#50th anniversary classic episodes in the evenings

[bobbie-robron]

Classic ED schedule week 42 (2022)

INCLUDES 50TH ANNIVERSARY CLASSIC EPISODES AIRING EACH EVENING (ALL TIMES ARE UK BASED)!!

16-Oct-2002 (Sunday):

6:00pm: ED: 50 Unforgettable Years - 1 hour

———

17-Oct-2022 (Monday):

1:40pm: 26-Sep-2002 (3274) Viv gives Katie a job at the cafe. Zoe offers Chris support with riding

2:15pm: 27-Sep-2002 (3275) Glynis lures Eric to hotel and he succumbs to her; Mack & Syd bet on who will bed Angie!

10:00pm: 16-Oct-1972 (0001) Meet the ORIGINAL LEGACY FAMILY - the Sugdens. There’s also the Skilbecks along with Amos & Mr. Wilks!

10:30pm: 13-Jan-1972 (0288) At the Woolpack, news of a train accident is announced!

11:00pm: 16-Mar-1978 (0434) As Ruth Helton & Joe Sugden walk towards the mine, an explosion ensues!

11:30pm: 21-Mar-1978 (0435) Rescue efforts at the mine.

———

18-Oct-2022 (Tuesday):

1:40pm: 30-Sep-2002 (3276) Laurel agrees to continue staying (and pay her way) with Betty & Seth; the results of the nude calendar are in

2:15pm: 01-Oct-2002 (3277) Announcing he’s pulling out of the campaign, Pollard comes clean to Gloria about his affair with Glynis and gets hit (rightly so)

10:00pm: 26-Aug-1986 (1078) Robert’s birth mum, Pat, dies in a auto accident swerving to miss a flock of sheep

10:30pm: 18-May-1988 (1249) Crossgill Farm (home of Matt Skilbeck) goes aflame due to a rag on the stove

11:00pm: 19-May-1988 (1250) The Crossgill fire continues as Annie is saved by Phil Pearce

11:30pm: 28-Dec-1993 (1828a) Christmas 1993 with the Sugdens, Tates & McAllisters

———

19-Oct-2022 (Wednesday):

1:40pm: 02-Oct-2002 (3278) Gloria tells Eric to continue his affair with Glynis. Zoe is feeling under the weather/dizzy

2:15pm: 03-Oct-2002 (3279) Brian and Andy worry about Katie suggesting counseling which she refuses. Dizziness persists with Zoe

10:00pm: 30-Dec-1993 (1829) A plane crashes into the village; final appearances for Elizabeth Pollard and Archie Brooks

10:30pm: 24-Dec-1996 (2144) Biff & Linda’s wedding; Home Farm in flames; final appearance for Tina Dingle - 1 hour episode

11:30pm: 26-Dec-1996 (2145) Dave Glover’s final appearance; the Sugdens officially can foster Andy

———

20-Oct-2022 (Thursday):

1:40pm: 04-Oct-2002 (3280) Zoe collapses and Edna and Betty bicker whether she’s fit to be in the community

2:15pm: 07-Oct-2002** (3281) Katie finally breaks down over the miscarriage. Charity’s proud of Zoe taught Chris to ride

10:00pm: 01-Jan-2004 (3623/3624) A storm devastates the village; Tricia is critically injured (dying on 08-Jan-2004) - 1 hour episode

11:00pm: 22-Sep-2005 (4159/4160) Zoe Tate’s exit (along with her daughter Jean, Joseph Tate and Callum Rennie) - 1 hour episode

———

21-Oct-2022 (Friday):

1:40pm: 08-Oct-2002 (3282) Andy proposes to Katie. Zoe fears she’s having a relapse. Louise has a secret admirer

2:15pm: 09-Oct-2002 (3283) Zoe getting impossible news - she’s pregnant! Brian & Jack give their blessing to the teens

10:00pm: 17-Oct-2012 (6371/6372) Live 40th Anniversary - Katie & Declan’s wedding; the death of Carl King (with Cameron & CHEATER Chas) - 1 hour episode

11:00pm: 04-Aug-2015 (7252/7253) Debbie & Pete’s wedding; Chrissie’s revenge at Robert leads to the devastating helicopter crash - 1 hour episode

12:00am: 05-Aug-2015 (7254) The aftermath of the helicopter crash; final appearance for Ruby Haswell

12:30am: 06-Aug-2015 (7255) The final appearance (and wrongly killed off) of Val Pollard

**Robert appears in the episode (excludes evening airings); note, for Oct-2002, wiki shows only (4) appearances on the 7th, 11 & 28th and 29th

[ovenproofowl]

I just want to take a moment to properly appreciate Chris Chibnall for including so many previous Doctor Who actors in this episode, but specifically actors who had previously played the Doctor in Classic Who. I don't know if many people remember the press or interviews leading up to the 50th anniversary episode back in 2013, but whether it was a running joke or not many Doctor Who actors expressed a level of resentment that they weren't actively asked to play a role in that special. It just makes me so happy to see those same actors now included in such an important episode of Doctor Who and that they were properly able to reprise their roles and even engage with past companions.

[onlydylanobrien]

Saturday Night Premiere at TIFF 2024

SATURDAY NIGHT

Jason Reitman CANADIAN PREMIERE United States of America | 2024 | 109m | English

Director Jason Reitman captures the frenzied lead-up to the very first episode of Saturday Night Live as a motley bunch of then-unknown and untrained young comedians prepare to step into a revolutionary spotlight that will change history and make them all stars. It’s the mid-1970s, and a flipbook of Watergate, Vietnam, and rising counterculture make everything old in America feel broken, and everything new feel scary as hell. And now, yet another certainty is about to crack. Because in 90 minutes’ time, live, from New York, it’s Saturday Night.

SATURDAY NIGHT dives headfirst into the frenzied hour-and-a-half before a clutch of unknown, untrained, unruly young comedians took over network television and transformed the culture. Saturday Night Live would go on to become the late-night institution that brought John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, and later Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, and others to our screens. But tonight, it’s barely contained madness backstage, with Canadian Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle, The Fabelmans, TIFF ’22) desperately trying to channel the chaos towards a vision even he’s not sure of.

On the eve of SNL’s 50th anniversary, it’s a particular pleasure to watch how unlikely it all was at the beginning. Chevy Chase honing the frat boy charm that would make him a movie star. Garrett Morris saying America’s racial quiet part out loud. Belushi a bundle of Id in the corner. Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, and Gilda Radner holding their own against a tide of comedy testosterone.

Director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air, Ghostbusters: Afterlife) has made certified classics, but he’s never made a film like this. Fuelled by the same anarchic energy that drove the show to air, he orchestrates this tour de force as a glorious circus of talent, ambition, and appetite for risk, with the clock ticking down to showtime.

CAMERON BAILEY

Content advisory: drug use, coarse language

Showtimes

Get Tickets here

Time Zone: CEST Time zone based on your browser time

Tuesday, September 10 Royal Alexandra Theatre Premium 11:00 PM

Wednesday, September 11 Scotiabank Theatre Toronto Press & Industry 3:15 PM

Wednesday, September 11 Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre Premium 9:00 PM

Friday, September 13 Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre 9:00 PM

Saturday, September 14 Scotiabank Theatre Toronto 3:00 PM

[satureja13]

The Boys got up early. Today is Ji Ho's first Therapy Game session. Ji Ho still supports Jack with his yoga and meditation practice to ease his pain and they convinced Saiwa to join them this morning. It will do him good too.

And while Jack explains the asanas to Sai, Ji Ho is lost in thought. He worries it will hurt Vlad if he marries Caleb ingame. Vlad doesn't deserve this after all he went through because of him.

Ji Ho has to talk about this before he enters the game for the first time. And so he told Sai and Jack about his worries. But Jack reassures him: "Vlad told me to tell you that whatever you do in your therapy is ok for him. Don't worry."

Saiwa: "Even though it is made up as a game, we all have to keep our end goals in mind. All of us. Always. The journey will be the reward. Whatever helps you to - safely - get your feelings back, will also help Vlad. When you're able to overcome your trauma, you will finally be able to love Vlad. And Vlad knows that. So don't hold back because of him."

Saiwa is right. All this madness has to end so Vlad and he can finally be together. Jack: "What happens in the game, stays in the game. Ok?" Haha, Jack is obviously also thinking of Lou and him ^^' Ji Ho: "Ok." But they all agreed that Vlad won't attend when Ji Ho is in his Therapy Game. For his own good.

It's still early and they decided to go for a swim before breakfast and Ji Ho's session. So Ji Ho can relax a bit.

They changed into their swim wear and when Jack turned around, Ji Ho and Saiwa couldn't believe their eyes. The rash on Jack's lower back is gone! Saiwa: "Omg Jack!"

It's still painful as hell when he's not ingame, but his whole body hurts so Jack didn't even notice since when because he doesn't see it! So does the therapy work already or is it because of his steady yoga and meditation practice or because he's apart from Kiyoshi? (Oh my, I know this so well! I try a lot of stuff which is supposed to help me with my condition and when I finally suceed on sth, I have no idea what exactly it was that helped!) He twists and turns but he can't see it ^^' Jack, the puppy chasing his own tail hahaha.

Jack: "I take this as a sign to go for it should Lou hit on me!" Of course he does...

