#shalka!master

[companion-showdown]

Hottest Companion Nominations are Now Open!

You can nominate any character in the Whoniverse, human, alien, robot, it does not matter, the only rule is that they should pass the Harkness test (human intelligence or greater, able to communicate using language, sexually mature for their species)

Current Nominations:

Masters:

Missy

Delgado!Master

Simm!Master

Dhawan!Master

Crispy!Master

Shalka!Master

Jacobi!Master

Ainley!Master

Roberts!Master from MASTER!

Roberts!Master

Classic Who Characters:

Erato (The Creature from the Pit)

Duggan

Meglos!4

Allison Williams (Remembrance of the Daleks)

Rachel Jensen (Remembrance of the Daleks)

Sara Kingdom

Alternate Universe!Liz

Ramón Salamander

Osgood (no this isn't the new who one)

The Rani

Queen Thalira (The Curse of Pleadon)

Andred

Carol (the Sensorites)

Penley (the Ice Warriors)

Isobel (the Invasion)

Kelly (Seeds of Death)

New Who Characters:

Dalek Sec

Tasha Lem

Idris!TARDIS

2000s Sarah-Jane (70s Sarah-Jane will be the automatically qualifying Sarah)

Kate Stewart

Jenny Flint

Vastra

Jabe

Chantho

Shakespeare (this is the most recognisable place he appears in Doctor Who)

Ruth!Doctor

Osgood

Handles

Danny Pink

Bel

Vinder

Jake (Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel)

Jenny (The Doctor's Daughter)

Jethro (Midnight)

Lady Christina de Souza (Planet of the Dead)

Gwen Cooper

Tallulah (Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks)

Lynda (Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways)

Liz 10 (The Beast Below)

Frank (Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks)

Heather (The Pilot)

Sally Sparrow (Blink)

Madam de Pompadour

Miss Evangelista (Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead)

Ada Lovelace

Billy Shipton (Blink)

Lorna Bucket

Tosh

Stacy Campbell (Partners in Crime)

Anita (Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead)

Girl who was the sex gas

Frobisher (Torchwood)

EU Characters:

Fey Truscott-Sade

Hebe Harrison

Tom Campbell (Dalek Invasion of Earth 2150AD)

Valarie Lockwood

Compassion

Zagreus!TARDIS

Irving Braxiatel

Trey!Romana

War Queen!Romana

Narvin

Sibling Different

Chris Cwej (first incarnation)

Father Kreiner

Chris Cwej (second incarnation)

Chris Cwej (third incarnation)

Chris Cwej (V Cwej)

Dalek Prime Strategist (Time Lord Victorious)

The Graak (Destiny of the Doctors)

Sheila (Señor 105's companion)

Carmen Yeh (Companion of the Sixth Doctor in a charity anthology and latter companion of Compassion in Book of the War. Also implied to be a companion of the Eighth Doctor as well)

Scarlette (eight doctors wife)

Nivet (Compassions first companion)

Cousin Eliza (Cousin Justine's companion aka the Grandfather Paradox (who has a slim chance of being the Doctor so that backs it up)

Sally Armstrong (the Master’s companion (the master might also part of the Doctor depending on the source, or at the very least a reincarnation of the same person)

Patience (the Others wife or the first doctors wife or the infinity doctors wife, depends on source)

Daisy Weston the companion of the Robert Banks Stewart Doctor

Alison Cheney

The City of the Saved

Laura Tobin

The War King

Marie

Ulysses

Penelope Gate

Homunculette

Lolita

Marnal

Captain Scarlet

Doctor Fawn

The Mysterons

Colonel White

Steve Zodiac

Venus (Fireball XL5)

Captain Black

Jane Fonda!Iris Wildthyme

Claudia Marwood

Lauren Anderson

Other polls about the running of this tournament:

splitting up men and women for as long as numbers allow

including or excluding companions it is very difficult or impossible to read as adults (all their actors are adults)

Nominations will be open for 24 hours, closing around 13:30 BST (UTC + 1), 03/09

[theirbestenemii]

“I AM USUALLY REFERRED TO AS THE MASTER.” “OH? IS THAT SO?” “UNIVERSALLY.”

this is a SideBlog MAIN BLOG: @drapetxmaniia​.

[Rules] [Muses] [Open Rps]

[doccywhomst]

So, it's a well know fact that Eight smells of honey, so what do you think the rest of the Doctors would smell like (Yankee Candle Gallifrey Limited Edition Scents Range?)?

this is an incredible question, and i'm extra excited to answer it because i have smell-color/texture synesthesia! most of my senses overlap significantly - so let's switch on the smell-o-vision and see what's up.

first doctor: the attic. dust, vanilla, clean linen, wool. creaking floor boards. the smell that i associate with a bright window in a dark room. warmth. old, yellowing books. humming. somewhere in the distance, windchimes.

second doctor: the back garden. gardenias, petunias, roses. sweet but earthy. grass and rich, damp soil. cold water. a brook babbling over large, rounded rocks. a recorder. two people talking quietly, then laughing.

third doctor: the garage. metal, oil rags, newspapers, old boxes. clean clothes and grimy hands. a sigh of relief. someone scratching out notes with a fountain pen. operatic singing, including the instrumentals.

fourth doctor: the parlor. honeyed whiskey, smoke, old rugs, books. a drunken game of charades. a gramophone playing softly. glasses clinking. loud, booming laughter. scattered applause and a bow.

fifth doctor: the lawn. freshly cut grass, a cup of afternoon darjeeling with lemon. falling asleep in the sunshine while reading. "tangy." daisy chains. birds singing, friends strolling. ozone - chances of rain later. pages turning.

sixth doctor: the scullery. eggs, toast, ham, and fresh fruit. a spice cabinet. lavender soap. freshly-brewed coffee: two creams, three sugars. morning sunlight through a window prism. reading the paper with your feet up. a friendly and intellectual discussion.

