cringecompanionapologist

[cringecompanionapologist]

[cringecompanionapologist]

[cringecompanionapologist]

This is another one of those polls where everyone tagging it is voting for Turlough, but he's still not winning.

Classic Companion Outfits - Round 1

[cringecompanionapologist]

Classic Companion Outfits - Round 1

[cringecompanionapologist]

Some Red for Danger Stuff

I'm on a Discord server where people are the actual best so I now have access to Red for Danger, including a transcript. Transcript means that I can look it over and analyze things. So, here's some things.

Here There Be Spoilers for Red for Danger

6 and Peri show up at a boys' school in disguise. Considering that they had to start working there, you'd think they'd learn the name of the school, but they clearly didn't, because the twist is dependent of the Doctor generally being oblivious to his surroundings and not picking up on any hints that he's been here before.

The Doctor received some sort of telepathic distress signal of a red-haired schoolboy screaming, though he couldn't clearly see his face. Still, you'd think that description would sound familiar to him. But, he saw the boy as a child, so I guess that threw him off.

There are two children at the school who serve as red herrings. By "children", this is clearly a secondary school and the characters appear to be teenagers, but I don't think the distinction is supposed to matter. One boy, Reggie, has red hair but is pretty normal. The other, Malcolm, is blond and good at cricket and claims his father travels in a TARDIS. You can see where this is going.

The school is generally shitty and bullying is basically encouraged. Peri is shocked and disgusted. 6 is disgusted, but not shocked. Apparently the Time Lord Academy wasn't that different.

It's very quickly revealed that all the teachers, and a good number of the students, at the school are aliens using cloaking devices. Dr. Drylake, the math teacher, shows the Doctor and Peri around and introduces all the aliens, most of which aren't humanoid.

Drylake is Turlough. The fact that he became the math teacher, taking the Brigadier's old job, is hilarious. You can imagine him sitting in that class thinking about he could do better.

If you're wondering why Turlough's disguise name is Drylake, of all things:

The word turlough literally means "dry lake".

But the Doctor doesn't know enough Irish to get this and he thinks he's looking for a student, not a teacher, so Drylake is Just Some Weirdo.

The Doctor finds a reason to order Reggie to scream, since he's the one redhead in his first class, but Reggie's scream doesn't sound like the telepathic scream, proving that he's not it. Meanwhile, the Doctor finds out that, behind the cloaking device, Drylake is a cockroach alien...that isn't sentient. So he's got a sort of double cloaking device, which is weird, so the Doctor can guess he's important somehow.

Reggie and Malcolm are targeted by the local bully that leads to a string of shenanigans that ends in Malcolm discovering the TARDIS and having a working TARDIS key. He also finds the Doctor having been hit on the head by Drylake, because neither one know who the other is, and the Doctor found him asking the local bully to borrow some weapons from his father, and the Doctor asked too many questions, and basically they don't trust each other.

Malcolm finds the Doctor injured and takes him back into the TARDIS. He reveals that he's apparently the Doctor's son. The Doctor doesn't remember him, so this is awkward.

I'm going to stop with the in-detail synopsis so that something about this audio is a surprise. But, more things happen, the local bully and his gang are out for blood and they're pretty much encouraged by the Headmaster to hunt their classmates for sport. The school has high tech healing pods to make sure that they don't literally kill each other.

It's not made clear how long the school has been like this, but it's a school for alien warlords. The local bully is the son of one of them.

Also, you might be wondering how Peri's sneaking around in this Boys Only school. Another cloaking device. A device which Malcolm and Reggie steal, leading to Drylake seeing Peri uncloaked. He recognizes her.

Through shenanigans, Malcolm and Reggie take control of the school, turn the cloaking devices off, and start a revolution. But, Malcolm takes it too far, wanting to kill all non-humanoids and pressuring Reggie into joining him.

Drylake comes in looking for Peri and Reggie is like "oh it's my chance to shoot an alien and be one of the popular kids".

