#suuuch a good episode

[being-of-rain]

My thoughts on Wild Blue Yonder! A little late because the time between the 60th anniversary episodes almost exactly lined up with a visit from my girlfriend. We had a great time, and watched this episode together, but I didn't want to take enough time away from her to write this!

When I saw some EU fans joking about how the episode was going to be an adaptation of Scherzo, I wasn't prepared for how many similarities it had. And it was soooo good. I love some really fucking great Doctor Who. I loved the horror aspect, I loved the duologue aspect, I always love a mystery opening act where the Tardis team has to search for clues and theorise about where they've landed. Oh and a shape-shifter who takes on someone's whole identity and thoughts is a concept that always tickles my fancy.

One of the few nitpicks I have is that I'm not quite sure how the countdown/shifting corridors and the robot connect: if they're part of the same self-destruct system, why is the robot seemingly much older than the ship? If they're not part of the same system, why is there a countdown to the moment the robot presses the button? Why not just have the ship destroy itself, and why would the ship need to 'reconfigure itself to become a bomb' if it had a self-destruct? But (much like Heaven Sent, which the solitary shifting setting is reminiscent of,) the small logic hiccups don't really take anything away from how good the episode is.

A slightly larger nitpick is that the ending isn't the strongest, with the TARDIS coming back right when and where the Doctor was thinking that it should, and then the Doctor realising he picked the wrong Donna because of a miniscule detail (that the audience couldn't pick up on, so it feels a bit of a cheat and a cheap emotional shot). So some of RTD's most common flaws there, but again the negatives really don't stack up to much compared to the quality of the rest of it. Also, I didn't notice the Tardis screen at the end that showed a scan of Donna's arm until my rewatch, and, in classic me fashion, it put me in mind of a random Dr Who EU story. In this case, Project: Nirvana where the Doctor reveals that the Tardis automatically scanned someone coming onboard and flagged an eldritch-monster-shaped issue with her. It does make me wonder if the Doctor thought to scan Donna himself, or if the Tardis did it (and he took the credit, perhaps trying not to think about how he might never have noticed).

But that's enough with nitpicks, what are some other fantastic bits? The throwaway phrase "goosebumps like Braille" is rad as hell, and would've made a great episode title I think. I've had ideas before about the Doctor's compulsion to think and solve problems in front of him being a direct threat, so it was cool to see that idea here. The Doctor worrying about 'invoking a superstition at the edge of the universe' at the end was a vague but incredibly compelling hook for future plots, and infinitely more interesting than the Meep's final line from the previous episode. I love all the tiny subtle ways the not-things were off and unsettling, as well as all the ways that were so over-the-top that I was laughing through my shocked horror.

The Timeless Child and Flux references were fantastic peeling back of the Doctor's emotional walls, and it was nice tying in with what is technically the show's previous season, even though it came out 2 years ago now. Also... it's a little hard to mention those references without dunking on Chibnall in comparison, who didn't tap into the Doctor's emotional state anywhere near as intensely in several years as this episode did in one scene (You could tie this into the Doctor regenerates into what they need/opposite theories, with Thirteen being a relatively repressed Doctor and Ten Point Three being a relatively expressive Doctor). It was particularly nice to have the show actually establish what the consequences of the Flux actually were, because god knows Thirteen's episodes weren't interested in doing that. On my rewatch of series 13 a few months ago, I was amazed at how basically every element of the Flux is confused and contradictory, and at the end my brother and I were convinced that the Ood in the Division ship (or God Ood as we started calling him) must have reversed the very almost total destruction of the universe, because the show simply refused to acknowledge any of that destruction itself. I guess they split the difference and said half the universe. But unpicking the bizarre illogic of the Flux is a whole other post.

