#RTD gave Classic Who Doctors a remembered TARDIS

[expectiations]

No, because imagine this.

The 70th anniversary rolls around.

We get a Tales of the TARDIS season (series?) 2.

We get Christopher, David, Matt, Peter, and Jodie.

They get closure or 'therapy' or something.

[9or10allgood]

I'm indulging in the Doctor Who marathon on BBCAmerica. It's been wonderful. I'm in the middle of Twelve, now, which is - next to Ten - my happy place.

Thirteen is looming.

Now, before anyone has a knee-jerk reaction and thinks I don't like the Thirteenth Doctor, you couldn't be more wrong. I love her to bits. Jodie Whittaker is awesome. She has poured herself into being the Doctor, heart and soul. I love that she travels with an entourage - going back to the First, the best Doctors do. She's had some really good stories, courtesy of Chris Chibnall - in fact, I give her first series a B+/A-. The second series, however...

Stick with me for a bit.

I like - no, I looo-ooo-oove fan fiction. Partly because it is a fairly consistent reaffirmation of creativity and literacy (yes, I said it!) and courage and daring - because it takes guts to put yourself out there for public critique without getting paid one red cent. But mostly because it is a way of indulging in flights of fancy within a bubble. Because fan fiction is, even when it is "canon compliant", still shading or filling in the blanks or expanding on what the original author set down. And the bubble is a safe place, where everyone (mostly) respects those boundaries between source material and fan fiction.

The perfect example of this is everything that happened in Pete's World post-Canary Wharf. We assume that the Doctor was going to tell Rose he loved her before time ran out, and copious amounts of fan fiction has been written about that. We assume that TenToo rectified that issue at Bad Wolf Bay the second time around. But we don't know, and that's okay because the veil was drawn on Pete's World with the disappearance of the TARDIS, and Pete's World became a creative goldmine. Thank God.

Back in the day (and I swear I still have a point) I belonged to a fan fiction site based on Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. (Not "Dragonmount", thank you very much!) Between twenty and thirty writers, drawn together by our love for that amazingly complex series of books, we wrote - individually and in small groups - epic fiction based on the Age of Legends and the Trolloc Wars, because neither era was portrayed in the books, other than very brief glimpses. Even so, there was a canonical framework that we existed in, and we respected it. For example, there were hints of Aes Sedai being able to fly during the AoL, but that didn't mean that the Sisters during the TW were going to do it, because canon told us that the miracles of the Age of Legends had been lost with the Breaking and were not recovered until the timeline of the books. As long as the canon was respected, the writing flourished - for years. Eventually, though, lines were blurred and the stories suffered, and it's been years since anyone has written anything there.

And now I'll get back to my point.

When Russell T Davies brought Doctor Who back to television, he respected the canon that had been established. He didn't change Gallifrey, he removed it. It had given us the Doctor and the Master and the TARDIS and a running potential of planets and races affected by the Time War that could keep the Doctor occupied for a long, long time. It's purpose had been served. It's *nebulous hand waggle* demise fuelled the great engine of angst that powered the reboot. It heightened what had become a bit of a stodgy "oh, no, it's the Daleks, again" sensibility regarding a cross between a pepperpot and a wheely-bin, and gave them a renewed sense of villainy. It's what made the episode, "Dalek", such a gut-punch. It's what made seeing a mighty Dalek armada when there was only one Time Lord to stand against it so dramatically Quixotic - in an end-of-all-things sort of way.

It should have stayed that way.

I love RTD. I do. He was an awesome showrunner and he, with Julie Gardner, shepherded the reboot through possibly the greatest comeback in entertainment history. But I wasn't comfortable with the (temporary) return of Rassilon et al as his farewell to the show. And, sure 'nuff, it cracked open a door that Moffat bulldozed through with "The Day of the Doctor". And by the time he was through, the Doctor was popping "home" for soup and a bit o' sedition, and the next thing ya know, Chris Chibnall is turning the whole thing on its ear with the Timeless Children business and a convoluted plotline that would've needed an entire series to unravel and still would have read like fan fiction based on a poorly remembered fever dream.

Yes, I know that "Doctor Who" has been "fine-tuning" itself from the beginning. The First Doctor invented his time machine that his granddaughter named "TARDIS" - for Time and Relative Dimensions In Space. Today's canon has TARDISes grown, sentient, and having numbered in the thousands once upon a time. But there's a difference between an adjustment, here and there, and re-inventing the Time Rotor on the fly, as it were. One is a tweak to make the whole better. The other is throwing a bucket of yellow paint across a classic portrait of the Queen just so you can paint galloping horses on it. Why would you do it?

I'm really sad that Graham and Ryan are leaving. I'm really looking forward to the return of Captain Jack. I hope that bringing back someone as integral to the days of Russell T Davies will remind Chris Chibnall that the basic story of the Doctor has always been that an ancient alien from a fabled world travels throughout space and time with a lucky human or three, faces down injustice, rescues those who need it, and dances around fixed points and moral dilemmas with (occasional) alacrity.

And if Chibnall needs inspiration, I can point him to any number of fan fiction writers that totally get it.

