#iris wildthyme of mars

[cousin-quartz-of-house-paradox]

ughhhhhh ian potter's writing style i love youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

i looove how he does an amazing intro always... go king...

[pluralzalpha]

OK, I expected this one to be humbling but this is actually a better result than I thought. I was expecting no one to have even heard of it. At least someone has!

lieut. gullivar jones: his bad weekend (short story: 2014)

[causalityparadoxes]

Okay, honestly, predictions for the series Finale? No clue. Whatever happens I just hope we get to see Peak Furry Sutekh in the process.

Got 3 main hopes for Mrs. Flood though:

1 - Flooding = The River Nile. She will be related to the Osirans. Either as Isis, or otherwise related Horus, God of Light. He was the main guy who trapped Sutekh originally in Pyramids of Mars so bringing that connection back makes sense!

2 - Susan Foreman. Flood starts with F same as 'Foreman' and they brought attention to this by calling her 'Mrs F'. We don't know her first name and she has similar vibes to Susan imo. With the attention they've given to Susan it'd be a neat twist and a way to keep that aspect woven into the story.

3 - Iris Wildthyme. Total wild card. Do not think they will actually do this but I will start crying if they do. Her 4th wall breaking, off putting nature, and the random bus in Devil's Chord are the main points towards her.

I just reaaaaly hope they do explain who she is. Because i will not cope if they keep it for next season or something.

[companion-showdown]

Best companion to get intoxicated with: Round 0 Masterpost

the elimintation numbers on the posts themselves are largely wrong because I made a mistake and only realised when it was too late, its two per group except 14 and 15 which is 3

Day 2

Elimination Groups:

Group 8 (2 eliminations)

God the Computer

Hallan

Hass

Hebe Harrison

Hex Schofield

Irving Braxiatel

Jack McSpringheel

Group 9 (2 eliminations)

Jane Austen

Jason Kane

John (Another Girl, Another Planet)

Joseph (Oh No it Isn't)

Joseph (The Doomsday Manuscript)

Koschei

Laura Tobin

Group 10 (2 eliminations)

Lola Denison

Mark Seven

McQueen!Master

Miranda Who

Mother Francesca

Mother Mathara

Mr Crofton

Group 11 (2 eliminations)

Ms Jones

Narvin

Pandora

Peter Summerfield

Preacher!Master

Renee Thalia

Romana III

Group 12 (2 eliminations)

Ruth Leonidus

Sabbath Dei

Sam Bishop

Scarlette

Stratum Seven Agent

Tameka Vito

The Black Dalek Leader

Group 13 (2 eliminations)

The Earl of Sandwich

The Original Golden Dalek Emperor

The War King

Unnamed Courtesan (In the Year of the Cat)

V.M.McCrimmon

Valarie Lockwood

Wolsey

Group 14 (3 eliminations)

Ianto Jones

Toshiko Sato

Owen Harper

Andy Davidson

Gwen Cooper

Banana Boat

The TARDIS

Missy

Group 15 (3 eliminations)

Sally Sparrow

Larry Nightingale

Bannakaffalatta

Vincent van Gogh

Madam Vastra

Psi

Saibra

Beep the Meep

Seeding Groups

Group 8

Charley Pollard

Evelyn Smythe

Lucie Miller

Liv Chenka

Group 9

Bernice Summerfield

Fitz Kreiner

Frobisher

Iris Wildthyme

Group 10

Rose Tyler

Mickey Smith

Jack Harkness

Martha Jones

Group 11

Donna Noble

Wilfred Mott

River Song

Amy Pond

Rory Williams

Group 12

Clara Oswald

Bill Potts

Nardole

Yasmin Khan

Group 13

Graham O'Brien

Ryan Sinclair

Dan Lewis

Ruby Sunday

day 1 under the cut

Day 1

Elimination Groups:

Group 1 (2 eliminations)

Sara Kingdom

Bret Vyon

Delgado!Master

Morbius

Sutekh the Destroyer

Cessiar of Diplos

Duggan

Group 2 (2 eliminations)

Erato

Pangol of Argolis

Deedrix of Tigella

Soldeed of Skonnos

The Three who Rule

Varsh

Group 3 (2 eliminations)

Keara

Tylos

Tremas of Traken

Panna

Karuna

Aris

Group 4 (2 eliminations)

Richard Mace

Kamelion

King Yrcanos

Sabalom Glitz

The Kandyman

Karra

Group 5 (2 eliminations)

Adrien Wall

Alan Turing

B-Aaron

C'rizz

Captain Black

Captain Magenta

Carmen Yeh

Group 6 (2 eliminations)

Chris Cwej

Clarence the Angel

Compassion

Cousin Anastasia

Cousin Gustav

Cousin Intrepid

Cousin Justine

Group 7 (2 eliminations)

Cousin Octavia

D'eon

Death's Head

Eliza

Elspeth (Where Angels Fear)

Emilie Mars-Smith

Father Kreiner

Seeding Groups

Group 1

Susan Foreman

Barbara Wright

Ian Chesterton

Vicki Pallister

Group 2

Steven Taylor

Dodo Chaplet

Ben Jackson

Polly Wright

Group 3

Jamie McCrimmon

Victoria Waterfield

Zoe Heriot

The Brigadier

Sergeant Benton

Group 4

Liz Shaw

Mike Yates

Jo Grant

Sarah-Jane Smith

Harry Sullivan

Group 5

Leela

K9

Romana I

Romana II

Group 6

Adric

Nyssa

Tegan Jovanka

Vislor Turlough

Group 7

Peri Brown

Mel Bush

Ace McShane

Chang Lee

Grace Holloway

[pluralzalpha]

btw, i've been really busy so haven't been able to post a review of your story in iris wildthyme of mars yet, but just wanted to let you know that i LOVED it!!! the character voices were on point, it was a very fun casual iris adventure!!! hehe :D i loved it a lot.

