While the finale to series 14 was a bit of a low, I feel like series 15 could possibly be an improvement and maybe show what this new era can be capable of. The main things to look forward to:

• New writers (which may have given Russell a chance to really go over and redraft his scripts)
• Appears to be more sci-fi type ideas.
• New companion that appears to not be best mates with the Doctor 24/7.
• Intrigue on who Mrs Flood is. (Although I am cautious on this one after the series 14 reveal)

How are we all feeling about this upcoming series?

Been thinking a lot about despots, tyrants, and usurpers lately. Not sure why. Anyway, there are a fair few in Doctor Who, and in recent years there's been a few dictator-adjacent characters (e.g. morally corrupt businessmen and the like). Hey, at least when The Master came to power in The Sound of Drums, he was actually voted in by the people of Britain.

Daniel Barton, who I thought was wasted in Spyfall, had all the hallmarks of a potentially interesting foil for 13's era. It seemed like the episode was building to a reveal that he was a horrifying cyborg; his interior metal organs reflecting his gross personality and completely bankrupt philosophy. He, too, wanted to steal everyone's data and turn them into walking hard-drives just to gain a profit. He, too, escaped that story unscathed. It would be awesome if Daniel Barton was to make a reappearance in a future episode only to be shot and killed and blown up - wouldn't that be epic? I think villains like this really deserve horrible, gory endings depicted on screen for all the world to see. Would be so cool.

I watched Alex Garland's fantastic Civil War last year and I always imagined we'd get something similar following Revolution of the Daleks, given the ending stinger with Jack Robertson. That character is pretty clearly retired now given the actor has been accused of sexual assault (possibly method acting as a Trump stand-in?) but, in the alternate timeline where that didn't happen, I always imagined a finale for the Chibnall Era to be centred around Robertson going for president, amplifying the racial divisions between the Silurians, Zygons, and humans; pitting them against one another whilst armies of robots scalped the security systems to be sold to intergalactic alien criminals. Something like that. I suppose that will never happen now though...

Still, almost two decades on, the Series 3 finale (whilst suffering from a classic RTD-meltdown resolution) is one of the only times the fate of contemporary Earth has felt truly, truly dire. >!From set leaks, it looks like Series 15's finale will touch on similar themes in a similar setting!<, so I do hope we get something similar soon. But, let us not hope too much, we might will it into existence.

In The Enemy of the World, the despotic ruler Salamander pretends to be a trustworthy sci-fi genius right at the end of the episode, masquerading as The Doctor. For this betrayal, and all of his crimes throughout the serial, he is cast into oblivion and killed.

I always thought, if Series 10 had been a full 13-episode season, we might have gotten a fourth part to the Monks storyline, as out of all of the episode I think Lie of the Land deserved more screentime. The first half could have been all about de-radicalising The Twelfth Doctor, maybe he really was possessed after all? Even pretending to be a villain is bad enough sometimes. When The Spymaster pretends to be a Nazi in Spyfall, he suffers a pretty abhorrent fate; ha, but he was only pretending! Right? It wasn't a real costume or salute.

Doctor Who has featured many of these tyrants throughout its lifetime and many have been a staple in recent years. I hope for more to come and for them all to suffer horrendous fates.

Or /r/Gallifrey's NSQ-MMFPBTAA:TRQTDDTOTT for short. No more suggestions of things to be added? ;)

No question is too stupid to be asked here. Example questions could include "Where can I see the Christmas Special trailer?" or "Why did we not see the POV shot of Gallifrey? Did it really come back?".

Small questions/ideas for the mods are also encouraged! (To call upon the moderators in general, mention "mods" or "moderators". To call upon a specific moderator, name them.)

Please remember that future spoilers must be tagged.

Regular Posts Schedule

• Previous No Stupid Questions
• Latest Rewatch
• Latest What's Who With You
• Latest Free Talk Friday

Just like in the title, can the Doctor use the Sonic on the TARDIS to open it? I'm asking because i just watched Dark Waters and in the scene where Clara destorys the TARDIS keys she mentions that the Doctor won't be able to enter it again And that doesn't seem like it's true. 10 tried to open the Door by using the Sonic when The Master got inside So, doesn't that make this situation, kind of pointless?

Recently, it came out that Character Options wouldn't be releasing a Beep The Meep plush because of a lack of interest from retailers.

But the real issue is that the BBC and CO aren't acting quickly enough. Obviously, there's the issue of spoilers but since Beep The Meep was a one-off character, last Christmas was the only realistic time to release mainstream merch of them.

The same with Series 14. Last year was the best time for action figures of stuff like Maestro, the Villengard Ambulance etc like they did with Series 1 - 8 merch but they missed the boat with it.

I was rewatching Spyfall and while it has a lot of good stuff (the aliens are cool) something that stood out to me in a bad way and kept taking me out of the story was the writing constantly doing these awkward recaps of the plot as it went on.

The Doctor will just state everything we have already seen to another character in a very forced sounding way..why, why does this era feel the need to over explain the plot as the plot moves, are they worried we will forget and need a reminder haha.

Anyone else get the feeling that the upcoming season is a make or break time for Doctor Who?

If DW produces a strong second season for Ncuti then perhaps things will take a up-swing and this era and the show will find it's wings as it were...

Where as if the season comes out and it's not received well and the ratings continue to decline even more then I think the show is actually facing dodgy waters with the future being uncertain.

I'm not a 'the show is doomed' person who always thinks the show is going to be cancelled like some have throughout varies part of Nu-who's run. I have never believed in the past that the show was in any danger of going away, I always thought there would be new seasons ahead...

But I do now think that if this new season is poorly received then the show is in some serious trouble and the idea that future seasons are a guarante is no longer a thing.

It will still most likely have a new season after the up coming one, but if this year goes badly the season after could be a reduced one in size and budget, and then end things.

Thoughts?

#BIG FINISH PODCAST NOTES /MISC. DOCTOR WHO NEWS ROUNDUP

Apologies for missing out last week, but there was only one news update and I didn’t think it was worth the effort. And hey, can someone buy and pay for the delivery of this Sea Devil statue that I didn’t realise was an actual prop and isn’t CGI. Also in case this comes up, from now on I will not post links from Twitter, because fuck the bad guys from the Indiana Jones movies.

PODCAST NEWS:

• Zygon Century and Planet Krynoid are still one-offs at the moment.

• The new BF website is still quite a while away.

• Currently no plans to do a Ninth Doctor/Rose release to mark 20 years of New Who (though not saying we won’t ever get a Nine/Rose story).

NON-BIG FINISH PODCAST DOCTOR WHO NEWS:

• Cover and story details are out for The Paternoster Gang: Trespassers Vol. 3. (And that is some brilliant cover art IMO).

• Don’t normally post releases but [The Fugitive Doctor Adventures Vol. 1[(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4fakrl-5PE) is out and the trailer is beautiful.

• Cover and story details for Torchwood: The Monthly Adventures are out. Note that from March the range will be Bi-Monthly.

• Cover and story details are out for Susan’s War: Grandfather Time.

• Story details for The Life and Death of River Song: Ace & Tegan are out.

BBC AUDIO/BOOKS/MEDIA NEWS:

• (From last week) Listings for two Fifteenth Doctor and Belinda novels have been listed: Fear Death by Water by Emily Cook and Spectral Scream by Hannah Fergesen.

• Neil Cole posted on his Facebook page that he is restoring the Skarasen model and indicates he’s got a secret mission with it. Whether that means documentary for a Season 13 Collection or updated CG models….it looks like potentially Series 13 might be in the works?

*ANYTHING ELSE

Sales: Weekly Deals: Doctor Who: Peladon Sale!; Star Cops Sale

Fifteen Minute Drama Tease: The Third Doctor Adventures: Doctor Who and the Brain Drain.

Interview/Production Interviews: The Third Doctor Adventures: Doctor Who and the Brain Drain.

Randomoid Selectotron: BUCKUP: Big Finish Classics: 2. Treasure Island

What BF CD’s are OOP: The Monthly Adventures: 247. Devil in the Mist; The Fourth Doctor Adventures: Series 10 Vol. 1

Big Finish Release Schedule:

What Big Finish I was listening too today: Errr the Big Finish Podcast.

Random Tangents: January 30th 2025 is when the story “Energy of the Daleks” is set and we’ve now reached that date. It was also Tom’s first audio, planned to be first released and Tom had to re-record some scenes because he hadn’t quite gotten back into character.

This is my first post on this sub after lurking for ages, but after a other rewatch of NuWho I couldn't get 12 and Bill's final conversation out of my mind.

I've always struggled a bit to figure out where the Doctor stands on the whole "dying vs regenerating" and "a person is their memories" points.

Starting with the memories point, on the one hand the Doctor seems to finally understand what Testimony and Bill are trying to get across to him when they give him his memories of Clara back. On the other hand though, he proceeds to remind them that they're not actually standing in front of him, that they will never understand him because they aren't real. He seems to grasp the idea of memories being what makes people, but it's like he isn't ready to accept it. My assumption here is that the Doctor is just making a point. He understands the importance of memory, but he's reiterating that the battlefield he leaves in his wake cannot be understood by anyone, especially if those people are simply a glass made memory. Even so, it's like the Doctor still can't quite seem to get himself to believe the power of memories, which is quite sad if true.

As for the deciding to regenerate point, it certainly seems in his conversation with Bill that he would much prefer dying. He needs rest and to unburden the universe from himself, and he's ready to go. But then moments later he's pretty much done a 180 and preping the next doctor for their own life in the TARDIS. It seems like such a sudden twist and I'm really not sure that the Doctor decided to regenerate in that exact moment. My interpretation is that he most likely had already accepted that he would have to regenerate around the time the armistice started and he parted ways with 1. Seeing 1 understand finally that he had to keep going and accept change probably left an impact on him, as well as the reminder that the Doctor is the fairytale that brings hope to the universe. That should be as good a reason as any to stay, and I think it was most likely enough for 12 to do so.

