker on reality. She rewrites The Time Lords to make bigeneration a thing, forcing "14" to still exist and creating "15" at the same time, knowing 2 Doctors is twice the chaos and twice the opportunity to release the rest of her family

Chronicle knows "15" will need a new companion, so she sets herself up next to a "regular human" named Ruby Sunday. Chronicle writes herself into her own story as Mrs Flood, knowing Ruby is much more than she seems. Knowing the truth of her biological mother. Ruby is the daughter of The Trickster, a living trap that The Doctor can not resist.

"15" goes through a slightly different Season 14/1. His adventures with Ruby are like reality is looping on him. He has lived this before. The chaos of these stories. When he wore the leather jacket, he had those big ears and travelled with Rose Tyler. Chronicle makes the stories similar. Criminal families, an adventure during a war, a look at the far future. Though "15" recognises that the Cybermen replace the Daleks, he met with Rose. Though he acknowledges that he is having some differences, as more Gods of Chaos make their way through, including Maestro and Perjury, the God of Lies

Along these adventures, "15" and Ruby notice Susan Triad scattered throughout their adventures, and they keep having snow appear around Ruby. The Doctor reluctantly goes to UNIT to see if they can help. It's here that Sutekh is revealed, bragging how he is one of The Gods of Chaos thanks to The Doctor. He boasts that he is the leader of The Pantheon, and he reveals the truth he was told. Ruby is a demigod, a living trap used to lure The Doctor here to be defeated and allow The Pantheon to all escape The Outerverse

"15" defeats Sutekh and undoes his dust of death, Ruby decides to stay with The Doctor after the reveal that the woman who dropped her off at the church was nothing but a slave of The Trickster. She hugs Carla goodbye, acknowledging Carla as her real mum this whole time. And we roll into Season 15/2. Where "15" is worried again, because he hasn't got an answer for why his adventures with Ruby echoed 9's adventures with Rose.

Season 15/2 now parallels Series 2 with 10 and Rose. We still get Belinda, but it allows for the season to be similar but different. Bel's visual similarity to Mundy Flynn is simply Chronicle using the same face because she's a God and mortals are beneath her. She just uses whatever is easiest for her. Chronicle figures out how to cause the last burst of chaos she needs to bring the entire Pantheon through. Unleash Omega, who with his time trapped in the Underverse, has become The God of Time.

Chronicle knows that Omega wishes to undo time itself and reestablish his people, the Time Lords as Gods of The Universe. If he was free, he would do it. Chronicle warps the story again into a situation similar to Wish World (but through her power and not Conrad Clark using a baby cos fuck Conrad). She uses doubt to fuel her search for wherever Omega was scattered. Unfortunately, she never finds Omega. She instead drags up The Beast, aka Koruptora or Krop Tor. The God of Fears

Krop Tor wants to be the only God, as his fellow God, Lux Imperator, had his disciples chain Krop Tor up (throwing back to The Beast saying he was imprisoned by The Disciples of The Light as Lux is God of Light). Krop Tor is ravaging reality and causing total terror. "15", "14" and Chronicle have to work together to save both the regular reality and the rest of The Pantheon. Chronicle realises what must be done. She has to undo her story that led them all there. But she's woven herself too deep into the story to escape it. She would have to sacrifice her godhood, her memories, and her power. In a moment of redemption for one of The Gods, Chronicle does just that.

She becomes harmless, old Mrs Flood, and reality heaves and warps and resets. Krop Tor is banished. But things change. "15" has in repeating stories because of Chronicle, and now he is free of the stories. We reset back to before Chronicle started her story. 13 regenerates into Ncuti Gatwa's 14th Doctor. We get a fast-paced montage of the new reality. 14 and Ruby through Season 14, then 14, Ruby and Belinda in Season 15. No Chronicle. Just Sutekh and The Beast. Team TARDIS still remembers everything, though

Belinda leaves the TARDIS as she never wanted to be there anyway, much less just because of some crazy God. Ruby also leaves, deciding to keep an eye on Mrs Flood as they're related through Ruby's connection to The Trickster. 14 flies off in his TARDIS with two missions in mind. Find his granddaughter Susan and discover who this mysterious Boss is

And that, ladies, gentlemen, and enbies. That is how I would've handled from Flux's introduction to The Reality War. Apologies for how long this got. I just kinda kept writing

Tagging folks I've talked to about this potential fic/showed interest in other asks.

