[dlgn]

Hello, Whovians and non-Whovians alike! This thread is for discussion of Doctor Who, news about Doctor Who, Doctor Who fan works, and basically everything about it.

For those who are new to it, Doctor Who is a popular British Sci-Fi show about an alien called the Doctor who loves humans and travels through time and space in his time machine called the TARDIS with various companions. The first season aired in 1963 with the Doctor played by William Hartnell; when he eventually retired from the show due to health reasons, the showrunners decided that they would continue the show by writing in a mechanism called regeneration where the Doctor would change appearance and (to some extent) personality after being mortally injured or ill, which has become one of the things the show is best known for. Doctor Who stopped airing in 1989 during the time of the Seventh Doctor (played by Sylvester McCoy) due to low ratings. A movie was made in the interim featuring the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) but failed to launch a continuation of the series; however, it was relaunched successfully in 2005 with the Ninth Doctor played by Christopher Eccleston and Russel T. Davies as lead writer. It returned to immense popularity as it continued to explore important questions and ideas in a typical Sci-Fi manner while being a great deal of fun. It also spawned spinoff series Torchwood (currently on indefinite hiatus) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (which was discontinued due to the tragic death of Elizabeth Sladen, who played Sarah Jane Smith). The current lead writer is Steven Moffat, and the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) has just regenerated into the Twelfth (Peter Capaldi), accompanied by Clara "Oswin" Oswald (Jenna Coleman).

Well, what are we waiting for?

[dlgn]

Here's an excellent piece of short Doctor Who fanfiction I found on Tumblr. I would've put it in the main post, but I wanted to keep it on topic. The fic is called "Paper Doll", and written by by tripwirealarm on Tumblr.

Spoiler:

Something about her feels imaginary, so at first she thinks he’s just made her up, like some kind of excuse. Even the name Rose feels idealized, like a model someone would make of a woman, a paper doll of flower scented parchment because what’s haunting the Doctor couldn’t be a person person, not a physical one with breakable bones and skin that can be cut and bruised; not something alive that doesn’t burn forever like a star. Especially because the more she pries, the more he claps shut like a clam, changes the subject, takes too long to reply—the way someone does when caught in a lie.

Martha thinks that for awhile. That she’s a story. She’s the Doctor’s mythology; and she can’t compete with an idea but every day she tries.

What the point would be in that—inventing Rose—she’s not certain, not at first, but seeing things as the Doctor does is not something she excels at. Once, she’d thought, it was some sort of means to politely express his romantic disinterest, if he seemed at all cognizant of the fact she is interested, or the necessity to be polite about showing her that he is not. The Doctor knows so much about so much, even humanity, but it’s the little things that give him the slip.

She’s with him about a month when she finds it: an old Polaroid. The kind she used to take with her friends at middle school sleepovers, the kind you’d flap back and forth after it rolled loudly out of the camera as though it needed drying. It’s not a thing she’d expect to find in a timeship, although, she reconsiders, probably it should be exactly the kind of thing she should expect to find in a timeship: captured moments. That, and the fact that she hasn’t seen Polaroid film in a shop for years.

It’s face down in a book in the library, one he’s left out on a tabletop with the white scrap poking from its top. Martha can’t find any reason not to look, it’s left there in the open, a book about Werewolf lore of all things, leatherbound with crisp pages that feel old between her fingertips in just the way they bend and slips. It’s old the way anything on this ship can be old, which is to say, both very and not at all. He could have picked it up yesterday or a hundred years before and the effect would be the same.

What doesn’t belong in the book is a face down Polaroid of a blonde in denim overalls and boots, grinning bright enough that she’s like the sun coming out. Her toes are turned in, she’s pitched slightly forward, knees bent, frozen in laughter the way she looks built to be. Her face in the photo, it’s the kind of face you make when it’s someone you love behind the camera. It’s her own face on a long-past birthday morning with all those paper packages and star shaped bows, everything dripping with coiled ribbon. It’s Tish’s face posing at her graduation, Leo’s at the birth of his daughter. Here is a moment, floating like an island in the ocean of a long life. That’s what she is looking at; something that almost makes Martha’s eyes turn away on reflex because she’s intruding on something that feels inexplicably intimate. It’s why he’s kept it in a book, face down against an old illustration of a star falling from the sky, away from everything like something precious in a bell jar.

Here is a moment that lasts forever. The way people don’t. The way nothing does. (The way this didn’t.)

