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trashboatprince · 4 years

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Might as well write up my own version of what happened after Tentoo and Rose were left on the beach.

Summery: The TARDIS is gone, and with it the Doctor, leaving Rose and her new Doctor behind, with even more things to deal with that aren’t universe destroying, but seem to be reminders of times long ago.

Warning: this is very heavy with headcanons and such, but then again, aren’t all these fanfics with Tentoo always nothing but headcanons?

On with the fic!

An Empty Jar and a Cup of Tea

The straining sounds of the TARDIS distracted Rose from the Doctor before her, making her realize that the other one was taking his leave.

He was doing it again, there was no final words, no goodbyes, just a silence hanging in the air. Is this how it was with Sarah Jane? Other companions and friends in his past? Rose felt her heart ache for his actions, they were the acts of a distraught man, one who couldn’t bare to stay less his hearts shatter completely.

She wanted to hate him, for leaving her on the beach again, she wanted to jump onto that fading box and hang on for dear life, screaming at him to open up and face her like the brave man he pretended to be.

But she couldn’t do any of that.

Rose wasn’t stupid, she knew that he left her with the only option that made any sense, that worked. He left her with himself, a piece of him that was all for her, still the same man, just a little bit more.

While the Doctor in the blue box was left to wallow in his own depression for leaving her behind, the pink and yellow girl was given a chance to continue her life with him, in a different way.

“He’s so stupid.”

Blinking, Rose looked to the Doctor in blue at her side, seeing the concerned expression on his tired face. “Excuse me?” She asked, catching his attention.

The Doctor turned, looking down at her, his face still showing concern and even a little bit of reluctant acceptance. “How can someone so clever be so stupid? He knew that you at least wanted a proper goodbye.”

“You know why.” She offered him a tired smile that was returned in just a matter of seconds.

“Right, he doesn’t do goodbyes, he doesn’t like endings.”

“Do you?”

“Oh, I suppose I can learn to live with them.” The Doctor chuckled, giving her hand a squeeze. “Rose Tyler, at least you give me an ending to look forward to.”

Rose’s smile grew a little at this, but it dropped quickly when she watched the half-alien start twitching, his eyes wide as he covered his mouth. He started to cough harshly, and she saw just the slightest glimmer of gold escape between his fingers.

Something in her told her to grab at it, and she quickly grasped at the gold light. It was regenerative energy, warm in her hand with just the slightest tingle, like touching an old TV screen when it was on for a while.

The Doctor pulled away from her, digging into his pocket quickly, his eyes still wide, frantic.

“Doctor?” Rose asked, worry in her voice. “What’s happenin’? Are you alright?”

He shook his head before pulling something from his jacket pocket. It was a jar, filled with a few odds and ends. “Open this, quick!” He said from behind his hand and she took it, opening the jar before he snatched it back, dumping the contents onto the sand.

Quickly, he removed his hand from his mouth and slammed it down on the mouth of the jar. Rose watched as the energy fell into the jar, swirling around within it. Carefully, he removed his hand, taking the lid from her, before holding out the jar. “Put what you have in here.”

Blinking, she looked at the little bit that clung to her skin, before dragging the palm of her hand against the lip of the jar. The lid slapped down on it and he sealed it. “Sorry, I’m still cooking, it seems.” He tried to explain with a smile. “Guess all the adrenaline of everything that happened didn’t really wear down until now, body’s trying to release all the energy it kept built up in case anything happened.”

“Why… did you put it in the jar?” Rose asked, watching him bend down to pick up his little objects he dumped on the ground, putting them into his pockets.

“I can’t regenerate in this body, only one heart, ya know? So, I figure I’ll hold onto the energy.”

“To… regenerate?” A part of Rose didn’t want that, she didn’t want to lose this Doctor like she lost his previous incarnation or the one who just left.

“No, I doubt it will work, I’m saving it for the coral.”

Oh, right, the other Doctor had given him a piece of coral from the TARDIS, and the Doctor Donna had happily explained to him how to make it grow in record time. It was all Greek to Rose when Donna explained what to do, but this Doctor seemed to completely understand her. “You’ll use your own energy to power it up?”

“In a way, yes. I gave life to the TARDIS before, when we first came to this world. I gave her a few years of my life to get her run…” He swayed for a second. “To get her running… running again…” He was panting before he dropped to his side.

“Doctor!” The blonde gasped, dropping to her knees, hearing him groan. She was having flashbacks to a Christmas years ago, when he had first changed in front of her eyes.

“Mum!” She called out to her mother, who had been standing a distance away, calling for Pete to pick them up. Jackie was quick to run over, asking what happened. “He’s still regenerating, like what happened before!”

“Think we need to get ‘em to a bed?” Jackie asked. “There’s that nice hotel up the road, we can stay there until your father comes. Pete said that the weather’s a bit harsh in England right now, won’t be able to come pick us up for a while.”

“Sounds good.” Rose nodded, grabbing the Doctor’s jar, putting it into her pocket as she moved to grab him off the ground. Each Tyler woman had an arm of the unconscious man swung over their shoulders as they started to walk towards the road.

As soon as they got to the road, there was a loud crack of thunder over their heads, before rain began to fall in sheets, like something from a movie. Rose sighed loudly, great, lovely, just one more thing to deal with.

“He owes us when he wakes up, ya know.” Jackie said over the rain and Rose was sure her mother was gonna happily hold onto that fact.

The woman at the front desk of the hotel was very sweet, though she did ask why they had a passed-out man in their hold. Jackie informed her that he was a fool for not sleeping well and passed out from exhaustion and he was in need of a good nap!

Ten minutes later, Rose found herself sitting in a two-bed room, with the Doctor laying in the one closest to the sliding doors that led out to look over the shore. He was stripped of his jacket, shoes, and pants, down to his t-shirt and boxers, his poor clothes hanging from the shower rod to drip dry for now. Rose was still soaked, but a towel had helped a bit with that, same with turning up the heat in the room. She sat on the bed with him, gently petting his hair, keeping hold of his jar in case he released more energy from his mouth.