@crypt--creature @darksideofparis @emilythezeldafan @jaycecoded @obsessedanddepressed

[admiralthecatt]

okay time to complain

I am so DEEPLY upset over Ncuti regenerating, mostly b/c he got 16 stories, no daleks or cybermen, or master, and no character arc. EVERY SINGLE MODEN WHO DOCTOR GETS A CHARACTER ARC EXCEPT HIM. EVEN 14 JN THE 3 EPISODES HE’S IN GETS AN ARC. NOT ONLY does Ncuti not get a character arc, his very regeneration is overshadowed! First it was the bigeneration with David Tennent, now there’s also 13 AND BILLIE PIPER !!!!

15’s era has just been fuel for a past centred circle jerk of “what if we added this old monster? and brought back obscure-ass shit from classic? yeah that’s fun!” RTD is SO obsessed with the past that he’s failing to look towards the FUTURE of the show. It’s not a mistake that the main villains for rtd2 have been classic who villains (sutekh, the Toymaker, omega, the rani, midnight…)! We need innovation!

Not only have we been using old monsters and upstaging Ncuti, but we ALSO had NO CHARACTER FOR THE COMPANIONS!!! In the spirit of full disclosure, I haven’t finished Ruby’s era but only because it’s SO INFURIATING watching her waddle after the Doctor like a duckling, instead of THINKING FOR HERSELF. seriously, 73 yards is the only time time she exercises her own agency its so sad. Belinda has SUCH a great start but her “i want to go home because I didn’t CHOOSE to be with the Doctor” got forgotten midway into the series & her motivation became a child???? instead if her own agency???? and dont get me STARTED on Interstellar Song Contest.

This series was on a GENERATIONAL run and could’ve actually ended pretty well if not for Ncuti’s leaving & the Belinda housewife situation, but they fumbled so bad that it makes me so sad to be a Doctor Who fan sometimes. Let’s hope they do Billie well this time around.

[soupdrinkinglincoln]

Alright. It’s been one week since the finale. Time for my final retrospective on Ncuti’s time as the Doctor. First of all, writing my thoughts as soon as the episodes dropped means that I had to give my initial thoughts, original and my own and without the time for rethinking and changing with the opinions of others. I stick by many of them. Robot Revolution was a pretty decent episode with some really strong characterisation for Belinda. Lux was great. The Well is still weak to me, despite me feeling less awful about it after reading others takes, I do still believe Midnight is just that slightly weaker for it’s existence. Lucky Day was again fine, but I still think it should have been part of a UNIT side series. And if it setting up Conrad makes that any less true then, hey, I guess Conrad should have been the villain of a UNIT side series. The Story and the Engine, even as somebody who is white as they come, is a wonderful black storyline, in major thanks I’m sure to the writing of Inua Ellams and the directing of Makalla McPherson. The Interstellar Song Contest was super fun, if a little underbaked. Wish World was a good enough buildup to the finale. And the beginning of The Reality War was great. The. Beginning. Of The Reality War.

As a small aside before I begin anything in proper, who’s fucking idea was it to make Ncuti’s stories “Season 1” and “Season 2”? This is still NuWho; it’s not even a particularly long break between Flux and this. We’ve had some specials; that’s never messed with the seasons before. But god did it make trying to find these episodes as a reminder much harder! Doctor Who Season 15 brings up classic who; Doctor Who Season 2 brings up Army of Ghosts. What do you want from me, ‘Doctor Who Season 2 The Third’? Anyway, mini rant over, let’s begun the retrospective.