I am so glad! I will wait patiently for your review posts (staggeringly far behind on my own reviews as it is).

[tvmigraine]

FORGOTTEN LIVES: George Gallaccio

Before we begin! Remember to get a copy of the Forgotten Lives Omnibus at this link! This is the LAST time I'll be reminding you in this format, so grab it! Grab it quick! It's literally the last day, GET THE BOOK!!

We are onto our final Doctor for Forgotten Lives, the last incarnation before William Hartnell would be the 1st Doctor we've all come to know. We've seen eight incarnations building up to this one and, while we shouldn't expect someone similar to Hartnell, how close are we getting with Gallaccio to the first of our familiar faces?

George Gallaccio (1938) is our final Morbius Doctor, being a production unit manager for Who during the 70s. He's credited as working on the entirety of Season 12 along with Terror of the Zygons, Pyramids of Mars and The Seeds of Doom. At one point he was considered to replace Graham Williams as producer, but ultimately turned it down.

This Doctor is a showman, with an appearance that comes across like a mix of Harry Houdini and the Wizard of Oz. There's even a hint of Mary Poppins in them, seeing how their travelling companion is a Sonic Cane they call "Chuckaboo". His very first story compliments his appearance greatly by putting him immediately post regeneration and still finding himself, allowing his personality to be eccentric while not having to settle into every quirk we first see. That's a credit to the first book being both the debut story and start of many of these Doctors' lives, it allows that character to be as eccentric as possible before settling into themselves better.

This more settled Doctor is what we see in these later stories, slowly relaxing certain elements while continuing with those he clearly enjoys like a catchphrase ("Dash my buttons!") and the magician-esque appearance. We also see each story take this Doctor down a more serious path with more serious foes, such as the company he becomes tangled with in "The Factory of the Future".

There's a slow progression in this character that could be reflected into Hartnell's Doctor, how this life unknowingly affects him and the person he becomes. This can even be seen in the TARDIS, designed by Hanley as always, which serves as a nice in-between for Holmes and Hartnell. The statues from the Rococo TARDIS remain while the interior and console are slowly transitioning into the original that we all know and love.

For more insight into the creative process of every author that worked on Forgotten Lives, you can go to @forgottenlivesobverse and find interviews from everyone involved across the books. If you're looking for insight on how the outfits were designed, you can go to Paul Hanley's Patreon and find what went into designing each Doctor.

Finish off your glimpse into the past with these four stories. Watch the Doctor face a cult, the origins of a future foe and comic books.

DOCTOR CROCUS AND THE PAGES OF FEAR by Paul Driscoll

DOCTOR CROCUS AND THE FACTORY OF THE FUTURE by Nicole Petit

RETROGENESIS (Part Eight) by Philip Purser-Hallard

THE QUEEN OF BOHEMIA AND THE LAUGHING TARDIS by Paul Driscoll

As this is the last post, sadly that's where we're leaving the Morbius Doctors. So simple message for everybody!

Support Forgotten Lives Omnibus, and any future release that may come! They're fantastic books and you do NOT want to miss out!

Support Obverse Books - be it Iris Wildthyme, Faction Paradox, the Black Archive, the Cushing Doctors, anything at all!

Support the authors, all of them are fantastic and the couple I've talked to have been absolutely delightful, keep up to date with their work!

And most importantly, support Alzheimer's Research and the fight to against it! Any money you donate to charity, ANY charity, makes a difference to someone's life!

[ryttu3k]

Thoughts on Doctor Who - Empire of Death!

(I did not get to watch Pyramids of Mars, alas.)

Some questions and answers

First, going back to my original questions, posted here!

The anagrams? Yeah it was still just. An anagram XD The 'S TRIAD' thing, with Sutekh seeding Mystery Women culminating in a TARDIS anagram, was indeed bait!

Mrs Flood? We don't know! Ongoing mystery!! I'm an Iris Wildthyme truther, personally.

Carla? She was just having a Spooky Moment.

Ruby's mother? Yeah, she is actually Ruby's mother. She was an ordinary girl. She was pointing at a street sign. Ruby is a regular human. Her significance is because Ruby made her significant. Thoughts on that below!

The TARDIS image in the recording? Sutekh was fucking around.

TARDIS grumbles? She was already in the process of being possessed, although there still could be something relating to Rogue (and his ring). Maybe for next season?

UNIT? Seriously who hires someone called H Arbringer.

The Trickster? Nothing for now, although the Pantheon is still out there!

The Susan Twist? Legitimately, a twist - no actual Susan the Doctor's Granddaughter. That's goddamn hilarious.