[timeagainreviews]

Thoughts leading up to series 12

Happy holidays, friends! I know, I know. It's been a while. I would love to sit here and say I have been away doing important things, but really I've been hibernating. The results of that awful election, mixed with the holidays had left me feeling a bit lethargic as of late. That being said, I had a nice Christmas. Being an immigrant, I don't see my family on holidays. My boyfriend and I spent the day piecing together a Babylon 5 jigsaw puzzle. I made my pal Gerry a celery for his 5th Doctor cosplay and he gifted me a replica of the Li H'sen Chang poster from "The Talons of Weng-Chiang." It was a very Doctor Who Christmas! Sadly, there was no Doctor Who Christmas episode!

Alas, it hardly matters, as new Doctor Who is mere days away! As I did last year, you can expect weekly coverage for each new episode. I'm looking forward to getting back into the groove of consistent writing. Usually, the fandom is more abuzz when the show is actually airing, so please remember to check in with this blog, as I will be watching along with the rest of you!

If you recall, prior to series eleven, I made a list talking about some of my hopes and expectations for the new TARDIS team and the new production team. Seeing as series twelve is just days away from premiering, I thought I might do it again. Let's get to it, shall we?

The Thirteenth Doctor

Seeing Jodie Whittaker back in the TARDIS for another round of adventures has me massively excited. One of the downsides to Christopher Eccleston's run is that we never really got to see him develop the role of the Ninth Doctor. I'm hoping we'll get to see more aspects of her character. Seeing as I don't expect her to regenerate any time soon, there's still much of her personality left to explore. We've met the friendly adorkable Doctor, now let's see her bend a little.

One of my primary complaints about Jodie Whittaker's portrayal as the Doctor was that I didn't think she got scary. While I love her bravery, running headlong into danger, I would like to see a shade or two of her dark side. Up to this point, she's been too friendly to be scary. I know I'm not the only person with this complaint, so it will be interesting to see what a year of hiatus and refocusing will do for her. Honestly, I hope they don't change her too much, as she's pretty great. I'd just like to see them flesh her out a bit.

Other than her personality, I'm also hoping to see some costume variations. The trailer for the new season does give us Jodie in a bow tie, which I am all for. I've also seen a picture where her trousers are black. I'm hoping they continue to tweak her costume here and there, as watching the Doctor's costume evolve over time has always been one of my favourite things about the show.

Chris Chibnall's return

Was there anyone from series eleven that drew more ire than Chris Chibnall? Sure you got the people who hated Jodie solely because she was a woman, but on the level of legitimate concerns, Chibnall was up there. I myself threw a bit of mud in his direction, and I don't feel as though it was without good cause. The general management of the show seemed a bit aimless, despite many promising elements.

Something about the way series eleven was received gave the BBC pause to reevaluate the show's trajectory, and I have a distinct feeling that Chibnall was at the heart of a lot of it. From his lack of a season-long story arc, to the villains being a bit shit, to an overly dour tone, his first year as showrunner left something to be desired. The fact that we didn't even get a single webisode during this gap year shows me that they're still not 100% sure what to do with Doctor Who.

However, having said this, Chibnall's core TARDIS team is one of the most exciting aspects of series twelve. I can't wait to see more from this great line up of characters. And if the exciting trailer for this new series is anything to go off, we're in for quite a ride. Chibnall's most recent endeavour as showrunner was last year's "Resolution," a much-needed bit of classic Who villainy in the form of a Dalek. I was left feeling optimistic that Chibnall was capable of delivering solid storytelling. And that's the operative word- optimistic. As long as he doesn't get needlessly gritty, I'm cautiously optimistic that this year-long hiatus has yielded positive results.

The Companions

Like many other viewers, my chief complaint about the companions has to be Yaz. She really got shafted on the level of character development last year. When you have someone as talented as Mandip Gill, it's a shame to waste her. I know the fandom was quite vocal about this fact, so I fully expect to see the show give her more time in the spotlight. I don't know anyone who disliked her character, which is a good sign that the fandom wants more of her.

Ryan and Graham were two characters that I felt got a great bit of character development. The moment when Ryan finally calls Graham "granddad," was a truly exciting moment for two characters we had grown to love. The logical next step, at least in my mind, is to test the boundaries of this new relationship. I'd really love to see Graham meet a new love interest. Introducing someone into Graham's life would make Ryan have to broaden his definition of family even further. It might also be a catalyst for his own personal growth.

I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't also see one or more of the companions depart from the TARDIS. My gut says it would be Graham, but I wouldn't be surprised if all three of them left at the end of the series. As much as I love the current companions, I would love to see what energy a new companion or two might do for Jodie's Doctor.

The Villains

Prior to series eleven, I was feeling very optimistic for new Doctor Who. That is until I read an article where Chris Chibnall announced there would be no returning villains. Other than the announcement that Chibnall would be showrunner, nothing had made me more concerned for the show's future than "no returning villains." It's not that returning villains are a must for Doctor Who. It's actually a rather brave thing to attempt. The reason it's brave is that if you're going to leave out classic baddies, you've got to justify your decision by crafting new classics. And I'm sorry, but some Slipknot dude with teeth in his face is not classic.

