#like. yeah. i think simm!master is totally in the right for not listening to a single thing 12 says past that point. lmao.

[whifferdills]

“The Doctor Falls” quicktakes:

the cybermen scarecrows both make no sense and tie into so totally and terrifyingly into the overall theme of 'normalized horror' that if anyone is nitpicking based on Logic im gonna have to ask if you've ever enjoyed a piece of fiction, ever

Bill holding 12 is Iconic. the dark mirror of that one photoshoot where Sophie Aldred is carrying Sylvester McCoy. Companions Carrying Around Dr Who Forever

"how many times have you died?" "how many different ways?" like o.k. might be revealing too much of myself but this scene was hotttt

NARDOLE running away with purpose. that face

"oh, am i a woman now?" "well, kind of" "kiss me" "make me" "would you like to be alone?" im....fuckin. yeah

"which would mean more than it usually does" i n n u e n d o

that SONG what are they dancing to. if i remember to edit this i'll try and shazaam it

"old school, nice for a change," Simm!Master says while stroking his beard

Simm remains the slimiest of all Masters and the continuing sense of Missy playing along either to impress him or to play him or...these TWO

"Round??" "It's a little bit" "Shut up" THIS TIME LORD OK

shades of...what's that one where Simm pushes 10 around. Simm v much wants the Dr under his total control, but i think Missy would hugely prefer informed consent

confirming all origins of the Cybermen while dissing Trump and pulling off an unlikely plan: dr who in a nutshell

like even if what happens at the end did not happen, in an ideal world where narrative tropes are equally distributed, this is precisely how you'd do a conversion-type story. the emphasis on the character reacting against the monster they've become. having Bill be human!Bill for the most part really, really works

and the Dr being the only one who sees her, shades of "Last Christmas"

PCap going hard in the paint, dang

"Knock yourself out", and she does. nice

"Seriously, I need to know, is that true?" oh there's so much here and they're so close and it's just. how she looks at her hand after the dr lets it go, and rubs her face, and everything gets weird when dealing with touch telepaths

BILL MY GIRL GO GET EM

"the Doctor's dead, told me he hated you" "yeah heard you the first time" new dynamic: master/missy/nardole

the whole...dangerous person everyone is afraid of has a particular weight, when portrayed as a black lesbian. it's both kind of hinky and is getting at a really deep emotion, there. like sure it's not ideal but for Bill, dunno. this just seems like it rams in hard into her fears in an empathetic way

once again i do believe the Bill & Thete comparisons are deliberate

Bill looking into the mirror like...dang dude

Jelly baby?

aw the quiet whump, 12 is already broken and about to get more broken and. MY BOY. NO

they're so quiet, both of them. this scene is so heartbreakingly underplayed until the "i'm FINE" im

Bill yes i love you and support you

"why can't I be angry" ohhhhh that's a loaded line. maybe not played out so great but. yes. ask this question more, in your fiction

Nardole goes native once again. i love how him being a Computer Genius was woven into the series so he could save the day. nice organic arc, that

Bill & 12 brotp tho oh jeez these two

fuck off Simm!Master. so good at being slimy, and i love it, but a decade on am once again prepared to side-eye anyone who finds him Cute or Hot. he's a fuckboy, right

12's about to do a "Caves of Androzani" please no

Bill realizing 12 can't save her fuckin...fuck

"as my friend...i don't want to live if i can't be me anymore" and instead of "OH but i can SAVE THE DAY" the dr just says "...yeah. i gotchu. but - maybe?" and it's. thank.

 s o n i c  u m b r e l l a

is Simm!Master now sufficiently obviously gross enough for people to not write fluffy uwu fanfic

BILL MY GIRL

"Is the future gonna be all girl?" "We can only hope" CHINBALLS ARE U LISTENING

aw them three together pointing their sonics while Simm yells "kILL ITT" "well done, genius twins"

Nardole and his new girl...yknow, im happy for them. i like them. best of luck, godspeed

 "is it wrong that I... "yes, very" HOLY SHIT AKDIPAHFFHPIAFHPIAWk0R-RY*@%@

kind of a Night of the Hunter vibe here

and a "Listen" vibe

Nardole was found on a doorstep

god the Dr's desperation here, how they just want to be kind even if it kills them. this is My Dr Who, right here. and aw Pcap stop making me tear up