When Drylake screams the Doctor gets a Psychic Whatsit. Before this point, he'd assumed that Malcolm, apparently his son, was the boy he was looking for. Scared bullied child who wanted his dad. But, he know realizes that Drylake is the person he's been looking for. Peri suspects that the Doctor saw a child because he sees all his companions as his children. I think the Doctor just saw Turlough closer to how he looked when he last saw him. Or it was a symbolic representation of Turlough's vulnerability. The TARDIS wanted to make it clear that the person who needed help was vulnerable and needed to be protected.

As for the TARDIS key Malcolm had, his real dad was a reformed alien warlord who changed his ways and starting idolizing the Doctor to the point of changing his name and he bought the key for Malcolm in an auction. How'd the key get there? Well:

It was found on a beach in Lanzarote.

At this point, the Doctor should realize who it belonged to. When did he take the TARDIS to Lanzarote? If a companion had lost their TARDIS key, wouldn't they have told him? If they left him after a trip to Lanzarote, it would fit.

Basically, the TARDIS keys connect to the TARDIS telepathically, so if anyone with a key is in distress, the key can send a distress signal to the TARDIS. I'm guessing that a lot of other times Turlough was in distress, he either didn't have a key yet or the key was too far away. But, with the key and Turlough in the same general location, the TARDIS could send a message that Turlough was in trouble.

After the adventure, Malcolm now home with his parents, as well all the other alien children, since the school was clearly evil and the Doctor basically shut it down, the Doctor and Peri take a walk through the empty school and the Doctor finally realizes that he's been here before, seeing an old picture of the Brigadier on the wall. Before he can actually put the pieces together, Drylake runs in, looking for Peri.

He gets very emotional over seeing a girl he met just once, but he knows she's and ally and seeing anyone friendly probably gets him emotional.

Drylake still doesn't trust this man he doesn't recognize that Peri's with, but with Peri there, he's hoping the Doctor would be because he really needs help. Throughout the story, it's sort of revealed that Turlough's getting a space army together to take back his planet. So Trion's under some sort of occupation. The Headmaster is another Trion from the opposite faction who hates Turlough, so he had to disguise himself as a cockroach alien. But, maybe the Doctor could help him.

He takes off his disguise and is finally recognized as Turlough in a cliffhanger that probably won't be resolved for a very long time.

[cringecompanionapologist]

So This Apparently Happened Yesterday

I know nothing else about it other than what it says on the wiki page and it's going to drive me nuts.

[cringecompanionapologist]

The new series of Doctor Who should remake the Tom Baker story "State of Decay," with Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry and Natasia Demetriou as the Three Who Rule.

[cringecompanionapologist]

[cringecompanionapologist]

Ppl often complain about the lack of costume changes in s19 but I think there are 3 perfectly logical explanations for it:

Adric feels that his outfit constitutes the perfect clothing and he sees no need to find another one. Also the tardis wardrobe is a sea of weird itchy fabric textures and it stresses him out. He washes his outfit once per week in the tardis laundry room.

Nyssa, having just lost her homeworld and come away with nothing but the clothes on her back, understandably is reluctant to part completely with said clothes.

Tegan gets dressed every morning in the hope that today will be the day they land at Heathrow airport.

[cringecompanionapologist]

ppl will see a turlough and be like is anyone else gonna whump this and not wait for an answer.

[cringecompanionapologist]

I think it's a bit of both. Turlough might've been bullied early on, but he learned how not to be. He hates everyone there equally, so he's more of a general troublemaker. If he was bullied, he became the bully when he got sick of it. By the time we meet him, he's more bully than bullied.

May be an upopular opinion but one of my pet peeves is when writers try to imply turlough was bullied at brendon school; to me that's gilding the lily on a character that already has tragic backstory for days, especially when it's canonical that HE was the bully. he's a mean, catty manipulator at that school who looks down on the adolescent humans hes forced to spend time with. to me, his desperate self preservation/self interest is a direct result of his time in a WAR, not from being pushed around at a human school. hes too smart not to establish himself as the boss of the younger kids, why else would he affect an upper class earth accent? come onnnn.