From what I've seen of the trailer and promotional stills, we're looking at at least three returning creatures from the Whoniverse. We've all seen the picture of Jodie staring down the Judoon. If I am completely honest, those have left me with the least amount of hype, as they weren't ever even full-on villains. I've always found the Judoon slightly hokey, so I could take or leave them. The plus side is that there is still plenty of room to develop them as a species. Are there non-Shadow Proclamation Judoon? Are there evil factions? I'm curious if nothing else.

Another familiar face is the Cybermen. While I feel like both the RTD and Moffat eras used the Cybermen ad nauseam, they're still a classic baddie with a solid track record. It appears they'll have something to do with the finale and that "timeless child," storyline I'm uninterested in, so fine, sure, ok. The real alien species I'm excited for is the Racnoss! Much like the Judoon, the Racnoss are also underdeveloped. I wasn't a big fan of them the first time around, which is why I'm excited for more. I'm curious to see what depth can be found in these campy arachnids. If nothing else, the makeup is fun.

The Guest Actors

Series eleven treated us to a surprisingly tender performance from Lee Mack in "Kerblam!" We got a decent turn by Mark Addy, working with not a lot to go off as the underwritten Paltraki. But without a doubt, the best performance came in the form of Alan Cumming's King James. Not only was he as hilarious as he was loathsome, but he also elevated what could have been a more straightforward performance, by finding that sweet spot of camp and contemptible.

That being said, with actors like Stephen Fry, Lenny Henry, and classic Doctor Who alum Robert Glenister joining the show, I'm hopeful we'll get at least one memorable performance out of the lot. I've not followed many of the ins and outs of the storylines, so I have no idea who anyone is playing other than Goran Višnjić as Nikola Tesla. That being said, the addition of Tesla to the series seems an obvious fit. He was an eccentric man who was a bit weird about his pet bird. I expect his story to be one of the stranger ones we'll enjoy this year, or at least, it had better be.

The BBC's involvement

I'm hoping that in this last year, the BBC weren't just reevaluating Chris Chibnall's direction for the show, but their own involvement as well. They got rid of Bake Off and Formula One, Top Gear's audience followed Clarkson over to Amazon. All that's left are partisan news coverage, QI, Countryfile, and Doctor Who. Oh and I guess "His Dark Materials," but I don't know anyone who's talking about that show. As I said earlier, it's been a year of nothing from Doctor Who as a series. Other than comics and a less than perfect VR game, we've gotten nothing from the Thirteenth Doctor and the fam. Not even a novel or webisode to tide us over. How hard would it have been, while filming series twelve, to shoot a quick little skit on the TARDIS set? The Moffat era did this a lot, and it was always nice to see a little bit of Doctor Who while waiting for more episodes.

As the last vestige of the BBC's once-great television empire, you would think they might start to give a shit about Doctor Who. I know it's a crazy concept, but perhaps shelving one of your best shows for a year wasn't the best option. It would be nice to see them put more money and effort into the show. It would be a welcome sight to see them also put more money into the budget for things like merchandise or extended universe media. We've got three books for the current Doctor and that was last year. David Tennant had over thirty novels, while Matt Smith's Doctor appeared in over 15, and Capaldi only appeared in nine. Do you remember the last time we got a Character Options figure that wasn't a repaint of another figure? The most recent one we got was Harry Sullivan, and I'm pretty sure the only new element to that figure was his head. I've seen previews of the new companion figurines, and they're great, but I want more.

Perhaps I sound a bit spoiled. Many shows never expand beyond their allotted episodes, but this is Doctor Who, a show with a broader reach than your telly. It seemed last year that they were finally giving the show its dues. There were billboards of Jodie's face everywhere. The hype was palpable. Now, it's just four days from series twelve, and I've not even seen a bus ad for the new show. A woman I see out on dog walks was surprised when I told her the show was returning on the first of January. She had no idea. This is the Doctor Who audience that they're failing, not people like me who count the days like an advent calendar. The BBC needs to decide once in for all if they're going to give Doctor Who the respect it deserves, or sell it someone who will.

And that's it for now, friends. I hope you're all just as excited as I am to be back in the blue box. If all goes as planned, I should have a new review up the day after each episode. I'm optimistic that I'll have some great things to say!

[clarabosswald]

this week on gallifreybase: my attention’s been turned to a brilliant post summarizing all the unmade episodes in new doctor who some of which i knew about, some i didn’t i love this kind of behind the scenes stuff to death so here is the post under the cut for everyone to enjoy

