#gallifrey time war 4

[trailmixtime]

the chicken reviews

after time war 3 i began rating gallifrey episodes based on how many chickens appeared in them. last night i found the reviews again, so i figured i'd post them here so i can continue the tradition when war room 2 comes out :D

(quick disclaimer: these are just fun reviews, not to be taken too seriously)

enjoy :)

time war 4

time war 4.1: deception

no actual chickens, but there is a reference to a Large Beast when leela's trying to get back to the tardis. no description is given, so it is entirely possible it was a Very Large Chicken. but, given the lack of description, we can't know for sure. 1/10.

time war 4.2: dissolution

once again, no chickens, despite them being on a luscious green planet. no chickens are mentioned. if you listen carefully, you can hear some birds chirping in the background, but none of them are chickens. disappointing. 0/10.

time war 4.3: beyond

no physical chickens yet. however, it's made clear the ravenous can possess characteristics of that which they eat, so it's possible a ravenous that ate a chicken has characteristics of a chicken, but we don't know for sure. 0.5/10

time war 4.4: homecoming

no chickens appear. no chickens are mentioned. there aren't even any animals i could try to headcanon as chickens. rassilon probably killed all the chickens. -100/10.

war room 1

the last days of freme: -100/10

no chickens, and whatever chickens may have been there previously, died. very disappointing.

the passenger: 0/10

no chickens. no places there could plausibly have been chickens :( once again left disappointed.

collateral victim: 0.01/10

once again, no chickens :( however, there was the POTENTIAL for chickens, and i will give it .01 points for that.

the first days of phaidon: 0.01/10

same as the previous story: no chickens, but there is potential for chickens, and therefore it gets the .01 points.

[thebraxiatelcollection]

So I've finished relistening to Time War 4 since. I've not relistened to this since it was first released, so there were things I have missed. It has been an interesting listening experience?

I enjoyed it- but it has left me with mixed feelings. The content was good but this felt like the penultimate boxset- After nearly 20 years, I was hoping for a big cathartic ending, when it feels like actually, they've left it open for more - Brax and Narvin could easily be rescued from their respective 'deaths', Romana could be freed from the pocket dimension, Leela is explicitly alive and well - which is fine if they do (Gallifrey, after all, is known for its hiatuses), but so so disappointing.

Some random thoughts:

I really like that this series tied in, even if it was only briefly, lots of different Time War media: Romana and Brax's conversation about the Doctor, plus the frequent name-dropping of Cardinal Ollistra, tied this set in really nicely with the War Doctor series; the sabotaging of the Emperor Dalek's ship makes me wonder if this is what leads to the events of Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways; and the use of the 'Gallifrey Stands' was a nice link to The Day of the Doctor.

I love, love, LOVED hearing more Narvin backstory and all that lore on how the different chapters work.

I wish we could have heard more of the Apothecary and Danna. They had such interesting ties to our main cast, it was a shame they were only used once each. I like to imagine both the Apothecary and Danna knew each other and met up once every few centuries over cups of tea, and complained about their students together.

Honestly, it was super cathartic to hear Romana have a proper cry. Nearly 20 years of Gallifrey and up til now all we've heard is a sniffle or angsty speech. Sometimes, Romana hon, u just gotta cry it out.

The ending with Romana being forced to the archive by Rassilon was...hmm. It's not the ending I've wanted but i'll live with it for now.

Brax deserves better and I wish big finish would stop referencing him as a coward when he's not. He's many things and he has done so much for the gallifrey gang, he is not a coward. Give us actual writers who understand his arc!

Things I wished had happened:

Romana actually uses the chameleon arch. Really wanted something like Human Nature/Family of blood for Romana. can you imagine how powerful doing a similar story for Romana would have been?

Brax and Romana go through the Beyond together, and Romana for once saves Brax in all the times he has saved her. Beyond just leaves me so frustrated in terms of how Brax was written.

That they didn't kill off Livia and had her work as part of the resistance with Eris. I'd also like to have seen Mantus work with them; if reluctantly. I think that would have been so fun to see.

Leela getting to say a proper goodbye to Rayo

[i-am-become-a-name]

"Narvin, by picking up the sextant you risked your life. Your only life."

"Of course, and I'd do it all over again. Leela, I- I-"

"I know. I also know you want to ask me a question, and you know my answer - I cannot."

"I think I've known all along."

"If it was not this way, I would come with you. But Romana only lives while I serve. While we are apart... you are no longer alone, Narvin. "

"No. No, I'm not. None of us are. "

[locheye]

At this point I am speedrunning through Gallifrey let's be honest

[romanathree]

I drew this last year after hearing brax eat an actual rat

[magicofthepen]

War Room 1 Thoughts

My first listen, immediate reactions and emotions and ramblings below the cut. (There are. a lot of ramblings.) Spoiler free summary is that I enjoyed the boxset overall—I really liked a majority of the episodes, and I loved two of them. And even the one I was meh about, I didn’t dislike, it just felt like the weak link of the boxset. 

THE LAST DAYS OF FREME

I listened to the preview the other day, so see this post for my initial thoughts on the first 15 minutes.

(….and whoops I have more thoughts on the first 15 minutes.)

I love how Leela is resisting the Time Lords in such a visceral, physical way at the beginning. While she isn’t as fearless as she wants them to believe, she’s far more willing to fight back when it’s her own life (or well-being) being threatened. And she has been through so much, it feels like it’s all coming out in one drawn out scream as the Time Lords try to control her. 

But then: I do think Rassilon invoking Romana (even if he’s claiming she’s dead) is a way to subtextually dangle her over Leela’s head.

I do like quite like the new theme! The mood of it is so different from Time War despite not sounding that dramatically different (if that makes sense??)—but the energy it has feels right for this boxset. Time War was a plunge further and further into despair, and at last there are glimmers of hope. (….whether that hope will last is another question though.)

“Do I have a choice?” god this line is so raw. Leela’s choices have been taken away from her so much. 

Lou Morgan Gets Leela so well, please let her keep writing Gallifrey. (This is going to be a running theme here.) Anger is her default way of dealing with grief, she’s drowning in grief and rage throughout the story, it’s so devastatingly good.

I thought it was in shame in Time War 4 that Richard Armitage’s Rassilon spent most of the time monologuing—I’m glad a main character gets to properly interact with him here. I’m even more glad about the amount of times Leela threatens to kill him. Extremely in character. I would have been disappointed if that didn’t happen.  

And there’s a “coming full circle” horror with Leela and Rassilon. He violated Leela’s autonomy the first time they met by shoving himself into her mind and possessing her. And now he’s violating her autonomy again, dehumanizing her and trying to make her a tool of the Time Lords, having a literal collar placed around her neck to restrict what she can do.

“You are a ghost.” The Matrix projection of Ollistra’s earlier incarnation is a bit reminiscent of Pandora—a ghost from the Matrix rising again in a body that should be gone. That parallel makes Leela’s horror at Ollistra’s nature make even more sense.

“since Romana’s imprisonment in the Vault dimension” The General does know what really happened to Romana. Interesting, since Rassilon speaks as though she’d dead, in public and in private. 

“She is a blunt instrument. A tool. Nothing more complicated than that.” oh this episode is going hard on Leela being dehumanized. 

In Time War 2, it took until Episode 3 to have the Time Lords wipe out a planet, and that was the worst thing they’d done, an inconceivable atrocity. And now that’s the baseline. That’s what they’re starting Leela out with. It really drives home how much worse the War has gotten, how the Time Lords don’t blink at atrocities, and I love that this boxset didn’t shy away from going there immediately.