As a result, I think the overall conversation with Bill and Nardole is more of a final grasp from 12. He WANTS to die, but he knows he CANNOT. He wants to believe in the power of memory, but finds it hard when all he does is lose people in the present. But, whether he likes it or not, he knows the universe needs him to continue, and also for the memories of those he has loved to continue. If a person is their memories, that battlefield the Doctor has left is alive and bustling with all those who have impacted the Doctors life in some way. By dying, the Doctor is in effect killing those people as well. Those we love and lose live on through us in the end. I think this may be part of the point Bill was making to convince 12 to stay, and 12s rebuttal was more a cry for help than an actual defiance to regenerate. He wants Testimony to understand WHY it is just so hard for him to carry on. So when the Doctor does finally admit that "one more life wouldn't kill anyone", to me it's more of a final decision that he WANTS to regenerate. He already knew, deep down, that he was going to do so, as much as he wanted to rest. He just needed a reason to want to continue. Memories became the reason. So, even though it may seem the Doctor was going to choose to die right up to the very end, I think instead what we see is the Doctor choosing to live because he decides he WANTS to, not that he HAS to.

(I think it's interesting how this all ties in with Heaven Sent too. The idea of wanting to "lose" and "rest".)

That's how I see this ending anyway. It's all a bit convoluted and to be honest the most likely scenario is that Moffat had to write a Christmas special with very short notice, leaving some small dialogue inconsistencies as a result of having to neatly wrap everything up. Even so, I think it's a very intriguing ending to my favourite period of the show, with no real clear cut answer.

I'd love to know how others interpret these points!

Long shot, but I found these pins in the effects of a late relative. Can anyone identify the origin of them?

The coordinates are Gallifrey. The cardboard they're on looks pretty weathered, so I'm guessing 15-20 ish years old at least. The relative was a big science fiction person but I never knew them to be huge on Who. They did live near the eastern US / Canadian border but that was a LONG ago. Also when the light is just right both TARDISes apart blue.

https://imgur.com/a/LlbP16w

The meta crises dr has one heart - which implies to me human body, time lord mind.

Donna is also described as human body, time lord brain - but she can’t stay that way??!

Sorted of related?

At end of season 1 when Rose looked into the tardis she absorbed a bunch of knowledge and complained about her head (which seems similar to Donna)- but he sucked it out of her and put it back without erasing her memories though it does cause him to regenerate

Jenny (the generated annamoly) has two hearts and appears to regenerate - does she actually regenerate or do we think that somehow the terraforming device had something to do with it? It had a similar glow to regenerating…

Gallifrey Base has threads for each episode where fans can share reactions from children and casual viewers.

They're often surprising and interesting, so with not long until the new series, I thought I'd repost some general reactions to Season 1 here, and get a sense of what this new era means to the general audience.

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Possibly because I tried to get Mrs to watch at midnight, but she went to bed half way through. She'd had enough.

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My wife, who came to Doctor Who through the revived series in 2005 and has watched every episode since, said "That was the worst episode of Doctor Who I've ever seen." She thinks the two leads are very good, but hated the episode. My wife said, "Well, at least the wine we had while watching it was good!"

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My 6 year old jumped at all the bogeymen bits. Cooed and laughed at the space babies. And the revelation that the bogeyman was made out of bogeys got her really excited. I've never seen her so engaged with a Who episode before. She absolutely loved it.

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Both of my kids (ages 12 and 18) enjoyed it, though they liked "The Devil's Chord" better.

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Girlfriend said "Well, that was unnecessarily stupid in a few places, but still kinda cute."

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My partner (who will watch classic who if I'm watching it) who had no idea that Disney were involved in the production, managed.

"The **** was that childish ****?! Disney does Doctor Who?!"

I don't think he liked it.

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Watched with wife and 5-year-old and 8-year-old. Kids and wife absolutely loved it. Have to say I loved it too. It's made for kids as family viewing - all us adults need to get over that.

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Not We wife turned to me and said "This is rubbish" I'm afraid

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My partner looked at me afterwards and said 'Why do you do this to yourself?'

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My friend who started with the Xmas special liked this one. He found the babies cute and liked Nan-E as well as the regular cast.

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Not we wife hated it!! She said it was far too silly, not Doctor Who at all.

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My 14yo daughter just spent the last hour complaining with the worst dripping bile and ichor I've ever heard out of her mouth. She's literally disgusted.

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Kids seemed to enjoy it but one thought it was a bit silly in places.

She's 8.

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Not seen them yet myself but heard from a not-we aunt - who has been a regular viewer since 1963 when she was 15. She loved both episodes especially Space Babies. Was very enthusiastic!

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My partner has said this was a deal breaker - packing bags now.

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We watched the 2eps and my wife said... "what a load of rubbish. Doctor Who just doesn't know what it is anymore and I don't care if I never saw it again. Its a shame as he's (Ncunti) is really good". And that's from a person who your average viewer, who liked watching if it was on.

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My friends intend to watch it weekly now. They enjoyed Space Babies and really loved The Devil’s Chord.

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My wife said that it was kind of like a science fiction Pampers commercial, but at least it wasn't boring.

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Watched both new episodes on BBC iplayer while it was on BBC1 (better picture!). 11 year old loved it, I could see he enjoyed the boogie jokes and the action. Gave SB 8 out of 10, and one point higher for TDC. 15 year old rated it 4 out of 10. Could not imagine asking his friends to watch this. Criticised the animated mouths, the angle of the Doctor's movement in the scene when he didn't get blown out to space (fair point!) and generally cringed. Got up and left 20 minutes into episode 2 to play Halo Infinite with his mates.

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While I disliked this episode, I found it slightly better on second watch with my boys. Both kids (5 & 12) enjoyed it, including the toilet humour and cutesy babies. 5yo found the monster scenes pretty scary and wouldn't sit still. They've been on and off watchers, so pleased they enjoyed it even if I didn't haha

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My 14 year old and his two mates watched 'Space Babies' after Eurovision last night.

They real didn't 'get it' thought it made no sense (which it didn't) but they actually enjoyed it and thought it bonkers and fun.

Although general feeling was the Babies were creepier than the Bogeyman!

All 3 agreed that the mouths moving but the faces not reacting felt really 'wrong'.

They also didn't quite understand why the Doctor rescued some snot!

But generally went down well. That was from Marvel / Star Wars watchers.

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Mrs thought the babies were cute AND stayed around for episode 2, which was not a given. She liked it more than me.

Teen thought it was ok like me.

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My not-we boyfriend who's watched all of New Who thought it was trash.

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Very strong reaction from my mother (who's watched Who since Troughton but isn't exactly a "fan") - Space Babies was "really awful".

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Mum walked out the room half way through to go play candy crush because of how awful it was

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My mum (got me into the show, casual fan since the 60s) really enjoyed both episodes. Only thing she wasn't keen on was the Doctor's fear.

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Boyfriend thought Space Babies was terrible and Devil’s Chord was even worse. He just kept looking at me throughout the episodes like he had caught me eating KFC scraps from a bin.

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My Mother (74) has just said she "walked away" when it was on. She thought it was dreadful.

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My Kids (6&9) Loved it.

They Found the Babies hilarious and the Monster suitably scary.

Both of them sat through the whole episode and actually watched it rather than talk over it or play games in the same room that it is on. I cant say they have done that on many episodes in the past.

The Boy (6yo) enjoyed it enough to ask to watch the Next episode.

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Geoff Barrow from Portishead said it was the worst TV he's seen in his life.

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I was gob-smacked by a text last night from a Not-We friend who has been an occasional follower of the series since 2005. He often cites the Capaldi seasons as his idea of good DW, he watched bits of Jodie's era and was unimpressed, and he was luke-warm about the Tennant/Tate specials. His text said he had just watched the 2 episodes and thought they were "¤¤¤king brilliant!!!" The 3 exclamation marks were his, not mine.

I did check that he wasn't being sarcastic. When I told him the next episode is scripted by Steven Moffat, he was even happier.

It takes all sorts, but - as Helen A might say - I'm glad he's happy.

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Watched it tonight with my mother and three oldest nieces (12,10 & 7). I wasn't quite sure how it'd land, but everybody liked it!

My mom said that it was very cute—in fact, all of them were fawning over the cuteness of the babies—and that the mucus & diaper humor was gross but still funny, without pushing it too far.

The older two girls were both very amused by the Doctor, loving it whenever he was being silly. Oldest said that she really liked Ruby (but was quick to clarify that Amy's still her favorite). She's most impatient to get the answers to Ruby's mysteries. The 10YO was less keen on the grossness though. I had to explain the butterfly effect joke to them, but they thought it was funny once they got it.

The 7YO actually sat through the end of the episode, which is a first for her! Even Church on Ruby Road, which she liked, only managed to hold her attention half way through. She was playing a phone game to keep her happy when we started, but Space Babies actually managed to snag her attention from the game!

It was not, however, Paw Patrol, and therefore was of no interest whatsoever to my 3YO niece. :LOL:

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Brother left the room.

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My mum kept saying "This isn't as bad as you say it is" and she really liked the Doctors wee speech to Captain Poppy. The only bit she disliked was the fart joke at the end going "Ok that was a bit much."

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My good, and very sci-fi literate but not really a Who fan, friend sad to me "What's happened to Doctor Who?" "It's gone camp". Now it could be argued that Who has always been camp to a greater or lesser extent but it was really noticeable to him and he's someone the shw should be courting. I encouraged him to keep watching next week so we'll see.