Series 1 -The Paul Abbott episode Originally in RTD's Series 1 Pitch document, Episode 11 was just called "The New Team" and just said "The Doctor, Rose and Jax. A small scale adventure, character stuff" presumably to be written by RTD himself. Then it was retitled "Pompeii" after RTD saw a documentary on the event and thought similar SFX could be used a Who episode. Then Russell managed to tempt his friend, successful showrunner Paul Abbott to write an episode. So the pitch document for Ep11 was re-titled "Paul Abbott Episode" There's no evidence that Abbott used the Pompeii idea. Instead, according to Russell, Abbott's story pitch was that Jax would discover that the Doctor had been secretly manipulating Rose's life, in order to make her the perfect companion and there would be conflict over whether to tell her. RTD was hesitant over the idea, because it ruined his own plans for the Doctor & Rose, but he allowed Abbott to continue to develop it. However after a few weeks it became clear Abbott wouldn't have the time to do the episode, Russell replaced with his own script "Boom Town" Series 2 -The 1920s by Stephen Fry In RTD's Series 2 story outline, Episode 11 was called "The 1920s" and was to be written by Stephen Fry, partly based on research for his film "Bright Young Things" The episode was also based on the story of "Gawain and the Green Knight" giving the story new alien origins. It included a scenes of the TARDIS landing on a strange planet. It was reportedly set in 3 different time periods (incluiding the 1920s) The story apparently involved the Gawain character falling in love with Rose in the wrong narratative order for viewers, and for Rose herself. However, late in 2006, it was decided that the story was too expensive for this point in production and it was pushed back to Series 3 & replaced with "Fear Her". It has also been said there were issues with violence. Unfortunately by 2007, Fry didn't have time to rewrite the script further or alter it for the new companion and so he wrote a letter to RTD and it was abandoned altogether. Some have said (off the record) that the script's tone was was very different from RTD episodes, closer to the Classic Series (e.g. It began with the Doctor & Rose playing chess in the TARDIS by candlelight) in 2011 Fry has said he would like to re-use the idea, taking out the Dr Who elements and turning into a novel, when he has the time, but since then nothing has happened. Series 3 -Ood story by Chris Chibnall After his first successful year show-running Torchwood, Chibnall was invited to write for Dr Who, Series 3 Episode 7. He told Starburst Magazine "Russell said, “Come and write this episode"... It was one with the Ood, and it had Zack and Ida from The Impossible Planet, and it was like going to see what had happened to them afterwards. There were tiny elements of it in Planet of the Ood but it wasn't the same story. And so we did a lot of planning on that; and it was an alien planet. And then I finished all my writing duties on Torchwood and we had the meeting and it was like, "Actually we can't afford to do that. We need an episode set in corridors, with no monsters, because we couldn't afford monsters. That's probably why there are no real aliens" Series 4 -The Suicide Exhibition by Mark Gatiss This was planned for Penny's (later Donna's) Episode 3 (which was later swapped with "Planet of the Ood") RTD's Series 4 breakdown describes this as "World War 2. Monsters on the loose in the Natural History Museum as a Nazi strike force invades...Plus an Indiana Jones-type chamber hidden beneath with sliding stone doors" Gatiss said the story was based on how, during the war, museums would put out less well-known exhibits, so that if they were bombed they wouldn't lose any great treasures-Suicide Exhibitions. He also said the monsters were based on the preserved bog-men found in the museums, like "The Lindow man" "After the first draft, Russell said, "Let's make it the Nazis and do the full Indiana Jones on it." The whole museum was a puzzle box of sliding doors and traps and stuff." Gatiss worked on the script for a year, and a script was ready to film, but when the production team discovered it'd be possible to shoot an episode overseas, the story was abandoned in favour of "Fires of Pompeii" -Century House by Tom MacRae An companion-lite episode. The Doctor goes live on reality TV show "Most Haunted" to track down a ghost known as The Red Widow. Donna & her family watch him at home on TV. It was set in a big old, abandoned, spooky house on a cliff top, with OB vans and tricks with cables rings around the house. Certain rooms would flashback to the 1950s/60s. There was a big fire sequence towards the end. If I remember correctly, MacRae compared moments in the episode to Sapphire and Steel. This was an idea RTD originally gave to MacRae to develop for Series 3 (so Martha and her family) Unfortunately they found there wasn't a place for it there, so it was held back for Series 4, episode 8. Unfortunately, despite MacRae working on it for over a year, RTD and the team were concerned that the setting was too similar to "The Unicorn and the Wasp" and that the concept they had given him wasn't strong enough. Shortly before pre-production, RTD challenged himself to try to come up with something better in a few days, and ended up quickly writing "Midnight". In a later interview, MacRae was quite sanguine about this, saying that if his episode had to be replaced, he was glad it was with one of the best. The Specials -Space Opera/Alien Hotel by Gareth Roberts and Russell T Davies One of RTD's earliest ideas for the 2009 Easter special would be have to the TARDIS arrive in the middle of an interstellar war, complete with aliens, spaceships, and dogfights in space. He gave this idea to Gareth Roberts who wrote an outline. RTD has issues with the result, including later scenes set in an outer space hotel where guests were having alien eggs secretly implanted (a gruesome reference to easter eggs) So the story was abandoned in favour of what became "Planet of the Dead" -A Midwinter's Tale by Phil Ford and Russell T Davies A grandmother (possibly to be played by Helen Mirren or Judi Dench) is trapped in a posh hotel with her unruly family at Christmas. Wishing that they'd all just disappear, she storms out, only to find the corridors deserted, her family has disappeared, and as she searches further, so has all of humanity. Finally, she comes upon the TARDIS and the Doctor. Investigating, they discover eight-legged centaur-like creatures abroad in London. It transpires that aliens from another dimension, the Shi'ar, have frozen time on Earth in order to hold a festival celebrating the marriage of their queen. The life of the grandmother's family becomes endangered, culminating in a race through secret tunnels beneath Buckingham Palace. This was a story idea by RTD given to Phil Ford, planned for when there would've been only 3 specials: Easter 2009, Christmas 2009 and the Doctor regenerating at Easter 2010, leaving a few weeks before Series 5. "Midwinter" would be the Christmas special. Eventually it was decided there wasn't enough incident for an hour. "Waters of Mars" was developed instead, which was then moved to November with a new two-part Christmas regeneration. Series 5 -Death to the Doctor by Gareth Roberts This was originally planned for Series 5: Episode 7, the "Amy's Choice" slot. According to Gareth Roberts on Twitter,it was set on a Holiday planet like Las Vegas in middle of huge star war. The planet totally peaceful, with the law rigorously enforced. , There were police robots called Fleetfoots. If anyone committed any crime they had to fight a duel with a giant cyclops, and then the Doctor got arrested on a minor offence... Amy and Rory would have to find a way to get him off world without whole planet going up in war. The story also involved a disgraced Sontaran character called Commander Skorn. This story got as far as CGI being designed for the cyclops. Unfortunately as Series 5 went on, there was a budget crunch and it was realised they couldn't afford their original plans. So Hungry Earth/Cold Blood was rewritten to be cheaper, Neil Gaiman's Episode 11 was moved to Series 6, and Roberts' episode was abandoned altogether. Instead Roberts and Simon Nye were hired to write new, cheaper stories for episodes 7 and 11. However, even though the episode was lost, Moffat reinvented Commander Skorn as Commander Strax for A Good Man Goes to War, delighting Roberts. -Fear Itself by Paul Cornell (from Paul Cornell's Newsletter https://paulcornell.