I think that a lot of people’s big issue, at least that I’ve seen, is that Ncuti’s seasons overrely on nostalgia and calling back to old villains like The Rani, Sutekh and Omega. Initially, I thought that was my issue too. And the rebuttal is obvious. “Oh, you think the show relies too much on nostalgia these seasons, and that’s the problem? What about the constant nostalgia usage from other seasons? Jodie wearing the fez; old companions always coming back, the Daleks and Cybermen and Zygons returning in NuWho from the classic season!” All of that is incredibly valid, and correct, and it’s those points that made me realise what my actual issue was. It was that there wasn’t anything from the classic episodes in this series. Think about it. Everyone’s shared their grievances about Ncuti not being allowed a single Dalek episode, or a Cyberman episode, or a Master episode. But we’ve had nothing back. No Weeping Angels, no Zygons, no Ice Warriors, no Judoon. I mean, for crying out loud, the Rani had a cheap method of time travel she wore around her wrist in lieu of a TARDIS, and the show refused to allow it to be a vortex manipulator. The closest that we’ve gotten to that I think is a single Silurian in ‘Joy To The World’. The refutal to that is also obvious, though, isn’t it. “What about those you’ve just listed? The Toymaker, the Rani, Sutekh, Omega. We got them back!” To which I say- did we? Past name alone these characters are not returning ones. We didn’t get the Celestial Toymaker back, we got the New Toymaker. We didn’t get the Osirans back, we got New Sutekh. We got the New Ranis instead of the classic version of her, and god fucking knows that I’d have given anything to have gotten the old Omega back instead of the CGI plot skeleton New Omega. I love the Pantheon, believe me I do. But they shouldn’t be there in place of the rest of the show’s classic cast.

Now, as for the companions- actually, wait. No. I’d like to talk about the formula before I get to that because comparing both seasons for this, side by side, it’s actually genuinely a little eldritch just noticing what sort of a formula they had to have been working off. Ruby gets The Church on Ruby Road, which is counted as a holiday special before the series, and then following that, just go with me here. Two seasons, eight episodes. The first one is for characterising the new companion and who they are. Then there’s an episode where they deal with a Pantheon member related to the arts. Then there’s an episode where the companion is shown how dangerous travelling with the Doctor is, by way of them being shot. Then there’s a Doctolite story where Ruby is a public enemy. Then the series has a single episode that’s allowed to touch on and discuss the Doctor’s race in more detail than the others. Rogue and The Interstellar Song Contest feel like they have their own identity- and I enjoyed both. Then there’s a two part finale, built around an old lady who has been appearing everywhere across time and space wherever the Doctor goes. In the second part of that finale, the Doctor deals with a CGI creature of death. All the while, Susan is teased but never appears in person. It feels like they built both seasons from the same notecards, or the same structure booklet. I don’t feel like I could line things up like this for any other season of the show; or of any of the sideshows for that matter.

Okay, now onto the companions. Both had interesting mysteries attached to them when they were introduced. Ruby had her enigmatic mother, and Belinda had her connection to ambulance lady. Ruby’s mystery got an ending that was less grand, less insane and enigmatic than anyone expected, but nonetheless, it was human. Belinda’s was completely dropped so they could do a 180 on her character in the finale. Yeah, so let’s talk about Belinda. In Matt Smith’s series, James Corden came into the show in an episode where The Doctor was stuck on Earth. He came back with a child in a later episode with the Cybermen. Belinda, a major companion, had five more episodes than he did. In one of those, she was under the effects of the Wish, so let’s say four. Belinda, again, a major companion, had three times as many episodes as James Corden did. She was given such a strong and defining personality; the thing that made me so pumped for her to begin with, and then they slowly stripped it away. Her being a mother to Poppy was fine, worked well because she was under the effects of the Wish and all, and her being so different highlighted things just as much as The Doctor being John Smith did. But then she was just like that after the Wish ended. And the series ended on Belinda acting so uncharacteristic to how she was, to the degree where she just allowed the Doctor to scan her daughter without a care. In seven episodes. I don’t feel like this happened with Ruby. She began strong, resilient and defiant, and she ended off the same. Though I haven’t missed that she got ten episodes where she could fully be and explore herself, in comparison.

Now, I know fully well that I am far from the person most qualified to talk about race, but it would be impertinent for me not to. I, like most others, do not think that RTD was the person to handle running the show for the first black Doctor to have a main series run. The issues of race were touched on only when it was decided it should be; which was in a total of three episodes from what I remember. Belinda’s character is massacred, Belinda’s family appear randomly and get almost nothing, Carla Sunday gets more characterisation in alternate scenarios where she’s being miserable and horrible to Ruby than she does in the actual canon, Cherry is delightful but used as a gag, the Rani is shafted in her own arc as an antagonist. Everything is very telling but I’d rather leave the actual telling of that to the people who can do a far better job than I.

