#matt smith was my childhood and peter capaldi is my all time favourite doctor

[mathswizard]

dear god its just hitting me that Steven Moffats doctor who wasnt that good.

[torterrachampion]

Top 5 or 10 characters? 👀

We'll do 10 I think because that seems fun to me. Man, I didn't think I'd find these questions so hard when I reblogged that post lmao. But I'll do my best!

I'm going with my "favourite" characters rather than most well-written/best characters because honestly that would be a different list. So here are my current blorbos. Characters that just seeing them makes me happy.

Chloé d'Apchier. Surprise, surprise woman with "Chloé d'Apchier enthusiast" in her bio really likes Chloé. I probably spend more time thinking about her than any other character at the moment and it's been like that for... at least a couple years now. So due to terminal brainrot she's ranked number 1 at this current point in time. Perhaps not the most mind blowing character in general or even the most influential to me personally but I connected to her hard and I think she's generally a lot of fun. Her position within the Gévaudan arc was a really interesting one and that arc is my favourite in vnc so far.

The 11th Doctor. Doctor Who is a weird show for me since in a way I've been a fan before I even watched it. My Dad has been into it since he was a kid and I'd been exposed to it at least mildly through my entire childhood. But my first Doctor was Matt Smith and I couldn't have asked for better. His take on the Doctor was joyful and funny and dark and he really brought his all to the character. 11's got some of my favourite episodes and there's really nothing quite like watching him bounce around time and space with Amy and Rory.

Grovyle. Man... Grovyle pmd is an insane character. I was not prepared for his storyline at the ripe age of 7 years old. Everything about him is so cool in concept and even cooler in execution. His connection with you, the player, really makes the game and along with your partner he's really the heart of pmd2.

Elliot Nightray. I adore Elliot so much. Even if a lot of the best parts of ph come after his death I can't help loving him the most. He has my favourite death scene in anything ever, I think he's incredible. His nobility contrasted with his teenage boy brashness is just very endearing. And his words to Oz about self-sacrifice have always stuck with me. Learnt a lot about myself through Elliot as a teenager and he's a lot of fun besides.

Gilbert Nightray. Two Nightrays in a row! Ah, Gil, truly a guy of all time. He greatly influenced my taste in fictional men (pathetic) and I don't think I've ever recovered. Gil has the edgelord aesthetic that I was drawn to at the time while also being the most pitiable man I've ever seen. Truly rewrote my brain. He grows a lot throughout ph and regularly gets some of the coolest moments.

The 12th Doctor. Same character as earlier just portrayed by a different actor and god, Peter Capaldi understands the Doctor. His storyline is pretty consistent throughout his seasons and his character arc is super rewarding even in episodes that leave something to be desired elsewhere. He also boasts the single best episode in all of Doctor Who, Heaven Sent.

Yuu Koito. I have never in my life related to a romance protagonist the way I related to Yuu. Bloom into You as a series made me feel very seen with her character and even ignoring that she's incredibly funny and one of if not the most enjoyable character in the manga/show.

Alice Baskerville. One of my main gripes with ph is just that I wish there was more Alice! I love Alice, she's always a delight. Her relationship to Oz is one of my favourites in all of ph and her strength of character is really nice. I also like to see a girl get to be a dumb shounen protag sometimes. I need more female characters who are idiots (affectionate).

Portia. The spider from Children of Time. Really there are a number of Portias that are followed throughout the book but I love all of them. I don't know how to convey what's great about her but trust me when I say I've never cared so much about a spider.

Thomas Senlin/Tom Mudd. The Books of Babel series is so fun and Senlin really makes it. He's cowardly and naive at the beginning but he grows a lot while still remaining bookish and weak. He meets all the challenges of the Tower admirably and manages to hang on to his humanity even when it would be easier to discard it like many of the other Tower inhabitants. A recent addition to my blorbo collection and I'm not all caught up on his books but nonetheless he has been rotating in my brain.