Other thoughts

Is my baby the TARDIS okay. She's had a hell of a last… nearly fifty years in our continuity, but how long would it have been from the TARDIS's perspective? What about all the things that happened to her? And Sutekh has been there the entire time? ngl I prefer the option of Sutekh taking that long long walk to the end of the universe, and hitching a ride back in Wild Blue Yonder, even though that would break the storyline of universal omnicide in every time the Doctor's ever visited, just because the TARDIS has gone through it over the past five decades of the series! (I assume Fourteen's replicated TARDIS didn't replicate a Sutekh too, at least?) Honestly, gonna have to see how I feel about this.

(Memory TARDIS absolutely deserved that smooch, though. Memory TARDIS is baby and I love her so much. Very shades of Amy remembering Eleven back into existence. Memory is time travel!)

One thing I did like? Honestly, I really liked Ruby's mother just being like. A regular girl. She was a teen mum, she was scared, she wanted to give her baby a new life. She was a bit overly dramatic, but that's just what being fifteen is like! And that also ties in beautifully with the season theme of stories being real, because they had mythologised this regular teenage girl so much, given so much significance to her identity, that it became the key to distracting what had become a god.

(Of course, Eldritch Ruby is also such a cool idea… there are still a lot of unanswered questions! Didn't the Doctor's memory of that change?)

Not rapt in how they kept referring to Ruby's bio mum as her real mum. Like excuse me. Carla is your real mum.

Ncuti's acting was top tier. The scene of him screaming as the Earth dies was heartwrenching, but I think my favourite was this one. "Surely, that's what I am - life!" Followed by killing Sutekh by severing the connection - oh man so good.

(Daleks: "the fuck you are???")

Actually, the lead-up, too, with the Mel reveal, Ruby destroying the screen (RIP, Memory TARDIS, you did so well, bbygirl!), the whistle, the tether, leashing the God of Death. Badass :D

The scene with the woman with the spoon was just… quietly heart-wrenching.

All the little bits and pieces of continuity in the Memory TARDIS ;_; Mel and Six's coat and tie, and Seven's jumper, and the teddy bear button vest… the seven and ace cards, Bessie's license plate!

The TARDIS perception filter covers 73 yards, huh? I think there's definitely still a Mystery there, honestly.

In conclusion, a list of questions courtesy of @mwagneto because there is still a lot to work through.

Season ranking

73 Yards

Rogue

The Devil's Chord

The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death

Dot and Bubble

The Church on Ruby Road

Space Babies

Boom

[cousin-quartz-of-house-paradox]

iris wildthyme my absolute fucking beloved 🫶

doing reviews of all her prose stories (NOT in order lol)

you'll find them in my #iris wildthyme <-tag, along w other iris-core posts and disjointed thoughts there lol. more specific is the #wildthyme is spoken for! <-meta tag, which has all I have to say abt each story plus my comments + screenshots of some passages meanwhile! :) also i post actual iris meta there! #iris & panda <-tag for THEM<33

list of iris wildthyme things (full mostly-coherent reviews, meta) ive posted about:

iris story reviews:

More Short Trips: Femme Fatale (by Paul Magrs): this is half a story review and half me trying to make sense of what in the fuck even happened (in a good way.) this story's got a non-linear narrative too i love that shit.

The Panda Book of Horror (anthology):

Iris Wildthyme and The Unholy Ghost

Framed

Iris Wildthyme of Mars (anthology):

Wandering Stars

A Clockwork Iris (anthology):

Flasket Brimmer and The Clockwork Heart

The Woman Who Sold The Moon

Iris and The Dame

Timepeace

iris meta:

On Iris Wildthyme, and coping mechanisms, and issues plenty.

On Iris, and queerness<3

On Iris and her attachment issues, featuring Panda and the Doctor.

Reviews of (mostly) all Iris audio stories!

Discussion of the two ends of genres in Iris Wildthyme stories

half-meta, half-story idea: iris wildthyme & yoko ono and john lennon, possible dynamics + more iris act meta, short bpd iris meta.

other assorted iris-y things:

Out-of-Context things that happen in Verdigris (y2k PDA by Paul Magrs himself)

Compilation of the (third) Doctor and Iris being Divorced™ from Verdigris

Bafflement and Devotion: fun thoughts on re-read.

btw!!! i ALSO do benny summerfield series stuff!!!

#benny series <-for overall, well, benny series stuff lol! relationship tags (which are NOT romantic inherently to me, relationship in the true meaning of the word, the flavourful dynamic) i use/talk abt are: #bennybrax, #braxjason, #bevbrax. i think abt bennyjason and bennybev and occasionally bevadrian too, but don't post Thoughts/analyses about them as much. some of my meta's tagged as #benny series meta, but not all. because i forget lol.

benny list :3

coherent/well planned meta/analyses:

general bevbrax dynamics meta throughout time

bev(brax) analysis from short story "work in progress" (anthology: collected works)

bev character meta (short story "the purpura pawn" bringing forth the second change in her character which saves her from complete Braxification)

in-depth analysis of the second-last scene from dead mice. braxjason analysis there, kind of. individual analyses of both.

less coherent meta:

benny series hot takes: love for twilight of the gods + in living memory, mirror effect brax motives acc. to my interpretation of the story, mirror effect + crystal of cantus braxjason ranting, bevbrax dynamic discussion, benny being flawed (hypocrisy<3 love her<3)

jason love from ME<3

stewart sheargold's writing, motif: brax + fucked up view of (BENNY's) kid(s)

suicide bomber brax (something changed anthology)

other assorted things:

daemon au planning

aaaaand! Faction Paradox! honouring my url at last XD

currently am Obsessed with the brakespeare voyage, so, stuff abt that! my brakespeare blorbos in their respective tags: #robert scarratt, #cousin nebaioth, #cousin kercovian, #philetes :)

meta:

Kercovian & Nebaioth study, in their later days [or: proof of care.]