To conclude this overly long post that I’ve drafted over hours, Ncuti himself played an excellent Doctor in some episodes that I really enjoyed. But a lot of other things let him down. Maybe the showrunner is to blame, maybe Disney had a hand in things. But nonetheless, I think there’s one thing that, irregardless, is killing Doctor Who. And that thing is not Billie Piper. Rumours were that this would be the last series of Doctor Who before it ended. It didn’t. And I think that’s a damn shame. Doctor Who needs to end because the modern, bingeable, eight episodes a season, throw filler to the wolves style of television is not one where the show can thrive. It, to Doctor Who, is akin to a tight steel cage in which a tiger can do nothing but pace on end. I do believe that ‘bingeable limited run series’ style television will end, and that the twenty two episode monster-of-the-weeks and case-by-case detective slash doctor type shows will return. But until they do, I think Doctor Who should wait. Wait to be revived again, with fresh blooded showrunners who watched Jodie and Ncuti as children and who want to tell their own stories. I want more great Doctor Who some day, not more okay Doctor Who now.

Anyway this is genuinely the last time I bring this show up in a lengthy review until the next episodes come out or that sea show does so bye

[dandelionjack]

sutekh was a fantastic villain in 1975. sutekh was a compelling and frightening antagonist for one serial. it’s okay that his motivation was just “destroy everything, i hate all living things”because he was only around for one serial before tom baker sealed him in a temporal sarcophagus forever. and it should have stayed that way, with the exception of, maybe, a few big finish excursions, since they love to reanimate the corpses of dead characters.

sutekh is NOT a compelling enough villain to be refitted as the big bad of a nuwho series. “kill everyone now” is the most generic motivation a bad guy can have. “i bring death” ok what else do you bring? do you represent anything? do you have any subtextual value, do you have symbolic meaning beyond “lol, die everyone because i said so, i’m an evil egyptian god”. there’s no substance to him, nothing deeper. a character like the master is practically made of substance, his history and the doctor’s are entwined from the start and that’s what makes him so fascinating as a threat, but even lesser iconic villains — daleks, cybermen, weeping angels, ood, the silence, the great intelligence, the fucking fisher king from before the flood — all have complex and intriguing motives and philosophies of their own. okay, maybe not the angels, but they represent something. they stand in for a concept (in the case of angels, for example, the very meta concept of being glued to your screen, physically unable to look away).

what does sutekh stand in for? he’s just death. he wants all life gone. that’s not interesting, that’s not exciting beyond the scope of one serial or one episode. he’s not nuwho material, he’s definitely not nuwho finale material. you may as well just plop the grim reaper there, scythe and all, go full torchwood (derogatory), instead of embracing the dated, orientalist egyptian imagery russell has insisted on doubling down on. i’m feeling pessimistic. i’d really been hoping for the “stuck-in-a-tv-show” theory to be proven right. how naïve of me.

[crowleybrekkers]

about the interstellar song contest's final reveal

i'm not sure what to think of the rani returning after all these years and mrs flood turning out to be her but right now it’s mostly negative. i'm starting to kinda hate when doctor who randomly brings back old villains/characters because lately, it’s just been falling flat. the problem here is there’s 0 build up and when you do so many plot twists, it’s bound to get tiring and lose its element of surprise. it didn’t feel well thought-out to me. it’s like they weren’t sure what to do with mrs flood, read fan theories saying that she’s the rani (which i thought were far-fetched), said yep we’re doing that, and literally just ran with it. to me it felt like they just wrote the rani in for the sake of doing it instead of thinking it through properly and creating proper build up to the reveal. and i’m not trying to say that them surprising us is a bad thing, what i’m criticizing is how they do these surprises too frequently.

i think that when bringing back former characters, it’s important to consider if it’s even necessary for them to be there and also to actually write the concept well

starting off with its necessity, i really do believe that it’s good that doctor who does this because it reminds new viewers of doctor who's rich history and lore, and it allows them to slowly ease them into this incredibly big universe. and in some cases, like when david tennant came back as the 14th doctor. i think that was definitely needed. it practically saved the show after so many of its loyal fans dropped it because of chibnall’s shitty writing. however, they can’t keep pulling 14th doctors and keep saving its show by enticing old fans with “hey!! your favorite guy is back!!”. the shock value will decrease eventually (which is why i think it is an INCREDIBLY bad idea for 14 to return but i digress) they need to bring in new ones by creating new concepts that are exciting.

