I absolutely do not think this was anyone’s intention but as a woman living in 2025, it is fucking dark that the finale of this series hinges on the idea that the concept of a baby is more important than a woman’s autonomy and self.
In a time when abortion rights have been taken away in the US and people are starting to have a debate about abortion in the UK. Literally the week before this aired the leader of reform started gunning for abortion rights. It is such a tone deaf ending to Doctor Who. Again I don’t think that this is on purpose or something RTD even considered. But that’s kind of the issue isn’t it? Years and Years was practically a prophecy, this man has shown he can have his finger on the pulse. Not only on what’s happening now but what the future could be. But for some reason just didn’t consider bodily autonomy or reproductive rights at all when doing the reshoots. Now is not the time to do this story. I honestly will never not be mad at what they did to Belinda. But I’ll also never stop being mad that this show that can bring so much nuance to conversations like these inadvertently made a pro-life story where being a single woman working a job your great at can be thrown away because the idea of a baby is more important.
I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to see in future doctor who.
And what I really want is a young timelord companion. Someone who hasn’t ever regenerated and is just living their life on a ruined Gallifrey. There’s no more tardis’ but the last of the timelords thing is boring af and should be retconned (fuck you chibnal). I like the idea of this new timelord reminding the doctor of Susan and fans theorising she is Susan but it’s quickly revealed she’s just a normal timelord unrelated to any bigger plot. I think it’s fair to say everyone’s had enough of super important mysterious companions. The two of them have fun adventures and this is probably the season where you bring Susan back and give them closure. The whole thing could be unpacking the doctors “last one left” complex. If you have to you keep some of the timeless child stuff and have some interesting dynamics with this young timelord unpacking the propaganda she grew up on. But mainly it’s a series that focuses on fun romps and gallifrey and doesn’t really fuck with earth that much if at all outside of a few fun instances of two weird aliens trying the pretend to be human. It’s not about big overarching plots leading to a bloated finale. It’s about character and fun adventures. Back to basics.
I imagine a really interesting dissection of the idea of regeneration itself. The science behind it coming from the doctor/timeless child and unpacking what that means for normal timelords. How do they feel about this power originating from a child being experimented on. Additionally what is it like to be a timelord with no previous iterations. You’ve always just been you. Would you even want to regenerate. Would you be scared to loose yourself. I would love a really emotionally charged scene of the young timelord asking the doctor what it’s like. Where do I go. Do I just disappear and get replaced. All I am becoming someone else. Would a timelord afraid of regenerating choose to die instead. We’ve seen they can do that. I just think that would be juicy as fuck and not ground that nuwho has ever tread before. Plus I just think doctor who needs to be more alien again.
How I would have fixed the finale of Doctor Who, because that was whack!
Firstly given Belinda actual characterisation throughout the series. I would have had her start the same, skeptical of the doctor wanting to go home. Maybe she softens to him as the series goes on but ultimately she doesn’t want to die a million miles and years away from home. She’s got a shift in the morning and she doesn’t want to let her patients down. The series plays out much the same, in the story and the engine she reluctantly saves the doctor as he’s her route home and maybe hearing his life story starts to believe that he really is trying his best to get her home. Then we have the interstellar song contest. This is the first time it’s Belinda who asks to say, like she did in the episode. But when it all goes wrong and she realises she stranded light years and centuries away from home she remembers that the doctor is dangerous and his friends just keep on dying. When she realises he’s alive she’s happy, maybe she can go home and this nightmare will be over. But then she sees him torturing Kid. She realises the doctor isn’t just dangerous because he get himself into scrapes he’s actively letting his rage get the better of him. She realises he could actually be a danger to her. Maybe she pretends it’s all fine and accepts his “triggered” explanation to his face but we can see that she’s scared. She can’t wait to get home. Then the tardis explodes exactly like it did in the episode and we’re in wish world.
The other change I’d make to interstellar song contest is that either the Rani just regenerates normally or if she bi-generates she straight up kills her previous incarnation. Great evil introduction to the character.