seventh doctor: the library. ink, parchment, leather, your grandfather's cologne. brass knobs on locked mahogany doors. a clock ticking on the mantle. vases filled with fresh lilies. dusty photo albums. someone muttering. typewriter keys clacking. ding.

eighth doctor: the music room, adjacent to the library. the scents mingle with lemon furniture polish, old brocade upholstery, and oil paintings. velvet and satin. darjeeling with honey. an open window. sandalwood. a violin: the whole house sings with it.

shalka doctor: the basement near the cellar. red wine, cheese, oak, cinnamon. chaise lounges, wooden chests, decorative beaded lampshades from the 1920s. an Édith Piaf record plays quietly. framed sepia pictures on every surface. a fireplace glows with embers; he's taking a nap. there's a plate of snickerdoodles on the mantle. (thanks, six.)

war doctor: he hasn't been home in a while.

ninth doctor: the main stairway, just past the foyer. a little trace of every room, plus the metal slag and sulfur on his clothes. a dab of vanilla. halfway up the stairs or halfway down? up, he decides. humming, he reaches the top and wipes the blood from his boots. he hangs his jacket on a hook and smiles.

tenth doctor: the master bedroom, if you can call it that. it's mostly storage space: boxes, filing cabinets, drawers, antique desks, and shelves crammed with mementos. maps cover the walls, but he rarely looks at them. his bed is always made, and never slept in. wood pulp, musk, candle wax, ink, and roses.

eleventh doctor: the games room. chalk, polish, tea brewing, a splash of whiskey from the decanter. billiards and backgammon sets. the Candy Land and Monopoly boxes are well-loved but shelved. the arcades along the back wall are dark and dusty. in a corner, a man plays both sides of chess. he sighs.

twelfth doctor: the office. wood paneling, Persian rugs, a jukebox. piles and piles of ungraded essays. a coffee with ten sugars and a peeled orange. black nail polish, chocolate, spice. every book in the room has been read and annotated, twice. dents in the ceiling from throwing and catching a cricket ball. somewhere, a guitar strums. laughter.

thirteenth doctor: the balcony. fresh air. a hammock creaks. an empty flask of vodka, pink sunglasses, rainbow socks with toes. crystals and half-finished machines litter the stone. plants in painted pots, little gurgling fountains, trays of homemade incense baking in the sun. oh, and windchimes.

so, this turned into a bit of a poetry project, haha.... oops. if you got this far, i congratulate you. in the same way that Yankee Candle names can be very abstract, i wanted to capture the general mood of the doctors' scents and how they relate. ❤

[embarrassingresultofmyfreetime]

2020 Masterlist

Here’s a list of all the fics I’ve posted this year! (Listed by category, then chronologically:)

Link to my ao3 where you can read all of these: embarrassingresultofmyfreetime

~

Currents wips:

And They Were Quarantine Mates

An old disease has resurfaced on Earth- one which most humans recover from but is permanently lethal to Time Lords.

Because of this, the Doctor stays on Earth to make sure her humans make it through okay.

And because of the Doctor, the Master- against his better judgement- also chooses to stay.

Reluctant to leave the safety of the Doctor's Tardis, the Doctor and the Master find plenty of ways to pass the time but it can be difficult to enjoy each other's company with so many things left unsaid.

Good thing they have plenty of time in isolation to work it out.

Word Count: Currently 88,172

-

Spyfall: Battle For Humanity

This is a little number I like to call: Roleswap AU with Dhawan!Doctor and Whittaker!Master

It's sort of a rewrite of Spyfall p2 but it's better.

Word Count: Currently 5,688 (will be about 12k when finished)

~~~

-

Main fics (completed):

Please Tell Me Why Do We Worry

Summary: After learning about the final loss of Gallifrey, the Doctor takes some time to grieve and finds herself with surprisingly mixed feelings about the whole ordeal.

To her surprise, a knock at her Tardis door soon reveals the Master not only alive, but in uncontrollable mental agony as he reveals that the Doctor's suffering has been amplifying his own emotions via their telepathic bond.

Note: (After so many kind and positive comments on this fic, I finally gained the confidence to start posting more! A huge thank you to so many people it means so, so much to me!)

Word Count: 5,068

-

Second Chances

When Graham finds a teleportation cube offering an all-expenses-paid vacation, he, Ryan, and Yaz take up the offer and give the seemingly-distant Doctor some time to herself.

After the events of Skyfall 1&2, the trust between the trio and a certain timelord is shaken. However, when their vacation quickly becomes a nightmare, it's up to the Doctor to bring about peace on an upsettingly familiar planet.

Note: (A rewrite/fix it of S11 episode Orphan 55)

Word Count: 7,130

-

All’s Fair In Love And War

Having escaped alive and alone, the Master dwells on his failure and uncertainty at what to do next.

Purely by accident, he runs into a version of the Doctor he's never met before and she gives him a much needed perspective on their relationship.

Word Count: 4,653

-

Truth and Reconciliation

“I... I destroyed a lot of things, but not this... trove of secrets. This is what started it all.”

Missing Scene where the Master goes to Gallifrey and discovers the truth of the timeless child for the first time + alternate ending to The Timeless Children episode

Word Count: 7,563

-

The Doctor Finally Gets Some Rest

(Ch2 update Missy pov)

The Doctor promised to guard Missy for 1000 years, but Missy doesn't mind returning the favor.

Word Count: 5,671

-

I Wouldn’t Wish It On My Best Enemy

"Just deserts appeared to finally be served for the Doctor. All her running had come to an end, all the lives she's taken or caused had finally been assigned a numerical value, and all the morals she had once believed in seemed to crumble to dust right before her eyes.

A life sentence.

She had JUST BEEN TOLD she would never die, and the first thing the universe does is give her a life sentence.

What kind of cruel joke is that?"

Basically: The Doctor reflects on herself while in prison, the Master rescues the Doctor and actually helps her, and idk read the tags

Word Count: 4,629

-

Brand New Reality

In an alternate timeline: The Master is killed in the Time War but the Doctor finds a way to salvage his oldest friend's mind by binding it to his Tardis and building him an android vessel as a way to interact with the physical world.

The Doctor also manages to save the Time Lords from their war- but he is still a renegade in their eyes. As punishment, the High Council uses the Doctor- and by extension the Master- as their personal diplomats/field agents.

The Master isn't too happy about being trapped on the Doctor's Tardis, the Doctor is fed up with being the equivalent of a dog on a leash to the Time Lords, so in a moment of anger and also pure luck- they break out from their world and end up on a parallel one with a very different version of their universe and very different versions of themselves.

(Shalka!Universe Doctor and Master meet their modern counterparts- the Thirteenth Doctor and Dhawan!Master)

Word Count: 10,148

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The Imposter(s) Among Us

The Doctor has been searching the universe for the Master, but it's only when she takes a break to help a damaged space vessel that she runs directly into him!

The Doctor has a hundred and one things to ask him, but there's no time for any of that now. The ship is barely functional and if the mysterious murderer doesn't get to the Doctor first, then the trigger-happy crewmates might throw her out the airlock before the killer gets a chance.

Word Count: 12,655

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My Dear, Doctor…

The Doctor investigates an anomaly to find that her previous self has stood up their oldest friend for the umpteenth time.

Confused as to why the Doctor can't recall ever receiving Missy's invitation in the first place, the Doctor goes searching for answers and ends up finding far more letters than just one…

Word Count: 6,657