“Would the Oubliette not be more practical?” Confirmation that it’s officially returned. Although it’s odd that they assume the Daleks will know if they Oubliette the planet, but not if they destroy it through other means? 

The General shows flickers of compassion to Leela, but also clearly has Rassilon’s ear. He’s a fascinating character—he comes off a sympathetic in comparison to other Time Lords because he’s kinder on a personal level, but in this episode he actively tries to persuade Leela to commit genocide. There’s a different kind of horror in the soldier who is squeamish about torturing one person who he knows, but justifies murdering billions as a necessity. 

“One hundred microspans” oh the audios are back to using microspans, are they?

“Home. Some of us have no home left to return to.” I realize this was absolutely not meant as a Unity reference, but there are no Unity references, so I have to selectively interpret things where I can. Anyways, friendly reminder that the home Leela had built and found peace in for almost two decades was still only recently blown up, and her family lost to her in different ways. 

I love Leela’s malicious compliance with Time Lord orders. Exactly the energy I was hoping for!! 

The General is displaying typical Gallifreyan supremacist attitudes when he’s talking and an absolute willingness to follow orders in this first episode. He’s wriggling around his orders by the end of the boxset, and obviously by the time of the TV show he’s ready to defy Rassilon. But he still has a dangerous and terrible loyalty to Gallifrey.

“She doesn’t appear to be a savage.” Leela encounters one (1) person who views her as a person. 

Ohhh the themes of grief—the meeting hall is the memorial hall, the walls are built to honor the dead. 

“But you leave them behind.” This sounds like an accusation, but I read it differently knowing that Leela has, not so long ago, left her own dead behind when Veega died on Unity. (You didn’t ask for me to keep bringing everything back to Unity, but I’m afraid this is what you’re going to get with me.) And then she left Narvin behind—to die, as far as she knows. So I wonder how much of this comment is an accusation against herself, a desire for someone to justify it, to tell her that leaving the dead behind isn’t dishonoring them. 

“Come, eat.” I’m sorry, I burst out laughing here….I’ve joked before about how Lou Morgan has a running theme of side characters making sure the main characters are fed and rested in her episodes (Nevernor and Dissolution), and although Leela didn’t get a proper rest in this one, she still got a brief respite from Time Lord control, and a side character insisting that she eat. Incredible. I hope the streak continues. 😄 

Why doesn’t Leela try to warn the Fremians as soon as possible? Is it just fear of what the Time Lords will do to her? Is she biding her time to see if she can come up with a plan?

Veklin wants to go back for Leela and not leave her to die, but she would destroy a whole world — a terrible subjective morality.

goddd I love how this episode is in dialogue with Collateral. The plot is so reminiscent of Collateral: Time Lords about to destroy a planet, the people of the world braced to evacuate (for one reason or another), and our main character(s) trying desperately to save people. This episode is an echo and an answer to the despair of Time War 2, a chance to put Leela in the same situation Romana and Narvin were in (sort of), and a chance to write a different ending, and I love it. 

Leela keeps asking questions and testing Argatro’s willingness to trust her. It’s like she’s trying to verify that he does see her as a person, and like she’s testing herself to see that if her honor and morality are still intact. The questions are for herself too: is she worthy of his trust? 

The scene where Leela knows exactly how to push Veklin’s buttons and get her to back off—mmm that’s such an interesting character moment. Leela using words as a weapon, manipulating a Time Lord right back.

If the Fremians at this point in time don’t know about the Time War, I’m not quite sure why they recognize a battle TARDIS and Time Lord armor, but I’m not going to question it too much. 

Three of these stories are about “third option” answers (although only two succeed). And I am !!!!!!! at this running theme—it feels like a natural follow up to the Time War boxsets, which built a literal third option in the form of the Resistance. And now these stories are asking: how do you find a third option when you’re inside the belly of the beast, when you’re being squeezed by the system? Where is the way out? (Yes, there’s a way out.) 

But even when there’s another way, there’s still a cost, and this story doesn’t shy away from that. Leela finds a way to save all the people, but the cost is asking a Fremian to destroy his own heritage, to blow up the land of his people, so it can’t be used against his descendants. That is a devastating thing to ask of someone. 

And specifically, the solution being to destroy the hostage is…..Something. Leela asks Argatro to destroy something so important to him so it can’t be used as leverage to push people into committing atrocities (siding with the Daleks). This is at the same time as Romana is being used as leverage against Leela to try to push her to commit atrocities (on behalf of the Time Lords). If someone asked her to destroy her hostage for the greater good, so she could be free from leverage, could she have done it?  

“You do not lose her. You bury her. With honor.” Blowing up their home as a burial of the dead…..I am yelling inside about @sircarolyn’s post about Leela blowing up her home on Unity. 

oh my god Leela pretending that it’s the trigger for the bomb. “She was testing herself.” enduring the pain of the shock collar, choosing it on her own terms, to save a world. absolute chills. 

The background music in that big ending scene….absolutely losing it, it’s so good!!

“Your precious Romana is gone.” This is an overall boxset thought, but after Time War 3 when I thought Romana might truly have been written out, I wanted a Time War 4 that explored her legacy even after she was gone. But this is the boxset that does that. 

Romana tried to prove in Partisans that there were ways to defeat the Daleks that didn’t involve mass violence, and she failed. Romana tried to save Ysalus in Collateral, and she failed. In the Time War audios (the arc of Time War 2 and 3 in particular), she lost her faith in herself. She blamed herself. She stopped believing her vision for another way could be achieved. 

Leela finds that way. She achieves the objective of thwarting the Daleks without destroying a planet—and gets the Time Lords around her on board with the plan, too. She builds an alliance. Not only is Leela still fighting for Romana—she picks up that faith and vision that Romana lost. 

That vision of other ways to defeat the Daleks, of building alliances rather than slaughtering billions: it lives on. 

Once again, I love how Lou Morgan writes Leela in this episode. She’s angry and passionate and grieving and clever and kind. She resists, she builds new connections, she single-handedly stops the Time Lords from blowing up a world while working for the Time Lords. Lou Morgan lets her be her full brilliant self and feel all the pain of what she’s going through—a fantastic episode. I’ve liked Lou Morgan’s other Gallifrey episodes, but I think this is her best yet. And the best Leela story that Gallifrey has had in a long well. I might go as far as to say call it the best Leela story in all of Gallifrey. 

THE PASSENGER

Gonna say up front: this was my least favorite episode of the boxset. It’s not really exploring the same themes as the other stories, so it feels out of place, and there isn’t any particularly interesting character work—Leela especially is quite sidelined. A disappointment after such a strong opening for the boxset. 

(Not as bad as David Llewellyn’s episode in Time War 4; I wasn’t actively annoyed with this episode. But not as good as his Time War 3 episodes—the second of which was all interesting character work.)

In the Last Days of Freme, Leela’s lack of autonomy was so horrifying, so her not having the collar in this episode is quite a deflation of stakes. To be clear, it definitely makes sense that the General wouldn’t keep the collar around after Leela showed in episode 1 that she was able to endure the pain (and he didn’t like using it anyways). I don’t know how an episode that followed that opening wouldn’t feel less dramatic, and maybe the boxset needed to go smaller so it could build back up again? But still, all of the episodes are more dramatic and more horrifying—the stakes and/or the emotions are bigger.

It’s interesting that the General had enough professional autonomy to take off Leela’s collar, when in the previous episode he was highly concerned about following Ollistra’s orders and staying in her good graces. 

“My name is Leela. I am with Gallifrey.” I’m so used to hearing Leela introduce herself as a “warrior of the Sevateem” that oof, this hurt. How must it feel to have to change even a simple introductory statement to suit the Time Lords? 