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Unsurprisingly it’s gone done like a bucket of cold sick with everyone I know.

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My flatmate's opinions:

(for context, he's 31, watched it up to around Season 5 when he got to that age when you think you've outgrown it :LOL: )

- Was surprised and impressed at how expensive the titles and the pre-historic segments looked

- Described the exposition dump at the beginning as "awful writing"

- When the babies appeared he looked at me open-mouthed - and not in a good way. Said he would have turned off at this point

- Described the boogeyman as looking like "an old woman carrying her shopping"

Overall, he thought Ncuti and Millie were good, but the episode was "absolutely sh!t". For the sake of me hearing a non-we's opinions he stayed for the next episode though...

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I’m so happy. These episodes have gotten some of my friends back into Who and they have even gone back to watch the 60th specials and the Church on Ruby Road!

One them is even sending me theories and for the first time in my life I have someone to talk in person to about Who theories! Not just a message board! Ha

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"Not we" wife preferred this over Devil's Chord when we watched before Saturday lunch. She guessed the bogeyman was made of bogeys before I did. I think she re-watched Devil's Chord a few days later when I was out and decided she now likes it more than Space Babies....but both went down well.

I haven't heard the kids at the secondary school where I work talking about either, but it is exam season.

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I've had three people message me who know I like doctor who almost questioning me on why this episode sucked and that they're not going to bother watching the rest of the series

Conversely I've not had anyone message me to say they enjoyed it. Not that I usually do. Heaven Sent is probably the only episode where the not we engaged with me because of how good the episode was.

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My 6-year old son absolutely loved it. He thought the Space Babies were hilarious, the Bogeyman scary - the look on his face when the penny dropped as to what the Bogeyman was made of was priceless. He lived the toilet humour (obviously), laughed his heart out, and followed the story.

VERDICT: “It was silly and fun.”

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As expected, most adults couldn’t stand it and most young kids liked it or at least thought it was fine, with teens seeming to fall somewhere in the middle. But there’s more adults here responding positively than I expected.

Still, it scored an AI of 75, a significant drop from the 80's that all the previous RTD2 episodes got, including The Church on Ruby Road. For comparison, that's lower than every Chibnall episode except Once, Upon Time, which scored the same.

Doctor Who being humiliating to the loved ones of mortified fans is endlessly funny to me, so I'll admit to being slightly biased towards this one. But for me, this one was just mid. I’ve seen more cringey, more clunky, and more annoying, and there’s some charming moments in here. Save for a few moments of brilliance and a great ending, I’d sooner put this on than The End of the World. But I’ll never love either one.

The main takeaway here for me is how it proves once and for all the extent of Disney's influence on the show, I don't know how anyone could watch Space Babies and think RTD has been in any way filtered by executives. That is not a script written by someone who has been told "no."

The viewing figures are quite interesting to consider though.

Although it charted at number 10, the same position as The Star Beast and The Giggle, this episode had a reach of 5.6 million viewers, a drop of 2.4 million compared to The Church on Ruby Road's 8 million. For comparison, The Halloween Apocalypse, the previous season premiere, pulled in 6.39m viewers, meaning the show has dropped 0.79m from the last regular season.

So this was hardly the comeback everyone was expecting Ncuti's first season to be, which was doubly shocking after how sure a thing it seemed from the success of the 2023 specials. In fact, when this season was airing, Doctor Who seemed to instantly return to the Chibnall era's cultural irrelevance. It seemed like everyone was talking about the 60th when it was on, but when Season One was airing it seemed like nobody even knew it existed. Last November, about five months after Season One had wrapped up, I overheard a discussion about Ncuti's Doctor between a large group of friends of mine. They all seemed very excited at his casting, and were trying to determine if his first season had aired yet. They came to the conclusion that his first Christmas special must have, and so his new season must be dropping at some point before the end of the year

So I don't think this drop in viewers can be blamed on the quality of Space Babies, because a lot of people simply just didn't tune in to hate it in the first place. Which is very odd when you consider the overwhelmingly positive reception of the 60th and Ncuti's first episode only half a year before. So why didn't they turn up?

Anecdotally, the people I know who watched the 60th only came back for Tennant and Tate, and weren't going to stick around for Ncuti anyway unless his first Christmas special really blew their socks off. So from my circle, I've had the sense that a lot of the audience was lost whatever they were gonna do. Tennant-era nostalgia may have brought them back briefly, but perhaps the overall damage is too great to ever bring them fully back on board, even with the greatest possible on-ramp.

I also reckon the advertising must not have reached a lot of my friends, since they aren't watching TV, and aren't being shared the trailers online the way the 60th trailer had been with its obvious nostalgia value. The 60th trailer has millions more views on YouTube than the Season One trailers, which never cracked a million.

Plus, with The Star Beast, The Church on Ruby Road and Space Babies, that's three relaunches in a row to keep the hype going through. So maybe you only get two before it dies out.

I also think the midnight drop probably cleaved off some viewers. If it's not an event you have to catch on TV at the time it goes out, the immediacy that keeps some casuals tuning in is gone.

So I think it's lots of things, but mainly that a big chunk of people just didn't know it was on or didn't care.

On the international side, we will obviously never know the Disney figures, and the only whisper we have heard from behind the scenes about how it did was "okay but not stellar." So not a bomb, but far from the hit they wanted. I must say, for all the show's desperate theory-mongering, I rarely encountered any online speculation about this season's mysteries the way I have with other shows.

Overall, disappointing stuff considering the potential and promise of new life for Doctor Who in 2023. I'm far from a hater of Season One, but from the general audience's point of view, Ncuti's first season was off to a dying start.

Find links to all the 2023 specials' Not-We reposts here. Find links to all the Chibnall era Not-We reposts here.

For doctor who comic fans, please could anyone tell me every Dalek appearance in doctor who comics. They don’t seem to have turned up much, or at all which is surprising!

I want to learn what is new cause I dont have the chance to buy them

I've been trying to get into classic Doctor Who but before I start, I just want to know if there is a list somewhere of the best way to watch each episode. Which episodes to watch in their original form, which to watch in animated form and which to watch in audio form.

just curious when you listen to Big Finish audios do you imagine it as it would of been on a cheap BBC budget or like its on a billion-dollar movie budget? personally I imagine terrible effects like tinfoil monsters or rushed cgi in my head whenever I listen to one mainly cause I think it makes the stories funnier

Does fallout 1 take place in an alternate Skaro?

This is purely theoretical and maybe fanfic but the coincidences makes it questionable. Based off old Dalek cannon before being totally retconned of their origin. The master and the mutants of a post apocalyptic world seems very similar to the origins of the Kaleds and Davros. Obviously Ik there are huge holes to this theory as fallout takes place on earth based in California.

I mean realistically it’s probably just the creators of fallout being fanboys of doctor who and probably used ideas from the show. However, the theory might hold some significance since there’s a TARDIS Easter egg. Could be a parallel or alternate timeline where the Thals and Kaleds were based on Earth and the Doctor (William Hartnell) never discovered the daleks on the first story arc. Where Davros aka the master never had the idea to make the Mark III travel machine. Instead this universes “Davros” found a way to use the radiation and mutations to his advantage.

I want as much feedback as possible so I can know whether to stop cause it’s a dumb idea or if I should put more research into this and write a well structured analysis and essay. Thank you :)

Edit:

I essentially forgot that Davros was post genesis post retcon. What I meant to say is the “Dals” not Kaleds. The master not being Davros but being a former scientist of the Dals who’s mutation didn’t get as bad as the others. Hence his determination to reverse the effects. Then down the line he fails over and over essentially giving up on his goal. He then experiments more creating the super mutants l, etc. still a work in progress

156-100

50. The Myth Makers: An enjoyable historical. Vicky’s ending was a bit poor, but the rest of her stuff was interesting, and this was one of my favourite appearances of Steven he was willing to risk a lot and he was just generally entertaining. They built up the Trojan Horse very well, as you could feel disaster was looming, and made the Tardis team feel like they worsened history, particularly the Doctor, who invented the contraption, to slaughter the Trojans, making Cassandra more understandable as she is right and the audience knows it, the secondary cast was excellent here too, I found it largely funnier than the Romans, which as a story does help this one, as Vicky really enjoyed that time, so it's more believable that she would stay, even if it wasn’t really given how she thought the 20th century was ancient, and in a more meta sense, Katarina was dumped quickly because they did not want to deal with an ancient woman who understood nothing, so Vicky is stranding herself in a time full of Katarina’s (and Trojan women weren’t exactly treat well), oh yeah, Katarina was introduced here, though does so little in it, surely she could have done more, but whatever. Story 20 – 1st Dr, Vicki, Steven. (S3).

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51. The Five Doctors: Despite the name Tom Baker isn’t really in this, and neither is William Hartnell, though the First Doctor is. It was nice to see all the old Doctors again, especially the Second who was such a delight. It was also great to see the old companions too. The Master was great in this throughout, and there was some great visuals, such as the Dalek being blown up (which also marks a clear shift to show they are aliens and not robots). The warrior androids were pretty cool, and it was awesome seeing the Cybermen being ripped apart. The main plot was kind of unimportant but I do not mind at all and it was good fun. Story 129 - 5th Dr, Tegan, Turlough (S20).

