We interrupt this thread for some Doctor Who deleted scenes from the Peter Capaldi years... still makes me laugh seven years later...
I don't see them doing another War Doctor style story, and so introducing Doctor Ruth makes me wonder if the destruction of Gallifrey has also been introduced to be a bit misleading, where it initially seems like a rerun of the whole Last Of The Time Lords era but is now going to swing in a completely different direction. Maybe whatever the Master did to Gallifrey fundamentally broke time, or Gallifrey dying is a symptom of that and reality is splintering. I would be totally fine if the rest of the season just got increasingly batshit with new Doctors from all these alternate possibilities being introduced in each episode at a rapidly increasing pace.
Oh, you guys are going with alternate possibilities? I'm going with that the Timelords are vampires. They pluck dead people out of the time-stream just before they croak, break them down to energy, and use them as regenerations. Capaldi-Doctor really WAS the Pompeii guy! So, Master blowing up Gallifrey has set the regenerations loose. Timelords being vampires certainly would be horrific enough of a secret for the Master to want the Timelords dead.
Okay, then how about a hybrid? Timelords are vampires which is why Master blew up Gallifrey, which broke time.
One of the major events in Time Lord history was their war against the "Great Vampires" (Classic Series episode "State of Decay" and several novels). Would be quite the twist indeed if Time Lords themselves were Vampirey.
I could go with a "Time is broken" thing - the Edge of Time VR game has something similar with a "reality virus" smushing time periods/spatial locations together. Quite a fun game once you get past the VR motion sickness and the slightly borked controls (took me quite a few attempts to enter the right TARDIS console sequences within the time limit). Getting to stand in the console room and use the controls is cool, as was watching her initially materialize after the Doctor helped me build a signal device to home in on.
Hmm, y'know, they probably won't do this, but if they're playing around with alternate timeline Doctors, they could use this to re-canonize Peter Cushing, and The Shalka Doctor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalka_Doctor
Eh, we've seen the Time Lords can easily pull people out of their normal timelines in various ways, both in The Five Doctors and in Hell Bent. And we've seen the Sisterhood of Karn has the ability to control the terms of a regeneration, to decide the gender, age, and temperament that arises. And we know the Time Lords brought back Rassilon and the Master to fight in the Time War, despite their being hella-dead...
Yeah, that one was quite solid. The pattern of throwing lots and lots of puzzle pieces at the screen during the first half and then having the characters figuring it out when we can't, however, is beginning to grate on me; they did it at least twice before, last week and in the season opener. Really interesting choice in having the Doctor be completely helpless in her talk with Graham towards the end.
Damn if that wasn't the best episode of Doctor Who in ages. The lone Cyberman was truly menacing, in a way that the Cybermen haven't been for years. The whole "do I save one life and potentially let billions die" debate has been done a million times before, but somehow the episode writers made it fresh. I wish there were more conversations like this in Doctor Who, because you'd think this moral dilemma would crop up all the time. For once, I thought there was truly mortal danger to an historic figure. Anyway, fantastic set up for the rest of the series.
If you believe Capaldi's ramblings, Susan was the daughter of the president of Gallifrey when she left with the Doctor.
Holy shit, that was the worst fucking episode of Doctor Who I've seen in ages. Just one big hot mess. It took all the potential of "Fugitive of the Judoon", "The Haunting of Villa Diodati", "Ascension of the Cybermen" and completely pissed it away. I was always a defender of Chibnall and Whittaker's Doctor (this thread is proof), but that episode was inexcusable. Jesus Christ.
Rassilon used to punish people who went to his tomb seeking immortality. He was a lot more chill back then.
As is to be expected, the Youtube fanboys are crying lakes of tears. Good. Tomorrow is the new one, so I think we can talk spoilers without tags now. The Doctor is unique again. And the title "Doctor Who", has meaning again. In the early days, we didn't know about Gallifrey, and for all we knew, The Doctor was a kooky inventor that built the Tardis himself. We just didn't know. Up until last episode, we knew too fucking much. Too much back history had been shoved in there. Now, it's all a mystery again. Just like the old days. Who was The Doctor/The Timeless Child before she fell through into this universe? We don't know. And I don't wanna know. And good riddance to Gallifrey. Fuck Gallifrey. Fuck 'em up the ass with a red rubber dick. I always hated Gallifrey. Look, I see the theoretical point of them writing wise. It gave the Doctor an authority to rebel against. Fuck that bullshit. The Doctor doesn't need stupid Gallifrey and it's hypocrite elitist asshole Timelords. He/she rebels against authority everywhere he/she goes. Eccelston, Tennant, and Smith did just fine thinking they were dead. They're not necessary. If the next showrunner ret-cons this stuff away to restore the status quo, I'll roll with it, but I'll know the fandom are all a bunch of sissy cowards. And I'll bring it up constantly.
I liked Gallifrey because you could fanfic your own heroic Time Lord/Lady if you wanted. Romana and others showed that not all TLs were assholes. So you want to find ways for the good guys to escape. And the Masters and Ranis, naturally. Mine grew up hearing stories of the Doctor (Five, by that point) and wanted to be just like him despite the stories being meant as tales of what a good little TL doesn't do. But you can always find ways for these to survive. Mine made a deal with Omega to "save" Gallifrey to the antimatter universe back when RTD said it got blown up. When Moff said "no, it always survived!", mine became a living paradox and thus able to meta events of the show from then on. "Oh, now the Master destroyed Gallifrey? My backup still exists, if you need it...". "Oh, you were always the origin of the Time Lords? Cool. Glad I chose to emulate you and not them!"