It’s not clear what Leela’s long-term plan is, now that she’s been given more freedom. She’s going along with a lot of things—and we know that she wants to get Romana out—but we don’t know if she’s actively trying to pursue that goal. But I get that it would be tricky to establish Leela’s goals and endgame when this is an audio medium, and she doesn’t have anyone around her that she can trust to talk about her true plans to. 

So Leela’s working with other Time Lords in Epsilon squadron—and she goes in on some sort of ship. Have they given her the ability to fly a TARDIS? How would that work? Is it another kind of ship that she’s flying? 

Shades of the Devil You Know in this story—Leela working alongside dangerous Time Lords, trying to get information out of someone with a fractured memory. I was hoping it would be in dialogue with that episode like how The Last Days of Freme was a follow-up to Collateral, but Leela wasn’t central enough in this episode for that to be the case, alas.

Do appreciate the General calling out xenophobic microaggressions, but it’s a change of tone from the first episode? Is it just Leela that he respects?

I was taking notes as I went along, and one of them says “this guy recovers his memory very all of a sudden,” which. pretty suspicious yeah. 

I don’t like that they chose to deviate away from Leela for episode 2 to spend more time with the War Room side characters. This is her boxset, and the character work for her started off so strong.

“I have seen so much, but it feels right that I am here.” — That seems out of character for Leela to say, she’s not happy to be on Gallifrey. 

I’m sorry but it was so obvious that the weapon was going to blow up. Kelgoth’s voice when he’s walking Vibax through “defusing” it had the exact same tone as the main characters did in Renaissance when they were talking to the ambassador in the ship that was already dead. “Keep going, you’re doing great, nothing is about to go wrong, you are not about to blow up and die, nope, totally not.”

Considering Trave was executed in public for the murder of one Time Lord, I assumed Kelgoth would automatically be sentenced to death (although ooh Shada reference!). 

Rasmus is trying to manipulate Leela by invoking the Doctor, but she is not having it.

Fascinating that Rassilon isn’t the involved in this case really—Rasmus has a lot of power to urge transparency via the second interrogation (even though Rassilon might not want that transparency? but we don’t really know what Rassilon would want, he’s very out of the loop). 

Kelgoth is so enraged about the deaths of Time Lords at the hands of Time Lords, but I wonder if he’d feel the same about the Time Lords killing two thousand aliens. He does a terrible thing to prove that lives have value, but it’s always about Time Lord lives. 

Leela: yes the Time Lords are bad, but you still blew up a bunch of people. I can condemn everyone for what they’ve done, actually

“Many years ago you might not have left this room alive.” I wonder when in her life she’s specifically thinking about—when does she think she would have been more willing to kill? Where is her mercy coming from now? Is it from the control the War Room holds over her? Or is she just so tired of bloodshed? 

Again, interesting that Ollistra slash Rasmus get to make the decision about punishment, when for a crime this dramatic, you’d expect Rassilon to be involved. At least they justify why Kelgoth wouldn’t be publicly executed by talking about not wanting the truth to get out. 

“What Rassilon does not know cannot anger him.” As someone who’s lived through the Trump administration, “advisors treading carefully around the President to prevent him from getting angry and doing something dramatic/impulsive” feels a touch too politically relevant, oof. 

Chameleon arch as punishment, that’s an interesting concept—since usually we’ve seen Time Lords use a chameleon arch deliberately, consensually. And it’s alarming how the General intends for it to be worse than death—becoming human and losing all you are as torture. (Velkin and Ollistra defy him of course, which is brutal in a different way. None of them are lenient.)

And ooh is that a new thing, that by erasing something in the Matrix, it erases that information from everyone’s mind? Something else on the list of terrible, creative sci-fi punishments. 

COLLATERAL VICTIM

This is extremely petty but: this is the one truly disappointing title of the bunch. “The Last Days of Freme” and “The First Days of Phaidon” are distinctive! Memorable! “The Passenger” less so, but still distinguishable from other Gallifrey audios, so points for that. But now we have a Gallifrey audio called Collateral and an audio called Collateral Victim. That is up there with the “endless nouns that end in -ion” problem.

I do like the chaos of the cold open—the dynamic between the characters (completely bewildered and a bit out of it vs. serious and intense), the “what???” aspect of “oh the galaxy is being ripped apart, let me take time to explain why.” 

Is it a previously canon thing that the Time Lords are the ones to decide which points are fixed? Because fixed points being a choice of the Time Lords, a way they control history, is 👀

oh my god. the scale of fucked up that the Time Lords are at. destroying a whole galaxy, that’s an incomprehensible crime. (although someone says the word “millions” which is simply not the scale we’re talking about here. add a loooot more zeros to that number.)

Love the misremembering, the small details that shift around them as they speak. I do love a “this isn’t how it happened” kind of story, an exploration of memory. And this goes deeper in a really interesting way—the idea that memory is reality, remembering something decides what’s true. 

“an hour” oh we’re not doing spans and microspans in this episode then 

“You listen as well.” (my note as I was listening was: no Leela don’t fall for flattery, I don’t trust Rasmus)

Ambushing from the past—love how this episode goes “yes this is a Time War, yes we’re going to show that.” 

“I haven’t been yours for quite some time.” This reveal!! I’d been lukewarm about the episode until this point, but this is where it got me. The concepts in this story are so fascinating (I know I keep using that word…..)—a TARDIS gaining sentience and rebelling against the Time Lord, “bigger on the inside” stretched to its extreme…..this story definitely pulled me in in the latter half. 

“They think they’re the smartest beings in all creation, but they’re the last to work it out.” Love the TARDIS/human solidarity here—and love that Leela got it before the others did. 

Love how the earlier comment about “we can’t travel without our time ships” clicks once you Know—they aren’t traveling without a ship! The ship has been with them all along! And the concept of a rebel TARDIS is So Good. 

Super unclear how the Oubliette is being used to change history and not just erase things, but I am willing to handwave things bc I love the ideas this story is playing with. The planet is the chameleon circuit at work! The planet is the TARDIS! The TARDIS is trying to hold and save as much as it can, but the strain is too much. 

“We hide the universe from the Daleks.” — This is so similar to what the ultimate answer to end the Time War is going to be—hiding Gallifrey, the Doctors using their TARDISes to save Gallifrey, just in a different way.

Again, I love this theme of exploring “third options”—showing that they don’t have to resign themselves to only destruction and cruelty, but also not shying away from the costs of those third options (in this case, it wouldn’t have logistically worked, but even if it had—the TARDIS and Time Lords would have been given a terrible amount of power to manipulate the timelines). 

Okay! That was a murder! Damn, Veklin. 

“We have to get to the end.” “Why?” “Because we’re going to change it.” Such a powerful line, and devastating when you know how the story ends. 

An Arc TARDIS—a parallel to the first episode. An arc to save a people, a world, is now “what if we built an arc to save the universe?”

Leela is clutching so hard at the possibility of peace. She has lived at war for so long. 

(The TARDIS is twisting motivations and thoughts, but I assume that only happens when we specifically see the TARDIS rewrite something. In other words: I assume Leela’s advocacy for the Arc TARDIS is her own.)

Rasmus lied about peace, and Leela’s hope for an ally falls apart. (But since she has no one, I get why she’d be really vulnerably to that hope.)

“It simply isn’t practical.” “It is possible. And it is right.” !!!!!!!!!

god he literally had to shoot her to stop her. I’m so glad we’re seeing Leela resist the Time Lords in so many different ways—she’s not always successful, but she tries. 