Keeping in mind that the next episode hasn't come out yet, Wild Blue Yonder feels wildly out of place in the middle of an anniversary trilogy. A trilogy where the bookends are RTD modern-day blockbusters filled with fan-favourite character returns and niche villains from the show's long history, and the middle is a limited-cast sci-fi psychological/eldritch horror. But that absurdity detracts from the episode in absolutely no way whatsoever.

And speaking of absurdity; the mounting hype and talk of big things happening in the next episode, on top of bringing back a long-forgotten old villain and a long-awaited new Doctor, is just making it more and more ridiculous that the episode is called The Giggle. I can't wait for it though, I'm really enjoying these specials.

[allmyandroids]

Raymond Reddington

Season 5 Episode 4 - The Endling

[lunarrolls]

taliesin specified that ashton’s hair is short when introducing them so naturally upon rewatching it i was like what if ashton’s hair Long

[crehador]

[piratespencil]

The end of c2e91 is hitting so hard… The joy of Essek and Caleb and Nott working so well together, creating this spell! This thing that Nott has been searching for since the beginning! And it’s not just Caleb who solves her problem for her - she helps! She contributes! And so does Essek, this person who didn’t have to help them, who shouldn’t even like them as much as he does. All three of them together, bringing this spell into existence.

And then, almost immediately, Nott’s hesitation. Her fear. Because this is what she’s wanted for so long, and now it’s here in front of her and that’s scary. That’s huge. And it means she has to choose, now, between her family and the Nein. An impossible choice.

And Caleb, too. Telling her it’s okay if she needs to think about it. If she needs to take her time. If she wants to stay with them, for as long as she wants. Because he sees it, too, how this spell will change everything.

Everything about those moments leading up to the spell, everything between Nott and Caleb, between Nott and the rest of the Nein… The I love you all, the kiss…

And then the spell fails, but it doesn’t matter - something has still changed. Because the spell exists, because Nott has made her choice, because there’s no walking this back now… This episode was so so much.

[sideblogdotjpeg]

im so glad youre getting into naddpod i love it so fucking much. i love seeing ur d20 artwork and posts in general so seeing u get into naddpod is very !!! :D

!!! THANK YOU!! and YEAH i am soo slowly and steadily making my way through the bahumia campaign and i am IN LOVE. band of boobs my beloved

[creatingblackcharacters]

Paul Strickland from 911 Lone Star is suuuch an underrated character (pretty much all the characters of color in that show are underrated in the fandom 😭). Paul is a trans Black man (played by trans actor Brian Michael Smith).

Paul is observant, which he says he is because he had to watch his own back from bigots. The show has explored his relationship with his family a bit, which was a pretty good single episode storyline. They’ve also explored a bit of his dating life troubles and in the latest season he started dating Asha, a woman that he knew way back in like grade school. Their back and forth dynamic is really cute!

He’s so kind and funny! One of my favorite things about his character is that he loves reading and there’s plenty of different scenes where he’s just hanging back reading. He takes his job as a firefighter seriously and with pride. I wish he would have just a bit more screen time or storylines because there could be so much more done with his character than what they have :( and I wish the fandom gave him more love it’s so frustrating to go through the shows tag and mostly just see the gay couple on the show 😭

Anyways, Paul is wonderful. He has the most amazing, infectious smile that always gets me happy and his emotional scenes are so impactful.

It really reminds me that so many people think Queer and White are synonymous. Because how could the gay couple get so much attention, but here is a Black trans man played by a Black trans actor and... Crickets? It's rep! It's the very rep we've been asking for! How is he not worth celebrating just as much? So I'm sorry to hear that Paul doesn't get much love. Not shocked, but very sorry.

But trust, I've already had one queued, and I've got another queued up for this show, and again. Insane that I've never once heard of these Black characters despite having heard of this show. A shame. Paul sounds really cool fr, both as a character and as representation.