It has already happened once since he passed out, luckily in the room. Rose was sure he wouldn’t be happy if he lost any outside, especially since the last time that happened, it got the attention of a nasty set of aliens.

“Do you think a nice cuppa will get him up and goin’ again?” Jackie asked, looking down at the sleeping alien.

“It wouldn’t hurt.” Rose commented, brushing a few hairs from the Doctor’s forehead. “It worked before.”

Jackie watched them quietly for a moment, before excusing herself to go and get them something to eat and drink from the lobby. Rose was only half-paying attention, too focused on the man before her. Now that she was looking, he really looked exactly like her former Doctor.

Same hair style, same pattern of freckles and the little wrinkles he had around his eyes that revealed he was much older than he seemed. She did take note that there seemed to be a slight change in hair color, not quite the rich dark brown she knew, but with the slightest hints of red in the light from the hotel room.

“Finally ginger, I see.” She smiled. “Donna really was good to you, glad you got to spend time with her.”

There was no response, just the softest sounds as he slept away. That didn’t stop Rose from talking as she sat there with him. “I met her, Donna, but it was an alternate timeline version of her. I feel so bad for what happened in her timeline, I wish I could have helped, but I wasn’t allowed, I couldn’t, not until the time was right.”

She looked at the jar, at the beautiful golden energy inside. “You died in that world, and because you did… because you were alone, so many people died.” She remembered his screwdriver on the ground, she had tried to take it, but it was taken before she could grab it.

“He’ll be okay, the other you, I’m sure of it. He’s not alone. He’s got Donna. He’s got Mickey and Martha, Jack and Sarah Jane, he’s not alone.” Rose smiled sadly. “He’ll be sad for a while, it’s gonna hurt, it hurt me to be alone, but I had my family, I had Mickey. I made some new friends here, I hope you’ll like them, I’m sure they can’t wait to meet the mysterious Doctor I told them so much about.”

There was still no response, the energy in the jar was warming the glass. The human decided to keep talking, just to avoid the silence. “I have weird dreams, you know, about you wanting to die alone on Satellite 5, when you sent me away. I came back, looked into the TARDIS, I saw everything and nothing. I saw you in so many ways, but I can’t remember them, just you, just you in that leather jacket with the big ears, and you with the pinstripes and the sandshoes.

I saw the golden light of the TARDIS, and it looked just like this, and you kissed it away from me, cause I was dyin’. Do I need to kiss you? To keep you from leaving me again?” Rose leaned down, gently kissing him on the lips. She felt that strange static from before, against her lips, and felt him respond to the kiss.

He was still sleeping, but the Doctor kissed her back, so gentle and sweet, and tasting of something Rose could only remember the phantom taste on her tongue from so long ago.

She pulled away, just before he opened his mouth, and she caught this golden swirl like before.

Rose sighed, leaning back against the headboard. “You better wake up soon, Doctor. I don’t want to worry about you during another invasion. Mum’ll kick your butt if you sleep through that again, she was not happy about the Christmas tree that destroyed the house.”

Reaching over, she took his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. There was an unconscious squeeze in return. She ran her thumb over the back of the hand that she had seen sliced off on Christmas Day a few years back, now it was the hand that belonged to the man who promised to stay with her. And Rose believed that promise, she had never seen him more serious in that moment when he told her that he had one life and he wanted to spend it with her.

Her thoughts were stopped when Jackie came into the room, carefully carrying a full tray with her towards the little table near the television. “How’s he doin’? Still snoozin’ away the day?”

“Yeah,” Rose nodded, reluctantly letting go of his hand to get up from the bed to help her mother out, “I think he’ll be out for a while, he’s still spitting out regenerative energy.”

“That stuff in the jar?” Jackie made a face. “Why’s he keeping that?”

“For the TARDIS coral the other Doctor gave him.” Rose looked at the jar on the bed, then at the Doctor. He seemed to be mumbling something quietly in his sleep, turning onto his side, facing the window. His face scrunched up, like he was uncomfortable, or annoyed. Rose picked up a blue mug of tea, walking over to the side table the Doctor was facing, placing it close to him.

He took a deep inhale of the strong tea that even Rose could smell from where she stood, and she watched him visibly relax. The energy escaped him again and Rose was quick to capture it, sealing the lip once again. “Hope he doesn’t do this all night, don’t want to have to be awake after the day I’ve had.”

And what a day it’s been, Rose just wanted to sleep for the next few years at this point.

“Well, have somethin’ to eat, love, then shower and get yourself comfortable. I spoke with your dad again, seems that he won’t be able to get here until morning with all this rain.” The older Tyler gestured to the window, the rain was still coming down hard and the storm was still raging.

“I guess you’re right.” Rose nodded, moving to sit at the table with her, digging into the food her mother brought up for them. She took another look at the Doctor, who seemed to have returned to his inaudible conversation.

She never took him for a sleep talker, but then again, he was known for his gob.

Even as a part-human Time Lord, the Doctor’s sense of time was not damaged. It was weaker here, in a universe he wasn’t use to, but he was sure that in a month or two he’d have a handle on it.

As of this moment, he knew that it was about 4 hours in the morning, thirty-nine minutes, give or take six seconds.

And he also knew that he was awake, and the faint scent of tea was in his nose, he could taste it on his tongue. It was a local tea, had a bit of spiced orange rind mixed in, lovely blend. The Doctor was surprised to find that his nose and tongue still worked, though that might be connected to his Time Lord brain that stored these sorts of things to memory very well.

His sense of touch was a little off, that, or this blanket that covered him was washed with a dreadful laundry soap. His sense of hearing picked up breathing next to him, and a loud snort and shuffle of someone else in the room.

Opening his eyes, the Doctor found himself in a dark room, but he knew that already. He could make out the faintest of object shapes in the room. The only sources of light were from the alarm clock near his head, telling him the time, and of his jar.

It was full of his energy, still intact and swirling about. It wasn’t as much as there would have been from a full regeneration, like when he had become some of his previous selves. His counterpart had used a good chunk of it to heal himself and threw the rest into the hand that became the Doctor in this room.