That last scene is heartbreaking oh my god. The begging, the slow motion horror of it. The destruction can’t be stopped; they were dead from the beginning. Ephra’s desperation hurt, but when she gives in, when she accepts that they’re not surviving…..god I teared up. “I’d never have been born without you.”  The idea that the TARDIS couldn’t save them, not forever, but that the time the TARDIS gave them still mattered—Ephra’s going to die, but she also got to live—goddd this scene. 

THE FIRST DAYS OF PHAIDON 

I’m gonna be honest, my notes for this episode gradually devolve into just quoting bits of the episode and yelling. There will be emojis. 

Immediately yelling at the Eris mention!! I was sad that he wasn’t going to be this boxset, but I’m so glad that they still included him somehow. Really hope he shows up again later, he’s one of the Gallifrey side characters I’m very attached to. And I want so much more of Resistance!Narvin and Co.

Once again, despite this being a new era of Gallifrey, it’s so bound up in the Time War boxsets, and I’m really glad about that! Really interesting that here they chose to circle back to the very beginning of the War by bringing back Phaidon—and directly mirror Celestial Intervention, with the Phaidonians asking for help from Gallifrey. But the scale of the War and the Time Lord atrocities are so much worse than anything that had been conceived when Phaidon was destroyed. Like. Livia was still president then. Romana, Leela, and Narvin got a gentle reprimand for sneaking into the Death Zone. The different government bodies had actual power to vote on things. Calling back to the first episode of the Time War series really drives home how much worse things have gotten since. 

Note: a “time skiff” is something that existed before TARDISes.

Oooh, here Leela does introduce herself as a “warrior of the Sevateem.” A tiny way of reclaiming her identity, no matter how much Gallifrey tries to squash her personhood. 

“Lies are the difference between gaining trust of an ally and throwing it to the dirt.” — This doesn’t feel quite in line with Episode 1; Leela’s already lied to an ally for the greater good.

“Call me Gallifreyan one more time.” That frustration rings true, though. 

So the timeline presumably changed now that Phaidon was yanked away before its total destruction, but it doesn’t change much because Phaidon would still be gone at the time of Celestial Intervention. The events probably played out about the same way.

“Their former president caught my ear when I was a mere attaché to a diplomat. She sought to be our ally and equal.” / “Romana taught us both the same lesson, Acting Commander.” I am simply loving all the mentions of Romana in this boxset, but this episode really explores the idea of Romana’s Legacy—of others who she met or knew choosing to carry forward her hopes for peace. 

The storm’s whispers got my adrenaline pumping so much. “They’re here. She’s here. He’s here. It’s almost time.” was on the edge of my seat for this reunion, oh my god

“She was difficult, headstrong and demanded everyone share her agenda. We fought, though at times she may have slapped me if it weren’t beneath her. For all that, she never lied to me.” — Really love getting this glimpse of how Romana was perceived by someone who wasn’t a friend or an enemy. 

The name of the Ambassador that Commander Daari mentions rings a bell, I think it’s a callback to one of the early series.

One of my notes for Leela and Narvin’s reunion is “they should have hugged.” oh past me, just you wait!!

“My…..Narvin.” Feeling some kind of feelings here ahhhh 🥺🥺Hilarious, sweet, I love them!!!!!

“You blew it up? Ace trained you well.” “I trained her, remember?” my god Leela truly can’t resist teasing him. I love them, I love their friendship, I am going to be yelling about them for most of the rest of this post—

“Together, then.” “Together.” 🥺🥺

Leela and Narvin are much more forgiving of the General than I am. I know it’s all relative, but “a decent sort”? He was really pressing Leela to blow up a planet. That’s a thing that did happen! I get that you take your allies where you can get them when you’re in Leela’s position, but still. although I do like the side plot about the General turning back to help the Phaidonians, “I never could resist a lost cause.” I’ll probably pay more attention to that plot on a re-listen, my brain was just laser-focused on Leela and Narvin and wasn’t paying a lot of attention to anything else happening in this episode. 😅

“Time Lord technology rarely condescends to be too helpful.” oh Narvin, I missed your snark 

For a while, given the talk of a sentient weapon, given that the weapon was testing them for their intentions, I was wondering if it was the Moment. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. 

Finally, some solo Leela/Narvin time!! The parting in Homecoming suffered badly from having an outside party (Livia) there to prevent anyone from being properly emotional, I am glad this episode has grasped the importance of giving main characters alone time to have proper, emotional conversations that carry the full weight of their friendship. 

“Romana is a prisoner of the Matrix.” — Confirmation that her prison is part of the Matrix. also yikes at Narvin hearing it phrased in that specific way, considering this whole war started because he was trying to stop her being a prisoner of the Matrix.

And oh the way Leela says “serve Gallifrey”…..it’s so bitter.

“You must not blame yourself.” “Is it that obvious?” The way she understands instantly what’s going through his mind….the way they’re both blaming themselves for not saving Romana….I am Distraught.

“seventy years, maybe eighty” — holy shit. holy shit. This was the most “gut punch” line of the boxset for me. Seventy to eighty years since Narvin last saw Romana and Leela. Yes that’s not as long to a Time Lord, but I don’t care what Narvin says, it’s still Long. 

I am enjoying the way the storm lists out various descriptions for who Narvin and Romana each are to Leela, and both end with “Your friend. Your —” and then it’s cut off. “My…..Narvin” has similar energy, as does Narvin’s “Romana has always been….Romana. And Leela most certainly has always been Leela.” in response to Rayo asking if they’re like family. Love when these audios have these hints of “we cannot fully put our relationship into words” that also double as “you can read it in a shippy way if you want to.”

“Do not let go of my hand, Narvin.” They’re holding hands. They’re holding hands. I am Feeling Things 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

“We’ll figure it out together.” “Together.” I’m. yeah yeah yeah 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

To be honest, the choice was kind of a let down. I was expecting some sort of great moral dilemma, not “pick between several items.” I feel like there were ways to make “select an item” work as a way to physically represent a Big Choice, but this test didn’t feel like A Big Choice, it felt more like luck. 

It also felt odd that the Daleks forced Leela to choose an item, and then didn’t order her to collect it, so she would be the one to spring the trap instead of them? (Obviously the story couldn’t have that happen bc the Dalek needed to die and Leela needed to survive, but the motivation still feels weird—why have the Dalek risk itself when there’s a human it can use?)

“I’m sorry. Save Romana, Leela.” holy shit, he really did think he was going to die there. Narvin got a taste of self-sacrifice in the last boxset and is continuing to go for it, oof. 

The plot ending feels a bit anti-climatic (they happened to pick right? or they would have been alright whatever they’ve picked because the storm likes them, I’m not sure?). but I do love that they’ve befriended a storm, and I love how baffled Narvin is about it, lol

When Narvin walked into the tent, he put on his CIA Voice for a second, and it threw me—excellent bit of voice acting.

Giving this artifact to Phaidon gives them a lot of power in this War—they have technology that could rival Gallifrey’s or the Daleks’, given time to expand its range and power. And it means they’ve created another safe haven of sorts, like on Micallon. Plus an ally for the Resistance. But I think the safe haven part specifically is crucial—the idea that they’re gradually finding places in the universe where people can hide from the war. Try to live, despite it all. They might not stop the War, but that still matters. 

“We’re all stewards of Romana’s vision. And I won’t pass up this chance for her sake.” Romana’s legacy as a force unto itself in this boxset, the hopes that she lost being carried on by other people, and becoming something real…..yeah yeah yeah!!!!!

oh my godddd the garish arcade machine ship engineered that way by Ace is delightful, this is exactly the kind of flavor I want in my Gallifrey. absolutely adore that even the General drags his ship for looking ridiculous.