How Kercovian and Nebaioth's first parting is responsible for the breaking of the cycle for Captain Scarratt.

[terryballs]

My favourite Doctor Who writers

10. Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is one of the most talented people to ever write for Doctor Who. Of course, talent alone is not enough - Douglas Adams, Alan Moore, and Naomi Alderman all miss out on this list. What makes Gaiman special is his fairytale, fantasy approach to the show. He has big ideas, full of heart, and I am always delighted by them.

Why isn’t Mr Gaiman higher up on the list? Simply because he has only done four stories. One of them, “The Doctor’s Wife”, is an all-time classic, while the others are at least good. With a couple more stories, Mr Gaiman would surely be higher.

9. Paul Magrs

Coming in at #9 is one of the most important writers of non-televised Who. Paul Magrs has written nine Big Finish Main Range stories (most notably “The Peterloo Massacre”), three Companion Chronicles, and two Eighth Doctor Adventures, including the exceptional “The Zygon Who Fell To Earth”, as well as a huge number of spin-off adventures.

It’s in print where Magrs really flourishes, though. It’s quite hard to get across just how influential Paul Magrs has been. Firstly, his three books in the Eighth Doctor Adventures range - The Scarlet Empress, The Blue Angel, and Mad Dogs and Englishmen - are hugely ambitious metatextual delights. These stories introduce Iris Wildthyme and the Smudgelings to the Whoniverse, and have each inspired their own spin-off series, collectively called the “Magrsverse”. Iris’s parody of the Doctor is a rip-roaring delight whenever she appears - and as you know, she’s famous for it - and will prove a lasting legacy for Mr Magrs.

I suppose, at this junction, I should mention Lawrence Miles, who has had a similar influence, but I just don’t find to be quite as good a storyteller as Magrs.

8. Rob Shearman

You probably know Rob Shearman for “Dalek”, the first good New Who story. What if I told you that “Dalek” is Shearman’s worst DW story?

The titles of Shearman’s audio plays are enough to send shivers up the spines of those who have heard them. There’s “Jubilee”, the loose inspiration for “Dalek”, which explores the Daleks as fascist iconography. There’s “The Holy Terror”, where the Doctor and Frobisher the Penguin Shape-Shifter have a similarly horrifying experience with a religious cult. There’s “The Chimes of Midnight”, possibly the definitive Eighth Doctor story, and “Scherzo”, itself perhaps the most experimental story in Doctor Who history, and “Deadline”, in which the villain is Doctor Who itself.

Like many of the writers on this list, Shearman has an eclectic back catalogue full of obscure oddities. But few people have quite his capacity for knocking it out of the park.

7. Chris Chibnall

It’s true that Chris Chibnall’s work before becoming showrunner is inconsistent at best. “42″ is bad and “The Hungry Earth” is uninspired. “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship” is a fun romp, while “The Power of Three” is a great story that is let down by the ending which had to be re-written hastily due to unforeseen production issues. And Chibnall’s contributions to Series 11 range from “fine” (”The Woman Who Fell To Earth”) to “bad” (”The Battle of Ranskor Av Kolos”). But in “Pond Life” and “P.S.”, Chibnall shows that he knows how to write affecting character beats.

It’s in Series 12 that Chibnall really takes things up a step. His stories become sprawling and ambitious: globe-trotting thrillers crammed full of ideas. He’s still occasionally guilty of trying to throw too many ideas in, but his love for the story really shines through. There’s barely a weak moment in Series 12, and that’s largely because Chibnall himself steps up to write or co-write hit after hit after hit. It all culminates in the epic three-part finale, “The Haunting of Villa Diodati”/”Ascension of the Cybermen”/”The Timeless Children”, a hugely ambitious story that crosses space and time and pulls together disparate elements from the history of Who. It’s a million miles from “The Battle of Ranskor Av Kolos”: a fan-pleasing story that is truly epic.

6. Vinay Patel

Why is Vinay so high? Good question. Thinking about it, I can’t really justify this placement. Patel reliably produces great stories - “Demons of the Punjab” alone marks Patel out as a great, and to follow it up with “Fugitive of the Judoon” shows that it wasn’t a fluke. But Mr Patel has only got four stories to his name - the aforementioned TV stories plus “Letters from the Front” and “The Tourist” - so for similar reasons to Mr Gaiman, a high position is difficult to justify.

So instead, let’s give this position to Terrance Dicks. Mr Dicks has a bit of a reputation as more of a “jobbing” writer than someone like Chibnall or Shearman, Terrance Dicks was, first and foremost, a script editor. Yes, he co-wrote “The War Games” and was the sole writer for “Horror of Fang Rock”, but he’s best remembered for script editing the Third Doctor era (and part of the Second Doctor era), as well as producing an absolute mass of Target novelisations. But that’s not all - Mr Dicks has written original novels (VNAs, EDAs, and PDAs alike), Quick Reads, audio stories, two stage plays, and even the Destiny of the Doctor video game.