"just to the end, just be kind" thank you murray gold and etc for shutting up, this scene really benefits from a lack of music, can u imagine how much a standard Gold riff would ruin this (sorry i uhhh. like i enjoy gold in broader stories and sometimes he nails it but im not hugely a fan)

and how Missy almost, almost stays

and dR WHO please PLEASE oh god ohgodohgodoh

Them RTD Cyberman Noises

t h e  a p p l e  o f  d i s c o r d

like...okay this was not my dream ending for Twelvedole but the 'fuck off i'm a criminal im gonna ruin this so' and the 'you're stronger' and the.....fuck dude. and Nardole sort of saying goodbye at the tomb/elevator and then going on to live his life...it's bittersweet but i can deal

"You sure?" "You know i am" Aoufqurgo3qrq69r5674248148rfyhwekjs9d8f2q9(((((((((*^

"I need you to be big, and I need you to be brave, and I need you to follow me" NARDOLE

"Now that? was very really nicely done" i'm gonna fling myself into the sun

the Dr won't ever know that she meant to stand by their side and it's so them but it hurts ok

"You know how I go for girls and people my own age" and you're expecting like, oh god, not again, not another companion with a crush on the Dr, but then she says 'no hetero' and the dr's like 'yeh' and they blow themselves up together platonically. friendship goals

my headcanons about Koschei regenerating into Missy on Gallifrey are now kaput but i love, love love love, that they both shot each other in the back while giggling

remember that any character on this show is dead only until someone wants to bring them back

the dr won't ever know that missy would have stood by them and that's so...so them, and it hurts, but it feels right

12 naming off all the times Cybermen fucked shit up. here is where Murray Gold is good

"Let it go" im, i cant

when heather came back is when i outright started crying

BILL LIVES. in a different way. BUT FOREVER AND ALWAYS

but plus 1 to all of us who called heather coming back may they travel thru time and space happily, good luck and godspeed

hit or miss on that dude playing One but rn am erring on the side of it working for me

the Xmas special is gonna destroy me

am genuinely surprised there was no 13 here but i can deffo live with that

"i can fly anything, even you" oooHHHH

OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH

nice

Bill's the Dr now

woo-ee-ooooh oh dogg was that a riff on Clara's theme just fuck me up fam

tbh i feel like 12's earned their 'i don't want to go' more than ten like it's just that they want to stop more than anything

again the xmas special will ruin me

but yeh i liked this story ok

[arcadiaego]

I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back.

Oooookaaay. I’d say I was surprised by the ending, but of course I shouldn’t have been because OF COURSE this is the most freaking Moffat thing to do ever. It’s based on deep love for a) continuity and b) Doctor Who, to the point of potentially not actually being interesting to those who aren’t massive freaking nerds, but as a massive freaking nerd it usually works for me. And I DO really like the idea. And I love David Bradley. And there’s one more episode with Twelve in it! But I did spend this entire series freaking out and today basically having a meltdown about him dying which he....didn’t. So that’s kind of frustrating and a little manipulative. Also when it looked like he WAS dying it was BLOODY AWFUL and I actually tweeted that I was never going to do this again. But apparently I’m going to have to so thanks for that! (Yes, I know I watched Eight die but that was a special circumstance. Twelve is my other Doctor so this is hard.)