“I only like the terrible ones.” Narvin’s failure at being a Time Lord as something to be proud of!! He’s a terrible Time Lord now and that’s the point!! And Leela sounds so fond, I’m feeling things

hhhhh I wonder what the consequences will be of the General knowing that Narvin is alive (Narvin tries to cover that he’s working for the Resistance, but his involvement with the plan to blow up the Vortex in TW4 might be known by certain Time Lords, so this has the potential to get messy in future boxsets)

“and I’d do it all over again. Leela, I—” “I know.” screaming!!!!! not since “I will never betray those I love” have I been so wrecked by a bit of dialogue in Gallifrey!!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 that he was about to pour out his heart!! that she tells him she knows, she already knew!! I feel so normal about their relationship!!!

“I also know you want to ask me a question, and you know my answer. I cannot.” “I think I’ve known all along.” “If it was not this way, I would come with you. But Romana only lives while I serve.” yelling!!!!!! I am Distraught!!!!! 

god yes this is exactly the kind of painful parting I wanted from this boxset—she wants to stay with Narvin, but she’s being torn in two because Romana’s life depends on her, Romana needs her more right now. the heartbreak of the dynamic between the three of them right now—one used as leverage against another, two fighting on different sides in a War, one still believing another is dead….I need all three of them to be united and all have emotions at each other at the same intensity or greater as the emotions in this episode, please

“Though we are apart, you are no longer alone, Narvin.” “No. No, I’m not. None of us are.” asdfghjklal;egenuaceauin LOSING IT 

A HUG!!!!!!!!! A HUG AT LAST!!!!!!!!!

so um. in summary: I did like this boxset overall!! episode 2 was my least favorite, episode 3 started weak for me but really drew me in later. episode 1 and episode 4 are tied for favorites I think—ep 1 was just so good on so many levels, but especially re: exploring Leela’s character and letting her shine, and ep 4 was hitting my Deep Emotional Attachment To These Characters’ Friendships feelings. and the themes and resolutions of both of those episodes just really hit me. 

very excited to see where this goes next, now that Leela and Narvin are aware of each other and want to help each other and see each other, but can’t be seen to be meeting or working together 👀👀

[doctor-who-binge]

Davros speaking to 10: The Doctor, the man who keeps running never looking back, because he dare not, out of shame, this is my final victory Doctor

..... This face coming back, is it perhaps The Doctor finally looking back? Mature enough to handle pride and shame equally.

[thelittlecoughsomewhere]

Whenever I think about how the Doctor and Donna causing the eruption in "Fires of Pompeii" narratively functions as a parallel/microcosm to the Doctor destroying Gallifrey in the Time War I go insane and have to lie down.

Because this time he isn't alone, Donna is with him and he says the words out loud "Push this lever and it's over. Twenty thousand people." and he is waiting for her reaction and she puts her hands on his and they pull the lever together. And this time he doesn't have to make the choice alone, so he subsequently doesn't have to carry the burden of guilt alone.

And maybe, just maybe, this can be seen as his first step into his healing journey regarding his Time War guilt. Donna Noble - a woman who he grows to love and admire and regard as his guiding light - made the same choice (yes on a much smaller scale, but functionally the same choice) he did when he destroyed Gallifrey. He will never ever forgive himself (at least during his time as Ten), but maybe when he realizes that he doesn't blame her and doesn't want her to feel guilty for what she did in Pompeii he starts to be a little kinder to himself. For Donna's sake.

I really believe that during season 4 both Donna and the Doctor are on a healing journey. They make each other better, they begin to heal the wounds of the other person. Donna's self-esteem grows and the Doctor's guilt complex gets a little less heavy. Just a little. Baby steps. But they are walking them together.

And then Journey's End happens, and their healing process gets interrupted and without Donna nothing makes sense and he almost turns into Time Lord Victorious (this arc is so insane)

Because why should he stick to the rules of a universe that took Donna from him?

But he gets stopped. Adelaide stops him and later he himself recognizes that he's lived too long.

And he turns from the man who regrets into the man who forgets.

And then day of the doctor happens. And Gallifrey falls no more. And yet, he still has to live with the memories of 4 incarnations (war, nine, ten, eleven) and hundreds of years during which he believed he killed his own people. But now he has an excuse not to face that.

Anyway, thesis statement: Donna helped the Doctor confront his Time War guilt complex in a way no companion before or after her did. (shoutout to Martha though for making him open up about Gallifrey!!!)

And neither the character of the Doctor in the show or the show itself narratively ever continued to truly confront the trauma of the Time War guilt or continued the healing process Donna started.

Until now.

[intuitive-revelations]

Random headcanon I came up with early this morning, because I’ve been thinking about Gallifreyan language recently:

The reason why so many Time Lord things are decorated with circular Gallifreyan, often too impractically to actually be read (eg. on the Moment), is because it’s a cultural touchstone that remains from pre-/early-Pythian Gallifrey’s use of magical runes and sigils.

Presumably it was more typically Old High Gallifreyan used in that time (though The Timeless Children does seemingly confirm circular Gallifreyan existed at least as far back as Rassilon's time, if not earlier), however. Twelve describes it as ‘the language of the Pythia’ in The Lost Magic, and as Eleven says in The Time of Angels:

ELEVEN: There were days, there were many days, these words could burn stars and raise up empires, and topple gods.

This is obviously very reminescent of the Carrionites' (themselves from the Dark Times too) "word-based science" from The Shakespeare Code:

MARTHA: What did you do? TEN: I named her. The power of a name. That's old magic. MARTHA: But there's no such thing as magic. TEN: Well, it's just a different sort of science. You lot, you chose mathematics. Given the right string of numbers, the right equation, you can split the atom. Carrionites use words instead.

In other words, while they probably weren't actually intended as such and may have their own specific meaning, whether they be poetry, namesakes, histories, instructions, whatever... these are basically protective wards:

[ID: Five screenshots of Circular Gallifreyan in New Who.

1. Rassilon's Inner High Council meeting in The End of Time Part 2. The table and headrests are inscribed with circular Gallifreyan.

2. The Moment in Day of the Doctor. Gallifreyan writing bends round the edges of the wooden frame.

3. The 'whirligig' rotar in Eleven's second TARDIS, inscribed with individual Gallifreyan symbols.

4. Set photo of the glowing Gallifreyan writing on the steps of Thirteen's TARDIS.

5. Tecteun's laboratory in The Timeless Children. Circular Gallifreyan lines the light above her, and a door in the background.]

As a side note - if they actually are kind-of intended as a form of protection, perhaps this is why we were only introduced to Circular Gallifreyan in New Who, despite it seemingly existing through Gallifreyan history. Because it was retroactively inserted into Gallifreyan culture as a form of defense during the War in Heaven / Last Great Time War?

Regardless, this also opens up questions how many other Time Lord traditions are holdovers from the Dark Times.

For example, who's to say that the renegade naming tradition didn't begin as a form of protection from hexes - either from hostile forces in the pre-anchoring universe, or from oppressive magic-users back on the homeworld? This may also be connected to the change in Gallifreyan name format before and after the Intuitive Revelation (eg. ancestral -sti and -sor names), though shifting power structures, gender roles etc. presumably played a role too.

Heck, is this one reason why Gallifrey's own name has changed over its history? From Jewel to Gallifrey in Rassilon's time to try and protect it from vengeful Pythian curses. From Gallifrey to just 'the Homeworld' in the War to protect it from new rituals of alternative histories and paradox?