~~~

-

Series:

And They Were Happy Au Parts 1-4:

Part 1: Dinner and a Show

All his lives, the Master had always believed that he and the Doctor could hold on for about the same amount of time. He always imagined that when they reached their last lives, they would both give all this up and spend their retirement years bickering and raising bees or whatever. The Master didn't particularly like bees, but he had always imagined that the Doctor did and as long as they were together, that was enough to satisfy him.

What he had discovered in the Matrix had proved his ideal endgame impossible.

The revelation that the Doctor was The Timeless Child meant that the Doctor would always live on. They would always evolve and survive no matter what happened. The Doctor would always race to people in need; and now, they would never have any reason to stop.

(AU where the reason the Master wanted the Doctor to kill them both in The Timeless Child is bc he's on his last life)

Word Count: 5,120

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Part 2: Dinner and a Show One-Offs

"The Doctor did her best to space out her visits with O. For every couple adventures she had with her 'fam', she would stop by his home once or so. Sometimes she let months slip by, because she knew that the longer she waited, the less of O's limited time she used up.

She felt guilty to calculate it, but if O was already in his mid-thirties and he lived a full human life...

Suffice it to say, she wanted it to last for as long as possible. She had never had a situation as stable nor as safe as she now had with O. After everything they had both been through to get to this point, she refused to jeopardize a single moment.

For all the pain the Master had caused her, O was well worth the wait."

(By popular demand, a continuation of 'Dinner and a Show')

Word Count: 10,926

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Part 3: Unjustifiable

O- having no recollection of his actions as 'The Master'- returns to being Earth's Horizon Watcher.

O is proud of his work and he cherishes the Doctor's frequent visits, but it's becoming increasingly apparent that she's been keeping more secrets about his past than he had theorized.

To make matters worse, the arrival of an advanced species of aliens on his doorstep brings with it a whole new plethora of problems. Something terrifying resurfaces when O hears they're searching for a Tardis and things go terribly wrong.

Word Count: 23,870

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Part 4: Found Family

The Master finally gets around to seeing the universe in a more peaceful way and runs into a young woman looking for her father.

Word Count: 3,663 (Will possibly be updated at a later date, but complete for now)

~~~

-

Oneshots Inspired by others (specific inspiration in the beginning notes of each):

All Alone In The Dark

While heading back to Earth, the Doctor hears someone calling for her help.

She tracks it back to the Master- injured yet alive- and finds him trapped in his own head, reliving his last confrontation with The Time Lord Council before the destruction of Gallifrey.

Word Count: 1,926

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You Again

The 10th Doctor and Missy each escape their last canon appearances believing that the other is dead for good.

So imagine their surprise when they run into each other at a party in the 1920's.

Word Count: 6,943

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Sick Day

The Master has everything set up for his latest evil scheme but when he tracks down the Doctor, he realizes his best enemy is in no condition to fight. So the Master does what any good nemesis does and takes care of him.

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

Word Count: 2,807

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Prompt: "Right now, I don't know if I want to kiss you or shove you off a bridge!" "Can I pick?"

The Master’s Tardis had traced the call seven minutes in advance to this exact time and location. He pushed open his Tardis door to find himself in front of some no name bar with graffiti scrawled on the side, situated in front of an empty ravine. He was on Earth, and there was probably a similarly ramshackled city around him, but he didn’t so much as spare it a glance.

The Master’s steps were determined, his jaw clenched, and his hands shaking despite his signature device in hand.

He had been on the other side of the universe, licking his wounds like any old villain would when disappointed by their latest nemesis showdown. It all made his blood boil to have caved so soon. To come back and HELP the Doctor.

The Doctor still had O’s number and her call was scheduled to be made in exactly seven minutes. A hysterical, agonizing call that begged the Master to intervene. He wasn’t sure what was worse, hearing the Doctor in so much despair, or the disappointment that hearing her in such agony somehow didn’t lessen his own.

Word Count: 2,410

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The Beginning and The End

Prompt: First Doctor, Dhawan!Master, Gallifrey, and the dialogue: "I know my words mean close to nothing for you. But I do, in fact, love you very much."

Basically Theta (Academy Era Doctor) accidentally runs into the Master on a burning Gallifrey

Word Count: 4,499

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Kisses Like That

The Doctor's never understood why humans enjoy kissing so much- but a certain, somewhat familiar woman piques his interest.

(Missy goes back in time to give 10 a lil kiss)

Word Count: 1,885

Spyvember 2020

Collection of short fics I did inspired by Spyvember prompts (from Tumblr)

Word Count: 15,506 (6 separate chapters)

~~~

Thank you to everyone who has inspired me, commented on my work, read any of my writing, and overall has just supported me in any way this year!! Thank you for keeping me motivated and helping me improve as a writer!

