Automated Attack Monkeys, Scalpel Mines, & Acid

We finally get an episode set in space with lots of space aliens and a fully realised alien culture that's alien with different alien languages and alien currency and alien everything and you're bitching because it had SINGING in it? Come ON.

I thought that episode was really good - not flawless, there were some pacing issues, for example, but really good - and it did some interesting things with Clara. Why does the tardis translation circuit not work for Clara? Why did her mum die (we know the date was the same day as Rose saved London from the Nestene consciousness)? I liked that we saw lots of mother daughter stuff, both between Clara and her mum and metaphorically between Clara and Mary. I LOVED that Clara was the one who saved the day (and the doctor).

And the alien races were HHGTTG references and he mentioned Susan and the doctor CRIED because his attempt at self sacrifice wasn't enough and the mummy disintegrated like Christopher lee in the 58 Dracula and the big bad wasn't human and there was nothing to do with earth AT ALL and...

To dismiss all that and give it one or of ten because you don't like singing? That's just churlish.

So, I posted my first regular issue of GT yesterday. The feeling of GT readers seems to be that they would be happy to see content from places other than just Dreamwidth Communities, so if you post Who content and would like to be promoted in GT, drop me a comment below or on the GT watchlist "request to be added" post, or send an email to gallifrey.times@gmail.com

Personally I'd like to see more discussion etc. as well as fic, and I'd like to see some graphical fanwork stuff as well. I'm going to go prod at a few of the tumblrs I follow to ask them if they are OK with being linked, because the policy at GT is to not link without explicit permission unless it's a news story in a traditional news outlet. So if you want linking you have to tell me!

What does one do when one's political party leaders drive one to despair? Plunge into fandom, of course.

So.

The first bit of news is that as from this Sunday evilawyer and I are going to be switching positions on Gallifrey Times - I'll be the regular editor and she'll be back-up. I'm possibly going to be making a few changes, and almost certainly going to be linking to more stuff, while avoiding treading on Who Daily's toes. So if you want to be added to the GT watch list and get your who-related posts publicised, do let me know. I don't know exactly how it will work yet, although because I'm a (junior) ed on Who Daily as well, it should be possible to make it work.

The second bit of news is that I am writing fic, for Who at Fifty. It's been a while since I wrote fic. I am hoping it won't go horribly wrong... I've got a beginning but I don't know where the plot is going yet, so if any of you have any unused plot bunnies you want to chuck at me (being deliberately vague as to what I have written so far because I want vague prompty bunnies, not specific ones) I'd be happy to skin them and put them in the stew.

The third bit of news is less newsy. As usual, I'll be doing the Who Daily reaction posts when the new series recommences, so if you review an episode of Who when it restarts please please drop me a link and I'll add it in. From my own experience of being linked from Who Daily, it generally gets you lots more readers than a link from (for example) Lib Dem Voice, so it's good publicity.

The fourth bit of news... Well, I'd better leave it there for now. But it's exciting. And I'm very happy about it. I'll tell you all about that one when it's all done and dusted though.

I've been woeful at this while I've been ill. Sorry about that. This post will bring me up to date.

(a list of the questions and links to all the answers can be found on this entry)

Favourite Writer

Robert Holmes. Witty, political, able to work in shedloads of Hammer Horror references, and one of only two writers prior to Big Finish who was able to write Leela properly.

Favourite Couple

Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and Benton, whose love remains true and constant right from The Invasion, through Benton's transition into Doris, and happy old age. It's just a shame they had to invent that "going off to become a secondhand car salesman" line as cover for Benton's transition because of the transphobia of the military at the time.

Favourite Friendship

Androgum!Two and Shockeye. They're just so cute when they are geeking over food.

Favourite Spinoff

SJA. No questions or doubts here. A kids' scifi show in which the cast skews female, the lead character is a strong independent woman in her late fifties, and themes of love, friendship, tolerance and family are thoroughly explored? Hell yes.

Favourite Quote

"What a marvellous butler: he's so violent!" - the Fourth Doctor, City of Death

Favourite Doctor Catchphrase

The Doctor has catchphrases now. Catchprhases are cool? Apparently. I don't like them. Maybe calling the Tardis "old thing" or "old girl" is as near as I'll commit to.