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=198e8a011b70a7fa79dd704d6&id=de506d08cb) This was to be a companion-lite episode. It was a loose adaptation of Cornell's Christmas story "The Hopes and Fears of All the Years" The story involved the Doctor visiting a boy (Tom) every year on his on his birthday, because the Doctor knows he will, on one birthday, save the boy's life. It charted the life story of the boy, then the man, through the Doctor's regular visits on the same day. The story went through at least six drafts with the threat the Doctor was protecting Tom from changing during this process. By the Sixth draft it an alien computer that turned surrounding people into monsters for a few minutes each year. Tom had a green glowing lump on his neck & the computer's directive was to obtain it/destroy it. The story got as far as Cornell being brought in to to talk about casting, with some big names being discussed for grown-up Tom. Eventually it was decided the story was too expensive for Series 5 (Two scenes of birthday visits through the decades would've depicted the two World Wars) and the episode was pushed back to Series 6. However when Series 6 started, Cornell was told they weren't going ahead with his episode after all. Series 7 -Craig of the Gods by Gareth Roberts This was intended for episode 5 of the original Series 7b when Beryl the Victorian nanny was to be the companion. Craig was playing a computer game with real people trapped inside. The Tardis landed in game, Doctor and Beryl looked up through the clouds to see god and it was Craig. The story was seemingly abandoned when Beryl was replaced with Clara as the companion Roberts later observed that similar ideas were used in Series 10's Extremis. -Craig's Wedding by Gareth Roberts This would've featured the return of Craig, Sophie and their son. In one interview, Roberts said "I had this idea where Craig and Sophie were going to get married and were on this beautiful island somewhere near Greece and it was all going fine, then you turned around and saw the Doctor water-skiing away from a Sea Devil. Then you’d have Craig trying to keep him out of the wedding.” However someone who had read the Series 7 outline says that Sea Devils weren't there, instead a different monster was featured. Roberts later described the episode as "Nuts In May on Alzarius" Nuts in May was a Mike Leigh comedy about a slightly dull married couple (Craig and Sophie?) who try to go camping, but keep having their peace interrupted, often by the husband's jealousy. It may have been cancelled due to James Cordern's rising stardom in America. From what we can gather, it seems to have been replaced with "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS" Series 8 -Strax on Trial by James Henry Detailed here http://jamesandthebluecat.blogspot.com/2018/01/always-spell-check-your-email-headers.html Briefly, James Henry (writer of Green Wing, Campus and Smack the Pony) was asked to pitch stories for Series 8. Eventually Moffat asked him to develop one his own ideas, where Strax is kidnapped by his fellow Sontarans, taken back to his home planet, and put on trial for helping humans and the Doctor. An outline was written (read the blogpost) and it appears it was in competition with "Mummy on the Orient Express" and "In the Forest of the Night" for the final two slots. For various reasons, those two episodes were chosen instead. Series 9 -Vampire story by Paul Cornell Paul Cornell was asked to come in and submit ideas for Capaldi's first series. One story idea was for the Doctor & Clara to encounter a community of peaceful vampires in London and for the Doctor to get bitten and become one. The story was a sort of inverse 'Human Nature', going with the idea that this was to be a Doctor who couldn't quite be trusted. This story idea was accepted and could've been made for Capaldi's second season (per Cornell's reddit AMA) but it was never developed further than a one page outline. Series 10 -Jamie Mathieson's New Monster In 2015, when Moffat was first talking to writers for Series 10 episodes, he told the Radio Times "[Mathieson] has just been in and pitched a brilliant idea, a brilliant new monster. I just read his first pass at a storyline for that and I’ve no idea where we’ll end up going with that story. But that’s him. Being Jamie, he came in with 20 ideas and this one is just a belter" Early next year, Mathieson told a convention he had received an email from Moffat beginning "I can't stop thinking about your monster" However, in a 2017 DWM, Moffat reported that although they had tried to make Mathieson's monster story, they'd never managed to get the script to work, Moffat thought that it would still make an amazing horror film. Instead he asked Mathieson to develop another different story based around astronauts. -Sleep No More 2 by Mark Gatiss When planning his story for Series 10, Gatiss originally planned to do a semi-sequel to "Sleep No More" He told the Radio Times "I had this idea [that] I'd like to do the double in a kind of Yeti way, to have two stories about the same monster.”  "Although it was still in space, 'Sleep No More' was originally going to be on a trading floor; it was a stocks and shares thing, with these executives who were trying to stay awake in order to be more productive...I thought there was something in that, and actually maybe I could do a modern day one, set in the City, where they’d invented the same process but actually thousands of years earlier, and it had the same effect.” So the story would have been more of a prequel, set in Modern day London, The Genesis of the Sandmen. Gatiss said he abandoned the episode when he realised that this could be his last Who episode, so he asked instead to write the story he'd always wanted to do: Ice Warriors on Mars. -Pride & Prejudice & Daleks by Paul Cornell Paul Cornell was again asked to submit ideas for a later Capaldi series. One idea he developed, involving Daleks in the Land of Fiction was paid for because it was similar to an idea another writer was working on and they wanted to be able to use his ideas (this is standard practice with writers) However the latter story was never made. List of writers that were commissioned, but we still know nothing about their stories Series 3: Matthew Graham (possibly the man who can drain color that he unsuccessfully pitched for Series 2) Series 5: Rob Shearman, Jack Thorne, Amanda Coe Series 7: Tom MacRae, John Fay, Jack Lothian, the mystery original writer of Series 7b Episode 2 Series 10: Russell T Davies (Moffat said at Cambridge that they had a story all worked out, but then he became too busy) At some point during the Steven Moffat era, Charlie Brooker & Jed Mercurio were asked by the showrunner if they wanted to write Doctor Who stories. However Brooker was too busy & Mercurio wasn't interested in 2018 acclaimed writer Sally Abbott said that she worked on a Doctor Who story for several months, but wouldn't say more except it was "a few years ago" Paul Cornell has also said that around 2011/2012 he worked with Caro Skinner on another TV Doctor Who spinoff, which he's going to discuss on his newsletter at a later date. So if you want to read about that in full, I encourage you to subscribe https://paulcornell.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=198e8a011b70a7fa79dd704d6&id=de506d08cb)