My best wishes to you in the new year! <3

[aion-rsa]

How Should Doctor Who Celebrate its 60th Anniversary?

https://ift.tt/3hJ3QeV

Since hitting screens in 1963, Doctor Who has gone from televisual titbit to cultural phenomenon to institution to something approaching a secular religion. It’s older than Star Trek and Star Wars, if not quite as world-renowned; it’s younger than The Twilight Zone, yet more frequent, and frequently successful, in its iterations. True, Doctor Who spent many long years in the wilderness, but then so did Jesus, and things turned out okay for him. You know… eventually.

The show owes its laudable longevity to a series of happy accidents, shrewd moves and fortuitous casting decisions in its formative years, not least of which was the radical re-casting of the main character after William Hartnell became too unwell to continue; a bold gambit that could just as easily have soured the audience and sunk the show as cemented its status as a pop culture behemoth. Thankfully – as well we know – the introduction of the concept of Regeneration was the key to Doctor Who’s enduring presence, adaptability and relevance. While William Hartnell wowed a generation of children and their families as the curmudgeonly yet kindly First Doctor, without Patrick Troughton’s affable, vulnerable and very human turn as the Second Doctor, there might not even have been a fifth anniversary, much less the one we’re approaching.

Doctor Who – the world’s longest-running sci-fi show – is now on the cusp of its 60th anniversary, a milestone it will reach in November 2023 with, well… who knows who at the helm. But how should it commemorate its anniversary? What would fans like to see? First, let’s jump in the TARDIS and find out how the show has marked its previous anniversaries.     

10th Anniversary: ‘The Three Doctors’ (1973)

‘The Three Doctors’ wasn’t an anniversary celebration in the way we’ve come to understand it now. There was little pomp or spectacle, not by Who standards anyway. It barely even qualified as an anniversary story, sneaking in at the start of 1973, many long months before the show’s actual birthday. Instead, the first multi-Doctor story was a quiet affair, the highlight of which was, naturally, the barbed banter between Troughton‘s bumbling space hobo and Pertwee’s aristocratic martial artist. Of course, Hartnell’s First Doctor featured too, forming the triumvirate promised in the title, although owing to ill health, his appearances were rationed and entirely confined to the TARDIS’ viewing screen, from where he doled out advice and withering put-downs.

In this mildly ho-hum but fun adventure, the Doctors come face to face not only with each other, but also Omega, Gallifrey‘s greatest figure of legend, who in his isolation and rage has become a supremely camp villain, fond of squatting and plotting in pocket-dimensions with only telepathically-controlled blobs of goo for company. I guess it’s true what they say: never meet your heroes.

20th Anniversary: ‘The Five Doctors’ (1983)

By 1983, things had been kicked up a notch. Here we had an ambitious tale that weaved together 20 years’ worth of Doctors, and their friends and enemies. No amorphous blobs or bonkers old Time Lords in ball-gowns here, but Cybermen, Daleks, Yetis, The Master – and newcomer the Raston Warrior Robot, a sort of ninja-dancing death machine in a tight lycra gimp-suit.

As before, the anniversary show’s title was something of a misnomer, though admittedly ‘The Three Doctors, No Doctor and a Sort of Doctor’ probably wouldn’t have been as arresting. Tom Baker declined to participate, necessitating the use of stock footage from the then-incomplete serial ‘Shada’ to represent the Fourth Doctor. William Hartnell had died in 1975, and so The First Doctor was portrayed by Richard Hurndall (who himself died less than a year after transmission of ‘The Five Doctors’). Still, what the feature-length episode lacked in marquee names, it made up for with a state banquet of companions, even bringing back K9. We see the Second Doctor chumming up with the Brigadier and Captain Yates (plus experiencing a vision of Jamie and Zoe), the Third Doctor teaming up with Sarah Jane Smith, and the First Doctor reuniting with his granddaughter, Susan, who seems to have completely forgotten he’d abandoned her in a far-future, war-ravaged earth at the close of ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’.   

The story is a nonsensical, confusing, over-the-top mess, nothing more than a rising pyramid of side-quests and fan-service set-pieces all culminating in a damp squib of an ending. But you know what? To quote Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor: it’s fantastic. The best and only approach to ‘The Five Doctors’ is to switch off your critical faculties, sit back, and let warm rivulets of novelty and nostalgia rinse their way over your amygdala. Coo as the First Doctor tricks the Cybermen at electric chess. Cheer as the Second Doctor encounters his old nemesis the Yeti. Laugh your pants off as the Third Doctor uses a tow rope to save Sarah Jane from the perils of a very slight incline. And lament that the whole episode wasn’t just the Doctors trapped in a room together being really, really catty with each other.               

25th Anniversary: ‘Silver Nemesis’ (1988)

The show’s 25th anniversary year gave Sylvester McCoy‘s Seventh Doctor his first taste of both the Daleks and the Cybermen. ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’ wasn’t just McCoy’s best, it was arguably one of the best of the Classic Who era. The Seventh Doctor brooded, calculated and plotted, a noticeably darker figure to the spoon-playing, spoonerism-addicted, spoonish buffoon we’d been introduced to in Season 24. His vengeful, genocidal actions at the close of the serial pretty much kick-started the Time War. Ace was on fine form, too, dashing around Coal Hill school in 1963 wielding explosives and a baseball bat. ‘Silver Nemesis’ was the actual anniversary episode, and it was by far the weaker of the two commemorative offerings, but still a tremendous amount of silly fun. Nazis, Cybermen, medieval interlopers, an angry statue, the Doctor bopping to jazz. What’s not to like?