[briefboutsofmadness-blog]

Thoughts on Doctor Who’s Season 10 finale

Hi guys,

Now, the season finale of Doctor Who was last week, and I’m still very much in two minds as to whether I liked it or not and, more importantly, whether or not it was a fitting, suitably epic episode for Peter Capaldi’s doctor. Here are some of my thoughts on it. (Spoilers, obviously).

To begin with, let me clarify: whilst I am a BIG fan of Capaldi’s doctor, I feel his legacy and impact has been somewhat dampened by Steven Moffat’s hugely hit-and-miss writing. His stand-alone episodes in the earlier series of the revival were outstanding, yet somehow after being given free reign on every episode, the quality has quite dramatically slipped. Though I haven’t brought myself to watch every episode in the latest series yet, I happened to catch ‘The Lie of the Land’, and I don’t think I’ve ever had such a strongly negative reaction to a Doctor Who episode (it’s usually just disappointed indifference). To put it simply, Moffat can be both a wonderful and an awful writer, it’s just the luck of the draw as to which one it is.

Having said that, the penultimate episode of the series, ‘World Enough and Time’, was genuinely incredible. The Master’s role in the episode was genius, as was his reveal (though can you imagine if the news that John Simm was returning hadn’t been leaked, and we had fully managed to experience that mind-blowing moment when he reveals himself? The Doctor Who fanbase, myself included, would have most likely imploded), and though I was sceptical at first about bringing John Simm back and potentially sullying his legacy, I was pleasantly surprised. The concept of the episode was truly original, it was funny, sad, and most importantly SCARY. Ever since Tennant’s episodes in the parallel universe, I have been terrified of the Cybermen, and this episode both justified and rejuvenated that childhood nightmare for me. It was suspenseful, disturbing (the patient pressing the ‘pain’ button still haunts me, as does the grotesque gradual change in the masks), and echoed episodes like ‘The Empty Child’ which, in my opinion certainly, is how Doctor Who should be. Truly one of my favourite episodes to date.

Following on from this masterpiece, I had high hopes for the finale and, indeed, it did start off promising. Well, sort of. The first section was a little bit tired and clichéd, down to the rousing “everything’s sorted” music, the ‘resolution-that’s-not-really-a-resolution’ trope that’s so overused within the show, and the unusually common location of a rooftop. However, it did get better. Again, sort of. The use of the “sort of” Cybermen as scarecrows who regularly attack the cluster of human survivors was scary, though it both blatantly copied the Scarecrows in Tennant’s ‘Family of Blood’ episodes, and was never really explained fully as to why they were there, so it seemed a bit lazy (though please do correct me if they did explain it and I missed it).

“Borrowing” plot points from other episodes, even other writers, seems to be an unfortunate recurrence for Moffat (honestly, don’t even get me started) and, sadly, this episode was no exception. One can’t help but wonder how much “inspiration” he took from Matt Smith’s last episodes which, as I recall, also contained a defeated Doctor essentially sacrificing himself to save a group of humans from Cybermen (though I could be wrong). In this sense, the episode truly was disappointing, as is what you would expect from borrowing from an episode that was a disappointment in the first place. Capaldi truly has been an iconic doctor, despite unfortunate writing, and so to have his penultimate episode dare I say ruined by Moffat’s sloppy writing is such a shame.