It hadn’t been a lot of energy left, but this was still plenty to help feed the TARDIS coral, along with some other objects he had sneaked off the ship.

Carefully, the half-Time Lord picked it up off the bed, before realizing that it had been resting between him and someone. Pausing, he looked at the other occupant of the bed, seeing blonde hair in the glow of the jar, and a face he had seen in dreams for so long. The Doctor smiled softly, remembering what had happened, and who he was with.

Another snort was heard across the room.

Oh, apparently Jackie was here as well, okay.

Carefully, the Doctor got himself out of bed and made his way to the bedroom, stumbling on tired legs. Uhg, a side-effect of being human, probably. He got himself inside and turned on the lights, wincing at the brightness before adjusting to it.

There, he could see himself for the first time in the mirror, he hadn’t even bothered with the one in his wardrobe room back on the TARDIS-

He swallowed thickly, no, that wasn’t his anymore, it belonged to one person, a very sad person who needed time to heal.

The Doctor looked at the man in the reflection, seeing that he looked just like his counterpart, crazy hair, brown eyes, which was still strange cause he had never had brown eyes before, and yet still not a ginger. Can’t win them all. Freckles still there, though the mole had moved on his back, in fact, there were more freckles on his back and shoulders.

A side effect from Donna, probably.

He looked just like the other Doctor, but he also picked up a few things from Donna.

Could be worse, he could have done this with Jack. That thought alone made the Doctor shudder violently.

“Bleh.” He shook his head and continued to examine himself. He hadn’t really gotten a chance to see how different things were, especially because he really couldn’t look at his naked self with Donna right there!

Oh, Donna, she didn’t deserve what happened, but it’s better than her dying. He would rather she forgot him completely than to die because of him.

A little part of the Doctor hoped his other self could accidentally run into her after he’s changed his face sometime in the future, just to get a little closure. He’d need it.

The Doctor distracted himself from feeling upset with figuring things out about this new self he was given. For one thing, he seemed to be mostly Time Lord, which was a saving grace for his mind. However, the need to go back to sleep was strong, and the Doctor never really enjoyed sleep to begin with, so this was gonna be trouble.

His eyesight wasn’t the best, might have to upgrade the brainy specs, they could actually serve a true purpose now. His other senses seemed almost normal, just a little muted in some areas, but that’s alright, might be better for him with this form.

His right hand was more sensitive to touch, he noticed, his left was duller, much more human-based. This was gonna take some getting used to.

With a yawn, he turned off the light and made his way back into the room, where Rose and Jackie continued to sleep. He grabbed the cold mug of tea from the nightstand and found the microwave, activating it and hoping the women in the room were heavy sleepers. Once his drink was hot to his liking, he took a seat on the bed and took a drink.

Oh, that’s brilliant, made him feel a bit more normal. Heh, even this body needed a good cuppa to get itself back into shape.

Guess that’s why it was left by his side of the bed, a little wake up attempt. He took another drink and relaxed as he looked out the large windows. Getting up, he went to the sliding door and stepped outside.

The Doctor could smell the rain, it had stormed, there was still a slight feel of static in the air, but the rain was just a drizzle now. He stepped on the damp balcony, protected from the drizzle by an awning above his head. It was surreal to him, standing here at nearly five in the morning in a parallel Norway.

Not too long ago, he had been a hand in a jar, resting in the TARDIS and before that, in Torchwood. Now? Now he was the Doctor, a new version of him, part human, part Time Lord, still the same Doctor.

He was here in Pete’s World, left with no TARDIS or way back to his universe. But he had Rose, he had her, a new chance at life, even after everything he had done, he could start over. It’ll be tough, but the Doctor always loved a challenge.

He glanced over his shoulder when he heard something, seeing a tired Rose standing in the doorway to the balcony. “Doctor..?” She asked in a sleepy voice.

The Doctor turned and smiled. “Hello Rose Tyler, you should be sleeping.”

“So should you…” She shuffled towards him, leaning against his chest. The Doctor couldn’t help but to blush at this, she just did it like it was perfectly normal for them. “Come back to bed, ‘s cold.”

“I-I’ve got tea.”

Rose glanced at the mug, blinking slowly. “Oh. Oh!” Something seemed to click in her head, waking her up. “Did it work? Mum and I figured that tea might get you up and runnin’ again, like it had before.”

“Ah, it worked brilliantly.” He gave her his signature grin, taking another drink. “Not your mum’s tea like before, but it tastes and smells pretty good, so I can’t judge.”

Rose seemed to smile at that, lazily wrapping her arms around him. “So, you’re good then? No need for us to worry?”

“I’m perfectly fine, I think I’m good.” He replied, looking at his pink and yellow girl. He wrapped his arm around her and kissed her forehead. “Should go to bed, this body wants more sleep and it’s not part of the regenerative cycle.”

She laughed a little into his chest and walked with him back into the room, closing the door behind them. Rose got into bed and waited for him to lay down under the covers before moving close to him, hugging onto him tightly. “I can’t believe you’re here. You’re real.” She whispered.

“And so are you.” He replied quietly, holding her tight in return. “We’re both here, we’re both together, and in due time, we’ll be off having adventures together.”

“I’d like that.” She said with a smile in her voice. “Can’t wait for your jar to make that true.”

“Well, with that cup of tea, things are just getting started.”

END

That was fun! And long, eight pages, been a while since I’ve written that much for a one-shot!

Yeah, as I said, this is pretty much headcanon based. I’m all for Rose being all ‘is he or is he not the Doctor’ in fics, but I rather like the idea that Rose also doesn’t care. This is *her* Doctor, and she’s not about to look a gift horse in the mouth!

Also, I got to put in a pretty good reference in here, so that’s a plus. Can you guess what it was?

Thanks for reading!

#doctor who #tentoo #rose tyler #tentoo x rose #tenrose #jackie tyler #john's drabbles

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feelieking · 4 years

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Series 12

A somewhat belated post - I started typing up my thoughts about Series 12 shortly after it ended, but only found the energy for a sustained bout of typing while taking a few days off work.