to those of you who are on gb, here’s a direct link to the post: 

[beccaland]

Beccaland’s Bite-Sized Big Finish Reviews Big Finish Fourth Doctor Sale

Big Finish have got a sale on the first five series of the Fourth Doctor Adventures, plus some of the novel adaptations, until 30 August 2018. In order to facilitate your decision-making, I thought I’d give some quick reviews of the ones on sale that I’ve listened to, under the cut. Plus at the end of my post I’ve listed some of the ones I haven’t listed to, but am considering buying while they’re on sale; I welcome your advice!

Doctor Who - The Lost Stories: The Fourth Doctor Box Set

TARDIS team: Fourth Doctor and Leela

Rating: meh | ok | pretty good | great | freaking awesome

Bite: It’s been a while since I listened to this, and I’ve only listened to it once, which is some indication of its middle-of-the-road-ness. It’s a nostalgic return to the Hinchcliffe era, and I liked it well enough. It wouldn’t be top of my list for buying, though.

The Wrath of the Iceni

TARDIS team: Fourth Doctor and Leela

Rating: meh | ok | pretty good | great | freaking awesome

Bite: Big Finish generally does a good job of delving into the tension between the Doctor’s non-violent philosophy and Leela’s preference for, shall we way, direct action. This story is no exception. If you’re a fan of historical adventures, definitely get this one.

The Auntie Matter

TARDIS team: Fourth Doctor and Romana I

Rating: meh | ok | pretty good | great | freaking awesome

Bite: Doctor Who does P.G. Wodehouse BRILLIANTLY. Put this one at the very top of your list! 

A British dandy who has a history of short but intense relationships takes a fancy to Romana, but his titular Auntie has her own ideas. Meanwhile the Doctor and Romana appear to be having completely separate adventures from one another. Unbeknownst to either party, their shenanigans overlap for better and for worse. Also there’s a robot who nearly steals the show.

The Justice of Jalxar

TARDIS team: Fourth Doctor and Romana I

Rating: meh | ok | pretty good | great | freaking awesome

Bite: This one gets rave reviews from most quarters, and it is indeed very good. Plus, it’s got Jago and Litefoot! Basically, there’s a masked, superpowered vigilante running around Victorian London. What’s not to like?

The King of Sontar

TARDIS team: Fourth Doctor and Leela

Rating: meh | ok | pretty good | great | freaking awesome

Bite: Sontarans rarely get treated with any depth, but this story is an exception. Dan Starkey has been playing Sontarans long enough to have developed some real insight into their psychology, and between him and always-on-form writer John Dorney, the Sontaran culture has never been better developed than it is here (though as I recall, the Eighth Doctor’s story in Classic Doctors, New Monsters Vol. 1 also does a pretty good job). Plus, Leela interacting with a Sontaran who isn’t just an angry cartoon potato is nifty.