[cringecompanionapologist]

Classic Companion Outfits - Round 0

[cringecompanionapologist]

Warriors of the Deep: Terrible, horrible, everyone's traumatized

Deep Blue: Supposed to be a fun trip to recover from that. Terrible, horrible, everyone's traumatized, it's a wilderness years novel so they can get more fucked up than the show ever could

But it's implied to lead into The Awakening.

The Awakening: Typical adventure, still sorta unpleasant, but afterwards Tegan and Turlough successfully talk the Doctor into letting them take an actual vacation. Since the vacation happens offscreen, they can successfully have their vacation.

So genuine breaks and vacations can happen, but only if they're offscreen.

deciding i really don't like stories that start off w the doctor intending to take his companions on a vacation from their Standard Adventure Fare that then of course quickly devolves into exactly that bc like. it means that all that horrific shit is the day-to-day of their lives and they truly have no break from it. when imo there should be plenty of travelling in the tardis that we don't usually see bc there is no monster to play monster of the week. if it was really back to back atrocities and moments of near-death, what person would willingly keep travelling w the doctor?

[cringecompanionapologist]

Ok so here's that famous Tom Baker interview from 1999 I've been looking for, and the only excerpt that's shared here didn't do justice to his weirdness:

***

What planet is he on?

I wouldn't say Tom Baker was bonkers, exactly. But one of his hobbies is inspecting his own tombstone. And all the Time Lord wants to talk about is sex and why he failed as a monk. Frankly, this is rather tiring. All I want is a cup of tea, no sugar. Is that too much to ask?

Sunday 24 October 1999

It is early in the morning. It is 8am or thereabouts. I am not at my best at this time. Frankly, I am not sure when I'm at my best, but I am fairly certain 8am is not it. I want to be at home, in bed. I want to be warm and quiet with the duvet pulled cosily over my head. I'm not sure I can cope with being in this greasy spoon just off Shaftesbury Avenue in central London. I'm not sure I can cope with Tom Baker who is HUGE and LOUD and has ENORMOUS TEETH and TALKS THUNDERINGLY IN CAPITAL LETTERS and who is giving me a HEADACHE and who wants to go on and on about his SEX DRIVE.

I don't have anything against sex drives per se. But, at this hour, I tend to prefer a nice cup of tea, milk, no sugar. I would like a nice cup of tea right now. But Tom is deafeningly unstoppable. Tom tried to be a monk once. But his sex drive rather proved the undoing of him.

"Oh, YES. I was very close to Him - GOD'S NUMBER ONE FAN! - but ended up a martyr to my LUST."

"Tea...?"

"Once I was doing National Service, I discovered SEX. I met Regina, a German girl. I fell on top of her accidentally one night in Düsseldorf and that was the end of God and me."

This is going to be immensely tiring work, I can tell. I suppose Tom Baker is rather marvellous in his way. Or would be, if he wasn't so fantastically exhausting. Does he ever stop performing? Does he ever shut up?

"No, never. The most pitiful thing about actors is that they only ever feel really alive when they are performing, when they are fictional. I am entirely fictional. There is nothing authentic about me. I'll do anything to be worshipped and adored. It was marvellous when I was Dr Who [from 1974 to 1982]. EVERYONE ADORED ME! When the little ones were very frightened, they would huddle into their grannies' BOSOMS. And granny's bosom would, I imagine, TINGLE WITH PLEASURE. So when these grannies would, say, see me in Sloane Square, they'd blink and say 'hello, dear' and their BOSOMS WOULD TINGLE. So it wasn't just children who loved me. I also opened up a world of TINGLING BOSOMS among the old..."

"Perhaps..."

"I carry this in my pocket..." He takes out a gold felt-tip. "In case I'm still asked for AUTOGRAPHS... I always sign in gold... the fans seem to like it. Dr Who was a fantastic job. I was famous in 94 countries. I am still famous in Abu Dhabi, although I'm not sure how to turn this to my ADVANTAGE... HA! I know I'm ridiculous, that's why I'm an actor. I see myself as a professional diverter, taking people away from the horrors of the world..."

"Perhaps..."

"I'm never so real as when I'm entirely fictional, and never so insecure as when I have to be real, which is why I'm garrulous and try to amuse."

'Perhaps..."