For no reason, she doesn’t have to be told that this is Rose. And this photo, this is everything the Doctor is quietly mourning when it takes him too long to reply, when he slams shut like a door. This is what he’d meant when he said together.

And maybe she wasn’t wrong when she’d decided Rose had to be made of paper. Because she’s gone now, and this is all that’s left. An idea. Mythology.

Something that can live forever; something that can never disappoint.

There are footsteps on the grated corridor, and the Poloroid goes back into the book, the book back on the desktop. Martha’s just opened a tome on bees when he rounds the corner, buttoning his brown jacket with his spidery fingers.

"Cardiff!" He announces with a flourish, flashing an all-teeth smile that as always looks just a little put-on; like he has to smile or he’d scream—but even that would be too honest. Sometimes Martha wonders what he’d be doing if she wasn’t here.

She thinks maybe it’s a good thing she’ll never know. That picture isn’t the only thing he hides, away from where anyone might see.

~dlgn

[123tepig]

YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW LONG I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS. FOR ALL I KNOW, YOU COULD BE MY MOMMY.

[dlgn]

YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW LONG I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS. FOR ALL I KNOW, YOU COULD BE MY MOMMY.

Please let me in, mummy. I'm scared of the bombs.

God, I loved that episode, although it could have been quite sexist if the actors hadn't added their own unscripted touches such as the hinting that Jack drugged Rose and so on, which isn't entirely surprising considering that it was written by Moffat. I mean, the original script just had Rose falling in love with her kidnapper because he was hot. I find that in combination with Jack's immoral meddling a lot more believable (and less sexist than the implication that women will completely excuse hot "bad boys", blech). As you may have guessed, I don't like Moffat that much lol. He was quite a good writer when he had RTD editing his scripts, though, and RTD certainly kept Moffat from adding in "LOL NO HOMO" jokes. I think he has good ideas, but he tends to get overcomplicated (and completely ignore canon and continuity), and running the show has made him quite arrogant (he goes around saying that anyone who criticizes him is stupid -_-). But there are still some good episodes (The Doctor's Wife, for example, was a masterpiece) and I'm hoping that Moffat will eventually leave and the show will get better.

[Seratias]

My main problem with Peter Capaldi is I'm going to have trouble not laughing as I stare into his face and recall the incredibly offensive words of Malcolm Tucker.

[eah]

Season 3 spoilers

Spoiler:

I loved the weeping angels episodes. I found the idea of a villain that can move only when you're not looking at it both clever and fascinating. It's a simple idea, so I imagine it's nothing new, but I need to hand it to Moffat for using stone statues. And those scary faces… Normally watching this stuff, I don't scream at the TV "Look out behind you! Turn around!", but I did this time. Something about how they executed it kept my eyes on the screen. I never blinked.

Unfortunately, by doctor who addiction has been constricted by the lack of season 7 on Netflix streaming. I'm hoping I'll need to wait just another month.

[dlgn]

Blink was awesome, although the whole bit with that guy stalking Sally's friend and it being seen as okay was rather disturbing.

[123tepig]

My favorite episode of Doctor Who that I've seen so far was probably The Time of the Doctor, as it was the first regeneration process that I had seen in a Doctor since I started watching the series. Not only that, but it also had Daleks, Weeping Angels, and Cybermen, all in one episode.

[dlgn]

My favorite episode of Doctor Who that I've seen so far was probably The Time of the Doctor, as it was the first regeneration process that I had seen in a Doctor since I started watching the series. Not only that, but it also had Daleks, Weeping Angels, and Cybermen, all in one episode.

But it completely undermined canon, it was quite sexist, and the plot didn't really make any sense whatsoever.

1. Canon undermining. So now the Time Lords love the Doctor? I'm pretty sure they actually hated him, and he hated their oppressive government. They were incredibly corrupt and wanted to destroy the universe (The End of Time), but that seems to have been forgotten of late. Also, how was the Doctor okay with staying on Trenzalore for 500 years when he couldn't sit still for an hour in The Power of Three? The Weeping Angels showed up and disappeared with no explanation whatsoever, and didn't teleport anyone back in time despite touching them. Also, if the Doctor didn't die on Trenzalore, then his timeline can't be there, making the entirety of series seven impossible. Wat.