about executing concepts well, i think “the well” is the best example (no pun intended). when they gave the big reveal that it was the midnight entity, there were ACTUAL clues and there was BUILD UP. it was exciting and was an excellently written episode. the midnight entity is a fan favorite doctor who villain and in my opinion one of the best, so, tying back to my previous point, it makes sense for them to have another episode featuring it. it’s not like the legend of ruby sunday where sutekh’s return made no sense.

in my opinion, the way they could’ve improved the situation was to make mrs flood the master instead of the rani. with the way she acts and even dresses, signs point to her being the master/missy rather than the rani. she even could’ve been the god of stories and that would be a great way to explain why she’s able to break the fourth wall. and about the rani, they shouldn’t have made her mrs flood… i think they should’ve done it better by introducing her in a completely different story. i really do think that making her have a comeback is a great idea because she’s such an icon, but i don’t think now is an ideal time because sutekh JUST came back in the s1 finale. like i said before, they need to space out these surprises in order for them to actually have effect and not get boring.

what i’m trying to say is that there needs to be balance— balance between introducing new villains/characters and making old ones return. part of nuwho’s success was, in my opinion, this balance. they didn’t have an over-reliance on former characters to make the storyline good, but they kept introducing new characters and villains to keep us viewers excited for new ideas. the only villains that i think should consistently come back are the classic ones like daleks, cybermen, and of course, the master, because they’re staples of doctor who. i find it insanely weird how both s1 and s2 haven’t featured any of them yet. please don’t get me wrong, i’m not against doctor who having big reveals. what i’m against is how the writing has been so reliant on re-introducing old characters for shock value instead of valuing the plot. but with all of that said, i hope in s2 that they make the rani’s return more reasonable than sutekh’s. i’m still excited to see what this diva does though ;)

[gideongaye]

I just love how heavily into DW continuity the RTD2 era has leaned into. It’s also funny in a way because: 

1. The Ncuti era is labeled as season 1 so you would think the continuity nods to the old series would just be the big ones like Daleks, Cybermen, The Master

2. I remember a complaint some people had about the Moffat era was it had “too much fanwankery” and how RTD was better for being more accessible to casuals/newcomers. 

And now Russell’s back and we’ve had the return of The Toymaker, the return of Mel, return of Sutekh, reference to The FRICKING MARA, THAT CAMEO OF THE GODDAMN SHALKA/REG DOCTOR. and i definitely don’t think the Susan references/mentions are just going to amount to lipservice *fingers crossed*. The guy didn’t lighten up on the fanwank he was like “oh yeah, i’m gonna wank even harder than that lol”

anyway, I love it! looking forward to season 2’s big bad being The Kandyman.

[theender36]

⚠️ Spoilers for Doctor Who: Empire of Death ⚠️

I liked this finale a lot and I just wanted to get my thoughts out while they're relatively fresh.

First off, so very glad to have one of the rare NuWho finales that doesn't involve the Daleks and/or the Cybermen and/or the Master. Nothing against those villains, it's just very common for the show to cram them in there.

I appreciate how any time in this new era that the Doctor faces off against a god, the stakes are appropriately high and we actually see the effects of their inteference (e.g. the Toymaker plunging the world into chaos, the gloomy and bleak atmosphere of a world without music and the devastation that it leads to, Sutekh's universe of dust and death).

I don't think the shot of Sutekh perching on the TARDIS in the time vortex was meant to be goofy but it kind of was. Anyway, they made up for it with the sequence of him being dragged and scraping along the edges of the vortex because that was pretty sick.

Felt super bad for Mel when she was being taken over by Sutekh. She held on for a good while though. Probably all the carrot juice.

That sequence where the Doctor meets that lone woman in order to find a piece of metal could be its own 2-minute short film.

It seems to me that there's still a lot left to find out about Ruby which hopefully they'll explore next season since Millie Gibson said she'll be returning. I think the main mysteries are A.) why does the snow follow her; B.) what exactly caused the events of 73 Yards? Because in my mind, I don't think her alternate timeline life was caused by breaking the fairy circle, I think it was something about Ruby herself.