Sure, Mr Dicks didn’t burn as bright as Mr Patel. But his contribution to the Whoniverse is unparalleled.

5. Nev Fountain

Comedy writer Nev Fountain has written several of the very best Doctor Who stories. For some reason, these stories tend to centre around Peri (Fountain is married to Nicola Bryant). “Peri and the Piscon Paradox” is the best Companion Chronicle by far, due to a combination of great acting by Bryant and Colin Baker and Fountain’s sizzling script. “The Kingmaker” is an outrageously funny historical with incredible dialogue and multiple ideas clever enough to carry a whole story.

Frankly, those two alone should be enough to convince anyone of Fountain’s brilliance. But there is so much more - “The Widow’s Assassin”, “The Curious Incident of the Doctor In the Night-time”, “The Blood on Santa’s Claw”, “Omega“... if you like Doctor Who, make yourself familiar with Nev Fountain.

4. Robert Holmes

More than anyone else, Robert Holmes is responsible for the esteem which the Fourth Doctor is held in.

Holmes first wrote for the show all the way back in Series 6, with “The Krotons”. He wrote the very first Third Doctor story, “Spearhead From Space”, in which he also introduced the Autons. They reappeared a year later in “Terror of the Autons”, which introduced Jo Grant and the Master. In “The Time Warrior”, Holmes introduced the Sontarans, a pastiche of imperialism.

It was in the Fourth Doctor era that Mr Holmes really made his mark. He took over from Mr Dicks as script editor. In his own right, he wrote “The Deadly Assassin” and “Talons of Weng-Chiang”, but he also turned “The Ark In Space”, “Pyramids of Mars”, and “The Brain of Morbius” into usable stories, even appearing in “The Brain of Morbius” as the Doctor.

After stepping back from script editing, Holmes returned as a hack to write stories like “The Caves of Androzani” (probably the most popular story in Classic Who) and “The Two Doctors”, before dying shortly after his 60th birthday.

3. Jamie Mathieson

Putting Mr Mathieson above Mr Holmes really shows my bias towards New Who, but honestly, I’d rather re-watch “Mummy on the Orient Express”, “Flatline”, or “Oxygen” than any of Holmes’ stories. Mathieson is very inventive and extremely good at maintaining pace and tension. I’m sure we’ll get more stories from him in the future, but the ones we have so far should be used as inspiration by anyone wanting to writing exciting Who.

2. John Dorney

It is hard to exaggerate Mr Dorney’s contributions to audio Who. He may lack the external fanbase of Mr Gaiman, the influence of Mr Magrs, or the legendary status of Messrs Dicks, Chibnall, and Holmes, but make no mistake, Dorney is exceptional. In almost every range he tries his hand at - Lost Stories, Novel Adaptations, Third Doctor Adventures, Fourth Doctor Adventures, Fifth Doctor Adventures, Dark Eyes, Doom Coalition, Ravenous, Time War, Companion Chronicles, Short Trips, Jago and Litefoot, Missy, UNIT, Diary of River Song... Dorney reliably writes the best story in the set.

In particular, Dorney’s stories are notable for the way they focus on character drama. Look at stories like “A Life In A Day” or “Absent Friends” for particular examples of stories that use sci-fi concepts to draw emotion out of characters, particularly the stoic Liv Chenka. Other highlights of Dorney’s include “The Red Lady” and the “Better Watch Out”/”Fairytale of Salzburg” two-parter.

1. Steven Moffat

What more is there to say? Moffat is truly exceptional, reliably writing the best stories in TV Who for several consecutive years. The classics are too numerous to list, but the stand outs amongst the stand outs are “Blink” and “Heaven Sent”/”Hell Bent”.

Some of Moffat’s best work comes away from TV. The minisodes “The Inforarium” and “Night of the Doctor”, the novelisation of “Day of the Doctor”, the short stories “Continuity Errors” and “the Corner of the Eye”, and lockdown stories like “Terror of the Umpty Ums” are Moffat deep cuts which deserve to be held in the same regard as his great TV stories.

Moffat’s imagination lead to him creating multiple iconic monsters - foremost amongst them, the Weeping Angels and the Silence. Moffat emphasised the use of time travel within the stories themselves; other themes in his work include memory, perception, paradoxes, identity, sexuality, and responsibility. He is, without a doubt, the greatest Doctor Who writer, and I am so lucky to have lived through the period where he was active.

[cousin-quartz-of-house-paradox]

favourite colour: #92d1d4 or thereabouts. yes, this is way too specific. oh, well. the best way i can describe it is a sort of desaturated light cyan? not to good w colour names.

currently reading: (well, re-reading) iris wildthyme of mars anthology.

last song: "na na na (na na na na na na na na na na)" by mcr. danger days my beloved<3

last movie: beatles '64 :D love them

last series: iris wildthyme<3

sweet/savoury/spicy: savoury as i dislike both too-sweet and too-spicy things. :3

craving: uh? nothing i guess lol.

coffee/tea: either works. though my dad can't stand coffee (some health shit) so we dont have much of that lol.

tagging @holyfuckthisfishcandrive @pluralzalpha @finndiseicla and uh. i don't know lol. anyone else who comes across this and would like to!