So yeah...mixed feelings. And to be honest I’ve spent so long freaking out I’m not even sure what my feelings ARE, or what they are about this series as a whole. To be honest I’ve not really liked it that much - I love Bill, I liked the stories in themselves, and I loved the Missy redemption stuff. But there was a sense that they just pressed the reset button after S9 and that nothing that happened in the previous two series meant anything. Of course they *did* because Twelve is a totally different person now (lol) but that continuity that I said I love so much wasn’t there. And while I am always here for a good redemption plot, I felt this one needed more time. S8/9 was *so* good and so what I wanted from a show, and this series felt like there was something missing. Maybe it’s the writing, maybe it’s Jenna, I’m not sure. There was also the fact that we knew Bill was going to be written out after a season anyway - her ending was nice, but it was also a repeat of Clara’s, without it being earned in the same way (i.e. the whole Clara-is-the-Doctor arc) as well as a total deux ex machina. The cyberman stuff was a repeat of Oswin in the Dalek as well. We did kind of end up with lesbian queens of the universe though, so. Surely we must have a female timelord next! That’s clearly been Moffat’s message, and yet it still. doesn’t. happen. Let’s just hope the rumours about 13 are untrue.... The Master Squared stuff I loved. John Simm is always great, though all his Master really had to give in this episode were vaguely sexist insults. Twelve isn’t really that interested in him (because it’s already happened, he knows there’s no point), and I’m not sure Simm!Master is very interested in him either. It was actually a good contrast to the Master/Ten relationship. Of course he wouldn’t listen and of course he wouldn’t let Missy go back to Twelve. He literally killed himself to stop the Doctor winning in S3. Meanwhile in this episode Twelve is killing himself just to *help* even though they’ll still lose. The Doctor is self sacrificing by default, but Twelve is one of the most like this - he fought for billions of years just to get out of his prison last season so he could help Clara. It’s like because he was so messed up when he regenerated he had to learn how to be himself from scratch, and imprinted on her way of doing things as a teacher. Which leads us to how much he wants Missy to be on his side, for him to be right about her. He can’t accept otherwise, and yes, actually probably expects far too much. One of Moffat’s other qualities is sentiment. But it’s just another way of expressing that he loves them, which Ten did as well. It’s not primarily that he wants to be right, he doesn’t want to be alone. While the Master would definitely regret it if the Doctor really wasn’t around any more, they primarily *do* want to be right and they’d kill the Doctor many times over so as not to lose. So would Missy’s change of heart have lasted? I don’t think even she knows. And Time Lords have a time limit on their personalities anyway. But she made the choice, one selfless choice, and that’s all that matters. And of course, it didn’t work. And of course, she appreciates the irony. The irony Simm!Master probably doesn’t appreciate, is *unable* to appreciate, is that it might be his knowledge of her choice that influences his regeneration anyway. (Side note: I really really hope that despite what Michelle Gomez says - I never know whether to believe her and post Night of the Doctor tend to doubt everything anyway - we will see Missy at least once more. It’s horribly sad that Twelve will probably never know she chose him.)

Back to the ending. Missy is able to change, even though it turns out to be hopeless (is a good act ever hopeless? Is it good even if it has no effects?), while Twelve doesn’t want to. And who can blame him? Rather than with Ten’s exit, where despite spending most of his run moaning about how awful his life was he wanted to stay in it (he always was an egomaniac), Twelve doesn’t protest because he’s been enjoying his life so much. He doesn’t want to regenerate because he remembers what it was like the last time, and how hard it was. (He thinks that) Bill just died, his best friend (he thinks) betrayed him, again, the work he’s been doing for the last *one thousand years* (let’s not forget that) was for nothing (although is it ever for nothing if you try?) It’s a wonder he ever wants to regenerate to be honest. What’s more he spent the last few weeks watching the Master and Missy hanging out together. Who even knows what personality he’ll end up with next time. Who even knows what he’ll remember.  (It’s also all obviously a nod to the fact that given Doctor Who canon no one can really decide if he should even have any regenerations left by this point anyway.)

This is all very circular and very Moffat. So of course he then has to out-Moffat himself by going as full circle as it is (in)humanly possible to go. If Day of the Doctor was his paying tribute to New Who more than anything else, this is him completly indulging himself as his swan song - and why not? RTD certainly did. It’s a bit weird that something so huge is happening now and not for the 50th, but it’s also possible that he couldn’t get away with it until now, or without this Doctor. (And without David Bradley, who was so wonderful in An Adventure in Space and Time.)

The hints were there - when timelines cross, you don’t remember what happened. Twelve doesn’t want to regenerate - One has never regenerated. (How terrifying it must be the first time, even if you come from a planet where you know it’s going to happen.) And aren’t they the perfect couple of Doctors to meet each other - superficially similar (grumpy old men, sorry Peter) and actually very different.

Obviously, Twelve can’t get his wish, and we know it. The Capaldi fans amongst us (and the Moffat ones) might be agreeing very hard when he said he would just carry on, but that’s not what Doctor Who has been for a very very long time. Maybe meeting up with his former self will be the way Twelve comes to terms with that. Maybe *I’ll* come to terms with it. I’m not sure I’m ready yet. But I’m going forward in my beliefs. It’s the best any of us can do.