Sophie 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌜Jun 8, 2024

There were things in the episode I enjoyed:

* The Doctor and Rogue were fantastic and so very, very gay 🏳️‍🌈, loved every scene involving the two
* The setting
* Shalka Doctor aaah

To be honest though I think the monsters left a lot to be desired. The line "We're going to cosplay this planet to death" made me roll my eyes pretty hard. I saw the fake-out with Ruby's 'death' and her friend being one of the monsters coming a mile off.

As much as I loved 15/Rogue I've gotta say the fact they went from meeting for the first time to 'Marry me' in the space of less than an hour is a little unrealistic and rushed, feels like an arc that should've developed over time...

#doctorwho

Show threadSophie 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌜Jun 8, 2024

As someone who's never watched Bridgerton I didn't like that they leaned into it so hard (though I guess that did tie into the plot somewhat). Not a single Pride and Prejudice reference? There's more regency-era media than just Bridgerton 🙄.

So yeah not the best of the season but far from the worst (that honor still goes to Space Babies).

#doctorwho

Show threadSophie 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌜

What I think/hope the inclusion of the Shalka Doctor signifies is the relaxing of the rules of 'canon', which have always been tumultuous and frankly unnecessary in a fictional universe like Doctor Who where all manner of complex temporal shenanigans take place.

I seems like RTD has been throwing nods to expanded media all through this season and I think that's fantastic. We seriously need to ease up on this strict adherence to neat continuity, in fiction in general but especially in Doctor Who. It's creatively limiting and it kind of de-legitimizes some really great stories and pieces of lore just because they don't 'fit'...

#doctorwho #doctorwhoeu #factionparadox

Jun 8, 2024 at 10:04pmWeb
Show threadSophie 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌜Jun 8, 2024

The novels, audios and other expanded media are just as valid a part of Doctor Who as the TV show.

Every Doctor Who story 'happened'.
The Doctor is 'The Other', 'The Timeless Child', Loomed, Half-human, a human from the 49th century and any number of other possibilities.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

#doctorwho #doctorwhoeu #factionparadox

Show threadSophie 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌜Jun 8, 2024

If you're one of these Doctor Who fans who are obsessive about continuity and need everything to fit neatly together (first of all, even if you only stick to the TV show and nothing else, you're fighting a losing battle): If you only ever read one Doctor Who novel I strongly suggest 'Unnatural History', the plot literally makes fun of this.

It changed the way I look at Doctor Who and fiction in general to be honest.

Don't be Griffin.

#doctorwho #doctorwhoeu #factionparadox #doctorwhoEDAs

Show threadSophie 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌜Jun 8, 2024

Expanded media references in Series 14 (so far):

Space Babies:
* Baby farms and what the Doctor says about them strongly resembles lore behind Gallifrey and 'Looms'
* 'The Conquistador': a Faction Paradox character from 'The Book of the Enemy'

The Devil's Cord:
* Nothing specifically as far as I'm aware. Though it should be noted that the fourth-wall breaking throughout that episode does follow on from lesser-known/ignored instances of such things in Doctor Who.
* 'The Music of the Spheres" is a reference to Doctor Who at the Proms if that counts?

Boom:
* "I am a complex space-time event"

73 yards:
* Llanfer Ceiriog

Dot and Bubble:
* Parallels between Finetime and Gallifrey, "The Homeworld"
* The Remote?

Rogue:
* Shalka Doctor

#doctorwho #doctorwhoeu #factionparadox #doctorwhoEDAs #doctorwhoVNAs

Show threadSophie 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌜Jun 12, 2024

Realised another strange connection to expanded media in Series 14 this morning:

The parallels between the Doctor and Ruby are made pretty explicit in The Church on Ruby Road, both are foundlings, similar imagery with the Church and the Gateway the 'Timeless Child' was found under ect, ect. But here's one related to expanded media: Ruby was born at Christmas/Yuletide, the Doctor was born(/loomed?) (according to the audio version of Cold Fusion) on 'Otherstide' which is quite possibly the Gallifreyan equivilent.

#doctorwho #doctorwhoeu #factionparadox #doctorwhoEDAs #doctorwhoVNAs

Show threadKaty SwainJun 8, 2024
@dfstarshine I felt dread about the return of the Toymaker, as it gave me JN-T flashbacks. The abandoned series 23 was supposed to feature the Toymaker, the Autons, the Ice Warriors, etc. lazily dredged up and given the Warriors of the Deep treatment.
Show threadKaty SwainJun 8, 2024

@dfstarshine At the time of the "hiatus" Paul Cornell wrote a brilliant piece about the perils of fan service in DWB titled "the Androzani Effect". It's not online. I emailed him a lifetime ago asking if I could post it on my site for posterity and he was happy for me to do so, but I never got round to it. I still have it somewhere.

Right. It's on my todo list.

Show threadKaty SwainJun 8, 2024

@dfstarshine #DoctorWho's history is a treasure trove, but in the wrong hands it's a ball and chain.

Once you get the basic premise (crazy alien & friends having adventures in space & time), you should not have to do any prior research to enjoy any story. It's not soap opera.

You can watch School Reunion without having seen any 70s Who, and it will make perfect sense. Without the fangirl "squee"s, it's a bit thin, but a fun romp.

Show threadKaty SwainJun 8, 2024

@dfstarshine I didn't and won't watch Chibnall's last year because I felt "I am not going to make the effort unless you give me a reason to care, and you're clearly more interested in just flinging random ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks".

When it's all about the backstory, you completely throw away what's uniquely brilliant about #DoctorWho, and it just becomes self-satirising anorak-pleasing twaddle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQC-5WT9bJo

Fry and Laurie SF Science Fiction Anoraks

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