2. Sexism. The whole thing with Clara being sent back was pretty much a copy of Rose being sent back in the series 1 finale. This was already annoying from a plot standpoint since it was outright plagiarism, but it was quite sexist as well, especially in comparison. In The Parting of the Ways, Rose talks to Mickey and Jackie, makes a brilliant, passionate speech, then opens up the TARDIS, becomes Bad Wolf, and saves the Doctor. Clara, on the other hand, got sent back twice, spent a really weird and awkward Christmas dinner with people who we don't really know or care about (including one who may have been her stepmother, or aunt, or family friend, because it wasn't even mentioned), and didn't even try to do anything except sit around and be sad until Tasha Lem came and brought her back to comfort the Doctor as he dies, after which she "saves" him by begging the Time Lords to give him regenerations (which I'll get to in the third part).

Also, the Doctor was very creepy with the whole nakedness thing ("I thought you might notice") and don't try to excuse him by saying he doesn't know about humans because, um, he does. Like, we actually saw Metacrisis!Ten realize that it made Donna uncomfortable after he regenerated without generating any clothes in the series 4 finale and get dressed because of it. Then the Doctor patted her on the bottom without even mentioning it to her beforehand to try to show that she was his girlfriend (uh, that's creepily sexual and possessive) and gave her holographic clothes but didn't tell her that anyone but her and him could see through them (also creepily sexual).

Tasha Lem was so similar to River Song that a lot of fans thought that they were supposed to be the same person, but nope, it turns out that Moffat just can't write women who don't fit into one of his categories (older sexual badass woman who's in love with the protagonist, mother, younger woman who's in love with the protagonist, or child). Speaking of Tasha Lem, the Doctor sexually assaulted her, and when she told him not to, he said "Say please." BUT IT'S OKAY GUISE, SHE LIKED IT!!!1!! That was just really, really, disturbing.

Also, it isn't sexism, but the OCD joke really bothered me because I have OCD and it's really painful, but it was treated as something that makes the Doctor "quirky", which is how it's commonly treated in media and is quite bad.

3. Plot didn't make any sense. Okay, so let's start at the beginning. So, apparently the Time Lords got unfrozen somehow and are sending a signal through to see if it's okay to come into the universe by asking the Doctor's name, ignoring the fact that there are probably plenty of Doctors in alternate universes. Then they just sit there and don't do anything for 500 years, then decide to send stuff through the crack without being told the Doctor's name because Clara asked them to and apparently they suddenly became able to send stuff through the crack, because they sure didn't help the Doctor at all during his 500 years in Christmas.

The Daleks, Cybermen, etc. stayed there for 500 years, why? I'm sure they have better things to do then occasionally break through a (supposedly impenetrable) force field and inevitable get defeated by the Doctor.

Why did the Doctor stay there for 500 years? If he could communicate through the crack in spacetime, which I assume he could because Clara can, then why didn't he just tell the Time Lords to come through somewhere else and go there in the TARDIS and let them through? For that matter, why did he stay on Trenzalore at all? He easily could have just taken the citizens of Christmas somewhere else in the TARDIS, or gone and gotten help.

This episode was supposed to resolve all the mysteries of series 5-7, but it really didn't. Tasha Lem mentioned that they blew up the TARDIS, which we already knew, but doesn't say anything about how or why. We learn that the Silence are apparently genetically engineered confessional priests (which doesn't make any sense whatsoever), and good. Ugh. Also, the Doctor remembers them after looking at them for some reason (although Clara doesn't).

The Doctor, despite not aging at all in 300 years, ages a huge amount in 500 for some reason. Then, when he regenerates, he somehow kills a bunch of Daleks with regeneration energy. Wat.

Also, as a bit of an aside, it really bothers me how genocide-happy the Eleventh Doctor is. He doesn't just do it, but he's happy about it. He kills the Silence for existing because he knows one of them killed someone and there's a group of them that apparently hypnotize people. Now he kills a bunch of Daleks with no moral qualms whatsoever despite the exact opposite message in the series 4 finale. Yeah, I know the Doctors are supposed to be different, but Eleven seems to me to have lost more and more of the Doctor's core qualities (defiance of authority and dislike of violence).

Anyway, the Doctor doesn't actually regenerate after regenerating, that wouldn't make any sense! Moffat doesn't even bother to give an explanation for this. Anyway, the Doctor gives a neat speech and gets a moment with Amelia (two of the few things in this episode that I actually liked), then before even getting a second with Clara, regenerates instantaneously into Twelve.

Anyway, those are some of the problems I had with The Time of the Doctor.

~dlgn

[hippoface]

Much enjoy. Very thank. Such good thread. Many Doctor Who. Wow.