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52. Castrovalva: An interesting and enjoyable story, however, this was not an ideal first story for the fifth Doctor. I understand needing to build up the companions as while Nyssa and Tegan were good in their first story, they were less important and focused on then the debut of the new Master, or the Fourth Doctor’s regeneration – however they did not get anything meaningful in terms of development of character building, when they were bringing the Doctor to Castrovalva, and it was a disappointing segment. The new Doctor does feel different from Tom Baker, and Peter Davison does a good job as an actor, but I am not sure how I would actually describe him. The people in Castrovalva were solid, not super memorable individually, but I do like there was some consideration of the existential aspect them to being created and somewhat under the control of the Master, with his comeuppance being stook in the folding in on itself Castrovalva, and being stopped by the people of Castrovalva. I wish there was more interaction between Nyssa/Tegan with the Master as he did kill their loved ones, and it must be horrifying for Nyssa to see him look so much like her father. Still a thoroughly enjoyable story, it had flaws but it had a lot of great aspects to it. Story 116 - 5th Dr, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan (S19).

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53. The Three Doctors: A fun story, even if the First Doctor could not really be in it properly. It was great seeing the Second Doctor again, even if he could have had a more serious moment to himself. Omega was a very interesting villain, some find him a bit over the top, but given how he has had no interaction with other people in centuries, and had nothing but a mind for revenge, its understandable, he’s literally insubstantial an held together by his own will and hate. Benton was a notable character which is rare, so it makes sense he is a stand in for Jamie, again its good seeing the Brigadier knowing the Doctor will be getting his freedom again. Story 65 – 3rd Dr, UNIT (Brigadier, Jo Grant)

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54. The Ark in Space: A bit of a remake of the Wheel in Space, and while no character was as good as Zoe was in that story, everything else was better, adding more body horror to it, which is ironic since that was the main appeal of the Cybermen. I didn’t absolutely love it, with Harry getting more shown, but is just kind of sexist and otherwise bland. Still the Earth survivors are interesting. Story 76 – 4th Dr, Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan (S12)

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55. Planet of the Spiders: A bit of an odd send off for the Third Doctor, but it works in the end, Lupton was a bit of a weak villain, but the Eight Legs were pretty good. The last episode really helped it feel like a bigger and more interesting story. Tommy is treated well in the story, and you can really see the joy and excitement in his newfound intelligence, also how is Mike Yates not in prison. Story 74 – 3rd Dr, Sarah Jane Smith (S11)

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56. The Invasion of the Dinosaurs: I really enjoyed the beginning, there was a lot of tension with London being deserted and there being looters about, and marshal law heavily in play, but the dinosaurs are a bit crap looking, Yates joining the villains is surprising and he gets good characterisation here. Story 71– 3rd Dr, Sarah Jane Smith (S11)

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57. The Brain of Morbius: A good story with some nice atmosphere and illusions to Frankenstein, Morbius’ monster body looked cool, the story was fine. Story 84 - 4th Dr, Sarah Jane Smith (S13)

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58. The Leisure Hive: A good start to the new season, I dislike the new intro, and the new outfit wasn’t great, but this was a good story. The Argolins are sympathetic group of aliens, as they are destined to die, after becoming sterile, and the scientist are interesting as they do lie to them about being potentially able to save them, but lied for funding, hoping they could save them – especially Hardin. Pangol is a good villain, and unique among his race. Story 109 – 4th Dr, 2nd Romana (S18).

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59. The Monster of Peladon: A pretty solid story though making the Ice Warriors villains again felt a bit weak, especially since they would leave the show afterwards (until the revival). Story 73 - 3rd Dr, Sarah Jane Smith (S11)

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60. The Invasion of Time: There is a lot to like here, and while there are some issues, such as Leela’s awful departure – seriously I barely noticed her and her ‘love’ together, was fucking stupid. The rest had some excellent bits, it was interesting to see the Doctor be so villainess, he was fun, and I was desperate to see what the Hell was going on. The Vardans look absolutely horrible though, I haven’t seen a worse special effect. Story 97 - 4th Dr, Leela (S15).

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61. Logopolis: A good send off for Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor, and a great introduction to Nyssa, and Tegan, Logopolis was a really cool location and I liked Tegan being upfront with its questionable practices. The Master was really good here in his new incarnation too. Story 115 – 4th Dr, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan (S18).

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62. The Face of Evil: A strong story with a good introduction to the new companion Leela, the side characters have some good moments if not super memorable. The villain being a version of the Doctor was cool. The story has a good aesthetic too. Story 89 – 4th Dr, Leela (S14).

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63. The Keeper of Traken: I really enjoyed this, it does have the issue a lot of stories have this season, where the world is interesting but should have had more time to explore them, like this and the next one should have been six-parter, Nyssa was pretty solid here and did feel like she would become a companion more so than Adric did, even if it doesn’t actually end with her leaving with the TARDIS team. The Master felt very powerful here, and Kassia absolutely served here. Story 114 – 4th Dr, Adric, Nyssa (S18).

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64. The Mind of Evil: Quite good, as the machine produced so interesting ideas, with the previous monsters returning as fears of the Doctor. There was no ‘yellowface’ which is a positive and helps everything age a lot better. The prison stuff was less good but whatever. Story 56 – 3rd Dr, UNIT (Brigadier, Jo Grant) (S8)

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65. The Evil of the Daleks: This started with a good mystery, and Waterfield was an interesting villain, but the middle part was a fair bit weaker, with some really good character bits, but the side stuff could be weak. The Good Daleks were cool and were a fitting end. Story 36 - 2nd Dr, Jamie McCrimmon, Victoria Waterfield (S4)

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66. Vengeance of Varos: The story shows a horrible plant called Varos, that keeps its inhabitants happy (well not quite) through broadcasting gruesome executions, with the Governor desperate to keep the population happy, or else he dies, this does add complexity as he is somewhat forced into this position, and can’t enact the changes needed to make things better in the system, but still works within the system, sending many people to their death, and has a fascist government that fights against any dissension towards the government. Sil is a fun villain too. Still, the visuals are usually good, but some of the lighting is poor, and the rebels are uninteresting, though the couple shown throughout the story are great, the music wasn’t all too good either. Story 138 – 6th Dr, Peri. (S22)

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67. The Day of the Daleks: The Daleks return in a good story, though they weren’t particularly great here, though the Special Edition helps smooth over the more aesthetic issues, the Controller was great here, however I could have done with more world building. Story 60 – 3rd Dr, UNIT (Brigadier, Jo Grant) (S9)

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68. State of Decay: The gothic look to the story was strong, and the villains were good here if a bit overacted, and it has a sympathetic lower class, one that has been prevented from learning – it actually feels like it would have better suited Leela. Speaking of companions Adric was a bit too cruel, and had made a poor impression. Story 112 – 4th Dr, 2nd Romana, Adric (S18)

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69. Spearhead From Space: A good introduction to the new Doctor, while Troughton was pretty different to Hartnell, this was a much bigger change, with it feeling like a whole new show, with the Doctor being Earth bound, and his new form bring a fair bit different. The main story is fine, but not special, which is okay, this was a major shift, so best to mainly focus on UNIT and the big changes. Story 51 – 3rd Dr, UNIT (Brigadier, Liz Shaw) (S7)

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70. The Androids of Tara: A bit of fun, nothing amazing but I like the theme of the story, and while the androids could do with more use in the story, it was just enjoyable. Story 101 – 4th Dr, Romana (S16).

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71. The Seeds of Doom: A good story, it was helped by the two different settings, the story looked great, and the Doctor was really good here, the secondary cast was more memorable than the usual. The villain was a bit one note if fun, also the UNIT involvement makes sense, but feels weird with none of their regular members involved. Story 85 - 4th Dr, Sarah Jane Smith (S14).

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72. The Mind Robber: A very interesting story reminds me of the Celestial Toymaker if done better, the ending to the mystery was not super satisfying but the ideas were good throughout, fun. Story 45 - 2nd Dr, Jamie McCrimmon, Zoe. (S6)

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73. The Time Meddler: A good one, the first since Ian and Barbara have gone. This serial was more light-hearted, which I thought was alright. I really enjoyed the Mad Monk, though I do find the Doctor’s arguments against meddling in time to be unfair since he does do a lot of that, still it went more into the Doctor’s past, and really showed the new companion Steven off. Story 17 – 1st Dr, Vicki, Steven (S2).

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74. The Ice Warriors: Another base under siege story, just this time with two bases. The Ice Warriors had cool designs, and the heroes’ base was cool, I like that there was an environmental crisis. Plus, the computer was an interesting component. Victoria and Jamie were great here, as was the Doctor who was very charming. Story 39 - 2nd Dr, Jamie McCrimmon, Victoria Waterfield (S5)

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75. The Moonbase: A good story that featured the return of the Cybermen, it is disappointing as it does not go over how they returned, I do like the reaction from the others on how they are perceived in Earth history. The disease looks cool visually. I prefer the old voices and designs. Story 33 – 2nd Dr, Polly, Ben, Jamie McCrimmon (S4)

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76. The Happiness Patrol: A solid serial, a planet under a fascist regime that is focused on forcing its citizens to stay happy not matter what, one good side character was the psych student musician, Earl Sigma, who the Doctor befriended. Also the Helen A and the Kandyman were entertaining villains. The look of the serial wasn’t very good though, it should be sickly sweet and bright but was a bit dower, and the Happiness Patrol’s colours were hindered by the lighting, so yeah that didn’t work, Ace was good here with Susan Q, a member of the Happiness Patrol who is depressed and Ace helps her get through it. However the ‘Killjoys’ were seriously weak, and felt a bit pointless. Story 149 - 7th Dr, Ace (S25)

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77. The Edge of Destruction: Pretty basic but unique serial, and a quickie, with the Tardis being turned into the villain, although has often been unreliable, so this this tracks with past depictions, and was a good to concept to get out early, so it does not feel out of place, though a modern version would be interesting as it would be a further developed Tardis) Story 3 – 1st Dr, Susan, Barbara, Ian (S1).