Favourite Doctor Gadget

I don't tend to like the recurring gadgets like the psychic paper and the sonic screwdriver because they are used as lazy story devices by lazy writers. You can't call the Tardis a gadget; she's a LADY. Similarly Bessie. So I suppose that leave us with some of the mad things the third doctor made Heath Robinson style. I'll go with the one in The Time Monster made from a wine bottle a corkscrew various bits of cutlery and some tea leaves. Because the Doctor is a very British Gallifreyan, this gadget does not work unless it has tea leaves.

Favourite Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLcXvmOdwpE - the Mighty Trout. Gotta love him.

Favourite .gif



Favourite Guest Star

Brian Blessed. Note: not my favourite guest character, because I'm not massively fond of Yrcanos, but my favourite guest star. Because Brian is just bloody awesome.

(a list of the questions and links to all the answers can be found on this entry )

Ah. Foolishly I answered "favourite Actor" in a non-sexist way without looking ahead to future questions, so I have already answered this one here. Ooops. For those who can't be bothered clicking, those I mention are Lis Sladen, Cousin Di, and Jacks Pearce.

ETA: although I suppose, to give this entry some content and purpose, I ought to add that I am a big fan of both Louise Jameson and Nicola Bryant, particularly in the way they have taken to new media and behave on twitter.

(a list of the questions and links to all the answers can be found on this entry )

This evening's post is somewhat delayed because I have been recording a podcast. No, not the long awaited episode of Baggage Man where we discuss the Horns of Nimon and solve the UNIT dating controversy. Sorry. I thought I'd ease myself back into things by being a guest on someone else's podcast. We had lots of fun recording, and best of all I don't have to do the editing! I shall provide links to the finished product when it appears - it should definitely be of interest to you classic who folks out there.

Anyway, most annoying character. This is going to be hard. I mean, do I go for a companion, a villain, a one off character or a recurring one; maybe even an incarnation of the doctor himself *coughcoughtennant*?

The thing is that all the characters who annoy me, personally, do have redeeming features. I feel it would be unfair to pick on any one of them. The slitheen are mostly bloody annoying, for example, but I have a real soft spot for Margaret. Peter Kay's performance as the absorbaloff really wound me up, but the character was designed by a little kid who did a reasonably good job. Dodo Chaplet is just pointless but she's not actively harmful. etc etc etc.

I think if I'm going to single out any one character it will have to be Rose Tyler. Because I loved her so much with 9. I really did. And then she turned into the sort of person I want to slap. And that really IS annoying. Travelling with the doctor should make you into a better person than you started out as, not a worse one, and for pretty much every other character who travels with him this is what happens (unless they get mind wiped like Jamie/Zoe/Donna). So yes, with some measure of regret I shall pick Rose.

(a list of the questions and links to all the answers can be found on this entry)

Funniest Episode

• Unintentionally funny: The Krotons - combines the traditional "OMG those monsters are rubbish" funny with some really hilarious cod science.


• Intentionally funny: City of Death - chock full of witty lines and amusing historical revisionism.


• Honourable mention: The Kingmaker - more historical revisionism, with a hilariously deadpan Richard III. I have chosen to consider this audio play to be actual historical fact in my headcanon.

Scariest Episode

Track one of the Big Finish audio play Davros. The rest of the play could quite conceivably go into funniest, as it's basically an odd couple farce of Six and Davros being forced to work together, but that opening track is stunningly well-written, and a pitch-perfect performance from Molloy.

(a list of the questions and links to all the answers can be found on this entry)

Season 18.

There are some stories I am very fond of in Season 18 (Keeper of Traken, for example), and my first memory of anything ever occurs at its end. I would point out that this is "least favourite" rather than "most hated".

Nevertheless, my reasons for picking season 18 are twofold. Firstly, when you watch it, you can see that Tom's heart is not in it any more. He can't even be arsed to phone it in for some episodes, and for those where he IS there he alternates between utterly manic (where he would have been quirky and charming in previous seasons) and morose and grumpy.

Secondly, the show's been Bidmeaded. The serious scifi leavened with wacky humour of the Adams years has been replaced with po-faced pretentious bollocks. Also, I really really detest Warrior's Gate. And, you know, Adric.