Season 12 of Doctor Who is now over. Readers may recall that I felt season 11 was pretty lacklustre. Season 12… has been an improvement, but a lot of the issues remain. The cast are great – Jodie Whittaker is fantastic, and I honestly cannot understand the vocal subset of fandom who insist on saying she can’t act – but there are too many regular characters, which means that none of the three companions get a decent share of screen time or character development. There’s been an improvement in the number and development of the guest characters, but many episodes have really suffered from the problem of scooping up all of the NPCs into the TARDIS and carting them along. As a consequence, a lot of episodes really struggle to cultivate a sense of location, and having guest characters in the TARDIS becomes run of the mill.

It’s also very interesting to me that, after making his first series almost entirely continuity-free, Chibnall’s second series is probably the most fanwanky we’ve ever had. Spoilers for all of the episodes follow.

Spyfall is a strong start to the series. The aliens were far scarier and better realised than anything for the preceding series, and part one benefitted from a strong sense of style and place, a slow build of the plot, and a genuinely shocking and tense cliffhanger. Part two floundered a bit by comparison, choosing to rattle through both Ada Lovelace in Victorian England and Noor Inayat Khan in Nazi-occupied Paris. Either one of these pairs of characters and settings would have been strong enough for an episode on their own; smooshed together, neither was really given a chance to develop. Still, the Doctor/Master scene on the Eifel Tower was very well done.

Orphan 55 seemed to go down very badly with my friends when it was transmitted, but I rather enjoyed it. It was a very trad base under siege story with a proper cast of supporting characters and some genuinely tense and scary moments. The “twist” of it being Earth all along, however, fell very flat – it’s a bit of a cliché by now, added nothing to the story, and has been done better before by earlier Doctor Who stories! The Doctor’s moralising speech at the end also made me grind my teeth – as others have said, it’s not that I disagree at all with the moral, but that we were bright enough to work it out from the episode without needing to have the Doctor break the forth wall to address the audience directly. I also question the logic of the Doctor taking the entire supporting cast, including a frail elderly lady and a young child, with her on her monster hunt, rather than leaving a group behind at the more defensible holiday camp.

Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror was really good, and felt like the most Doctor Who-y story of the Chibnall era by some margin. Great cast, great monsters (despite the usually reliable Anjili Mohnidra hamming it up as the scorpion queen) – all three of the main human guest cast were proper, fleshed-out characters – and a strong sense of location. The thing that struck me afterwards, however, as I rhapsodised about how much I’d enjoyed this episode and that it was the best new Doctor Who story in ages, was that in a Davies or Maffatt season, this would have been a good middle of the road episode, and not the showstopper it was here.

What can I say about Fugitive of the Judoon? The whole episode is one big slight of hand, which is pulled off very well – but as a consequence, it’s difficult to think on the plot as a whole. The Judoon are back as a returning monster at least in part to distract from the surprise reappearance of Captain Jack, which I suspect in turn was at least in part to keep the audience’s mind off of who Ruth could really be. The pay-off to that, when it comes, is a satisfyingly shocking moment that raises a lot of intriguing questions.

Praxaeus, sadly, was a bit of a damp squib. It’s one of the worst offenders for the Chibnall-era trope of gathering all of the guest cast in the TARDIS and setting big chunks of the story there. The idea of the Doctor and her companions investigating a global crisis at different locations around the world had a lot of promise, but because the Doctor was able to just swoop in and scoop them all up in the TARDIS whenever needed, that idea never really came to fruition. Because the guest cast were all thrown onto the ship, a lot of them never really got the chance to shine – and it’s never explained exactly how captured astronaut Adam is able to text his location to grumpy policeman husband Jake – though at least kudos goes to the episode for a really down to earth portrayal of a same-sex marriage.

Can You Hear Me? was hugely frustrating – this could have been a gem of an episode, but as it is it sinks like a lead balloon. The problem is that the writer has thrown far too many ideas at the story in the hope of seeing what sticks. A mental hospital in Fourteenth Century Aleppo being terrorised by monsters from the nightmares of one of the patients would have been a really good episode. The Doctor’s companions and their friends being trapped in their dreams in modern day Sheffield would have been a really good episode. A ship full of experiments orbiting two colliding planets would have been a reasonably decent episode – but by trying to do all three at once in fifty minutes, nothing is given any chance to breathe and develop. Again, supporting characters are just thrown into the TARDIS and moved from arbitrary location to arbitrary location, and then the monster is defeated by… the dialogue saying that they’ve been defeated. It’s such a shame, because there’s so much good stuff here – Ian Gelder is superb as Zellin, and could have easily been a great recurring villain if they’d chosen to make more than one episode from these ideas – but sadly the whole thing is so much less than the sum of its parts.

The Haunting of Villa Diodati, by contrast, is superb – one location, really well developed and realised, a strong, well-drawn cast of supporting characters (and some very handsome gentlemen as well!) and no TARDIS scenes. The early parts of the episode are fantastically tense and creepy, with the horror of being trapped in a moebius strip of a house very effectively portrayed. Like any haunted house story, it loses some interest once the reason for the “haunting” is revealed, but the second half remains strong not least because Ashad the emotional Cyberman is superbly well portrayed.

Ascension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children is very much a game of two halves. Part one is pretty effective – Ashad continues to be an excellent villain (his big virtual confrontation with the Doctor is superb) and the grim reality of the Cyber Wars is very well conveyed. Showing the potency of the Cybermen by having them effortlessly destroy all the Doctor’s clever gadgets and scatter her companions is an excellent touch, and Graham and Yaz’s fight for survival is compelling and convincing. The wheels very much come off in part two, however – I like Dhawan’s Master (more on him later) but the fact that he perfunctorily kills off the far more interesting Ashad is a mistake, as is halting the episode for what feels like half an hour of tedious Gallifreyan story time. The “Cyber Lords” are a bad fan fic idea, look derisible and do absolutely nothing before they’re dispatched. The actual Cybermen, terrifying in small numbers last week, are unable to hit a single human with dyspraxia running away from them in their dozens this week. The big questions of the episode – why is there a magic portal to Gallifrey? How did the Master destroy the entirety of his own race singlehandedly? – are never even asked, let alone answered. And as for the awful deus ex “death particle” suddenly jumping out of the plot with no set-up – eugh! Pretty much the only thing this episode has going for it are the excellent Graham/Yaz scenes.