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78. Survival: This wasn’t leagues above Battlefield, but it was more well-rounded. I did enjoy seeing the Doctor fight against the survival of the fittest rhetoric, and this, and it had one of the better appearances of this incarnation of the Master. This was a solid outing for Ace, far from her best stuff, but good enough. This felt weird watching it as the final episode of Classic Doctor Who, it doesn’t work on that level, but it was good. Story 12 - 7th Dr, Ace (S26)

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79. The Crusade: An interesting historical, I generally prefer it when the cast sticks together, but it worked here. Great performance by Jean Marsh, as Joanna, Richard the Lionheart's sister. It also had a more even-handed look at the historical figures, more so than the Reign of Terror. Story 14 – 1st Dr, Barbara, Ian, Vicki (S2).

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80. Battlefield: This had some high peaks, but really drags in the middle. I enjoyed seeing the Brigadier again, although it felt like he was out of the way until the final episode, still it had a good points. I enjoyed the secondary cast, and the Doctor was excellent here, he has really come into his own. The design was great, especially the Destroyer. Story 9 - 7th Dr, Ace (S26)

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81. The Macra Terror: I enjoyed the animation visually the most besides the Power of the Daleks. The theme is a bit on the nose but good. This gets to highlight Jamie the best, with Ben being under the control of the Macra which means he still had a good role, but Jamie had a bit more of a purpose, and showcased their rivalry. The Macra are weird villains. Story 34 – 2nd Dr, Polly, Ben, Jamie McCrimmon (S4)

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82. An Unearthly Child: Good first episode, I do think it is cool how that despite how much more knowledgeable the Tardis crew are then the cavemen, the conflict is simple and clear, which is good for a first episode, and cool to see a more self-interested Doctor, but also the villains are not super memorable, and the first episode clears the rest of the serial. - when ironically it would be the least seen DW episode – at the original air date, to be seen until episode 1 of the Smugglers. Story 1 – 1st Dr, Susan, Barbara, Ian (S1).

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83. Mark of the Rani: A good introduction to Rani, a new time lord villain, she separates herself by being far more concerned with science and her experiments than other Time Lord villains, and she is paired well with the Master, however, I am surprised that they didn’t try to make her the new Master, I know there is the issue of his regenerations being ran out, but new Who figured it out, and his fate in the last story would suggest it would be his end anyways so they could have done something. Anyways, Peri and the sixth Doctor are becoming a good duo, although I did enjoy the fifth Doctor, he wasn’t the best with companions really (outside of the last story). Story 139 – 6th Dr, Peri. (S22)

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84. Frontios: While cool to see the end of the line for the humans, and it was a good story to showcase the style of this Doctor and it was a great aspect to this story, it was quite forgettable otherwise even though it had good music and visuals. Story 132 - 5th Dr, Tegan, Turlough (S21).

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85. The Sun Makers: A very Communist story, it apparently because of Robert Holmes disliking being taxed, but feels like a super Communist story, and Leela shines here for me, the Doctor is good as well, especially early on, very curious. The way he and Leela stopped that man from committing suicide was amusing. The rebels also went from bloodthirsty thieves, to the outright heroes very quickly which hurts the story, they give an excuse that the Corporation that is in complete control is drugging them to have more anxiety, helping their work output apparently. The villains are over the top but do the job, and work for this crazy world (literally) Story 95 - 4th Dr, Leela (S15).

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86. The Demons: I thought it had great atmosphere, and a lot of nice design, but a bit contrived to keep it all based in science, rather than magic. Also it just didn’t grab me. Story 59 – 3rd Dr, UNIT (Brigadier, Jo Grant) (S8).

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87. The Planet of Fire: The opening was absolutely beautiful, very well directed with great scenery. It does continue to look great and Peri had a good introduction. Turlough’s exit did reveal a lot about him, but while it did reveal a lot it still didn’t interest me. They had to get rid of Kamelion, and this direction made sense, but still, I didn’t really care. Also the miniature Master scene with Peri was horrid, absolutely awful. Story 134 - 5th Dr, Turlough, Peri (S21)

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88. Warriors of the Deep: A good return for the Silurians and Sea Devils, but worse than the Third Doctor stories. The humans’ inner fighting should have been better explored, as it seems like it should be more key than it was. Story 130 - 5th Dr, Tegan, Turlough (S21)

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89. The Romans: Some good comedy to this one, I enjoyed the Doctor pretending a musician, and Nero was a good villain, and I felt like we got to see a variety of the setting. Story 12 – 1st Dr, Barbara, Ian, Vicki (S2).

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90. Terminus: While still good, I wasn’t in love with the b-plot of Tegan and Turlough, I was just waiting for them to get to the Doctor and Nyssa. The main plot was better, but a bit all over the place. The look of the story was enjoyable quite grungy, and the armour looked somewhat organic. But the space pirates were far too forgettable and poorly implemented. A lot of it has pretty weak stuff too it, even if there was good stuff too. Nyssa leaves here too, it’s a good exit, and I found her more likeable than Romana, but she never had much to do really despite being in lots stories, she missed out on some, and just never really got any standout moments. Story 126 - 5th Dr, Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough (S20).

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91. Black Orchid: I did enjoy this one, even if the mystery was very obvious. I liked that it was short, a two-episode story is good now and then. It had a real relaxed atmosphere to this one in the first episode. A fun return to the pure historical stories. In addition, it did well to show off more of the Fifth Doctor’s personality. Story 120- 5th Dr, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan (S19).

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92. Image of the Fendahl: I found it a bit hard to follow, but it had excellent imagery, especially with the skull. Otherwise, just pretty good. Story 94 - 4th Dr, Leela (S15).

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93. Terror of the Zygons: There were some great parts to it, like Harry having his best individual performance – not that it makes me wish he stayed. Some great visual, especially with the direction, but some bits look a bit weak. Story 80 - 4th Dr, Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan (S13)

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94. Planet of Evil: A beautiful looking story. The anti-mater stuff felt a bit ill defined. There was good stuff with the Doctor here, Sarah Jane seemed quite smart as well. Story 81 - 4th Dr, Sarah Jane Smith (S13)

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95. Destiny of the Daleks: This is a bit of a poor outing for the Daleks, the story is fun enough, the ‘human factor’, being needed to end the deadlock made by the Daleks’ and Movellans’ war computers was interesting, and ironic given the ‘Evil of the Daleks’. The Movellans were an interesting group, and I enjoyed seeing the Daleks fight a conquering group. The Daleks killing their slaves to force the Doctor to give up the advantage was great. Unfortunately, the Daleks were characterised as robots, which weakened the story heavily, and led to inconsistencies in stories. There was an interesting segment in the beginning where Romana chooses to regenerate and has more choice over her appearance, it makes me wonder if more Time Lords do this, and if the Doctor is an outlier, only doing so when necessary, it feels like he would be one to hold on to each regeneration – gives him more of a similarity to the Master – hopefully this gets more explored but I doubt this, as they barely explored it in this story at all. Story 104 – 4th Dr, 2nd Romana (S17).

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96. The Abominable Snowmen: The casting of white guys as Tibetan Monks was not great, there depiction was respectful, and the Great Intelligence was a major villain, even if I had trouble remembering its actual goal. Story 38 – 2nd Dr, Jamie McCrimmon, Victoria Waterfield (S5).

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97. The Movie: Hard to rank, it was nice McCoy appeared here to transition over, it was fun although it made a few weird changes, there wasn’t anything massive. I am not sure how it could have continued after this, as they just set up the new Doctor and neither does his companion Grace or Chang Lee who was basically the Master’s companion before he was turned on by, and it felt like the movie was reluctant to go into the more sci-fi stuff and going into the most basic and human story, rather than the more weird aliens like the Daleks, Cybermen or something else. So while this was good and fun, it did not feel like it would have been a great continuation if it was more successful. McGann was solid as the Doctor, but doesn’t really get the chance to show off who he is as the Doctor. I did like the POV stuff, but the lighting was a bit too dark. I do like the first impression of America in this story is the Seventh Doctor getting gunned down and had a horrible hospital experience, seems on brand for the country. Story 156 - 8th Dr, Grace (Movie)

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98. The Deadly Assassin: It’s interesting to look into Gallifrey’s society, and the newly deformed Master is great. The rest isn’t. I wasn’t gripped by the simulation bit and the side characters could have been more interesting. Story 88 – 4th Dr (S14).

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99. Silver Nemesis: A fairly enjoyable story, even if it felt like a weaker version of Remembrance of the Daleks, and probably could have done without the neo-Nazis to give more time to the other antagonists, the music here was well done and fitted the Cybermen well. It felt a bit insubstantial, however it was an enjoyable enough story. Story 150 - 7th Dr, Ace (S25)

I'm watching what's available on spotify for free. The playlist I'm using starts with Storm Warning and ends with Chapter 20 of The Eighth Doctor Adventures, "Human Resources."

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4RDm7t75zWg6WwRpyHdDZb?si=yCK2Vci4Rau_CwPXjNo9Xw&utm_source=copy-link

So where do I go from there?

I haven't finished yet, but I want to be prepared and know what stories are next

This post is part of a series of reviews. To see them all, click here.

Historical information found on Shannon Sullivan's Doctor Who website (relevant page here and the TARDIS Wiki (relevant page here. Primary/secondary source material can be found in the source sections of Sullivan's website, and rarely as inline citations on the TARDIS Wiki.

Serial Information

• Episodes: Season 25, Episodes 1-4
• Airdates: 5th - 26th October 1988
• Doctor: 7th
• Companions: Ace
• Other Notable Character: Davros (Episodes 3-4, Terry Molloy)
• Writer: Ben Aaronovitch
• Director: Andrew Morgan
• Producer: John Nathan-Turner
• Script Editor: Andrew Cartmel

Review

I was not "wandering the streets"! I was merely contemplating certain cartographical anomalies. – The Doctor

Welcome to Doctor Who's 25th Anniversary story everyone! Sure, technically that's Silver Nemesis, but this one features Doctor Who's first return to 1963 since the show's very first episode, and the Daleks! And also the beginning of Doctor Who delving into a very basic question.