In the wish world Belinda is the doctors loving devoted wife. The horror of this all the more stark since we know she doesn’t trust him now. There’s no poppy. Just a heteronormative marriage. There are still doubts and slips. Belinda remembering flashes of reasons not to trust John smith. The Doctors heteronormative hell. And we see the whole first day. They go to sleep and wake up and it’s 23rd of May again. We watch multiple time loops. Each time the slips and doubts getting bigger and behind it all the rani absolutely loving life. The Doctor sees Rogue like in the episode, telling him he’s slipping into the underverse. Just before the final time loop starts.
Meanwhile in the bone palace Conrad isn’t just telling his story he’s also created his own little heteronormative bubble with Ruby. Brainwashed into being his wife with the wish baby as their child. She starts doubting why she never kisses her baby.
Eventually after some time loop existential  horror Belinda and the doctor wake up like they have so many times and Belinda doesn’t say “morning Mr Smith” but blurts out “Doctor” they both snap out of it and the world stars cracking. Suddenly the police are at their door and they’re being arrested and taken to the bone palace.
The Rani explains her evil plan etc. but this time the doctor laughs at her. Omega didn’t create the timelords, Tectun did. He’s the timeless child the first timelord. The Rani is horrified but also fascinated. This means she doesn’t need Omega’s dna she can take the Doctors. She tries to capture him but he laughs again and says but you did all this work to get omega. Can’t waste your hard work. He uses the sonic screwdriver to open the door to the underverse. But who steps out.. not omega but Rouge. Yep the doctor didn’t forget he existed and used the energy the Rani was going to use to save him. Triumphantly ending the heteronormative bullshit reality with a kiss. This strips away the wish world finally and Ruby fully wakes up. She punches Conrad in the face and grabs the baby. Realising she’s in the tardis. The Rani sees things have gone to shit and teleports away. The doctor takes rouges hand and they run as the bone palace collapses to the tardis doors. Once inside he finds Ruby, queue cute reunion, and Conrad on the floor. There’s celebration but Belinda just stands there. She says quietly and then louder. Can I go home now. She’s just exhausted. Ruby says the same, I need to see my mum and someone’s got to look after this baby. The doctor first takes Belinda back. Before she leaves she tells the doctor that she still thinks he’s dangerous, and not only that she’s seen how he acts like a god. No better than Lux or the Barber. She tells him that hurt people hurt people. Before going inside her smashed up flat to get changed so she can go to work.
They drop Ruby to her mums. The doctor assumes she going to leave the baby there and come with but she explains that she wants to take care of him. He was her baby, even if it was a wish. And someone’s got to stop him from ever being used like Conrad and the Rani did.
Now if you’ve got Ncuti for another series you just have him and rouge go off into the sunset together. But if not go with the below.
The doctor finally drops Conrad off in prison, I told you you would die here blah blah blah. But who is there but the Rani. She kills the doctor and steals some dna or something maybe it’s more potent mid-regeneration or something. Rouge drags him back to the tardis and 15 dies in his arms. We don’t see who the new doctor is because why make a rushed decision when you haven’t even been renewed. You could even tease rose coming back as the tardis opens a compartment and the time vortex starts bleeding out. Play the bad wolf theme or something idc.
Thanks for reading if you did. Probably written like shit but i was thinking about this all last night so needed to get it out.
Im gonna be so real can yall actually talk about ways we can support trans women in the UK instead of giving all the attention to fucking JKR. I already know that Harry Poter sucks, I wanna know how to actually HELP people. Something something you have to love the oppressed more than you hate the oppressor
I see a lot of people who tell young people–especially young people who are heading into college–that they should “do what they love.” And they’re right. You should do what you love.
But there’s a world of difference between doing what you love for you, and doing what you love for a paycheck.