The two things this series is likely to be remembered for are the new incarnation of the Master, and the revelations about the Doctor. Sacha Dhawan is great in the role – his Master feels genuinely unhinged and properly dangerous, with a real predatory cunning – but given how perfect Missy’s arc and final scenes were, I’m genuinely a little disappointed to see the character back, especially in full-on villain mode. However, I will concede that jealousy over discovering that the Doctor really is “special” is a very in-character motivation for him to renew his vendetta.

As for the shock revelations – the idea of a secret incarnation that the Doctor herself does not remember is intriguing, and Jo Martin really makes the role her own. There was a lot of speculation at the time that she’s the “Season 6B” Doctor, between Troughton and Pertwee, and that’s still the idea that I like, and seems ripe for development. If she’s pre-Hartnell, then why does she call herself the Doctor, and why is her TARDIS a police box?

The whole “Timeless Child” nonsense however – why on Earth did anyone think that a protracted subplot to explain away a moment from the Brain of Morbius (transmitted forty-four years previously!) was a good idea? How alienating must this have been for casual viewers? As an idea, I think it stinks, not out of a slavish insistence that the Hartnell incarnation must have been the first but for the fact that the Doctor only really became the Doctor – the hero – as the series was starting. Chibnall tries to have his cake and eat it by erasing the Doctor’s knowledge of her previous lives, and reminding us on screen that the interesting thing about the Doctor is not her origins, but who she is now – but as that’s the case, why are we supposed to care about her Timeless Child incarnations? What was the point of it? Even if you subscribe to the idea that “who is the Doctor?” is an interesting and worthwhile mystery, the Timeless Child isn’t a mystery answered, just a mystery deferred. If I had to sum up my feelings in one word, it would be “meh.”

#doctor who #thirteenth doctor #DW #review #writings

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a-wunderous-nuzlocke · 7 years

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Chapter 1

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“Kyle? Your dinner’s ready,” Kyle’s mother called.

“Great, I’ll be there in a sec,” he called back. He shifted slightly on the couch and returned his attention to squinting at the TV. On it, a Pokémon trainer younger than himself was up against Misty of Cerulean City Gym. It was down to the wire - each trainer was using their final Pokémon. Of course, Kyle had seen this situation enough times to hedge his bets on Misty - she had a few years of experience on her opponents.

Water pooled around the center gem of Misty’s Starmie, ready to fire at a moment’s notice, and...

Pewwwt!

The image in the TV shrank to nothing as the screen turned off. Kyle shrugged himself off the couch. “I said I was coming, Mom...” he muttered.

His mom had just enough time to ask, “What do you mean, honey?” when the rest of the lights turned off. The entire house went dark.

“This isn’t good,” Kyle muttered, running to the window. Sure enough, every house in Pallet was now engulfed in darkness. Within a few minutes, the only things cutting through the gloom were flashlight beams and fireflies.

Kyle and his mother stood with the neighbors in the center of town. Everyone was talking at once:

“Good thing it’s summer -”

“The stuff in my fridge is going to be bad by tomorrow morning, I hope this doesn’t last very long -”

“I don’t know what we’ll do if it does -”

“Hey, there’s Professor Oak!”

It was hard to make out, but sure enough, a harried Professor Oak was jogging towards them. “Any news, doc?” someone asked.

“Hi, everyone,” Oak said. “First of all, don’t panic.”

“Great, now I’m panicking,” someone mumbled. Oak wisely ignored him.

“Second,” Oak continued, “this blackout clearly wasn’t born of natural causes. We’re looking into it, and we think we might have an answer, but the blackout itself is only a symptom of a bigger problem. That said, our biggest problem is the blackout right now, because we estimate this is going to last a few days. About a week.”

“A week?!” The town erupted into noise again.

“I can’t believe it!”

“What am I supposed to -”

“Hey, hey! You’re lucky none of you died from the sheer amount of power that just shot through Pallet Town!” Oak snapped sternly. The chatter quickly evaporated. “We can’t have people panicking. What we need is a handful of people who are willing to run up to Pewter and bring back as many provisions as they possibly can.”

The people of Pallet looked around at each other. Many of the residents were elderly, and certainly wouldn’t be in any condition to go anywhere, nevermind Pewter. And with the threat of wild Pokémon in the tall grass, it would be too dangerous for any small child.

“Which is why, if he’s willing, I’d like to nominate my grandson, Gary, to go.”

Someone’s flashlight flicked towards Gary, a lanky boy with a sour face. He crossed his arms and slouched. “You’re gonna send me out alone? No thanks, gramps. Count me out.”

“How about Kyle?” Kyle’s mom said. “I mean, if you want to.”

Kyle blinked in surprise. “Well, you all need these supplies, so yeah. I’ll do it...but...”

Oak smiled reassuringly. “Of course, you won’t be going alone. I’ve recently obtained three new Pokémon, one of which will be yours to keep!”

Gary straightened up suddenly. “Hey, wait a minute, I want back in, gramps! That’s not fai - I mean, you can’t let him go by himself!”

“I thought you’d say that. Come with me, both of you.”

Oak led the two into his lab. It was just as dark as the rest of Pallet was currently, but the various aides with their high-powered flashlights were inordinately helpful. Gary walked shoulder-to-shoulder with Professor Oak, with Kyle trailing a few feet behind.

“Now, Kyle, the three Pokémon have just come in from Celadon. I know your history with Pokémon, but I assure you that these three are some of the friendliest you’ll ever meet. They’re companions, not competitors.”

Oak gestured to his own lab table. On it were three full Pokéballs. Gary’s eyes shone with excitement. Kyle, however, shrank from them.