Just who the hell is the Doctor anyway?

You know, going 25 years with the words "Doctor Who" as the title of your show without making any sort of attempt at a complete answer at that question is a pretty impressive show of restraint. Sure, we know more than we did in 1963. The Doctor is a Time Lord, from a planet called Gallifrey. He stole a time machine called a TARDIS, and ran away from home with his granddaughter. And, aside from meeting a few of his old school friends (one of whom was even mostly nice, thank you Drax), that's kind of it. And it all starts with one question. What was the 1st Doctor doing for so long in 1963 London?

Well what if, and bear with me for a second, the Doctor was hiding an ancient and very powerful Gallifreyan device the Hand of Omega, a stellar manipulator that he may or may not have helped construct? Wouldn't that be something? And what if the Daleks have found out that The Hand of Omega is hidden on Earth and itend to use it to recreate Omega's initial experiment that gave the Time Lords their mastery of time? And what if the Doctor is aware of all of this…somehow…and knows that they've got their sums wrong…somehow…and will blow up Skaro if they use it, and so is only going to Earth to attempt to minimize collateral damage?

Okay, hang on, is it just me or are the answers a bit…bad?

Thing is, I really love Remembrance of the Daleks, it's by a good margin the best JNT-era Dalek story, and the best Dalek story since the black and white era ended not named Genesis of the Daleks, and I will get to why eventually. But it's also the beginning of the Cartmel Masterplan, new Script Editor Andrew Cartmel's grand plan to reinvent Doctor Who by reinventing the Doctor. And, I'll be blunt about it, there's basically nothing about the Cartmel Masterplan that I actually like, either in concept or in execution.

In this story, I think people have the idea that the hints dropped about the Doctor having helped build The Hand of Omega are subtle…but they aren't. There's a line that basically has the Doctor say it, catch himself, and then substitute the word "they" for "we", which might as well just be him saying it. And why do we need to explain the Doctor staying in 1963 Earth for so long anyway? I thought we had a perfectly decent explanation for that: he was humoring his granddaughter who wanted to spend some time there living a normal life. And why would he choose 1963 as the place to hide the Hand anyway? Why take it away from Gallifrey for that matter? It implies some grander design to the Doctor leaving his home, an idea I've never much cared for. And honestly that goes for the idea of the Doctor helping build the Hand of Omega. I could point out that the Doctor being a contemporary of Omega and Rassillon doesn't really make sense, continuity wise, but I feel like that's missing the point. I don't like the idea of the Doctor having been around from the founding of Time Lord society (to say nothing of the Master and the Rani, his classmates), let alone having helped found it, because it alters the image of the Doctor that the show has built up over the course of 25 seasons. And also, I don't like what it does to the Time Lords.

And I'd have saved all of this for the conclusion of the Cartmel Masterplan…except of course that never happened. We have officially arrived at the point where Doctor Who's cancellation after 26 seasons is beginning to affect the way I talk about it. But, like I said, I do like this story, love it actually, and it's probably time we started talking about that.

Well, first of all, almost everything wrong with Season 24 has magically vanished. The writing feels much more polished, the show's morality suddenly has depth, and the main cast of the 7th Doctor and Ace are a huge improvement on Seven and Mel, partially because Ace is a much better companion than Mel, but also just because we've finally decided what we want to do with the 7th Doctor. I'll get into Ace and the Doctor more later, but if the Cartmel Masterplan came with an element that I liked, it was the 7th Doctor's evolution from factory settings Doctor with a slight comedic bent to devious mastermind. And if we're talking about improvements from last season, the show still looks better, less cheap, even though it's almost certainly as cheap as it was last season.

It helps that this is the best story idea the Daleks have gotten since Genesis. Over the course of John Nathan-Turner's time as Producer, Dalek stories have been setting the stage for a Dalek civil war, most obviously seen in Revelation of the Daleks where a small-scale version of that civil war broke out. It was quickly quashed, as Davros' loyal Daleks were wiped out by the originals, but the idea still remains. And Remembrance of the Daleks finally sees that war come to fruition.

See, if there weren't multiple Dalek factions, this story would basically be nothing. The Daleks want the Hand of Omega, the Doctor wants them to have the Hand but doesn't want them to know that he wants them to have it. So the Daleks pick up the Hand, and boom goes Skaro. But because there are two factions of Daleks, both of whom are fighting over the Hand, all of a sudden we have problems. Mainly the problems of humans getting caught in the crossfire, but also the possibility that the wrong, non-Imperial Daleks get the Hand, and don't take it back to Skaro, and then Skaro never goes boom.

But the Dalek civil war allows Remembrance to really get back to the original conceit of the Daleks. We saw it in Genesis, but aside from that you have to go to the 1st Doctor Dalek stories to see a story that really leans into the original "Daleks-as-Nazis" allegory that was at the core of their original stories. But while past stories dealing with these themes leaned more into military themes with racial purity as a background factor, in Remembrance the military stuff is arguably more of a background thing, with the racism of the Daleks being front and center. Because, in addition to one of the Dalek factions being loyal to Davros and one not, as has been the case in other stories, Davros has been making modifications.

The big twist of the story is that, instead of leading the renegade Daleks as was heavily implied, Davros has actually installed himself as Dalek emperor. And retrospect there was one major clue towards this fact: the Imperial Daleks have been changed. The renegades are implied to look more or less the same as the Daleks always have, but the imperials are described as having become more like cyborgs, with robotic components integrated with their organic ones. And the obvious implication behind that is that Davros has been making these modifications, trying to improve on the failings of the previous Daleks. There's just one problem: the Daleks are big on racial purity. So the renegade Daleks, presumably, represent a breakaway faction of Daleks who view the new imperial Daleks as impure abominations against the true Dalek form. And so you've got a Dalek Civil War, which unfortunately the Doctor has managed to bring to Earth. Whoops.

As I said though, all of this ties into the Daleks origins as allegories for the Nazis. But writer Ben Aaronovitch takes things a step further. As I mentioned, this story is set in 1963. And Aaronovitch wanted to provide an honest, rather than idealized, look at the 1960s. Knowing that this was a period where racist and fascist sentiments were on the rise in England, Aaronovitch decided to lean into this by giving the renegade Daleks human allies: Ratcliffe and his men. And Ratcliffe is a neo-Nazi, which he more or less spells out when he says to the Dalek computer "This country fought for the wrong cause in the last war", which can only really be referring to World War II.

The thing is, Ratcliffe has allies, and is well-connected. He's got an in with the proto-UNIT military group that the Doctor allies himself in this story (which from now on I'm just going to call by the name it eventually got in expanded media, Counter-Measures). And Mike seemed so friendly too. There's a really great scene where Ace, who stayed the night the boarding house that Mike lives at, finds a "No Coloureds" sign and almost can't seem to process it. Andrew Cartmel loved this scene, but when he showed it to the BBC Head of Drama, apparently he was told that Ace should have torn up the sign, which Cartmel agreed with. And yet I prefer this scene as it exists. There's something really believable about being confronted with such an overt symbol of racism and not knowing how to handle it.

Though where I think this moment does falter is that it doesn't get much follow-up. In spite of the fact that Ace has good reason to at least ask Mike about the sign and get his opinion on it, she never really gets the opportunity. She eventually does turn on Mike, but only after it's revealed he was a spy for Ratcliffe. The thing is, when Ace confronts Mike on his betrayal, his excuse, "you have to protect your own, keep the outsiders out just that your own people can have a fair chance," is pretty classic justifications for racism. But even then, Ace seems more upset by the personal betrayal than the ideology that motivated it.

That being said, I still think what was done with Mike here was quite smart. It's easy to hate a man like Ratcliffe, a pretty shady man who we never actually see bothering to hide his bigotries. But Mike is personable. We first meet him when he helps out Ace get a coffee and figure out the pre-decimalization currency system. He's nice to her, helpful. He's a brave and capable soldier. And he is, unquestionably a racist. But, at least if you're not the target of their bigotries, racists can be all of these things. And they can be sincere, and Mike strikes me as being pretty sincere. But none of this, not even "nice" and "helpful", necessarily means "good", and, while if Mike hadn't died at the end of this story I don't think he wouldn't be salvageable, he's certainly not good.

Mike's superior at Counter-Measures is Group Captain Gilmore, who essentially takes on the role of the Brigadier in a UNIT story, since Counter-Measures is clearly intended as a proto-UNIT (the Doctor even accidentally refers to Gilmore as "Brigadier" at one point). Gilmore therefore gets a lot of the characterization that the Brigadier used to get: a stern military man with a strong sense of duty, but willing to trust the Doctor to a point, since the Doctor clearly knows what he's talking about. There's actually a fair amount of interplay between Gilmore and the Doctor, with each needing the other, and therefore each trying to keep control of the other. The thing is, Gilmore is dealing with this new, more manipulative 7th Doctor and so he pretty much fails at every turn to keep any sort of control over the Doctor. Nevertheless he comes off pretty well: an effective military leader clearly trying to do his best in difficult circumstances.

If Gilmore is a stand in for the Brigadier, then Professor Rachel Jensen might just be a stand in for Elizabeth Shaw: a brilliant scientist working for the military…who finds herself entirely overshadowed by the Doctor. There are a couple of distinctions. First of all, Rachel does technically have a more precise title than "scientist" as at one point she does say she's a physicist…though she does no physics in this story and arguably more biology. However the bigger distinction is that if Liz being a female scientist given a lot of responsibility and respect was a bit unusual in the 70s or 80s, it should be even moreso in the 60s. But it honestly doesn't read like that. It is a bit weird that Aaronovitch really wanted to do an honest look at the 60s but only from a racial perspective. I don't think I can recall a significantly sexist moment, towards Rachel, her assistant Allison or even Ace in the entire story. Not saying it should have been a fixture of the story, but it is weird that it never comes up at all.