"I'll invent things if I can't think what to say."

"PERHAPS WHAT YOU CALL THE FICTION IS THE AUTHENTIC YOU. PERHAPS THIS IS JUST WHO YOU ARE!"

Tom looks startled. I think Tom had forgotten I was here. I think he thinks he's the only one who can speak in CAPITAL LETTERS. He says: "That's a marvellously mischievous comment. It may well sum me up. But I'll never know, and neither will you. I think I'd like a cup of tea. Would you?"

"Oh, go on, then..."

He is still, mostly, an actor, yes. These days, though, it is largely radio and voice-overs and the odd TV cameo. Still, he now has another career on the go. A writing career. He published his autobiography a couple of years back, and has now produced his first work of fiction. It is The Boy Who Kicked Pigs, which will be out next week. It was initially commissioned for children. It's about a boy who does a lot of absolutely repellent things to others then gets his face eaten off by rats. ("The rat now set about the lips of the boy... it stripped the top lip back as far as the gums.") It is not exactly Beatrix Potter. On seeing it, Faber & Faber decided it might not be suitable for children after all. It is now being marketed as a "compellingly grotesque" work for adults. Tom just doesn't get it. "I still think of it as a children's story. Some people were very disgusted by it. Were you disgusted?"

"Well... I..."

"Why do people think they know what's the best for children? It's the most terrible MISAPPREHENSION"

I wouldn't say Tom was bonkers, exactly. But his mind does seem to work in spookily dark ways. He lives in Maidstone, Kent (with his third wife, Sue Jerrard, a TV producer, and their eight Burmese cats) in a house that backs on to a graveyard. Aside from ironing and hanging out the washing - "which I do for Sue, who protects me from the things I'm not good at, like bank accounts or having an accountant" - his hobbies include weeding between the graves and inspecting his own tombstone.

"It's a very old, second-hand one I bought for myself. Now, in glorious bold top-billing, it reads: 'Tom Baker, 1934- ' Sometimes I've actually taken a piece of chalk and filled in the second date, but that is a sign of appalling self-pity. Fortunately, when I go back the next day the weather will have washed the chalk off, because I never press too hard."

There seems to be quite a bit of anger about him, too. He seems to hate quite a lot of people. He hates Esther Rantzen. He hates New Labour - "SHINY, SLIPPERY, AWFUL NEW LABOUR." He hates God and the church. "Blessed are the poor? Isn't that the most amazing paradox?"

Anyway, he is much looking forward to the forthcoming book tour. "Bookshops have become the new cheap theatres, haven't they? So when a shagged out old Time Lord like Tom comes to town, quite a few people might turn up, if only to indulge their nostalgia, mightn't they? I don't mind if they buy the book or not, so long as they are affectionate and adoring. If they can't afford the book, I'll buy it for them. This isn't very commercial, I know, but there you are. I just want the adoration. I have always wanted adoration. I even want adoration from dustbin men. I always put the rubbish out at home and take great pride in it. It's double wrapped and fastened with white tape. No matter how miserable the dustmen's lives are, at least they can say: 'Tom Baker's rubbish is pretty stylish'."

"Where does this need to be adored come from, Tom?"

"My mother, of course." He was born in Liverpool in 1934. His childhood was poor, Roman Catholic, not especially pleasant. "I was very religious and was brought up on melodramas and bigotry and the hideous other convictions that pass for religious faith. I liked all the sniffing of incense.

My father didn't take any part in my life at all, apart from during my conception. He was in the navy and away all the time. My mother was very unhappy with my father. By the time he retired from the sea she didn't know him. They once didn't talk to each other for nine years. It was incredible to live in this utter, hostile silence.

Still, I can't exaggerate how wonderful it was to be a poor child in Liverpool during the bombing. That was fantastic: bombs falling everywhere; people being blown up; not having to go to school. Sitting in air-raid shelters. It was absolutely great. I remember telling the first woman who had me - you know, Regina - how grateful I was to the Germans for alleviating me from the tedium of my childhood. I was bombed by the Germans, and then SHAGGED by the Germans, and grateful both times!"

"Your mother, Mary-Jane?"