“Go ahead, Kyle,” Oak encouraged him.

Kyle eyed the Pokéballs. He suddenly wished he was Gary. Gary would know which one to pick. Instead, he simply picked up the middle one.

“Ah! Charmander, a fire-type. He’ll be like a Swiss Army knife to you, I guarantee.” Oak smiled. “That’s the one you want?”

“Well...I’m afraid I don’t know very much about Pokémon, sir. But I will take this one.” Kyle tried to return the smile, but it faltered.

“Gramps, don’t I get one too?” Gary whined. “You promised.”

“Yes, yes,” Oak said exasperatedly, “take your pick. Remember you’re doing this for Pallet Town, not yourself.”

“Whatever,” Gary replied with a shrug. “This one looks cool, doesn’t it? Cooler than yours!” With a press of the center button, he released a Squirtle.

“If you say so,” Kyle mumbled. “Mr. Oak, shouldn’t we get going?”

“I guess you’d better,” Oak replied. “Be safe - oh, actually! Before you go, why don’t you take one of these?” Oak turned away from them and cleared some papers away from his counter. Turning back to them, he handed each of the boys a thick plastic rectangle, about the size of a paperback book.

“That’s a Pokédex,” he said proudly. “My own invention. It’s a walking dictionary for Pokémon. I was going to ask a few of my researchers to complete these, but I think they’ll serve you well, too.”

“Yawn! Thanks, Gramps, but I don’t think I’ll be using your little science project too much. Gotta jet, smell you guys later!” Gary said, strutting out of the lab.

“I’m worried about him...” Oak remarked as he left. “Let’s see...you’ll want one of these!” He produced a spray bottle and a backpack.

“That bottle is a Potion. Spray it on your Pokémon and he’ll feel much better. Speaking of which, Kyle, why don’t you get to know your Pokémon a little? It’d be bad if you two went out there without knowing anything about each other.”

“Um...OK,” Kyle said, accepting the Potion and bag, and releasing the Charmander.

“He came with the name Wunder,” Oak said as the Charmander stretched. “I think it suits him quite well, don’t you?”

The Charmander swept his tail in front of his face to see, and promptly sneezed. “Achoo! H...hello?”

Kyle raised his eyebrows. He’s talking to me... “Hi,” he said. “Uh, I'm your trainer. Kyle.”

Wunder’s face lit up. “Kyle!” He immediately waddled over and embraced Kyle’s leg with his stubby arms. Then he sneezed into Kyle’s pant leg.

“I told you they were affectionate,” Oak chuckled.

Hesitantly, Kyle reached a hand down, patting Wunder on the head. His partner’s tail glowed a little brighter with happiness, and Kyle felt his inhibitions melt then and there. “You and I are gonna go on a mission! How does that sound, buddy?”

“Mission?” Wunder repeated, astonishment in his eyes.

“That’s right! Now, I think we’d better get going, huh?”

Wunder gave him a toothy smile. Armed with innocence incarnate, Kyle prepared himself to leave behind any sort of familiarity.

In the darkness, it was difficult to see. Being grabbed by the collar and thrown against the wall by Gary Oak certainly didn’t help.

“Oof!”

“Look here, you little turd,” Gary glowered. “You’re not gonna get in my way. You hear?” He ground Kyle’s shoulder a little harder into the wall.

Kyle nodded vigorously.

“As a matter of fact...why don’t we battle right now? Winner gets a head start. Whaddaya say?”

Kyle didn’t think he had much of a say in the matter. Gary let him go, and Kyle fumbled at his Pokéball. Wunder sprung out, facing Gary’s Squirtle.

“What’s happening, Kyle?” Wunder asked, turning his way.

“Rex! Tackle him, quick!” Gary shouted. Gary’s Squirtle hesitated, but after a sharp glare from Gary, started towards Wunder and crashed into him. Wunder went rolling.

The blow seemed to snap Kyle back to reality. “Sorry, Wunder! Defend yourself!”

Wunder got up and began to run towards Rex, but Rex was already tackling him again. “What’s your problem, Gary?” Kyle burst out.

Wunder stood his ground this time, swinging a paw at Rex. Rex went down, but was back up in no time.

“Can’t handle a little battle, Kyle? I shoulda known.” Gary sneered as Rex toppled Wunder again. “Finish him off, Rex!”

Rex looked unsure. “You don’t get a say. Now do what I tell you!” Gary snarled. The darkness pooled in the lines in his face, and Kyle could have sworn he was looking at a different person.

Looking guilty, Rex began to pummel the downed Wunder. Kyle felt his hands form fists. This clearly wasn’t a fair fight, and if he wasn’t mistaken, Wunder couldn’t take much more. Quickly, he rummaged around in his sack for the Potion, aiming it at Wunder and spraying.

As soon as the spray made contact, Wunder shoved Rex off of him, slamming a paw into his head. Rex reeled, landing on his back.

“Reminds me of old times, except your runt here is putting up a better fight than you ever did,” Gary crowed.

“Don’t call him a runt,” Kyle hissed under his breath. Wunder growled in agreement.

As Rex righted himself, Gary continued: “Geez, for once in your life you could try to be better than me at something.”

With that, Rex ducked his head into his shell and launched himself at Wunder. At a loss for words, Kyle let something slip that he was sure he would regret later: “At least Mr. Oak likes me!”

But it was barely audible over the sound of Rex’s shell slamming into Wunder. Wunder was downed once again, and Rex scampered to him. But as he reached him, Wunder kicked wildly, and it sent Rex sprawling, suddenly unconscious.

“What the hell?” Gary growled, realizing the fight had come to an end. “I picked the wrong one!” Angrily jabbing the button on his Pokéball and taking back Rex, he slung his backpack over his shoulder and stormed away. “Forget about your head start!”

Wunder looked at Kyle nervously. “What’s going to happen to Rex?”

“I don’t know, Wunder. I’m sorry,” Kyle said, walking to him and patting him on the head. “Hopefully we won’t run into Gary too much. We should go.”