Philip Hinchcliffe Presents Vol. 1

TARDIS team: Fourth Doctor and Leela

Rating: meh | ok | pretty good | great | freaking awesome

Bite: I loved the Hinchcliffe era of Classic Who, and quite enjoyed this return to it, but at the same time, I was a bit underwhelmed. Neither of the two stories in this set wowed me; I find I don’t have a lot to say about it.

The Romance of Crime

TARDIS team: Fourth Doctor and Romana II

Rating: meh | ok | pretty good | great | freaking awesome

Bite: I very much enjoyed the Missing Adventure novel from which this audio is adapted, and like Big Finish’s other novel adaptations, this one lives up to my expectations. There’s lots of lovely intrigue and John Dorney’s usual quality scriptwriting to enjoy.

The English Way of Death

TARDIS team: Fourth Doctor and Romana II

Rating: meh | ok | pretty good | great | freaking awesome

Bite: See above re: novel adaptations, except this one is even better. 

Note that you can get both these two adaptations standalone or in a box set. Though the box set is also on sale, it costs significantly more than buying both stories separately. But you do get nifty bonus features, if you’re into that.

Requiem for the Rocket Men

TARDIS team: Fourth Doctor and Leela

Rating: meh | ok | pretty good | great | freaking awesome

Bite: Leela and the Fourth Doctor meet the famed Rocket Men, in an adventure not to be missed! It’s right up there with the best in the lineup for this sale. Despite knowing that Leela doesn’t actually depart with this story, there’s a real pathos and tension to her journey here and in the subsequent story, Death Match. Plus, the Beevers Master is in fine form, and K-9 gets lots to do! 

Really, you should buy this, and The Rocket Men, and Return of the Rocket Men (Ian Chesterton and Steven Taylor Companion Chronicles, respectively), and then also get The Crowmarsh Experiment (standalone or in its box set). Don’t forget to also buy Death Match, because although the Rocket Men’s story is wrapped up in this installation, Requiem ends on a cliffhanger.

Death Match

TARDIS team: Fourth Doctor and Leela

Rating: meh | ok | pretty good | great | freaking awesome

Bite: Not nearly as good as the first half of this story, but absolutely necessary to conclude that little arc (though you really should also check out the superlative The Crowmarsh Experiment, which is, alas, not part of this sale, but includes a sort of coda to Leela and Marshall’s story). The Beevers Master is the highlight of this story, and John Leeson as K-9 is brilliant as always.

The Well-Mannered War

TARDIS team: Fourth Doctor and Romana II

Rating: meh | ok | pretty good | great | freaking awesome

Bite: See above re: novel adaptations, except this one isn’t nearly as good as the other two. Basically, there’s a centuries-long unofficial cease-fire in an interplanetary war, and everyone’s quite chummy when the Doctor and Romana arrive. But politicians are stirring things up for their political gain. 

TW: The Chelonians are treated as rather a joke, and there’s transphobic elements to those jokes (same goes for The Highest Science, a Seventh Doctor and Benny novel adaptation which I nevertheless enjoyed more than this one). 

Note that you can also get this in a Novel Adaptations box set with Damaged Goods, a Seventh Doctor, Roz, and Cwej story (novel by RTD, adapted by Jonathan Morris) which I think is much superior to this one. If it were me and I was considering buying TWMW, I’d buy the box set in this instance, since buying Damaged Goods on its own is $13 on download; this way you get two stories--one pretty good and one very good--for a very good price.

Wave of Destruction 

TARDIS team: Fourth Doctor and Romana II

Rating: meh | ok | pretty good | great | freaking awesome

Bite: Other people seemed to like this one more than I did, but although I remember liking it pretty well, it hasn’t left a strong impression and honestly I don’t remember it well enough to write a very good review of it.

The Paradox Planet

TARDIS team: Fourth Doctor and Romana II

Rating: meh | ok | pretty good | great | freaking awesome

Bite: This is a fascinating and compelling take on what can happen when people start using time as a weapon of war. Pity that Legacy of Death didn’t live up to the promise of the first installment.

Legacy of Death

TARDIS team: Fourth Doctor and Romana II

Rating: meh | ok | pretty good | great | freaking awesome

Bite: The Paradox Planet gave us a brilliant setup, but the whole thing sort of falls apart in this second installment. John Leeson as K-9 is the highlight of this story (and many others).

BONUS RECS based on various review blogs, here are the Fourth Doctor adventures I’m thinking of buying in this sale, with an asterisk next to the ones that sound most interesting to me:

Renaissance Man*

The Sands of Life

War Against the Laan

Phantoms of the Deep*

White Ghosts

Last of the Colophon

The Abandoned*

Suburban Hell

The Cloisters of Terror (mostly for the return of Liz Shaw’s mum Emily, from the superlative Companion Chronicle The Last Post)

The Labyrinth of Buda Castle

Gallery of Ghouls

The Trouble with Drax

The Pursuit of History

Casualties of Time

If you’ve listened to any of the above and want to recommend which of them I should snatch up, please let me know in a reblog!