[richonnesbitch]

For whatever reason these last couple of days I aee a lot of retweets of Andy and Danai talking about the Michonne-Ezekiel kiss and I just have to laugh. TOWL brought me back enough in TWDU to finally finish watching TWD. Stopped for good once Danai left - decided to start earlier though (S9, cause frankly I don’t remember sh*t about what happened. IDK why but s9 and s10 are suuuch a blur in my mind, you would think I never watched them before). Anyway, when I did make it to the kiss, I could not stop laughing the whole time because of Andy 🤭❤️

Listeninnnnn. That day the promo came out with Ezekiel kissing Michonne was absolute madness. We were PISSED at Angela Kang. I contemplated not watching anymore but I wanted to support Danai and Michonne. But the way they treated her after Rick left was SO fucked up. I haven't seen it in 6 years and I do not want to. The way Tara stole Michonne's charter.... and then MICHONNE DIDN'T EVEN GET TO SIGN IT. ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT. And the way everyone acted like she was crazy even though she turned out to be RIGHT about everything. I quit watching simply because of how the treated her. Well that and because I couldn't handle the grief she was going through. Like you could really feel a piece of her soul was missing without Rick. And at that time we really didn't know if we would ever see him again. So it was hard times to say the least. I really hate how they did her. And the way they tried to use her in HER final episode to justify Negan just rubs me the wrong way. Idk, but I just can never watch that season again. It hurts too much for a variety of reasons.

Andy is so genuinely funny and charismatic! He could really be a comedian if he wanted to.

Did I even answer this ask correctly? Sorry idk lol.

[seawitchkaraoke]

What I always want more of is shows in which Aabria and Brennan get to both be players, ravening war was amazing, Battle for Beyond is still one of my absolute fave dnd series out there, like they're excellent dms there's a reason they're always the ones who do the dming and it's that they're brilliant at it but man they're also both such brilliant players? And they play off each other so well? I want more of that all of the time and forever please

I assume there's some oneshots out there where they get to play together I haven't found (I'm pretty sure Erika has dmed at least a oneshot for worlds beyond number at this point? should find that, but audio only is hard for me) but also I really wish they did more several episode series and especially wish they went back to the battle for beyond world, those characters and that world and those players were so fun and Jasmine is suuuch a good dm, please let's go back

[tillywunderwing]

The Good Place is such an amazing show (i say, rewatching it from the start for the first time in a while). from a moral teaching standpoint obviously, but also i really admire the narrative construction of the first season as well.

spoilers ahead obvi

sometimes in shows or movies it can feel like things are just Happening to the characters with no real reason for it, besides for the characters to then have something to React to. which can end up feeling very forced in terms of how the writers are making the characters behave

and in The Good Place you almost have that. but then you find out the truth, and suddenly it’s all so plausible.

take for example, s1e5. a marriage counselor and a PI show up at the door of a squabbling couple who are actively lying about who one of them is. in any other sitcom—and even in this moment, going in blind—this is just suuuch a conveniently ill-timed coincidence, right? and it might come off as cheap that way—it’s hugely improbable and feels inauthentic

but with the gift of hindsight it’s like. all of that just totally falls into place. yes, it was conveniently the worst thing that could have possibly happened to those characters at that time, because it was SPECIFICALLY CANONICALLY ENGINEERED that way.

im not being exceptionally articulate but there’s something really fascinating to me about a story premise that manages to not only neutralise what would otherwise be a plot hole, but actively weaponise it. i have a few friends who stopped watching The Good Place after a few episodes, and i guess i can see why because it does come off as cheap storytelling if you don’t Know, but with the gift of hindsight the whole thing is just. so brilliant.

(except of course you can’t explain that to anyone who hasn’t seen The Good Place without spoiling The Good Place, and spoiling The Good Place is cardinal sin)

[allmyandroids]

He looks so fine, so good in that dark green polo shirt plus his black suit and his lovely curls ✨️

[chungledown-bimothy]

this entire fucking episode of burrows end i was saying stope (stoat pope) out loud to myself and im so glad someone else had the same thought

truly my favorite kind of joke, and the only kind i'm kind of okay at making lol

suuuch a fun vocal stim, too. it just feels good to say, ya know?