"She was a cleaner. And the worst cook in Europe. Potatoes with gravy browning. Bread puddings like bricks... I used to have to eat the most terrible shit. But I did it because I loved her. And she loved me. I think she loved me more than the other two. [He has a brother and sister.] She used to tell them: 'Tom is different'.

I looked after her when she was ill. She had an abscess in her breast, and I used to tenderly dress it. There was an awful hole in her breast, and there was a dressing like a tampon that had to be lowered into the hole, and she showed me how to do it when I was eight."

He wanted, he says, to become a "star" for his mother, and thought he'd start by becoming a saint. "For a poor Roman Catholic with no qualifications, becoming a nun or a priest or a monk was the only way." He joined a monastery on Jersey at 15, and stayed until he was 21. By this time, he says, he was so sexually lonely "my muscles used to crack to put my arms around something. A wardrobe would have done".

His mother was upset, yes. "It had meant a lot of status for her." He did his National Service, joining the medical corps, where he discovered acting. "I did impressions of matron and the padre, and realised I could make people laugh. That stirred me on." Sadly, his mother did not live long enough to see him cast as Dr Who.

He was 26 when he married his first wife, Anna Wheatcroft, in 1960.

"How do you remember your first marriage, Tom?"

"Oh, darling, with absolute horror. It was such a failure. I knew on my wedding day it was a mistake. I do so admire those people who walk out on their wedding days, don't you?" He had two sons with Anna - Piers and Daniel - then left. "When my children were little, my knees used to shake I loved them so much." How could you leave them, then? "With great difficulty. I was very disturbed at that time. And, in the end, there was such hostility between Anna and me I felt I was better out of the way."

He was never very good about keeping in touch with his boys. "I am always glad to see them, although it isn't very often. You can't love them all the time, can you?" Can't you? I think, sometimes, he uses invention as a kind of self-justification.

Anyway, he's got a voice-over to do in a studio in Soho. I walk him over. He says, "in the monastery, there was always a queue to see the priest for confession first thing in the morning. You know, for all the monks who had erotic dreams during the night.

GOODBYE!''

I go home. Where I have 34 cups of tea and 67 Nurofen. I then get into bed and pull the duvet over my head. It is nice in here. I might never come out.

[cringecompanionapologist]

Mara!Doctor: What do you want?

Turlough: I thought I was already sorta getting it...

Mara!Doctor: Like what do you want most in the entire world but believe you can never have?

Turlough: This, apparently.

[cringecompanionapologist]

The Novelisation of Mawdryn Undead mentions that all games at Brendon were mandatory and Turlough hated them. I'm going to assume the Doctor is aware of this and he's just being an asshole.

Also I think there are a few other audios where the Doctor brings up Turlough's education, acting like he's trying to continue it. And Turlough said he thought he would learn more if he stayed with the Doctor. There's this reoccurring playful banter about Turlough as a student.

DOCTOR: Oh, Calcutta. Land of the goddess Kali. One of the world's most vibrant and popular cities. Center of the jewelry trade. Hub of industry, commerce, science, politics, culture, education. TURLOUGH: And what have we come here for? A cricket match. DOCTOR: Not just any old cricket match, Turlough. Today is December the 31st, 1926, and in a couple of hours, Arthur Gilligan will be leading the MCC in possibly the greatest match of the greatest tour in the history of cricket. All India versus the Marylebone Cricket Club. TURLOUGH: And where are they going to fight this legendary engagement? Right here on the platform? Oh, in one of the sidings, perhaps? DOCTOR: The Eden Gardens, a fifteen minute stroll from here. I really must have a word with the Brigadier about your education. There seems to have been very little emphasis placed on sport and altogether too much prominence given to sarcasm.

insane thing for the doctor to say to turlough on so many levels.

[cringecompanionapologist]

Had to reblog this because it's one of my favorite scenes in all of Doctor Who. In terms of character arc, the Doctor is Like That because they just started writing him differently in his second season. They don't bother doing anything to justify it. The season just opens with a story that ends with him blowing up Skaro and talking a Dalek into blowing itself up.