[thebraxiatelcollection]

Braxiatel deserves a better story than Gallifrey: Beyond and I really wish they would stop calling Braxiatel a coward when in fact, he isn't one. (: (:

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Random Doctor Who Facts You Might Not Know, Part 3

The Master's father, Marnal, wrote an episode for Star Trek but took his name off it after they changed it too much.

The Fifth Doctor took Tegan back and time to kill that same would-be-dictator as a baby but was also unable to go through with it.

Nyssa once turned the Fifth Doctor into a vampire.

The Time Lords created the Were Lords, a species of lycanthropic soldiers who could regenerate, to fight for them in the Vampire Wars.

The Tenth and Fourteenth Doctors have different enough blood that the Fourteenth Doctor was able to resist blood control that used the Tenth Doctor's blood.

The Garvond is a monstrous entity in the APC Net of the Matrix composed of all the demented, evil sides of the Time Lords.

The First Great Time War was between the Time Lords and the Order of the Black Sun.

The Veil was fond of the Twelfth Doctor and considered them to be companions. The Veil hoped that the Twelfth Doctor would take them with him when he escaped from the confession dial.

Jack Harkness described the Midnight entity as someone who could eat its way into a person's brain and steal their voice. Given that it is unknown where he got this information, this suggests that Jack might have had an encounter at some point.

Both the Doctor and the Master have used the name "Merlin" before.

The final incarnation of the Master was a highly destructive entropy wave in one timeline.

The Eleventh Doctor once returned to the Library with Amy Pond, but he never mentioned River Song. They encountered Book Monsters.

The Doctor's first TARDIS was a Type 50, but they were left behind when the Doctor ran away from Gallifrey. This left them angry and hurt that the Doctor had replaced them, so they ran off from Gallifrey to find him.

According to the Seventh Doctor, the Rani and her giant rodent came to his graduation party.

There exists a canned drink called Sontaran Up that a Sontaran was seen drinking.

The Sixth Doctor's method for fighting the Weeping Angels included winking one eye at a time, so the Angels were always being observed. Given that he was almost immediately sent back in time where he encountered the Tenth Doctor, this isn't a very good method.

Due to similarities between the life stories of the Doctor and the Devil, there are many races who believe they are the same being.

The Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, and Dan once watched a production of Cinderella. While trying to make it more exciting, the Doctor accidentally replaced all the characters and props with the real versions, who began to attack each other and the audience.

The Doctor had thirteen children before running away on Gallifrey who were all killed (or perhaps a better word would be 'culled') by the Watch after Susan's birth.

The Doctor has had other children over the years (although they did not recognize all of them as such) including but not limited to Miranda Dawkins, Edward Grove, the Sound Creature, Daqar Keep, Jenny, and the Sapling.

Gostak was one of the First Doctor's tutors who he admired very much, but similar to Borusa, he went mad and had to be stopped by several incarnations of the Doctor.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28

[waffowo]

While Donna Noble will always be my favourite companion in NuWho, Clara will always be the most multi-faceted and complex (as of now). I think that a lot of divisiveness surrounding Clara stems from 5 common criticisms:

1. Clara’s characterisation in 7B and how Moffat treats her mostly as a mystery box first and character second.

2. The length of Clara’s tenure and how some may have been fatigued due to the many times “she should have left.”

3. The emphasis on Clara’s flaws in Series 8 and how it kind of paints her as unlikable over her Series 7B depiction as at least kind.

4. Clara’s departure in Hell Bent as something that ruins her ending in Face The Raven.

5. The belief of Clara as the most important character in the Doctors life inherently devaluing other companions.

I think while I can understand the reasons leading up to these criticisms, I also think that it does help to look back throughout the Moffat and RTD era as it does help explain a lot of these points imo.

Actually, the character Clara most prominently echoes is Rose. Rose, like Clara, helped the Doctor through a time of extreme emotional vulnerability (for 9th, Time War trauma) and developed a relationship of co-dependency with him (as 10th) which never really went away even after Doomsday. Clara had the luxury of time however, and has undergone more events with the Doctor (Impossible Girl, Trenzalore, 50th Anniversary etc) but also how 12th was undergoing an extreme identity crisis of figuring out whether he’s a good man post-Trenzalore and saving Gallifrey. Clara was the one who facilitated his character growth through the turbulence of the arc in instances like Dark Water, Death In Heaven, Mummy on The Orient Express, Kill The Moon, Last Christmas etc and would naturally result in the Doctor developing an extremely unhealthy reliance on Clara as being his “carer,” his anchor to being The Doctor (refer to her whole “Be A Doctor” spiel in the 50th Anniversary). Series 9 already heavily implied the Doctor’s willingness to engage with destructive measures by choosing to separate Clara and The Doctor almost every episode (Magicians Apprentice/Witch’s Familiar) as the stakes rose and cumulated in Face The Raven.

RTD has also once said when paying tribute to Moffat:

“And nestling at the heart of the show is Doctor Who's very own problem category, the Companion, a title inherently subordinate to the Man. Until Clara comes along!”

Imo, while poorly phrased, I think does also hit another nail on the head to explain how Clara can be so compelling to someone like me but also extremely polarising. RTD is talking less about the companion being “weaker” or “submissive” but how Clara is the NuWho companion that wishes to obliterate the boundaries between the power dynamic of companion/doctor. Series 8 for instances plays on the recurring motif of, “Do as you are told” which the Doctor firstly uses to threaten Clara to keep her safe. However, Clara actively retaliates by parroting the phrase back in an attempt to attain parity. This escalates to the events of Dark Water where she attempts to maintain control of her circumstances by forcing the Doctor to be on equal ground with her. What is so fascinating is that Clara while changing and emulating more of the Doctor’s heroism, she equally begins to absorb his flaws which intensify throughout Series 8-9. Clara becomes more deceitful, egotistical, reckless and cunning as she begins to become more and more like him. The means she lies to Danny, her ability to think more and more like him.

However, what people (fans and haters) also ignore is how nuanced the circumstances are. While Clara’s flaws become more heightened, it is also a fact that she wants to be like the Doctor because of his kindness and heroism. Episodes like Robots of Sherwood, Last Christmas or even Rings of Akhten reveal a lot about how Clara reveres the Doctor as a mythic and heroic figure. Clara’s attitudes towards the children in Forest Of The Night, Name Of The Doctor and Into The Dalek reveal that in spite of her ego and selfishness, she is someone who desires to help people. Thus, her desire to become the Doctor becomes more explainable. What a lot of people can’t really accept is that she can be both egotistical, reckless and kind at once. Her actions in Face The Raven were driven out of the fact that it came from a place of ignorance and impulsiveness (not stupidity, the Doctor would do something similar, it’s just that Clara did not have all the clues) in what she believed would be what the Doctor would do and that she was confident she could match the trickery of the Doctor, and yet it was also driven by her compassion towards Rigsby and her while impulsive, sincere desire to save her friend.

Clara is punished because of this, she forgets that she’s far too human. The Doctor is less breakable. She pays for it and as Ashildr says in Hell Bent:

“She died for who she was and who she loved. She fell where she stood. It was sad. And it was beautiful.”

She died due to her physical fragility, her ego, her ignorance, her impulsiveness/recklessness and yet she also died because she was too brave, she died like the Doctor, who she loved (literally look at how her arms were outstretched as though she was mid-regeneration and how the black smoke parallels the orange glow of regeneration). However, this leads to the fourth main criticism I prior stated, so how does one answer that in relation to her character?