Read more

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30th Anniversary: ‘Dimensions in Time’ (1993)

By the time Doctor Who‘s 30th anniversary came along in 1993, the show had already been cancelled for four years, entering that phase of its history known to fans as The Wilderness Years. The show had become, in deed and in memory, a parody of itself; a forgotten, end-of-the-pier relic. The only thing left of its legacy was a shared perception of how it had been at its campiest and silliest. All of this is painfully apparent in ‘Dimensions in Time’, a horrific charity crossover special somewhere between Doctor Who and BBC soap opera EastEnders. Thankfully, this two-parter isn’t considered canon, though I’m happy to provide the extra ‘n’ to have it shot out of one.

On the one hand, you could say that this was just a diverting little segue to raise money for sick children, and thus shouldn’t be judged too harshly, nor taken too much to heart. On the other hand, this was the only Doctor Who content produced for its anniversary year, so it’s hard not to interpret the existence of ‘Dimensions in Time’ existence as a hard slap in the face from an infinitely rolling multiverse of giant outstretched hands.

While ‘The Five Doctors’ leaned into nostalgia, ‘Dimensions in Time’ is entirely composed of it, chopping and changing Doctor and Companion combos in an orgy of What-If-ness (though admittedly, it was nice to see the Sixth Doctor get his chance to interact with the Brigadier, even if he was just shouting things at him over the noise of a helicopter). The Rani here completes her journey from plausible character with complex motivations to full-blown panto baddy. Tom Baker again sits this one out, opting instead to deliver ASMR from inside a computerised lava lamp. Near the climax of the piece, EastEnders‘ Albert Square falls under attack from a multitude of Who’s most infamous monsters (and some not so), and no-one except the Doctors and their revolving retinue of companions seem to care. It’s hard not to perceive a corollary with how the show itself was regarded by the general public at that time, a state of affairs not helped by audio-visual snot like this. In retrospect, the best 30th anniversary celebration would have been none at all.      

40th Anniversary: ‘Scream of the Shalka’ (2003)

‘Scream of the Shalka’ was produced to tie in with Doctor Who‘s fortieth anniversary. It aired as a series of fully-animated webisodes – a forerunner of the animation now routinely used to resurrect lost episodes from Classic Who’s yesteryears. It starred Richard E Grant as a now non-canonical version of Gallifrey’s most famous traveller, and put him toe-to-toe with a race of inter-dimensional, world-conquering, telepathic, super-sonic lava beasts. It was written by Who aficionado Paul Cornell (who would later pen ‘Father’s Day’ and ‘Human Nature/The Family of Blood’).  And it was good, very good indeed.

Richard E Grant’s Doctor is tall, gaunt and imposing, with a style of dress somewhere between vampire royalty and ostentatious undertaker. He’s blunt, withering, cantankerous and all-round deliciously alien, much like Peter Capaldi at the beginning of his tenure as the Twelfth. When he orders wine from an English bar, Alice (Sophie Okonedo) his server and companion-to-be, tells him, ‘We only do dry or sweet,’ to which he spits back, ‘And I don’t do sweet.’ There is also a plaintive, desperate loneliness about this Doctor, evident from the presence in his TARDIS of an android containing the consciousness of the Master (Derek Jacobi, who would later play the Master again on TV next to David Tennant’s Tenth) with whom he travels.

All of this would have been interesting to unpack and explore had ‘Scream of the Shalka’ precipitated a full and continuing series, which was the intention at the time, a plan stopped only, of course, by the announcement that the show would be returning to television. This blessed move had not only been inspired by but made possible by work on this project. Now that’s a 40th anniversary present and a half.

And with that, Christopher Eccleston would be the ninth Doctor, not Richard E Grant, and while that was, well, fantastic, it’s impossible not to wonder… what if?       

50th Anniversary: ‘Day of the Doctor’ (2013)

By the dawning of its 50th year, the show had been back on screens for eight years and three Doctors. The modern incarnation of the show had re-ignited the nation’s love affair with Doctor Who, adding widespread critical acclaim and global commercial success to its former cult appeal. It was clear this anniversary special had to be its biggest and boldest yet, and so it proved.

Showrunner Steven Moffat brought his best mind-bending, timey-wimey-ness to bear on ‘Day of the Doctor’, a story that brought together UNIT, Zygons, time-travelling paintings, a re-framing of the Time War, the re-emergence and resurrection of Gallifrey, and, of course, the sheer delight of the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors having the time of their lives teaming up. Added to the mix, in lieu of the Ninth Doctor (after Christopher Eccleston declined to participate), was John Hurt’s The War Doctor, a grizzled, frazzled veteran of The Time War – The Doctor who came to exist because he was capable of doing things that other Doctors couldn’t or wouldn’t but who, in the end, proved himself more than worthy of Doctor-hood. Not to mention the appearance of the mysterious Curator at the episode’s end, sporting a very familiar yet age-worn face.

2013 was an embarrassment of riches for the show. Not only did we get the exciting and engaging ‘Day of the Doctor’, but ‘An Adventure in Space and Time‘, the touching and contemplative story of William Hartnell’s (here played by future First Doctor, David Bradley) relationship with the show; ‘The Night of the Doctor’, a mini-episode that featured the welcome return of the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann); and, of course, the absolutely wonderful ‘The Five-ish Doctors’, a surrealist, meta, very funny, Curb Your Enthusiasm-style romp that followed the exploits of Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy as they tried desperately to insert themselves into the 50th anniversary celebrations.      

