#the black guardian

[theheroheart]

There was a lot of things I loved about that episode, and roughly a billion references to older canon, but I'm always gonna hook onto the weird obscure stuff.

Specifically the shit about the Guardians.

Cause yes, on-screen we've had the White Guardian (order) and the Black Guardian (chaos). Yes they have birds on their heads don't worry about it.

But like he says, THERE IS PLAY. Because there's also sources saying that the Celestial Toymaker is the Crystal Guardian. Dreams and imagination, another dimension of the universe. (It's never great for the universe when any of these guys show up in physical form.) The Toymaker himself claims that he and the other guardians are Great Old Ones from the pre-universe.

(Google "rassilon omega and that other guy" to find the source for this, a deeply comprehensive timeline of the entire whoniverse.)

WHICH IS EXTRA INTERESTING given you then get this line from the Toymaker:

Note that there are no guardians of the spacetime dimensions. The "Guardians of Time" refers to Black/White, and possibly the others.

You may notice the Doctor is also on this list, as the Red Guardian of justice and morality. Which is all I could think about for this:

((PS: This also ties in with the slightly more bonkers theory that the Doctor is themself a Great Old One, specifically Nyarlathotep. There's basis for this in some books, but that's a whole nother thing.))

Given the context we now know from the Timeless Child being reaffirmed, there's just something meaningful about "THE Time Lord" in connection with the Toymaker and the Guardians.

Especially given several accounts say the Great Old Ones were from the previous universe, and were the equivalent of Time Lords in that universe.

Which ties really interestingly into Tecteun's claim that the Doctor was from the next universe, and wanted to go there with them.

So anyway yes the Doctor is a traumatised lil bean just trying their goshdarn best.

And they're also a "face concealing a vastness that will never cease" like the Toymaker.

Cause that's also the show. A vastness that will never cease.

[sacha-da-1]

Classic Who if the Black Guardian gave Turlough a gun

[circular-time]

I was just looking back through Mawdryn Undead gifs and

it's kind of hilarious the Black Guardian saw this debacle and thought

Aha, that pathetic twink will make the perfect assassin to eliminate my most able of foes, the Doctor!

diabolical genius we've got here, yep yep (just imagine him facing off with Seven)

[junkyardbluebox]

Mawdryn Undead Episode 2 Screencaps, Part 11

[masterbaiting]

doctor who; enlightenment (1983)

[partywithponies]

The other day my brother came up with the dream casting that if the Black and White Guardians come back to NuWho, they should be played by the Glenister brothers, and I can't stop thinking about that. I want that so bad you have no idea.

[doctorwhogirlie]

Doctor Who: The Black Guardian

Favourite Episode: Enlightenment

Home Planet: n/a

Scary Factor: 0/10

My Personal Rating: 2/10 I really didn't enjoy the Black Guardian story, and I thought he was a bit underwhelming yaknow.

(Please don't take these too seriously, it's just a bit of fun)

[cringecompanionapologist]

Thoughts on Gardens of the Dead

I've been writing some stuff about Turlough during the Black Guardian trilogy. I'm not sure what for. Sometimes I just start writing and see where it goes. I decided to listen to Gardens of the Dead for a bit of extra inspiration.

Spoilers, I guess:

I don't actually have a whole lot to say off the top of my head. I liked it fine. But, there are a few things I found a bit of a letdown. I feel like the idea of the Gardens was kind of wasted. You have dust that turns into a copy of dead loved ones. It briefly turns into Nyssa's father and we get some angst about that, since the Master stole his body and she can't mourn him properly, since she sees the Master when she sees him. Good stuff.

But, this story is about Turlough. It's from Turlough's perspective. We get a reference to his mom being dead, but that's it. Because we have to go to all the Black Guardian Alien Parasite Stuff, we miss out on what might've been some interesting character development, Turlough thinking about his mother and other family he might've lost. What we get isn't bad, but you have this interesting setting that isn't really used.

And then there's the ending. Turlough reflects on whether he and others are remembered, and he ends on his memories of Nyssa. It's implied that this isn't the BF Nyssa timeline where she comes back older, so Turlough's wistful memories are of someone he barely knew. She was nice to him. That's about it. It kind of feels like this is a Turlough story that would rather be about Nyssa, with her getting all this focus and being the one person developed by the setting. The Nyssa content itself isn't bad, but it feels like it should've had a story of its own, for all it's taking over Turlough's story. She gets more emphasis than the Doctor.