The answer is what Clara does and what the Doctor says towards the end of Hell Bent. Clara after being extracted and is with the Doctor in the TARDIS, spies on him because she is instantly suspicious of his erratic behaviour. Again, Clara shows how much she has become like him, she immediately picks up that he is hiding something because she has begun to think like him. Of course, the Doctor was planning on wiping Clara’s memories similar to what he did to Donna. But what does Clara do? She immediately reverse the polarity of the device that the Doctor was going to use on her and challenges the Doctors actions. Clara states:

“Tomorrow’s promised to no one, Doctor. But I insist upon my past. I am entitled to that. It’s mine.”

Clara’s language indicates her assertiveness and also a kind of last hurrah in her game of parity. She is refusing to submit to the narrative of being reduced to merely a companion that the Doctor moves away from. But more importantly, the Doctor after pressing the device and is losing his memory, states:

“Run like hell because you always need to. Laugh at everything, because it’s always funny (…) Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends (…) Never eat pears. They’re too squishy. And they always make your chin wet. That one’s quite important. Write it down.”

I think on initial viewing when the show was airing, this wouldn’t make much sense but this really shows the crux of how Hell Bent completes Clara’s arc and the necessity of her resurrection. In Face The Raven, the Doctor tells Clara that she’s more breakable as she questions why she can’t be as reckless as him. However, now the Doctor is instead telling her what would later be repeated in Twice Upon A Time, his regeneration speech. In his eyes, Clara has succeeded in graduating from the Magicians Apprentice and into becoming the Magician herself. He’s instructing her how to properly be The Doctor. As I said, Clara was also motivated by her desire to be kind when she engaged in her reckless gambit but what is so wrong about the desire to be kind? And why should Clara be punished for it? Thus, while Clara MUST die, her final act of kindness at the end of her arc enables the Universe to allow for Clara’s final transformation into the Doctor.

Clara is still dead, it is an unchanged historical event. However, to challenge the status quo and allow for Clara’s ascension, Clara becomes a fairy tale herself. Her body is caught in a permanent form of stasis, signalling her departure from the limits of her physicality (subverting her physical fragility) but also as seen through her last words to the Doctor:

“You said memories become stories when we forget them. Maybe some of them become songs.”

Clara has successfully become what she admired, a myth, a fable. She has become a symbol in a story, a story that would go on to have an infinite number of other stories. She has become the leaf she raises to the monster in the Rings of Akhten, she sails off into narrative ambiguity but also infinity. Clara is so polarising because she challenges the definition of what it means to be The Doctor on a pure metatextual level. It’s a logical progression from the introspection of the question from the Doctor himself in Series 8. To want to resist, I argue, is natural.

I could explore further about her adrenaline addiction in Mummy On The Orient Express or these traits I raised explored in Flatline which I may do another day, but I hope I have provided a new perspective on Clara Oswald.

[raspberry-gloaming]

The thing about getting into Gallifrey and currently being on Time War 4 is that now every time I see a time war related nuwho tv episode, and the Doctor is angsting about what they did, and so on, I just want to yell WHY DIDN'T YOU JOIN THE RESISTANCE THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER WHAT WERE YOU THINKING BRO???

Like I obviously know that the Resistance was created long after NuWho and the time war came into existence, but thats meta, ooc. But IN UNIVERSE? The resistance had how many timelords? all those double agents and exiles and renegades... Even if somehow the Doctor was not contacted about that or by them pre-War Doctor, surely while working for Gallifrey in the John Hurt years between Night and Day of the Doctor someone, just someone, could have said something to them. Leela was on Gallifrey! She could have said something! A double agent still on Gallifrey could have said something!

[hummingbirdspark]

Feel free to use these ideas if you want! You do not need to credit me, but just let me know you did so I can read it.

Details for the story ideas under the cut

Kidnapped and forced to do maths

Pretty self-explanatory, they get locked in cells equipped with digital blackboards and stuff and can’t leave until they answer enough questions right. Penalties for wrong answers is death. Perhaps opportunities for teamwork?

Kipo and the age of Wonderbeasts au

Might not make sense if you haven’t seen Kipo but Carmilla uses megamute dna to try and make humans able to live on the surface, but after getting kicked out of her burrow, she has to wander the surface, looking for humans desperate enough to accept her ‘help’. I already have a bulletfic for how each of them gets found and mutated

Steven Universe au

Mechanisms as the Off-Colors. Gems thst either rebelled against or were thrown out by the diamonds. They wander the galaxy, and sometimes assist gem rebellions. The moon war was fought over earth’s moon base, between the crystal gems and those loyal to the Diamonds.

Doctor who TMA au

Jon and Jonny were brothers on Gallifrey, and while Jon excelled in timelord school and became The Archivist, Jonny was distracted by paying off his father’s debts and failed, never to receive the title of “the Captain” or 12 regenerations. He didn’t stay mortal for long, as Carmilla found him like in cannon and mechanized both of his hearts. They stole a TARDIS called Aurora and fled to the stars. Many many years later, The Archivist finds his long lost brother when taking his companions, Martin, Tim, and Sasha to the Steamworld Intergalactic Music Festival

False domestic psychological prison

An enterprising young member of an intergalactic authority comes up with a new idea for these immortal criminals’ containment: the only prison the Mechanisms can’t escape is the one they don’t know they’re in. They capture the mechanisms and through a combination of the sedative effects of the Lotus, and some memory altering microchips, they get the Mechanisms to think they are just (mostly) normal people on a normal planet. To make them less likely to escape, they gave them something they never could have had before. Jonny gets respect as the owner of a tailor shop, with workers who call him sir, and trust and obey his judgement. Brian, as a priest is listened to in all his advice and praised for his wise moral decisions. Will they realize it’s a trick? Or stay living this lie forever?

Spaceteam fic

The Aurora gets stuck in a strange wormhole (bifrost?) and she can’t operate anything but basic piloting. Suddenly strange new controls are on the bridge, as well as whole other consoles of controls. Instructions for what to do are provided on screens, but they don’t match the control each mechanism sees on their console. Luckily they’re all within shouting distance, but they will have to learn to work together… as a spaceteam. Set Sigmaclapper to 5! Soak Ferrous Holospectrum! Baste the Emergency Whittler!

Summer Camp Councilors

Human au where the mechanisms are councilors at Camp Cosmo, with wacky hijinks, camp names, and songs. Several units of cabins inspired by the 4 story albums, a great spot on a canal with sea kayaking, regular kayaking, sailing, and canoeing. A high ropes and low ropes course, an archery range, and an arts and crafts area are also present for those who aren’t water crazy. Pack up your sense of adventure and extra flashlight batteries! Hopefully the campers won’t get into any drama…

Kofi rat from Small Saga meets Marius

This is for the KofiAssam fans out there! Our very own rat-tailed rover finds themself on a massive metal god dwelling and encounters The Metal Armed God!

Or

Marius Von Raum finds a rat wearing clothing that seems to be able to play the mandolin. Good thing he learned to speak rat when he and Toy Soldier went to that candy planet where Toy Soldier somehow became a prince…

Steam Powered Giraffe roleswap

What if Doctor Carmilla lived on earth and created nine singing automatons that could self repair?

What if Colonel P. A. Walter mechanized 6 humans with blue matter to create a force of galactic heroes, that then forgot their original names?

1920s American speakeasy

Probably heavily based on Lackadaisy. Carmilla’s Speakeasy is a great place to get illegal alcohol, and its secret entrance is inside the Cafe Aurora. The owner, Carmilla herself is illusive at best, and her seeming to only show her face at night has lead to rumors of her being a vampire or witch. Rumors that are only worsened when she gave each of her employees a strange new gift: pins, that she insists are a new part of their uniform to be worn at all times. The purpose of the pins is made clear when Jonny is shot by a rival rumrunner while on a job and comes back from the dead.