"nine people I'd like to know better" tagged by @opheliathiams :)) thank you for the tag!

favourite colour: cornflower blue <3 but i don't really think there's any colour i specifically don't like

currently reading: the stardust grail by yume kitasei

last song: simone simons - r.e.d.

last movie: downtime (1995)

last series: doctor who (first doctor - 1965)

sweet/savoury/spicy: savoury!

craving: garlic bread (: also a banana for some reason so i'm going to go eat one in a minute

tea/coffee: tea! specifically english tea, either earl grey with lemon or black tea with some sugar and some milk - also the only thing in the whole world that i actually want dairy milk instead of oat milk in

no pressure tags: @thetorturedlovergirl, @stopmyhearts, @lasttree-garsennon, @upside-down-theater-kid, @daughterofheartshaven, @gracefelldownaflightofstairs, @agathokakolog1cal, @thatwasfunnypleaselaugh, @the-worms-in-your-bones

[motherwasapapafucker]

Building a Better Kind of Box

In the end, it had been Susan that had helped bring the idea into reality. For as long as he could remember, the idea had been there. The ship, a small unassuming thing containing oh so much wonder…but how to get it in there. Dimensional Transcendence was a fine idea, but a difficult one to bring into reality, a difficult one to even picture really.  

When Barbara and Susan’s parents had died he had taken it as a sign to abandon his work, the girls had needed him, Barbara was barely a child herself when it had happened. In the quiet grief-tinged atmosphere he was all too familiar with, Dr. Who left his box to rot away in the corner of his garden, another excentric curiosity among many.  Magister had appeared one day, dark eyes poking above the fence asking what it was, Who had told him it was nothing important and flung an apple core at him sending him scurrying away with promises of a no-doubt terrible revenge.

That had been the last time he’d thought about it for many years, raising the girls was more important and watching them grow up was as rewarding as any scientific endeavour. He never stopped inventing though, his neighbours could tell you that much; Their homes littered with devices and tools that made their lives that little bit easier, his granddaughters offered a comfortable life by the patents he sold, squirrelling away a decent living sum and giving the rest to charity. He watched as Barbra became a capable young woman and Susan grew into a young girl whose formidable intelligence outpaced his own. He could have spent his life like that, never giving his magnificent box another thought. It was a good life despite the tragedies that had shaped it.

One day he returned home, arms laden with the weeks shopping, and found Susan pouring over his old notes, the building blocks that had been a favourite toy for some time laid out from the largest to the smallest on the table beside her. He asked what she was doing, and in her usual, kindly way she had explained that she had realised how to make his idea a reality. The problem, so she said, was that he had considered it in purely theoretical terms; Treating dimensional transcendence as something that had to be invented, and not something that already existed in one form or another.

The Doctor understood the basic idea but struggled to think of an example. His granddaughter smiled and directed him to a position a few steps behind the table. He could still see the cubes, largest at the back, smallest at the front. 'Kneel down' she said, he did, the larger boxes vanishing from sight, hidden behind the smallest. 'You see grandfather, it’s all a matter of perspective.'

They set to work immediately, buying material, borrowing equipment and recovering what progress he had made previously. The work was hard, but the ship slowly began to take shape. Barbara, a keen intellect in her own right, helped when she could, but was preoccupied with other no less important matters. There were setbacks of course, crafting the interior often resulting in them losing hours of time in the space of minutes. One day the Doctor emerged from the ship only to find his hair had finally turned grey, a few tests confirming that he had apparently aged five years across the space of a morning’s work. There were other issues as well, the few neighbours who didn’t care for the family’s eccentricities putting in a number of complaints to the council. Luckily the local policeman was an affable sort, and after a rudimentary check of the garden laughed the whole thing off and never paid the Who’s a second thought.

Victor Magister returned, accompanied by a gaggle of self-described followers who attempted to force their way into the garden, demanding to see what the Doctor was building. Barbara had chased them off with a broom, Magister once again swearing bloody vengeance on the family. Eventually, in the now finished console room Dr. Who watched as Susan welded the last few wires together. Their work was done, Tardis was complete and only one question remained; Where will we go? Ultimately the choice was taken out of their hands when Barbara’s boyfriend, a bumbling but stalwart lad by the name of Chesterton, had plunged them into an exciting adventure on the far-off world of Skaro. There they met what would come to be the Doctor’s greatest foes, The Daleks; A race of mutated monsters, literal tin-pot dictators in deadly metallic travel machines. The group had helped the kindly Thals defeat them, freeing Skaro from their oppressive control, giving the world a new, brighter future.

From there, they had oh so many adventures; Ancient Rome, Oldark House, Quinnis in the fourth universe. Eventually, Barbara and Ian opted to return home, The Doctor’s niece Louise taking their place in the Tardis; Traveling to earth in the 22nd century, Mars, the Moon and stranger places still. Victor Magister’s long-promised revenge came during a brief return to the present day, the trio finding themselves drawn to the remote town of Devil’s End where he attempted to use Tardis in a mad bid to resurrect a long-dead alien force beneath the quiet town. With the aid of Olive Hawthorne and her coven of so-called white witches, they foiled Magister’s scheme, the deranged madman opting to throw himself into the temporal maelström he had conjured up rather than accept the Doctor’s help.