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Why the Doctor saved Clara and not Adric

With Series 10 just around the corner, a number of people on forums, news site comment areas, etc., are revving up their “let’s bash Moffat” engines for another year. And since we’re also getting a new companion some of the criticism is turned towards how the character of Clara Oswald was handled.

One chestnut I see popping up is how Moffat supposedly broke continuity by undoing the death of Clara. Well that’s an error to start with - he didn’t undo anything, the Doctor simply delayed the inevitable by pulling her out of time (not that he didn’t try, mark you). Just like he delayed the inevitable by “saving” a data ghost representation of River Song in CAL.

What continuity are they talking about? “You can’t change history - not one line,” as the First Doctor said back in The Aztecs in 1964. The Doctor isn’t supposed to do what he did with Clara because his earlier self said he couldn’t, they say. Father’s Day more recently showed he couldn’t, either.

But the complaint I see most often is “Well, the Fifth Doctor didn’t save Adric. What made Clara so special?”

I’m not making that one up. I actually saw that actual question posted to a forum. Presumably by somebody who stopped watching Doctor Who at the end of The Angels Take Manhattan and resumed watching with Hell Bent and missed the answer to that question in-between. (Even if one takes the view that Clara and the Doctor were no more than buddies a la Donna and Ten, Clara’s actions and contributions and sacrifices alone answer the question as to why she was “so special”.)

After the break, I’ll answer the question (at least in my opinion) of why Adric was not saved.

First, the Fifth Doctor was still (relatively) young when Adric snuffed it, less than 900 years old based on the on-screen age given by the Sixth Doctor a couple of seasons later (we’ll save the debate over why Nine claimed the same age for another day). He wasn’t even halfway through his prescribed regeneration cycle yet. So that means he was much closer to the days when he told Barbara “You can’t change history - not one line”. Watch the opening of the story that followed Adric’s death in Earthshock, Time-Flight, and Five basically says the same thing. In his opinion, he could not do a damn thing to save Adric. Possibly because ...

Second, Adric’s death was part of a fixed point in time. This is a concept RTD and Moffat have hammered home time and again since 2005 (the Classic Era touched on it, but only occasionally). The concept is that, despite what the First Doctor said, elements of time can be rewritten, but certain events cannot without causing paradoxes that could destroy everything. “I know when I can, I know when I can’t,” Twelve later tells Clara when she demands he prevent Danny’s death. The fact Earthshock indicates that Adric’s death was a prime factor in the extinction of the dinosaurs, which changed the course of Earth’s history, I think qualifies as a pretty big fixed point in time, don’t you? Even if the Doctor wanted to, he could not do it. Remember again that Clara still died on trap street - the Class spin-off has given us on-screen canonical proof of this - so her death remained fixed. 

Third, the Fifth Doctor had yet to experience the Time War, a period of loss and “do evil unto evil” that completely changed the Doctor’s worldview, even as he tried to suppress his memories of the War Doctor. He might have become more apt to take risks (though once again, Father’s Day took place during Nine’s era, so there are some risks he wasn’t yet prepared to take, at that point in his life which - by the show’s current dating standards - was more than 1,000 years (or 4.5 billion) before Hell Bent from the Doctor’s perspective.

Fourth, the Doctor was not in love with Adric. I know naysayers and haters roll their eyes at this one, but I call it as I see it. The Doctor falling in love with somebody is bloody dangerous. I’ve written about this before. The Doctor blew up a star just to say goodbye to Rose. The Doctor appeared to be prepared to change history by taking Madame de Pompadour away with him in the TARDIS rather than see her meet her prescribed end. And a real biggie: he put off saying goodbye to River to the point where the entirety of creation would have been destroyed had he died on Trenzalore and Clara hadn’t convinced the Time Lords to save him. And then we know what he tried to do with Clara. (Also, though I do not ship the Doctor and Missy, one could make the case that his allowing Missy to continually escape rather than killing her or doing something else to stop her for good puts the universe in jeopardy, too. Note the only time he seriously gave thought to ending her was, basically, for Clara.)

The Doctor in love is dangerous and so saving Clara is completely in keeping with the character as he has evolved over the last decade. And we have no real point of comparison with the Classic Era because with the possible exception of Peri, none of his companions that he might have had feelings for were ever killed - or otherwise made forever inaccessible. And of course with Peri, the Doctor learned within hours (from his perspective) that she hadn’t really died, so he had no need to pursue the matter.

Adric’s death was a watershed moment for the Classic Era, and it served to provide a rather divisive character with some eleventh-hour respect. But there is no way the Doctor could have or would have done anything to undo it, no matter how much Tegan and Nyssa begged him, any more so than he could have undone the deaths of the others under his care, like Sara Kingdom and Katarina and some of the audio companions. And again, he never undid the deaths of either River or Clara - yes, he tried, but he did not succeed. Nardole confirming River’s death in Return of Doctor Mysterio and Twelve seeing Clara’s name on the memorial wall in For Tonight We May Die (plus the very fact the Whoniverse still exists) proves this. Sad as it may be, River and Clara are as dead as Adric. Only difference is Moffat created outs for both to come back postmortem, such is the wonder of this show. River’s had her turn, so now hopefully Clara will be next.