60th Anniversary: TBA (2023)

So what of the 60th? Traditionally, these kinds of milestones aren’t celebrated with as much intensity and fervour as, say, the 25th or the 50th. However, given that the show appears to be going through a decline in ratings and popularity, perhaps a big barnstormer is just what the Doctor ordered; something to give the show a shot in the arm to see it through the next six decades, rather than risk it tumbling over a cliff and staggering into the desert of its next wilderness years.

A multi-Doctor story seems the sure-fire way to do that. But who, and how many? Though Christopher Eccleston has returned to the Whoniverse in Big Finish form, the jury is still out on whether he’d be willing to participate in a fully-fledged BBC iteration of the show again. While the rest of the modern contingent’s faces are still fresh, though, it would be a joy to see the Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors get together. Perhaps even in tandem with the Eighth Doctor, who surely deserves another crack at the small-screen whip, however brief. It’s more likely, though, that Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor would be the one to join them, contingent upon whether or not she returns in the upcoming 13th season, and how her arc pans out.     

How about involving the classic Doctors? Not in a peripheral capacity as a sequel to ‘The Five-ish Doctors’ (although that would be very welcome) but due to the almost infinite possibilities inherent in the premise of the show, it surely wouldn’t be difficult to fashion a story in which Doctors Four to Seven returned togged up in their trademark outfits, along with their contemporary, and very age-worn faces. Perhaps some entity could pluck them from the time-streams and hold them captive, explaining their appearance through some sort of malfeasance or timey-wimey-ness. Big Finish has already given us the supreme delight of the Tenth Doctor teaming up with the Fourth and Fifth Doctors. What a joy it would be to behold the Sixth and Twelfth Doctors trying to out-bicker each other, or the Fourth Doctor passing judgement on the Eleventh’s bow-tie?    

Might other, more unexpected Doctors appear? Thanks to the precedent set by The Mandalorian in plucking the character of Ahsoka Tano from the Star Wars’ animated universe, and setting her down in live-action continuity, there’s no reason why the Whoniverse can’t do the same with The Shalka Doctor. ‘But he’s not canon,’ I hear you cry. Perhaps so. But the seismic aftershocks of ‘The Timeless Children’ took canon and crushed it to dust. If we’re going to be stuck with it, might as well extract as many pluses from it as possible before some future showrunner decides to retcon the whole affair. It doesn’t even need to be connected to existing lore. If there are multiple, even infinite, dimensions out there, the Shalka Doctor may very well hail from one of them. 

As to monsters? The Daleks and the Cybermen have been rather over-used lately, and their appearance in an anniversary special would be neither special nor especially welcome. It may be time to bring back an old monster or foe, one of supreme power that could give the Doctors a run for their money. Could the Black Guardian again don his crow-hat and return to wreak havoc with time? Or even the mighty Sutekh, who in ‘The Pyramids of Mars’ almost destroyed both the Fourth Doctor and the very world itself?

Whatever happens on Doctor Who’s next big anniversary, let’s just pray to the cosmos that it veers closer in tone to ‘Day of the Doctor’ or ‘The Five Doctors’. Nobody wants to see a cross-over with Coronation Street.

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How would you like to see Doctor Who celebrate its 60th anniversary?

The post How Should Doctor Who Celebrate its 60th Anniversary? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[modernwizard]

Alison meets the Master’s TARDIS

Blah blah Scream of the Shalka fanfic blah alternative Ninth Doctor in a plot device blah blah leaving Alison, black British barmaid, and the Master, evil alien super-powered robot, to piss each other the hell off figure out how to deal with each other blah blah blah actually sort of functional relationship, even if not entirely a good thing blah blah even collaborating in a diplomatic mission.

New chapters are up at AO3!

This excerpt comes when Alison’s in a frenzy of anxiety over her and the Master’s upcoming meeting with the Agricole. These are the people who created the Schuaschen, including Uscheschua, Alison’s friend, and who think that their creations are less than human. Needless to say, Alison is not looking forward to this at all.

Alison asks the TARDIS to point her in the direction of her robot. The ship, who knows very well that Alison was circumventing him even up until a few days ago, gives a trumpet peal of laughter. Nevertheless, neon yellow outlines of footprints appear on the floor, leading off down the hall. Alison follows the trail.

Alison ends up at a grandfather clock -- made of dark, glossy wood, almost black, like that of wet pine trunks -- set into the wall. It’s a grandiose edifice, as narrow as her shoulders, but at least twice as high, set with more crenellations, scrolls, and flourishes than a Baroque cathedral. The dial features Roman numerals and two flat tinplate figures pursuing each other about the rim. One of the figures appears to be a Grim Reaper, with tattered robes and a scythe, and the other a woman with bare feet and streaming hair. The figures waver, however, and, as she moves closer to stare, she finds that she can no longer discern which is which. She backs up, shaking her head. “He’s in the clock?”

The TARDIS laughs again. That’s no clock, but the Master’s TARDIS, who has been expecting Alison. At this, the glass door on the front of the clock swings open.

“Hello,” says Alison, not sure if she should be looking at the clock face or the open door. “I’m Alison Cheney. Before we go any further, I should tell you -- I don’t send out or receive telepathy, so no mental communication or control.”

Used to the Doctor’s TARDIS’ playful use of music and lights, Alison jumps like a scared cat when a wry, dry voice emanates from the clock: “Fear not, mistress. I am obliged to obey your wishes, and so we shall speak only by voice.”

“Okay...thank you.” Alison breathes a little easier.

“Well, well -- so you are the Master’s Domina.” If the ship could pace around her, inspecting from every angle, she would be doing so.

“No, the Magister’s.”

“Yes, he said that you would not call him Master, at least not in your language.”

“Not in any language!” Alison levels her glare at the clock face.

“I thought you knew Latin. Magister is master.”

Alison puts her hands on her hips. “Excuse me? I had six years of Latin. I may not remember all fifty thousand conjugations of the subjunctive, but I do remember that I called all my tutors Magister or Magistra for Teacher. When was the last time you attended a Latin tutorial on Earth?”