SCP contains Brian and Toy Soldier

Brian was on MJE and Toy Soldier was under direct orders from a researcher to not escape. The only question is would Doctor Bright be an expert on immortality, or would letting him know about The Mechanisms be a terrible idea?

Marius backstory oneshot based on the christmas armistice

There are many things Byron Marius expected to hear in the middle of a war. The pound of bullets, the screams of other soldiers, and crash of giant robot mechas overhead. What he didn’t expect to hear was singing.

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht

That’s all, folks

I have way too many ideas.

[justahumblememefarmer]

Ultimate Doctor Who Poll Round 2 - Matchup 17

Episode Summaries under the cut

10: The End of Time Part One/Two - 2009 Christmas/New Years Special: The Doctor is summoned by the Ood, who give him a vision of the Master returning and the End of Time. The Doctor rushes to the TARDIS to get to the past, but is too late as a ritual is completed to revive the Master, which destroys the building in the process. When the Doctor lands he is found by Wilfred Mott, his former companion Donna's grandfather. They chat, but the Doctor goes off to find the Master, and searches his mind for the sound of drums beating, which has driven him to insanity. He's gleeful to discover that the sound is real, but is soon captured by a billionaire's men and taken back to his mansion. The Doctor and Wilf follow in the TARDIS.

The billionaire has the Master work on a medical device that he believes can bring immortality. The Doctor discovers two aliens that were the original owners of the device working in secret at the mansion. They share that the device actually heals whole planets at a time by distributing a healthy genetic template across an entire population. The Doctor runs to stop the Master, but he has already escaped and entered the device, transmitting a signal to turn every human on the planet into himself. The Doctor is able to protect Wilf from this.

Elsewhere, the Time Lords of Gallifrey are working to stop the Time War by implanting a signal in the Masters head as a child, the drum beats. They send a diamond to Earth in order to make the link physical. The Doctor is rescued by the aliens from before, who teleport themselves, the Doctor, and Wilf to their ship in Earth's orbit. The Master, and all his clones, use their combined focus on the drumbeats, allowing the diamond to come through. The Master gloats about this and the Doctor realizes he plans to bring the Time Lords back.

He flies the ship down to Earth, he crashes into the room where the Master has brought back the heads of the Time Lord council. Lord President Rassilon reverses the Master's transformation of all of the humans, and begins to summon Gallifrey into space next to the Earth, which the Doctor warns will bring all the horrors of war with it. Wilf returns to the Doctor and rescues a worker trapped in a control booth, trapping himself in the process. Rassilon also reveals his plan to destroy time itself, allowing Time Lords to ascend to a state of higher consciousness.

The Doctor shoots the machine creating a link, sending the Time Lords back to the war. Rassilon aims to kill the Doctor, but the Master gets in the way, attacking Rassilon and going back to Gallifrey with them. The Doctor is surprised to be alive, after a prophecy he'd received said his death would be after "he will knock 4 times" which he'd assumed was about the drum beats in the Master's head. As he lies there, relieved, Wilf knocks on the door of the control room 4 times. The Doctor realizes it is about to flood with radiation, which would kill Wilf. The only way to save him is to take on the radiation himself. He laments losing his life to save his friend, but does it, which kickstarts his regeneration.

The Doctor goes on a tour visiting his former companions. He saves Martha Jones and Mickey Smith from a Sontaran. He saves Sarah Jane Smith's son Luke from getting hit by a car. He sets up Captain Jack Harkness with another man. He visits a book signing of the great-granddaughter of a woman he fell in love with when he turned himself human. He shows up at Donna's wedding, where he leaves a lottery ticket as a present for her. He finally stops at Rose's flat, on New Year's Day before she first met him. He then walks to his TARDIS and regenerates.

138: Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks - Season 3, Episodes 4 & 5: The Doctor and Martha land in 1930's New York City, where people from a homeless encampment have been going missing. Meanwhile construction of the Empire State Building is being overseen by Daleks from a Dalek cult the Doctor had encountered before. The Doctor discovers that the Daleks have been experimenting on humans. Those they deem to be low-intelligence are turned into slaves mixed with pig dna. Those with high-intelligence are selected to be turned into Dalek-Human hybrids.

The leader of the cult agrees to turn himself into a hybrid to test the experiment. His newfound humanity makes him believe that the Daleks can change their ways and he asks for the Daleks help in creating the hybrids with even more humanity. The other full Daleks turn on him and a fight breaks out between them and their experiments. The hybrid Dalek and all their experiments are killed, as well as 2 of the three full Daleks. The last Dalek escapes using an emergency temporal shift.

(Beat 119: Orphan 55 in Round 1)

[duran-duran-less-official]

(Spoilers)

Steven Moffat decided to ease back into writing for Doctor Who by giving us a ton of different stuff we've seen from him before, all in the one episode.

DNA immolation mines as an upgrade on the Hand Mines from The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar.

Ambulances as instruments of destruction from The Doctor Dances.

The companion being fatally shot because violence is the only language that stupid idiot character knows, from World Enough and Time.

Anglican Marines from A Good Man Goes To War.

Actual people's souls being used as AI voice interfaces, from Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead

Invocation of complicated space-time events, from Flesh and Stone

Machines offering meaningless, emotionless platitudes, from... everywhere, take the antibodies from Let's Kill Hitler as an example

(insert any others that I missed here, to be caught on a 2nd viewing)

And of course, fish custard from The Eleventh Hour

To be clear I don't think any of this is bad, I just find it funny how Moffat clearly has a brand, made up of favourite tropes and character traits, and he's fully committed to it.

I think it's even funnier how nobody else wants to touch any of Moffat's worldbuilding because Davies in particular doesn't seem to like writing about war. Like, yeah, Anglican Marines ARE a cool (and sickeningly objectionable) enough concept to bring back for future episodes... but Davies would literally rather write about a pig wearing a suit than attempt to construct a battlefield scenario.

(not that Chibnall's any better. He seems to find war a necessary component of his stories, but only grudgingly. The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos quite infamously contains no battle, and the wars mentioned in Resolution and Survivors of the Flux are entirely expository and/or take place offscreen.)

4/5, not perfect but I enjoyed it, and it seemed weirdly short for 44 minutes, like the stress was actually making the episode go faster.

(as a criticism, I will say that for the scene where Ruby and The Doctor are negotiating how to give The Doctor a counterweight, I could fairly easily imagine 12-era Clara in Ruby's place. Having said that, Millie does need more development, there are a lot of ways in which I'm not super sure who her character is yet. So I can't entirely blame Moffat for falling back on old habits when deciding what to do with her. I mean it's almost as if he picked up on Ruby's resemblance to Clara in some ways...)

Actually, you know what, no, I am going to talk about this. Russell T. Davies stole one of Moffat's most hated character tropes, gave it to Ruby Sunday, and nobody batted an eye. How do we feel now about women whose entire lives are seemingly governed by coincidences that seem to link them to The Doctor? A walking narrative device, designed entirely to evoke an air of mystery? Anyone?

This is just The Impossible Girl arc again, but with snow themed memories.

Moffat's unappreciated genius with Clara was, having been forced by circumstance to start her story in a way that inextricably linked her with The Doctor for both present and all past incarnations, he then ended it by making her explicitly The Doctor's equal. Functionally immortal, stealing a TARDIS and running away from Gallifrey. If Davies doesn't have something equally special planned for Ruby Sunday, we the fandom should probably start writing our apology letters.