Ji Ho and Saiwa sighed. But they also take it as a good sign: that the Therapy Game will help them. And Sai is determined to enter the game after Ji Ho is back safe and sound. They have to move on. And they'll have to return back home to the others and fix their relationships.

Saiwa and Ji Ho go back to the house to prepare breakfast. And lazy Jack stayed in the water.

Saiwa: "The last one by the house is cleaning the yoga mats!" Jack: "Hey!"

'I really want to see you Really want to be with you Really want to see you, Lord But it takes so long, my Lord

Hare Rama, Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare'

My sweet Lord - George Harrison

I had this song in my head when I edited this episode and when I looked for it on youtube, I found this short film: 'Official Music Video for George Harrison “My Sweet Lord” In celebration of the 50th anniversary of George Harrison's classic solo album, All Things Must Pass.' It starts with Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker!) and there are so many other actors I know. Plus Ringo!

From the Beginning  ~  Underwater Love ~  Latest Current Chapter: 🕹️ 'The One' from the beginning ▶️ here 📚 Previous Chapters: Chapters: 1-6 ~ 7-12 ~ 13-16 ~ 17-22 ~ 23-28

[theo-the-door]

What the first DW 60th special meant to me, a 19yo trans guy

I'm going to begin by first giving some context for things because I owe so much of who I am as a person and my plans for the future to Doctor Who. I grew up in England so naturally was exposed to Doctor who at a young age but wasn't allowed to watch it at first since my parents considered me to be too young, which was fair, they do aim to scare kids a lot which I think is great.

My first proper introduction to Doctor Who was through my year 5 teacher at school. I was very lucky to have year 5 align with the 50th anniversary since my year 5 teacher was a massive whovian. Our tables in the classroom we're labelled as different Doctor Who villains (I was on the Sontaran table). My wonderful wonderful teacher was also incredibly creative, and so we had a Doctor Who week at school and made lots of cool complex Doctor Who themed creations, including a lifesize dalek out of cardboard and gumstrip. It was awesome.

That week and that teacher got me into Doctor Who and from there I began devouring as much Doctor Who content as I could, including Doctor Who confidential. Doctor Who Confidential combined with the special features on the Harry Potter movies were the starting point to where I am now as a film student at university with the aims to be a professional actor (with far flung hopes of maybe one day being in doctor who).

Now to anyone who has been on the internet for the past couple years and has seen what JK Rowling has been doing with her place on it, you will see a point of contention there with Harry Potter and my earlier stated fact of being a trans man. Harry Potter was a big piece of my childhood but all of that has been taken away and Doctor Who has remained as somewhere that is mostly safe for me to turn to.

I say mostly due to the fact that the show, and in a more overt scene from its spin off, Torchwood, has from time to time made jest of trans people, however this was a reflection of the time in which those episodes were made, and at this stage I am used to media with trans people as the butt of the joke.

The long and short of it is that Doctor Who was a major part of my childhood, and has lead directly to where I am today as a film student. I have friends that I wouldn't have if it were not for our shared love of the show, even my first boyfriend was someone I first connected with through talking about Doctor Who.

I am now no longer a child, but not far from having been one, and the 60th anniversary has been something that I have been looking forward to greatly. When I saw that Yasmin Finney had been cast in the show for the 60th anniversary I was over the moon, but I never expected for the show to address her character being trans, especially as an integral part of the plot.

One of my favourite moments was the discussion between Donna and Sylvia about Rose in the kitchen. It was so real and accurate and well handled. I'm personally not in the same position as Rose with the acceptance from her family, but this has given me hope that things may change, that my parents will maybe start to actually deal with me being trans, and maybe even accept it.

This episode brought all of the classical style and flair and fun of Doctor Who, and addressed and celebrated something that is so integral to who I am as a person, I've been screaming about it to any and all of my friends who will listen.

This episode means so much to me because it celebrates transgender identities on an incredibly popular show, in an episode that is going to be one of the most viewed episodes of the show.

Thank you Doctor Who. Thank you for giving me hope.

[irradiatedbearchewtoy]

this is written with the intention of being accessible to people who have only watched post-2005 doctor who but who knows how that will go

i want to talk about a really cool controversial-but-not-in-the-way-where-people-are-arguing-about-if-bigotry-is-acceptable-way classic doctor who serial. if you sit until the end, you get to see a selection of alien designs from other 60s serials

if you're familiar with this story, happy humming! if you're not, hopefully you will know exactly what i mean by that very soon.

if you haven't seen classic who—or at least 60s who—before, this may not be the best serial to convince you of how exciting it is, but i'm running on no sleep, a newly released episode, caffeine, and audhd so i'm at least going to try. my apologies for the stream on consciousness; i have tried to make myself somewhat coherent...

the serial in question is the 1966 pure historical 4-parter 'the gunfighters'. pure historical here meaning set in the past with no science fiction elements.

these were standard in the first few years of the show but stopped after 'the highlanders' in late '66/early '67. there was one after that—'black orchid', in '82—but the time period was less relevant and it wasn't to do with any notable historical events or figures.

the first doctor, steven, and dodo land in tombstone, arizona because the doctor has a toothache after eating a sweet in the previous serial, 'the celestial toymaker'—a serial a lot more revival-only fans are now somewhat aware of since the toymaker's appearance in the 60th anniversary special 'the giggle'—and wants to see a dentist. steven and dodo put on awful american accents the whole time. they get caught up with doc holliday (who ends up pulling the doctor's tooth) and wyatt earp, among others.

a song called 'the ballad of the last chance saloon' plays over (almost?) every transition shot. i love it, but not everyone does; people have very strong opinions about that song. if you don't like it, this serial is a lot to swallow, as it plays over 30 times in less than 2 hours. steven is forced to sing this song at gunpoint while dodo plays the piano. i wanted to just insert a still of that but i think some of you who wont watch the serial or search out clips need to see it.

speaking of the gunpoint thing, there's a good chunk of violence in this one. people get shot with actual non-laser guns and someone almost gets hanged, noose around the neck and all. this isn't abnormal for 60s who. before colour came into the picture, the doctor used to whack people around all the time. a personal favourite of mine is in 'the highlanders' when the second doctor beats up a lawyer, gags him, and locks him in a closet. even in the very first serial, 'an unearthly child', a guy is stoned to death on-screen.

'the ballad of the last chance saloon' has been released officially, most widely when it was released on streaming platforms in 2013 as part of a 50th anniversary album. that version was pulled from streaming a while ago, leaving a very sad gap in many of my playlists. even before removal, that version was cut down from the full 10:34 to 3:51!! which is probably a good thing, because that track can be a powerful weapon against the right target. here is the full version, for your listening pleasure.

on top of it just being a fun story that sticks in people's minds because of the music, there are some cool notable production/show lore moments linked to the serial. yes, you can find these all on tardis wiki, shh

doc holliday's actor, anthony jacobs, brought his 10-year-old son to set, as a treat for his birthday (the birthday detail is mentioned in this ABC radio interview from 2022). that son was named matthew jacobs and went on to write the 1996 tv film starring paul mcgann as the eighth doctor.

it was the only (on-screen) story to take place fully in the united states of america until... the tv film!

it marked the last serial for every episode to have its own name. after this, episodes are simply numbered. there are some exceptions later on in the show, but this was the end of the standard practice.

it hosts the only episode title in classic, 'a holiday for the Doctor', to refer to the character of the Doctor as such instead of Doctor Who

was this a big pile of nothing? maybe? but here are your 60s alien photos, as promised. all photos are from the tragical history tour collection! x x

finally, this is an open invitation to reblog adding as much as you wish about the gunfighters or any other classic/wilderness stories that you want to talk about. my only request is that you make it an unhinged as possible. ik that's tall talk considered this post and episode aren't notably unhinged but just go with it, okay?

i kind of want to do a bunch of these just rambling about classic stories to try and get people to actually watch it but i'm not committing to that so. we'll see.

[adiarosefandoms]

2023 Halloween Watch List

It's September, which means it's time to start diving into the Halloween season (no it's not too early). Spirit stores have opened, leaves have started changing colors, and the sweaters are being pulled out of closets. There are some annual classics that you just have to watch every Halloween season. But along with that comes the fact that 2023 is a year filled with Halloween anniversaries. For instance, this is the 85th anniversary of the Addams Family creation (the comic strip in the New Yorker), the 90th anniversary of Universal Monsters 'The Invisible Man', and the 80th anniversary of Universals 'The Phantom of the Opera' colored version. Better to start early than late, so tomorrow I begin with Practical Magic, I've already been reading Bram Stokers Dracula, and the music is coming soon enough.

TBW:

Practical Magic (1995)

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988) [35th anniversary]

Hocus Pocus (1993)

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (1966)

Heathers (1988) [25th anniversary]

Corpse Bride (2005)

Coraline (2009)

Beetlejuice (1988)

Halloween (1978) [45th anniversary]

The Exorcist (1973) [50th anniversary]

In between these will also be episodes of Supernatural, The Addams Family (1964), and perhaps I'll even start Hannibal (it's also Hannibal's tenth anniversary this year).

[denimbex1986]

'One character who is back to play a key role in Doctor Who's 60th anniversary special The Giggle – and beyond – is Kate Stewart.

The third instalment reuniting David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor with Catherine Tate as Donna Noble continues from the cliffhanger ending of Wild Blue Yonder that even saw a cameo from the late Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott.