“The Magister’s Domina indeed!” exclaims the ship. “I must concede that even dead languages may change over time, and magister has clearly acquired other uses besides the one with which I am familiar.”

“Was that an apology? Because I didn’t hear any sorry in it.”

There’s a pause. “I am truly sorry, mistress. I was to welcome you, not antagonize you. I have squandered my chance for a good impression, and I know that I have displeased you.”

Alison wonders if he’s been teaching his ship how to properly accept responsibility for mistakes and make amends. “Okay, I accept your apology. Just don’t do it again. Why don’t we start over? What’s your name?”

“Well, I would tell you the name that the Master calls me, but it doesn’t translate into speech. It’s more of a mental image -- a flash of light across the sky.”

“Scintilla!” Alison says, the Latin word for spark.

The ship gives a gasp of delight, though she has no breath. “I like that! Scintilla it is then. Thank you, mistress; that was a very generous gift, especially when I’ve just been so rude to you.”

“Hey, I just said the word for spark; you were the one who took it as a name.”

“Dear me! The Master has just asked me why I am detaining you!” says Scintilla. “Please come in, mistress -- don’t keep him waiting.”

“Pfft. He’s a Time Lord, isn’t he? Tell him he can sit on his arse for a few minutes.”

“He’s laughing,” Scintilla reports after a second, her voice filled with wonder.

“Yeah, he does that on occasion.”

[doctorwhonews]

The War Master: Only the Good (Big Finish)

Latest Review: Written By: Nicholas Briggs, Janine H Jones, James Goss, Guy Adams Directed By: Scott Handcock Starring Derek Jacobi (The Master), Nicholas Briggs (The Daleks), Jacqueline King (Nius), Deirdre Mullins (Osen), Mark Elstob (Glortz), Rachel Atkins (Major Desra), Hannah Barker (Phila), Jonny Green (Cole Jarnish), Jacob Dudman (Arcking 12 Computer), Emily Barber (Elidh), Robert Daws (Anvar), Nerys Hughes (Mrs Wilson), Jonathan Bailey (Marigold Lane Computer) Released December 14, 2017 Derek Jacobi only made one appearance as the Master on television (ignoring his earlier non-canonical appearance as a Robot Master in the Scream of the Shalka cartoon), and for the most part, is true persona was hidden away. We really only got a brief glimpse of Jacobi as the actual Master, but it sure was a memorable 5 minutes!  So memorable that I still remember that moment when I first saw him declare himself the Master vividly, a whole decade on.  And while I loved Simm's fresh modern interpretation that followed, it was hard not to wish for just a bit more from Jacobi as the mad Time Lord. And hey...that is just where Big Finish is meant to come in. They don't disappoint.  I will warn, I don't delve to deep into anything, but there may be some SPOILERS ahead. Reader beware! The set opens with Beneath the Viscoid, with the Master being hidden away from the Last Great Time War in a capsule under the viscous water of an ocean world. The Daleks are pursuing the Master and his TARDIS, but his TARDIS is leaking temporal energy. The Master poses as The Doctor, using the Doctor's reputation to gain the confidence of the team that finds him, but can he play both the humans and the Daleks for fools and find a new escape from the War?  Right off the bat Jacobi is excellent, though honestly who would doubt an actor of his calibre delievering anything less. You get the impression that he wanted to take a bigger bite out of the role than he was allowed time for in Utopia. The second story in this collection, The Good Master, has the Master settled into the role of a medical doctor on a planet that is somehow protected from the effects of the Time War. He is posing in this do-gooder role for the exactly the reason you'd expect from him...to somehow control whatever power is keeping this one planet safe, the consequences of tampering with that be damned. Jacobi is again excellent, showcasing his range within this role, often playing his Master as a kinder gentlemen, before relishing in the moments where he goes full-on evil.  The Sky Man is the third entry on the boxset, and it may very well be the best episode of the whole venture, which is somewhat odd considering that the Master's part is f not very promnient. But it is what the Master is up to behind the scenes that makes this such a great Master story. Taking Cole Jarnish, a young man from the previous story, along with him, the Master allows him the choice to save a single world that will soon be lost in the Time War.  They land on a quaint planet of farmers, all of whom stopped using technology fearing it would bring about their end (as they can see stars going out in the sky). Cole wants to save these people.  He goes abut fixing up worn out techology around the place, and falling in love with a girl.  But when everyone begins to get sick from some kind of fallout from the War...Cole attempts to save them all, including the woman he loves, by encasing them in Suits of Armour. He essentially makes a kind of Cybermen-type race by mistake. And he regrets his decision immediately.   The events of The Sky Man lead directly into the final story The Heavenly Paradigm. The Master has a scheme to end the war, using a major Time Lord weapon which has been hidden away on Earth, in hopes that the Daleks will not find it.  The device will essentially take away all choice in the universe, making sure that only the right choices would be made by every individual.  Take the concept of Turn Left, which saw Donna seeing what her life had been if one day she turned right instead of left.  The choice she made had major repurcussions, she had to turn right for certain events to unfold...and this story bacisally has a device that says "let's make sure everyone Turns Left."  That is the kind of high concept weirdness I want in Doctor Who, particualy in the Time War storyline.  tTo power the machine, the Master needs a battery, and the only battery that will do is a paradox, say someone who was never meant to live and then went onto to save another race that was never meant to live and accidentally created monsters. Of course, The Master's latest scheme to use the Time War to his advantage and find a way to rule the Universe doesn't really pan out, and it leads him to hide away as Yana as we saw in Utopia.  One of the things that I've rather enjoyed about Big Finish digging into the Time War, is that the story ideas can go in weird directions, play with Time, and have this weird ethereal element to it. They aren't just having battle scenes between Daleks and Tiem Lords, but they are telling stories that show what happens on the outskirts of this war, and the weirder effects of Time changing around characters and messing up the universe. The War Master: Only the Good is an excellent set of stories.  Jacobi is fantastic in the role, and it is lovely to hear him get a real full performance in the role. The stories in the set are fantastic, and for anyone who always wanted a little bit more of Jacobi in the role, here is your chance! This particular boxset can't be recommended enough.   http://reviews.doctorwhonews.net/2017/12/the_war_master_only_the_good_big_finish.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