[jakowskis]

Day 8 - Are there any scenes (or even full episodes) that you can’t stand? If yes, and you could go back in time and rewrite them, how would you fix them?

LITERALLY HAD TO PUT THIS UNDER THE CUT TOO BC ITS SO LONG FJSDHFKJSDFHKDSJFHKDSJDSHFSDKJFHK I HATE THIS FUCKING SHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

im not gonna rlly propose fix-its, i just like to bitch. haha. anyway, in no particular order…

the owen & jack jail scene in dmw. it’s sooo frustratingly underwhelming. they had the perfect chance to explore some really interesting stuff with jack + his relationship with his immortality, and to explore the parallels drawn between the two of them, and jack suddenly having someone who might also "live" forever to keep him company… and then they Didn’t. it’s suuuch a let down. and the first half of that scene being ‘light-hearted’ and gross is so irritating and disrespectful to owen. absolutely the wrong tone. that ep pisses me tf off.

i have a lot of issues with owen & jack’s relationship in general. in aditd, when owen tries to drown himself + finds he can’t, and jack’s reaction is to 1) throw a soulless flirty line at him, and 2) ask him “how long he’s gonna do this for”... that scene bugs the fuck out of me. like what the fuck. what a monstrous way to react to someone who’s suicidal. and i’d like it if the show ever bothered to explore why jack seems to view owen’s suicidality with such disdain (because it’s a consistent thing; he’s also callous in combat), like that could also provide insight into his character - but they don’t! ugh! so it just makes him look like a fucking dick and makes me resent him. especially when he’s a lot more sympathetic to john in out of time. like why is he so nasty to owen in particular. fuck knows, they don’t bother touching on it. missed opportunities!!!

and, returning to the way dmw treats owen, i hateeee how he’s treated once he’s dead, by the characters AND the writers. everyone on the team is cruel towards him during his undead arc. they warm up again to him later, but the show itself decides he’s no longer relevant after that + seems to act like all his angst went away and he’s fine again. torchwood SUCKS at emotional continuity. the only time it comes up is that they REPEATEDLY have the antagonist of the episode make a point to remind owen + the viewers how pathetic and useless he is now that he’s dead (the nostravite + the ghostmaker both do it). and it’s just.. corny, and disrespectful, like come on.

actually dead man walking as a whole... i just hate that episode. i talked about it more here, it’s just….. ridiculous, and bad, and embarrassing 😭 i had to skip the fucking fight scene at the end i didn’t have the strength i get secondhand embarrassment too easily HFDJKSHFKDJS. the concept isn’t terrible it’s the fucking execution its sooo… idek how i’d fix that mess. i don’t like it. blegh. and like i said, tw does emotional continuity so poorly, like i don’t really have a question i can fully bitch about this on (well? maybe. we’ll see) but the way they go through significant traumas every ep and the emotional weight of those events is never touched on in the following eps... like the shit in dmw would’ve been a lot for owen to deal with but by aditd he’s got other problems. it’s just… ugh.

and if dmw is the second worst use of bad cgi, we must talk about the first… abaddon. i love end of days so fucking much, the interpersonal shit going on between the team is FASCINATING and so good, the mutiny scene is so good, them all being haunted by their past (aka the events of the past 12 episodes) is so good, for torchwood it’s a GOOD episode - and then there’s this fucking ridiculously embarassing terrible monster from the depths of hell stomping everywhere and roaring and i literally cannot describe how hard i was laughing when i first watched that ep. genuinely hysterical. especially after getting gut-punched like thirty times throughout the rest. and whatever jack did to defeat it... so fucking bad. SO fucking bad. idk what the fuck that was but it was a MESS. and the worst possible way to wrap up the “something’s coming out of the darkness O.O” bullshit (which, they didn’t, that continued into owen’s arc, like cmon…) it was just a shit show. see it’s hard for me to hypothesize about how they coulda fixed that bc it’s so bad but it’s kind of iconic. im kind of glad it’s there bc it’s just… torchwood wouldn’t be torchwood if it wasn’t fucking awful. but also. shudders.