The official synopsis for the episode reads: "The giggle of a mysterious puppet is driving the human race insane. When the Doctor discovers the return of the terrifying Toymaker, he faces a fight he can never win."

Kate Stewart returns to aid The Doctor against the all-powerful Toymaker, played by Neil Patrick Harris.

So who is Kate Stewart and the actor Jemma Redgrave who portrays her?

Who is Kate Stewart in Doctor Who?

Kate Stewart, born Katherine Lethbridge-Stewart, is the Chief Scientific Officer and Head of UNIT and an ally of The Doctor.

The character is also the daughter of the long-running recurring ally to The Doctor, Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart (Nicholas Courtney), a much-loved character from the classic series.

Kate made her debut in the 2012 story The Power of Three, opposite Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor.

The character returned in the 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor in 2013 before becoming a recurring character in the era of the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi), appearing in the episodes Death in Heaven, The Magician's Apprentice, The Zygon Invasion, and The Zygon Inversion.

Stewart made a comeback as part of the Flux season in 2021 in the episodes Survivors of the Flux and The Vanquishers, opposite Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor.

The following year, Stewart appeared as an ally of The Doctor in the centenary special The Power of the Doctor, which also served as the final episode of the Thirteenth Doctor.

The character returns to aid the Fourteenth Doctor in the 60th anniversary special The Giggle and will be a recurring character in the first season to star Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor...

Outside of her role as Kate Stewart, Jemma Redgrave is known for her parts as Major Berenice Wolfe in Holby City, and Amelia in Grantchester, as well as parts in Bramwell, Cold Blood, Judge John Deed, and Waking the Dead.'

[doctornolonger]

misc Big Announcement thoughts, take 2:

"upcoming seasons" – for now, the rest of New Who will remain on HBO Max. Disney wouldn't be interested in the show if prior series were required viewing, so this basically confirms that RTD will be going for a full "soft reboot" with Gatwa after (via?) the 14th Doctor specials.

Will this mean new episodes become available in the US right after they finish airing on BBC 1, like how iPlayer works now? As sad as it may be to see BBC America consigned to 24/7 reruns, I won't miss the ads very much.

RIP to my Irish friends tho. Shafted again.

This year BBC sold its share of BritBox to ITV, who will be folding it into their new ITVX platform next month. So the Classic Who distribution rights will probably be up for grabs at the end of this year. Odds that Disney+ snaps them up? Would be nice to stream all of Classic and New Who in the same place – would much rather it be anywhere but Disney+ though!

Come to think of it, between Classic and New Who, Torchwood and Class, Sarah Jane and even the K9 series that used to air on Disney XD … even without anything new, there's already enough to justify a new tile on the Disney+ homepage. A realistic mockup from Gerard Groves on Twitter:

This begs the question: what would we see in the MCUfication of Who – the WhoCU, if you will? Educated guesses below the cut:

Because of Chibnall's switch from Christmas to New Year's, Daleks didn't appear on TV in 2018, and it led to the first year that the Nation estate made less from Dalek merchandise than they had before the revival. This triggered a clause in Tim Hancock's original deal – which both sides were still holding to, even though it technically expired in the move to BBC Worldwide – so I've heard that the estate started shopping the Daleks around to other studios. (Hancock also recently resigned.) Rumour has it that Disney bought ~30% of the rights in a silent auction. BBC still owns the designs from the TV show, but after 2023 they wouldn't be able to call them "Daleks" anymore – the "drones" were introduced in Revolution as a workaround. This has probably changed with RTD's emergency return and this Disney+ deal, but the fact remains that Disney can use redesigned Daleks with or without RTD's permission.

We might also get shot-for-shot recreations of missing episodes with new actors! According to people I trust – and many thanks to [redacted] for inspiring most or all of these bullet points – the BBC received film print copies of "Marco Polo" from a private collector in 2013, but they're so damaged they're basically unwatchable. Following UKTV's success with Dad's Army in 2018, BritBox had been talking about reshooting "Marco Polo" for the 60th anniversary, like An Adventure in Space and Time had been for the 50th. (It's mostly a single set, after all.) This would be a test run for a more ambitious First Doctor revival. Animation is not the future for our "missing" episodes…

Or maybe as Gerard visualized, McGann will get another shot – he looked pretty good in The Power of the Doctor, didn't he? According to one of the same sources for the spot-on Centenary leaks, BBC Studios looked into doing a live-action Eighth Doctor miniseries after the big hit that was "The Night of the Doctor", but management changed and ordered Class instead. I love Class and all, but … what a missed opportunity!

Is MCUfication a good idea? I have very mixed feelings. As Neo from WhoCares remarked, after so many years of ambling, the franchise being steered in a new direction so purposefully is uncomfortable and kind of scary. But this won't be RTD's first time reinventing Who. In the end I have to trust that we're in capable hands!

[fivzen]

You know, I think Day of the Doctor is pretty good. Unsure of the 50th anniversary celebration part of it (All Thirteen ft Peter Capaldi I love you) but like as a long special feature episode of Doctor Who (especially one that was in theaters, and you can tell from the effects that are very blatantly IM IN 3D LOOK AT ME) but it is genuinely good.

Sir John Hurt, rest in peace, was an incredible addition to the doctor line up (canon messing aside, that I don't really mind since classic who didn't really care about canon all that much anyways from my understanding), and seeing Tennant and Smith interact was obviously incredible.

And the Time War stuff, while disappointing in some aspects (some descriptions of the Time War state that they were essentially firing Galaxies and Universes at each other) I actually don't mind much that there was barely any Dalek content within it (and I like the Zygons as the antagonistic force in this, even if they aren't the Driving force).

I think a big part of my enjoyment comes from how, even if it isn't a big celebration of all that is Doctor Who (I'm sure Big Finish has plenty of that if it's what you're looking for) it is a good celebration of what makes The Doctor, well, The Doctor. Never cruel, nor cowardly. Never give up, never give in. A person who fights, regrets, forgets, forgives, and always tries to find a way to solve a problem. An optimist, even when the incarnation is grumpy, because that's just who they are. Someone who keeps running, because there's always something to run Towards.

[raisinchallah]

you know something i find really fascinating is the continual insistence by doctor who fans that like each era should roll out the red carpet and give their flowers and cheers applause and all that to the previous eras and just be all very nice and whatever and pay your dues and its like surely you realize the length and breadth of this show is so large thats just like impossible and antithetical to the entire conceit that its a show that has survived because of radical change and being so different nobody can actually like every part or style it tries idk i was musing on this while watching silence in the library/forest of the dead and my various davison era adventures which i think both those eras are in some ways like anomalies that the transition between the rtd era and moffat era was extremely smooth series 4 and 5 are both high points of the show moffat wrote beloved rtd era episodes and they even let him introduce river before his run properly started creating this bridge between times and that in a lot of ways 80s who is probably the most accessible to new fans trying to get into the classic era who also want to feel like theyre idk really in the weeds its quite self referential and became when more and more fans were writing for the show idk that both these periods people seem to latch onto are in many ways anomalies in the grander arc of the whole show but people really want it to keep working like that and to not shake things up and to like meticulously back reference your favorite obscure monster or whatever idk i think especially funny this argument is often taken up by chibnall fans who think u just gotta be sooooo respectful and uncritical when like he literally undid the entire huge multi season push 50th anniversary thing to bring back gallifrey and did the entire timeless child thing lol like please have some consistency my god..

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Thoughts on the DW 60th announcements

I’ll leave it up to the individual reader to judge if there’s any significance to there being so little notice paid to the release this weekend of a trailer for the upcoming Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials that confirmed the titles of the three one-hour programs what will see David Tennant and Catherine Tate reunited. (Apparently they presented at today’s BAFTAs too by the way). The media has noted it, but social media-wise I’ve seen very little (I’m the first among anyone in my group of followers to post about it, anyway). Just compare to the amount of buzz the 50th anniversary shows had.

Here’s the trailer.

The titles, for those interested are The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder and The Giggle (which is anticipated to be the final story of the brief Fourteenth Doctor era before he hands off to Fifteen).

A few thoughts on what I’ve seen and heard so far:

The trailer gives us the first proper look at Rose, the mysteriously named short-term companion for these specials, along with the first good look we’ve had of Beep the Meep, as it is comfirmed that Star Beast is an adaptation of the Tom Baker-era comic strip from Doctor Who Weekly (it wasn’t even Magazine yet!). Beep has been recurring character in the DWM comics over the decades (even appearing in a couple of Big Finish audios) but watching the scene they choose to include in the trailer, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Russell T Davies is hoping to launch the Doctor Who equivalent of The Mandalorian’s Baby Yoda/Grogu. I mean, seriously.