Following these events, Susan and Louise chose to leave; Susan opting to focus on her studies in a bid to acquire her own doctorate before her 17th birthday, while Louise decided to travel the globe with Jo Grant, a recent member of Hawthorne’s group. For a while Dr. Who found himself travelling alone, however, a disastrous series of events saw him trapped in the 19th century; attempting to find the necessary elements to restore Tardis at the earth’s core before foiling an attempt by the now hideously burnt Magister to assassinate President Ulysses S. Grant. Eventually returning to the present day with the help of the enigmatic Iris Wildthyme and her perpetually amnesic companion.

After this, he always brought family with him; grandchildren, nieces, nephews and cousins. Susan joined him for a few adventures when she could find the time, and his own brother eventually took up his offer for a few brief trips. A decade long gulf between the two evaporating as they fought to save a collection of the galaxies greatest treasures from the Daleks and their traitorous human allies. At one point he met his own descendants, a refugee from the 42nd century piloting a futuristic Tardis alongside his cybernetically enhanced granddaughter Zoe and a young Jacobite by the name of McCrimmon.

Old age crept up on him suddenly, the weight of his years catching up with him during a terrifying encounter with the Cybermen. Opting to retire from the adventuring lifestyle, he turned ownership of Tardis over to Susan, now a Doctor in her own right. However, the two experienced one last adventure when the Silver Guardian brought them together with a multitude of other Doctors in a bid to save a dying multiverse. It was as a grand a send-off as he could imagine. When his time finally came he hoped to be buried on the outskirts of New Kaalann, the capital city of the Kaleds.

Until then he was content to sit and enjoy tales of his granddaughter's exploits.

[pluralzalpha]

started the "iris wildthyme of mars" anthology! will probably start posting story reviews either today or tomorrow! just reread the first story it's so so good, i feel so hyped rn. just thought i'd inform you ! :)

Amazing! I hope you like story no. 2

[kesomon]

With half an hour to go until tonight’s episode I thought I’d muse on some stories I’d love to see in future Doctor Who seasons:

- a trip to Mars in its Ice Warrior heyday, before it became uninhabitable and they had to go underground/evacuate

- Discovering the origins of the Sontaran/Rutan war

- Meeting the Rutans again; remember the special effects in Horror at Fang Rock? Imagine what they could do with CGI now.

- A visit to an Earth in the future where Silurians and Humans live side by side

- Jungle planet

- meeting a descendent of a past companion for at least one adventure. Bonus points if the past companion was one of the less-well-remembered, like Steven Taylor.

- A non-hostile world the Doctor has actively visited on-screen before but newly updated yet still nostalgically crummy-looking.

- Florana

- Migrate an audio companion on to the tv screen. Specifically, Fitz, who would then become the only companion to appear in book, audio, and tv form, prior to appearing on tv.

- meeting The Corsair or another time lord who isn’t a complete berk like the Master, Missy, or Rani - but the problem of the day is still their fault.

- Iris Wildthyme

- visit somewhere on Gallifrey where the grass is actually red and the trees are silver, instead of endless wasteland and desert.

The list honestly goes on forever.

[rassilon-imprimatur]

The Bidmead Masterplan, or...

... the Birdseed Marzipan

Blair Bidmead. Obverse author. Faction Paradox novelist. Iris scribe. Champion of Original Characters and headcanon. Hartnell lover. A Bludgeon to canon.  

These are his stories. 

Señor 105: By the Time I Get to Venus: Señor 105 (when merely Señor 93) and the time traveling DJ Theo Possible travel back to the Venus of three billion years ago, a few relative years before the date and events of Paul Leonard’s Venusian Lullaby. There, 93 and Possible learn the art of the Venusian and train under Venusian aikido masters, with Mondasian Cyber(wo)man Litany Chromehurst, and a young First Doctor. During the training, Theo Possible, holding contempt for the Doctor and his people (a race of “trans-temporal aggressors”), beats the Doctor in combat, and leaves him with a limb that would require the use of a cane for the remainder of the incarnation’s life. The Doctor leaves Venus with a Venusian training stave (which would become one of his primary and favorite walking sticks). 

(Due to translation technology, Señor 105 only knows the Doctor as “El Jefe,” and Litany’s homeworld as “El Mundo.” Despite Bidmead’s use of the the title of the satirical deconstruction of the Doctor in the Iris Wildthyme story First Meetings, the “El Jefe” seen here is inarguably the Doctor proper.) 

“Significant Others,” A Target for Tommy: Prior to retiring from adventuring, Theo Possible begins to travel with Rose Tyler. Due to his trans-temporal nature, Possible is able to cross other dimensions and locked off timelines, and met Rose in Pete’s World. Feeling abandoned by the Tenth Doctor and now disgusted with the Metacrisis Doctor, Rose happily travels with Possible. The pair cross paths with the much older First Doctor in the Fourth Universe (on a planetary neighbor of Quinnis), realizing that their adventure was intertwined. While seemingly willing to let bygones be bygones, Theo is unable to get the Doctor to let go of old grudges, and the Time Lord totters off after telling Possible he “is not canonical!” 

Rose never learns the identity of the old man. 