The real frustration that we see from Rachel, and Allison as well frankly, is that she's been so thoroughly overshadowed by the Doctor. The Doctor is an alien with technology and knowledge vastly in advance of Rachel's and she really doesn't know how to deal with that. She at one point makes a crack about retiring in the face of everything she sees in the story. As a scientist should be she is curious and wants to know more, but everything going on is so far in advance of her frame reference that she can't really take it in in a meaningful way. Rachel is an interesting character, but she falls into much the same problem that Liz tended to: she's never going to be as capable as the Doctor, and so can't really contribute. Oh and Allison…was certainly there. Not a bad presence but not a particularly strong one.

I've already chatted a fair bit about the Doctor, but I should clarify that I do like most of what is done with the Doctor here. Besides not being a fan of the Cartmel Masterplan, at least conceptually, the only other real complaint I have is that the Doctor can feel a bit too self-assured in this story, which kind of undermines the tension. But that is only true to a degree. In reality the Doctor in this story is never quite as in control as he'd like, but is trying very hard to keep to his plan.

He also gets a bit of a philosophical bent in this story, in particular when interacting with John, a character who only appears in a single scene. I should point out that it's a bit weird that John, a Jamaican man, is the only non-white character in this story that really does want to shine a light on 1960s racism. But the upshot of this conversation is two-fold. First, it shows the Doctor worrying about the ripple effects of the actions he's taking. That does help alleviate my concern about the Doctor being too self-assured. The other is more practical: John's father was a Jamaican cane-cutter slave. These two ideas do tie together, but in a scene that had the danger of getting very philosophical and disconnected from the realities of day to day life, I like that John was able to keep things grounded, in his own way.

But really, make the Doctor a bit more of a chessmaster just gives him a defined personality, which he was largely lacking last season. Again, the Doctor came to 1963 with a purpose, which isn't something we've really seen outside of a handful of instances, most obviously the Key to Time season. And the way he deals with Ace in this story is kind of unusual because of it. There's a sense throughout this story that he's testing Ace, most obvious when he has her work out what the Dalek Civil War is about, despite never having told her – she pretty much gets it dead on. There's of course the famous moment where, after having told her not to bring her Nitro-9 (and she lies that she hadn't) he says "Give me some of that Nitro-9 that you're not carrying," which is just kind of fascinating in and of itself. It also means that the 7th Doctor just feels like a much less chaotic force in this story than he did in Season 24, and while future stories will challenge this, for now it gives this incarnation of the Doctor his own unique edge.

And then there's the bit where the Doctor starts ranting at Davros about rice pudding. I actually love this moment. It's sometimes seen as being a bit goofy, but I think it really works, the Doctor is essentially mocking Davros' world domination goals. The whole scene is built on the Doctor trying to rile Davros up, but in this moment, you can feel the Doctor getting angry as well. And on the topic of moments that have been discussed a lot in this story, I don't think of blowing up Skaro as being an especially dark moment, but this goes back to my general feeling that there's nothing wrong with killing any, or even all Daleks, because the Daleks are generally presented as pure evil.

Now as for Ace, Script Editor Andrew Cartmel suggested to writer Ben Aaronovitch that he try to feature Ace prominently in this story, hoping to make Ace into more of a clear individual compared to recent companions. Sophie Aldred actually had a meeting with Aaronovitch and The Happiness Patrol writer Graeme Curry about Ace's characterization and arc. This leads to Ace feeling a bit more authentic as a teenager than she did in Dragonfire, as Ace starts speaking in a way that feels more natural. It also leads to her getting some defining moments. Ace bashing a Dalek with a souped-up baseball bat is arguably the defining Ace scene. The thing is, in spite of focusing on her willingness to enter the fray, we do see Ace's fear come out a few times. It's just that that fear has a tendency to express itself through violence, rather than hiding. She also gets that moment where she works out and explains the Dalek Civil War that I mentioned earlier, showing that, in spite of having been a poor student, Ace is actually pretty smart and intuitive.

And then there's her relationship with Mike. It really does feel like the start of a romance for much of this story. Ace and Mike have some genuine chemistry, he seems fascinated by how unusual she is, while she's clearly enjoying the company of the dashing soldier. Which is why when Mike is revealed as a traitor, it hits all the harder (still wish the racism played more into that mind). It is interesting to see really. Ace isn't a character you'd necessarily expect to be put into a romance in her second story, but doing this, and having it end badly, does tell us a good deal about who Ace is, especially her fit of rage (and perhaps heartbreak) upon discovering Mike's betrayal. And the big takeaway with Ace is that, after Peri and Mel got promising starts only for the show to completely fail to capitalize on that, Ace's second story, if anything, does far more for her character than her first, and that's really exciting.

I will end on a bit of a downbeat note by talking about the music. I generally like the 7th Doctor era music, but this is a bit less successful. I think it's just that the music used for the Daleks is a bit chipper and that doesn't quite suit them, and that a lot of the music in this story feels a bit ill-fitting. It's not horrible, but something I picked up on a more and more as the story went on.

But, in spite of that, and some more substantial criticisms, I do absolutely love Remembrance of the Daleks. It's far from perfect, but it really feels like it's setting the tone for this era. Yes, Season 24 happened, but now, finally, the 7th Doctor era has an identity. And it's an intriguing one to boot. And more than anything, Remembrance is just a good story, built on a really solid foundation.

Score: 9/10

Stray Observations

• Early versions of this story actually leaned a lot more into references to "An Unearthly Child", however it was pointed out that this was ground somewhat tread by Attack of the Cybermen, and so Aaronovitch decided to scale things back a bit.
• Aaronovitch was actually somewhat skeptical of the idea of using Davros again, havign felt that he tended to overshadow the Daleks. However Mike Johnson, a crewmember who'd been working on several Doctor Who stories as a visual effects person, largely uncredited, had always envisioned building a large domed Dalek that split open at the top to reveal Davros. Aaronovitch decided to incorporate that idea in his Dalek story.
• Originally the Dalek factions would have been Red (imperial) and Blue (renegade). However it was decided to align the Dalek colors more with the Daleks' appearance in Revelation of the Daleks using white for the imperial daleks, and grey for the renegade Daleks.
• Terry Nation didn't care for how little Davros featured in this one. JNT was able to mollify Nation.
• In order to hide Davros' return, Terry Molloy was credited under the pseudonym "Roy Tromelly", an anagram of his actual name, in episode 3
• Sophie Aldred did a lot of her own stunts in this story, leading to her bonding with Stunt Coordinator Tip Tipping. At first she found the experience "terrifying", but eventually got used to it. She did give herself a minor injury when she jumped through a window.
• Simon Williams, who played Group Captain Ian Gillmore, had previously starred on Upstairs, Downstairs. Both Sophie Aldred and Karen Gledhill (Allison), had been fans of the show, and so were in awe to be working with Williams.
• This story saw the return of John Leeson, best known for playing K-9, now as the Dalek battle computer. The original plan was for Terry Molloy to do the computer voice, but he was unavailable for the recording sessions. Leeson was actually asked to make the computer sound a bit like Davros, as a misdirect for Davros' actual identity in the story. He watched past Davros episodes to get a handle on the voice. It's quite convincing.
• Worth pointing out that Producer John Nathan-Turner was apparently pretty rude with Sophie Aldred during the filming of this story. It's not the first instance I've heard of JNT being bad to cast members, but it is the first time I've heard about it happening during filming.
• This was the first Doctor Who story to be broadcast in stereo sound, and one of the first BBC programs overall.
• The story opens up with a pre-credits title sequence, still a rarity at this time though becoming a bit more common. This one is comprised of a series of transmissions coming from the Earth, pulling back to reveal what is presumably the Dalek spaceship.
• This story sees the first use of the visual effect of the Daleks laser blast creating an X-ray effect, which will go on to become the norm in the revival. What doesn't get carried forward is the tendency of the Dalek blasts to send their target flying after a hit.
• In a science classroom, Ace picks up a book on the French Revolution. The heavy implication is that it's Susan's book, the one that Barbara gave her and she finished reading as of "An Unearthly Child". Considering that, that implies that the science classroom in question is Ian's class.
• In episode 1, the Doctor gives the first version of what has become the common explanation for humans not remembering past alien invasions: we're just bad at retaining that information, or as he puts it "your species has the most amazing capacity for self-deception matched only by its ingenuity when trying to destroy itself". He references the Zygon gambit (presumably Terror of the Zygons, the Yetis in the underground (The Web of Fear, and the Loch Ness monster (…also Terror of the Zygons).
• As for my thoughts on this particular explanation? I really don't like it…but I recognize its necessity. In a vacuum, it's just bad writing, because it doesn't really say anything about human behavior. There are of course all sorts of human events that get ignored, because history is massive and it's easy to hide something like the Tuskegee Syphillis experiments that the general public really don't want to know about regardless, but the Loch Ness monster showing up in the Thames is of a different nature. It's just a bit too over the top and absurd to really have a correlation to actual human behavior. However, Doctor Who as a show likes the present day to be roughly analogous to our own present day, so that characters from that present can be relatable, which does make sense as a goal. If the show were to take its continuity of alien invasions more seriously, history from at least the 80s onward would be so radically different that the modern world would be entirely unrecognizable, and so an excuse has to get come up with, and there aren't really any good ones.
• Episode 1 ends with a Dalek levitating up a flight of stairs. Ben Aaronovitch put this scene in explicitly to settle once and for all the running gag within the fandom of the Daleks not being able to handle stairs. Since the show was cancelled before another Dalek story was made, it's difficulty to say for certain if this would have worked as well as he hoped.
• Episode 2 has a well-known moment where Ace turns on the TV at Mike's house. It begins playing the BBC introduction to a "new science fiction series Doc–" and then gets cut off as the scene changes. This is obviously intended to be Doctor Who, though what it is in universe is entirely up to the viewer
• One of the more famous things in this story in the introduction of the Special Weapons Dalek, a Dalek that looks different, particularly having one massive gun rather than the gun and plunger appendages, and what looks like 360º vision. It's very neat, although I do wonder why the Daleks don't all get the 360º vision or at least something a bit less vulnerable than the single point of failure eyestalk.
• Among his titles, the Doctor describes himself as "President-Elect of the High Council of Time Lords". The rest of this stuff is essentially meant as "Other" hints, but the President-Elect bit does confuse me. At the end of Trial of a Time Lord, the Doctor was offered the presidency by the Inquisitor, but it was more of a suggestion than an election, and he turned it down (rather than running away, like he'd done in "The Five Doctors"). I don't see how the Doctor can be President-Elect, although I suppose we could have missed something. Really though, you'd think the Time Lords would have stopped offering to make him President, since the Doctor clearly doesn't want the job.
• The Doctor says that Davros has "discarded the last vestige of [his] human form", in reference to Davros' new "imperial" casing. Really that should be either "humanoid form" or "Kaled form".