We get a glimpse of Neil Patrick Harris’ mysterious character. Many online are thinking he’s playing an update of the Harnell-era villain the Toymaker. I’m not using the full name because the first part of the name is considered racist these days ... which is one reason why I doubt NPH is playing him. The second is RTD didn’t create the Toymaker and there’s been no word of, say, a reissue of the original storyline on DVD or Blu-ray or the Target novelisation. A much more likely candidate is The Trickster, a recurring villain RTD created for the classic Donna episode Turn Left and a couple of Sarah Jane Adventures stories. Sure, NPH’s tuxedo-clad dancer is far removed from the wraith-like creature from the earlier episodes, but this show has some experience with characters changing appearance (which would have to happen with the Toymaker anyway since Michael Gough has been gone for about 20 years). I also argue this because the Trickster is tied to Donna’s character arc and has the ability to alter timelines in such a way that might have resulted in Tennant returning, for example. Another possibility is he’s The Shopkeeper, a mysterious and possibly benign (or not) character featured in The Sarah Jane Adventures and heavily implied to be a Time Lord. His story arc was left incomplete because SJA ended after Lis Sladen died so it’s a bit of unfinished business for RTD. But there is no canonical story in which the Shopkeeper and Doctor ever met before this, so I say this is unlikely.

Now we come to the Judoon in the room: I’m posting about them, am I even planning to watch the things? I’ll lay it out - I don’t know.

[yeonchi]

Doctor Who 10 for 10 Part 8/10: Series 8

After Series 5 and 6 established a status quo for the Matt Smith era, Series 7 saw it being shaken up in numerous ways. With Peter Capaldi becoming the new Doctor following Smith’s departure, Series 8 would establish a new status quo in a darker, yet down-to-earth series compared to previous ones as the production team prepared to ride the waves from the 50th Anniversary. While there was no split series like there was in Series 6 and 7, the series wouldn’t start until August. Since fans had gotten used to this autumn start thanks to the split series, they didn’t seem to mind that the usual Doctor Who schedule for the year had been broken. In addition, the definition of “13 episodes” was changed to mean “12 episodes and a Christmas Special”, not that it was much of a problem for fans including myself.

Although 2014 was the year I intended to wind down and focus on my high school studies, various circumstances, such as the aftermath of the 50th Anniversary year, led to me deciding to keep the fires burning for another year, and so I decided to keep Doctor Who going in my personal project for two more series, the latter of which would “premiere” at the same time as the premiere of the BBC Series 8. So let’s jump into the retrospective for Series 8 and relive the experience of riding the wave from the 50th Anniversary just as the production team and fandom did.

1. The World Tour and live events

Peter Capaldi was revealed to the world as the Twelfth Doctor in a live event special hosted by Zoe Ball on 4 August 2013. Matt Smith did not participate in the live event, but he was interviewed for it along with a few other special guests. This would later be followed up with another live event special on 23 November following the broadcast of The Day of the Doctor, which infamously featured a crossover with the boy band One Direction (more like Louis and Niall), who were also doing their own live event, 1D Day, in Los Angeles to promote their new album, and were having technical difficulties that impacted their crossover with the Doctor Who event, not to mention the fact that despite Zoe Ball’s claims, they hadn’t watched The Day of the Doctor, let alone the series, so their clearly prepared questions were apparently inappropriate to the occasion.

Said event also featured actors who played Doctors and companions in the classic series and their treatment was regarded as disrespectful, particularly the infamous moment when Rick Edwards accidentally sat on Katy Manning and crudely tried to cover it up, which would probably be considered sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era.

After completing their filming on the series in August 2014, before the premiere of Series 8, Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman and Steven Moffat embarked on a world tour to promote the upcoming series in Cardiff, London, Seoul, Sydney, New York, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. I don’t recall the Chibnall era doing anything like this; heck, even Jodie Whittaker’s reveal in 2017 was just a minute-long minisode with a teaser that was just as long, and it was broadcast during Wimbledon. This shows that the Moffat era did better with marketing and promotion compared to the Chibnall era (the RTD era fitting in between them).

2. Humble returns

As is obvious, Jenna Coleman would reprise her role as Clara Oswald for Series 8, her character now a teacher at Coal Hill School to commemorate the 50th Anniversary. Peter Capaldi’s first episode, Deep Breath, also featured the return of the Paternoster Gang for what would be their final on-screen appearance. The Clockwork Droids make a return following their debut eight years prior in Series 2’s The Girl in the Fireplace, being assigned as the crew of a sister ship to the one that appeared in said episode, though the Doctor doesn’t seem to remember them.

The episode starts off with a female dinosaur in the middle of the Thames during the 1890s. The dinosaur coughs up the TARDIS, which had been swallowed by her when it crashed in prehistoric Earth. The Doctor and Clara came out of the TARDIS and the former was taken back to the Paternoster Gang’s home when he collapsed due to his post-regenerative trauma. Later that night, the Doctor hears the dinosaur in pain and heads outside to promise that he will take her home, only to see her spontaneously combust. Both the Doctor and the Paternoster Gang rush to the Thames, where the Doctor points out that the point, in regards to what the important question is they should be asking, isn’t actually who could have done this, let alone how; the point is actually if there have been any similar murders. The Doctor jumps into the Thames as he takes up the case, which leads the Paternoster Gang to do so as well.

The next morning, the Doctor stumbles into an alley, wondering and ranting to a nearby tramp why he has the face he has. He then notices a newspaper with an article about spontaneous combustion and takes the tramp’s coat in exchange for his favourite watch. Meanwhile, Clara sees a notice addressed to the “Impossible Girl” in a newspaper and deduces that the Doctor wants to meet her at Mancini’s Family Restaurant. Clara heads there and is met by the Doctor, who had also noticed the notice, but didn’t place it himself. As they argue over who could have placed the notice, the Doctor and Clara were brought down to the Clockwork Droids’ ship, where they saw the Half-Face Man recharging itself; the Clockwork Droids had been harvesting the flesh and organs from humans as they rotted and combusted the bodies to hide the evidence of mutilation.

As the Doctor and Clara are separated, Clara gets the idea to hold her breath so that the Droids won’t notice her breathing, but she eventually passes out and is brought in front of the Half-Face Man. By using her experiences from her first days as a teacher, Clara manages to elicit information about the Droids’ intentions to reach the Promised Land before the Doctor rejoins her, having changed his clothes. The Doctor questions the Half-Face Man as to why he put the message in the newspaper to bring him and Clara to the restaurant, only to realise that he didn’t do it.

The Paternoster Gang are summoned to fight the Droids in the ship. The Half-Face Man heads back up to the restaurant, which is actually an escape pod, with the Doctor following. As the Doctor confronts the Half-Face Man, convincing him that there is no Promised Land and that he has replaced every single part of himself to the point where there is no trace of his original self. Down in the ship, the Paternoster Gang and Clara struggle against the other Droids until Clara tells them all to hold their breaths. Despite their best efforts (and Vastra sharing her oxygen with Jenny by way of a kiss), they are unable to hold on further when Vastra stops Strax from killing himself. It is then that all the Droids suddenly deactivate, the Half-Face Man being impaled on top of a clock tower. Whether the Doctor pushed him or the Half-Face Man jumped is open to interpretation, though if I had to say, I would have to say that the Doctor drove the Half-Face Man to jump, giving us a glimpse of the darker Doctor and darker storylines the Capaldi era had to offer.

Clara heads back to the present day with the Doctor, now with the mystery of the woman in the shop brought to the forefront from the notice in the newspaper as the Doctor surmises that there is a woman who is very keen that they stay together. Clara gets a call from the Eleventh Doctor, calling her from Trenzalore just before his regeneration finished, to tell her that his new incarnation will need her more than she can imagine.

Meanwhile, the Half-Face Man finds himself in a garden, where he is met by Missy, who tells him that he has made it to the Promised Land. More on her later.

Deep Breath is an extended episode that manages to bridge the Capaldi era with the Smith era while still giving fans a glimpse of the darker storyline to come. Matt Smith’s cameo was filmed towards the end of the filming for The Time of the Doctor, solidifying the episode’s status as a bridging episode between the two eras. Like The Day of the Doctor before it, Deep Breath also received a cinematic release, coupled with a Paternoster Gang prequel that was really Strax describing the previous Doctors; the Doctor Who Extra instalment for the episode (to replace Doctor Who Confidential); and for UK screenings on 23 August 2014, there was also a live Q&A hosted by Zoe Ball.

3. The Capaldi title sequence

The title sequence for the Capaldi era episodes was designed by Billy Hanshaw, aka billydakiduk on YouTube. He was scouted by Steven Moffat after seeing his original concept title sequence from September 2013 and decided to refine the idea for the new title sequence. The final product was a complete subversion of the usual Time Vortex sequence as the camera goes through some clockwork, a spiral of Roman clock face numbers and through some circling planets. Whatever “Time Vortex” was shown towards the end was not shown at any point in the Capaldi era - even the Time Vortex used in Twice Upon A Time was completely different. The titles also showed the Doctor’s eyes in a throwback to his debut cameo instead of his face as was done during Series 7 Part 2.

Some episodes saw variations to the opening sequence, such as Before the Flood having a rock version of the theme, Heaven Sent only having Peter Capaldi being credited, or the 2014 and 2015 Christmas Specials having Chrismassy flairs to them; this was omitted for the 2016 and 2017 Christmas Specials.

For some reason, the production team managed to screw up the consistency of the title sequence; at least 10 of the Capaldi era’s 40 episodes had titles that were out of sync with the theme music, most notoriously seen in Face the Raven that had the titles run five seconds ahead of the music. At the same time, fans also noticed inconsistencies in the formatting of the episode title and writer credits, which is honestly baffling as I wonder if no template was used or if no quality control was taken.

For the Series 8 and 9 of Doctor Who in my personal project, I opted to use two of NeonVisual’s title sequences from 2013 which were clearly inspired from the Series 7 Part 2 title sequence. Do you think they would have worked better had the BBC hired NeonVisual instead? Feel free to let me know.

