#also this book was gifted to me before chibnall was showrunner so like; is the solitract there?

[seveneyesoup]

hang on i just remembered someone bought me a book of time lord fairytales years and years ago and i never read it because i do not care. is anyone interested in the contents of the book and/or does anyone want to place bets about the contents

[bikelock28]

Listen

- aka, Midnight 2. Both are written by the showrunner as a standalone, both use minimal sets and actors, both centre on an unseen monster. Although in Midnight the unseen-ness adds to the fear and mystery, while here the whole point is that it is unseen. - Also great example of the differences between RTD and Moff. RTD's Midnight writes about a group of people and what humans are capable of when scared. Moff's Listen is timey-wimey and concerned with the nature of the Doctor and the idea of stories. - I'd say this is one of Moff's best standalones, probs 3rd behind GitF and Blink. It's very well-scripted and just a great bit of storytelling. - I like this ep because it's the closest we get to what the Doctor usually does when he isn't running from aliens. He's a clever/bonkers bloke going and seeing things because he can, and coming up with theories. - I personally have never had the nightmare apparently everybody's had. - I bloody love this opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Kno520uCE .I love the image of him sitting on top of the TARDIS. The to-camera stuff could easily not have worked (I don't think it would have at all with 10 or 11) but 12's fieceness, the darkness of this TARDIS, the fact that he's talking about talking to himself all makes it work (it's used again in Before The Flood, when he plays Beethoven's 5th of electric guitar). - Despite this being a story about the Doctor, it's a gift on an episode for Coleman. She's a normal girl on a date, she's maternal with Rupert, she's exasperated at the Doctor turning up unhelpfully, she's intrigued at meeting a possible descendant, and at the end she gets her big "Do as you are told" moment with the Doctor. God, Clara was soooo much better with 12 than 11, it's unreal. - Highlight for me is when the Dr says, "In the TARDIS, right now, do as you are told" and she mumble-hiss-cries, "You're an idiot". Her delivery of that line is so perfect, all the more so because it weirdly sounds like she's talking to a boyfriend. - Classic 12 being more alien than his predecessors, not only in his dialogue but in his view of his companions- he's found something cool, he needs Clara to help, come on let's go. - "She said she couldn't concentrate because my face was too wide". - Moff letting his characters be normal people doing normal things (here, going on a date) is something we probs haven't seen since Martha. Contrast from Chibnall's overall sweep of Ordinary Life in Power Of 3, here Moff gives us a specific ordinary event. - I'm looking at the script online and the scenes are so long- that first one of the date, and the Clara/Rupert one. Both of which are excellent. - The Dr's "scared?" bit in Rupert's room is great, and the unseen monster on the bed is sooooo scary. - Did the Dr install that TARDIS telepathy thing after all the fuss with Rose absorbing the vortex? I think yes. - "Why do you need three mirrors? Can't you just turn your head?"

- The Doctor giving the social worker a creepy talk about disappearing mugs, the mug disappearing, then it cutting to the Doctor drinking it- one of the funniest sight gags of NuWho. - I love how this is the anti-Blink. The Blink pull quote is, "Don't turn your back, don't look away, and dont blink". Here the Doctor tells Rupert, "Turn your back, don't look at it, don't turn round, keep your eyes shut, DO NOT LOOK". And they're both as creepy as each other! - Fun Fact: My brother knows the kid playing Rupert (I know I know, start queuing for my autograph now). I think he acquits himself really well in this, far better than other Dr Who kid actors. - Samuel Anderson does a great job playing Danny in this ep, all the more so because he makes Orson a noticeably different character. - "Is she going the eyes thing again? It's because her face is so wide; she needs three mirrors". Great payoff to that joke. - OK, there are some quibbles with this ep: Human invent time travel in 2114? Right, well doesn't that change everything? (Or maybe they gave up after sending Orson to the end of the universe? OK, that's understandable). Why was Orson wearing the Dr's Impossible Planet spacesuit? When 10 went to the end of the universe in Utopia, it was like the TARDIS was crashing, and the Dr was all "What? What? WHAT?" and wrestling with the controls. But here it seems pretty easy to get there (twice)? And speaking of, if they're at the end of the universe aren't 10, Jack, Matha, the punky feral cannibals and Derek Jacobi out there somewhere? And how did the TARDIS possibly land on Gallifrey? Gallifrey is missing! Why did the TARDIS decide to go there now, how did it get there? This was severely glossed over. - However, that scene in the barn is lovely. Follow up from lines from Empty Child, GitF and Deep Breath about the Dr's lonely childhood (although here it seems a self-imposed loneliness?). - "Fear makes companions of us all" is a line from an early Hartnell episode, possibly the first one. Always makes me think of, "Thus conscience does make cowards of us all". - "A soldier so brave he doesn't need a gun" *camera focuses on Doctor*. Not subtle, but true. - "I can't find Wally" "That's not a Where's Wally book" "Maybe you just haven't found him yet" "He isn't in every book" "Really? Well there's a few years of my life I'm not getting back". As well as being funny, this raises the point of the Dr going looking for things that aren't there. - "I've never been to Gloucester and I didn't grow up in a children's home" "Oh, you've probably just forgotten".