This scene is from the story after that. Unlike Remembrance of the Daleks, The Happiness Patrol is extremely silly. It's the one with the candy robot that drowns people in strawberry fondant because Space Thatcher doesn't think they look happy enough. Everyone plays it completely straight, but there's a sense that everyone knows how ridiculous it all is.

This scene is the one moment where the absurdity falls away.

For context, this story takes place on a planet called Terra Alpha, at a human colony that's under the rule of Helen A. Helen A established a rule that everyone needed to be happy or die. "Happy" is more of an aesthetic than a mood. People are killed for wearing dark colors and walking in the rain. It's stupid bullshit, but a lot of people died because of it, so it's stupid bullshit that has to be taken seriously.

As silly as it is, Helen A is a dictator with a violent authoritarian regime. But, most of the violence we see has this sort of ridiculous "happy" aesthetic stuck on top. The titular Happiness Patrol is basically a firing squad who make stupid jokes before shooting people. Once again, a robot made of candy drowns people in strawberry fondant. It's made disturbing by being deadly violence with a smiley face sticker slapped over it. Up until this particular point in the story, all of the Helen A Regime's violence is depicted this way: twisted and darkly comical.

Then you get to the snipers. There's a crowd of protesting factory workers. They're openly expressing their unhappiness about poor working conditions. There's the political allegory. Authoritarian leaders who instead of trying to solve problems that are pointed out to them, just try to get the people saying there are problems to shut up. When propaganda doesn't convince them, when turning others against them with propaganda doesn't stop them, it escalates into violence. Helen A has these two snipers sent out to fire on the crowd of protesters who are being completely peaceful, just openly expressing unhappiness.

The thing is, unlike the Happiness Patrol and the Kandyman, the snipers are kinda normal. Their aesthetic is less ridiculous than most of the people around them and they talk like two regular guys working a night shift. This whole situation is mundane. Two cops who see shooting peaceful protesters as just their job. You realize that this part of Helen A's regime isn't as ridiculous as anything else. In the real world, there are no candy robots and firing squads don't tell people to have a nice death before shooting them. But a dictator sending snipers to fire at peaceful protesters is a thing that could actually happen. There's nothing silly about it.

So, when the Doctor confronts the snipers, he's not silly about it. In other scenes, he sort of fucks with people. He ultimately turns the protest into a party so the protesters can't be arrested because they're obviously happy and having fun.

But when the threat isn't at all silly, the Doctor isn't at all silly. The confrontation with the snipers is serious. They're not the most evil people in this story, but they're the most realistic evil in this story.

And the Doctor breaks them down by understanding exactly what sort of people they are. Some people say that the Doctor was using Time Lord mind control here, because Big Finish audio had Ace try to use the same "the the trigger, end a life" trick and she got shot. This wasn't because Ace wasn't a Time Lord. It's because Ace was using the trick on the wrong type of person, a killer who was comfortable with the idea of killing.

The Doctor realizes that as snipers, and guys who behave in such a "working the night shift" sort of way about killing people, these two aren't exactly sadistic killers. From a distance, they don't have to think of the people they kill as individual people, fellow human beings. From a distance, they're just targets. They've never had to shoot a person directly in front of them. The sniper that points his gun at the Doctor says that it's mean for long range and he doesn't know what'll happen if it's used on someone so close by.

So, the Doctor makes sure the sniper is standing as close to him as possible, reminds him of exactly what it would mean to pull the trigger, and tells him to do it. The sniper, forced to see that this is another person whose life he is about to end, can't do it. He was only comfortable with killing when he didn't have to think about it.

This scene is great in terms of tone, knowing that the snipers aren't silly, so the Doctor shouldn't be either, the Doctor's attitude adapting to the situation he's in. It also demonstrates the Seventh Doctor's intelligence, just how well he knows how people work, what types of people do certain things. It's not a complicated master plan, like he'd later become known for. It's him observing his environment and knowing how to respond, building his plan as he goes. And this scene shows off just how good he is at it.

Look I know this is the thing Everyone mentions when we say 7 is a lil fucked up actually but I just need everyone I know to see this scene. What’s up with this guy