4. A Good Dalek

Into the Dalek has the Doctor discover a Dalek that had turned good. In going inside the Dalek’s casing in an attempt to repair it, during which it was discovered that the Dalek turning good was caused by damage to his power source, the Doctor accidentally reverted Rusty, the name he gave the Dalek, to its original programming.

The Doctor is seemingly proven right that there can be no such thing as a good Dalek, but Clara convinces him that this isn’t what they learnt, and so the Doctor has Clara and the rest of the crew find the memory that made the Dalek turn good which he goes face-to-eye with Rusty. In doing so, Rusty managed to tap into the Doctor’s hatred for the Daleks, causing him to turn on the Daleks and unwittingly save the crew of the Aristotle. This disappoints the Doctor as this outcome was not what he was trying to get Rusty to see.

This episode starts a story arc where the Doctor begins to question whether he is a good man after everything he has been through following the Time War. It may seem a bit hard to tell given the Doctor’s abrasiveness throughout the series, but the Doctor manages to work it out for himself in the end.

5. The mysteries that befall us

Listen is a surreal episode that asks whether people are truly alone when they are alone while also setting up some mysteries that are left answered. After coming home from a disastrous date with Danny Pink (we’ll talk about him next), Clara is picked up by the Doctor, who immediately begins to explore his hypotheses with her, that at one point, everyone has dreamt about someone grabbing their ankle from under the bed while they are alone in their bedrooms. The Doctor connects Clara to the TARDIS telepathic circuits and tries to get her to focus on the time she had the dream, only to end up at a children’s home in mid-90’s Gloucester.

At the children’s home, eerie things happen to the night manager, which is revealed to have been the Doctor stealing his coffee, and Clara meets a boy named Rupert Pink, which she deduces is actually a younger Danny. During this encounter, a figure emerges under the blanket of Rupert’s bed and the Doctor gets the idea to have Rupert and Clara turn their backs to it, allowing it to leave without revealing itself to them. The Doctor poses a theory that it could have been one of Rupert’s friends playing a prank on him, or it actually isn’t. Some fans pose a theory that it was a Floof, a monster with uncanny hiding abilities that cause mischief, from one of Steven Moffat’s short stories written in 2006, but Moffat claims that he doesn’t remember writing it. I choose to believe there actually was a creature under there because for it to actually just be one of Rupert’s friends would be anti-climatic. After Clara puts some toy soldiers under Rupert’s bed to guard him, with one of the soldiers not having a gun which Rupert calls Dan the soldier man, the Doctor then wipes Rupert’s brain of the encounter, leaving him with a dream about him becoming Dan the soldier man.

Clara has the Doctor return her to her date with Danny, but is then called away by a spaceman, which leads Danny to leave. Clara follows the spaceman into the TARDIS and the spaceman is revealed to be Colonel Orson Pink from a hundred years in the future; strangely, Orson doesn’t have any old family photographs of Clara. The Doctor had activated the TARDIS telepathic circuits and it brought him to where Orson was at the end of the universe when he was only supposed to go a week into the future; he was stranded there for six months. When the Doctor travels back to the end of the universe, he and Clara discover that Orson was apparently being threatened by unknown creatures, given how he had to remind himself not to open the door to the capsule. Clara discovers that Orson has a toy of Dan the soldier man, with him saying that it is a family heirloom passed down for good luck.

The Doctor decides to wait for whatever is lurking outside the capsule at night; when strange things begin happening, the Doctor has Clara go back into the TARDIS while he uses his sonic screwdriver to unlock the door. When the air shell is breached, causing all the air to be sucked out and potentially the Doctor with it, Orson rescues the Doctor and brings him back to the TARDIS before Clara uses the telepathic circuits to leave.

The TARDIS lands in a barn and Clara heads out. She sees a crying child under a blanket in a bed, but is forced to hide under it when two people come into the barn. Through their conversation, Clara realises that she has gone back to Gallifrey during the Doctor’s childhood. Once the two people leave, the Doctor regains consciousness inside the TARDIS. The boy, the child Doctor, hears the Doctor and gets up, only for Clara to grab his ankle, resulting in her creating the nightmare the Doctor was investigating in the first place. Clara tells the child Doctor about how fear is a superpower and how he will return to the barn on a day when he will be very afraid, referring to the day when the War Doctor arrived at the barn to detonate the Moment. After leaving Dan the soldier man to stand guard under the child Doctor’s bed, Clara returns to the TARDIS and has the Doctor promise her to never find out where they just were before returning Orson back to his time and taking Clara home.

We’ve theorised who the monster was in Rupert’s bed, so who was the monster apparently terrorising Orson at the end of the universe? My theory for what the planet is, based on other people’s theories and what we would see later on, is that it is a dying Gallifrey at the end of everything. As for the monsters? A Big Finish audio speculates that it was River Song and Jack Harkness playing a prank on Orson and that the planet he was on was actually Gallifrey, but personally, it could be another Floof for all I care.

Listen may be an unsatisfying episode in terms of mystery, but it is still kind of satisfying in that it gives the Doctor good character development while also giving Clara another chance to be the Impossible Girl. The Doctor and Clara heading into Danny’s past as Rupert might have brought up some bad vibes I got from the Impossible Girl arc, but they only went to one point and the Doctor scrambled Rupert’s mind at the end, so it’s kind of okay where that’s concerned. Admittedly, the Doctor’s character development in this episode lost its poignancy when the Timeless Child revelation came out, but it’s still an alright episode nonetheless.

6. PE

This section is funnily ironic to me because at high school, I actually had a teacher (or two) who taught PE and maths.

Series 8 introduces a new love interest for Clara in the name of Danny Pink, played by Samuel Anderson, to divert Clara’s focus from the Doctor and to make the Twelfth Doctor less of a romantic compared to previous incarnations during the revived series. Danny was a soldier in the army who served as a sergeant in the Middle East before leaving after having a “bad day”. He became a maths teacher at Coal Hill School and set up the Coal Hill Cadets to teach students the disciplines and morals of a soldier. Danny was introduced to Clara and after some awkwardness and “family stuff”, they go on their first date in Listen, which goes about as well as you would expect. In trying to hide her travels with the Doctor, Danny got defensive and asked Clara to tell the truth before having enough and deciding to leave. However, Clara reconciles with Danny at the end of the episode.

Two episodes later in The Caretaker, Clara is shown struggling to balance her real life with her Doctor life and things go from bad to worse for her when the Doctor decides to go deep cover at Coal Hill as a caretaker in order to track down a Skovox Blitzer. When the Doctor is introduced to Danny, the Doctor immediately assumes he is a PE teacher based on his history as a soldier. The Doctor then sees Clara with another teacher named Adrian and is happy for her, assuming that Adrian is the boyfriend Clara has been talking about due to the resemblance to his previous incarnation.

That night, as the Doctor lays a trap for the Skovox Blitzer and prepares to lure it in, Danny sees the chronodyne generators placed around the school and moves them, resulting in the Skovox Blitzer being transported two days forward instead of billions of years. Danny discovers Clara’s familiarity with the Doctor and Clara tells him about her adventures with the Doctor.

On parents’ evening, Clara uses an invisibility watch to sneak Danny onto the TARDIS, but the Doctor is able to detect him, which results in the two having an argument during which Danny calls the Doctor an officer in contrast to him being a former soldier. Later, during the interviews, the Skovox Blitzer returns and the Doctor has Clara distract it while he gets a contingency plan ready. Clara manages to lure it to where the Doctor is; the Doctor impersonates its superior and tries to get it to shut itself down, but he forgot to enter the final input code and the Skovox Blitzer begins to self-destruct. It is then that Danny comes in, using the invisibility watch to buy the Doctor a few more seconds. The Doctor successfully gets the Skovox Blitzer to shut down before setting it adrift in space.

Looking back, I have mixed feelings about Danny. His demands for Clara to tell him the truth about her travels with the Doctor kind of seem controlling, particularly since they hadn’t been dating for long, but I kind of like how he calls out the soldier-officer dynamic with the Doctor, in that the officers push their soldiers and make them stronger until they find themselves doing things they never thought they would have to do. In the end, there really isn’t much to Danny other than he was a soldier who left on a bad day and the Doctor doesn’t respect him because he doesn’t respect soldiers. I really think Moffat could have done more with Danny because it felt like the only reason he was there was so we could have a “love triangle” of sorts.

On a side note, The Caretaker would be Gareth Roberts’ final work on the series. The transphobia thing wouldn’t come until three years later (so your opinions regarding it, whether you agree or disagree with him on the whole thing, are irrelevant to this paragraph), but apparently Roberts came into conflict with the production team on set, then made public comments denigrating Moffat and Capaldi, thus he was not rehired for future series. This probably might be a rumour so you don’t have to take it that seriously.

7. Coal Hill School

Following its return in The Day of the Doctor for the 50th Anniversary, Coal Hill School plays a significant role in Series 8, further showing that Capaldi’s first series as the Doctor is a more down-to-earth one. Clara is now a teacher at the school, where it and its students are shown prominently at various points throughout the series.