I enjoyed Ruby's mum being just a normal person. If she was an existing character or someone very powerful and cosmicly important, it would never have lived up to audience expectations. And besides, we've had plenty of Impossible Girls, Timeless Children, and River Songs. It's much more fulfilling to Ruby that her mother is just a regular person who tried to keep her safe. And it's a lot easier for her to meet and form a fresh relationship with her mom if she's not an alien or a time traveller. However, I thought the explanation of why Sutekh was interested in her identity was kind of weak and made up of circular-logic. She's invisible to him because Ruby saving the universe relies on her because she's important because she's invisible to Sutekh. Maybe I got that wrong?

I'm very intrigued by who Mrs. Flood could be. I thought she was another servant of Sutekh because of how she started hyping up his return in the previous episode but it's evident that she's an unrelated party now. I think it's most likely she'll be an entirely new character, within the realm of possibility that she's a new form of Missy, slight chance she's River, no shot that she's the Rani. She doesn't seem like she's doing any heinous experiments, she's kind of just narrating and viking.

Looking forward to the Christmas special and any possible spinoffs in the meantime.

[moonlitlex]

another thing is, rtd1 introduced said iconic classic who villains sufficiently well within nuwho itself. like, if you were a new fan watching dalek, you understood everything you needed to understand about daleks. same with cybermen, the master, autons, sontarans. same with even davros who doesn't get a proper "villain introduction" but when he shows up everything relevant to him is explained within that episode. i didn't have to watch genesis of the daleks to figure out what the hell his deal was.

that's just not the case with rtd2. every classic who villain he has introduced apart from the toymaker has been written so poorly. like, yes, they are less iconic. but then, the rani is literally.... mischaracterized. sutekh is totally different. his mo is literally different to what it was in pyramids of mars. and now we have omega back.... and where's the context for what this means? where's the basic exposition that conveys to the audience who these people are and what their deal is?

rtd couldn't even do that properly for the rani even though he literally had conrad expositing directly to the fucking camera.

it's been said to death alr but I think it's so silly how rtd1 and rtd2 eras are so different in terms of reintroducing stuff from classic!who.

like, rtd1 starts off with a classic villain that is fairly iconic but also simple and easy to understand (Autons / living mannequins). next classic who villain is the Dalek, which is like top 3 most recognizable things from the entire show. then there's Cybermen, also iconic, then the master, also iconic... the point is, most of rtd1 is new aliens/villains with occasional revivals of iconic classic!who villains.

rtd2 on the other hand... this era is marketed as a new place to start, without needing to watch everything that came before (much like how it was marketed in 2005). except it's kind of not? like, the classic villains introduced this time around are kind of obscure. and sure, you can kind of guess what their deals are, but it's not the same.

where rtd1 has "living mannequin" and "genocidal robot alien" and "robots that turn people into robots" and "the doctor's narrative foil", aka simple (ish), straightforward villains that are easy to understand so you can focus on enjoying the episode, rtd2 has "ancient god of death that appeared once" and "original time lord from 2 serials" and "that other time lord from 2 serials who's evil and sciency" all of whom have complex motivations and histories and, for lack of a better word, mechanics. and having to figure out what these characters are and what their pasts are and the implications of their reappearance kind of takes away from the episodes as a whole if you haven't seen the classic stuff.

idk where I'm going with this (or if it even makes sense) but I thought it was interesting and needed to get thoughts out

[alphacentauriiswatchingyou-blog]

Russell T Davies on Steven Moffat

We do not know how lucky we are.

When asked to consider Steven’s finest moments, I was overwhelmed by images. Heores and villains. Battles and beauty. Monsters and children. Then I realised that I’d only got as far as 20 minutes into The Empty Child -round about the joke about Marxism and West End musicals - and had to sit down for a cup of tea.

I think, as fans, we can focus on the detail - Mondasian Cybermen! - at the risk of missing the bigger picture. That picture being, in Steven’s case, that we’ve just seen one of the greatest sci-fi body-horror thriller action-adventure romances (plus comedy) of our entire lives, beamed on to our TVs for less than 10p, written by a world-class master of his craft who’s now so in command of his talent, he’s riffing on ephemera from 1966 and turning it into gold, whisky, sex, whatever turns you on best. We truly do not know how lucky we are to have a man of this calibre writing our favourite show.