(a list of the questions and links to all the answers can be found on this entry)

Season 22.

Oh, you want more than that? OK, well, season 22 includes Attack of the Cybermen (Colin's mighty organ and Colin's shiny helmet, plus The Fat Controller), Vengeance on Varos (Proper Scifi with some really prescient stuff about reality television), The Mark of the Rani (in which Peri the botanist actually gets to use her botanical knowledge, Colin is well-hung, and Colin gets to fanboy George Stephenson), The Two Doctors (bums galore, Jacks Pearce, and Two and Jamie), Timeslash (OK, admittedly Timeslash is crap, but it does have Paul Darrow's Richard III impression and a really rather good monster), and Revelation of the Daleks (which is just bloody awesome).

Season 22 is a fine mixture of old and new - lots of continuity references and yet a fixed chameleon circuit. Daleks, Sontarans and cybermen and yet Sil and Androgums. It has the glass dalek scene, which is seared into my brain from childhood. It has Six/Davros. It has militant vegetarianism.

I suspect I am probably the only person who has picked season 22 for this meme, but I don't care.

(a list of the questions and links to all the answers can be found on this entry)

Madame Vastra isn't an alien, because homo reptilia are earth creatures, so I can't choose her. Possibly it would be cheating to choose the Doctor himself. There's always Davros, of course, but I feel I haven't given the Welsh series enough love yet, so I shall say Commander Strax. Soldier, nurse, butler, and producer of magnificent lactic fluids. Odd that Strax is always referred to as "he" when it's specifically stated that as a member of a clone race, genders are alien to her. I suppose "it" would be a bit disrespectful (not that the Doctor wasn't disrespectful to her anyway), but I don't see why it's always "he".

(a list of the questions and links to all the answers can be found on this entry)

Least Favourite Companion is hard for me. There's none that I really really hate for their entire run. The three that are in the running for this I don't dislike as characters per se, but for the effect they had on the show. The one who springs to mind first is Jo Grant. I like the actress that plays her, and there's nothing particularly wrong with the character as a person... It's just that she was specifically designed to be a dumb blonde because Liz Shaw was too brainy.

The second is Mel. Mel should have been someone I liked - and in a lot of the audio plays she is - but her fatphobia and screaming are played up and her brains and problem-solving abilities are played down far too much in the TV episodes she appears in for me to not want to smack her.

And the third?

The third, inevitably, is Rose.

I loved Rose with Nine. She was a great comeback to the idea that shop workers are all stupid - and given that I was a checkout girl at the time this was something I appreciated very much. Sure she didn't have many qualifications, but she was a streetsmart and brave young woman, and didn't let Nine give her any crap. And then suddenly, when Nine turned into Ten she turned into a lovesick teenager, and regressed horribly. And then Ten kept mooning over her to the point where he treated Martha like absolute rubbish. And then she kept coming back. And back. And back.

My problems with Rose don't stem so much from her as a character, but from the fact that she was Rusty's Mary Sue. He's been quite open about the fact that he grew up wanting to be the Doctor's companion. I see that as a poverty of ambition. I didn't grow up wanting to be the Doctor's companion, I grew up wanting to be the Doctor. And I suspect most of us who felt like outsiders who grew up watching the show feel similarly. If you feel like society doesn't understand you but you want to help anyway, if you're brainy and unconventional, then The Doctor is the obvious identification character.

But anyway, Rose kept coming back because she was Rusty's identification character and he was running the show. Rose got that vomit-inducing and overlong goodbye and her own Doctor-shaped Sex Toy* because she was Rusty's identification character. And if she comes back for the 50th anniversary I shall be very cross indeed. Yes, Rose is a special person, but ALL of the Doctor's companions are special. Hell, he's married one of them, and another one is his Granddaughter. Rose is just as important as the others, but not more so, and it annoys me when people talk as though she's his OTP.

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* and what's the deal with that anyway? "Here, you can't have me, but you CAN have someone who looks like me but has all the things you love about me removed" - what sort of a deal is THAT? It'd just remind her every day of what she was missing...

Cos every year is improved by starting with a cap from Dimensions in Time, AMIRITE?