Coal Hill School was first shown in An Unearthly Child as the school where the Doctor’s granddaughter, Susan Foreman, attended and her teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, taught science and history respectively. The school would not return again until Remembrance of the Daleks in 1988 for the 25th Anniversary season. Sadly, Coal Hill School would only make a brief appearance at the start of Series 9 before it was never shown or mentioned again.

In October 2016, a spinoff named Class premiered on BBC Three (which had become a streaming-exclusive channel by then) which prominently featured Coal Hill School and was written by Patrick Ness. The school was shown to be renovated since its last appearance at the start of Series 9. The Doctor also made a short appearance in the spinoff’s first episode and there were rumours that the 2016 Christmas Special was to be a crossover, but it ultimately never eventuated and Class was never renewed for another series.

To restate my own words from my review of Village of the Angels, I felt that the series was okay, but if it wasn’t cancelled, I probably would have liked it more. Personally, the “renovation” of Coal Hill School was a waste of time given what transpired and there is no way a whole school can be rebuilt in under a year without significant interruptions. I’ve seen individual buildings being built during my time in school, but not every building. The finale also teased something epic involving the Weeping Angels, but we never get to see what happened due to the cancellation of the series. Frankly, it’d be better if we just pretended that the series never existed and Coal Hill School was never renovated.

I know Class premiered between Series 9 and 10, but I thought I’d talk about it now and get it over with so I don’t have to later.

8. Out of line?

Midway through the series, the Doctor and Clara have a falling out because of something the Doctor did. While I didn’t think much of it when I first watched it, I would have to argue that after rewatching it recently, the Doctor was being out of line.

Kill the Moon begins with Clara asking the Doctor to tell Courtney Woods that she is special after he told her that she wasn’t, which leads to the Doctor offering to make Courtney the first woman on the moon. The three of them head to the moon in 2049 where they find a hundred nuclear bombs in a recycled space shuttle. It is then that they realise that they are actually on their way to the moon and upon landing, they are met by a crew led by Captain Lundvik, who have come to destroy the moon as its increased mass is causing chaos on Earth with high tides everywhere at once and satellites being whacked out of orbit.

As the group investigates, the Doctor learns that the moon is actually an egg for some creature and that it is about to hatch, which is causing the moon to gain mass. Lundvik is intent on killing it, but Clara and Courtney are against killing it. It is at this point that the Doctor decides to leave and let the three remaining females make the decision that will decide the future of humanity, which angers Clara. When ground control makes contact with the three, Clara decides to make a broadcast to humanity, giving them 45 minutes to decide if they should kill the creature or let it live. Humanity votes to kill the creature, but just at the last moment, Clara defies public opinion and stops the detonation. It is then that the Doctor returns to pick them up and take them back to Earth, where they see the creature hatching and laying a new egg.

Once Lundvik and Courtney have left the TARDIS, Clara becomes angry at the Doctor because she had to make a pivotal decision for humanity’s future and the Doctor knew what would happen, yet still lied to her and left her to decide. And honestly, I kind of have to agree with Clara berating the Doctor at the end, because Earth might as well be his home if he spends so much time there and his actual home planet is destroyed. Also, as crass as he may be, it’s not in the Doctor’s nature to run away in a crisis involving an entire planet. Pompeii may be one city and its destruction a fixed point in time, but this is the future we are talking about and it’s not just one city, it’s an entire planet he spends a lot of time on, so the least the Doctor could do was be there for Clara and guide her to make the right decision.

Clara meets with Danny and she tells him what happened, but Danny tells her to finish things with the Doctor when she is no longer angry with him. The Doctor and Clara decide to have one last hurrah and we move onto Mummy on the Orient Express, a double-banked companion-lite episode produced alongside the Doctor-lite episode Flatline, which would premiere the following week.

Running off a throwaway line from the end of The Big Bang, the Doctor and Clara board a space train known as the Orient Express, or rather a replica of it. As some people are killed by a mummy that only they could see, giving them 66 seconds before they would die, the Doctor is separated from Clara, who is with a passenger named Maisie, and learns that the train is a front for an investigation into the mummy, known as the Foretold, led by an evil computer known as Gus. Several more people die as the Doctor tries to work out what the Foretold is, then when Maisie was the next person to be targeted, Clara reunites with the Doctor and he tells her that Gus had tried to lure him onto the TARDIS before, meaning that he lied to her again and that he made her lie to get Maisie to where the Doctor was.

The Foretold appears to Maisie and the Doctor uses some equipment to make himself the target instead. In the ensuing 66 seconds, the Doctor manages to deduce that the Foretold is actually an ancient soldier, wounded in battle and augmented with equipment that wouldn’t let him die until the war was over. At the end of the 66 seconds, the Doctor surrenders to the Foretold. Everyone is suddenly able to see it as it disintegrates into dust. With the mystery now solved, Gus removes the air from the train, but the Doctor uses the Foretold’s teleporter to teleport everyone away, however when he tried to hack Gus from the TARDIS to find out who was behind it, it triggered a failsafe that blew up the train.

In the end, Clara gains a better understanding of the Doctor and decides to lie to Danny about leaving him while also deciding to stay with the Doctor. This is the turning point where Clara is pushed to become more like the Doctor, with Flatline forcing Clara to essentially be him when the TARDIS gets shrunken with the Doctor still inside. It’s an okay resolution to their conflict, but I don’t think it should have happened in the first place.

9. What is death?

Teasers of Missy and the Nethersphere, also known as the Promised Land, are scattered throughout the series. When I started watching the series, I was expecting at least one character to die in every episode and be sent to the Neversphere, but I suppose doing that would give away the mystery.

In Dark Water, Clara calls Danny in an attempt to tell him the truth about her travels with the Doctor before he gets to her flat. While Clara complains about the way Danny says “I love you” to her, Danny is hit by a car or a milk float driven by Missy (according to extended media) and dies. Clara appears apathetic to Danny’s death, but in truth, she is absolutely distraught, which leads her to use a sleep patch on the Doctor. Landing the TARDIS next to a volcano, Clara tries to blackmail the Doctor into saving Danny by throwing a key away every time he says no to her. She then suddenly throws the rest of the keys away, leaving her with one of the seven keys left. After throwing the last key away, Clara is overcome by the impact of what she did when the Doctor reveals that they are still in the TARDIS, having worked out what Clara was doing and using the sleep patch back on her. The Doctor, having seen how far Clara would go to be with Danny, agrees to help find him and they are led to the 3W Institute.

Meanwhile, Danny is brought to the Nethersphere where he is greeted by Seb, an AI interface created by Missy. Upon arrival, there was a request to meet him from someone, namely a boy he accidentally killed during his time as a soldier in Afghanistan which led to him leaving the army. Danny meets the boy and tries to apologise, but he runs away. Soon, Danny gets a call from Clara, who was put into contact with him from the outside. Clara, on the Doctor’s advice, tries to make sure that the Danny she is speaking to is real by having him say something only he could say, but when he keeps telling her “I love you” in a manner unsatisfactory to Clara, she ends the call.

The Doctor discovers that the Nethersphere is actually a Gallifreyan matrix data slice, that 3W is actually a front for converting dead bodies into Cybermen, and that Missy is actually the Master in a new female incarnation. Danny is given the choice to delete his emotions, but the sight of the boy behind him leads him to refuse.

Continuing with Death in Heaven, 91 Cybermen are assembled outside St Paul’s Cathedral and people are taking pictures with them when Kate Stewart, Osgood and UNIT show up. Suddenly, the Cybermen fly into the sky and hover above a British city before self-destructing and spreading Cyber-pollen into the graveyards and morgues, converting the dead into Cybermen. The Doctor and Missy are brought onboard Boat One, where the Doctor is appointed President of Earth in accordance with incursion protocols. As the Doctor discusses what is happening with the UNIT forces, Missy kills Osgood and summons the Cybermen to Boat One. After revealing that she was the woman in the shop who brought the Doctor and Clara together, then kept them together by putting the notice in the newspaper, Missy sends Kate flying out of Boat One before teleporting away. The Doctor hangs on for dear life but he ends up falling out as well until he uses his TARDIS key to summon it to him.

Meanwhile, Clara poses as the Doctor in an attempt to evade the Cybermen, furthering her character development as a mirror of the Doctor. The episode also goes so far as to have the title sequence feature Jenna Coleman’s name before Peter Capaldi’s and also feature Clara’s eyes instead of the Doctor’s. However, the now-converted Danny manages to call out her lies and take her away. Clara is taken to a graveyard where Danny reveals his face to her and asks her to turn on the emotional inhibitor. After Clara fails to get the Doctor to come and help her, the Doctor arrives and tries to stop Clara. He then asks Danny if he can access the Cyber hive mind to find out what Missy’s plan is, but in an effort to prove his point about the Doctor being an officer, Danny explains that he can’t see much because he needs the emotional inhibitor on to do so. The Doctor gives the sonic screwdriver to Clara so she can do it and when she does, Danny tells the Doctor that Missy is planning to use the Cyber-pollen to convert all of humanity.

Missy arrives and tells the Doctor that the Cyberarmy she created is a gift for him. The Doctor tells Missy that he doesn’t need an army but she insists that he does. Recalling some of his past adventures, the Doctor begins to realise that he is not a good man, nor a bad man, a hero, a president or an officer, but an idiot with a box and a screwdriver. In addition, Danny’s love for Clara stopped him from hurting her after his emotional inhibitor was turned on. The Doctor lets Danny take control of the Cyberarmy and after a speech that to me, sounds a little off at the end due to the pitch of Danny’s voice, he and all the other Cybermen fly into the sky and self-destruct, destroying the Cyber-pollen.