“With All Awry,” Myth Makers: The Golden Years: After The Ancestor Cell, in an intermission before The Burning or a different temporal path entirely, the amnesic Eighth Doctor is given refuge from the universe in the Eleven Day Empire by the Faction. With his history damaged beyond repair, the Doctor is insubstantial and ghost-like, an echo. He shares his flat in the Empire with “Reg,” the equally insubstantial Ninth Doctor of Scream of the Shalka. The pair are looked after by Iris Wildthyme, at least at first. The few things that help the Eighth Doctor hold on to his existence are: a letter from Fitz Kreiner, explaining that the Faction are actually trying to help, and Fitz’s leather jacket, sent to the Doctor to ground him. 

However, a “large Northerner with close cropped hair” appears in the flat one day, using the Doctors’ remembrance tank bathtub to become real flesh and blood, seemingly with Iris’ help. The Eighth Doctor and “Reg” are evicted by the Faction, and before the ghostly pair can make it to the TARDIS, the “Northerner” steals Fitz’ leather jacket and the TARDIS. “Reg” abandons the Eighth Doctor and vanishes into the mists of the Empire. 

The final fate of this version of the Eighth Doctor is unknown. 

“Now or Thereabouts,” Faction Paradox: A Romance in Twelve Parts: After vanishing from the face of The Sarah Jane Adventures, Kelsey Hooper attempts to join Faction Paradox at eighteen years of age, wishing to gain the technology and means of destroying her ex-boyfriend Ryan (in truth a humanoid creature with a face of exploding glass). Now going by Ceol, she and a select group of young Siblings take part in Godfather Starch’s Apprentice-style media ritual. One of the many tasks Ceol is set to accomplish is to evict the Eighth Doctor and “Reg” from the Eleven Day Empire, and she witnesses the “Northerner” in the bath (as well as giving him a ride to the TARDIS). 

Ceol eventually becomes the victor of the media-ritual, gains a shadow weapon, and destroys Ryan. 

“Party Kill Accelerator!” The Panda Book of Horror: Calling herself Kelsey for simplicity, Cousin Ceol meets up with Theo Possible at the Zona Obscura Music Festival as part of a “cultural exchange.” She has an adventure with Iris Wildthyme and Panda after refusing to kill them at the request of the evil Jimmy the Mandrill. Before Kelsey departs, Theo Possible gives her his record box.

“Entirely Possible,” Webcomic: An unknown time between, before, after, or during all these stories, Theo Possible begins a new adventure. 

(This story is unfinished, but establishes that Possible’s primary time traveling is done on the Parallel Line, a literal railway through history and timelines (maintained and regulated by the Time Lords perhaps?). Theo’s compassion and pity for (what appear to be) survivors of the Anchoring of the Thread and time wars is made apparent.) 

“The Calamari-Men of Mare Cimmerium,” Iris Wildthyme of Mars- Iris Wildthyme and a Martian named Vardo discover Ares, the Greek god of war, drunk in a bar, locked away by Mars, the Roman god of war. The Roman god allied himself with the Calamari-men, whose Queen could produce an ink that could literally rewrite the pages of history. 

Faction Paradox: Weapons Grade Snake Oil: This story establishes the exsistence of Godfather Christèmas, the renegade Homeworlder the Hussar, brings the infamous Anne Bony into Faction lore, and gives us a wonderful new character in the form of the renegade timeship the Kraken. 

Several years after escaping the Faction, Cousin Ceol, now Sojourner Hooper-Agogô, led a rebellion against the company seen in The Sun Makers and became the president of PROTEC. The Faction drags her back into the mess (but certainly not without a fight). 

(This story established the concepts of “Oxbow Realities” (strongly implying NuWho is the end product of the Doctor’s protagonist syndrome) and “Elective Semantectomy.”)

“Grumpy Auld Men,” Battlefield by the Meadow: To the joy of absolutely nobody, Theo Possible and the Doctor cross paths again, the Doctor now in his twelfth incarnation. 

“Happily Ever After is a High-Risk Strategy,” Tales of the City: Now semi-retired from adventuring, Theo Possible goes to and fro through the universe lazily, and is capable of getting into the City of the Saved (despite not being human, and not being dead.) 

While in the City, Theo learns that Litany Chromehurst, the Mondasian Cyber(wo)man he trained with on Venus, was resurrected in the City. 

“A Hundred Words from a Civil War,” Faction Paradox: A Romance in Twelve Parts: Kelsey Hooper/Cousin Ceol/Sojourner Hooper-Agogô is resurrected in the City of the Saved with her cymbiont L-Event. 

[cousin-quartz-of-house-paradox]

i have definitely got to hand it to the author here: it's hard to properly like a dislikable character meant to be disliked, and within the first page as well. and the author's done it, somehow!

another outsider pov story... how i love those :3 to be able to see iris through different eyes, different perspectives noticing different aspects of her, or just seeing how other people with their own problems perceive the Wildthyme Act... i love to see it!!! :3

[cousin-quartz-of-house-paradox]

Loving your Iris insights. Let me know when/if you cover Iris Wildthyme of Mars.

thank you! i love writing them too :)

i do plan to cover every bit of iris prose one day (and even the audios if i can manage, but that'll be later,) but i don't really have a plan to it. just whatever, really.

i managed to get my hands on "wild thymes on the 22" pretty recently, so i'm reading that right now :3. i will cover "iris wildthyme of mars", though! one day! :)