The tall grass outside Pallet Town loomed in front of Kyle and Wunder. It had always looked frightening even in broad daylight, but in the night shadows, Kyle nearly wanted to turn back.

He jumped as a hand touched his shoulder. It was his mom, looking concerned. “Are you going to be OK, honey?”

Kyle relaxed. “Don’t worry about me, Mom,” he said, but despite that, he shared her fears.

“Mom?” Wunder asked, looking up at Kyle.

“That’s right, Wunder, that’s my mother,” Kyle smiled. Wunder promptly embraced her leg like he had Kyle’s.

“What a sweetheart,” she said cheerily. She stared Kyle in the eye and then said, more seriously, “Kyle, I want you to know that I don’t think you’ll end up like your dad. Especially not with this little guy by your side.” Wunder sneezed.

Kyle nodded. “Thank you, Mom. I’ll be back before you know it.” Despite his words, he couldn’t keep his voice from cracking.

“I’m sure you will,” she replied, pulling him into a hug. “I love you,” she told him quietly.

“I love you, too,” Kyle said, and along with Wunder, stepped into the darkness of Route 1.

<-- Previous Chapter | Next Chapter -->

#nuzlocke #nuzlocke challenge #storylocke #pokemon #pokemon red #charmander #wunderous

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spynotebook · 7 years

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Doctor Who has been on and off the air for nearly 54 years, and part of the key to the show’s longevity is that the baton of its lead character can be passed from actor to actor, from the First Doctor, William Hartnell, all the way to the upcoming 13th Doctor, Jodie Whittaker. But Doctor Who goes far beyond recasting—changing the lead character is a fundamental part of the show itself.

Recasting a lead actor to continue a popular character is not a unique concept—just look at James Bond. But in 1966, Doctor Who’s creative team built the change directly into the fabric of the show itself, a power that allows the character to escape death by completely transforming their body, both in physical form (including gender, as we know now) and in terms of personality. In doing so, Doctor Who has created a strange new legacy for itself over the 51 years since William Hartnell’s final story, “The Tenth Planet,” aired.

But the casting of Doctor Who’s next star has its own story, too. Over the years the announcement of who would play the next incarnation of the Doctor has evolved into a growing pageantry, especially after the show’s return to screens in 2005. Here’s the weird, complicated history of how Doctor Who has announced the new leads over the years, from its tragic origins to the global event it’s become today.

1966: Renewal

In 1966, the producers of Doctor Who found themselves in a troubling situation. While the show itself was hitting new heights in popularity, its lead actor, William Hartnell, was suffering from a variety of health problems, which led to clashes with the production staff. This led producer John Wiles to plan a radical move for the series: replace the ailing Hartnell with a new actor.

Initially, there was going to be little explanation for the change. Wiles planned to have a new Doctor appear during “The Celestial Toymaker,” a story which opened with the Doctor being turned invisible by the titular being. When the Doctor returned to tangibility, Wiles wanted him to return with an entirely new actor, too, as if the Doctor had been altered in his absence. The BBC vetoed the idea—and Wiles left while the story’s production was in process—but Hartnell’s deterioration meant his replacement was still inevitable.

Just months later, Hartnell reached an amicable agreement with new producer Innes Lloyd to exit the show, and Doctor Who’s script editor Gerry Davis decided to write Hartnell’s exit into the fiction of the series. He used the Doctor’s alien race, the Time Lords, to explain that he could continually change himself into a younger man when his body was dying out, a process originally dubbed as a “Renewal.” Patrick Troughton was picked to replace Hartnell, and the fateful changeover occurred in October 1966 during “The Tenth Planet.” The sequence, originally modeled after the effects of an LSD trip, saw an ailing First Doctor collapse on the floor of the TARDIS, his face hazily transforming into that of a new, younger man. Doctor Who’s survival was ensured, not just for the immediate future, but for decades to come.

1970-1974: Defying Expectations

Going into the 1970s, Doctor Who faced more issues behind the scenes, after Troughton expressed his desire to leave the show. That, plus spiraling set costs for the show’s constantly-changing locations, led to the decision to set the next season of the show entirely on Earth, giving the new Doctor a regular supporting cast in the form of paramilitary organization UNIT, and a new mission to defend the Earth from regular alien occurrences. Script editor Derrick Sherwin, acting as co-producer on the show, eventually chose Jon Pertwee to replace Troughton—hoping the actor, known for his comic performances, would continue to develop the bumbling jokester persona Troughton had brought to the role. Naturally, as nothing rarely goes as planned on Doctor Who, Pertwee went the exact opposite direction, wanting to cement himself as a more serious action hero.

After Pertwee’s exit from the show, producers initially were looking for an older, more Hartnell-esque actor to replace him. Instead, they settled on Tom Baker, then the youngest actor to play the role. Baker’s introduction would largely cement the canon of “Regeneration” in Doctor Who, a term which was used for the first time to describe the process in Baker’s first appearance in “Planet of the Spiders,” along with the revelation that it was a biological process inherent to Time Lords (although Troughton’s Doctor had described it as something performed by the TARDIS). During Baker’s first appearance, the Fourth Doctor also established that the now-traditional period of erratic behavior post-regeneration was a common side effect of the Doctor’s renewal—facts that pretty much still exist in the show as we know it today.

1981-1987: Troubled Times

A Daily Star report discussing Baker’s comments about a female Doctor in 1981. Via Twitter

Baker’s departure, after serving a record-holding seven seasons as the Doctor, is really the first time that a Doctor’s departure caused a major media stir for the show—something new producer Jonathan Nathan-Turner, hungry for attention while the show suffered ailing ratings at the turn of the ‘80s, was more than happy to stoke. It wasn’t all because of Baker’s exit, though; some of it was because of an argument we in 2017 are all too familiar with, after the actor cheekily told press that a woman could be the one to replace him. Nathan-Turner had no plans to actually cast a woman—Peter Davison had been chosen pretty quickly, although he was not the first choice—but the producer let the story run rampant in the hope it would drum up new interest in the show.