Since leaving Doctor Who, I’m approached, now and then, by strangers who remember my withered husk from Doctor Who Confidential. There’s a glint in their eye as they say, “What d’you think of it now?” An awful lot of those people are dying for me to trash it. I think, genuinely, they’re trying to achieve an intimacy. I think, nastily, they want me to say something bad so they can take it online and have some strange sort of fun. And when I say, “I love it!” they often think I’m lying.

I love it. I love every episode the man’s written. I love the other episodes he’s rewritten and I think few people know how many that is. I love the detail, I love the scale, I love the people, I love the jokes. I love the fact that Steven himself is quite down on The Beast Below. The whole of the UK on a spaceship? The whole of the UK is a spaceship? I’d retire there and then, complete. Nope, for him, it just wasn’t good enough.

I love the man, in truth, I love his mind, I love his standards, I love his rigour, his darkness, his kindness, his ambition, his love of TV. I love the man who wrote the very last line of Coupling, which shows what a lovely human being he is.

I love his women. Consider, in bad fiction, which is most fiction, how women’s roles, which have suffered so many years of neglect that they can be summarised as ‘women’s roles’, fall into the same old categories. They are reduced to the Mother, the Wife, the Daughter, the Bride. Agents of sex and childbirth, nothing more.

But then look at what Steven does with those categories. The Bride stands tall at her reception - literally in her wedding dress - and summons the Doctor back itno existence with an Old Maid’s rhyme. When the Bride has a Daughter, it’s a vital part of a galaxy-spanning revenge. The Daughter then becomes the Wife, a woman of such swagger and joy and tenderness, the Time Lord finally falls in love. We’re not done yet. A lesser category pops up, the Dominatrix, complete with eye-patch, but don’t worry, the Bride who’s the Mother of the Daughter who’s the Wife kills her stone dead! Then a lesbian travels the universe and everyone adores her. And nestling at the heart of the show is Doctor Who’s very own problem category, the Companion, a title inherently subordinate to the Man. Until Clara comes along! Companion to every single moment in the Doctor’s life. A woman so strong that in her first appearance, and her last, Death itself cannot stop her. A decade before Wonder Woman, Steven started weaving his own vast female mythology across the stars, in a funny old children’s show on Saturday teatimes.

I could mansplain all day, but the other thing I love in Steven’s writing is the complexity. I’ve heard some tiny, distant rumours that some people might have a problem with that. But I think it’s the very thing that will ensure Doctor Who’s logevity. You see, in the old days, us older fans fell in love with this show because it was porous. It had gaps. It was cheap, it was rushed, it was lovely and brave and unapologetic, using three walls in Lime Grove to create an entire Dalek invasion of Earth. All those gaps allowed us in. We imagined the offstage armies. We embraced the wobbles and bumps. If Sutekh had a secret hand on his cushion, we hooted, or invented a reason why (Clara!). But we either imagined it better, or saw how good it was underneath. Which is exactly like falling in love.

Now, the modern show has a lot more money. You can see those armies centre-stage. Gallifrey is so gorgeous, it has a spare city. Cyber-fleets can explode behind Rory’s head as a throwaway joke. And sometimes, a lossy show allows the mind the slide off. But Steven has created a brand-new porous surface. He invites us into the plots. He gives us stories which vault and somersault and double-back and trick and trap and treat. It’s not so much porous, it’s more like a great big spinning double helix and we’re clinging on, spinning for our lives, and yelling with joy. Yes, it’s complicated, but that’s wonderful. It will keep people thinking about the show forever.

Okay, my favourite moment? It’s my favourite joke. A Good Man Goes to War. Rory approaches River Song in the Storm Cage, and she says she’s been on a date with the Doctor, to the frost fair in 1814. “He got Stevie Wonder to sing for me underneath London Bridge.” And for a second, there’s that lovely shiver as you anticipae the punchline. “Don’t tell him.”

That’s a small momnt from a man who’s created empires. But a favourite joke is a beautiful thing. I just looked up the line and it turns out, I’ve long since paraphrased it, but that’s even better - like I said, Steven makes us part of the text, and now I own it! The point is, I think of that line every few days. Literally, a couple of times a week, every week. Every now and then, when I’m washing up or watching TV, or walking into town, or whatever, it pops into my head. “Don’t tell him.” And I laugh. I laugh, every single time. It’s been making me laugh for six years and it will make me laugh for the rest of my life. Very few people can write a line capable of that.

We have been so lucky.