Next Time: We go to a happy planet. A very happy planet. An extremely happy planet. And if you're not happy then so help me…

Time Lords have really long names, such as Narvinectralonum, or Romanadvoratrelundar, anyway if a companion was actually a Chameleon Arched Time Lord which could pinion woukd you want it to be and what would their long Tine Lord-t name or their title be?

Of course not all Time Lords have extremely long and hard to pronounce real names like for example Irving Braxietal who actually has a space in his name.

Okay so, yeah, not ALL time Lord names are hard tobpronounce, like Rassilon, Omega etc, those are rather easy, but still idk why some of them have really long and hard to say names that have to be shortened, like Barvin and Romana from at the very start of this post.

As for my question of course panions amf who I'd like tobne a Chamrlron Arched Time Lord, my choice is probably kinda obvious, but Rose Tyler- yeah, I get she's kinda overrated but I love her amd while her and TenToo's ending is cute (settling down with a house with carpets and a mortgage) I'd love for an au where TenToo wasn't created and Rose got to stay with the fully Yime Lord Doctor, and as for her Time Lord name.... would it be to obvious for it to be Arkytior? Idk if want thibk of another bame for her.

My second choice would be Donna, as a sister of the Doctor, since they already have a siblong-like bond in canon Time Lady name uhm idk if anyone else chooses Fonna what would your ideal Time Lord/Lady bame for her be?

Im reading Parasite by Jim Mortimore. Book 33/61.

Very early into the book I came across this text which reminded me of the Star Seed Briefcase. This is the text. I'd post it as an Image but im not allowed.

To begin with, the instruction to cancel his first surfing holiday in three years had come as he was about to paddle his board out into the biannual breakers of Elysium’s fiercest ocean. The instruction had come in the form of a short, round, placid-featured man, who introduced himself as Jarvis, a rep- resentative of the Founding Families, and handed him a plain grey briefcase. To his surprise the briefcase locked itself to his wrist as he took it. ‘What’s in the case?’ he’d asked Jarvis, surprise turning to annoyance when he realized the briefcase was not readily going to detach itself from his arm. ‘I have no idea,’ Jarvis replied. ‘And if you try to open the case before the timer unlocks it, or . . . let go . . . of the handle now it’s bonded to your palmprint, you won’t know either, because the contents are rigged to self- destruct if either of those things happens.’ He’d looked at the other man incredulously, surfboard held beneath one arm, briefcase clutched in the other hand, surf surging around his knees. ‘Have you any idea how I’m going to get dressed while holding a briefcase I can’t let go of until the time-lock operates?’ The man’s expression hadn’t changed. ‘No,’ he’d said evenly. ‘I see,’ he’d replied dryly. ‘And is there anything you can tell me?’ ‘Only that if you fail in this mission the life of every man, woman and child in the solar system becomes rather more problematical than you might have thought.’ ‘You mean the system is under threat? Physically? Politically? What’s going to happen?’ The man said four words that sent a chill colder than the wind blowing in off the seaboard through Green’s body. ‘System-wide civil war.’

Edit: im now on page 179. At the end of Act 2 basically. And the Star Seed stuff is even more blatent. Here is the text:

Ace looked downwards, deep into the core of the planet. The temperature there was close to flashpoint. Gravity was erratic but increasing swiftly. Drew gasped as the shuttle began to fall. ‘Go up! Ace, what are you doing? Go up!’ ‘The whole place is ready to blow,’ Ace snarled. ‘If we go up we’ll never escape the radiation.’ ‘If we go down we’ll crash! Or drown!’ ‘It’s the only way back into the Artifact. So shut up and hold on.’ And Ace tilted the nose of the shuttle towards the waves, drove the ship downwards through a nightmare of gamma radiation and vaporizing matter, down into the ocean and the end of the Klein bottle that was the Artifact. In the last seconds before the engines gave out the oceans were ripped into dissociated molecules around them. Ace saw the hydrogen begin to burn. Saw the flash begin, felt it sear – everything now I’ve seen – her eyes ripping – everything I’ve – through her optic nerves and into – seen a star – her brain – being born – as the oxygen bonded to the hydrogen was blasted away in a spherical shell and the planet detonated into the raging nuclear hell of a new-born star.

:end of text. There's other parallels to it in the same way that Kill the Moon shares parallels. With Joy To The World.

We literally have a guy point a gun at benny and go 'the planet is an egg'. Its kinda hilarious that we could dip into this well twice.

The new Jo Martin audio boxset is now out. Has anyone listened to it yet, and if so, how is it? I'm really tempted by more of her (one of the best aspects of the Chibnall era in my view despite my misgivings about the timeless child plot itself), but often Big Finish can fumble big concepts/characters in lacklustre stories. Is this boxset worth the money?

We all know that Doctor Who is a family show. RTD has talked about this in numerous interviews. He clearly is making this new era of Doctor Who for adults and younger children. He'd like a new a generation of Whovians to jump aboard the Tardis. I agree with the underlying premise of the argument. However, I disagree with the demographic the show’s creator is trying to target. I genuinely believe that younger children have difficulty engaging with television unless the show is specifically designed for their age group. Shows like Bluey excel in this regard because they cater to children’s interests. On the other hand, shows like Doctor Who struggle to capture the attention of younger viewers because they are also intended for adults. The subtlety, nuance, and overall plot that adults can easily comprehend can confuse and disinterest younger children.

I believe that RTD is aware of this challenge and has attempted to address it by simplifying the plot, speeding up the pacing, and introducing a more lighthearted tone. However, these changes have inadvertently alienated the adult demographic.

In my opinion, the solution lies in creating a show that appeals to both adults and teenagers. To achieve this, it is crucial to maintain an intelligent plot, control the pacing, and moderate the goofiness. Additionally, if you want teenagers to watch your show, it should be something they are not supposed to be watching. Teenagers are rebellious and seek to be perceived as mature and adult. By introducing a slight darkness to the show, adults will be drawn to it, while teenagers will follow suit. This approach will lead to increased happiness among both audiences and a new generation of fans for Doctor Who.

Talk about whatever you want in this regular thread! Just brought some cereal? Awesome. Just ran 5 miles? Epic! Just watched Fantastic Four and recommended it to all your friends? Atta boy. Wanna bitch about Supergirl's pilot being crap? Sweet. Just walked into your Dad and his dog having some "personal time" while your sister sends snapchats of her handstands to her boyfriend leaving you in a state of perpetual confusion? Please tell us more.

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So, when the Doctor asks Rose if she was pregnant after she reveals that there’s a baby. His reaction is a bit strange to me, he looks sad, and it doesn’t just seem related to the fact that he knows this is the last time he will ever see her ( at this point he definitely doesn’t know she will go on to find a way back much later), it seems almost as if he’s sad at the thought that she even is pregnant. Also though, the way he asks it, to me, sort of implied they’ve been intimate before. Yet of course, there was no indication that the feelings either of them obviously had for eachother were or ever would be fully acted on, at least not in that way. So I’m wondering, did anyone else feel like he was either inquiring about a baby that he thought I might be his, or inquiring because he hoped it was his (I realize that he could have just asked for confirmation with the assumption that her and Mickey were back together and having a child but for some reason his reaction makes me think he truly did think Rose could be pregnant with his child). I wouldn’t put it past RTD honestly for putting little nods and nuggets for us to figure out and drive everyone insane trying to speculate on it. What do you guys think.

My sister and I were watching The Impossible Astronaut and the Doctor sends out invites that are numbered based on the amount of trust he has for the recipients, putting himself as number 1. This prompted my sister to ask me “if the Doctor were to include everyone he’d ever known in this, who would have gotten the invite and what would their trust level be?” This lead to a fascinating discussion and I thought Reddit might have some inputs.

So! What do you think? From Susan to Ruby, if the Doctor always trusts himself the most and fills that first slot, who would the other three invites go to and why?

To anyone that has been to Gallifrey One or is going to Gallifrey One, it's going to be my first time going and pretty stoked but also nervous. I know there's going to be a star studded cast at the con. I wanted to know for those who have been to the con before, what's the usual price range for the autographs?

Seeing him on Galifrey, doing his backstory stuff, would be super cool. If there’s anything like that I’d love to know, cuz I’m new to DW and don’t know much yet.