[companion-showdown]

Idea for a mini-tournament: animated companions! I mean this is pretty blatantly because I want Alison to have a chance. But you could include anyone who’s appeared in an animated medium, so Evelyn on the basis of the Real Time webcast, and the First and Second Doctor companions who have appeared in animated recons. To make it fun you could ask people to vote ONLY on the basis of the animated stories, not their other stories. (This is not meant to exclude people who don’t watch the animated recons, I don’t myself!) Probably Shalka!Master would count as a companion too, in fact he self-identifies as one

again, I have this one on the list already, from this specific ask, so why its still sat in my inbox I have no idea

[theirbestenemii]

~ @theirbestenemii ‘s Permanent Starter Call~

By liking/reblogging this (RP blogs only please) you’re giving me permission to:

tag you in random stuff

send in memes

send in random asks

Ship our characters if there is chemistry

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and just all in all interact with you!

Thanks~!

The Masters (Dhawan, Simm, Missy, Somerhalder & Academy Koschei) are my main muses, but you can also request to rp with any character that is on the Muse page. [Rules] [Muses] [Open Rps]

[doctorwhonews]

Books Released this Month

Latest from the news site: Three new non-fiction books are being released by Obverse Books this month. BLACK ARCHIVE: SCREAM OF THE SHALKA By JON ARNOLD Intended as the first in a series of online animated dramas, ‘Scream of the Shalka’ (2003) was the first attempt to redefine Doctor Who for the 21st century. Produced by BBCi and written by Doctor Who novelist (and later scriptwriter on the revived series) Paul Cornell, it maintains a traditional feel while rethinking the roles of Doctor, companion and villain. Richard E Grant’s Doctor is characterised as aristocratic and aloof, drawing on models from the past such as Jon Pertwee’s third Doctor, Sherlock Holmes and even Dracula. The story, in which the Doctor must accept military assistance to foil an alien invasion beginning in an isolated English village, adheres to a venerable formula. Nevertheless, ‘Scream of the Shalka’ anticipates its successor in perceptive ways – featuring a Doctor who is ‘an emotional island’ numbed by recent trauma, a companion who must choose between a predictable life with her boyfriend and the joys and dangers of travel with the Doctor, and a Master humiliated by the Doctor’s duty of care. A victim of timing as much as of its own flaws, ‘Scream of the Shalka’ remains a fascinating glimpse into an alternative vision for Doctor Who. This Black Archive volume publishes for the first time the detailed episode breakdown for Simon Clark’s ‘Blood of the Robots’, originally commissioned to follow Scream of the Shalka as the second in BBCi’s Doctor Who webcast series. Jon Arnold has edited fanzines including Shooty Dog Thing: 2th and Claw, and is a major contributor to Hating to Love: Re-evaluating the 52 Worst Doctor Who Stories of All Time. He wrote The Black Archive #1: Rose. SCREAM OF THE SHALKA will be published on 1 March 2017. DOWNTIME – THE LOST WORLDS OF DOCTOR WHO By DYLAN REES Obverse Books is proud to announce the publication of the first in depth study of the so called Wilderness Years – the period between 1989 and 2005 when Doctor Who was in hiatus. With no new official Doctor Who, it fell to the fans to safeguard the legacy of the show – fans who, in many cases, would go onto work on the new iteration after its relaunch by Russell T Davies. By licensing individual characters and monsters and hiring actors – including all the surviving Doctors and many of his companions – who had appeared on the show, the likes of Bill Baggs, Alan Stevens, Nick Briggs, Mark Gatiss and Keith Barnfather created something more than ersatz Doctor Who – they created a whole industry which kept the Who flame alive when it might otherwise have died completely. With forty new interviews with key members of the teams behind such companies as BBV, Magic Bullet and Reeltime, author Dylan Rees investigates and analyses every Who-linked unofficial release from War Time all the way to The Minister of Chance, and speaks to all of the major creative talent involved in each project. Asked what drew him to this all but forgotten era, Rees said, “The book is really the story of fan ingenuity and creativity, and the careers that were forged or failed through these productions.” Dylan Rees has a background in film and television production, and has written for a variety of music publications as well as articles for various Doctor Who magazines. Downtime is his first book. DOWNTIME was published on 7 February 2017. TIMES MOSAIC 5: DAVISON, SARAH-JANE AND ERIMEM By FINN CLARK Imagine a Story fifty years in the telling. That’s a long time to maintain consistency. Storylines clash, continuity dies and contradictions flourish as one decade bleeds into the next, and one editor replaces another, each with their own idea of how the Story should be told. Add to that a veritable flood of formats – big screen, television, novels, audios, comics, short stories, cartoons – and what seemed at first to be merely difficult rapidly becomes all but unmanageable. Now imagine if one man were to attempt to consider it all. One man reading the short stories and the novels, watching the movies and the box sets, listening to radio plays and compact discs…taking it all in so that you don’t have to… Join Finn Clark on an epic journey through the Whoniverse, as he reviews every single Doctor Who story in every single format. From ‘An Unearthly Child’ and TV Comic throwaways to Capaldi and IDW, with sidesteps into influences and spin-offs, he’ll tell you, the reader, what he thinks of it all, good and bad… In this volume Clark examines the Peter Davison era, plus the Sarah Jane Adventures – with a quick check on the Egyptian Pharaoh Erimem – truly the ultimate review guide to Doctor Who! TIMES MOSAIC 5 was published on 12 February 2017. Doctor Who News http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2017/02/books-released-this-month.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr