#even in the legend of ruby sunday

[gallifreyanhotfive]

To have an episode with Sutekh and be able to make THIS comparison....

Hmmm. Hmmmm. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

[skull-pun]

My ass really thought the tardis was gonna become evil like in that one episode of What's New Scooby-Doo with the Mystery Machine 😭

[gotyouanyway]

screaming so every time someone asked the doctor if he was a parent and he put on that brooding sad puppy face he truly didn't have kids just hypothetical ones he didn't meet yet i love this SHOWWW

[stompandhollar]

I have some….. harsh(?) words for rtd.

I miss when Doctor Who was scrappy. Where the working class was at the forefront of our story. Where the hero had a broken time machine and one shitty little gadget that only sometimes could do anything useful. When the TARDIS was cobbled together with glue sticks and a dream.

Rose as a story worked because it was paired down. ALL of good DW works when it’s paired down. The stakes aren’t the whole world or the whole universe ending. The charm and the stakes both come from the same place— focusing on the characters, and making their problems the central focus. Blink was stunning because the world wasn’t in danger, just Sally Sparrow, and for 40 minutes of runtime, she was the focus of the viewer’s world.

The “base under siege” episodes work because it matters just as much to us that the Doctor gets the crew to safety as it would if the whole universe were in danger.

Even Utopia works because while being a high-stakes-for-humanity episode, it’s focused heavily on each character, and on concepts, not flashy visuals and dramatic build ups with no payoff. Utopia has exactly the right level of stakes for the story it’s telling, and the twist at the end delivers because it’s on that same level.

Ncuti is phenomenal. He and Millie are the only reason I’m sticking around (with s14, not with DW. I metaphorically sold my soul to this show a long time ago and that’ll never change) and watching each new episode with the hope that it’ll get better. But good gracious we do not have a lot of substantial evidence to back that hope up right now, lol.

The dialogue is hollow because we don’t sit with any characters long enough for their emotional moments to hit home. These brilliant actors can’t even save the scripts they’re being given.

I liked Rouge so much because it felt so bottled within its own episode. The stakes seemed so low, and it was fun and campy and the energy was electric. But I’m disappointed all over again with the Marvel-ization of the show in the newest episode. We saw it in the 60th specials, and it’s back swinging again in TLORS.

We don’t want Stark Tower SHIELD UNIT and their big flashy technology to save the day. The Doctor running straight to UNIT for help at all was crazy to me.

Part of me got so excited when Death was revealed as the big bad. The deluded part of my brain immediately thought we’d get a paired down concept of Death, like in the Big Finish Master audio drama. And I still really hope that happens, or is at least a little bit alluded to. (or maybe not. maybe i want to write that story myself some day when i’m in the damn writers room for this silly perfect show) But as soon as they got my hopes up, they got dashed again five seconds later when it became evident how overpowered and goofy and trope-y our big bad is shaping up to be.

RTD shines when he’s writing characters full of hope and wonder and a need to see the stars. Moffat shines when he’s writing twisted little think pieces that show the indomitable human spirit. Both of them have had my heart and changed my life with their writing. And right now I need them both to take a back seat and pass the baton. Russel keeps trying to outdo himself, and it’s all become too grandiose.

We need a writer in that room that doesn’t care how The Doctor is going to save the world next, but instead, cares about how he’s going to save that one person right in front of him, who needs his help, now.

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

plot twist: Ruby is the Master under chameleon arch

[tinkerbitch69]

RTD, pls bring Susan back fr next season, you can’t build up this much foreshadowing just for a fake out pls I’m begging you

[mwagneto]

15's "maybe i'm the bad luck" "i bring disaster" etc is soooo... sweetie don't say that😭 like it's true but don't worry about it💞

[daughter-of-time]

what kind of organisation is kate running where 15 and 13 year old children are considered "essential" staff??? like, wtf kate???

[intuitive-revelations]

I'm not really a DoctorRose shipper, but here's a very unlikely but still technically possible thought:

If, per The Legend of Ruby Sunday, Susan really is the daughter of a future child of the Doctor...

...and her original name really is "Arkytior", ie. the Gallifreyan equivalent of "Rose"...

...there's an argument to be made that, like Rose Temple-Noble (ironically, herself arguably a relative of the Doctor in a roundabout way, via the metacrisis), Susan might have been originally named after Rose Tyler.

[wispedvellichor]

Hate how the Doctor initiated Ruby to regeneration all tenderly and calmly and in the context of the Doctor's granddaughter of all things. I needed her to be jumpscared with that information in the most Traumatic episode of her life. Like a true RTD companion.

[clowncollegevaledictorian]

I'm not one of the "the current showrunner is always the worst one ever" fans because I have a sense of joy and whimsy, but if RTD makes Ruby her own mother I swear I will fucking find him

[lemonycranberries]

last episode and the episode name dropping is still going strong!!

[thehumanwiki]

Susan Foreman nation, we lost 😔

[jadebread64]

has anyone pointed out that a tritone was played on the piano to summon maestro to earth, and that sutekh went by the name triad

[puns-and-musicals]

I love reading everyone’s theories about what’s happening on Doctor Who right now because all I can think about from the last episode is the brief moment where the Master’s leitmotif played. Where are they. Give them to me. Let me see them. Please.

[justareallyverychillperson]

Confession:

I used to think the idea of "sue tech" was too lazy of a pun...then I remembered- this is Russell T Davies.