A defeated Missy tells the Doctor the current location of Gallifrey, claiming that it has been restored to its original location. Clara prepares to shoot Missy, but the Doctor offers to do it himself to stop Clara from doing so. It is then that Missy is shot by a remaining Cyberman, who saved Kate from falling out of Boat One. The Doctor learns that that Cyberman was actually Kate’s father, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and he salutes the Cyberbrig before he flies into the sky.

Two weeks later, Clara hears Danny in the night and finds a portal to the Nethersphere in her hallway. With the Nethersphere collapsing and the portal only having enough power for one person to go through, Danny sends the boy from earlier through it, asking Clara to find his parents. Another two weeks later, the Doctor meets with Clara and deduces that Clara and Danny are back together when that was actually not the case. He then tells Clara that he found Gallifrey when he actually didn’t after going to the coordinates that Missy gave him. Clara decides to believe the lie about her and Danny as the Doctor decides to part ways with her.

The Series 8 finale was good, but I don’t think it and the whole series lived up to expectations. I thought the dead people who we saw in the Nethersphere scenes would return in the finale and that the finale would have something much deeper than dead people being converted into Cybermen. The return of the Master as Missy was another highlight of the story and it marked the first on-screen instance of a male Time Lord regenerating into a female incarnation, which meant that the next mystery was to find out how the Saxon Master regenerated into Missy. Paying tribute to the Brigadier by making him a Cyberman I found meh, but I can see why people didn’t like it. If you want an alternative, remember that Osgood wasn’t the only person in that room whose appearance got copied by a Zygon.

And speaking of Osgood, I’ve always contended that the Zygon Osgood was the one who Missy killed in this story. The Zygon two-parter in Series 9 would keep the answer ambiguous by purposefully obscuring it, with even Osgood’s actress, Ingrid Oliver, keeping her take on the question a secret. Then in 2019, a Big Finish audio confirmed that it was actually the Zygon Osgood who was killed by Missy, putting the question to bed in a manner that ended up being logical.

10. Every Christmas is Last Christmas

In the 2014 Christmas Special, Last Christmas, the Doctor reunites with Clara as they investigate a polar base in the North Pole. They encounter Shona trying to distract herself from the Sleepers before they are attacked by Dream Crabs. Following this, Santa and his elves came in to convince everyone that they are dying in a dream and that they need to wake up. The Doctor also deduces that the Dream Crabs can create dreams within dreams and so, he helps everyone get out of each layer until Santa comes back with his sleigh to take them out of the final layer when they are confronted by more Sleepers, which are actually the parts of their mind that have succumbed to the Dream Crabs.

When the Doctor wakes up, he hurries to save Clara from her Dream Crab, only to find that she is 62 years older than when they last parted. As they pull a Christmas cracker, just as they did before in The Time of the Doctor, Santa appears, meaning that this scene was another dream layer. The Doctor and Clara wake up for real and Clara is relieved to see that she is young. The Doctor invites Clara to travel with him again and she quickly accepts, ending the special. Apparently, Jenna Coleman intended to leave Doctor Who at the end of Series 8, but she enjoyed working with Capaldi so much that she decided to do the 2014 Christmas Special before leaving. During the World Tour, Capaldi (and Moffat) managed to convince Coleman to stay on for another year; she informed Steven Moffat of this following the readthrough of Last Christmas and plans on a replacement companion, possibly Shona, were abandoned and the ending was slightly changed thanks to Moffat preparing for such a scenario.

Last Christmas is an alright Christmas Special. It has the Doctor and Clara admit that they lied to each other on their final meeting before they get a second chance together on the TARDIS. Danny also returns as a construct of Clara’s dream to conclude his character arc and to admit that he only saved the world for Clara. The one thing I didn’t like was Nick Frost playing a sardonic Santa when the common stereotype is that he is supposed to be jolly (which is called out by the Doctor in the special). I think it would have worked better if Santa was played by Seth MacFarlane using his Carter Pewterschmidt voice.

Series 8, like the series before it, is another mixed bag. I came into each episode expecting this thing or that thing to happen, only for it to not happen or a completely different thing to happen altogether. The Doctor and Clara have deeper dynamics and character development than they did and the inclusion of Coal Hill School was an alright extension of the 50th Anniversary.

Up until the last instalment, I’ve used Clever Dick Films’ Doctor Who Review videos as one of my research references, but at the time of writing this instalment, he hasn’t done his retrospective on the Capaldi era and I don’t expect it to come out for some time, but I’m sure I have enough opinions or story summary fillers to make it through the last parts of this series. Stay tuned for Part 9 as we continue riding the wave from the 50th Anniversary with my 10 takes on Series 9.

[tygerbug]

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[fancoloredglasses]

The Five Doctors (well, three and a half plus one, but who's counting?) Part 1

[All images are owned by the BBC. Please don’t sue or EXTERMINATE! me]

(Thanks to Doctor Who)

I’d previously reviewed what the BBC did to celebrate Doctor Who’s 10th anniversary. Naturally, they decided to have a similar event for the show’s 20th. There were just two teensy-weensy problems…

-William Hartnell (who originally left the show due to health concerns and whose health hadn’t improved by The Three Doctors (which is why he had a limited role in the story) passed away eight years earlier.

This required recasting the first Doctor (though some surviving Hartnell footage was also used). Enter Richard Hurndall (unfortunately, Hurndall would also pass away a year later, so if the show had still been on the air for the 30th anniversary, he would have had to be recast again)

-Tom Baker was two years removed from his tenure as the Doctor and decided it was too soon for him to return for a “reunion” show (a decision he has since said he regretted) The producers got around this by using footage from Shada, an unfinished story from his era.

Fortunately, he had a cameo for the 50th anniversary story (though obviously not as the Doctor)

Now, on to the background on the story…

The Doctor is on his fifth incarnation (Peter Davidson, who was at the time the youngest actor to play the Doctor and would later become father-in-law to the tenth (and fourteenth!) Doctor, David Tennant) This version of the Doctor was more empathic (“human”) than his previous selves. The Doctor has two companions at this time…

Tegan Jovanka was a holdover from the end of the Doctor’s fourth incarnation. She’s very outspoken and not afraid to make her opinion known.

Vislor Turlough was originally contracted to kill the Doctor, but could never bring himself to do it (eventually cutting ties with his patron) He is skilled at deception (as evidenced that the Doctor kept him around) and is quick to avoid dangerous situations, even if it means leaving the Doctor and Tegan.

Now, on with the show! If you would like to watch, the episodes are available on BritBox or Tubi.

We open to the control room of the TARDIS to find the Doctor finishing a bit of maintenance (like that ever goes right), then stepping out to have a chat with Turlough and Tegan. A bit of exposition says they are on a planet known as the Eye of Orion, known as the most tranquil place in the universe. The Doctor suggests they take a much-needed break on the planet (like that ever ends well)

Meanwhile, we switch to a mysterious control room were on the monitor is…

The first incarnation of the Doctor. Suddenly, a glowing pyramid appears in the sky and engulfs him!

This has an immediate effect on the current Doctor, who feels as if something was ripped from him.

Meanwhile at UNIT HQ, Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart (retired) is having a reunion with a few of his former staff, though one couldn’t be reached.

Fortunately, he made an appearance (though not the one the Brigadier thought would be there!) It turns out the Doctor read about the speech the Brigadier would be making that evening in tomorrow’s paper.

(Thanks to Classic DW)

 Meanwhile, at a townhouse in South Croydon…

Sarah Jane Smith (companion to the third and fourth incarnations of the Doctor) is warned of danger by her companion, K9 (Mk III). Unfortunately, she ignores the warning and leaves to catch the bus.

Elsewhere…

The fourth incarnation of the Doctor and the second incarnation of fellow Time Lord Romanadvoratrelundar (Romana for short) are enjoying a quiet gondola ride when the twirling triangle swoops in and takes them as well.

Unfortunately, there’s a malfunction in whatever is taking the Doctor’s past selves and he’s stuck in whatever has taken him! (something always goes wrong when the fourth Doctor mucks about in time)

This is enough to make the present Doctor collapse. Fortunately, Tegan and Turlough had managed to get him to the TARDIS and he sent it…somewhere/when.

And what of Sarah Jane?

Let that be a lesson: ALWAYS listen to your dog!

Inside the TARDIS…

…the Doctor begins to fade from existence! Fortunately, he snaps back into existence just as the TARDIS lands, but the instruments can't say where/when they are

Now, let’s go to the Doctor’s home planet of Gallifrey (for some reason), the ruling council has decided, against President Barusa’s wishes, to enlist (for some reason)…

…the Master. I’m not sure what’s going on, but they MUST be desperate! They offer the Master a full pardon and a new set of regenerations (in Doctor Who lore, a Time Lord only has 11 regenerations. The Master has used his up and though deus ex wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey bullshit had stolen another’s body to gain his current one) in exchange for a simple mission: rescue the Doctor! (So the Time Lords are aware of whatever is going on with the Doctor)

And what of the Doctor?

[NOTE: Now that we’ve established which Doctor is which, I’m likely going to not refer to him by his various incarnations unless he’s sharing a scene with himself]

Well, he appears to be wandering around some sort of maze of mirrors until he encounters…

…his granddaughter, though she wasn’t sucked up by whatever grabbed him, so how did she get here? (Since Susan left the show before the Doctor’s other original companions Ian and Barbara, shouldn’t they be here as well…unless Susan was grabbed in much the same way Sarah was?)

However, their happy reunion is short-lived as…

…I know that silhouette! They had better run before they’re exterminated!

Back at the Panoptican (Gallifrey’s Capitol building), President Barusa explains to the Master his mission. The Doctor is trapped in a region known as the Death Zone.

The Council wants to send the Master into the Death Zone to free the four incarnations they believe are trapped there so that his fourth may be un-trapped from whatever has him and Romana trapped (so the Council thinks even the latest model is in there as well, eh?) The Master appreciates the irony of rescuing his hated enemy and agrees.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor continues fading in and out. He realizes one of his incarnations is trapped in a time vortex (so that’s what they’re calling where he and Romana are) and that he has one hope to avoid being drawn in as well: sending a signal (To who? The Time Lords? They already know!)

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Susan are fleeing the Dalek who is more interested in exterminating them that trying to figure out how it got there (Daleks aren’t the most imaginative beings out there) Unfortunately, they come to a dead end (possibly a poor choice of words), but the Doctor has a plan as he and Susan hide. As the Dalek passes, they push it into the dead end. The Dalek fires, and you can imagine what happens when you fire an energy weapon in an area with mirrors in three directions.

The Doctor then finds the way out and realizes they’re in the Death Zone.

Meanwhile the Doctor and the Brigadier are wandering around in yet another quarry another section of the Death Zone. The Brigadier isn’t quite as fondly remembering his time with the Doctor any more, that’s for sure! They then spot…

First the Master, then the Daleks, and now the Cybermen. This episode is the who’s who of evil!

And what of the Doctor? He’s pretty much driving around aimlessly in Bessie when he encounters Sarah Jane Smith, who loses her footing and tumbles down the hill!

And with that, Part One ends (not much of a cliffhanger, but it does establish where everyone is) On to Part Two!

The Doctor tosses Sarah a rope and helps her up to the road, then Sarah realizes who helped her.

Sarah is confused as to how an earlier version of the Doctor could be there (why? He’s a time traveler!) As it turns out, the Doctor is aware of his future self (makes sense; again, time traveler) The Doctor offers Sarah a ride to…wherever he’s going.

Meanwhile…

(Thanks to Gallifreyguy10)

At the Panoptican, the Council prepares to send the Master. They give him a signaling device the transmat beam can lock in on, as well as the Council’s seal to hopefully convince the Doctor that he’s on their side. With that, the Master is sent to the Death Zone.

Inside the Death Zone, the Doctor explains to the audience Brigadier what the Death Zone is.

The Doctor explains more as they travel to the Dark Tower at the center of the Death Zone…

(Thanks to magisterrex)

No, not that one! The one that’s the final resting place of Rassilon, the greatest of the Time Lords.

Elsewhere, the Master has entered the Zone…

…and is immediately fired upon by something (not surprising, since the Master isn’t exactly liked)

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor does what he always does when meeting himself…

…bickers. The current Doctor wants to move on the Dark Tower immediately, while the First wants to wait for the rest of him.

Outside, the Doctor explains to Sarah about the Death Zone. As it turns out, the ancient Time Lords used a device called a Time Scoop to drag beings within to fight for their amusement…at least until Rassilon put a stop to it. But now someone has decided to start the barbaric practice again, starting with the Doctor! The Doctor then sees the Dark Tower and steers Bessie toward it. Suddenly…

Unfortunately, this version of the Doctor has never met this version of the Master, and Sarah has never encountered the Master, so they have no clue who he is. However, some sort of “future memory” (or the fact that the Master kept his appearance as close to his earlier regeneration as possible) allowed the Doctor to recognize him after a moment. Naturally, the Doctor believes the Master’s behind this.

Then whatever attacked the Master earlier attacks again, and the Doctor drives off leaving the Master behind. Unfortunately they hit Bessie, so the Doctor and Sarah walk from here.

Elsewhere, the Doctor shares a chilling thought with the Brigadier…

It seems that Rassilon is rumored among the Time Lords to have almost god-like powers. Not someone to piss off then. Best to keep the Doctor on a tight leash, since at least two of his incarnations are known to win mostly by pissing off his foes until they slip up.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor prepares to leave with Susan and Tegan, while the Doctor remains with Turlough remain behind and wait for the Doctor’s signal, then bring the TARDIS to the Tower.

Outside, the Doctor and Sarah continue their trek to the Tower when they spy…

Needless to say, they make themselves scarce before the Cybermen spot them.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and the Brigadier have reached the Tower and are preparing to enter.

And what of the Doctor, Tegan, and Susan?

(Thanks again to Classic DW)

Unfortunately, Susan twists her ankle rushing back to the TARDIS. Fortunately, they still get away.

The Doctor materializes in the conference room and realizes that Master may be telling the truth after all.

And what of the Master, abandoned to the Cybermen?

Oh, I’m sure with his silver tongue he’ll be fine.

Inside the TARDIS, Tegan tells the Doctor what happened. Without the Doctor to set a beacon (or whatever he intended to do to allow the TARDIS entry), the Doctor has little choice.

At the Panoptican, the Doctor gets the full story, and realizes he owes the Master an apology.

The Doctor the accuses one of the Council of bringing all of him to the Death Zone, as only they would have access to the technology to do so (plus bringing Cybermen (and Daleks, but the Doctor doesn’t know about that yet) to the Death Zone, which was prohibited), as well as a homing beacon implanted in the Master’s recall device.

The President says the Castillan gave the device to the Master and accuses him of treason, so has him arrested.

Inside the Death Zone, the Master proposes an alliance with the Cybermen to storm the Tower and defeat the Time Lords. The Cybermen agree, however…

Yeah, that tracks.

Inside the TARDIS, Turlough and Susan hear a lout thumping outside. They turn on the monitor to discover the Cybermen…doing something to the TARDIS. On that note, episode 2 ends.

WILL the Doctor escape the Death Zone and free himself from the Time Vortex?

IS the Castellan responsible for kidnapping the Doctor and the others?

WILL the Doctor apologize to the Master for doubting him?

These questions and more will be answered in the conclusion of my review of The Five Doctors!

[justasmallbloginabigklainefandom]

Initial Doctorate Whomst've episode thoughts

I liked it. That's probably the most important part.

But just like previous episode, it just didn't feel like a 60th anniversary at all. Like... where was the anniversary part of this anniversary? The person I watched it with pointed out that The Power of the Doctor was more a celebration of the show's history than these 3 episodes.

Neil Patrick Harris killed it and it was fun to be reminded of the fact he can do magic tricks. The Toymaker's vibe was so good and I was legit at the edge of my seat during the cold open and the maze part.

Also his German accent made me miss his Hedwig a lot.

And the Spice Girls segment was so amazing.

I know that 14 was going through his sad boi era, but I found the moment where he embraced his title as president of the world very disturbing.

I hope we'll see more of Shirley Ann.

Honestly, I have Mixed Thoughts on the bigeneration thing. On one hand, it's fucking cool and I like the idea of 14 becoming part of the Noble family. On the other hand... what? What are the implications of this? Also, 14 is, unlike TenToo, still a Time Lord so he's still "immortal". And what if 14 gets shot or something? Will there be another 15? ALSO the whole point of regeneration is that's about moving on. Just... why does David Tennant get the special treatment again?

As in, it would've made more sense to me if 14 would become some hybrid again, with 15 taking all the Time Lord stuff. You know. TenThree.

I did love all the scenes with 14 and 15 together.

And I like the idea of 14 also checking in on other companions who are in the 21st century, like Martha, Bill (after she comes back to Earth, see side-canon), Yaz, Graham, Ryan and Dan.

Not gonna lie, I won't be surprised if RTD cashes in on this with another spin-off. I accept.

The addition of Mel was... bland. Like, it added nothing. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy she was there, but she was so forgettable in the grand scheme of things. It wasn't like the return of Sarah Jane, or Ace, or Tegan. Or Jo in SJA.

JUSTICE FOR RORY. AGAIN. WHY THE FFUCK DOES THIS SHOW FORGET RORY WAS A MAIN COMPANION IN S6 AND S7.1 AS WELL.

I did think it was kind of sad the Toymaker skipped over 13's companions, but also, they're all fine. What was it supposed to be? "Ryan? Went home. *snip* Graham? Went home. *snip*. Dan? Went home. *snip* Yaz? Brought back home. *snip*. Oh."?

NO BUT REALLY JUSTICE FOR RORY.

Also, yeah, only these companions + Donna and Mel? There were so many people who mattered to them. I was surprised they didn't even mention all NewWho companions.

LIKE RORY. AND MARTHA.

Aaaaand... The Master will return. That's fine. I kind of hope Sacha Dhawan stays on, to bridge the story. Classic Doctors shared Masters, so can NuWho Doctors.

But yeah, I am just only really saddened by the fact that no other Doctors were even shown. Like, I would be so fine with another bad cgi overview of all of them, like in the 50th, or the usage of archival footage, like in the 50th.

BUT WTF. POOR RORY.