I went to undergrad for graphic design and 3-D design–art and more art, I usually say–and I loved it. You know what I didn’t love? Trying to collect my fees from clients. Trying to meet unrealistic, over-simplified or over-specific briefs from people who didn’t know what they were talking about. Coming home, having worked creatively all day, with no creative juice left for the things I wanted to do.
You know what I would tell you instead? Do something that you can be interested in, with people you like.
You don’t have to love it. Loving your work can be a lot, and it often means you have to live in your job 24/7. Some people can do that. Not everyone can, or should. But if you can find work that’s interesting enough that it doesn’t feel tedious, and people you can enjoy spending your 9-5 with, and you can make money, that’s great! It means you can do the things you love for you.
I’m in law school now. It’s interesting work, and difficult, and I like doing it. I like how complicated it gets, and I like the stories it tells. But I don’t come home and read law journals for fun. I come home, and I sculpt, and I draw, and I paint, and I read. I do these things for me.
This is still circulating and it’s been a few years, so let me update. I’m officially a lawyer now, and still not a single regret about this choice. Settling into a stable job is such a gift and a privilege in ways I didn’t expect. I’m not going to repeat the advice given above, but I want to make it clear that having passed through my student years and into my career proper, I stand by this in every respect.
I chose to take a job that was not the most high-paying option available to me, because it wouldn’t require me to bill my time, I would have a better work-life balance, I found the work more engaging, and I really loved the office. It has paid off so much.
I get to walk to work, and most days I leave my laptop behind when I walk home at five. I have a little house with a little garden and a bunch of seedlings sprouting too early for spring. I have two stupid cats and two stupider doves and they make me happy. I put a little money into food and shelter for the neighborhood strays and name all my visiting opossums Harold. My art gets done when I feel inspiration striking, sometimes in the middle of the night, and I let my hobby fund itself without the pressure of deadlines. There is so much joy in making only what I want to. My sleep schedule has stabilized. For the first time in my life, I know the shape my days will take weeks and months away, because my routine is consistent, and I never knew what a peace that was. My job is predictable but never boring, interesting but not consuming, and it’s just a job.
There are people who will tell you–people who have told me–that turning my back on an artistic career or a career you have “potential” in is selling out, or settling.
Let me tell you, friends, I have never felt so settled.
I had a similar experience. I went to uni for graphic design and illustration and straight out of uni I managed to get a gig as an illustrator doing storyboarding in advertising. I was proud that I found a job in my creative field but truthfully I hated it. As op said I hated the clients and their specific nit picky amends, I hated advertising and making pointless crap to fill the world with more crap, and I hated that I stopped drawing for fun all together. The pandemic happened and I ended up moving out of London and back home the work dried up a little and I had to really think about what I wanted to do with my life.
I tried lots of things but I’ve ended up working in the cultural heritage and museum sector. And I love it! I get to work with people and art and history but not in a direct way which depletes all my own creativity. It took me almost a year but I’m back making art for myself and loving it!
At first I felt like a failure for not succeeding as an illustrator but honestly drawing and art are for me and not for corporate weirdos selling toothpaste! Maybe if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life or maybe what you love will just become work and loose the meaning and joy you used to have for it.
I think one big reason why we don't consider the stars as important as before (not even pop-astrology anymore cares about the stars or the sky on itself, just the signs deprived of context) is because of light pollution.
For most of human history the sky looked between 1-3, 4 at most. And then all of a sudden with electrification it was gone (I'm lucky if I get 6 in my small city). The first time I saw the Milky Way fully as a kid was a spiritual experience, I was almost scared on how BRIGHT it was, it felt like someone was looking back at me. You don't get that at all with modern light pollution.
When most people talk about stargazing nowadays they think about watching about a couple of bright dots. The stars are really, really not like that. The unpolluted night sky is a festival of fireworks. There is nothing like it.