It's also a bit accidentally funny that Nyssa finds out about the Black Guardian, runs to warn the Doctor, hits her head, and just forgets that detail and nothing else. Maybe the Black Guardian erased her memories?

I think that if she'd actually been able to reach the Doctor, he would've just not cared.

"Turlough? Trying to kill me? Oh, don't worry about that."

Because he definitely knew.

[reachingforthevoid]

Doctor Who: The Armageddon Factor

I rewatched this, the last of the key to time season, on 29 March 2023. I know I’ve seen it before, but I have no memory of it. Oh, and it seems that some of it — the Drax stuff — I misremembered as being part of Underworld. Brains, hey. Weird things.

We begin with an odd clip of what looks like a commercial. No, it’s a romance set in a time of war. We are on Atrios, which is waging a terrible war against Zeon. There’s a princess, Astra, played by a fiery Lalla Ward, who is kidnapped by a mystery chap in a skull-like mask. It transpires he’s the Shadow, the rather inefficient agent of the Black Guardian employed to do the same job as the Doctor and Romana… I mean, come on, five segments to not quite one. Thinking about it, the Shadow is like a stand-in Master, only rubbish.

There are a lot of ingredients that should make for a fun tale and satisfying conclusion to the quest narrative arc… but for whatever reason, it doesn’t quite hang together.

We say farewell to Mary Tamm as Romana, and hello to Valentine Dyall as the Black Guardian.

[libraryoftreomar]

In a Monologuing Competition, who would win: Dagoth Ur or The Black Guardian

damn this is a good one

i feel like the Black Guardian can monologue for so long.... however, imo Dagoth Ur's monologue is much more engaging and memorable so i'm gonna go with him. aaand another poll because i want to know what everyone else thinks :)

[sailorsenshigifs]

[amelia-mariee]

remember how we thought black widow (2021) was going to be the darkest mcu movie, but then after the really well-done opening credits montage, the movie stopped being dark, and then two years later, a silly little Guardians of the Galaxy movie ended up being the movie where every person I’ve talked to said that they were deeply upset by it and they cried 6 times and that it was the most beautiful marvel movie in years and 100% the darkest movie that the mcu has ever made and was surprisingly gory and had the mcu’s first f-bomb and i even openly wept in a movie theater for the first time since avengers: endgame and there were points where i could just hear everyone crying and

[sacha-da-1]

Wait did the Black Guardian even TELL Turlough to kill the Doctor mid-regeneration if he succeeded with the initial killing?? Like imagine he actually bashed the Doctor’s head in and he’s already traumatized as sh*t (I’ll tell myself for my sanity he would’ve hesitated, but the rock fell just right when that machine blew up) and then hOLY F*CCK he just…. He just transformed into this other guy!!? And this one’s really insane and now he’s strangling me for being an alien spy!!?? 😂😂

[angelinthesnow666]

[junkyardbluebox]

Enlightenment Episode 3 Screencaps, Part 11

[spacedace]

dc x dp prompt thing:

Elle popped a handful of skittles in her mouth as she watched the shit show that Billy had just walked into. Everyone was yelling - at him - about Elle and about him knowing she was just a child and shouting about how could you lie about something like this? and on and on. All he had heard was that she’d been attacked and was in the Watchtower. When he’d seen she was a bit bruised and battered but no where near as bad as he’d been afraid of, he had been so relieved he hadn’t even stopped to think about the fact that she was in human form.

“Dude, there’s literally never going to be a funnier time to tell them.” She advised, grinning as she poured more skittles into her hand. “It’s not like it can get any worse.”

And well.

She wasn’t wrong.

With Justice League members shouting around him and gods shouting from within him, the calm, delighted amusement of his friend was the only touch stone Billy had.

A shout of Shazam and flash of lightning later and the yelling cut off all at once.

“Oh god, there’s two of them.”

-

“Where are you’re parents?” Superman asked with the bone deep horror of a father looking at two unsupervised teenagers caught doing something extremely dangerous.

Elle blinked at him. Shared a look with Billy. Shrugged.

“I never had any.”

“I did, but they’ve been dead for awhile now.”

Green Lantern pinched the bridge of his nose. Flash looked like he was sucking on a lemon. Superman turned and for some reason gave Batman a warning look.

"Don't."

"Hn."