ok ok i swear ill stop complaining abt owen-specific shit but ofc thts what i take most issue with, and a lot of my complaints abt the others are less about specific scenes and more generalized things, so ill talk about them when i talk about their characters… ill talk about this more in owen’s section, but i have… problems with the end of days ending, with the hugs. i like that scene a lot, the connotations are fascinating, but the way owen and jack are framed in it is…. eugh…. and most people miss the fact that it’s ‘eugh’? a lot of people see it as a sweet scene and that’s… oof… again i’ll get into it more later but i wish it was framed differently. torchwood could never make up it’s mind on how it saw the characters, lmao.

adjacent subject… the way jack’s return is framed. i HATE the way they just bounce back to normal once jack comes back. like, him leaving would’ve been fucking traumatizing. and the show doesn’t properly give closure to any of them. (it does a tiny bit to gwen + ianto, but like… owen’s abandonment issues are a consistent theme in the show, esp s1. his ‘did he fix you?’ line is unnecessarily sooo heartbreaking. what do you mean ur not gonna give a single moment to those two. Okay.) tbh a lot of these complaints are about the fact that i desperately wish torchwood was a show that cared about the emotions + mental health of their characters when it simply Is Not. tw is, regrettably, not the character-focused show it should be. and i hate it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a few last owen specific things…. i hate the owen growling at the weevil scene in combat. like what was the deal with that. they don’t rlly explain it in the commentary either it’s just. ?? but again it’s one of those things thts like. i can’t imagine a world where this show was actually good + didn’t have random weird cringe shit sprinkled in HFKSDJF it’s part of the charm. sigh

also owen & mark shouldve fucked. combat should’ve been gayer.

captain jack harkness should’ve been LESS gay. the excessive tongue kissing was fucking gross FSHDFJKDS like. i know that scene’s important to a lot of people + i respect it as an important moment in queer television + the way it’s framed as this big romantic moment, but the actual kissing is just. gross. why did they have to kiss like that. there are better ways to kiss. sincerely, someone who’s very picky about kisses + still covers my eyes like a kid at like 60% of onscreen kisses. 

tkks stopwatch scene. ianto why are you flirting w the man who killed ur girlfriend four episodes ago. fucking evil. like ok lmao 👍thats not bad writing whatsoever to never explore that in-show and only do it in an audio 10 yrs later. sure.

all of them randomly having empathy for the alien whale in meat has always driven me crazy. i thought we were gonna find out that the whale had like, empathy-enhancing powers or telepathy or smth bc i couldn’t understand why any of those assholes cared sm. like, in tkks we find out the glove is fueled by empathy + that’s why none of them can use it. like, these are people who aren’t naturally empathetic. nothing wrong with that, i’m like that lol. so i was really thrown off when they randomly all deeply cared about an alien creature. especially owen. like, i get randomly being moved by something, happens to the best of us, but the way it affected all of them + so profoundly felt ooc to me and has always bugged me a little. s2 tried so badly to humanize a group that s1 painted as absolute assholes, and i personally LOVE that they’re assholes. i am not the biggest fan of s2, lol.

a lot of tosh scenes bug me, bc the show generally has very little respect for her + her capabilities, but ill get into that more when i talk about her as a character. specifically some of the tosh & owen scenes fucking INFURIATE me. he’s so nasty to her. the end of adam (‘i dont do apologies’ and the smug little smile), and laughing at her when he agrees to the date in reset, and ‘in your dreams, tosh’ in countrycide all stand out. ive complained about it before + ill do it again; idk wtf they were trying to tell the viewers with tosh/owen. i like the concept of the ship, because it has potential - i absolutely HATE it within the context of the show. every ‘towen moment’ just works to humiliate tosh. it’s awful.