The end section was not great either. Bill’s ending was heartbreaking, and her collapsing next to the doctor, both truly defeated, was a powerful image. However, then Moffat pulled something that had a vaguely ‘deus ex machina’ feel to it. Though we had already been introduced to Heather (or rather, the form of Heather taken by the episode’s monster) in the first episode of the series, her reappearance in the form of a solution for Bill’s apparently inevitable death felt clumsy and forced, which is so disappointing. Let me tell you, I have absolutely loved Bill’s character (despite, as with Capaldi, the subpar writing), as she almost acted as a detox to Clara’s intense characterisation with her refreshing attitude to life and the situations she found herself in. Bill being gay, too, also added a completely new dimension to her character which both brought the show into the present, but also eliminated any chance of the wonderful friendship between herself and the doctor to be distorted by romantic notions (not that I’m against that trope being used at all, it was just a seldom used, interesting perspective on the doctor/companion relationship). And as much as I’m happy Bill ended up happy (and alive) with Heather, it just felt so forced and an unlikely, ridiculous solution to her situation. It’s not even that it was terrible, it’s that Bill was such a wonderful character (and should have stayed for more than one series), and her transformation into a primitive Cyberman was so heartwrenching and painful to watch, for it to be resolved in a matter of minutes was anti-climatic. All I’m saying is: Bill deserved better.

(Quick side-note: Bill would NEVER have left the Doctor’s dying body by itself in the Tardis. She just wouldn’t have, it’s entirely out of character.)

All the negative aspects aside, there were some good, even great, parts of the episode, Bill being one of them. Pearl Mackie has done just such an incredible job of playing Bill, and I will be sad to see her go. This episode, along with the previous one, was certainly stand-out for her, with the heartbreaking revelation that Bill did not see herself as a Cyberman, and so could not understand why people were scared of her. This may have been the most cruel and disturbing twist of the story arc, and I LOVE it. This puts everything we thought we knew about the Cybermen into question, and for once among multiple instances of Moffat attempting and failing at this, it works! It adds a whole new perspective on their behaviour; does every Cyberman see itself as pre-transformation? Regardless, aside from the hiccup that was her ending, Bill was excellent this episode and one of its saving aspects.

As with Mackie, Capaldi was excellent once again in this episode. Regardless of your opinion on him, it cannot be denied that Capaldi puts everything into the character; he has been consistently intense and dark with brilliant sparks of insanity and wit, and his character will be sorely missed by myself and so many others. This episode was no exception. By being characterised as beaten down and defeated, ready to accept his fate even, he almost brought me to tears a few times, as it is such a tragic end for a doctor already plagued with the questionable actions of his past selves. Not much more to say about his performance really, except that it was excellent and tragic at the same time.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the episode, as was expected, was Missy and the Master. Michelle Gomez has had a tough act to follow in terms of succeeding John Simm’s practically flawless Master, yet she managed to not only exceed everyone’s expectations as a character in her own right, but also had believable, exhilarating onscreen chemistry with Capaldi’s Doctor. Her insanity offsets his solemnity, and it’s been an absolute joy seeing the two of them share a screen. Another character who will be sorely missed. John Simm was predictably excellent, playing the Master as smug and cruel as ever. The interactions between the two of them was a standout, their conversations being wonderfully eccentric and evil. The Master attempting to hit on Missy was hilarious, and their taunting of the Doctor, as well as Missy’s internal struggle as to who to side with, was excellently carried out by Simm and Gomez.

That’s not to say, however, that there weren’t any problems with the masters. For one, there wasn’t nearly enough screentime of them, and I feel as though the opportunity to bring John Simm back has been wasted in this way. To really optimise the two appearing onscreen together, one can’t help but wonder whether the two-parter finale should have been a three episode saga, so as to create a full episode in the middle in which Gomez and Simm could have made the most of, as well as properly had fun with, their characters. The ending, too, in which they destroyed each other makes for a rather unsatisfying resolution to their roles, and for the Doctor to never know Missy’s decision to be on his side in the end is honestly quite cruel. Essentially, the two masters were brilliant, but there wasn’t nearly enough of htem.

So to summarise, despite all my moaning I did enjoy it. I can’t say that it was a great episode, or that it was a fully fitting ending for someone as incredible as Capaldi’s Doctor, but it was enjoyable to watch and had some excellent aspects, balancing out the negative aspects.

If you agree or disagree with anything I’ve said or would like to comment, I would love to hear from you, and I  hope you’ve enjoyed my little (!) ramble about the episode.

-P