A digital drawing of Binx Choppley from A Court of Fey and Flowers. They are wearing a purple regency style dress with crossed over moth wings on the bodice and off the shoulder puff sleeves with a moth wing design. She has long purple gloves with one arm hanging at her side and the other holding a magnifying glass. In the glass you can see an eye and bit of pink hair. Around their neck is a crystal heart necklace with a key hanging down. On her chest are gold branches reaching out from her heart. They have brown tanned skin, pointed ears, purple eyes and a cropped dark Bob. Two feathery moth antennae come from her forehead and behind her are orange and brown moth wings. In the upper boarder of the background are white orchid flowers with 3 moths on them. Then behind her in a circle is a symmetrical pattern of apples cross sectioned.
Digital drawing of Delloso de La Rue from a Court of Fey and Flowers. A green coloured owl bear stands in the centre of the image. They have a heart shaped pale owl face with dark brown eyes. They are wearing a pink regency ball gown with cascading pink peonies over one shoulder. Their bear claw hands lift their dress delicately and Rue has a golden peony ring on one finger. The background is a darker green with a circle of own feathers behind their head. In the foreground more peony flowers frame the bottom of the drawings. In the upper left corner is Delloso De La Rue’s glamoured form, the side profile of a light turquoise elven figured with long pointed ears and long wavy green hair. Their expression is sad and they look to their right. On the right upper corner is a profile of Wuvvy, a fawn with long straight blonde hair and pale horns. She wears a high collard red uniform in the style of Georgian military dress with gold details. The drawing is signed Emma Flood.
Digital drawing of Captain K P Hob from a Court of Fey and Flowers. A brown furred bugbear stands to attention in the middle of the image, he is looking straight forward and is holding a regency military style black hat under one arm, in the top of the hat is an orange oak leaf. His other arm is held formally behind his back. He has dark brown sideburns with some greying hairs, dark bushy eyebrows and a pink animalistic upturned nose. His uniform is moss green with golden fringed epaulettes and a high collar with gold detailing. Over his chest is a pale white/green section with golden buttons and a fern design boarder. He is wearing a red sash with 3 gold medals. In the foreground are mushrooms of various species and colours, from red capped to blue and white. On the right hand side grows a solitary peony. Behind him in the pink/red background in a circle are mushrooms. In the top left and right hand corners are peacock feathers.
A digital drawing of Andhera from A Court of Fey and Flowers from the knees up. A person with dark purple skin and dark hair with grey streaks stands holding a navy blue apple in their left hand, their right hand behind their back. They are wearing a white open shirt and blue regency style trousers. They have gold jewellery around their neck and across their bare chest. The image is in the art nouveau Alphonse Mucha style. Above them are moon flowers with two bats. Behind them is a symmetrical stormy cloud pattern. In the foreground are purple crystals.
A digital drawing of Lord Squark Airavis from a Court of Fey and Flowers from the knees up. An attractive man stands in the centre of the image with one hand on his chest and the other holding a feather quill. He has black skin and white dreadlocks with dark roots and ends. His eyes are golden, with gold and orange eyeshadow in a large wing shape. He looks forward with a coy expression. He is wearing tan colour tight britches and the top of a thigh high boot can been seen. He wears a white shirt with large flowing sleeves, a dark green waistcoat and a gold and orange cravat tied in a bow at his neck. The background of the image is sky blue, with a circle of flying birds behind him and white fluffy clouds at the bottom of the image. At the top of the image is a green and gold mask in the centre with red ribbons and yellow lilies either side.
A digital drawing of Lady Chirp Feathefowl from a Court of Fey and Flowers. A figure stands in the centre of the image turned to the left. She has light blue skin dark blue curly hair in an updo with a purple headband and a large white ostrich feather. She has red eyes and black mask shaped eyeliner, her lips are a dark red. She holds a small heart made from twigs in one hand while an African grey parrot perches on her other arm. She has another parrot on her shoulder and a third flies to her left. She is wearing a dark blue and purple regency style dress with small cap sleeves. She has white gloves and a red and gold wedding ring on her finger. On her arm is a tattoo sleeve of bird of paradise flowers. The background is orange and pink with white fluffy clouds at the bottom and five bird of paradise flowers at the top.