Davison’s replacement, Colin Baker, marked the first time a Doctor who had previously appeared in the show (Colin had played Time Lord Commander Maxil in the 1983 story “Arc of Infinity”) returned for the lead role, something that would be repeated with Peter Capaldi’s casting in 2014. But while Baker’s arrival on Doctor Who was amicable, his exit was anything but.

Baker’s time on the show as the Fifth Doctor was marred by production hiatuses and growing discontent at the show’s darker content, as well as the decision to skew his portrayal of the Doctor to a much colder, self-centered character. Baker was ultimately fired by the BBC 1's controller, Michael Grade, who despised Doctor Who to the point that he wanted the show canceled. His exit was so fraught that the actor was not even allowed back to film his regeneration sequence. This lead to the infamous moment in “Time and the Rani” where his replacement, Sylvester McCoy, made his debut as the Sixth Doctor lying face down in an incredibly unconvincing Colin Baker wig, which you can see here:

1989-1996: The Wilderness Years

When Doctor Who was put on hiatus in 1989, McCoy’s stint as the Time Lord came to a bizarrely muted end. The series ended as the Doctor and current companion Ace wandered off into the sunset, contemplating adventures fans would never get to see. Work had already begun on a 27th season of Doctor Who when it was suspended, but the series’ cancelation meant that there were no real plans to replace McCoy’s Doctor as the “final” incarnation of the timeline.

The mid-‘90s saw several attempts to resurrect the show, including a proposed American reboot pitched by Universal TV. That eventually laid the groundwork for a standalone TV movie in 1996, which was intended to act as a backdoor pilot of a complete Doctor Who relaunch for American audiences. During script work by incoming writer Matthew Jacobs, however, it was decided to scrap the idea of a complete overhaul of Doctor Who’s continuity and instead frame the movie as a continuation of the TV show, which meant bringing Sylvester McCoy back for a brief return so he could “regenerate” into the Doctor’s next incarnation.

Paul McGann was the production’s first and only choice for the role of the Eighth Doctor, despite initial hesitation from both Fox, which co-produced the movie, and McGann himself, who was unsure if he could commit to the possibility of a TV series after the movie. They needn’t have worried; the TV movie—simply titled Doctor Who—flopped in America, despite solid ratings in the UK, and future Who plans were scrapped. McGann remained an official Doctor, but the series was doomed to lie dormant for nearly a decade.

2005: The Return

Doctor Who’s return to TV after years away was announced without a cast in place. While the British press went on to speculate all sorts of weird potential Doctors for the new series (names like comedians Eddie Izzard and Ken Dodd were bandied about), the BBC intended to root Doctor Who in a modern and self-serious tone, and unveiled Christopher Eccleston—then best known for his role as Jesus Christ in The Second Coming—as the new Doctor in 2004. Russell T Davies, the show’s new executive producer, later confirmed that Eccleston’s Doctor would officially be the Ninth incarnation of the character, retconning a previous incarnation played by Richard E. Grant for a web animation series called Scream of the Shalka, released to mark the show’s 40th anniversary in 2003.

The initial casting for the show’s return was pretty standard, but Eccleston’s exit was much more controversial. The actor’s departure from the show came just days after Doctor Who’s triumphant return in 2005, thanks to newspaper leaks that led to the BBC rushing out a statement to confirm the actor’s exit. Even that was a disaster, given that the BBC then got in trouble for fabricating comments from Eccleston to use in its statement, which claimed he left the show to avoid being typecast, leading to the BBC apologizing again.

None of that even speaks to the fan reaction to the news—which was surprisingly livid, considering Doctor Who had a long history of recasting the Doctor at that point. Alarmed to have lost the Ninth Doctor mere episodes into his run, fans took to the internet to share their fury, which became so heated, popular Who forum Outpost Gallifrey (now shut down and rebuilt by former moderators as Gallifrey Base, and often seen by British media as the best gauge of fan opinion) shuttered for several days to avoid toxicity from developing any further.

Less than a month after Doctor Who returned to screens, David Tennant was announced as the Tenth Doctor, news which was unveiled in as simple a manner as his predecessor: a press release. No fabricated statements were needed.

2009-2017: The Event

Although Davies had brought Doctor Who back in 2005, the act of casting a new Time Lord only truly evolved into a grand spectacle under the auspices of now-departing showrunner Steven Moffat. After Tennant, gone were the days when a simple press release or a newspaper article sufficed to announce a new Doctor Who lead. Suddenly, casting announcements turned into major events, requiring ever-increasing amounts of secrecy and pageantry.

Matt Smith’s casting announcement came in the midst of an episode of Doctor Who Confidential—the behind-the-scenes sister show that had accompanied the series since its return in 2005—that was broadcast just days into 2009, two months after Tennant had announced his exit while accepting an award for the show. The setup featured a series of talking heads, including Tennant, discussing the history of regenerations on the show, the mystery identity of the new Doctor held a secret by participants, until all of a sudden a long-haired, lanky young man suddenly appeared on TV with the chyron “Matt Smith—The Eleventh Doctor:”

Peter Capaldi’s unveiling went one step further into complete absurdity with 2014's Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor, an actual live broadcast on the BBC, complete with random celebrity interviews to fill time up and a public audience, who welcomed a rather overwhelmed-looking Capaldi to the world with a laser show:

Thankfully, our latest casting change was a bit more subdued. Like Smith and Capaldi’s debuts before her, the announcement that Jodie Whittaker would be the next Doctor was a TV event, but instead of the BBC making a live announcement and trotting out the new Doctor to a screaming crowd, Whittaker made her debut as the Doctor in a short clip set within the show itself. It unveiled the first woman to officially play the character in the show’s history, and was aired after the BBC’s coverage of the Men’s Wimbledon final, as well as released online for international audiences.

In a way, it’s appropriate that one of the most groundbreaking casting announcements for Doctor Who since the first decision to recast the lead role was made all the way back in 1966 is so unique to all the others which came before it. Here’s to a future full of many more Doctors and their accompanying reveals—may they both be equally varied.

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