killing beth. im sure other people have done essays on the way torchwood treats its poc, esp its woc (although, knowing this fandom, maybe not lmao), and the lisa sitch was enough of a mess… the beth sitch could’ve been done differently. her essentially committing suicide by cop was fucking awful. ugh.

also the twist that suzie was evil + ten steps ahead could’ve been done much better. that should’ve been better written. 

as i said, i dont even like tosh/owen, but the fact that you never see them dance in something borrowed was just plain mean tbh. u can see like a millisecond of a frame if you pause in the right place, but still, why not include a fraction of a nice moment between them. cmon. something like that might’ve actually made me like them more

i hate the blowfish confrontation in kkbb it’s corny. cmon

i bitched about adam a lot the other day (again, here)… idek how i’d get that episode up to my standards. im petty about s2 as a whole and ive been meaning to try to put thought into what would fix it for me for months and i haven’t gotten around to it cuz its such a daunting thought. grr. i think i’d just completely redo the way adam influences them all. i literally don’t like what any of their altered selves offer. there’s no insight into them i find worthwhile. ig the shit abt jack’s past is worth keeping but i’d redo it completely bc i hate the gray arc. i’d have to find some way to keep the conference scene though, or get that new character info + vibe elsewhere. bah

[petrichoraline]

i am genuinely so emotional over this show ending, episode 7 was so lovely and episode 8 made me realise what stinkin' cute means cause how else do you describe them?? oh i cant even articulate all my thoughts on this, it's just such a good finale to suuuch a good show and i dont know what to do with myself

[theygotlost]

the better man is suuuch a good episode omg. if i wasnt duch a fierce dawn warrior i would definitely be a gayboy dean truther

[seasy33]

8 & 12!

thanks for asking rory <3

8. Is there a story idea in your mental vault that you've never been brave enough to try writing? Is this the year? Can you tell us about it?

ooooh i have a couple, but the one that haunts my dreams is this one that is also kind of embarrassing lmao but i used to really like this show (that i'm embarrassed to name hahaha) and there's an episode that i thought would make suuuch a good au for andreil. basically the idea is that Andrew is in sort of a drug-induced fugue (like he went on a huge bender), and is really sad and confused because Neil died a few years ago. But the reader isn't sure that's actually true because, as Andrew is sitting in this cafe, he sees a redheaded man acting suspiciously and decides to follow him. they go to this abandoned sea-side bed and breakfast where they learn more about each other (or maybe they knew each other all along) and also they beat up some bad guys (that maybe aren't real) and everything is vague and dreamy and the reader isn't sure (and neither is Andrew) what is real and not real

... as you can see, this idea (though i think it could be sooooo cool if i could pull it off) is really hard because it requires a lot of balance between andrew's perception of reality, the reader's perception of what's happening, and what is actually going on.

lmao i have tried to write it many times and can never get that balance (or the vibes) right. but, man, i want to so fucking bad

12. Will you change anything about the way you edit or rewrite this year?

well, as you know, i have a weird way of doing my first drafts lol i usually write everything in block-text with no punctuation because i find it really freeing not having to think about making it look good -- i can kind of just focus on the pacing and the actual writing. on my second pass, it helps me line edit because i have to go back and break it all up, line by line, adding all the periods and stuff as i go.

(ooh i also started putting my drafts into a text-to-speech app to find weird wording or missing words that regular spell check didn't pick up on and that's helped too --hearing it all out loud)

honestly, i feel like where i'm at now is working for me fairly well! i think if i were to change anything, i would try to get more feedback/get better at taking feedback and actually implementing it in the final draft. i tend to get stuck on very specific things and i think hearing from an outside perspective could be helpful to get out of my ruts (even if it takes me a long time to internalize any kind of advice lmao)

thanks again for asking :))