#but it’s so so so sleazy of the BBC and the DW team to not have safeguards in place to prevent Sherman’s from ending up in the show

[justgallifreyanthings]

The new sonic screwdriver has been shown and it looks to have circular gallifreyan on it, I tried to translate it but got nothing, but I also just am not great at translating it. I figured you’d be the one to ask, can you find any actual words on Ncuti’s new sonic? Or just what are your thoughts about the new sonic :3

Hi! So as you mentioned in your other message, the sonic screwdriver is supposed to say “the sharpness of the tongue defeats the sharpness of the warriors”. However I’ve got other thoughts so I’m gonna do a bit of a vent anyway haha.

First things first, I say “supposed to” for a reason, because the phrase is missing all of the dot details that would make it legible per the Sherman’s Gallifreyan system, and it’s chock full of typos. The orientation of the words also differs, in that they’ve rotated every word slightly so the first letter is whatever’s closest to the outer edge of the screwdriver; in Sherman’s, the starting point doesn’t rotate like that.

Even accounting for the orientation change, the screwdriver currently reads “the tatpness fo the tongee befeets the tatpns fo the wat?iots”. Which….. lmfao.

So the net-net is that the BBC stole co-opted a fan’s system, and then used it wrong, even though there are literally people out there (like yours truly) who would jump at the chance to design an accurate and beautiful Gallifreyan piece for use on the show. For free even! For the sheer pleasure of adding “featured on the BBC” to my LinkedIn!

And all this because the BBC is too lazy to create their own consistent Gallifreyan system, but also too greedy to appropriately credit the artists whose work they’ve stolen for the show — artists plural! Sherman and Sirkles and who knows who else! — or to stop levying copyright strikes against other fans using Sherman’s fanmade system. When the BBC fully steals a fan’s work, it’s an easter egg, but when fans reference Doctor Who when making artwork in an unlicensed fanmade system, it’s theft of intellectual property? Make it make sense. (Spoiler: you can’t!)

I wish I could just feel overjoyed to see the fan community’s love for Doctor Who and interest in Gallifreyan incorporated into the show! In a different universe, this could be such a love letter between creator and fandom, a testament to the way that media and fandom weave together into something bigger than the sum of its parts. But in THIS universe, it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth.